| 
Departments
|
April
2004
New members reported in this week’s WIP: 1,269
New members reported in WIP, year-to-date: 28,690
A GOOD RESOURCE—The 618 workers at The Resource
Center, which educates children with disabilities at 56 sites in Chautauqua
County, N.Y., voted overwhelmingly March 8-9 for the New York State United
Teachers, an AFT affiliate. On March 8, the 25 faculty members at Alliant
International University’s Los Angeles campus chose AFT.
A CARING VOICE—A total of 236 health care workers voted
for SEIU recently. One hundred professionals at Miami’s Pan American
Hospital voted March 4 to join SEIU for a voice in improving patient care.
Although the hospital’s RNs, aides, medical technicians and other
staff also voted in January to join SEIU, the hospital refuses to recognize
the union. A unit of 90 aides and others at the Eagle Pond Nursing Home
in Dennis, Mass., voted Feb. 27 for Local 2020, and 46 workers at Infinia
Nursing Home in Owattona, Minn., voted Jan. 22 for Local 113.
COMING CLEAN—Some 200 workers at Sodexho Linen
Services in Phoenix gained a voice last week when the National Labor Relations
Board (NLRB) ordered the company to bargain with UNITE. The NLRB found
Sodexho violated labor laws by firing three workers last spring, threatening
others with changes in wages and benefits and disciplining workers for
spurious reasons. A majority of workers signed union authorization cards
for UNITE before Sodexho began breaking the law, the NLRB ruled.
WINNING WAYS—Workers at Allied Waste/BFI in Atlanta
now have a voice on the job with Teamsters Local 728, a victory that provides
a winning start to the IBT’s campaign to help workers join a union
at Waste Management Inc. facilities nationwide. The 120 workers, who say
they overcame management’s months-long anti-union campaign, said
the major issues were cuts in vacation pay, unfair work schedules, unsafe
working conditions and unpaid extra work.
A BUCKET OF UNION—Michael Link, a member of Retail,
Wholesale and Department Store Union/United Food and Commercial Workers
Local 338, wore his union jacket recently while visiting a Kentucky Fried
Chicken franchise near his home. The jacket sparked a conversation that
led to the union assisting the workers in gaining a voice at work. On
March 4, some 40 employees at two KFC franchises in Queens, N.Y., voted
in separate elections for RWDSU.
HERE AT THE KENNEDY CENTER—The 30 parking workers
and shuttle bus drivers at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
in Washington, D.C., voted Feb. 27 for Hotel Employees and Restaurant
Employees Local 27.
SHOW US THE JOBS—Fifty-one workers-one from each
state and the District of Columbia-will tell the personal stories of how
America’s jobs crisis affects them, their families and their communities
during a Show Us the Jobs bus tour, March 24-31. The workers will travel
to eight states and 18 cities, spreading the word to policymakers, the
media and the public about the effects of joblessness and low-wage, no-benefit
work. The AFL-CIO and Working America are sponsoring the bus tour.
COUNCIL MAPS WINNING STRATEGIES—The AFL-CIO Executive Council
mapped out plans to pass the historic Employee Free Choice Act, which
would allow workers to freely choose a union by signing authorization
cards, provide mediation and arbitration in first-contract disputes and
increase penalties for employers who violate labor laws. During its March
9-11 meeting in Bal Harbor, Fla., the union leaders also reviewed plans
to educate and mobilize working families to vote in the 2004 elections.
They heard from Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)
via satellite, and from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.),
Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) and Rev. Jesse Jackson. The council also
named four new members—School Administrators President Baxter Atkinson,
AFGE President John Gage, United Food and Commercial Workers President
Ron Hansen and Letter Carriers President William Young. Five members—Douglas
Dority, Edward Fire, Joseph Greene, Bobby Harnage and Vi!
ncent Sombrotto—resigned or retired.
OVERTIME FIGHT COMES DOWN TO WIRE—The fight to
protect the 40-hour workweek and overtime pay is coming down to the wire.
The Senate is expected to take up the overtime issue when it votes on
an amendment to the Foreign Sales Corporation tax bill after its March
15-19 recess. The amendment, introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), would
prohibit the administration from cutting overtime pay protections and
retroactively repeal any overtime cuts that the Labor Department has put
into effect. The Bush administration’s Labor Department plans to
issue new rules that would redefine who is eligible for overtime pay by
March 31. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao on March 9 rejected a call by Sen.
Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) to delay implementation of the rules so a study
could be done to determine how many people would be affected by the rules
change. If implemented, the new rules could take away overtime pay from
some 8 million workers, including veterans, according to the Economic
Policy Institute. Working families and their allies are increasing their
calls to lawmakers to stop the attack on overtime. More than 550,000 people
have signed Save Overtime Pay petitions, and more than 1.7 million have
sent faxes to President George W. Bush urging him to withdraw his overtime
take-away plan and to Congress and the Labor Department. You can send
a fax to Bush by visiting
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/faxbush4ot
.
SMOKE AND MIRRORS—Anthony Raimondo, President Bush’s
choice for the nation’s manufacturing czar, withdrew his name from
nomination March 11 after it was revealed the Nebraska businessman shipped
jobs to China. “President Bush’s nomination [of Raimondo]
ignores America’s needs for real leadership and a real jobs plan,”
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. “His consideration of Raimondo
makes ever more clear that his plan for American manufacturing is smoke
and mirrors.” For more information, visit http://www.aflcio.org
.
TRUE MEDICARE COSTS HIDDEN—The government-s Medicare
costs expert said he was threatened with firing if he gave lawmakers accurate
estimates of how much the Bush administration-s Medicare prescription-drug
plan would cost, according to published reports by Knight-Ridder. Even
though the White House said the plan would cost $395 billion in the first
10 years, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimated
the cost at $551 billion. Richard Foster, the agency’s chief actuary,
told colleagues last June he would be fired if he revealed the higher
numbers to lawmakers, according to Knight- Ridder. Several Republican
members of Congress had vowed to vote against the bill if it cost more
than $400 million. Union and senior activists oppose the plan, which Congress
passed in November, because it moves Medicare towards privatization, provides
inadequate benefits and threatens employer-paid benefits for millions
of retirees.
FIRST CONTRACTS—After two years of bargaining,
AFSCME Council 92 reached tentative three-year first contracts with the
University System of Maryland covering 3,100 workers at eight campuses.
The contracts raise wages, protect health care costs and coverage, improve
vacations, bereavement and sick leave and provide a grievance procedure.
The universities covered by the accords include Bowie State University,
Coppin State University, Frostburg State University, University of Baltimore,
University of Maryland’s Baltimore County, College Park and Eastern
Shore campuses and the University of Maryland University College.
BUSH FLUNKS BARGAINING—Leaders of 35 unions affiliated
with the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department condemned President
Bush’s record on collective bargaining, saying he undermined the
legal rights and economic security of workers. The leaders spoke up in
support of the collective bargaining rights of FederalAviation Administration
(FAA) employees, postal service employees and rail workers. FAA administrator
Marion Blakey “appears intent on using a misguided interpretation
of law to allow the agency to unilaterally impose the terms and conditions
of a contract,” a resolution adopted at the TTD’s winter board
meeting said.
GET A WHIFF OF THIS—The Flight Attendants/CWA praised
the Department of Transportation’s efforts to find alternatives
to the spraying of aircraft cabins with toxic pesticides. International
flights to certain countries require coating of the aircraft cabins with
a liquid pesticide that remains chemically active for 56 days. Those planes
are often routed back into domestic flight schedules. You can sign an
online petition to support finding an alternative to pesticide spraying
by visiting http://www.afanet.org
.
LAUNDRY WORKER SAFETY—Despite the hazards industrial
laundry workers face every day, the Bush administration’s Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed exempting industrial laundries from
federal hazardous waste requirements. In response, UNITE, IBT and the
Sierra Club are taking action to block the exemption that would reduce
the federal oversight for companies such as Cintas, putting more communities
at risk. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Mark Fragola, a former Cintas
driver from Connecticut, testified before the EPA last week, calling for
stronger health and safety protections for workers and communities. According
to EPA, laundries process up to 100,000 tons of toxic chemicals on shop
towels every year, much of which is disposed into the environment. To
send EPA an e-mail, visit http://www.behindthelabel.org
.
IN THIS CORNER—The bell is about to ring for the first
official unionized boxing event. The Joint Association of Boxers, an IBT
affiliate, is helping to put together the April 15 night of boxing at
New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom. Two of the night’s eight
bouts will be broadcast live on Showtime beginning at 11 p.m. JAB President
Eddie Mustafa Muhammad vowed that this is just the beginning for the fledgling
union. The UAW also is attempting to organize professional boxers.
OPEN THE BOOKS—No Sweat!, a student anti-sweatshop
group, initiated its Open the Books campaign March 11 at Indiana University
in conjunction with United Students Against Sweatshops members from the
University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin. The student coalition
is demanding all apparel manufacturers licensed to print university logos
open their ledgers and those of their suppliers to disclose what they
pay their workers, a significant first step in fighting sweatshops. Students
across the country will join together to demand justice for workers on
their campuses and in their communities during Student Labor Week of Action,
March 29-April 4. The week also celebrates the lives of two heroes of
social justice. March 31 is Cesar Chavez Day in California and in other
states, and April 4 will mark the 36-year anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.’s assassination. For more information, visit http://www.jwj.org/SLAP/A4/2004.htm
.
LabourStart 24/7 ONLINE—LabourStart, a London-based
online trade union news service, launched a Web-based radio station, http://radio.labourstart.org
, that will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The station features
a mix of music and talk, including a daily three-minute labor news program
produced by the Workers Independent News Service in the United States.
SHEINKMAN MEMORIAL—A memorial service for Jack Sheinkman will be
held March 17 at 4 p.m. at UNITE’s New York Joint Board, 31 W. 15th
St. Sheinkman, 78, died Jan. 29. He served as president of the Amalgamated
Clothing and Textile Workers from 1987 until 1995 when he retired after
completing the merger that created UNITE.
|
