(The AFL-CIO distributed the following on September 29.)
New members reported in this week’s WIP: 1,470
New members reported in WIP, year to date: 114,783
PRATICING UNION MEDICINE–Some 640 Texas health care workers gained a voice on the job with AFGE this month. The 470 doctors, pharmacists, psychiatrists, physical and recreational therapists, social workers and physician’s assistants at the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Fort Worth Clinic voted Sept. 10 for Local 2437. In El Paso, 170 doctors, registered nurses, lawyers, pharmacists and social workers at the William Beaumont Army Medical Center voted for Local 2516.
GOLDEN STATE WINS–A total of 470 workers in California joined UNITE. In Sacramento and Turlock, 370 laundry workers at Golden States Services chose Local 75 on Sept. 22 though a card-check. Under card-check, the company agrees to recognize the union after a majority of the workers indicates a desire for union representation by signing authorization cards. And in Novata, 100 apparel workers at Ben Davis Co. voted in mid-September for UNITE’s Western States Regional Joint Board.
UNION SI–More than 300 mostly immigrant workers at three Casa de Oro tortilla plants in Omaha, Neb., overcame a strong anti-union campaign to vote Sept. 16 for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 271. Casa de Oro is a subsidiary of the ConAgra conglomerate.
A CONCRETE VICTORY–The Teamsters welcomed 36 new members recently, including 29 concrete mixer drivers at Ross Island Sand Gravel in Portland, Ore., who voted for Local 81. In Woodale, Ill., seven warehouse workers at Illinois Tool Works refused to be intimidated by management’s anti-union campaign and voted for Local 781.
WATER WORKS–The 24 employees of United Water in Jersey City, N.J., gained a voice in the workplace with Utility Workers Local 375 last week via a card-check.
TIME FOR OVERTIME–The time is now for working families to contact their members of the U.S. House of Representatives to urge them to derail President George W. Bush’s proposal that could eliminate overtime pay protections for 8 million or more workers. Earlier this month, the Senate approved an amendment to the fiscal year 2004 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill (H.R. 2660) that blocked the Labor Department from gutting the overtime pay protections in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. The House version of the appropriations bill did not include the prohibition. The House is expected to vote Oct. 1 on a motion to instruct House members who are part of the conference to meld the two bills into a final product to include the Senate’s ban on the Bush overtime take-away. For more information and to tell your representatives to support the motion to instruct, visit http://www.aflcio.org .
POVERTY ON THE RISE–The Census Bureau reported Sept. 26 that more than 1 million Americans sank into poverty and average income fell in 2002. Last year, 12.1 percent of Americans lived in poverty, up from 11.7 percent in 2001. And median household income fell 1.1 percent between 2001 and 2002, the bureau said. The poverty figures should be a wake-up call for the Bush administration, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. “It is unconscionable that while the ranks of the nation’s poor are growing and American paychecks have shrunk for the third year in a row, the Bush administration has continued to pander to the wealthy through millionaire tax cuts while having no real plan for low- and middle-income Americans.”
FREEDOM RIDE SPEEDS UP–Just as the Freedom Rides of the 1960s focused national attention on racial segregation in the Deep South, the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride is shining a spotlight on the need to change U.S. immigration policies. In the days since the new Freedom Ride began, immigrant workers have stopped in nearly 100 cities to dramatize the need for immigration reform. This massive national effort is sponsored by union, community and immigrant rights groups. The riders will converge on Washington, D.C., Oct.1-2 to rally and lobby members of Congress. The union movement is urging all working families to show support for the immigrant workers by joining in a National Call-In Day Oct. 2. Call the White House toll free at 1-800-321-8268 and Congress at 1-888-355-3588 to demand a road to citizenship for all immigrant workers, immigrant family reunification, full civil rights for immigrants and protect of immigrants’ workplace rights. The Freedom Riders will travel to New Jersey to attend a reception hosted by Gov. James McGreevey (D) Oct. 3 in Liberty State Park and finish with a massive day-long Celebration of America’s Immigrants in New York’s Flushing Meadows Park Oct. 4. For more information, visit http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/immigration/freedom_ride.cfm or http://www.iwfr.org . Meanwhile, union and immigrant activists are praising a bipartisan bill introduced Sept. 23 to allow some 500,000 undocumented agricultural workers to gain citizenship. The Agricultural Job, Opportunity, Benefits and Security Act of 2003 would “grant freedom from fear to hundreds of thousands of the hardest-working, lowest-paid, taxpaying workers in America,” said Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez.
MOBILIZING TO STOP FTAA–Working families launched a series of nationwide events that will culminate in a massive rally and march in Miami during the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) ministerial meetings in November. If approved, FTAA would create the largest free-trade zone in the world, but corporate and government planners have not included the concerns of workers or environmentalists in the agreement. Industrial Union Council unions are rallying and holding town hall meetings in the nation’s heartland to raise awareness of the crisis in manufacturing caused by flawed trade policies–some 2.5 million manufacturing jobs have been lost in two years. The Steelworkers and the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment are sponsoring the March to Miami, a 20-city, seven-week bus tour beginning Sept. 27 in Seattle, that focuses on the impact of cheap imports on the hard-hit steel industry. On Sept. 24, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney called on union leaders to mobilize their members to participate in the November rally and march in Miami. Workers also are demonstrating their opposition to FTAA by signing unofficial ballots opposing the trade deal. For more information and to download a ballot, visit http://www.aflcio.org/stopftaa . For more information on the March to Miami, click on http://www.marchtomiami.org .
TRADE POLICIES LEAD TO LEVI SHUTDOWN–The announcement Sept. 25 of the closing of four Levi Strauss plants in the United States and Canada, putting nearly 2,000 people out of work, is “yet another indictment of a failed trade policy that is destroying entire industries,” UNITE President Bruce Raynor said. Levi Strauss tried longer than any other clothing manufacturer to keep production in North America and paid good wages and benefits to workers, he said.
CONTRACTS FOR K.C. NURSES–After three years of negotiations, registered nurses at three Kansas City-area hospitals voted overwhelmingly to approve their first contracts on Sept. 24. About 600 RNs, members of Nurses United for Improved Patient Care, an AFT affiliate, voted to approve individual contracts at Lee’s Summit Hospital, Menorah Medical Center and the Medical Center of Independence, part of the HCA Midwest system.
HISTORIC DRUG BILL–The Ohio AFL-CIO negotiated a ground-breaking agreement with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) to draft legislation that would provide drug discounts of 25 to 40 percent for residents 60 or older and low-income persons who lack health insurance. PhRMA cooperated with the unions after activists collected enough signatures for a statewide ballot measure that would have given deeper discounts than those in the joint legislation, which is expected to pass the state’s General Assembly, according to Ohio AFL-CIO President William Burga.
OUTRAGED AT OUTSOURCING–Nearly 50 high-tech workers and union activists protested at a conference near San Francisco where employers were learning how to contract out high-tech jobs to offshore contractors. The Sept. 16 action followed a Labor Day protest in Concord, Calif., where a high-tech worker took his life this summer after training his foreign replacement and then receiving a pink slip. Offshore outsourcing has cost the United States nearly 400,000 white-collar jobs, according to the Communications Workers of America.
RETIREE BENEFITS RESTORED–A federal judge on Sept. 19 ordered Honeywell International to make good on a 27-year-old contractual promise to provide full health insurance benefits for nearly 800 UAW retirees who made auto parts in New York and Michigan. The company had announced it would halt the benefits on Oct. 1. “We’re pleased by the court’s ruling for these retirees, and the UAW continues to fight for a comprehensive national health care system for everyone,” said UAW President Ron Gettelfinger.
USAIRWAYS’S WRONG WAYS–Hundreds of mechanics and supporters, members of the Machinists, rallied in Charlotte, N.C., Sept. 27, protesting USAirways’s plan to contract out Airbus repairs to a Singapore-based company that once was fined $100,000 by federal authorities for safety violations. The planned move callously disregards the airline’s contract with IAM and threatens passenger safety, according to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. “It’s time for USAirways to straighten up and fly right and maintain both high standards of safety and its contract with workers,” he said.
MOVING IN RIGHT DIRECTION–The global union movement is praising the decision by the World Bank’s private-sector lending arm, the International Finance Corp., to include respect for workers’ rights as a condition of future loans. The move “demonstrates the growing recognition that key international institutions cannot afford to ignore the negative effects of globalization on the lives of working people,” said Guy Ryder, general secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.
VOICE@WORK WORKSHOP AVAILABLE–The AFL-CIO is offering an interactive Voice@Work workshop to help union members learn why restoring workers’ freedom to form unions is crucial to improving their own jobs and the lives of all working families. The workshop covers why workers want unions; what happens to workers when they try to form unions; the effects on communities, industry wages and work standards; and how union members can help workers win a voice on the job. Leaders of local unions, central labor councils and state federations can order materials for the workshop (available in four-hour, two-hour and 30-minute versions) by calling 202-637-5012.
HURRICANE HELP–Union members who live in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia and who suffered from the effects of Hurricane Isabel may be eligible for financial help through three Union Plus programs. Disaster victims who currently participate in the Union Plus Credit Card, Loan and Mortgage programs may be eligible for payment extensions or other help. For more information, contact Union Plus Credit Card at 1-800-622-2580; Union Plus Loan Program at 1-800-343-7097; and Union Plus Mortgage at 1-800-848-6466.