(The AFL-CIO’s Voice@Work issued the following update on March 30.)
– 57 Million U.S. Workers Would Form a Union Tomorrow
– Living Wage Victory at Georgetown University
– Wal-Mart Pays $11 Million to Settle Immigration Violations
– British Embassy Staff Votes for American Union
– Unitarian Universalist Association Endorses the Employee Free Choice Act
– 57 Million U.S. Workers Would Form a Union Tomorrow
Some 57 million nonunion workers in the United States say they would form a union tomorrow if given the chance, according to new polling by Peter D. Hart and Associates conducted in February 2005. The poll shows that 53 percent of nonunion workers want to form unions in their workplaces.
Can you imagine the possibilities if these workers actually had a fair process in which to join a union?
We know when workers try to exercise their freedom to form unions, they almost always encounter intense employer opposition. More than 20,000 workers were fired or discriminated against in 2004 alone for union activities. Although 62 percent of those polled disapprove of employer efforts to stop workers trying to form unions, only 10 percent know employers do it all the time.
This is loud and clear evidence that we all must continue to educate our friends and neighbors about the importance of restoring workers’ freedom to form unions in this country.
Today, we challenge you to invite five friends to join the Voice@Work Network. Please click on the link below right now so our network can continue to grow:
http://www.unionvoice.org/aflcio_voiceatwork/join-forward
– Living Wage Victory at Georgetown University
After three years of campaigning by workers, students, faculty, clergy and community groups, including a nine-day hunger strike, all campus workers at Georgetown University secured a minimum living wage of $14 an hour (phased in within two years) adjusted annually.
The workers also won wage parity, equal access to Georgetown community resources (such as the library, gym and ESL classes), grievance procedures and the freedom to form unions without university interference.
Hundreds of you sent faxes to Georgetown University President John DeGioia and other campus administrators in support of 20 students who began a hunger strike March 15. Your efforts and the steadfast determination of workers, students, and allies on campus led to this historic victory.
– Wal-Mart Pays $11 Million to Settle Immigration Violations
Wal-Mart will pay $11 million to settle a case brought by the Department of Homeland Security for hiring undocumented immigrant workers to clean its stores. In October 2003, the Department of Homeland Security’s office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided 60 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states, finding hundreds of undocumented immigrant workers cleaning the stores after hours.
A separate lawsuit brought by many of the undocumented workers accuses Wal-Mart of actively working with contractors to hire undocumented immigrants to clean its stores and locking workers in stores overnight. Already under way are other suits claiming violations of the federal Civil Rights Act and New Jersey’s wage-and-hour and anti-discrimination laws.
In other Wal-Mart news, a Canadian public opinion survey found 75 percent of Canadians do not believe Wal-Mart closed its store in Jonquiere, Quebec, because the store was losing money, but rather believe the store closed because the company is trying to defeat workers’ union organizing drive. Thirty-one percent of those polled said they would stop shopping or shop less at Wal-Mart.
– British Embassy Staff Votes for American Union
After management at the British embassy in Washington, D.C., announced plans to cut wages and reduce benefits such as maternity leave, sick leave and health insurance, a majority of workers voted to form a union with the International Federation of Professional and Technical Employees.
However, the embassy management refuses to recognize their employees’ union, claiming the National Labor Relations Act does not apply to foreign government workers. The workers held a one-day strike and have been wearing union pins to work. Unions in both the United States and Britain support worker activists in this dispute. Officials from Britain’s Trades Union Congress met with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney met with the embassy’s labor attache and has requested a meeting with the ambassador. “I’m rather surprised because the British government says it supports the freedom of workers to join unions to improve their lives, and I think this freedom should extend to their embassy staff,” said Sweeney.
– Unitarian Universalist Association Endorses the Employee Free Choice Act
On March 17, the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) endorsed the Employee Free Choice Act.
The group has agreed to promote this legislation through its network of more than 1,000 congregations in the United States and to advocate the restoration of workers’ freedom to form unions in meetings with members of Congress. Since 1961, UUA members and congregations have been active leaders in the struggles for racial equality, civil liberty, international peace and equal rights for all people.
“The Unitarian Universalist Association urges its member congregations and individual Unitarian Universalist in the United States…to work specifically in favor of reforming labor legislation and employment standards to provide greater protection for workers, including the right to organize and bargain collectively,” the group said in a statement entitled “Working for a Just Economic Community.”
– Press Clips of the Week
In light of the victory at Georgetown University (described above), The Washington Post featured this story in three recent articles.
“GU Activists Go Hungry to Help Janitors,” March 21
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52340-2005Mar20.html
“Georgetown Rally Presses Pay Issue: Students Join with Labor Officials,” March 23
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58548-2005Mar22.html
“GU Protesters Savor Win – and a Meal,” March 25
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62829-2005Mar24.html