(The AFL-CIO issued the following news release on May 16.)
WORKERS WIN WITH IBT—In four separate elections, more than 450 workers won a voice at work with the Teamsters. In late April, 316 paraprofessionals with the Middletown, N.J., School District voted to join IBT Local 11. In Auburn, Wash., 100 production and repair workers at the Alan Ritchey mail facility voted for representation with Seattle-based IBT Local 117. Elsewhere, 28 workers at Great Plains Transportation, a DHL independent contractor, voted for IBT Local 41 in Kansas City, Mo. Six police officers in Rockport, Maine, joined IBT Local 340.
TRIO TECHS CHOSE IATSE—In Chicago, more than 50 freelance broadcast technicians at Trio Video voted nearly 3–1 for union representation with the Theatrical Stage Employees. Trio Video provides broadcast trucking services to Comcast SportsNet in the Chicago area.
FREE CHOICE ACT GAINS STRENGTH—The Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 1696 and S. 842) picked up several new co-sponsors in the House last week, bringing the House total to 155. There are 36 Senate co-sponsors. The Clergy and Laity Network and the National Stonewall Democrats recently endorsed the legislation, joining a growing coalition of organizations backing workers’ freedom to form unions. The bipartisan bill would require employers to recognize the union after a majority of workers signs cards authorizing union representation; provide mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes; and establish stronger penalties for violating the rights of workers seeking to form unions or negotiate first contracts. Visit www.unionvoice.org/campaign/Support_EFCA to send a message to your lawmakers urging them to support the Employee Free Choice Act.
BUSH PLAN THREATENS WIDOWS’ BENEFITS—The Bush administration admitted last week its plan to privatize Social Security would mean cuts in survivor benefits for widows, widowers and children. “The president’s misleading proposal glosses over the fact that survivor benefits would be cut under his privatization plan,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said at a Washington, D.C., forum on Women and Social Security. She said studies show workers earning $58,000 a year would be hit with a 42 percent benefit cut for survivors and retirees. Workers making more than $58,000 would receive an even larger benefit cut. Bush previously admitted his Social Security privatization plan would cut benefits for large numbers of people—about 70 percent of future retirees, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. For more information, visit www.aflcio.org/socialsecurity.
UNITED DUMPS PENSIONS—A federal bankruptcy judge approved United Airlines’ plan to terminate its pension plans and transfer $6.6 billion in unfunded pension liabilities to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) May 10. But under PBGC’s formula, many of the airlines’ 120,000 current and former employees will see their promised pensions slashed by more than half in some cases. The Flight Attendants–CWA, Machinists and Air Line Pilots represent many of those workers. “The situation at United underscores the tremendous pressure that America’s big businesses are putting on workers, squeezing wages and benefits while CEO pay soars and too many jobs are sent overseas,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
CAFTA—WE DON’T HAFTA—Workers from Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala and the United States will travel from Washington, D.C., to New York City and San Antonio May 10–18 to spread the word that free trade deals such as the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) lower workplace standards and destroy economic development while lining the pockets of multinational corporations. If approved, CAFTA would extend the economic and environmental damage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to the Dominican Republic and five Central American countries. The “CAFTA—We Don’t Hafta” tour kicked off during a Capitol Hill rally May 10, where more than 1,000 U.S. and Dominican workers joined union leaders and members of Congress to tell Capitol Hill lawmakers “Yes to good jobs, No to CAFTA.” “Under CAFTA, megacorporations get all the breaks by breaking the backs of workers,” AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka told the crowd. UNITE HERE President Bruce Raynor and USW President Leo Gerard also spoke at the rally. After the rally, the U.S. workers, members of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council, lobbied their members of Congress to stop CAFTA. President George W. Bush has made CAFTA his top trade priority. The Senate is holding hearings on the trade deal and Congress could vote on the pact as early as this month.
JUDGES’ SHOWDOWN MOVES CLOSER—On a party-line vote last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved another of President George W. Bush’s previously blocked extremist nominees for a federal judgeship, former Alabama Attorney General William Pryor. While the Senate has approved more than 200 of Bush’s judicial nominees, Democrats have blocked 10 nominees who have bad records on workers’ rights, civil rights and other important working family issues. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has indicated he may bring one of the contested nominations to the Senate floor this week and, if Democrats filibuster, move to circumvent Senate rules and declare filibusters out of bounds for judicial nominees. Visit www.unionvoice.org/campaign/StopNuclear to urge your senators to preserve the right to challenge judicial nominees.
N.J. HALTS TAXPAYER-FUNDED JOB EXPORTS—New Jersey became the first state to ban the exporting of state contracted work when Acting Gov. Richard Codey (D) signed legislation May 5 requiring all services under state contracts or subcontracts be performed in the United States. “The labor movement has worked hard to protect the jobs of workers in this state,” said state AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech. “It seems only right that we insist that businesses contracting with this state, funded by New Jersey taxpayers, keep the jobs within our borders.” Similar legislation has been introduced in more than 31 states. For more information, visit www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/stateissues/jobexport/.
TELECOM POLICIES DESTROY GOOD JOBS—Federal, state and local telecommunications regulations and tax policies are destroying good jobs by giving an advantage to cable television and wireless companies, which generally pay lower wages and are half as likely to be unionized as long-established carriers, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute. Racing to the Bottom: How Antiquated Public Policy Is Destroying the Best Jobs in Telecommunications, released May 12, documents the higher costs imposed by government policies on long-established carriers, particularly the former Bell companies, putting them at a competitive disadvantage. To read the report, visit www.epinet.org.
AFSCME GAINS PACT AT UC—Some 7,300 University of California service workers, members of AFSCME Local 3299, ratified a new three-year contract that sets a minimum pay at $9 an hour and raises wages 10 percent over the term. The accord provides a $250 retroactive payment, additional paid training and promotion opportunities. Many of the lowest-paid workers will receive free meals and higher premium pay for nights and weekends. The agreement was reached April 20 following a one-day strike April 14.
GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS ON DEFICIT—Despite a slight decline in the U.S. trade deficit in March, the overall deficit still is on pace to reach a record-breaking $750 billion by the end of the year. Such an “unacceptable and unsustainable” deficit would contribute to even more manufacturing job loss as well as erosion of our tax base, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. Rather than pursuing misguided trade deals such as CAFTA, policymakers should develop a strategy to rebuild manufacturing, Sweeney said.
ILO: 12 MILLION IN FORCED LABOR—More than 12 million people worldwide are working in forced labor, including some 1.2 million who are forced into sex trades, according to a report by the International Labor Organization. The agency, an arm of the United Nations, reported forced labor is greatest in Asia, where 9.5 million people work as forced laborers. For a copy of the report, A Global Alliance Against Forced Labor, visit www.ilo.org/declaration.
PAID SICK LEAVE SAVES WOMEN’S JOBS—One of the major reasons women lose their jobs is they are not likely to have paid sick leave and are fired for taking unexcused absences to care for sick children or other family members, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR). Low-income working women, who are least likely to have paid sick leave, would benefit most from recently introduced legislation in Congress requiring paid sick leave, IWPR President Heidi Hartman said at a May 2 briefing. In April, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) introduced the Healthy Families Act (S. 932 and H.R. 1902), which would require employers with 15 or more workers to provide full-time employees at least seven paid sick leave days per year for their own needs or to care for sick family members.
THE ART OF ORGANIZING—Organizers, activists and artists will join forces in June for the Conference on Creative Organizing and the Great Labor Arts Exchange at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md. The Conference on Creative Organizing trains union staff, organizers and activists to use songs, skits, theater and other creative strategies. The Great Labor Arts Exchange is a gathering of union members, artists, labor educators and youths who use the creative arts to celebrate working people and strengthen the union movement. Both events will be held June 19–21. For more information, visit www.laborheritage.org or call Peter Jones at the Labor Heritage Foundation at 202-974-8040.
TOP LABOR-MANAGEMENT AWARDS—The AFL-CIO Union Label and Service Trades Department conferred its 2005 Labor-Management Award on Georgia-Pacific and General Motors Corp.’s Flint Engine South. At Georgia-Pacific, PACE International Union (which recently merged with the Steelworkers to form the USW) formed a strategic alliance that improved the company’s ability to maintain its commitment to its customers, shareholders and workers. UAW Local 659 and GM transformed a plant slated for shutdown a decade ago into a world-class facility, producing one of the industry’s best engines. Its success prompted GM to expand the plant and add 325 union workers.
OUR FUTURE—Don’t forget to visit the AFL-CIO’s Strengthening Our Union Movement for the Future website at www.aflcio.org/ourfuture to check out the latest proposals—and be sure to add your thoughts and share your opinions.
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