(The AFL-CIO circulated the following on April 25.)
CAREGIVERS JOIN SEIU—The Michigan Employment Relations Commission April 19 certified SEIU Local 79 as the bargaining agent for some 41,000 home care workers throughout the state. In a three-week mail ballot election, the home care workers voted by more than six-to-one for the union. The caregivers are independent providers contracted by the state to help more than 50,000 seniors and persons with disabilities with everyday tasks, according to the union. The Quality Community Care Council is the employer of record for the caregivers. The council was set up last year under an agreement between the state Community Health Department and the Tri-County Area Agencies on Aging.
SAFETY IN NUMBERS—The 1,245 members of the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild (SPOG) voted to affiliate with the Communications Workers of America’s National Coalition of Public Safety Officers. SPOG President Kevin Haistings said he is “looking forward to being able to reach out and get some ideas from other union leaders and get some support if we need it.”
EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT INTRODUCED—Seven workers told a Capitol Hill press conference their employers fired union-supporting employees and took other actions to thwart their freedom to form unions. The workers joined lawmakers and religious and union leaders April 19 for the introduction of the Employee Free Choice Act (H.R. 1696 and S. 842). The bipartisan bill, sponsored by Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Peter King (R-N.Y.) and Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), would reform the nation’s basic labor laws by requiring employers to recognize the union after a majority of workers signs cards authorizing union representation. It also would provide mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes and establish stronger penalties for violation of the rights of workers seeking to form unions or negotiate first contracts. Lori Gay, a registered nurse at Salt Lake Regional Medical Center in Utah, said she and co-workers held a union election despite the hospital’s vicious anti-union campaign but have been waiting three years for the National Labor Relations Board to allow the ballots to be counted. For more information and to view a webcast of the introduction, visit www.aflcio.org.
WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY—Over the past two decades, the rate of injuries on the job for Latinos has risen significantly, according to the “2005 Death on the Job,” the annual AFL-CIO report on worker safety and health in the United States and in the states. The report will be released April 28, Workers Memorial Day, when workers across the country will remember those who have suffered and died on the job. Workers Memorial Day is observed in nearly 100 countries. Some 500 workers in Atlantic City, N.J., plan to march to the Workers’ Memorial monument in Kennedy Plaza on the Boardwalk, where they will rally. In San Antonio, workers will release balloons representing workers killed at work. To learn more about Workers Memorial Day, visit www.aflcio.org/yourjobeconomy/safety/memorial.
NO TO ASBESTOS BILL—The AFL-CIO opposes the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2005 (S. 852), introduced last week by Sens. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), because it “fails to ensure victims just and timely compensation and would leave tens of thousands of individuals with no remedy at all,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. Saying the bill is better than previous asbestos compensation proposals, Sweeney said “defendant companies and insurers have succeeded in blocking almost every change to the draft bill that would have removed unfair and unnecessary barriers to valid claims, despite the best efforts of Specter and Leahy to negotiate a fair compromise.”
PROTECT SOCIAL SECURITY—Working families will rally April 26 at the U.S. Capitol and in cities across America to call on Congress to protect Social Security. The rallies will coincide with the opening of Senate Finance Committee hearings on President George W. Bush’s scheme to privatize Social Security. The National Day of Unity to Protect Social Security and Stop Privatization rally in Washington, D.C., is sponsored by Americans United to Protect Social Security and the Alliance for Retired Americans. Congressional Democratic leaders, Sen. Harry Reid (Nev.) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), dozens of members of Congress and AFSCME President Gerald McEntee will speak at the Capitol Hill rally. The Senate Finance Committee hearing on Social Security will be crucial for working families, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. “The president’s supporters will try to persuade Congress to draft legislation that would bankrupt our economy…but there still has not been an open, balanced national debate on the issue.” Bush’s privatization plan would slash Social Security’s guaranteed benefits, explode the federal deficit and weaken Social Security’s solvency while funneling billions of dollars to financial firms managing privatized accounts. For more information, visit www.aflcio.org/socialsecurity.
‘NUCLEAR OPTION’ FIGHT BREWING—A major fight is brewing in the Senate over two extremist judicial nominees after the Senate Judiciary Committee sent previously blocked nominations of Janice Rogers Brown and Patricia Owen to the full Senate. The move sets the stage for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) to attempt to push through the nominations by eliminating the right to filibuster judicial nominees, a move so explosive it is called the “nuclear option.” Both Brown and Owen have troubling records on working family issues. Brown, from California, once called programs such as Social Security “cannibalization” by senior citizens. Owen, a Texas Supreme Court justice, authored or joined opinions that undermine the state workers’ compensation system and the right of workers to seek redress in court for job injuries. For more information, visit www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/factsheet_ns04242003.cfm.
‘CAFTA BUILT ON FAILED MODEL’—The Dominican Republic–Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) represents a failed model that will exacerbate poverty and inequality in Central America, erode good jobs and wages in the United States and undermine the ability of governments to protect public health and the environment, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka told the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee April 21. Working families are mobilizing to stop CAFTA, President Bush’s top trade priority. To learn more about CAFTA, visit www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/globaleconomy/cafta_ftaa_main.cfm.
MORE JOBS LEAVING UNITED STATES—There is growing evidence that major U.S. corporations are exporting more and more jobs. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported April 19 the workforce of U.S. multinational companies employed in the United States declined to about 21.8 million, a reduction of 2.1 percent or 456,000 jobs, from 2002. Meanwhile, the number of employees working abroad for U.S. companies grew to 8.36 million, up 1.2 percent or 100,000 jobs, from the prior year. This continued a trend that began in 1988, when the share of U.S. multinational companies’ employees working in the United States was 78.8 percent. U.S. multinational companies account for about one out of every five U.S. jobs in private industry, BEA said.
WASHINGTON U. STUDENTS GAIN JUSTICE—Student activists at Washington University in St. Louis reached a groundbreaking agreement on workers’ rights April 22 ending a 19-day sit-in by members of Washington University’s Student Worker Alliance. Fifteen students also engaged in a six-day hunger strike, which ended April 16. The students received strong support from the community, and AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff visited the campus to support the students, who also received backing from actor Danny Glover and former vice presidential candidate John Edwards. Under the agreement, the school will commit at least $1 million in the next two years toward salary and benefits for contract employees who now fall below the federal poverty guidelines for a family of four. The university will form a joint committee of students, faculty and administrators to improve university policies to better meet the needs of lower-paid service workers. The university also will join the Workers’ Rights Consortium, which ensures factories producing clothing and other goods bearing college and university names respect the basic rights of workers.
STUDENTS RALLY FOR RECOGNITION—AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, UNITE HERE President Bruce Raynor, UAW Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn, UNITE HERE’s President/Hospitality Industry John Wilhelm, several New York City Council members and hundreds of community and university supporters rallied April 20 to demand recognition of the union for graduate student teaching assistants at Columbia University. The Columbia teaching assistants and graduate assistants at Yale University walked out for a week beginning April 18 to demand recognition of their unions. The Columbia assistants are members of Graduate Student Employees United, an affiliate of UAW Local 2110, and the Yale students belong to Graduate Student Employees Association, affiliated with UNITE HERE Local 35 in New Haven, Conn.
RACE DISCRIMINATION CHARGED—The USW filed a charge of race discrimination against Imerys Carbonates on behalf of employees working at the company’s Sylacauga, Ala., plant. The charge, filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleges white supervisors for the French-owned company are imposing harsher discipline and issuing threats against African American workers.
UC, AFSCME REACH DEAL—AFSCME Local 3299 and the University of California reached a tentative agreement April 20 on a three-year contract covering 7,300 service workers at the university’s nine campuses and five medical centers. The new pact would give workers 10 percent pay increases over the three years. The workers conducted a one-day walkout April 14 to protest stalled negotiations with the university.
GROCERY PACTS—United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1262 reached tentative agreements with four supermarket chains—Foodtown, Pathmark, ShopRite and Stop & Shop in New Jersey and New York. The proposed pacts, which cover 28,000 workers at 250 stores, would maintain existing employer-paid health care benefits, boost employer pension contributions and provide “a generous wage package,” the union said.
NEW IUE-CWA LEADER—Jim Clark is the new president of CWA’s Industrial Division, IUE-CWA. Clark had served as the chairman of the IUE-CWA Automotive Conference since 2001. He succeeds Mike Bindas, who retired April 1.