(The AFL-CIO issued the following on April 4.)
RUTGERS EDUCATORS JOIN AFT—The Rutgers Council of the American Association of University Professors voted to affiliate with AFT and the New Jersey State AFL-CIO last week. The 2,700 faculty members, graduate and teaching assistants at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, voted 3–1 for the affiliation.
UNDIPLOMATIC BEHAVIOR—The 630 staff members of the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., and its consulates throughout the country voted Feb. 23 to join the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. But the British government has refused to recognize the workers’ practically unanimous vote, and the workers are considering filing a complaint with the International Labor Organization. In addition, the British government unilaterally imposed wage cuts and work rule changes April 1. The AFL-CIO met with the British labor attaché to push for recognition of the union and a fair contract and is seeking a meeting with the British ambassador. Officials from the British Trades Union Congress met with that country’s foreign minister in support of the workers.
WIRELESS WORKERS DIAL UP UNION—Some 324 Cingular Wireless call center workers in Ridgeland, Miss., won majority sign-up and a voice at work with the Communications Workers March 22. They are the first of the 20,000 former AT&T Wireless America workers to win CWA representation since the merger with Cingular Wireless in 2004. In majority sign-up, the employer agrees to recognize the union as the workers’ bargaining agent when a majority signs authorization cards.
POLICE POWER—By a 6–1 margin, members of the Hobbs, N.M., Police Department voted recently to join the International Union of Police Associations. The 48-member unit includes detectives, police officers and detention officers.
HAULING FOR A VOICE—Workers at the Farner-Bocken distribution center in Centerville, Iowa, voted for a voice at work with Teamsters Local 238 recently. The major issues for the 16 workers at the freight hauling company were recently imposed increases in health care costs, the union said.
POPE CHAMPIONED WORKERS’ RIGHTS—During his 26-year-reign, Pope John Paul II, who died April 2, championed workers’ rights causes. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who met with John Paul twice, most recently in April 2000, said “Pope John Paul II espoused the notion of worker solidarity as a central dimension of the human condition and a necessary ingredient of a just society.” The Polish-born pontiff supported the Solidarity trade union movement that led to workers’ rights and freedom from communism in that country and called for the right of workers around the world to form unions and for a fair global economic system that valued all people. For more information, visit www.aflcio.org.
MESSAGE TO WALL STREET: HANDS OFF!—Thousands of working families and community activists delivered a message about Social Security privatization to Wall Street financial firms: “Don’t Pick Our Pockets to Line Yours!” The March 31 National Day of Action for Retirement Security was the largest grassroots mobilization yet in the campaign to defeat President George W. Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security. Bush’s plan would slash Social Security’s guaranteed benefits and increase the federal debt by nearly $5 trillion in just 20 years while funneling billions of dollars to financial firms managing privatized accounts. Workers marched to Wachovia Corp. headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., and to Charles Schwab Corp., Wachovia and other offices in Chicago, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Francisco and more than 70 other cities nationwide. They demanded the firms withdraw support for privatizing Social Security and drop their memberships in pro-privatization groups, including the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security (AWRS). Recent working family mobilizations persuaded the investment firms Edward D. Jones & Co. and Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. to withdraw from AWRS. In Washington, D.C., AFL-CIO President John Sweeney joined a delegation of activists who entered the offices of Charles Schwab and Wachovia to deliver letters to Schwab CEO Charles Schwab and Wachovia CEO Daniel Ludeman, who also chairs the Securities Industry Association, a major promoter of Social Security privatization. “The financial industry should not be backing an initiative that would shred the protections Social Security provides for retirement, disability and loss of a wage earner,” Sweeney wrote to Ludeman. University of Chicago economist Austan Goolsbee estimates such companies as Charles Schwab and Wachovia could reap some $940 billion in fees over the next 75 years. For more information on ways to protect Social Security, visit www.wallstreetgreed.org and www.aflcio.org/socialsecurity.
WAL-MART’S PHONY PATRIOTISM—More than 20 members of the U.S. House of Representatives joined in the United Food and Commercial Workers’ call for ABC News to drop Wal-Mart as the sponsor of the “Only in America” series on “Good Morning America.” The series tells the stories of common Americans and their love for the country and its citizens. “It is a sad day when ABC News would allow itself to be used by Wal-Mart to sell a corporate image based on lies and myths. One only has to look at the real Wal-Mart record to realize the severe damage this company has done to American families and communities,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.), one of the lawmakers who signed a letter to ABC News urging it to drop Wal-Mart’s sponsorship. Wal-Mart’s use of its “Only in America” sponsorship “is simply another cynical attempt to deceive customers about Wal-Mart’s responsibility for sending more jobs overseas than any other American corporation and lowering U.S. wages,” said UFCW President Joe Hansen. To sign a petition to ABC News visit www.ufcw.org, and to learn more about Wal-Mart visit www.walmartcostsyou.org.
STUDENTS GONE WILD—FOR JUSTICE—Not all college students headed to wild spring break hotspots during recent class breaks. Students at some 300 universities and colleges spent their time off fighting for workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain collectively during the National Student Labor Week of Action March 31 to April 4. Along with standing up for graduate student employees and other university workers organizing at several campuses, student activists staged rallies, teach-ins and demonstrations protesting Bush administration budget cuts for education and other programs. The action was organized by the Student Labor Action Project, a joint program of Jobs with Justice and the United States Student Association. For more information, visit www.jwj.org.
RESPECT AT WEYERHAEUSER—Union members at 60 Weyerhaeuser logging operations, sawmills and pulp and paper mills from Vancouver, B.C., to Florida staged a day of solidarity March 31 to demand respect from the forestry giant. In the United States, some 7,000 Weyerhaeuser workers are PACE International Union members, and in Canada some 3,000 are Steelworkers. The workers distributed fliers and stickers outlining Weyerhaeuser’s contract concession demands, including outsourcing jobs and shifting health care, pension and other benefit costs to workers. Other issues cited by the workers are excessive executive compensation and workplace safety problems.
DIRTY LAUNDRY—UNITE HERE members at Angelica Textile Services, the largest health care linen service provider in the country, who are demanding workplace health and safety improvements say Angelica is fighting their efforts. Workers say they are pushed to meet unrealistic production quotas and must handle hospital linens soiled with blood, excrement and other body fluids without proper vaccinations or adequate safety equipment, possibly exposing them to diseases such as HIV and hepatitis B. According to the union, Angelica faces more than $400,000 in fines by state and federal health and safety agencies, including for failure to provide safety training and equipment. Visit www.unitehere.org to send a message to Angelica’s board of directors urging them to help the workers win better working conditions.
BUSH DELAYS AIR SAFETY RULE—The Bush administration March 28 delayed for one year a new requirement that aircraft repair companies—both domestic firms and overseas firms that service U.S. airlines—have Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved worker training programs. Aviation safety advocates say the new requirements are needed because more U.S. airlines are outsourcing their maintenance and repair work and several airlines send their aircraft to overseas repair stations. In recent years, increasing numbers of airlines have outsourced this work as a cost-cutting measure. Air safety experts say federal oversight of the repairs, safety and security at the outsourced facilities is severely limited and poses serious safety and security problems.
PHONE PLAN: PLANE OBNOXIOUS—Responding to a big push from the aviation industry and some business passengers, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) may drop the ban on the use of cell phones by airline passengers during flight. Pat Friend, president of AFA-CWA, says use of cell phones on airliners is “a sure prescription for air rage” as passengers might have to endure nonstop phone yakkers for several hours. Additionally, she said, passengers may not be able to hear safety and emergency instructions. The FCC’s own study on cell phone use and flight safety issues won’t be completed for another year. Friend urges union members to send a message to the FCC from the website www.nocellphonesonplanes.com.
OIL DEAL EXTENDED—PACE and the oil and chemical refining industry tentatively agreed March 28 to extend until 2009 the national oil bargaining pattern agreement affecting some 30,000 workers. The pact, which was set to expire in 2006, sets a national minimum standard for wages and benefits in local contracts. The pattern agreement was negotiated with Shell Oil Co., which represented the chemical and oil industry.
JUSTICIA SÍ—More than 100 USWA and Mexico’s Miners and Metalworkers Union members rallied in Mexico City March 28 calling for justice for workers at Grupo Mexico, the world’s largest copper producer. Despite high copper prices, a Grupo Mexico subsidiary, Asarco, is demanding harsh concessions from workers at two operations in Arizona and Texas, the unions said. The 750 workers have been without contracts since July 2004. The National Labor Relations Board recently issued an unfair labor practices complaint against Asarco for refusing to provide critical information to the union.
HUMAN RIGHTS AWARDS—The American Rights at Work’s first annual Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Awards honored two unionized companies—Harley-Davidson Motor Co. and Catholic Healthcare West—for their efforts to advance the understanding of workers’ rights as a cornerstone of human rights and social justice. Harley-Davidson’s employees are represented by the Machinists and PACE, and SEIU represents the workers at Catholic Healthcare West. Also honored at the March 31 awards ceremony was the late visionary artist and activist Ossie Davis and the Student Labor Week of Action. For more information, visit www.americanrightsatwork.org.