(The AFL-CIO circulated the following on July 18.)
VICTORY AT QUEBECOR–After a two-year global fight to win justice for workers at Quebecor World, 207 workers at the printing giant’s Fernley, Nev., plant won a voice at work with the Graphic Communications Conference/IBT July 15. The win, by a better than 2-to-1 margin, was the first under a historic neutrality agreement reached in May between Quebecor, the world’s second-largest commercial printer, and the union. The company agreed not to interfere with workers’ efforts to organize and to allow for an expedited, non-National Labor Relations Board election. Along with strong organizing efforts at the firm’s U.S. operations, workers at Quebecor’s unionized plants around the world joined in solidarity actions. “This victory is a victory for all Quebecor workers,” said IBT President James Hoffa. Workers at several other U.S. Quebecor plants are expected to vote for a voice at work in the coming months. The Quebecor effort began as partnership campaign between the Graphic Communications International Union, before its merger with IBT, and the AFL-CIO, which continues to provide strategic support for the campaign.
WRAPPING UP A VICTORY–Workers at Coastal Paper mill in Wiggins, Miss., voted overwhelmingly to join the United Steelworkers July 7. The 86 workers produce wrapping paper, napkins and other paper products. After the company’s anti-union campaign beat back the workers’ original organizing drive three years ago, management cut pay, raised health care premiums, cut jobs and disciplined workers for missing work due to illness or death in the family, the union said.
DRIVERS VOTE IBT–Twenty-six drivers at L.P. Enterprises in Louisville, Ky., and 24 drivers at My-Type Co. in Bradley, Ill., voted this month to join Teamsters locals 89 and 705, respectively. Both companies are DHL-contracted delivery firms. Also, 11 lot maintenance workers at Hertz in Detroit voted to join IBT Local 299.
WORKERS JOIN MACHINISTS–A coordinated worker-to-worker effort paid off this month when 35 occupational health nurses, lab technicians and radiology health technicians at the BWXT Pantex nuclear weapons facility near Amarillo, Texas, voted in two separate elections for Machinists Local Lodge 255. Before the votes, members of the local visited the workers and talked about the benefits of a union contract.
NO SCHOOL SUPPLIES FROM WAL-MART–Working families can send a message to Wal-Mart and start their children on the road to activism at the same time by joining other families in a campaign to buy back-to-school supplies somewhere other than a Wal-Mart store. Parents can visit http://www.wakeupwalmart.com to pledge to shop for school supplies elsewhere. Parents also are helping their children write letters to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott, telling him why their families won’t buy school supplies from Wal-Mart this year. Wal-Mart has been fined in three states for violations of child labor laws this year alone. The company that raked in $10 billion in profits last year pays poverty-level wages and fails to provide affordable health insurance to its workers. More information about Wal-Mart’s anti-worker practices is available at http://www.walmartcostsyou.com . Parents are asked to send their children’s letters by Aug. 1 to Lee Scott, c/o Wal-Mart Campaign, 815 16th St. N.W., Washington, DC 20006. The Wal-Mart campaign will make sure Scott gets the messages.
AFL-CIO UNIONS MEET–When the AFL-CIO’s 50th anniversary Convention convenes in Chicago July 25-28, the more than 900 delegates from around the country will make important decisions about how the AFL-CIO can best lead the workers’ movement. The Convention, which will focus on strategies for building good jobs and a voice for working families, caps an eight-month debate on the future of the union movement. In addition to deciding organizing and political strategies, the delegates will determine changes in the structure and governance of the AFL-CIO. On July 25, Convention delegates will consider resolutions on diversity in the union movement, good jobs, public health and retirement programs and the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The following day will be devoted to decision making about organizing, political mobilization and strengthening state and local labor movements, while on July 27, the focus will be the global and U.S. economies, along with nominations for AFL-CIO officers. Convention speakers will include prominent national leaders including Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) (by video), Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Rep Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Rep. Peter King, (R-N.Y.) (by video), the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Julian Bond and John Edwards. Building Power for Working Families, a pre-Convention conference July 23-24, will address diversity in the union movement, organizing, strengthening state and local labor movements and bringing justice to the global economy. For up-to-date coverage of the Convention, be sure to visit http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/convention2005 , where you can also sign up for Convention e-mail updates.
FEDERAL WORKERS RALLY FOR RIGHTS–Hundreds of federal workers and members of a wide range of unions and allied groups rallied on Capitol Hill July 12 to protest the Bush administration’s assault on federal workers’ rights. The main focus of the rally was the impending Defense Department’s new National Security Personnel System, which will deny collective bargaining and civil service rights to some 750,000 Defense Department workers. “These bogus personnel changes will destroy morale and undermine public servants throughout the federal government by injecting politics into the federal workplace,” said AFGE President John Gage. For more information, visit http://www.afge.org or http://www.aflcio.org .
HOUSE NEARS VOTE ON CAFTA–Working families are calling and e-mailing their representatives and urging them to reject the badly flawed CAFTA, which is expected to come to the House floor next week. If approved, CAFTA would cut tariffs among the United States and six nations. But the agreement, modeled after the North American Free Trade Agreement, does not contain enforceable protections for such core workers’ rights as the freedom to form unions. While President George W. Bush is pushing CAFTA, the nation’s trade deficit–20 percent higher than at the same time last year–continues to cost good jobs. “Each and every one of those deficit dollars represents a loss of jobs here,” AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka said. For more information on CAFTA, visit http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/globaleconomy .
LONDON BOMBINGS AN ‘OUTRAGE’–The tragic subway and bus bombings in London July 7 that killed 54 people was an “outrage” and “unspeakable act of terrorism on innocent people as they travel to work in the morning,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney in a letter to the British Trades Union Council extending the federation’s condolences to British working families. In a related development, U.S. transportation workers are strongly backing legislation to make the nation’s transit system safer. The Secure Transit and Railroads Across America and Investment in National Security Act of 2005 was introduced July 13 and calls for mandatory training to help frontline workers identify and respond to security threats and protects whistle-blowers who expose safety and security lapses. Also, the U.S. Senate rejected an amendment to add $1.2 billion for transit security to the Homeland Security appropriations bill. Under Senate rules, the measure need 60 votes to pass and it failed 53-45 with all 45 no votes cast by Republican senators.
FEDS’ FAKE OSHA MEETING SLAMMED–Federal immigration officials lured some 50 immigrant construction workers at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, N.C., to a phony Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) meeting July 6 where they were handcuffed and taken into custody for allegedly using false documents. According to news reports, agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency distributed fliers telling the workers they were required to attend the meeting. Neither the state’s Occupational Safety and Health division nor federal OSHA said they were involved in the deception. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson said, “Workers need to be able to rely on OSHA for their safety on the job–and often their lives–without fear of repercussion. For immigration officials to undermine that trust in the name of an ‘undercover’ raid is fundamentally wrong.”
FAA IGNORES BARGAINING–After refusing to return to the bargaining table for nearly two years, the Federal Aviation Administration unilaterally imposed contract terms on 1,900 workers, members of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, July 10. The workers are noncontroller professionals such as engineers, computer specialists, aircraft certification inspectors and others. In July 2003, NATCA asked the Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP) to intervene after the two sides could not reach agreement. FSIP’s role is to resolve bargaining disputes between federal agencies and unions, but the FAA charged the panel had no jurisdiction in the case. Later, the seven-member panel, all appointed by President George W. Bush, agreed it lacked jurisdiction. The FAA’s action is another “example of a Bush administration that has taken a hostile view towards the collective bargaining rights of workers,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
TELEMUNDO RESORTS TO UNION-BUSTING–After more than six months of bargaining, Telemundo–a subsidiary of NBC/Universal–last week abandoned negotiations with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists over a contract for their Spanish-language performers. The union charges Telemundo has begun holding captive-audience meetings with performers working on their productions in Miami and handing out leaflets that threaten to move the work out of the country. “It is stunning to me that the same company that assured the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that they would not interfere with any individual’s right to support a union is now resorting to such common union-busting tactics to ensure that these performers don’t exercise that right,” said Rebecca Rhine, AFTRA’s assistant national executive director.
SPREADING THE WORD–Members of USW locals 5724 and 5760 drove 500 miles from Hannibal, Ohio, to the New York City offices of MatlinPatterson Global Advisors to protest anti-worker actions the company has taken since acquiring the bankrupt Ormet Corp., including two aluminum plants in Hannibal. Since taking over, MatlinPatterson has contracted out jobs, cut wages and reduced retiree health insurance benefits. Union members began an unfair labor practices strike at the two Hannibal Ormet plants Nov. 22. The union members spent the week of July 11 conducting various actions in and around New York City to raise public awareness of the company’s anti-worker actions.
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