(The AFL-CIO distributed the following on January 31.)
DIAGNOSIS: A VOICE AT WORK—The 560 clerical, technical and paraprofessional employees and registered nurses who work for the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield won recognition with AFSCME Council 31 this month. Also winning recognition were 101 Illinois state employees—out-of-state auditors, public information officers and inhalation therapist supervisors. Both groups won their union voice through majority sign-up, under which the employer agrees to recognize the union as the workers’ bargaining agent when a majority signs authorization cards.
NEW SHERIFF’S (UNION) IN TOWN—In Doña Ana County, N.M., 110 sheriff’s department deputies and sergeants voted to join Communications Workers of America Local 7911 Jan. 19. In Buffalo, N.Y., 60 workers at the Northwest Buffalo Community Center gained representation with CWA Local 1122.
FUELING A VICTORY—The 86 fuelers and support personnel who keep Air Force One and VIP government jets gassed up and ready to go voted overwhelmingly last week for Machinists Local 193. The technicians work for Trend Western, a contractor at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C.
JUSTICE DELIVERED—Workers at three firms that deliver packages for DHL voted to join the Teamsters recently. Forty workers at American Commercial Finance in Diamondale, Mich., voted for Local 580; 23 workers at W&A Cargo in St. Paul, Minn., voted for Local 120; and 22 workers at Midatlantic Delivery in Beckley, W.Va., voted for Local 175. In Georgia, 16 workers at BFI/Allied waste transfer stations in East Point, Marble Mill and Smyrna voted to join Local 728.
BUSH RULES ATTACK FED WORKERS—New Bush administration personnel rules announced last week for more than 180,000 workers in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) slash workers’ collective bargaining and appeal rights and also eliminate civil service pay scales and other protections. The new rules, which will be phased in, encourage “a management of coercion and intimidation,” said AFGE President John Gage. AFGE and other federal workers’ unions filed suit in federal court to block the rules that restrict collective bargaining and the rights of workers to due process in personnel, discipline and other matters. For more information, visit www.afge.org or www.aflcio.org. Proposed new personnel rules for some 300,000 Defense Department civilian workers also are expected to be issued soon. A coalition of more than a dozen unions has lobbied Congress, mobilized workers for rallies and urged Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to respect workers’ rights in the new rules.
‘DON’T PICK OUR POCKETS’—Hundreds of working families and political leaders rallied outside offices of Charles Schwab in Boston and San Francisco on Jan. 26 to demand the brokerage firm drop support of President George W. Bush’s Social Security privatization plan. Carrying signs reading “Don’t Pick Our Pockets to Line Yours,” the marchers passed out leaflets saying Schwab’s involvement in the privatization campaign is a conflict of interest. Schwab, one of the world’s largest discount brokers and managers of 401(k) retirement accounts, saw its profits drop 64 percent last quarter. Privatization could bail out what Business Week Online called the “ailing” company if it gains a significant share of the privatized accounts. “Wall Street firms like Schwab will be handpicked by politicians to manage private accounts and make billions of dollars in exorbitant fees,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. Tell Charles Schwab to withdraw its support of privatization by visiting www.aflcio.org. The company is part of a Big Business coalition that is spending big bucks in anticipation of making even bigger bucks on President Bush’s effort to privatize Social Security, replacing Social Security’s guaranteed benefits with risky private accounts. Some 35 companies and trade groups that stand to profit from the privatization have formed the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security to gain support for the Bush plan. The alliance’s members also include the Securities Industry Association and UBS Financial Services. Combined, alliance members contributed $25.8 million to Republican candidates since 1999, including $972,000 to Bush’s presidential campaigns.
TALKING ABOUT OUR FUTURE—Nearly 3,000 union members, educators and activists have shared their thoughts and comments on the strengths and weaknesses of the union movement since the AFL-CIO’s Strengthening Our Union Movement for the Future website was launched in early January. More than 1,000 people have responded to a new survey posted Jan. 21 seeking input on how to strengthen state and local union movements. Along with the comments from individuals, some 50 international unions, state federations, central labor councils and other groups have submitted detailed proposals on how the union movement must change and build on its strengths to continue to be an effective advocate for working families. Visit www.aflcio.org/ourfuture to share your ideas and read what others have to say.
NLRB OFFICIAL SLAPS L.A. HOTELS—The National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB’s) general counsel issued an unfair labor practices complaint against nine Los Angeles hotels Jan. 26. Stephen Rosenfeld, a Bush appointee, ruled the hotels illegally declared an impasse last July in contract talks with members of UNITE HERE Local 11. The hotel owners unilaterally implemented their proposals, including new premiums for health care that had been free and other negative changes, using the impasse as an excuse. Meanwhile, hotel workers in San Francisco, members of Local 2, stepped up their contract campaign, holding lunchtime meetings in hotel lobbies and informing guests about their effort to get a fair deal. Workers in both cities are fighting for contracts that provide decent wages and benefits and would expire concurrently in 2006, giving workers parity to negotiate with the increasingly global hotel industry. For more information, visit www.hotelworkersunited.org. Also, some 250 UNITE HERE Local 1 members ratified a new five-year contract with the Blue Chip casino in Michigan City, Ind., last week.
DISCRIMINATION AT CINTAS—Race and gender discrimination is “systematic” at Cintas Corp., the nation’s largest uniform provider, according to a new report by UNITE HERE and IBT. The ‘Spirit’ Is the Problem: Systemic Racial & Gender Discrimination at Cintas Corporation says despite a corporate claim of “zero tolerance” for discrimination, African American and Hispanic workers endure racist and sexist comments, are shunted into lower paying jobs and are blocked by glass ceilings. For more information on the report and Cintas workers’ struggle for justice, visit www.uniformjustice.org.
MEAT, POULTRY WORKERS EXPLOITED—Anew report from Human Rights Watch on the U.S. meat and poultry industries finds employers often use illegal tactics to quell workers’ efforts to gain a union voice at work to protect them from life-threatening injuries on the job. Released Jan. 25, Blood, Sweat and Fear: Workers Rights in U.S. Meat and Poultry Plants calls for industrywide rules to protect workers, enforcement of existing labor laws and passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would remove obstacles employers use to block workers from forming unions. To learn more about meant poultry workers’ struggle to win a voice at work, visit www.ufcw.org, and to read the full report, visit www.hrw.org/reports/2005/usa0105. A new report from the General Accounting Office finds meat and poultry workers are at greater risk of injury than other manufacturing workers and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration can make improvements in its safety efforts to protect those workers. For more information on the report (GAO-05-96), visit www.gao.gov.
MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES DROPPED—Sweeping new rules that would have wiped out current media ownership rules and given corporations unprecedented control of local TV, radio and newspaper outlets appear to be dead for now, after the Bush administration dropped its appeal of a ruling setting aside the new regulations. The Republican majority on the Federal Communications Commission approved elimination of the ownership rules in June 2003. Last summer, a federal appeals court in Philadelphia ordered the FCC to reconsider its decision. Although the Bush administration has not taken its appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, several media conglomerates may pursue the appeal. “We will continue to work…to preserve the availability and diversity of news and information and fight against an industry plan for media ownership that would permit the nation’s news resources to be controlled by just a few corporations,” said Linda Foley, president of the Newspaper Guild/CWA.
HALF THE DEFICIT IS BUSH’S TAX CUTS FOR RICH—The tax cuts that mainly benefit the wealthy, which President Bush pushed through in his first term, account for 49 percent of the nation’s record budget deficit, according to figures from the Congressional Budget Office. An analysis of the CBO figures by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) finds that without the tax cuts the nation would be enjoying a budget surplus instead of a record $427 billion deficit. Despite claims by Republican lawmakers and the Bush White House that so-called runaway domestic spending is a major deficit culprit, the CBPP found domestic spending increases account for just 13 percent of the increased spending gap. Visit www.cbpp.org for more information.
BARGAINING TOGETHER FOR HEALTH—In California, 14 Taft-Hartley health plan funds representing 500,000 union members and including trustees from both labor and management have formed the California Health Care Coalition to set care standards, hold down costs and pool their bargaining power. The coalition will identify providers with unusually high costs, such as the 13 Sutter hospitals in Northern California the California Public Employees’ Retirement System says it dropped from its network in 2003 because of high charges.
IN FROM THE COLD WITH UFCW—In St. Louis, registered nurses represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655 ended a 37-day strike on Jan. 21 when they ratified by 528–127 a new three-year contract. The agreement protects the nurses’ voice in patient care, improves weekend-off language and provides wage increases.
PUBLISHING RATIONAL RATIOS—New Jersey is the second state in the nation requiring its hospitals to disclose daily the ratio of patients to nurses and other caregivers. Under federal law, such disclosures are standard procedure for nursing homes. “Consumers will now have the information they need to select the best staffed—and therefore the safest—hospital,” says Ann Twomey, president of the Health Professionals and Allied Employees, an affiliate of AFT Healthcare.