(The AFL-CIO circulated the following on July 11.)
COMCAST WORKERS CHOOSE CWA—A unit of 118 technicians and warehouse workers employed by Comcast Corp. in Farmers Branch, Texas, overcame the company’s tough anti-union campaign and voted for representation by Communications Workers of America Local 6150 last month.
DRIVERS, OTHERS WIN IBT VOICE—In Littleton, Mass., last month, 18 drivers for Aggregate Industries voted to join Teamsters Local 170. Ten drivers for T&W Trucking in Naperville, Ill., voted to join IBT Local 179, as did 12 spotter-loaders for TSC Container Freight in nearby Elwood and nine police officers in the Rockdale Police Department.
BARGAINING LAW STRUCK DOWN—In a 5–4 decision, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a state law granting municipal employees the right to collective bargaining. The court decided the bargaining rights measure enacted in 2004 was a “special law” because it only applied to cities of 35,000 or more and the state constitution prohibits such laws. The city of Enid, Okla., challenged the law after AFSCME sought certification to represent its municipal employees.
IN THE WORKS—The Transportation · Communications Union will become an affiliate of the Machinists under an accord announced by the unions July 6. IAM President Thomas Buffenberger said, “This union of unions will give us greater strength to face the economic challenges that confront our members and workers everywhere.” TCU represents nearly 46,000 members in the rail industry.
GOING TO CHICAGO—More than 900 rank-and-file union members and leaders from around the country, representing 13 million working men and women, will take part in the AFL-CIO’s 50th anniversary Convention in Chicago July 25–28. Capping an eight-month debate on the future of the union movement, Convention delegates will make critical decisions about how the union movement will help more workers form unions and gain political strength for working families, as well as the structure and governance of the AFL-CIO. 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 more information, visit www.aflcio.org.
RALLY FOR FED WORKERS’ RIGHTS—Thousands of federal workers from around the country and their union and community allies will rally on Capitol Hill at noon July 12 to protest the Bush administration’s assault on federal workers’ rights. Union members, leaders and lawmakers will spotlight Bush’s attacks, including the denial of collective bargaining rights and a union voice to the 160,000 workers in the Department of Homeland Security and the Bush administration’s ban on organizing and collective bargaining for tens of thousands of Transportation Security Administration workers. The Defense Department is about to issue its new National Security Personnel Systems, which will deny collective bargaining and civil service rights to more than 700,000 Defense Department workers. The Bush administration has said it wants to impose similar rules on the entire federal workforce. The rally is sponsored by AFGE and the United Department of Defense Workers Coalition, which includes dozens of unions representing Defense Department workers. For more information, visit www.afge.org or www.uniteddodworkerscoalition.org.
STRATEGIC ORGANIZING PLAN APPROVED—New AFL-CIO Industry Coordinating Committees would enable the federation to develop and enforce contract standards and would protect participating unions against interference by other unions in strategic organizing campaigns. The proposal to create the committees was approved July 7 by the AFL-CIO Executive Council’s Strategic Approaches Committee and the Committee on Article XX and Article XXI Review. They now will go to the AFL-CIO Convention at the end of July. “Through the new AFL-CIO Industry Coordinating Committees, America’s working families will have a new, powerful tool in their fight against corporate America’s downward push on workplace standards,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. The committees would establish strategic organizing plans and contract standards for individual industries and create joint political and legislative programs to increase bargaining power and membership growth. “The proposals accepted today significantly strengthen the ability of the AFL-CIO to promote and enforce strong contract standards and strategic organizing, while also honoring individual unions’ democratic rights,” said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka. For more information, visit www.aflcio.org/mediacenter/prsptm.
BUSH PLAN HITS SURVIVORS, BLACKS—President George W. Bush’s proposed changes in Social Security would slash benefits for surviving family members of workers who die before retirement, with African American families hit hardest, a new study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) revealed. Bush’s plan recommends a 9.4 percent cut, or $3,009 less in annual benefits, for the family of a typical worker who is now age 25 but who dies at age 45. Because the benefits are based on the workers’ average annual earnings, the families of African American workers—whose wages are generally less than the average—would lose the most, the study found. For a copy of the EPI report, visit www.epinet.org. A related study showed more and more workers may have to rely on Social Security for a greater part of their retirement incomes because fewer will have pensions. Of the Fortune 1000 companies that sponsored defined-benefit pension plans, 11 percent froze or terminated their plans in 2004, a new survey by the consulting firm Watson Wyatt showed, compared with 7 percent that dropped plans in 2003.
PRIVATIZATION TAKES A HIT—A bipartisan House of Representatives majority approved an amendment June 30 that would allow Congress to rewrite Bush administration privatization policies to make them fairer to federal workers and more accountable to taxpayers. The amendment was offered to the fiscal year 2006 Transportation, Treasury and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). It is directed at the Office of Management and Budget’s Circular A-76 privatization process, which is tilted heavily in favor of private contractors. The vote was the third time Congress moved to change the system, but Bush administration veto threats and backroom deals derailed previous efforts, said AFGE and the Professional and Technical Engineers.
BUSH THE COVER BOY—It’s not unusual for President Bush to appear on magazine covers. But his appearance on the cover of the June 15 edition of “Government Executive” magazine with the huge red headline “Union Buster” was unique. The cover story—in a magazine that describes itself as an “authoritative business publication for mid- to senior-level federal managers”—reported that workers’ rights under the long-standing federal labor relations system are “being crushed by the weight of personnel reform.” It covered the attacks on workers’ rights and collective bargaining in the Defense Department, Department of Homeland Security and other agencies. Visit www.govexec.com and click on back issues to view the story.
COME CLEAN—CWA’s Alliance@IBM is pressing IBM Corp. to come clean about where its planned job cuts, totaling 10,000 to 13,000 worldwide, will fall. “IBM is among the worst offenders, pushing relentlessly to export skilled jobs overseas,” said Lee Conrad, national coordinator for the Alliance@IBM, CWA Local 1701, noting IBM recently opened its fifth software center in India, where its workforce now totals 14,000. Conrad termed IBM’s statement that workers can seek other jobs within the company as a smokescreen that offers an illusion of hope to employees and misleads the public. To read comments from IBM employees, visit www.allianceibm.org and scroll down to click on “job cuts status and comments page.”
AWAITING APOLOGY—The United Steelworkers have demanded officials of BP’s Texas City, Texas, refinery apologize to and reinstate with back pay the operators it blamed for a March 23 explosion that killed 15 workers and injured 170 others. The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) found malfunctions in multiple alarms that should have warned operators of rising levels of flammable hydrocarbons in the isomerization unit, where the octane level of gasoline is boosted. USW President Leo Gerard challenged BP’s impression that the event wouldn’t have occurred if operators and supervisors had followed procedures. “How could they perform their jobs if the equipment they were depending on wasn’t functioning properly?”
AFT IN QUEST FOR BETTER SCHOOL REFORM—America’s teachers support the goals of high standards and accountability underlying the federal No Child Left Behind law, but significant changes must be made or “the entire standards movement is in jeopardy,” AFT President Edward McElroy said. Addressing the union’s QuEST (Quality Educational Standards in Teaching) professional issues forum July 7–10 in Washington, D.C., McElroy said the law has shortchanged academic subjects and its accountability measures are unfair and inaccurate methods for determining student and school performance.
ASARCO WORKERS STRIKE—Some 1,500 workers at six copper mining and refining facilities in Arizona and Texas owned by ASARCO Inc. began unfair labor practice strikes last week. The workers, all members of USW, said the Mexican-owned company is refusing to negotiate in good faith. “We owe it to future generations of ASARCO workers to stand up for what is just,” said USW District Director Terry Bonds.
NATIONAL SHIELD LAW NEEDED—The jailing of “New York Times” reporter Judith Miller on July 6 showed the need for a national shield law to protect press freedom to expose corporate and government wrongdoing, said Linda Foley, president of the Newspaper Guild/CWA. Miller was ordered to jail by a federal judge when she would not reveal a source of information about Valerie Plame, whose identity as a CIA operative was made public by columnist Robert Novak two years ago. The Guild is backing the Free Flow of Information Act of 2005 (H.R. 581 and S. 340). The bill would establish federal rules protecting journalists’ right to keep secret the names of sources to whom they have promised confidentiality, a right they now have in 49 states and the District of Columbia. To sign a petition supporting the legislation, visit www.freepress.net. On the day Miller was jailed, thousands of journalists and supporters held rallies and vigils and observed moments of silence in newsrooms across the country. For more information, visit www.newsguild.org.
EXTREME VOLUNTEERS—Six Painters and Allied Trades District Council 91 members pitched in with round-the-clock work to finish an “Extreme Make Over; Home Edition” home for an Iraq war veteran and his family in Clarksville, Tenn., last month. The popular television show completely remodels, repairs and refurbishes homes for deserving families, with teams of workers completing the work in days. “A man put his life on the line for us. I don’t believe working 17, 18 hours a day is going to hurt us,” said council member Tim Lackey.