(The AFL-CIO issued the following on December 13.)
CHOOSING THE UNION–Representatives of 1,600 workers at the Aladdin Resort and Casino in Las Vegas are preparing to bargain for their first contract after a successful majority sign-up, in which workers win their union when a majority verifies the desire to join a union by signing authorization cards. The servers, cooks, guest room attendants and other workers joined UNITE HERE Local 226 and the Bartenders Union Local 165, a UNITE HERE affiliate.
TEMPS GAIN A VOICE–More than 200 temporary city employees in Palo Alto, Calif., became members of SEIU Local 715 after a campaign featuring community petition drives, community outreach and worker appearances at city council meetings. The council voted last week to recognize a new bargaining unit covering the workers. Meanwhile, a unit of nearly 100 nursing home employees at Haven Health Center of Farmington (Conn.) won union recognition from their employer Nov. 12 under a neutrality agreement with District 1199NE. A unit of 20 food service workers employed at a Haven subsidiary in Waterbury, Conn., were similarly recognized in September. In addition, a strong majority of 75 clinicians, case managers and administrative workers at Inter-Community Mental Health Group in East Hartford, Conn., voted Nov. 3 to join District 1199NE.
DELIVERING THE VOTE–Some 22 workers at North Coast Express in Longview, Wash., who deliver packages for DHL, voted Nov. 16 for a voice at work with Teamsters Local 58. The new members’ concerns include wages, benefits and working conditions.
FIGHTING FOR FAIRNESS–Members of United Food and Commercial Workers escalated their campaign for a fair contract at three grocery chains in Northern California. With the backing of the California Labor Federation, the 30,000 workers are collecting pledges of support from customers of Safeway, Albertsons and Kroger stores in the Bay Area. A key issue in contract talks is the stores’ demand that workers pay more for health care. Both sides agreed last week to extend expiring contracts until Jan. 15, 2005.
BACK TO CLASS–Faculty members at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago ended a three-week strike Dec. 9 after ratifying a new contract. The members of University Professionals of Illinois Local 4100, an AFT affiliate, walked out Nov. 19 after contract talks broke down over wages. The union-owned Amalgamated Bank of Chicago allocated $1.5 million for loans to assist the strikers with living expenses.
VERIZON PROTESTS GROW–Members of the Communications Workers of America are mobilizing around the country to protest Verizon Wireless’ union-busting actions. The union reports Verizon Wireless workers have been fired or disciplined for trying to win a voice at work. More than 1,100 workers lost their jobs when the company closed call centers in Orangeburg, N.Y., and Morristown, N.J. Members of CWA and the Electrical Workers rallied outside Verizon facilities in Buffalo, N.Y., and New York City and other actions are planned elsewhere. For more information, visit http://www.cwa-union.org .
AFL-CIO JOINS BEST BUY DRUGS INITIATIVE–The AFL-CIO has joined with the Consumers Union and other groups to launch an educational outreach initiative and website to help working families and their doctors compare the price, effectiveness and safety of prescription drugs. The information the Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs initiative contains has been “desperately needed, yet sorely lacking in a prescription drug marketplace dominated by high-priced marketing,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. The website, http://www.CRBestBuyDrugs.org , eventually will compare the most widely used prescription drugs in some 20 categories. It has downloadable reports on cholesterol-lowering, heartburn, ulcer, acid reflux, arthritis and pain drugs.
OPENING UP HALLIBURTON–The AFSCME Pension Fund and the Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds jointly filed a resolution to give shareholders the right to nominate directors at the Halliburton Corp. Directors now are nominated and elected in a closed system, with incumbent board members determining whom to nominate. Such internal procedures have produced the worst of corporate America-cooking the books, doing business with terrorist states and cutting deals of questionable legality with oppressive regimes around the world, said AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee, who chairs the union’s pension fund.
UMWA PROTESTS FIRINGS–The Mine Workers blasted the owners of C.W. Mining’s Co-Op mine near Huntington, Utah, for firing some 30 Latino coal miners less than a week before a union representation vote, after claiming they were undocumented workers. “It was only after these miners finally decided to fight to improve their livelihoods through legitimate union representation that the employer started playing hardball, including threats, intimidation and now firings. This is blatant employer retaliation against these miners,” UMWA President Cecil Roberts said.
BACKING RAIL WORKERS–Saying they believe proposed new regulations issued by the Bush administration’s National Mediation Board (NMB) would discourage railroad workers from filing grievances, 120 members of Congress called Dec. 10 for the agency to withdraw the rules. The AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD) has mounted a campaign to stop the new administration rules, which would establish filing fees for workers who exercise their right to file grievances on such critical issues as working conditions, safety and pay. Management would not pay under the NMB proposal. For 70 years, the federal government has paid the cost of arbitrating labor-management disputes in the rail industry. For more information and to tell the administration to abandon the assault on rail workers’ rights, visit http://www.ttd.org .
A ‘PATIENT’ PROTEST–More than 7,000 RNs, aides, technicians, clerks and other hospital employees at Sutter Health hospitals across Northern California returned to their jobs and their patients last week after a four-day lockout by management. The workers, members of the California Nurses Association and SEIU Local 250, struck 13 Sutter Health facilities on Dec. 1 to protest the for-profit company’s refusal to accept adequate nurse-to-patient staffing ratios. Sutter is the only hospital system in Northern California to refuse to negotiate patient-focused staffing with union caregivers.When California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared at his Conference on Women, nurses protested his attempt to roll back safe RN staffing ratios. After the protests, Schwarzenegger told the audience, “Pay no attention to those voices over there. They are the special interests. Special interests don’t like me because I am always kicking their butts.”
HALF OF WORKERS TRAPPED IN POVERTY–Half the world’s workers–some 1.4 billion people–earn less than $2 a day and are trapped in grinding poverty, according to a new report by the International Labor Organization, an arm of the United Nations. “The ILO World Employment Report: 2004-2005” calls for global economic policies to focus on creating decent jobs to lift workers out of poverty. For more information, visit http://www.ilo.org .
VOTE FOR GRINCH OF THE YEAR–Jobs with Justice, a coalition of union, community, religious and student groups, is holding its annual online Grinch of the Year election to choose the national figure who did the most harm to working families. Voters visiting http://www.jwj.org can choose from among Wal-Mart, Comcast, Angelica Corp., Continental General Tire and Cintas as the most deserving greedy Grinch. The winner will be announced Dec. 22.
GCIU MERGES WITH IBT–Members of Graphic Communications voted to merge with the Teamsters effective Jan. 1. GCIU will become an autonomous conference of the IBT. The current officers will retain their positions and local unions will keep their autonomy and identity, including authority over their contracts. “This is an historic moment for the GCIU and Teamsters. This merger will strengthen both unions,” IBT President James P. Hoffa said. GCIU President George Tedeschi said joining with the IBT will give his members a “powerful new alliance for organizing and negotiating decent wages and benefits.”
PLUMBERS ELECT HITE–The Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Executive Board on Dec. 5 elected William P. Hite as the union’s president and Patrick R. Perno as secretary-treasurer. They will serve out the remainder of the terms of President Emeritus Martin Maddaloni and Secretary-Treasurer Thomas Patchell, who retired Nov. 30. Prior to his election, Hite was the union’s assistant president. The board also named Stephen Kelly as the new assistant president.
BROWN IS NEW APRI LEADER–Clayola Brown was elected president of the A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI), taking office Dec. 1. She succeeds Norman Hill, who led the AFL-CIO constituency group for 24 years and now becomes the group’s president emeritus. Brown will continue to serve as a UNITE HERE vice president and as a member of the AFL-CIO Executive Council.
ONE UNION SHOPPING WEEK LEFT–Online shoppers are nearly out of time to order holiday gifts from The Union Shop Online(tm). Order by Dec. 17 to make sure holiday gifts for your friends and family arrive by Dec. 24. Visit http://www.aflcio.org/shop for such union-made gifts as AFL-CIO hoodies, brushed bronze star tree ornaments, stocking stuffers and holiday cards, as well as books and movies with social-justice themes. The whole family will enjoy union-made games such as Memory and Scrabble. Shop in person at The Union Shop at the AFL-CIO, 815 16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C., until Dec. 23. For other worker-friendly online shopping options, visit the AFL-CIO Union Label and Service Trades Department’s website, http://www.shopunionmade.org . Union Privilege, the AFL-CIO program providing consumer benefits to union members, offers union members special deals on movie tickets, music, flowers and more. Visit http://www.unionprivilege.com/gifts for more details.
HUMAN RIGHTS IN SPOTLIGHT DEC. 10–Union activists and their allies among civil rights, community and religious groups around the world celebrated International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, which includes the freedom to form unions. American Rights at Work, a research and advocacy group aimed at improving the climate in which workers can exercise their rights in the workplace, launched its online ticker counting the number of workers fired or discriminated against for their union activities. Based on its analysis of statistics from the National Labor Relations Board, American Rights at Work says one worker is fired or discriminated against every 23 minutes as result of his or her union activity. Visitors to the group’s website, http://www.americanrightsatwork.org , can stay up to date with the ticker and send a message to President George W. Bush urging him to address the human rights crisis in U.S. workplaces. On Dec. 11, a coalition of unions, human rights groups and religious organizations sponsored a daylong conference in Boston on workers’ rights, featuring American Rights at Work Chair David Bonior and Cornell University lecturer Lance Compa, author of “Unfair Advantage: Workers’ Freedom of Association in the United States Under International Human Rights Standards.”