(The AFL-CIO circulated the following on October 12.)
SCHOOL’S IN—Some 153 workers in New York have joined AFT since the school year began, including 51 teacher’s aides at North Bellmore Public Schools in Nassau County and 42 security guards at Smithtown Central School District in Suffolk County, who won voluntary recognition. At Roosevelt Charter School in Nassau County, 35 clerical and custodial workers, teachers, teaching assistants and teacher’s aides won their union through a majority verification process (also called card-check), through which workers win their union when a majority signs authorization cards indicating the desire to join a union. Twenty-five Brittonkill teaching assistants in the Albany area won voluntary recognition. Meanwhile, in Missouri, the majority of 139 paraprofessionals and instructional assistants at the Wentzville School District voted for a voice on the job with AFT Sept. 14.
YUMMY WIN FOR BCTGM—The overwhelming majority of 160 workers at Rich’s Mother’s Kitchen in Burlington, N.J., voted for a voice on the job with Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union Sept. 22. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) set aside the results of an earlier election saying the company threatened workers with the loss of their jobs if they voted for the union. One worker, Hilda Sabournin, flew back to New York from her vacation in Florida and then drove more than 100 miles to the plant to be sure her vote to join the union was included.
UNITE HERE STOCK GOES UP—The 120 food service workers at Sodexho at Merrill Lynch Manhattan in New York City have a voice on the job with UNITE HERE Local 100 after a successful majority verification Sept. 27. “I’m very happy,” said Hilario Taveras, a catering worker at Sodexho for 16 years. “I’m looking forward to a better future for myself and my family.”
A WIN FOR SAFETY WITH IBT—The 42 probation and domestic relations officers who work for Franklin County, Pa., voted overwhelmingly Oct. 4 for a voice at work with Teamsters Local 992. “We all like the jobs we do, but we were getting tired of being taken advantage of by the county,” said Ryan Nycewater, an officer in the unit. “We just wanted to be treated fairly and recognized for our contributions to the community.”
LIFT THIS—Sixteen forklift service technicians at two Material Handlings Services locations in La Crosse and Sun Prairie, Wis., voted recently to join Machinists Local 701. The cost of health insurance, a good pension, a guaranteed wage structure and the desire for a voice on the job were all issues in the win, said Local 701 Business Representative Sam Cicinelli.
ON THE BEAT WITH IUPA—After successful elections among three units, some 68 law enforcement workers in Florida are members of the International Union of Police Associations. The officers in Pinecrest voted to join the union in September, as did the officers and sergeants in Clermont.
MORE BAD NEWS ON JOBS—Only 96,000 new jobs were created in September, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures released Oct. 8, confirming President George W. Bush’s place in history as the first president since Herbert Hoover to have a net jobs loss under his watch. The figures are “more evidence that George Bush’s insistence on an economic policy built entirely on millionaire tax cuts and reckless trade policies is failing the nation,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. Since January 2001, the private sector has lost 1.6 million net jobs. Some 1.7 million workers have been unemployed for six months or longer.
DEBATE TO FOCUS ON WORKING FAMILY ISSUES—On Oct. 13, President Bush and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) will meet for their final debate and focus on working family issues such as overtime pay, jobs, health care, retirement security and education. Union activists are inviting undecided friends and relatives to watch the debate with them and sharing comparisons of the candidates’ records on the issues (www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/politics/candidate_comparison_pdf.cfm). In his first two debates with Bush, Kerry forcefully demonstrated he will provide the leadership the nation needs to fight terrorism and restore vitality and fairness to the economy. Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) debated Vice President Dick Cheney on Oct. 5, outlining a vision of the nation in which Kerry and Edwards will create new jobs while strengthening the nation both at home and abroad. To volunteer for walks and phone banks, call your local union or central labor council or sign up online at www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/politics/volunteer_main.cfm. For a preview of Bush’s likely distortions in the next debate, read “Checking the Facts, in Advance” by The New York Times columnist Paul Krugman at www.nytimes.com/2004/10/12/opinion/12krugman.html?oref=login&hp (you may need to register).
PROVISIONAL BALLOT SUIT—A coalition of unions and community groups filed a federal lawsuit Oct. 5 in the key presidential battleground state of Ohio, challenging Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell’s rules on provisional balloting. Blackwell, a Republican and an official in former President George H.W. Bush’s administration, instructed state election officials to require some first-time voters to show identification before receiving provisional ballots—a violation of the federal Help America Vote Act. The suit was filed by the Ohio Voter Protection Coalition, which includes the Ohio AFL-CIO, AFSCME, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, Ohio League of Women Voters and People for the American Way Foundation. Meanwhile, the Florida Supreme Court Oct. 13 will hold a hearing on unions’ request that election supervisors count provisional ballots regardless of where the vote was cast. And several unions and allies are filing suit in federal court against the Florida Secretary of State and several counties over state officials’ failure to process valid voter registration applications. For more information on how to make sure your vote is counted, visit www.myvotemyright.com.
OVERTIME PAY PROTESTS—Republican lawmakers stripped an amendment to restore overtime pay rights to some 6 million workers from an export bill, which the House of Representatives passed Oct. 7. Just days earlier, thousands of workers in 17 cities protested President Bush’s overtime pay take-away, which took effect Aug. 23, by delivering some 200,000 postcards to Bush–Cheney campaign headquarters, federal buildings and U.S. Department of Labor offices in various cities. The postcards called on Bush to withdraw his overtime pay take-away in the face of overwhelming public opposition and repeated votes in Congress to protect workers’ overtime pay. To tell Bush to revoke his overtime pay cut, visit www.unionvoice.org/campaign/stopbush4otpay.
HOTEL LOCKOUT GROWS—As hotel workers in several cities take a stand for justice, San Francisco hotel owners said Oct. 5 they will continue to lock out UNITE HERE Local 2 members at 14 hotels past Oct. 13. This move was announced one week after Local 2 members struck four San Francisco hotels and five days after workers were locked out at 10 other hotels in San Francisco. Members of IBT and the Operating Engineers agreed to honor the hotel workers’ picket lines. In Los Angeles, 1,200 UNITE HERE Local 11 members and community allies rallied in support of San Francisco’s striking and locked out workers, and in Washington, D.C., Local 25’s negotiations with 14 hotels continued. More than 10,000 hotel workers have banded together to fight for better working conditions, employer-paid health care benefits and better pensions. They are seeking two-year contracts that will expire at the same time as hotel contracts in other major cities to gain equality with the global hotel industry. For more information, visit www.hotelworkersunited.org.
MEET ME ON THE BOARDWALK—In Atlantic City, N.J., 12,000 hotel workers walked out at seven hotels Oct. 1 after talks failed to produce a fair contract. The workers have agreements with five other hotels in the city. The Atlantic City workers’ major issue is the hotels’ increasing use of nonunion subcontractors. On Oct. 16 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., gambling patrons in Atlantic City will have a hard time getting their bets down. UNITE HERE expects more than 20,000 union members and allies in town for a giant rally, march and concert in support of the striking casino workers. The rally takes place and march begins and ends on New Jersey Avenue, at the end of the Boardwalk near the Showboat Casino. For more information, contact Ed Vargas, UNITE HERE mobilization director, at 212-265-7000.
TIME FOR A RAISE—A group of 562 economists, including four Nobel Prize winners, called on Congress to increase the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7. An increase “can significantly improve the lives of low-income workers and their families,” the economists said in a signed statement released Oct. 6 by the Economic Policy Institute.
OUTSOURCE OUTRAGE—The Communications Workers of America has teamed up with Hollywood producers, directors and actors to create www.OutsourceOutrage.com, a website focusing attention on jobs going overseas. The site features an exclusive Internet short film, “Outsource This!” starring television’s Jason Alexander, along with facts about job exporting and contracting out good jobs, case studies and ways to take action.
BACK PAY AWARD—Daufuskie Club, the former operators of a resort in Hilton Head, S.C., agreed to pay $5.52 million in back wages and interest to nearly 700 workers, many of whom are members of IUOE Local 465. After buying the Melrose Club resort in Hilton Head in 1997, Daufuskie refused to recognize the workers’ union. All employees had to reapply for their jobs and the company only hired 30 of 140 union workers. The NLRB issued unfair labor practices complaints against the company and ordered it to rehire the workers and provide back pay. Daufuskie sold the club in 2002 to Tiburon Hospitality Management, which recognized the union and bargained a new contract.
WASTE NOT, WANT NOT—Replacing the system of private insurers with a “Medicare for all” approach that gives everyone access to health care would save more than $94 billion a year, enough to insure almost 55 million people, according to a new report from Jobs with Justice. Waste Not, Want Not: How Eliminating Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industry Waste Could Fund Health Care for All found if millions more in savings from reforming the prescription drug industry were counted, there would be more than enough money to insure everyone who lacks coverage today. Download the study at www.jwj.org/community/healthcare/HCAW/reportNATIONAL.pdf.
KANE ELECTED—Mine Workers members re-elected President Cecil Roberts and elected Dan Kane as secretary-treasurer of the union to replace Carlo Tarley, who retired. Previously, Kane served as a member of UMWA’s executive board. Roberts and Kane were sworn in Aug. 20.
SHAHN POSTERS ON DISPLAY—Social Realism, Social Reform is the theme of a new exhibit of posters by Ben Shahn on display in the lobby of the AFL-CIO headquarters, 815 16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. The posters were issued in the mid-1940s by the Congress of Industrial Organizations’ Political Action Committee to mobilize union members and other workers to register and vote. The exhibit, open to the public during business hours, is on display through December.