(The AFL-CIO circulated the following on September 13.)
New members reported in this week’s WIP: 1,664
New members reported in WIP, year to date: 85,497
VICTORY AT PAN AMERICAN—The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) last week certified SEIU District 1199Florida as the bargaining representative for the 750 workers at Pan American Hospital in Miami. The workers voted overwhelmingly for the union in January, but hospital officials filed several objections, which the board threw out. Meanwhile, hearings are continuing on unfair labor practice charges against the hospital, including one in which the union claims several employees were fired illegally for supporting the union.
PLAYING BALL WITH THE UNION—A total of 315 workers joined UNITE HERE Local 26 in Boston recently using a majority verification process, in which workers win their union when a majority signs authorization cards indicating the desire to join a union. The new union members include 150 luxury box attendants, cooks and bartenders employed by Aramark at Fenway Park, 115 workers at Jurys Doyle Hotel and 50 workers at Commonwealth Hotel. In Toronto, 21 front desk and reservation agents at the Airport Hilton voted Aug. 18 to join Local 75.
STATE WORKERS GET A VOICE—Some 250 workers in the New Mexico state General Services Department joined the New Mexico State Employee Alliance, an affiliate of the Communications Workers of America, through majority verification. The union has more than doubled its membership since Gov. Bill Richardson (D) reinstated public employee bargaining last year.
ENGINEERING JUSTICE—In a bid for respect on the job, on Sept. 1 the majority of 182 engineers at the Ford Motor Co.’s Allen Park, Mich., facility voted to join the UAW.
THIS WIN IS NO ACCIDENT—Ninety-two solid waste workers at two Waste Management locations near Boston voted Sept. 2 for Teamsters Local 653. Key concerns for the workers—drivers and laborers—were management’s broken promises and its decision to change the company’s policy on discharging workers responsible for accidents.
IDLE BOAST—The 38 auto technicians at Vista Motors/ Mercedes Benz of Chicago voted recently for Machinists Local 701, refuting a boast by a dealer representative that the “IAM has never beaten Fletcher-Jones,” which owns the dealership.
HOT WIN—Fighting for decent wages and working conditions at Basic Industries, the majority of 16 workers, most of them Latino, voted Aug. 5 to join Asbestos Workers Local 22 in Houston. The win is part of the union’s Gulf Coast campaign involving five locals from Mobile, Ala., to Brownsville, Texas.
CHINA POLICIES = LOST JOBS—Apparently without even reading it, the Bush administration rejected a petition calling for strong trade sanctions against China unless it revalues its currency. The China Currency Coalition, a broad-based coalition of businesses, unions and agricultural and service organizations, filed the 200-page petition Sept. 9 at 9:30 a.m. Three hours later, the U.S. Trade Representative, on behalf of the administration, rejected the petition outright. China’s stubborn refusal to change its exchange rate gives it a 40 percent price advantage over U.S. products and is an unfair trade practice under World Trade Organization rules and U.S. trade law, coalition leaders say. “This is so far from a level playing field, it is almost vertical,” AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka said at a Sept. 9 press conference in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, members of Congress are taking aim at China’s trade practices. Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation to impose stiff trade penalties against China if it does not revalue its currency within 180 days. House Democratic leaders also introduced a bill Sept. 8 that would help save 700,000 U.S. textile jobs that could be threatened by a flood of imports from China once global textile and apparel quotas are eliminated at the end of the year. For more information, visit www.aflcio.org.
OVERTIME FIGHT MOVES TO SENATE—President George W. Bush has threatened to veto the bill that funds the nation’s education and health care if it contains an amendment that blocks new rules that threaten overtime pay for 6 million workers. The House of Representatives, on a bipartisan vote of 223–193, passed Sept. 9 an amendment to the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill that would force the U.S. Labor Department to rescind changes to the Federal Labor Standards Act that limit eligibility for overtime pay. The amendment would let stand new inflation adjustment rules that will benefit some 384,000 low-income workers. The Senate is expected to begin work on its version of the appropriations bill this week. The House vote “sends a strong message to the White House: America’s workers, leaders and communities do not support his overtime pay cut, and President Bush should back off his threats to veto this important protection for workers’ overtime pay,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. To tell Bush not to veto overtime pay protections, visit www.unionvoice.org/campaign/bush_NO_VETO. Bush has ignored four previous votes by Congress to stop the administration from cutting overtime pay. Workers have sent more than 1.6 million letters, e-mails and faxes protesting the overtime pay take-away since it was announced in March 2003. For more information, visit www.aflcio.org.
BUSH AIMS AT SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE—Social Security will be at risk if President Bush wins a second term, say advocates for seniors and working families. At the Republican National Convention Sept. 2, Bush renewed his call to privatize Social Security, America’s most comprehensive family protection program. Meanwhile, the Bush administration’s Department of Health and Human Services took another swipe at seniors’ hard-earned benefits Sept. 3, announcing that Medicare premiums will rise 17 percent beginning January 2005—the largest increase in the program’s history. Fully 15 percent of the increase will go directly to private HMOs, according to analysis by the Alliance for Retired Americans. Bush’s Medicare reform bill passed by Congress last fall promised additional payments to insurers. The Alliance compiled a state-by-state analysis of the annual cost increase for Medicare beneficiaries. Download the chart at www.retiredamericans.org. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) introduced legislation (S. 2180) to stop the record premium increase. Stabenow’s legislation would place a cap on Medicare premiums and hold the premium increase to the level of inflation.
STRIKE PREPARATIONS—More than 25,000 UNITE HERE members are preparing for possible strikes at hotels and casinos in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Atlantic City, N.J. Some 14,500 members of Local 54 in Atlantic City voted Sept. 9 to authorize strikes at 11 casinos. Their contracts expire Sept. 15, just days before the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City. Also on Sept. 15, union contracts with 14 hotels in Washington, D.C., covering 3,800 Local 25 members, expire. With the sides still far apart on key issues, Local 25 members will vote today on a strike authorization. In Los Angeles, 2,900 Local 11 members are voting today on strike authorization for nine hotels today, and 4,000 Local 2 members vote Sept. 14 on whether to prepare to strike 14 hotels. Key issues in all the talks include wages, health care benefits and working conditions.
CASINO JUSTICE—The House of Representatives voted Sept. 9 to uphold an NLRB decision last May that Native American tribal enterprises, including casinos, are subject to federal labor laws. On a bipartisan vote of 225–178, the House defeated an amendment offered by Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) that would have put a hold on the labor board’s ruling. Last month, Native American tribes in California reached agreements with the state that allow workers to form unions at 10 casinos on tribal lands. At each of seven casinos, workers can use majority verification. Workers at the other three casinos must hold elections supervised by a Tribal Labor Panel.
CAUCUSES FOCUS ON WORKERS—Two congressional caucuses focused on the future of working families. As part of the Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Conference, several top union leaders, including five AFL-CIO Executive Council members, discussed in a Sept. 9 forum the importance of organizing for the economic and political strength of working people. Today, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson moderated a daylong panel sponsored by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute 2004 Issues Conference. The panelists and participants formulated policy recommendations on issues affecting Hispanic workers, which Chavez-Thompson will present to the full Hispanic Caucus Sept. 14.
VOUCHERS SCUTTLED—A Florida appeals court gave a shot in the arm to public education last month when it ruled Gov. Jeb Bush’s (R) five-year-old school voucher plan violated the state constitution. The plan allowed students in public schools that received failing grades from the state for two consecutive years to attend private schools, including religious schools, with taxpayer subsidies.
U.S. EARNS LOW MARK—The United States earned low marks for workforce economic security in a new global survey, published by the International Labor Organization (ILO), an arm of the United Nations. The rankings of 90 countries are based on income security, labor market security, employment security, workplace security, job security and collective bargaining/trade union representation. The ILO said the low U.S. ranking mainly is due to the poor score it received for domestic labor policy because this country has not ratified key ILO conventions and has no legal notice periods prior to termination of employment. The U.S. ranking was below that of countries such as Portugal, Hungary and Slovakia. For more information on the report, Economic Security for a Better World, visit www.ilo.org.
SOLIDARITY FOR SHOE WORKERS—As part of its Global Voice@Work campaign, the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center is mobilizing support for striking shoe workers in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Some 595 workers were fired last month by Canadian-owned Bata Shoe Co. Police attacked the workers, who were conducting a peaceful strike outside the shoe plant to demand that the employer rehire 146 laid-off workers and respect union rights, the Solidarity Center said. For more information, visit www.solidaritycenter.org/our_programs/global_voice_at_work.
HEROES OF THE YEAR—The Letter Carriers named Kurt Spaller the NALC Hero of the Year for helping evacuate elderly residents from a burning building while delivering mail in his hometown of St. Petersburg, Fla. John Frierson of Royal Oak, Mich., was named NALC Humanitarian of the Year for donating lifesaving bone marrow to a two-year-old leukemia victim and forming a nonprofit organization to encourage minorities to sign up with the National Bone Marrow Donor Registry. The union will honor Spaller, Frierson and regional union heroes at ceremonies Sept. 15 in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.nalc.org.
IAFF HONORED BY MDA—The Fire Fighters presented the 2004 Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) Labor Day Telethon with $20.3 million, money its members had raised in Fill-the-Boot street-side collections, golf and softball tournaments and other events. During the 50-year partnership between the IAFF and MDA, recognized with video and live presentations in the recent telethon, IAFF has contributed more than $220 million. IAFF President Harold Schaitberger appeared in several videos with Mattie J.T. Stepanek, the late child poet and MDA National Goodwill Ambassador who had dreamed of being a firefighter. Five-year-old Missouri MDA Goodwill Ambassador Morgan Fritz, daughter of IAFF Local 2665 member Ron Fritz, was featured on the national telethon and in Parade magazine’s Sept. 5 issue.