(The AFL-CIO circulated the following on April 12.)
New members reported in this week’s WIP: 2,001
New members reported in WIP year-to-date: 49,037
H&M, STERLING WORKERS ARE UNITE–Two hundred workers at H&M’s distribution centers in Secaucus, N.J., and Cheshire, Conn., won union representation April 7 with UNITE through a majority-verification or card-check process, in which an employer agrees to honor the workers’ choice after a majority indicates the desire to form a union by signing authorizations. Workers began to organize in July 2003, but H&M refused to accept the card-check results. After large protests at U.S. and European H&M stores, the company signed an agreement March 2 to honor card-checks and a majority of the workers again signed authorization cards. But H&M refused to recognize the results and forced the issue to an arbitrator, who ruled in favor of the workers. Also, after a seven-month strike, 120 Washington, D.C., area Sterling Laundry workers won representation with UNITE’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Joint Board. They returned to work following April 6 ratification of a three-year contract.
ENLOE WORKERS WIN WITH SEIU–Service, clerical and housekeeping workers, certified nurses assistants and others at Enloe Medical Center in Chico, Calif., voted to join SEIU Local 250 April 2. Some 1,000 workers are in the new unit. “Being part of SEIU 250 will help us bargain for job improvements,” said worker Lisa Bogan.
TEXAS TREAT–The Hilton Americas Houston Hotel became Houston’s first union hotel when 490 workers scored a March 29 victory and joined Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 291 through a majority-verification process. During the organizing campaign, representatives of 200 community groups and five Houston city council members signed a petition of support.
QUINTUPLE WINS, WORKERS VOTE IBT–Workers in five recent elections voted for a voice at work with the Teamsters. In Georgia, a unit of 150 workers at Allied Waste/BFI’s Lawrenceville and Gainesville facilities voted to join IBT Local 728 April 2. Sixteen drivers at the USF Dugan’s Mobile, Ala., terminal voted to join IBT Local 991, and eight at the company’s Cincinnati terminal chose IBT Local 100 last week. Eight drivers/sales workers at Unifirst Laundry in Hayward, Calif., and nine at ARAMARK’s Oakland, Calif., laundry operation voted for IBT Local 78.
WOE IS WAL-MART–On April 6, in Inglewood, Calif., near Los Angeles, more than 60 percent of voters rejected a Wal-Mart-sponsored ballot measure that would have exempted the retailer from local environmental and zoning restrictions. The United Food and Commercial Workers and IBT helped defeat the initiative that Wal-Mart launched after Inglewood city council members declined its plan for a so-called supercenter selling groceries as well as general merchandise. Wal-Mart–under fire for its low-paying jobs with few benefits, worker exploitation and job destruction at smaller, competing businesses near its locations–spent more than $1 million in election advertising, according to the “Los Angeles Times.”
SENATE O.T. VOTE ON TAP–It appears Senate Democrats have won their fight for a vote on a measure to prohibit the Bush administration from stripping workers of their overtime pay rights. Last year the administration proposed new overtime regulations that would take away overtime pay protections from some 8 million workers. When the Senate returns to work following its Easter recess, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) will offer an amendment to the Foreign Sales Corporation tax bill–designed to end a trade dispute with Europe–to ban the Department of Labor from taking away overtime pay protections from workers who qualify under current rules. The effect of the Harkin amendment would be to block those portions of the Bush proposal that restrict overtime eligibility but allow the administration to change the overtime rules in any way that does not restrict eligibility. The Bush administration had announced previously it planned to issue a final version of its overtime proposal by the end of March, but passage of the Harkin amendment could force the administration to abandon its controversial overtime cuts before issuing a final regulation. In recent weeks Republican leaders twice have blocked a vote on the Harkin overtime amendment by pulling the underlying tax bill from the floor. Contact your senators and urge them to support the Harkin overtime amendment to the Foreign Sales Corporation tax bill.
CORPORATIONS TAXLESS IN BOOM TIMES–Most U.S. corporations paid no federal taxes when the economy boomed and company profits soared in the economic boom of 1996-2000, according to General Accounting Office (GAO) documents obtained by the “Wall Street Journal.” Sixty percent of corporations didn’t pay a penny in federal taxes during that four-year period, even though the basic federal corporate tax rate is 35 percent. The tax dodging contributed to continuing decline of corporate taxes as a share of federal revenue. By 2003, GAO records show corporate tax receipts had fallen to just 7.4 percent of all federal revenue, the second lowest level since the mid-depression year 1934. In other corporate news, a new Northeastern University study shows that most of the tremendous gain in worker productivity is being pocketed by corporations instead of returned to the workers in wages, benefits or new jobs. The bulk of the income generated by the soaring worker productivity gains “were used to boost profits, lower prices or increase CEO compensation.” The report is titled “The Unprecedented Rising Tide of Corporate Profits and the Simultaneous Ebbing of Labor Compensation.” In 2003, top executives at U.S. firms saw a 16 percent raise in cash pay, including a 20 percent raise in bonuses, according to a study commissioned by Reuters News Service of 345 of Standard and Poor’s 500 companies. Median cash pay (not including stocks, stock options and other rewards) for CEOs in 2003 was $2,029,500, up from 2002’s $1,750,000. The average pay increase for workers in 2003 was 3.8 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. On April 15, be sure to check out the AFL-CIO’s newly updated Executive PayWatch website at http://www.paywatch.org .
BUSH JOB TRAINING PLAN ‘NONSENSE’–President George W. Bush announced a plan April 6 to double the number of people receiving federal job training assistance. But Bush’s plan, revealed in Charlotte, N.C., does not include any new funding for the new job training initiative. In addition to the non-funded proposal, Bush has “recently proposed a budget that would cut worker training programs in real terms by almost a billion dollars. The notion that the president will do more with less is complete nonsense,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. Just hours after his job training announcement, Bush raised some $1.5 million in funding for his presidential campaign at a $2,500-a-plate Charlotte fund-raiser, according to news reports. Since May 2003, Bush has raised a record $183 million for his re-election.
WASHTECH TAKES ON OUTSOURCING–To highlight the impact of offshoring American information technology jobs, the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers launched a Web-based advertising and fund-raising campaign April 7. The first ad features Seattle-area tech workers who have lost jobs to offshoring, including one who, to receive severance pay and retain unemployment insurance eligibility, had to train her offshore replacement. To see the ads and learn more, visit http://www.washtech.org . Meanwhile, union activists working with legislators in 33 states have introduced or plan to introduce a version of the AFL-CIO-developed model legislation to slow the offshoring of American jobs. The legislation prohibits states from contracting with companies that send jobs out of the country and uses state tax revenue to create local jobs and stabilize local tax bases. For more information on the state legislation, contact stateaction@aflcio.org.
BUSH THREATENS HIGHWAY/TRANSIT JOBS–President Bush’s threat to veto bipartisan highway and transit legislation puts millions of jobs at risk, the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department warned. On April 2, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a $275 billion transportation infrastructure bill, and earlier the Senate passed a $318 billion version. Bush has demanded the bill be no larger than $256 billion. “For very billion dollars the president shaves from this bill, 47,000 people lose the chance to secure a decent job,” said TTD President Edward Wytkind. A House-Senate conference to reconcile the two bills is expected soon.
TWIN CITIES TRANSIT STRIKE–Twin Cities’ union and community activists are rallying around the 2,300 Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 members striking Metro Transit to protect their family health care coverage. The five-week-old bus strike in Minneapolis-St. Paul centers around Metro Transit’s proposal that increases employees’ health care costs far in excess of any pay raises they would receive. Union members overwhelmingly voted down the council’s “final offer” on Dec. 28, 2003. The Minneapolis Central Labor Union Council held a one-day phone blitz April 7 that generated thousands of calls urging Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) to act, and a Community Solidarity Rally was held April 10 at the state capitol in St. Paul.
LIVING WAGE FIRST–Ten years after Baltimore became the first city to adopt a living wage, the Maryland Senate voted a veto-proof 30-15 to make the state the first in the nation to require large state contractors pay a minimum wage of at least $10.50 an hour–more than twice the federal minimum scale of $5.15. All 14 Republican senators voted against the bill. The measure covers contracts worth more than $100,000. The $10.50 an hour, or $21,000 annually, brings a family of four above the federally set poverty level of $18,850. The measure moves to the House, where 80 of the 141 delegates are co-sponsoring the bill. Republican Gov. Robert Erlich Jr. likely will veto the measure, said Senate President Thomas “Mike” Miller (D).
R.I. WORKERS WIN RIGHT TO UNION VOTE–Rhode Island’s state labor board ruled April 6 that the 1,300 workers who provide day care in their homes and work under state guidelines can form a union. Currently, the workers are considered independent contractors. The workers are trying to win a voice on the job with the Family Child Care Providers Union, part of New England Health Care Employees Union, SEIU District 1199.
WASHINGTON HOME HEALTH WORKERS GET A RAISE–Culminating a multiyear campaign by workers and their allies, Washington state Gov. Gary Locke (D) signed legislation April 1 implementing the state’s first contract with 26,000 home health care workers who are members of SEIU Local 775. The law raises the workers’ wages and provides funding for their health care benefits.
HOUSE DEFIES BUSH ON PAY VOTE–By a 299-126 vote, the House approved legislation to provide a 3.5 percent pay raise to federal employees in fiscal year 2005. President Bush’s budget called for just a 1.5 percent boost. “Bush’s pay raise proposal both insulted and discounted the essential role of federal civilian employees. Federal employees protect our borders, provide essential support for our troops, care for our veterans and perform a number of unseen and often under appreciated functions that keep our government and our society going,” said AFGE President John Gage after the April 2 vote. Earlier, the Senate voted for a 3.5 percent pay hike.
UNION INDUSTRIES SHOW COMING–Mark your calendars for the 59th AFL-CIO Union-Industries Show, April 23-26 at the America’s Center in St. Louis. Sponsored by the AFL-CIO Union Label and Service Trades Department and the unions and union employers of Missouri, the show explores the theme “America at Its Best” and will feature “If I Had a Hammer,” a project that gives elementary school students hands-on instruction in constructing a miniature house. The show displays quality union-made goods and services and helps visitors of all ages better understand how their communities benefit when workers have a union voice on the job. For more information, call 202-628-2131 or visit http://www.unionindustriesshow.org .
Work in Progress is also available on our website at http://www.aflcio.org/aboutaflcio/wip .