(The AFL-CIO circulated the following on March 16.)
New members reported in this week’s WIP: 1,269
New members reported in WIP, year to date: 28,690
A GOOD RESOURCE—The 618 workers at The Resource Center, which educates children with disabilities at 56 sites in Chautauqua County, N.Y., voted overwhelmingly March 8–9 for the New York State United Teachers, an AFT affiliate. On March 8, the 25 faculty members at Alliant International University’s Los Angeles campus chose AFT.
A CARING VOICE—A total of 236 health care workers voted for SEIU recently. One hundred professionals at Miami’s Pan American Hospital voted March 4 to join SEIU for a voice in improving patient care. Although the hospital’s RNs, aides, medical technicians and other staff also voted in January to join SEIU, the hospital refuses to recognize the union. A unit of 90 aides and others at the Eagle Pond Nursing Home in Dennis, Mass., voted Feb. 27 for Local 2020, and 46 workers at Infinia Nursing Home in Owattona, Minn., voted Jan. 22 for Local 113.
COMING CLEAN—Some 200 workers at Sodexho Linen Services in Phoenix gained a voice last week when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordered the company to bargain with UNITE. The NLRB found Sodexho violated labor laws by firing three workers last spring, threatening others with changes in wages and benefits and disciplining workers for spurious reasons. A majority of workers signed union authorization cards for UNITE before Sodexho began breaking the law, the NLRB ruled.
WINNING WAYS—Workers at Allied Waste/BFI in Atlanta now have a voice on the job with Teamsters Local 728, a victory that provides a winning start to the IBT’s campaign to help workers join a union at Waste Management Inc. facilities nationwide. The 120 workers, who say they overcame management’s months-long anti-union campaign, said the major issues were cuts in vacation pay, unfair work schedules, unsafe working conditions and unpaid extra work.
A BUCKET OF UNION—Michael Link, a member of Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union/United Food and Commercial Workers Local 338, wore his union jacket recently while visiting a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise near his home. The jacket sparked a conversation that led to the union assisting the workers in gaining a voice at work. On March 4, some 40 employees at two KFC franchises in Queens, N.Y., voted in separate elections for RWDSU.
HERE AT THE KENNEDY CENTER—The 30 parking workers and shuttle bus drivers at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., voted Feb. 27 for Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 27.
SHOW US THE JOBS—Fifty-one workers—one from each state and the District of Columbia—will tell the personal stories of how America’s jobs crisis affects them, their families and their communities during a Show Us the Jobs bus tour, March 24–31. The workers will travel to eight states and 18 cities, spreading the word to policymakers, the media and the public about the effects of joblessness and low-wage, no-benefit work. The AFL-CIO and Working America are sponsoring the bus tour.
COUNCIL MAPS WINNING STRATEGIES—The AFL-CIO Executive Council mapped out plans to pass the historic Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow workers to freely choose a union by signing authorization cards, provide mediation and arbitration in first-contract disputes and increase penalties for employers who violate labor laws. During its March 9–11 meeting in Bal Harbor, Fla., the union leaders also reviewed plans to educate and mobilize working families to vote in the 2004 elections. They heard from Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) via satellite, and from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. The council also named four new members—School Administrators President Baxter Atkinson, AFGE President John Gage, United Food and Commercial Workers President Ron Hansen and Letter Carriers President William Young. Five members—Douglas Dority, Edward Fire, Joseph Greene, Bobby Harnage and Vincent Sombrotto—resigned or retired.
OVERTIME FIGHT COMES DOWN TO WIRE—The fight to protect the 40-hour workweek and overtime pay is coming down to the wire. The Senate is expected to take up the overtime issue when it votes on an amendment to the Foreign Sales Corporation tax bill after its March 15–19 recess. The amendment, introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), would prohibit the administration from cutting overtime pay protections and retroactively repeal any overtime cuts that the Labor Department has put into effect. The Bush administration’s Labor Department plans to issue new rules that would redefine who is eligible for overtime pay by March 31. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao on March 9 rejected a call by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) to delay implementation of the rules so a study could be done to determine how many people would be affected by the rules change. If implemented, the new rules could take away overtime pay from some 8 million workers, including veterans, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Working families and their allies are increasing their calls to lawmakers to stop the attack on overtime. More than 550,000 people have signed Save Overtime Pay petitions, and more than 1.7 million have sent faxes to President George W. Bush urging him to withdraw his overtime take-away plan and to Congress and the Labor Department. You can send a fax to Bush by visiting www.unionvoice.org/campaign/faxbush4ot.
SMOKE AND MIRRORS—Anthony Raimondo, President Bush’s choice for the nation’s manufacturing czar, withdrew his name from nomination March 11 after it was revealed the Nebraska businessman shipped jobs to China. “President Bush’s nomination [of Raimondo] ignores America’s needs for real leadership and a real jobs plan,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. “His consideration of Raimondo makes ever more clear that his plan for American manufacturing is smoke and mirrors.” For more information, visit www.aflcio.org.
TRUE MEDICARE COSTS HIDDEN—The government’s Medicare costs expert said he was threatened with firing if he gave lawmakers accurate estimates of how much the Bush administration’s Medicare prescription-drug plan would cost, according to published reports by Knight-Ridder. Even though the White House said the plan would cost $395 billion in the first 10 years, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimated the cost at $551 billion. Richard Foster, the agency’s chief actuary, told colleagues last June he would be fired if he revealed the higher numbers to lawmakers, according to Knight- Ridder. Several Republican members of Congress had vowed to vote against the bill if it cost more than $400 million. Union and senior activists oppose the plan, which Congress passed in November, because it moves Medicare towards privatization, provides inadequate benefits and threatens employer-paid benefits for millions of retirees.
FIRST CONTRACTS—After two years of bargaining, AFSCME Council 92 reached tentative three-year first contracts with the University System of Maryland covering 3,100 workers at eight campuses. The contracts raise wages, protect health care costs and coverage, improve vacations, bereavement and sick leave and provide a grievance procedure. The universities covered by the accords include Bowie State University, Coppin State University, Frostburg State University, University of Baltimore, University of Maryland’s Baltimore County, College Park and Eastern Shore campuses and the University of Maryland University College.
BUSH FLUNKS BARGAINING—Leaders of 35 unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department condemned President Bush’s record on collective bargaining, saying he undermined the legal rights and economic security of workers. The leaders spoke up in support of the collective bargaining rights of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees, postal service employees and rail workers. FAA administrator Marion Blakey “appears intent on using a misguided interpretation of law to allow the agency to unilaterally impose the terms and conditions of a contract,” a resolution adopted at the TTD’s winter board meeting said.
GET A WHIFF OF THIS—The Flight Attendants/CWA praised the Department of Transportation’s efforts to find alternatives to the spraying of aircraft cabins with toxic pesticides. International flights to certain countries require coating of the aircraft cabins with a liquid pesticide that remains chemically active for 56 days. Those planes are often routed back into domestic flight schedules. You can sign an online petition to support finding an alternative to pesticide spraying by visiting www.afanet.org.
LAUNDRY WORKER SAFETY—Despite the hazards industrial laundry workers face every day, the Bush administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed exempting industrial laundries from federal hazardous waste requirements. In response, UNITE, IBT and the Sierra Club are taking action to block the exemption that would reduce the federal oversight for companies such as Cintas, putting more communities at risk. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Mark Fragola, a former Cintas driver from Connecticut, testified before the EPA last week, calling for stronger health and safety protections for workers and communities. According to EPA, laundries process up to 100,000 tons of toxic chemicals on shop towels every year, much of which is disposed into the environment. To send EPA an e-mail, visit www.behindthelabel.org.
IN THIS CORNER—The bell is about to ring for the first official unionized boxing event. The Joint Association of Boxers, an IBT affiliate, is helping to put together the April 15 night of boxing at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom. Two of the night’s eight bouts will be broadcast live on Showtime beginning at 11 p.m. JAB President Eddie Mustafa Muhammad vowed that this is just the beginning for the fledgling union. The UAW also is attempting to organize professional boxers.
OPEN THE BOOKS—No Sweat!, a student anti-sweatshop group, initiated its Open the Books campaign March 11 at Indiana University in conjunction with United Students Against Sweatshops members from the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin. The student coalition is demanding all apparel manufacturers licensed to print university logos open their ledgers and those of their suppliers to disclose what they pay their workers, a significant first step in fighting sweatshops. Students across the country will join together to demand justice for workers on their campuses and in their communities during Student Labor Week of Action, March 29–April 4. The week also celebrates the lives of two heroes of social justice. March 31 is César Chávez Day in California and in other states, and April 4 will mark the 36-year anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. For more information, visit www.jwj.org/SLAP/A4/2004.htm.
LabourStart 24/7 ONLINE—LabourStart, a London-based online trade union news service, launched a Web-based radio station, http://radio.labourstart.org, that will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The station features a mix of music and talk, including a daily three-minute labor news program produced by the Workers Independent News Service in the United States.
SHEINKMAN MEMORIAL—A memorial service for Jack Sheinkman will be held March 17 at 4 p.m. at UNITE’s New York Joint Board, 31 W. 15th St. Sheinkman, 78, died Jan. 29. He served as president of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers from 1987 until 1995 when he retired after completing the merger that created UNITE.