(The AFL-CIO issued the following on February 23.)
New members reported in this week’s WIP: 1,568
New members reported in WIP, year to date: 19,640
RAISING A VOICE—The majority of 800 nurse’s aides and other service workers at San Diego Children’s Hospital overcame their bosses’ attempts to foil their organizing efforts and voted Jan. 22 for SEIU. They are the first private-sector hospital employees in San Diego County to join the union. Meanwhile, about 100 aides and other support staff at Palm Garden nursing center in Port St. Lucie, Fla., beat back an anti-union campaign and voted for Local 1199FL.
SODEXHO WORKERS VOTE UNION—A total of 305 workers voted for AFSCME recently. In Atlanta, 192 food service workers employed by Sodexho USA, a private contractor for the city’s public school system, voted to form a union with Local 1644 on Feb. 4. Meanwhile, 113 workers from three sites in Michigan joined Council 25 in January. The new union members include 61 residential care aides from the Northern Lakes Community Mental Health Center in Traverse City, 35 nurses at the Shiawassee County Medical Care Facility and a 17-person unit at the Cheboygan County sheriff’s department.
BUILDING BRIDGES—Seeking retirement benefits and greater job security, the 290 housekeepers, maintenance workers and food and beverage workers at the New York City Marriott Brooklyn Bridge chose a voice at work with the New York Hotel Trades Council, a coalition of nine unions, via a Feb. 6 card-check. Under card-check, the employer agrees to recognize the union if a majority of workers expresses a desire for a union by signing authorization cards.
JOINING THE CROWD—The 73 part-time grant-funded administrative staff at Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville, voted Feb. 16 for AFT Local 6224, the Southwestern Illinois College Educational Employees. The union now represents some 400 workers at the college.
GROCERY TALKS RESUME—After nearly two months without formal negotiating sessions, a Safeway-led coalition of grocers and the United Food and Commercial Workers returned to the bargaining table recently. About 59,000 grocery workers fighting to save affordable family health care have been walking picket lines in central and southern California since mid-October. Make a donation to help the striking and locked-out grocery workers by visiting https://secure.ga3.org/08/holdtheline or send a check payable to AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer to the Hold the Line for Health Care Strike Fund, AFL-CIO, 815 16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20006.
SAG, AFTRA STRIKE DEAL WITH PRODUCERS—Members of the Screen Actors and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists will vote within the next 30 days on a tentative agreement reached Feb. 17 with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to extend for one year the current contract for television and theatrical roles. The key to the extension is a provision that allows SAG and AFTRA, beginning next year, to bargain jointly with the AMPTP, which represents the major film studios and television networks. Under the extension, freelance performers on new digitally produced programs on the WB and UPN networks will be paid at the same rate as their counterparts on other networks. The current contract, which covers 34,500 actors, is set to expire June 30.
WAL-MART DRAINS TAXPAYERS—Because of Wal-Mart’s low wages and inadequate benefits, each of its stores with at least 200 employees costs taxpayers an estimated $420,750 annually in public social services such as housing subsidies, children’s health insurance and reduced-cost or free lunches, according to a new report from the Democratic staff of the House Education and Workforce Committee. The report, Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart, is available online at http://edworkforce.house.gov/democrats/WALMARTREPORT.pdf. “There’s no question that Wal-Mart imposes a huge, often hidden, cost on its workers, our communities and U.S. taxpayers,” said ranking Democratic committee member George Miller of California. At the same time, “Wal-Mart is in the driver’s seat in the global race to the bottom, suppressing wage levels, workplace protections and labor laws,” Miller said.
WORKING FAMILIES FOR KERRY—Several hundred union workers cheered Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) at a Feb. 19 rally outside the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C., after the federation’s General Board voted to endorse Kerry’s run for the presidency. “Today, the message is ringing out loud and clear: Change is coming to America and working people are ready to make it happen,” Kerry said. George W. Bush fights for the wealthy, he said, and in November, working people will elect a president who will fight for them. Not only have nearly 3 million jobs disappeared during the Bush administration, but the administration gives tax breaks to companies to move overseas, he noted. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said Kerry will not sign any trade agreement that does not include worker protections and environmental protections. “And, unlike George Bush, John Kerry will fight to ensure that these protections aren’t just there for show but are enforced so that we have trade that’s fair to workers here at home and fair to workers around the world,” he said. The General Board represents the democratically elected leadership of the union movement, including the leaders of all affiliated unions, the AFL-CIO Executive Council and representatives of AFL-CIO state federations and trade departments. For more information about the Kerry endorsement, his stands on working family issues and his record, visit www.aflcio.org.
(PICT)SWEET VICTORY—Mushroom pickers in California, members of the Farm Workers, are celebrating victory in their 17-year struggle to win justice on the job, thanks to a landmark state law that requires mediation in first-contract talks when employers try to drag out negotiations. The law was enacted after intensive lobbying and mass mobilizations by UFW members and union allies across the state. On Feb. 13, the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board approved a state arbitrator’s decision on terms of a three-year union contract for Pictsweet mushroom workers that includes better pay, complete employer-paid family health care coverage, paid holidays and vacations and a union plant safety committee.
INSULT TO DEMOCRACY—Nearly 1,000 graduate teaching assistants and research assistants at the University of Pennsylvania will vote Feb. 23 on whether to strike. A year ago this week, the graduate teaching assistants voted to join Graduate Employees Together–UPenn (GET-UP), an affiliate of AFT. The election ballots were impounded when the university appealed a National Labor Relations Board regional director’s decision that the graduate assistants are employees and eligible to form a union. The graduate students, who perform more than 70 percent of undergraduate instruction, hope to persuade the university to drop its appeal. Visit www.unionvoice.org/campaign/UPENN to tell James Riepe, chairman of the university’s trustees, to respect the rights of graduate employees to form a union.
KEEP THE WORK—The Machinists filed a request last week with the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit to rehear its case against U.S. Airways regarding subcontracting of Airbus heavy maintenance work. A three-member panel recently overturned a preliminary injunction barring the company from contracting the work to an outside company, which the union said violates its contract. The IAM is asking the full 13-member circuit court to uphold the earlier injunction.
STEELWORKERS WANT ANSWERS—The Steelworkers union is formally requesting information from Goodyear Tire over the company’s recent decision to produce a new line of tires in a nonunion plant in Oklahoma. The move could violate the union’s contract with Goodyear, which gives the 13 USWA-represented plants first preference in making new products developed for sale in North America. That provision was a critical feature of the 2003 agreement in which USWA members gained greater job security and gave the company needed flexibility.
HAND-DELIVERED MESSAGE—United Airlines flight attendants and retirees, members of the Flight Attendants/CWA, delivered thousands of letters from retirees to United’s CEO Glenn Tilton Feb. 17 demanding the carrier end its bait-and-switch tactics to change retiree health benefits. The union said United is trying to renege on a deal made in 2003 with 2,500 flight attendants, who opted for early retirement based on the carrier’s promise to provide them less costly and more comprehensive health care benefits than those retiring after July 1, 2003, would receive. On Capitol Hill, more than 100 members of Congress signed a letter criticizing United for its planned double cross. For a copy of the letter and a selection of retiree letters, visit www.unitedafa.org.
MARITIME SECURITY PLAN IS ‘BAND-AID’—The recent agreement allowing the U.S. Navy to search Liberian-flagged ships for terrorist weapons is merely a Band-Aid approach to fighting terrorism and masks the larger problem of inadequate support for the nation’s merchant marine fleet, Ed Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department, said. Because of unfair tax and trade policies, U.S.-flag vessels carry only about 5 percent of the nation’s export and import trade, he said. Expanding the U.S. merchant marine fleet would create jobs and give homeland security officials greater control over the cargo entering our ports, Wytkind said.
AFT: STATES IN CRISIS—State governments are facing the third year of fiscal crises worse than any experienced since the Great Depression, brought on mostly by irresponsible Bush administration economic policies that are having devastating and lasting effects, according to new report from AFT. Another Long Winter: The State Fiscal Crisis in Its Third Year details long-term damage due to states’ $200 billion cumulative three-year budget shortfall. For a copy of the report, visit www.aft.org/reports/download/AnotherLongWinter.pdf.
JUSTICE@QUEBECOR—Workers fighting to win a voice on the job with Graphic Communications at Quebecor World Inc., the world’s largest commercial printer, have launched a new website, www.justiceatquebecor.org. The website is helping workers inform the public about unfair conditions at the company, which is raising health insurance costs, increasing workloads and reducing staffing. Last month, GCIU members handed out leaflets at IKEA stores in North America about Quebecor issues. IKEA is one of Quebecor’s largest customers. Meanwhile, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry on Feb. 11 called on Quebecor to stop harassing and intimidating workers who want to form unions.
DEPP, THERON STAR AT SAG AWARDS—Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron won the top prizes at the Screen Actors Guild Awards—the nation’s largest all-union awards ceremony. Depp won for his role in “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” and Theron won for her role in “Monster.” SAG’s ensemble-acting award, the union’s equivalent of a best-picture honor, went to “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.” Veteran actor Karl Malden received the union’s lifetime achievement award. For more information, visit www.sag.org.
FOR IMMIGRANT RIGHTS—Hundreds of immigrant workers and their allies marched in Goldsboro, N.C., Feb. 21, demanding citizenship for undocumented workers and equal rights for immigrants. The march was sponsored by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, the North Carolina State AFL-CIO, Teamsters Local 391 and several community groups. The marchers protested low wages and unfair working conditions for immigrants, who primarily work on farms in the area.