(The AFL-CIO distributed the following on January 12.)
New members reported in this week’s WIP: 479
New members reported in WIP year-to-date: 479
WORKERS WIN WITH SEIU–In December, majorities of 250 aides, support staff and other caregivers at four Oregon nursing homes voted to join SEIU Local 503 for a voice on the job and a stronger role in advocating quality care for residents. Also last month, 140 workers at Pacific Coast Care Center in Salinas, Calif., joined SEIU Local 250 via a card-check. Under card-check, an employer agrees to recognize the union after a majority of the workers indicates a desire for union representation by signing authorization cards. And a majority of the 46 workers at Katherine Healthcare Center voted for Local 250, bringing all Salinas nursing home workers into the union.
BAD ACTING–On Dec. 11 teachers at the Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School in south Philadelphia voted for a voice at work with the Pennsylvania Federation of Teachers (PFT). But the next day, the 28 teachers arrived at school to find the locks and alarm codes changed so they couldn’t enter the building early-and their scheduled holiday dinner and $100 bonuses were canceled, according to the union. A memo to the staff from school’s board chairman cited “recent changes” as the reasons for the actions, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. PFT has filed unfair labor practice charges with the state Labor Relations Board.
DRIVERS GO TEAMSTERS–Fifteen route drivers for CVC Vending in Wixom, Mich., won a voice at work with Teamsters Local 337 on Jan. 2. The drivers first contacted the union through IBT’s organizing assistance section of its website (http://org.teamster.org/oarf.htm). After the drivers signed authorization cards indicating their desire to join the union, management agreed to recognize the union.
LABOR’S TIPS TO DUCK O.T.–The U.S. Department of Labor has advised employers how to avoid paying overtime to low-income workers who may gain eligibility under proposed new overtime rules. The advice was contained in a March 2003 summary of the new rules that are estimated to take away overtime pay protection from 8 million private-sector workers. The tips on how to duck paying workers overtime were reported by the Associated Press Jan. 6. In promoting its scheme to change the nation’s Fair Labor Standards Act to make millions of workers ineligible for overtime pay protection, the Bush administration has stressed the proposal would enable some low-income workers to receive overtime pay protections for the first time. But the Labor Department’s advice, the summary says, would result “in virtually no, or only a minimal increase, in labor costs” to employers. For more information, visit http://www.aflcio.org/yourjobeconomy/overtimepay .
IMMIGRATION PLAN ‘HOLLOW’–President George W. Bush’s proposed changes to the nation’s immigration laws are “a hollow promise for hardworking, undocumented workers, people seeking to immigrate to the United States and U.S. workers alike,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. Bush’s plan, announced Jan. 6, “tells immigrants you have no right to earn citizenship, but tells corporations you have the right to exploit workers,” said SEIU Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina. Rep. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) called the proposal “a glorified guest worker program with no new path to legalization.” While the Bush plan would give some legal status to undocumented immigrants, it does not provide them an opportunity to earn citizenship and does nothing to strengthen protections for wages, benefits and other rights of immigrant and domestic workers. “The Bush proposal protects the often abusive behavior of employers who hire undocumented workers but leaves the workers themselves vulnerable and beholden to those employers for the right to stay here,” said Laborers President Terence O’Sullivan. For more information, visit http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/immigration .
BUSH JOB PLEDGE BROKEN–Year-end figures released Jan. 10 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show President Bush has fallen 1.615 million jobs shy of the new jobs his administration claimed his millionaire tax-cut package would create by the end of 2003, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reported. In December, only 1,000 new jobs were created and the workforce shrank by 309,000, the BLS reported. The shrinking workforce accounted for most of the small drop in the unemployment rate from 5.9 percent to 5.7 percent, EPI said. While BLS said 8.4 million workers are “officially” unemployed, some 15 million workers are unemployed, underemployed or too discouraged to look for work, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. “Although corporate profits have increased steadily, even during the recession, and worker productivity is at record highs, workers and their families continue to suffer,” he said. The Bush administration claimed its $330 billion tax-cut package would create 5.5 million new jobs by the end of 2004, or 306,000 jobs a month. More than 2.9 million private-sector jobs have disappeared under Bush’s watch since the recession began in March 2001, including 2.4 million manufacturing jobs. More than 270,000 workers have run out of their state unemployment benefits without finding a job and have no federal program to turn to since Bush and the Republican-led Congress allowed the Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation program to expire Dec. 21.
LIVING KING’S DREAM–Building working families’ political strength will top the agenda as hundreds of union leaders and activists converge in Orlando, Fla., Jan. 15-19 for the AFL-CIO’s annual Martin Luther King Holiday Celebration. The activists will conduct a door-to-door canvass in Orlando’s Latino, Asian and African American communities on Jan. 16 to register voters and to urge local citizens to come out and vote. The union members also will support agencies that help workers through the distribution of tons of paper products and apparel to local community service agencies. The federation will sponsor a community forum Jan. 16 on the nation’s economic crisis. For more information, contact the AFL-CIO Civil, Human and Women’s Rights Department at 202-637-5270.
NLRB SAYS CINTAS BROKE THE LAW–After an 11-month investigation, the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint Jan. 7 charging Cintas with committing widespread violations of federal labor law. The complaint said Cintas managers illegally fired several union supporters who are trying to form unions with UNITE and IBT, solicited employees to oppose unionization and threatened workers by telling them they would lose benefits if they did not engage in anti-union activities. “It’s about time Cintas had a wake-up call,” said Clorinda Valdivia, who worked at Cintas in Long Island, N.Y., for nearly six years before she was fired after supporting the union. “Cintas calls us partners and says they want to protect our rights to choose, but when we show our support for the union, we get harassed, intimidated and even fired. This complaint shows why we need a fair process.”
LEAVING CHILDREN BEHIND–Most states are not on schedule to meet a 2006 deadline in the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requiring them to raise standards for hundreds of thousands of teacher aides who work with disadvantaged students, according to a new AFT report. Critics of the NCLB program say that Bush and congressional Republicans failed to provide adequate funding to help states meet the required goals. The state-by-state evaluation, Midterm Report on States’ Efforts to Assist Paraprofessionals in Meeting NCLB Requirements, found that 23 states are having at least some success in improving the quality of teacher’s aides–but 27 states and the District of Columbia have made insufficient progress in meeting the deadline, which could force dedicated, experienced paraprofessionals out of classrooms where they are needed most. The report is available at http://www.aft.org/psrp/certification/Midtermreport/Index.html .
MANUFACTURING WORKERS TO HILL–More than 3,500 manufacturing workers are expected in Washington, D.C., Feb. 3 for the Industrial Union Council legislative conference. The union members will hear from top Democratic congressional leaders and lobby their elected officials to support the Employee Free Choice Act and laws to provide incentives for investment in domestic manufacturing. They also will urge members of Congress to oppose President Bush’s attacks on overtime and his attempt to create the Central American Free Trade Agreement. For more information, contact Bob Baugh at 202-637-3966 or bbaugh@aflcio.org or visit the website http://www.aflcio.org/manufacturing .
TEXTILE JOBS THREATENED–U.S. textile and apparel workers are “on the verge of a catastrophe,” Mark Levinson, UNITE’s policy director, told a National Research Council committee Jan. 7. The forum examined the impact of international trade on local communities, and Levinson warned that if current quotas on the importation of foreign textiles and apparel are allowed to expire in January 2005, U.S. textile job losses will accelerate. A 1994 World Trade Organization agreement calls for the end of the quotas next year. In addition, the Bush administration is pursing new trade pacts, such as the Free Trade Area of the Americas, the Central American Free Trade Agreement and others, that threaten U.S. textile and other jobs. For more information, visit http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/globaleconomy .
DUPONT WORKERS GET JOBS BACK–The New Year brought a victory to members of PACE International Union Local 1-6992 who work at DuPont’s Corian manufacturing facility in Buffalo, N.Y. A federal administrative law judge found the company guilty of serious unfair labor practices in the course of bargaining a new agreement with PACE. The judge ruled that 53 workers who lost their jobs as a result of DuPont subcontracting milling and finishing work in July 2001 must be returned to work and paid for all lost wages and benefits. DuPont also was ordered to reinstall milling and finishing machinery that had been dismantled in 2001.
BORDERS WORKERS WIN PACT–In Ann Arbor, Mich., Jan. 8, workers at Borders Bookstore #1 ratified a contract, ending a strike that began Nov. 6. The 43 workers voted to join United Food and Commercial Workers Local 876 in December 2002 and charged that Borders management failed to bargain in good faith for a first contract. Local 876 officials praised the strong support of Michigan unions during the workers’ struggle.
AMERICA WEST ACCORD APPROVED–Pilots at America West Airlines ratified a new three-year contract, the Air Line Pilots announced Dec. 30. The pact covers more than 1,500 pilots and provides increases, signing bonuses and improvements in retirement and health benefits.
HUGHES PICKED FOR FED–Denis Hughes, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, has been elected to the nine-member board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York by representatives of the member banks in the Second Federal Reserve District. Hughes began his three-year term on Jan. 1. He has served in the state AFL-CIO since 1985 and was elected president in 1999.
Work in Progress is also available on our website at
http://www.aflcio.org/aboutaflcio/wip .