(The AFL-CIO issued the following on January 5.)
New members reported in this week’s WIP: 1,277
New members reported in WIP for 2003: 142,268
ORLANDO WORKERS CHOOSE SEIU–A large majority of 945 city of Orlando, Fla., workers voted to join SEIU 1199FL in mid-December–making the city an all-union workforce. The white-collar and professional workers–including 911 dispatchers and crime-scene technicians–wanted a voice on the job after suffering layoffs in the summer.
WINNING IN WAUKESHA–The majority of 314 production employees at Waukesha Electric Systems in Milwaukee voted Dec. 18 to join the Electrical Workers. The workers said they wanted a voice on the job to challenge cuts in incentive and overtime pay.
GOING TO JACKSON–Thirteen mechanics at the Jackson (Mich.) Ford dealership voted to join Machinists Lodge 97 last month. In Las Vegas, five drivers at PKS Road Oil Co. won a voice on the job with Teamsters Local 631.
BUSH ANTI-UNION RULES DELAYED–A federal judge issued a one-year injunction on Dec. 31 against the Bush administration’s attempt to force burdensome new financial reporting rules on unions. The rules were due to go into effect Jan. 1. The AFL-CIO filed suit to block the rules, and U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler wrote that Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao “has simply failed to offer any reasonable justification for requiring such far-reaching changes to take place in seven weeks.” In October, the Bush administration announced the new rules less than 24 hours after the U.S. House of Representatives, spurred by union-member lobbying, voted to block the Bush administration’s attack on overtime pay by supporting an amendment to an appropriations bill to stop the White House from weakening overtime pay protections (see box). Then on Nov. 10, the Bush administration announced it would begin enforcing the new rules Jan. 1. Kessler said such a short period of time for unions to come into compliance would cause unions “irreparable harm.” The new reporting rules-which could cost local and national unions as much as $1 billion a year-are part of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act and involve the LM-2 annual report all unions file with the Labor Department.
NO HELP FOR JOBLESS WORKERS–While President George W. Bush and the congressional Republican leaders who refused to extend federal unemployment insurance (UI) help for long-term unemployed workers enjoyed their holidays, some 270,000 jobless workers ran out of unemployment benefits. The federal Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) program that provides workers with federal benefits after they exhaust their state UI benefits expired Dec. 21. An estimated 80,000 to 90,000 workers a week are running out of their state benefits, typically 26 weeks, without finding jobs. The percentage of jobless workers who have been unemployed for more than six months is at its highest level in 20 years, but Republican leaders claimed the slightly improving economy made it unnecessary to extend the TEUC. Bush ignored calls from congressional Democrats and some governors to call Congress back for a special session to extend the program. Roughly 2.3 million private-sector jobs have disappeared since March 2001, and there are at least three unemployed workers for every new job opening.
GROCERY WORKERS HOLD THE LINE–Negotiators in the two-and-a-half month lock-out and strike involving 70,000 United Food and Commercial Workers at three southern California supermarket chains took a break from talks over the holidays. On Dec. 19, union leaders offered a contract proposal, but the employers-Safeway, Albertsons and Krogers-rejected it, continuing to call for large health care cuts for all workers and wage reductions for new hires. UFCW also removed pickets from distribution and warehouse facilities, which IBT delivery drivers had been honoring since Nov. 24. “We have never seen such solidarity amongst workers in the supermarket industry as has been displayed by members of the Teamsters union,” said UFCW President Douglas Dority. Donations to the striking workers can be made online at https://secure.ga3.org/08/holdtheline through the AFL-CIO or donations may be mailed to the Hold the Line for Health Care Strike Fund with a check payable to AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer, 815 16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20006.
DEMAND OT PROTECTIONS–More than 200,000 people have signed electronic and hard-copy petitions calling on President Bush to withdraw his overtime pay proposal that could cost as many as 8 million workers their overtime pay protections. The petitions, thousands of which have been downloaded and distributed at workplaces around the nation, also urge Bush to back away from his threats to veto any legislation that would block the Department of Labor from implementing changes to the Fair Labor Standards Act that would eliminate many workers’ overtime pay protections. The U.S. Senate is expected to rekindle the legislative fight when it reconvenes later this month. In December, Senate Democrats blocked an omnibus spending bill that failed to include overtime pay protections that the House of Representatives and Senate previously approved as part of the fiscal year 2004 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) offered the overtime pay guarantee as an amendment to the Labor spending bill, but Republican lawmakers stripped the Harkin amendment from the bill that was rolled into the omnibus measure. Democratic leaders will push for inclusion of an overtime pay protection guarantee when the bill is brought up for a vote in January. For more information and to sign the petition, visit http://www.saveovertimepay.org .
OHIOANS WIN DRUG BENEFIT–Many Ohio residents will soon receive discounts of as much as 40 percent on their prescription drugs under legislation, Ohio’s Best Rx, signed into law Dec. 18. The Ohio AFL-CIO and senior, consumer and health advocacy groups spearheaded a two-year campaign to win prescription drug benefits for older and low-income Ohio residents. Ohio AFL-CIO President Bill Burga said a huge grassroots mobilization of individual voters and local governments overcame the pharmaceutical industry’s original opposition to the measure and won overwhelming legislative support.
AFGE ADS SLAM PRIVATIZATION–AFGE launched a series of television ads last month to build public awareness of the Bush administration’s drive to contract out federal services and privatize as many as 850,000 jobs. The ads, airing in Iowa and New Hampshire, spotlight contracting out to big corporations such as Vice President Dick Cheney’s former company Halliburton “that get no-bid government contracts worth billions. It seems as long as they keep writing big contribution checks to the Bush campaign, they just keep getting government contracts paid for by you and me,” according to one of the ads. The other ad looks at budget cuts and increased contracting out at the Veterans Administration. “Taxpayer money is being squandered with no accountability to the American people,” AFGE President John Gage says. Visit http://www.afge.org to view the ads.
BUSH APPEALS MEXICAN TRUCK REVIEW–The U.S. Supreme Court last month agreed to hear the Bush administration’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling that the Department of Transportation must complete a full Environmental Impact Statement study and Clean Air Act study before it can open the U.S.-Mexico border to Mexican trucks. In January 2003, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of IBT and a broad coalition of environmental, labor and consumer groups that filed suit against the administration’s move to allow the trucks nearly unlimited access to U.S. roads and highways. The suit claimed the Bush administration violated U.S. environmental law for not considering the environmental impact of the Mexican trucks, which the groups say emit more pollution than U.S. trucks because of looser environmental, maintenance and safety regulations in Mexico.
NO FREIGHTLINER BLUES–Some 4,000 UAW members at two Freightliner plants in North Carolina won a strong first contract Dec. 21. Members of Local 5286 at the Gastonia truck parts manufacturing plant and members of Local 3520 at the Cleveland truck manufacturing facility won reduced health insurance costs, better wages and health and safety protections in the four-year pacts. A year ago, Freightliner and the UAW negotiated a card-check agreement. In 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.
‘YOU’RE A MEAN ONE, MR. BUSH’–President Bush was selected Grinch of the Year for 2003 by 2,000 activists in an online poll sponsored by Jobs with Justice. The poll determines the public or corporate official or corporation who has done the most harm to working families in the past year. “By publicly awarding the Grinch of the Year Award, our hope is that George W. Bush’s heart will grow three sizes bigger, as Dr. Seuss envisioned,” said Fred Azcarate, Jobs with Justice director. Bush’s win “improves” on his second-place finish in 2002. Other top vote-getters this year include Wal-Mart, Miami Police Commissioner John Timoney, Cintas and Comcast. For more information, visit http://www.jwj.org/Grinch/2003Vote.htm .
KY. GOVERNOR KILLS WORKERS’ COUNCIL–Newly elected Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R) last month abolished an advisory council that allowed state workers to vote on union membership. Former Gov. Paul Patton (D) established the Governor’s Employee Advisory Council in 2001 after the legislature rejected full collective bargaining rights for state employees. The council set up a system that allowed state workers to vote on union representation for bargaining on noneconomic issues. But because the council was created by an executive order, Fletcher, elected in November 2003, abolished it by issuing another executive order.
BINDAS NEW IUE-CWA PRESIDENT–Mike Bindas was sworn in as the new president of IUE-CWA on Dec. 29 in Dayton, Ohio. Bindas joined the union in 1956 when he went to work on the production line of Packard Electrical in Warren, Ohio. He became president of IUE-CWA Local 717 and in 1988 was elected president of the union’s District 7. He succeeds the retiring Ed Fire, who served as president since 1996. Bindas says his top priorities are organizing and political action.
CWA GETS HEARD–A federal district court judge in New Jersey has thrown out a lawsuit by Verizon Wireless against Communications Workers of America. Verizon Wireless argued that CWA’s parody of the company’s “Can you hear me now?” slogan during the union’s effort to win a fair contract in 2002 violated trademark laws. In television, radio and newspaper ads, workers raised questions about Verizon’s labor policies and asked, “Verizon: Can you hear us now?” On Dec. 11, Judge Mary Cooper found trademark laws don’t apply to the type of labor speech involved in the CWA campaign and dismissed the company’s suit.
DON’T TOAST GALLO–An administrative law judge has ruled that Gallo Vineyards in Sonoma, Calif., illegally tried to influence workers to oust their union, the Farm Workers. Judge Nancy Smith said on Dec. 19 that ballots from a March decertification election should be thrown out. UFW workers are trying to negotiate at new contract with Gallo. To sign a petition supporting the workers, visit http://www.ufw.org .
Work in Progress is also available on our website at http://www.aflcio.org/aboutaflcio/wip .