(The AFL-CIO issued the following on December 14.)
New members reported in this week’s WIP: 667
New members reported in WIP, year to date: 135,864
****HAPPY HOLIDAYS****The next edition of Work in Progress will publish on Dec. 19. Then WiP will take a holiday break. We will be back Jan. 5, 2004. Happy holidays from the WiP staff.
WINNING IN NEW MEXICO–Thanks to a recently signed union-backed state law, nearly 400 workers in three departments of the New Mexico state government have a voice on the job with the State Employee Alliance, a Communications Workers of America affiliate. In October, the workers from the Department of Cultural Affairs, Commission on the Status of Women and Miners Colfax Medical Center joined the union via card-check. 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. Gov. Bill Richardson (D) signed a law in March restoring state workers’ collective bargaining rights. In other wins, 65 workers at Century Telephone in Oregon voted for Local 7906; the majority of 35 workers at Brooklyn (N.Y.) Community Access TV voted for NABET/CWA Local 51011; and 24 workers at DynCorp Aerospace at the Columbus, Miss., Air Force Base chose IUE-CWA Local 83770.
A LESSON IN JUSTICE–The 88 part-time faculty members at the University of Vermont in Burlington voted Dec. 3 to form a union jointly affiliated with the United Professions of Vermont/AFT and the American Association of University Professors. The new union will focus on pay equity, access to benefits, working conditions and compensation for time spent with students outside the classroom.
NURSING HOME VICTORY–The 43 housekeepers and nursing and dietary aides at the Cambridge Court nursing home in Berrien Springs, Mich., voted Dec. 5 for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 951. The workers began the campaign to form a union this summer with the assistance of AFL-CIO Union Summer participants.
A VOICE FOR WAREHOUSE WORKERS–The 12 warehouse workers at a Cooper Tire and Rubber warehouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, voted to join Electrical Workers Local 1634 Dec. 3. The new union members drive forklifts and unload trucks.
UNION LEADERS TO MARCH FOR GROCERY WORKERS–AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and UFCW President Douglas Dority will join with more than 400 UFCW local presidents for a march Dec. 16 from Century City, Calif., to a Beverley Hills supermarket to show support for more than 75,000 UFCW members, who have been on strike and locked out since Oct. 11. Funding of health care premiums is the major issue in the lockout at Ralphs, which is owned by Kroger Co., Albertsons and Vons, a subsidiary of Safeway. Meanwhile, members of Local 400 in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky ratified a new contract Dec. 11 with Kroger that increases Kroger’s annual contribution to the union’s health care plan. “Our members made tremendous sacrifices over the past several months, showing their determination to fight through the holiday season for the health care benefits their families need and deserve,” said Local 400 President Jim Lowthers. The contract covers 3,300 workers at 44 stores. Union members are encouraged to contribute to a strike fund to help the striking workers and their families. To donate, visit https://secure.ga3.org/08/holdtheline or mail a check, payable to AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer, Hold the Line for Health Care Strike Fund, 815 16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20006.
BUSH O.T. ATTACK STALLS SPENDING BILL–Senate Democrats blocked a Dec. 9 vote on an omnibus spending bill because it did not include overtime pay protections both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate previously approved. The overtime pay guarantee would stop President George W. Bush’s attempt to take overtime pay protection from up to 8 million workers. The overtime pay protection was part of the fiscal year 2004 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education spending bill. After the Bush administration vowed to veto the measure if the overtime pay guarantee remained, House Republican leaders removed the provision from the bill, which then became part of the omnibus package.
‘OUR FIGHT IS ON’–Tens of thousands of union members, elected officials, religious leaders and community allies in 90 cities marked Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, and the union movement’s campaign to restore workers’ freedom to form unions by passing the Employee Free Choice Act. More than 4,000 New Englanders marched in three feet of snow in Boston, the top Amnesty International official joined union leaders in New York City, more than 1,000 workers and their allies marched in Chicago and 2,000 rallied at the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. With the theme, “OUR FIGHT to restore workers’ freedom to form unions IS ON!” activists across the country held town hall meetings, rallies and candlelight vigils and pledged to educate and mobilize union members, fight employer interference on local organizing campaigns, lobby members of Congress to support improvements to labor law and keep workers’ rights at the center of the 2004 election efforts. International supporters of U.S. workers’ rights marched in Manila; Lagos, Nigeria; Toronto; and Mexico City. For more highlights and photos of Dec. 10 events, visit http://www.aflcio.org/aboutunions/voiceatwork/d10.cfm .
NO MORE ABUSE–The AFL-CIO and the Alliance for Retired Americans will hold a public hearing at the United Teachers of Dade/AFT Local 1974, 2200 Biscayne Blvd. in Miami Dec. 16, 7 p.m., at which workers, retirees, students and community activists will describe abuse they suffered due to police management flaws Nov. 20-21 during peaceful protests by 20,000 people against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The AFL-CIO is asking the U.S. Justice Department and the state of Florida to conduct separate, independent investigations of the “massive and unwarranted repression of constitutional rights and civil liberties” by Miami police. The Steelworkers also called for a congressional investigation into police management’s actions. For more information, call the South Florida Central Labor Council at 305-593-8886.
STOP CAFTA–On the heels of massive protests that set back planning for the FTAA, a broad coalition of unions and community activists are mobilizing to stop the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). If approved, CAFTA would eliminate tariffs and extend to five Central American countries trade benefits similar to those granted to Canada and Mexico in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In the 10 years since NAFTA began, 879,280 jobs have been lost according to the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute. The campaign to stop CAFTA kicked off with a rally in Washington, D.C., Dec. 7 as trade ministers from Central America met to put finishing touches on the deal. At a Dec. 9 press conference, Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) said Congress will not pass the treaty without strong worker protections.
UAW, CATERPILLAR BEGIN TALKS–Contract talks between the UAW and Caterpillar began Dec. 10. The contract expires March 31 and covers 8,000 workers in four states and 20,000 retirees or surviving spouses. In 1998, workers narrowly approved a six-year contract after more than six years in a bitter dispute with management, which included two long strikes and a flood of unfair labor practices complaints.
CAMPAIGN LAW STILL FLAWED–The U.S. Supreme Court moved “in a deeply troubling direction that could chill important and worthwhile public expression and activity,” with its Dec. 10 ruling upholding new political campaign rules that Congress approved in 2002, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. The new law has “deep flaws” and contains “far-reaching regulation of political speech and conduct.” The AFL-CIO supports comprehensive campaign reform, which would rein in the undue influence of money in campaigns, Sweeney said. The federation challenged the parts of the new law that “strike at the heart of the rights of working people and other citizens to be engaged in civic life through their organizations and make their voices heard.”
PACE CHALLENGES DUPONT MOVE–PACE International Union, which currently represents 2,000 workers in six DuPont facilities, is challenging the company’s restructuring plan, which would slash jobs in the United States and Western Europe and shift operations to China and Eastern Europe. “After centuries of isolationist policy, China is now open for business and foreign companies like DuPont want to take advantage of poverty-level wages, sweatshops, prison labor and nonexistent environmental restrictions while abandoning their plants and communities in the United States and Western Europe,” PACE President Boyd Young said.
HONING IN ON H&M–In recent weeks, politicians and prominent leaders have joined 3,000 community, student and union activists including members of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees, Laborers, SEIU and UNITE to rachet up the campaign against anti-union H&M in the Swedish clothing retailer’s U.S. markets. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer, both New York Democrats, sent a letter to H&M’s Sweden-based CEO Rolf Eriksen, urging him to stop intimidating the workers and allow them to form a union. Thirty-four New York City Council members have denounced H&M’s anti-union tactics. The unions charge H&M uses sweatshop labor and refuses to allow employees at its U.S. distribution centers to form a union.
MAD (at FOX) TV–Letter Carriers President William Young condemned Fox TV for a skit about postal workers on its Dec. 13 episode of “MADtv.” The skit, which portrayed postal employees arguing over which one would go on a shooting spree first, is “totally unwarranted–even as a comedy skit…and is especially egregious at a time when postal employees go the extra mile to connect America’s families during the holidays,” Young said.
STUDY: LIVING WAGE COSTS ARE LOW–Cities and counties with living wage laws have seen business expand without sharply increasing government spending, according to a new report by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law. The report, Living Wage Laws & Communities: Smarter Economic Development, Lower Than Expected Costs, shows that cost increases for city contracts are less than initially expected and that the laws help municipalities create higher quality jobs. The report is available at http://www.brennancenter.org .
APALA LAUDS VETERANS BENEFITS–The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), an AFL-CIO constituency group, praised Congress for passage of two bills that provide benefits to Filipino American veterans who served in U.S. forces during World War II. “For too long we have denied these veterans access to Veterans Affairs Medical Centers [formerly known as Veterans Administration hospitals] and nursing homes,” said APALA President Luisa Blue.
FINALLY GETTING A PENSION–Retired Farm Worker Francisco Flores Martinez didn’t know he qualified for a pension, but on Dec. 4 he received a $76,890 lump-sum retroactive payment from a UFW pension plan. UFW President Arturo Rodriguez presented the check to Martinez, 92, who will begin receiving monthly benefits for the rest of his life. The UFW is launching a campaign to contact workers who are unaware of their pension plan eligibility. Retired farm workers who believe they may qualify for the Juan De La Cruz Pension Plan can visit http://www.ufw.org/jdlc.htm or call 1-800-321-6607 or 1-888-735-5352.
Work in Progress is also available on our website at http://www.aflcio.org/aboutaflcio/wip .