(The AFL-CIO issued the following on November 24.)
New members reported in this week’s WIP: 1,441
New members reported year-to-date: 131,994
HUSKIES FOR AFSCME–An overwhelming majority of 408 trades and crafts workers at University of Washington campuses across the state voted to join Washington Federation of State Employees/AFSCME Council 28 on Nov. 6. For the first time, Washington state and university workers have the right to bargain for pay, benefits and other key issues because of passage of a union-backed collective bargaining law for public employees. Also joining WFSE/AFSCME are 36 skilled trades workers at Washington State University in Pullman and 10 employees of Peninsula College in Port Angeles after both groups signed authorization cards indicating their desire to join the union.
AFT WINS IN THE CANYON–Part-time professors at the College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, Calif., voted to join Part-Time Faculty United, an AFT affiliate, Nov. 17. The 390 part-time faculty members have the same qualifications as their full-time colleagues but receive only 35 percent of the pay full-timers get for teaching the same classes. They have no medical benefits and are not allowed to buy into the district health plan or use on-campus health facilities.
CAREGIVERS WIN VOICE–In Somerset, N.J., a unit of 220 aides and support staff at the Jewish Home for the Aged voted to join SEIU Local 1199NJ on Nov. 20. Also this month, a unit of 85 aides and other support staff at the Rehabilitation Center of Sanford (Fla.) voted to join SEIU Local 1199FL.
UNION-PLATED–The 153-member Swanson Plating Workers Independent Union voted to affiliate with PACE International Union in late October and become PACE Local 5-1003. The Morgantown, W.Va., firm does plating and machining for Caterpillar and other companies. Meanwhile, the 15-member Shell Pipeline Employees Federation in west Texas voted Oct. 30 to affiliate with PACE.
DYNAMIC WIN FOR USWA–By a two-to-one margin recently, the 124 workers at the Land Division of General Dynamics in Anniston, Ala., voted to become members of the Steelworkers. They manufacture armored military vehicles.
MEDICARE: TOWARD PRIVATIZATION–In a 6 a.m. vote Nov. 22 that followed three hours of House Republican leaders and President George W. Bush twisting several reluctant lawmakers’ arms, the House of Representatives narrowly passed Medicare prescription drug legislation. The Senate was debating the bill Nov. 24. The bill moves Medicare toward privatization, forces 32.5 million retirees to pay for Medicare and threatens the employer-provided drug coverage of millions of retirees. The drug benefits in the bill for seniors are “expensive, inadequate and unreliable….It’s clear that this deal is designed to benefit the drug and insurance industries,” said UNITE President Bruce Raynor. For most of the three hours the vote was held open–normally votes are open 15 to 20 minutes–the bill’s opponents held a narrow lead, but eventually several Republican members gave in to pressure and political promises. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney called the House action “a predawn highway robbery.” For more information, visit http://www.aflcio.org .
OVERTIME FIGHT CONTINUES–The Bush administration successfully strong-armed Senate and House members into stripping an overtime pay protection guarantee–which had won bipartisan support and the votes of both houses–from a huge government spending bill Nov. 21. The overtime pay guarantee was an amendment to the fiscal year 2004 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill, which along with other appropriations measures was rolled into an omnibus bill. The amendment would have prohibited proposed rules to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act taking away overtime pay protections for some 8 million workers. For months, Bush threatened to veto the labor spending bill because of the overtime pay protection and ratcheted up the threat to include the omnibus bill if the overtime provision was included. Because the overtime protection was stripped from the omnibus bill, Senate Democrats are expected to oppose the bill when it comes to a likely December vote. Watch your e-mail beginning Dec. 1 for action alerts for the National Week of Action to save overtime pay.
NO TO FTAA–More than 20,000 union members, environmentalists and religious and human rights activists from North, Central and South America marched through the streets of Miami Nov. 20 to call for good jobs and to stop the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Shortly after the march, riot-clad police armed with pepper spray, rubber bullets and batons descended on hundreds of the marchers, including many senior citizens, who had peacefully gathered. Several marchers were hit by rubber bullets that raised huge welts and bruises. The march capped three days of actions that coincided with the Nov. 18-21 meeting of North, Central and South American trade ministers to discuss the next steps in creating the FTAA. The massive mobilization included a historic workers’ forum on unfair trade’s impact on workers throughout the hemisphere and a massive People’s Gala, which celebrated cultures through music, food and dance. If approved, the FTAA would eliminate tariffs from 34 countries with a combined population of more than 800 million and accelerate the staggering job loss and environmental damage experienced under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The Economic Policy Institute reports that NAFTA has cost almost 900,000 U.S. jobs and driven down real wages in Mexico. The march delivered a message to every working family that unions and their thousands of allies throughout the hemisphere are “standing beside you, fighting beside you and marching beside you” to ensure there will not be an FTAA, said AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Richard Trumka.
SENATE BLOCKS PRIVATE CONTROLLERS–After a bipartisan group of Senators used a filibuster to block legislation to privatize the nation’s air traffic control system, the White House agreed to a one-year moratorium any on any privatization. The Senate then passed the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill Nov. 21. Earlier this year, both the House and Senate approved FAA legislation that banned the privatization, but in a White House-brokered back-room deal, those provisions were stripped from the bill. “Now, we need to work together to make sure that promises made are promises kept. Well be watching,” said John Carr, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. Legislation for a permanent privatization moratorium is expected in 2004.
DELAY DELAYS HOLIDAY WARMTH–Before Congress adjourned for Thanksgiving, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) said Congress would not renew the Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) program. TEUC provides jobless workers who have exhausted their state unemployment insurance (UI) benefits an additional 13 weeks of federal UI. The lack of action marks the second year in a row that Republican leadership has abandoned the jobless by letting them enter the holiday season not knowing if they will have UI benefits after the end of the year.
COLD TURKEY–The Bush administration’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) cancelled all holiday leave for 48,000 airport screeners and will force many employees to work overtime during the Thanksgiving holidays. The action comes after TSA eliminated 6,000 airport security screener jobs earlier this year. AFGE President John Gage says TSA’s mismanagement and “contractor waste and abuse” caused cost overruns and job cuts and passengers must deal with “staffing shortages on a daily basis at many airports across the country, not just at peek holidays travel days.”
GIVE THANKS AND A MEAL–For as little as $15, union activists and allies can give thanks to the 80,000 United Food and Commercial Workers members on strike and locked out in California, West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio who are holding the line for health care and good jobs. The gift of just $15 will provide a Thanksgiving turkey that feeds a striking grocery worker’s family, and each additional $15 will feed another family. The grocery chains are demanding the workers accept what amounts to a 75 percent cut in health care for new workers and a 50 percent cut for current employees. To donate, visit the website https://secure.ga3.org/08/thankgroceryworkers/nVp14les1s1wa . Supporters may also donate to the workers’ strike fund by sending checks (made payable to the UFCW Strike Hardship Fund) to UFCW Strike Hardship Fund, Attn: Secretary-Treasurer Joe Hansen, 1775 K St., N.W., Washington, DC 20006. For more information about the Hold the Line for America’s Health Care campaign, visit http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/n1141es197wU .
BUY UNION WEEK–Holiday shoppers “can take the sweat(shop) out of holiday shopping and give the gift of good jobs,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney announcing Buy Union Week, Nov. 29-Dec. 7. Cyber shoppers can visit stores at the Union Mall at http://www.nosweatshop.com , which sell only union-made items, including clothing–your guarantee the clothes weren’t made under sweatshop conditions. Shoppers also can visit The Union Shop at http://www.aflcio.org/shop and Justice Clothing at http://www.justiceclothing.com . Buy Union Week is a project of UNITE, UFCW, the AFL-CIO and the Union Label and Service Trades Department, AFL-CIO.
TRAINS ROLL–After a month-long strike, buses and trains are running again in the Los Angeles area. On Nov. 19, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1277 members approved a nearly four-year contract that includes a 6 percent raise over term. In the area of health care benefits, the Metropolitan Transit Authority agreed to enter binding arbitration with the union.
DISCRIMINATION AT CINTAS–Current and former Cintas workers have charged the laundry giant with a massive pattern of discrimination. With the support of community allies, legislators, members of UNITE and other progressive groups, charges are being filed at federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission offices nationwide alleging widespread discrimination against women and minorities. Charges include reserving high-paying production floor jobs for men, keeping higher-paying delivery jobs for white workers and keeping Cintas officers and executives a white male club. Cintas workers who want to take action about workplace discrimination can call 1-800-872-8646.
TTD TRANSITION–The Transportation Trades Department elected Edward Wytkind as its president and Michael Ingrao as secretary-treasurer Nov. 19. Both positions were made full time recently. Current TTD leaders–President Sonny Hall, president of the Transport Workers, and Secretary-Treasurer Patricia Friend, president of the Flight Attendants–will remain on the executive committee. Wytkind, who served as TTD’s executive director for 12 years, said, “Transportation workers are deeply indebted to Sonny Hall and Pat Friend. Their legacy as TTD leaders can be summed up in a single word–unity.” Ingrao has served as the department’s chief of staff since 1999 and worked 17 years in the AFL-CIO Political Department.
NEW OFFICERS–Joseph Mitchell Sr. is the new president of the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers, succeeding James Rankin, who retired Nov. 1. John Ryan, GMP’s education and research director, was named secretary-treasurer. At the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, William Adams was chosen as secretary-treasurer to succeed Joe Iberra, who retired. The Transportation Communications Union elected Howard Randolph Jr. secretary-treasurer, replacing Earl Bosher.
Work in Progress is also available on our website at http://www.aflcio.org/aboutaflcio/wip .