(The AFL-CIO circulated the following on October 27.)
New members reported in this week’s WIP: 1,141
New members reported in WIP to date: 127,884
WINNING IN W.VA.–More than 850 workers at Weirton (W.Va.) Medical Center won a voice on the job recently with SEIU District 1199WOK. The majority of 310 registered nurses led off the series of union victories on Sept. 24. In the following weeks, majorities of 540 aides, technicians and other staff also voted overwhelmingly for the union.
AIRPORT WORKERS GET AFSCME WINGS–A strong majority of 94 custodial and other support workers at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis voted overwhelmingly to join AFSCME Local 410 Oct. 16, with only a single “no” vote. “This is about winning a secure future and better jobs,” said worker Willie Tannen.
PACE WINS AT DUPONT–The majority of 50 workers in an independent union at DuPont Soy Polymers facility in Louisville, Ky., voted to affiliate with PACE International Union Oct. 21. The win marks the seventh recent successful campaign for workers at DuPont facilities seeking a voice with PACE. In another victory, a strong majority of 40 workers at paper company Smurfit-Stone in Elk Grove Village, Ill., voted to join PACE on Oct. 16.
YWCA GOES UAW–Workers at four YWCA facilities in western Massachusetts voted to join UAW Local 2322 Oct. 17. The 62 direct service employees work with battered women, teen mothers, rape victims, at-risk youths, the homeless and others at YWCA sites in Northampton, Westfield, Holyoke and Springfield.
LAKE ZURICH WORKERS WIN VOICE–Twenty-six city workers in Lake Zurich, Ill., voted for a voice at work with Operating Engineers Local 150 earlier this month. They work in the Public Works and Parks and Recreation departments.
WORKERS CHOOSE NABET–At NBC Television’s 30 Rockefeller Center studios in New York City, shipping, receiving, mail room and other workers voted to join NABET/CWA Local 5101 Oct. 24. The 19 workers are employed by Adecco Inc., an NBC subcontractor.
JUSTICE FOR HOME CARE WORKERS–In a breakthrough Oct. 23 for the 20,000 members of SEIU Local 880 who assist state residents with disabilities through the Illinois Department of Human Services/Office of Rehabilitation, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) signed the first-ever union agreement betweent the workers and the state. The contract includes a 34 percent wage increase over four years, back pay and improved rights on the job. This summer, Blagojevich signed legislation codifying collective bargaining rights for home care workers.
GROCERY STRIKE CONTINUES–Health care for all workers is on the line as grocery workers for several chains in four states are on strike to save affordable health care. Management proposals include a 75 percent cut in employer health care contributions for new workers and a 50 percent slash for current workers. On Oct. 30, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, United Food and Commercial Workers President Douglas Dority and other union leaders will announce an initiative to support the striking workers, including financial support. Striking workers include 70,000 in California, 10,000 in St. Louis and 4,000 in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky.
MEDICARE DRUG BILL COSTS SENIORS–A series of television ads by the Alliance for Retired Americans urges viewers not to let Congress turn over Medicare to private insurers as a Republican-dominated conference on Medicare prescription drug legislation is proposing. Meanwhile, a new study of the Medicare prescription drug bills under consideration by a House and Senate conference committee says as many as 13.4 million seniors and people with disabilities will be forced to pay more for their prescription drugs under the bills’ provisions. According to “Paying More for Less” by the USAction Education Fund (USAEF), the prescription drug premiums, deductibles and co-payments in the Senate bill would cost $1,100 a year, more than 48 percent of seniors and people with disabilities (13.4 million people) currently pay. The proposed bills also would increase out-of-pocket costs for doctor visits and laboratory tests for 32.5 million of Medicare’s 40 million beneficiaries. The USAEF report reaffirms the Congressional Budget Office’s finding that the bills will encourage employers to drop their retiree drug benefits, leaving as many as 4.5 million without their current employer-provided drug coverage. In addition, on Oct. 22, the Republican-led conference committee released an outline of the final bill that not only imposes higher Medicare costs on beneficiaries and provides less prescription drug support for lower-income recipients but also requires privatization of Medicare services. A bipartisan group of 41 senators wrote President George W. Bush telling him, “a partisan conference report that jeopardizes Medicare and does not provide meaningful assistance to elderly and disabled should not and will not pass.” For a copy of the report, visit http://www.usaction.org . To send to send a message to your lawmakers, visit http://www.aflcio.org .
WAL-MART’S POOR BENEFITS–An AFL-CIO report released Oct. 21 finds that Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, sets a troubling standard for job-based health care. Because of the Wal-Mart health plan’s high costs and barriers to participation, only 46 percent of Wal-Mart workers get health care coverage at work, compared with 66 percent of all workers at large private firms, according to the report. “As Wal-Mart continues to leech off communities, forcing taxpayers and workers to pick up health care costs, they do tremendous damage as they drive other companies to do the same,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. For a copy of “Wal-Mart: An Example of Why Workers Remain Uninsured and Underinsured,” call 202-637-5018 or visit http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/healthpolicy/upload/Wal-Mart_final.pdf .
BIG BUSINESS ATTACKS HEALTH CARE LAW–The California Chamber of Commerce is fighting to repeal a new state law requiring employers to provide health insurance to workers. The group filed a proposed referendum with the state attorney general’s office to overturn state Senate Bill 2, which Gov. Gray Davis (D) signed earlier this month. The California Labor Federation spearheaded passage of S.B. 2 with the support of many health care advocates.
PROPOSED PACTS PROTECT HEALTH CARE–A tentative five-year agreement between the Teamsters and Anheuser-Busch maintains health care benefits and includes pension increases and wage hikes and bars the company from closing any of the 12 breweries where the 7,500 IBT members are employed. Meanwhile, the Communications Workers of America bargained a tentative accord with Dex Media Inc. that continues full employer-paid health coverage, along with improvements in other areas. The contract covers 1,500 workers at the company, which publishes 272 phone directories for Qwest Communications.
UAW, USWA SUE CHAO–The UAW and the Steelworkers filed a federal suit against U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao Oct. 21, asking that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) be ordered to issue standards reducing the permissible exposure to metalworking fluids in U.S. workplaces. Each year, millions of workers are exposed to potentially cancer-causing metalworking fluids. Earlier this year, OSHA stopped consideration of a new rule to set a stringent exposure standard to protect workers who handle the fluids, widely used in manufacturing cars, farm equipment, aircraft and other metal products.
CALL FOR FEDERAL UI EXTENSION NOW–Congressional Democrats are urging Congress to extend the Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) benefits program, scheduled to expire Dec. 31, before Congress adjourns for winter recess. Earlier this month, Democrats introduced two bills (H.R. 3244 and S. 1708) to extend the program through June 30, 2004. Under TEUC, workers who have exhausted state unemployment benefits may apply for an additional 13 weeks–26 in certain hardship states–of federal benefits. About 1.4 million unemployed workers have exhausted all state and federal benefits, with another 1 million soon to follow, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
MINIMUM WAGE EVEN MORE SO–The gap between the federal minimum wage–currently $5.15 an hour–and the median wage for all workers is at its biggest ever, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reported Oct. 22. EPI figures show that since 1973, the real median wage–the hourly wage of the worker in the middle of the wage scale–has risen by 10 percent, while the real value of the minimum wage has dropped by 10 percent. The value of the minimum wage dropped from its peak of 54.9 percent of the median wage in 1979 to just 38.2 percent today. To restore the minimum wage’s value to its 1979 level, Congress would have to pass legislation raising the minimum wage to $7.40 an hour.
EXTREMIST BUSH NOMINEE SLAMMED–Janice Rogers Brown, whose nomination to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has been condemned by the Congressional Black Caucus, the Leadership Council on Civil Rights, the NAACP, the AFL-CIO and a host of labor, women’s and other groups, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee Oct. 22. Brown, who serves as an associate justice on the California Supreme Court, “has authored opinions restricting free speech rights, undermining health and safety protections and banning affirmative action…She has written dissents that would have barred civil rights claims [and] denied effective remedies to victims of unlawful discrimination,” the AFL-CIO wrote in a letter to the committee. The committee vote on Brown, who is part of President Bush’s drive to pack the federal courts with ultraconservative and ideologically driven judges, is expected later this fall. For more information visit http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/factsheet_ns04242003.cfm .
FALSE SECURITY–More shocking than a college student with no terrorist training successfully hiding box cutters and other banned items aboard four Southwest Airlines planes recently is that “flight attendants are no better prepared to stop a terrorist than we were on Sept. 11,” said Pat Friend, president of the Flight Attendants. The Transportation Security Administration and the airlines “have failed to provide us with comprehensive security and counterterrorism training,” she said.
SRI LANKA BREAKTHROUGH–Workers’ unions at garment companies in Sri Lanka’s Export Processing Zones (EPZ) manufacturing goods for export to U.S. and European markets won recognition from employers in July and October. At Polytex, 925 workers voted for and won employer recognition of the All Ceylon Federation of Free Trade Unions. At Jaqalanka, employer intimidation, harassment, threats and violence derailed a similar worker drive in July. But with assistance from the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center, the Free Trade Zone Workers Union initiated a global campaign that helped the 400 workers at Jaqalanka win recognition in October. These wins broke a decades-long ban on unions in the EPZ and open the gates for more union campaigns.
IUC BACKS CHINA CURRENCY ACTION–The AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council (IUC) has joined the Fair Currency Alliance and its currency manipulation case against China. The case is being filed under section 301 of U.S. trade law that protects against unfair trade practices by other nations. The alliance, a coalition of business and labor groups, is urging President Bush to insist China stop its currency manipulation or face trade sanctions. Chinese products account for nearly a quarter of this year’s projected $500 billon U.S. trade deficit.
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