(The AFL-CIO distributed the following on October 14.)
New members reported in this week’s WIP: 6,536
New members reported in WIP, year to date: 124,303
BRINGING THE UNION HOME–Some 2,500 home care workers in Tulare County, Calif., joined United Domestic Workers, an AFSCME affiliate, on Sept. 18 via a card-check. Under card-check, the employer agrees to recognize the union if a majority of workers indicates the desire to join a union by signing authorization cards.
REGAINING TENURE–An overwhelming majority of 1,500 faculty members at Florida State University (FSU) on Oct. 8 voted to certify the United Faculty of Florida, a joint AFT and NEA affiliate, to represent professors and professional employees in contract negotiations with the university’s trustees. The union has represented the employees for years, but Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and the legislature reorganized the higher education system last year, forcing each campus chapter to recertify the union.
A GOOD DAY–A total of 1,455 workers joined the Steelworkers last week. The 707 workers at the Alcoa aluminum plant in Cressona, Pa., became members of the union via a card-check on Oct. 6. The Alcoa master agreement requires that a super majority of 65 percent of workers demonstrate union support. The same day, 748 health care workers at Saint Mary’s medical center in Saginaw, Mich., voted for USWA. The unit includes nursing assistants, secretaries, phlebotomists, buyers, housekeepers, dietary workers and others.
BAGGING A WIN–The 350 employees at Safeway-owned Genuardi’s grocery stores in Bear, Glasgow and Brandywine, Del., chose a voice at work with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 27 via a card-check Sept. 30.
GOING PUBLIC–A majority of 325 service and support staff members at Parsons State Hospital and Training Center in Parsons, Kan., voted to join the Kansas Association of Public Employees, an AFT affiliate, on Sept. 22.
BICOASTAL VICTORIES–SEIU recently welcomed 266 new members on two coasts. The 140 business office employees at Tenet Healthcare’s Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, Calif., voted last month to join Local 399. With the help of community, political and religious allies, the 126 workers at Latham Centers Inc. in Brewster, Mass., voted for Local 509. The center is a residential school that provides treatment to children with emotional and behavioral problems.
UNIVERSAL SUPPORT–The 140 workers at Universal Linen, which makes comforters and blankets in Montreal, voted for UNITE last week. The new members join the Montreal Joint Board.
VERIZON PACTS RATIFIED–Members of the Communications Workers of America and the Electrical Workers overwhelmingly ratified new five-year contracts with Verizon last week. The contracts achieve key goals of safeguarding jobs and job security, maintaining the current quality health care coverage and improving retirement security, CWA President Morton Bahr and IBEW President Edwin Hill said. The contracts cover 82,000 employees from Maine to Virginia.
GROCERY WORKERS STRIKE–Fighting for fair health care benefits, UFCW members in five states struck several grocery store chains. In central and southern California, workers walked out at Vons grocery stores on Oct. 11. The Albertsons and Ralphs grocery chains then locked out workers, putting 70,000 workers on the picket line. The supermarket chains, which are negotiating jointly, are demanding workers pay higher premiums for health insurance and accept reduced pension benefits. The workers rejected the companies’ last offer. The current contracts expired Oct. 5. To e-mail the grocery chains in support of the strikers, visit http://www.saveourhealthcare.org . Meanwhile, 10,000 UFCW members in St. Louis walked out Oct. 7 after rejecting the contract offer by three grocery chains–Shop ‘n Save Warehouse, Schnuck Markets and Dierbergs Markets. Another 3,300 members of Local 400 in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky struck Kroger Co., the nation’s largest grocery chain, on Oct. 13.
NO PHONY MEDICARE PRESCRIPTIONS–Thousands of members of the Alliance for Retired Americans rallied Oct. 10 in more than a dozen states to urge their federal lawmakers to reject legislation that privatizes Medicare, fails to control the cost of prescription drugs or leads to cuts or elimination of employer-provided prescription drug benefits. Earlier this year, the House and Senate passed differing versions of a Medicare prescription drug benefit. Both would hand the prescription drug benefit to private insurers and have huge gaps in coverage, no guaranteed premiums and would not take effect until 2006, after the 2004 elections. “Neither bill as now drafted is acceptable, and if members of Congress insist on enacting an inferior final bill, seniors will have no recourse but to ‘recall’ them in 2004,” said Ruben Burks, the Alliance’s secretary-treasurer. The Alliance, the AFL-CIO and health care and seniors’ groups are urging the House-Senate conference that is merging the two bills to fix these problems or pass no bill. To send a message urging your lawmakers to vote against privatizing Medicare, visit http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/srs_rxdrugbenefit .
PROMOTING CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY–New rules proposed by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to make it easier for long-term investors to select corporate directors is “an act of genuine leadership,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. “Corporate scandals are painful reminders that giving CEOs the power to handpick their own directors can have devastating consequences for corporations and the investors, employees and communities that depend on them.” Although the SEC proposal contains requirements that make it hard for even large investors to act quickly, the union movement “looks forward to working with the commission to craft final rules that will hold CEOs and corporate boards accountable,” Sweeney said.
BUSH PRIVATIZATION, JOBS CLAIMS DISPROVED–The Bush administration’s claim that privatizing government jobs would save an average of 10 percent to 40 percent of current costs is not supported by the evidence, according to “Show Me the Money,” a new report by the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute (EPI). “The administration may be willfully misreading the research or engaging in some wishful thinking, but there’s no question that the facts do not lead where the administration says they do,” said EPI economist Max Sawicky. To read the report, visit http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/briefingpapers_bp145 . Meanwhile, the institute’s new website, JobWatch, http://www.jobwatch.org , reports the Bush tax cuts are not creating the number of jobs the White House said they would. While the administration promised the cuts would generate 344,000 new jobs a month, beginning in July, JobWatch reports the number of actual jobs created falls 672,000 short of the administration’s projections.
BUS STOP–Mechanics for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in Los Angeles County walked out Oct. 14 and bus drivers, train operators and other workers honored the picket lines. The key issue for the 2,200 members of the Amalgamated Transit Union is management’s demand to shift the increasing cost of health care benefits to workers. The employees have been working for more than a year without a contract.
UMWA BACKS FIRED MINERS–The Mine Workers vowed to support 74 coal miners at the C.W. Mining Co.’s Bear Canyon Mine in Huntington, Utah, who were fired Sept. 22 for seeking union representation. The miners, mostly Mexican immigrants, were earning just $5.25 to $7 an hour with no health insurance or other benefits. About 75 percent of the Bear Canyon miners have signed authorization cards seeking a voice through UMWA, the union said, but the company has not recognized the union.
ATTACK ON CIVIL RIGHTS SQUASHED–A coalition of unions, civil rights groups, faith organizations, women’s groups and other community advocates worked together to overwhelmingly defeat Proposition 54 on California’s Oct. 7 ballot. The proposition went down by a 64 percent to 36 percent margin. Proposition 54 would have banned the state, local governments, colleges and other public institutions from collecting almost all types of racial data, severely limiting the state’s ability to address disparities by race or ethnicity in health care, disease patterns, education, hate crimes and discrimination. Also, union members voted against the recall of Gov. Gray Davis (D) by a 55 percent to 45 percent margin.
PROTESTING ARRESTS–The global union movement is demanding officials in Colombia and Zimbabwe ensure the safety and quick release of union officials who recently disappeared or were arrested. USWA President Leo Gerard wrote Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, urging him to intervene to locate David Vergara and Seth Cure, leaders of the country’s mining union, who disappeared Sept. 29. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) has listed Colombia as the most dangerous country for trade unionists. ICFTU General Secretary Guy Ryder, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and William Lucy, president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), an AFL-CIO constituency group, each wrote Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe to demand leaders of the nation’s trade union federation be released after authorities arrested or detained more than 150 workers during a peaceful demonstration Oct. 8.
VISIONS, VOICES, VOTES–Under the theme of “Visions, Voices, Votes,” delegates to the Coalition of Labor Union Women’s (CLUW’s) biennial convention in Seattle Oct. 9-12 focused on strategies for improving women’s health and building strength through political action and organizing. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson and CBTU President William Lucy spoke to the convention. CLUW is an AFL-CIO constituency group.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT LAW SIGNED–Employers in California are liable for sexual harassment of employees by customers, clients or other third parties under a new law signed Oct. 3 by Gov. Davis. The California Labor Federation co-sponsored the bill. “This sensible law protects workers from sexual harassment while they are at work–whether it’s in a restaurant or on a movie set,” said federation Executive Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski.
FIRE TO RETIRE–IUE-CWA President Edward Fire announced he plans to retire Dec. 28 after six years in office. The union’s executive council selected Mike Bindas, president of IUE-CWA District 7, to fill out the remainder of Fire’s term, which runs until 2005. Bindas, a member of Local 717 in Warren, Ohio, has held the district office since 1989.
JOHN DUNLOP DIES–John T. Dunlop, a former U.S. secretary of labor and Harvard University economics professor, died Oct. 2. He was 89. Dunlop resigned as labor secretary in 1976 when President Gerald Ford vetoed a bill that would have expanded picketing rights of building trades unions. He advised “every AFL-CIO president, including myself,” said federation President John Sweeney. “He was for more than 50 years the pre-eminent authority on labor issues within the U.S. economy.”
FROM THE GROUND UP–The Painters and Allied Trades Industry Pension Fund, Hilton Hotels Corp. and District of Columbia government officials broke ground on the new Embassy Suites Convention Center, Washington, D.C., Oct. 10. The fund is a principal investor in the hotel construction with the District of Columbia government. Hundreds of construction jobs will be created during the construction phase with 230 permanent jobs created when the hotel opens in 2005.
Work in Progress is also available on our website at http://www.aflcio.org/aboutaflcio/wip .