7-10-05,8:48am
WORKERS 2, RIGHT TO WORK 0—By a wide margin, more than 1,200 workers at Thomas Built Bus in High Point, N.C., defied the National Right to Work Committee and voted June 29 to join UAW. The workers chose the union in March 2004 through a majority sign-up, in which an employer recognizes the union after a majority of workers signs cards authorizing union representation. But the committee’s legal arm, the Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, filed a charge on behalf of a few workers challenging the recognition. To avoid protracted legal proceedings that would delay getting to the bargaining table, the union agreed to a new secret ballot election, and for the second time in two weeks workers beat back a challenge by right-to-work-for-less proponents. More than 320 workers at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Asheboro, N.C., joined the United Steelworkers in a June 14–15 vote triggered by another committee charge.
CASTING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION—More than 250 casting directors, employed by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, voted recently for representation by the Teamsters. The alliance initially held the workers were independent contractors who could not organize but sought to offer them health care coverage, which was a key organizing issue. With IBT’s backing, the workers rejected the bid and the producers agreed to an election. The casters will be members of IBT Local 399 in Los Angeles and Local 817 in New York.
AFT WIN—Some 121 employees of Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School in Old Lyme, Conn., voted recently for AFT Connecticut. The workers, including all noncertified school personnel, began organizing after the district supervisor and local board of education cut instructional assistants’ work hours, depriving them of health insurance, and outsourced the cafeteria staff’s work.
BROADCAST COVERAGE—The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians/Communications Workers of America and ABC Television Network reached an agreement giving the union jurisdiction over most ESPN sports presentations, including pre- and post-game shows, that are broadcast on ABC. The agreement runs through March 31, 2011. The Walt Disney Co. owns both ESPN and ABC.
N.J. OKAYS MAJORITY SIGN-UP—New Jersey moved closer to expanding workers’ freedom to join unions when the state Senate approved legislation June 27 to allow majority sign-ups for union representation. The measure, which earlier passed the state Assembly, goes to acting Gov. Richard Codey (D), who, as president of the Senate, voted for the bill. It extends coverage to workers not covered under the National Labor Relations Act. Similar laws exist in California, New York, Illinois and, for charter school employees, Massachusetts.
HOUSE VOTE COMING SOON ON CAFTA—With the House of Representatives set to take up the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) as soon as next week, working families will spend the July 4 congressional recess lobbying their representatives to stop the flawed trade deal. The Senate, on a 54–45 vote, passed CAFTA late in the evening on June 30—the closest margin ever on a trade vote in the Senate. Workers want “fair trade that lifts living and workplace standards in the United States and in Central America, not another give away to giant corporations that will sell out America’s jobs while accelerating the deterioration of wages and working conditions in Central America,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. President George W. Bush has made CAFTA his top trade priority. If approved, CAFTA would cut tariffs among the United States, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. But the agreement, which is modeled after the North American Free Trade Agreement, does not contain adequate environmental protections or enforceable protections for such core workers’ rights as the freedom to form a union. The Senate vote came just days after it was revealed in published reports that the Bush Labor Department suppressed a report that showed several of the Central American countries included in CAFTA have poor working conditions and do not enforce workers’ rights laws. The Labor Department, which paid more than $700,000 for the study, instructed the contractor to remove the reports from its website, ordered it to retrieve paper copies before they became public, banned release of new information from the reports and told the contractor it couldn’t discuss the studies with outsiders.
NO TRICK, JUST A UNION CONTRACT—Under a recently signed agreement, the National Lampoon Clubhouse film “Trick or Treat” is being filmed under the Theatrical Stage Employees banner. The union and the film producer reached agreement after a one-day walkout June 15.
HIGH COURT PICK CRITICAL TO WORKERS—U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s retirement, announced July 1, “brings the nation to a critical point in the future of our judicial system and the rights and liberties of America’s working families,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. Because the high court decides cases involving workplace rights and protections, “it is more important than ever for President Bush to nominate a mainstream candidate rather than an extremist, right-wing candidate in an attempt to foist certain ideological views on working Americans,” Sweeney said.
MOBILIZING TO PROTECT OUR RETIREMENT—The fight for retirement security is heating up as thousands of working families and seniors use the July 4 congressional recess to demand protection for pensions and Social Security. Across the country, workers are urging their representatives and senators to support bipartisan legislation, H.R. 2327, that would place a six-month moratorium on bankrupt companies—including United Airlines—dumping their pension plans. On June 25, the House of Representatives voted to block United from defaulting on its plans. The 219–185 vote was a strong rebuke to United and other struggling employers that might be tempted to follow United’s lead by swamping the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. with their pension obligations—which could force a taxpayer bailout of the agency, said bill sponsor Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.). Meanwhile, seniors are focusing on Social Security as the Alliance for Retired Americans’ Truth Truck visits five Midwest states July 5–13. The Truth Truck will stop in Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, visiting the districts of 11 members of Congress. The tour includes a flatbed truck carrying more than a million messages from seniors urging Congress to oppose privatizing Social Security. For more information, visit www.retiredamericans.org.
WAL-MART FINED—The Connecticut Department of Labor has fined Wal-Mart $3,300, the maximum allowed by law, for violations of child labor laws. Last February, Wal-Mart agreed to pay a federal fine of $134,540 for previous violations of federal child labor laws in Connecticut, Arkansas and New Hampshire. Connecticut state auditors later found continuing child labor law violations, Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R) said.
GUILD TO PROTEST JOURNALISTS’ JAILING—Members of The Newspaper Guild/CWA will observe a two-minute moment of silence at noon EDT, July 6, in support of two reporters who are scheduled to be sentenced to jail for refusing to testify about their confidential sources. The New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper, both TNG members, face up to 18 months in jail and fines of $1,000 a day for refusing to identify sources regarding the disclosure of the identity of a CIA agent. Time-Warner, Cooper’s corporate employer, agreed to turn over his notes to a grand jury. This case points out the need for a federal law protecting journalists’ rights to keep their pledges of confidentiality, said TNG President Linda Foley.
GLOBAL UNIONS PUSH FOR END TO POVERTY—Trade unions around the world shined the spotlight on global poverty July 1 in an international White Band Day. In rallies, demonstrations and meetings around the world, hundreds of thousands of workers wore white armbands and called for debt relief for the poorest countries, increased development aid and justice in the world trade system. World trade union leaders, led by AFL-CIO President Sweeney and Guy Ryder, general secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, met June 28 with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to press the case for action by the richest countries to alleviate world poverty. Blair is the host for the G8 summit of world leaders July 6–8.
GOING UP—Vermont Gov. James Douglas (R) has said he will sign a measure raising the state’s minimum wage to $7.25 an hour—a 25-cent boost—effective Jan. 1. After Jan. 1, 2007, the state’s minimum pay would be linked to the Labor Department’s consumer price index (CPI), increasing annually by either 5 percent or the change in the CPI, whichever is less. At the federal level, congressional Republicans have blocked several attempts to raise the minimum wage, which has been frozen at $5.15 an hour since 1997. Legislation introduced in May (S. 1092 and H.R. 2429) would increase the federal minimum wage by $2.10 an hour to $7.25 over 26 months.
CONTRACEPTION EQUITY GAINS—West Virginia became the 23rd state to pass a contraception equity law requiring health benefit plans that cover prescription medicines to cover FDA-approved prescription contraception. The law, signed in late June, exempts certain nonprofit religious employers. According to the Coalition of Labor Union Women’s Contraception Equity Project, women, on average, pay 68 percent more out of pocket for health care expenses than men, largely because of contraception costs. For more information on contraception equity, visit www.cluw.org.
CROSS-BORDER TRAINING—Fire Fighters’ members from locals 493 in Phoenix and 479 in Tucson, Ariz., provided training in handling and disposing of hazardous materials and weapons of mass destruction to 75 firefighters in the Mexican border city of Nogales, which is in the state of Sonora. IAFF President Harold Schaitberger said, “We consider it a moral obligation to help firefighters everywhere obtain this critically needed training and hazmat equipment necessary” to perform their jobs safely. The training, held June 20–24, was offered through a partnership among the IAFF, its affiliate the United Professional Fire Fighters of Arizona, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the states of Arizona and Sonora and the Valley Hispanic Bomberos, an advocacy group for Latino firefighters.
