PURE WIN AT PUREWOOD—The Machinists welcomed 75 new members recently, including 70 workers at the Purewood Inc. plant in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, who voted for the union Oct. 17. The new Machinists manufacture wood products. Five mechanics at the Spitzer Cadillac car dealership in Cleveland also voted for IAM.
PART-TIME FACULTY WINS JOB SECURITY—Two thousand part-time faculty members at New York’s The New School, members of Academics Come Together/UAW Local 7902, overwhelmingly ratified their first contract Nov. 18. Under the four-year deal, The New School becomes the first private university to guarantee job security to part-time faculty members, the university announced. The contract also includes annual pay increases.
TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR WAL-MART—Last week U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) challenged Wal-Mart to live up to Ten Commandments for Good Corporate Citizenship. In a Web posting at The Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com/), Kennedy wrote, “Wal-Mart has forced employees to work overtime without pay. They have hired professional union busters to keep employees from having a voice at work. They have refused to provide affordable health care, while instructing workers to apply for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.” The commandments included, “Thou shalt pay living wages; Thou shalt provide affordable health care; Thou shalt not bust unions; Thou shall promote women and men equally.” Read Kennedy’s entire article (www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-edward-m-kennedy-/ten-commandments-for-wal_b_10976.html) and find out more about paying the price at Wal-Mart.
NO HOLIDAY FROM SHAME—Don’t let members of Congress forget how wrong their priorities are. On Nov. 18 they gave themselves their eighth pay raise since the last time the minimum wage was raised in 1997, when the House and Senate approved the Transportation/Treasury appropriations bill. While the House doesn’t return to work until Dec. 6 and the Senate Dec. 13, you can call their district and home state offices and tell them it’s way past time to raise the $5.15 an hour minimum wage. Lawmakers have voted to increase their own pay by $31,600 a year since 1997—nearly three times the $10,700 a full-time minimum wage worker makes in a year. And before leaving for their Thanksgiving vacation, congressional leadership pushed through billions in cuts for working family programs, including Medicaid, student loans and food stamps, and is set to pass some $70 billion in tax cuts mostly for the wealthy. Call your representative and senators now and tell them to get their priorities straight—increase the minimum wage, don’t cut working family programs and don’t give the wealthy even more tax breaks. Visit www.house.gov and www.senate.gov to find your lawmakers’ district and home state office phone numbers.
FAMILY LEAVE THREATENED—The Department of Labor is widely expected to cut back protections of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) that has helped tens of millions of workers since it was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1993. Big Business groups—including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers—are pressing to limit workers’ ability to take time off without pay for the birth or adoption of a child and to care for a sick loved one or for their own illness. In its recently released regulatory agenda, the Labor Department said FMLA changes are among its regulatory priorities and could come as early as December. But unions and other groups have urged the Labor Department to keep the current FMLA regulations intact. Read more about corporate attacks on family leave at the AFL-CIO’s Point of View webpage (www.aflcio.org/mediacenter/speakout/ellen_bravo.cfm), www.9to5.org and www.nationalpartnership.org.
DATE SET FOR HEARING ON DEFENSE RULES—U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan has set Jan. 24, 2006, as the hearing date for a lawsuit by 10 unions challenging new Department of Defense work rules, the National Security Personnel System (NSPS). “We are very pleased that the court has agreed to hear the case in timely manner,” said AFGE President John Gage. “Over 600,000 federal workers await the ruling. The NSPS could have grave implications for the safety of America’s fighting men and women and for safeguarding the public coffers.” The unions filed suit Nov. 7 to stop the personnel system, which would allow Defense officials to override provisions in collective bargaining contracts.
CLASS IS STILL OUT—The strike by some 1,000 members of the Graduate Student Organizing Committee/UAW Local 2110 at New York University (NYU) is entering its third week. The graduate assistants walked out Nov. 9 to protest the university’s refusal to bargain a second contract. During the strike, the assistants will not teach, grade papers, advise students or perform administrative tasks for professors. More than 500 professors have joined the graduate employees’ protest by teaching classes off campus during the strike. The school announced Aug. 5 it no longer would recognize the union and let the contract lapse. To send a message to NYU administrators saying you support the striking graduate employees, visit www.unionvoice.org/campaign/NYU_Action_clone. To learn more about the graduate assistants’ fight for a second contract, click on www.2110uaw.org/gsoc.
BORDER PROBLEMS—The Bush administration has outsourced the manufacturing of U.S. Border Patrol uniforms across the border—to Mexico. “I’m embarrassed, not only as a Border Patrol agent but as an American citizen that our government has decided to outsource the production of these uniforms with no regard for the safety of the process or the security of our country,” said Joseph N. Dassaro, president of the National Border Patrol Council/AFGE Local 1613. Agents are concerned about the possible theft and misuse use of the uniforms. Several members of Congress have indicated they will introduce legislation when Congress reconvenes requiring the Border Patrol uniforms be made in the United States.
ERWIN TO PROBE BP SAFETY—The United Steelworkers selected Glenn Erwin to serve on the independent panel established to examine safety management in BP’s U.S. refineries. The panel was created in response to a recommendation by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board during that federal agency’s investigation of the March 23 accident at BP’s Texas City, Texas, refinery that killed 15 people. Erwin heads the union’s Triangle of Prevention safety program.
AFT: STUDY LACKS SOLUTIONS—The AFT challenged a recently released study that wrongly claims union contract language is an obstacle preventing urban schools from hiring good teachers. The study, Unintended Consequences: The Case for Reforming the Staffing Rules in Urban Teachers Union Contracts, was released Nov. 16 by The New Teacher Project, a nonprofit teacher recruitment and certification organization used by many big-city school districts. The report completely misses the mark on the challenge of retaining new teachers in urban schools, said AFT Executive Vice President Antonia Cortese. “If we want to solve this problem, we need to spend more time on retention strategies like peer mentoring and other supports,” she said.
ROBERT GOSS DIES—Robert F. Goss, 84, retired president of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW), now a part of the United Steelworkers, died Oct. 27. His wife, Frances, also 84, died Oct. 31. Robert Goss led OCAW from 1979–1983. He traveled to 64 nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America and was widely recognized for his work with labor unions in fostering independence and democratic principles in nations that previously had been ruled by colonial powers or brutal dictatorships.
NEW AT WWW.AFLCIO.ORG:
HELP WITH MEDICARE DRUG BENEFIT—Starting Nov. 15, millions of retirees could begin enrolling in Medicare’s prescription drug plan. But the program offers what Newsweek magazine called a “mind-numbing array of choices.” In most states, private insurers are offering 40 or more plans retirees must choose among, with differing co-payments, premiums, deductibles, drugs covered and pharmacies that can fill prescriptions. If retirees don’t select a plan by May 15, 2006, their premiums will begin rising by 1 percent each month. Click here (www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare/medicare/) to visit the AFL-CIO’s special Web section on the Medicare drug benefit to learn more about the plan and for useful links to help you choose—or help an older loved one choose—the best plan.
HOLIDAY SHOPPING? FORGET THE MALLS—The Union Shop Online (http://unionshop.aflcio.org/shop/index.htm) will help you avoid at least some of those long lines and crowded stores. You can find holiday cards—Christmas, Hannukkah, Kwanzaa and several bilingual cards—plus ornaments, games, clothing, caps, music, books and many other great gift ideas. Remember, all are union-made-in-the-USA and many carry pro-union, pro-worker messages. Pick out something for your brother, the red-state conservative.
COOL TOOLS RULE—The latest addition to the AFL-CIO’s Cool Tools website is a quick link to the UAW’s Union Made: Consumer Buying Guide for 2006 Cars and Trucks that provides information for consumers who want to purchase 2006 cars and trucks produced by workers who enjoy the benefits and protections of a union contract. Also check out The Mind at Work, by Mike Rose, a professor at UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, who pays tribute to the skills and intelligence of people who are often dismissed as “blue-collar” or “in service.” And in Writing the Wrongs readers will learn about the career of pioneering labor journalist Eva McDonald Valesh. Elizabeth Faue, professor of history at Wayne State University, tells the story of how Valesh broke through the gender barriers to become “the right-hand man” of AFL President Samuel Gompers and a highly successful investigative journalist, organizer, feminist leader and public speaker for labor reform. Find out more at Cool Tools (www.aflcio.org/aboutus/thisistheaflcio/publications/magazine/cooltools.cfm).
DEC. 10—RESTORE FREEDOM TO JOIN UNIONS—Machinists President Tom Buffenbarger will join with thousands of New Jersey workers and supporters for a march and rally Dec. 5 to call attention to the need to restore workers’ freedom to form unions. The rally will be held in Orange, where workers at the DISH Network voted recently for IAM. Since the vote, workers who backed the union have been fired, harassed and intimidated, according to a complaint the IAM filed with the NLRB.
The Orange rally is part of a week of actions around the world and across the country to restore workers’ rights and the freedom to form unions and bargain collectively. Throughout the week of Dec. 5–10, workers, joined by allies and elected leaders, will hold rallies, town hall meetings, candlelight vigils and teach-ins (www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/calendar.cfm) to expose the obstacles workers face when seeking to join unions (www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/how/employerwar.cfm) and showcase strategies for overcoming those barriers (www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/how/index.cfm).
In Boston, on Dec. 8, 5,000 workers will stage a Worker Freedom Trail march, complete with minutemen and a town crier, to raise awareness about the erosion of workers’ rights. The Worker Freedom Trail will feature stops at some of Boston’s most notorious anti-worker businesses.
Meanwhile, in Phoenix, 1,000 workers are set for a Dec. 10 rally at which workers struggling to form unions will speak about the abuse they’ve suffered from employers and mobilize support for a state constitutional amendment to raise Arizona’s minimum wage.
These and hundreds of other events are part of the largest mobilization ever for workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain collectively. The massive global push marks Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day (www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/d10.cfm), the anniversary of the 1948 ratification of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which includes workers’ freedom to organize.
