WORKERS’ RIGHTS PAY ECONOMIC DIVIDENDS
“In the age of McJobs and super-sized pink slips, workers need a voice on the job more than ever,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. “Unions are the key to this nation’s middle class, yet the right to come together in a union is a fundamental freedom that has been eroded beyond recognition.”
The 11 Nobel Laureates also pointed to the connection between workers’ rights and living standards. The right to form and join unions “is vital to promoting broadly shared economic prosperity, social justice and strong democracies,” they wrote.
HERE AND THERE
In Hong Kong, on Dec. 10, Sweeney and other trade union leaders will join with workers to urge the World Trade Organization, which meets there Dec. 13–18, to protect workers’ rights, especially the right to form a union.
Thousands of federal workers in Washington, D.C., will march in front of the White House Dec. 8 to protest the Bush administration’s proposed personnel rules that would strip employees in the Defense and Homeland Security departments of collective bargaining rights.
In New York City, workers and union leaders, including AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson, will hold a candlelight demonstration Dec. 7 at Washington Square Park to call attention to several workers’ struggles, including New York University graduate employees (see “Day of Action, Not Classes”).
Thousands of Cambodians will hold a mass rally in Phnom Penh to call for workers’ rights as human rights in an event that likely will be the largest demonstration of Cambodians since they regained their freedom from the Khmer Rogue. The rally is sponsored by members of eight labor federations, 18 nongovernment organizations, four student and youth associations and a law firm. For more information on Dec. 10 events, visit www.aflcio.org/D10.
Get a rundown of all the Dec. 10 mobilizations in the United States (www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/calendar.cfm) and around the world
(www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/voiceatwork/d10_aroundtheworld.cfm).
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Work in Progress
WORKERS CALL ON CWA—More than 2,000 workers at Cingular Wireless operations in five states joined the Communications Workers of America last month. In Paramus, N.J., 872 call center workers joined Local 1101, and 788 retail sales associates at Cingular stores in Texas gained representation with several local unions. Another 195 retail sales workers at Oregon stores chose the union as did 129 Cerritos, Calif., call center workers and 58 retail sales workers at Indiana Cingular stores. More than 13,500 Cingular employees who once worked for AT&T have joined CWA since August under an agreement between the union and Cingular in which the company agreed to honor the workers’ freedom to form a union when a majority signs authorization cards.
VICTORY FOR VIRGINIA WORKERS—Some 500 workers at Church & Dwight Co. in Richmond, Va., won a voice in the workplace when they voted Nov. 23 to join the Machinists. Organizers said the company mounted an aggressive anti-union campaign, including stuffing pay envelopes with anti-union literature and holding mandatory captive audience meetings twice a week.
OUT OF TOUCH HOUSE EYES TAX CUT FOR WEALTHY—A $70 billion tax cut bill—aimed mostly at the wealthy—is the top priority of Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives as they resume work Dec. 6 after a two-week Thanksgiving recess. The tax cut for the rich is the companion piece to a $50 billion spending cut bill—aimed mostly at programs for working families and the poor—that Republican leadership squeaked through by two votes (217–215) Nov. 18. Weeks of arm-twisting by the White House and Republican leaders on House Republicans secured that win, but the House leaders postponed the vote until this month. The Senate passed similar, but smaller, spending and tax cut bills last month. “With the deficit mounting and working families increasingly squeezed by mounting cuts to health care, student loan programs and food assistance, it’s clear that the administration and its congressional allies are completely out of touch with mainstream America,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said.
DELPHI UNIONS WANT ACTIONS, NOT WORDS—Delphi’s request to delay until January a bankruptcy court hearing on its request to impose wage and benefit cuts was “a positive sign,” UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and Vice President Richard Shoemaker said. But if the company is serious about resuming talks with the six unions, it must take its “insulting” contract proposal off the table, they added. The contract proposal, which would cut 24,000 jobs and slash hourly wages by nearly 62 percent, “is not a framework for an agreement, but a roadmap for confrontation,” Gettelfinger and Shoemaker said. The six unions that make up the Mobilizing@Delphi coalition rejected the offer Nov. 18. The unions—Electrical Workers, IUE-CWA, Machinists, Operating Engineers, UAW and United Steelworkers—also condemned Delphi’s proposed plan to reward 486 top executives with some $500 million in cash and stock options when it emerges from bankruptcy. “If Delphi is successful at implementing its devastating proposal, there will be a ripple effect that will spread across the country as company after company follows suit,” said Henry Reichard, chairman of the IUE-CWA Automotive Conference Board. Delphi, the nation’s largest auto parts supplier, filed for bankruptcy protection Oct. 8.
DAY OF ACTION, NOT CLASSES—New York University’s (NYU’s) threat to replace striking graduate teaching and research assistants will not deter the workers or break their union, graduate employees said. Members of the Graduate Student Organizing Committee/UAW Local 2110 and some 2,500 student and faculty supporters held a mass rally Dec. 2. They were joined by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, UAW President Gettelfinger, New York State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes, New York City Central Labor Council President Brian McLaughlin, John Wilhelm, president of the unaffiliated UNITE HERE’s Hospitality Industry division, and several elected officials. The 1,000 graduate assistants walked out Nov. 9 to protest the university’s refusal to bargain a second contract. 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. In 2004, the Bush administration’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) reversed a Clinton administration ruling and abolished federal labor law protections for graduate employees. But nothing in the NLRB ruling prevents NYU and other universities from voluntarily recognizing the union. 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.
LIVING WAGE OUT WEST—The New Mexico Court of Appeals last week upheld Santa Fe’s living wage law, and Arizona worker activists are mobilizing to boost that state’s minimum wage through a 2006 ballot initiative. A group of Santa Fe businesses challenged the city’s right to set a living wage for private businesses, but the appeals court on Nov. 29 ruled in the city’s favor. The current $8.50 an hour wage for Santa Fe businesses with 25 or more workers is due to increase to $9.50 an hour in January. The Arizona Minimum Wage Coalition filed an application with the secretary of state for a ballot initiative to raise the state’s minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.75. The group must collect 122,000 signatures by July to qualify for a place on the ballot. For more information on state minimum wage battles, visit www.aflcio.org/issues/legislativealert/stateissues/minimumwage/.
COURT REJECTS IDAHO PAY DECEPTION LAW—A federal judge on Dec. 1 threw out an Idaho law that restricted how donations could be collected for politics. U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill ruled the Voluntary Contributions Act, which would have banned all payroll deductions for union political activities, was unconstitutional. The law included deductions authorized by employees.
CURRENCY REPORT—A SLAP IN FACE FOR WORKERS—The Bush administration’s report to Congress stating that China is not manipulating its currency is a “slap in the face to America’s workers and manufacturers,” AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka said. Last year the Bush administration summarily rejected a petition by the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council and manufacturers that showed the Chinese yuan is artificially undervalued by 40 percent, giving that country an unfair trade advantage over the United States and causing a huge trade deficit and loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs. Trumka called on Congress to pass H.R. 1498, a bill that would give several government agencies the power to act against currency manipulation.
NEW RULES PUT CREW IN JEOPARDY—New security measures that allow airline passengers to carry small scissors and screwdrivers aboard planes place the lives of flight crews in jeopardy, the union representing flight attendants said. The new procedures are set to go into effect Dec. 22. The Flight Attendants-CWA filed a formal complaint in August when the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) first proposed revising the security procedures. “These insane proposals put every flight attendant at risk every time they go to work,” said AFA-CWA President Patricia Friend. “The fact that the TSA shared these proposals with the press before discussing them with those who would be most affected is outrageous.”
SELLING OUT AIRLINES, WORKERS—Unions and lawmakers charged the Bush administration with making a “backdoor” attempt to loosen federal laws on foreign ownership of U.S. airlines after being rebuffed in Congress. Last month the Bush Transportation Department issued a notice of a proposed rule making that would make changes to allow greater foreign ownership of U.S. carriers though regulation instead. “This is a back door effort to accomplish what the department has failed to accomplish through legislation,” Reps. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) and Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) said in a letter to Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. “The administration’s proposal reads like a down payment to those who believe America’s aviation market—the world’s largest and most lucrative—should be sold off to foreign interests without regard for the aviation industry and its employees,” said Ed Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department.
GLOBAL UNIONS LAUNCH AIDS CAMPAIGN—Global Unions commemorated World AIDS Day Dec. 1 by announcing a series of initiatives for 2006 in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Global Unions is a coalition of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, 10 international union federations and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The unions will focus on delivering the message that HIV/AIDS is a human rights issue to several global meetings next year. The unions also are calling on trade union members worldwide to get involved in the World AIDS Campaign (WAC) by visiting the WAC website to make personal pledges to join the campaign. They also will launch workplace initiatives in countries severely hit by the AIDS pandemic. The unions released a new pamphlet “HIV/AIDS Is a Human Rights Issue” and country profiles to track government progress on HIV/AIDS.
HOLIDAY WEB SHOPPING—Whether you’re just getting started with holiday shopping or looking for one last gift for someone special, you can find what you’re looking for at The Union Shop Online. Holiday cards, books, clothing, games and stocking stuffers are available at your mouse-clicking fingertips. Buying these union-made-in-the-USA products will brighten someone’s holiday and support your brothers and sisters in plants and factories around the country. For more shopping options, visit www.shopunionmade.org/, the all-union Internet shopping site of the AFL-CIO’s Union Label and Service Trades Department.
NEW AT WWW.AFLCIO.ORG:
BETRAYAL OF BASIC AMERICAN VALUES—When Austin, Texas, single mom Danette Chavez tried to form a union to improve the working conditions and pay at the janitorial agency where she worked, she was illegally fired, wrote David Bonior in the latest Point of View column at www.aflcio.org. “What happened to Danette is an outrage, a betrayal of basic American values, but it’s hardly an isolated incident,” said Bonior, chairman of American Rights at Work and a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He outlined the shortcomings of the nation’s labor laws and how employers routinely violate even those weak standards. He urged working families to take part in the Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, mobilizations set for this week. “Together we can and we must ignite a new movement to demand that workers’ rights in the United States and around the world are restored, guaranteed and promoted,” he said. Read Bonior’s entire column at www.aflcio.org/mediacenter/speakout/db.cfm.
