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Bargaining Digest Weekly
The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 800 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining at Work.
The nurses represented by USW International Union at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital ratified a new agreement, ending their strike. The new three-year agreement protects those positions it covers from an adverse National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling expected any day now that may define many nurses as supervisors and cut them out of some bargaining units.
Operating Engineers (IOUE) union ratified a five-year contract that ends their strike and allows Sacramento garbage collection to resume. Workers there received an improved wage increase to help defray the cost of insurance. Also, in Sacramento, even though the strike is over, some pharmacists, members of AFSCME, are staying home.
USW received a new company proposal from Goodyear—a proposal that includes reclassifying many workers into lower-paying jobs.
New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D) is calling for negotiations with state workers represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), AFSCME, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) and other unions to start nine months early. Contracts covering more than 60,000 workers are due to expire next July 1.
A judge in Ohio restricted AK Steel mass picket activities by Machinist (IAM) members who have been locked out for seven months. The IAM appealed to the Middletown City Council for support of their request to the company for a mediator to come in and help resolve the lockout. Meanwhile, unemployment benefits for the 2,100 locked-out workers are expiring and many workers are signing up for job training.
Some 1,100 IAM workers at Bombardier’s Wichita, Kan., plant will be voting on a new agreement. However, the Machinists are displeased with the contract proposal. IAM workers gave back 3.5 percent in wages in the last agreement.
Employees of The Seattle Times’ largest union, the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild, ratified a new contract calling for a two-year wage freeze. The Guild recommended ratification of the contract amid financial difficulties at the paper.
Some 900 Fire Fighters (IAFF) in Kansas City, Mo., won a new three-year agreement, including pay incentives and salary adjustments.
Madison Gas and Electric and the Electrical Workers (IBEW) union agreed to a third tentative settlement. Workers have rejected two previous agreements, including elimination of a defined-benefit pension plan for new hires. The latest proposal also includes this provision.
Saying they entered negotiations in a spirit of compromise, Duluth (Minn.) city leaders fear a negotiation impasse with AFSCME and the IAFF over health care. AFSCME and the City of Duluth (Minn.) are sparring over overtime rules. The city wants to scrap the seniority-based system. The unions say employer’s ”spirit of compromise” usually can be translated to mean worker concessions.
USW is increasing its international reach. The Independent Oil Workers Union of Aruba voted to join USW just as they open negotiations with Valero Energy Corp. for a new contract.
The number of unionized public-sectors workers has hit an all-time high of 1 million. One of eight New York public-sector workers belongs to a union.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court held unconstitutional a recently enacted law that granted bargaining rights to public-sector employees in cities with populations of at least 35,000. The court held that the law discriminated against employees in smaller cities and struck the entire law down.
IBEW workers at Agere Systems are protesting plans to cease retiree health benefit payments by 2008. In Michigan, the Lansing Board of Water & Light and the IBEW reached a tentative contract covering 400 workers.
Helicopter pilots transporting workers to oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico went on strike in Lafayette, La. OPEIU has been working on a new agreement for more than two years with PHI Inc.
After waiting 15 years, former workers at the liquidated Pan American World Airways will get back pay and vacation pay owed them when the company went bankrupt.
On the East Coast, Longshoremen (ILA) union members say the Portsmouth (N.H.) port director retaliated against union workers after they complained to the state about the director, by assigning their work to nonunion workers. An investigation of the retailiation complaints is under way.
Three city unions in Rockford, Ill., including AFSCME, are in a pitched battle for new contracts.
Atlanta Ballet musicians seek a return to live music. The ballet has replaced members of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM) with taped music and has offered musicians an insulting severance package of $228. In Chicago, a new contract for AFM musicians and the Lyric Opera may lead to live radio broadcasts if the Musical Artists (AGMA) and Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) reach agreement on the terms.
After two days on the picket line in Wisconsin, members of the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers at Badger Foundry returned to work after winning a new three-year agreement.
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