Archive for September, 2006
Zimbabwe’s President Says Unionists Deserved Beatings
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has joined the ranks of the worst anti-union goons by saying Zimbabwe’s union leaders who were severely beaten by police at a Sept. 13 demonstration deserved the beating.
Mugabe’s comments followed his country’s refusal Friday to allow a delegation of U.S. trade unionists, led by AFL-CIO Vice President William Lucy, into Zimbabwe to meet with injured leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). Lucy is also secretary-treasurer of AFSCME.
NLRB Decision Affecting 8 Million Workers Could Happen Any Day
The definition of one word—”supervisor”—could determine for years to come whether the basic rights of America’s workers are protected.
As early as this week, the Bush-appointed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is set to decide a trio of cases known as “Kentucky River.” If the NLRB expands the definition of supervisor, that move could take away contract protections from hundreds of thousands of workers represented by unions and deny as many as 8 million workers their freedom to form unions. Federal labor law does not give supervisors the right to join unions or engage in collective bargaining.
American Rights at Work: Partnerships that Work
What do the American Electric Power Co. (AEP) and the North Philadelphia Health System (NPHS) have in common? They are two employers that work with their workers’ unions to meet both the needs of the workers and the business objectives in the global economy.
And they are two of the seven firms that made the annual American Rights at Work (ARAW) Partnerships that Work list.
Big Oil May Scam Taxpayers for Millions More—Stay Tuned
From the AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America, Stephanie Taylor brings this latest Big Oil tax scam to our attention.
Eat Dinner with Your Family Sept. 25—It’s the Union Way
Before families’ schedules became super-packed with soccer games, music lessons and two parents working overtime, family dinners were a traditional part of American life. Now a new study says we need to return to that tradition.
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.
Zimbabwe Bars U.S. Union Leaders from Meeting with Injured Unionists
The Zimbabwe government refused today to allow a delegation of U.S. trade union leaders into Zimbabwe to meet with injured leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) following the brutal attack on them and their arrest on September 13.
A five-person labor delegation led by AFL-CIO Vice President William Lucy, who is Secretary Treasurer of the AFSCME, was denied entry into Zimbabwe by government officials and forced to return to South Africa. Although the ZCTU leaders and activists have been subsequently released, we are concerned for their health, continued safety and their ability to exercise their rights as trade unionists and as workers.
Seniors Mark ‘Donut Hole’ Day—the Nearly $3,000 Medicare Drug Gap
Across the country today, seniors were talking about donuts. Not the kind you pick up at the corner bakery for about $10 a dozen. These donuts cost about $3,000—and nearly 7 million seniors are going to be forced to buy them.
Today is “Donut Hole Day,” the date on which the average Medicare-eligible recipient falls into the donut hole.
Helicopter Pilots Face Choppy Waters in Contract Talks
More than 500 helicopter pilots who transport workers, equipment and supplies to offshore Gulf Coast oil rigs grounded their choppers and hit the picket lines this week after two and a half years of negotiations failed to produce a fair contract with employer PHI Inc.
The pilots are members of Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) Local 108. Says Local 108 President Steve Ragin:
Because PHI has not bargained in good faith with OPEIU and Local 108, we have been unable to reach a fair agreement we, as professional pilots, deserve for our families and ourselves.
Because PHI will not bargain in good faith, we have no other option than to exercise our legal right to conduct a work stoppage until PHI begins bargaining in good faith and we reach a fair agreement. PHI has forced disrespectful and inadequate conditions of employment upon us and we must take action.
Big Win for Workers in California, Billionaires Proliferate and More News
There are several items we want to highlight this morning, so grab your coffee and let’s go….
Can’t Bust Unions with State Funds in California
In 2000, California voters passed a law that prohibits contractors who receive state funds from using them to oppose their workers’ efforts to form unions. Corporate interests challenged the measure, of course, and its future seemed bleak after both a lower federal court and a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the law.
Yesterday, the full 9th Circuit upheld the measure, in what Nathan Newman notes is a big win for labor.
