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Bargaining Digest Weekly |
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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@Work.
The Goodyear fight seems to have set the bar for 2007 negotiations. General Motors Corp. (GM) has taken notice. GM’s CEO Richard Wagoner says they have more than a passing interest in the Goodyear VEBA trust health care fund example. Meanwhile, the UAW local leaders at GM and Delphi plants are meeting this week in Detroit to gear up for negotiations that begin in July. The UAW has a near record high $874 million strike fund. The fund includes $60 million set aside for organizing, but none of this money will be spent until the auto contracts are settled.
American Airlines and 27,000 ground workers, members of the Transport Workers (TWU), are getting ready to open talks this fall. American has been among the healthiest airlines and TWU President James Little says its time to share and share alike.
Talks for a new contract between Delphi and the UAW may go beyond the Jan. 31 deadline set by the new investor group, led by Appaloosa and Cerberus, as a necessary condition for their infusion of as much as $3.4 billion into the auto parts maker.
Here’s a roundup of the status of many of the state universal health care plans and their status.
Manufacturing: In Tucson, 1,900 Raytheon strikers returned to work on Monday after reaching agreement last week that ended their walkout, which began in November.
Ohio’s new Democrat attorney general is reviewing anti-trust issues in the Hoover sale to a rival company in Hong Kong.
On Friday, it was announced that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) is taking over the Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical pension plans, which cover nearly 900 workers and retirees. It was estimated the four pension plans have combined assets of $20.1 million to cover promised benefits totaling $29.6 million.
Airlines: Yesterday the Senate Commerce Committee held airline consolidation hearings. Senators expressed concern about the potential loss of service to smaller markets.
The Machinists stressed the importance of protecting members’ pensions when airlines merge.
Consumer groups also testified, saying mergers like the hostile US Airways bid for Delta will result in higher prices and less service.
The US Airways CEO took the opposite position, citing the aggressive cost-cutting approach taken by the company in the America West merger as leading to the company’s current success. This seems to concede the consumer and union criticisms.
Health Care: It bears repeating that Detroit automakers and the UAW are looking at approaches that would transfer responsibility for retiree health care from the companies to the union. Some in the industry consider this a long shot, but it demonstrates that both sides are open to innovative approaches as they gear up for negotiations.
Experts are closely examining Bush’s new health plan this week. Clearly the plan would have varying consequences for its participants, families with generous employer-sponsored coverage; potentially, union brothers and sisters would be worse off.
Bush’s plan is raising questions of fairness and equity, as some experts say seniors and those who are sick would pay the most.
The plan also may hinder Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s (Calif.) health plan.
In Worcester, Mass., 500 St. Vincent nurses voted to authorize a strike if no new agreement is reached that addresses staffing to patient ratios.
Automaking: Ford Motor Co. announced that 2006 produced its worst losses ever, $12.7 billion. But Ford is still considering making executive bonuses to reward record poor performance.
Mining: A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) hearing begins on a complaint issued to Massey Coal claiming they refused to hire former Mine Workers (UMWA) members in order to avoid having to recognize the union.
West Virginia lawmakers are proposing additional mine safety measures that would alter rules about required escape routes and provide whistleblower protections for workers who expose safety problems.
Entertainment and Media: The strike by Canadian actors went to the courts in Ontario [subscription required]. ACTRA is asking for payments for new media forms such as cell phone video mobisodes.
CBS and the Electrical Workers (IBEW) have extended their contract for three years. The agreement covering 4,000 technicians will take effect Aug. 1, when the current agreement is set to expire. Workers will receive 3 percent increases the first two years and 3.5 percent the last year of the contract.
Airlines: Northwest Airlines has asked the bankruptcy judge to deny a $1 billion claim by the Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) representing flight attendants. The AFA-CWA says the imposition of cuts by the courts violated its collective bargaining agreement.
Public Workers: In Santa Fe, a vote against a proposed wage increase for hundreds of city employees and police officers by the Finance Committee miffs unions.
Minnesota state pensions may be $4 billion short, according to a new report of a legislative auditor who thinks the problem occurred because the accounting for a $4 billion deficit did not occur until the Governmental Accounting Standards Board required it this year.
In Colorado, the state House passed a measure eliminating a required second vote for public workers forming unions. Currently this second vote requires a 75 percent majority to permit their union to negotiate with the employer for an agency fee or fair share fee. The fee would be paid by free rider employees the union is required to represent but who decline to join.
Settlement Round-Up: In Pittsburgh, IUE-CWA members approved a contract with the Pittsburgh Brewing Co. that includes wage and benefit reductions to help the brewery emerge from bankruptcy. The union voted 66–52 to accept the three-year deal—if prospective owner Pittsburgh Brewing Acquisition takes over.
In Alabama, Jim Walter Corp. accepted the Mine Workers’ (UMWA’s) offer for 1,000 coal miners’ contracts. The five-year contract calls for higher wages and makes Jim Walter the second coal company to approve the new contract that the UMWA is offering nationwide.
The Metal Trades Department of the AFL-CIO has filed suit against use of foreign made ship ”kits” in U.S. shipyards. The Metal Trades says this is a violation of the Jones Act provision that ships in U.S. domestic service must be built with U.S. parts.
The Peoria Journal Star’s newsroom is making news. The staff launched a website and advertising campaign aimed at rallying community support that they hope will chase away potential cost-cutting buyers, as the central Illinois newspaper awaits its second sale in a decade.
Northern Ohio Red Cross workers ratified their first union contract after a two-year struggle for such innovations as seniority.
Other News: The 2006 union membership report from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that union membership is 15.36 million, a decline of more than 300,000 from 15.69 million in 2005. Union density declined .3 percentage points from 12.5 to 12 percent. The fall off is mostly private sector, but public sector membership dropped for the third year out of the past four.
The sharp decline in union members in 2006 was blamed on the buyouts in auto and other manufacturing by some experts. The Associated Press falsely claims that union membership dropped to a record low. They cite BLS statistics that go back to 1973. However, earlier government surveys have been tracking union data since 1930. We’re down, but that headline just isn’t correct. It took us from 1930 to 1951 to get from 3.4 million to 15 million union members. We’re at 1951 levels absolutely, and union density hasn’t been this low since the Wagner Act in 1935. Sixty million workers say they would join a union if they could, and now is the time to make it so by passing the Wagner Act for the 21st century—the Employee Free Choice Act.
Wal-Mart settled a U.S. suit for refusing to pay overtime. The settlement will net 86,000 workers a total of $33.5 million, or $386.47 each, assuming the lawyers take no cut. That could happen. WakeupWalmart says the settlement is a sweetheart deal with the Bush Department of Labor. The payout is significantly below what Wal-Mart made when workers had their own representation. Wal-Mart also will not have to admit to having done anything wrong.
Jeffrey Hirsch, who teaches at the University of Tennessee College of Law in Knoxville, is investigating whether the Internet and Computer Age will revolutionize bargaining and unionization by obliterating the National Labor Relations Act.
Jason Goldberg of the online recruiting company Jobster used a blog to deny company layoffs, then obliquely leave clues about layoffs and claims he was being open about it.
Here’s the Associated Press version of yesterday’s Wall Street Journal story (subscription required) about the Big Three automakers studying trust funds as way to save on retiree health care.
Officials of New York State Electric and Gas called for an initiative to lower employee wages and benefits and, in doing so, waged war against customers, according to a former official. Unsurprisingly, the company labeled the statements as “baseless and without merit.”
Unions, in North Carolina, have brought two lawsuits against Hewlett-Packard in an attempt to make the company add a resolution on director elections. HP forecasts a stormy proxy season is underway for other companies facing similar resolutions.
IBEW and the Communications Workers of America are concerned about Verizon’s sale of their northern New England land line business to Fairpoint. The unions think that Fairpoint can’t handle the debt load.
International News: Lastly, in today’s global headlines, Libya says it plans to lay off 400,000 workers or more than a third of its work force to try to ease budget pressures and stimulate the private sector.
British Airways faces a two-day strike that will cancel 1,300 flights next week.
Workers at the Canadian whiskey maker Crown Royal’s Manitoba distillery, voted to authorize a strike if negotiations scheduled for next week don’t result in a contract.
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