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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.
In Mississippi, the Electrical Workers (IBEW) and metal trades unions, representing 8,000 striking workers at a Northrop Grumman shipyard, surveyed their members about contract demands prior to the March 21 mediation session, which was just one day short of the two-week mark for the strike. The company could be feeling pressure to meet government contract deadlines or face fines. Survey results reveal that strikers want higher wages. The striking shipyard workers at Northrop Grumman told shipyard owners they want raises of $4 per hour over the term of a new contract, with $2 up front at settlement.
At their first meeting with the mediator last Wednesday, no progress was reported in the three-and-a-half-hour session, and no new meetings were scheduled. Northrop Grumman shipyard President Philip Teel said in newspaper interview, “We did not clearly understand the issues” but insists the $143 million price tag for the contract offer is fair.
Airlines
The AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department criticized the tentative approval of the Virgin America plan and the Open Skies agreement, which lifts restrictions on what trans-Atlantic flights can be offered by foreign carriers. On March 22, the European Union ratified the Open Skies agreement.
The bankruptcy court judge for Northwest Airlines’ Chapter 11 case has delayed a ruling on a Flight Attendants-CWA breach of contract claim that would award 8,000 flight attendants more than $1 billion in future wages.
Manufacturing, Mining and Construction
The International Coal Group (ICG) is closing the Sago Mine. ICG said the continuing controversy and legal battles surrounding the explosion that killed 12 miners in January 2006 had nothing to do with the decision to shut down.
President George W. Bush visited auto plants in Missouri, prompting UAW calls for incentives to build advanced technologies in the United States. Bush also plans to meet again with the CEOs of the Big Three automakers next week. For their performance in aiding Chrysler’s $1.5 billion loss last year, 1,300 Chrysler executives and 21,000 salaried employees will get bonuses in their pay envelope.
American Axle, one of the more profitable auto parts makers, may acquire Chrysler’s Detroit axle operations. AK Steel workers are returning to work in Ohio following their one-year lockout. The company and Machinists union are moving toward harmony among managers, union members and replacement workers who retain their jobs.
The judge in the Delphi bankruptcy case OK’d $37 million in bonuses for top Delphi executives. In objecting to the bonuses, Delphi’s unions claimed the standards for qualifying for the bonuses were too low and essentially reward executives for “the mere act of breathing.” The UAW strike at a Kohler plant in Searcy, Ark., reached 100 days amid the hiring of replacement workers and the union filing unfair labor practice charges.
Education
The Florida Senate passed the replacement bill for a new teacher merit pay plan.
Retail, Hotels, Services and Agriculture
Eighty percent of the floor employees at Ceasars’ casino in Atlantic City, N.J., voted to form a union and join the UAW. Caesars plans to file an objection to the election based on a claims of coercion that destroyed the conditions for a free and fair election.
Telecommunications, Entertainment and Media
Verizon has rejected the Communications Workers of America’s (CWA’s) presentation of a majority of authorization cards certified by theNew York City comptroller and intends to force its workers through the delay-ridden, coercive National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process.
Fairpoint, the company purchasing Verizon’s New England landline operations, says job or benefit cuts are not planned if the takeover is approved. But IBEW and CWA say this promise is meaningless until they see plans for how they will manage the network.
Transportation and Public Utilities
The union presidents representing union members at the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) and the Professional Airways Systems Specialists (PASS)-MEBA testified before the House aviation safety subcommittee. PASS President Tom Brantley told the committee about the contract impasse for workers in five bargaining units at the FAA and called for a change at the agency so workers could get an equitable contract. NATCA also is at an impasse with the FAA, and NATCA President Pat Forrey also testified regarding the FAA’s failure to work in cooperative collaboration with employees and stakeholders of the agency.
The United Transportation Union has extended the Canadian Railway contract vote for 2,800 conductors from the original deadline of March 26 to April 10 because some workers have not received ballots.
Arbitrations and Legal Developments
The U.S. Department of Labor, in response to a lawsuit filed by the AFL-CIO, has agreed finally to issue rules on company responsibility for providing safety equipment in November.
In Ontario, a bill to ban the usage of replacement workers during strikes failed to pass by one vote. Businesses lobbied hard against the bill, arguing that they would be harmed by not being able to operate during strikes.
Health Benefits, Workers Compensation, Health and Safety
The federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report that thousands of doctors and medical providers owe back payroll taxes totaling $1.3 billion. The report says the doctors withheld payroll taxes from workers but rather than turning it over to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), used the money to buy luxury homes and automobiles. The report also indicates the number is probably much higher because it doesn’t include those who failed to file their tax returns.
In one of the most blatant political uses of an accounting rule change, a Texas state senator said that implementation of Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) rules could mean teachers and state workers could lose medical benefits. Implementation of GASB does not make benefits more expensive.
Voluntary compliance programs by oil companies in Texas have resulted in sporadic inspections. An Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) official bristled at suggestions that not enough inspections take place, citing 38,000 annual inspections. He also said OSHA is responsible for inspecting 7 million workplaces. Apparently he isn’t very good at math. Some 38,0000 annual inspections are one-half of 1 percent of the 7 million workplaces—and at that rate it would take 184 years to inspect every workplace. Last year, only 34 inspections were held in the Houston area. Meanwhile OSHA has notified 14,000 workplaces that their injury and illness rates are above average. OSHA said the notification letter was a “provocative step to motivate employers to take steps now to reduce those rates.” Considering what employers do to avoid paying fines when they are found in violation of safety regulations, a letter can hardly be considered provocative.
Lax OSHA oversight and BP cost-cutting contributed to the 2005 plant blast in Texas City, Texas, according to a report by the Chemical Safety Board (CSB). The United Steelworkers (USW) union says the CSB is recommending they develop safety standards for refining with the American Petroleum Institute.
Members of the House Education and Labor Committee, after hearing testimony from safety experts and surviving family members of the Texas City BP explosion that killed 15 workers two years ago on March 23, called for OSHA reform. Some lawmakers complained that regulation enforcement has been replaced by voluntary rules compliance under the Bush administration. The CSB chairman said BP could have prevented the explosion had it followed safety regulations. OSHA said it is boosting refinery inspections in the refinery industry and in adding inspectors.
Pension Benefits
Watson Wyatt, a benefits consulting firm, is urging Congress to block the U.S. Energy Department’s (DOE) anti-pension policy. DOE has resurfaced a plan that would end the department’s policy of reimbursing contractors for pension costs, setting a public policy that would discourage pension coverage.
Democrats in the Michigan Legislature are pitching a plan to boost 401(k) participation by small employers. Under the plan, the state would cover the administrative costs for setting up the plan.
In North Carolina, the State Employees Association is calling for the formation of a board of trustees to oversee state worker pensions fund. Currently, North Carolina and three other states are the only state worker pension funds overseen by a single state official.
Global Labor Movement
The revelations that Chiquita Brands International will pay fines to the U.S. Justice Department for paying Colombian thugs protection money look very similar to the problems Drummond Co., a mining firm, faced in 2001. Drummond asked the U.S. government to block a lawsuit over its payment of protection money in Colombia to paramilitary groups accused of killing two union organizers. Colombia will seek the extradition of eight U.S. Chiquita executives in connection with a trial investigating company payments to paramilitary groups. Lawyers expressed pessimism with the company line that the payments were extortion. Colombia also is investigating mining company Drummond for links to paramilitary groups.
Histadrut launched a general strike March 21 of 150,000 workers, protesting the fact that Israeli municipal workers haven’t been paid for months.
In South Korea, 50,000 medical doctors went on strike, protesting the government’s plan to revise medical law by introducing a freelance doctor system, a move physicians claim will increase costs and reduce doctor freedom. A rash of wildcat strikes have hit Vietnamese factories in Ho Chi Minh City in recent weeks. Some 30,000 workers are seeking better wages and working conditions.
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