Archive for November, 2007
Compare Prez Candidates on Health Care
Health care is guaranteed to be a top issue in the 2008 presidential election. It’s on the minds of voters, and Democratic and Republican candidates have proposed plans reflecting their vision of how to address the crisis in our nation’s health care system.
With so many candidates, and sharply different visions of the problems and how to address them, it can be hard to sort out the real facts about presidential candidate health care proposals.
Vote This Week for Grinch of the Year
Who is the greediest and grouchiest corporate Grinch who has inflicted the most harm on workers and working families in 2007?
We don’t know yet, but not only do you have a chance to vote in the Jobs with Justice’s (JwJ’s) seventh annual Grinch of the Year contest, if you act before Friday, you can nominate your favorite green-hued holiday villain.
Last year’s winner, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., forced out on strike more than 15,000 United Steelworkers (USW) members at 16 plants in the United States and Canada in October 2006.
The company forced the strike—despite concessions from workers and retirees in 2003 that kept Goodyear afloat—with its demands for a new contract to slash retiree health coverage, close a plant and eliminate 1,100 jobs. All the while, Goodyear was importing, and continues to import, tires from plants overseas, including China.
Guest Workers Exploited, Forgotten
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As the debate over the nation’s guest workers remains unresolved, our political leaders should take a look at the reality that thousands of guest workers are routinely abused and forced to live in squalid, slave-like conditions, activists working with migrant workers say.
Every year, 160,000 guest workers are permitted to enter the United States, supposedly to fill in gaps in our labor force. More than 25,000 of them work in the fields of North Carolina, harvesting tobacco, sweet potatoes, cucumbers and Christmas trees, according to the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC).
Leticia Zavala, an organizer for FLOC, says the health conditions for guest workers in the fields is a major problem, especially for those who harvest tobacco (see video).
Stagehands Finished 12 Hours of Talks with Producers, More Set
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Contract talks between the Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 1 and Broadway producers resumed yesterday and are expected to continue later today. The IATSE Local 1 members were forced out on strike Nov. 10, leaving most of Broadway’s stages dark.
The negotiations are the first face-to-face meetings since Nov. 18, when the employers walked out of the talks. This morning, IATSE Local 1 spokesman Bruce Cohen told reporters that progress had been made during the nearly 12 hours of negotiations that went through the night.
Theater owners and producers are demanding a 38 percent cut in jobs and wages, according to IATSE. About a quarter of the 2,200 members of Local 1, who build scenery, maintain props and install and operate lighting and sound equipment, work in Broadway theaters. The billion-dollar-a-year Broadway theater industry is seeing record profits, and any cuts in jobs and wages will not result in lower ticket prices, according to the union—just bigger profits for producers.
Entertainment unions are strongly backing IATSE members, including Actors’ Equity, American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM) Local 802 and the New York City Central Labor Council (NYCLC).
For a closer look at the life of a Broadway stagehand, see this Associated Press story on IATSE Local 1 member and activist John Kelly. Kelly, now a “deck” electrician, began his Broadway career 17 years ago as Tinkerbell—he operated the beam of light that flies and flickers around Peter Pan, Wendy and the Lost Boys.
There is a sad note to report. Francis Lavaia, 37, a stagehand who worked on “The Lion King,” suffered a fatal heart attack Nov. 16, while he was picketing at one of the Broadway theaters. In his honor, Local 1 members donned black armbands.
4,000 UAW Members Resume Talks at Navistar and More Bargaining News
Here are a few highlights from the AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department, which sends daily e-mail, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
Work Stoppages
UAW, Navistar: The UAW asked Navistar to resume talks and the parties will go back to the table today. On Oct. 23, 4,000 UAW members went on strike in six states against the International Truck and Engine Corp., owned by Navistar. Members say Navistar committed unfair labor practices during collective bargaining by making unilateral changes in the terms and conditions of employment, ordering an illegal lockout of the company’s assembly plant in Springfield, Ohio, and refusing to provide the UAW bargaining team with information necessary for negotiations.
New President Named to National Labor College
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Dr. William E. Scheuerman, president of the 33,000-member United University Professions (UUP) union was named new president of the National Labor College (NLC) and will join the Silver Spring, Md., campus Dec. 3.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says Scheuerman is
…a man of scholarly achievement and union integrity and leadership. I look forward to working closely with Bill as he takes the reins of this great institution of higher learning for working people—the college of the labor movement.
Scheuerman, of Scotia, N.Y., served 14 years as president of the UUP, an AFT affiliate that represents academic and professional faculty in the State University of New York (SUNY) system. He says he is leaving the nation’s largest higher education union with “mixed emotions” but
at the same time, I look forward with great enthusiasm to tackling the many challenges facing the national labor movement, and working…to strengthen and grow organized labor by educating the next generation of unionists.
2,600 Casino Dealers Get a Winning Hand by Joining UAW
A wave of dealers at casinos around the country are joining unions. Over the weekend, dealers at Foxwoods Resort Casino, the largest private employer in Connecticut, won a voice at work when they voted to join the UAW.
Sherry Lee, a nine-year dealer at the casino, sums up why she and her 2,600 co-workers sought to form a union:
Casino dealers at Foxwoods came together because we deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Our success is an example of what can be accomplished when people work together. Casino dealers sent a clear message today: We are united, regardless of race, ethnicity or language. We stayed strong and voted “Yes” for a say in our working conditions.
Leading Democratic Presidential Candidates Won’t Cross Picket Line
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An upcoming presidential debate may be canceled if writers for CBS News go on strike because several Democratic candidates have announced they won’t cross a picket line to participate.
News writers, editors and other staff for CBS News have been without a contract since April 2005. As a result of stalled contract talks, the workers last week gave negotiators the go-ahead to call a strike if a new, fair contract isn’t reached. The more than 500 writers, who work across the country for CBS television and radio properties, are members of the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE).
The debate is set for Dec. 10. It would be the last national debate before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses.
Welcome, AFL-CIO, to the Free Exchange on Campus Coalition
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Megan Fitzgerald, field director of the Free Exchange on Campus, welcomes all of us in the AFL-CIO union movement as a new coalition partner—and we share the warm welcome with the members of the Free Exchange who are doing great work for students across the nation.
Over here at the Free Exchange on Campus, a coalition of faculty, student, civil liberties and other groups working to ensure that colleges and universities can have a free exchange of ideas, we’re thrilled to welcome the AFL-CIO as the newest member of our coalition.
The work of our coalition, which includes the AFT, an AFL-CIO affiliate, stems from a number of recent legislative and media attacks against higher education institutions and their faculty. David Horowitz and the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) take the view that hard-working professional faculty are abandoning their mission of teaching in favor of indoctrinating students with their personal political views. Without any evidence of a genuine problem in higher education—in fact, in spite of evidence to the contrary—these organizations and pundits have been able to get 28 states to take their accusations seriously, sponsoring legislation or administrative policy to restrict the free exchange of ideas on campus.
Sheet Metal Worker Wins NASCAR Trip Through Union Sportsmen’s Alliance
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NASCAR fans know that 2007 Nextel Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson won the Dickies 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway three weeks ago. But they didn’t know there was another winner on Victory Lane that day.
Mark Shughart, a member of the Sheet Metal Workers Local 2 and the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA), was visiting the Lone Star State with his wife Lynn for a weekend of NASCAR racing. He won a contest sponsored by USA and Beretta-USA for a prize package valued at more than $6,000. The package included airfare, three nights lodging, two tickets to the Craftsman, Busch and Nextel Cup races, unlimited access to Beretta’s private suite, VIP passes for unlimited access to the garage and pit area throughout the weekend and a brand new Beretta Xtrema2 shotgun.
