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Anti-Worker Culture Spotlighted at Continental and on Capitol Hill |
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The anti-worker atmosphere created in the United States by unscrupulous employers and the Bush administration is systematically denying workers their rights, especially the freedom to form unions and bargain collectively.
A report released yesterday during our global summit showed the United States has the lowest rate of union membership among developed nations and that anti-union tactics are being exported to other countries.
Now, Transport Workers (TWU) President James Little puts it in perspective and explains what these findings mean for workers at one U.S. company, Continental Airlines:
“The announcement this week at the Global Organizing Summit that the United States ranks dead last among developed nations in terms of the percentage of workers represented by unions is outrageous. Outrageous—and not surprising.
“Even at a generally labor-friendly U.S. company like Continental Airlines, at which unions represent pilots, flight attendants, dispatchers and mechanics, organizing efforts by ground workers have been met with intimidation tactics, captive audience meetings and aggressive efforts by professional union busters. Continental’s employees and other American workers deserve a seat at the table. In commercial aviation especially, workers need a voice.”
To learn more about the Continental cargo and baggage workers’ efforts to gain justice, click here.
The international union summit coincided with International Human Rights Day, which workers in Newark, N.J., commemorated with a rally in support of 7,650 employees seeking to form a union at Continental.
Dec. 10 was the anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Workers’ rights are an integral part of the declaration, which states that “everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association” and “everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.”
New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech said Continental is trying to thwart efforts by employees at Newark Liberty International Airport to join the TWU.
Wowkanech told the Newark Star-Ledger that Continental management distributed anti-union literature to employees, many of whom are baggage handlers. “Let the people have their choice,” says Wowkanech, who strongly urged the state’s congressional representatives to support the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow workers to decide, without employer interference, whether to form a union.
Wowkanech released two letters from top Continental officials touting efforts by the company to help its workers prosper, raising questions about the union’s motives and saying they hope employees will “make the right decision” by deciding not to sign cards and join the union.
The anti-union culture that allows tactics such as those used by Continental was highlighted yesterday in a first-of-its kind congressional forum on organizing and collective bargaining held in conjunction with the global summit.
During the Capitol Hill forum, Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, announced that the Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee will hold a joint hearing with the Senate Employment and Workplace Safety Subcommittee Dec. 13 on several National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decisions and their impact on workers’ rights.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, who led the forum with Miller, said:
The Bush majority on the NLRB has ruled on numerous cases throughout its term that have rolled back long-established workers’ rights.
Over the last 30 years, union membership has declined in America, and working families are paying the price….It is time to stop this global assault on labor rights.
The Bush NLRB has a history of anti-worker rulings, but in September, the board outdid itself when it issued a series of decisions that cut to the core of workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain collectively.
The congressional forum culminated the historic global organizing summit, which brought 220 of the world’s top union leaders to the National Labor College in suburban Washington, D.C.
At the forum, London School of Economics scholar John Logan released a study showing the rate of union membership in the United States is the lowest in the industrial world. Although 60 million workers want to join unions, U.S. employers virulently attack workers’ freedom to form a union. Logan and several global union leaders also pointed out that the U.S. is now exporting this vicious anti-worker culture.
Sharan Burrow, president of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and an Australian, says:
The corporate behavior of America is being exported and becomes the fate of workers in my country and in every country around the world.
Victor Baez, general secretary of ORIT , the ITUC’s Latin American arm, says the suppression of workers’ rights in the United States gives license to governments and employers in South America to oppress workers. (See video.)
You can see video clips from the press conference, forum and global summit here.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) promised participants and observers at the forum that Congress will continue its strong support of working families. (See video.)
She pointed out that the Democratic majority, elected in 2006 after an unprecedented effort by working families, passed the first increase in the federal minimum wage in a decade. The House also approved the Employee Free Choice Act, but a floor vote on the bill was blocked in the Senate by Republicans. Pelosi said:
This commitment to working families is shared by us [Democratic members of Congress], not just on issues, but values and ethics.
As the world’s economies become more interdependent, making national boundaries less important, many corporations are intent on increasing their bottom lines at the expense of working people. We have to lift up all workers.
3 Comments
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Generally labor friendly? Not Continental! I remember in the 80’s when the IAM went on strike they actively recruited scabs to replace the strikers. I remember because unknown to most of us who were applying for jobs, Continental was preparing for the threat of a strike. When myself and a few others found this out we walked out of the meeting room and I shouted; “Hell no, I won’t scab!”
No my friends… Continental Airlines has not been union friendly for a very long time. Have we forgotten the tactics used by former CEO Frank Lorenzo??
The bright side, Bush has done more for the Democrat Party than anyone since Franklin D Roosevelt.
He has also won the honor? if being one of the three worst presidents America has ever had.
An anti-worker attitude is the same as an anti-union attitude. Organized labor upholds the important principles of democracy and fairness through negotiations and contracts with the employers. Any group that attacks workers’ attempt to organize should be seen as advocating dictatorship and totalitarianism.