Author Archive
AFL-CIO Union Veterans Council Commemorates 50th Anniversary of Vietnam War
Members of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund have commemorated the 50th anniversary of the first U.S. casualities of the Vietnam War at the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C.
In 1959, two U.S. military advisers, Army Major Dale Buis and Master Sgt. Chester Ovnand, were killed by the Viet Cong. The attackers entered the Army’s residential compound in Bien Hoa and machine-gunned Ovnand and Buis while they and other Americans watched a movie on a home projector.
Jan Scruggs, president and founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, a nonprofit authorized by Congress in 1980 to build the memorial, led the July 8 ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary.
2,700 Steelworkers Settle at Appalachian Health Care Facilities
Some 2,700 members of the United Steelworkers (USW) on strike for three weeks at nine Appalachian Regional Healthcare hospital facilities will vote on a tentative agreement this week. Details of the settlement reached on Saturday will be released after the ratification vote, but Roger McGinnis, president of the Harlan, Ky., local, said:
We preserved our pension, contained our health insurance costs and improved our wages.
Nine USW locals represent certified nurse aides, licensed practical nurses, housekeepers, maintenance and clerical workers at facilities founded a half a century ago by the Mine Workers (UMWA) to care for miners and their families. The USW represents 36,000 members in health care and 850,000 overall in the United States and Canada.
770 Aviation Repair Techs Join Machinists
Some 770 aviation repair technicians, employees of DynCorp at the Patuxent Naval Air Station in Maryland, now are members of the Machinists (IAM) after the National Labor Relations Board certified the 377–284 vote on April 12.
Workers at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station were angered by the firing of contractors at the base, saying DynCorp “unjustly fired a vocal union supporter” and 18-year company veteran in the days prior to the election.
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@Work.
Members of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) are not allowed to strike Northwest Airlines under a federal appeals court ruling Thursday affirming a lower court decision.
The ruling by the Federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit prohibits a strike threatened by AFA-CWA after Northwest voided its contract last year with bankruptcy court permission. The union could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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@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.
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@Work.
The 13-month lockout of Machinists (IAM) union members at AK Steel in Middletown, Ohio, is over after IAM members overwhelmingly ratified a new agreement. Some 1,750 union workers will be brought back over the next 90 days. The agreement freezes the old pension plan and AK Steel will begin making contributions to the IAM multi-employer defined-benefit plan.
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@Work.
After twice rejecting contract offers by Northrup Grumman Ship Systems, members of the Electrical Workers (IBEW) and 11 metal trades unions went on strike Thursday, halting operations at the Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss.
The unions of the Pascagoula Metal Trades Council Shipyards rejected one contract offer from the defense contractor by an 85 percent margin. The IBEW represents about 1,200 workers, and the 11 unions in the Metal Trades Council represent an additional 6,200 workers at the shipyard. The strike halted work at Mississippi’s largest private employer. The shipyard, among other things, builds ships for the Navy.
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@Work.
Right to Organize: AFGE is urging the Senate to oppose amendments that would water down a bill to give screeners bargaining rights.
The UAW and AFL-CIO filed a complaint with the International Labor Organization on the National Labor Relations Board ruling denying organizing rights to teaching assistants at private universities.
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@Work.
Agreement at Harley-Davidson: Some 2,800 Machinists (IAM) union members at the Harley-Davidson plant in York, Pa., approved a three-year deal Thursday that will end their strike. The contract provides for a 4 percent increase each year of the contract and stretches out some new hire progression rates. Harley and the IAM had reached a tentative accord Feb. 16. Shares of stock rose on news of the agreement with striking workers at its largest manufacturing plant in York.
Auto Industry: A top automotive economist says an auto strike is unlikely to occur in this contract year, despite the Center for Automotive Research declaring that in looming negotiations with the Big Three automakers, wage and benefit parity with their Asian competitors must be gained in order to survive.
Bargaining Digest Weekly: Machinists Reach Tentative Agreement in Harley-Davidson Strike
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 Machinists (IAM) union and Harley-Davidson Inc. have reached a tentative agreement in a contract dispute that shut down production at the motorcycle maker’s plant in York, Pa., the union announced yesterday.
Members of IAM Local 175 in York will vote next week on the tentative settlement, the union said. Nearly 2,800 IAM members have been on strike since Feb. 2 at Harley’s largest U.S. facility, which produces its most popular touring bikes.
