Channel: Organizing & Bargaining
L.A. Plan Gives Low-Income Workers Access to the American Dream
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After a strong push by union members, clergy and community groups, the city of Los Angeles last week passed a landmark law that will fight poverty by expanding opportunities for low-income residents to access union construction jobs.
The new “Construction Careers and Project Stabilization Policy” requires that most of the projects funded by the city’s community redevelopment agency hire more local and low-income residents from the communities where a project is being built. The policy also encourages partnership, through a project labor agreement (PLA), between developers and contractors and the Los Angeles/Orange County Building Trades Council. A PLA defines wages and work rules for a project based on community standards and is approved by the workers’ representatives and the agency awarding the contract before the project begins.
New Era Cap Workers Join CWA
The 400 workers at New Era Cap Co. in Demopolis, Ala., now have a voice on the job after they voted for the Communications Workers of America (CWA).
"We found a boldness and courage that we didn't know we had," said Alma Null and Laurie Fendley, two workers on the CWA organizing committee.
It has been a great experience and a cause that we have come to believe in.
Drywall Finishers Reaffirm Their Support of Painters Union
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A unit of 580 drywall finishers in New Jersey voted overwhelmingly—94 percent—to stick with their union, the Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 71, and rejected an attempt by the Carpenters (UBC), which left the AFL-CIO in 2001, to sign up the workers.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) certified the results yesterday. IUPAT General President James Williams says he wasn't surprised by the outcome because IUPAT drywall finishers repeatedly have reaffirmed their support of IUPAT.
This vote was, as the man says, "Déjà vu all over again." The Carpenters came at us—again—hoping to raid those who are already organized and we voted them down—again.
They have done the same thing in over a dozen cities in the United States and Canada and they lost every time. The word is out on their empty promises for more work and more money and the men and women we represent in this trade will not be fooled by the UBC leaders in Washington, D.C.
More Potentially Deadly Moves by Bush’s FAA
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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)—under fire for failing to meet inspection deadlines for the nation's passenger air fleet—is now putting off inspections of equally vital ground-based equipment such as radar and instrument landing systems.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) says that in March, the FAA relaxed certification and maintenance requirements and removed the time element for the inspections. Appropriate maintenance and certification that the equipment is operating correctly is a critical function in ensuring passenger safety, says NATCA.
20,000 Pennsylvania Child Care Providers Gain a Union
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Some 20,000 home-based child care providers in Pennsylvania now have a voice after they overwhelmingly voted for representation by Child Care Providers UNITED (CCP), a joint effort of AFSCME and SEIU.
Gov. Ed Rendell (D), who was elected with strong union support, signed an executive order last June granting providers the right to join a union if they care for no more than three unrelated children in their homes. The executive order called for an election to take place after a union collected signed authorization cards from at least 30 percent of the providers.
Moroccan Factory Fire Kills 55 on Eve of Workers Memorial Day
The deaths of 55 workers in a fire at a mattress factory in Casablanca, Morocco, over the weekend, is a chilling reminder of how dangerous our workplaces can be. Today is Workers Memorial Day, the day workers around the world honor those who died on the job and reaffirm their commitment to make all workplaces safe.
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) reports that more than 14 million people are taking part in some 13,000 activities today to highlight the plight of the more than 2.2 million workers who die every year and the 160 million more who become ill due to unsafe work and unsustainable forms of production.
Global Unions Condemn Murders of Honduran Union Leaders
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The global union movemnent is strongly protesting the murder of Rosa Altagracia Fuentes, the general secretary of the Workers’ Confederation of Honduras (CTH), trade union leader Virginia García de Sánchez and motorcyclist Juan Bautista Gálvez.
The three were killed early morning on April 24 on the highway between El Progreso and San Pedro Sula by six masked persons, according to eyewitness acccounts. Altagracia Fuentes was shot 16 times.
In a strongly worded letter (in Spanish) to Honduran President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, Guy Ryder, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), called for
a full investigation to establish, as quickly as possible, the motives for the murders and identify those materially and intellectually responsible for these crimes, to punish them with the full weight of the law.
700 Oklahoma AFSCME Members Win First Contract and More Bargaining News
Some 700 AFSCME members in two Oklahoma cites won first contracts and more news from "Bargaining Digest Weekly." The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
Settlements
AFSCME, Enid & Lawton, Okla.: Some 700 municipal workers in Enid and Lawton, Okla., represented by AFSCME locals 1136 and 3894, respectively, won first contracts, after the passage of a 2004 state law that requires cities of 35,000 people or more to recognize non-uniformed workers’ unions. Enid’s employees won a 12 percent across-the-board wage increase over the duration. The Lawton employees’ new contract includes a 3 percent wage hike through 2009 and improved benefits.
Atlantic City Casino Workers Fighting for First Contracts
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Despite overwhelming votes by workers at four Atlantic City casinos in favor of forming a union with UAW, management at the four casinos continue to stall and delay negotiations to avoid granting the nearly 4,000 workers a voice at work.
At a press conference last week, New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech said:
The casino dealers and slot technicians fight to organize and management’s opposition to the workers’ freedom to form a union clearly illustrates that the current system for establishing a union in America is broken and is skewed in favor of employers. It is a system that is in desperate need of reform and thousands of workers in Atlantic City are unfortunately victims of this failed system.
Since March 2007, a majority of casino dealers, dual-rate dealers and other workers at Caesars, Tropicana, Bally’s and Trump Plaza in Atlantic City have voted in favor of UAW representation. Bargaining is under way at Caesars and Tropicana; the union at Bally’s has just been certified; and Trump Plaza is still trying to delay certification before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
New Bill Would Allow Graduate Assistants to Join a Union
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The folks who teach a lot of college undergraduate classes, grade the papers and do much of the same work as full-time teachers could soon catch a break and get paid what they deserve.
The two chairmen of the congressional education committees—Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.)—have introduced a bill that would include graduate teaching and research assistants at private colleges and universities as employees under the National Labor Relations Act, which would give them the freedom to join a union.
The Teaching and Research Assistant Collective Bargaining Rights Act (H.R. 5838 and S. 2891) could overturn a 2004 ruling by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that university graduate assistants are not employees and are not protected by the National Labor Relations Act.
