NASA Workers Launch Effort to Save Jobs
Workers, small business owners, elected officials and community activists today launched a national campaign to save as many as 7,000 jobs at NASA and thousands more in central Florida.
The Obama administration, in an effort to balance the federal budget, has proposed outsourcing most of the program that includes lunar landers, moon bases, and the replacement for space shuttle to other governments and private companies.
Such a move would devastate central Florida, which already has been hit hard by the foreclosure crisis. Without a new commitment to extend the space program, central Florida stands to lose 7,000 jobs at NASA and another 16,000 public- and private-sector jobs could be jeopardized. Members of several unions work in the program, including Machinists (IAM), Transport Workers (TWU), Electrical Workers (IBEW) and others.
Speaking at a rally in Titusville, Fla., not far from Kennedy Space Center, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told a crowd of nearly 2,000:
This is no time to tear out the foundation of this community. At a time when so many Florida breadwinners are out of work or working part time, when over half a million in Florida have lost their homes, does it really make sense to pile on more misery?
Judge to Pratt & Whitney: Keep Work in U.S.
A federal court issued an injunction Feb. 4 against Pratt & Whitney, preventing the company from moving work and equipment out of their Cheshire and East Hartford, Conn., plants and keeping 1,000 hourly and salaried workers on the job. Machinists (IAM) District 26 had filed suit, saying the decision to move the work violated their contract.
The ruling stops the company’s immediate plans to move the work to Singapore, Japan and the state of Georgiia. The contract expires on Dec.10, 2010. IAM officials say the union is gearing up for a fight to preserve these jobs and expand opportunities in the next contract.
Jim Parent, assistant business rep for District 26, said:
We have a big job ahead of us now, securing these jobs in the next contract. We’re ready for a fight, if that’s what it takes. But we hope that after the dust settles, the company will recognize what we have said all along–these are the most highly skilled overhaul, repair and refurbishment workers in the world. Pratt may think that moving the work will save costs, but quality and reliability are crucial in aerospace operations. If they want the best performance possible for their demanding customers, Pratt should keep the work here.
Labor On the Air Around the Nation and World
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Looking for the latest in international labor news? Now it’s just a click away with the launch of RadioLabour.net and its Solidarity News program. The weekly podcast will focus on union and workers’ activities and issues from around the world with special emphasis on emerging market and developing countries.
A new report, hosted by labor educator Marc Belanger, debuts each Monday morning. RadioLabour reporters will provide regular weekly presentations, and the audio cast will feature reports from unionists on particular events.
For union activists interested in learning more about progressive podcasting, be sure to check out the Labour Podcasting group on UnionBook.
Workers Across Nation Choose a Voice with AFL-CIO Unions
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County workers, professional employees, bakery workers, airborne pilots and “ghost” pilots and sheriff’s deputies are among the latest workers to choose a voice at work with AFL-CIO unions.
In Utah, more than 400 Salt Lake County workers won a union voice with AFSCME Local 1004. The 408 county employees—skilled trades, maintenance and service workers—could vote for union representation only after AFSCME fought and won passage of a county collective bargaining ordinance last year.
John Farrer, a Highway Department worker, says:
This is definitely a positive thing for workers, and that’s why they voted it in. With all that’s happened, the wage cuts, benefits going down and insurance going up, we need a strong union voice to represent the interests of working families.
IAM Initiative Helps the Jobless ‘Cube by Cube’
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If you’re one of the nation’s 15 million officially jobless workers—or one of the more than 16 million who are underemployed or have dropped out of the job market—there are likely times you feel isolated and powerless.
A new community service program by the Machinists (IAM) can put you in touch with other men and women struggling to cope with the stress and pressure of being jobless in America. It also is designed to give jobless workers the opportunity to mobilize and make their voices heard.
Called “Ur Union of Unemployed,” or UCubed for short, the IAM initiative will function as an online community, with small groups of unemployed activists in a single ZIP Code forming “cubes” and ultimately becoming a linked network with considerable political and economic influence.
IAM President Tom Buffenbarger says UCubed’s goal is to provide:
“a measure of relief and an end to the isolation, frustration and depression that so many unemployed workers experience. Working together, they can build a network of mutual support and help each other to get through the next few years.”
The UCubed website (click here) gives unemployed workers a means to connect and share experiences. Also, with links to allow activists to pressure state and federal lawmakers to respond more effectively to the jobs crisis, jobless workers will have the opportunity to speak with a single voice on critical political issues that directly affect them.
Union Leaders Tell President’s Economic Advisory Board: Worker Training Key to Job Creation
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Daniel Marschall, AFL-CIO Legislative and Policy Specialist for Workforce Issues, reports on union participation in this week’s meeting of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
Unionists from manufacturing, high technology and services industries this week urged the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB) to integrate innovative education reforms and best practices in worker training into the Obama administration’s approach to creating jobs and recovering from the recession.
Speaking at a technology meeting sponsored by the newly formed PERAB Education and Training Subcommittee Dec. 16, Matthew McKinnon, director of the Machinists (IAM) Legislative and Political Action Department, emphasized the importance of building an educational system that has a place for technical training, providing multiple pathways for young people and dislocated workers to move into high-skill, family sustaining jobs.
Detroit Teachers Reach Tentative Deal—and More Bargaining News
Some 7,000 Detroit public school teachers, members of AFT, will receive a 1 percent raise in the third year of a contract agreement reached last week—and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,200 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
NEGOTIATIONS
AFT, Detroit Public Schools: The Detroit Federation of Teachers (AFT) reached a tentative agreement last week on a three-year contract with Detroit Public Schools. The 7,000 teachers will receive a 1 percent wage increase in the third year of the contract, which runs through June 2012. Employees may be eligible for an additional 2 percent increase, depending on school enrollment and state aid.
ATU, Rhode Island Public Transit Authority: In Rhode Island, the state legislature is considering legislation to remove binding arbitration at the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority. Members of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 618 have been without a contract since June and say they would issue a strike notice if the binding arbitration provision is removed.
Machinists Highlight Trumka’s Jobs Plan
The Machinists union (IAM) has been at the forefront of the fight to end our nation’s jobs crisis, and in a new video, the union is highlighting the dangerous rise in unemployment and the AFL-CIO’s five-point plan for job creation.
The video features footage of AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka launching this urgent call for job creation along with allies from the civil rights community at the Economic Policy Institute last month. Trumka will push for action on these five principles at tomorrow’s Jobs Summit.
Deirdre Kaniewski of the Machinists News Network reports on the dangerous rise in the unemployment rate and the union movement’s response:
In October of this year, the unemployment rate in this country crossed the 10 percent mark. It’s the first time that’s happened in more than a quarter of a century, and that sobering news has organized labor rallying even harder for the creation of jobs.
More than 1,000 Workers Win Voice with AFL-CIO Unions
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Illinois state employees and nurses, government-contracted tech workers, airport workers and helicopter pilots all have won a voice at work with AFL-CIO unions recently.
In Illinois, more than 500 Illinois state public service administrators won their fight for representation with AFSCME Council 31 after waiting more than a year and a half for their ballots to be counted. As Henry Bayer, Council 31 executive director, says: “In tough times, a strong union is essential.”
With AFSCME, all public service workers have the job security and decent wages and benefits only a strong union can provide.
The workers perform audits and other functions for many state agencies, primarily the Department of Revenue and the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.
Ten Years Ago Today: Seattle Protests Put Globalization on Center Stage
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Don McIntosh, associate editor of the Northwest Labor Press, writes about the 10th anniversary of the massive march against the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) meeting in Seattle and the continuing struggle to rebalance a global economy that now benefits only the wealthy. The article is excerpted from the Northwest Labor Press. To read the entire article, click here.
Ten years ago on Nov. 30, 50,000 people protested a meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle. The protests succeeded in delaying the summit’s opening day and contributed to the collapse of plans for a new round of trade negotiations. It was one of those rare moments in history when ordinary people rise up and can no longer be ignored.
Before the Seattle protests, few people had ever heard of the WTO, a secretive organization that promotes and enforces multinational trade agreements. But the public was increasingly aware that growth in worldwide trade was not benefiting workers or the environment.
