Global Unions Condemn Mexico’s Move to Bust 44,000-Member Union
The global union movement is accusing Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, of systematically trying to bust independent unions and is demanding that he respect the rights of workers to form unions.
The latest example of Calderón’s anti-worker bias is the takeover last month by federal agents and police of the country’s second largest electrical power distributor, Luz y Fuerza (Central Light and Power). Calderón used an executive decree to dissolve the utility, but, in doing so, he also fired the entire 44,000-person workforce and disbanded their union, the 95-year-old Mexican Electrical Workers’ Union (SME), a frequent critic of the government’s policies.
Rite Aid Workers Win Big Victory from NLRB
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Robert Masciola in the AFL-CIO Organizing Department writes about a victory in the three-year struggle by Rite Aid workers to join a union.
In March 2008, nearly 700 workers at Rite Aid’s distribution center in Lancaster, Calif., overcame a vicious two-year anti-union campaign to gain a voice on the job by voting for International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 26.
The workers sought union representation to put an end to punishing production quotas and mandatory overtime piled on top of 10-hour shifts. They work in hot desert summers with no air conditioning in their work areas, with no job security.
As we enter the fall of 2009, workers are still fighting hard to win a first contract. But it has been hard given the employers’ conduct.
ILWU Members Pitch in to Help Samoan Tsunami Survivors
After the recent tsunami in Samoa and American Samoa, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) helped provide aid in a big way. When members of the Samoan community in Southern California asked union workers if they would help send a massive shipment of tsunami relief supplies to the two islands, the workers did what union members do best: They came together to help those in need. The Sept. 29 tsunami killed more than 200 people. Thousands of Samoans are homeless and hundreds are injured.
The ILWU members volunteered to donate their time to load 15 containers of supplies for the tsunami victims. Union officials, led by ILWU President Robert McEllrath, worked with industry leaders to secure donated containers and to get the shipping company to waive the $45,000 fee that is ordinarily charged for such a load. The ship left for the islands Oct. 14.
Union-Busting Hotel Ordered to Rehire Fired Workers, Return to Bargaining
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Last week in Hawaii, a federal judge ordered the Pacific Beach Hotel to rehire at least seven workers fired during contract negotiations. The illegal firings were part of 15 findings of unfair labor practices by the hotel. Hotel management’s behavior here is another sign that we need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, to restore the freedom to bargain to all workers.
Pacific Beach workers voted more than four years ago to form a union with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 142, but hotel management used the all-too-common tactics of delay and worker intimidation, in the process denying employees the freedom to bargain for a contract. The findings of abuses by hotel management by the federal court include interrogation of employees about union support, threats of job loss or punishments for union support and targeting of contract negotiators for firing.
Executive Council Welcomes New Vice Presidents
Of the 51 vice presidents elected today to the AFL-CIO Executive Council, there are nine new additions, who are expanding the range of voices that will be heard. We congratulate the following new vice presidents of the AFL-CIO:
- Patrick D. Finley, Plasterers and Cement Masons (OP&CMIA)
- M.B. “Mike” Futhey, United Transportation Union (UTU)
- Newton Jones, Boilermakers (IBB)
- D. Michael Langford, Utility Workers (UWUA)
- Robert McEllrath, International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)
- Roberta Reardon, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)
- John Ryan, Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Works (GMP)
- DeMaurice Smith, Professional Athletes
- Baldemar Velasquez, Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC)
Organizing for the Future
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Today’s theme at the 2009 AFL-CIO Convention is “Organizing for Our Future,” and the effort to build worker power and improve workers’ lives through organizing is at the heart of everything that unions do.
This morning, top union leaders presented a report on the state of organizing in America, and workers who are fighting the difficult battle for a voice on the job testified about their struggles. And at noon today, the convention passed a strong resolution in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said that over the past decade and a half, unions have made great strides in the capacity to organize, against vicious opposition from corporate interests and the politicians they fund. We’ve introduced the Employee Free Choice Act and elected new members of Congress who support it and a president who will sign it into law. Said Sweeney:
Brothers and sisters, everything we do—electing leaders, passing legislation, fighting in every field for economic and social justice—rests on our ability to organize.
PBS to Air Harry Bridges Film Over Labor Day
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In honor of Labor Day, PBS stations around the country this weekend are airing “From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Dock,” the story of Harry Bridges, the fiery San Francisco labor leader who founded the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and set the standard for dockworkers’ rights. Check your local listings for day and time.
The one-man play was developed by actor Ian Ruskin, who portrays Bridges, and the Harry Bridges Project. The performance was directed by Academy Award-winning director and cinematographer Haskell Wexler.
The film was shot before a packed house of 1,000 longshore workers in San Pedro, Calif. It includes appearances by Elliott Gould, Ed Asner and members of ILWU Local 13, and music by Jackson Browne, Arlo Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Tim Reynolds, Ciro Hurtado and others. It also features the world premiere of Woody Guthrie’s song about Bridges, sung by his granddaughter, Sarah Lee Guthrie.
Rite Aid’s Anti-Worker Tactics Show Need for Employee Free Choice
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Across the country, union members and allies are protesting Rite Aid’s unfair treatment of warehouse workers and demanding that Congress pass the Employee Free Choice Act to end management abuses and restore the freedom to bargain.
On Monday, supporters of the freedom to form unions gathered in seven cities, including outside a pharmacy industry conference in Boston, to demand that Rite Aid workers and all workers be able to form a union and bargain free of intimidation, coercion and illegal firing.
Report: Security Screening Process Flawed, Leaves Dockworkers Jobless
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Thousands of longshore workers, truck drivers and other workers at ports across the nation are out of work, not because of a staggering economy, but because they are caught up in a backlogged, inefficient and often inaccurate screening process for background security checks.
According to a new report from the National Employment Law Project (NELP), the federal Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA’s) post-Sept. 11 port worker background checks have put thousands of otherwise qualified and experienced port workers on the streets instead of the docks until they gain their security clearance.
Most of the workers caught in this bureaucratic limbo are members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), Longshoremen (ILA) and Teamsters (IBT).
Ferry Workers Forgo Raises to Help Washington State, and More Bargaining News
Some 1,500 ferry workers voluntarily forgo raises to help Washington state, and more updates here from the “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
Multiple Unions, Washington State: In Washington state, some 1,500 state ferry workers will voluntarily forgo raises they negotiated with Gov. Chris Gregoire last year because of the downturn in the economy. The raises would have ranged from 1.6 percent to 10.7 percent. Workers are represented by several unions, including the Inlandboatmen’s Union (IBU-ILWU); Masters, Mates and Pilots (MMP-ILA); Puget Sound Metal Trades Council (MTC); Marine Engineers Benevolent Association (MEBA); and the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU).
