Shook and Wise Named to Executive Council
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The AFL-CIO Executive Council welcomed Veda Shook and Walter Wise as new members today.
Shook took office Jan. 1 as president of the Flight Attendants-CWA, succeeding Patricia Friend, who retired and also resigned from the Executive Council. An AFA-CWA member since 1991, Shook says she plans to keep right on flying. Before her election as president, she served as an AFA-CWA vice president since 2007.
Wise was appointed president of the Ironworkers in February. In more than 35 years as an ironworker, he has served his union as general organizer, president of the Mid-Atlantic States District Council, general vice president and general treasurer. He was appointed president in February after Joseph Hunt retired. Hunt also retired from the Executive Council.
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The council approved a statement thanking Hunt for his service and especially “his wise counsel and commitment to and leadership of organizing.” It also cited how as the Ironworkers’ leader, he steered the union through a difficult period of political and economic turmoil with a steady hand and strong vision. Hunt continues to serve working people as chairman of the Union Labor Life Insurance Co.
The council praised Friend as “a leader in the struggle for the advancement of women and people of color to the entire union movement.” Under her leadership, the council said, AFA-CWA fought for, and won, whistleblower protections for aviation employees, increased penalties for passengers who interfere with crew member duties, a smoking ban on international flights, an extension of the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover all flight crew members, seniority protections for flight attendants in the event of a merger and an opened door for occupational safety and health protections for all flight attendants.
Flight Attendants to Challenge Delta Vote
The Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) plan to challenge the vote announced today in which flight attendants at Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines rejected union representation by a margin of fewer than 300 votes out of a total of more than 18,000 ballots cast.
In a statement, AFA-CWA President Patricia Friend said:
In the next few days, we will be submitting interference charges against Delta management for their illegal and unfair methods to sway the vote. We will ask the National Mediation Board to defend the Delta flight attendants’ right to an election free of interference.
As in past campaigns, Delta ran an anti-union drive with fear and misinformation as the focus. Delta’s 2008 merger with Northwest brought in some 7,000 attendants who are already union members.
This was the first election run under the National Mediation Board’s new democratic election rules that allow a majority of votes cast to decide the outcome. Under the old rules, if you did not vote, it was counted as a “No.”
879 Frontier Flight Attendants Join AFA-CWA
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A strong majority of the 879 flight attendants at Frontier Airlines today voted to join the Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA).
Last September, a large group of Frontier flight attendants filed enough signatures for the National Mediation Board to order a representation election. The Frontier flight attendants are the third flight attendant group to choose AFA-CWA in the past year.
Says Erika Schweitzer, transitional AFA-CWA Frontier president:
Frontier flight attendants look forward to negotiating a contract that will protect our interests and address our issues. As AFA-CWA members, we will finally have a legally recognized voice to negotiate with management and gain protections that are specific to the needs of Frontier flight attendants.
AFA-CWA President Patricia Friend welcomed the new members, saying:
Frontier flight attendants have a unique and proud history and with AFA-CWA representation, they will now begin to shape their future through a legally binding contract.
Frontier flight attendants are based in Denver and Milwaukee.
Shook Elected to Lead Flight Attendants
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The Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) Board of Directors yesterday selected Veda Shook as the union’s next president. Shook, who is currently the union’s vice president, will take office at the end of the year, succeeding AFA-CWA President Patricia Friend who will retire Dec. 31, after 15 years of leadership. Friend also serves on the AFL-CIO Executive Council.
The board also elected Sara Nelson as vice president and re-elected Kevin Creighan as secretary-treasurer.
Shook, an 18-year Alaska Airlines flight attendant, has served as AFA-CWA’s vice president since 2007. She has extensive experience as an activist and leader, as well as an advocate for all flight attendants. In charge of AFA-CWA’s organizing department, she has led successful campaigns for workers seeking a union at Lynx Aviation, Ryan International Airlines and USA3000 Airlines. She currently is leading the effort to help workers at Delta/NWA gain union representation.
Nelson is the communications chairperson for United Airlines, where she has been a flight attendant for 14 years. Creighan has served as secretary-treasurer since 2005.
Time Is Now for TSO Bargaining Rights
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Hundreds of workers braved the cold Washington, D.C., weather today to send a message to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA): Give transportation security officers (TSOs) who protect the flying public the opportunity to protect themselves with the right to bargain a union contract.
“Chanting Union Rights for TSOs,” members of dozens of unions rallied at AFL-CIO headquarters this morning. Speaking within earshot of the White House, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker said:
“It is way past time for the Obama administration to give the TSOs their right to bargain collectively and hold their election so they can sit down at the table with management, start the negotiations and change their lives for the better.”
AFGE yesterday filed a petition with the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) for an election to allow the 41,000 TSOs to vote on union representation. In 2003, the Bush administration stripped the workers of collective bargaining rights.
Family and Medical Leave Extended to Flight Crews
Airline flight crews will soon have the same family and medical leave coverage other working Americans have enjoyed since 1993. The House of Representatives approved legislation yesterday amending the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to allow airline pilots and flight attendants to qualify for leave. The bill now goes to President Obama, who is expected to sign it.
The FMLA requires state agencies and private employers with more than 50 employees to give workers up to 12 weeks off to care for themselves or a family member. But because of the unique way their work hours are counted, pilots and flight attendants have found it difficult—if not impossible—to meet the 1,250-hour-per-year threshold required for FMLA eligibility.
Today: International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women
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Today is United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Around the globe, workers are saying “No” to violence against women.
Although we often limit discussions on violence against women to domestic violence, it also is a human rights issue and a workplace issue, experts say.
Millions of women work in insecure, temporary, unsafe, underpaid and unpaid jobs. They are subjected to sexual harassment, abuse and rape. According to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), certain types of work situations increase these threats, such as when women travel for their work or migrate to find work or are employed as domestic workers.
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler says in a statement:
Violence against women is a global problem that affects women of all ages, ethnicities, races, nationalities and socioeconomic backgrounds. It is also a workplace issue. Power imbalances in workplaces and the precarious employment conditions of many women increase their risk of being victims of sexual harassment, abuse and rape.
AT&T Workers, Flight Attendants and Writers Win Union Victories
More than 300 workers at AT&T Mobility have chosen a voice with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in the past five weeks, providing more proof that workers want the Employee Free Choice Act. If enacted, the bill would give workers the option of choosing whether to join a union through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) process or via majority sign-up or “card-check.” AT&T workers used the majority verification process to join CWA.
Most recently, in Vermont, 81 AT&T Mobility retail store workers voted for CWA Local 1400 through majority sign-up. Since Aug. 21, some 230 workers gained CWA representation at AT&T Mobility in Washington State, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Idaho, and at the online website, truthout.org, which operates in five states and Washington, D.C.
Helping Women Workers Helps Us All
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Delegates to the AFL-CIO Convention today took steps to further secure basic workplace rights for working women, who make up 40 percent of the global workforce, but suffer a disproportionate amount of discrimination on the job. Women also are sexually assaulted on the job and denied the time to take care of family responsibilities.
Resolution #14, ”Women, Work and Family,” says equal treatment of women is essential on the job and throughout society.
United Steelworkers (USW) Vice President Fred Redmond put it this way:
“Employers must provide equal pay for work of equal value and ensure that women have safe workplaces free of violence and sexual harassment. Government must abolish discrimination against women. Every segment of society shares the duty to respect and protect maternity and parenting.”
The resolution calls on the U.S. government to ratify several International Labor Organization (ILO) standards on organizing and bargaining, equal pay, abolition of forced labor, prohibitions of gender discrimination, ending child labor, maternity protection and protecting workers with family responsibilities.
It also commits the federation to work to pass the Healthy Families Act to provide paid sick leave, expand the Family and Medical Leave Act, enact the Paycheck Fairness Act and reduce financial and other barriers to higher education for women.
These are not actions that just help women, said Flight Attendants-CWA President Patricia Friend.
The resolution speaks to decent work for women and men. All workers should be able to work without fear of discrimination. There is no better time to move forward to bring fairness to the workplace.
Flight Attendants Condemn Demeaning Spirit Airline Ads
The whole world has hailed the professionalism and heroism of flight attendants aboard US Airways Flight 1549 who were instrumental in the safe evacuation of 150 passengers after the plane made an emergency water landing in New York’s Hudson River. But just days later, flight attendants at another airline were being disrespected and insulted by their own corporate employer.
Flight Attendants-CWA President Patricia Friend wrote Spirit Airlines Inc. CEO Ben Baldanza this month to condemn the carrier’s new ad campaign that she says is demeaning to women.
If your intent was to insult and demean your customers, employees and future customers, you may well have succeeded. I feel as though I have entered a time warp and I am reliving the battles for respect and justice for women that we fought 40 years ago.
