Recent developments involving labor unions and their members, including the latest on contract negotiations, strikes, lawsuits, and workplace organizing.
March of Maytag to Mexico Draws Union Criticism
Source: David Pitt, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Date: August 11, 2003
First Maytag Corp. moved two parts plants to Mexico; now a refrigerator plant is headed there. The relocations
to Reynosa, Mexico, all announced in the last two years, have intensified fears that Maytag might export even
more jobs to countries with cheap labor. A company that grew from a small-town farm-equipment manufacturer to
the third-largest appliance manufacturer in North America, Maytag is drawing bitter criticism for moving jobs
outside the United States.
May Consider a Strike, Goodyear Union Says
Source: Bloomberg News, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: August 12, 2003
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s largest labor union said it may consider a strike if contract
negotiations this week with North America's largest tiremaker fail to reach a tentative agreement. The United
Steelworkers of America, in a newsletter published Monday on a union Web site, called the latest talks a
"final, last-ditch effort to win an acceptable contract." Without a settlement, the union said, it will likely
increase pressure on Goodyear through "alternative contingency plans."
Unions May Ask Verizon Customers to Try AT&T
Source: Matt Richtel, New York times
Union(s): A.F.L.-C.I.O.
Date: August 13, 2003
Raising
the stakes in the protracted contract negotiations between Verizon and its unions, labor officials planned to
announce a campaign today to collect the names of people who would be willing to switch their service to AT&T,
a competing provider of local, long-distance and wireless phone services. Union officials said that the
A.F.L.-C.I.O., which is coordinating the effort to appeal to millions of Verizon customers, would not yet urge
them to switch phone companies. But the threat is seen as an effort to increase the bargaining position of the
unions representing 78,000 Verizon technicians and operators who have worked without a contract for 10 days and
also a sign that there may be more rancor in the negotiations than had been indicated earlier. The move, aimed
at customers from Verizon in a time of intense competition in the industry, puts a digital-era twist on the
kind of consumer boycott C?sar Chavez pursued in the 1970's in his ultimately successful bid to organize farm
workers in the California grape industry.
Verizon, Union Resume Contract Talks
Source: Reuters, FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Communication Workers of America & International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Date: August 12, 2003
Verizon
Communications Inc., the largest U.S. telephone company, and two unions resumed contract talks on Tuesday to
slog through persisting disputes over job security and health care costs. After a three-day break, negotiations
restarted Tuesday afternoon, with bargainers meeting in separate groups in New York and Washington, both sides
said. The talks are expected to drag for several more days as the two sides comb through details in 26
contracts covering 80,000 technicians and telephone operators from Maine to Virginia.
Correction Officers' Union Wants Commissioner Fired
Source: Paul von Zielbauer, New York Times
Union(s): New York City Correction Officers' Benevolent Association,
Date: August 14, 2003
Prompted by recent layoffs and what it says is an increasingly dangerous work environment for its
members, the union that represents more than 8,400 officers at Rikers Island and other city jails has begun a
campaign to have the correction commissioner fired. The union's new effort to remove Martin F. Horn, Mayor
Michael R. Bloomberg's handpicked commissioner, is mostly an angry response to layoffs in May that claimed 315
correction officers' jobs. Other union and city officials said they did not give the campaign any chance of
succeeding.
Ford Plant Finds Efficiency Is No Protector
Source: Danny Hakin with Anne Berryman, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: August 19, 2003
The Ford Motor Company's assembly plant near Atlanta is one of the most productive car factories on
the continent, but a top union official there said today that its future was in doubt. Ford told union workers
at a meeting in June that no new product is scheduled for the plant in the Atlanta suburb of Hapeville, which
employs 2,300 hourly workers and produces the aging Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable sedans, according to Mitchell
Smith, the top United Automobile Workers official at the plant.
Contract at Hyundai Raises Sights of Korean Workers
Source: Don Kirk, New York Times
Union(s): Korean Confederation of Trade Unions
Date: August 19, 2003
The labor contract that ended an off-again-on-again strike at the Hyundai Motor Company here
may have changed things for more than just the workers covered by the agreement. The pact that emerged earlier
this month after a 47-day strike was, by Korean standards, groundbreaking. For the first time, a powerful
industrial company accepted a five-day workweek, a relative rarity in a country where most workers also put in
a half-day on Saturday. Workers will also have a labor-management panel to review their concerns, and they will
receive an 8.6 percent wage increase, a substantial raise in an economy that is slowing.
Labor Union Leaders Come Out Against Nonpartisan Elections
Source: Jonathan P. Hicks, New York Times
Union(s): multiple unions in New York City
Date: August 19, 2003
Another group of people seething over proposals to switch to nonpartisan city elections is
beginning to speak out: labor leaders. With details of the Charter Revision Commission's recommendations
emerging, union leaders are complaining about a provision that would ban donations to candidates from labor
unions. The provision would also end donations from political parties and political action committees. Unions
are major contributors to political campaigns and often assist candidates, providing everything from volunteers
to telephone banking operations. The leaders say the provision by the charter commission, appointed this year
by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, would strip the unions of their ability to influence politics in New York.
Bloomberg and City Unions Draw the Lines, Far Apart
Source: Eric Lipton and Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): municipal unions in New York City
Date: August 19, 2003
John V. Lindsay's tenure was defined by strikes, the first one hitting only
hours after he was sworn in. Edward I. Koch and Rudolph W. Giuliani started off talking tough, but ended up
awarding hefty raises to municipal workers that left the city in a bind when recessions hit. David N. Dinkins
squeezed some of the same unions that had helped elect him and then never got a chance to serve a second term.
The success or failure of a New York City mayor, or at least his reputation as a leader or wimp, hinges in part
on his finesse in handling labor negotiations. Now it is Michael R. Bloomberg's turn.
Hoffa: Fed Oversight Of Teamsters May End
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Teamsters
Date: August 19, 2003
The Teamsters union and federal authorities are in negotiations that could result in the end of government
supervision of the 1.4 million-member union, Teamsters president James P. Hoffa said. "This is a major
watershed," Hoffa told The Detroit News for Tuesday's editions. "It's not done yet. But we have a proposal
from the government. We are looking forward to negotiating in the near future a final exit of the government
from Teamsters affairs." Federal authorities have run much of the Teamsters' operations since 1989, when the
union signed a consent decree to settle a civil racketeering suit filed by Rudolph Giuliani, U.S. attorney in
New York at the time. The suit alleged the union was controlled by the mob.
As Talks Resume, Verizon Argues With a Union Over an Ad Phrase
Source: Matt Richtel, New York Times
Union(s): Communications Workers of America
Date: August 20, 2003
While negotiators for Verizon Communications and its workers resumed bargaining yesterday over crucial
elements like health benefits and job security, the two sides also swapped accusations over the appropriate use
of the phrase, "Can you hear me now?" At the bargaining table, the negotiators, who took a break over the
weekend, discussed the central issues with a federal mediator in Washington yesterday, the 17th day without a
contract. But in court, a sideshow emerged, touched off by the use, or possible misuse, of a Verizon Wireless
advertising slogan.
Charter Panel Drops Opposition to Union Political Donations
Source: Jonathan P. Hicks, New York Times
Union(s): multiple unions based in New York City
Date: August 20, 2003
The Charter Revision Commission reversed itself yesterday and voted to eliminate a provision that
would ban donations to candidates from labor unions as well as political action committees. The provision had
previously been part of the commission's proposal on nonpartisan elections to be presented to New York City
voters in a referendum this November. Labor leaders reacted strongly to the provision, saying that it would
motivate them to join the fight to defeat the proposal for nonpartisan elections. Several union leaders said
they would become extremely active opponents to the move, led by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, to reduce the role
of political parties in New York City elections.
Labor Swiftly Deploys Anti-Recall Volunteers
Source: Megan Garvey, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Laborers International Union, Local 585 (CA)
Date: August 21, 2003
With 47 days until Californians vote up or down on the recall of Gov. Gray Davis
there is little time to spare on the phones at Laborers International Union, Local 585. Union organizers, who
opened the phone banks in Ventura last weekend, are focused on getting out the no-on-the-recall vote. The next
weeks will be a test of California's powerful unions and their ability to get out their voters.
Overtime Pay Faces Showdown in Congress
Source: Thomas Ferraro (Reuters), FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: August 20, 2003
American labor and business are gearing up for a Capitol Hill battle over whether to redefine who
in the American work force has the right to overtime pay. The AFL-CIO, the nation's biggest labor group, is
rallying its members to urge Congress to block a Bush administration proposal that critics say could end such
compensation for millions of workers by expanding overtime exemptions. Amid disagreements over who would be
affected, foes say firefighters, police officers, nurses, dental hygienists and truck dispatchers could be
among those stripped of overtime.
Read More:
href="http://clone.workplacefairness.org/overtimepay.php">fair overtime pay
Verizon Makes Case to Senators: CEO Says Firm Offered Unions a Layoff Delay
Source: Yuki Noguchi, Washington Post
Union(s): Communications Workers of America
Date: August 22, 2003
Verizon Communications Inc. proposed not to lay off workers before October 2004 and not to
relocate jobs for five years if its unions accept an increase in health care costs, the company's chief
executive told a dozen U.S. senators in a letter this week. The local phone giant, in the midst of contract
negotiations with two unions that represent 78,000 workers and about 60,000 retirees, said it has asked workers
to shoulder "modest increases" in some co-payments and deductibles, and offered not to increase health care
insurance premiums, according to the letter, which was signed by Verizon chief executive Ivan Seidenberg.
Source: Christopher Lee, Washington Post
Union(s): American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)
Date: August 22, 2003
The American Federation of Government Employees replaced two-term president Bobby L.
Harnage Sr. this week with a challenger who vowed to intensify the largest federal employee union's fight
against the Bush administration's labor initiatives. John Gage, president of AFGE Local 1923 in Baltimore,
defeated Harnage with 53 percent of the vote on the second ballot Wednesday at the union's annual convention
in Las Vegas.
Union Sues Over Moves to Discipline Prison Guards
Source: Michael Brick, New York Times
Union(s): New York City Correction Officers' Benevolent Association
Date: August 23, 2003
The
union representing more than 8,400 city correction officers announced yesterday that it had filed a federal
suit after some members were disciplined for failing to report to work during the blackout that crippled
transportation networks last week. The lawsuit, filed in United States District Court in Manhattan, was the
latest sign of the conflict between the Department of Correction and the union, the New York City Correction
Officers' Benevolent Association, which has called for the resignation or ouster of Mayor Michael R.
Bloomberg's handpicked correction commissioner.
Miami Teachers Union Chief Pleads Guilty
Source: Catherine Wilson (AP), FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): United Teachers of Dade
Date: August 25, 2003
The longtime leader of the Miami-Dade County teachers union, accused of billing the union for hundreds
of thousands of dollars worth of luxuries, pleaded guilty to two counts Monday after reaching a deal with
federal prosecutors. Pat Tornillo, 78, on leave from the United Teachers of Dade, pleaded guilty to mail fraud
and filing a false tax return in exchange for a two-year prison sentence. A public corruption task force found
he fraudulently charged the organization for up to $650,000 in personal expenses. Court records showed he
billed the union for four Caribbean vacations complete with private villa, several cruises on the luxury
Seabourn line, a trip to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and other first-class travel expenses. Prosecutors tracked
the charges on union and personal credit cards for the past five years.
Verizon, Unions Near Deal For East Coast
Source: Leigh Strope (AP), FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Communications Workers of America; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Date: August 25, 2003
Verizon Communications and its unions are nearing an agreement as 78,000 East Coast telephone operators
and technicians begin a fourth week on the job without contracts. Negotiators had made significant progress at
the bargaining table over the past several days - enough that the end appeared within reach.
Yale Workers Plan Strike for the Opening of a New Semester
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: August 26, 2003
Thousands of Yale undergraduates are to arrive on campus tomorrow, only to be greeted by an
unwelcome but all-too-familiar sight: the ninth labor walkout at Yale in 35 years. The open-ended strike by
janitorial, dining hall and clerical workers is timed to maximize pressure on Yale officials, who insist that a
walkout is misguided because, they say, the university has made an unusually generous contract offer. Yale says
it has offered the university's largest union, representing 2,900 clerical workers, raises of 44 percent over
the life of a six-year agreement, including immediate raises of 14 percent. But the clerical union and the
union representing 1,100 janitorial, maintenance and dining-hall workers say that the university's offer would
leave wages well below those of Harvard's workers and would leave pensions so paltry that many retirees would
feel pressured to return to work.
UW Severs Its Contracts With Tyson
Source: Associated Press, Wisconsin State Journal
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Local 538
Date: August 23, 2003
UW-Madison won't serve Tyson products in its dormitory cafeterias and student
unions this fall, the latest boycott in response to a strike at the company's plant in Jefferson. Casey Nagy,
executive assistant to UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley, said the school made the decision to end its contracts
with Arkansas-based Tyson Foods after consulting with groups representing students, faculty and staff. Nagy
said the university's decision does not mean it has taken a position on the strike.
China Pressuring Wal-Mart to Form Unions
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): All-China Federation of Trade Unions
Date: August 26, 2003
China's government-controlled union body is pressuring Wal-Mart to establish trade unions for thousands of
its employees, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The All-China Federation of Trade Unions says Wal-Mart
Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, has not set up trade unions in any of its branches in China,
leaving workers without protection of their legal rights, Xinhua said. "The best way to protect workers'
rights is to sign group contracts with employers through trade unions, which can protect workers' rights
involving wage negotiation, vacations, and discharge regulations,'' Feng Lijun, a Beijing ACFTU official was
quoted as saying Sunday by Xinhua.
Leaders of California's Largest Union Vote to Raise Large Amounts to Defeat Davis Recall
Source: John M. Broder, New York Times
Union(s): California Labor Federation, A.F.L.-C.I.O.
Date: August 27, 2003
The leadership of California's most powerful labor union voted today to
oppose the recall of Gov. Gray Davis and promised to spend millions on an anti-recall campaign. Almost as an
afterthought, the union endorsed the fall-back candidacy of Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, the only well-known
Democrat on the long list of candidates to replace Mr. Davis should the recall succeed.
Nearly 4,000 Yale Workers Begin Strike
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Local 35.
Date: August 27, 2003
Nearly
4,000 Yale University workers went on strike over wages, pensions and job security early Wednesday, a walkout
that coincides with students' return to the Ivy League campus. Yale spokesman Tom Conroy said the university
planned to keep the campus running with managers and temporary workers, who were on hand to help students move
into dorms. No new contract talks were scheduled.
Workers' Strike Hinders Arrival of Yale Students
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: August 28, 2003
More than 2,500 of Yale University workers went on strike today as undergraduates began returning to campus,
solidifying Yale's reputation as having the most contentious labor relations of any university in the nation.
The walkout, the second at Yale this year and the ninth since 1968, was timed to maximize pressure on Yale's
administration. But the strike had another effect, alienating some arriving students who had to navigate around
the strikers and the police to move into the dorms.
President Limits Raises for Federal Workers
Source: Associated Press, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: August 28, 2003
Giving civilian federal workers a pay raise of more than 2 percent next year would
jeopardize the war on terrorism, President Bush said Wednesday. Citing a national emergency since the 2001
terrorist attacks, Bush said he was using his authority to change the civilian pay structure in times of
"national emergency or serious economic conditions" to limit raises to 2 percent.
Bus Workers In Honolulu Win Concession
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Hawaii Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996
Date: August 28, 2003
Striking bus workers won a major concession when the city's transit company said it would no longer seek
benefit cutbacks. The breakthrough Wednesday led to the scheduling of contract talks Thursday by Oahu Transit
Services Inc. and Hawaii Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996, which represents more than 1,300 workers who
went on strike early Tuesday. If a deal is reached, bus workers could be back on the job later Thursday or
Friday, Local 996 President Mel Kahele said.
City Opera Faces Possible Strike
Source: New York Times
Union(s): Local 764, NYC's theatrical wardrobe workers' union
Date: August 30, 2003
The members of the
theatrical wardrobe workers' union, Local 764, voted on Wednesday night to authorize a strike against the New
York City Opera two weeks before the scheduled beginning of its fall season.
Yale Freshmen Find Their Moving Day Slowed by Strikers
Source: Marc Santora, New York Times
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: August 30, 2003
As the new crop of freshman students arrived on campus at Yale University this morning, they were
greeted by hundreds of striking union workers, chanting slogans and blocking streets in demonstrations that led
to the arrest of 83 workers. Among those arrested was a national union president, John Wilhelm, head of the
Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, the parent of the two unions on strike. "They
have never accepted the proposition that members of this community with the least status would come to them as
equals," Mr. Wilhelm said of university officials this afternoon, shortly after his release from jail. He said
that Yale had refused to negotiate in good faith.
Union Puts Caribbean-Style Fun Into Labor Day
Source: Erin Chan, New York Times
Union(s): Local 1199, S.E.I.U
Date: August 30, 2003
union of
health care workers rushed to complete its work this week as Labor Day approached ? not by painting picket
signs, but rather by preening plumes and stringing sequins. For the last four months, members of 1199/S.E.I.U.
climbed 19 steep steps each day to a rented space above Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery and Grill in East
Flatbush, Brooklyn, where they produced intricate costumes in firehouse red, shimmering gold and jungle green.
This year, union members decided that organized labor should have a more visible and festive presence in what
has become one of New York's largest spectator events, the West Indian American Day Carnival and Parade. More
commonly known as the Labor Day parade, the event has been held in Brooklyn for 35 years, often drawing more
than two million people.
Union Leaders Not Optimistic About Economy This Labor Day
Source: USA Today
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: August 29, 2003
Union
leaders say America's workers have little to celebrate this Labor Day.
New data Thursday indicated the
economy is improving, yet the gains are failing to reach the working-class, they said. "We do not see a reason
to be optimistic about the current economic situation," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
Source: Edward T. O'Donnell, New York Times
Union(s): Central Labor Union
Date: August 31, 2003
One hundred-twenty-one years ago Labor Day meant something more than a three-day weekend and
the unofficial end of summer. On Sept. 5, 1882, thousands of workers in New York risked being fired for taking
an unauthorized day off to participate in festivities honoring honest toil and the rights of labor. This first
commemoration of Labor Day testified to labor's rising power and unity in the Gilded Age and its sense that
both were necessary to withstand the growing power of capital. The Labor Day holiday originated with the
Central Labor Union, a local labor federation formed the previous January to promote the interests of workers
in the New York area.
Unions to Push to Make Organizing Easier
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: August 31, 2003
Labor Day, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. plans to announce a nationwide campaign that union leaders say is crucial to
assuring labor's future, a campaign that aims to change federal laws to make it easier for workers to join
unions. Disclosing details of this effort, the federation's president, John J. Sweeney, said in an interview
on Friday that American workers often faced huge obstacles to forming unions, saying they can rarely exercise
the right to unionize without facing employer intimidation. "The right of workers to make their own free choice
to join a union has been effectively canceled in a huge majority of unionization elections," Mr. Sweeney said.
"Employers engage in every tactic imaginable to block workers' freedom to form a union."
Jesse Jackson and 18 Others Are Arrested in Yale Protest
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Yale clerical, dining hall and maintenance workers unions
Date: September 2, 2003
The Rev. Jesse Jackson and 18 other people were arrested yesterday when they blocked traffic at
Yale University to show their support for striking clerical, dining hall and maintenance workers on campus.
Before his arrest at the intersection of Elm and College Streets in New Haven, Mr. Jackson led a rally on the
Yale campus that was attended by 3,000 to 5,000 strikers and their supporters, according to police estimates.
Mr. Jackson has led numerous rallies for the workers since they walked out last Wednesday, demanding job
security and higher wages and pensions. "This is the site of national Labor Day outrage," Mr. Jackson said.
"This is going to be for economic justice what Selma was for the right to vote."
Bush Defends Tax Cuts and Announces Jobs Post
Source: David E. Sanger, New York Times
Union(s): International Union of Operating Engineers
Date: September 2, 2003
Since the last time President Bush addressed a Labor Day picnic ? with carpenters in Pennsylvania
? the economy has lost 700,000 jobs, most of them in manufacturing. So by the time Mr. Bush arrived at a
rain-drenched field today to talk to highway construction workers, he faced what some of his supporters
acknowledge is a far more complex political task than he did a year ago: convincing layoff-weary voters in
crucial states like this one, which he carried by a mere three percentage points in 2000, that his tax cuts had
saved workers from a worse fate and that 14 months before the next presidential election he has a strategy to
bring back the kind of jobs that many economists say are leaving the United States for good.
Suburban Office Complex Is Latest Target of Union
Source: Josh Barbanel, New York Times
Union(s): Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union
Date: September 3, 2003
The
Carnegie Center is something of a suburban office nirvana, far from the bustle and frustrations of the city.
Swans glide through silent landscaped ponds. Crushed gravel crunches under foot in the pathways that meander
between the low-slung brick and granite campuses. Cars shimmer in the sun on vast parking lots. So Mitchell S.
Landis, who manages the 540-acre office park for Boston Properties, the real estate investment trust, seems a
bit perplexed over how the complex has become the latest front in an organizing drive by a union representing
building service employees in New York City. That organizing drive, union officials say, has rapidly swept
through much of the suburban office market in northern New Jersey.
Union Organizers to Air Complaints Against Yale
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Graduate Employees and Students Organization
Date: September 3, 2003
The group seeking to unionize graduate students at Yale announced yesterday that a former labor secretary and
a former general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board would serve on a committee investigating whether
Yale administrators or professors broke the law while fighting the unionization drive. The fact-finding
committee being formed by the union-organizing group will be headed by Fred Feinstein, who was the labor
board's chief counsel from 1994 to 1999, and its members will include Robert B. Reich, who was secretary of
labor in President Clinton's first term. Leaders of the Graduate Employees and Students Organization, which is
seeking to unionize 2,100 graduate students at Yale, claim that illegal intimidation by some Yale faculty
members contributed heavily to the pro-union forces' narrowly losing a unionization vote last April.
No New Postings in Today's News Headlines Until 9/12
Source: Workplace Fairness
Date: September 4, 2003
Due to staff vacation,
there will be no posting of new entries in Today's News Headlines until September 12, 2003. Our daily
listings of workplace-related news articles will resume at that time.
Sources: UAW, Automakers Appear Near Deal
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: September 11, 2003
The
United Auto Workers and Big Three automakers appeared close to simultaneous labor agreements Thursday, three
days before the current pacts expire, union and auto officials familiar with the talks said. The sources, who
spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said agreements between the UAW and General Motors
Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG could be announced as early as Friday but almost certainly before
Sunday's midnight deadline. The union and Big Three automakers have never reached simultaneous contract
agreements. The union typically chooses one carmaker as the lead negotiator and uses that pact as a model for
the other two. The union has been bargaining with all three automakers at once this year and has not publicly
named a lead company.
Huge Union Decides to Endorse No One Now
Source: Rachel L. Swarns, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Date: September 11, 2003
Torn between the longtime favorite and two fresh faces, the largest union in the A.F.L.-C.I.O. decided today
not to endorse any of the nine Democratic hopefuls for the presidency for now. Officials at the union, the
Service Employees International, said the 1,500 members at a convention here ranked former Gov. Howard Dean of
Vermont; Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, a longtime labor supporter; and Senator John Edwards
of North Carolina as the top three contenders. The decision reflected uncertainty about Mr. Gephardt, whom many
union members consider as having the best record on labor issues but who has struggled to raise campaign money.
It also reflects growing support for Dr. Dean, who was mobbed by enthusiastic union members.
Verizon and Unions Agree on Tentative 5-Year Contract
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Communications Workers of America & International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Date: September 5, 2003
Verizon Communications and its unions announced last night that they had reached agreement on a
tentative contract that includes a one-year wage freeze and retains strong job security protections that the
company had sought to weaken. Verizon's two main unions boasted that they had achieved major victories on job
security and health insurance, having beaten back Verizon's efforts to make its unionized workers pay
significantly more toward their health coverage. With the unions focusing on job security as their No. 1 issue,
Verizon failed in its push to ease or eliminate provisions that make it hard for Verizon, the nation's largest
telephone company, to lay off or involuntarily transfer any of its 78,000 current unionized workers in the
Northeast. In a concession to Verizon, the unions agreed that new hires would not be covered by the job
security provisions.
DaimlerChrysler, UAW Make a Deal
Source: Associated Press, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): United Auto Workers (UAW)
Date: September 15, 2003
The United Auto Workers said Monday that it reached a tentative, four-year contract
agreement with DaimlerChrysler AG and will continue to negotiate with General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co.
Details of the tentative agreement weren't released, but UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the
DaimlerChrysler pact contains what the union hopes to see from the other contracts.
Union in Deal With Chrysler; Talks With 2 Makers Continue
Source: Danny Hakim, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers (UAW)
Date: September 15, 2003
The United Auto Workers union said early this morning that a tentative agreement had been reached with
the Chrysler Group on a new four-year contract. The union apparently fell short in its attempt to reach an
unusual three-way, simultaneous deal with all of the Big Three automakers. People familiar with the
negotiations said that the union had sought such a deal with General Motors, the Ford Motor Company and the
Chrysler Group unit of DaimlerChrysler.
Labor Leaders Arrested at Rally for Yale University Strikers
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: September 14, 2003
The A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s president and 120 other union leaders and members were arrested today for civil
disobedience as an estimated 5,000 people rallied to support workers on strike at Yale University. John J.
Sweeney, the head of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., was arrested on charges that he blocked traffic along with four of the
nation's most prominent labor leaders as union members sought to transform the Yale dispute into a showdown
between the university and all of organized labor, not just Yale's 2,000 striking employees.
Labor Pacts Reached at Ford and Chrysler
Source: Danny Hakim & Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: September 15, 2003
The Ford Motor Company and the auto parts giant Visteon said late this evening that they had reached
tentative agreement on four-year labor contracts with the United Automobile Workers union. The Ford deal was
the second announced today between the union and a Big Three automaker, an unusually swift resolution to the
talks that reflects union leaders' realization of the competitive difficulties faced by the Big Three, whose
domestic market share fell to a record monthly low in August.
Costs Mount for Yale and Union as Strike Drags On
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: September 11, 2003
With the strike at Yale University entering its third week and no end in sight, the showdown is starting to
exact sizable costs on both the university and the unionized workers. Indeed, if the strike drags on much
longer, some labor experts say, whatever the ultimate settlement includes will not compensate either side for
the losses suffered during the walkout. For Yale officials, the strike has been a public relations quagmire and
has set back the university's efforts to repair its history of lamentable town-gown relations. For the 2,000
striking clerical, dining hall and maintenance workers, the walkout has meant two weeks of missed paychecks,
fears of many more such weeks and worries about not being able to pay rent and utility bills.
Huge Union Decides to Endorse No One Now
Source: Rachel L. Swarns, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: September 11, 2003
Torn between the longtime favorite and two fresh faces, the largest union in the A.F.L.-C.I.O. decided
today not to endorse any of the nine Democratic hopefuls for the presidency for now. Officials at the union,
the Service Employees International, said the 1,500 members at a convention here ranked former Gov. Howard Dean
of Vermont; Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, a longtime labor supporter; and Senator John
Edwards of North Carolina as the top three contenders. The decision reflected uncertainty about Mr. Gephardt,
whom many union members consider as having the best record on labor issues but who has struggled to raise
campaign money. It also reflects growing support for Dr. Dean, who was mobbed by enthusiastic union members.
UAW Reaches Agreement with Ford; GM Still in Talks
Source: Associated Press, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: September 16, 2003
The United Auto Workers announced late Monday that it reached tentative contract agreements
with Ford Motor Co. and auto supplier Visteon Corp., leaving General Motors Corp. as the only Big Three
automaker still in labor talks with the union. Details of the tentative agreements with Chrysler and Ford
weren't being released. Union representatives earlier had told their members that they were close to new labor
agreements with Ford and GM but said difficult issues remained. The union and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler
Group announced early Monday that they had reached a tentative, four-year contract deal. The union has said
workers for GM will report to work as usual while negotiations continue.
Teachers Barter With Work Rules
Source: David M. Herszenhorn, New York Times
Union(s): United Federation of Teachers
Date: September 16, 2003
New York
City's teachers' union will propose a wide-ranging experiment to do away with the bulk of the work rules that
have long enraged city officials in exchange for getting teachers a greater say in how individual schools are
run, the union president, Randi Weingarten, said yesterday. The proposal, intended for perhaps 100 schools or
more, would discard rules that govern everything from the length of classes to the amount of teacher
preparation time. Principals could then negotiate pared-down work agreements with their staffs, which teachers
would approve.
Goodyear Reaches a Pact With Union
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: September 16, 2003
Workers at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, the nation's largest tire maker, ratified a three-year
contract that calls for wage freezes in exchange for unusually strong job protections, union and company
officials said yesterday. The workers approved the contract after five months of negotiations in which the
union, the United Steelworkers of America, consulted closely with Wall Street firms and industry experts on
what was needed to keep Goodyear afloat and retain jobs in the United States.
Amtrak Workers Plan Strike to Protest Lack of Financing
Source: Matthew L. Wald, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union & 5 other Amtrak unions
Date: September 17, 2003
Six Amtrak unions are to announce on Wednesday that they will stop work on Oct. 3, shutting the
railroad for the day, to protest Congress\'s failure to pass a $1.8 billion appropriation for the railroad
for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. If carried out, it would be the first time Amtrak workers have walked off
the job to protest Congressional policy. In the past, workers have struck over wages or other workplace issues.
A railroad official said Amtrak would probably seek an injunction to stop them, but union officials said they
believed that they were justified under the law and cited a 1982 Supreme Court ruling involving longshoremen
who protested the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan by refusing to load fertilizer on ships going to the Soviet
Union.
Tough Times Force U.A.W. to Employ New Strategy
Source: Danny Hakim, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: September 17, 2003
The nearly
simultaneous deals the United Automobile Workers union announced Monday with the Ford Motor Company and the
Chrysler Group represent a sharp break with tradition and underscore how tough times are for the Big Three and
their suppliers. Terms of the four-year labor contracts keep the union workers' generous health care benefits
largely intact, but the union gave ground on other important issues, including scaling back wage increases and
selectively lifting a ban on plant closings, according to people with knowledge of the deals.
Couture Update: 3 Deals, 3 Looks for U.A.W.'s Chief
Source: Michelene Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: September 21, 2003
Ron Gettelfinger, president of the United Auto Workers, made an industrial fashion
statement last week: he donned buttoned-down shirts with the union's logo to announce deals with Detroit's
Big Three.
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: September 20, 2003
To
end the 22-day strike that was embarrassing Yale and grating on its students, the university gave its two main
unions wage and pension increases that are generous by most any definition. Yale granted its largest union,
representing 2,900 clerical workers, raises of 44 percent over eight years and agreed to a richer pension
formula that will increase pensions for most future retirees by 80 percent or more.
No Sugarcoating From Mayor, Leaving a Labor Group Sour
Source: Michael Luo, New York Times
Union(s): Municipal Labor Committee
Date: September 20, 2003
With a day to absorb a tough speech by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg at a union retreat on Long Island, a
top city labor official said yesterday that she and her colleagues were insulted by his address.
"When a
guest comes into your house and is rude, it is a real sign of disrespect," said Randi Weingarten, the
chairwoman of the Municipal Labor Committee, which coordinates bargaining for the city's unions. Mayors are
routinely invited to the annual gathering but rarely accept. When Mr. Bloomberg agreed to show up and speak
during the two-day conference at the Hilton Huntington in Melville, Ms. Weingarten said she took it as a
hopeful sign. Most of the city's workers are working without a contract, and the unions' insistence for
salary increases have been met by demands from the city for productivity increases.
In Latest Contracts, Labor Uses New Strategy
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): various, including UAW and CWA
Date: September 20, 2003
Corporations have often complained that union demands are so outlandish that labor seems ready to drive them
out of business. Companies like Bethlehem Steel, Pan Am and Studebaker attributed their demises largely to
overambitious union demands. But this week, amid a burst of major contract agreements, even corporate
executives are acknowledging that labor's first concern has changed from demanding more and more to making
sure that companies and jobs survive. In reaching a settlement with General Motors on Thursday and in recent
agreements with several other industrial behemoths ? Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Goodyear and Verizon ? unions have
shown a new willingness to rein in their demands. Keeping their employers competitive, they have concluded, is
essential to keeping unionized jobs from being lost to nonunion, often lower-wage companies elsewhere in this
country or overseas.
Goodyear May Cut Jobs In 11 States
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: September 22, 2003
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is considering closing an Alabama tire plant and layoffs at plants in 10 other
states as well as other options to meet its goal of saving $1.1 billion over the next three years, company
officials said Monday. A three-year contract approved last week by Goodyear employees allows the Akron-based
company to close a Dunlop tire facility in Huntsville, Ala., which employs about 1,300 people.
Despite an End to Yale Strike, Hospital Workers' Issues Linger
Source: Stacey Stowe, New York Times
Union(s): 1199/S.E.I.U., Yale health care workers' union
Date: September 23, 2003
Despite a settlement last week after a 22-day strike against Yale, workers and labor leaders at the
university's teaching hospital rallied today to say Yale's labor problems are not over. Two university unions
reached a settlement last week and returned to work. But the members of a third union, dietary workers at
Yale-New Haven Hospital, returned to work without a contract. Today, with labor leaders and politicians
pledging support, the members vowed that while on the job, they would continue efforts for better wages,
pensions and health benefits.
Was Anyone Taken for a Ride in the U.A.W.-Big 3 Contract Talks?
Source: Danny Hakim, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: September 23, 2003
Last week, the United Automobile Workers offered more concessions to the Big Three than it has in the
last two decades of contract talks. Then again, concessions have not really been a feature of the last two
decades of contract talks in the American auto industry. While auto workers see a contract that extends a
lifeline to the struggling Big Three, Wall Street sees baby steps that amount to a glass half-full in some
minds and fully empty in others. \"Does this make the industry even a little bit more competitive? No,\" said
Maryann Keller, an auto analyst and former executive who ran Priceline.com\'s automotive division. \"This
contract does nothing to even make a slight dent in the fundamental problems,\" she added.
Firefighters Union Will Throw Support to Kerry, Officials Say
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): International Association of Fire Fighters
Date: September 19, 2003
The International Association of Fire Fighters will endorse Senator John Kerry
for president next week, union officials said yesterday, making it the first union to endorse a Democratic
presidential candidate other than Representative Richard A. Gephardt. Harold Schaitberger, the firefighters'
president, declined to discuss his union's plans, but labor leaders who have talked with him said the union
would back Mr. Kerry because its leaders thought the senator was the most electable Democrat. The
firefighters' endorsement, which is expected to be announced on Wednesday in Washington, is bound to hurt Mr.
Gephardt's efforts to win the coveted endorsement of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., union leaders said.
Yale in Deal With 2 Unions, Ending Strike
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: September 19, 2003
Ending a three-week strike, Yale and its two main unions reached a tentative eight-year contract yesterday
that will give many workers raises of more than 40 percent over the life of the pact and provide the embattled
university with years of labor peace. Yale officials applauded the deal because the university, having faced
nine strikes since 1968, more than any other university, wanted a lengthy contract to have labor tranquillity
and to mend relations with its unions. The main issues in the dispute were the unions' demands for far higher
pensions and the clerical union's push for wage increases of 6 percent or more per year, which that union said
were necessary to catch up with workers at Harvard and the University of Connecticut.
G.M. Accord Finishes Talks for U.A.W.
Source: Danny Hakim & Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): United Automobile Workers
Date: September 19, 2003
The United Automobile Workers union concluded its contract negotiations with the Big Three and
two major suppliers today after granting its most significant concessions in two decades. The deals, which will
result in thousands of job cuts as roughly a dozen plants are closed or sold, reflect the broad competitive
struggles of domestic manufacturers, and the union's effort to balance the desires of its members with the
shrinking market share and profits of the automakers. This morning, the U.A.W. announced it had reached deals
with General Motors and Delphi, the world's largest auto parts company, which G.M. spun off in 1999.
Hospital's Residents Win OK for Union
Source: Bruce Japsen, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Physicians for Responsible Negotiation
Date: September 19, 2003
After three years of legal wrangling with the Chicago area's largest health-care system,
doctors-in-training at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge have won the right to belong to a
union. The National Labor Relations Board's ruling in favor of the doctors could assist medical residents
interested in forming a union to improve pay, benefits and working conditions at private hospitals nationwide.
"This ruling certainly opens up the ability for residents and fellows to organize in private institutions,"
said Dr. Mark Fox, president of Physicians for Responsible Negotiation, the union that sought to represent the
residents. "I am now sure there will be other hospitals and other residency programs that will be interested in
doing this."
Sweeney to Seek New 4-Year Term as Head of A.F.L.-C.I.O.
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: September 18, 2003
John J. Sweeney said today that he would seek another four-year term as president of the
A.F.L.-C.I.O., a move that if successful would keep him at labor's helm for a total of 14 years. Mr. Sweeney,
69, said he was making the announcement nearly two years before his term ended because he wanted the 64 unions
in the federation to focus next year not on a fight over his successor, but on defeating President Bush. "We
don't want to distract from what our main agenda is right now, and that's to win back the White House and the
Senate and the House," Mr. Sweeney said in an interview in his office. "Next year, 2004, is going to be a
crucial year for us, because people realize how antiunion this administration has been."
Labor Activists Picket Outsourcing Event
Source: Alorie Gilbert (CNET News), New York Times
Union(s): Communications Workers of America
Date: September 18, 2003
A
two-day conference instructing companies on moving technology jobs and other work overseas drew picketers, in
one of the first San Francisco Bay Area protests over a growing trend that's shaking up the entire computer
industry. A group of about 50 labor organizers and out-of-work techies gathered at 8:30 a.m. PDT on Tuesday in
front of the Hyatt Regency hotel here, where conference organizer Brainstorm Group is holding its Nearshore and
Offshore Outsourcing Conference this week.
U.A.W. Reaches Tentative Pact With Last of Big 3 Automakers
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): United Automobile Workers
Date: September 18, 2003
The United Automobile Workers reached tentative agreements this morning with General Motors and
Delphi, wrapping up labor contracts in the American automobile industry with unprecedented speed. The
agreements, announced by officials of the union and the two companies, came just four days after contracts
covering more than 300,000 automobile and parts workers expired. The announcement also came just three days
after the U.A.W. reached tentative agreements at Ford Motor and the Chrysler Group, a unit of DaimlerChrysler
AG, as well as Visteon, the parts subsidiary spun off by Ford in 2000.
Biggest Union in 8-Year Pact With Times
Source: Jacques Steinberg, New York Times
Union(s): Newspaper Guild of New York
Date: September 24, 2003
The
New York Times and its largest union, the Newspaper Guild of New York, said yesterday that they had reached a
tentative agreement on an eight-year contract that would raise wages a total of 23 percent. The agreement calls
for increases of 3 percent in each of the first five years and 2 percent in each of the last three years.
Unlike the previous contract between the guild and The Times, the new deal does not include a no-layoff
guarantee for current employees.
Tight Election Looms in Largest Municipal Union
Source: Michael Luo, New York Times
Union(s): District Council 37
Date: September 24, 2003
With a
vote still more than three months away, the president of New York's main union of social workers opened his
campaign yesterday to take charge of the city's largest municipal union, District Council 37, by announcing
his slate of running mates and a long list of local presidents who already support him. His announcement brings
the union's 123,000 members a step closer to what promises to be the closest election battle at any large New
York union since the 1980's. It also complicates negotiations between the city and the union, whose workers
have been without a contract for more than a year.
UAW May Lose Up to 50, 000 Jobs in 4 Years
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Automotive Workers
Date: September 24, 2003
The
United Auto Workers could lose up to 50,000 jobs at Detroit's Big Three automakers and two major suppliers
over the next four years, but analysts say the union is likely to make up some of the losses by organizing
nonunion suppliers. Analysts also note that the bulk of job losses will occur through attrition and early
retirement, not from layoffs at plants that will be closed or sold as part of tentative labor pacts reached
last week between the UAW and General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group and
suppliers Delphi Corp. and Visteon Corp. Most workers at plants targeted for sale or closure are expected to
find jobs elsewhere in their companies.
Start Teaching or Lose Semester?s Pay, C.W. Post Strikers Are Told
Source: Michael Brick, New York Times
Union(s): C.W. Post Collegial Federation
Date: September 25, 2003
The C. W. Post campus of Long Island University has ordered striking faculty members to return to
teaching by Monday or face cancellation of their classes and the losses of their jobs and pay for the fall
semester, officials said yesterday. Students may need to take weekend classes or make up for lost time in
abbreviated winter sessions or independent study, administrators at the campus said yesterday. The
university's negotiations with the campus's 340 full-time faculty members, 63 percent of whom have tenure,
have ended in a dispute over whether the university can dock the pay of the faculty members for the time that
they have spent on strike since classes began on Sept. 8.
School Custodians Object as City Hires Private Firms
Source: Elissa Gootman, New York Times
Union(s): Local 891
Date: September 26, 2003
The union representing New York City school custodial supervisors is complaining that the Department
of Education moved quietly over the summer to hire private contractors to clean as many as 133 city schools.
While the use of private companies in those schools is only temporary, it brings to more than 400 the number of
schools where outside contractors may replace staff custodians. The union's complaint is the latest round in a
dispute over who should clean, repair, heat, cool, and maintain the city's 1,200 schools now that they are
under mayoral control.
Pickets Say Prevailing Wages Keep Steel Workers Jobless
Source: Tom Watts, Macomb Daily (MI)
Union(s): Local Union 25
Date: September 26, 2003
Unemployed iron workers from Local Union 25, including Charles Nutting of
Detroit, were on the picket line Wednesday citing "prevailing wages" as the reason a Marlette fabricator was
the low bidder for work being done at L'Anse Creuse High School-North. Unskilled iron workers making
substandard wages are hired before unionized steel workers making prevailing wages, according to pickets
outside L'Anse Creuse High School-North on Wednesday. According to union pickets, the L'Anse Creuse Public
Schools board awarded an estimated $60,000 contract to Sanilac Steel of Marlette this year. But Jack O'Donnell
of Local Union 25, which represents bridge, structural, ornamental, rigging, machinery and reinforcing iron
workers, said "prevailing wages" are keeping nearly 1,000 of his steel workers unemployed.
Cincinnati Firefighters Union Sued For Race Discrimination
Source: John McQuiston, WCPO
Union(s): Union Local 48
Date: September 25, 2003
Some African
American Cincinnati firefighters say they're fighting openly for justice after claiming the union that
represents city firefighters is racist.
Members of the Cincinnati African-American Firefighters Association
says that they are subject to hostile working conditions and discrimination. They have filed charges with the
EEOC seeking changes in the union.
Missouri Official: Labor Deal Prevented Immediate Closure of Ford
Source: David Lieb (AP), Kansas City Star
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: September 26, 2003
The Ford Motor Co. assembly plant in Hazelwood could have begun closing down immediately had the
plant not been included in a new labor union agreement tentatively reached last week, Missouri's economic
development chief said Thursday. Ford had announced in January 2002 that it intended to close the suburban St.
Louis plant around "mid-decade," but the company never provided a specific date. Local and state officials
responded with an intensive lobbying effort and incentive package aimed at reversing the decision. They
rejoiced last week when Ford reversed course and decided to keep the plant open through at least 2007, the
expiration of a proposed contract with the United Auto Workers.
Miami University Workers Go on Strike
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 209
Date: September 26, 2003
Maintenance, grounds and cafeteria workers at Miami University went on strike Friday, marking the school's
first labor walkout. No new talks were scheduled between university and union negotiators at the main campus in
Oxford, about 30 miles northwest of Cincinnati. Union members rallied outside the student center as Miami's
board of trustees held its regularly scheduled meeting. The contract expired shortly after midnight
Friday.
Hormel Reaches Agreement with 3,000 Union Workers
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)
Date: September 26, 2003
United Food and
Commercial Workers (UFCW) said on Friday it reached a tentative contract agreement with Hormel Foods Inc., a
maker of Spam luncheon meat and Always Tender beef.
Lawmaker Questions Labor Transit Subsidy Dispute
Source: Tanya N. Ballard, Government Executive Magazine
Union(s): American Federation of Government Employees Local 12
Date: September 26, 2003
Rep.
James Moran, D-Va., has asked the General Accounting Office to look into a nearly two-year long tussle between
the Labor Department and a union over increasing the transit subsidy for some federal employees. A Clinton-era
executive order required agencies to offer transit subsidies to employees in the Washington metropolitan area
beginning in October 2000. When the order was first implemented, the maximum amount employees could receive was
$65 a month, but in January 2002 the ceiling was raised to $100 a month.
Miami University Suffers First Labor Strike
Source: Associated Press, CNN
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 209
Date: September 26, 2003
Maintenance,
grounds and cafeteria workers at Miami University went on strike Friday, marking the school's first labor
walkout. No new talks were scheduled between university and union negotiators at the main campus in Oxford,
about 30 miles northwest of Cincinnati. Union members rallied outside the student center as Miami's board of
trustees held its regularly scheduled meeting. The contract expired shortly after midnight Friday.
Union Proclaims Labor Laws Violated
Source: Fresno Bee
Union(s): Service Employees International Union Local 250
Date: September 27, 2003
A union Friday leveled
another charge of unfair labor practices against Fresno County in its contract negotiations with home-care
workers who assist the elderly and disabled. Service Employees International Union Local 250 accuses the county
of violating labor laws by "falsely declaring an impasse" in the negotiations.Home-care organizing director
Dana Simon said in a statement that a county official has told him the county will only listen to proposals to
cut wages to pay for health benefits for the workers.
GM Wants Saturn in General Labor Pact
Source: Joseph Szczesny, Oakland County Press (MI)
Union(s): United Automotive Workers
Date: September 26, 2003
One more labor contract that still needs to be wrapped up this
year is the United Auto Workers contract with General Motors/Saturn. The Saturn pact comes up for renewal this
year, and the union is under pressure from General Motors to place the Saturn bargaining units in Spring Hill,
Tenn., under the GM/UAW master labor contract on which the automaker's blue-collar employees are now voting.
GM spokesman Tom Wickham confirmed that GM and the UAW are tentatively scheduled to discuss the Saturn
agreement some time this fall. No date has been established since there is no formal expiration date. Senior GM
executives have suggested privately that the separate contract should be phased out and the Spring Hill plant
brought under the terms of the company's new contract with the UAW.
Union Workers Get out the Vote Against Recall
Source: Jessica Guynn, Contra Costa Times
Union(s): various California unions
Date: September 28, 2003
"I am a volunteer for
the Democratic party. Do you have a moment?" John May, a 40-year-old United Food and Commercial Workers Union
representative, asks Susan, a Democrat from Richmond. "We are looking for people to vote no on the recall, no
on Proposition 54 and yes on Cruz Bustamante." May knows the recall election will come down to one thing: "Who
gets out the vote." May is one of thousands of volunteers throughout the state who have placed 300,000 phone
calls since Labor Day to fire up fellow union members and Democrats, part of organized labor's massive, $5
million campaign to defeat the recall in an effort to salvage Gov. Gray Davis' political future, and its
own.
UAW Says Ratifies Deals with Ford, Visteon
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Automobile Worker
Date: September 30, 2003
The United Auto Workers
union said on Tuesday it had ratified new four-year contracts with Ford Motor Co. and Visteon Corp. The new
contracts cover over 72,000 workers at Ford and more than 21,000 workers at Visteon, as well as more than
77,000 retirees and 24,000 surviving spouses.
Supermarkets, Clerks Gird for Possible Strike
Source: Nancy Cleeland & Melinda Fulmer, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: September 29, 2003
Three major supermarket chains and 71,000 Southern California food clerks are
locked in high-stakes contract negotiations that both sides say could lead to a regionwide strike next month.
At stake are the wages and benefits won through decades of hard bargaining and strikes by the United Food and
Commercial Workers union. Cashiers earn as much as $17.90 hourly, are guaranteed a pension and pay no premiums
for family health insurance. The chains say they must lower labor costs to remain healthy ? citing slumping
sales, rising health-care costs and, above all, competition from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other nonunion
retailers that are moving into grocery sales. Stock analysts have hammered at the companies ? Safeway Inc.,
which owns Vons and Pavilions; Kroger Co., which owns Ralphs; and Albertson's Inc. ? to bring employee costs
down.
Unions Put Democratic Endorsement Plans on Hold
Source: Leigh Strope (AP), FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): multiple unions
Date: September 29, 2003
Organized labor has yet to organize when it comes to choosing a Democrat to challenge President Bush.
Late entrant Wesley Clark is shaking up the process even further, with some key unions delaying endorsement
plans to see if he energizes voters. Many unions had expected to endorse a 2004 choice this month or next, but
they became wary about getting tied to a loser in a volatile contest with a crowded field that has seen the
early front-runner trip and a once-afterthought soar. Enter Clark - and intrigue for several unions whose
rank-and-file have failed to coalesce around one candidate. Will the retired four-star general be the savior
leading Democrats back to the White House? Or will he flame out? Some unions are taking time to find out.
Labor Dispute Hindering Jewel's Wisconsin Expansion
Source: Associated Press, WBBM (IL)
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1444
Date: September 29, 2003
A
labor dispute between Illinois-based Jewel Food Stores and its 1,500 union employees in southeastern Wisconsin
has hurt the company's efforts to expand in the area, its president said. "This whole thing creates so much
uncertainty," Jewel President Pete Van Helden said, after union employees rejected Jewel's contract proposal
last week. The inability to reach an agreement ended Jewel's plans to buy 10 Kohl's Food Stores in the
Milwaukee area last summer, he said. Jewel-Osco needed to know wage and benefit expenses before buying the
stores.
AFL-CIO Not Ready to Make White House Endorsement
Source: John Whitesides (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: September 30, 2003
The nation's largest labor organization said Tuesday it was not ready to make an endorsement in
the Democratic presidential primary race, dealing a setback to Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt. AFL-CIO
President John Sweeney said he would not call a general board meeting for mid-October, where leaders of the
federation would have considered endorsing a candidate.
Mine Workers OK Reorganization Plan
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): United Mine Workers
Date: September 30, 2003
The United Mine Workers union approved a reorganization plan that cuts the number of elected officials and
puts districts under the control of the international union. Delegates to the union convention in Las Vegas
approved the plan Monday, said Doug Gibson, a union spokesman. The reorganization package was proposed by UMW
President Cecil Roberts in August. It makes UMW districts into divisions of the international union instead of
separate entities, and reduces from three to one the number of officers elected by members in each
district.
Gephardt Won?t Get Early Backing of Labor
Source: Steven Greenhouse & Rachel L. Swarns, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: October 1, 2003
The A.F.L.-C.I.O. announced yesterday that it would not endorse a Democratic
presidential candidate this month, dealing a sharp setback to the campaign of Representative Richard A.
Gephardt of Missouri. After meeting with other union leaders in Washington, John J. Sweeney, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
president, said he was canceling an endorsement meeting planned for Oct. 14 because he could not muster the
two-thirds support Mr. Gephardt needed to obtain the federation's coveted backing. Nor was there a consensus
on anyone else in the crowded Democratic field. For years as House Democratic leader, Mr. Gephardt has been a
staunch ally of organized labor, and his aides hoped that an October endorsement would give him a lift going
into the winter primary season. It would have given him labor's imprimatur and provided hundreds of union
officials to work for him across the nation during the primaries and caucuses.
Hormel Union Workers Vote in Favor of Contract
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: October 1, 2003
Meat processor Hormel
Foods Inc.'s union workers voted late Tuesday in favor of a new four-year contract, a company spokeswoman told
Reuters Wednesday. Some 3,000 workers represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers had reached a
tentative agreement with the company last Friday after the two sides had entered into federal mediation.
Chicago Area Hit by Garbage Haulers Strike
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): Teamsters Union
Date: October 1, 2003
Unionized trash haulers
said on Wednesday they have gone on strike against private-sector garbage services in the Chicago area in an
action that will disrupt commercial trash service and some residential service.
Source: Tom Robbins, Village Voice
Union(s): District Council 37
Date: September 30, 2003
Charles Ensley, the
veteran leader of the 20,000-member local representing the city's welfare workers, held an exuberant kickoff
rally last week for his campaign to unseat incumbent Lillian Roberts as executive director of District Council
37, the city's largest?and once most powerful?municipal workers' union. "We are embarking on a mission today
to return this union to its former glory," said Ensley, 62. Thirty of the council's 56 local
presidents?representing 70,000 of the council's 120,000 members?were present to support his candidacy, Ensley
said, and he had them raise their hands as the crowd of 100 cheered and shook blue signs proclaiming a "Unity
Slate." The rally was held on a plaza at the rear entrance of the council's huge headquarters at 125 Barclay
Street on the far west side of Lower Manhattan, offices purchased back in those glory years when anything the
council's then influential leaders said had impact at City Hall and in Albany. Those days are long gone,
however. Now the plaza is notable as the site where investigators for the Manhattan district attorney's office
hauled away truckloads of records in 1999, in a probe that resulted in criminal charges against some 20
officials of D.C. 37 and a seismic shake-up in what had always been perceived as a sedate and corruption-free
labor organization. The investigation opened a Pandora's box of long-hidden secrets, ranging from the blatant
rigging of contract votes and local elections to the theft of union treasuries and even hushed-up mob
associations. The plaza was also the place, union veterans knew, where the leader of a key local was savagely
beaten by goons dispatched by a mobster dissatisfied with the size of his tribute.
Office Site Center of Labor War
Source: Tony Hagen, Trenton Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ
Date: September 30, 2003
Mickey Landis, vice president and regional manager of Boston Properties, says his company looks after its
workers, so he is unhappy labor activists are using his office park, Carnegie Center, as a poster pinup for
worker exploitation allegations. "Boston Properties is entirely sympathetic to any worker's status, in any
position," Landis says. "Our company has a terrific record in treating its workers well. It is absurd to think
that our company doesn't care." In recent months, Boston Properties has been slammed by Service Employees
International Union Local 32BJ, which is working hard to unionize janitors and related building services
employees in Mercer County.
Deere Reaches Tentative Deal with Union
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: September 30, 2003
Deere & Co, the
world's largest farm equipment maker, said on Tuesday it had reached a tentative agreement with the United
Auto Workers union but terms of the proposal still needed to be approved.
St. C Teachers Not Alone In Labor Strife
Source: WTOV9.com (OH)
Union(s): Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE) Local 549
Date: September 30, 2003
The labor situation involving St.
Clairsville-Richland City Schools is an increasingly complicated saga, of teachers who are not happy, service
workers even less happy, and a school district prepared to go forward without either of them. The Ohio
Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE) Local 549 represents cafeteria workers, bus drivers, maintenance
and other service workers in St. C, and like the teachers those folks are working without a new labor
contract--the old deal expired in July. Tuesday night, the union is holding only its fourth negotiation with
the Board of Education since the contract ran out.
Chrysler, Union to Convene on Employment Costs
Source: John Porretto (AP), Miami Herald
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: October 1, 2003
DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group and the United Auto Workers will look at a variety of ways in the coming
months to reduce the automaker's employment costs, including buyouts, a Chrysler spokesman said Tuesday.
Chrysler and the UAW, who agreed on a new four-year labor pact in mid-September, will establish a task force by
Nov. 1 to discuss employment issues, Chrysler spokesman Dan Bodene said.
State Workers Trade Wages For Time Off
Source: Associated Press, Detroit News
Union(s): Michigan State Employees Association
Date: October 1, 2003
A union
representing 4,000 state employees gave approval Tuesday to a deal that would require state workers to defer
some of their wages and take 32 hours of unpaid time off. The Michigan State Employees Association is the first
of several unions to reach a tentative agreement on ways to save money on state workers, said David Fink,
director of the Office of the State Employer. John Denniston, president of the Michigan State Employees
Association, said the agreement would require members to work 40 hours a week but get paid for 38. The unpaid
hours would go into a bank of leave time and would be treated similar to vacation hours. If an employee leaves
a state job with hours still in the bank, the money for that time would go into the worker's 401(k) retirement
account.
Chicago Strike Leaves Garbage Piling Up
Source: Jo Napolitano, New York Times
Union(s): Teamsters Locals 731 and 301
Date: October 3, 2003
Less
than two days after 3,300 city and suburban trash haulers went on strike, garbage bins here are already
beginning to overflow, leaving residents and business owners struggling to keep their waste vermin-free. After
about three months of negotiations, contract talks between Teamsters Locals 731 and 301 and the Chicago Area
Refuse Haulers Association, which represents the 17 refuse companies, broke down about 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday
in a dispute over wages and benefits. The negotiations resumed on Thursday morning.
Hormel Contract Includes Higher Wages - and Health Care Costs
Source: Associated Press, Kansas City Star
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: October 2, 2003
The four-year contract ratified by workers at five Hormel Foods plants, including one in Atlanta,
includes annual wage increases averaging 2 percent, but employees will have to pay a greater share of their
health care costs, a union official said. The more than 3,000 workers at the five plants, - including Hormel's
flagship packinghouse in Austin - approved the contract by a margin of 65 percent to 35 percent, the United
Food and Commercial Workers announced Wednesday. The agreement was an improvement over a contract that was
overwhelmingly rejected by union members last month, said Denny LeBarron, a business agent for UFCW Local 9 in
Austin, which represents about 1,300 Hormel workers.
Employee Claims He Was Forced into Prayer
Source: Michelle Maitre, Oakland Tribune
Union(s): University Professional and Technical Employees
Date: October 6, 2003
Will Osuna said he was uncomfortable when, as a University of California employee, he felt pressured to
participate in what he considered religious rituals on company time.
In a typical instance, Osuna said
participants in conferences and student camps organized as part of a university outreach program that targets
American-Indian students would stand and gather in a circle. A speaker would invoke "the creator" or other
deity, including "God" or the "Almighty Father." At conferences and other gatherings of adult officials, Osuna
said attendees were expected to participate in Native American rituals including passing around burning sage
nestled in seashell. Participants were asked to pass the shell "around and about" their bodies.
Auto-Parts Giants Target Wages in UAW Talks
Source: Ted Evanoff, Indianapolis Star
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: October 5, 2003
Landing a
job in a Delphi Corp. or Visteon Corp. factory in Indiana has long been a sure way to middle-class income. But
the retrenching Detroit auto industry soon could cut the $26-an-hour base wage for new workers at Delphi and
Visteon auto parts plants in Indiana and the rest of the nation. A new round of negotiations, aimed at winning
landmark concessions from the United Auto Workers union, is expected to begin this month.
Gephardt's Labor Roots Run Deep
Source: Ed Tibbetts, Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier
Union(s): various unions
Date: October 6, 2003
Now, with this likely to be his last stab at politics' biggest
prize, Richard Gephardt is melding his familiarity with the byways of America's politics with a hefty health
care plan to try to seize the party's presidential nomination. It's not easy. The field is crowded. A guy few
heard of a year ago --- Howard Dean --- is setting fire to the grass roots. Gephardt's second quarter
fund-raising totals were disappointing. But, the Missouri man who first won elected office as a St. Louis
alderman in 1970 by going door-to-door --- working one side of the street while his soon-to-be wife worked the
other --- is marching forward.
Unions See Politics in New Disclosure Rules
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: October 5, 2003
Labor leaders have sharply criticized new financial disclosure regulations that the Labor Department issued on
Friday, asserting that the Bush administration is intent on retaliating against unions. "These new rules are
blatantly political," said Jonathan Hiatt, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s general counsel, charging that the
administration wanted to punish labor for supporting many Democrats and battling the president on numerous
issues. "They aim to send a retaliatory message." But administration officials said the new rules were not
designed to punish labor, but to prevent union corruption and provide union members with more information about
their unions' operations and financial health.
UAW Ratifies Contract with GM, Delphi
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: October 6, 2003
The United Auto Workers
union said on Monday it had ratified new four-year contracts with General Motors Corp. and Delphi Corp. The new
contracts cover over 117,000 active workers at GM and more than 30,000 active workers at Delphi, as well as
more than 234,000 retirees and 63,000 surviving spouses.
Grocery Workers Complain to NLRB over Wages Offered to Temps
Source: Thomas Lee, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655
Date: October 3, 2003
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655 filed an unfair labor-practices complaint Friday
against the three largest supermarket chains in St. Louis over their offers of higher wages to temporary
grocery workers. Schnuck Markets Inc., Dierbergs Markets Inc., and Shop 'n Save Warehouse Foods Inc. ran
advertisements Thursday and Friday seeking temporary workers to replace union members if the UFCW strikes next
week.
Source: Menaka Fernando, The UCLA Daily Bruin
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: October 3, 2003
Class
will be dismissed for hundreds of students today as many teaching assistants, readers and tutors throughout the
University of California participate in a one-day strike against what they call unfair labor practices. The
strike will be coordinated by the United Auto Workers local division that represents 10,000 workers at the
eight undergraduate UC campuses. The UAW filed 64 unfair labor practices against the university for bargaining
in bad faith. Some of these alleged practices include surface bargaining ? the practice of passing proposals
back and forth without making real changes ? and shifting justifications by the university, said Beth Rayfield,
a spokeswoman for UAW.
Labor Goes All Out to Get Vote Out for Davis
Source: James Sterngold, San Francisco Chronicle
Union(s): Los Angeles County Federation of Labor
Date: October 6, 2003
As the recall campaign roars toward the final showdown Tuesday, this unlikely race may boil down
to a final sprint between Gov. Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rudy Garcia. While Davis and
Schwarzenegger crisscross the state with their appeals to big crowds, Garcia is playing a potentially crucial
role by pressing voters to oppose the recall one at a time at a bustling telephone calling center run by the
Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, ground zero for one of the largest get-out-the-vote campaigns ever
mounted in the state.
Deere Says UAW Workers Ratify 6-Year Contract
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: October 6, 2003
Deere & Co., the
world's largest farm equipment maker, on Monday said workers represented by the United Auto Workers over the
weekend ratified a six-year contract that runs to Sept. 30, 2009. The agreement covers roughly 7,000 employees
and 17,000 retirees, Deere said. The Moline, Illinois-based company had reached a tentative agreement with the
workers on Sept. 30, and said union officials have notified it of the ratification.
US Airways Subcontracts Work, Inflames Mechanics
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): International Association of Machinists
Date: October 6, 2003
US Airways Group Inc.
said on Monday that it will outsource heavy maintenance on 10 of its airplanes to an Alabama company, which
prompted the airline's mechanics' union to file for a temporary restraining order that would prevent the
move. US Airways said 10 of its Airbus narrow body aircraft are due for their first round of mandatory heavy
maintenance checks this fall, but said it does not have the facilities or equipment to perform the work.
Teamsters, Haulers Set to Meet with Mediator
Source: Courtney Flynn and Liam Ford, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Teamsters Locals 731 and 301
Date: October 7, 2003
Striking garbage workers and private waste-hauling companies will sit down
with a federal mediator Tuesday morning as almost a week's worth of uncollected trash clutters alleys and
streets throughout northeastern Illinois. Representatives of Teamsters Locals 731 and 301 and the Chicago Area
Refuse Haulers Association have agreed to meet with a mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation
Services, a federal agency with offices in Hinsdale.
Union Organizing Remains Muddled in Chrysler Pact
Source: Danny Hakim, New York Times
Union(s): United Automobile Workers
Date: October 7, 2003
The
Chrysler Group's new contract with the United Automobile Workers union, ratified by workers last month, fell
short of one of the union's top goals: persuading DaimlerChrysler to recognize what are known as card checks
to unionize American plants owned by the Mercedes division. The union has never successfully organized a plant
owned solely by a foreign automaker, but it had hoped it might have an opportunity at Mercedes because the 1998
acquisition of Chrysler by Daimler-Benz put Mercedes and Chrysler under the same corporate umbrella.
US Air and Union in Dispute on Overhauls
Source: Bloomberg News, New York Times
Union(s): International Association of Machinists
Date: October 7, 2003
The US Airways
Group, which emerged from bankruptcy protection this year, said yesterday that it had hired a Singapore unit of
Technologies Engineering to overhaul 10 aircraft. The airline's mechanics' union will seek to block the
action. US Airways, which is based in Arlington, Va., lacks the space and the equipment to work on Airbus SAS
A319 planes and will contract with ST Mobile Aerospace Engineering, which is based in Mobile, Ala., and is part
of Singapore Technologies, the airline said. The International Association of Machinists, which represents
mechanics, said it would seek a temporary restraining order in Federal District Court in Pittsburgh to block US
Airways' action.
Chicago Garbage Haulers Reach Tentative Contract
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): Teamsters
Date: October 9, 2003
Trash
haulers in the Chicago area who have been on strike for nine days against private garbage services have reached
a tentative contract agreement, the companies said Thursday. The strike against Allied Waste Industries Inc.,
Waste Management Inc., Republic Services Inc. and other members of the 16-company Chicagoland Refuse Haulers
Association idled 3,300 members of the Teamsters Union.
Delta to Meet With Pilots in Hopes of Restarting Salary Talks
Source: Edward Wong, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: October 9, 2003
The top executives of Delta Air Lines will meet with leaders of the union that represents its pilots
on Oct. 17 to talk about the airline's financial condition and possibly work out a way to restart negotiations
over wage cuts, Delta's president said yesterday. The executive, Frederick W. Reid, said in an interview in
Manhattan that he and other officials, including Leo F. Mullin, the chief executive, would meet with half a
dozen leaders of the Air Line Pilots Association. The union broke off talks on pay cuts late in July, saying
that it was not willing to allow the levels of wage cuts that Delta was seeking and that it wanted its current
contract extended. The contract was signed in 2001 and is valid until May 2005.
Verizon Union Workers Ratify Labor Contract
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): Communications Workers of America
Date: October 9, 2003
Union workers at Verizon
Communications Inc. on Wednesday ratified the five-year labor contract they had tentatively agreed to last
month, the Communications Workers of America said. The agreement covers 60,000 CWA workers from Maine to
Virginia. Another 18,000 workers are represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers.
With Union Talks Nearing, N.H.L. Is Citing Big Losses
Source: Richard Sandomir, New York Times
Union(s): N.H.L. Players Association
Date: October 9, 2003
With its labor agreement expiring in 11 months, the National Hockey League now says it has lost
$1.5 billion over the last nine seasons largely because of spiraling player costs and the union's exploitation
of contract loopholes. Last season alone, the losses reached at least $296 million, said Ted Saskin, a union
official familiar with the league's figures. The dire tone of the league's financial assessment is
reminiscent of the disclosure of huge losses by Major League Baseball in late 2001, when baseball's labor
agreement was about to expire.
Labor Board Targets Congress Plaza Hotel
Source: Kelly Quigley, Crain's Chicago Business
Union(s): Hotel Employee & Restaurant Employees Union (HERE)
Date: October 8, 2003
The
Chicago office of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has filed an unfair labor practices complaint
against the Congress Plaza hotel, saying hotel management has failed to bargain in good faith with union
workers who have been striking since June 15. In its complaint, the federal agency said Congress hotel at 520
S. Michigan Ave. violated labor laws by prematurely declaring an impasse in negotiations, refusing to provide
financial results to support a wage cut and threatening union members with disciplinary action if they didn?t
leave a public function at the hotel.
Source: Associated Press, Miami Herald
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: October 8, 2003
United Auto
Workers President Ron Gettelfinger and General Motors Corp. Chairman Rick Wagoner on Wednesday signed the new
four-year labor contract covering GM employees. GM is the last of the Big Three to complete the bargaining
process. The signing ceremony took place at the UAW-GM Center for Human Resources, where GM and the union
negotiated. Gettelfinger and Wagoner smiled and shook hands, but neither spoke to reporters.
LV Union Watching Calif. Labor Dispute
Source: Alana Roberts, Las Vegas Sun
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 711
Date: October 8, 2003
Members of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 711, which represents 7,000 grocery
store workers in Nevada and Utah, still have a year ahead of them before their labor contracts
expire.
Yet, the outcome in the stalemate in negotiations between grocery stores in the Southern
California area and UFCW Local 770 in Los Angeles could set a precedent and affect future negotiations for
Local 711 in Southern Nevada.
Leaders of UFCW Local 711 in Las Vegas and UFCW Local 770 in Los Angeles
say members have been affected by the arrival of Wal-Mart grocery centers and other non-union grocery stores to
the Southern Nevada and Southern California areas.
New Contract Ends Trash Collectors? Strike
Source: Monica Davey, New York Times
Union(s): Teamsters
Date: October 10, 2003
The
region's nine-day garbage strike ended with a deal at dawn on Thursday, but the messier part, the tens of
thousands of tons of leftover trash, lay ahead. "We want to start hearing those trucks rolling as soon as
possible," said Sean T. Howard, a spokesman for the mayor of Harvey, a Chicago suburb where municipal workers
had gone so far as to start collecting some of the mounting trash on flatbed trucks. "We're ready for the
garbage trucks. We're begging for the trucks." After all-night negotiations, representatives for the Teamsters
union and the Chicago Area Refuse Haulers Association, an alliance of 17 private garbage companies, announced
that they had reached an agreement on wages, health benefits and pensions. Later in the day, union members
voted to approve the agreement.
Workers Protest Macy?s Pay Policy
Source: Carrie Mason-Draffen, Newsday
Union(s): Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union
Date: October 10, 2003
Several hundred Macy's workers held a lunchtime rally outside the
retailer's flagship store in Manhattan's Herald Square yesterday to protest not being paid for days Macy's
closed during the massive blackout this summer. About 500 unionized workers participated in the 2 1/2-hour
rally, said Ken Bordieri, president of Local 1-S of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Bordieri
said some members, who include Macy's sales clerks and housekeeping and stockroom workers, missed as much as
two days' pay. Some who worked the night shift were told not to report after the blackout hit just after 4
p.m. on a Thursday, Bordieri said, and they were told not to come in the next day. The store reopened that
Saturday, the union said.
Talk Gets Tough Amid U.S. Auto Sector's Hard Times
Source: Tom Brown (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: October 9, 2003
Some tough talk, including a vow to "kick Toyota's ass," highlighted the increasingly combative nature of the
U.S. auto industry on Thursday. The bravado came as local politicians and top officials from the struggling
Chrysler unit of DaimlerChrysler gathered at an aging assembly plant in Newark, Delaware to rally more than
2,000 workers and celebrate their launch of an all-new Dodge Durango sport utility vehicle that goes on sale
next month. In a fiery speech, Sen. Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat, lamented the recent erosion of the U.S.
manufacturing sector. But he said there was hope yet for U.S. manufacturers if workers, like those on the
Newark assembly line, could succeed in "beating the living hell out of the Japanese and beating the living hell
out of the Europeans."
Kroger, Albertson's, Safeway Face Strike Threat
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers Union
Date: October 10, 2003
About 70,000 U.S.
supermarket workers, protesting planned health-care cuts, could authorize strike action as early as Friday
against Kroger Co., Albertsons Inc. and Safeway Inc., a union representative said. Ellen Anreder said workers
at the three leading Southern California grocers, spread across one of the country's key grocery markets,
spent the last two days voting on the proposed action after a deadlock in talks with their employers about a
week ago. Even though the official result of the workers' vote is only scheduled to be announced later on
Friday, Anreder told Reuters it would more likely call for a strike targeting more than 800 Southern California
supermarkets that operate under such names as Ralphs, Albertsons and Vons.
Labor Union Backs Gephardt for President
Source: Sam Hananel (AP), Newsday
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers International Union
Date: October 10, 2003
One of the nation's largest labor unions will back Dick Gephardt in the
Democratic presidential race, giving the candidate more foot soldiers in his White House bid. The United Food
and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents about 1 million workers in the United States,
plans to endorse Gephardt based on his broad plan for universal health care. Gephardt's proposal is "the best
plan for preserving the employer-based health care system in this country," union spokeswoman Jill Cashen said
Friday. The UFCW includes workers in the retail food, meatpacking, poultry and health care industries.
Labor Unable to Deliver Usual Clout in Recall Vote
Source: David Whelan and Jessica Guynn, Contra Costa Times
Union(s): various California unions
Date: October 10, 2003
Labor leaders spent millions of dollars and barnstormed the state to defeat the recall but then woke
up after election day to find that rank-and-file union members had defied them by supporting Arnold
Schwarzenegger in large numbers. The inability of labor to deliver a powerful pro-Gray Davis voting bloc was
attributed to the speed of the election and the governor's deep-seated unpopularity. But it also revealed a
lack of voting discipline on the part of union workers who benefited from pro-labor Davis policies.
Small Union Wages Big War on Privatization
Source: Brian Friel, National Journal , GovExec.com
Union(s): National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Date: October 10, 2003
In
1982, the year after President Reagan fired more than 11,000 air traffic controllers for striking, the Federal
Aviation Administration hired private contractors to staff air traffic control towers that had been closed at
five small airports as a result of the mass termination. Over the next two decades, in large part as a
cost-saving effort, the FAA hired contractors to run another 214 control towers at small and midsize airports.
During the same period, the agency rebuilt its own controller workforce at 265 towers and other centers that
handle air traffic. In turn, the in-house FAA controllers organized into a new union, the National Air Traffic
Controllers Association. While the federal air traffic controllers were never happy with the
contracting-out?NATCA is in the ninth year of litigation challenging the FAA's authority to hire private
controllers?they more or less put up with it until the Bush administration took office. Now, the federal air
traffic controllers are fighting their biggest political battle since the 1981 strike. They are attempting to
block the administration's push for legislative authority to contract out additional control towers.
American To Recall 390 Flight Attendants
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Association of Professional Flight Attendants
Date: October 10, 2003
American Airlines Inc. is calling back to work 390 flight attendants who were furloughed in
cost-cutting moves to avoid bankruptcy, the first such recall at the world's largest air carrier since the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Fort Worth-based American, which signed a letter of agreement with the
Association of Professional Flight Attendants, said it will increase its flying schedule in coming months and
into the spring. The airline furloughed more than 6,000 flight attendants on July 1. Another 1,385 flight
attendants are on leaves of absence, but American officials said that the recalls will not come from that
group.
Forest Service Decides To Keep Jobs In-House: Agency Considered Private Contractors
Source: Christopher Lee, Washington Post
Union(s): Forest Service Council
Date: October 13, 2003
Employees at the U.S. Forest Service recently won the right to keep most maintenance
positions in-house, reducing fears that President Bush's "competitive sourcing" initiative would trigger an
exodus of jobs to the private sector. Of 969 full-time positions studied for possible takeover by private
contractors, all but 47 were determined to be performed better and more cheaply by the agency, Tom Mills, the
Forest Service's deputy chief for business operations, said last week. The agency also demonstrated that it
should retain 946 positions at the 18 Job Corps vocational training centers it helps operate, Mills said. The
agency has 34,700 employees. "We overwhelmingly retained them in-house," Mills said. "Our costs were better
than the comparable contract costs."
Steelmaker's Retirees May Lose Pensions
Source: HRNext
Union(s): Independent Steelworkers Union
Date: October 10, 2003
About 10,000 retirees and dependents
would lose their pension and health and life insurance under a bankrupt West Virginia steelmaker's plan to
return to financial solvency. Weirton Steel, the nation's fifth-largest integrated steelmaker, sought Chapter
11 protection in May after losing more than $700 million in five years, according to the Associated Press. At
the time, Weirton said more than half its $1.4 billion in debt was owed to retirees. Last year, the company
paid nearly $31 million in retiree benefits, and it expects to pay slightly more than that this year, according
to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wheeling, W. Va.
Gephardt Builds on Already Solid Ties to Labor
Source: Mike Glover (AP), San Francisco Chronicle
Union(s): Teamsters; UFCW
Date: October 11, 2003
Democratic presidential hopeful Dick Gephardt nurtured his already solid
ties to organized labor Saturday, building on a constituency that could make the difference in Iowa's leadoff
precinct caucuses. Gephardt rallied with Teamsters president James Hoffa, collected the endorsement of the
United Food and Commercial Workers Union and said his close ties with labor are crucial to Iowa's
organization-driven caucuses.
Top California Grocers Hobbled by Strike, Lockout
Source: Kevin Krolicki (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Date: October 13, 2003
The
union representing some 70,000 Southern California grocery workers called a strike against Safeway Inc.'s Vons
and two rival supermarket chains responded Sunday by locking out union workers. Picket lines organized by the
United Food and Commercial Workers Union formed at Vons across from Los Angeles to San Diego, one of the
nation's most populous regions and a key market for the grocery chains. In response to the Vons strike,
Albertsons Inc. and Kroger Co.'s Ralphs, which are covered by the same master contract, locked out union
workers from the first shift on Sunday, a union spokeswoman said.
More Workers Strike Over Healthcare Benefits
Source: Daniel B. Wood, Christian Science Monitor
Union(s): various
Date: October 16, 2003
It's
not the first time that 450,000 L.A. commuters have found themselves thumbing rides or relying on taxis and car
pools. When employees of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) began striking Tuesday, clogged
freeways stood as still as broken conveyor belts, bringing back memories of a similar strike three years ago.
That one lasted over a month. But it's a concurrent strike by 859 supermarket grocery clerks in Southern
California that has compounded the frustration of carrying out even the simplest of daily chores in L.A.
Suddenly, the city seems like a model of Soviet inefficiency. Though coincidental in timing, the two strikes
aren't unrelated. Both unions are trying to renegotiate contracts that will boost medical benefits and cover
soaring health-insurance costs. The two high-profile strikes follow dozens of recent union disputes in
California and elsewhere over health benefits, an issue that may continue to plague contract negotiations
coast-to-coast until the larger issue of health costs is addressed.
Steelmaker Reaches Out to Labor, Environmentalists
Source: John Nolan, Buffalo News
Union(s): Armco Employees Independent Federation
Date: October 13, 2003
AK Steel Corp. is
embarking on a more conciliatory approach toward environmentalists and regulators after shaking up its
management ranks last month. At the urging of the company's board, interim chief executive James Wainscott
has begun a new era since his Sept. 18 promotion. He met with an environmentalist to help foster communication
and huddled with United Steelworkers union officials before they jointly announced an agreement to try to work
out disputes lingering from a bitter, 39-month worker lockout that ended last year at AK Steel's Mansfield
plant. The change has been noticed by union workers, industry analysts and business leaders in this southwest
Ohio city where the company is based and is the dominant employer.
California Supermarket Strike Deters Shoppers
Source: John M. Broder, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: October 14, 2003
Store
shelves appeared fully stocked but the aisles were largely empty of shoppers as a supermarket strike at the
three biggest grocery chains in Southern and Central California entered its third day on Monday evening. Picket
lines were set up outside hundreds of supermarkets starting Saturday night as members of the United Food and
Commercial Workers union walked off the job here for the first time in 25 years. The strike was called against
the Vons and Pavilions chains, which are operated by Safeway Inc. The owners of their chief competitors,
Albertson's and Ralphs, locked out U.F.C.W. workers as part of a joint negotiating strategy.
Locked Out, Queens Truck Drivers Are Angry
Source: Robert F. Worth, New York Times
Union(s): Local 813 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Date: October 15, 2003
It
was still pitch-dark outside the Star Corrugated Box manufacturing plant in Queens yesterday morning when
Dominick Jacino, a 59-year-old trucker, showed up for work. A supervisor had told him and the plant's other 20
drivers to arrive at 4 a.m. for a drug test, Mr. Jacino said. Instead, they found the gates locked, Mr. Jacino
said, and were told by a supervisor that they had all been replaced. The news did not come entirely out of the
blue. The truckers' union local had been negotiating over wages and benefits since August, when company
officials announced that they would contract out the trucking to a Chicago-based firm. The plant's parent
company, Norampac, did not respond yesterday to telephone calls or messages left in person. Many of the
truckers have worked at the plant for decades, and they said that they considered it a kind of family trust, so
the layoffs had been a painful and unexpected blow.
Los Angeles Transit Mechanics Strike
Source: Alex Veiga , FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Amalgamated Transit Union
Date: October 14, 2003
Mechanics for the nation's third-largest public transportation system went on strike Tuesday, shutting down
buses and trains that an estimated 500,000 daily riders count on to get around Los Angeles County. Metropolitan
Transportation Authority mechanics walked off the job after midnight, and union officials said bus drivers,
train operators and other workers would honor picket lines, halting some 1,900 buses, as well as light-rail and
subway lines. "The strike will continue indefinitely, until we get a contract," Neil Silver, president of the
Amalgamated Transit Union, said early Tuesday by telephone. He was speaking from a picket line where he had
joined about 50 members of the union, which represents some 2,200 MTA employees.
Transit, Grocery and Law Enforcement Labor Unrest Roils Southern California
Source: Alex Veiga (AP), San Diego Union Tribune
Union(s): various
Date: October 14, 2003
Metropolitan Transportation Authority mechanics walked off the
job just after midnight Tuesday, stranding hundreds of thousands of commuters across a region already hit by
striking grocery workers and sporadic sickouts by sheriff's deputies. The separate labor actions snarled
traffic, inconvenienced grocery shoppers and threatened to disrupt the operation of county jails and courts.
Grocers, Union Set For Prolonged Strike
Source: Kevin Krolicki (Reuters), FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Date: October 14, 2003
The union representing striking Southern California grocery workers on Tuesday said it had filed a $600
million lawsuit against Albertsons Inc. and Kroger Co.'s Ralphs chain accusing them of staging an unlawful
lockout. The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court charges that the two chains violated state law
by locking out some 49,000 workers this week. That action came after the United Food and Commercial Workers
Union singled out Safeway Inc.'s Vons chain for a strike after contract talks with all three companies
deadlocked over health care costs over a week ago.
Labor Unrest Continues in SoCal
Source: Sacramento Business Journal
Union(s): various
Date: October 15, 2003
As the grocery strike enters its fourth day, the mass transit strike is paralyzing
commuters for the second day. An end to either labor dispute is unlikely in the near future. In all, thousands
of commuters and shoppers are being inconvenienced by striking Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers
and the nearly 70,000 grocery store clerks from Kroger Co.'s Ralphs, Albertson's and Safeway-owned Vons that
began striking Saturday. The estimated per-day cost of the MTA and grocery strikes could be as much as $10
million a day, adding even more injury to an already difficult situation.
Delta Selling Planes, Asking Pilots to Take Cuts in Wages
Source: Harry R. Weber (AP), Lakeland Ledger (FL)
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: October 15, 2003
Delta Air Lines, the nation's thirdlargest carrier, is selling
planes and urging pilots to agree to wage cuts amid signs its financial situation will continue to sputter in
the months ahead. The airline said Tuesday it is selling 11 planes and delaying the delivery of eight more as
it lost $168 million, or $1.36 a share, in the third quarter, compared with a loss of $330 million, or $2.67 a
share, for the same period a year ago. The loss includes $4 million paid out in dividends to preferred
shareholders. Delta executives again asked pilots to tighten their belts and agree to wage cuts. They warned
that the company expects to lose as much as $275 million in the fourth quarter.
Labor Denounces Asbestos Fund Offer From Business
Source: Susan Cornwell (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: October 17, 2003
Organized labor Thursday denounced a new offer from business and insurers to fund an asbestos victims' trust,
saying it was inadequate to cover the costs of expected claims from people sickened by the mineral. Labor's
condemnation, in a letter sent to all U.S. senators, was a blow to hopes in some quarters on Capitol Hill that
the offer would quickly revive legislation to end asbestos lawsuits and pay victims' claims out of a national
fund. Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist's office announced a proposal for a $114 billion fund on Wednesday
after weeks of bartering between asbestos companies and insurers. But AFL-CIO legislative director William
Samuel's letter on Thursday said the offer was a "major step backwards" from earlier legislative efforts and
said labor would oppose it.
Grocery Shares Hold Up on Union Concession Hopes
Source: Ellis Mnyandu (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: October 16, 2003
Even as
prospects of a prolonged strike confronts U.S. supermarket operators, their shares are holding up on growing
hopes that the stores will not budge in their bid to cut health care costs, analysts said. With the strike,
affecting about 70,000 Southern California workers, in its fifth full day Thursday, analysts said investors and
store bosses possibly viewed any short-term pain from the action as a small price to pay for the longer-term
benefit of squeezing out concessions from unions.
Klein Assails Job Protection for Teachers
Source: Elissa Gootman, New York Times
Union(s): United Federation of Teachers
Date: October 17, 2003
(New York City)
Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein lashed out at the core of the teachers union contract yesterday, saying that
fundamental changes were needed to improve the schools. Mr. Klein denounced seniority rights, tenure, and pay
scales that are blind to teachers' subject matter as "the three pillars of non-meritocracy." "Schools will
never work because they're governed by a 250-page contract and a 10,000-page book of regulations," the
chancellor said in a speech before the Citizens' Committee for Children of New York. In his remarks, Mr. Klein
appeared to be setting ambitious goals for contract negotiations with the union representing the city's 80,000
teachers, goals that many experts say will be difficult to reach, if not unattainable. Regardless, Mr. Klein
stands to benefit from focusing on the limitations imposed by the current contract: should his reform plans
falter, he could cite resistance from the union as a major factor.
Strikes Leave S. Calif. Residents in Bind
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): various
Date: October 16, 2003
With bus service stalled by a strike, Ginara Santay had no idea how she would get to the four housecleaning
jobs she relies on to support her family. And with grocery clerks also walking picket lines, she wasn't sure
where she would buy food for an elderly woman at one of those homes. "I have an 8-year-old son. I'm worried
about the rent. I can't afford to miss one day, and I don't know what I'm going to do,'' she said
Wednesday while waiting for a ride to a home in West Hollywood. The labor disputes have created a spate of
problems across the region: Hundreds of thousands of commuters are stranded. Freeways are clogged. Grocery
stores are scaling back hours. And the already ailing economy has taken another hit.
Clerks File Unfair Labor Practice Charges
Source: Jim Sams, The Desert Sun
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: October 16, 2003
Striking grocery clerks have filed nine unfair practices complaints since Oct. 7 against the three supermarket
chains involved in a labor dispute that started Sunday, records show. Most of the complaints filed by the
United Food and Commercial Workers charge that managers for Albertsons and Ralphs stores interfered with the
rights of employees by prohibiting them from wearing union badges and insignia and threatening termination or a
reduction in work hours if they picketed the stores. One complaint accuses all three supermarket chains of
failing to bargain in good faith.
Combination of Trends Fueling Labor Strife in LA
Source: Gordon Smith (Copley News Service), San Diego Union Tribune
Union(s): various
Date: October 16, 2003
With greater Los Angeles bedeviled by two major strikes and an ongoing
sickout by a law-enforcement union, many residents here have come down with a bad case of "Why us?" Commuters
are finding traffic snarled more than usual because of the mechanics strike at the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority, which has shut down a hefty portion of Los Angeles County's bus and rail service since Tuesday.
Grocery shoppers, like their counterparts in San Diego County and elsewhere in Southern California, have been
scrambling this week to find alternatives to big chains patrolled by lines of picketing employees. Thousands of
residents here might well be wondering how safe they are in light of rolling sickouts by Los Angeles County
sheriff's deputies that have affected staffing at courts, jails and sheriff's stations countywide since late
September. The labor actions are the first time in recent memory that Los Angeles has had major strife on three
fronts simultaneously. The swell of discontent is a result of trends that have combined to create a "perfect
storm" of labor conflict here.
Labor Problems Cause Havoc With Pharmacy Customers
Source: Mark Abramson, Lompoc Record
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: October 16, 2003
The Vons
strike has left some of its pharmacy customers feeling a little queasy about having a prescription filled
there, especially after the pharmacy had to be closed temporarily. Lompoc resident Elizabeth Lindsay said she
was appalled when she was greeted by a note at the Vons pharmacy on North H Street Sunday that indicated it was
closed. Her insurance company had already approved the transaction at Vons and would not approve it at another
pharmacy. "I still don't have the medication," Lindsay said Wednesday. "It's definitely unethical all the way
around, and I'm going to take my business elsewhere." Lindsay said she has used up a short-term supply of the
medication she bought with cash.
New Labor Alliance Looks to Help Gephardt
Source: Brian C. Mooney, Boston Globe
Union(s): various
Date: October 17, 2003
More than a dozen national labor unions supporting Representative
Richard A. Gephardt announced yesterday they are banding together to form a group that will promote his
candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. At a news conference in Washington, the labor leaders
said the new group, called the Alliance for Economic Justice, will seek special status under the Internal
Revenue Service code to spend union money to communicate with members and promote key labor issues and
political candidates. Donald J. Kaniewski, legislative and political director of the Laborers' International
Union, said later the group will support Gephardt's candidacy in the short term but also has a long-term
agenda of emphasizing job preservation, foreign trade safeguards, and affordable health care.
Pilots Union Sees Delta Asking to Open Talks Soon
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: October 17, 2003
The pilots union at
Delta Air Lines on Friday said it expected to get a formal request to reopen wage cut talks from the air
carrier soon. Pilots, the only major unionized group at Delta, have a contract that runs until 2005. They
started talks earlier in 2003 with Delta on its proposal to cut hourly pay rates by 22 percent and forgo 4.5
percent pay raises in 2003 and 2004. Talks between the Air Line Pilots Association's Delta unit and the
Atlanta-based airline broke off three months ago.
More Labor Conflicts Expected Over Health Care Costs
Source: Alex Veiga (AP), Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Union(s): various
Date: October 18, 2003
When West Coast longshoremen and shipping companies ended their labor
dispute in January, union officials boasted that the new contract would set a standard for organized labor.
Among its provisions was no-cost health insurance, prompting an AFL-CIO official to remark that longshoremen
"won a historic contract which sets a much-needed benchmark in health care, pensions and living standards." For
many of the country's workers that benchmark is already shifting, as employers face soaring health care costs
and ask workers to shoulder a greater share of the burden. Workers are resisting, giving rise to labor
conflicts in California and elsewhere.
Source: Frank Green, San Diego Union Tribune
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: October 20, 2003
Wal-Mart's plans to enter the state's crowded food industry continue to cloud the ongoing battle
between Southern California grocery workers and the three major supermarket chains in the region. Wal-Mart said
this week that it is stepping up openings of at least 40 hybrid grocery-general merchandise Supercenters in
California ? from the previously announced time range of four to six years, to within three to five years. The
news could push Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons to toughen their negotiating stance with the United Food and
Commercial Workers union as a strike and lockout involving the two sides enters a seventh day today.
Deputy Sickout, Want Higher Wages
Source: KABC
Union(s): Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs
Date: October 16, 2003
More than 150 deputies assigned
to Los Angeles County jails called in sick overnight in a continuing wildcat strike staged to press demands for
higher wages. For the eight-hour shift beginning at 10 last night, 61 of 225 deputies called in sick, and for
the shift beginning at 6 this morning, 94 of 440 deputies did the same, said sheriff's Sgt. Paul Patterson.
The deputies are assigned to six jails, including the Men's Central Jail, the Twin Towers Correctional
Facility and the Inmate Reception Center, Patterson said. On Tuesday, a Santa Ana judge extended an order aimed
at barring sickouts by deputies. Yesterday, Assistant Sheriff R. Doyle Campbell said the court order allows
sheriff's officials to crack down on absent deputies.
Calif. Religious Leader Urges Talks in Grocery Strike
Source: Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: October 19, 2003
Cardinal Roger
Mahony, the archbishop of Los Angeles, has urged labor and business leaders to return to contract talks and
settle their differences in an eight-day strike at nearly 900 California grocery stores. In a statement issued
late on Saturday, Cardinal Mahony called for "around the clock" talks between the United Food and Commercial
Workers Union and No. 3 U.S. grocer Safeway Inc. (nyse: SWY - news - people) to end the dispute over
health-care issues that led to the strike affecting some 70,000 southern California workers. "I urge all
parties to return to the bargaining table at once and to resume negotiations until a satisfactory agreement is
reached," Mahony said in the statement.
Wal-Mart, Driving Workers and Supermarkets Crazy
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: October 19, 2003
In February Wal-Mart will open its first grocery supercenter in California, offering everything from tires to
prime meats, and that could be a blessing for middle-class consumers. The reason is simple: Wal-Mart's prices
are 14 percent lower than its competitors', according to a study by the investment bank UBS Warburg. But not
everyone is rejoicing about Wal-Mart's five-year plan to open 40 supercenters in California, stores combining
general merchandise and groceries that are expected to gobble up $3.2 billion in sales. California's three
largest supermarket chains, Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons, are scared, and so are tens of thousands of
supermarket workers whose union contracts have put them solidly in the middle class. The three grocers' fears
of fierce competition from Wal-Mart and their related drive to cut costs are widely seen as the main reason
behind the week-old strike by 70,000 workers at 859 supermarkets in Southern California.
No Progress in Calif. Labor Strikes
Source: New York Times , Associated Press
Union(s): various
Date: October 20, 2003
An estimated half-million commuters faced another morning rush hour without city buses or trains as a transit
strike entered its sixth day. The labor protests in the nation's third-largest transit system have clogged
freeways and forced users to scramble for alternative ways to commute. The strike, coupled with a grocery
workers strike and lock out, has weakened Southern California's already troubled economy. Though negotiations
between mechanics and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority have apparently stalled, talks with train
operators, bus drivers and the authority have gained momentum, said Bill Heard, spokesman for the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority.
Church and Dwight Workers Eye Union
Source: Jeff Gearino, Casper Star Tribune
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: October 20, 2003
For the second time in seven years, hourly workers at Church and Dwight
Corp.'s soda ash manufacturing plant in southwest Wyoming will whether they want union representation. The
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) approved the scheduling of a vote to allow the approximately 145 hourly
workers at the plant to decide if they want to be represented in collective bargaining by the United Steel
Workers of America (USWA). The vote is set for Nov. 14, according to union and company officials. "The folks
from Church and Dwight had finally had enough abuse from their management and they approached us this summer
about organizing," USWA Local 13214 Financial Secretary T.J. Kelso said. "Once they get this passed, then maybe
they'll get some things taken care of out there," Kelso said in an interview. Soda ash is produced at five
plants in Sweetwater County from trona ore extracted from the deep underground mines adjacent to the plants.
Church and Dwight is the smallest of the five producers operating in Sweetwater County. The plant has no mine,
but purchases soda ash for manufacturing from other Green River basin producers.
Judge Orders Wash. Teachers Back To Work
Source: Jim Cour (AP), FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Marysville Education Association
Date: October 20, 2003
On strike for a month and a half, Marysville (WA) teachers were ordered back to work by a judge Monday, but
the head of their union said she expects teachers to defy the ruling. Union members, whose teachers strike is
the longest in state history, were to vote Monday evening on whether to honor Snohomish County Superior Court
Judge Linda C. Krese's order to return to work by Wednesday. Krese faulted both sides for the continuing
strike, which began Sept. 2 on what was supposed to be the first day of school for 11,000 students in the
district about 30 miles north of Seattle.
Source: Chris Stirewalt, Charleston Daily Mail
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: October 20, 2003
The state of
West Virginia may have a great deal to say about how long the current strike will keep local Kroger stores
closed. If the striking food workers and the company remain at an impasse for much longer, whether or not the
strikers are eligible for unemployment compensation could be a key to how long they can stay on the picket
lines. Hundreds of strikers around the Charleston area have already signed up, and this week promises to bring
hundreds more as the state Bureau of Employment Programs begins an outreach to get Kroger workers signed up en
masse at meetings.
Rising Health Care Costs at Heart of Labor Strife
Source: Andrew Maykuth (Philadelphia Inquirer), San Jose Mercury News
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: October 19, 2003
Major labor strikes that erupted last week against grocery stores and the public transit agency
here suggest that workers are increasingly willing to stop work over the spiraling cost of health care.
Negotiations broke down over employers' attempts to pass on part of the double-digit increases in
health-insurance premiums. And with costs showing no sign of retreating, more strife is expected across the
nation. "It is the single most vexatious bargaining issue now," said Peter J. Hurtgen, head of the Federal
Mediation and Conciliation Services. "Employers and unions can't control costs. They can only argue and push
back and forth about who absorbs those costs."
As Health Care Costs Rise, Workers Shoulder Burden
Source: Stephanie Armour and Julie Appleby, USA Today
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: October 21, 2003
In California, 70,000 supermarket workers are walking the picket lines to protest proposed health
benefit cuts. Thousands of commuters in Los Angeles have been stranded as public transit mechanics walked off
their jobs over changes to a health insurance trust fund. And in Chicago, garbage piled up for days this month
after trash haulers went on strike to prevent health insurance cost increases. On the picket lines and at the
bargaining table, health care has emerged as the top concern, replacing wages and job security. Though the
battles involve union members, they illustrate what many workers face: the ending of an era when large
employers covered most ? if not all ? of the cost of health care and the beginning of a future when workers
will increasingly be responsible for those costs.
PBGC to Take Over Weirton Steel Pensions
Source: Vicki Smith (AP), Miami Herald
Union(s): Independent Steelworkers Union
Date: October 22, 2003
The federal
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. plans to take over the pension plan of bankrupt Weirton Steel Corp., which the
agency said is underfunded by $825 million. The move announced Tuesday would affect 3,500 active employees and
some 10,000 retirees and their dependents. Only 39 percent of Weirton Steel's pension plan is currently
funded, with assets of $530 million and nearly $1.35 billion in liabilities, the PBGC said.
Striking S. Calif. Mechanics Resume Talks
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Amalgamated Transit Union
Date: October 22, 2003
Negotiators for both sides in Southern California's transit strike have agreed to meet again through a state
mediator after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority backed away from earlier demands to take over the
union's troubled health care fund. Representatives of striking mechanics have asked for more details on a
proposal by the MTA but have not yet offered a counterproposal, according to agency spokesman Ed
Scannell.
Union Trying to Block Federal Takeover of EVTAC Pensions
Source: Associated Press, Miami Herald
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: October 23, 2003
The United Steelworkers of America wants to keep the federal government from assuming the pension plans of
workers laid off by the shuttered EVTAC Mining Co., saying the takeover would affect benefits to workers. The
union wants to join litigation under which the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. would take control of the
Thunderbird Mining Co. pension plan. Thunderbird Mining administers the pension plan for bankrupt EVTAC Mining.
Steelworker attorneys contend the PBGC - a federal agency charged with assuming the pension plans of failed
companies - didn't need to terminate the pension plan and acted too early in setting a July 24, 2003,
takeover.
Calif. Grocery Workers Add New Claims to Lawsuit
Source: Gina Keating (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: October 23, 2003
The union
for striking supermarket workers amended its lawsuit against California's three largest supermarket chains on
Thursday to include complaints that the chains are withholding past-due pay. The United Food and Commercial
Workers, which represents 70,000 striking and locked out workers in central and southern California, sued
Kroger Co, the parent of Ralphs stores, and Albertsons Inc. for allegedly failing to follow protocol when they
locked out workers. The new complaint accuses the two chains of violating state laws that require "reporting
time pay" for locked-out employees who showed up for work as scheduled on Oct. 11 and Oct. 12.
Talks Resume on Calif. Transit, But Not at Grocers
Source: Gina Keating (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): Amalgamated Transit Union
Date: October 24, 2003
Negotiations to end the nine-day-old Los Angeles bus and train strike intensified on Wednesday leading
officials to hope that the walkout that has stranded 400,000 mostly poor commuters would soon be over.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief Roger Snoble said talks with 2,000 striking mechanics had resumed
on Tuesday with both sides negotiating through a state mediator. "At this point I think it is good that we are
talking," Snoble told reporters. "We are actually paying attention to the issues. There are actually agreements
being signed ... From the atmosphere standpoint that's a better position than we did have." At issue in the
transit strike is whether the Amalgamated Transit Union should continue to control a multimillion-dollar trust
fund used to pay the mechanics' health benefits.
Striking Calif. Grocery Workers Lose Pay, Hang On
Source: Gina Keating, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: October 23, 2003
As strikes go, the
walkout by California supermarket workers nearly two weeks ago was bound to be a long one. With a weak U.S.
economy and competition from non-union discounters like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. eating into profits, the 70,000
unionized workers at Safeway Inc.'s Vons stores, Albertsons Inc. and Kroger Co.'s Ralphs stores knew they'd
have a long battle to keep their free health plan when contract talks stalled on Oct. 11. On Friday, the
striking workers will lose their first paycheck for their principles -- a scene likely to be repeated in the
coming months as U.S. businesses grapple with a weak economy and skyrocketing health care costs.
Source: Ed Fletcher , Sacramento Bee
Union(s): Los Angeles County Federation of Labor
Date: October 23, 2003
Concerned that Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger could soon control the state board that oversees farm
workers' rights, labor leaders are pressing Gov. Gray Davis to fill two vacancies before he leaves office. To
do so, Senate President Pro Tem John Burton would have to call the Democratic-controlled Senate back into
session to confirm the appointees before Schwarzenegger is sworn in next month. While Burton would not say
whether that would happen, senators have been told to be prepared for a session Tuesday. Davis, a Democrat who
was recalled by voters in the Oct. 7 election, has expressed an interest in making appointments to the
Agricultural Labor Relations Board and other panels during his final days in office.
Workers, Supermarkets Agree to Meet in St. Louis Labor Dispute
Source: Associated Press, Jefferson City News Tribune
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655
Date: October 24, 2003
After intervention by a federal mediator and Gov. Bob Holden, supermarket representatives and
St. Louis grocery workers involved in a labor dispute plan to return to the bargaining table. "We have agreed
to meet and will meet," said Bob Kelley, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655. Officials
would not say when meetings would occur, citing a gag order requested from an independent, federal mediator.
Representatives of the union and supermarkets have not met since a contract proposal was voted down and a
strike was authorized Oct. 7 against Shop 'n Save Warehouse Foods Inc. The two other major supermarket chains,
Schnuck Markets Inc. and Dierbergs Markets Inc., responded to the strike by locking out workers. About 10,200
employees at nearly 100 stores are affected by the dispute.
Labor Strife Takes Toll on Nearby Businesses
Source: Rachel Laing, San Diego Union Tribune
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: October 25, 2003
Last week, jewelry store owner Sofia Shpigel did something unusual in her line of work: She made a
delivery. Shpigel said her shop, which is in a shopping center with a Vons in Pacific Beach, has been empty of
browsers since the start of the Southern California grocery strike two weeks ago. But she really started to
worry when she got calls from regular customers saying they didn't want to come into the store because they
felt uncomfortable passing pickets on their way in.
Kroger Employees Hope for Unemployment
Source: Scott Wartman, Huntington Herald Dispatch
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400
Date: October 25, 2003
The $100 check Robin and Diane Virgillo receive weekly from the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400
to help sustain them through the Kroger strike doesn?t go far to pay the bills they are accumulating. The
Virgillos and 3,300 other Kroger employees on strike hope the union?s effort to qualify them for unemployment
will pan out. Robin Virgillo said unemployment benefits would help them sustain the strike easily for a year.
Even though the Virgillos rely solely on their income as employees of the Seventh Avenue Kroger, they both
remained adamant that the strike should not end if they don?t qualify for unemployment. "We are still here for
the long haul," Robin Virgillo said. Many of the Virgillos? co-workers agreed that going without pay and
shouldering the hardship during the strike may be necessary.
Never Mind the Harvard Game. The Rough Sport Here Is Yale vs. Unions.
Source: Richard Lezin Jones, New York Times
Union(s): Graduate Employees and Students Organization (GESO)
Date: October 26, 2003
Fran Balamuth's introduction to the bruising, no-holds-barred world of union
organizing came not on an assembly line or on the waterfront, but in perhaps one of the most unlikely places ?
amid the refined confines of Yale University. As Dr. Balamuth remembers it, she and a friend were handing out
leaflets with union information to passers-by outside Yale-New Haven Hospital. A security guard asked them to
stop. Dr. Balamuth persisted. The next thing she knew, she said, she was escorted to the police desk inside the
hospital and cited for first-degree criminal trespass, which can carry a yearlong jail term. "We worked in the
building," said Dr. Balamuth, 30, a Yale medical student, her voice rising in disbelief as she recalled the
encounter, which took place in September. "We just wanted to communicate with our colleagues. I kept saying,
`This is totally crazy.' I couldn't believe that this was happening at a place that's supposed to be a
bastion of free speech." The charges against Dr. Balamuth were later dismissed. But the campuswide debate over
the formation of a union for graduate student teaching assistants, which started long before Dr. Balamuth began
her leaflet campaign outside the hospital, remains. And what began as a labor dispute has evolved into a
skirmish over a core value of academic life ? freedom of expression.
Labor Unions Back Dean, Gephardt
Source: Jonathan Roos, Des Moines Register
Union(s): various
Date: October 28, 2003
Democratic presidential rivals Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt, who are competing for the support of organized
labor, announced endorsements from separate labor unions Monday. Dean, a former Vermont governor, received the
endorsement of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, which has 140,000 members. It is the
first international union to declare its support for Dean, who is vying with eight other candidates to become
the Democratic nominee for president. Gephardt, a Missouri congressman, was endorsed by 2,300-member Iowa Local
234 of the International Union of Operating Engineers. He reported that 20 international unions have given
their endorsements as well, giving him a total combined membership of over 54,000 members of unions that
support his candidacy. Last week, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry received the endorsement of the Utility Workers
Union of America, which represents about 50,000 members.
Source: Kurt Streeter, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Amalgamated Transit Union
Date: October 28, 2003
Two weeks into a strike that has sidelined most Los Angeles County buses and trains, Metropolitan
Transportation Authority officials broke off labor negotiations Monday and declared an impasse. "Virtually no
progress has been made on any substantial issues," said Roger Snoble, chief executive of the MTA, speaking of
tense bargaining that included marathon sessions at the County Hall of Administration last week. "We've been
trying to hurry this up in every possible way that we know of, and it simply has not moved ahead. For these
reasons," Snoble said, the MTA board of directors "has instructed me to declare an impasse on our negotiations
and to issue a last, best and final offer to" the mechanics union today.
As Contract Witching Hour Nears, Restaurant Workers Talk Strike
Source: Florence Fabricant, New York Times
Union(s): Local 100 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union
Date: October 29, 2003
About 250 waiters, cooks, busboys, bartenders and dishwashers marched across Midtown Manhattan
yesterday afternoon, calling for contract settlements that would avoid strikes at some of New York's top
restaurants. Contracts at 25 restaurants, including high-profile spots like the Four Seasons, the "21" Club,
Elaine's, La C?te Basque, La Caravelle, Caf? des Artistes and the Oyster Bar at Grand Central Terminal expire
on Friday at midnight. Last Saturday, members of Local 100 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees
Union voted overwhelmingly to authorize their leaders to call a strike if agreements are not reached.
250 Officers Being Rehired in Department of Correction
Source: Paul von Zielbauer, New York Times
Union(s): Correction Officers Benevolent Association
Date: October 30, 2003
The city's Department of Correction plans to rehire 250 of the 315 officers it laid off as part
of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's $2.1 billion in budget cuts earlier this year, city officials said yesterday.
Martin F. Horn, the department's commissioner, said the decision was a response to two developments: overtime
costs in recent months that exceeded projections, largely because more officers retired or left the department
than had been expected; and a need for more officers to carry out Mr. Horn's new policy requiring constant
visual supervision for inmates on suicide watch.
Manhattan Restaurant Workers Protest Low Wages, Threaten Strike
Source: Associated Press, WNBC (NY)
Union(s): Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Union
Date: October 30, 2003
Nearly 200
restaurant workers protested outside some of Manhattan's swankest eateries on Tuesday, threatening to go on
strike if owners cut benefits and offer minimal pay increases. "They are trying to take our benefits down to
nothing and lower our wages," said Manuel Gonzales, a 17-year-employee of Gallagher's Steak House. "That's
not fair." The workers, members of the 800-strong Local 100 of the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees
Union, last week authorized a strike if negotiations stall after their contract expires on Friday. Employees
said that they didn't want to walk off their jobs but added that they had little recourse if the owners
didn't budge from their position on rolling back pension and health care benefits.
AFGE Vows to Fight Against Planned EEOC 'Changes'
Source: US Newswire
Union(s): American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)
Date: October 29, 2003
The American
Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) says it will fight several proposals which could drastically alter
the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC is considering changing how federal sector
discrimination complaints are processed as well as closing several EEOC field offices and the elimination of
hearing rights for millions of employees. "We are concerned with the effects of these proposed changes and its
impact on the future of federal and private sector employees. Not only would the proposed changes place federal
employees at a severe disadvantage with fewer civil rights, but soon thousands of workers, mostly women and
minorities, would be without a forum to protect their basic workplace rights," said Andrea Brooks, AFGE
national vice president of Women's and Fair Practices.
Chicago Teachers' Union Approve Strike
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Chicago Teachers Union
Date: October 30, 2003
Union delegates for Chicago's public school teachers approved a strike if negotiations fail, the first
step toward a job action that could keep nearly 440,000 children out of class. The Chicago Teachers Union's
House of Delegates voted 543-98 on Wednesday to authorize a strike beginning Dec. 4. Any walkout must also be
approved by the 33,000 union members, who are set to vote Nov. 18. The teachers' last contract expired June
30. The school board has offered a five-year plan that includes 4 percent raises each year, a plan rejected by
the union. Teachers argued that higher health insurance costs could consume those raises, and that a proposal
for a longer school day in exchange for a shorter year amounted to three extra work days without pay. The
strike would be the first in 16 years in the nation's third-largest school district.
Blow to Gephardt: Major Union May Endorse 'Dean or No One'
Source: Jill Lawrence, USA Today
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: October 30, 2003
The largest union in the AFL-CIO will endorse Democrat Howard Dean for president or no
one at all when its board meets Nov. 6. Either way, says Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees
International Union, "the passion of the members lies with Howard Dean." A formal endorsement for Dean would be
bad news for the rest of the Democratic field, especially Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt. A labor stalwart, he
is counting on unions to carry him to victory in important states such as Iowa, which starts the nomination
process with caucuses Jan. 19. Dean's campaign manager, Joe Trippi, cautioned in an e-mail that the SEIU
endorsement process is not complete. But he added that backing from the union "would be a tremendous
development for the Dean campaign."
St Louis Grocers Reach Pact, Calif Strike Drags On
Source: Ellis Mnyandu (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW)
Date: October 30, 2003
A union
representing striking U.S. grocery workers said on Thursday a strike involving 10,000 members in St. Louis
could end by as early as Friday, but the much larger southern California dispute could drag on longer. The St.
Louis workers, employed at more than 90 stores, have been on strike since Oct. 7 to protest health care cuts
sought by three local chains, including one owned by Supervalu Inc., a groceries distributor. Douglas Dority,
president of the 1.4-million-strong United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), said he expects the St.
Louis workers to ratify a renegotiated contract during a vote scheduled for early Friday.
Labor Pains Complicate Albertsons' Prognosis
Source: James F. Peltz, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: November 2, 2003
Two years ago, an ailing Albertsons Inc. tapped Lawrence
Johnston as its first chief executive from outside the company's ranks, and Johnston launched a massive
overhaul. The supermarket chain was struggling to digest its $9.5-billion purchase in 1999 of American Stores
Co., which gave Albertsons Lucky markets and Sav-on drugstores and a much stronger presence in Southern
California. Johnston, a former General Electric Co. executive with no experience in the grocery business,
rolled out several initiatives. Among them: a bold plan to slash $750 million from annual costs and more price
cutting to match rivals and maintain market share. But Albertsons still has a long way to go.
Relief Glimpsed in Calif. Transit, Grocery Strikes
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW); Amalgamated Transit Union
Date: October 31, 2003
Chinks of relief
appeared on Friday for California shoppers and Los Angeles commuters as pickets were pulled away from one major
supermarket chain and bus mechanics put forward a new proposal aimed at ending the three-week old bus and train
strike. The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, which represents 70,000 striking and locked out
supermarket workers, said it was switching pickets away from Ralphs to focus instead on Vons and Albertsons
Inc. UFCW president Rick Icaza told a news conference the union wanted to reward shoppers, who have deserted
all three supermarkets in droves, and increase the pressure on Vons and Albertsons which it sees as the main
adversaries in the strike over health and pensions benefits. Meanwhile the Amalgamated Transit Union offered to
have 2,000 striking mechanics return to work if the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority agrees to
binding arbitration to resolve the dispute that has paralyzed bus and metro trains serving some 500,000 mostly
poor Angelenos.
National Labor Backs Grocery Workers
Source: Nancy Cleeland and Melinda Fulmer, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers; AFL-CIO
Date: October 31, 2003
National labor leaders threw their financial and strategic muscle behind striking and locked-out
supermarket workers in California and four other states Thursday, casting the dispute as a defining battle.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney announced the creation of a multi-union fund to back the United Food and
Commercial Workers, which has 85,000 members on picket lines, most in Southern and Central California. Sweeney
said he was just beginning to solicit contributions and would not put a dollar amount on the fund. But UFCW
President Doug Dority suggested it would be sizable.
Union Raises Questions after Collapse of Garage Kills 4
Source: Eric Lipton, New York Times
Union(s): Laborers, Local 415
Date: November 1, 2003
As the investigation began into a parking garage collapse that killed four workers, union leaders
asked on Friday if one factor might have been pressure they said their members felt to speed up construction of
the $245 million Tropicana casino expansion. Even before the accident, one union leader said on Friday,
laborers complained that the concrete they were pouring as part of the fabrication of the parking garage floors
was not given enough time to harden before they removed temporary supports. "No one knows for sure what caused
this, but there is a lot of concern that they were being ordered to strip off the forms sooner than they should
have," said Jeff Foster, business manager for Laborers, Local 415. "That's all we keep hearing, is that the
concrete wasn't being given enough time to cure."
Grocers, Union Continue Labor Talks
Source: Nat Worden, Newsday
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 342
Date: November 1, 2003
Talks continued Friday between the region's six major grocery chains and the union
representing about 4,000 deli, meat and seafood workers from Long Island and parts of New York City. Members of
Local 342 of the United Food and Commercial Workers have been working without a contract for a week. The union
represents workers at 275 stores throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties, Brooklyn and Staten Island. Some union
members have raised the possibility of a strike, but as of Friday night a walkout did not appear in the offing.
A sticking point in the negotiations remained the companies' demand that union employees begin paying for
their health insurance, Local 342 spokesman John Raymond said Friday. "Talks are continuing," Raymond said.
"And that's to the good."
Bush's Merit Pay Plan Is Stalled in Congress
Source: Christopher Lee, Washington Post
Union(s): American Federation of Government Employees
Date: November 3, 2003
It looks as though the White House has failed to get the job done this year in promoting
its proposed Human Capital Performance Fund. The fund, announced early this year as part of President Bush's
2004 budget plan, was supposed to provide $500 million that agencies could tap to award higher raises to their
best workers. Officials explained that the fund would help fix a "broken" compensation system in which most
federal pay raises are determined by longevity rather than performance.
Source: Kurt Streeter, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Amalgamated Transit Union
Date: November 3, 2003
As striking
drivers for a private company that contracts with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed Sunday to go
back to work, the leader of the MTA's mechanics union softened his hard-line position and said he may allow
his workers to vote on the transit agency's latest proposal this week. "My board is reconsidering its
position," said Neil Silver, the MTA mechanics union president and leader of a worker walk-off that has forced
roughly 400,000 daily bus and train riders to look for transportation alternatives since mid-October. "We will
be meeting Monday to discuss offering this to the members. It looks like we will have a vote. If the membership
accepts the offer, we will return to work." But the union leader said he would like something from the MTA in
return.
Greenwich School Bus Drivers? Strike Ends Hours After It Began
Source: Alison Leigh Cowan, New York Times
Union(s): Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union
Date: November 4, 2003
Nearly 100 striking bus drivers agreed on Monday to cut short the strike they had begun just
hours earlier in an effort to obtain better health coverage, more paid vacation and something more than the $18
an hour they already get. The drivers, who are responsible for getting 6,200 public and private students to
school each day, agreed to return to work immediately, according to Roger Toussaint, president of Local 100 of
the Transport Workers Union. But he said they "reserve the right to renew their strike action at any time" if
they do not see progress at the bargaining table.
Bridgestone/Firestone Seeks Concessions: Union
Source: Karen Padley (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: November 3, 2003
Bridgestone Corp.'s Firestone unit has asked its largest union, the United Steelworkers of America, for major
wage and benefit concessions, according to a newsletter Monday on the union's Web site. In the letter, the
union also said the company last week indicated it "cannot and will not follow a pattern agreement" like the
one agreed to in August by Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. About 6,000 workers at eight plants in Tennessee,
Ohio, Oklahoma, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Arkansas are covered under the contract, which expired April 23 but
has been extended on a day-to-day basis since then.
Strike Hits 2 of City?s Fanciest Restaurants
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Local 100 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: November 5, 2003
The
"21" Club and La Caravelle, two of Manhattan's most venerable restaurants, pride themselves on their sedate
atmosphere, but yesterday the scene outside those establishments was anything but sedate as their workers went
on strike, and shouted vehemently at anyone heading inside. Nearly 100 cooks, waiters, dishwashers and busboys
gathered in front of the "21" Club on West 52nd Street in the late morning, forcing the restaurant to close its
main dining room for lunch. The strikers bellowed chants that could be heard at the one private function being
held there at lunchtime. The main issue in the walkout, as with many other strikes across the nation, is the
restaurants' push to get their workers to pay more toward their health coverage. The restaurants want the
workers to begin paying at least part of their health insurance premiums, but the workers, knowing they are
employed by institutions that cater largely to the rich, insist that the restaurants owners can easily afford
any increase in health insurance costs.
2 Sides Seem Entrenched in Supermarket Dispute
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Date: November 10, 2003
As 80 picketing workers bellowed chants outside the supermarket Thursday evening, Rosalyn
Colvard, a grocery stocker, said she would need help from welfare to make ends meet if Southern California's
three largest grocery chains won their four-week-old battle with 70,000 workers. For the cashiers and stockers
on the picket lines, the fight to fend off large-scale concessions is a struggle to avoid being thrown into one
of America's lowest castes, the working poor. But for the supermarkets, the confrontation, the biggest labor
dispute in the nation in recent years, is a painful investment to ensure that they can survive against Wal-Mart
and other low-cost rivals. "The stakes are enormous," said Ruth Milkman, chairwoman of the University of
California Institute for Labor and Employment. "If the employers succeed in their effort to extract large
concessions, they will turn these into low-wage jobs, and other employers across the nation will see this as a
green light to try to do the same thing."
Safeway's Burd Leads Hard Line in Labor Dispute
Source: Ellis Mnyandu (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)
Date: November 5, 2003
In the
midst of a bitter strike that has hobbled supermarkets across Southern California, one executive has emerged as
the man unions love to hate: Steve Burd, chief executive of Safeway Inc., the nation's third-largest grocer.
Known for playing hardball with unions, Burd, 53, has become a central figure in a bitter industry strike and
lockout, now in its fourth week. Union officials chose to call a strike against Safeway's Vons chain early
last month because Burd and his negotiators had taken the hardest line on health-care costs, the major issue
behind the dispute, affecting almost 900 stores. But in a further retaliation against Safeway, the United Food
and Commercial Workers (UFCW) -- which represents 70,000 striking and locked out workers -- on Friday began
shifting picketing away from Kroger Co.'s Ralphs chain as it sought to break the bosses' solidarity.
Seven City Restaurants Settle Labor Dispute
Source: Lisa Fickenscher, Crain's New York Business
Union(s): Local 100 of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union
Date: November 5, 2003
Early this
morning, '21' Club, Four Seasons and Le Perigord restaurants settled contract labor disputes over medical
benefits, wage and pension increases that its workers were seeking. A strike that began Tuesday at '21' Club
and La Caravelle, continues at the latter today. A spokesman for Local 100 or Hotel Employees and Restaurant
Employees Union says that four other restaurants it represents have also settled with their workers over the
same issues. He declined to identify the four. A strike that began Tuesday at '21' Club and La Caravelle,
continues at the latter today.
Fight Over Tips Prolongs Strike at La Caravelle
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Local 100 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: November 6, 2003
Striking workers at the "21" Club and La Caravelle, two top-drawer Manhattan restaurants, reached a tentative
labor contract yesterday, but there was one pesky issue that kept the workers out at La Caravelle: the
sommelier's share of the tips. What that meant was that dozens of striking cooks and waiters continued to
chant and picket outside La Caravelle on West 55th Street yesterday because management and labor could not
resolve the battle of the wine steward's tips.
Longtime Labor Friend Passed Over for Endorsements
Source: Chris Christoff, Detroit Free Press
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: November 8, 2003
Dick
Gephardt must feel like a faithful boyfriend watching his girl go to the prom with the new kid in school. No
presidential candidate has been more closely aligned with labor than the longtime congressman from Missouri.
He's been a stalwart on such causes as opposing unfair foreign trade and supporting broad health care for
everyone. So, what does Gephardt get in return? Thursday, the national Service Employees International Union
endorsed Democratic rival Howard Dean. Next week, Dean is expected to get the endorsement of the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. So two of the nation's biggest unions are coming out for
Dean. And Friday, the UAW's international board voted to make no recommendation in the presidential race.
It's another national endorsement Gephardt banked on, but which slipped away.
School Unions Want to Cancel Labor Hearings, Official Says
Source: David M. Herszenhorn, New York Times
Union(s): various education unions in New York City
Date: November 11, 2003
Labor unions and elected officials are pressuring the City Council's Education Committee to
cancel four days of hearings on union work rules governing teachers, principals and custodians, the committee
chairwoman said yesterday. The chairwoman, Eva S. Moskowitz, also said that many potential witnesses were too
scared to testify, describing an atmosphere of fear that she said brought to mind Frank Serpico, the
whistle-blower on police corruption who testified for the Knapp Commission in the early 1970's. "I've been
given various explanations as to why we should cease and desist," Ms. Moskowitz said at a briefing for
reporters. "People feel their careers are on the line. I've got people on tape who will not reveal their name
or allow me to reveal the location of their school." But like Mr. Serpico, she said, some will tell their
stories. "There are a few brave souls who are willing to come forward and talk about their experiences," she
said.
EEOC to Experiment with Privatized Customer Service Center
Source: Amelia Gruber, Government Executive Magazine
Union(s): National Council of EEOC Locals No. 216, part of the American Federation of Government Employees
Date: November 10, 2003
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission decided last week to establish a national customer
service center run by a contractor, on a trial basis. On Nov. 5, EEOC commissioners unanimously authorized the
agency to solicit bids from private companies interested in operating the center over a two-year trial period.
The EEOC aims to award a contract by next summer and start the test in October 2004, an agency spokesman said.
Union, SoCal Supermarket Negotiators Talk
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: November 11, 2003
Union representatives and three supermarket chains held their first negotiations in nearly a month in an
attempt to break a stalemate that has idled 70,000 grocery clerks in Southern California. A federal mediator
joined in Monday's talks, said John Arnold, spokesman for the Washington-based Federal Mediation and
Conciliation Service.
Old Loyalist and New Face Divide Backing of Unions
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Date: November 12, 2003
Gerald W. McEntee, the president of the nation's largest public-sector union, has long been looking for a
Democratic presidential contender who can be a winner, and two months ago he was leaning toward the candidacy
of Gen. Wesley K. Clark. Mr. McEntee, whose 1.4 million union members are a formidable political force, even
asked Harold M. Ickes, the deputy White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, to run the Clark
campaign, several Democrats said. But over time Mr. McEntee soured on General Clark, and today he plans to
announce that his union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, is endorsing Howard
Dean.
Big Labor: What Its Seal of Approval Means
Source: Liz Marlantes, Christian Science Monitor
Union(s): Service Employees International Union (SEIU), American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
Date: November 12, 2003
Howard Dean's expected endorsement Wednesday by two large and politically influential unions - the Service
Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME) - will give the former Vermont governor added organizational support and a more diverse look to his
campaign. More important, it lends the anti-establishment candidate his first significant stamp of approval
from the Democratic establishment - which could make it a pivotal moment in the race. Certainly, labor has
proven a decisive force in past Democratic primaries. The two times the AFL-CIO has endorsed a candidate, in
2000 and 1984, it helped Al Gore and Walter Mondale crush challenges from Bill Bradley and Gary Hart. In other
years, individual unions breaking from the pack have played kingmaker - as when AFSCME expressed early support
for Bill Clinton in 1992.
Labor Trends, History Work Against Unions
Source: Bill W. Hornaday, Indianapolis Star
Union(s): various
Date: November 12, 2003
Much of
the brinkmanship in labor talks such as Kroger's negotiations with the United Food & Commercial Workers
Union has become an increasingly rare art. That's because labor strikes -- a prime leverage tool for unions --
are becoming a workplace relic. Despite prominent walkouts at such companies as Kroger, United Parcel Service,
Caterpillar, Northwest Airlines and General Motors in recent years, the number of major job actions that
workers are willing to take has slid dramatically during the past two decades.
Unions Don't Take Comfort in Employment Gains
Source: Joel Dresang & Rick Romell, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: November 10, 2003
Signs of an improving economy offered little consolation to delegates at a national conference that
started Monday in Milwaukee. "Manufacturing has always been a cornerstone in the development of the middle
class in this country. And trade unions have always been right there with it," Bob Baugh, executive director of
the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council, said during a workshop Monday at the Hyatt Regency Milwaukee. The decline
of manufacturing and its relationship to communities and the labor movement were early themes at the
conference, which runs through Wednesday. Among those bemoaning the loss of manufacturing jobs was Gov. Jim
Doyle, who announced at lunch that he would make an early 2004 trip to Washington, D.C., to call attention to
the need for a national manufacturing strategy.
Steel Leaders, Labor Push to Keep Tariffs as WTO Ruling Approaches
Source: Christopher Davis, Pittsburgh Business Times
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: November 12, 2003
Prominent steel industry leaders rallied Friday to urge President Bush to
keep his three-year tariff plan in place for the remainder of its term, no matter how a World Trade
Organization appeals panel rules next week. Top officials from Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel Corp.;
Cleveland-based International Steel Group Inc.; Charlotte, N.C.-based Nucor Corp.; and Pittsburgh-based United
Steelworkers of America, among others, held a media conference call organized by the American Iron and Steel
Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based association of North American companies involved in the iron and steel
industry. They laid out reasons why they say removing the tariffs would derail a current industrywide
consolidation effort -- one of the key reasons why the president implemented the tariffs in the first place.
Almost to a person, the leaders of those companies and labor threatened there would be significant political
ramifications if Mr. Bush backs down to pressure from the WTO and the European Union to repeal the tariffs
now.
Grocery Walkouts Have Broad Reach
Source: Stephen Franklin and Delroy Alexander, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: November 12, 2003
They are striking in Southern California, West Virginia and Kentucky. Strike
talk also is heating up in Chicago, Indiana and Arizona. The United Food and Commercial Workers union has faced
off against the nation's major grocers in recent weeks, putting nearly 75,000 workers on picket lines. Similar
clashes have roiled other sectors, from steel to airlines, as mature industries press to cut wages in the face
of new upstarts. In the grocery industry, the emerging threat is best characterized by Wal-Mart Stores Inc.,
now the world's largest retailer. Union organizers say the food strikes, in particular, should be viewed as a
turning point for all service workers struggling to maintain their way of life.
Chicago Teachers Reach Tentative Deal
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Chicago Teachers Union
Date: November 12, 2003
The Chicago Teachers Union reached a tentative agreement with school officials on a new contract
Wednesday, the union said, potentially averting a walkout that would affect nearly 440,000 students. The
agreement was reached just before 5 a.m. after a 17-hour bargaining session, union spokesman Jay Rehak said.
Details of the pact will not be released until the union's members can evaluate it. Recent negotiations were
centered on contract length, health care costs and proposed changes to the length of the school day.
Union Sees Pink in Protest Over BT Jobs in India
Source: Ceri Radford (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): Communication Workers Union (CWU)
Date: November 13, 2003
Rallying
around a life-size pink inflatable elephant, telecoms union activists protested in the centre of London on
Thursday against plans by former British telecoms monopoly BT Group to open call centres in India. BT will join
a host of other companies in setting up call centres on the subcontinent to cut costs, a trend that has
attracted widespread criticism in Britain and the United States. The Communication Workers Union (CWU), worried
about knock-on job losses, is taking its elephant on a British tour to warn against a "job stampede" to
developing countries.
Talks Between Union, Grocers in Calif. Adjourn
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: November 14, 2003
Talks aimed at ending a
month-long strike at grocery stores in southern California have adjourned indefinitely after mediators granted
employers and union negotiators time to reconsider their positions, officials said on Wednesday. John Arnold, a
spokesman for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service -- which on Monday had helped kick-start stalled
talks -- said there were a number of issues that the parties needed time to reflect upon before the talks
continued. "This is a recess. I can't predict how long it's going to last," he told Reuters.
Bridgestone's Firestone, Union Break Off Talks
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: November 13, 2003
Bridgestone Corp. of
Japan's Firestone unit and its largest union said Thursday they have broken off talks on a new labor contract,
raising the possibility of a strike. The tiremaker had asked the union for concessions, including pension and
health-care benefit cuts, late last month.
Source: Michael Tackett and Jeff Zeleny, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Date: November 13, 2003
Howard Dean took another step on his long walk from being the "who's he?"
candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination to becoming the choice of party insiders Wednesday when he
picked up the formal endorsement of two of the nation's most politically savvy and powerful labor unions. The
Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
joined forces to back Dean, arguing that he is best positioned--financially and organizationally--to defeat
President Bush in 2004. The choice reflected a union decision that was more pragmatic than sentimental. Dean
does not have the same history of supporting labor as one of his rivals for the nomination, Rep. Richard
Gephardt (D-Mo.), but union leadership became convinced that Dean's chances were far better than Gephardt's
to win the nomination.
Michigan Nurses Strike Hits One - Year Mark
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Teamsters
Date: November 14, 2003
For a
year now, through the autumn chill, the winter snows, the spring rain and the summer heat, hundreds of nurses
have been on strike at Northern Michigan Hospital in a dispute that illustrates what is ailing the nursing
profession. "I'm doing this for nursing. I gain nothing from this strike,'' said Patricia Beer, who had been
looking ahead to retirement after 44 years on the staff but is now picketing every morning. "We have to stand
up and make a difference, or there aren't going to be nurses to take care of people in the future.'' The
walkout by about half of the hospital's registered nurses hit the one-year mark Friday, with no end in sight.
No talks have been held since the work stoppage began, and none are planned. So polarized are the two sides,
they do not even agree on what issues are behind the strike.
Teachers May Give Ground on Grievances
Source: David M. Herszenhorn, New York Times
Union(s): United Federation of Teachers
Date: November 14, 2003
Randi
Weingarten, the president of the [New York City] teachers' union, yesterday proposed changing the teachers'
contract to speed up grievance procedures and disciplinary proceedings, areas that city officials have long
said pose an obstacle to firing bad teachers. Appearing as the final witness at an Education Committee hearing
intended to critique union work rules, Ms. Weingarten accused Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein and Councilwoman
Eva S. Moskowitz, the Education Committee chairwoman, of "demonizing" teachers. She said Ms. Moskowitz was
meddling in contract negotiations and upbraided Mr. Klein and the Bloomberg administration for not bringing the
city's demands to the bargaining table. But for all the theater, Ms. Weingarten expressed a willingness to
deal, offering to address one of the thorniest labor-management disputes in the school system. City officials
have long maintained that it is almost impossible to fire a tenured teacher for incompetence, and that building
a case can take principals years of bureaucratic wrangling and mountains of paperwork before charges are
brought.
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Los Angeles County Federation of Labor
Date: November 14, 2003
The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor is adapting what it does best ?
political organizing ? to the regionwide supermarket strike, which is about to enter its sixth week. Using
targeted mailings, recorded messages from union leaders and precinct walkers, the federation is appealing to
women to stay out of Vons, Pavilions and Albertsons stores leading up to the busy Thanksgiving shopping week.
"This is taking the strike into a boycott," said Miguel Contreras, the top executive of the federation, which
has pledged $150,000 to the effort. Women are the focus because they comprise the majority of grocery shoppers
as well as workers, Contreras said.
Gephardt Downplays Dean's Labor Coup
Source: Steve LeBlanc (AP), San Jose Mercury News
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union
Date: November 13, 2003
Democratic presidential candidate Dick Gephardt vowed to defeat rival Howard Dean in Iowa and seize the
nomination despite Dean's recent endorsement by two major labor unions. "I don't see him as a runaway train.
He was ahead in Iowa and now he's behind. If this was a runaway train that couldn't be stopped, he wouldn't
have fallen back," Gephardt said Thursday. "He's a worthy and tough competitor, but I'm going to defeat him."
Gephardt made the comments during a swing through fellow candidate John Kerry's hometown to attend a
fundraiser. On Wednesday, Dean scored a political coup when the presidents of the American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union issued a joint statement endorsing
him.
Fair Labor Contracts Benefit All
Source: Daniel Hoffman, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Union(s): Fairbanks Police Department Employee's Association
Date: November 15, 2003
In the Nov. 8 issue of the News-Miner, it was reported that the Alaska Community Colleges'
Federation of Teachers had reached a tentative contract agreement with the University of Alaska. By reaching
this agreement, a strike was averted that would have brought the university's teaching function to a
standstill. Further, the new agreement will replace a contract that had expired over two whole months ago!
Hmmmm. It appears that the threat of a strike, with the accompanying disruption of a critical service, can be a
strong motivator in bringing two sides together--and in a timely fashion. While that may be the case, I will
never know. Why? Because I'm a Fairbanks police officer. The police officers and 911-dispatchers that I work
with provide essential, emergency services 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. As such, the state of Alaska
considers us as "class one" employees and prohibits our right to strike.
Source: Paul Wilson, Charleston Sunday Gazette Mail
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: November 16, 2003
When their contract expired in fall 1974, nearly 2,000 union Kroger workers in the West Virginia area stayed
off the job for three weeks in a dispute over wages. That was the last strike of any real consequence for state
Kroger workers until 3,300 employees began picketing Oct. 13. In the current strike, which enters day 35 today,
the sides disagree on wages, but the primary issue, as it is in labor talks across the country, is who will pay
for surging health-care costs, which registered double-digit increases in each of the past four years. ?It is
the single most vexatious bargaining issue right now,? Peter J. Hurtgen, head of the Federal Mediation and
Conciliation Services told The Philadelphia Inquirer last month. ?Employers and unions can?t control costs.
They can only argue and push back and forth about who absorbs the costs.?
Ackerman Mobilizes Labor Unions to Put a Democrat in the White House
Source: Mary Leonard, Boston Globe
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: November 17, 2003
Labor-intensive. That's an apt description of the life and
work of Karen Ackerman, who for 30 years -- from her days as a student organizer at Temple University in her
native Philadephia to her current post as the AFL-CIO's political director -- has been passionate in bringing
about change through the labor movement. The stakes have never been higher nor has the responsibility been
greater, said Ackerman, commander of a 20-month, $35-million union campaign committed to setting the country on
a different course and replacing George W. Bush with a Democratic president in 2004. "We are very focused on
the presidential election," said Ackerman, 56, who has an unobstructed view of the White House from her
seventh-floor office at AFL-CIO headquarters near Lafayette Park. "This is the most antiworker, antiunion
administration we have ever seen, and workers' selfinterest depends on changing who is in the White House."
MTA, Union Leaders Meet on Arbitration
Source: Kurt Streeter, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1277
Date: November 17, 2003
Top Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials and leaders from the agency's striking mechanics union
met Sunday in a bid to end the five-week strike and get countywide bus and train service rolling again.
Negotiators, meeting in an otherwise closed Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration in downtown Los Angeles, were
working on an agreement to begin nonbinding arbitration that would send the union's members back to their jobs
while a panel of outside experts drew up a proposal on health benefits, sources close to the talks said.
More Consumers Reach Out to Touch the Screen
Source: Amy Harmon, New York Times
Union(s): various
Date: November 17, 2003
Striding into the airport here one recent afternoon, Kimberly Ward did not so much as glance at the
two ticket agents waiting at the counter. Like most of her fellow travelers, she instead claimed an automated
check-in terminal, touched its screen a few times, and took the proferred boarding pass with a quick smile of
thanks. Ms. Ward, 37, pays for gas only at the pump. She shops at Marsh, a supermarket in her neighborhood that
has machines that let customers scan, bag and pay for groceries themselves. Her favorite bank teller is her
A.T.M. Dealing with humans in such situations "just slows you down," she says. "This is a lot more convenient."
A new generation of self-service machines is slipping into the daily lives of many Americans. Rejected for
decades as too complicated, the machines are being embraced by a public whose faith in technology has grown as
its satisfaction with more traditional forms of customer service has diminished. Faced with the alternative ?
live people ? it seems that many consumers now prefer the machines.
'Outsourced' Workers May Gain Appeal Rights
Source: Christopher Lee, Washington Post
Union(s): American Federation of Government Employees
Date: November 17, 2003
A provision in a spending bill that House and Senate negotiators agreed to last week could
cripple a White House initiative that requires thousands of federal workers to compete with private contractors
for their jobs, according to Bush administration allies. The government-wide provision, part of the fiscal 2004
spending bill for the Transportation and Treasury departments, would grant federal workers the right to appeal
to the General Accounting Office if they lose job competitions under President Bush's "competitive sourcing"
initiative.
L.A. Mechanics Reach Deal to End Strike
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Amalgamated Transit Union
Date: November 18, 2003
Buses and trains could be rumbling across the city at full strength by the end of the week after a tentative
deal was reached ending a transit strike that idled the nation's third-largest transportation system for more
than a month. A few scattered bus lines resumed service Monday night, but full bus and train service was not
expected to be restored until Thursday at the earliest, officials said. "It's going to be hit and miss,''
Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief executive Roger Snoble said Monday. "By weekend, by next week,
we'll be in top shape.'' Transit mechanics and the MTA, the agency in charge of most bus and rail service in
Los Angeles, brokered a deal over the weekend that settled all outstanding contract issues except the major
source of the labor dispute -- health care benefits. Both sides have agreed to resolve their differences on
that issue through nonbinding arbitration.
Labor Pact, Not Tariffs, Key to Steel's Strength
Source: James Flanagan, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: November 18, 2003
When President Bush imposed tariffs on foreign steel a year and a half ago,
things looked dire for one of America's most storied industries. A worldwide economic slowdown had reduced
demand for steel while increasing competition from low-cost imports; that left most U.S. producers hemorrhaging
red ink. Venerable Bethlehem Steel found itself mired in bankruptcy, along with many smaller companies. Since
that time, a lot has changed. Lazarus-like, Bethlehem has been raised from the dead. Along with LTV Corp. and
others, it has been folded into a new company called International Steel Group Inc. International Steel,
already the U.S. industry's second-largest player in terms of tonnage produced annually, was founded by Wall
Street financier Wilbur Ross shortly after the tariffs were imposed. Almost immediately, his enterprise turned
a profit. So does this prove that the tariffs ? which now threaten to start a global trade war ? have been just
the medicine U.S. steel producers needed to revive. Hardly.
MCP Strike Over Standards a Lesson for Labor
Source: Ronnie Polaneczky, Philadelphia Daily News
Union(s): Office & Professional Employees International Union
Date: November 18, 2003
There's something riveting about the nursing strike at the Medical College of Pennsylvania. This one ain't
just about money or benefits. It's about standards. Let me ask you: When's the last time a strike in this
city was about anything other than socking it to The Man, right in the wallet? Whether they're schoolteachers
who want better insurance or bus drivers hankering after a cushier retirement, organized labor nearly always
walks the picket line in blatant self interest. Nothing wrong with that. But it doesn't necessarily stir
public support beyond a general feeling of empathy. Who doesn't want a fatter paycheck and juicier benefits?
But the MCP nurses - still on the picket line over the weekend - are using their moral authority as front-line
caregivers to call attention to something we should all be worried about: There aren't enough of them to go
around. Their hospital is so understaffed, they say, they are constantly forced to work overtime.
School Contract? One of the 3 R?s Has to Be Regret
Source: Joyce Purnick, New York Times
Union(s): United Federation of Teachers
Date: November 20, 2003
Well,
it was a good try. But it was impossible to listen to days of recent testimony on school union contracts before
the City Council's Education Committee without thinking that the most potentially revealing witnesses were
missing: the mayors, chancellors and city and school negotiators of times past. They are the ones who gave New
York the contracts that tie the schools in knots, from the we-don't-do-rugs custodians' deal to the United
Federation of Teachers pact that grew from 42 pages in 1962 to 204 pages today (not counting 800 pages of side
contracts and links to state law). "There's no other contract like it in the city," said James F. Hanley,
commissioner of labor relations. He places the blame on the quasi-independent Board of Education, a bastion of
union power that has given way to a system of mayoral control led by a chancellor, Joel I. Klein, who is intent
on breaking with old patterns. But others were equally intent, including mayors who ran for office promising to
rein in the powerful union and did not.
Gephardt Secures 21st Labor Endorsement
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Union(s): Transport Workers Union of America
Date: November 20, 2003
Democratic presidential hopeful Dick Gephardt won the backing of his 21st international
labor union Thursday, bolstering his grass-roots support in two states that hold early primaries. The Transport
Workers Union of America, which represents about 125,000 workers, said it is supporting the Missouri
congressman because of the loyalty he has shown to the labor movement during nearly three decades in Congress.
The union, which represents workers in the mass transit, airline, railroad and utility industries, has about
9,000 members in Oklahoma -- more than any other union -- and 5,000 members in Arizona. Both states are among
those holding primaries Feb. 3.
Firm Faces Discrimination Complaints
Source: Michelle Meyers, Alameda Times Star
Union(s): Teamsters and the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE)
Date: November 21, 2003
An Oakland man is one of eight Cintas employees and former employees accus-ing the national uniform supplier
of racial discrimination as part of a larger class-action complaint with the federal Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission. The complaint, filed by the Teamsters and the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and
Textile Employees (UNITE), alleges that the Cincinnati-based company -- the largest uniform supplier in the
country -- has committed systematic discrimination against women and minorities by denying them promotions and
shunting them into lower-paying and less desirable jobs. "It's an outrage, it's illegal and it's got to
stop," said Teamsters Secretary/Treasurer Tom Keegel. Cintas is also the defendant in a local class-action
lawsuit in which two workers at the company's San Leandro laundry facility allege that Cintas violated
Hayward's living-wage law. The city of Hayward, also a plaintiff in the lawsuit, once contracted with Cintas
for its laundry services.
Mediator to Restart Calif. Grocery Strike Talks
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: November 20, 2003
Talks aimed at resolving
a crippling southern California supermarket strike will resume this Saturday following a 10-day recess for the
parties to reconsider their positions, a mediator said on Thursday. "This is a further effort at resolution of
the issues," said Peter Hurtgen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. He said his
organization was "working hard to bring the parties together" and the next round of talks would continue for
"as long as is appropriate." Hurtgen adjourned an earlier two-day round of talks on Nov. 12, citing the need to
give the negotiating parties more time to reflect upon various issues regarding the dispute. At the heart of
the labor dispute, which began on Oct. 11, are health care cuts sought by the three leading U.S. grocers,
Kroger Co., Albertson's Inc., and Safeway Inc.
2 Unions Oppose Energy Bill on Eve of Vote
Source: Dan Morgan, Washington Post
Union(s): United Auto Workers and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Date: November 21, 2003
Two major labor unions weighed in against the energy bill before the Senate, as opponents and
supporters worked feverishly to round up support before a showdown vote today on the far-reaching legislation.
In a letter to members of Congress, the United Auto Workers said the bill's proposed repeal of a 1935 law
limiting utility company mergers would "undermine the reliability and affordability of electric power for
working families." A similar message from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers said a repeal
would "remove a bedrock consumer protection law," and it urged that the energy measure be defeated.
Laundry in Queens Agrees to Raise Pay After 9-Hour Strike
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Unite, formerly known as the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees
Date: November 29, 2003
A large industrial laundry in Queens, Jung Sun, agreed to a tentative contract yesterday, just
nine hours after more than 100 of its workers went on strike. Union leaders said the workers walked out after
Jung Sun insisted on a wage freeze and refused to accept a contract that was signed in recent days by 36 other
New York City laundries. But after workers spent much of the day picketing in front of Jung Sun's plant on
37-10 24th Street in Long Island City, the company accepted the same contract embraced by the other laundry
companies. Jung Sun cleans linens for hospitals, restaurants and hotels, including the Algonquin and Trump
International. The workers at Jung Sun, like those at New York's other unionized laundries, average about
$8.60 an hour. In negotiations with the union, Unite, Jung Sun signed the industrywide contract, which provides
for a raise of 30 cents in the first year, 20 cents in the second and 30 cents in the third, according to union
officials. That translates into a 9.3 percent raise over the three-year agreement.
Supermarkets, Union to Resume Contract Talks
Source: Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: December 1, 2003
Talks are
set to resume Tuesday between the union representing striking Southern California grocery workers and three big
U.S. supermarket chains. About 70,000 workers belonging to the United Food and Commercial Workers union have
been idle since Oct. 11, when members struck Vons and Pavilions. Ralphs and Albertsons locked out their union
workers the next day. Last Monday, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union ordered its 8,000 drivers
and workers at 10 warehouses in Southern and Central California to honor the UFCW picket lines at the
warehouses. A previous round of talks between the supermarkets and the UCFW broke off a week ago.
DeLay?s Cruise Ship Plan Infuriates New York Unions
Source: Michael Slackman, New York Times
Union(s): Building and Construction Trades Council & Hotel Trades Council
Date: December 2, 2003
Representative Tom DeLay's proposal to use a cruise ship as a hotel and entertainment center during
the Republican National Convention next summer has infuriated local labor unions and given gleeful New York
Democrats an issue to use against their adversaries. Democratic members of Congress said they planned to send a
letter today to Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican, asking him to lean on Representative DeLay, the House
majority leader, to kill the idea. On the labor front, at least one union leader said that if the ship is used,
his union might consider void an agreement with the Republicans not to strike during the convention. Mr. DeLay,
of Texas, has proposed chartering the 2,240-passenger luxury cruise liner for the convention, docking it in the
Hudson River, so that Republican members of Congress and their guests can all stay at one place. The deal has
not been sealed, but Mr. DeLay has given no indication that he plans to back down.
Labor Federation Sues to Block New Reporting Requirements
Source: Leigh Strope (AP), San Diego Union Tribune
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: December 1, 2003
The AFL-CIO is suing the Bush administration in an effort to block a new
regulation that requires the nation's largest labor unions to disclose financial details, such as how much
they spend on politics, gifts and management. The lawsuit against Labor Secretary Elaine Chao was filed last
week in federal court in Washington. It says Chao acted "arbitrary, capricious and in excess of her statutory
authority" in issuing the new regulation. It takes effect next year, but unions will not have to file a report
until March 2005. The labor federation wants the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to postpone
the rule from taking effect Jan. 1, and to permanently block its implementation. The rule will force national,
regional and local unions with an income of more than $250,000 to provide much more financial detail in the
annual forms they are required to file with the Labor Department. Expenses and receipts of more than $5,000
must be itemized. Unions also will be required for the first time to file a new form detailing the finances of
related trusts.
Democratic Race Sows Labor Disunion
Source: John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Steelworkers of American & American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Date: November 29, 2003
John Campbell is a blue-collar philosopher who routinely steps off the
factory floor at the Firestone tire plant here to marshal fellow foot soldiers in the United Steelworkers Union
on causes close to their hearts, minds and wallets. The 47-year-old high school dropout often joins forces with
Judy Lowe ? a no-nonsense single mother and an organizer for white-collar government workers ? to knock on
doors, dial telephones and stage cold-weather rallies to get out the vote for politicians sympathetic to
working families. For years, Iowa's industrial and service unions have generally acted as one clan, one
unified political force. But the effort to choose a Democratic candidate to oppose President Bush in the 2004
election has caused fissures in this traditionally ironclad solidarity.
Employees of AFL-CIO Giving Up 2 Days' Wages
Source: Associated Press, Arizona Business Gazette
Union(s): AFL-CIO & Newspaper Guild Local 32035
Date: November 29, 2003
The AFL-CIO has a budget shortfall so severe that its workers are taking two days of unpaid leave to avoid
layoffs, even as the labor federation attempts to mobilize its largest-ever political campaign. Dubbed
"solidarity days," the days off were agreed to over the summer in negotiations between managers and the union
representing about 200 workers at the AFL-CIO, an umbrella organization of 64 international unions. Managers
also have agreed to take the unpaid time. AFL-CIO spokeswoman Lane Windham said employees covered by Newspaper
Guild Local 32035 decided they would rather lose pay for two days than face layoffs caused by a "budget
crunch." Other belt-tightening measures are being taken in response to a dismal economy that slammed many
unions with layoffs, and to launch a "do-or-die" election effort next year to defeat a cash-flush President
Bush.
Flight Attendants' Union Set to Merge
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Association of Flight Attendants & Communications Workers of America
Date: December 2, 2003
The nation's largest union of flight attendants, citing losses of more than 10,000 members in the past two
years, will merge with the Communications Workers of America on Dec. 31. The Association of Flight Attendants,
which represents more than 36,000 attendants at 26 carriers, approved the merger, with 57 percent voting in
favor.
Labor Board Backs Ruling Against Lincoln Center
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Local 100 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: December 4, 2003
Arts patrons going to Lincoln Center could soon face leafleting by union supporters. In a decision issued on
Tuesday, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Lincoln Center had violated federal labor law when it
sought to have the police arrest union supporters distributing leaflets in front of the center, while it
permitted nonunion groups to do so. The board affirmed an administrative law judge's ruling that Lincoln
Center had illegally discriminated against speech by union supporters and had illegally issued a no-leafleting
policy that center officials acknowledged they often ignored.
Union Leaders Want Gephardt Aide Fired: Labor Chiefs Allege Retaliation Threats
Source: Dan Balz, Washington Post
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) & Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Date: December 4, 2003
The presidents of the nation's two largest unions angrily demanded that Rep. Richard A. Gephardt
(D-Mo.) dismiss one of his senior advisers yesterday, charging that she threatened to try to retaliate if their
unions campaigned for former Vermont governor Howard Dean in Missouri. Gerald McEntee, president of the
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and Andrew Stern, president of the
Service Employees International Union (SEIU), whose unions have endorsed Dean, charged that, at a meeting
Monday that included Missouri Gov. Bob Holden (D), Joyce Aboussie, the vice chair of Gephardt's presidential
campaign, issued an "ultimatum" to representatives of the two unions.
Gephardt Joins Pickets in Show of Worker Support
Source: Susannah Rosenblatt and Melinda Fulmer, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: December 4, 2003
Democratic presidential candidate Richard A. Gephardt joined striking grocery workers on
a West Hollywood picket line Wednesday, calling them heroes who were making sacrifices to protect their
families' rights. "These folks have been out here for two months, fighting for health care for their
families," Rep. Gephardt, of Missouri, said. "I believe that what they're fighting for is a moral issue."
Workers struck Safeway Inc.'s Vons and Pavilions stores Oct. 11 after talks on a new contract broke down,
largely over the issue of employee contributions to health insurance. Albertsons Inc. and Kroger Co.'s Ralphs,
which bargain jointly with Safeway, locked out their workers the next day. The labor dispute affects 70,000
union workers in Southern and Central California.
Source: Jennifer Bjorhus (St. Paul Pioneer Press), Duluth News Tribune
Union(s): Teamsters
Date: December 6, 2003
At least 10,000 Minnesota workers will see their pension benefits slashed as
the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund -- the nation's second-largest union pension plan -- struggles to
manage heavy investment losses. Retirees are not affected by the federally administered pension fund's
reduction of future benefit payouts, but active workers were told recently to expect cuts in their anticipated
benefits when they retire. Fund officials said the reductions were court-mandated to meet the fund's
regulatory obligations, but the fund is not in danger of insolvency. Still, union officials say their members
are confused and concerned.
Wolverine, Union Escalate Labor Battle
Source: Julia Bauer, Grand Rapids Press
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: December 5, 2003
The latest salvos between Wolverine World Wide and its tannery union will either knock out the
union or jettison the company's replacement workers. Wolverine officials notified members of Local 600A,
United Food and Commercial Workers, of contract terms that would loosen the union's grip on hourly tannery
workers. At this point, an odd blend of 120 employees run the tannery. More than half are replacement workers
hired after the July strike began. A third are former strikers. Another handful, 14 employees, didn't strike
but still belong to the union.
Nearly 100 Workers Leave Oyster Bar for Picket Line Outside Grand Central
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Local 100 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: December 6, 2003
Nearly 100 workers at the famed Oyster Bar went on strike yesterday, but at
lunchtime it looked as if the walkout was hardly having an effect. The counters and tables of the famed
restaurant in Grand Central Terminal were packed with patrons happily eating bluepoint, belon and cherrystone
oysters. Meanwhile, many of the Oyster Bar's regular dishwashers, waiters and cooks picketed out front,
handing out leaflets saying that the restaurant wanted to undermine their pensions and health insurance. But
many union members asserted that the walkout was indeed hurting the restaurant, saying that the temporary
replacement workers staffing the kitchen and waiting on tables were doing an inferior job.
US Air Seeks Lower Costs to Fight Cut-Rate Rivals
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): Communication Workers of America & The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Date: December 6, 2003
US
Airways, which emerged from bankruptcy protection this year, told employees yesterday that it must revise its
business plan to combat the threat from low-fare airlines, the clearest signal yet that it faces a new crisis.
Speaking on a telephone hot line recording, the chief executive, David N. Siegel, said yesterday that the
action was prompted by an announcement by Southwest Airlines last month that it would begin service next year
to Philadelphia, one of three main hubs for US Airways.
Albertsons Chairman Puts Blame on Labor Strife for Fiscal Erosion
Source: Press-Enterprise (CA)
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: December 5, 2003
Southern California's grocery strike drained roughly $132 million from Albertsons
Inc. in just the last 19 days of October, according to the Boise, Idaho-based retailer's third quarter report.
The nation's second largest food and drug retailer said it made $92 million, or 25 cents a share for the third
quarter, down 51 percent from $188 million, or 47 cents a share, for the comparable period in 2002. Sales rose
to $8.8 billion from $8.66 billion for the same period a year ago. Albertsons chairman Larry Johnston blamed
the strike and retaliatory lockout, well into its second month after beginning Oct. 11, for the financial
erosion. "While the labor disputes negatively impacted our overall results, we were pleased with the underlying
performance of our business," Johnston said in a statement.
Safeway's Labor Woes Hurt Profit Projection
Source: Reuters, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: December 5, 2003
Safeway Inc., the parent of Chicago-based Dominick's, on Thursday forecast 2004 profit
below most Wall Street estimates, as it grapples with a strike and competition fueled by discounting behemoth
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Safeway, along with rivals Kroger Co. and Albertson's Inc., is embroiled in a dispute
involving 70,000 striking or locked-out Southern California workers over planned health-care cuts. The dispute,
affecting nearly 900 of the three chains' stores, began Oct. 11. A federal mediator recently began attempts to
push the parties' stop-and-go talks forward. Safeway, which operates about 1,700 stores in the U.S. and
Canada, said in a regulatory filing that it expects 2004 earnings of $1.95 to $2.03 a share, without reflecting
the strike's impact, which it cannot gauge.
Steelworkers Rip Bush, Fret For Future
Source: Judy Lin (AP), FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: December 5, 2003
Steel workers and union leaders said President Bush's decision to lift tariffs would undermine efforts to
reshape the industry, but some executives said an improving world economy would limit the impact. The unions
said a proposed monitoring program to guard against a glut of foreign steel - a consolation from President Bush
who lifted the tariff under threat of a trade war - would not be enough for companies in Indiana, Pennsylvania,
Ohio and West Virginia to stay competitive. "They're basically being kicked right in the face now for all the
hard work they've done, and I think it's a disgrace," said Andy Miklos, 53, a heavy equipment operator and
Local 1557 president at U.S. Steel-owned Clairton Coke Works, south of Pittsburgh.
Picket Lines Expected To Expand
Source: San Diego Union Tribune
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: December 8, 2003
The supermarket
strike and lockout -- in its ninth week -- continued Monday with no end in sight, union officials and grocery
chain operators said. Negotiations broke off Sunday night between the United Food and Commercial Workers
International Union, which represents the grocery clerks, and the big three grocery chains, without a
settlement and with no new talks scheduled, according to separate statements issued by the union and the
companies. Representatives of the UFCW and Safeway-owned Vons and Pavilions and Ralphs and Albertsons
supermarkets talked for six days, but "the parties remain far apart on all the key issues involved in the
dispute, including maintaining affordable health care for working families," according to the union's
statement.
Kroger and Union Agree to a Contract
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400
Date: December 10, 2003
The Kroger
Company and a grocery labor union have tentatively agreed to a contract, setting up a Thursday vote for 3,300
workers in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky to decide whether to end a two-month strike. Labor troubles in
those three states, as well as in California and Indiana, have hurt the company, which reported on Tuesday that
third-quarter earnings fell 57 percent, primarily because of the labor disputes. Negotiators worked out an
agreement Sunday and Monday, said Jim Lowthers, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400. The
sides came together at a federal mediator's request.
Workers Often Face Hurdles Forming Unions
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: December 10, 2003
Wal-Mart employee Larry Lee says that since he started talking about forming a union a few months ago, he has
been assigned to work alone in areas of the store away from his co-workers and is monitored when he walks to
his car or goes to the bathroom. But he is continuing to try. "The worst thing you can do is not try,'' said
Lee, 42, who stocks shelves at night in a Houston store. "I'm dead serious about what I'm doing here. I'm
committed to what I'm doing here.'' The hurdles workers face when forming unions were being highlighted
Wednesday by the AFL-CIO as part of International Human Rights Day. Unions have organized more than 90 events
in 38 states.
Labor Rallies in Support of Bill to Back the Right to Join Unions
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO and others
Date: December 11, 2003
In demonstrations and marches in 70 cities, the labor movement seized on International Human
Rights Day yesterday to begin a campaign asserting that American corporations routinely violate an
internationally guaranteed right: the right to unionize. Organized labor has begun this campaign to help
persuade Congress to enact a law making it easier to unionize and to draw attention to thousands of instances
each year in which they say companies break the law to beat back unionization drives. The bill would increase
penalties on employers who fire workers for supporting unions and would allow workers to choose a union by
signing cards instead of holding an election.
A Strike That's Struck a Chord Nationwide
Source: Daniel B. Wood, Christian Science Monitor
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: December 11, 2003
Placard-toting demonstrators remain a common sight at supermarkets here as a strike and lockout of 70,000
southern California grocery workers begins its ninth week with no end in sight. Management and unions are still
hunkered down; negotiations could trickle into next year. And the fight has become emblematic of a larger
national anxiety over tradeoffs between consumer prices and decent-paying jobs. On one level, it's a tussle
between management - which says it must cut costs to compete with bulk discount houses - and workers who want
to preserve health benefits. But there's also a more universal question, analysts say: As manufacturing jobs
disappear here - and across the Midwest and South - what alternatives remain for the working middle class?
Kroger Employees Eager to Get Back on Job
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400
Date: December 12, 2003
After
nine long weeks on the picket line, striking Kroger employee Rick Robinson can't wait to return to his deli
counter. Robinson and some 3,300 union members from 44 stores in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia ratified a
contract Thursday to end their standoff with the Cincinnati supermarket chain over medical coverage. "We got
what we wanted,'' said Robinson, who works at a store in Weston. "The way I look at it is, it's time to go
back to work.'' The company agreed to increase its annual contribution toward union health benefits by 10.5
percent, or $12 million, an increase of $3 million over its pre-strike offer.
Workers, Labor Leaders Rally in Los Angeles for Union Rights
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): various
Date: December 11, 2003
Led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and a host of political, religious
and community leaders, more than 1,000 workers marched to Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday
for a boisterous, labor-sponsored rally -- one of dozens of actions staged across the country to promote the
right to organize unions. Marchers ranged from private security guards to newspaper reporters. "It's very
difficult to overcome people's fear," said Richard Bergendahl, a security officer at a downtown high-rise who
has been trying to organize his co-workers under the Service Employees International Union. "The bosses
threaten to fire you, and if you're on marginal pay, you have to take that threat seriously."
Judge Rejects Amtrak Request On Walkout
Source: Laurence Arnold (AP), FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Transportation Communications Union
Date: December 11, 2003
A federal judge rejected Amtrak's request to block a threatened one-day walkout by railroad unions to
protest what they say is chronic underfunding of passenger rail. Unions representing 8,000 of Amtrak's 21,000
employees had planned the work stoppage for Oct. 3 but agreed to postpone any action until the court ruled.
Though the unions can proceed, they have not said whether or when they will do so. The stalemate over federal
funding they hoped to address with their one-day protest has been broken, at least for this year.
Union vs. Union on Iowa Campaign Battleground
Source: Rachel L. Swarns, New York Times
Union(s): various
Date: December 14, 2003
It was 9 degrees, and the shivering, stomping union members were pressing political fliers into the
gloved hands of scores of steelworkers outside the Firestone plant here. "Support Dick Gephardt!" shouted John
Campbell, 47, this week as he mingled with the men starting their shift. But across the state, in the snowy
town of Glenwood, workers from a government employees union were promoting a different presidential candidate
and a different message. "Howard Dean is for working families," said Jenny Mitchell, 39, as she distributed
leaflets to her colleagues during lunch. In ordinary times, these two groups would be allies, but these days
they stand on opposite sides of a political divide. Ms. Mitchell's union is battling to send Howard Dean to
the White House; Mr. Campbell's union is trying to stop him from snaring an electoral victory here that might
start his steady march toward the Democratic nomination.
Labor Department Agrees Jobs Were Lost Through NAFTA
Source: Associated Press, WHAS 11.com (KY)
Union(s): United Auto Workers Local 2088
Date: December 13, 2003
About 500 former workers at a northern Indiana factory have been ruled eligible for federal aid
for job placement and training after the U.S. Labor Department found that their jobs were lost through the
North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico. When the Oxford Automotive plant closed in 2001, the equipment
that once occupied the building was sent to Mexico. But the Labor Department then contended the shift of
equipment was not the same as a shift in production to the United States' NAFTA partner. After almost three
years of petitions by the workers, the Labor Department two weeks ago agreed that the job losses resulted from
NAFTA, qualifying the former workers for assistance.
$81 Million in Back Pay on Its Way to Reagan-Era Special-Raters
Source: Stephen Barr, Washington Post
Union(s): National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU)
Date: December 12, 2003
The check is in the mail. About 90,000 checks totaling $81 million have been mailed to
current and former federal employees covered by the special-rate back-pay settlement reached by the government
and the National Treasury Employees Union. "NTEU fought for this moment for 20 years," said Colleen M. Kelley,
the union's president. "It's not only gratifying to see these employees get the money they rightly deserve,
but having the first payments delivered in the midst of the holiday season is especially satisfying." Typical
payments range from $1,000 to $3,000, Kelley said. The payments have been eagerly awaited by many of the
covered employees, who watched the union and the government wrangle over a class-action lawsuit for years in
federal district and appeals courts. The union filed suit after the Reagan administration altered a policy that
affected employees receiving special-rate pay -- the higher pay provided workers in certain hard-to-fill
positions. The NTEU challenged the administration's decision, which had left some workers receiving little or
no pay increase in some years.
Saturn, UAW Ratify New Labor Agreement
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): UAW Local 1853 in Spring Hill
Date: December 15, 2003
United Auto Workers employed by General Motors Corp.'s Saturn division overwhelmingly approved a new labor
agreement Sunday that could eventually end the unique agreement the union has with the automaker. As part of
the agreement, workers will receive a $3,000 bonus before Christmas and agreed to negotiate a transition to the
national pact with GM that would allow the company to lay off employees for the first time in its history.
U.S., 5 Nations Work on Free Trade Pact
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.
Date: December 16, 2003
The Bush
administration may have suffered a setback in its effort to forge a hemisphere-wide free trade agreement, but
it is pushing ahead with a smaller deal that would cover five Central American countries. Negotiators from
Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua have been meeting with U.S. officials for over a
week in Washington, trying to overcome the final obstacles to a Central American Free Trade Agreement, or
CAFTA. They say a deal is within reach and could be completed by next Tuesday. It would remove virtually all
trade barriers among the nations over the next decade. But the agreement is expected to face considerable
opposition in Congress from some politically potent groups including labor unions, textile makers and the sugar
industry.
Strike's Strategy Is On the Line
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: December 16, 2003
When labor leaders from across the country gather in Los Angeles today to discuss the supermarket strike,
they'll be looking for something that has so far proved elusive: a winning strategy. AFL-CIO President John
Sweeney and dozens of officials with the United Food and Commercial Workers union will assemble at the Century
Plaza Hotel for the meeting, which was called last week by UFCW President Doug Dority after contract talks
collapsed. The meeting is to be followed at noon by a march by thousands of strikers and their supporters from
the hotel to a Pavilions store in Beverly Hills. Though they publicly professed support for the seven UFCW
locals in Central and Southern California, some labor leaders have been privately critical of the union's
tactics, saying they lacked imagination and haven't been sufficiently militant.
Boycott Is Urged in Drive to Unionize Bakery
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: December 16, 2003
The
long-running labor dispute raging at a 170-employee bakery here has taken unusual turns in recent years,
including accusations of death threats, illegal firings and managers forcing workers to have sex with them. In
yet another unusual twist, the United Auto Workers, which has been trying for three years to unionize the
bakery, Chef Solutions, announced a boycott on Monday against the bakery's parent company, Lufthansa airline,
and one of its customers, Boston Market. The union is not calling for a boycott of the bakery itself.
Striking Workers Plan Safeway Boycotts
Source: Nick Madigan, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: December 17, 2003
A two-month-old strike in Southern California against four supermarket chains got a big show
of support on Tuesday: labor leaders from around the country marched with several thousand grocery workers
through the streets of this enclave of wealth and backed their call for one-day walkouts at other stores
nationally. "There's power in numbers," said Gina Savio, a produce clerk who has worked for 20 years at one of
the struck businesses, an Albertson's store in Simi Valley, north of Los Angeles. "We can't let them win."
The strike, largely over health care benefits, began on Oct. 11 and involves 70,000 workers.
Two Unions Criticize Ads for Attacks Against Dean
Source: Jim Rutenberg, New York Times
Union(s): International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers and the Laborers\' International Union of North America
Date: December 17, 2003
Two labor unions that provided financing for a shadowy Democratic political
group running tough commercials against former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont criticized the advertising campaign
yesterday, and one said it might ask for its money back. Both unions, the International Association of
Machinists and Aerospace Workers and the Laborers\' International Union of North America, have endorsed
Representative Richard A. Gephardt, who said yesterday that he knew nothing about the group running the
commercials. Rick Sloan, a spokesman for the machinists, said the union donated $50,000 to the group, Americans
for Jobs, Health Care and Progressive Values.
California Nurses' Union Ends Tenet Hospital Strike
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): California Nurses Association (CNA)
Date: December 17, 2003
The
California Nurses Association (CNA) on Tuesday ended a 13-month strike against Tenet Healthcare Corp.'s (nyse:
THC - news - people) Doctors Medical Center-San Pablo after reaching a contract agreement, the union and
hospital said. Doctors Medical Center said the agreement with the union, which represents the hospital's 450
nurses, resolves all issues in the action. The agreement allows nurses to return to work without loss of
seniority, and, in general, provides for wage increases of 30 percent through the three year term of the
contract, the hospital said.
Labor Talks to Resume Between Supermarket Chains, Grocery Clerks Union
Source: Associated Press, Miami Herald
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: December 15, 2003
Negotiations were scheduled to resume Friday between three supermarket operators and the union
representing about 70,000 Southern California grocery workers who have been on strike or locked out of the
stores for more than two months, a federal mediator said Monday. "Our goal in the mediation process is to build
understanding and to move the parties toward an agreement," Peter J. Hurtgen, director of the Federal Mediation
and Conciliation Service, said in a statement. "In this case, we are dealing with particularly difficult
issues." Negotiators for Albertsons Inc., Kroger Co. and Safeway Inc. last held labor talks with the United
Food and Commercial Workers union on Dec. 7.
Union Bosses Call on Nation to Boycott Safeway Stores
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: December 17, 2003
Several thousand striking and locked-out supermarket workers and their
supporters marched to a Pavilions store in Beverly Hills on Tuesday in the largest demonstration since the
regional walkout began Oct. 11. The march followed a meeting of United Food and Commercial Workers presidents
from about 150 union locals nationwide, who pledged several million dollars for the dwindling supermarket
strike funds here. The union also sought to portray its fight with Safeway Inc., Albertsons Inc. and Kroger Co.
-- parent of Ralphs -- as a pivotal moment for American labor. "If we lose here," said national UFCW President
Doug Dority, "it will set off a corporate tidal wave that will sweep away benefits in contracts in all
industries." Dority also announced there would be a national campaign to boycott Safeway, the parent company of
Vons and Pavilions and the union's top public target. "We want to empty those stores," he said.
Rally Illustrates Gulf Between Tiremaker, Labor
Source: Bush Bernard, The Tennessean
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: December 17, 2003
Factory workers from eight states marched up Elm Hill Pike to rally outside the
Bridgestone/Firestone headquarters yesterday. It's part of the United Steelworkers of America's ongoing
effort to pressure the company into offering a contract proposal that more closely follows an agreement the
union reached with Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. this fall. ''The offer they currently have on the table
doesn't merit consideration,'' Steelworkers Executive Vice President John Sellers said before the rally.
Traditionally, the union works out an agreement with one of the three major tiremakers in the United States,
and that agreement serves as a blueprint for deals with the other two.
America West, Pilots Union Reach Tentative Labor Pact
Source: Dow Jones & Company, Quicken
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: December 17, 2003
America West Airlines reached a new tentative
labor agreement with its pilots union just two weeks after pilots narrowly rejected a previous pact. The
airline, operating under government constraints that require it to keep labor costs in check, didn't put any
additional money on the table for the new contract. Instead, pilots agreed to boost the average number of
block-hours they'll be obligated to fly each month, effectively using their added productivity to fund
additional contract compensation. "They came up with some ideas that were creative and we agreed," said a
spokeswoman for America West, a unit of Tempe, Ariz.-based America West Holdings Corp. The three-year
agreement, reached Tuesday, maintains most of the economic terms set forth in the previous pact, including a
14% pay raise over the life of the contract and signing bonuses. But it adjusts terms such as long-term
disability and retirement compensation.
Labor Unions to Fight Free Trade Deal
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: December 19, 2003
The Bush
administration is hailing its new free trade agreement with Central America as an important milestone toward
the even bigger prize of achieving a hemisphere-wide free trade area. But labor unions are vowing an all-out
effort to defeat the measure in Congress. Judging from the initial reaction from unions and such politically
sensitive sectors of the economy as textile makers and sugar growers, President Bush could be facing a major
trade battle on Capitol Hill in the midst of next year's presidential campaign.
Veteran Strike Breaker Helps Keep Ralphs Supplied
Source: Nancy Cleeland and Melinda Fulmer, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers; Teamsters
Date: December 19, 2003
To keep its warehouses stocked and its delivery trucks
running without the Teamsters union, Ralphs Grocery Co. has turned to a convicted felon with a history of legal
woes. Clifford L. Nuckols, a veteran of the strikebreaking business, has hired hundreds of people and brought
them from around the country to the Los Angeles area, where the supermarket strike and lockout are in their
tenth week. Booked two to a room at hotels in Burbank and Compton, the replacement workers are packed every day
into rented vans and driven past pickets from the United Food and Commercial Workers union and knots of jeering
Teamsters at Ralphs warehouses in Glendale and Compton.
Deal Saves City $100 Million a Year in Health Costs
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): New York City municipal unions
Date: December 19, 2003
The Bloomberg administration reached its most important labor agreement
to date yesterday, signing an accord on health benefits that achieves $100 million in annual savings through
numerous steps, including higher co-payments for doctor visits. Soaring health care costs have hurt local
governments across the nation, and in yesterday's deal, the city persuaded its unions to help bear the burden.
The Bloomberg administration hailed the accord, the first reached in the new bargaining round, saying it was
consistent with Mr. Bloomberg's objective of not paying for increased wages and benefits unless unions agreed
to offsetting savings. The city will use these savings to increase its contributions to employee benefit funds
and to sustain a nearly bankrupt fund for cancer, asthma and psychiatric drugs for all 500,000 city workers and
retirees.
Hotel Del Has New Owners - - And Labor Troubles
Source: NBCSandiego.com
Union(s): Hotel Employees, Restaurant Employees Local 30
Date: December 18, 2003
The Hotel Del has new
owners, and, along with a landmark hotel, they've bought themselves some labor trouble. The local union says
the hotel's changing of hands has led to the firing of more than 100 workers. Some of them were picketing in
front of the Del on Thursday morning, and they planned to hit the sidewalks again in the afternoon. The Hotel
Employees, Restaurant Employees Local 30 is accusing the new owners, KSL Resorts, of firing longtime workers
and disregarding a union contract that they contend is still in force.
Boeing: Putting Out The Labor Fires
Source: Stanley Holmes, BusinessWeek
Union(s): International Association of Machinists
Date: December 29, 2003
On Dec. 16, Boeing's new CEO, Harry C. Stonecipher, stood up in a Seattle convention center and announced
that the company would go ahead with its 7e7 jetliner and build it in nearby Everett, Wash. "The 7e7 is a real
game-changer," he declared as commercial-plane division chief Allan Mulally looked on approvingly. "Now let's
go sell it." What Stonecipher didn't tell the assembled 3,000 Boeing Co. employees was that 10 days earlier,
he had quietly approached the chief of the company's biggest and feistiest union, the International
Association of Machinists, to offer an olive branch. At that meeting, Stonecipher not only told Machinists
President R. Thomas Buffenbarger that Boeing would build the plane in Everett, he went much further -- offering
to work hand in hand with the unions to end decades of bitter labor relations that have sunk employee morale to
an all-time low. Why would Stonecipher, long considered a foe of organized labor, have such a radical change of
heart? Company insiders say it's because he realizes that Boeing's future rests in part on its ability to
deliver the 7e7 cheaper and faster than it has any previous jetliner. An angry Machinists union could disrupt
those plans.
Union Sues Ralphs for Hiring Back Workers
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Date: January 4, 2004
The union representing
striking Southern California grocery workers is suing the Ralphs supermarket chain, alleging it has been
secretly hiring back selected workers under false names and Social Security numbers, the union said on Sunday.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday,
said union spokeswomen Ellen Anreder and Barbara Maynard. They said the union had evidence from 50 to 100
striking workers who had secretly been hired back and then told to use fictitious names and Social Security
numbers or those of their minor children.
Union Hopes Billboard Sends Message About Salary
Source: William K. Rashbaum, New York Times
Union(s): Patrolmen's Benevolent Association
Date: January 6, 2004
Most billboards in and around Times Square are designed to attract the attention
of tourists and New Yorkers and get them to buy something, be it designer underwear, blue jeans or tickets to a
Broadway show. But a large new sign formally unveiled there yesterday is intended to draw attention to
something New Yorkers already have -- a Police Department that has logged record declines in crime. The
Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the union that represents the city's roughly 23,000 rank-and-file police
officers and paid $75,000 for the sign, hopes the New Yorkers who see it will urge Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
to give the officers a raise. The union's president, Patrick J. Lynch, said the sign was meant to underscore
the disparity between the city's crime-fighting achievements and what he says is the officers' meager pay
when compared with that of other departments around the country.
Grocery Union Files Racketeering Suit
Source: James F. Peltz, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: January 7, 2004
The
grocery workers' union filed a second lawsuit alleging that Ralphs hired back union workers under false names
and Social Security numbers despite an official lockout, this time saying the company broke federal
racketeering laws. The case mirrored a suit filed Friday in state Superior Court, in which the United Food and
Commercial Workers union first made the allegations. The new suit was brought under the federal Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, which provides for triple damage awards if the claims are proved.
US Airways Delays Employee Meetings
Source: Keith L. Alexander, Washington Post
Union(s): Association of Flight Attendants and Communications Workers of America
Date: January 8, 2004
US Airways' top executive postponed a series of employee meetings to outline further cost reductions after
sharp resistance from workers and union leaders. David N. Siegel, president and chief executive of the
Arlington-based airline, said in a weekly telephone recording for workers that "while I still want to go out on
these road shows, the timing is up in the air." Sources close to the airline said Siegel had planned to meet
with employees by late January or early February. US Airways labor leaders have repeatedly objected to any
further cost cuts, saying they have already contributed more than $1.2 billion in concessions during the
airline's bankruptcy restructuring.
Source: Melinda Fulmer and Ronald D. White, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: January 9, 2004
Dwindling strike funds and expired health benefits are putting California's idle
supermarket workers under increasing strain as the labor dispute heads into its fourth month. Six of the seven
union locals in the strike have in recent weeks slashed picketing workers' pay, in some cases by as much as
half. The pay cuts, and the loss of health coverage on Jan. 1, have forced increasing numbers of striking and
locked-out workers to look for other jobs, which has eroded the number of pickets at Vons, Pavilions and
Albertsons markets in Southern and Central California.
Pilots' Strike Looms at Mesaba Airlines
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: January 9, 2004
Mesaba
Airlines pilots are threatening a strike if negotiations don't produce a new contract by Friday night. A
30-day cooling-off period ends at 12:01 a.m. EST on Saturday, and pilots have said they will strike then if a
deal isn't reached. Talks continued Friday, with the regional airline saying it won't try to fly any of its
routes if pilots strike.
Strike by Operations Staff Looms at Indian Pt. Nuclear Plant
Source: Lisa W. Foderaro, New York Times
Union(s): Utility Workers Union of America
Date: January 10, 2004
Maintenance and operations workers at the Indian Point nuclear power plant were making preparations for a
possible strike in the event that negotiations between their union and Entergy Nuclear Northeast, the plant's
owner, do not yield a new contract within eight days. While Entergy expressed confidence that a walkout would
be averted, a spokesman for Local 1-2 of the Utility Workers Union of America said the two sides were far apart
on basic issues like salaries and health benefits. Last month, workers voted overwhelmingly to authorize a
walkout, and this week union members were signing up for picket duty. "Given the status of the talks, I would
say they are on a collision course with a strike," said Steve Mangione, a spokesman for Local 1-2. "They are
miles apart on the key issues and still very far apart on issues that are usually settled by now."
For Labor, a Day to Ask What Went Wrong
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): various
Date: January 21, 2004
The
labor unions that backed Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and Howard Dean, the former Vermont
governor, were embarrassed yesterday and searching for answers why their candidates -- and the unions
themselves -- fared so poorly in the Iowa caucuses. Officials from the unions that supported Dr. Dean, who
placed third, and Mr. Gephardt, who dropped out of the presidential race after placing fourth, said the pair
had been weakened by the flurry of negative charges they directed at each other. They said this helped Senator
John Kerry of Massachusetts, who won the caucuses, and Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, who came in
second, pick up support because they ran more positive campaigns. Strategists from the two major unions that
backed Dr. Dean -- the service employees and the state, county and municipal employees -- said they would
redouble their efforts to lift him to victory in next Tuesday's primary in New Hampshire.
No End in Sight for California Grocery Workers' Strike
Source: Kimberly Edds, Washington Post
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: January 20, 2004
For more than three months, the cluster of a dozen or so striking clerks and baggers have
maintained a vigil on the broken sidewalk outside the Vons supermarket on Santa Monica Boulevard. For the first
couple of days, it was almost fun. Supporters drove by and honked. Some brought food. Almost everyone was
pleasant. But no one expected it to go on this long. The Southern California grocery workers' strike, which
has 70,000 workers on the street, continues to drag on with seemingly no end in sight. Four days of secret
talks between the two sides broke up Jan. 11 with only "limited progress" being made, according to the United
Food and Commercial Workers union's Web site. As the strike lengthens, it has become an important battle for
organized labor, which is struggling to remain relevant in one of the few remaining industries in which workers
with limited education can earn a respectable living with medical benefits.
Unions Back Suit Against Cintas
Source: Mike Boyer, Cincinnati Enquirer
Union(s): UNITE, Teamsters
Date: January 22, 2004
Two
unions attempting to represent Cintas Corp. workers are backing a class-action lawsuit filed in a California
federal court. It accuses the Mason uniform supplier of discriminating against minorities. The suit, filed
Tuesday in San Francisco, accuses Cintas of discriminating against African-Americans and Latinos in hiring, pay
and promotion and disproportionately hiring minorities for lower-paying, less desirable jobs. The 44-page
lawsuit includes some of the same plaintiffs and allegations in a complaint filed in November with the U.S.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accusing Cintas of a "massive pattern of discrimination.'' The new
lawsuit allows Cintas workers to seek remedies outside federal regulatory actions, according to the unions.
Source: Thomas B. Edsall, Washington Post
Union(s): various
Date: January 22, 2004
Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) was not the only loser in the Iowa caucuses. Organized
labor, especially the nation's manufacturing and industrial unions, which poured huge resources into Iowa to
support their longtime ally, suffered an equally embarrassing defeat. In addition, the public-sector unions
that broke ranks and supported former Vermont governor Howard Dean saw their candidate finish behind Sens. John
F. Kerry (Mass.) and John Edwards (N.C.), who had little official union support. Labor organizations backing
Gephardt and Dean brought hundreds of organizers into Iowa, where about 50,000 union members are registered
Democrats eligible to vote in the caucuses. Despite that effort, a plurality of union members, 29 percent,
backed Kerry. Dean and Edwards tied for second place with 22 percent each, and Gephardt got only 19 percent,
according to surveys of caucus-goers.
Union Sues Fannie May Over plant closure
Source: Associated Press, Miami Herald
Union(s): Local 781, Teamsters Union
Date: January 21, 2004
A
union group representing workers at the Archibald Candy Corp. factory where Fannie May candy is made accuses
the company in a lawsuit of violating federal labor law with its abrupt shutdown of the plant. Local 781 of the
Teamsters Union said in the suit filed in U.S. District Court that Archibald failed to give workers 60 days'
notice as required when it disclosed plans Jan. 5 to shutter the 70-year-old Chicago plant. The plant is
expected to close by the end of this month. The suit contends that the company has not complied with terms of
the union contract which allow laid-off workers three months of health coverage, vacation pay and severance
equal to a week's pay for each year worked.
Janitors' Labor Movement Wins Converts
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: January 23, 2004
The labor protest outside a downtown building had all the markings of a traditional picket line, yet when
police arrived to make arrests, they clapped the handcuffs on clergy members and not workers. The picketing and
the arrests on Thursday had the indelible stamp of the Justice for Janitors, a campaign within the Service
Employees International Union that began in Pittsburgh during a bitter janitors' strike in 1985. The campaign
has become one of the most active labor movements today, labor experts say, because of its success in linking
the plight of those doing some of the country's dirtiest work with a wider social malaise. Churches and social
organizations have backed the union in its plight.
Seeking an Opening at the Oyster Bar
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: January 26, 2004
Wearing a
black beret and using her boombox voice, Janine Boivin shouted to the couple approaching: "Please don't eat at
the Oyster Bar. Seventy-two families have been on strike for eight weeks." It was lunchtime on Friday, and some
shellfish lovers walked blithely past and entered the restaurant deep inside Grand Central Terminal. But others
stopped to talk with Ms. Boivin, an Oyster Bar waitress, and then headed elsewhere for lunch. "I was thinking
this would last maybe two, three days," said Ms. Boivin, whose lunch hours are usually spent carrying
cherrystones and chowders to rushed customers. "I never expected it would last eight weeks." The strike began
on Dec. 5 after the restaurant's owners demanded to cut waiters' wages, to reduce salaries for newly hired
dishwashers to $7 an hour from $8 and to eliminate health insurance for part-time workers like Ms. Boivin.
Unions Aim to Share in the Success of Reality TV
Source: Jim Rendon, New York Times
Union(s): International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees
Date: January 25, 2004
Reality
television shows like "Fear Factor," "Big Brother" and "The Bachelor" have crossed over from sideshow
entertainment to network television's main event. But their success has caught the attention of more than
advertisers and disgusted critics. Hollywood's unions are showing an interest, too. The International Alliance
of Theatrical Stage Employees, which includes the International Cinematographers Guild and the Motion Picture
Editors Guild, is trying to unionize reality shows that are shown by the networks, as well as gritty
documentary-style cable shows like "Trauma: Life in the ER." Arguing that those who work on unscripted programs
should receive health insurance, pensions, overtime pay and other benefits, the alliance has unionized "Big
Brother," which is produced by Endemol USA, a unit of Telef?nica S.A, and is in negotiations with "Blind Date"
and "Fifth Wheel," produced by Renegade 83. Reality shows, many of which originated in Europe and on cable
channels in the United States, have traditionally been made by nonunion production companies. Now that reality
shows are broadcast on the big networks, unions say their workers should get the same pay and benefits that go
to unionized workers of other network shows.
Striking Grocery Workers Feeling Pinch
Source: Associated Press, CNN.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: January 26, 2004
The
picket lines began thinning after Christmas, when union strike pay for the grocery workers was cut in half, and
every day since there have been fewer people holding picket signs with Vicky Cooper outside a Vons supermarket.
"The team is falling apart," the 25-year-old checker said. "Everybody said 'Forget it, we're not coming
back."' The strike and lockout affecting 70,000 Southern California grocery workers at three supermarket
chains is in its third month. Cooper said many of her fellow co-workers have had to take other work or cross
picket lines to return to their old jobs, unable to make ends meet on the $20 to $25 a day they get for walking
the picket lines. Others lost their health care benefits at the start of the year and had to pay $365 to extend
them through March.
Chancellor Urges Broad Changes in Way Teachers Are Paid
Source: David M. Herszenhorn, New York Times
Union(s): United Federation of Teachers
Date: January 28, 2004
Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein called yesterday for sweeping changes in the way teachers are paid in
New York City, advocating bonuses based on student achievement and higher salaries for teachers who agree to
work in troubled schools and for those in fields where there are staff shortages, like math and science. Mr.
Klein gently praised the teachers' union for offering to try a streamlined contract, in a limited number of
schools, that would do away with most work rules. He also applauded a proposal by the union president, Randi
Weingarten, to speed the disciplining and dismissal of incompetent teachers. Addressing a breakfast forum
sponsored by Crain's New York Business, Mr. Klein was unrelenting in his demands for a complete overhaul of
the way teachers are compensated. "We have to change the culture of our schools," Mr. Klein said. "We don't
have a culture of excellence." Contract talks with the union, the United Federation of Teachers, are to resume
next week.
California Controller Urges Safeway to End Strike
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: January 27, 2004
California State
Controller Steve Westly said on Tuesday he has urged the Safeway Inc. supermarket chain to end a grocery
workers' strike, echoing a similar effort by a fellow member of the board of Calpers, the largest U.S. public
pension fund. Westly said he sent a letter on Tuesday to Safeway's board, urging a resolution of the strike in
Southern California, which was sparked by a dispute over health-care benefits. Westly said Safeway was risking
its brand and financial standing by following the example of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest
retailer and an increasingly popular political target in California. "Safeway claims that health benefit cuts
are required to compete with large retailers, such as Wal-Mart, which provide nominal health care benefits,"
Westly wrote. "The lowest common denominator should not be the standard for an established member of the
corporate community, and I'm surprised Safeway, given its strong reputation with millions of California
consumers, would treat its employees in this manner," Westly said.
Union Spends $1.6 Million to Help Dean
Source: Associated Press, CNN.com
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Date: January 27, 2004
A government employees union is spending at least $1.6 million to try to get nonunion members out
to vote for Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean in several of the nation's early primaries. Most of
that -- $1.3 million -- has been spent by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees'
political action committee over the past few weeks on ads, polling, phone banks, mailings and other primary
activities. Activities of the AFSCME's People Qualified PAC so far have focused on Iowa, which held its
presidential caucuses last week; South Carolina, New Mexico and Arizona, which vote February 3; Michigan, which
has its primary February 7; and Wisconsin, which votes February 17. The PAC is spending the money independently
of Dean's campaign, which means it can spend as much as it wants to recruit Dean voters.
Re-Elected Labor Leader Criticized by Loser
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): District Council 37
Date: January 29, 2004
Lillian
Roberts, executive director of District Council 37, New York City's largest municipal union, called yesterday
for members of her badly divided union to close ranks, a day after she eked out victory in a hard-fought
election to retain her position. But the union leader she narrowly defeated, Charles Ensley, went on the
offensive yesterday, asserting that her campaign used improper and divisive tactics to win. "She ran one of the
most mean-spirited campaigns to smear people,'' said Mr. Ensley, president of the local representing 15,000
social workers, one of the 56 union locals in District Council 37. "To smear people personally in a union
campaign, I find that offensive. Her divisive tactics, her use of race and gender, it has no place in the labor
movement." Asked about Mr. Ensley's criticisms, Ms. Roberts responded in a written statement: "The campaign is
over, and it's time for all of us to go forward, to close ranks, and to work together for a fair contract."
Picketers Return to Local Ralphs
Source: Robert Chacon, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Date: January 30, 2004
Supermarket strikers have reestablished picket lines at a Ralphs in Glendale, intent on
keeping their cause fresh in the minds of shoppers. Ralphs employees were locked out Oct. 12 by parent company
Kroger Co. in a show of solidarity with its competitors after members of the United Food and Commercial Workers
Union began striking against Vons and Pavilions. Workers at Ralphs began picketing at Vons and Pavilion stores
Oct. 31. "We're basically out here to remind people that we're continuing to struggle for our health and
pension benefits," picketer Gary Field said.
Tyson Workers at Wis. Plant Accept Deal
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: January 30, 2004
Workers
on strike against Tyson Foods for nearly a year accepted a contract Thursday that will save their union and
their jobs, but includes many of the wage and benefit concessions that led to their walkout. The contract was
approved 293-70, said Mike Rice, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 538. He had recommended
approval of the deal as the only way to keep the union in the Tyson meat processing plant in Jefferson, about
45 miles west of Milwaukee. Under federal labor law, the replacement workers Tyson hired could have voted to
decertify the union once the strikers had been out for a full year. The union, representing 470 workers, walked
out Feb. 28. Many striking workers said they reluctantly voted "yes.'' "We're not getting really what we
wanted, but we need to keep the union,'' said Bill Schmieder, 30, a Tyson worker for six years. "We're going
to take our fight inside the plant.''
Source: Reuters, CNN/Money
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: January 30, 2004
California's
attorney general said he would file a lawsuit on Monday suing three major grocery chains engaged in a costly
labor dispute. "We are filing Monday," a spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer told Reuters on Saturday,
noting they were not able to get an extra document accompanying the complaint to the court in time to meet a
Friday deadline. The lawsuit charges that a controversial profit-sharing plan between the companies violates
antitrust law and asks a federal court in Los Angeles to block Albertsons Inc., Kroger Co., and Safeway Inc.
from implementing their so-called mutual-aid agreement. Lockyer accuses the stores of engaging in an illegal
pact that in part requires Kroger to share any windfall reaped by the absence of picket lines in front of its
Ralphs stores in a strike and lock-out that has affected some 70,000 Southern California supermarket workers.
Strike Shuts Down Nickel Producer
Source: Reuters, CNN/Money
Union(s): Canadian Auto Workers
Date: February 1, 2004
Falconbridge Ltd. shut down mining and milling operations at its Sudbury, Ontario, site Sunday as
workers at the facility producing 5 percent of the world's nickel went on strike after rejecting a new labor
contract. "The picket lines are up. The company told us to get off their property," said Rick Grylls, president
of the local unit of the Canadian Auto Workers, which represents 1,080 production and maintenance workers at
the northern Ontario site. At a time of a serious global shortage of nickel, the world's third-biggest
producer said it had begun halting production at the Sudbury complex's four mines and mill after a three-year
labor deal expired at midnight Saturday with no consensus on wages, pensions and the use of contract workers.
Governor Willing to Intervene in Strike
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: February 3, 2004
Can Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger end the nearly 4-month-old supermarket strike? In a KNX-AM radio interview
Monday, the governor said he needed an invitation to try. "If they call me and ask me to intervene and to be an
intermediary, I'm more than happy to do that, because I think that we need to have everyone go back to work
and normalize the situation," he said. That was news to Miguel Contreras, secretary-treasurer of the Los
Angeles County Federation of Labor, who said he had been working for weeks behind the scenes with state
Democrats and national labor leaders to try to pull the governor into the stalled talks. Contreras spent about
$100,000 of the federation's budget to gather signatures on petitions asking the governor to weigh in. He said
the petitions were mailed nearly two months ago to Schwarzenegger's office but they elicited no response.
Dean's Labor Backers Concerned
Source: Phil Hirschkorn, CNN.com
Union(s): various
Date: February 3, 2004
Howard Dean has some explaining to do to the labor unions that have spent millions supporting a
seemingly unstoppable presidential campaign that is now struggling. At the same time, nearly two dozen other
unions that backed Dick Gephardt before he dropped out are shopping around for another candidate. Dean, who
doesn't expect to win any of Tuesday's contests, will explain his strategy for staying in the race during
meetings later this week with his three labor backers: the American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees, the Service Employees International Union and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.
"I expect frank, honest discussion" about Dean's troubled campaign, "and determining the best course of action
going forward," said Sean McGarvey, political director of the painters union. Whether that means shifting or
pulling back resources remains to be seen, he said.
Judge Dismisses Teamsters' Suit Against Carey
Source: Anthony Lin, New York Law Journal
Union(s): International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT)
Date: February 4, 2004
A federal judge
in Manhattan has thrown out a suit by the Teamsters union against former boss Ronald Carey and several others,
ruling that the defendants' embezzlement of union funds did not constitute a "pattern of racketeering
activity" under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Southern District Judge Laura Taylor
Swain wrote in a decision dated Jan. 30 that the embezzlement and other fraudulent activities at issue were all
designed to benefit Carey's 1996 campaign to be re-elected president of the International Brotherhood of
Teamsters (IBT), and were not "inherently unlawful" in a manner that posed a threat of future criminal
activity. The defendants undertook their actions for "purposes of self enrichment, protection of ongoing
relationships with the Plaintiff, and depriving IBT and its members of money, the honest services of its
officers and employees and the right to have elections conducted fairly," Swain wrote in IBT v. Carey, 2952-00.
Supermarkets Reject Union Bid for Binding Arbitration
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: February 5, 2004
A proposal by union leaders to end the supermarket strike and submit their contract dispute to
binding arbitration fell flat Wednesday when grocery companies rejected the offer, crushing the hopes of many
striking and locked-out workers. In a joint statement, the companies said the offer was "just another effort to
shift the focus away from the United Food and Commercial Workers' apparent inability to find a negotiated
settlement to this labor dispute." They said they wanted to continue talks with the help of federal mediator
Peter J. Hurtgen. The arbitration offer was intended to put public pressure on the supermarkets to settle the
nearly 4-month-old dispute. Some national and local labor leaders were opposed to the tactic, thinking it could
telegraph a sense of defeat on the UFCW's part.
US Airways To Meet With Unions on Concessions
Source: Keith L. Alexander, Washington Post
Union(s): various US Airways employee unions
Date: February 5, 2004
US Airways executives hope to secure steep concessions from employees at a meeting with union leaders tomorrow
in a last-ditch effort to head off the sale of several key assets, sources close to the carrier said yesterday.
Executives of the Arlington-based airline expect to outline a revised business plan at the meeting, scheduled
after the carrier releases its fourth-quarter financial results. At a board meeting yesterday, executives
indicated that the airline's most immediate threat was meeting the financial covenant set by the federal
government in exchange for guarantees on loans of $900 million. As part of US Airways' agreement with the Air
Transportation Stabilization Board, the airline must maintain $1 billion in cash through June.
Union Targets Multiple Fronts with Political Savvy
Source: Sarah Anne Wright, Seattle Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union (SEIU),
Date: February 5, 2004
With jobs dear and unemployment high, it's hardly time to make demands on employers. But
tell that to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which runs the Justice for Janitors campaigns in
Seattle and nationally. In July, the union helped 2,500 local janitors keep employer-paid medical benefits.
"Despite the downturn in the building sector, a lot of vacancies and failed businesses, we were still able to
keep the 100 percent employer-paid medical and dental coverage for our janitors and their families," said
Debbie Foley, secretary-treasurer for SEIU Local 6. The Justice for Janitors campaign has become one of the
most active labor movements today, labor experts say, because of its success in linking the plight of those
doing some of the country's dirtiest work with a wider social malaise.
Major Union Plans to Pull Its Support for Dean
Source: Jodi Wilgoren, New York Times
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Date: February 8, 2004
The
largest of three international unions that had endorsed Howard Dean's bid for the Democratic presidential
nomination plans to withdraw its support, union officials and Dean aides said Saturday. Gerald W. McEntee, the
president of the union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, spent an hour meeting
over lunch here on Saturday with Dr. Dean and his new campaign chief, Roy Neel. Aides to Dr. Dean, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, said that at the meeting Mr. McEntee expressed concern about Dr. Dean's viability and
the prospect that continuing his campaign could weaken the eventual Democratic nominee.
US Airways Outlines Case for Additional Concessions
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): various US Airway unions
Date: February 7, 2004
Officials at US Airways, which is struggling to meet the conditions of federal loans that lifted it out of
bankruptcy last year, began making the case for more wage and benefit cuts yesterday to skeptical union leaders
who have already publicly declared that "the concessions stand is closed." US Airways has been working on a
strategy since December, when its chief executive, David N. Siegel, said that unexpectedly heated competition
from low-fare carriers was forcing it to revise the business plan used as the basis for its emergence from
bankruptcy last spring. Executives at US Airways, which is based in Arlington, Va., outlined the company's
financial situation to its labor advisory council, which includes unions representing the pilots, flight
attendants, mechanics, ground personnel and other employees.
Labor Raises Pressure on California Supermarkets
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: February 10, 2004
Four months into one of the biggest labor disputes in decades, the union
representing 70,000 striking or locked-out Southern California supermarket workers is waging an increasingly
confrontational -- some say desperate -- campaign to fend off cuts in members' health care benefits. A hundred
union supporters shut down a Safeway in Santa Cruz for an hour and a half recently, dancing and chanting in a
conga line through the store. Others disrupted a golf tournament in Pebble Beach on Friday, shouting slogans at
two supermarket board members who were about to tee off. Labor leaders are threatening to harass supermarket
executives wherever they vacation, be it on beaches or ski slopes.
Skepticism Greets Promised Talks
Source: Alicia Robinson, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: February 10, 2004
New talks in the grocery store labor dispute are scheduled to begin Wednesday, possibly ending
the stalemate as it reaches the four-month mark. But local workers said they're not getting their hopes too
high. Federal mediator Peter J. Hurtgen announced Monday that negotiations would resume Wednesday between the
United Food and Commercial Workers union and grocery chains Kroger, Albertsons and Safeway. John Arnold, a
spokesman for Hurtgen's office, declined to say when or where talks will be held. "Everybody's agreed to come
back, and it's a pretty positive sign from our perspective," Arnold said.
With Gephardt Gone, Kerry Is Lining Up Labor Backing
Source: David M. Halbfinger, New York Times
Union(s): various
Date: February 10, 2004
Senator John Kerry is poised to win a string of crucial labor endorsements
before the Wisconsin primary next Tuesday, labor officials say. The Building and Construction Trades Department
of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. is likely to throw its weight behind Mr. Kerry after a meeting on Tuesday, labor and
campaign officials said. The Alliance for Economic Justice, a coalition of 18 unions that had endorsed
Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, is to hold a conference call on Wednesday and could endorse Mr.
Kerry as early as this weekend.
Employees to Protest Pentagon Labor Plan
Source: Christopher Lee, American Federation of Government Employees
Union(s): American Federation of Government Employees
Date: February 10, 2004
Hundreds of federal employees are expected on Capitol Hill
today to protest a new personnel plan for the Defense Department that union leaders say would strip unions of
any meaningful role in protecting the workers' rights and welfare. Members of the American Federation of
Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, plan to visit key lawmakers this week and urge them
to limit Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's plans to overhaul the department's labor relations system.
Rumsfeld won authority from Congress last year to rewrite personnel rules affecting nearly 750,000 civilian
employees. He argued that managers needed more freedom to rearrange money, workers and weapons in the war on
terrorism. Union leaders, who opposed the legislation last year, said yesterday that new labor relations
"concepts" released in a 13-page memo last week by the DOD go too far.
Missteps Hurt Union in Supermarket Strike
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: February 11, 2004
Hoisting
banners and American flags, hundreds of AFL-CIO members rallied on Wall Street last week in a show of support
for the 4-month-old California supermarket strike. Stock analysts hardly noticed. They were more interested in
the message delivered the day before, when three grocery companies flatly rejected a United Food and Commercial
Workers union proposal that the contract dispute be submitted to binding arbitration. That episode revealed
"increasing weakness in position" on the part of the UFCW, Lisa Cartwright of brokerage Smith Barney wrote to
clients as the union activists, bundled up against the cold, assembled near the New York Stock Exchange. She
didn't mention them. The Wall Street fumble was the latest misstep in a strike that has been criticized as
lacking a clear, consistent and forceful strategy.
Union Board Cuts Salaries of 2 Winners of Close Vote
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): District Council 37
Date: February 12, 2004
The executive board of District Council 37, the city's largest municipal union, cut the salaries of its two
top officials by more than 20 percent yesterday, two weeks after those officials narrowly won a bitter election
battle. Board members said they approved the pay cut for Lillian Roberts, the executive director, and Maf
Misbah Uddin, the newly elected treasurer, partly because those officials' campaigns had repeatedly denounced
the previous treasurer for earning too much. The vote was 17 to 8 to cut Ms. Roberts's salary to $175,000 from
$250,000 and Mr. Uddin's to $140,000 from $180,000. Mr. Uddin said his pay would also include his $47,000 city
salary as an actuary. Ms. Roberts and Mr. Uddin voted against the resolution. Their campaign had sent out many
fliers attacking the former treasurer, Mark Rosenthal, because his multiple union salaries totaled more than
$200,000. Their mailings asserted that Mr. Rosenthal wanted to be elected to remain on the union "gravy
train."
UFCW Revises Number of Workers in Labor Dispute
Source: Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: February 13, 2004
The United Food
and Commercial Workers Union, which had stated repeatedly that 70,000 workers are involved in the supermarket
labor dispute in Central and Southern California, said on Thursday that the number of people on strike or
locked out is 59,000. A union spokeswoman, Barbara Maynard, said that 70,000 UFCW members were, in fact,
covered by the labor contract with supermarkets that expired last year. But 11,000 of them work for Stater
Bros. Holdings Inc., Arden Group Inc.'s Gelson's and other regional grocery companies and are still on the
job. Maynard said union officials had been "making it clear" all along that 11,000 of the number were employed
by the regional grocery companies.
A.F.L. Backing of Kerry Is Called Near
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: February 14, 2004
After labor unions have skirmished for months over which Democratic candidate to support for president, the
A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s executive board will vote next Thursday to endorse Senator John Kerry, several union leaders
said Friday. This will give Mr. Kerry, of Massachusetts, the backing of a federation that has 13 million
members and what is often called the nation's most effective get-out-the-vote operation. Several union leaders
said John J. Sweeney, the federation's president, decided to call Thursday's meeting as soon as he saw that a
labor consensus was forming behind Mr. Kerry. "Everyone is ready to be unified around a candidate that they are
confident can defeat President Bush," said Karen Ackerman, the federation's political director. Mr. Sweeney's
letter inviting union leaders to the meeting said he was recommending they endorse Mr. Kerry. Mr. Sweeney wrote
in bold letters that Mr. Kerry would speak to the board at the end of the vote. This, several union leaders
said, signaled that the endorsement was a done deal.
Union Chief Asks Bloomberg Not to Aid His Re-election Bid
Source: Winnie Hu, New York Times
Union(s): Uniformed Firefighters Association
Date: February 14, 2004
For a
moment, it seemed as if Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the president of the firefighters' union had put their
differences behind them during a joint appearance yesterday on the mayor's radio program to announce increased
staffing for engine companies. Mayor Bloomberg declared that the agreement with the Uniformed Firefighters
Association showed how people could work together in this city and pointed out that both he and the union
leader, Stephen J. Cassidy, were still in their first terms in their respective positions. "Both of us are
going to get re-elected, I trust," Mayor Bloomberg said on his weekly program on WABC-AM. "I mean, I hope
you'll work for my re-election. Would you like me to work for yours?" But Mr. Cassidy quickly replied, "Uh no,
Mr. Mayor. I don't want you to work for mine." Both men laughed, and in the end, the mayor seemed not to take
offense.
Source: CNN.com
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: February 13, 2004
Sen. John Kerry has
won the backing of the AFL-CIO, a spokesman for the nation's biggest labor group told CNN Friday. Kerry will
be endorsed by the organization, which encompasses 13 million people in 64 member unions, at a meeting of the
general board Thursday, the spokesman said. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney scheduled the meeting in a memo to
leaders of the member unions.
At 2 Airlines, Management and Unions Focus on Cuts
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): various United and US Airways unions
Date: February 17, 2004
Unions and
management at two troubled airlines are facing off over cuts that executives say are critical to their
companies' survival. At United Airlines, the battle is over reductions in health care benefits for 35,000
retired workers. Executives say the savings are necessary for the airline, the nation's second largest behind
American Airlines, to secure federal loan guarantees and emerge from bankruptcy protection as planned later
this year. Meanwhile, US Airways, the country's seventh-largest carrier, wants a third round of concessions
from its unions, on top of two granted while it was in bankruptcy. It sees the wage and benefit cuts as a major
component in its drive to reduce its costs to the level of low-fare carriers. The airlines are not being
specific about how much they want from the unions, but both have drawn the ire of labor groups.
The Health Of Grocers, Workers
Source: Michael Barbaro and Neil Irwin, Washington Post
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: February 17, 2004
In a conference room in Ocean City, Md., almost two years ago, the heads of the
nation's four largest grocery chains delivered a stern message to officials of the biggest food workers'
union. Grocery workers will have to sacrifice some of their generous wages and health benefits, the executives
said, if their employers -- Royal Ahold NV, Safeway Inc., Kroger Co. and Albertson's Inc. -- are to have any
hope of competing with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other low-cost rivals. "The message was that things had to
change," said the president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400, C. James Lowthers, who
attended the meeting. "They said they have to keep costs down." But the executives' approach is playing out in
very different ways at the negotiating table.
Hopes Are Raised as Talks Go On
Source: James F. Peltz and Ronald D. White, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: February 19, 2004
Negotiators in the supermarket strike talks spent more than eight hours at the
bargaining table Wednesday and will meet again today, swelling hopes on the picket lines. With pressure to
settle mounting on both sides, the talks -- heading into their ninth straight day -- were described by people
close to negotiators as the most serious since the strike began four months ago. The United Food and Commercial
Workers union and the three supermarket companies involved had gone nearly two months without formal sessions
before this series began under the direction of federal mediator Peter Hurtgen at an undisclosed location.
"We're definitely hopeful," said Jeannie McGrew, a 28-year grocery store veteran who worked as a scan
coordinator at a Vons in Pacific Palisades before the strike. "Every day on the line, the first half-hour of
talk is about the negotiations. If they are not talking, there is no hope."
A.F.L.-C.I.O., Calling for Unity, Gives Backing to Kerry
Source: David M. Halbfinger and Rick Lyman, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: February 20, 2004
Senator John Kerry won the endorsement of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. on Thursday as Senator
John Edwards called trade and job losses a "moral issue" and repeatedly pressed for debates with Mr. Kerry. The
leaders of the federation of 13 million labor union members endorsed Mr. Kerry as the Democratic primary
struggle largely narrowed to a two-man race and focused on the economy and trade. "We've had four years to see
who George Bush fights for in this country," Mr. Kerry said in front of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. headquarters, two
blocks from the White House. "And we're here to say to working people across this country, 'In November,
it's going to be your turn.' " Mr. Kerry's strategists hope that the endorsement will further establish him
as the likely presidential nominee and extinguish the spark that Mr. Edwards's campaign received from a
surprisingly strong second-place finish on Tuesday in the Wisconsin primary. Outside the headquarters of the
federation, its president, John J. Sweeney, made clear labor's view that the time for contested primaries was
over.
Labor Supporter Says Dean Ignored His Entreaties to Quit
Source: Adam Nagourney, New York Times
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Date: February 20, 2004
One of Howard Dean's most powerful labor supporters, Gerald W. McEntee, said on Thursday that he had
decided that Dr. Dean was "nuts" shortly before he withdrew his support for Dr. Dean's candidacy and begged
him to quit the race to avoid a humiliating defeat. Mr. McEntee, the president of the American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees, defended his decision to abandon the campaign, saying he told Dr. Dean
that he did not want to spend another $1 million of his union's money "in order to get him a couple of extra
points in Wisconsin." "I have to vent," Mr. McEntee, the often blunt leader of the nation's largest public
service union, said in a leisurely interview in his office here. "I think he's nuts." Mr. McEntee said he
reached his assessment of Dr. Dean after watching what he described as a series of halting appearances in Iowa,
leading up to his shouted concession speech. He said that he did not believe Dr. Dean, the former governor of
Vermont, understood how substantial his decline was after that, and that he was stunned when Dr. Dean did not
bow to pressure from labor unions to pull out earlier this month.
Canadian Rail Workers Go on Strike
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Canadian Auto Workers
Date: February 20, 2004
About 5,000 workers at CN Rail went on strike at midnight Thursday after last-minute talks with the railway
ended without an agreement, union officials said. The Canadian Auto Workers announced the strike plans in a
news release issued from Toronto, saying talks that have intensified since Tuesday concluded with "no agreement
in sight." CN's shopcraft, intermodal and clerical workers were walking off the job at midnight local times,
the union said. The CAW, Canada's largest private-sector union, said it was willing to resume talks at any
time.
Major City Union May Offer to Give Ground on Pensions
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): District Council 37
Date: February 21, 2004
Contract talks between the Bloomberg administration and District Council 37, New York City's largest
municipal union, accelerated this week after the union's leaders said they might agree to a less generous
pension plan for future city workers, union officials said. One of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's main
negotiating goals is to create a lower pension tier for all future city workers, and he says it could save the
city nearly $10 billion over the next two decades. One District Council 37 leader said the union hoped that by
accepting a less generous pension plan for future workers, it would persuade the mayor to grant pay raises for
current workers. Mr. Bloomberg has repeatedly said he would not grant raises to municipal workers unless labor
leaders agreed to offsetting savings. Two of District Council 37's leaders said that largely because of the
promising discussions on pensions, the negotiations had gathered so much momentum that an overall agreement was
possible over the next few weeks. But other officials warned that snags could easily develop on pensions or
other matters and delay an accord.
United's Unions Assail Plan to Cut Retiree Benefits
Source: Associated Press, USA Today
Union(s): International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Date: February 20, 2004
United Airlines' unions stepped up the pressure on the carrier Friday over its plan to cut retiree
health care benefits, with machinists announcing a new campaign of airport demonstrations and public protests.
The machinists also organized picketing by retirees outside United's headquarters in suburban Elk Grove
Village and the airline's monthly bankruptcy court hearing in Chicago, where flight attendants were seeking
the appointment of an outside examiner to look into the plan. The International Association of Machinists and
Aerospace Workers said it had delivered letters to all U.S. senators, urging them to demand that United CEO
Glenn Tilton keep its commitment to United retirees.
Source: Krissah Williams, Washington Post
Union(s): Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union Local 25
Date: February 23, 2004
Union organizer Miguel Granillo-Cordova was skeptical when employees at the State Plaza
Hotel in downtown Washington called him last spring. They were some of the people who walked away from a union
election nine years ago after management promised them raises. "The whole drive failed," said Granillo-Cordova,
lead organizer for Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union Local 25. Now the union is back at the State Plaza,
having won a representation election there in its decades-long, nationwide attempt to sign up the people who
prepare meals, clean rooms and wash dishes at hotels -- people who these days are increasingly Hispanic. At the
State Plaza, 90 percent of the 68 cooks and cleaners are from Central America. They have mixed feelings about
unions, union officials said, because in Central America unions are sometimes corrupt or violent or radical.
City Union Still Reeling From Effects of a Bitter Vote
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): District Council 37
Date: February 23, 2004
Nowadays, District Council 37, New York City's giant municipal union, often seems less like a labor
organization than a dysfunctional family. Things are such a mess, many labor experts say, that the union hardly
resembles its former self - it was once the most respected, most dynamic and fastest-growing public employees'
union in the nation. But that was long before the current wackiness. In last month's election campaign, the
union's executive director, Lillian Roberts, denounced the union's treasurer, Mark Rosenthal - who was her
running mate two years earlier - by accusing him of wanting to fix the election and remain on the union "gravy
train." She also attacked his $200,000-plus salary as exorbitant even though she earned more than he did. On
Thursday, in an unusual move that showed just how much union solidarity has crumbled, Mr. Rosenthal sued Ms.
Roberts for libel. "Her campaign was vicious and full of lies,'' said Mr. Rosenthal, who lost his race for
re-election when Ms. Roberts and her candidate for treasurer eked out a victory.
Union Urges Bush to Replace Education Chief Over Remark
Source: Sam Dillon and Diana Jean Schemo, New York Times
Union(s): National Education Association
Date: February 25, 2004
A day after Education Secretary Rod Paige compared the nation's largest teachers union to a
"terrorist organization" because of its criticism of President Bush's centerpiece education law, the union
brushed aside his apologies and called for his dismissal. "Our members are the N.E.A., and on behalf of them, I
ask President Bush to express his regret to the nation's educators and demand that Secretary Paige step down,"
said the union's president, Reg Weaver. And in the House, Representative Betty McCollum, Democrat of
Minnesota, called on Dr. Paige to resign. She characterized his remarks as "neo-McCarthyism at its worst." The
reactions made public an often bitter struggle between the Bush administration and the National Education
Association, which has 2.7 million members and frequently supports the Democrats at election time.
Paige Calls NEA a 'Terrorist' Group
Source: Amy Goldstein, Washington Post
Union(s): National Education Association
Date: February 24, 2004
Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige yesterday told the nation's governors that the
largest teachers union in the United States is a "terrorist organization" -- a remark that prompted a torrent
of criticism and an apology by the end of the day. Paige made the comment about the 2.7 million-member National
Education Association in a private meeting at the White House with the National Governors Association, less
than a week after he announced the administration was relaxing testing requirements under the No Child Left
Behind law. The landmark education law has come under mounting opposition, and the NEA has been among its
strongest detractors. Sources familiar with the incident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Paige's
remark was in response to a question about his opinion of the NEA toward the end of a two-hour panel discussion
that included five other Cabinet members. The sources said Paige drew a distinction between his disdain for the
union and his admiration for classroom teachers, whom he called "the real soldiers of democracy." Democrats and
leaders of labor groups and other liberal organizations immediately condemned the terrorist analogy.
2 Key Unions Vote to Accept Plan to Merge
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Unite, formerly the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: February 26, 2004
The
nation's leading apparel workers' union and the leading union for hotel and restaurant workers have voted to
merge, union officials said yesterday. The merger will bring together two unions that are among the most
aggressive in organizing nonunion workers, especially immigrants. Unite, formerly the Union of Needletrades,
Industrial and Textile Employees, has 180,000 members, while the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees
International Union, or HERE, has 250,000 members. By voting to approve the merger yesterday at a meeting in
Los Angeles, the board of the hotel employees' union moved to create a larger organization whose members range
from seamstresses in New York's Chinatown to hotel housekeepers in San Francisco.
Settlement Near in Grocery Strike
Source: James F. Peltz and Melinda Fulmer, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): UFCW
Date: February 26, 2004
Grocery store and union negotiators neared a deal Wednesday to end the California supermarket strike
and lockout, according to people familiar with the talks. A settlement could be reached as early as today, they
said, although they cautioned that negotiators continued to struggle with certain aspects of the contract they
were sketching out under the supervision of a federal mediator. The deal on the table would trim supermarket
employees' health benefits and create a second tier of new workers who would earn less than those hired before
the dispute began, according to sources who know the rough details of the proposed contract.
Two Unions Plan Merger of 440,000 Members
Source: Leigh Strope (AP), MLive.com (MI)
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees and Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees
Date: February 26, 2004
Two unions representing hotel and restaurant employees and retail, textile and
laundry workers are merging to create a single labor organization with 440,000 members. The Hotel Employees and
Restaurant Employees, called HERE, and the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, known as
UNITE, announced the merger Thursday. "This merger substantially increases our ability to fight for the rights
of our members and the tens of thousands of new members that we will represent in the future, and to make sure
that America's working families share in the success of the world's richest nation," said UNITE President
Bruce Raynor. The partnership pairs two similar unions that represent a large number of minority and immigrant
workers in the growing service sector. It also spells opportunity: UNITE's organizing focus on laundry and
retail distribution workers fits nicely with HERE's hotels and restaurants and their need for linens and
uniforms.
Supermarkets, Union Reach Tentative Pact
Source: Charlie LeDuff and Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Date: February 27, 2004
Supermarket executives and union leaders involved in a four-and-a-half month-old labor dispute in
Southern California reached a tentative agreement last night after 16 days of intense bargaining, union leaders
said. Officials with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and with California's three largest grocery
chains reached the deal which is expected to end a dispute involving 59,000 striking or locked-out workers at
852 supermarkets. Greg Denier, a spokesman for the union, declined to disclose details about the settlement.
The dispute, which is one of the largest labor disputes in the nation in years, has inconvenienced millions of
shoppers, created great financial pain for union members and caused the three supermarket chains to lose more
than $2 billion in sales.
Source: Reuters, CNN/Money
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Date: February 27, 2004
Three major
supermarket chains and the union representing some 60,000 striking and locked out grocery workers reached a
tentative deal to end the nearly five-month labor dispute, representatives for both sides said. The agreement,
reached late Thursday, was expected to create a second tier of employees who would be paid less than their
veteran counterparts. The pact still needs to be ratified by members of the United Food and Commercial Workers
Union. A vote could come as early as Friday or Saturday. It was not immediately clear when unionized clerks
would be back on the job. The labor dispute centered largely on health care costs, with supermarket chains
saying they could no longer afford to pay for the benefits without contributions from the workers in the face
of competition from non-union megastores like Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Source: Reuters, CNN/Money
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: March 1, 2004
Striking
California grocery workers ratified a new contract Sunday that puts an end to the longest-running grocery
strike in U.S. history, the workers' union said. The contract covering some 70,000 members of the United Food
and Commercial Workers Union at three major supermarket chains -- Kroger Co., Albertsons Inc. and Safeway Inc.
-- was approved by an 86 percent margin, a spokeswoman for the union said. Almost 900 stores were affected by
the strike and lock-out, estimated to have cost the supermarkets more than $1 billion in lost sales. The
20-week-long labor dispute centered largely on health care costs, with supermarket chains saying they could no
longer afford to pay for the benefits without contributions from workers in the face of competition from
non-union rivals like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Union leaders and the supermarkets reached a tentative agreement on
Thursday following 15 days of intense talks.
Striking Grocery Workers Approve Agreement
Source: Associated Press, USA Today
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: March 1, 2004
Southern California grocery workers voted overwhelmingly to approve a new contract with supermarket operators,
ending a strike that inconvenienced millions of customers and cost three major grocery chains hundreds of
millions of dollars in lost sales. After a two-day vote, 86% of grocery workers who cast ballots approved the
contract negotiated by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, the union said Sunday in a statement. The
contract covers 70,000 workers, a majority of them employed by Albertsons Inc., Kroger Co. -- which operates
Ralphs stores -- and Safeway Inc., which operates Vons and Pavilions. It requires employees to pay for health
benefits for the first time and includes two one-time bonuses for hours already worked. The contract offers no
raises.
Workers OK Grocery Pact to End Strike
Source: John O'Dell, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: March 1, 2004
Grocery
workers, hungry to return to their jobs, overwhelmingly approved a new three-year contract this weekend, ending
a nearly five-month strike and lockout that cost the supermarket chains almost $1.5 billion in lost sales and
disrupted the shopping patterns of millions of consumers throughout Southern California. Officials of the
United Food and Commercial Workers union declared the strike a victory in announcing Sunday evening that the
pact was approved by 86% of the voting membership. But support for the contract from many union members was
grudging at best. "It was take it, or there's the door," said Ralphs cashier Carlos Beltran, 25, who voted
"yes" at Local 770's polling place in Hollywood. "They are all thieves, the companies and the unions. They're
just sticking it to us." Still, not everyone was unhappy. "I'm glad we're going back to work, and I supported
the strike," union member Andrea Gonzales said after hearing the results Sunday night.
GAO: Jobs Plan Process-Oriented
Source: Christopher Lee, Washington Post
Union(s): American Federation of Government Employees
Date: March 2, 2004
Federal agencies are focused more on process than on saving money and improving performance
as they follow a White House directive to force government employees to compete with the private contractors
for their jobs, a new study has found. The 47-page General Accounting Office report also found that agencies
say they lack enough staff and funding to carry out President Bush's "competitive sourcing" initiative. Bush
announced the government-wide initiative as a key part of his management agenda after he took office in 2001.
He said requiring hundreds of thousands of federal workers to prove they can do their jobs better and more
cheaply than the private sector will promote government efficiency, even if the jobs ultimately stay in-house.
Critics, including federal employee unions, have derided the policy as little more than an effort to reward
Bush's business allies.
Retiree Benefit Cutbacks Threaten United Recovery
Source: Melissa Allison, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Association of Flight Attendants, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: March 3, 2004
At the same time United Airlines is trumpeting to Wall Street that employee morale has never been
better, workers say the move by management to curtail retiree benefits has ruined their trust in the company.
"We're concerned about United Airlines and its future business if management doesn't make good on promises,"
said Sara Dela Cruz, a spokeswoman for United's flight attendants. More than 2,500 flight attendants retired
in the first half of 2003 after the airline said workers retiring after July 1 would receive reduced medical
benefits, Dela Cruz said.
New York in Tentative Deal With Largest Union
Source: Michael Cooper, New York Times
Union(s): Civil Service Employees Association
Date: March 6, 2004
The Pataki
administration and the state's largest public employees union said yesterday that they had agreed on a
tentative contract that would raise the salaries of 70,000 state workers by what union officials said was 11
percent over the next four years. The tentative agreement with the union, the Civil Service Employees
Association, which has been without a contract since April, would cost the state $352 million over the course
of the contract, a state official said. The governor and the State Legislature are negotiating a plan to close
a $5.1 billion shortfall in next year's budget. The proposed settlement would give workers an $800 one-time
payment upon ratifying the contract, followed by raises of between 2.5 percent and 3 percent a year over the
next three years. On the last day of the contract in March 2007, workers would get an $800 increase on their
base salary.
Mass. Teacher Snubs Paige Honors Over Union Remark
Source: Associated Press, Washington Post
Union(s): National Education Association
Date: March 8, 2004
The Massachusetts teacher of the year refused to attend an event in Washington honoring the
nation's top educators because U.S. Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige called the nation's largest
teachers union a "terrorist organization." Jeffrey R. Ryan, a history teacher at Reading Memorial High School
who lost a friend in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said he could not accept Paige's apology for his Feb. 23
comments about the 2.7 million-member National Education Association. Ryan has taught for 25 years. Paige said
the remark was a "bad joke." But Ryan said: "Nazi death camps aren't funny. Lynching people isn't funny. . .
. And terrorism isn't funny. I just couldn't show up and shake that man's hand after he made those remarks."
Forty-four teachers of the year attended last Monday's conference, which the department had arranged weeks
before Paige's comment. Paige had made the comment in a private meeting with governors. He later apologized
for his choice of words, but maintained that the union uses "obstructionist scare tactics." "I can assure you,
I have nothing but the highest esteem for teachers and the teaching profession," he told the teachers last
week.
Labor Is Forced to Reassess as Union Leaders Convene
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): various
Date: March 9, 2004
As the nation's labor leaders gathered at a luxury seaside hotel here, they were struggling on Monday
to find ways to keep the union movement from sinking further after it suffered several recent setbacks. In the
biggest confrontation in years, a 138-day dispute involving 59,000 California supermarket workers, the
companies trounced the union, obtaining a two-tier contract that means lower wages and fewer health benefits
for new employees. Organized labor also appeared badly disorganized as unions split over endorsing
Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri or Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor, for the Democratic
presidential nomination and then appeared woefully ineffective when both of the preferred candidates flopped.
And labor was embarrassed by a January government report showing that union membership fell by nearly 400,000
last year and that the percentage of workers belonging to unions dropped to 12.9 percent, down from 35 percent
in the 1950's. "Labor is in a huge crisis," said Ruth Milkman, president of the University of California
Institute for Labor and Employment. "In this climate, business as usual will mean a slow death."
Strike Eats into Albertsons Profit
Source: Reuters, CNN
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: March 9, 2004
Albertsons Inc.,
the No. 2 U.S. grocer, said Tuesday that quarterly earnings fell 37 percent as the recent Southern California
labor dispute dented its sales and pushed up costs. The Boise, Idaho-based retailer said profit for the fourth
quarter ended Jan. 29 slid to $130 million, or 35 cents per share, from $205 million, or 54 cents, a year
earlier. The company had withdrawn its earnings forecasts last fall as it grappled with uncertainty from the
strike. Analysts, on average, had forecast earnings of 20 cents, according to Reuters Research. The grocer said
it estimates that the Southern California labor dispute -- which also affected rivals Kroger Co. and Safeway
Inc. -- cut quarterly earnings by about $90 million, or 24 cents a share.
Worker Disputes Cost Kroger $156M
Source: Reuters, CNN/Money
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: March 9, 2004
Kroger Co.,
the nation's biggest supermarket chain, reported a quarterly loss Tuesday due to the recent labor dispute in
southern California and hefty charges from its Smith's division. Kroger, based in Cincinnati, said its net
loss in the fiscal fourth quarter ended Jan. 31 was $337.4 million, or 45 cents a share, compared with net
earnings of $381 million, or 50 cents a share, a year earlier. Earlier Tuesday, Kroger rival Albertsons Inc.,
the industry No. 2, said its quarterly profit fell 37 percent, also hurt by the California labor dispute.
Source: John Mercurio, CNN.com
Union(s): various
Date: March 9, 2004
There are four
Southern primaries today, two with juicy political implications. But the story we're watching most closely
today is the awkward reunion of organized labor, which gathers in south Florida to make sense out of a
particularly clumsy primary roadshow that left them divided, dispirited and, in some cases, doubting their
ability to defeat President Bush. If one head should roll at the Sheraton Bal Harbour Beach Resort, sources say
it could be that of Gerald McEntee, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees, who may face a challenge as chair of the AFL-CIO's political education committee after the way he
handled his union's endorsement -- and abandonment -- of Howard Dean. Criticism of McEntee, who as chairman of
the committee controls labor's multimillion-dollar voter-turnout operation, comes strongest from unions that
had backed Dick Gephardt. "There's not a lot of love here for [McEntee]," a chief political strategist for a
major Gephardt union told the Grind. "There are some general presidents openly talking about removing him as
chairman, several of them think he defaulted on his role during the primary, bouncing all over the place.
President Sweeney has to make a decision about how to handle it."
Unions Put Early Kerry Backer on Strategy Panel
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): various
Date: March 10, 2004
The A.F.L.-C.I.O. rewarded the president of the first union to endorse Senator
John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, by naming him on Tuesday as vice chairman of a new
campaign strategy committee. Top officials of the labor federation named the union leader, Harold A.
Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, as a committee vice chairman to give
him a major role in helping shape labor's efforts to elect Mr. Kerry. The federation endorsed Mr. Kerry two
weeks ago; the firefighters endorsed him last fall. Mr. Schaitberger was chosen for the position as several
union presidents here pushed unsuccessfully to oust Gerald W. McEntee, president of the American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees, from his post as chairman of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s political committee.
Several union leaders attending the labor federation's midwinter meeting here said the new campaign strategy
committee was set up in part to dilute Mr. McEntee's power and to help put Mr. Schaitberger in the spotlight.
Mr. McEntee has come under fire for political vacillation -- he first leaned toward Mr. Kerry and then to Gen.
Wesley K. Clark before his union endorsed Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor.
Grocers Want Pay Cuts for New Workers
Source: Michael Barbaro, Washington Post
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400
Date: March 10, 2004
Giant Food LLC and Safeway Inc., which have begun renegotiating a four-year contract with
the union representing their 18,000 local workers, are calling for cuts in pay and in vacation for new
employees, according to a copy of the companies' proposal. The two chains, which dominate the region's
grocery business with a combined 48 percent share of the market, and the United Food and Commercial Workers
Local 400 began talks on Friday as they race to reach an agreement before their contract expires March 27.
Under the proposals, new employees would get less pay for working Sundays and holidays and fewer vacation days.
Safeway and Giant have not yet disclosed their plan on the more contentious issues of health care, pensions and
overall wage levels.
Organized Labor Fights for Survival
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): various
Date: March 10, 2004
Organized
labor is in the fight of its life to remain relevant to workers as it struggles to rebound from setbacks in
organizing and politics. Labor leaders meeting this week at a luxury seaside resort are revving up for the
largest multimillion dollar effort to mobilize their members to defeat President Bush. John Kerry, the
Democrats' presumptive nominee, addressed the AFL-CIO meeting by satellite Wednesday. "George Bush is running
on the same-old Republican tactics of fear -- and they're already getting tired,'' Kerry said. "But we have
something better than attacks. We have the facts. And here they are: under George Bush's policies, middle
class families are paying more. America's middle class can't afford a tax increase. That's why were going to
give the middle class a tax cut.'' The Massachusetts senator won the labor federation's endorsement last
month and hopes to use labor's organizational muscle and money to boost his campaign.
Union Leadership Changes Address City Contract Talks
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): District Council 37
Date: March 19, 2004
The leadership changes announced at District Council 37, the city's largest municipal union, will in some
ways complicate and in other ways ease Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's efforts to negotiate a contract with the
council, union leaders and labor experts said yesterday. Alarmed that political divisions were paralyzing the
council, the president of its parent union created a seven-member committee on Wednesday that will work closely
with Lillian Roberts, the executive director, in running the council and negotiating a new contract with the
city. The contracts reached by District Council 37, which represents 121,000 workers in 56 union locals, have
often set a pattern for all of the city's unions, and the council's last contract expired June 30, 2002.
Leader of Large City Union Is Stripped of Many Powers
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): District Council 37
Date: March 18, 2004
The president of District Council 37's parent union stripped the council's executive director, Lillian
Roberts, of many of her powers yesterday, saying that the city's largest municipal workers' union had become
paralyzed by political divisions. Gerald W. McEntee, the president of the parent union, announced that he was
creating a seven-person committee that would handle much of the power normally exercised by the union's
executive director. Mr. McEntee, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees, further warned that if Ms. Roberts and her opponents failed to find a way to cooperate, he would
send deputies from union headquarters to help run District Council 37.
Union Movement Hits the Road Over U.S. Job Losses
Source: Peter Szekely (Reuters), Forbes
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: March 23, 2004
With
jobs looming as a presidential campaign issue, the American labor movement Wednesday launched a Rust Belt bus
tour to highlight the plight of workers who have been passed over by the economic recovery. The tour will bus
workers from each of 50 states and Washington, D.C., on a roundabout route from St. Louis to the nation's
capital to deliver the message that the economy cannot be well if the job market is not well, organizers said.
"We want to change the debate about what constitutes a healthy economy," said Karen Nussbaum, director of
Working America, which is co-sponsoring the tour with the AFL-CIO.
Stores to Close Tuesday While Workers Vote
Source: Michael Barbaro, Washington Post
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400
Date: March 29, 2004
The [Washington DC] region's two biggest grocery chains, Giant Food LLC and Safeway Inc., will close their
stores for eight hours on Tuesday to allow employees time to vote on a proposed labor contract. All 350 of the
chains' Washington area stores will shut their doors from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., when workers are scheduled to meet
at the D.C. Armory, company spokesmen said yesterday. The chains are jointly negotiating a four-year contract
with the union representing 18,000 Washington area workers. The contract expires at midnight Tuesday. If
workers reject the companies' final offer, they may vote to strike, potentially disrupting grocery business
across the region.
Grocery Workers Try to Keep the Good Life
Source: Michael Barbaro, Washington Post
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: March 29, 2004
Six months after graduating from the District's Mackin High School in 1969, Glennis T. Mitchiner took a
part-time job at a Safeway store in Northwest, bagging groceries to help pay his college bills. Mitchiner
realized that his full-time colleagues at Safeway were earning as much as many of the graduates at his college.
So he quit school to work full time at Safeway, a job that provided the middle-class life a college degree had
promised. He and his wife, who works at a Virginia computer software company, each earn about $45,000 a year,
own a two-bedroom house, two Toyota sedans and send their daughter to a $3,000-a-year parochial school. "I
realized it from the get-go," Mitchiner said of his job. "This was a good deal." But what Mitchiner, now 53 and
a cashier, views as a good deal, Safeway and unionized grocery stores across the country regard as a financial
burden.
Workers, Passengers Stretch Airlines Too Thin
Source: Marilyn Adams and Dan Reed, USA Today
Union(s): various
Date: March 29, 2004
Across the street from United Airlines' bright, glass headquarters near Chicago stands a symbol of an
ugly war. "Retiree health care matters," blares an orange-lettered billboard sponsored by United's flight
attendants union. Angry union leaders say the airline tricked 2,100 workers into retiring early with promises
of affordable health insurance -- then used the bankruptcy process to increase the cost. United management says
it didn't commit fraud, and a court-appointed expert has agreed. Convinced it was misled, the Association of
Flight Attendants (AFA) is expanding its campaign of attack ads in United's hometown of Chicago, as well as in
Denver and San Francisco, where the No. 2 airline operates huge hubs. The clash is just one battle in the most
pervasive, bitter labor-management struggle since the post-deregulation days of the early 1980s.
Union Labor Tries to Stem Decline
Source: David Schepp, The Journal News (NY)
Union(s): various
Date: March 28, 2004
The long, slow decline of American manufacturing has led, not surprisingly, to an equally drawn out and
persistent fall in the nation's number of unionized workers. From a high of about 20.1 percent of the
nation's total number of salary and hourly workers in 1983, the first year for which comparable figures are
available, union-membership rates fell last year to 12.9 percent, down slightly from 13.3 percent in 2002,
according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Subtracting state and federal workers, the vast majority of
whom are unionized, the number of union workers shrinks even further, falling to 8.2 percent of workers in the
private sector, from 8.6 percent in 2002. The continued slide in union enrollment is "not particularly good
news for the labor movement," said Paul Clark, labor expert at the University of Pennsylvania in University
Park.
Giant, Safeway Workers To Vote On Contract
Source: Brian Witte (Associated Press), Boston Globe
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: March 29, 2004
Voting was scheduled Tuesday on a labor contract covering about 26,000
employees of Giant Food and Safeway stores in the Baltimore-Washington area. If the workers reject the offer,
they could vote to authorize a strike. Both chains have prepared for a potential strike by advertising in
newspapers for temporary workers. A union representative declined Monday to release details of the proposed
agreement, which was reached Sunday. Management and union officials have previously identified wages, pensions
and health benefits as key issues.
Grocers, Union Reach Tentative Agreement
Source: Michael Barbaro and Amy Joyce, Washington Post
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: March 30, 2004
Negotiators for Giant Food LLC, Safeway Inc. and the union representing their 18,000
Washington area workers have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract that, if accepted by the rank and
file, would avert a strike at the region's two largest grocery chains, people familiar with the talks said
yesterday. Health care costs were some of the most contentious issues in the negotiations. Under the proposal,
current workers will pay more for prescriptions and their annual deductible will increase from $100 to $200.
New employees will pay a larger share of their health care costs. They will also receive less generous pay on
Sundays and holidays, according to a copy of the proposal obtained by The Washington Post.
Source: Adelle Waldman, Christian Science Monitor
Union(s): Denver Classroom Teachers Association
Date: March 30, 2004
Hard
work will be rewarded. Bright young teachers will be empowered. Hanging on to a job for years will no longer be
the fastest way to advance up the pay scale. Such were the optimistic assessments of the vote taken earlier
this month in Denver, when schoolteachers there broke rank with national teachers' unions to approve one of
the nation's first compensation packages linking their pay to student performance - a concept the public may
love, but teachers' unions have generally resisted. Of course the decision is not without controversy. Even
some who embrace pay for performance criticize this plan for not going far enough. But there are others who
predict that Denver's ability to get its teachers on board will spur other school districts nationwide to move
in the same direction.
Source: Neil Irwin and Michael Barbaro, Washington Post
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: March 31, 2004
The deal that led to a new contract for Washington area grocery workers was hammered out in
a hotel on Maryland's Eastern Shore, but it owes its outcome partly to Southern California. Out west, similar
negotiations led to a bitter strike that ended only a month ago, costing supermarket chains hundreds of
millions of dollars in lost profits and costing 59,000 workers five months of wages. All of which made
representatives of Giant Food LLC, Safeway Inc. and the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 quick to
compromise and avoid the same misery here. Safeway was particularly burned by the California strike and Giant,
while not involved in California, could ill afford such a cash drain with its parent company, Royal Ahold NV,
still recovering from a financial scandal. "I think California certainly has had an impact on both sides," C.
James Lowthers, president of the UFCW local, told reporters yesterday between votes to ratify the contract.
Workers, he said, "saw what took place in California. They don't want to go on strike unless they have to."
Grocery Workers Approve New Contract
Source: Michael Barbaro and Amy Joyce, Washington Post
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: March 31, 2004
Giant Food LLC and Safeway Inc. store employees overwhelmingly ratified a new labor
contract yesterday in back-to-back meetings punctuated by loud cheers, avoiding a strike that had threatened to
disrupt business at the region's two biggest supermarket chains. Thousands of employees, many wearing Giant
and Safeway sweatshirts, streamed out of the D.C. Armory after the vote, exchanging hugs and high-fives.
Workers expressed relief that they had averted the kind of bitter strike that put grocery workers in Southern
California out of work for nearly five months. "California really put the scare in you," said Larry Bagby, 61,
a meat cutter who has worked at Safeway for 41 years. "Everybody is ecstatic," said Jan Latney, a 52-year-old
Safeway cashier in Arlington who had begun preparing for a strike. "We have our jobs." Union officials called
the contract a victory for members, saying it left their generous health care benefits and retirement plans
largely untouched while winning hourly wage increases for the next four years. Several grocery industry
analysts agreed, citing the companies' decision not to substantially cut existing workers' health care
benefits.
Non-Equity Tours the Issue for Actors
Source: Jesse McKinley, New York Times
Union(s): Actors Equity
Date: March 31, 2004
The last time Broadway producers faced off with a major labor union -- the musicians union
in March 2003 -- the results were disastrous. Talks broke down at the 11th hour, resulting in a four-day strike
on Broadway that shut down 17 musicals and cost the industry $5 million. Starting tomorrow Actors' Equity, the
actors' and stage managers' union, will sit down opposite the League of American Theaters and Producers. Both
sides agree that to avoid another strike they will have to come to terms with the knotty problem of non-Equity
tours of Broadway shows. Last year's central issue was clear: the producers wanted fewer musicians in the
orchestra pits. But the issue of non-Equity tours is a murky one with the potential to strain unity on both
sides. Will New York actors strike to protect Equity jobs on the road? And will some New York producers, whose
main concern is a Broadway contract, risk shutting down theaters to protect the interests of companies that
make their money on national tours in other cities?
Teamsters Seek Probe of Costco Signature Campaign
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): Teamsters
Date: March 31, 2004
California's attorney
general is considering a labor union's request to look into Costco Wholesale Corp.'s efforts to put a measure
to a statewide vote that would overhaul workers' compensation rules, an official said Tuesday. "We're
evaluating the request," said Tom Dresslar, spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer. One day earlier, the
International Brotherhood of Teamsters sent a letter to Lockyer accusing Costco of requiring employees to
engage in political activity on the company's behalf. Costco, a warehouse-type discount grocer and retailer
based in Issaquah, Washington, is backing a measure that would dramatically alter the state's worker's
compensation insurance system by making it harder to collect claims.
Laundry Workers Get Hahn's Help in Living Wage Suit
Source: Noam N. Levey, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE)
Date: April 2, 2004
Lining up beside organized labor, Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn and three City Council
members Thursday announced their support for laundry workers suing the nation's largest uniform supply company
for allegedly violating Los Angeles' living wage ordinance. Employees of Cincinnati-based Cintas Corp., backed
by the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, or UNITE, allege in a lawsuit filed last month
that Cintas did not pay its workers the mandated wage. They are seeking years of back pay. Cintas, which
employs more than 27,000 people at 365 facilities nationwide, held a $2.77-million contract until last year to
provide laundry services to the city Department of Water and Power. But a group of 10 workers at Cintas'
Whittier plant who worked on the DWP contract allege that they were paid in some cases more than a dollar less
per hour than the $8.53 hourly wage mandated by the city's 1997 living wage ordinance. The ordinance requires
some city contractors to pay their employees more per hour than the state's minimum wage, which is currently
$6.75 an hour.
Wal-Mart Canada Employees Reject Union
Source: Associated Press, Mercury News
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: April 5, 2004
Wal-Mart Canada employees in Jonquiere, Quebec, rejected unionization by the United Food and Commercial
Workers Union late Friday. According to the UFCW Canada Web site, the vote against union representation at the
Jonquiere store was 74 to 65. Wal-Mart said Monday "its associates chose, once again, to deal directly with
their company instead of opting for third-party representation.'' But the union vowed to continue its
organizing efforts. "We're not going away,'' said Michael J. Fraser, UFCW Canada's national director. "The
Jonquiere workers who want a union can make a new application here in a few months.''
Source: Michael Barbaro, Washington Post
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400
Date: April 5, 2004
On
the surface, they could hardly be more different -- the attorney for the grocery chains and the president of
the food workers union. Harry W. Burton, the attorney, grew up in Philadelphia, went to Princeton and is a
partner at the law firm Morgan Lewis. C. James Lowthers, the union leader, grew up in Boston, went to Northern
Virginia Community College and leads a union representing meat cutters, cashiers and deli clerks. But in the
end, they say their ability to avoid a strike and reach a labor accord that has been embraced by both sides can
be traced, in part, to a remarkably amicable relationship forged over more than two decades. "When negotiations
get hard, it's a matter of trust," Lowthers said. "Harry and I have worked together enough so that there is a
certain level of trust."
Justice Department Urged to Make 'Term' Appointments Permanent
Source: Stephen Barr, Washington Post
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Date: April 5, 2004
The rules of federal employment can be vexing for government workers, and especially
for employees who do not hold permanent, career status. That seems to be the case for a group of secretaries at
the Justice Department who will likely lose their jobs in coming months when their "term appointments" expire.
Even though they were hired for a limited, specified period, some of the secretaries believed that their jobs
were de facto permanent, according to union officials who have launched a grass-roots campaign to let them keep
their jobs. The case also has drawn the interest of seven members of Congress, who have written the attorney
general asking that he hold up any terminations until the issue of their employment status is clarified.
United Attendants Push for New Union
Source: Melissa Allison, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): United Flight Attendant Union
Date: April 6, 2004
Concerned that their voice has been diminished, some United Airlines flight attendants began
collecting signatures on Monday to replace their union. If the newly formed United Flight Attendant Union
succeeds, it would be the second time during the airline's bankruptcy that thousands of workers have switched
unions. Last year, more than 8,000 mechanics and related United workers left the International Association of
Machinists and Aerospace Workers to become members of the growing Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association.
Tyson Officials Accused of Coercing Workers to Vote Down Union
Source: Associated Press, KGW.com
Union(s): Teamsters
Date: April 7, 2004
The union representing beef plant workers at Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. has accused the company of
coercing workers to vote this week against keeping their union. Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson denied the
charges, saying company managers and supervisors have acted legally to educate workers on the benefits of a
"union-free" workplace. Teamsters union Local 556 filed an unfair labor practice charge Tuesday with the
National Labor Relations Board, which will oversee the decertification election at the plant on Thursday and
Friday. The union said Tyson management interrogated workers about their voting plans, offered workers
promotions or raises to oppose the union, changed shifts and reduced work hours to prevent workers from meeting
one another.
Workers at Indian Casino in Desert Protest for Workplace Rights
Source: Greg Risling (AP), Mercury News (CA)
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: April 8, 2004
Police arrested 25 people Thursday after they locked hands and
blocked a street while demanding workplace rights and union talks at a downtown casino owned by the wealthy
Agua Caliente tribe. Police said the protesters would be booked on charges of unlawful assembly after ignoring
an order to disperse. Nearly 200 protesters gathered in a downtown church before marching to the Spa Resort
Casino. With them was Dolores Huerta, who helped found the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez. She and two
priests were among those arrested. Union officials trying to organize workers at the casino accused management
of a range of discrimination, including sexual harassment, age bias and favoritism.
Unions Take Note of Kerry's Vow On Deficit
Source: Christopher Lee, Washington Post
Union(s): various
Date: April 9, 2004
Sen. John F. Kerry's campaign pledge this week to deflate the ballooning federal budget deficit contains
several provisions that could affect the federal workforce. The presumptive Democratic nominee said he would
cut 100,000 federal contractor jobs, cap federal travel budgets, and streamline federal agencies and
commissions to rein in administrative costs by 5 percent, among other moves. "And when we're done, the federal
government will be smaller, but smarter, more effective and less expensive," Kerry said Wednesday in a speech
at Georgetown University. Jason Furman, Kerry's economic policy director, said yesterday that the government
could save $60 billion over 10 years by cutting contractors and freezing the federal travel budget at $8
billion annually.
Union and Theater Agree on Use of Virtual Orchestra
Source: Jesse McKinley, New York Times
Union(s): American Federation of Musicians
Date: April 14, 2004
Hours before a planned protest outside one of the largest Off Broadway theaters, the musicians' union
reached an agreement yesterday with the theater's owner to allow the use of a so-called virtual orchestra
machine, a controversial new synthesizer that was at the heart of last year's Broadway strike. David Lennon,
the president of Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians, announced the deal in an impromptu news
conference in front of the Variety Arts Theater, on Third Avenue in the East Village, where a crowd of about
100 musicians had gathered for a planned protest. The theater is currently home to a new musical, "The Joys of
Sex," which had its first performance - using a virtual orchestra machine - last night.
Graduate Students Walk Out at Columbia
Source: Karen W. Arenson, New York Times
Union(s): Local 2110 of the United Automobile Workers
Date: April 20, 2004
With two
weeks of classes left in the semester, many Columbia University graduate teaching assistants boycotted classes
yesterday and picketed noisily at the university's main gate to try to pressure Columbia into recognizing
their right to unionize. Some classes were canceled, although neither the university nor the protest organizers
could say how many. Some demonstrators said they would not return to class until Columbia acknowledged their
right to unionize, while others said they might skip just one class.
Mayor Reaches Accord With Largest City Union
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): District Council 37
Date: April 21, 2004
The Bloomberg
administration and the city's largest municipal union reached a tentative contract last night that would
increase the wages of 121,000 city workers by roughly 5 percent over three years while requiring newly hired
workers to accept lower starting salaries. The unusual agreement came as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
acknowledged that he had not achieved productivity increases he had sought to pay for the first two years of
the contract, but he said proudly that all raises in the third year would be financed by improved productivity
from workers. At a City Hall news conference, Mr. Bloomberg said he had achieved a significant precedent with
an important cost-saving step: newly hired workers will be paid 15 percent less than other union members for
the first two years of their employment; after that, their pay will climb to the same level as their more
experienced colleagues. City officials hailed the deal reached with the union, District Council 37, saying they
hoped it would set a pattern for bargaining with other city workers, including the teachers.
Bloomberg Had to Retreat on Pay, Productivity
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): District Council 37
Date: April 21, 2004
The
three-year deal that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg reached yesterday with the city's largest municipal union,
District Council 37, fell far short of giving him everything he had sought, but it did give him one important
victory. Taking a tough stance from Day 1 in the labor talks, Mr. Bloomberg repeatedly declared that city
workers would receive no raises unless their unions paid for those raises by agreeing to productivity
increases. So last night in the City Hall Blue Room, facing the television cameras, Mr. Bloomberg acknowledged
that he had given a substantial amount of money to District Council 37 in the contract's first two years
without any offsetting productivity increases to finance them. He also acknowledged, with unusual candor, that
he had retreated from another pledge - his promise not to give city workers retroactive pay increases. The
contract for District Council 37 and its 121,000 workers had expired 21 months earlier. But as soon as Mr.
Bloomberg admitted those compromises, even setbacks, he rushed to declare that he had achieved an important,
precedent-setting victory. District Council 37, the traditional trendsetter for all the city's municipal
unions, had agreed that all the raises in the contract's third year would be financed by productivity
increases.
US Airways Said to Be Seeking More Concessions
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): various US Airways unions
Date: April 21, 2004
A day after
the resignation of the chief executive of US Airways, the airline's board approved a framework yesterday for a
streamlining program that includes labor concessions, people briefed on the board's action said. In an e-mail
message to employees, Bruce Lakefield, the new chief executive, stressed that "fundamental changes" would be
needed in the way US Airways does business. He added that they would have to participate in restructuring the
airline, the nation's seventh largest, so that it could compete with low-fare carriers. People who had been
briefed on the plan said it was essentially the same program advocated by the former chief executive, David N.
Siegel. Mr. Siegel left the airline on Monday, reportedly at the request of its chairman, David G. Bronner,
after sparring with its unions over his bid to reduce the airline's overall costs by roughly 25 percent.
Prudential Agents Vote to Unionize
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Office and Professional Employees International Union, Local 153
Date: April 21, 2004
Nearly 1,000 Prudential Financial Inc. agents across the country are now members of a white-collar union
following a vote tallied Tuesday. The New York-based Office and Professional Employees International Union,
Local 153, won the right to represent agents in 34 states who work directly for Prudential, but not agents who
are independent contractors. "This is a large unit of insurance agents, a group primarily commission-based and
not traditionally thought of as the type of workers that are unionized,'' OPEIU International President
Michael Goodwin said in a news release. Mail-in ballot results counted at the National Labor Relations Board's
Newark, N.J., regional office had 64 percent of agents voting in favor of union representation.
Mayor Gets Labor-Pact Savings That Eluded His Predecessors
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): District Council 37
Date: April 22, 2004
The three-year deal that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg reached Tuesday night with the city's biggest municipal
union, District Council 37, achieved a goal that has repeatedly eluded mayors over the last two decades: broad
labor savings to help balance their budgets. Mr. Bloomberg not only persuaded District Council 37 to agree to
lower starting salaries and benefits for newly hired workers -- important savings in themselves -- but also got
the union to pledge to work closely with the administration to find additional workplace savings in the future.
While Rudolph W. Giuliani and other mayors occasionally persuaded labor leaders to agree to savings, Mr.
Bloomberg's predecessors did not make them a centerpiece of their administrations the way he has. Nor did
those previous mayors achieve the wide-ranging labor savings that he obtained in the tentative contract with
District Council 37, which has historically set the pattern for other city unions.
Vandalized Door Reflects Rift in Union
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): District Council 37
Date: April 25, 2004
District
Council 37, the city's largest municipal union, is in an uproar over what happened late one January night to a
door on the fourth floor of its headquarters. Not only did a union official attack the wooden door with a golf
club, putting big dents in it, but someone scratched into the door what some union officials say is a swastika.
The golf club attack came after several union officials were drinking to celebrate an election victory. After
months of turmoil over the incident, the New York City Human Rights Commission is investigating the damage as a
possible hate crime, with one group of District Council 37 officials saying that the union's executive
director, Lillian Roberts, has been sluggish in responding to the damage. But her supporters say her opponents
are highlighting the damage to undercut Ms. Roberts politically and see their names in headlines. If nothing
else, both sides agree that the damage to the door represents the simmering tensions at the badly fractured
union, which represents 121,000 city workers.
Southwest Flies Into Labor Turbulence
Source: James F. Peltz, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Local 556 of the Transport Workers Union
Date: April 26, 2004
There's a little less love in the air at Southwest Airlines Co. these days. The king of low-fare
airlines has perhaps the best labor relations in the industry. Employees call the chairman by his first name.
They pride themselves on the cheerful, fun-loving esprit de corps highlighted on the unscripted
cable-television show "Airline," filmed at Los Angeles International Airport and Chicago's Midway Airport. But
these days, Southwest's 7,300 flight attendants and their union are increasingly unhappy with contract talks
that are bogged down, mainly over wages. Workers and management remain deadlocked despite two years of
bargaining and a federal mediator's help.
Child Caretakers Push for Better Wages, Benefits
Source: Luchina Fisher, Women's E-News
Union(s): Family Child Care Educators Association Inc.; United Child Care Union
Date: May 3, 2004
After taking other
people's children into her home for over 20 years, Nancy Wyatt, a family-care provider in California's San
Fernando Valley, says she has no money set aside for retirement. She also pays high premiums for health
insurance. Wyatt is part of a small but growing number of child-care workers who have joined unions within the
last five years to try to boost wages, benefits and job security for one of the country's lowest paying
occupations. The unions are forming amid growing child-care demand. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 65
percent of women with children under age 5 were in the work force. "We need to have a much bigger and powerful
voice than we've had on our own," says Wyatt.
Seeking Better Wages for Difficult Work
Source: Richard Perez-Pena, New York Times
Union(s): 1199/S.E.I.U
Date: May 3, 2004
Cleotilde
Alvarez earns $7 an hour, with no health insurance, no paid vacations, no raise in five years, and no higher
pay for overtime. Getting sick or visiting her children in the Dominican Republic means forfeiting a paycheck.
This month, she shelled out $400 for medicines. Ms. Alvarez is a home health aide, a job title that barely
hints at all she does for Mildred and Barbara Unterman, a mother and daughter who share a tiny one-bedroom
apartment in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens. "She cooks, she cleans, she shops, she gets our meds and makes sure we
take them," said Barbara Unterman, 61, the daughter. "We owe our lives to Cleo. Without her we would be in a
nursing home." About 30,000 health aides like Ms. Alvarez work in New York City, and a much larger number of
people like the Untermans rely on them. For three years, 1199/S.E.I.U., the health workers' union, has tried
and failed to persuade the companies that employ the aides to sign contracts guaranteeing them higher wages and
benefits. In the last few weeks, the union began an advertising campaign to sway public sentiment and get the
attention of lawmakers in Albany, and the workers voted to authorize a strike later this month.
Baby Bell, Union Far Apart Amid Strike Talk
Source: James S. Granelli, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Communication Workers of America
Date: May 4, 2004
With a Friday strike deadline looming, SBC Communications Inc. and the union for 100,000 of the
telephone company's workers -- including 30,000 in California -- resume formal contract talks today still far
apart on nagging issues of healthcare benefits and job security. Negotiators for SBC and the Communications
Workers of America are scheduled to meet with a federal mediator in Washington after a week's break. The two
sides earlier reached a key agreement on healthcare benefits for retirees. Retiree benefits are not mandatory
bargaining subjects, but the issue had been a roadblock to working out remaining matters in the core union
contract covering CWA members in SBC's 13-state region, which includes California.
Part-Timers at N.Y.U. Win Contract, Their First
Source: Karen W. Arenson, New York Times
Union(s): A.C.T.-U.A.W. Local 7902
Date: May 8, 2004
In its first
contract with its unionized part-time faculty members, New York University has agreed to provide health
benefits, pension contributions and some job security, as well as wage increases, according to a contract
outline released yesterday by the union. About 2,300 part-time instructors, or adjuncts, would be covered by
the contract. The union, A.C.T.-U.A.W. Local 7902, was formed in 2002, in affiliation with the United Auto
Workers, and says it is the largest adjunct-only union at a private university. Scott Sommer, a U.A.W.
organizer who helped negotiate the contract, said yesterday that providing health insurance and pension
benefits "are major steps forward for adjuncts" and that pay rates compare favorably with those at other
universities. University officials said they believed that salary increases and benefits would make N.Y.U. a
top choice for adjuncts.
Health Union to Give Up Part of Raise
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): 1199/SEIU
Date: May 10, 2004
New York
City's largest health care union and an association representing 94 hospitals and nursing homes reached a
tentative contract yesterday in which the union will forgo part of a promised raise to help the hospitals pay
the soaring cost of health insurance for their workers. By taking the unusual step of accepting a lower raise
than planned, the union, 1199/SEIU, will save $200 million over four years for the hospitals, which say that
health insurance costs for employees are rising by 13 percent a year. As part of the four-year deal, the union
agreed to give back one percentage point of a 4 percent raise for this year and to contribute that money to the
health insurance plan for the 71,500 workers covered by the deal. The return of part of the raise also applies
to nursing homes. The union granted the financial relief after several hospitals that were losing money
announced they would close, and after private hospitals in the city had fallen $125 million behind on payments
to pension and health funds.
Struggling to Cut Its Costs, Delta Weighs Bankruptcy Filing
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: May 11, 2004
Delta Air Lines, battling with its pilots' union over its effort to cut labor costs, said yesterday that it
might have to seek bankruptcy protection unless it can obtain contract concessions. The disclosure, which sent
Delta's stock tumbling, came three days after a similar warning by US Airways. Delta's disclosure, made in a
filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, was its first acknowledgment that it might face a Chapter
11 filing. Last month, the airline's chief executive, Gerald Grinstein, insisted that Delta could get through
a lingering financial crisis without seeking bankruptcy protection.
Panel Charges a Top Teamster in New York Abused Power
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Date: May 11, 2004
A federal oversight board has accused the New York area's top
Teamsters union official of extensive misdeeds, among them using business agents to install a roof, deck and
skylights at his second home and to take his daughters shopping and to a guru. The charges, filed last week by
the oversight board's chief investigator, could lead to the expulsion of the official, Anthony Rumore,
president of Teamsters Joint Council 16, the umbrella group for more than 100,000 area Teamsters. The chief
investigator, Charles M. Carberry, said Mr. Rumore had improperly used two union business agents to pick up his
two daughters at their Manhattan high schools in the 90's and, later, to take one shopping for flowers, rings,
dresses and a photographer for her wedding. The board also accused him of using officials to move his
belongings to a new home, to take his family's clothes to the cleaners and to take his daughters to yoga
classes. In addition to his post as head of the Joint Council 16 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters,
Mr. Rumore is president of Local 812, a beverage drivers' local with 3,855 members based in Scarsdale, in
Westchester County. His salary is $198,000 a year. His wife, Elizabeth, received a salary of $202,500 as
director of Local 812's retirement fund; she resigned last January. Her main responsibility had been
overseeing the mailing of pension checks.
Some Critics of Wal-Mart Joining Forces to Change It
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: May 12, 2004
Union leaders, academics and community activists plan to hold an unusual meeting in Washington today to begin
mapping out a strategy to check Wal-Mart's growing power and to press the company to improve its wages and
benefits. The meeting was organized largely because union leaders fear that Wal-Mart Stores, the nation's
largest company, is pushing down wages and benefits, not just among retailers but throughout the economy.
Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, convened the meeting, which will bring
together union leaders, professors who have studied Wal-Mart and leaders of Acorn and other community groups.
Organizers also said that Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of "Nickel and Dimed," an account of making a living
as a blue-collar worker, would attend. The meeting, several participants said, will not focus on developing
strategies to unionize Wal-Mart but rather on assessing Wal-Mart's influence on the nation and on strategies
to check Wal-Mart's downward pull on wages.
Alta Bates Summit Labor Talks Stalled
Source: Rebecca Vesely, Oakland Tribune
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: May 11, 2004
A
labor contract for 1,200 workers at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center that expired April 30 appears no closer to
resolution -- with the hospital and union deeply divided on numerous issues. Hospital officials said they
presented a wage and benefits proposal nearly two months ago, but Service Employees International Union Local
250 -- the union representing workers -- hasn't responded. In turn, Local 250 said the hospital is refusing to
negotiate on several proposals on improving workplace conditions and patient care. While no strike is expected
soon, the last time Alta Bates Summit workers' contract was up -- in 2000 -- it took 14 months to reach a new
agreement and workers went on multiple strikes.
Air Canada Seen Pushing Cara on Costs
Source: John Partridge, The Globe And Mail
Union(s): Teamsters Canada
Date: May 12, 2004
Airline caterer Cara Operations Ltd. is under pressure from Air Canada to
slash costs and is asking its unionized employees to make major concessions, union officials say. Air Canada
has told Cara that an offshore-based competitor could handle the airline's in-flight food and commissary needs
for $20-million a year less, said Gerald Cadeau, president of Teamsters Canada Local 647, which represents more
than 900 workers at Cara's airline services unit.
Source: Levi J. Long, Seattle Times
Union(s): Teamsters
Date: May 14, 2004
WestFarm Foods isn't ready to agree to terms in either of two contract proposals ratified by
locked-out Teamsters union members Wednesday and it questions the union's "tactics" in efforts to end the long
labor dispute. Both proposals include revised terms submitted this week by the union representing 200 local
dairy employees locked out of the Seattle and Issaquah WestFarm plants, which makes Darigold milk and ice
cream. The two sides have been at odds for the past nine months over wages, benefits and the possibility of
outsourcing.
Standing together: Northwest Airlines workers rally
Source: Gwen Swanson, Daily Tribune [Minnesota]
Union(s): International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers
Date: May 14, 2004
Jobs are worth fighting for. Whether fighting as union members or at the voting
booth, those who attended the third annual International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers Day
of Action rally [in Chisholm, Minnesota] were urged to do their part. Workers from Northwest Airlines are
represented by the IAMAW and conducted the day to call for an overdue contract with fair wages and benefits and
good-faith contract negotiations. Many also called for workers to protest Bush administration policies that
have led to loss of jobs and job security, decreased benefits and wages, and prolonged negotiations for workers
in the air and rail industries.
Source: Timothy Roberts, San Jose Business Journal, Business Journal [Portland, Oregon]
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: May 19, 2004
When Intel Corp. gathers Wednesday for its
annual meeting in Santa Clara, Calif., the stockholders in attendance will include Intel janitors. Members of
the Service Employees International Union, whose pension fund owns Intel stock, plan to call on the chipmaker
to employ cleaning companies that offer health insurance, higher wages and good working conditions to their
employees.
Union plans four-day strike against SBC beginning Friday
Source: Vikas Bajaj, Associated Press, Dallas Morning News
Union(s): Communications Workers of America
Date: May 19, 2004
The Communications Workers of America called a four-day
strike against SBC Communications Inc. beginning Friday morning and ending Tuesday after negotiations failed to
result in a new contract. Union workers in 13 states will start walking out at 12:01 a.m. local time Friday and
return at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. CWA said Wednesday afternoon it would now negotiate with San Antonio-based SBC at
four regional tables, abandoning national bargaining under the auspices of federal mediators.
SBC workers in 13 states begin strike
Source: Eric Gay, Associated Press, USA Today
Union(s): Communications Workers of America
Date: May 21, 2004
100,000 unionized SBC Communications workers began a four-day strike early Friday to protest the
local-phone giant's latest contract offer. Contract talks between SBC and the Communications Workers of
America bogged down over health care and job security issues. But turning the tables on the union, the company
notified the union leadership Thursday night that SBC would drop its most recent proposal and start from
scratch unless the union accepts it by 11:59 p.m. Monday -- two minutes before strike is scheduled to end.
SBC, union prepare for midnight strike as contract talks stall
Source: Associated Press, Advocate [Stamford, Connecticut]
Union(s): Communications Workers of America
Date: May 20, 2004
The last time Connecticut
telephone workers went on strike was in 1998, when Texas-based SBC was preparing to take over Southern New
England Telephone. The changes brought by the SBC takeover are a major reason why 5,500 Connecticut workers
planned to walk off the job at midnight Thursday for a four-day strike, along with 100,000 SBC workers
nationwide. About 250 union members and their supporters from other unions held a noisy rally on the New Haven
green Thursday evening and marched to SBC's Connecticut headquarters, where they taunted managers who worked
late preparing to step into their jobs while the strike is on.
Workers agree to 3-year pact with Boeing
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Date: May 24, 2004
Machinists
and aerospace workers for the Boeing Company's defense unit [in St. Louis] approved a new contract Sunday,
hours before the existing contract was to expire. The three-year deal, which takes effect Monday, was approved
1,221 to 808 by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers' District 837, a union
spokesman, Thomas Pinski, said. Boeing, which is one of the St. Louis area's largest employers. The average
union worker earns about $55,600 a year.
After 4-day strike, SBC reaches deal with employees
Source: Kenneth N. Gilpin, New York Times
Union(s): Communications Workers of America
Date: May 25, 2004
A tentative agreement on a new five-year contract was reached early this morning between SBC
Communications Inc. and the Communications Workers of America, following a four-day strike that had kept about
100,000 SBC employees idle. The settlement, which covers workers in 13 states, calls for a 12 percent increase
in wages over the period and protects health care benefits and job security.
Janitors may strike over living wage issue
Source: Meredith Pierce, City News Service, Pasadena Star News [California]
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: May 25, 2004
Janitors who work in county health facilities may strike sometime
after June 5 unless their demands for a higher "living wage" are addressed, a union official said Tuesday.
"This is an urgent matter for these janitors,' Mike Garcia of the Service Employees International Union, Local
1877, told the county Board of Supervisors.
SBC reaches tentative deal with union
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Communications Workers of America
Date: May 25, 2004
After a
four-day, 13-state strike, SBC and the Communications Workers of America settled Tuesday on a tentative
contract far more generous than the company previously said it could afford. The five-year agreement increases
wages and pensions, guarantees work for more than 100,000 union employees and could reduce the outsourcing of
jobs. A ratification vote by CWA members is expected in June. The settlement came hours after the telephone
operators, linemen, service technicians and others returned to their jobs following a four-day walkout.
Source: Josh Mahan, Missoula Independent [Montana]
Union(s): United Brotherhood of Carpenters, United Healthcare Workers
Date: May 27, 2004
Two Missoula
unions walked away from negotiating tables recently with one thing in common: satisfaction with their new
contracts. "It's fair and a good agreement," said Dennis Daneke of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. "I
credit our contractors for sitting down and doing business with us in a fair and open way." United Healthcare
Workers Local #427 also put the pen to a contract with Hillside Health Care Center and Hillside Place in
Missoula after a mere two days of talks.
WestFarm calling back employees after dairy workers OK pact
Source: Levi J. Long, Seattle Times
Union(s): Teamsters
Date: May 28, 2004
WestFarm Foods yesterday said it will be calling its employees throughout the Memorial
Day weekend about returning to work, ending one of the longest labor disputes in Seattle. Members of Teamsters
Local 66 voted 101-43 to accept a new three-year contract that cut wages and gave the maker of Darigold milk,
butter and ice cream the ability to hire nonunion workers. The vote Wednesday came nine months after the more
than 200 workers were locked out of processing plants in Seattle and Issaquah. The company and workers argued
over wages and benefits, including changes in medical benefits and pensions.
Local 226, 'the Culinary,' makes Las Vegas the land of the living wage
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees
Date: June 3, 2004
Ask people here why Las Vegas is the nation's fastest-growing city, and they point to the
thriving casino industry and to its ever-growing appetite for workers. But there is another, little understood
force contributing to the allure of Las Vegas, a force often viewed as the casino industry's archnemesis. It
is Culinary Local 226, also called the Culinary, the city's largest labor union, an unusual -- and unusually
successful -- union that has done a spectacular job catapulting thousands of dishwashers, hotel maids and other
unskilled workers into the middle class. In most other cities, these workers live near the poverty line. But
thanks in large part to the Culinary, in Las Vegas these workers often own homes and have Rolls-Royce health
coverage, a solid pension plan and three weeks of vacation a year.
Striking health care union announces deal
Source: Karen Matthews, Associated Press, MSNBC.com
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: June 7, 2004
The union president
representing 23,000 home health care aides told strikers on Monday that a tentative pact for $10 an hour had
been reached with one agency, and that several more agreements were expected by the end of the day. Dennis
Rivera, president of Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union, arrived late to a rally near
Times Square because he had been negotiating until the last minute. He said a tentative pact had been reached
with the Visiting Nurses Association, and asserted "that by the end of the day 15,000 of us will have a
contract for $10 an hour." The health care aides, who make it possible for thousands of sick or frail patients
to remain in their homes, went on strike Monday.
Thousands of home aides begin a strike
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): 1199/S.E.I.U.
Date: June 8, 2004
Thousands
of home health care aides went on strike yesterday in New York City, leaving many sick and elderly patients
without care for at least part of the day. Home care agencies scrambled to send nurses or other aides to care
for the patients as the city's largest health care union, 1199/S.E.I.U., called a three-day strike. The union
is seeking raises of 43 percent, hoping to increase the wages of 23,000 aides to $10 an hour from the current
$7. Union leaders asserted that the strike was highly effective, saying that 12,000 home care aides -- nearly
all black and Hispanic women -- demonstrated yesterday at a Midtown rally.
Northrop, union reach tentative shipyard deal
Source: Bloomberg News, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: June 8, 2004
Northrop Grumman Corp., the world's largest military shipbuilder, said
Monday that it had averted a strike at the only shipyard that builds nuclear-powered aircraft carriers for the
U.S. Navy by reaching a tentative agreement with the local union. Northrop said it would raise wages of workers
at the Newport News shipyard in Virginia by more than 15% over the four-year life of the contract and set up a
company-matching 401(k) retirement plan for hourly workers under the accord. The labor agreement with United
Steelworkers of America Local 8888 is the first negotiated with the union since Northrop acquired Newport News
for $2.6 billion in 2002. The union is the largest local in the U.S., with 5,800 members, or 68% of the
shipyard's 8,500 hourly workers.
Unlikely partners in a protest for pay raises
Source: Winnie Hu, Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Uniformed Firefighters Association, Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, United Federation of Teachers
Date: June 9, 2004
In a spirited showing of labor strength, thousands of teachers, police officers and firefighters packed
several blocks of Broadway near City Hall yesterday, chanting and waving signs and at times booing Mayor
Michael R. Bloomberg in a demonstration of their demands for raises and new labor contracts. The hourlong
program featured dozens of labor leaders and city Democratic politicians pledging their support. They were
joined by a handful of celebrities, including the New York Knicks player Stephon Marbury and the actors Alec
Baldwin and Steve Buscemi, a former New York City firefighter.
Million worker march set for October
Source: Workers World
Union(s): International Longshore and Warehouse Union
Date: June 10, 2004
On Feb. 26, Local 10 of the
International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in San Francisco proposed a bold initiative: a Million
Worker March on Washington. This plucky union is well-known nationally for its leading role in class warfare
and in struggles against U.S. imperialist wars. The leaders have educated, organized and defended their rank
and file in a period of unprecedented hostility from Washington and Wall Street. At a kickoff rally on May 22,
they set the date for the march: Oct. 16. This call comes at a most opportune time.
Home aides end strike; union vows more pressure
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): 1199/S.E.I.U.
Date: June 10, 2004
With the
three-day strike by home health aides ending yesterday, leaders of 1199/S.E.I.U., New York's largest
health-care union, said they planned to hold sporadic strikes this summer against agencies that fail to reach
contracts with the union. Having reached settlements this week with four home-care agencies employing 12,000
home health aides, union leaders said they were disappointed yesterday to have made little progress in
negotiations with seven other agencies employing about 10,000 workers. The four agencies that signed tentative
contracts have agreed to raise wages for most aides to $10 an hour in 2007 from the current $7 an hour. The
union wants the seven other agencies to sign similar contracts.
Rebel barista with a cause (make that a venti)
Source: Robin Finn, New York Times
Union(s): International Workers of the World
Date: June 11, 2004
In the cozy
corporate lingo of Starbucks, the java-servers in company baseball caps and green aprons are so far evolved
from folks who, in quainter, less caffeinated and less linguistically sensitive times, were dubbed soda jerks,
that the coffee chain graces them with a special name: baristas. The moniker conveys a Euro-cachet, implies a
certain skill set and is the entry-level niche at a $15 billion behemoth with a hot - in more ways than one -
product and a rung on the Fortune 100 best-places-to-work list. Baristas like Daniel E. Gross who pour enough
coffee fast enough, and with affable competence, can command $8.09 per hour after a year on the job, up from a
starting wage of $7.75. Scalding stuff, according to Mr. Gross, with or without meager tips. And without a
defined workload: no barista is guaranteed a 40-hour week. Good luck trying to save enough to buy
company-sponsored health care or incubate a 401(k) nest egg, he says. Not with rents on bare-bones railroad
flats like his in Bushwick, Brooklyn, pushing $1,000 a month.
Source: Stephen Franklin, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees
Date: June 14, 2004
As it nears its first anniversary this week, the 130-worker strike against the
Chicago [Plaza H]otel has become a rarity in an era when strikes are almost nonexistent. It is also a reminder
of the difficulty of settling labor disputes once they linger for months and sometimes years. Local 1 of the
Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union has charged the hotel's owner with violating labor law by
unfairly imposing its contract last June before talks were at a standstill. In return, the hotel has accused
the local's pickets of harassing and intimidating its customers. There were 14 major strikes (i.e. involving
at least 1,000 workers) last year in the U.S., the fewest since the government began keeping track in 1947.
Grocery workers plan community lobbying
Source: Blanca Torres, Seattle Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: June 17, 2004
The union representing 17,000 grocery workers in the Seattle area calls the companies' latest
proposal unacceptable and says it will start lobbying the community today to support workers. Members of the
United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1105 plan to ask consumers to sign pledges not to shop at the
grocery stores involved in the contract dispute if the chains refuse to provide affordable health-care
coverage. The outcome of this contract dispute could influence talks for 10,000 to 15,000 other grocery workers
in Western Washington whose contracts are up later this year.
Unions Set to Offer New Strategy
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): multiple unions
Date: June 21, 2004
Presidents of several of the nation's largest and fastest-growing unions are expected to lay out plans at
conventions this week and in July for fundamental changes in the structure and direction of the labor movement,
changes that could result in a massive union consolidation and an overhaul of the AFL-CIO. Heading
organizations that represent janitors, hotel maids, carpenters, laundry workers and others, the five presidents
have been quietly meeting for nearly a year to discuss what they call the New Unity Partnership. They envision
a massive consolidation of unions in the U.S. -- from about 65 to 15 -- and a more national and global approach
to organizing and bargaining.
Outsourcing firms focus of unions
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union; Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees; Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: June 22, 2004
The Service Employees International Union, which built itself into the nation's largest union by aggressively
organizing janitors and home-care workers, plans to take on three fast-growing outsourcing companies in its
biggest campaign ever. Speaking at his union's quadrennial convention in San Francisco on Monday, SEIU
President Andrew Stern said the companies--France's Sodexho Inc., Britain's Compass Group and
Philadelphia-based Aramark Corp.--are growing at the expense of union workers, whose jobs are being contracted
out. The organizing effort is being undertaken jointly with the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile
Employees and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union. It will be a high-profile test
of plans by the three unions to work more closely on large strategic campaigns.
Union leader urges AFL-CIO reform
Source: Thomas B. Edsall, Washington Post
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: June 22, 2004
The AFL-CIO has failed to keep up with the changing workplace and must be radically reinvigorated--or
replaced--if the labor movement is to survive, the president of the nation's largest union said yesterday. A
loose federation of 13 million union workers, the AFL-CIO wields little control over the 65 individual unions
that are its members and has not been effective at creating a single, powerful voice for American organized
labor, Andrew L. Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), told a national
convention of his union in San Francisco.
Major union takes organizing drive to web
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: June 23, 2004
One
of the country's largest unions is taking its organizing drive to the Internet, creating a new, virtual labor
organization that isn't tied to a work site or dependent on employer recognition. The Service Employees
International Union's new affiliate, called PurpleOcean.org, was disclosed Tuesday at the union's convention
in San Francisco. The union's trademark color is purple. The labor movement needs "to draw strength from the
new forms of community that are developing because of the Internet, which is connecting millions of people who
want to take action and get involved,'' [SEIU president Andy] Stern said. "We need those people to be part of
our movement.'' The virtual union idea [has] a goal of 1 million people to support SEIU's campaigns.
Northwest Airlines threatens picketers
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, Professional Flight Attendants Association
Date: June 24, 2004
Northwest Airlines is threatening to discipline union employees if they proceed with picketing that questions
the safety and security of Northwest flights. The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association and the Professional
Flight Attendants Association had planned to conduct informational picketing on July 2 at the Minneapolis-St.
Paul International Airport to raise awareness of the company's practice of having overseas and third-party
repair stations do maintenance on Northwest aircraft. They say maintenance performed in other countries poses a
security risk. Major U.S. airlines outsourced anywhere from 33 percent to 79 percent of their maintenance in
2002, according to a report from the Department of Transportation.
Southwest Air, union reach tentative deal
Source: Reuters, Washington Post
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: June 25, 2004
Southwest
Airlines and the union that represent its flight attendants have reached a tentative agreement for a new
contract after two years of talks, the union said on Friday. The union was the last major labor group at
Southwest without a new contract and the main stumbling block in the talks had been wages. "Our goal was to
reach an agreement that is good for our flight attendants, good for our company, and good for our customers,"
said Thom McDaniel, the head of the Transport Workers Union Local 556 that represents the airline's 7,400
flight attendants.
Source: James P. Hoffa, PRNewswire
Union(s): International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Date: June 24, 2004
The following is a statement by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters
General President, James P. Hoffa: Today I tendered my resignation from the President's Advisory Committee on
Trade Policy and Negotiations. During the 2000 Presidential Election campaign, President Bush pledged to bring
a new level of respect and bipartisan comity to the nation's capital. Along with many other leaders in the
labor community, I took him at his word and endeavored to forge a mutually respectful, productive relationship
with both the President and his administration. However, in recent months I have become increasingly
uncomfortable with that association. The administration has clearly decided to wage a full- fledged attack on
workers' rights, social justice and economic common sense.
Source: Eric Schlosser, The Nation
Union(s): International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Date: June 24, 2004
One of
America's finest union leaders [is] under assault by one of the nation's meanest, toughest corporations. For
years Maria Martinez, head of Teamsters Local 556 in Walla Walla, Washington, has been battling IBP, the
meatpacking giant now owned by Tyson Foods. She has fought not only for higher wages and better working
conditions but also for food safety and animal welfare. With support from Teamsters for a Democratic Union,
Martinez energized Local 556, reaching out to immigrant workers and linking them with college students,
consumer activists and animal rights groups. In response, Tyson Foods has worked hard to get her kicked out of
the plant. The type of immigrant/activist coalition that Martinez has built is crucial to the future success of
the US labor movement--and that is one of the reasons Tyson is so eager to crush it.
Tentative agreement reached in Con Ed talks
Source: Associated Press, wnbc.com
Union(s): Utility Workers Union
Date: June 26, 2004
A strike that would have
affected more than 3 million electricity customers [in New York] was averted early Sunday when Consolidated
Edison and 8,600 union workers agreed on a tentative contract after extending a midnight deadline twice. The
four-year deal would increase wages and improve pensions and medical benefits, said Steve Mangione, spokesman
for Local 1-2 of the Utility Workers Union. Con Ed said the deal was fair. The affected Con Ed workers include
clerical staff, field splicers, mechanics, wiring technicians, meter readers and customer service
representatives. The average annual salary of a Con Ed utility worker is $53,000, the union said.
SBC, union find accord on contract
Source: Jon Van, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Date: June 28, 2004
SBC Communications reached a tentative agreement Sunday morning with the International Brotherhood
of Electrical Workers, just hours after the current contract had expired. The agreement, covering more than
11,000 SBC employees in Illinois and northwest Indiana, will result in a new five-year contract if it is
ratified by union members. Local 21 President Ron Kastner said the deal provides job security and health
benefits the union sought as well as pay raises.
Union offers US Airways alternatives
Source: Tom Belden, Philadelphia Inquirer
Union(s): International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Date: June 29, 2004
The machinists union
at US Airways has given the airline's chief executive officer a list of ideas for saving the company money
that will not require the hundreds of millions of dollars in wage or benefit concessions the airline says it
needs to survive, union officials said yesterday. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace
Workers, which represents almost 9,400 US Airways mechanics, baggage handlers, and other airport workers,
reiterated in a letter sent last week to airline president and chief executive Bruce R. Lakefield that it would
not discuss any cuts in wages, benefits or work rules.
UMW rallies in Benton: union fights proposed health cuts
Source: Jim Muir, The Southern Illinoisan
Union(s): United Mine Workers International
Date: June 29, 2004
Speaking with the fervor of a tent revival evangelist, United Mine Workers International
President Cecil Roberts vowed Tuesday to try to stop a bankruptcy judge from stripping health benefits from
more than 2,500 union miners and retirees. Roberts told an enthusiastic crowd of about 250 union members at the
Benton Civic Center that a bankruptcy action being proposed by Horizon Natural Resources is a violation of the
union contract and federal laws designed to protect the health benefits of miners.
Source: Jonathan Tasini, TomPaine.com
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: June 30, 2004
Bob
Kerrey's biography lists many roles. Democratic senator from Nebraska. Vietnam War hero. Dated actress Debra
Winger. Now he has added another line to his resume: attempted union-buster. In February, the adjunct faculty
at the New School in New York City voted to unionize, choosing the United Auto Workers as its representative by
a vote of 530 to 466. Kerrey is the president of the institution, which was founded as a place to pursue a more
socially progressive education. How Kerrey has behaved during the union organizing efforts is a sobering lesson
about the political landscape facing workers who try to exercise their right to form a union in America.
EEOC union hits plan to privatize
Source: Diane E. Lewis, Boston Globe
Union(s): American Federation of Government Employees
Date: July 2, 2004
A Bush administration proposal to hire a private vendor to run a national "contact" center to
take calls from employees with possible workplace bias claims has raised the ire of a national union. Hundreds
of union members employed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission are expected to protest the proposal
outside the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C., today at noon. Attorney Gabrielle Martin, president of
Local 216 of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the administration's plan could jeopardize
the rights of workers who turn to the agency for help because the center's staff would be low paid and not as
highly trained.
Unions seek strength in merger
Source: Stephen Franklin, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees; Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees
Date: July 7, 2004
As delegates from [the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees] gather in Chicago
this week to vote on a proposed merger with the hotel workers union, there is much talk about the combined
power and matching philosophies of unions made up largely of women, minorities and immigrants. Leaders of the
180,000-member textile union and the 260,000-member Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees expect 1,500 union
delegates on Thursday to approve the merger. Their new union faces a heap of challenges ranging from garment
and textile companies devastated by imports, to hotels suffering from slumping tourism, to companies determined
to stay union free.
Boeing union ratifies contract
Source: Molly McMillin, Wichita Eagle
Union(s): Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace
Date: July 8, 2004
After rejecting two
previous offers, Boeing Wichita technical and professional workers Wednesday overwhelmingly accepted the
company's third offer of a labor contract. Rejection would have meant a strike. A walkout was scheduled to
begin at 10 a.m. today. Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace officials told members that
they did not think Boeing would improve the offer without a work stoppage. Eighty-five percent of members voted
to accept the four-year contract, which included some minor improvements from Boeing's first two offers.
Labor federation looks beyond unions
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): A.F.L.-C.I.O.
Date: July 11, 2004
Natasha
Skorupa, by the end of one recent evening, had persuaded more than a dozen people to sign up for a new arm of
the labor movement. These people will not be part of a traditional union that negotiates contracts covering
wages and working conditions. Rather, they will be part of a fast-growing, newfangled advocacy group that will
campaign alongside labor unions on many issues, like raising the minimum wage and fighting new rules that cut
back on overtime pay. "We are trying to get nonunion people and union people to work together, and we're
seeing that there are a lot of issues they have in common," said Ms. Skorupa. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. quietly began
this effort last year. The aim is to enlist one million nonunion people to join the labor federation's new
community affiliate, Working America.
Close call on Broadway had its roots on the road
Source: Jesse McKinley, New York Times
Union(s): Actor's Equity
Date: July 15, 2004
Broadway almost went on strike this week over an issue that had almost nothing to do with Broadway. The issue
at the heart of the dispute between actors and producers was "the road," that collection of 65 or so theaters
around the country that feature touring versions of Broadway shows and bring in hundreds of millions of dollars
for the tours' producers. Traditionally, major touring shows have been sanctioned by Actor's Equity,
featuring professionally accredited--and professionally paid--actors. But in the last decade, as costs have
risen, and the number of bankable blockbusters has fallen, some road presenters have been increasingly reliant
on booking cheaper, non-Equity tours that cut deeply into the employment opportunities for union actors.
Labor board: graduate teaching assistants at private schools have no right to form unions
Source: Leigh Strope, Associated Press, SFGate.com
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: July 15, 2004
Graduate teaching assistants at private universities do not have the
right to form unions, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled, reversing its 2000 landmark decision that
resulted in thousands of new union members. The board, led by three Republicans appointed by President Bush,
ruled that about 450 graduate teaching and research assistants at Brown University in Providence, R.I., could
not be represented by the United Auto Workers because they were students, not employees. It is one of several
recent blows the GOP-dominated board has delivered to organized labor.
U. of I., grad assistants reach deal
Source: Jim Paul, Associated Press, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Graduate Employees Organization, Illinois Federation of Teachers-American Federation of Teachers
Date: July 15, 2004
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and graduate assistants
on the campus ended more than a decade of wrangling Thursday by agreeing to a tentative contract that will
cover nearly 6,200 graduate-student employees. The deal would be the first contract for graduate teaching
assistants and other graduate students who assist professors at UIUC. Dissatisfied with their pay and working
conditions, the students voted in December 2002 to unionize after years of organizing efforts that included a
two-day work stoppage that canceled 240 classes.
Unions plan to picket site of Republican convention
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Uniformed Firefighters Association, Patrolmen's Benevolent Association
Date: July 17, 2004
Three of New York City's most prominent unions--the police, the firefighters and the teachers--plan to begin
round-the-clock picketing at Madison Square Garden on Monday to protest their lack of a contract. The three
unions have decided to picket the Garden, the site of the Republican National Convention next month, to
pressure Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg into improving his wage offer and to bring attention to their cause. The
picketing is scheduled to last 10 days, but union officials said it might continue until the convention ends on
Sept. 2. Labor leaders said the unions would engage in informational picketing and would not ask New Yorkers to
honor the picket line.
Police plan picket despite arbitrator's award
Source: Rick Klein, Boston Globe
Union(s): Police Patrolmen's Association
Date: July 23, 2004
A state-appointed arbitrator yesterday awarded Boston's police union 14.5
percent raises over four years, roughly splitting the difference between the amount union leaders were
demanding and the best offer from Mayor Thomas M. Menino. The judgment settles a two-year dispute between
Menino and the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association. But it will not bring Menino labor peace during next
week's Democratic National Convention, union leaders vowed. The patrolmen's association is still planning to
protest at the parties Menino will hold to welcome convention delegates on Sunday night and at other
convention-week events. The union has backed off threats earlier this week to picket at the FleetCenter.
Labor leader says labor movement in crisis
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: July 27, 2004
The head of the largest union in the AFL-CIO says the labor movement is in crisis and might be more motivated
to change if Democrat John Kerry is not elected president--even though he doesn't want to chance it by keeping
George W. Bush in the White House. Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, with 1.6
million members, said in an interview Monday with The Washington Post that the effort he is leading to
restructure organized labor would lose momentum under a Democratic president. "I don't know if it would
survive with a Democratic president,'' Stern told the newspaper, saying labor leaders would become partners
in the new establishment.
SEIU chief says the Democrats lack fresh ideas
Source: David S. Broder, Washington Post
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: July 27, 2004
Breaking
sharply with the enforced harmony of the Democratic National Convention, the president of the largest AFL-CIO
union said Monday that both organized labor and the Democratic Party might be better off in the long run if
Sen. John F. Kerry loses the election. Andrew L. Stern, the head of the 1.6 million-member Service Employees
International Union (SEIU), said that both the party and its longtime ally, the labor movement, are "in deep
crisis," devoid of new ideas and working with archaic structures. Stern argued that Kerry's election might
stifle needed reform within the party and the labor movement. He said he still believes that Kerry overall
would make a better president than President Bush, and his union has poured huge resources into that effort.
But he contends that Kerry's election would have the effect of slowing the "evolution" of the dialogue within
the party.
Minnesota iron town braces for labor battle
Source: James P. Miller, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: July 27, 2004
At the mammoth Thunderbird Mine on the north end of this Iron Range town [Eveleth, Minnesota], the
lines have been drawn. The story of how people in this town of fewer than 4,000 are preparing to walk off of
jobs that they were only recently praying might come back says a lot about the long-ailing steel industry's
recent upsurge. It says a lot, as well, about the union's continued strength in this remote and job-hungry
area. One of the many ways that the tough-minded region differs from the rest of the nation is that it remains
a union stronghold at a time when labor unions seem irrelevant or on the run in many industries.
BellSouth union OKs possible strike
Source: Harry R. Weber, Associated Press, Washington Post
Union(s): Communications Workers of America
Date: August 4, 2004
The roughly 47,000 union-covered employees at BellSouth Corp. have authorized a strike if
they can't reach a fair contract with management, officials said Wednesday. Key sticking points include health
care costs and job security at the Atlanta-based company. The three-year contract between BellSouth and the
Communications Workers of America expires at midnight Saturday. While a strike has been approved, no deadline
or date has been set, said CWA spokeswoman Candice Johnson. Ninety-seven percent of members supported the
strike vote.
Union bid approved for Canadian Wal-Mart
Source: Neil Buckley, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: August 3, 2004
A Wal-Mart superstore in Quebec may become the retailer's first unionised store in North America after the
provincial labour relations board said workers were entitled to union recognition. The Quebec Labour Relations
Board approved a bid by the United Food and Commercial Workers union to represent 180 employees at a Wal-Mart
in Jonquiere. The approval does not guarantee that a collective agreement will be reached in the store, and the
world's largest retailer may appeal against the decision. But it is only the second time a Canadian Wal-Mart
has obtained union certification, and may lead the UFCW to intensify efforts to organise stores in Canada and
the US.
In Minnesota's Iron Range, a rare victory for labor
Source: Stephen Kinzer, New York Times
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: August 6, 2004
The prospect of a labor strike against Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. hung over Chisholm [Minnesota] for much of the
spring and early summer. But in a rare victory for workers in the shrinking steel industry, labor and
management reached agreement in late July on a contract the union regarded as favorable. It covers about 2,000
workers in four mines, two on the Iron Range and two in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. As the Aug. 1 contract
deadline approached, Cleveland-Cliffs did something no mining company here had done for many years. It placed
an advertisement in the local paper announcing that it would hire replacement workers. Union members were
pleasantly surprised when management compromised with the United Steelworkers of America a few days before the
deadline.
Pilots at United promise to fight pension change
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: August 10, 2004
Pilots at
United Airlines, angered at the prospect of seeing their pension plans replaced with less generous versions,
vowed yesterday to use all legal means available to fight such a move. But United, which filed for bankruptcy
protection in December 2002 and is trying to obtain billions of dollars in financing so that it can reorganize,
replied that "nothing has been or will be immune" as it re-examines its costs. Yesterday, the Air Line Pilots
Association, which represents the airline's 8,800 pilots, warned that terminating pension plans "has the
potential to destroy the career of every pilot, and potentially plunge labor relations at United into years of
hostility and chaos."
L.A. hotels request a labor mediator
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): UNITE/HERE
Date: August 11, 2004
Nine major Los Angeles hotels, facing a determined union and a protracted contract fight, suggested Tuesday
that a federal mediator step in. The move came as the dispute appeared likely to spread to San Francisco, where
hotel labor contracts expire Saturday, and Washington, where they run out in mid-September. Officials with the
union, called Unite Here, said they were skeptical of the proposal for a mediator because the hotels had
refused to negotiate on many union issues. The two sides are at loggerheads over the length of a contract, with
the union calling for a two-year deal and the hotels insisting on five years. The union wants a two-year pact
to gain national bargaining clout by lining up contracts in 10 U.S. cities to expire simultaneously in 2006.
Union leaders vow all-out effort on Kerry's behalf
Source: Stephen Franklin, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): AFL-CIO, SEIU, AFSCME
Date: August 11, 2004
Despite dwindling ranks, the nation's union leaders predicted Tuesday that
organized labor will put on a stunning show of muscle come Election Day. AFL-CIO and other union leaders, who
are plotting their strategy this week in Chicago on behalf of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, said
this year's effort will be different. They promised stepped-up spending, greater mobilization of union members
and more attention to the nuts and bolts of getting out the vote.
Union calls for ouster at United
Source: Marilyn Adams, USA Today
Union(s): International Association of Machinists
Date: August 12, 2004
Alleging "gross
mismanagement," United Airlines' biggest labor union has asked a judge to strip control of the USA's No. 2
airline from its current officers. The International Association of Machinists, which represents more than a
third of United workers, asked the Chicago federal judge overseeing the airline's bankruptcy case to appoint
an outside trustee to run the company. Union employees have given up $2.5 billion a year in pay and benefits
during bankruptcy. United has been in bankruptcy reorganization for 20 months, and management is considering
terminating or reducing its pension plans. The unions' actions, on the eve of today's United board meeting,
represent a new low in labor relations in the bankruptcy case.
Come together right now: labor unions reconfigure to battle huge multinationals
Source: David Moberg, In These Times
Union(s): UNITE, HERE, SEIU, AFL-CIO
Date: August 12, 2004
Since last fall, organized labor has urgently focused on defeating George Bush--described by AFL-CIO
president John Sweeney as "the worst president we've had to deal with." Even if Kerry should win, the labor
movement faces a wrenching debate over its future starting the day after the election. Despite Sweeney's
reform victory nearly a decade ago, the labor movement has made progress mainly in its political work, not in
the crucial task of organizing in a globalized economy where many workers' jobs are moved out of the country
and U.S. workers increasingly face powerful multinational corporations. The debate after the election will
focus on what kinds of changes labor must make to expand its ranks and its power.
US Airways could fail next month
Source: Sara Kehaulani Goo, Washington Post
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: August 13, 2004
US Airways faces a possible second bankruptcy filing next month and even liquidation if it fails to reach a
new agreement with its unions, according to a report by a consultancy firm that advised the airline's pilots
union. The report said the carrier will "fail within the immediately foreseeable future" and set out the few
choices left for the company's employees as they face an additional $800 million in cuts the company is
seeking. Pilots must either agree to a lower compensation package or be prepared to accept possibly worse terms
imposed by a bankruptcy judge or, more likely, the company's liquidation. A spokesman for the Air Line Pilots
Association said the union agreed "in principle" with its consultants' conclusions. A US Airways spokesman
said the company also concurs with the report's findings.
UAW rejects Caterpillar's final contract offer
Source: Stephen Franklin, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: August 16, 2004
As expected, members of the United Auto Workers union on Sunday rejected a final
contract offer from Caterpillar Inc., furthering the bargaining standoff. "Our members have once again spoken,"
UAW Vice President Cal Rapson said in a statement Sunday night after results were tallied from union locals in
Illinois, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Tennessee. Expecting their rank and file to turn down the latest offer,
UAW officials last week said work would go on as normal. UAW officials from the union's Detroit headquarters
and Caterpillar locals will meet Monday in the Chicago area to consider their next steps, union officials said.
After vowing not to budge, the company recently sweetened its offer but warned that its proposal was its "last,
best and final" one.
Supermarket contract approved in Seattle
Source: Associated Press, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: August 16, 2004
Grocery workers in the metropolitan [Seattle] area have approved
three-year contracts with four supermarket chains, accepting health care payments but avoiding a two-tier pay
plan sought by employers. Meeting late Sunday at Key Arena, members of four United Food and Commercial Workers
locals voted by a combined 83 percent to ratify all 10 contracts as recommended by the union, said Sharon
McCann, president of Local 1105. "This agreement does exactly what we set out to do--protect affordable health
care benefits,'' McCann said in a statement. Employers have said the deal, which runs through 2007 and covers
about 12,000 employees, also should be a model for negotiations covering 11,000 other grocery workers around
Western Washington.
US Airways' talks with pilots union break down
Source: Keith L. Alexander, Washington Post
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: August 24, 2004
US Airways' pilots union announced that negotiations on pay and benefit cuts broke down yesterday, prompting
the carrier's executives to ask that their latest proposal be taken directly to the union's leadership for a
vote. The collapse in talks underscores the friction between management and workers as US Airways Group Inc.
seeks to secure $800 million in cuts by the end of September to stave off its second bankruptcy filing in two
years. "Since the beginning of these talks, we have witnessed a disturbing trend by the company to seemingly
dismiss several significant proposals from our pilot negotiators," said Jack Stephan, a spokesman for the Air
Line Pilots Association.
Binding arbitration ordered in police negotiations
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Patrolmen's Benevolent Association
Date: August 24, 2004
The New
York State Public Employment Relations Board has ordered that the contract dispute between New York City and
its main police union go to binding arbitration, city and union officials said yesterday. Under state law, the
two sides will name the three members of an arbitration panel, which will then hear arguments from the city and
the union and determine the wages and other terms of a new contract. Despite the move toward binding
arbitration, a spokesman for the union, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, said the union would still
demonstrate at the Republican National Convention next week to criticize Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's wage
offer. The union also seeks to put pressure on the mayor to make a proposal that could still settle the dispute
without arbitration.
US Airways pilots' union decides to resume talks
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: August 28, 2004
The US Airways
pilots' union said last night that it would resume talks with the struggling airline, which is urging its
unions to grant $800 million in cuts to save it from another bankruptcy filing. Negotiations broke off last
Sunday between the union and the airline, which has refused to budge from demands that the pilots grant $295
million in annual wage and benefit concessions. People who have been briefed on both sides' offers said the
pilots were willing to accept cuts of only $180 million to $195 million, along with some work rule changes.
US Air locked in down-to-wire talks on cuts with its pilots
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: August 31, 2004
US Airways was locked in tumultuous bargaining yesterday on wage and benefit cuts with its pilots' union,
whose backing is critical if the airline is to avoid another bankruptcy filing. US Airways, which wants to
reposition itself to compete with low-fare airlines, is asking its major labor unions for contract concessions
worth $800 million as the crucial component of that plan. The concessions would be the third round granted in
the last two years by the airline's four major unions.
US Airways sets talks with pilots on further cuts to pension plan
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: September 1, 2004
US Airways and its pilots' union were set to meet last night, amid resistance within the pilots'
ranks to the airline's bid to shrink their already diminished pension plan, a casualty of the airline's
previous bankruptcy filing. Negotiations were to resume during the evening between negotiators for US Airways
and the Air Line Pilots Association. The union was waiting for the company's response to its latest offer,
made on Monday. US Airways is pushing its pilots to grant $295 million in wage and benefit cuts, the largest
share of $800 million in concessions it is seeking from its 28,000 employees.
US Airways pilots hint deal is near on cuts
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Date: September 2, 2004
The pilots'
union at US Airways said yesterday that it might be close to reaching an agreement on wage and benefit cuts
that the struggling airline contends are necessary to avoid another bankruptcy filing. But US Airways and the
machinists' union traded angry words after the company dismissed a proposal that the union said would save the
airline $115 million a year. US Airways is pushing its unions for $800 million in concessions, on top of two
rounds they granted while the airline was in bankruptcy. US Airways wants the cuts by Sept. 15.
Silence speaks volumes at unemployment rally
Source: Ellie Spielberg, United Federation of Teachers
Union(s): United Federation of Teachers
Date: September 8, 2004
No bullhorns, whistles, rally cries. Just silence, and a long line of people holding up shocking pink flyers
that said, "The next pink slip might be yours." The protest against unemployment "is powerful, one of the most
poignent protests in [New York] this week--because it is so quiet," said Randi Weingarten, president of the
United Federation of Teachers. Stretching up Broadway from Wall Street to the doorstep of the Republican
National Convention at Madison Square Garden, it was reminiscent of the bread lines of yesteryear, a reminder
to the people rushing to work that no one is immune to getting axed in the current so-called "jobless
recovery."
Janitors want building owners to close deficit in health fund
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: September 10, 2004
The health fund covering 55,000 New York City janitors is nearing insolvency, and janitors' union officials
yesterday threatened a strike against more than 1,000 office buildings in October if the real estate industry
does not come up with money to close the fund's $175 million operating deficit. The two sides announced
yesterday that they would begin contract talks on Tuesday. The fund is running a large deficit because the
workers' health care costs have soared by nearly 50 percent over the past three years, reflecting a trend that
has hurt companies and industries across the nation.
Hotel workers in 3 cities ready to strike
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): UNITE/HERE
Date: September 14, 2004
Thousands of hotel workers in Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and San Francisco are prepared to strike in a
concerted attempt to pressure employers into signing contracts that could significantly boost union clout. In
Los Angeles, housekeepers, bellmen and other workers at nine prominent hotels voted to authorize a strike. In
Washington, about 94 percent of 2,100 workers voted Monday to authorize a strike. In San Francisco, about 4,000
hotel workers were expected to vote Tuesday in favor of authorizing a strike.
Hoffa: U.S. health system is needed
Source: John Gallagher, Detroit Free Press
Union(s): International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Date: September 14, 2004
Teamsters
President James P. Hoffa added his voice Monday to a chorus calling for a government-run health-care system to
save American companies and jobs. "Rising health-care costs are causing a loss of jobs and making America less
competitive," Hoffa said in a speech to the Detroit Economic Club. "We need a national health-care system, and
we need it now," Hoffa said, calling for a joint effort by management and labor to come up with policy
prescriptions.
Los Angeles, Washington hotel workers authorize strikes
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): UNITE/HERE
Date: September 14, 2004
The threat of a strike by bellmen, housekeepers and other Southern California hotel employees loomed
larger Tuesday, as an overwhelming majority of the workers gave their leaders a green light to call a walkout.
No date was set for a walkout. The strategy--part of an effort to pressure employers into signing contracts
that could significantly boost union clout--was emulated by hotel workers in Washington, D.C., who also voted
to authorize a strike, and in San Francisco, where workers were voting Tuesday.
Volkswagen begins talks with union
Source: Mark Landler, New York Times
Union(s): IG Metall
Date: September 16, 2004
Representatives of Volkswagen and its labor union faced off across a table on Wednesday, opening a round of
negotiations that will be closely watched as a test of how long German workers can preserve their privileged
place in the global auto industry. The union, IG Metall, presented its demand for a 4 percent wage increase, as
well as guarantees of job security for the 103,000 assembly-line workers covered by a contract set to expire
soon. Volkswagen reiterated its insistence on a two-year wage freeze and other cutbacks. Looming behind the
negotiations is the specter that Germany, with its skilled but expensive labor force, will lose manufacturing
jobs to lower-cost countries.
Hotels, union end talks, prepare for strike
Source: Neil Irwin, Washington Post
Union(s): UNITE/HERE
Date: September 16, 2004
Negotiators for 14 major District hotels walked out of contract talks with the union that represents
3,800 employees yesterday afternoon, raising the prospect of a work stoppage as early as today at the city's
largest hotels. Labor and management have been facing off for weeks over working conditions and other issues at
the hotels. The tense negotiations in Washington are part of an escalating national battle between Unite Here
and major hotel chains. Union hotel workers in Los Angeles and San Francisco were also threatening yesterday to
strike if they cannot reach a deal.
N.H.L. to lock out players on Thursday
Source: Joe Lapointe, New York Times
Union(s): National Hockey League Players Association
Date: September 15, 2004
In some
ways, a labor lockout in the National Hockey League is like overtime in the Stanley Cup playoffs. It could end
quickly and decisively. Then again, it might grind on indefinitely, leaving both sides exhausted and
diminished, with even the winners feeling beaten down and worn out. Another lockout, 10 years after the first
one, was announced today by Commissioner Gary Bettman, who cited $1.8 billion in owners' losses over the last
decade and criticized the union for not negotiating to solve the problems.
Unions step up outsourcing fight
Source: Matthew Kelly, Hearst Newspapers, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: September 17, 2004
The AFL-CIO on Thursday cranked up its campaign to stop the export of U.S.
jobs by launching a new database designed to track companies that outsource jobs overseas. The union said it
hopes American workers will use the information to press elected officials to take steps to discourage job
loss. Visitors to the Web site (www.workingamerica.org) are urged
to write President Bush and their senators and [representatives] to tell them to stop the export of jobs
overseas. For publicly traded companies, the site also provides links to the chief executive's pay.
Growers' group signs the first union contract for guest workers
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Farm Labor Organizing Committee
Date: September 17, 2004
The North Carolina Growers Association, which represents 1,000 farmers, signed a union contract yesterday
covering 8,500 guest workers from Mexico--a move that the association and union said was the first union
contract in the nation for guest workers. The agreement with the North Carolina growers is unusual because it
is the first union contract ever signed by farmers in the state, which has a history of hostility to unions,
and because the contract provides for a union hiring hall in Mexico to help supply guest workers.
Union, D.C. hotels prepare for strike
Source: Neil Irwin, Dana Hedgpeth, Washington Post
Union(s): UNITE/HERE
Date: September 17, 2004
Major Washington hotels and the union that represents their employees are making detailed preparations
for a strike, which both sides warned could come at any time. Union members yesterday made picket signs and
worked out strike procedures, while hotel managers discussed how managers and replacement workers could staff
their establishments. Union officials said yesterday that a strike was imminent, but they would not say when it
might begin or how many hotels might be affected. They are coordinating their actions with hotel unions in Los
Angeles and San Francisco that are also threatening to strike.
Old labor tactics resurface in new union
Source: Amy Joyce, Washington Post
Union(s): UNITE/HERE
Date: September 17, 2004
Labor
experts say Unite Here, the newly merged union that is representing the D.C. hotel workers in their current
contract dispute, is one of the most outspoken and toughest unions under the AFL-CIO umbrella. Besides finding
resourceful ways to get members' issues heard, Unite Here is adept at involving college students and recent
graduates--an enthusiastic population rarely tapped by the union world--who are eager to help organize
immigrant and low-wage workers. "They remind [me] of the kind of full-throttle organizing that was in the '30s
and '40s," said Robert A. Bruno, associate professor of labor and industrial relations at the University of
Illinois.
Hotels, union to resume negotiations
Source: Neil Irwin, Amy Joyce, Washington Post
Union(s): UNITE/HERE
Date: September 21, 2004
Washington hotels and the union representing their employees plan to meet this morning for the first
negotiations in six days over a new contract covering 3,800 D.C. hotel workers. Officials on both sides said
they hope to avert a strike but that the prospects will hinge on whether the other side will yield on the most
intractable issue on the table: the length of a contract. Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union Local 25 insists
on a two-year contract, seeking to gain negotiating leverage by having it expire the same year as contracts in
New York, Chicago and other major cities.
Grocery workers in Bay Area hope to avoid strike
Source: Melinda Fulmer, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: September 23, 2004
The biggest lesson learned from the labor unrest in Southern and Central California may be this: The
best thing for union members and management alike would be to find a way to avoid a walkout. The last Bay Area
contract between the United Food and Commercial Workers union and the major supermarket chains--Safeway, Kroger
and Albertsons--expired Sept. 11, and the two sides are continuing to talk. The pact covers about 30,000
workers at the 382 stores. The companies certainly have good reason not to let things get so contentious this
time around. Although the supermarkets won huge concessions in Southern California, the strike and lockout that
ended Feb. 29 were economically devastating for them.
Office building janitors back a strike over health plan cost
Source: Steven Greenhouse , New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: September 24, 2004
Unable to resolve a contract dispute over health insurance, thousands of janitors and doormen voted
yesterday to authorize a strike beginning next Friday at 1,000 New York City office buildings. [Leaders] of the
janitors' union, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, had asked for a strike authorization
vote because a significant gap remained in negotiations. The union and the group representing building owners,
the Realty Advisory Board on Labor Relations, are involved in intense talks that focus on how to close a $175
million annual deficit in the union's health insurance fund. If the two sides fail to reach an agreement,
25,000 building service workers could go on strike at 12:01 a.m. next Friday.
Directors agree on contract with Hollywood producers
Source: Sharon Waxman, New York Times
Union(s): Directors Guild of America
Date: September 24, 2004
Negotiators for Hollywood producers agreed to increase health care payments for directors but did not
raise payments for DVD sales and rentals in a new three-year contract reached Thursday. The Directors Guild of
America is the first of three Hollywood labor unions to reach a new contract. The agreement, which is subject
to approval by guild members, was expected to set the tone for negotiations with writers and actors. For the
studios, the agreement reduced the prospect of a strike with the other two guilds in the coming months. The
prospect of nearly concurrent negotiations with three major guilds was a motivating factor in reaching a deal,
the studios said.
Union, D.C. hotels recess negotiations
Source: Neil Irwin, Washington Post
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: September 28, 2004
Negotiations over a new contract for D.C. hotel workers broke off early yesterday as the union and
representatives of 14 major hotels reported little progress in resolving the impasse between them. Bruce S.
Raynor, president of the national Unite Here union, acted as lead negotiator for Local 25 yesterday,
demonstrating the degree to which the union views the negotiations in Washington as part of a national battle
to increase labor's leverage against nationwide hotel chains. Similar battles are underway in Los Angeles and
San Francisco, and Unite Here is coordinating action in the three cities. The Washington negotiations are now
on hold for a week with a strike still threatened.
Corrections officers stage rally for 12% annual pay raises
Source: Jessica Bruder, New York Times
Union(s): Fraternal Order of Police
Date: September 28, 2004
[New Jersey] law enforcement officers rallied in Trenton on Monday for a new contract that would include 12
percent annual pay raises and continued out-of-network medical benefits. As part of the protest, more than
1,000 corrections officers called in sick to attend the rally, according to state and labor officials. The
6,811-member union that represents New Jersey's corrections and parole officers and park rangers has been
without a contract since July 2003.
Workers at 4 hotels in S.F. go on strike
Source: Ronald D. White, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: September 30, 2004
Union workers walked off the job at four prominent San Francisco hotels early Wednesday morning, but the move
did not trigger a multi-city strike as union locals in Los Angeles and Washington said they had no immediate
plans to join the action. The strike by 1,400 union members was the most aggressive step taken yet by the Unite
Here union in this year's protracted contract disputes. Its members have authorized strikes in all three
cities. The key stumbling block between labor and management is the union's demand for a two-year pact in all
three cities. That would align contract expirations in nine cities and Hawaii, giving the union greater
bargaining clout.
Source: Neil Irwin, Dana Hedgpeth, Washington Post
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: September 30, 2004
Unionized workers at four large San Francisco hotels went on strike yesterday morning over issues
similar to those causing an impasse between hotels and their workers at several large hotels in Washington.
Unite Here, the national hotel union, is also involved in contract disputes here and in Los Angeles. In all
three cities, the union seeks better working conditions, protection of health benefits, and a contract that
will expire the same year as hotel workers' pacts in New York and elsewhere. Union officials said the strike
will last for two weeks, barring resolution. There was no work stoppage at the other 10 hotels involved in the
negotiations there.
US Airways, pilots agree on new contract
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: October 1, 2004
US
Airways and its pilots union agreed early Friday on a new labor contract a week after the company asked a
bankruptcy judge to impose pay cuts, a company official said. In a release, the airline said the tentative deal
would save the struggling carrier $300 million annually. US Airways warned in a bankruptcy court filing on
Sept. 24 that it may have to liquidate by February if the court did not impose a temporary 23 percent pay cut
on union workers. An Oct. 7 hearing is scheduled on the issue.
BellSouth workers ratify five-year deals
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw
Union(s): Communication Workers of America
Date: September 29, 2004
BellSouth
employees have ratified five-year labor contracts that cover 42,360 workers in nine Southeastern states. The
six contracts, ratified Tuesday, include a 10.5 percent increase in base wages over the five years for the
members of the Communications Workers of America. Workers and retirees still won't pay monthly premiums for
health care, but certain co-pays and deductibles will be higher. The agreements were reached hours before the
previous contract was to expire. The union had authorized a strike if an agreement had not been reached.
Tentative contract with janitors reached
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: October 1, 2004
The union
representing 25,000 building-service workers at more than 1,000 New York City office buildings announced a
tentative contract early this morning, thus avoiding a strike threatened for 12:01 a.m. today. Real estate
industry and union officials taking part in the intense negotiations at the Hilton New York said that
substantial progress had been made on how to close a $175 million operating deficit in the union's health
fund. The agreement calls for employers to contribute a total of $78 more each week for health coverage by the
end of the contract. In the settlement, the workers will receive a total raise of 5 percent over three years.
US Airways and pilots union reach tentative deal
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: October 1, 2004
US Airways
and its pilots union reached a tentative agreement today on $300 million in wage and benefit cuts, after weeks
of debate inside the union over whether to grant the cuts to the bankrupt airline. The deal is said to include
annual pay cuts of about 19.5 percent, reductions in the company's contribution to pilots' retirement
benefits and changes in retired pilots' health care benefits. However, the agreement still faces a significant
hurdle among the pilots' leadership, which is set to vote this afternoon on whether to present the deal to
members for approval.
Union workers strike in Atlantic City
Source: John Curran, Associated Press, Washington Post
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: October 1, 2004
Front-office executives served drinks, lawyers flipped hamburgers and accountants
made beds Friday after about 10,000 union workers went on strike at seven of Atlantic City's casinos. Cocktail
waitresses, housekeepers, bellhops and other members of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees union walked off the
job and hit the picket lines around daybreak, some in the middle of their shifts. The striking workers have
been without a contract since their five-year deal expired Sept. 15. They are demanding a three-year contract,
protection against the use of nonunion restaurant workers, and casino-funded health care.
10 hotels expected to lock out workers
Source: Jenny Strasburg, George Raine, San Francisco Chronicle
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: October 1, 2004
Ten of San Francisco's largest hotels are expected to lock out an
estimated 2,600 workers this morning, escalating an already tense labor dispute that triggered a strike against
four hotels earlier this week. All told, 4,000 union workers in San Francisco have a stake in the contract
dispute, which centers on the length of the next contract as well as differences over wages, health benefits
and pensions. The union said the strike was intended to last for two weeks and called it a measured, tactical
labor action but not so far-reaching as to damage the regional economy.
Source: Associated Press, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Farm Workers
Date: October 4, 2004
Workers at Gallo of Sonoma voted a decade ago to join the UFW, but it's been a
rocky relationship. It took six years for workers to get a contract, which expired last November, and there has
been little progress on reaching a new agreement. The union was challenged with a decertification vote 18
months ago, but the result has been tied up in legal proceedings because of UFW charges of Gallo misconduct.
The dispute is being closely watched in wine country, where unions have struggled to gain a foothold.
Partisan Politics at Work Criticized
Source: Christopher Lee, Washington Post
Union(s): American Federation of Government Employees
Date: October 5, 2004
Military and civilian employees at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque received an unusual e-mail inviting
them to attend an Aug. 26 campaign rally for President Bush. "The White House has extended an invitation to
TEAM KIRTLAND to attend President Bush's speech downtown at the Convention Center," read the message, sent by
Deborah Mercurio, the director of public affairs for the 377th Air Base Wing. To federal employee unions, [the
e-mail] represented the latest attempt by the Bush administration and its supporters to transform what is
supposed to be a politically neutral federal bureaucracy into an arm of the president's reelection campaign.
US Airways union sends contract for vote
Source: Charles Sheehan (AP), FindLaw
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: October 6, 2004
The
union representing US Airways pilots voted Tuesday to send out a concessionary contract to its 3,200 pilots
that is meant to save the troubled airline $300 million a year. The tentative agreement, reached after a
sometimes contentious union meeting that lasted for about 11 hours, calls for a five-year pay cut of 18
percent, slashed vacation time and cuts to benefits that will save the airline $1.8 billion through 2009,
according to the Air Line Pilots Association. However, US Airways said it still intends to ask a bankruptcy
court judge Thursday to make temporary cuts of 23 percent on all union workers--including pilots, flight
attendants, mechanics, ramp workers and customs agents.
80 casino strikers are arrested for blocking road into Atlantic City
Source: Iver Peterson, New York Times
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: October 9, 2004
In an escalation of their tactics, striking casino service workers blocked the main access road to
Atlantic City for about 20 minutes Friday evening just as the busy Columbus Day weekend traffic began flooding
into town. The Atlantic City police said that about 80 demonstrators were arrested and given tickets for
disorderly conduct and obstructing traffic. Union officials were on hand at police headquarters to pay the
tickets. About 10,000 members of Local 54 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
who work at seven casinos here have been on strike since Oct. 1.
Kroger employees reject contract offer
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers Union
Date: October 14, 2004
Kroger Co. employees from stores in three states rejected the company's latest contract offer and authorized
their union to call a strike if necessary. About 8,500 cashiers, grocery baggers and clerks in meat, produce
and delicatessen departments at 70 Kroger stores in southwest Ohio, northern Kentucky and southeast Indiana
could go on strike when their current contract expires at 10 p.m. EDT Friday. Ninety-seven percent of the
5,000-plus workers who voted rejected the contract offer and authorized a strike.
No progress reported in hotel negotiations
Source: Neil Irwin, Washington Post
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: October 15, 2004
Negotiators for several major Washington hotels and the union that represents their employees discussed health
insurance costs yesterday in a day-long bargaining session that made no apparent progress toward a new
contract. The two sides have been at an impasse, which has included union threats of a strike, since the
previous contract expired Sept. 15. The union wants better working conditions, protection of health and other
benefits and a contract that will expire the same year as contracts in New York and other major cities.
Pilots union agrees to cuts at Northwest
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: October 15, 2004
Northwest
Airlines and its pilots union reached tentative agreement yesterday on a deal that would save the airline $300
million in labor costs. Leaders of the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents pilots at Northwest, will
now decide whether to submit the two-year agreement to members for a vote. The tentative settlement includes
$265 million in cuts, the first granted to the airline by any of its labor groups. Northwest sought $950
million in concessions from its unions in the spring of 2003, with a warning that [it] might file for Chapter
11 bankruptcy protection if it could not cut its costs. Analysts were skeptical that Northwest was in such dire
need.
Wal-Mart finds union at its back door
Source: Adam Geller, Associated Press, AZ Central
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: October 18, 2004
The low-slung gray and blue Wal-Mart store off highway 70 could be almost any one of the retail
Goliath's nearly 5,000 discount emporiums in the United States and eight other countries. And that's what
worries executives at the Arkansas headquarters of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. While still not a certainty, the 165
retirees, single moms, students and other hourly workers at this store 2 1/2 hours north of Quebec City
[Canada] could soon become the first anywhere to extract what the world's largest private employer insists its
1.5 million "associates" around the world neither want nor need--a union contract. A government agency has
certified the workers as a union and told the two sides to negotiate.
Can both worker rights and civil rights win in hotel talks?
Source: David Bacon, San Francisco Chronicle
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: October 19, 2004
For a decade, San Francisco's Unite Here Local 2 and Local 11 in
Los Angeles have proposed and won language in their contracts protecting members from discrimination and firing
because of immigration status. In San Francisco, as in many other big U.S. cities, immigrants make up a
majority of the hotel workforce. This year, Locals 2 and 11 added new language to their existing contract
proposals on immigrant rights, and the hotels agreed. But the Multi-Employer Group, the hotel owners'
bargaining collective, didn't accept a related proposal asking the hotels to set up a diversity committee and
hire an ombudsman to begin increasing the percentage of African-American workers.
US Airways pilots' union OKs labor deal
Source: Matthew Barakat, Associated Press, FindLaw
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: October 21, 2004
US Airways' pilots' union ratified a new labor contract Thursday that will cut their base pay by
18 percent and save the airline $300 million a year. The bankrupt airline has been hopeful that a ratified deal
with the pilots will give it momentum as it seeks cost cuts from its three other major unions, representing
machinists, flight attendants and passenger service workers. US Airways says it needs about $950 million in
annual cost cuts from all its unions to have any chance at survival.
Union set to begin boycott of L.A. hotels
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: October 21, 2004
The union representing hotel housekeepers, bellmen, waiters and other hourly workers is moving toward an
official boycott of nine upscale Los Angeles-area hotels, after six months of negotiations have failed to move
either side on key contract issues. Leaders of the union, Unite Here Local 11, are set to announce today that
they are gathering signatures from rank-and-file members to approve a boycott. The central contract issue is
the expiration date. National leaders of Unite Here want to line up local contracts across the country so that
they all expire in 2006, giving each local more power at the bargaining table.
Union, Kroger reach agreement on pension
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: October 21, 2004
The
Kroger Co. and a labor union representing about 8,500 employees in 70 supermarkets in three states have reached
tentative agreements on health care and pensions but still have not reached a deal on a new contract, a union
spokesman said Thursday. The two sides negotiated for 20 consecutive hours through Thursday morning and were
unable to reach consensus on wage increases, said John Marrone, a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial
Workers Union Local 1099. Cashiers, grocery baggers and clerks in meat, produce and delicatessen departments at
stores in the Cincinnati area, northern Kentucky and southeastern Indiana are covered by the contract.
US Airways pilots approve 18% pay cut
Source: Keith L. Alexander, Washington Post
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: October 22, 2004
US Airways pilots yesterday approved a five-year, cost-cutting contract that will reduce their pay about 18
percent and save the airline about $1.8 billion over five years, the union said. The union's ratification
means the pilots are exempt from the 21 percent, across-the-board employee pay cut that a bankruptcy court
judge last week imposed through February. The agreement reduces retirement benefits, increases work hours
largely by trimming vacation and sick days, and eliminates retiree medical coverage. The contract is a major
boost to US Airways, which is trying to cut its labor costs by $950 million a year to transform itself into a
profitable low-cost, low-fare airline.
World's big two aim at getting bigger
Source: John Vandaele, Inter Press Service
Union(s): International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, World Confederation of Labour
Date: October 26, 2004
In a
historic move, WCL has decided to start negotiations with ICFTU for setting up a new international labour
organisation. The long awaited initiative is intended to protect labour rights in the face of globalisation and
counter the growing clout of multilateral corporations. WCL, the World Confederation of Labour, comprises of
144 autonomous and democratic trade unions from 116 countries around the globe, with more than 26 million
members, mainly from Third World countries. ICFTU, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions,
represents 148 million workers worldwide and is by far the biggest confederation consisting of 234 affiliated
organisations in 152 countries and territories.
With prospect of Chapter 11 looming, Delta and Pilots bargain
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: October 26, 2004
Delta Air Lines and its pilots union continued bargaining today on the airline's demand for $1
billion in contract concessions, with the prospect of a Chapter 11 filing as soon as Wednesday hanging over the
discussions. Delta, the third-largest airline behind American and United, has warned repeatedly that it will
have to seek court protection unless it reaches a deal with its pilots on $1 billion in wage and benefit cuts,
and achieves agreements with its debt holders. Delta's pilots, who are the highest paid in the industry, have
proposed cuts worth up to $705 million. A Chapter 11 filing by Delta would mean half the industry's
traditional airlines were under court protection.
Newsom joins picket line, vows boycott of hotels
Source: George Raine, San Francisco Chronicle
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: October 27, 2004
Mayor Gavin Newsom made good on his promise to join locked-out union members on the picket line
Tuesday after a group of San Francisco hotels rejected his proposed 90-day cooling off period, extending a
bitter labor dispute that has left 4,000 workers locked out of their jobs. The dispute, caused by an impasse in
the negotiation of a new contract, began Sept. 29 with a two-week strike at four hotels and grew to become a
lockout by employers at 14 of the city's largest hotels on Oct. 13. The union accepted Newsom's proposal for
a three-month cooling off period, but the hotels rejected it Tuesday and Newsom hit the picket line.
Kroger employees ratify new contract
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: October 28, 2004
Members of the union representing Kroger Co. employees in three states ratified a three-year contract. "Kroger
should not kid itself about the results of today's vote," Lennie Wyatt, president of United Food and
Commercial Workers Union Local 1099, said in a statement late Wednesday after all-day voting. "This contract
was ratified for one reason and one reason only--there simply was no workable alternative at this time. In a
down economy and during a national health care crisis, a strike seemed a worse alternative." About 8,500
cashiers, grocery baggers and clerks in meat, produce and delicatessen departments at 70 stores in the
Cincinnati area, northern Kentucky and southeastern Indiana are covered by the contract.
Delta reaches deal with pilots' union
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: October 28, 2004
Delta Air
Lines reached a tentative agreement with its pilots' union last night on long-sought wage and benefit cuts,
averting a threatened bankruptcy filing, at least for now. Terms of the deal were not available. Agreement came
after an intense day of negotiations, during which Delta made its final offer in its bid for $1 billion in
contract concessions. If pilots had not agreed to the tentative deal, Delta was prepared to file for Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection today. Leaders of the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents Delta's 6,900
pilots, must approve the deal before ratification can begin.
Talks between D.C. hotels, union still in deadlock
Source: Neil Irwin, Washington Post
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: October 28, 2004
Fourteen major D.C. hotels and the union that represents their employees met yesterday for another round of
talks on a new contract, but they made little progress in a session both sides described as contentious. Since
their contract expired Sept. 15, the two sides have faced off at bargaining sessions about once every week or
two, but have reported little progress toward an agreement. The union seeks improved working conditions, higher
wages and protection of benefits, and a two-year contract that would expire the same year as contracts in New
York and other cities. Both sides said that they may take further action if the impasse continues, but neither
would specify what that might be, or when it might happen.
Volkswagen, German union resume wage talks
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): IG Metall
Date: November 1, 2004
Volkswagen AG and Germany's biggest industrial union resumed pay negotiations Monday with both sides hopeful
of bridging their differences--even as thousands of auto workers staged brief stoppages to underline their
demand for wage increases and job guarantees. Volkswagen, which wants a two-year wage freeze, says it must cut
costs to meet competition from lower-cost rivals. In addition to the freeze, it wants more flexible scheduling
to avoid overtime and programs that would allow new workers to be paid less. The union has demanded annual
increases of 2.2 percent and 2.7 percent in a 26-month deal, along with job guarantees.
Lockout at top hotels mars tourism in San Francisco
Source: Carolyn Marshall, New York Times
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: November 2, 2004
The drumbeats and chanted slogans begin at dawn and echo through downtown streets well after dark, as
bellhops, barkeeps, maids and cooks--locked out of their jobs by 14 of this city's most prominent
hotels--picket to protest stalled contract talks that have set this popular tourist destination on edge. Now in
its fifth week, this labor dispute threatens to tarnish San Francisco's self-described reputation as
"Everyone's Favorite City." Workers are at odds with their managers, and city leaders are at odds with hotel
owners. And caught in the cross-fire are the city's treasured tourists.
Volkswagen may be close to settling its wage talks
Source: Mark Landler, New York Times
Union(s): IG Metall
Date: November 2, 2004
Volkswagen and its workers entered a critical week in their wage negotiations on Monday, with signs that a
compromise was taking shape even as protests flared at factories across Germany. The showdown is being closely
watched, and not just because it pits Germany's most powerful union against its most prominent carmaker. The
talks are viewed as a litmus test of whether German auto workers can preserve their privileges in the fiercely
competitive global car industry. In a sign of how high the stakes are, the union has threatened large-scale
strikes against Volkswagen if the talks do not produce an agreement this week. They would be the first in the
company's history.
A tentative contract is reached to end Atlantic City casino strike
Source: Michelle O'Donnell, New York Times
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: November 2, 2004
A month-long strike against seven of the 12 Atlantic City casinos, which left gamblers eating
with plastic utensils and office workers serving them breakfast, appeared to be over last night as the union
representing the striking workers reached a tentative agreement with management. Members of Local 54 of the
Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union accepted the five-year contract, which includes
some increases in pay and benefits, but is not the ambitious three-year contract that the union had sought
earlier. Over the five-year contract, the workers will receive a 28.3 percent increase in wages, health care
benefits and pension contributions, the union said.
UAW workers walk out at four CNH plants
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: November 4, 2004
More than
600 workers at four CNH Global NV plants in the Midwest walked off their jobs Wednesday over the failure to
negotiate a new six-year contract with the maker of farm and construction equipment. The strike shut down
tractor production at the Racine manufacturing operation and three other plants. The main impact was reported
to be in Racine and Burlington, Iowa, where backhoe loaders are made. Cal Rapson, a UAW vice president who
directs the national union's Agricultural Implement Department, issued a statement saying the job action was
needed to reach a fair labor agreement. "The company's contract demands, particularly in the area of health
care, simply do not reflect the value our members contribute to CNH," he said.
Volkswagen averts strike by German workers
Source: Mark Landler, New York Times
Union(s): IG Metall
Date: November 4, 2004
Volkswagen averted the first full-scale strike in its history on Wednesday, offering its factory workers a
seven-year job guarantee in return for a 28-month freeze in wages. Volkswagen's union, IG Metall, had staged
warning strikes at several factories to press for a pay increase of 4 percent. But even as it threatened
broader disruption, the union later gave up this demand--accepting a face-saving compromise that it must now
try to sell to its members. Volkswagen's face-off with the union was closely watched here as a test of whether
German auto workers--and VW employees in particular--could maintain their privileged position as the best-paid,
best-treated workers in an increasingly competitive global industry.
Disney, union reach tentative pact
Source: Sean Mussenden, Orlando Sentinel
Union(s): Service Trades Council
Date: November 5, 2004
Walt Disney World and its largest union reached a tentative deal on a new three-year
contract late Thursday. The agreement between Disney and the Service Trades Council, which covers more than 40
percent of Disney World's work force, came after nearly eight months of talks on wage hikes, health and
retirement benefits, and other issues. The council, which represents more than 20,000 theme park and hotel
workers, is made up of six smaller unions. Leaders of four of the six agreed late Thursday to the tentative
deal. But the heads of two others said they were not invited to the final negotiating session, had not seen the
deal, and could not support it. One of those unions said it was considering legal action against the council
and Disney.
Lucent Technologies and unions reach deal
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Communications Workers of America; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Date: November 9, 2004
Lucent
Technologies Inc. reached a tentative agreement early Tuesday with two labor unions that cover about 3,250
employees nationwide, a company spokeswoman said. Lucent spokeswoman Mary Ward did not reveal details of the
agreement, but said the company and the unions had bargained over issues like whether retirees should
contribute to the cost of their health insurance. Most of the 3,250 workers are represented by the
Communications Workers of America; about 250 are represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers.
Largest union issues call for major changes
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: November 10, 2004
As the
nation's union leaders gather today in Washington the labor movement is in turmoil, with the president of the
AFL-CIO's largest union hinting that it might pull out of the labor federation. In a sign of the jockeying and
soul-searching, Andrew L. Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, the AFL-CIO's largest
union, called yesterday in a letter for far-reaching changes in labor designed to increase its membership,
proposing a $25-million-a-year campaign to unionize Wal-Mart and a near doubling in the amount spent annually
on organizing. The meeting comes as long-simmering differences in the AFL-CIO have been intensified by
President Bush's re-election, with many union leaders fearing retaliation because organized labor spent more
than $150 million to try to defeat him.
Nigerian court blocks upcoming strike
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Nigeria Labor Congress
Date: November 11, 2004
A Nigerian high court on Thursday blocked an upcoming general strike meant to shut down oil exports in the
world's seventh largest exporter. Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer and the fifth-largest source of
U.S. oil imports. Nigeria's unions, including blue- and white-collar oil worker guilds, had called the strike
for Tuesday, and said this one--unlike other recent strikes--would target oil production and exports. Unions
are unhappy over a 23 percent increase in domestic fuel prices, raised by the government in September.
Labor vows to consider change, but rebel voices discontent
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: November 11, 2004
The president of the AFL-CIO announced Wednesday that organized labor, facing the second term of an
administration it fought hard to beat in last week's election, would take up recommendations to reverse the
movement's long decline. The federation's president, John Sweeney, said the proposals would be put forth by a
Committee of Change. But immediately after the nation's union leaders had created the committee, the president
of the federation's largest union escalated his threat to break away unless substantial change was adopted to
strengthen the movement. "We need to either change the AFL-CIO or build something stronger that could really
change workers' lives," said Andrew Stern of the 1.6-million-member Service Employees International Union.
Disney workers reject contract
Source: Sean Mussenden, Orlando Sentinel, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Service Trades Council
Date: November 12, 2004
Thousands of unionized Walt Disney World workers voted down a new three-year
labor contract Thursday, giving union negotiators the authority to call a strike. The surprise rejection sends
negotiators with the Service Trades Council union group and Disney back to the bargaining table today. Union
leaders said they were unlikely to call for a work stoppage, at least in the near future. They hope to convince
Disney to improve its offer, saying the proposed wage increases are too small and the increases in health-care
premiums are too high.
Delta pilots vote to accept 32.5% pay cut
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: November 12, 2004
Pilots at
Delta Air Lines overwhelmingly approved a new five-year contract yesterday with $1 billion in annual
concessions sought by the airline, which had threatened to file for bankruptcy if the pilots did not acquiesce.
The deal, which cuts pay by 32.5 percent, would reduce the salary of the highest-paid Delta pilot by more than
$90,000, to about $185,000 a year. It ends an era of luxurious pilot pay in the airline industry, but does not
end Delta's problems.
Flight attendants union wants strike vote
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw
Union(s): Association of Flight Attendants
Date: November 16, 2004
The
president of the United States' largest flight attendants union urged authorization of a nationwide strike and
criticized the airline industry for using the bankruptcy process to obliterate collective bargaining rights.
Patricia Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents 46,000 members, said that
efforts at airlines like United and US Airways to use the bankruptcy process to cancel union contracts and
impose deep pay cuts are threatening flight attendants' careers across the nation. She also noted that the
bankruptcy process is being used to terminate pension plans and eliminate health coverage for retirees.
Flight attendants threaten to strike
Source: Orlando Sentinel, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Association of Flight Attendants
Date: November 17, 2004
The nation's largest flight attendants union said Tuesday it would hold
strike-authorization votes at four major airlines, accusing the industry of using the bankruptcy process to cut
workers' pay and other benefits. The strike votes should be tallied by the end of December. After that, union
officials plan to await the outcome of the airlines' bankruptcy proceedings before weighing whether to walk
off the job. The union has 46,000 members employed by 26 airlines, but the four immediately at issue are
United, US Airways, ATA and Hawaiian.
Kaiser to help S.F. hotel workers
Source: Associated Press, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: November 17, 2004
Healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente stepped into San Francisco's bitter hotel labor dispute Tuesday by
agreeing to provide two months of medical coverage to 3,500 locked-out workers who were at risk of losing their
benefits. The Oakland-based health plan's decision allows the workers, whose employer-sponsored health
insurance with Kaiser is due to expire Dec. 1, to stay out on picket lines while their union holds out for its
contract demands. A spokesman for Kaiser said the nonprofit company was not taking sides in the hotel dispute
but merely looking out for the well-being of its clients. In the past, Kaiser has done the same for other union
members engaged in work stoppages, including Southern California grocery store workers last year.
Unions insulted by Bush minimum wage
Source: Elizabeth Fulk, The Hill
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: November 18, 2004
Despite Democratic losses
across the board in the elections, organized labor is refusing to embrace President Bush's offer to raise the
minimum wage by $1.10 an hour. "It's insufficient, and it's too little, too late," said Bill Samuel, director
of legislation for the AFL-CIO. "This is an insult to workers whose wages have fallen so far behind that they
can't even afford the bare necessities." Samuel said his organization would protest any wage increase less
than the one Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) proposed, which would raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7 an
hour.
Pizza drivers seek national union
Source: Matt Gouras, Associated Press, FindLaw
Union(s): Association of Pizza Delivery Drivers
Date: November 18, 2004
A fledgling national union for pizza drivers is demanding better wages and training, saying the
large chains have been taking advantage of them for years. It's an effort that has attracted the attention of
the Teamsters union, but the Association of Pizza Delivery Drivers has yet to organize its first shop. A vote
at a Domino's franchise in Lincoln, Neb., failed Tuesday night on a tie. But organizers expect a better result
next week when Pizza Hut drivers vote at a store near Columbus, Ohio. About 600 drivers nationwide have signed
up for the free union, and momentum [is] gathering for more unionization votes.
Unions resume debate over merging and power
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: November 18, 2004
Andrew Stern
has ignited a debate throughout the labor movement by arguing that labor needs a sweeping overhaul, including
the merger of many unions and a vast increase in organizing, to reverse its long decline. Last week, Mr. Stern,
president of the Service Employees International Union, called on the AFL-CIO to adopt a 10-point plan, and the
debate he began could lead to the most far-reaching changes in the labor movement in a half-century. Mr. Stern
complained that unions were doing far too little to help American workers because they were organizing too few
workers and were often undercutting one another in negotiations. He also complained that many unions were too
small to contend with giant companies.
U.S. labor chiefs press El Salvador for killers of Teamsters organizer
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Date: November 21, 2004
Gilberto Soto, a union organizer in New Jersey, was so upset by the wages and
working conditions of truck drivers in Central America that when he went home to visit his mother in El
Salvador and celebrate his 50th birthday this month, he added a week to his vacation to go to ports to see
about unionizing them. On the eve of his birthday, he stepped outside of his family's longtime home in
Usulutan to talk on his cellphone. "We suddenly heard three shots," recalled his sister Areli, who was inside.
The killing, on Nov. 5, has deeply unsettled American labor leaders, who called for an investigation. They
suspect that Mr. Soto, an organizer for the Teamsters, was gunned down as part of a systematic effort to
suppress union activity in El Salvador.
San Francisco hotel workers to return
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: November 22, 2004
Unionized
workers have reached an agreement with a group representing 14 luxury hotels to end an eight-week lockout,
allowing about 4,000 maids, bellhops, cooks and other hourly employers to return to their jobs on Tuesday. The
workers went on strike at four hotels on Sept. 29 and were locked out at 10 others two days later. They agreed
to end their strike last month, but the hotels said the lockout would continue until agreement was reached on a
new contract. Mayor Gavin Newsom said negative publicity and the union's ability to extend health coverage
while workers remained locked out were major factors in the hotel operators' change of heart.
Pennsylvania turnpike workers go on strike
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Date: November 24, 2004
Toll collectors on the Pennsylvania Turnpike went on strike Wednesday, just as Americans were hitting the road
for Thanksgiving. The strike was announced by union leaders. Anticipating a walkout, the Pennsylvania Turnpike
Commission decided to waive tolls on Wednesday and have nonunion employees staff tollbooths Thursday, charging
a flat fee instead of regular tolls. Negotiations have been rocky between turnpike officials and unions
representing toll collectors, maintenance workers and office employees.
UPS dismisses pilots' threat to halt flights
Source: Andrew Ward, Financial Times
Union(s): Independent Pilots Association
Date: November 24, 2004
Pilots
of United Parcel Service yesterday threatened to stop work in sympathy with striking workers in Canada--a move
that could cripple the package delivery company during the peak Christmas season. UPS dismissed the pilots'
threat as scaremongering and said it was confident the strike would not spread beyond Canada. Nearly 4,000 UPS
workers have been on strike there since Monday over a pay dispute. The Independent Pilots Association, which
represents 2,500 UPS crew members, has ordered members to halt flights to and from Canada in support of the
stoppage and threatened more widespread action if the company attempts to break the strike.
United's pilots are offered 2 ways to cut their wages
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: November 24, 2004
United Airlines is giving its pilots' union two options. They can accept 18 percent wage cuts or they can
agree to smaller cuts but also accept significant changes in work rules. With either option, the airline, which
has been in bankruptcy for almost two years, told its pilots that it wants to be able to impose additional wage
cuts after it leaves Chapter 11, if it needs to do so. The demands are part of United's bid for another round
of $725 million in wage and benefit cuts from its unions. Labor specialists said they could not remember
another instance where a company tried to reserve the right to seek more cuts even if it completed an
overhaul.
Stagehands reach deal on contract
Source: Jesse McKinley, New York Times
Union(s): International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees
Date: November 24, 2004
After an
all-night negotiating session, Broadway's stagehands and producers reached an agreement early yesterday on a
new three-year contract. The deal is the latest between producers and the theater industry's three major
unions, effectively assuring labor peace on Broadway at least through the spring of 2007. The contract includes
annual 3 percent pay increases, as well as increases in benefit contributions, said Alan Cohen, a spokesman for
the League of American Theaters and Producers.
Source: Stephen Franklin, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: November 29, 2004
Come July, organized labor will gather in Chicago for a meeting that is quickly shaping up to be
both monumental and stormy. The convention spotlights the re-election bid of AFL-CIO President John Sweeney,
70, who is likely to face a challenge for his job heading the umbrella labor organization. Also at issue will
be a controversial drive to restructure the way unions get their work done. Sweeney recently signaled union
leaders his expectations about what might come up at the meeting organized labor holds every four years. In a
letter to labor leaders, Sweeney said "we are still not the movement we need to be" and called for a massive
discussion from the bottom up about "extremely hard decisions" on organized labor's future.
Transit union campaigns against computer-run trains
Source: Sewell Chan, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union of America
Date: December 2, 2004
New York City's transit union began a campaign yesterday to mobilize riders against a plan to replace train
conductors with a computer-controlled subway system. Members of the union, Local 100 of the Transport Workers
Union of America, handed out leaflets at stations along the L train route in Manhattan and Brooklyn, where New
York City Transit officials hope to begin introducing the fully automated trains by the middle of 2005.
Union sends strike ballots to 21,000 United attendants
Source: Associated Press, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Association of Flight Attendants
Date: December 3, 2004
The nation's largest flight attendants union on Thursday mailed strike authorization
ballots to 21,000 United Airlines flight attendants, seeking their approval for nationwide walkouts if United
or US Airways breaks its labor contracts in bankruptcy. The board of the Association of Flight Attendants
authorized a strike last month if collective bargaining contracts are abrogated by either carrier. Both have
put the process in place while negotiating new terms as part of continuing restructurings in bankruptcy.
Union may try to avoid strike against hotels
Source: Ronald D. White, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: December 6, 2004
Hotel workers in Los Angeles and two other cities intent on a key contract goal are taking an unusual approach
to reach it: not going on strike. Unite Here locals in L.A., San Francisco and Washington want two-year
contracts that would expire at the same time as those in several other cities around the country, giving the
union nationwide bargaining clout against giant hotel chains. Instead of striking if they don't get two-year
deals, union members may simply work without contracts until 2006--getting what they want, they hope, by
default.
Between union leader and his protege, debate over direction of labor
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: December 5, 2004
Twenty years ago, John J. Sweeney, then the president of the Service Employees International Union,
was so impressed by the drive and intelligence of a little-known union official from Pennsylvania that he asked
him to move to Washington and become his organizing director. The official was Andrew L. Stern, who, quite
predictably, succeeded Mr. Sweeney as the union's president. But rather unpredictably, he has called into
question the whole structure of the house of labor, which Mr. Sweeney has headed for the past nine years.
Teamsters offer plan to reshape labor future
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT)
Date: December 9, 2004
The
Teamsters union heated up the debate over reshaping the labor movement yesterday by proposing to slash the
A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s budget and finance a four-year campaign of political and union organizing in swing states to
help elect a pro-labor president. Worried about the steady decline of organized labor, the Teamsters, one of
the nation's largest unions, recommended withholding half of the $90 million that individual unions give the
labor federation each year and using it to recruit more members.
Unions plan big drive for better pay at nonunion Wal-Mart
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: December 11, 2004
The AFL-CIO and more than a half dozen unions are planning an unusual--and unusually
expensive--campaign intended to pressure Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, to improve its wages and
benefits. The campaign will be highly unusual because it will not, at least at first, focus on unionizing
Wal-Mart workers, but will instead focus on telling Americans that Wal-Mart--with wages averaging between $9
and $10 an hour--is pulling down wages and benefits at companies across the nation. The unions are talking of
spending $25 million a year on the effort, more than has ever been spent before in a union campaign against a
single company.
Report says N.H.L. will reject proposal
Source: Jason Diamos, New York Times
Union(s): N.H.L. Players Association
Date: December 14, 2004
The
National Hockey League appears poised to reject a proposal made Thursday by the players union. The proposal
included a 24 percent reduction in pay and other concessions but not a hard salary cap. Bill Daly, executive
vice president of the N.H.L., wrote that the union's proposal offered short-term financial relief, but fell
"well short of providing the fundamental systemic changes that are required to ensure that overall league
economics remain in synch on a going-forward basis." The league is certain to ask for a greater measure of what
it calls cost certainty, which many players say is a euphemism for a hard salary cap.
Airline financing proposal is faulted by union leader
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers and the Laborers\' International Union of North America
Date: December 22, 2004
The business plan that United Airlines is using to line up postbankruptcy financing is unworkable, a
labor union leader said yesterday, even though the plan was called "feasible" by an independent financial
consultant. The union leader, Robert Roach Jr., vice president for transportation at the International
Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said the business plan assumed the termination of United's four employee
pension plans, a step he vowed the machinists would not take voluntarily. Further, said Mr. Roach, a $150
million miscalculation by United would offset the assumptions in the plan, the fifth by the airline in two
years.
United Air creditors oppose deal with pilots
Source: Micheline Maynard, Mary Williams Walsh, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: January 5, 2005
In a bitter split, United Airlines' creditors, along with some banks and unions, have joined the
federal government in opposing a deal in which United would terminate its pilots' pension plan and offer the
pilots equity in the airline and other sweeteners in exchange. The United situation has riveted the airline
industry, in part because of a decision last week by the federal agency, the Pension Guaranty Benefit
Corporation, to seize the pilots' pension plan, rather than see its unfunded burden increase. It also has
implications for unions at other airlines, which could seek similar cuts if United is successful.
US Airways workers OK new labor contract
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Association of Flight Attendants
Date: January 6, 2005
Flight attendants at bankrupt US Airways approved a new labor contract Wednesday that cuts their pay by nearly
10 percent, leaving only one union that has refused to accept the cost cuts the carrier says are needed to
avoid liquidation. The Association of Flight Attendants, which represents more than 5,000 workers at the
airline, approved the contract with 64 percent of the vote, according to a union spokeswoman. The new contract
cuts pay immediately by 8.4 to 9 percent, with pay raises of 1 percent to 2 percent beginning in 2007 and
extending through 2011. Tougher work rules will also be implemented.
United pilots ratify new cost-cutting pact
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: January 6, 2005
United
Airlines' pilots have overwhelmingly ratified a new cost-cutting contract, giving the carrier an important
victory as it worked to secure agreements from all its unions on the eve of a self-imposed deadline. The
announcement Thursday by the Air Line Pilots Association came as some unions, creditors and banks gathered in
bankruptcy court to oppose the five-year deal, in which pilots agreed to wage cuts and the company's
elimination of traditional pensions but received future financial considerations. The groups have denounced the
contract as an effort to short-circuit the pension deliberation process.
Judge throws out United's new deal with pilots
Source: Associated Press, USA Today
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: January 7, 2005
A
federal bankruptcy judge threw out a disputed new five-year contract between United Airlines and its pilots
Friday, dealing the bankrupt carrier a significant setback in its efforts to lock in lower labor costs without
a court order. The contract, which called for 15% pay cuts, drew opposition from labor groups and others who
complained that it would pave the way for United to eliminate traditional pension plans. Bankruptcy Judge
Eugene Wedoff said several aspects of the proposed agreement would "unduly tilt the bankruptcy process,"
including the requirement that other unions' pension plans also be terminated.
Hotel union threatens to strike before inauguration
Source: Neil Irwin, Washington Post
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: January 7, 2005
Officials of the local hotel union said yesterday that they may call a strike at 14 major D.C. hotels
if they do not reach accord with management on a new contract by Jan. 15. That raises the possibility of a work
stoppage during the presidential inauguration, a period when tens of thousands of visitors flock to town and
hotels are generally the busiest they are during any four-year span. The threat, by Unite Here Local 25, came
at the same time participants reported progress in contract talks.
Judge lets airline toss contract
Source: Keith L. Alexander, Amy Joyce, Washington Post
Union(s): International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers
Date: January 7, 2005
A U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge yesterday granted US Airways' request to throw out its
machinists' contract as part of the airline's effort to cut costs and emerge from bankruptcy protection. But
Judge Stephen S. Mitchell delayed enforcement of the ruling at least until Jan. 22, when union members are
scheduled to vote on US Airways' latest contract proposal. If the union rejects the cost-cutting proposal, the
existing contract will be nullified and the airline permitted to replace it with a cheaper one. In siding with
US Airways, Mitchell said the mechanics should consider which would be worse: half of them losing their jobs,
or all of them losing their jobs should the airline be forced to liquidate.
Courts side with United and US Airways on labor contracts
Source: Eric Dash, New York Times
Union(s): International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers
Date: January 7, 2005
In
separate bankruptcy proceedings yesterday, US Airways received approval to cancel contracts with its mechanics
and baggage handlers and United Airlines won pay cuts it had sought for a similar group. The rulings were
victories for both airlines, which are struggling for survival, but defeats for their unions. The rulings
should provide both airlines a little more breathing room and, in the case of US Airways, permit it to stave
off liquidation for now.
A pension plan's broken promise
Source: H.J. Cummins, Star Tribune
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: January 9, 2005
While many workers
assume there's a government guarantee protecting them from a failed pension plan, that guarantee is more akin
to catastrophic health coverage--deliberately limited. Economists worry more than ever about the [Pension
Benefit Guaranty Corp.]'s prospects, with some even predicting a savings-and-loan-style bailout. In just four
years, the PBGC has fallen from a $9.7 billion surplus to a $23 billion shortfall, thanks to the steel-industry
collapse, recession-driven company failures, the aging of America and--some say--Congress' unwillingness to
tighten rules requiring companies to kick in money to the PBGC. The next big concern: underfunded airline
pensions.
Judge rejects United's contract with pilots
Source: Micheline Maynard, Mary Williams Walsh, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: January 8, 2005
A federal bankruptcy judge rejected a contract between United Airlines and its pilots' union on
Friday, saying the agreement unfairly forced other unions to join the pilots in letting United terminate their
pension plans. The pilots' contract, which members of the Air Line Pilots Association approved on Thursday,
drew unusual opposition from a federal pension agency, United's creditors committee, some of its banks, its
other unions and its retired pilots. The uncommon action by Judge Eugene R. Wedoff was the latest setback for
United, which filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2002 and has yet to present a reorganization plan.
Steelworkers, PACE merge into union
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America, PACE International Union
Date: January 11, 2005
The
United Steelworkers of America and PACE International Union announced a merger Tuesday that will create the
nation's largest industrial labor union. The combined force will have more political clout and broader
coverage of workers in the industrial sector, union officials said. While the most recent filings with the U.S.
Department of Labor show the combined union would have about 776,000 members, union officials say those 2003
labor figures are outdated and put the actual figure closer to 850,000. Even using conservative estimates, the
new union would exceed membership of other large industrial unions such as the United Autoworkers of America
and the International Association of Machinists.
Hotels, union negotiators break off talks after 3 hours
Source: Neil Irwin, Amy Joyce, Washington Post
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: January 13, 2005
Contract talks between the local hotel union and 14 large D.C. hotels ended abruptly last
night as negotiators for the hotels refused to increase their pay and benefits offer, complicating efforts to
avoid a strike before the presidential inauguration next week. Unite Here Local 25 officials have said they
will take action, possibly including a strike, if there is no new contract by Saturday. The two sides have
reached agreement on some minor issues involving working conditions but reached no accord on the union's
access to workplaces or on future pay and benefits for hotel workers.
Labor Presses Case Against Privatizing Social Security
Source: Ben White, Washington Post
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: January 19, 2005
The AFL-CIO on Tuesday stepped up its opposition to private Social Security accounts, accusing Wall
Street's main trade group, the Securities Industry Association, of campaigning in favor of policy changes that
would put workers' retirement at risk while showering billions of dollars in fees on SIA members. "Support for
privatizing Social Security creates a conflict of interest for the member firms of the SIA like those which led
to the financial industry scandals of recent years," AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney wrote in a letter to SIA
Chairman Daniel J. Ludeman. The labor federation began to take a more aggressive stand on corporate governance
issues after scandals at Enron Corp., WorldCom Inc. and other companies.
D.C. hotel workers ratify 3-year pact, end strike threat
Source: Amy Joyce, Washington Post
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: January 19, 2005
Workers from the District's major hotels overwhelmingly approved a new three-year contract, ending a
five-month struggle that threatened a strike during the presidential inauguration. The contract gives 3,500
hotel workers raises over three years and guarantees that they will not pay health insurance premiums. The 14
hotels involved in the negotiations backed off from earlier demands that newly hired employees pay part of
their premiums, which would have created a two-tier health care system strongly opposed by the union. The major
victory for hotels was a three-year contract, rather than the two-year deal sought by the union, which wanted
to bargain for the next hotel contracts in three major cities at the same time.
Actors, studios agree on contract
Source: James Bates, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Screen Actors Guild; American Federation of Television & Radio Artists
Date: January 21, 2005
Actors
and Hollywood's major entertainment companies reached agreement on a three-year contract late Thursday,
averting a production slowdown that could have started as early as this month. Under the $200-million pact,
actors' pay is increased across the board, but they do not gain a bigger share of studio DVD revenue. The
centerpiece of the agreement gained by the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television &
Radio Artists is a 9% raise over three years for 140,000 performers, from film and TV actors to dancers.
Grocers, union in Bay Area reach deal
Source: Lisa Girion, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: January 25, 2005
Three major supermarket chains and the union representing 30,000 grocery workers in the Bay Area have reached
a tentative agreement on a new contract that may have been influenced by the crippling supermarket strike in
Central and Southern California a year ago. The contract doesn't include a two-tier wage system. Union members
will vote on the proposed deal over the next three weeks. They may owe their comparatively better deal to the
sacrifices of their Central and Southern California counterparts. "Supermarket workers across the country have
benefited from the Los Angeles experience," said Kent Wong, director of UCLA's Center for Labor Research and
Education.
United union rejects tentative contract
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: January 28, 2005
United
Airlines' mechanics union announced Friday that its members rejected a tentative contract agreement, dealing
the carrier a setback in its efforts to cut labor costs without alienating its workers. Members of the Aircraft
Mechanics Fraternal Association also voted to authorize a strike if United succeeds in its efforts to get a
federal bankruptcy judge to impose its own terms, union spokesman Richard Turk said. United pilots and flight
attendants are conducting similar contract ratification votes, with the results to be announced Monday.
Source: Matt Bai, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: January 30, 2005
The S.E.I.U. is a
different kind of union, rooted in the new service economy. Its members aren't truck drivers or assembly-line
workers but janitors and nurses and home health care aides, roughly a third of whom are black, Asian or Latino.
While the old-line industrial unions have been shrinking every year, [Andrew] Stern's union has been
organizing low-wage workers, many of whom have never belonged to a union, at a torrid pace, to the point where
the S.E.I.U. is now the largest and fastest-growing trade union in North America. Once a movement of rust brown
and steel gray, Big Labor is increasingly represented, at rallies and political conventions, by a rising sea of
purple. All of this makes Andy Stern -- a charismatic 54-year-old former social-service worker -- a very
powerful man in labor, and also in Democratic politics.
First labor union at Wal-Mart?
Source: CNN.com
Union(s): UFCW
Date: January 31, 2005
Employees at a Colorado Wal-Mart
tire and auto maintenance shop have been granted approval to hold a union election that could create the first
ever organized labor group at the country's biggest retailer. Workers at the Loveland, Colo., Wal-Mart Tire
& Lube Express are expected to vote in February on representation by the United Food and Commercial Workers
Union. A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) spokesman said that the automotive service workers were found to
have a "distinct and sufficient interest" in collective bargaining that distinguishes them from other store
employees.
Source: Mark Skertic, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: February 1, 2005
United Airlines won labor peace Monday, though it may last only a few months, when two of its
largest unions agreed to millions of dollars in concessions, and a bankruptcy judge imposed a short-term
contract on a third. Judge Eugene Wedoff ordered a temporary 10 percent pay cut for workers in the mechanics
union after United's attorney argued the financially ailing carrier needed the reduction immediately. The
airline's pilots and flight attendants agreed to new contracts that cut pay and changed work rules.
Labor tries organizing in the union-wary South
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: February 6, 2005
The
Service Employees International Union is undertaking one of the largest private-sector organizing drives in the
South in decades, seeking to represent 7,000 condominium workers, mostly immigrants, in the Miami area. [SEIU]
president Andrew Stern is leading a campaign to remake the labor movement, and his aides assert that if unions
are serious about reversing their decline and helping low-wage workers nationwide, they need to expand below
the Mason-Dixon line. Union officials also acknowledge a secondary motive: to try to transform the politics of
the region and the nation by creating conditions in which labor-friendly candidates can be elected here. If the
service employees gain a foothold, they could embolden other unions, many labor experts say. While 12.5 percent
of workers are in unions nationwide, in Florida just 6 percent are.
Wal-Mart to close store in Canada with a union
Source: Ian Austen, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Canada
Date: February 10, 2005
Wal-Mart Canada said Wednesday that it [will] close a store in Quebec where unionized workers are attempting
to negotiate the first collective agreement in North America with the company. The union [will] appeal the
closing to Quebec's labor relations board. But a recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling affirmed the right of
employers to close for any reason. The situation may repeat itself in other cities and towns in Canada. A union
bargaining unit was recently certified at another Wal-Mart store, in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec. The store's
closing might provoke a reaction against Wal-Mart in Quebec, an area where unions enjoy unusual strength.
Pentagon's personnel system faces suit
Source: Christopher Lee, Washington Post
Union(s): American Federation of Government Employees, Association of Civilian Technicians, Laborers' International Union, National Association of Government Employees, National Federation of Federal Employees
Date: February 11, 2005
Five federal-employee unions announced yesterday that they will file a lawsuit next week in U.S. District
Court challenging parts of the Defense Department's new personnel system. The unions contend that Pentagon
officials went against federal law by refusing to adequately consult with employees' representatives in
developing the sections on labor-management issues. They also say that the National Security Personnel System
would gut collective bargaining in violation of federal law. The American Federation of Government Employees,
the Association of Civilian Technicians, the Laborers' International Union, the National Association of
Government Employees, and the National Federation of Federal Employees have about 250,000 members among the
750,000 civilian workers at the Defense Department.
Is labor out in front on health care?
Source: Matt Miller, New York Times
Union(s): Communications Workers of America, Service Employees International Union
Date: February 13, 2005
It's no
secret that surging health costs have become a C.E.O.-level issue. When a company like General Motors looks
more each year like a giant health plan that operates a nice little nonprofit car business on the side, who
wouldn't sound the alarm? But to many business leaders, their union counterparts' view of soaring health
costs remains a mystery. Recent conversations with Morton Bahr of the Communications Workers of America and
Andrew Stern of the Service Employees International Union suggest that at least some union leaders think about
the health system in ways more sophisticated and businesslike than many chief executives do--and that they are
eager to be partners in a national reform dialogue that's overdue.
Labour rules out Wal-Mart boycott
Source: CBC News
Union(s): Quebec Federation of Labour
Date: February 14, 2005
Organized labour in
Quebec has announced a series of moves to fight Wal-Mart's closure of its first unionized store in the
province, but those moves, for now at least, stop short of a boycott. The Quebec Federation of Labour (FTQ)
said a boycott could backfire, pointing out that several unionization drives are underway at other Wal-Marts in
Canada. FTQ president Henri Masse said Wal-Mart might accuse his group of working against its own people.
Instead, the labour movement will focus its Wal-Mart strategy on the Quebec government and will fight the
closure through labour tribunals.
AFL-CIO chief to seek 3rd term as labor ponders future
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: February 25, 2005
Amid a deepening sense of crisis in the U.S. labor movement, AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney
said Thursday he would propose comprehensive reforms for the labor federation and seek reelection to a third
term. Elected on a reform slate, Sweeney had promised to make labor bigger, stronger and more vibrant. But
despite notable successes in politics and organizing, union membership continued to decline and now stands at
8% of the private-sector workforce, its lowest level in decades. Few blame Sweeney for the setbacks. But
several labor activists have privately said that new, energized leaders are needed to push reforms. Sweeney's
decision to seek reelection in June--which was expected--makes it more awkward for his rivals, though others
are expected to seek his job anyway.
AFL-CIO leaders to debate major reforms at meeting
Source: Nigel Hunt, Reuters
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: February 24, 2005
The AFL-CIO executive council will attempt
to hammer out a reform program when it meets in Las Vegas next week as the U.S. labor federation seeks to
regain political clout, calm internal dissent and reverse declining membership, President John Sweeney said.
Sweeney said the AFL-CIO would seek to encourage union mergers and provide financial incentives for unions to
organize in workplaces where they are currently not active. The number of U.S. union members has fallen by 1.28
million to 15.47 million since Sweeney took the helm of the AFL-CIO in 1995 and the percentage of union members
had dipped to 12.5 percent of workers from 15.5 percent. Sweeney said the Bush administration was the "most
hostile to working people we've ever seen" and said that the union movement also faced employer resistance to
workers trying to form unions.
Wal-Mart, union vie for tiny shop
Source: T.R. Reid, Amy Joyce, Washington Post
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: February 25, 2005
In the 35 months he has worked for one of the world's richest corporations, Joshua Noble has received
several commendations, he says, and three raises. But that still leaves him with an annual wage below $20,000
and a grand total of one week of vacation per year. "It's frustrating, to be at a big company for three years,
and you're still struggling all the time," says the 21-year-old. That frustration has turned Noble into a foot
soldier in what seems likely to be one of the major union-management battlegrounds of the next decade: the
fight to unionize Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart seems likely to face repeated union battles at its 4,800 outlets. The
retailer recently has had to confront unions at its stores in this country and elsewhere.
AFL-CIO leader backs shifting money to member unions' organizing efforts
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: February 25, 2005
With several unions threatening to bolt the AFL-CIO, John J. Sweeney,
the federation's president, said that he would support cutting individual unions' contributions to the
federation to make more money available to organize workers. Mr. Sweeney gave broad support to proposals made
by several labor leaders who assert that labor needs to devote far more money to organizing to stop labor's
longtime slide. As an unusual debate swirls within labor about what changes are needed, Mr. Sweeney said unions
should have their contributions to the AFL-CIO reduced only if they pledged to invest heavily in organizing.
The debate over change and reducing unions' payments to the AFL-CIO could gather steam next week when the
nation's labor leaders hold their winter meeting at Bally's Hotel in Las Vegas.
At a small shop in Colorado, Wal-Mart beats a union once more
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: February 28, 2005
Joshua Noble jolted Wal-Mart last November when he got a majority of employees at the Wal-Mart
tire-and-lube shop where he worked to sign statements saying they wanted to vote on bringing in a labor union.
The unionization drive begun by Mr. Noble created a storm in this onetime ranching town at the foot of the
Rockies and became a closely watched test of labor's efforts to unionize the world's largest retailer. But on
Friday the workers at the Wal-Mart Tire & Lube Express abandoned Mr. Noble, voting 17 to 1 against
unionizing, another setback for organized labor at the very moment when its leaders are mapping a campaign to
pressure the company to improve wages and benefits.
Labor pains: eight simple rules
Source: Jonathan Tasini, TomPaine.com
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: February 28, 2005
Perhaps it's fitting that the AFL-CIO Executive Council, at which the roiling debate over the future of labor
will be played out, is being held in the land of fantasy: Las Vegas. Don't get me wrong: the fact that there
even is a debate--and a sharp one at that--is a great thing. But, count me as one who doubts that the current
debate will lead to the changes needed. These rules will help you understand what is happening in Sin City this
week and how to tell whether anything really will change.
Teachers refuse to give homework
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw
Union(s): Berkeley Federation of Teachers
Date: March 1, 2005
Berkeley [California] students aren't getting written homework assignments because teachers are refusing to
grade work on their own time after two years with no pay raise. So far, a black history event had to be
canceled and parents had to staff a middle-school science fair because teachers are sticking strictly to the
hours they're contracted to work. Teachers say they don't want to stop volunteering their time. "It's hard,"
said high school math teacher Judith Bodenhauser. "I have stacks of papers I haven't graded. Parents want to
talk to me; I don't call them back." The action was organized by the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, which
wants a cost-of-living increase next year.
Labor leaders reject rival plan to shift more money to organizing
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: March 3, 2005
In a vote likely to create deeper tensions inside the labor movement, the leaders of the AFL-CIO
rejected a proposal to cut in half individual unions' contributions to the federation to free up more money
for organizing. The proposal put forward by five large unions came during the federation's winter meeting,
which was taking place under a threat by the AFL-CIO's largest union, the Service Employees International
Union, to leave the organization. The five unions argued that a 50 percent cut in contributions was important
to get unions to invest more in organizing, to shake up the AFL-CIO's bureaucracy and to demonstrate a
commitment to far-reaching change.
Labor leaders debate 'dramatic changes' for AFL-CIO
Source: Bryant Stamford, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: March 3, 2005
There's little doubt, say leaders of the nation's unions meeting [in Las Vegas], that
organized labor badly needs a fix for its woes. But divisions in their ranks mean that major questions about
the future of the AFL-CIO will probably not be resolved until the group's three-day convention in Chicago in
July, union officials said Tuesday. In a gathering that AFL-CIO President John Sweeney described as "one of the
most important" in labor's history, the AFL-CIO's Executive Council meeting is largely focused on ways to
re-energize the 50-year-old organization.
AFL-CIO's Sweeney defeats challenge from dissidents
Source: Thomas B. Edsall, Washington Post
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: March 3, 2005
AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney turned back a strong challenge to his control from
dissident unions and then won a major increase in spending on labor political activities during a federation
meeting Wednesday. Sweeney's forces defeated an effort to shift $35 million of union funds into union
organizing. The dissident unions had challenged federation policies under Sweeney and discussed the possibility
of running a candidate against Sweeney. Sweeney also won approval of a proposal to nearly double spending on
political and legislative activity to $90 million every two years. On the organizing front, labor continues to
collapse. The percentage of workers who are in unions has fallen from 15.8 percent in 1994 to 12.5 percent last
year, while private sector unionization rates have fallen from 10.8 percent to 7.9 percent in the same
period.
Wal-Mart workers sign union cards
Source: Associated Press, San Jose Mercury News
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: March 3, 2005
Five years after the first unionized Wal-Mart store in Canada was decertified without
winning a contract, union organizers say they've signed enough workers at the same store to hold a new vote.
The United Food and Commercial Workers is asking provincial labor officials to hold a vote next week at a store
in Windsor, Ont. The union said Wednesday that more than 40 percent of workers at Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s east
Windsor location have signed union cards--the minimum required to hold a certification vote. Wal-Mart, the
world's largest retailer with more than 4,000 stores worldwide, has been facing increasing pressure to accept
unionized stores, but has so far resisted. The only two unionized Wal-Mart stores in North America are in
Saint-Hyacinthe, Que., and Jonquiere, Que.
2 unions feud over Illinois workers
Source: Stephen Franklin, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; Service Employees International Union
Date: March 4, 2005
An angry spat erupted Thursday between two of the nation's largest unions over who should represent
49,000 child-care workers in Illinois. The feud pits the Service Employees International Union against the
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees over the workers, whom Gov. Rod Blagojevich
recently said could bargain with the state though a union. The workers are not state employees, but they care
for about 200,000 children from low- and moderate-income families in Illinois through state grants. Such
workers are coveted as unions hunt for new members; the two unions also have bumped heads in other states.
Furious over what he described as an effort by AFSCME to undercut his union's long-term organizing effort
among Illinois' child-care workers, SEIU President Andy Stern asked AFL-CIO President John Sweeney to
intervene.
Bush-named NLRB majority further weakens workers rights
Source: Mark Gruenberg, International Labor Communications Association
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: March 4, 2005
The Bush-named GOP majority on the
National Labor Relations board has produced a clear trend over the last four years to further reduce already
weak labor law protections for U.S. workers, the AFL-CIO's top lawyer says. And the worst may be yet to come.
In a press conference on March 1 during the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting in Las Vegas, federation General
Counsel Jon Hiatt pointed to "0 to 45" rulings by the 3-member NLRB majority that cumulatively weaken worker
protections. But real bad damage would come if that same majority abolishes--in fact if not in name--the
ability of unions to represent workers through "card check," otherwise known as voluntary recognnition
agreements (VRAs).
Wal-Mart workers reject union in Canada
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: March 9, 2005
Workers at a Wal-Mart store in Windsor have voted against being unionized by the United Food and Commercial
Workers Union. Wal-Mart said store associates in the union's proposed bargaining unit voted 167 to 59 on
Tuesday against joining the union, representing a 74 percent vote against certification. The UFCW said it has
asked the Ontario Labour Relations Board to consider a second certification vote at the Windsor Wal-Mart store
because of "charges Wal-Mart conducted a campaign of intimidation leading up to a certification vote held at
the store on Tuesday." The organizing campaign was the second attempt at the Windsor store. Employees at the
store voted in the 1990s against joining the United Steelworkers of America. But the Ontario labor board ruled
in 1997 that the company engaged in a pattern of misconduct, and automatically certified the employees.
U.S. moves to take over a United Air pension plan
Source: Mary Williams Walsh, New York Times
Union(s): International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: March 12, 2005
The
government moved to take over the pension fund for the ground employees and mechanics of United Airlines,
saying that the fund was almost $3 billion short of the amount needed and growing weaker with every month that
United kept control of it. It was the second time in three months that the government has sought to take
control of a United pension plan. In both cases, the government said it had to act to keep United from
improperly exploiting the federal pension insurance program, which is itself in trouble. The Pension Benefit
Guaranty Corporation, which insures pensions, said United had already acknowledged that [the] plan was doomed,
but was delaying shutting it down to get more insurance coverage. If the government does take over [the] plan,
some of its 36,000 participants will lose [some] of their benefits.
British Labor Party? Embassy staff in U.S. see lack of solidarity
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers
Date: March 17, 2005
Workers at the British Embassy in Washington and at British consulates
throughout the United States are seeking to join an American labor union, but Britain's government has
resisted recognizing the union. In January, shortly after the British Embassy announced cutbacks in sick leave
and some other benefits, a majority of the 630 nondiplomatic employees at the embassy, consulates and United
Nations mission signed statements saying they favored joining the International Federation of Professional and
Technical Engineers, based in Silver Spring, Md. Embassy officials asserted that American law did not require
them to recognize the union, so the employees asked Britain's main labor federation, the Trade Union Congress,
to lobby Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
Big Three workers give an inch on health care
Source: Danny Hakim, Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: March 22, 2005
With the decline of the domestic auto industry accelerating, the United Auto Workers union has agreed to a
baby-step rollback of its vaunted health care coverage. Under the coverage, workers at GM, Ford and Chrysler
pay no deductibles or monthly premiums. But the union agreed to let Chrysler start imposing deductibles for
workers or retirees who use preferred provider organizations. While Chrysler will reap only modest savings from
the step, and while auto workers still have coverage that is the envy of many white-collar workers, the move is
deeply symbolic and a sign of the union's acknowledgment of the competitive pressures from foreign-based
competitors. Considering that Chrysler is the healthiest of the Big Three at the moment, and that similar
provisions are in all of the Big Three contracts, such arrangements are expected to follow for GM and Ford.
Workers vote to end strike at walnut plant
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Date: March 23, 2005
Workers at the world's largest walnut processing plant voted Tuesday night to end their more than
13-year-long strike. Members of Teamsters Local 601 ratified the new five-year contract 180-61, clearing the
way for striking workers to return to work Monday at Diamond of California. Most of the 600 strikers who walked
out Sept. 4, 1991, have since found jobs elsewhere and aren't expected to return. Workers took a 30 percent
pay cut in 1985 during tough times, and say they expected to be repaid as the cooperative's finances improved.
The union's leadership ordered the walkout when Diamond offered a dime-an-hour raise and a bonus package in
1991.
Unions team up to take on Wal-Mart
Source: Anne Howland, Ottawa Sun
Union(s): National Union of Public and General Employees, United Food and Commercial Workers Canada
Date: March 23, 2005
Two of Canada's largest unions are taking direct aim at Wal-Mart as they prepare to release a study tomorrow
on the "abuse" of the right to freedom of association. Freedom of association includes the right to join a
union, bargain collectively and withhold services by going on strike. The study, by [the National Union of
Public and General Employees] and [the United Food and Commercial Workers] Canada, cites 170 pieces of
legislation that have undermined freedom of association rights since 1982. Because Canadian governments have
neglected to uphold the basic right, the labour leaders said in a release, "employers in Canada have developed
a culture of impunity and routinely engage in the wholesale denial of workers rights." The two unions have
signed a "formal organizing protocol" to support organizing Wal-Mart workers in Canada.
3 Continental unions agree to take pay and benefit cuts
Source: Bloomberg News, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Transport Workers Union
Date: March 31, 2005
Pilots, dispatchers and mechanics at Continental Airlines voted to accept pay and benefit cuts, contributing
to a company goal to reduce annual costs by $500 million. The new contracts hinge on flight attendants'
agreeing to the concessions. Continental said earlier this month that it could be forced to cut jobs, cancel
plane orders and seek more concessions from workers if the contracts were not approved. Continental promised
workers that it would not cut jobs under the new contracts, which run through 2008. The airline also agreed to
provide profit sharing and 10 million stock options to employees.
Source: Barbara Rose, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: April 8, 2005
Thousands of Illinois child-care providers have voted to join a union, ending a nearly decade-long
organizing campaign. They handed a significant victory to the Service Employees International Union, an
organization with growing political clout. The election results, announced Thursday by SEIU's Local 880,
extend collective bargaining rights to nearly 50,000 mostly female workers who offer government-subsidized
child care in their homes. The workers, many of whom earn as little as $9.48 per child per day, care for about
200,000 children from low- and moderate-income families under a state-run program funded by state and federal
grants.
Union seeks Wal-Mart files about payments
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: April 9, 2005
The United
Food and Commercial Workers Union called on Wal-Mart Stores to release all documents connected with accusations
that its former vice chairman, Tom Coughlin, had obtained improper expense account reimbursements to finance
secret anti-union activities. The union voiced dismay over a report in The Wall Street Journal that
cited several Wal-Mart employees who said that Mr. Coughlin diverted thousands of dollars in expense account
reimbursements as part of a plan to make secret payment to union staff members so they would tell Wal-Mart
officials the names of pro-union employees at stores.
Union files labor complaint against Wal-Mart
Source: Reuters, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: April 13, 2005
The
largest U.S. grocery union has filed a complaint against Wal-Mart, asking the National Labor Relations Board to
investigate whether the retailer "bribed" employees to block union activities. The United Food and Commercial
Workers' complaint comes after The Wall Street Journal reported last week that former Wal-Mart Vice
Chairman Tom Coughlin may have used undocumented expense payments to fund anti-union activities, including
paying union staffers to tell him of pro-union workers in stores. The union wants the NLRB to subpoena any
documents from Wal-Mart that might substantiate those charges. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said the union was filing
wild charges in hopes that they would get attention.
1-day strike hits UC facilities
Source: Stuart Silverstein, Natasha Lee, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Date: April 15, 2005
Cooks, janitors, groundskeepers and other service workers staged a one-day
strike Thursday at University of California campuses and hospitals, protesting their job conditions and stalled
union contract negotiations. Union activists with Local 3299 of the American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees, which represents 7,300 UC service workers, called rallies and protests at 12 university
sites throughout the state. UC officials said the strike was "presumptively illegal" because negotiations with
the union have not reached a dead end. Union officials disagreed, saying that employees have worked without a
contract since Jan. 31 and have not received a raise in two years.
Union won't reopen GM labor pact
Source: Chicago Tribune
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: April 15, 2005
United
Auto Workers officials indicated Thursday that they would be unwilling to reopen the union's 2-year-old labor
contract with General Motors to negotiate lower health-care costs. Already battered shares of the world's
largest automaker tumbled to lows not seen in more than a decade. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said after an
annual meeting between GM and the union that the automaker has not asked the union to reopen the contract. He
said the UAW believes it can work with GM to lower costs within the current contract. Gettelfinger repeated his
call for a national health-care system, which he said would be the best thing for employers as well as the
millions of Americans without medical coverage.
Union cries foul in Wal-Mart sign fight
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: April 19, 2005
The image
planned for the anti-Wal-Mart billboard was unusual--a fire-breathing Godzilla standing next to the
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge--and the language was strong: "The Wal-Monster will destroy Staten Island businesses
and devastate our quality of life." But New Yorkers may never see the billboard, which was supposed to go up on
the island, because Clear Channel, the giant radio network that also runs an outdoor advertising company, has
rejected it, saying its image and language are too inflammatory. Officials of the labor union that was planning
the message to help fight a Wal-Mart proposed for Staten Island accused Clear Channel of improper censorship.
Laundry workers prepare to strike
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Lisa Girion, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: May 3, 2005
Workers who clean the linens of half the hospitals in Southern California are planning to
strike Thursday, part of a national campaign against laundry contractor Angelica Corp. that could disrupt
services to healthcare facilities across the country. Union leaders said Monday a majority of workers are set
to walk off the job at 15 Angelica plants. They also said union truck drivers and healthcare workers will
cooperate by refusing to handle linens delivered by striker replacements. The union backing the planned strike,
Unite Here, wants Angelica to agree to health and safety improvements, a slower work pace and family healthcare
benefits.
US warns AFL-CIO on protests about Social Security
Source: Edmund L. Andrews, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: May 5, 2005
The Bush
administration has warned the nation's biggest labor federation that union-run pension funds may be breaking
the law in opposing President Bush's Social Security proposals. In a letter to the AFL-CIO, the Department of
Labor said it was "very concerned" that pension plans might be spending workers' money to "advocate a
particular result in the current Social Security debate." The Labor Department also warned the federation that
pension plans could be violating their fiduciary responsibilities by suggesting that they might take their
investment business away from Wall Street firms that support Mr. Bush's plans.
Unions war over tribal casinos in California
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Communications Workers of America; Unite Here
Date: May 4, 2005
The main
union of hotel and restaurant workers has sued another union, accusing it of violating a promise by pressing a
rival campaign to organize workers at tribal casinos in California. The hotel workers' union, Unite Here,
points out that it was granted exclusive jurisdiction by the AFL-CIO in 2001 to organize employees in
California's fast-growing casino industry. But the other union, the Communications Workers of America, defends
the legitimacy of its campaign, noting that it already represents employees at two casinos as a result of
contracts that were signed before the labor federation conferred that jurisdiction.
United maps novel legal strategy in labor fight
Source: Mark Skertic, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Association of Flight Attendants; International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: May 6, 2005
United Airlines could be flying into uncharted legal territory next week when it asks a bankruptcy
judge to throw out the contracts of more than 41,000 flight attendants, mechanics and machinists. The airline
will use federal bankruptcy laws when asking the court to void the contracts of three unions. If successful,
the carrier has vowed to invoke another law, the Railway Labor Act, to force workers to stay on the job. In
short, United hopes to use the power of the courts to compel workers to accept new pay and benefit terms the
company would dictate.
AFL-CIO lays off 105, but discord grows louder
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: May 8, 2005
Already
facing upheaval and dissent from several union presidents, the AFL-CIO saw its problems escalate last week when
the federation laid off about a fourth of its staff and the chairman of its public relations committee resigned
in a fit of pique. Not only that, but four of the nation's largest unions demanded that the AFL-CIO remove
their members' names from its master political list of 13 million workers because of a feud over sharing
information. The AFL-CIO, a federation of 57 unions, has been in tumult for more than six months, ever since
the federation's largest union, the Service Employees International Union, threatened to quit, complaining
that the organization was doing far too little to reverse labor's decline.
Source: Hans Nichols, The Hill
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: May 10, 2005
The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) has flatly rejected a major labor union's call to cut ties to Wal-Mart
lobbyists and executives who have been canvassing the Capitol in search of new friends and allies. Black
lawmakers say they will continue to listen to Wal-Mart--as they would any other group interested in building a
relationship--and will not be bullied by what they regard as the Service Employees International Union's
(SEIU) inappropriate attempt to "put the CBC in its place" with instructions to shun the world's largest
employer. This SEIU-CBC dispute comes at a time when Wal-Mart is significantly boosting its political
contributions to Democrats.
AFL-CIO is urged to oust its leader
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: May 17, 2005
The
president of the largest union in the AFL-CIO yesterday called on other labor leaders to help him oust John
Sweeney, the federation's president, and warned that his union would quit the federation if Mr. Sweeney was
re-elected. Asserting that sweeping change was needed to revive the labor movement, Andrew Stern, president of
the Service Employees International Union, said Mr. Sweeney was not the person to bring about bold change. Mr.
Stern joined the leaders of four other major unions--the Teamsters, the laborers, the food and commercial
workers, and Unite Here--in endorsing a platform that calls for overhauling the AFL-CIO. Yesterday's
developments show that the challenge to Mr. Sweeney has reached new heights.
Hotels break ranks on union contract
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: May 20, 2005
A coalition of prominent Los Angeles hotels has suffered a double blow in its yearlong power struggle with the
hotel workers' union, as two of nine original members publicly broke ranks on the crucial issue of the
contract expiration date. The Unite Here union is demanding that the contract end in 2006 as part of a campaign
to line up expiration dates across the country. That could allow the union to call a national strike as it goes
up against national chains, leaders said. The expiration date has been the key point of contention between the
two sides, with the Los Angeles Hotel Employer's Council pushing for a longer deal.
Source: Michael Barbaro, Washington Post
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: May 23, 2005
Behind [a] hodgepodge of figures is a very specific goal: Keeping out Wal-Mart. As the
discount giant shifts its focus from the Washington region's fast-growing fringes to its dense urban center,
it has become locked in a bitter behind-the-scenes struggle with the local unionized grocery industry, which is
scrambling to erect legislative barriers to the chain's growth. The fight is taking on national significance.
Wal-Mart, which has conquered rural America with more than 3,000 stores, desperately needs to break into the
urban market to maintain its phenomenal growth. So far, it has been rebuffed in Chicago, New York and Los
Angeles, and the retailer views Washington as an important frontier for expansion.
Chrysler and union face crucial talks in Canada
Source: Danny Hakim, New York Times
Union(s): Canadian Auto Workers
Date: May 27, 2005
The
stakes are high for Chrysler in summer contract talks with the Canadian Auto Workers union. Executives of
Chrysler contend that their Canadian workers are fast becoming uncompetitive in the global economy. While
Canada's nationalized health care helps Chrysler undercut labor costs at its plants in the United States,
Canadian workers have in the last three years become more expensive than workers at nonunionized plants in the
United States run by Toyota, Honda and other Asian automakers. Chrysler executives say a series of generous
contracts granted to Canadian workers have offset the roughly $4-an-hour advantage over the United States
resulting from Canada's health care system.
Ruling expected in United Airlines labor contract case
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Date: May 31, 2005
A federal bankruptcy court judge is expected to rule today on a request by United Airlines to
terminate the contract covering its 20,000 baggage handlers and ground workers, a move their union maintains
would lead to an immediate strike. Negotiators for United and the International Association of Machinists and
Aerospace Workers met Monday night to discuss United's request for $176 million in wage and benefit cuts in a
bid to reach an agreement before a court hearing. United is seeking cuts as part of $700 million in annual
employee cutbacks in its efforts to emerge from bankruptcy protection. Workers granted United an initial round
of $1.5 billion in annual cuts shortly after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2002.
A summer of discontent for labor focuses on its leader's fitness for his job
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: May 31, 2005
After nearly half a century in the union movement and after a decade leading the nation's
main labor federation, John Sweeney is facing his toughest time ever. The percentage of American workers
belonging to unions continues to fall, President Bush is seeking to weaken collective bargaining rights for
700,000 federal workers, and many unionized companies are cutting back once-unassailable benefits, like health
insurance and pensions. But for Mr. Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, the biggest battle may be a nasty
internal struggle--the federation's largest union, the Service Employees International Union, is threatening
to secede if, as many expect, Mr. Sweeney wins a new four-year term this summer.
Logging on with a new campaign
Source: Amy Joyce, Washington Post
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: May 31, 2005
After years of failed attempts to help Wal-Mart workers organize a union, leaders of the
United Food and Commercial Workers are trying an Internet-oriented approach developed in recent failed
presidential campaigns. When Joseph T. Hansen became president last year, he decided to switch from approaching
employees inside the stores to putting on a wider campaign designed to win over the company's customers and
general public. His hope is that public reaction and negative publicity will force the company's executives to
change some practices. The effort [is called] Wake-Up Wal-Mart, and it tries to use tools developed in
political campaigns.
Unions struggle as communications industry shifts
Source: Matt Richtel, New York Times
Union(s): Communication Workers of America
Date: June 1, 2005
Even as unions
struggle nationwide, with just 12.5 percent of the total work force unionized in 2004 compared with 22 percent
in 1980, they face a particularly bleak future in the telecommunications industry. The industry was once a
labor stronghold after the Bell monopolies became unionized in the late 1930's. But mergers, deregulation and
technological change have reduced the number of jobs at the traditional phone companies while creating hundreds
of thousands of jobs in cable and wireless companies, which are largely union-free. To slow the rapid decline,
unions are fighting to organize workers at cable and wireless companies. They have had little success, outside
a big victory in 2000 when they organized workers at Cingular Wireless.
Agreements reached with United, averting a strike
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: June 1, 2005
United
Airlines dodged the possibility of walkouts by two unions yesterday, in a reflection of the reality of
bargaining with a company under bankruptcy protection. Members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
approved a contract that would reduce their pay by 3.9 percent, as part of $96 million in annual cuts. United
reached [an] agreement with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers after a burst of
last-minute bargaining that began Monday. In a statement, the union said that the agreement covered a variety
of terms and included a new pension plan. It did not offer specifics.
Teamsters unit rejects Coke accord
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Date: June 3, 2005
Four
locals of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, representing about 1,650 workers, have been jointly
negotiating with [Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc.] for several months. They launched a coordinated strike May 23,
mainly over healthcare benefits. A settlement reached early Wednesday was expected to end the strike. Union
negotiators unanimously recommended ratification, and members of three locals did just that. But the bottlers,
in Local 896, voted to reject it. If members of Local 896 resume picket lines today, as they said they would,
members of the other three locals will honor them and not return to work.
Source: Roger Vincent, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: June 10, 2005
Employees at the Hyatt West Hollywood, a legendary rock 'n' roll hotel on the Sunset Strip, went on strike
Thursday as contract negotiations between workers and owners at seven prominent Los Angeles hotels faltered.
Most of the 120 union members at the Hyatt hotel and restaurant, including bellhops, front desk clerks,
housekeepers and telephone operators, are honoring the picket line, said Tom Walsh, secretary-treasurer of
Unite Here Local 11. He expects the strike to last two weeks. Hotel owners voted Thursday to lock out union
employees at the six other hotels at an unspecified date in response to the strike. Those hotels may also be
subject to strikes, Walsh said.
Union, hotels avert strike, lockout
Source: John O'Dell, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: June 12, 2005
In a deal brokered by Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa, hotel operators and union leaders tentatively agreed
on a new contract Saturday, narrowly averting a lockout of union workers at seven major Los Angeles hotels. The
agreement to end a 14-month dispute between Unite Here Local 11 and the Los Angeles Hotel Employer's Council
was signed five minutes before 2,500 union workers were to be locked out of their jobs in retaliation for a
strike called Thursday against one of the council's hotels. Villaraigosa, in his first major effort at
managing the city he will head beginning July 1, was credited by both sides for bringing the long-standing
dispute to a close.
G.M. board wants cut in benefits
Source: Danny Hakim, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: June 15, 2005
The board of
General Motors has given the United Automobile Workers until the end of the month to agree to cuts in its
members' health care benefits. Many local union leaders have said they were willing to make concessions, but
not to the extent that G.M. was seeking. If the union and the company cannot agree by the end of the month,
G.M. is threatening to make the cuts on its own. Such a step could lead to a breakdown in G.M.'s relations
with the union and possible strikes. Shares of G.M. rose 4 percent on Tuesday after a report on the deadline
appeared in The Detroit News. G.M. covers 1.1 million Americans, including workers, retirees and family
members, making it the nation's largest private provider of medical benefits.
Source: Harold Meyerson, Washington Post
Union(s): AFL-CIO; Change to Win Coalition
Date: June 15, 2005
The dissident unions of the AFL-CIO are meeting today to announce that they are building a
halfway house. The Change to Win Coalition will begin life neither entirely within nor without the AFL-CIO. The
founders have each made noises about decamping from the federation unless more money is devoted to organizing
and incumbent President John Sweeney is replaced. But Sweeney and his allies command a clear majority of the
federation's unions, and they insist that all the dissidents except SEIU are bluffing. In a sense, the leaders
of American labor are engaging one another in a massive game of chicken. But such games can take on a life of
their own, with all manner of unforeseen consequences.
Five top unions join forces, raising threat of labor rift
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO; Change to Win Coalition
Date: June 16, 2005
The likelihood of a schism in organized labor increased yesterday when five major unions formed a
growth-oriented coalition and the presidents of four of the unions hinted strongly that they might quit the
A.F.L.-C.I.O. The presidents of the Teamsters, the United Food and Commercial Workers, and Unite Here yesterday
joined an earlier threat by the Service Employees International Union to end their affiliations because they
are so unhappy with the labor federation. The four unions represent nearly one-third of the members of the
A.F.L.-C.I.O., a federation of 57 unions and 13 million workers, and if they quit it would greatly weaken the
federation, hurt its budget and cause fighting within labor.
No pact changes with G.M. yet, union chief says
Source: Danny Hakim, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: June 16, 2005
Setting up a
potential conflict with General Motors, the president of the United Automobile Workers union said Wednesday
that he would not agree to change G.M.'s labor contract before it expires in 2007 or to roll back health
benefits for G.M. hourly workers to match the lesser benefits of the company's salaried employees. In an
extended interview the union's leader, Ron Gettelfinger, said that while he was willing to make concessions to
help General Motors within the terms of their existing contract, the two sides were not yet close to reaching
an agreement. G.M., he said, had not presented him with enough information to convince him of the severity of
the financial situation.
N.Y.U. moves to disband graduate students union
Source: Karen W. Arenson, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: June 17, 2005
New York
University is moving to close down its graduate students union, the labor movement's only toehold among
graduate students at private universities. Union officials quickly attacked N.Y.U. 's plan and vowed to fight
the university in any way they could. N.Y.U. became the only private university with unionized graduate
students five years ago, when the National Labor Relations Board reversed its longstanding position that
graduate student workers were essentially students, not employees. Last year, in a case involving Brown
University, the board, whose composition had changed since the N.Y.U. decision, reversed the position it took
four years earlier, giving N.Y.U. an opportunity to back away from collective bargaining.
UAW raises possibility of strike over GM health care
Source: Sharon Silke Carty, USA Today
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: June 15, 2005
As talks heat up between General Motors and the United Auto Workers over possible health care concessions,
local union leaders are buzzing about the possibility of a strike if workers are forced into a plan they don't
like. Two issues in particular are riling union members: retiree benefits and GM's attempt at a deadline. GM
has asked the union to agree to trim retiree health care benefits, and to do so by June 30. The union balked at
the deadline but said it is trying to find ways to help GM cut its health benefit costs without reopening the
contract. GM says that health care costs add nearly $1,500 to the cost of every car it builds. The company
provides health care for 1.1 million retirees, active workers and their families.
Coalition's strategy builds on union efforts in state
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Change to Win Coalition
Date: June 20, 2005
A group of dissident union leaders last week vowed to reinvigorate the slumping U.S. labor
movement by launching a series of big, strategic organizing campaigns. Elements of what they have in mind have
already been road-tested in California, a hot spot for union activism for more than a decade. And they seem to
be working. The individual unions' innovative campaigns, aimed at some of the state's lowest-paid workers,
have brought tens of thousands of new members under the union umbrella in the last decade and raised pay and
benefits for most, even as wages have stagnated nationally and organized labor's overall share of the
workforce has declined.
Reality show writers seek representation
Source: Richard Verrier, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Writers Guild of America, West
Date: June 21, 2005
The guild representing Hollywood writers disclosed Monday that more than 75% of the scribes on TV reality
shows have signed cards asking to be represented by the union. Organizing writers on reality TV shows brings to
light what has been one of the proliferating genre's open secrets: that so-called unscripted shows often are
scripted after all. Because writers are deeply involved in the dozens of reality shows, union leaders argue,
they should get similar pay and benefits as writers on conventional programs. The guild, which began organizing
the writers a year ago, said it went public with its campaign after major production companies ignored its
demand for recognition.
Union Plans to File Suit for Reality TV Workers
Source: Sharon Waxman, New York Times
Union(s): Writers Guild of America, West
Date: June 29, 2005
While the
reality genre has matured, creating shows that commonly compete in the ratings with scripted entertainment,
conditions for those who work on the shows have worsened, not improved, those workers say. Although the most
popular reality shows compete with scripted entertainment, the genre remains a seat-of-the-pants culture, with
some shows taking only weeks, rather than months, to be bought, produced and appear on the air. This has made
for intense competition among reality-show producers. Budgets and shooting schedules are being squeezed by the
networks, producers say. And the burden, say those who work on the shows, is falling on them. "It's the
Wal-Mart model," Mr. Sharp said. "The networks offer a low amount of money, and if one production company
can't do it, they'll go to another production company. And it's all coming down on us."
Never-ending United pension saga continutes; flight attendants may strike
Source: Times Wireless Services, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Assn. of Flight Attendants
Date: July 1, 2005
The U.S. government Thursday took over United Airlines'
pension plans covering flight attendants and other workers, prompting the union representing the flight
attendants to threaten a job action -- one that could happen as soon as today. The action by the Pension
Benefit Guaranty Corp. moves the bankrupt No. 2 U.S. airline closer to securing the labor savings it needs to
exit Chapter 11 protection. But the Assn. of Flight Attendants said the decision to shift the pension plan to
the pension agency altered the union contract without workers' consent and thus gave the union the right to
strike immediately.
Local 880: labor's new up-and-comer
Source: Barbara Rose, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: July 5, 2005
There was a time not so long ago when old-line industrial unions derided the SEIU--they called it
"SEI-Who?"--for organizing low-income workers who get little recognition and even less respect. Now the 1.8
million-member union, the country's fastest growing, is a powerful force within a deeply divided labor
movement. SEIU is part of a coalition pressing for new AFL-CIO leadership and a stronger commitment to
organizing. Nowhere are the fruits of that commitment more evident than at Local 880, whose innovative drives
are examples of what labor is doing right in the struggle to halt its long, slow decline in membership.
U.S. suit, claiming mob control, seeks takeover of dock union
Source: William K. Rashbaum, New York Times
Union(s): International Longshoremen's Association
Date: July 7, 2005
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn filed a civil racketeering suit against the International
Longshoremen's Association yesterday in an effort to take over the union, which they said has been controlled
by two New York mob families for roughly 50 years. The lawsuit [is] based on recent criminal prosecutions and
decades of evidence of corruption and mob influence in the union and waterfront businesses. The lawsuit said
the union "continues to be a vehicle for organized crime influence in the nation's ports." A union statement
said the lawsuit would have "devastating consequences" on the union and the industry.
Reality show writers claim exploitation
Source: Richard Verrier, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Writers Guild of America, West
Date: July 8, 2005
Stepping up its organizing campaign against reality TV producers, the union representing Hollywood writers
Thursday unveiled a lawsuit filed by a dozen scribes who alleged that they were denied overtime and meal breaks
and ordered to falsify time cards. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, seeks class-action
status. It is the latest effort by the Writers Guild of America, West, to keep up the pressure on production
companies and networks involved in the burgeoning reality TV arena.
Reality TV workers sue producers and networks
Source: Sharon Waxman, New York Times
Union(s): Writers Guild of America, West
Date: July 11, 2005
A lawsuit
filed last week against producers and broadcasters of reality television shows accused those companies of
planning to falsify payroll records of employees to avoid paying wages for overtime. The lawsuit seeks
class-action status and is part of a broader effort by the Writers Guild of America, West, to organize nearly
1,000 workers who edit and produce the reality programs. The union says the workers toil lengthy schedules for
dismal wages with no health or pension benefits, unlike counterparts on scripted television shows. The lawsuit
charges breach of California overtime law, failure to provide itemized wage statements, nonpayment of wages,
denial of meal periods and record-keeping violations.
Some United attendants are rehired
Source: Associated Press, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Association of Flight Attendants
Date: July 11, 2005
United Airlines has called back 600 flight attendants who took voluntary layoffs, and company executives said
they would invite 851 more to return to work by late fall. Although the Assn. of Flight Attendants welcomed the
recall, the union said the action was needed to fill vacancies left by workers who were quitting in response to
pay and benefit cuts implemented by the carrier as it tries to emerge from bankruptcy protection. United's
flight attendants are threatening to strike after the carrier formally turned over their pension plan to the
federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.
Dissidents threaten labor convention boycott
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: July 20, 2005
Leaders of
several dissident unions warned yesterday that they might shun next week's AFL-CIO convention in Chicago
unless the labor federation's president, John Sweeney, agreed to some of their demands. The possibility that
those unions--the service employees, Teamsters, food and commercial workers and Unite Here--would boycott the
convention signals that the four might carry out their threat to quit the federation, labor leaders said. The
dissident unions, which include about one-third of the federation's members, are unhappy that Mr. Sweeney
seems certain to win a new four-year term at the convention.
Northwest at an impasse in talks with mechanics
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: July 21, 2005
The clock is
officially ticking on a 30-day cooling-off period in the labor dispute between Northwest Airlines and its
mechanics' union. After that, the union could strike or the airline could impose the $176 million in cuts that
it wants--but neither is certain. The countdown began yesterday, when the National Mediation Board declared an
impasse in bitter negotiations it had tried to resolve between Northwest and the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal
Association. The nation's fifth-largest airline, Northwest has spent more than two years trying to persuade
its workers to grant cuts so that it can reduce labor costs to the rates paid by rivals like American, Delta,
United and US Airways, which have all obtained union concessions in the last few years.
NHL players overwhelmingly approve labor deal
Source: Rick Westhead, New York Times
Union(s): N.H.L. Players Association
Date: July 22, 2005
National
Hockey League players voted Thursday to ratify a six-year collective bargaining agreement, which included a
salary cap for the first time. The 301-day lockout caused the first season lost to a labor dispute in North
American major league sports. The new contract guarantees that players will receive 54 percent of the league's
revenue. In the past, they have received closer to 75 percent. Several members of the players' executive
committee said they had been resigned to losing the protracted labor battle. Jeffrey Kessler, a labor lawyer in
New York who has worked for the NFL and the NBA unions, called the NHL deal "the largest setback for players
that I've seen in collective bargaining."
Among dissident union leaders, the backgrounds may vary but the vision is the same
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: July 22, 2005
The band of union presidents who are threatening to create the biggest schism
in organized labor in 70 years are a varied lot: a former meat cutter, a former social worker, the son of the
last century's most controversial labor leader and the organizer who led the heralded unionization campaign at
J. P. Stevens. Whatever their differences, they agree on a fundamental point: the AFL-CIO has utterly failed to
reverse labor's slide even as workers struggle to cope with stagnant wages and shrinking benefits. They argue
that the federation needs to embrace far-reaching changes to save organized labor from oblivion. Failing that,
the leaders of the dissident unions--which represent more than one-third of the federation's members--are
warning they will secede from the federation.
4 major unions plan to boycott AFL-CIO event
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: July 25, 2005
Leaders of
four of the country's largest labor unions announced on Sunday that they would boycott this week's AFL-CIO
convention, and officials from two of those unions said the action was a prelude to their full withdrawal from
the federation on Monday. The schism is the culmination of a rancorous debate within the union movement that
also threatens to hurt labor's efforts in lobbying and in political campaigns. Leaders of the service
employees union, the food and commercial workers union, the Teamsters and Unite Here said they were shunning
the convention because the federation under the leadership of its president, John Sweeney, has been ineffective
in halting the decades-long slide of organized labor.
AFL-CIO president blasts heads of unions
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: July 25, 2005
AFL-CIO
President John Sweeney, anticipating plans by the Teamsters and the service-workers affiliate he used to head
to bolt, charged Monday that such a move would be a "grievous insult" to working people and their unions. "At a
time when our corporate and conservative adversaries have created the most powerful anti-worker political
machine in the history of our country, a divided movement hurts the hopes of working families for a better
life," Sweeney said in his keynote address to an AFL-CIO convention marred by division and boycott. The
Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union intended to announce Monday they are leaving the
federation after failing to reform it.
Teamsters, SEIU bolt AFL-CIO federation
Source: Ron Fournier, Associated Press, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Service Employees International Union
Date: July 25, 2005
The Teamsters and a major service employees union on Monday bolted from the AFL-CIO, a
stinging exodus for an embattled movement struggling to stop membership losses and adjust to a rapidly changing
working environment. In a decision that AFL-CIO President John Sweeney labeled a "grievous insult" to labor's
rank-and-file, the Teamsters union and the Service Employees International Union, two major federation
affiliates, said they decided to leave. They said they were forming a competing labor coalition designed to
reverse labor's long decline in union membership. The joint announcement, the largest schism in labor's ranks
since 1930, came as no surprise since weeks of publicly-aired dissension within the ranks preceded it.
Labor's big split: pain before gain
Source: Harold Meyerson, Washington Post
Union(s): Service Employees International Union, International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Date: July 26, 2005
Yesterday's announcement by the Service Employees International Union and the
International Brotherhood of Teamsters that they were quitting the AFL-CIO was no less stunning for its absence
of theatricals. What we know is that the split--which is likely to grow as several other unions announce their
own disaffiliations over the next couple of weeks--sunders a union movement that is already weaker than it has
been since the 1920s. What we don't know is whether the new organization that the SEIU, the Teamsters and
their allies will form in the coming months can and will do anything to bolster the power of America's
indispensable, if enfeebled, labor movement. For now, it's a lot easier to see the damage than it is to
foresee the gain.
Two top unions split from AFL-CIO
Source: Thomas B. Edsall, Washington Post
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: July 26, 2005
Two of the nation's largest and most powerful unions resigned from the AFL-CIO on Monday,
fracturing the 50-year-old federation as the labor movement struggles to stem decades of decline and lost
influence in both the workplace and the political arena. The leaders of the breakaway faction said they are
taking flight because of distress over what they described as the AFL-CIO's ineffectiveness in stopping the
long-term decline in union membership and making labor more relevant to the challenges of the modern workplace.
There is general agreement that splintering the national labor federation has large implications for
employer-employee relations and the strength of the Democratic Party.
Labor debates the future of a fractured movement
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: July 27, 2005
The two
giant unions that quit the AFL-CIO say their exodus will help revive the labor movement. Officials from the two
dissident unions--the Service Employees International Union and the Teamsters--say that breaking away will give
their unions new energy and focus that will spur growth. In announcing the rupture on Sunday, Anna Burger, the
service employees' secretary-treasurer, said, "Today will be remembered as the rebirth of union strength in
America." But amid the banners and labor memorabilia at the [AFL-CIO] convention, the most frequent refrain is:
how can division help revive a movement whose watchword has long been solidarity?
Breakaway groups crumble labor's once-solid foundation
Source: Stephanie Armour, USA Today
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: July 25, 2005
Since its creation, the AFL-CIO has been the most visible and powerful labor organization in the
nation, campaigning for pro-labor political candidates and lobbying for issues affecting the lives of ordinary
workers such as overtime regulations and health care. But now its very future is up for grabs. Two
union[s]--the Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union--left the AFL-CIO on Monday. Discord
between the unions has been mounting for some time due to clashes over leadership and direction. The splinter
groups have argued that the AFL-CIO's emphasis on lobbying and backing political candidates was coming at the
expense of organizing efforts.
Analysis: ambitions are fueling union split
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union
Date: July 26, 2005
The huge
split in organized labor has been fueled by stagnant living standards for many workers, by the ascendancy of
the service sector and by labor's lack of success in politics and unionizing workers. But as much as anything,
the schism reflects the conflicting ambitions of two titans of labor, John Sweeney, the president of the
AFL-CIO, and his onetime protege, Andrew Stern, the president of the Service Employees International Union,
until now the largest union in the labor federation. Mr. Sweeney and Mr. Stern both say their overarching goal
is to lift American workers, but they have different visions on how to get there.
AFL-CIO chief re-elected as 2 unions exit
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: July 28, 2005
The
delegates who re-elected AFL-CIO President John Sweeney to a fourth term wore T-shirts that said "One Strong
Voice for Worker's Rights"--but the labor group's unity remained in doubt after the defection of two key
unions. The Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union had sought Sweeney's ouster and dropped
out earlier this week when they didn't get it. Sweeney said he felt it was important to run for another term
because of the important challenges facing the labor movement. [He] talked Wednesday about an "ambitious
blueprint" for the AFL-CIO that includes several reforms enacted at this week's convention, some similar to
demands that had been made by the dissident unions.
Union leaders seek local unity despite schism
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: July 29, 2005
The AFL-CIO
suffered a major blow on Monday when two of its biggest unions, the Service Employees International Union and
the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, quit the federation, saying it was doing too little to reverse
labor's slide. This schism has worried Democrats in New York and around the country because they fear that it
will undermine labor's clout in elections. Because the departing unions represent such a high percentage of
union members in many cities, officials from more than a dozen central labor councils voiced alarm that the
schism would hobble their operations and budgets.
AFL-CIO leader says split hurts labor
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: July 29, 2005
John
Sweeney, the president of the AFL-CIO, has long been known as a steady-as-you-go consensus builder, but this
week, when two giant unions bolted the labor federation, he got his Irish up. In an interview minutes after the
labor federation's 50th anniversary convention ended on Thursday, Mr. Sweeney was burning with a quiet anger.
"Some of our good brothers were trying to make a power grab, and I think that it failed," he said. "They
didn't have the support of the majority, so they picked up their marbles and they left." Now, Mr. Sweeney says
he has to pick up the mess left by [the] departure[s].
Source: Matt Kempner, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Union(s): AFL-CIO, Unite Here
Date: July 29, 2005
They were close friends in a hostile environment, trying to spread unions in the South.
Bruce Raynor was the regional director of a textiles union. Stewart Acuff launched the Georgia State Employees
Union and became president of the Atlanta Labor Council. Together, Raynor and Acuff operated side by side as
two of the most prominent labor leaders in Georgia over the past two decades. But now the two 50-something guys
hold crucial national posts on opposite sides of the biggest split the U.S. labor movement has faced in
decades, one that may help determine whether unions become a historical afterthought or a reignited power in
the American workplace.
Third union is leaving AFL-CIO
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: July 30, 2005
The United
Food and Commercial Workers, one of the nation's five largest labor unions, quit the AFL-CIO yesterday,
becoming the third big union to leave the nation's main federation this week. Joe Hansen, president of the
union, which has 1.3 million members, said his union was committing itself to a new coalition that includes the
two other unions that pulled out, the Teamsters and the Service Employees International Union. Members of the
new group say the AFL-CIO has not moved aggressively to stop the decline of organized labor. The insurgents,
the Change to Win Coalition, intend to foster a resurgence.
Shock waves of union split cross oceans
Source: Thomas Fuller, International Herald Tribune
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: August 2, 2005
From the vantage point of Europe or Asia, the United States often seems like a giant island,
powerful enough to sustain itself and preoccupied with its own matters, whether domestic politics or national
sports teams. And so it seemed last week when a large faction of the AFL-CIO, the trade union federation, split
away. The move raised questions about the future of organized labor in America, but the damage appeared largely
domestic. And yet a closer look shows that the shock waves of the split did manage to cross the oceans and
could have significant consequences for unions in countries both rich and poor.
Source: David Moberg, In These Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: July 31, 2005
The decision by the
SEIU and the Teamsters to leave the AFL-CIO--and the resultant loss of 2.6 million members and $18 million in
dues--overshadowed the convention of the AFL. Yet despite the potential impact of these large unions'
departure on national politics and the federation itself, one of the main repercussions of the split involves
an oft-neglected, even little-known part of the labor movement: its state and local organizations. They've
become political powerhouses, important players in economic development, and centers for building real
solidarity among local unions and their members across union lines. Now, many of these groups will be hard-hit,
not only losing much of their limited financing, but disrupting their newly forged solidarity.
Source: Tom Robbins, Village Voice
Union(s): AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union
Date: August 2, 2005
On the same hot
summer day last month that the AFL-CIO was splintering apart in Chicago, a pair of men trying to organize a
non-union demolition firm received a vicious beating in a Queens equipment yard. These days, organizers are
more likely to get fired for their efforts than beaten, but the incident is a dramatic reminder of what unions
are up against, even in labor-friendly places like New York.
NYU ends negotiations with union for students
Source: Alan Finder, New York Times
Union(s): United Automobile Workers
Date: August 6, 2005
New York University
formally notified the union representing its graduate students yesterday that it would no longer bargain with
it. In June, the university said it was moving toward severing its relationship with the five-year-old union
when its contract expires on Aug. 31. In a memorandum distributed to students and faculty and in a letter to
the union, university officials said they decided not to negotiate a new contract. In 2000, NYU became the only
private university in the country to have a union representing graduate students.
Labor leader offers locals 'solidarity'
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: August 11, 2005
AFL-CIO
president John Sweeney moved yesterday to minimize the damage that the schism within organized labor would do
to city and state labor federations. When [the Teamsters, SEIU, and UFCW]withdrew, Mr. Sweeney sternly noted
that under the AFL-CIO's constitution, locals in those unions no longer belonged to city and state labor
federations. Many union leaders said they feared that as a result, labor's effectiveness at the city and state
level--in politics, lobbying and collective bargaining--would be undermined. After being urged by local labor
leaders, Mr. Sweeney proposed allowing union locals in the departing unions to rejoin state and city labor
bodies as special affiliates if they signed a new "solidarity charter."
New homeland security work rules blocked
Source: Stephen Barr, Washington Post
Union(s): National Treasury Employees Union
Date: August 15, 2005
The Department of Homeland Security, after more than two years of work on new workplace
rules, may have to scrap the plan after a federal judge questioned whether it protects union and employee
rights. The rules were scheduled to begin today but were blocked by U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer in
a ruling released Friday night. The workplace rules would have dramatically reduced the clout of unions in the
department, which has about 160,000 employees. Bush administration officials see the proposed rules as a key to
moving forward--and sidestepping union objections--to more ambitious changes that would affect how employees
are paid, promoted and disciplined.
Deal to organize janitors gives union a stronger foothold here
Source: L.M. Sixel, Houston Chronicle
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: August 12, 2005
Five companies that employ the bulk of Houston's janitors have agreed to allow the service workers union to
try to organize their employees without any fight. The deal comes on the heels of a four-month battle waged by
the Service Employees International Union to unionize 8,000 janitors and it could give the organization a
stronger platform to go after its next likely target--Houston's health care workers. Unlike other unions that
put their efforts into organizing the rank-and-file, the SEIU starts at the top and meets with company
leadership, seeking its neutrality in the union's efforts. If the employer is reluctant, union officials lay
out the various economic pressures they can bring to bear.
Qwest reaches pact with union, averting strike
Source: Associated Press, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Communications Workers of America
Date: August 17, 2005
Qwest Communications International's largest union said it had reached a contract agreement with the company
late Tuesday, removing the threat of a strike by 25,000 telephone workers in 13 states. The agreement includes
a 7.5% wage increase over three years, changes to healthcare coverage to reduce overall costs for many
employees, and an eight-hour cap on mandatory overtime, [a Communications Workers of America] spokeswoman said.
Denver-based Qwest is the primary local telephone service provider in 14 states. The contract covers Colorado,
Washington, Oregon, Idaho, South Dakota, North Dakota, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa
and Utah.
Source: Micheline Maynard, Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times
Union(s): Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: August 18, 2005
Northwest Airlines and its mechanics' union are bracing for a street fight over wage and benefit cuts
that many in the battered industry thought would have come long before now. While other airlines and their
unions have sparred over reduced pay, elimination of benefits and job cuts, none of the disputes have come to
the point of a strike like the one Northwest could face at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. The expected showdown is the
culmination of three years of unsuccessful efforts by Northwest to persuade employees to accept wage and
benefit cuts to get its costs in line with competitors that have already reduced their labor rates.
Well-laid plan kept Northwest flying in strike
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: August 22, 2005
As
Northwest Airlines rode out a full weekend with its mechanics' union on strike, it was enjoying the fruits of
an elaborate plan that was meant to not only keep its planes flying, but also to overhaul the way its workers
do their jobs. Northwest's plan to use temporary workers in place of striking members of the Aircraft
Mechanics Fraternal Association took 18 months to create. It also required the cooperation of other unions and
the federal government--and even consultation with the White House. One labor expert said Northwest's ability
to switch to new work routines and keep operating, at least at the outset, sends an important signal to unions
that strikes may have lost their power as tools to fight job losses and other cuts.
Mechanics face doubt, uncertainty on picket line
Source: Amy Joyce, Washington Post
Union(s): Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: August 23, 2005
The striking [Northwest Airlines] mechanics and maintenance workers at National [Airport]
make up a tiny portion of the 4,400 union members who walked out Saturday morning after negotiations failed to
achieve a compromise on jobs and wage cuts sought by the airline. But the mechanics here, like their
counterparts in larger contingents in Minneapolis, Detroit and elsewhere, are wondering what the future holds
and how they will endure if the strike is prolonged. Northwest has replaced the union workers with mechanics
laid off from other airlines, and it is unclear whether the strikers will lose their jobs permanently. The
airline says it hopes to return to the negotiating table.
Northwest employees get little support
Source: Amy Joyce, Washington Post
Union(s): Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: August 23, 2005
In a world known for solidarity, the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association stands almost
alone, even as 4,400 of its members walk the picket line. The Northwest Airlines mechanics and cleaners are the
first workers at a major U.S. airline to [strike] in seven years. But, despite major upheaval in the industry
where many pilots, flight attendants and other workers have had to make concessions in pay and benefits, the
striking workers are finding little support from other unions. AMFA, which grew by winning members away from
other unions, is an outsider in the labor movement. But what happens to AMFA and its Northwest mechanics could
have a broad impact on organized labor, according to labor experts.
Source: Jeremy W. Peters, Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: August 24, 2005
These men and women are at the center of the airline industry's most significant labor dispute in
more than a decade. And they may be taking part in another historic moment of a different kind: busting unions,
21st century style. They are among the 1,900 replacement workers deployed by Northwest to assume the duties of
4,430 members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association. The union struck the airline on Saturday over
demand[s] for $176 million in pay and benefit cuts. The replacements spent the last three months training under
a $107 million contingency plan the airline crafted in anticipation of a strike. Not since a strike in 1989 at
Eastern Airlines, which eventually contributed to the airline's demise, has an airline tried to rely so
heavily on replacements to keep its planes aloft.
Alliance aims to organize Wal-Mart workers
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Union Network International
Date: August 23, 2005
An
alliance of unions plans to step up organizing efforts at Wal-Mart beyond its U.S. base, focusing first on the
mega-retailer's employees in South Korea. Union Network International, a federation of unions in 150
countries, plans to launch organizing efforts by year's end in South Korea and is also looking to target
Wal-Mart in countries including Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. UNI has already been working with labor groups in
India and Russia to lay the groundwork for organizing if Wal-Mart enters those countries. UNI also eventually
plans multi-nation campaigns to organize employees of express mail company DHL, News Corp., Walt Disney Co. and
furniture retailer Ikea.
A maverick union chief now in search of unity
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: August 25, 2005
As president
of the union representing mechanics at Northwest Airlines, O. V. Delle-Femine has repeatedly urged, almost
begged, the rest of organized labor to show solidarity with his union's walkout. But other unions have largely
shunned his call, and that is hardly surprising considering that Mr. Delle-Femine has long been viewed within
the labor movement as Mr. Antisolidarity. Ever since he founded the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association 43
years ago, Mr. Delle-Femine has been something of a labor pariah, enraging the machinists and other unions by
repeatedly seeking to steal their members.
Today's flights to put NWA to test
Source: John Gallagher, Detroit Free Press
Union(s): Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: August 22, 2005
Northwest [is] able to keep its planes in the air because its other unions--representing pilots, flight
attendants, ticket agents and baggage handlers--allowed members to cross the mechanics' picket lines and keep
working. Northwest's non-striking unions, while declining to call sympathy strikes, appear to be giving the
replacements the cold shoulder. In an industry awash with layoffs, many of the replacement mechanics formerly
worked at major carriers. Labor experts say the use of replacement workers in strikes is growing. "Their
feeling is, 'This is my only chance to get a job in this industry again, and I'm taking the job of a worker
who miscalculated and walked off the job,'" Gary Chaison, professor of industrial relations, said.
Northwest Airlines threatens to replace strikers permanently
Source: Micheline Maynard, Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times
Union(s): Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: August 26, 2005
Northwest Airlines [is] considering giving permanent jobs to the 1,500 substitute
workers it hired to replace striking mechanics. Northwest said union members could still have their jobs back
if they wanted to cross picket lines. The airline says it is willing to negotiate with the union, although no
talks have been held and none are scheduled. Declaring the replacement workers to be permanent employees would
have tremendous implications for both Northwest and the mechanics' union, as well as the airline industry and
perhaps the entire labor movement, industry experts said. Northwest has the right under federal law to lock out
the strikers.
Airlines' woes may erode unions' clout
Source: James F. Peltz, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: August 26, 2005
When Northwest [Airlines] brought in replacement workers for members of the striking Aircraft Mechanics
Fraternal Assn., other unionized employees--pilots, flight attendants and other ground workers--reported for
work. The lack of labor solidarity partly reflected the go-it-alone stance of [the AMFA], which has alienated
much of organized labor by plucking members from other unions. But it also showed that airline unions were
thinking twice about using their most potent bargaining tactic against a company that is already on the brink
of bankruptcy. A strike now, analysts say, might ultimately mean no airline and no job.
Source: Kip Chipman, Bloomberg News, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Union(s): Union Network International
Date: August 26, 2005
Labor leaders from around the world are calling on funds that manage union
pension investments to sell shares of Wal-Mart. Investors instead should put their money in "socially
responsible" companies, according to a resolution by members of Union Network International, a federation
representing more than 15 million workers in 120 countries. The unions are working on plans for a global
campaign against Wal-Mart. They claim the retailer violates child labor and discrimination laws, offers poor
wages and benefits and doesn't give most of its 1.6 million employees the freedom to unionize. Wal-Mart
rejects the unions' claims and considers itself a "premier employer" in all the countries in which it
operates.
Source: Jack Katzanek, Press-Enterprise
Union(s): International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Date: August 25, 2005
Federal investigators say Lowe's might have broken labor laws during the union organizing drive at its Perris
[California] distribution center, although the government has not issued a formal complaint. A National Labor
Relations Board spokeswoman said there is enough evidence to follow up on three of the accusations filed by the
Teamsters covering Lowe's actions leading up to late June, when workers voted by a almost 2 to 1 against
becoming the chain's first employees to join a union. The charges labor board investigators are pursuing
accuse Lowe's of harassing and coercing employees who had pro-union leanings [and] threatening to close the
facility if workers voted for the Teamsters.
Northwest strikers showing signs of dissent
Source: Micheline Maynard, Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times
Union(s): Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: August 29, 2005
Ten days into a strike against Northwest Airlines, signs of dissent are beginning to bubble up among
mechanics' union members on picket lines at airports around the country. In a union known for lively debate,
some members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association are questioning the union leaders' decision to
call a strike without a vote on the airline's final offer. Other workers are voicing adamant support for the
walkout. But even some of them are looking for other jobs, saying they cannot afford to be out of work. The
lively debate among AMFA members over the strike is not unusual at a union known for controversy.
Steel unions take worldly view toward expansion
Source: M.R. Kropko, Associated Press, Indianapolis Star
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: August 29, 2005
When steelmaking was king in this city [Cleveland] and others across the nation,
labor unions were as strong as the metal their members made. With hundreds of thousands of members, the United
Steelworkers of America and the Independent Steelworkers Union were powerful forces that held their own against
the multimillion-dollar companies with whom the unions often squared off. Today, when organized labor is
shrinking with the steel industry, union workers are trying to figure out how they can remain influential in
the U.S. and become a force internationally. Steel has emerged from tough times by consolidating, and
businesses that survived are increasingly tied to foreign firms.
Source: Sarah Kaufman, Washington Post
Union(s): American Guild of Musical Artists
Date: August 31, 2005
For the past two years [Nikkia Parish] was a member of the Washington Ballet. The American
Guild of Musical Artists, the union that has represented the company's dancers since last winter, has charged
that Parish and another dancer were unlawfully discriminated against in retaliation for their union activities.
As organized labor has become more and more disorganized--witness the recent split in the AFL-CIO, reflecting
unions' loss of influence and falling membership nationwide--it may come as a surprise that a dancers' guild
is trying to throw its weight around. Other unions may be losing might, but men (and women) in tights are
organizing.
Boeing, machinists brace for strike
Source: Reuters, New York Times
Union(s): International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Date: August 31, 2005
Boeing
and the workers who assemble its planes are bracing for a strike as the machinists' union told members to
reject the company's latest contract offer. The 18,500 members of the International Association of Machinists
and Aerospace Workers covered by the Boeing contract are set to vote on the latest offer on Thursday, hours
before the current contract expires. Strong demand for Boeing's jets--such as its single-aisle 737, favored by
low-cost carriers from Dallas to New Delhi--gives the union an unusually strong hand in the talks this time
around, industry-watchers say. That is in sharp contrast to striking mechanics at Northwest Airlines, who are
at risk of losing their jobs permanently to replacement workers.
76 arrested protesting NYU cutoff of student union
Source: Karen W. Arenson, New York Times
Union(s): Graduate Student Organizing Committee
Date: September 1, 2005
The president
of the AFL-CIO, the secretary-treasurer of the United Auto Workers and a state senator were among nearly 80
people who were arrested yesterday during a protest of New York University's decision to end dealings with a
union of graduate student teaching and research assistants. The National Labor Relations Board gave the
students the right to unionize in late 2000, making NYU the first private university to have a graduate student
employee union. But after a revamped national labor board reversed that position last year, the university
decided not to renew its contract with the union. For many in the labor movement, NYU has become a symbol of
organized labor's determination to expand its presence in academe.
More than 18,000 Boeing machinists strike over new contract
Source: Gene Johnson, Associated Press, Washington Post
Union(s): International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers
Date: September 2, 2005
Machinists at Boeing walked out Friday, forcing the aerospace
company to halt production of commercial airplanes after the two sides could not agree on a new labor contract.
The strike affects about 18,400 Machinists in the Seattle area, Wichita, Kan., and Gresham, Ore. The Machinists
voted overwhelmingly Thursday to strike, rejecting a three-year contract proposal their leaders called
"insulting." Union leaders said the contract offer fell woefully short on top issues including pension payments
and increased health care costs.
Union tries very old (new) tactic to organize Dick's Sporting Goods workers
Source: Jim McKay, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: September 4, 2005
A Dick's Sporting Goods distribution center in [Pennsylvania] is developing into a test case
for a novel approach by the United Steelworkers union to organize new members without going through a
winner-take-all election campaign. The idea, seen by the labor movement as a potential new way to revitalize
declining membership, is to establish a members-only union at the warehouse among workers that choose to join.
The approach, if it survives expected legal challenges, would upend decades of conventional wisdom holding that
employers have no duty to bargain with any union that has not been certified as an exclusive employee
bargaining agent by the National Labor Relations Board.
Mechanics cool to latest NWA offer
Source: Elizabeth Dunbar, Associated Press, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: September 8, 2005
Northwest Airlines and its mechanics union got together for talks Thursday, but
several strikers on the picket lines here scoffed at the airline's latest offer. The airline was demanding
even steeper cuts than the ones that prompted mechanics to walk out. The airline said rising fuel prices have
forced it to ask for even more labor savings. Northwest's 4,427 mechanics, cleaners and custodians walked out
on Aug. 20 rather than accept 25% pay cuts and layoffs of some 2,000 workers. The airline has told the union
that it would begin hiring permanent replacements by Sept. 13 if they didn't make a deal.
CAW union picks Ford as target in talks
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Canadian Auto Workers
Date: September 8, 2005
The Canadian Auto Workers union said Thursday it will try to negotiate a master contract with Ford by next
week and then ask other U.S. automakers to match those terms. CAW president Buzz Hargrove said the union picked
Ford because it has always had a good relationship with the company. The talks will be a good measure of
what's to come in 2007, when the United Auto Workers union negotiates its new contracts with the Big Three.
The union says Canadian workers are among the most productive and that U.S. automakers save on costs because of
Canada's national health care system.
Day 11 of strike by Boeing machinists with no end in sight
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Date: September 13, 2005
With no negotiations scheduled in the strike by 18,300 machinists at Boeing, the two sides are showing
little inclination for compromise, raising fears that the walkout could last a month or more. The machinists
walked the picket line for the 11th day yesterday in what is shaping up as one of the biggest labor showdowns
in years. Boeing appears to have dug in since the walkout began, saying its rebuffed offer reflects its need to
control costs when health spending is soaring and competition with Airbus remains fierce. For their part, the
machinists are angry that Boeing has demanded concessions even as its profits have rebounded strongly.
Ford labor pact in Canada calls for 1,100 job cuts
Source: Danny Hakim, Ian Austen, New York Times
Union(s): Canadian Auto Workers
Date: September 13, 2005
Ford
will cut 1,100 jobs in Canada by 2008, or about 9% of its hourly work force in that country, as part of a
tentative agreement reached Monday with the Canadian Auto Workers union. The agreement comes as the company
faces billions of dollars in losses in its North American automotive operations and is close to announcing what
is likely to be a revamping plan that will bring a wave of job cuts in the United States. The Ford agreement is
the first reached by the Canadian union in its 2005 negotiations. The first deal will be used as a framework
for agreements that will be negotiated later this month with General Motors and DaimlerChrysler.
Unite Here leaves AFL-CIO over dispute
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: September 14, 2005
Unite
Here, a union of 450,000 workers in the apparel and hospitality industry, is leaving the AFL-CIO to join a
group of dissident unions that want the organized labor movement to spend more time and money recruiting new
members. Unite Here is joining the Service Employees International Union, the Teamsters, the United Food and
Commercial Workers and the Carpenters in forming a dissident labor federation that has been calling itself the
Change To Win Coalition. The Laborers International Union of North America and the United Farm Workers are also
part of the new federation, but have not left the AFL-CIO. The new federation represents about 6 million
workers.
Ford Canada workers accept deal
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Canadian Auto Workers
Date: September 18, 2005
Ford Canada workers have overwhelmingly accepted a new labor deal, even though it offers some of the lowest
wage gains in their union's history and allows for hundreds of layoffs. The Canadian Auto Workers union said
Sunday that 95% of Ford union workers accepted the three-year deal, which had been tentatively reached by
negotiators last week.
Strike is about more than pay and benefits
Source: Evelyn Iritani, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Date: September 18, 2005
For members of the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers who voted to go on strike two weeks
ago, the global economy is an increasingly powerful presence at the negotiating table. At issue in this
contract dispute is more than just pensions and healthcare. Boeing workers, union leaders and their supporters
now wonder whether even the most sophisticated U.S. manufacturing jobs can survive in an increasingly brutal
global economy--and what, if anything, can be done to protect what remains.
Two large unions reach agreement to end feud
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; Service Employees International Union
Date: September 20, 2005
Two of the
nation's largest unions--the service employees and the state, county and municipal employees--agreed to end a
long-running feud by pledging not to raid each other's memberships. The two unions had devoted hundreds of
workers and hundreds of thousands of dollars in the last six months to a fight over which should represent
child care employees in Illinois and home health care workers in California. The battle had raised concerns
within organized labor that the service employees, the leader among four unions that broke away from the
AFL-CIO, would start a venomous and expensive war of raids and retaliation between rebel factions and those
loyal to the federation.
Flight attendants: union sues U.S. over workplace safety
Source: Bloomberg News, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Association of Flight Attendants
Date: September 20, 2005
A union for flight attendants sued the Federal Aviation Administration and Labor Secretary
Elaine Chao, claiming they failed to ensure the health and safety of workers at airlines. The suit, filed by
the Association of Flight Attendants, says airline crews are subject to hazards such as turbulence, sudden
changes in cabin air pressure, unwieldy service carts, exposure to toxic chemicals, unruly and sick passengers,
and threats of terrorism.
Auto workers and Chrysler reach deal in Canada
Source: Ian Austen, New York Times
Union(s): Canadian Auto Workers
Date: September 21, 2005
Reflecting the struggling state of North American automakers, the Canadian Auto Workers reached a tentative
agreement with DaimlerChrysler that eliminates about 1,600 jobs and offers only limited wage and benefit gains.
As in the contract reached between the union and Ford last week, the job reductions will be helped along by an
increase in early retirement payments. Both contracts are the most modest ever signed by the CAW, which has
been known for aggressive bargaining. The CAW now must negotiate an agreement with General Motors, the
country's largest automotive employer. G.M. has already said that it would not accept the terms of the Ford
contract.
Union accuses BellSouth of violation
Source: Mike Drummond, Charlotte Observer
Union(s): Communications Workers of America
Date: September 21, 2005
An
anti-union organization accused BellSouth Wednesday of allegedly continuing to force most employees to wear a
union logo. The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation filed a complaint with the National Labor
Relations Board to compel BellSouth to kill the policy. The filing echoes a Charlotte case where a federal
court earlier this year shot down the practice.
Machinists reach tentative accord with Boeing
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Date: September 26, 2005
Boeing has
reached a tentative agreement with its machinists' union, whose more than 18,000 members have been on strike
for 24 days. A ratification vote is scheduled for Thursday, and the strikers are not scheduled to return to
work before then. The strike has stopped almost all production at Boeing, the nation's largest commercial
airplane manufacturer. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers posted details of the
settlement on its Web site, boasting, "No takeaways, no sellouts," and saying the deal gave it much of what it
was seeking.
Anna Burger to head breakaway labor group
Source: Thomas B. Edsall, Washington Post
Union(s): Change to Win Coalition
Date: September 27, 2005
In 1972, the year Anna Burger started a wildcat strike of Philadelphia social workers,
organized labor did not look like a promising career for a liberal, antiwar feminist. Today, Burger will be
formally chosen to run the newly created Change to Win Coalition--a milestone that shows how far the labor
movement has come. A tough-minded organizer and political strategist, Burger was handpicked by the leaders of
insurgent unions who earlier this year took flight from the AFL-CIO and hope to create a new labor empire
capable of reversing the political and bargaining setbacks workers have suffered in recent decades.
Breakaway unions meet to form federation
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Change to Win Coalition
Date: September 27, 2005
Leaders from unions that broke away from the AFL-CIO pledged Tuesday to organize Wal-Mart workers and
reach out to those who lost their jobs due to Hurricane Katrina. The Change to Win Coalition met for its
founding convention in St. Louis, where the atmosphere was like a rally. Organizers hope the new coalition will
revitalize the nation's labor movement. The Change to Win Coalition planned to establish procedures--such as
adopting a constitution and formally recognizing its leadership--while raising a rallying cry that more can be
done to organize workers.
Breakaway unions start new federation
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Change to Win Coalition
Date: September 28, 2005
Seven unions
founded a new labor federation Tuesday, creating a rival to the AFL-CIO that promised to unionize hundreds of
thousands of workers and to pressure the Democratic Party to pay far more heed to workers' concerns. Most
unions in the new group, the Change to Win [Coalition], have left the federation, saying American workers need
a new grouping that will be far more aggressive about unionizing workers to help improve living standards. If
the convention had one theme, it was that unions, for all their problems, are the best tool to improve wages
and benefits, not just for low-wage workers, but for all workers.
Delphi demands 63% pay cut from UAW
Source: Michael Ellis, Detroit Free Press
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: October 7, 2005
Delphi has
demanded such drastic cuts in wages and benefits for workers that, according to one UAW local , its members
would no longer be able to afford the cars they help build. The company is asking for wage cuts of as much as
63%, to $10 an hour, and for workers to pay 27% of their health care costs versus 7% currently. Union members
say they are not going to agree to such a severe change in their livelihood, even if it means that the company
will end up declaring bankruptcy. But if Delphi goes bankrupt, plants could be closed, thousands of workers
could lose their jobs and companies that depend on Delphi, including General Motors, could face costly
disruptions.
For chairwoman of breakaway labor coalition, deep roots in the movement
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Change to Win Coalition
Date: October 10, 2005
Anna Burger has come a long way since [a] rollicking 1995 victory party in which John J. Sweeney,
just elected president of the AFL-CIO, presented her with a leather whip. Mr. Sweeney was thanking her for
being his efficient campaign manager and whip, but now she has become his chief rival, having recently been
elected chairwoman of a breakaway labor alliance, the Change to Win [Coalition]. That has made Ms. Burger the
highest-ranking woman in the history of the American labor movement. Ms. Burger said the four dissident unions
needed to leave the AFL-CIO because the federation had done far too little to stop labor from sinking into
oblivion.
Labor gears up for pivotal battle
Source: Sholnn Freeman, Ben White, Washington Post
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: October 12, 2005
Auto-parts giant Delphi said in the first day of its bankruptcy hearings that it
wanted to renegotiate agreements with its unions to "fundamentally transform the company." The company's
ambition for a fundamental transformation could mark a turning point in the relationship between the auto
industry and organized labor, union officials and labor experts say. Companies in the steel industry and in
airlines have already gone before bankruptcy court judges to wrest concessions in pay, benefits and job
protections from unions. Auto giants have historically negotiated with the unions for cuts during difficult
periods in the industry.
NLRB investigates claim of illegal boycott of Anheuser-Busch
Source: Christopher Leonard, Associated Press, Belleville News-Democrat
Union(s): International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Date: October 13, 2005
The National Labor Relations Board is expected to rule by next
week on claims that the Teamsters union is illegally boycotting Anheuser-Busch products over the union's
dispute with a local [St. Louis] beer distributor. Unionized truckers working for Lohr Distributing have been
on strike since May. Union members are asking bars and other businesses to boycott all Anheuser-Busch products
within city limits because Lohr exclusively distributes the brewer's drinks. Anheuser-Busch filed five charges
with the NLRB Tuesday alleging the boycott is illegal because the company is not directly involved with the
labor dispute.
GM, union move toward agreement
Source: Sholnn Freeman, Amy Joyce, Washington Post
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: October 17, 2005
General Motors moved closer this weekend to winning an agreement with the United
Auto Workers to cut health care costs. GM pays the health care costs for 1.1 million workers, retirees and
family members, making it the nation's largest single provider of health care. Hourly workers at GM pay about
7% of their health care costs; the national average is about 34%. GM has complained that rising health care and
pension costs weigh on the company's bottom line. In European countries and in Japan, workers are covered by
publicly funded health care programs. The UAW has failed to organize those workers. The UAW has repeatedly
called for national health care.
General Motors and union reach agreement on health care costs
Source: Danny Hakim, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: October 17, 2005
General Motors said today that it had reached a tentative agreement with the United Auto Workers union
to cut $1 billion worth of annual health care benefits for hundreds of thousands of American retirees. The deal
marks the biggest strategy shift by the union since the early 1980's, when it made a wave of concessions to
stave off a bankruptcy filing by Chrysler. This time, with the future of the entire domestic auto industry at
risk, union leaders agreed to a deal broad enough to require the vote of GM workers for approval. It shows how
labor leaders in a range of industries, from airlines to steelmakers, have become increasingly hard-pressed to
hold on to previously won benefits in the face of global competition and the threat of bankruptcy.
Source: David Moberg, In These Times
Union(s): Change to Win Coalition
Date: October 26, 2005
After a year of
turbulent debate and division at the top, America's unions are adjusting to a new organizational landscape
while still grappling with the same old challenge: how to grow and gain power. With the founding of the Change
to Win [Coalition] in late September, the summer split of the AFL-CIO took firmer shape, but its ultimate
impact is still up in the air. Despite the schism, there is pressure on leaders from both sides to cooperate.
CTW is a new, not a rival, federation, insists Laborers' union president Terry O'Sullivan. But there is also
a new edge to the competition to organize between the non-rivals.
Philly commuters find own way to work
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority
Date: October 31, 2005
Commuters who rely on the city's buses, subways and trolleys were forced to walk, hitch rides and take taxis
to work Monday after thousands of city transit workers went on strike. In a city where one in three households
lacks a car, about 920,000 trips are taken on a typical weekday along the Southeastern Pennsylvania
Transportation Authority lines shut down by the strike. Members of Transport Workers Union Local 234 have not
had a raise since December 2003. SEPTA is the fifth-largest transit agency in the country but workers' wages
rank 20th. Negotiations broke off around midnight Sunday. The two sides couldn't reach agreement on health
care, pension issues and disciplinary rules.
N.Y.U. graduate students say they'll strike to unionize
Source: Karen W. Arenson, New York Times
Union(s): United Automobile Workers
Date: November 1, 2005
New York University is facing a strike next week by its graduate student teaching assistants, who lost their
union representation in August and are trying to win it back. The students said yesterday that they would begin
a strike on Nov. 9. In 2000, as other universities and union organizers watched closely, the national labor
board--controlled at the time by Clinton appointees--directed N.Y.U. to allow graduate student workers to
unionize, making it the first private university to recognize a graduate student employees union. The
Bush-controlled board took the opposite stand last year, giving N.Y.U. the right to pull back.
NLRB hits firings at Blue Diamond
Source: Rachel Osterman, Sacramento Bee
Union(s): International Longshore & Warehouse Union
Date: November 1, 2005
Blue Diamond Growers has illegally threatened, interrogated and fired workers seeking to organize a union at
the cooperative's almond processing plant, according to a complaint by the National Labor Relations Board. The
complaint, which follows a nearly four-month investigation, comes after pro-union packers, mechanics and other
workers filed charges contending that their efforts to bring in Local 17 of the International Longshore &
Warehouse Union were met with company intimidation. Blue Diamond, which produces roughly a third of
California's billion-dollar almond crop, has remained union-free for 94 years.
Court nixes appeal from United attendants
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Association of Flight Attendants
Date: November 2, 2005
A
federal court on Tuesday rejected an appeal from United Airlines' flight attendants challenging a ruling that
allowed the company to terminate its pension plan. A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
said it found "no reason" to reverse a bankruptcy judge's approval for United to transfer its plans to the
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. The Association of Flight Attendants argued the termination violated its labor
contract. United's five other unions also saw their plans turned over to the PBGC as of result of that May
ruling in bankruptcy court. Transferring pension obligations to the government is estimated to save the airline
about $645 million annually.
Source: Jane M. Von Bergen, Philadelphia Inquirer
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: November 7, 2005
60 union
members [are] running for office this year in New Jersey in a program that is among the biggest and most
comprehensive in the nation. "We apprentice our rank-and-file members in the field of politics," said Charles
Wowkanech, president of the New Jersey state AFL-CIO. This emphasis on politics comes at a crucial time for the
AFL-CIO. This summer, on its 50th anniversary, the AFL-CIO split into two camps, partly over the issue of
politics. The dissident group, which includes such political heavy hitters as the SEIU and the Teamsters, said
the AFL-CIO was spending too much time and energy on politics and not enough on traditional union-building.
Wowkanech couldn't agree less. He's unapologetic about his organization's focus on politics.
NYU graduate assistants strike
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Graduate Student Organizing Committee
Date: November 9, 2005
About 1,000 graduate assistants started striking against New York University on Wednesday over its refusal to
bargain with or recognize their union. The Graduate Students Organizing Committee said its members would stay
on strike until the university decides to bargain with them "in good faith." The assistants will not teach,
grade, advise students or do research while on strike. The graduate assistants had been represented by the
United Automobile Workers from 2000 until August of this year. NYU said then it would no longer recognize the
union based on a policy reversal by the National Labor Relations Board on private universities allowing
graduate student workers to unionize.
Hollywood unions object to product placement on TV
Source: Sharon Waxman, New York Times
Union(s): Writers Guild of America, West; Writers Guild of America, East; Screen Actors Guild
Date: November 14, 2005
A group of show
business unions are denouncing the creeping practice of "stealth advertising," the integration of commercial
products into the story lines of television shows, which they say deceives audiences and forces writers and
actors to do jobs they were not hired for. The Writers Guild of America, West, and the Writers Guild of
America, East, with the support of the Screen Actors Guild, will hold a news conference Monday calling for a
code of conduct to govern this latest twist in the world of advertising, in which product placement has become
increasingly central to plotlines.
Guilds' actions foster strike plans at studios
Source: Richard Verrier, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Screen Actors Guild; Writers Guild of America, West
Date: November 12, 2005
Unnerved by mounting anger within the unions representing actors and writers, Hollywood
studios are already girding for potential strikes two years before the first contract even expires. Relations
have become so frayed in the last two months with the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America,
West, that studios recently began drafting strike contingency plans that could be finalized by early next year.
Both guilds elected slates that vowed to take a more confrontational stance with studios in trying to get them
to budge on long-festering issues. Both unions then jarred Hollywood by abruptly firing their top negotiators,
both of whom were criticized for being too accommodating.
Rally seeks to unionize guards and push for raises
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: November 15, 2005
It was
billed as a rally to unionize tens of thousands of security guards, but it had more of the air of a civil
rights gathering. Hazel Dukes, the president of the New York State NAACP, was there, and so was David N.
Dinkins, the former mayor. Joined by other black leaders and members of the clergy, they threw their weight
behind a campaign to unionize New York City's security guards. Noting that many guards are black and earn less
than $18,000 a year, these leaders said unionization would further the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. to lift
blacks out of poverty. The union behind the organizing drive, the Service Employees International Union, sought
to show the real estate industry that there was strong community support for improving the guards' wages and
benefits.
Delta pilots' union wants judge removed
Source: Michael J. Martinez, Madlen Read; Associated Press, Washington Post
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: November 16, 2005
A lawyer for Delta's pilots' union on Wednesday asked the
judge presiding over the company's bankruptcy case to remove herself from consideration of Delta's request to
impose deep wage cuts on the pilots, saying her comments in court showed her to biased. [The] attorney for the
Air Line Pilots Association said U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Prudence Carter Beatty had made a number of comments in
open court that cast doubt on her ability to be impartial. [He] quoted Beatty as saying in a Sept. 15 hearing
that pilots' wages were "hideously high," and [said] that a transcript of a hearing showed Beatty said: "Oh,
you know that's really weird is why anybody agreed to pay them as much money to begin with. They get paid a
lot of money."
Janitors' drive in Texas gives hope to unions
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: November 28, 2005
Union
organizers have obtained majority support in one of the biggest unionization drives in the South in decades,
collecting the signatures of thousands of Houston janitors. In an era when unions typically face frustration
and failure in attracting workers in the private sector, the Service Employees International Union is bringing
in 5,000 janitors from several companies at once. With work force experts saying that unions face a slow death
unless they can figure out how to organize private-sector workers in big bunches, labor leaders are looking to
the Houston campaign as a model. The service employees' success comes as the percentage of private-sector
workers in unions has dropped to 7.9%, the lowest rate in more than a century.
Union steps up drive to organize Starbucks
Source: Anthony Ramirez, New York Times
Union(s): Industrial Workers of the World
Date: November 26, 2005
The
conflict between the Starbucks coffee chain and workers wanting to form a citywide union played out on two
fronts yesterday: organizers formed a picket line in front of a local Starbucks, and a hearing was announced
for next year before the National Labor Relations Board. So far, the union, the Industrial Workers of the
World, has organized three Starbucks coffee shops in New York City. Starbucks has more than 200 outlets within
10 miles of downtown Manhattan, and nearly 6,900 in the United States. The starting wage for Starbucks in New
York City is $8.50 an hour.
Delphi extends unions' deadline for talks on cuts
Source: Sholnn Freeman, Washington Post
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: November 29, 2005
Delphi, the nation's largest auto parts maker, postponed a showdown with labor yesterday
by saying it would give the unions another month to negotiate wage and benefit cuts before asking a judge to
impose them. Delphi, which is operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, said it will not consider
asking the bankruptcy court judge to throw out the labor contracts until Jan. 20, giving the company and unions
time to hammer out a deal and avoid a strike. Delphi has proposed cutting wages to as little as $9.50 per hour
from $28 per hour. Reductions also could include cutbacks to vacation days and benefits, as well as to the
company's payments in pensions and health care for retirees. Delphi is also seeking to slash its workforce as
part of the reorganization.
FAA calls for mediation in talks with controllers
Source: Matthew L. Wald, New York Times
Union(s): National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Date: November 29, 2005
Seeking
concessions like those that airlines got from pilots, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration called
for mediation in talks with unionized air traffic controllers, saying contract discussions were near an
impasse. The controllers' union responded by saying good progress was being made, and charged that the agency
was trying to throw the task of resolving the differences to a Republican-controlled Congress unfriendly to
organized labor. The union, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, is the successor to the
Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, whose strike in 1981 brought mass firing of controllers by
President Ronald Reagan.
Union's latest idea: organize a contest
Source: Molly Selvin, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: December 2, 2005
More than 15,000 [people] around the country have entered an unusual contest launched by a labor union to find
"common sense" solutions to the nation's most pressing problems. Along the way, the Service Employees
International Union has found a clever way to promote itself. A bipartisan panel of judges will award prizes of
as much as $100,000 for the best ideas. The union also has pledged to back the winning idea with a campaign
that could include supporting legislative change. Some suggestions are--to put it charitably--wacky. But the
deluge of entries suggests that Americans are especially worried about taxes, jobs and affordable healthcare.
Boeing engineers ratify 3-year labor agreement boosting wages
Source: James Gunsalus, Bloomberg
Union(s): Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace
Date: December 2, 2005
Boeing's engineers' union voted to accept a new labor agreement that boosts pay and preserves
health-care benefits, helping the company avoid a strike and keep its aircraft program on schedule. Members of
the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace voted 89.5% in favor of the contract. Wages
increase 17% for engineers and 15% for technical workers. Salaries will be reviewed in 2007 and 2008 to make
sure they are competitive with the industry. In 2000, Boeing engineers staged one of the largest white-collar
walkouts in U.S. history. The 40-day strike led to a drop of as much as 32% in Boeing's stock.
AFL-CIO plans worldwide labor rallies
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: December 6, 2005
[35%] of
American workers were union members in the mid-1950s, and that number is now 13%. Only 8% of those in private
industry now are union members. The AFL-CIO and dozens of allied organizations are putting together a
mobilizing campaign with more than 100 rallies around this country and a dozen overseas. Veterans of the labor
movement say it has been under siege for almost a quarter-century, since President Reagan fired federal air
traffic controllers in 1981 during a prolonged strike. The steady loss of manufacturing jobs overseas,
corporate hostility to unions and government policies that make organizing new unions a slow and difficult
process have all contributed to labor's problems.
Labor to press for workers' right to join unions
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: December 9, 2005
The AFL-CIO
has organized 100 demonstrations nationwide this week to assert that the right of American workers to form
unions is being systematically violated. Eleven Nobel Peace Prize winners, including the Dalai Lama, are
backing the protest against violations of the right to unionize in the United States and other nations. Union
membership [is] slipping even though surveys show that more than half of American workers would join a union if
they could. Labor leaders say that companies often violate workers' rights in an effort to cripple organizing
drives, pointing to a new study showing that nearly one-third of companies facing unionization campaigns fire
union supporters and that one-half threaten to close work sites.
Union supporters picket White House
Source: Juan-Carlos Rodriguez, Associated Press, Washington Post
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: December 8, 2005
Hundreds of union members picketed the White House Thursday but did not
succeed in delivering a petition addressed to President Bush urging him to protect workers' rights and pass
labor-friendly legislation. The demonstration was the latest in a series of events around the country designed
to coincide with International Human Rights Week and bring attention to the labor movement. Demonstrators
gathered at a boisterous rally at the AFL-CIO national headquarters and marched to the White House, where they
formed the large picket line and shouted anti-Bush slogans. Speakers encouraged Congress to pass the Employee
Free Choice Act to secure workers' rights.
Ford, UAW sign tentative health care pact that trims benefits
Source: Sholnn Freeman, Washington Post
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: December 11, 2005
Ford and the United Auto Workers have reached a tentative agreement to reduce
health care benefits after a similar deal made with General Motors in October. The Ford deal follows the basic
framework of the GM agreement, which requires workers and retirees to pay more for their health care.
Autoworkers represented by the UAW pay little in out-of-pocket costs for health care benefits. Health care and
other benefits were won over decades of collective bargaining agreements between the union and Detroit
automakers. UAW's deal with GM was regarded by labor scholars as a major setback for the UAW, which has been
called one of the last unions in the country with significant clout.
House GOP reaches deal with UAW on pension reform
Source: Associated Press, USA Today
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: December 13, 2005
Two House Republican leaders said Tuesday they had reached an agreement with the United Auto Workers on major
pension reform legislation, clearing the way for the House to vote on the bill before it adjourns for the year.
The Senate last month passed its version of the legislation that attempts to tighten rules for companies that
underfund their pension funds while protecting the promised benefits of workers and retirees and shoring up the
financial status of the federal agency that insures defined-benefit plans.
Union ads aim to pressure House members
Source: Will Lester, Associated Press, Washington Post
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employess; Service Employees International Union; AFL-CIO
Date: December 12, 2005
One of the nation's largest unions is [running television ads] critical
of proposed federal budget cuts in social programs for the middle-class and poor--aiming the ads at seven GOP
House members. The AFSCME ad shows images of families in the background as a voice criticiz[es] Republicans'
stance on the budget. Meanwhile, the SEIU is [running] newspaper ads targeting a number of Republican
lawmakers. In a separate effort, the AFL-CIO is organizing campaigns in 10 states to pressure members of
Congress to take positions "favoring working families" on key issues.
New York City sets plan in case of transit strike on Friday
Source: Steven Greenhouse, Thomas J. Lueck, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: December 13, 2005
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said he hoped that a walkout would be averted and urged transit
workers to follow the example of many municipal unions by exchanging productivity increases for bigger raises.
The Bloomberg administration estimated that the city's businesses would lose $440 million to $660 million per
day in business activity. [The] president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, representing 33,700
subway and bus workers, said the mayor should not interfere in his union's talks with the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority, a state-controlled agency. Local 100 has threatened to shut down the transit system
if the two sides fail to reach a settlement by 12:01 a.m. Friday.
City seeks stiff fines for workers and transit union if they strike
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: December 14, 2005
With three days to go before a threatened transit shutdown, the Bloomberg
administration stepped into the middle of the fray yesterday, asking a judge to fine the transit workers'
union $1 million and each striker $25,000 on the first day of a strike and to double the fines successively
each day after that. The union has been negotiating with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, a state
agency, whose initial wage offers have been forcefully rejected. The contract is set to expire at 12:01 a.m.
Friday. By filing the suit, the city put itself squarely in the fight.
Janitors win jobs back in NLRB ruling
Source: Jaci Smith, NorthJersey.com
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: December 14, 2005
Ten janitors who lost their jobs in a labor dispute with
a cleaning company won them back in a ruling issued Tuesday by the National Labor Relations Board. The ruling
found that Janitorial Environmental Services fired the janitors because they were unionized. The ruling
requires that the company immediately rehire the workers at their contract pay of $7.75 an hour, pay them for
their time off work and renegotiate a new contract. The members of the Service Employees International Union
Local 32BJ were fired in December 2004.
NYC could face transit strike Friday
Source: Sara Kugler, Associated Press, Washington Post
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: December 14, 2005
Here's what it could look like: bicyclists darting through never-ending
traffic jams. Swarms of commuters trudging over the Brooklyn Bridge in their sneakers in the freezing cold.
Tourists stranded during the height of the Christmas season. Broadway shows with half-empty theaters. New York
could be hit on Friday with its first subway and bus strike in more than 25 years, a walkout that could shut
down a system used by an estimated 7 million riders a day. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is locked
in round-the-clock negotiations with the Transport Workers Union on a new contract for more than 33,000
members. The old contract expires Friday at 12:01 a.m.
N.Y. transit union rejects offer and will begin limited strike
Source: Sewell Chan, Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: December 16, 2005
After five hours of intense negotiations with the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority, the transit workers' union decided this morning to delay for four days a decision on
whether to strike the New York City subway and bus system. At 6:30 a.m. today, the union's executive board
agreed to set a new strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. For millions of riders, the decision prolonged
uncertainty about whether the nation's largest transit system will be shut down by a labor strike for the
first time since 1980. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said on his weekly radio program today that a strike next
week "would be a lot worse" than if a strike had taken place today.
All toes point to the picket line
Source: Sarah Kaufman, Darragh Johnson, Washington Post
Union(s): American Guild of Musical Artists
Date: December 16, 2005
For the second night in a row, the Washington Ballet has canceled its
"Nutcracker" performance because of labor strife. Dancers, dressed in coats and boots instead of costumes, were
throwing up a picket line on the slick sidewalk outside the show's venue. The union has characterized the
situation as a lockout by management. But the Washington Ballet calls it a strike. The issues are not primarily
about money, but about how much control [the] director should have over matters ranging from hiring and firing
to how rehearsals are conducted to the size of the company and how students from the Washington School of
Ballet can be used in productions.
Little dignity on the job, workers say
Source: Sewell Chan, Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: December 19, 2005
Regardless of whether a strike is called or a settlement is reached, the protracted labor
negotiations over a contract for 33,700 [New York City] subway and bus workers have highlighted one fact: many
workers feel they lack dignity and respect on the job. Bread-and-butter issues--wages and pensions--have been
the dominant concerns at the bargaining table, but leaders of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union have
repeatedly said that their members were equally animated by workplace conditions including on-the-job hazards
and abuse from riders. In a survey, Cornell University provided considerable evidence that many workers feel
mistreated and undervalued--which could push them toward greater militancy.
At center of city's transit talks, a trend that tests union loyalty to future hires
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: December 19, 2005
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has sought to give [New York] City's 33,700 subway and bus
workers a stark choice: protect your own wallets or protect the wallets of future transit workers. The
authority has essentially pitted today's transit workers against those of tomorrow, explicitly warning current
workers that they face sizable fines if they go on strike in a dispute over the authority's demands to reduce
pension and health benefits for future workers. The authority has joined a trend in which many corporations and
government bodies across the nation have demanded reduced wages and benefits for future employees in what is
often called a two-tier contract.
Uniquely aggrieved, and empowered, union digs in again
Source: Sewell Chan, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: December 20, 2005
In its standoff with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Transport Workers Union has
highlighted once again its ability to upset millions of the city's subway and bus riders. It is an enduring
tradition of militancy that dates to the union's creation during the Great Depression. Indeed, in New York, a
city that has weathered major strikes by sanitation workers, drawbridge operators, teachers and social workers,
no union seems able to unsettle residents quite like the one that moves the subways and buses. The transit
union is something of a throwback to the era of industrial unions.
M.T.A. and union remain locked in acrimonious standoff
Source: Jennifer Steinhauer, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: December 20, 2005
Shivering, intrepid and occasionally befuddled this morning, New Yorkers faced
down the first citywide transit strike in a quarter-century by walking, biking and carpooling through their
frigid city as the transit workers and the state agency that employs them remained deadlocked over a new
contract. Early this morning, the city's transit union, which represents 33,700 subway and bus workers, and
the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which oversees the city's transportation system, were at loggerheads,
primarily over future workers' pension benefits, and the union voted to strike.
Strike shuts down N.Y. City transit system
Source: Michelle Garcia, Michael Powell, Fred Barbash, Washington Post
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: December 20, 2005
A Transport Workers Union strike shut down the New York City
transportation system Tuesday, leaving 7 million daily bus and subway travelers to fend for themselves on foot,
by bike, on in-line skates, by skateboards and in shared vans and taxis. Late in the afternoon, a judge ruled
that the strike was illegal and fined the union $1 million for each day that the workers stay out. The strike,
after weeks of often bitter negotiations, was the first in a quarter century in New York. Its timing just
before Christmas and in the cold was expected to compound the dislocation from the strike. For all the
potential dislocation, the mood was in some ways strikingly normal for New Yorkers, at least, who have seen it
all.
Delphi rescinds plan to slash union pay
Source: Sholnn Freeman, Amy Joyce, Washington Post
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: December 20, 2005
Delphi, the troubled auto parts giant, has pulled a controversial proposal to slash
union workers' pay after steadfast opposition from the United Auto Workers and other labor unions. As part of
its bankruptcy reorganization, Delphi was proposing salary scales that would have paid some workers as little
as $9.50 per hour, down from about $27 per hour that workers earn now. Delphi said it was formally withdrawing
the proposal because General Motors, Delphi's former parent company and largest customer, has entered the
negotiations. Labor costs were listed as the key reason for the auto parts maker's Chapter 11 bankruptcy
filing in October.
In final hours, M.T.A. took big pension risk
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: December 21, 2005
On the final day of intense negotiations, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, it turns out,
greatly altered what it had called its final offer. But then, just hours before the strike deadline, the
authority put forward a surprise demand that stunned the union. Seeking to rein in soaring pension costs,
[they] asked that all new transit workers contribute 6% of their wages toward their pensions, up from the 2%
that current workers pay. The union balked, and then shut down the nation's largest transit system for the
first time in a quarter-century.
Judge puts off strike rulings as union leader meets mediator
Source: Sewell Chan, Colin Moynihan, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: December 21, 2005
Roger Toussaint, the leader of the transit workers union, was meeting with
a mediator this afternoon as the transit strike stretched into its second day. As the meeting was going on, a
judge suggested that union officials could face jail sentences over the strike. The judge's remarks, which
appeared to surprise attorneys on both sides of the case, came as the lead attorney for the state argued for a
contempt order against union officials. It [is] unclear whether Mr. Toussaint would agree--if mediation fails,
as is likely--to submit his contract dispute to a three-member panel of arbitrators whose decisions would be
binding.
Tough stance, tougher fines: union leader is in a corner
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: December 22, 2005
When Roger Toussaint, the president of the [New York City] transit workers' local,
defiantly announced a strike, he proclaimed that his union was taking a proud stand against the concessions
that employers had demanded nationwide. But Mr. Toussaint has quickly discovered that engaging in an illegal
walkout can leave a union with a weak hand. His union faces a $1 million fine for each day on strike, a state
judge is threatening to throw him in jail and thousands of individual strikers stand to lose two days' pay for
each day out. Not only that, but the mayor, the governor and editorial writers are denouncing the union as
greedy and showing contempt for the law.
NY transit union votes to end strike
Source: Chris Reese, Reuters
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: December 22, 2005
New York's striking subway and bus workers will be
returning to work as soon as possible after the executive board of the striking union voted on Thursday to end
the strike. The leaders of striking bus and subway workers agreed to return to work after talks at which the
union and transit authorities undertook to go back to the bargaining table, mediators said. Some 34,000 workers
in the Transport Workers Union Local 100 walked off the job on Tuesday after contract talks broke down over
pay, health care and pensions, stranding some 7 million passengers who use subways and buses each day.
State mediators set up plan that leads to end of 60-hour ordeal
Source: Steve Greenhouse, Sewell Chan, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: December 22, 2005
New York City transit employees will return to work today and limited subway and bus service
could resume within hours, officials from Transit Workers Union, Local 100, said at midafternoon. The order to
return to work came after the union's executive board voted 38 to 5 to accept a preliminary framework of a
settlement plan as a basis to end the walkout. The framework had already been agreed to by the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority. State mediators devised the framework for a settlement after all-night negotiations
with the union and the M.T.A. The agreement, said several people close to the negotiations who insisted on
anonymity because of the sensitive stage of the talks, would give every side some of what it asked for.
New York's subways and buses operating on normal schedules
Source: Steven Greenhouse, Sewell Chan, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: December 23, 2005
The abrupt return of workers Thursday--many strikers simply laid
down their placards and walked into the buildings they had been picketing--capped a day of fast-moving
developments in a labor showdown that just a day before seemed headed for an intractable and ugly stalemate.
Despite the end of the strike, a final settlement of the dispute remains to be reached. Officials hinted that
in exchange for the union's ending the strike, the [MTA] would significantly scale back or even abandon its
insistence on less-generous pensions for future workers. In return, the union would consider having its members
pay more for health insurance. The negotiations will now resume under an agreement among all parties not to
speak with reporters.
Source: Joshua B. Freeman, The Nation
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: December 22, 2005
Driven at first by
economics, but increasingly by ideology, the crusade to dissolve all employer and state responsibility for
individual welfare has swept like a grim reaper through pension plans, health insurance, labor rights and
minimum wages. New York transit workers are fighting to stop that trend in their particular domain, not for
themselves but for the next generation of workers. They are fighting against the lie that abstract, neutral
economic necessity, not the ideas and interests of the rich and powerful, are driving the demolition of what
remains of social solidarity. Their fight is a fight for all of us, part of the long overdue need to stand up
and say, No more.
Ford workers approve health deal
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: December 23, 2005
Hourly workers
at Ford narrowly approved an agreement that would require hourly workers and retirees to pay more for their
health care, the United Auto Workers union said. The deal is expected to save Ford $850 million a year in
health care costs. Workers approved the deal by a 51% majority. Last month, hourly workers at General Motors
approved a similar agreement by a 61% majority. The U.A.W. has also begun negotiating a similar agreement with
DaimlerChrysler. The three automakers expect to spend about $11 billion on health care this year.
Source: George F. Will, Washington Post
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: December 29, 2005
In one of the biggest successes in the history of organized labor in the South, the 4,700
janitors working for Houston's four largest cleaning companies recently joined the Service Employees
International Union. The janitors, most of them immigrants, earn an average of $5.30 an hour--15 cents more
than the minimum wage--without health care benefits. The mobilization of the janitors is one sign of why Andy
Stern, head of the SEIU, is today's most important--perhaps the only really important--labor leader. He aims
to convince nonunion workers "that Ronald Reagan was wrong--that wealth does not trickle down." And that "Bill
Clinton also was wrong" in saying high-tech employment is the wave of the future.
At the table, public unions do better
Source: Alexandra Marks, Christian Science Monitor
Union(s): Transport Workers Union; Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: December 29, 2005
New
York transit workers went on strike for three days and managed to save the right to retire at 55 with half pay,
plus they got wage increases totaling almost 12% over three years. Northwest Airlines's mechanics have been on
strike since this past August. If they approve the current settlement, the best they can hope for is four weeks
of layoff pay and a pink slip. This tale of two unions shows the change in the relative power of private versus
public sector unions in the past 40 years. The once seemingly inconsequential municipal unions have
successfully protected their wages and benefits. At the same time, the once powerful private sector unions have
become increasingly accustomed to making concessions to hold onto their jobs in the global economy.
New York transit deal shows union's success on many fronts
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: December 29, 2005
He was excoriated on tabloid front pages and by the mayor and governor. But after details of an
agreement between the transit workers and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority were spelled out, Roger
Toussaint, the union's president, seems to have emerged in a far better position than seemed likely just a few
days ago. Mr. Toussaint, whose back appeared to be against the wall last week, can boast of a tentative
37-month contract that meets most of his goals, including raises above the inflation rate and no concessions on
pensions. Indeed, several fiscal and labor experts said that Mr. Toussaint and his union appeared to have
bested the transit authority in their contract dispute.
In novel tactic, Cintas workers sue unions
Source: Kris Maher, Wall Street Journal, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Union(s): Unite Here; International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Date: December 27, 2005
When a union organizer showed up unexpectedly at Elizabeth Pichler's Bethlehem, Pa., home on a
cold Saturday afternoon in February 2004, she shut the front door on him. A handful of [her Cintas Corp.]
co-workers were also annoyed about visits to their homes and complained to their managers. They eventually
learned that the union had traced their home addresses from license plates in the company parking lot. That
made them angry enough to meet with lawyers provided by the company and then file a suit alleging their privacy
rights had been violated. It's highly unusual for workers to bring a lawsuit against a union trying to
organize, and the case is threatening to send ripples through the labor movement.
Source: Lynne Duke, Washington Post
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: January 3, 2006
A daughter's death left an unexpected gift. After the sorrow ripped his heart and the
confusion left him dazed, Andrew Stern began to discover it--began to see what Cassie had passed on to him. She
had been so fragile, yet so very much alive. Frail but fearless--that was Cassie. And that was her gift to her
father. It is but one facet of a man's life--certainly not his sum total. Stern, 55, president of the powerful
Service Employees International Union, has been a labor activist and innovator for more than 30 years. His
supporters say Stern will go down in history as the courageous, visionary leader who charted a bold new course
for American unionism just in time and helped spark a labor movement to fight for workers in the world
economy.
Pension demand was an error, chairman of MTA concedes
Source: Sewell Chan, Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: January 5, 2006
The chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said yesterday that he had erred
in making pension changes a central demand in contract negotiations with the city's transit workers, a
miscalculation that helped lead to a 60-hour subway and bus strike the week before Christmas. The chairman,
Peter S. Kalikow, did not take responsibility for provoking the strike, the city's first since 1980, but he
acknowledged misjudging the union's hostility to his demands that future workers accept a higher retirement
age or contribute more to their pensions than current workers do.
Farmworkers' union leaves the AFL-CIO
Source: Associated Press, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Farm Workers
Date: January 13, 2006
The United Farm Workers union has left the AFL-CIO and will join a group of breakaway unions known as the
Change to Win Coalition, in a move the UFW hopes will boost recruiting efforts, officials said Thursday. The
UFW, with about 27,000 members, joins the Service Employees International Union, the Teamsters, the United Food
and Commercial Workers, Unite Here and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners in forming the
dissident coalition. When the AFL-CIO formed 50 years ago, union membership was at its zenith, with one of
every three private sector workers belonging to a labor group. Now, fewer than 8% of private sector workers are
unionized.
Source: Harold Meyerson, Washington Post
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: January 18, 2006
The battle for a life of middle-class dreams and security is fought region by region, even
town by town. Time was when it was fought contract by contract, but that was in an America where unions
represented one-third of the private-sector workforce rather than today's anemic 8%. In a global economy, the
conventional wisdom would have it, the bargaining power of unions is the ultimate spent force. But not all of
our economy is global, nor all our labor exportable. Least of all is it exportable in the hotel industry, a
sector that employs 1.3 million workers in this country, most at poverty wages. So it will remain, unless the
hotel union--UNITE HERE--can find a way to do something that hardly any American union has done in recent
decades: organize an industry.
AFL-CIO head blasts corporate policies
Source: Will Lester, Associated Press, Washington Post
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: January 18, 2006
Corporate policies are driving millions of workers out of good-paying
jobs, stripping them of health care and killing pension plans in a strategy that is "just suicidal" for the
economy, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. Sweeney outlined a state-by-state effort that was aimed at
allowing organized labor "to break free from the gridlock of Washington" and fight for worker benefits such as
stronger health care plans and a higher minimum wage. Sweeney, in a speech to the National Press Club on the
state of labor in America, pointed to numerous economic developments that suggest the middle class is getting
into increasing trouble--an increasing poverty rate, health care costs being shifted to workers and jobs moving
overseas.
Labor federation calls for universal health coverage
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: January 18, 2006
John Sweeney, the AFL-CIO's president, called on Congress to enact universal health insurance and to
bar American companies from selling goods produced overseas under sweatshop conditions. Mr. Sweeney said the
health system was badly broken because it has left 45 million Americans uninsured and undercut the
competitiveness of American corporations by saddling them with soaring health costs. Mr. Sweeney said the
nation's unions would push in 30 states for legislation like that enacted last week in Maryland requiring
large corporations to pay a specific percentage of their payroll toward health insurance.
Hotel workers union starts wage campaign
Source: Amy Joyce, Washington Post
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: January 19, 2006
The major hotel workers union launched a campaign yesterday designed to narrow the wage gap
between workers in various states, pointing out that hospitality employees in highly unionized areas make more
than double those in less-unionized areas. Unite Here represents workers employed by the companies that own the
majority of hotels in the nation. The union engineered contracts among hotel chains in major cities to expire
at the same [time] to gain more bargaining power. The simultaneous expiration creates a threat of strikes that
could occur in many cities at once. That possibility puts greater pressure on the companies to provide higher
wages and more benefits and job protection.
New York transit workers reject contract by 7-vote margin
Source: Sewell Chan, Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: January 21, 2006
By a margin of only seven votes, members of the New York City transit
workers' union rejected the contract settlement that their leaders reached with the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority in the aftermath of last month's debilitating subway and bus strike. The rejection,
which seemed to catch city officials off guard, derails a painfully wrought agreement, represents a stunning
defeat for the union's president, Roger Toussaint, and opens a potential Pandora's box of complications in
any future negotiations. Those on both sides, however, were quick to say that another strike, while a
possibility, was unlikely.
M.T.A. returns to harder line in labor talks
Source: Sewell Chan, Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: January 26, 2006
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority yesterday proposed a contract considerably harsher
to the city's transit workers than the one they narrowly voted down last Friday. Some labor experts said the
authority's move was intended to pressure union leaders to accept binding arbitration--but was likely to
heighten labor unrest. The offer added yet another surprise chapter to a labor epic that led to failed
negotiations in December, a 60-hour strike, a hard-wrought agreement that ended the walkout, and then, finally,
the general membership's rejecting the overall contract settlement by just 7 votes.
Toussaint rejects the M.T.A.'s latest contract proposal
Source: Sewell Chan, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: January 27, 2006
The leader of the New York City transit workers' union last night rejected the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority's latest contract proposal--one that is harsher than the settlement his members
rejected last week--but said he still hoped to arrive at a new settlement rather than submit to binding
arbitration, as the authority has urged. "We're not talking about a new strike," said Roger Toussaint,
president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union. "We're saying that we want a negotiated settlement, not
one imposed through arbitration." Mr. Toussaint acknowledged that the strike of Dec. 20-22, and the narrow
rejection last week of the settlement he reached with the authority, may have cost the union public support.
FedEx drivers win right to hold union ballot
Source: Diane E. Lewis, Boston Globe
Union(s): International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Date: February 2, 2006
Truck drivers for a FedEx division are employees, not independent contractors,
according to a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board's regional office in Boston. The decision against
FedEx argues that although 23 drivers at the terminal signed contracts stating that they would operate as
independent contractors, they should be considered employees under labor law because they must adhere to the
company's rules and regulations and do not exercise full control over work, compensation, training, or routes.
The decision stems from allegations brought by Teamsters Local 170, which said workers were wrongly denied
access to a union because the company said they were not full employees.
In modern rarity, workers form union at small chain
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union
Date: February 5, 2006
Among the thousands of stores in New York's low-income neighborhoods, labor unions have virtually no
presence, except in a few supermarkets. But in a remarkable culmination to a yearlong struggle, 95 workers at a
chain of 10 sneaker stores have formed a union. For much of last year, workers Footco protested what they said
were widespread minimum-wage violations. Last month, however, they signed a union contract that raised their
wages and gave them paid vacations and health insurance. The union that Footco's workers joined, the Retail,
Wholesale and Department Store Union, said its success in combining community support with boycott threats
could be copied to unionize other small apparel and shoe chains across New York.
UAW chief calls for workers to 'dig in'
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: February 5, 2006
U.S. auto
workers, struggling with the recent announcements of massive job cuts at GM and Ford, need to take "serious
actions" to strengthen the nation's manufacturing base and help working people, the union's president said
Sunday. United Auto Workers president Ron Gettelfinger told about 1,600 union political activists that the
union had "no choice but to dig in for the fight" for a better legislative agenda amid rising health care
costs, troubling trade policies and job cuts. His address, opening the union's four-day conference, urged a
universal health care system, measures to fight unfair trade practices, support for incentives to make ethanol
more widely available and tax credits for gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles.
Ford to extend existing buyout plans
Source: Sarah A. Webster, Detroit Free Press
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: February 8, 2006
Ford is trying to extend five existing severance and early retirement programs--including one
that offers workers who volunteer to leave the company a lump sum of $100,000--to workers at plants slated to
close under the Way Forward restructuring plan. The automaker announced Jan. 23 that it would close 14 plants
and lay off 30,000 workers in the next six years as part of that massive turnaround effort. UAW locals will
have to approve the severance packages.
Striking NYU grad students face retaliation, uphill battle
Source: Bennett Baumer, The NewStandard
Union(s): Graduate Student Organizing Committee
Date: February 8, 2006
As the New York University graduate-student workers' strike enters its second semester, college
administrators are making good on their pledge to dock strikers' pay and teaching assignments. In November
2005, NYU grad students started the strike for union recognition, and to preserve the economic and workplace
gains from their first contract that covered over 1,000 student workers. The strike has national reverberations
because, in September 2001, NYU became the first private university to recognize a graduate-student labor
union, and both grad students and administrators at other private campuses are monitoring the labor battle.
Screen actors, writers protest product placement
Source: Jesse Hiestand, Reuters, Washington Post
Union(s): Screen Actors Guild; Writers Guild of America, West
Date: February 9, 2006
Unions representing Hollywood actors and screenwriters staged their first joint
protest over product placement Wednesday after being denied a chance to attend an advertising summit about
branded entertainment. About 200 actors and writers carried picket signs and chanted in front of the Beverly
Hills Hotel as agents, producers and brand directors spoke to advertisers at the daylong conference. Passing
cars honked in support. The unions launched a campaign against what they call "stealth advertising" in
November, saying that it was unfair to force writers to weave advertisements into story lines that actors are
required to read.
Two trade unions break away from alliance
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Laborers International Union; International Union of Operating Engineers
Date: February 15, 2006
In a new
sign of dissatisfaction within organized labor, two national trade unions broke away Tuesday from an alliance
affiliated with the AFL-CIO after complaints about declining membership and misplaced priorities. The Laborers
International Union and the International Union of Operating Engineers, representing more than 1 million
members, are breaking away from the umbrella group known as the Building and Construction Trades Department of
the AFL-CIO as of March 1. The umbrella group still has 11 unions representing about 2 million workers.
Eye on presidency and ear on hotel workers' grievances
Source: Carolyn Marshall, Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: February 16, 2006
The nation's largest hotel union opened a nationwide campaign on Wednesday to improve
workers' wages with an unusual strategy--it had John Edwards, the former Democratic candidate for vice
president, sit with hotel workers to hear their complaints. They complained of injuries from moving hotel
mattresses, of not earning enough to support their families, of rising health care costs. The workers and Mr.
Edwards have joined an effort by Unite Here, the union of hotel, restaurant and apparel workers, to pressure
hotels around the nation to improve wages for not just 90,000 unionized hotel workers, but also for more than a
million nonunion hotel workers.
Nurses from eight unions band together
Source: Will Lester, Associated Press, Washington Post
Union(s): AFL-CIO; RNs Working Together
Date: February 23, 2006
Nurses from eight AFL-CIO unions are banding together in hopes of
increasing their political and organizing strength. The move foreshadows more coalitions within specific
industries as organized labor attempts to regain clout. About 200,000 nurses, describing themselves as RNs
Working Together, are bidding to become the first union members to form such a group--called an industry
coordinating committee--within the AFL-CIO. After a difficult year that saw several large unions break away
from the AFL-CIO, the labor federation is taking numerous steps to reinvigorate the labor movement.
AFL-CIO announces partnership with NEA
Source: Elliot Spagat, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle
Union(s): AFL-CIO; National Education Association
Date: February 27, 2006
The AFL-CIO and the nation's largest teachers union, the National
Education Association, announced a partnership Monday that could help the labor federation regain some of the
clout it lost when several unions defected last year. The 2.8-million-member NEA agreed to allow its local
affiliates to join the AFL-CIO. The hope is that the AFL-CIO will give teachers more muscle when they campaign
for political candidates and push legislation. Despite a decades-long decline in union membership, the AFL-CIO
played a critical role in recent elections. Union households made up a fourth of U.S. voters in the 2000 and
2004 general elections. About 6 in 10 union households voted Democratic in the last two presidential
elections.
Labor leaders to convene, faced with uphill battles
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: February 27, 2006
When the AFL-CIO's leaders gather this week, they will once again be on the defensive, a situation made worse
by the split the labor federation suffered last year. Wages for the nation's workers failed to keep up with
inflation last year, and unions in the beleaguered automobile, steel and airline industries are battling
management's efforts to cut pay and benefits. But labor leaders insist that they are moving forward. They
boast that they played an instrumental role in getting several states to raise their minimum wage and in
blocking President Bush's plans to revamp Social Security. And they say their lobbying in Maryland and other
states to force companies to pay more for health insurance has pressured Wal-Mart to improve its benefits.
Unions in push to help Democrats win Congress
Source: Peter Szekely, Reuters, Washington Post
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: February 27, 2006
AFL-CIO leaders on Monday approved an ambitious and expensive political strategy
aimed at mobilizing their members to put Democrats back in control of Congress and several state legislatures.
While a few Republicans may get labor backing, the $40 million plan--the biggest ever for the labor federation
in a non-presidential election year--would target 21 states and 40 congressional districts where union
officials believe Democratic candidates can win in the November election. The plan would fund polling, research
and get-out-the vote drives. No money would go to candidates.
AFL-CIO rejects US guest worker proposals
Source: Peter Szekely, Reuters, Washington Post
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: February 28, 2006
AFL-CIO leaders on Tuesday said they would reject guest worker proposals now in
Congress, saying that all foreign workers who come to the United States to fill labor shortages should come as
permanent residents. In a comprehensive policy on an immigration issue that has divided labor as well as
Republican lawmakers, leaders of the 54-union federation ditched the idea that a temporary guest worker program
could be made acceptable. By rejecting the guest worker concept, the AFL-CIO rejected the notion of separate
but equal working conditions for workers who are not accorded permanent residency status.
Northwest makes a deal with flight attendants
Source: Reuters, New York Times
Union(s): Professional Flight Attendants Association
Date: March 1, 2006
Bankrupt Northwest Airlines on Wednesday reached a tentative labor deal with its flight attendants union but
still faces a possible strike should it fail to reach agreement with its pilots ahead of a court-imposed
deadline later in the day. The No. 2 U.S. airline said in a statement that the deal, which requires membership
ratification, would save it $195 million annually. Neither the airline nor the Professional Flight Attendants
Association disclosed additional details of the agreement. The agreement would remove a major hurdle for the
airline as it seeks to cut $1.4 billion annually in labor costs.
Source: Bill Ordine, Baltimore Sun
Union(s): NFL Players Association
Date: March 2, 2006
The first dominoes in the NFL's fast-moving labor crisis began tumbling yesterday,
and those sounds being heard around the league were the careers of veteran players going thud. Without an
extension of the collective bargaining agreement between team owners and the players union, NFL clubs are
preparing to jettison an unusually large number of solid performers in order to comply by today with a
relatively restrictive salary cap of $94.5 million. Negotiators for the owners and the NFL Players Association
disagree over how much of league revenues should go to the players. Reportedly, management has offered just
over 56% and the union wants at least 60%.
Pilots at Northwest and Delta nix deals
Source: Keith L. Alexander, Washington Post
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: March 2, 2006
Pilots at the nation's third- and fourth-largest air carriers -- Delta Air Lines Inc. and
Northwest Airlines Corp. -- moved a step closer to striking yesterday after failing to reach separate
agreements on steep pay and benefits cuts, which both airlines say they need to emerge from Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection. Delta reduced its request to $305 million in annual pay and benefit cuts, down from $325
million. Delta's 6,000 pilots are offering about $115 million in concessions. In 2004, Delta's pilots agreed
to a five-year deal that included a 32.5% pay cut and about a $1 billion reduction in benefits per year.
Northwest request[ed] $145 million in pay and benefits cuts from its pilots. Northwest's request comes after
the pilots agreed to $215 million and a 23.9% pay cut in November and $265 million in cuts in 2004.
Northwest pilots reach pay-cut deal
Source: Joshua Freed, Associated Press, Washington Post
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: March 3, 2006
Pilots reached a tentative pay-cut deal with Northwest Airlines on
Friday, a major step toward ending a showdown that put the bankrupt airline's future in doubt. The Northwest
branch of the Air Line Pilots Association announced the agreement but didn't release details. The bankruptcy
law would have allowed Northwest to impose its terms even without [a] judge's ruling, but pilots threatened to
strike if that happened. Northwest has said a strike could have killed it. Pilots had already taken a 15% pay
cut in late 2004 and another, temporary 24% pay cut in bankruptcy.
Chicago transit workers authorize strike
Source: Associated Press, Washington Post
Union(s): Amalgamated Transit Union
Date: March 7, 2006
Chicago Transit Authority union workers voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to authorize a strike
against the nation's second-largest transit system over work rules that affect bus drivers' routes and
salaries. No date was set for a walkout. The union has filed unfair labor grievances over a procedure called
"rostering," which determines bus drivers' routes and salaries. The local's members voted 1,029 to 11 to
authorize a strike. The union represents about 6,000 bus drivers and mechanics. The union last authorized a
strike in 2001, but a deal was reached before workers walked out. The last strike at the CTA was in March 1979,
and lasted four days.
Automaker, union under fire: retirees blast UAW deal with GM
Source: Michael Ellis, Detroit Free Press
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: March 7, 2006
Linda Jones worked 34 years for General Motors, but is so angry that her retirement
health care benefits could be cut that she is ready to turn her back on the automaker. Jones was one of 20
retired hourly workers who testified in a Detroit federal court Monday against a proposed settlement between
the automaker and the UAW that will force retirees to pay more for their health care coverage. More than 100
hourly retirees appeared in court, and dozens took seats in an adjoining courtroom or in the hallway and
watched the proceedings on television monitors. Under the proposed settlement, GM hourly retirees would pay
monthly contributions, annual deductibles and coinsurance costs for the first time.
N.F.L. owners accept labor deal
Source: Clifton Brown, New York Times
Union(s): NFL Players Association
Date: March 9, 2006
N.F.L.
owners voted Wednesday night to accept a players union proposal to extend the collective bargaining agreement
by six years, ensuring labor peace in the league through the 2011 season. The deal put an end to a labor
dispute that had threatened the stability of the N.F.L., which is enjoying its greatest period of prosperity
and has not had a strike since 1987. Without an agreement, the league faced playing the 2007 season without a
salary cap and the possibility of a strike in 2008. The union's proposal called for the players to receive
59.5% of total revenue over six years, which owners struggled to accept.
Uniform makers pay poorly, union says
Source: Amy Joyce, Washington Post
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: March 15, 2006
U.S. military uniforms are being made by workers who are poorly paid and lack health
insurance coverage, the union that represents garment workers asserted in a report released yesterday. Many of
the workers must rely on government programs, such as Medicaid and food stamps, according to the report from
Unite Here, which said starting pay at the companies it surveyed averages $5.49 an hour. The average wage of
those who sew uniforms is $6.55 an hour. The average for U.S sewing machine operators is $9.24 an hour,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Military uniforms, by law, are made in the United States with U.S.
labor and materials. The contractors discussed in the report received $456 million for military apparel
contracts from 2003 to 2005.
G.M. will offer buyouts to all its union workers
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: March 23, 2006
General
Motors reached a landmark agreement Wednesday with the United Automobile Workers intended to reduce sharply the
ranks of a generation of auto workers long envied by other blue-collar workers for their wages and benefits.
G.M. said it would offer buyouts and early-retirement packages ranging from $35,000 to $140,000 to every one of
its 113,000 unionized workers in the United States who agreed to leave the company. For G.M.'s American
workers, the offer presents a host of difficult choices, forcing them to consider the risk that the company may
be even worse off in the future if the buyouts fail to spur a turnaround in business.
Long after strike shut subways, dispute heads into arbitration
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: March 24, 2006
Three months after a strike shut down the city's buses and subways during the holiday shopping
season, the labor fight between 33,700 transit workers and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is being
placed in the hands of three arbitrators. Handing the authority an important victory yesterday, the New York
State Public Employment Relations Board ordered that binding arbitration be used to settle the contract
dispute. The board's two members called for arbitration after concluding that the two sides were deadlocked
and that the board's mediators had "explored every possible avenue through which a voluntary agreement could
be reached." The transportation authority, a state agency, had sought arbitration, in which a three-member
panel will essentially dictate the terms of a new contract.
Delphi is said to offer unions a one-time sweetener
Source: Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: March 28, 2006
Auto parts supplier Delphi has proposed giving its factory workers $50,000 in exchange for a 40% reduction in
pay. Delphi has proposed lowering pay for factory workers initially by $5.50 an hour, to $22 an hour in early
July. The rates would later drop to $16.50 an hour in September 2007. Unless there is an agreement with its
unions by Friday, Delphi has said it plans to ask a federal bankruptcy judge for permission to cancel its labor
contracts and impose lower wages and benefits. Such a move would increase the likelihood of a strike by Delphi
workers and create more problems for General Motors, Delphi's largest customer.
AFL-CIO chief criticizes guest worker plans
Source: Associated Press, USA Today
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: March 28, 2006
The
nation's largest labor organization on Tuesday criticized plans to expand guest worker programs for immigrants
seeking to come to the United States, parting company with longtime Senate Democratic allies who pushed
successfully to include them in broad-based immigration legislation. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney's
criticism underscored the unusual political pressures at work as President Bush and Congress grapple with an
emotional issue in the run-up to midterm elections. The Service Employees International Union issued a
statement supporting the measure.
Air traffic controllers' contract talks break down
Source: Stephen Barr, Washington Post
Union(s): National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Date: April 6, 2006
Contract talks between the Federal Aviation Administration and the air traffic
controllers union collapsed yesterday. The FAA declared the negotiations at an impasse, which allows the agency
to turn the dispute over to Congress. The disputed contracts cover about 25,000 FAA employees who play key
roles in the operation and safety of the nation's commercial aviation system. The FAA is one of the few places
in government where unions can bargain over salaries. The agency's pay plan would reduce starting salaries for
newly hired controllers by 30% compared with the current pay scale. By most accounts, the FAA will need to hire
and train about 12,500 new controllers through 2014 as controllers hired after the 1981 strike retire and leave
the agency.
Farmworkers' union is set to announce first national contract for guest workers
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): United Farm Workers
Date: April 11, 2006
With Congress debating a major expansion in the program for guest workers, the nation's largest
union of farmworkers planned to announce today that it had signed the first nationwide contract covering
agricultural guest workers. The union, the United Farm Workers, and Global Horizons, a labor contractor based
in Los Angeles, have signed an agreement that provides employer-paid medical care, a seniority system and a
grievance procedure to help ensure that farms comply with state and federal laws.
Deal may avert pilot strike at Delta
Source: Vikas Bajaj, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: April 14, 2006
Delta Air
Lines and a union representing nearly 6,000 pilots said today they had reached a tentative agreement a day
ahead of a an arbitration panel ruling that could have sent the pilots on strike. The company, which has sought
$305 million in annual pay cuts from the pilots, and the union said they would not provide details about the
agreement, which has to be approved the union's executive committee and a bankruptcy court. The pilots had
offered to take pay cuts totaling $140 million. An arbitration panel was expected to decide by tomorrow if
Delta's contract with the Air Line Pilots Association should be thrown out. Earlier this month, Delta pilots
voted overwhelmingly to strike the company if their contract was voided.
Transit union is fined $2.5 million over December strike
Source: Thomas J. Lueck, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: April 18, 2006
Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union was fined $2.5 million yesterday for the 60-hour strike that hobbled
the city in December. Coming nearly four months after the walkout, which brought subways and buses to a halt in
the days before Christmas, and with no discernible progress in bargaining for a new contract with the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the ruling was the second legal blow to the union in a week. On April
10, [the court] ordered Roger Toussaint, Local 100's president, to jail for 10 days for contempt of court, a
charge that stemmed from [his] failure to order his members back to work under provisions of the state's
Taylor Law, which prohibits strikes by public employees.
Anger rises on both sides of strike at University of Miami
Source: Abby Goodnough, Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: April 18, 2006
Outside the University of Miami's main entrance, six janitors and five students continued their
hunger strike on Monday, with several asserting that the university's president, Donna Shalala, was a
union-buster. The janitors have been on a hunger strike for 13 days, the students for 6--all part of a labor
dispute that has turned unusually personal, with faculty members, students, union leaders and members of the
clergy sharply criticizing Dr. Shalala. Day after day, the janitors and their supporters heap invective on Dr.
Shalala, who was President Bill Clinton's secretary for health and human services, saying she has not done
enough to pressure the university's cleaning contractor to grant union recognition.
Transit union approves contract that it rejected before
Source: Thomas J. Lueck, Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: April 19, 2006
[New York] City's main transit union announced yesterday that its members had
overwhelmingly approved the same contract proposal that they narrowly rejected in January, and its leadership
demanded that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority now approve the deal. Like so much else in the labor
dispute, which has included a 60-hour transit strike that hobbled the city and the deal's rejection by just
seven votes, yesterday's announcement raised as many questions as it answered and did not appear to bring
matters any closer to a resolution. The authority brushed aside the union's demand yesterday, insisting that
it had taken the contract terms off the table after the workers stunned the city by voting them down in
January.
Source: David Moberg, In These Times
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: April 19, 2006
Eduardo and Eddie are
two faces of one of the most ambitious union campaigns in recent decades to make that better world, an effort
by UNITE HERE to campaign simultaneously for hotel workers who are in the union and those who are not--or at
least not yet. The union is trying to create a "movement for equality" that will make the quality and rewards
of work in the vast, low-paid ranks of the service sector a central issue of public morality in American
politics. Despite a downturn after 9/11, which the industry used to slash its workforce, the hotel industry is
now quite profitable. But hotel workers aren't sharing the bounty. The nation's hotels represent a microcosm
of the growing inequality in the United States.
Hotel rooms get plusher, adding to maids' injuries
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: April 21, 2006
The
nation's premier hotels are trying to have their accommodations resemble royal bedrooms. Superthick
mattresses, plush duvets and decorative bed skirts have been added, and five pillows rather than the pedestrian
three now rest on a king-size bed. The beds may mean sweet dreams to hotel guests, but they mean pain to many
of the nation's 350,000 hotel housekeepers. The problem, housekeepers say, is not just a heavier mattress, but
having to rush because they are assigned the same number of rooms as before while being required to deal with
far more per room. The hotel workers' union, Unite Here, says injuries and the increased workload will be a
major issue in negotiations this spring. The union is threatening its biggest strike ever, one that might
involve hundreds of hotels in New York, Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, Los Angeles and Toronto.
The transit union chief's long march to jail
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: April 24, 2006
When
Roger Toussaint, the transit workers' union president, leads a procession of chanting union members and labor
leaders across the Brooklyn Bridge today on his way to a jail cell in Manhattan, it will be only the latest
bizarre twist in a contract fight that never seems to end. In sentencing him to 10 days in jail, Justice
Theodore T. Jones of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn said Mr. Toussaint had shown contempt for the law by
heading an illegal strike. But the jail stay, some labor experts say, could end up helping Mr. Toussaint by
turning him into a martyr.
Organized labor fails to heal rift
Source: Will Lester, Associated Press, Washington Post
Union(s): AFL-CIO; Change to Win Coalition
Date: April 24, 2006
Efforts to heal the sharp divisions in organized labor are faltering as
the AFL-CIO and the breakaway unions in the Change to Win coalition quarrel over the best way for the divided
unions to cooperate from afar. The AFL-CIO has been promoting solidarity charters, which allow locals of the
disaffiliated unions to join forces with AFL-CIO locals on issues of common concern. The Change to Win
federation has proposed an umbrella group, Alliance for Worker Justice, which would allow unions from both the
AFL-CIO and Change to Win to join with other unions to work on issues ranging from working conditions to health
and safety to political action. Both sides in the labor feud are now rejecting the unity plans of the other,
renewing the sense of disarray in organized labor as the midterm elections near.
M.T.A. board refuses to vote on transit contract
Source: Thomas J. Lueck, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: April 26, 2006
The
board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority [New York City] refused today to consider a ratification
vote that the city's transit workers' union took last week on a long-stalled contract. Local 100 of the
Transport Workers Union had voted in favor of the contract a week ago, three months after members narrowly
rejected the same deal in a surprising rebuke to the union's president. The chairman of the transportation
authority said the contract terms were off the table because of the union's initial rejection of the contract.
He went on to describe the strike in December as a "criminal act."
Edwards, Hoffa join Fla. University strike
Source: Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: April 25, 2006
Former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards, Teamsters President James
Hoffa and civil rights leaders marched with striking service workers and about 200 supporters Tuesday at the
University of Miami. About a quarter of the 425 janitors and other contract workers employed by UNICCO Service
Co. at the university have been on strike since early March. The workers want to organize as part of the
Service Employees International Union and are demanding a pay hike. The union and students want UNICCO to agree
to a process called card check, granting union recognition if a majority of workers sign cards in favor of
joining. That process tends to be easier for workers to form unions, compared with having a secret ballot.
Unions protest Wal-Mart health care in 35 cities
Source: Marcus Kabel, Associated Press, San Jose Mercury News
Union(s): Change to Win Coalition
Date: April 26, 2006
Unions representing 6 million workers rallied Wednesday in 35 cities from New
York to Los Angeles to protest what they called inadequate health-care coverage by Wal-Mart, the nation's
largest employer. The Change to Win labor federation said Wal-Mart epitomizes a business model of low pay and
benefits that harm the middle class. It is the federation's first national rally targeting Wal-Mart and part
of a broader campaign called "Make work pay" aimed at raising living standards for workers. The rallies were
organized together with WakeUpWalMart.com, a political campaign group started a year ago by the United Food and
Commercial Workers union to pressure the retailer to raise pay and benefits and improve working conditions.
Transit union leader is released
Source: John Holusha, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: April 28, 2006
Roger
Toussaint, president of Local 100 of the Transit Workers Union, walked out of jail shortly after 9 a.m. today,
after serving less than four full days of what was supposed to be a 10-day sentence for leading an illegal
strike in December. Defiant in brief remarks outside the jail complex in lower Manhattan, he said, "We will not
back down" to demands by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to limit pensions and benefits. Mr.
Toussaint was released after his sentence was trimmed because of good behavior. Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice
Theodore T. Jones found Mr. Toussaint in contempt of court for taking the 33,000-member union out on strike and
sentenced him to the jail term last week.
Walkout ends at University of Miami as janitors' pact is reached
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: May 2, 2006
After a sit-in, hunger strikes and a nine-week walkout, janitors at the University of Miami decided
yesterday to return to work, as the university's cleaning contractor reached a settlement with the Service
Employees International Union. Under the agreement, the contractor, Unicco Service Company, would allow workers
to sign cards indicating their desire to join the union rather than insist on the more traditional process of a
formal election. The union agreed that to gain recognition, 60% of the university's 425 janitors--rather than
a traditional simple majority--would have to sign cards saying they wanted to form a union.
UAW seeks a strike vote from workers at Delphi
Source: Micheline Maynard, Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times
Union(s): United Automobile Workers
Date: May 4, 2006
Under normal circumstances, a request by union leaders to authorize a strike is routine. But the
situation between the United Automobile Workers and the Delphi Corporation is anything but normal. The UAW said
Wednesday that it had asked its 24,000 workers at Delphi, the auto parts supplier that is operating under
bankruptcy protection, to vote by May 14 whether to give union leaders permission to call a strike. If union
leaders were to order a walkout, not only would Delphi be severely affected, but so would General Motors, which
could itself be forced to file for bankruptcy protection as a result.
Split labor groups agree to join campaign efforts
Source: Diane E. Lewis, Boston Globe
Union(s): AFL-CIO; Change to Win Coalition
Date: May 11, 2006
Two national labor groups have agreed to set aside their differences and
work together to mobilize political activity this election year. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says his
organization will join with the Change to Win Coalition to form a national committee to coordinate election
activities. Unions from both groups will work together on get-out-the-vote campaigns, candidate endorsements,
and support for labor leaders who are seeking public office. Meanwhile, Anna Burger, chairwoman of Change to
Win, said that her organization would allow its affiliates to continue to participate in local AFL-CIO labor
councils and pay dues so they can help mobilize voters.
Union leader presides over painful changes
Source: Dale Russakoff, Washington Post
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: May 15, 2006
At a time of maximum uncertainty over their future, the United Auto Workers union will
gather next month to re-elect its president. An ardent, lifelong trade unionist, Ron Gettelfinger has presided
over an era of unprecedented concessions to the Detroit automakers, telling his members that the alternative is
for the companies and the union to go down together. Gettelfinger was chosen for the presidency in 2002 by the
same administrative caucus that has controlled the union since the days of its legendary president, Walter
Reuther. But if Reuther's UAW ushered blue-collar workers into the middle class by forcing Detroit to share
the wealth, the Gettelfinger UAW is fighting to keep them from being unceremoniously ushered out.
Day care workers flex their muscle
Source: Amy DePaul, AlterNet
Union(s): Service Employees International Union; American Federation of Teachers; United Child Care Union
Date: May 15, 2006
Around the country, unions are reaching out
to America's daycare staffs, preschool teachers and full-time babysitters, using innovative approaches to
recruit members of the poorly paid and largely female child-care work force, estimated at two million. Care of
children is among the lowest-paid professions, averaging $8.68 hourly. Meanwhile, the ranks of
union-represented child-care workers are growing. More than 350,000 child-care workers are affiliated with [the
Service Employees International Union], the American Federation of Teachers, the United Child Care Union and
its sponsor, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Federal employees blast EEOC funding
Source: Will Lester, Associated Press, Washington Post
Union(s): American Federation of Government Employees
Date: May 16, 2006
Cuts in funding and staff at the federal Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission are threatening job security for millions of Americans, a federal workers' union claims in a new ad
campaign. The American Federation of Government Employees is starting a media campaign criticizing budget cuts
and reductions in staffing at the EEOC. New offices are being opened and the number of complaints are growing
at a time when the agency is trimming its budget request, the group said. That staffing shortage has resulted
in a backlog of cases that will approach 50,000 by the end of 2007. The union says the staffing reductions and
planned budget cuts of $4 million for next year will result in many legitimate discrimination complaints being
unresolved.
City to drop lawsuit against transit strikers
Source: Thomas J. Lueck, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union
Date: May 17, 2006
[New York]
City has agreed to drop a lawsuit seeking huge financial penalties against individual members of the city's
main transit union, while the union has accepted terms for payment of $2.5 million in fines assessed against it
for its 60-hour strike in December. The deal did not appear to bring Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union
or the Metropolitan Transportation Authority any closer to the bargaining table, or to a settlement of their
stalled contract. But it tied up legal loose ends for a union that is already under financial duress, and had
been threatened with more fines.
UAW authorizes strike against Delphi
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: May 17, 2006
United
Auto Workers members have voted to authorize a strike against auto supplier Delphi if the company fails to
honor its labor agreements, an action that could have severe consequences for Delphi and its largest customer,
General Motors. More than 95% of UAW members who voted at 21 U.S. plants approved the strike authorization
measure. The vote doesn't mean a strike is imminent, but it does allow the union to call a strike if it feels
one is needed as the two sides bargain over wages. Delphi, which filed for bankruptcy protection in October,
has proposed cutting its U.S. hourly workers' wages from $27 an hour to $16.50 an hour, or as low as $12.50 an
hour if GM doesn't agree to supplement those wages.
Judge refuses to void Mesaba contracts
Source: Liz Fedor, Star Tribune
Union(s): Association of Flight Attendants
Date: May 18, 2006
A bankruptcy judge on
Thursday denied Mesaba Airlines' motion to void its labor contracts, a decision that means the carrier and its
unions must continue to try to reach negotiated contracts. "We are very pleased. It's a hands-down victory for
the unions," said David Borer, general counsel for the Association of Flight Attendants. "It's a repudiation
of everything management has done to date to try to reject the employees' contracts," he said. "The bankruptcy
process is so tilted in favor of the company that a ruling like this will give the company's negotiators a
dose of reality," Borer added. The company released a statement with a dramatically different interpretation of
the court's decision.
Laborers union breaks free from AFL-CIO
Source: Will Lester, Associated Press, Washington Post
Union(s): Laborers' International Union of North America
Date: May 22, 2006
The Laborers' Union has decided to leave the AFL-CIO. The Laborers were
already part of the Change to Win coalition, breakaway unions that have left the giant federation of more than
50 unions in an effort to forge a new direction for organized labor. But the Laborers had remained in the
federation. The breakaway unions have complained that the AFL-CIO was putting too much emphasis on electoral
politics and not enough on organizing more people to join the shrinking labor movement. The Laborers'
International Union of North America has about 700,000 members in the U.S. and Canada, mostly in the
construction industry. A large share of the unions' newer members are recent immigrants, including many
Hispanics.
Strike vote could test law's limits
Source: Joe Mathews, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: May 30, 2006
Frustrated after three years without a raise, members of the largest state [California] workers union are
preparing for their first strike--a series of rolling walkouts that might be illegal. Members of Service
Employees International Union Local 1000, which represents more than 87,000 of the 173,000 rank-and-file state
workers, are voting through June 10 on whether to authorize leaders to call a strike. Union officers expect
approval. With no history of formal walkouts by state workers, a battle between the Schwarzenegger
administration and Local 1000 could produce a new precedent and perhaps give public employee unions more
leverage with the government.
Canadian mining giant in a no-layoff labor pact
Source: Ian Austen, New York Times
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: May 31, 2006
Inco,
the Canadian mining company entangled in a series of conflicting takeover bids, has agreed with a labor union
to preserve all jobs at its main operations even if the company is acquired. The promise is part of a tentative
agreement the company and the United Steelworkers reached on Monday. The union revealed some terms of the
contract, which is rich by current Canadian standards, on Tuesday. If workers at Inco's operations in Sudbury
and Port Colborne, Ontario, accept the agreement, wages will rise by 2.50 Canadian dollars an hour over the
contract period, profit sharing worth about 5,000 Canadian dollars a year will continue and pensions and other
benefits will be improved.
Teamsters broke law, judge rules
Source: Jerry Hirsch, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Date: June 6, 2006
The
Teamsters union violated federal labor law when it attempted to discipline 54 workers who refused to
participate in a "sympathy strike" during the bitter Southern and Central California supermarket labor dispute,
a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled. Administrative Law Judge William Kocol ordered International
Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 952 to notify members that they had a right to retroactively opt out of full
membership in the union, though they must still pay fees to cover the expense of collective bargaining
activities.
Steelworkers and Sierra Club unite
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: June 8, 2006
The nation's
largest manufacturing union, the United Steelworkers of America, and the nation's largest environmental group,
the Sierra Club, announced the formation of an alliance that will do something that labor and environmentalists
rarely do: cooperate. After decades of fighting between blue-collar unions and green activists, the
Steelworkers and the Sierra Club say they will use the alliance to battle for energy independence and against
global warming and toxic pollutants. A central goal of the partnership, called the Blue/Green Alliance, will be
to reassure workers that measures to improve the environment need not jeopardize jobs.
Cingular bucks anti-union trend
Source: Marc Gunther, Fortune, CNNMoney.com
Union(s): Communications Workers of America
Date: June 7, 2006
By law, American workers have the right to form unions and bargain over wages and working conditions. Trying
to exercise [that] right is another matter entirely--workers are routinely fired or discriminated against for
supporting unions, most employers hire anti-union consultants to block organizing drives and some go so far as
to close down work sites when employees vote for a union. That's why the story of Cingular Wireless and its
union, the Communications Workers of America, is so unusual--and worth a closer look. The company's
cooperative approach makes more sense than the reflexive anti-union stance typically found in executive
suites.
Union sues over safety of miners' air packs
Source: Emily Bazar, USA Today
Union(s): United Mine Workers of America
Date: June 8, 2006
The
United Mine Workers of America sued the government Thursday to demand immediate random inspections of the air
packs miners use in emergencies. The union requested an injunction that would require the Mine Safety and
Health Administration to start checking the devices, which provide about an hour's worth of air. The
injunction also would require the agency to develop new emergency training for miners that simulates mine
accidents. Mine-safety legislation approved by the House of Representatives on Wednesday will require
additional oxygen reserves for miners, but the bill doesn't include random testing of the emergency air packs.
President Bush said Wednesday night that he would sign the measure into law.
US labor groups urge sanctions probe on China
Source: Doug Palmer, Reuters
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: June 8, 2006
U.S. labor groups urged the Bush administration to
increase pressure on China to stop widespread labor abuses they said have cost millions of Americans their jobs
in addition to harming Chinese workers. The 9 million member AFL-CIO labor federation filed a petition, for the
second time since 2004, asking the U.S. Trade Representative's office to launch a one-year probe into whether
China's "systematic repression" of worker rights is an unfair trade practice that warrants using U.S.
sanctions to stop. The Bush administration rejected a similar petition filed by the AFL-CIO two years ago,
saying it would work with China to improve conditions in a country whose vast supply of cheap labor has made it
a manufacturing giant.
U.A.W. facing tough choices, leader warns
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: June 12, 2006
The
president of the United Automobile Workers union told his members in a strikingly blunt report released Sunday
that they cannot ride out the automobile industry crisis and should be prepared to make tradition-breaking
decisions to help rescue the industry. [Ron] Gettelfinger declined to say what specific moves he would ask
union members to make and said he believed things could improve for the union, which he argued is gaining
political and social momentum. But seasoned labor experts said the report [is] meant to prepare union members
to expect more concessions in critical contract talks that begin next year.
Strike OKd by union of state workers
Source: Joe Mathews, Evan Halper, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: June 13, 2006
Members of the largest union of state workers [California] have voted to authorize their
first-ever strike if the union is unable to agree on a new contract with the Schwarzenegger administration.
Service Employees International Union Local 1000 could formally declare a strike as early as Thursday, the
legal deadline for passing the state budget, if they don't have a new deal. With no precedent for such a
walkout, it is not clear whether a strike by state workers is legal. But a strike by Local 1000 could affect
the daily lives of millions of Californians. The union represents toll collectors, tax collectors, custodians,
DMV staffers and agricultural inspectors--as well as nurses, teachers, cooks and other support staff in prisons
and state hospitals.
GM workers take retirement deal
Source: BBC
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: June 16, 2006
More than 33,000 factory workers have accepted
early retirement packages at struggling car giant General Motors and its bankrupt parts supplier Delphi. The
United Auto Workers said 25,000 GM and 8,500 Delphi staff had signed up for the deals, ranging from $35,000 to
$140,000. GM wants to close 12 plants and cut 30,000 jobs, while Delphi is seeking to shut 21 of its 29
manufacturing sites. The car maker is cutting costs after making a loss of $10.6 billion in 2005. Delphi and
the UAW are still fighting over plans to change labor contracts.
Source: Julia Bauer, Grand Rapids Press, MLive.com
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: June 23, 2006
Today is proof that, at General Motors and Delphi, the carrot is mightier
than the stick. After decades of punching in at the world's largest automaker and its spinoff parts company,
hourly workers are leaving in droves under an early retirement and buyout plan that ends at 6 p.m. today for
most employees. The upheaval of the past 45 days has been mind-boggling for United Auto Workers members, whose
careers once spun around gold-standard job security and unshakable labor contracts. They have had to decide
whether to accept the buyout, which offers those with more than 10 years of service $140,000 and those with
fewer years $70,000. Taking the deal means no retirement benefits or health insurance.
Mesaba unions team up to fight cuts
Source: Jewel Gopwani, Detroit Free Press
Union(s): Association of Flight Attendants; the Air Line Pilots Association; Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: June 26, 2006
Workers at Mesaba Airlines have employed a rarely used strategy to fight the steep wage and benefit
cuts their employer demands. They're sticking together. Separate union leaders for about 1,400 Mesaba flight
attendants, pilots and mechanics are sharing everything from legal experts to strike strategies as they try to
scale back proposals for wage and benefit cuts as the company reorganizes under Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Thousands of airline workers have taken wage and benefit cuts since the most recent wave of airline bankruptcy
filings started in 2002. But airline and labor experts say this is the first time three separate unions have
worked so closely to keep as much of their pay and benefits as they can. Lawyers for the three unions disperse
tasks to those best fit to carry them out.
47,600 take offers to leave GM, Delphi
Source: Sholnn Freeman, Washington Post
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: June 26, 2006
About 47,600 workers accepted buyout offers or early retirement packages from General
Motors and Delphi, the largest offers of their kind in U.S. corporate history. Robert Bruno, a labor and
industrial affairs professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said he wasn't aware of a bigger, more
expensive buyout package anywhere in modern capitalism. He said the buyout program will wipe out a big chunk of
consumer-buying capacity in the U.S. economy and put more pressure on the American middle class. "By the time
all the severance money is spent, we've wiped out 47,000 middle-class union jobs with health benefits," Bruno
said. "What is the calculated cost to communities?" The buyout plan is a key component of a larger turnaround
plan at General Motors. The plan includes cutting tens of thousands of factory positions, closing all or part
of 12 plants, and slashing operating and material costs.
Judge to let Northwest reject contract
Source: Joshua Freed, Bree Fowler, Forbes.com
Union(s): Professional Flight Attendants Association
Date: June 29, 2006
A
bankruptcy judge said Thursday that Northwest Airlines can throw out its union contract with flight attendants
if two more weeks of talks don't produce a deal. "We reserve the right to strike" if that happens, [a]
spokeswoman said. The memorandum of law from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper was a major victory for
Northwest. For the rank and file, the only bright spot was Gropper's decision that Northwest could impose the
terms rejected by 80% of flight attendants earlier this month--not the harsher terms Northwest offered earlier
in negotiations, as the airline had wanted.
Tentative pact averts strike by city school bus drivers
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Amalgamated Transit Union
Date: July 6, 2006
The union representing New York City's school bus drivers reached a tentative
three-year settlement yesterday with 25 bus companies, averting a strike that had threatened to inconvenience
37,000 summer school students starting today. The union, which represents 8,400 bus drivers, escorts and
mechanics, declined to give details of the accord, including the size of the wage increase, which was reached
four days after the old contract expired. The union had threatened a strike against just a few bus companies,
but the New York City School Bus Contractors Coalition warned that if the union was to strike against even one
company, then all the companies would lock out their workers.
Limits sought on worker exposure to flavor agent
Source: Christian Miller, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): International Brotherhood of Teamsters; United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: July 26, 2006
Emergency safety standards are needed to counter a widening outbreak of lung disease among
workers exposed to a common ingredient in microwave popcorn. The Teamsters and United Food and Commercial
Workers plan to file an emergency petition demanding that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration set
exposure limits for diacetyl, a flavoring agent used in the manufacture of artificial popcorn butter, dog food
and other products. Diacetyl has been linked to an irreversible lung disease that has afflicted scores of
workers at popcorn factories and other work sites and killed at least three people in the last few years.
Borrowing language of civil rights movement, drive is on to unionize guards
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: July 26, 2006
For Michael Johnson, a security guard for 16 years, unionization cannot happen soon enough. Mr.
Johnson is among more than 70,000 office-building security guards nationwide the Service Employees
International Union is trying to organize this summer, a group that in many cities is more than 50%
African-American. Those cities include Los Angeles, where guards' pay averages $8.50 an hour. The city's
black clerics are rallying behind the unionization drive, which has borrowed the vocabulary and history of the
civil rights movement. Using tactics that have included sit-ins and the picketing of executives' homes, the
union has organized far more workers than any other in the last decade.
Day laborers, AFL-CIO join in fight for workers' rights
Source: Jill Tucker, San Francisco Chronicle
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: August 9, 2006
Day laborers and organized labor joined forces today, signing a significant agreement to
advance worker rights and fight ongoing immigration reform efforts coming out of Congress. The formal
partnership between the AFL-CIO and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network creates a powerful political
team composed of groups that historically have been at odds. "Worker centers make good on the core American
belief that even the shunned and excluded should and can fight back," [AFL-CIO President John] Sweeney said.
"It is a moral imperative that we do everything in our power to support the work of worker centers."
Ignoring split, labor makes election push
Source: Amanda Paulson, Christian Science Monitor
Union(s): ALF-CIO; Change To Win Coalition
Date: August 11, 2006
One year
after America's labor movement saw its largest schism in decades, unions are gearing up for a high-stakes
political battle in November. It's the first test of how the split between the AFL-CIO and the new seven-union
Change to Win labor federation will affect the political activities of the labor movement. It's also a chance
for unions to demonstrate that they still wield political heft despite dwindling membership.
Labor tries to heal their differences
Source: Will Lester, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle
Union(s): AFL-CIO; Change to Win Coalition
Date: August 16, 2006
A year after their breakup, former partners in organized labor are trying
to heal some differences by joining forces politically for the November midterm elections. They're cooperating
now for the sake of those who depend on them--about 15 million union members. Both the AFL-CIO and the
breakaway Change to Win alliance are negotiating an agreement that would allow them to coordinate their massive
effort to educate and mobilize workers.
Source: Joe Mathews, Duke Helfand, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Engineers and Architects Assn.
Date: August 24, 2006
The Engineers and Architects Assn. concluded a two-day strike Wednesday,
pulling down picket lines after failing to seriously disrupt public services or force Los Angeles city
officials to offer a better raise to the union's more than 7,500 workers. The marching and protests, while
gaining few tangible results for the union, appeared conversely to bolster the political fortunes of its chief
adversary.
Labor group takes $40-million aim at midterm elections
Source: Maura Reynolds, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: August 31, 2006
The nation's largest labor federation announced that [it] would spend more money this year
than ever before to get voters to the polls in a midterm election [it] hoped would return Democrats to power in
Congress. "This Labor Day, it appears that a 'perfect storm' is gathering that may well sweep away Republican
control of the Congress this fall," said AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney. The 9-million-member AFL-CIO [will]
spend $40 million on its voter turnout effort this year, compared with $35 million in the last congressional
midterm election. "Economic trends have strained working families to the breaking point," Sweeney said.
"Workers are not sharing in the wealth they helped create, and our nation's economic recovery has not been a
recovery for workers at all."
Source: Associated Press, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Independent Pilots Association
Date: September 1, 2006
UPS pilots have approved a new contract with the world's largest shipping carrier that includes hefty pay
raises, large signing bonuses and higher healthcare premiums. The deal ends a lengthy battle that was mired by
threats of a walkout. The deal was reached after more than three years of talks. The contract, together with a
tentative agreement between FedEx and its pilots, furthers a trend in recent years that has seen pay for cargo
airline pilots shoot up while the pay of many commercial airline pilots has declined. UPS pilots had been
making on average more than $175,000 a year. The new contract will boost average pilot pay to about $206,000 a
year.
N.Y.U. teaching aides end strike, with union unrecognized
Source: Karen Arenson, New York Times
Union(s): UAW Local 2110
Date: September 7, 2006
In a
victory for NYU, its graduate teaching and research assistants have ended the contentious strike that disrupted
hundreds of classes last November, without having won recognition of their union. Local 2110 represented
N.Y.U.'s graduate assistants in bargaining until their contract expired last year and the university chose not
to continue to recognize the union. N.Y.U.'s student union leaders said yesterday that their members had
decided to halt the strike at the end of the last school year, in part because as much as 30% of the membership
turned over each year, and because they believed the whole membership should choose which strategies to
pursue.
San Francisco hotel workers make a deal
Source: Kimi Yoshino, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: September 14, 2006
After nearly two weeks of intense negotiations marked by picket lines and marches, San Francisco hotel workers
unveiled a tentative agreement Wednesday with 13 hotels, averting a second strike in two years. The contract,
which runs through August 2009, grants higher wages, better pensions and full healthcare benefits to more than
4,200 members of Unite Here Local 2, a union of cooks, maids, bellmen and other hotel workers. They had been
working without a contract for two years. The accord is retroactive to 2004. "It shows that when we start
together fighting for our rights, we can keep whatever we deserve," said Rafael Leiva, who delivers room
service at the Hyatt Regency.
Source: Associated Press, BusinessWeek
Union(s): Coalition of Immokalee Workers
Date: September 13, 2006
A farmworker
group that ran a successful workers' rights campaign against Taco Bell has begun pressuring Chipotle to buy
tomatoes from suppliers who the group says take proper care of laborers and pay fair wages. The Coalition of
Immokalee Workers in Florida has accused the casual dining restaurant chain of buying tomatoes from growers who
have mistreated workers and paid substandard wages. After a four-year coalition boycott, Taco Bell's parent
company, Yum! Brands, agreed in 2005 to pay a penny more per pound for tomatoes with the money passed to
workers who pick the crop that is sold to Taco Bell.
Ford buyout deal shows union's power and pain
Source: Ellen Simon, Associated Press, Star-Ledger
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: September 17, 2006
The buyout package Ford Motor is offering 75,000 union workers shows the
vestiges of the United Autoworker Union's might: It offers lifetime retirement benefits for workers 50 or
older with 10 years of service, and a $100,000 education account for children or spouses. But the deal also
shows what the union has been reduced to: Getting a good deal for its members as they leave their jobs forever.
That future has already arrived, for the UAW and the entire labor movement. The decrease in union membership
has been stark. Twenty percent of the United States work force was unionized in 1983. By 2005, union membership
had dropped to 12.5%of the work force.
Holy pepperoni! Pizza drivers form a union
Source: Associated Press, MSNBC.com
Union(s): American Union of Pizza Delivery Drivers
Date: September 22, 2006
Eleven Domino's employees hoping to
make a little more dough and get a bigger slice of the profits have formed the nation's first union of pizza
delivery drivers. The American Union of Pizza Delivery Drivers won recognition from the NLRB over the summer as
the bargaining agent for drivers at a franchise. The union could open doors for other fast-food workers, said
Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University's ILR. A spokesman for
Industrial Workers of the World said the prospects for unionizing fast-food employees are encouraging because
older people are taking service industry jobs that were traditionally held by younger workers.
Labor leader: it's time to get mad
Source: Steve Cahalan, La Crosse Tribune
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: September 27, 2006
It's time to get mad at the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress, national AFL-CIO
President John Sweeney told 400 delegates to the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO biennial convention. "The fact is that
our families are getting clobbered by the federal policies of George Bush and our rubber-stamp Congress,"
Sweeney said. "And it's time for us to get mad. And it's time for us to stay mad and stand up together and
fight together and vote together and take back America together."
A plan for very civil disobedience
Source: Joe Matthews, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: September 28, 2006
Four hundred people will be arrested early this evening for blocking Century Boulevard near Los Angeles
International Airport, in what could prove to be one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in the city's
history. At least that's how the script reads. For much of this year, the national hotel workers union, labor
leaders and immigrant groups have been planning today's protest. Marchers are supporting a drive to organize
the mostly immigrant, nonunion workers employed at 13 hotels near the airport. If the event goes as envisioned,
organizers say, it will be a highly choreographed episode of street theater, timed for news broadcasts and
peaceful enough to persuade but not enrage the public.
Hundreds arrested in a protest tied to unionizing hotel workers
Source: Cindy Chang, New York Times
Union(s): Unite Here
Date: September 28, 2006
About 300 people were arrested Thursday evening for blocking the street in front of two hotels near Los
Angeles International Airport in a highly choreographed event intended to publicize unionization efforts at 13
airport-area hotels. More than 2,500 people joined a march through the streets before the arrests. Organizers
from the local chapter of Unite Here, the hotel and restaurant employees union, have been trying to unionize
the 3,000 to 4,000 airport hotel workers as part of a nationwide drive. The housekeepers, dishwashers and other
employees earn an average of about $9.55 an hour, 20% less than similar workers make elsewhere in the city.
Source: Mischa Gaus, In These Times
Union(s): Industrial Workers of the World
Date: October 4, 2006
Sick of waiting for
modest demands to be met, [Starbucks] baristas announced they were joining the Industrial Workers of the World,
intent on returning some meaning to the National Labor Relation Act's call for "mutual aid or protection." The
baristas don't want an election with the NLRB or a certified bargaining unit. They're using a tactic popular
before the Depression, solidarity unionism, in which a minority of workers act in concert and issue demands
even if management doesn't recognize their union--which Starbucks does not. But the Chicago baristas aren't
alone: Six New York City Starbucks have affiliated with the IWW in two years of campaigning, and the Wobblies
take credit for three city-wide pay increases there.
Source: John Chase, Jeff Coen
Union(s): Council 31 AFSCME
Date: October 6, 2006
Illinois' largest public employees union has told the Gov.'s administration to back off an internal
investigation of state hiring and to stop threatening workers who refuse to cooperate. Interviews being
conducted by two law firms hired by the governor's office could have a "chilling impact" on workers who may
also be questioned in the federal criminal probe of state hiring. "These interviews could be used to intimidate
employees from revealing information that would potentially provide evidence of [hiring] violations," wrote
Michael Newman for Council 31 of AFSCME.
Goodyear strike continues; no negotiations set
Source: Beacon Journal Staff, Beacon Journal
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: October 6, 2006
Striking members of the
United Steelworkers of America continued to staff picket lines outside Goodyear Tire & Rubber's corporate
headquarters, plants and other locations today. No new negotiations are planned. About 15,000 Steelworkers at
12 U.S. plants and four in Canada walked out at 1 p.m. on Thursday as four months of talks failed to result in
a new contract.
Source: Stephen Franklin, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Teamsters
Date: October 11, 2006
Say a mean-looking, burly guy starts giving Sandy Pope a tough time at a Teamsters union meeting.
Her inclination is to walk up to him and ask what's his problem. "It doesn't occur to me to be scared, and
sometimes I think that is not wise." Pope [is] the #2 candidate on a slate challenging Teamsters President
James P. Hoffa for the leadership of the 1.4 million-member union. She is the first woman to do so in Teamster
history. Whether her grit will win supporters is another issue.
AFL-CIO files complaint on supervisors
Source: Will Lester, Associated Press, Washington Post
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: October 22, 2006
Organized labor is filing an international protest about a federal
decision redefining which workers are supervisors exempt from legal protection to join unions. The AFL-CIO,
said it would file a complaint with the International Labor Organization of the United Nations about a decision
this month by the NLRB. The decision, covering a series of cases known as the Kentucky River cases, involved
the role of a supervisor. The board ruled that nurses who regularly run shifts at health care facilities should
be considered supervisors and exempt from federal protections that cover union membership. The decision
potentially has major implications for workers in other fields.
Source: Barbara Rose, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: November 1, 2006
A national union campaign in support of striking Houston janitors kicked off in the Chicago area
when local janitors refused to cross picket lines at 6 office buildings. SEIU targeted buildings cleaned by the
area's largest commercial office cleaning contractor--in an effort to pressure the company to settle in
Houston, where some janitors walked off their jobs starting Oct. 23 after contract negotiations broke down.
New York looks at workers' health costs
Source: Sewell Chan, Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): United Federation of Teachers
Date: November 8, 2006
After announcing a tentative contract with the teachers' union, the Bloomberg administration signaled
yesterday that its next major negotiating goal was to achieve savings on health coverage for 300,000 municipal
workers. The deal announced late Monday gives the teachers a 7.1% raise over two years, increasing the base
salary for the most senior teachers to just over $100,000. The agreement was unusual because it was the first
time that a New York mayor reached a major labor deal so long before the current contract's expiration. The
current contract, which covers 83,000 teachers and about 30,000 other school employees, expires in October of
next year.
Writers file unfair labor charge against "Model"
Source: Carl DiOrio, Reuters
Union(s): Writers Guild of America, West
Date: November 8, 2006
In the latest legal parry in a
multiparty labor fight over "America's Next Top Model," the Writers Guild of America has filed an unfair labor
practice charge with the NLRB. The union claims that producers of the CW's reality TV show broke the law by
eliminating 12 positions previously held by some striking writer-producers. In a charge filed, the WGA seeks
reinstatement and back pay for the strikers, who walked out in July in a bid to join the guild. The striking
employees sometimes refer to themselves as storytellers. Though reality shows are unscripted, teams of
employees must sort through reams of film and video to construct story lines.
Union wants to organize airport screeners
Source: Thomas Frank, USA Today
Union(s): American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)
Date: November 19, 2006
The nation's
largest federal labor union will push to organize airport security screeners after a finding by a United
Nations agency that the screeners should have union representation. The 600,000-member American Federation of
Government Employees says it could improve workplace conditions. The Transportation Security Administration has
one of the highest attrition and injury rates in the federal government, which aggravates staffing shortages
that make airport security lines longer. The AFGE plans to lobby Congress' new Democratic leaders to let TSA
screeners unionize.
N.B.A. players have zero tolerance for new balls
Source: Liz Robbins, New York Times
Union(s): National Basketball Players Association
Date: December 2, 2006
The new
synthetic ball and the new rules cracking down on in-game conduct have prompted complaints from players since
the N.B.A. season began. But what irritated the National Basketball Players Association most was that its
membership was not informed beforehand of the changes. The players union filed two unfair labor practice
charges with the NLRB and asked [them] to investigate what it said were the N.B.A.'s unilateral actions.
Players have complained that the ball is too sticky and then, when wet, does not adequately absorb moisture.
Labor sees opening to reverse declines
Source: Will Lester, Associated Press, Washington Post
Union(s): A.F.L.-C.I.O.
Date: December 8, 2006
After 50 years of decline, the labor movement sees an opening to reverse
that trend with the election of a Congress controlled by Democrats. And they are starting an intense campaign
to win passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, a proposal that would make it easier to form a union. Labor
delivered millions of votes for the Democratic Party in the 2006 midterm elections and is outlining what it
wants from the Democratic-controlled Congress in return.
Birth of the first global super-union
Source: Oliver Morgan (Guardian), ZNet
Union(s): Amicus; IG-Metall; United Steelworkers; International Association of Machinists
Date: January 2, 2007
British, American and German unions are to forge a pact to challenge the power of global capitalism in
a move towards creating an international union with more than 6 million members. Amicus, the UK's largest
private sector union, has signed agreements with the German engineering union IG-Metall and two of the largest
labour organisations in the US, the United Steelworkers and the International Association of Machinists, to
prevent companies playing off their workforces in different countries against each other. The move is seen by
union leaders as the first step towards creating a single union that can present a united front to
multinational companies.
Goodyear workers return to work
Source: Joe Milicia, Associated Press, Washington Post
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: January 2, 2007
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. workers returned to work Tuesday after a
three-month strike against the world's third largest tiremaker and some workers said it will take time to mend
wounds with management. Workers at 12 plants in 10 states on Friday approved a three-year agreement covering
14,000 employees that includes plans to close a Texas tire factory and creates a $1 billion health care fund
for retirees. Some members of the United Steelworkers were optimistic about rebuilding their relationship with
management.
Source: Stephen Franklin, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): AFL-CIO; United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: January 3, 2007
The AFL-CIO and [the United Food and Commercial Workers] sued the federal agency in charge of workers' health
and safety, saying it has failed to implement a rule that would require employers to buy protective equipment
for their employees. Such a rule would apply to as many as 20 million people who work in a number of places,
including restaurants, hospitals, factories and at construction sites, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health
Administration said in 1999. That was the year the agency proposed that employers pick up the costs of their
workers' protective equipment, saying 48,000 injuries and at least 7 deaths could be avoided annually as a
result of such an action. The agency has yet to act on the rule.
Union membership drops to record low
Source: Will Lester, Washington Post
Date: January 25, 2007
Union membership dropped to 12% of U.S. workers last year, extending a steady decline from
the 1950s when more than 1/3 belonged to unions. The latest gloomy news for organized labor comes at a time
when the group is pushing legislation in the Democratic-controlled Congress that would make it easier for
unions to organize. But labor laws aren't the only obstacle to union membership.
Labor union, redefined, for freelance workers
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Freelancers Union
Date: January 27, 2007
Herding
freelancers is a bit like herding cats. Both are notoriously independent. Nonetheless, Sara Horowitz has
figured out a way to bring together tens of thousands of freelancers into a thriving organization. [She] has
founded the Freelancers Union, offering members lower-cost health coverage and other benefits that many
freelancers often have a hard time getting. A former labor lawyer, she is trying to adapt unions to a world far
different from yesteryear, when workers often remained with one employer for two or three decades.
Source: Jason Roberson, Detroit Free Press
Union(s): UAW
Date: January 31, 2007
The UAW is losing its edge in pay compared with nonunionized U.S. assembly plant workers for
foreign companies, even as Detroit automakers aim for deeper benefit cuts to trim their losses. In at least one
case last year, workers for a foreign automaker for the first time averaged more in base pay and bonuses than
UAW members working for domestic automakers.
Source: Katie Merx, Tim Higgins, Detroit Free Press
Union(s): UAW
Date: February 21, 2007
Huge pay cuts at Ford. GM shifting production to Mexico. It's no secret that Detroit
automakers are expected to push for significant changes in UAW wages and benefits in the contract being
negotiated this year. But one of the nation's top auto economists raised eyebrows among his industry
colleagues when he suggested that hourly workers may have to give up more than ever before to protect U.S.
assembly jobs.
Source: Richard Verrier, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Writers Guild of America
Date: February 22, 2007
In
a victory for the Writers Guild of America, a NLRB judge has rejected an NBC Universal complaint that the union
illegally hampered the production of Web episodes of such TV shows as "The Office" and "Heroes." NBC had
alleged that the guild pressured "show runners"--writer-producers who oversee shows--to refrain from overseeing
the writing of "webisodes." The network contended that the work was covered under existing labor agreements,
whereas the union contended that writers wanted to negotiate fair terms for the extra work. The judge ruled
that there was no evidence the union "restrained or coerced" the show runners, recommending that the complaint
be dismissed.
Union misled farmworkers, state panel says
Source: Molly Selvin, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): UFW
Date: February 23, 2007
In a
rare rebuke, a state labor board ruled that the United Farm Workers of America deliberately misled workers
about their rights not to join the union or fund its political activities. The ruling comes amid a continuing
national effort by anti-union activists to weaken organized labor's political clout, and as the farmworker
group continues to lose membership and influence among California's immigrant farm laborers.
Screenwriters Dig In for an Extended Brawl
Source: Michael Cieply, New York Times
Union(s): Writers Guild of America, West
Date: December 10, 2007
Eight months ago, in a
contemplative moment, Patric M. Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America West, sketched out what
could have been a script for the collision that wrecked talks between Hollywood's producers and striking
writers on Friday. During an interview in his office here, Mr. Verrone described the looming negotiations with
employers as a confrontation much grander than a simple fight over pay formulas. This battle would be about
respect.
Cities can lay off workers without union input
Source: AP, AP
Union(s): International Association of Fire Fighters
Date: January 26, 2011
The California Supreme Court says financially struggling cities and counties aren't required to consult with employee unions before deciding to lay off workers.
BART, Unions Reach Tentative Agreement
Source: Mike Hall, AFL-CIO
Union(s): A.F.L.-C.I.O.
Date: December 23, 2013
A tentative agreement between management and the two unions representing some 2,500 workers at Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) was announced.
National coalition of labor unions to stage July 20 walkout against racism, police brutality
Source: Chelsia Rose Marcius, New York Daily News
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: July 20, 2020
A national walkout in protest of police brutality and racism will take place in various cities across the country on July 20 — part of a series of social justice events organized by a new coalition of labor unions and police reform groups.
Nurses hold vigil for colleagues, call on Congress to pass HEROES Act
Source: CBS News, Yahoo News
Union(s): National Nurses United Union
Date: July 23, 2020
Nurses from across the country came together on Capitol Hill to hold a vigil for fellow nurses who died from the coronavirus. Jean Ross, the president of National Nurses United union, joins CBSN to discuss why they believe it's crucial for Congress to pass the HEROES Act to help frontline workers.
Retail workers shouldn't be tasked with enforcing store mask rules, union head says
Source: Joe Murphy, NBC News
Union(s): Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union
Date: July 31, 2020
Many store owners have "abdicated their responsibility" and left it up to rank-and-file workers to enforce mask policies, said Stuart Appelbaum of the retail workers union.
The pandemic has shown just how much workers need unions | Opinion
Source: Jennifer Dorning, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: August 3, 2020
The employees’ effort to unionize the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh began before the COVID-19 pandemic. But their management’s response to the pandemic further emphasized the need for a union.
'We're Risking Our Lives': Front-Line Federal Workers Sue For Hazard Pay
Source: Brian Naylor, NPR
Union(s): American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)
Date: August 7, 2020
Heidi Burakiewicz, a Washington, D.C., attorney who brought the suit in collaboration with the American Federation of Government Employees, says such federal workers "are risking their health and safety to go to work. They have the types of jobs that are necessary to keep the country up and running and safe."
Flight attendant union president calls for airlines to put ‘workers first’
Source: Sheinelle Jones, USA Today
Union(s): Flight Attendant Union
Date: August 14, 2020
Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants shares fears over potential job loss among flight attendants and lobbies for airlines to put “workers first” after Congress left for recess without a new payroll support program.
Low-wage workers face retaliation for demanding COVID-19 safety measures at work
Source: Leila Miller, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: August 17, 2020
Coronavirus cases have surged in California over the last two months, fueled by the reopening of the economy. Though public health officials say making workplaces safer is essential to slowing the virus’ spread, fear of retaliation is preventing many employees from voicing safety concerns, workers and labor organizers say.
Concerned postal workers lay blame for delays squarely on recent overhauls
Source: Mary Pflum, NBC News
Union(s): American Postal Workers Union
Date: August 18, 2020
According to postal workers who spoke with NBC News, the changes have upended the mail delivery system and significantly delayed the delivery of items, including express mail.
Source: Abby Haglage, Yahoo News
Union(s): American Federation of Teachers
Date: August 24, 2020
For America’s teachers, back-to-school season has been a whirlwind of learning new safety protocols and adjusting existing teaching structures — either for in-person learning or continued online classes. But for educators in states where in-person classes are moving forward, a new mandate from the White House is likely making the new school year seem even more daunting.
Source: Tyler Sonnemaker, Business Insider
Date: September 3, 2020
Amazon workers have become more vocal about dangerous conditions during the pandemic, repeatedly going on strike, staging protests, and joining with coworkers to push for change.
Philadelphia is still very much a labor town. Here’s how workers are fighting back.
Source: Juliana Feliciano Reyes, The Philadelphia Inquirer
Date: September 8, 2020
In June, a coalition of labor unions and organizations won a first-of-its-kind whistle-blower protection law that made it illegal for Philadelphia employers to fire or otherwise discipline workers for speaking out against unsafe coronavirus conditions.
Source: Abdel Jimenez, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: September 14, 2020
More than 4,000 workers at the University of Illinois Hospital and its medical schools went on strike Monday morning after failing to reach a contract with the hospital.