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News :: Labor |
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Labor Headlines 3-22-03 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Peter Miller
(No verified email address) |
22 Mar 2003
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Headlines broadcast during the Illinois Labor Hour, Saturdays at 11 am on WEFT 90.1 FM. Higher Education Faces Crisis, US Labor Organizations Issue Statements on War, United Asks Court to Dissolve Union Contracts |
Higher Education Faces Crisis
As the wars continue, a crisis in American education grows deeper. Severe budget cuts and FBI surveillance of college and university faculty are changing the nature of higher education. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported on March 11 that the faculty senate at the University of Wisconsin's Oshkosh campus passed a resolution urging faculty members not to cooperate with FBI investigations of professors, students, or staff members made under the USA Patriot Act. The senate vote came after the chairman of the university's education department received a cryptic letter stating that he had been investigated and cleared of any suspicions. The chairman, Anthony Koyzis, was born in Greece but is now a US citizen and has lived in the United States for 25 years. Koyzis told the Chronicle, quote, "I'm your basic, boring professor," unquote.
Funding crises for higher education are striking most states in the nation. Democrats afraid to raise taxes are slashing deeply into college and university financing, and Republicans are using the crisis as an opportunity to restructure higher education systems. California Governor Gray Davis, a Democrat, proposed cutting 10 percent from the community college system and 4 percent from the University of California while significantly increasing tuition and fees for students. Massachusetts governor Mit Romney, a Republican, proposed re-structuring the UMass system, eliminating state-wide administrative offices under the university system president, combining some campuses, and privatizing three others. The University of Nebraska took the dramatic step of eliminating an entire academic program, resulting in the firing of eight tenured faculty members and 47 nontenured faculty and staff.
On the positive side, professors at the University of Akron voted for union representation last week. The union is affiliated with the American Association of University Professors, and it includes 680 people. The successful vote came 8 years after an unsuccessful organizing effort with the United Rubber Workers union.
US Labor Organizations Issue Statements on War
On Thursday, March 20, the president of the United States' federation of unions issued a statement about the just-begun war in Iraq. John Sweeney, president of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations, stated that the AFL-CIO stands behind the troops. Sweeney praised US soldiers and stated that Iraq's government is a threat to its neighbors and its own citizens. He also urged the US president to re-build a global coalition to reconstruct and democratize Iraq after the invasion. Sweeney's two paragraph statement included the following statement:
"People of good conscience and good faith bring a range of concerns to this war. Expressing those concerns should not be grounds for challenges to one’s patriotism. The AFL-CIO has maintained that the best way to disarm Saddam Hussein would be with a broad international coalition sanctioned by the United Nations. Now that a decision has been made, we are unequivocal in our support of our country and America’s men and women on the front lines as well as their families here at home."
A national group of unions opposed to the war also issued a statement. US Labor Against the War was founded in Chicago in January at the union hall of Teamsters Local 705. To date, 137 unions have passed resolutions opposing the war. This week, US Labor Against the War issued a statement condemning the US invasion of Iraq on the grounds that it will kill US soldiers and innocent Iraqis, it is being conducted in violation of international law and is opposed by most of the world, it sets a dangerous precedent for other countries to attack one another on the suspicion of hostility, it increases the likelihood of terrorist attacks against the US, and it will cost US taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. The resolution proposes an alternative course of action that employs aggressive diplomacy instead of violence. The resolution can be found on the internet at www.uslaboragainstwar.org.
Overseas, the British equivalent of the AFL-CIO, known as the Trades Union Congress, has come down squarely against the invasion. In a statement issued on March 19, the TUC reiterated a stance taken in 2002 that emphasized the need for a multilateral approach working through the United Nations, that opposed unilateral action by the US or any other country, that military action be used as a last resort, and that if diplomacy failed that proof be offered that Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction and that he posed a threat to world peace. Last week, the TUC concluded that based on the available evidence the war was not justified. The TUC includes seventy member unions representing seven million British workers.
United Asks Court to Dissolve Union Contracts
US airlines, already teetering on the brink of solvency, may be thrown over the edge by the new war. The impacts will be felt most strongly by airline employees. Two days prior to the attacks, United Airlines asked the bankruptcy court to void its current union contracts, clearing the way for the airline to impose its own terms. United asked that previous temporary wage cuts be made permanent and that it be free to reduce wages and benefits further and make changes in working conditions. An airline spokesperson said that the company hoped to reach agreements on concessions with its unions, but that demands from its creditors forced it to ask for voiding the unions' contracts. The pilots union said that negotiations had been "an extremely disappointing exercise", and a spokesperson for the flight attendants union said that accepting United's concessions would make thousands of flight attendants eligible for welfare benefits. American Airlines is demanding take-backs from its unions, also. American executives are asking baggage handlers for a sixteen percent pay cut, reductions in vacation, conversion of their pension system, and elimination of post-retirement health insurance. The unions are not expected to concede to American's demands. Northwest Airlines announced on Thursday that nearly 5,000 people, or one in ten of the airline's employees--will be laid off. Northwest will also reduce its flight schedule by 12 percent.
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See also:
http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org/
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