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News :: Labor |
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Labor Headlines 8-2-03 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Peter Miller
(No verified email address) |
02 Aug 2003
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Headlines broadcast during the Illinois Labor Hour, Saturdays at 11 am on WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign. Teamsters endorse Gephardt, WTO Protests in Montreal, Israeli Military Raids Union Office, Anti-Sweatshop Activists, Unions, Chastise Retailer for Dictator-Made Goods, Construction Laborer Killed by Drunk Driver, Parkland Staff Union Protests Job Reductions |
Teamsters Endorse Gephardt
The Teamsters union announced their endorsement of a candidate for president of the United States last week, choosing Dick Gephardt for support from the union's 1.4 million members. The endorsement came after a Friday conference call vote of 22 Teamster vice presidents, and is a slap to sitting President George Bush. In apparent hopes to lure the Teamster endorsement away from the Democratic party, Bush offered Teamster president James P. Hoffa a number of perks and special appearances during his presidency, including special seat for Hoffa at Bush's first state of the union address. But the Teamsters have openly expressed their support for Gephardt, the minority party leader in the US Senate. Gephardt's father, a milk truck driver from Missouri, was a member of the Teamsters. Union spokesman Bret Caldwell told the Associated Press that the union supports Gephardt because he's represented Teamster interests in Congress, including leadership opposing so-called "free trade" agreements such as NAFTA which force workers to compete on playing field tilted steeply toward business owners and away from workers. AFLCIO President John Sweeney had asked all the presidents of the international unions to issue their endorsements before next week's meeting of the AFL-CIO executive council in Chicago.
http://www.teamster.org/03news/hn_030731_3.htm
[Dennis Kucinich was endorsed by Willie Nelson and Ani Difranco. www.kucinich.us]
WTO Protests in Montreal
The charge against protesters in Montreal last week was that they were participating in an illegal demonstration. Canadian newspapers reported that when about 600 people came to protest a special meeting of the World Trade Organization in Montreal, police arrested more than 200 people after a small band of about a dozen people committed acts of vandalism. Police said that the demonstration became illegal when the vandalism began, however protesters reported they were not given a chance to disperse before the police swept in and arrested them. The Canadian government spent heavily on an overwhelming police force to keep about 600 people away from 26 trade ministers working to speed up negotiations in troubled WTO negotiations. Although a wide variety of activists participated in the anti-WTO actions, most agree that the WTO perpetuates a global trade system that further enriches the wealthy and impoverishes the poor, and that allows corporations to escape environmental regulations by moving operations to countries with weak or nonexistent environmental protections. Agriculture is a key issue in the talks, which will climax at a ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico this Septermber. Poor countries say they have been forced to open their markets to products from developed nations, but that they do not have fair access to markets in developed nations. Mexico, for instance, now imports corn from the United States, but poor Mexican farmers are angry that they must compete with American farmers who are supported by $100 billion in government-funded farm subsidies.
www.theglobeandmail.com July 30, 2003
http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991218329&Language=EN
www.oneworld.net July 29, 2003; Marty Logan
Israeli Military Raids Union Office
On July 25, the Israeli military raided the regional office of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, a Palestinian version of the AFL-CIO. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has sent a strongly-worded letter to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in protest of the raid in which office equipment including computers and furniture was damaged, and important files, documents, and computer disks were taken by the Israeli military forces. The PGFTU has advocated for the rights of Palestinians who are trying to maintain incomes and protect their families during the ongoing war between Israel and Palestine. Many Palestinians need to work in Israel illegally, but Israeli businesses don't argue because they can pay the illegal Palestinians 50% less than average. The ICFTU believes that the Israeli attack on the union office undermine the confidence building measures needed for a lasting peace in the Middle East. The ICFTU also urges an Israeli government investigation into the matter, and demands that the union's property be returned.
www.icftu.org
Anti-Sweatshop Activists, Unions, Chastise Retailer for Dictator-Made Goods
A retailer in the southern United States should stop selling products made under a brutal dictatorship and return ill-gained profits, say American and Burmese labor organizations. United Students Against Sweatshops, US textile union UNITE, and the Federation of Trade Unions of Burma demand that Fred's Inc., a Tennessee-based retailer, immediately stop selling goods made in Burma and make amends for profits gained from Burmese products. These demands come two days after President Bush signed legislation that severs financial ties to Burma and ends all imports from Burma in 30 days. Tiffany Williams, an anti-sweatshop activist from Florida State University said, quote "Fred's should not profit from goods tainted with the blood of a violently repressed workforce." Burmese activists say purchases from Burma prolong the military dictatorship and ignore the genuine will of the Burmese people. Fred's Inc. imported more than $5.3 million dollars worth of goods from Burma between December 26, 2002 and May 16, 2003. Despite public denunciation, Fred's continues to sell these products.
www.uniteunion.org
www.behindthelabel.org
www.usasnet.org
Construction Laborer Killed by Drunk Driver
The Associated Press reported on Thursday that a construction zone worker was killed in Shaumburg last week. A vehicle slammed into 51 year-old Deborah Wead of Rockford and killed her while she was working as a flagger to slow traffic on a highway construction project during a midnight shift. The driver was a 28 year-old man who had been arrested on a drunk driving charge and had his license suspended once before, in 1998. Wead the mother of four, had been working as a flagger for less than six months.
News-Gazette, July 31, page B2.
Parkland Staff Union Protests Job Reductions
Direct action and negotiation are the solution for members of Parkland College's professional staff union. Last Wednesday about 40 members of the Professional Staff Association attended the college's board of trustees meting where they voiced their objection to plans to reduce contracts of numerous employees from 12 months to 9 months. The trustees are discussing plans to close three units during the summer in order to save money. The college's theater, the planetarium, and the art gallery would all be affected. Such an action would violate the terms of the employees' union contract which expires in 2005, according to union president Mary Nicholas, who works at the planetarium and read a statement to the trustees. Union members stood while Nicholas read her statement, and they applauded when she finished. College managers say that the college is facing a financial shortfall due to declining state support for higher education, combined with higher health care costs, however enrollment continues to increase, and that puts Parkland in a comparatively strong position state-wide, according to admissions director Mike Henry. Nonetheless, the budget currently slated for approval at the September meeting calls for eliminating 4.5 full-time positions. The Parkland College Professional Staff Association is affiliated with the Illinois Federation of Teachers.
http://www.news-gazette.com/story.cfm?Number=14267 |
See also:
http://www.labourstart.org
http://www.radio4all.net
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Re: Labor Headlines 8-2-03 |
by Michael Feltes
mfeltes (nospam) shimer.edu (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
14 Aug 2003
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One correction... Dick Gephardt is the former Minority Leader in the US House of Representatives. Thanks, Peter.
Michael |
