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News :: Labor |
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Labor Headlines 8-9-03 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Peter Miller
(No verified email address) |
11 Aug 2003
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Headlines broadcast during the Illinois Labor Hour, Saturdays at 11 am on WEFT 90.1 FM. Labor Critic Shut Out From AFL-CIO Meeting, AFL-CIO Executive Committee Doesn't Endorse Presidential Candidate, Verizon Talks Show Slow Progress, Hyundai Unions Win Strike, Urbana Teachers Authorize Strike |
Labor Critic Shut Out From AFL-CIO Meeting
Last week on this program we interviewed Harry Kelber, a labor educator from New York City. Harry is a long-time labor activist who publishes monthly newsletters informing people about the activities of the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest coalition of unions. On this program, Harry announced that he intended to travel to Chicago where the AFL-CIO executive committee was meeting. He had a reservation to stay in the hotel where the leaders were staying so he could try to have his criticisms heard. On arriving in Chicago, the bespectacled 90 year-old learned that the AFL-CIO leadership had labeled him a security threat, telling the hotel to keep him away at any cost. The Drake Hotel canceled Kelber's reservation and defended a shrinking labor movement's top brass from sleeping in the midst of one of its critics. Kelber responded to his blacklisting from the hotel by asking, quote, "Why can't AFL-CIO leaders try to refute my criticism of their policies, instead of suppressing dissident views by silence and vindictive actions?" More about Kelber's criticisms and ideas can be found on-line at www.laboreducator.org.
www.laboreducator.org
www.ufcw.net
AFLCIO Executive Committee Doesn't Endorse Presidential Candidate
The AFL-CIO did not issue an endorsement of a presidential candidate at its executive committee meeting last week in Chicago. Although Missouri Representative Dick Gephardt has received endorsements from eleven international unions while no other candidate has received even one, the federation decided to hold off on its endorsement until October 15, at the earliest. The AFL-CIO did hold a candidates' forum at their executive committee meeting, allowing delegates from the 64 member unions to hear directly from each candidate about her or his ideas on labor issues. Also during the executive committee meeting, the AFL-CIO approved a resolution endorsing sitting governor Gray Davis of California. Republicans in California have used a petition process to hold a recall election of the Democratic governor.
Verizon Talks Show Slow Progress
Verizon Communicatins Incorporated, the telecom giant that resulted from mergers of Bell Atlantic, GTE, and others, remains in the hotseat as contract talks with the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers continue. The contract between Verizon and the unions expired last Sunday, so a strike is possible at any time, and the likelihood of a strike by nearly 80,000 workers in the northeast appears to be growing. The Boston Globe reported that the parties remain far apart on health insurance cost-sharing, job security, and company neutrality on organizing in Verizon's wireless division. In a related situation, the CWA and Verizon settled a strike by 150 workers in North Carolina. The strike there began in mid-May, and a CWA press release calls the three-year settlement a victory, with wage increases of 12 percent, and improvements in benefits and working conditions. Among key strike issues, the union workers were able to retain their emergency family medical leave provision. Union members also cited burdensome levels of forced overtime when they struck the company on May 19. The new settlement calls for a joint task force to study overtime levels and make recommendations to remedy workers' complaints.
Hyundai Unions Win Strike
Are you driving a Hyundai? The Korean car manufacturer's 40,000 union members settled their strike last week after the company agreed to significant improvements in wages, work hours, and employee control over the company's business decisions. The BBC reported that the seven-week long strike began when the militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions launched a nationwide strike in late June. Korea's new left-leaning government declared that strike illegal and arrested many of the strikers, but workers at Hyundai remained on strike. In the end, workers won an 8.6% raise, taking wages higher than $20 per hour and bringing wages more in line with those paid in the United States and Europe. The strike also successfully reduced the work week from 44 hours to 40 hours.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3029368.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3016426.stm
Urbana Teachers Authorize Strike
Fulfilling their legal obligation to notify a school district well before teachers and support staff begin a strike, the Urbana Education Association approved an intent to strike vote by an overwhelming margin on Friday. With hundreds of teachers present, only one voted against filing the notice. The Urbana Education Association represents teachers and support staff, and the union has been negotiating with the board through a federal mediator since June. Urbana teachers historically refuse to teach without a contract. By contrast, the Champaign Federation of Teachers worked for four months without a contract last year. Issues in current negotiations are obtaining an equitable pay offer that fairly rewards all employees, health insurance -- which is currently a bare-bones plan, and new federal mandates contained in George Bush's reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The federal education bill placed new requirements on schools but did not provide the funds to pay for them. Education employees must wait at least ten days and take another vote before actually going on strike.
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See also:
http://www.labourstart.org
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