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News :: Labor |
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Labor Headlines 9-6-03 |
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by Peter Miller
(No verified email address) |
06 Sep 2003
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Headlines broadcast during the Illinois Labor Hour, Saturdays at 11 am on WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign. European Dock Workers Mobilize to Protect Work, WTO Meeting "Watch List" Draws Protest, Worst CEOs Get Biggest Pay Increases, Yale Strikers Take Protests to President's House, Republican Attempts to Cut Construction Wages. |
European Dock Workers Mobilize to Protect Work
Another attempt to weaken powerful dock workers' unions is being met with union action across Europe, beginning on Monday. Dock workers--known as longshoremen--will mobilize against the use of ships' crews to load and unload ships during a week of protest, leafleting, or two-hour nation-wide work stoppages in twelve European countries. The dock workers will rally under the slogan, "Leave it to the Professionals. It's our work!" Volunteers and ship inspectors will be leafleting the crews of ships visiting European ports. Expanded use of ships' crews, rather than dock workers, to handle cargo is currently the subject of a proposal in the European Union parliament. The International Transport Workers' federation is using next week's actions as a buildup to a massive rally against the EU directive to take place near the EU parliament on September 29 that will include a 24-hour port strike in Belgium and work stoppages in other countries. In January this year, 20,000 port workers took part in protests against the directive.
http://www.itf.org.uk/media/releases/030903.html
WTO Meeting "Watch List" Draws Protest
The British newspaper, the Guardian, reported last week that Mexican police and paramilitary forces have created a list of activists who they'll keep under surveillance during the World Trade Organization meeting that begins next week. The watch list includes the names of 80 global justice activists who may be headed to Cancun for the WTO meeting, and the list has provoked an angry response. Since the list includes only 80 people, many others whose names were left off the list are writing the Mexican government in protest. A letter addressed to "Government Agents Bent on Restricting Civil Liberties", which is currently being circulated for signatures, reads: "I recently found out about the 'watch list' prepared by Mexican authorities, purportedly to quell the voice of civil society at the upcoming WTO Ministerial in Cancun. Despite hefty expenditures of tax money on intelligence gathering ... we are concerned that you were only able to find 60 internationals and 20 Mexicans who are opposed to the World Trade Organization ... Please add my name to your 'watch list' immediately!" Ever since the events at Seattle in 1999, authorities hosting the WTO or the International Monetary Fund meetings have launched huge security operations -- some costing in excess of $100 million -- to keep away protesters and citizens concerned with the meetings' proceedings.
Worst CEOs Get Biggest Pay Increases
If you're looking for an indicator of whether your company is going to lay you off, look at the size of your CEO's raise. CEO's who received the biggest pay hikes had the largest layoffs, most underfunded pensions, and were most likely to move operations overseas to avoid US taxes, according to a study released last week. United for a Fair Economy and the Institute for Policy Studies conducted the study that found the following: First, while the median CEO pay increase was 6% in 2002, median pay rocketed 44% for chiefs of the 50 companies that announced the biggest layoffs in 2001. Second, at the 30 companies with the greatest shortfall in their employees' pension funds in 2002, CEOs that year made 59% more than the CEO median reported in BusinessWeek's annual executive compensation report. Third, among the 24 companies with the most offshore subsidiaries in tax-haven countries, CEOs earned 87% more than the median pay for the last three years, the study concluded. Hewlett Packard's CEO Carly Fiorina was at the top of the list of companies that announced large layoffs. HP laid off 26,000 people, and Fiorina's pay increased 230%. The study's authors said the data argued for more action to rein in executive compensation.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-execpay26aug26,1,2260353.story?coll=la-headlines-business
Yale Strikers Take Protests to President's House
The New Haven Connecticut Register reported on Friday that striking workers at Yale University moved their chants, drums, bullhorns and placards to the front of the president’s residence Thursday evening, protesting the non-union opening of Sprague Hall after a two-year renovation. Bob Proto, president of Local 35 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union said it's wrong to outsource maintenance, food service, and custodial work, but a Yale University spokesman said the union agreed to a contract that allows the university to use subcontractors in exchange for 10 years of job security and minimum staffing levels for existing union members. As dignitaries from the Yale School of Music and others celebrated the reopening of the building with Yale President Richard C. Levin inside 43 Hillhouse Ave., hundreds of workers kept the decibel levels high on the outside, taunting the president with shouts of "Come on out! Come on out!" Locals 34 and 35 of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees union walked off the job Aug. 27 in search of better pensions, higher wages and other benefits.
http://www.newhavenregister.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1281&dept_id=7576&newsid=10116629&PAG=461&rfi=9
Republican Attempts to Cut Construction Wages
As Congress returns to Washington from August recess to complete its annual spending spree, a first-term Republican lawmaker seeking to curry favor with her party's leadership is pushing to cut wages on federally funded highway construction projects. Colorado Rep. Marilyn Musgrave's plan would repeal Davis-Bacon prevailing wage protections by allowing states to pay what she calls "market" wages for federally funded roads projects. She argues that prevailing wage requirements hike building costs and that labor savings would mean more money for government coffers. Citing conservative think tank studies, Musgrave asserts that her bill could shave between 5% and 38% from construction costs. Provisions in the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 set standards for contractors that ensure against undercutting local wage standards, pensions and family medical coverage, according to the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department. The wages themselves are already market-driven, says the BCTD. The Department of Labor sets them based on local rates paid by contractors for each trade in each geographic area. Repealing Davis-Bacon would not only rob construction workers and their communities of vital income, it would also pressure contractors to cut corners in safety and health protections, the AFL has said.
http://www.lraonline.org/story.php?id=318
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