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News :: Labor |
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Labor Headlines 9-27-03 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Petr Miller
(No verified email address) |
28 Sep 2003
Modified: 06:37:19 PM |
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Headlines broadcast durin gthe Illinois Labor Hour, Saturday at 11 am on WEFT 90.1 FM. AFLCIO Takes Leadership in Ousting Corporate Crooks, Economy Continues to Falter, Union Presidential Endorsements Continue and Are Delayed, Support Workers Strike at Miami U., Benton Teachers Get 7 Percent Raise Under Compromise Pact |
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AFLCIO Takes Leadership in Ousting Corporate Crooks
America's largest labor federation, AFL-CIO, is taking leadership on a high-profile public scandal. After the New York Stock Exchange admitted its mistake in offering $140 million in compensation to its former CEO Richard Grasso, other members of the exchange's board have come under pressure as well. The AFL-CIO is targeting one of Grasso's key supporters, Kenneth Langone. On Friday, the AFL-CIO called on five public corporations that have Langone on their boards not to re-nominate him for their boards. Langone sits on the boards of directors of General Electric, of the corporation that owns Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut, and of Home Depot, among others. AFL Secretary Treasurer Richard Trumka said the companies should remove Langone because, quote, he "appears to have a history of approving excessive executive compensation packages." Langone headed the compensation committee that approved Grasso's $140 million pay package. He was also a member of the compensation committee at GE that approved a controversial retirement package for former CEO Jack Welch. A furor over the size of his perks, which were disclosed during his divorce proceedings, led Welch to agree to give up some of the benefits last year. In a separate letter to the exchange's temporary CEO, Trumka also demanded that Langone be removed immediately from all New York Stock Exchange committees. Langone has additional baggage as well, possibly making him a leading American Corporate Criminal: Aside from approving enormous executive pay packages, Langone is also the President and CEO of an investment firm that is being investigated for providing insider trading information in exchange for high commissions.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1896&ncid=1896&e=17&u=/nm/20030926/us_nm/financial_langone_dc_3
Economy Continues to Falter
By most standards, the economic news wasn't good last week. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 134,000 workers lost their jobs in 1,300 mass layoffs across the country in August. Layoffs in August 2003 were up five percent from August 2002. Manufacturing took the hardest hit of any sector, and the numbers of people losing jobs in mass layoffs increased most in textile mills and in the motion picture and sound recording industries. Those states with the most layoffs were California, New York, Illinois, North Carolina and Texas. As if that weren't bad enough for working people, on Thursday, the Census Bureau reported that poverty increased and the average household income declined in 2002--the second year in a row for both figures to worsen. The poverty rate increased to 12.1 percent, leaving 35 million Americans living below the poverty line, and the average income dropped by $500 to $42,400. The Midwest was hit the hardest, with normal family income declining by 2 percent; and African Americans were the hardest-hit racial group, with incomes falling by 3 percent and poverty rates increasing to over 24 percent. In response, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney condemne the Bush administration for its handling of the economy. Sweeney said, quote, "It is unconscionable that while the ranks of the nation’s poor are growing and American paychecks have shrunk for the third year in a row, the Bush Administration has continued to pander to the wealthy through millionaire tax cuts while having no real plan for low and middle-income Americans. In fact, the Administration has proposed stripping overtime protections from millions of workers, threatening to reduce household income for working families even further." Sweeney continued, "Today’s reports reflect the tremendous job loss of the last several years. Since President Bush took office, American workers have lost 3.3 million jobs in the private sector, erasing the remarkable job gains of the late 1990s." By contrast, conservative economists said that the increase in poverty was relatively small and that the economic news was encouraging.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/26/politics/26CND-CENS.html?hp
http://www.aflcio.org/mediacenter/prsptm/pr09262003.cfm
Union Presidential Endorsements Continue and Are Delayed
In the race for the Democratic nomination for President, another large union has weighed in on behalf of Dick Gephardt. One thousand delegates to the Laborers' International Union gave the union's endorsement to Gephardt, a long-time friend of labor. The Laborers' union has 840,000 members, and it joins 13 other unions to endorse Gephardt. Union president Terrence O'Sullivan said that Gephardt has supported labor through good times and bad, and that the union had "picked a winner." Some unions are reluctant to make an endorsement in the primary with such a crowded field. The AFL-CIO did not issue an endorsement at its recent executive council meeting, and it's expected that they will put off an October meeting where the federation was expected to discuss an endorsement. Although 14 of the AFLCIO's 64 unions have endorsed Gephardt, several unions have postponed endorsements, including the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the American Federation of Teachers, the United Auto Workers, and the United Food and Commercial Workers.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/printedition/chi-0309240335sep24,1,1056769,print.story?coll=chi-printnews-hed
University Support Workers Strike at Miami U.
Just as the strike by service workers at Yale University ends, another one begins. Yesterday, maintenance, grounds, and cafeteria workers at Ohio's Miami University went out on strike. The workers are represented by AFSCME Local 209. The workers struck as soon as their contract expired on Friday night. The union represents about 860 employees at the state school. The union says the workers' wages -- more than half get less than $10 per hour -- are lower than those at other state universities in Ohio, a contention school officials dispute. The university hired at least 100 replacement workers in anticipation of the strike, and university spokespeople say that services were not affected by the strike. The use of replacement workers may be illegal since the union claims that they are striking not over wages but over unfair labor practices committed by the university. The labor action is the first strike ever at Miami University.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=2&u=/ap/20030926/ap_on_re_us/university_strike_1
http://www.afscme209.org/
Benton Teachers Get 7 Percent Raise Under Compromise Pact
A strike by teachers at Benton High School that began on August 20 ended on Sept. 23 when the school board approved a contract. The teachers ratified the contract one day earlier. The new 3-year agreement provides for salary increases of 7% over the life of the contract and limits on the size of increases in employee health insurance contributions. Teachers will have to pay part of their early retirement funds, and newly hired teachers will not be able to receive a bonus for not joining the district's health insurance plan, as currently employed teachers can. Although the teachers wanted to make up all school days lost since Aug. 20 when the strike began, 2 days will not be made up.
State Journal-Register, September 24, 2003, p 11 |
See also:
http://ww.ilir.uiuc.edu/lii/
http://www.labourstart.org
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