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News :: Labor |
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Labor Headlines 1-31-04 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Peter Miller
(No verified email address) |
31 Jan 2004
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Headlines broadcast during the Illinois Labor Hour, Saturday at 11 am on WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign. India Accuses US of Protectionism, Military Veterans to Lose Benefits with Bush Overtime Change, California Grocery Strikers Turned Away from CEO's Home ... town, Union Condemns Police Raid on Canadian Reporter, Kerry Picks Up Union Support |
India Accuses US of Protectionism
India is accusing the United States of establishing protectionist trade measures because of a Senate bill that would prohibit the outsourcing of some federal work to developing countries, including India. The Financial Times reported that senior Indian ministers said they would confront their counterparts in Washington over upcoming senate legislation. Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee described the measure as "unfair." The Senate legislation, which has yet to be signed into law, would stop private companies using offshore workers to compete against government workers on some federal contracts. Such a ban may be explicitly illegal under World Trade Organization rules that the United States has agreed to. Indian trade minister Atul Jaitley told the Financial Times, quote, "Here you have a country whose main mantra [at the World Trade Organisation] is 'market access' and whose argument is that opening markets to competition is the solution to poverty in countries like India. And then they enact something like this." India was one of the leaders of the G-22, or the group of 22 developing countries who unified at the Cancun WTO ministerial and led to the collapse of the trade negotiations.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1106&ncid=1106&e=12&u=/ft/20040130/bs_ft/1073281409090
Military Veterans to Lose Benefits with Bush Overtime Change
Workers have lost several battles in the war to save overtime pay, but they're not done fighting. First, Congress succeeded in adding language to a spending bill that would prohibit George Bush's overtime rollback, then he vetoed the bill. The final version lets him reduce overtime pay for 8 million workers, according to AFL-CIO estimates. A campaign led by the AFL-CIO generated an estimated 1.5 million email messages, letters, faxes, and calls to the White House, but the president implemented an email blocking system to prevent more messages from being delivered. Last week, the nation's military veterans entered the debate, contending that veterans would take a pay cut under the new rules if they had received military training for white-collar jobs that they now hold. The proposal to reduce overtime pay would let employers cut overtime for people with certain work experience, studies at technical schools and community colleges, and military training. Nonetheless, the Bush administration accuses worker groups of being dishonest, and they offered a red herring to defend their actions: Bush administration officials contend the proposal makes no change from current case law regarding military experience. Chris Owens, policy director for the AFL-CIO said cutting overtime pay for veterans is "not a way to thank people for what they've done for this country."
Note: the original article is very good, and I recommend reading the whole thing.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040129/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/overtime_pay_5
California Grocery Strikers Turned Away from CEO's Home ... town
In the California grocery strike, a stalemate appears to leave the store's wealthy owners ready to starve-out the grocery clerks. The Los Angeles times reported this week that in an effort to break the stalemate, a group known as CLUE, or Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, led a pilgrimage to the home of Safeway Chief Executive Steven Burd. The pilgrimage included scores of religious leaders and supermarket workers, some with their children along. But on Wednesday, when they arrived in Burd's affluent home community of Alamo, east of San Francisco, they were stopped about a mile from the gates to his community. Sheriffs allowed six clergy members to hike a steep private road to the entrance, where they had hoped to hand Burd thousands of cards and letters urging an end to the long-running supermarket strike and lockout. Instead, they were met by security guards and local police, and a nattily dressed man who identified himself as Guy Worth, Burd's personal representative. The clergy handed Worth the cards and asked that Safeway return to the bargaining table until a settlement was reached, but no promises were offered. For some of the about 200 workers who took part in the clergy-led campaign billed as the "Grocery Workers Justice Pilgrimage," the turndown in Alamo was yet another indignity in the 3 1/2- month-old labor dispute between the United Food and Commercial Workers union and Safeway's Vons and Pavilions, Albertsons and Ralphs supermarket chains. The dispute has idled about 70,000 workers in Central and Southern California. Thirty six year old Claudia Gabriel, who works in the produce section at one of the struck grocery stores, brought her three sons on the trip. She commented, quote, "We've already used all of our savings. Even our family members are one day going to get tired of helping us out. [The Safeway CEO] can do something for us. He can do something big for us." unquote.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-super29jan29,1,6555116.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business
Union Condemns Police Raid on Canadian Reporter
Police used Canada's version of the Patriot Act to raid a reporter's home and office, and confiscate notebooks, address books, computer hard drives, cassette tapes, and other items. The Newspaper Guild of the Communications Workers of America reported on the January 28 raid on its website, and the union called on the Canadian prime minister to end such attacks on press freedom and privacy. The targeted reporter was Juliet O'Neill, who works for the Ottawa Citizen. O'Neill had reported on the case of a Syrian-born Canadian citizen who was detained by U.S. authorities in 2002 and deported to Syria, where he was tortured. Maher Arar was released by Syria a year later and returned to Canada; he has denied any connection with terrorism. The Newspaper Guild urged the Ottawa Citizen and publisher Can West "to fight the actions of the government and RCMP as vigorously as possible." Can West has said that reporters will continue to investigate what government or police involvement there was in the deportation of a Canadian citizen.
http://www.cwa-union.org/news/WhatsNew.asp?ID=387
Kerry Picks Up Union Support
In a related story, the Communications Workers of America decided Friday to endorse Democratic front-runner John Kerry for president, giving the Massachusetts senator his third union endorsement. The union's executive board voted in favor of the endorsement in a Friday morning conference call. CWA president Morton Bahr said in a statement after the vote, quote "Through the ups and downs of this very competitive race for the nomination, John Kerry has shown the toughness and tenacity that are needed to wage a successful campaign for the White House." CWA is the nation's largest communications and media union, representing more than 700,000 workers in telecommunications, broadcasting, cable TV, publishing and electronics. It also has members in the airlines and health care industries. In a written statement, Kerry responded that he will continue fighting for working Americans. CWA is one of a handful of major unions that has remained on the sidelines of the roller-coaster race for the Democratic nomination, because officials were uncertain which Democrat would emerge as a favorite that their members could wholeheartedly support. Another union offering its support for Kerry was the Michigan Education Association, the largest teachers' union in the state. Other unions to endorse Kerry are the International Association of Fire Fighters and the Utility Workers Union of America. Another union, the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, also has decided to endorse Kerry, but will make the announcement next week.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&ncid=696&e=10&u=/ap/20040130/ap_on_el_pr/labor_kerry |
See also:
http://www.labourstart.org
http://www.ilir.uiuc.edu/lii/
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This work is in the public domain |
