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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Illinois Labor Hour Headlines 12-16-00 |
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by Peter Miller
Email: peterm (nospam) shout.net (unverified!) |
16 Dec 2000
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headlines broadcast on the Illinois Labor Hour, WEFT 90.1 FM on 12-16-00. |
Labor Hour News Headlines, December 16, 2000
Bounds Unseated as President of Teamster Local 26
A 30-year labor dynasty in central Illinois has come to an end. Bill Bounds, the long-time president of Teamsters Local 26, was un-seated in a vote count on Friday. Bounds was defeated by Gary Collette, a second-generation teamster from Mahomet who works as a local driver for Consolidated Freight. Collette and two other members of his slate won three-year terms. Of three thousand two hundred members of local 26, approximately half sent in their mail-in ballots. Collette won by a slim sixty-vote margin, and members of his slate also won the vice presidency and one trustee position. Four of the seven executive board seats remain in the hands of the Bounds team, but the bylaws of local 26 give the president most of the authority to run the union. Collette and his team ran a positive campaign, promising to be a responsive advocate for the members. The candidates visited the different teamster shops on a regular basis, talking with members about the need for steward training, organizing, and having elected--rather than appointed--stewards. Collette\'s election may have positive implications for the labor community. Under Bounds\' leadership, local 26 did not join the building trades council or the Champaign County AFL-CIO, but Collette may reconsider those positions. Sources close to the candidate say that Collette understands the importance of solidarity. Teamsters local 26 includes Danville, Champaign-Urbana, and Bloomington to the north, and it extends as far south as Effingham.
Seattle Newspaper Strike Update
Talks continue in the twenty-six day old strike at the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. As reported on the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild\'s website, chief negotiators for the two sides will meet in an intensive session this weekend, with a media blackout. The mediator asked the parties not to communicate the substance of the talks either externally OR internally. The union is not optimistic about this weekend\'s talks, and a general meeting has been scheduled for Monday evening. Nine hundred seventy union members at the Seattle\'s two newspapers are engaged in their first strike in over fifty years. Issues include wage increases to match the rapidly rising cost of living in Microsoft\'s back yard, elimination of a two-tier wage scale, sick-leave changes, and more. The union is publishing an on-line strike newspaper at www.unionrecord.com
United\'s Talks with Mechanics Recess; Injunction Request Denied
The Chicago Tribune reported on continuing negotiations at United Airlines. After 7 days of negotiations assisted by a federal mediator failed to bring the parties to an agreement, talks between United Airlines and the International Association of Machinists were recessed Dec. 13, on the same day that a federal district court judge refused to issue a preliminary injunction forcing union members to cease their slowdown. The corporation had asked that the union be held in contempt of court for not obeying a temporary restraining order that restored service over the Thanksgiving weekend but was not extended. United officials say that they fear widespread flight cancellations and disruptions during the Christmas travel season and will appeal the judge\'s ruling to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. No date was set for resumption of negotiations, but on Friday, the Wall Street Journal provided an update on the situation, saying that the union is willing to continue talks while the National Mediation Board appoints a mediator.
Teachers Union Forming a Grievance Committee
On December 14, the Peoria Journal-Star reported that the Peoria Federation of Teachers, which represents teachers in District 150, and the school board have established a labor-management committee to try to settle grievances informally and expeditiously before they enter the formal grievance system. Over a dozen grievances are currently pending against the district. The idea for the grievance committee came from a group established under the district\'s new collective bargaining agreement whose purpose is to improve communication between the union and the school board.
Sign of Safety
Highway construction is one of the most dangerous jobs in the United States, but a laborer has invented a device to make road construction safer. Richard Heinz, a highway construction worker who was nearly hit by a car while working with a repair crew near Quincy, has patented a remote-controlled flagging device called the \"J-4 Flagger\'s Workstation.\" As reported by the State Journal-Register, a 25-foot remote control cable provides a greater measure of safety for the operator, a push of a button can rotate the sign or raise and lower it, and the sign is topped by a strobe light similar to those used on school buses. The device was demonstrated at the Illinois Work Zone Safety Conference in Springfield on Dec. 12. An Illinois Department of Transportation official says the agency plans to test Heinz\'s device and others in the spring. Heinz\'s work has received backing from Laborers Local 477 in Springfield.
Olin Hires Replacements for Striking Workers
The St. Louis and Southern Illinois Labor Tribune reported that only three days after members of union members went on strike at the Olin Corp. plant in East Alton, the company started hiring people to take the strikers\' jobs. On December 3, members voted to strike by a three to one margin, after contract negotiations yielded unsatisfactory results on wages, abolition of a two-tier wage scale, reduced pensions, and increased health insurance costs to employees. Workers at the factory make metal products, including Winchester ammunition and metal strips used by the U.S. mint in coin making. The company says it hopes to hire up to fourteen hundred people to take the stikers\' jobs. Two local law firms helped the union raise $70,000 for a Christmas fund to provide food and toys to striking families.
see http://www.ilir.uiuc.edu/lii/ for Illinois labor news summaries.
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