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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Illinois Labor Hour News broadcast 3/3/01 |
Current rating: 2 |
by Bill Gorrell
Email: bgorrell (nospam) net66.com (unverified!)
Phone: 217/678-8286
Address: 1179 N. State Highway 105, Bement, IL 61813 |
05 Mar 2001
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International, national, and Illinois labor news from the Illinois Labor Hour broadcast Saturdays from 11am-Noon on WEFT-FM, 90.1, east-central Illinois' community radio station. |
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Daewoo Protest
According to \"Workers on Line,\" angry unions and community groups protested this week outside the Korean Consulate in Sydney in support of the Daewoo workers and their families who had been violently beaten by Korean police.
Financial mismanagement by Korean Daewoo executives based on huge illegal overseas loans has seen 4,000 workers sacked, with the remainder taking a 30 per cent paycut.
On one occasion more than 4,000 armed police, using forklifts, surrounded and rammed Korean workers and their familes.
Daewoo is now bankrupt; the owner is in hiding; and the Korean Government is seeking to sell Daewoo. General Motors Holden is the only prospective buyer - but on the condition that there is major restructuring.
Daewoo employees are demanding long term job security through public ownership of Daewoo. They are demanding no layoffs and no sale to overseas interests.
John Robertson, Assistant Secretary, Labor Council of New South Wales, said it is important with the continued growth of globalisation that unions also act globally and support the rights of workers to take industrial action.
Paul Bastian, Secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union said that the threat to jobs and job security is not just at Daewoo. All Korean workers face job insecurity while the Korean government adheres to WTO and IMF Free Trade Policies.
Bastian went on to say the AMWU completely opposes free trade policies and this is the ugly face of globalisation.
Venezuelan Oil Workers
The Associated Press says that on Thursday, after two attempts to settle a wage dispute with the state oil company, Venezuela\'s largest oil union threatened to strike next week.
The Fedepetrol union has two grievances with the Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the state oil monopoly. First, Fedepetrol demands that PDVSA pay the 15% wage hike promised to goverment employees last year by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Second, the union protests the company\'s demand that their workers, who make an average of $484 a month, return a $2,800 per worker bonus granted last year during contract negotiations.
The company claims that the 15% raise doesn\'\'t apply to oil workers and that the workers are legally bound to return their $2,800 bonuses.
Negotiations broke down last week. Venezuela\'s congress attempted to mediate the negotiations this week.
The union shut down the Venezuela\'s oil production in October with a 4-day walkout.
According to the Associated Press, oil makes ups 80% of Venezuela\'s exports and 40% of the government\'s revenues.
Air Afrique
The Panafrican News Agency reports that employees of Air Aftique at the city of Abidjan in the Ivory Coast held a one day strike that began at midnight on Tuesday. The airline amployees walked out over layoffs. In addition, Air Afrique workers have not received their salaries for January and February.
According to a company spokesman, only two of fiteen scheduled flights left Abidjan on Wednesday. Moreover, each flight only carried 50% of its usual passengers. The spokesman went on to say that many travelers cancelled their travel plans because of uncertainty caused by the strike.
Bamba Bakary, general secretary of the major union involved in the strike said, \"I am doubly satisfied in this strike because the management needed police protection to operate two flights and our colleagues conscripted for service do not have the heart to work.\"
NATIONAL NEWS
$45.5 Million Fine Upheld
In addition to stealing elections, the United States Supreme Court has no compunction against stealing American workers\' money and giving it to their bosses. Yesterday, the World Socialist Web Site reported that the Supremes upheld a lower court ruling ordering the Allied Pilots Association and two of its officers to pay $45.5 million in compensatory damages to American Airlines for refusing to halt a sick-out in 1999.
The cowardly court declined to hear the pilots\' appeal of US District Judge Elton Kendall\'s decision. The case stemmed from a 10-day sick-out by American\'s pilots that began on February 6, 1999. The union\'s leadership lost control of its members and the rank-an-file job action allegedly caused the airline to cancel 6,000 flights. The pilots also ignored a back-to-work order issued by Judge Kendall.
Kendall ordered the fine in 1999 less than 48 hours after the sick-out began. The union and two of its officers, former APA President Richard LaVoy and Vice President Brian Mayhew, appealed the case and lost. The Supremes refused to hear their arguments that Kendall hadn\'t given them adequate opportunity to defend themselves.
The pilots took action in 1999 to defend a clause in their agreement that limits the use of lower-paid pilots when a company acquires another airline or shares routes with an international carrier. American had recently bought Reno Air while declaring that it would take 2 years to bring Reno\'s pilots benefits and wages up to those of American\'s pilots, a clear violation of the airline\'s contract with the APA.
Employee dissension has simmered in the United States airline industry for years. Many workers made concession in the early 1990\'s during George Bush senior\'s recession to help ailing that airlines subsequently began reaping huge profits. Many airline unions are currently struggling to bring their pay and benefits back up to the levels enjoyed by their members before they took the cuts.
The \"World Socialist Web Site\" article quoted several anti-union statements by Judge Kendall during the original trial. At one point, he referred to the pilots\' action as \"extortion\" and a \"shakedown\" while vowing that he would reduce the APA\'s assets until they would, \"be capable of being safely stored in the overhead bin of a Piper Cub.\"
United Flight Attendants
Reuters reported yesterday that the Association of Flight Attendants told its members the union may strike United Airlines after talks with the carrier broke down on Thursday. The announcement went on to say that the union may strike if UAL, United\'s parent company, purchases US Airways without a waiver from the union. The AFA also told its members that the merger would lead to lower wages in a new contract. In addittion, the AFA announced that its attorneys would file suit to keep United from \"unilaterally changing\" its contract.
The two sides had resumed talks on February 21, with the union trying to link a pay increase to its consent for United to purchase US Airways. According to the union, the pay increase offered by United on Thursday was too small and the airline had not addressed other issues, such as protection against furloughs.
The AFA said that there will be a formal strike vote on March 8, and it told its members not to take any job actions in the meantime.
American Slowdown
American Airlines announced Wednesday that it canceled all morning flights in and out of John F. Kennedy International Airport. An article by the Reuters news service quotes the airline as saying the cancellations were due to a \"illegal\" work slowdown by mechanics.
American said it had cancelled 39 JFK flights Wednesday because of \"uncertainty about the duration of the activity.\"
American\'s mechanics are represented by the Transport Workers\' Union.
Cingular Card Check Victory
The Communication Workers of America announced Wednesday that early 700 wireless workers at Cingular operations in Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin won representation by the union in a card check conducted by the American Arbitration Association. CWA locals in Detroit, Michigan; Columbus, Ohio; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, participated in the organizing effort.
According to CWA Distict 4 Vice President Jeff Rechenhach, 1,900 Cingular workers in the Ameritech region have joined the CWA since card check recognition took effect seven months ago.
In November, some 1,200 Cingular workers in Illinois were among nearly 2,200 -- from facilities in New York, Massachusetts and Maryland -- who joined the CWA and won their first contract last month. Rechenbach called the victory a \"team effort\" that grew out of a drive for card check recognition that first got underway among workers at Southwestern Bell.
The CWA now represents more than 10,000 wireless workers at Cingular, which was formed by the merger of SBC and Bell South wireless companies. Under the card check process, when a majority of workers in a unit indicates support for CWA representation, management then recognizes the union.
Labor Ready \"Misclassifies\" Workers
The Seattle Times reported Wednesday that the Washington state Department of Labor and Industries ordered Labor Ready to pay $497,930 in back workers\' compensation premiums for the year 1998. The temporary employment firm was also ordered to pay more than $236,000 in penalties and interest.
The state labor department said that Labor Ready claimed that workers construction cleanup and landscaping construction were performing grounds maintenance rather than construction work. Grounds maintenance compensation insurance premiums are only 40 cents an hour while construction premiums are $1.20 an hour per worker.
Labor department audits in Washington and Ohio were prompted by an AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Departmentinvestigation of Labor Ready in those states. Last month. the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation ordered Labor Ready to pay $48,000 in back workers\' comp premiums for misclassified workers in that state.
The Washington labor department\'s audit was for the year 1998 and the department also plans to audit the state\'s 19 offices for the years 1999 and 2000.
ILLINOIS NEWS
From the \"Illinois Labor in the Press\" web page at www.ilir.uiuc.edu/lii/news.html
Union Workers at Kwik-Wall Go On Strike
Workers at Kwik-Wall in Springfield, which manufactures folding walls commonly used as room dividers in conference centers, who are represented by Carpenters Local 16, went on strike on March 1. At issue is the restoration of a $1.50 an hour wage concession made in 1995 to help the company restore its market position. Wages are still 40 cents below those at the time of the cut. Additional bargaining issues are health insurance, mandatory overtime, and seniority benefits. The strike will not halt production at the factory because it normally shuts down in March for inventory, and plans are for nonunion workers to operate the plant if the strike stretches beyond the inventory closing period.
State Journal-Register, March 2, 2001, p 23
Harassment Suit Wins $750,000
A out of court settlement was reached on Feb. 27 in a sexual harassment and sex discrimination suit between the owners of a Kroger store in Marion and 14 women employees that was filed in 1997 and made a class action in 1999. Under the terms of the settlement, the store will pay the women $750,000. The women employees said that management took no action after their complaints of harassment by a male employee.
Chicago Tribune, March 2, 2001, section 1, p 4
Little Progress Seen In Saving Crown II In Virden
Although the Freeman United Coal Co.\'s Crown II mine near Virden is scheduled to close in about 3 weeks eliminating 225 jobs, local officials are still trying to prevent the shutdown. The mine is one of Macoupin County\'s largest employers, and a shutdown would have a detrimental effect on the local economy. Legislators, petition drives, letter-writing campaigns, and informational picketing at CILCO headquarters in Peoria have so far had no effect on CILCO\'s decision to exit from its contract to purchase coal from the mine. The mine\'s owners have said that, since CILCO is the only customer for Crown II coal, the mine will be closed if the contract is broken.
State Journal-Register, March 1, 2001, p 29
UAW Is Notified That ROHN Will Lay Off 30 Workers
ROHN Industries Inc. in Peoria notified UAW Local 494 on Feb. 23 that 30 workers would be indefinitely laid off beginning that day because of a slowdown in demand for the steel poles and other infrastructure items for the telecommunications industry that are manufactured at the plant.
Peoria Journal Star, February 27, 2001, p C1
LAYOFF REPORT
Media Layoffs
From mediachannel.org:
\"Many traditional media and content companies are tightening their belts and, unfortunately, cutting jobs. Most of the cutbacks are attributed to the slowing economy and advertising market, disappointing results at online units, and restructurings in the aftermath of mergers.\"
\"This tally of layoffs, based on news accounts, starts with the most recent reports.\"
Due to the softening ad market, Sinclair Broadcast Group cut 147 jobs recently at several of its stations.
Source: Baltimore Sun, 02/28/01
135 Laid Off
135 media workers at ABCNEWS.COM and ABC.COM were laid off in Disney Internet\'s second round of layoffs.
Source: Associated Press, 02/26/01
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