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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Labor Headlines 10-20-01 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Peter Miller
Email: peterm (nospam) shout.net (unverified!) |
22 Oct 2001
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News-Gazette Organizing, Profiteering from the Sep. 11 Disasters, Tank Makers Strike, IBT Election, Fast Track. Headlines as broadcast during the Illinois Labor Hour, Saturdays at 11 a.m. on WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign. |
News-Gazette Organizing
A union organizing campaign is underway at the News-Gazette, and the campaign is uniting those who write news with the people who deliver it. About 100 workers in the Gazette's circulation department will likely vote on union recognition in the coming months. The people who deliver bundles of newspapers are receiving support from reporters and photographers in their union effort. The newsroom staff already have union representation with the C-U Typographical Union Local 444, an affiliate of the Communications Workers of America. Local 444 president John Dixon, a photographer, said that the circulation employees approached his union about organizing. The reporters agreed to help, he said, because quote, "we believe in workplace democracy," unquote. While the international union--the CWA--is providing some consulting support, the reporters are paying for the organizing drive using funds from their local treasury. The campaign is also receiving assistance from the Carpenter's union, which has donated meeting space to the workers. Circulation room employees tried unsuccessfully to form a union about two years ago.
Profiteering from the Disasters
The terrorist attacks against the US has created an opportunity for greedy contractors to exploit the work of day laborers cleaning up the mess. Yesterday, the New York Times reported that day laborers hired to clear debris from office buildings surrounding the site of the World Trade Center have not been paid, some of them for up to two weeks of work. Day laborers are frequently illegal immigrants who have no formal contracts and are promised pay in cash. Since the disaster, hundreds of workers line up each morning at a corner near the wreckage, waiting to be hired. They are promised $60 for an eight hour day of clearing shards of glass, wiping soot off desks, and sweeping floors. When an organizer with the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health visited the hiring line to talk to workers about safety, he heard an earful about how they were not being paid. One woman says she worked seven days straight and was owed $780, but that when she asked to be paid, her supervisor told her to come back later. When the worker came back, the supervisor couldn't be found. The company profiting from the workers' labor is Milro Services of Freeport, N.Y. Company officials say they are not responsible for paying the day laborers because they hire subcontractors to do that. The Times reported that workers began receiving their pay after the state attorney general and the Times began looking into the matter.
Tank Makers Strike
A week into the US bombing of Afghanistan, workers who produce military vehicles, including tanks, went on strike on Monday. More than 800 members of the United Auto Workers struck at General Dynamics Land Systems factories in Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers continued past a midnight deadline without reaching an agreement, a spokesman said. Some workers at one of the three facilities affected by the strike say they walked off the job because of health care and pension issues. "There's no health care for retirees after they retire," said Dwight Matthews, a designer at the facility in Sterling Heights, Michigan. "We try to buy health care, but when you get to be 50 or 60 years old, no one wants to sell you health insurance." UAW vice president Nate Gooden said health care benefits for retired workers were "something that UAW workers had and gave up during concessions, but now General Dynamics Land Systems is again profitable and has money to spend on expensive acquisitions." Earlier this year, General Dynamics Land Systems, a subsidiary of General Dynamics, landed a $4 billion deal to design futuristic armored combat vehicles.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011015/bs/general_dynamics_strike_4.html
IBT Election
On October 9, election ballots were mailed to the 1.4 million members of the Teamsters union. Teamsters are voting for the president of their union, in a race between Tom Leedham, an Oregon Teamster leader who was once a warehouse worker, and James Hoffa, the current president. Federal officials who oversee Teamster elections will begin counting ballots on November 13. Hoffa is confident that he will win easily due to his name recognition and the fact that he's the incumbent. Several important Teamsters who backed Leedham two years ago, when the two first competed for the presidency, have switched their allegiance to Hoffa. Hoffa has also raised $2 million for his campaign, compared with only $200,000 for the challenger. But Leedham, who has crisscrossed the country seeking the votes of UPS drivers, brewery workers at Anheuser-Busch, long-haul truck drivers, and others, say that Leedham will win. Leedham supporters note that he has much better name recognition this time, and that Hoffa's refusal to participate in a debate which was videotaped and sent to all Teamster members, has hurt Hoffa's standing with the members. An important policy difference between the two candidates centers on drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Hoffa has allied himself with oil companies and with President Bush and Vice President Cheney aggressively supports drilling. Leedham questions the accuracy of studies saying that the drilling will create a large number of jobs, and his supporters question the wisdom of forming alliances with oil companies and anti-labor republicans. In 1998 Hoffa won the Teamster presidency in 1998 with 57 percent of the vote, to Leedham's 39 percent.
http://www.hoffa2001.com/menu.shtml
http://www.leedham.org/
Fast Track..... Check the web!!! Bush is pushing it harder. Join orglist (at) lists.citizen.org for the best info. |
