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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Labor Hour Headlines 3/10/01 |
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by Peter Miller
Email: peterm (nospam) shout.net (unverified!) |
10 Mar 2001
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Headlines from the Illinois Labor Hour on WEFT 90.1 FM, Saturdays at 11 a.m. |
Anti Migrant Worker Charges to be Discussed with Police
The Daily Illini reported on Thursday that the Champaign police department will meet with Latino worker advocates to discuss charges that the department is discriminating against Latino migrant workers. The meeting, which will take place on March 23, is in response to charges by Hugh Philips, the director of a Champaign-based Latino workers rights organization, that the Champaign police have been calling the Immigration and Naturalization Service when Latino workers are reported to be using false IDs. The police department is not required to call the INS, which deports arrested migrant workers if they have entered the country illegally. Champaign police chief Bill Becker denies the charge. But Philips says that numerous migrant workers have called him saying that the police have called the INS. Daniel Juarez, the assistant director of another migrant worker project in Granite City, has traveled to Champaign to speak with migrants about their rights, and he said the fear Champaign police have instilled in local migrants is unlike anything he has seen in any other city. Accompanying Philips at the meeting with the police chief will be Monsignor Stuart Swetland, Director of the Newman Foundation at the U of I and Director for Social Justice for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria; and Dr. Francis Boyle, Professor of Law at the University of Illinois.
Interfaith Committee Seeks University Neutrality and Dialogue
A new alliance of labor and community leaders made its public debut last week. The Champaign-Urbana Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice held a press conference at the University YMCA on Wednesday and presented a statement asking the university to remain neutral when employees are deciding whether or not to form a union. The statement, which was read by Rev. Tim Hallett of St. John\'s Episcopal, notes that, early on--in the 1950\'s--the university did not interfere with employees\' collective bargaining decisions, but that for the past twenty years, administrators have strenuously fought any efforts at collective bargaining. The statement also calls for the university to negotiate in good faith when it is in contract talks, and to engage in open dialogue with the community over its anti-union stance. The statement has been signed by dozens of community, religious, and labor leaders, and can be read at the Urbana independent media website: urbana.indymedia.org. The Interfaith Committee is seeking more signatures for the statement; anyone is welcome to sign it.
NYU Graduate Assistants Recognized!
Graduate employee unionization took a big step forward this week then New York University became the first private university to recognize the collective bargaining rights of teaching assistants. Recognition of this internationally acknowledged human right didn\'t come easily for the twelve hundred graduate assistants. After preparing for and winning a union representation election last April, NYU managers asked the National Labor Relations Board to overturn the election results, arguing that graduate assistants aren\'t employees. The NLRB\'s final decision--in favor of graduate assistants--came in November, but NYU administrators refused to recognize the union until last week. The breakthrough came when NYU and the grad employees\' union agreed that academic issues would not be subject to bargaining. NYU\'s teaching assistants are members of the United Auto Workers. The UAW has organized unions representing about 17,000 graduate assistants at public universities across the country.
State of Oregon Blocks Anti-Sweatshop Activities
In the land of Nike, the state government has prevented public universities from enforcing anti-sweatshop buying rules. The Oregon State Board of Higher Education last week adopted a policy that prevents educational institutions from enforcing codes of conduct or joining any group that has a code of conduct for the manufacture of university apparel. The chronicle of higher education reports that the new rule was written to protect the rights of businesses to sell their products to public institutions. A state buying code currently in place says that any business that isn\'t engaged in illegal activity can sell to public institutions, so rules that exclude companies that produce clothing or shoes in overseas sweatshops--activities which may not be technically illegal--must not be allowed. A spokesperson for the University of Oregon agreed with the board\'s reasoning, but Scott Nova, director of the Workers Rights Consortium, a progressive anti-sweatshop organization, said he thinks that public universities can maintain their affiliations with anti-sweatshop groups because companies that manufacture in sweatshops are usually breaking either local or national laws.
S. Korean Protesters Fight for Jobs
The state provided thousands of riot police were to guard Daewoo Motors\' manufacturing facilities in South Korea, where workers have been protesting against layoffs and the possible sale of the company to General Motors. Yet riot police have not stopped protests by the workers who demand their rights to employment. On Wednesday last week, workers staged two more protests. In one case, about 200 demonstrators tried to block dozens of buses carrying workers to the plant in Bupyong, as the factory re-opened for the first time in 20 days. And at another protest in the same community, fifteen hundred former workers and their supporters held a rally at the city\'s university, then tried taking to the streets, but they were met by about one thousand riot police and police helicopters overhead. About 500 people attempted to take a train to the downtown area, but police prevented them from getting off the train. The protests were sometimes violent, with malatov cocktails being thrown and police beating protesters with batons. The protests spring from neoliberal economics. As a condition for giving loans to Daewoo, banks required that the company fire 5500 hundred of its sixteen thousand workers.
Congress Rolls Back Worker Safety Rules
The federal government took two swipes at workers\' rights last week. In the first, the House of Representatives voted to roll back hard-won worker safety protections. In a move cheered by the National Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, both of which oppose worker rights, both houses of congress voted to strike down ergonomic safety rules instituted by the Clinton administration. The senate voted first. After a day of debate on Tuesday, the chamber voted to repeal the safety measure by a 56-44 margin, with six democrats voting with the republicans. The house debated for less than an hour, and on Wednesday evening they also agreed to repeal the safety rule, by a 223 to 206 margin. Sixteen democrats voted to repeal the rule, while thirteen republicans voted to keep it. The ergonomics rule was unveiled by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on Nov. 13 and implemented on Jan. 16, four days before former President Clinton left office. It requires employers of 102 million workers to take steps to prevent disorders such as tendinitis or carpal tunnel syndrome that are caused by repetitive motion. Its sweep covers an array of jobs that usually require lifting, repetitive arm movements or typing. OSHA has said it would prevent 460,000 injuries a year and that the benefits of avoided injuries and higher productivity would exceed the costs of making workplace changes. A January report by the National Academy of Sciences said repetitive stress injuries affect about 1 million U.S. workers and cost about fifty billion dollars. Women workers are especially susceptible, accounting for 64 percent of such injuries in 1998, even though they make up only 46 percent of the workforce. President Bush is expected to sign the repeal.
Bush Stops Airline Strike
In the second anti-worker move, President Bush decided to intervene on behalf of corporate owners of airlines and prevent mechanics at Northwest airlines from striking. Bush used his rights under the Railway Labor Act to appoint an emergency board to propose a settlement. If either party rejects the settlement after the 60-day timeline has expired, the employees may strike, however congress can also impose the agreement on the workers. It is common for congress to impose an agreement under such circumstances. The press has noted that Bush\'s decision is only the second time since 1966 that the president has stopped an airline strike. The last time was in 1997 when President Clinton stopped a strike by American Airlines pilots.
United Flight Attendants Prepare to Strike
And, finally--in other airline news, flight attendants at United Airlines, who are represented by the Association of Flight Attendants, have threatened to strike over United\'s merger with US Airways. The attendants say their contract with United prevents the airline from owning an airline whose flight attendants are not on United\'s seniority list. The airline disputes this interpretation. After a meeting on March 8, the AFA announced that it would hold a strike vote in the coming weeks. United said that, if the attendants strike, the airline would seek a court injunction forcing them to return to work.
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