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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Labor headlines 11-10-01 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Peter Miller
Email: peterm (nospam) shout.net (unverified!) |
11 Nov 2001
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Charleston Five Cleared!, Anti-Fast Track Rally at Indiana University, Fast Track Update, WTO Meets in Qatar, UAW Gets New President, GEO Leaders Say Work Stoppage Planned, Chemetco Will Close Plant Near Hartford, Officials Say, Hospital Worker Who Moonlighted in TV, Counting of ballots in the Teamster election begins on November 13 |
Charleston Five Cleared!
Five union dockworkers who were held under house arrest for nearly two years by the state of South Carolina have won their cases. According to a report by Labor Notes, the Charleston 5 pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges, meaning they admit no guilt and will pay nominal fines of $100 each. The settlement brings to a close a critical labor dispute with deep consequences for racial and economic justice. According to the AFL-CIO, the case of the Charleston 5 began on January 20, 2000 when 600 police officers in riot gear attacked about 150 members of International Longshoreman's Association locals 1422 and 1771 who were conducting a lawful informational picket to protect their jobs and protest the use of a nonunion crew to unload a Danish freighter in Charleston's port. Some police were in armored personnel vehicles, others on horseback. Police helicopters were in the air and police patrol boats on the water. Police arrested eight of the union members on misdemeanor charges. Then, the state attorney general, an announced candidate for governor, intervened and raised the charges to rioting and conspiracy to riot, which are felonies, and took over the prosecution of the case. Although a judge dismissed the charges in a preliminary hearing, the attorney general secured indictments through a closed grand jury trial. The largely African American Local 1422 is proof that organizing can defeat racial discrimination and improve workers' lives, an example that conservative state leaders would rather see crushed, according to Local 1422 activists. A spokesperson also said the locals' involvement in politics and the community are other reasons the state's Republican leaders targeted the Charleston unions. South Carolina unions assisted in the election the first Democratic governor in the state in 12 years, and Local 1422 joined the movement to remove the Confederate flag as the South Carolina state symbol. The president of the South Carolina AFL-CIO credited the unions with setting a new standard for labor activism in community and political campaigns, both of which are threatening to the state's anti-union "right to work" law. The sacrifice of the Charleston 5 led to victory both for themselves, being cleared of their charges, but also for the union local. The struggle over which the original protest took place ended in victory for the union: The Danish shipping firm was unable to unload its cargo at the Charleston port, or at the company's other ports all over the world, as union dockworkers stood in solidarity with their brothers and sisters in South Carolina. When the ship that came to Charleston finally left and tried to unload its cargo in Spain, members of the Spanish dockworkers' union boarded the ship and massed in front of the captain. They delivered the message that as long as the company used scab labor in Charleston, Spanish workers in solidarity with the ILA would move no scab cargo. Two months later, the corporation settled a contract with the Charleston Longshoremen. A victory rally for the Charleston 5 will be held in Chicago on November 14 at Teamster City. South Carolina AFL-CIO President Donna DeWitt will be in attendance during the celebration, which lasts 4:30pm-6:00pm. Teamster City is located at 300 South Ashland, Chicago. Co-sponsors of the celebration include the Illinois AFL-CIO, the Chicago Committee to Defend the Five and Chicago Jobs with Justice.
http://www.chicago.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=6023&group=webcast
http://www.charlestonfivedefense.org
Anti-Fast Track Rally at Indiana University
The Indiana University School of Business was the site of a rally opposing Fast Track negotiating authority, one of President Bush's top priorities in the short term. While a pro-globalization conference promoting NAFTA took place inside the school of business, over 100 Hoosier citizens protested outside, speaking out against the damages caused by NAFTA and demanding that fast track legislation be stopped. Speakers at the Bloomington, Indiana action included representatives ranging from the Sierra Club, to the Bloomington Central Labor Council, which was hurt by the pullout of RCA and GE which both moved manufacturing to Mexico. Jobs with Justice, the Indiana Environmental Council, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and others were also represented. The Indiana action was one of numerous actions taking place nationwide in response to a strong push by corporations to accelerate corporate globalization through fast track legislation, which is also called Trade Promotion Authority.
Fast Track Update
Fast track negotiating authority may be up for a vote in the full House of Representatives next week, according to a report in CongressDaily. Congressional leaders who changed their schedules and decided not to attend the World Trade Organization meeting currently underway in Qatar are busy trying to make deals to buy the votes necessary for the bill's passage. However a number of obstacles remain. CongressDaily reports that Democrat Charles Rangel, normally a free trade supporter, and a prominent leader in the House, is angered by the Republicans' approach to passing the bill. Rangel was visited by House Speaker Dennis Hastert on Thursday, in an effort to gain his support, but a Rangel spokesperson said that the congressman had outlined specific items needed to gain his support for the bill. Rangel's list includes core labor standards, environmental provisions on multilateral agreements, investment regulations, and an enhanced role for Congress in overseeing international trade deals. Textiles are another problem area for fast track supporters, as is agriculture. A number of Republican legislators from Florida warn that their state's $9 billion citrus industry could go under unless import tariffs on citrus remain in place. Tariffs are antithetical to free trade deals. Republican leaders responded that Florida couldn't be exempted from free trade globalization laws. Meanwhile, the FAIR trade advocacy group Public Citizen reports that the largest coalition in the history of trade fights have signed on to a letter opposing House Bill 3005, the fast track bill. Nearly one hundred seventy groups from across the nation signed the letter, and they are seeking more signers. Finally, the AFL-CIO is encouraging union members to call their representatives frequently to voice their opposition to the bill. The AFL-CIO has a toll-free number available to people who want to call their representatives. More information about fast track is available at the website www.tradewatch.org.
WTO Meets in Qatar
The Independent Media Center, a source of news and information from grassroots volunteers, has geared up to cover another meeting of the World Trade Organization, currently underway in Qatar. 24-hour radio broadcasts about the meeting are coming from the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior which is moored in the Persian Gulf. Regular updates from the handful of activists attending the meeting in the isolated kingdom on the Arabian peninsula are also posted to www.indymedia.org. Activists are concerned about the WTO launching a new round of negotiations, something the group failed to do in Seattle in 1999, thanks to actions taken by tens of thousands of nonviolent protesters. On the agenda for the current meeting are an agreement on agriculture, which activists charge will give corporations more control over food supplies worldwide, an agreement on services which is expected to lead to accelerated privatization of public services such as education, communication, transport, and basic human commodities such as water, land use, and air supplies; an agreement on intellectual property rights which indigenous activists say will result in accelerated patenting of plants and traditional seed lines and health remedies; and an agreement on investment which will expand the right of corporations to sue national governments if health, environmental, or public safety laws reduced a corporations' profits. Despite the increased militarization of all trade meetings and the heightened attention on security following September 11, the website protest.net lists anti-WTO protests taking place in 36 nations around the world.
www.indymedia.org
protest.net/qatar/
UAW Gets New President
The United Auto Workers will have a new president, now that nineteen top UAW officials have nominated Ron Gettelfinger to succeed outgoing president Steve Yokich. Yokich has passed the union's mandatory retirement age. Although Gettelfinger's election will need to be formally completed at the UAW convention in Las Vegas next June, last Thursday's vote by members of the caucus that controls the UAW guarantees his election. Gettelfinger is described as a deeply religious man and a hard bargainer. He began working in chassis repair for Ford's Louisville, Kentucky plant in 1964, and rose steadily to the union's top position. At a press conference on Thursday, Gettelfinger said little about his plans for the union, whose membership has dropped by more than half since 1979, to about 730,000. According to the Detroit Free Press, when the new leader was asked about his management style, he strode to the microphone, said the word "abrasive" and sat down.
GEO Leaders Say Work Stoppage Planned
Leaders of the Graduate Employees' Organization at the University of Illinois in Urbana are planning a work stoppage during this fall semester, and they say they will take a strike vote during the spring semester, in an effort to gain recognition for the union as the bargaining representative for graduate assistants. In October, GEO members voted virtually unanimously in favor of a strike. GEO leaders say the strike will last only a few days and they have identified some potential dates, but refused to divulge details of their plans. The University has said it will maintain services and instruction, and department heads are developing plans for dealing with a work stoppage. On Nov. 6 and 7 the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board will hold hearings to determine the composition of a bargaining unit for graduate assistants. Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, November 6, 2001, p A-1
Chemetco Will Close Plant Near Hartford, Officials Say
Chemetco Inc., which has been hit by a $3.8 million fine for illegally dumping metal-filled wastewater through a secret pipe into Long Lake as well as a slack in demand, will close its copper smelting plant in Hartford on Oct. 31 and file for bankruptcy. An Illinois Environmental Protection Agency spokesperson said that piles of hazardous zinc oxide populate the plant site, and a federally-ordered cleanup has been supervised by the Illinois EPA for the past year. The number of employees to be laid off is unknown, but Chemetco had 157 workers last year. The former owner of the plant, who ordered the secret pipe installed, is believed to have fled the country. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 31, 2001, p B4
Hospital Worker Who Moonlighted in TV
A grassroots labor video producer in Chicago died of a heart attack at the age of 44 at the end of October. William E. Jenkins, III died on Oct. 29 while at his job as an environmental specialist at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center. Mr. Jenkins grew up in Cabrini-Green and studied photography at Kennedy-King Community College. In the mid-1990s he took a special class for union activists presented by Chicago Access Network TV and in his spare time became involved as both a cameraman and producer of stories about the labor movement for the grassroots program "Labor Beat". He was active in Teamsters Local 743, Teamsters for a Democratic Union, and the Union Producers and Programmers Network.
http://chicago.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=5853&group=webcast
***Counting of ballots in the Teamster election begins on November 13.***
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