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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Labor Headlines 3-23-02 |
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by Peter Miller
Email: peterm (nospam) shout.net (unverified!) |
23 Mar 2002
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Headlines as broadcast during the Illinois Labor Hour on WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign IL. Chinese Workers Protest WTO "Reforms", South Korean Workers Threaten National Strike, California Farm Workers Suffer Higher Cancer Rates, NYU Adjunct Professors Ask for Union, Living Wage on Agenda for Urbana, Laundry Workers Strike Near Chicago, Union Victories as reported by the AFL-CIO, Announcements: Labor Seder Haggadah Available & C-U Fair Trade Coffee Campaign |
Chinese Workers Protest WTO "Reforms"
At last November's World Trade Organization meeting in Qatar, Americans heard business and government leaders celebrating China's entry into that club. Today, the American press is silent about the impact on -- and reaction from -- Chinese workers. In what activists describe as the greatest unrest since the Tiananmen pro-democracy uprisings in 1989, workers across China's industrial heartland are protesting restructurings that are casting millions of workers from their jobs. On Wednesday, paramilitary units killed some of the four thousand laid-off workers who were protesting outside the Daqing Oil Company's headquarters in Daqing, China--a famous oilfield which was once praised by Chairman Mao. China was once self-sufficient in oil; now it imports 30% of the oil it uses, and the workforce in the Daqing oilfield has been reduced by half, with 86,000 workers laid off. Two years ago, the company began being traded on the New York and Hong Kong stock exchanges, and executives have been busy cutting costs across the country, to maximize profit. In another northeastern city, up to ten thousand workers are demanding unpaid wages and the resignation of company officials. Protests there have grown since the state arrested the workers' spokesman. Chinese industry owners say that they are reforming their industries to comply with the nation's entry into the World Trade Organization. The Chinese government expects another 20 million jobs to be lost across the country as a result of joining the WTO.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4378397,00.html
South Korean Workers Threaten National Strike
A general strike in South Korea is looming, thanks to conditions from the International Monetary Fund. The South Korean government is attempting to sell off its publicly-owned electrical system to private companies, like subsidiaries of the now-bankrupt Enron Corporation. The breakup of the national electrical utility began in April 2001, when the one national industry was divided into six separate companies. The individual companies were to inherit collective bargaining agreements in place at the time, but the union charges that the company never negotiated in good faith. On February 25, some 5300 workers -- about 2/3 of the workforce -- went on strike to protest the privatization which could lead to massive job losses, and on March 5, the CEO's of the companies declared an end to bargaining. Last week, the BBC reported that the South Korean government is training the military to serve as strike breakers. The power has remained on across most of the country since power plants are automated and being staffed by non-union workers.
http://www.kctu.org/action%20alert/strike2002-07-publicutilities.htm
California Farm Workers Suffer Higher Cancer Rates
A California state agency found that Hispanic farmworkers have higher rates of brain cancer, leukemia, skin cancer and stomach cancer than other Hispanics in California, and female Hispanic farmworkers also had more cases of uterine cancer than the rest of the state's Hispanic women. While the study's authors did not directly state that farm chemicals are causing the fatal diseases, the United Farm Workers say that chemicals are the cause. Farm owners dispute the study's results. A spokesman for the California Farm Bureau said, quote, "Just because workers work in an agricultural setting where pesticides were used, they say, 'We're attributing this to pesticides.' I just don't see the connection there," unquote. The study found that farm workers had leukemia rates sixty percent higher than the general population, and stomach cancer rates were seventy percent higher.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=533&u=/ap/20020317/ap_on_re_us/farmworkers_cancer_1
NYU Adjunct Professors Ask for Union
Temporary and part-time professors at New York University will have the largest union in the country for so-called "adjunct faculty", if the National Labor Relations Board certifies their union petition. The adjuncts filed their NLRB petition on Wednesday last week, seeking union representation with the United Auto Workers. The UAW previously made history at NYU when it successfully overturned decades of anti-worker labor law by gaining the right for graduate teaching and research assistants at private universities to form and join unions. Adjuncts and part-time instructors teach throughout NYU and comprise more than 70% of the approximately 5600 member faculty. Increasingly referred to as the migrant workers of academia, adjuncts often run from university to university teaching 2 or 3 classes at each in order to cobble together a livelihood. While NYU did not issue a response to the union petition, a January 29 press release hails the university's success in being the first private university to negotiate a union contract with its graduate assistant union.
http://www.uaw.org/news/newsarticle.cfm?ArtId=105
http://www.nyu.edu/publicaffairs/newsreleases/b_PR3.shtml
Living Wage on Agenda for Urbana
A proposal for a living wage ordinance for the city of Urbana will be introduced at the city council meeting on March 25. The plan would cover only full-time employees of the city and would not place any requirements on companies that contract with the city. A spokesperson said that, currently, all full-time city employees are paid a living wage and that an ordinance could possibly affect 3-4 employees.
Laundry Workers Strike Near Chicago
About 35 laundry workers at Carousel Linens in the north Chicago suburb of Highwood have been on strike since Oct. 5, 2001, demanding the company recognize UNITE as their bargaining representative. A majority of the workers, who are mostly female Mexican immigrants, earn only the minimum wage of $5.15 an hour. The company rents fine linens for functions and is continuing operations using a few non-striking employees and replacement workers. UNITE has filed 2 unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board against the company.
Union Victories as reported by the AFL-CIO:
This month, 310 workers voted for the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees--or UNITE. Those included 250 child development workers in Yonkers, N.Y. at Richmond Children's Center, and 60 laundry workers at Hospitality Linen Services in Naples, Florida. The New York campaign received help from the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, the Westchester/Putnam Counties AFL-CIO Central Labor Body and area UNITE members. More than 300 firefighters employed by the Navy voted to switch unions and join the Fire Fighters this month. More than 90 percent of the voting firefighters chose to end their affiliation with the American Federation of Government Employees and join the International Association of Fire Fighters. And 130 substitute teachers in Camden, New Jersey voted to form a union with the Communications Workers of America. Organizers say Camden's substitute teachers have not had a pay raise in several years and lack health insurance, paid sick leave or personal days.
http://www.iaff.org/across/news/archive2002/022202norf.html
Announcements:
Labor Seder Haggadah Available
Union and Jewish activists plan to hold "labor seders" in nine cities this spring, linking Passover's message of liberation to the struggles of working men and women fighting for a voice on the job. The Jewish Labor Committee has published its own Passover haggadah, the story of the Exodus read at the ritual meal at Passover. Copies of the haggadah are available from the Jewish Labor Committee, which can be reached at the following address. 25 East 21st St., New York, N.Y. 10010.
Fair Trade Coffee Campaign
The Common Ground Food Co-op is launching the Champaign-Urbana Free Trade Movement. A fair trade coffee campaign will be a centerpiece of the campaign. On May 1, the Co-op will sponsor an educational forum on fair trade, featuring keynote speaker Jim Goetsch of Friends of the Third World.
www.prairienet.org/idf/fairtrade/fairtrade.html
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See also:
http://www.ilir.uiuc.edu/lii/
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