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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Labor Headlines 4-27-02 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Peter Miller
Email: peterm (nospam) shout.net (unverified!) |
27 Apr 2002
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Headlines as broadcast during the Illinois Labor Hour, Saturdays at 11 a.m. on WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign. New Hampshire Nontenure Faculty Win Court Ruling;NYU Adjuncts Have Choice of Unions;Most Americans Left Behind during Economic Boom, Study Shows;Hershey Workers Strike Over Health Care;IL AFLCIO Lobby Day;Investor Activism in Unions Rise;ANNOUNCEMENTS: May Day;Workers' Memorial Day |
New Hampshire Nontenure Faculty Win Court Ruling
Labor rights for temporary and part-time professors made the news again this past week. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported on two stories related to adjuncts. In the first, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that adjunct professors at Keene State College are not temporary employees and therefore have the right to form a union. The ruling reverses a ruling from the 1970's that denied adjunct faculty union rights. In its ruling the court said that the situation for adjunct professors had changed dramatically since the original ruling, with their numbers more than tripling at the college, and with the college increasing pay and benefits for those employees. In April 2000, 150 adjunct professors voted for union representation with the National Education Association.
http://chronicle.com/daily/2002/04/2002042202n.htm
NYU Adjuncts Have Choice of Unions
Four thousand part-time professors at New York University will get a chance to vote next month on whether they should form what would be the largest adjunct-only union in the nation. The vote has an added element of drama, though. Rather than simply voting for or against union representation, part-time faculty who want a union will need to choose between two different organizations, the United Auto Workers and the American Federation of Teachers. The UAW already represents graduate assistants at NYU and union spokespeople say that they already have a relationship with university administrators that will help them to quickly negotiate a contract for the adjunct professors. But the other union, the AFT, also claims a long history with the university since it represents clerical workers at NYU's Greenwich Village campus. AFT spokespeople say that their union represents more than ten thousand part time faculty in the New York area, including those at the City University of New York. Regardless of which union the adjuncts select, they will be seeking higher wages, better health benefits, and even some seemingly mundane items, like department mailboxes and office space. Adjuncts at NYU generally earn $1,500 to $3,000 per course. Ballots will be mailed to the part-time and temporary professors on May 17 and must be returned by June 4.
http://chronicle.com/daily/2002/04/2002042203n.htm
Most Americans Left Behind during Economic Boom, Study Shows
The booming economy of the 1990's didn't boom for everyone, contradicting messages from for-profit and public media outlets. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute released a study last week showing that the gaps between the wealthy and middle- and lower-class families have increased to historic levels. The center reports that in all but five states, income inequality has increased over the past 20 years, whereas prior to the late 1970s, economic growth in the United States was more evenly shared. The report breaks down government data, using information from the Census Bureau's March Current Population Survey. The growth in inequality may be even greater than the study shows because Census data do not capture income from capital gains, executive bonuses and other non-wage sources. Those constitute major sources of income for the wealthiest Americans. Report co-author Elizabeth McNichol commented that since people from all walks of life, from laborers to corporate executives, contributed to the strong level of overall economic growth, all should share in the wealth. The study shows that the US economy fails to distribute wealth equitably.
http://www.ucimc.org/front.php3?article_id=5105&group=webcast
Hershey Workers Strike Over Health Care
Taking an increasingly rare step, nearly 3,000 workers at two Hershey Foods plants in Pennsylvania went on strike on Friday, two days after negotiations between the largest U.S. chocolate maker and the union broke down, a union spokesman said. The 2,800 members of Chocolate Workers local 464 have been at odds with the Hershey, Pennsylvania-based company over wages and health-care costs. They represent roughly a fifth of the company's employees. A union spokesman said that the sidewalks in Hershey are filled with about 2800 peaceful protesters. The union says that production has been reduced to about 40 percent of its normal level. The struck factories produce about a quarter of all Hershey products, but company spokespeople say that they will make up for reductions in Hershey by increasing production at their other factories. Hershey's previous four-year contract with the union expired in November. On April 16, union workers voted to reject a new contract and in favor of a strike. The Chocolate Workers are affilatiated with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union.
http://www.bctgm.org/HersheyWeb/Hershey%20index1.htm
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020426/bs_nm/food_hershey_strike_dc_7
IL AFLCIO Lobby Day
http://www.ucimc.org/front.php3?article_id=5106&group=webcast
See also:
Investor Activism in Unions Rise
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=509&509&e=7&u=/ap/20020425/ap_on_bi_ge/unions_investors_1
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
May Day:
Wed, May 1: Noon on UI Quad. Speakers, rally.
Wed, May 1: 7 p.m. at 100 Gregory Hall. Prof. David Roediger, "Red and Green and Chicago All Over: A History of May Day"
Workers' Memorial Day:
The AFL-CIO encourages workers to take note of Workers' Memorial Day, tomorrow. On April 28, we should all remember that more than 6,000 workers are killed on the job, and 60,000 die of work-related diseases and millions more are injured every year. As Mother Jones said, "Mourn for the Dead and Fight for the Living." The AFLCIO's latest report about death on the job is available on-line at www.aflcio.org.
Hope to have CU Workers' memorial done by memo day. Across street from Olympic Memorial out at Parkland College. Just off Mattis ave.
And now a couple words from AFLCIO President John Sweeney...
http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/pp1N1wF1a1zY/
http://www.aflcio.org/mediaclips/index.htm
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