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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Labor Hour Headlines 7-20-02 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Peter Miller
Email: peterm (nospam) shout.net (unverified!) |
20 Jul 2002
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Headlines as broadcast during the Illinois Labor Hour, Saturdays at 11 a.m. on WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign. Thai Workers Protest Samsonite Contractor; Stock Market Crashes, Largest US Bankruptcy Looms; New York Adjuncts Score Two Victories; Teamsters Reach Tentative Agreement with UPS; Homeland Security Bill Denies 170,000 Right to Union; Navistar Workers Approve Labor Pact |
Thai Workers Protest Samsonite Luggage Contractor
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions reported on Monday that over 200 workers in Thailand planned to present the Thai parliament with a letter written in their own blood to protest working conditions at a contractor that makes Samsonite luggage. The ICFTU says that the workers have been driven to desperate action by events beginning last October, when six hundred workers were fired. Most of the fired workers were women with over ten years of service to the Samsonite contractor. For the eight hundred workers who remained, wages were cut by 25% and overtime benefits were reduced while their workload was dramatically increased.. The Thai workers making Samsonite luggage earn $3.60 per day. In June of this year, the company fired all 20 elected union representatives at the plant, and when the 850 workers stopped working to protest, they were all immediately fired. ICFTU General Secretary Guy Rider says that the ICFTU strongly condemns the actions of the Samsonite corporation, and that glibalization should mean a better life for workers who produce for global markets rather than vicious exploitation and abuse. Samsonite had no response, and its parent company is fighting two union organizing efforts in Indiana.
http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991216363&Language=EN
http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991215182&Language=EN
Stock Market Crashes, Largest US Bankruptcy Looms
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended its week barely over eight thousand, losing nearly four hundred points on Friday alone as investors fled from risky money-losing investments. While the stock market was once seen as a sure way to make money without doing any work it's now seen as black hole of corporate fraud. President Bush, the nation's first "MBA President", and Vice President Cheney are both accused of committing the same fraud that they now criticize.
As the markets continue to fall, investors are bracing for the largest bankruptcy in US history, the second such event in less than a year. The Dow Jones news service reports that WorldCom, the nation's second largest long distance provider, may file for bankruptcy protection as soon as this weekend. Last month, WorldCom disclosed that it had lied about four billion dollars that it improperly classified in accounting statements. The size of the WorldCom bankruptcy will dwarf that of the Enron Corporation. WorldCom's assets are valued at over 100 billion dollars, while Enron had assets worth about sixty billion dollars when it declared bankruptcy last November. Enron was President Bush's largest campaign contributor and dozens of former Enron executives now run the executive branch of the US government.
New York Adjuncts Score Two Victories
We have two stories about success for adjunct professors, the rapidly expanding group of temporary migrant workers at colleges and universities. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported on July second that over seven thousand adjunct professors at the City University of New York will be paid for work they do off the clock. The American Federation of Teachers, with represents both full- and part-time faculty says that the adjuncts will be paid for the time they spend meeting with students, preparing for classes, and doing other work outside the classroom. The end result is that some adjuncts will receive 25 percent raises. Although it's illegal to require unpaid work of people who are paid by the hour, it's not illegal to require salaried employees to work more hours for the same pay. The union contract allowed the professors to negotiate higher pay for their larger workload.
Also in New York, adjunct professors at New York University chose to be represented by the United Auto Workers, rejecting the American Federation of Teachers in a bitter run-off election on July 9. The UAW won by a narrow fifty two to forty eight percent margin with voter turnout of less than forty percent of more than four thousand part-time instructors. Turnout was low because an earlier election determined that the professors would have a union; last week's vote was simply to choose a union. The union will be one of the largest unions for adjunct professors alone since the tenured faculty still bargain as individuals. The NYU part-timers comprise more than seventy percent of the NYU faculty, and they often teach heavier course loads than their tenured colleagues, however they are paid as little as sixteen thousand dollars without health insurance to teach a full load of eight courses during an academic year. The new union is now in the process of selecting a negotiating committee.
http://www.uaw.org/news/newsarticle.cfm?ArtId=133
Teamsters Reach Tentative Agreement with UPS
The Teamsters union reached a tentative agreement with United Parcel Service on Tuesday last week, likely avoiding a strike by the 230,000 Teamsters who work for the global corporation. The current contract expires at the end of July. A press release on the Teamster website states that the new agreement will last for six years, a year longer than the current contract, and that it contains improvements in wages and benefits of nearly nine dollars over the life of the contract. Full-time Teamster drivers will see a five dollar per hour increase over the next six years. The union also says that part-timers will see improvements, including wage increases of six dollars over the life of the contract, and ten thousand new full-time jobs but without any new full-time jobs until 2005. Fifty seven percent of UPS employees work part-time. Union president James P. Hoffa spoke out proudly about improvements for part-time job security and wages for all employees. Members will ratify the contract by a mail ballot, and results are expected by mid-August. (Stay tuned for an interview with Dave Dethro, a teamster driver from St. Louis.)
http://www.trakups.org/News/nr_020716_1.htm
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/jul2002/nf20020717_9980.htm
Homeland Security Bill Denies 170,000 Right to Union
President George W. Bush's entire administration is trying to rapidly push through a plan to create a massive new bureaucracy for homeland security, and many legislators are getting out of his way. The House of Representatives will consider Bush's grand scheme next week. However the American Federation of Government Employees says that the devil is in the details of the plan that will affect nearly 170,000 government employees. AFGE submitted testimony opposing the bill because it would exempt homeland security employees from civil service protections and it would deny them the rights to form unions. AFGE national president Bobby Harnage said, quote, "Union representation allows federal employees to speak out about problems they see on the job without fear of retribution from their superiors. Such freedom will give Congress and the American people important insight into the Department of Homeland Security's effectiveness," unquote.
http://www.afge.org/Index.cfm?Page=PressReleases&PressReleaseID=146
Navistar Workers Approve Labor Pact
On July 15, striking workers at a Navistar plant in Chatham, Ontario, who are represented by the Canadian Auto Workers, approved a tentative contract with the company, ending a 6 week work stoppage. When the company attempted to continue operations using replacement workers, the strikers massed each morning at the plant and prevented busloads of replacements from entering. Navistar ceased attempting to bring in replacements after a striker was critically injured by a security company van. Navistar had also threatened to shut down the plant and move operations to Mexico. The new agreement does not include the concessions sought by Navistar.
Chicago Tribune, July 16, 2002, section 3, p 3
www.ilir.uiuc.edu/lii/
http://www.newswire.ca/releases/July2002/15/c5000.html
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See also:
www.labourstart.org
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