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News :: Labor |
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Labor Hour Headlines 9-21-02 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Peter Miller
(No verified email address) |
21 Sep 2002
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Headlines as broadcast during the Illinois Labor Hour, Saturdays at 11 a.m. on WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign. Conservatives Push Homeland Security Bill, West Coast Ports Move Closer to Crisis, University Refuses to Sign Neutrality Pledge in Grad Employee Election, Sheet Metal Workers Picket Illegal Wages, Partial Closure of Center Blocked, WIU Board of Trustees Approves New Contract |
Conservatives Push Homeland Security Bill
George Bush continues trying to use the "War on Terrorism" as an excuse to wage war on American workers. Last week, news of the proposed new Homeland Security Department made headlines as the press discovered that Democrat Zell Miller of Georgia supports the President's goal of stripping 170,000 federal employees of their workplace rights. Miller announced his position in late July. At issue is whether the 170,000 employees who would be moved into a new Homeland Security Department would retain their rights to fair pay and due process as defined in federal civil service rules and in union contracts. About 80,000 of the affected employees are protected by collective bargaining agreements. Bush says that he needs the flexibility to hire, fire, set salaries, and mandate working conditions for the new department because the United States is at war. Over the summer, the Republican-Controlled House of Representatives voted for a bill that gives Bush the enormous new power over federal workers, while the Senate favors a version that preserves union rights and civil service protections. Bush has been lobbying the Senate to accept his version of the bill, and this week, the press trumpeted a so-called compromise crafted by Georgia's conservative Democrat Zell Miller and by Texas Republican Phil Gramm. Their bill would grant the president all the power he demands, but it would obligate him to notify the unions before he broke them. Bush hopes for a vote on the Homeland Security Department before the mid-term elections in November.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41583-2002Sep19.html
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&ncid=716&e=4&u=/ap/20020921/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_homeland_security
West Coast Ports Move Closer to Crisis
One large seaport operator is gunning to break the west coast dockworkers union, says the International Longshore and Warehouse Workers' Union; and the hard-line being taken by Stevedoring Services of America is jeopardizing business for numerous other companies trying to negotiate a fair contract. The Longshore workers say that Stevedoring Services is responsible for slow negotiations, backtracking on agreements that would allow the port operators to use new technology as long as new employees had union representation. That backtracking and heavy-handed manipulation of the port owners' negotiating group is why the Longshore Workers staged a protest at the Long Beach, California port operated by Stevedoring Services, where thousands of union members and supporters blew whistles to represent their efforts to expose the company's tactics. But the for-profit press such as the New York Times and the Seattle Times focused on a different story. They charged the union with staging a slow-down, a union tactic to pressure a business to negotiate in good faith and which can lead to a business temporarily closing down its operations and locking out its workers. The owners say that the union staged a walkout at Long Beach and two other ports, delaying the unloading of at least one ship. The union says that workers did walk off the job in Long Beach, because the company unilaterally changed the workers' lunch time, normally a small issue, but on that day, the union had planned a large protest for their originally-scheduled lunchtime. The brinksmanship being displayed on the West Coast may give George Bush the reasons he's looking for to break the Longshore Workers' union and use US military personnel to staff the ports. Many in the labor movement are comparing Bush's potential action with Ronald Reagan's 1980 decision to break the air traffic controllers' strike. More information about this conflict is available on-line at www.ilwu.org.
http://www.ilwu.org/solidarityday/irrSSA.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/19/national/19DOCK.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/134538183_longshore190.html
University Refuses to Sign Neutrality Pledge in Grad Employee Election
The News-Gazette reported on Friday that Provost Richard Herman has refused to sign neutrality pledge being sought by the Graduate Employees Organization. The neutrality pledge is an explicit statement that University managers will not use university funds or other resources to coerce, intimidate, or otherwise influence the outcome of the upcoming union election for 2000 of the campus' teaching assistants. GEO members re-stated their desire for the pledge during a membership meeting on Thursday evening, but Provost Herman said that the university will treat the GEO election just like any other election. Herman said that the UI abides by the rules set forth by the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, however GEO co-president Rosemary Braun said that the agreement is necessary nonetheless. She said that the behavior of university administrations at other campuses, as well as the history of the University of Illinois in using tuition and tax dollars to oppose the GEO, make the agreement necessary. Braun did express hope that the campaign will be clean and she said that the recent spirit of cooperation gives her optimism. The Graduate Employees Organization filed a petition for a union election in 1996, but the University used legal procedures to delay an election. Last March, after graduate assistants and their allies staged a sit-in at the Swanlund Administration Building, administrators agreed to choose an election date and decide who should be in the proposed bargaining unit. An election is anticipated either late during the fall semester or during the spring semester.
Sheet Metal Workers Picket Illegal Wages
Union sheet metal workers in Champaign County have staffed a picked at the University of Illinois since September 10, charging that a non-union contractor is not paying the legally required minimum wage for skilled labor. Bob Champion, business agent for Sheet Metal Workers Local 218, said that the police had been called on at least two occasions due to hostility between the Rockford-based nonunion workers and the union pickets. Champion said the nonunion company, Renaissance Roofing, had an unfair chance to bid the job because the university's Capital Development Board opened and made public existing bids to do the construction before disqualifying those bids. Rockford-based Renaissance was then able to prepare a lower bid than local and union contractors. The sequence of events raises questions about political ties the company may have to the university or its trustees. Union workers on campus--and even some students--are honoring the Sheet Metal Workers' picket line, refusing to work inside the building where Renaissance is working, and refusing to attend classes in the building. Champion commented that he's very happy with the support that the campus community has shown for his union's picket.
Partial Closure of Center Blocked
A judge in Madison County has temporarily blocked the closing of the civil commitment section of the Alton Mental Health Center. The closing, which was scheduled for the end of September, is part of Gov. Ryan's budget-reduction efforts. AFSCME had sued the state, saying that the unit could not be closed without seeking the permission of a special health planning board, which could not be obtained before January 2003. Another section of the Center that handles criminal cases is not scheduled for closing.
Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette, September 19, 2002, p B-3
WIU Board of Trustees Approves New Contract
The board of trustees of Western Illinois University approved a new contract with university faculty, who are represented by the University Professionals of Illinois, which keeps salaries at the current levels in the 2001-2002 academic year. The agreement also provides for a wage reopener in January. The contract still needs to be ratified by union members.
Peoria Journal Star, September 14, 2002, p B2 |
