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News :: Labor |
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Labor Headlines 11-2-02 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Peter Miller
(No verified email address) |
02 Nov 2002
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Headlines broadcast during the Illinois Labor Hour, Saturdays at 11 a.m. on WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign. Graduate Assistant Union Vote in One Month, West Coast Longshore Workers Reach Tentative Agreement, US Labor Leader Applauds Brazilian Election Result, NAFTA Expansion Meets Opposition, Feds Sue Another Accounting Giant, Union Prevails in NMB Balloting to Represent Engineers at United, SIU Faculty File Intent-To-Strike Notice |
Graduate Assistant Union Vote in One Month
Six years after filing a petition for a union election, graduate assistants at the University of Illinois will have their opportunity to vote. On Friday, the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board decided that the election will not be delayed until the spring semester as the Graduate Employees' Organization had wanted. Instead, the election will take place according to the schedule agreed to in June of this year, and the voting will take place on December third and fourth. GEO leaders say that they want the election to be delayed to increase voter turnout, but the university and the state labor board say that since the university spent weeks coming up with a voter list, the election should go forward this semester.
http://www.news-gazette.com/story.cfm?Number=12619
West Coast Longshore Workers Reach Tentative Agreement
Possibly ending a labor dispute that raised critical issues for the US labor movement, a tentative contract agreement has been reached between the International Longshore and Warehouse Workers' Union and their bosses, the Pacific Maritime Association, but the union is urging a probe into criminal collusion between President Bush and the port owners. The agreement was reached on at 4 a.m. Friday and while details are not being released, both sides say that they are happy with the terms. The agreement is said to resolve the main point of contention, which is whether the union will represent workers who are brought in to work with new technology, technology that will displace current union jobs. Steve Stallone, spokesperson for the ILWU said that the union stuck to its principles, which would mean that at least some of the new jobs are included in the union. On Friday, the Ananova news service reported that the longshore workers' union sent a letter to the US attorney general demanding to know who attended meetings with the president to discuss the labor dispute. The letter from ILWU President James Spinosa demanded full investigation into, quote, "the apparent collusion between the Bush Administration, shipping companies, and associations during the West Coast ports contract dispute." The ILWU claims there was a "considerable amount of evidence" pointing to government collusion with shipping line bosses in the run-up to Bush's application of the rarely used Taft-Harley Act.
http://www.ananova.com/business/story/sm_701771.html
US Labor Leader Applauds Brazilian Election Result
When Brazilian voters elected Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva president last week, much of the global press wondered about the danger of electing as president a union activist who had risen from poverty to be the president of the largest nation in South America. The reaction in the US press is attributable to the fact that American media outlets are almost universally owned by corporations who are invested in the IMF plans for developing countries, plans that Lula may interfere with. On the other hand, some important Americans wasted no time congratulating Lula on his victory. Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers of America, issued an immediate statement of congratulations on October 28, calling Lula's election, quote, "a great day for the people of Brazil and great news to unions and working people throughout the hemisphere." Gerard was in Brazil chairing a global conference of unions representing workers in tire plants worldwide. Gerard went on to say, quote, "Lula's victory Sunday, in which omre citizens voted than in any election in the history of the world's democracies, sends a clear message to policy makers that the pain being inflicted on societies like Brazil's by globalization as it is currently practices is a formula that has to be changed."
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-28-2002/0001829288&EDATE=
NAFTA Expansion Meets Opposition
In related news, our national leaders continue their work to expand NAFTA to the entire western hemisphere, and global citizens continue to rally in opposition. As the western hemisphere's business and government leaders met in Ecuador this week to plot for the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, thousands of people marched in Ecuador's capital to protest their work. Ecuadorian Indians marched with union leaders, students and other protesters on the Andean capital, shouting that the free trade zone would turn Latin America into a U.S. colony. An estimated ten thousand protesters were greeted by the overwhelming force of more than 5,000 armed police. Officers in gray fatigues and riot gear stood guard outside the luxury hotel early Thursday where diplomats hammered out for the hemisphere's future. The Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement would create the world's largest free trade block by expanding the North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico to rest of the Americas. But Brazil, which accounts for almost half of South America's economic output, has been vocal in its opposition to U.S. plans to negotiate bilateral treaties with some Latin American nations if regional free trade talks stutter. Brazil is also demanding that the US eliminate agriculture subsidies before trade is liberalized in other areas. Last year, the US congress approved a hundred billion dollar agriculture bill that most people view as a violation of free trade principles.
Feds Sue Another Accounting Giant
American taxpayers are paying for another huge corporate crime, and the federal government is trying to recoup some of our losses. Accounting giant Ernst & Young, one of the supposed guardians of integrity within the US capitalist system, faces a half-billion dollar lawsuit for fraud and negligence in connection with distorted claims about the value of a bank in Oak Brook, Illinois. Ernst and Young is accused of deliberately delaying corrections in their false reporting on a bank failure that cost taxpayers $750 million. Why did Ernst & Young hide the problems? The federal lawsuit claims that executives hid the error because they were trying to sell the company's consulting arm, and they feared that admitting the huge loss would reduce their profits. Ernst & Young over-estimated the value of Superior Bank by $420 million before it failed. Exposure of corruption at Ernst & Young began in January 2001, ten months before the Enron scandal brought down accounting firm Arthur Andersen and exposed the close ties between George W. Bush and multitudes of corporate criminals. Ernst & Young denies that it was responsible for the failure of Superior Bank.
Union Prevails in NMB Balloting to Represent Engineers at United
The Daily Labor Report noted a union victory for professional engineers and technicians at United Airlines. On Oct. 28 the National Mediation Board announced that the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers had won a representation election for engineers and technicians at United Airlines. The IFPTE also represents the engineers at Boeing. A spokesperson for the union said that they hope to begin negotiations on a first contract with the airline soon and the union will work closely with United's other unions in bargaining concessions to stave off a bankruptcy. The election was the first to make use of the NMB's new telephone electronic voting system.
Daily Labor Report, #209, October 29, 2002, p A-8
SIU Faculty File Intent-To-Strike Notice
With state budgets tight, some interesting things are happening between university administrators and the unions representing professors. At Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, the professors' union filed an intent-to-strike notice with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board on Oct. 30. Negotiations between the union and campus officials broke down on Oct. 29 after administrators presented their offer, which proposed no salary increase in the first year of a 5-year contract and unspecified increases tied to state funding increases for the University in the succeeding years. The Southern Illinoisan also reported that the faculty are unhappy with the administration's efforts to leave dozens of faculty positions un-filled. Administrators raised the possibility of layoffs if negotiations are not successful. The previous contract expired on June 30, and unless agreement is reached, union members are free to strike any time after Nov. 10.
State Journal-Register, October 31, 2002, p 8 |
See also:
http://www.ilir.uiuc.edu/lii/
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