Labor Union Blog

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lia href=http://www.laborradio.org/node/10421Connecticut Public Workers Coalition Launches Ad Campaign to Remind Legislature Importance of Preserving Jobs/a/li
lia href=http://www.laborradio.org/node/10422Macy’s to Slash 7,000 Jobs/a/li
lia href=http://www.laborradio.org/node/10424Economic Report: Economic Downturn Has More Americans Saving/a/li
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pThe downturn in the economy has more Americans saving money. New data from the Commerce Department suggests Americans worried about losing jobs have started putting more money into their savings accounts. The data suggests Americans were saving between October and December at their highest rate in six years. The savings rate rose to 3.6 percent in December up from 2.8 in November./p

pAutomotive News reported Monday that two U.S. automakers are offering new incentives to employees in an attempt to reduce labor costs. GM is offering $20,000 in cash and a $25,000 new vehicle voucher to employees who are willing to quit. GM will also likely offer early retirement to workers with 10 years of service over the age of 50. Chrysler is also considering options to buyout employees. The offer could likely include a cash buyout offer of $50,000 and a $25,000 vehicle voucher for eligible retirees and a $75,000 cash buyout for workers not eligible for buyouts./p

pMacy’s department stores announced it would be laying off 4 percent of its workforce on Monday. The company will be cutting 7000 jobs across the board. Forty percent of those jobs will come from the executive positions as the company restructures to better cope with the ailing economy. Morgan Stanley announced an additional 1500 to 1800 jobs cuts on top of the 7000 layoffs the company made in 2008. /p

pAs the state of Connecticut struggles to overcome a budget deficit, the organization representing tens of thousands of state workers has launched a new ad campaign aimed at reminding legislators and constituents as to the importance of public service workers from state troopers to school teachers. /p
p[Commercial]: “In this economic crisis protecting Connecticut’s families must be priority number one…”/p
pThe ads, put together by the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition, will run throughout this week. The organization released a poll last week that suggests cutting jobs will dama/p

Students at Georgetown University today called on the school to honor its ethical commitments and cut ties with an apparel manufacturer that students say busted a union and violated workers’ rights at a plant in Honduras.

At a rally on the university’s campus in Washington, D.C., Moises Elias Montoya Alvarado and Norma Estela Mejia Castellanos, who work at Russell Athletics’ Jerzees de Honduras factory—which produces Georgetown logo apparel—described how the company closed the plant this past weekend and shipped the work to cheaper nonunion plants. The Jerzees de Honduras factory, located near Pedro Sula, Honduras, is the only unionized Russell plant in the country.

“We have been campaigning for a year and a half to end the abuses in our factory and ensure that we are treated with dignity and respect,” said Montoya Alvarado.

Because I have stood up for my rights and the rights of my co-workers, I have been the subject of violent retaliation, including death threats written on the factory walls and threatening notes left at my sewing machine. I came here today, together with these students, because Georgetown has the power to help put an end to the abuses and death threats that my co-workers and I face at home.

Russell announced its plan to close the plant in October 2008. Prior to the closing, several universities including Miami of Florida, the University of Minnesota and Georgetown, urged the company not to close the plant or delay the action.

The Georgetown students say closing a factory due, partially or wholly, to the formation of a union is a violation of the school’s codes of conduct for apparel production. They delivered a letter to university President John DeGioia, urging him to immediately cancel the school’s apparel deal with Russell. 

Marley Moynahan, a sophomore at Georgetown and a member of the Georgetown Solidarity Committee, an affiliate of United Students Against Sweatshops, says it’s the right thing to do.

As a Jesuit university, we expect our campus community and Georgetown as an institution to be a leader in worker rights and to stand in solidarity with those whose dignity is neglected and whose voices are being suppressed. Georgetown should remain true to its contracts and its codes of ethics.

The University of Miami, a major licenser of logo apparel, already has terminated its licensing deal with Russell over the violations, and other universities are considering similar moves, Moynahan says.

Russell is the largest supplier of athletic team uniforms in the United States and also sells sweatshirts, T-shirts, fleece and other casual wear throughout the world. It has more than $1 billion in annual sales and employs more than 15,000 employees worldwide.

In case you missed it, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka was interviewed on ABC’s “World News Tonight” this past weekend and he made it clear that CEO’s taking nearly $20 billion in bonuses while the economy is tanking isn’t the American way. Here’s what Trumka said:

Giving themselves $20 billion for the worst year we’ve had since 1929 flies in the face of anything that make sense.

Trumka pointed out that the financial industry collapsed in part because of excessive executive pay. With executive bonuses tied to revenue, executives had an incentive to take big risks, such as granting home mortgages for risky borrowers who later defaulted.

All of that contributed to the collapse. We need to rein that in. We need to re-regulate them and we need to arm investors with the tools to be able to control companies and manage this risk so investors don’t get hurt in the long term.

Click here to see a video of the full ABC report.

Across the country, a campaign is under way to turn around the economy and make it work for everyone again by passing the Employee Free Choice Act, a critical bill to restore the freedom to form unions and bargain. Despite public support for the freedom to bargain in the workplace, the Employee Free Choice Act has come under heavy fire from big-money corporate lobbyists and shady front groups hoping to defeat it and preserve corporate domination over the process. The AFL-CIO has a new video to cut through the deceptive campaign and give the facts about the Employee Free Choice Act.

Arlene Holt Baker, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO, narrates the 10-minute video. She says that while emergency action is needed to create jobs and help the economy recover, turning around the economy in the longer term means giving workers the power to bargain for a better life. 

No matter what the President and Congress ultimately enact, it will not create broadly shared prosperity and rebuild the middle class unless we restore workers’ ability to bargain for better health care, pensions and fair wages by passing the Employee Free Choice Act.

Included in the video is footage of President Obama, who co-sponsored the Employee Free Choice Act in the Senate and pledged to sign it into law as president. Obama is a strong supporter of the freedom to form unions, and his words illustrate the importance of unions in preserving health care, pensions, safe working conditions and fair wages for all workers—not just those in unions.

The video also highlights workers who have faced challenges in their efforts to form a union, as well as policy experts from the AFL-CIO and allied organizations.

The video, which is being featured at union meetings around the country, describes the reasons the system for forming unions is broken and how that broken system has undermined our economy. Holt Baker and others call out the dishonest corporate campaign against the Employee Free Choice Act, describing in detail the secretive front groups that, under misleading names, are spending millions from undisclosed corporate donors to distort, distract and misinform the public, the press and elected leaders.

Mary Beth Maxwell, executive director of American Rights at Work, cuts through the spin and explains that these front groups, despite their pleasant-sounding names, are bent on preserving corporate control, not protecting workers.

These are the same people who opposed an increase in the minimum wage, who oppose paid sick days, who are rolling back health and safety regulations in the workplace. I don’t think this is really about workers’ rights for them.

The freedom to bargain in the workplace protects every worker and ensures all workers get a fair share of the value they create. That’s good for the economy as a whole, Maxwell says: 

Stronger unions, and workers’ ability to organize unions, means a stronger economy for all of us….More workers in unions raises the bar for all workers.

Holt Baker says we now have a unique opportunity to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and give workers the freedom to form unions and bargain. But while working families need this change, it won’t happen on its own: We need to educate our neighbors, our co-workers, our elected leaders and the press, and we need to fight back against the falsehoods and corporate greed that are standing in the way of the Employee Free Choice Act and a better life for workers.

Sharing this video with others is a great start.

Some 8,500 workers at the University of California, represented by AFSCME, have a tentative contract settlement—and more updates here from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.

SETTLEMENTS
AFSCME, University of California: Some 8,500 custodians, gardeners, cafeteria workers and drivers at the University of California, represented by AFSCME, announced a tentative contract settlement, ending an 18-month contract dispute that triggered a five-day strike last summer and protest rallies at regents’ meetings and elsewhere. The contract would provide a minimum pay rate of $12 per hour to take effect later this year and would rise to $14 an hour over five years.

AFSCME, Toledo, Ohio: AFSCME Local 7 members who work for the city of Toledo, Ohio, accepted a new three-year contract that freezes salaries for the first two years while raising co-pay costs for health care, among other concessions in an effort to help the city during hard economic times.

AFSCME, Granville Village: In Ohio, Granville Village workers, represented by AFSCME, won their first contract, after it received the approval of the village council. The three-year contract provides annual across-the-board 3 percent increases.

WORK STOPPAGES AND ACTIONS
UWUA, Southern California Gas: Some 5,000 workers at the Southern California Gas Co., represented by the Utility Workers (UWUA) Local 132, will take a strike authorization vote if negotiations fail to result in an agreement. The contract expires Saturday. Wages and benefits are key issues. At a rally in Pasadena last week, John Duffy, national vice president of UWUA said, “They are exploiting a downward turn in the economy at the expense of their own workers.” AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka told UWUA members they delivered a solid message to the company. “You may own the gas company. You may own the tools I use, the truck I drive and the phone I answer. From the moment I clock in to the moment I leave you may own my time. But you don’t own my union. You don’t own my family. And you will never own me.  And if you don’t want to settle this contract at the bargaining table that’s fine—we’ll just settle it on the picket line.”

LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS
IUOE, South Jersey Nurses: Striking nurses in south Jersey represented by Jersey
Nurses Economic Security Organization should have been granted unemployment benefits when they struck in 2004.  The New Jersey Supreme Court voted 6–1 to uphold a state law that says strikers can receive unemployment benefits as long as their workplace remains open and functional. The nurse organization is affiliated with Operating Engineers (IUOE).

CNA/NNOC, Saint Agnes: A judge for the National Labor Relations Board is ordering Saint Agnes Medical Center to hold a new election for nurses to decide whether they wish to join the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), after the hospital failed to post election notices in time to fulfill its legal obligations.

NEGOTIATIONS
SAG/AFTRA, Studios and Producers: The Screen Actors (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) said in a statement that they have agreed to guidelines under which they will work together on negotiations with the advertising industry.

TWU, American Airlines: Some 12,000 mechanics at American Airlines, represented by the Transport Workers (TWU), asked the National Mediation Board to appoint a mediator to help jump-start negotiations over a new contract. The request means that all the major unions at American will be using a federal mediator in contract talks.

ALPA, Spirit Airlines: Spirit pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots (ALPA), stated that contract negotiations have relapsed, and that could lead them to ask for permission to strike for the second time in less than a year. Pilots rejected a management proposal last week. The contract talks have been supervised by a federal mediator. Meanwhile, Spirit is running ads that Flight Attendants-CWA President Pat Friend calls demeaning to women.

Disclaimer: This information is being provided for your information only. As it is compiled from published news reports, not from individual unions, we cannot vouch for either its completeness or accuracy; readers who desire further information should directly contact the union involved.

Today, American Rights at Work, the national workers’ advocacy group, launches a new ad campaign to cut through the dishonest spin about the Employee Free Choice Act, a vital bill to restore the freedom to form unions and bargain and make the economy work for everyone.

The broadcast and print ads, set to launch Sunday, will push back on a massive and misleading corporate campaign, in which anti-worker front groups are blanketing politicians, journalists and the public with falsehoods about the Employee Free Choice Act.

Noting the connection between corporate greed, the stagnation of workers’ benefits and wages and the economic crisis, the new ad exposes the corporate disinformation campaign for what it is: a desperate attempt to maintain control and prevent workers from having the freedom to bargain.

Their new scheme to keep wages low? Spreading lies about the Employee Free Choice Act. The truth is, the Employee Free Choice Act absolutely protects workers’ right to choose a secret ballot election, but the choice would be the workers’, not their bosses’. That’s the secret Big Business doesn’t want you to know.

Part of a series that American Rights at Work launched nationally this month, the TV ad will be accompanied by print ads in Washington, D.C.-area publications. The corporate campaign is already in high gear—even companies that received taxpayer bailout dollars are dumping time and money into trying to stop the Employee Free Choice Act.

Congress needs to listen to the facts, not the big-dollar smear campaigns aimed at keeping corporations in charge. They need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.