WORKERS CHOOSE IAM—More than 2,000 poultry workers at several Foster Farms’ facilities in California won a voice at work with the Machinists Sept. 16. After an overwhelming vote by the membership, the independent union representing the workers chose to affiliate with the Machinists. IAM will begin bargaining immediately on behalf of the workers, who have been without a contract since 2003.
WIRING A VOICE—Some 140 Cingular Wireless retail sales workers around Maryland joined Communications Workers of America Local 2017, bringing to more than 5,000 the number who have joined CWA since the Cingular/AT&T merger last year. The new employees won their union under an agreement reached by CWA and Cingular after the merger, in which the company agreed to a level playing field and to honor the workers’ freedom to form a union when a majority signs authorization cards.
ON WISCONSIN—In Wisconsin, 42 Jackson County RNs, LPNs and other health care workers voted to join AFSCME Council 40. Elsewhere, 11 Muskingum County (Ohio) Water Department workers voted to join AFSCME Council 8.
NURSES SEEK AFL-CIO—Delegates to the California Nurses Association (CNA) convention in Oakland voted Sept. 23 to authorize affiliating with the AFL-CIO. The vote gives leaders of the 65,000-member CNA the authority to begin affiliation talks with the federation. “Now more than ever we need a cohesive, powerful labor movement,” said CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro.
IAM, BOEING REACH DEAL—The Machinists and Boeing Co. reached a tentative contract agreement that protects workers’ health care from cost increases and cutbacks the company sought and includes pension increases. The 18,000 workers at several Boeing facilities went on strike Sept. 2 after rejecting Boeing’s concessionary contract. “Your solidarity forced Boeing to retreat from their take-away proposals on every issue,” said a message to Boeing workers on the IAM website. A ratification vote is scheduled for Sept. 29.
FOREIGN LEADERS SNUB NYU—Three national presidents—Lula da Silva of Brazil, Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain and Nestor Kirchner of Argentina—canceled appearances at New York University in solidarity with graduate employees fighting to reclaim their voice at work with UAW Local 2110. In August, NYU ended bargaining with the union and announced it would cease recognizing the union and impose its own wage and working rules when the contract expired Aug. 29. The university’s decision came after the Republican-dominated National Labor Relations Board reversed a Clinton administration ruling and abolished federal labor law protections for graduate employees. The three leaders were set to speak at a special U.N. summit on the NYU campus, but at the urging of the AFL-CIO and UAW, they refused to do so. For more information, visit .
WAL-MART, A MISTAKE ON THE LAKE—Community activists, union and elected leaders opposed to Wal-Mart expansion plans in Cleveland used a special congressional hearing to spotlight how Wal-Mart’s price pressure on suppliers speeds the export of U.S. jobs. Four Ohio firms—Huffy Corp., Rubbermaid, Mr. Coffee and Thomson Consumer Electronics—are among companies that have shipped production abroad as they tried to keep up with Wal-Mart’s demand for cost cuts, according to the AFL-CIO report Wal-Mart Imports from China, Exports Ohio Jobs. In the past four years, Ohio has lost more than 170,000 manufacturing jobs; more than half were shipped overseas. “Wal-Mart is using its power to force Americans to make a false choice between good jobs and low prices,” the report said. Visit for a copy of the report.
NO LUNCH AT WAL-MART—Wal-Mart workers in California were systematically and illegally denied lunch breaks, according to claims made in a class-action suit now being heard in Alameda County Superior Court. The suit covers some 116,000 current and former Wal-Mart workers in the state who are owed some $66 million plus interest, attorneys for the workers told the jury during the case’s opening arguments Sept. 19. According to news reports, Wal-Mart settled a similar suit in Colorado for $50 million.
BLACK CAUCUS LABOR FORUM—Members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and several union leaders took part in a special CBC Labor Issues Forum Sept. 22. The participants, including Postal Workers President William Burrus, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy and AFT Secretary-Treasurer Nat LaCour, explored ways to boost union membership and the challenges of organizing African Americans and other people of color. The CBC also condemned the Bush administration’s suspension of Davis-Bacon prevailing wage and affirmative requirements for federal Hurricane Katrina recovery and rebuilding contracts. At a Sept. 27 luncheon, the AFL-CIO will honor the CBC for its support of organizing drives around the country and of key union legislative issues, including the Employee Free Choice Act, as well as its opposition to schemes to privatize Social Security and such bad trade deals as the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement.
AFA FILES SAFETY SUIT—The Flight Attendants/CWA filed suit in federal court Sept. 19 charging that the U.S. Department of Labor and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have failed to ensure the health and safety of flight attendants and other airline workers. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the suit charges the FAA has failed to establish health and safety standards for flight attendants and other air crew members and that Labor Secretary Elaine Chao failed to fulfill her duty under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) to ensure healthful working conditions. While the FAA has said it has jurisdiction over air crew health and safety, it has failed to enforce basic standards, the union says, citing flight attendant illness and injury rates four times higher than among workers in other private industries and twice as high as among construction workers. The suit asks that Chao be compelled to enforce OSHA’s healthful working condition standards. For more information, visit .
DEATH ON THE JOB—GLOBALLY—Some 2.2 million workers a year die from work-related accidents or diseases, according to a new report by the International Labor Organization. The report, Decent Work—Safe Work, said the number of deaths may be “vastly underestimated” because of inadequate and spotty reporting from many nations. While reported injuries and illnesses in industrialized nations have declined slightly, fatal accidents appear to be on the rise because of rapid development and the pressure of globalization, according to the report. Visit for more information.
STOP U.S. TRADE PREFERENCES FOR ECUADOR—Because Ecuador “does not uphold internationally recognized workers’ rights,” the United States should suspend that nation’s trade benefits immediately under the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act, the group Human Rights Watch urged Sept. 21. In a petition to the U.S. Trade Representative, Human Rights Watch said Ecuador’s record on freedom of association and child labor violated the trade agreement’s labor provisions and justified lifting the trade benefits. The Bush administration is negotiating a free trade agreement along the lines of CAFTA and NAFTA for the Andean nations of Ecuador, Peru and Colombia.
NEW PACT FOR N.M. WORKERS—Some 6,900 New Mexico state employees, members of AFSCME Council 18, won a new three-year contract when Gov. Bill Richardson (D) signed the pact Sept. 13. Along with pay raises—with an emphasis on the lowest-paid workers, who could receive increases of as much as 22 percent—the new deal also covers health and safety issues, whistle-blower protections, grievance and discipline procedures and scheduling rules.
DRINK UP—After a three-month boycott of E.&J. Gallo Winery products, the winemaker and the Farm Workers reached a contract agreement last week. UFW members and their supporters lifted a toast of Gallo wine to the new contract on the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall Sept. 14. The new agreement covers some 310 workers at Gallo vineyards in Sonoma County.
ROSENBERG NEW SAG LEADER—Alan Rosenberg was elected president of the Screen Actors in nationwide mail ballot, the union announced Sept. 23. He succeeds Melissa Gilbert who chose not to run after serving as SAG president since 2001. Connie Stevens was elected SAG secretary-treasurer.
BCTD’S MALONEY RETIRES—Joseph Maloney, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department, will retire Oct. 1. “It’s with the deepest regret that we will lose Joe’s dynamic leadership here in Washington, but he will continue to be a force in the building trades,” said BCTD President Edward C. Sullivan. A member of the Boilermakers since 1974 and a graduate of the Harvard University Trade Union Program, Maloney served as BCTD secretary-treasurer since 2000. For more information, visit .
TIME FOR A NEW DIRECTION—The AFL-CIO called for a “new direction” for the nation to reverse the failed priorities of national leadership revealed by the Hurricane Katrina disaster. America not only must rebuild the devastated Gulf Coast region but also must redefine national priorities to focus on good jobs, strong communities and a just economy, the 10-member AFL-CIO Executive Committee said in announcing the “America Needs a New Direction” initiative Sept. 22. The New Direction initiative includes immediate steps to address hurricane damage as well as longer-term, nationwide efforts. “The inability of our federal leaders to deal with this continuing tragedy is a failure of huge proportions. What happened on the Gulf Coast is graphic evidence that our leaders have broken faith with the American Dream,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. In the Gulf region, the New Direction’s rebuilding efforts will include establishing a Gulf Coast Worker Network to coordinate all union responses in the region; creating a “Coalition of Fairness in Federal Disaster Relief” to restore the prevailing wage standards and affirmative action requirements for federal contractors that the Bush administration revoked; and setting up an investment network to marshal the power of the more than $400 billion in union-sponsored pension plans behind new capital investment in the region. Nationally, the initiative calls for dozens of town hall meetings this fall and winter focused on the priorities for a strong and secure America; a mass national “Community Walk for Change” to highlight and build support for working family priorities; grassroots pressure on Congress to defeat schemes to pay for Gulf Coast rebuilding by cutting programs for working people and poor people while extending tax cuts for the rich; and mobilizing working families to fight for a federal agenda that includes a minimum wage increase, guaranteed health care for all and the creation of good jobs.
