See the AFL-CIO Gulf Coast Worker Network Hurricane Relief Update for the latest hurricane relief efforts of the AFL-CIO and affiliate unions and visit www.aflcio.org/hurricane.

KAISER PERMANENTE CONTRACT RATIFIED—Some 82,000 caregivers, members of 10 unions, approved a national contract that will increase pay and training while enabling them to maintain a strong voice in crucial decisions affecting the quality of patient care at the HMO chain Kaiser Permanente. The new five-year national agreement covers technical, administrative, clinical and nursing employees at more than 400 health care facilities in nine states and the District of Columbia. The agreement includes across-the-board wage increases averaging 4.5 percent per year, performance bonuses and a significant investment in a joint training fund for workforce development. This is the second agreement between the unions and Kaiser since the Kaiser Permanente Labor Management Partnership was established in 1997. The first contract was signed in 2000. While companies in many industries are shedding employees and their benefits, Kaiser Permanente is thriving because of its cooperative partnership that provides joint decision making powers in such areas as business planning, health and safety, finance and budget, education and training and staffing, said Peter diCicco, executive director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions. “The results speak for themselves,” he said. The coalition includes 29 locals of 10 national unions—AFSCME, AFT, Office and Professional Employees, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, United American Nurses, the United Steelworkers and the unaffiliated Kaiser Permanente Nurse Anesthetists Association, SEIU, the Teamsters and the United Food and Commercial Workers.

IN OREGON, 5,000 SAY AFSCME—Nearly 5,000 registered and certified child care workers throughout Oregon won AFSCME representation Sept. 23 when Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed an executive order recognizing the workers’ choice. Kulongoski signed the order after the state’s Employment Relations Board certified that a majority of the workers, who care for children in their homes, had signed union authorization cards.

CINGULAR WORKERS CHOOSE CWA—Three more groups of former AT&T workers now employed by Cingular Wireless chose to join the Communications Workers of America recently. In New Jersey, 185 retail sales associates throughout the state signed union authorization cards to join CWA locals 1101, 1022 and 1023. In New Hampshire, 34 retail sales associates at several locations won a union voice with CWA Local 1400; and 14 network technicians in Wisconsin joined CWA Local 4603. The workers won their union under an agreement reached by CWA and Cingular after the Cingular/AT&T 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. More than 5,000 have joined CWA since the merger.

VICTORY AT VERTEX AND MORE—Workers at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, Calif., voted 3-to-1 to join the Machinists recently. The 97 workers maintain and repair training vehicles for the U.S. military and are employed by L-3 Vertex Aerospace. A group of 31 miners employed by Feldspar Corp.’s Edgar, Fla., mine—the state’s oldest continually operated mine—voted recently to join IAM Local Lodge 1098. At Ft. Rucker, Ala., 12 flight simulator operators with L-3 Communications Integrated Systems Corp. voted to join IAM District 12; and five airframe and maintenance technicians at DynCorp.’s Cherry Hill, N.C., plant voted for IAM District 110.

WIRED FOR A VOICE—In Des Moines, Iowa, 23 electricians at Ace Electric recently won a voice at work with Electrical Workers Local 347. The shop had been nonunion for 59 years.

IAM SETS HISTORIC ORGANIZING SUMMIT—More than 900 key organizers from IAM locals in the United States and Canada will gather in Chicago Oct. 5–7 for a first-of-its-kind organizing summit. The delegates will discuss ways to overcome legal, political and other obstacles and plan new strategies to grow the union through more aggressive involvement by local and district organizing committees. The summit is a major first step in fulfilling the mandate by the IAM convention last year for a strong focus on organizing. “It is now this generation of IAM members’ challenge to again grow and secure the future of our great union, just as our parents and grandparents did for us,” said IAM President Thomas Buffenbarger.

WOMEN ORGANIZING WOMEN—With women making up nearly half of the American workforce, unions must begin to organize large numbers of women, but first they must recruit more women organizers and change the way they treat organizers, according to a report released by the Berger-Marks Foundation. The report is based on a recent forum of 19 veteran women union organizers. “Organizing is the hardest job I’ve ever had, but it’s the most rewarding work I’ve ever done. You gotta have the fire in the belly to do this work,” said Robin Gould, a CWA organizer who took part in the forum. Participants identified several major obstacles that prevent women from becoming organizers, such as time demands and travel. For a copy of the report, visit www.bergermarks.org.

BUSH RENEWS ASSAULT ON WORKERS—AFGE and other federal workers’ unions asked a federal judge Sept. 28 not to give the Bush administration the green light to continue its drive to take away federal workers’ rights to have a union and bargain collectively. The Bush administration has asked U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer to narrow her Aug. 12 ruling blocking the Bush administration’s new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel rules, which would slash 160,000 employees’ bargaining and workplace rights and end civil service pay scales. In her ruling, Collyer said, “The regulations fail in their obligation to ensure collective bargaining rights to DHS employees.” The Bush administration has said it wants to impose similar workplace rules on the entire federal workforce, and the next target is 750,000 workers at the Defense Department, which wants to implement a new National Security Personnel System patterned closely after the DHS system. For more information, visit www.aflcio.org or www.afge.org.

ARNOLD VETOES MINIMUM WAGE HIKE—For the second year in a row, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) vetoed a bill Sept. 29 that would have raised the state minimum wage by $1 over two years. The bill would have increased the minimum wage from $6.75 an hour to $7.25 an hour on July 1, 2006, and to $7.75 on July 1, 2007. The measure also proposed automatically adjusting the minimum wage each year thereafter based on the California consumer price index. “It was time for him to prove he was not in the pocket of the Chamber of Commerce and the big corporations, and he failed,” said Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation.

FLY US SAFE—The National Air Traffic Controllers Association launched a major new national public education campaign accusing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of mismanagement that is putting the safety, integrity and efficiency of America’s air traffic control system in danger. The “Fly Us Safe” TV, print and Internet campaign focuses on two serious crises facing the aviation system: an acute staffing shortage caused by FAA cutbacks and the agency’s failure to modernize and improve the infrastructure of the country’s air traffic control facilities. “If the FAA won’t step up to the plate to ensure safety, then America’s air traffic controllers certainly will,” said NATCA President John Carr. For more information, visit www.flyussafe.com.

(JET)BLUE ABOUT PILOT STANDARDS—The widely televised safe landing of JetBlue Airways flight 292 with its nose gear stuck sideways at Los Angeles International Airport Sept. 21 illustrates the need to maintain the highest standards for pilots, Air Line Pilots President Capt. Duane Woerth said. U.S. airlines’ mindless pursuit of a race to the bottom to slash labor costs is driving away the best and brightest pilots, Woerth said, urging the federal government and the airlines to reverse the talent drain before it is too late.

MACHINISTS RATIFY BOEING PACT—Some 18,400 IAM members began returning to work Sept. 30 at Boeing Co. plants in Kansas, Oregon and Washington State after overwhelmingly ratifying a new contract and ending a 28-day strike. The contract protects workers from health care cost increases and cutbacks the company sought. Instead, workers will see no changes in current health care premiums and pension payouts will increase by nearly 17 percent.

BUSH DEFICIT PREDICTIONS WAY OFF—The Bush administration’s projections of future federal budget deficits are too low, incomplete and leave the U.S. economy vulnerable, according to an analysis of Congressional Budget Office (CBO) figures by the Economic Policy Institute. EPI analyzed a new report by the nonpartisan CBO that shows if President Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy become permanent and if other policies are enacted, such as privatizing Social Security, the deficit could soar to a whopping 46.5 percent of the nation’s total economic output in 2015. The Bush administration had estimated an increase to 37.7 percent. For more information, see EPI’s Sept. 21 economic snapshot at www.epi.org.

FALLEN FIRE FIGHTERS HONORED—More than 3,000 family members, firefighters and friends from across North America gathered Sept. 17 in Denver to honor 86 firefighters who died in the line of duty over the past year. Their names were added to the Wall of Honor at the Fallen Fire Fighter Memorial there. “Each one of our members we are honoring engaged in a selfless act, living their commitment to protect humanity to the fullest,” IAFF President Harold Schaitberger said.

USW SUPPORTS, QUESTIONS BP SETTLEMENT—Although the United Steelworkers supports all federal penalties and citations issued to BP Products stemming from a March 23 fatal explosion at its Texas City, Texas, plant, the union is concerned that not all the plant’s health and safety violations have been uncovered. BP agreed to pay $21.36 million—the largest fine issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)—to settle citations for more than 300 safety and health violations in connection with the explosion, which killed 15 workers and injured more than 170. However, OSHA officials held closed-door negotiations with BP before issuing any citations and excluded the union from the talks. “We will never know what OSHA traded away to get the settlement,” USW President Leo Gerard said. “The families of the victims, workers in the plant and the surrounding community deserve to know all the problems OSHA uncovered.”