Recent developments involving labor unions and their members, including the latest on contract negotiations, strikes, lawsuits, and workplace organizing.
March of Maytag to Mexico Draws Union Criticism
Source: David Pitt, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Date: August 11, 2003
First Maytag Corp. moved two parts plants to Mexico; now a refrigerator plant is headed there. The relocations
to Reynosa, Mexico, all announced in the last two years, have intensified fears that Maytag might export even
more jobs to countries with cheap labor. A company that grew from a small-town farm-equipment manufacturer to
the third-largest appliance manufacturer in North America, Maytag is drawing bitter criticism for moving jobs
outside the United States.
May Consider a Strike, Goodyear Union Says
Source: Bloomberg News, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: August 12, 2003
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s largest labor union said it may consider a strike if contract
negotiations this week with North America's largest tiremaker fail to reach a tentative agreement. The United
Steelworkers of America, in a newsletter published Monday on a union Web site, called the latest talks a
"final, last-ditch effort to win an acceptable contract." Without a settlement, the union said, it will likely
increase pressure on Goodyear through "alternative contingency plans."
Unions May Ask Verizon Customers to Try AT&T
Source: Matt Richtel, New York times
Union(s): A.F.L.-C.I.O.
Date: August 13, 2003
Raising
the stakes in the protracted contract negotiations between Verizon and its unions, labor officials planned to
announce a campaign today to collect the names of people who would be willing to switch their service to AT&T,
a competing provider of local, long-distance and wireless phone services. Union officials said that the
A.F.L.-C.I.O., which is coordinating the effort to appeal to millions of Verizon customers, would not yet urge
them to switch phone companies. But the threat is seen as an effort to increase the bargaining position of the
unions representing 78,000 Verizon technicians and operators who have worked without a contract for 10 days and
also a sign that there may be more rancor in the negotiations than had been indicated earlier. The move, aimed
at customers from Verizon in a time of intense competition in the industry, puts a digital-era twist on the
kind of consumer boycott C?sar Chavez pursued in the 1970's in his ultimately successful bid to organize farm
workers in the California grape industry.
Verizon, Union Resume Contract Talks
Source: Reuters, FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Communication Workers of America & International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Date: August 12, 2003
Verizon
Communications Inc., the largest U.S. telephone company, and two unions resumed contract talks on Tuesday to
slog through persisting disputes over job security and health care costs. After a three-day break, negotiations
restarted Tuesday afternoon, with bargainers meeting in separate groups in New York and Washington, both sides
said. The talks are expected to drag for several more days as the two sides comb through details in 26
contracts covering 80,000 technicians and telephone operators from Maine to Virginia.
Correction Officers' Union Wants Commissioner Fired
Source: Paul von Zielbauer, New York Times
Union(s): New York City Correction Officers' Benevolent Association,
Date: August 14, 2003
Prompted by recent layoffs and what it says is an increasingly dangerous work environment for its
members, the union that represents more than 8,400 officers at Rikers Island and other city jails has begun a
campaign to have the correction commissioner fired. The union's new effort to remove Martin F. Horn, Mayor
Michael R. Bloomberg's handpicked commissioner, is mostly an angry response to layoffs in May that claimed 315
correction officers' jobs. Other union and city officials said they did not give the campaign any chance of
succeeding.
Ford Plant Finds Efficiency Is No Protector
Source: Danny Hakin with Anne Berryman, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: August 19, 2003
The Ford Motor Company's assembly plant near Atlanta is one of the most productive car factories on
the continent, but a top union official there said today that its future was in doubt. Ford told union workers
at a meeting in June that no new product is scheduled for the plant in the Atlanta suburb of Hapeville, which
employs 2,300 hourly workers and produces the aging Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable sedans, according to Mitchell
Smith, the top United Automobile Workers official at the plant.
Contract at Hyundai Raises Sights of Korean Workers
Source: Don Kirk, New York Times
Union(s): Korean Confederation of Trade Unions
Date: August 19, 2003
The labor contract that ended an off-again-on-again strike at the Hyundai Motor Company here
may have changed things for more than just the workers covered by the agreement. The pact that emerged earlier
this month after a 47-day strike was, by Korean standards, groundbreaking. For the first time, a powerful
industrial company accepted a five-day workweek, a relative rarity in a country where most workers also put in
a half-day on Saturday. Workers will also have a labor-management panel to review their concerns, and they will
receive an 8.6 percent wage increase, a substantial raise in an economy that is slowing.
Labor Union Leaders Come Out Against Nonpartisan Elections
Source: Jonathan P. Hicks, New York Times
Union(s): multiple unions in New York City
Date: August 19, 2003
Another group of people seething over proposals to switch to nonpartisan city elections is
beginning to speak out: labor leaders. With details of the Charter Revision Commission's recommendations
emerging, union leaders are complaining about a provision that would ban donations to candidates from labor
unions. The provision would also end donations from political parties and political action committees. Unions
are major contributors to political campaigns and often assist candidates, providing everything from volunteers
to telephone banking operations. The leaders say the provision by the charter commission, appointed this year
by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, would strip the unions of their ability to influence politics in New York.
Bloomberg and City Unions Draw the Lines, Far Apart
Source: Eric Lipton and Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): municipal unions in New York City
Date: August 19, 2003
John V. Lindsay's tenure was defined by strikes, the first one hitting only
hours after he was sworn in. Edward I. Koch and Rudolph W. Giuliani started off talking tough, but ended up
awarding hefty raises to municipal workers that left the city in a bind when recessions hit. David N. Dinkins
squeezed some of the same unions that had helped elect him and then never got a chance to serve a second term.
The success or failure of a New York City mayor, or at least his reputation as a leader or wimp, hinges in part
on his finesse in handling labor negotiations. Now it is Michael R. Bloomberg's turn.
Hoffa: Fed Oversight Of Teamsters May End
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Teamsters
Date: August 19, 2003
The Teamsters union and federal authorities are in negotiations that could result in the end of government
supervision of the 1.4 million-member union, Teamsters president James P. Hoffa said. "This is a major
watershed," Hoffa told The Detroit News for Tuesday's editions. "It's not done yet. But we have a proposal
from the government. We are looking forward to negotiating in the near future a final exit of the government
from Teamsters affairs." Federal authorities have run much of the Teamsters' operations since 1989, when the
union signed a consent decree to settle a civil racketeering suit filed by Rudolph Giuliani, U.S. attorney in
New York at the time. The suit alleged the union was controlled by the mob.
As Talks Resume, Verizon Argues With a Union Over an Ad Phrase
Source: Matt Richtel, New York Times
Union(s): Communications Workers of America
Date: August 20, 2003
While negotiators for Verizon Communications and its workers resumed bargaining yesterday over crucial
elements like health benefits and job security, the two sides also swapped accusations over the appropriate use
of the phrase, "Can you hear me now?" At the bargaining table, the negotiators, who took a break over the
weekend, discussed the central issues with a federal mediator in Washington yesterday, the 17th day without a
contract. But in court, a sideshow emerged, touched off by the use, or possible misuse, of a Verizon Wireless
advertising slogan.
Charter Panel Drops Opposition to Union Political Donations
Source: Jonathan P. Hicks, New York Times
Union(s): multiple unions based in New York City
Date: August 20, 2003
The Charter Revision Commission reversed itself yesterday and voted to eliminate a provision that
would ban donations to candidates from labor unions as well as political action committees. The provision had
previously been part of the commission's proposal on nonpartisan elections to be presented to New York City
voters in a referendum this November. Labor leaders reacted strongly to the provision, saying that it would
motivate them to join the fight to defeat the proposal for nonpartisan elections. Several union leaders said
they would become extremely active opponents to the move, led by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, to reduce the role
of political parties in New York City elections.
Labor Swiftly Deploys Anti-Recall Volunteers
Source: Megan Garvey, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Laborers International Union, Local 585 (CA)
Date: August 21, 2003
With 47 days until Californians vote up or down on the recall of Gov. Gray Davis
there is little time to spare on the phones at Laborers International Union, Local 585. Union organizers, who
opened the phone banks in Ventura last weekend, are focused on getting out the no-on-the-recall vote. The next
weeks will be a test of California's powerful unions and their ability to get out their voters.
Overtime Pay Faces Showdown in Congress
Source: Thomas Ferraro (Reuters), FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: August 20, 2003
American labor and business are gearing up for a Capitol Hill battle over whether to redefine who
in the American work force has the right to overtime pay. The AFL-CIO, the nation's biggest labor group, is
rallying its members to urge Congress to block a Bush administration proposal that critics say could end such
compensation for millions of workers by expanding overtime exemptions. Amid disagreements over who would be
affected, foes say firefighters, police officers, nurses, dental hygienists and truck dispatchers could be
among those stripped of overtime.
Read More:
href="http://www.workplacefairness.org/overtimepay.php">fair overtime pay
Verizon Makes Case to Senators: CEO Says Firm Offered Unions a Layoff Delay
Source: Yuki Noguchi, Washington Post
Union(s): Communications Workers of America
Date: August 22, 2003
Verizon Communications Inc. proposed not to lay off workers before October 2004 and not to
relocate jobs for five years if its unions accept an increase in health care costs, the company's chief
executive told a dozen U.S. senators in a letter this week. The local phone giant, in the midst of contract
negotiations with two unions that represent 78,000 workers and about 60,000 retirees, said it has asked workers
to shoulder "modest increases" in some co-payments and deductibles, and offered not to increase health care
insurance premiums, according to the letter, which was signed by Verizon chief executive Ivan Seidenberg.
Source: Christopher Lee, Washington Post
Union(s): American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)
Date: August 22, 2003
The American Federation of Government Employees replaced two-term president Bobby L.
Harnage Sr. this week with a challenger who vowed to intensify the largest federal employee union's fight
against the Bush administration's labor initiatives. John Gage, president of AFGE Local 1923 in Baltimore,
defeated Harnage with 53 percent of the vote on the second ballot Wednesday at the union's annual convention
in Las Vegas.
Union Sues Over Moves to Discipline Prison Guards
Source: Michael Brick, New York Times
Union(s): New York City Correction Officers' Benevolent Association
Date: August 23, 2003
The
union representing more than 8,400 city correction officers announced yesterday that it had filed a federal
suit after some members were disciplined for failing to report to work during the blackout that crippled
transportation networks last week. The lawsuit, filed in United States District Court in Manhattan, was the
latest sign of the conflict between the Department of Correction and the union, the New York City Correction
Officers' Benevolent Association, which has called for the resignation or ouster of Mayor Michael R.
Bloomberg's handpicked correction commissioner.
Miami Teachers Union Chief Pleads Guilty
Source: Catherine Wilson (AP), FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): United Teachers of Dade
Date: August 25, 2003
The longtime leader of the Miami-Dade County teachers union, accused of billing the union for hundreds
of thousands of dollars worth of luxuries, pleaded guilty to two counts Monday after reaching a deal with
federal prosecutors. Pat Tornillo, 78, on leave from the United Teachers of Dade, pleaded guilty to mail fraud
and filing a false tax return in exchange for a two-year prison sentence. A public corruption task force found
he fraudulently charged the organization for up to $650,000 in personal expenses. Court records showed he
billed the union for four Caribbean vacations complete with private villa, several cruises on the luxury
Seabourn line, a trip to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and other first-class travel expenses. Prosecutors tracked
the charges on union and personal credit cards for the past five years.
Verizon, Unions Near Deal For East Coast
Source: Leigh Strope (AP), FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Communications Workers of America; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Date: August 25, 2003
Verizon Communications and its unions are nearing an agreement as 78,000 East Coast telephone operators
and technicians begin a fourth week on the job without contracts. Negotiators had made significant progress at
the bargaining table over the past several days - enough that the end appeared within reach.
Yale Workers Plan Strike for the Opening of a New Semester
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: August 26, 2003
Thousands of Yale undergraduates are to arrive on campus tomorrow, only to be greeted by an
unwelcome but all-too-familiar sight: the ninth labor walkout at Yale in 35 years. The open-ended strike by
janitorial, dining hall and clerical workers is timed to maximize pressure on Yale officials, who insist that a
walkout is misguided because, they say, the university has made an unusually generous contract offer. Yale says
it has offered the university's largest union, representing 2,900 clerical workers, raises of 44 percent over
the life of a six-year agreement, including immediate raises of 14 percent. But the clerical union and the
union representing 1,100 janitorial, maintenance and dining-hall workers say that the university's offer would
leave wages well below those of Harvard's workers and would leave pensions so paltry that many retirees would
feel pressured to return to work.
UW Severs Its Contracts With Tyson
Source: Associated Press, Wisconsin State Journal
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Local 538
Date: August 23, 2003
UW-Madison won't serve Tyson products in its dormitory cafeterias and student
unions this fall, the latest boycott in response to a strike at the company's plant in Jefferson. Casey Nagy,
executive assistant to UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley, said the school made the decision to end its contracts
with Arkansas-based Tyson Foods after consulting with groups representing students, faculty and staff. Nagy
said the university's decision does not mean it has taken a position on the strike.
China Pressuring Wal-Mart to Form Unions
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): All-China Federation of Trade Unions
Date: August 26, 2003
China's government-controlled union body is pressuring Wal-Mart to establish trade unions for thousands of
its employees, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The All-China Federation of Trade Unions says Wal-Mart
Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, has not set up trade unions in any of its branches in China,
leaving workers without protection of their legal rights, Xinhua said. "The best way to protect workers'
rights is to sign group contracts with employers through trade unions, which can protect workers' rights
involving wage negotiation, vacations, and discharge regulations,'' Feng Lijun, a Beijing ACFTU official was
quoted as saying Sunday by Xinhua.
Leaders of California's Largest Union Vote to Raise Large Amounts to Defeat Davis Recall
Source: John M. Broder, New York Times
Union(s): California Labor Federation, A.F.L.-C.I.O.
Date: August 27, 2003
The leadership of California's most powerful labor union voted today to
oppose the recall of Gov. Gray Davis and promised to spend millions on an anti-recall campaign. Almost as an
afterthought, the union endorsed the fall-back candidacy of Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, the only well-known
Democrat on the long list of candidates to replace Mr. Davis should the recall succeed.
Nearly 4,000 Yale Workers Begin Strike
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Local 35.
Date: August 27, 2003
Nearly
4,000 Yale University workers went on strike over wages, pensions and job security early Wednesday, a walkout
that coincides with students' return to the Ivy League campus. Yale spokesman Tom Conroy said the university
planned to keep the campus running with managers and temporary workers, who were on hand to help students move
into dorms. No new contract talks were scheduled.
Workers' Strike Hinders Arrival of Yale Students
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: August 28, 2003
More than 2,500 of Yale University workers went on strike today as undergraduates began returning to campus,
solidifying Yale's reputation as having the most contentious labor relations of any university in the nation.
The walkout, the second at Yale this year and the ninth since 1968, was timed to maximize pressure on Yale's
administration. But the strike had another effect, alienating some arriving students who had to navigate around
the strikers and the police to move into the dorms.
President Limits Raises for Federal Workers
Source: Associated Press, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: August 28, 2003
Giving civilian federal workers a pay raise of more than 2 percent next year would
jeopardize the war on terrorism, President Bush said Wednesday. Citing a national emergency since the 2001
terrorist attacks, Bush said he was using his authority to change the civilian pay structure in times of
"national emergency or serious economic conditions" to limit raises to 2 percent.
Bus Workers In Honolulu Win Concession
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Hawaii Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996
Date: August 28, 2003
Striking bus workers won a major concession when the city's transit company said it would no longer seek
benefit cutbacks. The breakthrough Wednesday led to the scheduling of contract talks Thursday by Oahu Transit
Services Inc. and Hawaii Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996, which represents more than 1,300 workers who
went on strike early Tuesday. If a deal is reached, bus workers could be back on the job later Thursday or
Friday, Local 996 President Mel Kahele said.
City Opera Faces Possible Strike
Source: New York Times
Union(s): Local 764, NYC's theatrical wardrobe workers' union
Date: August 30, 2003
The members of the
theatrical wardrobe workers' union, Local 764, voted on Wednesday night to authorize a strike against the New
York City Opera two weeks before the scheduled beginning of its fall season.
Yale Freshmen Find Their Moving Day Slowed by Strikers
Source: Marc Santora, New York Times
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: August 30, 2003
As the new crop of freshman students arrived on campus at Yale University this morning, they were
greeted by hundreds of striking union workers, chanting slogans and blocking streets in demonstrations that led
to the arrest of 83 workers. Among those arrested was a national union president, John Wilhelm, head of the
Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, the parent of the two unions on strike. "They
have never accepted the proposition that members of this community with the least status would come to them as
equals," Mr. Wilhelm said of university officials this afternoon, shortly after his release from jail. He said
that Yale had refused to negotiate in good faith.
Union Puts Caribbean-Style Fun Into Labor Day
Source: Erin Chan, New York Times
Union(s): Local 1199, S.E.I.U
Date: August 30, 2003
union of
health care workers rushed to complete its work this week as Labor Day approached ? not by painting picket
signs, but rather by preening plumes and stringing sequins. For the last four months, members of 1199/S.E.I.U.
climbed 19 steep steps each day to a rented space above Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery and Grill in East
Flatbush, Brooklyn, where they produced intricate costumes in firehouse red, shimmering gold and jungle green.
This year, union members decided that organized labor should have a more visible and festive presence in what
has become one of New York's largest spectator events, the West Indian American Day Carnival and Parade. More
commonly known as the Labor Day parade, the event has been held in Brooklyn for 35 years, often drawing more
than two million people.
Union Leaders Not Optimistic About Economy This Labor Day
Source: USA Today
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: August 29, 2003
Union
leaders say America's workers have little to celebrate this Labor Day.
New data Thursday indicated the
economy is improving, yet the gains are failing to reach the working-class, they said. "We do not see a reason
to be optimistic about the current economic situation," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
Source: Edward T. O'Donnell, New York Times
Union(s): Central Labor Union
Date: August 31, 2003
One hundred-twenty-one years ago Labor Day meant something more than a three-day weekend and
the unofficial end of summer. On Sept. 5, 1882, thousands of workers in New York risked being fired for taking
an unauthorized day off to participate in festivities honoring honest toil and the rights of labor. This first
commemoration of Labor Day testified to labor's rising power and unity in the Gilded Age and its sense that
both were necessary to withstand the growing power of capital. The Labor Day holiday originated with the
Central Labor Union, a local labor federation formed the previous January to promote the interests of workers
in the New York area.
Unions to Push to Make Organizing Easier
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: August 31, 2003
Labor Day, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. plans to announce a nationwide campaign that union leaders say is crucial to
assuring labor's future, a campaign that aims to change federal laws to make it easier for workers to join
unions. Disclosing details of this effort, the federation's president, John J. Sweeney, said in an interview
on Friday that American workers often faced huge obstacles to forming unions, saying they can rarely exercise
the right to unionize without facing employer intimidation. "The right of workers to make their own free choice
to join a union has been effectively canceled in a huge majority of unionization elections," Mr. Sweeney said.
"Employers engage in every tactic imaginable to block workers' freedom to form a union."
Jesse Jackson and 18 Others Are Arrested in Yale Protest
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Yale clerical, dining hall and maintenance workers unions
Date: September 2, 2003
The Rev. Jesse Jackson and 18 other people were arrested yesterday when they blocked traffic at
Yale University to show their support for striking clerical, dining hall and maintenance workers on campus.
Before his arrest at the intersection of Elm and College Streets in New Haven, Mr. Jackson led a rally on the
Yale campus that was attended by 3,000 to 5,000 strikers and their supporters, according to police estimates.
Mr. Jackson has led numerous rallies for the workers since they walked out last Wednesday, demanding job
security and higher wages and pensions. "This is the site of national Labor Day outrage," Mr. Jackson said.
"This is going to be for economic justice what Selma was for the right to vote."
Bush Defends Tax Cuts and Announces Jobs Post
Source: David E. Sanger, New York Times
Union(s): International Union of Operating Engineers
Date: September 2, 2003
Since the last time President Bush addressed a Labor Day picnic ? with carpenters in Pennsylvania
? the economy has lost 700,000 jobs, most of them in manufacturing. So by the time Mr. Bush arrived at a
rain-drenched field today to talk to highway construction workers, he faced what some of his supporters
acknowledge is a far more complex political task than he did a year ago: convincing layoff-weary voters in
crucial states like this one, which he carried by a mere three percentage points in 2000, that his tax cuts had
saved workers from a worse fate and that 14 months before the next presidential election he has a strategy to
bring back the kind of jobs that many economists say are leaving the United States for good.
Suburban Office Complex Is Latest Target of Union
Source: Josh Barbanel, New York Times
Union(s): Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union
Date: September 3, 2003
The
Carnegie Center is something of a suburban office nirvana, far from the bustle and frustrations of the city.
Swans glide through silent landscaped ponds. Crushed gravel crunches under foot in the pathways that meander
between the low-slung brick and granite campuses. Cars shimmer in the sun on vast parking lots. So Mitchell S.
Landis, who manages the 540-acre office park for Boston Properties, the real estate investment trust, seems a
bit perplexed over how the complex has become the latest front in an organizing drive by a union representing
building service employees in New York City. That organizing drive, union officials say, has rapidly swept
through much of the suburban office market in northern New Jersey.
Union Organizers to Air Complaints Against Yale
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Graduate Employees and Students Organization
Date: September 3, 2003
The group seeking to unionize graduate students at Yale announced yesterday that a former labor secretary and
a former general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board would serve on a committee investigating whether
Yale administrators or professors broke the law while fighting the unionization drive. The fact-finding
committee being formed by the union-organizing group will be headed by Fred Feinstein, who was the labor
board's chief counsel from 1994 to 1999, and its members will include Robert B. Reich, who was secretary of
labor in President Clinton's first term. Leaders of the Graduate Employees and Students Organization, which is
seeking to unionize 2,100 graduate students at Yale, claim that illegal intimidation by some Yale faculty
members contributed heavily to the pro-union forces' narrowly losing a unionization vote last April.
No New Postings in Today's News Headlines Until 9/12
Source: Workplace Fairness
Date: September 4, 2003
Due to staff vacation,
there will be no posting of new entries in Today's News Headlines until September 12, 2003. Our daily
listings of workplace-related news articles will resume at that time.
Sources: UAW, Automakers Appear Near Deal
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: September 11, 2003
The
United Auto Workers and Big Three automakers appeared close to simultaneous labor agreements Thursday, three
days before the current pacts expire, union and auto officials familiar with the talks said. The sources, who
spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said agreements between the UAW and General Motors
Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG could be announced as early as Friday but almost certainly before
Sunday's midnight deadline. The union and Big Three automakers have never reached simultaneous contract
agreements. The union typically chooses one carmaker as the lead negotiator and uses that pact as a model for
the other two. The union has been bargaining with all three automakers at once this year and has not publicly
named a lead company.
Huge Union Decides to Endorse No One Now
Source: Rachel L. Swarns, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Date: September 11, 2003
Torn between the longtime favorite and two fresh faces, the largest union in the A.F.L.-C.I.O. decided today
not to endorse any of the nine Democratic hopefuls for the presidency for now. Officials at the union, the
Service Employees International, said the 1,500 members at a convention here ranked former Gov. Howard Dean of
Vermont; Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, a longtime labor supporter; and Senator John Edwards
of North Carolina as the top three contenders. The decision reflected uncertainty about Mr. Gephardt, whom many
union members consider as having the best record on labor issues but who has struggled to raise campaign money.
It also reflects growing support for Dr. Dean, who was mobbed by enthusiastic union members.
Verizon and Unions Agree on Tentative 5-Year Contract
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Communications Workers of America & International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Date: September 5, 2003
Verizon Communications and its unions announced last night that they had reached agreement on a
tentative contract that includes a one-year wage freeze and retains strong job security protections that the
company had sought to weaken. Verizon's two main unions boasted that they had achieved major victories on job
security and health insurance, having beaten back Verizon's efforts to make its unionized workers pay
significantly more toward their health coverage. With the unions focusing on job security as their No. 1 issue,
Verizon failed in its push to ease or eliminate provisions that make it hard for Verizon, the nation's largest
telephone company, to lay off or involuntarily transfer any of its 78,000 current unionized workers in the
Northeast. In a concession to Verizon, the unions agreed that new hires would not be covered by the job
security provisions.
DaimlerChrysler, UAW Make a Deal
Source: Associated Press, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): United Auto Workers (UAW)
Date: September 15, 2003
The United Auto Workers said Monday that it reached a tentative, four-year contract
agreement with DaimlerChrysler AG and will continue to negotiate with General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co.
Details of the tentative agreement weren't released, but UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the
DaimlerChrysler pact contains what the union hopes to see from the other contracts.
Union in Deal With Chrysler; Talks With 2 Makers Continue
Source: Danny Hakim, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers (UAW)
Date: September 15, 2003
The United Auto Workers union said early this morning that a tentative agreement had been reached with
the Chrysler Group on a new four-year contract. The union apparently fell short in its attempt to reach an
unusual three-way, simultaneous deal with all of the Big Three automakers. People familiar with the
negotiations said that the union had sought such a deal with General Motors, the Ford Motor Company and the
Chrysler Group unit of DaimlerChrysler.
Labor Leaders Arrested at Rally for Yale University Strikers
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: September 14, 2003
The A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s president and 120 other union leaders and members were arrested today for civil
disobedience as an estimated 5,000 people rallied to support workers on strike at Yale University. John J.
Sweeney, the head of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., was arrested on charges that he blocked traffic along with four of the
nation's most prominent labor leaders as union members sought to transform the Yale dispute into a showdown
between the university and all of organized labor, not just Yale's 2,000 striking employees.
Labor Pacts Reached at Ford and Chrysler
Source: Danny Hakim & Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: September 15, 2003
The Ford Motor Company and the auto parts giant Visteon said late this evening that they had reached
tentative agreement on four-year labor contracts with the United Automobile Workers union. The Ford deal was
the second announced today between the union and a Big Three automaker, an unusually swift resolution to the
talks that reflects union leaders' realization of the competitive difficulties faced by the Big Three, whose
domestic market share fell to a record monthly low in August.
Costs Mount for Yale and Union as Strike Drags On
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: September 11, 2003
With the strike at Yale University entering its third week and no end in sight, the showdown is starting to
exact sizable costs on both the university and the unionized workers. Indeed, if the strike drags on much
longer, some labor experts say, whatever the ultimate settlement includes will not compensate either side for
the losses suffered during the walkout. For Yale officials, the strike has been a public relations quagmire and
has set back the university's efforts to repair its history of lamentable town-gown relations. For the 2,000
striking clerical, dining hall and maintenance workers, the walkout has meant two weeks of missed paychecks,
fears of many more such weeks and worries about not being able to pay rent and utility bills.
Huge Union Decides to Endorse No One Now
Source: Rachel L. Swarns, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: September 11, 2003
Torn between the longtime favorite and two fresh faces, the largest union in the A.F.L.-C.I.O. decided
today not to endorse any of the nine Democratic hopefuls for the presidency for now. Officials at the union,
the Service Employees International, said the 1,500 members at a convention here ranked former Gov. Howard Dean
of Vermont; Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, a longtime labor supporter; and Senator John
Edwards of North Carolina as the top three contenders. The decision reflected uncertainty about Mr. Gephardt,
whom many union members consider as having the best record on labor issues but who has struggled to raise
campaign money. It also reflects growing support for Dr. Dean, who was mobbed by enthusiastic union members.
UAW Reaches Agreement with Ford; GM Still in Talks
Source: Associated Press, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: September 16, 2003
The United Auto Workers announced late Monday that it reached tentative contract agreements
with Ford Motor Co. and auto supplier Visteon Corp., leaving General Motors Corp. as the only Big Three
automaker still in labor talks with the union. Details of the tentative agreements with Chrysler and Ford
weren't being released. Union representatives earlier had told their members that they were close to new labor
agreements with Ford and GM but said difficult issues remained. The union and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler
Group announced early Monday that they had reached a tentative, four-year contract deal. The union has said
workers for GM will report to work as usual while negotiations continue.
Teachers Barter With Work Rules
Source: David M. Herszenhorn, New York Times
Union(s): United Federation of Teachers
Date: September 16, 2003
New York
City's teachers' union will propose a wide-ranging experiment to do away with the bulk of the work rules that
have long enraged city officials in exchange for getting teachers a greater say in how individual schools are
run, the union president, Randi Weingarten, said yesterday. The proposal, intended for perhaps 100 schools or
more, would discard rules that govern everything from the length of classes to the amount of teacher
preparation time. Principals could then negotiate pared-down work agreements with their staffs, which teachers
would approve.
Goodyear Reaches a Pact With Union
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: September 16, 2003
Workers at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, the nation's largest tire maker, ratified a three-year
contract that calls for wage freezes in exchange for unusually strong job protections, union and company
officials said yesterday. The workers approved the contract after five months of negotiations in which the
union, the United Steelworkers of America, consulted closely with Wall Street firms and industry experts on
what was needed to keep Goodyear afloat and retain jobs in the United States.
Amtrak Workers Plan Strike to Protest Lack of Financing
Source: Matthew L. Wald, New York Times
Union(s): Transport Workers Union & 5 other Amtrak unions
Date: September 17, 2003
Six Amtrak unions are to announce on Wednesday that they will stop work on Oct. 3, shutting the
railroad for the day, to protest Congress\'s failure to pass a $1.8 billion appropriation for the railroad
for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. If carried out, it would be the first time Amtrak workers have walked off
the job to protest Congressional policy. In the past, workers have struck over wages or other workplace issues.
A railroad official said Amtrak would probably seek an injunction to stop them, but union officials said they
believed that they were justified under the law and cited a 1982 Supreme Court ruling involving longshoremen
who protested the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan by refusing to load fertilizer on ships going to the Soviet
Union.
Tough Times Force U.A.W. to Employ New Strategy
Source: Danny Hakim, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: September 17, 2003
The nearly
simultaneous deals the United Automobile Workers union announced Monday with the Ford Motor Company and the
Chrysler Group represent a sharp break with tradition and underscore how tough times are for the Big Three and
their suppliers. Terms of the four-year labor contracts keep the union workers' generous health care benefits
largely intact, but the union gave ground on other important issues, including scaling back wage increases and
selectively lifting a ban on plant closings, according to people with knowledge of the deals.
Couture Update: 3 Deals, 3 Looks for U.A.W.'s Chief
Source: Michelene Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: September 21, 2003
Ron Gettelfinger, president of the United Auto Workers, made an industrial fashion
statement last week: he donned buttoned-down shirts with the union's logo to announce deals with Detroit's
Big Three.
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: September 20, 2003
To
end the 22-day strike that was embarrassing Yale and grating on its students, the university gave its two main
unions wage and pension increases that are generous by most any definition. Yale granted its largest union,
representing 2,900 clerical workers, raises of 44 percent over eight years and agreed to a richer pension
formula that will increase pensions for most future retirees by 80 percent or more.
No Sugarcoating From Mayor, Leaving a Labor Group Sour
Source: Michael Luo, New York Times
Union(s): Municipal Labor Committee
Date: September 20, 2003
With a day to absorb a tough speech by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg at a union retreat on Long Island, a
top city labor official said yesterday that she and her colleagues were insulted by his address.
"When a
guest comes into your house and is rude, it is a real sign of disrespect," said Randi Weingarten, the
chairwoman of the Municipal Labor Committee, which coordinates bargaining for the city's unions. Mayors are
routinely invited to the annual gathering but rarely accept. When Mr. Bloomberg agreed to show up and speak
during the two-day conference at the Hilton Huntington in Melville, Ms. Weingarten said she took it as a
hopeful sign. Most of the city's workers are working without a contract, and the unions' insistence for
salary increases have been met by demands from the city for productivity increases.
In Latest Contracts, Labor Uses New Strategy
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): various, including UAW and CWA
Date: September 20, 2003
Corporations have often complained that union demands are so outlandish that labor seems ready to drive them
out of business. Companies like Bethlehem Steel, Pan Am and Studebaker attributed their demises largely to
overambitious union demands. But this week, amid a burst of major contract agreements, even corporate
executives are acknowledging that labor's first concern has changed from demanding more and more to making
sure that companies and jobs survive. In reaching a settlement with General Motors on Thursday and in recent
agreements with several other industrial behemoths ? Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Goodyear and Verizon ? unions have
shown a new willingness to rein in their demands. Keeping their employers competitive, they have concluded, is
essential to keeping unionized jobs from being lost to nonunion, often lower-wage companies elsewhere in this
country or overseas.
Goodyear May Cut Jobs In 11 States
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: September 22, 2003
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is considering closing an Alabama tire plant and layoffs at plants in 10 other
states as well as other options to meet its goal of saving $1.1 billion over the next three years, company
officials said Monday. A three-year contract approved last week by Goodyear employees allows the Akron-based
company to close a Dunlop tire facility in Huntsville, Ala., which employs about 1,300 people.
Despite an End to Yale Strike, Hospital Workers' Issues Linger
Source: Stacey Stowe, New York Times
Union(s): 1199/S.E.I.U., Yale health care workers' union
Date: September 23, 2003
Despite a settlement last week after a 22-day strike against Yale, workers and labor leaders at the
university's teaching hospital rallied today to say Yale's labor problems are not over. Two university unions
reached a settlement last week and returned to work. But the members of a third union, dietary workers at
Yale-New Haven Hospital, returned to work without a contract. Today, with labor leaders and politicians
pledging support, the members vowed that while on the job, they would continue efforts for better wages,
pensions and health benefits.
Was Anyone Taken for a Ride in the U.A.W.-Big 3 Contract Talks?
Source: Danny Hakim, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: September 23, 2003
Last week, the United Automobile Workers offered more concessions to the Big Three than it has in the
last two decades of contract talks. Then again, concessions have not really been a feature of the last two
decades of contract talks in the American auto industry. While auto workers see a contract that extends a
lifeline to the struggling Big Three, Wall Street sees baby steps that amount to a glass half-full in some
minds and fully empty in others. \"Does this make the industry even a little bit more competitive? No,\" said
Maryann Keller, an auto analyst and former executive who ran Priceline.com\'s automotive division. \"This
contract does nothing to even make a slight dent in the fundamental problems,\" she added.
Firefighters Union Will Throw Support to Kerry, Officials Say
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): International Association of Fire Fighters
Date: September 19, 2003
The International Association of Fire Fighters will endorse Senator John Kerry
for president next week, union officials said yesterday, making it the first union to endorse a Democratic
presidential candidate other than Representative Richard A. Gephardt. Harold Schaitberger, the firefighters'
president, declined to discuss his union's plans, but labor leaders who have talked with him said the union
would back Mr. Kerry because its leaders thought the senator was the most electable Democrat. The
firefighters' endorsement, which is expected to be announced on Wednesday in Washington, is bound to hurt Mr.
Gephardt's efforts to win the coveted endorsement of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., union leaders said.
Yale in Deal With 2 Unions, Ending Strike
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: September 19, 2003
Ending a three-week strike, Yale and its two main unions reached a tentative eight-year contract yesterday
that will give many workers raises of more than 40 percent over the life of the pact and provide the embattled
university with years of labor peace. Yale officials applauded the deal because the university, having faced
nine strikes since 1968, more than any other university, wanted a lengthy contract to have labor tranquillity
and to mend relations with its unions. The main issues in the dispute were the unions' demands for far higher
pensions and the clerical union's push for wage increases of 6 percent or more per year, which that union said
were necessary to catch up with workers at Harvard and the University of Connecticut.
G.M. Accord Finishes Talks for U.A.W.
Source: Danny Hakim & Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): United Automobile Workers
Date: September 19, 2003
The United Automobile Workers union concluded its contract negotiations with the Big Three and
two major suppliers today after granting its most significant concessions in two decades. The deals, which will
result in thousands of job cuts as roughly a dozen plants are closed or sold, reflect the broad competitive
struggles of domestic manufacturers, and the union's effort to balance the desires of its members with the
shrinking market share and profits of the automakers. This morning, the U.A.W. announced it had reached deals
with General Motors and Delphi, the world's largest auto parts company, which G.M. spun off in 1999.
Hospital's Residents Win OK for Union
Source: Bruce Japsen, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Physicians for Responsible Negotiation
Date: September 19, 2003
After three years of legal wrangling with the Chicago area's largest health-care system,
doctors-in-training at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge have won the right to belong to a
union. The National Labor Relations Board's ruling in favor of the doctors could assist medical residents
interested in forming a union to improve pay, benefits and working conditions at private hospitals nationwide.
"This ruling certainly opens up the ability for residents and fellows to organize in private institutions,"
said Dr. Mark Fox, president of Physicians for Responsible Negotiation, the union that sought to represent the
residents. "I am now sure there will be other hospitals and other residency programs that will be interested in
doing this."
Sweeney to Seek New 4-Year Term as Head of A.F.L.-C.I.O.
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: September 18, 2003
John J. Sweeney said today that he would seek another four-year term as president of the
A.F.L.-C.I.O., a move that if successful would keep him at labor's helm for a total of 14 years. Mr. Sweeney,
69, said he was making the announcement nearly two years before his term ended because he wanted the 64 unions
in the federation to focus next year not on a fight over his successor, but on defeating President Bush. "We
don't want to distract from what our main agenda is right now, and that's to win back the White House and the
Senate and the House," Mr. Sweeney said in an interview in his office. "Next year, 2004, is going to be a
crucial year for us, because people realize how antiunion this administration has been."
Labor Activists Picket Outsourcing Event
Source: Alorie Gilbert (CNET News), New York Times
Union(s): Communications Workers of America
Date: September 18, 2003
A
two-day conference instructing companies on moving technology jobs and other work overseas drew picketers, in
one of the first San Francisco Bay Area protests over a growing trend that's shaking up the entire computer
industry. A group of about 50 labor organizers and out-of-work techies gathered at 8:30 a.m. PDT on Tuesday in
front of the Hyatt Regency hotel here, where conference organizer Brainstorm Group is holding its Nearshore and
Offshore Outsourcing Conference this week.
U.A.W. Reaches Tentative Pact With Last of Big 3 Automakers
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): United Automobile Workers
Date: September 18, 2003
The United Automobile Workers reached tentative agreements this morning with General Motors and
Delphi, wrapping up labor contracts in the American automobile industry with unprecedented speed. The
agreements, announced by officials of the union and the two companies, came just four days after contracts
covering more than 300,000 automobile and parts workers expired. The announcement also came just three days
after the U.A.W. reached tentative agreements at Ford Motor and the Chrysler Group, a unit of DaimlerChrysler
AG, as well as Visteon, the parts subsidiary spun off by Ford in 2000.
Biggest Union in 8-Year Pact With Times
Source: Jacques Steinberg, New York Times
Union(s): Newspaper Guild of New York
Date: September 24, 2003
The
New York Times and its largest union, the Newspaper Guild of New York, said yesterday that they had reached a
tentative agreement on an eight-year contract that would raise wages a total of 23 percent. The agreement calls
for increases of 3 percent in each of the first five years and 2 percent in each of the last three years.
Unlike the previous contract between the guild and The Times, the new deal does not include a no-layoff
guarantee for current employees.
Tight Election Looms in Largest Municipal Union
Source: Michael Luo, New York Times
Union(s): District Council 37
Date: September 24, 2003
With a
vote still more than three months away, the president of New York's main union of social workers opened his
campaign yesterday to take charge of the city's largest municipal union, District Council 37, by announcing
his slate of running mates and a long list of local presidents who already support him. His announcement brings
the union's 123,000 members a step closer to what promises to be the closest election battle at any large New
York union since the 1980's. It also complicates negotiations between the city and the union, whose workers
have been without a contract for more than a year.
UAW May Lose Up to 50, 000 Jobs in 4 Years
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Automotive Workers
Date: September 24, 2003
The
United Auto Workers could lose up to 50,000 jobs at Detroit's Big Three automakers and two major suppliers
over the next four years, but analysts say the union is likely to make up some of the losses by organizing
nonunion suppliers. Analysts also note that the bulk of job losses will occur through attrition and early
retirement, not from layoffs at plants that will be closed or sold as part of tentative labor pacts reached
last week between the UAW and General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group and
suppliers Delphi Corp. and Visteon Corp. Most workers at plants targeted for sale or closure are expected to
find jobs elsewhere in their companies.
Start Teaching or Lose Semester?s Pay, C.W. Post Strikers Are Told
Source: Michael Brick, New York Times
Union(s): C.W. Post Collegial Federation
Date: September 25, 2003
The C. W. Post campus of Long Island University has ordered striking faculty members to return to
teaching by Monday or face cancellation of their classes and the losses of their jobs and pay for the fall
semester, officials said yesterday. Students may need to take weekend classes or make up for lost time in
abbreviated winter sessions or independent study, administrators at the campus said yesterday. The
university's negotiations with the campus's 340 full-time faculty members, 63 percent of whom have tenure,
have ended in a dispute over whether the university can dock the pay of the faculty members for the time that
they have spent on strike since classes began on Sept. 8.
School Custodians Object as City Hires Private Firms
Source: Elissa Gootman, New York Times
Union(s): Local 891
Date: September 26, 2003
The union representing New York City school custodial supervisors is complaining that the Department
of Education moved quietly over the summer to hire private contractors to clean as many as 133 city schools.
While the use of private companies in those schools is only temporary, it brings to more than 400 the number of
schools where outside contractors may replace staff custodians. The union's complaint is the latest round in a
dispute over who should clean, repair, heat, cool, and maintain the city's 1,200 schools now that they are
under mayoral control.
Pickets Say Prevailing Wages Keep Steel Workers Jobless
Source: Tom Watts, Macomb Daily (MI)
Union(s): Local Union 25
Date: September 26, 2003
Unemployed iron workers from Local Union 25, including Charles Nutting of
Detroit, were on the picket line Wednesday citing "prevailing wages" as the reason a Marlette fabricator was
the low bidder for work being done at L'Anse Creuse High School-North. Unskilled iron workers making
substandard wages are hired before unionized steel workers making prevailing wages, according to pickets
outside L'Anse Creuse High School-North on Wednesday. According to union pickets, the L'Anse Creuse Public
Schools board awarded an estimated $60,000 contract to Sanilac Steel of Marlette this year. But Jack O'Donnell
of Local Union 25, which represents bridge, structural, ornamental, rigging, machinery and reinforcing iron
workers, said "prevailing wages" are keeping nearly 1,000 of his steel workers unemployed.
Cincinnati Firefighters Union Sued For Race Discrimination
Source: John McQuiston, WCPO
Union(s): Union Local 48
Date: September 25, 2003
Some African
American Cincinnati firefighters say they're fighting openly for justice after claiming the union that
represents city firefighters is racist.
Members of the Cincinnati African-American Firefighters Association
says that they are subject to hostile working conditions and discrimination. They have filed charges with the
EEOC seeking changes in the union.
Missouri Official: Labor Deal Prevented Immediate Closure of Ford
Source: David Lieb (AP), Kansas City Star
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: September 26, 2003
The Ford Motor Co. assembly plant in Hazelwood could have begun closing down immediately had the
plant not been included in a new labor union agreement tentatively reached last week, Missouri's economic
development chief said Thursday. Ford had announced in January 2002 that it intended to close the suburban St.
Louis plant around "mid-decade," but the company never provided a specific date. Local and state officials
responded with an intensive lobbying effort and incentive package aimed at reversing the decision. They
rejoiced last week when Ford reversed course and decided to keep the plant open through at least 2007, the
expiration of a proposed contract with the United Auto Workers.
Miami University Workers Go on Strike
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 209
Date: September 26, 2003
Maintenance, grounds and cafeteria workers at Miami University went on strike Friday, marking the school's
first labor walkout. No new talks were scheduled between university and union negotiators at the main campus in
Oxford, about 30 miles northwest of Cincinnati. Union members rallied outside the student center as Miami's
board of trustees held its regularly scheduled meeting. The contract expired shortly after midnight
Friday.
Hormel Reaches Agreement with 3,000 Union Workers
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)
Date: September 26, 2003
United Food and
Commercial Workers (UFCW) said on Friday it reached a tentative contract agreement with Hormel Foods Inc., a
maker of Spam luncheon meat and Always Tender beef.
Lawmaker Questions Labor Transit Subsidy Dispute
Source: Tanya N. Ballard, Government Executive Magazine
Union(s): American Federation of Government Employees Local 12
Date: September 26, 2003
Rep.
James Moran, D-Va., has asked the General Accounting Office to look into a nearly two-year long tussle between
the Labor Department and a union over increasing the transit subsidy for some federal employees. A Clinton-era
executive order required agencies to offer transit subsidies to employees in the Washington metropolitan area
beginning in October 2000. When the order was first implemented, the maximum amount employees could receive was
$65 a month, but in January 2002 the ceiling was raised to $100 a month.
Miami University Suffers First Labor Strike
Source: Associated Press, CNN
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 209
Date: September 26, 2003
Maintenance,
grounds and cafeteria workers at Miami University went on strike Friday, marking the school's first labor
walkout. No new talks were scheduled between university and union negotiators at the main campus in Oxford,
about 30 miles northwest of Cincinnati. Union members rallied outside the student center as Miami's board of
trustees held its regularly scheduled meeting. The contract expired shortly after midnight Friday.
Union Proclaims Labor Laws Violated
Source: Fresno Bee
Union(s): Service Employees International Union Local 250
Date: September 27, 2003
A union Friday leveled
another charge of unfair labor practices against Fresno County in its contract negotiations with home-care
workers who assist the elderly and disabled. Service Employees International Union Local 250 accuses the county
of violating labor laws by "falsely declaring an impasse" in the negotiations.Home-care organizing director
Dana Simon said in a statement that a county official has told him the county will only listen to proposals to
cut wages to pay for health benefits for the workers.
GM Wants Saturn in General Labor Pact
Source: Joseph Szczesny, Oakland County Press (MI)
Union(s): United Automotive Workers
Date: September 26, 2003
One more labor contract that still needs to be wrapped up this
year is the United Auto Workers contract with General Motors/Saturn. The Saturn pact comes up for renewal this
year, and the union is under pressure from General Motors to place the Saturn bargaining units in Spring Hill,
Tenn., under the GM/UAW master labor contract on which the automaker's blue-collar employees are now voting.
GM spokesman Tom Wickham confirmed that GM and the UAW are tentatively scheduled to discuss the Saturn
agreement some time this fall. No date has been established since there is no formal expiration date. Senior GM
executives have suggested privately that the separate contract should be phased out and the Spring Hill plant
brought under the terms of the company's new contract with the UAW.
Union Workers Get out the Vote Against Recall
Source: Jessica Guynn, Contra Costa Times
Union(s): various California unions
Date: September 28, 2003
"I am a volunteer for
the Democratic party. Do you have a moment?" John May, a 40-year-old United Food and Commercial Workers Union
representative, asks Susan, a Democrat from Richmond. "We are looking for people to vote no on the recall, no
on Proposition 54 and yes on Cruz Bustamante." May knows the recall election will come down to one thing: "Who
gets out the vote." May is one of thousands of volunteers throughout the state who have placed 300,000 phone
calls since Labor Day to fire up fellow union members and Democrats, part of organized labor's massive, $5
million campaign to defeat the recall in an effort to salvage Gov. Gray Davis' political future, and its
own.
UAW Says Ratifies Deals with Ford, Visteon
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Automobile Worker
Date: September 30, 2003
The United Auto Workers
union said on Tuesday it had ratified new four-year contracts with Ford Motor Co. and Visteon Corp. The new
contracts cover over 72,000 workers at Ford and more than 21,000 workers at Visteon, as well as more than
77,000 retirees and 24,000 surviving spouses.
Supermarkets, Clerks Gird for Possible Strike
Source: Nancy Cleeland & Melinda Fulmer, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: September 29, 2003
Three major supermarket chains and 71,000 Southern California food clerks are
locked in high-stakes contract negotiations that both sides say could lead to a regionwide strike next month.
At stake are the wages and benefits won through decades of hard bargaining and strikes by the United Food and
Commercial Workers union. Cashiers earn as much as $17.90 hourly, are guaranteed a pension and pay no premiums
for family health insurance. The chains say they must lower labor costs to remain healthy ? citing slumping
sales, rising health-care costs and, above all, competition from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other nonunion
retailers that are moving into grocery sales. Stock analysts have hammered at the companies ? Safeway Inc.,
which owns Vons and Pavilions; Kroger Co., which owns Ralphs; and Albertson's Inc. ? to bring employee costs
down.
Unions Put Democratic Endorsement Plans on Hold
Source: Leigh Strope (AP), FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): multiple unions
Date: September 29, 2003
Organized labor has yet to organize when it comes to choosing a Democrat to challenge President Bush.
Late entrant Wesley Clark is shaking up the process even further, with some key unions delaying endorsement
plans to see if he energizes voters. Many unions had expected to endorse a 2004 choice this month or next, but
they became wary about getting tied to a loser in a volatile contest with a crowded field that has seen the
early front-runner trip and a once-afterthought soar. Enter Clark - and intrigue for several unions whose
rank-and-file have failed to coalesce around one candidate. Will the retired four-star general be the savior
leading Democrats back to the White House? Or will he flame out? Some unions are taking time to find out.
Labor Dispute Hindering Jewel's Wisconsin Expansion
Source: Associated Press, WBBM (IL)
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1444
Date: September 29, 2003
A
labor dispute between Illinois-based Jewel Food Stores and its 1,500 union employees in southeastern Wisconsin
has hurt the company's efforts to expand in the area, its president said. "This whole thing creates so much
uncertainty," Jewel President Pete Van Helden said, after union employees rejected Jewel's contract proposal
last week. The inability to reach an agreement ended Jewel's plans to buy 10 Kohl's Food Stores in the
Milwaukee area last summer, he said. Jewel-Osco needed to know wage and benefit expenses before buying the
stores.
AFL-CIO Not Ready to Make White House Endorsement
Source: John Whitesides (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: September 30, 2003
The nation's largest labor organization said Tuesday it was not ready to make an endorsement in
the Democratic presidential primary race, dealing a setback to Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt. AFL-CIO
President John Sweeney said he would not call a general board meeting for mid-October, where leaders of the
federation would have considered endorsing a candidate.
Mine Workers OK Reorganization Plan
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): United Mine Workers
Date: September 30, 2003
The United Mine Workers union approved a reorganization plan that cuts the number of elected officials and
puts districts under the control of the international union. Delegates to the union convention in Las Vegas
approved the plan Monday, said Doug Gibson, a union spokesman. The reorganization package was proposed by UMW
President Cecil Roberts in August. It makes UMW districts into divisions of the international union instead of
separate entities, and reduces from three to one the number of officers elected by members in each
district.
Gephardt Won?t Get Early Backing of Labor
Source: Steven Greenhouse & Rachel L. Swarns, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: October 1, 2003
The A.F.L.-C.I.O. announced yesterday that it would not endorse a Democratic
presidential candidate this month, dealing a sharp setback to the campaign of Representative Richard A.
Gephardt of Missouri. After meeting with other union leaders in Washington, John J. Sweeney, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.
president, said he was canceling an endorsement meeting planned for Oct. 14 because he could not muster the
two-thirds support Mr. Gephardt needed to obtain the federation's coveted backing. Nor was there a consensus
on anyone else in the crowded Democratic field. For years as House Democratic leader, Mr. Gephardt has been a
staunch ally of organized labor, and his aides hoped that an October endorsement would give him a lift going
into the winter primary season. It would have given him labor's imprimatur and provided hundreds of union
officials to work for him across the nation during the primaries and caucuses.
Hormel Union Workers Vote in Favor of Contract
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: October 1, 2003
Meat processor Hormel
Foods Inc.'s union workers voted late Tuesday in favor of a new four-year contract, a company spokeswoman told
Reuters Wednesday. Some 3,000 workers represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers had reached a
tentative agreement with the company last Friday after the two sides had entered into federal mediation.
Chicago Area Hit by Garbage Haulers Strike
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): Teamsters Union
Date: October 1, 2003
Unionized trash haulers
said on Wednesday they have gone on strike against private-sector garbage services in the Chicago area in an
action that will disrupt commercial trash service and some residential service.
Source: Tom Robbins, Village Voice
Union(s): District Council 37
Date: September 30, 2003
Charles Ensley, the
veteran leader of the 20,000-member local representing the city's welfare workers, held an exuberant kickoff
rally last week for his campaign to unseat incumbent Lillian Roberts as executive director of District Council
37, the city's largest?and once most powerful?municipal workers' union. "We are embarking on a mission today
to return this union to its former glory," said Ensley, 62. Thirty of the council's 56 local
presidents?representing 70,000 of the council's 120,000 members?were present to support his candidacy, Ensley
said, and he had them raise their hands as the crowd of 100 cheered and shook blue signs proclaiming a "Unity
Slate." The rally was held on a plaza at the rear entrance of the council's huge headquarters at 125 Barclay
Street on the far west side of Lower Manhattan, offices purchased back in those glory years when anything the
council's then influential leaders said had impact at City Hall and in Albany. Those days are long gone,
however. Now the plaza is notable as the site where investigators for the Manhattan district attorney's office
hauled away truckloads of records in 1999, in a probe that resulted in criminal charges against some 20
officials of D.C. 37 and a seismic shake-up in what had always been perceived as a sedate and corruption-free
labor organization. The investigation opened a Pandora's box of long-hidden secrets, ranging from the blatant
rigging of contract votes and local elections to the theft of union treasuries and even hushed-up mob
associations. The plaza was also the place, union veterans knew, where the leader of a key local was savagely
beaten by goons dispatched by a mobster dissatisfied with the size of his tribute.
Office Site Center of Labor War
Source: Tony Hagen, Trenton Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ
Date: September 30, 2003
Mickey Landis, vice president and regional manager of Boston Properties, says his company looks after its
workers, so he is unhappy labor activists are using his office park, Carnegie Center, as a poster pinup for
worker exploitation allegations. "Boston Properties is entirely sympathetic to any worker's status, in any
position," Landis says. "Our company has a terrific record in treating its workers well. It is absurd to think
that our company doesn't care." In recent months, Boston Properties has been slammed by Service Employees
International Union Local 32BJ, which is working hard to unionize janitors and related building services
employees in Mercer County.
Deere Reaches Tentative Deal with Union
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: September 30, 2003
Deere & Co, the
world's largest farm equipment maker, said on Tuesday it had reached a tentative agreement with the United
Auto Workers union but terms of the proposal still needed to be approved.
St. C Teachers Not Alone In Labor Strife
Source: WTOV9.com (OH)
Union(s): Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE) Local 549
Date: September 30, 2003
The labor situation involving St.
Clairsville-Richland City Schools is an increasingly complicated saga, of teachers who are not happy, service
workers even less happy, and a school district prepared to go forward without either of them. The Ohio
Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE) Local 549 represents cafeteria workers, bus drivers, maintenance
and other service workers in St. C, and like the teachers those folks are working without a new labor
contract--the old deal expired in July. Tuesday night, the union is holding only its fourth negotiation with
the Board of Education since the contract ran out.
Chrysler, Union to Convene on Employment Costs
Source: John Porretto (AP), Miami Herald
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: October 1, 2003
DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group and the United Auto Workers will look at a variety of ways in the coming
months to reduce the automaker's employment costs, including buyouts, a Chrysler spokesman said Tuesday.
Chrysler and the UAW, who agreed on a new four-year labor pact in mid-September, will establish a task force by
Nov. 1 to discuss employment issues, Chrysler spokesman Dan Bodene said.
State Workers Trade Wages For Time Off
Source: Associated Press, Detroit News
Union(s): Michigan State Employees Association
Date: October 1, 2003
A union
representing 4,000 state employees gave approval Tuesday to a deal that would require state workers to defer
some of their wages and take 32 hours of unpaid time off. The Michigan State Employees Association is the first
of several unions to reach a tentative agreement on ways to save money on state workers, said David Fink,
director of the Office of the State Employer. John Denniston, president of the Michigan State Employees
Association, said the agreement would require members to work 40 hours a week but get paid for 38. The unpaid
hours would go into a bank of leave time and would be treated similar to vacation hours. If an employee leaves
a state job with hours still in the bank, the money for that time would go into the worker's 401(k) retirement
account.
Chicago Strike Leaves Garbage Piling Up
Source: Jo Napolitano, New York Times
Union(s): Teamsters Locals 731 and 301
Date: October 3, 2003
Less
than two days after 3,300 city and suburban trash haulers went on strike, garbage bins here are already
beginning to overflow, leaving residents and business owners struggling to keep their waste vermin-free. After
about three months of negotiations, contract talks between Teamsters Locals 731 and 301 and the Chicago Area
Refuse Haulers Association, which represents the 17 refuse companies, broke down about 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday
in a dispute over wages and benefits. The negotiations resumed on Thursday morning.
Hormel Contract Includes Higher Wages - and Health Care Costs
Source: Associated Press, Kansas City Star
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: October 2, 2003
The four-year contract ratified by workers at five Hormel Foods plants, including one in Atlanta,
includes annual wage increases averaging 2 percent, but employees will have to pay a greater share of their
health care costs, a union official said. The more than 3,000 workers at the five plants, - including Hormel's
flagship packinghouse in Austin - approved the contract by a margin of 65 percent to 35 percent, the United
Food and Commercial Workers announced Wednesday. The agreement was an improvement over a contract that was
overwhelmingly rejected by union members last month, said Denny LeBarron, a business agent for UFCW Local 9 in
Austin, which represents about 1,300 Hormel workers.
Employee Claims He Was Forced into Prayer
Source: Michelle Maitre, Oakland Tribune
Union(s): University Professional and Technical Employees
Date: October 6, 2003
Will Osuna said he was uncomfortable when, as a University of California employee, he felt pressured to
participate in what he considered religious rituals on company time.
In a typical instance, Osuna said
participants in conferences and student camps organized as part of a university outreach program that targets
American-Indian students would stand and gather in a circle. A speaker would invoke "the creator" or other
deity, including "God" or the "Almighty Father." At conferences and other gatherings of adult officials, Osuna
said attendees were expected to participate in Native American rituals including passing around burning sage
nestled in seashell. Participants were asked to pass the shell "around and about" their bodies.
Auto-Parts Giants Target Wages in UAW Talks
Source: Ted Evanoff, Indianapolis Star
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: October 5, 2003
Landing a
job in a Delphi Corp. or Visteon Corp. factory in Indiana has long been a sure way to middle-class income. But
the retrenching Detroit auto industry soon could cut the $26-an-hour base wage for new workers at Delphi and
Visteon auto parts plants in Indiana and the rest of the nation. A new round of negotiations, aimed at winning
landmark concessions from the United Auto Workers union, is expected to begin this month.
Gephardt's Labor Roots Run Deep
Source: Ed Tibbetts, Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier
Union(s): various unions
Date: October 6, 2003
Now, with this likely to be his last stab at politics' biggest
prize, Richard Gephardt is melding his familiarity with the byways of America's politics with a hefty health
care plan to try to seize the party's presidential nomination. It's not easy. The field is crowded. A guy few
heard of a year ago --- Howard Dean --- is setting fire to the grass roots. Gephardt's second quarter
fund-raising totals were disappointing. But, the Missouri man who first won elected office as a St. Louis
alderman in 1970 by going door-to-door --- working one side of the street while his soon-to-be wife worked the
other --- is marching forward.
Unions See Politics in New Disclosure Rules
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: October 5, 2003
Labor leaders have sharply criticized new financial disclosure regulations that the Labor Department issued on
Friday, asserting that the Bush administration is intent on retaliating against unions. "These new rules are
blatantly political," said Jonathan Hiatt, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s general counsel, charging that the
administration wanted to punish labor for supporting many Democrats and battling the president on numerous
issues. "They aim to send a retaliatory message." But administration officials said the new rules were not
designed to punish labor, but to prevent union corruption and provide union members with more information about
their unions' operations and financial health.
UAW Ratifies Contract with GM, Delphi
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: October 6, 2003
The United Auto Workers
union said on Monday it had ratified new four-year contracts with General Motors Corp. and Delphi Corp. The new
contracts cover over 117,000 active workers at GM and more than 30,000 active workers at Delphi, as well as
more than 234,000 retirees and 63,000 surviving spouses.
Grocery Workers Complain to NLRB over Wages Offered to Temps
Source: Thomas Lee, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655
Date: October 3, 2003
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655 filed an unfair labor-practices complaint Friday
against the three largest supermarket chains in St. Louis over their offers of higher wages to temporary
grocery workers. Schnuck Markets Inc., Dierbergs Markets Inc., and Shop 'n Save Warehouse Foods Inc. ran
advertisements Thursday and Friday seeking temporary workers to replace union members if the UFCW strikes next
week.
Source: Menaka Fernando, The UCLA Daily Bruin
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: October 3, 2003
Class
will be dismissed for hundreds of students today as many teaching assistants, readers and tutors throughout the
University of California participate in a one-day strike against what they call unfair labor practices. The
strike will be coordinated by the United Auto Workers local division that represents 10,000 workers at the
eight undergraduate UC campuses. The UAW filed 64 unfair labor practices against the university for bargaining
in bad faith. Some of these alleged practices include surface bargaining ? the practice of passing proposals
back and forth without making real changes ? and shifting justifications by the university, said Beth Rayfield,
a spokeswoman for UAW.
Labor Goes All Out to Get Vote Out for Davis
Source: James Sterngold, San Francisco Chronicle
Union(s): Los Angeles County Federation of Labor
Date: October 6, 2003
As the recall campaign roars toward the final showdown Tuesday, this unlikely race may boil down
to a final sprint between Gov. Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rudy Garcia. While Davis and
Schwarzenegger crisscross the state with their appeals to big crowds, Garcia is playing a potentially crucial
role by pressing voters to oppose the recall one at a time at a bustling telephone calling center run by the
Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, ground zero for one of the largest get-out-the-vote campaigns ever
mounted in the state.
Deere Says UAW Workers Ratify 6-Year Contract
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: October 6, 2003
Deere & Co., the
world's largest farm equipment maker, on Monday said workers represented by the United Auto Workers over the
weekend ratified a six-year contract that runs to Sept. 30, 2009. The agreement covers roughly 7,000 employees
and 17,000 retirees, Deere said. The Moline, Illinois-based company had reached a tentative agreement with the
workers on Sept. 30, and said union officials have notified it of the ratification.
US Airways Subcontracts Work, Inflames Mechanics
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): International Association of Machinists
Date: October 6, 2003
US Airways Group Inc.
said on Monday that it will outsource heavy maintenance on 10 of its airplanes to an Alabama company, which
prompted the airline's mechanics' union to file for a temporary restraining order that would prevent the
move. US Airways said 10 of its Airbus narrow body aircraft are due for their first round of mandatory heavy
maintenance checks this fall, but said it does not have the facilities or equipment to perform the work.
Teamsters, Haulers Set to Meet with Mediator
Source: Courtney Flynn and Liam Ford, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Teamsters Locals 731 and 301
Date: October 7, 2003
Striking garbage workers and private waste-hauling companies will sit down
with a federal mediator Tuesday morning as almost a week's worth of uncollected trash clutters alleys and
streets throughout northeastern Illinois. Representatives of Teamsters Locals 731 and 301 and the Chicago Area
Refuse Haulers Association have agreed to meet with a mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation
Services, a federal agency with offices in Hinsdale.
Union Organizing Remains Muddled in Chrysler Pact
Source: Danny Hakim, New York Times
Union(s): United Automobile Workers
Date: October 7, 2003
The
Chrysler Group's new contract with the United Automobile Workers union, ratified by workers last month, fell
short of one of the union's top goals: persuading DaimlerChrysler to recognize what are known as card checks
to unionize American plants owned by the Mercedes division. The union has never successfully organized a plant
owned solely by a foreign automaker, but it had hoped it might have an opportunity at Mercedes because the 1998
acquisition of Chrysler by Daimler-Benz put Mercedes and Chrysler under the same corporate umbrella.
US Air and Union in Dispute on Overhauls
Source: Bloomberg News, New York Times
Union(s): International Association of Machinists
Date: October 7, 2003
The US Airways
Group, which emerged from bankruptcy protection this year, said yesterday that it had hired a Singapore unit of
Technologies Engineering to overhaul 10 aircraft. The airline's mechanics' union will seek to block the
action. US Airways, which is based in Arlington, Va., lacks the space and the equipment to work on Airbus SAS
A319 planes and will contract with ST Mobile Aerospace Engineering, which is based in Mobile, Ala., and is part
of Singapore Technologies, the airline said. The International Association of Machinists, which represents
mechanics, said it would seek a temporary restraining order in Federal District Court in Pittsburgh to block US
Airways' action.
Chicago Garbage Haulers Reach Tentative Contract
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): Teamsters
Date: October 9, 2003
Trash
haulers in the Chicago area who have been on strike for nine days against private garbage services have reached
a tentative contract agreement, the companies said Thursday. The strike against Allied Waste Industries Inc.,
Waste Management Inc., Republic Services Inc. and other members of the 16-company Chicagoland Refuse Haulers
Association idled 3,300 members of the Teamsters Union.
Delta to Meet With Pilots in Hopes of Restarting Salary Talks
Source: Edward Wong, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: October 9, 2003
The top executives of Delta Air Lines will meet with leaders of the union that represents its pilots
on Oct. 17 to talk about the airline's financial condition and possibly work out a way to restart negotiations
over wage cuts, Delta's president said yesterday. The executive, Frederick W. Reid, said in an interview in
Manhattan that he and other officials, including Leo F. Mullin, the chief executive, would meet with half a
dozen leaders of the Air Line Pilots Association. The union broke off talks on pay cuts late in July, saying
that it was not willing to allow the levels of wage cuts that Delta was seeking and that it wanted its current
contract extended. The contract was signed in 2001 and is valid until May 2005.
Verizon Union Workers Ratify Labor Contract
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): Communications Workers of America
Date: October 9, 2003
Union workers at Verizon
Communications Inc. on Wednesday ratified the five-year labor contract they had tentatively agreed to last
month, the Communications Workers of America said. The agreement covers 60,000 CWA workers from Maine to
Virginia. Another 18,000 workers are represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical
Workers.
With Union Talks Nearing, N.H.L. Is Citing Big Losses
Source: Richard Sandomir, New York Times
Union(s): N.H.L. Players Association
Date: October 9, 2003
With its labor agreement expiring in 11 months, the National Hockey League now says it has lost
$1.5 billion over the last nine seasons largely because of spiraling player costs and the union's exploitation
of contract loopholes. Last season alone, the losses reached at least $296 million, said Ted Saskin, a union
official familiar with the league's figures. The dire tone of the league's financial assessment is
reminiscent of the disclosure of huge losses by Major League Baseball in late 2001, when baseball's labor
agreement was about to expire.
Labor Board Targets Congress Plaza Hotel
Source: Kelly Quigley, Crain's Chicago Business
Union(s): Hotel Employee & Restaurant Employees Union (HERE)
Date: October 8, 2003
The
Chicago office of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has filed an unfair labor practices complaint
against the Congress Plaza hotel, saying hotel management has failed to bargain in good faith with union
workers who have been striking since June 15. In its complaint, the federal agency said Congress hotel at 520
S. Michigan Ave. violated labor laws by prematurely declaring an impasse in negotiations, refusing to provide
financial results to support a wage cut and threatening union members with disciplinary action if they didn?t
leave a public function at the hotel.
Source: Associated Press, Miami Herald
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: October 8, 2003
United Auto
Workers President Ron Gettelfinger and General Motors Corp. Chairman Rick Wagoner on Wednesday signed the new
four-year labor contract covering GM employees. GM is the last of the Big Three to complete the bargaining
process. The signing ceremony took place at the UAW-GM Center for Human Resources, where GM and the union
negotiated. Gettelfinger and Wagoner smiled and shook hands, but neither spoke to reporters.
LV Union Watching Calif. Labor Dispute
Source: Alana Roberts, Las Vegas Sun
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 711
Date: October 8, 2003
Members of the United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 711, which represents 7,000 grocery
store workers in Nevada and Utah, still have a year ahead of them before their labor contracts
expire.
Yet, the outcome in the stalemate in negotiations between grocery stores in the Southern
California area and UFCW Local 770 in Los Angeles could set a precedent and affect future negotiations for
Local 711 in Southern Nevada.
Leaders of UFCW Local 711 in Las Vegas and UFCW Local 770 in Los Angeles
say members have been affected by the arrival of Wal-Mart grocery centers and other non-union grocery stores to
the Southern Nevada and Southern California areas.
New Contract Ends Trash Collectors? Strike
Source: Monica Davey, New York Times
Union(s): Teamsters
Date: October 10, 2003
The
region's nine-day garbage strike ended with a deal at dawn on Thursday, but the messier part, the tens of
thousands of tons of leftover trash, lay ahead. "We want to start hearing those trucks rolling as soon as
possible," said Sean T. Howard, a spokesman for the mayor of Harvey, a Chicago suburb where municipal workers
had gone so far as to start collecting some of the mounting trash on flatbed trucks. "We're ready for the
garbage trucks. We're begging for the trucks." After all-night negotiations, representatives for the Teamsters
union and the Chicago Area Refuse Haulers Association, an alliance of 17 private garbage companies, announced
that they had reached an agreement on wages, health benefits and pensions. Later in the day, union members
voted to approve the agreement.
Workers Protest Macy?s Pay Policy
Source: Carrie Mason-Draffen, Newsday
Union(s): Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union
Date: October 10, 2003
Several hundred Macy's workers held a lunchtime rally outside the
retailer's flagship store in Manhattan's Herald Square yesterday to protest not being paid for days Macy's
closed during the massive blackout this summer. About 500 unionized workers participated in the 2 1/2-hour
rally, said Ken Bordieri, president of Local 1-S of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Bordieri
said some members, who include Macy's sales clerks and housekeeping and stockroom workers, missed as much as
two days' pay. Some who worked the night shift were told not to report after the blackout hit just after 4
p.m. on a Thursday, Bordieri said, and they were told not to come in the next day. The store reopened that
Saturday, the union said.
Talk Gets Tough Amid U.S. Auto Sector's Hard Times
Source: Tom Brown (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: October 9, 2003
Some tough talk, including a vow to "kick Toyota's ass," highlighted the increasingly combative nature of the
U.S. auto industry on Thursday. The bravado came as local politicians and top officials from the struggling
Chrysler unit of DaimlerChrysler gathered at an aging assembly plant in Newark, Delaware to rally more than
2,000 workers and celebrate their launch of an all-new Dodge Durango sport utility vehicle that goes on sale
next month. In a fiery speech, Sen. Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat, lamented the recent erosion of the U.S.
manufacturing sector. But he said there was hope yet for U.S. manufacturers if workers, like those on the
Newark assembly line, could succeed in "beating the living hell out of the Japanese and beating the living hell
out of the Europeans."
Kroger, Albertson's, Safeway Face Strike Threat
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers Union
Date: October 10, 2003
About 70,000 U.S.
supermarket workers, protesting planned health-care cuts, could authorize strike action as early as Friday
against Kroger Co., Albertsons Inc. and Safeway Inc., a union representative said. Ellen Anreder said workers
at the three leading Southern California grocers, spread across one of the country's key grocery markets,
spent the last two days voting on the proposed action after a deadlock in talks with their employers about a
week ago. Even though the official result of the workers' vote is only scheduled to be announced later on
Friday, Anreder told Reuters it would more likely call for a strike targeting more than 800 Southern California
supermarkets that operate under such names as Ralphs, Albertsons and Vons.
Labor Union Backs Gephardt for President
Source: Sam Hananel (AP), Newsday
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers International Union
Date: October 10, 2003
One of the nation's largest labor unions will back Dick Gephardt in the
Democratic presidential race, giving the candidate more foot soldiers in his White House bid. The United Food
and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents about 1 million workers in the United States,
plans to endorse Gephardt based on his broad plan for universal health care. Gephardt's proposal is "the best
plan for preserving the employer-based health care system in this country," union spokeswoman Jill Cashen said
Friday. The UFCW includes workers in the retail food, meatpacking, poultry and health care industries.
Labor Unable to Deliver Usual Clout in Recall Vote
Source: David Whelan and Jessica Guynn, Contra Costa Times
Union(s): various California unions
Date: October 10, 2003
Labor leaders spent millions of dollars and barnstormed the state to defeat the recall but then woke
up after election day to find that rank-and-file union members had defied them by supporting Arnold
Schwarzenegger in large numbers. The inability of labor to deliver a powerful pro-Gray Davis voting bloc was
attributed to the speed of the election and the governor's deep-seated unpopularity. But it also revealed a
lack of voting discipline on the part of union workers who benefited from pro-labor Davis policies.
Small Union Wages Big War on Privatization
Source: Brian Friel, National Journal , GovExec.com
Union(s): National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Date: October 10, 2003
In
1982, the year after President Reagan fired more than 11,000 air traffic controllers for striking, the Federal
Aviation Administration hired private contractors to staff air traffic control towers that had been closed at
five small airports as a result of the mass termination. Over the next two decades, in large part as a
cost-saving effort, the FAA hired contractors to run another 214 control towers at small and midsize airports.
During the same period, the agency rebuilt its own controller workforce at 265 towers and other centers that
handle air traffic. In turn, the in-house FAA controllers organized into a new union, the National Air Traffic
Controllers Association. While the federal air traffic controllers were never happy with the
contracting-out?NATCA is in the ninth year of litigation challenging the FAA's authority to hire private
controllers?they more or less put up with it until the Bush administration took office. Now, the federal air
traffic controllers are fighting their biggest political battle since the 1981 strike. They are attempting to
block the administration's push for legislative authority to contract out additional control towers.
American To Recall 390 Flight Attendants
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Association of Professional Flight Attendants
Date: October 10, 2003
American Airlines Inc. is calling back to work 390 flight attendants who were furloughed in
cost-cutting moves to avoid bankruptcy, the first such recall at the world's largest air carrier since the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Fort Worth-based American, which signed a letter of agreement with the
Association of Professional Flight Attendants, said it will increase its flying schedule in coming months and
into the spring. The airline furloughed more than 6,000 flight attendants on July 1. Another 1,385 flight
attendants are on leaves of absence, but American officials said that the recalls will not come from that
group.
Forest Service Decides To Keep Jobs In-House: Agency Considered Private Contractors
Source: Christopher Lee, Washington Post
Union(s): Forest Service Council
Date: October 13, 2003
Employees at the U.S. Forest Service recently won the right to keep most maintenance
positions in-house, reducing fears that President Bush's "competitive sourcing" initiative would trigger an
exodus of jobs to the private sector. Of 969 full-time positions studied for possible takeover by private
contractors, all but 47 were determined to be performed better and more cheaply by the agency, Tom Mills, the
Forest Service's deputy chief for business operations, said last week. The agency also demonstrated that it
should retain 946 positions at the 18 Job Corps vocational training centers it helps operate, Mills said. The
agency has 34,700 employees. "We overwhelmingly retained them in-house," Mills said. "Our costs were better
than the comparable contract costs."
Steelmaker's Retirees May Lose Pensions
Source: HRNext
Union(s): Independent Steelworkers Union
Date: October 10, 2003
About 10,000 retirees and dependents
would lose their pension and health and life insurance under a bankrupt West Virginia steelmaker's plan to
return to financial solvency. Weirton Steel, the nation's fifth-largest integrated steelmaker, sought Chapter
11 protection in May after losing more than $700 million in five years, according to the Associated Press. At
the time, Weirton said more than half its $1.4 billion in debt was owed to retirees. Last year, the company
paid nearly $31 million in retiree benefits, and it expects to pay slightly more than that this year, according
to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wheeling, W. Va.
Gephardt Builds on Already Solid Ties to Labor
Source: Mike Glover (AP), San Francisco Chronicle
Union(s): Teamsters; UFCW
Date: October 11, 2003
Democratic presidential hopeful Dick Gephardt nurtured his already solid
ties to organized labor Saturday, building on a constituency that could make the difference in Iowa's leadoff
precinct caucuses. Gephardt rallied with Teamsters president James Hoffa, collected the endorsement of the
United Food and Commercial Workers Union and said his close ties with labor are crucial to Iowa's
organization-driven caucuses.
Top California Grocers Hobbled by Strike, Lockout
Source: Kevin Krolicki (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Date: October 13, 2003
The
union representing some 70,000 Southern California grocery workers called a strike against Safeway Inc.'s Vons
and two rival supermarket chains responded Sunday by locking out union workers. Picket lines organized by the
United Food and Commercial Workers Union formed at Vons across from Los Angeles to San Diego, one of the
nation's most populous regions and a key market for the grocery chains. In response to the Vons strike,
Albertsons Inc. and Kroger Co.'s Ralphs, which are covered by the same master contract, locked out union
workers from the first shift on Sunday, a union spokeswoman said.
More Workers Strike Over Healthcare Benefits
Source: Daniel B. Wood, Christian Science Monitor
Union(s): various
Date: October 16, 2003
It's
not the first time that 450,000 L.A. commuters have found themselves thumbing rides or relying on taxis and car
pools. When employees of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) began striking Tuesday, clogged
freeways stood as still as broken conveyor belts, bringing back memories of a similar strike three years ago.
That one lasted over a month. But it's a concurrent strike by 859 supermarket grocery clerks in Southern
California that has compounded the frustration of carrying out even the simplest of daily chores in L.A.
Suddenly, the city seems like a model of Soviet inefficiency. Though coincidental in timing, the two strikes
aren't unrelated. Both unions are trying to renegotiate contracts that will boost medical benefits and cover
soaring health-insurance costs. The two high-profile strikes follow dozens of recent union disputes in
California and elsewhere over health benefits, an issue that may continue to plague contract negotiations
coast-to-coast until the larger issue of health costs is addressed.
Steelmaker Reaches Out to Labor, Environmentalists
Source: John Nolan, Buffalo News
Union(s): Armco Employees Independent Federation
Date: October 13, 2003
AK Steel Corp. is
embarking on a more conciliatory approach toward environmentalists and regulators after shaking up its
management ranks last month. At the urging of the company's board, interim chief executive James Wainscott
has begun a new era since his Sept. 18 promotion. He met with an environmentalist to help foster communication
and huddled with United Steelworkers union officials before they jointly announced an agreement to try to work
out disputes lingering from a bitter, 39-month worker lockout that ended last year at AK Steel's Mansfield
plant. The change has been noticed by union workers, industry analysts and business leaders in this southwest
Ohio city where the company is based and is the dominant employer.
California Supermarket Strike Deters Shoppers
Source: John M. Broder, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: October 14, 2003
Store
shelves appeared fully stocked but the aisles were largely empty of shoppers as a supermarket strike at the
three biggest grocery chains in Southern and Central California entered its third day on Monday evening. Picket
lines were set up outside hundreds of supermarkets starting Saturday night as members of the United Food and
Commercial Workers union walked off the job here for the first time in 25 years. The strike was called against
the Vons and Pavilions chains, which are operated by Safeway Inc. The owners of their chief competitors,
Albertson's and Ralphs, locked out U.F.C.W. workers as part of a joint negotiating strategy.
Locked Out, Queens Truck Drivers Are Angry
Source: Robert F. Worth, New York Times
Union(s): Local 813 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Date: October 15, 2003
It
was still pitch-dark outside the Star Corrugated Box manufacturing plant in Queens yesterday morning when
Dominick Jacino, a 59-year-old trucker, showed up for work. A supervisor had told him and the plant's other 20
drivers to arrive at 4 a.m. for a drug test, Mr. Jacino said. Instead, they found the gates locked, Mr. Jacino
said, and were told by a supervisor that they had all been replaced. The news did not come entirely out of the
blue. The truckers' union local had been negotiating over wages and benefits since August, when company
officials announced that they would contract out the trucking to a Chicago-based firm. The plant's parent
company, Norampac, did not respond yesterday to telephone calls or messages left in person. Many of the
truckers have worked at the plant for decades, and they said that they considered it a kind of family trust, so
the layoffs had been a painful and unexpected blow.
Los Angeles Transit Mechanics Strike
Source: Alex Veiga , FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Amalgamated Transit Union
Date: October 14, 2003
Mechanics for the nation's third-largest public transportation system went on strike Tuesday, shutting down
buses and trains that an estimated 500,000 daily riders count on to get around Los Angeles County. Metropolitan
Transportation Authority mechanics walked off the job after midnight, and union officials said bus drivers,
train operators and other workers would honor picket lines, halting some 1,900 buses, as well as light-rail and
subway lines. "The strike will continue indefinitely, until we get a contract," Neil Silver, president of the
Amalgamated Transit Union, said early Tuesday by telephone. He was speaking from a picket line where he had
joined about 50 members of the union, which represents some 2,200 MTA employees.
Transit, Grocery and Law Enforcement Labor Unrest Roils Southern California
Source: Alex Veiga (AP), San Diego Union Tribune
Union(s): various
Date: October 14, 2003
Metropolitan Transportation Authority mechanics walked off the
job just after midnight Tuesday, stranding hundreds of thousands of commuters across a region already hit by
striking grocery workers and sporadic sickouts by sheriff's deputies. The separate labor actions snarled
traffic, inconvenienced grocery shoppers and threatened to disrupt the operation of county jails and courts.
Grocers, Union Set For Prolonged Strike
Source: Kevin Krolicki (Reuters), FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Date: October 14, 2003
The union representing striking Southern California grocery workers on Tuesday said it had filed a $600
million lawsuit against Albertsons Inc. and Kroger Co.'s Ralphs chain accusing them of staging an unlawful
lockout. The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court charges that the two chains violated state law
by locking out some 49,000 workers this week. That action came after the United Food and Commercial Workers
Union singled out Safeway Inc.'s Vons chain for a strike after contract talks with all three companies
deadlocked over health care costs over a week ago.
Labor Unrest Continues in SoCal
Source: Sacramento Business Journal
Union(s): various
Date: October 15, 2003
As the grocery strike enters its fourth day, the mass transit strike is paralyzing
commuters for the second day. An end to either labor dispute is unlikely in the near future. In all, thousands
of commuters and shoppers are being inconvenienced by striking Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers
and the nearly 70,000 grocery store clerks from Kroger Co.'s Ralphs, Albertson's and Safeway-owned Vons that
began striking Saturday. The estimated per-day cost of the MTA and grocery strikes could be as much as $10
million a day, adding even more injury to an already difficult situation.
Delta Selling Planes, Asking Pilots to Take Cuts in Wages
Source: Harry R. Weber (AP), Lakeland Ledger (FL)
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: October 15, 2003
Delta Air Lines, the nation's thirdlargest carrier, is selling
planes and urging pilots to agree to wage cuts amid signs its financial situation will continue to sputter in
the months ahead. The airline said Tuesday it is selling 11 planes and delaying the delivery of eight more as
it lost $168 million, or $1.36 a share, in the third quarter, compared with a loss of $330 million, or $2.67 a
share, for the same period a year ago. The loss includes $4 million paid out in dividends to preferred
shareholders. Delta executives again asked pilots to tighten their belts and agree to wage cuts. They warned
that the company expects to lose as much as $275 million in the fourth quarter.
Labor Denounces Asbestos Fund Offer From Business
Source: Susan Cornwell (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: October 17, 2003
Organized labor Thursday denounced a new offer from business and insurers to fund an asbestos victims' trust,
saying it was inadequate to cover the costs of expected claims from people sickened by the mineral. Labor's
condemnation, in a letter sent to all U.S. senators, was a blow to hopes in some quarters on Capitol Hill that
the offer would quickly revive legislation to end asbestos lawsuits and pay victims' claims out of a national
fund. Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist's office announced a proposal for a $114 billion fund on Wednesday
after weeks of bartering between asbestos companies and insurers. But AFL-CIO legislative director William
Samuel's letter on Thursday said the offer was a "major step backwards" from earlier legislative efforts and
said labor would oppose it.
Grocery Shares Hold Up on Union Concession Hopes
Source: Ellis Mnyandu (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: October 16, 2003
Even as
prospects of a prolonged strike confronts U.S. supermarket operators, their shares are holding up on growing
hopes that the stores will not budge in their bid to cut health care costs, analysts said. With the strike,
affecting about 70,000 Southern California workers, in its fifth full day Thursday, analysts said investors and
store bosses possibly viewed any short-term pain from the action as a small price to pay for the longer-term
benefit of squeezing out concessions from unions.
Klein Assails Job Protection for Teachers
Source: Elissa Gootman, New York Times
Union(s): United Federation of Teachers
Date: October 17, 2003
(New York City)
Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein lashed out at the core of the teachers union contract yesterday, saying that
fundamental changes were needed to improve the schools. Mr. Klein denounced seniority rights, tenure, and pay
scales that are blind to teachers' subject matter as "the three pillars of non-meritocracy." "Schools will
never work because they're governed by a 250-page contract and a 10,000-page book of regulations," the
chancellor said in a speech before the Citizens' Committee for Children of New York. In his remarks, Mr. Klein
appeared to be setting ambitious goals for contract negotiations with the union representing the city's 80,000
teachers, goals that many experts say will be difficult to reach, if not unattainable. Regardless, Mr. Klein
stands to benefit from focusing on the limitations imposed by the current contract: should his reform plans
falter, he could cite resistance from the union as a major factor.
Strikes Leave S. Calif. Residents in Bind
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): various
Date: October 16, 2003
With bus service stalled by a strike, Ginara Santay had no idea how she would get to the four housecleaning
jobs she relies on to support her family. And with grocery clerks also walking picket lines, she wasn't sure
where she would buy food for an elderly woman at one of those homes. "I have an 8-year-old son. I'm worried
about the rent. I can't afford to miss one day, and I don't know what I'm going to do,'' she said
Wednesday while waiting for a ride to a home in West Hollywood. The labor disputes have created a spate of
problems across the region: Hundreds of thousands of commuters are stranded. Freeways are clogged. Grocery
stores are scaling back hours. And the already ailing economy has taken another hit.
Clerks File Unfair Labor Practice Charges
Source: Jim Sams, The Desert Sun
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: October 16, 2003
Striking grocery clerks have filed nine unfair practices complaints since Oct. 7 against the three supermarket
chains involved in a labor dispute that started Sunday, records show. Most of the complaints filed by the
United Food and Commercial Workers charge that managers for Albertsons and Ralphs stores interfered with the
rights of employees by prohibiting them from wearing union badges and insignia and threatening termination or a
reduction in work hours if they picketed the stores. One complaint accuses all three supermarket chains of
failing to bargain in good faith.
Combination of Trends Fueling Labor Strife in LA
Source: Gordon Smith (Copley News Service), San Diego Union Tribune
Union(s): various
Date: October 16, 2003
With greater Los Angeles bedeviled by two major strikes and an ongoing
sickout by a law-enforcement union, many residents here have come down with a bad case of "Why us?" Commuters
are finding traffic snarled more than usual because of the mechanics strike at the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority, which has shut down a hefty portion of Los Angeles County's bus and rail service since Tuesday.
Grocery shoppers, like their counterparts in San Diego County and elsewhere in Southern California, have been
scrambling this week to find alternatives to big chains patrolled by lines of picketing employees. Thousands of
residents here might well be wondering how safe they are in light of rolling sickouts by Los Angeles County
sheriff's deputies that have affected staffing at courts, jails and sheriff's stations countywide since late
September. The labor actions are the first time in recent memory that Los Angeles has had major strife on three
fronts simultaneously. The swell of discontent is a result of trends that have combined to create a "perfect
storm" of labor conflict here.
Labor Problems Cause Havoc With Pharmacy Customers
Source: Mark Abramson, Lompoc Record
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: October 16, 2003
The Vons
strike has left some of its pharmacy customers feeling a little queasy about having a prescription filled
there, especially after the pharmacy had to be closed temporarily. Lompoc resident Elizabeth Lindsay said she
was appalled when she was greeted by a note at the Vons pharmacy on North H Street Sunday that indicated it was
closed. Her insurance company had already approved the transaction at Vons and would not approve it at another
pharmacy. "I still don't have the medication," Lindsay said Wednesday. "It's definitely unethical all the way
around, and I'm going to take my business elsewhere." Lindsay said she has used up a short-term supply of the
medication she bought with cash.
New Labor Alliance Looks to Help Gephardt
Source: Brian C. Mooney, Boston Globe
Union(s): various
Date: October 17, 2003
More than a dozen national labor unions supporting Representative
Richard A. Gephardt announced yesterday they are banding together to form a group that will promote his
candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. At a news conference in Washington, the labor leaders
said the new group, called the Alliance for Economic Justice, will seek special status under the Internal
Revenue Service code to spend union money to communicate with members and promote key labor issues and
political candidates. Donald J. Kaniewski, legislative and political director of the Laborers' International
Union, said later the group will support Gephardt's candidacy in the short term but also has a long-term
agenda of emphasizing job preservation, foreign trade safeguards, and affordable health care.
Pilots Union Sees Delta Asking to Open Talks Soon
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: October 17, 2003
The pilots union at
Delta Air Lines on Friday said it expected to get a formal request to reopen wage cut talks from the air
carrier soon. Pilots, the only major unionized group at Delta, have a contract that runs until 2005. They
started talks earlier in 2003 with Delta on its proposal to cut hourly pay rates by 22 percent and forgo 4.5
percent pay raises in 2003 and 2004. Talks between the Air Line Pilots Association's Delta unit and the
Atlanta-based airline broke off three months ago.
More Labor Conflicts Expected Over Health Care Costs
Source: Alex Veiga (AP), Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Union(s): various
Date: October 18, 2003
When West Coast longshoremen and shipping companies ended their labor
dispute in January, union officials boasted that the new contract would set a standard for organized labor.
Among its provisions was no-cost health insurance, prompting an AFL-CIO official to remark that longshoremen
"won a historic contract which sets a much-needed benchmark in health care, pensions and living standards." For
many of the country's workers that benchmark is already shifting, as employers face soaring health care costs
and ask workers to shoulder a greater share of the burden. Workers are resisting, giving rise to labor
conflicts in California and elsewhere.
Source: Frank Green, San Diego Union Tribune
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: October 20, 2003
Wal-Mart's plans to enter the state's crowded food industry continue to cloud the ongoing battle
between Southern California grocery workers and the three major supermarket chains in the region. Wal-Mart said
this week that it is stepping up openings of at least 40 hybrid grocery-general merchandise Supercenters in
California ? from the previously announced time range of four to six years, to within three to five years. The
news could push Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons to toughen their negotiating stance with the United Food and
Commercial Workers union as a strike and lockout involving the two sides enters a seventh day today.
Deputy Sickout, Want Higher Wages
Source: KABC
Union(s): Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs
Date: October 16, 2003
More than 150 deputies assigned
to Los Angeles County jails called in sick overnight in a continuing wildcat strike staged to press demands for
higher wages. For the eight-hour shift beginning at 10 last night, 61 of 225 deputies called in sick, and for
the shift beginning at 6 this morning, 94 of 440 deputies did the same, said sheriff's Sgt. Paul Patterson.
The deputies are assigned to six jails, including the Men's Central Jail, the Twin Towers Correctional
Facility and the Inmate Reception Center, Patterson said. On Tuesday, a Santa Ana judge extended an order aimed
at barring sickouts by deputies. Yesterday, Assistant Sheriff R. Doyle Campbell said the court order allows
sheriff's officials to crack down on absent deputies.
Calif. Religious Leader Urges Talks in Grocery Strike
Source: Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: October 19, 2003
Cardinal Roger
Mahony, the archbishop of Los Angeles, has urged labor and business leaders to return to contract talks and
settle their differences in an eight-day strike at nearly 900 California grocery stores. In a statement issued
late on Saturday, Cardinal Mahony called for "around the clock" talks between the United Food and Commercial
Workers Union and No. 3 U.S. grocer Safeway Inc. (nyse: SWY - news - people) to end the dispute over
health-care issues that led to the strike affecting some 70,000 southern California workers. "I urge all
parties to return to the bargaining table at once and to resume negotiations until a satisfactory agreement is
reached," Mahony said in the statement.
Wal-Mart, Driving Workers and Supermarkets Crazy
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: October 19, 2003
In February Wal-Mart will open its first grocery supercenter in California, offering everything from tires to
prime meats, and that could be a blessing for middle-class consumers. The reason is simple: Wal-Mart's prices
are 14 percent lower than its competitors', according to a study by the investment bank UBS Warburg. But not
everyone is rejoicing about Wal-Mart's five-year plan to open 40 supercenters in California, stores combining
general merchandise and groceries that are expected to gobble up $3.2 billion in sales. California's three
largest supermarket chains, Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons, are scared, and so are tens of thousands of
supermarket workers whose union contracts have put them solidly in the middle class. The three grocers' fears
of fierce competition from Wal-Mart and their related drive to cut costs are widely seen as the main reason
behind the week-old strike by 70,000 workers at 859 supermarkets in Southern California.
No Progress in Calif. Labor Strikes
Source: New York Times , Associated Press
Union(s): various
Date: October 20, 2003
An estimated half-million commuters faced another morning rush hour without city buses or trains as a transit
strike entered its sixth day. The labor protests in the nation's third-largest transit system have clogged
freeways and forced users to scramble for alternative ways to commute. The strike, coupled with a grocery
workers strike and lock out, has weakened Southern California's already troubled economy. Though negotiations
between mechanics and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority have apparently stalled, talks with train
operators, bus drivers and the authority have gained momentum, said Bill Heard, spokesman for the Metropolitan
Transportation Authority.
Church and Dwight Workers Eye Union
Source: Jeff Gearino, Casper Star Tribune
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: October 20, 2003
For the second time in seven years, hourly workers at Church and Dwight
Corp.'s soda ash manufacturing plant in southwest Wyoming will whether they want union representation. The
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) approved the scheduling of a vote to allow the approximately 145 hourly
workers at the plant to decide if they want to be represented in collective bargaining by the United Steel
Workers of America (USWA). The vote is set for Nov. 14, according to union and company officials. "The folks
from Church and Dwight had finally had enough abuse from their management and they approached us this summer
about organizing," USWA Local 13214 Financial Secretary T.J. Kelso said. "Once they get this passed, then maybe
they'll get some things taken care of out there," Kelso said in an interview. Soda ash is produced at five
plants in Sweetwater County from trona ore extracted from the deep underground mines adjacent to the plants.
Church and Dwight is the smallest of the five producers operating in Sweetwater County. The plant has no mine,
but purchases soda ash for manufacturing from other Green River basin producers.
Judge Orders Wash. Teachers Back To Work
Source: Jim Cour (AP), FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Marysville Education Association
Date: October 20, 2003
On strike for a month and a half, Marysville (WA) teachers were ordered back to work by a judge Monday, but
the head of their union said she expects teachers to defy the ruling. Union members, whose teachers strike is
the longest in state history, were to vote Monday evening on whether to honor Snohomish County Superior Court
Judge Linda C. Krese's order to return to work by Wednesday. Krese faulted both sides for the continuing
strike, which began Sept. 2 on what was supposed to be the first day of school for 11,000 students in the
district about 30 miles north of Seattle.
Source: Chris Stirewalt, Charleston Daily Mail
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: October 20, 2003
The state of
West Virginia may have a great deal to say about how long the current strike will keep local Kroger stores
closed. If the striking food workers and the company remain at an impasse for much longer, whether or not the
strikers are eligible for unemployment compensation could be a key to how long they can stay on the picket
lines. Hundreds of strikers around the Charleston area have already signed up, and this week promises to bring
hundreds more as the state Bureau of Employment Programs begins an outreach to get Kroger workers signed up en
masse at meetings.
Rising Health Care Costs at Heart of Labor Strife
Source: Andrew Maykuth (Philadelphia Inquirer), San Jose Mercury News
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: October 19, 2003
Major labor strikes that erupted last week against grocery stores and the public transit agency
here suggest that workers are increasingly willing to stop work over the spiraling cost of health care.
Negotiations broke down over employers' attempts to pass on part of the double-digit increases in
health-insurance premiums. And with costs showing no sign of retreating, more strife is expected across the
nation. "It is the single most vexatious bargaining issue now," said Peter J. Hurtgen, head of the Federal
Mediation and Conciliation Services. "Employers and unions can't control costs. They can only argue and push
back and forth about who absorbs those costs."
As Health Care Costs Rise, Workers Shoulder Burden
Source: Stephanie Armour and Julie Appleby, USA Today
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: October 21, 2003
In California, 70,000 supermarket workers are walking the picket lines to protest proposed health
benefit cuts. Thousands of commuters in Los Angeles have been stranded as public transit mechanics walked off
their jobs over changes to a health insurance trust fund. And in Chicago, garbage piled up for days this month
after trash haulers went on strike to prevent health insurance cost increases. On the picket lines and at the
bargaining table, health care has emerged as the top concern, replacing wages and job security. Though the
battles involve union members, they illustrate what many workers face: the ending of an era when large
employers covered most ? if not all ? of the cost of health care and the beginning of a future when workers
will increasingly be responsible for those costs.
PBGC to Take Over Weirton Steel Pensions
Source: Vicki Smith (AP), Miami Herald
Union(s): Independent Steelworkers Union
Date: October 22, 2003
The federal
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. plans to take over the pension plan of bankrupt Weirton Steel Corp., which the
agency said is underfunded by $825 million. The move announced Tuesday would affect 3,500 active employees and
some 10,000 retirees and their dependents. Only 39 percent of Weirton Steel's pension plan is currently
funded, with assets of $530 million and nearly $1.35 billion in liabilities, the PBGC said.
Striking S. Calif. Mechanics Resume Talks
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Amalgamated Transit Union
Date: October 22, 2003
Negotiators for both sides in Southern California's transit strike have agreed to meet again through a state
mediator after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority backed away from earlier demands to take over the
union's troubled health care fund. Representatives of striking mechanics have asked for more details on a
proposal by the MTA but have not yet offered a counterproposal, according to agency spokesman Ed
Scannell.
Union Trying to Block Federal Takeover of EVTAC Pensions
Source: Associated Press, Miami Herald
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: October 23, 2003
The United Steelworkers of America wants to keep the federal government from assuming the pension plans of
workers laid off by the shuttered EVTAC Mining Co., saying the takeover would affect benefits to workers. The
union wants to join litigation under which the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. would take control of the
Thunderbird Mining Co. pension plan. Thunderbird Mining administers the pension plan for bankrupt EVTAC Mining.
Steelworker attorneys contend the PBGC - a federal agency charged with assuming the pension plans of failed
companies - didn't need to terminate the pension plan and acted too early in setting a July 24, 2003,
takeover.
Calif. Grocery Workers Add New Claims to Lawsuit
Source: Gina Keating (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: October 23, 2003
The union
for striking supermarket workers amended its lawsuit against California's three largest supermarket chains on
Thursday to include complaints that the chains are withholding past-due pay. The United Food and Commercial
Workers, which represents 70,000 striking and locked out workers in central and southern California, sued
Kroger Co, the parent of Ralphs stores, and Albertsons Inc. for allegedly failing to follow protocol when they
locked out workers. The new complaint accuses the two chains of violating state laws that require "reporting
time pay" for locked-out employees who showed up for work as scheduled on Oct. 11 and Oct. 12.
Talks Resume on Calif. Transit, But Not at Grocers
Source: Gina Keating (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): Amalgamated Transit Union
Date: October 24, 2003
Negotiations to end the nine-day-old Los Angeles bus and train strike intensified on Wednesday leading
officials to hope that the walkout that has stranded 400,000 mostly poor commuters would soon be over.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief Roger Snoble said talks with 2,000 striking mechanics had resumed
on Tuesday with both sides negotiating through a state mediator. "At this point I think it is good that we are
talking," Snoble told reporters. "We are actually paying attention to the issues. There are actually agreements
being signed ... From the atmosphere standpoint that's a better position than we did have." At issue in the
transit strike is whether the Amalgamated Transit Union should continue to control a multimillion-dollar trust
fund used to pay the mechanics' health benefits.
Striking Calif. Grocery Workers Lose Pay, Hang On
Source: Gina Keating, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: October 23, 2003
As strikes go, the
walkout by California supermarket workers nearly two weeks ago was bound to be a long one. With a weak U.S.
economy and competition from non-union discounters like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. eating into profits, the 70,000
unionized workers at Safeway Inc.'s Vons stores, Albertsons Inc. and Kroger Co.'s Ralphs stores knew they'd
have a long battle to keep their free health plan when contract talks stalled on Oct. 11. On Friday, the
striking workers will lose their first paycheck for their principles -- a scene likely to be repeated in the
coming months as U.S. businesses grapple with a weak economy and skyrocketing health care costs.
Source: Ed Fletcher , Sacramento Bee
Union(s): Los Angeles County Federation of Labor
Date: October 23, 2003
Concerned that Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger could soon control the state board that oversees farm
workers' rights, labor leaders are pressing Gov. Gray Davis to fill two vacancies before he leaves office. To
do so, Senate President Pro Tem John Burton would have to call the Democratic-controlled Senate back into
session to confirm the appointees before Schwarzenegger is sworn in next month. While Burton would not say
whether that would happen, senators have been told to be prepared for a session Tuesday. Davis, a Democrat who
was recalled by voters in the Oct. 7 election, has expressed an interest in making appointments to the
Agricultural Labor Relations Board and other panels during his final days in office.
Workers, Supermarkets Agree to Meet in St. Louis Labor Dispute
Source: Associated Press, Jefferson City News Tribune
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655
Date: October 24, 2003
After intervention by a federal mediator and Gov. Bob Holden, supermarket representatives and
St. Louis grocery workers involved in a labor dispute plan to return to the bargaining table. "We have agreed
to meet and will meet," said Bob Kelley, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 655. Officials
would not say when meetings would occur, citing a gag order requested from an independent, federal mediator.
Representatives of the union and supermarkets have not met since a contract proposal was voted down and a
strike was authorized Oct. 7 against Shop 'n Save Warehouse Foods Inc. The two other major supermarket chains,
Schnuck Markets Inc. and Dierbergs Markets Inc., responded to the strike by locking out workers. About 10,200
employees at nearly 100 stores are affected by the dispute.
Labor Strife Takes Toll on Nearby Businesses
Source: Rachel Laing, San Diego Union Tribune
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: October 25, 2003
Last week, jewelry store owner Sofia Shpigel did something unusual in her line of work: She made a
delivery. Shpigel said her shop, which is in a shopping center with a Vons in Pacific Beach, has been empty of
browsers since the start of the Southern California grocery strike two weeks ago. But she really started to
worry when she got calls from regular customers saying they didn't want to come into the store because they
felt uncomfortable passing pickets on their way in.
Kroger Employees Hope for Unemployment
Source: Scott Wartman, Huntington Herald Dispatch
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400
Date: October 25, 2003
The $100 check Robin and Diane Virgillo receive weekly from the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400
to help sustain them through the Kroger strike doesn?t go far to pay the bills they are accumulating. The
Virgillos and 3,300 other Kroger employees on strike hope the union?s effort to qualify them for unemployment
will pan out. Robin Virgillo said unemployment benefits would help them sustain the strike easily for a year.
Even though the Virgillos rely solely on their income as employees of the Seventh Avenue Kroger, they both
remained adamant that the strike should not end if they don?t qualify for unemployment. "We are still here for
the long haul," Robin Virgillo said. Many of the Virgillos? co-workers agreed that going without pay and
shouldering the hardship during the strike may be necessary.
Never Mind the Harvard Game. The Rough Sport Here Is Yale vs. Unions.
Source: Richard Lezin Jones, New York Times
Union(s): Graduate Employees and Students Organization (GESO)
Date: October 26, 2003
Fran Balamuth's introduction to the bruising, no-holds-barred world of union
organizing came not on an assembly line or on the waterfront, but in perhaps one of the most unlikely places ?
amid the refined confines of Yale University. As Dr. Balamuth remembers it, she and a friend were handing out
leaflets with union information to passers-by outside Yale-New Haven Hospital. A security guard asked them to
stop. Dr. Balamuth persisted. The next thing she knew, she said, she was escorted to the police desk inside the
hospital and cited for first-degree criminal trespass, which can carry a yearlong jail term. "We worked in the
building," said Dr. Balamuth, 30, a Yale medical student, her voice rising in disbelief as she recalled the
encounter, which took place in September. "We just wanted to communicate with our colleagues. I kept saying,
`This is totally crazy.' I couldn't believe that this was happening at a place that's supposed to be a
bastion of free speech." The charges against Dr. Balamuth were later dismissed. But the campuswide debate over
the formation of a union for graduate student teaching assistants, which started long before Dr. Balamuth began
her leaflet campaign outside the hospital, remains. And what began as a labor dispute has evolved into a
skirmish over a core value of academic life ? freedom of expression.
Labor Unions Back Dean, Gephardt
Source: Jonathan Roos, Des Moines Register
Union(s): various
Date: October 28, 2003
Democratic presidential rivals Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt, who are competing for the support of organized
labor, announced endorsements from separate labor unions Monday. Dean, a former Vermont governor, received the
endorsement of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, which has 140,000 members. It is the
first international union to declare its support for Dean, who is vying with eight other candidates to become
the Democratic nominee for president. Gephardt, a Missouri congressman, was endorsed by 2,300-member Iowa Local
234 of the International Union of Operating Engineers. He reported that 20 international unions have given
their endorsements as well, giving him a total combined membership of over 54,000 members of unions that
support his candidacy. Last week, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry received the endorsement of the Utility Workers
Union of America, which represents about 50,000 members.
Source: Kurt Streeter, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Amalgamated Transit Union
Date: October 28, 2003
Two weeks into a strike that has sidelined most Los Angeles County buses and trains, Metropolitan
Transportation Authority officials broke off labor negotiations Monday and declared an impasse. "Virtually no
progress has been made on any substantial issues," said Roger Snoble, chief executive of the MTA, speaking of
tense bargaining that included marathon sessions at the County Hall of Administration last week. "We've been
trying to hurry this up in every possible way that we know of, and it simply has not moved ahead. For these
reasons," Snoble said, the MTA board of directors "has instructed me to declare an impasse on our negotiations
and to issue a last, best and final offer to" the mechanics union today.
As Contract Witching Hour Nears, Restaurant Workers Talk Strike
Source: Florence Fabricant, New York Times
Union(s): Local 100 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union
Date: October 29, 2003
About 250 waiters, cooks, busboys, bartenders and dishwashers marched across Midtown Manhattan
yesterday afternoon, calling for contract settlements that would avoid strikes at some of New York's top
restaurants. Contracts at 25 restaurants, including high-profile spots like the Four Seasons, the "21" Club,
Elaine's, La C?te Basque, La Caravelle, Caf? des Artistes and the Oyster Bar at Grand Central Terminal expire
on Friday at midnight. Last Saturday, members of Local 100 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees
Union voted overwhelmingly to authorize their leaders to call a strike if agreements are not reached.
250 Officers Being Rehired in Department of Correction
Source: Paul von Zielbauer, New York Times
Union(s): Correction Officers Benevolent Association
Date: October 30, 2003
The city's Department of Correction plans to rehire 250 of the 315 officers it laid off as part
of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's $2.1 billion in budget cuts earlier this year, city officials said yesterday.
Martin F. Horn, the department's commissioner, said the decision was a response to two developments: overtime
costs in recent months that exceeded projections, largely because more officers retired or left the department
than had been expected; and a need for more officers to carry out Mr. Horn's new policy requiring constant
visual supervision for inmates on suicide watch.
Manhattan Restaurant Workers Protest Low Wages, Threaten Strike
Source: Associated Press, WNBC (NY)
Union(s): Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Union
Date: October 30, 2003
Nearly 200
restaurant workers protested outside some of Manhattan's swankest eateries on Tuesday, threatening to go on
strike if owners cut benefits and offer minimal pay increases. "They are trying to take our benefits down to
nothing and lower our wages," said Manuel Gonzales, a 17-year-employee of Gallagher's Steak House. "That's
not fair." The workers, members of the 800-strong Local 100 of the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees
Union, last week authorized a strike if negotiations stall after their contract expires on Friday. Employees
said that they didn't want to walk off their jobs but added that they had little recourse if the owners
didn't budge from their position on rolling back pension and health care benefits.
AFGE Vows to Fight Against Planned EEOC 'Changes'
Source: US Newswire
Union(s): American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)
Date: October 29, 2003
The American
Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) says it will fight several proposals which could drastically alter
the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC is considering changing how federal sector
discrimination complaints are processed as well as closing several EEOC field offices and the elimination of
hearing rights for millions of employees. "We are concerned with the effects of these proposed changes and its
impact on the future of federal and private sector employees. Not only would the proposed changes place federal
employees at a severe disadvantage with fewer civil rights, but soon thousands of workers, mostly women and
minorities, would be without a forum to protect their basic workplace rights," said Andrea Brooks, AFGE
national vice president of Women's and Fair Practices.
Chicago Teachers' Union Approve Strike
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Chicago Teachers Union
Date: October 30, 2003
Union delegates for Chicago's public school teachers approved a strike if negotiations fail, the first
step toward a job action that could keep nearly 440,000 children out of class. The Chicago Teachers Union's
House of Delegates voted 543-98 on Wednesday to authorize a strike beginning Dec. 4. Any walkout must also be
approved by the 33,000 union members, who are set to vote Nov. 18. The teachers' last contract expired June
30. The school board has offered a five-year plan that includes 4 percent raises each year, a plan rejected by
the union. Teachers argued that higher health insurance costs could consume those raises, and that a proposal
for a longer school day in exchange for a shorter year amounted to three extra work days without pay. The
strike would be the first in 16 years in the nation's third-largest school district.
Blow to Gephardt: Major Union May Endorse 'Dean or No One'
Source: Jill Lawrence, USA Today
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: October 30, 2003
The largest union in the AFL-CIO will endorse Democrat Howard Dean for president or no
one at all when its board meets Nov. 6. Either way, says Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees
International Union, "the passion of the members lies with Howard Dean." A formal endorsement for Dean would be
bad news for the rest of the Democratic field, especially Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt. A labor stalwart, he
is counting on unions to carry him to victory in important states such as Iowa, which starts the nomination
process with caucuses Jan. 19. Dean's campaign manager, Joe Trippi, cautioned in an e-mail that the SEIU
endorsement process is not complete. But he added that backing from the union "would be a tremendous
development for the Dean campaign."
St Louis Grocers Reach Pact, Calif Strike Drags On
Source: Ellis Mnyandu (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW)
Date: October 30, 2003
A union
representing striking U.S. grocery workers said on Thursday a strike involving 10,000 members in St. Louis
could end by as early as Friday, but the much larger southern California dispute could drag on longer. The St.
Louis workers, employed at more than 90 stores, have been on strike since Oct. 7 to protest health care cuts
sought by three local chains, including one owned by Supervalu Inc., a groceries distributor. Douglas Dority,
president of the 1.4-million-strong United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), said he expects the St.
Louis workers to ratify a renegotiated contract during a vote scheduled for early Friday.
Labor Pains Complicate Albertsons' Prognosis
Source: James F. Peltz, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: November 2, 2003
Two years ago, an ailing Albertsons Inc. tapped Lawrence
Johnston as its first chief executive from outside the company's ranks, and Johnston launched a massive
overhaul. The supermarket chain was struggling to digest its $9.5-billion purchase in 1999 of American Stores
Co., which gave Albertsons Lucky markets and Sav-on drugstores and a much stronger presence in Southern
California. Johnston, a former General Electric Co. executive with no experience in the grocery business,
rolled out several initiatives. Among them: a bold plan to slash $750 million from annual costs and more price
cutting to match rivals and maintain market share. But Albertsons still has a long way to go.
Relief Glimpsed in Calif. Transit, Grocery Strikes
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW); Amalgamated Transit Union
Date: October 31, 2003
Chinks of relief
appeared on Friday for California shoppers and Los Angeles commuters as pickets were pulled away from one major
supermarket chain and bus mechanics put forward a new proposal aimed at ending the three-week old bus and train
strike. The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, which represents 70,000 striking and locked out
supermarket workers, said it was switching pickets away from Ralphs to focus instead on Vons and Albertsons
Inc. UFCW president Rick Icaza told a news conference the union wanted to reward shoppers, who have deserted
all three supermarkets in droves, and increase the pressure on Vons and Albertsons which it sees as the main
adversaries in the strike over health and pensions benefits. Meanwhile the Amalgamated Transit Union offered to
have 2,000 striking mechanics return to work if the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority agrees to
binding arbitration to resolve the dispute that has paralyzed bus and metro trains serving some 500,000 mostly
poor Angelenos.
National Labor Backs Grocery Workers
Source: Nancy Cleeland and Melinda Fulmer, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers; AFL-CIO
Date: October 31, 2003
National labor leaders threw their financial and strategic muscle behind striking and locked-out
supermarket workers in California and four other states Thursday, casting the dispute as a defining battle.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney announced the creation of a multi-union fund to back the United Food and
Commercial Workers, which has 85,000 members on picket lines, most in Southern and Central California. Sweeney
said he was just beginning to solicit contributions and would not put a dollar amount on the fund. But UFCW
President Doug Dority suggested it would be sizable.
Union Raises Questions after Collapse of Garage Kills 4
Source: Eric Lipton, New York Times
Union(s): Laborers, Local 415
Date: November 1, 2003
As the investigation began into a parking garage collapse that killed four workers, union leaders
asked on Friday if one factor might have been pressure they said their members felt to speed up construction of
the $245 million Tropicana casino expansion. Even before the accident, one union leader said on Friday,
laborers complained that the concrete they were pouring as part of the fabrication of the parking garage floors
was not given enough time to harden before they removed temporary supports. "No one knows for sure what caused
this, but there is a lot of concern that they were being ordered to strip off the forms sooner than they should
have," said Jeff Foster, business manager for Laborers, Local 415. "That's all we keep hearing, is that the
concrete wasn't being given enough time to cure."
Grocers, Union Continue Labor Talks
Source: Nat Worden, Newsday
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 342
Date: November 1, 2003
Talks continued Friday between the region's six major grocery chains and the union
representing about 4,000 deli, meat and seafood workers from Long Island and parts of New York City. Members of
Local 342 of the United Food and Commercial Workers have been working without a contract for a week. The union
represents workers at 275 stores throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties, Brooklyn and Staten Island. Some union
members have raised the possibility of a strike, but as of Friday night a walkout did not appear in the offing.
A sticking point in the negotiations remained the companies' demand that union employees begin paying for
their health insurance, Local 342 spokesman John Raymond said Friday. "Talks are continuing," Raymond said.
"And that's to the good."
Bush's Merit Pay Plan Is Stalled in Congress
Source: Christopher Lee, Washington Post
Union(s): American Federation of Government Employees
Date: November 3, 2003
It looks as though the White House has failed to get the job done this year in promoting
its proposed Human Capital Performance Fund. The fund, announced early this year as part of President Bush's
2004 budget plan, was supposed to provide $500 million that agencies could tap to award higher raises to their
best workers. Officials explained that the fund would help fix a "broken" compensation system in which most
federal pay raises are determined by longevity rather than performance.
Source: Kurt Streeter, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Amalgamated Transit Union
Date: November 3, 2003
As striking
drivers for a private company that contracts with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed Sunday to go
back to work, the leader of the MTA's mechanics union softened his hard-line position and said he may allow
his workers to vote on the transit agency's latest proposal this week. "My board is reconsidering its
position," said Neil Silver, the MTA mechanics union president and leader of a worker walk-off that has forced
roughly 400,000 daily bus and train riders to look for transportation alternatives since mid-October. "We will
be meeting Monday to discuss offering this to the members. It looks like we will have a vote. If the membership
accepts the offer, we will return to work." But the union leader said he would like something from the MTA in
return.
Greenwich School Bus Drivers? Strike Ends Hours After It Began
Source: Alison Leigh Cowan, New York Times
Union(s): Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union
Date: November 4, 2003
Nearly 100 striking bus drivers agreed on Monday to cut short the strike they had begun just
hours earlier in an effort to obtain better health coverage, more paid vacation and something more than the $18
an hour they already get. The drivers, who are responsible for getting 6,200 public and private students to
school each day, agreed to return to work immediately, according to Roger Toussaint, president of Local 100 of
the Transport Workers Union. But he said they "reserve the right to renew their strike action at any time" if
they do not see progress at the bargaining table.
Bridgestone/Firestone Seeks Concessions: Union
Source: Karen Padley (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: November 3, 2003
Bridgestone Corp.'s Firestone unit has asked its largest union, the United Steelworkers of America, for major
wage and benefit concessions, according to a newsletter Monday on the union's Web site. In the letter, the
union also said the company last week indicated it "cannot and will not follow a pattern agreement" like the
one agreed to in August by Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. About 6,000 workers at eight plants in Tennessee,
Ohio, Oklahoma, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Arkansas are covered under the contract, which expired April 23 but
has been extended on a day-to-day basis since then.
Strike Hits 2 of City?s Fanciest Restaurants
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Local 100 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: November 5, 2003
The
"21" Club and La Caravelle, two of Manhattan's most venerable restaurants, pride themselves on their sedate
atmosphere, but yesterday the scene outside those establishments was anything but sedate as their workers went
on strike, and shouted vehemently at anyone heading inside. Nearly 100 cooks, waiters, dishwashers and busboys
gathered in front of the "21" Club on West 52nd Street in the late morning, forcing the restaurant to close its
main dining room for lunch. The strikers bellowed chants that could be heard at the one private function being
held there at lunchtime. The main issue in the walkout, as with many other strikes across the nation, is the
restaurants' push to get their workers to pay more toward their health coverage. The restaurants want the
workers to begin paying at least part of their health insurance premiums, but the workers, knowing they are
employed by institutions that cater largely to the rich, insist that the restaurants owners can easily afford
any increase in health insurance costs.
2 Sides Seem Entrenched in Supermarket Dispute
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Date: November 10, 2003
As 80 picketing workers bellowed chants outside the supermarket Thursday evening, Rosalyn
Colvard, a grocery stocker, said she would need help from welfare to make ends meet if Southern California's
three largest grocery chains won their four-week-old battle with 70,000 workers. For the cashiers and stockers
on the picket lines, the fight to fend off large-scale concessions is a struggle to avoid being thrown into one
of America's lowest castes, the working poor. But for the supermarkets, the confrontation, the biggest labor
dispute in the nation in recent years, is a painful investment to ensure that they can survive against Wal-Mart
and other low-cost rivals. "The stakes are enormous," said Ruth Milkman, chairwoman of the University of
California Institute for Labor and Employment. "If the employers succeed in their effort to extract large
concessions, they will turn these into low-wage jobs, and other employers across the nation will see this as a
green light to try to do the same thing."
Safeway's Burd Leads Hard Line in Labor Dispute
Source: Ellis Mnyandu (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)
Date: November 5, 2003
In the
midst of a bitter strike that has hobbled supermarkets across Southern California, one executive has emerged as
the man unions love to hate: Steve Burd, chief executive of Safeway Inc., the nation's third-largest grocer.
Known for playing hardball with unions, Burd, 53, has become a central figure in a bitter industry strike and
lockout, now in its fourth week. Union officials chose to call a strike against Safeway's Vons chain early
last month because Burd and his negotiators had taken the hardest line on health-care costs, the major issue
behind the dispute, affecting almost 900 stores. But in a further retaliation against Safeway, the United Food
and Commercial Workers (UFCW) -- which represents 70,000 striking and locked out workers -- on Friday began
shifting picketing away from Kroger Co.'s Ralphs chain as it sought to break the bosses' solidarity.
Seven City Restaurants Settle Labor Dispute
Source: Lisa Fickenscher, Crain's New York Business
Union(s): Local 100 of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union
Date: November 5, 2003
Early this
morning, '21' Club, Four Seasons and Le Perigord restaurants settled contract labor disputes over medical
benefits, wage and pension increases that its workers were seeking. A strike that began Tuesday at '21' Club
and La Caravelle, continues at the latter today. A spokesman for Local 100 or Hotel Employees and Restaurant
Employees Union says that four other restaurants it represents have also settled with their workers over the
same issues. He declined to identify the four. A strike that began Tuesday at '21' Club and La Caravelle,
continues at the latter today.
Fight Over Tips Prolongs Strike at La Caravelle
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Local 100 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: November 6, 2003
Striking workers at the "21" Club and La Caravelle, two top-drawer Manhattan restaurants, reached a tentative
labor contract yesterday, but there was one pesky issue that kept the workers out at La Caravelle: the
sommelier's share of the tips. What that meant was that dozens of striking cooks and waiters continued to
chant and picket outside La Caravelle on West 55th Street yesterday because management and labor could not
resolve the battle of the wine steward's tips.
Longtime Labor Friend Passed Over for Endorsements
Source: Chris Christoff, Detroit Free Press
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: November 8, 2003
Dick
Gephardt must feel like a faithful boyfriend watching his girl go to the prom with the new kid in school. No
presidential candidate has been more closely aligned with labor than the longtime congressman from Missouri.
He's been a stalwart on such causes as opposing unfair foreign trade and supporting broad health care for
everyone. So, what does Gephardt get in return? Thursday, the national Service Employees International Union
endorsed Democratic rival Howard Dean. Next week, Dean is expected to get the endorsement of the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. So two of the nation's biggest unions are coming out for
Dean. And Friday, the UAW's international board voted to make no recommendation in the presidential race.
It's another national endorsement Gephardt banked on, but which slipped away.
School Unions Want to Cancel Labor Hearings, Official Says
Source: David M. Herszenhorn, New York Times
Union(s): various education unions in New York City
Date: November 11, 2003
Labor unions and elected officials are pressuring the City Council's Education Committee to
cancel four days of hearings on union work rules governing teachers, principals and custodians, the committee
chairwoman said yesterday. The chairwoman, Eva S. Moskowitz, also said that many potential witnesses were too
scared to testify, describing an atmosphere of fear that she said brought to mind Frank Serpico, the
whistle-blower on police corruption who testified for the Knapp Commission in the early 1970's. "I've been
given various explanations as to why we should cease and desist," Ms. Moskowitz said at a briefing for
reporters. "People feel their careers are on the line. I've got people on tape who will not reveal their name
or allow me to reveal the location of their school." But like Mr. Serpico, she said, some will tell their
stories. "There are a few brave souls who are willing to come forward and talk about their experiences," she
said.
EEOC to Experiment with Privatized Customer Service Center
Source: Amelia Gruber, Government Executive Magazine
Union(s): National Council of EEOC Locals No. 216, part of the American Federation of Government Employees
Date: November 10, 2003
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission decided last week to establish a national customer
service center run by a contractor, on a trial basis. On Nov. 5, EEOC commissioners unanimously authorized the
agency to solicit bids from private companies interested in operating the center over a two-year trial period.
The EEOC aims to award a contract by next summer and start the test in October 2004, an agency spokesman said.
Union, SoCal Supermarket Negotiators Talk
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: November 11, 2003
Union representatives and three supermarket chains held their first negotiations in nearly a month in an
attempt to break a stalemate that has idled 70,000 grocery clerks in Southern California. A federal mediator
joined in Monday's talks, said John Arnold, spokesman for the Washington-based Federal Mediation and
Conciliation Service.
Old Loyalist and New Face Divide Backing of Unions
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Date: November 12, 2003
Gerald W. McEntee, the president of the nation's largest public-sector union, has long been looking for a
Democratic presidential contender who can be a winner, and two months ago he was leaning toward the candidacy
of Gen. Wesley K. Clark. Mr. McEntee, whose 1.4 million union members are a formidable political force, even
asked Harold M. Ickes, the deputy White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, to run the Clark
campaign, several Democrats said. But over time Mr. McEntee soured on General Clark, and today he plans to
announce that his union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, is endorsing Howard
Dean.
Big Labor: What Its Seal of Approval Means
Source: Liz Marlantes, Christian Science Monitor
Union(s): Service Employees International Union (SEIU), American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
Date: November 12, 2003
Howard Dean's expected endorsement Wednesday by two large and politically influential unions - the Service
Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME) - will give the former Vermont governor added organizational support and a more diverse look to his
campaign. More important, it lends the anti-establishment candidate his first significant stamp of approval
from the Democratic establishment - which could make it a pivotal moment in the race. Certainly, labor has
proven a decisive force in past Democratic primaries. The two times the AFL-CIO has endorsed a candidate, in
2000 and 1984, it helped Al Gore and Walter Mondale crush challenges from Bill Bradley and Gary Hart. In other
years, individual unions breaking from the pack have played kingmaker - as when AFSCME expressed early support
for Bill Clinton in 1992.
Labor Trends, History Work Against Unions
Source: Bill W. Hornaday, Indianapolis Star
Union(s): various
Date: November 12, 2003
Much of
the brinkmanship in labor talks such as Kroger's negotiations with the United Food & Commercial Workers
Union has become an increasingly rare art. That's because labor strikes -- a prime leverage tool for unions --
are becoming a workplace relic. Despite prominent walkouts at such companies as Kroger, United Parcel Service,
Caterpillar, Northwest Airlines and General Motors in recent years, the number of major job actions that
workers are willing to take has slid dramatically during the past two decades.
Unions Don't Take Comfort in Employment Gains
Source: Joel Dresang & Rick Romell, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: November 10, 2003
Signs of an improving economy offered little consolation to delegates at a national conference that
started Monday in Milwaukee. "Manufacturing has always been a cornerstone in the development of the middle
class in this country. And trade unions have always been right there with it," Bob Baugh, executive director of
the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council, said during a workshop Monday at the Hyatt Regency Milwaukee. The decline
of manufacturing and its relationship to communities and the labor movement were early themes at the
conference, which runs through Wednesday. Among those bemoaning the loss of manufacturing jobs was Gov. Jim
Doyle, who announced at lunch that he would make an early 2004 trip to Washington, D.C., to call attention to
the need for a national manufacturing strategy.
Steel Leaders, Labor Push to Keep Tariffs as WTO Ruling Approaches
Source: Christopher Davis, Pittsburgh Business Times
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: November 12, 2003
Prominent steel industry leaders rallied Friday to urge President Bush to
keep his three-year tariff plan in place for the remainder of its term, no matter how a World Trade
Organization appeals panel rules next week. Top officials from Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel Corp.;
Cleveland-based International Steel Group Inc.; Charlotte, N.C.-based Nucor Corp.; and Pittsburgh-based United
Steelworkers of America, among others, held a media conference call organized by the American Iron and Steel
Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based association of North American companies involved in the iron and steel
industry. They laid out reasons why they say removing the tariffs would derail a current industrywide
consolidation effort -- one of the key reasons why the president implemented the tariffs in the first place.
Almost to a person, the leaders of those companies and labor threatened there would be significant political
ramifications if Mr. Bush backs down to pressure from the WTO and the European Union to repeal the tariffs
now.
Grocery Walkouts Have Broad Reach
Source: Stephen Franklin and Delroy Alexander, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: November 12, 2003
They are striking in Southern California, West Virginia and Kentucky. Strike
talk also is heating up in Chicago, Indiana and Arizona. The United Food and Commercial Workers union has faced
off against the nation's major grocers in recent weeks, putting nearly 75,000 workers on picket lines. Similar
clashes have roiled other sectors, from steel to airlines, as mature industries press to cut wages in the face
of new upstarts. In the grocery industry, the emerging threat is best characterized by Wal-Mart Stores Inc.,
now the world's largest retailer. Union organizers say the food strikes, in particular, should be viewed as a
turning point for all service workers struggling to maintain their way of life.
Chicago Teachers Reach Tentative Deal
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Chicago Teachers Union
Date: November 12, 2003
The Chicago Teachers Union reached a tentative agreement with school officials on a new contract
Wednesday, the union said, potentially averting a walkout that would affect nearly 440,000 students. The
agreement was reached just before 5 a.m. after a 17-hour bargaining session, union spokesman Jay Rehak said.
Details of the pact will not be released until the union's members can evaluate it. Recent negotiations were
centered on contract length, health care costs and proposed changes to the length of the school day.
Union Sees Pink in Protest Over BT Jobs in India
Source: Ceri Radford (Reuters), Forbes.com
Union(s): Communication Workers Union (CWU)
Date: November 13, 2003
Rallying
around a life-size pink inflatable elephant, telecoms union activists protested in the centre of London on
Thursday against plans by former British telecoms monopoly BT Group to open call centres in India. BT will join
a host of other companies in setting up call centres on the subcontinent to cut costs, a trend that has
attracted widespread criticism in Britain and the United States. The Communication Workers Union (CWU), worried
about knock-on job losses, is taking its elephant on a British tour to warn against a "job stampede" to
developing countries.
Talks Between Union, Grocers in Calif. Adjourn
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: November 14, 2003
Talks aimed at ending a
month-long strike at grocery stores in southern California have adjourned indefinitely after mediators granted
employers and union negotiators time to reconsider their positions, officials said on Wednesday. John Arnold, a
spokesman for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service -- which on Monday had helped kick-start stalled
talks -- said there were a number of issues that the parties needed time to reflect upon before the talks
continued. "This is a recess. I can't predict how long it's going to last," he told Reuters.
Bridgestone's Firestone, Union Break Off Talks
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: November 13, 2003
Bridgestone Corp. of
Japan's Firestone unit and its largest union said Thursday they have broken off talks on a new labor contract,
raising the possibility of a strike. The tiremaker had asked the union for concessions, including pension and
health-care benefit cuts, late last month.
Source: Michael Tackett and Jeff Zeleny, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Date: November 13, 2003
Howard Dean took another step on his long walk from being the "who's he?"
candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination to becoming the choice of party insiders Wednesday when he
picked up the formal endorsement of two of the nation's most politically savvy and powerful labor unions. The
Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
joined forces to back Dean, arguing that he is best positioned--financially and organizationally--to defeat
President Bush in 2004. The choice reflected a union decision that was more pragmatic than sentimental. Dean
does not have the same history of supporting labor as one of his rivals for the nomination, Rep. Richard
Gephardt (D-Mo.), but union leadership became convinced that Dean's chances were far better than Gephardt's
to win the nomination.
Michigan Nurses Strike Hits One - Year Mark
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Teamsters
Date: November 14, 2003
For a
year now, through the autumn chill, the winter snows, the spring rain and the summer heat, hundreds of nurses
have been on strike at Northern Michigan Hospital in a dispute that illustrates what is ailing the nursing
profession. "I'm doing this for nursing. I gain nothing from this strike,'' said Patricia Beer, who had been
looking ahead to retirement after 44 years on the staff but is now picketing every morning. "We have to stand
up and make a difference, or there aren't going to be nurses to take care of people in the future.'' The
walkout by about half of the hospital's registered nurses hit the one-year mark Friday, with no end in sight.
No talks have been held since the work stoppage began, and none are planned. So polarized are the two sides,
they do not even agree on what issues are behind the strike.
Teachers May Give Ground on Grievances
Source: David M. Herszenhorn, New York Times
Union(s): United Federation of Teachers
Date: November 14, 2003
Randi
Weingarten, the president of the [New York City] teachers' union, yesterday proposed changing the teachers'
contract to speed up grievance procedures and disciplinary proceedings, areas that city officials have long
said pose an obstacle to firing bad teachers. Appearing as the final witness at an Education Committee hearing
intended to critique union work rules, Ms. Weingarten accused Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein and Councilwoman
Eva S. Moskowitz, the Education Committee chairwoman, of "demonizing" teachers. She said Ms. Moskowitz was
meddling in contract negotiations and upbraided Mr. Klein and the Bloomberg administration for not bringing the
city's demands to the bargaining table. But for all the theater, Ms. Weingarten expressed a willingness to
deal, offering to address one of the thorniest labor-management disputes in the school system. City officials
have long maintained that it is almost impossible to fire a tenured teacher for incompetence, and that building
a case can take principals years of bureaucratic wrangling and mountains of paperwork before charges are
brought.
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Los Angeles County Federation of Labor
Date: November 14, 2003
The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor is adapting what it does best ?
political organizing ? to the regionwide supermarket strike, which is about to enter its sixth week. Using
targeted mailings, recorded messages from union leaders and precinct walkers, the federation is appealing to
women to stay out of Vons, Pavilions and Albertsons stores leading up to the busy Thanksgiving shopping week.
"This is taking the strike into a boycott," said Miguel Contreras, the top executive of the federation, which
has pledged $150,000 to the effort. Women are the focus because they comprise the majority of grocery shoppers
as well as workers, Contreras said.
Gephardt Downplays Dean's Labor Coup
Source: Steve LeBlanc (AP), San Jose Mercury News
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union
Date: November 13, 2003
Democratic presidential candidate Dick Gephardt vowed to defeat rival Howard Dean in Iowa and seize the
nomination despite Dean's recent endorsement by two major labor unions. "I don't see him as a runaway train.
He was ahead in Iowa and now he's behind. If this was a runaway train that couldn't be stopped, he wouldn't
have fallen back," Gephardt said Thursday. "He's a worthy and tough competitor, but I'm going to defeat him."
Gephardt made the comments during a swing through fellow candidate John Kerry's hometown to attend a
fundraiser. On Wednesday, Dean scored a political coup when the presidents of the American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union issued a joint statement endorsing
him.
Fair Labor Contracts Benefit All
Source: Daniel Hoffman, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Union(s): Fairbanks Police Department Employee's Association
Date: November 15, 2003
In the Nov. 8 issue of the News-Miner, it was reported that the Alaska Community Colleges'
Federation of Teachers had reached a tentative contract agreement with the University of Alaska. By reaching
this agreement, a strike was averted that would have brought the university's teaching function to a
standstill. Further, the new agreement will replace a contract that had expired over two whole months ago!
Hmmmm. It appears that the threat of a strike, with the accompanying disruption of a critical service, can be a
strong motivator in bringing two sides together--and in a timely fashion. While that may be the case, I will
never know. Why? Because I'm a Fairbanks police officer. The police officers and 911-dispatchers that I work
with provide essential, emergency services 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. As such, the state of Alaska
considers us as "class one" employees and prohibits our right to strike.
Source: Paul Wilson, Charleston Sunday Gazette Mail
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: November 16, 2003
When their contract expired in fall 1974, nearly 2,000 union Kroger workers in the West Virginia area stayed
off the job for three weeks in a dispute over wages. That was the last strike of any real consequence for state
Kroger workers until 3,300 employees began picketing Oct. 13. In the current strike, which enters day 35 today,
the sides disagree on wages, but the primary issue, as it is in labor talks across the country, is who will pay
for surging health-care costs, which registered double-digit increases in each of the past four years. ?It is
the single most vexatious bargaining issue right now,? Peter J. Hurtgen, head of the Federal Mediation and
Conciliation Services told The Philadelphia Inquirer last month. ?Employers and unions can?t control costs.
They can only argue and push back and forth about who absorbs the costs.?
Ackerman Mobilizes Labor Unions to Put a Democrat in the White House
Source: Mary Leonard, Boston Globe
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: November 17, 2003
Labor-intensive. That's an apt description of the life and
work of Karen Ackerman, who for 30 years -- from her days as a student organizer at Temple University in her
native Philadephia to her current post as the AFL-CIO's political director -- has been passionate in bringing
about change through the labor movement. The stakes have never been higher nor has the responsibility been
greater, said Ackerman, commander of a 20-month, $35-million union campaign committed to setting the country on
a different course and replacing George W. Bush with a Democratic president in 2004. "We are very focused on
the presidential election," said Ackerman, 56, who has an unobstructed view of the White House from her
seventh-floor office at AFL-CIO headquarters near Lafayette Park. "This is the most antiworker, antiunion
administration we have ever seen, and workers' selfinterest depends on changing who is in the White House."
MTA, Union Leaders Meet on Arbitration
Source: Kurt Streeter, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1277
Date: November 17, 2003
Top Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials and leaders from the agency's striking mechanics union
met Sunday in a bid to end the five-week strike and get countywide bus and train service rolling again.
Negotiators, meeting in an otherwise closed Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration in downtown Los Angeles, were
working on an agreement to begin nonbinding arbitration that would send the union's members back to their jobs
while a panel of outside experts drew up a proposal on health benefits, sources close to the talks said.
More Consumers Reach Out to Touch the Screen
Source: Amy Harmon, New York Times
Union(s): various
Date: November 17, 2003
Striding into the airport here one recent afternoon, Kimberly Ward did not so much as glance at the
two ticket agents waiting at the counter. Like most of her fellow travelers, she instead claimed an automated
check-in terminal, touched its screen a few times, and took the proferred boarding pass with a quick smile of
thanks. Ms. Ward, 37, pays for gas only at the pump. She shops at Marsh, a supermarket in her neighborhood that
has machines that let customers scan, bag and pay for groceries themselves. Her favorite bank teller is her
A.T.M. Dealing with humans in such situations "just slows you down," she says. "This is a lot more convenient."
A new generation of self-service machines is slipping into the daily lives of many Americans. Rejected for
decades as too complicated, the machines are being embraced by a public whose faith in technology has grown as
its satisfaction with more traditional forms of customer service has diminished. Faced with the alternative ?
live people ? it seems that many consumers now prefer the machines.
'Outsourced' Workers May Gain Appeal Rights
Source: Christopher Lee, Washington Post
Union(s): American Federation of Government Employees
Date: November 17, 2003
A provision in a spending bill that House and Senate negotiators agreed to last week could
cripple a White House initiative that requires thousands of federal workers to compete with private contractors
for their jobs, according to Bush administration allies. The government-wide provision, part of the fiscal 2004
spending bill for the Transportation and Treasury departments, would grant federal workers the right to appeal
to the General Accounting Office if they lose job competitions under President Bush's "competitive sourcing"
initiative.
L.A. Mechanics Reach Deal to End Strike
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Amalgamated Transit Union
Date: November 18, 2003
Buses and trains could be rumbling across the city at full strength by the end of the week after a tentative
deal was reached ending a transit strike that idled the nation's third-largest transportation system for more
than a month. A few scattered bus lines resumed service Monday night, but full bus and train service was not
expected to be restored until Thursday at the earliest, officials said. "It's going to be hit and miss,''
Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief executive Roger Snoble said Monday. "By weekend, by next week,
we'll be in top shape.'' Transit mechanics and the MTA, the agency in charge of most bus and rail service in
Los Angeles, brokered a deal over the weekend that settled all outstanding contract issues except the major
source of the labor dispute -- health care benefits. Both sides have agreed to resolve their differences on
that issue through nonbinding arbitration.
Labor Pact, Not Tariffs, Key to Steel's Strength
Source: James Flanagan, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: November 18, 2003
When President Bush imposed tariffs on foreign steel a year and a half ago,
things looked dire for one of America's most storied industries. A worldwide economic slowdown had reduced
demand for steel while increasing competition from low-cost imports; that left most U.S. producers hemorrhaging
red ink. Venerable Bethlehem Steel found itself mired in bankruptcy, along with many smaller companies. Since
that time, a lot has changed. Lazarus-like, Bethlehem has been raised from the dead. Along with LTV Corp. and
others, it has been folded into a new company called International Steel Group Inc. International Steel,
already the U.S. industry's second-largest player in terms of tonnage produced annually, was founded by Wall
Street financier Wilbur Ross shortly after the tariffs were imposed. Almost immediately, his enterprise turned
a profit. So does this prove that the tariffs ? which now threaten to start a global trade war ? have been just
the medicine U.S. steel producers needed to revive. Hardly.
MCP Strike Over Standards a Lesson for Labor
Source: Ronnie Polaneczky, Philadelphia Daily News
Union(s): Office & Professional Employees International Union
Date: November 18, 2003
There's something riveting about the nursing strike at the Medical College of Pennsylvania. This one ain't
just about money or benefits. It's about standards. Let me ask you: When's the last time a strike in this
city was about anything other than socking it to The Man, right in the wallet? Whether they're schoolteachers
who want better insurance or bus drivers hankering after a cushier retirement, organized labor nearly always
walks the picket line in blatant self interest. Nothing wrong with that. But it doesn't necessarily stir
public support beyond a general feeling of empathy. Who doesn't want a fatter paycheck and juicier benefits?
But the MCP nurses - still on the picket line over the weekend - are using their moral authority as front-line
caregivers to call attention to something we should all be worried about: There aren't enough of them to go
around. Their hospital is so understaffed, they say, they are constantly forced to work overtime.
School Contract? One of the 3 R?s Has to Be Regret
Source: Joyce Purnick, New York Times
Union(s): United Federation of Teachers
Date: November 20, 2003
Well,
it was a good try. But it was impossible to listen to days of recent testimony on school union contracts before
the City Council's Education Committee without thinking that the most potentially revealing witnesses were
missing: the mayors, chancellors and city and school negotiators of times past. They are the ones who gave New
York the contracts that tie the schools in knots, from the we-don't-do-rugs custodians' deal to the United
Federation of Teachers pact that grew from 42 pages in 1962 to 204 pages today (not counting 800 pages of side
contracts and links to state law). "There's no other contract like it in the city," said James F. Hanley,
commissioner of labor relations. He places the blame on the quasi-independent Board of Education, a bastion of
union power that has given way to a system of mayoral control led by a chancellor, Joel I. Klein, who is intent
on breaking with old patterns. But others were equally intent, including mayors who ran for office promising to
rein in the powerful union and did not.
Gephardt Secures 21st Labor Endorsement
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Union(s): Transport Workers Union of America
Date: November 20, 2003
Democratic presidential hopeful Dick Gephardt won the backing of his 21st international
labor union Thursday, bolstering his grass-roots support in two states that hold early primaries. The Transport
Workers Union of America, which represents about 125,000 workers, said it is supporting the Missouri
congressman because of the loyalty he has shown to the labor movement during nearly three decades in Congress.
The union, which represents workers in the mass transit, airline, railroad and utility industries, has about
9,000 members in Oklahoma -- more than any other union -- and 5,000 members in Arizona. Both states are among
those holding primaries Feb. 3.
Firm Faces Discrimination Complaints
Source: Michelle Meyers, Alameda Times Star
Union(s): Teamsters and the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE)
Date: November 21, 2003
An Oakland man is one of eight Cintas employees and former employees accus-ing the national uniform supplier
of racial discrimination as part of a larger class-action complaint with the federal Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission. The complaint, filed by the Teamsters and the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and
Textile Employees (UNITE), alleges that the Cincinnati-based company -- the largest uniform supplier in the
country -- has committed systematic discrimination against women and minorities by denying them promotions and
shunting them into lower-paying and less desirable jobs. "It's an outrage, it's illegal and it's got to
stop," said Teamsters Secretary/Treasurer Tom Keegel. Cintas is also the defendant in a local class-action
lawsuit in which two workers at the company's San Leandro laundry facility allege that Cintas violated
Hayward's living-wage law. The city of Hayward, also a plaintiff in the lawsuit, once contracted with Cintas
for its laundry services.
Mediator to Restart Calif. Grocery Strike Talks
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: November 20, 2003
Talks aimed at resolving
a crippling southern California supermarket strike will resume this Saturday following a 10-day recess for the
parties to reconsider their positions, a mediator said on Thursday. "This is a further effort at resolution of
the issues," said Peter Hurtgen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. He said his
organization was "working hard to bring the parties together" and the next round of talks would continue for
"as long as is appropriate." Hurtgen adjourned an earlier two-day round of talks on Nov. 12, citing the need to
give the negotiating parties more time to reflect upon various issues regarding the dispute. At the heart of
the labor dispute, which began on Oct. 11, are health care cuts sought by the three leading U.S. grocers,
Kroger Co., Albertson's Inc., and Safeway Inc.
2 Unions Oppose Energy Bill on Eve of Vote
Source: Dan Morgan, Washington Post
Union(s): United Auto Workers and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Date: November 21, 2003
Two major labor unions weighed in against the energy bill before the Senate, as opponents and
supporters worked feverishly to round up support before a showdown vote today on the far-reaching legislation.
In a letter to members of Congress, the United Auto Workers said the bill's proposed repeal of a 1935 law
limiting utility company mergers would "undermine the reliability and affordability of electric power for
working families." A similar message from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers said a repeal
would "remove a bedrock consumer protection law," and it urged that the energy measure be defeated.
Laundry in Queens Agrees to Raise Pay After 9-Hour Strike
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Unite, formerly known as the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees
Date: November 29, 2003
A large industrial laundry in Queens, Jung Sun, agreed to a tentative contract yesterday, just
nine hours after more than 100 of its workers went on strike. Union leaders said the workers walked out after
Jung Sun insisted on a wage freeze and refused to accept a contract that was signed in recent days by 36 other
New York City laundries. But after workers spent much of the day picketing in front of Jung Sun's plant on
37-10 24th Street in Long Island City, the company accepted the same contract embraced by the other laundry
companies. Jung Sun cleans linens for hospitals, restaurants and hotels, including the Algonquin and Trump
International. The workers at Jung Sun, like those at New York's other unionized laundries, average about
$8.60 an hour. In negotiations with the union, Unite, Jung Sun signed the industrywide contract, which provides
for a raise of 30 cents in the first year, 20 cents in the second and 30 cents in the third, according to union
officials. That translates into a 9.3 percent raise over the three-year agreement.
Supermarkets, Union to Resume Contract Talks
Source: Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: December 1, 2003
Talks are
set to resume Tuesday between the union representing striking Southern California grocery workers and three big
U.S. supermarket chains. About 70,000 workers belonging to the United Food and Commercial Workers union have
been idle since Oct. 11, when members struck Vons and Pavilions. Ralphs and Albertsons locked out their union
workers the next day. Last Monday, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union ordered its 8,000 drivers
and workers at 10 warehouses in Southern and Central California to honor the UFCW picket lines at the
warehouses. A previous round of talks between the supermarkets and the UCFW broke off a week ago.
DeLay?s Cruise Ship Plan Infuriates New York Unions
Source: Michael Slackman, New York Times
Union(s): Building and Construction Trades Council & Hotel Trades Council
Date: December 2, 2003
Representative Tom DeLay's proposal to use a cruise ship as a hotel and entertainment center during
the Republican National Convention next summer has infuriated local labor unions and given gleeful New York
Democrats an issue to use against their adversaries. Democratic members of Congress said they planned to send a
letter today to Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican, asking him to lean on Representative DeLay, the House
majority leader, to kill the idea. On the labor front, at least one union leader said that if the ship is used,
his union might consider void an agreement with the Republicans not to strike during the convention. Mr. DeLay,
of Texas, has proposed chartering the 2,240-passenger luxury cruise liner for the convention, docking it in the
Hudson River, so that Republican members of Congress and their guests can all stay at one place. The deal has
not been sealed, but Mr. DeLay has given no indication that he plans to back down.
Labor Federation Sues to Block New Reporting Requirements
Source: Leigh Strope (AP), San Diego Union Tribune
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: December 1, 2003
The AFL-CIO is suing the Bush administration in an effort to block a new
regulation that requires the nation's largest labor unions to disclose financial details, such as how much
they spend on politics, gifts and management. The lawsuit against Labor Secretary Elaine Chao was filed last
week in federal court in Washington. It says Chao acted "arbitrary, capricious and in excess of her statutory
authority" in issuing the new regulation. It takes effect next year, but unions will not have to file a report
until March 2005. The labor federation wants the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to postpone
the rule from taking effect Jan. 1, and to permanently block its implementation. The rule will force national,
regional and local unions with an income of more than $250,000 to provide much more financial detail in the
annual forms they are required to file with the Labor Department. Expenses and receipts of more than $5,000
must be itemized. Unions also will be required for the first time to file a new form detailing the finances of
related trusts.
Democratic Race Sows Labor Disunion
Source: John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Steelworkers of American & American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Date: November 29, 2003
John Campbell is a blue-collar philosopher who routinely steps off the
factory floor at the Firestone tire plant here to marshal fellow foot soldiers in the United Steelworkers Union
on causes close to their hearts, minds and wallets. The 47-year-old high school dropout often joins forces with
Judy Lowe ? a no-nonsense single mother and an organizer for white-collar government workers ? to knock on
doors, dial telephones and stage cold-weather rallies to get out the vote for politicians sympathetic to
working families. For years, Iowa's industrial and service unions have generally acted as one clan, one
unified political force. But the effort to choose a Democratic candidate to oppose President Bush in the 2004
election has caused fissures in this traditionally ironclad solidarity.
Employees of AFL-CIO Giving Up 2 Days' Wages
Source: Associated Press, Arizona Business Gazette
Union(s): AFL-CIO & Newspaper Guild Local 32035
Date: November 29, 2003
The AFL-CIO has a budget shortfall so severe that its workers are taking two days of unpaid leave to avoid
layoffs, even as the labor federation attempts to mobilize its largest-ever political campaign. Dubbed
"solidarity days," the days off were agreed to over the summer in negotiations between managers and the union
representing about 200 workers at the AFL-CIO, an umbrella organization of 64 international unions. Managers
also have agreed to take the unpaid time. AFL-CIO spokeswoman Lane Windham said employees covered by Newspaper
Guild Local 32035 decided they would rather lose pay for two days than face layoffs caused by a "budget
crunch." Other belt-tightening measures are being taken in response to a dismal economy that slammed many
unions with layoffs, and to launch a "do-or-die" election effort next year to defeat a cash-flush President
Bush.
Flight Attendants' Union Set to Merge
Source: Associated Press, FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Association of Flight Attendants & Communications Workers of America
Date: December 2, 2003
The nation's largest union of flight attendants, citing losses of more than 10,000 members in the past two
years, will merge with the Communications Workers of America on Dec. 31. The Association of Flight Attendants,
which represents more than 36,000 attendants at 26 carriers, approved the merger, with 57 percent voting in
favor.
Labor Board Backs Ruling Against Lincoln Center
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Local 100 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: December 4, 2003
Arts patrons going to Lincoln Center could soon face leafleting by union supporters. In a decision issued on
Tuesday, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Lincoln Center had violated federal labor law when it
sought to have the police arrest union supporters distributing leaflets in front of the center, while it
permitted nonunion groups to do so. The board affirmed an administrative law judge's ruling that Lincoln
Center had illegally discriminated against speech by union supporters and had illegally issued a no-leafleting
policy that center officials acknowledged they often ignored.
Union Leaders Want Gephardt Aide Fired: Labor Chiefs Allege Retaliation Threats
Source: Dan Balz, Washington Post
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) & Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Date: December 4, 2003
The presidents of the nation's two largest unions angrily demanded that Rep. Richard A. Gephardt
(D-Mo.) dismiss one of his senior advisers yesterday, charging that she threatened to try to retaliate if their
unions campaigned for former Vermont governor Howard Dean in Missouri. Gerald McEntee, president of the
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and Andrew Stern, president of the
Service Employees International Union (SEIU), whose unions have endorsed Dean, charged that, at a meeting
Monday that included Missouri Gov. Bob Holden (D), Joyce Aboussie, the vice chair of Gephardt's presidential
campaign, issued an "ultimatum" to representatives of the two unions.
Gephardt Joins Pickets in Show of Worker Support
Source: Susannah Rosenblatt and Melinda Fulmer, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: December 4, 2003
Democratic presidential candidate Richard A. Gephardt joined striking grocery workers on
a West Hollywood picket line Wednesday, calling them heroes who were making sacrifices to protect their
families' rights. "These folks have been out here for two months, fighting for health care for their
families," Rep. Gephardt, of Missouri, said. "I believe that what they're fighting for is a moral issue."
Workers struck Safeway Inc.'s Vons and Pavilions stores Oct. 11 after talks on a new contract broke down,
largely over the issue of employee contributions to health insurance. Albertsons Inc. and Kroger Co.'s Ralphs,
which bargain jointly with Safeway, locked out their workers the next day. The labor dispute affects 70,000
union workers in Southern and Central California.
Source: Jennifer Bjorhus (St. Paul Pioneer Press), Duluth News Tribune
Union(s): Teamsters
Date: December 6, 2003
At least 10,000 Minnesota workers will see their pension benefits slashed as
the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund -- the nation's second-largest union pension plan -- struggles to
manage heavy investment losses. Retirees are not affected by the federally administered pension fund's
reduction of future benefit payouts, but active workers were told recently to expect cuts in their anticipated
benefits when they retire. Fund officials said the reductions were court-mandated to meet the fund's
regulatory obligations, but the fund is not in danger of insolvency. Still, union officials say their members
are confused and concerned.
Wolverine, Union Escalate Labor Battle
Source: Julia Bauer, Grand Rapids Press
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: December 5, 2003
The latest salvos between Wolverine World Wide and its tannery union will either knock out the
union or jettison the company's replacement workers. Wolverine officials notified members of Local 600A,
United Food and Commercial Workers, of contract terms that would loosen the union's grip on hourly tannery
workers. At this point, an odd blend of 120 employees run the tannery. More than half are replacement workers
hired after the July strike began. A third are former strikers. Another handful, 14 employees, didn't strike
but still belong to the union.
Nearly 100 Workers Leave Oyster Bar for Picket Line Outside Grand Central
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Local 100 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: December 6, 2003
Nearly 100 workers at the famed Oyster Bar went on strike yesterday, but at
lunchtime it looked as if the walkout was hardly having an effect. The counters and tables of the famed
restaurant in Grand Central Terminal were packed with patrons happily eating bluepoint, belon and cherrystone
oysters. Meanwhile, many of the Oyster Bar's regular dishwashers, waiters and cooks picketed out front,
handing out leaflets saying that the restaurant wanted to undermine their pensions and health insurance. But
many union members asserted that the walkout was indeed hurting the restaurant, saying that the temporary
replacement workers staffing the kitchen and waiting on tables were doing an inferior job.
US Air Seeks Lower Costs to Fight Cut-Rate Rivals
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): Communication Workers of America & The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Date: December 6, 2003
US
Airways, which emerged from bankruptcy protection this year, told employees yesterday that it must revise its
business plan to combat the threat from low-fare airlines, the clearest signal yet that it faces a new crisis.
Speaking on a telephone hot line recording, the chief executive, David N. Siegel, said yesterday that the
action was prompted by an announcement by Southwest Airlines last month that it would begin service next year
to Philadelphia, one of three main hubs for US Airways.
Albertsons Chairman Puts Blame on Labor Strife for Fiscal Erosion
Source: Press-Enterprise (CA)
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: December 5, 2003
Southern California's grocery strike drained roughly $132 million from Albertsons
Inc. in just the last 19 days of October, according to the Boise, Idaho-based retailer's third quarter report.
The nation's second largest food and drug retailer said it made $92 million, or 25 cents a share for the third
quarter, down 51 percent from $188 million, or 47 cents a share, for the comparable period in 2002. Sales rose
to $8.8 billion from $8.66 billion for the same period a year ago. Albertsons chairman Larry Johnston blamed
the strike and retaliatory lockout, well into its second month after beginning Oct. 11, for the financial
erosion. "While the labor disputes negatively impacted our overall results, we were pleased with the underlying
performance of our business," Johnston said in a statement.
Safeway's Labor Woes Hurt Profit Projection
Source: Reuters, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: December 5, 2003
Safeway Inc., the parent of Chicago-based Dominick's, on Thursday forecast 2004 profit
below most Wall Street estimates, as it grapples with a strike and competition fueled by discounting behemoth
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Safeway, along with rivals Kroger Co. and Albertson's Inc., is embroiled in a dispute
involving 70,000 striking or locked-out Southern California workers over planned health-care cuts. The dispute,
affecting nearly 900 of the three chains' stores, began Oct. 11. A federal mediator recently began attempts to
push the parties' stop-and-go talks forward. Safeway, which operates about 1,700 stores in the U.S. and
Canada, said in a regulatory filing that it expects 2004 earnings of $1.95 to $2.03 a share, without reflecting
the strike's impact, which it cannot gauge.
Steelworkers Rip Bush, Fret For Future
Source: Judy Lin (AP), FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: December 5, 2003
Steel workers and union leaders said President Bush's decision to lift tariffs would undermine efforts to
reshape the industry, but some executives said an improving world economy would limit the impact. The unions
said a proposed monitoring program to guard against a glut of foreign steel - a consolation from President Bush
who lifted the tariff under threat of a trade war - would not be enough for companies in Indiana, Pennsylvania,
Ohio and West Virginia to stay competitive. "They're basically being kicked right in the face now for all the
hard work they've done, and I think it's a disgrace," said Andy Miklos, 53, a heavy equipment operator and
Local 1557 president at U.S. Steel-owned Clairton Coke Works, south of Pittsburgh.
Picket Lines Expected To Expand
Source: San Diego Union Tribune
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: December 8, 2003
The supermarket
strike and lockout -- in its ninth week -- continued Monday with no end in sight, union officials and grocery
chain operators said. Negotiations broke off Sunday night between the United Food and Commercial Workers
International Union, which represents the grocery clerks, and the big three grocery chains, without a
settlement and with no new talks scheduled, according to separate statements issued by the union and the
companies. Representatives of the UFCW and Safeway-owned Vons and Pavilions and Ralphs and Albertsons
supermarkets talked for six days, but "the parties remain far apart on all the key issues involved in the
dispute, including maintaining affordable health care for working families," according to the union's
statement.
Kroger and Union Agree to a Contract
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400
Date: December 10, 2003
The Kroger
Company and a grocery labor union have tentatively agreed to a contract, setting up a Thursday vote for 3,300
workers in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky to decide whether to end a two-month strike. Labor troubles in
those three states, as well as in California and Indiana, have hurt the company, which reported on Tuesday that
third-quarter earnings fell 57 percent, primarily because of the labor disputes. Negotiators worked out an
agreement Sunday and Monday, said Jim Lowthers, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400. The
sides came together at a federal mediator's request.
Workers Often Face Hurdles Forming Unions
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: December 10, 2003
Wal-Mart employee Larry Lee says that since he started talking about forming a union a few months ago, he has
been assigned to work alone in areas of the store away from his co-workers and is monitored when he walks to
his car or goes to the bathroom. But he is continuing to try. "The worst thing you can do is not try,'' said
Lee, 42, who stocks shelves at night in a Houston store. "I'm dead serious about what I'm doing here. I'm
committed to what I'm doing here.'' The hurdles workers face when forming unions were being highlighted
Wednesday by the AFL-CIO as part of International Human Rights Day. Unions have organized more than 90 events
in 38 states.
Labor Rallies in Support of Bill to Back the Right to Join Unions
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO and others
Date: December 11, 2003
In demonstrations and marches in 70 cities, the labor movement seized on International Human
Rights Day yesterday to begin a campaign asserting that American corporations routinely violate an
internationally guaranteed right: the right to unionize. Organized labor has begun this campaign to help
persuade Congress to enact a law making it easier to unionize and to draw attention to thousands of instances
each year in which they say companies break the law to beat back unionization drives. The bill would increase
penalties on employers who fire workers for supporting unions and would allow workers to choose a union by
signing cards instead of holding an election.
A Strike That's Struck a Chord Nationwide
Source: Daniel B. Wood, Christian Science Monitor
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: December 11, 2003
Placard-toting demonstrators remain a common sight at supermarkets here as a strike and lockout of 70,000
southern California grocery workers begins its ninth week with no end in sight. Management and unions are still
hunkered down; negotiations could trickle into next year. And the fight has become emblematic of a larger
national anxiety over tradeoffs between consumer prices and decent-paying jobs. On one level, it's a tussle
between management - which says it must cut costs to compete with bulk discount houses - and workers who want
to preserve health benefits. But there's also a more universal question, analysts say: As manufacturing jobs
disappear here - and across the Midwest and South - what alternatives remain for the working middle class?
Kroger Employees Eager to Get Back on Job
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400
Date: December 12, 2003
After
nine long weeks on the picket line, striking Kroger employee Rick Robinson can't wait to return to his deli
counter. Robinson and some 3,300 union members from 44 stores in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia ratified a
contract Thursday to end their standoff with the Cincinnati supermarket chain over medical coverage. "We got
what we wanted,'' said Robinson, who works at a store in Weston. "The way I look at it is, it's time to go
back to work.'' The company agreed to increase its annual contribution toward union health benefits by 10.5
percent, or $12 million, an increase of $3 million over its pre-strike offer.
Workers, Labor Leaders Rally in Los Angeles for Union Rights
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): various
Date: December 11, 2003
Led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and a host of political, religious
and community leaders, more than 1,000 workers marched to Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday
for a boisterous, labor-sponsored rally -- one of dozens of actions staged across the country to promote the
right to organize unions. Marchers ranged from private security guards to newspaper reporters. "It's very
difficult to overcome people's fear," said Richard Bergendahl, a security officer at a downtown high-rise who
has been trying to organize his co-workers under the Service Employees International Union. "The bosses
threaten to fire you, and if you're on marginal pay, you have to take that threat seriously."
Judge Rejects Amtrak Request On Walkout
Source: Laurence Arnold (AP), FindLaw Legal News
Union(s): Transportation Communications Union
Date: December 11, 2003
A federal judge rejected Amtrak's request to block a threatened one-day walkout by railroad unions to
protest what they say is chronic underfunding of passenger rail. Unions representing 8,000 of Amtrak's 21,000
employees had planned the work stoppage for Oct. 3 but agreed to postpone any action until the court ruled.
Though the unions can proceed, they have not said whether or when they will do so. The stalemate over federal
funding they hoped to address with their one-day protest has been broken, at least for this year.
Union vs. Union on Iowa Campaign Battleground
Source: Rachel L. Swarns, New York Times
Union(s): various
Date: December 14, 2003
It was 9 degrees, and the shivering, stomping union members were pressing political fliers into the
gloved hands of scores of steelworkers outside the Firestone plant here. "Support Dick Gephardt!" shouted John
Campbell, 47, this week as he mingled with the men starting their shift. But across the state, in the snowy
town of Glenwood, workers from a government employees union were promoting a different presidential candidate
and a different message. "Howard Dean is for working families," said Jenny Mitchell, 39, as she distributed
leaflets to her colleagues during lunch. In ordinary times, these two groups would be allies, but these days
they stand on opposite sides of a political divide. Ms. Mitchell's union is battling to send Howard Dean to
the White House; Mr. Campbell's union is trying to stop him from snaring an electoral victory here that might
start his steady march toward the Democratic nomination.
Labor Department Agrees Jobs Were Lost Through NAFTA
Source: Associated Press, WHAS 11.com (KY)
Union(s): United Auto Workers Local 2088
Date: December 13, 2003
About 500 former workers at a northern Indiana factory have been ruled eligible for federal aid
for job placement and training after the U.S. Labor Department found that their jobs were lost through the
North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico. When the Oxford Automotive plant closed in 2001, the equipment
that once occupied the building was sent to Mexico. But the Labor Department then contended the shift of
equipment was not the same as a shift in production to the United States' NAFTA partner. After almost three
years of petitions by the workers, the Labor Department two weeks ago agreed that the job losses resulted from
NAFTA, qualifying the former workers for assistance.
$81 Million in Back Pay on Its Way to Reagan-Era Special-Raters
Source: Stephen Barr, Washington Post
Union(s): National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU)
Date: December 12, 2003
The check is in the mail. About 90,000 checks totaling $81 million have been mailed to
current and former federal employees covered by the special-rate back-pay settlement reached by the government
and the National Treasury Employees Union. "NTEU fought for this moment for 20 years," said Colleen M. Kelley,
the union's president. "It's not only gratifying to see these employees get the money they rightly deserve,
but having the first payments delivered in the midst of the holiday season is especially satisfying." Typical
payments range from $1,000 to $3,000, Kelley said. The payments have been eagerly awaited by many of the
covered employees, who watched the union and the government wrangle over a class-action lawsuit for years in
federal district and appeals courts. The union filed suit after the Reagan administration altered a policy that
affected employees receiving special-rate pay -- the higher pay provided workers in certain hard-to-fill
positions. The NTEU challenged the administration's decision, which had left some workers receiving little or
no pay increase in some years.
Saturn, UAW Ratify New Labor Agreement
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): UAW Local 1853 in Spring Hill
Date: December 15, 2003
United Auto Workers employed by General Motors Corp.'s Saturn division overwhelmingly approved a new labor
agreement Sunday that could eventually end the unique agreement the union has with the automaker. As part of
the agreement, workers will receive a $3,000 bonus before Christmas and agreed to negotiate a transition to the
national pact with GM that would allow the company to lay off employees for the first time in its history.
U.S., 5 Nations Work on Free Trade Pact
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.
Date: December 16, 2003
The Bush
administration may have suffered a setback in its effort to forge a hemisphere-wide free trade agreement, but
it is pushing ahead with a smaller deal that would cover five Central American countries. Negotiators from
Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua have been meeting with U.S. officials for over a
week in Washington, trying to overcome the final obstacles to a Central American Free Trade Agreement, or
CAFTA. They say a deal is within reach and could be completed by next Tuesday. It would remove virtually all
trade barriers among the nations over the next decade. But the agreement is expected to face considerable
opposition in Congress from some politically potent groups including labor unions, textile makers and the sugar
industry.
Strike's Strategy Is On the Line
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: December 16, 2003
When labor leaders from across the country gather in Los Angeles today to discuss the supermarket strike,
they'll be looking for something that has so far proved elusive: a winning strategy. AFL-CIO President John
Sweeney and dozens of officials with the United Food and Commercial Workers union will assemble at the Century
Plaza Hotel for the meeting, which was called last week by UFCW President Doug Dority after contract talks
collapsed. The meeting is to be followed at noon by a march by thousands of strikers and their supporters from
the hotel to a Pavilions store in Beverly Hills. Though they publicly professed support for the seven UFCW
locals in Central and Southern California, some labor leaders have been privately critical of the union's
tactics, saying they lacked imagination and haven't been sufficiently militant.
Boycott Is Urged in Drive to Unionize Bakery
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): United Auto Workers
Date: December 16, 2003
The
long-running labor dispute raging at a 170-employee bakery here has taken unusual turns in recent years,
including accusations of death threats, illegal firings and managers forcing workers to have sex with them. In
yet another unusual twist, the United Auto Workers, which has been trying for three years to unionize the
bakery, Chef Solutions, announced a boycott on Monday against the bakery's parent company, Lufthansa airline,
and one of its customers, Boston Market. The union is not calling for a boycott of the bakery itself.
Striking Workers Plan Safeway Boycotts
Source: Nick Madigan, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: December 17, 2003
A two-month-old strike in Southern California against four supermarket chains got a big show
of support on Tuesday: labor leaders from around the country marched with several thousand grocery workers
through the streets of this enclave of wealth and backed their call for one-day walkouts at other stores
nationally. "There's power in numbers," said Gina Savio, a produce clerk who has worked for 20 years at one of
the struck businesses, an Albertson's store in Simi Valley, north of Los Angeles. "We can't let them win."
The strike, largely over health care benefits, began on Oct. 11 and involves 70,000 workers.
Two Unions Criticize Ads for Attacks Against Dean
Source: Jim Rutenberg, New York Times
Union(s): International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers and the Laborers\' International Union of North America
Date: December 17, 2003
Two labor unions that provided financing for a shadowy Democratic political
group running tough commercials against former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont criticized the advertising campaign
yesterday, and one said it might ask for its money back. Both unions, the International Association of
Machinists and Aerospace Workers and the Laborers\' International Union of North America, have endorsed
Representative Richard A. Gephardt, who said yesterday that he knew nothing about the group running the
commercials. Rick Sloan, a spokesman for the machinists, said the union donated $50,000 to the group, Americans
for Jobs, Health Care and Progressive Values.
California Nurses' Union Ends Tenet Hospital Strike
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): California Nurses Association (CNA)
Date: December 17, 2003
The
California Nurses Association (CNA) on Tuesday ended a 13-month strike against Tenet Healthcare Corp.'s (nyse:
THC - news - people) Doctors Medical Center-San Pablo after reaching a contract agreement, the union and
hospital said. Doctors Medical Center said the agreement with the union, which represents the hospital's 450
nurses, resolves all issues in the action. The agreement allows nurses to return to work without loss of
seniority, and, in general, provides for wage increases of 30 percent through the three year term of the
contract, the hospital said.
Labor Talks to Resume Between Supermarket Chains, Grocery Clerks Union
Source: Associated Press, Miami Herald
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: December 15, 2003
Negotiations were scheduled to resume Friday between three supermarket operators and the union
representing about 70,000 Southern California grocery workers who have been on strike or locked out of the
stores for more than two months, a federal mediator said Monday. "Our goal in the mediation process is to build
understanding and to move the parties toward an agreement," Peter J. Hurtgen, director of the Federal Mediation
and Conciliation Service, said in a statement. "In this case, we are dealing with particularly difficult
issues." Negotiators for Albertsons Inc., Kroger Co. and Safeway Inc. last held labor talks with the United
Food and Commercial Workers union on Dec. 7.
Union Bosses Call on Nation to Boycott Safeway Stores
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: December 17, 2003
Several thousand striking and locked-out supermarket workers and their
supporters marched to a Pavilions store in Beverly Hills on Tuesday in the largest demonstration since the
regional walkout began Oct. 11. The march followed a meeting of United Food and Commercial Workers presidents
from about 150 union locals nationwide, who pledged several million dollars for the dwindling supermarket
strike funds here. The union also sought to portray its fight with Safeway Inc., Albertsons Inc. and Kroger Co.
-- parent of Ralphs -- as a pivotal moment for American labor. "If we lose here," said national UFCW President
Doug Dority, "it will set off a corporate tidal wave that will sweep away benefits in contracts in all
industries." Dority also announced there would be a national campaign to boycott Safeway, the parent company of
Vons and Pavilions and the union's top public target. "We want to empty those stores," he said.
Rally Illustrates Gulf Between Tiremaker, Labor
Source: Bush Bernard, The Tennessean
Union(s): United Steelworkers of America
Date: December 17, 2003
Factory workers from eight states marched up Elm Hill Pike to rally outside the
Bridgestone/Firestone headquarters yesterday. It's part of the United Steelworkers of America's ongoing
effort to pressure the company into offering a contract proposal that more closely follows an agreement the
union reached with Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. this fall. ''The offer they currently have on the table
doesn't merit consideration,'' Steelworkers Executive Vice President John Sellers said before the rally.
Traditionally, the union works out an agreement with one of the three major tiremakers in the United States,
and that agreement serves as a blueprint for deals with the other two.
America West, Pilots Union Reach Tentative Labor Pact
Source: Dow Jones & Company, Quicken
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: December 17, 2003
America West Airlines reached a new tentative
labor agreement with its pilots union just two weeks after pilots narrowly rejected a previous pact. The
airline, operating under government constraints that require it to keep labor costs in check, didn't put any
additional money on the table for the new contract. Instead, pilots agreed to boost the average number of
block-hours they'll be obligated to fly each month, effectively using their added productivity to fund
additional contract compensation. "They came up with some ideas that were creative and we agreed," said a
spokeswoman for America West, a unit of Tempe, Ariz.-based America West Holdings Corp. The three-year
agreement, reached Tuesday, maintains most of the economic terms set forth in the previous pact, including a
14% pay raise over the life of the contract and signing bonuses. But it adjusts terms such as long-term
disability and retirement compensation.
Labor Unions to Fight Free Trade Deal
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: December 19, 2003
The Bush
administration is hailing its new free trade agreement with Central America as an important milestone toward
the even bigger prize of achieving a hemisphere-wide free trade area. But labor unions are vowing an all-out
effort to defeat the measure in Congress. Judging from the initial reaction from unions and such politically
sensitive sectors of the economy as textile makers and sugar growers, President Bush could be facing a major
trade battle on Capitol Hill in the midst of next year's presidential campaign.
Veteran Strike Breaker Helps Keep Ralphs Supplied
Source: Nancy Cleeland and Melinda Fulmer, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers; Teamsters
Date: December 19, 2003
To keep its warehouses stocked and its delivery trucks
running without the Teamsters union, Ralphs Grocery Co. has turned to a convicted felon with a history of legal
woes. Clifford L. Nuckols, a veteran of the strikebreaking business, has hired hundreds of people and brought
them from around the country to the Los Angeles area, where the supermarket strike and lockout are in their
tenth week. Booked two to a room at hotels in Burbank and Compton, the replacement workers are packed every day
into rented vans and driven past pickets from the United Food and Commercial Workers union and knots of jeering
Teamsters at Ralphs warehouses in Glendale and Compton.
Deal Saves City $100 Million a Year in Health Costs
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): New York City municipal unions
Date: December 19, 2003
The Bloomberg administration reached its most important labor agreement
to date yesterday, signing an accord on health benefits that achieves $100 million in annual savings through
numerous steps, including higher co-payments for doctor visits. Soaring health care costs have hurt local
governments across the nation, and in yesterday's deal, the city persuaded its unions to help bear the burden.
The Bloomberg administration hailed the accord, the first reached in the new bargaining round, saying it was
consistent with Mr. Bloomberg's objective of not paying for increased wages and benefits unless unions agreed
to offsetting savings. The city will use these savings to increase its contributions to employee benefit funds
and to sustain a nearly bankrupt fund for cancer, asthma and psychiatric drugs for all 500,000 city workers and
retirees.
Hotel Del Has New Owners - - And Labor Troubles
Source: NBCSandiego.com
Union(s): Hotel Employees, Restaurant Employees Local 30
Date: December 18, 2003
The Hotel Del has new
owners, and, along with a landmark hotel, they've bought themselves some labor trouble. The local union says
the hotel's changing of hands has led to the firing of more than 100 workers. Some of them were picketing in
front of the Del on Thursday morning, and they planned to hit the sidewalks again in the afternoon. The Hotel
Employees, Restaurant Employees Local 30 is accusing the new owners, KSL Resorts, of firing longtime workers
and disregarding a union contract that they contend is still in force.
Boeing: Putting Out The Labor Fires
Source: Stanley Holmes, BusinessWeek
Union(s): International Association of Machinists
Date: December 29, 2003
On Dec. 16, Boeing's new CEO, Harry C. Stonecipher, stood up in a Seattle convention center and announced
that the company would go ahead with its 7e7 jetliner and build it in nearby Everett, Wash. "The 7e7 is a real
game-changer," he declared as commercial-plane division chief Allan Mulally looked on approvingly. "Now let's
go sell it." What Stonecipher didn't tell the assembled 3,000 Boeing Co. employees was that 10 days earlier,
he had quietly approached the chief of the company's biggest and feistiest union, the International
Association of Machinists, to offer an olive branch. At that meeting, Stonecipher not only told Machinists
President R. Thomas Buffenbarger that Boeing would build the plane in Everett, he went much further -- offering
to work hand in hand with the unions to end decades of bitter labor relations that have sunk employee morale to
an all-time low. Why would Stonecipher, long considered a foe of organized labor, have such a radical change of
heart? Company insiders say it's because he realizes that Boeing's future rests in part on its ability to
deliver the 7e7 cheaper and faster than it has any previous jetliner. An angry Machinists union could disrupt
those plans.
Union Sues Ralphs for Hiring Back Workers
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Date: January 4, 2004
The union representing
striking Southern California grocery workers is suing the Ralphs supermarket chain, alleging it has been
secretly hiring back selected workers under false names and Social Security numbers, the union said on Sunday.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday,
said union spokeswomen Ellen Anreder and Barbara Maynard. They said the union had evidence from 50 to 100
striking workers who had secretly been hired back and then told to use fictitious names and Social Security
numbers or those of their minor children.
Union Hopes Billboard Sends Message About Salary
Source: William K. Rashbaum, New York Times
Union(s): Patrolmen's Benevolent Association
Date: January 6, 2004
Most billboards in and around Times Square are designed to attract the attention
of tourists and New Yorkers and get them to buy something, be it designer underwear, blue jeans or tickets to a
Broadway show. But a large new sign formally unveiled there yesterday is intended to draw attention to
something New Yorkers already have -- a Police Department that has logged record declines in crime. The
Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the union that represents the city's roughly 23,000 rank-and-file police
officers and paid $75,000 for the sign, hopes the New Yorkers who see it will urge Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
to give the officers a raise. The union's president, Patrick J. Lynch, said the sign was meant to underscore
the disparity between the city's crime-fighting achievements and what he says is the officers' meager pay
when compared with that of other departments around the country.
Grocery Union Files Racketeering Suit
Source: James F. Peltz, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: January 7, 2004
The
grocery workers' union filed a second lawsuit alleging that Ralphs hired back union workers under false names
and Social Security numbers despite an official lockout, this time saying the company broke federal
racketeering laws. The case mirrored a suit filed Friday in state Superior Court, in which the United Food and
Commercial Workers union first made the allegations. The new suit was brought under the federal Racketeer
Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, which provides for triple damage awards if the claims are proved.
US Airways Delays Employee Meetings
Source: Keith L. Alexander, Washington Post
Union(s): Association of Flight Attendants and Communications Workers of America
Date: January 8, 2004
US Airways' top executive postponed a series of employee meetings to outline further cost reductions after
sharp resistance from workers and union leaders. David N. Siegel, president and chief executive of the
Arlington-based airline, said in a weekly telephone recording for workers that "while I still want to go out on
these road shows, the timing is up in the air." Sources close to the airline said Siegel had planned to meet
with employees by late January or early February. US Airways labor leaders have repeatedly objected to any
further cost cuts, saying they have already contributed more than $1.2 billion in concessions during the
airline's bankruptcy restructuring.
Source: Melinda Fulmer and Ronald D. White, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: January 9, 2004
Dwindling strike funds and expired health benefits are putting California's idle
supermarket workers under increasing strain as the labor dispute heads into its fourth month. Six of the seven
union locals in the strike have in recent weeks slashed picketing workers' pay, in some cases by as much as
half. The pay cuts, and the loss of health coverage on Jan. 1, have forced increasing numbers of striking and
locked-out workers to look for other jobs, which has eroded the number of pickets at Vons, Pavilions and
Albertsons markets in Southern and Central California.
Pilots' Strike Looms at Mesaba Airlines
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Air Line Pilots Association
Date: January 9, 2004
Mesaba
Airlines pilots are threatening a strike if negotiations don't produce a new contract by Friday night. A
30-day cooling-off period ends at 12:01 a.m. EST on Saturday, and pilots have said they will strike then if a
deal isn't reached. Talks continued Friday, with the regional airline saying it won't try to fly any of its
routes if pilots strike.
Strike by Operations Staff Looms at Indian Pt. Nuclear Plant
Source: Lisa W. Foderaro, New York Times
Union(s): Utility Workers Union of America
Date: January 10, 2004
Maintenance and operations workers at the Indian Point nuclear power plant were making preparations for a
possible strike in the event that negotiations between their union and Entergy Nuclear Northeast, the plant's
owner, do not yield a new contract within eight days. While Entergy expressed confidence that a walkout would
be averted, a spokesman for Local 1-2 of the Utility Workers Union of America said the two sides were far apart
on basic issues like salaries and health benefits. Last month, workers voted overwhelmingly to authorize a
walkout, and this week union members were signing up for picket duty. "Given the status of the talks, I would
say they are on a collision course with a strike," said Steve Mangione, a spokesman for Local 1-2. "They are
miles apart on the key issues and still very far apart on issues that are usually settled by now."
For Labor, a Day to Ask What Went Wrong
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): various
Date: January 21, 2004
The
labor unions that backed Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and Howard Dean, the former Vermont
governor, were embarrassed yesterday and searching for answers why their candidates -- and the unions
themselves -- fared so poorly in the Iowa caucuses. Officials from the unions that supported Dr. Dean, who
placed third, and Mr. Gephardt, who dropped out of the presidential race after placing fourth, said the pair
had been weakened by the flurry of negative charges they directed at each other. They said this helped Senator
John Kerry of Massachusetts, who won the caucuses, and Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, who came in
second, pick up support because they ran more positive campaigns. Strategists from the two major unions that
backed Dr. Dean -- the service employees and the state, county and municipal employees -- said they would
redouble their efforts to lift him to victory in next Tuesday's primary in New Hampshire.
No End in Sight for California Grocery Workers' Strike
Source: Kimberly Edds, Washington Post
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: January 20, 2004
For more than three months, the cluster of a dozen or so striking clerks and baggers have
maintained a vigil on the broken sidewalk outside the Vons supermarket on Santa Monica Boulevard. For the first
couple of days, it was almost fun. Supporters drove by and honked. Some brought food. Almost everyone was
pleasant. But no one expected it to go on this long. The Southern California grocery workers' strike, which
has 70,000 workers on the street, continues to drag on with seemingly no end in sight. Four days of secret
talks between the two sides broke up Jan. 11 with only "limited progress" being made, according to the United
Food and Commercial Workers union's Web site. As the strike lengthens, it has become an important battle for
organized labor, which is struggling to remain relevant in one of the few remaining industries in which workers
with limited education can earn a respectable living with medical benefits.
Unions Back Suit Against Cintas
Source: Mike Boyer, Cincinnati Enquirer
Union(s): UNITE, Teamsters
Date: January 22, 2004
Two
unions attempting to represent Cintas Corp. workers are backing a class-action lawsuit filed in a California
federal court. It accuses the Mason uniform supplier of discriminating against minorities. The suit, filed
Tuesday in San Francisco, accuses Cintas of discriminating against African-Americans and Latinos in hiring, pay
and promotion and disproportionately hiring minorities for lower-paying, less desirable jobs. The 44-page
lawsuit includes some of the same plaintiffs and allegations in a complaint filed in November with the U.S.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accusing Cintas of a "massive pattern of discrimination.'' The new
lawsuit allows Cintas workers to seek remedies outside federal regulatory actions, according to the unions.
Source: Thomas B. Edsall, Washington Post
Union(s): various
Date: January 22, 2004
Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) was not the only loser in the Iowa caucuses. Organized
labor, especially the nation's manufacturing and industrial unions, which poured huge resources into Iowa to
support their longtime ally, suffered an equally embarrassing defeat. In addition, the public-sector unions
that broke ranks and supported former Vermont governor Howard Dean saw their candidate finish behind Sens. John
F. Kerry (Mass.) and John Edwards (N.C.), who had little official union support. Labor organizations backing
Gephardt and Dean brought hundreds of organizers into Iowa, where about 50,000 union members are registered
Democrats eligible to vote in the caucuses. Despite that effort, a plurality of union members, 29 percent,
backed Kerry. Dean and Edwards tied for second place with 22 percent each, and Gephardt got only 19 percent,
according to surveys of caucus-goers.
Union Sues Fannie May Over plant closure
Source: Associated Press, Miami Herald
Union(s): Local 781, Teamsters Union
Date: January 21, 2004
A
union group representing workers at the Archibald Candy Corp. factory where Fannie May candy is made accuses
the company in a lawsuit of violating federal labor law with its abrupt shutdown of the plant. Local 781 of the
Teamsters Union said in the suit filed in U.S. District Court that Archibald failed to give workers 60 days'
notice as required when it disclosed plans Jan. 5 to shutter the 70-year-old Chicago plant. The plant is
expected to close by the end of this month. The suit contends that the company has not complied with terms of
the union contract which allow laid-off workers three months of health coverage, vacation pay and severance
equal to a week's pay for each year worked.
Janitors' Labor Movement Wins Converts
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union
Date: January 23, 2004
The labor protest outside a downtown building had all the markings of a traditional picket line, yet when
police arrived to make arrests, they clapped the handcuffs on clergy members and not workers. The picketing and
the arrests on Thursday had the indelible stamp of the Justice for Janitors, a campaign within the Service
Employees International Union that began in Pittsburgh during a bitter janitors' strike in 1985. The campaign
has become one of the most active labor movements today, labor experts say, because of its success in linking
the plight of those doing some of the country's dirtiest work with a wider social malaise. Churches and social
organizations have backed the union in its plight.
Seeking an Opening at the Oyster Bar
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: January 26, 2004
Wearing a
black beret and using her boombox voice, Janine Boivin shouted to the couple approaching: "Please don't eat at
the Oyster Bar. Seventy-two families have been on strike for eight weeks." It was lunchtime on Friday, and some
shellfish lovers walked blithely past and entered the restaurant deep inside Grand Central Terminal. But others
stopped to talk with Ms. Boivin, an Oyster Bar waitress, and then headed elsewhere for lunch. "I was thinking
this would last maybe two, three days," said Ms. Boivin, whose lunch hours are usually spent carrying
cherrystones and chowders to rushed customers. "I never expected it would last eight weeks." The strike began
on Dec. 5 after the restaurant's owners demanded to cut waiters' wages, to reduce salaries for newly hired
dishwashers to $7 an hour from $8 and to eliminate health insurance for part-time workers like Ms. Boivin.
Unions Aim to Share in the Success of Reality TV
Source: Jim Rendon, New York Times
Union(s): International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees
Date: January 25, 2004
Reality
television shows like "Fear Factor," "Big Brother" and "The Bachelor" have crossed over from sideshow
entertainment to network television's main event. But their success has caught the attention of more than
advertisers and disgusted critics. Hollywood's unions are showing an interest, too. The International Alliance
of Theatrical Stage Employees, which includes the International Cinematographers Guild and the Motion Picture
Editors Guild, is trying to unionize reality shows that are shown by the networks, as well as gritty
documentary-style cable shows like "Trauma: Life in the ER." Arguing that those who work on unscripted programs
should receive health insurance, pensions, overtime pay and other benefits, the alliance has unionized "Big
Brother," which is produced by Endemol USA, a unit of Telef?nica S.A, and is in negotiations with "Blind Date"
and "Fifth Wheel," produced by Renegade 83. Reality shows, many of which originated in Europe and on cable
channels in the United States, have traditionally been made by nonunion production companies. Now that reality
shows are broadcast on the big networks, unions say their workers should get the same pay and benefits that go
to unionized workers of other network shows.
Striking Grocery Workers Feeling Pinch
Source: Associated Press, CNN.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: January 26, 2004
The
picket lines began thinning after Christmas, when union strike pay for the grocery workers was cut in half, and
every day since there have been fewer people holding picket signs with Vicky Cooper outside a Vons supermarket.
"The team is falling apart," the 25-year-old checker said. "Everybody said 'Forget it, we're not coming
back."' The strike and lockout affecting 70,000 Southern California grocery workers at three supermarket
chains is in its third month. Cooper said many of her fellow co-workers have had to take other work or cross
picket lines to return to their old jobs, unable to make ends meet on the $20 to $25 a day they get for walking
the picket lines. Others lost their health care benefits at the start of the year and had to pay $365 to extend
them through March.
Chancellor Urges Broad Changes in Way Teachers Are Paid
Source: David M. Herszenhorn, New York Times
Union(s): United Federation of Teachers
Date: January 28, 2004
Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein called yesterday for sweeping changes in the way teachers are paid in
New York City, advocating bonuses based on student achievement and higher salaries for teachers who agree to
work in troubled schools and for those in fields where there are staff shortages, like math and science. Mr.
Klein gently praised the teachers' union for offering to try a streamlined contract, in a limited number of
schools, that would do away with most work rules. He also applauded a proposal by the union president, Randi
Weingarten, to speed the disciplining and dismissal of incompetent teachers. Addressing a breakfast forum
sponsored by Crain's New York Business, Mr. Klein was unrelenting in his demands for a complete overhaul of
the way teachers are compensated. "We have to change the culture of our schools," Mr. Klein said. "We don't
have a culture of excellence." Contract talks with the union, the United Federation of Teachers, are to resume
next week.
California Controller Urges Safeway to End Strike
Source: Reuters, Forbes.com
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: January 27, 2004
California State
Controller Steve Westly said on Tuesday he has urged the Safeway Inc. supermarket chain to end a grocery
workers' strike, echoing a similar effort by a fellow member of the board of Calpers, the largest U.S. public
pension fund. Westly said he sent a letter on Tuesday to Safeway's board, urging a resolution of the strike in
Southern California, which was sparked by a dispute over health-care benefits. Westly said Safeway was risking
its brand and financial standing by following the example of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest
retailer and an increasingly popular political target in California. "Safeway claims that health benefit cuts
are required to compete with large retailers, such as Wal-Mart, which provide nominal health care benefits,"
Westly wrote. "The lowest common denominator should not be the standard for an established member of the
corporate community, and I'm surprised Safeway, given its strong reputation with millions of California
consumers, would treat its employees in this manner," Westly said.
Union Spends $1.6 Million to Help Dean
Source: Associated Press, CNN.com
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Date: January 27, 2004
A government employees union is spending at least $1.6 million to try to get nonunion members out
to vote for Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean in several of the nation's early primaries. Most of
that -- $1.3 million -- has been spent by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees'
political action committee over the past few weeks on ads, polling, phone banks, mailings and other primary
activities. Activities of the AFSCME's People Qualified PAC so far have focused on Iowa, which held its
presidential caucuses last week; South Carolina, New Mexico and Arizona, which vote February 3; Michigan, which
has its primary February 7; and Wisconsin, which votes February 17. The PAC is spending the money independently
of Dean's campaign, which means it can spend as much as it wants to recruit Dean voters.
Re-Elected Labor Leader Criticized by Loser
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): District Council 37
Date: January 29, 2004
Lillian
Roberts, executive director of District Council 37, New York City's largest municipal union, called yesterday
for members of her badly divided union to close ranks, a day after she eked out victory in a hard-fought
election to retain her position. But the union leader she narrowly defeated, Charles Ensley, went on the
offensive yesterday, asserting that her campaign used improper and divisive tactics to win. "She ran one of the
most mean-spirited campaigns to smear people,'' said Mr. Ensley, president of the local representing 15,000
social workers, one of the 56 union locals in District Council 37. "To smear people personally in a union
campaign, I find that offensive. Her divisive tactics, her use of race and gender, it has no place in the labor
movement." Asked about Mr. Ensley's criticisms, Ms. Roberts responded in a written statement: "The campaign is
over, and it's time for all of us to go forward, to close ranks, and to work together for a fair contract."
Picketers Return to Local Ralphs
Source: Robert Chacon, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Date: January 30, 2004
Supermarket strikers have reestablished picket lines at a Ralphs in Glendale, intent on
keeping their cause fresh in the minds of shoppers. Ralphs employees were locked out Oct. 12 by parent company
Kroger Co. in a show of solidarity with its competitors after members of the United Food and Commercial Workers
Union began striking against Vons and Pavilions. Workers at Ralphs began picketing at Vons and Pavilion stores
Oct. 31. "We're basically out here to remind people that we're continuing to struggle for our health and
pension benefits," picketer Gary Field said.
Tyson Workers at Wis. Plant Accept Deal
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: January 30, 2004
Workers
on strike against Tyson Foods for nearly a year accepted a contract Thursday that will save their union and
their jobs, but includes many of the wage and benefit concessions that led to their walkout. The contract was
approved 293-70, said Mike Rice, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 538. He had recommended
approval of the deal as the only way to keep the union in the Tyson meat processing plant in Jefferson, about
45 miles west of Milwaukee. Under federal labor law, the replacement workers Tyson hired could have voted to
decertify the union once the strikers had been out for a full year. The union, representing 470 workers, walked
out Feb. 28. Many striking workers said they reluctantly voted "yes.'' "We're not getting really what we
wanted, but we need to keep the union,'' said Bill Schmieder, 30, a Tyson worker for six years. "We're going
to take our fight inside the plant.''
Source: Reuters, CNN/Money
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: January 30, 2004
California's
attorney general said he would file a lawsuit on Monday suing three major grocery chains engaged in a costly
labor dispute. "We are filing Monday," a spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer told Reuters on Saturday,
noting they were not able to get an extra document accompanying the complaint to the court in time to meet a
Friday deadline. The lawsuit charges that a controversial profit-sharing plan between the companies violates
antitrust law and asks a federal court in Los Angeles to block Albertsons Inc., Kroger Co., and Safeway Inc.
from implementing their so-called mutual-aid agreement. Lockyer accuses the stores of engaging in an illegal
pact that in part requires Kroger to share any windfall reaped by the absence of picket lines in front of its
Ralphs stores in a strike and lock-out that has affected some 70,000 Southern California supermarket workers.
Strike Shuts Down Nickel Producer
Source: Reuters, CNN/Money
Union(s): Canadian Auto Workers
Date: February 1, 2004
Falconbridge Ltd. shut down mining and milling operations at its Sudbury, Ontario, site Sunday as
workers at the facility producing 5 percent of the world's nickel went on strike after rejecting a new labor
contract. "The picket lines are up. The company told us to get off their property," said Rick Grylls, president
of the local unit of the Canadian Auto Workers, which represents 1,080 production and maintenance workers at
the northern Ontario site. At a time of a serious global shortage of nickel, the world's third-biggest
producer said it had begun halting production at the Sudbury complex's four mines and mill after a three-year
labor deal expired at midnight Saturday with no consensus on wages, pensions and the use of contract workers.
Governor Willing to Intervene in Strike
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: February 3, 2004
Can Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger end the nearly 4-month-old supermarket strike? In a KNX-AM radio interview
Monday, the governor said he needed an invitation to try. "If they call me and ask me to intervene and to be an
intermediary, I'm more than happy to do that, because I think that we need to have everyone go back to work
and normalize the situation," he said. That was news to Miguel Contreras, secretary-treasurer of the Los
Angeles County Federation of Labor, who said he had been working for weeks behind the scenes with state
Democrats and national labor leaders to try to pull the governor into the stalled talks. Contreras spent about
$100,000 of the federation's budget to gather signatures on petitions asking the governor to weigh in. He said
the petitions were mailed nearly two months ago to Schwarzenegger's office but they elicited no response.
Dean's Labor Backers Concerned
Source: Phil Hirschkorn, CNN.com
Union(s): various
Date: February 3, 2004
Howard Dean has some explaining to do to the labor unions that have spent millions supporting a
seemingly unstoppable presidential campaign that is now struggling. At the same time, nearly two dozen other
unions that backed Dick Gephardt before he dropped out are shopping around for another candidate. Dean, who
doesn't expect to win any of Tuesday's contests, will explain his strategy for staying in the race during
meetings later this week with his three labor backers: the American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees, the Service Employees International Union and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.
"I expect frank, honest discussion" about Dean's troubled campaign, "and determining the best course of action
going forward," said Sean McGarvey, political director of the painters union. Whether that means shifting or
pulling back resources remains to be seen, he said.
Judge Dismisses Teamsters' Suit Against Carey
Source: Anthony Lin, New York Law Journal
Union(s): International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT)
Date: February 4, 2004
A federal judge
in Manhattan has thrown out a suit by the Teamsters union against former boss Ronald Carey and several others,
ruling that the defendants' embezzlement of union funds did not constitute a "pattern of racketeering
activity" under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Southern District Judge Laura Taylor
Swain wrote in a decision dated Jan. 30 that the embezzlement and other fraudulent activities at issue were all
designed to benefit Carey's 1996 campaign to be re-elected president of the International Brotherhood of
Teamsters (IBT), and were not "inherently unlawful" in a manner that posed a threat of future criminal
activity. The defendants undertook their actions for "purposes of self enrichment, protection of ongoing
relationships with the Plaintiff, and depriving IBT and its members of money, the honest services of its
officers and employees and the right to have elections conducted fairly," Swain wrote in IBT v. Carey, 2952-00.
Supermarkets Reject Union Bid for Binding Arbitration
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: February 5, 2004
A proposal by union leaders to end the supermarket strike and submit their contract dispute to
binding arbitration fell flat Wednesday when grocery companies rejected the offer, crushing the hopes of many
striking and locked-out workers. In a joint statement, the companies said the offer was "just another effort to
shift the focus away from the United Food and Commercial Workers' apparent inability to find a negotiated
settlement to this labor dispute." They said they wanted to continue talks with the help of federal mediator
Peter J. Hurtgen. The arbitration offer was intended to put public pressure on the supermarkets to settle the
nearly 4-month-old dispute. Some national and local labor leaders were opposed to the tactic, thinking it could
telegraph a sense of defeat on the UFCW's part.
US Airways To Meet With Unions on Concessions
Source: Keith L. Alexander, Washington Post
Union(s): various US Airways employee unions
Date: February 5, 2004
US Airways executives hope to secure steep concessions from employees at a meeting with union leaders tomorrow
in a last-ditch effort to head off the sale of several key assets, sources close to the carrier said yesterday.
Executives of the Arlington-based airline expect to outline a revised business plan at the meeting, scheduled
after the carrier releases its fourth-quarter financial results. At a board meeting yesterday, executives
indicated that the airline's most immediate threat was meeting the financial covenant set by the federal
government in exchange for guarantees on loans of $900 million. As part of US Airways' agreement with the Air
Transportation Stabilization Board, the airline must maintain $1 billion in cash through June.
Union Targets Multiple Fronts with Political Savvy
Source: Sarah Anne Wright, Seattle Times
Union(s): Service Employees International Union (SEIU),
Date: February 5, 2004
With jobs dear and unemployment high, it's hardly time to make demands on employers. But
tell that to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which runs the Justice for Janitors campaigns in
Seattle and nationally. In July, the union helped 2,500 local janitors keep employer-paid medical benefits.
"Despite the downturn in the building sector, a lot of vacancies and failed businesses, we were still able to
keep the 100 percent employer-paid medical and dental coverage for our janitors and their families," said
Debbie Foley, secretary-treasurer for SEIU Local 6. The Justice for Janitors campaign has become one of the
most active labor movements today, labor experts say, because of its success in linking the plight of those
doing some of the country's dirtiest work with a wider social malaise.
Major Union Plans to Pull Its Support for Dean
Source: Jodi Wilgoren, New York Times
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Date: February 8, 2004
The
largest of three international unions that had endorsed Howard Dean's bid for the Democratic presidential
nomination plans to withdraw its support, union officials and Dean aides said Saturday. Gerald W. McEntee, the
president of the union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, spent an hour meeting
over lunch here on Saturday with Dr. Dean and his new campaign chief, Roy Neel. Aides to Dr. Dean, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, said that at the meeting Mr. McEntee expressed concern about Dr. Dean's viability and
the prospect that continuing his campaign could weaken the eventual Democratic nominee.
US Airways Outlines Case for Additional Concessions
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): various US Airway unions
Date: February 7, 2004
Officials at US Airways, which is struggling to meet the conditions of federal loans that lifted it out of
bankruptcy last year, began making the case for more wage and benefit cuts yesterday to skeptical union leaders
who have already publicly declared that "the concessions stand is closed." US Airways has been working on a
strategy since December, when its chief executive, David N. Siegel, said that unexpectedly heated competition
from low-fare carriers was forcing it to revise the business plan used as the basis for its emergence from
bankruptcy last spring. Executives at US Airways, which is based in Arlington, Va., outlined the company's
financial situation to its labor advisory council, which includes unions representing the pilots, flight
attendants, mechanics, ground personnel and other employees.
Labor Raises Pressure on California Supermarkets
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): United Food & Commercial Workers
Date: February 10, 2004
Four months into one of the biggest labor disputes in decades, the union
representing 70,000 striking or locked-out Southern California supermarket workers is waging an increasingly
confrontational -- some say desperate -- campaign to fend off cuts in members' health care benefits. A hundred
union supporters shut down a Safeway in Santa Cruz for an hour and a half recently, dancing and chanting in a
conga line through the store. Others disrupted a golf tournament in Pebble Beach on Friday, shouting slogans at
two supermarket board members who were about to tee off. Labor leaders are threatening to harass supermarket
executives wherever they vacation, be it on beaches or ski slopes.
Skepticism Greets Promised Talks
Source: Alicia Robinson, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: February 10, 2004
New talks in the grocery store labor dispute are scheduled to begin Wednesday, possibly ending
the stalemate as it reaches the four-month mark. But local workers said they're not getting their hopes too
high. Federal mediator Peter J. Hurtgen announced Monday that negotiations would resume Wednesday between the
United Food and Commercial Workers union and grocery chains Kroger, Albertsons and Safeway. John Arnold, a
spokesman for Hurtgen's office, declined to say when or where talks will be held. "Everybody's agreed to come
back, and it's a pretty positive sign from our perspective," Arnold said.
With Gephardt Gone, Kerry Is Lining Up Labor Backing
Source: David M. Halbfinger, New York Times
Union(s): various
Date: February 10, 2004
Senator John Kerry is poised to win a string of crucial labor endorsements
before the Wisconsin primary next Tuesday, labor officials say. The Building and Construction Trades Department
of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. is likely to throw its weight behind Mr. Kerry after a meeting on Tuesday, labor and
campaign officials said. The Alliance for Economic Justice, a coalition of 18 unions that had endorsed
Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, is to hold a conference call on Wednesday and could endorse Mr.
Kerry as early as this weekend.
Employees to Protest Pentagon Labor Plan
Source: Christopher Lee, American Federation of Government Employees
Union(s): American Federation of Government Employees
Date: February 10, 2004
Hundreds of federal employees are expected on Capitol Hill
today to protest a new personnel plan for the Defense Department that union leaders say would strip unions of
any meaningful role in protecting the workers' rights and welfare. Members of the American Federation of
Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, plan to visit key lawmakers this week and urge them
to limit Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's plans to overhaul the department's labor relations system.
Rumsfeld won authority from Congress last year to rewrite personnel rules affecting nearly 750,000 civilian
employees. He argued that managers needed more freedom to rearrange money, workers and weapons in the war on
terrorism. Union leaders, who opposed the legislation last year, said yesterday that new labor relations
"concepts" released in a 13-page memo last week by the DOD go too far.
Missteps Hurt Union in Supermarket Strike
Source: Nancy Cleeland, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: February 11, 2004
Hoisting
banners and American flags, hundreds of AFL-CIO members rallied on Wall Street last week in a show of support
for the 4-month-old California supermarket strike. Stock analysts hardly noticed. They were more interested in
the message delivered the day before, when three grocery companies flatly rejected a United Food and Commercial
Workers union proposal that the contract dispute be submitted to binding arbitration. That episode revealed
"increasing weakness in position" on the part of the UFCW, Lisa Cartwright of brokerage Smith Barney wrote to
clients as the union activists, bundled up against the cold, assembled near the New York Stock Exchange. She
didn't mention them. The Wall Street fumble was the latest misstep in a strike that has been criticized as
lacking a clear, consistent and forceful strategy.
Union Board Cuts Salaries of 2 Winners of Close Vote
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): District Council 37
Date: February 12, 2004
The executive board of District Council 37, the city's largest municipal union, cut the salaries of its two
top officials by more than 20 percent yesterday, two weeks after those officials narrowly won a bitter election
battle. Board members said they approved the pay cut for Lillian Roberts, the executive director, and Maf
Misbah Uddin, the newly elected treasurer, partly because those officials' campaigns had repeatedly denounced
the previous treasurer for earning too much. The vote was 17 to 8 to cut Ms. Roberts's salary to $175,000 from
$250,000 and Mr. Uddin's to $140,000 from $180,000. Mr. Uddin said his pay would also include his $47,000 city
salary as an actuary. Ms. Roberts and Mr. Uddin voted against the resolution. Their campaign had sent out many
fliers attacking the former treasurer, Mark Rosenthal, because his multiple union salaries totaled more than
$200,000. Their mailings asserted that Mr. Rosenthal wanted to be elected to remain on the union "gravy
train."
UFCW Revises Number of Workers in Labor Dispute
Source: Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: February 13, 2004
The United Food
and Commercial Workers Union, which had stated repeatedly that 70,000 workers are involved in the supermarket
labor dispute in Central and Southern California, said on Thursday that the number of people on strike or
locked out is 59,000. A union spokeswoman, Barbara Maynard, said that 70,000 UFCW members were, in fact,
covered by the labor contract with supermarkets that expired last year. But 11,000 of them work for Stater
Bros. Holdings Inc., Arden Group Inc.'s Gelson's and other regional grocery companies and are still on the
job. Maynard said union officials had been "making it clear" all along that 11,000 of the number were employed
by the regional grocery companies.
A.F.L. Backing of Kerry Is Called Near
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: February 14, 2004
After labor unions have skirmished for months over which Democratic candidate to support for president, the
A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s executive board will vote next Thursday to endorse Senator John Kerry, several union leaders
said Friday. This will give Mr. Kerry, of Massachusetts, the backing of a federation that has 13 million
members and what is often called the nation's most effective get-out-the-vote operation. Several union leaders
said John J. Sweeney, the federation's president, decided to call Thursday's meeting as soon as he saw that a
labor consensus was forming behind Mr. Kerry. "Everyone is ready to be unified around a candidate that they are
confident can defeat President Bush," said Karen Ackerman, the federation's political director. Mr. Sweeney's
letter inviting union leaders to the meeting said he was recommending they endorse Mr. Kerry. Mr. Sweeney wrote
in bold letters that Mr. Kerry would speak to the board at the end of the vote. This, several union leaders
said, signaled that the endorsement was a done deal.
Union Chief Asks Bloomberg Not to Aid His Re-election Bid
Source: Winnie Hu, New York Times
Union(s): Uniformed Firefighters Association
Date: February 14, 2004
For a
moment, it seemed as if Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the president of the firefighters' union had put their
differences behind them during a joint appearance yesterday on the mayor's radio program to announce increased
staffing for engine companies. Mayor Bloomberg declared that the agreement with the Uniformed Firefighters
Association showed how people could work together in this city and pointed out that both he and the union
leader, Stephen J. Cassidy, were still in their first terms in their respective positions. "Both of us are
going to get re-elected, I trust," Mayor Bloomberg said on his weekly program on WABC-AM. "I mean, I hope
you'll work for my re-election. Would you like me to work for yours?" But Mr. Cassidy quickly replied, "Uh no,
Mr. Mayor. I don't want you to work for mine." Both men laughed, and in the end, the mayor seemed not to take
offense.
Source: CNN.com
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: February 13, 2004
Sen. John Kerry has
won the backing of the AFL-CIO, a spokesman for the nation's biggest labor group told CNN Friday. Kerry will
be endorsed by the organization, which encompasses 13 million people in 64 member unions, at a meeting of the
general board Thursday, the spokesman said. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney scheduled the meeting in a memo to
leaders of the member unions.
At 2 Airlines, Management and Unions Focus on Cuts
Source: Micheline Maynard, New York Times
Union(s): various United and US Airways unions
Date: February 17, 2004
Unions and
management at two troubled airlines are facing off over cuts that executives say are critical to their
companies' survival. At United Airlines, the battle is over reductions in health care benefits for 35,000
retired workers. Executives say the savings are necessary for the airline, the nation's second largest behind
American Airlines, to secure federal loan guarantees and emerge from bankruptcy protection as planned later
this year. Meanwhile, US Airways, the country's seventh-largest carrier, wants a third round of concessions
from its unions, on top of two granted while it was in bankruptcy. It sees the wage and benefit cuts as a major
component in its drive to reduce its costs to the level of low-fare carriers. The airlines are not being
specific about how much they want from the unions, but both have drawn the ire of labor groups.
The Health Of Grocers, Workers
Source: Michael Barbaro and Neil Irwin, Washington Post
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: February 17, 2004
In a conference room in Ocean City, Md., almost two years ago, the heads of the
nation's four largest grocery chains delivered a stern message to officials of the biggest food workers'
union. Grocery workers will have to sacrifice some of their generous wages and health benefits, the executives
said, if their employers -- Royal Ahold NV, Safeway Inc., Kroger Co. and Albertson's Inc. -- are to have any
hope of competing with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other low-cost rivals. "The message was that things had to
change," said the president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400, C. James Lowthers, who
attended the meeting. "They said they have to keep costs down." But the executives' approach is playing out in
very different ways at the negotiating table.
Hopes Are Raised as Talks Go On
Source: James F. Peltz and Ronald D. White, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: February 19, 2004
Negotiators in the supermarket strike talks spent more than eight hours at the
bargaining table Wednesday and will meet again today, swelling hopes on the picket lines. With pressure to
settle mounting on both sides, the talks -- heading into their ninth straight day -- were described by people
close to negotiators as the most serious since the strike began four months ago. The United Food and Commercial
Workers union and the three supermarket companies involved had gone nearly two months without formal sessions
before this series began under the direction of federal mediator Peter Hurtgen at an undisclosed location.
"We're definitely hopeful," said Jeannie McGrew, a 28-year grocery store veteran who worked as a scan
coordinator at a Vons in Pacific Palisades before the strike. "Every day on the line, the first half-hour of
talk is about the negotiations. If they are not talking, there is no hope."
A.F.L.-C.I.O., Calling for Unity, Gives Backing to Kerry
Source: David M. Halbfinger and Rick Lyman, New York Times
Union(s): AFL-CIO
Date: February 20, 2004
Senator John Kerry won the endorsement of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. on Thursday as Senator
John Edwards called trade and job losses a "moral issue" and repeatedly pressed for debates with Mr. Kerry. The
leaders of the federation of 13 million labor union members endorsed Mr. Kerry as the Democratic primary
struggle largely narrowed to a two-man race and focused on the economy and trade. "We've had four years to see
who George Bush fights for in this country," Mr. Kerry said in front of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. headquarters, two
blocks from the White House. "And we're here to say to working people across this country, 'In November,
it's going to be your turn.' " Mr. Kerry's strategists hope that the endorsement will further establish him
as the likely presidential nominee and extinguish the spark that Mr. Edwards's campaign received from a
surprisingly strong second-place finish on Tuesday in the Wisconsin primary. Outside the headquarters of the
federation, its president, John J. Sweeney, made clear labor's view that the time for contested primaries was
over.
Labor Supporter Says Dean Ignored His Entreaties to Quit
Source: Adam Nagourney, New York Times
Union(s): American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
Date: February 20, 2004
One of Howard Dean's most powerful labor supporters, Gerald W. McEntee, said on Thursday that he had
decided that Dr. Dean was "nuts" shortly before he withdrew his support for Dr. Dean's candidacy and begged
him to quit the race to avoid a humiliating defeat. Mr. McEntee, the president of the American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees, defended his decision to abandon the campaign, saying he told Dr. Dean
that he did not want to spend another $1 million of his union's money "in order to get him a couple of extra
points in Wisconsin." "I have to vent," Mr. McEntee, the often blunt leader of the nation's largest public
service union, said in a leisurely interview in his office here. "I think he's nuts." Mr. McEntee said he
reached his assessment of Dr. Dean after watching what he described as a series of halting appearances in Iowa,
leading up to his shouted concession speech. He said that he did not believe Dr. Dean, the former governor of
Vermont, understood how substantial his decline was after that, and that he was stunned when Dr. Dean did not
bow to pressure from labor unions to pull out earlier this month.
Canadian Rail Workers Go on Strike
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): Canadian Auto Workers
Date: February 20, 2004
About 5,000 workers at CN Rail went on strike at midnight Thursday after last-minute talks with the railway
ended without an agreement, union officials said. The Canadian Auto Workers announced the strike plans in a
news release issued from Toronto, saying talks that have intensified since Tuesday concluded with "no agreement
in sight." CN's shopcraft, intermodal and clerical workers were walking off the job at midnight local times,
the union said. The CAW, Canada's largest private-sector union, said it was willing to resume talks at any
time.
Major City Union May Offer to Give Ground on Pensions
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): District Council 37
Date: February 21, 2004
Contract talks between the Bloomberg administration and District Council 37, New York City's largest
municipal union, accelerated this week after the union's leaders said they might agree to a less generous
pension plan for future city workers, union officials said. One of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's main
negotiating goals is to create a lower pension tier for all future city workers, and he says it could save the
city nearly $10 billion over the next two decades. One District Council 37 leader said the union hoped that by
accepting a less generous pension plan for future workers, it would persuade the mayor to grant pay raises for
current workers. Mr. Bloomberg has repeatedly said he would not grant raises to municipal workers unless labor
leaders agreed to offsetting savings. Two of District Council 37's leaders said that largely because of the
promising discussions on pensions, the negotiations had gathered so much momentum that an overall agreement was
possible over the next few weeks. But other officials warned that snags could easily develop on pensions or
other matters and delay an accord.
United's Unions Assail Plan to Cut Retiree Benefits
Source: Associated Press, USA Today
Union(s): International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
Date: February 20, 2004
United Airlines' unions stepped up the pressure on the carrier Friday over its plan to cut retiree
health care benefits, with machinists announcing a new campaign of airport demonstrations and public protests.
The machinists also organized picketing by retirees outside United's headquarters in suburban Elk Grove
Village and the airline's monthly bankruptcy court hearing in Chicago, where flight attendants were seeking
the appointment of an outside examiner to look into the plan. The International Association of Machinists and
Aerospace Workers said it had delivered letters to all U.S. senators, urging them to demand that United CEO
Glenn Tilton keep its commitment to United retirees.
Source: Krissah Williams, Washington Post
Union(s): Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union Local 25
Date: February 23, 2004
Union organizer Miguel Granillo-Cordova was skeptical when employees at the State Plaza
Hotel in downtown Washington called him last spring. They were some of the people who walked away from a union
election nine years ago after management promised them raises. "The whole drive failed," said Granillo-Cordova,
lead organizer for Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union Local 25. Now the union is back at the State Plaza,
having won a representation election there in its decades-long, nationwide attempt to sign up the people who
prepare meals, clean rooms and wash dishes at hotels -- people who these days are increasingly Hispanic. At the
State Plaza, 90 percent of the 68 cooks and cleaners are from Central America. They have mixed feelings about
unions, union officials said, because in Central America unions are sometimes corrupt or violent or radical.
City Union Still Reeling From Effects of a Bitter Vote
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): District Council 37
Date: February 23, 2004
Nowadays, District Council 37, New York City's giant municipal union, often seems less like a labor
organization than a dysfunctional family. Things are such a mess, many labor experts say, that the union hardly
resembles its former self - it was once the most respected, most dynamic and fastest-growing public employees'
union in the nation. But that was long before the current wackiness. In last month's election campaign, the
union's executive director, Lillian Roberts, denounced the union's treasurer, Mark Rosenthal - who was her
running mate two years earlier - by accusing him of wanting to fix the election and remain on the union "gravy
train." She also attacked his $200,000-plus salary as exorbitant even though she earned more than he did. On
Thursday, in an unusual move that showed just how much union solidarity has crumbled, Mr. Rosenthal sued Ms.
Roberts for libel. "Her campaign was vicious and full of lies,'' said Mr. Rosenthal, who lost his race for
re-election when Ms. Roberts and her candidate for treasurer eked out a victory.
Union Urges Bush to Replace Education Chief Over Remark
Source: Sam Dillon and Diana Jean Schemo, New York Times
Union(s): National Education Association
Date: February 25, 2004
A day after Education Secretary Rod Paige compared the nation's largest teachers union to a
"terrorist organization" because of its criticism of President Bush's centerpiece education law, the union
brushed aside his apologies and called for his dismissal. "Our members are the N.E.A., and on behalf of them, I
ask President Bush to express his regret to the nation's educators and demand that Secretary Paige step down,"
said the union's president, Reg Weaver. And in the House, Representative Betty McCollum, Democrat of
Minnesota, called on Dr. Paige to resign. She characterized his remarks as "neo-McCarthyism at its worst." The
reactions made public an often bitter struggle between the Bush administration and the National Education
Association, which has 2.7 million members and frequently supports the Democrats at election time.
Paige Calls NEA a 'Terrorist' Group
Source: Amy Goldstein, Washington Post
Union(s): National Education Association
Date: February 24, 2004
Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige yesterday told the nation's governors that the
largest teachers union in the United States is a "terrorist organization" -- a remark that prompted a torrent
of criticism and an apology by the end of the day. Paige made the comment about the 2.7 million-member National
Education Association in a private meeting at the White House with the National Governors Association, less
than a week after he announced the administration was relaxing testing requirements under the No Child Left
Behind law. The landmark education law has come under mounting opposition, and the NEA has been among its
strongest detractors. Sources familiar with the incident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Paige's
remark was in response to a question about his opinion of the NEA toward the end of a two-hour panel discussion
that included five other Cabinet members. The sources said Paige drew a distinction between his disdain for the
union and his admiration for classroom teachers, whom he called "the real soldiers of democracy." Democrats and
leaders of labor groups and other liberal organizations immediately condemned the terrorist analogy.
2 Key Unions Vote to Accept Plan to Merge
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): Unite, formerly the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union
Date: February 26, 2004
The
nation's leading apparel workers' union and the leading union for hotel and restaurant workers have voted to
merge, union officials said yesterday. The merger will bring together two unions that are among the most
aggressive in organizing nonunion workers, especially immigrants. Unite, formerly the Union of Needletrades,
Industrial and Textile Employees, has 180,000 members, while the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees
International Union, or HERE, has 250,000 members. By voting to approve the merger yesterday at a meeting in
Los Angeles, the board of the hotel employees' union moved to create a larger organization whose members range
from seamstresses in New York's Chinatown to hotel housekeepers in San Francisco.
Settlement Near in Grocery Strike
Source: James F. Peltz and Melinda Fulmer, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): UFCW
Date: February 26, 2004
Grocery store and union negotiators neared a deal Wednesday to end the California supermarket strike
and lockout, according to people familiar with the talks. A settlement could be reached as early as today, they
said, although they cautioned that negotiators continued to struggle with certain aspects of the contract they
were sketching out under the supervision of a federal mediator. The deal on the table would trim supermarket
employees' health benefits and create a second tier of new workers who would earn less than those hired before
the dispute began, according to sources who know the rough details of the proposed contract.
Two Unions Plan Merger of 440,000 Members
Source: Leigh Strope (AP), MLive.com (MI)
Union(s): Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees and Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees
Date: February 26, 2004
Two unions representing hotel and restaurant employees and retail, textile and
laundry workers are merging to create a single labor organization with 440,000 members. The Hotel Employees and
Restaurant Employees, called HERE, and the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, known as
UNITE, announced the merger Thursday. "This merger substantially increases our ability to fight for the rights
of our members and the tens of thousands of new members that we will represent in the future, and to make sure
that America's working families share in the success of the world's richest nation," said UNITE President
Bruce Raynor. The partnership pairs two similar unions that represent a large number of minority and immigrant
workers in the growing service sector. It also spells opportunity: UNITE's organizing focus on laundry and
retail distribution workers fits nicely with HERE's hotels and restaurants and their need for linens and
uniforms.
Supermarkets, Union Reach Tentative Pact
Source: Charlie LeDuff and Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Date: February 27, 2004
Supermarket executives and union leaders involved in a four-and-a-half month-old labor dispute in
Southern California reached a tentative agreement last night after 16 days of intense bargaining, union leaders
said. Officials with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and with California's three largest grocery
chains reached the deal which is expected to end a dispute involving 59,000 striking or locked-out workers at
852 supermarkets. Greg Denier, a spokesman for the union, declined to disclose details about the settlement.
The dispute, which is one of the largest labor disputes in the nation in years, has inconvenienced millions of
shoppers, created great financial pain for union members and caused the three supermarket chains to lose more
than $2 billion in sales.
Source: Reuters, CNN/Money
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Union
Date: February 27, 2004
Three major
supermarket chains and the union representing some 60,000 striking and locked out grocery workers reached a
tentative deal to end the nearly five-month labor dispute, representatives for both sides said. The agreement,
reached late Thursday, was expected to create a second tier of employees who would be paid less than their
veteran counterparts. The pact still needs to be ratified by members of the United Food and Commercial Workers
Union. A vote could come as early as Friday or Saturday. It was not immediately clear when unionized clerks
would be back on the job. The labor dispute centered largely on health care costs, with supermarket chains
saying they could no longer afford to pay for the benefits without contributions from the workers in the face
of competition from non-union megastores like Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Source: Reuters, CNN/Money
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: March 1, 2004
Striking
California grocery workers ratified a new contract Sunday that puts an end to the longest-running grocery
strike in U.S. history, the workers' union said. The contract covering some 70,000 members of the United Food
and Commercial Workers Union at three major supermarket chains -- Kroger Co., Albertsons Inc. and Safeway Inc.
-- was approved by an 86 percent margin, a spokeswoman for the union said. Almost 900 stores were affected by
the strike and lock-out, estimated to have cost the supermarkets more than $1 billion in lost sales. The
20-week-long labor dispute centered largely on health care costs, with supermarket chains saying they could no
longer afford to pay for the benefits without contributions from workers in the face of competition from
non-union rivals like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Union leaders and the supermarkets reached a tentative agreement on
Thursday following 15 days of intense talks.
Striking Grocery Workers Approve Agreement
Source: Associated Press, USA Today
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: March 1, 2004
Southern California grocery workers voted overwhelmingly to approve a new contract with supermarket operators,
ending a strike that inconvenienced millions of customers and cost three major grocery chains hundreds of
millions of dollars in lost sales. After a two-day vote, 86% of grocery workers who cast ballots approved the
contract negotiated by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, the union said Sunday in a statement. The
contract covers 70,000 workers, a majority of them employed by Albertsons Inc., Kroger Co. -- which operates
Ralphs stores -- and Safeway Inc., which operates Vons and Pavilions. It requires employees to pay for health
benefits for the first time and includes two one-time bonuses for hours already worked. The contract offers no
raises.
Workers OK Grocery Pact to End Strike
Source: John O'Dell, Los Angeles Times
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: March 1, 2004
Grocery
workers, hungry to return to their jobs, overwhelmingly approved a new three-year contract this weekend, ending
a nearly five-month strike and lockout that cost the supermarket chains almost $1.5 billion in lost sales and
disrupted the shopping patterns of millions of consumers throughout Southern California. Officials of the
United Food and Commercial Workers union declared the strike a victory in announcing Sunday evening that the
pact was approved by 86% of the voting membership. But support for the contract from many union members was
grudging at best. "It was take it, or there's the door," said Ralphs cashier Carlos Beltran, 25, who voted
"yes" at Local 770's polling place in Hollywood. "They are all thieves, the companies and the unions. They're
just sticking it to us." Still, not everyone was unhappy. "I'm glad we're going back to work, and I supported
the strike," union member Andrea Gonzales said after hearing the results Sunday night.
GAO: Jobs Plan Process-Oriented
Source: Christopher Lee, Washington Post
Union(s): American Federation of Government Employees
Date: March 2, 2004
Federal agencies are focused more on process than on saving money and improving performance
as they follow a White House directive to force government employees to compete with the private contractors
for their jobs, a new study has found. The 47-page General Accounting Office report also found that agencies
say they lack enough staff and funding to carry out President Bush's "competitive sourcing" initiative. Bush
announced the government-wide initiative as a key part of his management agenda after he took office in 2001.
He said requiring hundreds of thousands of federal workers to prove they can do their jobs better and more
cheaply than the private sector will promote government efficiency, even if the jobs ultimately stay in-house.
Critics, including federal employee unions, have derided the policy as little more than an effort to reward
Bush's business allies.
Retiree Benefit Cutbacks Threaten United Recovery
Source: Melissa Allison, Chicago Tribune
Union(s): Association of Flight Attendants, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Date: March 3, 2004
At the same time United Airlines is trumpeting to Wall Street that employee morale has never been
better, workers say the move by management to curtail retiree benefits has ruined their trust in the company.
"We're concerned about United Airlines and its future business if management doesn't make good on promises,"
said Sara Dela Cruz, a spokeswoman for United's flight attendants. More than 2,500 flight attendants retired
in the first half of 2003 after the airline said workers retiring after July 1 would receive reduced medical
benefits, Dela Cruz said.
New York in Tentative Deal With Largest Union
Source: Michael Cooper, New York Times
Union(s): Civil Service Employees Association
Date: March 6, 2004
The Pataki
administration and the state's largest public employees union said yesterday that they had agreed on a
tentative contract that would raise the salaries of 70,000 state workers by what union officials said was 11
percent over the next four years. The tentative agreement with the union, the Civil Service Employees
Association, which has been without a contract since April, would cost the state $352 million over the course
of the contract, a state official said. The governor and the State Legislature are negotiating a plan to close
a $5.1 billion shortfall in next year's budget. The proposed settlement would give workers an $800 one-time
payment upon ratifying the contract, followed by raises of between 2.5 percent and 3 percent a year over the
next three years. On the last day of the contract in March 2007, workers would get an $800 increase on their
base salary.
Mass. Teacher Snubs Paige Honors Over Union Remark
Source: Associated Press, Washington Post
Union(s): National Education Association
Date: March 8, 2004
The Massachusetts teacher of the year refused to attend an event in Washington honoring the
nation's top educators because U.S. Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige called the nation's largest
teachers union a "terrorist organization." Jeffrey R. Ryan, a history teacher at Reading Memorial High School
who lost a friend in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said he could not accept Paige's apology for his Feb. 23
comments about the 2.7 million-member National Education Association. Ryan has taught for 25 years. Paige said
the remark was a "bad joke." But Ryan said: "Nazi death camps aren't funny. Lynching people isn't funny. . .
. And terrorism isn't funny. I just couldn't show up and shake that man's hand after he made those remarks."
Forty-four teachers of the year attended last Monday's conference, which the department had arranged weeks
before Paige's comment. Paige had made the comment in a private meeting with governors. He later apologized
for his choice of words, but maintained that the union uses "obstructionist scare tactics." "I can assure you,
I have nothing but the highest esteem for teachers and the teaching profession," he told the teachers last
week.
Labor Is Forced to Reassess as Union Leaders Convene
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): various
Date: March 9, 2004
As the nation's labor leaders gathered at a luxury seaside hotel here, they were struggling on Monday
to find ways to keep the union movement from sinking further after it suffered several recent setbacks. In the
biggest confrontation in years, a 138-day dispute involving 59,000 California supermarket workers, the
companies trounced the union, obtaining a two-tier contract that means lower wages and fewer health benefits
for new employees. Organized labor also appeared badly disorganized as unions split over endorsing
Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri or Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor, for the Democratic
presidential nomination and then appeared woefully ineffective when both of the preferred candidates flopped.
And labor was embarrassed by a January government report showing that union membership fell by nearly 400,000
last year and that the percentage of workers belonging to unions dropped to 12.9 percent, down from 35 percent
in the 1950's. "Labor is in a huge crisis," said Ruth Milkman, president of the University of California
Institute for Labor and Employment. "In this climate, business as usual will mean a slow death."
Strike Eats into Albertsons Profit
Source: Reuters, CNN
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: March 9, 2004
Albertsons Inc.,
the No. 2 U.S. grocer, said Tuesday that quarterly earnings fell 37 percent as the recent Southern California
labor dispute dented its sales and pushed up costs. The Boise, Idaho-based retailer said profit for the fourth
quarter ended Jan. 29 slid to $130 million, or 35 cents per share, from $205 million, or 54 cents, a year
earlier. The company had withdrawn its earnings forecasts last fall as it grappled with uncertainty from the
strike. Analysts, on average, had forecast earnings of 20 cents, according to Reuters Research. The grocer said
it estimates that the Southern California labor dispute -- which also affected rivals Kroger Co. and Safeway
Inc. -- cut quarterly earnings by about $90 million, or 24 cents a share.
Worker Disputes Cost Kroger $156M
Source: Reuters, CNN/Money
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers
Date: March 9, 2004
Kroger Co.,
the nation's biggest supermarket chain, reported a quarterly loss Tuesday due to the recent labor dispute in
southern California and hefty charges from its Smith's division. Kroger, based in Cincinnati, said its net
loss in the fiscal fourth quarter ended Jan. 31 was $337.4 million, or 45 cents a share, compared with net
earnings of $381 million, or 50 cents a share, a year earlier. Earlier Tuesday, Kroger rival Albertsons Inc.,
the industry No. 2, said its quarterly profit fell 37 percent, also hurt by the California labor dispute.
Source: John Mercurio, CNN.com
Union(s): various
Date: March 9, 2004
There are four
Southern primaries today, two with juicy political implications. But the story we're watching most closely
today is the awkward reunion of organized labor, which gathers in south Florida to make sense out of a
particularly clumsy primary roadshow that left them divided, dispirited and, in some cases, doubting their
ability to defeat President Bush. If one head should roll at the Sheraton Bal Harbour Beach Resort, sources say
it could be that of Gerald McEntee, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees, who may face a challenge as chair of the AFL-CIO's political education committee after the way he
handled his union's endorsement -- and abandonment -- of Howard Dean. Criticism of McEntee, who as chairman of
the committee controls labor's multimillion-dollar voter-turnout operation, comes strongest from unions that
had backed Dick Gephardt. "There's not a lot of love here for [McEntee]," a chief political strategist for a
major Gephardt union told the Grind. "There are some general presidents openly talking about removing him as
chairman, several of them think he defaulted on his role during the primary, bouncing all over the place.
President Sweeney has to make a decision about how to handle it."
Unions Put Early Kerry Backer on Strategy Panel
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): various
Date: March 10, 2004
The A.F.L.-C.I.O. rewarded the president of the first union to endorse Senator
John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, by naming him on Tuesday as vice chairman of a new
campaign strategy committee. Top officials of the labor federation named the union leader, Harold A.
Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, as a committee vice chairman to give
him a major role in helping shape labor's efforts to elect Mr. Kerry. The federation endorsed Mr. Kerry two
weeks ago; the firefighters endorsed him last fall. Mr. Schaitberger was chosen for the position as several
union presidents here pushed unsuccessfully to oust Gerald W. McEntee, president of the American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees, from his post as chairman of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s political committee.
Several union leaders attending the labor federation's midwinter meeting here said the new campaign strategy
committee was set up in part to dilute Mr. McEntee's power and to help put Mr. Schaitberger in the spotlight.
Mr. McEntee has come under fire for political vacillation -- he first leaned toward Mr. Kerry and then to Gen.
Wesley K. Clark before his union endorsed Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor.
Grocers Want Pay Cuts for New Workers
Source: Michael Barbaro, Washington Post
Union(s): United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400
Date: March 10, 2004
Giant Food LLC and Safeway Inc., which have begun renegotiating a four-year contract with
the union representing their 18,000 local workers, are calling for cuts in pay and in vacation for new
employees, according to a copy of the companies' proposal. The two chains, which dominate the region's
grocery business with a combined 48 percent share of the market, and the United Food and Commercial Workers
Local 400 began talks on Friday as they race to reach an agreement before their contract expires March 27.
Under the proposals, new employees would get less pay for working Sundays and holidays and fewer vacation days.
Safeway and Giant have not yet disclosed their plan on the more contentious issues of health care, pensions and
overall wage levels.
Organized Labor Fights for Survival
Source: Associated Press, New York Times
Union(s): various
Date: March 10, 2004
Organized
labor is in the fight of its life to remain relevant to workers as it struggles to rebound from setbacks in
organizing and politics. Labor leaders meeting this week at a luxury seaside resort are revving up for the
largest multimillion dollar effort to mobilize their members to defeat President Bush. John Kerry, the
Democrats' presumptive nominee, addressed the AFL-CIO meeting by satellite Wednesday. "George Bush is running
on the same-old Republican tactics of fear -- and they're already getting tired,'' Kerry said. "But we have
something better than attacks. We have the facts. And here they are: under George Bush's policies, middle
class families are paying more. America's middle class can't afford a tax increase. That's why were going to
give the middle class a tax cut.'' The Massachusetts senator won the labor federation's endorsement last
month and hopes to use labor's organizational muscle and money to boost his campaign.
Union Leadership Changes Address City Contract Talks
Source: Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
Union(s): District Council 37
Date: March 19, 2004
The leadership changes announced at District Council 37, the city's largest municipal union, will in some
ways complicate and in other ways ease Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's efforts to negotiate a contract with the
council, union leaders and labor experts said yesterday. Alarmed that politi