Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Wisconsin Working Families Win 2 of 6 in Recall Elections

by Tula Connell, Aug 10, 2011

Wisconsin working families won two of six recall elections yesterday, ousting incumbent state senators who backed Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s attacks on the collective bargaining rights of public employees. Democrat Jessica King defeated Republican incumbent Randy Hopper in Senate District 18 and Democrat Jennifer Shilling (D) won over incumbent state Sen. Dan Kapanke (R) in Senate District 32. The victories narrow the Wisconsin Republican Senate majority to one.

The districts with recalls are in largely rural areas which have consistently elected Republicans–voters in one have not elected a Democrat since the late 1800s. Although Barack Obama carried Wisconsin by 14 points in 2008, no Democrat won in these disticts. A columnist for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel examined the party make-up of the districts and concluded that Democrats faced a severe disadvantage. As Craig Gilbert wrote:

Democrats are running “uphill” in five of the six elections Tuesday, trying to capture districts that are more Republican than the state as a whole in their partisan makeup.

The elections are a wake up call for every governor who thinks about giving massive new tax giveaways to the rich while cutting the benefits and rights of hard-working middle-class families and every state lawmaker who tries to ram through pro-Wall Street, anti-community legislation.

More than 12,000 volunteers mobilized for months in recall districts, contacting more than 1 million voters and knocking on 125,000 doors just over this past weekend alone. Wisconsin will go to the polls again Aug. 16, in the final set of recall elections.

One race, which pitted Republican incumbent Roberta Darling against Democrat Sandy Pasche, was not called under early this morning because the vote counting was so slow. The district is partly in Waukesha County, where vote-counting troubles surfaced earlier this year when JoAnne Kloppenburg was defeated by Republican David Prosser in a state Supreme Court race. The Waukesha county clerk has a history of vote-counting errors, and following the Supreme Court race, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel called for an investigation.

The other three Republican incumbents who held onto their seats are Walker ally state Sen. Robert Cowles (R), who survived a challenge by Nancy Nusbaum (D), incumbent state Sen. Shelia Harsdorf (R) over Sherry Moore (D) and Republican Olson over Luther Clark.

Support Growing for Verizon Strikers

by James Parks, Aug 9, 2011

The strike by some 45,000 Verizon workers, members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the Electrical Workers (IBEW), continued into its third day today as workers across the country offer support to the strikers, whose struggle reflects the situation for millions of workers.

Rather than reward the hard work of Verizon employees who have provided the quality service that earned the company more than $32.5 billion in revenue over the past three years, management continues to insist on cuts that total $1 billion. These workers have played by the rules—and now Verizon wants to break them.

Verizon’s concession demands would strip away the standard of living workers have gained through bargaining over the past 50 years, workers say.

It is all too common for workers to face the prospect of losing benefits even though you have worked hard and valued your work, IBEW President Edwin Hill says:

This is a company with a $100 billion dividend. The top five company executives were paid more than a quarter of a billion dollars over the past four years. If a company like this is not willing to provide wages and benefits to enable its workers to be part of the mainstream middle class in America, then all who work for a living have reason to fear.

Click here to demand that Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam value employees’ work and share his corporation’s success with those who make it possible. Click here for a list of picket sites in the New York and New Jersey area.

You also can click here to sign and tweet an act.ly petition demanding Verizon drop its outrageous concessionary demands.

To tweet about the strike, use the hashtag #verizonstrike and feel free to direct to @VZLaborfacts.

The company also paid nothing (that’s ZERO) in corporate income taxes. In fact, it actually received nearly $1 billion in tax benefits from the federal government during that time, according to the Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ).

In fact, if Verizon had paid its corporate income tax at the official rate of 35 percent, it would have owed more than $11 billion, according to CTJ. This alone would have been enough to avoid the recent cuts in the debt deal to student loan programs.

Read updates on the strike at www.cwa-union.org/verizon.

Locked-Out Sugar Workers Call on Company to Negotiate

by James Parks, Aug 9, 2011

Saying locked-out workers at the American Crystal Sugar Co. want to work and negotiate a fair contract, the local union president urged the company to come back to the bargaining table.

Some 1,300 American Crystal employees were locked out in three states Aug. 1 after the workers, members of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 167G, rejected the company’s final offer by a more than nine-to-one margin.

Writing on the INFORUM website, Local 167G President John Riskey says management could stop this lockout immediately.

Union workers have never threatened a work stoppage. All we have asked is to keep working while we negotiate a contract that benefits the company, workers, farmers and the community.

Although the company has proposed wage increases, it also wants workers to pay more for health care insurance, which would negate the wage increases, says Riskey.

The longer the lockout lasts, he says, the worse it is for the local communities that depend on the plants. Read the full column here.

The lockout isn’t just hurting our families, it’s also hurting our local economy and this company’s standing in the community. We want to get back to work and back to the negotiating table.

American Crystal reportedly has hired replacement workers at its seven plants in Minnesota, North Dakota and Iowa. Contract negotiations to replace a seven-year contract began in May. The union has filed an unfair labor practice charge against American Crystal, claiming the company has not bargained in good faith.

Pensions Preserved in Hawker Beechcraft Contract

Tue. August 09, 2011

Local 733 members in Wichita, KS ratified a new agreement with Hawker Beechcraft by a 69 percent margin. The five-year contract protects jobs and preserves the defined-benefit pension plan for current and future employees.

The contract also includes a new partnership agreement and guarantees job classifications will remain in Wichita, while providing training for workers who have been laid off. The contract covers 2,600 members at the Wichita facility.

“All of our aircraft manufacturing contracts in Wichita have good defined-benefit pension plans for everyone,” said Southern Territory General Vice President Bob Martinez. “We will continue to hold the line on pensions in Wichita.”

Senate Passes Temporary FAA Funding Measure

Tue. August 09, 2011

The IAM applauds the Senate leadership for rising above the political games on Capitol Hill and passing a bi-partisan compromise to end the partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). As a result, over 4,000 FAA employees and tens of thousands of airport construction workers can go back to work.

The short-term extension expires on September 16, 2011, providing lawmakers with six weeks to resolve their differences with the full FAA Reauthorization bill.

Meanwhile, New Jersey Rep. Frank A. LoBiondo this week introduced the “Furloughed FAA Employees Compensation Act” that would grant the U.S. Secretary of Transportation the authority to pay the salaries and related benefits of those federal employees who were furloughed during the partial shutdown of the FAA.

The IAM strongly urges Congress to complete a final comprehensive FAA bill that provides real safety improvements and protects air and rail workers’ rights to organize.

A special thanks is due to the thousands of IAM members who contacted their Congressional representatives and urged them to end the unnecessary stalemate over the FAA short-term extension.