Voting Begins for Flight Attendants at United Airlines

Tue. May 17, 2011

The National Mediation Board (NMB) is mailing voting instructions this week to more than 24,000 United, Continental and Continental Micronesia Flight Attendants, who will have until June 29 to choose the union that can best produce a single contract for the combined group. Flight Attendants can vote by phone by dialing 1-877-NMB-VOTE or online at www.nmb.gov after receiving their voting instructions.

The IAM currently represents approximately 9,400 Flight Attendants at Continental, where they recently negotiated a contract that secured comprehensive work rules, a defined benefit pension and a range of health care choices, in addition to the highest wages in the industry. The IAM also represents the Flight Attendants of Continental Micronesia, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Continental.

By contrast, the over 15,000 Flight Attendants at United Airlines, who are represented by another union, are still working under a restrictive contract with a top pay rate that is $13,035.60 less than the rate the IAM negotiated for Continental Flight Attendants.

"Greater resources, bargaining experience and higher levels of democracy and transparency are just some of the reasons why many Flight Attendants at United Airlines are anxious to secure IAM representation, and why Continental and Continental Micronesia Flight Attendants want to preserve what they have," said General Vice President Robert Roach, Jr.

For the latest election information, visit www.iamnow.org.

‘Going Back on the Deal’

Tue. May 17, 2011

An op-ed published in the New York Times this week reveals GOP attempts to double-cross American voters – particularly, the unemployed.

“Last year, Republicans refused to renew unemployment benefits unless the high-end Bush-era tax cuts were preserved,” reads the article. “After the White House agreed to keep the tax cuts through 2012, they agreed to extend federal jobless benefits through 2011. Now, they want to renege.”

The editorial cites a bill, recently passed by the House Ways and Means Committee, giving states permission to use federal unemployment benefit funds for other purposes, including tax cuts for businesses.

“This is a very bad idea at a time when the national jobless rate is 9 percent, and higher than that in 22 states,” reads the editorial. “The $31 billion in yet to be paid federal benefits is desperately needed.

“Republicans, however, aren’t looking to restore the funds to long-term solvency; they want to cut taxes no matter what the cost. And their business constituents — who have resisted paying unemployment taxes in good times as well as bad — don’t want to pay more taxes into the system, even after the economy has recovered. There are better ways to help the states and bolster business during tough times. Reducing unemployment benefits is the wrong choice.”

The House bill would also require an unemployed person have at least a high school diploma or GED in order to receive benefits. The bill now heads to the House floor for a full vote.
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Bill Targets ‘Rogue Websites’ that Kill Jobs, Steal Wages

by Mike Hall, May 16, 2011

The Internet is a major source for intellectual property theft and a major marketplace for counterfeit goods. But new legislation would crack down on “rogue websites” that offer anything from pirated copies of Hollywood blockbusters and popular music to counterfeit brand-name prescription drugs and airplane parts.

The bipartisan PROTECT IP Act [Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act] would allow authorities to move more quickly to shut down the sites, impose tougher penalties and sanctions and create stronger intellectual property rights. Says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka:

The economic well-being of workers in the United States—jobs, income, and benefits—turns more and more on our protecting the creativity and innovation that yield world-class entertainment, cutting-edge and sustainable manufacturing and construction, and disease-ending pharmaceuticals. In a tough economic time, the PROTECT IP Act will help to protect U.S. workers and consumers against digital thieves and counterfeit scammers.

The bill was introduced by Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Conn.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Chuck Grassley (D-Iowa). Says Grassley:

The online distribution and sale of pirated content and counterfeit goods imposes a huge cost on the American economy in terms of lost jobs, lost sales, lost innovation and lost income. Piracy and counterfeiting can also present serious health and safety problems for consumers. This legislation will add another tool to the toolbox for going after these criminals and protecting the American public.

Nine of the 23 unions in the AFL-CIO Department of Professional Employees (DPE) represent 400,000 creative professionals and other workers in the arts, entertainment, and media industries. Those workers, says DPE President Paul Almeida, are

actors, stage employees and technicians, musicians, writers, editors, and many others. Digital theft costs the arts, entertainment, and media industries billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs. For these skilled professionals, online infringement is wage theft.

Click here for more information.

‘DREAMERS’ Keep It Alive

by Mike Hall, May 16, 2011

Last week the DREAM Act—which would give conditional legal status and eventual citizenship to undocumented students who meet a series of stringent criteria—was reintroduced in Congress.

Click here to read Dissent Magazine’s Daniel Altschuler’s detailed look at how young “DREAMERS” built a movement that has played a key role in keeping the DREAM alive since the bill was first introduced in 2002.

IAM Ratifies Pact with Army Fleet Support—and More Bargaining News

by Belinda Boyce, May 16, 2011

The Machinists (IAM) approved a new contract with Army Fleet Support, and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,300 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.

SETTLEMENTS
IAM, Army Fleet Support: Members of Machinists (IAM) Local 2003 at Ft. Rucker, Ala., ratified a new three-year contract with Army Fleet Support earlier this month. The 3,800 IAM members are trainers, test pilots and mechanics at the Army’s largest helicopter base.

WORK STOPPAGES & LEGAL ACTIONS
Multiple, American Red Cross: A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative law judge ruled that the American Red Cross Great Lakes Blood Services Region and mid-Michigan Chapter violated labor law in the ongoing dispute with Teamsters (IBT) Local 580 and Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) Local 459. The Red Cross has more than 30 expired collective bargaining agreements across the country and is facing similar unfair labor practice charges in other regions.

BCTGM, Roquette America: Workers locked out more than six months ago by Roquette America in Keokuk, Iowa, participated in a “Monster Picket,” last Friday the 13th. Last September, the 237 members of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 48G rejected a “last and final” offer proposed by the company after only two weeks of bargaining.

NEGOTIATIONS
Multiple, State of Connecticut: Unions representing 45,000 Connecticut state workers have reached a tentative four-year deal that guarantees no layoffs (those announced last week will be rescinded) while saving the state $1.6 billion. The State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition (SEBAC), comprised of the 15 unions that represent state workers, and the Gov. Daniel P. Malloy (D) administration agreed to not publicize details of the deal until members have been briefed.

TWU, American Airlines: Negotiators for the Transport Workers (TWU) rejected an offer from American Airlines, saying the proposal was worse than one rejected by the mechanics and store clerks bargaining units last summer. TWU said its request to be released from mediation was denied by the federal mediator.

AFA-CWA, US Airways: The Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA) and US Airways will begin federal mediation this week, after five years of negotiations have failed to result in a deal. AFA-CWA hopes the involvement of a federal mediator will improve the pace of bargaining.

CWA, Cincinnati Bell Inc.: Communications Workers of America (CWA) locals 4400 and 4401 in Ohio have reached a tentative 39-month agreement with Cincinnati Bell Inc. The deal covers 1,000 workers and includes a commitment by the company to keep jobs in Cincinnati.

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

Illinois Education Reform Bill Passes With Union Support, For The Most Part

Joy Resmovits
Joy.resmovits@huffingtonpost.com
First Posted: 05/13/11 05:36 PM ET Updated: 05/13/11 05:41 PM ET

What’s next for Illinois teachers?

Following the passage of sweeping education reform, advocates, lawmakers and teachers unions are breathing a tempered sigh of relief, while also working to tie up some loose ends.

On late Thursday, a bill that drastically overhauls the teaching profession cleared the state’s House.

The bill, which now needs only the signature of Gov. Pat Quinn (D), a supporter, to pass into law, would make tenure contingent on student achievement, make it harder for teachers to call a strike and allow Chicago’s Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel to lengthen his city’s school day. The bill makes it easier to dismiss teachers deemed ineffective based on student achievement. They would be rated on quality instead of years spent in the classroom.

The bill is one of many such measures sweeping state legislatures this year, as more local governments seek to tie teacher tenure to student scores.

But unlike similar bills in Wisconsin or Indiana, the teachers unions helped craft it.

While the end product isn’t entirely complete, Dan Montgomery, president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, said he was proud of the process. “Everywhere else around the country, it’s reform done to teachers, not with teachers,” he told The Huffington Post in a phone interview. “This is different. We had serious, serious input on how this law works on every page of it.”

The general cooperation of teacher unions, Montgomery said, led to some concessions in their favor. “Here’s a big one: They wanted to end collective bargaining and the right to strike,” Montgomery said. “We got rid of that. It would have grotesquely ended negotiations, effectively ending teachers’ ability to advocate for kids. “

“It sends a good message in a year where there’s been a fair amount of polarization,” said Jonah Edelman, CEO and founder of advocacy-group Stand for Children. “You can achieve monumental breakthroughs without a monumental battle.”

Stand for Children, an education-reform advocacy group, helped set the stage with coalition building and a widely adapted “Illinois Performance Counts” agenda. Edelman interviewed 18 state candidates and supported nine with donations totaling $650,000.

“The Illinois breakthrough is very significant nationally,” Edelman said. “In a state with traditionally the most powerful … unions that typically have been very effective at shutting down any significant reforms, to move this forward with a significant amount of union cooperation is just amazing.”

But it wasn’t smooth sailing the entire way through.

Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis is a union hand involved in crafting the bill, but she said she only agreed to participate in order to prevent more severe outcomes. “There’s Wisconsin, there’s Indiana, there’s Pennsylvania, Ohio. This is going nationwide,” she told WBEZ radio. “We’re trying to ameliorate some of the worst parts of what that bill had.”

And two unions, the CTU and the Illinois Federation of Teachers, backed out at the last second in response to a provision they said last week they found had been added. They took issue with a provision that would affect an ongoing lawsuit and also make it harder for them to call a strike, Montgomery said.

"We are disappointed that the House didn't wait until we could finalize language that will fix the problems with the bill," Montgomery said in a statement. "We are currently working with all the stakeholders to finish a follow-up bill, and we believe we are making progress.”

Montgomery was referring to a “trailer bill,” which, if passed, would be tacked on to alter some of the initial bill's technicalities.

But Edelman said the union dispute was just politics. “The rhetoric about seeing things slipped in is just a joke. That’s just baloney,” he said, adding that the unions saw the final draft, but may have missed the offending passage. “But the desire for technical fixes like the fair share numbers is legitimate.”

Montgomery shot back: “He wouldn’t know, he wasn’t there. I was.”

The trailer bill would aim to clarify the number of teachers required to call a strike: As it stands, the bill could be interpreted to mean that 75 percent of all teachers, including all “fair share” members -- those who opt out and have no vote -- must vote to call a strike. According to Edelman, the denominator intended to point to 75 percent of all bargaining units. “To not include the fair share members makes some sense,” he said.

Edelman added he’s not sure if the bill would ultimately bring CTU back into the fold. “We’ve agreed to certain technical fixes, but we don’t know if it’ll result in the Chicago Teachers Union getting back on board,” Edelman said.

CTU did not return requests for comment.

Labor Dept. App Helps Workers Track Wages, Hours

by James Parks, May 15, 2011

Want to make sure you’re getting paid what you’re due? Now there’s an app for that. The U.S. Labor Department announced last week its first application for smartphones: a time sheet to help employees independently track the hours they work and determine the wages they are owed.

Available in English and Spanish, workers can use the application to conveniently track regular work hours, break time and any overtime hours for one or more employers. Contact information and materials about wage laws are easily accessible through links to the webpages of the department’s Wage and Hour Division.

Rather than relying on their employers’ records, workers now can keep their own. Workers also will be able to add comments on any information related to work hours and see a summary of work hours for the day, week or month and e-mail a summary of hours and pay as an attachment. This information could prove invaluable during a Wage and Hour Division investigation when an employer has failed to maintain accurate employment records.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis says:

I am pleased that my department is able to leverage increasingly popular and available technology to ensure that workers receive the wages to which they are entitled. This app will help empower workers to understand and stand up for their rights when employers have denied their hard-earned pay.

The free app is currently compatible with the iPhone and iPod Touch. The Labor Department is exploring updates that could work on other smartphone platforms, such as Android and BlackBerry. It also is looking into other pay features not currently provided for, such as tips, commissions, bonuses, deductions, holiday pay, weekend pay, shift differentials and pay for regular days of rest.

For workers without a smartphone, the Wage and Hour Division has a printable work hours calendar in English and Spanish to track rate of pay, work start and stop times, and arrival and departure times. The calendar also includes easy-to-understand information about workers’ rights and how to file a wage violation complaint.

Both the app and the calendar can be downloaded from the Wage and Hour Division’s website at www.dol.gov/whd. For more information about federal wage laws or to order a calendar by mail, call the division’s helpline at 866-4US-WAGE (866-487-9243).

Workers Come Out Strong At End of Missouri Legislative Session

by Tula Connell, May 14, 2011

Missouri AFL-CIO President Hugh McVey and Secretary-Treasurer Herb Johnson wrap up the outcome of the state’s legislative session.

The first session of the 95th General Assembly of Missouri ended at 6 p.m., May 13. The session began with the emotional fervor of the majority Republican party proclaiming great changes they would make in the state during the upcoming legislative session.

Among those issues were those that were political in nature, bills that would produce no employment and create no economic gains for our state. Those bills were simply meant to reduce the capacity of labor unions to advocate for our members and so reduce the participation of working people in the political process in our state.

SB 1, a so-called Right to Work bill, would have produced not one job but would have ultimately created a lower standard of living for all. Fortunately, the bill lacked the support of the more learned and prudent members of the Missouri Senate and even less support in the Missouri House of Representatives and did not pass.

SB 202, a so-called paycheck protection bill, would have singled out labor union members requiring their annual written authorization for payroll deduction to the union political pact. No other entity would have been required to do so because employers would have been provided a loophole in the bill to avoid its limitations. The bill failed to gain the necessary support, and did not pass.

HJR 6, a bill that would have required an election for union representation even if a majority of employees had signed a petition for representation and even if the employer had voluntarily recognized and accepted their petition, failed to gain the necessary support in the General Assembly did not pass.

HB 473, a bill that would have expanded charter schools at the expense of the public school system and threatened to eliminate teacher tenure (seniority and due process), did not pass.

SB 175, a bill that would have eliminated project labor agreements that provides our building trades with good quality work, was not considered.

SB176, HB 828, and HB 138, bills that would have eliminated and or restricted prevailing wage, did not pass.

We also opposed an attempt to eliminate Missouri’s Minimum Wage and a bill that would that would have allowed employers to escape their rightful liabilities for exposure to occupational health hazards such as asbestosis, mesotheleoma and others. We are grateful these bills failed to obtain the necessary support and therefore did not pass.

In addition, Governor Nixon vetoed SB 188. This bill would have severely reduced human rights in the Missouri workplace.

It is unfortunate that some Missouri Business interest’s prevented the passage of legislation to replenish the workers compensation second injury fund, which pays benefits awarded to injured workers and their families. The failure to act leaves more than a thousand Missouri families without income and our state potentially liable, for those court ordered benefits.

To the extent we were successful in defending our rights and privileges under Missouri law it is due to the solidarity of the trade union movement of our state and also to the support of the members of the House and Senate from both parties, who stood with us on behalf of working families. It is a privilege to represent the labor movement in the Democratic process of the state of Missouri.

UCS Sponsors ‘Unions Now, More Than Ever’ Contest

by Mike Hall, May 14, 2011

We all know that with the ongoing assault on the middle class and on workers’ rights, people need unions now more than ever. Now you have a chance to say why and pocket a bit of much-needed cash in this time of high unemployment, stagnant wages and rising prices.

Union Communication Services (UCS) is holding a “Unions Now, More Than Ever” contest with $2,500 in prizes for videos, graphics, cartoons and songs speaking to that theme. UCS publisher David Prosten says:

We keep hearing that unions really aren’t necessary anymore. But in the current economic climate and with increasing attacks on workers and their unions, it’s clear that workers need unions now, more than ever.

Tell the tens of thousands of workers killed or injured on the job last year that they don’t need a union, or the dozens of immigrants found locked into a Los Angeles factory compound, forced to spend 16 hours a day virtually chained to sewing machines. Tell the hundreds of thousands of retail workers bullied into working off the clock they don’t need the voice at work a union provides.

Submissions can be made in three categories:
•VIDEO—2-minute maximum length, must be posted on YouTube;
•GRAPHIC/CARTOON— jpg format, 300 DPI;
•SONG—3-minute maximum length in MP3 format.

All entries must include the tagline, “Unions Now, More Than Ever” and must be English-language. Send e-mail entries to contest@unionist.com. Deadline for entries is Aug. 1; winners in each category will be announced the week before Labor Day. A total of $2,500 in prizes will be awarded: three 1st prizes of $500 (one in each category) and four 2nd prizes of $250 (at least one in each category).

Winners will be featured by UCS— www.unionist.com—which has been providing information and ammunition for union activists since 1981. UCS is the Annapolis, Md.-based publisher of communications and educational tools for labor leaders and members and publishes the Union Steward’s Complete Guide, Steward Update Newsletter, a catalog of hard-hitting books for union activists, weekly news and graphics services for union communicators and more, including online steward training.

Fifth Wisconsin University Faculty Votes for Union

by James Parks, May 13, 2011

Despite the ongoing attacks on workers’ rights in the state, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (UWGB) faculty today voted 117– 2 for representation by AFT. This is the fifth UW campus to do so since Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to eliminate public employee bargaining was introduced.

Although Walker’s anti-worker bill now is being challenged in court, Republican lawmakers have said they intend to include its anti-collective bargaining provisions in the state budget, which already calls for drastic funding cuts to the University of Wisconsin system.

Aeron Haynie, an associate professor of English and humanities, says the faculty vote ties in to the burgeoning labor movement in Wisconsin. The movement has gained incredible momentum since the announcement of Walker’s anti-union bill in February, she says.

I’m proud to vote for a faculty union at UWGB. As we have seen this past year in Wisconsin, it is vital that working people join together and fight for our rights—our right to make decisions which affect the quality of education here in our state, and our right to decent benefits. Working together, as a union, makes our voices stronger.

University of Wisconsin faculty and academic staff were extended the right to collectively bargain in June 2009. Since then, faculty at six other campuses—UW-Eau Claire, UW-Superior, UW-La Crosse, UW-Stout, UW-River Falls and UW-Stevens Point—have voted in favor of collective bargaining representation. UW-Superior academic staff will vote on union representation next week.