Top union stories

WSHM TV-3 in Springfield has coverage of Friday morning's protest and press conference in front of Friendly's restaurant in Wilbraham. The story and video can be seen at:

http://www.cbs3online.com/news/local/2244806.html

Please pass this e-mail along and help inform and build the outrage of others so we can begin to fight back against the expanding economic assault on workers.

UAW Local 2322 has a launced a new web site, "There's Something About Mary Johnson" to tell the story of how YWCA's Executive Director, Mary Reardon Johnson, is treating here workers unethically by busting their union.

An ecumenical gathering of Jewish, Muslim, Catholic, and Protestant religious leaders gathered at the Old First Church in Springfield yesterday to express their support for the Springfield's teachers who are fighting for a contract. The event was organized by the Pioneer Valley Project and the Springfield Education Association. View images.

The Springfield Education Association is once again flooding city hall with phone calls, asking Mayor Charles Ryan to sign home rule legislation, passed unanimously by the city council, that would shorten the time to impasse and require binding arbitration once impasse is reached. Tim Collins, President for the SEA, said he did not know why the mayor was being uncooperative. Collins said he had plans to meet with the mayor on Friday to discuss the matter. In the meantime, the union leader encouraged Springfield's residents and union member to continue making phone calls asking him to sign the legislation. The mayor's number is 787-6100. The mayor was unavailable for comment and was out of town, according to an aide.

Western Massachusetts carpenters will see significant increases in pay and benefits thanks to a new contract negotiated by their union, Carpenters Local 108. Over the life of the new 4 year contract, negotiated with the Construction Industry Association of Western Massachusetts, carpenters will see their wages and benefits increase by $9 per hour. The workers will also see improved on-the-job perks such as an increase in break times and paid compensation for excessive walking distance to worksites.

Richard Brown, President of the Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO, spoke before the a job growth and economic development committee public hearing yesterday in Springfield. The purpose of the hearing, chaired by State Representative Sean Curran, was to gather collect ideas from area labor and business leaders on how to move the Pioneer Valley's economy forward. The hearing was one of several being held across different regions of Massachusetts.

A bill that would force large employer's like Wal-Mart to carry health insurance for their underpaid workers is getting a serious look by the Maryland legislature. According to the Washington Post, it has a very real chance of getting through the legislature and surviving the governor's veto.

[image:766]Over 500 workers and students snaked a march through the UMass campus to Chancellor John Lombardi's office, snarling traffic along the way. The march was in support of grad students, represented by the Graduate Employee Organization, a division of the United Auto Workers, Local 2322, who wish to settle a contract with the university. Students say the university's current proposal increases health care and child care costs and cuts real wages. Grad students are also fighting a proposal to cut same sex partner benefits. View images.

Springfield's workers mounted an successful two-day lobbying effort to stop special home rule legislation that would effectively short-circuit a union's ability to collectively bargain on behalf of its workers.

On Wednesday, Springfield's City Council will consider home rule legislation that would effectively destroy the right of the city's workers to negotiate a contract with the city.

[image:727]At a recent safety meeting with bus drivers, Springfield's head of bus transportation, John Maloney, avoided the reality of the school bus driver's dire predicament made by recent changes to the contract bid specification. Under the contract bid that went out Tuesday, a vendor that wins the bid would be under no obligation to honor the labor agreements drivers have with the current transportation providers, First Student and Durham School Services. This change significantly increases the chances of First Student and Durham School Services losing the bid and would lead to huge cuts in health care and other major benefits important to Springfield's drivers.

It's unfortunate Mr. Maloney made no mention of these facts, choosing instead to issue false reassurances that there was little to worry about because the incoming vendor will "want quality people." After Maloney spoke, Daniel Clifford, the union representative for the drivers, took an opportunity to address the audience to correct any misperceptions. "If I'm a new vendor, I'm going to do whatever it takes to win that bid. If that means cutting health care and other benefits, I'll do it. The control board has left it wide open for [the current vendors] to lose this bid." He told workers to be ready to fight, saying, "This is going to be a tough battle. There will be more actions."

Also attending the meeting was Antonette Pepe of the Springfield School Committee. She told the drivers she was sorry that she voted to remove the language from the contract but that she was powerless to do little else because the control board had the ultimate say over the contract bid. She encouraged drivers to contact their legisltors to help get Springfield more funding from the state. "It's about time we have our legislators speak up," she said.

UPDATE, March 10, 2005 3:30 pm: The attempt to beat back the Boozman amendment was successful. The amendment was withdrawn. A statement released by the Teamsters International from Mike Mathis, Director of Government Affairs, stated, "I believe this amendment was pulled in large part due to the pressure applied by your phone calls to your congressional delegations. Representative Boozman would not have pulled this amendment if he believed it had a chance of passing.

John Boozman (R-AR), is sponsoring a last minute amendment to the highway reauthorization bill in the Republican controlled Congress. The bill will make roads less safe to travel by allowing trucking firms to increase the work day of a driver from 14 to 16 hours.

[image:725]Brandishing signs reading "We don't want to strike but we will", about 100 school bus told the Springfield's control board on Monday that they would not accept a loss of health insurance and other benefits without a fight. The drivers and bus monitors and upset about a decision by the control board to remove language from a city bid specification requiring contractors bidding for the city's bus contract to honor the current union contract. The workers are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 1459 in Springfield.

Clifford Nurse, a Springfield bus driver and UFCW Local 1459 steward, explained that if another incoming transporation company was awarded the city's busing contract, they would be under no obligation to offer the same benefits package spelled out in the contract with First Student and Durham School Services, the current transporation providers. Nurse said this would lead to a higher turnover rate and cause a decline in the quality of transporation services delivered to the city. "We know our presence is important, but they're not showing us any appreciation," Nurse said.

Daniel Clifford, the Union Representative for the workers, told the control board that the bid specification language "assured you labor peace." But he said now that the language in the bid specification had been pulled, "You not only have given us the right to strike, you are encouraging us to strike." Rose Falconer, another driver and union steward, made an impassioned plea to the board, imploring them not to sacrifice their lives and welfare for the sake of saving money. "Our lives depend on these benefits and we cannot afford to be without them," she said.

The latest in a string of plant closings in the greater Springfield, Massachusetts area, Ludlow Textiles announced that they would be shutting down operations within the next year. The company employs over 100 workers at the facility. Production line workers are represented the UNITE HERE union. The company manufactures specialty fibers.

Two millwrights, on strike against the employer, Six Flags, energized a gathering of 150 union members and local politicians at the Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO's annual legislative breakfast. The workers are striking in order to win union recognition at the company's theme park in New England.

[image:658]If you've been to Six Flags New England recently and lived to tell about it, thank Rick Seldomridge. He's one of about twenty millwrights who maintain and repair the multi-million dollar amusement rides designed to drop, jolt, flip and spin thrill-seekers into a frenzy. Rick enjoys his job immensely and gets his own thrill watching park patrons having a good time as a result of his behind-the-scenes dedication to the job.

He's so dedicated, in fact, that he's even resorted to buying specialty tools the company is supposed to buy, he estimates around $500 worth since he started working at the park three years ago, just to make sure the job gets done right. He's also spent $1,700 of his own money to fix his Ford F-150 when its trasmission blew out as a result of hauling chunks of amusement park rides weighing over 10 tons. But then when Rick asked Six Flags to pay for a new tire after he flattened one while out on the job, he says they just laughed at him. On top of donating his own personal resources, Rick's worked gruelingly long hours, sometimes seeing his three kids only a half hour a week when the park was in full swing. This is all done for wages that are a pittance for the specialized kind of work he does. But Rick says the real kick in the teeth is how Six Flags management simply doesn't give him or any of his coworkers the respect or credit they feel they deserve for all their work. "We're just numbers to them," says Rick in a thick West Virginian drawl that sounds more Kentuckian.

Of course, this kind of shabby treatment doesn't make Rick happy. So, on February 4th, Rick decided that the best shot he had at righting these wrongs was to walk off the job and fight to get a union and contract. Rick was joined by twelve others, some who have been there for as long as 23 years, to take a stand against general disrespect, low wages, long hours, and chronic under-equipping of their operation.

Rick explained that many of the parks premier attractions and roller coaster trains now sit "strung from one end of the shop to the other," as part of their regular annual overhaul. If the strike continues for much longer, the park's opening day, scheduled for April 16th, could well be threatened. Jon Avery, an organizer for the Western Massachusetts Carpenters Local 108, the union that organized the walkout, said "We've been told that Six Flags has resorted to using landscapers and security guards to reassemble the rides."

When you meet Rick, the first word that springs to mind is not "troublemaker." He's a folksy, teddy bear-like man who, even after living with us Yankees for a few years, still calls you "sir" and never curses. He grew up working on his grandparent's cattle farm. When they were forced to sell, he got into the concessions business where he was required to constantly move around the country from fairground to fairground. "It's not a life for a family," he said. So, when he had an opportunity to work at Six Flags and settle down with his wife, he took it.

While Rick loves his job and the challenge of keeping the high maintenance rides up and running, he bemoans the arrogance and indifference of management. "[Workers] don't even get a pat on the back or 'thank you' or nothing," Rick explains. "A lot of the guys have been there two years and they don't even know their name."

The problems at Six Flags are hardly new. According to Rick, workers also attempted to form a union at Six Flags four or five years ago. The company promptly responded with an immediate $5/hour raise to kill the union drive. But as the latest unionization effort shows, employees are still not happy with their working conditions and are looking for a union to provide a contract to protect them from some of the company's abuses. For example, Rick recounts had to spend $900 out of his own pocket to have wrist surgery for an injury he sustained while working on the job, an injury that should have been paid for by the workers' compensation system.

Whether or not Rick and his coworkers are successful in their efforts to improve their working conditions remains to be seen. But there can be no doubting the resolve of these workers who are willing sacrifice their livelihoods to make an improvement; it seems this time around, this classic David vs. Goliath battle will be fought to the finish.

From timber in Washington to computer engineering in Massachusetts and every type of job and region in between, America is losing good jobs due to bad trade deals.

With rallies today in the financial districts of Boston and San Francisco, the AFL-CIO will launch a nationwide grass-roots campaign against President Bush's Social Security plan, arguing that scandal-ridden financial services firms in Boston and other cities should not be entrusted with private retirement accounts.

Despite massive concessions in pay from two local unions at the Danaher plant in Springfield, MA, Danaher Tool will be permanently closing its facility in June and begin shifting its workforce to non-union workers in the South starting in March.