National union stories

A new online community, Communicate or Die, is asking for help finding labor leaders who maintain a blog. Steve Dondley, the founder of the site, says he is creating a list of union leaders who maintain blogs to help "encourage other leaders to take the plunge and start their own blog."

If you know a labor leader who maintains a blog, visit http://www.communicateordie.com/node/36 to learn how to report the blog.

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.

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 The amendment was withdrawn.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.

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.

Now, the labor movement faces renewed divisions and the possible defection of its largest affiliate. Locally, the threatened departure of the Service Employees International Union could deprive the Massachusetts AFL-CIO of 80,000 members.

After going head to head during a major strike in Southern California last year, the United Food & Commercial Workers averted another major strike in Northern California and avoided a two-tier wage system that would lower the wage scale for future workers.

Across the South companies have long used bare-knuckled tactics to fight unions. But now a surprisingly detailed roadmap to such tactics has emerged from an unusual court battle between EnerSys and its law firm over whose wrongdoing - the company's or its lawyers' - led to a $7.75 million settlement that EnerSys entered into after federal officials accused it of 120 labor law violations in its seven-year effort to eliminate the union.
The company has accused the firm, Jackson Lewis, of malpractice and of advising it to engage in illegal behavior. The law firm says that EnerSys ignored its sound advice and that the company is trying to avoid paying its legal bill.
The wrangling has cast a spotlight on how the company fired and harassed the union's top officials and aided Mr. Brown, the anti-union leader, although federal law prohibits companies from financing or otherwise assisting efforts to get rid of a union.

Under proposals adopted by the Teamsters union's executive committee, the AFL-CIO would rebate half of the $6.84 cent annual per capita tax -- a total of about $45 million -- to affiliate unions.
The money would fund a plan to organize wokers in the unions' core industries.
The Teamsters also propose encouraging mergers between large and small unions, streamlining the federation's operations and cutting its executive committee from 25 to no more than 15.
And the Temasters propose developing a new plan to gain growth and political power in key swing states...But Hoffa's suggestions fall short of what Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, has demanded.

The New York Times did a piece on the struggle going on right now to change the shape of the AFL-CIO, America's largest labor federation with over 13 million workers. It focuses on the personalities of Andrew Stern, the president of the Service Employees Industrial Union (SEIU) who is spearheading the charge for radical change, and John Sweeney, the president of the AFL-CIO.

From the article: "Eager to reverse labor's decline, Mr. Stern has called for a sweeping overhaul of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., proposing to cut its budget by more than 50 percent and to use the savings to vastly increase organizing by its member unions. And he has warned that the service employees, the largest union in the A.F.L.-C.I.O., may quit the labor federation unless it embraces far-reaching changes - changes that would have to be pushed through by the man who was his mentor, Mr. Sweeney, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O."

Registered delegates with the Union News can read a communication the Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO received from Mr. Stern at http://www.pvaflcio.org/node/523.

The union movement congratulates the working men and women who walked the picket lines in the Southern California grocery strike and lock-out. They are heroes in the battle to solve our nation’s massive health care crisis.

The Southern California grocery workers took a courageous stand---and they were able to save affordable health care and maintain pension benefits for tens of thousands of grocery workers and their families. These UFCW members held the line against the employer’s extreme give-back demands. That’s no small feat in an America where no-benefit McJobs and Walmarts are quickly driving down working families’ quality of life.

Major news outlets report that the 70,000 striking workers in California voted by an 86% majority to return to work and end the bitter 5 month strike/lockout.

The 70,000 striking members of the UFCW workers may be returning to work after a tentative deal was made today with the grocery chains. More details available on www.ufcw.org.

Thanks to everyone from the Pioneer Valley who contributed to the strike fund and helped our brothers and sisters in California carry forward and "Hold the Line for Health Care."