The United Farm Workers invites unions, churches, community-based organizations and the public to join in a March for Fair Trade in the Apple Industry.  Thousands are expected to attend the Yakima march on Sunday, August 5 beginning at 10 a.m. at Miller Park (north of 3rd and Avenue "E").

Please download, print, copy, post and distribute the Aug. 5 Fair Trade March flier (218 KB PDF file, free Acrobat Reader required) to help spread the word about this important event.

Washington’s apple workers continue to live in poverty on wages of $7,654 per year.  Meanwhile, smaller family-owned farms are going bankrupt and farm workers are losing their jobs because of international trade policies that reward agribusiness, but promote the race to the bottom for working conditions.

A new study of NAFTA’s first seven years shows farm incomes plummeted and bankruptcies escalated in the U.S., Canada and Mexico— while U.S. food prices increased 20%.  Now the Bush Administration wants Fast Track authority to expand the failed NAFTA model throughout the Western Hemisphere with the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

It’s time to take to the streets of Yakima with the message: Fair Trade means Amnesty for Immigrant Workers, Collective Bargaining Rights, Fair Wages and Fair Prices.

The fight continues to preserve the Department of Labor and Industries' Health and Safety Impact Grants Program.  (See the June 22 posting for background information.)

Labor activists, business interests and other supporters of safe workplaces were successful in getting Governor Gary Locke to veto the budget language that would have limited L&I's authority to operate the program.  But the funding still has not been restored.  We must send a message NOW asking the governor to submit legislation for the third Special Session that begins Monday, July 16 to appropriate funds from the workers' compensation Medical Aid Fund for the safety grants program.

PLEASE TAKE 3 ACTIONS TODAY

1. CONTACT THE GOVERNOR TODAY (Thursday, July 12).  Thank him for his veto that supported the L&I Safety and Health Grants Program.  Ask him to introduce legislation at the July 16 Special Session to fund the program.
 
Phone:  360-902-4111
 
Electronic: Go to www.governor.wa.gov/contact/govemail.htm, complete the form. You may "copy-and-paste" the following along with your comments:

Subject: Special Session Safety and Health Grants Funding

Dear Governor Locke,

Thank you for you veto that allows L&I to continue the Safety and Health Grants Program. Please introduce specific legislation in the upcoming Special Session that restores the full funding for the Safety and Health Grants program from the Medical Aid Fund. This program is too important to business, workers and the public to lose.

Sincerely,

Your Name
Your Organization

2. JOIN THE SAFE WORK WASHINGTON EMAIL LIST.

Safe Work Washington has set up a mailing list for business, labor, public sector, community groups and people that support funding for grassroots solutions to preventing workplace injury through the L&I Safety and Health Grants Program.  Join the list and you will receive updates on this fast-developing situation and efforts to retain the program.

To join, simply send an email to safeworkwa@yahoo.com with your name, organization, postal address, day and evening phone.  Please include your state legislative district if you know it.

3. FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO YOUR LISTS.

BACKGROUND
At the very end of the last special session, the budget passed the Senate with a last-minute amendment with no opportunity for discussion. This amendment had two parts: one limited L&I's ability to operate the Health and Safety Grant Program without passage of special legislation and the other part eliminated the funding from the Medical Aid Fund.

The evenly split House was not able to strike the amendment.  The Governor vetoed the section that limited L&I's ability to operate the program because the statutory authority for the program already exists and a change in statue authority cannot be changed by an appropriation bill.  This preserved the authority for the program but not the funding.

It was hoped that other sources of funding within L&I's budget could be used to keep the program going until the next regular session.  This has turned out to be very difficult.

Right now, the governor is considering introducing funding legislation for the July 16 special session.  Though this special session is focused on transportation, the legislature is not prevented from considering other legislation.  Many legislators have heard about this program now and are far more aware of its importance than when the amendment was slipped in during the closing hours of the last special session.  It is the consensus of the folks working this issue that absent finding another funding source, having the governor introduce legislation now is our best option.

The $10 million Health and Safety Impact Grants Program was created by the joint business-labor Workers Compensation Advisory Committee two years ago.  The program was developed in conjunction with the $400 million dividend given to business from the Accident Fund of the Industrial Insurance system.  The dividend was made possible by the extraordinary gains from investments of this fund.

The other large workers' compensation fund, the Medical Aid Fund, which receives 50 percent of its contributions from workers, also experienced extraordinary gains.  (Washington state is the only state in the nation whose workers pay into the Medical Aid Fund.)  It currently has a healthy reserve of approximately $250 million above actuarial needs.  Because allocation of the extra gains from this fund to those individual workers who contributed to it was not possible, the decision was made to use some of those gains for safety-and-health grants to make the lives of Washington's workers a little safer.

Business, labor and public sector organizations have applied and received funding for wide variety of innovative, effective projects.  A short sample of the program's first year of activities include:

— Evaluation of thermal imaging cameras to help firefighters avoid dangerous exposures
— Development of a program to protect Western State Hospital psychiatric hospital workers from incidents of violence
— Adoption of a curriculum by high school teachers across the state that will teach 14,600 teens basic work place safety awareness including basic hazard identification, control measures, workplace responsibilities, and child labor laws.
— Offering of training to small businesses and their safety officers on how to construct a total Health and Safety Plan and the benefits of doing so.
— Construction of a training vault to simulate confined-space disasters and rescue
— Numerous workshops and training sessions for hundreds of construction workers on specific workplace safety topics
— Translation into Spanish of a Stemilt Accident Prevention Program manual for farm workers

(For a complete list go to www.lni.wa.gov/wisha/grant/summaries.htm)

The second year of the program was scheduled to fund a total of 54 workplace health and safety projects sponsored by small and large employers, business groups, public sector employers, labor and other groups.  About 25% of the funds are targeted to small businesses.

Five longshore workers in Charleston are facing up to five years in prison for “felony riot.”  They were part of a peaceful picket line defending their jobs from scab labor when more than 600 state police in riot gear attacked.  In addition to the criminal charges, the two longshore union locals in Charleston, together with the local presidents and 27 other members, are being sued for $1.5 million by the stevedoring company that hired the scabs.

The longshore local in Charleston, ILA Local 1422, is almost entirely African-American. The local is a key element in the progressive movement in South Carolina. The police attack took place days after the historic march to demand removal of the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina State Capitol -- a march in which Local 1422 played a major role.

On June 9, more than 4,000 people assembled at the South Carolina State Capitol in Columbia to demand that all charges be dropped.  The historic march strengthened ties between the labor movement and the African American community in the South.

The trial is expected to begin in September.  Dockers throughout the world have pledged protests on the day the trial begins.  Although the Charleston Five are under house arrest, the leader of Local 1422, Ken Riley, is able to bring their message to the Puget Sound.

The Washington Restaurant Association today convenes a Government Affairs Summit to discuss its "number one issue," passing a tip credit measure where workers who earn tips could be paid less than the minimum wage by counting a portion of their tips as wages.  Here is the meeting notice and agenda for today's meeting:

M E E T I N G   N O T I C E

TO:   Government Affairs & Grassroots Members
FROM:  Anthony Anton, Government Affairs Director
Bill Cheung & Peter Braun, Government Affairs Co-Chairs
SUBJECT:   Government Affairs Summit on Tips as Wages
WHEN:   Thursday, July 12, 2001 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
WHERE:   The Radisson Hotel, SeaTac

For the past twelve years the WRA has fought valiantly and spent immense resources trying to get the state of Washington to recognize tips as wages.  After a difficult defeat this year the WRA is at a crossroads and must decide how to move forward in the future.  You are invited to participate in a Government Affairs Summit to develop strategies on how to address this issue in the future.   This has been the number one government affairs issue for the restaurant association and we need your suggestions, ideas and input on how to approach this issue going forward.  Please join your government affairs staff, lobbying team and fellow members in this decision making meeting on how to proceed.

AGENDA:

    History of Tip Credit and Minimum Wage in Washington.
    Why Democrats oppose us and labor's role.
    How other business groups approach tough issues.
    Initiative options.
    Strategy options for Tips as Wages.
    Where does the WRA go from here?

The following story, "Carpenters bolt AFL-CIO" by Anne Marie Moss, appears in the newest edition of NW Builder, a regional construction trade publication:

In a move that sent a rumbling through the house of labor, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (UBC) announced on March 29, 2001, that it was withdrawing from the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), a voluntary national federation of more than 60 unions that works to advance the interests of organized labor at the local, state, and national level. The last time a major union split with the federation was in 1968, when the United Auto Workers disaffiliated because of the AFL-CIO's support of the Vietnam War.

When the announcement was made, the Rumor mill shifted into high gear: The newly independent Carpenters will embark on a jurisdictional poaching spree. Other trades will attempt to raid UBC work that is no longer protected by AFL-CIO bylaws. More unions will follow suit and leave the AFL-CIO. Because this is such a political issue, finding sources willing to speak about the split was a challenge. Many refused to speak on the record. But a few intrepid souls -- and notable labor leaders -- took the time to make the situation clear.

One of the oldest unions, the UBC is also one of the largest, with 525,000 members. Besides construction carpenters, the union also represents millwrights, interior and exterior specialists, shipwrights, pulp and paper workers, and other trades. At the national level, the UBC's dues to the AFL-CIO amounted to $4 million a year. Though that's only a small percentage of the federation's $100 million-plus annual budget, the AFL-CIO easily spends all of it. In fact, it has been reported that the AFL-CIO has drawn down its reserves in recent years.

How that dues money should best be spent was a primary point of contention for UBC President Doug McCarron, who had been threatening to break from the federation for two years. Known for his "strictly business" style of leadership, McCarron saw the AFL-CIO's hiring of hundreds of staff members as squandering funds.

"We were spending millions of dollars to be affiliated with a national federation that didn't share our philosophy," says Mike Draper, international vice president of the UBC Western District and a member of the General Executive Board, which voted for the split unanimously. "We could be using that money to put more organizers in the field. They were creating a bureaucracy, while we were eliminating one."

Since McCarron took office in 1995, the UBC has been restructured more like a corporation. A staff of more than 200 at the international level was whittled down to 65. The union claims to be dedicating 50 percent of its resources to outreach and training, and has hired 600 new organizers over the last five years. Over the last three years, 65,000 new members have been added. The UBC also recently finished construction on a $22 million, 178,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art training center in Las Vegas. "That kind of investment demonstrates a commitment to organizing and gets us back to our roots as a union," says Draper.

UBC Going Wall-to-Wall?

A number of sources have speculated that the real impetus behind the split was the union's desire to make the UBC a "wall-to-wall" organization, through which contractors could line up a full construction job, from bricklaying to ironworking, instead of dealing with each trade individually. By being outside of the AFL-CIO, the union technically does not have to adhere to its bylaws, which state that no trade should "raid" another's jurisdiction. If that were to happen, it would be akin to declaring a jurisdictional war with other construction crafts.

But Pacific Northwest-area UBC representatives have been quick to deny that the Carpenters are interested in expanding their jurisdiction. "We didn't make the split to go out and organize wall-to-wall service," asserts John Steffens, executive secretary/ treasurer of the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, which represents 23,000 members. "That was not even part of the equation."

On the flip side, if other unions were to raid work traditionally done by the Carpenters, the UBC would have no national governing body to appeal their case. This is already starting to occur. For example, on March 29, the International Boilermaker's Union General President Charles Jones announced to signatory contractors that all trade agreements with the Carpenters were void because of their disaffiliation, and all work traditionally done by Millwrights should be "reassigned to the Boilermakers." The quest for independence was also not the root cause for the disaffiliation, according to Tim DeGan, regional manager for the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters. "We are not some sort of rogue union, but we don't agree with the manner in which the national AFL-CIO is currently doing business."

The UBC isn't the only union dissatisfied with AFL-CIO operations. In early May, the 400,000-member Operating Engineers Union announced that it would be withdrawing from the Building Construction Trades Department's (BCTD) Heavy & Highway Division, of which the Carpenters were also a part. The union stated that the building trades have failed to capitalize on opportunities made available by transportation and aviation infrastructure legislation passed by Congress. Operating Engineers General President Frank Hanley stated that without the Carpenters' participation, "the heavy and highway operation has no chance of succeeding."

Regional Effects of the Split

The initial AFL-CIO response to the UBC disaffiliation was to prohibit the Carpenters from participating in any BCTD affair at any level, regional or national. This hit Oregon and Washington especially hard because of the large number of construction and industrial carpenters in these states.

In an official statement, Washington State Labor Council President Rick Bender said, "In our state, the immediate impact of this development will be especially dramatic -- and unfortunate -- for the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO...The Carpenters union, and its affiliated unions the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers and the Western Council of Industrial Workers, have more representatives on our Executive Board than any other single international union."

Five representatives, or one-fourth of Washington's AFL-CIO executive board, were UBC members and had to be immediately removed from their posts. In Oregon, there were three UBC members on the executive board that were replaced. In Idaho, the Carpenters were not one of the biggest affiliates, "but any loss to our state's AFL-CIO is a concern," says Dave Whaley, president of the Idaho AFL-CIO.

In an effort to maintain communications with the UBC, the BCTD president initiated a special task force to keep discussions alive until the AFL-CIO's convention this December. The federation also decided to allow UBC members to participate in trades council meetings on an ex officio basis, where they have no voting rights and cannot submit their per capita payments. "But frankly, there are still a lot of building trades nationally that are still taking Carpenter money because they can't survive without it," says Draper.

Most agree that at this point, the effects of the disaffiliation have been minimal for Northwest carpenters on the job. "There is no impact in day-to-day work," says John Littel, who has the unique perspective of being a carpenter and an assistant to the executive secretary of the Seattle Building and Construction Trades Council. "The relationships on the jobsite, they don't change. Carpenters and plumbers and electricians continue to build buildings."

Says David Groves, spokesperson for the Washington State Labor Council, "We hope that on the national level, the Carpenters are able to resolve whatever differences they have with the AFL-CIO because there are lot of carpenters in this region who would like to become active again."

Will the Carpenters Rejoin?

Optimism on whether or not the UBC will rejoin the AFL-CIO depends greatly on whom you talk to. If the appointed task force does not reach a resolution before the AFL-CIO convention this December, what will that mean for organized labor relations in the building trades? If the separation is permanent, will the UBC inch its way toward offering wall-to-wall service? Will carpenters miss out on project labor agreements or other jobs negotiated through the building trades councils? What union will the Millwrights belong to one year from now?

Some believe the split is simply a matter of differing policy opinions within the upper echelons of union leadership, and its long-term effects will be minimal. "Most of us think this issue is going to be worked out in a short amount of time. We fully expect the Carpenters to re-affiliate," says Littel.

But, according to Draper, a solution will only be reached if the major philosophical rift between the federation and the UBC is bridged. It boils down to opposing priorities: the basics of organizing versus the advancement of bureaucracy. "I can tell you that we are a long way off from being where we ought to be," says Draper. "If change is not inevitable, we're not going to be there."

For more information, see AFL-CIO President John Sweeney's May 2 statement regarding the Carpenters disaffiliation.

Labor in the Pulpits, a joint effort between the AFL-CIO and the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, will take place this year on Labor Day weekend, August 31 through September 3.  This program links local congregations with union members who come as people of faith to speak at worship services about conditions of working people, the union movement, and the struggle of workers to win a voice at work.

During last year's Labor in the Pulpits weekend, union speakers addressed an estimated 120,000 worshippers at more than 800 services in 650 congregations.  Events were held in 36 states (including Washington) and in more than 130 cities.

Throughout 2000, union members stood shoulder to shoulder with the religious community on workers' rights issues around the globe such as child labor, World Trade Organization, debt relief for impoverished countries and core labor standards.  Again and again the religious community assisted workers seeking to have a voice at work by organizing a union.  The religion labor-alliance continues to grow and Labor in the Pulpits is an important expression of our joint concern for economic justice in America's workplaces.

This year, we need to expand on last year's success and increase the number of local unions participating in the Labor in the Pulpits program.  So begin making plans NOW to include your place of worship.  Visit the AFL-CIO's Labor in the Pulpits website for more information and an online toolkit for "organizing" your congregation.