WSLC Monthly Report -- September/October 2003

WSLC Reports is a monthly summary of labor news and a preview of coming events.
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(See previous editions of this newsletter.)

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2003
KEEP WORKERS HEALTHY!
Join the No-on-Initiative 841 fight to preserve ergonomic safety

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5 -- "America in Solidarity" kickoff rally. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union kicks off a WSLC-endorsed campaign at a rally starting at 6 p.m. at the ILWU Hall, 1306 Alexander Ave. in Fife. The campaign is "a grassroots effort to turn the tide against incessant corporate greed." The kickoff rally will feature food, drink, fun, music and speeches as the union marks the one-year anniversary of the ILWU West Coast lockout. Learn more at www.americasolidarity.com.

OCTOBER 8-9 -- "Meeting of the Minds," the 2003 Workers’ Compensation conference, will be at the Shoreline Conference Center. This event provides a diverse and broadbased forum in which participants can learn more about workers’ compensation. For more information, including how to register, contact Project Help’s Kairie Pierce at 1-800-255-9752.

OCTOBER 9-12 -- CLUW's 12th Biennial Convention will be at Seattle's Westin Hotel. The Coalition of Labor Union Women is a national organization of union women identifying common problems and developing action programs within their unions to address those concerns. Convention speakers will include AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson, state Attorney General Christine Gregoire, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), national pollster Celinda Lake and many others. See the agenda.

In the November 2003 election, ballots across Washington state will have only one measure in common: Initiative 841 to repeal our state workplace ergonomic safety rule. Financed by the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW), a homebuilders’ lobbying organization, I-841 aims to accomplish what business groups have failed to accomplish in the state legislature and courts -- killing an important, effective safety standard.

The Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO is opposed to I-841, and encourages labor and other organizations to join the fight against this cynical attack on safe jobs. Here’s what you and your union can do:

"All working men and women want the same thing, and they are willing to fight for it if we organize them."

So said Maria Elena Durazo, a dynamic labor leader out of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 11 in Los Angeles, in her rousing keynote address on the opening day of the Washington State Labor Council 2003 Convention in Wenatchee held Aug. 21-23. She focused many of her comments on the issue of immigrant rights and urged delegates to get involved in the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride now under way (see story below).

In his address, WSLC President Rick Bender cited the convention theme of "Justice for All" as a "lofty goal" but said "we have a long way to go before we achieve it... and we just took a detour in this last legislative session." He summarized the legislative and political developments of 2003 and laid out what to expect in 2004, including a massive, unprecedented campaign to remove President George Bush from office.

As always, there were many labor, political and legislative leaders who addressed the convention on a variety of topics. In addition, delegates representing the more than 550 affiliated unions of the WSLC passed resolutions that establish WSLC policy, position and goals.

The Immigrant Worker Freedom Ride bus left Seattle on Sept. 23 embarking on its cross-country journey after a successful send-off celebration and rally the previous weekend. The bus made stops in Yakima, Wallula, Pasco and Walla Walla, and has already generated significant media and public attention across Washington state.

The IWFR is a national mobilization to focus public attention on immigrant rights and the injustices of current immigration policies. Inspired by the Freedom Riders of the Civil Rights Movement, immigrant workers and their allies boarded buses in 10 U.S. cities, including Seattle, and are now crisscrossing the country, stopping along the way in many communities where immigrants are struggling to advance their rights. Thursday, Oct. 2 will be a National Call-In Day as IWFR buses converge on Washington, D.C. to meet with members of Congress. Add your voice to calls for immigration reform: Dial the White House at 1-800-321-8268 and Congress at 1-888-355-3588. IWFR riders will then travel to New York City for a mass rally and festival on Oct. 4, which half a million people are expected to attend.

A coalition has been formed to coordinate the March to Miami, a series of events in communities across the nation to educate, train and organize people to fight against the Free Trade Area of the Americas. The FTAA, like NAFTA before it, would accelerate the loss of U.S. jobs, especially family-wage manufacturing jobs. It has been described as "NAFTA on steroids" because it would cover 34 nations with a population of 800 million.

March to Miami educational forums and rallies are scheduled in Seattle (Sept. 26-27) and Spokane (Sept. 30). Events like these will occur across the nation in coming weeks, culminating in a massive protest in Miami where trade representatives hope to hammer out the details on the FTAA this November. The local March to Miami coalition includes the United Steelworkers of America, the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and Environment, the Washington State Labor Council and numerous other organizations.

Protected by the anonymity of one of the many "think tanks" they fund, the Boeing Co., Microsoft, Weyerhaeuser, Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc. and many other Washington corporations are promoting the idea of making Washington a so-called "right-to-work" (for less) state.

A September opinion column by Richard Davis, president of the Washington Research Council (WRC), was published in newspapers around the state suggesting Washington should become a "right-to-work" state so the "shadow of compulsory unionism will continue to shrink." The WRC is a three-person outfit supported and funded by a who’s who of Corporate Washington: Boeing, Microsoft, Safeco, AT&T Wireless, Weyerhaeuser, Longview Fibre, Puget Sound Energy, Kaiser Aluminum, Frank Russell Co., Georgia-Pacific and Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc., among others. The WRC is one of the many corporate think tanks in the state churning out "studies" in support of conservative anti-tax and pro-privatization ideology.

Teamsters Local 66 represents some 200 workers in Issaquah and Seattle who have been locked out of their jobs since Aug. 30 by WestFarm Foods, a cooperative of 722 dairy farmers that produces dairy products under the brand name Darigold. The company has hired scab replacement workers. The union has asked consumers to boycott Darigold products. (The WSLC has not formally sanctioned this boycott; IBT 66 is not affiliated with the WSLC.)

IBT 66 members working at WestFarm facilities in Lynden and Chehalis planned to begin honoring pickets outside their plants on Sept. 25, and the company has threatened to replace them with scabs as well. The union says pickets may spread to WestFarm plants in Portland, Medford, San Jose and Los Angeles.

After 12 weeks of bargaining and more than 5 weeks of picketing, 4-year contracts were overwhelmingly ratified Aug. 27 at the SeaTac Hilton and DoubleTree hotels by Local 8 members of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union. HERE attributed the contract victory to "dedication of a strongly united committee and membership along with the overwhelming support of the labor movement and the community." The ratification ends months of labor disputes at area hotels. HERE members at the Red Lion SeaTac also ratified a new contract this summer after a brief dispute.

Following a Sept. 10 victory in the U.S. Senate, efforts to block President Bush’s proposal to eliminate the right to overtime pay for millions of Americans returns to the U.S. House of Representatives, where a similar vote will happen soon. In Washington state, efforts to protect OT pay will put the spotlight -- and pressure -- on Rep. George Nethercutt (R-5th). He joined other state Republicans in voting to support Bush’s OT pay cuts July 10 when the House narrowly rejected 213-210 a measure similar to the one that passed the Senate to block Bush’s plan.

But that was before the bipartisan Senate vote and it was before Nethercutt announced he will run for U.S. Senate in 2004 against incumbent Patty Murray. Now the Republican congressman from Spokane finds himself in the precarious political position of having to reaffirm his support for very unpopular OT pay cuts. A new survey shows 3 out of every 4 Americans oppose Bush’s OT pay proposal and opposition is overwhelming regardless of political affiliation, race, income or geographic region.