WSLC Monthly Report -- March 2004

WSLC Reports is a pretty-much monthly summary of labor news and a preview of coming events. It is not intended to be comprehensive. More detail is available on these (and other) stories online. If you want to receive this via fax or mail, Get on the List!
(See previous editions of this newsletter.)

SATURDAY, MAY 8 -- The Washington State Labor Council’s 2004 Convention of the Committee on Political Education (COPE) will be at the SeaTac Hilton Hotel. Delegates representing the affiliated unions of the WSLC will consider endorsements for the 2004 elections; a two-thirds majority of delegates present is necessary for a candidate or ballot measure to achieve endorsement. Convention calls will be mailed March 15 to affiliated unions notifying them of their voting strength and the number of delegates to which they are entitled. If you are interested in serving as a delegate for your union, contact your local. If you have questions about the endorsement process, contact WSLC Political Director Diane McDaniel at (206) 281-8901.

AUGUST 23-26 -- The Washington State Labor Council's 2004 Constitutional Convention will be Monday through Thursday at the Tacoma Sheraton Hotel. Affiliated unions will receive a convention call 90 days prior to the convention with delegate registration and credential forms.

Hundreds of union members converged on Olympia Feb. 20 for the WSLC Legislative Conference to get updates on the status of legislation affecting Washington workers. Those updates were interlaced with reminders from various union and legislative leaders that this fall’s election will be the most important in decades.

Action in Olympia underscores how critical the election is for the state legislature. The Democrat-controlled House has passed good bills promoting apprenticeship and accountability for tax breaks, only to have them die in the Senate, where Republicans have a one-vote majority. Meanwhile, the Senate has passed a series of labor-opposed bills on everything from cuts in injured worker benefits to freezing the minimum wage, which have died in the House. (See our latest WSLC Legislative Update for the current status of 2004 legislation in Olympia.)

"State Senators don’t seem to realize that Initiative 688 (raising and indexing our state minimum wage) passed by a 2-to-1 margin and was approved in every single county in this state," said WSLC President Rick Bender during his conference-opening speech. "We’re going to make sure people know how Senators voted on this."

But many of the issues addressed at the WSLC Legislative Conference, such as offshore outsourcing of jobs and union organizing rights, are being addressed (or not addressed) in both Washingtons, underscoring the importance of congressional races as well.

And as WSLC Political Director Diane McDaniel pointed out, print the BushWatch page at the national AFL-CIO’s website documenting all of the anti-union actions taken by the president, and you better have plenty of paper in your printer. The Bush administration and Republican-controlled Congress have not only driven the U.S. economy into a jobless ditch, they have attacked everything from overtime pay to your very right to join a union.

That’s why the WSLC’s successful Labor Neighbor program will again be putting the grassroots back in politics this fall. The WSLC has set an aggressive goal of recruiting 10,000 union members to volunteer for Labor Neighbor.

Volunteer online or contact Diane McDaniel at (206) 281-8901 for more information.

Speaking of politics, the WSLC will host its biannual Committee On Political Education (COPE) Convention on Saturday, May 8 (see Coming Events above).

It is at the convention that the delegates representing WSLC-affiliated unions will vote on which candidates and ballot measures to endorse for the 2004 election. It requires a two-thirds majority of the delegates present to attain an endorsement.

In the hotly contested race for governor, some candidates have begun rounding up endorsements from statewide union organizations. State Attorney General Christine Gregoire (D) has been endorsed by the Washington State Council of Fire Fighters, Service Employees International Union, International Association of Machinists, and Washington Federation of State Employees/AFSCME Council 28. King County Executive Ron Sims (D) has won the endorsement of the Amalgamated Transit Union and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Joint Council 28. Former State Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge (D) and former State Sen. Dino Rossi (R) have yet to receive any endorsements from statewide labor organizations.

At the COPE Convention, endorsements will also be considered for congressional races, other statewide offices, state legislative races, judicial candidates and ballot measures. Contact your local union for information about serving as a delegate representing your union.

Some 160 workers at the Fife vinyl extrusion division of Milgard Manufacturing, one of the nation’s largest manufacturers of windows, have a union representation election coming up on March 11 and 12. If they are successful, they will become the beginning of a new Local 33 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. But as always in organizing these days, the workers are facing intense pressure from their employer, including captive audience meetings, anti-union videos and one-on-one indoctrination sessions from the bosses. So dozens of union and community supporters rallied outside the plant March 2 and 3 to demonstrate their support for Milgard workers’ efforts to gain economic justice and a voice on the job, and to demand an end to the company’s union-busting campaign. For more information, contact the ILWU’s Paul Bigman at (206) 448-1870 or 1-877-ILWU-YES.

Some 200 workers in Issaquah and Seattle represented by Teamsters Local 66 have been locked out of their jobs since Aug. 30 by WestFarm Foods, a dairy cooperative that produces products under the brand name Darigold.

There was reason for optimism in early February after WestFarm’s CEO announced his retirement and church leaders delivered over 1,000 petitions from political and community leaders urging an end to the lockout. But that optimism has waned as the union now accuses WestFarm of "regressive bargaining" or offering less than previously rejected offers. In response, workers at the Teamster workers under contract at the company’s Lynden plant walked off the job March 2. Meanwhile, the AFL-CIO boycott of all Darigold products continues; union members and supporters are urged to avoid all Darigold dairy products.

Speaking of boycotts, the national AFL-CIO is also urging union supporters not to patronize the non-union "Broadway" touring production of "Oklahoma!" at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre. Most actors aren’t rich celebrities. They’re regular working folk whose talent and hard work is fairly rewarded when they have a union contract. But more and more so-called "Broadway" touring shows like "Oklahoma!" are being produced without union stage actors and stage managers, undercutting industry wage, benefit and working condition standards. Register your protest by calling the Paramount at (206) 467-5510 and telling them you want to see real Broadway shows with union actors and stage managers who are treated with dignity and respect for their hard work and talent.

Employees of the IGA grocery store in Ocean Shores represented by United Food and Commercial Workers Local 367 have been on strike since Feb. 13 because of management’s refusal to honor the area-standard medical plan that exists throughout Grays Harbor County. Supporters of the striking workers held a rally Feb. 28 and received strong support from the community for their cause.

"Shame on you, IGA grocery of Ocean Shores!" read a recent letter to the editor in the (Aberdeen) Daily World. "IGA striking employees -- keep up the good morale and don’t give up! We stand behind you all the way!"

The union movement endorsed U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) for president Feb. 19 at a meeting of the AFL-CIO General Board. After the endorsement vote, Kerry joined several hundred union members and leaders at a rally at the AFL-CIO Building in Washington, D.C.

"Just last week, the White House promised to create 2.6 million jobs," Kerry said at the rally. "But yesterday, George Bush said he couldn’t be held responsible for knowing the numbers of new jobs because he’s not in charge of numbers. Well it doesn’t take a lot of ‘fuzzy math’ to count to zero. We’re going to put America back on track, back on the road to prosperity, the road of fairness, the road of jobs."

Find out more about John Kerry’s proud record of advocating for working families (and George Bush’s atrocious record) at www.aflcio.org. Speaking of which...

In defiance of Congress and hundreds of thousands of U.S. workers who have weighed in against the proposal, the Bush administration is expected to enact new rules this month redefining who qualifies for overtime pay. The changes will jeopardize the right to time-and-a-half pay for some 8 million U.S. workers in the name of "updating and simplifying" the definitions of salaried and hourly workers.

Among those who stand to lose their right to overtime pay (because they have received specialized training) are police officers, firefighters, nurses, EMTs, chefs, office workers, secretaries, paralegals, dental hygienists, newspaper reporters, engineering technicians, social workers, air traffic controllers, health technicians, and more. Veterans who received training while in the armed forces could also lose overtime pay. A Jan. 29 Washington Post report indicates the Boeing Co. wrote Bush’s Labor Department last June saying it "strongly supports" revising the rules to classify employees who received military training as "learned experts" who could be denied overtime pay.

United Food and Commercial Workers members in Southern California voted 86% to ratify a new agreement Feb. 26 affecting 59,000 grocery workers at almost 900 Safeway, Kroger and Albertsons stores. After 20 weeks without paychecks, workers agreed to a contract protecting existing members’ health care, pensions and job security. The dispute focused national attention on the issue of affordable health care.

Negotiations for some 30,000 Puget Sound-area grocery workers begin soon; their contract expires in early May.