WSLC Monthly Report -- May 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.)

MAY/JUNE 2004
Massive labor mobilization in June
Volunteer for member-to-member walks about the Bush-Kerry race

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2 -- Rally against Union Pacific's unsafe working conditions. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen (IBT) invites all supporters to attend a rally and informational picket to warn Northwest residents and elected officials of the potential dangers associated with fatigued train crews transporting explosive and deadly chemicals through our communities. It begins at 8 a.m. at the Georgetown Playfield, 750 S. Homer St. in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood. Participants will march to Union Pacific’s Argo Yard at 402 S. Dawson St., where an informational picket will be from 9 a.m. to noon.

Learn more.

JUNE 2-3 -- Citizens will get a chance to voice their opinions about state spending at two State Budget Town Hall meetings: Wednesday, June 2 at 7 p.m. in Spokane at the Gonzaga Law School's Barbieri Courtroom, 721 N. Cincinnati; and Thursday, June 3 at 7 p.m. in Seattle at the Seattle Central Comm. College, 1701 Broadway, in Rooms 1110-1111. The two-hour sessions include a presentation about the "Priorities of Government" budget approach, an interactive budget exercise, and audience comments and questions.

Learn more www.ofm.wa.gov.

JUNE 23-27 -- Union women are now being recruited for "Union Women Changing the Future: Fighting for Workers' Rights," The Evergreen State College Labor Center's 15th annual Summer School for Union Women. The Wednesday-to-Sunday residential program will be at the Longhouse Education and Cultural Center on TESC's Olympia campus. Space is limited to 60 participants and the registration deadline is June 16.

Learn more.

AUGUST 23-26 -- The Washington State Labor Council's 2004 Constitutional Convention will be Monday through Thursday at the Tacoma Sheraton. Delegates will debate and establish WSLC positions on issues, candidates and programs. This year, they may also consider changes to the WSLC Constitution. Convention calls were mailed in late May to affiliated unions with delegate registration and credential forms. For more information, contact Karen White at (206) 281-8901.

Washington state is considered by national strategists to be one of a dozen or so “battleground” states that are key to the presidential election.

In June, the Washington State Labor Council and other state federations of the AFL-CIO in battleground states are rolling out a massive Labor 2004 campaign which seeks to emulate the success of the WSLC Labor Neighbor efforts of recent years. Union volunteers will go door-to-door to talk to fellow union voters about America’s priorities, President Bush’s failed record, and the plans of John Kerry, the AFL-CIO-endorsed candidate for president, to create good jobs and make health care affordable for all.

In Washington, these Labor Neighbor walks will be happening every weekend in June in communities across the state. In King County, they will also happen some evenings during the week.

Union members are urged to volunteer for at least one shift in June to help make this mobilization a success. Sign up online or call Raechelle Turner at (206) 441-2647 or (206) 718-2022.

This country is headed in the wrong direction and desperately needs a change. You can help make that happen by volunteering.

WSLC ELECTION ENDORSEMENTS -- The 2004 WSLC Convention of the Committee on Political Education was held May 8. Delegates representing WSLC-affiliated unions voted on endorsements for statewide and legislative offices and ballot measures. The list of endorsements is available online as a one-page list (PDF) or in HTML format, or by fax or traditional mail by calling (206) 281-8901.

Members of the Graduate Student Employee Action Coalition/United Auto Workers (GSEAC/UAW Local 4121), the union representing 4,600 academic student employees (ASEs) at the University of Washington, have voted overwhelmingly to ratify a historic first tentative agreement reached between the union and the university on May 21. The contract includes guaranteed wage increases for all ASEs, improvements to health insurance coverage, strong workload and non-discrimination/ harassment protections, and provisions for protection of job rights and contract enforcement through neutral, third-party arbitration.

“This is a great day for us,” said Amanda Rychel, a teaching and research assistant in the Biology Department. “We have been working for this for a long time.” GSEAC/UAW was certified as the bargaining representative in early April after ASEs voted in favor of the union in a representation election. This certification capped a 4-year campaign by ASEs at UW to win the right to collective bargaining.

The 9-month WestFarm-Darigold lockout of some 200 members of Teamsters Local 66 ended May 26 as union members voted 101-43 to accept a 3-year contract. The union did not recommend the contract, said Teamsters International Vice President Garnett Zimmerman, “but people have been out a long time, and they’re hurting.” The deal requires workers to return to their jobs within seven days and will involve some cost-sharing on both sides.

The company locked out the workers at their dairy-processing plants in Issaquah and Seattle on Aug. 30, 2003, after employees rejected a contract proposal. The National Labor Relations Board had accepted the union’s complaint that the lockout was illegal and that the company had refused to bargain in good faith; the NLRB scheduled a hearing for July. But as part of the contract agreement, those charges were dropped. “I don’t think that either one of us has won,” said John Faver, an 18-year WestFarm employee.

The United Food and Commercial Workers and Puget Sound-area grocers continue negotiations for a new contract covering some 16,000 workers. The contract expired May 2, but negotiators have agreed to extend the contract on a meeting-to-meeting basis, and bargaining sessions are scheduled into June.

At a May 12 rally in support of grocery workers outside a Seattle Safeway store, WSLC staffer Robby Stern was arrested after he sang his signature song, “Power to the People,” at the end of the peaceful gathering. Dozens of protesters then marched to the nearby police station where Stern was being held, and police eventually had to lock down their precinct office and cordon off a two-block area. Stern was later released without being charged and told a TV news crew, “I guess they didn’t want me to sing about affordable health care.”

Sen. Patty Murray announced May 6 that, in the face of aggressive community opposition, the Department of Veterans Affairs had dropped its plans to close its hospital at the Wainwright Medical Center in Walla Walla. Sen. Murray -- who led the fight to keep this important facility open and maintain our nation’s commitment to its veterans -- thanked Eastern Washington veterans groups, the American Federation of Government Employees and community groups that teamed up to oppose a closure. In April, Murray convened a special field hearing in Walla Walla of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and made a strong case that closure would be illegal, breaking a legal commitment to the facility made by Congress in 1987.

On May 25, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered a six-month delay in the controversial Boeing tanker deal to allow for two new studies. Boeing says the decision will not have any near-term impact on the 767 line in Everett, though it has just two dozen unfilled orders left. The delay was the second Rumsfeld has ordered since December. Analysts say the unusual lease-purchase plan—calling for the Air Force to lease 20 767-converted refueling tankers and buy an additional 80 planes—is now dead. But analysts also agree the studies ordered by Rumsfeld are likely to again confirm the necessity of replacing the aging tanker fleet, and that Boeing is still in the best position to win the contract over Airbus and other competitors.

House Republicans were given the opportunity to put their assurances in writing that no workers will lose overtime pay rights, but they refused. They blocked a measure similar to the one passed the preceding week by the Senate which guarantees workers who currently qualify for overtime pay will not lose that right under revised rules issued last month by the Bush administration. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell both voted to protect overtime pay.

But in a 222–205 party-line vote May 12 in the House, Republican Reps. George Nethercutt, Jennifer Dunn and “Doc” Hastings from Washington state all voted in support of Bush’s overtime takeaway and every Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation voted to guarantee overtime pay rights. Nethercutt, who is now running for U.S. Senate against Sen. Murray, has voted several times in support of Bush’s overtime pay grab. He even voted in support of Bush’s original overtime proposal, which was later retracted after it became clear that 8 million U.S. workers would lose overtime pay.

Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, scored a $9 billion profit last year while creating mostly poverty-wage jobs, killing small businesses that provide good middle-class jobs and fostering sprawl. At the same time, the corporate giant has devoured more than $1 billion in economic development subsidies—that’s taxpayer dollars—to build its stores and warehouses, according to a report released May 24 from Good Jobs First, a nonprofit research group.