Labor Notes - Stewards Corner feed

Laying the Groundwork Before You Run

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:59:33 -0400

Author(s):
Chris Kutalik

Excerpt:

Your mother might have been right about that old “try-and-try-until- you-succeed” saw. That is certainly the case for the victory of Teamsters (IBT) reformers at Local 743 in Chicago. . . .

Body:

Members of the 12,000-member Teamsters Local 743 launched a reform movement a decade and a half ago. Their New Leadership Slate swept to victory last October. Photo: New Leadership Slate

Your mother might have been right about that old “try-and-try-until-you-succeed” saw. That is certainly the case for the victory of Teamsters (IBT) reformers at Local 743 in Chicago.

Late last October, the New Leadership Slate swept to victory over the incumbents. It was the fourth election in over a decade’s time in which Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU)-affiliated reformers had tried to oust the old guard in the 12,000-member local.

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A New Contract and a New Kind of Steward

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 23:09:35 -0500

Author(s):
Hetty Rosenstein

Excerpt:

More than two years ago, the Communications Workers, told New Jersey CWA locals that the union was beginning an organizing drive for the state’s 12,000 home childcare workers. The plan was to get assistance from ACORN community organizers and knock on 12,000 doors....

Body:

More than two years ago CWA Local 1037 began organizing thousands of home child care workers in New Jersey. The drive started much the way it has in other states—but ended in a victory for new kind of home care workers union that focuses on building active members. Photo: CWA Local 1037.

More than two years ago, the Communications Workers (CWA), told New Jersey CWA locals that the union was beginning an organizing drive for the state’s 12,000 home childcare workers. The plan was to get assistance from ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) community organizers and knock on 12,000 doors.

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Setting Up No-Match Action Networks

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:25:00 -0500

Author(s):
Jerry Mead-Lucero

Excerpt:

When the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced in August a policy that gave employers a freer hand to punish workers with mismatched social security numbers, a committee of unions, workers’ centers, and immigrant rights groups in Chicago swung into action. . . .

Body:

Mike Konopacki. Click for pop-up.

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Using the Airwaves to Educate & Mobilize

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 13:04:27 -0400

Author(s):
Tiffany Ten Eyck

Excerpt:

If you happen to be scanning the radio dial near two unique towns in the United States, you could stumble across something unusual: FM radio run by and for farmworkers. In Woodburn, Oregon and south central Florida, farmworkers have added low-power community radio to their organizing arsenal. . . .

Body:

To set up their radio stations, the two organizations—Oregon’s Northwest Treeplanters and Farmworkers United (PCUN) and Florida’s Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)—called on Prometheus Radio Project.

The non-profit helps low-wage communities set up radio stations and learn the technical aspects of keeping a radio station alive. Called “low-power” radio because the signal does not travel as far as commercial outlets, the stations target the communities they serve, with a range of five to seven miles.

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Youth Committees Involve Young Members

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 16:25:16 -0400

Author(s):
Tiffany Ten Eyck

Excerpt:

When Cami Automotive in Ingersoll, Ontario hired 500 new employees, Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 88 wanted to make sure it had a plan to get the new hires, many of them under 30 and starting their first union jobs, involved in the union. . . .

Body:

Local 88 leaders came up with an inspired answer: start a youth committee. According to Local 88 President and Labor Notes Policy Committee member Cathy Austin, “The original concept was to get a youth committee started and if that was successful, to get a youth member-at-large on the union’s executive board.”

WINNING THE UNION OVER

Not everyone in the union was enthusiastic about the idea at first. “There was a lot of debate in the union and quite the debate on the floor,” said Austin. “In the beginning people asked, ‘Why do they need a special committee? I never had a youth committee.”

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How To Build Ties with Immigrant Workers

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 18:26:26 -0400

Author(s):
Dan La Botz

Excerpt:

You probably already know that immigrant workers want pretty much the same things any unionized worker wants. A decent job. A living wage. Respect and trust. Some measure of control over their lives.

The other thing you should know is. . . .

Body:

Editor’s Note: As debates around immigration policy continue throughout the U.S., immigrant workers play increasingly important roles in the labor movement. Despite their growing numbers and their willingness to fight for respect and power on the job and in their communities, immigrants are not always welcomed by unions. Even when unions try to reach out to immigrants, cultural barriers of many sorts can stand in the way. This excerpt from A Troublemaker’s Handbook 2 provides some basic advice for union officers and activists who are new to working with immigrant members.

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Using the Web to Get Out Labor’s Message

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 07:13:40 -0400

Author(s):
Eric Lee and Derek Blackadder

Excerpt:

Most unions still do not fully exploit the Internet. The vast majority of U.S. union members have never received an email from their union. Chances are though that most union members are online in a big way—and they expect anyone or anything that lays claim to their interest or loyalty to be online. If your union isn’t, that could be a problem. . . .

Body:

Most unions still do not fully exploit the Internet. The vast majority of U.S. union members have never received an email from their union.

Chances are though that most union members are online in a big way—and they expect anyone or anything that lays claim to their interest or loyalty to be online. If your union isn’t, that could be a problem.

The website LabourStart is one activist resource that can help. Indeed, that’s one of the reasons LabourStart exists: to encourage unions to use the Internet and spread the word about labor’s online innovations and successes.

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Bargaining Tactics for Pensions

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 06:42:55 -0400

Author(s):
David Cohen

Excerpt:

The retirement system in our country is under attack. Everyday we hear of large corporations terminating their defined benefit pension plans and replacing them with 401k or other defined contribution plans that will provide employees with a lower standard of living when they retire. . . .

Body:

In every recent United Electrical Workers (UE) negotiation, whether in the private or public sector, the workers have faced demands to pay more for health insurance and to take cuts in their pension plans. Our response has been to step up our educational programs for members on how to bargain, fight for, and defend pensions and health insurance.

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Stewards Corner: Running a Multi-Pronged Contract Campaign

Mon, 28 May 2007 08:39:33 -0400

Author(s):
John Braxton, Karen Schermerhorn

Excerpt:

Can strikes work for public employee unions in 2007, when public treasuries are stretched thin? The 1,300 faculty and staff at Community College of Philadelphia answered that question with a clear “Yes!” in a recent two-week strike. . . .

Body:

Besides winning better wages, a two-week strike at the Community College of Philadelphia resulted in a new group of rank-and-file activists and a new sense of unity. Photo: John Majewicz.

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Winning Sick Leave at the Citywide Level

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 22:33:06 -0400

Author(s):
Young Workers United

Excerpt:

Young Workers United, a multi-racial San Francisco organization of young and immigrant workers, won an historic November victory when they achieved citywide paid sick day legislation. . . .

Body:

Young Workers United (YWU), a multi-racial San Francisco organization of young and immigrant workers, won an historic November victory when they achieved citywide paid sick day legislation.

Voters approved Prop F for Paid Sick Days by 61 percent on November 7, 2007, making San Francisco the first and only place in the nation where workers are guaranteed the right to a paid sick day for themselves and their families.

The paid sick days ordinance represents another step towards raising standards in the low-wage, non-union service sector in San Francisco.

Young Workers United works with young people in restaurants and on campuses to improve their working conditions. Matt Garron, a YWU member and bartender said, “There have been times when I’ve been sick and dragged myself to work anyway. It was a choice between my health and my rent. Nobody should have to make that choice.”

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Fighting for Domestic Partner Benefits

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 15:33:57 -0400

Author(s):
Julie Robert and Helen Ho

Excerpt:

When Michigan voters went to the polls in November 2004, they were asked to consider Proposal 2, which asked whether “the union of one man and one woman in marriage shall be the only agreement recognized as a marriage or similar union for any purpose.” To most voters, Proposal 2 was about restricting the legal definition of marriage to union between a man and a woman. Many underestimated the importance of the proposal’s seemingly benign phrase, “for any purpose." . . .

Body:

Proposal 2 passed, and although supporters of the amendment insisted that it would not affect domestic partner benefits (which allow lesbian, gay, and transgender couples to receive health coverage through their partner’s benefit plans), the right to these benefits was quickly challenged in court.

Available Online:
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Labor-Community Coalitions That Work

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 00:31:45 -0500

Author(s):
Greg Asbed, Lucas Benitez

Excerpt:

When you read about building coalitions, it can almost sound easy, like part of a do-it-yourself organizing recipe. You find a chapter titled something like “Building Effective Coalitions,” read a few general rules, check out a couple of examples from successful campaigns, and off you go to call churches, community groups, and other like-minded organizations to build a coalition around your campaign. . . .

Body:

It’s never that easy.

FULL PLATES

The toughest part of building a coalition around your campaign is the fact that it’s your campaign. In today’s world, just about any organization, especially if it’s a labor organization, has more than enough on its own plate to keep it busy, much less take on your campaign too.

Available Online:
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Dealing with ‘No-Match’ Letters

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 02:25:17 -0500

Author(s):
Dan La Botz

Excerpt:

Although lack of legal status does not technically prevent workers from exercising their right to organize a union, it does give employers the opportunity to threaten workers who do. The threat of a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement can help keep workers from organizing. . . .

Body:

Another threat is the Social Security Administration (SSA), which has recently become more aggressive in monitoring phony Social Security numbers. When the SSA notices an error on a Social Security account, it sends a “no-match” letter to the employer stating that an employee’s number doesn’t match the administration’s database.

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Stewards Councils and Community Coalitions

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 12:57:55 -0500

Mon, 01 May 2006 18:20:04 -0400

Author(s):
Dan La Botz

Excerpt:

Management often goes after workers who appear to be weak or disadvantaged. Gregg Shotwell, who works at a Delphi auto parts plant in Coopersville, Michigan, tells how members protected one of their own...

Body:

“There was a woman in our department who had attention deficit disorder,” says Shotwell. “It made it difficult for her to learn new tasks. She was often late. She was a thorn in management's side.”

The supervisor monitored this worker--we'll call her Rosie--with constant questioning and criticism, which heightened her learning disability.

“She picked on Rosie because she was less able to defend herself,” says Shotwell. “It was cruel.”

Available Online:
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Working to Rule Builds Pressure from Within

Wed, 30 Nov 2005 20:24:56 -0500

Author(s):
Pam Galpern

Excerpt:

At Verizon, the largest phone company in the United States, the unions chose a work-to-rule strategy to fight extreme concession demands in 2003...

Body:

At Verizon, the largest phone company in the United States, the unions chose a work-to-rule strategy to fight extreme concession demands in 2003.

Partly this was because management was itching for a strike. While the unions had been mobilizing, they weren't nearly as prepared as the company, which had lined up non-union call centers to take over customer service and 30,000 managers and scabs to do installation and repairs. Verizon had hired extra security to monitor strikers and had reportedly reserved eight months' worth of hotel rooms.

So staying on the job would reverse the balance of power, in a way. The company's strike preparations were costing millions each day, but since the union could still call a strike at any moment, Verizon had to keep its expensive contingency plan in place.Meanwhile, the unions--the Communications Workers and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers--could pressure the company from the inside while preparing to strike if necessary.

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