[Dryerase] The Alarm!--Labor Bits 11-15-02

[The Alarm!Newswire]

Labor Bits  11-15-02

By Fhar Miess
The Alarm! Newspaper Collective

Boston janitors win contract
After four weeks of walkouts, nightly parades, civil disobedience and 
mass demonstrations, Service Employees’ International Union (SEIU) 
local 615 (formerly local 254) has settled on a new contract with 
cleaning maintenance companies. The new contract, announced October 23, 
increases the number of janitors with health benefits by 1,000 
(bringing the total to 2,900 out of 10,700 covered under the contract), 
provides sick days for all janitors and increases wages by 30% over the 
five-year life of the contract.

Some janitors and supporters are expressing opposition to the contract, 
noting that it leaves almost 8,000 janitors without health coverage. 
The two sick days negotiated were fewer than the five expected and the 
30% wage increase still leaves wages at $13.10 per hour compared to $17 
for New York City janitors.

The contract was ratified November 9 by a vote of 622 to 103, 
indicating an exceptionally low voter turnout below 7%. Many janitors, 
supporters and union officials consider the contract a qualified 
victory that makes a step toward improved quality of life while 
fostering the collective action and solidarity of workers previously 
alienated from unionism by an undemocratic union leadership. The SEIU 
local has been reorganized since this corruption.

UMass organizing
Part of the windfall of the Boston janitors’ campaign was an increased 
solidarity between students and workers. That solidarity is carrying 
over as workers and students at the 28 campuses across the University 
of Massachusetts system organize for funding of their contracts. 
Separate contracts are negotiated for each union and the governor 
generally signs off the funding of these contracts. Acting 
Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift this time vetoed pay increases, 
prompting 200 rank-and-file workers at UMass Amherst on November 6 to 
urge the Trustees of the university system to get their contracts 
funded. They threatened a walkout if the contracts are not funded. All 
of the union workers are working under the coalition Higher Education 
Unions United, representing an unprecedented system-wide coordination. 
Students also protested, demanding the restoration of affirmative 
action at the university.

Dissension mounts in the ranks of the PMA
At 4 a.m. on November 1, International Longshore and Warehouse Union 
(ILWU) negotiators reached a tentative agreement on the technology 
issue with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents 
shipping and stevedoring companies at West Coast ports. The union 
called the agreement a major victory and claimed that “we had 
bottom-line concerns about jurisdiction and the employers met those 
concerns.” The details of the technology package, however, are not 
being released until the entire contract package is negotiated. A 
“press blackout”—suggested by the federal mediator—was agreed to by the 
PMA and ILWU. Some, such as Andrea Cappannari and Rafael Azul, writing 
for the World Socialist Website, consider the deal a major concession 
to employers.

Apparently, one or several companies under the umbrella of the PMA also 
consider the deal a concession on their own side. The Journal of 
Commerce reported that “A faction of employers who strongly opposed the 
concession were outvoted by another group within the PMA,” citing 
sources within the PMA.

The ILWU has suggested that contract negotiations are presently at a 
standstill and are being sabotaged because of internal dissent in the 
PMA. In particular, they blame Stevedoring Services of America, the 
largest stevedoring company in the US. In a statement to its members on 
November 7, the ILWU claimed, “though the article does not mention SSA 
by name, it is clear that the ‘faction’ is led by, if not solely 
comprised of that company.”

ILWU official and rank-and-file have consistently accused the SSA of 
holding a hard line against the union.

Meanwhile the union has also filed a Freedom of Information Act request 
with the Bush administration for documents detailing meetings between 
management of shippers and members of the West Coast Waterfront 
Coalition, an organization representing shippers, global traders and 
retailers. The ILWU has accused the government of collusion with 
industry leaders in an effort to break the union.

Grain workers struggle against elevator operators
Around 80 workers who have been picketing a grain elevator in Prince 
Rupert, British Columbia were ordered back to work on November 9 after 
a hearing of the Grain Workers Union (GWU) with the Canadian Labor 
Relations Board (CLRB). The workers initially went on strike in August 
when some of the 700 fellow unionists locked out by the BC Terminal 
Elevator Operators Association in Vancouver set up an informational 
picket at the Prince Rupert facility. The secondary strike was 
initially declared illegal and the workers were ordered back to work, 
but the workers returned to the picket line after that decision was 
reversed by courts in early November with a determination that the 
unionists work for the same employer. Despite the court victory, just 
days later, GWU leadership ordered workers back to the job in exchange 
for an expedited hearing with employers in front of the CLRB. The GWU 
is seeking a hearing before the end of the peak grain harvesting 
season, but many rank-and-file workers expressed through on-line forums 
that they hold little faith in the CLRB and prefer to make their 
demands directly to the employer through strike action. They have been 
fighting for seniority rights and against mandatory overtime and the 
threatened loss of over 200 jobs if the company goes ahead with a plan 
to introduce nonunion hiring practices. Some unionists have suggested 
that the workers decertify the GWU and join the more militant ILWU, 
which represents other workers at the elevator terminals.

Unions make concessions to United Airlines
The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) offered $2.2 billion in 
concessions, including an 18% pay cut, to UAL Corporation, which owns 
United Airlines, on behalf of its 8,800 pilots. United Airlines, the 
second largest US airline, calls itself an employee-owned company 
because most of its employees own stock through its Employee Stock 
Ownership Plans (ESOPs). The company is seeking a total of $5.8 billion 
in concessions from its three unions—ALPA, Association of Flight 
Attendants (AFA) and International Association of Machinists (IAM)—in 
order to gain approval from the Bush Administration’s Airline 
Transportation Stabilization Board (ATSB) for $2 billion in 
federally-backed loans. The company needs the money to avoid bankruptcy.

ALPA’s union members will need to ratify the deal this week for it to 
go through.

The AFA also offered a tentative settlement of $412 million in 
concessions, the details of which have not been released.

A settlement from the IAM is the wild card. The union withdrew from 
joint negotiations with the other two unions, deciding to settle on its 
own.

IAM members own 20% of UAL stock and ALPA members own 25%. AFA never 
accepted the employee buy-out plan of 1994. Ten percent of the 
company’s stock is owned by non-union salaried workers in the firm. If 
UAL declares bankruptcy, the unions would lose their equity in the 
company, as well as their two seats on the UAL board of directors.

In the face of possible bankruptcy, the workers are already losing some 
of their equity. State Street Bank & Trust Company, which was hired by 
the unions to manage their ESOPs, has begun selling off as many as 
eleven million of the 58 million shares held by workers. The investment 
management company claimed to be protecting the workers’ pension plans, 
to the protest of ALPA and IAM officials and rank-and-file.
 
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