------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the June 10, 2004 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
ON THE PICKET LINE
SBC WORKERS DEFEND JOBS FROM OUTSOURCING
It took only four days on the picket line for the 100,000 workers at SBC Communi cations, the second-biggest phone company in the country, to win their strike on May 25.
One of the big issues for the Com munications Workers members, who work for SBC in 13 states, was job security. SBC, which garnered profits of $8.5 billion last year, has cut more than 20,000 union jobs over the past three years. The five-year contract guarantees no layoffs of workers now on the payroll and the rehiring of several hundred already laid-off. SBC also agreed to work with the union to bring back jobs it had outsourced abroad.
Workers will receive average raises of 2.3 percent a year and lump sums of $300 a year. Other key issues in the strike were healthcare costs-- SBC wanted workers and retirees to pay more out of pocket--and pension improvements. The union reports that "health care benefits continue to be fully paid by SBC" but "there are some increases in co-payments for medical services and prescription drugs. ... Pensions will increase 13 percent over the contract term." The workers will vote on the contract in June.
CHILD CARE WORKERS THREATEN WALKOUT
State County and Municipal Employees District Council 1707, representing 7,000 child-care workers in New York City, has announced it will strike June 9-11. The union held a one-day strike in February 2003. The teachers, cooks, custodians and supervisorswomen--at 350 private centers financed by the city voted overwhelmingly on May 18 to stage the walkout. They have not received a raise in four years. Mayor Michael Bloom berg claims the city has no money for raises.
LABOR UNREST AT WALL STREET JOURNAL
Staff writers and other workers at the Wall Street Journal did something unprecedented in early April. For the first time in the newspaper's history they set up a picket line to let the world know that the mouthpiece of corporate America is unfair to its workers.
In January members of the Inde pen dent Association of Publishers' Employ ees, a company union that recently affiliated with the Newspaper Guild, were offered a contract with a wage freeze and a huge hike in healthcare costs. The workers rejected the contract nine to one.
In April Dow Jones, which owns the Journal, issued a statement to its shareholders reporting that Journal executives had received bonuses totaling $5 million. The workers calculated that the $5 million would just cover the increase in their healthcare costs. So they hit the bricks.
Labor unrest stalking the hallways of the Wall Street Journal may not change its editorial viewpoint, but it's a textbook example of how corporate greed leads to labor consciousness and to struggle.
HUNGER STRIKE SUPPORTS TACO BELL BOYCOTT
In early April Tony Rivas, a student at Notre Dame University and the son of a farm worker, launched a seven-day hunger strike in support of the third anniversary of the Taco Bell boycott organized by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
Students at Notre Dame have contributed to the boycott for several years by demanding that the university sever an endorsement arrangement with Taco Bell and its athletic department. The campaign at Notre Dame is a powerful example of student organizing. To learn more about the struggle, go to the CIW's website, www.ciw-online.org.
BOYCOTT GALLO WINES
On April 23, the 11th anniversary of Cesar Chavez's death, the United Farm Workers issued a call for supporters to again boycott Gallo wines to help the workers win a new contract.
The legendary UFW founder called a boycott of Gallo wines in 1973 after Gallo refused to renegotiate a contract with the UFW. By 1975, a nationwide Louis Harris poll showed millions of people in the United States were boycotting Gallo wines in support of the UFW.
Now a new generation of the Gallo family is refusing to provide healthcare coverage and other basic benefits for 75 percent of their work force. Last December, a California judge ruled that Gallo had illegally tried to get rid of the UFW. To find out more about how to help the UFW's struggle, go to www.unionvoice.org.
CLASS ACTION SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASE
More than 2,000 women, both current and former employees of C.H. Robinson Worldwide, a freight logistics company based in Minnesota, are plaintiffs in a sexual discrimination and harassment case against the company. They filed a motion May 28 to turn the case into a class action.
Not only did the company systematically discriminate against the women in promotions and pay, but it permitted a hostile work environment. For example, men sent pornography to one another by email and inappropriately touched and propositioned women workers.
SCREENWRITERS REFUSE STUDIOS' OFFER
Four days after the May 1 expiration of their contract, screenwriters in the Writers Guild of America called the Hollywood studios' three-year offer "unacceptable." Not only would screenwriters' healthcare benefits be cut, but the studios didn't offer any increases in royalties in the highly lucrative DVD and videocassette market. There was also no provision for royalties on Internet sales or for the status of writers on television reality shows.
The guild is considering deferring further negotiations until 2005, which the Screen Actors Guild did earlier this year. By adopting the same strategy, the Writers Guild hopes to combine its negotiating power with that of the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America, whose contract also expires next year. That follows the old labor adage: In unity there is strength.
--Sue Davis
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
