©2001 San Francisco Chronicle Wednesday, June 20, 2001 Low-wage workers win health care coverage Commission vote final step in process Kathleen Sullivan, Staff Writer San Francisco -- Less than two months after it was proposed, a landmark San Francisco law requiring city contractors and leaseholders to offer health care to employees cleared its final hurdle. In a unanimous vote yesterday, the San Francisco Health Commission approved the minimum benefits all health plans must include under the ordinance -- the last step required to make the law a reality. The vote elicited a soft sprinkling of applause from a handful of supporters in the hearing room. The hearing represented the final round in a battle by the Bay Area Organizing Committee, a coalition of religious and labor groups, to get health care benefits for low-wage workers. "If you have to make a choice between paying high rent, buying food for the family and paying higher utility bills, health care is a cost that will get pushed to the back of the list," said supporter Barry Hermanson. Hermanson said low-wage workers often end up getting medical care in an emergency room, which is expensive. In the resolution it approved yesterday, the 7-member Health Commission said all health care plans must include the following criteria to comply with the new law: -- Employers must pick up 100 percent of premium costs for at least one health insurance plan they offer employees. -- Co-payments for outpatient services may not exceed $10. -- Plans will provide benefits in 16 areas, including office visits, perinatal/maternity care, prescription drugs, mental health counseling, physical therapy and hospice care. -- Employees must be covered 30 days after they start a job. Before the vote, Dr. Mitch Katz, director of the Department of Public Health, clarified one aspect of the new law that had raised questions in the business community by explaining that the ordinance requires employers to offer health care coverage, not provide it. If an employee already has medical insurance -- say, through a spouse or domestic partner -- an employer is not required to provide "double coverage," Katz said. Before the commission voted, Nathan Nayman, executive director of the Committee on Jobs, decried the new law as a burden to businesses that contradicts sound health care policy. "You are now demanding employers offer insurance to part-time workers, and the proposed regulations provide that these workers will not be required to share in the premium costs," Nayman said. "You are in fact creating a two- tiered health insurance program that is nothing short of discriminatory. You are creating an elite group of employees who will not have to pay premiums as do their colleagues." The new law -- known as the Health Care Accountability Act -- was proposed by Mayor Willie Brown and approved by the Board of Supervisors last month. It applies to nonprofit groups with more than 50 employees and for-profit businesses with more than 20 workers. About 16,000 uninsured people are expected to benefit from the new ordinance, which takes effect July 1. Businesses and nonprofit groups must comply with the law when they sign a new contract or lease, or renew existing ones. Companies with existing health care policies must bring their plans into compliance with the standards approved by the Health Commission within a year. This year, all employees working 20 hours a week or more will be covered. Next year, the threshold drops to 15 hours a week. E-mail Kathleen Sullivan at ksullivan@sfchronicle.com. ©2001 San Francisco Chronicle URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/06/20/MNW59701.DTL portside (the left side in nautical parlance) is a news, discussion and debate service of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. It aims to provide varied material of interest to people on the left. Post : mail to 'portside@egroups.com' Subscribe : mail to 'portside-subscribe@egroups.com' Unsubscribe : mail to 'portside-unsubscribe@egroups.com' List owner : portside-owner@egroups.com Web address : Digest mode : visit Web site FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Subscribe Address: LLNews-subscribe@igc.topica.com Unsubscribe Address: LLNews-unsubscribe@igc.topica.com ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://igc.topica.com/u/?b1ddaE.b2BEvS Or send an email To: LLNews-unsubscribe@igc.topica.com This email was sent to: labornet@igc.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================ NEWS from the North American Regional Office of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions Kenneth S. Zinn, North American Regional Coordinator Tel: (202) 842-7892/Fax: (202) 842-7801 ILWU Reaches New Contract at Rio Tinto Facility For Immediate Release WASHINGTON, D.C., June 21– Local 20 of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) reached an agreement on a new collective bargaining contract with Rio Tinto’s U.S. Borax subsidiary earlier this week at the company’s Los Angeles harbor borates warehouse and processing facility. The union reports substantial gains were won in pensions, wage increases and job guarantees for all its members for the life of the contract. The ILWU was assisted by the ICEM Rio Tinto Global Union Network in support of its bargaining demands. A rally in support of the ILWU workers of over 1000 people was held at the Los Angeles harbor on April 27 coinciding with a rally held on the same day in Sydney, Australia by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and other union supporters at Rio Tinto’s annual shareholders meeting. Both the ILWU and the CFMEU are affiliated to the ICEM. “ILWU Local 20 would like to thank the entire Rio Tinto network,” said Local 20 president Gary Harvey. “ILWU Local 13 (representing more than 7,000 longshore workers in the Los Angeles/Long Beach harbor area) provided critical support along with all of the ILWU locals and the ILWU international office. “Following the rallies in Los Angeles and Australia, the company started bargaining in better faith,” he said. ILWU Local 30 representing US Borax borates mine workers in Boron, Calif. will begin its negotiations for a new agreement with the company in late August. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Further information on the North American activities of the ICEM can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.icemna.org. ------------------------ Special from THE PROGRESSIVE POPULIST www.populist.com July 15th issue ============================= Burying Health Care in "Supervisors": The Supremes Screw Unions Once Again ============================== By Nathan Newman The recent Supreme Court decision, NLRB v. Kentucky River Community Care, got little play in the news, but it is one of the more devastating decisions for health care organizing in recent years. For years, hospitals have tried to undermine union organizing of nurses by giving registered nurses nominal supervisory duties with no real power, then claiming those nurses were supervisors and therefore ineligible for unionization under the law. The provision barring supervisors from union protections dates back to the passage in 1947 of the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act. The goal then was mainly to exclude foremen and others lower-level managers with hire-and-fire responsibilities from being in the same unions with those they were disciplining. Professionals were specifically designated as retaining their right to unionize. But in recent years as the Supreme Court has turned more conservative, it has increasingly defined more professional skills as "supervisory" and limited union protections for a range of workers. The Clinton-appointed National Labor Relations Board had made a strong pro-union ruling in Kentucky River Community Care that where nursing professionals had no power to discipline, fire or hire other employees, nurses using "ordinary professional or technical judgment in directing less-skilled employees" would not be classified as supervisors since they were exercising their judgement for the benefit of patients not employers. Despite the union winning its election, the employer refused to bargain with the union involved and appealed to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. The 6th Circuit overturned the decision of the NLRB in 1999 and the Supreme Court on May 29th of this year, by the usual 5-4 split between conservatives and liberal Justices, affirmed the decision to bar unionization of registered nurses with even nominal oversight of other nurses. As the four liberal Court dissenters noted, the nurses in question had "no authority to take any action if the employee refuse[d] their directives" yet the Court denied them all protection of labor law. Justice Stevens excortiated the rightwing majority, writing: "However, in a tour de force supported by little more than ipse dixit [mere assertion], the Court concludes that no deference is due the Board's evaluation of the kind of judgment that professional employees exercise...The Court's approach finds no support in the text of the statute, and is inconsistent with our case law." One immediate result of the decision was the American Medical Association dropping its recently formed plan to seek unionization of doctors in the 4,000 private hospitals across the country. "The recent Supreme Court decision ... will almost certainly make it more difficult, if not impossible, for most employed physicians in the private sector to use collective negotiations as an advocacy tool for addressing important patient-care and workplace concerns with their employers," said AMA board member Dr. Donald Palmisano. The result of this Supreme Court decision is to leave registered nurses, doctors and many other professionals unprotected by labor law. Beyond just denying union rights to those employees, it allows management to threaten them with termination if they do not assist in breaking unionization by other nurses and health care workers they work with. Dividing the workforce has been the key tool of union-busters in the last few decades, from using supervisors against line workers, bringing in temp workers and independent contractors, and subcontracting work to undermine worker unity in the workforce. In a sense, this decision just ratifies the petty managerial bureaucracy that enmeshes workers in the United States. Around twenty percent of US jobs are officially devoted to management, whereas other countries (e.g. Germany, Japan, and the Scandinavian countries) devote only five percent of their jobs to watching other workers. As writer David Gordon noted in his aptly titled book on the US workplace, FAT AND MEAN, the typical employer takes the attitude: "Can't trust your workers when left to their own devices? Peer over their shoulders. Watch behind their backs. Record their movements. Monitor them. Supervise them. Boss them. Above all else, don't leave them alone." Wages go down, unions get busted, morale goes down, petty oversight goes up. And anti-union courts just keep handing new tools to management to keep the process going. The political point here is that elections do matter for workers. For those who say the Supreme Court makes little difference or having a Democrat-controlled Labor Board makes little difference, this decision just highlights why they do. The Taft-Hartley law dates back to the last time the Republicans had a filibuster-proof majority and it has been used aggressively in recent years against workers by Reagan and Bush Pere appointees to the courts. And, notably, it was the Clinton-appointed NLRB that for much of the last decade kept battling those courts, seeking rulings to expand the union rights of temp workers, hospital interns, graduate student instructors, and professionals. With NAFTA, welfare reform and other rightwing policies by Clinton, its easy to ignore the pragmatic reasons why unions and other workers advocates still see such real differences between the parties on labor issues. But when it comes to the most basic union issue of whether whole classes of workers have the right to unionize, the differences between the parties could not be starker. No matter what the politicians or courts do, organizing will go on. But the Supreme Court just made it a lot tougher. Nathan Newman is a longtime union and community activist, a National Vice President of the National Lawyers Guild and author of the forthcoming book NET LOSS on Internet policy and economic inequality. Email nathan@newman.org or see http://www.nathannewman.org. Subscribe Address: LLNews-subscribe@igc.topica.com Unsubscribe Address: LLNews-unsubscribe@igc.topica.com ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://igc.topica.com/u/?b1ddaE.b2BEvS Or send an email To: LLNews-unsubscribe@igc.topica.com This email was sent to: labornet@igc.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================ ------------------- ------- MONTH OF SOLIDARITY WITH KOREA WFTU Declaration: The World Federation of Trade Unions, in accordance with the resolution adopted by the 14th World Trade Union Congress, appeals to working people and trade unions in all countries to observe a Month of Solidarity with the Workers and People of Korea from 23 June to 25 July 2001. There is no peace and security for the workers and people of Korea since the United States continues to keep, o a Korean soil, its military bases with more than 40,000 troops and over one thousand nuclear weapons. Introducing new mass destruction weapons, the US is holding large-scale military exercises against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Tension in the Korean peninsula is accelerated by the decision of the Bush Administration of the USA to scrap the "DPRK-US Agreed Framework" and by announcing hostile policies against the DPRK while obstructing the process of peace, reconciliation and reunification of the Korean peninsula. The observance of the Month of Solidarity this year coincides with the positive results of North-South Summit in the capital of the DPRK, Pyongyang, and the agreement reached to make all efforts for the peaceful reunification of the country by the Korean people themselves. The WFTU wishes success to the Korean working people who are making great efforts to carry forward the aims of the North-South Joint Declaration and reunify the country as soon as possible. In this context, the WFTU considers it essential that effective steps are taken to reduce tensions in the Korean peninsula and, in particular, to ensure the immediate withdrawal of all US troops which have been occupying South Korea for over half a century. All provocative military exercises should be cancelled. The Korean peninsula should be declared as a nuclear-free zone. The arbitrary sanctions imposed by the USA and its allies against the DPRK should be lifted immediately. In the framework of the Month of Solidarity, the WFTU also appeals for the further strengthening of solidarity with the struggle of the working people of South Korea for their demands - trade union rights, democratic liberties and especially the abolition of the notorious "Security Law" which constitutes a gross violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: ccds_labor-unsubscribe@egroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ Subscribe Address: LLNews-subscribe@igc.topica.com Unsubscribe Address: LLNews-unsubscribe@igc.topica.com ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://igc.topica.com/u/?b1ddaE.b2BEvS Or send an email To: llNews-unsubscribe@igc.topica.com This email was sent to: labornet@igc.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================ ----------------- ************FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE************** ILWU Local 6 Members Protest Lack of Union Democracy at ILWU Headquarters WHEN: Wednesday, June 20 9:00 AM - 12:00 Noon WHERE: 1188 Franklin St. in San Francisco, between Geary and O'Farrell For the first time in the over sixty year history of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union, rank-and-file members decided they had to protest the International Executive Board for undermining union democracy and being unaccountable to the membership. Since late October, 2000, the members of ILWU Local 6, based in Oakland, have used every legal and constitutional means at their disposal repeatedly to rein in the excesses of Local 6 President Roberto Flotte, Secretary-Treasurer Hector Valdivia, and the union staff around them. The Flotte-Valdivia administration has suspended three of the union's six elected Business Agents. They have put the union's finances $300,000 in the red, earning a $50k fine from the IRS. The financial mismanagement of Local 6 became intolerable to the members when the administration brought four carloads of police to shut down a scheduled union meeting in order to serve a restraining order which was quickly proven completely baseless. Since then, they have cancelled every regularly scheduled union meeting and Local Executive Board meeting. They have attacked members at meetings who tried to hold them accountable, leaving one with broken ribs. Their opponents have had guns brandished at them. In secret meetings, Flotte and Valdivia have removed elected union Board members and Trustees, and have illegally extended their term of office to four years. In the face of all this, the membership has brought federal lawsuit, has delivered legitimate recall petitions on the union officers, has initiated the union's internal trial procedure, and has passed motion upon motion calling for the union to be governed by its constitution and bylaws, instead of political whim. All of this has yielded nothing. So in desperation the membership of Local 6 appealed to the ILWU International Union leadership, based in San Francisco, to intervene and restore democracy and dignity to Local 6. Rather than insisting that the union constitution has priority, or enforcing the legitimate will of the membership, or putting the local union under some sort of fiscal oversight, ILWU President Jim Spinosa has feigned fairness. Instead of justice, he's launched an internal trial procedure which has no basis in labor law, the union constitution, or its bylaws, but which does cost union members $10,000/week. In sum, ILWU President Spinosa has sacrificed the dignity and democratic traditions of our union in favor of his friends governing Local 6. We call upon him to stop his costly and bogus trial, and simply support the Local 6 membership. We have gone too long without our elected union representatives and our members are suffering at the hands of the employers without that representation. For more information, call ILWU local 6 Shop Steward Buddy Trujillo at 415-225-5164 Subscribe Address: LLNews-subscribe@igc.topica.com Unsubscribe Address: LLNews-unsubscribe@igc.topica.com ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://igc.topica.com/u/?b1ddaE.b2BEvS Or send an email To: LLNews-unsubscribe@igc.topica.com This email was sent to: labornet@igc.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================ ------------------ Nurse Strikers Surround Scabs 1. Striking nurses surround vans of out-of-state replacements 2. What the Community Can Do To Support the Brockton Hospital Nurses ================================ Striking nurses surround vans of out-of-state replacements by Sarah Ovaska, The Patriot Ledger June 15, 2001 QUINCY - Singing the words to Twisted Sister's "We¹re Not Gonna Take It," striking Brockton Hospital nurses held signs and surrounded vans filled with replacement workers near the Marriott hotel in the Crown Colony office park. About 20 nurses yesterday encouraged drivers to sound their horns in support of striking nurses and held signs that read "Scabs go home" and "Scabs at the Marriott." More than 200 out-of-state replacement workers are staffing Brockton Hospital during the strike. Some replacement nurses are staying at the Marriott, said Robert Hughes, the vice president of Brockton Hospital. The nurses went on strike May 25. They had been working without a contract since September. Vans with replacement nurses stopped as the nurses held signs up to windows near the entrance to the Marriott yesterday. Some of the striking nurses also tried to take pictures of the replacement nurses to post on a web site about the strike, said David Falk of Stoughton, a Brockton Hospital nurse. During negotiations Tuesday, hospital administrators didn't offer the nurses enough, said Charlene Poliseno of Hanover, a 17-year registered nurse at Brockton Hospital. "They had nothing to offer us," she said. "Hopefully, we'll go back (to negotiate) again soon." Hughes agreed that no progress was made at talks but said the hospital had offered nurses what they have requested. "The strike could end quickly," he said. "We've given the nurses everything they've asked for." He said the Brockton Hospital nurses were highly skilled and the highest paid in the region. The nurses disagreed with Hughes' assessment of the talks. "The key piece is that we need some guarantee of staffing," said Tina Russell, co-chairman of the strikers' bargaining unit. "The lack of staffing is driving the mandatory overtime." Negotiations probably won't resume for at least a week, said Julie Pinkham, the executive director of the Massachusetts Nursing Association, the nurses' union. The response from drivers to the picketers yesterday was an encouraging sign that the public is aware and supportive, several nurses said. "Even outside the Brockton community people understand what all about," said Karen Higgins of Weymouth, a nurse at Boston Medical Center. Higgins has been picketing with the Brockton nurses because she agrees with their cause and wants hospital administrators to know that nurses object to mandatory overtime. "We know the issue" of understaffing and mandatory overtime, Higgins said. "We want the practice stopped." ================================== FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. we believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. ================================== What the Community Can Do To Support the Brockton Hospital Nurses The Brockton Hospital nurses are very grateful for all the tremendous support and encouragement we have received from the community, not only in Brockton, but from the general public throughout the Commonwealth and from throughout the nation. It is clear that the public understands that the issues we are fighting for ­ safe patient care and safe working conditions ­ are their issues as well. The nurses are seeking a commitment by this hospital to hire and retain the staff needed to take care of patients safely, without forcing nurses to work overtime when they are too fatigued or ill to provide safe nursing care. Many have asked what they can do to support the nurses. Here are some suggestions: * Call, fax or email Brockton Hospital CEO Norman Goodman. Tell him you support the nurses and their stand in these contract negotiations. Tell him to get back to the table and settle this contract NOW. Phone # 508-941-7002; Fax # 508-941-6100; Email info@brocktonhospital.com. * Call, fax Brockton Hospital Board of Trustees Chairman Fred C. Petti. He has refused to meet with the nurses to discuss their concerns. Tell him you support the nurses and their stand in these negotiations and urge him to allow a settlement of this contract. Phone # 508-565-1040; Fax # 508-565-1500. * Join the nurses on the picket line. Call the Brockton Nurses¹ strike office at 508-427-5833 to find out where and when you are most needed. If possible, organize groups of friends and colleagues to picket in large numbers. * Donate (and make checks payable) to the Brockton Hospital Nurses Strike Fund; mail them to Brockton Hospital Nurses¹ Strike Office, 707a Centre St., Brockton, MA 02302. * Tie a green ribbon around the old oak tree. People are wearing green ribbons (the color of Brockton Hospital) and/or tying green ribbons around car antennas, trees and poles outside their homes and businesses in support of the Brockton Hospital Nurses. * Organize an event or activity to draw attention to the nurses¹ plight. Groups are encouraged to organize events, demonstrations and other activities to support the nurses. However, call the strike office to find out what else is being planned to ensure your event does not conflict with other activities. * Bring food and beverages to the nurses on the strike line. * Picket for the nurses on Wednesday nights while they attend their weekly strike meeting. Brockton Strike Headquarters: Across from Brockton Hospital 707A Center Street, Brockton Phone: 508-427-5833 Fax: 508-427-5821 Directions to Brockton Hospital: From Points South: From Route 24 North Take exit 17A for Route 123 - Brockton (Cadillac Center will be on the right just off of the ramp). Continue straight on Route 123 approximately 2 miles to Main Street. At the traffic light on Main Street, take a left (this is a one way street). Proceed through 3 sets of traffic lights. At 4th traffic light, take a right onto Centre Street. Continue straight on Centre Street for about 1.5 miles (passing 3 sets of lights). Brockton Hospital will be on your left at 680 Centre Street, just after Dunkin Donuts. From Points North: Route 93 or 128 South to Route 24 South towards Brockton. Take exit 19A, Harrison Boulevard - Avon. Go to the end of Harrison Boulevard. Take a right onto Route 28 South. Follow to the intersection of Route 123 East and take a left onto 123. Follow for 1.5 miles. Brockton Hospital will be on your left at 680 Centre Street, just after Dunkin Donuts. From the Bridgewaters, Halifax and Middleboro: From Route 18 to Route 14 towards Brockton (intersection at Saftler's). Route 14 will intersect with Route 27 in Brockton. Take a left onto Route 27. At first set of traffic lights, take a right onto Quincy Street (across from Christo's). At the next set of traffic lights, take a left onto Centre Street (Route 123 West). Brockton Hospital will be on your right at 680 Centre Street. From Stoughton, Easton and Mansfield: From Route 138, Easton Take Route 123 East towards Brockton. Straight through 2 sets of lights (will pass over Route 24, Cadillac Center will be on right). Continue straight on Route 123 approximately 2 miles to Main Street. At the traffic light on Main Street, take a left (this is a one way street). Proceed through 3 sets of traffic lights. At 4th traffic light, take a right onto Centre Street. Continue straight on Centre Street for about 1.5 miles (passing 3 sets of lights). Brockton Hospital will be on your left at 680 Centre Street, just after Dunkin Donuts. ------------------------- Parking for Picketing and Strike Office: The best place to park for picketing and visits to the strike office is further down the road from the hospital at the old Maple Alley bowling ally behind Old Jake's Pharmacy. In the evening, park on the street near strike office. PLEASE DO NOT park in Old Jakes' Pharmacy's parking lots, cars will be towed!!!! ------------------------- Communicate: Messages of support may be sent to the nurses of Brockton Hospital c/o mna@mnarn.org. ------------------------ Editor¹s Note: For the most thorough background and current information on the Brockton Hospital nurses¹ strike, go to the web site of the Massachusetts Nurses Association . ------------------------ portside (the left side in nautical parlance) is a news, discussion and debate service of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. It aims to provide varied material of interest to people on the left. Post : mail to 'portside@egroups.com' Subscribe : mail to 'portside-subscribe@egroups.com' Unsubscribe : mail to 'portside-unsubscribe@egroups.com' List owner : portside-owner@egroups.com Web address : Digest mode : visit Web site FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Subscribe Address: LLNews-subscribe@igc.topica.com Unsubscribe Address: LLNews-unsubscribe@igc.topica.com ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://igc.topica.com/u/?b1ddaE.b2BEvS Or send an email To: llnews-unsubscribe@igc.topica.com This email was sent to: labornet@igc.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================ --------------------- RANDOLPH HEASTER: Rail unions again consider merger By RANDOLPH HEASTER - Columnist Date: 06/18/01 22:15 Two rail unions with a contentious history have begun exploring a merger once again. The United Transportation Union and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers may examine the possibility of unifying under the right circumstances, officials from both unions said last week. This prompted the transportation union to cancel its recent campaign seeking to change the union affiliation of brotherhood members in the Kansas City Southern Railway Co. The transportation union called off its attempts to have Kansas City Southern's brotherhood members switch unions after the brotherhood's advisory board passed a resolution June 11 regarding the merger possibility. "As a result of the BLE's resolution, we stopped our solicitation of their members," said Paul C. Thompson, assistant president of United Transportation Union International. "Hopefully, the end result will be that we'll find a way to get a merger done." No dates have been set to renew merger talks, but Thompson said he expected sessions to begin by the end of the month. In a statement, the brotherhood said reopening the unification talks was contingent on each union stopping the raiding of the other's membership and both organizations providing updated financial information. In May 1999, the brotherhood's advisory board voted to discontinue merger talks because of "serious financial concerns." But the brotherhood last week said conditions had changed to allow an exploration of a merger. "We did what we thought was right for the BLE on May 8, 1999, and we are doing what is right for the BLE today," said Ed Dubroski, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers International's president. "The future of what we do will be in the hands of the members of both unions where it rightly belongs when that day comes." The transportation union, which generally represents conductors, switchmen and brakemen, has about 75,000 active members. The brotherhood, which mainly represents engineers, has about 40,000 active members. The two unions have a history of fighting legal battles over representation issues. But frosty relations appeared to warm earlier this year when the unions agreed to team with management of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad to address safety concerns. "I think this is a positive (development) for all of rail labor as well as all of the employees in the two bargaining units," Thompson said. Representation vote Nurses at Medical Center of Independence will have a chance next month to vote on whether they want union representation. The National Labor Relations Board has scheduled an election for July 2 and 3 for about 170 registered nurses at the Independence hospital. The election was set after the board ruled against Health Midwest, the parent company of Medical Center of Independence. Health Midwest had argued that the nurses at that hospital were part of a bigger group that included nurses at Independence Regional Health Center, another Health Midwest unit. The organizing campaign is being conducted by Nurses United for Improved Patient Care, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers. Nurses United currently represents nurses at two other Health Midwest facilities, Lee's Summit Hospital and Menorah Medical Center in Overland Park. In its statement, Health Midwest said Medical Center of Independence "recognizes that our employees have the right (under federal law) to choose whether they want the teachers' union to represent them or would prefer to retain the right to speak for themselves. We respect our employees' right to decide and are confident they will make an informed decision at the appropriate time." Nurses United has maintained that Health Midwest is conducting an anti-union campaign that ignores the best interests of its patients. Organizing labor Attorneys and labor activists will gather Saturday for Workers and the Law, a conference from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Plaza Library, 4801 Main St. Featured speakers will be Doug Bonney, a Kansas City labor and civil liberties lawyer, and Ed Bruno, New England regional organizer for the Labor Party. There also will be a panel of labor activists discussing case studies on how various sectors of the work force face legal hurdles to organize and engage in collective bargaining. The event is free, but those wishing to receive an information packet and box lunch are asked to preregister for $10. The event is sponsored by KCLabor.org. For more information, check the Web site -- www.kclabor.org -- or contact Bill Onasch at (816) 753-1672. To reach Randolph Heaster, call (816) 234-4746 or send e-mail to rheaster@kcstar.com. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All content © 2001 The Kansas City Star ======================================== Published Sunday, June 17, 2001, in the San Jose Mercury News Executive pay continues to outpace others' BY SHAWN NEIDORF Mercury News Ask Silicon Valley workers, and you'll get varying opinions about whether the pay gap separating top executives from the lowest-paid laborers is acceptable. While the pay gap between top and bottom employees has long been large, compensation for top managers is climbing far faster than it is for bottom-rung employees. The average pay package for executives at the valley's top 150 companies totaled $5.9 million in the fiscal year 2000 -- almost double the $3 million average in 1999. Janitors cleaning one valley company's offices made $18,179 last year while the chief executive made $157.3 million. John, an information-systems executive who works for a large Silicon Valley technology company, acknowledges that his years in business have dulled his idealism about meritocracy: He knows that it isn't always the smartest or hardest working person who rises to the top of the company -- and the pay scale. But in some cases, he thinks an executive is worth even more than he or she gets. He thinks that his own CEO, who built the company, compiling the management and technical teams, is underpaid. The CEO received total compensation in the neighborhood of $50 million last year. ``I'm probably a little bit underpaid, too, but it's not really that important to me,'' said John, who didn't want his last name used. He said he gets a $160,000 base salary, plus stock options and a bonus that can range from 10 percent to 70 percent of his salary, depending on company performance. Laurie, a $55,000-a-year researcher at biotech company Genencor, thinks quite differently than John. She's aggravated not just by executives' salaries but by the stock grants and perks, such as housing, they get on the side. ``It bothers me, but I don't really think I can do anything about it,'' she said. Most of the people she knows aren't too troubled by executive pay, she said. What makes her different, she figured, is her previous experience. Laurie, who also didn't want her last name used, was a high-school drop-out who worked in a variety of jobs, including working as an office manager for a start-up company. She then completed high school and earned a degree in biophysics before entering the biotech world. ``Part of the reason I'm different is I've actually worked for the president of a company. . . . I've seen it from a different aspect than they have.'' Rita Vargas, 22, has still another perspective. She works a check-out line at a Longs Drug store in Palo Alto, earning $10 an hour for a 30-hour work week. She then puts in another 25 hours each week at an Albertson's grocery store to chip away at the rent she and her construction-worker husband pay to live in Sunnyvale with their two children. So what does this financially strapped young wife and mother think about the sizable pay packages bestowed upon Bay Area executives such as former Oracle President Ray Lane, who had the largest haul with $234 million in cash and options gain in the last fiscal year? Not very much. ``It doesn't really matter to me,'' Vargas said, after pausing to consider the matter. Her sentiment was echoed by several other lower-wage workers in the Bay Area. It's not that low-wage workers wouldn't like bigger paychecks, labor experts say. Rather, it's that most of the time, they don't think about their income in relation to the pay of Silicon Valley's business elite. ``People, I think, are not going to get emotional about it unless something specific has happened in their lives that causes them to first become bitter about their own situation and then make a comparison,'' said Howard Zinn, a retired Boston University history professor who has written about the labor movement. An April 2000 Bureau of Labor Statistics study of Bay Area workers found their average hourly wage to be $22.06 an hour. Professionals with a specialty got much more: $34.82 an hour. Service workers averaged much less: $13.61. On the other end of the pay spectrum, executives at Silicon Valley's top 150 companies averaged $296,716 in base salary, plus $417,854 in bonuses and $5,093,952 in stock option gains in their companies' fiscal year 2000, according to Mercury News research. The difference between executive pay and workers' pay becomes a front-line issue during union organizing campaigns, labor disputes and living wage movements. The wage gap becomes a tool and an illustration, a succinct sound bite and a rallying point for frustrated workers. Salvador Bustamante is director of the San Jose office of Service Employees International Union Local 1877, which represents janitors. ``When we have our contract campaigns, we like to compare the earnings of our members . . . to the various CEOs for the corporations,'' Bustamante said. A contract janitor hired to clean Cisco's offices had been making $8.74 an hour but got a raise of 65 cents June 1. Cisco CEO John Chambers earned $1.32 million in cash and $157.3 million total for the last fiscal year. That means that Chambers' cash compensation was 73 times the janitor's pre-raise annual pay of $18,179, assuming a 40-hour work week. Chambers' total pay was 8,653 times a janitor's yearly income. And when it's brought to the forefront, that can rankle the rank and file, Bustamante said. ``They do care about it, because the difference is so vast people cannot really understand . . . if I work in these people's facilities, why can't I make enough money to even be able to afford the rent of an apartment?'' So why aren't low-paid workers marching up the estates of Woodside and Los Gatos to demand better pay from the wealthy corporate leaders? ``They're too tired, and they don't see any chance of succeeding,'' said James K. Galbraith, a professor of public affairs and government at University of Texas in Austin. Tom Palmer, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, thinks low-wage workers have more of a long-range optimism, particularly those who have immigrated to this country, that keeps them from revolting. ``People have a general sense in the United States that they can work hard and their lives can get better,'' Palmer said. ``If I'm a janitor now, it's unlikely that I'll end up in that 11-bedroom house. But I can imagine that my kids will.'' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact Shawn Neidorf at sneidorf@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5916. © 2001 The Mercury News. FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. 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