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Employee Free Choice
Act: Critical Legislation The most
important piece of labor legislation since the 1930s is
in front of the US Senate right now. It has become
almost impossible to organize unions today, since
companies routinely intimidate workers. Threats to
close the business, “captive audience” meetings, and
outright firings often turn a majority of workers who
want a union into a minority. For example, a hospital
worker who was trying to bring in a union was pulled
into a meeting with four managers who told her that if
the union won an election they would never get a
contract, the workers would be forced out on strike, and
the cancer patients the workers cared for would have no
one to care for them. Then, if workers manage to survive
those tactics, companies stall and stall and never agree
to a first contract.
Senator Kennedy and Congressmen Help Local 201, River Works By Local 201 President Jeff Crosby Early this year former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced the opposition of the Bush administration to continued funding for the GE-Rolls engine for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). The JSF is planned to be the only fixed wing military aircraft for the various armed services for a thirty year period. It is expected to go into production in 2012. Pratt & Whitney already has an application slated for the JSF. Without a GE application, Local 201 members at the River Works would be shut out of the work that is expected to follow the F414. The F404 is already winding down. GE asked for the union’s help on this issue. Local 201 and GE argued that having a second power plant option would save money and help create innovation over decades. Ironically, this was the same argument that Pratt & Whitney used to get a share of the market during the “Great Engine Wars” of the 1970s and 1980s when they were able to market a competitor to GE’s F404. It was clear that Bush and Rumsfeld’s effort to kill the JSF engine was not a feint, but deadly serious. The Iraq War (which Kennedy, Tierney and Meehan have all had the courage to criticize) was sucking up billions of dollars and distorting what would be normal budgeting even in the Defense Department. Senator Kennedy and Congressmen Tierney and Meehan immediately went to work to support the GE-Rolls alternative. Senator Kennedy, from his vantage point as a senior senator on the Senate Armed Forces Committee, was particularly effective in defending the funding for the GE engine. Senator Kennedy’s staff, which is unparalleled in the US Congress, stayed in regular touch with the Union Hall. Senator Kennedy called the Union Hall personally several times, and even called me at home to monitor the effort. Senator Kennedy and our Congressmen also understand that ours is a two-stage effort. First, it makes fiscal sense to build the GE second source. Second, work should be put into the River Works. Kennedy, Tierney and Meehan were successful in defeating the Bush/Rumsfeld cuts. Eleven parts are in early stages of development in the River Works plants, and a combustor build element is underway in the Assembly and Test area. For a time it seemed that there were only a few of us who believed that this plant had a future. A sentiment was, “I hope I make it to retirement”. When I first punched a clock here in February of 1979, I was told that “within 5 years GE-Lynn will only be an assembly plant”. Now with the hiring of several hundred new members in the last few years, there is a better outlook for the plant. Local 201 Executive Board Recommends: Deval Patrick for GovernorThe Local 201 Executive Policy Board last week voted to recommend Deval Patrick for Governor. In discussion, Board members cited his commitment to enforce the wage laws and punish corporate violators, rebuild public higher education in Massachusetts, and restore the position of Secretary of Labor to the governor’s cabinet. Other Board members pointed out he supported the AFL-CIO’s main priorities this past year such as raising the minimum wage and making a fair assessment on companies to keep health care premiums affordable. Patrick already has the AFL-CIO endorsement. Patrick has committed to investing in workplace job training. Whereas his principal opponent, Kerry Healey, has proposed to eliminate the defined benefit pension plan for state employees, Patrick opposes wiping out those pension plans. Electing Patrick and his partner, Worcester mayor Tim Murray, will help put an end to the phony tax issues that Republicans have used to cloud public debate for years. While Romney and Healey have promised “no new taxes”, the aid to cities and towns has been slashed so desperate city governments have had to raise property taxes and fees on everything from school sports to school busses to trash collection. State license fees from hunting to nursing have gone up, and fees for attending public colleges have skyrocketed. The Policy Board discussed issues about which members had reservations, such as Patrick’s record as a corporate lawyer for Coca-cola and other corporations. And the Board explored all available knowledge on issues like Patrick’s views on immigration and his record as a lawyer for the justice department. When the
discussion was over, the Board recommended that this month’s
membership meeting endorse Deval Patrick for governor.
Vote YES on Question 2: It makes our votes stronger! By Rand Wilson, Local 201 Organizing Director One sign of the political alienation that many voters in Massachusetts feel is that almost half are “un-enrolled” in any political party. It indicates that neither of the main parties properly articulates their values or political views. That's why more than 45 labor unions, community and civic groups initiated the Ballot Freedom Campaign to lift the state's ban on "cross endorsement" voting. Cross endorsement voting allows a candidate to accept nomination from more then one political party. It gives voters an opportunity to express support for the platform or values of a minor party without necessarily casting their vote on a candidate who has no chance of winning. Widely used in Massachusetts and throughout the country in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries, this way of voting was legal in Massachusetts until 1912, when the legislature banned it. By bringing back cross-endorsement, like-minded voters can build coalitions with people who share their values. It will give everyone an opportunity to have more impact in elections. One of the advantages of cross endorsement voting is that it gives voters new opportunities to hold their elected officials more accountable. Allowing candidates to run for office with the support of more than one political party allows voters to unite behind an alternative party's platform, but cast their vote in coalition with a major party's candidate. Each party's votes are counted on separate ballot lines, but combined for a candidate's final vote tally.
That means that politicians (and the public) can count the votes they receive on a minor or alternative party's ballot line and recognize the significance of that party's platform and priorities in their election's outcome. With the power of cross-endorsement, average citizens – not just wealthy people and special interest groups – will have more opportunity to join together and bring their ideas into the electoral arena for much needed public debate and discussion. The proposed law will be on the ballot as Question 2 in the November 7 general election. CWA District One has made passage of Question 2 one of its top priorities. Local 201 members are needed to help. To volunteer, please contact Rand Wilson at (617) 697-0380 or by email at Rand@mindspring.com. To learn more about Ballot Freedom, call 617 282-2002. |
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Saving Defense Jobs, Fighting Offsets on
Labor’s Agenda Three Thousand Union Leaders Descend on Washington DC President Crosby and Legislative and Community Outreach Committee Chair Pat Ryan joined over 3000 union leaders from across the country in a massive lobbying effort to save manufacturing jobs in the United States. The mobilization marked the first time in nearly 10 years that the national AFL-CIO had mobilized manufacturing workers on this scale. Autoworkers, Steelworkers, garment workers, paperworkers, mineworkers and others joined IUE-CWA in the day’s events. Among the 8 items which each union leader took to his or her Congressmen were two issues especially close to the hearts of Local 201 members: stopping the export of defense jobs by companies like GE and fighting "free trade" agreements like NAFTA and the FTAA. After a rousing rally on the morning of Tuesday, Feb. 4, workers moved to Capital Hill with an 8-point "Checklist for Revitalizing American Manufacturing" which included:
And:
The call to keep defense jobs in the US and limit offsets were in part a direct result of the "Jobs Not Greed" strike in Lynn and Local 201’s effort over many years to bring the issue of "offsets" to the government’s attention. The union lobbyists also pushed other critical issues, such as stopping corporations from moving overseas to evade taxes, and supporting a Medicare prescription drug benefit that strengthens the current Medicare system, not undermines it as President Bush’s plan does. They talked about protecting workers’ right to organize unions, and Bush’s plans to drive the country into a trillion dollars worth of debt with more tax breaks for the wealthy. LOCAL 201 Goes to Washington Crosby and Ryan joined IBEW 1505 Business Agent George Noel (representing workers at Raytheon) and others in an hour-long meeting with Congressman Tierney, who is working with other Congressional leaders on offsets and defense work issues. The Local 201 and IBEW leaders gave Congressman Tierney copies of the over 8000 signatures collected on the Local 201 Jobs petition so far, and discussed the various directions that congressional reform could take. Crosby and Ryan also visited with staff and delivered petitions to the offices of Senators Kennedy (D-Mass) and Sununu (R-N.H.). The union will follow up with these and other representatives back home, including Senator Kerry and Congressman Meehan. F414 Debate Still Hot On another front, the debate over parts of the F414 engine being single-sourced to Sweden continues. GE recently printed a lengthy interview in their Aircraft Engine magazine defending themselves against union criticism for the foreign outsourcing of parts of the F414 and other military and commercial engines. Company spokesmen also responded to this issue in newspaper stories related to the union lobbying day described above. GE says that most of the F414 is built in the US (some 94%, as far as the union knows) and stated that none of the F414 is being built in China or Romania. This is also true, as far as we know, and the union has never stated otherwise. It is other GE engines that are being moved to Romania and China. What GE does not seem to see any need to address is the fact that we paid them nearly a billion dollars in tax money to develop an engine, the F414, that came with US jobs promised by GE. Then the Company sold off 6% of the engine (for now) to Volvo in Sweden. These are parts of the most advanced military engine in the US fleet that will be single-sourced to Sweden, forever. This picture is much worse with other engines, both military and commercial. The widespread response to the Local 201 petition campaign, from unions as far away as Ft. Wayne Indiana and Salem, Va., as diverse as the Lynn Lettercarriers and the Food and Commercial Workers , from community organizations like the Marblehead Surfcasters and the North Shore Colombia Support Committee, and in neighborhoods where our members live from Charley’s Coffee Shop in Lynn, to Saugus, to Salem, to New Hampshire, has told us the Local 201 petition campaign is on the right track. The adoption of the issue by the entire national AFL-CIO has given our fight greater visibility and clout, and encouraged us to keep up the fight.
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For further information contact Local 201 IUE-CWA at (781) 598-2760 |
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member to call Senator Sununu’s office and ask him to
support the Employee Free Choice Act. 
