WIN Labor News June 1, 2007

Headlines:

* UNITE-HERE Launches American Eagle Outfitters Campaign
* California Casino Labor Dispute Tests Dem Presidential Candidates
* AFA-CWA Sells $182 Million Bankruptcy Claim To Give To Northwest
Airlines Workers
* UAW Looking For Global Auto Unions Strategy
* Metal Industry Strike Is Possible in Southern Africa

Labor News: May 31, 2007

Headlines:

* Will higher minimum wage in Marianas kill the commonwealth's garment industry?
* 55-page document reveals campaign to expose Wal-Mart labor practices having impact
* Smithfield Workers file complaint concerning lack of drinking water on the job
* Pay gap starts less than a year after graduation

WIN Labor News May 30, 2007

Headlines:

* Working America’s Army Of Activists Hitting The Streets In Nine States
This Summer
* Helmets To Hardhats Is Bringing An Industry Together To Reward
Military Veterans
* Detroit Bus Drivers Now Have Police Protection On Busses After Wildcat
Job Action
* UFCW Facing Job Losses In Detroit Area As A&P Divests Farmer Jack’s
Stores
* ACORN Says 2.2 Million Homes Are At Risk In National Foreclosure
Crisis

WIN Labor News May 29, 2007

Headlines:

* GE Lays Off Hundreds Of Workers In Midst Of Contract Talks
* Change To Win Federation Seeks Cooperation With Vietnamese Labor
* CWA Flight Attendants And Pilots Will Rally In Minnesota
* UMass Grad Student Union Frustrated By Long Contract Talks
* Immokalee Workers Face Grower Resistance To Taco Bell, McDonalds Deals
* Economic Report: Blacks And Latinos In New Orleans Face Lending
Discrimination

WIN Labor News May 28, 2007

Headlines:

* At The GE Talks: GE Health Care Below Inflation For 2002 – 2006
* FLOC Says Mexican Case In Organizer Murder is Fabricated
* Victory For Working Families – Federal Minimum Wage Hike At Last
* Miami Joins State And Local Governments Supporting Employee Free Choice
Act
* UAW Helping Toyota Workers Out To Organize Georgetown Plant
* Economic Report: Men In Their 30’s Today Earn Less Than In 1974

WIN Labor News May 25, 2007

Headlines:

* AFSCME Victory For UC Custodians Took Civil Disobedience And A Boycott
To Win Pay Equity
* Smithfield Workers File OSHA Complaint To Get Clean Drinking Water On
The Job
* Fifteen People Arrested At UC-Davis Outsourcing Protest, Activists Urge
Calls To Chancellor
* Another Breach Of Personnel Information – This Time At Officeteam
* Georgia Faces Shortage of Young Workers As State Workforce Ages
* First Death Conclusively Linked To 9/11 Toxic Dust Exposure

WIN Labor News May 24, 2007

Headlines:

* Stanford Students Arrested After Sit-In Protesting Sweatshop Labor
* AFSCME Joins Occupation of UC-Davis Admin Building Over Outsourcing
* Single Payer Health Care Drove California Nurses Association Into
AFL-CIO
* Senate Delays Immigration Vote As ‘Indentured Worker’ Provision Remains
* Immigration Bill Creates Massive Database On 150 Million Workers

WIN Labor News May 23, 2007

Headlines:

* Change To Win China Delegation Seeks Common Strategies To Unite And
Advance Workers in Global Economy
* Are U.S. Troops In Combat Legally Entitled To Higher Pay?
* Students Sit-In At Stanford University's President's Office In
Sweatshop Protest

WIN Labor News May 22, 2007

Headlines:

* GE Announces Plastics Division Sale As IUE-CWA Labor Contract Talks
Start
* ILWU Refuses To Cross Antiwar Picket Line In Oakland
* Unions Work To 'Create Futures' With Good Jobs In New York City
* Economic Report: Housing Market Continues To Reel From Sub-Prime
Collapse

Labor News: May 21, 2007

Headlines:

* Clergy arrested in Indianapolis while protesting "poverty wages"
* Harvard security guards approve strike vote
* Rail Workers in Iraq continue paralyzing strike
* Contract talks between GE and workers begin today
* Mass. House of Reps. approves card check bill

Labor News: Week-In-Review Ending May 19, 2007

Listen to the Workers Independent News Week-In-Review ending May 19, 2007. Script below:

"With Workers Independent News Week In Review, I'm Jesse Russell.

Trade was a major focus of the labor movement last week as a Democrat supported trade deal with Panama and Peru caught labor leaders off guard. The Change to Win Federation’s Yvette Pena Lopez told the Workers Independent News said they were blindsided:

[Pena Lopez]: “...the Democrats, the Democratic leadership, stood together and announced this quote, unquote great deal for the American worker. If it really was a great deal, then we should have been able to stand right next to them and hold hands and say, yes, this is a great deal finally, the day has come. And unfortunately that’s not where we’re finding ourselves.”

Meanwhile new numbers out this week showed record trade deficits of more than $3 trillion in the past six years alone. Bob Baugh is Executive Director of the AFL-CIO’s Industrial Council said it is clear the deficit is costing Americans jobs:

[Baugh]: “"Every one of those dollars certainly represents jobs that have gone away from here and are being produced elsewhere, or could be produced here and are not.”

Autoworkers in North America are split over private equity firm Cerberus buying Chrysler. While the United Auto Workers President Ron Gettlefinger says the sale is in the best interest of workers, Canadian Auto Workers President Buzz Hargrove is not so sure:

[Hargrove]: “They come in, buy as low as they can get and then throw a lot of people out of work, downsize as much as they can and then - in a very short turnaround period - they sell and make a bundle of money for a small number of executives at the expense of thousands of workers and their families and their communities."

In other private equity firm news, the Tommy Hilfiger Company pulled a Circuit City last week when it fired a contract company that paid janitors an average of $19 per hour in order to hire replacement workers who earn on average $9 per hour. The Hilfiger Company was bought out by private equity firm Apax Partners last year for $1.54 billion.

Minnesota became the 20th state in the country to ban smoking in bars and restaurants last week. Mike Maquire with the American Cancer Society says the bill is not only good for the health of service industry workers, but will also boost the state economy in the long run because it means lower health care costs for employers:

[Maquire]: “The most primary economic impact will be healthier employees. It means lower healthcare costs. In terms of the impact on customers and patronizing bars and restaurants nationally, look at the data, the fact of the matter is that trends in the industry continue after a smoke-free law, the same as they did before”

And iconic U.S. candy maker Hershey has told nearly 1500 workers to kiss their jobs goodbye. The company announced plans last week to close its last Canadian factory and additional plans to shutter plants in Oakdale, California, Naugatuck, Connecticut, and Reading, Pennsylvania. Many of the jobs from those plants will end up at a new plant in Mexico or contracted out to factories in China and India.

Finally, the United States is “no-vacation nation.” Just in time for summer, a study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research finds that one in four US workers don’t get any vacation time. European workers have a legally mandated 20 paid vacation days a year.


This has been Workers Independent News Week In Review.”

Labor News: May 18, 2007

Headlines:

* Minnesota bans smoking in bars and restaurants
* Trade deficit hurts economy
* 10,000 transportation workers protest in Washington D.C.

WIN Labor News May 17, 2007

Headlines:

* As Senate Ponders Immigration Reform, Labor Opposes Guest Worker
Program
* Tommy Hilfiger Company Pulls A Circuit City, Firing Workers To Slash
Pay
* In U.S. 28 Million Workers Have No Paid Vacation
* Economic Report: Which Nation’s Workers Complain The Most?

WIN Labor News May 16, 2007

Headlines:

* Change To Win: Labor "Blindsided" By Dem Leadership/Bush Trade Deal
* NLRB Imposes 6 Month Ban On SEIU Local 49's Use Of Card Check To
Organize

WIN Labor News May 15, 2007

Headlines:

* UAW Reverses Stance And Backs Private Equity Chrysler Purchase, CAW
Still Opposed
* Hershey To U.S. Workers: Kiss Off
* Teamsters Fight To Defend Workers' Living Standards In Orange County,
California
* Thousands Of European Union Workers Walk Off Jobs To Protest
Outsourcing And Pay Cuts

Labor News May 14, 2007

Headlines:

* Progress has been made on getting labor protections in free trade deals
* New York allows home child care providers to organize
* Harvard hunger strike for security guards ends

WIN Labor News May 11, 2007

Headlines:

* UFCW Resumes Grocery Worker Contract Talks In Southern California
* Letter Carriers' Food Drive Will Restock Food Pantries Coast To Coast
* AFGE Sues Homeland Security Over Loss of Workers' Personal Data
* Economic Report: U.S. Retail Sales Down 2.4 Percent, Biggest Drop Since
1970

WIN Labor News May 10, 2007

Headlines:

* Northwest Airlines Workers Object To Reorganization That Rewards
Executives
* Members Of Congress Join AFL-CIO Call For Justice In Union Organizer's
Murder
* French Workers Gearing Up To Face Right-Wing President
* Steelworkers Protest Police Killing of Chilean Union Worker
* Economic Report: Housing Market Still "Difficult" After 20-Month
Downturn

WIN Labor News May 9, 2007

Headlines:

* Congress Considers Restoring Unions Rights For Workers Unfairly Defined
As Supervisors

* UFCW: Wal-Mart Has No "Moral Standing" On Universal Health Care

WIN Labor News May 8, 2007

Headlines:

* Steelworkers Call For New 'Gold Standard' On Emissions And Global Trade
* Labor Is Protesting Circuit City's Wholesale Firings To Pay Workers
Less
* NY AFL-CIO Wants National Federation To Back Clinton
* Economic Report: Real Wages Stall Amid Weak Job Creation, Higher
Unemployment

WIN Labor News May 4, 2007

Headlines:

* Magna Apparently Wants Its 50,000 Workers in the UAW And CAW
* Minimum Wage Hike A Casualty Of Bush Iraq War Spending Veto
* NW Flight Attendants Win $65 Million Stock Bankruptcy Claim
* Economic Report: High Cost Leaves One In Four Kids Without Health
Insurance

WIN Labor News May 3, 2007

Headlines:

* Former UAW Officlal Urges New Strategic Approach To Confront Automakers
* Private Airport Screeners In Kansas City Expected To Unionize
* IWW Pickets Circuit City Over Mass Firings
* Economic Report: Sleep Deprivation Impacts Productive Thinking Ability

WIN Labor News May 2, 2007

Headlines:

* Human Rights Watch: Wal-Mart's Aggressive Anti-Union Tactics Skirts The
Law
* High Iraq War Spending Leads To Slower U.S. Economic Growth
* AFL-CIO Backs Verizon Shareholder Proposals On Excessive CEO
Compensation
* Economic Report: Lower Wage Workers Less Likely To Have Paid Sick Days