People Before Profit blog

Mine safety could use a little more confrontation

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 11:36:00 +0000

This is a sad time in the mining community, with so many recent tragedies. But it’s not enough to mourn. We also have to act.

We need to remember that MSHA is three things. First, it’s a law — the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977. That law could certainly be improved … but the act is generally pretty good. The agency could do a great deal more if they fully used the authority the act grants them.

Second, MSHA is a group of dedicated, career civil servants who do the day-to-day work of enforcement and standards-setting. Most of the inspectors are miners themselves.

Third, MSHA is a small group of political appointees, both inside the agency and more importantly, in the Office of the Secretary of Labor. Unfortunately, the decisions they make can negate the effectiveness of the law and frustrate the work of the career MSHA staff. Too often those decisions are ideological, poorly informed by actual facts, and seem designed to protect mine operators at the expense of miners.

This forum is appropriately focused on safety in underground coal mines. That’s where 19 of the 21 deaths so far this year occurred. But MSHA is also concerned with health issues, and its jurisdiction also extends to many commodities besides coal, and of course to surface mines.

In 2004, there were 51,000 workers at underground mines, although some of them worked in surface operations like hoists and prep plants. There were 171,000 workers in surface mines.

Coal accounts for about a third of our nation’s miners — 73,000 out of a total of 222,000. Coal is itself split just about evenly between underground and surface miners. The fatalities so far this year have been heavily concentrated in coal, but last year 35 miners died in metal/nonmetal mines, along with 22 in coal. And although safety hazards like explosions and roof falls are critical, in the long run more miners die from health hazards like coal dust, silica and diesel exhaust.

The problems that afflict MSHA enforcement in underground coal mines extend to every part of the agency’s mission. This administration has made it clear that it believes in “voluntary compliance.” Well, we all believe in voluntary compliance, but every mine inspector — indeed every parent — knows that the way you get voluntary compliance is through strict enforcement. You can’t have the one without the other. Yet this administration persists in seeing voluntary compliance and strict enforcement as incompatible. A favorite phrase is that “we have replaced confrontation with cooperation.” The Sago mine could have used a little more confrontation.

So could the iron mines in northern Minnesota and Michigan, where 4,900 of our members work. I asked some of our safety chairs there how they felt about MSHA enforcement. They praised the work of the mine inspectors, but they all said that the penalties were too small to make much difference. The consensus was that the operators see the penalties as a cost of doing business, and a minor one at that.

Let me turn to another example, diesel emissions in underground metal and nonmetal mines. Diesel causes cancer. Levels in some underground mines far exceed levels in any other setting. Working in some mines is like working in the tailpipe of a city bus. MSHA set new standards for “diesel particulate matter,” or DPM, in underground mines early in 2001. The rule was immediately challenged by the mining industry.

The standard set an “interim” limit that was set to go into effect in July of 2002. MSHA began doing inspections on that date, but agreed with the industry not to issue citations for a full year.

Then, last September, the mining industry got an even bigger gift from MSHA. On Jan. 20, a final limit — 60 percent lower than the interim limit — was scheduled to go into effect. Instead, MSHA proposed to delay this limit by five more years.

So far as we know, this is the first time that MSHA or OSHA has attempted to significantly roll back a major health standard. We believe this action violates the law. Section 101(a)(9) of the Mine Act provides that “No mandatory health or safety standard promulgated under this title shall reduce the protection afforded miners by an existing mandatory health or safety standard.”

Lawful or not, the delay will cost lives.

Even the announcement of a proposed delay has already harmed miners. Regulation spurs innovation; deregulation can stifle it. Alternative fuels are one way to reduce diesel emissions. Biodiesel is one such fuel. Another is a proprietary emulsified fuel blend called PuriNOx. However, the company that makes it has decided to exit the business at least temporarily, in part because they now anticipate less of a market in the mining industry, due to the proposed delay.

For our part, the USW will join with our brothers and sisters in the United Mineworkers to vigorously oppose any attempt to weaken protection for miners, underground or surface, and whatever it is they happen to mine.

Michael J. Wright is director of health, safety and environment for the United Steelworkers union. This is an abridged version of testimony at a Feb. 13 congressional forum on mine safety and health organized by House Democrats. The full text is at

www.steelworkers-usw.org/usw/program/content/2734.php.

Community unites to save Winchester jobs

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 10:37:00 +0000

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — “Winchester belongs in New Haven,” said toolmaker Larry Edwards at a community meeting here where Winchester workers, elected officials and Newhallville neighborhood residents joined forces to try to save over 140 union jobs.

On Jan. 17, the company informed the workers the doors would close by March 31. The U.S. Repeating Arms manufacturing plant has been located in the heart of a predominantly African American neighborhood for 160 years. People worked hard here to produce a good-quality product, said 27-year veteran worker David Roy.

The Winchester Citizens Ad Hoc Committee, formed during a six-month strike in 1979, is demanding six months notice as required in the tax abatement agreement with the city. This would give more time to secure a buyer.

Citizens Ad Hoc Committee President Craig Gauthier outlined a platform to keep the plant open, maintain the current workforce and union contract, increase the number of employees, slow down the plant closing and bring back machinery shipped out of state. “This is a very serious community issue,” said Gauthier.

Emanuel Gomez, who worked at the plant from 1946 to 1991, said, “Our tax money helped build this state-of-the-art facility. We cannot afford for this company to pick up and leave this neighborhood dry.”

Alderwoman Alfreda Edwards demanded that the company “bring back what they have taken out of the plant.”

In 1991, the company entered into a tax abatement agreement with the city of New Haven tied to maintaining jobs. The agreement prohibits the relocation of equipment for manufacturing elsewhere. It requires six months notice and full reimbursement, with interest, of abated taxes.

Nevertheless, the company has moved some production to a non-union plant in Columbia, S.C., in recent years. Some Winchester production has also been relocated to Portugal and Japan. During the December holiday shutdown, machinery key to the entire production process was also moved.

USRAC is part of Herstal Group, owned by Wallonia of Belgium.

In contract negotiations last year, management committed to work more cooperatively with the union, International Association of Machinists Victory Lodge 609, to maintain and grow jobs, but failed to do so.

The mayor and the city’s department of economic development are working with the union to seek a buyer to keep the Winchester sporting arms production in New Haven. The Board of Aldermen plans a public hearing on the closing.

“This is an uphill battle,” said toolmaker Edwards. “It is important to keep the heat on the company. We must dig in there.”

THIS WEEK IN LABOR

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 10:34:00 +0000

What’s obscene here?

The federal government levied a larger fine — $550,000 — for the 2004 Super Bowl showing of Janet Jackson’s breast than it did for the deaths of 13 Alabama miners in a 2001 mine disaster, USA Today reported. The company responsible for the disaster, Jim Walter Resources, paid a $3,000 fine.

The article also noted that safety violation fines are miniscule when compared with recent record profits in the coal industry. The 10 largest coal companies reported profits of $2.4 billion last year.

Six unions split from building trades

A new federation of construction unions will be rolled out in March, Terence O’Sullivan, of the Laborers and Vincent Giblin of the Operating Engineers announced at a phone press conference Feb. 14. The announcement raised concerns among labor activists about further fragmentation of the U.S. labor movement.

The Laborers and Operating Engineers are withdrawing from the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department along with Teamsters, Ironworkers, and Bricklayers who will also join the new group, dubbed National Construction Alliance. The Carpenters will also join the NCA. The combined construction membership of the six unions amounts to half the building trades, Joe Brady, spokesman for the IUOE, told the World. Brady added the IUOE is “emphatically” not leaving the AFL-CIO.

Both O’Sullivan and Giblin characterized the federation’s Building Trades Department as “inefficient.” In 1973, building trades unions represented 40 percent of the nation’s construction workers; today the figure is 13.1 percent. O’Sullivan attributed the decline in part to the “green book” process of solving jurisdictional disputes based on past practices dating to 1910.

Giblin said the six unions will continue to participate in local building trades councils “where it works,” but made it clear that the NCA will have its own local infrastructure. The NCA will win the support of contractors with “efficiency in delivering the end product,” he projected. O’Sullivan noted that Laborers and Carpenters are already looking at composite work crews.

Giblen castigated the Building Trades leadership for “getting involved in things we should not be involved with” such as Bush’s Supreme Court nominees. These issues “are not part of construction workers’ dinner table discussion,” he said.

Sikorsky aircraft strike

Thirty-five hundred workers at Sikorsky Aircraft in Connecticut and 90 workers in Florida hit the picket lines Feb. 20 after refusing to accept an increase in health care costs during contract negotiations. Sikorsky, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., recently signed a $97.6 million contract with the U.S. Navy to provide logistics for heavylift and minesweeping helicopters.

The company’s offer would have required the workers to double their co-pay for health insurance in the first year with a 15 percent increase over the next two years. They have organized strike support, emergency assistance and picketing committees.

IBEW goes after church arsonists

A $10,000 reward is being offered by System Council U-19 of the Electrical Workers union for information leading to the conviction of whoever is involved in starting ten church fires in Alabama.

“We want to do our part to bring justice to those responsible for these terrible events,” said U-19 Business Manager Bill Frederick. “Rural churches are the heart of our small communities.” Frederick represents 3,000 employees who work on Alabama Power line crews and in generating plants.

Pillowtex settlement

Unite Here announced a $12 million settlement with Pillowtex that will provide an average of $2,000 each for 6,000 workers in 11 states who lost vacation, retirement and medical benefits when their plants shut down abruptly in 2003.

The union is proud to have fought for the settlement on behalf of its members, said Unite Here Southern Regional Director Harris Raynor, adding, “But in so many ways it is too little too late.”

The bankruptcy process is stacked against the workers, said Raynor, noting that the banks get first priority over the workers. “The workers’ medical benefits and vacation pay — things they had already earned — were placed in jeopardy, unlike the financial institutions which got 100 cents on the dollar for what they were owed.”

Macy’s workers vote to strike

Health care and wage increases are at the heart of a fight brewing between 3,500 Macy’s workers in Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx and White Plains and the stores’ owners, Federated Department Stores, Inc. The workers are represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

The contract expires March 3. Macy’s workers are paid an average of $11 hour for a 35-hour workweek. They authorized a strike after Federated demanded an increased family health deductible, up from $2,500 to $3,000 per year.

AFL-CIO superblog

The AFL-CIO has launched what it calls a “super-blog” delivering daily “news with an attitude.” The first day’s entry of “AFL-CIO Now: News That Works” includes reaction from two former Enron workers on the trial of Enron former CEOs Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling and a feature on the closing of Ford’s Wixom, Mich., plant. The site will also feature guest bloggers offering insights on current issues and events, according to a statement from the federation.

The federation’s online presence includes a network of over half a million online activists which the federation says sent nearly 2 million faxes, calls and e-mails to Congress last year in a successful campaign to stop the Bush administration’s attempt to privatize Social Security. The new site can be accessed at www.aflcio.org/blog.

Healthy response to HR 676

While you’ve got your computer fired up, check out archive.wbai.org to hear Steelworker union activist Paul Kaczocha from Local 6787 who recently participated in a health care discussion on WBAI-FM in New York.

The list of unions endorsing HR 676 seems to be growing every day. The single-payer plan would cover every person in the U.S. for all necessary medical care. Latest additions include Washington State Machinist Council, whose 50,000 members include 18,000 Boeing workers, IAM Local 1044 in Pittsburgh, AFSCME Retiree Chapter 36 in Los Angeles and two steelworker locals representing chemical workers in Michigan — Local 829 in Owosso and Local 2-591 in Riverview.

New co-sponsors of the bill, initiated by Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), bring the total up to 69: Reps. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Lucille Royball-Allard (D-Calif.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) and Al Green (D-Texas).

This Week in Labor is compiled by Roberta Wood (rwood@pww.org). Joelle Fishman and Denise Winebrenner Edwards contributed.

Fight not over for New Mexico minimum wage bill

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 10:19:00 +0000

As if it were a close basketball game, where one team is ahead by two or three points and is trying to run out the clock to keep the other team from scoring, New Mexico’s Republican state senators in cahoots with three southern Democratic state senators managed to stonewall a minimum wage bill as the Legislature’s session came to a halt exactly at 12 noon on Feb. 16.

However, Matt Henderson, ACORN executive director, expressed optimism for the campaign’s future. “Though surely disappointed by the loss, we are in excellent shape,” he said. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is being pressured to call a special session to take up the measure. If that happens, Henderson said, “We should be able to pass a good bill. If not, we are well poised for next year and we are moving ahead on local initiatives around New Mexico.”

The bill would have raised the state’s minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.50 an hour beginning Jan.1, 2007, and allowed for an annual 3 percent cost of living indexing. In the face of vicious opposition from the state’s industry, a coalition of 22 labor, community and faith-based organizations campaigned on many levels over the last year to raise the pay of minimum wage workers.

Attempts to put the issue on the ballot in the city of Albuquerque fell short by only 1,500 signatures last year. However, in Santa Fe, a higher minimum wage of $8.50 per hour was passed by a progressive city council. The council had been elected through solid rank-and-file organizing work.

A team of lead lobbyists for the state bill, made up of representatives from AFSCME, AFT, the New Mexico AFL-CIO and Latino community organizations, worked diligently to convince the state legislators of the people’s needs. They were backed up with a barrage of telephone calls and e-mails to the legislators from their constituents. Activists gathered thousands of petitions in support of the legislation throughout the state.

Public pressure for an increase in the state’s minimum wage was so intense that Gov. Richardson, in his address to the opening session of the Legislature, called for a minimum wage increase parallel to the coalition’s effort for $7.50 an hour.

The bill passed the various committees of the the House by narrow margins, but got bottlenecked in the Senate. Republicans voted against it on a strict party line vote, with three Democratic senators from the south of the state supporting their actions. Differences with the governor’s proposal on the cost of living indexing and timing of the increase were exploited through parliamentary maneuvers by the reactionary opposition until time ran out.

“The Senate’s failure to raise the New Mexico minimum wage is proof how out of touch with the working poor our elected officials are,” stated Robby Rodriguez, executive director of SouthWest Organizing Project. “The U.S. Congress and even the New Mexico Legislature approve increases in their own benefits and compensation while leaving the hardest working New Mexicans behind.”

Despite the setback, said ACORN’s Henderson, “the community of faith, labor, grassroots organizations and activists will continue to fight to raise New Mexico’s minimum wage. We have the business organizations on the run. It’s not a question of if we will win this, but when.”

Frankenstein directive passes European Union Parliament

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 10:07:00 +0000

The “Directive on Services in the Internal Market,” otherwise known as the Bolkestein Directive, passed in a European Parliament vote Feb. 16. Despite mass protest and mobilizations by trade unions and grassroots organizations, the European Union Parliament’s two biggest groups, the EPP-ED (conservatives) and PSE (socialists), collaborated to get an amended version adopted in the EP plenary.

The directive aims to further increase the profit margin of big monopoly groups in the service industry field. It would remove the legal and administrative barriers that hinder businesses from setting up shop in other EU countries. It covers a wide range of businesses such as construction, hotel and restaurant, advertising, car hire and estate agencies as well as certain public services such as social care and environmental services.

The Parliament excluded a number of areas, including temporary employment agencies, social services, public transport and public — but not private — health care. Significantly, the services involved make up 70 percent of the GNP and 58 percent of employment in the European Union.

The most controversial section is the “Country of Origin Principle,” Article 16, which would allow a firm to cross the border, set up operations in another country and yet operate according to the rules and regulations of its home country. The quantity, quality, and pricing of services, as well as wages and workers’ rights, are based on current legislation and standards in the firm’s base country.

In this way, monopoly groups can declare as their base EU countries with low labor standards, low wages, and the weakest environmental protection laws, health and safety regulations. As a result, the monopolies can reap huge profits by exploiting the workers of these countries while at the same time drastically lowering the labor standards of the countries they are newly operating in. This would be the equivalent to giving U.S. companies the full legal right to import and employ Latin American workers in New York City while paying them Latin American wages.

The discussion of the Bolkestein Directive in the full EP plenary started Feb. 14, as more than 30,000 trade unionists from all EU countries were demonstrating on the streets of Strasbourg, demanding its withdrawal. While conservatives and socialists jointly sought to prettify the measure without changing its reactionary essence, the workers with their militant demonstrations demanded the absolute rejection of the directive or any amended version that would challenge labor’s gains for the benefit of big capital. Labor organizations across the EU have been mobilizing for months to defeat the measure, which constitutes one more stepping-stone for the creation of a monopoly capitalist paradise in Europe.

In an effort to diffuse opposition, supporters tried to mask the Country of Origin Principle by changing its name, and saying it is “recommended” that companies “respect minimum wages that are defined by law or national practice of the country in which they will be operating.” Clearly, there are many exemptions to the “recommendation.” For example, collective bargaining agreements in this context would not apply to construction workers, dock and ship workers, outsourced laborers hired for short periods or for projects with limited time-frames, etc.

The measure will be discussed by EU leaders at their March Summit. The European Commission states that it will issue a new version by April. It could be passed this year but would take at least two years to pass into national law.

The struggle of organized labor against the Bolkestein Directive will become more effective as it gains anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly characteristics and as it becomes intrinsically linked with demands that aim at the root of the evil — capital’s profiteering and the governments that support it.

Laura Petricola (laurajopetricola@yahoo.com) writes from Athens, Greece.

Berkeley Honda strikers standing strong

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 07:32:00 +0000

BERKELEY, Calif. — Nat Courtney’s father had worked for the father of longtime Honda dealership owner Jim Doten. The Doten family, he said, had treated the workers with respect. So Courtney, who started there in 1974 and is now shop steward and a Gold-level Honda-certified technician, naturally thought his job was stable and dependable, the kind of work you could raise a family on.

That is, until the word went around last spring that the dealership was being sold.

On June 1, 2005, Jim Doten sold the dealership to Stephen Beinke, developer of the exclusive suburban Blackhawk community, and his son, Tim Beinke. The new owners forced the 25 service workers to reapply for their jobs, replacing about half with lower-paid recent technical school graduates.

In an interview during a recent Saturday rally, Courtney said that just before the sale became effective, General Manager Steve Haworth told him, “We’re not offering you a position — you’re free to go on with your life. You don’t work for Berkeley Honda; we don’t owe you an explanation or a written statement.”

The remaining service workers, members of East Bay Automotive Machinists Lodge 1546, struck the dealership in response. “We feared we were training our replacements,” John McGlinchy, a nine-year worker who had been rehired, told the San Francisco Chronicle at the time.

That the little band of strikers continues to stand tall is due not only to their own dedication and persistence and the backing of their union, but also to strong support from the community, from other unions and from the Central Labor Council of Alameda County. Recent rallies have featured participation by the union coalition at the University of California at Berkeley, the United Food and Commercial Workers, Federation of Retired Union Members, Peace and Freedom Party, Gray Panthers, Progressive Democrats of America and many others.

The Berkeley City Council endorsed a boycott. Mayor Tom Bates’ two offers to mediate were rejected by the new owners.

“What’s important is that the community got together with the union,” said Judy Shelton, until recently co-chair of the Berkeley Honda Labor and Community Coalition.

“What they’re trying to do is just plain wrong,” said fellow Local 1545 member Robert Pintos, a mechanic and shop steward at another area auto dealership, who often pickets with the Honda workers, together with his two young daughters.

Pintos warned, “This kind of thing is widespread and will have ripple effects in future contracts.” He added, “They’re trying to lower our lifestyle, cutting their contribution to pensions, trying to remove health and welfare altogether.”

Pintos added that hiring nonunion mechanics who have not benefited from the union’s apprenticeship training is a false economy, hurting consumers as well as workers.

For information on rallies — Thursdays from 4:30-6 p.m. and Saturdays from 1-2:30 p.m. — phone the Alameda County CLC at (510) 632-4242, ext. 224.

Photos by Marilyn Bechtel/PWW

Guest worker programs: problems and remedies

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 07:00:00 +0000

In early March the Senate Judiciary Committee will take up “immigration reform.” Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) issued an outline of the items he wants considered. These include immigration control and a guest worker program. Legalization for undocumented immigrants was de-emphasized.

This hearing comes at a time when the far right is pushing for repressive measures, like HR 4437, approved by the House in December. Bush and big business want a large new guest worker program.

Some of the forces fighting for legalization support the McCain-Kennedy bill (S 1033 and HR 2330) which, while providing legalization, includes a guest worker program. Most see this as a necessary evil to get Republican votes for a package including legalization. The AFL-CIO, while supporting legalization, does not support McCain-Kennedy because of the guest worker aspect.

The main problems with guest worker programs past and present are as follows:

• The right of the guest worker to remain in the country depends on the employer. A guest worker must therefore think twice about joining a union or going on strike.

• Although all the bills say that labor rights will be “protected” nobody has a fighting chance to defend their rights if they are not able to have a union.

• The bosses’ claims that they can’t find other workers, so they need guest workers, are bogus. Employers offer jobs with wages so low that only guest or undocumented workers can accept them.

• Unlike legal resident immigrants, most guest workers are not allowed to bring their families with them or participate in community life, leading to hardship and social ills.

• A guest worker program will not end undocumented immigration. Immigration is driven by the growing wealth gap between rich and poor countries and between rich and poor in the immigrants’ countries of origin. This arises from the policies of free trade, privatization, and austerity forced on poor countries.

If a guest worker program is going to be imposed here are things to fight for:

• All guest workers must have easy access to permanent legal residency, which must not depend on the goodwill of the employer.

• Guest worker visas must be transferable from one job to another with a reasonable time leeway. Guest workers must be eligible for unemployment and workers’ compensation and pay into Social Security and Medicare.

• All guest workers must have the right to bring their families with them, or to start families here, and to participate in community life without restriction or discrimination.

• Housing, health and education programs for guest workers must be paid for by employers.

• Guest workers and their families must be allowed to move freely back and forth between the country of origin and the U.S., without restrictions.

• U.S. labor law must be applicable to guest workers, with compliance monitoring. Guest workers must have access to all legal remedies against employers that are available to other workers.

• U.S. unions must have full and confidential access to all guest workers, from before the worker leaves the country of origin. As many as possible should come through union hiring halls.

• Employers seeking to hire guest workers must advertise the jobs for U.S. workers at wage or salary levels that correspond to “prevailing wage.” Simultaneously the minimum wage must be raised, especially in agriculture.

• No employer with an active labor dispute, or with a poor record on labor relations and labor law compliance, should be allowed to participate in any guest worker program.

• All civil rights should be guaranteed to guest workers, e.g. laws preventing racial profiling and discrimination in accommodations, etc.

• Guest workers should have full recourse to the courts, and not just the immigration courts, for matters dealing with their status in the country and their situation at work and in the community.

Business will say that all this would undermine the whole point of such programs by giving guest workers the same rights as other workers. But they told us that the reason they want guest workers is because they can’t find U.S. workers to do the jobs, not that they needed workers with fewer rights! Which is it?

Hotel workers rise up

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 06:50:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO — The Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel was awash in bright red T-shirts Feb. 15 as over 2,200 hotel workers and their supporters gathered to launch a national campaign for good wages and benefits, including health care, workers’ rights, decent working conditions and dignity on the job.

Kicking off “Hotel Workers Rising” and the latest phase of Unite Here Local 2’s contract struggle were the union’s top national leaders, Bruce Raynor and John Wilhelm, together with actor/director Danny Glover, former Sen. John Edwards and Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Also on hand were contingents from the United Food and Commercial Workers, SEIU and the United Farm Workers. Similar events took place in Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston.

In Boston, 600 workers and community supporters from across New England rallied at the Ritz Carlton Hotel.

“All change in this country has come about because there has been a public outcry and public dialogue,” Danny Glover told reporters at the San Francisco rally. “These men and women, who come from a variety of communities and nationalities, are simply demanding justice.” Many hotel workers are women and immigrants.

Glover spent the week traveling to the four cities along with Edwards and a group of hotel workers.

With hotel ownership increasingly held by a few giant corporations, speakers stressed the importance of linking struggles nationwide.

“These corporations depend for their profits on workers, and that’s a lesson we’re going to have to teach them,” said Unite Here’s Raynor, the union’s general president. With room rates and occupancy increasing, he said, “we say to these giant corporations, we’re happy that you’re making plenty of money — we want you to share it with the people who are making that money for you.”

Edwards, speaking in Boston, added, “Workers should be able to support their family working one 40-hour-a-week job.”

Tho Thi Do, secretary-treasurer of Unite Here Local 2 in the Bay Area, said, “Our voices are going to reach the community, the clergy, politicians, local and national leaders, asking them to join hands and be part of this national hotel workers’ movement to improve our lives.”

Local 2 members from several San Francisco luxury hotels, engaged in a sharp contract battle since 2004, described their daily struggles to cope with growing workloads, including the so-called heavenly beds with their ever-heavier layers of bedding. As workloads soar, they said, so does an injury rate already among the highest for any industry.

After 21 years as a room cleaner, Mary Watkins said, “I want to be able to retire with dignity and a decent living.” But, she said, the hotels “are making billions and not giving us anything, even though we’re the ones who are making them rich.”

Some 9,500 San Francisco hotel workers are currently working without a contract, as the struggle continues with over a dozen luxury hotels. Contracts have expired at another 45 area union hotels. Across the country, contracts at over 400 hotels covering 60,000 workers will expire in 2006, providing the opportunity to demand increased benefits nationwide.

Dorothy Johnson and Gary Dotterman reported from Boston.

UPWA: Pioneers in African American history

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 08:58:00 +0000

Leaders of the United Packinghouse Workers of America marched in support of striking Memphis sanitation workers in April 1968, just before the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King there April 4. From left, Russell R. Lasley, UPWA international vice-president, District 1 Director Charles Hayes (later member of Congress), and International Rep. Addie Wyatt (later international vice-president of the union and a founder of the Coalition of Labor Union Women).

Fantastic feat

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 08:55:00 +0000

NEW YORK (PAI) — It’s one 10-shoe-store chain in New York City, involving 95 workers, but the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union’s win at Footco is a glimpse into the future, where unions create new strategies to organize not just stores, but communities.

That focus reached from the streets of the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick to the office of state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, said RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum.

The win came with the aid of churches, local organizations, Spitzer — who pursued the company for minimum wage and overtime law violations — and a community group called Make The Road By Walking.

The 1,500-member group organized marches through Bushwick and got 1,000 signatures supporting a boycott unless Footco owners agreed to abide by card-check recognition of the union. The boycott was set to go last August when the owners yielded. The company agreed to not fight organizing efforts and to recognize the union if a majority of workers signed statements of support. The union got 90 percent within weeks and ratified its first-ever contract in mid-February.

“The people involved in this effort were absolutely amazing. And they were so empowered by finding out what they could do for themselves,” Appelbaum said.

The three-year Footco pact gives workers a starting wage of $7.25 an hour, rising to $8.15 hourly on July 1 of its third year. It also guarantees workers a 45-hour week, and that means time-and-a-half for the last five hours. Until now, Footco workers earned as little as $4.75 hourly for working up to 60 hours, and got straight time only. Jose Enriques, 32, an immigrant from Mexico who has worked at Footco for five years, told The New York Times, “Now I will make the same money working 45 hours a week that I used to make working 55 or 60 hours.”

The agreement also gives the workers, for the first time ever, three days paid sick leave, two paid bereavement days and one week paid vacation.

RWDSU prepared for the campaign by researching Footco, the communities and corporate structure for months.

“In Bushwick, we issued a report, ‘Street Of Shame,’ about the conditions on Knickerbocker Avenue,” location of one Footco store, Appelbaum said. RWDSU and its community allies kept pushing one basic message: “These are not just workers, these are your neighbors.”

“We had demonstrators marching through the streets banging pots and pans” on the weekend before Christmas, in a parade reminiscent of the Latin American ancestral homes of many Footco workers. “The signs were in English and Spanish: ‘What workers want for Christmas is fair pay.’” RWDSU brought Spitzer’s office into the fray on pay, presenting him with evidence of wage violations.

RWDSU is now expanding the campaign to other non-food retail sites in the Big Apple, and working with other community groups elsewhere in New York.

THIS WEEK IN LABOR

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 08:52:00 +0000

Delphi sparks protest

“We have put our lives into these factories, and they are just pretty much throwing us out in the street,” Jonell Sayles, a 29-year Delphi employee at the company’s Flint East plant, told the Flint Journal. Sayles and fellow workers’ will be picketing at two of the plant’s gates Feb. 16 to protest the company’s decision to abandon its historic spark plug production there.

Delphi, in bankruptcy court, has asked approval to cut workers’ pay from $27 per hour down to $9.50 in March. Now, according to a memo from UAW Local 651, the company is talking about $12.50 an hour, an offer UAW President Ron Gettelfinger calls insulting. Meanwhile a federal bankruptcy court judge approved the company’s plan to reinstitute a bonus program awarding $21 million to its top executives.

Gettelfinger said that Delphi has gone to court to enforce contracts with its suppliers, at the same time it is moving to have contracts it signed with its own workers thrown out.

Earlier last week, at a UAW legislative conference in Washington, the union proposed a “Marshall Plan” for the U.S. auto industry. The UAW’s Marshall Plan calls for federal aid “to help auto manufacturer and auto parts companies retool and expand U.S. facilities to produce flexible fuel and advanced technology vehicles to stop ‘off shoring’ of U.S. auto jobs.”

Gettelfinger also demanded a national solution to the nation’s health care crisis, calling for “a single-payer, universal, comprehensive, national health care plan for every man, woman and child.”

Update on BP disaster

The explosion which took 15 oil workers’ lives and injured 170 others at a BP Texas City oil refinery last year was the result of “willful and egregious” violations, said acting chief of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration Jonathan Snare. OSHA levied a $21 million fine against the firm and turned the case over to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution.

BP tried to blame workers for the accident. But the Steelworkers Union, which represents workers at the refinery, sent in their own investigating team. Management problems were the overwhelming cause of the tragedy, the investigation found. BP managers failed to replace antiquated equipment. They taught workers incorrect procedures. And management failed to install automatic shutdown devices to prevent the overflow of highly flammable hydrocarbons. Kim Nibarger, the union’s lead investigator, said last year.

Union care for Iowa kids

“I’ve got a little guy in my arms. Can you hold on a minute while I hand him off?” asked Des Moines home child care provider Matt Tapscott when reached by telephone. Tapscott is one of a majority of Iowa’s nearly 6,000 registered child care providers who have signed cards authorizing AFSCME to be their representative. Gov. Tom Vilsak issued an order Jan. 16 for the state to confer with the providers’ authorized representatives. AFSCME, which presented 3,208 cards, was certified as the representative. SEIU which entered the campaign later, lost its bid for representation, turning in 2,383 cards.

Tapscott and his wife Denise, both with early childhood education degrees, care for nine kids, including two of their own. “We have never had a voice at the table and never had a voice in discussions about improving the child care system,” he told the World. Tapscott is the president of a local child care association. His association along with 30 other child care support groups chose AFSCME to represent them, he said.

Iowa has 180,000 children in its child care system, with 50-60,000 cared for by registered caregivers. The new union members are concerned about improving quality of child care, training issues, health care and retirement. “We want to be able to say to young people, you can enter this field and not live in poverty the rest of your life. “

Workers are S.O.L. with DOL

An increase in the Department of Labor’s budget is going into “increasing competitiveness” with “Career Advancement Accounts,” said Labor Secretary Elaine Chao at a Feb. 6 press conference. On the other hand, the department’s budget will cut funds for job training and Trade Adjustment Assistance for workers who lose jobs to imports. It gives no new money for job safety and health or mine safety.

The Bush administration’s latest “accounts” program replaces four worker-training programs. Now grants to the states will fund $3,000 individual allowances to workers to retrain themselves however they choose for new skills.

How would the DOL budget help the workers displaced by Katrina, more than half of whom have not returned home? a reporter asked Chao. “Many have found permanent jobs elsewhere and other opportunities,” she responded. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported just four days earlier that the jobless rate among those Katrina-displaced workers is 26.3 percent.

This Week in Labor is compiled by Roberta Wood (rwood@pww.org). PAI contributed.

Mining families still gripped with grief, anger

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 06:40:00 +0000

Once the CNN trucks roll out, the national story dies on the vine, but for mining families and the United Mine Workers union in West Virginia, the recent coal mine disasters just won’t go away.

After Jan. 2, when 12 miners died at the Sago Mine, words and photo-ops simply don’t cut it. Words don’t add up to safe workplaces. Photo-ops don’t guarantee that mine corporations, swimming in profits, will obey the law.

In the first four weeks of this year, 18 coal miners died at work in West Virginia and Kentucky. West Virginia was hardest hit. With 16 hard-working families in mourning because their husbands, fathers or sons did not come home from work, the Mountain State is in the eye of a grief and anger hurricane.

The Sago explosion was the worst in West Virginia in 40 years.

The Sago mine is nonunion.

House Democrats held a hearing in Washington Feb. 13 for the surviving families. The Republican House leadership rejected participation in such hearings until the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) issues its report. It takes over a year for a MSHA report to come out.

“It breaks my heart to know that there is modern technology that could have saved my husband’s life and the Sago Mine wasn’t equipped with it,” Deborah Hamner, widow of Sago explosion victim George Junior Hamner, told Democratic members of the House.

Hamner’s daughter Sara Bailey read a note her father left in his lunch bucket that adds to the evidence that the trapped miners survived at least 10 hours awaiting rescue.

“Why hasn’t MSHA required mines to be equipped with rescue chambers or at least extra air supplies,” Deborah Hamner asked the elected officials. “Why does Canada have better protections for their miners than we have in the United States?”

Hamner pointed to the rescue of 72 underground potash miners within two weeks of the Sago disaster because the potash mine had “safe chambers” packed with oxygen and supplies.

“It’s ridiculous that I can get a computer and make a web site in an hour but no one could find my dad,” Amber Helms testified. Her father, Terry Helms died inside the Sago Mine, owned by the International Coal Group (ICG). “The technology is out there. In Australia they have tracking devices that cost as little as $20. What’s $20 to a company?”

The 140 miners at the Sago Mine produced $16 million in revenue for ICG through the third quarter of 2005.

Families told members of Congress that ICG has barred both the UMWA and their attorneys from interviews, part of the investigation to identify the cause of the explosion.

In a Feb. 7 letter to MSHA, United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts demanded that the agency enforce its own laws allowing union representatives to accompany miners and their family members to interviews, whether they are union members or not.

“The miners we represent at Sago have been deprived of their right to have us (UMWA) participate in the interviews,” Roberts said. “We remain eager to fulfill our statutory role as their representative and only ask that we be allowed to do so.”

A Feb. 14 article in The Coal Valley News, a newspaper serving Boone County, W.Va., site of the Feb. 1 death of Paul Moss, charged that Massey Energy barred emergency personnel from their property during the recent catastrophe there.

Massey Energy’s Black Castle mine is a strip mining operation. Moss, 58, was operating a bulldozer when he hit a gas transmission line, causing a terrific blast.

When Boone County emergency medical services (EMS) personnel arrived at the scene, Massey guards barred them at the gate. Only when Sterling Lewis, the state fire marshal, arrived and threatened Massey guards with jail did they lower the gate, allowing EMS technicians on the property. In a sharp message to coal companies around the state, Lewis told WSAZ-TV, “You need to rethink this real quick and if you don’t rethink this, we have the authority to put you in jail.”

It took EMS an hour, but they found Moss’ body 200 feet into the tree line.

Massey’s Black Castle mine is also nonunion.

Mine safety reviewed after 18 deaths

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 11:44:00 +0000

PITTSBURGH — Across the coal fields Feb. 6, production stopped for one hour as miners and safety experts, some company and some union, met to review and improve safety procedures following the deaths of 18 coal miners in the first 32 days of 2006. That same day the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) sent 100 inspectors to West Virginia to determine if the mines in the nation’s second largest coal-producing state were safe. The unprecedented action was a response from Big Coal and MSHA to a plea from West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, who called for a complete shutdown Feb. 1 until miners’ safety could be guaranteed. Of the 18 miners killed on the job, 17 worked in West Virginia mines. The other miner died in Kentucky.

United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts ordered all union safety committees to inspect every union mine in West Virginia. “We support Gov. Manchin’s call for a stand-down of mines in West Virginia until there is a thorough review of safety procedures,” Roberts said. “At nonunion mines that means the governor will have to rely on the word of the operator that the mine has carried out his directive. The UMWA will be taking that a step further at union mines with the order for a full safety inspection.”

Pressure from miners, their families and communities, the UMWA and elected officials forced MSHA, dominated by Bush-appointed coal company executives, to enact previously dumped safety regulations. In a Feb. 7 press release, MSHA announced that Clinton-era rules it dumped in 2001 would be restored, requiring coal companies to provide emergency oxygen supplies, escape routes and additional training. The safety regulations become law when published in the Federal Registry. MSHA did not say when publication would occur.

“This emergency rule-making will require the use of proven technologies and techniques to help miners evacuate quickly and safety after a mine accident,” said MSHA acting Director David Dye after being forced to restore the rules.

Dye crossed swords with U.S. Sens. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) during a Washington hearing following the Jan. 2 Sago disaster which took the lives of 12 miners. At issue was Dye’s notion of “proven technologies and techniques.” Both senators produced compelling evidence that tracking devices used in Australian mines saved lives.

After 72 Canadian potash miners were saved Jan. 31 as a result of underground safe rooms packed with oxygen, food and medical supplies, many question if MSHA is just going through the motions.

Distrust of the coal companies and MSHA runs high in Boone County, W.Va., where two miners were killed in two separate accidents Feb. 1. Eight of the county’s top 10 employers are coal companies. After Paul Moss died at Massey Energy’s Black Castle surface mine, the company ceased production for just one shift, held a safety meeting, and resumed production just 12 hours later, miners said.

Massey Energy, the state’s largest coal operator, is nonunion.

“This has got to stop,” said Boone County commissioner Jim Gore, a 22-year veteran miner and UMWA member. “Like the governor says, enough’s enough. Let’s find out what’s going on. Not one life is worth a lump of coal.”

THIS WEEK IN LABOR

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 07:52:00 +0000

Asbestos bill toxic

The interests of asbestos makers and their insurers “have become paramount and the needs of victims have become secondary” in the asbestos bill being debated in the Senate, said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney in a Feb. 2 letter to lawmakers.

The bill would establish a trust fund that is supposed to pay medical claims for the more than 200,000 construction, auto, shipyard and other workers exposed to the material. But, say asbestos victims groups, it sets high hurdles for workers to qualify and bars asbestos victims from court — even if funds run out. “This program will benefit the very companies that caused the problem,” said a letter from the victims’ groups.

Workplace asbestos exposure is linked to mesothelioma, cancer, asbestosis and other lung disease.

DuPont’s Teflon protections don’t stick

Workers and residents around DuPont plants have already been exposed to high levels of PFOA, a potential carcinogen, but the Environmental Protection Agency’s newly announced program on PFOA allows the company to continue to conduct business as usual, says the Steelworkers Union.

The chemical is used in the manufacture of many heat- and chemical-resistant materials including Teflon.

“The level of PFOA in the blood of DuPont employees is significantly elevated and continues to increase,” says a statement from the union.

The union cited examples in Parkersburg, W.Va., and Fayetteville, N.C., where PFOA has turned up in groundwater and drinking water despite the company’s commitment to the EPA to reduce emissions.

The EPA should not trust DuPont, the union statement continued without “regulations, specifications, rigorous oversight and consumer awareness of what products expose us to PFOA.”

Teamsters in Brazil

When workers at the Quebecor World Inc. printing plant in Recife, Brazil, shut down the plant’s morning shift Jan. 30, Teamsters union members from the U.S were there in support. A 20-member international delegation also included leaders of graphical unions from Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Canada and UNI, the global labor federation that represents QW workers in 16 countries.

The shutdown forced an agreement by the company to address longstanding safety problems that resulted to severe injuries to three workers this month. “Worker solidarity is priceless,” said Iraquitan da Silva, general secretary of the local of SINDGRAF, which represents the Brazilian workers.

International companies think they can get away with forcing employees to work in unsafe conditions and lose fingers and limbs, said Barry Bryant, president of GCC/Teamsters Local 527M at the Quebecor World plant in Jonesboro, Ark. “We’re here to tell our union brothers and sisters in Recife that we support them in this fight.”

ILWU hits pollution

The Longshoreman’s union joined with L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to issue a call last week to reduce air pollution at West Coast ports. The seaports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the two largest in the U.S., are also the largest polluters in Southern California. Several recent studies have linked port pollution — chiefly from diesel fumes given off by the ships and the trucks and trains carrying goods to and from them — with smog, cancer, asthma and other health problems in nearby communities.

This Week in Labor is compiled by Roberta Wood (rwood@pww.org).

N.Y. transit dispute still unresolved

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 06:46:00 +0000

NEW YORK — The dispute between Transport Workers Union Local 100 and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority following transit workers’ rejection of a proposed contract continues. While the union is seeking to return to good faith bargaining, the MTA has offered a new contract that union leaders and rank-and-file members alike characterize as “insulting.”

The MTA’s proposal, put forward Jan. 23, includes all of the demands that the union rejected originally, including the illegal demand for a two-tier pension system that the union said was the main reason for the strike. It calls for concessions that had not even been on the table in the final negotiations. In addition, it removes every benefit that the recent contract proposal contained.

At the same time the MTA offered its proposal, it filed for binding arbitration — something the union is resisting, because the process ultimately takes the decision out of the hands of the transit workers. Many see the MTA’s current proposal as a way to push the TWU towards accepting the declaration of an impasse, which must occur before binding arbitration.

“The current contract that’s been put on the table by the MTA is not a serious offer,” said John Liu, Democratic City Council member from Queens and chair of the council’s transportation subcommittee. “They’re simply trying to box the workers into an untenable situation. It’s obvious the MTA simply wants to let the situation go to arbitration instead of having to work on it themselves.”

Press reports have also speculated that the MTA proposal is not a final offer.

Roger Toussaint, president of TWU Local 100, said, “We have reached out to the MTA and we are hopeful that we will get the opportunity to read what the MTA’s actual intentions are.”

All of this follows a pre-Christmas strike, the first in over 25 years, ignited by the MTA’s drive to impose a two-tier pension scheme. The strike forced major concessions from the MTA, including the removal of the pension clause, and a number of new benefits, including a pension refund, maternity leave, and better health care upon retirement. The concession made to the MTA was a payment of 1.5 percent of gross income by transit workers into their health care. This proved to be the main sticking point that drove many to vote against the contract.

“We intend to resume negotiations,” Toussaint said. “That’s the path that’s available to us, and we think that we will be able to resolve things along that path.” He said he was confident that the parties could reach a fair settlement, adding, “What we work from is the negotiated settlement that we reached two weeks ago.”

Local 100’s leadership is demanding that Gov. George Pataki not interfere with the process going forward. Pataki is seen as having sown confusion during the run-up to the contract vote, suggesting that one of the stipulations of the agreement, a pension refund that would give around $10,000 to half the workers, would never materialize.

“The governor has been utterly irresponsible in his lack of action and almost profane rhetoric before, during and after the transit shutdown,” Liu said.

Charles Jenkins, chair of the TWU’s Line Equipment Section and a membership outreach organizer, said that the media was playing a negative role. He said the news focused almost entirely on people who were against the contract prior to the vote, and is currently portraying the union as divided into warring factions. “I think it was very harmful, and the media takes a very negative approach to defending the rights of working-class people.”

Union leaders said that, while members disagreed over the contract, reports of division were overblown and that there is widespread determination within the union to work together for a good contract.

“The real issue here is the issue of 34,000 transit workers,” Toussaint said, adding that the negative media barrage is being directed by “the interests in New York who want to pay us back for coming off of a successful strike” because “the example of our actions contributed to the resurgence of the labor movement.”

Iranian govt uses force on Tehran transport strikers

Fri, 03 Feb 2006 11:51:00 +0000

Iranian police brutally attacked activists of the Tehran and Suburbs Public Transport Trade Union over the Jan. 28-29 weekend.

Their strike was violently broken up and nearly 1,200 trade union activists and strikers were arrested. The stoppage had been called to press for the release of detained union leader Mansour Osanlou and senior colleagues, collective agreements, recognition of the union and higher pay.

Hard-line Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who is a former minister of defense, declared the union illegal Jan. 26 and said that the authorities would confront the strike harshly and with full force.

The following day, six union leaders were arrested during a crackdown by thousands of police officers and security agents. On Jan. 28 the wives of four union leaders were arrested.

Navid Shomali, international secretary of the Tudeh Party of Iran, said that his organization “strongly condemns these illegal and repressive measures by the Islamic Republic authorities.”

“We call for the release of all those arrested including the leaders of the union,” he said. “We in particular call for the release of Mansour Osanlou, the leader of the union, who has been in detention since November.”

The Tudeh Party also backed an appeal by the union for trade unionists around the world to launch a campaign of international solidarity with the persecuted Iranian activists.

“We call for all trade unionists to write letters of protests to the authorities of the Islamic Republic demanding the release of trade union leaders, respect for ILO conventions and respect for human rights,” Shomali said.

The union’s appeal also urged sympathizers to demand that the Iranian authorities fully recognize the union and meet its demands, as well as pressing for the trial and punishment of those responsible for the crackdown.

Morning Star (www.morningstaronline.co.uk)

THIS WEEK IN LABOR

Fri, 03 Feb 2006 10:39:00 +0000

Legal services union: ‘Impeach Bush/Cheney’

Both Bush and Cheney should be impeached for lying to the American people in order to start an unjust war, and for spying upon civilians without a warrant, said a resolution passed overwhelmingly by delegates representing nearly 4,000 legal services and human services workers Jan. 25 in Las Vegas, Nev. It was the national joint council meeting of the National Organization of Legal Services Workers, otherwise known as Local Union 2320 of the UAW, that took the action. Delegates also overwhelmingly supported a resolution calling for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. These resolutions are being forwarded to the UAW’s Constitutional Convention scheduled to held in June.

Stanford Hospital win

Workers at Stanford Hospital and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital have ratified a new contract. The SEIU members had conducted a 24-hour strike along with Stanford University workers on Dec. 12 to protest stalled negotiations.

Workers making less than $50,000 will get full family health care this year and there will be a wage increase of at least 12 percent over the three-year contract.

New DOD rules on hold The scheduled Feb. 1 implementation of new personnel rules in the Department of Defense has been put off to March 1 by U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan.

A 41-union coalition, led by the American Federation of Government Employees, challenged the rules, which set up a new personnel system for the agency. The new system replaces standard civil service law and its protections for six years. AFGE lawyer Dan Chember said the DOD, headed by Donald Rumsfeld, broke the law by unilaterally and secretly creating the new rules which virtually outlaw collective bargaining by taking almost every subject off the bargaining table. Rumsfeld’s rules also gave DOD managers “unlimited management rights” over transfers, hiring, firing raises and promotions.

IBM sued for OT pay

A group of IBM workers who install and maintain computer hardware and software is suing the company in federal court for cheating them out of their overtime pay.

John Shelly and Thomas Rosenburg of San Francisco and Exaldo Topacio of New York City said they and other tech support workers “were misclassified by IBM as professionals” in order to exempt them from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The three said they often worked more than 40 hours a week and on weekends, usually at customers’ sites, maintaining and repairing computers.

The lawyers asked the court to include other former IBM tech support workers nationwide and make the case a class-action suit. They said thousands of workers and possibly millions of hours of unpaid overtime could be involved

Even at $1 this guy is overpaid!

Bankruptcy artist Steve Miller, current CEO of Delphi Corp., made a big show of reducing his salary for 2006 to $1. But financial documents filed in bankruptcy court reveal that in 2005 Miller collected $875,000 in salary in addition to a $3 million signing bonus he banked when he joined the corporation in June.

Miller came to Delphi with the expertise of having taken Bethlehem Steel and United Airlines in and out of bankruptcy. In both cases jobs were slashed, union contracts cancelled, pensions and retiree health care stolen and executives amply rewarded. Delphi, of Troy, Mich., put its U.S. operation into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Oct. 8 under Miller’s direction. Delphi reported sales of $24.10 billion in 2004.

“Miller contends his executive team has been underpaid while Delphi’s hourly workforce commands significantly higher wages than the labor market dictates,” according to Automotive News.

The company has proposed various bonus plans to retain its management team during the bankruptcy reorganization, but those plans are being opposed in court by the United Auto Workers. UAW Local 651 in Flint, Mich., announced plans to protest Delphi’s attempt to nullify their labor agreement in a Feb. 16 informational picket and rally at the local’s union hall.

This Week in Labor is compiled by Roberta Wood (rwood@pww.org). Tim Yeager, Marilyn Bechtel, Jim Gallo and PAI contributed.