On the picket line

EFCA introduced in Congress

The Employee Free Choice Act, which will make it easier for workers to join unions, was introduced in both houses of Congress on March 10. On the Capitol steps, hundreds of workers from across the country rallied to show their support. This legislation, which allows workers to sign cards if they wish to join unions (the practice is known as card check), is promoted by both national labor organizations, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win. President Barack Obama endorsed the bill in his March 3 address to the AFL-CIO convention. During testimony, workers exposed how bosses take advantage of so-called secret elections to harass and intimidate workers in order to prevent them from exercising their right to collective bargaining. The Washington, D.C., AFL-CIO newsletter Union City reported that on March 9 workers picketed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. According to the March 6 Wall Street Journal, that big-business organization has launched a $19 million campaign to stop the bill. No surprise: Wal-Mart is leading the attack.

$1.25 million nurses’ settlement

On March 9, Northeast Health, a hospital network based in Troy, N.Y., agreed to settle a $1.25 million class-action antitrust lawsuit. The nurses asserted that hospitals in the area had conspired to hold down their wages. This is the first settlement of a series of related antitrust suits filed by nurses in Chicago, Detroit, Memphis and San Antonio. “For too long hospitals cut corners when it came to valuing the hard work of nurses,” Cathy Glasson, a spokesperson for the Nurse Alliance of the Service Employees union, told the New York Times. (March 10)

Singing for royalties

On Feb. 24, American Federation of Musicians members, including such stars as Dionne Warwick, Sheryl Crow, Patti LaBelle and will.i.am, hit high notes on Capitol Hill in support of the Performance Rights Act. The law will order radio stations to negotiate royalty contracts with artists for airing their work. “It’s unfair, unjustified and un-American that artists and musicians are paid absolutely nothing when their recordings are played on AM and FM radio,” Jennifer Bendall, executive director of the musicFIRST Coalition, told the March 2 Union City. The bill is strongly opposed by the powerful National Association of Broadcasters.

AT&T Mobility workers negotiate contract

Bargaining covering 125,000 workers at AT&T represented by the Communication Workers union got underway Feb. 24. By March 5 representatives of more than 22,000 workers at AT&T Mobility reached a tentative agreement that boosts wages by 8.8 percent over the four-year contract, includes improved retail store compensation plans, establishes a new career path for customer service reps, and addresses issues of quota relief and monitoring. (CWA Newsletter, March 5)

U.S. unions defend labor in Colombia

The first week in March eight labor and human rights groups, including the AFL-CIO and the Teamsters, called on the Colombian government to respect the work of labor unionists in Colombia and to retract statements that put workers at risk. Noting that Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world for labor unionists, the joint statement reported that 2,697 union members have been killed in Colombia over the past 23 years—one every three days. In addition, there has been a notable increase in forced removals, arbitrary arrests, illegal raids and threats, especially in agriculture, health and education. (blog.aflcio.org)