On the picket line

Union victory at Smithfield

After nearly 17 years of up-hill struggle, more than 5,000 workers at the Smithfield pork processing plant in Tar Heel, N.C., went to work July 2 under a union contract. Eighty-four percent of the workers, mostly African Americans and Latina/o immigrants, voted for the four-year contract negotiated by Food and Commercial Workers Local 1208. The contract, effective immediately, guarantees such basic benefits as sick leave, time-and-a-half holiday pay, and a $1.50 raise to be phased in starting with an immediate 40 cents. It also established a sorely needed grievance process to address unsafe working conditions and to stop management’s practice of disciplining or firing workers who protested injuries or disrespectful, racist treatment. The contract also guarantees the workers at least 30 hours of work each week, establishment of a safety committee and company-funded safety training. “We really did accomplish something with this union,” Mattie Fulcher commented about the workers’ hard-fought victory. It’s especially impressive given that North Carolina is a so-called “right-to-work” state with the lowest rate of unionization in the country. (Raleigh News & Observer, July 3)

BART workers to hold strike vote

Two BART unions, whose workers keep 350,000 San Francisco Bay Area riders on the move daily, will vote on whether to strike the week of July 13. The contracts of Transit Union Local 1555, which represents about 900 train operators, station agents and power workers, and Service Employees Local 1021, which represents about 1,400 mechanics, custodians, safety inspectors and clerical employees, expired July 8. Management has offered a four-year contract with no raises for the workers for three years and only a small increase in the fourth, unpaid days off, and an increase in benefit contributions by employees. They say all this will save the transit agency $100 million over four years. The July 13 San Francisco Examiner reports that the unions’ counterproposal, designed to save $60 million in the first two years and $760 million over 25 years—by postponing lifetime medical benefits for both workers and management from five to 15 years—“has been largely ignored during negotiations.” If the workers reject the contract, the unions plan to ask for a 90-day cooling-off period before returning to the table. Stay tuned.

Hawai`i workers contest furloughs

Two Hawai`i state unions have united to block Gov. Linda Lingle from unilaterally ordering thousands of state workers to take three unpaid days off per month, starting in July. The AFL-CIO blog reported June 29 that, according to the unions, Lingle and top aides “apparently contend that furloughs are not a required subject of collective bargaining. But that is obviously wrong. The furloughs involve significant reductions in both wages and hours, which are both core subjects for collective bargaining.”

N.J. workers ratify no-layoffs contract

State workers in New Jersey overwhelmingly ratified a new agreement that provides a no-layoff guarantee for 18 months and creates a seven-day paid leave bank to offset 10 furlough days. The agreement will help save as many as 7,000 jobs in jeopardy due to the state’s budget shortfall. The contract covers members of seven Communication Workers locals.

Unions swarm U.S. Capitol demanding health care

About 10,000 union members converged on the U.S. Capitol on June 25 chanting “We want health care” to the tune of Queen’s “We Will Rock You.” One of the biggest, liveliest labor demonstrations in many years, the turnout was organized by Health Care for America Now, a broad-based labor-community coalition that drew unionists from up and down the East Coast and from the Midwest. (Metro Washington AFL-CIO’s Union City, June 26)

NYC supermarkets forced to pay back wages

More than 50 workers at two supermarkets in Brooklyn, N.Y., will each receive $20,000 in back pay, according to a settlement announced July 1. The workers were not paid for overtime or only worked for tips. The owners of the stores pled guilty to criminal charges earlier the same week. (New York Daily News, July 2)