On the picket line

Borax workers fight lockout

After 500 members of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 30 who work the Borax mine in Boron, Calif., owned by Rio Tinto unanimously rejected a contract offer that would have changed seniority rules, the company brought in replacement workers on Feb. 1. The mine is the largest open-pit mine in California and the second-largest borax mine in the world. Rio Tinto, a London-based mining giant with operations on five continents, wants to hire nonunion workers and change the seniority system so it can promote people based on skill and performance rather than just years of service. The union says the proposed changes will lead to nepotism. “I think the company had the impression we were going to roll over and let them feed us the poison,” Jim Freeman, who has worked at the mine for 31 years, told the Feb. 1 Los Angeles Times. A solidarity rally is planned in Boron on Feb. 16.

Continental ground workers join Teamsters

Continental fleet service employees — baggage handlers, ramp workers and cargo agents — voted to join the Teamsters union on Feb. 12. Teamster officials say that their winning strategy included holding major rallies at Continental hubs in Cleveland, Houston and Newark, N.J., as well as organizing activities at other airports around the country. The Teamsters built upon a 2008 unsuccessful attempt to organize these 7,600 workers, who remained one of the largest groups of nonunion workers in the airline industry. No wonder the Teamsters called this win “a big victory.” (New York Times, Feb. 13)

Migrant workers win $2.75 million settlement

More than 2,200 migrant workers from Mexico and Central America, who planted pine seedlings throughout the Southeast, won a class-action settlement worth $2.75 million on Feb. 12. Superior Forestry Services, which hired them under the federal guest worker program, was charged with paying the workers less than the minimum wage and not paying them for all the hours they worked. The Southern Poverty Law Center led the team which filed the lawsuit in 2006 to win justice for the workers. (Associated Press, Feb. 13)

Reuters reporters make news

On Jan. 29 Reuters reporters and supporters were making the news instead of covering it as they demonstrated outside Reuters offices in Washington, D.C. Responding to Reuters’ declaration on Jan. 19 of an “impasse” over contract negotiations, the protesters chanted, “Impasse, my ass!” reported Union City, the online daily newsletter of the Metro Washington AFL-CIO. (Feb. 1) Reuters announced the day before that it was going to start imposing new working conditions that will mean more work and effective pay cuts of at least 10 percent. The union noted that Reuters’ actions are “especially hypocritical” in light of the company’s profitability and the CEO’s $36 million pay package in 2008. The Newspaper Guild of New York represents 110 Reuters workers in D.C. and over 400 across the country; the rally was supported by the Washington-Baltimore Guild.

S.F. Labor Council supports organizing in the South

The San Francisco Labor Council unanimously passed a resolution on Feb. 8 that both commemorates the 10th anniversary of the historic victory of the Charleston 5 and extends solidarity to the Jobs with Rights Now campaign, which seeks to organize and defend workers in the South. Initiated by Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the resolution recounts the successful struggle to free five members of International Longshoremen Association Local 1422 — four Black, one white — who had been charged with inciting-to-riot felonies after 600 cops charged their lawful picket line and brutalized the workers on Jan. 19, 2000. As the resolution notes, “[T]his historic victory serves as a model for all who seek economic and social justice in our nation.”