On the picket line

Youngstown strikers win!

The editorial, circulation and classified workers at Youngstown, Ohio’s Vindicator newspaper walked a picket line for 261 days-through winter blizzards, spring showers and summer sizzle. But their determination and solidarity paid off bigtime when they signed a new three-year contact on Aug. 3.

Before and during the early months of the strike, Vindicator’s owners refused to bargain and offered no raises, even though the workers hadn’t had a raise in five years. But the workers appealed for community and labor support, and Vindicator’s circulation and advertising revenue took a nosedive.

Members of Newspaper Guild Local 34011 forced Vindicator to the bargaining table. In addition to raises of 45 to 63 cents per hour and signing bonuses, the new contract offers language protecting newsroom jobs and establishes a joint union-management committee to iron out workers’ issues. “These were long, tough, protracted negotiations, but we achieved things we didn’t think we could accomplish,” said Bernie Lunzer, the Guild’s international secretary-treasurer, who participated in the negotiations.

“Was it worth it? Absolutely,” said Local 34011 President Tony Markota in an Aug. 9 news release. “We established that you have to negotiate to settle a contract; otherwise the consequence can be a strike. In the future, management will have to take bargaining seriously and not presume that they can bully their way through it.”

Markota noted that management was “just stunned” when only 20 out of 170 members crossed the picket line in nearly nine months.

But that proves, once again, the power of union solidarity.

Qwest workers authorize strike

The 25,000 Qwest workers represented by the Communications Workers Union in 13 states voted overwhelmingly to strike if a fair contract was not reached by Aug. 13, the day the contract expired.

As of Aug. 15, however, they opted to work while negotiations continue.

The major issues at stake: Qwest’s demands to shift health-care costs onto workers and retirees, increase mandatory overtime and to cut pension benefits. The union bargaining team delivered petitions from more than 10,000 active and retired workers calling for the company to maintain its current health benefits.

During a number of job actions throughout the district, which runs west from Minnesota to Washington state and south to Arizona, workers reminded management that “we are the front line, not the bottom line,” and that the high-quality service the workers provide is essential to Qwest’s success.

Teachers join Wal-Mart boycott

The two biggest teacher unions flunked Wal-Mart on Aug. 10 when they joined a “back-to-school” boycott organized by the Food and Commercial Workers. The 2.7-million-member National Educational Association, the biggest U.S. union, and the 1.3-million-member American Federation of Teachers urged parents to buy school supplies elsewhere to protest the billion-dollar retailer’s unfair labor practices.

Holding rallies in 32 cities, the unions demanded that Wal-Mart boost wages, provide adequate health benefits and abide by child-labor and anti-discrimination laws. In 2005 Wal-Mart was fined for violating child-labor laws in three states. Class-action lawsuits charging racist and sexist discrimination are currently in litigation. More information about Wal-Mart’s anti-worker practices is available at www.walmartcostsyou.com.

In a separate protest on July 20, two dozen labor activists crashed a dinner party thrown by Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott at a posh Washington, D.C. restaurant. The activists handed out literature detailing how taxpayer money subsidizes Wal-Mart’s low wages and calling on people to sign a pledge not to buy school supplies at Wal-Mart. To take the pledge, visit www.wakeupwalmart.com.

Federal workers protest

Hundreds of federal workers, many from the departments of defense and homeland security, marched on Capitol Hill July 12 to protest proposed changes in personnel systems. They charged that workers’ ability to do their jobs would be severely hampered if the changes went into effect Aug. 15.

“These bogus personnel changes will destroy morale and undermine public servants throughout the federal government by injecting politics into the federal work place, stripping workers of their whistle-blowing protections, and eliminating accountability over federal spending on salaries and raises,” said John Gage, president of the Government Employees union. (July 13 Union City published by the Metro Washington Council)

On Aug. 12, a federal court judge appointed by President George W. Bush ruled that the proposed changes covering 180,000 workers in the Department of Homeland Security did not “ensure collective bargaining” as mandated by law. She struck them down, ruling that they violated the rights and protections granted workers by Congress.

Women musicians win settlement

Though the recent movie “Mona Lisa Smile” promoted women’s rights in the repressive 1950s, its 21st-century producers paid 19 women musicians less than their male counterparts for the same work on the film. On Aug. 9 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced a settlement that provided a payout of $3,500 to each musician for a total of $66,500. The producers, however, did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement.