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• Union organizing results were mixed
in 2002, with AFL-CIO unions, excluding the Teamsters,
winning 59.5 percent of the elections
in which they participated. The Teamsters had
the largest number of elections, winning 45.6
percent and increasing the number of workers
organized by almost 5,000. The Wal-Mart campaign
by the United Food and Commercial Workers emerged
as the largest single organizing effort.
This "corporate" campaign by UFCW has resulted in NLRB charges
for "violating workers' rights" in 25 states, wage-hour
lawsuits in 38 different courts alleging forced "off the clock" work,
and litigation which could become the largest
gender discrimination lawsuit ever. In late November,
demonstrations occurred at more than
100 Wal-Mart stores that are said to have included
other unions and "community,
student, religious and women's groups."
• A new National Labor Relations
Board has taken office, after a year of political wrangling,
and has served notice that states may not invade
its turf by pro-union legislative or executive
action. Republican Chairman Robert J. Battista
is joined by new Republican appointees Peter
Schaumber and Alex Acosta. Democrat appointees
Wilma Liebman and Dennis Walsh round out the
full five-member Board. The new Board and its
General Counsel, Arthur Rosenfeld, have also addressed
new laws in New York and New Jersey that should
be preempted by the National Labor Relations
Act. New York's pro-union legislation allegedly
would prevent the "misuse of public funds on anti-union campaigns
by employers." A neutrality requirement is believed in conflict
with "federal policy favoring free speech in the context of union
organizing drives." In New Jersey, an Executive Order was issued
in mid-year which required state vendors and
their contractors and subcontractors to be neutral
in organizing efforts and "agree
to voluntarily recognize the union when a majority
of workers have signed cards authorizing union
representation." Earlier
last year, a California federal court decided
that a comparable California law was preempted.
• The United Auto Workers'
Solidarity Magazine issues its predictions about
the new Congress,including the following: (1) more conservative judges in federal courts, (2)
permanent tax
cuts "for the wealthy," (3) a weak prescription drug plan
backed by the pharmaceutical industry, and (4)
partially privatized Social Security -- all of
which Democrats are said to hate. The UAW
also has grave expectations regarding labor issues: Bush's
insistence on denying basic union rights and civil service protections
to employees
of the new Department of Homeland Security starts
a sustained attack on workers and their unions.
Look for Republicans to take another
run at weakening the 40-hour work week and overtime
protections with the "comp-time" and "bonus" bills,
and to cut back the Family and Medical Leave
Act. Also on the agenda: prohibiting card-check
recognition in union organizing drives, imposing
burdensome -- and costly -- new financial reporting
requirements on unions, and
passing "pay-check deception" legislation aimed at weakening union
members' voices in politics.
• Consumer Price Indexes rose by 2.4% during 2002. The Bureau of Labor Statistics
reported that the Index for "urban wage earners" (CPI-W) -- most commonly
used for tracking cost-of-living provisions in labor agreements -- rose at the
rate of 0.1% in December. The CPI-U Index for "all urban consumers" rose
by the same percentages, with medical costs accounting for most of the increases.
• Efforts by employers to require employees to share the costs
of medical
insurance
remains one of the principal issues in labor negotiations and demonstrations.A two-day walkout in January at General Electric, sponsored by the United Electrical
Workers and the International Union of Electronic Workers (an affiliate of the
Communications Workers of America), involved as many as 20,000 members. A scheduled
increase in GE employee contributions for certain health services went into effect
the first of this year, and the walkout was designed to challenge cost-sharing
proposals expected in this year's contract renewal negotiations. In a similar
vein, the Teamsters have cited proposals by trucking employers to share health
and welfare costs by employees as cause for a breakdown in National Master Freight
Agreement negotiations. GE asserts its total health care costs have increased
by 45% in the past three years, and health care costs for unionized freight carriers
were raised substantially last summer for Teamster-sponsored health and welfare
funds.
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