Sue Shurman, Pres of National Labor College Speech

Sue Shurman gave a rousing speech at the recent ARL-CIO convention in Chicago this week. Here's the link to a video about the importance of labor education in higher education. RAS

LaborLine News

LaborLine News

Minutes from the CIRL meeting in Toronto

Planned job cuts soar 42% in May

From CNN:
June 2, 2005: 1:33 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Planned job cuts soared in May after hitting a five-year low in April, but it's too early to worry about weakness in the economy, an employment firm said Thursday.

Employers announced 82,283 job cuts in May, compared to 57,861 in April, according to a monthly report issued by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

May job cuts rose 12 percent from the year-ago period. So far this year, 427,278 job cuts have been announced, 4.6 percent more than the five-month total of 408,392 last year, the report said.

Read the rest here.
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CHANCELLOR ROBERT J. BIRGENEAU VISITS IIR (Berkeley)

Berkeley’s newly appointed Chancellor, Robert J. Birgeneau, spoke at IIR on March 30, 2005, at a welcoming reception in his honor. Art Pulaski, Secretary-Treasurer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO spoke as well. The event was attended by many of IIR’s affiliated faculty members, staff and students, together with many community friends and leaders from the labor movement.

In introducing the Chancellor and Mr. Pulaski, IIR Director Michael Reich commented on the resurgent interest in labor and employment among newly
recruited faculty members. “We have seen a growing interest in labor issues among our new colleagues, and the trend spans many disciplines. New recruitments in public policy, sociology and environmental resources have brought new vitality to Berkeley’s already-strong focus on industrial relations issues.”

Chancellor Birgeneau spoke about his overall career, during which he worked closely with labor groups in many settings. While at MIT, he was instrumental in advancing faculty equity and recruiting women to MIT. At the University of Toronto, he inherited a fragmented labor relations environment that was marked by tense relations. “If you looked at the bigger picture, everybody, including the faculty, was upset about compensation issues. The big difference was that the faculty was treated with more respect than the labor unions that were represented on campus. When I started according the labor unions the same respect as everyone else expected, the result was four years of labor ‘peace’ at the University of Toronto.”

Art Pulaski, Secretary-Treasurer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, expressed his strong interest in working closely with Chancellor Birgeneau. “Throughout California’s history, the Labor Movement has always supported the University—indeed, the movement was instrumental in its formation and development. The California Labor Federation is looking forward to working with Chancellor Birgeneau and his administration to advance Berkeley, which is a great public institution and resource for the people of California.” Pulaski also highlighted the influential role of IIR and CLRE on public policy, citing recent studies on such topics as paid family leave, minimum wage impacts and the hidden public costs of low-wage employment.

Chancellor Birgeneau also addressed the points in his March 27, 2005 opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times. In that opinion piece, the Chancellor reaffirmed the University’s historic role as one of the most important gateways to education and career success for California’s multicultural population. He cited the fact that many business leaders agree that it is crucial for the University to train a student body that reflects every ethnic and cultural group within the state, because Berkeley graduate will be leaders in the future. “The system is broken,” the Chancellor said, “and it is up to us to fix it.”

The Chancellor’s enthusiasm was infectious, and the event was reminiscent of the reception that was held in honor of Dolores Huerta, when she was appointed as a Regent. “It was opportune for the Chancellor to visit IIR just now,” Michael Reich said. “The University of California at Berkeley is strongly positioned at the ‘crossroads’ where labor and employment issues intersect, with clear benefits not only for policy makers and academics, but also for the working people of California. IIR is very pleased to welcome the Chancellor to Berkeley, and we’re expecting great things in the coming years.”


Link

Let's hope the challenges at Berkeley will assist them and the rest of us to look for solutions in preserving our collections of working cultures. More important, support for Berkeley may aspire some hope for those of us in the Community of Industrial Relations Libraries as the group may be renamed in the future, but we will not know for some time as the process sifts through.
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Transportation Communications Union Affiliates With Machinists Union

From RedNova.com:

WASHINGTON, July 6 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) today announced an historic agreement that will bring nearly 46,000 members of the Maryland-based Transportation Communications International Union (TCU) into the Machinists Union. Today's agreement concludes months of discussions between leaders of the two AFL-CIO unions and will boost the IAM's membership to nearly 700,000 active and retired members.

"This affiliation makes sense on so many levels," said IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger. "We're joined by our common heritage as rail unions founded more than a century ago and by our growth over the years to include workers throughout the transportation industry. This 'union of unions' will also give us greater strength to face the economic challenges that confront our members and workers everywhere."

TCU represents workers at virtually every major rail company in North America, including Amtrak, CSX, Norfolk Southern, BNSF, Union Pacific, Canadian National and most commuter rail lines. The IAM represents more than 11,000 rail workers among its 140,000 airline and railroad members across North America.

TCU was founded in 1899 as the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks and grew over the years to include a diverse roster that includes clerks, carmen and supervisors. Among the unions that joined the TCU since its founding were the Order of Railway Telegraphers, the American Railway Supervisors Association, the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen and the legendary Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

Read the rest here.
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Anheuser-Busch Loses Hidden-Camera Case

From the Associated Press via WTOP News:

Updated: Tuesday, Jul. 5, 2005 - 4:30 PM

By SAM HANANEL
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Beer maker Anheuser-Busch Cos. may have to reinstate several employees fired for using illegal drugs at work because the company used hidden cameras without informing the employees' union, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The brewer fired five workers in 1998 after hidden cameras showed them smoking marijuana in an area where employees sometimes take breaks at one of its St. Louis brewing facilities.

Four additional workers were suspended for leaving their work areas. Seven others, observed sleeping or urinating on the building's roof, had to sign "last-chance" agreements saying they could be fired for any further violation of company rules.

A 2-1 panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a finding that the brewer committed an unfair labor practice when it installed the cameras in 1998 before bargaining with the union, Brewers and Maltsters, Local Union No. 6, as required under federal labor laws.

The decision by Judge Judith W. Rogers sends the case back to the National Labor Relations Board in Washington to determine what, if any, remedies the disciplined employees are entitled to, including the possibility of reinstatement for those fired.

Read the rest here.

Unions look ahead - and inward, too

From today's Christian Science Monitor:

By Amanda Paulson | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

CHICAGO – In the world of unions, Angenita Tanner is something of a rare breed: a new member.
She and her fellow home-based child-care workers in Illinois recently won the right to collective bargaining, and she's hopeful that upcoming negotiations with the state will improve wages that can be as low as $9.48 per child per day.

"Everyone's excited about this movement, and they're not feeling alone anymore," says Ms. Tanner, as the children nap in the next room on a sweltering Chicago day. She's fought for union recognition for nearly a decade.

The addition of 50,000 child-care workers to the roster of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) was a welcome boost in a movement that lately seems to be fighting for its survival. Just 12 percent of US workers hold a union card these days; among private-sector workers, the number is closer to 8 percent - little more than a third of what it was 25 years ago.

Read the rest here. (reg'st may be req'd)

Labor Reacts to Amtrak Reform Plan

From Rednova.com:
Posted on July 1, 2005

Several labor reforms are recommended under Amtrak's new FY 2006- 2010 strategic plan, which proposes various operational, structural, and financial changes (Railway Age, May, p. 16). And not everyone is pleased. UTU International has criticized the plan, claiming it will result in "sacking assistant conductors, scrapping coverage of the Federal Employers' Liability Act, canceling Railroad Retirement for new employees, opening some routes to private operators using non-union crews, and negotiating wages, work rules, and working conditions free from provisions of the Railway Labor Act."

Amtrak told Railway Age that it "wants negotiations to be meaningful," and it's hopeful that "all parties [will] engage in a serious discussion of the merits of the various proposals being publicly debated." Following are railroad company's responses to UTU's specific points:

* Amtrak said it has "attempted for the last five years to negotiate a change in crew consist-which is preserved in the UTU/ Amtrak negotiated agreement." Amtrak is seeking a rule change, authorizing it to assign conductors to trains, as needed, not by the number of cars on a train. "We have made it clear to the UTU that we would reduce the number of conductors through attrition, not furlough, but we need a work rule change to do it," Amtrak explained.

* The reform initiatives "recommend that only new employees be covered by Social security instead of Railroad Retirement," according to Amtrak, maintaining that it is "canceling nothing." The railroad company is "asking Congress to enact legislation to accomplish this."

LINK to rest of the article.
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