UAL to Outsource Maintenance on 777's to Chinese Company

From today's Chicago Tribune:

China to service United 777 fleet
Ameco Beijing gets $30 million deal for heavy maintenance

By Mark Skertic
Tribune staff reporter
Published August 31, 2005

United Airlines said Tuesday that it will shift heavy maintenance of its Boeing 777 aircraft to a Chinese company, part of an effort by the airline to lower its labor costs.

Over the next five years, Ameco Beijing will service all of the 777s in United's fleet. The first work is scheduled to begin in October.

He Li, chief executive of Ameco Beijing, told Bloomberg News that the deal is worth more than $30 million. United declined to say how much money it expected to save.

The planes are among the largest United flies, aircraft typically used for transcontinental and international travel. United had been outsourcing maintenance work on its 777s to Timco Aviation Services Inc. in North Carolina.

Outsourcing some work makes good economic sense, Chief Executive Glenn Tilton told workers in a voice message Tuesday.

"We are focusing on the things that we do best, which means growing our business in engines, landing gear, high-tech components, avionics and line maintenance," Tilton said.

"We also recognize that there is work where we at United do not have an advantage. That work is performed for us by vendors in the U.S., Korea and other countries, now including China."

LINK to rest of article (registration req'd, but free)

Wonder what this portends for union workers?
RAS

Labor Day Poll Finds Wokers Discontented, Nervous About Economy

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

By Ann McFeatters, Post-Gazette National Bureau

WASHINGTON -- A new poll commissioned by the AFL-CIO for release around Labor Day claims that nearly six out of 20 American workers are worried about the economy and 54 percent believe they won't be able to achieve their own financial goals.

The cost of health care is at the top of the list of economic worries cited by those polled, with only 24 percent saying the country is headed in the right direction in dealing with the issue.

And 63 percent say that it is increasingly difficult to find a good job with financial security even with a college degree, with 62 percent of working women -- vs. slightly less than half of men -- worrying about making financial ends meet.

The poll, conducted by Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart Research Associates, is based on interviews with 805 American workers, including 14 percent who are union members, and was done two weeks ago. It has an error margin of plus or minus 3.5 percent.

LINK to rest of article

AFL-CIO's briefing was shown on C-SPAN2 last night. It may appear sometime again soon.

RAS

Int'l Unions Gather in Chicago to Craft Strategy

FRom the New York Times:

By REUTERS
Published: August 20, 2005


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Union leaders from around the globe gather in Chicago next week to craft a joint strategy to boost unionization in the developing world, and especially to target the U.S.-based retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Skip to next paragraph Union Network International's annual convention will gather 1,500 delegates from some 150 countries in Chicago to share labor strategies and discuss ways unions can collaborate over international borders.

``We want more organizing initiatives on a global scale,'' UNI spokesman Noel Howell said. ``We want global rules and global standards for workers everywhere.''

The convention comes only a month after a schism in the American labor movement where three unions formally split from the umbrella American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations.

The AFL-CIO lost one-third of its membership, or 4.6 million members, with the disaffiliation of the Service Employees International Union, International Brotherhood of Teamsters and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

All three disaffiliated unions will participate in the meeting of UNI, which is in its fifth year and represents 15 million workers, most from service industries.

Union leaders said their decision to leave the AFL-CIO was the culmination of years of complaints that too few resources were spent on organizing efforts to arrest a decades-long decline in U.S. union membership.


LINK to article

Northwest Keeps Flying as Mechanics Strike

From the New York Times:

DETROIT, Aug. 20 - Northwest Airlines kept flying on Saturday despite a strike by its mechanics over the airline's demand for extensive wage and job cuts. Other unions at Northwest did not join the mechanics' walkout, the first major labor disruption at a domestic airline since 1998.
The situation was in sharp contrast to the walkouts that shook the industry in the 1980's and 1990's, triggering airline bankruptcies and contributing to the demise of major industry names like Pan American World Airways and Eastern Airlines.

The lack of support for the mechanics - and Northwest's ability to operate despite the walkout - demonstrated a new reality in the airline industry, which has lost more than $30 billion and cut more than 130,000 jobs in the last five years, buffeted by stiff competition from low-fare rivals and record-high fuel prices.

"This strike may be of historic importance," said Gary Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. "Here members of a labor union are on strike to save their jobs, and the rest of the labor movement refuses to help it. So much for solidarity."

The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, which represents 4,430 workers at the airline, went on strike at 12:01 a.m. Saturday after the two sides failed to agree on Northwest's effort to win $176 million in concessions.

Read the rest here (subscription req'd, but free registration)

Maytag announces layoffs of 200 at Newton, IA plant

From the Des Moines Register:

August 18, 2005
Maytag Corp. announced this afternoon that it is laying off 200 workers effective Sept. 2 from its plant in Newton.

That brings the work force at the factory down to 1,000.

A union spokesman said just a few years ago, the labor force stood at 2,600.

Whirlpool, based in Benton Harbor, Mich., has offered to buy Maytag for about $1.68 billion in cash and Whirlpool stock. The deal would give Maytag shareholders the equivalent of $21 for each share of Maytag stock.

Analysts disagree on what a Whirlpool purchase would mean for Maytag and Iowa. The most optimistic projections have Whirlpool investing in the Maytag brand. Whirlpool's global base and purchasing power can boost Maytag's profitability and preserve employment, supporters argue.

But most experts expect job losses in Newton, particularly in Maytag's corporate headquarters. Some analysts have predicted that Whirlpool would close most Maytag factories and keep only the brand name.

LINK to article

Click here for longer article on 8/19/2005 ..RAS

Ormet files unfair labor practice charges against USW

From the Times-Leader, Martins Ferry, OH:

By MICHAEL SCHULER, Times Leader Staff Writer
August 12, 2005


ORMET Corp. has again filed unfair labor practice charges against the United Steelworkers of America, the international union representing striking workers from the company's two Hannibal facilities.

According to the aluminum producer, the charges were filed with the National Labor Relations Board Thursday after the USWA allegedly refused to provide information requested by the company in May.

The information requested by Ormet pertains to financial analysis and ways the union has implemented work restructuring, contracting, workplace training, temporary employee and health care changes at other companies.

"The union has over 1,200 members who every day are waiting for a collective bargaining agreement," said. Mike Williams, chief executive officer, Ormet. "And yet, they didn't respond in more than two months to our requests or proposals."

In May, Ormet filed unfair labor practice charges, alleging that striking workers from the Hannibal facilities' USWA local unions 5724 and 5760 had threatened and assaulted vendors.

Read the rest here.

RAS

DaimlerChrysler Employees Exposed to Radiation

From WTOL News (Toledo, OH), August 14, 2005:

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA (AP) -- Federal officials are investigating how a damaged nuclear gauge released low-levels of radiation at the DaimlerChrysler Foundry in Indianapolis in late July.

Several workers were exposed to low levels of radiation July 29th when a four-inch cylinder overheated. A Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman says the overheated cylinder caused part of a lead shield around the radioactive cesium core to melt and shift.

Read the rest here.

RAS

Deal giving edge to unions muddies midfield contracts

From the Indianapolis Business Journal this week (VOL. 26 NO. 22, AUGUST 15-21, 2005), from a business perspective:

Non-union contractors question whether bidding on project is worth the trouble

By Chris O'Malley
IBJ Reporter

Should union contractors have an advantage in bidding on midfield terminal jobs?
Click here to join IBJ's disussion forum.

A construction agreement that requires union wages, work rules--and union workers--at the midfield terminal project has big and small businesses alike concerned they'll be shut out of all but the tiniest contracts on the $300 million building.

Unless Janet South's painting firm Deco Group agrees to accept those terms, she'd only qualify for projects of $75,000 or less--the threshold at which the agreement kicks in.

That limitation, contained in the project labor agreement attached to the midfield terminal, contrasts with the rosy contracting opportunities presented at seminars for women- and minority-owned business.

South said she's recently been invited to attend a number of such meetings, encouraging her to bid on the midfield terminal and, later, on the new stadium where the Indianapolis Colts will play.

"Most of the minority owners are non-union ... It just seems to take away the opportunity for free enterprise in general," South said.

The PLA already has generated sparks with the Associated Builders & Contractors of Indiana. Earlier this month, the group representing non-union contractors asked the Indianapolis Airport Authority to cancel the agreement the authority signed with labor unions last May.

The ABC cites a 2001 executive order signed by President Bush that bans union-only PLAs on projects that receive federal funds.


Read the rest here.

RAS

Homeland Security Dept. Loses Labor Rules Fight

From the New York Times:

By ROBERT PEAR
Published: August 14, 2005

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 - A federal court has struck down personnel rules adopted by the Department of Homeland Security, saying they violate the rights and protections given to employees by Congress.

In a ruling on Friday night, Judge Rosemary M. Collyer of Federal District Court said the rules did not "ensure collective bargaining" as required by the law that created the department. The rules were to take effect on Monday.

Employee rights were a huge political issue in debates over creation of the department, which consolidated 22 federal agencies with nearly 180,000 employees in an effort to prevent terrorist attacks in the United States.

Judge Collyer, who was appointed by President Bush, said the 2002 law gave federal officials "extraordinary authority" to develop a personnel system without regard to many of the constraints normally imposed by Civil Service laws. But, she said, the Bush administration exceeded even the "broad authority" granted by Congress.


LINK to read the rest of the article.

RAS

Illinois Enacts Law to Protect Day Laborers

From the TPM Cafe website:

By Nathan Newman

With an eye to the pervasive abuses against this largely minority and immigrant population, Illinois has enacted HB 3471, a law supporters hope will help force employers to treat these vulnerable workers more decently:

The law will allow the state to punish more severely those temporary-staffing agencies that shortchange workers' paychecks; illegally charge workers for business expenses, such as safety equipment and transportation; and provide unsafe working conditions.

There are about 300,000 day and temporary laborers in Illinois, according to the Illinois Department of Labor, which will enforce the new law.

Passage of the law is only the first step. To be effective, workers will need to organize to give the law life.

Labor advocacy groups blast Wal-Mart

From the Boston Globe, August 11, 2005:

Call for boycott of school supplies
By Anand Vaishnav, Globe Staff | August 11, 2005

Attention, shoppers: A coalition of labor unions, healthcare advocates, and workplace safety watchdogs wants you to boycott Wal-Mart as you stock up on school supplies.

Standing in front of the Boston School Department yesterday, about two dozen labor activists, teachers, and politicians blasted the retail giant as blocking workers from unionizing, breaking child labor laws, and underpaying employees. The afternoon gathering was part of a coordinated effort in 34 cities nationwide to urge parents to shop elsewhere as they load up on backpacks and other supplies this month.

''Shame on Wal-Mart," said Richard Stutman, president of the Boston Teachers Union. ''They want us to bring our kids to shop there, and they continue to exploit our children.

To read the rest, click here.

RAS