From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Fri Aug 1 09:23:25 1997 Fri, 1 Aug 1997 08:14:18 -0700 (PDT) Fri, 1 Aug 1997 08:12:50 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 1 Aug 1997 08:12:50 -0700 (PDT) To: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, united@cougar.com, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: July 31, 1997, Teamsters UPS Update Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Teamsters UPS Update July 31, 1997 UPS BACKTRACKS IN CONTRACT TALKS; STRIKE SET FOR MIDNIGHT THURSDAY UNLESS SITUATION CHANGES UPS management negotiators backtracked on key issues in contract talks with the Teamsters Union on Wednesday night and then refused to return to the table on Thursday morning, July 31. The Teamsters negotiating committee continues to be available to meet with the company at any time, with or without the presence of a federal mediator. The current national contract expires at midnight Thursday. Unless the situation changes, all UPS Teamsters will begin a strike against the company at that time. As a result of Teamster members' unity, UPS has publicly recognized our list of major issues, including full-time job opportunities, increased Teamster pensions, strong language on subcontracting, and job safety and health protection. But the company has refused to agree to real solutions in any of those areas. In fact, on Wednesday night UPS presented the union with recycled proposals that would actually make many of the major problems worse instead of better. For example, the company's proposal would... * Create fewer full-time job opportunities than the current contract. * Allow subcontracting of feeder work, depriving package car drivers and part-timers of opportunities for promotions. * Ignore major safety and health problems. "Their offer is another wolf in sheep's clothing," said Teamsters General President Ron Carey. "They're talking about the right issues now, but when you read the fine print the protections our members need are not there." UPS is saying it is willing to improve pensions, but only if it gains increased control. "If UPS really wants to improve pensions, let them do it within the Teamster plans where members' rights are protected," said Ken Hall, Director of the International Union Parcel Division. "After watching UPS freeze pensions for many part-timers for 8 years, our members are not ready to trust the company with their hard-earned retirement money." CONTACT YOUR LOCAL UNION FOR STRIKE INFORMATION The International Union has sent all local unions information about picketing, strike benefits, health coverage during a strike, and other strike preparations. If you have questions, contact your Teamster contract campaign building coordinator, picket captain, or local union officials. From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Mon Aug 4 00:12:08 1997 Sun, 3 Aug 1997 23:11:27 -0700 (PDT) Sun, 3 Aug 1997 23:09:04 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sun, 3 Aug 1997 23:09:04 -0700 (PDT) To: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, united@cougar.com, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: August 2, 1997, Teamsters UPS Update Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO FORWARDED AT REQUEST OF TEAMSTERS COMMUNICATIONS DEPT. =========================================================== Teamsters UPS Update August 2, 1997 STRIKE DEADLINE SET FOR MIDNIGHT, (EDT) SUNDAY The Teamsters National Negotiating Committee voted unanimously to call a strike for Sunday night at midnight (Eastern Daylight Time) if UPS refuses to agree to a new contract that provides a better future for Teamster families. All local unions have been given instructions for strike preparations. If you have questions, contact your local union officials, picket captain, or building coordinator. The strike will be an unfair labor practice strike because UPS has committed a number of very serious violations of federal labor law. The union postponed the original strike deadline last Thursday night at the request of federal mediators. But the company has refused to reach a reasonable agreement. The National Negotiating Committee will continue to be available to meet with the company if management decides to negotiate an agreement that meets our members' needs. "The brown trucks won't be rolling unless this company agrees to provide the good jobs that American families need," said General President Ron Carey. Fighting For Our Future Ron Carey and the National Negotiating Committee are holding firm for a contract that makes major progress on the priority issues identified by union members in a survey before the talks began. We're fighting for thousands of new full-time job opportunities. But in management's contract demands given to the union on Wednesday night, July 30, the company proposes to create only 200 new full-time jobs per year from part-time positions. The company also is demanding the right to use part-time air drivers to deliver ground packages. We're fighting for improved pension benefits. But the company insists on controlling decisions about future pension and health benefits. Why not improve pensions through the Teamster plans, where members' money is protected? We're fighting for real wage increases. The company proposes wage increases that are lower than in the current contract. They also want to put money into bonuses which don't increase the base wage that future increases in pay and benefits build from. We're fighting for strong language on subcontracting. But the company is demanding the expanded right to subcontract feeder drivers' work. The company's proposal would take away promotional opportunities for package car drivers and part-timers, and eventually undermine jobs, pay, and benefits for feeder drivers. We're fighting for safety and health protection. But the company refuses to agree to many of the improvements we need. For example, UPS refuses to agree to union proposals for safe handling of packages over 70 pounds. CONTACT YOUR LOCAL UNION FOR STRIKE INFO For information about the status of the union strike action contact your local union. For a brief message you can call the International Union's strike hotline at 1-888-877-4289. From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Mon Aug 4 23:21:53 1997 Mon, 4 Aug 1997 22:21:08 -0700 (PDT) Mon, 4 Aug 1997 22:20:23 -0700 (PDT) Date: Mon, 4 Aug 1997 22:20:23 -0700 (PDT) To: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Fight for Our Future Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO This message is reposted from United@cougar.com. The media is filled with official statements (and many misstatements) about the UPS strike. Here is a view from the rank and file. I will continue to repost information about the strike as I receive it. Kindly share these messages with coworkers, colleagues, comrades, and other appropriate lists. In solidarity, Michael=20 THIS STRIKE MUST BE WON! JOIN A LOCAL PICKETLINE TO SHOW YOUR SOLIDARITY! =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Fight for Our Future It looks like we may be headed for a national strike to force management to bargain over our proposals. Make no mistake about it=96this is a battle for our future! Our union committee has tried to bargain since March, and recently was making good progress. But on July 30 UPS management suddenly backtracked, withdrew progess that was made, and resubmitted their so- called "final offer" of July 22. That "final offer" is loaded with take-aways that would make a tough job impossible and endanger the future of our families. Here's a summary of their 160-page list of take-aways, which is far different from what company propaganda claims. What They Are Trying to Force on Us: Full-time wage increase of only $1.50 over five years. (Last contract was $2.25 over four years, almost twice as much per year!)=20 Five-year freeze in the part-time base wage (which has already been frozen for 15 years).=20 A bonus to try to get us to trade our future for a bribe.=20 Expanding, rather than ending, the subcontracting of our feeder jobs.=20 Expansion of the use of part timers, rather than creating more full-time jobs.=20 Elimination of our right to strike; gutting our "innocent till proven guilty" clause.=20 UPS take-over of our pension and health and welfare funds and moneys. (If they can freeze the part-time wage for 15 years, they could do the same to our pension.)=20 Company propaganda tries to put perfume on this pig with claims like "full- time opportunities for 10,000 part-time employees over the five-year agreement." They forgot to mention that there were 13,000 such opportunities over the past four years, so this is a big reduction! What We're Striking For Our proposals are reasonable and Ron Carey is ready to bargain.=20 A three-year contract (not five).=20 Real wage increases for full timers that keep up with inflation, and for part timers, including in the air jobs. A four-hour guarantee for part timers.=20 Creation of many thousands of new full time jobs through combination jobs and in the air operation. Part time America won't work!=20 An end to subcontracting out our jobs. All feeder work by brown shirts.=20 Major pension improvements, including in 30-and-out and 25-and-out benefits. The company's bogus promise of benefits will be matched or exceeded, and with real guarantees.=20 Expedited grievance procedure; expanded bidding rights; new safety and health protections, including on over-70s; stronger "innocent until proven guilty" language; monetary penalties for violations like bad paychecks; and more. The company says: "Those little nobodies don't have the guts to strike." Let's stand together to win a good contract for our future. And in the process, let's earn the respect we deserve as hard-working UPS employees and good Teamsters.=20 Answers to Common Questions If a strike is called, what should I do? Contact your local union, steward or contract campaign coordinator to get instructions. If that's not possible, report at your regular work time and talk to the picket captain if there's a picket line. Can pre-seniority workers honor our line? Yes. Federal law prohibits UPS from targeting any employee for respecting a picket line. This includes employees who are not yet in the union. Nobody scabs!=20 The company says we should take yet another vote. Should we?=20 We already voted by 95 percent(!) to authorize our union committee to take strike action to back the proposals that we submitted to our committee. We will have a right to vote by secret ballot on any national contract negotiated, and to separately vote on our own regional supplement, and rider (where applicable). The company can't dictate to us when to take votes.=20 Do we get strike benefits?=20 The International provides $55 per week to members in good standing who fulfill their picketing obligations. The benefit will be paid at the end of the second week of a strike, if it goes that long. What about H&W coverage? At a minimum we can bridge any gap by paying the premium. A member can wait 60 days to decide whether to pay, under the COBRA law. In the past the Central States, Southeast, Southwest Areas Fund has always provided free coverage to strikers, and many other Teamster plans will also. How do I keep informed during a strike? The International union will continue to issue bulletins, as will TDU. TDU's web site will be updated regularly. The International has asked all UPS locals to call meetings and to establish a phone tree.=20 What about Locals 705 and 710, which have separate contracts?=20 Local 705 (Chicago) is 100 percent committed to solidarity in this national struggle. Local 710 (which covers UPS employees in most of Illinois and Indiana) has signed a contract extension, but still has the right to respect our picket lines. From shostaka@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu Tue Aug 5 07:35:44 1997 Date: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 08:49:17 -0500 To: LABOR-RAP@csf.colorado.edu From: Art Shostak Subject: Request for Support Status: RO Brothers and Sisters: If you know anyone going to the Toronto meeting later this week of the Society for the Study of Social Problems (especially members of the Labor Studies Section), please bring the message below to their attention: Many thanks, fraternally, Art Shostak. Date: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 02:09:01 -0400 (EDT) From: YOFEDERICO@aol.com To: TOMHOOD@utk.edu Subject: Resolution to support core labor rights Dear Colleagues Art Shostak has asked me to help seek SSSP's support for the following resolution: We affirm our support for the following core labour standards which are internationally recognized to be fundamental human rights: 1. Freedom of Association 2. Right to organize and bargain collectively 3. Prohibition of forced labour 4. Elimination of exploitative forms of child labour 5. Non-discrimination in employment or occupation. These rights are included in the International Declaration of Human Rights, the Conventions of the International Labour Organization and the Covenants of the United Nations. They have been reaffirmed at the 1995 World Social Summit and in other forums. Nevertheless they are under attack in many parts of the New World Order. Since human rights are never "safe" organizations such as the SSSP should declare support for such rights as are set forth above. Sincerely Fred Hoffman Arthur B. Shostak, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Department of Psych/Soc/Anthro, Drexel University, Phila., PA, 19104; 215-895-2466; fax 610-668-2727. email: SHOSTAKA@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu http://httpsrv.ocs.drexel.edu/faculty/shostaka/ "This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to do with it." Ralph Waldo Emerson From J.MIKE.GARVISON@state.or.us Tue Aug 5 08:30:20 1997 <"04A5B33E738AB001*/c=us/admd= /prmd=or.gov/o=ODOE/ou=MSMail/s=GARVISON/g=J/i=MIKE/"@MHS> Date: 05 Aug 1997 07:28:59 -0700 From: GARVISON J MIKE To: Labor Research and Action Proj (IPM Return requested), Michael Eisenscher (IPM Return requested) Subject: RE: Fight for Our Future Status: RO Does anybody have E-mail addresses for UPS so we can flood them with letters of support for the strikers? If so, could someone share it with as many lists as possible. Thanks, J. Mike Garvison ---------- From: Michael Eisenscher To: Labor Research and Action Proj Subject: Fight for Our Future Date: Monday, August 04, 1997 10:25PM This message is reposted from United@cougar.com. The media is filled with official statements (and many misstatements) about the UPS strike. Here is a view from the rank and file. I will continue to repost information about the strike as I receive it. Kindly share these messages with coworkers, colleagues, comrades, and other appropriate lists. In solidarity, Michael THIS STRIKE MUST BE WON! JOIN A LOCAL PICKETLINE TO SHOW YOUR SOLIDARITY! ========================================================= Fight for Our Future It looks like we may be headed for a national strike to force management to bargain over our proposals. Make no mistake about it this is a battle for our future! Our union committee has tried to bargain since March, and recently was making good progress. But on July 30 UPS management suddenly backtracked, withdrew progess that was made, and resubmitted their so- called "final offer" of July 22. That "final offer" is loaded with take-aways that would make a tough job impossible and endanger the future of our families. Here's a summary of their 160-page list of take-aways, which is far different from what company propaganda claims. What They Are Trying to Force on Us: Full-time wage increase of only $1.50 over five years. (Last contract was $2.25 over four years, almost twice as much per year!) Five-year freeze in the part-time base wage (which has already been frozen for 15 years). A bonus to try to get us to trade our future for a bribe. Expanding, rather than ending, the subcontracting of our feeder jobs. Expansion of the use of part timers, rather than creating more full-time jobs. Elimination of our right to strike; gutting our "innocent till proven guilty" clause. UPS take-over of our pension and health and welfare funds and moneys. (If they can freeze the part-time wage for 15 years, they could do the same to our pension.) Company propaganda tries to put perfume on this pig with claims like "full- time opportunities for 10,000 part-time employees over the five-year agreement." They forgot to mention that there were 13,000 such opportunities over the past four years, so this is a big reduction! What We're Striking For Our proposals are reasonable and Ron Carey is ready to bargain. A three-year contract (not five). Real wage increases for full timers that keep up with inflation, and for part timers, including in the air jobs. A four-hour guarantee for part timers. Creation of many thousands of new full time jobs through combination jobs and in the air operation. Part time America won't work! An end to subcontracting out our jobs. All feeder work by brown shirts. Major pension improvements, including in 30-and-out and 25-and-out benefits. The company's bogus promise of benefits will be matched or exceeded, and with real guarantees. Expedited grievance procedure; expanded bidding rights; new safety and health protections, including on over-70s; stronger "innocent until proven guilty" language; monetary penalties for violations like bad paychecks; and more. The company says: "Those little nobodies don't have the guts to strike." Let's stand together to win a good contract for our future. And in the process, let's earn the respect we deserve as hard-working UPS employees and good Teamsters. Answers to Common Questions If a strike is called, what should I do? Contact your local union, steward or contract campaign coordinator to get instructions. If that's not possible, report at your regular work time and talk to the picket captain if there's a picket line. Can pre-seniority workers honor our line? Yes. Federal law prohibits UPS from targeting any employee for respecting a picket line. This includes employees who are not yet in the union. Nobody scabs! The company says we should take yet another vote. Should we? We already voted by 95 percent(!) to authorize our union committee to take strike action to back the proposals that we submitted to our committee. We will have a right to vote by secret ballot on any national contract negotiated, and to separately vote on our own regional supplement, and rider (where applicable). The company can't dictate to us when to take votes. Do we get strike benefits? The International provides $55 per week to members in good standing who fulfill their picketing obligations. The benefit will be paid at the end of the second week of a strike, if it goes that long. What about H&W coverage? At a minimum we can bridge any gap by paying the premium. A member can wait 60 days to decide whether to pay, under the COBRA law. In the past the Central States, Southeast, Southwest Areas Fund has always provided free coverage to strikers, and many other Teamster plans will also. How do I keep informed during a strike? The International union will continue to issue bulletins, as will TDU. TDU's web site will be updated regularly. The International has asked all UPS locals to call meetings and to establish a phone tree. What about Locals 705 and 710, which have separate contracts? Local 705 (Chicago) is 100 percent committed to solidarity in this national struggle. Local 710 (which covers UPS employees in most of Illinois and Indiana) has signed a contract extension, but still has the right to respect our picket lines. From dreier@oxy.edu Tue Aug 5 09:37:20 1997 Date: Tue, 05 Aug 1997 08:41:05 -0700 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Peter Dreier Subject: Data on Part-Time Employment In-Reply-To: <2.2.16.19970804221902.0f675706@pop.igc.org> Status: RO I would appreciate references to any good reports or articles that discuss the trend toward increasing part-time and temporary jobs (w/o benefits, etc)-- in other words, the increasing (and mostly involuntary) "temping" of America. Citations for articles in academic journals, Business Week, think tank reports, books, etc. would be appreciated. Thanks. Peter Dreier Occidental College dreier@oxy.edu At 10:20 PM 8/4/97 -0700, you wrote: >This message is reposted from United@cougar.com. The media is filled with >official statements (and many misstatements) about the UPS strike. Here is >a view from the rank and file. I will continue to repost information= about >the strike as I receive it. Kindly share these messages with coworkers, >colleagues, comrades, and other appropriate lists. > >In solidarity, >Michael=20 >THIS STRIKE MUST BE WON! JOIN A LOCAL PICKETLINE TO SHOW YOUR SOLIDARITY! >=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D > >Fight for Our Future > >It looks like we may be headed for a national strike to force management >to >bargain over our proposals. Make no mistake about it=96this is a battle >for our >future! > >Our union committee has tried to bargain since March, and recently was >making good progress. But on July 30 UPS management suddenly >backtracked, withdrew progess that was made, and resubmitted their so- >called "final offer" of July 22. > >That "final offer" is loaded with take-aways that would make a tough job >impossible and endanger the future of our families. Here's a summary of >their >160-page list of take-aways, which is far different from what company >propaganda claims. > > >What They Are Trying to Force on Us: > > Full-time wage increase of only $1.50 over five years. (Last >contract > was $2.25 over four years, almost twice as much per year!)=20 > Five-year freeze in the part-time base wage (which has already been > frozen for 15 years).=20 > A bonus to try to get us to trade our future for a bribe.=20 > Expanding, rather than ending, the subcontracting of our feeder >jobs.=20 > Expansion of the use of part timers, rather than creating more >full-time > jobs.=20 > Elimination of our right to strike; gutting our "innocent till >proven guilty" > clause.=20 > UPS take-over of our pension and health and welfare funds and >moneys. > (If they can freeze the part-time wage for 15 years, they could do >the > same to our pension.)=20 > >Company propaganda tries to put perfume on this pig with claims like >"full- time >opportunities for 10,000 part-time employees over the five-year >agreement." >They forgot to mention that there were 13,000 such opportunities over >the past >four years, so this is a big reduction! > > What We're Striking For > >Our proposals are reasonable and Ron Carey is ready to bargain.=20 > > A three-year contract (not five).=20 > Real wage increases for full timers that keep up with inflation, >and for > part timers, including in the air jobs. A four-hour guarantee for >part > timers.=20 > Creation of many thousands of new full time jobs through >combination > jobs and in the air operation. Part time America won't work!=20 > An end to subcontracting out our jobs. All feeder work by brown >shirts.=20 > Major pension improvements, including in 30-and-out and 25-and-out > benefits. The company's bogus promise of benefits will be matched >or > exceeded, and with real guarantees.=20 > Expedited grievance procedure; expanded bidding rights; new safety >and > health protections, including on over-70s; stronger "innocent until >proven > guilty" language; monetary penalties for violations like bad >paychecks; > and more. > > The company says: "Those little nobodies don't > have the guts to strike." > > Let's stand together to win a good contract for > our future. And in the process, let's earn the > respect we deserve as hard-working UPS > employees and good Teamsters.=20 > > > > Answers to Common Questions > > > If a strike is called, what should I do? > Contact your local union, steward or contract campaign coordinator >to > get instructions. If that's not possible, report at your regular >work time > and talk to the picket captain if there's a picket line. > > Can pre-seniority workers honor our line? > Yes. Federal law prohibits UPS from targeting any employee for > respecting a picket line. This includes employees who are not yet >in the > union. Nobody scabs!=20 > > The company says we should take yet another vote. Should we?=20 > We already voted by 95 percent(!) to authorize our union committee >to > take strike action to back the proposals that we submitted to our > committee. We will have a right to vote by secret ballot on any >national > contract negotiated, and to separately vote on our own regional > supplement, and rider (where applicable). The company can't dictate >to > us when to take votes.=20 > > Do we get strike benefits?=20 > The International provides $55 per week to members in good standing > who fulfill their picketing obligations. The benefit will be paid >at the end > of the second week of a strike, if it goes that long. What about >H&W > coverage? > At a minimum we can bridge any gap by paying the premium. A member > can wait 60 days to decide whether to pay, under the COBRA law. In > the past the Central States, Southeast, Southwest Areas Fund has > always provided free coverage to strikers, and many other Teamster > plans will also. > > How do I keep informed during a strike? > The International union will continue to issue bulletins, as will >TDU. > TDU's web site will be updated regularly. The International has >asked all > UPS locals to call meetings and to establish a phone tree.=20 > > What about Locals 705 and 710, which have separate contracts?=20 > Local 705 (Chicago) is 100 percent committed to solidarity in this > national struggle. Local 710 (which covers UPS employees in most of > Illinois and Indiana) has signed a contract extension, but still >has the right > to respect our picket lines. > > > > From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Wed Aug 6 16:50:08 1997 Wed, 6 Aug 1997 15:14:57 -0700 (PDT) Wed, 6 Aug 1997 15:10:57 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 6 Aug 1997 15:10:57 -0700 (PDT) To: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Express yourself! Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO One way to supporter the Teamsters is to join an "electronic picketline." You can express an opinion to UPS concerning the contract negotiations and strike of UPS employees. Here are two e-mail addresses to which you can address your views: Customer Service: customer.service@ups.com Website Administrator: UPS@webmaster.com In solidarity, Michael Remember: Solidarity begins with YOU! From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Wed Aug 6 17:46:49 1997 Wed, 6 Aug 1997 15:21:30 -0700 (PDT) Wed, 6 Aug 1997 15:12:00 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 6 Aug 1997 15:12:00 -0700 (PDT) To: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, united@cougar.com, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Conference of Possible Interest tcostello@igc.org, pcolombaro@igc.org, jrfine@mit.edu, jkurz@igc.org, albelda@umbsky.cc.umb.edu, joe-berry@uiowa.edu, carre@radcliffe.harvard.edu, cherny@sfsu.edu, femspak@igc.apc.org, fgapasin@ucla.edu, nance@usm.maine.edu, greenj@umbsky.cc.umb.edu, gooding@umbsky.cc.umb.edu, haas@ucla.edu, Honoroff@umbsky.cc.umb.edu, djacobs@american.edu, johnston@mail.cruzio.com, dmoberg@igc.org, bnissen@indiana.edu, richardsc@woods.uml.edu, tsampson@sfsu.edu, blairs@igc.org, shniad@sfu.ca, kjsciacc@facstaff.wisc.edu, abudak@alumni.ysu.edu, gwolff@ucla.edu, worthenh@socrates.berkeley.edu, zeitlin@soc.ucla.edu, jschaffner@igc.org, SHOSTAKAt@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu, MLW9@SUVM.psu.edu, spalding@UCLINK4.BERKELEY.EDU Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO This could turn out to be a very important conference. It has already received confirmation of attendance by a large number of major Latin American labor organizations. However, conference organizer Ed Rosario has appealed for help in recruiting qualified conference panel members, workshop presenters, keynoters, etc. You help by a) helping with some of organizational details, b) identifying possible participants, c) doing outreach to other colleagues and constituencies, d) lining up additional organizational endorsements. You may have other ideas of ways you can contribute, or ideas about others who could be recruited to this effort. As is always the case in such efforts, financial contributions are badly needed to defray the considerable expenses of this project. If you cannot attend but can make a contribution (or can do both) those contributions will go toward scholarships to subsidize those low income participants and foreign delegates whose attendance depends on financial assistance. Do whatever time and energy permit. Please accept my apology for possible duplications as this message has been cross-posted for widest possible exposure. Feel free to pass it along to lists to which you subscribe that may not have received it yet. Thanks, Michael =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D LETTER OF INVITATION TO=20 WESTERN HEMISPHERE WORKERS=B9 CONFERENCE Dear Brothers and Sisters: This letter is to invite you to join the California Labor Federation (AFL-CIO), the Bay Area labor movement, California statewide LCLAA, and countless other unions, environmental and community organizations from throughout the Americas in building and participating in the Western Hemisphere Workers=B9 Conference Against NAFTA and Privatizations, which= will be held November 14-16, 1997, at the Ramada Inn Civic Center in San= Francisco. I am attaching a copy of the official conference materials. Please fill out the endorsement and registration coupon and send it in as soon as possible to the San Francisco Labor Council. If you who have already endorsed, many thanks =8B and please don=B9t delay in sending in your registration form and reserving a room at the Ramada Inn Civic Center. (We are encouraging everyone from out of town to sta y at this hotel. You should register by Aug. 15, if possible.) We would also appreciate receiving a financial contribution to our conference-building fund =8B whether or not you are able to attend. The registration fees will cover only a portion of our overall expenses. We urgently need financial assistance to cover the cost of renting the conference hall, reprinting the conference packets, and ensuring proper translation into four languages of all sessions. Ch ecks should be made payable to Western Hemisphere Conference. To date the response to the Conference Call has been overwhelmingly positive, with endorsements coming in from major national federations and important unions and organizations across the hemisphere. The list of endorsers in the brochure gives only a glimpse of the support we have= obtained. We have just received the endorsement of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE). We are also expecting the endorsement of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) at any moment. In addition, we have just received the first list of delegates =8B from= Brazil =8B who will be attending our conference. It reflects the wide spectrum of unions and viewpoints we are expecting from every country in the hemisphere. The list includes: Emanuel Melato, president, Autoworkers Union of Campinas; Edson Soares, president, National Glassworkers Union; Roque Ferreira, president, National Railwo rkers Union; Teresa Lajolo, former City Council member, Sao Paulo; Ismael Cesar, president, National Federation of Public Employees; Luiz Eduardo Greenhalg, federal deputy, Workers Party; Helio Bicudo, federal deputy, Workers Party (and president of the OAS Human Rights Commission); Gilmar Mauro, national coordinator, Movement of Landless Peasants, MST; Plinio de Arruda Sampaio, national agrarian=20 secretary, Workers Party; and Francisco Nogueira, vice president, Dockworkers Union of Santos. As outlined in the Conference Call, our objective is to bring together unionists and activists from all countries and backgrounds to build a common fightback against the policies of NAFTA and privatizations. First, we wish to promote an exchange of information about the devastating effects of NAFTA and the other regional trade agreements on all working and poor people, and on the trade union movem ent in particular. We are soliciting country and regional reports from the unionists and activists building the conference, which can be compiled into a White Paper on the effects of =B3free trade=B2 and privatizations. These should be sent to the conference organizing committee in advance of the conference to ensure duplication and translation for the delegates. The reports should be comprehensive, b ut not too long. The conference will also provide a valuable forum to share information about the important labor fightbacks already under way against these attacks. This information is available to U.S. trade unionists only in the most limited form. Likewise, important struggles in the United States may not be widely reported throughout the rest of the Americas. Another important objective is to promote cross-border links among trade unions by industrial lines. This exchange among unions in the same industry or sector will be pivotal to building global unionism. We will want to know as soon as possible which unions will be represented from which countries so that we can prepare the conference industrial/sectoral workshops. Finally, another key goal must be to begin an important discussion about how best to fight the policies of =B3globalization=B2 (free trade,= privatizations, structural adjustment plans, etc.). There are currently various strategies being debated in the hemispheric trade union movement on this question. Some unionists feel it is necessary to call for the incorporation of =B3side agreements=B2 or =B3social cla uses=B2 into the FTAA. They point to the example of the side agreements negotiated as part of NAFTA. Other unionists feel that the side agreements included in these =B3free= trade=B2 pacts are nothing but a ruse to coopt the unions into swallowing the bitter pill of NAFTA and the other regional accords. They point to the failure of the current NAFTA side agreements, for example, to address any of the disputes in favor of the labor movement. Many of these unionists call for the incorporation of labor a nd environmental agreements directly into the trade pacts. Others still argue that the =B3free trade=B2 pacts are not amendable, as= they are by their very nature stacked against the labor movement. They oppose the side agreements and the incorporation of labor language into the pacts themselves. They argue, instead, for building a movement in each country and across the continent to repeal the free trade pacts. Many in the U.S. point to the NAFTA Accountabili ty Act, sponsored by 91 members of Congress as a vehicle toward repealing= NAFTA. While the conference does not seek to resolve this debate, it can provide a useful and necessary arena to begin a structured discussion on the issue. This is a necessary task given the seriousness of the onslaught facing all working people and the trade unions. A conference workshop has been organized for this purpose. We will seek to feature panelists holding the diverse points of view to ensure=20 that a genuine and thorough discussion can take place on this question. Another component of this discussion has to do with cross-border organizing strategies and campaigns. This will include a report on the current efforts under way by such groups as the Coalition For Justice to Maquiladora Workers in San Diego, as well as an initial discussion on possible joint campaigns and actions. Finally, the conference aims at adopting a final conference declaration that can summarize the findings of the conference and project some concrete common actions or campaigns that could begin solidifying the ties across borders. To that end, we hope to establish some sort of ongoing correspondence or liaison committee. I=B9d like to conclude by thanking you again for your support and interest.= We have a lot of work ahead of us in the coming months to ensure that this conference is a success =8B that is, a truly broad-based initiative encompassing unionists and activists from across the hemisphere to build a cross-border labor fightback against the policies of plunder promoted under the heading of globalization and =B3 free trade.=B2 Looking forward to hearing from you soon. Respectfully Submitted, Ed Rosario, Newly Elected Pres., SF LCLAA Conference Coordinator =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D March 20, 1997 Letter of Invitation to Western Hemisphere Workers' Conference Against NAFTA and Privatizations=20 Dear Brothers and Sisters:=20 This letter is to invite you to join the California Labor Federation (AFL-CIO), the Bay Area labor movement, California statewide LCLAA, and countless other unions and officers in building the Western Hemisphere Workers' Conference Against NAFTA and Privatizations. This conference will be held November 14-16, 1997, at the Ramada Civic Center Hotel in San Francisco.=20 I am attaching a copy of the Conference Call issued by the conference organizers, as well as the resolution in support of this conference adopted by the 21st convention of the California AFL-CIO.=20 We are asking all who support the goals of this conference to endorse the call and send in their endorsement as soon as possible to the San Francisco Labor Council, attention Ed Rosario or Jack Henning, 1188 Franklin St., #203, San Francisco, CA 94109. You can also fax your endorsement to us at (415) 440-9297. If you have any questions, give us a call at (415) 440-4809 or (415) 587-7638.=20 We would appreciate receiving your endorsement as soon as possible, as we plan to constitute a Blue Ribbon Committee of conference endorsers. This list -- which we hope to expand as we go along -- will be published in our monthly multilingual conference bulletin.=20 I look forward to hearing from you soon so we can organize this first, major step toward Global Unionism. An effort such as this one has never been undertaken before. We hope you will join us in this history-making event.=20 In Solidarity,=20 Ed Rosario,=20 Conference Coordinator =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D From aanz@sirius.com Wed Aug 6 18:21:38 1997 for ; Wed, 6 Aug 1997 17:20:51 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 6 Aug 1997 17:23:41 -0700 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: aanz@sirius.com (anzalone/starbird) Subject: Re: Fight for Our Future Status: RO Okay did that. When are we going to picket together? I haven't been on a teamster picket since, golly...ever. I have to go to toronto on Friday morning, do you want to picket on thursday? ellen >This message is reposted from United@cougar.com. The media is filled with >official statements (and many misstatements) about the UPS strike. Here is >a view from the rank and file. I will continue to repost information about >the strike as I receive it. Kindly share these messages with coworkers, >colleagues, comrades, and other appropriate lists. > >In solidarity, >Michael >THIS STRIKE MUST BE WON! JOIN A LOCAL PICKETLINE TO SHOW YOUR SOLIDARITY! >========================================================= > >Fight for Our Future > >It looks like we may be headed for a national strike to force management >to >bargain over our proposals. Make no mistake about it–this is a battle >for our >future! > >Our union committee has tried to bargain since March, and recently was >making good progress. But on July 30 UPS management suddenly >backtracked, withdrew progess that was made, and resubmitted their so- >called "final offer" of July 22. > >That "final offer" is loaded with take-aways that would make a tough job >impossible and endanger the future of our families. Here's a summary of >their >160-page list of take-aways, which is far different from what company >propaganda claims. > > >What They Are Trying to Force on Us: > > Full-time wage increase of only $1.50 over five years. (Last >contract > was $2.25 over four years, almost twice as much per year!) > Five-year freeze in the part-time base wage (which has already been > frozen for 15 years). > A bonus to try to get us to trade our future for a bribe. > Expanding, rather than ending, the subcontracting of our feeder >jobs. > Expansion of the use of part timers, rather than creating more >full-time > jobs. > Elimination of our right to strike; gutting our "innocent till >proven guilty" > clause. > UPS take-over of our pension and health and welfare funds and >moneys. > (If they can freeze the part-time wage for 15 years, they could do >the > same to our pension.) > >Company propaganda tries to put perfume on this pig with claims like >"full- time >opportunities for 10,000 part-time employees over the five-year >agreement." >They forgot to mention that there were 13,000 such opportunities over >the past >four years, so this is a big reduction! > > What We're Striking For > >Our proposals are reasonable and Ron Carey is ready to bargain. > > A three-year contract (not five). > Real wage increases for full timers that keep up with inflation, >and for > part timers, including in the air jobs. A four-hour guarantee for >part > timers. > Creation of many thousands of new full time jobs through >combination > jobs and in the air operation. Part time America won't work! > An end to subcontracting out our jobs. All feeder work by brown >shirts. > Major pension improvements, including in 30-and-out and 25-and-out > benefits. The company's bogus promise of benefits will be matched >or > exceeded, and with real guarantees. > Expedited grievance procedure; expanded bidding rights; new safety >and > health protections, including on over-70s; stronger "innocent until >proven > guilty" language; monetary penalties for violations like bad >paychecks; > and more. > > The company says: "Those little nobodies don't > have the guts to strike." > > Let's stand together to win a good contract for > our future. And in the process, let's earn the > respect we deserve as hard-working UPS > employees and good Teamsters. > > > > Answers to Common Questions > > > If a strike is called, what should I do? > Contact your local union, steward or contract campaign coordinator >to > get instructions. If that's not possible, report at your regular >work time > and talk to the picket captain if there's a picket line. > > Can pre-seniority workers honor our line? > Yes. Federal law prohibits UPS from targeting any employee for > respecting a picket line. This includes employees who are not yet >in the > union. Nobody scabs! > > The company says we should take yet another vote. Should we? > We already voted by 95 percent(!) to authorize our union committee >to > take strike action to back the proposals that we submitted to our > committee. We will have a right to vote by secret ballot on any >national > contract negotiated, and to separately vote on our own regional > supplement, and rider (where applicable). The company can't dictate >to > us when to take votes. > > Do we get strike benefits? > The International provides $55 per week to members in good standing > who fulfill their picketing obligations. The benefit will be paid >at the end > of the second week of a strike, if it goes that long. What about >H&W > coverage? > At a minimum we can bridge any gap by paying the premium. A member > can wait 60 days to decide whether to pay, under the COBRA law. In > the past the Central States, Southeast, Southwest Areas Fund has > always provided free coverage to strikers, and many other Teamster > plans will also. > > How do I keep informed during a strike? > The International union will continue to issue bulletins, as will >TDU. > TDU's web site will be updated regularly. The International has >asked all > UPS locals to call meetings and to establish a phone tree. > > What about Locals 705 and 710, which have separate contracts? > Local 705 (Chicago) is 100 percent committed to solidarity in this > national struggle. Local 710 (which covers UPS employees in most of > Illinois and Indiana) has signed a contract extension, but still >has the right > to respect our picket lines. From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Wed Aug 6 23:34:47 1997 Wed, 6 Aug 1997 22:33:51 -0700 (PDT) Wed, 6 Aug 1997 22:32:46 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 6 Aug 1997 22:32:46 -0700 (PDT) To: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Teamsters News Release Wednesday, August 6, 1997 MEDIA UPDATE ON TEAMSTER UPS STRIKE These are some developments in the Teamster strike against UPS: Postal Workers Support Striking Teamsters by Refusing to Allow Postal Service to Hire Emergency Workers Postal workers are standing behind striking Teamsters at United Parcel Service by refusing a request from the U.S. Postal Service to hire emergency temporary workers to help handle the increased volume resulting from the shutdown of UPS. "We fully support the Teamsters in their struggle with UPS for good, full-time jobs for working families," said Moe Biller, president of the American Postal Workers Union. "There will be no waiver granted by the APWU to the Postal Service to increase the use and number of casuals at the national or local level." Under the APWU contract, the union has the right to approve the hiring of casual -- or temporary -- workers. Carey, AFL-CIO Pres. Sweeney Walk Picket Line in Chicago Teamsters President Ron Carey today was joined at a Chicago UPS picket line by AFL-CIO resident John Sweeney and other leaders of America's major unions. Sweeney said, "The driving issues behind this strike reach directly into the living rooms and the pocketbooks of every working family in America." Fedex Workers Rally at UPS Picket Line Indianapolis Federal Express workers involved in an ongoing campaign to organize with the Teamsters Union are joining UPS workers on the picket line today in Indianapolis at 4:00 p.m. "The UPS Teamsters are fighting for us, too, " said Leanna Cochran, a FedEx worker who's leading the drive to organize the delivery giant in Indianapolis. "We have to stop big companies from shifting to throwaway jobs that don't provide decent wages or the security our families need." Houston Police Announce "Zero Tolerance" for Management-Driven UPS Trucks Houston police officers, members of the Houston Police Patrolmen's Union, announced today that they would be on the lookout for UPS trucks driven by management personnel and would pull them over for any violations. "Once the HPPU member gets the vehicle stopped they are instructed to go into a 'zero tolerance' mode and cite each and every violation of the law they find," the union said in a statement. From mdelao@colef.mx Thu Aug 7 12:17:34 1997 Date: Thu, 7 Aug 1997 11:30:17 -0700 To: From: Maru de la O Subject: urgente Status: RO Mi nombre es Zaida Guillen, trabajo para la Dra. Maria Eugenia de la O Martinez, he visto sus correo electronicos, pero lamentablemente ella no puede responderle, ella se encuentra fuera de la ciudad dentro de 10 dias podra contestarle. Sin mas por el momento, me despido From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Fri Aug 8 00:49:55 1997 Thu, 7 Aug 1997 23:46:47 -0700 (PDT) Thu, 7 Aug 1997 23:46:03 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 7 Aug 1997 23:46:03 -0700 (PDT) To: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, united@cougar.com, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Thousands of CWA support Teamsters in NYC! Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO From: Jack Petith Subject: Thousands of CWA support Teamsters in NYC! Hi folks, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time for this great one. The LP should be doing and organizing as much of this kind of thing as possible wherever we can. Especially if we can do it in conjunction with the unions. This UPS strike is the biggest strike in a long time, with the most coverage by corporate media. Labor everywhere seems to feel very strongly in favor of this one and to understand that the fight is for all of us. There are signs that "the times are a-changing." Let's be there for the change and help it along! jp New York, August 7th A significant act of labor solidarity, such as has rarely been seen in recent years, took place in the heart of New York City today. Several thousand members of the CWA (Communications Workers of America) rallied, took over large parts of New York's 42nd Street and marched across the city to the Teamsters' picket lines to support their fellow workers on strike against UPS. CWA's contract with NYNEX expires in one year, but thousands of workers came out today in front of the phone company headquarters to let the bosses know in no uncertain terms that they are ready to fight for a good contract in '98. CWA locals 1101, 1102, 1103, 1104,1105, 1106, 1109, 1110, 1120, and 1180 were represented in the street. Chanting, cheering the speeches, and blowing hundreds of whistles, they sent a strong message that workers in this country are not going to take it any more. Things are changing, and labor is getting into a fighting mood. It's still one year to contract time, but CWA is getting ready to do battle. In addition to the speeches by CWA leaders, local leaders of the striking Teamsters spoke to the rally. They emphasized that the demands that their 185,000 members are fighting for are the same issues effecting workers everywhere: More jobs and job security, the need to wake up and fight against the vicious new onslaughts of corporate greed. Labor solidarity is key, they stressed, and if labor will stand up and fight as one we can win. Without us these companies are nothing, they said. Without us they have no money because we make the money for them. Taking over the up-town side of 42nd Street, in mid-town Manhattan, the several thousand CWA workers surged westward. They chanted and blew their whistles all the way over to the Teamsters picket lines near the Hudson River at 43rd Street and 12th Avenue. Along the way other workers in cars and trucks and along the sidewalks gave signs of solidarity, blowing horns, waving fists in the air, or hollering encouragement. This kind of labor solidarity felt great! No petty "identity politics" here! Blacks, whites, young, old, female, and male were united as one against the beast that's threatening all of us more and more every day. The Teamsters were jubilant on their picket lines when they saw thousands of workers coming to their support. Wild chanting, whistling and whooping, and passionate shaking of hands and embraces broke out everywhere. "Big Brown, Shut 'em Down!" "Union! Union! Union!" Meanwhile the were cops everywhere, the same cops, never neutral, that have been viciously attacking Teamsters in Massachusetts and elsewhere. The cops had set up barricades to keep the Teamsters separate from the CWA and anyone else, to isolate them, but they came down in a clatter as the workers came together. A local leader of the Teamsters told me they expect to have lots more labor solidarity like this on their line. I hope he's right. This particular act of solidarity was conceived and pushed for by Kathy Ciner, head of CWA local 1105. Let's hope a lot of other local leaders will take similar initiatives. Let's push for it in our unions. UPS can be shut down tight, in New York and everywhere. The workers, the Teamsters and their brothers in sisters in other unions, and even the unemployed, can stand together and bring UPS to its knees if we act together. A victory for the Teamsters is a victory for all of us. Jack Petith NWU, local 1981 UAW please distribute widely! Jack Petith =========================================== ++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++ ++++ if you agree copy these 3 sentences in your own sig ++++ ++++ more info: http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm ++++ Are you a writer? If you are, consider joining the National Writers Union, local 1981 UAW You can even join online at: http://www.nwu.org Defend Internet Privacy! Use privacy tools now. You can learn more about Interet privacy and get the tools here: http://www.epic.org/privacy/tools.html Here's my PGP Public Key: -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6.2 mQCNAzN04agAAAEEAMdgiV3LpK9EmNDMCUr7JvSkVI0qLSOvIajfRFFSy/2IM9Xt FjwAs2dTzloU9HtVxSLEYp8gje9sr7szQaax43pjK5vwS1Xsbht6JK3eTYMa3Go3 i2aRRKbIalBa5Cue/sPwLmdXfUu9lQGmDJqoTAQqD1Ce0r9fEcsYKDKhgV1lAAUR tB1KYWNrIFBldGl0aCA8amZwQHNwcnluZXQuY29tPokAlQMFEDN045LLGCgyoYFd ZQEBmKQEAJYLj2/mfyOqQd+k7TRPmELIhcLS7xyPTQDnAaaGfQJh/Ik2B25aEsqG BZiZTh0oB8ZOHlurnf5sALrJFVmEtI+OshW7GZbD9tCFE8pbPKVcgOuvIKU6QI7u SYfwFxnwGjnWSnt+aWCTDDSms3V7xr10h/Y4EpCwhSkZWP9md9nK =32Xj -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- ============================================ From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sat Aug 9 01:36:54 1997 Sat, 9 Aug 1997 00:35:39 -0700 (PDT) Sat, 9 Aug 1997 00:34:48 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sat, 9 Aug 1997 00:34:48 -0700 (PDT) To: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, united@cougar.com, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Truth About UPS Revealed Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO I attended the national convention of APALA (Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance) today in San Francisco. It was an impressive event attended by more than 500 delegates from across the country. At the dinner Carolyn Robinson, Secretary-Treasurer of IBT Local 315 in Martinez gave a revealing report on the UPS Strike. She sits on the national bargaining committee; she's been in negotiations for seven months. She heads up the sub-committee on safety & health. Sister Robinson is the first (and only) woman to serve on the national UPS negotiating team for the Teamsters. She gave a very revealing report with details that have not yet been released to the media. She has given permission to me to relate them to you and intends to break these facts shortly to the public. (I tried to note her comments as Carolyn made them. If there are any errors in this information, it may be that I failed to accurately capture her comments. I believe, however, what follows is factually correct. If others know differently, please provide corrections.) 1. UPS has a rate of occupational injury that is three times that of the transportation industry. 2. UPS has one of the worst hazmat violation records in the industry. 3. EEOC has filed a class action suit against UPS for violating the rights of disabled workers. Workers who suffer eye injury are entitled to be transferred to other jobs, but UPS has refused or failed to accommodate their disabilities. 4. UPS, unlike its competition in the package delivery business, has refused to invest the $55 per vehicle it would cost to equip their fleet with articulated mirrors at the rear of the trucks. As a consequence, children have been injured and killed because drivers were unable to see them behind their vehicles. Isn't a child's life worth more than $55? 5. UPS has consistently stonewalled union demands for appropriate safety equipment such as decent seatbelts, seats, and tires, and has refused to retire from their fleet trucks that have only single cylinder brakes. 6. On average, one UPS employee is killed on the job every month. 7. In Chicago a brand new employee (described as barely more than a "boy") serving his 30 day probation died of heat exhaustion while unloading a truck during one of Chicago's heat waves. He was required to meet the standard of unloading 2000 packages per hour in order to make probation. OSHA fined the company $5000. 8. Packages presently can weigh up to 150 pounds each. The company has refused to bargain over weight limits, reserving the right to require drivers to unload alone packages that could run 200 or more pounds. When challenged, management told the union that if the driver needed help, s/he could ask the customer to assist. Young, inexperienced workers are becoming disabled for life from injuries received at UPS, often their first real job. Sister Robinson cited these as only some of the issues that are hung up in negotiations. While the issue of part timers and company demands to withdraw from the union's multi-employer pension plan have gotten press play, they are not the only unresolved problems that led to the strike. She reports that the strike is 99% effective nationwide. She also reported that the Teamsters have met with unions representing UPS employees in Europe and they have established a World UPS Union Council. Three strikers are touring Europe now, briefing workers on the strike. They spoke this week in Belgium, where the union at UPS responded by shutting down the company throughout the country in solidarity. She proclaimed, "Belgium is shut down tight!" Side Notes: I was at the UPS picketlines in Oakland yesterday where about 1200 workers are out solid. Spirits were high and the mood good natured but whenever a "Brown Alert" was called as a management-driven truck returned (with two managers in each) it became clear that they meant to take care of business. (How many managers does it take to read a map or package address?) In the short time I was there, a delivery driver for the SF Chronicle wheeled up and dropped off free papers, and a driver for Emory pulled up and unloaded fried chicken and sodas he purchased with money collected from coworkers. A picket captain with whom I spoke told me that he had personally visited very one of his customers to apologize for the inconvenience and explain what the company was doing and how they, not the union members, were the source of the strike. He is on a first-name basis with all of them, as he has had the same route for 8 years. HE is UPS to those customers. The last thing he did before walking out at the end of his last shift was to pull his name plate off the side of the truck he drives so that no one would assume he was driving during the strike. His sense of obligation and responsibility to his customers is not atypical. It is early in the strike and union members have yet to miss their first paycheck, but $55/week in strike benefits will not go far and it won't be too long before they feel the pain. When you go to the picketlines, don't go empty-handed. I was in the Mission District earlier this week and there were several members of one of SF's numerous left groups out on street corners with buckets collecting donations to the UPS strike fund. We could each take up a collection at work, call friends, and get organizations we belong to to pitch in with money or in-kind contributions. Most important of all, however, is that there be a loud and persistent growing crescendo of support for the strikers in letters to the editor, calls to talk shows, ads, email and letters to UPS, etc. Finally, I realize that I have been cross-posting a lot of material on the strike to several lists, and this may annoy some subscribers (particularly if they are on more than one of the lists and get duplicates). I apologize if this inconveniences you, but you know where the delete key is and can simply trash the messages you identify as duplicates from their subject headers. If I receive a substantial number of complaints from any given list, I will discontinue posting to that list, but hope that you appreciate the importance of this strike to the future of our labor movement and will accept this modest nuisance. (Remember, your inconvenience is minor compared to the 185,000 families that are going without a paycheck.) We can't do anything now about Staley, Caterpillar, or the Detroit newspaper strikes. But we sure as hell can do something about the UPS strike and we ought not wait until it has dragged on for a year before taking our responsibility for solidarity seriously. So bear with me even if it might seem a bit excessive. In solidarity, Michael From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sun Aug 10 23:47:30 1997 Sun, 10 Aug 1997 22:13:26 -0700 (PDT) Sun, 10 Aug 1997 22:12:41 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sun, 10 Aug 1997 22:12:41 -0700 (PDT) To: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, united@cougar.com, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: UPS Strike Resolution Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF U.P.S. STRIKERS The State Central Committee of the Peace and Freedom Party of California recognizes the heroism and applauds the courage of United Parcel Service strikers, who are confronting corporate super-exploitation of "part-time" workers, a serious problem for the entire American working class. Whether walking a small injunction-limited picket line or participating in mass mobilizations, each striker has the sympathy and support of millions of workers, including the members of our Party. The State Central Committee hereby resolves to give both practical and moral support to the strikers, their families, and their union, and to urge County Central Committees and all 75,000 members of the Peace & Freedom Party to mobilize to support the UPS strikers throughout the state. The State Central Committee further urges the Party's friends in other states to mobilize quickly to support the Teamster strikers, and help them win a precedent-setting victory over the brutal low-wage job-splitting policies of UPS, to the benefit of UPS workers and the whole working class. The resolution being put to a vote was unanimously adopted this tenth day of August, 1997, in Berkeley, California. Kevin Akin, State Recording Secretary [A collection being taken among the Central Committee members present at the meeting, the sum of $200.00 was raised to forward to the Local 315 strike fund.] From philion@hawaii.edu Mon Aug 11 11:36:01 1997 Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 07:35:45 -1000 From: Stephen E Philion Reply-To: Stephen E Philion To: meisenscher@igc.apc.org Subject: Re: customer point of view on strike Status: RO Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 07:32:39 -1000 (HST) From: Stephen E Philion To: Customer Service Subject: Re: customer point of view on strike Dear Mr./Ms. Ming: As I said in my note below, most Americans do not blame the striking workers at UPS for the strike and are sympathetic with their plight. You would do well to keep this fact in mind. Sincerely, Stephen Philion On Mon, 11 Aug 1997, Customer Service wrote: > Stephen E Philion wrote: > > > > Dear UPS, > > > > I have used UPS services in the past as a student and teacher ordering > > books. As one of your customers, I would like to let you know that I have > > evaluated the causes of this strike and concluded that the main reason why > > customers like myself now suffer from poor UPS service is that UPS > > management has not bargained fairly. Increasing numbers of Americans are > > coming to the same conculsion. Few believe that the striking workers at > > UPS do not have a just cause (or at least few fellow Americans that I've > > discussed this recent issue with). > > > > Thank you for considering the above customer point of view. > > > > Sincerely, > > > > Stephen Philion > > Instructor, University of Hawaii-Manoa, Chaminade University > > -- > Dear Mr. Philion: > > Thank you for your comments. UPS ended discussions with the Teamsters > union Saturday afternoon. Informal talks began Thursday under the > observation of a federal mediator. The two parties continued to meet > throughout Friday and again on Saturday until it became apparent that no > agreement could be reached. The demands of the union would have made it > impossible for UPS to serve its customers and remain competitive. The > company stands behind the generous offer it has on the table, and hopes > the union will allow UPS Teamster employees the opportunity to vote on > its merits. > > As it stands, UPS continues to operate on a contingency basis, > delivering domestic and international air express shipments to the > fullest extent possible. It is anticipated that this operating plan > will continue in the days ahead. To date, more than 6,000 UPS Teamsters > have crossed picket lines to return to work. We continue to receive > thousands of letters and calls from other employees who want the > opportunity to vote on UPS's contract offer. Meanwhile, 105,000 UPS > customers have reported they are sending letters to the President and > Secretary of Labor to convey the impact of the Teamsters strike on their > businesses. > > You may access our Web page for the latest update at the following URL > (from the home page, lower left, click on "Labor Updates"): > > http://www.ups.com/news/update.html > > Thank you for using UPS Internet Services. > > Da Ming > customer.service@ups.com > 08/11/97 S-6 > > > From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Mon Aug 11 18:46:39 1997 Mon, 11 Aug 1997 17:40:18 -0700 (PDT) Mon, 11 Aug 1997 17:39:01 -0700 (PDT) Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 17:39:01 -0700 (PDT) To: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, united@cougar.com, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu, "Andrew Rose" , "brandon fitzsimons" , "Jane Rachel Litman" From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Last, Best and Final Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Posted to United@cougar.com by Len Wilson, IAM The message below was written by a UPS striker. She claims to have read UPS's "final offer" and quotes from it. It contains language that would allow the company to hire all temps and outsource about anything they want! --- LW ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Janice - 12:36pm Aug 11, 1997 This is a quote from papers I received from a Union source. They said I could post it. At the bargaining table UPS chief negotiator Dave Murray stated that he thought companies that used all temporary emloyees and had NO regular employees was a good idea. If this was the case UPS would not have to pay pension, health and welfare or Union wages. Little did we know until now how serious he was about this idea. UPS PROPOSAL WOULD REPLACE ALL REGULAR JOBS WITH TEMPORARY EMPLOYEES: They say the devil is in the details and never has that expression been more true than with the company's so called Last, Best and Final offer. If we do not win this fight here is what we get: ARTICLE 3, SECTION 4 of the UPS proposal states: "The Employer agrees to respect the jurisdictional rules of the Union and shall not, except as otherwise provided in this Master Agreement b OR TO MORE PROMPTLY, EFFICIENTLY OR ECONOMICALLY PERFORM THE WORK, direct or require its employees or persons, other than the employees in the bargaining units here involved, to perform work which is recognized as the work of the employees in said units." TRANSLATION - UPS would be able to replace all employees, part-time or full-time, with temporary employees in order to get the work done "more promptly, efficiently, or economically". Say goodbye to your regular job, your pension, your health care and your pay check. PACKAGE CAR DRIVERS - CHECK THIS OUT: Article 40, as proposed by the company, states: "Air driver work shall consist of delivery, pickup and movement of air and other time DEFINITE PACKAGES." What is a "Time Definite" package? Article 40 defines it as follows: "For the purpose of this Article only, time definite packages shall include ANY PACKAGE WHICH THE EMPLOYER, AS A PART OF ITS SERVICE OFFERING, GUARANTEES DELIVERY BY A CERTAIN DAY OF THE WEEK OR A CERTAIN TIME OF THE DAY." So, with this language UPS could define all packages as "Time Definite:. SAY GOODBYE TO ALL FULL-TIME PACKAGE CAR DRIVERS. FEEDER DRIVERS - The company didn't forget you either - ARTICLE 43 and 26 give them virtually unlimited subcontracting rights. While UPS goes on and on about wages, pension plans and other goodies in their proposal, there is one thing they forgot to mention - NOBODY WILL BE AROUND TO COLLECT THE PENSION, THE HEALTH BENEFITS OR RECEIVE THE CONTRACTUAL WAGES. (Remember I am quoting what I have received.) Judge for yourself. ----- From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Mon Aug 11 18:50:48 1997 Mon, 11 Aug 1997 17:45:13 -0700 (PDT) Mon, 11 Aug 1997 17:39:27 -0700 (PDT) Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 17:39:27 -0700 (PDT) To: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, united@cougar.com, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, "Andrew Rose" , "brandon fitzsimons" , "Jane Rachel Litman" From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: UPS article from SonicNet Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO ----Think maybe the entertainment industry will put the right pressure on UPS? The following is from Sonic Net's online entertainment news: UPS Walkout Hits Music Fans Where It Hurts SonicNet Daily Music News Reports: The United Parcel Service strike is sucking the very life out of Tim Cronin's record shop. With fewer new record shipments arriving each day, there's less new music to sell, he said. Less music means fewer customers and it's not hard to figure out what that means. "We've been really panicky since [last] Monday," store manager Cronin said, adding that about 95 percent of deliveries to Jack's Music, an independent record retailer in Red Bank, N.J., arrive via UPS. "We'll muddle through it if we have to. But our special orders and independent releases will definitely hurt. Our new releases have arrived through other services, but at least they eventually got here. It's killing us, but I also sympathize with the drivers." Cronin waits helplessly everyday as most of his orders for CDs, tapes and albums fail to arrive as they should, sending customers elsewhere for their music. >From record labels whose shipments have slowed or stalled to ticket retailers who have to turn to regular mail to record shops, both big and small, the music industry is facing a major challenge since UPS workers decided to walk last week. Most have tried to find quick solutions to the delivery problems yet, like Cronin, most worry that a prolonged UPS strike is going to take a major bite out of business. And even though Jack's Music is struggling now, Cronin is even more worried about the end of the strike. "We'll really be scrambling then," he said. "It'll be a shit storm of packages once they go back." For Fernando Rasario, head of the massive Tower Records' warehouse at their Broadway location in Manhattan, there's less reason to worry, but more to worry about. Only 25 percent of his stock arrives via UPS. Yet when you are a major retail outlet like Tower, even dealing without a quarter of your deliveries can lead to big problems. "Only a small amount of our product is missing," Rosario said. "But to put it in a nutshell, this is definitely not good. We get tons of product delivered here, and we really have to keep it organized. When the Teamsters do go back, we're going to get bombed." The Teamsters walked out of labor meetings with UPS officials on Monday, August 4 after reaching a deadlock in negotiations. Since then, UPS, the world's largest parcel delivery service, says it has only been able to deliver about 10 percent of its normal daily shipment. Federal Express, Airborne Express and the United States Postal Service have since placed limitations on its customers, including a four parcel limit at most local US post offices to handle the fallout. Elsewhere in the music trade, the UPS strike has threatened to halt promotions, tie up warehouses and leave record racks dry. For an industry dependent on the art of shipping and receiving, the UPS strike is an epic headache. And though the picket has already caused a hassle, the worst part -- an end to the boycott followed by an industry-wide bombardment of parcels -- has yet to come. "If this goes on much longer, it'll be a huge problem," said Kevin Hopper, shipping manager for the Rykodisc label in Salem, Mass. "Even though we don't use UPS that much, the strike has taken over Federal Express, Airborne and the postal service. We're getting hit all around." In the case of Airborne, Hopper said, Rykodisc's driver was told to use discretion in taking extra packages from his shipping-starved customers. "So I slipped him some insurance CDs so he'd come back on Monday," he said. Label promotion personnel are also feeling the effects of the UPS walkout. Bruce McDonald, national director of alternative promotion for Polydor Records, sent a shipment of Monaco CDs to a radio station 12 days ago. They still haven't arrived. "It makes it difficult for us," said McDonald, "because sending out posters, CDs and things like that is all a part of promoting a record. We can't even get items out to radio. We can't even deliver stuff to our bands on the road, because overnight delivery is virtually impossible at this point." As the largest and most-requested parcel delivery service in the world, UPS handles about 80 percent of the parcel industry in the United States while delivering a daily worldwide bundle of 12 million pieces. Some of those deliveries include concert tickets. For many of the 70,000 Phishheads expected at next weekend's Great Went concert in Limestone, Maine, chasing down the Vermont-based, Ben & Jerry's-endorsed band is a way of life. Trying to find their tickets isn't. This week's massive Teamsters strike against UPS has, in fact, forced J.Crew aficionados, JCPenney patrons and Phish fans alike to take note of the nation's largest walkout in recent history. "This has made everything crazy," says Matt McGlynn of Great Northeast Productions in Boston, the company in charge of promoting Phish's massive, two-day festival. Great Northeast, which originally had an agreement with Ticketmaster and UPS to sell and distribute tickets nationally, had hoped they could wait the strike out. But with no end in sight and thousands of Phishheads headed for Limestone, the company stopped shipping tickets earlier this week, fearing they'd go undelivered. On Friday, Great Northeast slowly -- but surely, McGlynn assures -- began mailing tickets again. "The tickets will get to the fans," said McGlynn, wary of the potential chaos that could ensue from 100,000 angry Phish fans. "Exactly how, I just don't know. But the problem is solved. Everyone who ordered tickets will get into the show." From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Mon Aug 11 19:17:47 1997 Mon, 11 Aug 1997 17:40:17 -0700 (PDT) Mon, 11 Aug 1997 17:39:17 -0700 (PDT) Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 17:39:17 -0700 (PDT) To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, united@cougar.com, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu, "Andrew Rose" , "brandon fitzsimons" , "Jane Rachel Litman" From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: [PEN-L:11685] Rally for UPs strikers in Somerville, MA Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO I went to the UPS picket line in Somerville, MA early last Friday evening. This is the site that has had the most arrests of any in the country. There was a rally Friday afternoon (that I did not know about in advance) which had just ended. People were leaving the area as I got there, including a group of pilots in uniform - a nice touch. What I know about the rally is from tv news and the Boston Globe. There were a lot of signs in the crowd from Jobs with Justice, in English and Spanish, and some JwJ people were still there when I got there. (The former head of Boston JwJ works at IBT Hdqtrs and is one of their main press contact people.) Also visible in the tv coverage were lots of American flags. The strike in the Boston area is getting a lot of support from local politicians. US Representatives Joe Kennedy and Ed Markey spoke at the rally as well as our new Republican Acting Governor Paul Cellucci. A state senator was there and the state Senate President walked the picket line earlier in the week. The Mayor of Somerville, a blue collar city just north of Boston, pledged $1000 to the strike fund and apologized for the arrests that have taken place. (Whether they will stop busting people remains to be seen.) At the entrance to the industrial park where this UPS site is located a banner strung over the street says that Somerville supports all working men and women with the mayor's name underneath. Also lots of security at the Holiday Inn at the edge of the industrial park. As mentioned in one of Michael Eisenscher's posts, a judge in Boston delayed acting on UPS request for an injunction against blocking trucks until today (Monday). The reason given on the news here was that UPS had not sufficiently documented how much of its losses were due to illegal activity (blocking trucks) separately from losses from the strike itself which is legal activity. There is also a lot of coverage here of the businesses which are hurting from the strike - but that is a measure of the leverage the Teamsters have in the situation. UPS is an old company, but its recent expansion is linked to the current economy which is dependent on speedy and flexible response and the integration of telecommunications and transportation. ---------Laurie From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Mon Aug 11 19:23:06 1997 Mon, 11 Aug 1997 17:40:15 -0700 (PDT) Mon, 11 Aug 1997 17:39:23 -0700 (PDT) Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 17:39:23 -0700 (PDT) To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, united@cougar.com, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu, "Andrew Rose" , "brandon fitzsimons" , "Jane Rachel Litman" From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: [PEN-L:11684] On Part time Work Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Chris Tilly, a member of the Dollars & Sense collective, had an article was on the front page of the Focus (Sunday editorial) section of yesterdays's Boston Globe on the issues around part-time work in the UPS strike and in the economy generally. He teaches at UMass\Lowell and wrote Half a Job - Bad and Good Part Time Jobs in a Changing Labor Market. The article is available at http://www.boston.com. Go to the Boston Globe page and find the search function. Search yesterday's Globe for Tilly. the Globe doesn't keep most articles archived for free longer than the next day. ---------Laurie From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Mon Aug 11 23:47:46 1997 Mon, 11 Aug 1997 22:45:38 -0700 (PDT) Mon, 11 Aug 1997 22:44:11 -0700 (PDT) Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 22:44:11 -0700 (PDT) To: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu, "Andrew Rose" , "brandon fitzsimons" , "Jane Rachel Litman" From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: slow ups down more? Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO I was out in my car today and happened to notice a UPS truck behind me! I don't know about anyone else but I suddenly got the urge to go about 10 miles and hour!! I hope I didn't inconvenience the driver! Anyone else feel that this is a good way for us to show our support for the UPS strikers? should we have a national slow'em down campaign? irton@aol.com From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Tue Aug 12 00:56:34 1997 Mon, 11 Aug 1997 23:51:00 -0700 (PDT) Mon, 11 Aug 1997 23:50:10 -0700 (PDT) Date: Mon, 11 Aug 1997 23:50:10 -0700 (PDT) To: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, united@cougar.com, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu, "Andrew Rose" , "brandon fitzsimons" , "Jane Rachel Litman" , John Nelson , Lynn Jeffress , "C. Lehane" , laurenil@napanet.net (lauren coodley) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: ups strike Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO dear micheal, I just wanted to drop you line saying thank you for a the info on UPS, I recieved it through a chain of e-mails, finally from Daniel Alexander. This strike is of interest to me not only due to labor party politics, but I worked for UPS last summer as a part time employee. It was only a summer job to help pay for my final year of school, so I was not in the union, that takes a couple of months of dues, which i did not have. However I saw first hand on what goes on. I was an injured worker, the head shift supervisor tried his hardest to talk me out of going to the physician that day, even though I could not move my upper body due to a back injury. I also worked in the intense heat as I loaded those trailers. I had a few of the "suits" come up to me a few times telling me what I could and could not wear to work. They did not like my "fuck off patriarchy" or my eyehategod t-shirts. Another sign of the corporations power and intimitation is when I injured myself, my father tried getting in touch with the job site I worked at, Lenexa Ks. However when you call UPS from the number in the phone book, you are dispatched to some national office, which was no where near lenexa Ks. The only phone number I was given was the number to call if I were to not make it in due to sickness. No one answered that number after 12:00 pm. After much strong arming on the telephone, my father did get a number to reach the Lenexa hub. He was confronted with much resistance on how he recieved that number... Funny how they really don't want the public as well as their workers to have access to crucial things like that. Well that is just my UPS experience, but I figured you may be interested. And once again, thanks for the other info. sincerely, Brandon Fitzsimons ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com From mdelao@colef.mx Tue Aug 12 10:30:44 1997 Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 09:43:28 -0700 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Maru de la O Subject: urgente Status: RO Por este medio me permito informarle que la Dra. Maria Eugenia de la O no se encuentra en la ciudad, ella regresa el martes 19, hasta entonces ella podria contestarle. Yo he estado enviandole con reply sus mensajes, pero no se si los conteste. Atentemente Zaida From shostaka@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu Tue Aug 12 13:47:23 1997 Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 15:00:59 -0500 To: LABOR-RAP@csf.colorado.edu From: Art Shostak Subject: Data Request Status: RO I would appreciate learning the year and president when the Taft-Hartley Act was last used; I understand it was over 20 years ago. Also, what process would be necessary before Pres. Clinton could use a Taft-Hartley injunction to stop the current UPS strike. I am being asked these questions now by impatient media types. Many thanks, Art Shostak Arthur B. Shostak, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Department of Psych/Soc/Anthro, Drexel University, Phila., PA, 19104; 215-895-2466; fax 610-668-2727. email: SHOSTAKA@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu http://httpsrv.ocs.drexel.edu/faculty/shostaka/ "This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to do with it." Ralph Waldo Emerson From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Tue Aug 12 23:21:31 1997 Tue, 12 Aug 1997 22:18:12 -0700 (PDT) Tue, 12 Aug 1997 22:17:51 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 22:17:51 -0700 (PDT) To: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, united@cougar.com, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu, "Andrew Rose" , "brandon fitzsimons" , "Jane Rachel Litman" , "John Nelson" , "Lynn Jeffress" , "C. Lehane" , "Ted Keller" , "lauren coodley" , gooding@umbsky.cc.umb.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Re: Taft Hartley Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Questions have arisen regarding Taft-Hartley and its applicability to the UPS strike. While I am not an historian or lawyer, I have consulted some of the literature and obtained a general explanation, which I share here. Others with more expertise may want to clarify or correct any improper interpretation I provide. There is a provision in the Taft-Hartley Act that, under certain circumstances, gives the President the power to compel workers on strike to return to their jobs (or employers who have locked out workers to readmit them to their jobs) for a "cooling off" period. As I understand it, the President must make a legal finding in order to initiate and back-to-work order. He must determine whether the situation meets the legal test of a national emergency as defined in the legislation. It is this which Clinton is saying keeps him from issuing an order. He claims, rightly so, that the strike, while it creates inconvenience and losses for some, does not constitute a national emergency as defined by T-H. The "national emergency" provisions are contained in sections 206-210 of the T-H Act, 29 U.S.C.A. 176-80. This is what Gorman says in Basic Text on Labor Law, Chapter XVIII, "National Emergency Disputes": "The President of the United States is authorized by the Act to appoint a board of inquiry should he believe that a threatened or actual strike or lockout, affecting an entire industry or a substantial part of an industry engaged in interstate commerce, endangers or will endanger the national health or safety....The board of inquiry is empowered to conduct private and public hearings to gather information, and is within the time specified by the President to tender a report to him on the facts of the dispute and the parties' positions; the board is expressly forbidden to forward any recommendations. Upon receipt of the report, the President must make it public and file a copy with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service....The President is also authorized (not required) upon receipt of the report to direct the Attorney General to petition for an injunction against the strike or lockout in any federal district court having jurisdiction over the parties, and the court is given jurisdiction to issue the injunction if it finds that the strike or lockout 'affects an entire industry or a substantial part thereof' engaged in interstate commerce _and_ that without an injunction the 'national health or safety' would be imperiled." If an injunction is issued, the parties are required to submit to mediation. The Pres. is required to reconvene the board of inquiry, which after sixty days reports to the Pres. on the current situation if there has been no settlement. The report is to be made public, and the NLRB is within 15 days to conduct a secret-ballot poll to determine whether employees involved approve of the employer's final offer. The board then certifies the results of the poll within five days to the Atty. General, who then is required to move the court to discharge the injunction. Thus the total delay in the strike available to the Pres. is 80 days. If it is not settled by then, the strike may resume. The language of the Act has been found to mean that the court need only find a 'danger' of a 'threat' to the national health or safety. A threat to national safety has been found most readily when there is a threat to military procurement or production for military use. Gorman notes that the threat to national health is less clear. Absent a definitive ruling from the Supreme Ct., lower courts have been inclined to interpret the phrase broadly to mean 'economic well-being,' not narrowly as 'physical well-being.' In one district court ruling, an injunction was denied because a dockers' strike was found not to constitute a threat to national health merely because it created economic dislocation, but an appeals court ruled that the district court interpreted the phrase too narrowly. That court would require no more than a finding that a national emergency existed by virtue of a significant adverse effect upon the 'essential well-being of the economy.' The broad and general interpetation seems to have prevailed, but the Supreme Ct. has yet to make a definitive ruling. Once an injunction is issued, only the govt. has standing to seek contempt citations for violations. Neither the employer nor the union has standing. Between 1947 and 1967, roughly half of the 24 strike injunctions ran their course without a settlement, with strikes occurring in roughly half of those. These provisions of Taft-Hartley are, as Ellen Starbird has observed (see below) one element in the larger anti-labor nature of the Act. In essence the law says "Workers have a right to strike, just so long as their strike won't actually be effective. If it threatens to be really effective, the government has the right to force strikers back to work." I am aware of no situation where the back-to-work provisions of T-H have been used against an employer in a lockout situation. Maybe an historian out there in cyberspace can come up with one. Clinton, who has done next to nothing for unions since his election (and has done plenty to them), will likely resist pressure to implement the emergency provisions of T-H unless some of his larger donors collectively exert their unique influence. In this way, he can appear as a 'friend of labor' and pay down his debt to the labor movement. However, Slick Willie is never one to get hung up on principle. If the political heat gets too strong, if his wealthy political investors call in their chits, we can expect the Prez to cave. Clearly, he hopes it will all get settled before it comes to that. Expect the Democratic political operatives to lean heavily on Carey and Sweeney in an effort to force them into a "compromise" that will end the walkout. (In that respect, it is heartening that Sweeney announced today that he was contacting the leadership of every affiliate to secure loan commitments sufficient to carry the Teamsters for as long as is required to win a decent settlement.) It is important, therefore, that strike supporters include a letter, email, or fax to Clinton expressing your opposition to the invocation of Taft-Hartley in the UPS strike. Organizations should also send letters and resolutions to that effect. Letters to the editor should be sent to local papers and opportunities should be seized to get on talk shows to express opposition to use of T-H. In solidarity, Michael At 07:23 PM 8/12/97 CDT, anzalone/starbird wrote: >Dear Editor, > >Frequently the press has trouble getting the facts straight with regard to >legal facts. It is after all, an issue of little concern to those who >purchase ad space. However, the UPS management's bantering of the Taft >Hartley Act as a "solution" for the UPS strike, delivered as it has been >to the public by the media with a straight face is either egregiously bad >journalism or just dishonest propaganda. > >Since my father always taught me not to assume dishonestly where an >explaination of stupidity would suffice, let's assume no one on your staff >knows anything about labor law: > >Fact #1) > >Taft Hartley is an odious piece of anti-worker legislation used only in >this country to curtail worker's political rights. Almost all other >countries allow solidarity (those who remember PATCO might recall the one >day refusal to allow U.S. planes to land by othe nation's traffic >controllers). In the U.S. it is illegal; such as in the case where the >Longshoreman were fined by the Supreme court for refusing to unload cargo >from Poland (in support of Solidarity) and South Africa (to protest the >then apartheid regime.) > >Fact #2) > >The Taft Hartley Act outlaws SECONDARY pickets and boycotts. In other >words, workers who are not employed by the company targeted for action >cannot refuse to handle its' cargo. The court can assume that since the >employer cannot necessarily meet their demands the action is "unfair". > >Should the postal carriers, for example, refuse to handle mail suddenly, on >the grounds that they wanted to help the Teamsters win at UPS, then the UPS >would have a Taft Hartley complaint. Under such a Postal Carriers for >instance UPS could legitimately seek (invoking Taft Hartley) an injunction. > > >Fact #3) >Taft Hartley does not apply to the UPS situation. At all. > >Since the Teamster workers have a PRIMARY relationship with UPS, the >company is required by law to bargain in good faith as the ONLY solution to >its dilemma. The worker's by law, have the right to withhold their labor. > >There is no secondary "hot cargo" boycott. All we have here is a >belligerent employer who seeks to evade their bargaining obligations by >attempting to hide behind the President. The clients who are not getting >their cargo delivered by UPS are suffering not from a Taft Hartley >secondary boycott; but a UPS management that is as seemingly callous to >its client's inconvenience as it is unwilling to negotiate with its own >employees. > >It is no more appropriate for UPS to demand that the President issue an >illegal injunction under a Taft Hartley than it would be for Teamster Chief >Ron Carey to ask Clinton to evoke some obscure legislation, call out the >National Guard and summarily execute the UPS executives as a "solution" to >the strike. > > Less dramatic, non-governmental solutions between the parties are >appropriate. Loath as they apparently are to doing it; for the UPS >management negotiating with their employee's union is their only legitamate >legal remedy. > >Perhaps out of ignorance the press parrots UPS' baby talk conceptualizing >of labor law as though it were legitimate discourse. It is not. President >Clinton has no appropriate role except to refer the parties back to the >bargaining table. For the press to allow the company spokespersons to >pretend otherwise does a public disservice to the highest office in the >land and a greater disservice to the truth. > >Sincerely, > >Ellen M. Starbird >Labor Studies Instructor, Laney College > > > From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Tue Aug 12 23:49:17 1997 Tue, 12 Aug 1997 22:45:30 -0700 (PDT) Tue, 12 Aug 1997 22:43:31 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 22:43:31 -0700 (PDT) To: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, united@cougar.com, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu, "Andrew Rose" , "brandon fitzsimons" , "Jane Rachel Litman" , "John Nelson" , "Lynn Jeffress" , "C. Lehane" , "Ted Keller" , "lauren coodley" , gooding@umbsky.cc.umb.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Re: [PEN-L:11716] Re: UPS Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO UPS is a closely held corporation, which means that its stock is not traded on the exchanges. The largest block of stock is held by a foundation set up by founder and another foundation established by the company and under management's control, next largest by members of management, and in the last couple of years a small portion of the stock has been acquired by employees. Employees control only a small proportion; the MarketPlace commentator was blowing smoke. If all the union members voted all their stock together, they would not be able to out-vote management and the foundations. According to the WSJ (8/12/97, A4), The top officers together have 1,064,055 shares; the Annie E. Casey Foundation and UPS Foundation together have 26,840,028 shares; and the majority of the 570 million shares are owned by UPS's 29,000 managers and retirees. The Journal reports, "While 49% of the full-time Teamsters and 9% of the eligible part-time Teamster employees have bought stock, their holdings are relatively modest." It has only been two years since nonmanagers were able to purchase shares. Hope that answers our question. In solidarity, Michael At 06:49 PM 8/12/97 -0700, jf noonan wrote: >On Tue, 12 Aug 1997, Ellen R Shaffer wrote: >> >> By the way, on the issue of putting the strike to a vote: has UPS asked >> its shareholders what they think? Do institutional investors still exist >> out there? > >On this point I am curious. Who are UPS's shareholders? I've read >more than once that UPS is privately held. (So how does anybody but >its shareholders and bankers know how much money they made last year >-- I keep hearing $1 billion.) Today on _Marketplace_, a PRI >distributed and USC produced financial radio show, I heard an >obviously pro management commentator assert that because of the >"substantial" (no estimate given) share of UPS that its employees own >that the strike would be over soon. > >Who owns UPS? > >How much does labor own? > >-- > >Joseph Noonan >jfn1@msc.com > > From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Tue Aug 12 23:52:29 1997 Tue, 12 Aug 1997 22:19:26 -0700 (PDT) Tue, 12 Aug 1997 22:18:07 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 22:18:07 -0700 (PDT) To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, united@cougar.com, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu, "Andrew Rose" , "brandon fitzsimons" , "Jane Rachel Litman" , "John Nelson" , "Lynn Jeffress" , "C. Lehane" , "Ted Keller" , "lauren coodley" , gooding@umbsky.cc.umb.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: [PEN-L:11714] Re: UPS and PENSIONS and conference Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Doug Henwood on PEN-L raised a question about the motivations of UPS for withdrawing from the multi-employer Teamster Joint Pension Trust in favor of a bilateral company-union plan. I made the following response. What follows that is an additional comment that came to PEN-L from Theresa Ghilarducci, which adds some additional information. I hope these posts will arm you to debunk the UPS line about the need to get out of the Teamster Pension Fund. ======================================================= The company wants out of the joint trust, but so far as I know has not offered any particular increase. What they claim is that if they were freed from the drain created by less prosperous firms' employees in the joint trust, their contribution would buy a higher pension benefit than employees can now get from the trust. To the extent that UPS contributes more to the trust than they would otherwise have to if they were to fund only their own employees, this may be true. The UPS claim that benefits could be raised by as much as 50% is highly doubtful, however. There are other issues, however, at stake that go beyond the IBT merely seeking to protect an otherwise vulnerable trust fund. UPS seeks to withdraw, not because they are so eager to increase employee pensions, but because they recognize that only if they can control and administer their own company fund will they have a chance to make significant changes in the funding formula. The immediate payback is that they may be able to get by with a smaller contribution to fund current benefit levels -- the amount of savings dependent on actuarial calculations for the given census of current employees and retirees. But the real gain would come down the road when management demands that the fund shift from a defined benefit to a defined contribution basis, and by raising the eligibility standards by, for example, increasing the number of hours per year required before an employee is eligible to participate. I'm sure there are others on the list who can think of more creative ways UPS management would be able to secure rewards once they are freed from the joint trust. Typically, in single employer plans, management also has greater control over investment policies. Carey was not responsible for raping the various Teamster pension trusts. Clearly he has an interest in defending their integrity against further erosion than has been suffered as a consequence of deregulation and prior-administration looting. But I don't think that explanation is adequate. Putting aside the history of corruption, the principle of a joint trust is not unlike that of an insurance company, which seeks to spread risk and protect investments in the interests of highest possible returns/payouts. It is an act of class solidarity for UPS employees to remain in the joint trust. There was a time when they benefitted from the superior strength within the trust of the over-the-road trucking employer contributions prior to deregulation. It's now their turn to step up to the plate in defense of those drivers whose employers have folded in the wake of deregulation. That form of class solidarity galls UPS management, and clearly they will try to appeal to the narrow self-interest of their employers, even if they have to inflate their claims in order to sway opinion. I don't think they will succeed. In the final analysis, there are many more issues at stake than just the pension (see previous posts). The union has done a credible job of preparing their members for this struggle. In my visit to the picketlines and monitoring of internet traffic, I've found most union members to recognize what the company is up to and they will resist it as long as they can. If UPS is prepared to go the distance to impose its will, it may find that when the smoke clears it will pay a heavy price regardless of the outcome. Their 80% market share is at stake, as is the good will of their employees and customers, which should not be underestimated. After all, to the customer, the delivery driver is UPS, and one of the company's secrets of success has been its ability to maintain employee loyalty and morale as a means to holding onto its customer base. Angry, embittered returning strikers (or untrained scabs) do not make very good embassadors. In solidarity, Michael At 02:06 PM 8/12/97 -0700, you wrote: >I do agree with Michael about why UPS would want total control of the pension -- they can vary the contributions, vote the proxies, hire and maintain a group of analysts. There is much regulation of the current Central States Fund so that malfeasance and fraud is very unlikely -- in fact have not been alleged since the 1950s. The important difference between single employer pension plans and jointly trusteed plans is their structure. In bull markets corporate sponsors who control the fund themselves were able to stop contributions and let the market pay for ongoing liabilities. The jointly trusteed plans (equal representation from unions and employers) must use the gains in the sole interest of the participants -- they must release the cash in the form of benefit increases). Moreover the 20 UPS plans let local unions tailor their benefits to the particular concerns of theis members. Some have early retirement, others have better disability payments --the UPS proposal would eliminate this decentralization and democracy. The multi-employer jointly trusteed world (about 9% of all workers) is an intriguing example of the efficacy of joint worker and employer management. We are sponsoring a conference on High Performance Pensions: Multi-employer Pension Plans Sept. 4 -5 UC Berkeley. $85 for non profits/ $200 for others. , arpose oaul single employer Doug, > >I don't believe you've got it right. The company wants out of the joint >trust, but so far as I know has not offered any particular increase. What >they claim is that if they were freed from the drain created by less >prosperous firms' employees in the joint trust, their contribution would buy >a higher pension benefit than employees can now get from the trust. To the >extent that UPS contributes more to the trust than they would otherwise have >to if they were to fund only their own employees, this may be true. The UPS >claim that benefits could be raised by as much as 50% is highly doubtful, >however. > >There are other issues, however, at stake that go beyond the IBT merely >seeking to protect an otherwise vulnerable trust fund. UPS seeks to >withdraw, not because they are so eager to increase employee pensions, but >because they recognize that only if they can control and administer their >own company fund will they have a chance to make significant changes in the >funding formula. The immediate payback is that they may be able to get by >with a smaller contribution to fund current benefit levels -- the amount of >savings dependent on actuarial calculations for the given census of current >employees and retirees. But the real gain would come down the road when >management demands that the fund shift from a defined benefit to a defined >contribution basis, and by raising the eligibility standards by, for >example, increasing the number of hours per year required before an employee >is eligible to participate. I'm sure there are others on the list who can >think of more creative ways UPS management would be able to secure rewards >once they are freed from the joint trust. Typically, in single employer >plans, management also has greater control over investment policies. > >Carey was not responsible for raping the various Teamster pension trusts. >Clearly he has an interest in defending their integrity against further >erosion than has been suffered as a consequence of deregulation and >prior-administration looting. But I don't think that explanation is >adequate. Putting aside the history of corruption, the principle of a joint >trust is not unlike that of an insurance company, which seeks to spread risk >and protect investments in the interests of highest possible >returns/payouts. It is an act of class solidarity for UPS employees to >remain in the joint trust. There was a time when they benefitted from the >superior strength within the trust of the over-the-road trucking employer >contributions prior to deregulation. It's now their turn to step up to the >plate in defense of those drivers whose employers have folded in the wake of >deregulation. That form of class solidarity galls UPS management, and >clearly they will try to appeal to the narrow self-interest of their >employers, even if they have to inflate their claims in order to sway >opinion. I don't think they will succeed. > >In the final analysis, there are many more issues at stake than just the >pension (see previous posts). The union has done a credible job of >preparing their members for this struggle. In my visit to the picketlines >and monitoring of internet traffic, I've found most union members to >recognize what the company is up to and they will resist it as long as they >can. If UPS is prepared to go the distance to impose its will, it may find >that when the smoke clears it will pay a heavy price regardless of the >outcome. Their 80% market share is at stake, as is the good will of their >employees and customers, which should not be underestimated. After all, to >the customer, the delivery driver is UPS, and one of the company's secrets >of success has been its ability to maintain employee loyalty and morale as a >means to holding onto its customer base. Angry, embittered returning >strikers (or untrained scabs) do not make very good embassadors. > >In solidarity, >Michael > >At 09:51 AM 8/12/97 -0700, Doug Henwood wrote: >>I heard a report that UPS has offered a big increase in pensions to >>full-time employees, but one which woul require the company leave the >>Teamsters' collective pension fund - a move that would cause that poor, >>looted fund to collapse. So if this proposal were to be put to a vote, it >>would win, which is why Carey is trying to prevent a vote. >> >>Any thoughts/comments on this? >> >>Doug >> >>-- >> >>Doug Henwood >>Left Business Observer >>250 W 85 St >>New York NY 10024-3217 USA >>+1-212-874-4020 voice +1-212-874-3137 fax >>email: >>web: >> >> >> > > > ******************************************* Teresa Ghilarducci Associate Professor Department of Economics University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 Phone: 219/631-7581 fax: 219/232-3086 From aaron@burn.ucsd.edu Wed Aug 13 11:45:34 1997 Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 13:46:04 -0400 From: aaron@burn.ucsd.edu (Aaron) Subject: Re: Truth About UPS Revealed To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Status: RO Comrades, As those who are familiar with my e-mail missives know, I have no hesitation in saying that capitalists as a class and as individuals are mass murderers. I have advocated the execution of the responsible executives of companies such as Shell (for their crimes against the Ogoni) and Nestle (for their mass murder of babies with their infant formula). However, I believe in being honest and accurate in the charges one makes. Regarding the following paragraph: >4. UPS, unlike its competition in the package delivery business, >has refused to invest the $55 per vehicle it would cost to equip their >fleet with articulated mirrors at the rear of the trucks. As >consequence, children have been injured and killed because drivers >were unable to see them behind their vehicles. Isn't a child's life >worth more than $55? This rhetorical question is demagogic and dishonest. No-one would claim that spending $55 to so equip a single UPS vechicle would -- with more than a very small probability -- save a single child's life. What is being claimed is that equipping all UPS vechicles with these special mirrors would -- with very high probability -- save the lives of one or more children. I don't know the actual number, but suppose that UPS has 60,000 trucks. Suppose also that installing the mirrors on all trucks would probably save the lives of 5 children. That would be 5 lives saved at a cost of $3.3 million. The question then becomes, 'Isn't a child's life worth more than $660,000?' The answer would probably still be 'YES!' when the alternative is that the $660,000 otherwise increases the profits of the owners of UPS. But suppose that UPS were expropriated by a workers' government -- of any kind? That government might properly decide that the resources that would save 5 children's lives if used to equip the trucks of EPS [Expropriated Parcel Service {:->}] with articulated mirrors could save 5,000 children's lives if used, for example, to provide clean water in some part of the world ravaged by imperialism? In those places, the question, 'Isn't a child's life worth more than $55?', often is neither demagogic nor dishonest. -- In solidarity with the victims of capitalism everywhere, -- Aaron ---------- mailto:aaron@burn.ucsd.edu http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aaron From cxhaha@mail.wm.edu Wed Aug 13 13:13:27 1997 From: "Cindy Hahamovitch" To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 15:06:16 +0000 Subject: southern labor studies conference Status: RO ANNOUNCEMENT: The 10th Southern Labor Studies Conference--"Organizing the Unorganized: Past and Present, Locally and Globally"--will be held at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA, Sept 25-28th, 1997. The conference will bring together historians, sociologists, anthropologists, labor activists, secondary school teachers, students, and many others, to discuss the past, present, and future of labor in the U.S. South and around the world. The conference will also feature a teach-in on the labor movement the evening of Friday, Sept. 25. It's not too late to book a room at the conference rate. See our web page to view the program as well as registration, travel, and hotel information: http://morton.wm.edu/history/slsc. For more information, call (757) 221-3770. Cindy Hahamovitch Assistant Professor of History College of William & Mary Phone: 757-221-3770 Internet: cxhaha@mail.wm.edu From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Wed Aug 13 15:03:43 1997 Wed, 13 Aug 1997 13:50:08 -0700 (PDT) Wed, 13 Aug 1997 13:43:54 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 13:43:54 -0700 (PDT) To: aaron@burn.ucsd.edu (Aaron), Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Re: Truth About UPS Revealed Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Spoken like a good cost/benefit accountant. I had no idea that a rhetorical question added for dramatic emphasis could provoke such inspired bookkeeping. The issue, however, remains UPS's failure to properly equip its vehicles with appropriate safety equipment -- equipment which is installed on the vehicles of each of its major competitors. After the revolution, you may want to head up the cost-accounting division of the secretariat of accident prevention and safety. Until then, however, it is perfectly reasonable for UPS drivers to demand that the company invest the $55 per vehicle to prevent as many tragic accidents as can be prevented. With over $1 billion in profits last year, I think they can afford it. As for demagoguery and dishonesty, I bow to your greater expertise. Michael At 01:46 PM 8/13/97 -0400, Aaron wrote: >Comrades, > As those who are familiar with my e-mail missives know, I have no >hesitation in saying that capitalists as a class and as individuals are >mass murderers. I have advocated the execution of the responsible >executives of companies such as Shell (for their crimes against the Ogoni) >and Nestle (for their mass murder of babies with their infant formula). >However, I believe in being honest and accurate in the charges one makes. > >Regarding the following paragraph: > >>4. UPS, unlike its competition in the package delivery business, >>has refused to invest the $55 per vehicle it would cost to equip their >>fleet with articulated mirrors at the rear of the trucks. As >>consequence, children have been injured and killed because drivers >>were unable to see them behind their vehicles. Isn't a child's life >>worth more than $55? > >This rhetorical question is demagogic and dishonest. No-one would claim >that spending $55 to so equip a single UPS vechicle would -- with more than >a very small probability -- save a single child's life. What is being >claimed is that equipping all UPS vechicles with these special mirrors >would -- with very high probability -- save the lives of one or more >children. > >I don't know the actual number, but suppose that UPS has 60,000 trucks. >Suppose also that installing the mirrors on all trucks would probably save >the lives of 5 children. That would be 5 lives saved at a cost of $3.3 >million. The question then becomes, 'Isn't a child's life worth more than >$660,000?' > >The answer would probably still be 'YES!' when the alternative is that the >$660,000 otherwise increases the profits of the owners of UPS. But suppose >that UPS were expropriated by a workers' government -- of any kind? That >government might properly decide that the resources that would save 5 >children's lives if used to equip the trucks of EPS [Expropriated Parcel >Service {:->}] with articulated mirrors could save 5,000 children's lives >if used, for example, to provide clean water in some part of the world >ravaged by imperialism? In those places, the question, 'Isn't a child's >life worth more than $55?', often is neither demagogic nor dishonest. > > -- In solidarity with the victims of capitalism everywhere, > -- Aaron > >---------- >mailto:aaron@burn.ucsd.edu >http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aaron > > > From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Wed Aug 13 15:35:38 1997 Wed, 13 Aug 1997 13:01:57 -0700 (PDT) Wed, 13 Aug 1997 13:01:06 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 13:01:06 -0700 (PDT) To: united@cougar.com, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: [PEN-L:11724] Robert Fitch on UPS strike Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Solidarity, for a Change Something New in the '90s: UPS Versus Corporate America by Robert Fitch America is no longer a striking country. In the '90s, strikes have fallen to one-tenth the level of the '70s. Since then, median wages for nonsupervisory workers have been falling steadily, about 1 per cent a year. But we're still almost dead last in the International Labor Militance League. Last year, union-conscious French workers went out on strike 53 times as often as American workers. The supposedly docile Japanese, the order-obsessed Germans, and Canadians employed by U.S. corporations just across the border, all go on strike at rates that would cause massive cardiac infarctions at The Wall Street Journal.Just when it seemed as if the nationwide mass strike against corporate America might go the way of other obsolete social rituals, 185,000 Teamsters walked off their jobs. Under the leadership of the former UPS deliveryman Ron Carey, the union managed to shut down nearly 90 per cent of the company's package centers and truck depots. And in the first week, with local strike discipline holding well, Detroit-based Teamster activist Ken Paff exulted, "We've won the opening round." This is a hard edge to have gained--a vast improvement over the '94 UPS fiasco when three-quarters of the locals ignored Carey's call for a one-day protest strike. But Big Brown is not going to be easily rolled, even if all the Teamster locals are solidly behind the strike this time. And, as Paff points out, "half the locals are dying to see Carey fail." Striking UPS is not like taking on some mom-and-pop freight company. UPS's 336,000 employees--including the 185,000 Teamster members--add up to more than GE, Intel, and Microsoft combined. Last year's $1.1 billion in profits not only make up two-thirds of all the profits earned in the delivery business, but the company's rate of profit towers 40 per cent above the industry average. To be profitable each year, the company carefully controls the pace of over a billion hours of donkey labor. It can guarantee its customers next-day delivery because it knows that $50,000-a-year drivers will be on the road delivering packages, not on the picket line obstructing their arrival. For UPS's entire 90-year history, the company never had to face an effective national shutdown. So how did that most un-'90s of American outcomes--a strike--happen at UPS, of all places? Both supporters and adversaries agree that the credit or the blame lies with president Ron Carey. Critics have portrayed the strike as an effort to focus attention away from mounting evidence of fraud in Carey's narrow 16,000-vote victory last October. Carey supporters deny he's simply reacting to circumstances. They see his decision to take the workers out not as a defensive strike over demands for pension givebacks, but as an historic take-back effort to benefit $8-an-hour part-time workers, who now make up over 60 per cent of the UPS workforce. Even given the best of intentions, what's Carey's strategy for winning? With the members rejecting by 3 to 1 his 1994 referendum to raise dues to increase strike pay, how can the union get by the second week of the shutdown? That's when the checks must start going out every week to 185,000 members. According to the most recent Labor Department report, the Teamsters had only $5.2 million in cash. "We'll do whatever's necessary," says Teamster spokesperson Nancy Stella. But how is Carey going to reach out to the members, past local leaders who seek his ouster, to maintain strike unity? What's his plan? And who is Carey, really? He's as complex and contradictory as the 1.4 millionmember union he leads: EThere is the Carey who bragged he'd lived nearly his whole adult life in a two-family house in Kew Gardens. And there's the Carey who turned out to own six more houses, including a $340,000 beachfront condo in Florida. EThere's the militant fighter against UPS, who, in 1974, after seeing a close friend serving as a picket captain run down and killed by a UPS driver, responded by personally blocking UPS trucks with his own car. But then there's the Carey who's been negotiating with the company while earning $2 million worth of UPS stock he says he inherited from his father. EThere's the Carey who led the longest national trucking strike in history in 1994 to block the use of part-timers. And the Carey who the same year negotiated the UPS contract that's allowed 38,000 part-time workers out of 43,000 new hires. Carey's contradictions matter not just because he heads the union fighting what may be the defining labor struggle of the decade. Those contradictions also express the core dilemma of the New Labor movement. How well conceived is the crusade for low-income workers? Can the battle be won piecemeal--on a contract-by-contract basis? Is there more to it than just spin? Clinton pollster Stan Greenberg has explained to his labor-leader clients that to get public support they need to retool the famous Samuel Gompers slogan "More." It's hard for $8-an-hour Jill to fight for "more" for $18-an-hour Jack. So now the slogan is "More for Jack and Jill." But all across the postindustrial American landscape, the system is predicated on Jill getting less than Jack. Companies like UPS don't increase productivity the old-fashioned way. They don't replace labor with high-tech capital. To compete, UPS has no choice but to force workers to work harder and pay them less. Postindustrial management divides the workforce into elite and subaltern tiers: two groups of workers who get different wages for doing the same work. So what can unions do to fight it? Here are three possibilities: (1) Attack the profit system itself -- launch a movement to ban unequal pay for part-timers. (2) Do what the German metal workers did two years ago -- organize a national strike to reduce the work week. (3) If national strikes and initiatives seem daunting, unions could attempt to convince their members that "the strong must help the weak." That is, persuade Jack to restrain his wage demands in order to help Jill. Right now, there's no sense that either Carey or Sweeney are considering any of these alternatives. Both simply reaffirm the Democratic Party line: the labor market can make everyone a winner. Bosses just need to grasp their true interests in working cooperatively with organized labor. UPS is unlikely to take Carey's advice. The company doesn't want to unify its labor force around high pay. They intend to keep on dividing it by the tried-and-true tier method. That's why they're offering full-timers $3000-a-month pensions--up from $1250 a month. To win this strike against Big Brown with a busted treasury, Carey can't just make sure that picket lines are up. He has to let the strikers move out from the picket lines and connect with the communities across the country where they have natural allies. If he does, he'll be remembered alongside Joe Hill, whose "Don't Mourn, Organize" spirit continues to inspire. If he doesn't, he'll rank closer to Stanley Hill, the AFSCME District Council 37 director whose "Don't organize, let's have lunch" ethos was in evidence again last week when he reneged on the union's promise to unionize Work Experience Programs. Whether the strike weapon continues to rust in the hands of American workers or is sharpened and becomes a threat once again depends a lot on which Carey shows up. (Village Voice, Aug. 19) From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Wed Aug 13 16:19:23 1997 Wed, 13 Aug 1997 13:02:05 -0700 (PDT) Wed, 13 Aug 1997 13:01:36 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 13:01:36 -0700 (PDT) To: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, united@cougar.com, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu, "Andrew Rose" , "brandon fitzsimons" , "Jane Rachel Litman" , "John Nelson" , "Lynn Jeffress" , "C. Lehane" , "Ted Keller" , "lauren coodley" , gooding@umbsky.cc.umb.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: UPS losing $30-50 million/day Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO August 13, 1997 Unions Plan Loan to Teamsters; U.P.S. Warns of Layoffs Related Articles Additional Coverage of the U.P.S. Strike Audio Ron Carey, Teamsters President Gina Ellrich, U.P.S. spokeswoman Labor Secretary Alexis Herman Rachel Howard, striking Teamster Forum Join a Discussion on the U.P.S. Strike By STEVEN GREENHOUSE atcheting up the stakes in the United Parcel Service strike, John Sweeney, the AFL-CIO's president, announced Tuesday that the nation's labor unions would lend the International Brotherhood of Teamsters $10 million a week for "many, many weeks" to sustain members during the strike. Officials with the AFL-CIO said the unions had never before lined up so much financial support for a strike, demonstrating that labor leaders view the walkout as a pivotal showdown for the increasingly assertive labor movement that hopes to show that it cannot be pushed around by management. "Because their fight is our fight, we are making this strike our strike," said Sweeney at a news conference at the headquarters of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in Washington. "Before the week is out we will have enough loan commitments from other unions, large and small, to finance the worker side of this confrontation for a long strike, if that's what it takes -- many, many weeks at $10 million dollars a week." Ron Carey, president of the Teamsters, welcomed the financial aid as an unusually generous show of solidarity. The loans will be used to finance strike benefits of $55 a week for each member and public relations efforts by the Teamsters to help strikers endure a long walkout. The strike fund went broke in 1994 and benefits were eliminated. Last year when Carey balanced the union's budget, he set the benefit at $55 a week. But the union will have to dip into its general fund to begin paying benefits at the end of this week. The unprecedented size of the financial assistance announced Tuesday, labor leaders say, stems from the sheer number of workers on strike against UPS and the symbolic importance of the issues involved: pensions and part-time work. In addition, this strike is by far the biggest test that Sweeney's labor movement has faced since he took the AFL-CIO's helm 22 months ago, pledging to revive the movement. While Sweeney sought to give the strikers the wherewithal for a long strike, James Kelly, United Parcel's chairman, issued a layoff warning that union officials said was designed to push the strikers to return to work. He said that if the strike, now in its 10th day, lasts two weeks, the drop in business will cause layoffs of 15,000 unionized workers -- and possibly many more if the strike lasts a month or more. "The longer it goes on, the fewer jobs we'll have, so this is about destroying jobs at UPS," Kelly said on NBC's program "Today." Carey said the talk of layoffs was "intimidation," and he questioned whether the company had lost enough business to make layoffs necessary. Kelly once again called on President Clinton to seek an injunction ordering the Teamsters back to work under the Taft-Hartley Act, which gives the president such powers when a strike is deemed to have done serious damage to the nation's security or economy. "We have customers who are closing down shifts," Kelly said. "We have customers who are laying off people. We have customers who have their business stacked up, and they tell me they can't hold out much longer." The Teamsters and their labor allies vigorously oppose an injunction, asserting that the strike has not caused severe economic damage. Union leaders say they fear they will lose bargaining leverage if the strikers are forced back to work. At the news conference Tuesday, Sweeney said, "President Clinton needs to let UPS know definitively that he will not be providing an escape hatch for UPS negotiators. Once it is made clear to these giants of private enterprise that they can't count on rescue by the government, they will bargain in good faith and the strike will soon be over." United Parcel was feeling financial pressure from the strike. Investment analysts estimated that it was losing between $30 million and $50 million a day because it had many fixed costs and also had to pay the salaries of the 100,000 managers, accountants, clerks and nonunion employees who have continued working. "They're into the several hundred millions of dollars of losses and the meter is still running," said Philip Baggaley, an analyst at Standard & Poor's. "UPS can withstand a strike quite well in terms of financial resources -- it has a $4.5 billion bank line and a fair amount of cash. The risk is the longer-term damage from customers choosing to use other transporters instead of relying exclusively on UPS." The two sides have orchestrated huge efforts in recent days to win public support. United Parcel, the world's largest package-delivery company, ran full-page advertisements Tuesday in more than a dozen newspapers, saying that it had made a generous offer to the union and apologizing for any difficulties caused by the strike. For their part, strikers have visited hundreds of the company's customers to explain their cause and have given out thousands of pro-union flyers at football and baseball stadiums across the country. Talks broke down again last Saturday after the two sides failed to reach agreement about wages, pensions and the company's widespread use of part-time workers. Tuesday, the two sides seemed far more interested in playing hardball, than in returning to the bargaining table. Discussing the strike, Sweeney said, "It's about a greedy, hugely profitable employer who wants to make even more money by shortchanging workers on their wages and benefits." Labor Secretary Alexis Herman briefed Clinton on Tuesday on the situation, after having met with negotiators from each side on Monday. Even though no talks are scheduled, she sounded a note of optimism. "I'm encouraged in that I believe that both sides expressed a willingness to be more flexible in looking at their own differences," she told reporters while accompanying Clinton on a trip to St. Louis. Mike McCurry, the White House spokesman, said Ms. Herman would have another round of "contacts" with the two sides on Wednesday in hopes of persuading them to resume negotiations. Administration officials say they are closely monitoring the strike, which involves more workers than any other walkout this decade. In addition, UPS normally handles 12 million parcels a day -- almost 80 percent of the parcels shipped by ground nationwide -- but the strike has pushed its volume below 10 percent of that. Speaking privately, some union leaders voiced fears that United Parcel would seek to press the Teamsters to the wall because its strike fund was close to zero. It ran out in 1994 during a 24-day freight strike by 70,000 drivers. The fund was already low because the union had voted in 1991 to raise strike benefits to $200 a week but refused to increase dues. "The strike won't be decided by the strike funds," said Carey. "This is a strike about the future -- about good jobs, about our children, our grandchildren." Explaining why several unions had agreed to make loans to the Teamsters strike fund, Denise Mitchell, the AFL-CIO's communications director, said, "Unions generally understand that this is a strike that affects all workers. They all have a strong stake in making sure that workers don't get undermined in this economy. There is huge support for this strike." Labor leaders said unions have a long history of providing financial aid to strikers at other unions, pointing to lengthy strikes at Caterpillar Inc. and A.E. Staley. From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Wed Aug 13 16:19:35 1997 Wed, 13 Aug 1997 13:02:03 -0700 (PDT) Wed, 13 Aug 1997 13:01:17 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 13:01:17 -0700 (PDT) To: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, united@cougar.com, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu, "Andrew Rose" , "brandon fitzsimons" , "Jane Rachel Litman" , "John Nelson" , "Lynn Jeffress" , "C. Lehane" , "Ted Keller" , "lauren coodley" , gooding@umbsky.cc.umb.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: AFL-CIO Backstops IBT Strike Fund Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Note: Here is the address of the Teamster UPS Website - http://www.teamster.org/ups.htm It is updated daily. =============================== U.S. Unions Unite Behind UPS Strikers 06:45 a.m. Aug 13, 1997 Eastern By David Lawsky WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The AFL-CIO is offering millions of dollars to help Teamsters on strike against United Parcel Service while the company warned of thousands of job losses as both sides dug in for what could be a long fight. The announcement by the huge federation of 78 unions came on the ninth day of the dispute between the nation's largest package delivery company and the Teamsters union, which objects to the growing use of low-wage, part-time workers at UPS. ``Before the week is out we will have enough loan commitments from other unions, large and small, to finance the worker side of this confrontation for a long strike if that's what it takes,'' AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said, standing with Teamsters President Ron Carey at Teamster headquarters. UPS, based in Atlanta, stiffened its position too, taking out full-page ads in dozens of newspapers to tell its story and declaring that the Teamsters can expect job losses. ``We've forecast that the permanent lost business of the first two weeks of this strike would result in the loss of more than 15,000 Teamster jobs,'' UPS spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg said, adding that even ``if the strike ends this Friday, we're going to have to begin layoffs.'' Despite that, Labor Secretary Alexis Herman told reporters on Air Force One that she was encouraged about prospects for resolving the dispute after meeting with both sides Monday. ``I'm encouraged in that I believe that both sides expressed a willingness to be more flexible in looking at their own differences,'' Herman told reporters after briefing President Bill Clinton on Tuesday. But no further talks were scheduled and the Teamsters outlined their preparations for a prolonged strike. Sweeney said he would get help from member unions to cover the $10 million needed each week to pay $55 a week in strike benefits to the 185,000 Teamsters who walked off their jobs. The union wants more full-time jobs because three out of five Teamsters at UPS are part-time. Rachel Howard, a part-time worker in Burtonsville, Md., spoke at a Teamsters' news conference. ``There are many weeks that I have been at UPS that I have worked 60 and 65 hours a week but UPS calls me a part-timer and pays me part-time wages,'' said Howard, who picks up and delivers next-day packages. ``I only qualify for a half-time pension that a full-time worker gets,'' she said. ``I am now in my eighth year and still waiting for a full-time job.'' The company said it already permits some workers to convert to full-time. UPS wants the union to permit a vote on its last offer. Carey insists his union members have already voted. ``UPS should stop trying to dictate and start trying to negotiate,'' Carey said. UPS called its own news conference and talked about what it called the real reason for the strike -- its proposal to convert the union pension fund to a UPS-based pension fund. It said its proposal would enrich pensions for employees. The company said it contributes more than $1 billion to the union plan. Asked what it would contribute to a company plan, UPS's vice president for human resources, Lea Soupata, replied: ``We really don't have that number.'' With the Teamsters digging up funds from other unions, Wall Street analysts noted UPS also had deep pockets. ``They have huge resources to withstand any strike,'' said analyst Philip Baggaley at Standard & Poor's. ``The company has said they're losing tens of millions of dollars a day. But when you have a $4.5 billion credit line and a very strong financial position, obviously you still can afford to stand some pain.'' Analysts also played down UPS' announcement on job losses. ``I think it's partly saber rattling. It's probably also some pressure tactic on their part to get the union to come back to the bagaining table,'' said Martine Nowicki at Moody's Investors Service Inc. UPS has repeatedly called for Clinton to intervene in the strike, but the president has declined. Clinton could ask a judge to halt the strike under the Taft-Hartly law, but the government must prove in court that the work stoppage endangers national health or safety. Some presidents have failed to win their cases and it has been 25 years since the law was successfully invoked. Without the prospect of quick settlement, Soupata was asked if the company would move to replace striking workers. She said that was a ``down-the-road issue.'' UPS normally handles 12 million packages a day -- 80 percent of all packages shipped by ground nationwide -- with a work force of 301,000 people. Schools and colleges find themselves without textbooks, and many small businesses cannot deliver their goods and are scrambling to find alternative shippers, with little luck. Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication and redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. From RLEVINE@CENTER.COLGATE.EDU Wed Aug 13 16:39:09 1997 From: RLEVINE@CENTER.COLGATE.EDU Wed, 13 Aug 1997 18:38:54 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 18:38:54 -0500 (EST) Subject: Re: Taft Hartley To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Status: RO With regard to taft-Hartley, and someone please correct me if I am wrong, but didn't reagan use it with PATCO? Rhonda Levine From eshaffer@welchlink.welch.jhu.edu Wed Aug 13 17:14:18 1997 Wed, 13 Aug 1997 19:14:45 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 19:14:45 -0400 (EDT) From: Ellen R Shaffer To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Annie E. Casey In-Reply-To: <2.2.16.19970812224136.3a3f1b4c@pop.igc.org> Status: RO Annie E. Casey Fndn is a wholy own subsidiary of UPS? The same Annie E. that is a major funder of children's health research and advocacy, NPR, and probably some people on this list? Pretty interesting. Can grant recipients put pressure on their funding source? On Tue, 12 Aug 1997, Michael Eisenscher wrote: > UPS is a closely held corporation, which means that its stock is not traded > on the exchanges. The largest block of stock is held by a foundation set up > by founder and another foundation established by the company and under > management's control, next largest by members of management, and in the last > couple of years a small portion of the stock has been acquired by employees. > Employees control only a small proportion; the MarketPlace commentator was > blowing smoke. If all the union members voted all their stock together, > they would not be able to out-vote management and the foundations. > According to the WSJ (8/12/97, A4), The top officers together have > 1,064,055 shares; the Annie E. Casey Foundation and UPS Foundation together > have 26,840,028 shares; and the majority of the 570 million shares are owned > by UPS's 29,000 managers and retirees. The Journal reports, "While 49% of > the full-time Teamsters and 9% of the eligible part-time Teamster employees > have bought stock, their holdings are relatively modest." It has only been > two years since nonmanagers were able to purchase shares. Hope that answers > our question. > > In solidarity, > Michael > > > At 06:49 PM 8/12/97 -0700, jf noonan wrote: > >On Tue, 12 Aug 1997, Ellen R Shaffer wrote: > >> > >> By the way, on the issue of putting the strike to a vote: has UPS asked > >> its shareholders what they think? Do institutional investors still exist > >> out there? > > > >On this point I am curious. Who are UPS's shareholders? I've read > >more than once that UPS is privately held. (So how does anybody but > >its shareholders and bankers know how much money they made last year > >-- I keep hearing $1 billion.) Today on _Marketplace_, a PRI > >distributed and USC produced financial radio show, I heard an > >obviously pro management commentator assert that because of the > >"substantial" (no estimate given) share of UPS that its employees own > >that the strike would be over soon. > > > >Who owns UPS? > > > >How much does labor own? > > > >-- > > > >Joseph Noonan > >jfn1@msc.com > > > > > > From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Wed Aug 13 20:53:55 1997 Wed, 13 Aug 1997 19:18:39 -0700 (PDT) Wed, 13 Aug 1997 19:18:22 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 19:18:22 -0700 (PDT) To: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, united@cougar.com, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu, "Andrew Rose" , "brandon fitzsimons" , "Jane Rachel Litman" , "John Nelson" , "Lynn Jeffress" , "C. Lehane" , "Ted Keller" , "lauren coodley" , gooding@umbsky.cc.umb.edu, "D.D.Guttenplan" From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: What You Can Do Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Some folks have written off-list asking what they could do to help the UPS strikers. Here is a list of ideas, to which you can add your own. 1. Circulate news of the strike to friends and coworkers. 2. Raise funds to contribute to local strike funds. 3. Organize people to go to the picketlines. 4. Bring food and soft drinks to pickets. 5. Get other organizations to adopt resolutions of support; mail them to the media and UPS (copies to IBT) 6. Help form a coalition to sponsor a united solidarity rally. 7. Use the strike as an opportunity to raise the profile of the plight of contingent workers. 8. Write letters to the editor; call in to talk shows; and contact electronic media to protest biased publicity and news coverage. 9. Ask the IBT local in the your area what kind of help they need. 10. Don't wait to be asked to start organizing solidarity. 11. Bring other contingent workers into the struggle. 12. Talk to coworkers about the issues at stake; take them to the picketlines. 13. Express yourself to scab drivers. Let them know the public opposes their strike-breaking. 14. Encourage UPS customers to contact management urging them to settle. From aanz@sirius.com Wed Aug 13 23:04:26 1997 for ; Wed, 13 Aug 1997 22:03:14 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 22:06:30 -0700 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: aanz@sirius.com (anzalone/starbird) Subject: Re: Data Request Status: RO >Here goes nothing: President Carter last used it against the coal miners, >claiming the nation's health faced irreparable harm; (winter/no coal, bad >news where it snows I hear) the court tossed the injunction out claiming >that twernt no harm a'tol... Do I win a prize if I'm right? ellen starbird P.S. You had to run off so quick I didn't get a proper chance to introduce myself at the SSSP labor studies meeting. I would appreciate learning the year and president when the Taft-Hartley >Act was last used; I understand it was over 20 years ago. Also, what >process would be necessary before Pres. Clinton could use a Taft-Hartley >injunction to stop the current UPS strike. I am being asked these >questions now by impatient media types. Many thanks, Art Shostak > >Arthur B. Shostak, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Department of >Psych/Soc/Anthro, Drexel University, Phila., PA, 19104; 215-895-2466; fax >610-668-2727. >email: SHOSTAKA@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu >http://httpsrv.ocs.drexel.edu/faculty/shostaka/ >"This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to do >with it." Ralph Waldo Emerson From aanz@sirius.com Wed Aug 13 23:06:44 1997 Wed, 13 Aug 1997 22:05:33 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 22:08:50 -0700 To: shostaka@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu From: aanz@sirius.com (anzalone/starbird) Subject: Re: Taft Hartley Status: RO >Here's my press op take on it with a more scholarly update by Michael >attatched. yours in solidarity, ellen Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 22:17:51 -0700 (PDT) >Reply-To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu >Sender: owner-Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu >Precedence: bulk >From: Michael Eisenscher >To: Labor Research and Action Project >Subject: Re: Taft Hartley >Mime-Version: 1.0 >X-Sender: meisenscher@igc.org >X-To: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, > h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu, united@cougar.com, OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU, > can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu, > "Andrew Rose" , > "brandon fitzsimons" , > "Jane Rachel Litman" , > "John Nelson" , > "Lynn Jeffress" , > "C. Lehane" , "Ted Keller" , > "lauren coodley" , gooding@umbsky.cc.umb.edu >X-Cc: Wilson#u#Rand@ibt_po_0.ccmail.compuserve.com >X-Sender: meisenscher@pop.igc.org >Status: U > >Questions have arisen regarding Taft-Hartley and its applicability to the >UPS strike. While I am not an historian or lawyer, I have consulted some of >the literature and obtained a general explanation, which I share here. >Others with more expertise may want to clarify or correct any improper >interpretation I provide. > >There is a provision in the Taft-Hartley Act that, under certain >circumstances, gives the President the power to compel workers on strike to >return to their jobs (or employers who have locked out workers to readmit >them to their jobs) for a "cooling off" period. > >As I understand it, the President must make a legal finding in order to >initiate and back-to-work order. He must determine whether the situation >meets the legal test of a national emergency as defined in the legislation. >It is this which Clinton is saying keeps him from issuing an order. He >claims, rightly so, that the strike, while it creates inconvenience and >losses for some, does not constitute a national emergency as defined by T-H. >The "national emergency" provisions are contained in sections 206-210 of the >T-H Act, 29 U.S.C.A. 176-80. > >This is what Gorman says in Basic Text on Labor Law, Chapter XVIII, >"National Emergency Disputes": > >"The President of the United States is authorized by the Act to appoint a >board of inquiry should he believe that a threatened or actual strike or >lockout, affecting an entire industry or a substantial part of an industry >engaged in interstate commerce, endangers or will endanger the national >health or safety....The board of inquiry is empowered to conduct private and >public hearings to gather information, and is within the time specified by >the President to tender a report to him on the facts of the dispute and the >parties' positions; the board is expressly forbidden to forward any >recommendations. Upon receipt of the report, the President must make it >public and file a copy with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation >Service....The President is also authorized (not required) upon receipt of >the report to direct the Attorney General to petition for an injunction >against the strike or lockout in any federal district court having >jurisdiction over the parties, and the court is given jurisdiction to issue >the injunction if it finds that the strike or lockout 'affects an entire >industry or a substantial part thereof' engaged in interstate commerce _and_ >that without an injunction the 'national health or safety' would be >imperiled." If an injunction is issued, the parties are required to submit >to mediation. The Pres. is required to reconvene the board of inquiry, >which after sixty days reports to the Pres. on the current situation if >there has been no settlement. The report is to be made public, and the NLRB >is within 15 days to conduct a secret-ballot poll to determine whether >employees involved approve of the employer's final offer. The board then >certifies the results of the poll within five days to the Atty. General, who >then is required to move the court to discharge the injunction. > >Thus the total delay in the strike available to the Pres. is 80 days. If it >is not settled by then, the strike may resume. > >The language of the Act has been found to mean that the court need only find >a 'danger' of a 'threat' to the national health or safety. A threat to >national safety has been found most readily when there is a threat to >military procurement or production for military use. Gorman notes that the >threat to national health is less clear. Absent a definitive ruling from >the Supreme Ct., lower courts have been inclined to interpret the phrase >broadly to mean 'economic well-being,' not narrowly as 'physical >well-being.' In one district court ruling, an injunction was denied because >a dockers' strike was found not to constitute a threat to national health >merely because it created economic dislocation, but an appeals court ruled >that the district court interpreted the phrase too narrowly. That court >would require no more than a finding that a national emergency existed by >virtue of a significant adverse effect upon the 'essential well-being of the >economy.' The broad and general interpetation seems to have prevailed, but >the Supreme Ct. has yet to make a definitive ruling. > >Once an injunction is issued, only the govt. has standing to seek contempt >citations for violations. Neither the employer nor the union has standing. >Between 1947 and 1967, roughly half of the 24 strike injunctions ran their >course without a settlement, with strikes occurring in roughly half of those. > >These provisions of Taft-Hartley are, as Ellen Starbird has observed (see >below) one element in the larger anti-labor nature of the Act. In essence >the law says "Workers have a right to strike, just so long as their strike >won't actually be effective. If it threatens to be really effective, the >government has the right to force strikers back to work." I am aware of no >situation where the back-to-work provisions of T-H have been used against an >employer in a lockout situation. Maybe an historian out there in cyberspace >can come up with one. Clinton, who has done next to nothing for unions >since his election (and has done plenty to them), will likely resist >pressure to implement the emergency provisions of T-H unless some of his >larger donors collectively exert their unique influence. In this way, he >can appear as a 'friend of labor' and pay down his debt to the labor >movement. However, Slick Willie is never one to get hung up on principle. >If the political heat gets too strong, if his wealthy political investors >call in their chits, we can expect the Prez to cave. Clearly, he hopes it >will all get settled before it comes to that. Expect the Democratic >political operatives to lean heavily on Carey and Sweeney in an effort to >force them into a "compromise" that will end the walkout. (In that respect, >it is heartening that Sweeney announced today that he was contacting the >leadership of every affiliate to secure loan commitments sufficient to carry >the Teamsters for as long as is required to win a decent settlement.) > >It is important, therefore, that strike supporters include a letter, email, >or fax to Clinton expressing your opposition to the invocation of >Taft-Hartley in the UPS strike. Organizations should also send letters and >resolutions to that effect. Letters to the editor should be sent to local >papers and opportunities should be seized to get on talk shows to express >opposition to use of T-H. > >In solidarity, >Michael > >At 07:23 PM 8/12/97 CDT, anzalone/starbird wrote: >>Dear Editor, >> >>Frequently the press has trouble getting the facts straight with regard to >>legal facts. It is after all, an issue of little concern to those who >>purchase ad space. However, the UPS management's bantering of the Taft >>Hartley Act as a "solution" for the UPS strike, delivered as it has been >>to the public by the media with a straight face is either egregiously bad >>journalism or just dishonest propaganda. >> >>Since my father always taught me not to assume dishonestly where an >>explaination of stupidity would suffice, let's assume no one on your staff >>knows anything about labor law: >> >>Fact #1) >> >>Taft Hartley is an odious piece of anti-worker legislation used only in >>this country to curtail worker's political rights. Almost all other >>countries allow solidarity (those who remember PATCO might recall the one >>day refusal to allow U.S. planes to land by othe nation's traffic >>controllers). In the U.S. it is illegal; such as in the case where the >>Longshoreman were fined by the Supreme court for refusing to unload cargo >>from Poland (in support of Solidarity) and South Africa (to protest the >>then apartheid regime.) >> >>Fact #2) >> >>The Taft Hartley Act outlaws SECONDARY pickets and boycotts. In other >>words, workers who are not employed by the company targeted for action >>cannot refuse to handle its' cargo. The court can assume that since the >>employer cannot necessarily meet their demands the action is "unfair". >> >>Should the postal carriers, for example, refuse to handle mail suddenly, on >>the grounds that they wanted to help the Teamsters win at UPS, then the UPS >>would have a Taft Hartley complaint. Under such a Postal Carriers for >>instance UPS could legitimately seek (invoking Taft Hartley) an injunction. >> >> >>Fact #3) >>Taft Hartley does not apply to the UPS situation. At all. >> >>Since the Teamster workers have a PRIMARY relationship with UPS, the >>company is required by law to bargain in good faith as the ONLY solution to >>its dilemma. The worker's by law, have the right to withhold their labor. >> >>There is no secondary "hot cargo" boycott. All we have here is a >>belligerent employer who seeks to evade their bargaining obligations by >>attempting to hide behind the President. The clients who are not getting >>their cargo delivered by UPS are suffering not from a Taft Hartley >>secondary boycott; but a UPS management that is as seemingly callous to >>its client's inconvenience as it is unwilling to negotiate with its own >>employees. >> >>It is no more appropriate for UPS to demand that the President issue an >>illegal injunction under a Taft Hartley than it would be for Teamster Chief >>Ron Carey to ask Clinton to evoke some obscure legislation, call out the >>National Guard and summarily execute the UPS executives as a "solution" to >>the strike. >> >> Less dramatic, non-governmental solutions between the parties are >>appropriate. Loath as they apparently are to doing it; for the UPS >>management negotiating with their employee's union is their only legitamate >>legal remedy. >> >>Perhaps out of ignorance the press parrots UPS' baby talk conceptualizing >>of labor law as though it were legitimate discourse. It is not. President >>Clinton has no appropriate role except to refer the parties back to the >>bargaining table. For the press to allow the company spokespersons to >>pretend otherwise does a public disservice to the highest office in the >>land and a greater disservice to the truth. >> >>Sincerely, >> >>Ellen M. Starbird >>Labor Studies Instructor, Laney College >> >> >> > From phardwic@u.washington.edu Thu Aug 14 04:34:36 1997 Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 03:34:33 -0700 (PDT) From: "P. Hardwick" To: Labor Research and Action Project Subject: Re: Annie E. Casey In-Reply-To: Status: RO Not only Annie E. Casey but ole Jim founded The Casey Family Program, out here in Seattle, a foster care program with local divisions from New Orleans throughout many of our western states. They provide very resource rich foster care support for the children under their care. While I recognize that UPS, TCFP and AEC are autonomous, the irony is inescapable. paula hardwick, seattle From nkrhodes@mailbox.syr.edu Thu Aug 14 05:51:31 1997 for ; Thu, 14 Aug 1997 07:51:28 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 07:51:27 -0400 (EDT) From: "Nancy K. Rhodes" To: Labor Research and Action Project Subject: Re: UPS & Teamster Bargaining Proposals Compared In-Reply-To: <2.2.16.19970813130003.22e72b08@pop.igc.org> Status: RO This is an ENORMOUS post - I for one would have preferred that you informed us it was available & that you would either send it upon request or that we could get it from the website. I appreciate knowing about it but I would've liked to have a choice first about whether I deleted a lot of other things before I could get into my mail this morning. Nancy Rhodes, Syracuse From culturex@vcn.bc.ca Thu Aug 14 09:00:20 1997 Thu, 14 Aug 1997 08:00:16 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 08:00:14 -0700 (PDT) From: Franklin Wayne Poley Subject: Re: SNET: Saturday matinee (fwd) To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu Status: RO ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 18:52:57 -0700 (PDT) From: Franklin Wayne Poley To: snetnews@world.std.com labor-l@yorku.ca, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu, united@cougar.com, pv@mindlink.bc.ca, activ-l@mizzou1.missouri.edu, manlej@parl.gc.ca, jshields@essential.org, union-d@wolfnet.com, news@ctv.ca Subject: Re: SNET: Saturday matinee On Mon, 11 Aug 1997, Franklin Wayne Poley wrote: > On Mon, 11 Aug 1997, Marilyn Wright wrote: > > > No one got really excited about the remake of "The Island of Dr. > > Moreau"....a mad doctor using humans and animals to manufacture strange > > new creatures....alien creatures? The remake was actually very > > timely--although it really was a pretty bad movie. > > Scared the hell out of me when I first saw it as a teenager. I thought > then and continued to think until recently that this was an > impossibility-at least for 1,000 years or so. But a few days ago, > Vancouver's most eminent futurist, Dr. Tomorrow, was on TV saying there > are people on this planet seriously talking about creating a sub-human > slave race by genetic engineering. I would hazard a guess that with 99% > of the genes in common between gorillas and man it would be possible to > hybridize man and gorilla. Then the most useful of the hybrids could be > cloned. Of course I am NOT advocating it, nor was Dr. Tomorrow. > FWP. Let me add a footnote to this. The man-gorilla creatures would be an inferior class of worker. They would not be protected by labour laws. They could have their basic amenities of life discontinued for not doing what their slave masters demanded (eg shelter, bananas etc.). In other words they would be WORKFARE WORKERS as Workfare has been defined by "capitalism to-day". FWP. From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Thu Aug 14 10:51:26 1997 Thu, 14 Aug 1997 09:40:23 -0700 (PDT) Thu, 14 Aug 1997 09:39:34 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 09:39:34 -0700 (PDT) To: can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: [PEN-L:11746] Discussion on UPS strike heard at U. of Illinois Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO >Return-Path: >Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 07:45:22 -0700 (PDT) >Reply-To: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu >Originator: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu >Sender: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu >From: Louis Proyect >Subject: [PEN-L:11746] Discussion on UPS strike heard at U. of Illinois >X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas >X-Comment: Progressive Economics > >What follows is an absolutely truthful and accurate story! >Names have been changed to protect identities. > > >I am sitting at a popular coffee-shop in Urbana this morning reading >the latest issue of LinguaFranca and sipping a cup of coffee, when my >ear starts tracking the conversation at a neighboring table. It's a >discussion of the UPS strike among three grads, one of whom (let me >call him Bob) I recognize as a person who has refused to join our >Graduate Employees' Organization (GEO) --our grad union at the >University of Illinois. > >Bob is arguing that President Clinton should intervene and stop the >strike because the Teamsters "have gone too far." He knows UPS workers >who make a pretty good living because of how generous the company has >been. One person he went to high school with works at UPS in >Chicago and earns over $40,000 per year. Bob is obviously not very happy >at this. He feels that his friend is making way too much money for a >person with just a high-school education. Bob has a bachelor's degree >and a master's degree from good schools and he will be finishing up a >Ph.D. in a year or so at the University of Illinois. He has been working >as a teaching assistant making no more than $10,000 per year even though >he busts his tail to do a good job for his department. > >Bob feels that "it just ain't fair" for a high-school graduate to be >making $40,000 when he is barely getting by. Besides which, what are the >prospects for the future? Not so great. In his particular field chances >are about 50/50 that he will be able to land a tenure track position >within 5 years after getting his Ph.D. Even then, the starting salary >will be less than the $40,000 his high-school classmate earns working for >UPS. > >Bob is understandably bitter this morning and his friends are not making >matters any easier for him. One of them --I'll call her Ani-- argues that >UPS workers make a good living NOT because of the "generosity" of UPS but >because of the collective bargaining power of the Teamsters (mind you, I >recognize Ani as one of the hundreds of GEO members that joined to >improve the lot of graduate employees). Ani calls Bob an "elitist" for >arguing that the labor of a working-class UPS employee is not nearly as >valuable as the labor of a graduate employee and/or of an academic. > >The other participant in the discussion --I'll call her Rosa-- has >trouble understanding what Bob's point is. Does he want the salary of >the UPS worker to be scaled down or would he rather be better-paid himself? > >Bob is not quite sure... >He is just "pissed-off" at all the fuss that the Teamsters are making. >UPS workers are lucky to have the jobs they do. There are millions of >people around the country, and billions around the world that would be >happy --"truly ecstatic"-- to be making half what a UPS worker is making!!! > >Rosa says that Bob is a hard worker and that he is being exploited by >the University of Illinois, but this doesn't mean that the UPS worker is >some sort of culprit for his penury. If Bob wants to be pissed-off about >someone he should be pissed-off at the administration that is exploiting >his labor and the labor of more than 5,400 graduate employees at the >University of Illinois. One more reason for him to join the GEO! > >Ani agrees with Rosa and adds that scapegoating a UPS worker because his >union has managed to provide him or her with a pretty good contract is not >the way to go. Bob should join the struggle waged by the Teamsters to >stop the down-hill tumble that the working-class has been in over the >past few years. "The corporations are part-timing America to death and >they are turning one worker against another so that they can fatten their >wallets and to hell with the rest of us! We better wake up and demand >radical changes." > >"Yeah," adds Rosa,"there is a reason for the saying 'Workers of the World >Unite!' If working people unite then we might be able to even the >playing-field a bit. But, you see, the people with their hands on the >levers of power don't want this. So, they find ways to divide us. In >your case, you barely need any prompting!" > >"Besides which," adds Ani,"I know a full professor in Mozambique who makes >a hell of a lot less than we do as teaching assistants. She has a full >teaching load and she barely makes ends meet for herself and her two >children. By your logic she would be fully justified to argue that YOU >do not deserve to make what you make because you have nowhere near her >education and experience." > >I have nothing to add, so I put my LinguaFranca away and walk out of the >coffee-shop. Maybe Bob will wake-up and smell the coffee:-) > >It is interesting to hear a discussion like this. What I see coming out >of Bob is insecurity, an insecurity that he translates into disdain for a >UPS worker who might be doing better than him. > >Of course, there is a lot more that can be said about what has transpired. >But I won't bore you with my analysis. Besides which I have a GEO action >to go to. The IBEW has put up a picket outside a campus building because >the university won't let telecommunications installers to unionize. The >GEO is going to be out there within the next hour picketing with the >electrical workers. > > >Solidarity! >Dennis Grammenos > > > _____________________________________________________________ >| Dennis Grammenos dgrammen@uiuc.edu | >| Departments of Geography & | >| Russian and East European Studies | >| University of Illinois Phone: (217) 333-1880 | >| Urbana, IL 61801 Fax: (217) 244-1785 | >|_____________________________________________________________| > > > > > > > > > > > --- from list marxism-international@lists.village.virginia.edu --- > > > > From aaron@burn.ucsd.edu Thu Aug 14 13:34:26 1997 Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 15:34:23 -0400 From: aaron@burn.ucsd.edu (Aaron) Subject: Re: Truth About UPS Revealed To: Labor Research and Action Project Status: RO >Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 13:43:54 -0700 (PDT) >From: Michael Eisenscher >Spoken like a good cost/benefit accountant. Part of what I was doing was dealing with the questions, Whose cost? Whose benefit?, or, as the title of a great song puts it, 'Who Reaps the Profit? Who Pays the Price?' This is something that most cost/benefit accountants are paid to conceal. It's interesting to note that capitalist politicians almost never openly apply a social cost/benefit analysis to their decisions. (What they do talk about is saving money, which is an entirely different matter.) The lack of such an analysis makes it easier for them to make the costs fall on the weak and powerless while the benefits accrue to their wealthy backers. >I had no idea that a rhetorical question added for dramatic emphasis could >provoke such inspired bookkeeping. We may have a real difference of political principle here. You seem to be saying that lying to one's comrades and potential comrades is OK, at least if the lie is snuck in as the presupposition of 'a rhetorical question added for dramatic emphasis'. I believe that helping to increase and clarify our understanding of the world -- including of our enemies -- is ultimately of greater value than the momentary advantage obtained by manipulating people. >The issue, however, remains UPS's failure to properly equip its vehicles >with appropriate safety equipment -- equipment which is installed on the >vehicles of each of its major competitors. This is not the issue we're arguing about. >After the revolution, you may want to head up the cost-accounting division >of the secretariat of accident prevention and safety. After the revolution, we are going to have to rebuild a world devastated by both centuries of capitalism and world-wide civil war. It will damn well be necessary to allocate resources on a rational, i.e. calculating, basis if we don't want them to go mainly to the most advantaged castes, nations, and ethnicities, and -- within such groups -- to those with closest ties to bureaucrats. >Until then, however, it is perfectly reasonable for UPS drivers to >demand that the company invest the $55 per vehicle to prevent as many >tragic accidents as can be prevented. With over $1 billion in profits >last year, I think they can afford it. Why do you think that I disagree with this? Almost anything that the UPS owners can be forced to spend to benefit, even a little, the UPS workers and the general public is better than adding it to their profits. >As for demagoguery and dishonesty, I bow to your greater expertise. Thanks for the compliment {;->}! Having been exposed to the work of various left groups for over 40 years, and of the bourgeoisie and academia for even longer, I've got a well-developed built-in automatic bullshit detector. It's an asset that I'm happy to share. >Michael - Aaron Michael's original post, which is fine except for the one point I criticized, can be found at: http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aaron/UPS_Strike/Truth_Revealed.html My criticism is at: http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aaron/UPS_Strike/Truth_Revealed.2.html His response to my criticism, which I respond to above, will be at: http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aaron/UPS_Strike/Truth_Revealed.3.html ---------- mailto:aaron@burn.ucsd.edu http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aaron From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Thu Aug 14 16:05:57 1997 Thu, 14 Aug 1997 14:21:28 -0700 (PDT) Thu, 14 Aug 1997 14:20:46 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 14:20:46 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: UPS strikers in Berkeley tomorrow Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO UPS strikers from Teamsters Locals 315 and 70 will walk the streets of downtown Berkeley and the U.C. campus on Friday, August 15, to explain the isssues in the strike. Community supporters are welcome to join them. Meet at Berkeley BART station, Center & Shattuck, at noon. Call Roger at 548-5020 for further information. In a related development, UPS scabs were driven out of the Hs. Lordship's parking lot in the Berkeley Marina, which they had been using as an illegal loading dock, by the Berkeley Police on the initiative of the city government. UPS insisted that it was a "public lot" and refused to leave until Hs. Lordship's management called the BPD. (The lot is reserved for Hs. Lordship's customers only.) See front page of today's _Berkeley Voice_ for more details. From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Thu Aug 14 16:18:20 1997 Thu, 14 Aug 1997 13:30:50 -0700 (PDT) Thu, 14 Aug 1997 13:24:55 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 13:24:55 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Harvard's Elaine Bernard on the Strike Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Michael, Thanks for all the information you're pouring into cyberspace! I thought you might find the following of interest. A question was posted to Noam Chomsky on Znet (www.lbbs.org) and he passed it on to Elaine Bernard whose answer is below. The Teamster UPS strike is without question the most important labor dispute in a decade or more.=A0 It's large, with over 180,000 workers on strike.=A0 It's national in scope, with actions taking place in every state and major city around the country.=A0 It effects a significant section of the business community.=A0 UPS has 80% of the small package business and this volume of freight cannot easily be picked up by other carriers.=A0 It will have a noticeable effect on the economy as a whole -- though from UPS's point of view, this is the best time of year for a strike, before the heavy fall season. For Ron Carey (President of the Teamsters) this is a crucial strike, as he was a UPS employee (as was his father, so Carey has deep roots with this company), and from my knowledge of Carey, I would suggest that much of his personal reform commitment has come from his frustration over the decimation of the wages and working conditions at UPS through concession agreements signed by the teamster old guard in the 1980s. Finally, the UPS strike is the first big national dispute, by a major affiliate of the AFL-CIO under Sweeney, Trumka and Chavez-Thompson's watch, and they recognize that the=20 whole labor movement has a big stake in the outcome of this strike. While the teamsters are not yet a model of union democracy, they've come a long way since the election of Carey and a reform slate.=A0 While the Wall Street Journal seems to think that Carey has called the UPS strike simply to take attention off recent scandals over illegal union election activities and money laundering during his re-election campaign, this is complete nonsense.=A0 It's a simple fact that no union leader could get 180,000 workers into the streets, foregoing wages, and risking everything, simply as a cover-up.=A0 These workers aren't anybody's "cannon fodder." They're angry at UPS and know that the company has been making lots of money, on their backs -- and they are demanding their share.=A0 Further, on the corruption issue, no link has been made to Carey himself or any teamsters involved in his re-election campaign.=A0 There's no question that the "Ansara/Share" affair has hurt Carey, and in my opinion, reflects poor judgement in working with outside consultants, but Carey is not a mobster, does not have connections to organized crime and has been in a long and hard battle to clean up those parts of the union that are still in the grips of "wise guys" and their friends. Carey has a tough row to hoe.=A0 He is fighting on two fronts, both inside his union (against the old regime -- now lead by James Hoffa Jr.) and with the employers.=A0 And the internal battle has clearly weakened his capacity to deal with employers and they know it and are taking advantage of it any time they can.=A0 When Carey tried to shut down UPS for a protest a few years ago around the company's directive increasing the load that drivers would be forced to accept (from 75 pounds to an incredible 150 pounds), the opposition told workers it was an "illegal strike" and not to participate.=A0 It was sabotaged from inside.=A0 The internal fight within the teamsters continues to this day, though in this current dispute, the Hoffa forces do not appear to be openly criticizing the strike -- though clearly a victory for the union in this dispute would bolster Carey's authority, so I don't expect that they will be silent for long. In my opinion, the hiring of scabs will not be an issue in this dispute.=A0 UPS is currently using their supervisory staff to try and deliver the freight currently in their system (caught by the strike), and doesn't appear to be picking up any new packages for delivery.=A0 And they probably won't for the duration of the strike. Permanently replacing such a large trained staff is tough, and its not likely to happen. One issue to watch for, however, is that UPS may try and fire activists for picket line activities after the dispute.=A0 One way you can tell who "won" a strike -- as the final agreement is often a compromise -- is if the union can prevent this type of victimization. However, a more likely termination scenario is that Clinton might intervene (he arguably has the power to do so under the Taft-Hartley Act) by determining that the strike constitutes a "national emergency."=A0 This would give him the power to force the strikers back-to-work (as he has done with Airline and Rail disputes in recent years, thought they are under different legislation). The two key issues in the dispute are pensions and full-time jobs.=A0 On pensions, the company is seeking to get out of the Teamster pension fund.=A0 This would weaken the unions multi-employer fund (with UPS the largest employer in the fund), reduce portability of the pension for members, significantly reduce the union and therefore workers control over the pension=A0 and permit UPS in future bargaining to reduce contributions to the fund and to seek to convert it from a defined benefit to defined contribution plan.=A0 Pensions are an issue that the union will fight very hard on -- and one which the company wants to focus attention on, even seeking to play the corruption card.=A0 Needless to say, it is the companies, not the unions, which have been stealing workers retirement savings.=A0 There are some problems with the UPS teamster pensions, including the fact that the teamster pension isn't a national fund, but rather is regional, so you end up with different rules, etc, in different parts of the country.=A0 But ultimately, its more controlled by the members than what UPS has in mind. On the full-time jobs issue, this is a vital issue for both the teamsters and the AFL-CIO as a whole, and fits in with the labor movements desire to position itself as the force fighting for good jobs with good benefits and working conditions.=A0 The concession bargaining in the 1980s, with the notorious "two tier agreements" are now coming home to roost.=A0 By permitting UPS to hire limitless part-time workers, with a large wage differential -- which began at $ 4 an hour and today is $ 9 (with a part-time worker earning $ 11 an hour, and working beside and doing the same work as a full-time worker who earns $ 20 an hour.=A0 Is there any question why UPS has gone to over 60% of its workforce part time.=A0 By the way, this wage differential, would be illegal if instead of "part-time" workers, this second class of workers were classified as "female" or "black" or "elderly."=A0 While the company has offered to "create" some new full time jobs, they are essentially going to simply fill some of the existing full time positions which are constantly being vacated via attrition.=A0 The unions demand around the part-time issue are not earth shattering.=A0 They will continue to accept the wage differential (though clearly they want to start to close the gap).=A0 They are not trying to stop the use of part timers, but rather to start to change the ratio.=A0 The company, which has been making money hand over fist in the last decade with these concessions, does not feel it has to give in at all. What's at stake here is 1) whether labor can conduct a national strike, without the interference of the government, 2) whether the teamsters can stop the bleeding of full time jobs and the growing move towards precarious employment by major employers, 3) whether the teamsters union, one of the last unions in the country still positioned to hold a nation wide strike, will be able to demonstrate, not just to its own members, but to all of the unorganized workers that organization works, that unions can make a difference in fighting for decent jobs and wages and worker rights in the workplace. Elaine Bernard Harvard Trade Union Program htup@harvarda.harvard.edu From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Thu Aug 14 16:36:21 1997 Thu, 14 Aug 1997 14:27:18 -0700 (PDT) Thu, 14 Aug 1997 14:21:03 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 14:21:03 -0700 (PDT) To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Re: Truth About UPS Revealed Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Aaron: It is clear that you are a VERY serious person, who feels passionately about political and ideological issues. I can respect that even if we have differences of opinion from time to time. But if you think calling me a liar and demagogue is conducive to a discussion of differences, you have a really sorry perspective on intellectual discourse. I don't know you, but if I had friends who exploded with such damnation over a discussion of $55 mirrors, I'd advise them to take a vacation and lighten up. You have managed to obsess about one sentence in a lengthy report from Carolyn Robinson's speech to the APALA convention. The overall topic was the UPS strike, not post-revolutionary allocation of resources. There will be plenty of time to debate social costs and benefits of policies after the revolution when we are a few steps further down the road to the new society. In your zeal to expose me as a devious prevaricator, you managed to skip right past the central issue -- solidarity with the strikers. How about turning some of your considerable energy and piercing wit to the task of buildling support for their struggle? In solidarity, Michael At 03:34 PM 8/14/97 -0400, Aaron wrote: >>Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 13:43:54 -0700 (PDT) >>From: Michael Eisenscher > >>Spoken like a good cost/benefit accountant. > >Part of what I was doing was dealing with the questions, Whose cost? Whose >benefit?, or, as the title of a great song puts it, 'Who Reaps the Profit? >Who Pays the Price?' This is something that most cost/benefit accountants >are paid to conceal. > >It's interesting to note that capitalist politicians almost never openly >apply a social cost/benefit analysis to their decisions. (What they do talk >about is saving money, which is an entirely different matter.) The lack of >such an analysis makes it easier for them to make the costs fall on the >weak and powerless while the benefits accrue to their wealthy backers. > >>I had no idea that a rhetorical question added for dramatic emphasis could >>provoke such inspired bookkeeping. > >We may have a real difference of political principle here. You seem to be >saying that lying to one's comrades and potential comrades is OK, at least >if the lie is snuck in as the presupposition of 'a rhetorical question >added for dramatic emphasis'. I believe that helping to increase and >clarify our understanding of the world -- including of our enemies -- is >ultimately of greater value than the momentary advantage obtained by >manipulating people. > >>The issue, however, remains UPS's failure to properly equip its vehicles >>with appropriate safety equipment -- equipment which is installed on the >>vehicles of each of its major competitors. > >This is not the issue we're arguing about. > >>After the revolution, you may want to head up the cost-accounting division >>of the secretariat of accident prevention and safety. > >After the revolution, we are going to have to rebuild a world devastated by >both centuries of capitalism and world-wide civil war. It will damn well be >necessary to allocate resources on a rational, i.e. calculating, basis if >we don't want them to go mainly to the most advantaged castes, nations, and >ethnicities, and -- within such groups -- to those with closest ties to >bureaucrats. > >>Until then, however, it is perfectly reasonable for UPS drivers to >>demand that the company invest the $55 per vehicle to prevent as many >>tragic accidents as can be prevented. With over $1 billion in profits >>last year, I think they can afford it. > >Why do you think that I disagree with this? Almost anything that the UPS >owners can be forced to spend to benefit, even a little, the UPS workers >and the general public is better than adding it to their profits. > >>As for demagoguery and dishonesty, I bow to your greater expertise. > >Thanks for the compliment {;->}! Having been exposed to the work of various >left groups for over 40 years, and of the bourgeoisie and academia for even >longer, I've got a well-developed built-in automatic bullshit detector. >It's an asset that I'm happy to share. > >>Michael > > - Aaron > > >Michael's original post, which is fine except for the one point I >criticized, can be found at: >http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aaron/UPS_Strike/Truth_Revealed.html >My criticism is at: >http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aaron/UPS_Strike/Truth_Revealed.2.html >His response to my criticism, which I respond to above, will be at: >http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aaron/UPS_Strike/Truth_Revealed.3.html > >---------- >mailto:aaron@burn.ucsd.edu >http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aaron > > > From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Thu Aug 14 16:40:46 1997 Thu, 14 Aug 1997 14:22:54 -0700 (PDT) Thu, 14 Aug 1997 14:21:25 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 14:21:25 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: The Northern Line Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO This was posted to labr.party@conf.igc. It is not clear how much is fictionalized and how much is based on actual people and events. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------- From: Richard The grayed skies were in constant motion. Drizzle then downpour then topaz blue skies then rain again. Drive to the end of town, past the airport, past the post office, to the end of the paved road. A diverse group on the shoulder, huddled under umbrella's waiting for the sun. Men, a woman, black and white, part time and full time, Pride At Work, CLUW ... a diverse group of Teamsters betting their paychecks on a fair deal. "Why?" I asked. Willie Johnston III, a black man supporting a wife and two kids is quick to answer. "I left Sears because of this (part time work) I worked more than 40 hours most weeks and still they kept me part time. Four years they strung me along. UPS is doing the same thing. I have to hold two jobs because I can't count on UPS ... they can count on me to show up for work, but I can't count on them for work." Mike Streiffert adds, "I worked full time hours for 4 years with UPS as a part time employee. Finally they made me full time, and I lost money. It is just a matter of power and control for UPS to keep us part time when they have full time work. And part time employees earn part time sick leave, vacation time, and especially pension credit. You can work full time hours and still earn part time pension credit." Streiffert continues, "And I don't trust them with the pension funds. When the investments are doing well, the trustees I elect pour the earnings back into the pension fund. UPS wants to cut the bosses contribution to the fund when investments are up. When the economy booms shouldn't the benefits go to the workers that made the economy boom?" "And I don't want them to have control," adds Mike Harney, a deeply religious man and the most senior full time UPS Teamster in town. "We have a stable board of trustees and a stable plan. UPS could take that away. Their proposal take away our security. Its about money and control. If UPS has control, a single day's interest is big money that can be taken away from us." Mike Streiffert adds, "and the wages... they are offering wages that don't keep up with inflation...only 1.5% with inflation running higher. They want me to take an annual pay cut." A cool drizzle starts and the umbrella huddle re-forms. Teamsters on the line....betting their paychecks on a fair deal for America. FORWARD FREELY Richard Seward Fairbanks Alaska August 14, 1997 From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Thu Aug 14 17:07:07 1997 Thu, 14 Aug 1997 14:29:32 -0700 (PDT) Thu, 14 Aug 1997 14:21:10 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 14:21:10 -0700 (PDT) To: united@cougar.com, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: [PEN-L:11750] Re: Black Male Employment Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO In a recent discussion about Black employment, Doug Henwood contributed the following response to PEN-L. I thought folks on other lists might also find his comments worth consideration. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- Speaking of the incarceration of black males in the U.S., I recently came across a factoid that shocked me, and I thought I was pretty much un-shockable. Based on present rates of incarceration, a black male child born in the U.S. today would face a 28% lifetime chance of doing prison time. Prison, where you go for a long stretch after conviction, as opposed to jail, where you await trial or do short time for minor "offenses." This is from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Doug ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------ If I recall correctly, this situation is a corollary to the fact that 1/3 of all young African American men are in the custody of, subject to, or being tracked by some element of the criminal justice system (courts, jails, prisons, parole). Do I recall correctly? In solidarity, Michael From shostaka@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu Thu Aug 14 18:43:45 1997 Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 19:56:57 -0500 To: LABOR-RAP@csf.colorado.edu From: Art Shostak Subject: Provocative Status: RO Brothers and Sisters: How do you recommend I respond to this? Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 16:50:46 -0400 (EDT) From: LAMAassoc@aol.com To: shostaka@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu, irra@relay.doit.wisc.edu Subject: Re: SSSP Resolution Passage Art - Does item 5. "Non-discrimination in employment or occupation" really mean that the SPSS will oppose a union shop, that is, a place where applicants must be the member of a specific union before they will be eligible for employment? That really seems to be a radical, pro-management view. Regards, Marty Martin Asdorian Jr., Ph.D., SPHR LAMA Associates, Inc. Arthur B. Shostak, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Department of Psych/Soc/Anthro, Drexel University, Phila., PA, 19104; 215-895-2466; fax 610-668-2727. email: SHOSTAKA@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu http://httpsrv.ocs.drexel.edu/faculty/shostaka/ "This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to do with it." Ralph Waldo Emerson From aanz@sirius.com Thu Aug 14 21:45:33 1997 for ; Thu, 14 Aug 1997 20:45:29 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 20:47:44 -0700 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: aanz@sirius.com (anzalone/starbird) Subject: Re: Taft Hartley Status: RO >No the railway act covers interstate transporation commerce. Don't quote >me without checking but I as I recall it was that act that REagan used to >dose PATCO. ellen With regard to taft-Hartley, and someone please correct me if I am wrong, >but didn't reagan use it with PATCO? >Rhonda Levine From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Fri Aug 15 00:47:34 1997 Thu, 14 Aug 1997 23:43:09 -0700 (PDT) Thu, 14 Aug 1997 23:42:57 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 23:42:57 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: OUR Families aren't Part-time: CoC on UPS Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO From: cdavidson Subject: OUR Families aren't Part-time: CoC on UPS WE DON'T HAVE PART TIME FAMILIES A Statement by the Committees of Correspondence on the Teamster UPS Strike August 11, 1997 The strike by 185,000 UPS Teamsters is a landmark struggle - not only because it is the largest private labor contract in the country but because the issues involved are driving a truck through the wall of corporate ballyhoo about the 1990s "boom" economy. The strike comes amidst a frenzy of corporate profit taking over the past decade. At UPS, the largest private delivery company in the world, the company raked in more than one billion dollars in profits last year alone. Its riches accrued on the backs of a mostly part time workforce which is paid less than half the full time rate, most with no benefits. This fight goes far beyond UPS. It is a struggle that goes to the heart of corporate power and arrogance today. In the name of competition, the most spectacular profits in history have been accumulated for a few on the backs of workers who more and more cannot afford to feed their families. Corporate America is worried. It knows that this fight is raising the level of awareness for all Americans. As The New York Times observed the other day, if the Teamsters are successful in curbing the use of part timers, it "could not only encourage other unions to confront managements over part-timers, but also enable the labor movement to trumpet a little louder that it is alive and kicking." A UPS striker summed it up in a nutshell: "These companies all have the formula. They don't take you on full time. They don't pay benefits. Then their profits go through the roof." Another Teamster told a strike rally, "We don't have part time families. We don't have part time children to feed and clothe, and when it's time to pay the mortgage, banks won't accept part time payment. We need full time jobs and full time pay." It's no mystery how UPS made over a billion dollars in profit last year. The company pockets $11 an hour for every worker they don't have to hire full time. It pockets even more if part timers leave the company before they qualify for benefits. No wonder that part timers make up 60% of the UPS workforce and that the definition of part time work is anything less than 40 hours a week. More than 10,000 part timers are working 35 hours or more a week. In the past four years only 20% of all new hires at UPS have been full time workers. One important reason for the high turnover rate for part timers - who labor at the most dangerous, back-breaking jobs and are most likely disproportionately African American and Latino workers - is the notorious health and safety record at UPS. Since 1990, OSHA has documented more than 1,300 violations against UPS. Of the 180,000 part time workers hired by UPS in 1996, only 40,000 remain. The union is demanding a $3.67 an hour raise over four years for part time workers, and the conversion of 10,000 part time jobs into full time positions. Also at stake is the company's threat to pull out of a multi-employer pension fund which would jeopardize the pensions of hundreds of thousands of Teamsters left in the multi-employer plans. UPS is the largest contributor to the fund. The unity of the strikers on the picket lines - part time and full time workers - is the most recent example of a rising level of trade union militancy. It follows on the heels of other significant strikes - won and lost - of the past five years in the ranks of autoworkers, steelworkers, rubber workers, agricultural implement workers, newspaper workers, and farmworkers of the strawberry and mushroom fields. Workers in the U.S. are getting fed up working harder for less. Real wages have declined a dramatic 17.5% since 1972. Health benefits cover fewer and fewer workers. Some 41 million or 15.4% of all Americans lacked health care insurance throughout 1995. More and more companies are doing what UPS has been doing, evidenced by the 19.5% of the workforce counted as part time in 1994 - up from 14 percent in 1969. The number is actually far higher since the BLS counts as full-time people who hold two part-time jobs, or a full-time and a part-time job. Teamsters are preparing themselves for a lengthy protracted struggle. We should do everything possible to build support for this strike. If you are a member of a community organization, trade union, church, block club - urge adoption of a statement of support. Call the Teamster office in your city and ask how your organization can help on picket lines, phone calling, letter writing - whatever can be helpful to broaden the fight. Teamsters are urging everyone to do the following: .. Ship with another carrier. .. Call or write your local UPS office or call toll-free 1-800-PICK-UPS (1-800-742-5877) and tell the company that our economy needs good full time jobs. .. Share this information with your coworkers, friends, and family. .. Wear a blue ribbon to show your support for UPS workers' fight for good American jobs. .. Visit a Teamster picket line in your community. Ask to see the picket captain and walk the picket line to show your support. .. Send a message to UPS. .. Send a message to the White House. A Teamster spokesperson said the union is urging their members to take the "fight to the American people, to walk from the picket line to Main Street." The Committees of Correspondence urges everyone to respond to this call and pitch in to make this strike a win for all working people! From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Fri Aug 15 00:48:17 1997 Thu, 14 Aug 1997 23:44:22 -0700 (PDT) Thu, 14 Aug 1997 23:43:25 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 23:43:25 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Oakland Workers Rally at UPS Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Hundreds of union members from a cross-section of the local labor movement rallied outside the large UPS facility in Oakland, CA late Thursday afternoon. The rally was organized hastily by Teamsters Locals 70 and 78. The considerable turnout was organized largely by word of mouth, as there was little time for publicity. There were no flyers. Yet union members came. There were phone company workers, the building trades, teachers, hospital workers, transport workers, dockworkers, and many more. The rally was joined by a members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club. Despite a court injunction limiting picketing to 8 pickets at the gate, scab-managers who returned their trucks to the facility received a "lively" reception from a large crowd assembled near the gate. The Oakland Police had a token presence and remained at some distance. Local 70 set up a portable BBQ pit and served burgers; two staff members of SEIU Local 250 showed up with two huge pots of chile. Now that the strikers are settling in for the long haul, the Teamsters will have to confront the myriad of problems that any strike must address -- urgent bills, loan and mortage payments, rent payments, groceries, medical care. Strike benefits of $55 per week will not cover much more than some groceries for most families. One of the most urgent concerns is what to do when the medical coverage lapses at the end of the month. This is one problem that other unions can help solve. Unions representing workers in the healthcare industry should consider how their members and sympathetic doctors with whom they work might provide basic health services to strikers for the duration of the strike. Perhaps free screening clinics could be set up a couple times each week at Teamster halls, staffed by volunteer nurses who could then refer those who need special attention to an appropriate volunteer doctor, physical therapist or other medical worker. If you have a idea or experience to share, make it available to others. Lots of great solidarity work goes on; let's report it here so everyone else will know about it. In solidarity, Michael "UPS is definitely DOWN!" From sscipe1@icarus.cc.uic.edu Fri Aug 15 00:51:55 1997 Fri, 15 Aug 1997 01:52:30 -0500 (CDT) Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 01:52:30 -0500 (CDT) To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu From: sscipe1@icarus.cc.uic.edu (Kim Scipes) Subject: FWD: Laser weapons comment Status: RO Folks--While perhaps not general fare, I thought this important enough to pass it along. I think you'll find it quite, shall we say, "interesting." Cheers--Kim >---------- Forwarded message ---------- >Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 16:28:03 -0600 (MDT) >From: "Anderson, Robert" >To: Green general >Subject: Laser weapons in NM > >The Sep issue of Popular Science, in my mail box today, has an >article everyone should read. The feature story is on the >Internet but the next article is on the project underway at >Kirtland AFB and White Sands Missile Range to put the dream >killing machine of laser weapons into production, and SPACE. > >While every one has been patting themselves on the back with the >victory over the Soviet Union, the Pentagon, especially the Air >Force (in competition against other branches of the war dept) has >been developing the laser devices needed for total global >dominance - Star Wars. > >Much of it has gone on here in New Mexico. You will see the >technical details in the article, but briefly mentioned in the >article is the moral and illegality of space based weapons, by any >country. > >The US Space Command in a recent brochure, sent to me by my >friends in Colorado at the Peace in Space committee, quotes the >Space Command as their mission is to insure the continued >dominance of US commercial interests on the globe by dominance of >the high ground of space. This was the big lesson of the Persian >Gulf War, whoever controls the data lanes of satellites and >computers in the digital era can control the battlefield, or in >future scenarios those on the ground who might be opposed to the >US government or private sector employer policies. > >The article tells of actual tests of a laser at White Sands that >can destroy orbiting satellites. The AF has several similar >lasers at Kirtland AFB, too. They want to put these air born in >747s, a whole fleet of them. We will pay for this at hundreds of >billions of dollars. > >The article also mentions the way around the prohibitions on >permanent space based weapons like lasers is to have quick turn >around launch reusable vehicles which can go into quick orbit, hit >a target and return for refueling or just wait to jump up for the >next target. This is like saying we are not building new nuclear >weapons while we really are building them. The imperialists who >run this government know they are going against the public desires >for a peaceful world so they have to resort to these lies and >covert actions. > >A more troubling part of this whole project for us in NM is the >way they are planning to have the public pay for it under the >cover of a commercial space port in the Las Cruces area. The >Pentagon realized back in the 80s the public would not support the >cost of this enormous space program so they consciously farmed out >parts of the research under the term Dual-Use technologies in >contracts to the university researchers and others. > >Much of the research to put this all into place has taken place in >public universities like UNM groveling for government contracts in >the era of federal funds cut to education (54% since Reagan), thus >was born the new research universities we are told is our future. >Education is not the mission any longer, but research and contract >management. > >But the space port, and telescopes like the UNM Enchanted Skies >project planned for Grants area under a Air Force grant, is >necessary for this laser weapons system. These are being built >under the dual technology concept of helping the private sector >commercialize space and the universities train scientists and make >their university payrolls. We, the pubic, will pay for most of it >and the military will stand by to use the infrastructure and the >private sector corporations like Intel will use the public domain >of space to manufacture products in the clean environment and >special conditions of space to sell back to us consumers high tech >products at high prices. > >We, the public, lose either way we turn in this picture. If >workers oppose them the lasers can target us on the ground; if >China or Japan gets out of line we fry their satellites and >communications systems, as we did Iraq in the Persian Gulf War >field test. With blind communications and spy satellites no >country in the modern world can compete against us. Thus the rush >to implement the new post-industrial Manhattan Project before >anyone gets wind of it and to make the public excited to pay for >it. > >It is the true marriage of the military-industrial complex. It is >no accident movies like Contact come out at these times, I figure, >or, the Mars mission is so promoted. Ever notice how the media, >corporate owned media, covers every NASA shuttle launch and burp >of the astronauts? There is a spin in place to sell us the use of >space for government and private sector activity, not for our use >of space as a common ground for peace and prosperity. Pity the >poor Indians of outer space with this frontier calvary mentality >in charge. Space is not a frontier, by the way, but our >neighborhood and community. > >And in October NASA plans to launch the Cassini to Jupiter with a >plutonium power supply. This is to soften public resistance to >using nuclear materials in space, a necessary step to placing in >space large nuclear power supplies for orbiting laser battle >stations. It is not likely nuclear bombs will be placed on space >stations as they are obsolete now with these laser weapons. Thus, >you see why the Pentagon would like to trim back the nuclear >facilities, close labor intensive land bases, transfer the money >to laser programs. The Joint Chiefs of Staff generals have been >telling Congress to close the bases but patronage dependent >political leaders like Domenici and Bingaman oppose such moves - >such twists and turns driven by technology innovations are moving >too fast for our political structure. > >This could lead in some views to a military coup, if one has not >already taken place. But I figure they will figure a way to make >the changes in a win-win for the private sector and their public >servants. This is presently being done successfully with the space >port and Mars missions programs. Just as the computer has made >the filing clerk obsolete, lasers have made nuclear bombs >obsolete, only the priesthood grown up around the labs will not go >along with this plan. > >The space port in NM could be visualized as the next Oklahoma land >rush, land taken from the indigenous people for settlers, cattle >ranchers, farmers and railroads, but with us taxpayers, especially >in NM subsidizing it. Or you could imagine it as a continuation >of the give away of the broadcast spectrum by the FCC to the >television stations for pennies compared to the commercial profits >which will be made with high definition tv. > >This comes to a presence for us in New Mexico. Tuesday night, in >Grants, the Air Force telescope being built by the University of >New Mexico is holding a public hearing on the environmental impact >statement. Notice there is no political impact statements in any >of these projects? > >This Thur, in Las Cruces, the state and federal government are >holding a big love fest, public selling, balloon float, on plans >for the space port. Then next Thur, Aug 19, in Truth or >Consequences, and on the 20 in Las Cruces, the consortium to build >the space port are holding a big public presentation of the EIS >for the whole space port, not the financing. Interestingly enough >the fuel they use in the launch vehicles is pretty harmless, but >the plant which produces the fuel, located near by, is a real >clean air eater polluter. But if Intel can do it in Albuquerque >then a few more thousands of tons a month into the desert air >should not be a problem either. > >Greens should attend these meeting and point out the need for >public uses of space, not the military-industrial complex, and >that we will not stand for out state and federal government >subsidizing this when we have such pressing wage and human needs >like teachers salaries going unmet. > >>From the high desert, > >Robert L. Anderson >115 Columbia SE #32 505-255-5462 >Albuquerque, NM 87106 band@unm.edu > From sscipe1@icarus.cc.uic.edu Fri Aug 15 00:52:12 1997 Fri, 15 Aug 1997 01:52:45 -0500 (CDT) Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 01:52:45 -0500 (CDT) To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu From: sscipe1@icarus.cc.uic.edu (Kim Scipes) Subject: FWD: Guatemala CIA history Status: RO Folks--Another "interesting" document which you might not generally receive. Kim >= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = >Date: Tue, 12 Aug 97 12:13:11 CDT >From: Rich Winkel >Subject: CIA and Assassinations: The Guatemala 1954 Documents >Organization: PACH > >http://www.seas.gwu.edu/nsarchive > >National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 4 > >CIA and Assassinations: The Guatemala 1954 Documents > by Kate Doyle and Peter Kornbluh > >These documents, including an instructional guide on assassination >found among the training files of the CIA's covert "Operation >PBSUCCESS," were among several hundred records released by the >Agency on May 23, 1997 on its involvement in the infamous 1954 >coup in Guatemala. After years of answering Freedom of Information >Act requests with its standard "we can neither confirm nor deny >that such records exist," the CIA has finally declassified some >1400 pages of over 100,000 estimated to be in its secret archives >on the Guatemalan destabilization program. (The Agency's press >release stated that more records would be released before the end >of the year.) An excerpt from the assassination manual appears on >the Op-Ed page of The New York Times on Saturday, May 31, 1997. > >The small, albeit dramatic, release comes more than five years >after then CIA director Robert Gates declared that the CIA would >"open" its shadowy past to post-cold war public scrutiny, and only >days after a member of the CIA's own historical review panel was >quoted in the New York Times as calling the CIA's commitment to >openness "a brilliant public relations snow job." (See Tim Weiner, >"C.I.A.'s Openness Derided as a 'Snow Job'," The New York Times, >May 20, 1997, p. A16) > >Arbenz was elected President of Guatemala in 1950 to continue a >process of socio- economic reforms that the CIA disdainfully >refers to in its memoranda as "an intensely nationalistic program >of progress colored by the touchy, anti-foreign inferiority >complex of the 'Banana Republic.'" The first CIA effort to >overthrow the Guatemalan president--a CIA collaboration with >Nicaraguan dictator Anastacio Somoza to support a disgruntled >general named Carlos Castillo Armas and codenamed Operation >PBFORTUNE--was authorized by President Truman in 1952. As early as >February of that year, CIA Headquarters began generating memos >with subject titles such as "Guatemalan Communist Personel to be >disposed of during Military Operations," outlining categories of >persons to be neutralized "through Executive Action"--murder--or >through imprisonment and exile. The "A" list of those to be >assassinated contained 58 names--all of which the CIA has excised >from the declassified documents. > >PBSUCCESS, authorized by President Eisenhower in August 1953, >carried a $2.7 million budget for "pychological warfare and >political action" and "subversion," among the other components of >a small paramilitary war. But, according to the CIA's own internal >study of the agency's so-called "K program," up until the day >Arbenz resigned on June 27, 1954, "the option of assassination was >still being considered." While the power of the CIA's >psychological-war, codenamed "Operation Sherwood," against Arbenz >rendered that option unnecessary, the last stage of PBSUCCESS >called for "roll-up of Communists and collaborators." Although >Arbenz and his top aides were able to flee the country, after the >CIA installed Castillo Armas in power, hundreds of Guatemalans >were rounded up and killed. Between 1954 and 1990, human rights >groups estimate, the repressive operatives of sucessive military >regimes murdered more than 100,000 civilians. > >- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >Documents available online at http://www.seas.gwu.edu/nsarchive >- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > >Document 1, "CIA and Guatemala Assassination Proposals, 1952- >1954", CIA History Staff Analysis by Gerald K. Haines, June 1995. > > CIA records on assassination planning in Guatemala were > first gathered pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act > lawsuit filed in 1979. All of them were withheld on national > security grounds at that time. In 1995, the CIA's historical > staff "rediscovered" these records during a search of > Guatemala materials to be declassified as part of the > agency's "Openness" program. A staff historian, Gerald > Haines, was assigned to write this brief history of these > operations. He concluded that as early as January 19 52, CIA > headquarters began compiling lists of individuals in > Arbenz's government "to eliminate immediately in event of > [a] successful anti-Communist coup." Planning for > assassination included budgeting, training programs, > creation of hit teams, drafting of target lists of persons, > and transfer of armaments. Haines writes that "until the day > that Arbenz resigned in June 1954 the option of > assassination was still being considered." The CIA, > according to this history, did not implement its > assassinatio n strategy. But the declassifiers of this > study, and other related documents, have deleted the names > of the targeted individuals, making it impossible to verify > that none of them were killed during or in the aftermath of > the coup. > >Document 2, "A Study of Assassination", Unsigned, Undated. > > Transcription > > Among the documents found in the training files of Operation > PBSUCCESS and declassified by the Agency is a "Study of > Assassination." A how-to guide book in the art of political > killing, the 19-page manual offers detailed descriptions of > the procedures, instruments, and implementation of > assassination. "The simplest local tools are often much the > most efficient means of assassination," counsels the study. > "A hammer, axe, wrench, screw driver, fire poker, kitchen > knife, lamp stand, or anything hard, heavy and handy will > suffice." For an assassin using "edge weapons," the manual > notes in cold clinical terms, "puncture wounds of the body > cavity may not be reliable unless the heart is > reached....Absolute reliability is obtained by severing the > spinal cord in the cervical region." The manual also notes > that to provide plausible denial, "no assassination > instructions should ever be written or recorded." Murder, > the drafters state, "is not morally justifiable," and > "persons who are morally squeamish should not attempt it." > >Document 3, "Selection of individuals for disposal by Junta >Group", March 31, 1954. > > One of the many assassination lists compiled by the CIA > during planning for Operation Success. As the memorandum > indicates, the chief of one of the CIA's divisions involved > in the coup (the division title has been deleted) requested > a list of names of Arbenz government leaders, members of the > Communist Party, and individuals "of tactical importance > whose removal for psychological, organizational or others > reasons is mandatory for the success of military action." > The memo asks that CIA personnel read through the list and > initial the names of those who should be included on a > "final list of disposees." The list (and the initials or > names of all CIA officers appearing in the document) has > been withheld. A handwritten note attached on the bottom of > the memo reads: > > Elimination List > April [illeg.] - [Illeg.] is taking a copy of list > of names for checking with the [illeg.] > April 7 - Original Memo with attached Biographic data > has been passed to [deleted] > Returned by [deleted] on 1 June 1954 > >Document 4, "Guatemalan Communist Personnel to be disposed of >during Military Operations of Calligeris", Origin deleted, >Undated. > > Another version of the assassination lists compiled by the > CIA and Carlos Castillo Armas (code-named "Calligeris") in > the course of preparing for the 1954 coup. The names of the > agency's intended victims were divided into two categories: > persons to be disposed of through "Executive action" (i.e., > killed) and those to be imprisoned or exiled during the > operation. Before releasing this document to the public, the > CIA deleted every name, leaving only the rows of numbers to > indicate how many people were targeted. > >Document 5, "Operation PBSUCCESS: The United States and Guatemala, >1952- 1954", CIA History Staff document by Nicholas Cullather, >1994. Excerpt. > > A narrative history of the CIA's role in planning, > organizing and executing the coup that toppled Jacobo Arbenz > Guzman on June 27, 1954. Cullather, now a diplomatic > historian at the University of Indiana, worked on contract > for one year with the CIA, where he was given access to > thousands of agency records and secret operational files in > order to produce this overview. The result is a surprisingly > critical study of the agency's first covert operation in > Latin America. Beginning with a review of the political, > economic and social forces that led to Arbenz's presidency > in 1951, the document is an intimate account of how cold war > concerns convinced President Eisenhower to order the removal > of the democratically-elected leader by force. It also > provides countless new details of a covert mission plagued > by disastrous military planning and failed security > measures: according to Cullather, "Operation Success" barely > succeeded. The CIA scrambled to convince the White House > that it was an unqualified and all but bloodless victory, > however. After Arbenz resigned, Eisenhower called the > Director of Central Intelligence, Allan W. Dulles, and his > senior covert planners into a formal briefing of the > operation. Cullather's account now reveals that the agency > lied to the president, telling him that only one of the > rebels it had backed was killed. "Incredible," said the > president. And it was. At least four dozen were dead, > according to the CIA's own records. Thus did the Guatemala > coup enter agency lore as an "unblemished triumph," > Cullather explains, and become the model for future CIA > activities in Latin America. > > In Guatemala, of course, "Operation Success" had a deadly > aftermath. After a small insurgency developed in the wake of > the coup, Guatemala's military leaders developed and > refined, with U.S. assistance, a massive counterinsurgency > campaign that left tens of thousands massacred, maimed or > missing. > >------------------------------------------------------------------ > >The National Security Archive >The Gelman Library, George Washington University >2130 H Street, NW, Suite 701, Washington, DC 20037 >Phone: 202-994-7000 / Fax: 202-994-7005 >Internet: nsarchiv@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu > > From sscipe1@icarus.cc.uic.edu Fri Aug 15 00:52:36 1997 for ; Fri, 15 Aug 1997 01:53:21 -0500 (CDT) Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 01:53:21 -0500 (CDT) To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu From: sscipe1@icarus.cc.uic.edu (Kim Scipes) Subject: Rally for UPS workers in Chicago Status: RO For Labor Rappers that live in and around Chicago-- Jobs with Justice is calling for a rally to support the UPS workers. It will take place this Sunday, October 17, at Teamsters Local 715 auditorium in Teamster City (Jackson and Ashland), from 2-4 pm. (The auditorium is actually just off Van Buren, about a block or two west of Ashland--I can't remember the specific street--but this is the building with IBT #715 Truckers Union sign painted on the side and is visible from the Eisenhower Fwy.) Please bring friends--and money for donations. This is a critically important strike, and we need to show the workers that we are behind their determined efforts to force UPS to treat workers with respect. Thanks for your support--Kim Scipes From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Fri Aug 15 00:53:42 1997 Thu, 14 Aug 1997 23:48:26 -0700 (PDT) Thu, 14 Aug 1997 23:43:11 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 23:43:11 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: ISO: UPS Pickets Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO From: "Andrew J. English" I was on a national conference call yesterday of Jobs With Justice coalitions with 2 staffers from the Teamsters international union, one of whom was Rand Wilson (communications coordinator for the IBT, former organizer of Boston JWJ, and Labor Party member). They told us that Ron Carey has called for a "National Day of Action for Good Jobs" with labor-community rallies in as many cities as possible for August 21, next week Thursday. People should check with the JWJ coalitions in their areas about details of their local actions. If there is no JWJ, check with the UPS locals and/or central labor councils. -Andy English Phoenix AZ From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Fri Aug 15 01:24:46 1997 for ; Fri, 15 Aug 1997 00:24:26 -0700 (PDT) Fri, 15 Aug 1997 00:24:02 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 00:24:02 -0700 (PDT) To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu, Labor Research and Action Project From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Re: UPS & Teamster Bargaining Proposals Compared Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO My apologies. It was not until I transmitted the email that I realized how large the attached graphic file was. It won't happen again. At 07:51 AM 8/14/97 -0400, Nancy K. Rhodes wrote: >This is an ENORMOUS post - I for one would have preferred that you >informed us it was available & that you would either send it upon request >or that we could get it from the website. I appreciate knowing about it >but I would've liked to have a choice first about whether I deleted a lot >of other things before I could get into my mail this morning. > Nancy Rhodes, Syracuse > > From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Fri Aug 15 01:56:10 1997 Fri, 15 Aug 1997 00:24:30 -0700 (PDT) Fri, 15 Aug 1997 00:23:56 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 00:23:56 -0700 (PDT) To: united@cougar.com, labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: [PEN-L:11780] Re: Black Male Employment Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Doug Henwood wrote: > > Speaking of the incarceration of black males in the U.S., I recently came > across a factoid that shocked me, and I thought I was pretty much > un-shockable. Based on present rates of incarceration, Mills, Edwin S. and Luan Sende Lubuele. 1997. "Inner Cities." Journal of Economic Literature, 35: 2 (June): pp. 727-56. 746: For all males, those under the supervision of the criminal justice system are 6.6% of the male labor force. For males 18-34 years old, the figure is 11 percent. For all black males 18-34 years old, the figure is 59.4 percent. Freeman, Richard. 1994. "Crime and the Job Market." National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 4910. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 916-898-5321 E-Mail michael@ecst.csuchico.edu From aikya@ix.netcom.com Fri Aug 15 10:16:33 1997 by dfw-ix8.ix.netcom.com (8.8.4/8.8.4) id sma007771; Fri Aug 15 11:15:35 1997 From: "Ms. Aikya Param" To: "'labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu'" , "'united@cougar.com'" Subject: RE: [PEN-L:11780] Re: Black Male Employment Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 08:56:24 -0700 Status: RO I'm confused by the statistic. Guess I'll try to get a clarification. Prison labor is messing up my understanding maybe. Is it saying that 59.4% of the males between 18 and 65, i.e. working age black males, are in prison, or it is saying that 59.4% of working black males, including those working in prison labor as employed, are in prison? Aikya Param Publisher Women and Money http://www2.netcom.com/~aikya/womenandmoney.html ---------- Sent: Thursday, August 14, 1997 5:24 PM To: united@cougar.com; labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: [PEN-L:11780] Re: Black Male Employment Doug Henwood wrote: > > Speaking of the incarceration of black males in the U.S., I recently came > across a factoid that shocked me, and I thought I was pretty much > un-shockable. Based on present rates of incarceration, Mills, Edwin S. and Luan Sende Lubuele. 1997. "Inner Cities." Journal of Economic Literature, 35: 2 (June): pp. 727-56. 746: For all males, those under the supervision of the criminal justice system are 6.6% of the male labor force. For males 18-34 years old, the figure is 11 percent. For all black males 18-34 years old, the figure is 59.4 percent. Freeman, Richard. 1994. "Crime and the Job Market." National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 4910._ -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 916-898-5321 E-Mail michael@ecst.csuchico.edu From aanz@sirius.com Fri Aug 15 14:58:00 1997 for ; Fri, 15 Aug 1997 13:57:56 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 14:00:10 -0700 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: aanz@sirius.com (anzalone/starbird) Subject: Re: Provocative Status: RO > I can't speak for SSSP but if the question were put to me I would say "Yes." However, the law has proceeded us in the debate of closed shops. They don't exist. As contract provisions they can't legally exist. Therefore whether or not SSSP would or would not oppose a closed shop is a non-issue to the labor movement. Closed shop provisions are legally unenforcable, if the boss could get you to sign a contract with a closed shop provision, the boss would have gotten you to sign a legally unenforcable contract. So we are unlikely, except in the abstract, to have to discuss the issue. (At least in this country.) Agency shop, where everybody who has been hired must join the union within thirty days, on the other hand, is a legal contract provision that will stand as a bar to an (NLRB) election. We should be for it. Non discrimination means non-discrimination, not pro-management. Racial discrimination is always the employer's tactic. Sad but true, there are unions that collaborate with the boss' discrimination from time to time. We're against it. (Or we should be). (Example: The fire fighters union in San Francisco. Dawgs. Even whited out faces of hero medal winners who were Afro-american in group photo of Firefighter heroes before publishing the photo in one of their newsletters. Had to be picketed by the Black Fire fighters Association frequently for their racist exclusionary practices; courts ruled against the SFF.F. every damn time. They still always took affirmative action to the final legal challenge. We're talkin' this century, hell, this decade. ... In San Francisco....Happens in the best of families I suppose.) Still: Friends of labor should take sides in such disputes with the inclusionists. Unions that collaborate with racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. wind up being the bosses gopher company union anyway. Just my opinion o' course. Ellen Starbird Brothers and Sisters: How do you recommend I respond to this? > >Date: Thu, 14 Aug 1997 16:50:46 -0400 (EDT) >From: LAMAassoc@aol.com >To: shostaka@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu, irra@relay.doit.wisc.edu >Subject: Re: SSSP Resolution Passage > >Art - > >Does item 5. "Non-discrimination in employment or occupation" really mean >that the SPSS will oppose a union shop, that is, a place where applicants >must be the member of a specific union before they will be eligible for >employment? That really seems to be a radical, pro-management view. > >Regards, Marty > >Martin Asdorian Jr., Ph.D., SPHR >LAMA Associates, Inc. > >Arthur B. Shostak, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Department of >Psych/Soc/Anthro, Drexel University, Phila., PA, 19104; 215-895-2466; fax >610-668-2727. >email: SHOSTAKA@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu >http://httpsrv.ocs.drexel.edu/faculty/shostaka/ >"This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to do >with it." Ralph Waldo Emerson From aanz@sirius.com Fri Aug 15 14:58:03 1997 for ; Fri, 15 Aug 1997 13:58:00 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 14:00:15 -0700 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: aanz@sirius.com (anzalone/starbird) Subject: Re: [PEN-L:11750] Re: Black Male Employment Status: RO I'm afraid your memory serves you well. More on that depressing note: The S.F. Chronicle has indicated that there are more Blacks in U.S. jails per capita than were incarcerated in the Apartheid regime of South Africa. For those in the labor movement, it is worth noting that before we set up gulag California the state authorized private contractors to use prison labor; making the notion of where the future of U.S. manufacturing would proceed to avoid labor trouble pretty clear to me. ellen starbird >In a recent discussion about Black employment, Doug Henwood contributed the >following response to PEN-L. I thought folks on other lists might also find >his comments worth consideration. >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >---------------- >Speaking of the incarceration of black males in the U.S., I recently came >across a factoid that shocked me, and I thought I was pretty much >un-shockable. Based on present rates of incarceration, a black male child >born in the U.S. today would face a 28% lifetime chance of doing prison >time. Prison, where you go for a long stretch after conviction, as opposed >to jail, where you await trial or do short time for minor "offenses." This >is from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. > >Doug >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >------------------ > >If I recall correctly, this situation is a corollary to the fact that 1/3 of >all young African American men are in the custody of, subject to, or being >tracked by some element of the criminal justice system (courts, jails, >prisons, parole). Do I recall correctly? > > >In solidarity, >Michael From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sat Aug 16 01:42:01 1997 Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:10:39 -0700 (PDT) Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:10:08 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:10:08 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: (Fwd) MINI-DICTIONARY OF PRIVATIZATION VOCABULARY Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO From: Tom Potter Subject: (Fwd) MINI-DICTIONARY OF PRIVATIZATION VOCABULARY Brothers and Sisters, This is for your interest. In Solidarity, Tom Potter, AFSCME 3650 Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW); Greater Boston Chapter, Massachusetts Labor Party; and Labor Militant >Forwarded by FinanceNet: > >From: bumgardnerd.ggd@gao.gov >Date: Wed, 13 Aug 97 15:18:48 EST >Subject: MINI-DICTIONARY OF PRIVATIZATION VOCABULARY > > FYI -- Don > > > GAO PUBLISHES MINI-DICTIONARY OF > PRIVATIZATION VOCABULARY > > Government managers and policymakers at all levels are talking > about "privatizing" government operations and services. Some of > these initiatives have included outright elimination or sale of a > federal function, the devolution of responsibilities to another > government, or the restructuring of a particular function's > operations to improve its efficiency and/or service quality. Any > of these initiatives may bring the private sector into the > ownership and/or management of public assets, or into the direct > provision of public services. > > Reflecting the growth of this trend, Rep. Scott Klug asked GAO to > develop a glossary of terms related to privatization to promote a > better understanding of the concepts and approaches used. GAO > drew on several published governmental glossaries and related > documents to develop working definitions reflecting current > federal usage. The glossary, Terms Related to Privatization > Activities and Processes (GAO/GGD-97-121, July 1997) has been > published as a handy pocket-sized pamphlet. Major contributors > include John Needham and Don Bumgardner. > > Copies of this glossary can be ordered by mail from the: > > U.S. General Accounting Office > P.O. Box 6015 > Gaithersburg, MD 20884-6015 > > or by visiting: > > Room 1100 > 700 4th St., N.W. (corner of 4th and G Sts., N.W.) > U.S. General Accounting Office > Washington, D.C. > > Orders may also be placed by calling (202) 512-6000 or by fax > using number (303) 258-4066, or TDD (301) 413-0006. On the > Internet, visit GAO's World Wide Web Page at: http://www.gao.gov > and click on "Special Publications and Software" to access this > glossary (PDF and HTML versions only). > > From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sat Aug 16 01:43:58 1997 Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:07:58 -0700 (PDT) Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:07:01 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:07:01 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Homeless Used As Strikebreakers? Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO On 14 Aug 1997 23:31:49 GMT c.e., in misc.activism.progressive Chris Caruso ccaruso@philly.infi.net wrote : >August 13, 1997 >Contact: Cheri Honkala >215.763.4584 > >FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: > > HOMELESS RESIDENTS OF CITY SHELTER USED > TO CROSS TEAMSTERS PICKET LINE: > > Kensington Welfare Rights Union Stands United With Teamsters > to Stop Use of City Shelters to Throw Other Workers into Homelessness > >Press Conference: >3 PM Wednesday, August 13 >Ridge Shelter >1320 Ridge Avenue > >Homeless residents at Ridge Shelter have come forward stating that a >brown UPS van regularly visits Ridge Shelter to pick up homeless >residents, sneaks them into UPS, and pays them $5 an hour to cross the >picket line and work at UPS. > >The Teamsters and the KWRU demand an investigation by the Mayor as to >why city-subsidized shelters and being used to recruit homeless >individuals to break a strike and eventually throw striking workers into >the ranks of the homeless. > >The UPS workers on strike are fighting part-time work, slashed benefits >and the possibility of becoming homeless themselves. The KWRU stands in >unity with organized labor and the striking Teamsters and calls for an >end to using welfare recipients and homeless people to replace union >labor. We stand together for the right of all people to have full-time >jobs at a living wage with benefits and union protection. > >Speaking at the Press Conference: > >Cheri Honkala Director, Kensington Welfare Rights Union > >Jim Merritt Sec/Tres Teamsters local 623 > (UPS Workers Greater Philadelphia) > >Henry Nicholas President, National Union of Hospital and > Health Care Employees > >Jim Moran Chair, Labor Day Committee; > Chair, Labor Party of Greater Philadelphia > >-- >Kensington Welfare Rights Union >a statewide organization of the poor >NUHHCE, AFSCME, AFL-CIO >PO Box 50678 >Philadelphia, PA 19132 >http://www.libertynet.org/~kwru >kwru@libertynet.org >215.763-4584 >215.763-7575 FAX > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Free thought, neccessarily involving freedom of speech and press, I may tersely define thus:no opinion a law-no opinion a crime. Alexander Berkman From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sat Aug 16 01:44:21 1997 Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:13:14 -0700 (PDT) Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:07:21 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:07:21 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: URGENT! Mexico: Union Leaders Fired Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO From: Campaign for Labor Rights /* Written 8:40 AM Aug 15, 1997 by clr in igc:labr.announcem */ /* ---------- "URGENT! Mexico: Union Leaders Fired" ---------- */ Labor Alerts/Labor News a service of Campaign for Labor Rights 1247 "E" Street SE, Washington, DC 20003 clr@igc.apc.org (541) 344-5410 http://www.compugraph.com/clr ************************************ See ACTION COMPONENT at end of alert. ************************************ [This alert is based on information provided by the Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers, based in San Diego. For more information, contact SCMW at (619) 542-0826. This alert drew heavily from an article written by Mary Tong of SCMW and appearing in the July/August 1997 issue of Working Together newsletter. For information on subscribing to Working Together, call the Resource Center of the Americas at (612) 627-9445.] UNION LEADERS FIRED IN DECISIVE STRUGGLE faxes urgently needed!!! Thursday, August 14. Tijuana, Mexico -- Management of the Han Young factory (which produces chassis and platforms for Hyundai tractor trailers) have fired 3 leaders of a union seeking official recog- nition. Workers continue their organizing activities and protests. They call for international solidarity. This struggle is being watched by both labor and management throughout the Mexican maquila- dora [export factory] sector. A victory for workers would set an important precedent. BACKGROUND: Some 120 workers at the Han Young factory began a work stoppage on June 2. The immediate issue was Han Young's failure to pay profit-sharing, as required by the Mexican constitution. Companies are supposed to distribute 10 percent of annual profits to workers each May. In the maquila industry, however, profit-sharing is not paid because companies report their maquiladora operations to the Mexican government as cost centers without profits. Instead, companies generally pay a bonus in May that they call "profit- sharing." Each day, Han Young workers produce 26 chassis selling for $1800 each. This year's bonus ranged from $6.87 to $31.85 er worker, depending on seniority. Workers consider this pittance a slap in the face. Also, workers have health and safety concerns: no protective equipment for welders, no functioning ventilation system and no worker-management health and safety commission as required under Mexican labor law. Workers want a 30 percent wage increase, (currently, they receive $33 to $46 for a 48-hour week.), a wage schedule based on seniority, food service in the plant and the hiring of a plant doctor. Perhaps more important of all: The workers want a union of their own choosing. This last point is a direct challenge to the "protection contract" system prevalent in Tijuana's 1,000 maquilas. Han Young, like 80 percent of the maquilas in the Tijuana area, pays a gov- ernment-connected "union" known as CROM. Workers have no say in any of the policies of this phony union and cannot elect its leadership. Workers know of the union's existence only because the "union representative" comes to the factory every two weeks to pick up his check from the manager. The Han Young factory produces exclusively for Hyundai. Under Mexican law, in such a situation, Hyundai is responsible for the labor practices of its contractor (if indeed Han Young truly is a contractor and not a complete subsidiary of Hyundai). When concerns about labor practices at Han Young have surfaced, Hyundai has sought to distance itself from its contractor. The Tijuana operations of Hyundai are an offshoot of Hyundai Precision America, headquartered in San Diego, just over the border. The Han Young workers have not been without support. Locally, the politically savvy and well-organized community of Maclovio Rojas has stood with the workers, many of whom come from the community, when there have been disputes at the factory. Solidarity for the workers has not been without a price. Last year, immediately following a show of community support for workers involved in a dispute with management, the leaders of the settlement were thrown in jail on bogus charges. It took a march across the desert in deadly heat (one participant died during the protest) to convince the government to release the leaders. International solidarity also has been crucial, both for the workers and the community. The San Diego-based Support Committee for Maquiladora workers has helped to prevent the crushing of these labor and community struggles by exploitative Hyundai management and corrupt Mexican government officials. At crucial points, the SCMW has organized delegations with U.S. labor leaders and with members of the U.S. Congress. Another player is a loose coalition of community and labor groups in Eugene, Oregon -- where citizens have been struggling against envi- ronmental destruction and tax giveaways in excess of $100 million in a deal struck (without public input) between city power brokers and the Hyundai electronics division, which is building a computer chip factory at an eventual cost of more than $1 billion. Hyundai in Eugene has big money at stake in trying to polish its image. Toward that end, the Eugene branch has hired a high-powered PR firm. Eugene activists hope to pursuade local Hyundai officials that they might gain some points by pressuring the parent company to do right by its Tijuana workers. So far, Hyundai officials in Eugene decline to acknowledge that they might play a useful role in the Tijuana situa- tion. THE JUNE 2 WORK STOPPAGE: The June 2 work stoppage caught both management and CROM unprepared. The company immediately called in the police. When police officials arrived, they found 9 international observers ready with to record any management/police misconduct on video camera. The Han Young workers had taken the precaution of coordinating their work stoppage with the SCMW, which arranged for the international presence. The observers asked police for their badge numbers. Police decided to leave. Han Young management then called the CROM representative, who tried to co-opt the situation by telling workers that he was taking charge of negotiations with management. The strikers replied that he did not represent them and should leave. Meanwhile, letters and faxes in support of the workers poured into Han Young and Hyundai offices. This effort, too, was arranged ahead of time by the SCMW in coordination with the workers. The next day, Han Young's general manager and lawyer sat down with nine representatives of the workers, their attorney and representa- tives of the SCMW. The company agreed to recognize the elected representatives and not to interfere with the formation of their own union. They also agreed not to retaliate in any way against workers for the stoppage and made agreements regarding each of the other demands. The company's attorney even stated that the strike was the company's fault, for refusing to communicate with workers and stated that the general manager did not keep promises. The company attorney advo- cated that workers be paid for the strike days and not lose their attendance bonus for the week! The strikers returned to work the following day. BETRAYAL: Although the company initially made motions of complying with some of the agreements on safety and the bonus, this apparently was to pro- vide cover while management prepared a counterattack. The company hired a full-time "psychological warfare" expert -- a term used by Mexican labor activists and translating as "a union-busting consul- tant." Retaliation followed in quick order. On August 6, Emetario Armenta, one of the leading organizers, was fired by the company as a "trouble maker." Armenta was offered a substantial bribe to discontinue his union activities and not to file charges against the company. Armenta refused the offer. Two other members of the elected executive committee of the union (for a total of 3 out of 13) also were fired. They, too, were offered "severance packages" similar to Armenta's. Should they not accept the offer, they will be fired without compensation. The workers were told that the reason for their termination was their involvement in union organizing activities. A company representative also offered $15,000 to a paralegal in the lawfirm working to gain official recognition for the union -- on condition that the firm stop the proceedings. THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES: The two union leaders fired on the 13th were scheduled to file charges today with Conciliation and Arbitration because it is illegal to fire a worker for union organizing activity. Armenta already filed with Conciliation and Arbitration last week. The additional two firings occurred late on August 13. Many workers on that shift were unaware of the action. Union leaders organized a one-day work stoppage in protest, scheduled for the 14th. (Tech- nically, workers in Mexico can't strike without government permis- sion. However, workers are allowed 3 absences per month. Workers can organize a stoppage under the framework of the allowed absences.) This morning (August 14), a union representative stood on the public sidewalk in front of the factory informing fellow workers of the stoppage as they showed up at Han Young. A Han Young management person, Young Lee, attacked the worker, grabbing him by the shirt and pushing him around. Mexican law forbids management from touching or otherwise attacking a worker. Criminal charges were fired later today. Lawyers for the union also will ask, on the basis that this is a criminal action, that the manager not be allowed to leave the country for Korea in order to avoid prosecution. The Support Committee for Maquiladora workers, which demonstrated in support of the Han Young workers last week, organized another demonstration today outside the San Diego headquarters of Hyundai Precision America. The SCMW is calling for an international show of support for the rights of the workers. THE STAKES: This is viewed as a key struggle in Mexico. If the union succeeds, it will be the very first independent true union in the entire Mexican maquiladora sector. Such a precedent could have enormous implications throughout the border region, where workers receive meager wages producing goods strictly for export, mostly to the United States. ["Unions" set up by companies technically are classified as "independent" by Mexico. Workers do not consider these to be true unions.] A victory at Han Young could inspire organizing and resistance throughout much of the Mexican maquiladora sector. Workers under- stand this. So does the Mexican power structure. In fact, it was the Reconciliation and Arbitration bureau which referred the "psycho- logical warfare" expert to Han Young. Assisting the Han Young union in its bid for official recongition is the Authentic Workers Front (FAT), the primary challenger to Mexico's ruling party-controlled union, the CROM. Specifically, the STIMAHCS section of the FAT is working with the Han Young union. A FAT/ STIMAHCS victory at Han Young would be a major blow to the authority of the CROM. ************************************** REQUESTED ACTIONS: Please fax letters to: Ted Chung, President, Hyundai Precision America, 1-619-293-7264. Won Young Kang, General Manager, Han Young de Mexico, 011-526-680-4481. Antonio Ortiz, Presidente, Junta de Conciliation y Arbitraje [Labor Board], 011-526-686-3300. If no answer, call 011-526-686-3214 and say that you want to send a fax. Letters may be in English. Talking points: * Respect the Han Young workers' right to engage in lawful union organizing activities. * Respect the workers' right to have the union of their choosing officially recognized. * Hyundai is accountable for the actions of its contractor, Han Young. * Injustice against the Han Young workers damages the reputation of all Hyundai operations. * Failure to respect the rights of Han Young workers will bring discredit to NAFTA when future trade agreements come up for negotiation. Contact the Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers for more information: (619) 542-0826. ************************************** CAMPAIGN FOR LABOR RIGHTS newsletter subscriptions: Send $35.00 to 1247 "E" Street SE, Washington, DC 20003. For a sample copy, send your postal address to clr@igc.apc.org. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To receive our email Labor Alerts, send a message to clr@igc.apc.org with "labor alerts -- all campaigns" in the subject line or specify which labor issues interest you: Nike, Disney, Guess, child labor, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, US farm workers, US poultry processing workers. If you would like to receive information which falls outside those categories (prison labor, workfare, other policy issues, additional briefing material on some campaigns), indi- cate that you want to be on our Additional Labor Information list AS WELL AS our All Campaigns list. To stop receiving this service, check to see whether you have received our alerts directly from us or as a reposting via some other list. Send an email message to the address listed in the "return path" saying that you want to unsubscribe. From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sat Aug 16 01:49:12 1997 Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:10:40 -0700 (PDT) Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:07:49 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:07:49 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: UPS Strike Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO I personally want to thank you for helping the Teamsters keep the public informed about the issues. I have personally told "many a citizen" about the issues other than the raises. I am a part-time worker at a center in Southeastern Michigan. As of Friday the 22 of August, our center was shut down until the end of the strike. They moved every package car, center computer, and I wouldn't be surprised if they took the toliet with them too, to a local hub that is almost 50 miles away. They are now delivering the packages from here. However, what I find amusing, are the safety rules which we must follow to keep our jobs are being broken right and left by the managers. Safety issues such as bulk head doors being open, pre-tripping the vehical before leaving with it, using turning signals, parking and even the use of seat belts are all being tossed along the way side, just to mention a few! Thanks for your support and its really good to know that their are people out there that are taking a stand for us!! Take Care and God Bless! Scott A. Holtz P.S. I'm taking a copy of this to the picket lines that I attend! Hopefully more people will write to you and tell you other stories from the picket lines! :) ================== RFC 822 Headers ================== Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 13:24:34 -0400 To: sholtz@adrian.adrian.edu Subject: Returned mail From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sat Aug 16 01:49:17 1997 Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:11:12 -0700 (PDT) Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:10:28 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:10:28 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: ARTISTS APPEAL FOR UPS STRIKERS Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO --------------------- Forwarded message: From: lamp@igc.apc.org (Mike Alewit) To: lamp@igc.apc.org Date: 97-08-14 17:01:23 EDT Please post & distribute: AN APPEAL TO ARTISTS: NOW IS THE TIME; THE PICKET LINE IS THE PLACE USE YOUR BRUSHES, COMPUTERS, MUSIC, POETRY AND IDEAS AS WEAPONS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE. The Labor Art & Mural Project (LAMP) is calling for artists to extend a hand in solidarity to the striking UPS workers. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters needs our support and collaboration to fight the corrupt and powerful United Parcel Service and their supporters in Washington. The issues facing UPS workers are the same ones facing artists: underemployment and lack of respect. The stakes in this battle are high. The strike could determine the strength and direction of the labor movement for years to come. As an organization committed to working class struggles, we are supporting this strike through our art. The murals and banners we paint carry on a long tradition of collaboration between art and labor. Art is an essential element in any social struggle. We call on all artists, poets, actors, videographers, cartoonists, photographers and other cultural workers: Let us share our experiences about the picket lines and the work we are doing in support of the UPS strike and other labor struggles. The time to act is now! Announce to the corporate thugs that you will no longer perfume their sewers. Show UPS that you will not stand for their economic agenda of corporate greed. Return art to where it really belongs :the people. _____________________________________________________ Send replies and reports to this address for posting. LaBOR aRT & MuRAL PRoJECT Labor Education Center Rutgers University New Brunswick, NJ 08903 Phone: 732.220.1472 Fax: 732.296.1325 Email: lamp@igc.apc.org Website: http://www.igc.apc.org/laborart To subscribe to AGITPROP NEWS, reply to this address ORGANIZE -- EDUCATE -- AGITATE -- INSPIRE Mike Alewitz, Artistic Director From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sat Aug 16 01:49:19 1997 Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:10:39 -0700 (PDT) Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:09:22 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:09:22 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: UPS Customer Service - Take Action Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO From: Hugh Esco Subject: Re: UPS Customer Service - Take Action The CoC urged us to: >. Call or write your local UPS office or call toll-free 1-800-PICK-UPS >(1-800-742-5877) during and tell the company that: -- our economy needs good full time jobs. That toll free number gave me another toll free number for package tracking at 1-800-457-4022. They told me that the tracking number should be 18 characters long. So use the format below and add 6 more digits at the end. Or not. They'll try to look up something for you anyway. They are very helpful there. >UPS tracking number: > 1Z 072 1X3 0007 Its a non-union customer services shop in Austin Texas. The woman I spoke with used to be a member of a union many years ago which represented (or not) retail clerks and meat-cutters. She had a very bad experience with the union and didn't want to talk about it. Hugh Esco; 770/ 368-2805; hesco@greens.org Post Office Box 5332; Atlanta Georgia 30307 Visit http:/www.envirolink.net/greens/georgia/ "There can be only one answer concerning when to start Green politics at every electoral level in the United States, RIGHT NOW." -- Petra Kelly in "Thinking Green" ++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++ Standing for a future of economic justice. Reclaim the eight hour day. Create full meaningful employment. Share the abundance of the Earth. ================================================== From: Tom Condit Subject: Re: UPS Customer Service To: Recipients of conference X-Gateway: conf2mail@igc.apc.org Lines: 27 Don't forget when calling the phone # (1-800-PICK-UPS) that you can listen to the tape of management's statement of the day. Then call back and get an operator. Say you didn't understand the tape. The operator will then read it to you (exactly the same script) and ask you if you want anything else. Remember to be polite at all times. This is just another wage-slave on the line, not a manager, and the company is paying for every minute she talks to you. From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sat Aug 16 02:30:08 1997 Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:59:22 -0700 (PDT) Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:58:23 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 00:58:23 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: UPS Strike Support Postings Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Dear Friends, Sisters & Brothers, Colleagues & Comrades: The UPS strike could well be an historic turning point in the course of the labor movement in the U.S. It has galvanized labor, mobilized support, and captured both the sympathy of the public and attention of the capitalist class. Its outcome, favorable or not, will have a profound impact on the course of labor for some time to come. As my small contribution to the this struggle, I have been posting a considerable volume of material to seven newsgroups in an effort to provide information, exchange ideas, distribute media reports, and share experiences. This began when a friend in the Teamsters HQ communications dept. asked me to forward their pre-strike announcements. I have received a large number of individual responses expressing support and appreciation for this effort. For some, these messages contain information unavailable to them elsewhere. For strikers, these messages provide not just information, but an important source of moral support and encouragement. As someone who receives a lot of email myself, I am fully aware how this extra flood of messages may be a burden for some, or an unwanted nuisance (spam) for others. It is not possible for me to know what will be most valuable to the diverse cross-section of people who receive these postings, and it is beyond my resources to tailor distribution of messages for every recipient based on their particular interests. I must assume that those who receive material they do not want will exercise their option of deleting it upon receipt, while those who want to know more will pick and choose the postings that most interest them. In anticipation of possible complaints, the following suggestions come to mind: 1. Most mail software programs have filtering capabilities that allow subscribers to divert all mail from a particular source to a separate folder or directly to "trash." Messages from me could be diverted to a separate folder so that you can attend to other mail first. Those who object to these messages could filter out all those showing my address as sender. 2. In most cases, the subject header will reveal that the message is a UPS Strike message and my address will appear as originator. Those who object to this material can merely delete it upon identifying its nature and origin without taking time to read the contents. 3. Moderated lists: Moderators could elect to filter out messages deemed least useful to the subscribers based on some understanding of the nature of the community of interest or objective of that list. List subscribers would have to trust their moderator to make appropriate choices. (This, of course, puts a burden on the moderator s/he may be unwilling or unable to accept.) 4. Where considerable objections come from a given newsgroup (or a moderator insists), I could drop that group from the distribution list entirely. Individuals who want to continue to receive material would then have to contact me directly. I would then put their individual addresses on the distribution list. This adds to my work, but that is a headache I will bear if it helps keep information flowing to those who want it. I am open to other suggestions. About the only one I will not entertain is one that results in terminating these postings. Not everyone may share my view about the importance of this strike, but in my moral universe its import is obvious and the paramount need for the Teamsters to prevail warrants putting up with some inconvenience, including the considerable time I spend securing and preparing material for distribution. Here are the lists to which I presently post materials: pen-l@anthrax.ecst.csuchico.edu labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu h-UCLEA@h-net.msu.edu united@cougar.com labr.party@conf.igc labr.teamster@conf.igc OIFAC@CMSA.BERKELEY.EDU can-labor@pencil.math.missouri.edu If you are not on any of these lists and have not asked me directly to be added to the distribution list I use, it is likely that you are receiving this material as a result of someone else forwarding it. I have no control over that (but am pleased to learn that these postings are being widely cross-posted). Thank you in advance for your understanding and constructive suggestions for how best to address these issues. I really do want to find a way this will work to everybody's advantage. In solidarity, Michael From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sat Aug 16 11:50:56 1997 Sat, 16 Aug 1997 10:07:46 -0700 (PDT) Sat, 16 Aug 1997 10:02:01 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 10:02:01 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: UPS -- health & safety Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Open Letter to UPS Members: (from Carolyn Robinson, Teamsters Local 315) I am sick and tired of hearing UPS spokespeople, women in particular, espousing their message of concern for "our people." "Our people" want to come back to work, we want "our people" to have the best benefits, and so on. This supercilious, sanctimonious prattle comes from a company I regard as the most callous, uncaring employer I have ever dealt with as a Union Business Agent. For the past nine years, I have spent a good part of every working day talking to injured UPS workers who can't get UPS to pay their Workers' Comp. Benefits, can't get their MRI tests, therapy appointments or surgeries approved after suffering permanent injury at work as a result of poorly designed, unsafe work place equipment, lifting packages up to 150 lbs., being refused proper help and being punished for having incurred injuries by receiving letters of "concern" implying further discipline is forthcoming for getting hurt. Remember, UPS has three times the national average for injuries to their workers. As the Union Chair of the National IBT-UPS Safety and Health Negotiating Committee, I was responsible for presenting Union proposals and safety matters to UPS and listening to their excuses as to why the workers would not be receiving help in any of the proposed areas. For example, we asked for information on deaths and serious injuries at UPS as they occur. Company refuses to supply this information, but look at just a few recent ones. In Phoenix in June, two part-time workers caught their legs in a running belt, one receiving 400 stitches, torn muscle and tendons, and the other suffering damage to instep and sole, and second and third degree burns to lower leg. After the accident, UPS installed a cut-off switch in the area. In Long Island, N.Y., during negotiations, young girl lost a finger in belt, no one at cut-off switch to stop the belt. In Oakland, CA, last year, young man lost his hand to belt accident. In two states, UPS drivers backing up have fatally injured children who dashed behind their package car due to the lack of a rear cross-view mirror. This mirror would have prevented these deaths and traumatic shock to our drivers at a cost of $55 -- Company still studying this issue! In Oakland, California, a young driver pulled rom truck and beaten to death for less than $40. UPS offers a measly $5,000 until Union shames them into a decent reward. The Company refused to do anything about high-crime areas and drivers collecting COD money. Company raised 70 lb. weight limit to 150 lbs. one week after last contract ratified! Now the Company refuses to negotiate over any proposed weight increase or to provide UPS drivers with freight equipment to properly handle 150 lbs. plus packages! The Company refuses to install harness seat belts, head rests or decent seats in package cars; instead, tells Union drivers they can wait for new truck, but it may be *10* years for many drivers. The Union proposed that all temporary UPS buildings be heated and no workers work in temperatures lower than *55 degrees.* Company answer -- No need for this -- hard work will keep you warm! The Union asked for proper ventilation in buildings due to diesel exhaust and excessive heat in trailers while unloading - Company's answer - *No!* (Last August, young man in the first 30 days of his probation at UPS died of heat exhaustion while unloading a UPS trailer - OSHA fined UPS $5,000. UPS is appealing, as usual!) We asked for proper ventilation for processing hazardous material packages. Company's response was, to outside and process the packages if you need more ventilation. Company will not install blower or fans for workers who have to clean up and process hazardous materials in buildings after spills from damaged packages! This is after receiving millions of dollars in fines from OSHA for hazardous materials mishandling! We asked for first line tires on steering axles of package cars instead of retreads. Company's answer - too expensive. We asked for scales at the Hubs as Feeder trailers are now carrying heavier packages and volume should no longer be the determining factor in the configuration of trailers. Company's answer - way too expensive! We asked for information on recalls and information on brake failures in various areas of country. Company's answer - too hard for us to do. As of today, I have new reports of brake failures from buildings in South Carolina, where brake fluid is routinely added as drivers leave the building and while they are driving on the highways. I'll not go into detail on proposals about faulty defrosters, heaters, wipers and other equipment except to say these were proposals also made four years ago by drivers across the country. Does this sound like a Company that cares about its workers, or even a Company that cares about the general public? These issues are as important as part-time employees and the Pension and Health and Welfare issues and have *still* not been resolved. Respect for worker safety is non-existent at UPS and that is why UPS workers are continuing to walk the picket lines! UPS pays out over a million dollars a day in Workers' Compensation and the injuries are serious, many drivers and part- timers have suffered permanent, damaged, vertebra, collapsed discs and ruined knees, due to the excessive demands of the job. A reporter investigating a story on the death of a UPS worker in Atlanta, GA, last year (he was crushed by a truck backing into the dock) told me that her investigation led her to believe that at least one person a month dies while working at UPS. During a recent lawsuit against UPS regarding the DIAD Board the Company testified they had no information on carpal tunnel injuries incurred as a result of the use of the DIAD Board. Later, we learned that Liberty Mutual had detailed information on the hundreds of workers who had complained and reported injuries due to these new boards. UPS is vigorously fighting these suits. They have lost one in California already. Due to UPS's lack of concern over workers with vision disabilities, EEOC has filed a Class-Action lawsuit against UPS for not offering these long-time workers a reasonable accommodation at UPS. Many still sit at home waiting for work after having given UPS years of loyalty. And let's not forget the $12,000,000 UPS was sued for and had to pay in back wages in the State of Washington after they cheated workers out of their breaks and lunch periods. Concern for "our" workers? Give me a break! "Little Nobodies" is the phrase UPS's top negotiator in the West used to describe UPS workers. I am surprised he didn't say "Little disposable nobodies!" Carolyn Robinson Secretary-Treasurer, Local 315 IBT Co-Chair, National Safety & Health Negotiating Committee From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sat Aug 16 12:10:51 1997 Sat, 16 Aug 1997 10:33:18 -0700 (PDT) Sat, 16 Aug 1997 10:32:05 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 10:32:05 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: PHOENIX RALLY FOR UPS STRIKERS (fwd) Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO From: "Andrew J. English" Subject: PHOENIX RALLY FOR UPS STRIKERS (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 08:06:05 -0700 (PDT) From: Andrew J. English Subject: PHOENIX RALLY FOR UPS STRIKERS Please distribute widely: SOLIDARITY WITH UPS STRIKERS **************************** NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION FOR GOOD JOBS THURSDAY, AUG. 21 called by Teamsters International President Ron Carey Rallies in over 30 cities A PART-TIME AMERICA WON'T WORK: WE NEED GOOD FULL-TIME JOBS AT GOOD WAGES With corporate America turning to low-wage, part-time, and temporary workforces, American workers incomes are stagnating while corporate profits and CEO salaries reach staggering heights. By drawing the line against corporate greed, the UPS strikers are fighting for all working families. PHOENIX RALLY: 5:30 PM, THURSDAY, AUGUST 21 PLUMBERS AND PIPEFITTERS LOCAL 469 UNION HALL 3109 N. 24TH STREET, PHOENIX Organized by Jobs With Justice and Teamsters Local 104 WEAR A BLUE RIBBON TO SHOW SUPPORT FOR THE STRIKERS For more information call Jobs With Justice at 602-439-0338 or e-mail aenglish@crl.com From aaron@burn.ucsd.edu Sat Aug 16 13:46:41 1997 Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 15:47:04 -0400 From: aaron@burn.ucsd.edu (Aaron) Subject: WE ARE ALL UPS DRIVERS (fwd) To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu, LABOR-L@YORKU.CA Status: RO The following article is from the Seattle-based weekly, Eat the State!, Issue #48, 12 august 97. For more information about EAT THE STATE!, 'a forum for anti-authoritarian political opinion, research and humor' including the full text of this issue and of back issues, go to: http://www.scn.org/news/ets or http://speech.csun.edu/ben/news/ets/ My forwarding this article doesn't imply agreement with every aspect of it. In particular, while I realize that what is mis-called 'part-time work' at UPS is a particularly nasty form of oppression, I do not share 'the concept of full-time employment as a social good'. At best, it's a lesser evil within the framework of actually existing capitalism. Eat the Rich! But don't eat their shit, whether it comes in part-time or full-time packages. And while you're at it, Eat the State! - Aaron ================= Begin article: ================= WE ARE ALL UPS DRIVERS Great things come in small packages. The issues and the players involved in the current Teamsters' strike against the United Parcel Service are far broader than most people realize. Like the Detroit newspapers, the machinists' strike at Boeing, and the Caterpillar strike earlier this decade, organized labor is attempting to use the UPS contract as a line in the sand over a basic principle affecting millions of workers in all industries. In this case, it's the snowballing trend of large corporations replacing full-time jobs with part-time and temporary positions, so as to save on pay, benefits, and seniority. And this time, wisely, labor picked a company whose product (parcel delivery) affects people in every town in the nation on a daily basis--insuring that media could not ignore the strike as a "local" issue affecting only workers in one or a few communities. The effort to protect the very concept of full-time employment as a social good speaks directly to million of us--most of us--who enter the labor force without any real prospect of employer-based health coverage, job security, or even advancement for a job well done. Increasingly, that--or unemployment--is a permanent condition. The inability of people to sustain themselves and their families even when they're working as hard as they can goes to core issues of how, exactly, jobs should be defined in the global economy, and to two conflicting sets of values: one that sees people as integral parts of communities, one that sees people as interchangeable, dispensable parts in an enormous profit- generating machine. Organized labor and big business are not only watching the strike carefully, but actively maneuvering in it; UPS and the Teamsters are only the front line. Tellingly, you'd never know any of this from mainstream media coverage of the strike. Last Saturday's edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer featured the "Harry and Phil Show" as its lead article, kissing ass to Phil Condit and Harry Stonecipher, the two top men at Boeing these days. The UPS strike, on the other hand, was relegated to the Business Section, as if the only people in town interested in labor issues are business owners. Likewise, the P-I (which has been running a disgusting series of countdown articles on the Boeing-McDonnell Douglas merger--"next week...", "in three days...", "starting Monday...", ad nauseam) has billed the UPS struggle as a showdown between UPS and The Evil Teamsters Union. Reflecting the paper's bias toward business interests, it hasn't discussed the reasons for the strike in any detail--the fact that the workers at UPS are disgusted with a two-tier system that offers benefits and full-time employment to only a few (tenured employees), and keeps the rest of the newer employees in temporary or part-time positions at lower wages. No mention of UPS's 1,300 citations for health and safety violations since 1990, its $4.4 million in penalties, or its $1 billion in profits last year. Or, most importantly, that UPS is far from alone in its policies. (Microsoft, in fact, is one of the most notorious at exploiting part-time and temp help for even professional-level jobs.) Far more people in Seattle go to lousy jobs each day than ship packages. But media coverage, invariably, has focused more on customer inconvenience. When the protagonists are discussed, a curiously timed "scandal" over funding for last year's Teamster election (pushed hard by that champion of the democratic workplace, The Wall Street Journal has gotten far more attention than UPS practices. And, of course, the larger issues are rarely mentioned at all. As trade restrictions evaporate and corporations plot their production (and exploitation) strategies on a global level, it's become essential that working people think in similar terms. We have to recognize our common struggles across industries or borders if the cry for basic human needs is to be heard in the din of the new global economy. That requires--surprise--communication, and free speech. It's pretty clear whose side corporate media is on. And why we need alternatives. In the meantime, the striking UPS drivers deserve everyone's support--now, not a year or two after the fact. The issues are universal, and the reversal of policies that sacrifice human lives on the altar of corporate greed might as well begin right here, right now. ================= End of article ================= ---------- mailto:aaron@burn.ucsd.edu http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aaron From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sat Aug 16 15:32:50 1997 Sat, 16 Aug 1997 13:56:09 -0700 (PDT) Sat, 16 Aug 1997 13:55:05 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 13:55:05 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Re: UPS Strike Support Postings Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO For those who may have missed earlier notice, here are some web and email addresses you may find useful -- TEAMSTER Website: http://www.teamster.org ACTION MOTOWN Teamsters Support Web Page: http://members.aol.com/actmotown/teamster.html For those who are really interested they can just check out the following categories on the page: Wire and News Updates Articles and Messages of Support Teamsters for a Democratic Union has linked to the page Also photos, articles and messages of support from all over the world. Japan, Belgium, Australia, Tawain and the United Kingdom. NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION WEBSITE: Stories and pictures can be seen at The NATCA Voice website http://www.natcavoice.org and also at the NATCA Central Region Website http://home.natca.org/natca/natca/central/resource/ups.html UPS CUSTOMER SERVICE CENTER: customer.service@ups.com Call toll-free 1-800-PICK-UPS (1-800-742-5877) and tell the company that: -- our economy needs good full time jobs. That toll free number gave another toll free number for package tracking at 1-800-457-4022. The tracking number should be 18 characters long. So use the format below and add 6 more digits at the end. Or not. They'll try to look up something for you anyway. They are very helpful there. (While they are tracking your creatively devised number, they won't be tracking someone else's.) UPS tracking number: 1Z 072 1X3 0007 From ckendal@comp.uark.edu Sat Aug 16 21:24:18 1997 Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 22:24:16 -0500 (CDT) From: "Cynthia J. Kendall" To: Labor Research and Action Project Subject: Re: UPS Softens Stand In-Reply-To: <2.2.16.19970815002208.43d755a4@pop.igc.org> Status: RO Best wishes for the Teamsters!!! I am wondering, is it possible for the Teamsters to start their own delivery companies employing their own members if this strike goes on much longer? During the Baseball Strike, the players' union was considering beginning their own baseball leagues. Honor academic freedom! Honor worker rights! Please reply. From ckendal@comp.uark.edu Sat Aug 16 21:34:19 1997 Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 22:34:17 -0500 (CDT) From: "Cynthia J. Kendall" To: Labor Research and Action Project Subject: Re: Survey of Attitudes Toward Unionization on University Campus at Fayetteville, Arkansas In-Reply-To: <2.2.16.19970815002208.43d755a4@pop.igc.org> Status: RO SOS!! I am a sociology grad student at University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and as part of a class, Advanced Social Research (Fall 1997) I am conducting a survey to test the response of all workers on the university campus to the idea of unionization. The opposition is overwhelming, ranging from Tyson and Walmart (headquartered within 20 miles of the campus) to the "right to workers" who feel they have no rights whatsoever. I am asking for assistance from graduate assistant unions and unionized employees on other campuses. Your experiences will be invaluable to us. Honor academic freedom!! Labor is forever!! From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sun Aug 17 01:23:57 1997 Sat, 16 Aug 1997 23:48:13 -0700 (PDT) Sat, 16 Aug 1997 23:46:30 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 23:46:30 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Solidarity Actions: R.I., Berkeley, San Francisco Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Please Post, Announce, and Distribute Solidarity Rally for UPS Teamsters in Providence, Rhode Island, Saturday, August 16 Speakers include: * Stu Mundy, Secretary Treasurer, Teamsters Local 251 * Carolyn Bailey, pre-loader, Teamsters Local 251 * Brian "Jake" Roberts, driver, Teamsters Local 251 * Jesse Sharkey, International Socialist Organization * Leo Cacicio, President, APWU Local 387 * Scott Molloy, URI Labor Research Center * UNION AND LABOR SOLIDARITY SONGS BY JOYCE KATZBERG * Solidarity greetings and donations from supporters of the strike Firefighter's Hall 90 Printery St., Providence Saturday, August 16 7pm Endorsers: International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 251, Rhode Island AFL-CIO, APWU Local 387, RI Hospital FNHP, HERE Local 217, 1199 Healthcare Employees Union, RI Federation of Teacher's and Health Professionals, Providence Teacher's Union, USWA Local 911, Rhode Island Labor History Society, International Socialist Organization, IBEW 2323, IBEW 99, United Latino Workers Committee, Progreso Latino, George Wiley Center, Scholars, Writers and Activists for Social Justice (Rhode Island), South End Press Call 401-331-4043 for childcare, information, or to endorse. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ From: ROchoaSuch@aol.com Subject: Teamster Solidarity Rally On Sunday, August 17, at 4:00 PM in Wheeler Auditorium there will be a Solidarity Rally in support of the striking UPS Teamsters. Speakers include: Teamsters Local 315 (Richmond UPS) California Nurses Association United Farm Workers AFSCME Local 444 (East Bay Muni. Utility District) The event is being hosted by the International Socialist Organization (ISO). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ From: Jane Zavisca Subject: supporting local teamsters In case anyone is interested in showing support for the UPS strikers, there is going to be a march and rally in San Francisco this coming Thursday, August 21. This event is part of a national day of action being organized by the Teamsters. People will assemble at 11:30 at 16th and 3rd (You can take BART to 16th and Mission and then get a bus going east to Potrero, where they will have shuttles. Plus there will be lots of free parking). The march begins at 12. If anyone is interested in going with me let me know. Or does anyone know if AGSE will be organizing a group? Also, I know none of us has a lot of money to spare, but the Teamsters union is only providing $55 per week to strikers, so the locals are organizing their own strike funds. If you want to make a donation, you can send a check to: Teamsters Local 70 -- UPS Strikers PO Box 2270 Oakland, CA 94621 Jane From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sun Aug 17 01:32:31 1997 Sat, 16 Aug 1997 23:56:14 -0700 (PDT) Sat, 16 Aug 1997 23:55:45 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 23:55:45 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: [Fwd: Teamsters Strike Song] Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO From: Institute for Global Communications /* Written 7:07 AM Aug 12, 1997 by SCHNIDER@MAIL.LOC.GOV in igc:list.publabor */ /* ---------- "TEAMSTERS STRIKE SONG" ---------- */ We Can't Live on a Part-time Salary=20 (Tune: We all live in a yellow submarine)=20 =20 Chorus: We can't live on a part-time salary=20 A part-time salary, a part-time salary=20 (repeat)=20 =20 When you work for UPS=20 There's lots of rules and lots of stress=20 Night and day we work like dogs=20 But they won't give us full-time jobs (chorus)=20 =20 Full-time mortgage, full-time rent=20 Before it's earned, my paycheck's spent=20 Part-time car note?--no such thing=20 Bill are all the postman brings (chorus)=20 =20 The bosses all make lots of bread=20 There's no way I can get ahead=20 But we'll see justice in the end=20 Cause Teamsters always fight to win=7F (chorus)=20 =20 Lyrics: Julie McCall = =20 From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sun Aug 17 11:44:47 1997 for ; Sun, 17 Aug 1997 10:14:21 -0700 (PDT) for ; Sun, 17 Aug 1997 10:13:35 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sun, 17 Aug 1997 10:13:35 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: [PEN-L:11822] Non-Union Workers Fired for Solidarity with UPS strikers Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO FROM UNITED@COUGAR.COM To: a-infos@tao.ca Subject: (en)Non-Union Workers Fired for Solidarity with UPS strikers From: "Lyn Gerry" Date: Sat, 16 Aug 1997 01:32:16 +0000 A AA AAAA The A-Infos News Service AA AA AA AA INFOSINFOSINFOS http://www.tao.ca/ainfos/ AAAA AAAA AAAAA AAAAA From: Barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us (Andrew Barbano) With the UPS negotiations dragging on, the public is certainly hungry for a fresh story. I've found one. A week ago, Bently Nevada Corp., a major Nevada manufacturer, fired two non-union women for refusing to sign for UPS parcels. Federal charges of illegal termination have been filed. The National Labor Relations Board is dispatching an investigator. I have seen no other story like this since the strike began---two people fired for their beliefs. The Teamsters-UPS fight wasn't their fight, but they made it their fight. They are paying one hell of a price. If you want to read the Friday, August 15, news story I published regarding the UPS-Bently firings, you will find it at www.nevadalabor.com. Should you need any of the documents filed thus far in the case, I've got them. Let me know how I may be of further service. Be well. Raise hell. Andrew Barbano http://www.radio4all.org http://www.radio4all.org/freepacifica ****** A-Infos News Service ***** News about and of interest to anarchists Subscribe -> email MAJORDOMO@TAO.CA with the message SUBSCRIBE A-INFOS Info -> http://www.tao.ca/ainfos/ Reproduce -> please include this section ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Free thought, neccessarily involving freedom of speech and press, I may tersely define thus:no opinion a law-no opinion a crime. Alexander Berkman From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sun Aug 17 11:50:38 1997 Sun, 17 Aug 1997 10:14:23 -0700 (PDT) Sun, 17 Aug 1997 10:13:27 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sun, 17 Aug 1997 10:13:27 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: [Fwd: UPS Strike: All For One And One For All] Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO From: Institute for Global Communications Subject: UPS Strike: All For One And One For All LA Times August 13, 1997 COLUMN LEFT/STEVE EARLY UPS Strike: All for One and One for All It's refreshing to see organized labor oppose corporate America's effort to divide and conquer. By STEVE EARLY The current work stoppage at United Parcel Service has the look and feel of an old-time labor battle. Burly Teamsters tussle with cops on picket lines. Trucks are briefly blocked, scabs are cursed, strikers are arrested and some fall injured on the ground. A lot of customers don't get their deliveries on time or at all. Business leaders call for a Taft-Hartley injunction against the strike. Behind such scenes from another era, the issues at stake couldn't be more au courant. By taking a stand in favor of pension security and against part-timing, 190,000 UPS drivers and package handlers are bucking nationwide trends. The outcome of their fight could determine whether many other people--college teachers, computer technicians, retail sales workers or health care professionals--ever get decent full-time jobs or traditional pensions. Or whether they'll have to keep scrambling for part-time, temporary and contract work that doesn't provide normal fringe benefits. Like lots of employers, UPS wants to change its pension coverage to reduce its benefit costs. In the name of "flexibility," it seeks to hire even more part-timers--turning the 40% of its employees who still have good-paying, full-time jobs into an endangered species. If the company achieves its goals, guaranteed pensions and regular employment in trucking and many other industries will be further eroded. A Teamster victory, on the other hand, may inspire greater resistance to trends that deprive millions of Americans of adequate incomes before and after they retire. The rhetoric of the two sides reveals much about the clash of values and fundamental choices involved. In true '90s fashion, UPS is appealing to individualism, shortsightedness, even greed. To undermine the union, management is telling its full-timers not be concerned about the part-timers' plight. Why, asks UPS, should a $50,000-a-year driver with many years' seniority lose money in a strike over the job opportunities or pay of "kids" earning $8 an hour on the midnight-to-4 a.m. package-sorting shift? Furthermore, why should anyone at UPS want to be in the same retirement plan with other Teamsters, particularly those employed by "the competition"? Forget about them and their pensions, says the company. Just think about your own benefits, which could be so much better if workers abandoned the Teamster-sponsored funds that pool employer contributions industrywide in favor of a UPS-only plan. The Teamsters respond in what has become almost a foreign tongue in America: the language of solidarity, social responsibility and collective security. Under new reform-minded leaders, the union is finally objecting to three-tier wage scales that divide even old and new part-timers at UPS. Unlike his predecessors, President Ron Carey refused to treat the second-largest contract talks in the country--only General Motors bargaining is bigger--like a special-interest game played out of sight from members and the public. From the very beginning, Carey has insisted that whole communities are hurt by management's strategy of converting full-time positions into "half jobs" with few benefits. Likewise, the Teamsters say that it's not just their multiemployer pension trusts that face challenges today; it's any kind of "defined benefit" plan that commits employers to a guaranteed payout for all eligible retirees. A major objective of firms that already have single-company funds is replacing them with "defined contribution" plans such as 401(k) accounts. These shift more of the cost burden to employees and saddle them with the individual risk and responsibility of making investment decisions. If Teamsters accepted UPS' pension proposal, it wouldn't be long before they'd be hearing the same siren song that's playing now: Don't mix your money up with the next guy's; look out for your own personal retirement savings; forget about the group. Forgetting about the group, whether it's all the wage earners within the same company, industry or class, is exactly how labor in this country helped dig its own grave. The Teamster strike is more than an encouraging sign of revival. It's a reassertion of collectivist values that corporate America has tried its best to discredit and bury in recent debates about health care and social security, as well as on the future of private pensions. The standard-bearer in this fight may not, in the past, have been a paragon of social unionism. But the Teamster banner today is one worth rallying around for everyone's sake. - - - Steve Early Is a Journalist and Lawyer Who Works as a Labor Organizer in Boston LA Times Article From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sun Aug 17 12:13:23 1997 Sun, 17 Aug 1997 10:34:30 -0700 (PDT) Sun, 17 Aug 1997 10:34:10 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sun, 17 Aug 1997 10:34:10 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Re: UPS Strike Violence Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO We had a guy hit by a UPS subcontactor Saturday here in Bowling Green. There were two trucks that came into the lot. When they left they ran a stop sign and about five picket line walkers had to run to get out of there way. One of the guys injuried his wrist as he was pushing off the truck to try to get out of the way. BOBBY8277@aol.com From sscipe1@icarus.cc.uic.edu Sun Aug 17 17:09:01 1997 for ; Sun, 17 Aug 1997 18:08:46 -0500 (CDT) Date: Sun, 17 Aug 1997 18:08:46 -0500 (CDT) To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu From: sscipe1@icarus.cc.uic.edu (Kim Scipes) Subject: UPS strikers' support rally in Chicago Status: RO Sunday, August 17, 1997 Folks-- I just got back from a VERY spirited rally for the striking UPS workers that was held in Teamster Local 705 here in Chicago. The big, beautiful hall was filled with supporters--mostly out of the labor movement--and many were standing: I would say over 500 people. The crowd was multiracial, mixed gender-wise, and ranged from at least one man in his 80s down to infants. The rally was sponsored by Jobs With Justice and the AFL-CIO. There were a number of speakers from different unions, the religious community, and politicians from different levels. The speakers were very diverse as well. I didn't take notes and get names, so these are just a few of my general impressions that I'm sharing. There were definitely a range of unions represented there--probably the most visible were SEIU and AFSCME. But there were carpenters, machinists, bricklayers, IBEW and UE folks there. And while there were quite a few rank and filers there, it was also apparent that a disproportionately large number of the audience were union leaders and/or staffers. People definitely responded to militancy when expressed by the various speakers. One very positive chant that grew out of the audience and was repeated a number of times was "one more day," in response to a speaker's statements that the strikers and their supporters would be there "one more day" than UPS, no matter how long it took. Teamster #705 Secretary -Treasurer Gerry Zero did address one issue that UPS has raised in the media, and that's about allowing UPS members to vote on the company proposal. Zero said that over 2,000 UPS Teamsters in this local showed up to vote on the strike proposal on a day when it was over 95 degrees--and muggy as hell--and said that the vote was over 2000 to strike against something like 29 against! (He gave the exact figures but I didn't write them down.) Perhaps the most popular poster at the rally was a drawing of a sailing ship, with the slogan that "UPS runs the tightest SLAVE ship in the business," a take-off on their corporate slogan. This apparently emerged when UPS told a Teamster leader that they didn't like a sign erected by the strikers saying "slave entrace" to where managers entered the UPS facility, and so he went out and printed up 10,000 of the new posters! Besides a strong sense of solidarity and militancy that developed throughout the rally, a considerable amount of money was raised for the strikers. Both the SEIU and the AFSCME district councils donated $5,000 each, and over $2,400 was raised from the audience. People were encouraged to visit the strikers on their picket lines at the facility in Willowbrook, IL, a suburb southwest of Chicago. For Labor Rappers in the Chicago area, if you will e-mail me your e-mail addresses--you can send them directly to me unless you want to post them on the list--I'll post any news and information about local events that come my way. I encourage everyone to do what ever they can to support the strikers and their strike--it is clear from the media coverage to date, as well as comments by many people, that this is a key strike--and, because of the solidarity of the Teamsters, is winnable. But they need our help. In solidarity--Kim Scipes From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sun Aug 17 18:02:15 1997 Sun, 17 Aug 1997 16:17:03 -0700 (PDT) Sun, 17 Aug 1997 16:16:49 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sun, 17 Aug 1997 16:16:49 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: steve early's article Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO It sounds as if there is quite some difference around the country as to the strategy on picket lines although Steve early did say that, "Trucks are briefly blocked". Here in Oakland I can't say that trucks are even briefly blocked. BAs have made it clear that trucks are not to be stopped. Some of the youngsters on the line at the Oakland airport questioned this tactic. Even when we inched along in front of a truck slowing it considerably but not stopping it the cops were called and we got in to it with them.Then the BA came and supported the cops position. We were not to impede the trucks in any way. He then proceeded to call the drivers the most filthy names, usually of a sexual nature. A friend of mine who is a gay woman was on the picket line and was somewhat put of by some of remarks mafde to the scabs by an older teamster. This sort of personal abuse is often encouraged by the leadership as an alternative to stoping the movement of vehicles and a real confrontation with the police and the courts. Name calling will not keep a picketers morale up for long, they have to feel they're acompishing something. A friend of mine has since informed me that they've been told not to cuss but to call the scabs rats now. It's clear that the tactic of the leadership of the Teamsters and the AFL-CIO in general is not to confront the legal system or to directly impede production. A Pilot's association rep was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying that the Teamsters don't want to broaden the strike for fear that Clinton may use the Taft hartley. This is like telling one's opponent if they hit you you won't hit them back. Of course Clinton will impose the taft hartley in order to defend UPS. And broadening the struggle is the only way to win a real victory so it's doomed from the start with this method. Not that a partial success is not possible due to the importance of UPS, the solidity of the pickets as well as public suport but it's early yet. The point is, like Staley, catrepillar, Detroit and others--the key to victory is generalizing the issues and struggle. Jobs and the end to temporary work win tremendous support among in working class commuities. The young workforce at UPS has many connections to other youth and low waged workers in the communities--this must be tapped by the AFL-CIO leadership. Richard Mellor 2nd VP, AFSCME Local 444 Oakland CA aactivist@igc.apc.org From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sun Aug 17 21:59:32 1997 Sun, 17 Aug 1997 20:22:54 -0700 (PDT) Sun, 17 Aug 1997 20:07:02 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sun, 17 Aug 1997 20:07:02 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: S. F. Bay Area UPS support rally -- 8/21/97 Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Show UPS and All Big Corporations: WORKING FAMILIES ARE UNITED FOR GOOD JOBS! ACTION DAY FOR GOOD JOBS THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 1997 SAN FRANCISCO: 11:30 am: ASSEMBLE corner of 16th St. and 3rd St. NOON: MARCH down 16th St. to the UPS Center 2:30 pm: RALLY at UPS Center (16th & San Bruno) 2 Blocks EAST of Potrero SPONSORED BY THE TEAMSTERS UNION, AFL-CIO and CENTRAL LABOR COUNCILS Information: 415-467-7768 Directions: 280 North to SF: Exit at Mariposa St., Right to 3rd St., Left on 3rd St., 2 blocks to 16th. Bay Bridge into SF: Exit 5th St., left at 5th, left at Bryant, right on 4th, continue to where 3rd and 4th merge, go right on 3rd to 16th St BART: Stop at Montgomery St. Station, take #15 Muni bus at 2nd & Market south to corner of 16th and 3rd St. THIS IS THE BIG ONE FOLKS! WE NEED THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE IN THE STREETS TO SUPPORT THE UPS STRIKERS AND SHOW THE COMPANY AND THE GOVERNMENT THAT WORKERS NEED GOOD, FULL-TIME JOBS THAT CAN SUPPORT A FAMILY, LIMITS ON SUBCONTRACTING, SOLID PENSIONS SO WORKERS CAN RETIRE WITH DIGNITY, JOB SAFETY & HEALTH Call your friends. Leaflet your workplace. Phone in sick and come to the march. From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sun Aug 17 22:11:13 1997 Sun, 17 Aug 1997 20:15:17 -0700 (PDT) Sun, 17 Aug 1997 20:04:14 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sun, 17 Aug 1997 20:04:14 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: CAN you help? Yes you CAN. Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO >Return-Path: >Date: Sun, 17 Aug 1997 10:47:36 -0700 >From: Margie Akin >Reply-To: makin@navel.ucr.edu >To: tomcondit@igc.apc.org >CC: mbuell@bki.com, mhafner@bki.com, woodhead9@aol.com, abeals@navel.ucr.edu, > paulis@oakweb.com, lkleiger@aol.com, dthomas@eskimo.com, > D.Bernstein@pe.net >Subject: CAN you help? Yes you CAN. > >You CAN help end the UPS strike. Yes, you, whoever you are. There are >two basic possibilities in this strike: Either UPS will outlast the >strikers, who will be driven to make concessions by hunger and >demoralization weeks or months from now; or the popular support for the >strikers, who have taken on the ugly problem of forced part-time work, >will be translated into material support, and UPS will recognize its >defeat, concede some of its billion-dollar profits, and agree to a >decent settlement. >This last is the only settlement that can come quickly. If you want to >bring the strike to an end soon, your only effective option is to show >support for the strikers and give them material support. Money is >helpful -- every Teamsters local has a strike fund. But not everyone >can or will give money. One thing everyone can do is give a little >food. Cans of food, and boxes of cereal and other dry food, are eagerly >accepted at every UPS picket line. The union is organizing food banks >to ensure distribution to those in greatest need. Many part-time UPS >workers live on the edge all the time. Now that they have missed a pay >check, their families need immediate help. >Everyone has a can of food available to give. Go look at the cans you >have shoved to the back of the shelf. Some of them are things you don't >much like, and some are things you don't like at all. But some >striker's children will love them. Put a few cans in your car, and when >you are near a UPS facility, just stop by the picket line and give them >the food. It will give you a good feeling, it will give the strikers a >good feeling, it will help feed the hungry, and it will help end the >strike. >Now, just one more good deed -- please forward this e-mail to everyone >you know. Thanks! -Kevin Akin, Riverside, California. > > From natcav@ix.netcom.com Mon Aug 18 07:50:23 1997 by dfw-ix10.ix.netcom.com (8.8.4/8.8.4) id sma021757; Mon Aug 18 08:50:06 1997 Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 08:50:55 -0500 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Bryan Thompson Subject: Re: UPS strikers' support rally in Chicago Status: RO Kim I have created a large collection of articles on the UPS strike on our web site. They are indexed with a description and added to each day. http://www.natcavoice.org accessible from the main page. I also printed 25 of them and made 30 copies of the bundle and took it to the picket line here as most of them do not have access to all of this. I will continue to do that as well as taking 8 cases of soda, 9 bags of ice per day till the strike is over to the picket line in Addison. normally I try to spend some time with them at each visit as well. I would love to know of other events scheduled here in the Chicago area. I am supporting those in Addison now, Lombard Road, just off Army Trail. Thanks Bryan Bryan Thompson H: 630-860-7423 Staff@NATCAVoice.org http://www.NATCAVoice.org Editor - The NATCA Voice 800-SKY-TALK ; Pin 114-9137 From natcav@ix.netcom.com Mon Aug 18 07:59:16 1997 by dfw-ix10.ix.netcom.com (8.8.4/8.8.4) id sma025108; Mon Aug 18 08:58:39 1997 Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 08:59:28 -0500 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Bryan Thompson Subject: Re: NYT Op-Ed by Levinson of UNITE Status: RO A comment on the piece by Mark, which I thought was a very good article. He mentions the lifetime ban on controllers, I am a controller at O'Hare now, and I work with some rehired PATCO controllers. About 60% of all hires now are PATCO. Clinton singed an EO that directed the FAA to start hiring them. Of courese the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) balked, but after more pressure they eventually did start hiring. It is too late for many of them, but I believe several thousand will return to work before it is over. Many worked as controllers in contract towers (small facilities), in Canada, or over seas. Most I have spoken with said that once being an air traffic controller got in your blood, that was what you wanted to do. Most really did enjoy their jobs. I know I do. Just thought you'd like this update. Bryan Bryan Thompson H: 630-860-7423 Staff@NATCAVoice.org http://www.NATCAVoice.org Editor - The NATCA Voice 800-SKY-TALK ; Pin 114-9137 From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Mon Aug 18 21:48:18 1997 Mon, 18 Aug 1997 20:13:53 -0700 (PDT) Mon, 18 Aug 1997 20:12:54 -0700 (PDT) Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 20:12:54 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: UPS News On Web; Correction to Rally Time (SF) Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO From: unions@crisny.org August 17, 1997 We have created a new UPS Strike page. The first item on the new page is an ACTION CALL to build rallies in support of the strikers at the UPS center Thursday, August 21st, and every Thursday thereafter until the strike is won. The rallies are from 5:00 - 7:00 pm. Details and directions are in the To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Re: Argument for National Healthcare? In-Reply-To: <2.2.16.19970818180645.3bff87de@pop.igc.org> Status: RO How soon they forget...Those of you who could stand to pay attention to it will recognize Mr. Cantoni's prescription for change as exactly the Hillary Clinton-inspired proposal he claims to scorn. Remember accountable health plans? Remember managed competition? Same basic proposal. Yes it was a bad idea, because it did not go far enough toward truly affordable, comprehensive, universal national health care; though anyone who wants to debate whether they would have been better than what we have now can set their computer clocks back to 1993 and let it roll. A more interesting question might be what if anything it means that the WSJ is airing this sort of thing. On Mon, 18 Aug 1997, Michael Eisenscher wrote: > The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition -- August 18, 1997 > Manager's Journal > The Case Against > Employee Benefits > > By CRAIG J. CANTONI > > United Parcel Service's battle with the Teamsters over pensions and part-time > workers points to a broader problem: The American system of > employer-provided health and retirement benefits has become an > anachronism. Employers and employees would be better off if medical > coverage and retirement programs were independent of the employment > relationship. > > To understand why, consider some history. In 1940 only 10% of the U.S. > work force, or 12 million people, were covered by health insurance, primarily > through such plans as Blue Cross and Kaiser Permanente, which grew in > response to the hardships of the Depression. In 1942 Congress passed the > Stabilization Act, which limited wage increases in order to keep prices in > check during wartime. The act permitted the adoption of employer-paid > insurance plans in lieu of wage increases. In 1945 the War Labor Board ruled > that it was illegal to modify or terminate group insurance plans during the > life of > a labor contract. Later, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that > insurance and pension benefits fell under the legal definition of "wages." > Employer-paid benefits had been institutionalized. > > The Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. led the way in 1949 by introducing > major-medical coverage, a new insurance product that coupled > comprehensive coverage with the new features of deductibles and > coinsurance. By 1951, 100,000 people were covered by major-medical > insurance; by 1960, 32 million; and by 1986, 156 million. > > In 1979, 97% of full-time employees in medium-to-large companies had > employer-sponsored health insurance. But by 1991, that percentage had > declined to 83%. What happened? Employment declined in durable goods > manufacturing, in which 93% of workers are covered, and rose in retail, in > which only 62% are. And people started changing jobs more often. Even with > mandated coverage for departing employees at their own expense (known as > Cobra benefits), waiting periods and exclusions for pre-existing illnesses > often > leave job switchers without coverage at least for a time. Less than half of all > workers, meanwhile, are covered by private retirement plans. > > The most significant cause of the decline in health and retirement coverage has > been the growth in the contingent work force. Often companies are using > part-time and contract workers for the express purpose of avoiding the > costs--both direct and administrative--of providing benefits. Who can blame > them? > > From 1971 to 1991, the cost of medical care rose almost 70% faster than > inflation. Although medical costs have leveled off, the cost of all fringe > benefits > has soared to 40% of total compensation, compared with 17% in 1955. > Corporations spend almost 12% of total revenues on employee benefits, vs. > 4.4% in the 1950s. The average employee's benefits package (including > payroll taxes) costs just under $15,000. > > Add to this the costs of administering benefits and complying with > ever-more-complex regulations. The 1974 Employee Retirement Income > Security Act alone has spawned regulations that are two feet thick; complying > with these rules takes an army of attorneys and benefits consultants, in > addition > to in-house benefits administrators (about one for every 1,000 employees). > Such costs hit small businesses especially hard: The annual cost to a > midsize or > smaller business of administering a "simple" 401(k) retirement plan is $475 per > participant. > > What do companies get for this trouble and money? Black eyes--not only > from the usual adversaries in the media and government, as UPS is finding out, > but also from the recipients of their generosity. Except for the largest and > richest companies, which can afford gold-plated programs, benefits are often a > source of employee dissatisfaction and distrust, and rarely a source of > motivation or productivity. This is particularly true of medical insurance. > > Company-sponsored medical insurance creates a paternalistic relationship. > The employer plays the role of the munificent parent, who protects the > employee-child from the vagaries of life--a role at odds with the economic > decisions of running a business. It also gives employers reasons to intrude on > the most personal aspects of their employees' lives, from a family's medical > history to a worker's sexual orientation (in the case of domestic partner > coverage). Once involved with such personal matters, it seems perfectly > natural for employers to devote precious time and energy to matters of health > and lifestyle, by offering smoking cessation programs, stress reduction > classes, > cholesterol screenings, health awareness lectures and newsletters about diet > and nutrition. But whatever goodwill such nannyism might generate, it > evaporates as soon as the employer increases premiums, switches managed > care networks or denies a claim. > > Noncash benefits corrupt the employer-employee relationship in other > important ways. When 40% of total compensation is in the form of benefits, it > is difficult for employees to put a true market value on their compensation > package or to walk away from a job they don't like. From management's point > of view, it is difficult to have true pay-for-performance when employees see > 40% of their compensation as an entitlement. > > What is the answer? Certainly not another Rube Goldberg- or Hillary > Clinton-style national health scheme--though that's what Congress is creating, > one law at a time. One better idea would be legislation mandating that private > employer group health plans be replaced with nonprofit, private-sector buying > cooperatives, which would be open to everyone, regardless of work or family > status. The cooperatives would perform the same role as large employers: > getting reduced group rates from insurance companies and managed care > networks, acting as consumer advocates, interpreting and explaining coverage, > reconciling claim disputes and educating members about healthy living. > > Getting companies out of the retirement business would require changes in tax > and pension law to allow people to save as much money in individual > retirement accounts as can now be saved in corporate defined-contribution > retirement plans. > > After 55 years, the time has come for business to correct an accident of > history and get out of the benefits business. And if business leaders don't > take > the lead, government will do it for them--as it has done since World War II. > > > Mr. Cantoni is president of Capstone Consulting Group of Scottsdale, Ariz. > > From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Tue Aug 19 22:33:35 1997 Tue, 19 Aug 1997 20:58:37 -0700 (PDT) Tue, 19 Aug 1997 20:52:07 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 20:52:07 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: UPS pension issues; Rally Canceled; Solidarity Statement Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO In case anyone is interested, I recieved an interesting tidbit that may or may not prove out -- That the Teamsters accepted a deal whereby new UPS employees come in to a UPS-funded pension plan while current ones stay in the IBT system. Since the contract hasn't yet been ratified by the members, this little bit may not come out for a while. It'll be interesting to find out whether this indeed happened in negotiations. George Hagglund ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------- At 9:59 PM -0500 8/18/97, Robert W Drago wrote: >We were discussing the UPS strike today and a question about the >pension funds came up. The question was whether non-UPS teamster >members are "free-riding" on UPS member contributions. > >I understand the argument that the presence of UPS teamster members >in the pension plan may yield economies of scale such that returns >are higher for everyone. The free-rider argument is distinct: that >non-UPS folks have lower contributions but receive the same benefits >as UPS contributors. > >Is this possible? Is it true? *** As we all know, pensions are complex risk-sharing propositions, and there are no "free riders." While I don't have data in front of me, I can make the reasonable generalization that contributions for UPS and non-UPS (i.e. generally, general freight) employees are approximately the same. One question is whether the ages of participants are the same, and thus how close to retirement are the participants. With the tremendous growth in UPS employment, naturally one would expect they are younger. In addition, with the tremendous turnover in UPS (at least among part-timers), many participants may never get the 10 years they need to vest in a multi-employer plan, so those contributions support the "lifers" in the plan. UPS Teamsters are in the plans because the plans originally were drawn up locally (the whole trucking industry was very local as recently as 20 years ago) and contribution/benefit calculations have been drawn up based on the balance of contributions and expenses in the local plans. I do not believe there are any economies of scale in this structure. The dispute revolves in part around the differential growth in employment by firm. Certain large general freight/LTL firms have grown significantly since deregulation, many firms have disappeared leaving unfunded liabilities, and other firms have had stagnant employment (and with no turnover which means the workforce is aging). UPS has grown more than any firm, both in percentage and abolute terms. >The nastier question is why UPS wants control of the pension fund >and why the Teamsters don't want to share control. It is easy to >make both sides look bad here. On the UPS side, given a history >of employee ownership, management might be hoping to siphon off >pension funds for cheap capital via an ESOP (a VERY risky proposition >for employees). On the Teamster side, control of such a large pension >fund may bring power. *** The question of control is important. The Teamsters don't have control, but rather they share it with management in Taft-Hartley plans (like the present one). UPS originally sought to remove UPS employees from the Taft-Hartley plans, knowing full well they would owe some $700 million to the plans in unfunded liabilities. They wanted to have a management-run single-employer plan. They backed down from this later and sought a jointly-run plan, but the Teamsters claim the fine print leaves control in the hands of UPS. This is not a question of "power" so much as it becomes a question of representation. If the Teamsters allowed UPS to leave the plan, UPS would gain a measure of control at the expense of Teamster representation of the members. This is what the Teamsters could not allow. I do not believe there are any plans for ESOPs, so I don't think this is a real issue. >Are there grounds for either scenario? > >Both possibilities may well be bunk: UPS may have no ESOP designs >in mind, and the Teamsters may gain no particular financial or power >advantage from control of the pension fund. > >Any insight would be most appreciated. *** Perhaps most important, this dramatic change in the structure of the plans would be a potential direct threat to the other carriers in the plans. As with any such shared-risk propositions, once established it becomes very tricky to change. Remove the youngest members from any plan (such as Social Security) and the older members of the plan, who participated in good faith early in their working lives and who paid for the retirement of those who retired before them, may find themselves without retirement. This is a problem in this kind of plan, but one must retain the institutional memory: those who work today pay the retirement of those who retired yesterday, and those working today expect those who work in the future to do the same for them. To break that compact is quite dangerous. While the plans can be changed without short-changing these older workers, one must be careful in how the changes are made. Finally, I think this demand by UPS was a competitive salvo against the general freight carriers in the plan, and would have changed the balance of negotiations in the upcoming freight negotiations. While I am not an expert on pensions (perhaps those who are can comment on whether I have fairly characterized the dispute), I do know something about freight bargaining, and that would have begun in a state of crisis. Michael H. Belzer, Ph. D. School of Industrial and Labor Relations Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853-3901 voice: (607) 255-6185 fax: (607) 255-9826 e-mail: mb20@cornell.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------- From: Tom Condit Subject: 8/21 SF rally cancelled I spoke with Teamsters Joint Council 7 this morning, and they have cancelled the UPS strike support rally scheduled for Thursday, 8/21 in San Francisco. I had thought they might go forward with it as a victory rally, but apparently not. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ From: Michael Perelman Subject: [PEN-L:11884] Why they won: Random Thoughts on UPS I think that we might take a few moments to consider why and how UPS won. So far, some of the obvious factors were: 1. The drivers had made a good impression on the public before the strike. The Wall Street Journal had an article a couple of years ago, describing the drivers as sex symbols to emphasize the auroa of the UPS people. 2. So they had public support. 3. How much of the public support comes from people being fed up with corporate abuses? 4. Given the importance of the personal relationship, hiring replacement workers would be trickier. 5. UPS had a tenuous hold on a virtual monopoly, making them more vulnerable to a strike. 6. How much of the public could identify with a Chicano strawberry picker. 7. I live in a semi-rural environment, but I have never seen an obviously "ethnic" UPS driver. The ones that I know are very clean, cut white middle class people. 8. The Teamsters had a lot of baggage to shed. The press never seemed to try to label them with thuggishness. Why was the media not more negative toward UPS, especially since some of the workers are relatively well off? -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 916-898-5321 E-Mail michael@ecst.csuchico.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ >Return-Path: >Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 07:47:42 -0600 (MDT) >From: Debbie Nathan >To: mike snedeker <71204.764@CompuServe.COM> >cc: Tom Condit >Subject: UPS Statement (fwd) > >Everyone working in the vineyards of culture and academia, please sign >on! And forward to your friends, colleagues, comrades, etc. > > "SCHOLARS, ARTISTS AND WRITERS FOR LABOR AND SOCIAL JUSTICE" > SUPPORTS THE UPS STRIKE > >As scholars, artists, writers and teachers, we stand in full support of >the Teamsters' strike at UPS. This is a strike for America's future. It >promises to restore dignity to the lives of workers whose incomes and >livelihoods have stagnated for nearly a quarter century. In these years, >corporations like UPS have institutionalized insecurity by creating a >system of part-time employment, keeping millions of workers on the >lookout for a few more hours of work or a second job. In the academy and >publishing, in the arts, sciences and entertainment, we see the same >growth of low-wage, part-time employment, which erodes our craft >and creativity. The UPS struggle is therefore ours as well. All workers >have a right to full-time jobs at decent pay. > >The Teamsters union has declared Thursday, August 21 "a national day of >unity" with UPS workers. We take this moment of struggle and solidarity to >announce the formation of a new, independent, national organization: >"Scholars, Artists, and Writers for Labor and Social Justice." We call >upon our colleagues and friends to declare their solidarity with the UPS >strikers. Stand with them on their picket lines and in their union halls >on August 21. The time is ripe to restore the mutually empowering >relationship that once gave hope and dynamism to both the labor movement >and its allies in the academic and cultural communities. The UPS strike >could well determine the strength and direction of the labor movement for >years to come. Indeed, the rebirth of a dynamic labor movement would be >the most heartening development in our nation's political life >since the emergence of progressive social movements in the 1960s. > >We envision a movement that can reshape the nation's political culture by >combating inequality and powerlessness and by fostering the growth of a >vibrant, fighting, multicultural, working-class movement. Our confidence >comes from the suceess of the "labor teach-in" movement, inaugurated last >fall when more than 2,000 people affirmed a new alliance of labor and >academe at Columbia University. In more than a score of other teach-ins >held from coast to coast, university faculty, students, writers, artists, >and unionists have met to grapple with complex social problems in an >atmosphere of hope. In an era when elite opinion makes a fetish of the >free market, unions--with a commitment to solidarity, equality, and >collective struggle--are just the kind of inclusive, democratic >institutions this country needs. > > SUPPORT THE UPS STRIKERS! > > BULLETIN ON AUG. 21 NATIONAL DAY OF UNITY ACTIVITIES WILL FOLLOW > > Add your name to this public statement which will be > released on August 21. You may do so by e-mailing Thaddeus > Russell at tnr1@columbia.edu. Please note that the address > contains the numeral one after "tnr." > > At the same time you may also join Scholars, Artists, > and Writers for Labor and Social Justice, which is planning a > series of teach-ins and other events over the next several months. > Please send a dues contribution to Ellen Schrecker, 771 West End > Avenue #7D, New York, New York, 10025. > >Alewitz, Mike >Aronowitz, Stanley >Aronson, Ronald >Azcarate, Fred >Ballinger, Lee >Benjamin, Ernst >Bennett, Marty >Bernard, Elaine >Bonilla, Frank >Buhle, Paul >Carter, Prudence >Chancer, Lynn >Clawson, Dan >Cutler, Jonathan >Delgado, Hector >Denning, Michael >DiFazio, Bill >Domingo, Ligaya >Dubro, Alec >Fennell, Dorothy >Fletcher, Bill >Fraser, Steven >Freeman, Joshua B. >Gerstle, Gary >Gray, Lois >Green, Adam >Green, Venus >Hall, Jacquelyn >Horne, Gerald >Huck, Gary >Kaye, Harvey >Kazin, Michael >Kelley, Robin D.G. >Kornbluh, Felicia >Krupat, Kitty >Levi, Margaret >Lichtenstein, Nelson N. >Lie, John >Marquez, Dennis Bixler >Mendel-Reyes, Meta >Montgomery, David >Murolo, Priscilla >Nathan, Debbie >Newman, Kathy >Ngai, Mae >Piven, Frances Fox >Porter, Allison >Potter, Sarah >Pranis, Kevin >Prisock, Louis >Ripton, Jessica >Robinson, Dean >Rosen, Sumner M >Royster, Dee >Russell, Thad >Ryan, Sarah >Schrecker, Ellen W. >Semann, Ingrid >Simmons, Esmeralda >Singh, Nikhil >Skotnes, Andor >Slaughter, Jane >Stephens, Michelle >Sugrue, Tom >Uehlein, Joe >Venkatesh, Sudhir >Watts, Jerry >Willis, Ellen >Woodard, Komozi >Young, Cynthia From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Tue Aug 19 22:33:41 1997 Tue, 19 Aug 1997 20:58:37 -0700 (PDT) Tue, 19 Aug 1997 20:51:57 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 20:51:57 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Looks good for Teamsters; We Are All UPS Drivers Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO It does look good for Teamsters, and they struck a blow for all part-time workers. In staking all on the success of this strike, the Teamsters leadership showed courage. In their preparations leading up the strike and in its conduct, they showed vision and demonstrated a knowledge of what the corporation would respond to and what the people would respond to. Their corporate strategy was well conceived, their tactics well executed. We should begin to analyse the development of the Teamsters' strategy, and their tactics in implementing it. It will provide rank and file activists all over the country with a strong model of what can be done in the face of corporate greed and power. Carey, the TDU and every Teamster in the country can point with pride to the results of activism and union democracy. In addition, I think it is important to find out all we can about the development of the UPS strategy, and why it failed. What consultants did they hire? Why did the strategy fail. Why did they mention doing things (replacements) they obviously did not intend to do? What issues were they unable to cloud, or overcome? We need to do this not because this would be nice to know stuff, but so that workers have a better chance of winning the next time they seek to alter the attitude of their employer. George L. Searfoss Coordinator, Labor In The Schools Program Indiana University South Bend -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following article is from the Seattle-based weekly, Eat the State!, Issue #48, 12 august 97. For more information about EAT THE STATE!, 'a forum for anti-authoritarian political opinion, research and humor' including the full text of this issue and of back issues, go to: http://www.scn.org/news/ets or http://speech.csun.edu/ben/news/ets/ ================= Begin article: ================= WE ARE ALL UPS DRIVERS Great things come in small packages. The issues and the players involved in the current Teamsters' strike against the United Parcel Service are far broader than most people realize. Like the Detroit newspapers, the machinists' strike at Boeing, and the Caterpillar strike earlier this decade, organized labor is attempting to use the UPS contract as a line in the sand over a basic principle affecting millions of workers in all industries. In this case, it's the snowballing trend of large corporations replacing full-time jobs with part-time and temporary positions, so as to save on pay, benefits, and seniority. And this time, wisely, labor picked a company whose product (parcel delivery) affects people in every town in the nation on a daily basis--insuring that media could not ignore the strike as a "local" issue affecting only workers in one or a few communities. The effort to protect the very concept of full-time employment as a social good speaks directly to million of us--most of us--who enter the labor force without any real prospect of employer-based health coverage, job security, or even advancement for a job well done. Increasingly, that--or unemployment--is a permanent condition. The inability of people to sustain themselves and their families even when they're working as hard as they can goes to core issues of how, exactly, jobs should be defined in the global economy, and to two conflicting sets of values: one that sees people as integral parts of communities, one that sees people as interchangeable, dispensable parts in an enormous profit- generating machine. Organized labor and big business are not only watching the strike carefully, but actively maneuvering in it; UPS and the Teamsters are only the front line. Tellingly, you'd never know any of this from mainstream media coverage of the strike. Last Saturday's edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer featured the "Harry and Phil Show" as its lead article, kissing ass to Phil Condit and Harry Stonecipher, the two top men at Boeing these days. The UPS strike, on the other hand, was relegated to the Business Section, as if the only people in town interested in labor issues are business owners. Likewise, the P-I (which has been running a disgusting series of countdown articles on the Boeing-McDonnell Douglas merger--"next week...", "in three days...", "starting Monday...", ad nauseam) has billed the UPS struggle as a showdown between UPS and The Evil Teamsters Union. Reflecting the paper's bias toward business interests, it hasn't discussed the reasons for the strike in any detail--the fact that the workers at UPS are disgusted with a two-tier system that offers benefits and full-time employment to only a few (tenured employees), and keeps the rest of the newer employees in temporary or part-time positions at lower wages. No mention of UPS's 1,300 citations for health and safety violations since 1990, its $4.4 million in penalties, or its $1 billion in profits last year. Or, most importantly, that UPS is far from alone in its policies. (Microsoft, in fact, is one of the most notorious at exploiting part-time and temp help for even professional-level jobs.) Far more people in Seattle go to lousy jobs each day than ship packages. But media coverage, invariably, has focused more on customer inconvenience. When the protagonists are discussed, a curiously timed "scandal" over funding for last year's Teamster election (pushed hard by that champion of the democratic workplace, The Wall Street Journal has gotten far more attention than UPS practices. And, of course, the larger issues are rarely mentioned at all. As trade restrictions evaporate and corporations plot their production (and exploitation) strategies on a global level, it's become essential that working people think in similar terms. We have to recognize our common struggles across industries or borders if the cry for basic human needs is to be heard in the din of the new global economy. That requires--surprise--communication, and free speech. It's pretty clear whose side corporate media is on. And why we need alternatives. In the meantime, the striking UPS drivers deserve everyone's support--now, not a year or two after the fact. The issues are universal, and the reversal of policies that sacrifice human lives on the altar of corporate greed might as well begin right here, right now. ================= End of article ================= mailto:aaron@burn.ucsd.edu http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aaron -------------End of forwarded message------------------------- >--------------------- >Forwarded message: >Subj: UPS Strike Humor >Date: 97-08-15 13:30:25 EDT >From: K ACKRMAN >To: ackermc@ccabc.com,GertieRuth >To: JMKrestic1,aaronlev@cris.com >To: greg_wei@ix.netcom.com >To: BHoff@bconnex.net,RFersh >To: bslewis@pacbell.net,JillBit > >Overworked Fed-Ex employees are joining out-of-work UPS workers and are >forming a new company. It will be called Fed-Up. From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Tue Aug 19 22:38:01 1997 Tue, 19 Aug 1997 20:58:50 -0700 (PDT) Tue, 19 Aug 1997 20:53:29 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 20:53:29 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Why the UPS Win Matters Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO ======================================== Why the Victory at UPS Matters ======================================== -- Nathan Newman With last night's labor contract deal between UPS and the Teamsters agreed to, it appears that the Teamsters have scored a massive win against corporate America. Along with keeping control of their pension fund and winning increases for retirees, the Teamsters have won what appears to be a nearly 40% increase in wages for the average part-time worker and the creation of over 10,000 new full-time positions. In a time when many unions have had to fight to the death for modest gains or to just hold onto what they already have, this unprecendented gain for UPS workers is an inspiring win for UPS workers. But it is more than that. It was won with massive public support and the full backing of the AFL-CIO and, in its meaning for the future of labor and the progressive movement, it will likely be remembered as a crucial turning point for an upswing in activism and success. Why is the win at UPS so important? Start with the settlement itself. In a time when pensions are disappearing or companies are turning pensions into corporate piggybanks, the Teamsters have reaffirmed the principle of strong, worker-controlled pensions that are portable between jobs within an industry. In a time when part-time work is a tool for disempowering workers, the Teamsters have struck the first successful collective assault against corporation's abusive use of part-time work. In a time when average wages have fallen for twenty years, the Teamsters have won an unprecedented increase in wages. In all of this, they have signalled that lowered wages and benefits are not an "inevitable" aspect of the global economy but a result, at least partly, of corporate power and that such corporate power can be resisted and even defeated through collective action backed by a unified labor and community alliance. In a world where the message has been that the only way to avoid being screwed was to cut your own deal, scam your own individual training, fight for your own raise as others fell behind, the UPS deal is now there as a shining example that a whole workforce can rise together and see improvement in working conditions achieved through their own collective strength. Let's be clear. Everyone loves a winner and labor in now a winner through this action. The credibility of labor struggle as a method to fighting corporate power has been relegitimized. The fact that this struggle served lower-income and part-time workers has also relegitimized labor as a champion not just of elite manufacturing workers, pilots and baseball players (a recent media image) but of ordinary workers who everyone can easily identify with. The faces of the strikers were often mothers deciding whether they could afford Fruit Loops on their strike pay and everyone will be cheering that that mother or other struggling families will now have a pay increase and a shot at converting two or three part-time jobs into a solid full-time job at UPS. It is an image of labor that can be taken to workplaces and communities across the country by organizers saying, you could be that mother or that father improving your lot if you will only stand up with your fellow workers and form a union. You can win and you can gain. That is a message we have needed, especially after years of failed strikes in Deacateur, Detroit and earlier Hormel and PATCO. The UPS win is the new meaning of a revitalzed labor movement that will fight together for victory, With 55% of the population siding with the UPS strikers, it signals a new opportunity for labor to marshall public support and sympathy not just as the underdogs but as effective champions to challenge corporate power. Which is where the strike win gets its other significance, which is in the internal meaning for Labor. Start with Carey as leader of the Teamsters. As a rank-and-file leader, Carey had fought for decades against a corrupt Teamster leadership that signed go-along contracts that created the two-tier wage and part-time labor system at UPS in the first place. It was only the struggle for rank-and-file democracy within the Teamsters (led by left activists in Teamsters for a Democratic Union) that eventually catapulted Carey into leadership when the opportunity came in 1991. Against the odds and against internal corruption and the mob, Ron Carey and his TDU allies wrested back control of the largest private sector union in the country. With the federal government overseers draining money from the union as a terrific rate, Carey had to expend other resources cleaning up corrupt locals and dealing with the vestigal resistance of old-line locals living off the fat of members dues. Carey sold off the private jets and slashed his own salary but out of the struggle to reform the union, the Teamsters had emerged seemingly hobbled with an empty bank account. With the election for Teamster President held last year, Carey faced the son of the legendary Jimmy Hoffa who attacked Carey for weaknesses in the union created by Hoffa Junior's own allies, but the attack was almost enough to win a majority. That would have been a tragedy of incredible proportions as the old-line hacks and corrupt deals would have reasserted themselves across the union. Carey emerged the winner but he also emerged tarred as allies and consultants desperately cut corners with a few large, embarassing illegal campaign contributions to the Carey effort undermining the legitimacy of his win. The contributions were returned but the damage to Carey's standing as an honest reformer had been done. So this is the situation Carey faced in this strike: an empty strike fund, his own leadership under a cloud, and facing one of the largest employers in the country backed by flush bank accounts and a $1 billion in profits the year before. Before the strike started, there were a number of pundit analyses that the Teamsters were doomed if they went on strike since their internal collapse or financial exhaustion of their strike fund would quickly kill them off. But Carey defied the odds or, rather, the rank-and-file did as they voted overwhelmingly to strike and when they did, a microscopic number would cross the picket lines. With the stakes so high, Carey's opponents could not afford to be seen as soft or helping management, so support for the strike was loud and vociferous from all quarters of the union. But the key was rank-and-file resolve, a decision after two decades of corporate attacks to just say "no." And the result was yesterday's victory and a victory for militant reform elements not just in the Teamsters but across the union movement. Carey has proven that honest leadership committed to militant united union action can win for workers what old-line "business unionists" could not-- a decent contract and a shot at the American Dream for average workers. And by winning this strike, Carey himself has assured that his own leadership position will remain solid and he can further clean up the union and expand organizing. But Carey could not have won alone. A crucial part of the the win against UPS was the annoucement by AFL-CIO leader John Sweeney that, since the Teamsters strike fund was empty, other AFL-CIO unions would loan the Teamsters whatever funds were needed for however long it took. Sweeney's declaration that "The UPS strike is our strike. Their struggle is our struggle" was a message to UPS management that they were not fighting 180,000 UPS workers but the combined will of millions of AFL-CIO unionists who would use every tool necessary to support the UPS strikers. This UPS strike was really the first big challenge of Sweeney's Presidency of the AFL-CIO. After narrowly being elected to head the AFL-CIO in 1995 by union leaders at the 1995 AFL-CIO convention, he had focused initially on reorienting the finances of the labor federation towards organizing and had launched the federation's 1996 electoral campaign, one that sought to raise the issues of low pay and falling standards of living for workers. Partly due to that campaign, an increase in the minimum wage and the Kennedy-Kassebaum health care bill were passed. But on the labor front, Sweeney had generated a lot of noise and fanfare but, while a new energy surged through the ranks of labor, the concrete results had not been large. A major strike at Boeing had been won and the UAW had made some inroads with the auto companies, but this seemed to have little direct connection to Sweeney. The new AFL-CIO leadership made token mobilizations around inherited struggles in Decateur and the Detroit Newspaper strike, but seemed unable or unwilling to meet the expectations of rank-and-file activists to create a united response in support of such key labor struggles. In that sense, the UPS strike was the first big challenge that Sweeney would face where he could blame no one else, where the responsibility for full labor support was with him from day one. And in his support of the UPS strike, in his bringing together of labor heads to back the Teamsters with the full resources of the labor movement, Sweeney showed what a radical change had been made from the previous legacy of Lane Kirland who had left unions to fend for themselves, had sat back and watched PATCO crushed and strike after strike that followed defeated in their isolation. Instead, we had the message that a united labor movement would support strikes by any of their members. For doubting unions that needed resolve (or pressure) to shift internal union budgets away from do-nothing labor bureaucrats to Sweeney's priorities of organizing, organizing and organizing, this strike has strengthened both Sweeney's prestige and the prestige of the ideas and ideals that forced the historic election of Sweeney and his leadership team in 1995. And the link between Sweeney and Carey go further. When Sweeney was elected in 1995, Carey's Teamsters were the deciding votes. Without question, if Carey had not been elected head of the Teamsters in 1991, Sweeney would not have been elected head of the AFL-CIO in 1995. And without both elections, the victory at UPS would have been impossible since the rank-and-file wouldn't have even been given the chance to fight together for this victory. This is important not so much because Carey and Sweeney as individuals mattered but because they represented the aspirations and struggles of rank-and-file unionists and activists who had struggled for decades to revitalize the labor movement. And these individual leaders became the vehicles for bring that change. If the UPS strike is the turning point for labor, it is a thin, fragile line that led from defeat to revival - a thread that easily could have been broken and the destruction of the modern labor movement a real possibility. That possibility still exists, of course. The UPS strike was just one victory and unions today represent just over 10% of private sector employees, down from nearly 35% of employees in the 1950s. That low level of representation rivals the depths reached in the early part of the Depression before the CIO began its massive organizing drive. If the UPS strike is to represent a turning point, it will have to be followed by massive organizing wins, from the Strawberry workers of California to the Apple pickers of Washington State to the textile workers of the South to hospital workers in the Northeast. The lesson of the UPS strike, however, is that none of those strikes are isolated, that each struggle is our struggle, that militancy and determination can overcome corporate power if workers are united, if they mobilize community support, and if they link the interests of unionized workers to the aspirations of the 90% of workers who are not in a union but might like to be if they see union gains as gains for all working people. Much internal reform is still needed in both the AFL-CIO and the Teamsters, but the victory at UPS shows how far we have come. -------------- From: Nathan Newman From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Wed Aug 20 00:22:16 1997 Tue, 19 Aug 1997 22:49:07 -0700 (PDT) Tue, 19 Aug 1997 22:43:56 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 22:43:56 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Enough for Now: Future Distributions Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Dear Friends, Sisters, Brothers, Colleagues, and Comrades: The UPS strike has been officially terminated by the Teamsters Union, pending contract ratification by mail ballot of members. No doubt there will be post-strike analysis, opinion, and commentary for some time to come. I greatly appreciate the forbearance shown by list subscribers in response to the considerable increase in the volume of mail created by these distributions. I recognize that not everyone wanted the extent of coverage these posts provided. I am pleased to report that I received very few complaints. It would be inappropriate for me to impose further on these lists with distribution of additional material as has been my practice during the strike. There may, however, be post-strike material of interest to some that I will post much more selectively based on the interests to which each list is devoted. I will also maintain a list of individuals who do want to receive copies of ALL such postings, regardless of their subscriptions to these lists. (This may mean receipt of duplicates when a distribution is also posted to a list to which you subscribe.) If you want to be placed on this distribution list, send me notice of your interest (OFF-LIST). It would be helpful to know the lists to which you subscribe where you have been receiving these distributions. If you are a union member, please identify your affiliation (and any other information you care to share). Thanks once again for your patience. I think we can all take great satisfaction in the level of solidarity demonstrated by the Internet Community in support of this struggle. Some thought might be given to how this capacity could be expanded and improved. Certainly we will have need to mobilize ourselves again, perhaps as soon as when the UPS pilots face off with management. In solidarity, Michael ================================================== SIGN ME UP FOR INDIVIDUAL DISTRIBUTIONS Return to: meisenscher@igc.apc.org NAME: E-MAIL ADDRESS: CITY/STATE: UNION: OTHER AFFILIATION: NEWSGROUP SUBSCRIPTIONS or SOURCE FROM WHICH POSTINGS WERE RECEIVED: COMMENTS/SUGGESTIONS: From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Wed Aug 20 00:23:36 1997 Tue, 19 Aug 1997 22:49:03 -0700 (PDT) Tue, 19 Aug 1997 22:43:45 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 22:43:45 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Strike Impact on Future Organizing (NYT) Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO August 19, 1997 Will U.P.S. Strike Draw Workers to Unions, or Scare Them Away? To the Editor: Mark Levinson ( Op-Ed, Aug. 17), an economist for the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, believes that the strike by the teamsters' union against United Parcel Service can be a pivotal event. It can define the balance of power between unions and management, change that power through its outcome and thus take on greater meaning than the specific issues at the bargaining table. The widespread public support for the strikers does reflect the public's fear of downsizing, sympathy with the part-timers and anger at apparent corporate greed. But the wider significance of the strike won't be felt in the outcome of negotiations, which will almost surely be a technical compromise. Rather, look for the impact on union organizing -- the ability of the unions to replace the nearly five million members lost since 1980. Will more part-time workers seek union representation, seeing greater strength through solidarity with each other and with full-time workers? Or will they reject unionism, fearing a U.P.S.-style conflict with management that could jeopardize their already insecure jobs? Last week workers at Fieldcrest Cannon, a large textile manufacturer, voted against representation by Mr. Levinson's union after management pointed out how strikes like the one at U.P.S. can jeopardize job security (news article, Aug. 15). Will U.P.S. now become the centerpiece in employers' anti-union litany during organizing campaigns? How can unions counter it? GARY N. CHAISON Worcester, Mass., Aug. 17, 1997 The writer is a professor of industrial relations at Clark University. ------------------------------------------------- To the Editor: United Parcel Service officials keep asking why the teamsters' union doesn't let members vote on the U.P.S. contract offer. As a U.P.S. stockholder, I'd like to know why the company doesn't extend that courtesy to owners and let us vote on the union offer. ROBERT A. FRUGE Toluca Lake, Calif., Aug. 17, 1997 Copyright 1997 The New York Times Company From aaron@burn.ucsd.edu Wed Aug 20 02:00:44 1997 Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 04:01:28 -0400 From: aaron@burn.ucsd.edu (Aaron) Subject: LA Times: Labor's Win Could Affect the Economy To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Status: RO This item was originally part of the post: >Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 10:10:25 -0700 (PDT) >From: Michael Eisenscher >To: Labor Research and Action Project >Subject: UPS Settlement A Victory for Labor But it got converted into typographical spaghetti somewhere along the way (although I don't know if all or even most recipients were affected), so I'm posting a cleaned-up, reformatted version. - Aaron >From the Los Angeles Times, Tuesday, August 19, 1997 NEWS ANALYSIS Labor's Win Could Affect the Economy By JAMES FLANIGAN, STUART SILVERSTEIN, Times Staff Writers UPS, Teamsters Reach Accord; Full Service Seen in a Few Days Organized labor, battered by decades of declining influence, scored a big victory with the tentative settlement in the Teamsters strike against United Parcel Service. However, the deal could create some inflationary pressures on the economy, and sends a signal that management may not be fully able to deploy workers as it sees fit. But whether American business suffered a long-term defeat, and lost leverage in battles with organized labor, will be subject of debate. The UPS situation, some experts argue, is atypical in that it was hard for the company to replace its vast number of highly skilled workers. In other industries, where striking workers are easier to replace, management may still hold the upper hand, analysts say. Teamster President Ron Carey on Monday night boasted that "workers were on the run, but not any more. This strike marks a new era." The settlement resulted in significant concessions to the union on the key issues of part-time labor and pensions. UPS management declined to state an opinion of the settlement. But economists speculated that the combination of having to promote part-time workers to full-time schedules, with pay raises for all workers, could set off a round of wage and cost pressures in the U.S. economy. "This means there will be cost pressures from the wage side that we haven't seen in this expansion," said Larry Kimbell, director of the UCLA Business Forecasting Project. Clearly, UPS management has suffered a setback. The union prevailed on its key demand that UPS, which employs more than 100,000 part-time workers, upgrade thousands to full-time positions. Also, the company shelved its proposal to withdraw UPS pensions from the Teamsters multi-employer pension plan -- a proposal the union adamantly opposed. The labor victory sends a powerful signal to companies and employees throughout the economy, where part-time work has increased in recent years, helping companies score gains in productivity and profits. "The most important upshot is that management doesn't have as free a hand to do whatever it wants to do to its employees. Now it has to calculate the costs of labor pushing back," said Geoffrey Garin, president of Peter D. Hart Research, which conducts polls for union and Democratic causes. For workers, the strike settlement dovetails with a labor market with low unemployment and a scarcity of workers for some jobs. At UPS and elsewhere, "we're going to see improving settlements for workers, with some rise in wages. There have been very strong gains in profits [for companies], but there haven't been strong gains in wages," economist Kimbell noted. Whether rising costs of labor would set off rising inflation remained a question after the labor victory. Stock and bond markets today will register an early reaction to the settlement. Given financial markets' fears of wage and cost pressures, that reaction is likely to be negative. However, in the larger sense of the "Main Street" economy, beyond Wall Street, the settlement could provide a boost to consumer confidence. "In general, this should reassure people," Kimbell said. "Now it's not just that the unemployment rate is low, but there's also a prospect for better jobs." The 15-day strike proved a turning point in many ways. Just as the crushing of the air traffic controllers strike in 1981 signaled an era of corporate restructuring and labor retreats, so the UPS settlement may presage a period of growing strength for union members and other workers. Notably, the Teamsters enjoyed broad public support in the UPS strike. A poll released Friday showed 55% of Americans siding with the strikers, versus 27% backing the company. Although the cost of strikes normally is punishing to labor and management alike, this will encourage some more unions to walk out to win their demands. As much as labor won at the bargaining table, it also scored a significant victory with the public in making its point that many workers want full-time, not part-time, jobs. However, a sizable number of people -- including retired persons, homemakers and students -- often welcome flexible schedules and the work of many businesses demand that people work odd hours. Still, part-time workers earned lower wages than the company's full-time employees and that fact rankled employees enough for the union to elevate it into one of its pivotal strike issues. Copyright Los Angeles Times ---------- mailto:aaron@burn.ucsd.edu http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aaron From aaron@burn.ucsd.edu Wed Aug 20 02:03:03 1997 Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 04:03:49 -0400 From: aaron@burn.ucsd.edu (Aaron) Subject: AP: How badly has strike divided UPS? To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Status: RO Here's another cleaned-up item from the post: >Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 10:10:25 -0700 (PDT) >From: Michael Eisenscher >To: Labor Research and Action Project >Subject: UPS Settlement A Victory for Labor - Aaron How badly has strike divided UPS? Chairman was himself a driver 30 years ago ASSOCIATED PRESS ATLANTA -- One business professor who studied UPS calls it ``the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of corporate America'' -- a clean-cut, hard-working, and thrifty operation that promotes teamwork and humility in the ranks. But as UPS has grown into a worldwide giant, so have strains within the company. Striking workers tell of increasing workloads and pressure to return to work after injuries. AS THE COMPANY'S FIRST nationwide strike by Teamsters dragged beyond its second week, the question became more nagging -- how wide and permanent a wound would there be to UPS' carefully nurtured culture? ``It's really hard to say. The character of an institution is very fragile,'' said professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who as a Harvard teacher spent a year working various jobs at UPS and now heads an Emory University institute partly funded by UPS. `UNCHARTED WATERS' In trying to stay true to its roots -- as a bicycle delivery service begun 90 years ago this month by a Seattle youth and his buddies -- UPS has remained a place where nearly all the bosses work their ways up from within. Chairman James Kelly, who began as a truck driver three decades ago, remains available to have coffee with employees who meet him in the parking lot or the company cafeteria. ``You can't be a big man until you've shown competence as a small one,'' company founder James Casey once wrote. Company executives remain hopeful any wounds can be quickly healed, although the term ``uncharted waters'' is used repeatedly these days at the Atlanta corporate headquarters. Lea Soupata, senior vice president for human resources, worked her way up from being a receptionist in New York, where there were local walkouts over the years. ``When we got back together, there was immediate bonding. The goal was to get the packages delivered,'' she said. ``Those work stoppages were very short -- never like this.'' ``You've got to realize that the vast majority of our people have never seen a strike,'' said John Alden, the company's vice chairman who began 32 years ago as a clerk in Watertown, Mass. ``It's an unfortunate situation. We can put that behind us.'' However, there were dozens of arrests and scattered violence on the picket lines in the strike's first week. `BOTH SIDES' AT FAULT? Some strikers expressed worries that the company was out to crush its union -- representing nearly two-thirds of its 302,000 U.S. employees. Others voiced frustration with both company and union leaders over the deadlock in talks over the company's heavy use of part-time workers, pension fund proposals and other issues. ``I think the employees are being kept in the dark by both sides,'' said Dave Phipps, a tractor-trailer driver in Harrisburg, Pa. Phipps, a 28-year UPS employee, described it as a company that's run aggressively and strictly. ``People who do work there earn their money,'' he said. ``I've seen people come in and quit after one week after they see what's expected of them.'' Employees on the front lines must have neatly trimmed hair and are expected to develop polite, first-name relationships with regular customers. The attention to detail in how employees do things has ranged from telling drivers to always step first with their right foot from the brown trucks to folding their money face-up. The company has become a giant that says it delivers the equivalent of 6 percent of the gross domestic product each day. Its international and air service have expanded and it has been a leader in technological advances such as sophisticated package tracking that customers can check on the Internet. Strikers say they've carried much of the growth on their backs. During 1993 negotiations, the Teamsters produced a study claiming that UPS workers were among the most overworked and over-stressed in the nation. ``We take pride; it's almost like a mission,'' said Ron Monroe, an Atlanta driver for 19 years. ``But from the time we clock in, we work hard. People say, `I'd drive a truck for $20 an hour.' Well, let's see them try.'' =A9 1997 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. ---------- mailto:aaron@burn.ucsd.edu http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aaron From shostaka@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu Wed Aug 20 11:00:37 1997 Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 13:02:35 -0500 To: LABOR-RAP@csf.colorado.edu From: Art Shostak Subject: F.Y.I. Status: RO Brothers and Sisters: Thought this might interest you - Teamsters, Labor, and the Ghost of PATCO: Hard-earned Lessons by Dr. Arthur B. Shostak Professor of Sociology Drexel University PATCO has been the ghost haunting the recently ended Teamster-UPS strike. No union-management faceoff since the 1981 White House firing of 11,400 PATCO strikers so captured public attention, involved so many workers, and so tested labor's mettle. Regardless of the contract details, organized labor won a very special and very valuable victory: It showed its 14-million members and the 122-million others in the U.S. workforce that it understood the fatal errors made 16 years ago in the PATCO fiasco, and has found a far smarter way of hitting the bricks. This time, for example, the union made a creative and sustained effort to win public support, something PATCO ineptly sought only after the fact. The IBT held press conferences and public rallies before and during the UPS strike, going so far as to make strategic use of web sites to update and rally its 185,000 UPS members. They succeeded in linking their case for part-timer gains to the plight of all Americans who feel victimized by "take-it-or-leave-it" terms of employment. Unlike PATCO, which lost badly in the Court of Public Opinion, the Teamsters won almost two-to-one over UPS in a Fox News poll, earned a 55%-to-27% win in a CNN/USA Today Gallup Poll, and scored 39% to 30% in an ABC News Nightline poll taken at the end of the strike's second week. A second lesson had the Teamsters seek and secure widespread support from other unionists, something PATCO was too proud and insular to bother with. The Teamsters earned critical support from the Pilots Union inside UPS, the Postal Union, and even European unions with UPS contracts. The AFL-CIO came through with a loan of millions to help cover a $10-million-a-week strike benefit bill. But best of all, unions across the country helped to man Teamster picket lines in a rare show of solidarity, just what the labor movement needed to affirm mutual concern and buoy morale. Third, unlike PATCO in 1981, the Teamsters updated traditional strike tactics to better fit the times. Recognizing the happy coincidence of many jobs available for strikers, the union scaled back the picketline hours expected for receiving strike benefits, and liberated many to supplement their take-home pay with temporary jobs. Finally, the two strikes differ in that PATCO in 1980 supported a Republican candidate for the presidency, only to find to its astonishment that Ronald Reagan had no compunctions about breaking their strike, firing the strikers, hiring replacements, decertifying their union, and signalling to anti-union employers they had a friend in the White House. The Teamsters, in contrast, helped a Democrat win re-election in 1996, and have been assisted since by the strenuous efforts of Alexis Herman, Clinton's Secretary of Labor. As well, the White House declined to use the Taft-Hartley Act to end the strike, a move no president has taken in the last 25 years, albeit UPS has urged this almost from day one. As we head toward this 112th Labor Day, the American labor movement appears smarter, stronger, and more relevant than in many recent years. It is proud that nearly all of its contracts are being settled without conflict, and proud also of its ability to hold its own - and then some - should conflict prove necessary. It is proud that it is the largest social movement in America, and especially proud that the nation's air traffic controllers, after trying life without a union for six years following the PATCO disaster, re-unionized and rejoined the AFL-CIO. Like the 1981 PATCO strike, the 1997 Teamster-UPS strike already has a major place in labor history, this time, however, signalling not a sharp blow, but more likely a significant boost to labor's prospects. ***** Arthur B. Shostak is an Industrial Sociologist and Labor Educator at Drexel University. He is the principle author of "The Air Controller's Controversy: Lessons from the 1981 PATCO Strike." He is also an Adjunct Sociologist at the AFL-CIO George Meany Center for Labor Studies. Arthur B. Shostak, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Department of Psychology/ Sociology/Anthropology, Drexel University, Phila., PA, 19104; Office: 215/895-2466; Home: 610/668-2727. email: SHOSTAKA@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu http://httpsrv.ocs.drexel.edu/faculty/shostaka/ Arthur B. Shostak, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Department of Psych/Soc/Anthro, Drexel University, Phila., PA, 19104; 215-895-2466; fax 610-668-2727. email: SHOSTAKA@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu http://httpsrv.ocs.drexel.edu/faculty/shostaka/ "This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to do with it." Ralph Waldo Emerson From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Wed Aug 20 11:18:46 1997 Wed, 20 Aug 1997 09:46:55 -0700 (PDT) Wed, 20 Aug 1997 09:40:50 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 09:40:50 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: US trade unions in Russia Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Originally posted to labr.party@conf.igc From: Steve Zeltzer Date: 08/19 2:36 PM From: , austgreen@glas.apc.org #COLD WAR AND WORKERS' SOLIDARITY: US TRADE UNIONS IN RUSSIA #By Renfrey Clarke #MOSCOW - For American aid agencies in the post-Soviet world, these are trying times. In April, a scandal erupted when two US economic advisers in Moscow were accused of using their positions with the Harvard Institute for International Development for personal gain. Then early in August the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) accused a Russian collaborator body, the Institute for a Law-Based Economy, of making off with $500,000 worth of US-purchased office equipment. #None of these reports can have been altogether surprising to officials and activists of Russia's trade unions. Since the days of perestroika the US government, working through quasi- independent aid bodies and the main US labour federation, the AFL-CIO, has spent millions of dollars trying to fashion a new Russian labour movement. Of the absurdities and abuses that the media are now reporting in other aid programs, there are few that do not have some parallel in the experience of Russian workers over the years with the labour emissaries from across the Atlantic. #It is true that not everything in this collaboration has been negative. The contradictions of US foreign policy can sometimes, if rarely and briefly, rebound to workers' benefit. And if little good can be said of the US intervention in the Russian labour movement during the first half of the 1990s, an extensive house- cleaning in the AFL-CIO since 1995 has meant that the joint work in the most recent years has been relatively useful. #When envoys of the US labour movement first contacted Soviet mineworker activists following the great strikes on Soviet coalfields in the summer of 1989, these direct links were an absolute novelty for the Soviet workers concerned. The US unions, by contrast, had carried on activity outside American borders for more than 40 years. Today's International Affairs Department (IAD) of the AFL-CIO traces its history back to the opening years of the Cold War. #The fact that the American trade unions carried out activity abroad did not mean that these operations were in the interests of workers. Until the 1970s, the IAD was funded by the Central Intelligence Agency. Part of its brief was to optimise the labour environment in which US corporations operated abroad. Right-wing labour organisations in many countries were subsidised or if necessary, set up from scratch. Militant trends were sabotaged using a broad array of ``dirty tricks''. #In the mid-1970s the Church Committee hearings in the US Congress exposed abuses by the CIA, and opened the lid on the the agency's work with the AFL-CIO. Funding for the IAD was then rerouted through USAID, and later also the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The ultimate source of the money, however, remained the US government. By the 1990s about US$40 million a year was being channelled through four quasi-independent institutes: the American Institute for Free Labor Development, which ran USAID and NED programs in Latin America; the Free Trade Union Institute (FTUI), which conducted them in Eastern Europe; and similar bodies in Asia and Africa. 1 #In April 1992 an office of the FTUI was opened in Moscow. Over the next few years several million dollars were spent on setting up and maintaining a whole network of research, information and organisational structures. Late 1992 saw the appearance of the first issue of ``the all-Russian newspaper of social partnership Delo'', funded and supported by the FTUI. An ambitious trade union education initiative was in place by June the following year. #A paradox of FTUI's activity in Russia during these years was that the organisation deliberately avoided contacts with the great bulk of the country's trade union movement. The AFL-CIO leadership had always shunned the Soviet trade unions, ostensibly on the basis that these were not real workers' organisations. When the ``traditional'' unions refashioned themselves into the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR), the IAD chiefs refused to accept that anything important had changed. #Instead, the FTUI's representatives focused exclusively on the newly-established ``free'' trade unions. These had been set up for the most part by militants following labour struggles in various sectors, especially the coal industry. The new unions were supplied by the FTUI with office equipment, training, and other help. #Ultimately, the FTUI's choice of targets for its aid-giving had little to do with the legitimacy of the new unions as workers' organisations, and much to do with their politics. The members of the ``free'' unions were broadly anti-communist, identifying the Communist Party (or its surviving fragments) with the anti-worker repressions of the past. The support of these workers for the new Yeltsin regime tended to be conditional and guarded, but this did not prevent the FTUI from identifying the new unionism with the government and its program of restoring capitalism. ``The AFL-CIO is giving its solidarity and support to those independent trade unions which are consistently defending the course of the reforms," declared the sub-head on a March 1993 interview in Delo with the then head of the FTUI's Moscow office, Tom Bradley. #The FTUI's efforts to help prepare Russia for US investors were impeded by the fact that the Russian economy in 1992 and 1993 was in a process of headlong collapse. Nevertheless, a coal industry project named Partners in Economic Reform was launched, with US coal firms among the sponsors. The purpose of this initiative was described in its registration document as ``aiding in the reconstruction of the centralized and state-controlled coal- mining industry''; in other words, the goal was to assist in bringing the industry out from beneath state control and privatising it. #For its efforts and money in Russia during these years, the FTUI eventually had little to show. The newspaper Delo made no significant impact. Meanwhile, the ``free'' trade unions failed to thrive, remaining tiny compared with the FNPR. Part of the reason was that the FTUI, wanting conservative, pro-regime unions, avoided encouraging them to democratise their internal structures. Also, the political support pledged by most of the new unions for the government and its ``reforms'' had little appeal for the mass of workers. 2 #Unable to function on their tiny dues base, and without the FNPR's income from property accumulated during the Soviet era, the ``free'' unions depended heavily on funds from Western sources. Competition for these grants heightened rivalries between union leaders. With a key role in directing the flow of money, FTUI employees used their positions to interfere crudely in internal union affairs; by 1994 these practices were drawing sharp protests from union chiefs. #Developments in the US eventually brought the early period of the AFL-CIO's activity in Russia to a close. At the 1995 AFL-CIO convention, a reform slate headed by John Sweeney won the leadership. Sweeney and his supporters presaged a break with the Cold War perspectives of the past, and pledged to link up with unionists in other countries in order to thwart the efforts of multinational corporations to cut jobs and drive down wage levels. #The politico-economic logic that had driven the FTUI's work in Russia since 1992 - of seeking to build right-wing trade unions under strong US influence, and through them, to promote US investment - was now in serious question. At the same time, US government budget cuts were curtailing the funds available through USAID and NED for the AFL-CIO's international programs. #Over the past two years the FTUI's operations in Russia have changed dramatically. The flow of grants coming into the country has been severely cut, forcing the FTUI to shed many activities that were not viewed as central. As a result, the newspaper Delo is no more, and the FTUI's more deliberate efforts to multiply the number of ``free'' trade unions - the source of some of the worst frictions of the past - have been abandoned. #Talking to Green Left Weekly, the FTUI's present Moscow director Irene Stevenson stated that her organisation's work is now focused heavily on education (using mainly Russian instructors), on the defence of workers' rights, and on news gathering and dissemination. A further priority has been developing the legal aid resources available to unions. #The FTUI's assistance to the Russian labour movement remains concentrated almost exclusively on the ``free'' trade unions. But according to Stevenson, this is no longer because of the traditional anathematisation of the FNPR, but simply because the FNPR has its own education, legal aid and other structures, and has less need of outside help. ``We're here to assist activists,'' Stevenson argues, indicating that their affiliation is no longer viewed as important. ``Russia needs strong trade unions,'' she maintains, ``and if anyone can get a victory for a worker, that's good.'' #For millions of trade unionists in Russia, the crucial issue of the past few years has been the failure by the government to force enterprises to pay wages on time - or indeed, to meet its own wage bills. As a matter of necessity, the FTUI has had to take support for Yeltsin out of its institutional shop-window. The organisation has not endorsed the FNPR's consciously political strategy of calling periodic mass protests centred on the wage payments issue. Instead, it has concentrated on educating unionists about the various avenues - often neglected by Russian unions - that can be used to force specific 3 enterprises to pay up. In most cases, Stevenson notes, Russian courts will rule in favour of workers who sue for their wages. But she admits that forcing the executive authorities to implement these rulings is extraordinarily difficult. #In their present form, the FTUI's programs in Russia are at least modestly useful to the country's labour movement. But the contradictions are monumental. Most fundamentally, the source of the money is still the US government, which has never needed strong and effective trade unions in the US, Russia, or anywhere else. #If the continuation of funding is simply an oversight, the grants are likely to stop quite soon. More likely, the US authorities regard the FTUI programs in Russia as a kind of ``sleeper'' operation. If this is the case, the help the FTUI provides for building the Russian labour movement is being tolerated as part of the cost of maintaining contacts and building credibility against the day when the movement explodes into a serious struggle to defend workers' interests. #At that point, the pressure will become intense for the FTUI to switch to consistently serving its paymasters. That demand will pose a fundamental challenge not only to the staff of the FTUI, but also to the leaders of the AFL-CIO. 4 ----------------- End Forwarded Message ----------------- From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Wed Aug 20 11:27:48 1997 Wed, 20 Aug 1997 09:50:13 -0700 (PDT) Wed, 20 Aug 1997 09:42:52 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 09:42:52 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: IBT UPS Settlement: Teamster Statement Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO TEAMSTER UPS UPDATE August 19, 1997 TEAMSTER VICTORY ON ALL MAJOR GOALS 10,000 NEW FULL-TIME JOBS, PENSION INCREASES UNDER TEAMSTER PLANS, NEW LIMITS ON SUBCONTRACTING SIGNIFICANT WAGE INCREASES STRIKE SUSPENDED AS TENTATIVE AGREEMENT GOES TO MEMBERSHIP VOTE Leaders of the Teamster local unions that represent UPS members have voted unanimously to approve the tentative agreement reached on Monday night, August 18, and to suspend the strike while members vote by mail. The tentative agreement achieves all of our major goals -- providing tens of thousands of full-time job opportunities, new limits on subcontracting, significant increases in wages, pension increases under Teamster plans, and new job safety and health protections. "Teamster members at UPS have shown that American workers can stand up to corporate greed," said Teamsters General President Ron Carey. "Members' involvement throughout our contract campaign, Teamster unity on the picket lines, and strong community support forced UPS to come back to the table and agree to provide solutions on our key issues," Carey added. "In virtually every area, this agreement is much, much better than the company's last offer before the strike. "Our fight for good jobs marks a historic turning point for working people in this country. After 15 years of taking it on the chin, working families are telling big corporations that we will fight for the American dream." See next page for a brief overview of the proposed contract continued from page 1 Contract details will be sent to members before you vote. Following is a brief overview: FULL-TIME JOB OPPORTUNITIES * UPS will provide at least 20,000 full-time job opportunities for part-timers. 10,000 new full-time jobs will be created by combining existing part-time positions and a minimum of 10,000 part-timers will be promoted to full-time job openings. * Five full-time openings will be filled by current part-timers for every one opening filled from the outside. The ratio in the old contract was four for one. SUBCONTRACTING * UPS is prohibited from using subcontractors except for peak season feeder work, and then only if the local union agrees. * Work currently being done by subcontractors will be bid to UPS sleeper teams. Sleeper team drivers will receive a mileage premium of 2 cents per mile. No feeder driver will be forced to drive a sleeper run. PAY INCREASES * Full-timers: $3.10 per hour increase over 5 years ($22,000 more for the average full-timer). * Part-timers: $3.10 per hour increase over five years plus $1.00 more for part-timers hired after 1982 ($13,000 more for the average part-timer). 50 cent increase in the part-timer start rate. * Air drivers: Increase pay for part-time air drivers -- including exception drivers -- to $13.00 per hour plus general wage increases. Full-time air drivers will earn $15.00 per hour plus general wage increases. * New Full-Time Inside Position: $15.00 per hour plus the general wage increases and full-time pension and health benefits. PENSIONS * The new contributions are enough to allow every Teamster plan to provide major increases in benefit levels. For almost all Teamster members, benefits will be equal or better than the company's offer. * Major improvements in UPS plan covering part-timers who are not covered under Teamster plans. HEALTH AND SAFETY PROTECTIONS * New job safety protections, including a guarantee that UPS must negotiate and reach an agreement with the union over any changes in the weight limit or handling of over 70s. Right to Teamster help and lifting devices for over 70s. From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Wed Aug 20 22:21:09 1997 Wed, 20 Aug 1997 20:50:28 -0700 (PDT) Wed, 20 Aug 1997 20:44:25 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 20:44:25 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: New Dogs, Blue Dogs, Old Dogs (Barron) Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Check out Barron's articles on Democratic Party factions (also links to others). http://interactive.wsj.com/edition/current/summaries/barrons.htm From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Thu Aug 21 01:12:18 1997 Wed, 20 Aug 1997 23:42:00 -0700 (PDT) Wed, 20 Aug 1997 23:36:18 -0700 (PDT) Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 23:36:18 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: UPS First day back (fwd) Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 00:05:07 -0500 From: Go USA To: OIFAC@cmsa.Berkeley.EDU Subject: UPS First day back Dear Friends, As a package car driver for UPS, I wanted to recount my first day back to work after the strike. Nearly every driver available was told to come in to start work at a time that is one hour before our regular start time. Management was very friendly and seemed happy that we were back, so they could finally get some rest. We found that they had laid off all of the part time loaders that usually load our trucks, although our trucks were partially loaded. These packages were possibly left over from managements attempts to deliver. We were essentially making $30.00 plus an hour to load our trucks, since this extra time worked is at overtime pay. We loaded our trucks for three hours until all of the packages were loaded and then left the building. All day was full of people honking, waving and showing us the thumbs up sign. Lots of welcome back's, etc.. (very few exceptions) One thing I would like to point out is UPS's determination to lay off a certain amount of people. They laid off ~$11.00 /hr employees and had drivers work 12 hours plus, and many of us did not even come close to delivering everything on our truck. So they accepted service failures, and higher pay to be able to make a point to lay off extra employees. It has been my experience that UPS will gladly make bad or dishonest decisions just to make a point. They told the press 15,000 employees would be laid off after the strike, so they made sure it happened, even at a cost. It has been my experience that UPS management, as owners of the company, have been told that it is their obligation to do what is in the best interest of the company. This includes lying to or about any employee, as long they feel it is in the best interest of the company. As an example, one day, my supervisor was asking me some questions while he had my permanent employee file open. I asked for another union steward to come and represent me. He denied this and proceeded to go ahead and write in both the question, and then he fabricated answers, for me, putting these made up answers in my personnel file, as if this is how I was answering him. When I complained to a building manager, that was walking by, that my supervisor was putting things in my personnel file that I did not say, he told me "That file is UPS property, and we can put any thing in it we want, true or not." This is the same company that tried to tell us they had our best interest at heart when they were trying to take control of our pension. I'm glad to be back and hope all of your future organizing dreams come true. Mike Allison UPS Driver President Go USA: Union Solution Applications gousa@mail.kcmo.com From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Thu Aug 21 16:09:46 1997 Thu, 21 Aug 1997 14:38:02 -0700 (PDT) Thu, 21 Aug 1997 14:32:07 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 14:32:07 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Commentary/Analysis from Shostak and Albert Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO From: Art Shostak Carey, Sweeney, and PATCO: Hard-earned Lessons, Heart-felt gains. As the strikers will never tire of telling their grandchildren, the 1997 Teamster-UPS strike ended in one of the clearest labor victories in modern times, one that may have enabled labor to finally put the ghost of the PATCO disaster to rest. Not since 1981 when the White House fired 11,400 PATCO strikers has a labor-management showdown so captured public attention, inconvenienced so many, involved so many workers, and so tested labor's mettle. Organized labor showed it had studied fatal errors made 16 years ago by PATCO and the labor movement, errors it had no intention of repeating. This time, for example, the union made a creative effort to win public support, something PATCO ineptly sought only after the fact. Before the strike the Teamsters (IBT) used mail questionnaires of UPS employees and conducted focus groups to sharpen their issues advocacy material. They held press conferences, released a series of press packets, and conducted many public rallies before and during the strike, going so far as to make strategic use of numerous web sites to update and rally their 185,000 members. (UPS chair James Kelly complained the union had a "media blitz ready to go.") This time the union succeeded in linking its case to issues the whole country could identify with, something PATCO failed to achieve. The union sought a raise for part-timers (who had gone without one since 1983) and an option to get full-time jobs, two bargaining demands that resonated with all Americans who feel victimized by "take-it-or-leave-it" terms of employment. The Teamster slogan - "Part-time America does't work" - proved one of the smartest any union has employed in many decades. Unlike PATCO, then, which lost badly in the Court of Public Opinion, the Teamsters won almost two-to-one over UPS in a Fox News poll, earned a 55%-to-27% win a CNN/USA Today Gallup Poll, and scored 39% to 30% in an ABC News Nightline poll taken shortly before the company came to terms. This time the Teamsters sought and secured widespread support from other unionists, something PATCO traded in favor of a reckless and fatal political gamble. PATCO began its action on its own, confident that its election support of candidate Reagan assured it White House empathy. Instead, it learned to its everlasting shock that President Reagan saw their strike (which they intended to go only 72 hours) as an opportunity to send a thunderous class warfare message: Public sector strikes, the president roared, were utterly unacceptable! He proceded to fire the strikers, decertify their public sector union, impose a lifetime blacklist ban on their ever getting new federal employ, sanction the hiring of replacement workers, and signal more virulent anti-union employers they had an especially good friend in the White House. The Teamsters, in sharp contrast with PATCO, did not rely alone on (far better) political "friends," but was careful as well to nuture good relations with other UPS unions, overseas allies, and the AFL-CIO .The UPS Independent Pilots Union honored its picket line (and has in turn a pledge from the Teamsters to do the same, should that become necessary in December). Simarlarly, the union held a Global Day of Action, with unions in Germany, Italy, Belgium, and other countries demonstrating at UPS facilities. The AFL-CIO came through with a loan of $10-million a week to help cover the strike benefit bill. And, best of all, diverse AFL-CIO local unions from coast-to-coast joined Teamster picket lines in a colorful show of solidarity. Unlike PATCO in 1981, the Teamsters updated traditional strike tactics to better fit the times. Recognizing the happy coincidence of many jobs available for strikers, the union scaled back the picketline hours expected for receiving strike benefits, and liberated many to supplement their takehome with temporary jobs. Little wonder that the second week ended with 97% of the pickets firm in their refusal to heed company calls to cross the line (PATCO suffered a 20% defection rate, half of whom never struck, while the others crossed over). The two strikes also differed in that PATCO in 1980 supported a Republican candidate for the presidency. The Teamsters, in 1996, helped a Democrat win re-election, and were been aided thereafter by Alexis Herman, Clinton's Secretary of Labor, to resolve their strike in a fashion that left all capable of getting on with business. As well, the White House declined to use the Taft-Hartley Act to force a cooling-off period on the workers, a move no president had taken in the last 25 years, albeit UPS had urged this almost from day one. Finally, the two events both included a major demand that cost its proponent dearly in the Court of Public Opinion. PATCO asked for parity with the pay the piolts were earning, arguing that their ground air control responsibilities were fully as significant as anything being done in the cockpit. The public found this hard to believe, and the Airline Pilots Union heaped ridicule on the notion. PATCO never made a good case here, and its finer bargaining demands, such as for more reliable and safety-enhancing equipment, were over-shadowed by its historic feud over salary disparities with the pilots. Similarly, UPS asked for an end to its participation in the joint labor-management pension funds negotiated for by various Teamster locals. The public and the strikers alike found the UPS case wanting, especially as the funds were up 84% since 1994 in a booming stock market. Naturally, it is far too soon to know what lasting impact the 1997 strike will have. Skeptics warn jubilant strikers may now retreat to their former lives, focuse on the exegencies of daily life, and drift away from earnest involvement in unionism. Other unions may find it difficult to replicate Teamster strategy and tactics, especially as their conflicts may not involve a vulnerable, inept company lacking the ability to relocate in a "Right-to-Work" state or take work overseas. Reversals in such labor conflicts ahead, taken against the backdrop of unrealistic pro-labor expectations raised by the IBT victory, could lead to even greater demoralization. (The Wall Street Journal, not surprisingly, warns in a bitter August 21 editorial: "...the AFL-CIO should by all means enjoy this triumph over UPS. There won't be many more.") All such misgivings notwithstanding, the American labor movement appears smarter, stronger, and more relevant than in many recent years. It is proud that nearly all of its contracts (5,000 this year alone) are settled without conflict, but proud also of its ability to hold its own - and then some - should conflict prove necessary. (It is especially proud that the nation's air traffic controllers, after trying life without a union for six years after the PATCO disaster, have since re-unionized as NATCA-AFL-CIO and rejoined the ranks of organized labor.) Like the 1981 PATCO strike, the 1997 Teamster-UPS strike already has a major place in American labor history. This time, however, not as a sharp blow to, but seemingly as a significant boost for labor's prospects. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- >From the Pages of Z Magazine, September, 1997 This article is from the newly designed (free) web site associated with Z Magazine, ZNET (www.lbbs.org). =20 Society's Pliers The UPS Strike By Michael Albert =20 Having completed this article about how the rest of us might contribute to winning the Teamsters Strike, I awoke this morning to find labor had won. There was no government intervention. UPS wasn=92t going to fight a long war of attrition. The Teamster pension plan is intact and enlarged. UPS wages are up, more for part-time than full-time employees. Sub-contracting is limited. Safety protection is enacted. The ethos of using part-time employment to lower wages and reduce benefits is shattered.=20 The key questions to be answered by this strike were:=20 Can labor conduct a national strike without interference from the government?=20 Can the Teamsters reverse trends toward part time employment that reduce salaries and benefits and cripple solidarity?=20 And can the UPS workers demonstrate that solidarity can win improved wages, conditions, and rights?=20 The answers would appear to be yes, yes, and yes. =20 What Happened Capital has been trouncing labor since the 1981 PATCO strike-breaking by Reagan. The already rich have climbed a 20-year ladder of redistribution to an even more fantastic centralization of wealth and power. At the top of their game, challenged by the Teamsters in what capital would have to consider merely a last ditch, desperation labor action, why didn=92t UPS hold out? Why couldn=92t capital, in such a dominant position, hold off Carey and Co.?=20 Every victory for justice, for equity, for diversity, for democracy, for anything that fulfills anyone other than elites, and which costs elites power and profit, is accomplished in one way. A situation is created in which changes must be made or the costs to elites will rise even higher.=20 I think the answer to why UPS caved in is: (1) The power of labor is in solidarity which can grow at a rate that far exceeds the slow assault on labor that capital is always waging; (2) The Teamsters preparations and issues were such that there was a very good likelihood that labor=92s organizational, ideological, and material gains would accelerate the longer the strike lasted; and (3) capital saw this possibility very clearly, and feared it, not wanting to make any missteps that could contribute to such an outcome. UPS and all capitalist institutions take strength in capital mobility, union busting, aggravating race and gender divisions, unemployment threats made real by manufactured high unemployment, residual fear based on prior experiences of loss, labor fragmentation, technological and organizational investments designed to weaken labor, government spending that reduces social supports while protecting profits, media manipulation and monopolization, and government intervention via restrictive labor laws. Labor, in contrast, takes strength in collective mutual aid, solidarity, and growing hope and consciousness=97that is, in numbers and organization.=20 In this context, the Teamsters prepared to wage a battle not only in front of each plant, with the workers unified and clear in their commitment, but also on TV and in every venue of contact with the public. The Teamsters had their facts down and their presentation planned. They had lined up their support mechanisms. They not only threatened to fight long and hard, they were prepared to do so, with widespread support that could easily grow and diversify in its demands and commitment. The workers had unity and clarity, plus a plan that promised more of both if the battle lasted. UPS was outgunned. The facts were irrefutable: Part timers at UPS earned about $11 an hour =96 full timers about $20 per hour.=20 46,300 new jobs had been added since 1993, but 38,500 of them were part-time.=20 UPS had over 60 percent part-timers=97up 18 points in ten years.=20 In Chicago the percentage of UPS part-timers had risen to 70 percent, in New York 61 percent, in Boston 67 percent, in Dallas 68 percent, in Los Angeles 72 percent, in San Francisco 76 percent, in Louisville 90 percent.=20 In 1996, UPS recruited and trained 182,000 people for part-time jobs, only 40,000 of whom were still with the company at year=92s end.=20 Three of every four part-timers who left the company cited lack of full-time opportunities as a factor in their decision.=20 With facts like these widely available, how was UPS to stem the energy of labor before it could become something truly threatening to capital=97workers, across job designations, across firms, and even across industries, aligning and becoming active? UPS tried a few spins to try to divide and weaken.=20 They argued that the Teamster leadership was in it for their own narrow gains and that the strike was a power play smokescreen. But the response was increased unity and clarity. People were forced to realize the obvious: that 185,000 workers strike only when they are angry at management and have goals they wish to fight for. It became clear that the strike had a broader meaning=97that the 20-year trampling on labor=92s rights and the redistribution of wealth and power upward were now over. The strike threatened the unification of a new labor culture. Recently, much worker anger has been misplaced into right wing anti-conspiracy movements, sexism, and racism. Now, finally, a visible effort coalesced this anger against the true enemy and with proper solidarity. More, it was an effort that people all over the country could relate to and become part of at any UPS parking lot. We should take heart in the outcome. It was vital that capital defeat this effort, yet UPS=92s final calculation was simple. The Teamsters were not likely to be beaten. Capital had more to lose by fighting than by giving in. Our lesson is just as simple. Solidarity and organization plus preparation can win.=20 Another line of argument UPS tried to pursue was the pension fund, even subtly playing the corruption card. But the Teamsters wanting to control their workers=92 pension funds and to do it in a collective manner that helps those who work at smaller firms, was exemplary. Highlighting this only pushed workers into more explicit awareness of the value of pension funds and of controlling them, and especially of creating collective structures that equalize rewards and benefits among more and less advantaged workers. For the Teamsters to give in on pensions would have reduced pension portability for members, reduced union and workers' control over the pension, and opened the door to UPS in future bargaining threatening to reduce contributions to the fund.=20 There was one other card to play: the democracy angle. UPS tried to attack the Teamsters for not calling a vote on the company=92s offer. They claimed that the union was undemocratic and didn=92t care about the workers, and that a culture of fear prevented members from rebelling. But this approach could only reveal that while it was still far from the participatory democratic ideal its own best members seek, the Teamsters are one of the more democratic institutions in the country. Even worse, this line of attack would compel the union and its rank and file and the public to think about issues of participation and democracy in the economy. It would illuminate the obvious truth that capital needs hidden. Every day capital functions from atop an economic structure that is dictatorial and bolstered by threat and fear. When Federal Express delivered a package yesterday afternoon to my door, I joked with the driver, "Hey, if the Teamsters win, you guys can go out next, after joining up." He said he=92d love it, but if they tried to unionize and walk, Fed Ex would fire them in a second. That is fear at work, fear which this strike, if successful, may help uproot. My letter carrier just dropped off our mail. To my queries, he said he would like to do a support action for the strike and that it felt like we were in the 1890s with robber barons the way wealth was sliding upward. But he also said he was afraid that if the Postal workers acted they would suffer repression. That is fear holding back insight. Give him a vote on hiring and firing, wages, and conditions, and see the changes that follow. Democracy? Voting? In capitalist workplaces there is no right for workers to vote about anything whatever: not salaries, not conditions, not hours, not structure, not investment, nothing. Corporations are dictatorships. And suddenly management expressed interest in voting. This only evidenced how venal they are. To argue for votes on every contract offer is not a workable approach for capital against a workforce big and visible enough to get its answer heard. It risks people asking why UPS (and capital) don=92t offer a contract package that says there will be worker votes on all policy and wages henceforth, to see how Carey replies to that.=20 In short, UPS had no path to follow that didn=92t threaten to enlarge their losses. The odds were good that UPS would, by fighting on, merely enlarge the solidarity and power of not only their own workforce and the Teamsters, but of labor more broadly as well.=20 =20 Build Movement Unionism Where does labor go next? How does it reverse the drastic decline in union membership, from 30 percent in 1955 to just under half that now? And how does it increase the power of members in winning valuable gains?=20 First, take a look at the summer issue of Monthly Review. It is a collection organized under the title: "Rising from the Ashes? Labor in the Age of Global Capitalism." There are many excellent contributions arguing the need for a tremendous increase in union attention to organizing the unorganized. There is considerable focus on how to develop a new labor culture emphasizing internal participation and democracy. And there are refutations of the misinterpretations of technological unemployment and internationalization of capital now commonly believed by many progressives. But amidst all this good stuff, I found one piece especially refreshing. It was by a Canadian, Sam Gindin, titled "Notes on Labor at the End of the Century: Starting Over?" Gindin=92s focus presumes a need to expand the organizing aims of unions relative to the service component, and moves on to argue for what he calls "movement unionism." It is a very aggressive stance built around worker solidarity not only across types of workers within firms and across firms within an industry, but also across industries in communities, regions, and the country as a whole. Gindin argues, very persuasively, that succumbing to the rhetoric of competitiveness, wherein the workers in a plant are told that their fate and management=92s are together opposed to the fate of workers in other plants and industries, is a disaster. And Gindin argues as well, also persuasively, that there is a very big difference between organizing that emphasizes preserving the union=92s internal hierarchy and only developing viewpoints and agendas sanctioned at the top, and organizing, instead, that empowers the base of workers. Gindin seeks a unionism "that is workplace-based, community rooted, democratic, ideological [meaning driven by larger visions and aims], and committed to building the kind of movement that is a precondition for any sustained resistance and fundamental change." Gindin wants unions in which local committees "are open to workers=92 spouses and teenage sons and daughters" and which address the quality of life of members and members=92 families in the workplace, but also at home and in schools. Without rehashing his whole argument, Gindin=92s discussion of what he calls Job Development Boards innovatively addresses job training and placement in a manner conceived to create solidarity and movement infrastructure while also meeting pressing needs and even presaging possible institutions of a better future. These are things worth thinking about, and then acting upon, as we all struggle to enlarge the gains of the Teamsters and to build movement unionism. From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Thu Aug 21 21:29:53 1997 Thu, 21 Aug 1997 20:28:54 -0700 (PDT) Thu, 21 Aug 1997 20:23:49 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 20:23:49 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: UPS Strike: Bay Area Seminar Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Post, Distribute, Forward: UPS - Teamster Strike: The Fight Over Part-Time Work and Unio Pension Benefits Bay Area Labor Studies Seminar Sponsored by the Center for Labor Research & Education Institute of Industrial Relations UC-Berkeley Guest: Chuck Mack, President Teamsters Joint Council 7 Wednesday, September 10, 1997 4:30 - 6:30 p.m. Director's Lounge Institute of Industrial Relations 2521 Channing Way Berkeley, CA For More Information, Contact: Kirsten Snow Spalding - (510) 643-6815 From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Fri Aug 22 21:19:43 1997 Fri, 22 Aug 1997 20:17:17 -0700 (PDT) Fri, 22 Aug 1997 20:11:48 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 22 Aug 1997 20:11:48 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: A Model Union Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Models wage uphill fight to unionize 'You're so much more respected' July 26, 1997=20 Web posted at: 10:54 p.m. EDT (0254 GMT)=20 >From Correspondent Janine Sharell=20 NEW YORK (CNN) -- Donna Eller hardly looks like a union organizer.=20 But, sure enough, the 5-foot-9-inch blonde is a full-time model and president of the Models Guild, a union formed two years ago, mostly to offer health insurance and legal and financial services to its members.=20 "It's one thing to have a dream of being a model," Eller says. "The other thing is to be realistic about it."=20 Models generally work as independent contractors, and Eller says they need legal and financial protection.=20 But not everyone in the business agrees with her approach. They argue that models can and should rely on their agents for help.=20 "Mostly, they depend on the agency to help guide them and take them from being a pretty person to a professional model," says Joey Grill , vice president of Click Model Management.=20 A good modeling agency does everything from paying for head shots to providing investment advice, he says. Most top agencies are part of the International Model Managers Association, a New York organization formed nearly 20 years ago, in part to regulate working conditions.=20 "I believe agency managers are protectors," Joseph Hunter, president of IMMA, says. "We find these models, and we develop them."=20 Most IMMA members are not receptive to the idea of a union for models. "The nature of the modeling business is not one=20 that lends itself to union practices," Grill says.=20 And, managers argue, many models are already covered for health insurance by the Screen Actors Guild, or SAG.=20 But although model Maria DiAngelis gets her health care through SAG, she also joined the Models Guild in hopes of getting something more elusive: respect.=20 "I find doing TV and film, you're so much more respected, and I think it's a lot because of the union," DiAngelis says.=20 Still, with only 160 members so far, models in the fledgling guild aren't finding safety in numbers -- at least not yet.=20 =A9 1997 Cable News Network, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For further information about The Models Guild, call:=20 (800) 864-4696, or (212) 675-4133 in New York City, or write:=20 The Models Guild Office and Professional Employees International Union AFL-CIO, CLC 265 W. 14th Street, Suite 203 New York, NY 10011=20 Or Check out their Website:=20 http://www.opeiu.org/index.html#models =20 From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Fri Aug 22 21:19:45 1997 Fri, 22 Aug 1997 20:17:18 -0700 (PDT) Fri, 22 Aug 1997 20:10:30 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 22 Aug 1997 20:10:30 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: UPS Contract Fine Print; New IBT Election; Chicago Settles Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO August 22, 1997 Teamsters Made Concessions, Too By LOUIS UCHITELLE The new agreement at the United Parcel Service, hailed by many as an unqualified breakthrough victory for organized labor, includes a number of unpublicized concessions by the Teamsters that will help the company hold down the cost of the five-year contract.=20 No one questions that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters won out over UPS after a 15-day strike. Despite its dogged resistance, the company ultimately agreed to wage increases and to a commitment to create thousands of full-time jobs.=20 But the Teamsters gave ground, too, granting the company more flexibility in managing the work force. The details are just beginning to trickle out, a few days after the strike ended. And they suggest that the wage and benefit increases -- in some cases, wages rise by 8 percent to 10 percent a year -- are not likely to be inflationary.=20 "The labor costs in this new contract, by themselves, will not drive up the rates that UPS charges to ship packages," said Norman Black, a company spokesman.=20 For several years, UPS has raised its rates for shipping packages, by truck or air, by 3.5 to 4 percent a year, and Black suggested that the labor agreement, despite its expected cost of a billion dollars and maybe far more, would not change that pattern.=20 The new labor contract has not yet been distributed. What the public and rank-and-file Teamsters know has been limited until now to broad summaries and to characterizations offered by top company and union officials. Indeed, those who negotiated the complex agreement were still briefing their colleagues on its details Thursday.=20 But interviews with people who had been involved in the negotiations brought to light unpublicized fine print.=20 Some of that fine print suggests a contradiction of standard Wall Street theory, which holds that rising labor costs show up eventually in rising price inflation, which in turn pushes up interest rates. The rising rates then become disruptive to the financial markets.= =20 The union movement openly challenges that cause-and-effect thesis, arguing that raises can be financed in part from rising corporate profits, particularly at prosperous companies like UPS, which earned $1.15 billion last year on sales of $22.4 billion.=20 "This contract gives our members a fair share of the company's soaring profits," said Teamsters' research director Paul Boldin.=20 More quietly, however, the Teamsters agreed to a second way to pay the labor bill: clauses in the new contract that require its members to do more. While the company agreed to a union demand to create thousands of full-time jobs, halting the drift toward part-time work, the Teamsters agreed that the new full-timers would in effect handle more packages and accept assignments from supervisors that would keep them busy when they might otherwise be idle.=20 "That is very much in line with many contracts in recent years." said Lawrence Katz, a Harvard University labor economist. "Work-rule flexibility is ceded by unions in exchange for job security and higher wages."=20 The company agreed to create 10,000 full-time jobs from part-time work. Much of the public support for the strikers revolved around the part-time issue, with the Teamsters constantly driving home the argument that UPS, and Corporate America in general, had resorted too often to part-timers who earn second-tier wages. Some 60 percent of the Teamsters who work at UPS -- people who sort, load and deliver packages -- are part-timers, up from 42 percent in 1986.=20 But the new contract left UPS an out in the requirement that it reverse this pattern: a clause whose most specific details are not yet publicly known says that if the company's sales volume declines -- because of a recession, say -- then it is freed of the obligation to create any of the full-time jobs.=20 While acknowledging this clause, Boldin, the Teamster official, insisted that it would not be easy for the company to invoke.=20 "Sales volume would have to decline below pre-strike levels, and keep going down, for this clause to kick in," he said, "and then there would be a debate about whether the clause applied."=20 Other clauses are aimed at increasing labor efficiency. The company, for example, retained the right to decide which part-timers become full-timers. If the UPS operations in Chicago and St. Louis were growing, for example, the company could focus creation of full-time jobs on those cities and bypass Boston or San Francisco.=20 That could happen even though some of the workers in Boston and San Francisco were being paid as part-timers while in fact working a full-time schedule of 35 hours a week or more.=20 During the strike, the Teamsters insisted on upgrading such workers to full-time status, a step that would have nearly doubled their wages even though their number of hours worked remained the same, since hourly pay for full-timers is now about twice that for part-timers.=20 "The contract language is new full-time jobs from part-time jobs," Boldin said, "but obviously the company has some flexibility."=20 Many of the workers who will be upgraded to full-timers from part-timers are known as "air drivers." They are people who work during the night sorting and loading packages that have arrived by air and must be delivered by truck to customers before noon. Often these part-timers, after sorting and loading for several hours, jump into a truck to make the deliveries, adding several hours to their shifts.=20 Under the new contract, their salaries as newly minted full-timers will rise to $17.50 an hour over five years, in some cases from $11 or $12 an hour today. That is still below the wage of $20 an hour and up earned by UPS's traditional delivery drivers, who handle parcels that go relatively short distances, entirely by truck.=20 These traditional drivers, the men and women in brown, have frowned on allowing air drivers to handle these ground packages as well. The new contract permits this intermingling, on a limited basis. It also permits tractor-trailer drivers who haul packages long distances on weekends -- packages that during the week would go by air -- to load parcel post material.=20 Widely varying estimates of the cost of the new labor agreement have emerged, partly because no one yet knows how much will be saved as a result of the flexibility clauses. The company has put a five-year price tag of $1 billion on the agreement, but the Teamsters' estimate is $5 billion.=20 Even the cost of the wage increases alone is hard to estimate. The starting wage for many part-timers, for example, goes to $8.50 from $8 immediately. Over the life of the contract, the wage of a part-timer being hired now rises to $10.75, or about 5 percent a year -- if the part-timer stays that long. Turnover is high, however, and roughly 50 percent of the part-timers at any given time have a year or less on the job. The new ones will always start at $8.50 an hour.=20 The raises are higher for the relatively small number of part-timers with several years on the job. Their wages will rise by 8 percent a year or more over the life of the contract, if they stay, while the wages of most full-timers will rise by much smaller percentages -- thus achieving a Teamster goal of narrowing the spread in pay between full-timers and part-timers.= =20 But estimating the cost of the contract in these shifting sands becomes difficult, and some who were involved in the negotiations say the figure may not be known for a while.=20 Copyright 1997 The New York Times Company=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------ Court Official Orders New Teamsters Election=20 07:44 p.m Aug 22, 1997 Eastern=20 By Peter Szekely=20 WASHINGTON (Reuter) - A court-appointed officer ordered the Teamsters union Friday to rerun last year's election after finding that illegal campaign contributions may have helped union President Ron Carey defeat James Hoffa.=20 The decision to hold a new election followed months of investigations into allegations raised by Hoffa, the son and namesake of the notorious Teamster leader of the 1960s, and came only days after Carey led the union in a highly successful strike against United Parcel Service.=20 Election Officer Barbara Zack Quindel found that $221,000 in illegal contributions made to the Teamsters for a Corruption Free Union (TCFU), a Carey fund-raising group, were used by the campaign for a crucial mass mailing to union members and may have affected the election's outcome.=20 ``Given the small margins between the winning candidates on the Carey slate and the losing candidates on the Hoffa slate, the TCFU-funded mailings could have persuaded at least a small percentage of Carey slate supporters to cast their ballots and therefore may have affected the outcome of the international officer election,'' Quindel said in a 134-page ruling.=20 While declaring that ``important questions remain unanswered,'' Quindel said she found no evidence that directly linked Carey to any wrongdoing, noted that he had cooperated with investigators and refused to strip him of his office.=20 ``Because there is no evidence that Carey or any member of his slate knew of or participated in the various improper fund-raising schemes, disqualification is not warranted,'' Quindel said.=20 But she said she would consider disqualifying Carey, 61, if new evidence surfaced. But even if that happens, she said the presidency would not go to Hoffa, 56, a Detroit labor lawyer whose father was presumed murdered 22 years ago. Instead, a new election still would have to be held, she said.=20 Hoffa challenged Carey to a series of debates as he had last year and urged him to step down during the campaign.=20 ``I'm asking him today to step down so that we can run as equals,'' Hoffa told supporters in Pontiac, Mich.=20 In a statement issued by the Teamsters, Carey said the union would cooperate with the investigation and distanced himself from his campaign aides, saying that if the allegations against them are true, ``the conduct of these consultants has no place in the Teamsters union.''=20 Quindel had declared Jan. 10 that Carey defeated Hoffa by 51.71 percent to 48.28 percent of the 456,707 mail-in ballots counted, but had never certified the election results after allegations of campaign finance improprieties emerged.=20 The election also was being investigated by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White, whose office already charged Carey campaign aide Martin Davis with fraud.=20 A federal grand jury has been investigating whether money for Carey's campaign came from Teamster funds.=20 The mail-ballot election last fall, only the second open to rank-and-file members in the 94-year history of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the nation's second largest labor union, was required to be held on the oversight of a court-appointed officer under a 1989 settlement of a federal anti-racketeering suit.=20 Carey won the first court-supervised, open election in 1991 after running as a reformer against two other candidates.=20 Quindel said the $221,000 in illegal contributions, which were later returned by the Carey campaign, were used to fund about 40 percent of a direct mail get-out-the-vote program.=20 Candidates for union office are barred from receiving contributions from any employers, even those that have no contracts with the Teamsters or any other union. The union itself is also prohibited from supporting any candidates.=20 Besides ordering Carey to stand for election again, Quindel ordered new elections, and opened the way for additional nominations, for all of the 26 other members of the union's General Executive Board, except for the president of the union's Canadian division and five Central Region vice presidential seats, which were won by Hoffa allies.=20 Since the Canadian officer ran unopposed and Hoffa slate members won the Central Region despite the violations, there was no need for reruns of those elections, Quindel said.=20 In an election plan submitted to Manhattan U.S. District Court Judge David Edelstein, who appointed her, Quindel proposed that an election be held later this year and include prohibitions against outside contributions, limits on union member contributions and stronger disclosure requirements.=20 Assuming the proposed timetable is approved about a month from now, ballots would be mailed to the 1.4 million Teamsters union members in early December and counting would begin shortly after the start of 1997, she said in a telephone interview.=20 Earlier this week, Carey led Teamster negotiators in settling a two-week strike by 185,000 UPS workers that was widely hailed as a major victory for labor.=20 Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication and redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Illinois Teamsters, UPS reach tentative deal August 22, 1997 Web posted at: 12:27 p.m. EDT (1227 GMT)=20 CHICAGO (AP) -- A local Teamsters union and United= Parcel Service reached a tentative agreement late Thursday that largely reflects the national pact and ends the lingering walkout, both sides said.=20 "The picket lines are coming down, and members will be returning to work," said a telephone recording at the headquarters of Local 705.=20 "All of our employees have been invited back to work,"= UPS spokesman Dan McMackin said in a telephone interview. He said the tentative deal calls for a five-year contract.=20 The Teamsters and UPS late Monday agreed on a contract covering 185,000 union workers across the country,= ending a 15-day walkout. But the 11,500 Chicago employees= covered under a separate contract had stayed off the job.=20 Copyright 1997 The Associated Press. All rights= reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. =A9 1997 Cable News Network, Inc. All Rights Reserved. From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Fri Aug 22 21:19:46 1997 Fri, 22 Aug 1997 20:17:17 -0700 (PDT) Fri, 22 Aug 1997 20:11:03 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 22 Aug 1997 20:11:03 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: SEIU Local in DC In Trusteeship; New Mex. Labor Federation Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Service Union Places Local Janitors Unit In Receivership, Citing Leadership Split By Frank Swoboda, Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, August 22, 1997; Page G02 The Washington Post=20 The local union that has been conducting the militant Justice for Janitors organizing campaign in the District for more than a decade was placed under trusteeship yesterday by the Service Employees International Union, which cited a leadership division that had paralyzed the local's operations. The political division was over the issue of whether the union should concentrate its efforts on servicing the membership or organizing new members, said Joni Ketter, spokeswoman for the national union. "There's no financial mismanagement involved at all," Ketter said. The split in Local 82's 17-member executive board "had really gotten to the point where the leadership was at a complete standstill," she said. "The trusteeship of Local 82 is a necessary step that will result in Local 82 becoming a more effective union for janitors in Washington. There will be no interruption of organizing or member representation as a result of the trusteeship," SEIU President Andrew L. Stern said in a statement announcing the takeover. Local 82 represents more than 4,000 janitors who clean federal and commercial buildings in the District. The membership is almost equally divided between the private and federal sectors. The local gained national attention under former SEIU president John J. Sweeney for its militant organizing tactics, including noisy demonstrations at downtown office buildings and blocking bridges into Washington during rush hours. Stern, who was elected SEIU president after Sweeney was elected president of the AFL-CIO, earlier this year declared a cease-fire in the demonstrations with a pledge to try to work with the District's commercial building owners targeted by the union. Earlier this month, Stern said he believed the union was making progress in the talks. Ketter insisted yesterday that the trusteeship would not have an adverse impact on those talks. SEIU Vice President Robert Moore was appointed trustee in charge of Local 82, and Valerie Long, of the union's national staff, was named deputy trustee. Jay Hessey, executive director of the local, will remain in that position, according to Ketter.=20 =A9 Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company ----------------------------------------------------------------------------= ---- Mexican unions to form anti-government alliance=20 06:32 p.m Aug 22, 1997 Eastern=20 By Veronica Galan=20 MEXICO CITY, Aug 22 (Reuter) - Dissident Mexican labor unions said on Friday they will form an alternative alliance to the pro-government Labor Congress (CT), dealing a blow to President Ernesto Zedillo.=20 As many as 132 dissident unions could formally join forces over the next three months, marking a new era of labor independence and upsetting the longstanding labor stability once taken for granted by Mexican governments.=20 ``We have to resolve statutes, establish the structure of the leadership and the organization itself, which won't be easy but will happen in two or three months maxiumum,'' labor leader Francisco Hernandez Juarez told Reuters.=20 Hernandez Juarez is chief of the telephone workers union STRM, one of eight major unions representing 750,000 workers to split from the CT last week. They are now looking to link up with scores of other breakaway unions.=20 The unions that bolted finally made good on a long-standing threat to abandon the CT because of its close ties to the political machinery that has kept the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in power for 68 years.=20 In the past the PRI has never had to worry about labor unrest as the CT successfully co-opted the 42 unions and 10 million workers under its control.=20 But that started unraveling with the poor health and eventual death of 97-year-old labor boss Fidel Velazquez, who died in April.=20 Velazquez, a confidant of Mexican presidents over the past 60 years, led the Mexican Workers Confederation (CTM), which technically came under the CT umbrella but wielded more clout because of Velazquez's forceful personality.=20 Hernandez Juarez, long the subject of speculation he might someday replace Velazquez as Mexico's most influential labor leader, said each of the 132 unions gathered at Friday's summit of independent unions would decide on their own whether to join the new= group.=20 ``We can't wait anymore,'' Hernandez Juarez said. ``The creation of this new workers central is urgent.''=20 Forming a new alliance won't be easy, he said. For example, nine of the 26 unions in the so-called Forum for a New Unionism, known as the Foro, boycotted the two-day meeting here that was set to end on Saturday. ^REUTER@=20 Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication and redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.=20 From aaron@burn.ucsd.edu Sat Aug 23 00:34:31 1997 Date: Sat, 23 Aug 1997 02:34:48 -0400 From: aaron@burn.ucsd.edu (Aaron) Subject: Teamsters' Election Overturned (2 articles) To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu, LABOR-L@YORKU.CA marxism-news@jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU Status: RO I received the following items from Nathan Newman via his list . I have reformatted them for easier reading, and corrected some minor typos. - Aaron ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 22 Aug 1997 13:58:07 +0100 =46rom: Paul Plaganis To: United Cougar Subject: Carey's Election Undone August 22, 1997 Carey's Re-Election Undone Pending Fund-Raising Probe Associated Press WASHINGTON -- A federal official threw out Teamsters President Ron Carey's re-election Friday, following an eight-month investigation into alleged fund-raising abuses by his campaign. The ruling by Barbara Zack Quindel, a court-appointed federal election overseer, came just four days after the Teamsters declared victory in a strike against United Parcel Service. The effect of the decision is to force a new election between Mr. Carey and his opponent, James P. Hoffa. Mr. Carey narrowly defeated Mr. Hoffa in December. Ms. Quindel declined to certify the results while she probed allegations that Mr. Carey's campaign illegally accepted contributions from the union treasury and employees. =46ederal labor law prohibits candidates from accepting such donations. Labor analysts have said that the sword hanging over Mr. Carey's head made the UPS battle a must-win for him. Mr. Carey knew that if a second election was in the offing, a victory over UPS would put him in a much stronger position. As a result of a consent decree signed in 1988 to end corruption in the 1.4-million-member union, the election was underwritten with $22 million in public funds and held under the auspices of a court- appointed officer. The FBI already has charged consultant Martin Davis with using his position as a vendor to both the union and Mr. Carey's campaign to exploit the Teamsters' general treasury and hide illegal donations to Mr. Carey's coffers. A federal grand jury in New York continues to investigate other alleged schemes, as well as the union's ties to the Democratic Party. Last month William Hamilton, the union's political director, abruptly resigned, saying he would no longer cooperate with the grand jury. The deal the union struck with the Justice Department requires the ouster of any official who refuses to cooperate with investigators. Mr. Carey has appeared before the grand jury, and several Teamsters staff members have been called to New York to meet with federal prosecutors, according to sources familiar with the investigation. Copyright =A9 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. ---------- 2nd forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 22 Aug 1997 16:08:29 -0500 (CDT) =46rom: Marc Luzietti To: Marx chat Subject: ChegitzNews - (full article) Teamsters' Election Overturned!!!! Teamsters election thrown out Carey likely to face Hoffa again for leadership of union CAREY LAST DECEMBER had defeated challenger James Hoffa, the son of longtime Teamsters chief Jimmy Hoffa, but will now have to face him again if he wants to try to retain his leadership. Carey had become well-known outside union circles in recent weeks as the chief negotiator for the UPS workers who shut down the parcel delivery giant for 16 days. Barbara Zack Quindel, a court-appointed election overseer, said she decided on a new election shortly after the UPS strike began Aug. 4 but delayed the announcement to avoid making it a factor in the dispute. Quindels report cited a complex network of schemes to funnel illegal donations to Carey's campaign, including a plan to swap Teamsters contributions to political candidates and organizations in exchange for donations to Carey. Federal labor law prohibits candidates from accepting such donations. While declaring that important questions remain unanswered, Quindel said she found no evidence that directly linked Carey to any wrongdoing and noted that he had cooperated with investigators. As a result of a consent decree signed in 1988 to end corruption in the 1.4-million-member union, the election was underwritten with $22 million in public funds and held under the auspices of a court-appointed officer. DEMOCRATIC PARTY INVESTIGATED Carey himself has not been accused of wrongdoing. But the FBI already has arrested and charged consultant Martin Davis with using his position as a vendor to both the union and Careys campaign to exploit the Teamsters general treasury and hide illegal donations to Carey's coffers. A federal grand jury in New York continues to investigate other alleged schemes, as well as the unions ties to the Democratic Party. In a memo that surfaced last month, Davis told William Hamilton, then the unions political director, that the DNC had made unspecified commitments in exchange for more than $1 million in contributions to state and local party affiliates. DNC officials deny there was any such arrangement. Last month Hamilton abruptly resigned, saying he would no longer cooperate with the grand jury. The deal the union struck with the Justice Department requires the ouster of any official who refuses to cooperate with investigators. Carey has appeared before the grand jury, and several Teamsters staff members have been called to New York to meet with federal prosecutors, according to sources familiar with the investigation. CAREY PROMISED REFORM Labor reformers pinned their hopes on Carey when he was first elected in 1991. He has thrown out the heads of 72 locals he said were corrupt, sold the unions corporate jets and ended the free lunches and other perks at headquarters. But he has failed to unite rank-and-file members, beating Hoffa by less than 4 percentage points in a mail-in ballot. About one-third of all Teamsters voted. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Marc, "the Chegitz," Luzietti =46ighting for Truth, Justice, and the Communist Way! -- Chegitz Guevara ---------- End of 2nd forwarded message ---------- ---------- mailto:aaron@burn.ucsd.edu http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aaron From aaron@burn.ucsd.edu Sat Aug 23 23:55:52 1997 Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 01:56:12 -0400 From: aaron@burn.ucsd.edu (Aaron) Subject: UPS contract: "The devil is in the details." To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu, LABOR-L@YORKU.CA marxism-news@jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU, tomcondit@igc.apc.org, Earl Gilman Status: RO Comrades, Does this new item from the NY Times validate Earl Gilman's skepticism -- quoted farther below -- about 'Labor's Win'? Personally, I don't yet have an opinion yet on whether the outcome was overall a win for the working class or not, but I don't trust those who will say it is without making a careful analysis. - Aaron >Date: Sat, 23 Aug 1997 17:22:21 -0700 (PDT) From: Tom Condit Subject: Fine print in UPS contract FORWARDED MESSAGE: From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: UPS Contract Fine Print New York Times, August 22, 1997 Teamsters Made Concessions, Too By LOUIS UCHITELLE The new agreement at the United Parcel Service, hailed by many as an unqualified breakthrough victory for organized labor, includes a number of unpublicized concessions by the Teamsters that will help the company hold down the cost of the five-year contract. No one questions that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters won out over UPS after a 15-day strike. Despite its dogged resistance, the company ultimately agreed to wage increases and to a commitment to create thousands of full-time jobs. But the Teamsters gave ground, too, granting the company more flexibility in managing the work force. The details are just beginning to trickle out, a few days after the strike ended. And they suggest that the wage and benefit increases -- in some cases, wages rise by 8 percent to 10 percent a year -- are not likely to be inflationary. "The labor costs in this new contract, by themselves, will not drive up the rates that UPS charges to ship packages," said Norman Black, a company spokesman. For several years, UPS has raised its rates for shipping packages, by truck or air, by 3.5 to 4 percent a year, and Black suggested that the labor agreement, despite its expected cost of a billion dollars and maybe far more, would not change that pattern. The new labor contract has not yet been distributed. What the public and rank-and-file Teamsters know has been limited until now to broad summaries and to characterizations offered by top company and union officials. Indeed, those who negotiated the complex agreement were still briefing their colleagues on its details Thursday. But interviews with people who had been involved in the negotiations brought to light unpublicized fine print. Some of that fine print suggests a contradiction of standard Wall Street theory, which holds that rising labor costs show up eventually in rising price inflation, which in turn pushes up interest rates. The rising rates then become disruptive to the financial markets. The union movement openly challenges that cause-and-effect thesis, arguing that raises can be financed in part from rising corporate profits, particularly at prosperous companies like UPS, which earned $1.15 billion last year on sales of $22.4 billion. "This contract gives our members a fair share of the company's soaring profits," said Teamsters' research director Paul Boldin. More quietly, however, the Teamsters agreed to a second way to pay the labor bill: clauses in the new contract that require its members to do more. While the company agreed to a union demand to create thousands of full-time jobs, halting the drift toward part-time work, the Teamsters agreed that the new full-timers would in effect handle more packages and accept assignments from supervisors that would keep them busy when they might otherwise be idle. "That is very much in line with many contracts in recent years." said Lawrence Katz, a Harvard University labor economist. "Work-rule flexibility is ceded by unions in exchange for job security and higher wages." The company agreed to create 10,000 full-time jobs from part-time work. Much of the public support for the strikers revolved around the part-time issue, with the Teamsters constantly driving home the argument that UPS, and Corporate America in general, had resorted too often to part-timers who earn second-tier wages. Some 60 percent of the Teamsters who work at UPS -- people who sort, load and deliver packages -- are part-timers, up from 42 percent in 1986. But the new contract left UPS an out in the requirement that it reverse this pattern: a clause whose most specific details are not yet publicly known says that if the company's sales volume declines -- because of a recession, say -- then it is freed of the obligation to create any of the full-time jobs. While acknowledging this clause, Boldin, the Teamster official, insisted that it would not be easy for the company to invoke. "Sales volume would have to decline below pre-strike levels, and keep going down, for this clause to kick in," he said, "and then there would be a debate about whether the clause applied." Other clauses are aimed at increasing labor efficiency. The company, for example, retained the right to decide which part-timers become full-timers. If the UPS operations in Chicago and St. Louis were growing, for example, the company could focus creation of full-time jobs on those cities and bypass Boston or San Francisco. That could happen even though some of the workers in Boston and San Francisco were being paid as part-timers while in fact working a full-time schedule of 35 hours a week or more. During the strike, the Teamsters insisted on upgrading such workers to full-time status, a step that would have nearly doubled their wages even though their number of hours worked remained the same, since hourly pay for full-timers is now about twice that for part-timers. "The contract language is new full-time jobs from part-time jobs," Boldin said, "but obviously the company has some flexibility." Many of the workers who will be upgraded to full-timers from part-timers are known as "air drivers." They are people who work during the night sorting and loading packages that have arrived by air and must be delivered by truck to customers before noon. Often these part-timers, after sorting and loading for several hours, jump into a truck to make the deliveries, adding several hours to their shifts. Under the new contract, their salaries as newly minted full-timers will rise to $17.50 an hour over five years, in some cases from $11 or $12 an hour today. That is still below the wage of $20 an hour and up earned by UPS's traditional delivery drivers, who handle parcels that go relatively short distances, entirely by truck. These traditional drivers, the men and women in brown, have frowned on allowing air drivers to handle these ground packages as well. The new contract permits this intermingling, on a limited basis. It also permits tractor-trailer drivers who haul packages long distances on weekends -- packages that during the week would go by air -- to load parcel post material. Widely varying estimates of the cost of the new labor agreement have emerged, partly because no one yet knows how much will be saved as a result of the flexibility clauses. The company has put a five-year price tag of $1 billion on the agreement, but the Teamsters' estimate is $5 billion. Even the cost of the wage increases alone is hard to estimate. The starting wage for many part-timers, for example, goes to $8.50 from $8 immediately. Over the life of the contract, the wage of a part-timer being hired now rises to $10.75, or about 5 percent a year -- if the part-timer stays that long. Turnover is high, however, and roughly 50 percent of the part-timers at any given time have a year or less on the job. The new ones will always start at $8.50 an hour. The raises are higher for the relatively small number of part-timers with several years on the job. Their wages will rise by 8 percent a year or more over the life of the contract, if they stay, while the wages of most full-timers will rise by much smaller percentages -- thus achieving a Teamster goal of narrowing the spread in pay between full-timers and part-timers. But estimating the cost of the contract in these shifting sands becomes difficult, and some who were involved in the negotiations say the figure may not be known for a while. Copyright 1997 The New York Times Company ----------------------------------------------------------------- >Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 10:44:37 -0700 Sender: Forum on Labor in the Global Economy From: Earl Gilman Subject: Re: LA Times: Labor's Win Could Affect the Economy RE: UPS "The devil is in the details." I've negotiated contracts which looked good until you read the small print. Has anyone read the new contract? Contract summaries are worse than useless. 10,000 new full time hires are promised within 5 years, but suppose there's a recession...Also are 2000 being hired each year or can managment postpone it for the 5th year? Can the workers in the new third tier earning $15 an hour get into the first tier earning $22 an hour someday? Earl Gilman Asamblea General de Trabajadores El Nuevo Topo magazine ---------- mailto:aaron@burn.ucsd.edu http://burn.ucsd.edu/~aaron From aanz@sirius.com Sun Aug 24 18:26:44 1997 for ; Sun, 24 Aug 1997 17:26:40 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 17:29:01 -0700 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: aanz@sirius.com (anzalone/starbird) Subject: Re: Oyster party Status: RO Alan and I want to rsvp your party at the beach; but is it going to be safe to eat sea food so soon after the quarrentine? let me know, cuz if the party is still on, we want to come....ellen From aanz@sirius.com Sun Aug 24 18:53:07 1997 for ; Sun, 24 Aug 1997 17:53:02 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 17:55:23 -0700 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: aanz@sirius.com (anzalone/starbird) Subject: Re: IBT+UFW Target Apple Wkrs.; AFL-CIO Criticizes Clinton Status: RO Actually, since the presidency has been turned into a concession stand for political contributors due to the financing of political campaigns, I expected far worse from Clinton than we got. While it is true that he is a lame duck and does not need any more money from UPS to run again personally, the Gore whore will be pandering after their money again soon enough. (it is my recollection that Clinton received campaign contributions from them, no?) The old Texas democrat who ran California for so many years with the motto, "If you can't take their money, screw their women and drink their booze and then vote against them, you don't belong ..." is now a historic memory, and the Republicans are back in the drivers seat here in California, thank you very much, adopting the Dan Quayle "....they never voted for us anyway" school of dealing with the concerns of the working class and the poor. Although it would have (in my opinion) been illegal for Clinton to evoke Taft Hartly or some other pretext to use military force to coerce the strikers back to work, it seems to me that we were extremely fortunate that the public opinion ran so strongly for the strikers. Thus the president most known for keeping his finger to the wind did not have to rely solely on his infamous moral compass for guidance. To stand up to his contributors and refuse to do their illegal bidding, may be as close as it gets to courage from the white house these days. Frankly, I was as proud of voting for him as I have been since he took office for the second time. That he menaced the strikers with hyperboly I took as an indication the end was near and the company was about to move to a better offer (which Clinton was sweaty for the Teamster's to take). Given how contributions from the wealthy completely dominate politics I don't believe we can, in this day and age, expect moral courage on behalf of workers unless that government consession stand political finance system is radically and immediately changed. Scolding office holders without altering this fact of life just makes us seem silly and naive (it seems to me). ellen starbird > August 19, 1997 > Teamsters and U.P.S. Agree on a 5-Year Contract Plan > > By STEVEN GREENHOUSE > > WASHINGTON -- After more than 80 hours of intense >negotiations, teamsters' union > officials and the United Parcel Service said early Tuesday >morning that they had reached a > tentative agreement to end the 15-day strike by 185,000 workers >that largely crippled the world's > largest package delivery company. > > Officials close to the negotiations said the agreement calls for >the first increase in the starting pay of > part-time workers since 1982 and the conversion of 10,000 >part-time jobs into full-time jobs over > the five-year life of the new contract. Under the agreement, union >workers at U.P.S. would remain > in the multiemployer pension plans, with some changes that the >officials declined to describe. In > addition to the 10,000 new full-time positions, the two sides >agreed that five-sixths of all new > full-time openings created though attrition or retirement would be >filled by current part-timers, up > from the four-fifths stipulated in the contract that expired >July 31. > > Ron Carey, president of the International Brotherhood of >Teamsters, hailed the agreement as a > "historic turning point for working people in this country." > > "American workes have shown they can stand up to corporate greed," >Carey said. > > David Murray, the chief U.P.S. negotiator, said "we believe it's >an agreement that we'll be able to > remain competitive with,'' Teamster officials said they expected >the strikers to return to work on > Wednesday. Before that can happen, however, two teamster >committees must approve the > agreement. One is the bargaining committee, composed of roughly 50 >members. > > The other is a committee made up of two representatives from each >of the 206 locals representing > U.P.S. workers. Both of the committees are expected to act on the >tentative settlement Tuesday. > > Final ratification by the membership will be by mail ballot, which >is expected to take 3 to 4 weeks. > > President Clinton thanked representatives of United Parcel Service >and the Teamsters union for > their "hard work and determination" in reaching a settlement. > > "I am pleased that the parties negotiated in good faith," Clinton >said in a written statement read to > reporters shortly after the settlement was announced. > > The company and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters had >been narrowing their > differences since the President pressed them to redouble their >efforts to reach a contract. > > The strike carried high stakes for labor and business. It was a >pivotal test for the re-energized > labor movement, which strongly backed the teamsters while saying >its goal was to insure that a > company with more than $1 billion in profits treated its workers >fairly. > > For corporate America, the strike was a test to see whether one of >the nation's biggest and most > admired companies could stand up to a revived labor movement and >preserve the flexibility and > cost structure it said it needed to compete in the global economy. > > The settlement came as the strikers, at hundreds of U.P.S. sites >in all 50 states, were growing > increasingly restive about not working and living on $55 a week in >strike benefits. Because of the > strike, the workers missed tens of millions of dollars in wages, >while the company lost more than > $600 million in business. > > The strike created myriad inconveniences, large and small, for >companies and consumers across > the nation. Small businesses complained they were having a hard >time restocking their shelves, > while hospitals said it was hard to obtain needed supplies. > > Among the main issues in the strike was the union's demand that >the company convert 10,000 > part-time jobs to full-time jobs over the next four years. The >company offered to convert 800 > workers from part time to full time over that period. As part of a >public-relations offensive, the > teamsters noted that four-fifths of the unionized jobs U.P.S. >created since 1993 were part time, > and the union complained that those jobs did not pay enough to >support a family. > > At U.P.S., part-time workers, for the most part sorters and >loaders, average about $9.50 an hour > after two years, earning about $10,000 a year. > > Full-time workers, largely drivers, average $19.95 an hour, >earning more than $40,000 a year. > > Carey said the increases amounted to $3.10 an hour for full-time >workers and $4.10 for part-time > workers. > > Another major issue was the company's demand to withdraw from the >teamsters' multi-employer > pension plans and start a new U.P.S. pension plan. The company >promised that pensions would > rise by an average of 50 percent, but the union's negotiators >opposed that proposal because they > feared that U.P.S.'s withdrawal would jeopardize the financial >health of the multi-employer plans. > > Other issues included pay increases, subcontracting and the >company's demand to scrap language > in the contract that allowed the teamsters to honor other unions >picket lines. The agreement was a > triumph for the new Labor Secretary, Alexis Herman, whose >behind-the-scenes work persuaded > the union and company to return to the bargaining table last >Thursday. For the past five days she > stayed in the Hyatt Regency Washington Hotel, where the talks were >held, to help keep the two > sides at the bargaining table until they reached a settlement. > > Sunday was a make-or-break day for the negotiators on both sides, >a Labor Department official > said. Herman arrived at the hotel before 8 a.m. and spent most of >the day and night going from > room to room, helping each side focus on the issues at hand. When >she wasn't needed, she paced > the corridors and her own private meeting room. > > Sunday "was crucial," the official said. "There was a sense it had >gone on for a long time and they > wanted to bring it to an end. It was clear we would know. They >would either be able to cut a deal > or not cut a deal." > > The rooms on the second floor where each side gathered and both >sides met, started to look lived > in, with used coffee cups, newspapers, and half-eaten club >sandwiches strewn across tables. > > "There were real rollercoasters," the official said. "More times >than I can count, I thought it was > coming to a conclusion." > > By Monday morning it was clear they would need another day, so >Herman cancelled her > appearance on a morning news show. She had a string of private >conversations with the mediators > throughout the day and the sense of urgency seemed to mount. > > Both sides say the major challenges now are to heal the wounds the >strike created between > management and workers and to regain the business that U.P.S. says >it lost to competitors, most > notably the United States Postal Service and Federal Express. > > The strike hobbled package deliveries around the nation, cutting >U.P.S.'s volume to less than 10 > percent of normal and nearly overloading the post office and >Federal Express, which said it could > not guarantee overnight delivery during the strike. > > U.P.S. officials said they feared that shipping customers who used >to rely exclusively on U.P.S. > might have developed some loyalty to the company's competitors >during the strike or might have > decided it was unwise to rely on just one shipper. > > The settlement came on the same day that the A.F.L.-C.I.O. told >the White House that it was > unhappy with the President's comments on Sunday that the teamsters >had been offered "a good > deal" in negotiations with the United Parcel Service. > > Gerald Shea, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. official in charge of governmental >affairs, said he protested to the > White House and the Labor Department that the President's >statement placed improper pressure > on the teamsters to accept U.P.S.'s offer. > > "People here were very unhappy that the bully pulpit was being use >in a one-sided way," Shea said > in an interview. "We told them it was inconsistent with the >even-handed way they have been doing > things." > > On Sunday, President Clinton had voiced optimism about the talks, >saying, "It's my gut feeling > they'll settle. It's a good deal. It will set a precedent for >unions." > > In an apparent warning to the teamsters, he also said that while >public sentiment was on the union's > side, it would turn away from the strikers as the walkout continued. > > Toiv, the White House spokesman, said, "We understand that both >sides in a difficult negotiation > sometimes perceive even-handedness as something other than that." > > Administration officials said they were surprised that >A.F.L.-C.I.O. officials criticized Clinton for > not being even-handed, because for the past two weeks many >business leaders have accused the > White House of siding with the strikers by not seeking an >injunction under the Taft-Hartley Act to > end the strike. > > "The President and the Administration have been completely >even-handed," Toiv said. > >Copyright 1997 The New York Times Company From clawson@sadri.umass.edu Sun Aug 24 20:50:08 1997 Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu; Sun, 24 Aug 1997 22:50:05 -0400 (EDT) 24 Aug 1997 22:50:04 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 22:50:04 -0400 (EDT) From: Dan Clawson Subject: build labor-academic alliance In-reply-to: <2.2.16.19970821202214.43ef2082@pop.igc.org> To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Status: RO From: Dan Clawson (clawson@sadri.umass.edu) To: anyone interested in labor Re: signing a statement, joining a group The revival of the American labor movement, and its openness to a variety of initiatives that would have been inconceivable a few years ago, is the most promising political initiative of recent years. A new group is forming to build links between academics and the labor movement. John Sweeney, Linda Chavez Thompson, and the New Voice leadership have explicitly encouraged this development. They hope that we can work to alter the debates taking place in public policy and on the cultural front, in our teaching and in every public forum, just as they are working to change realities in trade unions. Together we can be part of a broader labor movement that includes both these areas and much more. I realize it is ludicrously short notice, but an ad and press conference are planned announcing the formation of this group. In order to get your name on the ad, you need to send your name and affiliation to tnr1@columbia.edu (that's a #1, not a letter L) by Tuesday August 26. If you don't make that date, you can still join the group; see the address in the enclosed memo. If you'd prefer, you could send your name and affiliation to me, Dan Clawson, (clawson@sadri.umass.edu) and I will pass it on. Together we can build a movement for social change. You can begin by passing this message on to everyone you can think of who would want to sign. Dan Clawson Labor Day, 1997 For two decades, Labor Day has been an occasion for eulogies and epitaphs, as the labor movement suffered deindustrialization, downsizing and defeat. But Labor Day 1997 arrives with a new militance and a new hope. The victory of the Teamsters in the two-week UPS strike -- the largest strike in a generation -- was a victory for all working people, whose incomes and livelihoods have stagnated for nearly a quarter of a century. The UPS strike was also a turning point for the labor movement, and could determine its strength and direction for years to come. Though the right to organize has eroded in a world of contingent work -- part-time, temporary, outsourced, and subcontracted -- organizing campaigns across the continent are now rebuilding the labor movement in old and new workplaces: from Borders bookstores to Las Vegas casinos, from the strawberry fields of Watsonville to the classrooms of Berkeley and Yale, from Federal Express to Nike sweatshops. We take this moment of struggle to announce the formation of a new independent, national organization: "Scholars, Artists, and Writers for Social Justice." In the academy and publishing, in the arts, sciences and entertainment, we also experience the growth of low-wage, part-time employment which erodes our craft and creativity. We call upon our colleagues and friends this Labor Day to declare their solidarity with the organizing drives of the new labor movement. The time is ripe to restore the mutually empowering relationship that once gave hope and dynamism to the labor movement and its allies in the academic and cultural communities. We envision a movement that can reshape the nation's political culture by combating inequality and powerlessness, and by fostering the growth of a vibrant, militant, multicultural working-class movement. In an era when elite opinion makes a fetish of the free market, unions -- with a commitment to solidarity, equality, and collective struggle -- remain fundamental institutions of a democratic society. Our confidence in launching SAWSJ comes from the success of the "labor teach-in" movement, inaugurated last fall when more than 2,000 people affirmed a new alliance of labor and academe at Columbia University. In more than a score of other teach-ins from coast to coast, students, teachers, writers, artists, and unionists met, talked, learned, and argued in an atmosphere of hope and solidarity. SAWSJ hopes to fulfill the promise of those teach-ins. > Add your name to this public statement which will be > released on September 1. You may do so by e-mailing Thaddeus > Russell at tnr1@columbia.edu. Please note that the address > contains the numeral one after "tnr." Please include your affiliation. > > At the same time you may also join Scholars, Artists, > and Writers for Social Justice, which is planning a > series of teach-ins and other events over the next several months. > Please send a contribution to Ellen Schrecker, 771 West End > Avenue #7D, New York, New York, 10025. > > Alewitz, Mike > Aronowitz, Stanley > Aronson, Ronald > Azcarate, Fred > Ballinger, Lee > Benjamin, Ernst > Bennett, Marty > Bernard, Elaine > Bonilla, Frank > Buhle, Paul > Carter, Prudence > Chancer, Lynn > Clawson, Dan > Cutler, Jonathan > Delgado, Hector > Denning, Michael > DiFazio, Bill > Domingo, Ligaya > Dubro, Alec > Fennell, Dorothy > Fletcher, Bill > Fraser, Steven > Freeman, Joshua B. > Gerstle, Gary > Gray, Lois > Green, Adam > Green, Venus > Hall, Jacquelyn > Horne, Gerald > Huck, Gary > Kaye, Harvey > Kazin, Michael > Kelley, Robin D.G. > Kornbluh, Felicia > Krupat, Kitty > Levi, Margaret > Lichtenstein, Nelson N. > Lie, John > Marquez, Dennis Bixler > Mendel-Reyes, Meta > Montgomery, David > Murolo, Priscilla > Nathan, Debbie > Newman, Kathy > Ngai, Mae > Piven, Frances Fox > Porter, Allison > Potter, Sarah > Pranis, Kevin > Prisock, Louis > Ripton, Jessica > Robinson, Dean > Rosen, Sumner M > Royster, Dee > Russell, Thad > Ryan, Sarah > Schrecker, Ellen W. > Semann, Ingrid > Simmons, Esmeralda > Singh, Nikhil > Skotnes, Andor > Slaughter, Jane > Stephens, Michelle > Sugrue, Tom > Uehlein, Joe > Venkatesh, Sudhir > Watts, Jerry > Willis, Ellen > Woodard, Komozi > Young, Cynthia > > -- Dan Clawson work = 413-545-5974 home 413-586-6235 Contemp. Sociology = 413-545-4064 fax 413-545-1994 email = clawson@sadri.umass.edu consoc@sadri.umass.edu From lamp@igc.apc.org Sun Aug 24 21:44:55 1997 for ; Sun, 24 Aug 1997 20:44:47 -0700 (PDT) Sun, 24 Aug 1997 20:38:58 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 22:36:34 -0400 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: lamp@igc.apc.org (Labor Art & Mural Project) Subject: Re: French Labor Lauds UPS Strike Outcome Status: RO Michael You're postings are much appreciated. Please do it in digest form, as there is just too much. If that is not possible, please unsubscribe us. Thanks, Mike LaBOR aRT & MuRAL PRoJECT Labor Education Center Rutgers University Ryders Lane & Clifton Avenue New Brunswick, NJ 08903 Phone: 732-220-1472 - Fax: 732-296-1325 Email: lamp@igc.apc.org - Website: http://www.igc.apc.org/laborart Subscribe to AGITPROP NEWS at this address Spanning the Globe to: ORGANIZE - AGITATE - EDUCATE - INSPIRE Mike Alewitz, Artistic Director From clawson@sadri.umass.edu Sun Aug 24 22:35:26 1997 Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu; Mon, 25 Aug 1997 00:35:23 -0400 (EDT) 25 Aug 1997 00:35:23 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 00:35:22 -0400 (EDT) From: Dan Clawson Subject: labor-academic alliance In-reply-to: <9612240344.aa05199@bbs.cruzio.com> To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Status: RO From: Dan Clawson (clawson@sadri.umass.edu) To: anyone interested in labor Re: signing a statement, joining a group The revival of the American labor movement, and its openness to a variety of initiatives that would have been inconceivable a few years ago, is the most promising political initiative of recent years. A new group is forming to build links between academics and the labor movement. John Sweeney, Linda Chavez Thompson, and the New Voice leadership have explicitly encouraged this development. They hope that we can work to alter the debates taking place in public policy and on the cultural front, in our teaching and in every public forum, just as they are working to change realities in trade unions. Together we can be part of a broader labor movement that includes both these areas and much more. I realize it is ludicrously short notice, but an ad and press conference are planned announcing the formation of this group. In order to get your name on the ad, you need to send your name and affiliation to tnr1@columbia.edu (that's a #1, not a letter L) by Tuesday August 26. If you don't make that date, you can still join the group; see the address in the enclosed memo. If you'd prefer, you could send your name and affiliation to me, Dan Clawson, (clawson@sadri.umass.edu) and I will pass it on. Together we can build a movement for social change. You can begin by passing this message on to everyone you can think of who would want to sign. Labor Day, 1997 For two decades, Labor Day has been an occasion for eulogies and epitaphs, as the labor movement suffered deindustrialization, downsizing and defeat. But Labor Day 1997 arrives with a new militance and a new hope. The victory of the Teamsters in the two-week UPS strike -- the largest strike in a generation -- was a victory for all working people, whose incomes and livelihoods have stagnated for nearly a quarter of a century. The UPS strike was also a turning point for the labor movement, and could determine its strength and direction for years to come. Though the right to organize has eroded in a world of contingent work -- part-time, temporary, outsourced, and subcontracted -- organizing campaigns across the continent are now rebuilding the labor movement in old and new workplaces: from Borders bookstores to Las Vegas casinos, from the strawberry fields of Watsonville to the classrooms of Berkeley and Yale, from Federal Express to Nike sweatshops. We take this moment of struggle to announce the formation of a new independent, national organization: "Scholars, Artists, and Writers for Social Justice." In the academy and publishing, in the arts, sciences and entertainment, we also experience the growth of low-wage, part-time employment which erodes our craft and creativity. We call upon our colleagues and friends this Labor Day to declare their solidarity with the organizing drives of the new labor movement. The time is ripe to restore the mutually empowering relationship that once gave hope and dynamism to the labor movement and its allies in the academic and cultural communities. We envision a movement that can reshape the nation's political culture by combating inequality and powerlessness, and by fostering the growth of a vibrant, militant, multicultural working-class movement. In an era when elite opinion makes a fetish of the free market, unions -- with a commitment to solidarity, equality, and collective struggle -- remain fundamental institutions of a democratic society. Our confidence in launching SAWSJ comes from the success of the "labor teach-in" movement, inaugurated last fall when more than 2,000 people affirmed a new alliance of labor and academe at Columbia University. In more than a score of other teach-ins from coast to coast, students, teachers, writers, artists, and unionists met, talked, learned, and argued in an atmosphere of hope and solidarity. SAWSJ hopes to fulfill the promise of those teach-ins. > Add your name to this public statement which will be > released on September 1. You may do so by e-mailing Thaddeus > Russell at tnr1@columbia.edu. Please note that the address > contains the numeral one after "tnr." Please include your affiliation. > > At the same time you may also join Scholars, Artists, > and Writers for Social Justice, which is planning a > series of teach-ins and other events over the next several months. > Please send a contribution to Ellen Schrecker, 771 West End > Avenue #7D, New York, New York, 10025. > > Alewitz, Mike > Aronowitz, Stanley > Aronson, Ronald > Azcarate, Fred > Ballinger, Lee > Benjamin, Ernst > Bennett, Marty > Bernard, Elaine > Bonilla, Frank > Buhle, Paul > Carter, Prudence > Chancer, Lynn > Clawson, Dan > Cutler, Jonathan > Delgado, Hector > Denning, Michael > DiFazio, Bill > Domingo, Ligaya > Dubro, Alec > Fennell, Dorothy > Fletcher, Bill > Fraser, Steven > Freeman, Joshua B. > Gerstle, Gary > Gray, Lois > Green, Adam > Green, Venus > Hall, Jacquelyn > Horne, Gerald > Huck, Gary > Kaye, Harvey > Kazin, Michael > Kelley, Robin D.G. > Kornbluh, Felicia > Krupat, Kitty > Levi, Margaret > Lichtenstein, Nelson N. > Lie, John > Marquez, Dennis Bixler > Mendel-Reyes, Meta > Montgomery, David > Murolo, Priscilla > Nathan, Debbie > Newman, Kathy > Ngai, Mae > Piven, Frances Fox > Porter, Allison > Potter, Sarah > Pranis, Kevin > Prisock, Louis > Ripton, Jessica > Robinson, Dean > Rosen, Sumner M > Royster, Dee > Russell, Thad > Ryan, Sarah > Schrecker, Ellen W. > Semann, Ingrid > Simmons, Esmeralda > Singh, Nikhil > Skotnes, Andor > Slaughter, Jane > Stephens, Michelle > Sugrue, Tom > Uehlein, Joe > Venkatesh, Sudhir > Watts, Jerry > Willis, Ellen > Woodard, Komozi > Young, Cynthia > > -- Dan Clawson work = 413-545-5974 home 413-586-6235 Contemp. Sociology = 413-545-4064 fax 413-545-1994 email = clawson@sadri.umass.edu consoc@sadri.umass.edu From dcroteau@saturn.vcu.edu Mon Aug 25 09:22:21 1997 Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 11:19:24 -0400 To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu From: dcroteau@saturn.vcu.edu (david croteau) Subject: list housekeeping Status: RO I generally try to lurk quietly in the background of this list. However, in my capacity as listowner, it's my responsibility to pass along some cautionary comments regarding recent postings to the list. There are two basic issues that need to be addressed First, the sheer volume of material that has recently been posted re: the UPS strike has been overwhelming for some people. I have received some individual complaints and expressions of concern. As I am sure future labor actions will result in a similar outpouring of material, I ask that you please refrain from using Labor-Rap to merely re-post material from other sources. Also, please be considerate of our members and limit your daily postings to a reasonable number. Some common sense here can go a long way. Second, most of the materials recently being posted were copyrighted media stories (many of which were readily available elsewhere). I've been warned by Communication for a Sustainable Future--the kind folks who host our listserve-- that copyrighted material should not be posted to Labor-Rap since CSF is legally liable for its presence. Please just keep this in mind. If you see an interesting story on a net site, by all means alert our members to its existence by providing the internet address. But please refrain from re-posting copyrighted material. I think a blind eye is generally turned to an occasional posting of this nature but, again, the sheer volume of such postings recently has raised the issue. Thanks...and now back to your regularly scheduled listserve. ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| David Croteau Sociology/ Virginia Commonwealth University E-mail: dcroteau@saturn.vcu.edu From 9503319@EIGG.SMS.ED.AC.UK Mon Aug 25 10:33:41 1997 for ; Mon, 25 Aug 1997 17:33:33 +0100 (BST) From: "MARISA LINCOLN" <9503319@EIGG.SMS.ED.AC.UK> To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 17:32:31 +0000 Subject: Re: Commentary/Analysis from Shostak and Albert In-reply-to: <2.2.16.19970821143047.4377328e@pop.igc.org> Status: RO Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 14:32:07 -0700 (PDT) Reply-to: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Michael Eisenscher To: Labor Research and Action Project Subject: Commentary/Analysis from Shostak and Albert From: Art Shostak Carey, Sweeney, and PATCO: Hard-earned Lessons, Heart-felt gains. As the strikers will never tire of telling their grandchildren, the 1997 Teamster-UPS strike ended in one of the clearest labor victories in modern times, one that may have enabled labor to finally put the ghost of the PATCO disaster to rest. Not since 1981 when the White House fired 11,400 PATCO strikers has a labor-management showdown so captured public attention, inconvenienced so many, involved so many workers, and so tested labor's mettle. Organized labor showed it had studied fatal errors made 16 years ago by PATCO and the labor movement, errors it had no intention of repeating. This time, for example, the union made a creative effort to win public support, something PATCO ineptly sought only after the fact. Before the strike the Teamsters (IBT) used mail questionnaires of UPS employees and conducted focus groups to sharpen their issues advocacy material. They held press conferences, released a series of press packets, and conducted many public rallies before and during the strike, going so far as to make strategic use of numerous web sites to update and rally their 185,000 members. (UPS chair James Kelly complained the union had a "media blitz ready to go.") This time the union succeeded in linking its case to issues the whole country could identify with, something PATCO failed to achieve. The union sought a raise for part-timers (who had gone without one since 1983) and an option to get full-time jobs, two bargaining demands that resonated with all Americans who feel victimized by "take-it-or-leave-it" terms of employment. The Teamster slogan - "Part-time America does't work" - proved one of the smartest any union has employed in many decades. Unlike PATCO, then, which lost badly in the Court of Public Opinion, the Teamsters won almost two-to-one over UPS in a Fox News poll, earned a 55%-to-27% win a CNN/USA Today Gallup Poll, and scored 39% to 30% in an ABC News Nightline poll taken shortly before the company came to terms. This time the Teamsters sought and secured widespread support from other unionists, something PATCO traded in favor of a reckless and fatal political gamble. PATCO began its action on its own, confident that its election support of candidate Reagan assured it White House empathy. Instead, it learned to its everlasting shock that President Reagan saw their strike (which they intended to go only 72 hours) as an opportunity to send a thunderous class warfare message: Public sector strikes, the president roared, were utterly unacceptable! He proceded to fire the strikers, decertify their public sector union, impose a lifetime blacklist ban on their ever getting new federal employ, sanction the hiring of replacement workers, and signal more virulent anti-union employers they had an especially good friend in the White House. The Teamsters, in sharp contrast with PATCO, did not rely alone on (far better) political "friends," but was careful as well to nuture good relations with other UPS unions, overseas allies, and the AFL-CIO .The UPS Independent Pilots Union honored its picket line (and has in turn a pledge from the Teamsters to do the same, should that become necessary in December). Simarlarly, the union held a Global Day of Action, with unions in Germany, Italy, Belgium, and other countries demonstrating at UPS facilities. The AFL-CIO came through with a loan of $10-million a week to help cover the strike benefit bill. And, best of all, diverse AFL-CIO local unions from coast-to-coast joined Teamster picket lines in a colorful show of solidarity. Unlike PATCO in 1981, the Teamsters updated traditional strike tactics to better fit the times. Recognizing the happy coincidence of many jobs available for strikers, the union scaled back the picketline hours expected for receiving strike benefits, and liberated many to supplement their takehome with temporary jobs. Little wonder that the second week ended with 97% of the pickets firm in their refusal to heed company calls to cross the line (PATCO suffered a 20% defection rate, half of whom never struck, while the others crossed over). The two strikes also differed in that PATCO in 1980 supported a Republican candidate for the presidency. The Teamsters, in 1996, helped a Democrat win re-election, and were been aided thereafter by Alexis Herman, Clinton's Secretary of Labor, to resolve their strike in a fashion that left all capable of getting on with business. As well, the White House declined to use the Taft-Hartley Act to force a cooling-off period on the workers, a move no president had taken in the last 25 years, albeit UPS had urged this almost from day one. Finally, the two events both included a major demand that cost its proponent dearly in the Court of Public Opinion. PATCO asked for parity with the pay the piolts were earning, arguing that their ground air control responsibilities were fully as significant as anything being done in the cockpit. The public found this hard to believe, and the Airline Pilots Union heaped ridicule on the notion. PATCO never made a good case here, and its finer bargaining demands, such as for more reliable and safety-enhancing equipment, were over-shadowed by its historic feud over salary disparities with the pilots. Similarly, UPS asked for an end to its participation in the joint labor-management pension funds negotiated for by various Teamster locals. The public and the strikers alike found the UPS case wanting, especially as the funds were up 84% since 1994 in a booming stock market. Naturally, it is far too soon to know what lasting impact the 1997 strike will have. Skeptics warn jubilant strikers may now retreat to their former lives, focuse on the exegencies of daily life, and drift away from earnest involvement in unionism. Other unions may find it difficult to replicate Teamster strategy and tactics, especially as their conflicts may not involve a vulnerable, inept company lacking the ability to relocate in a "Right-to-Work" state or take work overseas. Reversals in such labor conflicts ahead, taken against the backdrop of unrealistic pro-labor expectations raised by the IBT victory, could lead to even greater demoralization. (The Wall Street Journal, not surprisingly, warns in a bitter August 21 editorial: "...the AFL-CIO should by all means enjoy this triumph over UPS. There won't be many more.") All such misgivings notwithstanding, the American labor movement appears smarter, stronger, and more relevant than in many recent years. It is proud that nearly all of its contracts (5,000 this year alone) are settled without conflict, but proud also of its ability to hold its own - and then some - should conflict prove necessary. (It is especially proud that the nation's air traffic controllers, after trying life without a union for six years after the PATCO disaster, have since re-unionized as NATCA-AFL-CIO and rejoined the ranks of organized labor.) Like the 1981 PATCO strike, the 1997 Teamster-UPS strike already has a major place in American labor history. This time, however, not as a sharp blow to, but seemingly as a significant boost for labor's prospects. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- >From the Pages of Z Magazine, September, From 9503319@EIGG.SMS.ED.AC.UK Mon Aug 25 10:34:38 1997 for ; Mon, 25 Aug 1997 17:34:34 +0100 (BST) From: "MARISA LINCOLN" <9503319@EIGG.SMS.ED.AC.UK> To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 17:33:30 +0000 Subject: Re: Commentary/Analysis from Shostak and Albert In-reply-to: <2.2.16.19970821143047.4377328e@pop.igc.org> Status: RO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE UNSUBSCRIBE From 9503319@EIGG.SMS.ED.AC.UK Mon Aug 25 10:35:13 1997 for ; Mon, 25 Aug 1997 17:35:08 +0100 (BST) From: "MARISA LINCOLN" <9503319@EIGG.SMS.ED.AC.UK> To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 17:34:25 +0000 Subject: Re: Commentary/Analysis from Shostak and Albert In-reply-to: <2.2.16.19970821143047.4377328e@pop.igc.org> Status: RO PLEASE UNSUBSCRIBE M.G. LINCOLN From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Mon Aug 25 10:56:03 1997 for ; Mon, 25 Aug 1997 09:55:16 -0700 (PDT) for ; Mon, 25 Aug 1997 09:49:57 -0700 (PDT) Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 09:49:57 -0700 (PDT) To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Future Distributions Off-List Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Dear Labor-Rappers: At the request of the list moderator, henceforth I will refrain from posting/cross-posting articles to Labor-Rap. Those who want to continue receiving these distributions off-list should contact me (off-list) to request to be added to this separate distribution list. I apologize to those who found the volume of postings on the UPS strike to be excessive. In solidarity, Michael ------------------------------------------ PLEASE ADD MY NAME TO THE DISTRIBUTION LIST: NAME: EMAIL ADDRESS: UNION AFFILIATION: OTHER AFFILIATION: COMMENT/SUGGESTION: Return to: meisenscher@igc.apc.org From philion@hawaii.edu Tue Aug 26 02:11:53 1997 Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 22:11:31 -1000 From: Stephen E Philion To: Labor Research and Action Project Subject: Re: Future Distributions Off-List In-Reply-To: <2.2.16.19970825094806.4af79edc@pop.igc.org> Status: RO Michael, I don't think you have much to apologize for. I just hope those who took the time to whine about your "excessive" postings, spent at least as much time on the picket lines. I mean, really, except for the 203K post, what's the big deal? Delete away if no like...takes all of 1,2 seconds since your subject headings were clearly UPS related.... In the end, you saved me a lot of time on the net looking for UPS related stories. Steve On Mon, 25 Aug 1997, Michael Eisenscher wrote: > Dear Labor-Rappers: > > At the request of the list moderator, henceforth I will refrain from > posting/cross-posting articles to Labor-Rap. Those who want to continue > receiving these distributions off-list should contact me (off-list) to > request to be added to this separate distribution list. > > I apologize to those who found the volume of postings on the UPS strike to > be excessive. > > In solidarity, > Michael > > ------------------------------------------ > > PLEASE ADD MY NAME TO THE DISTRIBUTION LIST: > > NAME: > > EMAIL ADDRESS: > > UNION AFFILIATION: > > OTHER AFFILIATION: > > COMMENT/SUGGESTION: > > > Return to: meisenscher@igc.apc.org > > From jipsonaj@muohio.edu Tue Aug 26 06:53:02 1997 In-Reply-To: <2.2.16.19970825094806.4af79edc@pop.igc.org> Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 09:00:19 -0500 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Art Jipson Subject: Re: Future Distributions Off-List Status: RO Michael, We can use the Teamsters list that I have set up here at Miami University. Send them to teamsters@miamiu.muohio.edu this might be an effective way to distribute materials and discussion about the ups strike, Quindell's decision and other matters related to the Teamsters. -Art >Dear Labor-Rappers: > >At the request of the list moderator, henceforth I will refrain from >posting/cross-posting articles to Labor-Rap. Those who want to continue >receiving these distributions off-list should contact me (off-list) to >request to be added to this separate distribution list. > >I apologize to those who found the volume of postings on the UPS strike to >be excessive. > >In solidarity, >Michael > >------------------------------------------ > >PLEASE ADD MY NAME TO THE DISTRIBUTION LIST: > >NAME: > >EMAIL ADDRESS: > >UNION AFFILIATION: > >OTHER AFFILIATION: > >COMMENT/SUGGESTION: > > >Return to: meisenscher@igc.apc.org Art Jipson Department of Sociology, Gerontology, and Anthropology Upham Hall, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056 513-529-2637 (o) 513-529-8525 (f) jipsonaj@muohio.edu Me: http://miavx1.muohio.edu/~ajjipson NCSA: http://miavx1.muohio.edu/~ajjipson/NCSA.htmlx Connells: http://miavx1.muohio.edu/~ajjipson/connells.htmlx "Didn't I say sorry, Didn't I say dear, Didn't I consider, Didn't I stand clear..." - M. Connell, The Connells "Claiming stupidness for daring..." -R. Gates, The Spinanes From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Tue Aug 26 09:14:46 1997 Tue, 26 Aug 1997 08:12:40 -0700 (PDT) Tue, 26 Aug 1997 08:06:58 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 08:06:58 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: History: Pullman Porters Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Check this website and links for story on the battle to organize Pullman porters. http://www.cnn.com/US/9708/23/pullman.porters.ap/index.html From lerner@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca Tue Aug 26 09:28:18 1997 for ; Tue, 26 Aug 1997 11:28:16 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 10:36:54 +0100 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: lerner@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca (S. Lerner) Subject: Re: Future Distributions Off-List Status: RO >Dear Labor-Rappers: > >At the request of the list moderator, henceforth I will refrain from >posting/cross-posting articles to Labor-Rap. Those who want to continue >receiving these distributions off-list should contact me (off-list) to >request to be added to this separate distribution list. > >I apologize to those who found the volume of postings on the UPS strike to >be excessive. > >In solidarity, >Michael > >------------------------------------------ > >PLEASE ADD MY NAME TO THE DISTRIBUTION LIST: > >NAME: Sally Lerner > >EMAIL ADDRESS: lerner@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca > >UNION AFFILIATION: > >OTHER AFFILIATION:Univ. of Waterloo > >COMMENT/SUGGESTION:I co-own the Futurework list and find your posts very >informative > > >Return to: meisenscher@igc.apc.org It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set. - Gandalf in 'Lord of the Rings' From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Tue Aug 26 10:02:09 1997 Tue, 26 Aug 1997 08:59:31 -0700 (PDT) Tue, 26 Aug 1997 08:52:19 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 08:52:19 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: THE FIGHT IN THE FIELDS (fwd) Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 21:12:18 -0400 (EDT) From:DValdezSF@aol.com To: dwlabor@netcom.com Subject: THE FIGHT IN THE FIELDS New documentary film "THE FIGHT IN THE FIELDS: CESAR CHAVEZ AND THE FARMWORKERS' STRUGGLE" to air on PBS SEPTEMBER 1st AS A LABOR DAY SPECIAL! (8:00 pm in most areas, check local listings). Please forward this notice to other people you think may be interested in this program. Cesar Chavez was a great labor leader and community activist who was able to bridge the gap between migrant farmworkers and the American public. This film captures his message and philosophy of creative non-violence, and preserves an important chapter in our history. Chavez inspired the Chicano activism of the 60's and '70s, and united working-class Mexican Americans with students, religious people, unions, and ordinary people of good will throughout the country in a fight for social justice. Millions of Americans supported the grape boycott and helped the farmworkers to win their first contracts. The film, along with the new CURRICULUM GUIDE, is suitable for use in middle schools, high schools, college courses, and is an important resource for community groups. It provides an excellent tool for the study of history, sociology, labor studies, immigration, ethnic studies, conflict resolution, ethics & values, community organizing. The film was produced by Rick Tejada-Flores and Ray Telles, both veteran documentary producers, and is a presentation of the Independent Television Service. Major funding was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, with additional support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The companion book, published by Harcourt Brace, is available now in bookstores. It was written by Susan Ferris and Ricardo Sandoval, edited by Diana Hembree, with photo editor Michele MacKenzie. It offers an in-depth look at the life of Cesar Chavez and the history of the farmworkers movement. Schools, libraries, and community organizations can purchase videocassettes, books, study guides and posters by calling (800) 962-8513 or writing: The Fight in the Fields; Box 3258; Sparks, NV 89432-3258. For more information: www.itvs.org/chavez, or Rick Tejada-Flores (510) 883-9814 e-mail: grtf@igc.org From hennessy@cnsvax.albany.edu Tue Aug 26 10:05:39 1997 Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 12:06:00 -0400 (EDT) From: hennessy@cnsvax.albany.edu Subject: Re: Truth About UPS Revealed In-reply-to: <2.2.16.19970809003306.3e7fb6f0@pop.igc.org> To: Labor Research and Action Project Status: RO please let me know how to unsubscribe from this list. Thanks Rosemary Hennessy From aanz@sirius.com Tue Aug 26 11:03:22 1997 for ; Tue, 26 Aug 1997 10:03:16 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 10:05:37 -0700 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: aanz@sirius.com (anzalone/starbird) Subject: Re: Enough for Now: Future Distributions Status: RO >Dear Friends, Sisters, Brothers, Colleagues, and Comrades: > >The UPS strike has been officially terminated by the Teamsters Union, >pending contract ratification by mail ballot of members. No doubt there >will be post-strike analysis, opinion, and commentary for some time to come. >I greatly appreciate the forbearance shown by list subscribers in response >to the considerable increase in the volume of mail created by these >distributions. I recognize that not everyone wanted the extent of coverage >these posts provided. I am pleased to report that I received very few >complaints. > >It would be inappropriate for me to impose further on these lists with >distribution of additional material as has been my practice during the >strike. There may, however, be post-strike material of interest to some >that I will post much more selectively based on the interests to which each >list is devoted. I will also maintain a list of individuals who do want to >receive copies of ALL such postings, regardless of their subscriptions to >these lists. (This may mean receipt of duplicates when a distribution is >also posted to a list to which you subscribe.) > >If you want to be placed on this distribution list, send me notice of your >interest (OFF-LIST). It would be helpful to know the lists to which you >subscribe where you have been receiving these distributions. If you are a >union member, please identify your affiliation (and any other information >you care to share). > >Thanks once again for your patience. I think we can all take great >satisfaction in the level of solidarity demonstrated by the Internet >Community in support of this struggle. Some thought might be given to how >this capacity could be expanded and improved. Certainly we will have need >to mobilize ourselves again, perhaps as soon as when the UPS pilots face off >with management. > >In solidarity, >Michael >================================================== > >SIGN ME UP FOR INDIVIDUAL DISTRIBUTIONS >Return to: meisenscher@igc.apc.org > >NAME: Ellen Starbird > >E-MAIL ADDRESS: aanz@sirius.com > >CITY/STATE: Oaktown, CA > >UNION: CA F.T. > >OTHER AFFILIATION: I usually can be found hanging out with the prematurely >anti-facist crowd in all its alphabet soup promlgations. > >NEWSGROUP SUBSCRIPTIONS: Labor stuff, Haiti and Irish news. >or SOURCE FROM WHICH >POSTINGS WERE RECEIVED: Probably Labor Rap > > >COMMENTS/SUGGESTIONS: Party on! From aanz@sirius.com Tue Aug 26 11:20:40 1997 for ; Tue, 26 Aug 1997 10:20:34 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 10:22:56 -0700 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: aanz@sirius.com (anzalone/starbird) Subject: Re: F.Y.I. Status: RO Thanks! I have a question to ask you also re: Haitian workers of the subcontractor H.H. Cutler manufacturing for Disney may be getting laid off in Sept. as the contractor moves its apparel works to Asian where the workers make .13 instead of .26 an hour. One of the union organizers from Batay Ouriye will be visiting the U.S. (I'm told we'll ahve more info on the 27th) and UNITE and Natl. Labor Committee is calling for a Day of Conscience 10/4. Would you be interested in hosting a speaking event for the Batay Ouriye organizer, Yanick Etienne this semester? Tom F Driver (teaches theology I think) may be coordinating her tour. I intend to help, and annoy all my friends by asking for their support. If your interested you can contact Tom directly. Thanks, Ellen Starbird >Brothers and Sisters: Thought this might interest you - > >Teamsters, Labor, and the Ghost of PATCO: Hard-earned Lessons >by >Dr. Arthur B. Shostak >Professor of Sociology >Drexel University > > >PATCO has been the ghost haunting the recently ended Teamster-UPS strike. >No union-management faceoff since the 1981 White House firing of 11,400 >PATCO strikers so captured public attention, involved so many workers, and >so tested labor's mettle. Regardless of the contract details, organized >labor won a very special and very valuable victory: It showed its >14-million members and the 122-million others in the U.S. workforce that it >understood the fatal errors made 16 years ago in the PATCO fiasco, and has >found a far smarter way of hitting the bricks. > >This time, for example, the union made a creative and sustained effort to >win public support, something PATCO ineptly sought only after the fact. >The IBT held press conferences and public rallies before and during the UPS >strike, going so far as to make strategic use of web sites to update and >rally its 185,000 UPS members. They succeeded in linking their case for >part-timer gains to the plight of all Americans who feel victimized by >"take-it-or-leave-it" terms of employment. Unlike PATCO, which lost badly >in the Court of Public Opinion, the Teamsters won almost two-to-one over >UPS in a Fox News poll, earned a 55%-to-27% win in a CNN/USA Today Gallup >Poll, and scored 39% to 30% in an ABC News Nightline poll taken at the end >of the strike's second week. > >A second lesson had the Teamsters seek and secure widespread support from >other unionists, something PATCO was too proud and insular to bother with. >The Teamsters earned critical support from the Pilots Union inside UPS, the >Postal Union, and even European unions with UPS contracts. The AFL-CIO >came through with a loan of millions to help cover a $10-million-a-week >strike benefit bill. But best of all, unions across the country helped to >man Teamster picket lines in a rare show of solidarity, just what the labor >movement needed to affirm mutual concern and buoy morale. > >Third, unlike PATCO in 1981, the Teamsters updated traditional strike >tactics to better fit the times. Recognizing the happy coincidence of many >jobs available for strikers, the union scaled back the picketline hours >expected for receiving strike benefits, and liberated many to supplement >their take-home pay with temporary jobs. > >Finally, the two strikes differ in that PATCO in 1980 supported a >Republican candidate for the presidency, only to find to its astonishment >that Ronald Reagan had no compunctions about breaking their strike, firing >the strikers, hiring replacements, decertifying their union, and signalling >to anti-union employers they had a friend in the White House. The >Teamsters, in >contrast, helped a Democrat win re-election in 1996, and have been assisted >since by the strenuous efforts of Alexis Herman, Clinton's Secretary of >Labor. As well, the White House declined to use the Taft-Hartley Act to >end the strike, a move no president has taken in the last 25 years, albeit >UPS has urged this almost from day one. > >As we head toward this 112th Labor Day, the American labor movement appears >smarter, stronger, and more relevant than in many recent years. It is >proud that nearly all of its contracts are being settled without conflict, >and proud also of its ability to hold its own - and then some - should >conflict prove necessary. It is proud that it is the largest social >movement in America, and especially proud that the nation's air traffic >controllers, after trying life without a union for six years following the >PATCO disaster, re-unionized and rejoined the AFL-CIO. Like the 1981 PATCO >strike, the 1997 Teamster-UPS strike already has a major place in labor >history, this time, however, signalling not a sharp blow, but more likely a >significant boost to labor's prospects. > >***** > >Arthur B. Shostak is an Industrial Sociologist and Labor Educator at Drexel >University. He is the principle author of "The Air Controller's >Controversy: Lessons from the 1981 PATCO Strike." He is also an Adjunct >Sociologist at the AFL-CIO George Meany Center for Labor Studies. > >Arthur B. Shostak, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Department of Psychology/ >Sociology/Anthropology, Drexel University, Phila., PA, 19104; Office: >215/895-2466; Home: 610/668-2727. >email: SHOSTAKA@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu >http://httpsrv.ocs.drexel.edu/faculty/shostaka/ > >Arthur B. Shostak, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Department of >Psych/Soc/Anthro, Drexel University, Phila., PA, 19104; 215-895-2466; fax >610-668-2727. >email: SHOSTAKA@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu >http://httpsrv.ocs.drexel.edu/faculty/shostaka/ >"This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to do >with it." Ralph Waldo Emerson From aanz@sirius.com Tue Aug 26 11:28:04 1997 Tue, 26 Aug 1997 10:27:45 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 10:30:07 -0700 To: clawson@sadri.umass.edu From: aanz@sirius.com (anzalone/starbird) Subject: Re: labor-academic alliance Status: RO Yeah, count me in. Ellen Starbird Laney college instructor Oakland, CA sociology instructor at Laney College and labor studies instructor at City college of San Francisco, affiliated as member and delegate with California Fed. of Teachers, AFL-CIO >From: Dan Clawson (clawson@sadri.umass.edu) >To: anyone interested in labor >Re: signing a statement, joining a group > > > The revival of the American labor movement, and its openness to a >variety of initiatives that would have been inconceivable a few years ago, >is the most promising political initiative of recent years. A new group >is forming to build links between academics and the labor movement. John >Sweeney, Linda Chavez Thompson, and the New Voice leadership have >explicitly encouraged this development. They hope that we can work to >alter the debates taking place in public policy and on the cultural front, >in our teaching and in every public forum, just as they are working to >change realities in trade unions. Together we can be part of a broader >labor movement that includes both these areas and much more. > > I realize it is ludicrously short notice, but an ad and press >conference are planned announcing the formation of this group. In order >to get your name on the ad, you need to send your name and affiliation to > >tnr1@columbia.edu (that's a #1, not a letter L) > >by Tuesday August 26. If you don't make that date, you can still join the >group; see the address in the enclosed memo. > > If you'd prefer, you could send your name and affiliation to me, Dan >Clawson, (clawson@sadri.umass.edu) and I will pass it on. > > Together we can build a movement for social change. You can begin by >passing this message on to everyone you can think of who would want to >sign. > > > >Labor Day, 1997 > >For two decades, Labor Day has been an occasion for eulogies and epitaphs, >as the labor movement suffered deindustrialization, downsizing and defeat. >But Labor Day 1997 arrives with a new militance and a new hope. The >victory of the Teamsters in the two-week UPS strike -- the largest strike >in a generation -- was a victory for all working people, whose incomes and >livelihoods have stagnated for nearly a quarter of a century. The UPS >strike was also a turning point for the labor movement, and could >determine its strength and direction for years to come. > >Though the right to organize has eroded in a world of contingent work -- >part-time, temporary, outsourced, and subcontracted -- organizing >campaigns across the continent are now rebuilding the labor movement in >old and new workplaces: from Borders bookstores to Las Vegas casinos, from >the strawberry fields of Watsonville to the classrooms of Berkeley and >Yale, from Federal Express to Nike sweatshops. > >We take this moment of struggle to announce the formation of a new >independent, national organization: "Scholars, Artists, and Writers for >Social Justice." In the academy and publishing, in the arts, sciences and >entertainment, we also experience the growth of low-wage, part-time >employment which erodes our craft and creativity. We call upon our >colleagues and friends this Labor Day to declare their solidarity with the >organizing drives of the new labor movement. The time is ripe to restore >the mutually empowering relationship that once gave hope and dynamism to >the labor movement and its allies in the academic and cultural >communities. > >We envision a movement that can reshape the nation's political culture by >combating inequality and powerlessness, and by fostering the growth of a >vibrant, militant, multicultural working-class movement. In an era >when elite opinion makes a fetish of the free market, unions -- with a >commitment to solidarity, equality, and collective struggle -- remain >fundamental institutions of a democratic society. Our confidence in >launching SAWSJ comes from the success of the "labor teach-in" movement, >inaugurated last fall when more than 2,000 people affirmed a new alliance >of labor and academe at Columbia University. In more than a score of other >teach-ins from coast to coast, students, teachers, writers, artists, and >unionists met, talked, learned, and argued in an atmosphere of hope and >solidarity. SAWSJ hopes to fulfill the promise of those teach-ins. > >> Add your name to this public statement which will be >> released on September 1. You may do so by e-mailing Thaddeus >> Russell at tnr1@columbia.edu. Please note that the address >> contains the numeral one after "tnr." Please include your > affiliation. >> >> At the same time you may also join Scholars, Artists, >> and Writers for Social Justice, which is planning a >> series of teach-ins and other events over the next several months. >> Please send a contribution to Ellen Schrecker, 771 West End >> Avenue #7D, New York, New York, 10025. >> >> Alewitz, Mike >> Aronowitz, Stanley >> Aronson, Ronald >> Azcarate, Fred >> Ballinger, Lee >> Benjamin, Ernst >> Bennett, Marty >> Bernard, Elaine >> Bonilla, Frank >> Buhle, Paul >> Carter, Prudence >> Chancer, Lynn >> Clawson, Dan >> Cutler, Jonathan >> Delgado, Hector >> Denning, Michael >> DiFazio, Bill >> Domingo, Ligaya >> Dubro, Alec >> Fennell, Dorothy >> Fletcher, Bill >> Fraser, Steven >> Freeman, Joshua B. >> Gerstle, Gary >> Gray, Lois >> Green, Adam >> Green, Venus >> Hall, Jacquelyn >> Horne, Gerald >> Huck, Gary >> Kaye, Harvey >> Kazin, Michael >> Kelley, Robin D.G. >> Kornbluh, Felicia >> Krupat, Kitty >> Levi, Margaret >> Lichtenstein, Nelson N. >> Lie, John >> Marquez, Dennis Bixler >> Mendel-Reyes, Meta >> Montgomery, David >> Murolo, Priscilla >> Nathan, Debbie >> Newman, Kathy >> Ngai, Mae >> Piven, Frances Fox >> Porter, Allison >> Potter, Sarah >> Pranis, Kevin >> Prisock, Louis >> Ripton, Jessica >> Robinson, Dean >> Rosen, Sumner M >> Royster, Dee >> Russell, Thad >> Ryan, Sarah >> Schrecker, Ellen W. >> Semann, Ingrid >> Simmons, Esmeralda >> Singh, Nikhil >> Skotnes, Andor >> Slaughter, Jane >> Stephens, Michelle >> Sugrue, Tom >> Uehlein, Joe >> Venkatesh, Sudhir >> Watts, Jerry >> Willis, Ellen >> Woodard, Komozi >> Young, Cynthia >> >> > > >-- >Dan Clawson > work = 413-545-5974 home 413-586-6235 >Contemp. Sociology = 413-545-4064 fax 413-545-1994 >email = clawson@sadri.umass.edu consoc@sadri.umass.edu From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Tue Aug 26 11:32:45 1997 Tue, 26 Aug 1997 09:58:08 -0700 (PDT) Tue, 26 Aug 1997 09:49:44 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 09:49:44 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: 10 Billionaires Could Wipe Out Poverty Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO In a faith-based religious newsletter called "Ministry of Money," the following except appeared in a story about poverty which I thought worth sharing: "As unbelievable as it may sound, the combined wealth of the world's seven richest people could end world poverty. A United Nations Human Development Report recently published (and reported in the June 22, 1997 issue of Manchester Guardian Weekly) notes that an $80 billion anti-poverty program would provide access to basic social services and eradicate poverty. The net wealth of 10 billionaires, according to the report, is worth 1.5 times the combined national incone of the 48 least developed countries. The growing gap between rich and poor is also quantified in the report: in 1960 the richest fifth of the world's population was 30 times as wealthy as the world's poorest fifth; in 1994, they were 78 times as wealthy." As we witness accelerating economic polarization in the U.S., it is important to also ponder the global implications of wildly bifurcated distributions of income and wealth. The cold terms of financial accounting cannot begin to describe the incalculable human suffering that lies behind the numbers. Gives one pause to reconsider Marx's aphorism: "expropriate the expropriators." From aanz@sirius.com Tue Aug 26 11:40:10 1997 for ; Tue, 26 Aug 1997 10:40:02 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 10:42:23 -0700 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: aanz@sirius.com (anzalone/starbird) Subject: Re: Future Distributions Off-List Status: RO this sucks! I totally enjoyed getting the low down on the ups stuff, can we recount the votes? ellen starbird >Dear Labor-Rappers: > >At the request of the list moderator, henceforth I will refrain from >posting/cross-posting articles to Labor-Rap. Those who want to continue >receiving these distributions off-list should contact me (off-list) to >request to be added to this separate distribution list. > >I apologize to those who found the volume of postings on the UPS strike to >be excessive. > >In solidarity, >Michael > >------------------------------------------ > >PLEASE ADD MY NAME TO THE DISTRIBUTION LIST: > >NAME: > >EMAIL ADDRESS: > >UNION AFFILIATION: > >OTHER AFFILIATION: > >COMMENT/SUGGESTION: > > >Return to: meisenscher@igc.apc.org From natcav@ix.netcom.com Tue Aug 26 15:58:10 1997 by dfw-ix12.ix.netcom.com (8.8.4/8.8.4) id sma021630; Tue Aug 26 16:57:39 1997 Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 16:58:13 -0500 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Bryan Thompson Subject: Re: Future Distributions Off-List Status: RO Ellen If you want to read about the UPS stuff, but don't want the mail just go to this url, we put every one of the articles online as a historical reference for those interested in the strike. In addition to that we have another 400 or so labor articles online from labor publications and various sources that allow us to post them. http://www.natcavoice.org/ups/ups-index.htm Bryan Bryan Thompson H: 630-860-7423 Staff@NATCAVoice.org http://www.NATCAVoice.org Editor - The NATCA Voice 800-SKY-TALK ; Pin 114-9137 From shostaka@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu Tue Aug 26 21:03:47 1997 Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 23:06:29 -0500 To: LABOR-RAP@csf.colorado.edu From: Art Shostak Subject: F.Y.I. Status: RO Brothers and Sisters: I would appreciate feedback on this annual Labor Day essay of mine: Labor Day "State of the Unions" Report, 1997 So weak and troubled was the nation's labor movement two years ago when reformer John Sweeney assumed the presidency of the AFL-CIO that a medical report on it would have read "critical." Now, on the 110th marking of Labor Day. any such report would read "stabilized," though the prognosis remains uncertain. No one can fault the Sweeney leadership team for not trying. Organi- zing, always the top challenge, has received more money, people, and sweat than at any time since the mass organizing campaigns of the 1930s. Accordingly, since last Labor Day organizing successes have enrolled many thousands of non-tra- ditional workers (doctors, interns, podiatrists, etc.), once-aloof types labor must reach to survive the downsizing of its historic areas of strength. Similarly, labor has scored major successes with the opposite end of the workforce, with "have-little" types who desperately need its shield and sword (fruit pickers, strawberry workers, "workfare" enrollees, etc.). Having now tripled the size of its Organizing Institute, the AFL-CIO graduates every month better-than-ever organizers hired immediately by eager affiliated unions. A second major problem, changing the public's perception, has the AFL-CIO this year spending $5-million on TV spots aimed at persuading viewers labor and America go better together. It recruited nearly 1,000 collegians for its second annual Union Summer, a "boot camp" for prospective organizers who commonly return to campus with an upbeat assessment of labor. Its affilates, in turn, demonstrate new craft in winning public support (something the Teamsters enjoyed by two-to-one in the recent UPS strike). Much is made of Sweeney's insistance America needs a raise, and as union status means 18% more in median weekly earnings, this resonates well with many hard-pressed non-union workers. Modernization, a third major challenge, has the AFL-CIO now spending $15 million over the next 18 months to turn headquarters into a high-tech cyberworld center equal to anything available to opponents in corporate America. The smartest among its 78 affiliates are busy reinventing themselves as CyberUnions, well-equipped for cyberspace survival. Their field agents employ high-quality laptops. Their best locals loft high-quality web pages, encourage e-mail exchanges among members and officers that raise morale, circulate bright ideas, and bolster solidarity (while also impressing the heck out of many prospective members). Finally, the matter of power remains a central challenge. Labor takes pride in its low strike count, but it never tires of reminding all of its ability to win when necessary. Its preference, however, is to highlight the ability of union workers to work smarter, more safely, and with more value added to the job than true of non-union types. Eager to cooperate with employers astute enough to see unions as strategic partners, labor continues to reward such companies with substantial bottom-line productivity payoffs (something employers in Europe long ago grasped and capitalize on). More could be said, especially, about 1997 union successes re-unionizing worksites turned by privitization temprarily non-union. Attention is also owed new successes in linking unions around the world in joint actions (union longshoremen, for example, in 105 ports worldwide acted in concert for a week to help 500 Liverpool dockers win their case). Suffice it to say that if labor's prognosis is to move from "stabilized" to "satisfactory" the projects, progress, and momentum of 1997 provides a very sound base: America's union movement, the largest social movement in America, has much in which to take pride, and hope from on this Labor Day. Arthur B. Shostak, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Department of Psych/Soc/Anthro, Drexel University, Phila., PA, 19104; 215-895-2466; fax 610-668-2727. email: SHOSTAKA@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu http://httpsrv.ocs.drexel.edu/faculty/shostaka/ "This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to do with it." Ralph Waldo Emerson From Jose_Itzigsohn@brown.edu Wed Aug 27 06:41:10 1997 for ; Wed, 27 Aug 1997 08:41:08 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 1997 08:41:08 -0400 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Jose Itzigsohn Subject: Re: THE FIGHT IN THE FIELDS (fwd) Status: RO Hi Jason, do you think you can tape this movie? I just don't have cable and don't get PBS in my TV. By the way, let me know how much I owe you for xerox copies. Jose At 08:52 AM 8/26/97 -0700, you wrote: > > >---------- Forwarded message ---------- >Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 21:12:18 -0400 (EDT) >From:DValdezSF@aol.com >To: dwlabor@netcom.com >Subject: THE FIGHT IN THE FIELDS > > New documentary film "THE FIGHT IN THE FIELDS: CESAR CHAVEZ AND THE >FARMWORKERS' STRUGGLE" to air on PBS SEPTEMBER 1st AS A LABOR DAY SPECIAL! >(8:00 pm in most areas, check local listings). Please forward this notice to >other people you think may be interested in this program. > > Cesar Chavez was a great labor leader and community activist who was able >to bridge the gap between migrant farmworkers and the American public. This >film captures his message and philosophy of creative non-violence, and >preserves an important chapter in our history. > Chavez inspired the Chicano activism of the 60's and '70s, and united >working-class Mexican Americans with students, religious people, unions, and >ordinary people of good will throughout the country in a fight for social >justice. Millions of Americans supported the grape boycott and helped the >farmworkers to win their first contracts. > The film, along with the new CURRICULUM GUIDE, is suitable for use in >middle schools, high schools, college courses, and is an important resource >for community groups. It provides an excellent tool for the study of >history, sociology, labor studies, immigration, ethnic studies, conflict >resolution, ethics & values, community organizing. > The film was produced by Rick Tejada-Flores and Ray Telles, both veteran >documentary producers, and is a presentation of the Independent Television >Service. Major funding was provided by the National Endowment for the >Humanities, with additional support from the Corporation for Public >Broadcasting. > The companion book, published by Harcourt Brace, is available now in >bookstores. It was written by Susan Ferris and Ricardo Sandoval, edited by >Diana Hembree, with photo editor Michele MacKenzie. It offers an in-depth >look at the life of Cesar Chavez and the history of the farmworkers movement. > > > Schools, libraries, and community organizations can purchase >videocassettes, books, study guides and posters by calling (800) 962-8513 or >writing: The Fight in the Fields; Box 3258; Sparks, NV 89432-3258. > >For more information: >www.itvs.org/chavez, or >Rick Tejada-Flores >(510) 883-9814 >e-mail: grtf@igc.org > > > > From aanz@sirius.com Thu Aug 28 09:06:27 1997 for ; Thu, 28 Aug 1997 08:06:22 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 08:08:44 -0700 To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu From: aanz@sirius.com (anzalone/starbird) Subject: Re: F.Y.I. Status: RO Looks great Art! I would quibble only over emphasis (I think the longshoreman's success was far more significant than the lap tops and I would swap those two items in presentation. But that reflects my own bias towards the urgent need for internationalism; I'm actually very glad to see an example of cross oceanianic solidarity mentioned at all... And another pickyun, I'm pretty sure that lots of workers helped push John Sweeney along, how come he gets billing in the first paragraph? My usual kavetch about reporting on history as cult figure, which you can disregard cuz everybody else does...: ) On highlighting electronics, here in San Francisco the striker's website was extremely significant to the success of the newpaper guild etc. That was more than one year ago, but it speaks to the significance of computereze and our ability to fight back with appropriate technology. The A.S.A. & SSSP gang wanting to hook up campuses across the country via Labor Rap to build campus support for labor is even more exciting (to me) because of the indication they represent that labor is looking outward into (organizing) the community, than some of the other examples of electronic activism you mentioned, (which were labor looking inward and more technocrat as problem solving: the service model of unionism). One to the completely miniscule: There's a typo in the fifth: non-tra- ditional and the seventh paragraph (temp O rary) >Brothers and Sisters: I would appreciate feedback on this annual Labor Day >essay of mine: > > Labor Day "State of the Unions" Report, 1997 > > So weak and troubled was the nation's labor movement two years ago >when reformer John Sweeney assumed the presidency of the AFL-CIO that a >medical report on it would have read "critical." Now, on the 110th marking >of Labor Day. any such report would read "stabilized," though the prognosis >remains uncertain. > > No one can fault the Sweeney leadership team for not trying. >Organi- zing, always the top challenge, has received more money, people, >and sweat than at any time since the mass organizing campaigns of the >1930s. Accordingly, since last Labor Day organizing successes have enrolled >many thousands of non-tra- ditional workers (doctors, interns, podiatrists, >etc.), once-aloof types labor must reach to survive the downsizing of its >historic areas of strength. >Similarly, labor has scored major successes with the opposite end of the >workforce, with "have-little" types who desperately need its shield and >sword (fruit pickers, strawberry workers, "workfare" enrollees, etc.). >Having now tripled the size of its Organizing Institute, the AFL-CIO >graduates every month >better-than-ever organizers hired immediately by eager affiliated unions. > > A second major problem, changing the public's perception, has the >AFL-CIO this year spending $5-million on TV spots aimed at persuading >viewers labor and America go better together. It recruited nearly 1,000 >collegians for its second annual Union Summer, a "boot camp" for >prospective organizers who commonly return to campus with an upbeat >assessment of labor. Its affilates, in turn, demonstrate new craft in >winning public support (something the Teamsters enjoyed by two-to-one in >the recent UPS strike). Much is made of Sweeney's insistance America needs >a raise, and as union status means 18% more in median weekly earnings, this >resonates well with many hard-pressed non-union workers. > > Modernization, a third major challenge, has the AFL-CIO now >spending $15 million over the next 18 months to turn headquarters into a >high-tech cyberworld center equal to anything available to opponents in >corporate America. The smartest among its 78 affiliates are busy >reinventing themselves as CyberUnions, well-equipped for cyberspace >survival. Their field agents employ high-quality laptops. Their best locals >loft high-quality web pages, encourage e-mail exchanges among members and >officers that raise morale, circulate bright ideas, and bolster solidarity >(while also impressing the heck out of many prospective members). > > Finally, the matter of power remains a central challenge. Labor >takes pride in its low strike count, but it never tires of reminding all of >its ability to win when necessary. Its preference, however, is to highlight >the ability of union workers to work smarter, more safely, and with more >value added to the job than true of non-union types. Eager to cooperate >with employers astute enough to see unions as strategic partners, labor >continues to reward such companies with substantial bottom-line >productivity payoffs (something employers in Europe long ago grasped and >capitalize on). > > More could be said, especially, about 1997 union successes >re-unionizing worksites turned by privitization temprarily non-union. >Attention is also owed new successes in linking unions around the world in >joint actions (union longshoremen, for example, in 105 ports worldwide >acted in concert for a week to help 500 Liverpool dockers win their case). > > Suffice it to say that if labor's prognosis is to move from >"stabilized" to "satisfactory" the projects, progress, and momentum of 1997 >provides a very sound base: America's union movement, the largest social >movement in America, has much in which to take pride, and hope from on this >Labor Day. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >Arthur B. Shostak, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Department of >Psych/Soc/Anthro, Drexel University, Phila., PA, 19104; 215-895-2466; fax >610-668-2727. >email: SHOSTAKA@duvm.ocs.drexel.edu >http://httpsrv.ocs.drexel.edu/faculty/shostaka/ >"This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to do >with it." Ralph Waldo Emerson From sscipe1@icarus.cc.uic.edu Thu Aug 28 21:27:55 1997 for ; Thu, 28 Aug 1997 22:27:14 -0500 (CDT) Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 22:27:14 -0500 (CDT) To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu From: sscipe1@icarus.cc.uic.edu (Kim Scipes) Subject: Dilbert's office prayer Status: RO I thought we could all use a little levity in our lives, so I forward this on to all. Enjoy! Kim >>>>>>Subject: Dilbert's Office Prayer >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>>Grant me the serenity >>>>>>To accept the things >>>>>>I cannot change; >>>>>>The courage to change >>>>>>the things I cannot accept; >>>>>>And the wisdom to hide the bodies >>>>>>of those people I had to kill >>>>>>today because they pissed me off. >>>>>>And also, >>>>>>Help me to be careful >>>>>>Of the toes I step on today as they >>>>>>May be connected to the butt >>>>>>That I might have to kiss tomorrow. > From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Fri Aug 29 09:47:03 1997 Fri, 29 Aug 1997 08:43:55 -0700 (PDT) Fri, 29 Aug 1997 08:37:31 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 08:37:31 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Labor Day -- and Labor; Mitsubishi Settles Suit Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 17:23:59 -0400 (EDT) From: Marc Estrin Subject: Labor Day -- and Labor As we go off on our long weekend, we might pause and reflect that Labor Day -- and weekends themselves -- were hard-won holidays, entirely attributable to unions and their history of struggle. At a time when corporate profits are soaring, and workplace justice is under global assault, a new feeling for unionism is beginning to be born, both nationally and at UVM. America's middle and lower classes are starting to understand that workers deserve -- fair compensation for work, both in salary and benefits -- some level of job security, especially with respect to outsourcing -- the right to organize to achieve their goals -- adequate training and opportunities for advancement -- family-friendly scheduling, and -- real participation in workplace decision-making. Labor Day is a holiday (holyday -- old spelling), and it's interesting to note that the religious community has come out strongly in support of organized labor as as way to achieve equity, respect and economic justice: -- "We firmly oppose organized efforts, such as those regrettably seen in this country, to break existing unions or prevent workers from organizing." (National Conference of Catholic Bishops) -- "The experience of history teaches that organizations of this type [unions] are an indispensible element of social life, especially in modern industrialized societies. Unions are indeed a mouthpiece for the struggle for social justice, for the just rights of working people in accordance with their individual professions." ("On Human Work", papal encyclical) -- "Free collective bargaining has proved its value in our free society whenever the parties engaged in collective bargaining have acted in good faith to reach equitable and moral solutions of problems dealing with wages and working conditions." (Christian Methodist Episcopal Church Discipline) -- "We believe in the right of laboring men and women to organize for protection against unjust conditions and to secure a more adequate share of the fruits of their toil." (Disciples of Christ) -- "We decry the growing wage of antiunionism mounting in the nation today which asks people to forget the struggles that led to this form of negotiation as a just way to settle differences." (Pastoral message from the Urban Bishops Coalition of the Episcopal Church) -- "We reaffirm...the responsibility of workers to organize unions for collective bargaining with employers regarding wages, benefits, and working conditions; and to participate in efforts further to democratize, reform, and expand the labor movement domestically and abroad." (United Church of Christ Resolution) -- "Jewish leaders, along with our Catholic and Protestant counterparts, have always supported the labor movement and the rights of employees to form unions for the purpose of engaging in collective bargaining and attaining fairness in the workplace." (Central Conference of American Rabbis) So have a good, and safe, Labor Day weekend, and think a bit about the folks who brought you weekends -- the American Labor Movement, and its local great-grandchild, UEUVM. Marc ------------------------------------------------------------------ Mitsubishi Settles Disrimination Suit Often, by the time a publicized lawsuit gets settled, I've forgotten what the case was all about. Not so with the Mitsubishi sexual harrassment lawsuit. It that case, Mitsubishi gave it's workers the day "off" and bussed 2000 of them 120 miles to demonstrate outside the Chicago EEOC offices. That was a couple of years ago. What made that case more memorable than most was the fact that the company effectively paid it's employees to publicly demonstrate against an agency of the U.S. government. -- LW ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PEORIA, Illinois (AP) --Mitsubishi Motor Corp. has settled a lawsuit with 27 women who had accused the company of condoning sexual harassment in the workplace, attorneys for both sides announced Thursday. Two of the original 29 plaintiffs did not participate in the settlement involving the Japanese automaker's plant in Normal, Illinois. Mitsubishi promised to donate $100,000 to women's causes in the Bloomington-Normal area, the two sides said at a news conference, but they would not disclose any other details of the settlement. An attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said,though, that it involved substantial cash payments to the women. The announcement followed several hours of talks between Judge Michael Mihm and representatives of both sides. The agency's larger lawsuit accusing Mitsubishi of harassment against more than 300 women is not affected by the settlement of this private suit, said John Hendrickson of the EEOC. Even so, he called the agreement "a good sign." "I think it represents an assumption of responsibility on their part for a lot of the employment practices we have been challenging," he said. In May, lawyers for both sides entered into mediation in an attempt to resolve the private lawsuit filed in federal court in Peoria 1 1/2 years ago. The federal action, filed in April 1996, contends women at Mitsubishi's plant in Normal were targets or witnesses of sexual harassment. The EEOC believes additional women have been victims but are too afraid to contact the federal agency. The agency considers all to be potential victims because the agency's definition of sexual harassment includes being forced to work in an environment where offensive activity is widespread and tolerated by management. Mitsubishi at first denied wrongdoing, shut the plant for a day and bused more than 2,000 workers to Chicago, 120 miles away, to demonstrate outside the EEOC office. But it later hired former U.S. Labor Secretary Lynn Martin to study its workplace and make recommendations. After she released her report, the company said it was implementing a wide range of programs designed to prevent discrimination and harassment. From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Fri Aug 29 21:17:28 1997 Fri, 29 Aug 1997 20:16:52 -0700 (PDT) Fri, 29 Aug 1997 20:09:43 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 20:09:43 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: ILWU 8hr US West Coast shutdown on Liverpool Day of Action!!! Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO 28 August 1997 to: Jim Nolan (Chairman, Merseyside Port Shop Stewards) Dear Brother Nolan: I am writing to inform you that the ILWU is planning to shut down all the ports on the West Coast of the United States on Monday, September 8 as part of the International Day of Solidarity with the Liverpool dockers. We will be holding stop work meetings from 6p.m. to 2a.m. that day for the membership to discuss privatization issues, including our own beef at LAXT as well as the struggle against privatization and casualization at Liverpool. We are anxious to hear about other activities happening around the world on that day and the International Transport Workers Federation will forward that information to us as soon as it is available. We encourage all dockers unions and affiliates of the ITF to join in the actions of this Day of Solidarity. In solidarity, Brian McWilliams International President ILWU ----------------------------------------- 28 August 1997 to: David Cockroft (ITF General Secretary) Dear David: I am writing to inform you that the ILWU is planning to shut down all the ports on the West Coast of the United States Monday, September 8 to hold stop work meetings on privatization issues, including our beef at LAXT and highlighting the plight of the Liverpool dockers. The work stoppage will take place between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. so the membership can assemble. Please advise your other affiliates of our plans and keep us informed of other activities by ITF affiliates concerning this Day of Solidarity with the Liverpool dockers. In solidarity, Brian McWilliams International President ILWU From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Fri Aug 29 23:24:32 1997 Fri, 29 Aug 1997 22:22:49 -0700 (PDT) Fri, 29 Aug 1997 22:17:15 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 22:17:15 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Labor Day Gall Award!!!! Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO As a rule I decline to post articles published in Gannett papers like USA Today. This will be an exception, because it demonstrates the utter amorality and hypocrisy of this scab-herding, union-busting, law-breaking corporation. Julianne Malveaux is a progressive academic and syndicated columnist. USA Today, in honor of Labor Day, published the following commentary by Dr. Malveaux. One might ask why Dr. Malveaux would lend herself to this despicable corporation under any circumstances. But given their record in Detroit and elsewhere. . . . on Labor Day???? ----------------------------------------- 08/29/97 - 01:20 PM ET Don't forget workers who make life easier For most Americans, Labor Day means picnics, parties and parades, barbecues and back-to-school bashes. In the middle of the celebrations, though, it makes sense to take a moment to commemorate the real meaning of Labor Day, which ought to be a celebration of workers. Even though most of us work for a living, we fail to appreciate the way that the labor of others enables and supports the way we live. >From the early morning thwack of the newspaper on my doorstep to the late-night nuking of a frozen dinner, my life is supported by the work of others. The man who delivers the newspaper, the writers whose words I devour, the people who manufacture the toiletries that make it possible for me to present myself to the world, the bus and taxi drivers who transport me from one place to another, the waiters and waitresses who serve the food I eat at restaurants, the hands that plant and harvest the food they produce - these working hands make my life, and all of our lives, possible. But workers have been the last to gain from the much-touted economic expansion that we've experienced in the past four years. Indeed, while corporate profits have risen, worker pay as a percentage of national income has declined four years in a row, from 1993 to 1996. Our Congress reluctantly increased the minimum wage from $4.35 to $5.15 an hour, an increase that did not keep up with the pace of inflation since the last minimum wage increase. We rely on people's work to manage our lives, but we don't reward most work with the appropriate pay increases. Despite the good economic news, too many workers struggle to get by. While headlines blare the news that home prices are rising, a lower portion of Americans own homes now than in 1980. Fewer Americans, too, can afford to buy new vehicles. Fewer companies provide the comprehensive range of benefits, like health care, that once were provided; and even at those firms that do provide health care, workers wait longer to have benefits available to them. The number of Americans who hold more than one job has risen, and more than a quarter of a million Americans hold two full-time jobs. There are myriad reasons why three-quarters of us are worse off wage-wise than a decade ago, but one of the reasons is that corporations, government and nonprofit organizations find it easier to cut labor costs than others. In celebrating Labor Day, we have to ask ourselves hard questions about labor and the future of work. Should people have more job security? Should wages be higher? How can workers push corporations to provide higher wages? Our Labor Day celebrations are tainted, in part, by the struggle that so many workers have to endure to make ends meet and the insecurity that so many feel about the future of work. Julianne Malveaux is a syndicated columnist. From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Fri Aug 29 23:24:47 1997 Fri, 29 Aug 1997 22:22:46 -0700 (PDT) Fri, 29 Aug 1997 22:16:31 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 22:16:31 -0700 (PDT) To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: UAW Labor Day Msg.; Poll: Bosses See No Future for Unions Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO A New Labor Movement for a New Century 09:39 a.m. Aug 29, 1997 Eastern DETROIT, Aug. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Following is a Labor Day message from UAW President Stephen P. Yokich: Labor Day 1997. The story is this: All over America, workers and unions are reinventing the labor movement. America's working men and women are serving notice. We are not going to stand on the sidelines and watch while multinational corporations and Wall Street dictate all the rules. And more and more workers are again realizing that unions still offer the best way for us to win a seat at the decision-making table. Now, I realize that's just the opposite of what many self-styled experts are saying about the future of unions. Some argue that unions can't do anything for workers because in the New Economy corporations are just too powerful. But, then, that's what they said about General Motors back in 1937, too. Others admit that unions have helped in the past. But they argue that workers don't need unions today, because unions like the UAW have accomplished what they set out to do in the 1930s and 1940s. In other words, there are no more battles to be won. The fact is, as we head for the 21st century, unions have more to do than ever. Yes, by many measures the U.S. economy is booming. Corporate profits, CEO pay, and the stock markets are setting records. Inflation and unemployment are the lowest they've been in years. Yet many Americans have every reason to say -- please don't give me any more "good" news. Sure, more Americans are working. But more and more are stuck in part-time or temporary jobs. You've heard the joke, yeah there are millions of jobs out there -- I know one guy alone who's got four of them. And then there's the question of pay. Last year, the average compensation of CEOs shot up 54 percent to $5,781,300. But the average worker got a 3% raise. At the workplace itself, in the name of "competitiveness," employers are trying to turn back the clock to near sweatshop conditions. Excessive overtime, 12-hour shifts, line speed-ups, no relief, vacations postponed are more and more common. This "profits-are-everything" mentality is taking a serious toll on family life. Anti-union types like to talk about "family values." But when it comes to protecting the rights of working parents to have the time to help their kids with homework or go to their Little League games, they are working night and day to weaken both unions and the laws that prevent employers from working children and adults harder than ever. Put it all together and it's no surprise that unions and working Americans are answering the so-called new economy with renewed labor vitality. That's why Teamsters delivered the powerful message to UPS that low-wage part-time jobs take our economy backward -- not forward. Just in the last few months, thousands of UAW members at GM local unions have stood up to management's efforts to violate the contract provisions that protect vacation and relief time they have earned. At Action! Motown, a crowd 100,000 strong, jammed downtown Detroit in support of the newspaper workers' struggle for justice with Gannett and Knight-Ridder. On college campuses, young people are fighting for their rights to organize and bargain collectively. For example, more than 10,000 University of California graduate teaching assistants have joined the UAW. From Watsonville to Washington -- American workers have every right to stand up for their rights and fighting for a future that keeps our economy and our democracy healthy. This Labor Day and every day thereafter -- that's just what we are going to keep on doing. SOURCE United Auto Workers Copyright 1997, PR Newswire ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------- Top CEOs Give Their Take on Labor Issues in Exclusive Poll; Most Don't See Union Rebound, Wage Boom; Some Will Add Part-Timers 03:18 p.m Aug 29, 1997 Eastern LOS ANGELES, Aug. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- The vast majority -- 71% -- of officers running the nation's fastest-growing firms don't expect a union resurgence to follow on the heels of the successful Teamsters strike against United Parcel Service. And, despite big labor's win, nearly half -- 48% -- of leading executives think unions will continue to lose clout over the next five years. In fact, a full third of respondents think organized labor has outlived its usefulness in today's economy. Slightly more than 37% agree that "the concept of unionism is obsolete today." What's more, only 3% of executives -- including those at unionized firms -- think unions do a good job of promoting workers' interests. The poll -- conducted for Investor's Business Daily by the Technometrica Institute of Policy and Politics -- asked a running panel of 211 CEOs and CFOs of the nation's top-performing public firms about labor issues in the week after the UPS-Teamsters strike ended. Of those, 118 responded. Respondents were picked based on their companies' profit growth and stock gains -- not their size -- making it the first poll of its kind. Nearly 17% of respondents head unionized firms. That share is about seven points higher than the private-sector average. How do results break down along union-nonunion lines? Twice the share of execs at nonunionized firms think unions are obsolete, for example. And three times as many think unions will get weaker. That's no real surprise. But execs at unionized firms are even more skeptical than their nonunionized counterparts that the Teamsters' victory will lead to a union rebound. A whopping 80% said it will have no impact, while 69% of those at nonunion firms think so. Was the strike a "watershed event?" The wide majority -- 80% -- of all execs said no. But, surprisingly, top managers of union workers were decidedly more convinced the strike was not a crucial turning point in the languishing labor movement. Most senior officers don't doubt unions will use part-timers as a bargaining chip. But they don't seem too worried. Nearly three-quarters (74%) have no plans to stop using part-timers. In fact, 12% of chief executives said they will increase their use of part-time workers. Even CEOs who must bargain with unions aren't leery of using part-timers. A whopping 85% said they won't change practices in the wake of the Teamsters strike. Why? Most likely because few think the use of part-timers will trigger a surge in union power. Only 12% of CEOs think increased use of part-timers would spark new labor unrest. Instead, the loss of job security ranked highest among potential flash points. The Teamsters' pact has generated a lot of talk about wage inflation. As the theory goes, a rise in union clout could force firms to hike wages artificially. And that, in turn, could lead to cost-push inflation. But CEOs and CFOs polled by IBD say they don't see that happening at all. Nearly 70% say wage inflation is "unlikely." In fact, execs at unionized firms were much more emphatic that it won't happen. And even if they did face wage pressures, most wouldn't raise prices. Instead, most (76%) said they would squeeze out more efficiencies. The large majority -- 83% -- said they don't see wage gains outstripping productivity gains at their companies. SOURCE Technometrica Institute of Policy and Politics Copyright 1997, PR Newswire From jipsonaj@muohio.edu Sun Aug 31 17:51:00 1997 Received: from rose.muohio.edu (rose.muohio.edu [134.53.1.1]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.7.6/8.7.3/CNS-4.0p) with SMTP id RAA17195 for ; Sun, 31 Aug 1997 17:50:59 -0600 (MDT) Received: from [134.53.15.21] by rose.muohio.edu (AIX 4.1/UCB 5.64/4.03) id AA21204; Sun, 31 Aug 1997 19:50:57 -0400 X-Sender: jipsonaj@casmail.muohio.edu Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Sun, 31 Aug 1997 19:58:28 -0500 To: LABOR-RAP@csf.colorado.edu From: Art Jipson Subject: Teamster List Status: RO Hello all, I have been running a small list on the Teamsters for a few years. I welcome all posts about the labor movement but especially want to encourage posts about the Teamsters. To subscribe to the list send a message to: listserv@miamiu.muohio.edu in the body of the message (not the subject line) put: subscribe teamster your name To send posts to the list, send them to: teamster@miamiu.muohio.edu Once you have subscribed the listserv will automatically send you a post with a list of commands and options. Thanks. -Art Art Jipson Department of Sociology, Gerontology, and Anthropology Upham Hall, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio 45056 513-529-2637 (o) 513-529-8525 (f) jipsonaj@muohio.edu Me: http://miavx1.muohio.edu/~ajjipson NCSA: http://miavx1.muohio.edu/~ajjipson/NCSA.htmlx Connells: http://miavx1.muohio.edu/~ajjipson/connells.htmlx "Didn't I say sorry, Didn't I say dear, Didn't I consider, Didn't I stand clear..." - M. Connell, The Connells "Claiming stupidness for daring..." -R. Gates, The Spinanes From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sun Aug 31 18:15:29 1997 Received: from igcb.igc.org (igcb.igc.apc.org [192.82.108.46]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.7.6/8.7.3/CNS-4.0p) with ESMTP id SAA17786 for ; Sun, 31 Aug 1997 18:15:27 -0600 (MDT) Received: from igc3.igc.apc.org (igc3.igc.apc.org [192.82.108.33]) by igcb.igc.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id RAA09405 for ; Sun, 31 Aug 1997 17:15:17 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ppp4-3.igc.org (meisenscher@ppp4-3.igc.org [198.94.4.3]) by igc3.igc.apc.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id RAA18256 for ; Sun, 31 Aug 1997 17:10:14 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sun, 31 Aug 1997 17:10:14 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <2.2.16.19970831170754.496f5cb4@pop.igc.org> X-Sender: meisenscher@pop.igc.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: labor-rap@csf.colorado.edu From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: No more articles Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO Dear Labor-Rappers: Effective immediately I will cease posting copyrighted articles to this list. This measure is taken is response to concerns raised about the potential liability such posts may create for the institutional sponsors of the list. Accordingly, I want to repeat my invitation to those who want to continue to receive these and other distributions to contact me OFF-List to request that your name be added to my private distribution list. In solidarity, Michael ================================ RETURN THIS FORM TO: meisenscher@igc.apc.org Please add my name to your distribution list. NAME: E-MAIL ADDRESS: UNION: OTHER AFFILIATION: COMMENT: From meisenscher@igc.apc.org Sun Aug 31 18:15:42 1997 Received: from igcb.igc.org (igcb.igc.apc.org [192.82.108.46]) by csf.Colorado.EDU (8.7.6/8.7.3/CNS-4.0p) with ESMTP id SAA17797 for ; Sun, 31 Aug 1997 18:15:41 -0600 (MDT) Received: from igc3.igc.apc.org (igc3.igc.apc.org [192.82.108.33]) by igcb.igc.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id RAA09306; Sun, 31 Aug 1997 17:14:54 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ppp4-3.igc.org (meisenscher@ppp4-3.igc.org [198.94.4.3]) by igc3.igc.apc.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id RAA18129; Sun, 31 Aug 1997 17:08:12 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sun, 31 Aug 1997 17:08:12 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <2.2.16.19970831170553.409772ec@pop.igc.org> X-Sender: meisenscher@pop.igc.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Michael Eisenscher Subject: Boycotts on trial in Canada -- Corporation sues Activists Sender: meisenscher@igc.org Status: RO DAISHOWA BOYCOTT ON TRIAL Not directly union related, but something we should be aware of. Month-long Trial to Decide Legality of Consumer Boycotts Trial starts September 2, 1997, 10:00 am Opening day rally Tuesday Sep. 2, 8:30 - 9:45 am Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto TORONTO) An Ontario Court will be deciding on the limits of consumer boycott campaigns and freedom of expression in a landmark trial beginning September 2. Friends of the Lubicon, a small Toronto group supporting the Lubicon Cree Nation of northern Alberta, are being taken to court by Daishowa Inc. The company is seeking a permanent injunction which would prevent the Friends from telling customers of stores, which use Daishowa bags, where their money is going. The court action is in response to a six-year boycott campaign against Daishowa products. Daishowa Inc. is part of the Daishowa group of companies led by the giant Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Company Co. Ltd. of Japan. The focus of the campaign is to pre vent the Daishowa group from acting on the licence they bought to clear-cut contested Native lands in northern Alberta. Since the boycott began, Daishowa has been held back from clear-cutting Lubicon lands. Daishowa claims the boycott has cost them over $11 million. With the boycott in effect, 47 companies representing over 4,300 retail outlets in Canada chose alternative suppliers for their paper products. Daishowa obtained a temporary injunction against t he boycott in January, 1996. They are now trying to permanently outlaw the boycott and squeeze damages out of boycott volunteers. Defendant Kevin Thomas says "the trial will be a pitched battle between freedom of expression and Aboriginal land rights on the one hand and the right of corporations to do whatever the hell they want to whoever they want on the other." The trial will span fifteen days during the month of September starting on Tuesday the 2nd. The Friends will be holding a support rally and opening prayer at Nathan Phillips Square at 8:30 am on Tuesday Sep 2. Recently-elected United Church Moderator Bill Phipps will give an opening address and a representative of the Lubicon Lake Cree will be present. For more information please contact: Friends of the Lubicon (416)763-7500 or FoL defendant Kevin Thomas at cell phone (416)209-6186 Karen Wristen, Sierra Legal Defence Fund at (416)368-7533 Lubicon Lake Nation Chief Bernard Ominayak at (403)629-3945 visit the Lubicon supporters' web page at http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/Lubicon/main.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Free thought, neccessarily involving freedom of speech and press, I may tersely define thus:no opinion a law-no opinion a crime. Alexander Berkman