On the picket line

UM workers to hold union vote

May Day was an unparalleled success as immigrant workers took to the streets by the millions all over the country to demand their rights. But a group of immigrant workers in Miami had something special to celebrate.

May Day marked the end of a hard-fought two-month strike for union representation by service workers, mostly immigrants, at the University of Miami. Their employer, Unicco Service Co., finally bowed to the workers’ demands and agreed to let Service Employees Local 11 hold a union election. The settlement stipulated that an impartial vote must be held by Aug. 1 with at least 60 percent of the workers voting.

The janitors, housekeepers, landscapers and other service workers attracted national attention when some members opted to go on a water-only hunger strike on April 14 to dramatize their demands for collective bargain ing. Students carried out a number of solidarity actions to pressure University of Miami head Donna Shalala, Secre tary of Health and Human Services during the Clinton administration, to intervene on behalf of the workers. She didn’t, but many faculty members did, and there was a huge outpouring of support from the progressive community. As the old saying goes: In unity there is strength.

UAW sets Delphi strike vote

Anticipating that a bankruptcy court will set aside union contracts at auto parts supplier Delphi on May 9, the Auto Workers union announced on May 3 that its 24,000 Delphi workers will vote on whether to strike by May 14. Members of the Electrical Workers, another Delphi union, have already authorized a strike.

Backed by the bankruptcy court, Delphi, which was spun off from General Motors in 1999, has requested draconian wage cuts from the current $27.50 an hour to $16.50 or even $12.50. That and cuts in benefits would slash the workers’ living standards.

The stakes are very high. It’s projected that, because of the close connection between Delphi and General Motors, if the workers strike at Delphi, General Motors would file for bankruptcy.

But the workers aren’t intimidated. They held a demonstration on May 9 outside the Southern District Bankruptcy Court in New York City to “put the brakes on Delphi.”

NYU grad workers demand union

It’s official. The American Arbitration Association certified on April 21 that the majority of graduate teaching and research assistants at New York University want to continue being represented by the Graduate Student Organizing Committee, UAW Local 2110.

On April 27 the student workers staged a sit-in that stopped traffic on campus to demand that GSOC-UAW represent them; 57 were arrested. For graduation day, May 11, GSOC-UAW has called a rally and march, with the support of the New York City Central Labor Council.

GSOC-UAW has represented the NYU workers since 2002. In 2004 the National Labor Relations Board, stacked with Bush appointees, reversed a previous ruling and announced that graduate employees in private universities were not eligible for union representation, even though those at public institutions could join unions. GSOC-UAW has been fighting to renew its contract since last fall, when NYU president John Sexton refused to negotiate with the union.

Students arrested for supporting workers

Students at the University of Virginia have been fighting for the past 15 years for a living wage for all workers at UVA. Their struggle took a dramatic turn in early April when 17 students from the Living Wage Campaign were arrested for sitting in at the administration building. The students were held in jail for two days before being released on $500 bonds.

Best-selling author Barbara Ehrenreich pointed out in the April 15 New River Free Press that the university “found $2 million to upgrade the football stadium this year but can’t manage to pay its workers decently.”