On the picket line

AT&T’s corporate greed exposed

Ever since the contract of about 110,000 AT&T workers expired on April 4, they have been mobilizing all over the country. That very day, the New Haven Green in Connecticut was flooded with a sea of red T-shirts and signs as thousands of Communications Workers and their supporters from all over New England and New York rallied to demand a fair contract. The main issue: health care benefits for current and retired workers. AT&T, which gobbled up $12.9 billion in profits in 2008, has the audacity to demand that the workers pay three times what they’re currently paying, or $3,300 to $4,500 a year, toward health care coverage. But the workers, who voted to strike in late March, smell the stench of corporate greed. AT&T workers from Maine to California have put pressure on their senators and representatives to send letters to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, whose salary was an outrageous $15 million last year, to demand that AT&T back down. One senator wrote, “While we work on a national health care plan, now is not the time for a profitable company like AT&T to slash crucial health care benefits.” (CWA e-burst, May 21)

Grocery workers fighting back in Colorado

The contract of approximately 17,000 supermarket workers at Safeway, King Soopers, City Market and Albertson’s in Colorado was set to expire May 9. But after Safeway workers voted to strike May 8 for livable wages, decent health benefits and a secure pension, the bosses extended the contract until May 30. Meanwhile Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter slammed the workers, represented by Local 7 of the Food and Commercial Workers union, when he vetoed a bill May 19 that would have restored unemployment benefits to workers locked out during a contract struggle. But the workers, who anticipate a lockout, are fighting back. Hundreds rallied in Westminister on May 20. As Julie Collier, a 30-year King Soopers employee, told the May 19 Colorado Independent, “When is the timing right to help the people who make $10 an hour, not just the people who make $10 million a year?” The time is now!

Black farmers demand settlement

The case of about 94,000 Black farmers against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which agreed to pay for past discrimination in lending and other USDA programs, was supposedly settled in 1999. Nearly $1 billion in damages were paid out on almost 16,000 claims. But about 75,000 additional Black farmers filed claims after the deadline, which, according to National Black Farmers Association President John Boyd, was not well publicized nor were appropriate provisions made to file claims. (For instance, farmers who don’t have phones or indoor bathrooms were told to go online to get information about the settlement!) On April 28, the NBFA led a rally of several hundred Black farmers at the USDA office in Washington, D.C., to demand payment. Although President Obama has allotted $1.25 billion in the 2010 budget to finally right this wrong, Boyd says that $2.7 billion is actually needed to compensate all the eligible farmers. (blackenterprise.com, May 8)

Statistics confirms need for EFCA

A new study issued May 20, “No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employers Opposition to Organizing,” confirms why unorganized workers need the essential card check provision in the Employee Free Choice Act. The study was based on a review of National Labor Relations Board cases and documents, as well as surveys of 562 experienced union organizers and 1,004 union elections from early 1999 to late 2003. These were then compared to previous studies over the past 20 years. Cornell University professor Kate Bronfenbrenner concluded that “the aspirations for representation are being thwarted by a coercive and punitive climate for organizing that goes unrestrained due to a fundamentally flawed regulatory regime.” The study showed that in 63 percent of private sector organizing drives, workers are interrogated about their support for the union in one-on-one meetings with supervisors; 57 percent of bosses threaten to close the worksite; 47 percent threaten to cut wages and benefits; and 34 percent fire workers who support the union. Even after employers use 10 or more tactics to thwart organizing efforts and workers still manage to win an election, 52 percent are without a first contract one year later and 37 percent don’t have a contract within two years. Support card check in the EFCA now!