On the picket line

Teamsters hold the line on health benefits

More than 2,000 Teamsters—delivery and vending machine drivers and warehouse workers—won their strike against Coke on June 1. But that’s no reason to stop boycotting Coke. That boycott, called by Colombian union leaders who charge that Coke bosses are behind the death squads targeting labor activists there, will stay in force.

The Teamsters in East Hartford, Conn., and Los Angeles were able to beat Coke back with a picket line. They pounded the bricks for a week before Coca-Cola Enterprises gave in to all their demands: an across-the-board increase in wages and pension payments and—the most important issue—maintenance of the current health-care plan.

“It was a tough fight, but our members stayed committed to seeing this through to the end,” Jim Santangelo, president of Joint Council 42 and secretary-treasurer of Local 848, said in a June 6 news release. “There was too much at stake for us not to take a stand.” As the release noted, “With the rising cost of health care becoming a larger problem every day in [North] America, it was of utmost importance that the workers win this fight.”

Cincinnati Bell workers win good contract

After weeks of rallies and a marathon down-to-the-wire bargaining session, 2,000 Cincinnati Bell workers won a decent three-year contract. Not only did they win a 7.5-percent wage increase, but also a 10-percent increase in pension payments for current employees.

Health benefits will remain the same through 2006, with only a moderate price increase in 2007. A new health reimbursement account was set up for future retirees.

A big issue for members of Communications Workers Locals 4400 and 4401 was employment security. The contract created several new ways to address that. Processes were set up to negotiate job titles and wage rates, explore new opportunities in emerging-technology work and negotiate work that is contracted out.

“These provisions mean that there will be opportunities for more union work in the future than there would have been prior to this contract,” said Local 4401 President Edwina Davis in a May 16 news release.

Northwest workers fight back

What did Northwest Airlines workers do in Detroit to counter the company’s demands for $800 million in concessions and cutbacks? Flight attendants, mechanics and ramp workers held a June 15 informational picket line at Metro airport to defend their pension plan and protest proposed pay cuts. The three unions represent nearly 18,000 Northwest workers across the United States.