On the picket line

Day care workers win contract

Finally, after an extended battle that included a three-day strike last June, some 7,000 day care workers in New York City won a contract on Jan. 25. They will receive an immediate 12-percent raise, with an additional 2 percent in April.

The workers, predominantly women of color who care for 34,000 children of low-income workers in 346 neighborhood centers, had gone without a raise since 2000 and a contract since 2001. A $1,000 one-time payment in addition to the long-overdue raises was included in the three-year contract negotiated by District 1707 of the State, County and Municipal Employees. The contract will expire in 2006.

Unfortunately, the settlement also reportedly included givebacks--similar to those accepted last year by the union's District 37--of reduced wages, sick days and vacation for new workers' first two years.

Wal-Mart construction site picketed

Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 3 and Hod Carriers Local 166, along with other Alameda County Building Trades, began picketing the Wal-Mart construction site in Oakland, Calif., on Feb. 4.

The workers' beef: Contractor Frazier Masonry undercuts area wage and benefit standards and is employing out-of-state workers. The union vowed to continue the job actions until Frazier and Wal-Mart address those issues in a responsible manner. (www.labornet.org)

Schwab picketed over Social Security

Hundreds of workers rallied outside offices of Charles Schwab in Boston and San Francisco on Jan. 26 to demand the brokerage firm drop support of President Bush's Social Security privatization plan.

Carrying signs reading "Don't pick our pockets to line yours," the marchers passed out leaflets saying Schwab's involvement in the privatization campaign is a conflict of interest. Schwab, one of the world's largest brokers and managers of 401(k) retirement accounts, would grab millions in profits from new private accounts. (www.afl-cio.org)

Workers want unions

The recently released annual report of the National Labor Relations Board states that 42 million workers say they would vote for a union tomorrow if they had the chance. The report also exposed that 20,000 workers in the U.S. were fired or discriminated against in 2004 for union activities.

That doesn't count the 50,000 state government workers in Indiana and Missouri who just lost their collective bargaining rights when newly elected Republican governors in those states signed executive orders stripping workers of those rights.