On the picket line

Teamsters strike Sikorsky

Some 3,600 skilled workers at Sikorsky, which produces helicopters and other advanced military and commercial equipment, walked off the job on Feb. 20 because they refuse to pay more for their health care. Teamsters Local 1150 shut down Sikorsky headquarters in Stratford, Conn., and four plants in Bridgeport, Shelton and West Haven, Conn., and West Palm Beach, Fla.

On March 9 Teamster President James Hoffa hosted a rally at the main gate in Stratford in support of the strikers. This is the largest Teamster strike since the successful UPS walkout in 1996.

Teamster Bruce Peters told the New York Times that the workers voted to strike because management “was trying to pass all the burden for health care on to the workers so that people like George David [CEO of Sikorsky’s parent company United Tech nologies Corp.] and the president of Sikorsky, Steve Finger, can reap all the benefits.” (March 3)

While hourly workers have been asked to make sacrifices for the sake of global competitiveness, Peters and other workers were outraged to learn from a recent shareholder filing that David, in addition to a $1.7-million salary and a $3.8 million bonus, received $20.8 million in new stock option grants in 2005 and had $26.3 million in pretax gains from exercising old options. David also has $167 million in options he hasn’t yet exercised.

Even though Sikorsky has offered 3.5 percent raises over the three-year contract and a one-time $2,000 ratification bonus, Peters pointed out that the workers would be forced to pay higher weekly premiums and co-pays with as much as a 20 percent hike in doctor bills that the company currently covers. “All increases we get will be eaten up by the medical costs,” Peters told the Times.

Macy’s workers fight takebacks

Members of Local 1-S of the department store union (RWDSU) also took a stand against proposed increases in health-care benefits when they picketed Macy’s flagship store in Manhattan on Feb. 27. The 3,500 workers at four stores in New York City and Westchester County voted on Feb. 20 to go on strike if negotiations didn’t yield a better contract.

According to the proposal, workers would have to pay $435 a month for family coverage on top of paying a deductible of $3,000 and co-pays for doctor visits and prescriptions. An RWDSU leaflet estimated that a worker making $8 an hour would have to pay $8,220 a year for health care—more than half the worker’s annual $15,600 salary.

Just as the contract was set to expire on March 3, Local 1-S reached a settlement that would “keep jobs at Macy’s among the best in the department store industry.” The terms of the five-year contract will be disclosed after Local 1-S members vote on it in the near future.

Court blocks proposed DOD work rules

A federal judge slapped the Bush administration’s hand on Feb. 27 when he barred the Defense Department from implementing a new personnel system. The American Federation of Government Employees and 12 other unions representing more than 350,000 defense employees sued last November to stop the proposed system.

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan’s 77-page ruling said the Pentagon’s National Security Personnel System failed to ensure collective bargaining rights, did not provide an independent third-party review of labor relations decisions and would strip employees of a fair process for appealing disciplinary actions.

The ruling was the second time in six months that a federal judge stopped the Bush administration from rewriting federal personnel rules so that they diminish fair labor practices. A Bush appointee ruled against similar changes at the Department of Homeland Security in August 2005. The DHS is appealing that decision. Altogether, the rulings affect nearly 800,000 civilian employees.

Workers at IRS protest privatization

Members of the National Treasury Employees Union picketed the Internal Revenue Service during a lunch-hour rally on March 1 to protest a measure to privatize some tax-debt collection. They chanted slogans like “Hey hey, ho ho, bounty hunters got to go”
and “Don’t be fooled by White House lies, it’s not wise to privatize.”

The NTEU strongly opposes an IRS initiative to outsource some of the agency’s debt collection, arguing that putting taxpayer data in the hands of private collectors presents a privacy and security risk. Besides, says the NTEU, the move won’t even save money. Private contractors will be paid much more than federal employees to do the same work. Another reason for opposing the measure is that having non-union workers on the rolls would undermine the union.