On the picket line

Nurses charge collusion holds down wages

Class-action lawsuits were filed June 20 against national hospital corporations in four cities—Chicago, Memphis, San Antonio and Albany, N.Y—charging that they illegally colluded to hold down nurses’ wages.

The Nurse Alliance of the Service Employees union, which has more than 84,000 members in 23 states, helped expose the wage issues that led to the lawsuits. Last March the Nurse Alliance, in connection with the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, issued a white paper citing low pay, short staffing and mandatory overtime as conditions that have caused nurses to leave the bedside. In 2004, more than 500,000 nurses chose to work outside the profession, despite an anticipated need of more than 1 million nurses by 2014. The report showed how raising nurse salaries will help draw more nurses back to the profession.

Case in point: Some 660 registered nurses at a hospital in Englewood, N.J., went on strike June 30 after talks on pensions, staffing levels and safety measures broke down. Less than a month after a 72-hour lockout, the nurses set up picket lines when the hospital rescinded its offer of arbitration.

Childcare workers want a union

If the New York State Assembly fulfills its promise to call a special session and override the governor’s veto, 52,000 home childcare providers, who care for the children of welfare recipients and other low-income parents, will win the right to organize and bargain collectively for pay and benefits. As of now, the “independent contractors,” who are overwhelmingly poor women of color, have no health care, paid vacation, sick days, pensions or other benefits.

The workers’ wages are currently paid out of state and federal funds. But those who support the childcare workers, including the United Federation of Teachers and various anti-poverty groups, say that if education is a priority, the workers must be paid more than the poverty-level wages of $15,000 to $19,000 a year they now earn.

Though New York Gov. George Pataki claimed unionizing the workers would jeopardize several hundred million dollars in federal grant money, officials in Illinois, where 49,000 such workers unionized earlier this year, say that’s not so. (New York Times, June 28) Home childcare providers in Oregon and Washington state are also unionized.

The bottom line: Some of the poorest, most oppressed women workers in the United States are actually subsidizing the state and federal government. Instead, they should receive a living wage, a stipend for educational and other needed materials and the respect they deserve.

UM janitors get union—finally!

After a hard-fought nine-week strike for union representation, which included a hunger strike, janitors at the University of Miami joined the Service Workers union on June 15. The Amer ican Arbitration Association certified the card check process for employees of UM’s cleaning contractor, the Unicco Service Company, and Unicco did not contest it.

“We are invisible no more,” said Maritza Paz, a UM janitor and member of the bargaining committee. “It is an incredible feeling to finally have a voice and the strength to improve our lives. This is a victory for all Florida workers who want to stand up for a better life.”

The Service Employees union is continuing its drive to unionize thousands of security guards, janitors, housekeepers, valets and front-desk workers who keep South Florida’s universities, malls and condominiums clean, safe and running. For example, on June 15 janitors at Nova Univer sity announced that they have collected cards from about 70 percent of the work force, who earn as little as $7 an hour with no health insurance.

Striking NWA mechanics get support

The National Executive Council of the Aircraft Mechanics (AMFA) announced at its June 14 meeting that all locals had voted unanimously to provide indefinite financial support for the union’s ongoing strike against Northwest Airlines, which started last Aug. 20. AMFA Assistant National Director Steve MacFarlane noted in a news release, “Northwest is attempting to implement a very risky and reckless business model by shifting most of their aircraft maintenance to foreign repair facilities and utilizing unlicensed labor to perform mechanics’ work in this country.”

The union held a National Day of Support and Solidarity on June 30 to inform the flying public about NWA’s unsafe, anti-labor policies. The AMFA statement pointed out that just as the public would not use “unlicensed personnel to get their hair styled or to have their plumbing repaired,” they shouldn’t allow NWA to use “unlicensed laborers to maintain the highly sophisticated aircraft they fly on.”

ILWU votes to end Iraq war

On May 18 at the annual meeting of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the delegates passed four resolutions related to ending the war in Iraq. The major resolution called for the immediate withdrawal of all armed forces from Iraq, for the Bush administration to seek a diplomatic solution with Iran, and for the United States to reduce military spending and increase social development projects to end world poverty. Another resolution expressed solidarity with the Iraqi longshore workers’ right to have a union.

Airport screeners can unionize

In a surprise victory for organized labor, the National Labor Relations Board, which the Bush administration has attempted to stack with anti-union appointees, recently voted four to one that airport screeners who work for private companies hired by the federal government have the right to unionize. In its decision, the majority of the board wrote, “For 60 years, in times of both war and peace, the board has asserted jurisdiction over employers and employees that have been involved in national security and defense.”