On the picket line

S.F. Labor Council opposes U.S. war against Iran

The San Francisco Labor Council voted unanimously on Nov. 27 for a resolution opposing any U.S. military action against Iran. The resolution urged all organizations with which it is affiliated to demand that Congress “promote diplomatic, non-military solutions to any disputes.”

The resolution also pledged to “join with other anti-war forces to organize mass popular opposition to any military assault on Iran, and to respond rapidly should such an assault occur.”

A number of national unions and state and local labor councils have come out against the U.S. occupation of Iraq. A few even issued statements this summer denouncing U.S. support for Israel’s bombing of Lebanon. However this is the first labor organization to take a strong stand against U.S. threats aimed at Iran.

Another statement of international labor solidarity occurred in Columbus, Ga., during the Nov. 17-19 protest to shut down the notorious School of the Americas (now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security and Cooperation). Representatives of the AFL-CIO, UAW, the Georgia State AFL-CIO and the Atlanta-North Georgia Labor Council participated in the annual protest.

Mass. nurses’ strike averted with landmark settlement

The 2,700 nurses at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, won a precedent-setting contract on Nov. 21 after voting overwhelmingly to strike.

Language in the two-year pact, the first of its kind in New England, prevents the hospital from implementing the recent controversial ruling by the National Labor Relations Board. That ruling reclassifies charge nurses or those who perform charge duties as supervisors, making them ineligible for union membership.

The new contract clearly recognizes and protects the union rights of all registered nurses.

Other positive provisions include protections for newly licensed nurses and 3 percent annual pay increases. The hospital also removed a number of proposals restricting nurses’ sick time benefits.

Meanwhile, registered nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Mass., took their struggle for a fair contract to the streets. They held an informational picket on Dec. 7 demanding a contract with Vanguard Health Systems, the new for-profit owner of the hospital.

The nurses, who conducted an historic strike in 2000 against Tenet Healthcare over the issues of staffing and mandatory overtime, have been negotiating for more than a year with the new owners over similar concerns. Other issues include health-care benefits, pay raises and language protecting their rights. Even though the hospital has posted significant profits, it is refusing to pay competitive wages and is cutting back on patient care resources, which endanger safe nursing practices.

N.Y. town guilty of harassing immigrant workers

A federal judge ruled Nov. 20 that town officials in Mamaroneck in Westchester County, N.Y., discriminated against Latin@ day laborers when they stepped up police patrols, closed a hiring site and aggressively fined contractors who hired the workers. The ruling found “evidence of racism” in the officials’ “negative and stigmatizing” comments and actions.

“This sends a very clear message to local governments all over this country that day laborers have rights and that municipal governments that ignore those rights will be held responsible,” said Cesar A. Perales, president of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, which brought the suit on behalf of six workers. (New York Times, Nov. 21)

In a similar case, officials in Freehold, N.J., agreed in mid-November to allow day laborers to seek work in public places without being subjected to fines. This agreement ends a three-year court battle.

N.J. state workers demand negotiated contracts

The contracts for 80,000 public workers in New Jersey are due to expire on June 30, 2007. The governor and legislators recently set the stage for a fierce battle when they announced plans to pass laws aimed at balancing the budget by cutting the workers’ health care benefits and pension plans.

The response from labor leaders was united and unequivocal. On Nov. 27, a coalition of dozens of labor groups held a media conference demanding that the state negotiate contracts at the bargaining table. Backed by a banner reading “Benefits are negotiated, not legislated,” Larry Cohen, president of the Communication Workers, said, “We will bargain our future, we will negotiate our future, but we will not have the legislature or this governor dictate the future to hundreds of thousands of state workers.” (New York Times, Nov. 28)

He continued, “We’ve had enough of the politics of Wall Street; we’ve had enough of the politics of the rich dictating to the rest of us that we take the crumbs while they take all they can get.”

A CWA press release pointed out that tax cuts for the rich have created the budget deficit. It also noted that CWA public workers in New Jersey have sacrificed wages and agreed to increases in out-of-pocket health-care costs to ensure health-care and retirement security.

CWA represents 40,000 New Jersey state workers in seven locals.