On the picket line

Machinists negotiate Boeing contract

At a time when many unions are fighting to maintain collective bargaining rights, it’s a positive sign that Machinists Union District Lodge 751, which represents 28,000 Boeing workers in Washington state, has negotiated a new four-year contract that adds thousands of jobs while raising pay and pensions. Why? Because Boeing wants labor peace. Workers will get 2 percent raises each year, with cost-of-living adjustments, a productivity incentive program paying bonuses of 2 to 4 percent, and a ratification bonus of $5,000 for each member. Though workers will pay more for health insurance, Boeing agreed to pay more into the pension plan, which it guaranteed for new hires. Calling the agreement “unusually generous,” the Dec. 1 New York Times contended that Boeing “aimed to put a definitive end to a fractious era during which the machinists went on strike five times since 1977, including a 58-day strike that cost Boeing $1.8 billion.” It noted that Boeing became so motivated when customers threatened to give orders to European competitors if there were more strikes. In exchange the Machinists agreed to drop its case before the National Labor Relations Board against Boeing opening a new plant in South Carolina. But the best part is that a major U.S. corporation was forced to affirm workers’ rights in an anti-union climate. That shows the workers’ strike weapon still has big teeth.

U.S. solidarity with huge British strike

The National Nurses Union organized six demonstrations in U.S. cities on Nov. 30 to show solidarity with the more than 2 million British public sector workers whose jobs and wages are under attack. Chanting “No ifs, no buts, no public sector cuts!” demonstrators marched in front of the British Embassy in northwest Washington, D.C. Nurses from Washington Hospital Center, who just won a long struggle, were joined by workers represented by the American Federation of Teachers, Teamsters, Letter Carriers and Service Employees unions, as well as members of Occupy DC. Karen Higgins, NNU co-president, delivered a solidarity letter to the embassy, as did Metro Washington Council President Jos Williams. He told the crowd that public sector cuts in Britain “may affect public workers primarily, but it really affects all workers globally.” Other NNU protests were held in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago and Orlando, Fla. (Union City, online newsletter of Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO, Dec. 1)

N.H. unions help defeat ‘right-to-work’

It took a year-long struggle led by unions and community groups to keep New Hampshire from being turned into a “right-to-work” state. On Nov. 30, the House of Representatives failed to override Gov. John Lynch’s veto of the bill. The corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council pushed the bill, but unions and community activists pushed back. They even won over two dozen Republicans to their cause — despite presidential candidate Rick Perry’s anti-union message to the legislature that morning. The Nation noted that 22 U.S. states, mostly in what was the Confederacy, have such anti-union laws, which “undermine the ability of unions to organize all employees in a workplace and make it dramatically harder for organized labor to provide a voice for workers on the job or in the political debates of the day.” (Nov. 30)

Indiana unionists occupy Capitol to stop ‘right-to-work’ law

Before “Thanksgiving,” more than 2,000 steelworkers, teachers, jobless workers and retirees occupied the Capitol in Indianapolis to protest the projected 2012 bill that would turn Indiana into a “right-to-work” state. Wearing “We are the 99%” stickers and buttons, the workers denounced politicians for pandering to the wealthy 1%. Organizers promised, “This is just the beginning of a renewed battle against this divisive and politically motivated power grab” in Indiana. (AFL-CIO Now blog, Nov. 25)

Lawsuit charges Walmart warehouses in Chicago with ‘wage theft’

On Nov. 19, Warehouse Workers for Justice helped workers file their fourth class-action lawsuit since 2009 against companies that operate Walmart warehouses in the Chicago area. Noting that Walmart is ultimately responsible for workers’ wages and working conditions in their warehouses, the lawsuit charges that workers were promised $9.25 to $10 an hour, plus a productivity bonus and paid vacation, but their checks showed they were paid for substantially fewer hours than they actually worked, reducing their hourly wage. The companies are charged with “wage theft” violations of federal labor law and a stringent Illinois law. In October, the California labor department fined a company operating a Walmart warehouse there half a million dollars for labor law violations. A recently revised book, “Wage Theft in America,” notes that millions of workers in low-wage jobs are being robbed annually of billions of dollars owed them by greedy capitalists, and this has only increased during the economic crisis. (In These Times, Nov. 25)