Democrats Drop Key Part of Bill That Would Help Unions to Organize
A half dozen U.S. Senators, normally friends of labor, eliminated a “card-check"alf provision in proposed legislation that would require an employer to recognize  a union as soon as a majority of workers signed cards  saying they wanted a union. Unions insisted they needed the law, Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), with its card-check clause, in order to “level the playing field,” where powerful employers  were intimidating workers from joining unions.

For at least the past two years, unions have poured millions of dollars and legions of staff workers in an all-out public relations campaign to achieve passage of EFCA, especially the  card-check clause, without which the unions  say  they can’t organize and grow. In fact, for the past two years. AFL-CIO major organizing campaigns have been at a virtual standstill, waiting for the outcome of congressional action.

One of the “compromises” suggested by leading Democrats called for a Labor Board election about ten days after the actual filing. Supporters of this idea said it would give employers less time to indoctrinate their workers against unions. But the reality is that employers make their anti-union prejudices known to their workers the minute they hire them. Actually, it puts pressure on union organizers by reducing the time they can conduct their campaigns.

Despite the bad news, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney remains highly optimistic. Without referring directly to the removal of card check from the bill, he commented: “Despite speculative news reports today [July 18], momentum for real labor law reform is still going strong, and we can still be optimistic that a bill will be signed this year.”


French Workers’ Violent Threat Wins Big Pay Deal for Laid-Off Workers

A French construction equipment plant owned by U.S.-based Oshkosh Corporation has agreed to boost severance packages for laid-off workers who threatened to blow up machinery, employers say. While only 53 workers are affected,  each was guaranteed up  to 30,000 euros ($53,000) in severance pay. The incident occurred during a week in which unions at three different French factories used threats of explosions to get their complaints heard.

Some desperate French workers have gone to extremes in recent months, from kidnapping their bosses to blocking production lines, in order to resist job cuts or win better layoff packages amid the worst economic downturn in decades. Workers at construction equipment maker ILG's factory in southern France briefly put gas canisters in front of the plant this week, threatening to blow up the machinery if they didn’t get the 30,000 euros per worker. ILG agreed to pay the amount if the workers returned to work next Monday.

The 30,000 euros has become a standard price which workers are demanding at some other factories. It is interesting that police have not intervened in any of the incidents, and government officials have said they understand the workers’ woes but criticized the violent tactics.


Puerto Rico to Slash Thousands of Jobs and ignore Union Rights

The Puerto Rican government  plans to dismiss 30,000 to 45,000 public sector employees and suspend public sector collective bargaining rights. Public Service International (PSI) is opposing plans by the Governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Fortuno, to dismiss tens of thousands of public sector workers as part of a drastic plan to reduce Puerto Rico’s huge budget deficit.  The dismissals began on July 1,  the start of the new fiscal year.

Legislation adopted in March also suspends for two years all public sector collective agreements. as well as  those in employee manuals, contracts, circulars, etc., referring to payment plans, grade classification schemes, training and development. PSI insists that workers should not be made to pay the price for a crisis they did not create.

The new law also sets up a public -private partnership, with the exemption of price-fixing procedures,  whereby the  new employer will not be obliged to respect pre-existing collective rights won by workers, and any clauses relating to labor contracts will be  disapplied or made invalid. This is also in violation of fundamental ILO standards and principles. PSI states it will express, at all relevant international forums, its protests over plans of the government of Puerto Rico.


Report Reveals 142 Austin, Texas Construction Workers Died during 2007

A Building Austin Report shows that 142  workers died on the job in 2007—that is 1 worker dying every 2.5 days of the year. Further, one in five (21 percent) reported suffering workplace injury that required medical attention, but only 45 percent of surveyed workers were covered by workers’ compensation. Additionally, the report reveals that 64 percent of surveyed workers did not receive the OSHA 10-hour  safety training;  41 percent did not receive a rest break besides lunch, and 29 percent had to provide their own safety equipment or go without.

Although construction is an industry that is estimated to generate $3.5 billion in wages annually, survey data from “Building Austin, Building Injustice” indicates  that 45 percent of employers pay their workers poverty-level wages  and half of the surveyed workers don’t get paid for overtime work. Austin is the second fastest-growing urban area in the nation.

The Building Austin  report has received national attention, and as a result of its findings, OSHA has sent more investigators to Texas. The Workers Defense Project, a community organization that promotes fair working conditions for  Austin’s low-wage workers, collaborated with the local building trades unions and the AFL-CIO  to produce Building Austin.


Iraq’s Unions Fight Foreign Oil Firms

Iraq’s unions are lobbying against the government’s new oil contract with BP and China’s CNPC, but the weakened labor movement may have a hard time blocking deals desperately needed to revive a struggling oil sector. The Federation of Oil Unions of Iraq and the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq  have condemned the Oil Ministry’s decision to award a foreign consortium the contract to develop Rumaila, the country’s largest producing oilfield.

Unions  also opposed the ministry’s plan to award foreign firms contracts to develop as many as eight oil and gas fields in Iraq’s first major energy auction last month, a centerpiece of government efforts to more than double output of around 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd).  

The union strategy centers on scaring off firms thinking about coming to Iraq, where sectarian bloodshed appears to have ebbed,  but violence still poses a major threat,. Ali Abbas Khafif, head of the Workers Councils and Unions branch in Basra,  said: “We have the ability to halt their work entirely. We can mobilize people against them. We will use sit-ins and strikes.

Bridgestone Tire Strike in Belgium Continues into Fifth Week

Workers at the Bridgestone aerospace tire plant in Frameries, Belgium, hit the five-week mark on strike on July 16. The strike was caused by the Japanese-based company’s refusal to negotiate. A company decision on whether or not to close down a 140-worker re-treading factory has not been communicated either to the employees or their union, Centrale Générale-FGTB. The union exhausted all legal means before striking on June 11.

The strike began when Bridgestone unilaterally decided to dismiss all eight workers in one area of the factory without proper notice. Many of those workers had been on the job for over 20 years. One of the dismissed workers is a senior trade union officer and secretary of the Works Council. who has been working at the plant since 1980.

The global union, ICEM, has condemned Bridgestone management’s behavior for deciding “issues of employment outside the  lawful prerequisites of the social model,” said ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda. He added that ICEM’s Bridgestone Global Union Network discussed the strike recently and has "put the issue forward to Japanese senior management.”