Obama holds 10 pt. lead among lower income white workers

CHICAGO The leaders of Americas labor movement are calling upon
white union members to put aside any racial biases that could undermine
Barack Obamas labor-supported effort to become President of the United
States. The AFL-CIO, at its executive council meeting here Aug. 5,
echoed similar calls put forward recently by leaders of the
Steelworkers and the Miners unions.

If recent polls
are indicative the effort is working. Obama has a 10-point lead over
McCain among white workers earning less than $27,000 per year and a
two-to-one lead over McCain among all workers in this category. An Aug.
4, Washington Post poll shows Obama out-performing both John Kerry who
lost the white vote by 17 points in 2004 and Al Gore who lost the white
vote by 12 points in 2000. The last Democratic candidate for president
to win a majority of the white vote was Lyndon Johnson in 1964. (continue  here)

This competing bill, introduced by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)
with the misleading name ‘Title VII Fairness Act,’ would require
employees to show they filed their pay discrimination claims within six
months of the date when they had — or ‘should’ have had — enough
information to suspect they’d been subject to discrimination.

CLUW urges you to tell your Senators that the Hutchison bill is not a
reasonable alternative to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to combat
pay discrimination. Click here to easily email your Senators today.

LabourStart: Iranian and South Korean Trade Unionists

Iran: Protest intensified repression against labour activists – No to whippings and executions!
Repression
against labour activists in Iran is intensifying. In recent weeks,
there have been numerous cases of arrests and jailings. Most shocking
perhaps was the sentencing of two women labour activists (Sousan Razani
and Shiva Kheirabadi) to 15 lashes and four months in prison — for the
‘crime’ of participating in a May Day celebration.

We call on the Iranian government to immediately release these
prisoners and to cease all repression of labour activists.  Click here to send a message. 

Korea: Stop arrests of trade union leaders
Following a massive wave of protests and demonstrations, on 24 July the
South Korean government issued arrest warrants for top leaders of the
Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) including Lee Suk-haeng
(President) and Lee Yong-shik (General Secretary). Ms. Jin Young-ok,
First Vice-President of the KCTU has been arrested and detained.

The police surrounded the building where the main office of the KCTU is
located, ready to move in and arrest the leaders. Arrest warrants have
also been issued for other union leaders (see list below).

This anti-union repression threatens to return Korea to the dark days
of the military dictatorship which ended two decades ago. Korean trade
unionists are asking for a huge international campaign to pressure
their government to respect human rights.

Click here
to send a message to President Lee Myung-bak and Police Commissioner Eo
Cheong-soo calling upon the government to immediately stop the
repression against the KCTU and its affiliates, release the detainees
and call off arrest warrants.

The Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia, also known as
FAWFUL, signed the deal with Firestone Aug. 6, 2008.  The new
collective bargaining agreement covers more than 4,000 union members
and provides significant gains for workers, including wage increases of
24 percent for rubber tappers, retroactive to the expiration of a
previous agreement in January of 2007.

Both contracts provide significant new benefits for workers. Another
new flower union received legal recognition this month as well. There
have been more victories in the past week in the Colombian flower
sector that the past 4 years combined! Read here for more details.

The settlement creates at least 2,500 new jobs by eliminating
subcontracting in a number of job areas, converting 1,200 temporary and
part-time jobs to permanent, and bringing additional FiOS jobs into the
bargaining units.
 
In a breakthrough agreement, Verizon
agreed to extend recognition to 600 former MCI techs at Verizon
Business who have been seeking union representation for nearly two
years, with strong support from CWA and IBEW members who have
campaigned to ‘tear down the wall’ between union and non-union parts of
the company.

The settlement preserves fully-paid
health care premiums for all active and retired workers over the course
of the contract.  For new hires, retiree health benefits will be
covered by a new defined contribution plan with the amount of
contributions to be negotiated in each future contract. In addition,
Verizon agreed to work with the unions in a joint effort to achieve
national health care reform with universal coverage, and to provide $2
million a year to fund the project.

‘This is a
breakthrough agreement in many ways,’ said Cohen.  ‘It creates new
union jobs including major growth areas like FiOS, it takes a big step
forward on health care and brings hundreds of Verizon Business
employees the union rights they deserve.’ He said the settlement
‘provides a framework for growth at Verizon and a good standard of
living with careers for our members.’

Members of
the combined CWA-IBEW bargaining committee, speaking for regional
bargaining teams in the northeast and mid-Atlantic, stated: ‘The
involvement and mobilization of tens of thousands of our members made a
huge difference in these negotiations.  All of us together showed our
strength, our commitment, our determination to get the best possible
agreement.’

The proposed agreement is
preliminary; it must be carefully evaluated by the rank-and-file, and
is subject to a democratic ratification vote by the membership. The
proposed agreement will first be reviewed by elected Longshore Caucus
delegates who will meet in San Francisco beginning the week of August
18. If delegates so choose, the proposal will be mailed to the homes of
Longshore Division members, with extra copies available at local
dispatch halls. An election date will be set that allows enough time
for full consideration, questions, and answers about the proposed
agreement.

The IAM represents nearly
5,000 aircraft assemblers and production workers at Hawker Beechcraft
in Wichita and approximately 500 in Salina.

While
Hawker Beechcraft is feeding the media lies about the number of workers
crossing the picket line, the workers themselves are being asked to
hang in there through the summer heat and tough times of the strike. 
Negotiations remain at a standstill until Hawker Beechcraft requests
that they resume.  You can stay updated and read first-hand stories
from the workers at their strike blog. 

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