LETTER Labor Advisory Board FEBRUARY 2012 Vol
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Published By AMERICAN INCOME LIFE & NATIONAL INCOME LIFE LETTER LABOR ADVISORY BOARD FEBRUARY 2012 Vol. 44 No. 1 NEWS FROM THE more than $300 billion in assets, cited the The Association of Flight At- AFL-CIO, CTW, world’s biggest retail chain’s labor practices tendants-CWA, AFL-CIO (AFA) January as the reason. The fund said it was pulling 6 filed with the National Mediation Board INTernaTIOnal & out of Walmart because it hasn’t complied (NMB) for a union election to represent NATIOnal UNIONS with the United Nations Global Compact U.S.-based flight attendants for Aer Lin- principles, which promote human rights, gus. Aer Lingus Limited and United Air- In a behind-the-scenes story, labor standards, and environment and anti- lines entered a joint venture in 2009 for a organized labor and its allies in December corruption efforts. The fund had invested flight between Washington, DC and Ma- launched a successful, intensive pressure $121 million in the retailer as of June 2011. drid. Aer Lingus employs the workers based campaign in the home districts of congres- According to news reports, ABP’s decision in Washington, DC. “This joint venture was sional Republicans who refused to approve was four years in the making, having first dreamed up by management for the sole a Senate plan to extend a payroll tax cut and warned Walmart about its labor practices purpose of avoiding the legal obligations jobless aid. The AFL-CIO, international in 2008. In 2006, Norway’s Government of a contract and a commitment to work- and national unions and other advocacy Pension Fund sold more than $400 million ers,” said AFA International President Veda groups such as Working America and the shares in Walmart, also in a rejection of the Shook. Aer Lingus flight attendants in Ire- National Employment Law Project worked company’s labor practices. land are unionized as are United’s 25,000 to push the Republicans into eventually vot- ing for the two-month deal which expires at the end of Feb. AFL-CIO spokesperson Amaya Tune said labor hit them “in the me- dia in their home districts” and other ways to “shame Republicans for this horrible vote.” The National Employment Law Proj- ect, for example, mobilized thousands of its constituents from unemployed Americans to community advocates to call Republican lawmakers. Other labor organizers also held a protest outside Republican House Speak- er John Boehner’s office in Ohio. The United Food and Com- mercial Workers International Union hailed the decision of the Netherlands’ largest pension fund to withdraw its invest- ments from Walmart. UFCW President Joseph T. Hansen described the action as a “wake-up call” for the company to start treating its employees better. Algemeen Burgerlijk Pensioenfonds (ABP), with On the left AFA President Veda Shook. Flickr.com photo used under Creative Commons from aflcio. JAMES WILLIAMS, General President - International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, Chairman - AIL/NILICO Labor Advisory Board VICTOR KAMBER, Vice President - American Income Life Insurance Company, Executive Director - AIL/NILICO Labor Advisory Board ROGER SMITH, Chief Executive Officer - American Income Life Insurance Company, President - AIL/NILICO Labor Advisory Board DENISE BOWYER, Vice President - American Income Life Insurance Company, Secretary - AIL/NILICO Labor Advisory Board Pg 2 LABOR LETTER flight attendants. Veda said U.S.-based Aer More than 200 Teamsters in Lingus flight attendants preform the same Pennsylvania and West Virginia walked duties as their Irish and United counter- off their jobs in early January following a parts, but do not receive the same pay, ben- breakdown in negotiations with the Pipe efits and work rule protections. Shay Cody, Line Contractors Association. According General Secretary of IMPACT, the union to the union, the national agreement be- that represents flight attendants at Aer Lin- tween the Teamsters and the contractors gus in Ireland and England, pledged “the expired Jan. 31, 2011, but was extended full support of the IMPACT Trade Union” twice, ultimately expiring Dec. 31. The for the AFA organizing drive. Teamsters said the contractors association wants to force its members into a 401(k) Laborers International Union savings plan and ultimately eliminate all General President Terry O’Sullivan called traditional defined benefit pensions. “The on Congress to “get serious” about passing a association’s ultimate goal is to gut work- Highway Bill that “fully invests in rebuild- ers’ security and gamble their retirement in ing our deteriorating bridges, roads and the stock market with a 401(k) plan,” said transit systems.” He noted that at a time James J. Hoffa, Teamsters general president. when the national jobless rate is dropping, “This is yet another example of the rich TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber. Flickr.com construction industry unemployment rose getting richer on the backs of the middle photo used under Creative Commons from tuc.org. from 13.1 percent in November to 16 per- class.” The strike halted work on projects cent in December. “Such a jump indicates related to the Marcellus Shale play in West United Kingdom’s Trade many long-term, jobless workers who gave Virginia and Pennsylvania, and could lead Union Council dismissed assertions from up hope looking for work last year have to stoppages across the country. “But this is the Prime Minister’s Office that UK busi- started looking again,” he said. O’Sullivan a national strike that could expand to other ness are in a “stranglehold” of health and criticized “too many Republicans in Con- sites as the days go on,” Hoffa said. safety rules and compensation claims. gress” who did nothing but “play poli- “Every government report on the UK’s tics, even as working families suffered.” supposed compensation culture has shown He warned that the hopes of discouraged INTernaTIOnal it to be a myth, and in fact claims have workers to find jobs “may be disappoint- LABOR NEWS been declining over the past decade. De- ingly dashed” unless Congress takes mean- spite this, the government seems hell- ingful action in 2012. “There’s a lot of work Nearly ten thousand employ- bent on trying to stop workers injured by to be done, and 1.3 million construction ees of the Chengdu Steel & Vanadium their employers’ negligence being able to workers who, based on today’s jobs num- Company (CSVC) in Sichuan province claim compensation,” said TUC General bers, are ready to do it,” he said. went on strike January 4 over pay raises. Secretary Brendan Barber. “It is clear that According to news reports, workers com- Downing Street does not have a clue about plained that public servants in govern- what life is like for the millions of ordinary ment organizations receive pay raises ev- people who work in shops, offices, schools, ery year, which raises the country’s over- factories, call centers and other workplaces all consumer demand. However, wages across the UK. Instead it is making policy of company employees are relatively low in response to grumbles from elements of and seriously lag behind expenses. On the the small business lobby and the risible first day of the strike, some 5,000 workers rantings of right-wing commentators.” marched from the factory to the entrance of the Chengdu-Mianyang Expressway Nigerian workers began a na- where they were stopped by more than tional strike January 9 after the govern- 1,000 policemen. Three workers were ment scrapped fuel subsidies at a time injured and five arrested after police dis- when fuel costs have more than doubled. persed the crowd with force and the use The strike, called by the Nigeria Labor of pepper spray. News reports said 2,000 Congress and the Trade Union Congress, workers from the Sichuan Chemical En- the country’s biggest labor union federa- gineering Group Company (CEGC) lo- tions, threatened to close ports and dis- cated in the same area as CSVC went on rupt output from Royal Dutch Shell and strike December 30 and blocked traffic. Chevron Corp. Nigeria is Africa’s largest Failing Bridge. Flickr.com photo used under They won monthly salary and annual bo- crude producer. “The objective is that the Creative Commons from mihradio. nus increases. government must reverse the fuel price LABOR LETTER Pg 3 increases before we end the strike,” Owei AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka com- REGIOnal & Lakemfa, secretary-general of the Nige- mended the President “for exercising ria Labor Congress, told the news media. his constitutional authority” to keep the LOCAL LABOR Banks, businesses, schools and most of- board operating. Obama also appointed NEWS fices were shut and streets deserted except Richard Corday to head the Consumer for protesters in Lagos, the West African Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) af- United Steelworkers Union nation’s economic center, and Abuja, the ter his nomination was blocked by Sen- called for congressional and state hear- capital. Nigeria produced an average 2.2 ate Republicans which now makes that ings to investigate the proposed closure million barrels of crude a day in Decem- agency operational. of three Philadelphia area refineries and ber, according to data compiled by Bloom- the subsequent replacement of U.S. oil berg, and is the fifth-largest provider of oil The average CEO of the top production with oil imports. As reported imports to the U.S. 500 corporations listed by Standard & in a union statement, Sunoco announced Poor’s now collects 343 times the amount in September that its Philadelphia and in compensation as the median paycheck Marcus Hook, PA refineries would close NATIOnal & received by workers, according to newly in July 2012 if a buyer was not found. On POLITICAL EVENTS released statistics. But a new group has December 1 the company announced it formed to blunt public criticism of the na- was shutting down its Marcus Hook re- All of the Republican candi- tion’s top one percent in the wake of the Oc- finery because of poor margins.