New members reported in this week's WiP: 1,977
New members reported in WiP, year to date: 59,197

RIPE, SWEET VICTORY FOR UFW — In a victory for the Farm Workers, Californias Agricultural Labor Relations Board has certified UFW as the union for about 700 fruit pickers at the fast-growing Ventura County farms of Coastal Berry, the nations largest strawberry grower. The May 4 decision ends a five-year struggle that was sometimes marred by violent attacks on union supporters. The Coastal Berry Farm Workers Committee, which ran against UFW, will represent workers in Monterey and Salinas counties.

CWA INSTALLS PUERTO RICO VICTORY — About 400 phone installers who work for three phone company contractors for the Puerto Rico Telephone Co. have joined Communications Workers over the past two weeks. The companies, subcontractors of the GTE subsidiary on the island, had cut the workers pay in half. Workers at a fourth company remain on strike.

CODE UNION, STAT — Two more groups have joined a growing number of physicians turning to unions for a voice at work. A unit of 240 interns and residents at Metropolitan Hospital in New York City voted April 18 to join SEIU Local 10MD. And on May 3, 225 doctors, nurses and other professionals at the Ioannis A. Lougaris VA Medical Center in Reno, Nev., joined AFGE Local 2152. The union has represented 300 other employees at the hospital for nearly 30 years.

HERE COME NEW MEMBERS — After a successful card-check drive (in which an employer agrees to recognize a union based on workers signatures on cards), 210 workers at the Sheraton Meadowlands in Secaucus, N.J., now are members of Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Local 69.

CAREGIVERS SAY 'ALOHA TO UFCW — Health care workers at Aloha Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre in Oahu, Hawaii, stood up for a voice on the job, voting to join Food and Commercial Workers Local 480. Key to the victory for the 130 LPNs, CNAs and dietary, housekeeping and maintenance employees was a strong worker network that maintained union solidarity in the face of managements five-week, four-day-a-week mandatory anti-union indoctrination meetings.

DIVINE PROVIDENCE — Fifty workers in the outside circulation department at the Worcester Telegram and Gazette voted 39-10 for representation by The Newspaper Guild Providence Local 31041, a Communications Workers affiliate, despite managements stiff anti-union campaign. In Arlington and Springfield, Va., 22 drivers for Big Apple Limo won voluntary recognition with CWA Local 2222. The owner agreed that having a union would help establish a more stable, productive workforce.

FAITH PANEL SAYS 'NO BLANK CHECK — China is engaged in "systematic, egregious and ongoing" religious persecution and should not be granted permanent Normal Trade Relations (NTR) status with the United States until it makes "substantial improvement in respect for religious freedom," a U.S. government advisory panel on religion said last week. The 10-member U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was formed last year to advise the government on policies to promote global freedom to worship. At its spring meeting in Washington, D.C., despite heavy lobbying by the Clinton administration, a committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures rejected a resolution supporting permanent NTR, preventing the measure from going to the full body for a vote. Meanwhile, at the urging of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, the states House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution April 25 calling on Rhode Islands congressional delegation to oppose permanent NTR and Chinas entry into the World Trade Organization. Also, the Economic Policy Institute released a new report describing the huge economic costs to the United States of the proposed trade deal and debunking claims that permanent NTR could lead to human, religious and worker rights reform in China.

See www.epinet.org/briefingpapers/PNTR%China.html for the entire report. Meanwhile, Rep. David Bonior (D-Mich.) launched a website (http://No2PermanentMFN.house.gov) on Chinas labor and human rights record. Congress is expected to take up permanent NTR legislation the week of May 22. Visit www.aflcio.org/articles/china/index.htm to urge members of Congress to vote "no."

COUNCIL CALLS FOR CAMPAIGN REFORM,  RETIRED AMERICANS ALLIANCE — Members of the AFL-CIO Executive Council joined a march for Milwaukee Steelworkers fighting for a decent first contract, called for reform of the nations campaign finance laws and created a new alliance to speak out for Americas older and retired workers during its three-day meeting in Milwaukee last week. Some 300 union members and community supporters marched on Kramer Industries to rally behind the mostly Latino workers who voted to join USWA last year, but remain without a first contract because of managements foot-dragging. In its action on election financing, the council called for a ban on unregulated "soft money" contributions that reward corporate and wealthy contributors and backed public financing for campaigns. It also attacked efforts to silence the voice of working families through "paycheck deception" and other tactics. The Alliance for Retired Americans will be a universal, dues-free membership organization for retired union members and those who support its goals. The council also visited the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership, a collaboration between business and unions to train workers for high-wage, high-skill jobs. For more information on these and other council actions, see http://www.aflcio.org/.

ACTORS DROP CURTAIN ON COMMERCIALS — More than 135,000 actors from the Screen Actors Guild and the Television and Radio Artists hit the picket lines instead of their marks May 1, in a strike against advertising agencies and producers of radio and television commercials. Management wants to scrap established pay formulas and refuse to fairly address residual payments for commercials appearing on cable television and the Internet. Golf great Tiger Woods last week would not cross the picket line, refusing to film a commercial for Nike. Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra also refused to cross the line, canceling a Dunkin Donuts ad. SAG President William Daniels said, "In an age of unprecedented prosperity for both the advertising and entertainment industries, management is crying poverty and wants to roll back the gains working actors have made over the past four decades." Thousands of actors and their supporters rallied May 1 in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago and elsewhere.

STANDING UP FOR ALL WORKERS — Union leaders and activists gathered in Atlanta April 29 for an AFL-CIO forum on immigrant workers rights. They heard from immigrant workers who have been humiliated and harassed by employers eager to exploit them. Armando Torres, now a member of the Carpenters in Atlanta, recounted his days doing nonunion construction jobs, working 60 hours a week for $250. Undocumented workers "dont dare to speak up against low wages and violations of their rights...because they know they can be deported," said AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson. The next day, Chavez-Thompson joined 10,000 workers marching in downtown Dallas in favor of amnesty for undocumented immigrants and the Essex-West Hudson (N.J.) Labor Council got together with community and religious groups to hear about the struggles of immigrant workers, while the Farm Workers are planning a hearing in Salinas, Calif., June 3. The AFL-CIOs first forum was April 1 in New York City. Other forums are set for June 3 in Chicago and June 10 in Los Angeles.

CELEBRATING EQUAL PAY DAY — Union members are set to commemorate Equal Pay Day on May 11, drawing attention to the extra time it takes the average working woman to earn as much as the average man does in a year. In Oakland, Calif., members of the Amalgamated Transit Union plan to wear red ribbons demanding equal pay. New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D) signed legislation expanding workers ability to file equal pay complaints. Union members in Oakland, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta and Kansas City, Mo., are speaking at U.S. Department of Labor hearings on the importance of equal pay for working families. According to the AFL-CIO, the average 25-year-old working woman will lose $523,000 to unequal pay during her working life. Calculate your potential loss at www.aflcio.org/women/calculat.htm.

ALMOST CLEAN SWEEP — Some 4,500 SEIU Local 1 janitors in suburban Chicago got justice on the job when they ratified a new three-year contract April 28, ending a 10-day economic strike. The vote came just hours after 51 members were arrested during a demonstration in Oak Brook, Ill. The accord covering suburban buildings raises pay $1.35 an hour over three years and adds family health coverage in the final year. In San Diego, more than 200 janitors reached a tentative settlement May 6 that would raise wages and medical benefits. The janitors had been conducting an unfair labor practice strike. Meanwhile, SEIU Local 47 janitors in Cleveland joined with the Cleveland AFL-CIO Federation of Labor in a press conference one day before the locals contract expired on May 1. Members there are preparing for a strike.

NEW AFA PACT FIRST CLASS — Three years of solidarity by 10,000 US Airways flight attendants paid off last week when, by 78 percent to 22 percent, Flight Attendants members approved a new five-year contract. The pact includes such sweeping improvements as an 11 percent pay boost and a 5 percent signing bonus, tough new job security protection, Family and Medical Leave benefits, increased health care benefits and holiday pay. For three years, the airlines management dragged its feet, hoping to force the attendants into a subpar deal—and even threatened to shut down the entire US Airways system in the event of a strike. But the two sides reached a deal March 25, after a midnight strike deadline passed. "Management wont soon forget the solidarity and strength the Flight Attendants showed in this fight," said Lynn Lenosky, president of AFAs US Airways council.

OVERNITE DEVELOPMENTS — The Teamsters unfair labor practice strike against Overnite Transportation Co., hit the six-month mark April 24. Negotiations resumed for three days in Chicago in late April and are set to continue May 16 and 17 in Washington, D.C. Also last month, the NLRB ordered the trucking giant to bargain with the union at its Miami terminal, where workers voted to join IBT in 1995. The board also found Overnite had committed a number of unfair labor practices there, such as illegally subcontracting work, refusing to provide the union with certain information and unilaterally changing work rules. Overnite also was ordered not to interfere with, coerce or intimidate workers at the Miami terminal.

IN THE MAIL — On May 13, Letter Carriers members nationwide will collect nonperishable food items left by mailboxes as part of the eighth annual NALC Food Drive. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney asked federation affiliates to promote the drive among their memberships and to volunteer to assist NALC branches in collecting, sorting and delivering the food. Last year, the drive collected 58.4 million pounds of food, which was distributed to local agencies that help the needy.

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