New members reported in this week's WIP: 2,597
New members reported in WIP year to date: 48,881

PUERTO RICO WORKERS PICK AFSCME—More than 1,100 employees of Puerto Rico's Department of Natural Resources chose Servidores Públicos Unidos/AFSCME in an islandwide election April 11-12. AFSCME is one of several unions bringing a voice on the job to about 100,000 Puerto Rico public employees after helping to win passage of a collective bargaining law two years ago allowing them to organize.

TAKING CONTROL—Some 595 Federal Aviation Administration employees voted to join the Air Traffic Controllers. About 520 employees who work in FAA's regional offices in logistics, budget, finance and computer specialist divisions voted overwhelmingly for the union April 13. Another 75 agency engineers in Oklahoma City picked the union April 17.

PAGING UNION DOCTORS—The 190 attending physicians and dentists employed by New York Medical College at Metropolitan Hospital in New York City voted overwhelmingly April 18 for representation by the Doctors Council, an SEIU affiliate. The key issues were salaries and giving physicians input into academic and hospital decisions, said Dr. Barry Liebowitz, president of the Doctors Council.

HIGH-TECH WORKERS UNITE—The 180 workers who make color copiers at Tektronix, in Wilsonville, Ore., voted April 19 to join UNITE. Last year, Xerox bought the color copier division of the company. Union activists fittingly devised an organizing campaign website where potential union members were able to log on and "meet" other Xerox workers from unionized facilities. Also, 36 workers at Capital Healthcare Linen Services in Troy, N.Y., voted for a voice at work with UNITE last week.

NURSES JOIN AFT—The majority of 110 registered nurses at Lee's Summit Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., voted April 14 to join Nurses United/Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, a division of AFT. "This is the best thing that could possibly have happened for our patients and our profession," said LuAnn Riddle, a nurse at the hospital. The win was the first in a campaign to bring a voice on the job to nurses in the Health Midwest system. For more information, check out www.kcnursesunited.org

TUNE IN TO WIN—In Cleveland, 100 television technicians at channels 19 and 43 voted for a voice at work with NABET/CWA Local 54042 this month. Eighty-one workers at four AT&T Broadband division sites in Rawlins, Wyo.; Delta, Colo.; Ocean City, Md.; and Clinton, Iowa, voted to join CWA. In Butte County, Calif., 63 district attorneys and county health professionals voted for CWA Local 9414.

HOSPITAL WORKERS PICK UFCW—The 87 employees of Mountainside Residential Care Center and Margaretville Memorial Hospital in Margaretville, N.Y., voted to be represented by UFCW Local 1's Professional and Health Care Division. The employees are certified nurses aides,  house- keepers, dietary workers, activity aides, cafeteria workers and secretaries.

EYE ON TRAFFIC—The 55 employees at Metro Traffic in Los Angeles voted April 11 to join the Television and Radio Artists. Metro Network News is a $200 million operation, the largest supplier of local, regional and global customized traffic, news, sports, weather and other information in the United States, operating in 85 major markets on more than 2,000 radio and TV stations.

JANITORS ROLL ON—Janitors in Los Angeles ended a three-week strike and returned to work April 24 after 88 percent voted to ratify a new three-year contract that increases wages by $1.90 an hour in the city and by $1.50 in the suburbs. The strike, which began April 3, was the first in a nationwide struggle for justice, which includes San Diego and Chicago. "The incredible showing by the janitors brought home a victory for them and their families as well as for every working American who labors for low wages and gets little respect," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said.

WORKERS MEMORIAL DAY—Tens of thousands of union members, other workers and community allies will gather around the nation April 28 in hundreds of Workers Memorial Day ceremonies to remember those killed and injured on the job and to mobilize for safe jobs. This year, Workers Memorial Day coincides with a series of hearings on OSHA's proposed new ergonomics standard. While workers and union safety professionals have testified on the need for tough new workplace safety rules, corporate lawyers and Big Business representatives have continued their decadelong campaign aimed at derailing such measures. The hearings, which began in Washington, D.C., in March, resume in Portland, Ore., April 24. Witnesses from the Oregon AFL-CIO, the Washington State Labor Council, AFSCME, SEIU and Painters and Allied Trades will testify in the 10 days of hearings. AFGE and Communications Workers take the stand on April 28, and during the hearing's midday break, union members will hold a Workers Memorial Day service at St. James Lutheran Church—including a "Parade of Prayers" and a reading of the names of Oregon workers killed in the last year on the job.

BACKING WORKERS FACING DEPORTATION—Hundreds of union members and immigrant activists will gather in a Bloomington, Ind., courtroom April 25 to support nine undocumented workers who face a deportation hearing before an Immigration and Naturalization Service judge. The nine workers were fired in October 1999 by Holiday Inn Express in Minneapolis. The workers helped three federal agencies investigate charges of race bias, retaliation and document abuse at the hotel. In January, the NLRB and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that the workers were fired illegally for their union activity and discriminated against, and the hotel paid $8,000 in back pay to each worker. That investigation and settlement "sent a powerful message to workers and employers across this country that unlawful discrimination in the workplace will not be tolerated, regardless of a person's immigration status," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said. But now that message is in danger of being undermined if the workers are forced to leave the country, he said. Sweeney called the case "extraordinary" because of the workers' involvement in the investigation and urged INS officials to find an extraordinary remedy and allow the workers to stay.

GE WORKERS GET FIRST WIN—General Electric workers and retirees won their first important victory in the upcoming contract negotiations when the company announced April 17 it would raise pensions for the first time in four years. "GE's action is the right and fair thing to do. But it is only the first step along the road to pension fairness," said Edward Fire, president of IUE and chairman of the Coordinated Bargaining Committee, which represents 37,000 GE workers in 14 unions. Shareholders and GE workers will take their concerns about the company's movement of jobs overseas to the April 26 stockholders meeting in Richmond, Va., seeking support for three resolutions calling on GE to follow international labor standards. Talks on a new contract begin May 30.

GEPHARDT SAYS NO TO PNTR—The fight to derail permanent Normal Trade Relations (NTR) for China and maintain Congress' annual review of that nation's abysmal human and workers' rights record got a boost April 19 when Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) announced his opposition to the deal. The House minority leader told students at Webster University in St. Louis, "America should not trust the Chinese government to make progress on its own and unilaterally surrender our nation's ability to influence Chinese policy through trade." The House is expected to vote on PNTR in May. For more information on the AFL-CIO's "No Blank Check for China" campaign and to send a message to your House member, visit www.aflcio.org/articles/china/index.htm

FLYING HIGH—Ending a three-and-a-half-year dispute, Northwest Airlines and Teamsters Local 2000, which represents the carrier's flight attendants, reached a tentative contract agreement April 20. If ratified, the contract will improve pay and pension benefits for flight attendants and offer full domestic partner health insurance coverage. "The members made their voices heard loud and clear," said Local 2000 President Billie Davenport.

NOW, A WORD FROM OUR ACTORS—Television and radio commercials are the bread and butter for thousands of members of the Screen Actors Guild and Television and Radio Artists. However, advertising agencies and commercial producers want to scrap established pay formulas and have refused to address other important economic issues during current contract talks. Last week, the unions' joint board of directors authorized a strike beginning May 1 unless a new pact can be reached.

SOLIDARITY OVER COFFEE—Members of Teamsters Local 473 joined Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, AFL-CIO Working Women's Department Director Karen Nussbaum and other union, community and women leaders in Cleveland April 19 to demand that the Sunbeam Corp. treat women workers with respect and dignity. Sunbeam, maker of Mr. Coffee, wants to export more than 300 Cleveland-based jobs, predominantly filled by African American women, to Mexico, where workers are paid less than $7 a day. "I am so proud to be here today surrounded by my sisters," said Mr. Coffee worker Donice Womack. "It makes me feel powerful."

UC GRAD EMPLOYEES STRIKE—Accusing the University of California administration of unfair labor practices during contract negotiations, graduate student employees staged a one-day walkout April 18. The nearly 10,000 teaching assistants, readers and tutors formed a union with UAW last year, but UC is resisting their calls for better health care benefits and a voice in working conditions.

BLUES AT BIG BLUE—IBM's broken promises will be Topic A April 25 in Cleveland, when stockholders consider a resolution that would restore to employees the pension and retiree medical benefits they had before IBM substituted an inferior plan last summer. The resolution is sponsored by Alliance@IBM, a group of employees working with the Communications Workers to gain a voice at work.

FATAL ATTRACTION— A team of OSHA inspectors is conducting a wall-to-wall safety survey at Rocky Mountain Steel in Pueblo, Colo., after two workers were killed and a third had both arms amputated in accidents at the steel plant over the past year. The Steelworkers have warned about job hazards at the plant, run by replacements hired by the steelmaker.

WAL-MARTYR—Milwaukee union members rallied against the job-killing effects of Wal-Mart megastores and escalated a fight to stop the giant retailer's efforts to build more stores in their area. On April 14, more than 300 union members marched to call attention to the loss of 250 jobs at Master Lock Co. when Wal-Mart dropped the company's products and switched to an offshore competitor. The rally also featured former Wal-Mart employees and Mexican workers, who told how the global economy is leaving working families in poverty.

QUILT HONORS BOMB VICTIMS—AFGE April 18 officially unveiled a 12-foot-by-15-foot quilt honoring the 168 victims of the tragic 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The 58 squares in the quilt were hand-stitched by relatives and friends of federal employees killed in the blast.

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