AFSCME HOME CARE WINS AGAIN—By a huge 8-1 margin, 6,500 home care workers in Orange County, Calif., voted for a voice on the job with United Domestic Workers/ National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, an AFSCME affiliate, on Aug. 30. Other recent AFSCME organizing wins include 65 paraprofessionals in the Southlake Schools District, St. Clair Shores, Mich.; 20 Head Start workers in the Adrian Public Schools, Adrian, Mich.; and 35 city employees in St. Helens, Ore.

DIGNITY FOR DISNEY PART-TIMERS—With an early September card-check, more than 5,000 part-time workers at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., joined approximately 25,000 full-time Disney World employees represented by the Service Trades Council. With card-check, the employer agrees to recognize the union when a majority of workers sign authorization cards choosing union representation. The council includes Theatrical Stage Employees, Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees, Teamsters, Transportation Communications Union and Food and Commercial Workers local unions. Disney management remained neutral during the campaign, honoring the agreement it made in its contract with the full-time council workers last year.

CWA PHONES IN THE WINS—Workers at Cingular Wireless continue to join Communications Workers of America for a voice on the job. In Tennessee, 494 retail sales employees won representation when a majority turned in cards supporting CWA. Cards were certified by the American Arbitration Association on Sept. 12. In Puerto Rico, 352 retail sales and 184 call center employees won certification in card-check victories in late July. Meanwhile, members of the independent United Campus Workers union at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, voted on Sept. 10 to affiliate with CWA so they could have a stronger voice with the state government in addressing their working conditions. About 100 members of the union are in the workforce of 1,600. The university workers are paid low wages in food service, maintenance, grounds and housekeeping jobs. They organized several years ago after taking part in a living wage teach-in CWA Local 3805 helped conduct. Also, the majority of 12 technicians at the NBC-TV hub facility in Miami voted to join NABET/CWA Local 11 Sept. 12.

NURSES WIN WITH SEIU—With a strong majority, more than 750 registered nurses at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center in Pomona, Calif., voted to join SEIU on Sept. 19. "Now we'll be able to sit down with management and really work on the improvements we need to provide the best possible care," said emergency room nurse Charlene Nelson. Another group of health care professionals at the facility is set to vote on forming a union in October.

UNITE-ING AT KMART—Almost 300 distribution center workers at a Kmart facility in Chambersburg, Pa., won UNITE representation in late Sept. The victory comes on the heels of another Kmart win near Los Angeles earlier this month. These newest members are affiliated with the Pennsylvania, Ohio and South Jersey Joint Board.

LABORING FOR VICTORY—Sixty employees at the Wakefield Department of Public Works unanimously voted to affiliate with the Massachusetts Laborers' Public Employee Council and Laborers Local 544 in late August. In addition, 32 counselors and middle managers and 30 respiratory therapists at Cambridge Hospital and Somerville Hospital have joined LIUNA.

WORKER INSECURITY IN HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT—President George W. Bush and all but one Republican senator, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, are refusing to take a step toward compromise on Bush's demand for the unlimited authority to strip workers in a new homeland security department of their collective bargaining and civil service rights. On Sept. 26, Senate Republicans signaled they would rather kill homeland security department legislation than allow a bipartisan agreement. On Sept. 24, Chafee and two Democrats, Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.) and Sen. John Breaux (La.), offered an amendment that gives the president much of the authority he is seeking. While protecting workers' rights, it also would allow Bush to remove workers from their unions if their responsibilities are substantially changed in the new department and if the majority of workers in a particular office are engaged in anti-terrorism intelligence or investigative work. But on Sept. 26, when Republicans finally allowed a vote on whether to end debate on the amendment, it was 50-49, 10 votes short of the 60 needed to end discussion of the bipartisan compromise that is assured passage should it come to a full Senate vote. Visit www.unionvoice.org/campaign/homeland/2 to send a message to senators urging them to protect workers' rights.

LOOKING GOOD—Seeking better treatment on the job, on Sept. 19, a majority of the 120 cosmetic and fragrance workers at the Saks Fifth Avenue department store in Manhattan voted for a voice with Local 1102 of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a UFCW affiliate. Local 1102 members in the store's women's shoe department aided the campaign.

AFT TEACHES A JUSTICE LESSON—A nearly two-to-one majority of 25 faculty and instructional support staff members at Madison Media Institute, a private, for-profit vocational college in Madison, Wis., voted to join the Wisconsin Federation of Teachers, an AFT affiliate, in a July 10 election.

GLOBAL FORUM, GLOBAL JUSTICE—Workers from three continents raised their voices Sept. 26 for an end to economic globalization and privatization that enriches multinational corporations at the expense of working families worldwide. Cristina Alves Campelo of Brazil, Nyameka Mafani of South Africa, Raquel Salazar Hernandez of El Salvador and Dan Pedroza, Cara Alcantar and Rose Sommer of the United States spoke at an AFL-CIO Global Workers Forum preceding the World Bank/International Monetary Fund (IMF) annual meetings in Washington, D.C. "IMF and World Bank policies are enriching corporate profiteers but failing to stimulate stable growth and speeding up the race to the bottom that puts workers last and profits first," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. After the forum, 300 workers and activists—including staffers from the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center in town from all over the world for their annual meeting—marched to the Ritz-Carlton hotel, the site of the Business Week "CEO summit," and rallied there, demanding "No More Business As Usual."

PORT LOCKS OUT ILWU WORKERS—The trade association representing shipping lines is shutting dockworkers out of West Coast ports as negotiations for a new contract grow increasingly difficult. The Pacific Maritime Association ordered members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) off their jobs indefinitely on Sept. 30 after initially locking them out for 36 hours over the weekend and then prolonging the lockout pending union agreement to extend the expired contract. Negotiations were set to continue in San Francisco later in the day.

POVERTY, UNINSUREDNESS RISE—Last year, 1.3 million more Americans were poor and 1.4 million more were uninsured than in 2000, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. For the second consecutive year, income for the typical household fell and working families lost modest economic ground gained in the late 1990s. Almost 33 million Americans were officially poor in 2001. Of the 41 million who were uninsured, 80 percent lived in families with at least one worker. "Numerous times since the recession began the American labor movement has called upon the Bush administration to recognize that while its policies of cutting taxes for the rich and corporations may enrich some CEOs, they do not yield real relief for working families and the poor," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

A GIANT PENSION HOAX—The House of Representatives passed a bill Sept. 25 instructing the Senate to act on a House-passed bill, H.R. 3762, that would cut even more workers out of company retirement plans and make it legal for mutual funds, banks and insurance companies to give advice on their own products to workers whose 401(k) accounts they manage. "These are two of the most dangerous steps backward in the House Republican plan," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said at a Sept. 24 news conference. "It would be a giant hoax on the American public to take these steps backward in the name of ‘reform.'"

BOSTON JANITORS SET TO STRIKE—Standing up for decent health care benefits and full-time jobs and protesting unfair labor practices (ULPs), janitors in Boston were set to go on strike late Sept. 30. The members of SEIU Local 254 plan to refuse to clean several buildings that contract with UNICCO Service Co., which is leading negotiations on behalf of the city's maintenance contractors. "Working families need health coverage and they need it to be affordable," said SEIU President Andrew Stern of the contract issues which, together with the ULPs, are motivating this action. "The janitors' struggle in Boston could be a defining moment on this issue."

PAYCHECK DECEPTION DECEIVER LOSES—A jury in Oregon found an anti-union group guilty of forgery and racketeering related to signature gathering to qualify paycheck deception initiatives for the ballot in 2000. A Multnomah County jury on Sept. 27 also ordered Bill Sizemore's Oregon Taxpayers United to pay the Oregon Education Association and AFT-Oregon $840,000 in damages. Voters rejected the ballot initiatives after unions mounted a spirited campaign.

KEEP MOVING—Union leaders are speaking out in support of a federal highway and transit reauthorization bill that boosts spending levels, ensures safety and security and does not weaken or undermine workers' rights under collective bargaining and prevailing wage statutes. Speaking before the House Highway and Transit Subcommittee on Sept. 19, AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department Executive Director Edward Wytkind affirmed union support for congressional efforts to pass the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century. Without a measure providing the highest possible funding levels and firewalls to prevent money from being siphoned away, said Wytkind, "our transportation network will submerge into a state of disrepair."

LIVING WAGE WIN—The town council of Fairfax, Calif., in Marin County on Aug. 6 passed a strong living wage ordinance, requiring city contractors and subcontractors to pay workers $13 an hour with health insurance and other benefits, or $14.75 without benefits. President of IBT Local 484 and council member Frank Egger wrote and championed the measure.

PINK SLIP THIS—Advocates for corporate responsibility are gearing up for the AFL-CIO's "No More Business As Usual" national day of action Oct. 19, when activists will urge working families to vote in November and give pink slips to lawmakers who coddle corporate criminals. Almost 100 events are planned. For more information, visit http://www.aflcio.org/ or e-mail Oct19@aflcio.org.

CORRECTION—Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Local 2's new contract with the San Francisco Marriott Hotel is not the union's "first ever" agreement with a Marriott property. HERE has about 25 contracts with Marriott properties nationwide.