Republican NLRB bill is ‘outsourcers Bill of Rights’
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Machin-
ists (IAM) member Patrick Bertucci is a
shop steward at Boeing’s Renton Wash.,
plant, where he works on wing assem-
bly for the Boeing 737. Last month he
spoke to a packed Capitol Hill press
conference about a U.S. House Repub-
lican bill designed to cripple the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board’s ability
to protect workers:
“When I go to work every day I am
held accountable to build the best and
safest aircraft in the world, Bertucci
said. “The Boeing Co. needs to be held
accountable for their actions as well ... I
want Boeing to be successful. But no
company can succeed when they break
the law.”
The legislation (H.R. 2587), which
Republicans rammed through commit-
tee without a hearing, is awaiting a vote
by the full House.
Its target is the NLRB’s recent deci-
sion to file a complaint against the Boe-
ing Co. The NLRB charges that Boeing
moved production away from its Wash-
ington facility in retaliation for the
workers exercising their right to strike,
and that’s against the law.
The Republican bill should be called
“the Job Outsourcers’ Bill of Rights,”
says Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.),
ranking minority member of the House
Education and Workforce Committee.
“It will eviscerate the rights of workers,
help ship more jobs overseas, under-
mine job creation in this country, and
kill opportunity for people who are
working hard and playing by the rules.”
Bertucci says as a result of Boeing’s
actions, workers on the shop floor are
in fear of losing their jobs.
“They tell me they feel intimidated
to accept any contract Boeing gives
them because we exercised our legal
right to bargaining collectively,” he said.
International Association of Fire
Fighters (IAFF) President Harold
Schaitberger says the bill is part of a
bigger attack on workers’ rights going
on in Wisconsin, Ohio and around the
country.
“This is no accident,” he said. “This
is an organized, orchestrated attempt to
destroy America’s labor movement,
which is responsible for representing
the rights of workers ... This is nothing
more than an extension of the [of the
goals] of right-wing extremists that
were swept into office last November
— including many in this Congress —
20 state legislatures changing control,
and too many governors’ mansions con-
trolled by those who simply want to
turn the clock back on workers.”
Miller says that under current law it
is illegal for a company to retaliate
against workers for exercising their
rights, but if H.R. 2587 becomes law,
“workers will exercise their rights less
frequently and wages, benefits and
working conditions will get worse.”
Under this bill, Miller said worker
rights suddenly become meaningless
because there is no effective remedy
when workers’ jobs are outsourced in
CLUW cheers federal recommendations on women’s health
WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) — The
Coalition of Labor Union Women
(CLUW), which has long campaigned
for a greater emphasis on women’s
health, is cheering a new federal report
recommending key women’s health
services such as testing for cervical can-
cer and providing contraceptive serv-
ices be part of the new health care law’s
basic package of health care for which
people would not have to shell out co-
pays.
“Clearly, CLUW is thrilled, espe-
cially about the recommendation for no
co-pays on contraception and coverage
of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) test-
ing for women over 30,” said Carolyn
Jacobson, who runs the organization’s
campaign to raise women’s awareness
about the need for HPV testing to com-
bat cervical cancer.
“CLUW is delighted with the report,
which recommends that important pre-
ventive services should be covered by
health insurance at no out-of-pocket
cost to women, including annual well-
woman visits, contraception and other
services,” the group added in an e-mail
to its activists. It’s also urging them to
push the Department of Health and Hu-
man Services to agree to the recom-
mendations.
An expert committee convened by
the National Institute of Medicine iden-
tified medical areas where payments for
preventive services specific to all
women could both improve health and
cut U.S. medical costs. Unless it gets a
lot of flak, HHS will try to implement
these recommendations as part of fol-
lowing last year’s health insurance law:
• Expansion of screening for cervi-
cal cancer, counseling about sexually
transmitted infections and expanded
HIV counseling. The cervical cancer
screening, like the others, would be ev-
idence-based. It would start at age 30.
• A fuller range of contraceptive ed-
ucation, counseling, methods and serv-
ices so women can avoid unwanted
pregnancies and better spaced child-
bearing. The panel said the federal Food
and Drug Administration should ap-
prove the contraceptive methods. Some
17.4 million women needed publicly
funded contraception last year.
• Screening for gestational diabetes,
plus lactation counseling and measures
to help promote breastfeeding, which
helps pass on immunities and protec-
tions to infants.
• Payment for at least one well-
woman preventive care visit annually.
• Screening and counseling for adult
women and adolescent girls to help
them cope with domestic and interper-
sonal violence in a culturally sensitive
and supportive manner. The report said
5 million women are physically, sexu-
ally or emotionally abused each year.
Thus, screening for risk is central to
women’s safety, as well as addressing
current health concerns as well as pre-
venting future health problems.
violation of their rights. “A right with-
out a remedy is no right at all,” he said.
In other developments at the NLRB,
Machinists District Lodge 751 is fight-
ing a request by Boeing to keep the pub-
lic from hearing important evidence in
the complaint. Among the things Boe-
ing doesn’t want the public to know are
specifics about the tax incentive pack-
age it’s getting from South Carolina.
Boeing’s lawyers have filed court
documents asking for the power to clear
the courtroom whenever these and other
topics they don’t want discussed come
up. They also want the judge to excuse
the company from having to turn over
key documents related to its decision-
making, and to restrict who would get
to see the documents it does turn over.
Among those documents are studies
comparing the cost of moving the sec-
ond 787 line to Charleston with the cost
of leaving it at Everett.
“We suspect the documents Boeing
wants to keep secret prove that Boeing
executives didn’t make a legitimate
business decision to transfer work from
Everett to Charleston, but instead broke
the law by moving because of union ac-
tivity here,” said District 751 spokes-
woman Connie Kelliher.
(Editor’s Note: Mike Hall of the
AFL-CIO NOW blog and the IAM 751
Aero Mechanic contributed to this re-
port.)
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