Circuit judge overturns portions of
Wisconsin’s anti-union bargaining law
A Wisconsin circuit court judge has
struck down parts of the law that led to
nationwide protests and a weeks-long
occupation of the State Capitol in
Madison last year, and an unsuccessful
recall election of Gov. Scott Walker ear-
lier this year.
The law stripped public employees
of all meaningful collective bargaining
rights, but arguments in lawsuits filed
by two public employee unions per-
suaded Dane County Circuit Court
Judge Juan Colás that it violates the
Wisconsin Constitution and the U.S.
Constitution.
In his Sept. 14 ruling, Colás wrote
that the law imposes “significant and
burdensome restrictions on employees
who choose to associate in a labor or-
ganization,” and thus violates their con-
stitutional rights to free speech, free-
dom of association, and right to equal
treatment under the law.
The suit was filed by Laborers Local
...Fundraiser fires CWA faithful
(From Page 3)
vene. And Arthur Towers, political di-
rector for Service Employees Local
503, says he’s less inclined to work with
OSPIRG and declined a request for
help on something.
“We’ve not cut off all communica-
tion with OSPIRG, but we’ve tried to
make the point,” Towers said, “you’ve
got to treat your workers better.”
Towers himself was a door-to-door
canvasser in 1977 in Rhode Island, and
he and his co-workers tried unsuccess-
fully to unionize.
Elder praised members for determi-
nation, and for their courage: So far,
each time a bargaining team member is
fired, Elder says, another worker has
stepped forward to serve, and workers
have continued to help with the union
effort even after being fired.
Elder said the union presented a
complete contract proposal the day bar-
gaining began, and the Fund has yet to
respond to all of it in 10 months of
meeting for two three-hour sessions a
month with Wood, who flies out from
Boston. The changes workers are pro-
posing are pretty modest: They want to
extend the ultimatum two weeks, so that
a longtime experienced caller would
have to have four rotten weeks before
being sacked. And to reduce paycheck
volatility, workers want no more than a
$2 hour an hour pay cut per pay period.
61, which represents public employees
at the City of Milwaukee, and the
Madison Teachers Inc. of the Madison
Metropolitan School District teachers
union. Because state employees were
not a party to the lawsuit, the ruling
only affects municipal and school dis-
trict employees.
Under the law, union-represented
employees are barred from receiving
wage increases greater than the cost of
living, but nothing prevents govern-
ment managers from giving raises
greater than that to nonunion employ-
ees. The law prohibits employer collec-
tion of union dues for most public em-
ployees, but not public safety and
transit unions. The law also violates the
Wisconsin Constitution’s Home Rule
Amendment, under which municipali-
ties may establish their own practices,
and it runs afoul of the state constitu-
tion’s prohibition against impairment of
contracts.
Wisconsin’s Republican attorney
general said the ruling will be appealed.
Likely it will end up before the Wiscon-
sin Supreme Court. That body, major-
ity-Republican, already restored the law
once before in a court case last year on
separate grounds, after a different cir-
cuit court judge found it had passed in
violation of Wisconsin legislative rules.
Unions form Maritime Labor Alliance
Presidents of six maritime unions
announced Sept. 13 the formation of
the Maritime Labor Alliance.
The unions include the American
Radio Association, Inlandboatmen’s
Union, International Longshoremen’s
Association (ILA), International Long-
shore & Warehouse Union (ILWU),
Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Associ-
ation, and the International Organiza-
tion of Masters, Mates & Pilots.
The union leaders said the alliance
was created to protect working condi-
tions, labor rights, and jurisdictions on
the waterfront.
ILA currently is in federally-medi-
ated contract negotiations with the
EE
R
F
United States Maritime Alliance, and
ILWU recently opened bargaining
with the Pacific Northwest Grain Han-
dlers Association. The current ILU
contract expires Sept. 30, with a strike
by workers potentially beginning on
Oct. 1.
At the signing ceremony creating
the Alliance, union leaders heard a re-
port from International Transport
Workers Federation President Paddy
Crumlin regarding a global strategy “to
ensure that the rights and livelihoods
of maritime workers are protected in
the efforts to automate maritime work-
places as a means of union busting.”
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A UTOMOTIVE
Who’s On Our Side?
By Tom Chamberlain
T
he United States’ alphabet soup
of trade agreements have a his-
tory of weak labor standards. Prior to
the election of President Obama,
there was little enforcement of few
standards included in our trade agree-
ments. The Obama Administration
has fought and won sanctions against
countries that have violated our trade
agreements, but often the tools they
have are not enough.
Take Colombia: Colombia has a
long history of violence against union
leaders and organizers. Over the last
two decades, over 2,800 union leaders
and organizers have been murdered.
Despite the prejudice and violence
against unionists, the United States
signed the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade
Agreement last year. It included a la-
bor action plan designed to help pro-
tect workers once the FTA went into
effect. If our nation is going to freely
trade with Colombia, it is crucial to
ensure that workers’ rights and safety
are being upheld in both our coun-
tries. But the labor action plan isn’t
working.
A group of more than 68 former
GM employees in Colombia suffer
from occupational injuries and ill-
nesses. Their ailments are directly re-
lated to overwork and to working
PAGE 6
conditions that are beyond what is
permitted by labor law, or by medical
and humanitarian standards. The ma-
jority of the injuries these workers
have contracted are back-related.
They leave the workers unable to per-
form their jobs or any other job, and
unable to provide for themselves
when their positions are terminated.
After a group of these workers
camped outside of the U.S. Embassy
in Bogota for over a year without see-
ing any results. they decided it was
time to take their struggle to the next
level, and they went on a hunger
strike, going so far as sewing their
mouths closed. These workers feel
that they have nothing to lose by dy-
ing of malnutrition, as they are al-
ready dying of workplace injuries
with no access to health care and
waiting at the mercy of GM.
Thirty-three percent of General
Motors is owned by United States
taxpayers, and another 10 percent is
owned by members of United Auto
Workers. After mounting interna-
tional pressure was put on GM Col-
motores (Colombian GM), they en-
tered mediation, where they almost
immediately walked away from the
table — and the workers went back
on a hunger strike, sewing their
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mouths closed.
After more intense international
pressure, GM returned to the table
and ended up offering a one-time
monetary payment — with no access
to health care for workers. The work-
ers rightly said “no deal,” as their in-
juries require lifetime access to health
care. After the workers declined the
offer, GM again left the table. The
workers are now on a hunger strike
again.
While GM may be a good union
employer in the U.S., in Colombia
they are not on our side.
There’s still more we can do,
though.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.),
holds a key position on the subcom-
mittee on trade and has the power to
help sway action to enforcing the la-
bor action plan to ensure that these
workers see justice.
We encourage you to contact Sen.
Wyden and encourage him to enforce
the labor action plan — and to remind
GM whose side they should be on.
Tom Chamberlain is president of
the Oregon AFL-CIO.
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SEPTEMBER 21, 2012