Bargaining Digest Weekly by Gordon Pavy, Mar 3, 2007

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/03/03/bargaining-digest-weekly-47/

Bargaining Digest Weekly

by Gordon Pavy, Mar 3, 2007

The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 800 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.

Right to Organize: AFGE is urging the Senate to oppose amendments that would water down a bill to give screeners bargaining rights.

The UAW and AFL-CIO filed a complaint with the International Labor Organization on the National Labor Relations Board ruling denying organizing rights to teaching assistants at private universities.

Organizing and Bargaining: The United Transportation Union (UTU) and the Canadian National Railway agreed to end a two-week strike by 2,800 conductors and service returned to normal slowly over the course of the week.

On the one-year anniversary of the AK Steel lockout Feb. 28, the Machinists (IAM) announced a tentative settlement. The executive committee of IAM Local 1943, with which the Armco Employees Independent Federation affiliated during the lockout, has not yet endorsed the proposal, but it will be brought to the members within the next week. If ratified, all locked out workers would be recalled within 90 days.

The Labor Project for Working Families recently released its NEW Flex Pack—a toolkit on organizing, bargaining and legislating for worker-controlled flexibility. The Flex Pack is organized in a user-friendly fact sheet format and contains FAQs, tips for organizers, legislative examples, case studies and contract language as well as resources that will equip unions to take action. This project was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Click here for details.

Unions of the National Rail Labor Bargaining Coalition reached a tentative agreement on a national contract with the National Carrier Conference Coalition of railroads. The five-year agreement, if ratified, will provide wage increases and health care improvements for 65,000 members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes and Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers divisions of the Teamsters, Railroad Signalmen, the Boilermakers, Train Dispatchers, Sheet Metal Workers and the Firemen and Oilers Conference of SEIU.

West Virginia Steelworkers at the Columbia Gas utility ratified a new contract that raises wages by 15 percent over the five-year term.

Around the Horn: The U.S. Government Accountability Office has issued a report that warns U.S. fiscal policy is unsustainable in the face of soaring Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid expenses.

The BLS annual survey of work stoppages of 1,000 workers or more has been released. About 70,000 workers were idled by major stoppages in 2006.

Workers’ causes made political progress in Chicago elections. Three incumbent aldermen who opposed the big box minimum wage ordinance were defeated and 12 wards will have runoff elections April 17.

The AFL-CIO has asked the New York Stock Exchange to investigate whether Wal-Mart violated its own governance rules in its methods for setting executive compensation.

FULL story at link.