Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

British Airways strike threat: US Teamsters union weighs into cabin crew dispute
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/16/pensions-deficit-ba-strike-unite

British Airways strike threat: US union weighs into cabin crew dispute
Teamsters union to meet Unite leaders amid declaration of solidarity with UK workers
Dan Milmo, transport correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 16 March 2010 21.48 GMT

BA's pension deficit is commonly viewed as the greatest threat to the airline’s survival. Photograph: Tim Ockenden/PA

British Airways passengers face the threat of disruption on both sides of the Atlantic after the Teamsters, the powerful US trade union, confirmed last night it is meeting Unite representatives to discuss supporting a looming cabin crew strike.

Teamsters members have the potential to affect BA's lucrative US routes because they work on ground operations and aircraft services at major American airports. James P Hoffa, the Teamsters' general president, said he had been in contact with the Unite joint general secretary, Tony Woodley, to discuss the dispute as time runs out to avoid a three-day strike beginning on Saturday.

"We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters at Unite who are fighting for a fair contract at British Airways," said the Teamsters in a statement. "The Teamsters are an active member of the International Transport Workers Federation. ITF affiliates around the world are mobilising to support British Airways workers in their fight for passenger safety and worker respect."

New rules could boost union numbers for airlines
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-rules-could-boost-union-numbers-for-airlines-2010-03-16?reflink=MW_news_stmp

March 16, 2010, 10:16 a.m. EDT
New voting rules could boost union numbers for airlines
Carriers face higher labor costs as workers fight to regain lost wages

By Christopher Hinton, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- A change in the way U.S. airline workers vote to organize could swell union numbers by the tens of thousands over the next two years and raise labor costs for the industry.

Under a new rule that could be announced as early as this week, the federal agency that referees labor-management relations for airlines would allow employees to organize if a majority votes in favor of unionization.

Reuters

Current rules by the National Mediation Board state that the majority of the entire workforce has to favor unionization, with absent ballots automatically counted as a "no" vote.

The change would align voting rules for airline labor -- governed under the Railway Labor Act -- more closely with those under the National Labor Relations Board.

The change in voting rules coincides with airline unions' ramped-up efforts to secure higher wages and benefits, drawing strength from a more labor-friendly administration in Washington as well as renewed industry growth after nearly two years of recession.

US UAL cabin crews will hold St Patrick's Day protest Against Outsourcing And Union Busting
http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/us-cabin-crews-will-hold--st-patricks-day-protest-2096962.html

US cabin crews will hold St Patrick's Day protest

By Anne-Marie Walsh Industry Correspondent
Friday March 12 2010
AMERICAN cabin crews will protest on St Patrick's Day after accusing Aer Lingus and their employer of putting thousands of aviation jobs at risk.

United Airlines flight attendants will demonstrate against a landmark deal between their airline and the Irish carrier, claiming their jobs are being outsourced.

The US staff vowed to "vehemently" oppose the airlines' decision not to use existing staff on a new route betweenWashington and Madrid that launches on March 28. Aer Lingus is hiring non-union staff in the Washington area to man the new route as part of a corporate partnership with United Airlines announced last year.

Cabin crew demonstrations are being organised in Chicagoand Washington just days after Aer Lingus announced 230 compulsory redundancies among cabin crew in the Republic. Impact said the development in the US raised "very serious concerns" about future recruitment and conditions for cabin crew.

Angry US Airline Workers Want Wage Increases After Taking 25% Wage Cut
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703625304575116030010494148.html?mod=WSJ_business_whatsNews

Labor Tensions Threaten Airline Recovery
As Industry Emerges From Recession, Unions Aim to Recoup Wages Cut Over Past Decade

By MIKE ESTERL and SUSAN CAREY

Increasingly turbulent labor negotiations are threatening to knock U.S. airlines off their recovery course just as the battered industry starts to emerge from a deep recession.

Airlines slashed pay and benefits over the past decade, often during stays in bankruptcy court. Now, their restive workers are pressing for wage increases, in some cases by double-digit percentages.

Illustrating the growing divide between labor and management, the largest union at AMR Corp.'s American Airlines asked federal mediators Thursday to release it from mediated talks with the airline. That could open the door to the first strike at a major U.S. carrier since 2005.

Both sides agree that never before have so many of the nation's airlines been in labor talks simultaneously. More than two-thirds of the industry's contracts are estimated to be up for renewal. Fifty-two employee groups spanning most major carriers already have taken their grievances to the National Mediation Board, which oversees labor relations at airlines.

SF MUNI TWU 250-A Driver Speaks Out: No Reaseon To Giveback-Our labor CREATES value! Operators are an asset not a liability

NO REASON TO GIVEBACK.

Our labor CREATES value! Operators are an asset not a liability.

SURPLUS VALUE.

The pay and benefits we receive represent only a portion of the value created by our labor. The portion of our labor value kept by the employer can be understood as SURPLUS VALUE.
The employer accumulates and keeps the total of all the employees surplus value.

In the private sector this accumulation of surplus value becomes "capital",
profit and bonuses for the exclusive use of the employer nand his class.

In the public sector this accumulation has to be understood in the context
of revenue / taxes. Public sector workers create value and services ,
which the public pays for with various fees, fares and taxes.

A CONTRADICTION.

There is an inherent contradiction in the public sector for the capitalists/ employers.

Unlike private profit, in the public sector the accumulation of our surplus value belongs to us -to the public. Since this is supposed to be a democracy, we can contend with the capitalists over how to use it.

SF "top-level labor" Pressuring TWU 250-A Drivers To Make Concessions

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/09/BA9O1CD86C.DTL

Sleep with the fish: San Francisco Supervisor Sean Elsbernd was walking to pick up his 8-month-old son at day care Monday evening when his cell phone rang.

It was a local labor leader, calling to inform the Sunset District supervisor that his political career "is over" if he continues with his efforts to pass a charter amendment ending the guarantee that Muni drivers be the second-best-paid transit operators in the nation.

Interesting to note that the call came just days after a top-level labor sit-down at which leaders urged the Muni union to consent to enough givebacks to take the wind out of Elsbernd's amendment and thus avoid a costly fight at the polls in November.

The problem is that the Transport Workers Union Local 250-A itself is in the midst of power struggle between the African American old guard and the newer Latino and Asian American members led by union President Irwin Lum, and no agreement - on anything - appears in sight.

Worker ID Card at Center of Immigration Plan-Demos Pushing National Biometric Card For All Workers "It is fundamentally a massive invasion of people's privacy,"
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703954904575110124037066854.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEADNewsCollection

ID Card for Workers Is at Center of Immigration Plan

By LAURA MECKLER

Customs and Border Protection agent Jesus Gomez checks a passport at the vehicle crossing at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in California.

Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain.

Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants, would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker.

The ID card plan is one of several steps advocates of an immigration overhaul are taking to address concerns that have defeated similar bills in the past.

The uphill effort to pass a bill is being led by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), who plan to meet with President Barack Obama as soon as this week to update him on their work. An administration official said the White House had no position on the biometric card.

Unions Seek to Pry Loose Transit Stimulus Funding At National Transit Meeting On Feb 27th

Unions Seek to Pry Loose Transit Stimulus Funding

Eye on Operational Needs
By ARI PAUL

LARRY HANLEY: Only Feds can help.

Representatives of transit unions from around the country gathered Feb. 27 at the headquarters of Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ to discuss a national strategy to get the Federal Government to pump more money into mass transit, specifically for operational use.

Amalgamated Transit Union Vice President Larry Hanley said that transit systems in every major metropolitan area are facing layoffs—the Chicago Transit Authority has already laid off 1,100 workers—and that while the Federal Government has put stimulus money into transit, it has been restricted to capital construction budgets rather than day-today use.

‘Feds Handicapped Transit’

“They handicapped transit by saying that that money was restricted to new construction,” Mr. Hanley said of Congress and the White House.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Restrictions hurting systems.

As a result of the six-hour meeting, he said, transit union leaders and reps agreed that they needed a national lobbying campaign for more Federal money that would also involve working closely with rider advocacy and environmental groups.

3,000 NYC TWU 100 Workers and Transit Supports Rally And Speak Out Against Attacks "Hell no, Mr. Walder."
http://www.twulocal100.org/node/3743

Outside MTA Public Hearings, The Union’s Voice Rings Out

A powerful rally on March 4 put over 3,000 TWU Local 100 members in the streets outside the MTA’s Manhattan Public Hearing at FIT. We were joined by a large contingent of high school and college students, vociferously protesting the MTA’s planned elimination of student metrocards. TWU Local 100 got strong support from allies in the union movement and government, including New York State AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes, PBA President Pat Lynch, RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum, the UFT's Michael Mandel, DC 37’s Oliver Gray, Teamsters Local 237's Gregory Floyd, and Public Advocate Bill DiBlasio, to name a few. (Watch this page for videos, coming soon.)

President John Samuelsen trenchantly criticized MTA cuts as blatant disregard of workers and the needs of citizens. He called upon members to speak in a single voice: "Hell no, Mr. Walder. We will fight your attempts to steal our jobs; we will fight your attacks on our students; you will not destroy our transit system."

Budget Woes Prompt Privatization Fights in Public Transit
http://labornotes.org/2010/02/budget-woes-prompt-privatization-fights-public-transit

Evan Rohar| March 1, 2010

In late January members of AFSCME Local 3299 surrounded a newly privatized non-union bus at a Berkeley lab. The University of California recently contracted out one bus line—but the union has stopped the administration's drive to privatize all service at Berkeley. Photo: Liz Perlman

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As budget-butchering legislators and executives slash away at public services and public workers, they’re reaching for a familiar tactic: privatization.

Privatization Watch, an information clearinghouse, counts 411 battles over privatization between 2008 and 2009, from a riot at a Kentucky prison provoked by a contractor’s lousy food to a Republican governor in Indiana who killed a billion-dollar contract to outsource welfare-benefits after big delays and denials to qualified applicants.

Only 30 proposed privatizations were stopped. But one arena where unions are generating outsized heat lately is transit.