Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

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.

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.

Clearing the Air at American Ports And The Labor Green Coalition-Deregulation The Cause Of Environmental Degradation
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/business/26ports.html?scp=1&sq=envirornment trucking deregulation&st=cse

February 26, 2010
Clearing the Air at American Ports

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
The Teamsters union and environmental activists have formed an unlikely and outspoken alliance aiming to clear the air in American ports, and perhaps bolster the Teamsters’ ranks in the process.

The labor-green alliance is getting under the trucking industry’s skin by asserting that short-haul trucking companies working in ports — and not the truck drivers, who are often considered independent contractors — should spend the billions needed to buy new, low-emission rigs that can cost $100,000 to $175,000 each.

The Teamsters union says seaport air is so dirty largely because port truck drivers earn too little to buy trucks that would belch out fewer diesel particulates, tiny particles that contribute to cancer and asthma. Working with environmentalists, the union helped persuade the Port of Los Angeles to adopt a far-reaching plan that bars old trucks from hauling cargo from the port and puts the burden of buying new vehicles on the trucking companies, not the drivers.

American Airlines, labor unions may be near impasse
http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/02/27/2001263/american-airlines-labor-unions.html

American Airlines, labor unions may be near impasse
Posted Saturday, Feb. 27, 2010

BY ANDREA AHLES

aahles@star-telegram.com

After months of negotiations, it's come down -- as always -- to money.

American Airlines and its labor unions have been in contract talks for years, and with no tentative agreements in sight, the unions are starting to make noise about a strike.

Two weeks ago, the Transport Workers Union announced that it will ask federal mediators to declare an impasse if it doesn't have a deal with the Fort Worth-based carrier by March 8. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants has said it will also ask to be released from mediation when its next bargaining session ends Friday.

The company says it is not dragging its feet and has posted its contract proposals on the Internet for employees to look at.

And with American continuing to post huge annual losses, the carrier says it needs to revise work rules and retiree benefits to remain competitive.

American has offered lump sum payments in its contract proposals, but the unions say they want wage increases instead.

TWA Former Flight Attendants Charge Betrayal By APFA And Threaten To Cross Lines Of American Airlines Flight Attendants
February 10, 2010

Ex-TWA flight attendants send another message to APFA
6:11 PM Wed, Feb 10, 2010 | Permalink
Terry Maxon/Reporter
At the risk of starting a new knife fight, I'm passing on the latest messages coming out of the Coalition for Union Principles, a group of ex-Trans World Airlines flight attendants that joined American Airlines and then got furloughed.

Last week, the group said they would be willing to work American flights if the Association of Professional Flight Attendants went out on strike. That prompted more comments than any other item Airline Biz has published, by a factor of at least three.

I won't rehash the issues involved here. Here are the messages:

Item #1:

TO: APFA
FROM: TWA Flight Attendants

RE: New Poll Tax

DATE: February 10, 2010

The former TWA Flight Attendants who have been the victims of your anti-union animosity since 2001 are well aware of your most recent action to disenfranchise us. The most recent slap that requires us to pay a poll tax in the full amount of monthly union dues even though all but about 20 of us are unemployed is well understood. We are also aware that the APFA membership voted down a dues increase of $1.63 per month for those who are active and working while requiring those of us who are unemployed and not working to shoulder the entire amount of monthly dues as a condition of voting.

Illinois-based railroads ordered by US Department of Labor to compensate employee fired for reporting work-related injury
http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/osha/osha20100157.htm

News Release
OSHA News Release: [02/11/2010]
Contact Name: Rich Kulczewski
Phone Number: (303) 844-1302
Release Number: 10-0157-KAN
Illinois-based railroads ordered by US Department of Labor to compensate employee fired for reporting work-related injury
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has ordered the Illinois Central Railroad Co. and the Chicago, Central & Pacific Railroad, both headquartered in Homewood, Ill., to pay a former railroad employee more than $80,000 in back wages, compensatory damages and attorney's fees.
OSHA investigated the employee's allegation that the railroads terminated his employment in retaliation for reporting a work-related injury he sustained while performing his job. OSHA's investigation found that officials from both railroads ordered an investigation into the cause of the employee's injury, which ultimately resulted in their decision to terminate his employment. The evidence showed that the employee was in compliance with the railroads&' rules governing the reporting of work-related injuries and not at fault for his injury.'

Teamster IBT Carhaulers Director Zuckerman On Depression & NUMMI
http://blip.tv/file/3218560

IBT Carhaul Director Fred Zuckerman on February 12, 2010 spoke at a
rally for UAW 2244 NUMMI Toyota Fremont workers. He talked about the
more than 50% loss of jobs for IBT members at NUMMI and the massive
loss of jobs to IBT car haulers and automotive workers.
A production of Labor Video Project,
P.O. Box 720027, SF, CA 94172
laborvideo.blip.tv www.laborvideo.org (415)282-1908

Ground Workers at Continental Airlines Vote to Join Teamsters
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/business/13union.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1266084107-CkCVDH8A/yjWcf5zFrslhA

Ground Workers at Continental Airlines Vote to Join Teamsters
E-MAIL

Published: February 12, 2010
DALLAS (AP) — Ground workers at Continental Airlines voted to unionize in the Teamsters, airline and union officials said Friday.

The Continental fleet service employees were among the largest groups of nonunion workers in the industry, according to labor officials.

“This is a big victory,” said James Hoffa, the president of the Teamsters. “It proves there are people to organize out there.”

Mr. Hoffa said the union won by generating excitement with big rallies at Continental’s hubs in Cleveland, Houston and Newark, and by reaching into the airline’s smaller bases where previous organizing campaigns had failed.

The Teamsters will represent a group that includes baggage handlers and cargo agents in bargaining with Continental over wages and other contract terms. The union already represents mechanics at the airline.

Continental’s senior vice president of labor relations, Mike Bonds, said, “We respect the choice our co-workers have made.” He promised that the airline would focus on working together.

Philadelphia Messengers Take On City's Hysterical Crack-down
by Mykke Holcomb

Within the last few months, two pedestrians in Philadelphia were hit and killed by cyclists who were never identified. In a city wrought with social tension and a less-than-friendly attitude toward cyclists, local politicians and the press easily managed to whip up public hysteria and initiate a repressive anti-bike campaign. New traffic enforcement legislation, proposed by City Councilmen DiCicco and Kelley, would disproportionately affect working messengers, including requiring cyclists over age 12 to register and adorn a license plate on their bikes under penalty of fines and confiscation, and stiff fines of $1000 for riding a brakeless track bike. And amidst the blind rage being directed toward cyclists, veteran messenger Rachel Fletcher was hospitalized after a severe hit-and-run when riding home one night. After a significant period of inactivity, the Philadelphia Bike Messenger Association reared its head again to take a stand.

The PBMA and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) have a history of collaboration in organizing around workplace issues. In 2007, the two worked together to defeat unreasonable uniform policies at the courier service Intercept. Wobblies have maintained an active presence in Philly's messenger industry since. This is an interview I conducted with Philadelphia messenger, PBMA organizer, and former co-worker and co-organizer of mine, Jorge Brito.