On Wednesday, May 31, Association of Flight Attendants President Sara Nelson, and Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network President Rev. Richard Freeman joined leaders from UE Local 506 and the national UE for a webinar to discuss why the right to strike over grievances is important to resolving disputes swiftly and fairly.
The UE NEWS takes a look at some economics news from the past few months — from a worker’s point of view.
Meeting on May 11 and 12, UE’s General Executive Board reviewed the challenges and opportunities created by UE’s rapid growth over the past five months, with over 14,000 workers joining UE in labor board elections since January. The GEB, made up of UE’s three national officers, the regional presidents, and rank-and-file members elected from each region, is the union’s highest decision-making body in between national conventions.
UE’s 78th Convention will be held from September 17-21 at the Wyndham Grand Hotel in downtown Pittsburgh, with the theme “Building Strike Power.” The official convention call was mailed to all UE locals on May 17.
“We’re looking forward to getting everyone together in person for the first time in four years,” said UE General President Carl Rosen. “It’s especially important for us to be meeting in this time of an upsurge in organizing and workers fighting for justice on the job.”
Standing at the podium in the UE Local 506 hall in Erie, PA, behind a large blow-up map of the Wabtec plant where Local 506 members work, its gates marked to facilitate plans for picket duty, UE Eastern Region President George Waksmunski welcomed delegates to the Eastern Region council meeting here on Saturday, April 29.
Local 506’s contract with Wabtec expires on June 9, along with the contract of their sister Local 618. In the words of Local 506 delegate Mike Giles, who gave part of his local’s shop report, “We’re in for a hell of a fight.”
A new study, conducted by the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, details the thousands of new, high-quality jobs that can be created through the manufacture of “green locomotives” at Wabtec’s Lawrence Park facility in Erie.
The study estimates the number of new jobs that would be created in the plant at between 2,600 and 4,300. In addition to direct jobs in the plant, the increased production would add between three and five thousand new jobs in Erie County due to increased demand for goods and services. The total employment impact throughout the U.S. would be between 9,860 and 14,960 jobs.
The UE Western Region’s spring council meeting welcomed new locals, heard shop reports from around the region, and got a report on the March 20 one-day strike carried out by UE Local 1004 at the Henry Mayo hospital in Valencia, California. The council meeting was held the weekend of March 25 and 26.
Nearly a foot of snow coming down in Iowa City did little to dissuade the dozens of union members and community supporters that showed up on February 16 to hear initial contract proposals between UE Local 896 and the Iowa Board of Regents. Local 896, also called the Campaign to Organize Graduate Students or COGS, represents a bargaining unit of around 2,000 graduate student teaching and research assistants at the University of Iowa.
Earlier this year, the Chicago-based labor television show Labor Beat posted their 1997 documentary about the cross-border mural project organized by UE and our Mexican partners the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (FAT) on YouTube. The documentary, which runs approximately half an hour, follows the creation of two labor murals, one at the FAT headquarters in Mexico City, the other at the UE Hall in Chicago.
Members of UE Local 1004, which represents 700 patient care workers, including patient care attendants, techs, and other support staff at Henry Mayo hospital, held a one-day unfair labor practice strike on Monday, March 20. The strike was called to encourage hospital management to end its illegal bargaining tactics and engage in good-faith negotiations to address high staff turnover.
“We are on strike today to stand up for our patients and our community and to speak out against management’s illegal intimidation tactics,” said Stacy Suarez, a 13-year surgical tech and member of the union negotiating committee. “We have the legal right to act together to let management know what workers need. Instead of listening and negotiating they have tried to silence our voices.”
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