UE NEWS Updates

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Clergy Plan Press Conference to Announce Bissell Boycott

January 15, 2010
Joliet, IL

Clergy and other religious leaders will conduct a press conference on Martin Luther King Day (Monday, Jan. 18) to announce a boycott of Bissell products. Their goal is to secure justice for a group of Bissell warehouse workers who were fired last year when they blew the whistle on violations at the warehouse near Joliet.  

The group has been meeting with workers involved in Warehouse Workers for Justice, an organization that is raising concerns over violations of workers' rights in the warehouse industry.

CDC Workers to Mark 20th Anniversary of Struggle That Won Martin Luther King Holiday

January 5, 2010
Whitakers, NC

For workers at Cummins Rocky Mount Engine Plant (formerly Consolidated Diesel Co.), Martin Luther King Day 2010 marks an anniversary of one of their own struggles. It was 20 years ago that employees in the plant circulated a petition calling on company to grant workers a paid holiday for King Day. The petition was presented to management on January 15, 1990. Following another eight months of struggle by the workers, CDC management announced on August 1, 1990 that it would grant the new paid holiday.  

Local 170 Members Fight State Plan To Charge Workers More for Healthcare

December 18, 2009
Charleston, WV

UE Local 170 is once again in the front line of a worker justice issue in West Virginia. In November, the Finance Board of the Public Employee Insurance Agency hatched a plot to increase employee contributions, deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums for state employees. State law requires public hearings on such changes, and the board got an earful of protest from workers and other citizens at six events around the state. Dozens of UE members attended the hearings and composed the largest group in attendance at several of them.

Locals 625 and 626 Make Wage Gains at ABB, Defeat Pension and Healthcare Concessions

December 18, 2009

Mt. Pleasant and Greensburg, PA

Members of UE Locals 625 and 626 defeated company attacks on their pension and healthcare, and negotiated new four-year contracts including wage increases. The new agreements were overwhelmingly ratified by the members on October 31. These workers make circuit breakers, and are employed by the multinational electrical equipment manufacturer ABB; Local 625 is the production and maintenance unit and Local 626 represents clerical workers, including drafters.

Another Win Over Privatization For Connecticut UE Members

December 17, 2009
Winsted, CT

UE dispatchers in Winsted, CT have turned back an attempt to privatize their jobs.

The town’s board of selectmen were told by the private firm, Litchfield County Dispatch (LCD), that privatization would save $100,000. It turned out that those “savings” were suspect, and dependent on getting $200,000 from the state through the governor’s scheme to promote regionalization.  The town manager said privatization was inevitable, and told the union not to even bother fighting it.

Bissell Warehouse Workers Fighting Back

November 19, 2009

Joliet, IL

Workers fired from a Bissell vacuum cleaner warehouse in Joliet, Illinois are fighting back, and have already won a partial victory. Their employer has agreed to continue paying them through January 9, claiming that it’s doing this to comply with the WARN Act. But workers are continuing their fight for reinstatement to their jobs, and to build their union.

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