Warehouse Workers for Justice and clergy members in Joliet, Illinois are organizing a consumer boycott of vacuum cleaner manufacturer Bissell. The boycott movement was prompted by the firing last November of 70 workers at Bissell’ warehouse near Joliet, after the workers filed charges over violations of workers’ rights at the facility, including violations of wage and hour laws, and began union organizing.
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| WE'RE UE! Renzenberger drivers in Chicago celebrate the result of the NLRB election vote in which they won their own union - UE - and real representation at work. |
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.
Members of UE Local 893 picketed the Anamosa State Penitentiary on January 9, to make the public aware of the impact of pending layoffs of correctional counselors at state correctional institutions in Iowa. The action received extensive coverage on TV news broadcasts in the region.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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| Working for worldwide solidarity: UE's Director of Organization Bob Kingsley helps lead a march in Mumbai, India, as part of the New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI) Congress which got underway this week. |
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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