On behalf of the entire membership, the national officers express our deep sorrow at the passing of Boris H. “Red” Block, a great UE leader and a ferocious fighter for the working class.
More than two dozen UE members gathered at UE Local 893/IUP’s new union office in Des Moines for the annual Iowa UE Political Action Day February 20. Representatives of Local 893/IUP and Local 896/COGS first reviewed the issues of importance to their respective memberships – including the case load crisis of social service workers, and adequate funding for the University of Iowa – as well as the important "fair share" battle unfolding in the Iowa Legislature.
Some 15 members of UE Local 160 members went to their state capitol on January 24 to lobby Virginia legislators and management of the Department of Health and Human Resources . While in Richmond they met with several members of the House of Delegates or their staffs, and had particularly encouraging meetings with Del. Rosalyn Dance (D-Petersburg) and with Del. Russell Potts (R-Winchester.) In meetings with legislators, union representatives discussed the need for salary increases especially for the lowest-paid workers, and problems caused by mandatory overtime.
Just before Christmas, Local 766 approved a new three-year agreement with Ametek Chemical Products Division. The new contract brings raises of 2.5 percent, 2.5 percent, and 3 percent, and increases the multiplier on the defined benefit pension by one dollar each year, for future service – bringing it to $43 by the end of the contract.
Raleigh sanitation workers have continued their fight for justice, following a courageous two-day work stoppage in September that captured statewide and worldwide attention. As reported in the last UE NEWS, the workers followed their job action by signing up as UE members, picketing city hall, building massive community support, and putting very specific demands, with deadlines, before the Raleigh city council.
At the end of a long and tough bargaining process, UE Local 267 members at the University of Vermont have negotiated and ratified a new three year contract with significant pay raises.
UE joins progressive women and men in honoring the life and work of Betty Friedan and mourning her passing. UE is particularly proud of the late author´s contributions to this union.
From 1946 to 1952 as the young writer and activist Betty Goldstein, she was employed as a journalist and staff writer for the UE News.
UE Local 222/CILU-CIPU scored a huge victory today (Feb. 8) in an election involving workers at the Department of Public Works. Nearly 80 percent of the 130 ballots cast named UE as the collective bargaining agent for the workers in the unit.
The workers approached the UE after becoming dissatisfied with their previous union affiliation. The vote gave workers a choice between Local 222, the other union, and none of the above.
The unit represents 151 workers, 103 of whom cast their votes for UE. Organizers said the results surpassed even their expectations.
Arthur Kinoy, a former UE staff attorney, legal scholar and “people’s lawyer” renowned for his creative and vigorous defense of civil rights, died Sept. 19 at his home in Montclair, N.J. He was 82.
All who knew him associated Kinoy with an infectious, buoyant optimism, a boldness of vision and an understanding that the law could be an instrument for social change.
James Lerner, an outstanding labor journalist whose work for UE spanned six decades, died Sept. 20 after a long illness. He was 92.
Lerner was born in New York in 1911. He attended City College there in 1927-28, then spent almost an academic year at the Experimental College at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Forced out because of lack of money, he returned home and held a variety of jobs.
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