http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=15852

Posted: 4.07pm Friday 29 August 2008

Hundreds join picket lines as London bus workers

On the picket lines at Westbourne Park in west London (Pic: » Guy Smallman)

Joan, chair of her local Unite branch, on the picket line at Willesden Junction, north west London (Pic: Sarah Cox)

Up to 100 strikers joined the picket line at Lea Interchange in Leyton, east London(Pic: Swalee Emambaccus)

by Esme Choonara

Thousands of bus workers in west and east London are striking today over pay – making a huge impact on services at one of the biggest companies in the city.

Hundreds of strikers, members of the Unite union, joined picket lines outside the nine garages.

The drivers at First Centrewest and First Capital East are striking over pay after rejecting a 3.5 percent pay offer. Supervisors at First Capital East also joined the strike.

The strike was extremely solid with only a small handful of drivers going in across the company.

Several bus workers joined the union on the picket lines so that they could be part of the strike.

At the Dagenham garage in east London, strikers said that 80 percent of engineers didn't cross the picket line.

AA union ad: Management 'tearing a once-proud airline apart'
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/item.aspx?type=blog&ak=54803292.blog

AA union ad: Management 'tearing a once-proud airline apart'

American's ground workers' union is slamming the company's management in newspaper ads running in three cities this morning, a sign that labor-management relations at the USA's biggest carrier remain frayed. In the ads, the union says management's actions are "tearing a once-proud airline apart," according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (free registration) -– one of the papers the union chose for the ad. The ads were also scheduled to run in the Tulsa World and the Chicago Sun-Times.

The Associated Press writes "the Transport Workers Union, the airline's biggest labor group and the one seen as most friendly toward management, took out advertisements to blame company leaders for the lack of a new labor contract. And, picking open an old sore, the union criticized American for giving stock-based compensation to executives while thousands of rank-and-file workers face layoffs." On that subject, AP notes that AA "says the payments totaling more than $250 million over the last three years to several hundred managers are part of their compensation and are not bonuses."

http://www.wrp.org.uk/news/3497

aturday, 30 August 2008
LONDON BUS STRIKE ‘SOLID’

Defiant striking busworkers outside the Northumberland Park bus depot in north London yesterday
‘the strike was properly solid! Only four buses went out of 142 buses,’ Unite Rep Mickey Leachman said when he spoke to News line at Lea Interchange Garage on the picket line about the strength of the bus workers’ pickets yesterday.

Bus workers across north, central and west London, came out on strike for better pay and to bring drivers’ and other grades performing identical jobs, up to London-wide pay levels which can differ by as much as £6000 a year.

Leachman continued: ‘We want one pay for all and equality. There are other bus companies which have balloted for industrial action and they will be taking place in the near future.

‘We would like to see all bus workers out together!’ he emphasised.

Unite Branch Secretary Jay Mistry told News line on the picket line at Westbourne Park Garage: ‘We have had low pay rises as long as I can remember and I’ve been here 15 years.

‘We now feel that we have more support from the union and because inflation is so high we are not accepting a low offer.’

difusiontel@tel.org.ar
www.tel.org.ar

13 and June 14, 2008
International Seminar on Public Transport Passenger "Situation Sector and the Role of Workers"
In successfully held the International Seminar on Public Transport Passenger "Situation Sector and the Role of Workers' (Declared Interest Social the Buenos Aires) on 13 and June 14, 2008.

Inaugural Meeting
During the inaugural session, which was attended by over 250 people filled the St. Maarten Chamber of the Legislature of the City of Buenos Aires, spoke the international guests from 6 countries americas America and Europe. Statements were also made of subway workers, collective, trains and airports. In our country there were guests from the cities of Mendoza, Rosario, La Plata and, of course, Buenos Aires. In the day on Saturday was discussed in committee, exchanged experiences and proposals for the sector, and left open lines of joint work for the future.
More
Images of the Seminar
International Seminar

4 th International Seminar on Education Flexibility, and Response Division of Workers

"Details of the Seminar On 16 and May 17, TEL organized in Buenos Aires y en el marco del Proyecto Latinoamericano (PL), the 4th International Seminar on "Answers to union strategies entrepreneurs are relaxed and precarious employment contract, subject of great importance for the present and future of the working class and its organizations.

LAX workers go on strike, threatening Labor Day weekend disruptions

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-airport29-2008aug29,0,2064940.story

LAX workers go on strike, threatening Labor Day weekend disruptions
Union officials for baggage handlers, security personnel and janitors say the walkout will continue through the holiday weekend.
By Dan Weikel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
3:16 PM PDT, August 28, 2008
Threatening to inconvenience air travelers throughout the Labor Day weekend, several hundred airline service workers -- including baggage handlers, security personnel and janitors -- walked off the job today at Los Angeles International Airport after months of inconclusive contract talks with their employers.

Members of the Service Employees International Union Local 1877 went on strike at about noon at the Tom Bradley International Terminal and other terminals serving American, United, Southwest and Northwest airlines -- some of the busiest at the airport. Union officials say they will continue the action through the weekend, when LAX typically sees 850,000 passengers pass through the airport.

The workers are employed by private companies that contract with the airlines at LAX for a variety of services. Those firms provide about 5,000 janitors, skycaps, baggage handlers, aircraft cabin cleaners, security personnel and attendants for travelers with disabilities. About 2,500 of the workers are represented by the SEIU's airport division.

LAX workers go on strike, threatening Labor Day weekend disruptions

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-airport29-2008aug29,0,2064940.story

LAX workers go on strike, threatening Labor Day weekend disruptions
Union officials for baggage handlers, security personnel and janitors say the walkout will continue through the holiday weekend.
By Dan Weikel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
3:16 PM PDT, August 28, 2008
Threatening to inconvenience air travelers throughout the Labor Day weekend, several hundred airline service workers -- including baggage handlers, security personnel and janitors -- walked off the job today at Los Angeles International Airport after months of inconclusive contract talks with their employers.

Members of the Service Employees International Union Local 1877 went on strike at about noon at the Tom Bradley International Terminal and other terminals serving American, United, Southwest and Northwest airlines -- some of the busiest at the airport. Union officials say they will continue the action through the weekend, when LAX typically sees 850,000 passengers pass through the airport.

The workers are employed by private companies that contract with the airlines at LAX for a variety of services. Those firms provide about 5,000 janitors, skycaps, baggage handlers, aircraft cabin cleaners, security personnel and attendants for travelers with disabilities. About 2,500 of the workers are represented by the SEIU's airport division.

Chicago Pace Bus Drivers Come Down With "Blue Flu"
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/pace.bus.drivers.2.797666.html

Aug 18, 2008 8:39 am US/Central
Pace Bus Drivers Come Down With "Blue Flu"
MARKHAM, Ill. (STNG) ― About 36 Pace bus drivers working in the south suburbs have the "blue flu" Monday morning, causing a service slowdown according to Pace officials.

About 2 a.m. Pace officials began to be notified that about 10 percent of its 155 full-time drivers operating out of the South Division in Markham had called in sick, according to Pace spokesman Patrick Waldron.

But at 8 a.m. there were 36 drivers who've called off and there were 63 missed trips on nearly a dozen routes.

"It appears to be part of a labor dispute,'' according to Waldron, who said, "It's a blue flu."

Routes that are "completely out'' as of 8 a.m. are the 348, 753 and 452. "Each of these are short routes that connect with neighborhood Metra stations.'' he said.

The 348 does operate every half hour throughout the day, but the 753 and the 452 only operate during rush hour. Pace routes 353 and 352 could be considered alternates to the 348.

The Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 1028, rejected a tentative agreement with the drivers on Aug. 12, when it went to a vote and that "appears to have led to [the situation] today,'' Waldron said.

http://www.bostonschoolbusunion.org/
Tentative Agreement Reached in Contract Negotiations

Drivers and supporters rally and prepare to strike outside 11th hour negotiations at the Painters Union hall, August 20, 2008. photo: Maureen Skehan
All Out to
Ratification Meeting

Tuesday, Sept. 2nd
Boston Teachers Union Hall 6:00 PM

Read and Download First Student's Final Offer

Read and Download
Memorandum of Agreement regarding GPS

Alert! No Concessions! No Cutbacks!

Discussions for a new labor agreement between the Union and First Student are continuing. The Union is determined to fight for the hardworking women and men who for over 3 decades have provided safe, on-time, professional transportation to the students of Boston.
Today, June 30, 2008, the Union presented a proposal to the company which states in part:

"In the interest of concluding a fair and just Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) and allowing ample time and opportunity for serious joint efforts to resolve all remaining areas of dispute, the Union proposes a limited extension. The intent is to allow time to reach an agreement well prior to the “start up” of the 2008-2009 school year and spare the tremendous hardship to the students and parents of Boston, as well as the significant costs to the parties, financial and otherwise, associated with a strike. This Extension Agreement would include an agreement for retroactivity to July 1, 2008 for the new CBA, including but not limited to wages, benefits, terms and conditions, as well as other issues of interest to the parties.

Vote “No” on the Tentative Contract! Send It Back!
Mobilize for Membership Action!
This should have been contract negotiations that showed our union’s strength. Instead it showed weakness — a six-year contract below the rate of inflation and no COLA (cost of living adjustment). To make matters worse, even before the ink is dry another brother, Delmont Blakeney, gets killed on the job. Why? Because of the employers’ drive for profits and production first! They get billions in blood money at our expense.

When they reached agreement at the Big Table on the tentative contract, PMA stopped negotiating at the Safety Committee table, packed their bags and left with half of ILWU’s safety concerns not even addressed. (What’ll happen in local negotiations?) This is an insult to working longshoremen and especially to our members who have been injured and died on the waterfront in one of the most dangerous jobs, more dangerous than firefighters. Three have died on the Oakland waterfront this year, two at SSA alone.

The membership of the ILWU has always been proud of our union’s history of rank-and-file democracy and action, our coastwide contract and the hiring hall. This tentative agreement, if passed, will continue to undermine all of the above. Like with the last ’02 Contract Caucus “gag rule”, the members received no information until the last minute. Now we’ll have a couple of days to get a copy, read it, digest it, discuss it with fellow workers and decide before the union meeting. If it passes, this will be the first time we’ve been shackled with two back-to-back six-year contracts and the first time the Caucus voted unanimously to ratify a tentative contract—both point us in the wrong direction.

Proposed ILWU 2008 Contract Posted On Website
http://www.electpdl.com/2008_Contract_files/MOU 2008.pdf