Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

"The Campaign to Stop Single-Employee Railroad Crews"

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/flanders180110.html

by Jon Flanders
Labor productivity soared in the United States in 2009. According to the Transport Times of December 3, 2009, productivity increased by 6.4% in the second quarter and leaped by 8.1% in the third quarter.

Labor costs fell at a 2.5% rate in the third quarter of 2009, capping the biggest 12-month drop in seven years.

This good news for corporate America is the upside for them of the "Great Recession" that began in late 2007. Clearly, workers who have had the good fortune not to have been laid off are willing to work harder for less, just for the privilege of having a job.

Jared Boehlke may or may not have been aware of these statistics as he worked in the CSX Selkirk rail yard on Mother's Day of 2009, during the second quarter of this dramatic increase in US labor productivity. His job, running a locomotive via remote control, hooking up railcars in the departure yard, had been created to replace that of a locomotive engineer working with a brakeman or conductor to do this work. Jared was working alone, standing on the ground and moving cars around with a remote control beltpack, doing the work of both the engineer and the conductor.

How the Teamsters Beat Goldman Sachs

http://www.counterpunch.org/andrew01082010.html

Weekend Edition
January 8 - 10, 2010

Saving 30,000 Jobs

How the Teamsters Beat Goldman Sachs

By ANDREW COCKBURN

Among the causes of the ongoing financial meltdown, many experts cite the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, smuggled through Congress late on a December evening in 2000. The law exempted Credit Default Swaps (CDS) which are essentially bets on the value of securities from all regulation, including state gambling laws. This allowed Wall Street to conclude that any risk could be hedged with a bet. The result, of course, was disaster, with economic consequences that we will be feeling for a very long time.

“When I wrote part of that legislation with these hands on my little keyboard,” a former financial industry lobbyist who helped craft the law recently told me, “I didn’t realize that this was going to make people lose their jobs, pension funds their reserves, universities their endowments. But that’s what happened”

There are now shelves full of books describing the disaster caused by the enabling of Wall Street as a wide open casino. Butt amidst the wreckage and plaintive cries for “reform,” Wall Street is full tilt in the business of destroying companies and throwing thousands of men and women out of work in order to turn a quick profit on a CDS trade.

A big step for Teamster reform in NYC

http://socialistworker.org/2009/12/18/big-step-for-teamster-reform

A big step for Teamster reform
Former Teamsters Local 804 member Danny Katch looks at the significance of the reformers' victory in the union's recent election.
December 18, 2009

Tim Sylvester (left, facing camera), the newly elected president of Teamsters Local 804, with a group of UPS drivers (804 Members United Slate)

THE TEAMSTER reform movement took a step forward earlier this month when members of the New York City-based Local 804 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters voted for Tim Sylvester and the 804 Members United slate.

The new reform team, which defeated the incumbent leadership of Howard Redmond by a more than 2-to-1 margin, won the election by pledging to increase member involvement and take a more confrontational approach with the local's main employer, UPS. "The membership was ready for change," said Ken Reiman, a member of the new executive board and leader in Teamsters for a Democratic Union. "They told us this at every gate we hit."

The reformers' victory in New York has national significance. Local 804 is one of the largest locals of UPS workers, and the change in local leadership could increase pressure on IBT President James Hoffa to stand stronger against company demands for concessions.

Korean KORAIL’s plans to terminate KRWU’s collective bargaining agreement revealed

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/393942.html

KORAIL’s plans to terminate KRWU’s collective bargaining agreement revealed
LDP Lawmaker Lee Jeong-hee shares documents that support her allegation that the termination was planned two months prior to the KORAIL strike

» Members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) hold a demonstration to protest the labor policies of the Lee Myung-bak administration in front of the Industrial Bank branch located in Yeouido, Dec. 16.
An internal KORAIL document has been released that shows the termination of Korean Railway Workers’ Union (KRWU) collective bargaining agreement had been planned in advance in early October, some two months prior to the KORAIL strike.

On Wednesday,　Democratic Labor Party Lawmaker Lee Jeong-hee disclosed meeting materials composed at KORAIL’s personnel and labor office in early October. The document shows that KORAIL formulated a strategy to pressure the union with termination of its collective bargaining agreement. The materials also indicate that if KRWU decided to not accept KORAIL’s proposed changes to the collective bargaining agreement and took action after the conclusion of mediation efforts by the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC), the company had plans to inform the union it was terminating the collective bargaining agreement. This means that as long as the termination was an established fact unless the union yielded.

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Transportation-Job was the dominant and detention protest
08 Aralık 2009 --

DISK / Nakliyat-İş to be taken into custody since the raid, and administrators were protesting In Warehouse.

Transportation-Business operations and detention protest was made to.American managers and workers in custody Disk
Hours after the raid especially the Revolutionary Labor Unions Confederation (DISK) Chairman of Organizing Department, Ali Riza KÜÇÜKOSMANOĞLU to union headquarters managers, the General Secretary of the Central Aziz Cengiz, Financial Department Head Baker Rahman, Head of Department of organization, Abdullah Menem, President of the Training Department Abuzer Aslan, Istanbul Nurettin Silver Branch Chairman, Branch Secretary-Hadji Altas, Gebze Branch Chairman Erdal Kopal Disk Regional Representative and also Konya Transport-Business Representative Ali Özçelik, as well as our Member of the Trade Union of workers with Erçel Cihangir Erkan Ceylan, Nurettin Akkuzu, Dogan Ulutaş and Mehak of apparel workers insurgents Erhan Smoke was taken into custody in the context of operations.

Lee administration orders raid on public sector labor unions’ offices : Growing War Against Labor In Korea

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/390995.html

Lee administration orders raid on public sector labor unions’ offices
Observers say tensions are expected to escalate if the administration continues its hardline interference in the KRWU strike

» Yeongdeungpo police investigators carry a computer hard drive and other various items after conducting a search and seizure of the United Government Employees’ Union office located in Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo neighborhood at dawn, Dec. 1.
Police conducted surprising searches and seizure raids on the offices of the striking Korea Railway Workers’ Union (KRWU) and Korean Government Employees’ Union (KGEU) on Tuesday. On the same day, the Korea Labor Institute (KLI) became the first public institution to implement a lockout. In response, critics are charging that the Lee administration is being excessive in suppressing labor movements made among government workers and in the public sector for reasons such as advancing public corporations.

At 6 a.m. on Tuesday, Seoul’s Yongsan Police Station dispatched some 30 officers to two Yongsan area offices of the KRWU, which is currently on its sixth day of a strike. Computer hard disks and documents were among the materials confiscated from the offices. Police also formed a special division for apprehending the leaders behind the strike and set out to locate 15 executive members of the KRWU for whom arrest warrants have been issued, among them Kim Ki-tae, head of KRWU. Paek Nam-hee, director of the KRWU’s public relations bureau, said, “When the government responds to labor-management issues by mobilizing the authorities and interfering through searches and seizures, it only worsens labor-management issues.”

Korean Rail strike is declared illegal-Gov Raids Union, Arrests Leaders & Brings In Scabs

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/12/02/200912020039.asp

Rail strike is declared illegal

The government yesterday declared a prolonged strike by unionized railway workers illegal, pledging to punish all participants with "zero tolerance."

"We are strongly asking (striking workers) to end their illegal walkout and come back to their workplaces," said a statement issued jointly by related Cabinet ministers.

Seven ministers including Strategy Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun, Labor Minister Yim Tae-hee and Land and Transport Minister Chung Jong-hwan held an emergency meeting early in the morning and discussed how to deal with the strike, which was launched by the Korean Railway Workers' Union on Thursday.

In a separate move to pressure the Korean Railway Workers' Union, the prosecution secured a warrant to arrest 15 of its leaders, including chairman Kim Ki-tae, for charges of interfering with the company's business. Their office in Yongsan, central Seoul, was raided early yesterday.

"The strike is an irresponsible action that disrupts the economic turnaround and causes major financial losses. It is aimed not to demand the improvement of their working conditions but to oppose the government's labor policy, which is not acceptable according to the related labor law," Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun said.

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/390570.html

Lee administration takes heavy-handed response to Korean Railway Workers’ Union strike
Meanwhile, police open KORAIL Union leaders investigation as union members continue to demand restoration of their collective bargaining rights

» The freight trains stop at Euiwang container base in Euiwang City in Gyeonggi Province Nov. 29, the fourth day of the Korean Railway Workers’ Union strike.
The police opened an investigation into the leaders of the Korean Railway Workers’ Union on Sunday, the fourth day of the strike that was launched in response to the unilateral announcement by the Korea Railroad Corporation (KORAIL) regarding the termination of the collective bargaining agreement.

Observers say the Lee administration’s emphasis on a firm response to the Korean Railway Workers’ Union’s strike is only escalating matters.

An official of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office said on the same day, “The police have opened an investigation into 182 union members, including the union’s leaders, in response to charges filed against them by the Korea Railroad Corporation.” The official added, “The police will conduct an investigation in as timely a manner as possible in spite of the fact that the union members have not yet responded to a summons.”

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/11/27/200911270041.asp

Korean Railway workers go on strike Against Government Union Busting Tactic To Destroy Union

RAILWAY STRIKE-Cargo trains remain idle at a station in Euiwang, Gyeonggi Province, yesterday as unionized railway workers went on an indefinite strike. [Ahn Hoon/The Korea Herald]

Unionized railway workers went on an indefinite strike yesterday after they failed to narrow differences with management over issues involving salaries, working conditions and fired employees.

Due to the strike, which the Korea Railway Workers' Union began at 4 a.m., the operation of cargo trains was virtually halted and subway commuters in Seoul were inconvenienced during morning rush hours.

The operation rate of commuter trains in the Seoul metropolitan area was at around 91 percent in the morning, but increased almost to a normal level in the afternoon, officials at the Korea Railroad Corporation said.

The operation rate of cargo trains was at less than 10 percent in the morning. Passenger trains such as the KTX, Saemaeul and Mugunghwa operated as normal.

Of the total 24,000 union members, 5,400 workers, excluding essential staff for railway maintenance, were expected to join the strike, but over 700 refused and came to work, the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said.

CN rejects offer from striking Canadian IBT engineers for partial arbitration

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/cn-strike-sparks-recovery-worries/article1382006/

CN strike sparks recovery worries

CN Rail work stoppage by 1,700 engineers imperils fragile economic momentum and threatens already downtrodden companies with costly shipment delays
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Brent Jang
Published on Sunday, Nov. 29, 2009 7:58PM EST
Last updated on Sunday, Nov. 29, 2009 7:59PM EST
A strike by Canadian National Railway Co. (CNR-T55.640.641.16%)locomotive engineers threatens a nascent recovery in freight shipments.

Canada's largest railway, which is seen as a barometer for the economy because the carrier hauls a wide range of goods, finally began to see signs of a turnaround in November.

But a strike that began Saturday by 1,700 engineers comes at a precarious time for farmers, manufacturers and other corporations dependent on CN to move cargo ranging from grain and chemicals to lumber and consumer products.

While the recession may be over for the broader economy, it continues to be a tough time for many companies, said Jean-Michel Laurin, a vice-president at the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters.