Oakland IBT Charges Port Companies With Setting Up Company Unions: Port firms breaking city's wage law
http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_6212638

Teamsters: Port firms breaking city's wage law

Union files lawsuit against three companies, alleging violation of Oakland ordinance
By Paul T. Rosynsky, STAFF WRITER
Article Last Updated: 06/23/2007 02:49:45 AM PDT

OAKLAND — Three companies with operations at the Port of Oakland are in violation of the city's living wage law and should immediately raise employees' hourly wage, according to a lawsuit filed by Teamsters Local 70.
The companies — GSC Logistics, Duluth Services and Aerotek — either operate or provide employees to distribution centers near the docks. The suit was filed on behalf of all employees of the companies who have worked at a facility in the Port of Oakland during the past three years.
"They don't want to pay their employees a living wage, so they just didn't pay it," said Chuck Mack, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 70. "This is a direct violation of the ordinance."
The city's living wage ordinance was expanded by city voters in 2002 to cover operations at the Port of Oakland. The law sets hourly wage requirements for companies with more than 20 employees according to whether they provide health insurance. The wage increases each year and now requires companies to pay $10.39 per hour if benefits are offered or $11.95 per hour without benefits.

http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/1473

A union Defeated at United Air Lines
— Malik Miah and Terry O'Rourke
THE APRIL 1 certification of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) was no April Fool’s joke for the 8600 eligible mechanic and related United Airlines (UAL) employees who voted in the March 31 representational election. The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA), which served the members for nearly five years under very difficult circumstances in the aviation industry, lost the vote by 4,113 to 2,631.
Many of us were surprised by the 75% participation of eligible voters (which included laid-off employees, some over six years) and the IBT’s three-to-two margin of victory. The IBT is known for corruption and a lack of internal democracy. Its leaders arrogantly stated that it supported secrecy in its dealing with UAL and called AMFA’s open negotiations with member observers a “circus.”
Many members, even supporters of the IBT in San Francisco, have praised AMFA’s communications. Their main charge was that AMFA did not have the resources to fight outsourcing and take on the company, pointing in particular to how AMFA failed to win the strike at Northwest Airlines in 2005-06. They also blamed AMFA for not defending the defined benefit pension plans lost during bankruptcy in 2005.

Delta flight attendants accuse management of suppressing union voters

http://www.reuters.com/article/blogBurst/investing?type=hotStocksNews&w1=B7ovpm21IaDoL40ZFnNfGe&w2=B7pJeHult9GszE37UXlSpmUm&src=blogBurst_investingNews&bbPostId=Cz4pcoaX1j6FbAMIDBuOwMUSCz2WXdgnjR4I4BEdQ8oJSU1CC&bbParentWidgetId=B7gSUbux1hpbz8uOa7TWsLnV
Delta flight attendants accuse management of suppressing union voters
POSTED: Thursday, May 01, 2008
FROM BLOG: Cabin Crew News - News for and about flight attendants, by Bobbie Sullivan, PhD

The following blog post is from an independent writer and is not connected with Reuters News. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by Reuters.com.

Flight attendants at Delta Air Lines voted earlier this year to unionize. A majority of Delta flight attendants already have submitted signature cards to the National Mediation Board (NMB), indicating that they wanted to be represented by a formal collective bargaining unit, even though Delta management has openly opposed the move toward flight attendant unionization.

Last week, Delta flight attendants began the next phase, casting their votes to decide whether the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) will be certified as their collective bargaining representative. The voting process, carried out under the supervision of the NMB, will continue until May 28, 2008. According to the rules, a majority of the entire flight attendant workforce must cast a vote in order for the election to be valid. Anything less than this majority turnout will void the election entirely, even if the union gets a clear majority of the votes cast.

http://labornotes.org/node/1637

Members Drive Flight Attendant Organizing at Delta

— Joshua DeVries

Flight attendants deliver union cards requesting a representation election at Delta Airlines to the National Mediation Board. Voting runs through May 28. Photo: AFA.
Flight attendants at Delta Airlines are pushing to join the ranks of unionized cabin crews. With almost all major airlines organized for decades, only Atlanta-based Delta has held out. Now a growing number of flight attendants there—aided by a huge team of Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) member-organizers from other airlines—have decided their time has come.

Because of the likely merger with Northwest, one of the hottest issues is seniority. In airlines, seniority has an effect far beyond wages and vacations, even more than in most industries. It determines whether a flight attendant flies once a day with a 28-hour layover in Rome or six flights per day that pay half as many hours, with a nine-hour layover somewhere less pleasant.

Delta flight attendant Toni Weinfurtner in San Diego says, “We need a voice more so than at any other time, to be able to negotiate for our own future and to have a say in how a merger or a layoff might affect us.”

1,200 union members marched along the Embarcadero Saturday December 9 to Pier 33 to demand Hornblower rehire the fired union workers on the Alcatraz Ferry. Local 10 called a stopwork meeting in solidarity with our sister local IBU and the MMP whose members are fighting for their jobs on the ferry run. The ports of San Francisco and Oakland were shutdown as we held a brief memorial at our Bloody Thursday sidewalk mural to the labor martyrs who were killed by police in the Big Strike of '34. Once again we are faced with an aggressive nonunion waterfront employer. We were marching to keep our waterfront solidly union, so that these brothers did not die in vain.

Nearly 200 Local 10 longshore workers, As, B's and casuals, began our march along the Embarcadero led by Josh Williams and the Drill Team, We were joined by another group of 1,000 workers who had marched to Pier 33 from Harry Bridges Plaza. All maritime unions were represented and nearly 50 unions in all participated in the mass rally.

Despite the weather forecast for rain the spirit of the trade unionists was not dampened. They heard speeches from rank-and-file activists and officers of ILWU locals 10, 34, IBU, and 6 as well as Art Pulaski, head of the California AFL-CIO, and Chuck Mack, International Vice President of the Teamsters. News media, TV, newspapers and radio, covered this watershed labor event.

Whereas, the ILWU has been attempting to organize Blue Diamond Almond Workers for 2 years, and

Whereas, almonds are the largest export in the port of Oakland totaling some $1.4 billion dollars, and

Whereas, 70% of California almonds are shipped overseas with Pacific Rim nations receiving much of that cargo, and

Whereas, the owners have been using massive anti-union tactics like firing, intimidating workers, and threatening the loss of benefits, and

Whereas even the Bush-controlled NLRB has found Blue Diamond in violation of labor laws and those violations are arrogantly practiced today without penalty,

Therefore be it resolved that the Blue Diamond Almond workers will only get their just demand for a union of their choice by solidarity actions, and

Therefore Be It Finally Resolved that this international conference of transport workers goes on record calling for concrete acts of solidarity to achieve a union victory.