Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

Ground Workers at Continental Airlines Vote to Join Teamsters
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/business/13union.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1266084107-CkCVDH8A/yjWcf5zFrslhA

Ground Workers at Continental Airlines Vote to Join Teamsters
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Published: February 12, 2010
DALLAS (AP) — Ground workers at Continental Airlines voted to unionize in the Teamsters, airline and union officials said Friday.

The Continental fleet service employees were among the largest groups of nonunion workers in the industry, according to labor officials.

“This is a big victory,” said James Hoffa, the president of the Teamsters. “It proves there are people to organize out there.”

Mr. Hoffa said the union won by generating excitement with big rallies at Continental’s hubs in Cleveland, Houston and Newark, and by reaching into the airline’s smaller bases where previous organizing campaigns had failed.

The Teamsters will represent a group that includes baggage handlers and cargo agents in bargaining with Continental over wages and other contract terms. The union already represents mechanics at the airline.

Continental’s senior vice president of labor relations, Mike Bonds, said, “We respect the choice our co-workers have made.” He promised that the airline would focus on working together.

Teamsters face deadline for organizing Continental ramp workers

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/sixel/6814697.html

Teamsters face deadline for organizing ramp workers
By L.M. SIXEL Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Jan. 13, 2010, 10:14PM
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The clock is ticking.
The Teamsters have less than a month to pull off what they hope is a successful bid to organize 8,000 Continental Airlines baggage handlers and cargo workers — including 2,800 in the Houston area.
On Feb. 8, a few minutes after 1 p.m., the union will know whether its massive investment in time and resources succeeded where other unions have tried and failed.
That's because it's not just a typical workplace election that lasts a day or two at the plant and the side that gets the most votes wins.
The federal Railway Labor Act, the 1926 legislation that governs transportation workers, requires a union to obtain a majority of votes of all the eligible voters in the bargaining unit. If someone doesn't vote, it's a no vote.
The union is in a five-week period that began Jan. 4 during which it may try to persuade eligible workers — including furloughed workers with recall rights — to vote either by phone or online. It has launched an all-out nationwide door-knocking effort to make sure everyone who is eligible has received a voter number and personal identification number by mail.

Don't Let Georgia Tech Bust Teamster Bus Drivers

http://www.labornotes.org/2010/01/dont-let-georgia-tech-bust-teamsters

Don't Let Georgia Tech Bust Teamster Bus Drivers
By Evan Rohar| January 8, 2010

Forty bus drivers at Georgia Tech received an early gift for the holidays on December 18 when they learned they would no longer have jobs after the New Year. Ho-ho-ho.

The drivers became the first Georgia Tech workers to belong to a union when they voted to join Teamsters Local 728 in March 2008.

The trouble began when Georgia Tech decided to hire a different contractor to run its transportation services. The school chose Groome Transportation, a notorious bottom-feeder operation.

The previous company, First Transit, had signed a nationwide neutrality agreement after pressure from the Teamsters International, including a visit by rank and filers to a shareholders meeting in Britain. Local 728 subsequently won all seven of its bids to organize school and transit bus drivers at First Transit in Georgia, including the Georgia Tech election.

When the Teamster drivers applied to Groome, the company refused even to interview them and later snubbed union reps requesting meetings to talk about the situation.

Aviation and the South: Advantage Dixie
http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15213323

Aviation and the South
Advantage Dixie
Jan 7th 2010 | COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA

After carmakers, weak unions are attracting the aircraft business

Getty Images

The strikebreaker
IN 1983 Nissan became the first foreign carmaker in America’s South when it opened an assembly plant in Smyrna, Tennessee. Other Asian and European automakers soon arrived, bypassing Detroit for Dixie and building factories in Kentucky (Toyota), Alabama (Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and Hyundai), Mississippi (Nissan), Texas (Toyota again) and South Carolina (BMW). A common attraction in each of the states was the anti-trade-union climate.

Now the aircraft industry is following suit. Late last autumn Boeing announced it would build a second assembly line (the first is in the Seattle suburb of Everett, Washington) for its 787 Dreamliner jet in North Charleston, outside the lovely old city of Charleston. The company chose to put its $750m factory in South Carolina because it was determined to distance itself from a fractious labour union in Everett. Machinists there went on a 57-day walkout in 2008 that cost the company more than $2 billion and led some airlines to switch their orders to Europe’s Airbus.

San Diego cabbie strike likely to grow
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/dec/20/about-150-cabbies-go-on-strike/

San Diego cabbie strike likely to grow
BY DEBBI BAKER, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
LESLIE BERESTEIN, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED DECEMBER 20, 2009 AT 2:21 P.M., UPDATED DECEMBER 21, 2009 AT 7:43 A.M.

Taxi cabs line up at Lindbergh Airport.

More San Diego taxi drivers are expected to go on strike Monday, joining striking Yellow Cab drivers who say they took at least 150 cabs out of circulation over the weekend.

Although drivers say it’s possible that 350 taxis could be out of service during the busy holiday week, the president of Yellow Radio Service put the number of cabs out of service this weekend at 30 or fewer.

“We have not missed a call or a customer,” said Anthony Palmeri, whose company handles dispatching and management services for the Yellow Cab owners.

Nearly 1,000 taxis have permits to operate in San Diego, and harbor police said yesterday that the strike by Yellow Cab drivers had not appeared to affect Lindbergh Field.

At a meeting of Yellow Cab drivers in City Heights Sunday night, a spokesman for the local taxi drivers association said about 400 drivers from other companies were expected to join the strike Monday. That could take about 200 cabs out of service because taxis that are not driver-owned are typically shared by two contracted drivers, each working a 12-hour shift.

Video Stop Chicago Transit Authority CTA Service Cuts
Stop CTA Service Cuts

To watch this on YouTube, click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmrkTmh_cXI

A rally against mass transit service cuts in Chicago took place on Dec. 9, 2009. Carlos Acevedo, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241, told a large protest crowd in front of CTA headquarters: "It seems the riding public gets numb to it because it seems not to happen, they get bailed out every year, but these cuts are real. You will be affected by them. It's a different style of service cuts they are making, that will make you stand on the corner for a long, long time. They are going to eliminate buses on each route. They can avert this. We need a real solution for mass transit, to demand proper funding for mass transit." Heather Benno, NoCTACuts.org, added: "This is a cause of justice. They say that they're going to lay us off and cut our services. They say that there is nothing we can do. But by being here in the streets, we are fighting back." Robert Kelly, President ATU Local 308, told the crowd of union and community activists: "Reducing services in this city, laying people off is a tragedy. We need to keep these jobs. We need the public involved."

Argentine Gov't declares subways 'Essential Public Service' To Thwart Strike Action

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/BreakingNews/View/16897

24 hour strike to begin tomorrow
Gov't declares subways 'Essential Public Service'

The national government classified the subway as an Essential Public Service and required the company Metrovías to guarantee a minimum of service tomorrow, during the 24 hour strike decided upon by a group of delegates.

The decision was made by the Labour and Federal Planning ministers and the measure is to be implemented between tonight at 11 p.m. and all day tomorrow, and this minimum service would have to be approved by the National Transport Regulation Commission (CNRT).

In the meantime, spokespersons of the Labour Ministry said that all parts have once again been called to find a solution to the conflict.

On the other hand, Metrovías informed that it will dispose of "all the necessary means in order to guarantee a free service under an emergency schedule."

Buenos Aries Subway workers announce they will not extend the strike

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/BreakingNews/View/16946

They said the situation "is on the hands of" the Labour Minister
Subway workers announce they will not extend the strike

Subway workers announced they will not extend the subway and tram strike that started in the morning. Metrovías employees are demanding that the government grant their union a legal status to let them splinter from the UTA transport workers' union.

After a two-hour meeting, the subway delegates confirmed that the current strike will last until 5am tomorrow. Nevertheless, they warned there might be 48-hour strike next week if the Labour Ministry does not summon them to solve the problem.

Néstor Segovia, a prominent leader of subway workers, said that the situation "is now on the hands of" the Labour Minister Carlos Tomada.

The 24-hour subway and tram strike started this morning in Buenos Aires City, buses and taxis were full as all subway services were cancelled.

Some clashes were reported on Line B, between workers and the police, in the Federico Lacroze station. Some trains of the latter line were found vandalized, with- the seats broken. Metrovías accused the strikers of causing those damages in order to prevent the company from maintaining an emergency service.

U.S. agency proposes change for airline union votes on majority approval of people who vote

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE5A208Q20091103?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

U.S. agency proposes change for airline union votes
Mon Nov 2, 2009 8:51pm EST
ATLANTA (Reuters) - The U.S. National Mediation Board has proposed a sweeping rule change that would base the outcome of union elections at airlines and rail companies on the majority approval of people who vote, a move that could increase the odds of unions winning such contests.

The proposal, if implemented, would change current procedures dating back 75 years that require a majority of an entire work group to approve unionization. That policy effectively counts members of a group who don't vote as 'no' votes.

"It's a good turn for unions because it makes the election process fairer and it resembles more closely national political elections," said Gary Chaison, professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.

In its proposal, posted to a government website on Monday, the mediation board said the current procedure under the Railway Labor Act seems "at odds" with basic tenets of democratic elections.

SeaTV. Television for and made by seafarers

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Consult the updated database by using this link.

Seafarers have their own Television Station
SeaTV is television about seafaring. The programs are about aspects of the life of seafarers such as the need for legal assistance, health, family life, technology, art, entertainment, recreation and spiritual matters.

SeaTV can be watched on board. Free DVD-discs are available (soon) at seafarers centres in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Durban, London, New York, Rotterdam, Singapore and many other stations.

SeaTV can also be watched at the download section of this website. At our youtube channel even more movieclips can be found.

The SeaTV-DVD's also contain a port database. It gives access to information like the adresses of many seamen's centres in the world. The database can also be downloadedfrom this website.

SeaTV is partly made by seafarers themselves. Everybody working at sea can join the SeaTV-team and even earn some money. Click at the participate button to find out how!

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