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SEATTLE - Members of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Local Lodge 2202 organized a rally at Seattle-Tacoma Airport here April 26 to protest the suspensions of eight IAM members by Alaska Airlines. Alaska claims the eight were involved in an illegal sick-out April 16. On that day, 28 Alaska flights were canceled; the airline claims more than 330 employees had called in sick. The suspended unionists were from Seattle, Las Vegas, Portland, and San Diego.
In San Diego, customer service agent Andre Thomas was suspended. He explained, "I was sitting home April 16, my scheduled day off, when it was reported on the news that there were problems with Alaska flights that day. I called the break room and spoke to one of my co-workers. I asked if she had heard anything about the problems. She said those working at the station had heard this on the news, but everyone scheduled to work that day was there. A few hours later, I received a phone call from my supervisor informing me that I was to be suspended for attempting to organize an illegal sick-out. A few days later they suspended my shop steward, Linda Grissom, when she objected in a company hearing to my suspension. We are the proof that all of these suspensions are not about an alleged sick-out. This is all about our contract and trying to scare and intimidate all of us into not standing up to Alaska Airlines."
Of the more than 100 workers at the rally, five of the eight suspended workers participated. In addition, approximately a dozen members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) came to show their support for the suspended workers. AMFA represents mechanics at Alaska Airlines and is also in contract negotiations.
During the week of May 3, Alaska management fired six union members, five of whom had been originally suspended, and one additional customer service agent from Reno, Nevada. Workers have responded to these firings by organizing protest petitions and by collecting food and money.
Currently there are two contracts being negotiated by the IAM. One contract covering approximately 1,000 ramp and stores employees is 21 months past its amendable date. The other IAM contract covers 3,200 customer service and reservation agents. Those negotiations have been going on for four months. Most workers under these contracts are paid 30 to 50 percent below the average in the industry. The contract covering mechanics also became amendable in September of 1997 while mechanics were members of the IAM. AMFA began negotiations in the fall of 1998 with Alaska management. Just as the media coverage about the alleged sick-out, suspensions, and firings was fading, Alaska Airlines accused mechanics of being involved in an illegal work slowdown. Alaska filed a lawsuit in Seattle May 6 in U.S. District Court, naming as defendants AMFA, its national director O.V. Delle-Femine, and 200 unidentified mechanics. In statements to the press, AMFA denied any job action was occurring. Alaska management has threatened to dismiss mechanics whom they claim are involved in this alleged slowdown.
Child-care workers walk out in British Columbia
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Some 10,000 child-care
workers walked out across this province May 12, after two
months of rotating job actions. They are protesting the
employers' refusal to provide wage parity with health-care
workers and include child-care workers in wage and benefit
increases. More than 200 picketers shut down Henry Hudson
School May 6, where child-care services are organized. "We
have the support of the B.C. Teachers Federation," said
Stephen Leblanc, a representative of the B.C. Government
Employees Union (BCGEU).
Four unions are involved in the strike - the BCGEU, Canadian Union of Public Workers (CUPE), Health Science Association (HSA), and Hospital Employees Union (HEU). Eighty- five percent of the strikers are women. Their action has affected more than 200 agencies across the province that organize day care, preschools, homes for battered women, services for juvenile delinquents, programs for the mentally and physically disabled, and infant development programs. Many workers in the social service sector are Can$4 to Can$8 an hour behind the health care sector (Can$1=US$0.68).
"Many workers in the social service sector are casuals and part-time and receive little or no benefits," noted Kristen Charlebois, a striker who is co-chair on child care for the BCGEU.
Health and education workers rally in Quebec
MONTREAL - Twelve thousand health and education workers
from across Quebec, members of the Confederation of National
Trade Unions (CSN), demonstrated at the parliament buildings
in Quebec City May 8. The unionists, whose contract expired in
June 1998, are demanding an 11.5 percent wage increase over
three years, job security, and improvements in benefits such
as a fifth vacation week for those with 20 years' seniority.
At the same time, they were protesting job cuts in auxiliary
services and subcontracting. Alain Blais, a maintenance
mechanic at the Verdun Hospital, explained, "We're here today
because we've had enough of the government using the excuse of
the deficit to cut our working conditions. It's time we had
our share of the pie."
The demonstration was in support of national contract demands made in June 1998. In February 1999 the Quebec government proposed that many clauses be negotiated locally and that there be a 5 percent increase. This was rejected by the CSN. There have been no negotiations since then.
A series of actions have been organized by these workers in the health and education sector, 80 percent of whom are women. More than half of the jobs are either part-time, temporary, or on-call. One hundred nurses aides camped out in front of the Quebec Hospital Association April 29 to demand an end to the job cuts and that practical experience programs be maintained in the hospitals and the local clinics. On May 3 in Abitibi, in the north of Quebec, 3,000 people demonstrated against the lack of doctors in their region. Since 1994, the number of nurses aides has been cut by 13.6 percent, the number of nurses by 2 percent, and the number of orderlies by 4 percent.
The Quebec budget of February 1995 made massive cuts in health care, including the closure of nine hospitals in the Montreal region. Can$2.6 billion was cut from education spending. The protests that have taken place are central to defending the health and education system won through massive struggles against the oppression of the Quebecois that were waged from the 1950s through to the 1970s.
Striking Sun Oil workers rally in Puerto Rico
YABUCOA, Puerto Rico - About 100 striking oil workers and
their supporters attended a May 7 rally in front of the Sun
Oil refinery here. The strikers are members of the Teamsters
Union and have been walking the picket line for 80 days.
Teamsters are picketing two entrances to the plant and one at the tank farm across the street. Control panel operators William Charriez, with 26 years in the plant, and Jesus Vega, with 17 years, explained their fight. In February, when the old contract expired, the company cut workers' wages by $2 per hour. Under the old contract the workers had been paying 8 percent of the costs of the health plan; the company raised this to 25 percent. Both Charriez and Vega saw their pay go from $17.21 per hour to $15.21. In Pennsylvania, workers doing the same work make over $20 per hour. Managers received a four percent raise.
This is the first strike by the union, which was organized in 1988, workers said. The union has 117 members. Seven or eight other workers are members of the bargaining unit, but are not members of the union. None of these people are crossing the picket line. The plant is being operated by 50 managers, 30 engineers, and 40 workers employed on a long-term basis by a contractor.
Eric Ortiz, a member of the negotiating committee, described an incident during the strike where naphtha, a volatile solvent, spilled onto the ground for four hours. Strikers assisted the police in closing the main highway from Yabucoa to San Juan, which passes in front of the plant. As of now, the contaminated soil has not been cleaned up, workers said.
"The abuses of Sun are not only the reduction in salary but environmental contamination," said Alberto Malavé, a leader of a local environmental group who spoke at the rally.
Mark Severs, a member of IAM Local 2202 in Seattle; Ned Dmytryshyn, a member of IAM Local 11 in Delta, British Columbia; Elssa Martinez, a member of the Communication, Energy and Paperworkers, and André Desgagne's, a member of the CSN, in Montreal; and Ron Richards in San Juan, Puerto Rico, contributed to this column.