The 90-minute strike was part of a nationwide action by 2,800 members of the Service and Food Workers Union (SFWU) employed in public hospitals. Currently more than 40 separate agreements exist between the union and contracting companies or the District Health Boards that run the hospitals. Many workers make around the minimum wage of NZ $10.25 (NZ $1=U.S. 70 cents).

SFWU delegate (shop steward) Wayne Johnson told the Militant the employers are refusing to discuss the union’s demand for a Multi-Employer Collective Agreement (MECA). “We are trying to get common conditions throughout the country for orderlies, kitchen workers, and cleaners,” he said.

Around 150 workers protested at the central Auckland hospital. Union delegate Sarah Williams said, “More people have been joining the union as a result of this campaign. We need a MECA to help us win better pay and conditions. We should have a nine-hour break between shifts and extra pay for overtime and weekend work.”

—Mike Tucker  
 
Arbitrator imposes pact
on New York transit workers
Eleven months after New York transit workers narrowly rejected a contract with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), an arbitrator imposed a virtually identical pact upon the 34,000-member Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 December 15. Under the 37-month agreement, workers must pay for health insurance for the first time ever. The contract also includes yearly wage increases and $132 million in pension refunds to workers for previous overpayments.

The unionists conducted a three-day strike in December 2005 against MTA’s concessionary demands. In April 2006, TWU members approved the pact they had rejected three months earlier, but the MTA refused to recognize the vote. It demanded instead that binding arbitration settle the contract dispute.

—Brian Williams  
 
Steelworkers end strike against
Goodyear Tire with new contract
Steelworkers at 16 Goodyear Tire plants in the United States and Canada ended their three-month strike December 29. A three-year agreement, approved by a 2-to-1 margin, will cover 14,000 members of the United Steelworkers union at 12 plants in 10 states. The pact creates a $1 billion health-care fund for retirees, higher than the company's previous $660 million offer. It also stipulates the closing of the company's factory in Tyler, Texas, by the end of 2007. Unionists at Goodyear's plants in Canada approved separate contracts for each of four locations in Ontario.

—Brian Williams  
 
Unionists in Sweden rally against
unemployment benefit cuts
STOCKHOLM, Sweden—More than 40,000 people participated in rallies and demonstrations nationwide December 14 protesting cuts in unemployment benefits. The national trade union federation, LO, called the actions in 24 places. The largest was in Stockholm, where a midday rally drew 12,000 people, and a late afternoon march, 5,000. In both Gothenburg and Malmö, 5,000 rallied.

Among those joining the action in Stockholm were members of the Print Workers Union, Municipal Workers Union, and Construction Workers Union. The featured speaker was LO national chairperson Wanja Lundby-Wedin. She handed Labor Minister Sven Littorin petitions with 250,000 signatures protesting the cuts. He politely accepted the petitions but said that “chances that we withdraw the proposal are zero.”

—Anita Östling  
 
 
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