—ON THE PICKET LINE—

Maggie Trowe, Editor

 

Saskatoon bus drivers fight for compensation in illegal lockout

CALGARY, Alberta — Public transit bus drivers in Saskatoon are still without a contract and are fighting for compensation for wages lost during a monthlong illegal lockout that ended Oct. 17.

“We’re going to remain strong and hopefully we can make headway,” transit operator Daryll Strugnell said by phone May 3.

Some 330 members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 615 were locked out in a conflict over wages and pensions. The Saskatchewan Labour Board declared the lockout illegal, but ruled in favor of the city government’s unilateral move to downgrade the pension plan.

“Maybe the city’s trying to drag it out until we back down,” Local 615 President Jim Yakubowski told the Militant by phone May 3, “but we’re not going to.”

—Katy LeRougetel

NetJets pilots, flight attendants protest concession demands

OMAHA, Neb. — NetJets Aviation pilots, flight attendants and other company employees fighting the bosses’ concession demands picketed the annual shareholders meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, NetJets’ parent company, here May 2.

The demonstration of several hundred was organized by the NetJets Union Coalition, composed of the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots and the Teamsters union, representing some 4,000 unionized NetJets workers. NetJets provides charter aviation services.

The pilots union has been in contract negotiations for two years with NetJets, and the Teamsters flight attendants for more than four years. The Teamsters also represent mechanics, dispatchers, stock clerks and other ground workers.

“We organized our informational picket in Omaha for the same reason the miners did in 2013,” pilots union President Pedro Leroux told the Militant, referring to a protest by United Mine Workers-organized coal miners from Deer Creek Mine in Utah. MidAmerican Energy, the mine owner, is a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary.

“Like with the miners, our health care, our pay and safety are all under attack,” Leroux said. “If we accepted their contract proposals we would be working more hours for less money and paying more for health care.” The company wants to raise the maximum hours pilots can work, he said. “As it stands now they can be forced to work up to 98 hours a week, and that doesn’t allow enough time off for rest as it is.”

“We have no anti-union [sentiment] whatsoever,” Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett said during the shareholders meeting, reported the Omaha World Herald, which he owns.

— Jacquie Henderson

London refuse truck drivers strike against cuts in wages, safety

LONDON — More than 100 refuse truck drivers here, employed by the borough of Barking and Dagenham, are fighting the Labour-controlled council’s decision to cut their wages by £1,000 ($1,500) a year, leading to cuts in safety for drivers and those on the road.

The council voted to reduce the 30-minute safety check before the start of the regular workday to 15 minutes. This would cut in half the overtime pay drivers receive for this daily check.

“Cutting back on safety can have lethal consequences,” a striker who did not want to give his name said on the May 7 picket line at the Frizlands Lane Depot. The council says cutting the overtime would not compromise safety because drivers could find time when they’re on the job to finish the checks.

The drivers, members of the GMB public workers trade union, held three days of protest strikes in March and four days in April. Their next strike is scheduled to last for 13 days starting May 13.

The council’s corporate communications manager Von Edomi told the Militant May 11 that the change was one of many wage cuts across a number of departments. “In the past four years the council has had to make savings of £90 million and the same proposals have affected library staff,” he said. He claimed this is not an anti-union attack, because “over 70 percent of the workforce are members of trade unions.”

Many residents in the area support the drivers. “You have to be sympathetic,” said Robert Fox, a soccer coach, “even though you’re not happy with the rubbish piling up.”

“More people should be standing up for themselves,” said Sharon Lee, a hospital cleaner and Unison trade union member.

One local resident, who would not give his name, opposed the strikers. “They should all be sacked,” he said.

Talks are currently being held under the auspices of the government’s Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service.

—Jonathan Silberman

Tufts students support janitors’ fight against layoffs

SOMERVILLE, Mass. — Five Tufts University students began a hunger strike May 3 backing the fight against the layoffs of 35 campus janitors.

Tufts announced the janitors will be laid off at the end of May. Some 200 janitors, members of Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, clean the buildings and dormitories on campus.

“We are standing in solidarity with the janitors,” said Alison Sikowitz, a student supporter of the hunger strike, which is being organized by the Tufts Labor Coalition. “They will have to do the same amount of work with less people.”

The strikers have set up tents in the middle of campus. Each night 20 to 40 student supporters stay there with the hunger strikers. Other supporters join the hunger strike a day at a time.

Campus police placed a metal fence around the tents and refuse entry to anyone who doesn’t have a Tufts University ID. Students say the police told them they set up the fence “to keep them safe.”

Ten janitors carrying signs demanding “Respect” visited the tent site May 5. Students came out of the penned-in area and warmly embraced them.

Tufts Executive Vice President Patricia Campbell and Vice President of Operations Linda Snyder in an April 27 opinion piece in the Tufts Daily claimed they are laying off the janitors “to control tuition costs and offer the financial aid that allows us to admit outstanding students from all socioeconomic backgrounds.”

“It’s ridiculous,” Arismer Angeles, one of the student hunger strikers, told the Militant. “The school president’s salary is about the same as the amount of money they are trying to save with the firing of the janitors.”

—Ted Leonard