2008 Food Drive is Letter Carrier Blitz Against Hunger
Letter carriers, with help from their sisters and brothers in the other
postal crafts and thousands of other volunteers, will stage a blitz on Saturday, May 10, to combat hunger in America, conducting NALC’s
annual “Stamp Out Hunger” Food Drive in every U.S. state and jurisdiction.
The drive, in its 16th year, is the largest one-day food collection in the nation and the biggest community service effort by any union affiliated with the AFL-CIO.
On the day before Mother’s Day this year, letter carriers will focus their
efforts on restocking the community food banks, pantries and shelters that millions of American families will rely on throughout the summer.
The union settled on the second Saturday of May for the annual drive since food bank donations
tend to wane after the winter holidays. This drop-off is particularly troublesome since the hunger
problem is usually at its most critical during the summer when school breakfast and lunch
programs—often the only source of stable nutrition for millions of children—are suspended.
Randolph Heaster reports in Monday's Kansas City Star
For the second time in seven months, a strike at General Motors Corp.’s Fairfax plant has shut down production as talks reached an impasse over local contract
issues. More than 1,000 first-shift employees began leaving the Kansas City, Kan., plant and posting picket lines Monday morning shortly after a final-notice
strike deadline expired. About 2,700 GM hourly employees are represented by United Auto Workers Local 31. The local and GM are wrangling over how job security and
outsourcing issues agreed upon generally at the national level are going to play out at the local level.
On April 24th, union members and community members fromWichita and south central Kansas turned out in force to celebrate the 20th annual Workers Memorial Day. On
Workers Memorial Day, we join our brothers and sisters around the world to remember our fellow unionists who have lost their lives and been injured on the job.
The event in Wichita was one of hundreds across the country and around the world
In Wichita, we held a dinner to recognize the 46,800 Kansans injured and 85 killed due to job hazards., and many others died due to occupational diseases
The Mother Jones Award was given to Pat Lehman, long-time leader in the IAM.
Senator Donald Betts gave the keynote address. Labor Federation political director put the issue of workplace safety in context.
The annual AFL-CIO Death on the Job report released last week shows just how far we have to go for safer workplaces. On an average day, 16 workers lose their lives
as a result of workplace injuries and disease, and another 11,200 are injured. In Kansas, there are only 15 safety inspectors. It would take 99 years for OSHA
inspectors to inspect each workplace once! [READ MORE--PHOTO GALLERY]
Pet Lehman Accepts Mother Jones Award
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Pat introduces Donald Betts
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Donald Betts speech, Part One
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Donald Betts speech, Part Two
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Jake Lowen
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Channel 12 Reports on Workplace Safety
KWCH-TV, Channel 12, did a feature story on Workers Memorial Day, interviewing Wichita Labor Federation Political Director Jake Lowen.
A massive explosion rips apart a grain elevator and
leaves seven Kansans dead, including Lanny Owen's dad.
"My grandmother called me and said my grandpa was on
his way to pick me up," says Owen. "I asked why and she said that your dad's work blew up."
He was fatherless at 16. The workers killed in the 1998 DeBruce grain elevator
disaster are still memorialized at the plant entrance with crosses, flowers and wreaths. Lanson Owen Sr.'s sister says workplace safety is something
people take for granted until tragedy strikes.
"Just the lives it changes is the biggest thing," says Altina
Piasecki. "You don't want to see anybody get hurt on the job."
That explosion in Haysville ten years ago is a dramatic example of what labor groups
say is a growing problem in Kansas.
"If you go back and read the OSHA report on that incident, it very clearly says
that the DeBruce Corporation was aware of the conditions that led to that ignition, yet they did nothing to stop it," says Jake Lowen of the
Wichita/Hutchinson Labor Federation. MORE
Logsdon Speaks at Washington Rally
Debbie Logsdon, SPEEA Midwest Chair, spoke at an April 18 rally in Washington, D. C.
Labor Leaders from IFPTE and SPEEA gathered at a rally in Washington, D.C. Thursday to ask Members of Congress to reverse a recent Air Force decision to award a $40
billion tanker contract to French-based EADS/AIRBUS.
The Pentagon's decision would in essence ship tens of thousands of U.S. aerospace manufacturing jobs to France and put critical defense technology and manufacturing
know-how into the hands of a foreign nation.
Wichita CWA Joins in International Organizing Campaign
CWA 6402 Secretary-Treasurer Gayle Wilson (left)
Members of CWA Local 6402 in Wichita, KS were a part of a nationwide effort on April 11, 2008 to give T-Mobile workers a voice in the
workplace. CWA partnered with ver.di, the largest Union for T-Mobile workers in Germany on April 3, 2008 to send a message to T-Mobile
management in the US that workers at Deutsche Telekom (parent company of T-Mobile) in Germany and other T-Mobile operations in
Europe who have bargaining rights will fight hard to protect them and to support their US counterparts.
T-Mobile's workers in Germany have higher wages and better benefits and working conditions because they have Union
representation and a contract that they negotiated with management. T-Mobile workers in the US should expect no less - especially since
T-Mobile USA is the fastest growing part of T-Mobile, contributing 41% of total company revenue in 2007.
To fight this inequity between T-Mobile employees in the U.S. and those who work in Europe, the Communications Workers of America has formed a special alliance with Ver.di, the German
telecommunications workers union, to help T-Mobile workers unionize. Interested workers will have the opportunity to join a new group called TU, a union for T-Mobile workers, through which they will be affiliated
with both CWA and Ver.di. Workers will also have the chance to discuss workplace issues, share grievances, and interact with both U.S. and German union members.
T-Mobile non-management workers with questions about how creating a Union at T-Mobile can help create
greater job security, more stability in pay and benefits and give the workers a voice on the job can contact Gayle Wilson by phone at 316 267-2592 or email at gwilson6402@yahoo.com.
Offshoring America's Economic and National Security
March 04, 2008 San Diego AFL-CIO Executive Council statement
At a time when federal policies should be strengthening our
economic and national security, the decision by the Department of Defense to award a $40 billion to $100 billion contract for the construction
of Air Force refueling tankers to the European firm Airbus undermines both these crucial concerns.
The Defense Department accounts for the single largest portion
of the federal budget. These expenditures are supposed to comply with the Buy American provisions of the Defense
authorization bills, and should under no circumstances contribute to offshoring American jobs--especially to firms that are heavily
subsidized by their governments.
Awarding the Air Force refueling tanker contract to Airbus is
an especially egregious violation of these principles because it will lead to the loss of, and failure to create, tens of thousands
of jobs over the next two decades. Adding insult to injury, this contract is being awarded at a time when the U.S. government
has filed a case with the World Trade Organization (WTO) charging unfair trade practices resulting from Airbus’s illegal subsidies.
Votes by Kansas Senators Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback allowed
opportunities for Kansas to fly by when in 2003, in a 50-48 vote, Kan. Sen. Pat Roberts voted to authorize the Department of Defense to seek bids on military
contracts from companies based in foreign countries.
If Roberts and fellow Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback had voted against the amendment, it
would have failed and Boeing would have retained the contract to manufacture the aircraft.Roberts reacted with “disappointment” and “shock”
following Boeing’s lost bid to supply 179 tanker aircraft to the U.S. Air Force in February. Roberts said the lost contract would have “meant up to
3,800 Kansas jobs and $145 million a year economic impact.” Roberts has said the decision “will be at the cost of American jobs and American dollars,
if not our national security.” MORE
Kansas Senate Votes to Punish Unions for Illegal Actions of Employers!
The Kansas Senate adopted an amendment by Senator Karin Brownlee (R-Olathe) to the
immigration reform bill that would put responsibility for controlling illegal immigration on unions and other employee organizations.
Under the amendment any union or employee organization that would “impose or
collect union dues from any alien who is not lawfully present in the United States” would be subject to fines from $2,000 to $10,000. The amendment was
adopted in the wee hours of March 26 on a vote of 19 to 18.
It is important to note that the Senators repeatedly rejected attempts to impose
punishments on employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens. In other words, in Kansas, while employers are free to do whatever they want when hiring, employee
groups will be punished for fraternizing with other employees.
This is a new low for the Kansas Senate. A majority of them are happy to turn a blind
eye to the hiring of illegal aliens and will use immigration reform to bust unions. MORE
SPEEA disappointed tanker decision leaves Boeing out
(SEATTLE, Feb 29) – Disappointment and shock echoed
through the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001, today after the announcement that
EADS/Northrop received the Air Force contract to build the next generation of aerial refueling tankers.
“I am very disappointed for our members and all employees
at The Boeing Company,” said SPEEA President Cynthia Cole. “I’m surprised the Air Force chose an unproven technology and
an inferior product for this important program that supports the men and women in our armed forces.”
“WITH EVERY CONTRACT WE SEND OVERSEAS, WE LOSE OUR CAPACITY TO BUILD FOR OUR OWN MILITARY”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Pentagon announced on Friday that Boeing would not be awarded a $40 billion Air Force contract to
produce the next generation of tanker aircraft. Congresswoman Nancy Boyda (Kansas Second District) called the decision to have
179 tankers built by EADS, the European Aerospace conglomerate and Northrop Grumman, “an outrage”.
The recent decision to award the tanker refueling aircraft
contract to France is nothing short of betrayal by the so-called United States Air Force officers who made this decision.
It is betrayal of the US taxpayers who will spend more than
100 Billion of their hard earned tax dollars for a foreign built aircraft, it is betrayal of the 44,000 plus US workers and taxpayers who would have been employed
for the next 30 to 50 years building, improving, making modifications, supplying the spare parts, and maintaining the tanker, it is betrayal most of all of the men
and women who lay their lives on the line by serving in the US military when we fail to supply them with the best in equipment.
Sen. Roger Reitz, R-Manhattan, has introduced a bill to increase
the Kansas minimum wage to match the federal wage. But the bill is being bottled up in the Senate Commerce committee.
Please send emails to the Commerce Committee, your State
Senator and Representative urging them to support an increase in the minimum wage. Under Reitz's proposal, the state's wage
would increase to $7.25 an hour in 2009, after the federal rate hits that mark. The current state minimum wage is $2.65 hour
and can be considered nothing but an insult to all Kansas workers. The current state minimum wage was set in 1988 and has not been raised in 20 years.
The Kansas minimum wage of $2.65 an hour is disgracefully low and should be raised to match the
national level. According to the Department of Labor, there are now at least 27,000 Kansas
workers who are covered by the absurdly low Kansas minimum wage rather than by the federal minimum.
A job should keep you out of poverty, not in poverty. It is time, at long last, for the Kansas
legislature to act.
"This issue has profound negative social implications and Kansas is better than that," Reitz said.
"The time has come to make a statement of fairness to all of our workforce."
Sign a petition to support a national skills initiative that: * Re-emphases technical and vocational classes in America's high schools;
* Expands the availability of industrial technology and information technology courses in America's community colleges;
* Creates High Tech Institutes in each state that focus on 21st Century manufacturing technologies and materials: and
* Provides a pathway for all Americans to readily upgrade their skills to remain competitive throughout their working lives.
SEIU HAPPY WITH NEW CONTRACT AT THE CITY OF WICHITA
The Wichita City Council
ratified a new two-year labor agreement with Service Employees Local 513 at their meeting, Tuesday, December 4. Members of SEIU had ratified the contract a
week earlier by a better than four to one margin. The new agreement replaces a three year contract set to expire December 14.
“Members are very happy with this Agreement,” said Harold Schlechtweg, SEIU Local 513 Business
Representative. “We get a 4% pay adjustment at the beginning of 2008, and a second 4% at the beginning of 2009,” he said. In addition, most
bargaining unit employees will also receive a 2.5% “step” increase on the anniversary date of hire or promotion.
The new two-year agreement also includes improved health insurance language, increases in shift differential and stand-by (on call) pay, and an increased annual allowance for safety shoes. “The agreement also eliminates restrictions on the use of sick leave for dependent illness,” Schlechtweg said. “This will assist single parents who have to stay home with sick kids or take them to the doctor.”
In related news, George Kolb, City Manager at the City of Wichita announced he was
resigning from his position with the City because of “philosophical” differences with the City Council. During his tenure at the City, Kolb had
sought to privatize (outsource) City facilities and services, including Century II and Fleet Maintenance. SEIU Local 513 fought these efforts, and defeated
them with the help of the Wichita Hutchinson Labor Federation.
“We want to
especially than the Wichita Hutchinson Labor Federation, its member organizations, and area Union members for the tremendous support they have given to City
employees,” Schlechtweg said.
Researchers Say Kansas Minimum Wage Increase Could Be Positive for Businesses, Workers
and Communities
Letter carriers, with help from their sisters and brothers in the other
postal crafts and thousands of other volunteers, will stage a blitz on Saturday, May 10, to combat hunger in America, conducting NALC’s
annual “Stamp Out Hunger” Food Drive in every U.S. state and jurisdiction. 
The Mother Jones Award was given to Pat Lehman, long-time leader in the IAM.
Senator Donald Betts gave the keynote address. Labor Federation political director put the issue of workplace safety in context.
WASHINGTON, D.C. –
