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Greetings,
Speaking at the 2006 IAM National Staff Conference, Gov. Sebelius also discussed the deepening impact of health care cutbacks and the president’s prescription drug program. “This plan was given to insurance companies and drug companies to write and in my wildest imagination, I could not have constructed a worse idea,” said Sebelius, a former insurance commissioner. Sebelius called for a national health care policy, “not on the backs of Machinists or Autoworkers and others, but across America.” The Kansas Governor pledged to support her state’s aircraft and aerospace companies that commit to keeping jobs in Kansas. “We’re willing to put some skin in the game, but it comes with responsibilities and accountability from management,” said Sebelius. “They can’t take our money and send our jobs overseas. That just doesn’t work anymore.” Candidates Meet Union Folks
Robert Beattie is running for Secretary of State. He is a college professor and lawyer, famous for writing Nightmare in Wichita: The Hunt for the BTK Strangler. Beattie worked in the aircraft plants after high school and was an IAM member. Later he was an EMT and member of the firefighters union. Beattie has been a Kansas Workbeat reader and subscriber from the beginning. Look for a photo gallery and a further report next week. Postal Worker Bingo
Wal-mart Could Afford Higher Pay and Keep Big ProfitsA study released recently by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) asserts that Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, can offer better wages to its employees while keeping profit margins nearly 50 percent greater than key competitors. The report also disproves a 2005 Wal-Mart-commissioned study which claimed that American consumers have saved $263 billion because of expansion by Wal-Mart. Economists Jared Bernstein and L. Josh Bivens assess the competing claims about Wal-Mart’s impact on prices and wages in The Wal-Mart Debate: A False Choice Between Prices and Wages. The most important revelation in the new report is the inaccuracy of the claim that Wal-Mart’s expansion saved consumers $263 billion. Wal-Mart commissioned a study by the consulting firm Global Insight (GI), which found that Wal-Mart had whopping positive impacts on the economy. The Wal-Mart Debate reviews research that reveals the two top-line findings of the GI report are incorrect and the GI research methodology throughout is fraught with problems. For more Got a Bad Boss?
Click here to enter Working America's My Bad Boss Contest. Here's how it works. Submit a story about your bad boss. It can be your current boss or someone from a previous job. We will post the best stories on the Bad Boss website, and readers will vote for their favorites each week. Each weekly winner will be eligible to win the grand prize: a free vacation with airfare included. During the first week of the contest, visitors cast more than 15,000 votes for the best Bad Boss stories. CWAers Participate in 'Take Back America'CWA Executive Vice President Jeff Rechenbach and Local 2204 member Teresa Joyce, a Cingular service rep from southwestern Virginia, appeared at a workshop called Take Back the Workplace, as part of June's Take Back America Conference in Washington, D.C. The workshop was chaired by David Bonior, chair of American Rights at Work. They described how Cingular's agreement to remain neutral in organizing drives and grant recognition based on majority card check support has allowed 39,000 workers to gain CWA representation — 17,000 in just the past year. Joyce and her co-workers originally tried to organize when her call center was owned by AT&T Wireless, and she described how bosses conducted one-on-one meetings to intimidate them, and how several union supporters were even fired. When Cingular bought AT&T Wireless last year, "I was on the conference call with Cingular's CEO when he talked about the great relationship the company had with CWA," she told the conferees. "I wanted to shout out loud for all the managers to hear." Now part of CWA, her workplace is entirely different, she said. Workers have a say on the job and better pay and good health benefits at a lower cost. The annual Take Back America conference brings thousands of progressive activists and political leaders together to discuss ideas and develop a common agenda For more about the conference 'Jobless Recovery' in Technology Labor MarketSEATTLE, WA -- Job growth in America's information technology sector has been significantly less robust than industry leaders have claimed, and fewer than one-quarter of the IT jobs lost during the early part of the decade have been recovered over the past three years, according to a new study released today by the nation's leading union of high-tech workers. With limited exceptions, the so-called "recovery" of the IT sector has been a jobless one, the study found, even though an economic recovery began more than five years ago.The report entitled "Information Technology Labor Markets: Recovering, But Slowly" was prepared by the Center for Urban Economic Development (CUED) at the University of Illinois, Chicago for the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers an affiliate of the Communications Workers of America (WashTech/CWA). http://www.cwa-union.org/news/page.jsp?itemID=27689181 The World's Number One Union-BusterNot content to just bust unions in the United States, last
year Wal-Mart shut down a Canadian store after workers there
voted to form a union. Now they’re jumping across the pond
to start busting unions in the United Kingdom.
The company has already been fined a whopping £850,000 for illegally offering pay raises for employees who would be willing to give up their rights to form unions! Additionally, Asda Wal-Mart has been accused of “bullying” pro-union employees with such tactics as:
Two Area Students Win Union Plus ScholarshipsTwo children of are IAM members were selected from among 5,800 applicants to receive Union Plus Scholarships worth $500 to $3,500 as part of the 2006 Union Plus scholarship competition. The six will join an elite group of 108 winners from 44 unions this year who were awarded a total of $150,000 in scholarships. The area winners are: Kevin Rongish, son of Local 639 member Steven J. Rongish of Wichita, Kansas ($1,000) and Margaret Tran, daughter of Local 839 member Chinh Tran of Derby, Kansas ($1,000). In addition to demonstrating academic ability, applicants are required to submit essays of no more than 500 words describing their career goals and their relationship with the union movement. The Union Plus Scholarship Program has awarded more than $2
million since 1992 to students of working families who want to
begin or continue their secondary education. Ask a Working Woman Survey Working women know the importance of a good job in a just economy....Where pay keeps up with prices. This survey is your chance to be heard as working women. Responses will be given to every U.S. representative and senator as well as state and local officials around the country on Labor Day. The Ask a Working Woman survey is sponsored by the AFL-CIO,
the largest organization of working women in America, and
Working America, a community affiliate of the
AFL-CIO. Ask a Working Woman Survey Working women know the importance of a good job in a just economy. ...Where pay keeps up with prices. This survey is your chance to be heard as working women. Responses will be given to every U.S. representative and senator as well as state and local officials around the country on Labor Day. The Ask a Working Woman survey is sponsored by the AFL-CIO,
the largest organization of working women in America, and
Working America, a community affiliate of the
AFL-CIO. In union solidarity, Stuart Eliott |
