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The Militant (logo)
Vol. 81/No. 8 February 27, 2017
—ON THE PICKET LINE—
Maggie Trowe, Editor
Militant/Bernie Senter
Communications Workers of America members protest outside AT&T wireless
store in Los Angeles Feb. 11 against job cuts and rising health care
costs in fight for new contract.
AT&T Mobility workers fight company
concession demands
NEW YORK — “The most important issue to me is health care,” Mike
Williams, a cell tower technician for AT&T Mobility, told Osborne Hart,
Socialist Workers Party candidate for mayor in New York, when he joined
some 100 Communications Workers of America members and others protesting
outside an AT&T store in midtown Manhattan Feb. 10. The contract for the
21,000 wireless workers nationwide at AT&T Mobility expired the next
day. Other protests took place across the country.
“I’m already paying $230 a month for insurance for myself, my wife and
our two kids,” Williams said. AT&T wants to steeply increase premiums.
To avoid paying union wages and benefits, the company has been selling
more phones and wireless service through “third-party stores,” CWA Local
1101 business agent Heather Trainor told the Militant.
Workers inside the store gave thumbs up to the protesters and one held
up his computer tablet which read “CWA.” The unionists marched to
another store on Sixth Avenue. As we passed a group of construction
workers, they joined in chanting, “Every job, a union job.”
— Seth Galinsky
After 1-week strike, autoworkers in Wisconsin approve contract
OSHKOSH, Wis. — After a week on the picket line, the 60 members of
United Auto Workers Local 291 won a new contract with AxleTech
International here. Local members Feb. 12 voted overwhelming to approve
the agreement.
AxleTech, owned by the Carlyle Group, a Washington, D.C.,-based private
equity outfit, had demanded a steep increase in workers’ health care costs.
A solidarity rally planned for Feb. 11 was canceled after the tentative
agreement was reached the day before.
“I think the planned rally had an effect on the company’s willingness to
give us an acceptable contract,” Bob Mitchell, the local president, told
the Militant. Mitchell is an assembler in the plant, which makes axles,
vehicle parts and military vehicles.
The company, a major contractor for truck maker Oshkosh Corp., has laid
off workers as orders for its Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles
fell when the Barack Obama administration wound down the scope of
Washington’s ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Bosses dropped 122
workers in 2013-14.
“Everyday we got more support. When it rained, rail workers brought us
umbrellas,” Mitchell said. “The AFSCME local from the University of
Wisconsin, Oshkosh brought us food.
“UAW members at Kohler walked the picket lines with us and firemen
brought us sandwiches,” he said. “None of our members crossed the picket
line.”
“We got an OK deal,” said Russ Remter, a stockroom worker. “The medical
premiums increased a little. And we took a hit on the attendance policy,
which is now more strict.”
— Dan Fein
B&H workers fight for union contract as boss moves warehouse
NEW YORK — B&H Photo and Electronics warehouse workers and their
supporters rallied outside the company’s store here Feb. 12 to promote
the fight for a first union contract.
B&H informed the United Steelworkers union Jan. 12 that it will soon
move its operations from two warehouses in Brooklyn to one central
location in Florence Township, New Jersey, 75 miles away. Taking public
transport to get there would take hours, workers say.
After a yearlong fight, the warehouse workers in November 2015 voted
200-88 to join the USW. Since then, the company has been stalling in
negotiations.
Moving the warehouses is aimed to “break the union,” said Miguel, who
has worked at B&H for 12 years. “They should sign a contract for union
wages and pay moving costs.”
— Willie Cotton
Related articles:
Court rules rail workers can strike against ‘one-man crew’
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