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Vol. 82/No. 9 March 5, 2018
—ON THE PICKET LINE—
Militant/Michele Smith
Seattle Education Association members picket Feb. 7 in support of
Teamsters school bus drivers who struck First Student bosses. Nine-day
strike led to gains in health care coverage, pensions.
Seattle school bus drivers win new contract
SEATTLE — Seattle School District bus drivers who are members of
Teamsters Local 174 overwhelmingly ratified a contract with First
Student bosses Feb. 10 after a nine-day strike here. Teamster leaders
say advances were made in getting health care coverage workers can
afford, and drivers will become part of the Teamsters pension plan.
“We have a specific job to make sure students get to and from school
safely,” Miguel Angel Camargo, a five-year veteran driver for First
Student, told Socialist Workers Party members when we joined their
picket line. “We need to be healthy and are entitled to decent health
care coverage.”
Drivers said backing from the community and the teachers union helped to
win the contract. On Feb. 7, Seattle Education Association members
fanned out across the city to tell people about the strike. They lined
street corners near their schools with signs and chanted support for the
strikers’ demands.
“The Teamsters supported us in our strike a few years ago,” said Emma
Klein, a teacher at Genesee Hill Elementary School, explaining that they
had stood at a busy intersection in West Seattle. “We have common goals
and we want to make sure the drivers have a living wage, health care and
pensions.”
In recent weeks drivers employed by First Student also fought for new
contracts in Southern California, Montreal, and Manchester, England.
— Edwin Fruit
Metall, Germany’s biggest union, makes a deal
After a month of brief walkouts and a series of 24-hour protest strikes,
IG Metall, Germany’s biggest union, has signed a contract covering
900,000 workers in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg. The same deal is
likely to be rolled out for the union’s members nationwide — some 3.9
million metal and electrical workers at thousands of companies,
including manufacturing giants like Volkswagen, Bosch, Siemens,
Mercedes-Benz and Airbus.
The agreement, which runs for 27 months, stipulates a 4.3 percent wage
raise starting in April. Individual workers won the option to work 28
hours a week if they need time to care for children or aging relatives,
but they would face a cut in pay. The standard workweek for IG Metall
members is 35 hours.
And union officials agreed to a trade-off — if bosses find themselves
short of workers, they can sign 40-hour-a-week contracts with workers.
Bosses told the press the deal has some “painful elements,” but most
thought it would work well for them.
“Employees have more opportunities to reduce their hours of work,” said
Stefan Wolf, chief negotiator for Sudwestmetall, “while companies get
more options to increase the volume of working hours.”
Last year the German economy grew at its fastest rate since 2011 and
official unemployment is at its lowest since 1990.
— Emma Johnson
Faculty union calls first strike ever at University of Quebec in Outaouais
SAINT-JEROME, Quebec — Some 250 professors at the University of Quebec
in Outaouais went out on the first strike action in the faculty union’s
37-year history Jan. 17. The University of Quebec is a system of 10
public universities in the province.
The 10-hour strike occurred in Gatineau and Saint-Jerome, where the main
campuses in Quebec are located. Members of the Professors Union have
been without a contract since May 1, 2015. The union is demanding wage
parity with the system’s other similar-sized universities, more funds
for research, equitable working conditions among campuses, and the
representation of union members in the committees that decide policy for
the university.
“In the last 30 months, professors have tried to come to an
understanding with an employer bent on maintaining a kind of immobility,
in addition to confusing the issues surrounding the aims pursued by the
administration,” Louise Briand, the union president, told the press. “We
have repeatedly tried to reason with the employer regarding the
importance of offering work conditions that are necessary for the
university’s development.”
— David Lefrancois, member of the Professors Union
Related articles:
Agreement ends final case against Quebec rail worker
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