This came from Labor Notes
LERC Labor Education and Research Project: - Labor may only have organized 8% of the general workforce,
- and at best 37% of the public workforce.
But union workers set the wage scales for the rest of the nation,
with unity, solidarity, determination, and hard-headed, stubborn
demands for jobs with justice.
American workers deserve the best healthcare, education, - and training which can be provided. Healthy, educated, and
- skilled people are better equipped to build a solid future.
700,000 members of the IAM partner with NUHW
Three years ago, NUHW was established to advance the vision of a new national movement of healthcare workers, united in an organization that would put members in control of their own future, refuse to settle for less than what caregivers and patients deserve, and transform the labor movement in the healthcare industry and beyond.
Today, we are very proud to announce a new milestone in fulfilling that vision.
NUHW and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) have reached agreement to pursue a formal relationship between our two unions and to work toward a potential future affiliation. Read our joint press release here.
The agreement is the result of a process authorized in November 2011 by NUHW’s Executive Board to seek an AFL-CIO affiliated partner union that placed a high value on member democracy, on fighting for and protecting workers' standards, and on organizing the unorganized, and that would commit substantial resources to help NUHW unite healthcare workers in California and across the country.
In the IAM, we believe we have found the right partner to enable our members to achieve the dream of building a strong, democratic, and progressive healthcare workers union.
In the short term, this agreement will place NUHW in an even stronger position to win at the bargaining table and to build strength throughout the workforce at Kaiser Permanente. Immediately, the IAM will provide resources to help NUHW members settle fair contracts and to help 43,000 healthcare workers at Kaiser join our union in an election later this year. The relationship will also allow NUHW to work more closely with other AFL-CIO unions.
In the long term, an affiliation would mean that the IAM's 700,000 aerospace and transportation workers would be united with NUHW and share fully in working to achieve our goals of transforming the healthcare industry and the labor movement, goals to which the IAM’s leaders are strongly committed.
Our common values and objectives are expressed clearly by IAM General Vice President Gary Allen, when he writes, “NUHW and its leadership have a strong, national reputation for honesty, competence, integrity, and militant, democratic, progressive trade unionism. Their record of success in winning industry standard contracts and organizing the unorganized speaks volumes. For 124 years, the IAM has fought hard to raise standards of living and bring forward the issues of working families in North America. The IAM shares NUHW’s commitment to free, fair, and democratic membership control of the collective bargaining process. Now, by standing together, all of us are stronger.”
Over the coming months, NUHW and IAM members throughout the state will be actively involved in determining the shape of the potential affiliation, and any final recommendation regarding affiliation will be put to a vote of all NUHW members.
Today, we are more confident than ever that we will realize our vision of a truly national healthcare workers movement that values democracy and transparency, and that is uncompromising in its commitment to the highest standards for healthcare workers and the highest quality care for our patients.
In Unity,
Sal Rosselli and John Borsos, National Union of Healthcare Workers
Please follow news from NUHW at www.NUHW.org.
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National Union of Healthcare Workers 5801 Christie Ave., Suite 525 Emeryville, CA 94608 (510) 834-2009
Mer Rees posted in Portland Peaceful Response Coalition (PPRC).
Mer Rees 12:47pm Jan 21
Wisconsin Labor Council Tells Obama to Order Coast Guard to "Stand Down"
January 19, 2012
President Barack Obama The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear President Obama:
With over 200 present at our monthly meeting on Monday, January 16, delegates to the South Central Federation of Labor heard a very disturbing report about the planned use of U.S. military to intervene on the side of management in a crucial labor dispute in Washington State, and voted unanimously to condemn such intervention.
The International Longshoremen Workers Union is engaged in a crucial struggle at the Port of Longview, Washington, where a multinational company, EGT, is attempting to operate as the West Coast's only non-ILWU facility, despite promising otherwise when it received millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to build its grain exporting terminal. Now, as the first ship makes its way to the port to fill up with grain bound for Asia, it is reported that Coast Guard ships and helicopters will be used to escort this ship. Use of our tax dollars and our military to assist such union busting is horrifying.
Mr. President, as Commander in Chief, we call upon you to order the Coast Guard to stand down, to not interfere on the side of management in this labor dispute.
Sincerely,
James A. Cavanaugh
President
c: Rich Trumka, Sen. Kohl, Sen. Johnson, Rep. Baldwin, ILWU
Jim Cavanaugh, President
South Central Federation of Labor
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Evan Rohar, Mischa Gaus
| August 21, 2011
Revving up for July actions at the worksite,
1,000 Longshore union
members from up and down the West Coast rallied June 3 at EGT
headquarters in Portland, Oregon. They are determined to prevent the
anti-union company from moving grain without their members. Photo: ILWU.
Hundreds of West Coast longshore workers blocked a train in July and more than a hundred have been arrested in a remarkable campaign of civil disobedience. They seek to prevent an anti-union company from moving grain through a Columbia River port.
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August 19, 2011
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August 15, 2011
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August 12, 2011
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