Labor in Illinois

Weekly Labor Report
June 2, 2008

Teamsters Wins First Student Bus Company Employees’ in Three States

Across Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 729 new bus drivers have voted to join the Teamsters. Alaine Peterson, a three year driver in Crest Hill, Illinois, and one of 438 drivers and monitors who joined Teamsters Local 179 of Joliet, was especially excited when her husband, a rail employee, became a Teamster the same day. These wins come from a nationwide initiative to organize private school bus and transit workers across the country. The Teamsters have called this initiative the Drive Up Standards, and have won more than 9300 new members since 2006. – Sun Herald (2 June 2008)

Durham’s District 300 to Choose Busdriver Union

Both the Teamsters, a growingly popular union of bus drivers, and the Illinois Education Association (IEA), a “professional association” of teachers and alternative to the Illinois Federation of Teachers, are each trying to represent the more than 200 bus drivers in the Durham School district. The IEA has struggled to represent the district’s teachers and argues that future contracts will be stronger if all of the school district’s employees work together. The Teamsters claim that the IEA has delayed negotiations. They have recently been very effective in representing school bus drivers around the country. – Daily Herald (13 May 2008)

Workers Suspended Over Caterpillar Smoking Ban; UAW Petitions NLRB

Caterpillar’s new ban on smoking has won the ire of many employees and started rumors of a wildcat strike because of recent workers’ suspensions. However Bill Scott, chairman of the United Autoworkers Local 974, has argued that officially the union is against a wildcat strike. “Our official position is that because we have a no strike, no lockout clause in the contract, to stay on the job. But I don’t know how we can stop them from a spontaneous walkout if htat is what they choose.” Caterpillar has stated that the recent smoking ban is simply part of the Healthy Balance initiative. They claim, “We remain dedicated to creating and maintaining the healthiest and safest work environment possible for our employees.” However, Caterpillar employees and the UAW maintain that their contract allows them to smoke on Caterpillar property. They have even filed a petition with the NLRB against this violation. Some non-smokers have been reported to start smoking out of solidarity for protesting a violation of their contract.—Peoria Journal-Star (2 June 2008)

Metropolis Rewarding City Workers who Quit Smoking

Fifteen city employees of Metropolis, Illinois have signed up for a grant-funded initiative to help them quit smoking: they will earn $1000 if they successfully quit smoking for one year. City officials claim that this will lead eventually to healthier workers and lower insurance premiums. The program, though only several weeks old, will be enforced with random nicotine tests. Patches and gum are not prohibited. – Chicago Tribune (2 June 2008)

Belleville Teachers’ Association Sues District to Test School Air Quality

Belleville Teachers’ Association Local 434 filed a complaint against the school district to test the air quality for toxins in the Belleville East buildings. Teachers, they say, experience chronic dizziness, respiratory problems, and burning eyes. The Illinois Department of Labor has recently checked the air quality and found it satisfactory, but the teachers complain that the district had the doors and windows open all weekend long so the test was under an unusually favorable condition. School superintendent Greg Moats agrees that the extra testing will be a good idea. Union attorney Chris Kolker said that if the teachers did not file a lawsuit with the county, the Illinois Department of Labor would put off a re-testing to the summer, when the conditions would once again be unusually favorable. Union leaders complain that classroom ventilation has not worked properly in years. –Belleville News-Democrat (15 May 2008)

Governor Blagojevich and Several State Senators Call for State Construction Plan

Senate Republicans and Democrats have begun to rally behind Governor Blagojevich’s Illinois Works, a proposed $31 billion comprehensive capital infrastructure plan to build and rebuild roads, schools and mass-transit. It is also hoped to address recent job shortages. In support of the proposed plan, among many others, are Illinois AFL-CIO President Michael Carrigan, President and CEO of Illinois Black Chamber of Commerce Larry Ivory, President of Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Tod Faerber, and the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. The plan calls for motor fuel taxes to support bonded road projects, a partial use of the state lottery system for funding, and Capital and Educational Trust Funds with “lockbox” accountability guarantees. It also calls for an increase in gaming licenses to raise $550 million in debt service for environmental and water, energy, economic development, health care, state facilities, and other purposes. – Illinois Press Releases (28 May 2008)

AFSCME Demands Better Contract

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees have organized 40 protests recently to attain better job contracts for the state’s workers. They have been in negotiations for six months but they still have not come to an agreement to replace the contract that ends June 30. AFSCME demands that it not have to swallow “a decrease in take-home pay, higher health insurance premiums, mandatory overtime, and bigger paycheck contributions for retirement.” The union’s executive director Henry Bayer said, “Every Illinois resident relies on the public services AFSCME members provide…. State workers aren’t asking for a lot—decent wages, affordable health care and a secure retirement. And they’ll do whatever it takes, bargain as long as it takes, picket as much as it takes, to achieve a fair contract.”– Quad Cities Online (29 May 2008)

SEIU Workers Vote on Union Members’ Hotline

Union officials of the Service Employees’ International Union have argued that 24 hour call centers would better handle the volume of workers’ concerns so that union representatives could focus on organizing new members. Some member of the SEIU are less comfortable with this change, for the argue that union representatives should know their constituents and be accountable to them. Eva Lozada has said, “Sometimes you can’t get through to these centers… It’s like talking to an A.T.M.” Sal Roselli, president of the United Healthcare Workers West, has held that this change further centralizes union power in a bureaucracy and takes it out of the hands of local workers. Andrew L. Stern, the SEIU’s president, has insisted that these changes are vital to empowering, not disempowering, rank-and-file workers. “We have a 1930s teletype model of representation in a 21st century world. You can Google almost anything. But then you call your local union office and you have to push 1 or 2 and then you can’t find someone who speaks the language you speak.”—New York Times (1 June 2008)
University of Illinois and State Chamber of Commerce Partner in HR Initiative
Because of the more than 9300 Illinois companies who have been investigated in the past year for labor law violations, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and the Center for Human Resource Management (CHRM) at the University of Illinois have partnered in a Human Resources program that helps prevent problems of the future. Jean Drasgrow, assistant director of the CHRM reflected, “Complying with federal and Illinois law is very difficult and it can be very complex. The laws are written in such a way that they don’t tell you how to do everything, so this can help with those gray areas.” Employee complains have ranged from concerns with wages to those with overtime and workplace safety. The program, which pilots this fall, will be taught by Illinois faculty and PhD students and especially aim to help managers from smaller companies with employment laws of our state. They will cost about $500 each and will accrue to University of Illinois certification. – Illinois Chamber of Commerce (May 2008)

FBI Raids Union Boss’ Farm

Chicago area labor leader William E. Dugan, a former Republican appointee to government boards that oversee Illinois casinos, the CTA and the state’s tollway system, has been accused of of illegally using union resources to truck corn from Illinois to his buffalo farm in Hancock, Maryland. His Chicago union represents 22000 heavy equipment operators but they have so far defended Dugan and argued that the accusation is part of a re-election battle. He is using Joseph Duffy, the same lawyer who is defending political fundraiser Tony Rezko, to defend him. – Chicago Sun Times (31 May 2008)