Food services workers step up protest

Scores of food services workers marched in front of Boston's two main convention centers yesterday, launching a three-day strike to protest what they consider unfair labor practices.

The strike, which began yesterday and will continue through tomorrow, encouraged weekend convention-goers to express solidarity by going without their mainstays: coffee, sandwiches, and snacks.

About 30 unionized workers of the concession giant Aramark Corp. picketed outside the Hynes Convention Center yesterday as thousands streamed inside for the Health and Fitness Expo, a two-day conference offering health screenings, fitness advice, and healthful cooking instructions. Dozens of other workers stood outside the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, which today will be hosting the 44th annual meeting of the Drug Information Association.

They wore bright red shirts, shook coin-filled containers, and yelled chants like, "Aramark, rich and rude, we don't like your attitude!"

"We don't get the respect that we deserve from management," said Nancy Manning, who has been working for Aramark since 1996 and wants benefits, including health insurance, a pension plan, and competitive wages.

The workers, who are members of UNITE HERE Local 26, are protesting as part of a contract dispute and say that Aramark has engaged in a pattern of punishing workers for union activities. The union, which has about 400 members, has been without a contract since October.

Union representatives have argued that their previous contract was based on a sparse convention calendar, where food services only needed temporary and part-time workers. Because business has increased, the union argues, the contract should treat the workers as permanent employees, with health insurance and other benefits.

Aramark representatives did not return several calls and e-mails yesterday seeking comment.

Two members of the union's bargaining committee, Carolyn Donovan and Theresa Kelley, were fired by Aramark for engaging in union activities, union officials say. Aramark told the Globe last week that Donovan, who was let go in October, and Kelley, a coffee server released earlier this year, were fired for reasons unrelated to their union advocacy.

Management alleges that Donovan struck another employee, while Donovan says that they were having an animated discussion but that she did not hit the other employee.

Kelley, a 47-year-old Dorchester resident, alleges that she was fired because she was taking photographs of nonunion workers who union officials believed were being trained to replace unionized workers. Her firing is the subject of a formal complaint that is awaiting a ruling from the National Labor Relations Board.

"Employees here are like a family. We work together and we stand together," Kelley said yesterday as she stood outside the Boston convention center. "I just hope that Aramark will do what's right for the employees."

Aramark is a Philadelphia-based catering and food services company with 250,000 employees in 19 countries. In addition to the Boston convention centers, the company provides food and beverage service for Fenway Park, although those workers have a different contract and are not part of the current dispute.

UNITE HERE spokesman Stephen Crawford said they were not asking convention-goers to refuse to cross picket lines, but were asking them to boycott Aramark services inside. The request was met with mixed results and patrons inside still lined up to by fruit, sandwiches, and drinks at a food stand run by servers who said they were working temporarily for the event.

"We see there are a variety of people from a variety of backgrounds. It's working class," said Kati Mack, a native Albanian who said she would support the strikers by not buying food in the convention center. "These are the people who suffer the most and they don't have a voice so they have to strike to be heard."

Others were less sympathetic.

"I thought it was rather disruptive," said Donna Desrosiers, as she walked out of the health expo at the Hynes. "And because of that I didn't stop to listen to them."

In a move to show solidarity with the union, the National Association of Letter Carriers decided not to use food service for a major convention next month at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. The president of the letter carriers union, William Young, said that the opening reception has been canceled and all breakfast functions will be held at other venues. Food and beverages won't be available at workshop sessions during the July 21-25 convention, which nearly 9,000 delegates are expected to attend and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama might speak.

"Our members could not enjoy their bacon and eggs, sandwiches, and sodas knowing that the workers serving them were being denied basic workplace benefits accorded similar workers in others parts of Boston," Young said last week in a statement.

Many working men and women have done their part for our country through their service in the military. 

In fact, veterans of the U.S. military returning to the job market are more likely to become union members than other workers. Six million union members, or 38 percent of all union members, are veterans of military service.   

But many soldiers and sailors returning home to look for jobs today face severe difficulty. Eighteen percent of veterans recently back from tours of duty are unemployed. Of those employed since leaving the military, 25 percent earn less than $21,840 a year, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

We need your help as we fight for the rights of veterans in our ranks and for those re-entering the workforce from active service. 

With so many new challenges facing veterans, we ask for your participation in our Union Veterans 2008 program. 

To join up, please click here to take our Union Veterans 2008 survey:

http://unionveterans2008.questionpro.com/ 

We’d like to hear about you and your service to our country.

Veterans need policies that promote access to good jobs, protection of their re-employment rights and better education and training benefits through an expanded G.I. Bill.  They also need a fully funded Veterans Affairs health care program.

We are calling for working families to join our campaign and speak out to hold government and candidates accountable on the needs of our returning heroes--not only during the 2008 campaign, but beyond. 

Please click here to take our Union Veterans 2008 survey today:

http://unionveterans2008.questionpro.com/

I am reaching out to the two locals I know best, 2321 that I began with in 1998, and my new Local 2320.  Currently I am serving as an NCOIC for a Civil Affairs Team, USAR in Tuz, Iraq.  While some of the important tasks of Civil Affairs is to keep civilians off of the battlefield and advise maneuver element commanders about humanitarian concerns, our primary role is to work with local governments and utility providers to provide better services to the people of Iraq.  Over the past few months, we have assessed over 30 villages and three towns in our area and they all have one thing in common: a lack of basic services.  Things we take for granted at home, like being able to pick up the phone and make a call, turning on a light switch and having it work, the list goes on and on, are non-existent in the overwhelming majority of Iraqi homes.  I have seen entire villages lights go on at the same time, because they do not turn their switches off.  Electrical power is provided only a few hours at night and a few hours during the day, so why would they turn them off.

I have been tasked with conducting the power and communications assessments for Tuz Qada (Qada means district).  What I have found is a blatant disregard for maintenance and safety.  Entire villages go without power for months because of a few simple fuses.  Many Iraqi homes are wired directly to the primaries for their power, completely circumventing fuses and transformers.  Without the necessary maintenance to keep the power grid working properly, Iraqi villagers pool their money to buy a generator and set up localized distribution panels with interior grade wire strewn all over the village.  Typically these wires hang about 8-10 feet off the ground and hinder the movement of the new 12ft high MRAP (Mine Resistant Armor Protected vehicle). 

THE PROBLEM:

As another scorching summer approaches, everyone has to improvise to find electricity. Those who can't afford generators have to grease the meter men to look the other way as they splice wires and steal more than their permitted amount of power. At most, they'll be able to run a TV set, a couple of fluorescent bulbs and maybe the water pump.  The wires you see in the pictures above denotes a failure in the regulation and distribution of electrical power in Tuz Qada.  Although we can not change this type of provisioning overnight, we can introduce the idea of safety to those who provide it.  In the town Amerli I ran into a man working on pole with no ground on an aluminum ladder (see pic below) with about 25 frayed interior grade wires wrapped around it and his young child holding it steady.  The man said he was providing power to his home from the local generator.  Understanding that this man would not be able to afford an insulated ladder, I recommended he cut pieces of tire to insulate the top of his ladder and use a rope to tie it off instead of using his child.  This however is a common sight in Tuz Qada; people being resourceful to overcome the failures of their government.  If this man were to suffer a fall or electrocution, the oldest son would then become the breadwinner.

We were lucky enough to run into two linemen from the Tuz Power Station repairing a line, and the pictures speak for themselves (see pic below).  I asked the men if they had any safety equipment such as eye protection, hard hats or insulated gloves and the answer, as expected, was an overwhelming NO.  They work for a power plant that provides them nothing but the wire they need for repairs.  One man is missing a finger which he lost in an industrial accident while working on a line.  Overall, Tuz Power Station has lost 5 linemen to electrocution, and 10 others have suffered a serious electrical injury since coalition forces arrived in 2003.    

THE PLAN:

Whether it is Iraqi power or American power they both have the same potential for a dangerous outcome if not respected.  Iraq has a long way to go and along that way they should learn to work safer.  Short on resources, equipment, training, awareness and money to provide even minimal safety equipment, these workers have few options.  They must rely on the generosity of others who are aware of their specific needs and have the capability to assist the willing yet woefully under equipped worker.  For this reason, I turn to you, my fellow professionals, to assist me in my Civil Affairs mission of providing basic services to improve the quality of life of the Iraqi people.  You know, better than anyone, what these workers need.  How can you help?    

- Slightly used body belts

- Old work boots

Quantity would be whatever you could provide for 30 Linemen and all items would be passed on to the Tuz Qada Power Plant, for distribution to their Linemen. 

Thank You For Your Support,

Patrick Bujold

SFC, USAR

Civil Affairs Team NCOIC

POC for this is:

E-mail: Patrick.Bujold@us.army.mil

Or: SFC Bujold Patrick

      A/Co. 443^rd Civil Affairs Bn

      FOB Bernstein

      APO-AE 09338

It's no surprise that the Republican Party is starting this campaign with the negative politics of dishonesty and distortion, after all they can't run on eight years that have brought us $4 a gallon gas, an endless war in Iraq, a housing crisis, and yet another Bush recession.

Now, facts are stubborn things, and the facts are clear: their negative attacks are untrue. Just last month, John Kerry was ranked the 12th most powerful member of the Senate. Why? Because he passes legislation and gets things done for Massachusetts.

Like what? Well, just last week, Kerry's legislation to help families escape predatory loans and avoid foreclosure passed the Senate.  The Senate housing bill also included an amendment that provides returning soldiers with one year of relief from increases in mortgage interest rates.

In fact, in just the last two years alone, John Kerry has written and passed legislation that:

·        Denied tax payer funded congressional pensions to Duke Cunningham and other felons,

·        Secured an additional $19 million for the Department of Veterans Affairs readjustment counseling services to help veterans struggling with PTSD

·        Passed legislation to establish eye injury centers for Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans,

·        Secured more than $13 million in disaster assistance for Massachusetts fishermen

·        Got tough on sexual predators who use the Internet to prey on our kids

He also:

·        Passed a military pay raise over George Bush's objections,

·        Helped negotiate the first major increase in auto fuel efficiency in 30 years,

·        Has been a leader on helping to bring our troops home from Iraq

Last summer, retired steelworker Steve Skvara brought 20,000 people to their feet at the AFL-CIO Presidential Forum in Chicago when he told a heart-wrenching story of his family’s health care nightmare.

He asked a very simple question, “What's wrong with America, and what will you do to change it?”

The candidates got their chance to answer—but now it’s your turn.

The AFL-CIO is launching the Turn Around America Online Video Competition to engage and inspire people like you from across the country to tell us how they’d turn our country around.

Click here to submit your short video today.

Most winners will receive cash prizes and selected videos will be featured in television ads.
 
Our panel of celebrity judges will pick several of the winners, while visitors to the website will choose the recipient of the “Our America” award. 

Plus, some of the winning videos will appear in television ads—in part to engage voters and 2008 political candidates in a national dialogue about what is necessary to get America back on track. 

At a time when working people are struggling as never before—home foreclosures, bankruptcies, soaring health care costs, jobs sent overseas—we want to know what you think we should do to turn around America.

Our goal is to start a new kind of national conversation through this video competition. It’s about making your voice heard and earning a platform in our national conversation on the future, the upcoming election and beyond.

Tell us your story.

Participants will be invited to submit online videos in any creative form. Your video must be no longer than 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

Click here for official Turn Around America Online Video Competition rules and guidelines.

Our judging panel includes activists, producers, directors, actors, writers, artists and unionists. Learn more about the judges here.

Submit your Turn Around America video here. 

Join MassCOSH for Workers' Memorial Day

Mourn for the Dead, Fight for the Living 

While everyone is looking forward to spring and the warmer weather that comes with it, MassCOSH recognizes that yet another year has passed. And although we’ve made great strides toward ensuring that all jobs are safe and healthy, sadly we must remember and commemorate those who were injured and who lost their lives while at work in 2007.

Please join us on Tuesday, April 29 at the Massachusetts State House, 24 Beacon Street in Boston. At 12:00 noon we will gather outside, on the stairs, for a special Workers’ Memorial Day Ceremony to honor Massachusetts workers who lost their lives in 2007 and the beginning of 2008. MassCOSH will also host a special commemorative breakfast in Room 511 of the State House at 10:30am specifically for families that have lost a loved one due to a workplace incident.

At the event a special report, Dying for Work in Massachusetts, will be released, highlighting that fact that workers continue to be killed and maimed on the job in record numbers.

MassCOSH is collecting stories of workers who were injured or killed on the job to share in the report and at the event. If you would like to submit a short story about your loved one and the workplace incident that s/he was involved in, please click here.

Working families across this country are facing all kinds of hardships: a staggering economy, stagnant wages, a broken health care system, a home foreclosure and housing crisis, a disastrously flawed U.S. trade policy and a hostile climate for workers seeking to form unions.

But someone must have forgotten to tell Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who just clinched the Republican presidential nomination. “I still believe our fundamental underpinnings of our economy are strong,” McCain said recently.

It’s no wonder—McCain has said economic issues are something he’s “never really understood.”

• McCain—Wrong on Trade: McCain has cast vote after vote for every free trade agreement under the sun, including the most devastating agreement in our history, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He has gone on to praise NAFTA and its effects and has voted to make it easier for the president to enter into agreements without strong worker protections.
  
  
• McCain—Wrong on Workers: McCain voted to block the Employee Free Choice Act and supported a national “right to work” for less law. He supported President Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans while voting against raising the minimum wage.
  
  
• McCain—Wrong on Jobs: McCain has made it a point to tell audiences that some jobs “aren’t coming back.” What he doesn’t often explain is his role in exporting those jobs in the first place. McCain voted against prohibiting the overseas outsourcing of government contracts and voted to privatize federal jobs. He also voted to contract out federal jobs. And McCain has certainly done little to aid those who have lost their jobs, voting against the extension of federal unemployment insurance benefits.
  
  
• McCain—Wrong on Social Security: McCain voted for Bush’s Social Security privatization plan and says the only solution to fixing Social Security is through private accounts.
  
  
• McCain—Wrong on Health Care: McCain wants to make health care premiums part of taxable income, creating a new tax for working families. His plan would force working families to fend for themselves in the private insurance market and undermine employer-based health care. In addition, McCain has voted to slash funding for Medicare and opposed the reauthorization and new funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
  
  
• McCain—Wrong on George W. Bush: Since President Bush took office, McCain has supported Bush’s positions 89 percent of the time. McCain’s support of Bush’s policies reached as high as 95 percent in 2007.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll share more information with you about Sen. McCain’s record on the issues, including the economy, jobs, health care, trade, workers’ rights and retirement security.

For now, take a look at McCain Revealed: The Briefing Book, and send it to your friends and family.

And remember—sign up to be a part of our rapid response efforts and receive regular updates and alerts about John McCain:

http://www.unionvoice.org/wfean/mccainrevealed.html

The response to the 2008 AFL-CIO/Working America Health Care for America Survey has been overwhelming. Since the survey was launched, more than 18,000 working men and women have responded.

Our goal is to have at least 20,000 working men and women make their voices heard on health care.

Click here to take the 2008 Health Care for America Survey.

And please tell your friends, family members and anyone else you know to take part in the 2008 Health Care for America Survey today.

We’ve received thousands of heart-wrenching health care stories—tragic ones like this from Marie in Wisconsin:

What would you do if you had to choose between food or medicine? Because of rising health care costs, that is a question that is frequently asked in my home. I work full time and have health care through my employer, but only a percentage is paid by them....I recently needed medication for an ailment, but did not get the medicine. I couldn’t. What would I choose? I choose my children and what they need, whether it be food or medicine. I am the one who will go without before they suffer.

Or this story from Randy in California, whose lack of health insurance led to bankruptcy:

I was turned away from an emergency room in San Francisco after the ER doc told me to go home and drink Pepto-Bismol for my increasingly painful abdominal cramps. I did not have insurance. I passed out on the street six hours later, and an ambulance took me to a different ER where they did emergency surgery and removed a gangrenous appendix. I was charged $38,000 for the surgery, a week in the hospital and ambulance service. I have declared bankruptcy.

The 2008 Health Care for America Survey gives you the chance to make your voice heard and ensures that leaders and candidates at every level understand what working families are experiencing.

Click here to take the 2008 Health Care for America Survey.

All individual survey responses are kept completely confidential.

Be sure to share your health care story and send the survey to friends and family.

The compiled survey results will be given to the presidential candidates, every U.S. senator and representative, every candidate for Congress and state and local officials in every state in our country.

Take the survey and tell your story. In addition, read health care stories from other working people and get the “hot facts” on health care.

In this great country, no one should go without health care. The 2008 elections will give us the chance to show that Americans are ready for real change. 

Working families can be a big force behind winning secure, high-quality health care for all by 2009 if we make the 2008 elections a mandate for health care reform. 

Take the 2008 Health Care for America Survey today:

http://www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare/survey/

Outstanding Scholarship Recipients

The students selected for university, college, trade school or technical scholarships represent a wide sampling of backgrounds, union affiliations, goals and accomplishments. Congratulations to the recipients of our 2007 college scholarships.

Union Plus Scholarship Program Information:

• How to apply
• Scholarship eligibility
• Scholarship evaluation criteria
• Scholarship award amounts
• 2007 scholarship recipients

How to apply: The 2008 scholarship application is available for download.

• Download a regular PDF (small file size) here.
  
  
• Download this PDF to type your answers in the PDF (large file size/longer download time) here.
  
  *Please note: If you are using the free Acrobat reader, you must print the form after you fill it out because you will not be able to save your information.
  

Eligibility for Scholarships: Current and retired members of unions participating in any Union Plus program, their spouses and their dependent children (including foster children, step children, and any other child for whom the individual member provides greater than 50% of his or her support) can apply for a Union Plus Scholarship. (Participating union members from the U.S., Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada are eligible.) Members do not have to purchase any Union Plus program product or participate in any Union Plus programs to apply for the scholarships and scholarship awards are not based upon participation in a Union Plus program.

The individual must be accepted into an accredited college or university, community college or recognized technical or trade school at the time the award is issued. Note: Graduate students are now eligible.

Evaluation criteria: The scholarship program is open to students attending or planning to attend a college or university, a community college, or a technical college or trade school. Applicants for scholarships are evaluated according to academic ability, social awareness, financial need and appreciation of labor.

Scholarship applications are judged by a committee of impartial post secondary educators. Applications are first reviewed by a panel of independent career professionals. Semi-finalists are chosen based on a point scale, and their applications are then provided to judges for further review and selection of finalists and awards. Program judges include representatives from the American Association of Community Colleges, the United Negro College Fund, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.


Scholarship award amounts: The amount of the award ranges from $500 - $4,000. This is a one-time cash award sent to individual winners for study beginning in the fall of the same year.

It’s shameful, and Congress shouldn’t take it anymore. It’s time for Rep. . . to stand up to Bush.

The U.S. House will vote within 48 hours whether to stand with President Bush or 10 million children.

Urge Rep. . today to support health care for America’s children and vote to override President Bush’s health care veto. Call the following number and ask to be connected to Rep. .’s office:

1-866-544-7573

Here’s what Rep. . needs to hear from you:

• The time is now for Congress to stand up to the president and override his veto.
  
  
• A mere extension of the current SCHIP puts millions of eligible children at risk of losing their coverage.
  
  
• Congress must stand with children, not the president, and support a strong SCHIP bill that gets children the health care they need.

You’ve already sent Congress more than 100,000 e-mail messages and faxes.

Now is the time to make the final push.

Because millions of uninsured children shouldn’t have to wait another day to get the health care they need.

Sometime this fall, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) will decide whether to approve the sale of Verizon's landlines in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont to North Carolina-based FairPoint Communications.  The sale gives Verizon an easy way to abandon its less profitable rural landline customers, while retaining more profitable wireless and large business customers.  Verizon picked tiny FairPoint because of an obscure tax loophole that allowed it avoid paying up to $700 million on the sale! 

If approved, the proposed Verizon sale to FairPoint sets a dangerous precedent with national implications for all rural areas.

Click here to tell to the Federal Communication Commission to Stop the Sale!

(To protect yourself, if you are an employee of Verizon or FairPoint working in Maine, New Hampshire or Vermont, please do not sign or send this email to the FCC.)

If Verizon is allowed to sell its landlines to FairPoint it could have disastrous consequences for Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont.  For example:

Rates could increase.

Currently FairPoint is a little over $600 million in debt.  If the deal goes through, tiny FairPoint could be as much as $2.3 billion in debt.  How will it be able to maintain Verizon's aging copper network without increasing phone rates?  How will it make much needed improvements in service?

Service could suffer.

Verizon is able to call on people and equipment from across the country to help repair the damage from winter storms and other disasters so that phone lines keep working.  Who will tiny FairPoint call on?

Economic development could be impaired.

High-speed Internet connections are increasingly essential for education, public safety and economic development.  FairPoint has announced plans to deliver only relatively slow digital subscriber line (DSL) service, not the high-speed fiber network that rural areas need to prosper.

Allowing Verizon to abandon rural America will increase the digital divide! 

Help stop the sale by clicking here to send a message to the FCC that reliable telephone service and better access to the Internet should be available to everyone.

(To protect yourself, if you are an employee of Verizon or FairPoint working in Maine, New Hampshire or Vermont, please do not sign or send this email to the FCC.)

More information about the campaign to Stop the Sale to FairPoint is on www.stop-the-sale.org and www.no-deal.org. 

What's the alternative?

Universal Internet access to end the digital divide.

If the FCC approves the sale to FairPoint it will leave large numbers of citizens without high speed Internet access, and some without Internet access at all.  Those who "go without" are left out of the potential advantages of high speed Internet access in areas as diverse as education and health, to civic participation and staying up on the news.  Universal access to affordable high speed Internet would ensure that everyone has the chance to reap the benefits of high speed Internet access, and that no one is forced to remain on the wrong side of the digital divide.

Click here to learn about communications reforms that would help end the digital divide.

Verizon to sell building at Post Office Square

By Carolyn Y. Johnson and Thomas C. Palmer Jr., Globe Staff  |  July 28, 2007

Verizon Communications Inc. said yesterday it would put its 18-story building at Post Office Square on the market in August and plans to relocate workers to other Boston office space.

A spokesman said the proposal to sell the building is part of Verizon's ongoing evaluation of real estate holdings and reduction of operating expenses. In 2005, the company sold its headquarters at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in New York City.

"Verizon continually reviews work space needs and occupancy levels of buildings we own," Lee Brathwaite, vice president of real estate for Verizon said in a statement. "In today's competitive telecommunications environment, it is particularly important that we make the most efficient use of our facilities."

Verizon's Boston building has 875,000 square feet of office space and could fetch hundreds of millions if it is similar to other high-profile sales.

One Federal St., a prominent downtown tower, sold for $514 million, or $471 per square foot, in March 2006, which was a near-high for the time.

The Verizon building is located in the center of Boston's business and financial district, along prominent Congress Street , and has the acclaimed Post Office Square Park as its front yard.

"It's a triple-A location," said David I. Begelfer, chief executive of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties' Massachusetts Chapter. "Prices are reaching all-time highs. It's going to be very competitive bidding for that building."

The company said there would not be layoffs related to the potential sale, and the 1,700 employees who work in the building will move to other locations -- possibly a building the company owns in Chinatown or one in Bowdoin Square. The building contains a central office used to switch and route calls throughout the area, and the company will make provisions to keep that operation in the same space.

For now, the art deco building at 185 Franklin St. is like a slice of telephone history. In an alcove off the lobby, a small exhibit open to the public gives a history of the development of the telephone. A massive mural circles the lobby, showing the history of the telephone -- from Alexander Graham Bell's invention, to operators manning manual switchboards, to linemen working on phone poles.

Thousands of employees have worked in the building over the years. And the changing names of the companies that have operated from the site chronicle the ever-changing telecom landscape.

New England Telephone and Telegraph Co. built the downtown headquarters 60 years ago. In 1984, the company became NYNEX. In 1997, NYNEX merged with Bell Atlantic.

Finally, in 2000 Bell Atlantic and GTE merged, creating the company known as Verizon today -- a telecommunications firm that is facing a host of competition from cable and cellphone companies and providing phone, Internet, and video service, with a 55 percent share in Verizon Wireless.

"This is a development opportunity,"