Boycott Updates

Washington, DC, October 6, 2004— The AFL-CIO today placed Wackenhut Security on its national boycott list at the request of the Service Employees International Union.

Wackenhut Security, the second largest private security company in the nation, has been charged with “multiple violations of federal labor law” by the U.S. National Labor Relations Board in a trial over complaints filed by Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The charges are being aired in full in an NLRB trial that began on October 4th.

“Tampering with the fundamental right of American workers to form and join unions of their choice cannot be tolerated, especially when workers’ tax dollars are being used to pay scofflaw employers,” declared AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Rich Trumka. “Patronizing anti-union firms effectively rewards their lawless behavior.”

Wackenhut is the largest supplier of private guards to the U.S. government and to highly sensitive nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons sites. Wackenhut also provides security guards for private commercial office buildings, banks, and industrial operations. The current round of NLRB charges is related to incidents involving company harassment of security officers’ working at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, DC.

The IMF incidents prompted inquiries about IMF labor policies by two senior members of Congress. In May, the IMF decided to discontinue its contract with Wackenhut. In a letter earlier this year to acting IMF Director Anne Krueger, Reps. George Miller (D-CA) and Robert Andrews (D-NJ) noted that the expressed policy of the U.S. is “to encourage the formation of labor unions.”

In the past four years, employees and their unions have filed nearly 100 U.S. labor law charges against Wackenhut. The charges include allegations of interfering with employee rights to organize and bargain and discriminating against employees based on their union activity or membership.

In placing Wackenhut on the national boycott list, the AFL-CIO also cited Wackenhut’s refusal to join nearly every other private security firm in the U.S., including Sweden-based Securitas and Group 4 Securicor subsidiary Cognisa, with SEIU, America’s largest security union, in raising private security standards in major U.S. cities.

Contact:
Charles Mercer, President
Union Label & Service Trades Department
202-628-2131

• IUOE Action Continues at Buffalo’s Adam’s Mark (9/24/2004)

In September, the International Union of Operating Engineers marked the fourth anniversary of its fight to win a first contract at the Adam’s Mark Hotel in Buffalo, New York. Operations and Maintenance personnel at the hotel won representation rights in an NLRB election in July 2000 and IUOE Local 17 began efforts to negotiate a first agreement in September 2000. The hotel’s insistence on porous contract provisions that would enable management to alter the final agreement at will and a series of related bad faith bargaining incidents resulted in a federal court injunction and a bargaining order by the National Labor Relations Board.

The AFL-CIO added the hotel to its National Boycott list in July 2003.

Despite the company’s legal setbacks, bargaining remains mired down in the face of continued management stalls. The union filed another set of unfair labor practice charges against Adam’s Mark last June.

International Union of Operating Engineers

In July 2000, IUOE Local 17 won an NLRB certified election for operations and maintenance workers at the Adam’s Mark Hotel in Buffalo, New York by a vote of 14-2. The NLRB certified local 17 as bargaining representative for the employees in August 2000. In, September 2000, bargaining commenced with Adam’s Mark.

After the first meeting, bargaining continued at the rate one or two meetings per month. Local 17 did not receive the owner’s proposals until May 2001. Throughout bargaining, the Adam’s Mark management had insisted on one proposal that would grant it the right to change any clause of the contract after “discussion” with the union. Local 17 filed several Unfair Labor Practice charges and added a bad faith bargaining charge relative to the above. In February 2002, Local 17 participated in a weeklong NLRB proceeding before an Administrative Law Judge. Concurrently, the NLRB also brought a motion in federal court for an injunction against the Adam’s Mark.

The union prevailed at the NLRB, which also settled the federal court case as well. As part of the settlement, a bargaining order was issued, as well as an order for the employer to withdraw its proposal to unilaterally change items in the contract.

In April 2003, the employer’s attorney declared that there was an impasse between the parties and left the bargaining table.

During this entire process, Local 17 picketed several targeted events and also assisted the NAACP in its picketing of the hotel.

In late June 2003, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was to accept an award at the Adam’s Mark Hotel. She informed Local 17 that she would not enter if its picket line were up. She met with members on the picket line and agreed that she would do all in her power to assist them in securing a first contract. With that, promise Local 17 took the picket line down for her. Since that time, she has sent a letter to the hotel’s owner asking him to return to the bargaining table.

In July 2003, the AFL-CIO added the Adam’s Mark to its National Boycott List.

In mid-June 2004, Local 17 filed more Unfair Labor Practice Charges against the hotel for threatening the members of the bargaining unit and for making unilateral changes in working conditions.

During this entire period, Local 17 has continued to picket on the hotel’s busy nights and during special events.

• La Costa Resort in Carlsbad Added to AFL-CIO National Boycott List (12/9/2003)

  Frustrated over management demands for cuts in health care benefits and pay, employees of the La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California—represented by Local 30 of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees—are reaching out to the rest of the labor movement for help to win a fair contract. The AFL-CIO has agreed to add the La Costa to its national boycott list at the request of HERE’s General President John Wilhelm.

  Local 30’s more than two-year contract struggle at La Costa follows an ugly union-busting pattern established in recent years by the KSL Recreation chain, a subsidiary of Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts (KKR).

  According to HERE, KSL fired a number of veteran union workers immediately after it took control of the La Costa property in November 2001. The HERE unit was pared down from 650 to 400 workers. After initial negotiations with Local 30 in early 2002, the company in its “last, best and final offer” took away employees’ paid 30-minute break—a move that equates to a wage loss of $1,100 a year—along with draconian changes in health care coverage which would virtually eliminate coverage for about one-third of the 650-person staff. 

  La Costa workers lag behind other nearby resort workers by an average of $1.50 an hour.

  Since July, when the imposed contract went into effect, employees have encountered problems with coverage and costs. Housekeeper Rebecca Garcia, for instance, says that she was forced to apply for MEDICAL, state-sponsored health care for low-income workers, because her son has leukemia and she could not afford to take the KSL-sponsored program. Or, Lynne Graham of the La Costa Banquet Department, who worries that the company-imposed plan won’t cover the cost of cancer treatment she’s undergone.

  The union recently won an arbitration award worth $40,000 for HERE-represented workers, but the company has refused to implement the award, forcing the union to pursue justice through the courts.

  The union has been fighting back with the help of the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice. Recently, they organized a rally during a high-profile tennis tournament, which generated substantial publicity for the struggle. The union says more demonstrations are in the works.

  Contact:
  Charles Mercer, President, Union Label & Service Trades Department--202 628-2131
  Nancy Browning, President, HERE Local 30--619 516-3737

•  ‘Miss Saigon’ Production added to AFL-CIO National Boycott List (9/26/2003)

The AFL-CIO has added the non-Equity road production of the musical “Miss Saigon” to its national boycott list at the request of the Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), the union representing 45,000 stage actors and stage managers in live productions.

A production of Big League Theatricals, Miss Saigon is the company’s second road show on the AFL-CIO boycott list. The road production of “The Music Man” went on the list in August 2001.

Actors’ Equity has mounted a national campaign under the slogan “Fair Wages All Stages” to publicize the growing problem of non-Equity road shows produced by Big League Theatricals and other companies.  Equity President Patrick Quinn reports that Equity actors worked 21,000 weeks on tour over the past year, compared to some 44,000 weeks on tour five years ago. “There is a crisis on the road and Equity has taken steps to address it,” Quinn said. He noted that Big League Theatricals was charging similar ticket prices as Equity shows without similar wages and benefits.  According to the union, producers believe that there is more money to be made on the road than on Broadway. Consequently, they are increasingly entering into licensing agreements with non-Equity producers to avoid contractual agreements for Equity shows.  “Actors and stage managers in these non-Equity productions receive very small salaries and negligible per-diems and health insurance packages,” Quinn said.

AEA recently mobilized the union’s members in the Boston area to leaflet theater patrons at the Wang Center to alert them to the dispute. They were joined by Boston members of the American Federation of Musicians protesting the use of a “virtual orchestra” to accompany the show.

Miss Saigon’s schedule through 2003 includes runs in Philadelphia (9/30-10/5), Richmond, VA (10/14-10/19), Huntsville, AL (10/21-10/26), Toledo, OH (10/28-11/2), Newark (11/4-11/09), Gainesville, FL (11/11-11/16), Charlotte, NC (11/18-11/23), Clearwater, FL (11/25-11/30), Ft. Myers, FL (12/2-12/7) and Sarasota, FL (12/9-12/14).

Other current Big League Theatrics productions include “The Music Man,” “Blast II—Shockwave,” “A Few Good Men Dancin’,” “The Nutcracker,” “Direct From Broadway” and “The Reduced Shaekespeare Co.”

Contact: Charles Mercer, President, Union Label & Service Trades Department 202-628-2131
Maria Somma, Actors’ Equity Association 212-255-3154 
Cell 917-386-7129 
email: mariasomma@aol.com

• Adam’s Mark Hotel in Buffalo Added to AFL-CIO Boycott List (8/11/2003)

  The AFL-CIO has added the Adam’s Mark Hotel in Buffalo, New York, to its boycott list at the request of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE).

  Buffalo IUOE Local 17 won representation rights for a unit of 16 maintenance mechanics, groundskeepers and building service personnel in a National Labor Relations Board election in July 2000 by a margin of 14-2.

  The election was marred by incidents of employer harassment, intimidation and interference-including direct management orders to workers not to sign authorization cards and a directive to notify the company’s human resources department if anyone asked them to sign a card. Those allegations were validated by a Board complaint issued on September 27, 2002.

  The union initiated bargaining in September 2002, but after the first meeting, the company began a pattern of delay and bad faith bargaining that eventually led the Engineers to file more charges with the NLRB.

  According to Local 17 Business Manager Mark Kirsch, negotiators for Adam’s Mark took a leisurely approach to bargaining-scheduling only one or two bargaining sessions every month and taking nine months to produce an initial employer proposal.

  Following an NLRB hearing in February 2002, the company avoided a federal court injunction by withdrawing a key demand for the right to unilaterally change any contract provisions.

  However, instead of knuckling down to negotiate a first contract, Adam’s Mark reversed fields again in April 2003 when the company’s attorney declared negotiations stalemated and left the bargaining table.

  Local 17 has mounted informational picket lines during the hotel’s busiest nights and hand billed patrons at the Adam’s Mark during high-profile events. The union also assisted the NAACP when that organization put up picket lines to protest discriminatory personnel practices by Adam’s Mark. New York Sen. Hillary Clinton (D) walked the picket line with the workers on one recent occasion, later sending a letter to Adam’s Mark management encouraging them to return to the bargaining table.

  Contact: 
  Charlie Mercer, President, UL&STD, 202-628-2131
  Mark Kirsch, Business Manager, IUOE Local 17, 716-627-2648

• Grand Hotel, Minneapolis Placed on AFL-CIO Boycott List at Request of HERE (8/11/2003)

  The Grand Hotel Minneapolis has been added to the AFL-CIO Boycott List at the request of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union (HERE).

  The former Minneapolis Athletic Club, which had been a union facility for more than 70 years, was purchased by the Wirth Companies in 1998 and closed for renovations. When Wirth reopened the 140-room hotel in 2000, HERE Local 17 initiated contract negotiations. The talks sputtered and finally ground to a halt in the Spring of 2003, according to Jaye Rykunyk, president of HERE Local 17.

  As for negotiations, “Wirth’s organization made one initial proposal, and didn’t move off that proposal for three years,” according to HERE Secretary-Treasurer Nancy Goldman. Goldman said those union workers who voted when the company tendered a “final offer” contract rejected the proposal.

  The union alleges that the local National Labor Relations Board did a “shoddy job” of investigating some 30 unfair labor practice charges filed by Local 17 and failed to prosecute the two charges that it did not summarily dismiss.

  The union formally “withdrew interest” in the Grand Hotel in April 2003 to thwart plans by Wirth to press for a decertification vote. That maneuver frustrated the company, leading to an unsuccessful effort by Wirth to recruit other Minneapolis hoteliers to fight the union.

  Contact:
  Charlie Mercer, President, UL&STD, 202-628-2131
  Thomas Snyder, HERE, 202-661-4206

   

Algood Foods, producers of peanut butter carrying the Reeses brand name as well as generic peanut butter with store-brand labels that include IGA, Safeway, Price Wise and Price Saver, has been added to the AFL-CIO National Boycott List at the request of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Algood also sells peanut butter as an ingredient for snack food products—ice cream, cookies and candies. Manufacturers purchasing Algood products include Hagan Daz, Meijers, Marzetti’s, Pillsbury, Nabisco, Apple Valley Farms, and Nellson Candies.

Sixty production, maintenance and sanitation workers represented by Teamsters Local 89 at the company’s main plant near Louisville, Kentucky were forced out on strike on October 14, 2002 over what are essentially dignity issues.

The strike was sparked when the workers voted to reject management demands for heavy-handed new rules on absenteeism, to remove union workers from equipment maintenance and repair functions and to curtail workers’ voices in setting vacation schedules.

Contact:
Louis Malizia, Corporate Affairs Department,
International Brotherhood of Teamster, 202-624-6800
Charles E. Mercer, President,
Union Label & Service Trades Department, 202-628-2131

For over a year New York Local 1108 of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) has been trying to negotiate a first contract for installers employed by the DISH Network, a subsidiary of EchoStar Communications. The company responded by firing a prominent union activist employee and rescinding a pending wage increase for the unit.

CWA has requested that the AFL-CIO place EchoStar on the AFL-CIO National Boycott List.

Last December, EchoStar agreed to settle unfair labor practice charges shortly before the National Labor Relations Board convened a trial over the merits of the union’s case. Under the terms of the out-of-court settlement, the company agreed to back pay for the fired worker and restored the cancelled pay raise for the entire unit. However, according to union negotiators, the company has continued to dodge actual bargaining and "stall progress toward a first contract."

EchoStar provides satellite dish television service to some six million subscribers nationwide. It has requested permission from the Federal Communications Commission to merge with its next largest and only competitor, Hughes Communications which operates a satellite television service through its DirectTV subsidiary. That merger request is still pending.

Contact:
Jeff Miller, Director of Public Affairs, Communications Workers of America, 202-434-1164
Charles E. Mercer, President, Union Label & Service Trades Department, 202-628-2131