WIN Week In Review January 25-27, 2008

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/7783

WIN Week In Review January 25-27, 2008

By Doug Cunningham

Ford and the UAW drove another nail into the coffin of good middle-class U.S. auto jobs Thursday with the announcement of a buyout offer going to all 54,000 UAW Ford workers. Ford is offering the one-time cash lump sums to get rid of well-paid autoworkers so they can be replaced with workers earning half the wages. Ford says it lost $2.7 billion in 2007. The Ford buyout offer comes on top of GM’s similar new buyouts this year – part of a strategic plan by the automakers to destroy good wages and benefits won through decades of struggle by the UAW rank and file. Similar buyouts were offered in 2007.

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The House and The White House agreed this week on an economic stimulus plan that would send $600 checks to most U.S. taxpayers, $1200 to married couples. Workers in poverty who earned at least $3,000 last year would get $300 checks. The package doesn’t yet include unemployment compensation extensions or food stamp increases, but they could be added when the Senate weighs in.

Unions at Delphi, including the IUE-CWA, convinced a bankruptcy judge this week to slash bonuses for executives from $87 million to $16.5 million. IUE-CWA President Jim Clark called it a gratifying symbolic victory after workers sacrificed so much at Delphi.

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Thousands of private L.A. security guards in Los Angeles are getting a 40 percent raise thanks to a deal negotiated by the SEIU. The guards are voting on the tentative deal this weekend.

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As Rudi Giuliani campaigns in the sunshine state New York City firefighters are casting a cloud over his efforts. FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Riches says Giuliani’s whole presidential campaign is based on the myth of the former mayor’s competence in the aftermath of 9/11.

: "He didn’t prepare us before, during, or after, and he ran like a coward on 9-11 and that’s a fact."

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The FAA wants to fire air traffic controller trainee Robert Vance because his California National Guard duty has been extended. Vance is threatened with being fired, despite the fact that the FAA approved a leave without pay for Vance to serve in the military. The FAA says it mistakenly granted him the leave. Vance says the FAA shouldn't be punishing him for his military service.

: "I feel it's a real mis-justice. I don't think that's right, I think that I should be allowed to at least come back, because of their error. Or at least to be allowed to retire."

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association is supporting Vance in his effort to keep his job.

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When United Steelworkers member, Eric Powell decided to run for Mississippi State Senate, he thought he could keep his main job with Packaging Corporation of America. But after he was sworn in, the company fired him. Without a union, that would have been the end of the story, but USW District 9 Director, Stan Johnson says the union just got State Senator Eric Powell his job back.

: "Without representational rights and intervention on behalf of the union, the Senator would have clearly been terminated. And we’re proud of the fact that he was elected to the Mississippi Statehouse as a Senator. We encourage our members to get involved politically and we support our members who do. "