MARCH 19, 2007
Skilled UAW Members Mark 1st Anniversary of Strike
AFL-CIO Adds Bach Division of Conn-Selmer to Boycott List
The Vincent Bach Division of Conn-Selmer, Inc., in Elkhart, Indiana has been added to the AFL-CIO boycott list. The Division, a Conn-Selmer subsidiary, makes high-end trumpets, saxophones and trombones—largely for professional musicians. The instruments carry the “Bach” imprint.
On strike since April 1, 2006, the 230 skilled employees represented by United Auto Workers Local 364, are battling to protect their wages, job security and health benefits. The workers have voted down three successive company proposals—all of which include wage cuts, mandatory overtime and substantial benefit changes. Four months into the strike, the company began hiring replacement workers.
The strike has been costly to the company. “By their own admission, the company lost $1.8 million in the first month of the strike,” according to UAW Regional Director Mo Davison. The company says if it cannot extract adequate givebacks from the workers it may be forced to shift its production overseas.
Because of the training and experience requirements necessary to manufacture the intricate musical instruments made in the Elkhart plant, many of which carry price tags of $20,000 or more, replacement workers have been unable to match the output of the plant before the strike began, Davison explained.
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AFL-CIO Adds Blue Man Productions to Don’t Buy List
The AFL-CIO is asking union families to boycott the Blue Man Group, a theatrical production company headquartered in Las Vegas running shows concurrently in five U.S. cities: Las Vegas, Boston, New York, Chicago and Orlando. The company also produces Blue Man shows in London, Berlin and Toronto.
The decision to put Blue Man Productions on the official Boycott list was taken at the request of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts (IATSE) with support from dozens of performing arts unions in the U.S., Canada and Europe.
“This production bills itself as ‘cutting edge’ as an entertainment concept, but it is a throwback to the dark ages in labor relations,” declared AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Rich Trumka. “Blue Man Productions is about to learn a harsh lesson in labor solidarity, an experience they could have avoided by simply acknowledging the right of their workers to bargain collectively.”
IATSE’s Las Vegas Local 720 was certified as the bargaining agent for stagehands employed by the company following a May 25, 2006 NLRB election. Officials from the Local stress employees are predominantly concerned with health care, retirement coverage and safety on the job.
Efforts to negotiate an initial agreement for the 44 employees involved were stonewalled by Blue Man Productions management despite earlier pledges to abide by the outcome from principal partner Matt Goldman during the period leading up to the election. Goldman retained Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld, a politically-connected law firm whose partners include Democratic bigwigs Robert Strauss and Vernon Jordan along with President Bush’s nephew George P. Bush, as its counsel for the election and subsequent challenges.
Lawrence Levien, a former NLRB attorney now on the Akin Gump payroll, has represented Blue Man Productions throughout the process. Nevertheless, the union has beat back company appeals at the regional and national level, where a three-member panel ultimately upheld the union’s right to bargain and affirmed the unfair labor practice charges against the company. Blue Man Productions has appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. At the union’s behest, attorneys for the NLRB lodged a counter motion to enforce its bargaining order with the appeals court. It may be months before the court acts.
Meanwhile, IATSE has secured pledges of support from 36 labor organizations including performing arts unions in the U.S., Canada, Britain, Norway and Germany as well as an endorsement from the massive Union Network International (UNI), an international confederation of 900 unions in 140 nations representing 15 million workers.
Stagehands for Blue Man Productions had a collective bargaining agreement through IATSE Local 720 until October 2005 when the company refused to renew that agreement after moving from the Las Vegas Luxor Hotel to its new Las Vegas venue at the non-union Venetian Hotel.
Upcoming tour dates and venues for Blue Man’s 2007 U.S. productions:
February 1, 2007, Yakima (WA) Valley Sundome • February 2, Everett (WA) Events Center • February 3, Portland, (OR) Memorial Coliseum • February 6 Spokane (WA) Arena • February 7, Boise (ID) Idaho Center • February 9, Sacramento (CA) ARCO Center • February 10, 2007 Oakland (CA) Arena • February 11, Bakersfield (CA) Rabobank Theatre • February 12, Los Angeles (CA) Gibson Ampitheatre •
February 13, Phoenix (AZ) US Airways Center • February 15, Amarillo (TX) Civic Center • February 16, Bossier City (LA) CenturyTel Center • February 17, Biloxi (MS) Beau Rivage Casino • February 18, Little Rock (AR) Alltel Arena • February 19, Huntsville (AL) Von Braun Center Arena • February 21, Tallahassee (FL) Leon County Civic Center • February 22, Orlando (FL) TD Waterhouse Centre • February 23, Ft. Lauderdale (FL) BankAtlantic Center • February 24, Tampa (FL) St. Pete Times Forum • February 25, Ft. Myers (FL) Germain Arena • February 27, Miami (FL) BankUnited Center • March 1, Columbia (SC) Colonial Center • March 2, Norfolk (VA) Constant Convocation Center • March 3, Charlottesville (VA) John Paul Jones Arena • March 4, Knoxville (TN) Thompson-Boling Arena • March 6, Richmond (VA) Coliseum • March 8, Youngstown (OH) Chevrolet Centre • March 9, Washington (DC) Patriot Center • March 10, Atlantic City (NJ)
Etess Arena-Taj Mahal • March 11, Raleigh (NC) RBC Center • March 13, Columbus (GA) Civic Center Arena • March 15, Evansville (IN) Roberts Stadium • March 16, Memphis (TN) DeSoto Civic Center • March 17, Louisville (KY) Feedom Hall • March 18, Dayton (OH) Nutter Center • March 20, Binghampton (NY) Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena • March 21, Syracuse (NY) War Memorial at Onecenter • March 22, Buffalo (NY) HSBC Arena • March 23, Orilla (ON-Canada) Casino Rama Entertainment Center • March 24, Detroit (MI) The Palace of Auburn Hills • March 25, Grand Rapids (MI) Van Andel Arena • March 27, Green Bay (WI) Resch Center • March 28, Duluth (MN) Entertainment Convention Center • March 30, St. Paul (MN) Xcel Energy Center • March 31, Kansas City (MO) Kemper Arena • April 1, Wichita (KS) Kansas Coliseum • April 3, Peoria (IL) Civic Center Arena • April 4, Dekalb (IL) Convocation Center of Northern Illinois • April 5, Sioux City (IA) Tyson Event Center • April 6, Fargo (ND) Fargodome • April 7, Sioux Falls (SD) Arena • April 9, Rochester (MN) Mayo Civic Arena • April 10, Madison (WI) Kohl Center • April 11, Colombia (MO) Mizzou Arena • April 13, Birmingham (AL) BJCC Arena • April 14, 2007, New Orleans (LA) Arena • April 15, Mobile (AL) Civic Center Arena • April 17, Greenville (SC) BI-LO Center • April 19, Philadelphia (PA) Wachovia Center • April 20, Hershey (PA) Giant Center • April 21, Baltimore (MD) 1st Mariner Arena • April 22, Wilkes Barre (PA) Wachovia Arena
CONTACT: Charles Mercer, President,
Union Label and Service Trades Department
(202) 508-3700
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Vance Security Stifles Union Representation For Its Own Employees, Others (10/04/04)
The AFL-CIO has added Vance Security to its national boycott list. The action was taken in response to moves by Vance management to stifle union representation for company personnel.
“Vance’s business practices and corporate culture effectively deny workers the right to freely associate for the purpose of improving their jobs, their professions and their lives,” said Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
SEIU Local 26 in Minneapolis reports that Vance managers and supervisors have menaced any employees seen talking to union organizers. Vance officers have also been told that signing a union card “is not an option” if workers expect to remain employed with the company.
Perhaps best known as a leading picket line guard force, Vance has been involved in a number of high-profile labor disputes in recent years. The company itself boasts that it has been involved in at least 1,000 “events” and its guards played prominent roles in major strikes—including at the Detroit News and Free Press, Pittston Coal and Caterpillar.
Vance claims to have pioneered the use of video surveillance on picket lines. In addition, the company has an entire division—the Vance Workforce Staffing Team—dedicated to strike breaking.
In Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, SEIU has spearheaded a cooperative labor management effort to raise private security standards, but Vance has refused to participate. SEIU Local 26 President Dan Klingensmith charges that Vance “may be positioning itself to undercut the higher standards for training pay and benefits” that the joint program will set.
Contact:
Charles Mercer, President
Union Label & Service Trades Department
202-628-2131
or, Andrew McDonald
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
213-673-2294
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.
Adam’s Mark Hotel, Buffalo, New York (8/2/2004)
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.
‘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
Satellite TV Firm ‘EchoStar’ Added to AFL-CIO National Boycott List (10/25/02)
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