Labor Notes compiled by Jeff Burman Leedham Concedes Teamsters Race Tom Leedham, backed by the Teamsters for a Democratic Union, conceded defeat in the election for the presidency of the nation's largest private- sector union. The Teamsters, with a membership of 1.4 million, will now be led by James P. Hoffa, son of former Teamster president James R. Hoffa. "I will take Mr. Hoffa at his word that he will work for real union reform," said Leedham. "If he does not, I will continue to work with other rank-and-file Teamsters to hold his feet to the fire." As a measure of Leedham's strength, he tallied roughly 40% of the vote while running on a shoestring budget. This despite his opponent's $6 million war chest and four years campaigning. Perhaps the most ironic tribute to Leedham and the TDU is the fact that Hoffa was forced to run as a reformer. In victory, Hoffa called for strengthening the union and for "bipartisanship," a point certainly noiced by the AFL-CIO. ABC Locks Out NABET-CWA On November 3 ABC News locked out some 2,200 union technicians in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington, D.C., who had been working without a contract for 18 months. NABET contends that ABC, owned by the Walt Disney Co., has demanded an unconditional union agreement on contract provisions that would reduce pension contributions, create a two-tier pay scale, impose an increase in temporary work, and exclude NABET-represented employees from new computer-based technologies. NABET-CWA is the National Association of Broadcast Employees & Technicians, Communications Workers of America. It is a separate entity from IATSE, so none of our members are directly affected by the lock-out. The action by ABC was in response to a 24-hour NABET strike that was held on November 2. The strike was triggered by ABC's persistent refusal to provide NABET with essential rate information for ABC's proposed health care coverage under the Disney Signature Plan. ABC contended it did not have the rate information and that the insurance companies declined to provide it to them because they considered it to be confidential and proprietary. In the days leading up to the 24-hour strike, the logjam was nearly broken. When ABC learned of NABET's plans to strike, it told the union, on October 31, that it had had further discussions with the insurance carriers and believed NABET would be provided sufficient information to satisfy its requests. The strike was carried out anyway and the lock-out was announced later the same day. ABC said that it would not allow union members to return to work unless and until the union agreed not to strike without first providing a 72-hour advance notice. Two days later, ABC advised NABET that the insurance companies were "amenable to presenting the remainder of the requested information to the union under certain conditions designed to protect the companies' proprietary and confidentiality interests." On November 19 the regional NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) dismissed an unfair labor practice charge filed by NABET-CWA, in which ABC was accused of failing to submit information to the union in a timely manner and locking out NABET employees. NLRB regional director Daniel Silverman, in his formal dismissal letter, stated that since Disney/ABC advised NABET that additional responsive information would likely be forthcoming, he could not conclude that the strike was in response to an unfair labor practice. He stated further that an employer may lock out striking employees in order to put pressure on a union to keep them from calling future strikes without giving proper notice. An appeal to the national office of the NLRB is anticipated by December 3. Meanwhile both sides continue to negotiate with federal mediators in Iselin, New Jersey. NABET is urging supporters to call ABC president Robert Igar at (212) 456-6400 to urge an end to the lock-out. Alternatively, call a NABET local near you to help with their ongoing picketing, which is taking its toll. Many celebrities and politicians have refused to cross the picket lines at ABC, including former heavyweight champion George Foreman, former President Jimmy Carter and Los Angeles city attorney James Hahn, among others. Labor Party Holds Second Convention Over 1,200 delegates representing over 300 union locals from around the country met in Pittsburgh, November 13-15, to discuss an alternative to the current two-party political system. Anthony Mazzocchi of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union has been the inspiration for the emerging Labor Party. "On issues Americans care about - trade, health care, welfare reform - the two major parties have sided with corporations," said Mazzocchi. John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, counters that labor's limited resources could be best applied to rebuilding the union movement and supporting labor's friends in congress. The Labor Party embraces issues that one would find in many European labor parties. It calls for expanded public-sector jobs at a living wage, two months of severance for each year of service for laid-off workers, enhanced rights to organize unions, universal access to federally supported health care, an end to the corporate domination of elections, an end to corporate welfare, an end to taxes that favor the wealthy, and, of course, many other labor-friendly issues. Contact the Labor Party at P.O. Box 53177, Washington, D.C. 20009. Their telephone number is (202) 234-5190. U.S. Supreme Court Backs SAG The High Court ruled that the Screen Actors' Guild can continue to enforce contracts that tell actors their membership in the union is required. National Right to Work Foundation advocates had urged the Court to throw out the union contract provision known as a "membership" clause, the "holy of holies" to any collective bargaining agreement, implying that union membership within a bargaining unit could then be optional. Leo Geffner, SAG's lawyer, said that he was delighted with the unanimous win before the Supreme Court. "They [the NRWF] took such an extreme position that they lost." Time Magazine on Corporate Welfare While thousands of American working families had their welfare benefits slashed, Corporate America collected an annual $125 billion in welfare payments, reports Time Magazine in a three-part series which first ran in the November 9 issue. The article scrutinizes tax breaks, grants, low-interest loans, real estate deals and subsidies that federal, state and local governments provide to businesses. Many of these payments to corporations are conditional, based on promises to create jobs. Yet, in many cases company promises of jobs don't materialize while needed public projects that might otherwise have found public funding are neglected.   Jeff Burman is an assistant editor representative on the Guild's Board of Directors.   Reprinted from The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter Vol. 19, No. 5 - September/October 1998   Guild Home | Newsletter Home | Top of Page   Copyright © 1998, All Rights Reserved by The Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 700