Labor Matters Compiled by Jeff Burman Legislative Tally: 1999 What a year for California! In a gratifying series of bill signings, California Governor Gray Davis signed 12 bills championed by organized labor. Among them: Prevailing Wage, Senate Bill 16, signed into law June 1, 1999 Daily Overtime, Assembly Bill 60, July 20, 1999 Sick Days for Family Care, AB 109, July 23, 1999 Age Discrimination, SB 26, August 2, 1999 Underground Economy, AB 633, September 29, 1999 Picketline Freedom of Speech, AB 1258, October 5, 1999 Omnibus Civil Rights, AB 1670, October 10, 1999 Health and Safety, AB 1127, October 10, 1999 Apprenticeship Standards, AB 921, October 10, 1999 State Disability Insurance, SB 656, October 12, 1999 For more on these bills, please see either the California Federation of Labor web site or the California State Senate web site. Job Flight Legislation Carries On In Washington, a tax credit provision for low budget productions has been included in a Republican bill to raise the minimum wage. The provision, sponsored by Representatives Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) and Jerry Weller (R-Illinois), would allow a 20% tax credit for the first $20,000 in wages paid on TV and feature productions budgeted under $10 million. But, its success seems less than likely. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer (R-Texas) wants the provision dropped because it was not reviewed by his committee. Conservative critics wondered if the "biggest benefactor may be the adult film industry." Democrats are shunning the bill in favor of a Democratic alternative that raises the minimum wage more rapidly and does not cut taxes as much. Proponents of the tax credit for film and TV are confident that regardless of the provision's outcome, the issue will persist. "It's out of the water," said Becerra. "Now it will always be on the radar screen." In California, last we heard, the Job Flight bill (AB358), penned by California State Assemblyman Scott Wildman had moved from the Assembly, where it had passed, to the Senate Tax and Revenue Committee, where it stalled. California Governor Gray Davis told Senate Democrats that he was not about to sign a bill that might negatively impact state revenues. But that was not the end. The tax rebate bill, designed to offer incentives to film and television companies that stay in California, has been inserted into another bill, Senate Bill 756, which is a banking and corporate tax bill. Jack deGovia, who is spearheading the Film and Television Action Committee's (FTAC) efforts, expects the Governor to sign the new incarnation of the bill in January, providing he can re-mobilize the campaign that sent 30,000 letters to Sacramento last time. (For more information on deGovia's campaign visit their web site. ) The California job flight bill has not, as yet, been endorsed by organized labor. Restless in Seattle On another international issue, the AFL-CIO has urged union members to demonstrate against the efforts of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which met on November 30 for their Third Ministerial Conference, in Seattle. The WTO is an international organization that establishes global rules for trade between nations. Its decisions are then brought before its member nations' parliaments for ratification. Currently there are no guidelines establishing even minimal workers' rights under the WTO. Critics have argued that the trade organization's decisions have by-passed direct democratic processes. For more information about the WTO, please see their web site. "Big business and democracy are on a collision course, and democracy has been losing," said consumer advocate Ralph Nader. "The WTO is the greatest surrender of our national, state and local sovereignty and subordinates our critical health, safety and environmental standards to the imperatives of international trade," said Nader at a rally on the steps of Congress. The AFL-CIO held a major march and rally of its own on Tuesday, November 30, at Memorial Stadium, in Seattle. Following the program, thousands of union members marched through downtown Seattle. The theme of the event was "Make the global economy work for working families." Here, union members demanded that basic labor rights be included in WTO agreements. These rights include a minimum age for child labor, freedom from forced labor, freedom of association, freedom from discrimination and the right to join together and bargain collectively. The AFL-CIO has also pushed for the WTO to adopt annual reviews on compliance by its members in regard to workers' rights, and for penalties for governments that fail to meet these standards. Poorer nations often view their labor pool as a competitive advantage. Some have called the AFL-CIO's efforts "a protectionist device." When WTO member countries have tried to ban products made by child labor, or prison labor, or tried to ban products that were considered too dangerous for import, the WTO has been instrumental in bringing about punitive trade tariffs which effectively blocked these objections. For more information on this issue, see the Labour News Network web site or the Labornet web site . IBM "Gets Real" Speaking of international business interests, IBM workers seeking to oppose a reduction in company pensions have announced the formation of Alliance@IBM/CWA. The advocacy group, affiliated with the Communication Workers of America (CWA), will build toward full representation and bargaining rights. In May, IBM announced it would switch most workers from a defined-contribution pension plan to a cash-balance plan, which would reduce the pensions of longtime and older workers. The move attracted national media attention and hearings in the U.S. Senate, and led to a partial concession by Big Blue. Some were allowed to remain in the old system, but thousands were forced into the cash-balance plan. "This is only the beginning of our collective action. Imagine what you could accomplish" if the whole company was organized, CWA President Morton Bahr told IBM workers at a Capitol Hill press conference. Find CWA info at their web site. Some panelists in the Senate hearings urged employers to keep their employees better informed of complex changes being made in pension plans. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) went further, saying he believes "Congress is going to change the law. Older workers are being gouged." IBM Senior Vice President J. Thomas Bouchard told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, "There just isn't enough money to go around to give a choice to everybody. Let's get real." Bouchard added that most of IBM's competitors don't even offer pension plans or health benefits for retirees. Often, highly skilled employees jump from job to job, not staying long enough to earn retirement benefits. Representatives Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) introduced a bill imposing a 50% excise tax on pension surpluses of companies that create such new plans without giving workers the option to remain in the original pension plan. Déjà Vu for Kathie Lee Once again, sweatshops are producing garments for TV personality Kathie Lee Gifford's clothing label, announced a labor rights group in New York. Gifford's representatives offered to put a stop to the alleged abuses. The National Labor Committee said two workers were fired in September and a union organizer was subjected to death threats after questioning working conditions in the Caribbean Apparel factory in American Park, a free-trade zone in Santa Ana, El Salvador. Workers on hand at the New York press conference said that women in the factory were forced to take pregnancy tests and worked 12- to 15-hour days at 60 cents an hour in poorly ventilated buildings. Outside the buildings were razor wire and armed guards. At the same news conference, a representative of Kellwood, the apparel company whose contractors make clothing for Gifford's label, made a surprise appearance to present its side. "We want to sit down with you and address these charges, which are very serious," Robert Adler, chairman of the Kenwood division. "We have dispatched investigators in El Salvador, and they are addressing these allegations." Charles Kernaghan, Executive Director of the National Labor Committee and Adler agreed to have further meetings to coordinate future monitoring of offshore production to make sure it adheres to conduct codes agreed upon by U.S. companies to reduce the exploitation of garment workers. In 1996, Kernaghan revealed a similar link between Gifford's label and sweatshops. Golden Time at McDonald's? In another instance of big business facing determined union opposition, a group of mostly teen-aged McDonald's workers in Squamish, British Columbia, voted to join the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW). Seeing the potential for an international precedent, corporate lawyers representing the Golden Arches chose to stall, challenging the CAW on every legal technicality they could invent, including invoking local Child Labor Laws. Having stalled negotiations for more than six months, McDonald's began a decertification campaign. By then - with less than half of the original shop members still working there - a majority of employees voted to disband the union. It was the closest any Canadian McDonald's workers have come to a collective bargaining agreement. Attempts in other locations in Canada and the U.S. have all been crushed. (McDonald's, with its 23,500 restaurants in 113 countries, has been notorious in its opposition to unionizing. In the 1994-7 "McLibel" trial, company executives acknowledged quashing some 400 unionization efforts worldwide-in the early 1970s alone.) Organizers of young employees gamely carry on. The CAW had an unprecedented, successful organizing drive of concession workers at a Cineplex Odeon in Montreal, and at a Wal-Mart in Windsor, Ontario. Elsewhere, the United Food and Commercial Workers turned a similar miracle at Borders Books & Music outlets in Des Moines, Chicago and New York, as well as the west coast chain Noah's Bagels. Barnes & Noble's are next. For more, visit The Left Business Observer web site.   Jeff Burman is an assitant editor representative on the Guild's Board of Directors.   Reprinted from The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter Vol. 20, No. 6 - November/December 1999   Guild Home | Newsletter Home | Top of Page   Copyright © 1999, All Rights Reserved by The Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 700