LABOR MATTERS
AFTRA Deal Becomes a Template for SAG Talks
compiled by Jeff Burman
 Jeffrey Burman |
The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) signed a three-year deal that will act as a template for the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), which began a second round of talks on May 28.
The tentative deal covers about a dozen shows and includes new media provisions similar to those in the Directors and Writers Guilds deals for programs streamed over the Web and downloads of TV shows, and sets the same thresholds for coverage of made-for-the-Internet programs, writes Dave McNary in Variety. As with the DGA and WGA deals, the AFTRA pact did not include any gains in DVD residuals.
Significantly, AFTRA said the pact retains actors’ consent over online use of clips, an issue that was a dominant concern at the negotiations. Both SAG and AFTRA had opposed the AMPTP’s proposal that actors agree to drop the consent requirement for online clips to establish a “viable business model” that could compete with pirated clips on the Web.
AFTRA said the pact calls for it and the producers to “develop a mechanism” by which performers can provide or withhold consent for non-promotional use of clips from TV libraries, adds McNary.
 It's Obama, in a TKO At the end of a bitter-fought presidential primary, New York Senator Hillary Clinton's historic campaign for the Democratic Party's nomination was turned aside by Illinois Senator Barack Obama's insurmountable delegate count. For weeks, Obama was careful to praise his opponent, patiently bidding for party unity. "Senator Clinton has shattered myths and broken barriers and changed the America in which my daughters and your daughters will come of age, and for that we are grateful to her," Obama said. Clinton finally bowed out four days after Obama clinched the nomination. Cartoon by Bill Schorr ©United Feature Syndicate, Inc. |
MPTF Takes Care of Union Caregivers Too
Healthcare workers at the Motion Picture and Television Fund (MPTF) clinics
in Los Angeles have approved a five-year contract.
The Service Employees International Union’s United Healthcare Workers-West and the MPTF have ratified an agreement on a new five-year contract, writes Dave McNary in Variety. The agreement covers over 570 healthcare workers at the six Los Angeles-area MPTF Hospital and Health Centers through October 2012. The settlement came after a meeting between the organizations’ bargaining committees with IATSE President Tom Short assisting.
The caregivers, serving much of the motion picture industry, overwhelmingly
ratified the contract on April 25. The agreement provides retroactive wage
increases, improved job security and a ban on subcontracting.
 In this handout photo provided by UtahAmerican Energy Inc., miners work in a mineshaft at the Crandall Canyon coal mine on August 14, 2007 near Huntington, Utah. Nine miners died here after an August 6, 2007 cave-in. Photo by UtahAmerican Energy Inc. via Getty Images |
Utah Mine Disaster Deemed Criminal by Congress
In August 2007, six miners and three rescuers died in a tragic mining
accident in Utah. According to a Congressional investigation, the
general manager and other senior staff at the Crandall Canyon Mine
near Huntington, Utah, hid information from federal mining officials
that could have prevented the disaster and should face criminal charges,
writes Ian Urbina in The New York Times.
The report also said that the mining company should never have submitted a request to remove coal from the part of the mine where the collapse occurred, and that federal mining officials should not have approved the request, because of foreseeable dangers.
The Congressional committee conducting the investigation sent a referral
letter to the Department of Justice in April, asking the department to investigate
whether the mine manager, Laine Adair––on his own or in a conspiracy
with others from the mining company––willfully concealed facts
or made intentionally false statements to federal mining investigators about
the condition of the mine before the August collapse.
On August 6, roof supports in a section of the mine gave way in a major collapse
that left six miners fatally entombed. Ten days later, three rescuers died
after more tunnels fell.
The deaths were avoidable, the 150-page report said. Five months before the August disaster, a similar collapse had occurred in another section. Instead of informing federal mining officials about the earlier collapse, the report said, the mine operator cleaned up the site and went on with work in a nearby section.
“Even after the near-disaster in March, the company forged ahead with plans to do the same kind of retreat mining in the South Barrier that it had done, with nearly catastrophic consequences, in the North Barrier,” said Congressman George Miller (D-California), chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, which conducted the investigation.
Former NLRB Chairman Joins Union-Busting Firm
The former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, Robert Battista,
has asked President Bush to withdraw his re-nomination to the Board and has
joined a law firm specializing in representing management in labor disputes,
according to an unsigned Associated Press report.
Democrats, workers’ right groups and unions have criticized Battista’s NLRB leadership. ‘’It’s unbelievable that President Bush would re-nominate Mr. Battista to the Board, after he led the most anti-worker, anti-labor, anti-union Board in its history,’’ said Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) in January, after Battista was re-nominated.
For the past seven years, Bush administration appointees have pursued a corporate agenda that favored the wealthy over working people, writes James Parks in the AFL-CIO’s blog Now.
“Some of the most egregious actions came from the National Labor Relations Board, which is supposed to protect workers’ freedom to join unions and bargain for a better life,” Parks writes. “But the Republican-dominated NLRB in recent years took away the rights of millions of workers to be represented by unions, made it harder to form unions through majority sign-up, limited the ability of illegally fired workers to recover back pay, and allowed employers to discriminate against union supporters in the hiring process.
“Battista told a US House-Senate joint hearing in December he doesn’t believe that the primary purpose of the National Labor Relations Act is to promote collective bargaining,” Parks continues. “Now he can put that belief into practice out in the open. He asked Bush to withdraw his nomination as NLRB chairman and joined the notorious union-busting firm Littler Mendelson.”
Union, States Recruit Farm Workers from Mexico
Frustrated with waiting for Congress to overhaul the nation’s immigration
laws, the United Farm Workers plans to recruit Mexican laborers to pick crops
on US farms, according to another unsigned AP story.
The union’s efforts to recruit temporary workers under an existing government program follows similar moves by lawmakers in Arizona and Colorado, who are also trying to create new pathways to bring in foreign farm workers without approval from Washington.
In April, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez signed an agreement with the governor of the Mexican state of Michoacan to help recruit local residents to apply for temporary jobs on US farms––all of which would be covered under union contracts.
Under the new agreement, government representatives in Michoacan will distribute information on US labor protections. In exchange, the union will negotiate contracts with US growers willing to guarantee that legal workers’ rights will be respected on both sides of the border, UFW International Director Erik Nicholson said.
Goya Foods Ordered to Negotiate with Union
A federal appeals court has ruled that Goya Foods, which calls itself the
largest Hispanic-owned food company in the United States, must negotiate with
a union that won an election to bargain for its workers at a Miami warehouse,
according to yet another unsigned AP story.
In late April, the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that Goya Foods must negotiate a contract with Goya warehouse and sales workers in Miami. UNITE, a predecessor union of UNITE HERE, won NLRB elections to organize these workers in 1998. But a decade later, the workers still do not have the benefits of a union contract, according to an unsigned story on PR Newswire.
In 1999, the NLRB’s General Counsel charged Goya with 23 violations of US labor law, including threats of job loss, plant closings, interrogation, discrimination in work assignments, and the firing of at least three union supporters. Later in 1999, Goya broke off bargaining with UNITE and illegally withdrew recognition of the union.
It took the NLRB until August 2006 to make its ruling. Goya was found to
have unlawfully withdrawn union recognition, and the NLRB ordered it to resume
bargaining with the union. But the NLRB did not order that Goya agree to a
contract for the workers; it cannot under current law. Goya was found to have
engaged in unlawful threats and interrogation. For those violations, it had
to post a notice in its plant saying it wouldn’t do it again and would
reimburse backpay to workers who lost work because of the company’s
misconduct. No fines or penalties were assessed; none are available under
current law.
The April 2008 opinion requires Goya to comply with the August 2006 order
by the NLRB to resume bargaining with the union.
Chevron Accused of Human Rights Abuses in Myanmar
In April, before Cyclone Nargis left millions destitute, a human rights watchdog
group accused Chevron Corp. of complicity in human rights abuses along a natural
gas pipeline in Myanmar in which it holds a stake and said Chevron could be
sued, according to an unsigned Reuters story.
EarthRights International claimed in a report that Myanmar’s army has in recent years committed serious abuses, including rape and murder, while providing security for a pipeline that moves gas from a field located offshore in the Andaman Sea. Myanmar is a Southeast Asian country, formerly known as Burma, located between Bangladesh and Thailand.
The International Trade Union Confederation released a similarly damning report on Myanmar that calls for existing sanctions to be extended to the finance, oil and gas sectors––the engines which help keep the military in power.
Senate Rejects New FCC Media Ownership Rules
The Senate voted in mid-May to overturn new, looser media ownership restrictions
in the 20 biggest US cities, defying a White House threat to veto the measure,
according to an unsigned Reuters story.
Senators, on a voice vote, approved a resolution nullifying the new relaxed ownership rules adopted in December by the Federal Communications Commission. The vote, on a resolution of disapproval introduced by Senator Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota), moved lawmakers a step closer toward overturning the new FCC rule.
“Today’s historic Senate vote is a resounding victory for the
vast majority of Americans who oppose media consolidation,”
said Josh Silver, executive director of the advocacy group Free Press.
“We applaud the bipartisan leadership of Senators Dorgan and
Snowe for acting in the public interest. But to stop Big Media from
polluting our local airwaves with more junk journalism and propaganda,
we need the House to move this legislation forward quickly.”
The House version of the resolution (HJR 79) was introduced by Representa-tives
Jay Inslee (D-Washington) and Dave Reichert (R-Washington) in March.
Jeff Burman represents Sound Editors on the Guild's Board of Directors. He can be reached at jeffrey.burman@nbcuni.com.