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Recent local Workers Rights Victories that
Washington State Jobs with Justice is Celebrating
(June 15, 2005)
Roll Call of Victories
In a joint campaign with the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) of WA JwJ, janitors at UW School of Medicine off-campus labs recently made progress toward achieving affordable healthcare. UW Administrators have committed to requiring leases to include the statement "janitorial service providers should receive fair wages and health care benefits when performing services at the facility." In addition, the UW is renegotiating leases at two of the off-campus facilities to include this language.
As a result of these efforts, building owners should be working with the janitorial company, Cascadian, to establish an affordable health care plan for workers in all UW facilities to be in place by September. Thanks to all of JwJ activists who contacted the School of Medicine Vice Dean and attended our March action at a leased UW Medical School Building to express our concern that workers who clean toilets for the UW School of Medicine also deserve healthcare, regardless of immigration status. Our calls and emails support an ongoing campaign conducted by SLAP activist students at UW that included student delegation visits to UW Administrators, collecting almost 300 petition UW students, staff, and faculty signatures, and protests at UW media events to celebrate UW-Paul Allen building openings.
We will need to closely monitor whether janitors actually get healthcare and livable wages. Stay tuned to whether we will have to take action again. We are excited that this precedent could impact all future UW contractors as it should.
In the name of "national security," the Bush Administration has launched an attack on hundreds of thousands of civilian federal defense workers. Is this the height of hypocrisy? For more info on the Bush plan, see below.
Federal workers and JwJ are standing for all worker rights by organizing and taking action for the right to an independent voice in the biggest national workplace. Because this is such hypocrisy, we can make a difference in this struggle. This month, the federal workers union (AFGE) and JwJ organized an informational picket and leaflet at the gate to Fort Lewis and Madigan hospital. Gauging from the scores of military truck horns blasting, thousands of leaflets accepted by drivers in fatigues and civies, the strong showing of local Faith leaders from Tacoma Catholic Worker and Associated Ministries and St. Leo's and First United Methodist, and the fair story in the Tacoma News Tribune the next day, we know that actions like these can jump start a movement in the federal workforce. In fact, over 35 federal worker union members showed up at 7am to participate in the picket. Several days later and after several more federal worker union rallies through out the nation, Bush delayed implementing his new system.
Bush is trying to impose a "National Security Personnel System" (NSPS) on thousands of Federal workers in our state (750,000 nationwide) so that his team can run the government like a dictator. Hospital workers at Madigan and at the Beacon Hill and American Lake VAs, civilian workers at Fort Lewis, McChord AFB, National Guard Camp Murray, and many other Dept. of Defense workers will be thrust into a patronage system where they could be transferred anywhere in the world on virtually no notice, and without meaningful appeal. Do you hear that sound? – That's the backdoor draft.
The next time a courageous federal worker reveals torture at a foreign base, that worker could be transferred to that very base in retaliation. Whistle-blowers who expose misuse of funds or false schemes like Bush's Social Security privatization could face exile. Raises and discipline will be at the arbitrary whim of bosses without appeal. When civilian workers are shipped to combat zones, Bush will then fill these jobs with privatized low-wage companies like his Texas war-profiteer friends such as Alan Ritchie, the current unionbuster of the day invading Auburn, WA. Unless we fight back, in the name of our US government, Bush will strip almost 1 million workers' right to collective bargaining and unionizing (a recognized international human right). This is all clearly spelled out in Bush's NSPS: http://www.afge.com/Index.cfm?Page=DefenseConference.
Stay tuned for JwJ and AFGE planning a Workers Rights Board hearing and strategic action on this critical issue.
The current janitor contractor at University of Washington-Tacoma (Pro-Team) does not provide affordable healthcare to the workers who clean the campus. After the janitors started organizing with SEIU 6, then joined forces through JwJ with low-income residents fighting for affordable housing around the campus, and synchronized with UW students demanding healthcare accountability through SLAP (see above), the UW-Tacoma administration has opened the janitor contract to bid. The Pro-Team bosses may be on their way out! Contact the new UW-Tacoma Chancellor, Patricia Spakes, at (253) 692-5646 or at pspakes@u.washington.edu and thank her for opening the bid and encourage her to make the right decision: choose a responsible contractor that provides affordable family healthcare.
Almost 200 homecare workers employed at Visiting Nurse Personal Services in Northwest Washington successfully organized a union last week, striving to improve their wages, benefits, and working conditions. The JwJ Whatcom Organizing Committee recruited Nick Mele, Board President of the Whatcom Peace and Justice Center, to verify that a majority of workers had signed cards in favor of organizing with the Office & Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) local 8, and to pledge his support for homecare workers around NW Washington. The workers expressed that they want to enjoy the other benefits that OPEIU 8 homecare workers have, including paid vacation, holidays, and sick leave, and seniority rights, and they look forward to getting to the bargaining table to address their issues. These homecare workers work throughout Northwest Washington, including Island, Whatcom, and Skagit Counties. For more information, contact Cindy Schu at OPEIU 8 at 206-441-0160.
While we celebrate these victories, we have much organizing before they are secure. We need our combined volunteer activism and funding to continue to build a better world.
Please support WA State JwJ!
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