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HavenWorks.com/labor/archive/2003 |
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- Labor Archive
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ARCHIVES NEWS Labor News History Archives Labor Archives 2002 Labor News Archives 2001 Labor News Archives Labor News |
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- "US
Airways pilots union wants CEO, CFO out." ... "Pilots
union leaders at US Airways on Tuesday called for the removal of airline
CEO David Siegel and Chief Financial Officer Neal Cohen. Management's "failed
business strategies," not high labor costs, are behind the airline's continued
losses since emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, union leaders
charged." -By Daniel Reed
-USATODAY
- 
- 
- 
WalMart
- "The
Wal-Mart You Don't Know." ... "The giant retailer's
low prices often come with a high cost. Wal-Mart's relentless pressure
can crush the companies it does business with and force them to send jobs
overseas. Are we shopping our way straight to the unemployment line?" ...
"Wal-Mart is not just the world's largest retailer. It's the world's largest
company--bigger than ExxonMobil, General Motors, and General Electric.
The scale can be hard to absorb. Wal-Mart sold $244.5 billion worth of
goods last year. It sells in three months what number-two retailer Home
Depot sells in a year. And in its own category of general merchandise and
groceries, Wal-Mart no longer has any real rivals. It does more business
than Target, Sears, Kmart, J.C. Penney, Safeway, and Kroger combined. "Clearly,"
says Edward Fox, head of Southern Methodist University's J.C. Penney Center
for Retailing Excellence, "Wal-Mart is more powerful than any retailer
has ever been." It is, in fact, so big and so furtively powerful as to
have become an entirely different order of corporate being." ... "Wal-Mart
wields its power for just one purpose: to bring the lowest possible prices
to its customers. At Wal-Mart, that goal is never reached. The retailer
has a clear policy for suppliers: On basic products that don't change,
the price Wal-Mart will pay, and will charge shoppers, must drop year after
year. But what almost no one outside the world of Wal-Mart and its 21,000
suppliers knows is the high cost of those low prices. Wal-Mart has the
power to squeeze profit-killing concessions from vendors. To survive in
the face of its pricing demands, makers of everything from bras to bicycles
to blue jeans have had to lay off employees and close U.S. plants in favor
of outsourcing products from overseas." -By Charles
Fishman with contributions by Andrew Moesel Issue
77 -FastCompany.com
-
- 
- 
- "The
Wal-Mart You Don't Know: The giant retailer's low
prices often come with a high cost. Wal-Mart's relentless pressure can
crush companies it does business with and force them to send jobs overseas.
Are we shopping our way to the unemployment line?" ... "The retailer has
a clear policy for suppliers: On basic products that don't change, the
price Wal-Mart will pay, and will charge shoppers, must drop year after
year. But what almost no one outside the world of Wal-Mart and its 21,000
suppliers knows is the high cost of those low prices. Wal-Mart has the
power to squeeze profit-killing concessions from vendors. To survive in
the face of its pricing demands, makers of everything from bras to bicycles
to blue jeans have had to lay off employees and close U.S. plants in favor
of outsourcing products from overseas." ... "Of course, U.S. companies
have been moving jobs offshore for decades, long before Wal-Mart was a
retailing power. But there is no question that the chain is helping accelerate
the loss of American jobs to low-wage countries such as China. Wal-Mart,
which in the late 1980s and early 1990s trumpeted its claim to "Buy American,"
has doubled its imports from China in the past five years alone, buying
some $12 billion in merchandise in 2002. That's nearly 10% of all Chinese
exports to the United States." -By Charles Fishman
200312Issue
77 -FastCompany.com
-
- "Trade
gap widens as imports at record high; jobless claims up."
... "Record imports widened the U.S. trade deficit in September and last
week's jobless claims stayed at a level suggesting an improving labor market,
according to government reports Thursday that offered more signs the economy
has turned a corner." ... "The latest snapshot of the country's trade activity
showed that the trade gap grew 4.4% to $41.3 billion in September, the
Commerce Department reported Thursday. September's trade deficit was slightly
larger than the $40.2 billion shortfall that economists were forecasting."
-USATODAY
- "Jobs
data boost global recovery hopes." ... "Unexpectedly
strong job creation figures on Friday boosted confidence in the prospects
for a sustainable economic recovery in the US." ... "The economy generated
126,000 jobs in October, well ahead of market expectations of about half
that amount, official payroll data showed. Economists hailed the figures
as the most substantial sign yet that stronger economic growth was feeding
through into the labour market." -By Christopher Swann
-FT.com
-
- "US
workers see hard times: High-tech firms tout
outsourcing as crucial to survival." ... ["The White Collar Job Migration."]
... "In the next generation of high-tech companies, entrepreneurs and venture
capitalists are making the outsourcing of jobs overseas part of their business
plans from the start. Ruthlessly, perhaps, they see outsourcing as the
latest innovation in an industry built on innovation." ... "To the surprise
of white-collar programmers who thought themselves immune, many of their
jobs have turned into ``grunt labor'' positions exported to India, China,
Russia, and other countries and filled with skilled but less expensive
workers. IBM Corp., Oracle Corp., Microsoft Corp., EMC Corp., and other
high-tech leaders have set up software design and maintenance centers in
India, and scores of other large companies have farmed programming work
to Indian consultancies." -By Chris Gaither
-Boston/Globe
- 
- 
- Tucson
News - "Limits
of disability act tested: The high court considers
Wednesday whether a former addict should be afforded employment protections."
... "Would a company that refuses to rehire somebody who says he's overcome
his drug and alcohol addiction be guilty of violating the Americans With
Disabilities Act (ADA)?" ... "That is the question the US Supreme Court
takes up Wednesday in an Arizona case with major implications for companies
with zero-tolerance hiring and firing policies." ... "The case stems from
a lawsuit filed by Joel Hernandez, a 25-year employee of the Hughes Missile
Systems Company in Tucson." -By Warren Richey
-CSMonitor
- "The
MP3 Economy: How labels and artists divvy up
your MP3 dollar." ... "The Artist's Cut: Twelve percent is
average, but successful bands often hammer out better contracts. In many
major-label contracts, charges for "packaging" and promotional copies are
subtracted from the artist's cut, leaving the talent with a measly 8 percent."
-By Nancy Einhart 200306
Ed. -Business2.0
- 
- "Supreme
Court backs family leave: Justices rule that
1993 U.S. law applies to all state employees." ... "After limiting suits
by disabled and older state employees, the ·
U.S. Supreme Court put the brakes on its drive to expand states' ·
rights Tuesday and allowed state government workers to sue for denial of
unpaid family leave." ... "In a 6-3 ruling, the court upheld the application
of a 1993 federal law, the Family and Medical Leave Act, to 4.8 million
state employees nationwide. Signed by former President Bill Clinton after
earlier presidential vetoes, it allows employees to take up to 12 weeks
of unpaid leave each year to care for a seriously ill family member. The
ruling allows state employees, like private workers, to seek damages against
their employers in federal court." -By Bob Egelko
-SFGate.com
- 
- 
- "US
quietly eases rules for faith-based groups." ...
"The Bush administration has quietly altered regulations for the nation's
leading job training program to allow faith-based organizations to use
''sacred literature,'' such as Bibles, in their federally funded programs.
Civil liberties activists say the new rules blur the line between religion
and government." ... "The change, made by the US Labor Department last
month, could allow faith-based groups to use religious books as historical
texts or as inspirational stories for job seekers, as long as organizations
do not proselytize or conduct prayer sessions." ... "In a separate action,
the House is expected today to approve a change allowing private groups
that run job training programs to discriminate on the basis of religion
when they hire people to run them. That change, part of legislation to
renew the overall program, would lift a ban that has existed in federal
law for two decades." -By Susan Milligan
-Boston/Globe
-
- "You
Have a Voice in Bringing Executive Pay Back to Earth."
... "It appears the directors of AMR Corp., parent of American Airlines,
are shocked -- shocked! -- that the millions the company lavished on chief
executive Donald J. Carty and other top executives enraged the workers
from whom the company was demanding major wage and benefit concessions."
... "One director, the only one talking late last week, seemed to be saying
that Carty should have been fired, had he not resigned, for failing to
tell the unions about the executive package while letting the board think
he had." ... "Other than the moral malodorousness of it all, an executive
compensation system that detaches pay from performance to the extent that
you get a bonus if you lead your firm into bankruptcy does not seem likely
to function in investors' best interests." -By Albert
B. Crenshaw -WashingtonPost
- "American
union scuttles wage cuts." ... "The prospect of bankruptcy
for American Airlines regained new urgency Saturday after enraged leaders
of the flight attendants' union -- angered over the discovery of undisclosed
pension and bonus plans for top executives --said they're scuttling their
agreement to accept wage cuts." ... "Outside analysts said American's secretive
compensation plans for executives reflect a growing trend --particularly
in troubled industries such as airlines -- toward executives earning millions
regardless of how their company or employees fare."
-Knight Ridder via
-WCFCourier.com
- "American scraps
executive bonuses: Union uproar forces changes
in compensation." ... "After sharp criticism from its unions, American
Airlines dropped a plan Friday to award bonuses to top executives if they
stay at the embattled airline until 2005." ... "The bonuses and a plan
to shield some executive pension funds had caused an uproar among American
employees, who earlier this week approved sharp cuts in their wages and
benefits — savings the company said it needed to avoid bankruptcy."
-MSNBC
- "American Airlines
deal in jeopardy: Disclosure of executive pensions
outrages one union." ... "The Transport Workers Union, which represents
35,000 American Airlines ground staff, said Thursday it would not sign
a deal to help save the ailing air carrier after finding out about a special
pension arrangement that would preserve some of top executives’ pensions
even if the airline went bankrupt. The decision could force the airline
to file for bankruptcy, which it had already threatened to do earlier in
the week." -By Jon Bonné
-MSNBC
- "2,250
American Airlines workers agree to pay cuts." ...
"American Airlines reached tentative agreements with several small labor
groups to reduce wages Saturday as a key union leader warned workers that
the cuts will be deeper if the world's largest airline fails to avoid bankruptcy."
-AP via -USATODAY
- "Wages
of war: Entry-level salaries of troops barely
higher than a theater usher's." ... "The base pay of a private with one
year of service is $15,480 a year, according to Department of Defense military
pay rates. That's slightly more than the $14,144 pocketed by child-care
workers and movie ushers, and the $15, 080 earned by crossing guards in
2002, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics." ... "Base pay for a
corporal with three years of service is $19,980 annually. The entry-level
base salary for commissioned officers, such as soldiers with a rank of
second lieutenant, is $26,200 a year." -By Julie N.
Lynem -SFGate.com
- "Court
allows asbestos anxiety claims: Railroad workers
fear getting cancer." ... "The Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 vote, ruled yesterday
that workers who become ill from exposure to toxic substances on the job
may seek damages to pay for ''genuine and serious'' fear that they will
someday develop cancer, even if they never do get the disease." ... "The
court's ruling came in a case involving railroad workers afflicted with
a lung disease called asbestosis and are fearful about developing cancer.
Legal analysts said the ruling could lead other courts to widen the ruling
to cover additional illnesses and other industries, such as shipbuilding,
whose workers have cited the health effects of similar exposure to asbestos."
-By Lyle Denniston
-Boston/Globe
-
- 
- "UPDATE
1-U.S. airlines say Iraq war could cost 70,000 jobs."
... "U.S. airlines could slash 70,000 more jobs if there were war with
Iraq and the U.S. government did not give the industry more help, the biggest
domestic carriers said on Tuesday." ... "Jet fuel has more than doubled
in price from a year ago to $1.30 a gallon recently. Fuel is the second-largest
expense after labor for an airline. An increase of one penny a gallon costs"
-By John Crawley -Reuters
- "Lessons
from a factory fire: Plant explosion in North
Carolina raises questions of workplace safety in the South." ... "Despite
a horde of new workplace regulations, critics say the South's anti-union
workforce and pro-industry government continue to "wink and nod" at hazardous
manufacturing conditions. "It's dangerous to go to work for most of the
people in this state," says Alyce Gowdy Wright, director of the North Carolina
Occupational Safety and Health Project in Durham, a nonprofit workers'
advocacy group." ... "So far, investigators are focusing on two possible
causes - a newly installed natural-gas line and a cloud of rubber dust
- in the blast that killed four and injured 37. No negligence has been
found with West [Pharmaceutical Plant], a manufacturer based in Pennsylvania."
-By Patrik Jonsson
-CSMonitor
- "Health
insurance costs fire up unions." ... "Rapidly rising
health care costs are causing strife at bargaining tables nationwide as
employers seek to shift some of the burden to workers while unions battle
to save benefits." ... "The first major skirmish this year is expected
Tuesday when up to 17,500 General Electric unionized workers plan to go
on a two-day strike to protest new health insurance deductibles that are
expected to cost GE's full workforce at least $28 million." ... "For GE,
the labor action comes shortly after the firm endured the public unveiling
of its largesse to former CEO Jack Welch. His divorce proceedings revealed
in fall that his retirement perks had included use of the GE jet and a
luxury apartment, perks that he later said he would pay for." -By
Julie Appleby -USATODAY
-
-
- "Airlines
ask Congress for anti-strike measure." ... "Airlines,
which lost more than $9 billion last year, are asking Congress to rescue
the industry by rewriting the federal law that governs airline labor relations
to make it harder for unions to strike, according to officials representing
major carriers." ... "The Air Transport Association, the industry's largest
lobbying organization, is urging lawmakers to revise the Railway Labor
Act of 1926, the federal law that regulates the industry's labor relations.
Airlines, which have been struggling to regain profitability, say labor
expenses are their biggest costs. If their employees' ability to strike
is limited by the federal government, it could make it easier for carriers
to win wage and work-rule concessions." -By Sara Kehaulani
Goo and Kirstin Downey-WashingtonPost
