12/5 SF Hearing On Agressive Union-Busting Tactics In N. CA

Hearing on Aggressive Union-Busting Tactics During Recent Labor
Struggles in San Francisco and the San Francisco Region

San Francisco City Hall, December 5, 2005 @ 3 p.m.

Sponsoring Supervisor: Jake McGoldrick, District 1

December 10th is International Human Rights Day. One of the basic human
rights guaranteed by the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human
Rights is the right to form and join trade unions. However, recent
unionization and contract struggles in Northern California have been met
with increasingly emboldened and aggressive tactics. Besides using
illegal firings and other job-security and economic intimidation
tactics, employers are hiring security firms which act as private
militia in foreign conflicts, and physical violence and threats thereof
are becoming increasingly prevalent.

These testimonies by union activists are part of the AFL-CIO's call for
forums and rallies to be held on or around International Human Rights
Day regarding attacks on the right to unionize:

* Tim Paulson, Executive Director, San Francisco Labor Council.
* Jack Chernos, AFM Local 6, and Art Persyko, IBT Local 85, retired.
Jack Chernos and Art Persyko were followed and threatened by
Modern Industrial Services, a union-busting company hired by
California Pacific Medical Center CPMC during the recent contract
struggle with SEIU-UHW.
* Blue Diamond worker. Workers at Blue Diamond Growers are
attempting to join ILWU Local 17. Blue Diamond has fired vocal
pro-union workers, threatened loss of pensions, and the National
Labor Relations Board has found strong evidence that Blue Diamond
has committed 28 separate violations of labor laws.
* Comcast worker will describe how Comcast has fired vocal pro-union
employees on flimsy charges and used threats and intimidation to
fight the unionization of Comcast workers.
* Tony Price, GCIU Local 4N. Tony Price will speak on the
intimidation tactics used on pre-press workers, and the violence
he was personally a victim of, during contact struggles with the
SF Chronicle. Local 4N prepress workers continue to work without a
contract.
* Kim Rohrbach will describe the struggles faced by workers trying
to unionize at Real Foods. The National Labor Relations Board
recently found that pro-union workers at Real Foods were illegally
fired.
* Steve Zeltzer, Chair of the KPFA Labor Collective will speak on
possible actions which San Francisco can take, including the
formation of a San Francisco Labor Commission modeled on the labor
commission in Berkeley, passing of a resolution in favor of the
Employee Free Choice Act, enactment of EFCA-esque legislation
(such as card check union recognition), and calling on the
California attorney general to enforce the law banning
professional out-of-state strike breakers.
* Doug Slaydon, UFCW Local 588 union activist and butcher at the
Fairfield Safeway was fired after he decided to run for office in
the union. This political retaliation is illegal under the law and
Doug Slaydon will talk about how the discharge took place and the
effect of political retaliation on worker and union rights.
* Nat Courtney, a shop steward at IAM Local 1546 was fired on June
15, 2005 along with all the other union mechanics from Berkeley
Doten Honda as a condition for the sale of the company. The new
company refused to hire many of the union members and later fired
all the union members who refused to train non-union workers to
take their jobs.

Contact: Jack Chernos
Cell: 415-812-6203


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Recent Stories By Rachel Osterman


NLRB hits firings at Blue Diamond


Workers who back a union allege they were intimidated.


By Rachel Osterman -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Tuesday, November 1, 2005
Story appeared in Business section, Page D1

Blue Diamond Growers has illegally threatened, interrogated and fired
workers seeking to organize a union at the cooperative's downtown almond
processing plant, according to a complaint by the National Labor
Relations Board.

The complaint, which follows a nearly four-month investigation, comes
after pro-union packers, mechanics and other workers filed charges
contending that their efforts to bring in Local 17 of the International
Longshore & Warehouse Union were met with company intimidation.

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Blue Diamond, which produces roughly a third of California's
billion-dollar almond crop, has remained union-free for 94 years. It has
about 700 full-and part-time employees.

The NLRB's eight-page complaint appears to agree with many of the
union's charges filed in June. The complaint names 15 supervisors and
managers who allegedly warned employees that electing a union would
force the plant to close and would cause workers to lose their pensions
and other benefits.

Plant managers also interrogated workers about their union sympathies
and fired four employees because they were union supporters, the
complaint contends.

"I feel vindicated," said Ivo Camilo, one of the workers who the NLRB
contends were wrongly fired. He spoke Monday at a news conference
outside the cooperative's downtown facility.

"The company is scared for the union. That is why they want to get rid
of every employee who supports the union," said Camilo, who worked at
the plant for 35 years before he was fired in April.

Blue Diamond did not return phone calls. But in an e-mailed statement,
it denied any wrongdoing.

"It is Blue Diamond's position that its actions were justified and that
a formal hearing is the only way to vindicate itself," the company said
in a written statement.

The statement also quoted President and Chief Executive Officer Doug
Youngdahl: "Although some of our employees may be exploring ILWU
representation, we feel that the vast majority of our employees enjoy
the current working environment, our direct communications and the close
relationship that they have with management."

An NLRB complaint is similar to an indictment, except that the charges
are heard by an administrative law judge. A hearing date has been set
for Dec. 5. The judge could order Blue Diamond to reinstate the fired
workers, pay them back wages, stop the alleged threatening behavior, or
determine there was no wrongdoing. The judge's decision can be appealed
by either side to the NLRB's five-member board in Washington, D.C.

Although union supporters have been organizing since August 2004, the
ILWU has no immediate plans for an election.

"The only condition for an election would be when the company is
neutral. You can't have an election in an environment of fear," said
Peter Olney, organizing director for the ILWU.

------------------------------------------------------------------------


Blue Diamond Growers

• What: California's major almond cooperative with nearly 4,000 grower
members. Processes and markets almonds to all 50 states and 90
countries, as well as pistachios and hazelnuts.

• Location: Main plant at 18th and C streets; visitors center at 17th
and C streets.

• Employees: 703 full-and part-time workers, down from about 1,000 in 1995.

• Claim to fame: World's largest tree nut processing and marketing company.


http://www.seiu-uhw.org/mediacenter/pressreleases/page.jsp?itemID=27270980
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 13, 2005
CONTACT:
Thea Lavin
510-520-7732
tlavin [at] seiu-uhw.org <mailto:%C2%ABcontactemail%C2%BB>


Paramilitary security personnel at California Pacific Medical Center
physically assault caregivers at morning rally

Woman hospitalized after kicked to the ground by military trained CPMC
security guard

San Francisco – Several caregivers were physically assaulted by CPMC
security personnel after a candlelight vigil at the hospital this
morning. Striking dietary aide, Lorenna Hernandez, was hospitalized with
abdominal injuries after being kicked to the ground by military trained
security at CPMC (police report # 051155135). Several other caregivers
filed police reports after being kicked and punched by security guards
(police report #051155107).

“The security guards were out of control. I was on the picket line, and
security starting shoving us off the sidewalk,” said Hernandez. “I fell
to the ground and one of the guards kept kicking me in the stomach.
Everyone was yelling at him to stop and trying to get him off me.”

CPMC hired the temporary security personnel from Steele Foundation, an
expensive international security firm that sends private armed guards to
volatile areas around the world. In 2001, Steel Foundation guards were
engaged in fighting a paramilitary coup attempt that resulted in the
death of four people at Haiti’s National Palace. California Pacific
Medical Center hired the Steele Foundation guards in an effort to
intimidate the caregivers forced to strike for better patient care at CPMC.

Since the strike began 31 days ago, Steele Foundation guards have
shoved, spit on, sexually harassed, and threatened Nursing Assistants,
Licensed Vocational Nurses and other hospital caregivers. Yesterday
morning over 70 Steele personnel attacked a largely female group of
caregivers protesting peacefully at the hospital’s Pacific campus.

“We were just walking on the picket line and security started running
toward us. They told us we needed to get off the sidewalk, but it is our
legal right. Besides there was fast traffic on the street,” said Maria
Salina, a central distribution aide at CPMC. “They started pushing us,
shoving me hard in my shoulder and neck.” (Continued)

Nearly 800 caregivers were forced to strike on September 13 after
pursuing every possible measure to avoid the walkout, including
accepting a Federal Mediator’s compromise proposal for settlement.
Sutter/CPMC initially accepted, then reneged on a Mediator’s proposal,
which featured safe staffing guidelines and a training fund. Every other
hospital in Northern California, including Kaiser, Catholic Healthcare
West, and Daughters of Charity, have accepted the industry standards
included in the Mediator’s recommendation.