AFIMAC News Bulletin – Covering Strike Security, Work Stoppages, and Labor Disputes

Postal workers in Fort McMurray held a wildcat strike on Wednesday after learning Canada Post plans to hire contractors to handle parcel deliveries.

The workers, who are represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, set up pickets outside the postal depot after receiving a letter from management.

Canada Post says the move is necessary because it can’t hire enough workers in a competitive labour market such as Fort McMurray.

The union believes that ten-hour days, a starting wage of $19 an hour, and lack of a northern living allowance have contributed to the problem.

Union local president Dana Gabriel wants the corporation to rescind the letter and revisit the decision.

“Maybe we can have some discussion about how to better serve Fort McMurray residents,” he said.

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A narcissistic co-worker who seeks constant validation could just be a high-performing, trustworthy, valuable employee or she could be an “insider threat” — a rogue employee with inside knowledge or access who might deliberately or inadvertently cause harm to the whole organization.

While almost two-thirds of Canadian organizations believe they can handle most forms of insider threat, only one in seven has a specific internal definition of the threats it faces, according to a Conference Board of Canada report.

Understanding what drives insiders to take destructive action is a crucial step in preventing harm to the organization, said Preventing, Mitigating and Managing Insider Threats, based on a survey of 115 employers.

Organizations often run into two barriers that impede their ability to deal with insider threats. First, organizational leaders can perceive incidents as largely unpredictable and obvious only after the fact. Second, many believe that because their organization’s business, assets or vulnerabilities are unique, they cannot learn and apply best practices from other organizations, said the Conference Board.

“Malicious actions or unintended mistakes on the part of employees, contractors and other insiders will always represent potential threats to organizations. Managing insider threats begins with understanding the common characteristics of people who could represent a threat,” said Satyamoorthy Kabilan, director of national security and strategic foresight at the Conference Board.

“The key to prevention lies in determining whether the desire for validation is so strong that individuals will resort to inappropriate acts if they believe that they are not receiving the recognition or entitlement they expect.”

Key findings of the survey include:

•Few organizations (14 per cent) have a specific internal working definition of “insider threat” and those that do define it very broadly.

•Privacy and information breaches are seen as the most significant threats (by 94 per cent of respondents), followed by workplace violence (67 per cent), fraud (58 per cent) and theft, loss or damage (53 per cent).

•Two-thirds of respondents (65 per cent) said they felt their organizations could successfully manage most insider threats; 27 per cent said they could handle some cases; four per cent said their organization could not handle a threat.

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President of United Steelworkers Local 2251 Mike DaPrat, representing about 2,000 unionized wage earners at Essar Steel Algoma, has begun discussing dates and times for negotiations for a new contract with the employer.

DaPrat said last Friday afternoon that after meetings are scheduled, the first step would be for the negotiating teams for the union and the company to exchange their contract proposals for consideration.

Local 2251’s current three-year collective agreement will end on July 31, 2013.

Although DaPrat did not say what issues were priorities for the USW, in recent Sault This Week reports, Da Prat had expressed concerns about pension concessions being sought by the employer, and the increasing use of outside contract workers in the steel mill.

Local 2251 held information meetings on April 18 to share Essar’s pension concession proposal with its members.

In December 2012, Sault This Week reported that Local 2251 had filed a grievance against Essar over contracting out jobs to outside workers that should have been filled internally,

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As the afternoon wore on, the number of union members on the picket lines at the University of California medical centers started to thin. But hundreds of workers concerned about staffing levels and pension reforms planned to continue striking throughout the evening.

Union spokesman Todd Stenhouse said that the decision to strike was a difficult one for many.

“These folks would not have gone out if they didn’t believe their patients were at risk,” he said.

One of the strikers, Johnnie Macon, said he has worked at UCLA for 19 years. He works in the operating rooms and said there are not enough staff doing what he does.

“I feel like I am overworked and not being compensated for it,” he said.

Stenhouse said there were no problems at any of the medical centers. At UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica, a union member was asked by the hospital to help with CT scans in the emergency room and did just that.

Because of the planned two-day walkout, hundreds of surgeries were postponed and patients were diverted to other hospital emergency rooms. The cost to the five UC medical centers could reach $20 million, officials said.

Dianne Klein, spokeswoman for the UC president’s office, said hospital administrators were pleased that many union members decided to cross the picket line.

“These are dedicated professionals who take their jobs and their patients very seriously,” she said. “Systemwide, well over half of our union-represented employees who were scheduled to work showed up to do their jobs Tuesday. In the most critical positions, that percentage was often over 90%.”

At UC San Francisco Medical Center and UC San Francisco Benioff Children’s Hospital, 1,095 AFSCME patient care workers and employees from two other unions were scheduled to work during two shifts Tuesday. Of those, 601 crossed the picket lines and worked, said Dr. Josh Adler, chief medical officer.

Adler said that his hospitals performed “reasonably well” during the first day of the strike, largely because of advance planning and bringing in “a lot more nurses.”

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LAS VEGAS (KSNV MyNews3.com) — In two weeks, the Culinary Union’s contracts with major Strip and downtown casinos are set to expire.

To get prepared, thousands of Culinary Union members voted Monday to increase their membership dues in the event of a strike.

If a strike happens, union members will pay $25 extra each month to give financial help to those union members who walked out on their jobs in order to strike.

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n response to a request filed by the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), the state’s labor board responsible for overseeing public sector collective bargaining, Sacramento Superior Court Judge David l. Brown today (May 20) issued an injunction limiting the number of union employees that may strike UC medical centers.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), which represents UC patient care workers, has announced it is asking members to strike UC medical centers on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 21 and 22. AFSCME-represented UC service workers also are expected to strike in sympathy with patient care employees.

The University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE) union, which represents UC health care professionals, announced it also is asking its members to strike UC medical centers in sympathy with AFSCME for one day on May 21.

A copy of the injunction is available here. (PDF)

In bringing the matter to court, PERB issued a formal complaint against the unions asserting that encouraging employees who perform essential functions critical to patient health and safety to strike constitutes an unfair labor practice. The UC Office of the President today held a news conference calling attention to the impact the strike will have on patient care at the five medical centers.

“We appreciate the injunction and PERB’s complaint, even though both are more limited than what we were seeking, as we believe it’s completely inappropriate to put patients in the middle of a labor dispute and jeopardize essential services to them as a negotiating tactic,” said Dwaine Duckett, vice president for systemwide human resources at UC. “Leaders of both unions claim their chief concern is patient care, but it’s very simple: if they strike, services to patients suffer.”

Even with the injunction, Duckett said the threat of an AFSCME strike alone already is impacting patients. For example, UC San Francisco has had to postpone five surgeries for children with complex heart conditions, 12 pediatric chemotherapy infusions, and appointments for two women who need operations by fetal treatment center surgeons. At UC Davis Health System more than 45 surgeries, including cancer surgeries, and more than 500 radiological procedures have been postponed. At UC San Diego Medical Center, more than 120 surgeries in orthopedics, ophthalmology, gynecology, cardiac, urology and spine have been postponed, and 60 gastroenterology procedures have been postponed. UC medical centers in Los Angeles and Irvine are having to do likewise. If AFSCME goes through with its strike, it is also expected to affect UC students since AFSCME members work at student health centers.

UC patient care technical employees include technicians responsible for operating equipment for ultrasounds, X-rays, MRIs, CT scans, mammograms and other tests; radiation therapists who  prepare and treat cancer patients; pharmacy technicians who deliver medications to patients; respiratory therapists who help patients with breathing and treatment plans; and technicians who sterilize equipment used in surgeries.

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that has kept the country on standby for 15 days. Workers, mainly peasants, women and Aymara alternative groups responded to a call by President Evo Morales last week, when he called for “defending democracy and the change process” as a response to what he considered an attempted coup d’etat.

These sectors carried out counter demonstrations in most of the countryâ�Ös departments, while a large group, called the Ponchos Rojos, arrived in the capital from El Alto.

The dialogue between the government and the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB), promoter of the strike, reached a standstill this morning given the union’s refusal to suspend its measures to pressure the government.

On state-owned television, Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera reaffirmed that before resuming talks, the union needed to stop its marches and road blockades, due to the damage they were causing the population.

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A strike of almost 7,000 Liquor Control Board of Ontario employees has been averted as both sides reached a tentative deal Thursday night, a few hours shy of a midnight deadline.
“We have a new tentative agreement with our 6,700 unionized employees,” said LCBO spokeswoman Heather MacGregor at a press conference. “The ratification process will now be under way. The LCBO board has to approve, as does the government, but we’re happy that a strike has been averted.”
Although details of the agreement won’t be released until both the board of directors and the workers vote on whether to accept it or not, both parties agreed that the deal seems fair to both sides.
“I think the team was able to strike a very fair balance for everybody and our team is unanimously recommending it to the membership for ratification,” said Ontario Public Service Employees Union president Warren (Smokey) Thomas.
It is welcome news for Ontario liquor store workers and tipplers across the province who were anxiously waiting for the marathon talks to conclude. With the assistance of a mediator, the two sides had been negotiating all day under a news blackout.
“We’re very satisfied,” said Denise Davis, chair of the bargaining team for the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU). “We had some modest demands from our members and we feel that we have negotiated a fair and decent settlement with those interests at the table.”

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As an overall trend, union membership rates in the U.S. are declining. The Department of Laborreports just 11.3% of America’s wage and salary workers were union members last year, down from 11.8% in 2011. Compare that with 1983, the first year comparable data became available: The overall U.S. union membership rate was 20.1%.

The U.S. labor movement’s roots were traditionally found in manufacturing, service and public-sector jobs. But as that factory work diminishes and the economy changes, more white-collar workers are looking at organizing.

According to the Los Angeles Times, professionals now make up 62% of the U.S. workforce, up from 15% in 1977. Given the still-challenging economy and the many companies demanding more time and effort from workers to keep profits up while demand is lackluster, a lot of professionals are unhappy.

“Employers have been downsizing, asking employees to take on larger roles, making them work more hours,” Nicole Korkolis, a spokeswoman for the Office and Professional Employees International Union, told the Times. “People are feeling like they need an advocate.”

Gary Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University, says white-collar workers tend to see themselves as individuals who should be promoted for their accomplishments in the workplace — and who tend to leave jobs when they don’t like the situation rather than protest conditions. But that’s changing.

“There is a great deal of unrest among professional workers, who don’t have a history of union-joining behavior,” Chaison told the newspaper. “They represent the frontiers of unionization in America.”

Most big unions haven’t given much thought to workplace professionals, preferring to concentrate their efforts on sectors that employ large numbers of workers, like hotels and fast-food restaurants. But some recent labor disputes are apparently drawing their attention.

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