Monday, November 28, 2005

The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York),November 27, 2005, Sunday

Copyright 2005 Post-Standard
All Rights Reserved.
The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York)

November 27, 2005 Sunday
FINAL EDITION

SECTION: CNY; Pg. H9

HEADLINE: KATHRYN SUZANNE HONOLD;
JOHN CHRISTOPHER HARDY


BODY:
Dr. David and Suzanne S. Honold, of Fayetteville, announce the engagement of their daughter, Kathryn Suzanne Honold, to John Christopher Hardy, son of Mr. David and Ellen Hardy, of Syracuse.
Kathryn is the granddaughter of the late Angela and Joseph Sindoni, and the late Lucille and Francis Honold, all formerly of Syracuse.
The couple are graduates of Christian Brothers Academy. Kathryn has a B.A. in social sciences from Providence College and a master's in counseling from Syracuse University. She is currently working on a Certificate of Advanced Studies in education. John has a B.S. in industrial labor relations from Cornell University. He is a research analyst for American Technology Research in Greenwich, Conn.
An August 12, 2006, wedding is planned at St. Mary's on the Lake in Skaneateles. A reception will be held at the Skaneateles Country Club.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO NO CREDIT Kathryn Suzanne Honold John Christopher Hardy

Buffalo News (New York), November 25, 2005, Friday

Copyright 2005 The Buffalo News
Buffalo News (New York)

November 25, 2005 Friday
FINAL EDITION

SECTION: NEWS; Focus: The Auto Industry; Pg. A1

HEADLINE: GM's future awaits Delphi's fate;
If Delphi can extract itself from bankruptcy, General Motors might have a chance to recover from years of bad decisions

BYLINE: By Jerry Zremski - NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

BODY:
The future of General Motors Corp. -- which announced the elimination of 30,000 jobs this week -- hangs in the balance at Delphi Corp.
If Delphi can extract itself from bankruptcy with a workable labor agreement -- and billions in help from GM -- the longtime auto industry leader might have a chance to bounce back from years of bad decisions, auto industry analysts said. In fact, GM probably would look at Delphi as the model for its own new deal with its workers.
But if talks between Delphi and the United Auto Workers end in a prolonged strike, Delphi and its workers could drag General Motors into bankruptcy, too.
In other words, it wasn't a divorce that occurred when GM spun off its major parts operations in 1999, the experts say. It was the beginning of a codependent relationship.
General Motors and Delphi "are inextricably linked," said Gerald C. Meyers, a Buffalo native who once headed American Motors. "Delphi is essential to General Motors. You can't run the company without it."
That's because Delphi, which employs 3,800 at a plant in Lockport, makes key parts for every vehicle made by GM, which employs 3,000 at its Tonawanda Engine Plant.
And the same structural financial problems plague the parent company, which lost $4.8 billion in North America in the first nine months of this year, and its bankrupt offspring.
"GM sold Delphi because auto parts manufacturing didn't make economic sense anymore," said Peter Morici, a professor of business at the University of Maryland. "The trouble is, General Motors doesn't make economic sense anymore, either."
Experts said the two companies are both being dragged down by huge "legacy costs," the billions they owe to retirees and longtime workers for pensions and health care. Those expenses stem from the days when GM was bigger and more successful.
GM guaranteed pensions and health care for many Delphi workers and retirees as part of the spin-off agreement. The automaker has said that responsibility alone could cost it $11 billion.
>$60 billion in retiree health costs
Meanwhile, GM faces more than $60 billion in health care obligations to its own retirees.
Japanese competitors like Toyota and Honda, with younger work forces and less expensive labor, don't face anything like GM's burden, experts said.
"Clearly [GM's] competitive position relative to the Japanese manufacturers is affected by the legacy costs," said Howard G. Foster, associate dean of the University at Buffalo's School of Management.
The only way to quickly deal with such cost pressure is to cut expenses elsewhere, which is why GM plans to eliminate 30,000 manufacturing jobs, which is expected to save $7 billion annually.
But experts said that's just one step in GM's effort to heal itself.
The biggest step is likely to come later -- if GM weathers the coming crisis at Delphi.
For now, Delphi and the United Auto Workers appear to be at loggerheads. The company wants to cut wages for its U.S. hourly employees to as little as $10 an hour, down from $27, while trimming 20,000 of its 34,000 production jobs over three years. The union says that is "an insult."
Experts see that exchange as the beginning round of a titanic labor battle.
Meyers, the former American Motors executive, foresees an optimistic scenario where Delphi and the UAW move to the brink of a strike, which is averted by last-minute concessions by the union.
"They're mad," Meyers said, "but they're not stupid."
A deal between Delphi and the UAW, trimming wages and benefits, could become the model for a new agreement at GM when its contract with the union expires in 2007, several experts said.
Then again, if there's a strike at Delphi, all bets are off.
"Within one day, a strike at Delphi would start shutting down GM's plants," said Arthur Wheaton, an industry education specialist at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. "It would be good for GM if Delphi can reduce costs, but if they do that by disrupting the supply of parts, they can absolutely cripple GM."
And the longer a strike goes, the more GM would suffer. Several experts said that GM would burn through its supply of $19 billion in cash in a matter of months and have to declare bankruptcy.
"If that happens, it's like nuclear war," said Eric Merkle, director of forecasting at IRN of Grand Rapids, Mich., a consulting firm that follows the auto industry. "There's nothing left for anybody: [Delphi and its union] would have both just killed each other off."
And they might do irreparable damage to GM, too.
While few experts foresee the company going out of business, some think bankruptcy would destroy the company's reputation at a time when it has other huge problems to overcome.
>GM needs better management
Beyond its huge cost burdens, GM needs better management, analysts said. It can't afford any more big mistakes like the acquisition of Fiat, the troubled Italian automaker that has cost GM upwards of $5 billion, Morici said.
Moreover, while the quality of its vehicles has improved over the years, GM can no longer be so far behind the competition in vehicle design, several analysts said.
"There is no good solution for GM until GM designs cars that everyone must have," Wheaton said.
Bob Kurilko, vice president of corporate strategy at Edmunds.com, noted that leading Japanese manufacturers are 11/2 times faster at bringing fresh models to the market. That's because GM designers, caught in a lumbering bureaucracy, are busy putting together "me too" clones of the same model for the company's various divisions.
"The Japanese manufacturers are always a step ahead," Kurilko said.
Analysts also worry that GM is far too heavily invested in sport utility vehicles when Americans are losing their passion for gas-guzzlers. For that reason and others, GM soon could lose its status as the world's largest automaker to Toyota.
In other words, the automaker's troubles go far beyond those of its main parts supplier.
And where will those troubles end?
"It's hard for me to envision a world without GM," said Foster, of UB. "But I can foresee GM as nothing but another player [in the auto industry] and not a dominant force."
e-mail: jzremski@buffnews.com.

GRAPHIC: GRAPHIC: Uncertain future: Automaker General Motors and its former subsidary Delphi Corp. face major decesions related to the costs of curent and former employees. (see microfilm)

Buffalo News (New York), November 21, 2005, Monday

Copyright 2005 Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Copyright 2005 Buffalo News (New York)
Buffalo News (New York)

November 21, 2005, Monday

HEADLINE: AFL-CIO ready to aid union at Delphi

BYLINE: By Fred O. Williams

BODY:

The Buffalo area is bracing for a labor battle at Delphi Corp., following an exchange of barrages last week by the autoworkers and chief executive Robert S. Miller.
"The (AFL-CIO) Area Labor Federation will definitely play a role in giving support to the United Auto Workers -- at such time they decide they want to take action," said Daniel Boody, president of the Western New York labor organization.
Labor is ready to put its manpower behind letter-writing campaigns, rallies and other efforts to marshal opposition to Delphi cutbacks in the Buffalo area, Boody said. The regional AFL-CIO unit has about 95,000 members.
Already heated labor tensions escalated last week, as UAW leaders called Delphi's latest wage proposal "an insult" and refused to present it to members. It was Delphi's second proposal to unions since filing bankruptcy Oct. 8.
The proposal calls for job cuts of more than 20,000 of Delphi's 34,000 production workers in three years, the UAW said, and would also cut wages to $ 10-$ 12.50 an hour, from a current $ 27 average.
Miller responded saying that at current wages, all Delphi's U.S. plants must shut down, and that the company's proposal is for wages and benefits in line with those at other auto parts plants.
"This is not about moving operations to China, it's about competing with suppliers in the U.S.," Delphi spokesman Lindsey Williams said.
Analysts said the dispute raised fears of a strike at Delphi and caused the stock of its major customer, General Motors, to plummet.
"Negotiations are only as good as the parties negotiating," said Arthur Wheaton, a labor studies instructor at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
Though the possibility remains more than two months away, a Delphi strike would quickly dry up critical parts for the U.S. auto industry, idling tens of thousands of workers and putting a financial squeeze on other auto part suppliers, as well as GM.
Locally, "I would think a strike would be devastating," said Philip Pusateri, a financial adviser at Ameriprise Financial in Lockport. "I wouldn't want to think what it might do to the area."
Pusateri counsels some Delphi workers who are trying to shore up their retirement savings now, with the likelihood of wage and pension cuts looming. But a strike could erase their incomes entirely if the company responds by shuttering its 3,800-job Niagara County plant, he said.
Not only Delphi would be hit. The autoworkers represent more than 10,000 members in the Buffalo area, many of them at plants tied to Delphi and GM or their suppliers.
Local UAW officials wouldn't comment, referring questions to the national organization in Detroit.
The union expects that its contract at Delphi will remain in place at least until Jan. 24, the date that the bankruptcy court in New York may hold a hearing on the issue if Delphi files a motion in mid-December. Judge Robert Drain has 30 days following the January hearing to decide on the contract.
If the judge allows Delphi to impose lower wages, a strike "is a distinct possibility," said Wesley Wells, executive director of the AFL-CIO's Dayton, Ohio region, a Delphi stronghold. "We could be on strike in the next hour."
The unknown in the contentious negotiations is whether GM will step in with financial help, such as retirement incentives, to sweeten the restructuring for workers. Last week, reports said that GM has begun talks with the UAW about payments.
Wells worked at a Chrysler radiator plant in Dayton, now owned by Germany's Behr Group, that is considered a rival Delphi's Lockport radiator factory. The bulk of the work force -- 1,396 people -- make between $ 10.50 and $ 13 an hour, he said, plus benefits including a pension about half as generous as the former level, he said.
However, there remain 89 "tier one" workers who continue to make the former Chrysler wage of more than $ 26 an hour. The plant's tiered wage structure means new employees coming in at lower wages as older workers retire, Wells said, avoiding an outright pay cut.
Delphi and the UAW agreed to a second-tier wage of $ 14 for new hires last year, but a surplus of labor has prevented the company from hiring new workers at the lower rate.
Boody of the Buffalo AFL-CIO said Delphi's crisis illuminates the damage that trade agreements are doing to Buffalo's economy and other manufacturing areas. "People need to understand its not the fault of a worker making $ 20 an hour, it's the fault of free trade agreements by an administration, allowing companies to outsource their work."
According to Delphi, the average wage for U.S. factory jobs is $ 11.91, while it pays $ 26.97 for comparable work. Benefits and retiree costs bring its hourly labor cost to $ 76.46, the company said.
-----
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The New York Sun, November 21, 2005, Monday

Copyright 2005 The New York Sun, One SL, LLC
All Rights Reserved
The New York Sun

November 21, 2005 Monday

SECTION: ARTS & LETTERS; Pg. 11

HEADLINE: Abraham Lincoln's Affair With the Gray Lady

BYLINE: By GARY SHAPIRO

BODY:
Philip Kunhardt III is working on a four-hour documentary series for PBS on the legacy of Abraham Lincoln. It will air in 2009 - the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth. The Knickerbocker spoke with Mr. Kunhardt at a recent party for a book Harold Holzer and David Herbert Donald edited called, "Lincoln in the Times: The Life of Abraham Lincoln, as Originally Reported in the New York Times" (St. Martin's Press). He said the documentary will examine Lincoln's impact on every generation since his death.
Look next summer for Micah Garen and Marie-Helene Carleton's documentary on the looting of Iraqi archaeological sites. Mr. Garen was working on the project when he was taken hostage in Iraq in August 2004. Mr. Garen and Ms. Carleton spoke recently at the Overseas Press Club about their book "American Hostage: A Memoir of a Journalist Kidnapped in Iraq and the Remarkable Battle To Win his Release" (Simon & Schuster). The OPC Freedom of the Press Committee was among those who wrote letters calling for his release.
***
PARMET'S PARTY American labor leader David Dubinsky (1892-1982) led the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, but he was widely recognized outside of labor circles, according to Michael Nash, head of NYU's Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive.
Mr. Nash was praising Robert Parmet's book, "The Master of Seventh Avenue: David Dubinsky and the American Labor Movement" (New York University Press) at a book party on Tuesday at the SEIU Building on Sixth Avenue.
The Russian-born Dubinsky survived exile to Siberia in 1911 and immigrated to America, where he helped found the Americans for Democratic Action and was an energetic supporter of the young state of Israel.
The party's sponsors were the Tamiment Library, New York Labor History Association, the United Hebrew Trades, and the New York Jewish Labor Committee. Mr. Nash said the event had been relocated off campus in support of those graduate students who are on strike for the recognition of their union by the NYU administration.
Richard Strassberg, the director of Cornell University's Kheel Center for Labor Management Documentation & Archives, said: "We are the other labor archives - upstate. I'm here to bear witness to this extraordinary book." He added, "The mammal with the longest gestation period is the historian." Reading this book, Mr. Strassberg said he finally felt he was able to understand the ILGWU" and follow "the Byzantine politics of that union."
"My parents were ILGWUers," Mr. Parmet said. His father was a cloakmaker and his mother made undergarments: "So, yes, the ILGWU is close to me." He noted that his broth er was even a busboy at the union's upstate "resort."
Among those in attendance were the daughter of labor leader Sidney Hillman, Philoine Fried; the granddaughter of Dubinsky, Ryna Appleton; Irwin Yellowitz, president of the New York Labor History Association; and professional freelance archivist Roy Felshin. Crumb cake was served in honor of the birthday of historian Bernard Bellush, who was unable to attend.
***
POLITICAL HUMOR The Foundation for Economic Education, a non-profit devoted to individual liberty and freemarket principles, will celebrate its 60th anniversary next year. The foundation is located in a large house on a 19th-century estate in Irvington-on-Hudson, 22 miles north of Manhattan.
The president of the foundation, Richard Ebeling, introduced a lecture recently by telling a joke that went something like this:
A Republican entered a restaurant in a wheelchair one afternoon and asked the waitress for a cup of coffee. He looked around the restaurant and said, "Is that Jesus sitting over there?" The waitress nodded and said, "Yes." The Republican asked the waitress to give Jesus a cup of coffee, on him. The next patron to shuffle in was a libertarian with a hunched back who ordered a cup of tea. He too inquired, "Is that Jesus over there?" and asked the waitress to give Jesus a cup of tea, adding, "my treat." Next, a Democrat on crutches hobbled in and ordered a cold glass of Miller Lite. He likewise asked the waitress to give Jesus a free glass of cold beer. As Jesus got up to leave, he passed the Republican, touched him, and said, "For your kindness, you are healed." The Republican danced a jig out the door. Jesus next passed the libertarian and touched him, saying, "For your kindness, you are also healed." The libertarian felt his back straighten up, raised his hands, praised the Lord, and did a series of backflips out the door. Jesus then walked toward the Democrat, but before Jesus could say a word, the man jumped up and hollered, "Don't touch me. I'm collecting government disability."
gshapiro@nysun.com

The Weekly Standard, November 21, 2005, Monday

Copyright 2005 The Weekly Standard
The Weekly Standard

November 21, 2005 Monday

SECTION: BOOKS & ARTS Vol. 11 No. 10

HEADLINE: Labor's Little Giant;
Once there was something called the "labor vote."

BYLINE: Arnold Beichman, The Weekly Standard

BODY:
The Master of Seventh Avenue
David Dubinsky and the American Labor Movement
by Robert D. Parmet
New York University, 436 pp., $45
THE FIRST TIME I met David Dubinsky, president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), was in 1942 as he was strolling on the Atlantic City boardwalk with a few colleagues. As a novice labor reporter on the liberal-left newspaper PM, which was loaded with Communist staffers, open and concealed, I had been assigned by PM's labor editor James Wechsler, an anti-Communist like me, to cover the union's executive board meeting.
I walked up to the 50-year-old Dubinsky and introduced myself. He greeted me with a sneer: "Aha, another Communist from PM."
I don't know what impelled me to reply: "If you were 10 years younger, I'd kick the sh--t out of you."
I then turned and strode away. I grabbed a boardwalk hot dog for lunch and then sat down in the hotel lobby, site of the ILG board meeting, trying to figure out how I would manage to get a story after insulting the union president. About 2 o'clock, Joe Shaplen, the New York Times labor reporter, came up to me. Shaplen (his son, Bob, became a noted foreign correspondent) and I had met several times when I was a stringer for the Times and he knew my politics. Said Shaplen: "Dubinsky says you should come into the board meeting. We'll go in together."
Obviously, Shaplen had given me full political clearance. There was an important story at the board meeting: Dubinsky had decided that his union ought to secede from the nascent Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) to return to the American Federation of Labor. John L. Lewis, the CIO founding president, had invited the Communist party to recruit CIO organizers. When Dubinsky had remonstrated with Lewis over his coziness with the CP, Lewis said teasingly, "Well, Dave, who gets the bird, the hunter or the dog?"
A few years later, when Lewis, still the isolationist, even after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, had been kicked out as CIO president by his erstwhile CP colleagues, Dubinsky taunted him with, "So, John, who gets the bird, the hunter or the dog?"
To understand Dubinsky's importance in American history, not merely labor history, and why he deserves a serious, scholarly biography, it is important to understand how furiously the Soviet Union was dedicated to penetrating and controlling Western trade unions. It was a task assigned by Lenin, who had written that Communists must "agree to any sacrifice and even--if need be--to resort to all sorts of stratagems, artifices, illegal methods, to evasions and subterfuges, so as to get into the trade unions, and to remain in them, and to carry on Communist work within them at all costs."
In post-World War II France and Italy, Moscow-controlled Communist parties controlled trade unions in strategic sectors of the economy like the waterfronts. There were months in postwar Europe when the only way to ship NATO arms to both countries was by plane. The Communist-controlled dockers' unions in Marseilles and Leghorn barred unloading vehicles and ordnance from American freighters. One-quarter of the CIO executive board were either CP members or under CP control.
The Soviet attempt to take over the unions had begun in the aftermath of the Russian revolution. And the resistance came almost immediately from Dubinsky's union. He was reviled by the CP, which composed a little ditty that ran something like this:
Oh, the cloakmakers union is a no-good union,
It's a right-wing union by the boss.
And it concluded with this refrain:
Oh! They preach socialism and they practice fascism
In the right-wing union by the boss.
Dubinsky was what we would today call an anti-Communist hardliner. It is a lamentable omission from this biography. Whether out of ignorance or political choice, Robert Parmet devotes a mere sentence to an important event in Dubinsky's political career.
In 1941, Stalin ordered the arrest, as Nazi spies, of two Polish Jewish socialists, Henryk Ehrlich and Victor Alter, both of whom had sought refuge in the Soviet Union from the invading German army. Both men had been members of the Polish Socialist Bund. Determined to wipe out any trace of Polish independence, Stalin ordered the Katyn massacre, in which some 5,000 Polish officers were executed. The Alter-Ehrlich arrests were part of the same genocidal, anti-Polish pattern.
Dubinsky had known both men as a boy in Poland before he emigrated to the United States. When he heard about their arrest, he announced a public protest meeting at Carnegie Hall. Here is where a little scholarly research would have been in order. In the name of winning World War II, Dubinsky was pressured privately to call off this meeting by such eminences as Eleanor Roosevelt, who said she was speaking for FDR. Wendell Wilke sent a letter to Dubinsky saying he wouldn't appear at the protest meeting lest he lose his influence with Vyacheslav Molotov, Stalin's foreign minister.
Another aspect of Dubinsky's anti-communism was his underwriting of the fight against the 1949 Stockholm Peace Appeal, when the Moscow road show--including the composer Dmitri Shostakovich, no less--came to New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel. With Sidney Hook, the embattled philosopher, in the lead, a group of us organized an ad hoc organization which we called Americans for Intellectual Freedom. From somewhere, Dubinsky found the money to finance our coup.
The Dubinsky era encompassed a time when the American labor movement was truly a movement, and was accepted as an integral part of the political process. The founder of the American Federation of Labor, Samuel Gompers, had laid down this edict: Reward your friends and punish your enemies. In other words, no undying loyalty to any one political party.
Major newspapers and periodicals had labor reporters because labor was regarded as an important, full-time beat, which it no longer is. The New York Times once had three labor reporters, one of whom, Louis Stark, won the 1942 Pulitzer Prize "for distinguished reporting of labor stories." Labor leaders like George Meany, Walter Reuther, and Dubinsky were sought after as spokesmen for an important sector of the population. Lyndon Johnson was the last president to worry about the labor vote. (One of the book's excellent collection of photographs shows the six-foot-three LBJ helping the five-foot Dubinsky into his overcoat after a White House visit.)
Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan got along without the "labor vote," whatever it represented in the late 1960s and thereafter. But in the Roosevelt era the labor vote was so important that, in 1939, FDR, preparing for a third-term bid, wrote to Lewis and the AFL president William Green, pleading with them to "end the breach" and negotiate "peace with honor."
Dubinsky was a man of fixed principle on the question of communism and union corruption, but he was pretty flexible about everything else. I was witness to an example of his flexibility. It was during a discussion between Green's successor, George Meany, and Dubinsky on whether to accept a large grant offered to the AFL by the Ford Foundation for a history of the American labor movement. Meany, conscious of past labor difficulties with management, and possible future difficulties, insisted on rejecting the offer. Dubinsky demurred and said, in Yiddish, which he then translated with a grin for Meany's benefit: "Der goy is trayff aber sein gelt is kosher"--or, the gentile is non-kosher but his money is not. But the decision of the blunt-spoken Meany, no shtetl casuist like Dubinsky, won the day.
The foregoing is a helluva thing to be doing to an author whose admirable scholarly work I am supposed to be reviewing. Parmet's work will surely have an honored place on the shelves of Cornell University's Kheel Labor Center, as has an earlier work, David Dubinsky: A Life with Labor, co-authored by Dubinsky himself and A.H. Raskin, one of the New York Times's famed labor reporters.
Arnold Beichman is a Hoover Institution research fellow. His updated biography, Herman Wouk: The Novelist as Social Historian, was recently published.

The Times Union (Albany, New York), November 20, 2005, Sunday

Copyright 2005 The Hearst Corporation
The Times Union (Albany, New York)

November 20, 2005 Sunday
3 EDITION

SECTION: CAPITAL REGION; Pg. C6

HEADLINE: LEAR, M. DORIS (ALUND)

BODY:
CLIFTON PARK -- M. Doris Alund Lear, 82, died Saturday, November 19, 2005 at her home with her family at her side.
Born and raised in Watervliet, she was the daughter of the late Thomas J. and Margaret Tracey Alund. She was a 1942 graduate of Catholic Central High School in Troy. She worked in the NY Telephone office in Watervliet and was a member of St. Patrick's Church and its rosary society.
In 1943, she joined the US Navy W.A.V.E.S training at Hunter College, Bronx, N.Y. and was stationed in Washington, DC, serving at the Naval Air Station in Anacostia. She prepared maps for the fliers of the planes serving in World War II. In November 1943, she was chosen to participate at the famous Sixth War Loan Drive in Chicago, Ill. This affair brought 600,000 people a day to the Navy Pier to meet the famous movie personalities and view the latest equipment the Navy was using. Later, she was assigned to Qtrs D, the largest WAVES station, with 5000 women serving there. She was chaplain's assistant, visiting the hospitals for the sick and wounded in the war. She received the American Victory Medal as well as the American Campaign Medal.
Following her discharge, she moved to Waterford and became active in the Catholic Daughters of America and received a 25-year pin. She returned to the NY Telephone Co. in Albany and Colonie, where she was active as a union representative, before retiring in 1978. She was a well known speaker for women in the work force and placed many articles in labor journals. She was a graduate of the Russell Sage Cornell Labor Management Program.
In retirement, she joined the Shenendehowa League of Women Voters and was active in various political movements and received a beautiful framed picture of President and Mrs. Reagan, which arrived the day they left the White House. She was a member of the American Legion Post #1450 in Halfmoon and was a communicant of St. Bernard's Church in Cohoes. Just recently, she was the subject of a oral interview documenting her World War II experience in the US Navy, which is a part of the NYS Military History Museum in Saratoga Springs.
She was the wife of the late Arthur C. Lear; beloved mother of John G. (Beth) Lear of Clifton Park, Paul A. Lear of Oswego, N.Y. and Alida M. (Joseph) Bunk of Saratoga Springs; grandmother of Sara Margaret Lear, Nicholas Arthur Lear and Patrick Joseph Bunk; sister of Charles Donald Alund of Latham, William R. Alund of Cohoes, Lorraine C. Alund of Watervliet, Jane M. Kimball of Clifton Park and the late Thomas K. Alund and John M. Alund; also survived by several nieces and nephews.
Relatives and friends are invited to attend the Mass of Christian Burial on Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. at St. Bernard's Church, Cohoes with Rev. Lawrence G. McTavey officiating. Interment, St. Mary's Cemetery, Waterford. There will be no calling hours.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to St. Bernard's Church, PO Box 137, Cohoes, NY 12047 or to Catholic Central High School, 625 7th Avenue, North Troy, NY 12182.

NOTES: Published As A Paid Obituary

Buffalo News (New York), November 19, 2005, Saturday

Copyright 2005 The Buffalo News
Buffalo News (New York)

November 19, 2005 Saturday
FINAL EDITION

SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. D5

HEADLINE: James C. Stewart, served on City Council;
March 14, 1936 -- Nov. 16, 2005

DATELINE: NIAGARA FALLS

BODY:
James C. Stewart, who served one year on the City Council and ran the city's only youth hostel, died Wednesday in Sisters Hospital, Buffalo, after a brief illness. He was 69.
He was appointed to the Council in January 2004 to a one-year term, replacing Vince V. Anello, who was elected mayor. But he lost a primary that fall trying to win a full four-year term.
The Falls native, known as "Jimmy," attended local schools and earned a bachelor's degree from Niagara University.
He also did graduate work at Cornell University in labor relations and tourism, and then taught at Niagara University. He eventually became a professional negotiator.
From 1966 to 1981, he taught classes for inmates in a state narcotics treatment facility and was president of Civil Service Employees Association local in Buffalo. He drove a Metro bus for 10 years.
From 1991 to 2001, he taught English at universities in the Shanghai region of China, where he also pursued business opportunities.
He was a Democratic committeeman for 30 years and was former chairman of the Niagara County Towns Democratic Committee.
Mr. Stewart and his wife of 10 years, Ruijin Chen, operated a youth hostel on Ferry Avenue.
Other survivors include two daughters, Debra Payne of Niagara Falls and Nicol Smith of Frisco, Texas; four sons, John, Mark J. and Russell, all of Niagara Falls, and James Jr. of Wheaton, Ill.; a stepson, Harry Tong of Scarborough, Ont.; nine grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. Monday in Zajac Funeral Home, 319 24th St. Burial will be in Niagara Falls Memorial Park Cemetery, Lewiston.

Buffalo News (New York), November 16, 2005, Wednesday

Copyright 2005 The Buffalo News
Buffalo News (New York)

November 16, 2005 Wednesday
FINAL EDITION

SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. B9

HEADLINE: On the Record / Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2005

BODY:
> Thursday's events
Seminars
* Cornell University Industrial and Labor Relations, 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Workplace Education Center, 237 Main St., Suite 1200. Topic: "Renewable Energy, Job Creation and Sustainable Growth." Cost $45, includes continental breakfast, lunch and conference materials. Call 852-4191, ext. 103.
* SCORE, the U.S. Small Business Administration and Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, "Starting and Managing Your Business" workshop, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, Lafayette Square. Cost, $25. Call 551-4301 or visit: www.scorebuffalo.org.
* The Niagara County Community College Student Employment Center and Student Development and Student Activities Departments Job Fair, 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m., NCCC, Main Cafeteria, 3111 Saunders Settlement Road, Sanborn. Call 614-6290.
* Niagara County Community College Small Business Development Center, free "Recordkeeping for Small Business," seminar, 1:30-3:30 p.m., The Summit (formerly Summit Park Mall), 6929 Williams Road, Wheatfield. Registration, call 434-3815.
* Leave a Legacy Western New York and the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo, attorney and financial professionals seminar, 3 to 5 p.m., Kleinhans Music Hall, Mary Seaton Room, 370 Pennsylvania St. Program: "Focusing Client Intentions: Planning, Processes and Passion," presented by Jerry Simon Chasen. Call Tony Astran, 880-1410 or Stuart Lerman, 852-2857.
> Hires/Promotions/Honors
Owl Homes of Fredonia, a manufactured housing and modular housing installation company, named Pat Leon sales and service representative. Previously, Leon owned Leon Builders, a contracting firm based in Silver Creek, for 35 years.
* * *
Hodgson Russ senior associate Jeffrey C. Stravino was recently elected president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Club of Western New York whose mission is to promote fellowship, scholarship and service to Harvard University and to provide networking and educational opportunities for the university's area graduates.
* * *
Quaker's Landing, a memory care community in Orchard Park, named Andrew Hilton, Nora Devoe, Ruth Hunt, Madeline Mullins and Susan Kryszak to its advisory board.
* * *
The board of trustees of the Firemen's Home, a nursing facility for volunteer firefighters, named Thomas J. Mooney president. Mooney is treasurer of the Allegheny County Volunteer Firemen's Association and secretary/treasurer for the Boliver Joint Fire District.
> Company items
MVP Network Consulting of Williamsville was named by SAP America, a business software solutions provider, to introduce Business One, an integrated business management solution for small and midsize area businesses, to area businesses.
* * *
Sun Baked Blends, located at 1615 Kenmore Ave in Kenmore, recently celebrated its opening. The business, owned by Michael and Carmen Davidson, provides bed or booth seven-minute tanning, coffee, smoothies and ice cream.
* * *
Spinneybeck, an Amherst-headquartered Italian leather supplier, introduced Velluto Pelle colors, an aniline dyed leather with enhanced grain texture for Porsche 356, 911 and 912. The collection features 12 authentic colors used in Porsche interior from 1950 through 1973 and can be can viewed at www.spinneybeck.com.
> Patents
Title: "Method for moving contaminants from gases"
No.: 6,962,629
Inventors: Johnson, Michael Clinton (Grand Island, NY); Heim, Carl Joseph (Amherst, NY); Billingham, John Fredric (Getzville, NY) Assignee: Praxair Technology Inc. (Danbury, CT)
Date issued: Nov. 8, 2005

The Ithaca Journal (New York), November 15, 2005, Tuesday

Copyright 2005 The Ithaca Journal (Ithaca, NY)
All Rights Reserved
The Ithaca Journal (New York)

November 15, 2005 Tuesday 1 Edition

SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. 1B

HEADLINE: 'Word nerds' get buzzed on spelling bee

BYLINE: Roger Dupuis II

BODY:
I knew this much: The stakes were high. The potential for embarrassment was great. No less than our collective honor as an institution was at stake.
A woman standing nearby at the registration table soon disabused me of all such notions of grandeur.
"Oh, you're from The Ithaca Journal? You guys can't spell, anyway," she chortled. I think the best I could manage in return was a bemused, slightly sneering guffaw.
Like I said, the stakes were high for Sunday's seventh annual Ithaca Public Education Initiative Adult Spelling Bee.
This is, after all, a town where education and the pursuit of knowledge are more than just buzzwords, but our chief industry, our very way of life. Ithaca is said to be one of the most - if not the most - highly educated of Gannett newspaper markets in America, a fact we're proud of.
And reminded of. Daily. Many times.
So it was naturally humbling when we, representing the wordsmiths, went down for the count after only three words.
Our team consisted of me; Buzz editor, former copy editor and IPEI bee second-year veteran Mary Ciaramello; and Scott Winner from The Journal's circulation department, a former teacher.
Following a painfully pregnant pause, we pulled the correct spelling of pettifog, our first challenge, out of the air. The second, word, menorah, we dished up as smooth as butter.
Then, like a bolt of lightning, ceraunograph struck, and we were done for. The disqualification bell rang, and one could almost hear the thunderclap: "Thus spake Casey Stevens!"
(With apologies to Stevens, the announcer and local radio host. And to Zarathustra. But I digress.)
A ceraunograph, for those who may not know, is an instrument used for recording thunder and lightning. We didn't know that. I'll never forget it now. I'll probably never use it again, either.
Enter the bees. Two very nice little girls, dressed in apian garb - complete with golden wings, no less - buzzed over to each departing team to present the members with little bee pins.
Some teams headed home after their elimination. Not us. Pride aside, this was contest to be relished, and the action was, well, exciting. We stayed until the bitter end.
"It's great to see so many people in the community who value education and who are 'word nerds' like me," my teammate Ciaramello observed.
This being Ithaca, we're hardly the only word nerds.
Participants really got into the spirit, from team names to get-up. The South Hill Spellicans - among the crowd's favorites - brought a stuffed pelican as their mascot. Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations fielded the aptly named Worker Bees. Hospicare's Bee-U-Ties came decked out in glam-fabulous wigs and tiaras.
It was gratifying, too, to be in such good company. The participants included a cross-section of local folks: Writers and doctors, professors and teachers, parent groups and accountants, real estate agents, school administrators, bankers and youth workers, an assemblywoman and a former county Legislature chairwoman.
A true family event, the audience drew spectators of all ages, and all for a good cause. It was a particularly classy gesture that the audience applauded each eliminated team as a mark of respect A- and for some pretty remarkable saves as well.
But in the end, the devil was in the details, you might say.
The final word was energumen, referring to one believed to be possessed by an evil spirit or demon. Being possessed by a few evil spirits myself, you'll notice I've made you wait this long to learn who the winners were.
Bee Cider Selves A- Michael Cuddy, Lisa Harris and Melina Carnicelli from the Ithaca City School District Executive Team - took home the big stuffed bee trophy, presented by "Queen Bee" and Ithaca Alderwoman Michelle Berry.
Congratulations to all on a truly Palladian event.
Roger DuPuis is The Journal's metro editor.

The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York), November 15, 2005, Tuesday

Copyright 2005 Post-Standard
All Rights Reserved.
The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York)

November 15, 2005 Tuesday
FINAL EDITION

SECTION: OBIT; Pg. B4

HEADLINE: BYRNES

BODY:
Doctor Jane Louise Byrnes November 14, 2005
Doctor Jane Louise Byrnes of Syracuse, died Monday, November 14. Dr. Byrnes was a prominent local educator, loved and revered as the principal of Salem Hyde School for 27 years, retiring in 1980. She was a trustee of the Board of Onondaga Community College from 1974 to 1988, and Chairman of the Board from 1982 to 1984. Dr. Byrnes was past president of the New York State Association of Elementary School Principals, from 1956 to 1966, as well as a former member of the Board of Maria Regina College. Dr. Jane graduated from Oswego Normal School in 1949, magna cum laude, received her masters degree and her PhD. in Education from Syracuse University in 1966. From that date she proudly demanded to be addressed as Doctor. And so she was.
Dr. Jane's family includes Berliene Grosh, niece of Lakeland, Florida, John Byrnes, nephew, of El Paso, Texas, Kathleen Byrnes, niece of Dewitt, Michael (Katherine) Byrnes, nephew of Jamesville, James (Gloria) Byrnes, nephew of Cicero, Tamara Byrnes, niece of Valdez, Alaska, Mark Byrnes, nephew of Jacksonville, Florida, David Byrnes, nephew of Tampa, Florida, and James Byrnes of Toms River NJ, as well as many grand nieces and nephews. Dr. Jane's family also includes the many children educated under her care for her 27 years as the principal at Salem Hyde School. In addition to her crowning achievement of good formation and education of children, Dr. Byrnes' accomplishments were many. She was a longtime member of Syracuse Business and Professional Women's Association, and chairwoman of the World Affairs Committee. She was a member of Zonta and Corinthian Club. She was the 1962 President of the Syracuse Association of Administrators. In 1975 she won the Freedom Foundation Of Valley Forge, American Education Medal for her belief and practice of the teaching of American Citizenship skills and responsibilities. Dr. Jane was politically active as well. As a member of the Republican Party, she ran for President of the Syracuse Common Council in 1980. In 1981, a year after 'graduating' from her career in education, Dr. Jane completed additional studies at Cornell University, at the NYS School of Industrial and Labor Relations, to pursue her interest in labor-management mediation. Her beloved sister Mary Kathryn, also a teacher in the Syracuse City School District for many years, predeceased Dr. Jane in 1999. Together they traveled to every continent, even surviving a plane crash in Manila Bay in 1959.
Funeral Services will be Thursday at St. Anthony of Padua Church at 10 a.m.. Burial will be in St. Agnes Cemetery. Friends may call Wednesday from 4 to 7 p.m. at Whelan Bros. Funeral Home, 3700 W. Genesee St.
Contributions may be made to the Sisters of St. Francis, 1024 Court St., Syracuse, NY 13208. Please sign the guest book at syracuse.com/obits
Paid Death Notices are arranged through the Classified Advertising Department. The following obituary information was supplied by families of the deceased via funeral homes. The Post-Standard has not attempted to verify any of the information.

Star-Gazette (Elmira, New York), November 15, 2005, Tuesday

Copyright 2005 Star-Gazette (Elmira, NY)
All Rights Reserved
Star-Gazette (Elmira, New York)

November 15, 2005 Tuesday

SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. 2NEWS01

HEADLINE: PEOPLE IN THE TWIN TIERS

BODY:
COLLEGE NEWS
* Jim Mullen, assistant professor of management at Elmira College, graduated in May with a master's degree in professional studies from Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
Mullen specialized in human resource management at Cornell. He has undergraduate degrees from Rochester Institute of Technology and Elmira College and a master's degree from Syracuse University.
* Brian Wich, son of Steven and Katherine Wich of Alpine, received a Mark Twain Scholarship valued at $60,000 over four years at Elmira College. Wich was recognized during the college's academic convocation. He is a freshman business major.
* Rachel Terwilliger of Horseheads, a senior majoring in nutrition in the College of Human Services and Health Professions at Syracuse University, was among 35 students honored Nov. 4 at the university's Remembrance Scholars convocation.
The Remembrance scholarships were founded as a tribute to the 35 Syracuse students killed in the Dec. 21, 1988, bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 while returning to the United States from a semester of study abroad.
* Pavel Kobyakov of Prattsburgh is studying in Madrid through Syracuse University's Division of International Programs Abroad. Kobyakov is a senior in the university's L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science.
* Carol Gardner, daughter of John and Nancy Delany of Alpine, recently was named to the dean's list at Keuka College in Keuka Park. She was a junior criminal justice major.

Buffalo News (New York), November 14, 2005, Monday

Copyright 2005 Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Copyright 2005 Buffalo News (New York)
Buffalo News (New York)

November 14, 2005, Monday

HEADLINE: New Era, union will receive Cornell award

BODY:

New Era Cap Co. and the Communications Workers of America Local 14177 will receive a labor-management cooperation award Monday from Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
The Champions Work award
, which recognizes cooperative progress, is to be presented at a reception in Hamburg.
Since the end of an 11-month strike in 2002, the Derby-based maker of baseball caps has boosted its output and joined the Fair Labor Association, a watchdog group.
New Era is expected to expand jobs at its Derby factory in the Town of Evans, about 20 miles south of Buffalo, as it moves its headquarters from the production site to downtown Buffalo.
The plant is expected to add 119 jobs over three years, bringing its total to 450, with another 300 jobs at the downtown headquarters.
New Era was nominated for the award by CWA area director David Palmer. The union was elected to represent the plant's production workers in 1997.
-----
To see more of The Buffalo News, N.Y., or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.buffalonews.com. Copyright (c) 2005, The Buffalo News, N.Y.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

The Journal Record (Oklahoma City, OK), November 14, 2005, Monday

Copyright 2005 Dolan Media Newswires
The Journal Record (Oklahoma City, OK)

November 14, 2005 Monday

SECTION: NEWS

HEADLINE: OKC Street Talk: November 14, 2005

BYLINE: Journal Record Staff

BODY:
"Nothing is more expensive than cheap labor."
- Professor Vernon Briggs, a labor economist at Cornell University in New York, regarding how illegal workers are impacting Oklahoma's labor market.
"We're transitioning now from a licensing phase to an actual operational phase. There are things we're going to have to tackle as far as getting things ramped up. Like when you open a new store, you're going to have to do some things to open shop. So we're trying to be frugal, and we looked at it and we feel that we can do so with that 13.7 percent increase, to get ourselves off the ground floor."
- Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority Executive Director Bill Khourie, on the agency's requested budget of $596,000 for 2007, when the first reusable spacecraft launches are expected to take place at Oklahoma's spaceport at Burns Flat.
"To err is human; to forgive is not company policy."
- Lt. Gov. Mary Fallin, speaking to members of the Oklahoma Business Ethics Consortium.
"If they put another million into it, that property would be worth $50 a square foot as soon as they complete it. That's a $4 million deal."
- Real estate broker Tom Waken, estimating the worth of the building at 1411 Classen Blvd. The Oklahoma Department of Corrections is considering selling the property, in view of the high cost of renovating the nearly 50-year-old building.

New York Times Upfront, November 14, 2005, No. 5, Vol. 138, Page 12

Copyright 2005 Gale Group, Inc.
ASAP
Copyright 2005 Scholastic, Inc.
New York Times Upfront

November 14, 2005

SECTION: No. 5, Vol. 138; Pg. 12; ISSN: 1525-1292

HEADLINE: Is labor losing its voice? Once a major force in the nation's economy and politics, unions have fallen on hard times. Can they convince a new generation of workers that they're still relevant?Cover Story

BYLINE: Greenhouse, Steven

BODY:
When he was a high school senior a few years ago, Josh Noble took a part-time job changing tires and installing batteries at a Wal-Mart tire-and-lube garage in his hometown of Loveland, Colo., north of Denver.
Noble liked working on cars, but after two years at Wal-Mart, several things bothered him: The company paid him less than local supermarkets would have, its health plan was expensive, and the garage paid some new workers more than it paid him. "I was fed up," Noble says, complaining that he earned so little that he had to give up his apartment and move back in with his parents.
So Noble did what dissatisfied workers have done for decades to try to improve their wages and working conditions: He attempted to form a labor union. In seeking to unionize the garage's 18 workers, Noble created a huge fuss. Here was a snowboard-loving, earring-wearing 21-year-old taking on Wal-Mart, the world's largest corporation, with 1.7 million workers worldwide. If Noble prevailed, he would create the first successful union at any of the nation's 3,650 Wal-Mart stores.
POWERHOUSE PAST
Many union leaders embraced Noble's cause, seeing young people like him as the best hope for America's problem-plagued labor movement. Fifty years ago, organized labor was a powerhouse, representing about 35 percent of the U.S. workforce, able to pressure even the largest corporations to grant generous contracts that helped America build the world's biggest middle class.
After becoming a political force in the 1930s, unions successfully pushed Congress to enact the minimum wage and the 40-hour workweek. During World War II and in the decade after, they played a pivotal role in securing medical coverage and pensions for millions of union and nonunion workers alike. And in the 1970s, they helped win passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), which sets safety standards for the nation's workplaces.
Just how influential were America's unions? In 1961, the hatters union, alarmed that fewer men were wearing hats, persuaded John F. Kennedy to wear a top hat at his presidential inauguration.
Today, however, labor unions are struggling and now represent just 12.5 percent of the nation's workers. As manufacturing, labor's longtime stronghold, continues to shrink in the U.S., unions are groping for ways to reverse their decline. Their strategies include trying to attract more young workers, immigrants, and low-wage workers, many in service industries.
"Unions can still do an awful lot for workers," says Richard Hurd, a labor-relations professor at Cornell University. "When people form unions, their pay goes up, their benefits improve, and they start to have a real voice on the job."
But many corporate leaders argue that unions are just not as necessary now as they were in the early decades of the Industrial Revolution when companies could, and often did, mistreat their workers with impunity. "Most employers don't fit that category any longer," says Randel Johnson, vice president for labor policy at the United States Chamber of Commerce. "Employers generally treat their workers much better, and that's why the need for unions has diminished."
The labor movement first gained steam in the 1880s, when workers felt that industrialists often paid them too little to live on, worked them too hard, and subjected them to unsafe conditions. It was an age when workers often toiled 12 hours a day, six days a week. Many workers realized that they had little leverage dealing with their employers individually. But if they banded together and threatened to strike, they could often pressure employers to improve wages and working conditions.
SQUARING OFF
The rise of unions created huge tensions. Many companies saw unions as the enemy because they threatened to push up wages and cut profits. At times, the confrontations turned violent, like the Homestead Steel Strike in Homestead, Pa., in 1892, in which seven workers were killed.
Union membership multiplied during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when a quarter of the workforce was unemployed and many workers threw their support behind unions. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act, which created a federal right to form unions. The law meant that companies had to bargain with a union when employees voted to unionize.
As industries like steel and automobiles grew rapidly, union membership soared. Unions reached their peak of political influence during the Roosevelt administration, when labor leaders were some of the president's closest advisers, and in the postwar years, as the nation's economy boomed.
In the 1950s, however, organized labor's reputation suffered as federal investigators asserted that several unions, including the Teamsters (which had originally represented horse-team drivers but came to represent truck drivers), were under the influence of organized crime. Officials from some large unions were convicted of stealing money from pension funds and taking bribes to ignore workplace violations.
YOU'RE FIRED
The 1980s were hard times for unions as a deep recession and greater competition from foreign companies put millions of union members out of work and pressured unions to grant wage concessions to help keep their companies from going under. President Ronald Reagan further weakened unions by firing 11,500 air traffic controllers in 1981 after they went on strike in violation of federal law. The President's strong response emboldened companies to take a tougher stance toward unions.
[GRAPHIC OMITTED]
In the last two decades, globalization--and in particular the outsourcing of jobs to other countries--has continued to weaken unions in their traditional strongholds. But even as manufacturing unions have declined, there has been strong growth in unions representing government employees, including teachers, and service-sector workers like janitors and hospital aides. Today, the nation's largest union is the National Education Association, representing more than 2 million teachers.
In recent years, organizers have focused on unionizing immigrant and low-wage service workers. But they have also targeted some surprising groups, including university graduate teaching assistants, psychologists, and even doctors. One of the strongest arguments unions make is based on statistics: Unionized workers earn considerably more each week on average than nonunion workers--$ 781 versus $ 612. In addition, union members are more likely to have health insurance--86 percent, versus 56 percent for nonunion workers. (Some economists say the reason for the gap is that unions tend to be in higher-paying industries.)
Unions say that globalization has made them more crucial than ever. But critics argue that unions raise the cost of doing business in the U.S. and prevent American companies from competing against more-efficient foreign competitors. It's no coincidence, they say, that the auto and airline industries, with their large unionized workforces, have suffered huge losses and even bankruptcies in recent years. (In October, the United Auto Workers union reached a tentative agreement with a struggling General Motors for a $ 1 billion annual reduction in health benefits for GM retirees and workers.)
As unions seek to reverse their slide, they have made Wal-Mart a primary target. They contend that Wal-Mart's wages--averaging less than $ 19,000 a year--pull down wages for workers across America. That helps explain why unions embraced Josh Noble's efforts. They thought that if he could unionize his automotive department it would set the stage for unionizing--and raising wages--at other Wal-Marts.
STRONG COUNTEROFFENSIVE
Last November, Noble got more than half of the garage's workers to petition the National Labor Relations Board to conduct an election to determine whether a majority of the garage's workers wanted a union. Wal-Mart officials mounted a vigorous counteroffensive, arguing that the garage paid competitive wages and did not need a union. Wal-Mart flew in two officials from its Arkansas headquarters who spent several months working in the garage, seeking to persuade employees to vote against a union.
In February, Noble was stunned when the tire-and-lube workers voted 17 to 1 against unionizing. Several feared that Wal-Mart would close the garage and that they would lose their jobs if the union was voted in. "We thought the only way they'd listen to us is to have a union," Noble said after the vote. "It wasn't a fair fight."
Most of his co-workers were unswayed. "My grandfather said that during World War II, unions were helpful," says Dan Wright, a technician in the garage who voted against the union. "But I don't feel I need one. This company treats me well. It's fair to people."
LESSON PLAN 2: NATIONAL
IS LABOR LOSING ITS VOICE?
BACKGROUND
Unions are order than America. In colonial, times, carpenters, cabinetmakers, and cobblers' guilds worked to improve pay. In 1825, Boston carpenters struck for the 10-hour workday. In 1886, 5,000 members of the Knights of Labor conducted the first major strike, against the Iron Mountain Railroad in Arkansas.
DEBATE
* Should Americans make an effort to buy American-made goods to help U.S. workers keep their jobs, or should they shop wherever the price is Lower, even if that means buying imports made by tower-wage foreign workers?
CRITICAL THINKING
* What might a pro-union person say about the need for unions, even in a decent workplace? [Individuals cannot stand up against company power.]
* How might an anti-union person respond? [Unions are unnecessary because it is against a company's own interest to make its workers unhappy.]
WRITING PROMPT
* Use what you have Learned about Labor unions from this article to write a five-sentence argument in favor of unions and a five-sentence argument against the need for unions.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
* Why do you believe some companies, such as Wal-Mart, try to prevent their workers from unionizing?
* Suggest two or more things an employer might do to keep workers satisfied and Lessen their interest in unions.
* Why might medical doctors join Labor unions?
FAST FACTS
* Wal-Mart butchers in Jacksonville, Texas, did join a union in 2000. Two weeks Later, Wal-Mart closed that butcher shop and 179 other butcher shops it operated.
* This summer, unions representing more than 4.5 million workers quit the AFL-CI0.
* They said the national union wasn't organizing enough new members.
WEB WATCH
* www.aflcio.org The AFL-CIO presents facts about unions from the AFL-CIO perspective.
www.heritage.org/ Research/Labor/wm8O8. cfm The conservative Heritage Foundation argues against today's unions.
Steven Greenhouse reports on labor issues for The Times.

Daily Oklahoman, November 11, 2005, Friday

Copyright 2005 Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Copyright 2005 Daily Oklahoman
Daily Oklahoman

November 11, 2005, Friday

HEADLINE: State urged to deal with illegal workers

BYLINE: By Paul Monies

BODY:

Better enforcement of federal laws would help solve some of the state's problems relating to undocumented workers and illegal immigration, a legislative task force was told Thursday.
State Rep. Kevin Calvey, R-Del City, said Thursday he planned to introduce legislation requiring state employees to report instances of illegal immigration.
Calvey said a training video used by the state Department of Human Services prompted him to introduce the bill. In a statement, he said the video appeared to direct employees to ignore immigration violations.
DHS spokeswoman Stephanie Bond said the training video came from the federal government. In determining eligibility for benefits and services, the department follows guidelines set by the Food and Drug Administration and other federal agencies.
In a statement, Calvey said his bill would prevent state agencies, cities and counties from implementing any policy that discourages reporting of illegal immigration. The measure also would require state and local employees to report suspected violations of immigration law to federal authorities.
Calvey could not be reached for further comment.
Although immigration policy is set at the federal level, its impact on states and cities can't be ignored, said Vernon Briggs, professor of labor economics at Cornell University in New York.
"The United States has always had a history of planned immigration, but a lot of people don't play by the rules," Briggs told lawmakers gathered for a joint study on immigration and the labor market. "It's out of control and desperately needs to be changed, but it's being ignored by Congress."
Briggs said no firm data exists on the number of illegal aliens. Estimates have put the number in Oklahoma between 55,000 and 85,000, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.
Oklahoma taxpayers paid roughly $ 2.35 million in the last fiscal year for emergency health care for 3,500 illegal immigrants, according to figures released by the Oklahoma Healthcare Authority. Much of those costs were for emergency labor and delivery, as well as prenatal care, authority spokesman Nico Gomez said.
Meanwhile, undocumented workers and the employers who hire them are reaping the benefits from a lack of federal enforcement, Briggs said. That harms law-abiding taxpayers and companies, he said.
"Nothing is more expensive than cheap labor," Briggs said.
Jim Curry, president of the Oklahoma AFL-CIO, said unscrupulous contractors using illegal immigrants in the construction industry are underbidding union contractors. That can lead to layoffs at contractors that use union-represented employees.
Michael Hethmon, an attorney for the Washington-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, said Oklahoma law has some leeway when it comes to enforcing immigration laws. He advised lawmakers to craft legislation that won't interfere with existing federal law.
Hethmon pointed to a bill by state Sen. Tom Adelson, D-Tulsa, as a good start. Adelson introduced Senate Bill 510 in the last session, but it never made it out of committee. The bill would impose state penalties against employers that hire illegal aliens and let citizens and residents sue those employers.
Adelson said he planned to pursue the bill in the next session.
State Rep. Lance Cargill, R-Harrah, who requested the immigration study along with Adelson, said he was surprised the state was spending $ 2 million on health care for illegal immigrants when many citizens are struggling with their own health care costs.
"It's very unfair to force honest employers and honest employees to compete against people who don't follow the law," Cargill said.
"The state should do more to help hardworking Oklahomans who play by the rules and stop rewarding those who don't."
-----
To see more of The Daily Oklahoman, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newsok.com.
Copyright (c) 2005, The Daily Oklahoman
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

The Journal Record (Oklahoma City, OK), November 11, 2005, Friday

Copyright 2005 Dolan Media Newswires
The Journal Record (Oklahoma City, OK)

November 11, 2005 Friday

SECTION: NEWS


HEADLINE: Oklahoma officials to target employers of illegal immigrants

BYLINE: Janice Francis-Smith

BODY:
To reduce the supply of illegal workers in Oklahoma, lawmakers are considering a proposal to target the source of the demand: employers.
"Nothing is more expensive than cheap labor," professor Vernon Briggs, a labor economist at Cornell University in New York, told state House and Senate members assigned to a joint committee to consider how illegal workers are impacting Oklahoma's labor market.
State Sen. Tom Adelson, D-Tulsa, and state Rep. Lance Cargill, R-Harrah - a pair that seldom see eye to eye on legislation - worked together to bring an interim study on illegal immigrant labor before the Legislature. Both legislators said illegal workers threaten access to jobs and health care benefits for Oklahoma citizens.
Illegal aliens in Oklahoma received $7.8 million in Medicaid benefits last year, said Nico Gomez, director of governmental and public affairs for the Oklahoma Health Care Authority. The state's share of that total was $2.3 million. Though Gomez did not have data on hand regarding the nature of the procedures the 3,500 illegal residents received, state law requires that Medicaid pay only for treatment of acute conditions, including childbirth.
But as long as employers continue to hire illegal workers - who typically work harder for less pay - the problem will continue, Briggs said. Employers have low labor costs as incentive to skirt the law. And though there are an estimated 12 million illegal residents in the United States, the instances of an employer being brought up on charges for violating federal law in hiring an illegal worker are extremely rare.
"Illegal immigrants will always out-produce American workers," said Briggs. "Because the stakes are too great for them. They know what happens if they have to go back."

If businesses choose to pass on those savings to customers, the consumers benefit, too. The losers are taxpayers, said Briggs. Illegal workers can't support themselves on the low wages they are offered, and so often end up receiving assistance from the state. Local school systems and corrections systems are also impacted by having to accommodate increased population from a group that doesn't pay taxes. Oklahoma citizens with few skills or education also suffer due to the loss of available jobs.
But Briggs said it is impossible to collect reliable data about the extent of the problem, as there are obviously no records made of illegal activity. Still, just looking at the increase in apprehensions of illegal immigrants over the last few decades - 1.6 million in the 1960s, compared to 14 million in the 1990s - the problem obviously exists. And Briggs said it will only get worse, considering that 95 percent of the world's population growth is in Third World countries.
"There's nowhere near enough jobs, and no place people can move anymore," he said. "Sooner or later, you're going to have to draw the line."
Even if the country's border patrol were perfect, it would still not eliminate the problem of illegal residents, since roughly 40 percent come into the country through legal means: as students, tourists or on temporary work visas, said Briggs.
Adelson had proposed legislation during the 2005 legislative session that would stiffen penalties for Oklahoma employers who hire illegal workers, and encourage participation in a federal verification system that makes it easier for employers to tell who is and who is not eligible for employment. However, the bill is "languishing in the Senate," said Adelson. During the 2006 session, Adelson said he hopes he and Cargill can work together to move the legislation further along.
Although forming immigration law and policy is the exclusive right the federal government, states have the authority to write laws regarding enforcement, said Michael Hethmon, an attorney for Washington, D.C.-based Federation for American Immigrant Reform. Oklahoma law already allows state and local law enforcement officers to arrest illegal aliens for violating immigration law, but the offender must be detained in a federal facility, he said.

Journal Record Legislative Report (Oklahoma City, OK), November 11, 2005, Friday

Copyright 2005 Dolan Media Newswires
Journal Record Legislative Report (Oklahoma City, OK)

November 11, 2005 Friday

SECTION: NEWS

HEADLINE: Oklahoma officials to target employers of illegal immigrants

BYLINE: Janice Francis-Smith

BODY:
To reduce the supply of illegal workers in Oklahoma, lawmakers are considering a proposal to target the source of the demand: employers.
"Nothing is more expensive than cheap labor," professor Vernon Briggs, a labor economist at Cornell University in New York, told state House and Senate members assigned to a joint committee to consider how illegal workers are impacting Oklahoma's labor market.
State Sen. Tom Adelson, D-Tulsa, and state Rep. Lance Cargill, R-Harrah - a pair that seldom see eye to eye on legislation - worked together to bring an interim study on illegal immigrant labor before the Legislature. Both legislators said illegal workers threaten access to jobs and health care benefits for Oklahoma citizens.
Illegal aliens in Oklahoma received $7.8 million in Medicaid benefits last year, said Nico Gomez, director of governmental and public affairs for the Oklahoma Health Care Authority. The state's share of that total was $2.3 million. Though Gomez did not have data on hand regarding the nature of the procedures the 3,500 illegal residents received, state law requires that Medicaid pay only for treatment of acute conditions, including childbirth.
But as long as employers continue to hire illegal workers - who typically work harder for less pay - the problem will continue, Briggs said. Employers have low labor costs as incentive to skirt the law. And though there are an estimated 12 million illegal residents in the United States, the instances of an employer being brought up on charges for violating federal law in hiring an illegal worker are extremely rare.
"Illegal immigrants will always out-produce American workers," said Briggs. "Because the stakes are too great for them. They know what happens if they have to go back."
If businesses choose to pass on those savings to customers, the consumers benefit, too. The losers are taxpayers, said Briggs. Illegal workers can't support themselves on the low wages they are offered, and so often end up receiving assistance from the state. Local school systems and corrections systems are also impacted by having to accommodate increased population from a group that doesn't pay taxes. Oklahoma citizens with few skills or education also suffer due to the loss of available jobs.
But Briggs said it is impossible to collect reliable data about the extent of the problem, as there are obviously no records made of illegal activity. Still, just looking at the increase in apprehensions of illegal immigrants over the last few decades - 1.6 million in the 1960s, compared to 14 million in the 1990s - the problem obviously exists. And Briggs said it will only get worse, considering that 95 percent of the world's population growth is in Third World countries.
"There's nowhere near enough jobs, and no place people can move anymore," he said. "Sooner or later, you're going to have to draw the line."
Even if the country's border patrol were perfect, it would still not eliminate the problem of illegal residents, since roughly 40 percent come into the country through legal means: as students, tourists or on temporary work visas, said Briggs.
Adelson had proposed legislation during the 2005 legislative session that would stiffen penalties for Oklahoma employers who hire illegal workers, and encourage participation in a federal verification system that makes it easier for employers to tell who is and who is not eligible for employment. However, the bill is "languishing in the Senate," said Adelson. During the 2006 session, Adelson said he hopes he and Cargill can work together to move the legislation further along.
Although forming immigration law and policy is the exclusive right the federal government, states have the authority to write laws regarding enforcement, said Michael Hethmon, an attorney for Washington, D.C.-based Federation for American Immigrant Reform. Oklahoma law already allows state and local law enforcement officers to arrest illegal aliens for violating immigration law, but the offender must be detained in a federal facility, he said.

PR Newswire US, November 11, 2005, Friday

Copyright 2005 PR Newswire Association LLC.
All Rights Reserved.
PR Newswire US

November 11, 2005 Friday 11:00 AM GMT

HEADLINE: New Era Cap and CWA Local 14177 to Receive Cornell University ILR Champions @ Work Award

DATELINE: BUFFALO, N.Y. Nov. 11

BODY:
BUFFALO, N.Y., Nov. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Cornell University ILR and the Champions Network announced that New Era Cap Co., Inc., a Buffalo-area headwear company, and its union, CWA Local 14177, will be the recipients of its second Champions @ Work Award. New Era and CWA Local 14177 will receive the award during a reception and ceremony on Monday, November 14th, 2005, 4:30 p.m., at Michael's in Hamburg, NY.
New Era and CWA Local 14177 have been chosen to receive the Champions @ Work Award in recognition of their evolving spirit of cooperation. The two have worked diligently to grow their relationship into one that is communicative and productive. Through their collaborative efforts during the past three years their successes have been many, including New Era becoming a Category A member of the FLA, a 300% increase in production and various community minded projects. New Era was nominated for this award by David Palmer, CWA's Area Director.
"CWA Local 14177 and New Era Cap were the unanimous choice for this year's award," said Cornell University's Reggie Grogan, Coordinator of the Champions Network. "We are very pleased to recognize these partners in progressive workplace practices."
"New Era is honored to be receiving Cornell's Champions at Work Award," said New Era CEO Christopher H. Koch. "Our success in the workplace is due to a tremendous collaborative effort put forth by many. I am proud of how far we've come in this relationship and look forward to sustained growth with CWA Local 14177."
"Receiving Cornell's Champions at Work Award is a tribute to all New Era's employees, Union and Non-union, for all the hard work we have put in to build this relationship," said Jane Howald, President of CWA Local 14177. "We have crossed many obstacles together to accomplish the success we have and this is the perfect testament to that."
The Champions @ Work Award recognizes leaders in sustainable cooperative progress in the workplace. The award was established as an outgrowth of the ground-breaking study conducted by Cornell University in 2000, Champions @ Work, which found clear evidence of world-class workplace practices and workforce quality in Western New York. Since the study, a network of business and union leaders -- the Champions Network -- continues to move forward with coordinated efforts to improve the region's economic climate and economic development practices based on their experience in collective bargaining and high-performing partnerships at the firm or industry level.
CONTACT: Crystal Howard of New Era Cap, +1-716-562-3069, or David Palmer
of CWA, +1-716-685-5015, or Regina Grogan of Cornell University, +1-716-852-
4191
Web site: http://neweracap.com/
SOURCE New Era Cap Co., Inc.

URL: http://www.prnewswire.com

Tulsa World (Oklahoma), November 11, 2005, Friday

Copyright 2005 The Tulsa World
Tulsa World (Oklahoma)

November 11, 2005 Friday
Final Home Edition

SECTION: News; Oklahoma; Government; Pg. A11

HEADLINE: 'Cheap labor' is called costly

BYLINE: MARIE PRICE World Capitol Bureau

BODY:
Illegal immigration tough on economy, legislators told OKLAHOMA CITY -- Illegal immigration costs millions of dollars a year in health care, food stamps and education and depresses the labor market, a joint legislative study panel was told Thursday.
"There's nothing more expensive than cheap labor," said Professor Vernon Briggs, an economist at Cornell University in New York. "The taxpayers pay a very heavy cost."
Briggs said 12 million or more illegal workers could be in the United States. He said this is due to lax enforcement of federal immigration laws, the results of which fall to state and local governments to address.
The number of apprehensions of illegal immigrants burgeoned from 1.6 million during the 1960s to 14 million in the 1990s, Briggs added.
Nico Gomez of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority said the state's Medicaid agency spent $7.8 million on services for illegal immigrants in fiscal year 2005, of which $2.35 million was state funds.
He said the funding provided emergency-type health services to 3,567 people, mainly for labor and delivery services.
A key problem, Briggs said, is that businesses that employ illegal workers place companies that play by the rules at a competitive disadvantage.
Sen. Tom Adelson, D-Tulsa, requested the study along with House Majority Leader Lance Cargill, R-Harrah.
The existing situation is "unfair to the workers and it's unfair to companies that follow the law," Adelson said.
Cargill agreed.
"The state should do more to help hard-working Oklahomans who play by the rules and stop rewarding those who don't," he said.
Briggs said companies that hire illegal immigrants can pay them much lower wages, deny them benefits and refuse to pay employment-related taxes.
He said illegal immigrants work harder for lower pay, squeezing out low-skilled Americans who compete for the same jobs.

Michael Hethmon, senior staff counsel for the Federation of American Immigration Reform, said immigration regulation is a federal issue, but the states can take some enforcement steps within the parameters of federal law.
Hethmon said these actions can include requiring verification of lawful presence, as defined by federal law. The state also can require state and local law enforcement authorities to enforce federal immigration laws, he added.
Adelson filed legislation last session that would sanction busi nesses that employ illegal immigrants. Senate Bill 510 stalled in the Senate, however.
He plans to push his "Oklahoma Fair Employment Act" again this coming session.
It would authorize workers who are U.S. citizens to take legal action against companies that fire them while keeping illegal employees on the job.
The bill would prohibit the deduction of wages paid to illegal immigrants as a business expense and suspend the certificate of incorporation of any enti ty that violates the act.
It also would require that businesses contracting with the state enroll in a federal electronic verification of work authorization program run by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Rep. Kevin Calvey, R-Del City, said later that he will file legislation requiring state employees to report to federal authorities instances of illegal immigration they encounter in the course of their employment.
Marie Price (405) 528-2465
marie.price@tulsaworld.com

States News Service, November 9, 2005, Wednesday

Copyright 2005 States News Service
States News Service

November 9, 2005 Wednesday

HEADLINE: FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINING CENTER (FLETC) PRESENTS 'HONOR GRADUATE OF YEAR' AWARD TO CBP OFFICER

BYLINE: States News Service

DATELINE: GLYNCO, Ga.

BODY:
The following information was released by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection:
The FLETC presented its "Honor Graduate of the Year" Award for 2004 to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officer Daniel S. Rothman today. This award is presented annually to the FLETC basic training honor graduate having the highest academic average.
Officer Rothman graduated from FLETC's Customs and Border Protection Officer Training program on May 6, 2004, achieving a 98.5 percent academic average; besting some 4,957 other eligible basic training graduates during 2004. Officer Rothman also excelled at firearms qualification and physical fitness. At a luncheon in his honor at FLETC's headquarters facility in Glynco, Ga., Officer Rothman received a fully functioning Smith and Wesson, Model 637, 38-caliber, revolver.
Guest speaker for the event was Robert C. Bonner, Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. "Officer Rothman represents the level of excellence that America has come to expect from the men and women of U.S. Customs and Border Protection as they protect America's borders 24 hours a day, 7 days a week," Bonner stated.
Past recipients of the FLETC Honor Graduate of the Year Award have included officers and agents with the National Park Service, U.S. Capitol Police; Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Customs Service, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, General Services Administration, Department of State, U.S. Secret Service, and the U.S. Coast Guard.
FLETC Director, Connie Patrick said, "Honorees for this award are chosen on their strong academic skills, physical training, and leadership ability - specifically, those who exemplify the quality of people in Federal law enforcement. Officer Rothman, as well as those who have been honored in the past, validates FLETC's commitment to providing strong, collaborative leadership in law enforcement training."
Officer Rothman is a graduate of Cornell University's Industrial and Labor Relations School. He is currently an assistant jiu-jitsu instructor in the Bronx, NY, and has participated in several tournaments throughout the country.
Upon graduation from FLETC, Officer Rothman was assigned to port of entry Newark.
The Award is made possible by a generous gift by Aubrey A. "Tex" Gunnels, formerly Clerk to the Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government Subcommittee, House Committee on Appropriations. Mr. Gunnels was instrumental in the establishment of the FLETC in 1970 and its contribution to a well-trained police and investigative force in this country. He remains involved with the FLETC through the Honor Graduate of the Year program.

US Fed News, November 9, 2005, Wednesday

Copyright 2005 HT Media Ltd.
All Rights Reserved
US Fed News

November 9, 2005 Wednesday 10:40 PM EST

HEADLINE: FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINING CENTER PRESENTS 'HONOR GRADUATE OF THE YEAR' AWARD TO CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION OFFICER

BYLINE: US Fed News

DATELINE: GLYNCO, Ga.

BODY:
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued the following press release:
The FLETC presented its "Honor Graduate of the Year" Award for 2004 to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officer Daniel S. Rothman today. This award is presented annually to the FLETC basic training honor graduate having the highest academic average.
Officer Rothman graduated from FLETC's Customs and Border Protection Officer Training program on May 6, 2004, achieving a 98.5 percent academic average; besting some 4,957 other eligible basic training graduates during 2004. Officer Rothman also excelled at firearms qualification and physical fitness. At a luncheon in his honor at FLETC's headquarters facility in Glynco, Ga., Officer Rothman received a fully functioning Smith and Wesson, Model 637, 38-caliber, revolver.
Guest speaker for the event was Robert C. Bonner, Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. "Officer Rothman represents the level of excellence that America has come to expect from the men and women of U.S. Customs and Border Protection as they protect America's borders 24 hours a day, 7 days a week," Bonner stated.
Past recipients of the FLETC Honor Graduate of the Year Award have included officers and agents with the National Park Service, U.S. Capitol Police; Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Customs Service, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, General Services Administration, Department of State, U.S. Secret Service, and the U.S. Coast Guard.
FLETC Director, Connie Patrick said, "Honorees for this award are chosen on their strong academic skills, physical training, and leadership ability - specifically, those who exemplify the quality of people in Federal law enforcement. Officer Rothman, as well as those who have been honored in the past, validates FLETC's commitment to providing strong, collaborative leadership in law enforcement training."
Officer Rothman is a graduate of Cornell University's Industrial and Labor Relations School. He is currently an assistant jiu-jitsu instructor in the Bronx, NY, and has participated in several tournaments throughout the country.
Upon graduation from FLETC, Officer Rothman was assigned to port of entry Newark.
The Award is made possible by a generous gift by Aubrey A. "Tex" Gunnels, formerly Clerk to the Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government Subcommittee, House Committee on Appropriations. Mr. Gunnels was instrumental in the establishment of the FLETC in 1970 and its contribution to a well-trained police and investigative force in this country. He remains involved with the FLETC through the Honor Graduate of the Year program.
Contact: Alicia Gregory, 912/267-2908.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn., November 9, 2005, Wednesday

Copyright 2005 Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Copyright 2005 Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

November 9, 2005, Wednesday

HEADLINE: Growing number of striking Northwest mechanics cross picket lines

BYLINE: By Julie Forster

BODY:

Northwest Airlines mechanic David Smith last week noticed that he officially made his way onto his striking union's "Wall of Shame."
That's the Internet site listing the names of mechanics who've crossed the picket line -- scabs, in union parlance. It's a growing list, indicative of the union's growing weakness in a labor dispute now in its 12th week.
"The strike has basically failed. If you put up a picket line and people cross it, and you are not stopping the operations, it's a failure," said John Clarke, a Washington, D.C., based labor attorney who represents railway and airline unions.
Northwest's 4,400 mechanics, cleaners and custodians walked off the job Aug. 19, refusing the air carrier's offer to work for lower wages, reduced benefits and no job protection.
Follow-up talks failed to reach an agreement, and the union scrapped plans to put a company offer to a vote that would have returned some 500 mechanics to work, saying a last-minute provision inserted by Northwest limited the union's role in handling disputes between members.
The carrier now says it has permanently replaced all of the mechanics who walked out in the Twin Cities, and nearly all of the 880 it needs at its hubs here and in Detroit.
By the union's estimation, about 150 strikers have crossed the picket line and gone back to work in the face of a strike not honored by other unions. Northwest declined to give a specific number, but said it was "significant."
Smith was one of them. "The union never paid my wages," said the 41-year old Minnetonka resident. "The company always did, so I was always loyal to the company. I just want to stay out of the battle."
Though the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association continues to represent the mechanics at seven other airlines, including United and Southwest, it appears to be all but dead at Northwest. While the carrier, which is operating under bankruptcy protection, continues to recognize AMFA as the official bargaining unit for its mechanics, it doesn't require the new work force to join the union or pay dues.
"Their leverage at this point is minimal," said Richard Hurd, a professor of labor studies at Cornell University. "In essence, the union's situation is very bleak."
Though many striking mechanics remain faithful to their union, momentum is flagging among the ranks. As strikers find other jobs outside of Northwest, union officials have cut back on picket locations reduced picket duty schedules.
Even so, Steve MacFarlane, the union's assistant national director, insists the strike is far from over. "Our members are going to be the ones to decide when the strike ends," he said. Further, he argues the walk out is effective.
He points to a report from the U.S. Department of Transportation issued last week that shows that in September Northwest finished last in its on-time performance when compared with the nation's airlines. "They are not only dead last," MacFarlane said. "They are dead last with a margin."
Passengers aren't staying away, however. Northwest's planes were more full in October than they were during the same month a year ago. (The airline's passenger count dropped 6.2 percent, to 4.4 million, reflecting a reduced schedule.) Union officials, meanwhile, continue to try to keep safety issues before the public. A recent press release claimed two former union members who returned to work quit their jobs over safety concerns. The individuals did not discuss their concerns with Northwest, the carrier said, adding, "We remain confident in the safety of our operation."
At the request of Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating allegations by one of its inspectors regarding safety oversight at Northwest. The Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General continues to monitor FAA's investigation.
Meanwhile, some mechanics continue picket duties.
Mike Lutz, 41, a 15-year Northwest mechanic who lives in Robbinsdale, was on the picket line the first full day of the strike. But in early September, he got a job working in his brother's warehouse. He also picked up work doing aircraft welding at a local airport. For a little while he kept up his picketing assignments. He's too busy now with his family and two jobs.
Early on, he decided not to cross the line. His resolve was tested. "After you see people go back you know, I asked myself again if that was something I wanted to do. I decided I did not want to do that.
"Once you cross the picket line somewhere it tends to follow you for the rest of your life. I didn't want to have that attached to me."
So now preparations are under way to ready strike headquarters for the winter. Mike Klemm, the union's national strike coordinator, is looking for a new location, since the site they are on at is being sold. Then it's business as usual. The strike will "go on until my national director tells me to call it off," Klemm said.
"If that is 10 years down the road, I will still be out there, even if I have a full-time job."
As far-fetched as that may seem, it's not out of the question. "Strikes can go on for years," Clarke, the Washington labor attorney, said. In theory, that's true. There's no legal deadline.
A strike by the International Association of Machinists at the Italian airline Alitalia lasted more than six years, ending in 1999. A strike by IAM workers at Continental Airlines that was later joined by other unions, including the pilots, went on for a year and a half before ending in 1985. At Eastern Airlines, a strike by the IAM ended in 1991 after nearly two years.
Still, ongoing strikes have a way of petering out. Even an attorney for the mechanics union argued in an administrative hearing on unemployment benefits at the end of September that the mechanics strike was no longer in active progress. An unemployment law judge rejected that argument, concluding that the strike remained active until the dispute was officially resolved.
-----
To see more of the Pioneer Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.twincities.com. Copyright (c) 2005, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com. NWACQ,

The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Mass.), November 6, 2005, Sunday

Copyright 2005 MediaNews Group, Inc. and New England Newspaper Group Inc.
The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts)

November 6, 2005 Sunday

SECTION: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

HEADLINE: Arpante advocates for workers

BYLINE: Letters

BODY:
Friday, November 04 To the Editor of THE EAGLE::-
As former business agent of IUE local 255 for more than 10 years with an office in downtown Pittsfield and as a former administrative law judge, I am concerned with the future of downtown Pittsfield. I urge my brothers and sisters to vote for James A. Arpante for councilor-at-large.
I have known Jim Arpante for more than 45 years, and I know what he stands for and what is in his heart. There isn't a candidate running who is a more zealous advocate for the plight of workers of all ages than Jim Arpante.
Jim's participation in labor activities includes a lifetime of union membership: The Musicians' Union, Laborers' Union, Public Employees Federation, Massachusetts Community Council, Massachusetts' Teachers Association, National Education Association, representative to the Labor Management Committee at the New York state attorney general's office, and the adjunct faculty representative to the teachers' union at Berkshire Community College. Also, he was an attorney for the Pittsfield Federation of Musicians.
An example of Jim's dedication to a pursuant cause was his participation in statewide job action in the 1980s. He was the only member of any union in Massachusetts who refused to cross a picket line set up by Berkshire Community College. In addition to being an attorney and college professor, he earned a Master of Science degree in criminal justice in 1976 from American International College. In 1986, he was awarded certification in public sector labor relations at Cornell University. Also, Jim is familiar with the concerns of police, fire, and other sector employees.
Jim's commitment to the wage earner is evident by his philosophy of advocating the cause of the average worker and taxpayer. He stands alone among the candidates and incumbents in his stance against steadily increasing taxes and lack of opportunity for people to earn a living wage, particularly our future generation. The need for restraint in governmental spending and the importance of a safe city is the basis for economic development.
Keep the hope of the average wage earner and future generation alive. Again, I urge my brothers and sisters, in and out of the labor community, to vote for James A. Arpante for councilor-at-large on the Nov. 8 election.
F. BRUCE FERIN
Dalton, Oct. 31, 2005

News & Record (Greensboro, NC), November 6, 2005, Sunday

Copyright 2005 News & Record (Greensboro, NC)
News & Record (Greensboro, NC)

November 6, 2005 Sunday News & Record EDITION

SECTION: TRIAD; Pg. B1; None

HEADLINE: At-large hopefuls air their thoughts

BYLINE: BY ERIC SWENSEN

DATELINE: GREENSBORO

BODY:
GREENSBORO - The three sitting City Council members seeking at-large seats appear to be facing their toughest challenge from a home builder and political newcomer.
Six candidates are battling for the council's three at-large seats. Incumbent at-large members Yvonne Johnson and Don Vaughan are joined in the race by current District 4 Councilwoman Florence Gatten, Sandra Anderson, Joel Landau and Diane Davis.
Based on fund-raising totals and October's primary results, Anderson is in the thick of the contest with Gatten, Johnson and Vaughan. She finished third in the primary - behind Johnson and Vaughan but ahead of Gatten - and has the third-highest fund-raising total among council candidates.
In recent interviews, the candidates outlined their philosophies and priorities, with economic development and job creation a near-universal issue.
Sandra Anderson
Anderson thinks her chances of winning a council seat depend on whether people want change.
"I'm the fresh face and new energy," she said.
While a political newcomer, she believes the experience running her home construction business has given her a solid background in budgeting and measuring productivity and efficiency.
If elected, she said, one of her priorities - along with focusing on affordable housing for city residents - would be to make sure the city is operating as efficiently as possible with taxpayer dollars.
To bring more jobs, Anderson believes the city should focus on encouraging the growth of small businesses.
"If you're dependent on one big business and that business pulls out, then you've got a big hole," she said.
To help improve public safety, Anderson would like to see more police officers leave their patrol cars and either patrol on bike or on foot. She believes that will help "build trust and relationships (with residents) - they can't do that riding through in cars."
Diane Davis
Davis, a retired downtown business owner, pledges to be more responsive to residents' concerns than the current council. Responsiveness now depends too much on who you are and not enough on the quality of your ideas, she said.
She's also opposes the city's plan to mostly replace the White Street landfill by shipping garbage outside the county, instead preferring the city work to reduce the amount of trash buried.
"It seems like a bad and expensive solution," Davis said.
The city needs to build more sidewalks and bicycle lanes, she said, to make the city safer for pedestrians so residents "can actually use their bicycles for transportation."
Instead of paying incentives to companies, which she views as bribes, the city should do a better job of promoting its attributes such as its road network, labor pool and low tax rate, she said.
Florence Gatten
Gatten highlighted her accessibility and willingness to speak out.
"They'll always know where I stand," she said. "They may not agree with me."
Her priorities include changing the city's budgeting process to "zero-based budgeting," where all spending would have to be justified each year.
For every item in the budget, Gatten wants to ask the question: "Is that expenditure still needed?"
She would hope to streamline government and make it more efficient. The number of employees may not change, she said, though they may be redeployed.
On public safety, Gatten said she wants to evaluate the impact of recently hired police officers before deciding whether there's a need for more officers or other police personnel.
As growth continues across the city, Gatten said open spaces need to be preserved. "The desire to build on every square inch should be resisted," she said.
Yvonne Johnson
Johnson believes she has "a gift for service."
"I'm very serious about service, in terms of what people expect and what I try to give," she said.
One of her priorities is to try to give a lift to small businesses that employ the bulk of the city's work force. Johnson has suggested running a list of the city's small businesses with a one-line description on the city's cable-access channel. She also believes the city needs to better sell itself to prospective businesses and zero in on what industries the city should target.
She wants to engage students and faculty from the city's colleges and universities, in part by holding one council meeting per year at each campus. Representatives from the schools could also get involved, for instance, in creating outdoor art for the city.
She'd also like to see the city expand its transit system, which she believes is more important now thanks to higher gas prices.
Joel Landau
Landau pledged to bring new ideas to the council if elected. "If someone is happy with the status quo ... don't vote for me," he said.
He wants to provide residents with more information on how city government works, such as posting more financial information on the city's Web site. He has also proposed informing residents of upcoming elections by mailing postcards or including inserts in water bills.
He wants the city to get more resident input. One of the reasons he supports the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission - which is investigating the 1979 Klan-Nazi shootings that killed five people - is because it's "a great example of getting groups talking to each other."
He'd like to create an overall energy policy for the city that would range from buying more hybrid vehicles and expanding the use of biodiesel to focusing business recruitment on low-polluting companies. He also would like to see the creation of a retail business incubator for east Greensboro and find ways to get the city's colleges and universities more involved in economic development.
Don Vaughan
Vaughan, an attorney, touts his responsiveness to constituents, his experience as a small-business owner and his 14 years on the council, which he said has helped him build knowledge on how the city works.
His top priorities include bringing more jobs to Greensboro. One tool he believes could be of help is the economic development power given to localities last year by the passage of Amendment One, which gives localities the authority to borrow money for economic development projects without going to a bond referendum. The authority is restricted to projects that wouldn't happen without public help and that will improve the tax base enough to repay the bonds.
Vaughan pointed to his work as chairman of a Greensboro committee that was part of a statewide effort backing Amendment One as an accomplishment from his last term.
He also believes the city needs to work to continue the growing momentum in downtown Greensboro.
Greensboro , Vaughan said, should continue its work on changing traffic patterns to make it easier to get in and out of town. Another key, he said, is to "find a way to make the Wachovia building a viable entity again."
Contact Eric Swensen at 373-7351 or eswensen @news-record.com
DOUBLE-EDIT Six candidates are bidding for three seats on the Greensboro City Council.

NOTES:
SANDRA ANDERSON Age: 60 Address: 505 Daybreak North Occupation: Owner, Sandra Anderson Builders. Political experience: None. Civic leadership: Member of Greensboro Board of Adjustment; board member, Family Life Council; board member, Guilford County Senior Services Committee Education: Graduate of Lenoir City High School, Tenn.; attended UNCG and Greensboro College Family: Two daughters, one son Web site: sandraandersoncitycouncil.com DIANE DAVIS Age: 63 Address: 905 Fairmont St. Occupation: Retired small business owner Political experience: Candidate for the City Council, 2003 Civic leadership: None listed Education: High school graduate, attended UNCG Family: Married, five children, three grandchildren Web site: greensboropeerpressure. blogspot.com FLORENCE GATTEN Age: 59 Address: 3507 Smoketree Drive Occupation: Public policy and media relations consultant Political experience: City Council member, 2001-present Civic leadership: Board member, Moses Cone Health System; board member, Greensboro Economic Development Partnership; founding director, Greensboro Public Library Foundation; board member, Canterbury School Education: Bachelor?s degree in English, College of William and Mary Family: Married, two children, one grandchild Web site: www.florencegatten.com YVONNE JOHNSON (i) Age: 63 Address: 4311 King Arthur Place Occupation: Executive director, One Step Further Political experience: City Council member, 1993-present Civic leadership: Chairwoman, Bennett College Board of Trustees; co-founder, Summit House; board member, Delancey Street Foundation Education: Bachelor's degree in psychology, Bennett College; master's degree in counseling, N.C. A&T Family: Married, four children, six grandchildren Web site: None

JOEL LANDAU Age: 54 Address: 6 Collwood Court Occupation: Home-based distributor of wellness products Political experience: None Civic leadership: Former member of the Deep Roots Cooperative; founding member of Citizens for Waste Reduction and Recycling; board member of Resources for Artful Living; former president, Brandywine Homeowners Association Education: Bachelor's degree in industrial and labor relations, Cornell University Family: Married, two stepchildren Web site: www.joellandau.com

DON VAUGHAN (i) Age: 53 Address: 2603 W. Market St. Occupation: Attorney Political experience: City Council member, 1991-present Civic leadership: Member, N.C. Banking Commission; former chairman of Parks and Recreation Commission Education: Bachelor's degree, UNC-Chapel Hill; master's degree in public administration, American University; law degree, Wake Forest University Family: Married, one daughter Web site: www.votedonvaughan.com Voters will choose three at-large candidates for Greensboro City Council on Tuesday. MORE ONLINE Go to www.news-record.com and click on the Vote 2005 link to read more about City Council candidates. You can find biographical information and their responses to a questionnaire about issues in Greensboro. Coming Monday: A guide to municipal elections, and listings of candidates in all races in the area.