Labor Unions

LAS VEGAS -- In his soft, southern Indiana drawl, Ron Gettelfinger stared out yesterday at the vast convention floor and talked about the idea that the United Auto Workers union's epitaph has already been written. "They think we've run out of gas intellectually and emotionally, that we've lost our will and our nerve," the UAW president went on. "Some even question our solidarity." Then with his voice rising and a clenched fist hammering on the lectern, Gettelfinger delivered a line that brought the union convention's more than 1,300 delegates to their feet and cheering loudly.

PARIS -- Giving in after two months of protests by students and labor unions, the French government yesterday withdrew portions of a new labor law that had been intended to cut unemployment by making it easier to hire and fire young workers. A weary Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who staked his political reputation on the law, announced the decision after a weekend of infighting and negotiation in his divided government. "The conditions necessary for trust are not present either on the side of the young people nor on the side of businesses to permit the enactment of the contract," Villepin said in a televised statement.

Robert S. Miller is no stranger to unpopular decisions. As the last chief executive officer of Bethlehem Steel Corp., Miller moved in 2003 to cut off health care insurance to about 95,000 retirees and their dependents, saying the company could no longer afford billions of dollars in costs. Also, the federal government took over the company's underfunded pension plan, leading to pension cuts for some workers who had retired early. Now Miller is taking a tough stand as CEO of Delphi Corp.

The battle for union endorsements between the Democratic rivals for Maryland governor is under way, and the competition is likely to split statewide labor groups along a Baltimore-Washington regional divide, several union leaders say. Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, a declared candidate for governor, is set to announce tomorrow that the Service Employees International Union Local 1199 will support his candidacy. The decision by the Baltimore-based group representing health care workers supercedes the endorsement process of its statewide union and of service union locals in the Washington suburbs.

After pushing a risky $305 million convention center hotel deal through a divided City Council last night, Mayor Martin O'Malley is poised to harvest political rewards from labor unions that will fill the more than 500 construction jobs the Baltimore project would create. The project is just the most recent example of the mayor's patching his sometimes bumpy relationship with organized labor as he prepares a Democratic bid for governor next year. "A large portion of our members still live in the city," said Ron DeJuliis, president of the Baltimore Building and Construction Trades Council.

Baltimore's lowest-paid government workers will receive 4 percent annual pay raises under three-year contracts reached with Mayor Martin O'Malley that will likely ensure the mayor avoids labor unrest in the city as he runs for governor next year. The contracts with the City Union of Baltimore and AFSCME Local 44 complete the administration's goal of signing long-term deals with all of its bargaining unions, including the units representing police officers, firefighters and fire officers.

WASHINGTON - As John Kerry clasped hands triumphantly yesterday with John Sweeney, the chieftain of big labor, he clinched his standing with a group whose powers to turn out voters have helped countless Democrats win elections. But the alliance between Kerry and the labor unions is more complicated than rousing chants and colorful placards might suggest. A weakened labor movement - its political clout diminished after three years of legislative and electoral defeats - must prove that it can, once again, help deliver a victory on Election Day. And Kerry, a Democrat who has clashed with unions on trade and other issues in his two decades in Congress, is under intense pressure to prove himself worthy of labor's support.

You can't help but hear them now. From the "diner" commercials that Verizon Communications Inc. aired to persuade an audience far larger than its work force of its lucrative benefits package, to the ads of the Communications Workers of America in the nation's largest newspapers, the two sides' dispute over a new contract has been among the most conspicuous in recent memory. The marketing blitz, labor experts believe, is the product of the rise in communication technology coupled with a decline in union power as the nation marks another Labor Day - 109 years after Congress and Canadian lawmakers authorized the first Monday in September as an annual observance in honor of workers.

Hoping to increase its political leverage, the AFL-CIO announced yesterday that it was creating a novel organization for nonunion workers who agree with the labor movement on many issues and want to campaign alongside labor on those issues. Federation officials said they hoped the new organization, to be called Working America, would attract more than 1 million members to lobby Congress and to join demonstrations on issues from raising the minimum wage to stopping the privatization of Social Security.

WASHINGTON - A U.S. appeals court upheld yesterday President Bush's order requiring government contractors to tell workers they don't have to join unions or pay dues that are used to promote organized labor's political agenda. The decision will ensure that 1.8 million employees of government contractors who pay union dues will be told they may choose that their money not be used for political purposes, according to the National Right to Work Foundation, a group that opposes compulsory union membership.