Unfair Labor Practices

Agencies ignore travel subsidyWASHINGTON -- Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., is concerned that a little-used travel subsidy program will be lost if federal employees aren't allowed to take advantage of it.Mikulski pushed a measure through Congress last year that allows federal employees to receive free Metro fare cards or bus tokens in an effort to promote transportation efficiency.The program, which began in Boulder, Colo., and Portland, Ore., would allow federal agencies anywhere to spend as much as $21 per employee a month on transportation.

In an age of weakened unions, increased foreign competition and a continuing shift from manufacturing to service jobs, it has become crucial for labor and management to solve differences amicably, the chair of the National Labor Relations Board said yesterday."

WASHINGTON -- Call them bureaucratic marriage counselors.They are the private and public sector experts summoned by the Clinton administration to mend broken relationships between management and labor in the federal work force.In Baltimore, federal agencies are bustling with these consultants, who oversee all facets of labor relations from labor-management retreats to role-playing exercises in the office. The goal is to bridge the often hostile divide between government workers and their supervisors.

WASHINGTON -- Once again, with the successful Republican-led filibuster against the striker replacement bill, organized labor has taken it on the chops.Coupled with last year's failure to defeat the North American Free Trade Agreement, the loss of the measure to protect strikers against what the unions still call "scabs" taking their members' jobs permanently marks a low point in Big Labor's legislative clout.The inability of the Clinton administration to deliver on thishigh-priority bill for organized labor has some pro-labor legislators, such as Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, grousing about the level of effort made by the White House to overcome the filibuster.

The first thing you need to know about William B. Gould IV, who's slated to become new chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, is that he is crazy about baseball: a lifelong rabid Red Sox fan, a fantasy camper and a Major League Baseball salary arbitrator.A lawyer and college professor, Mr. Gould relishes the intricate teamwork that yields success on the playing field and the intense competition that breeds it. In short, a perfect outlook for becoming head of the 58-year-old NLRB, which enforces labor laws governing employers and workers.

The National Labor Relations Board has accused air-conditioner maker Fedders Corp. of unfair labor practices against workers locked out of the company's Rotorex Co. plant near Walkersville.The company illegally fired 345 employees of the air compressor plant in Frederick County and failed to bargain in good faith with their representative -- the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers -- according to the complaint, filed Friday.Fedders doesn't comment on pending NLRB complaints, spokesman Kent Hansen said.

The National Labor Relations Board has thrown out complaints by the players' union of unfair labor practices against the Major Soccer League and charges of blackballing against Blast coach Kenny Cooper.In Washington, Major Indoor Soccer League Players Association director John Kerr said he would meet with his attorneys this week to decide whether to appeal.In Baltimore, Blast owner Ed Hale also was planning to meet with attorneys this week."I don't take personal attacks lightly and I'm bristling," Hale said last night.

PEORIA, Ill. -- Talks between Caterpillar Inc. and the United Automobile Workers broke down yesterday after four days, failing to settle a seven-month strike.The government's top mediator, John Calhoun Wells, called off negotiations in Louisville, Ky., after the company rejected the union's economic proposal, --ing hopes of a settlement to the manufacturer's longest-running labor dispute.Peoria, Ill.-based Caterpillar said the company was "misled" into believing that the union would present a proposal that would allow it to better compete with overseas rivals.

As a long-time resident of Baltimore's Inner Harbor, I take exception to the moniker "Inner Harbor poverty zone" (May 13). Furthermore, I'm active in the community, and this is the first time have heard our area referenced in such a manner. I was aware of the vile treatment ESPN workers received from that Disney-owned chain, but the issue had nothing to do with the Inner Harbor. If the employees of businesses at the Inner Harbor have labor grievances, there are ample venues to address them on the city, state and federal level.

At their work session this afternoon, Baltimore County Council members plan to discuss a proposal by County Executive Kevin Kamenetz that would end the practice of using overtime to calculate pensions for members of AFSCME, the union that represents workers in the Department of Public Works and other agencies. Last week, AFSCME threatened to file an unfair labor practices complaint , saying that the issue is being discussed in negotiations.   Kamenetz's administration calls the proposal a way to save taxpayer dollars, saying that AFSCME workers are getting “an arbitrary perk that sweetens pension benefits for a single class of employees.” The administration says the bill would save $502,000 a year, based on the amount of overtime worked by AFSCME members.