Union Members

Southwest Airlines and the union representing its 8,500 ground employees have asked the National Mediation Board to jump start contract talks after 14 months of negotiations failed to produce an deal. Transport Workers Union Local 555 called the stalled talks "disappointing," given the fact that the airline posted the highest second-quarter profit in its history. Negotiations began on July 12 last year. "Southwest has proposed changes in our collective bargaining agreement which are concessionary in nature and entirely unacceptable to our members," union president Charles Cerf said in a statement.

At Micky's Game Room Lounge, near the entrance to Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s Sparrows Point mill, the regulars gather around Formica-topped tables after work to wash down snacks with a Coors or a Bud.It's the kind of place where patrons disagree about a lot of things. But they seem to agree on one issue:They're lucky to be working."Everything I own, I owe to Beth Steel," said George Robbins, a 42-year-old steelworker who began at Sparrows Point when he was 20. Married, with four children ages 12 to 21, he said, "The kids that get out of high school, what can they do now?

Two of the most outspoken critics of top officials in the Howard County Police Department have been ousted in close police union elections, a result that some union members had said could give department officials more control of the union.Union members narrowly elected John Paparazzo to the presidency over Detective Jim Fitzgerald by four votes, 80 to 76. In the secretary's race, union members elected Bill Block over the incumbent, Detective Dan Besseck, 83 to 73.Vice presidential candidate Bob Castor and the incumbent treasurer, Cpl. Morris Carroll, were unopposed.

NEW YORK -- When the Titans of labor gather to make polic for the 15 million members of the AFL-CIO, 28 white men, two women, two black men and one Latino sit at the table.Even though women comprise nearly one-third of union members and minorities one-fifth, women head only two of the 88 international unions, and black men head just two others.The glass ceiling is visible and strong in the labor movement. Although gains have clearly been made in middle management ranks of unions in the 20 years since the emergence of coalitions of black, Latino and female union members, they have a long way to go before they break the invisible barrier to power and influence.

A tentative agreement between Broadway producers and Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians has been announced in New York, ending, for the moment, the threat of a strike that could have closed nine Broadway musicals and kept 11 more from arriving this season.The agreement, announced Tuesday and subject to the approval of the executive board of the union and ratification by its members, is said to involve some reduction in the number of musicians that producers are required to hire for Broadway shows.

The Rotorex Co. was shut down yesterday by a labor dispute over subcontracts that the company characterized as a strike and the union called a lockout of the Walkersville plant's 440 union workers.Kent Hansen, a spokesman for Rotorex's corporate parent, Fedders Corp., said management did not stop union members from returning to work under terms of a three-year contract that expired at 12: 01 a.m. yesterday.But Jesse Williams, president of Local 133 of the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers, said Sunday that management locked out the union after rejecting a union proposal for a 30-day contract extension.

The leaders of the AFL-CIO said this weekend that they would continue pushing union members to campaign aggressively for Vice President Al Gore, even though he has reiterated his support for President Clinton's trade deal with China. Persuading Congress to reject the China accord has become organized labor's No. 1 legislative goal this year, and some labor leaders are voicing fears that Gore's support for the deal could cause many rank-and-file union members to sour on the vice president.

The head of Anne Arundel County government's larges employee union spends his work time conducting union business at taxpayers' expense.While other county union officials perform most union business on their own time or get a supervisor's permission to take the time, or the union members pay their salaries, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 582 head Marvin Redding has his $37,045 annual salary paid by the county, even though...

Twenty-seven blue-collar county workers might be laid off because their union leaders failed to report the results of a vote on wage concessions to county officials.Union members say their union, Local 582 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, voted, 304-180, Monday night in favor of a 3 percent wage cut. County Executive Robert R. Neall had given all county unions until noonTuesday to choose between 3 percent wage cuts, five furlough days orlayoffs.Local 582 President Marvin Redding said there were problems with the vote and asked county officials for an extension so the union could vote again.

Annapolis officials and representatives from the local firefighters union are going back to the bargaining table after the city council's 6-1 vote late Monday to reject a contract proposal. Mayor Ellen O. Moyer was the only council member to vote for the agreement, which would have given bigger raises to paramedics than to firefighters. Alderwoman Cynthia A. Carter, a Democrat from Ward 6, and Alderman Michael W. Fox, a Republican who represents Ward 7, were not present. As part of the vote, the city again will begin negotiating with the union with the intent of giving all members an equal raise.