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National Mobilization, Boycott Buoy New Era Strikers
Car horns blared and baseball caps were tossed into the street as more than 300 strikers and supporters on Aug. 13 let scabs know that after a two-week shutdown planned by New Era, they are still unwelcome at the cap manufacturer’s Derby, N.Y., plant. Local 14177 has been on strike there since July 16.
The rally was a prelude to separate meetings with a federal mediator and union and company officials, the launch of a national mobilization and boycott of New Era products, and the release of a preliminary report by an independent monitoring service that ensures vendor companies comply with university codes of conduct.
AFL-CIO Boycott
CWA President Morton Bahr announced a major mobilization in support of the New Era local. In a letter to CWA locals he urged them to publicize and rally support behind an AFL-CIO endorsed national boycott of New Era products, to sign and circulate a pledge card asking members to honor the boycott and take other actions in support of New Era workers, and to write to the Koch family, owners of New Era, asking the company to resolve the issues causing the strike.
“The workers faced wage cuts amounting to $5.65 an hour and no offers for improvements in health coverage,” Bahr wrote. “The company also has been unwilling to deal with the union on serious health and safety problems in the plant, has systematically harassed union leaders, and has inspired efforts to decertify the CWA unit."
“This strike will be won on the picket line and by confronting New Era’s extensive customer base,” Bahr wrote. New Era manufactures official team caps for Major League Baseball and for other national sports licensing organizations, and makes caps for hundreds of collegiate and scholastic sports teams.
Worker Rights Consortium
Putting further pressure on New Era, the Worker Rights Consortium has issued a scathing 29-page preliminary report based on an eight-day investigation of conditions at the Derby plant. The WRC represents 82 colleges and universities including Brown, Georgetown and Ohio State, and on their behalf looks into complaints that vendors have violated university codes of conduct and law.
“It’s clear that New Era has violated the rights of workers to a disturbing degree, both in its failure to maintain a safe workplace and in its refusal to respect the rights of New Era workers to be part of the union of their choice and to bargain collectively,” said WRC Executive Director Scott Nova.
The WRC assessment team analyzed a survey of 140 Derby production workers, interviewed 30 workers and obtained relevant documents from OSHA, the National Labor Relations Board and attorneys. Their report notes that, “New Era management refused all requests for interviews and documentation.”
The team found “substantial credible evidence that New Era has not implemented a minimally adequate program to protect workers from injury and illness in the workplace, as required under pertinent provisions of university codes of conduct and United States law.”
They reported that 46 percent of the Derby workers have been diagnosed with muscular skeletal disorders, a rate that is “extremely high — several times the average for the cap and hat industry.”
The assessment team said they found no evidence that New Era has had “meaningful ergonomic programs” in place since 1991.
“Needle punctures — including severe punctures that penetrate bone and flesh and that leave fragments of broken needles embedded inside or protruding from both sides of fingers — occur at a frequent rate,” the team found, with risk of transmitting HIV or infectious diseases. The team found that until recently workers simply wiped up blood spills with no training, planning or equipment in place to comply with OSHA’s Blood Borne Pathogen Standard.
In addition, they present “substantial evidence” that management made some workers’ injuries worse by “supplying uninformed and inappropriate medical advice” and by “delaying necessary diagnosis and treatment for workers who filed workers’ compensation claims.”
The team also found evidence of under-reporting of workers’ compensation claims and of discrimination based upon age and disability.
These deplorable working conditions exist against the backdrop of “ongoing, intense anti-union hostility,” the team reported.
Early last month, Local 14177 President Jane Howald and Secretary Jason Kozlowski joined the United Students Against Sweatshops’ national meeting in Chicago, where Howald also led a workshop to brief student activists on the strikers’ issues. More than 350 student leaders attended the gathering, said USAS National Organizer Eric Brakken.
USAS and union leaders are gearing up to mobilize students on college and university campuses nationwide alerting administrators to New Era’s anti-worker practices, Brakken said. In March a delegation of six students led by USAS Regional Organizer Trina Tocco interviewed New Era workers and published a report declaring that the plant operates under “sweatshop conditions.”
On the Line
Loudspeakers blasted pro-union rock music during the Aug. 13 rally as a company bus at the end of the workday took strikebreakers through the picket line to their cars parked in a lot away from the building. Members of CWA locals including 1133, 1168 and 14169 walked the picket line with the strikers, along with supporters from the Auto Workers, Steelworkers, Service Employees, AFSCME, other local unions and the Coalition for Economic Justice, Buffalo’s Jobs with Justice affiliate.
“We’ve enjoyed tremendous support from the community and from other unions since we went out,” said Howald, lead negotiator for the local, along with Hunter Phillips, administrative assistant to CWA Vice President Bill Boarman, of the union’s Printing Sector.
Local 14177 announced at the rally that the AFL-CIO has placed New Era on the Federation’s National Boycott List and members passed out caps emblazoned with the message, “Don’t Buy New Era Caps.”
“I just found out my daughter’s Little League team in Lakeview wears New Era caps,” said CWA Local 1168 Organizer Terri Schelter. “I’ve got to tell them we can’t buy them anymore.”
Local 1168 brought an SUV loaded with nonperishable groceries and staples to contribute to a food pantry started for the strikers by Auto Workers Local 897. Major support has also come from Letter Carriers Branch 3, said Marcy Sikorski, a Local 14177 staffer.
The rally was a prelude to separate meetings with a federal mediator and union and company officials, the launch of a national mobilization and boycott of New Era products, and the release of a preliminary report by an independent monitoring service that ensures vendor companies comply with university codes of conduct.
AFL-CIO Boycott
CWA President Morton Bahr announced a major mobilization in support of the New Era local. In a letter to CWA locals he urged them to publicize and rally support behind an AFL-CIO endorsed national boycott of New Era products, to sign and circulate a pledge card asking members to honor the boycott and take other actions in support of New Era workers, and to write to the Koch family, owners of New Era, asking the company to resolve the issues causing the strike.
“The workers faced wage cuts amounting to $5.65 an hour and no offers for improvements in health coverage,” Bahr wrote. “The company also has been unwilling to deal with the union on serious health and safety problems in the plant, has systematically harassed union leaders, and has inspired efforts to decertify the CWA unit."
“This strike will be won on the picket line and by confronting New Era’s extensive customer base,” Bahr wrote. New Era manufactures official team caps for Major League Baseball and for other national sports licensing organizations, and makes caps for hundreds of collegiate and scholastic sports teams.
Worker Rights Consortium
Putting further pressure on New Era, the Worker Rights Consortium has issued a scathing 29-page preliminary report based on an eight-day investigation of conditions at the Derby plant. The WRC represents 82 colleges and universities including Brown, Georgetown and Ohio State, and on their behalf looks into complaints that vendors have violated university codes of conduct and law.
“It’s clear that New Era has violated the rights of workers to a disturbing degree, both in its failure to maintain a safe workplace and in its refusal to respect the rights of New Era workers to be part of the union of their choice and to bargain collectively,” said WRC Executive Director Scott Nova.
The WRC assessment team analyzed a survey of 140 Derby production workers, interviewed 30 workers and obtained relevant documents from OSHA, the National Labor Relations Board and attorneys. Their report notes that, “New Era management refused all requests for interviews and documentation.”
The team found “substantial credible evidence that New Era has not implemented a minimally adequate program to protect workers from injury and illness in the workplace, as required under pertinent provisions of university codes of conduct and United States law.”
They reported that 46 percent of the Derby workers have been diagnosed with muscular skeletal disorders, a rate that is “extremely high — several times the average for the cap and hat industry.”
The assessment team said they found no evidence that New Era has had “meaningful ergonomic programs” in place since 1991.
“Needle punctures — including severe punctures that penetrate bone and flesh and that leave fragments of broken needles embedded inside or protruding from both sides of fingers — occur at a frequent rate,” the team found, with risk of transmitting HIV or infectious diseases. The team found that until recently workers simply wiped up blood spills with no training, planning or equipment in place to comply with OSHA’s Blood Borne Pathogen Standard.
In addition, they present “substantial evidence” that management made some workers’ injuries worse by “supplying uninformed and inappropriate medical advice” and by “delaying necessary diagnosis and treatment for workers who filed workers’ compensation claims.”
The team also found evidence of under-reporting of workers’ compensation claims and of discrimination based upon age and disability.
These deplorable working conditions exist against the backdrop of “ongoing, intense anti-union hostility,” the team reported.
Early last month, Local 14177 President Jane Howald and Secretary Jason Kozlowski joined the United Students Against Sweatshops’ national meeting in Chicago, where Howald also led a workshop to brief student activists on the strikers’ issues. More than 350 student leaders attended the gathering, said USAS National Organizer Eric Brakken.
USAS and union leaders are gearing up to mobilize students on college and university campuses nationwide alerting administrators to New Era’s anti-worker practices, Brakken said. In March a delegation of six students led by USAS Regional Organizer Trina Tocco interviewed New Era workers and published a report declaring that the plant operates under “sweatshop conditions.”
On the Line
Loudspeakers blasted pro-union rock music during the Aug. 13 rally as a company bus at the end of the workday took strikebreakers through the picket line to their cars parked in a lot away from the building. Members of CWA locals including 1133, 1168 and 14169 walked the picket line with the strikers, along with supporters from the Auto Workers, Steelworkers, Service Employees, AFSCME, other local unions and the Coalition for Economic Justice, Buffalo’s Jobs with Justice affiliate.
“We’ve enjoyed tremendous support from the community and from other unions since we went out,” said Howald, lead negotiator for the local, along with Hunter Phillips, administrative assistant to CWA Vice President Bill Boarman, of the union’s Printing Sector.
Local 14177 announced at the rally that the AFL-CIO has placed New Era on the Federation’s National Boycott List and members passed out caps emblazoned with the message, “Don’t Buy New Era Caps.”
“I just found out my daughter’s Little League team in Lakeview wears New Era caps,” said CWA Local 1168 Organizer Terri Schelter. “I’ve got to tell them we can’t buy them anymore.”
Local 1168 brought an SUV loaded with nonperishable groceries and staples to contribute to a food pantry started for the strikers by Auto Workers Local 897. Major support has also come from Letter Carriers Branch 3, said Marcy Sikorski, a Local 14177 staffer.