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Stepping Up to the Plate Against New Era
As the top teams in baseball headed into the World Series, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and CWA President Morton Bahr joined Local 14177 members in appealing to Major League players for help to end the union’s strike against New Era Cap Co.
United Students Against Sweatshops held a “Day of Action” on campuses nationwide, bolstering student support for the striking workers.
And the National Labor Relations Board slammed the company for illegally interfering with CWA’s organizing campaign at New Era’s Buffalo, N.Y,. plant in 1997.
From the Heart
Local 14177 members, on strike in Derby, N.Y., since July 16, have generated more than 700 letters to individual professional baseball players, asking them to write to New Era President Chris Koch in support of a fair contract. New Era is the official cap maker for baseball.
Sweeney and Bahr took the campaign a step further, asking for a public message of support from members of the Major League Baseball Players Association.
“While the national tragedy that occurred on Sept. 11 has moved many Americans to overcome disagreement to work together for the greater good, the management at New Era appears unshaken in pursuing its destructive policies toward its own workforce,” they wrote to players’ union President Donald Fehr. “Indeed, New Era has sought to wrap its products in our nation’s flag at the same time that it persists in labor policies that run counter to everything for which our country stands.”
They went on to detail New Era’s outsourcing of work to Bangladesh, where children reportedly work 14 hour days, seven days a week for as little as 10 cents an hour.
“When a company that is party to such practices seeks to promote its products as symbols of patriotism, it brings discredit to us all,” they wrote.
Local 14177 members penned moving appeals to individual players, explaining the difficulties of their jobs and that the company wants even more work for less money.
Elizabeth Sack, a 16-year veteran at the plant, runs machines heated to 400 degrees to fuse the stiff backing into the fronts of ball caps. She says her pay would drop as much as $7 an hour under the company’s new “engineered standards,” based in large part upon how many dozens of caps she turns out.
“I don’t know if you have ever worked piece work, but you have to continually move in order to get your dozens out,” she wrote to New York Yankees designated hitter David Justice. “Some women don’t take breaks or go to the bathroom because that time that you’re away you could have produced a dozen or two. The company is monitoring breaks and bathroom privileges.” She pointed out that as many as 40 percent of the major league caps New Era produces are Yankees caps.
Yankees’ star shortstop Derek Jeter got a letter from Carmella Kron, a member who just lost her mother to cancer. “It is sad to know that I have to experience grief from the loss of a parent and possibly the loss of a job, which I loved so much, in the same time frame,” the letter says.
Karen Lancaster wrote to the St. Louis Cardinals’ Mark McGuire, the first ever to hit 70 home runs in a season, asking him to sign a pledge card to be mailed to CWA. “We know we can count on you to be there for us, as we will be there for you in your labor struggles,” she concluded.
One of the most moving letters, to third baseman Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves, was written by Ashley McDonough, the 9-year-old daughter of Lisa McDonough, who resents the company wanting her mother to work extra days she would otherwise spend with her daughter.
“When will my mom go back to work?” Ashley wrote. “She says when people like you help her take a stand. She says if New Era starts to hurt from their customers like the ballplayers, maybe she can go back to work.”
Academic Effort
United Students Against Sweatshops, which last winter conducted an investigation into sweatshop conditions at the Derby plant, on Oct. 19 conducted various actions on campuses across the country — including the University of New York at Buffalo, University of California at Berkley, Georgetown University and Indiana University — to publicize the strikers’ plight.
Students at Ohio State University played a “baseball” game on the campus green, pitting New Era “workers” in red and gray uniforms against “management” in suits.
Lettering on the backs of “workers” advertised grievances such as “union busting,” “needle punctures” and “blood contamination.” “Management” players wore labels like “union busting lawyer” or “Chris Koch,” the company president’s name.
“It got people walking over and asking what we were doing,” said USAS Campus Coordinator Mary Beth Tschantz. “We wanted to get the word out that we feel it’s our university’s responsibility to live up to its code of conduct and comply with WRC monitoring.”
Ohio State last year adopted an anti-sweatshop code of conduct for manufacturers of products sold on campus and belongs to the Worker Rights Consortium, which monitors such codes on behalf of 80 member colleges and universities, Tschantz explained.
What Goes Around …
New Era workers at the company’s Buffalo plant, represented by an independent union that in 1997 voted not to affiliate with CWA, are facing the same demands for “engineered standards” and advance accrual of vacation days that caused Local 14177 to go on strike at the Derby plant.
The independent union urged its members to refuse overtime and work to rule starting Oct. 8.
“We must stand together and show our solidarity to this company,” a flier said.
Citing “anti-union animus” on the part of New Era owner David Koch, the National Labor Relations Board on Sept. 28 ruled that the company illegally interfered with the Buffalo plant workers’ campaign to affiliate, by surveillance and interrogation of employees, by busing workers to the election, asking them to wear “Vote No” buttons, and other actions.
The board ordered back pay and that employees disciplined for union activity be made whole, and ordered New Era to post a notice of the board’s decision. The notice must clearly inform the workers of their organizing rights and pledge that the company will not interfere with them in the future.
United Students Against Sweatshops held a “Day of Action” on campuses nationwide, bolstering student support for the striking workers.
And the National Labor Relations Board slammed the company for illegally interfering with CWA’s organizing campaign at New Era’s Buffalo, N.Y,. plant in 1997.
From the Heart
Local 14177 members, on strike in Derby, N.Y., since July 16, have generated more than 700 letters to individual professional baseball players, asking them to write to New Era President Chris Koch in support of a fair contract. New Era is the official cap maker for baseball.
Sweeney and Bahr took the campaign a step further, asking for a public message of support from members of the Major League Baseball Players Association.
“While the national tragedy that occurred on Sept. 11 has moved many Americans to overcome disagreement to work together for the greater good, the management at New Era appears unshaken in pursuing its destructive policies toward its own workforce,” they wrote to players’ union President Donald Fehr. “Indeed, New Era has sought to wrap its products in our nation’s flag at the same time that it persists in labor policies that run counter to everything for which our country stands.”
They went on to detail New Era’s outsourcing of work to Bangladesh, where children reportedly work 14 hour days, seven days a week for as little as 10 cents an hour.
“When a company that is party to such practices seeks to promote its products as symbols of patriotism, it brings discredit to us all,” they wrote.
Local 14177 members penned moving appeals to individual players, explaining the difficulties of their jobs and that the company wants even more work for less money.
Elizabeth Sack, a 16-year veteran at the plant, runs machines heated to 400 degrees to fuse the stiff backing into the fronts of ball caps. She says her pay would drop as much as $7 an hour under the company’s new “engineered standards,” based in large part upon how many dozens of caps she turns out.
“I don’t know if you have ever worked piece work, but you have to continually move in order to get your dozens out,” she wrote to New York Yankees designated hitter David Justice. “Some women don’t take breaks or go to the bathroom because that time that you’re away you could have produced a dozen or two. The company is monitoring breaks and bathroom privileges.” She pointed out that as many as 40 percent of the major league caps New Era produces are Yankees caps.
Yankees’ star shortstop Derek Jeter got a letter from Carmella Kron, a member who just lost her mother to cancer. “It is sad to know that I have to experience grief from the loss of a parent and possibly the loss of a job, which I loved so much, in the same time frame,” the letter says.
Karen Lancaster wrote to the St. Louis Cardinals’ Mark McGuire, the first ever to hit 70 home runs in a season, asking him to sign a pledge card to be mailed to CWA. “We know we can count on you to be there for us, as we will be there for you in your labor struggles,” she concluded.
One of the most moving letters, to third baseman Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves, was written by Ashley McDonough, the 9-year-old daughter of Lisa McDonough, who resents the company wanting her mother to work extra days she would otherwise spend with her daughter.
“When will my mom go back to work?” Ashley wrote. “She says when people like you help her take a stand. She says if New Era starts to hurt from their customers like the ballplayers, maybe she can go back to work.”
Academic Effort
United Students Against Sweatshops, which last winter conducted an investigation into sweatshop conditions at the Derby plant, on Oct. 19 conducted various actions on campuses across the country — including the University of New York at Buffalo, University of California at Berkley, Georgetown University and Indiana University — to publicize the strikers’ plight.
Students at Ohio State University played a “baseball” game on the campus green, pitting New Era “workers” in red and gray uniforms against “management” in suits.
Lettering on the backs of “workers” advertised grievances such as “union busting,” “needle punctures” and “blood contamination.” “Management” players wore labels like “union busting lawyer” or “Chris Koch,” the company president’s name.
“It got people walking over and asking what we were doing,” said USAS Campus Coordinator Mary Beth Tschantz. “We wanted to get the word out that we feel it’s our university’s responsibility to live up to its code of conduct and comply with WRC monitoring.”
Ohio State last year adopted an anti-sweatshop code of conduct for manufacturers of products sold on campus and belongs to the Worker Rights Consortium, which monitors such codes on behalf of 80 member colleges and universities, Tschantz explained.
What Goes Around …
New Era workers at the company’s Buffalo plant, represented by an independent union that in 1997 voted not to affiliate with CWA, are facing the same demands for “engineered standards” and advance accrual of vacation days that caused Local 14177 to go on strike at the Derby plant.
The independent union urged its members to refuse overtime and work to rule starting Oct. 8.
“We must stand together and show our solidarity to this company,” a flier said.
Citing “anti-union animus” on the part of New Era owner David Koch, the National Labor Relations Board on Sept. 28 ruled that the company illegally interfered with the Buffalo plant workers’ campaign to affiliate, by surveillance and interrogation of employees, by busing workers to the election, asking them to wear “Vote No” buttons, and other actions.
The board ordered back pay and that employees disciplined for union activity be made whole, and ordered New Era to post a notice of the board’s decision. The notice must clearly inform the workers of their organizing rights and pledge that the company will not interfere with them in the future.