by Doug Collins

Around the holiday season, many labor publications predictably printed lists of American-made and union-made products that you could buy as gifts. They printed editorials on the worthiness of buying these goods. Unfortunately, the list of these goods is getting shorter and shorter, and this strategy, called "labelism", is seeming just a bit pathetic. Labelism is only practical when a large percentage of goods are domestically union-made, but that hasn't been the case for years, especially as the US becomes more of a service economy rather than a production economy. Insisting on the high moral ground of labelism alienates the average worker, who is just trying to finish his/her holiday shopping without the added stress of searching a whole day just to find a pair of shoes not made in China. Unions should instead focus on winning popular support for both domestic trade protection barriers and international union organizing, yet we see very little of this sort of organizing being done by any unions today. (However, if you do get a notion to look at a comprehensive national list of union-made goods, you can consult the website at www.unionlabel.org)

Why did Democrats gain seats in the Washington state legistature this year, but not in Oregon or Idaho? There's a good chance that this phenomenon was related to the minimum wage initiative, I-688. The initiative apparently enticed previously apathetic labor supporters to the ballot box, who tended to vote Democratic. The same phenomenon occurred in a 1996 election in California that also included a successful minimum wage initiative, reports the Washington State Labor Council's newsletter, WSLC Reports. Moral of the story: we need more good initiatives from the Labor Council. How about an initiative outlawing unjust dismissal of employees?

The United Auto Workers successfully organized 800 workers at a Kmart warehouse in Morrisville, Pennsylvania. Preceding the successful vote, many workers were called to one-on-one meetings with bosses, were told to think about their families and future, and were asked to vote against the union. Last year the workers rejected unionization attempts after management made promises to address overtime and safety concerns. Many workers felt the promises didn't come through, and switched their votes this year, reports the magazine Solidarity.

Some 2400 workers for Kaiser Aluminum in Spokane County and Tacoma have been on strike since September 30. Kaiser has since hired scab workers, housing them and feeding them onsite for free. Kaiser hired the replacements via the Ohio-based International Management Assistance Corporation (IMAC). A Washington law prohibits the use of out-of-staters as replacement workers during a strike, but union supporters say they have seen many out-of-state license plates on cars outside the plants. Aluminum workers at Kaiser had record productivity in 1997. The result was that management was given a ten percent pay bonus, whereas workers were rewarded with threats of job cuts and cuts in pensions. An article in the Olympia magazine Works in Progress, encourages readers to call their state legislators via the Olympia hotline (1-800-562-6000) and request them to take a stand against Kaiser's tactics and grant unemployment benefits to the striking Kaiser workers.

Since 1987, the yearly graduation of PhDs in the life sciences (biological and biomedical sciences) has increase by 47 percent, resulting in a glut of these professionals and consequent difficulties finding jobs, reports the National Research Council (NRC). Five years after graduating, 38 percent of these doctorates have still not found permanent work in their fields. This example illustrates how the "free market" of education is often dysfunctional. What students feel will be a practical career path often doesn't turn out that way. As an altruistic self-regulation, the NRC recommends that colleges should limit graduate enrollment in life science programs and provide accurate information on career prospects to interested students. While they're at it, why don't they limit the enrollment of dental students as well?

Janitors trying to organize a union at Lewis and Clark College in Oregon have garnered support from students and faculty. Delegations of students in support of the janitors in November met with their college board of trustees and administrators. They rallied and presented a petition to the managers at Skyline Building Maintenance, the firm employing the janitors. According to Service Employees Local 49, which is attempting to organize the company, janitors at Skyline make $6.50 and hour and the company contributes only $60 a month toward medical insurance for its employees. (NW Labor Press)