James Lerner, an outstanding labor journalist whose work for UE spanned six decades, died Sept. 20 after a long illness. He was 92.
Lerner was born in New York in 1911. He attended City College there in 1927-28, then spent almost an academic year at the Experimental College at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Forced out because of lack of money, he returned home and held a variety of jobs.
As a Local 610 steward in the 1970s, Lisa Kannenberg thought she and her co-workers were “pioneers” by organizing a District Six women’s conference. The late Evelyn Bell, longtime District office manager, set them straight, Kannenberg said.
Nearly 30 years earlier, Helen Quirini thought UE’s national women’s conference was an innovation, only to discover a groundswell of district and local women’s meetings. “We thought we were smart like you were smart,” Quirini said to Kannenberg, “but they were all doing it.”
68th National UE Convention Daily Summaries: Wednesday Morning:
On Wednesday morning, August 27, 68th Convention delegates heard a leader of Brazil’s metalworkers’ union, endorsed policy on international solidarity, and discussed finances and the Policy Action report.
68th National UE Convention Daily Summaries: Tuesday Morning. On Tuesday morning, August 26, the 68th Convention heard from presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. Delegates liked what they heard.
The members of amalgamated UE Local 299 who work at Entoleter decided on May 1 to strike to gain a cap on employee health-insurance costs and a decent raise.
Both goals have been achieved after seven-and-a-half weeks on the picket line.
The new contract, settled June 23, is the first with a new owner. Headquartered in Groningen, Netherlands, NIVOBA manufactures equipment and installations for the chemical, food, pharmaceutical and environmental industries. Entoleter has produced milling machines and air pollution control equipment for more than 60 years.
The union negotiating committee voted unanimously on July 7 to recommend rejection of a tentative agreement reached the previous week with City Market, a downtown supermarket/food co-op.
The decision to recommend rejection follows a meeting with the City Market Board of Directors, at which the board rejected three union requests:
1. A policy statement acknowledging that livable wages remain the goal for all City Market workers.
2. Assurances that management would share the same economic pain experienced by workers.
Representatives of UE locals in the General Electric chain adopted a comprehensive set of contract proposals at a meeting of the UE-GE Conference Board in the union’s national headquarters here March 28.
UE’s national negotiations with General Electric begin May 20 in New York. The UE national agreement with GE expires June 15.
UE OFFICERS’ STATEMENT ON THE WAR ON IRAQ, March 20, 2003
This story has been updated: www.ueunion.org/unity2003_pensionurged.html
General Electric retirees deserve "an immediate and substantial pension increase," says UE. In a March 4 letter, UE President John H. Hovis reminds company officials that "It has now been nearly three years since General Electric has seen fit to adjust the pensions of its retirees."
A card-check completed on Friday, Feb. 28 brought UE its latest organizing win, securing bargaining rights for approximately 160 full and part-time workers at Burlington’s cooperatively owned downtown supermarket.
Rev. Michael Cronogue of St. Michael’s College conducted the card count and reported that 105 of 157 eligible employees signed UE membership cards.
A majority of co-op workers had also voted for the union in a community election earlier in the month as a means of convincing the co-op’s board of directors to agree to the card-check procedure.
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