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WIN Week In Review February 22-24, 2008

By Doug Cunningham

The Teamsters union has endorsed Senator Barack Obama for President just before crucial primaries in Ohio and Pennsylvania, states rich with blue-collar voters. Teamsters President Jim Hoffa:

[Hoffa]: “We believe that he’s speaking to issues that resonate with our members. He’s talking about calling up the President of Mexico and the Prime Minister of Canada when he becomes president and reforming NAFTA. I think that’s important. He’s talking about fairness in the tax system; he’s talking about universal health care. He’s talking about a lot of issues that are important to us."

The Change To Win Labor federation is also endorsing Obama .Four unions within the federation - SEIU, the Teamsters, UFCW and UNITE-HERE had already individually endorsed him. But the other Change To Win unions – the Carpenters, Laborers and the United Farm Workers - abstained from the vote to endorse Obama. United Farm Workers spokesperson Vicki Adame says the farmworkers are sticking with their endorsement of Senator Hillary Clinton.

[Adame]: "We continue to support Senator Clinton in her run for president. We are working in Texas to organize people, getting out the vote. We listened to our farm worker leadership and what we heard from them was that they overwhelmingly believed that Senator Clinton was the one who would best look after their interests, look after farm worker issues – not just our members but across the nation."

Seventeen thousand home childcare workers across New York State voted to join the Civil Servant Employees Association affiliated with AFSCME. CSEA’s Jill Ascencio.

[Asencio]: "This is probably the biggest union election this year in New York this year and maybe even in the entire country. They will enter negotiations with the New York State Office of Children and Family Services to work on some major issues. There are basically thee major issues that motivated the providers and their interest in forming a union. And that’s late and inaccurate payments for their payments, and lack of benefits, and also a lack of voice in their work.”

Does the federal age discrimination law protect workers from not only bias, but also retaliation after an accusation has been filed? The Supreme Court heard arguments concerning that question on Tuesday. Jesse Russell reports:

The age discrimination case stems from a discrimination complaint filed by a postal worker, claiming that she had been retaliated against after filing an age discrimination complaint under the Equal Employment Opportunity laws. According to the postal worker, she was not allowed to return to work after filing the discrimination claim and her supervisor hired a younger, less experienced postal worker to take her place. The U.S Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that the worker could not file for retaliation, but the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that she could. During Tuesday’s hearing, Justice Antonin Scalia said the "plain language" of the age discrimination law doesn’t cover retaliation. On the other hand, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg said retaliation "goes hand in hand with discrimination."