By Roy Rydell

People's Weekly World

www.pww.org

NEW YORK - The national AFL-CIO program, "7 Days in June for a Voice at Work," is a coming together of labor leaders, trade union rank-and-file members, elected officials, religious and community leaders and immigrant and human rights activists to expose violations of basic human and workers' rights.

The Central Labor Council here hosted a series of rallies and a city-wide bus tour to support workers who are standing up for dignity and a voice at work.

First off was a rally at Columbia University for 1,100 teaching and research assistants who work in laboratories, provide administrative assistance to faculty, as well as teach in numerous capacities.

Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers (UAW), representing these graduate assistants, filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for a union election.

Columbia challenged Local 2110's right to an election, saying that these assistants are not employees. Columbia is spending lots of money to retain a notorious union-busting law firm to advise them on how to stop Local 2110.

The union wants to win collective bargaining rights so it can negotiate wages and conditions for the Columbia employees. Most of them earn about $6,500 a semester, but some are paid as little as $1,500. Healthcare is nominal and workloads vary.

Local 2110 recently won bargaining rights for teaching assistants at New York University.

On June 14 a rally was held at Jefferson Market where Local 1500 of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) is conducting an organizing drive.

A Local 1500 statement said that gourmet food stores are being targeted because they charge upscale prices but provide bargain basement benefits to their workers. With the exception of Fairway, Gristedes and D'Agostino, the gourmet food industry in New York City is primarily unorganized.

These stores are symbolic of the growing gap between rich and poor. Many workers in these shops are low-paid immigrant workers and they lack job security, pensions and benefits.

The UFCW has filed several charges with the NLRB because Jefferson Market hired an anti-union consultant and began to use tactics of fear, lies and coercion to halt the organizing campaign.

To highlight the issue of workplace safety, a memorial service was held at a construction site in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where an immigrant worker, Rogelio Villanueva, died on the job. He was killed by a falling stack of unsecured metal beams.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has said that construction is the most hazardous industry. Today temporary employment agencies dispatch about 250,000 day laborers to construction jobs.

Workers dispatched by Labor Ready, the country's largest blue-collar temp company, have injury rates of 25 per 100 workers - three times the overall rate for the construction industry.

The construction trade unions are committed to preventing tragedies like the one that claimed the life of Villanueva.

Next was another rally in Brooklyn, this one at Two Way International, where limousine drivers are demanding recognition with the International Association of Machinists. The company has responded with threats and beatings.

A solidarity rally was held for Delta flight attendants in Kew Gardens, Queens. Even people in so-called glamorous jobs have to organize to guarantee basic dignity on the job.

A protest was held at a job site of Trataros Construction Co. at Queens College, where taxpayers' money goes to fund the lowering of standards and worker abuse.

Finally, a Justice for Janitors rally was held at the World Trade Center. New York was one of the first cities to have unionized janitors. Now the Service Employees International Union vows it's going to be the first city to have its janitors 100 percent union.