In the January/February 1999 issue of the BMWE JOURNAL, in the article entitled "BMWE 1999 Legislative Agenda," sub-heading "Rail Management's Legislative Agenda," (page 12) we inadvertently referred to "deregulation" instead of reregulation. In order to correct this mistake, we are reprinting the corrected section here.

Reregulation. The Union Pacific "meltdown" of 1996-97 and the Surface Transportation Board's ill-considered "bottleneck" decision brought shippers together in a coordinated, well financed campaign for railroad reregulation, claiming that each of the four major railroads in effect exercises monopoly control over a portion of the country and each has abused its monopoly power to set freight rates. The proposals on the table do not fully return the industry to pre-1980 Staggers Act (when, as old timers remember, there were three times as many gandies and far fewer contractors). Reregulation will probably be attached to the STB reauthorization bill which the Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to hear in February 1999.

May 8, 1999 -- NALC Food Drive

The National Association of Letter Carriers will hold its seventh annual food drive in thousands of communities across the nation on Saturday, May 8.

The food drive, which is conducted in conjunction with the AFL-CIO, United Way and U. S. Postal Service, is the largest single volunteer participation day in American history. Millions of Americans leave non-perishable food items near their mailbox each year on the second Saturday in May to be collected by their Letter Carrier. The millions of pounds of food collected benefit the poor and hungry through local community food banks.

Tyson Strike Assistance Fund

In January, 300 members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 227 went on strike at the Tyson Foods plant in Corydon, Indiana.

Workers at this chicken processing plant earn an average wage of only $7.68 an hour. But despite low pay and hazardous working conditions, Tyson management is demanding 21 concessions from the union including a 100 percent increase in health insurance deductibles, the right to subcontract, reduced medical leave, elimination of paid breaks, reduced Sunday and holiday premium pay, reduced vacation pay and leave, and language allowing supervisors to do bargaining unit work.

You can support the Tyson strikers by sending contributions to the Tyson Strike Assistance Fund, c/o UFCW Local 227, 7902 Old Minors Lane, Louisville, KY 40219.

Kaiser Aluminum Workers Food Pantry

United Steelworkers at Kaiser Aluminum were on strike for 16 weeks because of a breakdown in contract negotiations and unfair labor practices, before the company officially locked them out on January 14 this year.

In 1983 Kaiser Aluminum was in trouble and company officials came to the Steelworkers and asked for a special deal. The union responded "because in 1983, loyalty at Kaiser was a two-way street. Kaiser Aluminum had stood by us, and we were prepared to stand by the company -- in bad times as well as good." Kaiser received wage and benefit concessions worth hundred of millions of dollars.

When negotiations opened in 1998, Kaiser management told the Steelworkers that workers "had achieved the 'best ever' performance the previous year in every one of its five plants -- a performance that earned Kaiser over $168 million in 1997.

But before bargaining even started on September 1, 1998, in San Francisco, Kaiser acted like a company that was more interested in provoking a strike than in reaching an agreement. They delayed local negotiations; they started advertising for strikebreakers; they insisted on eliminating 400 out of 3,000 jobs; they wanted a free hand to contract out any and all work in the plants.

Now members of Steelworkers Local 341 in Newark, Ohio, are "looking at an almost empty food pantry," said Deb Thompson, volunteer food pantry chair for the local. "We have babies that need diapers and youngsters that need food. We need help with prescription medicines." If you can help, send donations to USWA Local 341, c/o Food Pantry Fund, P.O. Box 2247, Heath, Ohio 43056.

USWA Oregon Steel Boycott Extended to Norwest Bank

In June of 1998, at the request of the United Steelworkers of America, Wells Fargo Bank was placed on the AFL-CIO's boycott list. The boycott asks Wells Fargo's customers to withdraw funds from the bank to protest Wells Fargo's role in financing the union-busting of Oregon Steel Mills, Inc.'s Pueblo, Colorado subsidiary, CF&I Steel.

One of the reasons the dispute is now in its second year is the action taken by Wells Fargo in its role as the leader of a consortium of banks that has extended a $125 million revolving line of credit to the company.

On November 2, 1998, Wells Fargo completed a merger with Norwest Bank, creating the seventh largest bank in the United States. Although the new Wells Fargo top management is drawn primarily from Norwest, the merged bank is maintaining financial support for OSM and has refused to help seek a resolution to the dispute.

As the Steelworkers have explained, "Wells Fargo is the surviving name in the merger, and Norwest, therefore, inherits the sorry legacy of Oregon Steel's war on workers in Pueblo, Colorado." Accordingly, the national AFL-CIO boycott of Wells Fargo includes its Norwest branches as well.

Unions and other concerned organizations have closed accounts totaling well over $250 million.