N.Y. AFFILIATE STRIKES MILITARY LEAVE ACCORD

The New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF), an affiliate of AFT Public Employees, reports that it has reached a new agreement with the state on military leave benefits for its Professional, Scientific and Technical unit members who have been or will be called for military duty related to the war on terrorism.

“Key among these benefits are the continuation of military leave at reduced pay and the continuation of contribution-free health insurance for dependent family members through the conclusion of the employee’s active duty or Dec. 31, 2006, whichever occurs first,” according to PEF.

Military leave benefits were set to expire in December 2004.

NEW REPORT AVAILABLE ON OFFSHORE OUTSOURCING

The United States lost “an absolute minimum of 25,000 jobs” to overseas outsourcing from January-March 2004, according to researchers from Cornell University and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who estimate that more than 400,000 U.S. jobs will move to foreign countries in 2004.

Mexico, China and India are the leading recipients of U.S. jobs, and “jobs that are most ‘at risk’ require no face-to-face customer service, use remote telecommunications technology and have high-wage differentials among countries,” according to Kate Bronfen-brenner of Cornell University and Stephanie Luce of the University of Massachusetts, who compiled their research in The Changing Nature of Corporate Global Restructuring: The Impact of Production Shifts on jobs in the U.S., China and Around the Globe.

Moreover, U.S. companies that are sending jobs to other countries “tend to be large, profitable, well-established companies, primarily subsidiaries of publicly held U.S.-based multinationals.”

“Despite the attention paid to [overseas] outsourcing, there still exists no government agency that monitors production shifts out of the United States and the impact of those production shifts on U.S. wages, employment, taxpayer-supported social services and tax revenue,” Bronfenbrenner and Luce noted.

The report, released in October, is posted on the AFL-CIO’s Union Label & Service Trades Department Web site at www.unionlabel.org.

INDIANA UNITY TEAM TAKES TWO IN 2005

When the Indiana Unity Team negotiated a four-year agreement last year, it bargained to reopen the salary provision in 2004 due to the tentative economic environment.

The Unity Team wrapped up negotiations in November, delivering a 2 percent pay raise to its members starting in December 2004, as well as a $546 flat grant, which will be paid in $21 biweekly installments over the coming year.

“I feel that we got a pretty good shake out of it,” says Unity Team vice president Joe Neill. “We’ve been scheduled for this bargaining session for a year.”