UAW Union Leadership Elect Florida Writer to Chair TOP Advisory Board [Seth Eisenberg Will Chair UAW Region 8 TOP Board]
Seth Eisenberg, a Florida freelance writer and community activist, has been elected chairman of the Technical, Office and Professional Advisory Board (TOP) of the International Union, UAW for the 12-state region that stretches from Pennsylvania to Florida. With more than one million active and retired members, the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) is one of the largest and most diverse labor organizations in America.
Daytona Beach, FL (PRWEB) May 5, 2004 -- Seth Eisenberg, a Florida freelance
writer and community activist, has been elected chairman of the Technical,
Office and Professional Advisory Board (TOP) of the International Union, UAW for
the 12-state region that stretches from Pennsylvania to Florida. With more than
one million active and retired members, the International Union, United
Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) is one
of the largest and most diverse labor organizations in America. Eisenberg, 42,
of Weston, Fla., was elected at the union’s recent regional leadership
conference in Daytona Beach.
During his three-year term, Eisenberg will
advise the UAW International Executive Board on matters concerning technical,
office and professional employee policies, help establish an information
clearinghouse, and review efforts to bring increased job security and benefits
to the region’s workers through union membership.
Also elected were
Teresa Martin, vice-chair, and Gerald Saunders, recording
secretary.
Eisenberg, president of Eisenberg Communications and executive
director of the 411-KIDS volunteer program, is also Florida coordinator for the
National Writers Union. NWU represents nearly 5,000 journalists, authors and
business/technical writers. In 1992, the group affiliated with United Auto
Workers, becoming UAW Local 1981.
Eisenberg said watching four years of
continuous assaults on workers’ rights, safety and security by corporate and
special interests motivated his decision to seek elected office.
“Without
collective support, resources and bargaining abilities, workers rarely have the
power to demand the safety, security and rights they deserve,” Eisenberg said.
“Workers lives should not be a variable expense heartlessly manipulated to meet
quarterly financial targets,” he added.
“Over the last four years,”
Eisenberg said, “America’s workers have faced unprecedented challenges to hard
earned benefits and rights. Government policies have undermined the safety and
security of workers on the job while supporting the outsourcing of American jobs
with callous disregard for the impact on American workers, our families and our
communities.”
“How come American jobs are being outsourced at the fastest
pace in history but when it comes to fighting in Iraq, the far majority of
soldiers being wounded and killed are Americans? Why can’t the White House
outsource those jobs?” Eisenberg questioned.
“Political leaders whose
policies deny more and more Americans the opportunity to earn a living wage in
stable, safe jobs at home order some of the same men and women to the frontlines
of Iraq where hundreds of our citizens have been killed and thousands wounded,”
Eisenberg said. “It is unconscionable to deny economic opportunities to young
Americans in the United States and then encourage them to risk their lives in
Iraq to bring increased profits to the Halliburtons of the world.”
“We’re
outsourcing the wrong jobs,” he added.
About TOP
Known as TOP, the
UAW’s technical, office and professional department is one of the labor
movement’s fastest growing. The department includes nearly 100,000 workers,
representing approximately 15 percent of the UAW’s membership. Members include
workers at manufacturing companies as well as in the public sector, health care,
schools and universities, telecommunications and news media. They work in a wide
range of occupations, including draftsmen, industrial designers, engineers,
graphic designers and illustrators, computer specialists, health care
professionals, social service workers, journalists and writers, curators and
librarians, graduate teaching assistants and state and local government
employees.
These include Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky state employees;
service, clerical, technical and graduate student employees at more than 20
colleges and universities; artisans at Greenfield Village; the staffs of The
Village Voice, Mother Jones, and The Stamford Advocate; technical and on-air
staff of WDET, Detroit’s public radio station; workers at the three Detroit
casinos, staff lawyers of the Legal Services Corporation; more than 5,000
members of the National Writers Union; and more than 3,000 members of the
Graphic Artists Guild.
About UAW
UAW-represented workplaces range
from multinational corporations, small manufacturers and state and local
governments to colleges and universities, hospitals and private non-profit
organizations.
The UAW has approximately 710,000 active members and over
500,000 retired members in the United States, Canada and Puerto
Rico.
There are more than 950 local unions in the UAW. The UAW currently
has contracts with some 3,200 employers in the United States, Canada and Puerto
Rico.
A solid majority of the union's half-million retirees stay actively
involved in the life of their union, participating in some 700 retiree chapters
and playing a vital role in the UAW's community action program.
Since its
founding in 1935, the UAW has consistently developed innovative partnerships
with employers and negotiated industry-leading wages and benefits for its
members. UAW members have benefited from a number of collective bargaining
breakthroughs, including:
* First employer-paid health insurance plan for
industrial workers
* First cost-of-living allowances
* Pioneering
role in product quality improvements
* Landmark job and income security
provisions
* Comprehensive training and educational programs
From its earliest days, the UAW has also been a leader in the struggle
to secure economic and social justice for all people. The UAW has been actively
involved in every civil rights legislative battle since the 1950s, including the
campaigns to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965,
the Fair Housing Act, the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988 and legislation
to prohibit discrimination against women, the elderly and people with
disabilities.
UAW also has played a vital role in passing such landmark
legislation as Medicare and Medicaid, the Occupational Safety and Health Act,
the Employee Retirement Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act. In Washington
and state capitols, the UAW is fighting for better schools for kids, secure
health care and pensions for retirees, clean air and water, tougher workplace
health and safety standards, stronger worker's compensation and unemployment
insurance laws and fairer taxes.
The UAW's commitment to improve the
lives of working men and women extends beyond America’s borders to encompass
people around the globe. Through vigilant political involvement and coordination
with world labor organizations, UAW fights for enforcement of trade agreement
provisions on human and worker rights, fair labor standards and a new approach
to international trade -- one that raises the quality of life for working people
worldwide.
More information available at www.uawtop.org.
Contact:
Annie Rosa, Media
Assistant
International Union, UAW, TOP Region 8
(954) 347-3001 Fax (954)
337-2981
Web: www.uawtop.org E-mail: e-mail protected from spam
bots
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/5/prweb123415.htm