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Universities, union clash over smoking ban 

Grabbing a quick smoke between classes has become impossible for Lock Haven University political science professor Robert Storch.

An indoor and outdoor smoking ban imposed at Pennsylvania's state university system in September means Storch must walk off campus whenever he craves nicotine - a 20-minute roundtrip excursion that he cannot cram into a 15-minute break between classes.

``I find it ridiculous,'' Storch told a Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board hearing examiner Tuesday. ``You feel like a leper anyway. It's really very demeaning.''

Storch was among a handful of professors at the 14 universities who testified about the smoking ban during a hearing on an unfair labor practice complaint filed by the State System of Higher Education's faculty union. A ruling is not expected before February.

The 5,900-member Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties wants the ban rescinded. The new policy was imposed with virtually no warning, and APSCUF argues that any changes should have been negotiated with the union first.

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• Faculty, employees fight campus smoking ban 

But it's not just his campus that's affected by the non-smoking policy, it's all 14 universities owned by the State System of Higher Education. System officials say the ban complies with the state's new Clean Indoor Air Act.

Besides Lock Haven, the schools include Indiana University of Pennsylvania, California University of Pennsylvania, Slippery Rock and 10 others around Pennsylvania. Indoor smoking had already been largely banned on the campuses, but it's the ban on outdoor smoking that has some teachers, other school employees and students riled up. The system has more than 112,000 students.

The Association of Pennsylvania State College & University Faculties, which represents 6,000 professors and coaches at the 14 state-owned universities, has filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the state Labor Relations Board over the new anti-smoking policy, claiming it's too broad and was unilaterally imposed.

A hearing on the complaint was held yesterday by state hearing officer Donald Wallace, who may rule in February.

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Faculty, staff argue against smoking ban at state universities 

The union representing 6,000 professors and coaches at Pennsylvania's 14 state-owned universities brought its beef about a new campus-wide ban on smoking to the state Labor Relations Board today.

The unfair labor practice complaint was filed by the Association of Pennsylvania State College & University Faculties. It's upset with the State System of Higher Education for imposing a ban on smoking, outdoors as well as indoors, on all 14 campuses. The ban took effect Sept. 11, when the state's new Clean Indoor Air Act took effect.

System officials said they believe they are correctly interpreting the act by banning smoking in all outside areas on all the campuses. Indoor smoking had been largely banned before the new law.

Several professors who are APSCUF members testified today that it takes at least twice as long, as much as 20 minutes, for them to walk out of their offices and go to the nearest public street off-campus in order to smoke. That compares to just a few minutes, under the old policy, because all they had to do was step a few feet outside their buildings.

Union spokesman Kevin Kodish said the state system unilaterally imposed the new no-smoking rule, which should have been bargained with the union because it changes working conditions.

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• Campus smoking ban may be revised  

The outdoor-smoking ban at Pennsylvania's state-owned universities that had some people fuming three months ago at Kutztown University could be modified, administrators said Wednesday.

A change proposed by the State System of Higher Education would allow puffing in cars as long as the windows are closed, along the sidewalks of public roads that pass through campuses and on the fringes of the 14 universities' grounds, said system spokesman Kenn Marshall.

At Kutztown, the modifications would mean employees and students could smoke along Main Street, which cuts through the Berks County campus, as long as they stay on public property.

The system is also considering adding receptacles for cigarette butts on the outskirts of campuses where smokers have tended to congregate, Marshall said.

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• Farmworkers union steps up RJR push 

An Ohio-based farmworkers union put R.J. Reynolds, North Carolina's tobacco giant, in its sights more than a year ago.

Now, as the campaign heads into its second year, union officials say they are more determined than ever to push the Winston-Salem cigarette maker into a deal that could unionize as many as 30,000 tobacco fieldworkers.

Earlier this month, union supporters hand-delivered hundreds of postcards signed by union supporters to members of the company's board of directors. They say it is the beginning of a push that will target board members and other companies that do business with Reynolds.

If those measures fail, they say, they will move on to a national boycott of the company's products, which include Winston, Camel and Salem cigarettes.

"If anybody in the country needs a union, it's these workers," said Baldemar Velasquez, president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, known as FLOC. . . .

Velasquez says tobacco workers are more vulnerable than other farmworkers, because the nicotine in the tobacco leaves can sicken and dehydrate them. Many also are in the country illegally

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• Prisons to outlaw smoking 

In Ohio, prisoners and their guards have been preparing since September to kick the habit for good, whether they like it or not.

Come March 1, all of the state's 32 institutions will be tobacco free. No cigarettes, no snuff, no chew, indoors or out.

Predictably, the policy change is being greeted with mixed reactions.

Chris Mabe is a corrections counselor at the Lorain Correctional Institution and vice president of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, which represents most of those who work inside the prison.

Mabe said the membership is concerned about the effects on a reduced staff, as well as the rights of guards and inmates co-existing in a high-stress environment. . . .

Terry Collins, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, said the move is necessary for medical, economic and legal reasons.

With such a large percentage of inmate smokers, medical costs for Ohio's prisons approach $200 million a year. . . .

Legally, inmates have sued the state over secondhand smoke and some have raised questions on whether voter-approved smoking bans should extend to prisons.

In addition, the Ohio prison system is under a federal order to improve its delivery of health care.

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EU in talks with unions on blanket smoking ban 

The European Union is negotiating with business groups and trade unions over plans to impose a blanket ban on smoking from the factory floor to restaurants and bars, officials said Monday.

The European Commission would like to see a ban on smoking in all workplaces "for both health and safety reasons," EU spokeswoman Chantal Hughes said.

"We have a duty to ensure that all workplaces are safe and secure for workers and at this stage we don't think that is the case," Hughes said.

The consultations are at an early stage and any new EU-wide ban could be years away, she said.

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Faculty union says smoking ban unfair, files suit 

A sweeping ban of indoor and outdoor smoking on the campuses of Pennsylvania’s 14 state-owned colleges and universities has drawn an unfair labor practice charge from the 6,000-member faculty union.

Steve Hicks, president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, calls the decision by John Cavanaugh, chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, a “clever” move to sidestep union rights in favor of political correctness.

Union spokesman Kevin Kodish says the unfair labor practice complaint was filed Sept. 22 with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board. A hearing date has not been set.

Cavanaugh banned smoking on any PSSHE property — indoors or outdoors — in a policy issued Sept. 10. PSSHE spokesman Kenn Marshall says the policy is based on the system’s interpretation of the recently enacted state law prohibiting smoking in public places.

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• Faculty union hits smoke-free edict 

The faculty union at the 14 state universities plans to challenge the administration's decision to expand on the state's Clean Indoor Air Act by making campuses entirely smoke-free, indoors and out.

The Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties plans to file an unfair labor practice charge against the 110,500-student Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education on Monday, saying the smoke-ban decision should have been the subject of negotiation with the union.

"The system is mistaken if it thinks APSCUF, or other unions, is going to ignore its basic mission of negotiating the working conditions of its members," said Steve Hicks, president of the faculty union representing 5,800 faculty members and coaches.

System spokesman Kenn Marshall said the system disagrees with the union's position.

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Faculty union will challenge smoking ban on state university campuses  

The executive council of the hfaculty union at the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, which includes Shippensburg and Millersville universities and 12 other schools, voted to file an unfair labor practice charge with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board over the system's decision to have campuses go completely smokefree, indoors and out.

"The PASSHE has cleverly made the politically correct decision to go ahead and ban smoking both indoors and outdoors," said Steve Hicks, president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties.

Hicks said the policy should have been negotiated with the unions. His union, which represents nearly 6,000 faculty members and coaches, plans to file an unfair labor practice charge on Monday. AFSCME also was considering filing a similar charge against the system.

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Union upset by smoking ban at Pennsylvania-owned universities 

A service union representing workers in the State System of Higher Education is maintaining that the system was wrong to start an outdoor smoking ban at the 14 state-owned universities without bargaining for it with the union.

The system on Thursday began a new policy banning smoking indoors and out as a result of its interpretation of a new state law called the Pennsylvania Clean Indoor Air Act.

Council 13 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has made a demand to the system that it bargain on the issue.

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• Employee Union Fights Campus Smoking Ban 

A Pennsylvania state employee union says it's fighting an outdoor smoking ban at the campuses of 14 state-owned universities and wants the system's administration to negotiate changes to the policy.

The American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees says it filed a demand to bargain with the State System of Higher Education. The union represents about 2,500 maintenance, dining hall, skilled labor and clerical workers.

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• Teachers reject smoking bans in school 

A proposal to ban smoking on Victorian school grounds would limit the potential fundraising activities of schools, the education union says.

The Victorian government is considering a reform package as part of a new tobacco control strategy that would ban smoking, including by staff and parents, on school grounds, in addition to existing laws against smoking inside school buildings.

Under current laws smoking is still allowed by parents picking up children, staff on school grounds or at school community events.

Australian Education Union (AEU) state president Mary Bluett said there was little reason to change the law.

"Overwhelmingly schools are smoke-free. People who need to smoke go off school grounds out of sight of students. They're very aware of their role model status," Ms Bluett said.

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Baldemar Velásquez journals his experiences during a recent trip to North Carolina 

All day, I was nervous about the nicotine and tar. The “Green Monster,” as they know it, is nicotine poisoning ingested through the skin. I was lucky to find some light gloves with grips on them.

They’ll get wet but at least there would be a shield from the tar and nicotine. . . .

The final tally on my body was the rash on my arms and lower legs and ankles, four blisters on my right hand, sunburn on my nose, face, and lips, and swollen hands that were numb. . . . God put on my heart to call the only pastor I knew who might come and help me do this and come to bless the men and their families. The Rev. Nelson Johnson had been meeting with the RJ Reynolds Co. to advocate a dialogue between FLOC and the company, and after several meetings, the company continues to avoid any responsibility for the production of their tobacco. . . .

He spoke out his heart to God, recalling the many African-Americans who toiled in these same fields, like himself as a youth, the blessing of the workers’ families in Mexico, the success of their work, that the hearts of many would be reached to lift up the yoke of oppression of all tobacco workers, and that there might be unity among brown, blacks, and whites in this endeavor.

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• Toledo-based farm labor leader tackles tobacco in North Carolina 

Worst of all, it was barely 8 a.m. There were still nearly 10 hours of tobacco picking ahead in the humidity-drenched fields of North Carolina, which leads the nation in heat-related farm worker deaths.

And so began a typical day for the 61-year-old labor organizer during his week-long visit to a tobacco farm that concluded Aug. 4 with a return home to Sylvania Township.

In essence, his trip was a fact-finding mission, one that involved as much participation as observation. Mr. Velásquez lived and worked alongside a group of about 14 migrant workers, picking tobacco plants at the most brutal time of the year. . . .

“My feeling is that if I’m going to represent somebody, I better do the work that they’re doing to know what they’re going through,” he said last week upon his return.

The work in the fields was utterly exhausting. . . .

The founder and president of the Toledo-based Farm Labor Organizing Committee, Mr. Velásquez is focusing on securing improvement in pay, benefits, and working conditions for the thousands of temporary guest workers who journey to the United States for seasonal jobs in tobacco fields. He would not disclose his location in North Carolina, citing concerns about growers’ relationships with RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co.

The majority of tobacco field workers in North Carolina have their permanent homes in Mexico. Some are employed there legally for the growing season through the U.S. government’s H2-A agricultural work visa program. But many others are undocumented.

Depending on the farm they’re at, they are paid from $50 to $150 a day, according to Mr. Velásquez. .. . .

In his view, tobacco workers struggle at the bottom of a three-tiered production chain that’s presided over by agricultural corporations such as RJ Reynolds, a subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc.

Second to corporations are the growers, whom he describes as being at the financial mercy of the corporations that buy their crops.

Mr. Velásquez said his immediate goal is to get RJ Reynolds to agree to three-way labor talks between FLOC and farmers from tobacco states such as North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and South Carolina.

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