People Before Profit blog

May Day: Workers of the world unite for a better life!

Fri, 01 May 2015 05:04:00 +0000

A May 1 letter from a retired steelworker

Dear Friends,

Happy May Day.

May 1st is May Day, the International Workers Holiday. In every nation on earth, working people gather together to celebrate a holiday dedicated to the folks that labor and produce all wealth. As well, it is a day to protest against bad conditions for working people and to join together to fight for a better and more just world.

However, a great many people here in the United States don't know that May Day originated here in the U.S.A. as a day of remembrance of those leaders of the great eight hour day movement who were arrested, imprisoned and judicially murdered in Chicago, 1886.

Ever since May Day was declared an International Worker's Holiday, 122 years ago, authorities in our nation have tried and tried and tried to suppress all memory of May Day. It was re-named Flag Day and Law Day, and on Haymarket Square in Chicago, the site of murders of demonstrating workers in 1886 by Chicago cops, a number of statues of policemen were erected.

But 122 years later, working people all across the earth are again rising up, celebrating the solidarity of all working people. Flag Day and Law Day are forgotten and the numerous police statues were blown up, torn down, until it was finally moved to the Police Museum in Chicago.

In 2004, the Chicago Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO paid to erect a beautiful monument to the heroic, embattled workers that demonstrated there on that May afternoon in 1886, and where many laid down their lives, in the hope that the eight hour day, and better conditions for workers, could come to be. If you visit the former Haymarket site in Chicago today, you will find that the memorial to the martyrs of that first May Day is surrounded with flowers, notes20and remembrances from visitors from our nation and from nearly every nation on earth.

As well, while those of great wealth and power have done their best to erase the memory of May Day as a Worker’s Holiday born in our own nation, unionists and working folks across the U.S.A. are rediscovering our own tough and bloody history, the history of those who fought to win whatever rights we have today. That inspiration is spurring new generations on to fight for right to organize, health care for all, rights for foreign and native born workers, peace and justice for all peoples!

MAY DAY---1886

The eight hour day movement began, in earnest, in 1884 at the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. That union passed a resolution to 'establish eight hours work as the legal day's labor for all workers,' and called for a 'universal strike for the establishment of the working day of 8 hours, to take place no later that May 1, 1886.'

Workers across the USA were inspired, as this movement spread. Workers ate '8 hour lunch,' wore '8 hour shoes' and smoked '8 hour tobacco.' The “8 hour song' swept across the nation;

'We mean to make things over, We're tired of work for naught But bare enough to live on, ‘Nere an hour for thought We want to feel the sunshine, We want to smell the flowers We're sure that God has willed it, We mean to have 8 hours We're summoning our forces, From shipyard, shop & mill Eight hours for work, 8 hours for rest, Eight hours for want we will!'

When May 1, 1886 arrived, the movement had become huge. Over 350,000 workers, from 12,000 shops struck for the eight hour day. In Chicago, over 40,000 workers walked out. Demonstrations occurred in not only in Chicago, but also New York, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Columbus, Milwaukee, Seattle, San Francisco, Boston, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, St Louis, Washington, Philadelphia and many other cities.

The wealthy were terrified and attacks on the workers were organized. In Chicago, a police force of over a thousand cops brutally attacked the demonstration, killing many workers. The numbers killed at this and other rallies isn't known, since many families took their wounded and dead home to avoid persecution.

In Chicago, a rally was called for May 4 at Haymarket square to protest these murders. But again police attacked and murdered an estimated 20-25 workers, with many, many more wounded. At this demo, a bomb was thrown, killing one cop. The papers called for blood and eight leaders of that rally were arrested and charged with murder, even though none were present at the time of the violence.

Those radical union leaders: Albert Parsons, Oscar Neebe, Samuel Fielden, August Spies, August Fischer, George Engel, Louis Lingg & Micheal Schawb never had any chance. The establishment papers called for their death, and were sure to get it. Seven of the eight were foreign born, but most were U.S. citizens, from Germany, England & Ireland. Parsons was a former Confederate officer, who'd hated slavery & deserted, later marrying the beautiful former slave, Lucy Parsons, who became a Union/Worker's leader in her own right. After they were convicted, August Spies, a great orator and union leader stood and told the court.

'If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labor movement, that movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil in want and misery, expect salvation, if this is your opinion, then by all means hang us! But you cannot stamp this movement of humanity out! Here you will tread upon a spark, there and there, behind you and in front of you, everywhere flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire! You can never put it out!'

On Nov. 11, 1887, the hangings were carried out, in spite of a massive worldwide movement for their freedom.

Soon thereafter, the International Workingmen's Association, an early labor movement that had representatives from many nations, issued a call to 'observe May 1 as a day of remembrance of the martyrs of May Day, and in solidarity with workers in struggles throughout the world!' The American Federation of Labor and the Knights of Labor, the union organizations in our nation, also adopted this call.

On June, 26, 1893, Illinois Governor Peter Altgeld issued a full pardon for all the May Day defendents. He stated that 'The defendents, leaders of labor, were not guilty of any crime!' They were he said, 'completely innocent, victims of a packed jury, public hysteria and a biased judge!'

From that time until the present, working people throughout the world have celebrated May 1st as the Holiday for Workers. In our own nation, labor history, like that of African Americans, women, Hispanics, gays and others marginalized by our society, is being rediscovered. Try as they might, the wealthy and those controlling the media cannot erase history!

In closing, it brings to mind an interview with the great American folk singer, Pete Seeger, shortly after he had finally broken the blacklist put on him during the McCarthy period and had appeared on the Smothers Brothers Show. The interviewer asked Pete, 'Isn't folk music dead now Pete? Haven't people just moved on from that kind of old fashioned music?' When Pete stopped laughing, he exclaimed, 'Folk music dead? Hardly, no, never! Folk music is just what it says it is, music of the folks, people's music. Sometimes, like the people who make it, it is driven underground, covered up, forgotten for a time. But, like the people, it comes back! When the people stand up and speak out for justice, folks will make folk music! Like the people, folk music will never die!'

Like the history our people have made. We will always look back, then forward again, discovering the truth!

with love---- Bruce Bostick (proud Steelworker)

“Ten thousand times the labor movement has stumbled and fallen, bruised itself, then risen again, been seized by the throat and choked into insensibility, enjoined by the courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, shot down by regulars, frowned upon by public opinion, deceived by politicians, threatened by priests, repudiated renegades, preyed upon by grafters, infested with spies, deserted by cowards, betrayed by traitors, bled by leeches and sold out by leaders. But, notwithstanding all these, it is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known!”

-- Eugene V. Debs, 1912 (Leader of the Railway Union, Socialist Party leader---candidate for President, received over 1 million votes while imprisoned, for the crime of opposing the World War I, as a “capitalist war against the workers of all nations.”)

This article was originally published on May 2, 2009.

Photo: John Bachtell/PW

Air traffic controllers, pilots see better skies ahead

Fri, 29 May 2009 06:52:00 +0000

Already hopeful because of President Obama’s decision to put former Airline Pilots Association President J. Randolph Babbitt in charge of the Federal Aviation Administration, the nation’s air traffic controllers are finally on their way to getting a new union contract.

The victory will end an eight-year war on controllers and air safety waged by the Bush administration — a war that continued the assault begun by Ronald Reagan when he broke a strike by firing all of the nation’s air traffic controllers.

Obama’s Transportation secretary, Ray LaHood, ordered a panel of mediators, May 19, to draw up a new contract between the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. The talks began immediately, NATCA spokesman Doug Church said.

Babbitt, just confirmed as FAA head by the Senate, is trusted by unions in the airline industry. He worked as an independent aviation consultant after his 1990-98 tenure as leader of the pilots’ union. Now, as FAA chief, he said he intends to come to an agreement with the pilots, also.

Speaking during his Senate confirmation hearings, May 19, Babbitt said, “Within the FAA, we need to regain internal labor stability, mutual trust and build on the ‘can do’ spirit of the entire FAA workforce. We need to work to ensure the FAA’s accountability and credibility in delivery of its goals, budgetary compliance and safety standards.”

According to Church the controllers’ union has more than just the LaHood action and Babbitt’s confirmation to be happy about. Church said he was also pleased because, on May 21, the House passed a new FAA authorization bill that makes controllers partners in developing new aircraft control systems.

The labor movement in general, but the Teamsters in particular, also see that FAA bill as a victory. It eliminates a 10-year-old provision, stuck onto aviation law by past GOP-controlled Congresses, that permitted FedEx to classify all its workers, including its truck drivers on the ground, as “airline workers.”

The “airline worker” designation made it much more difficult for the Teamsters, or any union, to organize FedEx.

That is because airline workers and railroad workers are governed by the Railway Labor Act, not regular federal labor law. The Railway Labor Act requires unions to organize all worksites at any company it wants to organize. Regular labor law allows organizing to be done at just one site, if that is what the workers desire.

For a union to be recognized under the Railway Labor Act it must win the votes of 50 percent plus one from all the members of the bargaining unit at all the facilities that are part of the company, not just a majority of those at the site wanting to organize. Any uncast votes are counted as “no” votes.

The Obama appointments, the initiation of the mediation process and the House passage of the bill are all seen as cause for celebration by the controllers’ union, which represents 14,000 controllers and other FAA employees. More than 2,000 experienced veteran controllers have retired since the Bush-controlled FAA declared an impasse in bargaining in 2007 and imposed its contract on the union.

That contract did not address the poor working conditions controllers have had to deal with, and it slashed pay rates for most veteran controllers and froze pay rates for the rest of the workers.

Church said that LaHood’s selection of Jane Garvey, a former FAA administrator, to chair the mediation panel “indicates it’s obviously one of the priorities of the president [Obama] to get this solved.

“He kept his commitments to us,” Church said of Obama who, when he was a senator, first promised the union at one of its legislative conferences several years ago that he would make ending the battle with the FAA a top priority.

Some 400 pilots fanned out over Capitol Hill May 18 to lobby for the FAA bill that the House passed three days later.

jwojcik @ pww.org

Hartmarx workers: Our jobs are worth fighting for

Fri, 29 May 2009 06:48:00 +0000

DES PLAINES, Ill. — Workers boarded a bus this morning at the Hartmarx Corp. factory here, on their way to protest in front of a new Target store in Waukesha, Wis. The Hartmarx workers, represented by Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, plan to demonstrate at Target’s annual meeting, where Wells Fargo Chairman Richard Kovacevich is expected.

Hartmarx is a major Chicago men’s suit manufacturer that has been in business for over a century, but it has recently gone into bankruptcy due to the recession. The company’s main creditor, Wells Fargo, a major recipient of federal bailout money, has suggested it prefers to liquidate the business rather than allow it to restructure and continue operations.

Kovacevich is on the board of Target and is running for reelection. The Hartmarx workers said they wanted to deliver a message to him demanding that the bank save thousands of jobs rather than liquidate the business for its short-term interests.

“We want to have a discussion with the board of Wells Fargo to keep our jobs at Hartmarx not only here in Illinois but across the country,” said Joe Costigan, treasurer of Workers United.

“We’re concerned that all along the bank has been trying to liquidate these jobs,” he said. “The banks have a hell of a lot of power over working families when it comes to people’s mortgages and our jobs. And Wells Fargo is a key player in deciding if this company stays open.”

Costigan continued, “We make some of the best suits in the country and these are jobs that working people’s livelihoods depend on. These are our jobs and we want Wells Fargo to know they’re worth fighting for.”

Last week Hartmarx announced that it had accepted a bid worth $119 million for substantially all its assets from Emerisque Brands U.K. Limited and SKNL North America B.V. The potential buyer wants to keep the business open.

The purchase agreement sets the bid floor for a potential auction of Hartmarx that could come as soon as June 30 and be finalized by mid-July, according to documents the company filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

In a recent statement Emerisque said it “recognizes the value of a ‘Made in America’ label in the U.S. and in markets around the world.” Emerisque added it “believes that the Hartmarx family of brands and its domestic manufacturing base have a bright future in the U.S. and the global market.”

Hartmarx has asked the court to accept the bidders as what’s known as the stalking horse, meaning their offer becomes a benchmark others could top. It asked for a July 9 hearing to approve the sale of the company to Emerisque and SKNL or to a different successful bidder.

Noel Beasley, manager of the Chicago-Midwest Regional Joint Board and executive vice president of Workers United, welcomed the news. In a statement he said, “In these tough economic times everyone has to do their part. Our members, Hartmarx workers, work hard producing quality products. Emerisque has made a generous bid for Hartmarx. The American people supported the banks when they were in trouble. Now, Wells Fargo simply has to accept Emerisque’s offer. It’s good for all parties concerned.”

Nearly 3,500 people are employed at Hartmarx, which maintains plants in Rochester, N.Y.; Des Plaines and Rock Island, Ill.; Anniston, Ala.; Michigan City, Ind.; Easton, Pa.; and Ontario, Canada. More than 2,000 employed at Hartmarx are members of Workers United.

plozano @ pww.org

Actors Equity launches bid for commemorative stamp

Fri, 29 May 2009 04:46:00 +0000

Original source:

Actors’ Equity has launched a nationwide campaign to become the first union honored with a U.S. postal stamp. The union is petitioning the U.S. Postal Service to issue a stamp commemorating the union’s 100th birthday on May 26, 2013.

Equity is applying for the stamp to spotlight a century of professional theater in America and Equity’s unique contribution to our nation’s art and culture. The process is highly competitive and must begin years in advance.

The postmaster general of the United States, who makes the final decision on which stamps are issued, requires applicants to start the petitioning process at least three years in advance of the proposed issue date.

Equity President Mark Zimmerman says:

We’re very excited about the upcoming centennial and the possibility of a commemorative stamp to celebrate the contribution of professional American actors and stage managers to the history and culture of the United States. Our goal is to sign up at least 10,000 people.

You can join Equity’s campaign for a commemorative stamp by signing a petition . The union also plans to reach out to elected officials and celebrities to endorse the effort to commission a stamp.

Equity negotiates wages and working conditions for its members and provides a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Over the course of the past 96 years, Equity has stood against segregation in theater audiences and casts, fought the blacklists of the 1950s, banded together to stem the spread of AIDS and combat the proliferation of nonunion touring companies across the country.

Quad City Die Casting workers demand Wells Fargo save their jobs

Thu, 28 May 2009 05:52:00 +0000

Wells Fargo is under fire again. This time, members of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (UE) Local 1174, want the bank to keep their Moline, Ill., Quad City Die Casting plant open. The bank is refusing to extend credit to the 60-year-old business.

The plant is a manufacturer of metal die cast products and like many small companies needs credit for day-to-day operations. But the workers and their union claim Wells Fargo, which received $25 billion in federal bailout funds, is now refusing to bail them out. The viable employer is likely to be liquidated.

The plant, expected to close July 12, would put over 100 people out of work. Nearly 80 production and maintenance workers there are members of UE.

“Small businesses need credit to keep going during these though times,” said UE Local 1174 President Keith Scribner in a press release. Scribner, a die cast technician at the plant added, “Wells Fargo got bailed out with billions of taxpayer dollars and we demand that the bank not sell us out.”

Workers and their union are putting pressure on the bank to keep their plant open until a new buyer can be found in order to keep the company running.

Deborah Johann works at the plant. “They say the banks are too big to fail, but what about us,” she said. “Aren’t our families too important to fail?”

The workers picketed outside the banks corporate offices in Davenport, Iowa earlier this week and a delegation was sent in demanding a meeting with bank officials. The small delegation of workers delivered a letter and met privately with the bank’s management.

“They don’t want to meet with us,” said Tim Curtin, an international representative with UE to reporters on the way out. “They told us to go back and talk to the owner – who doesn’t have the money.”

Leah Fried, organizer with UE said Wells Fargo is not off the hook.

“We’re going to hold them accountable for the bailout money they got from us and insist that they extend credit and keep jobs in our community,” said Fried to WQAD-TV.

Fried said the workers believe their company should be saved due to their history.

“They have a future of being profitable, they were profitable just a few short months ago and can be profitable again,” said Fried.

Working families nationwide are living in a time in which jobs are scarce, business is down and unemployment is up. And if banks and financial institutions think they can put people out of work they have another thing coming, critics charge.

The members of Local 1174 in Moline have been inspired in their fight in large part due to UE Local 1110 in Chicago. The Chicago workers occupied the Republic Windows and Doors factory for six days in December after Bank of America cut off credit and forced the plant to close. The Republic workers eventually won a settlement with the bank and a new owner is in the process of keeping the factory open. All Republic workers are expected to be re-hired represented by their union.

Wells Fargo is also under fire facing pressure from over 600 workers at the Hartmarx Corp. clothing manufacturing plant in Des Plaines, Ill. Workers United, an affiliate with the Service Employees International Union, represents the workers there. In that situation the bank is in the process of selling the company to a buyer that plans to liquidate the business and put all of its employees out of work. That struggle is ongoing.

Wheather in Moline or Des Plaines, Ill. workers and their unions are not going down without a fight and plan on fighting Wells Fargo to the bitter end. Their future depends on it and their jobs are worth saving, they say.

Rumor of card check's 'death' is greatly exaggerated

Wed, 27 May 2009 08:43:00 +0000

NewsAnalysis

Many lawmakers returning home for the Memorial Day break found themselves face to face with union members determined to win passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Thousands have been mobilizing in more than 200 events in key states like Alaska, Louisiana, Indiana, Maine, Arkansas and Louisiana. The states are “key” because they are represented either by Democratic senators who have been sitting on the fence or by Republicans who are considered likely to be influenced by pressure from workers.

The actions, including everything from 24-hour candlelight vigils and town hall meetings to letter writing and phone banking campaigns, came as articles were published claiming that “card check” is “dead.”

Typical of these reports is one by Liza Featherstone May 24 in Slate.com’s “The Big Money,” which got some traction, being picked up by other blogs and news services.

The article claims that President Obama himself has pronounced “card check” dead and that the Employee Free Choice Act didn’t have the votes to pass but that a “compromise” could work. By compromise, the article says, the president meant a version of the bill without card check, the provision obliging employers to recognize unions after a majority of workers have signed cards.

Featherstone claims, “On the same day, Sen. Arlen Specter, a key swing vote, said that he, too, would support a ‘compromise’ on EFCA: card-check-free, of course.”

President Obama never said anything about “card check” being dead. He merely indicated that work is being done on developing a compromise. The same is true of Sen. Specter.

Featherstone did not interview Sen. Tom Harkin, the Democratic leader who has been working to develop a “compromise” that keeps the bill fundamentally intact.

One such compromise keeps majority sign-up, but allows workers to check a box on the card indicating they would prefer an election.

Another such compromise, also keeps majority sign-up but has workers filling their cards out at home and mailing them into the National Labor Relations Board.

Nowhere in the article does it mention that “card check” is already in place. There are unions that have been recognized by companies when a majority has signed pledge cards, a practice that has been going on since passage of the National Labor Relations Act during the Great Depression. It is only with the passage of Taft-Hartley that companies have been allowed the option of calling for an election after they receive the cards.

However, elections take too long, allow the bosses to hire union-busting lawyers, fire union supporters, spy on workers and do whatever else it takes to keep the union out.

Workers at low wage firms like Wal-Mart, CVS, Walgreen’s and Starbucks are up against companies who factor anti-union campaigns into their operating expenses. The type of business they operate runs according to plan as long as there is a good supply of low-paid, short-term labor. This is so important to their profits that they are willing to spend heavily to keep unions out.

The Featherstone article also quotes a “pro-labor” Columbia University economist who says that the real problem with labor law is not how it allows unions to be formed but how it makes strikes so difficult for workers to carry out.

This argument sidesteps the fact that one of the worst parts of current labor law is that it allows companies to stall in bargaining even when workers choose to unionize. This problem would be solved by the EFCA, with a 120-day limit imposed before federal arbitrators would step in.

Featherstone went on to lament the supposed lack of militancy in the labor movement. She quotes Leo Gerard, president of the Steelworkers, out of context, as saying demonstrations are less needed in the United States than in Europe “because often all that is needed is some expert lobbying in Washington to line up the support of a half-dozen senators.” She goes on to say that this approach has failed with the Employee Free Choice Act.

But, in fact, the labor movement has marched, picketed, sat-in, demonstrated, petitioned and engaged in major strikes from one end of the country to the other. It mobilized for the elections on all levels, re-shaped the face of Capitol Hill, changed the Congress, changed the Senate and was critical in the election of perhaps the most pro-labor administration in U.S. history.

Because of this militancy we are on the verge of seeing serious, major labor law reform in this country.

jwojcik@pww.org

Rally protests plan to shut 8 Chrysler plants

Wed, 27 May 2009 02:23:00 +0000

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. — A thousand workers rallied at Chrysler’s Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (SHAP) here last week to protest the planned closing of eight automobile factories in Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, Delaware and Ohio in 2010 as part of the Chrysler-Fiat restructuring.

Sterling Heights Mayor Richard Notte spoke of a plan to get a new vehicle produced at SHAP, and several United Auto Workers union local leaders from other Chrysler plants spoke in support. The featured speaker was Bill Parker, national chair of the UAW Chrysler negotiating committee and president of Local 1700, which represents most of the SHAP workers.

A leaflet distributed at the rally by Local 1700 raised several questions:

In decision after decision Chrysler is closing a U.S. plant and keeping a parallel plant open outside this country. American taxpayers paid 80 percent of the cost to save Chrysler and Canadian taxpayers paid 20 percent. How can 100 percent of the closings fall on the country that contributed the most to the company’s survival?

If these cuts were implemented today, the union leaflet pointed out, Chrysler would be left with one car plant and four truck and SUV plants in the U.S. This is not the restructuring of the industry we were promised, the flyer said.

Down the road, when the market expands, Local 1700 asked, will Chrysler get increased production in the U.S., or seek to increase imports from Mexico and other low-wage countries? Should U.S. taxpayer money support global operations or should our taxes support people, jobs and communities here at home?

Speakers encouraged the workers and public to contact President Obama by e-mail or phone (www.whitehouse.gov/contact or 202-456-1414) to express their opinions on this.

The eight Chrysler plants scheduled for closing next year are SHAP, St. Louis North Assembly, Twinsburg Stamping, Kenosha Engine, Detroit Axle, Conner Avenue Assembly, St. Louis South and Newark Assembly.

Passage of Employee Free Choice would be patriotic, veterans say

Wed, 27 May 2009 01:12:00 +0000

(Workday Minnesota) MOORHEAD, Minn. - With the Memorial Day weekend at hand, veterans from five wars voiced their support for the Employee Free Choice Act in a press conference held at the Hjemkomst Center here. The veterans expressed their concern that the men and women who have worn our country’s uniform are denied some of the basic rights they fought to defend and are just scraping by. Too often, veterans return to unemployment or low-wage jobs.

Torrey Schatz, an Iraq war veteran and member of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers union, agrees, noting, “Just like the army fights for freedom of choice, so does the Employee Free Choice Act.”

The Employee Free Choice Act would allow workers, not corporations, to choose whether and how they want to form a union. It would give workers a fair chance to form unions to improve their lives by:

• Guaranteeing that if a majority of workers wants a union, they can have one, allowing them to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation;

• Providing mediation and arbitration for first contract disputes; and

• Establishing stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first contract negotiations.

Rick Olek, Vietnam veteran and letter carrier in Fargo, N.D., sees the Employee Free Choice Act as a tool that will energize workers. He postulates that “if both the workers and management bargain in good faith for the first contract, it can be a win-win situation. When the workers are happy and have a contract that protects them, productivity goes up. When productivity goes up, management is happy.”

“Workers’ rights are a fundamental issue, just like the safety of our country. The Employee Free Choice Act will strengthen veterans’ abilities to pursue the American Dream upon return.”

Recession brings new challenges for injured workers, attorney says

Mon, 25 May 2009 06:12:00 +0000

BRAINERD - The current economic crisis poses special challenges for injured workers, who may feel reluctant to report injuries they’ve incurred on the job, a noted workers’ compensation attorney says. “There’s a lot of fear in the workplace,” said Bonnie Peterson, an attorney with the law firm of Sieben Grose Von Holtum & Carey. Given the current atmosphere of layoffs and cutbacks, workers who have been injured may fear losing their job and feel pressure to ignore the problem. That would be a mistake, she said.

Peterson addressed participants at the Minnesota Union Women’s Leadership Retreat held April 22-24 and sat down for an interview with Workday Minnesota.

She is in a unique position to discuss the status of injured workers, having been on all sides of the issue – first as a claims adjuster and attorney with an insurance company, then a workers’ compensation judge and now a lawyer advocating for workers.

And she herself is an injured worker.

Several years ago, in her role as a workers’ compensation judge, she hurt her back in a car accident while driving to Bemidji to hear a case. When she filed a claim, she experienced some of the frustration and delays facing other injured workers.

“It’s something I empathize with, especially after I had my own injury,” she said.

In 2004, the most recent year for which data is available, 124,000 workers' compensation claims were paid in Minnesota, according to the Department of Labor and Industry. About 80 percent of the claims involved medical coverage only, while 20 percent involved both medical and 'indemnity' benefits, such as lost wages and rehabilitation costs.

The number of workers' compensation claims has dropped in recent years, but the number of cases in dispute continues to rise.

Disputes mostly center on whether the applicant has an injury that is work-related and the extent of the injury. Sometimes an employer will dispute an employee’s right to retrain for another job because of an injury. In other cases, insurers disagree about who is responsible for coverage, with the injured worker caught in the middle.

Even when a worker wins in Workers’ Compensation Court, rulings can be appealed, further drawing out the process.

“It’s sometimes almost overwhelming” for someone who has experienced an injury, Peterson said.

Cases involving slight injuries or very severe injury or death are generally resolved quickly, Peterson noted. Most cases that go on for months are the “in-between people – workers who recover sufficiently, but can’t lift 100 pounds anymore for their high-paying job.”

Over the years, Peterson has seen a change in the types and frequency of workplace injuries. Today, stronger workplace safety standards have resulted in fewer workers suffering from respiratory illnesses or asbestos exposure. But more people are experiencing back problems and carpal tunnel injuries.

Peterson also has noted an increase in work-related depression.

The maximum weekly benefit for lost wages was raised last October to $850 a week, but few workers qualify for that amount and most payments fall short of what workers need to survive, she said.

“There is a real false impression in the public that people take advantage of workers’ compensation,” she noted. “No one wants to take advantage of workers’ compensation – it doesn’t pay you anything.”

Peterson was among the first wave of women graduates from law school and among the first women in Minnesota to work as a judge or attorney in the workers’ compensation system.

After graduating from William Mitchell College of Law in 1977, she was hired in the claims department of Wausau Insurance, moving to the legal department after earning her law license. Eventually her interest in helping injured workers led to 15 years of service as a Workers’ Compensation Judge for the state of Minnesota. In 2002, she came full circle by taking a job as an attorney in the Minneapolis office of Sieben Grose Von Holtum & Carey.

“There aren’t many people who have as many years in the system as I do,” Peterson noted.

Her clients have ranged from carpenters to flight attendants. In some cases involving permanent disability, she has been able to win six-figure settlements. But considering what these workers have experienced, “I’ve never gotten a client more than they deserve,” she said.

Black trade unionists: Now is the Future.

Sat, 23 May 2009 06:13:00 +0000

ATLANTA — The first major gathering of Black trade unionists since the election of Barack Obama, the nation’s first African-American president, is taking place in this city this Memorial Day weekend under the theme of “Now is the Future.”

Standing before the 38th convention of the Coalition of Black trade unionists May 21, CBTU’s president, William Lucy, declared, “We embark on a sea of change for this country. With the election of Barack Obama you have rejected the outrageous policies of the last administration.”

Lucy noted that “the negative campaigning, the outright lies, the attack ads and all the tricks were not enough to sway voters away from this historic moment.”

He said, “Now we must focus on helping the new administration deliver on its campaign promises. We are concentrating this convention around what our working families need to be viable again.”

Lucy emphasized that, as far as labor is concerned, health care is a top priority. He said that labor intends to everything it can to fight the profit-hungry health insurance companies and he strongly endorsed “single-payer health care” as the best option available to replace the current system.

Most of the unions in both the AFL-CIO and Change to Win, including the ones who support single-payer insurance, have insisted that any health care plan that emerges from Washington should include the choice of a public option. Labor is also adamantly opposed to any plan that would tax employer based benefits that workers currently have.

CBTU’s president emphasized the need to create jobs. He noted that during the Clinton presidency there were more Americans working than ever before and that by the end of the Bush presidency the nation faced the worst crisis of unemployment since the Great Depression.

He applauded the Obama administration for its efforts to restore the nation’s “moral standing” abroad by shutting the torture prison at Guantanamo and he praised the “opening of new dialogues with Latin American countries.” He urged, however, that the “boycott against Cuba” be lifted and that U.S. foreign policy also include new and “comprehensive approaches” to African and Caribbean countries.

Lucy pledged that the fight for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act would continue as the “all-important” aim of the labor movement. He said that the bill’s passage is critical to ensure the civil rights of minority workers and to guarantee the “birth right” of all workers — the “right to join and form unions to organize for a better life.”

For more information on CBTU:

For a deeper look at the beginnings of the historic civil rights/labor coalition:

GLBT leaders side with labor union to boycott restaurants owned by GLBT ally

Sat, 23 May 2009 04:36:00 +0000

Reposted from http://www.gaylesbiantimes.com Local government officials and GLBT activists are siding with UNITE HERE Local 30’s boycott of Old Town San Diego Historic Park’s restaurants Fiesta de Reyes and Barra Barra, owned by GLBT ally Chuck Ross, who says the GLBT community is turning against him.

“We talk a lot about coalition building and this is how it’s done. When the LGBT community stands in solidarity with working people for living wages and health benefits and the union stands in solidarity with us for marriage equality, then both of our movements are much stronger,” said former City Council candidate Stephen Whitburn. Ross spokesperson Paul O’Sullivan, however, contends that “They [Local 30] are asking the LGBT community to fight its own supporters.”

UNITE HERE Local 30, which worked with marriage-equality organizations on the Manchester Hyatt boycott, announced its boycott of the two Old Town restaurants on April 29 because Chuck Ross and Delaware North Companies, the latter of which had been concessionaire of the two restaurants since 2005, contracted to lay off all past employees and reopen the establishments under Ross as non-union.

“The issue here is that Chuck Ross is running his restaurants non-union that were previously union,” said UNITE HERE Local 30 spokesperson Daniel Rottenstreich.

New York-based Delaware North Companies had been operating the two restaurants under different names, along with the shopping plaza in Old Town where they have been located since 2005. But the company had been losing money. So North decided to transfer the concession to Ross last December. The transfer, authorized by the State of California Department of Parks and Recreation, which owns Old Town, contained an amendment to the existing concession contract. That amendment, obtained by the Gay & Lesbian Times, states that new concessionaire Chuck Ross, “has no obligation to hire any of its past employees.”

“Our intention is to start over as non-union, with a new staff for the new business we are opening. With the economics of this deal, and the troubles this operation has had, it’s not financially feasible to keep this as it is,” Ross told the San Diego Union Tribune last February.

Once Ross became the concessionaire of the two restaurants and shopping plaza, he decided to operate only the two restaurants but lease the plaza shops.

One hundred thirty union workers and another 20 non-union workers were employed at the plaza during North’s tenure. After they were terminated, Ross invited the employees to reapply as nonunion, but he didn’t guarantee their rehire. Ross spokesperson Julia Simms estimates that 80 of the 130 union employees had worked at the plaza’s two restaurants, 114 of whom reapplied. Ross rehired 31 of the 114, said Ross spokesperson Julia Simms. The plaza’s shops have also rehired between 20 to 25 of the 130 previous union employees, she said.

Ross, a local GLBT community ally, has contributed to the “No on 8” campaign, Dine Out for Life, South Bay Pride and San Diego Leather Pride, among other causes, and claims that the community is turning its back on him. Two of the plaza shops that Ross is leasing, Beacon Artworks Gallery and Designs in Shell, are gay operated and are in agreement with Ross about the dispute.

“Boycotting Fiesta de Reyes is boycotting the LGBT community,” said Beacon Artworks Gallery founder and artist Randy Riccoboni.

“We are saddened by the recent boycott of Fiesta de Reyes and Chuck’s business. Chuck Ross is a friend and avid supporter of the LGBT community,” said Design In Shell artist Frank Casciani.

Several GLBT leaders, however, think otherwise. They say that Ross’ community support should not outweigh how he treats his workers. “If he wants to be called a member of our community, he needs to be held accountable to our community and our alliances with labor,” said San Diego Equality Campaign Executive Chair Sara Beth Brooks.

“As a champion for marriage equality and Dine Out For Life, Ross’ support should not be diminished, but to give our friends in the community a free pass when they’ve clearly breached the moral and legal imperative of a worker’s right to join and keep a union is unacceptable,” said Pride at Work, San Diego Chapter Co-chair Carlos Marquez. Ross, Riccoboni and Casciani say they have been losing money since the union started demonstrating in January.

“All the employees from the restaurants and stores, all the traffic has been blown away by the protesters. So for the last three months, the workers didn’t earn tips and the restaurants had no business. The union is destroying the restaurants’ and shops’ ability to do business, Simms said.

“If we go back to when the picketing started, we are down 65 to 75 percent. They have destroyed all of my holidays. Easter is like my Christmas because I sell decorated eggshells. People have just stopped coming in,” said Casciani. Ross’ spokespeople claim that the workers, both those formerly employed under North and the restaurants’ current employees do not want to be unionized. After North announced that its employees would soon be terminated, Local 30 hosted a meeting in which Local 30 President Bridgette Browning told the plaza’s employees that it would fight to keep their jobs. One plaza employee left the meeting upset and created and distributed a petition to the restaurants’ employees that said the union should “stop all plans of protest, demonstrations and/or litigation.” Seventy-seven employees signed the petition and sent it to the union.

“The letter is profoundly indicting,” O’Sullivan said. The petition gatherers misrepresented the petition to the employees who signed it, Rottenstreich argues.

“First of all, it wasn’t translated into Spanish for most of the workers. The servers went around collecting signatures telling workers to ‘Sign this. It’s for the union.’ And because of the chilling atmosphere that was created from finding out that they would be terminated, a lot of the employees signed it,” Rottenstreich said. Simms says that Ross would allow his workers to unionize if they wanted. O’Sullivan, a past union-organizer, says he and the restaurants’ managers recently met with Ross’ current employees and told them about their right to unionize. “We have not heard anyone that has asked for or wanted to create a collective agreement” since then, O’Sullivan said.

But the new amendment to the existing concession contract, signed by Ross, eliminated employees’ right to unionize. “Section 42 (Union Organizing) shall be deleted from the Contract,” the amendment states.

Ross, however, argues that if the union really cared about its members, it should have renegotiated its contract with North last August when it expired.

“The union failed its employees to negotiate to extend their health benefits after their contract expired,” O’Sullivan said.

“That’s beside the point. If you care about the workers, why would you blame other companies? Wouldn’t you be compassionate to those who have been thrown out on the street,” Rottenstreich asked. Fernando Robles, past bartender at Fiesta de Reyes, says he initially welcomed the change in concession, that is until he found out he was losing his job.

“When it was first announced that Chuck Ross was taking over the operations at Old Town I was excited and optimistic. Nobody wants to improve service and profits at Old Town more than the workers here. After all, when business is good, we make more tips, get more hours and make more money. But we quickly realized that Chuck Ross did not want us as a partner, Robles said. “I don’t think its right for a company to just come in to a state park and treat workers this way,” he said.

Both sides say they have tried to contact each other to settle the dispute with no luck. “I have offered them the opportunity to meet with the unions as well as leaders from the LGBT community, and I offered to set that meeting up. I offered them an impartial mediator that I would find unrelated to all the parties involved. I was told that they would consider it and would take it back to their people. But I haven’t received any response from them,” said San Diego Equality Campaign Executive Director Sara Beth Brooks. “We have tried to meet with them [Local 30]. Ross has gone to all his elected officials and tried to set up a meeting and they all refused,” Simms said.

Assemblymembers Marty Block and Lori Saldaña sent letters to Ross about their concern for the plaza’s employees in February. “I am concerned by your efforts to ostensibly lock the current workforce out of job opportunities,” Saldaña wrote to Ross on Feb. 27. “The preservation of good paying jobs in my district is of the utmost importance to me. Please provide me with information on your efforts to remedy this situation.”

A week after the union chapter announced the boycott, LGBT and allied officials and activists including Rep. Bob Filner, City Councilmember Todd Gloria and San Diego Human Relations Commission Chair Nicole Murray-Ramirez participated in a union rally and demonstration in front of Fiesta De Reyes plaza, where the two restaurants are located. Filner, Murray-Ramirez, Local 30 President Bridgette Browning and several others led protestors to the plaza’s front gate and sat down blocking its entrance where state park rangers arrested, cited and released them. “My constituents have lost their jobs, and I was there to try to work for my constituents. Whenever I can be in a position to help people who are treated unjustly, I try to do so,” Filner said.

“I am not only a gay man, I’m Latino and consequently the treatment by Chuck Ross of his long time Latino employees and the firing of them, because he’s anti-union, is very upsetting to me and it should be to the GLBT community,” Murray-Ramirez said.

At present, Local 30 is planning to expand the boycott to a national level. Rottenstreich has one venue in mind: San Diego Pride. “If the dispute keeps going, we think that Pride weekend will be a great place to educate LGBT visitors all over the country about this boycott,” he said.

Union files suit against state Last March, UNITE HERE Local 30 filed a lawsuit against the State of California Department of Parks and Recreation alleging that it violated the law by not opening up the Old Town concession for public bidding. “The contract should have been put out to bid and never was. The fact that this contract was negotiated behind closed doors and allowed these workers to be thrown on the street has done irreparable harm,” said UNITE HERE Local 30 spokesperson Daniel Rottenstreich. The state’s Department of Parks and Recreation is authorized to award a concession based on evidence that the “assignee qualifies as a ‘best responsible bidder,’” said the department’s lawyer Tara Lynch in a prepared statement. Lynch could not be reached to clarify what the state defines as a “best responsible bidder” or why it didn’t open the concession for public bidding. The Superior Court of California, Sacramento is scheduled to hear the case on July 10.

Sen. Sherrod Brown at labor meet: New energy economy is unprecedented opportunity

Fri, 22 May 2009 08:48:00 +0000

CLEVELAND — An array of labor leaders, public officials and policy experts gathered here recently to detail the promise and perils for Ohio in the transition to a clean energy, green jobs economy.

More than a hundred union members and others listened, and spoke out, as leaders including U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, talked about the potential of green-collar jobs.

Brown, an outspoken advocate of revitalizing Ohio and its hard-hit industrial communities by adapting old-economy jobs for the emerging 21st century clean-energy economy, energized the activists gathered for the Ohio Conference on Labor in the New Energy Economy, May 18 at the Crowne Plaza City Centre Hotel.

He advocated using federal stimulus dollars coming to Ohio to help manufacturers, construction workers and other union laborers adapt their skills for “green jobs” that pay family-sustaining wages.

“The current downturn in manufacturing predates this economic crisis,” Brown said. “Since 2001, more than 230,000 Ohioans have lost good-paying jobs in manufacturing. Our state and our nation have a proud manufacturing heritage, and we have an unprecedented opportunity now to restore this legacy. Clean energy will help reinvigorate U.S. manufacturing and rebuild the American middle class. Investing in clean energy manufacturing can create technologies to spur new economic development, halt climate change, and renew the promise of success to working families.”

Brown is considered one of the most influential U.S. senators in the area of green technologies and the future of labor in the clean-energy economy.

The current economic crisis is a major obstacle on the path to green jobs in the new economy, warned Jeff Rickert, director of the AFL-CIO’s Green Jobs Center. A strong flow of capital is needed to fund new projects in renewable energy and advanced manufacturing, Rickert said.

Throughout the daylong conference, panelists spoke about gaining the tools and knowledge they’ll need to support the emerging clean energy economy. Ron Ruggiero, of the Apollo Alliance, encouraged Ohio unions to pursue a variety of avenues. “Federal resources are available for labor to train workers in clean energy practices, and there are tools to help labor develop green job apprenticeship programs,” Ruggiero explained.

Others emphasized the need for unions to form partnerships with community groups and education institutions in order to provide multiple entry points to green career pathways, especially for minorities, women and others who have not historically had access to good jobs in construction and manufacturing. “Quality apprenticeship preparation programs with strong connections to labor could help Ohio’s unions grow and create a strong role for labor in the new energy economy,” said Shanelle Smith, the Ohio coordinator for the Apollo Alliance.

Amy Hanauer, executive director of Policy Matters Ohio, voiced appreciation to conference attendees. “It's affirming to see unions taking the lead to get workers trained for green jobs, promote smart policy, and embrace a clean energy economy,' she said. 'With the right policies, Ohio workers can get jobs manufacturing parts for renewable energy equipment, retrofitting buildings to be more sustainable, and building a green economy. After a generation of job loss, this is an infusion we need.”

The Labor in the New Energy Economy conference was sponsored by Policy Matters Ohio, the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, the North Shore Federation of Labor, AFL‐CIO, and the Apollo Alliance.

Union contract at Yale based on history of struggle

Fri, 22 May 2009 07:32:00 +0000

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Four thousand six hundred union workers at Yale University here won a major victory last month. At a joint press conference with Local 35 service and maintenance workers and Local 34 clerical and technical workers, the university announced an early contract agreement including job security and expansion of union representation. President Richard Levin admitted the university’s poor labor relations policy was hurting the institution and had to change.

Yale, with its multi-billion-dollar endowment, has been notorious for arrogant anti-labor policies. The recent settlement breaks with a tradition of conflict at Yale marked by repeated strikes dating back to the 1960s. The resulting contracts, won through the struggle and sacrifice of two generations of workers, provide some of the best wages and benefits in the area.

Power of mobilization

At packed ratification meetings in April, union members were amazed and excited that their strength over many years had finally averted a strike this time.

A contract settlement of this scope “could only be done with hundreds of workers involved over many years,” said Unite Here national leader John Wilhelm, who started his union career 40 years ago with Yale’s Local 35.

“It is astonishing and a credit at a time when the country is in a mess economically because of a combination of greed and a period of disastrous leadership. I hope the country and the labor movement takes a look at this,” he said.

The last strike in 2003 ended with a multi-year contract and the formation of a “best practices” structure which required managers to take into account suggestions and ideas from the workers in their department.

Along with departmental best practices committees came a top level policy board that brought together union and administration officials for early negotiations in anticipation of the scheduled January 2010 contract expiration date.

Over the course of a year, the unions held meetings in all the departments and units across the university. A multi-media presentation revealed the gains that the workers and their unions had won, but also showed Yale’s financial position and plans for expansion into a new West Campus. The unions would be marginalized if they were excluded from new facilities. Three thousand workers signed a petition pledging support for the union’s positive role on campus.

The presentations created such a buzz on campus that top administrators asked to see it. Local 34 president Laura Smith said, “We invited them and we even served popcorn.” It became a critical point in negotiations, demonstrating that the union was in touch with its members and that the members were engaged.

In the midst of the devastating economic crisis, the workers were able to negotiate contract language that ties the growth of the university to the growth of the unions. New campuses and new buildings are to include union workers, breaking the current subcontracting pattern, especially significant for Local 35. At a time when Yale has announced layoffs to reduce expenses, Local 34 won strong provisions that will allow laid off workers to stay on the payroll and maintain benefits for up to 18 months, along with strong language giving laid off workers preference for new job openings.

Workers maintained free family health care, and gained improvements in coverage for dependents and prescription drugs through the Yale Health Plan.

In return, the union accepted limited pay increases for the first year of the three-year contract, and a smaller vacation package for new hires.

The wildest cheers and applause went up when it was announced that workers already retired will get substantial increases in their pensions. A highlight of the last strike was a sit-in at Yale’s benefits office by a group of retirees who could not afford to live on the token amount they were getting. The sit-in resulted in improved pension benefits going forward, but those already retired had been left out.

Local 34 members also cheered the support and solidarity they have enjoyed from their sisters and brothers in Local 35.

Hospital-university connection

The bargaining strength of workers at the university is also intertwined with the workers at Yale-New Haven Hospital, who have been struggling for years to expand union representation from the dietary unit to include the entire workforce.

A year and a half ago, the hospital’s anti-union administration violated a neutrality agreement, for which it was fined a record $2 million. But the fine was essentially a slap on the wrist for the hospital because the union, which filed cards signed by a majority of the 2,000 workers after years of organizing, was not recognized.

Several worker-organizers from the hospital traveled to Washington in March to lobby for the Employee Free Choice Act in hopes that the rights of the workers can prevail with a more fair labor law.

A movement for change

The victory at Yale University comes in the midst of the movement for change and the election of President Barack Obama. Busloads of Yale union members campaigned for Obama in Pennsylvania and Virginia, and many became more active in mobilizing for the new contract, and have taken leadership positions in the union.

The press conference announcing the Yale contract settlement emphasized the cooperation and good will between labor and management.

But the real significance lies, as Wilhelm said, in the long history of involvement by the unions’ memberships, their solidarity with each other and with other workers trying to organize, with the New Haven community, and with workers everywhere through support for immigrant rights and political activity. This history, which has placed the Yale unions as part of a vital progressive movement, tilted the balance of forces in favor of a good contract settlement. The new contract puts the unions in a good position for further gains based on continued involvement and activism of the membership.

Joelle Fishman (joelle.fishman @pobox.com) chairs the Communist Party USA Political Action Commission and is also chair of the Connecticut Communist Party.

Danny Glover joins tour supporting union manufacturing workers

Fri, 22 May 2009 06:26:00 +0000

HAMTRAMCK, Mich. (AP) — Actor Danny Glover joined labor, political and civil-rights leaders on one of the first stops of a four-day, 11-state tour supporting U.S. manufacturing workers.

The 'Lethal Weapon' star told a crowd of mainly union workers Monday in the Detroit suburb of Hamtramck (Ham-TRAM'-ehk) the 'deindustrialization of the nation' began in Michigan, and its workers can be 'the architects of their own rescue.'

Glover, the son of union members, said he stands with those affected by plant closings.

The event also included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow and United Steelworkers International President Leo Gerard.

The 61-year-old actor said it would be his only appearance because he has to return to Los Angeles for work.

See 'Keep It Made in America Tour: Stand up & fight for jobs, communities' .

Florida workers confront union-busters

Fri, 22 May 2009 05:15:00 +0000

Jacksonville, Fla. — 200 workers gathered May 17 at the IBEW local 177 union Hall to pick up signs supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, form ranks, and march to the Hyatt Regency Riverfront Hotel. The occasion was the Spring 2009 National Conference of the infamous union-busting outfit Committee for a Union-Free Environment, AKA: CUE, inc.

Russell Harper, an electrical worker and President of the North Florida Central Labor Council, explained that this Hotel was built by union construction workers, wired by union electricians and that the plumbing was installed by union plumbers. Many unions were represented from across north Florida and southern Georgia. Among them: IBEW, ILA, Boiler Makers, Carpenters, Plumbers, Teachers, IWW, Autoworkers, Machinists and others.

But this weekend the Hyatt was a den of thieves.

Inside, in air-conditioned comfort, CUE, inc - a weapon in the hands of the capitalist class in what is known hereabouts as the ‘ war on the workers’- analyzed, plotted and schemed. The employers have their own take on the idea of freedom: they cherish the idea of a ‘union-free environment’, but this is not the kind of ‘environmentalism’ most Floridians have in mind.

Outside, under the blazing Florida sun, organized labor assembled with allies in the movements for Peace and Justice, African-American and women’s rights. Florida State Representative Audrey Gibson came to show her support. Those who came to expose and protest had a different take on freedom than the employers and their lackeys: working people’s right to freedom of speech, freedom of association, the freedom to fight for a better life, and freedom to join a union – which is essential for defending our freedom from ‘domestic’ enemies.

Inside, union-busters discussed the present stage of the class struggle from their point of view. Randel Johnson, US Chamber of Commerce, spoke on “Unions Agenda: Legislative Update”, A panel of lawyers gave a presentation titled “It Isn’t Just the EFCA: Labor’s Change Agenda”. Kirk Cummings, of Central Transport, and Chris Rau, Harman International addressed the employers worst case scenario: “Staying Ahead! Two Approaches to Surviving the EFCA!” Also speaking were Tom Lavalle of General Electric, Drew Jackson of Lowe’s, and Katie Lev of CVS. While union members were not welcome at the conference, scabs and betrayers were featured speakers – and actors! Former union organizers advised the gathering, performing role plays to prepare the bosses for what they are likely to encounter when union organizing is in process.

Outside, as union members and supporters chanted “union-busting is disgusting!” some of the curious looked out the hotel windows, some with cameras. The workers’ spirit of Southern Hospitality was expressed in shouted invitations for conference attendees to “Come on out!”

The theme of the Committee for a Union-Free Environment conference was “Change is here! Are you ready?” From the union point of view, change is here – and we are ready to fight for more.

Workers face increasing abuse in attempts to form unions

Fri, 22 May 2009 01:20:00 +0000

Original source:

On Capitol Hill, labor law experts and a California worker exposed the ugly truth about corporate abuses of workers trying to exercise their freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life.

At the center of the discussion: Kate Bronfenbrenner’s new report, “No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Organizing,” released by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and the American Rights at Work Education Fund. The report shows that the problems the Employee Free Choice Act would address are getting worse.

Bronfenbrenner has studied these issues for decades as the director of labor education research at Cornell University’s School of Industrial Relations. This is her fourth survey over 20 years, enabling her to put into historical perspective the obstacles workers face today.

At the Capitol Hill briefing, Bronfenbrenner said weak laws and a hostile environment have emboldened corporations, over the past decade, to step up their abuses against workers trying to form unions.

The research provides a detailed portrait of a system that has failed private-sector workers. Workers have come to understand what our data confirms: Employers are using an arsenal of legal and illegal tactic to interfere with workers trying to organize, and they are doing it with impunity.

The study is the result of an in-depth examination of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) documents, examination of companies, interviews with workers and investigations of unfair labor practice filings, to give a clear picture of what the process of forming a union really looks like. And it’s not pretty:

* 63 percent of companies have supervisors interrogate workers in mandatory one-on-one meetings. * 57 percent of companies threaten workers with plant closings. * 47 percent threaten to cut wages and benefits.

What’s more, even if they win representation, a majority of workers still don’t have a first contract after a year.

Angel Warner, a working mom from California, offered a compelling story of these coercive tactics in action. Warner is a Rite Aid warehouse worker who tried to form a union through the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) at a large warehouse with 600 workers. The warehouse was inadequately heated in the winter and cooled in the summer, and the work was difficult and at times unsafe. That’s why Warner and her co-workers hoped to form a union. Wages and benefits were an issue, she said, but not the only issue. Mostly, they were concerned about job security and improving safety on the job, especially after management imposed a quota system that encouraged unsafe behavior.

You walk a fine line of taking a trip to the hospital or a trip to the unemployment line.

We like our jobs, we just want dignity, respect and a voice in our workplace. A person can only take so much—we decided it was time to stand up for ourselves.

Warner said that, as she and her-co-workers tried to form a union, management pulled union supporters aside for threatening meetings and singled out potential supporters for harassment. Pro-union employees were fired, and the workers filed 49 labor law violations against Rite-Aid—but the only repercussion for Rite-Aid is having to re-hire two employees and post fliers saying they would no longer engage in unfair practices.

Warner and her co-workers won the election by only a handful of votes, even after getting two-thirds of the employees to sign up, because of the extended election period and the abuses by management during that time. The election was held two years after starting the process of gathering signatures, Warner said, and even after a year of having won a union, the company still hasn’t offered a contract.

Our labor laws are not working, they’re not protecting the working class. We played by the rules. Even after harassment and threats, we voted for a union, and yet we’re still working without a contract. People are terrified of losing their jobs. It puts such a psychological and emotional pressure on you. It’s hard to function in the workplace because you’re so scared—you walk through the door and you don’t know, is this going to be the day that I walk out with my pink slip?

We have responsibilities to our families, our children. The working class needs help, we’re tired of waiting for justice. I urge Senators and Congresspeople that are on the fence, or have changed their minds, to look at people like me and the people I work with, and the thousands like me, because we’re not unique.

Workers’ rights need to be upheld. We’re ready to stand up for ourselves.

Fred Feinstein, a former NLRB counsel and a University of Maryland professor, agrees that existing labor law isn’t protecting workers. Warner’s story isn’t an exception, Feinstein said—it’s one vivid example of a pervasive failure of labor law:

There’s room for better enforcement and better strategies but fund the law itself is defective.

There’s considerable evidence that over the last decades, new tactics have been developed, weaknesses in the law have been discovered, refined and more successfully exploited, so that conditions on the ground have changed…we need to change the legal framework if we’re going to protect people.

Extended delay is a powerful weapon for employers, Feinstein said, because it ensures years of litigation to prevent remedies for their misbehavior.

And, said EPI President Larry Mishel, that this isn’t just an issue of fairness, it’s an economic issue. We’ve seen a 30-year period of rising inequality that didn’t allow people to have a good paycheck, he notes, which has undermined our economy by cutting back on workers’ purchasing power and security. As we rebuild the economy, we need to make sure it’s on a strong foundation.

One clear foundation is to fix the fundamentally broken labor market system—we have an economy that has been producing higher productivity, but most workers haven’t been able to benefit.

Companies are trying to pre-empt union campaigns, targeting union supporters and interrogating workers to find out how they’re going to vote. (Yes, that’s the reality of the “secret ballot” corporate lobbies are trying to impose.) Corporate tactics are designed to make the process less secret and less secure for workers who hope to join unions. Increasingly, management is working to monitor and punish union activities and force workers to choose sides. Said Bronfenbrenner:

We’ve found a climate of employer opposition that revealed a clear pattern of interrogation and surveillance…followed by threats and harassment to make sure that workers who pursue a union do so at clear personal risk.

Bronfenbrenner said that although she studied many unfair labor practice filings, many abuses aren’t even reported, because a climate of fear, weak remedies and long delays prevent workers from protesting unfair practices.

Warner said the common corporate complaint—that workers could act coercively as they campaigned to get their co-workers to form a union—was laughable and unsupported by facts.

From a worker’s point of view, the harassment and intimidation I’ve seen has come from the company side.

Bronfenbrenner and Feinstein both agreed that decades of research into organizing campaigns show this to be the case across the board. Historically, the number of unfair labor practice filings against unions is extremely low—only 42 cases of misconduct over seven decades—while there are nearly 30,000 unfair labor practices against workers by companies every year. People who say both sides are at fault aren’t to be taken seriously, Bronfenbrenner said:

Unions wouldn’t function if workers were coerced. The whole idea of having a union, of the organizing process, relies on workers feeling they have a democratic process, and believing in their union. Workers can vote their way out of a union at many phases—you don’t get to vote against your boss, and employers have enormous power over workers. They can fire you, they control your schedule, your pay, your working conditions.

Senators ask for investigation of Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation to continue

Thu, 21 May 2009 08:54:00 +0000

Here is a report on the PBGC (Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation). This is the agency that is supposed to take over, and administer pension plans in the case of a bankruptcy, assuring that workers do not lose everything.

However, like FEMA, NLRB and other governmental agencies, under the criminal Bush regime, they were turned on their head and, in many cases, became instruments used to steal rather than save workers’ pensions.

This report refers to an ongoing investigation of E.F. Millard, one of the two Bush appointees to head the PBGC. The investigation presently concerns a couple areas; Milliard's unethical, and probably illegal, constant contacts with high corporate sources during his tenure at the PBGC, including his apparent violation of a court ordered gag rule, and Millard's shifting of PBGC monies from relatively save bond investments to the stock market where, as of Sept. of last year, he's lost over 23 percent of all PBGC funds. (This is refered to as a 'more aggressive investment policy' in the attached report).

While the PBGC remains solvent, it was greatly harmed by Millard and Steven Kardarian, the Bush appointee Millard replaced. Under both these individuals, the PBGC acted against, rather than in favor of, saving worker's pensions. At Republic Steel, in Lorain and Canton, Ohio, and in Chicago, Kandarian refused to pay pensions workers had earned, thereby stealing those pensions. This non-payment resulted in a series of suicides, lawsuits, massive health problems and a horrible burden on those communities. I was personally involved in that situation, having the majority of the pension I'd earned stolen.

We can only hope that some of these corporate criminals are given long stays at some public facilities, with bars, at our expense!

KENNEDY, COLLEAGUES CALL FOR FURTHER INVESTIGATION OF FORMER PBGC’S DIRECTOR’S ACTIONS WITH CONTRACT AWARDS May 14, 2009 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON, DC- Four U.S. senators have asked the Inspector General for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to continue investigating the corporation’s former director, based on findings reported in a draft Inspector General report made public today.

The draft report indicates possible interference in contracting decisions by the former director in awarding a total of $2.5 billion in assets held by the PBGC for real estate equity and private equity investments.

The letter urging further investigation was signed by Senators Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Max Baucus of Montana, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, and Michael Enzi of Wyoming. The senators have conducted oversight of the PBGC in their positions as Chairmen and Ranking Members of the Senate committees on Finance and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

IG's draft report

The text of the letter follows here.

May 14, 2009 Rebecca Anne Batts Inspector General Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation Office of Inspector General 1200 K Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20005 Dear Inspector General Batts:

Thank you for your recent investigation of and report on former Director Charles E.F. Millard’s involvement in the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s (PBGC) implementation of its investment policy. This report brought to light very troubling actions regarding Mr. Millard’s involvement in the procurement process, and we look forward to seeing the extent to which PBGC carries out your recommendations.

We write to request that your office conduct further investigation into Mr. Millard’s later contacts with executives at companies that were awarded strategic partnership contracts. We refer in particular to e-mails between Mr. Millard and a top executive at Goldman Sachs, which was awarded $700 million of PBGC assets for private equity investments. In e-mails that were sent within two weeks after the award was announced, Mr. Millard writes to one Goldman Sachs executive regarding his job prospects, “Good to see you today. Thanks for speaking with Dennis Kass, and for your offer to get in touch with” several non-Goldman Sachs investment firm executives. He later asks the executive for contact information for an executive at Jennison Associates, an investment firm. After the Goldman Sachs executive confirms on November 12, 2008 that several executives are interested in meeting Mr. Millard, he responds “Ur grt. Tx. Will send info soon.” Mr. Millard later e-mails several executives at another investment firm about their interest in him. He did not hear back for a period of weeks due to one of the executives’ illness, until the Goldman Sachs executive e-mailed him, “[The Executive] said he really likes you and if times were better he would have hired you already…. He definitely likes you – is just not in a rush due to the terrible markets. Hope that helps.”

This correspondence clearly shows Mr. Millard seeking placement assistance in the weeks following the contract announcements. We do not know the extent to which these conversations took place in personal e-mails or telephone calls, and request that your office further examine this matter. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter, and we would appreciate an initial response by no later than May 29, 2009.

Sincerely,

Edward M. Kennedy Chairman HELP Committee

Max Baucus Chairman Committee on Finance

Michael Enzi Ranking Member HELP Committee

Charles E. Grassley Ranking Member Committee on Finance

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UAW Ford local honors Hunger March veteran Dave Moore

Thu, 21 May 2009 08:26:00 +0000

LIVONIA, Mich. — People said it was one of the largest turnouts ever, but that’s not surprising when Dave Moore is the person being honored. Moore, a veteran of the Ford Hunger March who later helped organize the United Auto Workers’ famous Local 600 at Ford’s Rouge plant in 1941, was honored by hundreds of UAW Local 600 retirees at their 30th annual luncheon here this month.

Jerry Sullivan, Local 600 president, said he and other autoworkers are trying to “keep the flame alive” under difficult circumstances as millions of people have lost their jobs, homes and dignity. “We are being called upon to do again what was done before,” Sullivan declared. “Without the help of Dave Moore and people like him, there would be no union in auto. We will never forget you; thanks for all the accomplishments you’ve given us.”

In 1951, Moore and other officers of Local 600 were removed from office as the union’s national leadership buckled under to McCarthyism. UAW International Vice-President Bob King, a former Local 600 leader, told the gathering that Moore was taken out of office unlawfully and unjustly.

King said it is timely to honor Moore. “We are in a crisis,” King said. “People worked their whole lives to retire in dignity and it is dehumanizing that they are now referred to as ‘legacy costs’.”

Pointing to the lessons for today of Dave Moore’s organizing work in the 1930s and ’40s, King said President Obama is our friend, the best president we’ve had, but Obama won’t be able to do what is necessary without the workers’ voices being heard.

“Only mass mobilization of people created the social legislation under FDR,” said King. “The best thing we can do to honor Dave Moore, Martin Luther King and President Obama is to be active and out in the streets demanding what we and society deserve.”

Also speaking was Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano. He angrily denounced Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby for attacking autoworkers and domestic car producers while giving tax breaks to Honda and Toyota in his home state.

“Good thing President Obama was elected because if we were dealing with McCain, our industry would be wiped out,” Ficano added.

Moore told about the thousands who marched on the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Mich., during the Hunger March of March 7, 1932. It was the height of the Depression, with no unemployment insurance or other “safety net” programs, and the marchers filling Dearborn’s Miller Road demanded jobs and relief.

“Five men, in the bloom of their life” were shot down in cold blood by Ford thugs, Moore said. But, he added, “The blood spilled on Miller Road in 1932 was the blood that organized Ford in 1941.”

Also present was veteran autoworker activist General Baker, who credited Moore, his union “rep,” for saving his job. Blacklisted for political activities at Ford during the 1960s, Baker had to change his name to be rehired. With the new name he worked 19 months before somebody “snitched,” he said. “I was lucky Dave Moore was representing me. He wiped them out. I got my job and seniority back because of Dave Moore.”

Moore is 97 and still going strong.

jrummel @ pww.org

UE weighs in on Washington health care proposals

Thu, 21 May 2009 04:55:00 +0000

STATEMENT ON HEALTHCARE REFORM May 15, 2009

At least since the 1940s, UE has actively supported proposals to provide healthcare coverage to all in the U.S. through a national public health insurance plan, instead of private for-profit insurance. Our position was restated in the UE Policy resolution adopted at the 2007 convention, “Healthcare for All.” At the national level and in UE communities across the country, UE has been an outspoken advocate of the “single-payer”, Medicare-for-all solution embodied in HR 676, whose primary sponsor is Rep. John Conyers (D-MI.)

In the current Congress, HR 676 has 75 House co-sponsors in addition to Conyers, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has introduced a Senate version of the bill. HR 676 has been endorsed by 516 union organizations in 49 states including 125 central labor councils and 39 AFL-CIO state federations.

For the first time in decades, the country has a presidential administration and a Congress that are working for a major overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system. While we are disappointed that the broadly-outlined plan under consideration by the Obama administration and the Congressional leadership is not single payer, we note that it does include the creation of a public health insurance system.

We welcome the national discussion of the need for an alternative to profit-driven health insurance.

Millions of workers and their families face a desperate situation, paying up to half their income for healthcare. Runaway medical costs have been the cause of half the personal bankruptcies in the U.S. in recent years. The healthcare cost crisis pushes municipalities, school districts and private employers to the brink financial collapse and exacerbates the economic crisis in many ways.

The costs of maintaining a private, for-profit health insurance industry impose an enormous burden and competitive disadvantage on U.S. businesses.

Nonetheless, blinded by some combination of “free market” ideological rigidity and capitalist class solidarity with the insurance executives, the Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers, National Federation of Independent Business, and almost every employer continue to oppose a single-payer plan that would drastically reduce their costs. These business interests strenuously object to creating even a strong public plan in competition with private insurers, despite the fact that this would almost certainly bring down employers’ costs.

Even a limited public plan, set up in competition with private insurers, would have a major cost-reducing effect on the American healthcare system. Studies show that because they have much lower administrative costs, get larger volume discounts for health services, and do not include profit margins, public healthcare plans such as Medicare are able to offer premiums that are 20 to 30 percent lower than those of private plans.

Most of the plans being advocated by President Obama and leading Congressional Democrats continue to rely on employer-paid health insurance through for-profit insurance companies, but also offer a public health insurance option similar to Medicare. Since the likelihood is growing that such a proposal may be adopted, we need to spell out what provisions would be acceptable to our union in such a plan, and what we would find unacceptable.

A public plan must be open to all workers and their families, and all employers must have the option of insuring their employees through the public plan rather than private insurance. This will allow more workers to share in the benefits of lower-cost public healthcare, and the savings to employers from the public plan will remove a major incentive for corporations to move jobs overseas.

Premiums for the public plan must be indexed to income and affordable for working class people. We oppose any effort to force the public plan to charge artificially high premiums for the purpose of bailing out the private insurance companies. If the private insurers cannot compete with a public plan on a level playing field, perhaps they should get out of the healthcare business.

A public plan must have the ability to bargain with providers over rates for services, and over prescription drug prices. Such bargaining would be one of the public plan’s most powerful tools for bringing down healthcare costs overall.

We reject the inclusion of “user fees” such as co-pays, deductibles, and out-of-pocket expenses in a public plan. Those who need care should not be penalized and forced to pay more than those who are healthy.

We oppose any effort to contract out the administration of the public plan to private profiteers. This would be a waste of resources that should go into providing healthcare, diverting some of those resources instead into cultivating a new crop of millionaires and billionaires. Such privatization would put people in charge of the public plan whose motives are in opposition to the public good.

If we are to have a system where a public plan competes with private insurance companies, consumers must be empowered to choose their coverage by evaluating objective information on the merits of each plan. Marketing must be strictly limited; companies should not be trying to lure customers through costly advertising campaigns, nor such gimmicks as paying to name sports arenas after themselves.

Another measure that would help to reduce the country’s healthcare costs is a ban on advertising of prescription drugs. Doctors should prescribe medications on the basis of their evaluation of the patient’s medical needs, not because the patient demands a particular brand-name drug after being brainwashed through repeated exposure to costly TV ads from a pharmaceutical company.

Proposals being considered by Congress call for assigning uninsured individuals to a “pool” or “exchange,” in which they could choose coverage by the public plan or from several private plans. In such a system, those who fail to choose a specific plan should be enrolled in the public plan. This will help to give the public plan a broad range of risk, and help ensure continuity of care and coverage for those individuals.

Private health insurers must be strictly regulated. Both the public and private plans must be required to accept anyone who seeks coverage, and must provide a full range of basic health coverage (hospital care, physician services, prescription drugs, substance abuse and mental health services, and dental care.) Private plans must also be prohibited from imposing excessive deductibles, co-pays and other out-of-pocket costs.

We are opposed to financing healthcare reform by taxing workers’ employer-paid health insurance benefits as if these benefits were “income.” Revenues needed to finance the program and cover those now uninsured should come from taxes on the wealthy and corporations, and in particular from those who have profited most from the inequities of the current healthcare system: the health insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, and for-profit hospital chains.

We oppose any individual or collective mandates that would force people to buy private health insurance. The failed Massachusetts plan has already shown that this is unjust and unworkable. It amounts to a tax on workers to subsidize the profits of the private health insurance companies – an outrageous case of “Robin Hood in reverse.”

Labor must lead this fight. Workers create the wealth that finances the system, and workers provide the services. Union activists and negotiators understand better than anyone the many tricks used by insurance companies to squeeze ever more money out of both employers and workers, because we fight against these tactics in every round of contract negotiations. Unions need to apply our experience and our skills to negotiating, for the entire country, the best possible healthcare reform legislation, rather than passively sitting by and waiting to accept whatever Congress comes up with.

We encourage all UE locals, regions, and members to:

1. Continue to put forward single-payer national health insurance as the most comprehensive and simplest path to universal and affordable healthcare.

2. Demand that single payer be the benchmark by which Congress and the administration measures all other proposals. We need to demand that single payer be on the table and that single-payer advocates be included in all hearings and discussions, by Congressional committees and the administration, leading to the enactment of legislation

3. Participate in the upcoming May 30 – June 4 Healthcare Action Week.

4. Work with all advocates of public health insurance (both in the single-payer movement and among advocates for inclusion of a public “option” in a more modest reform plan) to build a united front that demands that healthcare legislation voted by Congress include a public, not-for-profit plan, open to all, that is structured to provide comprehensive healthcare at the lowest possible cost.

Unions urge OSHA to enforce swine flu worker protections

Thu, 21 May 2009 01:11:00 +0000

Original source:

With more than 5,000 confirmed and probable cases of the H1NI (swine flu) virus in the United States—including 82 infections in health care workers—as well as six deaths and reports that the virus is continuing to spread, the AFL-CIO and several unions today urged the federal government to act swiftly to protect workers.

In a letter to Jordan Barab, acting director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, AFL-CIO Safety and Health Director Peg Seminario writes that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suspects the number of confirmed cases understates the actual level of infection and that the H1N1 virus is spreading. Says Seminario’s letter:

As OSHA and CDC have recognized, health care workers, emergency responders and other workers who come into close contact with patients infected with the novel H1N1 virus are at increased risk of exposure and infection and require protection.

When the virus was discovered to have spread to the United States earlier this spring, the CDC and OSHA recommended that employers follow recently issued guidelines for protecting workers from pandemic flu, and CDC issued new interim guidelines to protect health care workers from the H1N1 infection. But as Seminario writes:

Unfortunately, there is documented evidence that in a number of states and facilities, these guidelines are not being followed.

In April, a report by the AFL-CIO and several unions revealed that health care workers are at risk because many of the nation’s health care facilities are not prepared to deal with a pandemic.

While there is currently no comprehensive OSHA standard covering airborne infectious diseases such as the H1N1 virus, OSHA has the authority to enforce recommended measures under the general duty requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Says Seminario:

We request that OSHA immediately issue a hazard alert and/or compliance directive that makes clear that exposure to the novel H1N1 virus in healthcare settings and emergency response activities poses a recognized hazard to workers and requires protective measures.

Those measures should incorporate the OSHA respiratory protection standard and its personal proactive equipment standard, along with making clear the CDC and OSHA guidelines will be enforced under the agency’s general duty clause that requires employers to provide a safe workplace.

Taking these steps will make clear to healthcare employers their obligations to protect workers, and will reaffirm to healthcare workers that the government is taking the necessary steps to ensure that they are protected.

AFT, AFSCME. Communications Workers of America (CWA), Fire Fighters (IAFF), UAW, Laborers (LIUNA), SEIU and the Steelworkers (USW) signed onto the letter.

Don’t forget to check out the AFL-CIO’s pandemic flu site, which includes vital resources for health care workers, firefighters, educators and more. Just added to the site are five updated fact sheets:

* Basic Facts About Pandemic Flu and the H1N1 (Swine) Flu * Protecting Workers During Pandemic Flu * Protecting Health Care Workers During Pandemic Flu * Respirators: One Way to Protect Workers Against Pandemic Flu * What the Union Can Do: Preparing the Workplace for Pandemic Flu