People Before Profit blog

Help make an IBEW striker smile for the holidays!

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 16:37:00 +0000

Marc Jutras and his three kids were already facing a tough Christmas this year. Marc's wife, Laura, passed away in 2013 after a long battle with cancer. But things are even tougher now thanks to the attack that Marc's employer, FairPoint Communications, has launched against him and his co-workers.

Instead of putting the people of New England first, FairPoint has pushed for deep and damaging cuts in contract talks with Marc and his co-workers who work hard to maintain critical communications infrastructure. When the company refused to negotiate a fair deal, Marc and his 2,000 union brothers and sisters stood up for New England and went on strike.

Standing together and fighting for our rights at work is never easy. Can you take a moment this holiday season to send a message of solidarity and thanks to Marc and his fellow FairPoint strikers? Add a comment to their Facebook page letting them know you stand with them.

This is the biggest strike in America right now, and Marc and his co-workers - members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Communications Workers of America - have been out for nine weeks.

The workers have offered FairPoint reasonable compromises since bargaining began in April. But FairPoint - whose major shareholders are Wall Street hedge funds - has refused to alter its demands for $700 million in devastating cuts to the workers' health care and retirement security. The company is also pressing to outsource work to out-of-state and overseas contractors.

The fight at FairPoint is a fight over the future of our economy. Please post a message on the strikers' Facebook page to show you stand with them in their fight to put the public interest before financial interests, and to stop corporations from turning good middle-class jobs into low-wage temp jobs.

The union workers of FairPoint believe in serving their customers, not kowtowing to the company's greedy Wall Street owners.

With a tough winter ahead, the FairPoint workers are still standing strong, but they need our support and solidarity more than ever.

Post a message on their Facebook wall, letting the strikers know that working families across the country have their backs.

Elizabeth Bunn is Director of Organizing for the AFL-CIO.

Photo: Fairness at Fairpoint Facebook page

Massive labor actions rock Italy

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 11:42:00 +0000

MILAN - On Friday, Dec. 12, Italy, the land of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Antonio Gramsci, and the home of the Vatican, came to a halt. Scopero! Strike! was the word of the day. Sixty percent-plus of all working people in Italy walked out of their jobs or simply stayed home. One and a half million of them marched in strike demonstrations throughout the country in 54 different cities.

Building up to the general strike only a month and a half ago, on Oct. 25, in the capital city of Rome, a million people from all over Italy came in answer to the call for public protest issued by Susanna Camusso, the leader and general secretary of the CIGL (General Federation of Labor), the largest of the trade union confederations. Italians marched with many slogans, including "Basta" - Enough! - demonstrating in the streets because of the economic crisis caused by unemployment, underemployment, plant closings, cuts to public schools, cuts to the public health care system (one of the best in Europe 20 years ago ), and cuts in public services in general.

At the same time that cuts and economic devastation are happening to the Italian people, the Italian government is announcing it is going to buy, at a cost of 13 billion Euros, ninety (90!) F-35 fighter jets from the United States that will be built here in Italy to create jobs. But this has created deep resentment among the millions of Italians who ask why the Italian government is spending billions on fighter jets which are useless except for war and only create devastation in other countries, instead of investing 13 billion here in Italy, in jobs, higher wages, unemployment benefits, pensions, public schools, health care and public services.

The devious and sarcastically so-called "Jobs Act" proposed by the government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, of the Democratic Party, formalizes high unemployment and underemployment with no serious government proposal to lessen this crisis on its citizens. Aside from the severe cuts to social welfare services, it worsens the already horrible conditions that working families are enduring. The lack of government consultation with the trade unions was a further reason the unions found it necessary to call a general strike in the country only a month after a million-person protest.

The Dec. 12 general strike was called specifically against the passing of the Jobs Act and in favor of extending workers' rights at the worksite. The Jobs Act pits worker against worker. One of many ways it does this is by allowing new hires to work without certain rights and protections alongside other previously hired workers who have those rights under union contract. CIGL, UIL (Italian Labor Union), and CISL (International Trade Union Federation) are the three union confederations in Italy. CIGL, by far the largest of the three national union confederations and one of two of which were out on strike, said, "This is a no go!" to a government-proposed jobs act whereby human labor would count less than the products it creates. CISL, the larger of the other two confederations, which, like CIGL represents workers in all categories, did not join the call for the strike.

The police in some cities were out in full force in riot preparation on Dec. 12, as usual, creating a climate of intimidation to try and discourage people from participating in the demonstration, as they did also in October. There were some confrontations where demonstrators and strikers were hurt after being charged by the riot police. As in other western countries like the U.S., France, Germany, Belgium, Mexico, or Honduras, abuses by the police and the military are becoming more frequent, and the perpetrators are less and less held legally responsible for the acts of uncalled-for violence and terror against peaceful demonstrators. In addition there is a growing presence of right-wing, fascist-led groups that are being allowed to operate without fear of prosecution by the government and its legal authorities and police structures.

These demonstrations and strikes, in the piazzas and streets, by millions of men and women, young and old, immigrant and citizen, will be, and must be, a response to governments composed of elected representatives who have forgotten that democracy requires, and is based on, the making and passing of laws by the elected that benefit these millions of workers. The few owners, bosses, multinational corporations and super rich who buy and obligate the elected to pass laws against these millions must be stopped. Elected legislators who cannot and will not use their power to make laws to benefit the people as a whole must be replaced. Democracy is, after all, the power of the many!

Photo: Pier Paolo Cito/AP

Study confirms what Minnesota low-wage workers know: life is tough

Wed, 17 Dec 2014 15:55:00 +0000

ST. PAUL, Minn. (PAI and Workday Minnesota) - A new study on "The Future of Work in Minnesota" confirms what low-wage workers have been saying in their demonstrations for weeks: wages are too low. And wage theft, erratic scheduling, and lack of paid sick days are serious problems.

The report was done by Minnesotans for a Fair Economy and announced by Working America, an organization of some three million workers, including 300,000 in Minnesota. Though the new study is Minnesota-specific, Working America's findings could easily cover low-wage workers nationwide.

"Too many Minnesotans are living in poverty even though they are working," said Bree Halverson, Minnesota state director for Working America. The report found:

The incomes of most Minnesotans have declined in the past 10 years, when adjusted for inflation.

Many middle class jobs that paid decent wages and benefits were lost during the recent recession and replaced with low-paying service sector jobs.

Occupations seeing the most growth in Minnesota pay poverty wages and lack benefits such as paid sick time.

A growing number of workers have had to adapt to employment arrangements that are unstable and unpredictable.

Large companies shifted from employing workers directly to greater use of subcontractors, temporary employment agencies and workers misclassified as independent contractors.

Anne Lott, a certified nursing assistant who lives in Minneapolis, works three part-time jobs as a home health aide, one of the fastest growing occupations the report identified. That occupation pays a median hourly wage of $11.09 an hour. But the low wage isn't the end of it.

Lack of paid sick time is a problem, she told reporters at the news conference held to announce the study. "When I was sick, I had to go to work," Lott said. "When I go to work, I put my clients at risk. We as health care workers need paid sick days."

Jim Parsons of Minneapolis quit his part-time retail job at the Brookstone store in the Mall of America as his schedule became more and more erratic. Many retailers are moving to "just-in-time scheduling" where they call in workers or dismiss them from a shift at a moment's notice, he said. Parsons also was expected to respond to automatic security calls for the store in the middle of the night for no pay.

"It is great for the company, but for the workers, it means you can't plan," he said. Parsons is currently supporting his family through two part-time jobs doing telemarketing and bus driving.

The erratic nature of workers' schedules was underlined when one person who planned to speak at the news conference, Ethel Buckingham, was called into work on short notice. Her brother, Omari Thomas, read a statement on her behalf, describing the difficulty she is having making ends meet and taking care of her family.

All of the factors outlined in the report - low wages, lack of paid sick time and retirement security, erratic scheduling and the growth of part-time and contingent work - affect people across the state, Halverson noted. But the study found these problems disproportionately affect women and people of color.

Working America and the groups that supported the report, including TakeAction Minnesota, ISAIAH and a number of unions, will use the findings to pursue solutions, including possible legislation, Halverson said.

This year, the groups were part of a coalition that moved legislators to increase Minnesota's minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2016. In recent weeks, they supported rallies and other events calling attention to low wages at Wal-Mart, fast food chains and the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

The entire Working America report is available here.

Photo: Striking janitors marched to Target in St. Paul during Black Friday protests last year. Union Advocate

Today in labor history: National Museum of African American History signed into law

Tue, 16 Dec 2014 15:34:00 +0000

On this day in 2003 HR 3491, a bill establishing a National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in the Smithsonian, was signed into law at the White House. It is the only national museum devoted to the study of black life and culture.

Efforts to found such an institution began in the early 20^th Century with the appointment of a commission by Herbert Hoover that included Mary Church Terrell. She was a daughter of former slaves and one of the first African-American women to earn a college degree. Mary Church Terrell had a long career fighting for women and minorities.

In the 1980s, Rep. Mickey Leland (1944-1989) began to champion the idea of an museum on the National Mall. Lelnd was a Democratic congressman from Texas and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Famed civil rights leader Rep. John R. Lewis soon became a supporter. In 2001 Rep. Lewis reintroduced legislation during the Bush years with a GOP co-sponsor. The museum's construction is to be completed by 2016. The bill was signed into law by G.W. Bush.

Photo: Construction site, January 20, 2013, Dmitri Popov. CC BY-SA 3.0

New UAW president out to end inequality

Tue, 16 Dec 2014 10:49:00 +0000

DETROIT - In a wide ranging end-of-year Q and A with journalists from Detroit and across the country, United Auto Workers (UAW) President Dennis Williams spoke freely on issues affecting the UAW, labor and working people generally.

Addressing "inequality" in both the workplace and the community was a common thread.

He noted Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren was "absolutely" right to be concerned with the loosening of safeguards on Wall St. banks. The economy is growing for Wall St. but not Main St., declared Williams. When he first started working in the 1970's, Williams noted, CEO pay averaged 42 times greater than that of workers; today, it's 360 or 380 times as much. He warned the growing wealth gap threatens our democracy and is "unacceptable."

He said the union is "dead against" fast tracking the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) saying NAFTA didn't raise the standard of living of Mexican or South American workers, forced Mexican farmers off the land and resulted in lowering the wages for U.S. manufacturing workers. Six hundred thousand manufacturing jobs in the U.S. pay $8.60 an hour; "We don't want to repeat that with TPP."

Another wage gap the UAW expects to close is in its own plants. Next year will see the UAW bargain for new contracts with General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. Williams said UAW members made "huge sacrifices" during the auto crisis of 2008 and 2009, the companies are now profitable and it's time workers are rewarded. Entry level workers start at $15.78 an hour and increase every 12 months up to $19.28 an hour. Closing the gap between second tier workers and first tier (average wage of $28) is a priority for the union in negotiations.

Williams said the union's success in organizing VW's Chattanooga plant can spur union growth in the region. We're not "newcomers" to organizing in the South. "We believe workers want collective bargaining." That's when the U.S. economy "did best," he said. He called "alarming" the increasing use of temporary workers that in reality work as permanent workers. He calls them "perma-temps" and accused employers of taking advantage of labor laws to grow a low wage, non-union workforce.

At Nissan's U.S. plants 40 to 50 percent of the workforce is temporary, hired by an outside staffing agency, making organizing more difficult. Williams said that "throughout the industry, people should be "paid the same."

Asked his thinking on the struggle of fast food workers for a living wage, Williams said having a minimum wage of $15 is "very important."

"It brings a new movement to this country and we want them to be more vocal."

"I'm excited." It's a chance to "take back the country."

Photo: John Rummel/PW

ILCA honors best in labor journalism at DC gathering

Mon, 15 Dec 2014 15:16:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - The International Labor Communications Association (ILCA) honored the winners of its annual Labor Media Awards at a luncheon on Dec. 12. The awards gathering, which takes place annually, is the only forum in North America that honors labor communicators for their work, and does so in all areas of communications.

Twenty six international and local unions, newspapers, labor organizations, and individuals received one or more awards for writing, video, social media, photography, labor history, union organizing, and political action.

The Peoples World received three awards. ILCA gave an award for best news story to Teresa Albano, co-editor of the Peoples World, for her piece entitled, "Unity was their cry - fast food workers go global."

The group gave two awards for best news analysis to John Wojcik, co-editor and labor editor of the Peoples World. The second award for best analysis was for his piece entitled "2013: Year of the bold new labor movement" and the third award in the same category was for his piece entitled, "Documents expose new ALEC scheme to kill clean energy."

In addition to the awards given in each of those categories ILCA gave its Max Steinbock award to Eric Wolfe, communications director of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1245, for his piece titled "Brother's Keeper. The Steinbock Award is the group's highest award, reserved for work that demonstrates journalistic excellence in all areas.

An all-inclusive list of winners can be found here.

The luncheon was held at the AFL-CIO's national headquarters here.

The keynote speaker was George Lakoff, professor of cognitive science and linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley.

Lakoff called for the establishment of a "new progressive infrastructure" to counter the effects of what he said has been a more than forty-year-effort by the right wing to first establish and then nurture right-wing think tanks and institutes

"We need to talk about things differently," he said. "Unions are not special interests groups," for example. "They are a key part of what makes us a democracy.

"What is a pension," he asked. "It's not a benefit handed out by the company. It is delayed payment owed to the worker for work already done."

"It was a pleasure to hear from Lakoff," said Kathy Cummings, ILCA's president and communications director for the Washington state AFL-CIO. "The timing for sharing of views on progressive messaging couldn't be better as we head into the 2016 Election."

Lakoff's work on framing and messaging by progressives has been detailed in many books His recently released "Don't Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate," is considered by many to be a progressive guide on how to deal with issues like climate, inequality, immigration, health care and the economy.

The labor journalists also heard from Steve Early, himself a labor journalist, author and retired organizer for the Communications Workers of America.

Early discussed one of the rare progressive wins of the midterm elections, the story of how the town of Richmond, Calif., beat back the corporate behemoth Chevron.

"In a town with less than 40,000 voters Chevron spent $3.1 million to defeat three people, all three retired union members," said Early, who lives in Richmond. "But after all that money they were beaten back," he added, "because they could not compete with a grassroots coalition of labor and community groups carefully built up over a ten-year period of person-to-person and door to door work. It's the way we can beat back that big corporate money," he told the cheering crowd at the luncheon.

Cummings said she was pleased not just with the event but with the work being done by labor journalists nationally.

"The stories told by the people here testify," she said, "to the fact that rumors regarding the death of the labor movement and labor journalism are, to say the least, premature."

Photo: Smoke billows from a Chevron plant in Richmond, Calif. Attendees at the ILCA awards dinner heard details of how a labor-community coalition beat back the company's $3.1 million dollar campaign to win the last local elections. | Noah Berger/AP

Holiday gift shopping: Products made by union workers

Mon, 15 Dec 2014 11:41:00 +0000

It's getting there, but it's not too late yet to find that perfect holiday gift that carries a union label and is made in America. Below is a wide range of gift possibilities, from clothes to games to sports equipment and more, made by members of UNITE HERE, Boilermakers (IBB), Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM), Machinists (IAM), United Steelworkers (USW), Teamsters (IBT), UAW, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union/UFCW (RWDSU/UFCW) and United Farm Workers (UFW).

This list is compiled from the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor's resource site, Labor 411, Union Plus, the AFL-CIO Union Label and Service Trades Department and the BCTGM website. Check them out for even more gift ideas.

Apparel and Accessories

Brooks Brothers (UNITE HERE)

Joseph Abboud (UNITE HERE)

Majestic Athletic (UNITE HERE)

Timex watches (IAM)

Naturalizer shoes (UFCW)

Nunn Bush shoes (UFCW)

Red Wing Shoes (UFCW)

Beauty Products

Avon (UFCW)

Caress skin care (UFCW)

ChapStick (USW)

Dove beauty products (UFCW)

Revlon (UAW)

Old Spice (UFCW)

Games

(All made by RWDSU/UFCW)

Barrel of Monkeys

Battleship

Candy Land

Chutes and Ladders

Clue

Connect 4

Game of Life

Hi Ho Cherry-O

Monopoly

Mouse Trap

Operation

Pictionary

Risk

Scrabble

Sorry

Taboo

Twister

Yahtzee

Sports Equipment

American Athletic (Russell Brands) (UAW)

Louisville Slugger (UAW and IBT)

MacGregor Golf clubs (IBB)

Standard Golf (IAM)

Top-Flite golf balls (IBB)

Stocking Stuffers

Rayovac batteries (IBT and UAW)

Bic Lighters (USW)

Ghirardelli chocolates (BCTGM)

Jelly Belly (BCTGM)

Laffy Taffy (BCTGM)

Tootsie Roll Pops (BCTGM)

Wine and Beer

(Wines brought to you by UFW.)

Chateau Ste. Michelle (IBT)

Columbia Crest

St. Supery

Charles Krug

C.K. Mondavi

Gallo of Sonoma

Miller Beer (UAW and IBT)

Miller High Life

Miller Genuine Draft

Miller Lite

Milwaukee's Best

Icehouse

Red Dog

Anheuser-Busch (IBT and IAM)

Budweiser

Budweiser American Ale

Bud Light

Michelob

Shock Top

Busch

Rolling Rock

O'Doul's

If You're in the 'Big Spender' Category (UAW)

Jeep

Ford Mustangs

Cadillacs

See more cars made by UAW.

Photo: AFL-CIO NOW blog

NLRB reverses Bush-named board ruling, opens employer email systems to workers

Fri, 12 Dec 2014 13:57:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) -- Reversing an anti-worker ruling by a George W. Bush-named board, the National Labor Relations Board opened employer email systems to workers' communications during non-work hours, just like bulletin boards or other communications systems that labor law recognizes. The board vote was 3-2 on partisan lines.

The Dec. 11 Purple Communications ruling elated Bernie Lunzer, The Newspaper Guild-CWA president. TNG's Eugene, Ore., local was the victim of the Bush-named board's 2007 case, involving the Eugene Register-Guard. TNG brought the current case, too.

Upholding its administrative law judge's 2013 ruling, the NLRB majority opened employer email systems, in what it called "a narrow decision," in a case involving American Sign Language interpreters, Purple Communications and an organizing drive.

Email has now become such a critical component of communications - in and out of unions - that "employee use of email for statutorily protected communications on nonworking time must presumptively be permitted by employers who have chosen to give employees access to their email systems," NLRB Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce's majority opinion said.

"With this decision, the NLRB has taken a major step forward to make sure workers' rights to organize are protected in the 21st century workplace," Lunzer said.

The board majority warned its new email decision "applies only to employees already granted access to the employer's email system in the course of their work and does not require employers to provide such access."

And the board did not address e-mail system access "by non-employees," such as union reps, because - it said - neither the Guild nor Purple Communications raised the issue.

But if a company wants to ban emails, it can't play favorites, the majority warned. And since the employer uses email to tell workers about wages, hours and working conditions, it must let workers use email to communicate about those issues with each other, NLRB said.

"An employer may justify a total ban on non-work use of email, including...use on nonworking time, by demonstrating that special circumstances make the ban necessary to maintain production or discipline. Absent justification for a total ban, the employer may apply uniform and consistently enforced controls over its email system to the extent such controls are necessary to maintain production and discipline," the majority said.

That's "a high bar for the company to prohibit email usage," Lunzer commented.

Purple Communications "maintained an electronic communications policy limiting employee use of its email and other electronic systems to 'business purposes only' and 'specifically prohibiting' certain uses by employees.," the majority said. The NLRB's general counsel-the board's chief enforcement officer - and The Newspaper Guild "ask the board to overrule Register Guard and find the respondent's policy violates the National Labor Relations Act."

"We adopt a presumption that employees who have been given access to the employer's email system in the course of their work are entitled to use the system to engage in statutorily protected discussions about their terms and conditions of employment while on nonworking time, absent a showing by the employer of special circumstances that justify specific restrictions," the board majority said.

The board also made the ruling retroactive, though it did not say how far back that requirement would go. It sent the Purple Communications case back down to its administrative law judge to be retried under the new standard for email system use.

One of the two GOP dissenters, Philip Miscimarra, said workers don't have to use employer e-mail, but can take to Google, Twitter, Facebook, and the like, outside workplaces, for organizing and communications. They're more effective, too, he claimed.

"The majority improperly presumes limiting an employer's email system to business purposes constitutes 'an unreasonable impediment to self-organization,'" he wrote. "Given the current state of electronic communications, there is no rational basis for such a presumption. National uprisings have resulted from the use of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, for example, even when governments used force to prevent such activities."

Photo: newsguild.org

Justices give biz 9-0 win over workers in security screenings case

Fri, 12 Dec 2014 12:06:00 +0000

The U.S. Supreme Court turned its back on working people this week and ruled 9-0 in favor of online giant, Amazon. Warehouse workers for Amazon.com had sought pay for time they must spend at the end of every shift, waiting in line to be searched by security. In his December 9 decision, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas explained such waiting time isn't an intrinsic part of the worker's job or its duties, so the employer is not required to pay them.

For Amazon.com workers the ruling means spending 25 minutes in line every day, unpaid, while waiting for a mandatory security check. Jesse Busk and Laurie Castro, who worked in Nevada warehouses for Amazon.com, sued the online retailer on behalf of a class of hundreds of others in 2010. They said Amazon's subcontractor, Integrity Staffing Services, made each worker stand in line at the end of each shift, to go through airport-like security screening.

It has been pointed out that these wait times could be eliminated by simply hiring more security staff, or by staggering employees' quitting times. Considering that the average pay working in one of Amazon's warehouses is $14 and the warehouse in Reno employs about 1,000 workers year round, Amazon.com steals almost $6000 in pay from workers in one warehouse every single day.

Justice Thomas, however, thinks that "the screenings were not the 'principal activity or activities which [the] employee is employed to perform.' Integrity Staffing did not employ its workers to undergo security screenings, but to retrieve products from warehouse shelves and package those products for shipment to Amazon customers," Thomas writes.

The idea that something must be "integral and indispensable" to the employees' duties was integral to the Supreme Court's decision. At one point Thomas referenced multiple dictionaries to find the definition he liked best for both words: "An activity is not integral and indispensable to an employee's principal activities unless it is an intrinsic element of those activities and one with which the employee cannot dispense if he is to perform those activities."

The Justice concluded, "Integrity could do away with security screenings altogether without impairing employees' ability to complete their work." Oblivious to the reality that for the workers whatever the boss makes mandatory is "integral and indispensable" if they want to keep their jobs, Thomas's statement demonstrates his complete ignorance of wage labor. Sadly, the other justices were either unwilling or unable to see things from the worker's perspective.

Lower courts split on whether the workers deserved pay for the screening under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Portal-to-Portal Act. The Obama administration sided with its own Labor Department's interpretation of the laws - an interpretation handed down in 1951 - and against the workers.

Photo: An Amazon employee moves packages at a fulfillment center in Goodyear, Ariz. Ross D. Franklin/AP

Need for bathroom breaks is no joke!

Thu, 11 Dec 2014 15:53:00 +0000

SEATTLE (PAI) - We've heard of employers mistreating their workers, but the following item out of Seattle is the latest entry in the "You gotta be kidding" category: The city's transit agency was fined $3,500 because it wouldn't let its bus drivers pee.

King County Metro Transit must pay the fine to the Washington Department of Labor and Industries by December 22. And it must submit a plan of how and when it would give its drivers, members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 687, adequate bathroom breaks.

The transit agency "did not provide transit operators with unrestricted access to bathroom facilities when needed to relieve themselves," DOLI's citation said.

Local 587 has complained for years that drivers must resort to the "potty dance" to keep their composure - and it hasn't always worked. Holding it in damages the kidneys. Some use adult diapers. Others pee in a bottle. When drivers search for urinals at the end of runs and make themselves late, the transit agency writes them up. And every year, about 60 drivers, well, don't make it, and maintenance must replace urine-soaked drivers' seats.

Editors note: In September People's World posted an article about pregnant Walmart workers fighting for bathroom breaks as well as better pay. Read the full article here.

Year-end legislative rush may produce little for workers

Thu, 11 Dec 2014 14:19:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - Congress' year-end rush to approve a massive spending bill for the rest of fiscal 2015, which ends next September 30, and to extend a hodge-podge of special tax breaks may produce little for workers, statements from several unions show.

And among the objectionable ideas jammed into lawmakers' last-minute plan to get out of town: A scheme the Teamsters oppose that would keep tired truckers on the road, and a bevy of corporate tax breaks that let General Electric get away with paying only 1.8 percent of its net income in federal taxes over the last decade. Those draw AFSCME's ire.

And the fixthesenatenow.org coalition, led by the Communications Workers, was separately trying to convince senators to approve more than 100 presidential nominees - most of them for vacant judgeships - that would otherwise die when Congress quit for the year.

The special-interest "riders" are in a money bill to keep the government going from December 11 through next September 30, and in a "tax extender" bill that would renew more than 50 special tax breaks retroactively to January 1 and all the way through this year.

Those tax breaks range from ones that help workers - such as a tax exclusion for company subsidies of workers' mass transit costs and a tax deduction for teachers who buy school supplies for their students - to big loopholes that benefit corporations.

The tired truckers plan, by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, endangers not just truckers but other drivers on U.S. roads, the Teamsters and highway safety groups told a December 8 press conference. The U.S. Transportation Department imposed rules to cut truckers' weekly hours from 82 weekly to 70 weekly. At the behest of the truck firms' lobby, Sen. Collins would reverse that.

Collins inserted a provision banning DOT from spending money for the new hours-of-service rules. "There have been no hearings and no safety reviews. Also, there has been no debate or vote on the amendment to strip the anti-safety provision," the Teamsters said.

"The current rule allows truckers to take a short rest period of just 34 hours off-duty before beginning a new work week, which can include up to 60 or 70 hours of driving," Teamsters Legislative Director Fred McLuckie and his allies said in a fact sheet. "The 'Collins amendment' will suspend the safety requirements."

Those requirements "prevent drivers from taking back-to-back short rest periods after long weeks, and require two periods of rest between 1 a.m. to 5 a.m., dramatically increasing allowable driving hours of truck drivers to more than 80 hours a week," it explained.

Obama Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx also opposes Collins' hours-of-service scheme, but he did not threaten to ask Obama to veto the money bill if it includes Collins' plan.

"The evidence clearly shows truck drivers are better-rested and more alert after two nights of sleep than one," Foxx' letter to lawmakers says. "Unending 80-hour workweeks lead to driver fatigue and compromise highway safety." A DOT study, which led to the new hours-of-service rule, showed 65 percent of drivers, operating under the current rule, reported feeling drowsy behind the wheel, Foxx said.

AFSCME emphasized opposing the business tax breaks. The tax extenders bill includes some provisions the union likes, such as restoring the full tax exclusion of more than $250 per employee for mass transit subsidies. But overall, the legislation is a corporate giveaway, the union said. The House had passed the tax extenders bill 378-46.

"The overall package costs $44.7 billion in lost tax revenues over 10 years, which would increase the federal debt significantly," it said. "AFSCME supports closing other federal corporate tax loopholes to offset these lost revenues."

AFSCME backed extending the expiring provisions that help workers and their families, such as the tax exclusion for mortgage debt forgiveness, the transit tax break and an individual's deduction for state and local sales taxes.

But the others are business-written loopholes, AFSCME declared. Several of them, it noted, helped General Electric pay an effective U.S. corporate tax rate of 1.8 percent yearly over the last decade. Other firms also paid little, thanks to those tax breaks, it added.

The Amalgamated Transit Union campaigned for restoring the full tax provision to let companies subsidize workers' mass transit costs by excluding the subsidies from workers' taxes. There's a similar tax break for subsidizing parking, worth more than $250 per worker, but the one for mass transit dropped at the start of this year to about half of that. The extender bill would restore the full amount.

ATU said restoring the full mass transit tax exclusion would not only help workers, but cut the emission of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

Meanwhile, the fixthesenatenow.org coalition urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kent., to keep the Senate going until there are votes on all the nominees. With McConnell set to run the Senate next year, leading a GOP majority, keeping solons in session this year may be unlikely.

"Many offices responsible for implementing and enforcing our laws are vacant," the letter, drafted by the CWA-led coalition and signed by the AFL-CIO, Jobs With Justice, the Auto Workers, the Service Employees and other groups, says.

"At the same time, our courts are understaffed, delaying justice for Americans across the country. Also, by delaying these votes, the President needs to start the process of re-nominating all these individuals again - a waste of time and resources for a new Congress and president. We urge you and your colleagues to fulfill the duties of the Senate, stay in session and vote on as many nominees as possible before the end of the 113^th Congress.

Photo: Wikipedia

Amistad Awards show what solidarity looks like

Thu, 11 Dec 2014 13:32:00 +0000

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Honorees and attendees alike showed what solidarity looks like at the 2014 People's World Amistad Awards, "People & Nature before Profits."

A fighting spirit of unity filled the auditorium at Arts and Humanities Cooperative High School, following an intensive and successful election year, participation in the People's Climate March in September, and a hectic week of pickets with fast food strikers and protests of police killings.

The diverse audience of grassroots and statewide leaders, elected officials and family, friends and co-workers came out on Dec. 7^th ready to enjoy high energy music and the messages of the three Awardees: Meg Riccio, chief steward of Local 35 Unite Here at Yale, Daniel Louis Durant, Jr., membership and community solidarity coordinator of AFT Connecticut, and Alberto Bernardez, Connecticut assistant director SEIU 32 BJ.

Enthusiasm was high as emcees Kit Salazar-Smith and Lisa Bergmann guided the program from the New Orleans-style sounds of Kings of Harmony and song led by Jill Marks to the finale of traditional music and dance by the Bodoma Garifuna Cultural Band.

Opening the event, held on the occasion of the 95th anniversary of the Communist Party USA, Connecticut chair Joelle Fishman's call to action evoked the chants of recent protests.

"When courageous $15 and a Union fast food strikers stand in solidarity with Hands Up Don't Shoot protests they are saying this is one struggle for dignity, for basic democratic rights, human rights and fairness. As Martin Luther King, Jr., challenged us to take on the triple evils of poverty, racism and war," she said, "we know it will take big change for our country to truly be of, by and for the people. To that we recommit today, inspired by the awardees and the people in the streets fighting for justice."

As each award was presented, the audience rose to its feet in recognition of the courage the recipients have shown.

Riccio recalled that when she first started as a ten hour a week pantry worker at Yale, custodial workers would wait by the dumpsters each morning hoping to be called for the day. She helped make history in the successful fight for union recognition for the casuals.

The Community Bill of Rights being presented by Hartford Rising to their city council was the focus of Durant's remarks. He emphasized that the rise in poverty and incarceration requires a grassroots movement demanding change.

Bernardez told of organizing thousands of janitors who now have union wages and benefits. An immigrant of the Garifuna people from Honduras, he described the difficult living conditions that shaped his commitment to organize.

The Bodoma Garifuna Cultural Band traveled from New York to participate in the celebration. The Band was formed by a group of Garifuna artists in 2002 to celebrate the Garifuna heritage through ancestral African customs.

Prior to the award presentations, youth from the Young Communist League and New Elm City Dream came onto the stage and received a standing ovation for their door knocking in the elections and campaigning for jobs and a new youth center. They presented a framed photo collage to Riccio, Durant and Bernardez, thanking them for their inspiration.

The People's World Amistad Awards are presented annually to three allies and leaders who as individuals and as a group embody the unity, courage and vision necessary to achieve social justice, peace, equality and workers' rights. Each year a host committee of former awardees helps guarantee the success of the event.

Photo: Jill Marks and the Kings of Harmony open the 2014 Conn. People's World Amistad Awards. Photo Ken Suzuki.

Union leaders and immigrants’ rights advocates: new trade pacts disastrous

Wed, 10 Dec 2014 14:43:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - Implementation of new "free trade" pacts, and specifically the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) between the U.S. and 11 other Pacific Rim nations, could lead to mass unemployment in Latin America and a second wave of mass migration to the U.S. from those nations, a prominent union leader and immigrants' rights advocates warn.

So they're urging lawmakers not to make the same mistake they did by passing NAFTA and in succeeding years by approving a second "free trade" treaty covering Central American nations. Such a mistake could hurt workers' rights here and abroad, they add.

The warning, from Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, plus immigrants' rights leaders from California and Texas, came as trade negotiators from the Obama administration and the Pacific Rim nations again discussed TPP behind closed doors in D.C. from Dec. 7-12.

Those talks also included discussions of giving Obama "fast-track" trade promotion authority to force TPP and other trade pacts through Congress without changes or worker rights. They drew protests, led by the Teamsters, in front of the U.S. Trade Representative's office.

Durazo and her colleagues cited what happened to Latin American employment, particularly on farms, after first NAFTA - the controversial U.S.-Canada-Mexico "free trade" pact - and then CAFTA (the Central American Free Trade Agreement) took effect.

Organized labor strongly opposed both, saying they would cost U.S. workers jobs as corporations decamped for Latin American nations with low wages and no worker rights. NAFTA and CAFTA, the group said, also threw farmers off the land even if they switched from farming food to eat to crops for export, as they could not compete with U.S. "factory farms" and their cheap goods. Those workers had to migrate to the U.S.

Once here, venal and vicious employers exploit the undocumented workers by paying them little and keeping them in the shadows. They also use the undocumented as leverage to force native workers to accept lower wages, declining living standards, an ending of union organizing, or all of those effects.

The combination has led labor to campaign strongly for comprehensive immigration reform to, among other things, immediately bring the undocumented under U.S. labor law.

This time, the advocates warned, TPP would prompt corporations to close their Latin American plants and decamp to even lower-wage nations. Those corporate moves would throw the already poor Latin Americans who got jobs in NAFTA- and CAFTA-spawned plants out of work - and they would head northwards, where jobs are.

The trade pacts and the fight over comprehensive immigration reform "are closely intertwined," said Communications Workers legislative director Shane Larson, whose union leads labor's anti-TPP fight. "Corporate free trade deals accelerate migration to the U.S."

"NAFTA and CAFTA helped" that migration. "The Trans-Pacific Partnership could move many more jobs from Mexico and Central America and force even more migration."

Durazo said labor's campaign for comprehensive immigration reform dealt with its effects in the U.S., including exploitation of the 11 million undocumented people and the impact on native workers. Now, it's time to deal with "the root causes," too, she explained.

"Men and women who come here" from Latin America "make the connection" between NAFTA, CAFTA, and other so-called free trade pacts and their unemployment south of the border and consequent need to unwillingly migrate northwards to earn a living, often in construction or in low-wage occupations, Durazo elaborated.

"If there's going to be 'fast-track' on trade policies, there needs to be 'fast-track' on a jobs bill, too," she explained. Beating fast-track and the TPP will help prevent a second mass migration, by tens of thousands of people who don't want to leave their families and their countries, she added.

Meanwhile, Teamsters president James Hoffa led hundreds of labor and fair-trade activists against TPP and fast-track in the D.C. protest the day before. Marchers said having workers across the globe toil for less money in unsafe workplaces to create goods that are harmful for the public is unreasonable, or worse.

"Voices of millions of working, middle-class Americans cannot be ignored," Hoffa said. "They are tired of being the casualties of bad trade deals that send good-paying jobs overseas. In return, the U.S. will receive unsafe food and products that will increasingly make their way into American homes. The Teamsters will continue to fight against fast-track and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. American workers cannot pay the price."

While the Obama administration pushes fast-track and TPP, several of the other 11 nations involved - specifically Japan and New Zealand - are balking at it, news reports say. So are workers in those nations. TPP also covers Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Obama's trade rep, for example, demands that New Zealand open its dairy market to U.S. goods. The New Zealand market is nationalized, and U.S. dairy producers are heavily subsidized. The New Zealand dairy farmers believe that what happened to Mexican and Central American farmers under NAFTA and CAFTA could happen to them under TPP.

Koji Tsuruoka, Japan's top negotiator, told the Japan Times before the D.C. talks started that many hurdles remain. He does not expect a final TPP until next year. "I don't think we will soon be in a situation where we are seeking political decisions" by ministers to solve difficult issues after the current chief negotiators' gathering ends, Tsuruoka said.

Photo: Over the past several years and in nearly every trade deal since NAFTA, corporations are given more power than actual governments. CWA

Support builds for Delta baggage handler fired for speaking out

Wed, 10 Dec 2014 12:55:00 +0000

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (PAI and Workday Minnesota) -- Delta Airlines' decision to fire a veteran baggage handler for speaking out in support of low-wage workers has elicited widespread criticism and drawn national attention to working conditions at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Twitter, Facebook and other social media lit up at the news that Kip Hedges, a 26-year airline employee and known union activist, was fired on Dec. 2. He later spoke at a rally by 15 Now, a group organizing to raise the minimum wage at MSP to $15 an hour.

Hundreds of workers and supporters rallied at the airport on Dec. 5 to call for raising the minimum wage at the facility to $15 an hour, to demand union rights and to demand Delta rehire Hedges, whom it fired for supporting the 15 Now campaign. The rally targeted the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which meets Dec. 15, saying it could mandate $15.

Except for its pilots, a small group, red-state-based (Georgia) Delta is non-union, having devoured blue-state-based (Minnesota) Northwest Airlines several years ago. It then ousted all the unions at wall-to-wall union Northwest.

As a result, Delta now dominates MSP International. And many of the airport's workers struggle to support themselves and their families on wages as low as $8 an hour.

Airport worker Abdi Ali spoke about the critical services Delta sub-contractor Air Serv workers provide, such as wheelchair support, to elderly and disabled travelers. "Without Air Serv workers, many of our state's residents wouldn't be able to visit their family, wouldn't be able to use our airport," said Ali, contrasting this support with the low pay and lack of benefits these employees receive.

"As a mother of two, all the money I make goes into paying for food, rent, clothes and bus fare. I have to catch three buses to get to work, but I can't save for a car because there is no money. I only sleep a few hours at night because between work, travel and kids, I have no other time," added Randa Jama, a Wheelchair Assistant for Air Serv.

Hedges said two Delta managers issued his termination after citing comments he made in a Workday Minnesota video posted on 15 Now's Facebook page.

In the video, Hedges states, "A lot of the Delta workers make, um, under $15 an hour. As a matter of fact I would say probably close to half make under $15 an hour. So there's a lot of them that understand how important this is. And a lot of the, the better paid workers also understand that the bottom has to be raised otherwise the top is going to fall as well."

Hedges told Workday Minnesota that Delta managers told him his remarks violated the airline's Advocacy Policy, which prohibits "untrue or disparaging" public comments about Delta.

Hedges said he was stunned to be disciplined for simply stating facts.

"On the ramp, there are close to a majority of workers who make less than $15 an hour," he said. Other workers employed by subcontractors earn even less.

Word spread quickly of the firing from the Twin Cities to Delta operations in Atlanta, Detroit and elsewhere. An online petition calling for Hedges' reinstatement has garnered thousands of signatures. Organizations outside the airline industry, such as the Minnesota Nurses Association, issued statements of support.

"My phone has been blowing up," said Dan McCurdy, a co-worker and longtime friend. "Kip is well-respected around the [Delta] system. There are a lot of people paying attention to this." Hedges' firing has been the subject of discussion in airline breakrooms. "People feel like the company is ruling very heavy-handed...I think a lot of eyes have been opened."

"People are upset," added Ken Hooker, another longtime friend and co-worker. "They're concerned for Kip and the idea that we can't speak about things."

Hedges, McCurdy, and Hooker were active when the Machinists represented Northwest ground workers. But after Delta took over Northwest in 2009, the "New Delta" busted IAM and other unions. In ensuing years, Delta reduced many full-time jobs to part-time and outsourced many jobs-such as airplane cleaning-to contractors that pay lower wages and benefits.

In the last two years, efforts have been underway to organize both ground workers and flight attendants. The "New Delta" busted the Northwest attendants' union, AFA-CWA, too.

"It seems like this termination of Kip was meant to silence our group and send a bit of a warning shot to the flight attendants are well," said McCurdy. "It feels like an intimidation move."

"Like a lot of companies, in the past few years, they've turned more and more to part-time low wage labor - people who have to work two or three jobs to support themselves and their families and a lot of big companies don't want that fact revealed," Hedges told the rally. "I'm sure that most of Delta's passengers don't know the people who clean the aircraft, a lot of the people who handle their bags, are paid as little as eight dollars an hour."

As the crowd chanted, "Bring back Kip!" Hedges thanked rally attendees as well as people across the country for their support. "I want my airline to prosper. I want them to succeed. In fact, they are prospering and they are succeeding because of the work of Air Serv workers cleaning the cabins, because of the baggage handlers, because of the janitors, the flight attendants, the pilots - union and non-union workers helping to make this airline one of the best in the world."

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., linked the pro-Hedges pro-15 rally to recent demonstrations over police actions in Ferguson, Mo., and New York City. "Workers in 50 cities in 35 states have had fast food workers strikes this week. And Americans crying for justice from the hands of law enforcement were protesting this week," he told the crowd. "Here is a fact: You don't sell loose cigarettes if you have plenty of money in your pocket. Eric Garner was killed because he was trying to make a living in a very difficult situation. You cannot separate the law enforcement from the economic issues."

Photo: Rep. Ellison, right, speaks out for Delta workers at pro-Hedges pro-15 rally, Kip Hedges on the left. 15 Now Minnesota Facebook.

What's outrageous? Poverty wages! (with video)

Tue, 09 Dec 2014 14:49:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - Fast food strikers and supporters danced in front of a Downtown Los Angeles McDonald's on December 2, chanting, "If we don't get it, shut it down!" and "What's outrageous? Poverty wages!"

Martha Arevalo, executive director of Carecen, a community-based organization that provides direct human services to low and moderate income Latinos, has been involved in the fight for $15 an hour since the beginning. "We fight for social justice," she said, "because it is not right that people have to work three jobs to provide basic needs for their families." Edgar Gonzales works at McDonald's and shared a rap song that he wrote about the fight for 15.

Teresa King, long-term care worker and member of SEIU-ULTCW (United Long Term Care Workers), stated that the average worker is 27 years old and is supporting a family. She asks, is it fair that the family members who own Walmart have more money than they can spend? In 2013, the Walton family's net worth was $144.7 billion.

Roger Hernandez, chair of the California Assembly Labor and Employment Committee, told the crowd of about 1000 people, "We won't stop and we can't stop, because too many of us go home to families that depend on us. We need you to mobilize to show that the average worker is supporting a family so that those in Sacramento can clearly see that it's not kids that work at these business but that 75 percent of workers are supporting a family."

The strikers and supporters began to march to City Hall, where they asked for a moment of silence for Michael Brown and Eric Garner and all those lives that have been unjustly lost at the hands of the police. Ms. Arevalo stated that today we are also uniting to call out and say that "Black lives matter, that immigrant lives matter, brown lives matter and that all lives matter. We call for an end to inequality, and for all people to be treated with respect and dignity from Ferguson to New York and Mexico."

Los Angeles Councilmember Paul Koretz, who was born and raised in L.A., stated, "We are on the cusp of being able to end poverty in Los Angeles. $9 an hour is not going to cut it. With the mayor's proposal we are going to get there. We are also going to put a stop to other low wage workers such as janitors who don't even make the minimum wage and whose employers steal their wages with threats."

Jose Huizar, another councilmember, started by saying, "The time is now!... I voted to raise the hotel workers to $15, we did it for them, we can do it for fast food workers. When we raise the salary for some workers we raise it for all workers," he continued.

Carwash worker Fausto Hernandez said he worked for seven years in the car wash industry. "I worked 10 hours and I would get paid for 3, so what we want is $15 an hour and stop the wage theft."

LAX worker Tim Maddox, a member of SEIU, said, "We join with this struggle and we are proud to be here." He went on to inform the crowd of the crisis at the airport: "Airlines are making huge profits but they have begun outsourcing our work." Wage theft also is very apparent to nonunion workers at the airport. Maddox pointed out that "We have a similar reality: We work for companies that make super profits, but we have to keep up the fight because when we fight we win."

Video and photo by Rossana Cambron

Teachers union president protests injustice on Eric Garner case

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 15:16:00 +0000

American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten was arrested Thursday, Dec. 4, in New York City, while protesting the lack of justice in the police shootings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

Garner, who leaves a wife and six children behind, was killed in Staten Island last July in an illegal chokehold maneuver by police officer Daniel Pantaleo. Pantaleo had previously been involved in two other incidents, which had prompted civil rights investigations.

Speaking on the grand jury's failure to indict Eric Garner's killer, Weingarten issued this statement: "On this difficult day, I was in New York, and like other New Yorkers I watched the video over and over and found it difficult to reconcile the grand jury's decision and the evidence in the video."

The union leader also tweeted "#EricGarner's death is a tragedy that shocks the conscience. We express our deep condolences for his family. http://aft.to/garner "

Earlier in the week, staff in the AFT's national offices also participated in the organized walk-out #HandsUpDontShoot, gesturing with hands up in solidarity with protests in Ferguson, Mo., over the grand jury decision to not indict Officer Darren Wilson in the killing of Michael Brown.

Wilson, formerly an officer in Jennings, Mo., a police department so rife with racial tension between white officers and the Black community that it was dissolved by the city council, has since resigned from law enforcement in the wake of the grand jury decision.

The show of support by the AFT leadership has not been without controversy among some in the rank and file of union members. At the start of the school year, teachers in Staten Island, angered by New York's United Federation of Teachers' endorsement of a march to support Garner, wore t-shirts to class in protest, with messages supporting the NYPD.

However, the teacher's union leader has maintained a leading role in calling for further investigations in both the murder of Garner, and in the killing of Michael Brown.

Of the Ferguson grand jury outcome, AFT's Weingarten and secretary-treasurer Lorretta Johnson have said, "This case once again reminds us that there is still much work to be done to achieve racial justice in America. It tells us that our moral compass and legal systems do not always align.

"In moments like these, we should redouble our efforts to ensure all children grow up in safe communities with high-quality neighborhood schools and a local economy rich with jobs-no matter their zip code, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation."

The union's position is aligned with its stance that educational justice is not separate from social and economic justice, and that more needs to be done to bring hope to communities in distress, in contrast with the militarized police crackdowns, draconian censure of underfunded and underperforming public schools and other punitive distribution of community resources to public institutions.

Brown's high school, Normandy High School, has been central in the turmoil caused by disaccreditation triggered by low-test cores in the local school district, primarily made up of African American students. Students from Normandy were allowed by Missouri state law to transfer to outlying public schools in more affluent suburban school districts, provided that their district of origin paid full tuition and transportation costs for students to attend schools outside their district.

This quickly forced the district into a state of near insolvency, as the bill for tuition ran up to $10.5 million dollars in funding the transfers, about 25 percent of the student population elected to leave to outlying schools. Teacher layoffs ensued in an effort to offset the tuition bill accrued by the district, further destabilizing the lives of remaining students in Normandy.

Parents in the primarily white and affluent Francis Howell district, which absorbed the transfer students, protested the transfers, saying "they feared that students from troubled neighborhoods would bring drugs and violence. They worried about the potential for overcrowded classrooms and lowered academic averages. A few suggested that metal detectors be erected and that drug sniffing dogs and armed guards be deployed to keep Normandy students under control," as reported by MSNBC last year.

Normandy High School's school district has the second highest rate of poverty in the state.

Photo: Weingarten arrest (https://twitter.com/katehinds/status/540721858845618177)

Walmart workers: When we fight, we win!

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 14:41:00 +0000

MILPITAS, Calif. - Approximately 200 people were present at the Walmart here for the 'Black Friday' demonstration. Several Walmart workers spoke, as did speakers from SEIU, UFCW, NAACP, East Bay Organizing Committee, Central Labor Council, and a few local elected officials. They were part of the 226 organizations across the county, calling on Walmart to pay workers $15.00 an hour and have full time work schedules, a living wage.

"Walmart leads America in the race to the bottom," a state assemblyman and union member said, adding "But when we fight, we win!"

The Central Labor Council president further added, "This is a union movement."

Jose Martinez, a 27 year-old fast food worker at KFC was present with about a dozen of his union brothers and sisters from the East Bay Organizing Committee (EBOC). They wore red shirts that read, East Bay - Up The Pay!

When Jose was asked what brought him out today, he said, "I'm here to support Walmart strike workers because they supported us when we were fighting for $15 an hour pay and union recognition, it's worker solidarity." Asked how many union actions he had participated in, he said this was his 4th demonstration.

I asked him what it was like the first time he stepped out and spoke up for fair pay and treatment, to which he replied, "At first I was nervous, but when I saw that we were together, I knew we could beat the company. Since then I haven't been shy."

Asked what he would say to a worker inside the store looking at this demonstration, he answered, "Don't be afraid, come out and fight for your rights, see all these people here. This gives me hope."

Photo: Bill Black/PW

Black Friday at Walmart: Poverty wages keep prices low

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 13:21:00 +0000

RAYMORE, Mo. - The temperature in Kansas City hovers around freezing as union activists from many different sectors come out on Black Friday to support Walmart workers' fight for a living wage and a union. The first to pull into a parking lot adjacent to the Walmart in Raymore, Mo., is Billy Moffet, president of Communications Workers of America Local 6450, the most activist CWA local in Western Missouri. Stepping out of his extended cab pickup, Moffett pauses, slings a bullhorn over his shoulder, grabs a stack of handwritten signs, and crosses the street to take up position on the sidewalk adjacent to Walmart.

Wearing a red CWA shirt with the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "I am a drum major for justice" on the front, Moffett says he is here this morning "to fight the largest company in the world paying poverty wages." He points out that the struggle of Walmart workers for a living wage is a fight that is important to CWA, "because when we pick up our lowest paid workers, it lifts everyone up."

Until Walmart starts paying its workers a wage they can live on, their profitability, says Moffett, "comes out of our pocket.... We're paying millions of dollars in taxes to pay for public assistance to the largest company in the world." All because Walmart refuses to "pay their workers properly so they don't have to file for public assistance." According to scholar Michele Swan, "Walmart takes one-half of the total food stamp system" in order to feed its workers. In Swan's opinion, this makes Walmart, the "nation's largest poverty incubator."

Moffett is not the only one standing up to the retail giant the day after Thanksgiving: At over 1600 Walmart locations nationwide similar protests, pickets, and actions took place on Black Friday. These actions are designed to raise public awareness of the profound and pervasive suffering Walmart inflicts on its own employees in the name of profitability. Martha Sellers, a Walmart cashier for 11 years, has lost sixty pounds this year after the passing of her partner and the loss of their income. "That's how many meals I've missed." Last month, Sellers says, "I almost passed out at work and my manager asked me if I was hung over." She wants to know, "How do you tell your manager that you're hung over - from hunger, because he won't give me enough hours?"

As more union activists make their way to the sidewalk bordering Walmart it is hard not to notice the diversity of the crowd. On this wind-chilled strip of concrete, differences in age, gender and race seem far less relevant than what unions they belong to. Suffice it to say that today's crowd is not the "good old boys club" many associate with the union movement. In fact, women union workers significantly outnumber the men this morning. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that's not surprising: In 1983 there were 10.1 percent more men in unions than women, but by 2013 that gap had shrunk to 1.4 percent, a larger percentage of women in the union movement than ever before. The Coalition of Labor Union Women is literally flying their flag this Black Friday.

With the blue and white CLUW flag snapping in the wind off to her right, Antoinette Robinson, a U.S. postal worker and president of the CLUW Kansas City chapter, is here to support the Walmart workers. As the air around her crackles with the chant "hey hey, ho ho, poverty wages have got to go," Robinson explains that the Walmart workers' fight is very important to CLUW because "women are [Walmart] workers...and they deserve a fair wage." Robinson concludes by summarizing the demand of organized labor into three words: "Workers. Deserve. More."

The idea that all who work deserve more is not lost on Claude Rhone, a proud member of the Ironworkers, Local 10, Kansas City. A bearded man in a union hoodie, Rhone stands on the sidewalk holding a handwritten cardboard sign. Reinforced with duct tape, the sign reads, "Poverty Wages Keep Prices Low." Though he's the only member of the building trades present, Rhone knows which side he's on: "The largest employer in the nation should be paying their employees a fair wage, a living wage."

Cantare Davunt, a customer service manager, brings home about $322 a week. She knows what it's like to work for the world's largest employer and not be paid a living wage. In order to make ends meet, in the summer she doesn't pay her electric bill. For her, Thanksgiving was "an unwelcome reminder of the fact that we can't afford dinner." She wonders, "How can we [have Thanksgiving] when we earn less than $20,000 a year?"

"Walmart is a bad deal for employees," says Jessica Podhola. Braving the November morning in nothing more than shirt sleeves so that her International Union of Painters and Allied Trades T-shirt would not covered by a coat, Podhola continues, "Walmart is a bad deal for our economy, and it's a bad deal for their customers." A member of Local 820, she stands with fellow union painter David Cox from Local 2012. Both hold black signs with the image of an upraised fist; above it in bright, bold letters the signs proclaim Solidarity! Together they're out to "show solidarity, because if one of us is not being paid what we're worth and getting the benefits they deserve, it drags us all down."

As Black Friday marked the start of this year's holiday shopping season, each of these union activists reflected on what they would get Walmart workers this year if they could get them anything in the world. Each one, from postal worker to painter, says the same thing: "$15 and a union." These Kansas City union veterans know it takes more than wishes for workers to get respect. They have to organize and fight. In Kansas City the public support from these unions is a powerful sign to those who work inside: We are with you, you do not fight alone!

Photo: AP

Senate to OK McFerran to NLRB seat

Fri, 05 Dec 2014 15:12:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - The Senate planned to vote on Dec. 8 on President Obama's nomination of Lauren McFerran to a National Labor Relations Board seat. Confirmation came after she cleared a key hurdle on Dec. 4: Senators shut off a planned GOP filibuster against her, on a party-line vote.

McFerran, now the Senate Labor Committee's chief labor counsel under retiring chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, would succeed Nancy Schiffer, whose term ends December 16.

AFL-CIO Legislative Director William Samuel praised McFerran and again criticized the GOP for blocking Obama's nomination of former NLRB "recess appointee" Sharon Block to Schiffer's seat. He said the GOP "wrongly denied" the seat to Block "because of politics."

"Ms. McFerran is highly qualified to serve on the NLRB" from her nine years as the committee's labor counsel and work at a labor law firm, he said. "She has broad knowledge of federal labor and employment laws, including the National Labor Relations Act, and a proven ability to work in a bipartisan manner. McFerran's experience handling a wide range of issues under the NLRA for the Committee will serve her well as a member of the NLRB."

Photo: Supporters of Sharon Block (pictured) note that she was wrongly denied a seat on the NLRB by Republican senators. dol.gov

Fast food workers walk off the job in 190 cities

Fri, 05 Dec 2014 15:12:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Fast food workers walked off the job from one end of the country to the other today, with police arresting hundreds of workers engaging in civil disobedience. The walkouts happened in some 190 cities, reflecting a major escalation of the ongoing campaign to raise base wages in the fast food industry to $15 an hour.

In New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles workers put down their tongs and spatulas, walked out of their restaurants and formed picket lines after picking up huge cardboard signs emblazoned with the demand for $15 an hour.

In New York some 500 demonstrated outside the Times Square McDonald's. Police said they arrested 20 of the demonstrators for sitting in the street and blocking traffic.

Workers in many of the other cities too, joined by community supporters, supplemented the picket lines in front of the fast food outlets with acts of civil disobedience for which hundreds were arrested. The civil disobedience often took the form of sit-ins in the middle of busy streets and intersections.

"Civil disobedience is the only way to make the point dramatically to get $15 an hour and a union," said Kendall Fells, an organizer for Fast Food Forward. Many of the workers noted that they were carrying on an "American tradition." Civil disobedience, they said, was a feature of many historic movements in the history of the U.S. including the labor, civil rights, and peace movements.

McDonald's tried to plead innocent in the low-wage scandal that sees most fast food workers making barely the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. The company issued statements saying that its stores are owned by small and "medium-sized" owners. "We believe any wage increase has to be stretched out over time so that the impact on them would be manageable," McDonald's said in a statement.

Workers discount such claims pointing to the fact that in countries where McDonald's workers have unions the company pays much more - wages in Denmark and Germany, for example, are often close to $20.00 an hour.

Strikers began to gather early here at the Rock and Roll McDonald's on Clark Street and at major stores in over 150 other cities. Wendy's and Burger King outlets here and across the country were also involved. By 7 a.m. ET police had already arrested some 20 strikers at Times Square in New York and several dozen in Detroit.

In Kansas City workers walked out of 60 restaurants with more than 50 arrested within ten minutes of having sat down and linked arms in an intersection in front of McDonald's. As the workers were arrested hundreds of community supporters stood and watched and chanted "15 and a union."

Demonstrators, after arrest, were frequently loaded into police vans and shipped off for processing.

A worker arrested in Chicago who said the company has him doing the work of a qualified appliance repairman for $11 an hour said he was striking for the future of his daughter, a full-time college student. He and his daughter, he said, had to move recently when they were evicted for non-payment of rent.

Photo: Police officers arrest a protester in front of a Times Square McDonald's restaurant. | Mark Lennihan/AP