People Before Profit blog

L.A. port truckers win again, misclassified as independent contractors

Thu, 31 Dec 2015 13:18:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES (PAI) - The underpaid, exploited port truck drivers at the nation's largest cargo terminal, Los Angeles-Long Beach, have won another round in their long fight for fair pay, job protections and the right to organize.

That's because California state Labor Commissioner Julie Su ruled in December that one of the big port trucking firms at Los Angeles-Long Beach, Pacific 9, misclassified its 38 drivers as "independent contractors" under labor law. They should be "employees," she said.

Because they really are employees, Pacific 9 owes them $7 million in back pay, Su ruled. It also must now pay workers comp, payroll taxes for Medicare and Social Security, and unemployment insurance for them - all costs it had avoided by misclassifying the truckers.

And it must repay the 38 drivers for the past costs they incurred when Pacific 9 forced them to pay for "unlawful deductions like permits, license fees, fuel, road taxes, inspections, parking, registration, truck (rental) payments, truck insurance and even port entry fees," Su's agency ruled. She also ordered Pac 9 to pay drivers for truck repairs and maintenance.

And as "employees," the drivers have the right to organize, too. The Teamsters and their Southern California Joint Council 42 have waged a years-long campaign to both win employee status for the thousands of port truckers and to organize them.

The Los Angeles-Long Beach port truckers are one of many national groups of underpaid, exploited workers, many misclassified as "independent contractors," who have taken to the streets in the last two years to demand living wages and workers' rights. Others include retail, Walmart, warehouse and fast food workers and home health care aides.

Speaking for his colleagues, Pacific 9 driver Daniel Linares told local media that "We have finally had our day in court and we are extremely grateful that the government has realized that it isn't just a handful of drivers that are misclassified-it is all of us."

"There are hundreds of trucking companies at the ports and the vast majority are misclassifying drivers," said Julie Gutmann Dickinson, a pro-worker attorney who represents many of the port truckers. Su called driver misclassification routine in the port trucking industry. Her agency is still mulling over cases involving other trucking companies.

Those other drivers haul cargo, after it is unloaded from freighters at Los Angeles-Long Beach, to the warehouses in California's "Inland Empire." If the drivers are "independent contractors," they must pay for their own gas, tires, insurance and repairs - and for both the employer and employee shares of Medicare and Social Security payroll taxes. And Pac9 now forces them to rent their trucks, too, at $125 weekly, because the drivers' own older trucks don't meet state emissions standards.

As a result, such a typical truck driver often took home a net paycheck of about $20 weekly.

The warehouse workers are also exploited: They're long-term "permatemps," also misclassified as "independent contractors" by the subcontractors who run the warehouses for the big retailers - Walmart, Target and the like - who actually import the goods.

Photo: Port truckers protest. AP

News Guild’s Lunzer: Court ruling could chill First Amendment

Fri, 18 Dec 2015 15:11:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to let stand a lower court ruling letting police officers sue a newspaper over disclosure of personal height, weight, eye color and other characteristics, could chill use of the U.S. Constitution's 1^st Amendment and freedom of the press, News Guild-CWA President Bernie Lunzer says.

That's because while lower courts agreed the U.S. Constitution protects the right of media to publish relevant information, those judges ruled it does not protect the right to gather it. And the Supreme Court let that appellate court ruling stand, without comment, on Dec. 15.

"The Court Of Appeals' appalling ruling" which the Supreme Court justices upheld, "is a dangerous, over-reaching interpretation of the law," said Lunzer, whose union represents a huge share of working U.S. journalists.

"Allowing that ruling to stand without further review is a chilling blow to the 1^ST Amendment," Lunzer told Press Associates Union News Service.

"The Chicago Sun-Times"-a News Guild-represented paper-"is being punished for doing exactly what a news organization is supposed to do: Hold the people in power to account. The fact that the story involves Chicago's first family of politics, the Daleys, is all the more reason for suspicion about the motives of both the Appeals Court and the Supreme Court," Lunzer added.

But he also said the courts won't stop the Sun-Times, or any other media firm. "Anyone who thinks the media will be intimidated by this unconscionable decision doesn't understand journalists at all," Lunzer concluded.

The case started in Chicago 11 years ago, when police arrested the nephew of then-Mayor Richard M. Daley, R.J. Vanecko, after "an altercation" with David Kotchman, who died. Weeks later, Vanecko was put into a lineup with five police officers as "fillers." "Given Vanecko's political connections, the subsequent Chicago Police Department investigation was highly publicized," the 7^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dryly noted.

Officers Scott Dahlstrom, Hugh Gallagly, Peter Kelly, Robert Shea and Emmet Welch "closely resembled Vanecko in age, height, weight" and other factors. Eyewitnesses didn't choose Vanecko and he wasn't charged. In 2011, the Police Department closed the case.

The Sun-Times didn't. It suspected the probe - including the lineup - was rigged, and investigated and published a series on the Kotchman-Vanecko case. Its story on the lineup included the officers' height, weight, age, eye color and hair color, and a lineup photo.

The officers sued the Sun-Times for invasion of privacy, for getting the info from drivers' license records, which are supposed to be private. The Sun-Times argued both the invasion of privacy point and the constitutional issue. It said the 1^st Amendment covers gathering data, as well as publishing it. The 7^th Circuit judges sided with the officers, so they could sue the paper. Citing U.S. Supreme Court decisions in 1972, 1974 and 1991, the appeals court sided with the officers and against the Sun-Times on the constitutional point, too, and the justices agreed.

"The 1^st Amendment provides no special solicitude for members of the press," the appeals court judges said in their decision. "Although the Supreme Court has commented that 'news gathering is not without its 1^st Amendment protections,' it has repeatedly declined to confer on the media an expansive right to gather information, concluding that such an approach would 'present practical and conceptual difficulties of a high order.' Rather, the court has held the 1^st Amendment 'does not guarantee the press a constitutional right of special access to information not available to the public generally.'"

Ironically, the main case is over, and - at least against Vanecko-the Sun-Times "won." A footnote in the appellate court decision notes there was such an uproar over the original outcome that the Cook County (Chicago) Circuit Court appointed a special prosecutor in 2012. He indicted Vanecko on one count of manslaughter. Vanecko pled guilty.

Photo: The 11-cent 1975 stamp celebrates freedom of the press. The design shows an early American printing press with the wording "Liberty Depends on Freedom of the Press." USPS.

The revolutionary hope of Christmas

Fri, 18 Dec 2015 14:35:00 +0000

Christmas time can be so depressing. It brings out some of the worst features of capitalism and rubs them in our faces. You can't escape, whatever your philosophical or religious belief.

Advertisements spur on feelings of guilt if you don't buy enough of the right kinds of consumer products for people you love. Creative financing is offered so that lenders can make even more profit. And it is an environmental disaster ... more plastic, cardboard and packaging is produced, carted about, and dumped into landfills, vacant lots, and incinerators at Christmas time than at any other time of the year.

And yet ... Nearly smothered beneath piles of gift catalogs and sale circulars, nearly drowned in a sea of synthesized elevator-music Christmas carols, in a locked theological vault guarded down through the centuries by legions of preachers, priests and pontiffs, there burns a persistent secret flame. It is the flame of a revolutionary hope - hope for a better world, a more just society, where the social order is turned upside down so that the poor are fed and the rich are relieved of their ill-gotten gains. And it is something that working people of any culture, any religious or philosophical background can relate to.

What does Christmas have to do with the class struggle? In a word - everything. The story goes like this:

Once upon a time, in a land far away on the edge of a great empire, there was a people with an ancient culture, a storied past, and a great literature, who had been conquered by a technologically advanced imperial power. They were occupied by foreign soldiers and ruled by corrupt local despots who collaborated with the foreign oppressors. There were periodic revolts of local peasants and slaves that were put down mercilessly.

In the midst of all that, a young unmarried girl becomes pregnant out of wedlock. You might think she would regret this development, but on the contrary, she finds in the anticipated birth of a child a reason to rejoice and to hope for a better world. In her joy and determination, she sings an ancient song of liberation:

My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me-He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, he has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. (Luke 1:46-53)

She and her fiancée are then forced to make a difficult journey while she is in the last weeks of her pregnancy, ostensibly to comply with the demands of their imperial rulers to register for a census. They are denied lodging in local inns. Homeless, the young family takes shelter in a stable, where the mother goes into labor and gives birth to a baby boy among barnyard animals.

Hardly an auspicious beginning for a child in whom his mother had placed such hope. And then things get worse. The local ruler, a collaborator who is kept in power through an occupation army, decides on an act of terror. Convinced that a revolt is brewing in the village where the young couple has just had their baby, he sends in death squads to kill all the male children under a certain age.

Fortunately, the young family is tipped off and they flee into a neighboring country. There they wait until they receive news of the death of their corrupt local despot, and thereafter return to raise their son in their hometown. When he grows up, the boy becomes a carpenter. As if to fulfill the revolutionary hope expressed in his mother's song, he goes on to organize a movement for social and economic change. It is composed of a coalition of fishermen, reformed prostitutes, the unemployed and low-level public servants, with a cross-section of men and women, and people of different ethnic backgrounds.

The aims of the movement are clear from the very beginning:

"Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight ..." (Luke 3:4-5) .

"He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable Year of the Lord." (Luke 4:18-19)

And so, when you look at the Christmas story closely, you find a story of working-class people living in difficult times, in circumstances not too different from those faced by millions of people today. These are people who are aware of their history of struggle. They draw strength from the lessons of the past and nourish hopes and dreams for a better world.

Mary, the young mother in the Christmas story is supremely confident that the future will be better. Her song, known as the Magnificat, is nothing less than revolutionary. This revolutionary aspect of Christmas is also found in the popular Christmas carol "O Holy Night" (Cantique de Noel). The words were written by the French socialist Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure and it was translated into English by the American abolitionist John Sullivan Dwight. The music was written by Adolphe Charles Adam, a friend of Cappeau's who was Jewish. One verse of the carol states:

"Truly he taught us to love one another; his law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother; and in his name all oppression shall cease!"

The political ramifications of this carol were well understood by some reactionaries in our own country and it continues to be controversial. The song was banned for years in many conservative churches in the U.S. and many radio stations in the South refused to play it.

So, whenever you get weary of the holidays and all the claptrap that surrounds them, remember the young family of the Christmas story, how they hoped and dreamed for a revolutionary transformation of their country and how they persevered in the face of oppression.

Whoever you are, have a merry and revolutionary Christmas. And let us then enter the new year resolved to wipe out homelessness, poverty, racism and injustice once and for all!

This article originally appeared in the Peoples' Weekly World, Dec. 22, 1999.

Photo: The icon nativity above the altar in the Grotto of Nativity, Bethlehem, UNESCO World Heritage site.

Communications Workers endorse Sanders

Fri, 18 Dec 2015 14:31:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - Citing his absolute pro-worker stands and the views of a majority of its polled members, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) board voted on Dec. 16 to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt., for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The decision, announced by new union President Chris Shelton at a press conference with Sanders, makes CWA the third, and largest, AFL-CIO union to back the outspokenly progressive Vermonter. CWA claims 700,000 members, and is known for its political activism.

A dozen other AFL-CIO unions back the current leader in public opinion polls, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Three non-AFL-CIO unions also back her.

CWA's backing of Sanders was not unanimous: The constitution for one CWA sector, The News Guild, mandates abstention from political endorsements ["We do so on behalf of our many members who cover politics and government. The NewsGuild-CWA takes seriously their need to function with full objectivity. We respect and protect that principle."]. It was the only non-Sanders vote and News Guild President Bernie Lunzer reminded his members to, individually, stay active, aware and involved. And AFA-CWA noted Sanders strongly supports its embattled United Air Lines flight attendants.

The Sanders endorsement rests strongly on the member poll. And Shelton's predecessor, Larry Cohen, who stepped down earlier this year, promptly signed on as an enthusiastic Sanders campaign volunteer and labor advisor. Shelton himself cited Sanders' out-spoken pro-workers stands, including the senator's championship of strengthening labor law.

And Shelton, a New Yorker, also cites that state's Working Families Party as a model for a third national pro-worker political party not beholden to corporate interests. Earlier in December, the WFP, which has most of its strength in New York, endorsed Sanders.

Shelton said a majority of CWA members backed Sanders, in three months of electronic polling and after consulting candidate websites and their answers to the union's questionnaire.

"I am proud of our democratic process, proud of CWA members, and proud to support the candidate whose vision for America puts working families first," he stated.

"Politics as usual has gotten working people nowhere," Shelton declared. "Our politics and economy have favored Wall Street, the wealthy and powerful for too long. CWA members, like voters across America, are saying we can no longer afford business as usual. Bernie has called for a political revolution. That is just what Americans need today."

Shelton said top issues that led to CWA's decision were those Sanders tackles, notably

rebuilding the labor movement,
controlling the financiers,
getting corporate cash out of politics,
crafting affordable health care,
stopping so-called "free trade" pacts that export U.S. jobs.

Sanders is an outspoken proponent of government-run single-payer national health care.

"Sanders stands with working families against corporate greed, Wall Street and the big banks, against politics as usual," Shelton said. "He knows we have to take on the rich and powerful special interests to turn around this economy and end the 40 years of stagnant wages working families endured. He's the candidate who can do it, and we are going to help him."

Photo: Senator Sanders spent part of Martin Luther King Day 2015 with striking FairPoint communications workers. CWA website

Labor meltdown: Elves threaten historic strike week before Christmas

Fri, 18 Dec 2015 11:42:00 +0000

NORTH POLE - Early Friday morning, the International Committee of Industrial Christmas Laborers- Elven (ICICLE), the union that represents the 10,000+ elves who work year around producing the world's Christmas toys, warned management at Santa's Worshop that continued delays in contract negotiations could warrant a strike vote as soon as Monday, December 21.

"Our contract has been expired since 1917 and that, Mr. Claus, is an outrage. Since then, elven families like my own have been sustaining themselves on simply inadequate amounts of cookies and candy canes," said President of ICICLE Brandybutter McCumberbund.

These threats come after a landmark election last Spring that saw incumbent ICICLE president Noel Snowfir and his regime voted out of office and the rise of a new slate of progressive leadership inspired by global labor movements such as Fight for $15. During the bitter election, McCumberbund described Snowfir's leadership as "accommodationist" and "overly friendly" with Santa's management. Snowfir did not respond to requests for comment during the negotiations and has since retired to Boca Raton, Florida.

"This is a new day here in the North Pole. No longer will we settle for the technologies and working conditions of last century," said Ms. McCumberbund to a sea of red pointy hats. AFL-CI-E-I-O President Merry Sugarwine was on hand to express solidarity, as was head of the Reindeer Union, Rudolph.

She spoke to People's World about the need to modernize saying, "I don't remember the last time I saw a request for a wooden train set in a kid's Christmas list and yet our quota, per-year, is 2 million wooden train sets. Meanwhile, 4 elves die each year from splinter-related complications. It's no ho-ho-ho'ing matter".

ICICLE's environmental caucus spoke out about the need to move away from the punitive use of coal citing the fact that Santa's Workshop is the world's 5^th largest buyer of coal on the planet.

"The way we see it, there are two possible solutions," said environmental caucus leader Toadstool Scarletpudding, "One: greatly reduce the amount of children judged as naughty by de-naughtifying classist 'offenses' such as the shoplifting of candy bars, or two: reduce the amount of coal allocated to each naughty child by 80 percent immediately."

The current, expired contract contains no environmental considerations.

The general mood of the rally could be described as cheerful in the face of opposition. Santa's Workshop sent out a press-release shortly after the event from its Manhattan office stating, among other things, that "Santa's Workshop management intends to comply with all relevant labor laws" and "feels sorry" that the elves have "escalated the rhetoric to this level so close to Christmas".

McCumberbund dismissed the release as "more of the same", adding "if Santa was worried about rhetoric, he would have sleighed his jolly ass up here nearly a Century ago, sat at the table, and got this thing done."

People's World will bring you coverage of this story as it develops.

Photo: Vicki Ortiz

For labor, 2015 began and ended with political action

Fri, 18 Dec 2015 10:14:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - For workers and their allies, 2015 began with politics and ended with more politics.

But there were a lot of protests and activism in between - including fights with anti-worker forces ranging from Washington, D.C., to Washington state.

The year kicked off with an AFL-CIO unveiling of a comprehensive "Raise The Wage" campaign. The federation said it would advocate a wide-ranging package of measures to restore the middle class.

They include raising the minimum wage, strengthening the right to organize, comprehensive immigration reform, and opposing trade pacts that trash workers' rights. The fed later added single-payer national health insurance and women's economic issues to the list.

The Raise The Wage package is important: While the official unemployment rate finally declined to 5 percent, the new jobs created since the Great Recession - also called the Bush Crash - are predominantly low-paying with no benefits. The ones that vanished paid a lot and had benefits.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka made the political aspect clear. Unions would evaluate candidates for political office, from the presidency on down, on whether they were for or against the package, in writing, not just verbally. That covers endorsement decisions, including political campaign contributions, too.

Left open: What happens if a contender supports all but one element of the package? The trade pacts are the obvious problem, since President Obama, even that early, was pushing so-called "fast-track" presidential trade authority and the dangerous Trans-Pacific Partnership pact it would allow. Workers' anti-TPP campaign is continuing into 2016.

By the end of 2015, unions were deep into evaluating the presidential hopefuls, Democratic and Republican, with 17 unions - including two independent unions and a Change To Win union, the Service Employees - issuing presidential primary endorsements.

With the Teachers leading off the parade, 15 unions, including all three non-AFL-CIO unions, backed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nod. National Nurses United and the Postal Workers backed her chief challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt., The horde of Republicans, many anti-worker-as is most of their party-were rejected.

Nevertheless, workers and their allies had one "win" among the GOP presidential hopefuls. Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wis., explicitly ran on his record of destruction of unions in the Badger State. He compared Wisconsin workers to Islamic jihadists. Walker drew so little popular support that he ran out of money and had to drop out - to union chortling nationwide.

And workers picked up a big ally in their crusades for higher wages and the right to organize: Pope Francis, in official statements, ringing speeches and his U.S. visit, too, when he met with groups of low-wage workers who unionized to get a better life.

Politics and action both part of the story

In between the politics, and sometimes intermixed with it, was a lot of protest, activism and state and local action, including:

The "Seven Sisters" oil companies pushed the Steelworkers, who represent two-thirds of the nation's petroleum refinery workers, to strike over safety issues. For months, the firms refused to budge on talking about the weekly accidents and incidents - some of them fatal - at refineries. Protests and USW's strike finally forced them to bargain on and settle the issue.

Los Angeles port truckers had to strike at least twice for higher wages and recognition on the job. They won city council backing. Washington state teachers conducted rolling 1-day strikes statewide to ultimately force the legislature to grant their first raises in seven years.

Missouri workers mounted a successful statewide door-to-door campaign to uphold Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon's veto of GOP-crafted so-called "right to work" legislation. The GOP-dominated state legislature plans to bring it back in 2016.

Illinois state workers took to the streets and the courts when new right-wing Gov. Bruce Rauner ® tried to outdo Walker, vetoing the state budget for leverage. By year's end, the impasse continued, Illinois had no budget, the Democratic-run Assembly had defeated a Rauner RTW scheme 72-0, and the courts stepped in to make sure workers got paid.

By contrast, the Democratic-run California legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown (D) pushed through a raft of pro-worker bills, including raising the state minimum wage, mandating 2-person crews on freight trains and writing a strong equal pay for equal work law.

And New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), under pressure from unions - led by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Workers - and adverse publicity about shockingly low wages in many sectors, named a commission to probe various industries. The panel's first ruling said fast-food workers statewide should get a raise. Cuomo also proposed a $15 minimum wage.

Low-wage workers nationwide took to the streets, and sometimes to the courts, to campaign for a living wage - usually $15 an hour - and the right to organize without employer interference, harassment, intimidation and labor law-breaking. Numerous cities listened and raised their minimum wages. The Republican-run Congress didn't, defeating wage hikes.

Instead, Congress, now under total GOP control, crafted anti-worker and anti-union legislation, covering everything from fast-track presidential trade authority to curbing National Labor Relations Board jurisdiction. Fast-track, pushed by Obama, won. Other moves stalled.

But Congress did take time out from worker-bashing to craft two bipartisan pieces of legislation that will help workers: A 5-year highway and mass transit authorization bill, which will help construction workers get jobs, and a rewrite of federal education law, junking the Bush-era No Child Left Behind statute and its punitive teach-to-the-test mentality.

Faced with congressional hostility in other areas, the Obama Labor Department and the NLRB often ruled for workers. Examples: DOL rules order cuts in silica beryllium exposure and put home health care workers under the minimum wage. The NLRB ruled joint employers are both responsible for workers' rights - and both are liable if they break labor law.

The biggest threat to workers comes from the U.S. Supreme Court, though the justices' rulings were a mixed bag in 2015: Individual workers won, such as in a pregnancy discrimination case; groups of workers lost.

The justices will hear a case, Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association, on Jan. 11, 2016, that could turn every state and local government into a right-to-work fiefdom. The case,

pushed by the anti-worker so-called National Right to Work Committee, a top radical right group, would affect millions of workers - and unions - nationwide, by robbing them of money.

2015 headlines telling the stories of workers:

This, then, was the story of workers in 2015, as told through the headlines of Press Associates Union News Service:

JANUARY: SPECIAL REPORT: Lower court's home care ruling shows impact judges have on workers. ALSO: Legislative outlook: Get ready for a fast vote on fast track...Harkin closes career with demand that lawmakers give workers 'opportunity'...Facing continued company law-breaking, NLRB files formal charges vs. McDonald's...NLRB eases way for faculty at religious-affiliated colleges and universities to unionize...New year brings in raft of family-friendly state and local laws...Nurses fight with big D.C. hospital over patient care continues with 10-day lockout, vigil...Jobless rate ends 2014 at 5.6 percent; Businesses claim to create almost 3M new jobs in year...AFL-CIO launches major 'raise the wages' campaign, to make it political focus...Warren: 'Many feel the game is rigged - and they're right'...Business groups again sue NLRB over new union election rules...Cohen: 'It's now or never' in fight vs. fast-track...Panera Bread bakers may finally get their union: BCTGM Local 70...Panel proposes practical moves for 'raise the wages' campaign...Perez: DOL to try to expand availability of overtime pay...Nurses union cheers Obama Keystone veto threat...Postal Workers launch 'Return to Sender' campaign vs. latest USPS-Staples scheme...Terrorists' killings at Paris magazine outrage Newspaper Guild, media unions... Perrone succeeds Hansen at UFCW. WASHINGTON WINDOW: Finding the unifying single issue, raising wages. LEGISLATIVE ACTION: Postal unions, allies go 'Back to the Future' with banking plan for USPS...New Congress brings new spate of federal worker-bashing bills...Repeal of prevailing wage law tops Michigan Republicans' priority list...Labor-backed alliance to push bold agenda in Oregon capital... ALSO: BLS: Union density at 11.1 percent in 2014; Weekly wage edge at $207 each... Union-led Democracy Initiative may tackle politicization of state courts...In State of the Union, Obama calls for stronger labor law; Demand falls flat...After 26 years, federal govt. to end consent decree governing Teamsters... Union leaders give Obama address positive reviews, except on trade pacts...Missouri lawmakers start year by attacking workers; Pattern will occur in other states... Teamsters blast govt. green light to let Mexican trucks roll nationwide ...ATU joins advocates of raising federal gas tax to pay for rebuilding roads, bridges, running buses, subways...AFT's Weingarten challenges union movement to rethink itself...Newspaper Guild changes name to NewsGuild, re-elects Lunzer...Seafarers rescue Syrian war refugees...Tentative new pact lets 18K union nurses call off planned strike vs. Kaiser in California...Seniors groups, unions warn of GOP sneak attack on Social Security disability benefits. ALSO: Justices toss permanent company payment of union retirees' health care benefits... Management labor law-breaking forces Univ. of California doctors into 1-day strike... Boston GCC union local helps member, refugee from Salvadoran violence, escape deportation...About that plane you flew in during World War II: Airman, unionist, who served on C-47 during D-Day gets unlikely chance to fly with her again...Building trades unions urge Obama to sign Keystone pipeline bill...Unionized Kaiser nurses ratify 3-year pact.

FEBRUARY: Obama claims budget plan enhances worker protections, retirement security...Oil industry obstinacy on safety issues forces Steelworkers to strike...Teachers, unions weigh in as Senate panel starts rewrite of federal education law...NEWS ANALYSIS: Justices could increase big-money influence on state courts. ALSO: January jobless rate at 5.7 percent; Businesses claim to create 257K jobs...Illinois legislature Dems vow to protect workers...Obama seeks hike in extended federal jobless benefits...APWU's 2-front struggle: Vs. USPS at bargaining, vs. Staples takeover of Office Depot...Nissan rejects U.S. offer to mediate Mississippi dispute with UAW...Hogrogian to succeed Hegarty as Mail Handlers president...Nurses at top Chicago hospital complex authorize 1-day strike over short-staffing, safety...AFGE conference delegates tackle tough Capitol Hill environment...Senate Labor panel, now under GOP rule, joins partisan attacks on NLRB...Taking advantage of GOP sway, asbestos manufacturers try to evade more liability...New GOP Illinois Gov. Rauner yanks union rights to collect dues or fees from union-represented caregivers, drawing protests...Refinery workers forced to expand unfair labor practices strike...West Coast port operators lock out Longshore Workers...New report sheds more light on costs of proposed Trans-Pacific trade pact...Trumka to Dems: Party leaders have a big problem - no message...Canadian Supreme Court: Public workers have right to strike...Brushing aside teachers, unions and Dems, House panel OKs partisan rewrite of federal education aid law...Minnesota anti-wage-theft legislation would ensure workers are paid what they earn...SEIU, undocumented adults' advocates hail Obama appeal of judge's ban on applicants...Postal Workers open bargaining with USPS...New Jersey Supreme Court curbs 'independent contractor' dodge...Direct government oversight of Teamsters ends...Government threat forces Canadian Pacific engineers back to work...Obama uses Pullman monument dedication to tout workers' rights...

Columbia grad student workers formally ask NLRB to overturn 2004 anti-student worker ruling. FROM THE AFL-CIO EXECUTIVE COUNCIL IN ATLANTA: Trumka: Raising wages to be 'yardstick' for presidential hopefuls... IAFF's Schaitberger: Jeb Bush had relatively good record on Fire Fighters issues...AFL-CIO drafting stronger rewrite of U.S. labor law...Fast-track votes to determine labor political donations, for now... Shuler challenges labor movement on lack of women in top jobs...Trumka singles out fight against racism as one key to raising wages...USW's Gerard explains why oil workers were forced to strike...Contract talks to cover record 5M unionists this year...Transportation unions facing heavy legislative agenda...Union leaders take no action on Keystone. ALSO: Walker and GOP restart anti-worker Wisconsin steamroller.

MARCH: A PAI SPECIAL REPORT: Organizing the South. ALSO: Senate GOP votes to kill union elections rule; Obama promises veto...Unionists fan out over Capitol Hill to lobby lawmakers vs. fast-track...Latest challenge to Affordable Care Act reaches Supreme Court...Jobless rate drops to 5.5 percent; Businesses claim to create 295K new jobs...Progressive think tank defends Obama crackdown on labor law-breaking federal contractors...Teamsters win big among shuttle bus drivers for Silicon Valley tech firms...L.A. Teachers to school district: Negotiate now or face a strike...Hoffa asks feds to reopen pro-Mexican trucks ruling...ILWU, Pacific port managers reach tentative 5-year pact...WASHINGTON WINDOW: For workers, fast-track is way off track. Op-Ed: Leo Gerard: The GOP's blind hate of union members. ALSO: Parade of presidential hopefuls make pitches to Fire Fighters...Feds rewrite indictment of former Massey CEO Blankenship for Upper Big Branch role; Judge lifts gag order on the case...Schaitberger: 'Very existence of the union movement' is at stake...Steelworkers reach tentative 4-year pact with Shell as industry apparently agrees to safety measures...Justice Dept. says federal workers can sue over pay loss during 2013 shutdown...Steelworkers laud federal move vs. subsidized imported paper...Communications Workers, AT&T at loggerheads as bargaining starts...Calif. nurse details how employer manipulated election to beat union...Chicago voters to City Council: Pass paid sick leave...NPR reporter wins award for series on hospital indifference to nurses' back injuries...Labor in wide alliance vs. exploitation of 'high-tech' workers here on visas...OSHA report documents costs of injuries, declining workers comp...Machinists file union recognition election petition at Boeing S.C. Dreamliner plant...DeLauro, Gillibrand reintroduce paid family and medical leave bill...Law professors oppose Trans-Pacific Partnership, say it creates 'unaccountable, unreviewable system' for firms...N.H. workers protest Walker anti-union laws, comparison with jihadists...NLRB Chairman Pearce defends agency as House votes to overturn new union election rules...GOP lawmakers challenge NLRB joint-employer memo...Labor board throws the book - er, newspaper - at Santa Barbara News Press again. WASHINGTON WINDOW: The budget dance. OP-ED: Leo Gerard: The GOP's big squeeze... House GOP uses NLRB budget hearing to snipe at board policies...Top women's rights group hails Supreme Court ruling in pregnancy discrimination case...Workers mobilize vs. GOP budgets' pension, pay cut schemes...Berger-Marks gives working women 'how-to' guide for greater influence in unions, organizations...Report: 2014 Wall Street bonuses alone double earnings of all minimum wage workers...Senate GOP budget bans consideration of project labor agreements...Young workers summit feels jolt of activism. ACTION IN THE STATES: Illinois union coalition battles Rauner "fair share" fee ban in state courts...W. Va. GOP legislature passes, Dem governor signs anti-worker legislation...Missouri unionists, businesses, officials mobilize vs. 'right-to-work'...Nevada lawmakers following Wisconsin's lead? WASHINGTON WINDOW: Budget priorities, or lack of them.

APRIL: Senate 'vote-a-rama' produces few wins for workers...AFL-CIO launches drive to educate undocumented workers on legalization...Fast food workers plan national strike on April 15...AFL-CIO, allies praise White House drive for paid family leave law...AFSCME yanks conference out of Indiana as boycott mushrooms over anti-gay law...Drawing on Calif. model, lawmakers reintroduce federal nurse staffing ratios bill...California Teachers fight for their union and the schools...After Obama's endorsement, consumer protection bureau unveils proposed curbs on payday lenders...Obama vetoes GOP's anti-NLRB bill...USW local ratifies new pact with Honeywell, ending long company lockout...Machinists name Cervantes as next Secretary-Treasurer...NEA president plans to push education to top of 2016 campaign agenda. WASHINGTON WINDOW: Cheat your workers and go to jail. ALSO: Building Trades Chief McGarvey: Labor's durability may key on friending a few GOP moderates; 'Politics is not a marriage. It's a business.'...Labor Dept., unions go to bat in court for same-sex couples...Indiana GOP plan to cut construction workers' wages leads pro-GOP Indiana union official to quit state panel...Nurses take to streets again to push 'Robin Hood Tax'...Two-tier wages to be key issue at coming UAW talks with Detroit 3...Steelworkers' Gerard rules out GOP presidential hopefuls...On Equal Pay Day, report shows male-female pay gap at 78 cents per dollar...Biden touts green jobs, economic recovery to labor-environmental alliance...Unionists storm Capitol Hill vs. fast-track...Backed by unions, fast food workers walk out nationwide - again...Greens join union campaign against fast-track, Pacific trade pact...In change from prior stand, UFCW opposes fast-track, citing Pacific trade pact...Teachers union leaders split as key panel starts rewriting federal education law... WASHINGTON WINDOW: Buying elections, local style. ALSO: Bldg. Trades' McGarvey pushes contact with both parties, hits too-close union ties to Dems...Trumka blasts fast-track and Trans-Pacific Pact as senators fast-track their approval...Study discusses small fines, light punishments for deaths on the job...Rail unions back bill mandating two-member crews on freight trains...Citing political hostility and threats of violence, IAM withdraws union election petition at Boeing in S.C...Building trades' lobbying mixes defense, offense...NNU: Management pressure produces anti-union lead in vote at big Calif. hospital; Outcome uncertain...NewsGuild's Lunzer protests Iranian spying' charges vs. Washington Post reporter.

MAY: Fast-track enters Dem presidential race as lawmakers fast-track it to House, Senate...Trumka: Raising Wages Agenda to be AFL-CIO standard for presidential endorsement...AFL-CIO Death On The Job report shows weaknesses in safety and health enforcement...Pre-May Day rally energizes labor's push against fast-track...In model for others, Cleveland building trades agree with city, school district on pre-apprentice training... Misclassification, wage theft, bad working conditions force LA-Long Beach port drivers to strike again...New York and Los Angeles city councils vote against fast-track...Equal pay gets new heavyweight supporter - the Pope... Construc-tion, services lead the way in April job creation as jobless rate drops...Court hears case on home health care wages as workers, outside, discuss them...Union leaders, Obama administration back hiking minimum wage to $12...Labor Dept. readies rules on expanding overtime pay eligibility...Unions cheer as GOP-run House kills two anti-worker amendments...After 20 years, OSHA issues rule to protect construction workers in confined spaces...Congress tackles multi-employer pension plans, again...Workers take to streets on May Day marches for higher pay, justice on the job...CWA applauds High Court ban on direct political giving to judges, but says it doesn't go far enough...Letter Carriers: Extreme winter weather increased need for food drive donations...Senate doesn't even try to override Obama's veto of anti-NLRB bill...Groups to Postal Service: Accommodate pregnant workers ...Democratic flip-floppers let Senate start debating fast-track...Union leaders, lawmakers, mayors unveil progressive agenda...Sales job: Obama stumps for fast-track at Nike as unionists expose 'Supersized NAFTA pact's' lies...Natl. Nurses United pushes safe-staffing drive at events nationwide, adds collective bargaining rights in D.C. demo...Postal Workers hit the streets arguing for better service, new contract...Illinois, New Jersey Supreme Courts hit cuts of public workers' pensions...Letter shows Locomotive Engineers warned Amtrak about hazardous working conditions five months before fatal Philly accident...Paywatch: Average CEO makes more in a day than the average worker does in a year...OSHA slams big safety violator with $822K fine...Appeals court tosses AFA suit to ban cell phone use on planes...Unionists, allies step up crusade for undocumented workers...Amid grumbling over no long-term solution, House extends highway-transit programs...Senate opens fast-track fight by rejecting more aid for workers who lose jobs to trade; Dem flip-floppers on key trade vote cite added enforcement as reason...Federation analysis of Chinese trade policies debunks administration's pro-TPP arguments...New Orleans teachers' quest for back pay, damages ends with Supreme Court rejection...Rail unions weigh in with more analysis of Amtrak crash...Sanders, Ellison re-introduce 'Robin Hood Tax' plan, with funds for free community college education, other social needs...Los Angeles Council raises city minimum wage to $15 by 2020...NLRB again orders conditional reinstatement for illegally fired undocumented workers...After Senate loss, fast-track fight shifts to House...CWA's Cohen, stepping down from union post, to continue democracy campaign...Right-to-work loses in Illinois House, 72-0, heads for Missouri governor's veto...Rolling 1-day strike closes schools all over Washington state...Rail safety problems lead to activists' protests...McDonald's workers again protest low pay at burger giant's HQ, meeting...Govt. issues new rules ordering contractors to obey labor laws...Dept. store cleaners file class action suit for back pay, damages, cite wage theft...GOP Gov. Kasich yanks collective bargaining from 10K home care, child care providers. PROFILE: New NEA President Eskelsen-Garcia brings verve, edge to union.

JUNE: House passes fast-track despite union drive vs. secret trade pacts...N.J. unions continue pension fight despite state high court ruling...Shelton, Steffens win top Communications Workers posts...Management pension plan elimination scheme forces Bricklayers in St. Louis to strike...Rail unions back federal directive for 2-person passenger train crews...House GOP goes after NLRB again, while defending right-to-work...After two years of work, Mother Jones monument to be rededicated...Every day is baseball season for Steelworkers at Louisville Slugger bat plant...Natl. Nurses United urges D.C. Council to pass nurse-patient ratios bill...Unions criticize GOP proposal to spin off Federal Aviation Administration...AFGE's Cox to lawmakers: Obtain, retain federal workers by fair treatment, labor-mgmt. cooperation and end to pay cuts...Supreme Court rules against employer discrimination by religion...Delta baggage handler Hedges, activist for low-wage workers, sues over retaliatory firing... Union leaders: Fast-track fight not over yet...Cardinal, Trumka: Catholic church, labor movement working more closely on social justice...Teachers leaders launch presidential endorsement process by meeting Dem hopefuls... Right-to-work goes down the drain in Maine...Federal pension agency to offer loans to troubled multi-employer pension plans; Unions, lawmakers seek repeal of last year's law...House draft money bill cuts $74M from NLRB, shackles board authority...Letter Carriers report near-record food collection in annual drive...AFGE says it'll work with feds to prevent future massive cyber personal data attacks...Fast-track rerun: Senate OK upsets unionists, leaders...Judge rules for St. Louis Bricklayers in pension suit with national implications...Union leaders applaud Supreme Court health care law ruling...AFL-CIO, ally protest deep cuts in pro-worker programs in House Labor-HHS money bill...With one exception, senators ignore union concerns in defense bill debate...Mine Workers prepare to sue Obama over EPA's clean power rules; GOP prepares to trash them...Transportation unions battling right-wing legislation to curb worker rights at ports.

JULY: SPECIAL FEATURE ON COURTS: The other judicial shoe drops: high court to hear case outlawing union dues, fees for all public workers. ALSO: Obama announces new overtime pay rule...Big-money interests pushing prevailing wage repeal in Michigan...Fight for 15 racks up big win in Massachusetts ...Rail workers, environmentalists to launch week of protests vs. oil trains...Union leaders hail High Court's gay marriage ruling...Even your fax paper: Steelworkers praise U.S. tariffs on Chinese uncoated paper... Management's part-timers scheme forces ATU bus drivers in Milwaukee to strike...Ex-CWA President Cohen to campaign for Sanders...Graphic Communications leaders to delegates: 'Organize or die'...Labor Board to tackle another big joint-employer issue, involving temps...Sanders draws roars from union retirees...Illinois GOP Gov. Rauner's budget rigidity may bring near-payless paydays to 40,000 workers...Unions back new Senate education bill, but say it needs improvement...St. Louis Bricklayers strike ends with Local 1 protecting pensions, ending nationally dangerous contractors lawsuit, signing 6-year pact...Federal workers union sues govt. over confidential data breach...Canadian prime minister jams anti-union law through Parliament...AFT endorses Clinton...Obama administration blasts GOP funding bill for cutting NLRB staff by one third...Postal Workers' battle vs. USPS over Staples scheme headed to Labor Board judge's session...Abolition of two-tier wage systems tops UAW bargaining with GM...House extends highway-mass transit fund, law through December...Environmentalists, railroad workers protest oil trains...Office and Professional Employees add 2,200 new members in June... Steelworkers, NLRB withdraw case on charging free riders for grievances...Workers rally behind federal $15 minimum wage bill...Survey of strongly religious voters shows huge backing for Pope's stands against racism, income inequality, for worker rights...N.Y. unions hail Cuomo task force to crack down on low-wage violators...EPI report: Misclassified employees cost government billions...Workers, allies gear up for continuing 'right-to-work' fight in Missouri; Political pressure mounts vs. defecting Republicans...SEIU raises 'Fight for 15' for home care workers at White House conference...Continued misclassification, exploitation force LA-Long Beach port truck drivers to strike again...Theodore Bikel, union activist, leader, actor, folksinger, dies at 91...Hillary Clinton pledges to push Employee Free Choice Act; Hopefuls list other pro-worker stands...USW's Gerard argues for keeping U.S. crude oil in the U.S... Congress hits more potholes in debating highway-mass transit bill...Federal judge upholds NLRB's union election rules changes...81 years in coming, new plaque marks site where police opened fire on Minneapolis workers during 1934 Teamsters strikes...House GOP campaigns against more overtime pay eligibility...AFL-CIO leaders add single-payer health care to Raising Wages campaign.

AUGUST: Steelworkers, top firms at odds as contract deadline approaches...Mine Workers: Miners 'to suffer the most' from Obama final power plant rules...The Pope does it again, blasting capitalism, promoting workers' rights ...Steelworkers applaud WTO ruling vs. Chinese specialty steel tariffs...Unions lead anti-ALEC protests; Teamsters demand UPS leave radical right group...Workers, unions continue anti-TPP campaign even as talks founder ...Roofers, Plumbers affiliate...Obama OMB issues veto threat vs. GOP bill letting VA fire workers at managerial whim...National Nurses United endorses Sanders...U.S. Labor Against War campaigning for unionists, leaders to back Iran nuke curbs pact...Lawmakers skeptical about corporate denial of T-Mobile's labor law-breaking... Unionist-bashing isn't finished in Detroit: Financial overseer cuts teachers' health care...News Guild, reporters, firms protest prosecutor's charges in year-old Ferguson arrests...Huge computer hacks lead Consumers League to launch data security project...Gallup polls' mixed views: Rises in support for unions - and for RTW laws... Labor Board tosses college athletes' try to unionize...Former Senate Labor Committee Chairman Harkin endorses Hillary Clinton...NLRB backs worker in filing 1-person class action suit...OSHA proposes cutting worker exposure to beryllium by 90 percent...Nevada unions to Trump: Pay your hotel's workers fair wages, recognize union...AFGE re-elects officers, girds for battles with Congress...GOP inserts silica standard delay into Labor Dept. money bill...Machinists endorse Clinton...Rail workers score big safety win in California...NLRB: Big firms jointly liable for worker rights at franchise-holders...Steelworkers stage mass rallies nationwide as talks with firms come down to the wire...Court upholds DOL minimum wage, overtime pay rules for home health care workers... Report: Union women make more than non-union women in every state...ATU: Putting intercity bus drivers under overtime law would cut bus crash fatalities...AFL-CIO backs legislation to curb execs' revolving door to D.C. LABOR DAY: Report explores why unions have few female leaders...The National Labor Relations Act - 80 years of protection?...Ruling on unfair labor practices shows importance of appeals courts to workers...Warner raises the problem of the 'on-demand economy' ...Mother Jones monument rededicated with vows to continue her worker rights fight...Continuing Missouri RTW battle exemplifies war on workers in the states...$665 million pension fraud highlights corporate criminality...EPI economic plan features tax hike on rich, expanding Social Security, higher infrastructure investment. SOLIDARITY STATEMENTS: Barbara Easterling, Alliance for Retired Americans: Let's celebrate this Labor Day by stopping the TPP. WASHINGTON WINDOW: The state of working Americans, 2015. OP-EDS: Leo Gerard: There's always money for the boss. Sam Pizzigati: Our stealth politics of inequality.

SEPTEMBER: Five top union leaders endorse Iran nuclear arms control pact...Jobless rate falls to 5.1 percent in August...Money bills top labor's agenda as Congress returns to work ...Communications Workers, IBEW keep talking with Verizon; Firm sticks with giveback demands...Black labor collaborative report: To succeed, labor must be authentically inclusive...SPECIAL REPORT: Busy year by NLRB produces key rulings for workers. ALSO: Missouri workers step up campaign as right-to-work fight comes down to the wire...Trumka hopes Pope reiterates "'Thou shalt not' to an economy that kills"...Illinois residents, workers suffering from Rauner's budget standoff...Women's' groups hail Obama ban on contractors disciplining workers who discuss pay...A NAFTA impact: Your Oreo cookies, to be made in Mexico, not Chicago...School board stubbornness forces Seattle teachers to strike...Calif. Gov. Brown signs freight rail two-person crew bill...Lawmakers, AFL-CIO craft new legislation to crack down on labor law-breakers...Presidential politics I: Letter Carriers start endorsement process, face choice between two Dem friends...Presidential politics II: Clinton courts Carpenters leaders... Presidential politics III: Wisconsin's Walker wants to kill NLRB, Project Labor Agreements, federal worker representation...Labor lobbying upholds Missouri governor's right to work veto...News Analysis: Fallout from NLRB ruling shows typical GOP pattern. ALSO: Unionists lobby to restore, strengthen Voting Rights Act... 'They put WHAT in my food?' Communications Workers educate consumers on Trans-Pacific Partnership food safety threats...N.Y. Gov. Cuomo proposes $15 state minimum wage...FEATURE: You gotta be kidding: If it walks like a bribe, talks like a bribe and flies like a bribe, is it a bribe? ALSO: N.J. unions take battle over pension payments to the U.S. Supreme Court...CLUW launches women's health needs survey.

OCTOBER: From The Int'l. Labor Communications Association Convention In Raleigh: Panelists offer new ideas for organizing the South...Barber: Those who want to build union power in the South 'must take race seriously.' ALSO: DOL: Job fatalities rise in construction, oil and gas...Clinton adds four construction union endorsements...Letter Carriers, Postal Service work on new proposal to fund retiree health care...As another federal shutdown loomed, unions lobbied lawmakers to prevent it...UAW members reject FiatChrysler pact by almost 2-to-1 margin...Communications Workers, Teamsters reach tentative first pact for 15K American Airlines agents...Carwasheros, before meeting Pope Francis, talk of gains from unionizing...Federal mediator brings bargainers back to the table in Pantex strike...AFGE: DOD tries to trash its civilian workers' protections - again... LCLAA advocates 'strategic investment' in Latino organizing, workers' centers...National Education Association endorses Clinton, draws flak...Workers take pro-union message to Obama labor summit...Card check recognition key feature of Sanders labor law reform bill...Trumka: 'It's not just us' opposing controversial Trans-Pacific trade pact...Maritime unions fight yet another threat to Jones Act ships, jobs...Canadian unions cheer as voters toss out right wing Prime Minister Harper...Report: In most states, $15 an hour is not enough...UAW Fiat-Chrysler workers approve 4-year pact...New York catches Papa John's Pizza in rampant wage theft - again...An un-Merry Christmas lump of coal: Teamsters protest Safeway warehouse job cuts...Painters endorse Clinton...Survey results reveal working women's' health info needs...Teamsters carhaulers reject national pact...Laborers' O'Sullivan to Dems: Anti-Keystone stands alienate workers...AFSCME, Operating Engineers endorse Clinton...Unions: Budget pact avoids further hit on federal workers...Shuler: Woman workers 'need to make our voices heard'... Sanders addresses, marches with Verizon pickets...OPEIU: For first time, NLRB declares taxi drivers are 'employees,' can vote to unionize. SPECIAL REPORT: AFL-CIO questionnaires show Democratic presidential hopefuls largely agree on big issues, but differ in emphasis, details. ALSO: VA whistleblowers reveal continued management retaliation; Union backs legislation increasing their safeguards...New film promotes public workers' fight for rights...OSHA move to hold joint employers more responsible for safety violations angers GOP...Missouri home care union launches initiative petition campaign to improve wages for critical care attendants...House OKs U.S. oil exports bill, bounces right-wing try to gut defense maritime fleet... BLS: Job injuries, illnesses decline slightly in 2014...Academic study: 'Economic mobility thrives in areas where unions thrive'...Armed with backing from presidential hopeful Sanders, ATU members in Grand Rapids battle for future of transit system...Survey: Health care premiums continue to outpace inflation, wages...United Way HQs management agrees to neutrality and card check in organizing drives...FEATURE: You Gotta Be Kidding: Urban Outfitters to employees - 'Work for free'...AFGE surpasses 300,000 active members.

NOVEMBER: After first look at full TPP text, union leaders give pact thumbs down...Jobless rate falls to 5 percent in October, lowest level in years...New campaign exposes widespread abuses of poultry workers...Partisan House GOP panel majority OKs bill overturning NLRB joint-employer ruling, tosses pro-worker substitutes as 'non-germane'...Unions urge Obama to order federal contractors to disclose campaign contributions...Lawmakers ask DOL to probe states' cost-shifting in workers comp...Off-off-year election returns: Wins in Ohio, N.J., Colo., losses in Kent., Spokane...Labor Secretary Perez lauds building trades' apprenticeships, training...'It was just a job': Gateway Arch builders remember their contributions, 50 years later...Fight for 15 takes campaign to confrontation with GOP...Striking L.A. port truck drivers end walkout with city council win...Trumka kicks off fed's formal anti-TPP drive at town hall meeting in New Hampshire...Postal Workers back Sanders...Gerard warns lawmakers: Vote for TPP and we'll vote you out...Unions split on Obama Keystone rejection...Mass rallies, 1-day strike by fast food workers attract union and political support...Turncoat Mo. legislators accepted campaign funds from unions, then voted for RTW...Oregon AFL-CIO resolves to 'fight for change'...Right-wing Republicans attack construction workers' wages in Ohio, Wisconsin. SPECIAL REPORT: High court tackles four cases involving workers, unions. ALSO: Shuler: Labor to push women's economic agenda as part of Raise The Wage drive... Service Employees endorse Clinton; NNU slams her for opposing single-payer ...Teachers union leader Weingarten lauds new federal education aid bill framework...Dem presidential hopefuls agree on postal issues in Letter Carriers' questionnaire...Unite Here President Taylor warns Dem defenders of ACA: Dump 'Cadillac tax' or face problems at the polls...Teamsters rack up first contract win in Calif., vote on second, large first contract there ...Low-paid airport workers fast for 24 hours to highlight demand for $15 hourly wage, right to unionize.

DECEMBER: Laborers, plus North America's Building Trades, now back Clinton...Steelworkers pick up key backer of oil export ban: Obama...Lawmakers agree on 5-year highway-mass transit bill, but fiscal challenges loom...Panel, including Shuler, probes how unions could adjust to the 'gig economy'...BLS: Construction leads the way in Nov. job creation; Jobless rate stays at 5 percent...California OKs strong equal pay law...Prevailing wage repeal in Michigan: Here we go again...Unions to global summit: Don't trash workers as you tackle climate change...Report: Wal-Mart hired Lockheed-Martin, asked FBI to spy on activist workers...Mine Workers, safety and health group hail Blankenship conviction...Toledo Building Trades sign historic safety pact, bringing OSHA in before construction...WASHINGTON WINDOW: Forget the Fortune 500. Now there's the Gulfstream 20. OP-ED: Sam Pizzigati on helping Social Security recipients by curbing CEO pay. ALSO: AFGE endorses Clinton... Labor panel to Obama: TPP 'severely undermines' workers, jobs, consumers...African union leader sees similarities with U.S. South; Group discusses struggle against multi-nationals, exploitation...Think tank labor law rewrite plan features new category of 'independent workers'...Educators' unions laud new federal school law...CLUW president, dressed in camouflage gear, gives delegates 'marching orders' to combat foes' war on women ...Teamsters establish fund to aid families of San Bernardino victims...UAW breaks through with smaller unit of workers in VW Chattanooga plant...Now, Donald Trump will have to put his money where his mouth is, as Trump Las Vegas hotel workers vote to unionize. WASHINGTON WINDOW: On jobs, let's talk about quality.

Photo: Popular Resistance

Burn the TPP, not workers

Thu, 17 Dec 2015 12:44:00 +0000

Middle America is smoldering. For too long, average citizens worked harder and produced more, yet corporations cut pay and benefits, off-shored community-sustaining factories, killed family-supporting jobs and crushed opportunity.

Division and diversion

GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump stokes that fire by urging Americans to blame anyone but corporations and corporate honchos like himself. One-percenter Trump and his fellow GOP candidates exhort average Americans to hate and fear Muslims, Syrian refugees, Black Lives Matter activists and undocumented immigrants.

This is a divisive tactic. The intent is to split workers into small sub-groups so they lose strength in numbers.

And it's a diversionary tactic. The ungodly wealthy like Trump, who have taken for themselves all the economic gains from increased worker productivity, finger someone other than one-percenters as the culprit for middle-class wage stagnation and provoke workers to fight among themselves.

Division and diversion help the one percent capture government, securing policies that further enrich the rich, like trickle-down economics under which no benefits ever actually descend, bailouts for Wall Street but not Main Street and job-destroying trade deals like NAFTA and the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

In a real democracy, one where government serves the 99 percent, the smoldering in America would be piles of discarded TPP texts.

Labor Advisory Committee criticisms of TPP

Burning it was advised last week by the Labor Advisory Committee on the TPP, a group established by Congress that includes representatives of every major labor union and labor coalition in America, among them mine, the United Steelworkers (USW).

In a 120-page report, the committee detailed exactly how the proposed TPP would injure working Americans and foster the closing and off-shoring of vital American industry, such as steel, aluminum and vehicle manufacturing.

TPP negotiators should start over, the Labor Advisory Committee said. They should produce a deal that puts workers first, not corporations and the one percent.

Unlike labor groups, giant multinational corporations, especially those like Nike and Walmart that exploit slave-wage labor overseas, love the TPP proposal. They hype it using diversion. Look, the U.S. Coalition (of massive corporations) for the TPP says, here's a map showing how much each U.S. state exports to the 11 other Pacific Rim countries in the proposed deal.

It's classic hocus-pocus. What the map fails to show is how much each state imports from the 11 countries. And that's the problem.

Trade deficits kill jobs

When imports exceed exports, creating a trade deficit, Americans lose jobs. That's exactly what happened under NAFTA. That deal cost more than 845,000 U.S. workers their jobs as their factories closed or moved south of the border and consumers then bought goods manufactured in Mexico rather than in the United States.

The same thing happened after the United States agreed in 2001 to allow China into the World Trade Organization ["Its main function is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible."]. The resulting trade deficit eliminated or displaced 3.2 million American jobs.

Every time one of these trade deals is proposed, corporations eager to replace American factory workers with long-hour, low-wage foreign laborers promise exports will rise. And often they do. But imports rise much more. And as more stuff is shipped to the United States, American factories close. American workers lose their jobs. And the American middle class shrinks.

The Labor Advisory Committee urged TPP negotiators to include strong, enforceable measures in the deal to prevent this pattern from recurring. They didn't.

In fact, under the TPP, American workers would lose protections. For example, as it is now, the U.S. government can specify that tax dollars go to create jobs in the United States under the Buy America and Buy American programs. When the federal government builds a new highway or helps fund a sewage treatment plant, it has the right to specify that the steel and concrete be made by American workers in the United States.

The TPP would limit that. Under the TPP, American tax dollars spent on public projects could go to create jobs in Malaysia or Brunei. That means more American jobs lost. But look away, multinational corporations say. Don't think about those disappearing opportunities.

The TPP also would thrust middle-class Americans into a wage race to the bottom by pitting them against foreign workers paid pennies per hour and against child and forced laborers. The TPP would, for example, allow Vietnam to do absolutely nothing for five years about violations of workers' rights in certain areas while the country immediately receives the benefits of tariff cuts on its products exported to the United States. That would put American workers in competition with those in Vietnam earning an average of $150 a month.

But look away, stateless multinational corporations say. Don't think about the fact that, after inflation, the vast majority of American workers' wages have flat-lined or fallen since 1979, and the TPP would, clearly, worsen that terrible trend. Don't worry, multinational corporations say, the TPP would require nations to establish and enforce minimum wages. Don't think about the fact that the TPP fails to set any sort of standard, enabling a country to institute a minimum wage of 5 cents an hour. Or less.

The Labor Advisory Committee sought to protect American workers by asking the TPP negotiators to include strong measures to stop currency manipulation and to require a high percentage of a product to be manufactured within a TPP country for it to be exempt from tariffs when exported to the United States.

What the multinational corporations want

The negotiators did neither. That's no surprise since they were formally advised by 500 corporate lobbyists. Instead of increasing the percentage of a product that must be manufactured in a TPP country, the deal would lower it when compared to the standards in previous trade pacts.

Rather than penalizing currency manipulation, the TPP would do nothing more than evaluate the practice that countries like Japan use to artificially lower the price of their products while raising the price of American-made exports.

The multinational corporations that want to manufacture in low-wage, low-environmental-protection foreign countries say: Look, there's something about currency manipulation glommed onto the bottom of the TPP. It's not part of the main deal, doesn't include strong language and isn't enforceable.

But, look away. Check out that guy who speaks broken English standing on the street corner trying desperately to get work as a day laborer.

The Labor Advisory Committee wants average Americans to look directly at this bad trade scheme and the self-dealing corporations pushing it. The measure of trade success should be improving broadly shared prosperity, increasing family-supporting jobs and raising middle-class wages. Corporate profits should rise as well. But the first priority, in a democracy, should be people, not corporations.

The proposed TPP fails this test. Americans' anger should be directed where it's deserved. Not at Muslims or Hispanics. But at any politician who would vote to approve this proposal to further lower their wages, destroy their jobs and diminish their economic opportunity.

Steelworkers President Leo Gerard heads one of the nation's most politically active and largest industrial unions, the United Steelworkers (USW).

Photo: USW Twitter

Trump Vegas hotel files objections after workers vote to unionize

Thu, 17 Dec 2015 10:49:00 +0000

LAS VEGAS - The Trump International Hotel Las Vegas has filed objections to a vote held by their employees, 9 days after a majority of workers at the hotel have voted "YES" to be represented by the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and the Bartenders Union Local 165 of Unite Here.

The Trump Hotel Las Vegas is required by federal law to bargain with the union, even though they have filed objections, and the Culinary Union calls upon the company to bargain a fair contract immediately.

"We are not surprised that Trump Las Vegas management have filed objections to the outcome of a free and fair union representation election won by their workers who want a union," said Geoconda Arguello-Kline, Secretary-Treasurer of the Culinary Union. "Trump Hotel Las Vegas managers have been accused by the federal government of violating labor laws. They want to avoid hearing Donald Trump utter his trademark 'You're fired'."

"Mr. Trump has said repeatedly that he expects and insists on being treated fairly as he campaigns to be the next President of the United States of America," said Jeffrey Wise, a food server at the hotel, "I also want to be treated fairly - My coworkers and I participated in a democratic election process- just like the one Mr. Trump is preparing for right now."

"We voted yes to make our jobs good jobs with fair wages and job security," said Celia Vargas, a housekeeper at the property. "We won that vote, so our voices and votes should be respected."

Trump Las Vegas workers voted in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election on December 4 and 5, 2015 at their hotel. Over 500 employees of the hotel are in the union's bargaining unit and were eligible to vote. This victory for workers at the luxury non-gaming hotel co-owned by businessman Donald Trump and casino owner Phillip Ruffin, came nine months after workers at the Trump International Hotel Toronto voted to join Unite Here, and one week after the Trump Toronto workers ratified their first contract.

In June 2014, five Trump Las Vegas employees were unfairly suspended for exercising their legal right to wear a union button and organize their coworkers. After the Culinary Union filed unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB against the Trump Las Vegas, these workers were returned to work with back pay. In June 2015, the Culinary Union filed additional charges with the NLRB asserting that the Trump Las Vegas violated the federally protected rights of workers to participate in union activities. Some of the new charges include incidents of alleged physical assault, verbal abuse, intimidation, and threats by management.

In August 2015, the NLRB issued a complaint against Trump Las Vegas, alleging that Trump Las Vegas interfered with, restrained and coerced workers in the exercise of federally protected rights, including incidents of surveilling, interrogating, and threatening workers with reprisals, rules suppressing employee free speech, and on one occasion physically pushing workers in the parking lot. Among these allegations is also the case of a Latina mother of three who works at Trump Las Vegas and is pro-union. The NLRB alleges that Trump Las Vegas fired this union-supporting employee in order to discourage her co-workers from engaging in union activities. Trump Las Vegas admitted that its rules suppressing employee free speech were illegal and rescinded them.

Other non-casino hotels on the Las Vegas Strip that are union and have union benefits: Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas, Elara Hilton Grand Vacations, Hilton Grand Vacations Suites on the Las Vegas Strip, Hilton Grand Vacation Paradise, and Hilton Grand Vacations Club at the Flamingo.

Culinary Workers Local 226 and Bartenders Local 165, Nevada affiliates of Unite Here, represent over 57,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno, including at most of casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip. Unite Here represents 270,000 workers in gaming, hotel, and food service industries in North America.

Photo: UNITE HERE

Unionists pack Ohio statehouse to protest anti-worker bills

Wed, 16 Dec 2015 14:12:00 +0000

Bringing memories of the massive 2011 union/coalition mobilizations that defeated the GOP's anti-labor Senate Bill 5, hundreds of union members and supporters packed the Ohio statehouse this past week to protest introduction of a new "right-to-work" bill and an "unemployment reform" bill which would make Ohio the "worst state in the union for unemployed workers," according to Matt Smith, Ohio AFL-CIO Legislative Director.

"They tried to slip this one by us," stated Ohio UAW CAP Director, Sarah Laws. "They should've learned their lesson when they tried this before. This is unsafe for Ohio's workers. It is only about trying to drive working people's living standards down, just to enrich the wealthy. It is not just about unions. If they pass this it will drive all workers standards down, not only union members. Union contracts set the standard for everyone. We're not going to let them drive us down!"

IN 2011, Republican legislators passed a 'right-to-work' bill, directed toward Ohio's public workers, kicking off a gigantic mobilization of unionists and allies against it. After regular and huge, militant mobilizations, culminating in a march of thousands to present hundreds of thousands of signatures on recall petitions, that legislation was overwhelmingly reversed by voters in a recall election that year. Reverberations from the Senate Bill 5 fight echoed through the statehouse this past week, as chanting workers packed not only the hearing room, but three overflow rooms as well.

"Right-to-work' is just plain wrong," shouted Doug Stern, a teacher, AFT member, who came with a carload of friends from Cincinnati. "Everybody talks about the middle-class, but all these guys do is work to wipe out the middle-class. Everything is now going to the rich. They take from our children, seniors, disabled! We're here to say that 'Enough is enough!' It stops here!"

Clearly, those pushing the bill heard the voices also.

Ron Young, R-Chair House Labor Committee, sponsor and supporter of the bill, stated "If we can do anything, it will take a long time. There is a lingering reluctance to act because of what happened to Senate bill 5."

Another 'right-to-work' supporter, Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, acknowledged that the attacks on labor had strong public opposition. He volunteered that he "did not know" if the House would also take up this legislation. "We've only got about 9-10 sponsors," he stated. "We have to be cautious," he said. "We know what happened with Senate Bill 5. We'll just have to let the process work."

On the other side of the issue, Rep. Alicia Reese, D-Cincinnati, was greeted with wall-shaking cheers when she pointedly asked "Haven't you already tried this? Isn't this just Senate Bill 5, #2? Really, is this bill worth dividing a state that has already settled this issue at the ballot?"

Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo, joined in, stating that 'right-to-work' would be a disaster for Ohio. "All it is is a race to the bottom! It would make Ohio's citizens and children poorer."

The following day, the conservative, Republican Columbus newspaper, the Dispatch published an editorial, titled; "No Time for a New Fight," urging the GOP to withdraw the 'right-to-work' bill and avoid a confrontation with organized labor, its allies. This appears to reflect thinking of 'mainstream/corporate' Republicans in the state, who have coalesced around Ohio Governor Kasich's weak bid for the White House, and do not want another major battle with working folks hanging around his neck.

While the 'right-to-work' initiative appears, for the time being, to move to the back burner, forced there by labor's mobilization, another legislative attack on Ohio's working folks was also floated at this same hearing. HR 394, a major overhaul of the entire program of unemployment compensation in Ohio, was also introduced at the hearing.

If passed, HR 394 would:

Cut unemployment benefits to the lowest in the nation.

Require workers to work in three consecutive quarters to qualify for compensation, instead of the two now required.

Off-set any other income, should as Social Security, from compensation amounts. This would essentially disqualify retirees, partially disabled workers and many others from being eligible to receive unemployment comp at all.

Eliminate dependents of unemployed workers from the calculations for compensation amounts, replacing it with an extremely low 'all size fits all' qualification amount.

Require workers to have worked, consecutively, for 26 weeks to be eligible for compensation, up from the present 12 weeks that need not be consecutive.

The most punitive section allows employers to deny any laid off worker benefits if they determine, subjectively, that the worker had 'violated' any section of a company "employee handbook."

While the angry unionists and their supporters hammered the proposed 'right-to-work' bill, the GOP-corporate attack on worker's ability to receive unemployment comp was also the subject of their fury!

"These aren't just attacks on union workers and their families," said Cincinnati Boilermaker Tim Barker, "these are attacks on every working person, every disabled and retired person. These guys were sent here to represent us and all the do is attack regular folks and help their billionaire buddies!"

According to Dan Ramos, D-Lorain, while the corporate/GOP legislators have the votes in the Ohio Senate to pass these bills, they are extremely wary of provoking another major upsurge by Ohio's union workers and their supporters.

"We've already voted on attacking working families in Ohio, and those wanting to do so got their lunch handed to them! We don't want to, but if we have to we'll do it again."

"All these guys want to do is enrich the wealthy at the expense of regular working families that have already been hard hit," said Ramos . "Their agenda is to cut people's health care, make work unsafe and increase deaths on the job, increase fear and insecurity among regular people in order to enrich the wealthy."

Ramos asserted that the entire Democratic caucus was in opposition to both the anti-labor measures, and intended block them, if possible, at all levels.

HR 394 had also been pulled back by the end of the day, but is expected to reemerge early next year, according to numerous sources.

"These are vicious assaults on our already embattled working families, working and retired people in Ohio, by the Republican majority," stated Norm Wernet, President of Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans (ARA). "Their misplaced agenda is to try to balance budgets, further enrich the super wealthy, at the expense of the decent, working families of our state. This thing is DOA---'Dead-On-Arrival!' We've seen this before, their floating issues, then saying that 'we're just kidding,' in order to refloat them later. We're all here, and here with just a day's notice, to let these guys know that it is dead now, dead tomorrow and, Ohioans will oppose it, in force, whenever they try to bring them back up!"

Photo: Screen shot from video: Working People Rally in Columbus. Thousands of Ohio unionists joined together to rally against the Koch Bros.' agenda of keeping the economy out of balance for average Ohio families. Ohio AFL-CIO

Seattle Teamsters local to organize Uber, Lyft drivers after city council vote

Wed, 16 Dec 2015 12:13:00 +0000

SEATTLE (PAI) - Teamsters Local 117 in Seattle will step up its efforts to unionize Uber and Lyft drivers - who are already working with it on an organizing campaign - after the city council's unanimous vote to give those drivers workers' rights.

The ordinance, passed 8-0 on Dec. 14, says the drivers, whom the ride-sharing services call "independent contractors" are, in Seattle, have the right to organize.

Seattle's Uber and Lyft drivers are already joining Local 117's App-Based Drivers Association (ABDA) to promote their cause and their rights. And they packed the city council chambers when lawmakers considered the ordinance.

The Seattle ordinance is important by creating a road map for other cities and states to let their Uber, Lyft and taxi drivers organize and bargain, too.

It's also important due to growth of the "gig" or "on-demand" economy, where firms like Uber, Lyft and Airbnb treat their workers as "independent contractors" without labor law protection, or even unemployment insurance.

"This bill means a lot to us drivers," said Fasil Teka, an Uber driver and one of ABDA's 13-member elected leadership council. Driver Kimberly Mustafa added that Lyft previously named her "a platinum driver" but "deactivated" her - barred her from driving-after she helped the Teamsters organize the city council event.

Issues in Local 117's organizing of the Uber and Lyft drivers include such indiscriminate deactivation, a flawed rating system, and low pay.

Seattle's mayor plans to neither sign nor veto the ordinance. The two ride-sharing companies are lobbying the state legislature to ban such local reclassification of workers. They also may challenge Seattle's ordinance in court, as a violation of national labor law.

And Uber and Lyft are among the companies pushing through state legislative bans on all local labor ordinances - including ordinances like Seattle's - in Republican-run states such as North Carolina and Ohio.

Under U.S. labor law, independent contractors cannot organize and bargain, and the firms don't have to pay Social Security and Medicare withholding taxes on those workers, or cover them with workers' comp or unemployment insurance.

The Seattle ordinance sets up procedures where drivers first must vote on representation, then choose a "qualified driver representative" organization to speak for them.

The city has to evaluate and approve the group, assuring that it's a non-profit, experienced in bargaining. Then the city can order the firm to share driver lists and contact info with the rep before a vote. If the rep wins, the two sides must bargain, and the city can order binding arbitration if they can't agree.

The ordinance does not specify the rep must be a union, but the definition of what the rep can bargain about is virtually identical to what unions bargain on with companies.

"There is currently no effective mechanism for for-hire drivers to directly address working conditions collectively with the entity that hires, contracts with, or partners with them," the ordinance explains.

"Business models wherein companies control aspects of their drivers' work, but rely on the drivers being classified as independent contractors, render for-hire drivers exempt from minimum labor requirements that the city of Seattle has deemed in the interest of public health and welfare, and undermine Seattle's efforts to create opportunities for all workers in Seattle to earn a living wage," it adds.

"Collective bargaining in other industries has achieved public health and safety outcomes for the general public including, but not limited to: Job security provisions, scheduling predictability, job training, and methods of communicating health and safety information.

"Leveling the bargaining power between for-hire drivers and the entities that control many aspects of their working conditions will enable more stable working conditions and better ensure drivers can perform their services in a safe, reliable, stable, cost-effective, and economically viable manner, and thereby promote the welfare of the people who rely on safe and reliable for hire transportation to meet their transportation needs," the Seattle ordinance states.

"By giving us rights, this law will help all of the drivers and also help our communities," said Peter Kuel, an Uber driver and ABDA leadership council member. "Since I started driving for Uber, Uber has cut our pay without notice, terminated drivers without giving a reason, and blocked our efforts to improve our working conditions. We're looking for fairness and the ability to earn a living wage."

Photo: ABDA blog

CLUW convention delegates to use health info to empower union women

Wed, 16 Dec 2015 12:10:00 +0000

SACRAMENTO (PAI) - "The expression, 'Knowledge is power' - a guiding principle on which the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) was founded in 1974 - continues to lead CLUW today," coalition President Connie Leak says. "And CLUW over the years has extended that commitment to women's health."

To advance that goal, the convention's 500+ delegates renewed and increased the organization's commitment to provide union women with health information. Their decision, adopted at the CLUW convention in Sacramento last month, sent them home with knowledge about women's health for themselves their union sisters.

"CLUW's primary focus is on empowering women at work and in their unions. In recent years our leadership has broadened that commitment to include the health of union women, as we know that when women have access to quality, easy-to-understand and up-to-date health information, they live longer, are more productive and have better quality lives," Leak explains.

"It is also well known that women - often the chief medical health officers of their families - tend to neglect their own health," adding, "And union women are no different."

A plenary panel on Union Women and Health featured information on three specific issues: The Spread the Word about Heart Disease campaign, CLUW's recent women's health survey, and mental health in the workplace. Another panel covered job safety and health.

Kim Newlin, a cardiovascular nurse practitioner and clinical manager of Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehab at Sutter Roseville Medical Center, shared an all-too-common story about a physically active 37-year-old mother who felt jaw tightness when running over the last two years, a known warning sign of coronary artery disease (a blockage in the heart artery).

After visiting for chest pain, she was treated for gastrointestinal issues and sent home, only to return two days later with worse chest pain. Her lab tests indicated that she had had a heart attack and a 99 percent blockage in one of her main coronary arteries.

Newlin said knowing the signs and symptoms of coronary artery disease is every woman's responsibility both for herself and for her loved ones. She urged each person to be an educated advocate on the issue through resources like the Spread the Word website, which makes the point that heart disease is "not just a man's disease."

She also outlined the American Heart Association's "Life's Simple Seven" steps to achieving ideal wellness can reduce incidence of cancer by 20 percent, chronic kidney disease by 62 percent), pneumonia by 43 percent and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by 49 percent. She added, however, "do not let the thought of having to do seven things overwhelm you" and suggested "starting with one or two."

Eve Dryer, board chair of HealthyWomen-which co-sponsored, with CLUW, the women's health survey that ran earlier in 2015 -- said the two will inaugurate a special women's health resource on CLUW's website in early 2016. The resource will respond to results from the 2,035 union women who answered the survey.

Kimberly Mayer, associate director of the California Institute for Behavioral Health Solutions, said mental health is also a key issue for working women. That's because one in five U.S. adults experiences, one of every 10 young people "experience a period of major depression" and "one in 25 Americans lives with a serious mental illness. And suicide is the 10^th leading cause of death in the U.S., taking more than 41,000 lives yearly.

Mayer noted workers often cannot leave mental health problems at home when a going to work. She observed the stigma attached to having a psychiatric disorder means that people are reluctant to seek treatment. She also told the audience that it is not unusual to see that a fellow worker might have an mental health issue and although "you want to help, you might not be sure how..." Mayer distributed national resources union members can use to help themselves and others.

CLUW New Jersey President Cecelia Gilligan Leto, a project coordinator for the New Jersey Work Environment Council, led the occupational safety and health workshop. She stressed the importance of women being educated on federal and state laws that govern workplace safety.

Participants learned the same groups attacking a woman's right to choose also look to roll back funding for workplace safety and health enforcement, claiming it is too expensive for employers to follow safety standards.

Leto stressed the economic impact of a woman being injured on the job is "devastating to the entire family unit." She added that "women who are single parents, struggling to provide basic needs for themselves and their children, can be one workplace injury away from poverty and being left with no one to care for, or play with their children."

Amy Everitt and Rebecca Griffin of NARAL Pro-Choice California updated delegates on the fight to preserve reproductive rights - and how the war on that and on family benefits attacks working women. Their "take away" was that there is no such thing as economic security without reproductive freedom.

Nationwide, "we are seeing the impacts of decreased access to abortion and diminishing resources for reproductive health services - which leads to less money spent on creating conditions for economic opportunity and support for families struggling to get by," they said. Participants at their workshop put together action plans to make their unions aware of the connection between economic security and reproductive freedom.

Convention delegates also adopted a number of resolutions related to women's health, including "Clean Drinking Water is a Human Right," "Spread the Word on Coronary Artery Disease," "Stand with Planned Parenthood," and "Let's Get Real Family Values."

Photo: 2015 CLUW convention, CLUW website.

Painters local makes beloved carousel look new again

Tue, 15 Dec 2015 17:21:00 +0000

SANDUSKY, Ohio (PAI) -- As the calliope music rings out from the carousel, visitors enter Cedar Point and view the Sandusky amusement park's oldest attraction. Riders of all ages climb aboard the storied ride with its bright lights, happy music, and brightly painted animals to enjoy a slow spin.

And when it comes time to paint this beloved and treasured attraction, Cedar Point trusts only the union members from Painters and Tapers Local 788. With the utmost of care, they work on the carousel, using new age products and old world techniques in order to provide the wow-factor for everyone who passes by.

The carousel is not the only ride that the Painters polish, burnish and paint to a high sheen of delight. The men and women of Local 788 also paint a number of buildings and rides at the popular amusement park, often called, "The Roller Coaster Capital of the World."

Based in Sandusky, the local services 12 counties in northwest Ohio, and is a part of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6. Its members regularly work a wide variety of different venues, including homes, commercial, industrial and the aforementioned amusement park, the second-oldest in the U.S.

Often times, their work involves turning something that doesn't look very nice into something that appears new again. Their training lets the 75 active members and 21 retirees of the 113-year-old local provide the highest level of service and meet the challenges required in the most demanding circumstances and environments.

While doing their work quickly is important, the Painters and Tapers of Local 788 know that above all else, quality of work always trumps quantity - especially when some people think they do comparable work because they have painted a room or two in their house.

Painters, it seems, get asked a lot of questions about their trade once people realize what they do for a living. Questions can stem from the proper techniques for using a brush to trim the edges of a wall or door, to the right way to paint a room, or the most often asked topic - their opinions on colors.

Drywall finishing and painting involve physical work, where tradesmen and tradeswomen are required to climb and lift all day. The work also requires steady hands, an eye for detail and a certain touch in order to do ornate work. Besides the physical demands, members must be focused and able to quickly think on the fly because problem solving is a big part of what they do.

In the end, the goal is simple - take something that does not look good, apply their skill and training, and produce a product that looks new. It's what drives the men and women of Local 788 and gives them satisfaction knowing they have done a job well.

Matt Jaworski is a writer for Labor Citizen, the oldest U.S. labor newspaper, a monthly, full-color tabloid which is printed at the union press of The Repository in Canton, Ohio..

Photo: Cedar Point.

Today in history: Philip and Jack Foner are born

Mon, 14 Dec 2015 12:59:00 +0000

Two of the four Foner brothers who were leaders in the American labor movement and progressive academic circles were born on December 14 in 1910. Philip Foner wrote and edited more than 110 books, many involving groundbreaking research: on American slavery, on black history, on women and social activists as agents of change in America, and on the labor movement. These books included the ten-volume History of the Labor Movement in the United States, published between 1947 and 1994 [International Publishers, NY], the five-volume The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, and The Black Panthers Speak, an outstanding source book. His twin brother Jack, also an historian, established the first Black Studies program at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, and wrote Blacks in the Military in American History (1974) and other volumes about black history and the civil rights and labor movements.

The twins' brothers were Moe and Henry Foner. Moe was an activist in 1199, then known as the Drug and Hospital Workers Union, who founded the Bread & Roses Cultural Program, and Henry the president of the Fur and Leather Workers Union. Henry, the sole survivor of this highly creative quartet, is a member of the Jewish Currents editorial board.

Both Philip and Jack were fired from teaching posts in the City University of New York in 1941 during a purge by the New York State Legislature's Rapp-Coudert Committee, which also cost Moe his administrative post at City College and Henry his job as a substitute teacher in New York high schools. Forty years later, the university apologized for the firings. (See longtime Jewish Currents Morris U. Schappes' eloquent account, "Forty Years Later - But Not Too Late," at the Jewish Currents magazine's Sid Resnick Archives under the topic heading, "McCarthyism.")

Their "very name evokes the progressive movements of the past half-century.... The Foners have persisted - through repression, Depression, hot, cold, and cultural wars - in the service of a shared social commitment.... They could not be silenced or bought out," says The Nation.

The original article in Jewdayo, a daily historical feature of Jewish Currents magazine can be found here.

Photo: Philip, Moe, Jack and Henry Foner. Jewish Currents

Canada’s Yussuff: Unions need to be in forefront on climate change

Thu, 10 Dec 2015 15:33:00 +0000

PARIS - While negotiations continue in Paris at the COP21 climate talks, our correspondent Van Badham takes her trusty microphone around the conference venue to interview Hassan Yussuff, the first person of colour to lead the Canadian Labour Congress, and who was elected to the role in May 2014.

Yussuff tells Van that the challenge for Canadian workers adapting to climate change is to be prepared to find new ways of doing business: from producing power to digital innovation. He says trade unions must be at the forefront of the effort to save the planet.

Here's Hassan Yussuff with Van from COP21 in Paris.

Republished with permission from Labour Herald. Van Badham is a writer, activist and weekly columnist for Guardian Australia. You can follow her on Twitter via @vanbadham. She is covering the COP21 Paris climate talks for the Labour Herald.

Photo: Union activists and leaders participate at the Paris UN Conference on Climate Change, called COP21, Dec. 4. Hassan Yussuff is second from right in the front row. (courtesy of Van Badham/Labour Herald)

African union leader sees similarities with U.S. South

Thu, 10 Dec 2015 11:26:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Terrible wages and working conditions for non-union workers in the U.S. South are eerily similar to those in their home nations in sub-Saharan Africa, one African union leader says.

In a "South-South Connection" discussion sponsored by the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center on Dec. 9, the six African union leaders described working conditions in North Carolina, South Carolina and especially Mississippi that they found appalling, and familiar.

One, Isaac Grant of the Liberia Labour Congress, painted the similar picture between sub-Saharan Africa and the U.S. South.

After the leaders discussed their visits, Grant cited human rights abuses in Africa - workers toiling 16-18 hours daily then not getting paid and use of child labor - and then made the connections.

"We saw very appalling conditions. People are living as slaves and children are used as laborers" in the U.S. South, "and we feel that is wrong," he declared.

"The U.S. is preaching" in sub-Saharan Africa "against child labor and for human rights. But we see this here and the labor movement and the American people need to do something about it. Workers deserve better," Grant said.

But while Grant criticized conditions in the U.S. South - the anti-union anti-worker, least-unionized section of the U.S. - all six also described their own union movements' struggles and, in South Africa and Liberia, disarray.

In South Africa, said Edward DeKlerk of the United National Trade Union, the dominant Confederation of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) recently split into warring camps on tribal and geographic lines. That harms labor's defense against multinationals' worker exploitation, he explained. DeKlerk was the most outspoken of the group against those firms.

"We have to join together to fight this capitalist scourge that is killing the labor movement, and the governments that are supporting them" in Africa and the U.S., he declared. "We've got a double war on our hands."

And the Liberian labor movement "broke apart on political lines" during that nation's recently concluded "15 year-to-16-year civil war," said David Sackoh of the Liberian group.

The six - South Africa's DeKlerk, Grant and Sackoh of the Liberia Labour Congress, Bonface Kavuvi of the Kenya Union of Allied Food and Commercial Workers, Philip Kwoba Alfred of the Central Organization of Trade Unions in, Nairobi, Kenya, and Nasir Muhammed, of the Nigeria Union of Teachers in the northern city of Abuja - followed their 10-day tour of the U.S. South with meetings in D.C. with the Solidarity Center, at the U.S. State Department, with the Congressional Black Caucus and at the White House.

In Africa, external conditions, ranging from multinationals' exploitation in Liberia and South Africa to lack of enforcement of pro-worker provisions of the Kenyan constitution, to kidnappings of schoolchildren and destruction of schools by Boko Haram jihadists in northern Nigeria, all affect workers, the six said.

DeKlerk was the most outspoken about the multinationals. But multinationals aren't the only problem African workers and unions faced. In the official economy, youth unemployment is 40 percent or more in a continent where the majority of people are under age 35. And the official economy is often a small share of the total economy in Africa, they added.

Kavuvi's tale was typical. "We changed our constitution in 2010 to include labor laws - the right to strike, the right to collective bargaining and the right to organize - in it," he said.

"But, like in the U.S. South, there are rampant violations," said Kavuvi, who is also General Secretary (president) of Kenya's union federation. Things got so bad for Kenyan Sunday school teachers, part of the nation's teachers union, that the entire union had to strike last month, Kavuvi said. Freedom of association and of the press are violated, too, he added.

Sackoh, the Liberian Labour Congress Secretary-General, said that, delayed by the war, Liberia has only recently adopted international labor standards as its basic labor law. And with current elected President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf retiring, enforcement is up in the air. "Sirleaf said that will be the most difficult thing to do," he added.

And in Liberian gold and platinum mining, children are trafficked, held seven to 10 years to work, not sent to school and "if they die, they just bury them in the forest," he admitted.

But the leaders said there have been some hopeful signs in sub-Saharan Africa:

The Kenyan federation "made a strategic decision" to organize domestic workers - home workers, gardeners and the like - starting in Nairobi, the capital, Kwoba Alfred said. Most have joined. Many now earn less than the country's basic minimum wage, "so the union is taking their cases to court" to raise their pay. That's even though dues raised from those workers are very low.
The biggest rubber plantation owner in Liberia, Firestone, under pressure from the International Labor Rights Forum, the Solidarity Center - and, though Sackoh did not say so, the Steelworkers - abolished child labor on the plantation and bettered pay and working conditions. Firestone Tire workers are USW members and Liberian rubber is in those tires. "But we have seven other big (rubber) plantations to deal with," Sackoh admitted.
Nigeria's new government is building temporary schools for students rescued from Boko Haram and has undertaken a huge campaign against the jihadists, Muhammed said.

Photo: A child exploited for labor in West Africa. | Harmony Project

Las Vegas Trump hotel workers vote to unionize

Thu, 10 Dec 2015 10:38:00 +0000

LAS VEGAS (PAI) - Now billionaire businessman Donald Trump, who often proclaims in his GOP presidential nomination campaign that he wants to "make America great again!" will have to put his money where his mouth is.

That's because his own Las Vegas Trump hotel workers, seeking to better themselves, voted to join Culinary Workers Local 226, Unite Here's largest local, and Bartenders Local 165, also of Unite Here.

The union did not release voting tallies after the Dec. 5 count, but said an absolute majority of the Trump hotel's 500 workers voted to unionize

The workers "want respect, dignity, and the Las Vegas union standard," said Geoconda Arguello-Kline, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 226. "Trump Las Vegas should recognize the workers' vote immediately and sit down with us to negotiate a contract as soon as possible."

The Trump hotel's drive drew extra notice in the last few months because owner Donald Trump leads in polls for the Republican presidential nomination - and because his campaign, playing on resentments by people who feel left behind - proclaims as its goal to "Make America Great Again!"

That led Unite Here, earlier this year, to boost its drive by telling workers that in his own hotel, Trump was not living up to his own slogan. Their organizing drew support from all three Democratic presidential contenders: Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley.

The union also challenged Trump to override the anti-worker views of one of his sons, Eric, an executive in his father's enterprises. Eric Trump had predicted in the Las Vegas Sun that the union would lose. There's been no response, yet, from Donald Trump.

"I'm so happy that our voices were heard and votes counted!" said Carmen Llarull, a guest room attendant, told Unite Here. "My coworkers and I look forward to negotiating a fair contract and making our lives better."

"I'm proud to work at this 5-star hotel and am even prouder that we have joined the union," added food server Alma Zamarin. "My coworkers and I need fair wages, good benefits, and job security at the Trump Las Vegas, just like workers at other non-gaming properties on the Las Vegas Strip."

Photo: TripAdvisor

Today in history: Blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo is born

Wed, 09 Dec 2015 15:48:00 +0000

Writer Dalton Trumbo was born on this day 110 years ago in 1905 in Colorado. His anti-war novel Johnny Got His Gun won an early National Book Award, for Most Original Book of 1939. He was a member of the Communist Party USA from 1943 until 1948.

As one of the Hollywood Ten, he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947 during the committee's investigation of Communist influences in the motion picture industry. In 1950, Trumbo served eleven months in prison for contempt of Congress, in the federal penitentiary in Ashland, Ky.

Trumbo won two Academy Awards while blacklisted. The first, for the 1953 romantic comedy Roman Holiday, was originally given to a front writer; only in 2011 was Trumbo given full credit for his work on the screenplay. The second, for The Brave One, was awarded to "Robert Rich," Trumbo's pseudonym.

Blacklisting effectively ended in 1960 when it lost credibility. Trumbo was publicly given credit for two blockbuster films: Otto Preminger made public that Trumbo wrote the screenplay for the smash hit Exodus, and Kirk Douglas publicly announced that Trumbo was the screenwriter of Spartacus.Pres. John F. Kennedy crossed American Legion picketers to see the film. Trumbo died in 1976. The biopic Trumbo is playing in theaters now.

"For a Convict's Wife" appeared in Mainstream, July 1959.

...Each man owes his country
At least a little time in jail,
So it cannot be a matter of surprise
That I arrive at last before these gates
And daily close upon my brothers...

There is something strange in this cell
The air in this place turns agitated.
The foundation walls carry distant tremors
And we are suddenly engulfed in sounds.

Do you feel them, my dear?
Do you hear this enormous tumult?
Did you hear that great shout from the throat of Asia?
Can you hear the howled obscenities of the last slaver
Riveting handcuffs and judicial decrees
That will never fit the clean black fist of Africa?
Do you hear the uneasy murmur of the Americas saying

Is this what you meant?
Were these the promises?
Can you build a jail that big?

Lift your clear eyes from this place, my dear:
Can you see them there,
moving in light above the great horizon's arch,
All the lovely generations,
Bathed in the dew of morning,
fresh with the touch of kisses,
Proud in brotherhood and sisterhood,
Free at last of all but each other,
And singing?
Can you see them, the people of earth, as they work?...

For a moment we were frightened
For an instant we stood alone.
For a time the darkness descended
And perhaps we were afraid.

But here in this warm and friendly light,
Among these hearty peoples of our own,
In this kaleidoscope of color and of tongues,
We stand together as always we have stood,
your gentle hand in mine, and mine in yours.

And being now together while apart,
Never again shall we be separate.
And a year will make no difference,
And a thousand years will make no difference,
And never seeing each other again will make no difference,
And dying will make no difference.

For as friends and lovers and equals
We have sealed our treaty against the past:
We have drunk wild sacramental wine
And our children rise from the earth like flowers
Lifting their faces for tomorrow's sun.

From Poets of Today: A New American Anthology, ed. by Walter Lowenfels (New York: International Publishers, 1964). Additional information from Wikipedia.

Photo: Colorado screenwriter and novelist Dalton Trumbo with Wife Cleo at House Un-American Activities Committee hearings, 1947. German poet and Marxist Bertolt Brecht is visible in the background. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons

Unions and allies stage sit-in at Paris climate talks

Wed, 09 Dec 2015 15:06:00 +0000

Unions and allies are staging a sit-in at COP 21 following the release of the Draft Paris Outcome.

Trade unions and social movement allies have been pushing hard to have their concerns reflected in the operational articles of the agreement, but at this time these concerns are part of a preamble that "takes into account," "recognizes" or "notes" these fundamental concerns.

The ITUC delegation's main goal at COP 21 is to have "the imperatives of a just transition of the workforce and the creation of decent work and quality jobs in accordance with nationally defined development priorities" situated in Article 2, paragraph 2, and thus a central part of agreement.

The ITUC is concerned that the new draft leaves all the key issues unresolved; it lacks an ambitious long term goal, a solid review mechanism, and solid financial commitments to and beyond 2020.

The protest urged ministers to go back to the negotiating table.

Watch video footage of the sit-in HERE.

Photo: MediaMatters/COP 21

Today in labor history: The American Federation of Labor is founded

Tue, 08 Dec 2015 17:50:00 +0000

The American Federation of Labor, a national federation of labor unions in the United States, was founded at a convention in Columbus, Ohio, on December 8 in 1886. The original constituent craft unions of the AFL were disaffected from the Knights of Labor (K of L), a national labor association.

Samuel Gompers of the Cigar Makers' International Union (CMIU), was elected president of the AFL at its founding convention and was reelected every year except one until his death in 1924. The AFL remained the largest union grouping in the U.S., even after the 1935 creation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) by unions that left the AFL over its opposition to industrial unionism. In 1955, the AFL merged with the CIO to form the AFL-CIO, a federation which remains in place to this day as the longest lasting and most influential labor federation in the United States.

The AFL emerged out of a dispute with the K of L, whose leadership solicited locals of various craft unions to withdraw from their International organizations and to affiliate with the K of L directly. This would have taken funds from the various unions and enriched the K of L. One of the organizations embroiled in this controversy was the CMIU, which faced competition from a rival "Progressive Cigarmakers' Union," organized by members suspended or expelled by the CMIU.The two cigar unions vied with one another in signing contracts with various cigar manufacturers, who were at this same time combining themselves into manufacturers' associations of their own.

In January 1886, the Cigar Manufacturers' Association of New York City attempted to flex its muscle by announcing a 20 percent wage cut in factories around the city. The CMIU refused to accept the cut and 6000 of its members in 19 factories were locked out by the owners. A strike lasting four weeks ensued. Just when it appeared that the strike might be won, the K of L offered to settle with the 19 factories at a lower wage scale than that proposed by the CMIU, so long as only the Progressive Cigarmakers' Union was employed.

The leadership of the CMIU was enraged, and started planning an alliance of craft unions outside the K of L as a means of defending themselves against this and similar incursions. The CMIU, the Granite Cutters, the Iron Molders, and the Carpenters invited all national trade unions to a conference in Philadelphia on May 18, stating that an element of the K of L was doing "malicious work" and causing "incalculable mischief by arousing antagonisms and dissensions in the labor movement."

The Philadelphia conference drew the attendance of 20 delegates and letters of approval from 12 other unions.The K of L was charged with conspiring with anti-union bosses to provide labor at below going union rates and with making use of individuals who had crossed picket lines or defaulted on payment of union dues. The body authored a "treaty" to be presented to the forthcoming May 24, 1886, K of L convention, which demanded that the K of L cease attempting to organize members of International Unions into the K of L without permission of the unions involved, and that K of L organizers violating this provision should suffer immediate suspension. K of L Grand Master Workman, Terence V. Powderly, refused to seriously entertain the proposed "treaty."

Convinced that no accommodation with the K of L was possible, the labor organizations that issued the call for the Philadelphia conference issued a new call for a convention to be held December 8, 1886 in Columbus, Ohio, in order to construct "an American federation of alliance of all national and international trade unions." Forty-two delegates representing 13 national unions and various other local labor organizations responded to the call, agreeing to form an American Federation of Labor.

Very quickly, local labor bodies started endorsing the new AFL, and entities within the K of L departed the organization. Factional warfare broke out in the K of L, with Powderly blaming the organization's travails on "radicals" in its ranks, while those opposing him called for an end to what they perceived as "autocratic leadership."

The AFL showed slow but incremental growth in its first years, only cracking the 250,000-member mark in 1892. From the outset it concentrated on wages and working conditions of its membership as its almost sole focus. Participation in partisan politics was discouraged as inherently divisive, and the AFL constitution prevented the admission of political parties as affiliates.

The AFL approach relegated larger societal goals to its allies in the political sphere. The Federation favored pursuit of workers' immediate demands rather than challenging property rights of owners, and took a pragmatic view of politics that favored tactical support for particular politicians over formation of a labor party. The AFL leadership believed the expansion of the capitalist system was seen as the path to betterment of labor, an orientation making it possible for the AFL to present itself as what one historian has called "the conservative alternative to working class radicalism."

By 1935, as the Great Depression once again revealed some of the inherent weaknesses and contradictions in the capitalist system, the AFL craft union model came under challenge from the upstart CIO.

Adapted from Wikipedia and other sources.

Photo: Samuel Gompers in the office of the American Federation of Labor, 1887. Photo published in American Federation of Labor: History, Encyclopedia, Reference Book. Published by the American Federation of Labor, 1919. Published in USA prior to 1923, public domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Despite vicious opposition, Chattanooga workers are unionizing

Mon, 07 Dec 2015 15:29:00 +0000

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - In the face of harsh corporation opposition, skilled workers at the Volkswagen plant here have voted overwhelmingly for the United Auto Workers (UAW) to become their collective bargaining representative.

This is just the first step toward unionization of the whole plant.

The corporation fought the workers by hiring a union-busting law firm, trying to prevent the vote from taking place, and running a scare campaign that included a corporation-backed bogus union.

Nevertheless, the 152 workers voted by 71 percent for UAW Local 42 in a two-day election Thursday and Friday. They maintain robots and other machines at the plant.

Under Volkswagen's new Community Organization Engagement policy, UAW Local 42 leaders have been representing workers at meetings with the Chattanooga plant's human resource department and at the Volkswagen Chattanooga executive committee.

However, when the group of skilled workers exercised their right to call for an election for collective bargaining rights, the corporation objected. It filed an appeal with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to block a vote.

The NLRB turned down the corporation's objection to the workers holding a vote and they chose collective bargaining.

Last year an NLRB election was held plant-wide. Tennessee's right wing elected officials, including Gov. Bill Haslam and U.S. Senator Bob Corker, issued a series of anti-union tirades as did the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and outfits such as Americans for Tax Reform. As a result, workers lost an opportunity to have collective bargaining protection.

Pro-union workers continued to organize, however, and formed Local 42.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen hired a legal firm that specializes in undermining workers' rights to form a union.

Moreover, the corporation recognized an organization called the American Council of Employees (ACE), which was formed by those who opposed unionization in the plant-wide election.

ACE joined the corporation in trying to block the vote by skilled workers. When that failed, its representatives tried to convince workers that unionization "at this time" might do great harm to Volkswagen because the corporation was recently caught rigging some of their cars to falsify results on pollution emission tests.

Workers didn't buy this.

Workers at all Volkswagen plants around the world, except the one located in Chattanooga, have had union collective bargaining rights and protections for many years.

Wolfgang Lemb, who sits on the board of the powerful German trade union IG Metall, wrote to the Chattanooga workers "We fully support your intention to negotiate with the corporation about your working conditions and about work place related topics."

Lemb noted that collective-bargaining negotiations conducted in a "constructive and cooperative manner" could benefit both employees and the corporation.

Mike Cantrell, Local 42 president, said, "a key objective for our local union always has been moving toward collective bargaining for the purpose of reaching a multi-year contract between Volkswagen and employees in Chattanooga.

"We have said from the beginning," Cantrell continued, that there are multiple paths to reach collective bargaining. We believe these paths will give all of us a voice at Volkswagen in due time."

This past September, workers at Commercial Vehicle Group, Inc. in Piedmont, Ala., voted 89 to 45 for UAW to become their collective bargaining agent.

Photo: UAW Local 42 President Mike Cantrell and UAW Region 8 Director Ray Curry speak to the media.