People Before Profit blog

Labor tackles the problem of union members voting for Trump

Wed, 02 Mar 2016 14:29:00 +0000

SAN DIEGO (PAI) - Why do working-class people vote for Donald Trump?

In the wake of the real estate billionaire's virtual sweep of the latest GOP presidential vote - his 47 percent win, outdoing the next two finishers combined - in the Nevada caucuses, the AFL-CIO is trying to tackle the problem.

To start, union leaders here this weekend were presented with a report that analyzes the reasons white working-class workers back a billionaire who really has none of their interests at heart. Those workers, once a key part of organized labor, are disillusioned with the economy, the government and politicians and many are falling hard for Trump.

The report labor leaders at the AFL-CIO executive council meeting here this week were given, titled "Fighting Right-Wing Populism," was prepared by Working America, the AFL-CIO's affiliate that reaches out to working people who agree with many of labor's economic positions but can't or won't join unions. The report focuses on white voters who are seen as susceptible to the Trump message.

Working Americas' success at reaching these voters, particularly in the suburbs of western Pennsylvania and Ohio, was key to winning as many as half of them to vote for President Obama. Many of those voters now, however, are turning to Trump.

What Working America found, in a 1,689-voter survey of the white working class in suburbs between Cleveland and Pittsburgh is disturbing. The canvassers spent between five and 15 minutes conducting "front porch focus groups" with each voter.

While 53 percent of voters surveyed in January had yet to decide on a presidential hopeful of either party, Trump had a lead among those who already made up their minds. The blowhard billionaire got 18 percent, leading the 16 percent for Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders combined and 13 percent for other GOP presidential hopefuls.

These are the same voters who went 48.4 percent for President Obama in 2012, the report adds. But they feel Obama, like other politicians, has failed them.

"The working class constituents with whom we talk every night are fearful about their economic circumstances and prospects, angry about politicians who fail to address their concerns and skeptical about the role of government," Working America's report to the AFL-CIO executive council said.

"Candidates and organizations" - unnamed - "are exploiting these anxieties with their right-wing rhetoric that combines populism and bigotry. This targeted strategy has our core constituency directly in its crosshairs," it warns.

"Worry is more prevalent than bigotry on voter choice" and Trump's personality trumps his issue stands, the report says.

The way to trump Trump, the report advocates, is extensive, time-consuming and expensive: individual one-on-one conversations with workers and their families. Some one-third of Trump supporters - ideological conservatives - will not be swayed.

But the other two-thirds of Trump backers are a combination of "fed-up voters" who are concerned with particular issues but who back Trump "because he says what he thinks" and voters who form their impressions of the business mogul from the extensive TV coverage of him, his rallies and his statements.

With Trump apparently on his way to the Republican presidential nomination, Working America recommends the best way to trump Trump is to talk about his real stands, at length. The report says that when this was done with individual voters who knew the Working America canvassers with whom they were speaking voters began to reconsider their positions. The long and short of that is that it will take a massive ground operation of the type only labor and its allies can mount to defeat right wing populism in 2016.

"The disparity between what he says and what he actually does gives voters pause and opened the way to more nuanced conversations" with them about issues ranging from worker rights to immigration to foreign policy, the report says. And as an example of how little voters know or care about Trump on the issues, it reports only four percent list immigration - a big Trump cause - as their top issue this year.

"Fed-up and low-information voters were especially open to new information. For these voters, facts about Trump's business practices" - including bankruptcies of four of his projects - "implications of his policy positions and questions about the effect his shoot-from-the-hip approach might have on international issues were effective in changing the conversation from simplest initial responses to a more-thoughtful framework."

Many white working-class voters, the Working America canvassers reported, used their extensive conversations "to dig deeper into their own views" and to eventually change their minds about the big mogul.

While recommending that Working America in particular and organized labor in general continue such extensive discussions with the white working class voters Trump targets, the report did not say how much staff and resources should be put into the effort. That was a topic the council discussed behind closed doors, and staffers declined to put numbers on its plans.

Working America Director Karen Nussbaum had to leave the session early and could not be reached for immediate comment.

The report warned that since Trump announced his candidacy last June, "he has opened up a vein of right-wing rhetoric that has appealed to many Republicans and to middle-of-the-road white working-class Democrats as well." The dangers of this, the report said, extend beyond the Trump candidacy. "Whether or not Trump becomes the GOP nominee, his candidacy is legitimizing a hard-right agenda among working-class voters, similar to the re-emergence of right-wing political parties throughout Europe."

During the five weeks of the survey, from Dec. 18, 2015 to January 22, 2016 canvassers reached the 1,689 voters in households with incomes of $75,000 or less in working-class neighborhoods outside of Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

The report ended on a note of hope, however, saying the white working- class voters could trust the Working America canvassers as honest purveyors of factual information. They're "hungry for an independent voice to deliver information and with whom they can discuss issues" Trump raises, the report says. Working America can be that voice, it advocates.

"Many who said Trump appealed to them 'because he speaks his mind' didn't see a way forward other than through a firestorm of his rhetoric. For some, however, our engagement - a combination of validation and information - gave them pause. The longer we spoke with people, the more opportunity there was to talk issues, not personalities."

And it views that task as absolutely necessary.

"Without a countervailing pull of authentic engagement about issues and a progressive vision for the future of the country, the appeal of right wing rhetoric" - including that coming from Trump - "will continue," the report warns.

Photo: Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Ohio. | Paul Vernon/AP

Labor movement stepping up its fight against racism

Wed, 02 Mar 2016 10:40:00 +0000

SAN DIEGO - Carmen Berkley, director of the AFL-CIO's Civil, Human and Women's Rights Department, told People's World Wednesday that unions all over the country are seeking assistance on how they can improve race relations both inside and outside their local labor movements. "We're making history now because unions around the country are asking us how they can improve race relations in the labor movement," said Berkley as she discussed the AFL-CIO's launching of its commission on race relations.

Set up in the wake of the killing of unarmed African American teenager, Trayvon Martin, the commission has held hearings at labor councils and federations in five cities and will do so in a sixth before the commission officially goes out of existence March 4 after a session in Birmingham, Ala.

Berkley spoke extensively with People's World on the measures the federation is taking to put the labor movement in the forefront of the fight against racism.

Led by Steelworkers Vice President Fred Redmond, the panel spearheading the commission has held hearings and assisted unions in Boston, Mass., St. Louis, Mo, Minneapolis-St.Paul, Minn., Oakland, Calif., and Cleveland, Ohio. After the hearings in Birmingham the commission plans to produce a report that will offer recommendations for change going forward. "The spirit of what we are doing can't and won't end here," Berkley said. "We're excited about how so many white union leaders and activists now are really committed to do what they can to improve race relations in the labor movement and make the changes that have to be made." (story continues after video)

One of the commission's stated goals is to increase unity by encouraging local unions to develop plans for discussion of issues like race, gender identity, ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation and by having them develop reasonable timetables for the promotion of people of color and women into leadership roles. "If we are to succeed as a movement, the full range of working peoples' voices must be heard in the internal processes of our movement," read a commission statement issued at the time of its founding. "To be able to stand together we have to understand where all of us are coming from."

Berkley noted that one of the initial measures of the commission's success is reflected in the political program of the federation. Specifically, she mentioned recognition by the AFL-CIO of the need for labor to focus on African-American women who are playing a leading role in the fight to win more rights for all workers. "African American women are leading fights that have helped the labor movement organize and they have led in the efforts that resulted in our being able to do our work," Berkley said.

In addition, a study by the U.S. Department of Labor found a significant number of black women are participating in the labor force and are nearly twice as likely to be the sole breadwinner for their families in comparison to women of other races. Seventy-five percent of black women with children under the age of 18 are in the labor force in comparison to 75 percent of women of other races. Yet, this demographic still faces a significant wage gap and are more likely to work in lower paid occupations such as fast food, retail and the service industry.

Along with this, she said emerging movements, such as Black Lives Matter, Fight for $15, and North Carolina's Forward Together Moral Movement are being led by black women.

Berkley said the commission has successfully urged putting more people of color into leadership positions throughout the labor movement. Some of the changes she talked about have reached into the highest levels of union leadership. Bob Martinez, for example is now the president of the International Association of Machinists. Lee Saunders, an African American,is now president of AFSME, which with more than 2 million members, is the largest union in the AFL-CIO. " None of this is to diminish the leadership of white workers," Berkley said, "but actually a way to strengthen the ability of the leadership to reflect the diversity of their membership."

People are taking "brave steps," she said to begin discussions about race with white workers. She commended top ranking union officials, including leaders of the American Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Government Employees for facilitating discussions of race among their membership. Berkley also praised AFL-CIO President Trumka for giving the commission the space to "grow legs" and progress.

The program coordinator for the Civil, Human and Women's Rights Department of the AFL-CIO, Tiffany Dena Loftin, echoed Berkley's words on the initiative local leadership was taking to continue the discussion on race among their members. "I'm getting tons of emails," Loftin said "from local unions that are really on board and want us to help them do programs in cities where the commission did not meet."

Berkley noted that the commission had opened a door on how to organize and support black workers and other workers of color. She explained that having open dialogue on racial tensions was an "enormous step forward."

Yet, Berkley explained that in order to move forward there had to be a "commitment from white leadership" to be a part of these discussions and give space for their white members to process these conversations as well and make changes. Berkley said that unity among white workers and workers of color will be key to union growth. "Racial divisions have prevented us from growing," she remarked. Berkley explained that another key to growth was the push for criminal justice reform. She noted that there needed to be pathways created for getting the poor and incarcerated, who are often people of color, into union jobs.

Although the commission is scheduled to officially end in early March of this year, Berkley stated that the report coming out of the findings of the tour was only the first step. "We can't just have a meeting, leave, and think we've solved years of problems," Berkley said. "Our commissioners are not interested in some glossy report [about race] that will end up sitting on a shelf somewhere... There has to be a culture shift."

Photo: Participant at the Race and Justice Commission meeting in Oakland, CA. | Video screenshot

Unions talk tactics on battling impact of Friedrichs court case

Wed, 24 Feb 2016 16:11:00 +0000

SAN DIEGO - Four big unions with tens of thousands of members who are public workers - AFSCME, the Service Employees and the nation's two teachers unions - are trading information and tips on how to combat the impact of a looming anti-union ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court.

And even though the recent death of Justice Antonin Scalia may postpone the court's decision on Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association, the four will keep working jointly on public relations and legal strategy, adds Paul Booth, top assistant to AFSCME President Lee Saunders.

In a brief interview with Press Associates Union News Service during the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting in San Diego, Booth said the four unions put together the demonstrations in front of the Court on Jan. 11, the day it heard oral arguments on the case.

The AFL-CIO also participated in that joint effort, he said. And AFSCME and the Alliance for Justice jointly produced a film about Friedrichs. Both in the film and at the court, unionists told personal stories about how unions help them, their students or their clients.

The case is a big topic at the AFL-CIO's closed-door meeting. More than one-third of public workers, including teachers, Fire Fighters and state and local workers, are unionized, and their numbers are just under half of all union members nationwide.

Eliminating funds from those members - the stated objective of the right wing sponsors of the Friedrichs case - would drastically hurt the nation's union movement and its ability to defend all workers, union and non-union alike. The right-wingers' real objective is to completely de-fund, and thus kill, the nation's unions.

The Friedrichs case, pushed by nine dissident California teachers funded and represented by the anti-worker anti-union National Right to Work Committee's legal arm, challenges the right of any union representing public workers to collect either dues or "agency fees" - lesser amounts from represented workers who don't want to be union members.

The RTW crew and the nine claim that collecting any money, even for basic things such as contract negotiations and grievance handling, violates their 1^st Amendment free speech rights because it forces dissident workers to subsidize "political" speech they disagree with.

Unions respond that the non-members, called "agency fee payers," should at least pay for basic services they get. Letting them get services without paying for them - the stated, but not ultimate, aim of the business-funded RTW Committee - would make millions of workers "free riders."

Booth said the four unions talk about sharing work in "re-organizing" members to prevent the defection of masses of potential "free riders," but that each is working on its own internal organizing plan. They're not drafting a joint organizing plan to present to all unions, in both the AFL-CIO and Change To Win, that have public worker members.

"But there's a lots of candor and a lot of mutual trust. There's a widespread recognition that we're all in this together," he added.

On Jan. 11, the justices appeared to be leaning, 5-4 on partisan party lines, to vote for Friedrichs and the RTW committee, which would have overturned an almost 40-year-old precedent saying unions could charge "agency fee payers" for the basic services.

But Scalia was one of the five. His death leaves the status of the case up in the air. The remaining eight justices could tie 4-4, thus affirming the lower court's rulings for the Teachers Association and other unions, which, with California, argued against Friedrichs. Or the justices could vote to hear the case all over again when a new ninth justice is seated.

Photo: Jan.11 NEA Members at the US Supreme Court for oral arguments in Friedrichs case. Image by Patrick G. Ryan. NEA Public Relations.

While violating worker rights, Trump takes Las Vegas

Wed, 24 Feb 2016 14:45:00 +0000

LAS VEGAS - Last night, participants in the Nevada Republican caucuses bought Donald Trump's claim he can "negotiate" away all of America's problems. Yet he refuses to negotiate with his own employees at the 64-story Trump International hotel even though the National Labor Relations Board has ordered him to do so.

It isn't that Trump voters don't know he's violating the rights of his employees. The workers, who voted to join the Culinary Workers Union last December, have been demonstrating regularly.

The Culinary Workers Local 226, an affiliates of UNITE HERE, is Nevada's largest union with over 57,000 members here and in Reno. The union has collective bargaining contracts with most of the casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and none have lost profits because of the agreements.

However, Trump, a billionaire many times over, has been fighting the decision by his employees to unionize. A National Labor Relations Board hearing officer last week ruled that Trump's objections were unfounded and that his company must begin negotiating a first contract with the workers' union.

"We're fighting for better treatment, for dignity, for better health insurance, retirement and job security," Maria Mendoza, a 51-year-old housekeeper at Trump's hotel told Susan Milligan, a reporter for US News and World Report.

Asked what she thought of a potential President Trump, Milligan reports that "the Mexican-born Mendoza shook her head with a rueful laugh, then said she'd rather talk about worker rights than politics."

Participants in the Republican caucuses, however, ignored Trump's violation of worker rights and gave him a double-digit victory over his nearest opponent in the presidential race, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. As of late last night, Trump had received 42 percent of the vote and Rubio 25 percent. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas came in third with 21 percent.

Cruz, who has been campaigning as a born-again evangelical Christian, lost the evangelical Christian vote to Trump for the second time. Last week, in the South Carolina primary, evangelicals also went for Trump, even though he's twice divorced and has a life style few would equate with being a good Christian.

In a recent article, Sarah Posner explained in the Washington Post "why Donald Trump's glitzy style is attracting evangelical voters."

Posner says that not all evangelicals believe the same things. Those attracted to Trump have faith in the "prosperity gospel," which is, according to Posner, "a uniquely American contribution to the evolution of Christianity in the modern age, [which teaches] that God wants believers to be rich.

"It's also called the health and wealth gospel: its adherents believe that God blesses the faithful with great wealth, keeps their health robust and cures the faithful of every malady. ...

"If you're poor or if you're sick, that's a sign of a lack of faith. Or in Trump's parlance, you're a loser."

In other words, Trump's supporters consider him to be a type of televangelist.

"Trump's style is ... a marker of how prosperity theology has pervaded political culture," Posner concludes.

Evidentially, those supporting Trump because they believe his wealth is proof that God favors him do not care how he accumulates that wealth.

For example, they do not take into consideration the fact that Trump is trying to make even more profits by blocking his employees from exercising the same rights and having the same benefits as most other workers have in Las Vegas.

Photo: Culinary workers with Local 226 picket Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. | Culinary Workers Facebook page

Unions pulling support from pro-TPP Democratic lawmakers

Wed, 24 Feb 2016 11:46:00 +0000

SAN DIEGO - One of the many things union leaders discussed here Tuesday at a closed session of the AFL-CIO's executive council was a decision to pull labor support from Democratic lawmakers who double-cross labor on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) international trade agreement.

"It's a question of, 'do you have a Democrat who votes like a Republican or a Republican who votes like a Republican," retired International Association of Machinists President Tom Buffenbarger told the People's World during a break in the session yesterday.

Union leaders reportedly discussed how lawmakers from coast to coast are already feeling the heat for voting the wrong way on trade. At least three unions--the Communications Workers, the Painters and the Machinists--said they have already totally cut support for the errant Dems who voted for passage of presidential fast track authority, paving the way for congressional consideration of what labor considers the job-killing TPP.

At least one such Democrat, Rep. Scott Peters of California, told Politico last week that his punishment has already been upwards of $200,000 fewer dollars in his campaign coffers and far fewer ground troops in his campaign. "It's painful," he said.

With lawmakers like Peters, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), and Rep. Annie Bear (D - Calif.), unions are punishing people who said they would back labor and vote against fast track but later switched. In other cases, including those of Rep. Gerry Connolly and Rep. Dan Beyer in northern Virginia, unions are punishing even Democrats who say they will back TPP despite having otherwise 85 percent pro-labor voting records.

Dan Duncan, president of the northern Virginia Central Labor Council, told the People's World that the anger of his local unions about lawmakers who vote the wrong way on trade is so strong that unions will no longer give assistance to these Democrats, even if it means sitting out those local elections in Virginia's northern suburbs.

Buffenbarger, however, said "the proper way to do this" is not to sit out elections but "to primary them." This means backing another candidate to challenge the errant lawmakers in the primary election.

He was quick to add that there was also talk of assisting people who have backed the labor movement and noted that this was why unions are supporting Maryland Rep. Donna Edwards in her campaign for the U.S. Senate. "She was with us on trade even without having to be asked to support us," he said "so we will be behind her 100 percent."

Duncan noted that in all the political discussions at the AFL-CIO meeting yesterday it was issues, rather than candidates, that were stressed. He said this was particularly true when it came to discussions about the presidential contest between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. "When anybody started commenting on any of the two presidential candidates Rich (Trumka, the AFL-CIO's president) would pull the mic," cutting off the speaker, Duncan said.

The federation announced last week that it was holding off on a presidential endorsement at this time.

Photo: Flush the TPP Facebook page

Taxi drivers of the back 40

Tue, 23 Feb 2016 13:43:00 +0000

At the St. Louis airport, the Back 40 isn't part of a ranch. It's the nickname taxi drivers give to a big parking lot just up the road. There they wait for the call to go pick up a fare at the terminal. Spotless white vans sit bumper to bumper in long rows, while the cabbies mill around and talk, or play chess in a small shelter. Waiting can get a little boring. It wasn't hard to get four of them to talk about the ups and downs of making a living in a cab.

"Most of us are immigrants from Africa - Ethiopia, Nigeria and Somalia," says Joshua Osho. "Some Russians too."

"A lot of Ethiopians drive taxis, because that's our first chance to work when we get here," adds Malaku Tamir. "You can't go to school when you're as old as many of us are when we come. And you must earn something right away for your kids and family. The easy way is to drive a taxi."

When Tamir began at the airport 19 years ago, everyone worked for six companies. "Then the county opened the business and we organized the service and got permits. The old owners couldn't get any drivers and they left," he recalls. "Now more than 80% of the cabs are owned by drivers like me."

It was hard at the beginning, and the drivers had to get bank loans to buy their vans, or tap the resources of their families. Almost all say they're driving for their kids. Tamir has four, one in college and three more getting ready, so he has to come up with the money soon.

Mohammed Hussein has eight children, the largest family on the lot, and his hopes for them are high. "I want them to go to school. I don't want them to drive a taxi," he declares. "I want them to be in perfect shape, with a better life and a better education." He laughs. "But kids are very expensive to have in this country."

To support them, he drives 15-16 hours a day sometimes, more than most. Tamir drives 10 hours, five and a half days a week. He says that's about average. (story continues after slideshow)

All the drivers have a story about why they came to the U.S. Rufus Jewel left Nigeria at 37. "I dropped out of college because there we have no student loans," he remembers. "If you don't have any family to come up with your college fees there's no way you can keep going." He hopes his children will do what he couldn't, and go to college - even if the family has to get loans to help them.

Tamir came because of the civil war in Ethiopia. "Most educated Ethiopians are now living outside the country," he says. "There are a lot everywhere. If you go to DC, you see highly educated people driving taxis."

Hussein's experience leaving Mogadishu, Somalia, was the worst. "When the civil war started some of my family were massacred," he recounts in a somber voice. "I survived and left. This turned out to be my American Dream - driving a taxi."

Having worked so hard to get to St. Louis, most don't plan to go back. Hussein is different, though. His ambition is to be president of the country he left behind. It's not actually such a far-fetched notion. Several of Somalia's highest government officials in recent years, including a prime minister, spent many years living in the U.S. before returning.

"I want to take my kids back and show them the beautiful country I came from," he says wistfully. "I hope my kids will be engineers or ministers back home. I will take them educated kids and they will fix my country. They are Americans, and they aren't going to live there forever. They will come back here. I hope they'll have a double home - here and there. But the connection to Somalia will always exist for my family. Forever. We aren't going to abandon Africa."

Joshua Osho has fewer dreams about Africa. He's more concerned with finding a way to get a better life for drivers here. He already put his kids through college working in a cab, and now he and others have organized the Taxi Council at the airport. In the council cabbies advocate for each other, and make sure everyone does their job well. "The council makes sure we are operating within the requirements of the MTC and the airport," he explains. "We have an excellent relationship with the regulatory authorities."

He calls Americans "very loving and accommodating. They accept us for who we are." This is perhaps a surprising attitude in the era of Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin, but perceptions of racism and discrimination by Black immigrants from Africa can be different from those of African Americans.

Hussein also talks about his customers warmly, and recalls an incident in which he stopped a passenger from overpaying him, and then got a $250 check in the mail from him a few days later. "We are humble servants of the public," he emphasizes. "We are loyal to our customers. We will deliver them safely to their homes."

Jewel, however, worries that this job is becoming less sustainable for families. "It has been decent way to make a living for those of us who come from a Third World country," he observes. "When I started sixteen years ago the number of on-call cabs was limited at the airport. But now, with all this competition from limos and shuttles, it's very challenging. Now we've started feeling the effect of Uber. We're beginning to notice that we're getting fewer fares every day." Like taxi drivers in many airports, he says it's not a level playing field - that he and his friends have to pay fees to the airport, and obey regulations, that his competition doesn't.

Jewel wonders whether the public really understands his situation. "As a foreigner, I am now a good American," he argues. "We're doing the little we can do to help the economy. We go to the market and buy food with the income we make from fares. So they shouldn't make our American dream more difficult to achieve."

Hussein feels the same insecurity. "We are all struggling, but sometimes it feels threatening, like it's not going to be a permanent job," he worries. But looking beyond the situation of the drivers themselves, he also thinks about the images he sees in the newspaper, of people fleeing Africa, and now Syria.

Hussein hopes that cities like St. Louis will continue to welcome strangers, as it welcomed him and his family. "I hope people realize that refugees, when they come to this country, start at zero, scratch, from the bottom. I hope our voice will reach whoever can help us."

Photo: David Bacon

Menards arbitration practices come under NLRB scrutiny

Tue, 23 Feb 2016 10:15:00 +0000

For the first time ever, a federal agency has been granted authority to investigate whether the binding arbitration policy that the Menards home improvement chain forces on its employees is legal. A U.S. district court ruled February 18 that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has the power to determine if the corporation's requirement that employees resolve disputes with the company through binding arbitration is overly broad and restricts their right to remedies under the National Labor Relations Act.

Arbitration agreements have been an ongoing issue for courts involving other corporations, but this is the first time Menards has found itself under the gun. The action by Magistrate Judge Donald Cherry for the U.S. District Court in Indiana - if you read underneath the confusing legal back-and-forth - leaves it to the NLRB to investigate and determine whether the mandatory arbitration agreement Menards requires its employees to sign steps into "protected concerted activities" deemed constitutional by the NLRB.

Rather amazingly, given its decades-long record in resisting unions, Menards - owned by billionaire John Menards, a major contributor to right-wing candidates - has never before had to face such NLRB scrutiny. The case stems from an Unfair Labor Practices (ULP) charge filed against it in NLRB Region 18, which covers Minnesota, Wisconsin and surrounding states where Menards operates 280 stores. The case was launched by Seth Goldstein, a senior business representative for OPEIU Local 153.

The ULP case stemmed from revelations that Menards had instituted an anti-union financial penalty practice when it hired managers. The company made managerial candidates accept in their employment handbook that they would automatically be docked 60 percent of their pay if a union was ever formed under their jurisdiction.

That original NLRB complaint concerning Menards' practices was quickly amended and expanded into an investigation of other possible NLRB violations. Menards' contract language for all its employees - managers or otherwise - then came under closer scrutiny as more and more documents and case studies flooded in. And that is where the current case concerning arbitration agreements originated.

In order to be hired, Menards requires all potential employees to consent to very specific contract language concerning their rights in the case of any potential future disputes with the employer. Employees must agree to submit all disputes to binding arbitration with the private American Arbitration Association, rather than pursue other legal remedies allowed under federal labor codes. (The practice of private arbitration has come under growing legal scrutiny, with some arguing that it speeds resolution of disputes and others feeling it tilts the playing field to the corporation being pursued.)

The specifics of this case involve a former Menards clerk, Janet Payne, who believes that the arbitration condition forced upon her violated her rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and Indiana state law. As a result of Judge Cherry's decision, Payne's complaint will now go back to the NLRB, which has added further charges and claims made by other Menards employees.

The animus of Menards toward unions is well-documented, as is the muscle of its corporate legal teams. Menards' pay scale, reportedly under $10 an hour for many workers, has become an issue in many communities and in several letters to the editor. Goldstein, the Manhattan-based OPEIU representative, is heavily pushing the letter campaign and calling on other Menards employees who feel injured by company practices to come forward.

He is troubled by how many cities and towns around the Midwest are giving taxpayer subsidies to Menards stores in their communities without realizing it is a private company with yearly revenues of more than $8 billion, according to Forbes. Or of how it pays its workers so little that many are forced to rely on Medicaid, food stamps, and other public subsistence to survive.

"It's a lousy use of taxpayer dollars," said Goldstein. "I'm trying to spread that message to towns that give government money to Menards." He is reaching out to store employees and communities in the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Indiana.

The NLRB, for its part, says it is conducting a full-scale investigation into the complaints against the company. Several additional areas of legal concern have so far emerged from the inquiry into arbitration practices.

There is the aforementioned threat of pay cuts for managers who fail to stop unionization at their stores. Menards claims it no longer insists managers agree to this clause, but it also said there was no expiration date for those who signed it before 2016. Lawyers contacted for this article say that such a clause is simply too much of a temptation for managers to stray into criminal behavior in order to protect their own wages.

There is also the issue of the huge potential consequences of overreaching arbitration forms which all Menards workers have been forced to sign. If word gets out to Menards workers that the company may have overstated what it can actually impose on them in terms of fines or forced arbitration, the dams of caution holding back a potential flood of complaints could be broken.

Any NLRB investigation will take months. But Goldstein and the lawyers now actively involved with the complaint ask other employees potentially impacted by these policies to contact them. They intend to keep building a portfolio of complaints to add to the case brought by OPEIU Local 153.

Photo: Menards store

Some 23 unions announce support for Clinton

Mon, 22 Feb 2016 15:51:00 +0000

SAN DIEGO - Although the AFL-CIO will not be endorsing a presidential candidate at its executive council meeting here this week 23 member unions announced this morning that they were backing former Secretary of State Clinton in her bid for the Democratic nomination.

"Secretary Clinton has proven herself as a fighter and champion working people and their families need in the White House to restore that opportunity," the unions said in a joint statement.

"With the Supreme Court nomination looming and critical cases on workers rights, voting rights, the environment, women's health, immigration and others hanging in the balance, the labor movement will support the candidate whose vision and plans for the country can face withering scrutiny of a general election campaign and carry us to victory on November," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the unions backing Clinton.

"Secretary Clinton has detailed, progressive plans to create good jobs, advance workers rights to a fair wage, a union and collective bargaining; rebuild our economy and our infrastructure; expand access to educational opportunity; advance racial and gender equality; reign in Wall Street; fix our broken immigration system; improve and expand access to health care; keep America safe from our enemies; invest in good jobs in the energy sector; combat climate change; and tear down barriers that keep Americans from achieving their dreams," the joint statement read.

The unions backing Clinton made it clear in their statement, however, that because of the high stakes in this election the labor movement will unite behind one candidate in November. "There is no doubt." the statement read, "that working people will come together as one for victory in this election. The stakes are too high."

The joint statement was signed by unions including AFSCME, the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Federation of Teachers, the International Alliance of Theatrical Employees, the Ironworkers, the International Association of Machinists, the International Longshoremens' Association, the Bricklayers, the Operating Engineers, the Painters, the Laborers and the Building Trades Department.

Photo: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a rally in Las Vegas, held by the Culinary Union to support a union drive at the Trump Hotel. | John Locher/AP

Nurses union says for them it’s Sanders all the way

Mon, 22 Feb 2016 15:26:00 +0000

SAN DIEGO - A day before the official opening here of the 2016 winter meeting of the AFL-CIO's executive council, RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of the National Nurses Union, told the Peoples World that for her union, for now at least, it's "Bernie or Bust."

Although she didn't rule out switching to Clinton if Sanders loses the nomination, she said, "Bernie is so much labor's candidate and is so much loved by the nurses that I don't want to think about that possibility. Nurses see and work with people when they are their most vulnerable so Hillary's position on single payer health insurance is a real problem for them."

Sanders himself, of course, has thought beyond the primaries and has repeatedly stressed the importance of unity in the fight to defeat the Republicans in November.

DeMoro described with great enthusiasm the Bernie buses that have been going around the country since early January with the slogan 'The Most Trusted Profession Trusts Bernie' emblazoned on them.

NNU Co-President Deborah Burger, RN, has also released a statement on the union's website saying, "Bernie Sanders best represents nurses' values of caring, compassion and community," and DeMoro continues to echo that statement here in San Diego.

Clinton made a serious strategic error in not supporting single payer health insurance, DeMoro said because "at least 29 million people have no insurance and would be left to fend for themselves." No one should be allowed to call themselves a Democrat if they are against the effort for single payer healthcare, she said. "Politicians need to pay a price when they betray humanitarian standards."

Although the AFL-CIO will be holding off on an official presidential endorsement, DeMoro says the majority of the rank and file members are for Sanders, and that she viewed the wait to officially endorse as a positive for the Sanders campaign.

"There's a passion for Bernie," she noted, citing the results of a recent survey by the nurses union- conducted three times for accuracy- that showed a majority support for Sanders. Despite the recent conversations around the elections of how women may be more partial to Clinton in hopes of electing the first woman president in hopes of electing the first woman president, DeMoro stated that her majority female member union simply "wants to care for their patients, and aren't corrupted by the political process."

DeMoro said that if Sanders gets the nomination the country would be able to finally have an "authentic debate" on the issues. She proclaimed, "We want someone who will fight for us... Bernie is one hundred percent labor."

Photo: #BernieBus for National Nurses United

Labor leaders say unions will unite behind one candidate in 2016

Sun, 21 Feb 2016 16:08:00 +0000

SAN DIEGO - Labor leaders arriving here for this week's executive council meeting of the 12 million-member AFL-CIO are declaring that unions will unite this year behind one candidate in the 2016 presidential elections. Those now backing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will work enthusiastically for Sen. Bernie Sanders if he wins the nomination and those now backing Sanders will do the same for Clinton, they say.

The federation is holding off on an endorsement at this time while some of its unions work for Clinton and others for Sanders. Many unions have yet to endorse a candidate.

"The decision not to endorse at this time should not be interpreted as a sign that we will not be united in a major effort to prevent the election of any of the Republican candidates," the federation's executive vice president, Tefere Gebre, told the Peoples World. "We always stick together when it comes to serving the needs of working people and we will do it again this year. Disagreements among us are even less this year than they sometimes have been in the past."

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is one of the major unions that is backing Clinton and has been turning out support for her in the recent caucuses and primaries. "I expect Hillary to win the nomination," Lee Saunders, the union's president, told the Peoples World "but there is no question that we would back Sanders if he won the nomination. It is unthinkable that our union could ever consider backing one of the Republicans."

The decision by the federation not to endorse does not mean the elections will not be a major topic at this week's meeting of the executive council. Election results from yesterday's caucuses in Nevada won by Clinton and the Republican primary in South Carolina won by businessman Donald Trump were the topic of conversation throughout the hallways and the lobbies of the Hilton Hotel today where the council will convene tomorrow.

In a statement February 17 Richard Trumka, the federation's president, said the AFL-CIO will follow its constitutional process which calls for unions representing two thirds of the federation's membership to endorse before the federation itself can even consider an endorsement.

"Everyone has a stake in the upcoming election," Trumka said, taking particular aim at GOP frontrunner Donald Trump.

"Trump says he will build a wall. He says wages are too high. He says its ok to beat up protesters at his rallies and to ban people on the basis of their religion. He is dividing people."

Trumka said, "If we really want America to be great we have to have a big conversation. If Donald Trump really wants to talk to working people he should be telling us how he is going to raise wages, how jobs are going to be created and how college is to be made affordable."

Trumka said that unions are going to hold all candidates this election cycle accountable to the federation's raising wages agenda. "We are going to elevate that agenda even more during the elections," he said.

Photo: Hillary Clinton (left), Bernie Sanders (right) at a recent debate. | AP

Justice Dept. to prosecutors: Tackle job safety crimes, other abuses

Fri, 19 Feb 2016 14:22:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - In a move to put some teeth into federal occupational safety and health law, the Obama Administration Department of Justice (DOJ) has told the nation's federal prosecutors to jointly tackle workplace safety and health crimes at the same time they prosecute other anti-worker abuses - particularly environmental crimes - at those same companies.

The point, top DOJ officials say, is to make violations of job safety and health more costly to errant companies, hopefully deterring the firms from breaking the law in the first place.

The Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the DOJ's environmental crimes section worked out the details of the joint probes and prosecutions late last year. That DOJ section is also cross-training OSHA inspectors to spot other crimes. The new joint prosecution program started just after the new year began.

In her memo for U.S. attorneys, Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates summarized the job safety and health law enforcement problem, which workers, unions and their allies have complained about for years.

"The Occupational Safety and Health Act provides criminal sanctions for three types of conduct affecting worker safety," Yates said. But those sanctions are "a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of no more than $10,000 and imprisonment of no more than six months.

"Perhaps because these penalties have never been increased" since the Occupational Safety and Health Act began in 1970, "there are only a handful of prosecutions each year - three in 2013," Yates added.

"Prosecutors can make enforcement meaningful by charging other serious offenses that often occur in conjunction with Occupational Safety and Health Act violations," Yates told the nation's 93 federal prosecutors and their offices.

Some of the crimes to which prosecutors could link corporate job safety and health act violations include obstruction of justice, making false statements, witness tampering, conspiracy and environmental crimes. Convictions in such cases carry hefty fines and 5- to 20-year prison terms, Yates said.

"These felony provisions provide additional important tools to deter and punish workplace safety crimes," she added.

Besides job safety crimes that companies commit under OSHA, the new program also covers company criminal conduct under the Mine Safety and Health Act, the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Act, and the Atomic Energy Act.

To make the new program more effective in prosecuting companies that break job safety laws, the DOJ is taking job safety enforcement out of its criminal fraud section and transferring it to the environmental crimes section.

Yates also told the U.S. attorneys to expect the Labor Department to appoint a designated Criminal Coordinator to work with them, and urged them to appoint one lead attorney in each of their offices to oversee such coordinated job safety crime-environmental crime cases.

Photo: OSHA. | AP

NLRB judge issues split decision in big Walmart case

Fri, 19 Feb 2016 13:08:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - A National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge issued a split decision in a big, notable case involving the monster anti-worker retailer Walmart.

On the plus side, ALJ Jeffrey Carter ordered the firm to rehire 14 individual workers it illegally fired for standing up for their rights in 2013, and rescind discipline against 41 more.

He ordered the 14 reinstated with net back pay.

But that was all. Carter limited the reach of his ruling.

He decided their job actions, part of OURWalmart's nationwide campaign of 1one-day strikes in 2012 and its "Ride for Respect," which saw members of the workers' group descend on the firm's Arkansas headquarters during its annual meeting the following spring, affected only 30 of Walmart's 4,300 U.S. stores.

So in his 137-page ruling in January, Carter ordered standard NLRB notices posted at those 30 stores. The notices say Walmart admits it broke labor law against OURWalmart members and promises not to do it again. Carter did not order Walmart to tell workers and managers at other U.S. stores about the ruling. And labor law bans fines on Walmart.

The case involved OURWalmart's initial actions, including 1-day strikes, in 2012 and its meeting with company executives the following year. OURWalmart, aided-but not controlled by-the United Food and Commercial Workers, launched its campaign to put public pressure on the monster retailer to improve wages, hours and working conditions at the stores.

After the one-day strikes, and despite prior company statements, it fired the 14 workers and disciplined the others. Both moves broke labor law, Carter found. Walmart illegally threatened the workers for planning to take "protected concerted activity," the strike, Carter said. It also illegally "issued disciplinary personal discussions" to workers "because they participated in labor activity on their own time," he added.

Walmart officials illegally read the workers "talking points that they could reasonably construe" as a work rule with an illegal ban on strikes, Carter added. And it illegally "coached" - disciplined - the workers for engaging in the protected strike, he explained. OURWalmart, which has since reorganized into another form, had no comment on Carter's decision.

Photo: AP

Unions demand that Senate consider Obama’s Supreme Court nominee

Fri, 19 Feb 2016 12:53:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - The Amalgamated Transit Union and the AFL-CIO are demanding the Republican-run U.S. Senate do its duty and hold confirmation hearings and a vote on whomever President Obama nominates to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Whether the solons will listen is debatable. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kent., says Obama should leave the decision on who will replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia to the next president. But Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, chair of the Judiciary Committee - which will hold the hearings - is less dogmatic. He'll wait to see who Obama nominates.

Union leaders said McConnell can't pick and choose which presidential election, including this year's, determines when to fill a Supreme Court vacancy.

"Sen. McConnell and the GOP presidential candidates are politicizing Scalia's passing and disgracing our Constitution," said ATU President Larry Hanley. "They have it backwards. The American people took a presidential vote in 2012 and McConnell and his cohorts can't pick which election counts" when it comes to having a president pick High Court nominees.

"Working people will not tolerate their partisan attempt to nullify President Obama's constitutional right to appoint a successor to Justice Scalia. We will not let that stand. We call on the Senate to fulfill their constitutional responsibility and give Obama's nominee a fair and timely hearing," Hanley concluded.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka agreed. He called McConnell's plan "appalling."

He added "the Supreme Court is not a game and the Constitution is not a toy.

"Republican leaders in and out of the Senate must act as U.S. leaders, regardless of party affiliation. The American people do not want them to politicize such a vital responsibility. They want them to carry out their constitutional duty to their country," he said.

Scalia, 79, died the weekend of Valentine's Day. As the intellectual leader of the court's conservative bloc, his death leaves the fate of a number of key cases up in the air.

One is Friedrichs vs. California Teachers Association, which justices heard in January. The case, brought by the virulently anti-worker anti-union right wing National Right to Work Committee - and nine dissident teachers it recruited - challenges public worker unions' right to collect "agency fees" from non-members they represent. It's the top labor case this year.

If the right wing wins Friedrichs, overturning more than 40 years of law, all state and local government bodies, from school boards on up, would become "right to work" fiefdoms and "free riders" - workers who take union services without paying for them - would proliferate. The court then seemed to be weighted 5-4 for Friedrichs, with Scalia in the five.

Besides the Scalia vacancy, Obama or his successor could nominate, and send to the Senate, other Supreme Court hopefuls. Three other justices are at least 77 years old.

Photo: Susan Walsh/AP

AFL-CIO holding off on presidential endorsement

Thu, 18 Feb 2016 14:52:00 +0000

SAN DIEGO - The AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor federation, has decided that it will not endorse a candidate for the presidency of the United States at its executive council meeting here next week. The announcement of this decision, made yesterday by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, follows months of intense lobbying for labor support by both former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Major unions that are part of the federation have already endorsed Clinton while others have come out for Sanders. Many other unions have endorsed neither of the two and there is almost a 100 percent certainty that no union will endorse a Republican in the national election next November. (story continues after video)

The AFL-CIO has repeatedly called out Republican candidates for their attacks on immigrant rights, their attacks on refugees based on their religious beliefs and their stance against raising wages. The federation released a video in which Trumka exposes what he called the divisive campaign run by billionaire Donald Trump.

Trumka said yesterday that although the 2016 election will be a major focal point for discussion at the executive council meeting that opens Feb. 22 here no presidential endorsement will be made. "From the very start of the presidential contest," he said in a statement "we have been clear that we have an endorsement process in place, and that we will continue to follow that process in accordance with our constitution."

"Most importantly," he declared, "We will further elevate the Raising Wages agenda and hold all politicians accountable to it." The AFL-CIO initiated a full-fledged national Raising Wages Campaign in the nation's capital last winter.

There has been some speculation that the federation might endorse a candidate at the winter meeting of its executive council here since many individual unions have already come out for either Clinton or Sanders.

"We continue to encourage affiliated unions to pursue their own deliberations with their members and come to their own endorsement decisions, if any, through open and rigorous debate," Trumka said.

Noting that some unions have and others have not endorsed he added, "Our country is engaged in a vigorous national debate about our next president and we look forward to a robust discussion of the issues at our council meeting."

Photo: Voting booth at a polling site for the New Hampshire primary, Feb. 9, in Nashua, N.H. David Goldman | AP

Unions challenge corporate one percent at Jobs with Justice conference

Wed, 17 Feb 2016 10:42:00 +0000

WASHINGTON. D.C. - "We are sick and tired of billionaires running our political system. We are sick and tired of what has become of our democracy," Larry Cohen, the recently retired international president of the 600,000 member Communication Workers' Union of America (CWA), told over 750 participants at the 2016 Jobs with Justice (JWJ) National Conference held February 12 and 13.

Cohen, who helped to found JWJ nearly 30 years ago, added that the trade union and community leaders assembled at the D.C. Hyatt Regency were helping to build a mass movement from the bottom up.

"The guts of what we do is direct action," he added. "We are willing to act with our bodies, to take a stand and fight back." Cohen's energy and optimism for the emerging movement that is today challenging the corporate one percent were in evidence throughout the conference.

Tefere Gebre, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor federation, self-critically told the assembled activists, "We [organized labor] are not in a position to talk about race without cleaning our own house."

Gebre, an Ethiopian immigrant, knows first-hand the challenges people of color face within organized labor and in the struggle for higher wages, better benefits and dignity and respect on the job. He urged participants to make "racial justice one of our key issues."

Additionally, Gebre called for a new offensive within the house of labor. "We can't continue politics as usual. We have to change the rules. We can't let Wall Street write the rules. Their rules aren't working for any of us."

"We used to know how to change the rules," he added, reminding participants of the historic Flint sit-down strike, which gave birth to the United Auto Workers' (UAW) union and redefined labor-management relations for a generation - while ushering in an unprecedented era of union membership and activism.

He then connected that 1936 strike to the assault on the people of Flint today. He said the residents of Flint have "lost their democracy. This is what happens when the other side writes the rules."

"This is the most ruthless environment for us to do our work in," Esther Lopez, secretary-treasurer of the 1.3 million member United Food and Commercial Workers' Union (UFCW), soberly said. Adding, "We define justice with every fight that we step into and every fight that we take on."

The conference wasn't all talk. Workshops on topics as diverse as the participants offered an array of opportunities for Black, white, young, old, LGBTQ and straight, to engage, build relationships and learn new skills.

For examples, there were workshops on Learning the Arts of Our Struggle, Organizing for Just Hours, Putting Our Values Into Action: Jobs with Justice and the Movement for Black Lives, Tools for Building Stronger Unions, The Face-Off: How to Handle Media Interviews, Bringing Global Bargaining Home: Connecting Organizing Around the World, and #Winning at Social Media in Order to Win Your Campaigns, among many others.

Additionally, towards the end of the first day conference participants marched to the D.C. Chamber of Commerce and the National Retail Association - temporarily occupying both buildings lobby's - in support of local service workers demanding fair scheduling practices and full-time work.

During the opening plenary, Rasheen Aldridge, a former fast-food worker appointed to Missouri Governor Nixon's Ferguson Commission after the murder of Mike Brown, told participants, "My voice matters and I'm going to let it be heard. I'm going to challenge power."

Like thousands of young activists who converged on Ferguson last fall, Aldridge, 21, said his voice "exploded," as he and others "stood up, organized and screamed 'No justice, no peace' and 'Show me $15 and a union,'" thereby connecting the struggles for police accountability and workers' rights.

"What happened in Ferguson and what happens at McDonald's isn't that different," Aldridge concluded. "Racial and economic justice are connected."

"The fight for $15 is a fight for dignity," echoed Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, who stirred the Conference attendees to their feet multiple times. "This is not just a struggle for economic justice. It's a struggle for racial justice," as many low-wage service sector jobs are disproportionately held by people of color.

Additionally, Sec. Perez called on the collective power of the labor movement and its community allies to hold the United States to the highest standard of what it could be. "We can do better than this as a nation," he implored. "The power of we, the power of workers standing together is a vital force today. Organize, mobilize, persist," he concluded.

Sarita Gupta, executive director of Jobs with Justice, captured the sentiment of the National Conference when she said, "We firmly believe in the power of solidarity and the conviction that our struggles cannot be won separately. It's not your fight. It's not my fight. It's our fight."

Gupta emphasized the need to "shift power to workers" and "negotiate on-behalf of the collective good." However, she added, "to re-write the rules, we need everyone at the table."

Photo: Activists at the 2016 Jobs with Justice National Conference took to the streets of D.C. in support of fair hours and wages. | Jobs with Justice Facebook page

Obama budget keeps “Cadillac tax” on union health plans

Thu, 11 Feb 2016 15:55:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - Top union leaders criticized President Obama's federal budget proposal for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 for Obama's insistence on keeping the so-called "Cadillac tax" on high-cost health insurance plans.

Obama dismissed their pleas. He proposed only a few tweaks to the levy. The GOP-run Congress, in a monumental insult, not only declared his budget "dead on arrival" but won't even give Obama the courtesy of holding hearings on it.

The Cadillac tax, which now will not take effect until 2020, took center stage for union leaders, though. All - and their members -- want it completely repealed. Obama opposes that.

The budget "makes clear the Affordable Care Act's so-called 'Cadillac Tax' is bad tax policy," said United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard. "The small changes the president proposes will not fix a tax designed to make working families pay more for their health care.

"USW members already see the effects of this tax at the bargaining table, where employers propose to increase deductibles and co-pays. Our union has strongly supported the bipartisan efforts in Congress to repeal the tax. Full repeal is the only solution."

"The president has at last recognized the tax on health care plans known as the 'Cadillac Tax,' is flawed," added Laborers President Terry O'Sullivan. "There is no tweaking the tax to make it fair and reasonable, or to avoid the disastrous impacts it will have on the health care of working men and women. It needs to be repealed, and anything other than full repeal robs working people of the health care they have earned."

"President Obama clearly recognizes the tax on health care plans for working men and women is broken. This harmful and unnecessary tax won't be fixed by delays or incremental changes. The only real solution is a full repeal and we will not accept anything less,"AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka declared. "We cannot compromise on protecting health care."

Teachers "remain concerned about proposed fixes to the misnamed 'Cadillac tax' because any step short of a full repeal will undermine the progress we made last year, limit our ability to rein in Big Pharma and create new obstacles to affordable healthcare," added American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten.

Aside from the Cadillac tax, the president's spending plan for the new fiscal year contains other proposals of interest to workers and unions, such as a renewed call for funding universal pre-school education - a top cause of teachers' unions.

- A 4.9 percent increase in Labor Department spending, including a 21.5 percent increase in Wage and Hour Division enforcement, to beef up pursuit of employer "misclassification" of workers as "independent contractors" and to prepare for expanding worker eligibility for overtime pay. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration would get 7.6 percent more, along with 5.6 percent more for the Mine Safety and Health Administration and 0.4 percent - less than the inflation rate - for the National Labor Relations Board.

- A 1.6 percent raise for federal workers and the military. The Government Employees will lobby for a 5.3 percent hike, President J. David Cox said. "We're not asking for any spe-cial treatment, just the increases we are owed after six years of low to no increases," he added.

- A large increase in school funding, notably pre-K funding, which Weingarten praised. "With half our kids in public schools coming from poverty, it's vital to increase funding so resources are available to the students who need it most, while providing teachers the tools, time and leadership opportunities they need to help our children succeed," she said.

- A $10 per barrel tax on oil. The budget would dedicate half of the revenue from the oil tax, some $20 billion yearly, to new and greener infrastructure, such as subways.

- A limited Financial Transactions Tax, far less sweeping than the proposals by National Nurses United, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Rep. Keith Ellison, (D-Minn). The union and the lawmakers would tax all the financial finagling and high-speed transactions Wall Streeters and other speculators engage in. Obama restricts his tax to the largest firms.

- Extending federal jobless benefits to 26 weeks - 52 weeks in high-unemployment states -- and including part-time workers, newer workers and "certain low-income and intermittent earners, and workers who leave work for compelling family reasons, like to escape domestic violence."

Obama would also "establish wage insurance for workers with at least three years of tenure who lose their jobs and take a new job that, at least initially, pays less than their prior job and less than $50,000 per year." It would pay half the difference from their previous wage, up to $10,000, over two years.

- $75 million to help coal country workers transition to new non-coal jobs as their mines and the power plants they supply close. His budget would also shore up coal miners' benefits, now funded through federal fees levied on coal output under a 70-year-old law.

"The budget revises the formula for transfers of funds to the UMWA 1993 Health Benefit Plan by taking into account all beneficiaries in that plan as of this proposal's enactment," it explains. It "further accounts for retirees whose benefits were denied or reduced as the result of a bituminous coal industry bankruptcy proceeding" that began in 2012. Obama would also "transfer funds to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation" to protect "the long-term solvency of the 1974 UMWA Pension Plan and Trust. That plan is significantly underfunded and approaching insolvency. Transfers would continue until that plan is fully funded."

Photo: stock image

UAW Prez: Yet another reason to reject the TPP

Thu, 11 Feb 2016 15:15:00 +0000

DETROIT (PAI) - Mexican corruption, tied to its trade with the U.S. and its repression of its own workers, is yet another reason for the U.S. Congress to reject the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership "free trade" pact, Auto Workers President Dennis Williams says.

In an early-February interview with reporters, both in Detroit and by phone, Williams explained the Obama administration advertises that the TPP would fix the trade and labor problems in Mexico that pre-dated, and continue to exist, under the controversial U.S.-Mexico-Canada "free trade" treaty, NAFTA, signed 22 years ago. But TPP hasn't and can't, he said.

"We all know how corrupt their system is," Williams elaborated. "We want unions there to be able to negotiate."

Instead, he said, Mexican workers - with few exceptions - toil under government-allied unions that do not stand up to employers and that for years have let firms exploit workers. That continued even after Mexico's long-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party lost the presidency in 2000. It has since regained the powerful office. Mexico's Congress is politically split.

The long government-union collaboration in turn helped boost the exodus of U.S. factory jobs, including auto plant jobs, to Mexico after NAFTA passed, the UAW president said.

"Why can't the United States government guarantee the same thing - labor rights - that we have in Canada?" the third NAFTA partner, Williams asked. "We need to stop soft-pedaling the fact that Mexico has a corrupt (labor) process.

"In Mexico, there are federalized unions imposed on the workers without them having the right to vote democratically" on either leadership or contracts, the UAW leader explained.

U.S. unions, led by the United Steelworkers, actively back independent non-government-allied Mexican unions. The most notable of them is the United Union of Mineworkers and related workers, Los Mineros, led by Napoleon Gomez Urrutia.

When Los Mineros campaigned against Mexican mine fatalities and company oppression, the government retaliated by trying to oust Urrutia on trumped-up financial fraud charges, to replace him with a pliable leader. Urrutia had to escape to Canada, where USW supported him for years until he was vindicated and could return.

"We cannot do it alone," Williams said about fighting Mexican corruption. "When a government imposes contracts, and the workers don't have a right to vote on them, that's corruption." The TPP doesn't fix that, he states.

Workers and their allies are campaigning hard to get the GOP-run Congress to reject legislation implementing the TPP. The vote can occur no earlier than April 3.

Photo: Nation of Change.org

Federal employees’ union demands a real raise

Wed, 10 Feb 2016 10:17:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - After a three-year pay freeze, two following years of "itsy-bitsy" raises and $182 billion in worker givebacks - featuring higher worker pension contributions without accompanying payout promises - American Federation of Government Employees members are demanding a 5.3 percent raise for the nation's federal employees.

But even though Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Richard Nolan, DFL-Minn., are poised to introduce the proposal on Capitol Hill, the workers probably won't get it.

That's because President Obama, in his budget blueprint for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, proposes a 1.6 percent hike for federal workers. And Congress' ruling Republicans are so hostile to both Obama and federal workers that they aren't even going to hold hearings on Obama's proposed budget at all.

"We may or may not get the 5.3, but we are putting on the record that we need the 5.3" to start to make up for years of no and low pay, AFGE President J. David Cox told reporters.

At a Feb. 9 rally in freezing rain, Cox called past pay hikes "an itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny raise." The workers' demand - "What do we want? 5.3! When do we want it? Now!" they chanted -- drew support from Nolan, Connolly, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and other speakers.

"You make America strong," the hatless Trumka told the crowd. "Patriotism is more than waving the flag back and forth. It calls on the American people to treat public employees with dignity and respect. We say 'Put your money where your mouth is.'"

The 5.3 percent hike is the top legislative goal of AFGE and the centerpiece of lobbying by its 900 Legislative Conference delegates who came from around the country to D.C. on Feb. 7-9. Some other key proposals by the 302,640-member union include:

Giving white-collar and blue-collar federal workers in the same metro area the same "locality pay" increases. In high-priced areas, such as New York and San Francisco, both groups get extra pay to cover higher costs of living.

White-collar workers' locality pay is based on current metro area boundaries. Blue-collar workers' "localities" are different, and, in many cases, smaller. So fewer of each locality pay area's blue-collar workers, proportionally, get the boost - and they're already paid less. The most outrageous case is at the Tobyhanna Army Depot in Scranton, Pa. Its white-collar workers are on the New York City locality scale; its blue-collar workers aren't.

Repeal the higher pension contributions that congressional Republicans imposed on federal workers hired since 2013. Workers hired before then pay 0.8 percent of their pay towards their pensions. Those hired in 2013 pay 3.1 percent and those hired since pay 4.4 percent. But none of the workers will get increased pension benefits as a result. The GOP used $182 billion the pension payments raised to cut federal spending.
Prevent the government, particularly the Defense Department, from imposing yet another pay-for-performance plan which would allow total management favoritism and take away workers' rights to appeal unjust demotions and firings. DOD tried that under the GOP Bush administration, but AFGE and other unions beat them in court and in Congress. DOD then sat down with the unions to work out a new alternative pay plan and is ready to roll it out in April, Cox said. But now some DOD officials want to resurrect a variation on the old plan.
Put the nation's 45,000 federally hired airport screeners, unionized with AFGE, under regular federal civil service laws, not under a separate law that applies to military members. Private firms at several airports, such as Kansas City, hire other non-federal screeners.

As a result, the federal screeners, formally called Transportation Security Officers, "don't have a grievance procedure," Cox says. "They have an in-house dispute resolution system which the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) won't even

And the screeners' pay scale is lower than that of comparable workers. Screeners are also under a pay-for-performance system that denied raises to one-fourth of them last year.

"They make about $30,000-$35,000 a year each, and the agency wants more of them to work part-time" without benefits, Cox adds. "It won't let them trade shifts" to take care of family emergencies.

Opposing a scheme by House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga., to turn the federal and D.C. governments into complete "right to work" areas, ban payroll deductions for dues and politics, ban card-check recognition of unions, and force unions to win representation elections through absolute majorities of all voters in workplaces, not just of those voting.

Legislative conference delegates got support from Reps. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., Mark Takano, D-Calif., and Elijah Cummings, D-Md. Norton threw another issue on the table: A Republican plan to make the Federal Aviation Administration's 14,000 air traffic controllers independent of federal funds and control, and funded by airline passenger fees, instead. "It puts the airlines in charge of our airspace. What a reckless idea," Norton said.

Photo: AFGE.org

Arkansas poultry workers see wages plucked

Tue, 09 Feb 2016 14:47:00 +0000

Last week in Springdale, Ark., Tyson Foods delivered the good news to shareholders at their annual meeting that 2015 was a banner year for the corporation. The world's largest poultry processing company saw its net income soar by 49 percent.

On the same day, a new report from the Northwest Arkansas Workers' Justice Center (NWAWJC) painted a much less rosy picture of the conditions and everyday struggles that face the poultry workers who made all this money for Tyson and the other chicken titans.

Arkansas is home to 28,000 poultry workers who produce more than a tenth of the nation's broiler hens. In addition to a wide variety of meat products found at Walmart, Kroger, and other grocery stores across the country, the poultry produced by these workers also supplies KFC, McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, and Taco Bell. Every day, their products feed millions of Americans.

The poultry workforce in Arkansas is multicultural and multinational. White workers make up a large share; in addition, 33 percent are Latino, 17 percent are African-American, and six percent are Asian. The industry is also the largest employer of the Marshallese community in the state, with one recent study finding that up to three-quarters of Marshall Islands immigrants had worked for one of three major poultry companies.

What makes the Workers' Justice Center's report especially engaging is its extensive use of perspectives recorded from over 500 poultry workers themselves. Collectively, their words fill in the picture of what really goes on inside this huge industry.

Working in the poultry plants is tough: cutting, deboning, and hanging thousands of chickens as they speed past you down the line. It's repetitive, it's messy, and the pressure is always on to work faster. For all this, the poultry workers earn on average $28,792 - at least that's what the average would be if 62 percent of them didn't face wage theft.

Stolen wages

Almost 40 percent of the workers interviewed for the study reported they have seen money "disappear" from the payroll debit cards that many employers use instead of paychecks. Workers also complained of the many fees associated with using the cards. One said that every time he tries to withdraw his own money, he has to pay a $2 fee. For undocumented immigrants and others without bank accounts, a significant portion of their wages can be lost through such fees.

Over a third of the workers surveyed have had cash deducted from their pay to cover the cost of supplies and protective gear, such as gloves, that their employer should be providing. A worker at a George's poultry plant reported that every time a glove gets punctured, he has to present his employee card to get a new pair. The cost of the gloves then appears as a subtraction from his wages.

Another worker told of how employees were forced to pay the price when the company's equipment is faulty. "When machinery breaks, [the] company takes us outside...to the dining area so at times it takes one or two hours, and they make us clock out; all of that time when they are fixing the line is not paid to us."

With such high numbers of workers reporting these kinds of illegal practices, it is clear that there is something rotten going on in the chicken industry.

Even when they do manage collect all the wages they are owed, most poultry workers still aren't making enough to get by. And they'd better hope they don't become ill, as almost half have faced the threat of disciplinary action if they call in sick. 91 percent say their employer makes no provision for sick leave whatsoever.

A woman who worked at Tyson for ten years, said that when she fell on the job and had to miss work for a few days to recover, not only did the company not provide any compensation, it actually reprimanded her. "They gave me [disciplinary] points because I reported to the supervisor that I had fallen."

Racial discrimination in the companies' promotions policies was also evident from the survey. A stunning 94 percent of Latino poultry workers and 92 percent of the foreign-born reported never being offered a promotion, even though these two groups have the longest average tenure on the job.

Women workers faced additional burdens on account of gender. Particularly, they cited the way that male supervisors deny bathroom breaks because it would interfere with the speed of production. Some women even reported having urinated on themselves when supervisors refused to let them go to the toilet. "These old men that [work] with me on that line really laugh at me," one of them said, "because I pee myself at the line because I couldn't hold it anymore."

Sick workers, sickening chicken

It is not just the poultry workers themselves who are suffering due to these problems in the industry, though. For the rest of the general public, there is also a health and safety angle to this story. With no sick days, workers are under pressure to show up even when they are sick and should be at home. 31 percent of workers said they had witnessed contamination of meat products by sick colleagues.

Workers are forced to choose: their (and the public's) health or their job.

The NWAWJC report concludes with a number of recommendations to reverse these dangerous conditions. It calls on the government to do more do enforce the laws that already exist when it comes to wage theft and payroll enforcement. It also calls for greater regulation of production line speeds and for the Arkansas legislature to implement sick day guarantees. Anti-discrimination laws are also placed high on the agenda.

The report recognizes, however, that the workers are going to have to come together and take up the fight for their own interests. Legislators alone can't be counted on to change the balance of power. The poultry producers will not give up much without a fight.

To bring about lasting change to the poultry industry, organization is going to be key. "Producing so much for the state's economy," NWAWJC says, "poultry processing workers in Arkansas should be able to organize collectively and seek improved wages and working conditions without fear of retaliation."

Poultry and meat processing workers in other places, such as Minnesota, have unionized and joined the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW). These workers have seen safety conditions improve, with union stewards now monitoring line speeds. Wages have gone up. Protections against unlawful termination have been put in place, and paid holidays are now guaranteed.

If conditions are going to improve for Arkansas' poultry workers, it's going to take a similar struggle. The chicken bosses have ruled the roost unchallenged for long enough.

Photo: Courtesy Northwest Arkansas Workers' Justice Center

Communications Workers take on Wall Street

Fri, 05 Feb 2016 10:09:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) -- The Communications Workers of America (CWA) are taking on Wall Street, inaugurating a major and long campaign to cut and curb the outsize clout of the sector that trashed the U.S. economy and workers' jobs, homes and pensions.

Union President Chris Shelton announced the decision by the union's executive board in a Feb. 2 conference call, explaining the campaign both in union terms and national terms.

"Why do we want to take on Wall Street? Because every time we go to the bargaining table," the opposing company "has a partner -- and probably the managing partner -- Wall Street," he said.

Wall Street demands on firms for high profits, low costs and short-term gains, he explained, drive company demands in contract bargaining for pay cuts, outsourcing of U.S. jobs, and obliteration of pensions and health care. They also lead companies to trash unions.

And Wall Street obliterated the economy, too, as its excesses and financial gambling directly caused the Great Recession, Shelton said.

"The out-of-control moguls and Wall Street hucksters...took over our politics. They fund anti-worker initiatives and legislation. They're pushing the Trans-Pacific Partnership" trade pact and are the force behind other anti-worker moves, Shelton explained.

"The more wealth goes to the big companies, the hedge fund managers and Wall Street, the more the deck is stacked" against workers and the rest of the country, added former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who joined the call.

CWA Legislative Director Shane Larson said the multi-year campaign began with the union's first "train the trainer" session, held in the Northeast, for activists. The next session will be in Austin, Texas, in early April. CWA aims to train 900 top activists who will in turn train colleagues nationwide in the aims and mechanics of the campaign, providing materials to convince the rest of the country that it is time to rein in the financiers.

State-level campaigns against Wall Street are also already occurring, union leaders said. And CWA has set up a website for its drive: www.takeonwallstreet.org.

And CWA, the AFL-CIO, Americans for Financial Reform, environmental groups and consumer groups will gather soon in D.C. to build "a major coalition" to take on Wall Street, Larson said.

Washington won't move against Wall Street's power without huge grass-roots pressure from the outside, added two other speakers, Reich and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

The most immediate objective of the anti-Wall Street campaign is to convince Congress to pass a Financial Transactions Tax of 50 cents per $100 value of every transaction. The tax would help curb the speculative high-frequency trading that helped lead to the crash.

That tax, long pushed by National Nurses United, would raise $130 billion yearly, CWA leaders estimated. Legislation in Congress pushing it would dedicate $60 billion of it to making public colleges and universities tuition-free, with the rest for funding infrastructure and other national needs.

Other legislative goals of the campaign are:

Restoring the Glass-Steagall Act, which a GOP-run Congress and Democratic President Bill Clinton repealed in 1999. That law set up a firewall separating regular consumer and commercial banking from speculation, investment banking and hedge fund trading. When that firewall fell, Warren said, financiers ran amok "using Grandma's checking account."
Ending two big loopholes in tax law that benefit financiers and the rich and nobody else. One lets traders pay low capital gains tax rates on so-called "carried interest" income of millions of dollars each. "Twenty-five hedge fund managers collected $11.6 billion combined last year," Reich said. "They got a 50-percent-off coupon on their taxes."

The other gives companies huge tax breaks for high executive compensation. CWA backs legislation ending those tax breaks at $1 million apiece.

Enact -- and enforce -- "too big to fail" legislation to break up the big banks before a crash by one of them trashes the economy again. In 2000, Reich said, the five largest banks had 25 percent of all U.S. bank assets. "Today, it's almost 45 percent," he added.

Warren added another item to the agenda, though it's not part of CWA's campaign: Lobbying the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service to bring criminal charges against, and convict and send to jail, the financiers who caused the 2008 crash.

Numerous polls show voters are angry that Congress and the GOP Bush administration "bailed out" the big banks after the 2008 crash while their customers were left with underwater mortgages, blasted pensions and fewer -- or, later, lower-paying -- jobs.

And the union's campaign dovetails with CWA's endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt., for the Democratic presidential nomination, Political Director Rafael Navar said. Sanders' crusade against financiers is part of his theme targeting the "one percent" who gained more and more of the nation's wealth while workers have lost wealth, jobs, homes and pay.

CWA will face huge opposition from the financiers, Shelton warned. He noted they spent $1 million a day in lobbying to try to kill the Dodd-Frank financial reform and regulation law, which Congress passed after the 2008 crash. Wall Street is still trying to destroy Dodd-Frank, both through political puppets who agitate to cut funding for regulatory agencies and by lobbying to delay or destroy federal rules designed to curb the financiers, Warren said.

Photo: CWA website