People Before Profit blog

Clevelanders meet to save the postal service

Thu, 30 Jun 2016 15:53:00 +0000

CLEVELAND - Opposing a right-wing, big business privatization drive, nearly 100 union and community activists took part in a field hearing here, June 28, to save the publicly-run United States Postal Service.

"This importance of this service," Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur told the crowd gathered at East Mount Zion Baptist Church, "is the reason the Founding Fathers placed it in Article One of the U.S. Constitution."

"But now it is under threat," she said, from Republican members of Congress and private delivery companies. Their tactics include legislation to slow delivery requirements, close post offices and saddle the USPS with a unique and crushing assessment to pay retiree health care benefits 75 years in advance in a period of 10 years.

Without this assessment costing $5.5 billion annually, the service, which receives no taxpayer dollars and is entirely funded by sale of stamps and other products, would enjoy a $1.4 billion surplus.

"The attack on the postal service is all about the pursuit of profits," said William Burrus, retired president of the American Postal Workers Union. "The USPS generates $69 billion in revenues. Private companies would like to get five per cent of that in profits.

Violetta Diamond, representing the Campaign for Postal Banking, called for reinstating affordable financial services in Post Offices, including ATMs, bill paying, check cashing, electronic transfers, savings accounts and low-dollar loans that would provide a public convenience as well as protect low income and under-served people from predatory lending companies.

Postal banking existed in the U.S. from 1911-1967 and could be re-established without legislation by an order from Postmaster General Megan Brennan, she said.

Rep. Kaptur recounted how migrant farm workers in her district are often charged 20 percent of their small paychecks when they wire money to Mexico, where families are charged an additional 20 percent to obtain the funds. This exploitation could be eliminated by postal banking, she said

The event was sponsored by A Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service, a coalition of 140 labor, religious and community groups. It was the fourth in a series of hearings the Alliance has held across the country. Previous hearings took place in Baltimore, San Jose and New York City. A final event in Greensboro, N.C. was set for June 29. The group can be contacted at agrandalliance.org.

Photo: What Postal Banking would look like. American Postal Workers Union website

EPI analyst: High court deadlock on immigration hurts all workers’ rights

Wed, 29 Jun 2016 11:19:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - The U.S. Supreme Court's deadlock on President Obama's immigration plan also harms all workers' rights, a top Economic Policy Institute analyst says.

That's because by leaving some 5 million undocumented immigrant adults - parents of U.S. citizens - in the economic shadows, the justices also condemn them to being unable to stand up and fight for fair wages and other rights, adds Daniel Costa.

And it hurts non-immigrant workers, too, he declares, as exploitative employers use the threat of hiring undocumented adults to force other workers to take lower wages and benefits.

On June 23, the justices tied 4-4 on a case by right-wing-governed Texas and 25 other states against Obama's plan to let the adults stay in the U.S. That effectively kills his initiative, called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA). The 1-sentence ruling, with no explanation, leaves the issue in the lap, next year, of the incoming president and Congress.

Unions that support undocumented workers and their rights, vowed to continue the fight. But they also said they would use the decision to energize relatives of the undocumented to become citizens - if they now have green cards - register and vote, and to vote based on politicians' stands on legalization.

Costa, in EPI's Working Economics blog, pointed out the financial impact on the undocumented workers, many of them already in low-paying jobs such as in landscaping, bars and restaurants and hotels.

"Since implementation of" Obama's plan "has been prevented, millions of unauthorized immigrants will not be eligible to apply for and obtain an employment authorization document from the Department of Homeland Security that allows them to work legally," Costa explained.

"This means millions of workers will continue to lack access to basic labor standards and employment law protections - a terrible outcome for both unauthorized immigrants and American workers."

Costa explained that two-thirds of the undocumented adults have been in the U.S. for more than 10 years and that more than 20 percent of them have been here for at least 20 years. He calculated that one of every 20 U.S. workers is undocumented. But without papers, those workers' options are limited and they're subject to roundups and deportation at any time.

Indeed, the AFL-CIO and other unions have strongly protested the record numbers of deportations of adults that Obama's DHS has undertaken, and demanded the administration halt such expulsions. Obama has turned a deaf ear.

"Because they lack work authorization," the undocumented adults "cannot effectively complain when they are paid below the minimum wage or aren't paid for overtime hours, or when their employer subjects them to unsafe conditions. Unauthorized immigrants know that if they complain, their employers can call immigration authorities and get them deported," Costa said. "That fear keeps unauthorized workers docile and quiet, which in turn diminishes the bargaining power of Americans who work alongside unauthorized workers."

"Keeping unauthorized immigrants exploitable and underpaid by preventing them from accessing deferred action and employment authorization will only benefit rogue employers and corporations while keeping the wages of low-wage workers in the United States from rising," he concluded.

Unions criticized the court's indecision. California Labor Federation Executive Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski said the court "leaves millions of hard-working California immigrant families at risk."

Pulaski added unions in the Golden State - the nation's most-populous and home to its largest Hispanic population - are "steadfast in their resolve to protect the rights and well-being of immigrants who came to this country in search of a better life for themselves and their children."

Since Congress can't or won't act on comprehensive immigration reform, which the state fed still backs, California unions will continue to champion state laws to protect the undocumented "from exploitation on and off the job."

That includes a state law giving 700,000 undocumented Californians the right to get state drivers' licenses - the excuse Texas used in launching its lawsuit that stopped Obama's undocumented adult protection plan.

Other unions pledged to focus on electoral politics to defend the undocumented, and legalize their status.

Laborers President Terry O'Sullivan called Obama's pro-undocumented-adults executive order "a temporary solution" because the GOP-run U.S. House killed the Senate's bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill. Though he did not say so, then-Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, refused to even allow hearings on it.

"The current system is broken and leads to unfair results in far too many cases, including tragic family separations and worker exploitation. It is outrageous and perplexing" that the GOP-run Congress killed comprehensive reform, O'Sullivan added. His union is one of several with a high proportion of Latino members.

"It's up to Congress to right the injustices in our current immigration system and it's urgent that they do so. The 2016 election, which is around the corner, will set the stage for action on immigration and many other issues critical to our members," O'Sullivan added. The Laborers "strongly support candidates, including Secretary Hillary Clinton for president, who will champion working class families, fight for immigration reform, and put the right person on the Supreme Court so that America continues to be a country that provides protection from exploitation and grants every person the opportunity to prosper from hard work."

"This is far from over. While the Supreme Court split decision failed to deliver justice for all of America's families, our fight does not stop here," Service Employees Executive Vice President Rocio Saenz vowed.

"Let's be absolutely clear: We will continue to mobilize voters to elect leaders - from the highest office to the down-ballot - who will fight for the president's immigration action and champion immigration reform with a roadmap to citizenship. We will vote, we will march, and we'll hold those accountable at the ballot box who have stood in the way of families with their anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric. Today is an injustice, but tomorrow we will vote."

"We need to mobilize to elect champions who will fight to keep immigrant families together and create a path to citizenship, not tear families apart and deport millions," added SEIU President Mary Kay Henry.

Photo: At a Chicago immigration reform protest against deportations. John Bachtell | PW

Auto Workers vs. Volkswagen in Chattanooga: The saga continues

Tue, 28 Jun 2016 10:39:00 +0000

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (PAI) - The long-running saga revolving around the Auto Workers campaign to organize the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., continues, with UAW releasing a 2014 document - written in German - that the union says shows the firm agreeing to recognize smaller bargaining units there in return for UAW's decision to drop labor law-breaking charges.

The catch, says UAW Secretary-Treasurer Gary Casteel, is that VW management signed the document and then when UAW carried out its side of the bargain, VW reneged.

Casteel unveiled the document in a telephone press conference with local Chattanooga media in mid-June. The pact, signed by then-VW chief financial officer Hans Dieter Poetsch, says the firm "agrees to recognize the UAW as the members' union," according to UAW's translation. VW says the language is more nebulous. Poetsch now is VW's CEO.

Casteel explained UAW signed the disputed agreement after it lost a plant-wide union recognition vote 712-626 on Valentine's Day, 2014. The union's recognition campaign at the 1,500-member VW plant was its lead effort in UAW's drive to organize "transplant" auto plants, established by foreign firms, in the anti-union South.

The union had intended to use Chattanooga as a lever to organize other transplants, such as a Nissan plant in Mississippi. But its original agreement for the vote in Chattanooga came with VW's agreement that the two would set up an agreement based on the German worker-relations model, of joint labor-management "works councils."

UAW lost in Chattanooga after outside interests, led by the Republican-run Tennessee legislature, right wing talk radio and a GOP U.S. senator, warned of dire consequences - including withdrawal of state subsidies for plant expansion - should the workers vote union.

The outside interference is in turn part of a region-wide anti-worker anti-union attitude fostered by the South's Republican politicians and strongly backed by corporate interests. That attitude has extended from the right wing's Chattanooga campaign to threats of violence against Machinists' organizers at a Boeing plant in South Carolina. IAM had to withdraw.

The Chattanooga loss led UAW to file labor law-breaking charges, formally called unfair labor practice charges, after the vote, saying the outside interference skewed the vote and made a free and fair election impossible. It agreed to drop the charges in exchange for the pact, Casteel said.

"We all talked extensively about what recognition means and what would occur if we withdrew our objections to the election," Casteel told local media. "The meaning was very clear to all in the room."

But when UAW won a subsequent election among skilled maintenance workers at Chattanooga last December, 108-44, VW refused to recognize and bargain with their UAW Local 42. That case is pending before the National Labor Relations Board.

Photo: UAW.org

AFGE’s members plan 38 anti-privatization rallies coast to coast to boost VA

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 13:00:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - Saying the Veterans Affairs Department is embattled, members of the American Federation of Government Employees - which represents VA's rank-and-file workers - spent a detailed conference brainstorming on ways to improve the agency, while saving its health care system from right wing privatizers.

The delegates, meeting in a downtown D.C. hotel, were bolstered by an opinion poll by Lake Research showing bipartisan majorities of veterans themselves are strongly satisfied with VA health service, that they oppose plans to privatize the agency, that they would vote against politicians who want to privatize their care, and that their main demand is "more doctors."

The conference occurred just before the VA's own advisory Commission on Care is scheduled to issue its report on June 30 on the agency's hospital and health care system, the largest such system in the world. VA's 160 medical centers and more than 1,000 community-based outpatient clinics serve nine million veterans, its top health official told delegates.

The report comes in the wake of scandals two years ago over patient care, long waiting times and management falsification of patient records. The scandals produced major agency changes, a new law increasing hiring and spending for doctors and nurses, the forced resignation of then-VA Secretary Erik Shinseki and the firing of some hospital chiefs.

But the report itself is a source of controversy, as a "discussion draft" written by right-wing pro-privatization advocates - themselves funded by the anti-worker Koch brothers - calls for dismantling the system by 2025 and giving vets vouchers to use to pay insurers for care. That would throw VA workers whom AFGE represents out of jobs. Some 30 percent are vets.

AFGE delegates vowed to fight for the agency

Against that backdrop, AFGE delegates vowed to fight for the agency. Serving the nation's veterans is "a sacred promise, a promise that will never be violated," said AFGE President J. David Cox, a retired VA psychiatric nurse in its Greensboro, N.C., hospital.

But speakers also discussed how VA could continue to improve its service to veterans.

The agency's top health care official, Dr. David Shulkin, said VA now has top priorities to fix the problems the scandal exposed: Reducing wait times and access problems for vets, developing relationships with community providers - especially in rural areas far from a VA hospital or clinic - and "repairing the trust of our patients and the public."

"We have a commitment that by the end of this year, there will be same-day access to medical care and mental health care in every center," Shulkin said. And since VA facilities, unlike private hospitals and doctors' offices, concentrate all care disciplines and providers in one building or campus, that will improve care, too, he added.

That would be a substantial change from the when scandals over waiting times at the VA hospital in Phoenix, Ariz., first blew the lid off the agency's problems, he noted. Then, there was a 56,000-case backlog for care system wide.

Now, it's down to 1,525 "and that's still 1,525 too many." But "over 89 percent of vets are telling us they're very satisfied with access and with getting appointments," Shulkin said.

Still, there are questions about quality of care, particularly after the vets leave the VA hospitals and approach their own community's providers for follow-up care. Those approaches, and even initial visits to such providers - later reimbursed by VA - were an innovation in the new VA health care law enacted after the scandals broke.

"We need to track the outcomes" of those follow-up visits "so we can make sure the handoffs" are successful, Shulkin said. "When people leave the system today, we lose sight of them, and that's not good."

Still, both AFGE and veterans organization members speaking at the conference lauded the vast improvements in the VA health care system that have occurred in the last two years. They said there is more cutting-edge research, especially on specialized injuries veterans suffer, and more accountability for quality and timeliness of care.

A rapid rise in patient numbers

That's especially important, panelists noted, because the VA health care system is seeing a rapid rise in patient numbers. The Vietnam-era generation of warriors is reaching retirement age - when their medical problems multiply - and increasing numbers of Iraq- Afghanistan veterans are entering the system. They often survive problems, especially head injuries and partial disability from improvised bombs, that killed past soldiers.

"And we can give wraparound services that other health care systems cannot," added Dr. Marsden McGuire, the VA's deputy chief consultant for mental health care. "We handle homelessness, unemployment and veterans in trouble with the legal system. All are connected to mental health issues" that veterans, especially Iraq-Afghanistan veterans, suffer from.

The story of VA's success and rising patient load has not penetrated either the public consciousness or Capitol Hill, Cox and others said afterwards. They urged the media to get the post-2014 success story out, using veterans' personal tales. And they said VA must do so, too.

Public consciousness and Capitol Hill

"We have the opportunity as veterans to shape how we" as a nation "talk about the VA," said Will Fischer, the AFL-CIO Veterans Affairs Council's executive director. "The more we can communicate with these vets to stand with the VA and communicate with their members of Congress, the better off we'll be." Added Cox, who is also the veterans council chair: "Most VA employees are doing a great job. We're not doing a great job on focusing on those folks."

"We're trying to inform people on the Hill" about improvements in the VA and planned further improvements, said Garry Augustine, executive director of the Disabled American Veterans, who also spoke on the panel of vets. "Some (lawmakers) are receptive and are trying to develop legislation to improve accessibility."

"Dealing with the Hill, ideology drives what some members do," said Dr. Kenneth Kizer, a former VA Undersecretary for Health who now runs a health institute at the University of California at Davis. "In some cases, it's so strong that it won't be driven by the facts or the reality. But most are open to them.

"But Congress makes policy based on stories. And most often, it's based on a story that didn't go well. So people with good stories" about VA's health care for vets "have to go out there. For every bad story, we need 10 or 20 good ones."

Photo: VA workers rally in prior days to protest privatization plans and other schemes. The workers, members of AFGE, plan 38 anti-privatization rallies coast to coast on June 30. AFGE photo via PAI Photo Service.

Chicagoans win paid sick leave law

Thu, 23 Jun 2016 13:24:00 +0000

CHICAGO (PAI) - Add Chicago, the nation's third-largest city, to the list of big cities with paid sick leave laws.

That's because the city council overwhelmingly approved an ordinance providing for five days of paid leave yearly. It passed on June 24. That adds Chicago to paid leave laws in the nation's first (New York), second (Los Angeles), fifth (Philadelphia) and eighth (San Diego) cities, 18 other cities, four states - California, Minnesota, Connecticut and Oregon - and D.C.

A coalition of workers' rights and progressive groups pushed the ordinance through the council, over the usual business opposition. The Chicago ordinance takes effect July 1, 2017. Women Employed, an ordinance backer, said it would aid 42 percent of Chicago workers.

"It's a sober victory because we know that until it takes effect, people are choosing between their jobs and their health," said Adam Kader, director of the Arise Chicago worker center, which led the fight for the ordinance.

Kader told local media it will protect workers like Noemi Hernandez, a 26-year-old bartender at Navy Pier. Five years ago, Hernandez had to leave her retail shift to take her then 3-year-old daughter to a hospital after the girl swallowed a dime. She didn't lose her job then, but she did lose her pay. "It's two losses at once," Hernandez, who recently completed her associate's degree, told the media. "You lose the wage and you have to pay a doctor's bill."

Cities and states pass paid leave ordinances because the Republican-run Congress has killed a federal paid leave law, without a hearing, for years. Just before the Chicago action, the National Employment Law Project led dozens of organizations-including the Steelworkers, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the Teamsters, AFSCME Iowa, AFT New Jersey, the Communications Workers, the AFL-CIO and AFA-CWA - to write lawmakers on June 10 again urging passage of a federal law, the Family Act (S786/HR1439).

That measure "is modeled on successful and effective state paid leave laws and would help working women and men meet their caregiving demands while reducing economic inequality and improving economic opportunities for all," their letter said. "In America today, basic access to paid family and medical leave depends on winning the 'boss lottery' and too many women and men are losing. A mere 13 percent of workers in the United States have access to paid family leave through their employers."

Photo: Women Employed Facebook.

Week-long Minnesota nurses strike part of forced walkout in three states

Wed, 22 Jun 2016 11:29:00 +0000

By Michael Moore, Steve Share, and Barb Kucera of Workday Minnesota.

(PAI and Workday Minnesota) -- The week-long strike by 5,000 nurses against hospitals in the Twin Cities drew national attention for the issues they raised, but it's actually half of a 10,000-nurse forced walkout in three states, organized by their union, National Nurses United.

One key issue in the Minnesota strike against Allina Health Systems hospitals is the hospital chain's demand that its nurses virtually give up their health insurance. Quality of patient care is also a top cause.

The Minnesota strike began Sunday morning June 19, as more than 200 nurses at United Hospital in St. Paul ended their regular night shift at 7 am - and joined the picket line. It's scheduled to end on June 26.

"To see this many nurses on the outside, you know something is wrong on the inside," United labor and delivery nurse Christine Hicks said.

Patient safety and quality care are the key issues for the other 5,000 NNU member nurses, in Massachusetts and California, the union said.

300 RNs at Watsonville (Calif.) Community Hospital began a 2-day walkout on June 22. Issues there are "chronic short-staffing, retaliation against RNs who speak out about patient care concerns, and management's refusal to accept or address RNs' written documentation of unsafe assignments."
The next day, 1,300 RNs at Kaiser Permanente's flagship Los Angeles Medical Center will start a 4-day strike. Patient care, "especially inadequate staffing for the hospital's tertiary care center, short staffing for critically ill children in the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit, and lack of proper staffing to allow nurses to take rest and meal breaks" are the top issues.
The 3,300 RNs at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston planned a 1-day walkout on June 27, the largest nurses strike in state history. One key issue there is patient safety for survivors of lung transplants and for chemotherapy patients. The other is the hospital's "demand for lesser health coverage for new RN hires," the union says.

"Many of our patients struggle to breathe," says RN Maureen Tapper told the union.

The Minnesota Nurses Association was also forced to file labor law-breaking charges, formally called unfair labor practices, against Allina with the regional office of the National Labor Relations Board. The union said the hospital chain refused to turn over proper information about its health care elimination plans.

"Nurses are prepared to send a week-long message to Allina," says Angela Becchetti, a registered nurse at Minneapolis' Abbott Northwestern hospital. "This contract is about more than just health insurance. It's about the staffing our patients receive. It's about the safety of our fellow nurses from assault. It's about the care our families depend on."

Unlike the other metro area hospital systems, Allina did not settle a contract with nurses earlier this year. "They could have had labor peace like the other systems. They chose not to," said Rose Roach, Minnesota Nurses Association executive director.

"Nurses are standing together to defend their affordable, quality health insurance plans. Since contract talks began in February, Allina has refused to budge from its demand that nurses give up four union-sponsored insurance options and transition into 'core' plans that cover most of Allina's other employees," the union said.

Barbara Slagg, a physical rehab nurse at United, added that Allina RNs are also upset by patient safety concerns and short-staffing, but the hospital chain's management refuses to even discuss those issues "until we give up our health plans."

"We hear a lot of our co-workers complaining about those plans," Slagg said. "Some insurance plans seem cheaper until you actually access the care. Then you pay huge amounts out of pocket."

Besides United Hospital in St. Paul and Abbott Northwestern in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities RNs were forced to strike Unity Hospital and the Phillips Eye Institute in Minneapolis, Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids and Unity Hospital in Fridley.

At Abbott, retired physician Dr. Ray Scallen, 90, who worked 60 years there, joined them on the picket line. He sat encamped in a lawn chair along West 28^th St. "I'm supporting these nurses 1,000 percent. They're the heart and soul of the hospital. Anything I can do to help them, I will," he told interviewers.

Nurses walking by called out to him: "Thank you, Dr. Scallen" and "Nice to see you, Dr. Scallen, thank you for supporting us." Scallen, a World War II veteran explained that "This is the third [strike] I've done. What this is really about is busting the union. If they can do that, they've got complete control of the nurses.

"Nursing is tops in this hospital," Scallen said, "the best in the city." He added: "I want to keep it that way...I've known most of these nurses for many years. They're wonderful, wonderful people. I don't want them to lose their union - that's what this is all about."

"You figure out what it's costing this corporation to bring in scab nurses, feed them, house them," Scallen urged a reporter. "We miss him. He always supported us," added striking nurse Vishakha Patel, of Andover. Other supporters joining the striking nurses included State Rep. Karen Clark, DFL-Minneapolis, a former nurse and MNA member whose district includes Abbott Northwestern Hospital. "I'm so mad," said Clark, a former nurse and MNA member whose district includes Abbott. "I can't believe nurses have to fight for their own healthcare."

In Massachusetts, Brigham and Women's Hospital RNs say that under its billionaire corporate owner, the hospital has become less responsive to the needs of its patients and its nurses. Contract talks have gone nowhere for nine months. Its RNs also protest a proposed two-tier plan with lesser health coverage for new RNs, and "a meager wage proposal while the hospital CEO recently received an 18 percent pay hike."

"We have reached the point where the hospital does not value and respect patients and nurses," registered nurse Trish Powers told the union. "Under corporate owner Partners HealthCare, the Brigham cares more about profits and executive pay than providing safe patient care and treating its nurses fairly. We are prepared to strike, unless the hospital returns to the bargaining table and offers a fair settlement."

Short-staffing - despite a state law that NNU pushed through several years ago - is the top issue at Kaiser's Los Angeles hospital, the union says.

The hospital's "pediatric ICU receives critically ill children from all over Southern California and yet is so short staffed that on a daily basis many there are so understaffed that nurses frequently are not able to take their breaks. Nurses are also seeking equitable wages with other CNA represented Kaiser RNs in Northern and Central California."

"It breaks my heart to see families everyday struggling to pay co-payments and premiums, while Kaiser executives make millions of dollars," Los Angeles RN Sandra Hanke told the union. "We need Kaiser to focus on caring for our patients and providing the adequate number of nurses to do that."

In Watsonville, RNs have been in dispute with a series of for-profit chains for several years. The hospital's latest owner is Quorum Health Systems, which shares lawyers and health plans with its predecessor as the hospital's owner, a Tennessee firm, CHS.

"Hospital management's profit-focused mentality is reflected in an outright refusal to address severe deterioration in patient care conditions as well as a hard-line demand for sweeping cuts in nurses' contractual rights and protections," the union says. "Short-staffing is outrageous from a patient safety standpoint," Watsonville RN Sandy Flanagan told National Nurses United.

"The fact remains that chronic understaffing of nurses actually drives up healthcare costs. This corporation's decision to cut patient care standards and work nurses dangerously short because it refuses to settle a safe contract comes at a dangerous cost to our community."

Photo: Minnesota Nurses' Association, Facebook

Hospital workers in Vancouver, Wash. unionize to fight for their patients

Wed, 22 Jun 2016 11:09:00 +0000

VANCOUVER, Wash. (PAI) - Newly unionized workers at the PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver, Wash., met on June 9 to discuss contract goals for their first-ever negotiations with the facility's management, the Northwest Labor Press reported.

The session was expected to concentrate on improved pay and benefits and stronger protections for worker rights, after the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (OFNHP), an AFT affiliate, won by 211-77 in a 93 percent voter turnout the week before.

That made the 310 licensed practical nurses, physical and occupational therapists and MRI, surgical, radiology, CT, ultrasound, anesthesia and pharmacy techs the first OFNHP unit at the hospital. They join a first-in-the-nation AFT unit at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart hospitals in Springfield and Eugene: The facilities' doctors.

They're members of AFT Local 6522, and they held informational picketing on June 23 about hospital administrators' interference with patient care and patient loads.

"We unionized" in late 2014 "to protect our ability to always provide optimal care for those in our community and beyond who seek care at Sacred Heart," said their spokesman, Dr. Frank Littell. "We will picket, and even go on strike if necessary, to secure a contract that ensures decisions by administrators can never impede our freedom to act in the best interest of our patients." Talks have been going for 18 months, the newspaper reported.

In Vancouver, the OFNHP had to overcome an active, and possibly illegal, anti-union management campaign, including quizzing workers on their union sympathies, tearing down union literature from communal bulletin boards and illegal spying. OFNHP filed labor law-breaking, formally called unfair labor practices, charges with the regional office of the National Labor Relations Board.

Vancouver management's attitude was symbolized the night the votes were counted. As unionists cried and cheered in joy, union officials said hospital Labor Relations Director Scott Allan glowered and headed for the door. OFNHP President Dawnette McDonald came up to him with a written request to open bargaining on a first contract. He refused to take it.

But then Allan had to. "Three women unionists spontaneously locked arms and blocked his way out," the Labor Press reported. "He then tucked it under his arm and walked out."

Photo: Newly unionized workers (pictured) at PeaceHealth. | NW Labor Press

The struggle for LGBTQ workers’ rights continues

Wed, 22 Jun 2016 10:43:00 +0000

It all started with a boycott of Coors beer.

Now it's the battle against Donald Trump.

So says Nancy Wohlforth, the longtime, now-retired Secretary-Treasurer of the Office and Professional Employees and co-founder of Pride At Work, the AFL-CIO's constituency group for lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender people.

LGBTQ unionists had been marginalized, or worse, Wohlforth told an AFL-CIO book talk group on June 17. Indeed, an anti-gay resolution at the 1972 Steelworkers convention got a standing ovation, she added.

But that, and the Coors beer boycott, "galvanized us," she said. "We had to figure out how to break through this prejudice and find groups that supported us" and the crusade for equal rights.

The answer was organizing, and Pride At Work and its predecessor groups quickly showed they were good at it - and effective.

The Coors boycott got started because of the right-wing company's 178-question employment application form.

"One question demanded: 'Are you a homosexual?' If you answered 'yes,' that terminated your application. Another demanded 'Are you pro-union?' If you answered 'yes,' that terminated you, too."

But the LGBTQ community found its opening when the Teamsters came to San Francisco, even then a center for the gay community, to organize Coors distributors.

When that union realized the power of the LGBTQ members in the Bay Area, organizers approached a gay distributor who in turn approached colleagues - and political activists, notably the late city supervisor Harvey Milk, who was later murdered by a right-winger because he was gay.

The result: A gay bar beer boycott of Coors. It worked. "The gay bartenders marched out with the bottles of beer and dumped them in the sewers," Wohlforth said, to appreciative chuckles from the crowd. Union President James Hoffa Sr. publically supported the gays, too.

"Coors was anti-gay, and racist and anti-Latino. And to this day, you can't find Coors in a gay bar in San Francisco."

The beer boycott woke other union groups up to the power of the gay community, its organizing talents, and to its proportion of gay unionists, Wohlforth explained. Other campaigns, with gays allied with unions, followed. One, in California, saw the Teachers unions and the city labor council organize to beat an anti-gay initiative, modeled on anti-gay laws pushed by a Florida referendum spearheaded by the orange juice queen, Anita Bryant.

The Dade County Federation of Teachers, and its statewide parent, were the only union on the gays' side in Florida, and they lost to Bryant. But other unions, including the state labor federation, SEIU and the NEA, joined in California, and the coalition won. They repeated that win in Seattle, Wohlforth added. They even repeated it in Utah, with CWA's help, later.

But those wins didn't bring automatic acceptance within the labor movement. The LGBTQ community realized it needed its own AFL-CIO constituency group, so its representatives - Wohlforth and others - started touring the country, talking to local unions and labor councils and promoting equal rights for all, including LGBTQ members.

They also enlisted the federation's other constituency groups, for women workers, African-Americans, and Latinos, to lobby for them. They even got pro-gay AFL-CIO and AFSCME resolutions, but those didn't include transgendered people.

"So we created a committee for a second big March on Washington in 1987. It brought in 500,000 people, with the AIDS quilt. The lead speaker was César Chavez, a devout Catholic," Wohlforth says. Joining him: Dolores Huerta, Barbara Streisand and Whoopi Goldberg.

It took another seven years after that, a huge parade with the gay movement flag down Fifth Avenue in New York City, and the enlistment of top union leaders Linda Chavez-Thompson, John Sweeney, Andy Stern, Clayola Brown and Bill Lucy, but Pride At Work finally had a charter and a founding convention. "We knew we needed labor on our side," Wohlforth adds.

And Pride At Work still needs labor on its side, even though the U.S. Supreme Court, a year ago, said gays have an equal right to marriage and benefits of marriage. "As Orlando shows, for every two steps forward, we take one step back," referring to the massacre of 49 people at the gay nightclub in the Florida city just days before.

And that's not the only problem. Current Pride At Work Executive Director Jerame Davis noted that after the High Court's ruling, some workplaces went the other way and ordered their couples - straight or gay-to get married or lose domestic partner benefits. So unions must work on contract language to protect those benefits, he explained.

Which leads to anti-gay ordinances - 200 proposals in 47 states, including so-called "religious freedom" statutes. Which leads, Wohlforth says, to Donald Trump.

Prejudice is still "out there, fed by corrupt politicians, led by that moron at the top, Donald Trump. We need to go after this scourge."

Photo: Bellarmineforum.org

The labor movement won't survive if it doesn't help Black women to thrive

Tue, 21 Jun 2016 13:09:00 +0000

Black women are playing significant roles in shaping the direction of emerging social movements, movements that affect the criminal justice system and the rights of working people across the country. Black Lives Matter and Fight for $15 are just two of the influential campaigns intersecting with labor that African American women are leading. As African American civil rights and human rights activist Ella Baker once said, "Wherever there has been struggle, Black women have been identified with that struggle." This holds just as strongly today.

As the elections loom, the continued right-wing attacks on labor and working people's hard-won gains show that there is much at stake. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), some of the fastest growing occupations with the greatest increase in job opportunities projected through 2024 will be in the healthcare, retail trade, and food services sectors. These are industries increasingly being filled by black women. The service sector is 27 percent African-American women. Black women have also had a steady increase in union membership since 2002 at 15.7 percent (after seeing a drop from 1985 to 2000). And although union membership declined sharply among men in 2002 (from 22.1 to 14.7 percent) there was a steady increase among women, thanks in part to the jump in union membership of Black women in 2002. It is clear from these statistics alone that the only way the labor movement will survive and thrive for the next eight to ten years is if labor takes a proactive stance in investing in Black women's leadership.

As Black women lead the charge for equal rights and a better standard of living for working class and poor people, they face intense marginalization and oppression. A 2015 study by the U.S. Department of Labor found that Black mothers have had the highest labor force participation rates historically. That year, Black mothers with children under 18 participated in the labor force at a rate of 76.3 percent. This is higher in comparison to their white (69.6 percent), Asian (at 60.2 percent), and Hispanic (61.6 percent) counterparts.

Despite Black women's willingness to work, this demographic still faces a significant wage gap and is more likely to work in lower paid occupations such as fast food, retail, and the service industry. As the BLS reports, among the major occupational groups, those in service occupations are earning at or below the federal minimum wage at about 10 percent. Black women food service workers also earn only 60 percent of the salaries that their male counterparts earn.

Unequal treatment begins in girlhood

This inequality is not only the case once they join the labor force, but recent studies have found that it begins as soon as they enter the education system. Two new studies, one by The National Women's Law Center and the other by the African American Policy Forum (AAPF), have compiled damning evidence on how the educational system treats African-American girls. They show that Black girls are being over-policed and under-protected from an early age. If organized labor expects to build a pipeline of strong Black women leaders, it must not only tackle the disparities in employment, but also those in the education system.

The African American Policy Forum's study, entitled Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, and Underprotected found that while significant research has been given on how the school-to- prison pipeline affects Black and Latino boys, "existing research, data, and public policy debates often fail to address the degree to which girls face risks that are both similar to and different from those faced by boys." The study's authors conclude that when attention is not given to the plight of Black girls within the educational system, "educators, activists, and community members remain under-informed about the consequences of punitive school policies on girls" and the environments that limit the girls' educational achievements.

Policing and punishment were a major focus of the AAPF study. It found that the increased levels of law enforcement and security personnel within schools can often make girls feel less safe and thus less likely to attend school. Another finding was that not using restorative responses in place of punitive responses contributes to the disproportionate numbers of Black girls in the juvenile justice system. In addition, Black girls experience high incidents of interpersonal violence and sexual harassment.

The Black Girls Matter authors further conclude that, in order to deal with the challenges being faced by Black girls, a concentrated effort is needed to explode two myths: one, that all young people of color in crises are boys; and two, that the experience of white girls in schools is indistinguishable from the experience of girls of color. According to the study, neither stereotype is supported by the evidence. In connection with the public release of its report, AAPF launched the ongoing social media campaign Black Girls Matter to encourage the public to get involved in bringing attention to the often ignored topic of the oppression of African-American girls under the educational system. Some of the recommended tweets included, "Resist the narrative that our girls are alright," and "Our girls are suffering. Does anyone care?"

The study by the National Women's Law Center (NWLC) on the same issue supports AAPF's assertions. Unlocking Opportunity for African-American Girls: A Call to Action for Educational Equity describes not only the oppression that African American girls face but highlights how, like their older counterparts in the workforce, Black girls have been at the forefront of social change, in this case in particular to the educational system. The study's authors write: "Behind many of the most important battles for racial and gender equality in the United States-from school desegregation to sex discrimination-are African-American girls. From the pioneers in school desegregation, such as Linda Brown and Barbara Johns, to the advocates for legal protections against student-on-student sexual harassment, like LaShonda Davis, African-American girls have played significant roles in ensuring the availability of meaningful educational opportunities for everyone." And just like their older counterparts who have been on the front lines in the fight for social justice, the challenges that they face often have gone ignored, the study notes.

Some of the study's findings include:

The suspension rate of Black girls is six times higher than the suspension rate of white girls, and also higher than white, Asian, and Latino boys.

African-American girls represent 17 percent of the female student population but make up 31 percent of all girls referred to law enforcement and 43 percent of girls who experienced a school-related arrest.

High school graduation rates for African-American girls are lower than for all other girls except Native American girls.

Monique W. Morris, a veteran education, civil-rights, and social-justice scholar, and co-founder of the National Black Women's Justice Institute, cites many of the same types of statistics found in the studies in her popular book Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools. In a recent interview with The Atlantic regarding her work, Morris noted that when people read the bleak statistics they often wonder "What did these girls do" to deserve such punishments. Yet, Morris notes, that isn't the question to ask. Rather, she states, "it's not about what they did, but rather, the culture of discipline and punishment that leaves little room for error when one is Black and female."

The authors of the NWLC's report further note that the cycle of disparity continues after high school as 40 percent of African-American women under the age of twenty-five without a high school diploma find themselves living in poverty. As the authors note, touching on the statistic that Black women are often the sole providers of their household, "Without intervention, they and their families, many of whom depend on women as primary breadwinners, can experience poverty and other consequences of limited educational attainment."

The study's authors explain that policymakers must take a proactive stance in investing in the future of African-American girls. One of the proactive measures the study suggests is to require schools to adopt and publicize strong anti-harassment policies. Another recommendation was the need to support leadership development among African-American girls.

Labor's role

Despite the tough odds, there have been African-American women who have come up in the ranks to provide effective leadership in labor and other social justice movements. Black Lives Matter co-founder and Oakland, Calif. resident Alicia Garza is a leader of the National Domestic Workers Alliance's (NDWA) "We Dream in Black" campaign. This campaign organizes housekeepers, nannies, and caregivers for the elderly, and has helped to secure basic rights such as maternity leave and paid time off state-by-state for these workers. NDWA explains that the campaign is aimed to "strengthen and expand our base of Black domestic workers and amplify their historical and current contributions to the broader domestic worker movement. Given the legacy of Black women in domestic work, and the ongoing ways in which race shapes the conditions and experiences of workers, NDWA has prioritized building strong organizing projects rooted in Black communities."

Phelicia Jones, a member of SEIU local 1021, has been a key coordinator in the Justice for Mario Woods Coalition, a group that continues to seek justice for those slain by police violence in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. The coalition recently succeeded in achieving one of their demands - to have SFPD Police Chief Suhr resign from his position after another police shooting of an African-American woman. While Carmen Berkley and Tiffany Dena Loftin, both young Black women, have been leading the work in the Civil, Human and Women's Rights Department of the AFL-CIO.

Although these are examples of Black women who have beat tremendous odds in order to emerge in leadership, there could be many more if groups such as organized labor decided to invest in and build a pipeline for young women of color to enter into leadership.

As Berkley pointed out to People's World at the AFL-CIO executive council meeting on Feb. 22 when speaking on the need to address racial tensions within labor, "None of this is to diminish the leadership of white workers. It's actually a way to strengthen the ability of the leadership to reflect the diversity of their membership." Black women are a large part of the growing and ever changing labor force in the U.S. In order to have a strong front against the increased attacks on the livelihood of working people, it is crucial for current labor leadership to advocate for cultivating the leadership of women of color. To advocate for that leadership means to combat the continued oppression that Black women face-not only when they join the workforce but when they enter kindergarten. The exploitation faced on the job by these women is not the beginning but merely a reinforcement of oppression that begins as soon as they enter the educational system as young girls. Facts and figures have shown that African-American women are some of the toughest fighters when it comes to workers' rights, but who is fighting for them? If organized labor doesn't have the backs of Black women, it can expect to fade away as the jobs continue to increase in the service economy. The labor movement won't survive if Black women aren't supported to thrive.

Photo: Childcare worker and children. AP

Globalized economy might help Mississippi Nissan workers win union vote

Mon, 20 Jun 2016 11:43:00 +0000

CANTON, Miss. - Workers at the Nissan plant here have appealed to the French government for support in their fight for an opportunity to decide for themselves whether to elect the United Auto Workers union as their collective bargaining representative.

The workers are being subjected to unrelenting intimidation from management, which is also bombarding them with a seemingly endless barrage of anti-union propaganda.

What can the government of France do to influence the behavior of Nissan, a corporation based in Japan?

Plenty.

The government of France has a huge say in how Nissan operates.

Like most huge corporations, Nissan is a multinational. The physical location of its headquarters has little to do with who calls the shots.

The CEO of Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, is also CEO of Renault, a French automobile manufacturer. The French government controls nearly 20 percent of Renault stock and 32 percent of its votes. Renault, in turn, owns 43.4 percent of Nissan shares.

The globalized nature of Nissan and Renault might work in favor of workers in Mississippi, because while the state government here is viciously anti-union, the ruling party in France is backed by organized labor.

Workers have travelled twice from Mississippi to France to show government officials there proof of Nissan's illegal anti-union tactics.

Christian Hutin, deputy chairman of the French National Assembly's Social Affairs Commission, asked the Assembly on April 27 to help Mississippi workers. The National Assembly is comparable to the U.S. House of Representatives.

"The situation in [Canton] is dire and sadly not new," Hutin said in a recent statement. "... the rights of workers [are being] seriously compromised. Every possible step is taken to prevent the personnel from organizing a union inside the plant: pressure, threats, harassment, routine propaganda ... Every possible step is taken to prejudice the rights of workers in what is known as an historic cradle of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States of America."

Before Hutin had delivered his speech to the Assembly, CEO Ghosn had testified that Nissan cooperates with unions in every country and that there is no history of its being anti-union in Mississippi.

Hutin sent a letter to Ghosn, calling him out. "The affirmations [you made to Assembly members] do not correspond with the facts," Hutin wrote. "Two weeks after your testimony, management at the Canton plant showed an anti-union video to the 5,000 workers at the site, which we have now seen."

Further evidence that Ghosn lied to the Assembly is the fact that the U.S. National Labor Relations Board has issued an order charging Nissan with, among things, illegally threatening workers with reprisals and discharge "for their union and protected concerted activities."

Aside from appealing to the French government, Nissan workers have gained the support of French unions.

In addition, Nissan technician Betty Jones testified in Brazil about Nissan's anti-union campaign in Mississippi. Nissan is a top sponsor of the Brazilian Olympics and Jones asked that the corporation be ordered to follow the Olympic Code of Conduct for sponsors, which prohibits threatening workers.

Jones spoke at a public hearing of the Human Rights Commission of the Brazilian Senate which was broadcast live nationwide. Brazilian labor leaders also spoke in support of the Nissan workers.

Senator Paulo Paim, who chaired the hearing, said "We need to curb these malpractices from the beginning in the countries where this occurs. Only a great union with the support and international solidarity will change that."

Nissan was invited to testify, but did not appear

Meanwhile, Nissan management's intimidation tactics continue.

In an open letter to the plant manager, Nissan technician Jeff Moore wrote:

"Why can't I and my fellow Nissan technicians even consider a union in an atmosphere free of fear and intimidation? Recently you sent an anti-union mailing under the name of Mr. Gibb and in early March you showed a video threatening us about signing union cards.

"It is clear that you are trying to put fear in my coworkers and create a hostile climate for the Nissan Workers Organizing Committee both in and outside of the plant."

Moore's letter concluded "You want to trick us here in Mississippi into believing that unlike every other Nissan or Renault worker in the world, we alone are not deserving of a voice and union representation."

Moore told the Peoples' World, "I am for a union because I believe we workers deserve a seat at the table when it comes to deciding issues the affect workers.

"I want a voice to make Nissan better for our workers, our community and those who come to work here in the future."

Video: Nissan worker Robert Hathorn, testifying before the Democratic Party Platform Committee, June 9. Used with permission.

Photo: Nissan technicians Shambe' Jones and Travis Parks met in France with Bruno Le Roux, who is the speaker of the house for the French parliament. Speaker Le Roux was briefed on Nissan's recent escalation of their anti-union campaign. Do Better Together, Facebook.

Years of organizing at CUNY yields wins for workers

Fri, 17 Jun 2016 13:35:00 +0000

NEW YORK - Following years of mobilizations by the union memberships on campus, a quick succession of victories over the past week have arrived for workers, faculty, and teaching staff at the City University of New York. These recent wins should be seen against the broader backdrop of workers struggling with their employers at Verizon, the Fight for $15 movement, and other movements in New York and around the country.

On Friday, June 10, the members of AFSCME District Council 37, the largest public sector union in New York City, reached a first tentative agreement with James Milliken, chancellor of CUNY. Additional amendments were made to the agreement the following Monday. After nearly seven years of working without a contract, 12,000 non-professional workers at CUNY campuses across the city will be receiving benefits.

The agreement must be approved by the CUNY board of trustees. It also awaits confirmation from the 12,000 non-professional workers at CUNY who are represented by the union.

Covering the period from November 1, 2009 through January 31, 2017, the new contract includes retroactive 10.41% compound wage increases and a $1,000 bonus. Wage increases from November 1, 2009 until now will be given to workers in one lump-sum payment. The income rise marks an important step forward for staff workers who were excluded by New York State governor Andrew Cuomo from the incremental steps towards a $15 minimum wage in New York City. The $15 wage will be realized in that city by 2018, but the isolation of DC-37 workers from this measure had created difficulties in maintaining the unity of the coalition fighting for it. Retired workers and current employees of DC-37 will now also see a $200 increase in their welfare fund for each year of the contract's terms. This welfare fund covers prescription drugs, tuition reimbursement, legal services, dental work, and personal services.

SEIU Local 300 and the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) have also won similar benefits covering a slightly earlier time period.

Once ratified, the workers at CUNY's 24 campuses around the city will enjoy benefits similar to those of the 100,000 DC-37 members working in other key areas of New York City's public services. These include hospitals, libraries, museums, and other city agencies, cultural institutions, and infrastructure.

This agreement was reached soon after members of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), which represents about 25,000 faculty and instructional staff at CUNY campuses, in May overwhelmingly voted in favor of a strike. More commonly known as the Taylor Law, the Public Employees Fair Employment Act made the use of the strike by public sector unions illegal in 1967. But PSC members have been working without a raise for six years. The vote to strike was authorized by a 92% 'Yes' vote after all other attempts to reach a fair agreement had been exhausted.

On Thursday morning, June 16, PSC also announced a major victory. Bargaining teams had worked all night long to reach a tentative contract agreement that will also contain a retroactive 10.41% wage increase from October 20, 2010 to November 30, 2017. Upon ratification, PSC members will also be receiving a signing bonus.

"I am inspired by the PSC membership," said Barbara Bowen, PSC president. "We were able to negotiate a strong, imaginative contract in a period of enforced austerity for public workers because our members mobilized. The fight for our contract was a fight for investment in quality education at CUNY."

The agreement made with PSC also meets many of the structural demands put forward by the union. The university has agreed to work on opening up more time for faculty to work with individual students. The contract would also put into place the university's first system of providing multiple-year positions to adjunct professors.

Adjunct faculty have been bringing awareness to the public regarding the conditions of poverty in which they have been forced to work. The Barnard Contingent Faculty Union (BCFUAW), which won recognition from Barnard College in October 2015, put forward the bold demands in February of this year for $15,000 per course per semester for all teaching staff. This is roughly five times the going rate. Adjunct professors, factoring in time spent outside the classroom, have calculated their hourly rate of pay to be around $8/hour. Many of them identify strongly with the stories of fast food workers in the #Fightfor15 movement. In its last bargaining session with the college, the BCFUAW wrung from the college's administration a concession of $6,000 per course semester of 3 credits or more.

These developments have all taken place in the context of labor struggle powerfully emerging throughout the country in many different sectors of the economy. Verizon workers completing the longest labor strike in many years recently won important concessions from the corporation, including a first contract for wireless retail store workers. The #Fightfor15 has been building strength and growing in unity with movements for immigration justice, against structural racism, for affordable childcare, and affordable housing. It, too, is winning victories in cities and states around the country.

If ratified, these victories for workers engaged in the reproduction of New York City's knowledge base could create the basis for further victories in other parts of the economy and in other regions of the country.

Photo: DC37blog

Love and solidarity on tap for Pulse workers in Orlando

Fri, 17 Jun 2016 12:13:00 +0000

ORLANDO - The LGBTQ community of Orlando came together last night at the historic Parliament House Resort gay club for the first Latin Night event held since the attacks at Pulse five days ago. The party was not only a show of defiance to those who would silence gay voices; it was also a solidarity fundraiser. After all, it was not only the 49 lives that were snuffed out by the bullets of an attacker's gun last Sunday; the jobs of all the surviving employees at Pulse were also casualties.

In a display of support for their entertainment industry colleagues, the workers at Parliament House organized "Unidos," a Latin-themed event whose organizers made sure that all admissions and cover charges were donated to the Pulse employees, who are coping with the stress of the shooting and the sudden loss of their livelihoods.

Headlining the night was Melina Leon, the "Merengue Queen of Puerto Rico," who flew in from San Juan to contribute her voice to the efforts. She was joined on stage by the lovely ladies in drag who regale celebrants in Orlando weekly. Every dollar in tips that the queens collected were tossed into a giant box of cash - all intended for the workers of Pulse.

With the drinks flowing and the beats blaring from the speakers, "Unidos" looked, at first glance, like any other happy and carefree night at the club - a diverse crowd of men and women; gay, lesbian, trans, bi, and straight; Latino, Black, white, and Asian. But it only took a few minutes to feel the heavy weight which has fallen on this community.

The signs offering grief counselling at the admissions desk were the first indicator. The unfamiliar sight of metal detectors and armed guards were another. The white satin ribbons pinned to every shirt confirmed that this was no ordinary night at the bar.

There but for fortune

Walking into a gay nightclub is usually a moment of excitement. The lights flash, the shirtless bartenders grab your attention, and you scan the crowd - perhaps wondering who you'll recognize if you're at home or wondering who you'll meet if you're an out-of-towner.

Last night at Parliament House was different. It had a surreal quality.

Just a few nights ago in this same city, not more than a few minutes' drive from here, some of these same people went through a horrific thing which will affect them all the days of their lives. What must it be like for them to be here in this setting so soon after Pulse? Is it jarring or upsetting? Or perhaps affirming? Familiar and comfortable? Maybe it's a combination of some or all of these.

Any other night of the week, the patrons here in Parliament House might have been at Pulse dancing there instead. It could have been any of us. That's the realization that makes all of us in the LGBTQ community feel connected to what happened here.

Standing in the crowd and pondering the possibilities, I couldn't keep the old Phil Ochs' line out of my mind: "There but for fortune, may go you or I."

Laugh, cry, live, love

The dance floor is largely empty at first. Most people seem to huddle in groups, but the cliquish quality that sometimes pervades the gay club experience seems absent. Hugs are being given all around as people talk and intermingle. An arm placed around your shoulder, even from a stranger, signals that things are different - at least for tonight.

Those few who do step out onto the floor in the early part of the evening seem to be feeling a beat quite out of sync with what the DJ is playing. Rather than the quick, rhythmic gyrations that usually accompany this music, couples instead embrace one another and seem to move in time with a tune that only they can hear.

One couple seem to hold each other especially tight as they drift together out on the floor. One lays his head on his taller partner's shoulder. A tear slowly falling down his cheek in the darkness is illuminated by the flashing lights. The moment of mourning is broken as he raises his head, looks up into his partner's eyes, and a reassuring smile breaks across both their faces.

At midnight, the M.C. ascends the stairs signaling the start of the show. Embracing the crowd with outstretched arms, he announces the lineup of performers. Acknowledging what the LGBTQ community - and the Latino LGBTQ community in particular - has been through over the last several days, he tells everyone to let their emotions flow in whatever way they feel comfortable.

"We want you to laugh," he says, "but we also want you to cry, we want you to love, we want you to enjoy life."

We're not going to be scared

The queens of Orlando - Lisa Lane, Shantell D'Marco, Angelica Sanchez, and many more - put on a show to remember. With their upbeat numbers, as well as their more introspective ones, they remind the crowd of the need to have fun. They embrace living. They radiate joy. The crowd absorbs it and responds in kind.

The audience also reaches deep into their pockets. Dollar after dollar is raised into the air as arms jut up toward the stage. The ladies collect each contribution and drop it into an already bulging box of cash. (Even organizers could not be reached to ascertain the final amount collected.) After Melina Leon belts out a powerful and soulful song, the evening's program reaches its climax.

Survivors take the stage.

They are the workers of Pulse who, less than a week ago, witnessed unimaginable horror. They saw their loved ones, their co-workers, and their friends cut down by hate. The fact that they are here and able to address those gathered, just a few short days later, is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. That strength is on show, but the trauma visited upon them is also visible in their faces.

Neema Bahrami, one of those workers who made it out of the club that night, encourages the crowd to stand strong: "We're not going to give up. We're not going to be scared. The more you are scared, the more he wins!" As the program ended, the queens and Melina embraced the survivors. Joining hands, they all stretched across the stage.

Arms went up together and a cheer from the crowd - "¡Unidos!"

It was the perfect ending to this night of solidarity and support for the Pulse workers, an expression of the unity that - in addition to grief, stress, and loss - is the product of the horror they experienced. Holding that space of unity in grief, it was possible to believe that life and love do go on.

Photo: C.J. Atkins/PW

Video: Filmed on June 16 at the iconic Parliament House in Orlando, two Pulse nightclub workers/survivors, Kenya Michaels and Neema Bahrami, speak at the first Latin night since a homophobic gunman killed 49 and injured 53 people. Translation help provided by Yennifer Mateo and Michelle Zacarias. Shot and edited by Patrick J. Foote | People's World

The fight isn’t over for farm worker overtime

Fri, 17 Jun 2016 11:06:00 +0000

For the state's first hundred-plus years, certain unspoken rules governed California politics. In a state where agriculture produced more wealth than any industry, the first rule was that growers held enormous power.

Tax dollars built giant water projects that turned the Central and Imperial Valleys into some of the nation's most productive farmland. Land ownership was concentrated in huge corporate plantation-like farms. Growers used political power to assure a steady flow of workers from one country after another-Japan, China, the Philippines, Yemen, India, and of course Mexico-to provide the labor that made the land productive.

Agribusiness kept farm labor cheap, at wages far below those of people in the state's growing urban centers. When workers sought to change their economic condition, grower power in rural areas was near absolute-strikes were broken and unions were kept out.

The second unwritten rule was therefore that progressive movements grew more easily in the cities, where unions and community organizations became political forces to be reckoned with. In the legislature, these rules generally meant that Democrats and pro-labor proposals came from urban districts, while resistance came from Republicans in rural constituencies.

That historic divide in California politics is changing, however.

On June 2 the State Assembly failed to pass a bill that would give farm workers the same overtime pay that workers in urban areas have had since the 1930s. In the outcome, echoes can still be heard of those old rules. But the vote also makes clear that past certainties are certain no longer.

Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, which established the nation's first overtime pay requirement-time and a half after forty hours in a week. In the debate, Congress members from the South, heavily dependent on Black workers in cotton and tobacco, opposed making the law apply to farm labor.

Representative J. Mark Wilcox of Florida openly justified this exclusion: "Then there is another matter of great importance in the South, and that is the problem of our Negro labor," he declared. "There has always been a difference in the wage scale of white and colored labor... You cannot put the Negro and the white man on the same basis and get away with it. Not only would such a situation result in grave social and racial conflicts but it would also result in throwing the Negro out of employment and in making him a public charge."

The enslavement of African Americans set a pattern of inequality that lasted long after slavery itself was abolished, and the pattern was then applied to other people of color. While the descendants of slaves worked without overtime pay on the farms of the South, immigrants from Mexico and Asia faced the same exclusion in the West.

The rise of California's farm worker movement began to change the power equation in the 1960s, however, forcing some growers to agree to union contracts, an unprecedented step. Yet even when the legislature debated the Agricultural Labor Relations Act in 1975, the nation's first law guaranteeing union rights for farm workers, the votes in favor came from urban Democrats, while rural Republicans maintained a solid front against it.

Nevertheless, the farm workers movement sparked a sea change in the politics of rural California. Growers did not lose their power, but even in rural communities that power was no longer uncontested.

In 1975, the year the ALRA was passed, Democrats in the legislature also passed the first proposal to give farm workers overtime pay. But it was still a standard below that of other workers - time and a half after ten hours in a day instead of eight, and 60 hours a week instead of 40. Growers have to pay overtime on the seventh day of work, but only if none of the previous workdays are less than six hours. In practice, few California farm workers today get overtime pay.

Through the 1980s and '90s, when Republicans held the governorship and a majority in the legislature, changing that overtime rule was not in the cards. Even when Democrats regained their legislative majority and passed a bill to restore the 8-hour day to most California workers in 1999, farm workers were still excepted. Finally, in 2010, Democrats passed SB 1121 to remove the exception for farm workers in the 8-hour overtime standard. Then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it.

In his veto message, Schwarzenegger said the 8-hour day and 40-hour week would "not improve the lives of California's agricultural workers and instead will result in additional burdens on California's businesses, increased unemployment and lower wages." He used the argument put forward by grower groups in every overtime battle, predicting that "multiple crews will be hired to work shorter shifts, resulting in lower take-home pay for all workers. Businesses trying to compete under the new wage rules may become unprofitable and go out of business."

In 2012 Assemblymember Michael Allen introduced a similar bill sponsored by the United Farm Workers. It passed the Senate, but this time it failed in the State Assembly. Fractures in the Assembly Democratic Caucus surprised even the state horse breeders association, part of the grower opposition to the bill. It listed five Democrats "all of whom voted 'no.' (Amazing!)," including urban liberals like Joan Buchanan, Fiona Ma and Toni Atkins, as well as others, like Susan Bonilla who skipped the vote.

"Unfortunately, there are a lot of terrible reasons why farm workers have been excluded for 74 years," UFW President Arturo Rodriguez commented bitterly at the time. "Often people ask us why? As should now be apparent, Democrats are just as vulnerable to big money as Republicans are."

In the years since the 1965 grape strike, however, rising number of Democrats have been elected from rural districts where agricultural interests still wield economic power. Pressure from growers in these districts to vote against farm worker legislation is predictably high. But the 2012 vote revealed that the commitment to farm worker protections had weakened among urban liberal Democrats, where resistance to growers had been historically stronger.

When the vote on AB 2757 was taken on June 2, that trend was even more pronounced. The bill needed 41 votes to pass-a majority of the Assembly-and it received 38. Fourteen Democrats either voted 'no,' or were "not present," which in effect counted as a no vote, since it denied the bill the majority it needed.

'No' votes included Ken Cooley (District 8-Rancho Cordova), Jim Cooper (9-Elk Grove), Bill Dodd (4-Woodland), Jim Frazier (11-Fairfield), Adam Gray (21-Merced), Mark Levine (10-San Rafael), Evan Low (28-Cupertino) and Bill Quirk (20-Hayward). 'Not present' were Richard Bloom (50 - Santa Monica), Tom Daly (69 - Anaheim), Susan Eggman (13-Stockton), Jacqui Irwin (44-Oxnard), Adrin Nazarian (46-Van Nuys) and Jim Wood (2-Ukiah).

Calls placed to urban Democrats, who had little to lose in supporting the bill yet failed to do so (including Levine, Low, Quirk, Bloom, Daly and Nazarian) were not returned. The justification for their votes is unknown.

But the 38 Democratic votes that the bill did receive shows that demographic change is working in favor of farm workers in the long term. Giev Kashkooli, legislative director for the United Farm Workers, notes that "Democrats from rural areas all voted 'yes' this time. All African-American Assemblymembers but one voted yes, and all Asian Pacific Islander members but one voted 'yes' too."

Perhaps the biggest change is that among Democrats, especially rural Democrats, are several legislators who come from families of farm workers themselves. They include Joaquin Arambula (31-Fresno), Rudy Salas (32-Delano), Luis Alejo (30-Watsonville) and Eduardo Garcia (56-Coachella/Imperial Valley). AB 2757 itself was written by Lorena Gonzalez (80-San Diego), whose grandfather was a bracero farm worker, and cosponsored by Rob Bonta (18-Alameda), who grew up at the UFW headquarters in La Paz, where his parents worked on union staff.

In other words, less dependable liberal white support in urban areas has been offset by a growing demographic shift, not just in color and nationality, but also in terms of family history and experience in farm worker communities themselves.

The Republican Assembly Caucus was united in opposition to AB 2757. The Caucus includes not only conservatives from the upper middle class suburbs at the urban fringes the state's metropolitan areas, but also, as always, representation of growers themselves. Assemblyman Brian Dahle (1-Redding), told the Assembly, "If I could pick my dirt up and leave, I would. My dream is to leave a flourishing farm to my children. You stand in the way of allowing my children to continue their great-grandfather's aspirations."

Devon Mathis (26-Visalia) told the Visalia Times, "They [farm workers] get paid quite well. In our area, they get paid more than minimum wage."

Gonzalez and Bonta crafted a bill designed to ease the impact on growers.

It would gradually phase in standards by lowering the current 10-hour day to the standard 8-hour day by annual half-hour increments for four years. The 40-hour workweek would be achieved by lowering the 60-hour week in five-hour steps. Smaller farms would get two extra years to meet the requirement.

Determining the bill's impact on growers is not easy, since no direct statistics are collected on how many hours of work farm workers put in over 8 in a day or 40 in a week. Nevertheless, some idea of the stakes is clear. Farm worker payroll in California is more than $6 billion per year, but it makes up just over 10 percent of the $56 billion in growers' annual receipts.

The median annual income for farm workers is only $14,000.

Pedro Agustin, one of the 450 farm workers who took time off to come to Sacramento to lobby in the two days before the vote, said he earned an average of $12,500 a year. "It isn't fair that us field workers are excluded from receiving this benefit," he told legislators, "when other workers who work under a roof and some with air conditioners are getting paid overtime after 8 hours per day or after 40 hours per week. We work in very high temperatures and harvest food that everyone eats. What we want is for all of us to be treated the same."

Growers didn't argue that they couldn't pay, but claimed the bill would harm workers. According to AgAlert, the weekly newspaper of the California Farm Bureau Federation, "the higher cost of providing overtime pay-particularly when coupled with scheduled increases in the state minimum wage-would force farmers to reduce employee work hours to control labor costs." Federation President Paul Wenger predicted that it would cut farm worker income by a third. Growers, he said, would actually hire two shifts of workers, where currently one crew of workers labors throughout the day.

Kashkooli laughed at the idea. "These are the same growers who are telling Congress that they need guest workers, since they face a labor shortage. They don't have a lot of credibility. Even if their costs would go up, why is it farm workers who always have to take the economic hit? The truth is that we've had 78 years of racism, and this distinction was wrong then, and it's wrong now."

Bonta says the bill was well designed, taking business needs into account. "But we have to face the fact that racism was a factor when this different standard was established," he emphasizes. "A status quo inertia based on discrimination and exclusion isn't an OK reason for carrying it forward today."

Since the bill only failed by three votes in the Assembly, Bonta, Gonzalez and the UFW plan to bring it back. "AB 2757 is the third attempt in recent years to provide overtime after an 8-hour day, but it won't be the last," Gonzalez predicted. "We're going to get this done for the 400,000 Californians who deserve the dignity of an 8-hour day."

Photo: Two farm workers pull weeds in a field of organic potatoes. By mid-afternoon the temperature is over 100 degrees. Workers wear layers of clothes as insulation against the heat. | David Bacon

CWA’s Larson warns of post-election push for Trans-Pacific Pact

Thu, 16 Jun 2016 13:43:00 +0000

President Obama and the nation's top business lobby will team up to take advantage of favorable political conditions for a massive post-election push to enact a law for the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) "free trade" pact.

That's the prediction of Shane Larson, the Communications Workers' legislative director, who is urging his union's activists - and other unionists - to keep the pressure on lawmakers to vote against the TPP, even after the November 8 balloting.

Larson gave that forecast to CWA's Legislative-Political Conference, meeting in D.C., on June 14-15. Campaigning against the TPP, or, more precisely, against Obama administration legislation to implement the TPP, was one of two top topics of the 600 delegates.

But Larson predicted that Obama and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the TPP's top backers, would wait until after the election to bring it up in a "lame-duck" session of Congress.

The TPP would open the U.S. to a flood of goods from the 11 other Pacific Rim nations that signed the pact, including low-wage anti-worker nations. It also lacks enforceable labor rights, workers and their allies point out.

Obama's own International Trade Commission says it would cost 128,000 factory jobs and add $22 billion to the annual U.S. trade deficit. And Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, one of the leading foes of the trade pact, reminded delegates the TPP includes a secret trade court, run by pro-business trade lawyers.

"A company in another country" could sue in those courts "over a good, strong labor provision" - federal, state or local - in the U.S., and win, Brown said on June 15. "Our trade deals amount to corporate handouts and worker sellouts."

"We've done a good job of letting folks know what a piece of crap this is," Larson said of the TPP. "We believe this will come up. Obama is obsessed with getting this done - and even more so, the Chamber."

Political conditions will also be right to shove the TPP through, he said. That's because the lame-duck session of the 114^th Congress will include many lawmakers, defeated or retiring, who are free to vote for jobs-losing "free trade" pacts, regardless of what constituents want.

And they'll have another, cynical, incentive to vote for the TPP enabling bill, too, Larson said: Constituents will have "less leverage and because they're lobbying for jobs" with special interests that push the TPP, Larson predicted.

Meanwhile, re-elected lawmakers, especially defecting Democrats, will count on constituents' short memories between a late 2016 TPP vote and a November 2018 election.

"Some will say, 'OK, we'll kiss and make up with them'" - workers - "by 2018," Larson said. "Wrong!"

Photo: Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio weighs in on the TPP, at the CWA 2016 Legislative-Political Conference, Facebook

Airport screeners seek more staff, better treatment

Thu, 16 Jun 2016 13:13:00 +0000

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (PAI and Workday Minnesota) -- Hiring more screeners would shorten lines at airport security checkpoints, Transportation Security Administration workers said at a rally at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. But they also made it clear that turnover won't be reduced until they are treated better.

The Twin Cities rally, one of many nationwide on June 14, came as the TSA screeners' union, the American Federation of Government Employees, announced 70 lawmakers asked their colleagues to lift the cap on how many screeners the government can hire nationwide.

In the last five years, 100 million more passengers are flying, but the number of screeners, officially called Transportation Security Officers (TSOs), has not kept up and an additional 6,000 are needed, AFGE said.

"The long lines are proof positive we can't wait any longer to act," said Celia Hahn, president of AFGE Local 899, which represents some 300 TSOs at MSP and smaller airports across Minnesota and the Dakotas.

In Washington, AFGE reported the lawmakers, led by Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., are urging their colleagues to lift the 45,000-screener cap as solons work on a money bill funding the Homeland Security Department. That department includes the TSA.

TSA "must have the authority and resources to effectively protect the nation's transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce," their letter to the House's ruling Republicans says. "Aviation security must never be compromised by irrational or unjustified congressional caps on the number of transportation security officers the agency may employ to best protect American travelers."

The lawmakers also said the artificial cap forces TSA to focus on hiring part-timers, who have the lowest pay and the highest turnover.

"We've already seen the effects such an arbitrary cap can have on the TSO workforce," said AFGE National President J. David Cox. "Our officers have low pay, are treated like second-class citizens, forced to do mandatory overtime, and then jump ship as soon as a full-time job opportunity comes along elsewhere. No one can support a family on part-time pay."

"Low morale and a revolving-door policy" are aggravating the TSO shortage, Local 899 President Hahn said. Rather than work with employees to resolve problems, the TSA pushes them out the door and hires new people, who then need to be trained, the union said.

AFGE Regional Vice President Vaughn Glenn cited the case of one worker who failed a computer-administered test because the machine was malfunctioning. But rather than give her another chance, rigid TSA rules required her manager to fire her.

Another stress on employees is mandatory overtime, Hahn said. Workers are being forced to work extra hours, work through breaks and have seen scheduled vacation time cancelled. Meanwhile, the section of U.S. law that covers federal workers denies TSOs the same workplace rights and protections as many other workers, including overtime pay.

According to federal law - Section 5 of the U.S. code-TSOs are not covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act, which mandates the minimum wage and overtime pay, nor by the Family and Medical Leave Act. HR4488, introduced earlier this year by Reps. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., would grant TSOs full worker rights.

And AFGE adds Congress needs to appropriate more money to fund more screeners. One solution, airline industry observers say, would be for Congress and the White House to stop diverting $12.6 billion in ticket taxes, known as passenger security fees. That money, added to ticket prices after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, has been diverted to other programs rather than aviation security.

At the Twin Cities rally, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman told the group, "The cost to our communities of these increased wait times is significant" and called on Congress to act to "provide more resources and a fair working environment."

But one proposed solution - turning more airport security over to private contractors - should be off the table, said Bill McCarthy, president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO. Private contractors employ the TSOs in at least six airports in the U.S. "We should never put our safety in the hands of for-profit companies," McCarthy said.

Barb Kucera is editor, Workday Minnesota

Photo: TSA Officers from AFGE Local 899 rallied at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport June 14 to amplify the call for the hiring of 6,000 additional security screeners at airports nationwide. AFGE TSA Union, Facebook

Connecticut AFL-CIO: "We need an inclusion revolution"

Thu, 16 Jun 2016 11:41:00 +0000

HARTFORD, Conn. -- "To restore our country, to make America great again, we need an inclusion revolution," declared Ian Haney Lopez to a standing ovation at the Connecticut AFL-CIO 11th Biennial Political Convention. "We all do best when we work together."

As he concluded his presentation of "Race and Economic Jeopardy for All: A Framing Paper for Defeating Dog Whistle Politics," prepared for the national AFL-CIO in January, Haney Lopez called on the labor movement to play a leading role in exposing Donald Trump.

"As the labor movement you have the credibility to stand up to Trump and say this is divide and conquer racism. Strip the cover away," he urged.

From gavel to gavel, the convention focused on how to organize union members to defeat Donald Trump in the presidential election and elect a more worker-friendly state legislature. The centerpiece was how racism is bad for everyone.

"Race is a weapon to build broad popular support for policies that help the very rich," said Lopez. "Donald Trump's campaign is based on race and gender, but it is primarily about money. He wants to cut the tax rate on the rich and corporations by over one-third."

Delegates responded with long applause and appreciation when he spelled it out. "To communities of color: racism in the United States is a concrete political reality today. To white suburban communities: racism is a divide and conquer strategy to bust unions, pensions and jobs. Whites envision people of color as the enemy instead of corporations."

"Race is central to the union struggle. Put race and economics together simultaneously not only to union members but to white working class voters," he appealed.

The convention passed several resolutions to guide its work including "Full Support to the Labor 2016 Political Program," and "Oppose the Politics of Racism and Hate."

Calling "the ascendancy of a demagogic candidate and his message, with the angry constituency he is fueling, a threat to both the values of our movement and the health of our democracy," the convention delegates unanimously committed, "especially in this election season, to confronting the politics of hate to make our nation and our communities better for all."

A packed workshop on how to talk to members about Trump included a series of handouts headlined "Donald Trump: Dangerous. Divisive. Unfit to be President," that feature workers telling their stories about his outsourcing and union-busting, an insult to working women, and "another rich businessman who doesn't care about working people."

A national AFL-CIO poll showed that 20 percent of union members overall and 33 percent of white union members were supporting Trump. But minds changed when they learned from fellow union members knocking on their doors that Trump is anti-union, that he is anti-worker, and that he said the minimum wage is too high.

"The Koch brothers are building massive field operation, Americans for Prosperity, with 77 staff already in Ohio and Florida, wearing t-shirts that look like union shirts," warned Peggy Buchanan, campaign director for Labor 2016.

"But the Republicans don't have the union advantage to build power for union families," she said. "But it's not an advantage if we don't use it. If we stay home than money will trump all."

William Spriggs, AFL-CIO economic director, detailed the global movement against working people, and how the use of dog whistle politics appealing to racial fears in elections has resulted in chronic poverty.

Saying that the bottom 60 percent controls less than 12 percent of the economy, he decried the prevailing reality of "one dollar, one vote," instead of "one person, one vote." The 60 percent get a very small say in how much should be invested in housing, transit, food and the needs of children.

"Reducing income inequality sustains long term growth," and benefits everyone he said. "How in a country this rich can we sacrifice children to the job creators?"

Just prior to the convention, the State Legislature passed a budget that includes layoffs of state workers and cuts to vital services. Addressing the deep disappointment of the convention, CT AFL-CIO president Lori Pelletier issued a call "to elect more people like us, who understand what it's like to pay bills, lose your home, have sickness in your family."

"We have to take to power ourselves and decide what can be done where the decisions are made," she said, urging the delegates to consider running themselves or asking members of their union. "We need continuous organizing," she said "to make sure we all grow.'

The convention heard a video message from Joshua D. Sword, Secretary-Treasurer of the West Virginia AFL-CIO, who was prevented from attending due to the legislative session in his state, the 26th in the nation to become a "right to work" (for less) state.

"Don't underestimate the effect of presidential politics on down ballot races," he emphasized. In 2014 Democrats lost control of both houses, and the Koch brothers pushed their agenda through to end prevailing wage and pass right to work legislation, causing a drop in wages and an increase in poverty.

"The Koch brothers destroyed the middle class that our members and families fought for," he said. "We are working harder than ever. Don't let this happen to you."

Calling for the union members to get active and stay active, Sal Luciano, Executive Vice President of the Connecticut AFL-CIO pointed out that "billionaires won't take an election off and neither can we. We have a choice to change the dialogue and direction of this state and create prosperity for all, not just for hedge fund managers."

Photo: Connecticut AFL-CIO President Lori Pelletier addresses the 11th Binneal Political Convention at the Hartford Hilton on June 9, 2016. | David Dal Zin, Connecticut AFL-CIO

Domestic workers see gains, yet struggle for decent work

Thu, 16 Jun 2016 10:25:00 +0000

This article was reposted with permission from the Solidarity Center.

Some 70 countries around the world have taken action to advance decent work for domestic workers in the five years since the International Labor Organization (ILO) adopted Convention 189, the standard covering domestic worker rights.

The ILO passed Convention 189 on June 16, 2011, after a global coalition of domestic workers, led by the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF), mobilized tens of thousands of workers in a campaign for recognition of the workplace rights of domestic workers. Following passage of the standard, workers mark June 16 as International Domestic Workers Day.

Most recently, Morocco passed a law covering gaps in coverage for domestic workers. The bill, approved May 31 by the country's House of Representatives, sets the minimum age for domestic work at 18 years and raises salaries to 60 percent of the minimum wage provided in other employment sectors. The bill allows for a five-year transitional period in which those between ages 16 years and 18 years can perform domestic work, providing they have written and signed permission from their legal guardians.

Both the Democratic Labor Confederation (CDT) and the Moroccan Labor Union (UMT) praised the law for ending child labor, which they called a form of slavery.

Some 53 million workers labor in households around the world, often in isolation and at risk of exploitation and abuse. Guire, an Ivory Coast migrant domestic worker in Rabat, Morocco, is among them. Guire, a mother of four children who has worked two years for her employer, toils long hours for low pay and says her employer treats her poorly. (We are using first names only to protect the workers.)

"I work from 6 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., six days week," says Guire, 41, in an interview with Solidarity Center staff in Morocco. "The work is really hard and I sleep in the living room on a sofa." Guire says when she became sick, her employer did not provide her with medicine and she has no way to protest her treatment.

Amma, 32, a domestic worker from the Ivory Coast who also traveled to Morocco for domestic work, says employer requires her to "do everything."

"I do housework, cooking, gardening, take care of the children," says Amma. She says she is forced to sleep in the garage, is given little to eat and is regularly disparaged. "I receive insults like, 'You are an animal,'" she says.

Since 2011, 22 countries have ratified the convention on domestic workers, although Morocco is not one of them. Neither Guire nor Amma were aware of the new legislation covering domestic workers, but as Amma says: "I demand respect because we are human beings, and if we come here it is to work, not beg."

Photo: Solidarity Center

Union leaders express outrage at Orlando massacre, sympathy for victims and families

Wed, 15 Jun 2016 14:02:00 +0000

Union leaders expressed horror and outrage at a gunman's mass killing of 49 people, and wounding of 53 more, at an Orlando, Fla., club that catered to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. Several leaders again demanded increased gun control.

The unionists, including Randi Weingarten, the openly gay president of the American Federation of Teachers, joined other leaders across the ideological spectrum in condemning the massacre and expressing sympathy for the victims and their families. The exception: Donald Trump, the presumed GOP presidential nominee, in a harsh speech, spewed hatred of Muslims, instead. Other statements included:

"Hatred and violence have no place in a civilized society," said Jerame Davis, executive director of Pride@Work, the AFL-CIO constituency group for gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgendered unionists. "Our hearts break for the families of the Orlando massacre as we wait for more information about this horrific attack. Until then, we can only honor the victims and their families by working to make sure this never happens again."

AFT's Weingarten added the carnage in Orlando again proves the need to curb the availability of such weapons of mass destruction. One of the large prior massacres occurred in an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., she noted.

"I don't know where to begin," she said. "Fifty dead, many more wounded, in the worst mass shooting in American history. I am sick and heartbroken. I pray for the recovery of those who are wounded, and my heart goes out to the dead and their families and loved ones.

"While we wait for the details, we must find the courage to extend compassion to one another, not expand hate. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and others are already trying to divide us by insinuating that the victims - because they are part of the LGBTQ community - deserved to die. Others have seized on the gunman's name to promote hate against Muslims." Patrick, like Trump, is a Republican.

"The victims are not to blame. Our Muslim neighbors are not to blame," Weingarten continued. "If we want to assign blame, let us look to the culture of radicalization and fear that creates hatred. Let us look to the outrageous laws that make it easier for gunmen to acquire assault rifles than it will be for members of the LGBTQ community to donate much-needed blood for the victims of this crime.

"The weapon used in Orlando is a kind of military-style assault rifle," a type of semi-automatic weapon that was also used "by Adam Lanza when he murdered innocent children and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn." That style of weapon was also "used in San Bernardino, Calif. In Aurora, Colo. In Portland, Ore.

"Let us find the political courage to pass commonsense laws to make it harder to commit these crimes. And let us find the moral courage to use this tragedy to build bridges and open our hearts, not to build walls and further hatred."

"We express our deepest condolences for everyone affected by the deadly shooting, including the victims, their families, the police force and the medical professionals," said Steelworkers President Leo Gerard.

"In the labor movement, we live by the fundamental belief that an injury to one is an injury to all. This event was not just an attack on the LGBT community or on the attendees of the Pulse nightclub; it was an attack on all Americans who have the right to be free.

"As a union, we pledge to continue working to secure the right of everyone in this nation and in this world to live their lives free from violence and hatred, regardless of race, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or religion. In the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'"

"There is no room in our country for such hatred, yet such tragedies are occurring far too often," the Communications Workers said. "However, it's clear that LGBTQ people were targeted by the gunman. We call on this country to replace hate with love.

"Shamefully, some elements already are using this horrific tragedy to push their political agenda and are condemning President Obama for his call to our nation to respect all people and all faiths. We stand with the President who has called this massacre an act of terror, in this case directed at LGBTQ Americans, and join all Americans who are sickened by the continuing carnage and loss of innocent life in our nation...We join in the demand for changes that will restore responsible gun ownership to communities across the nation.

"This was an attack on all of us," said Hector Sanchez, Executive Director of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, the AFL-CIO constituency group for Latino workers. Many of the Orlando victims are Latinos, as the club was hosting a Latin American-themed night.

Service Employees President Mary Kay Henry said her union also stands in solidarity with the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender community and that it will renew its efforts for stringent gun controls.

"We are reminded that the LGBTQ community has long been the target of hate and violence in their fight for freedom to love," said Henry, who is gay. "In the past year alone, African Americans in a church, health care workers in a women's health clinic and our union's members attending a holiday party have lost their lives. We must all stand united against all forms of hatred and violence.

"Together, we demand our nation does everything to ensure that no more families have to feel this pain, sadness and loss ever again. It's long past time for our nation to do something about gun violence in our communities."

"We stand in solidarity with the LGBT people who were the direct targets of this terrorist attack, and the larger communities they represent, sadly, by this most recent act of terrorist violence," said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Jewish Labor Committee.

"This was not just an attack on the LGBT communities of Orlando, but on freedom itself, on the basic principles of cultural openness, diversity and tolerance. Indeed, our way of life," added Appelbaum, who is also president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

Appelbaum, who is gay, said "standing with the victims is not enough" and must be followed by serious state and federal gun control laws - despite the gun lobby-and that "homophobia, racism, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia must be all be challenged wherever they rear their ugly heads, and we call on leaders in our communities and organizations to speak out clearly and consistently on this."

"Internationally, Islamist extremism, with religious and political components, provides inspiration to as well as support for terrorist acts such as that in Orlando. The full weight of the free world must be brought to bear to break its hold" without, however, demonizing Islam or legitimizing Islamophobia. Radical Islamism "is an extreme minority movement," Appelbaum pointed out.

Photo: Vigils have been held all across the country since the tragedy in Orlando. This photo is from one held in Chicago. | Michelle Zacarias/PW

GOP House Speaker Ryan plan would trash labor, consumer regulations

Wed, 15 Jun 2016 13:51:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - Saying federal rules slow the economy and harm business, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., unveiled a comprehensive regulatory cutback scheme to trash labor, consumer and other rules and turn most other regulations over to the states.

Ryan's 57-page document, released June 14, is part of a six-plan Republican agenda he's putting forward as a platform before the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Ryan hopes, but with no particular promise of follow-through, that presumed Republican nominee Donald Trump will endorse that agenda as an outline for policies should Trump win the White House and the GOP retain Congress.

Key features of Ryan's regulatory agenda - which might be better called an anti-regulatory agenda - include halting almost all major rules until Congress approves them, and turning most areas back to the states. The GOP and its right wing and business backers now run most states.

And he reserves a specific section for criticizing the National Labor Relations Board. Ryan charges the board with favoring union leaders at the expense of businesses and promoting "a culture of union favoritism." Republicans "would hold the rogue board accountable to workers and employers," the speaker claims.

Ryan also proposes "less judicial deference" to regulatory agencies and their expertise, a code word asking the courts to toss out agency rules, including pro-worker rules. He would ban most rules, including NLRB rules from taking effect until after the judges decide on them.

"It is hard to imagine a federal agency that has imposed more radical change on America's workplaces than the political appointees at the National Labor Relations Board," Ryan declares. "This partisan federal agency is made up of unelected board members who have significant power to determine and implement policies impacting workers and privately-owned business.

"Since 2009, NLRB has consistently pursued an agenda that favors union activism while turning a blind eye to the concerns of employers, workers, and rank-and-file union members," he claims. He conveniently omitted that prior GOP-majority boards favored businesses.

"For example, unions have long sought to organize small 'units' of employees as an incremental step toward organizing an entire workplace. In the 2011 Specialty Healthcare decision, the board imposed a new standard that ensures the NLRB approves virtually every unit proposed by union organizers, no matter how small the group may be." The GOP has repeatedly denounced the ruling.

"The board has also adopted new rules to encourage ambush union elections" - a common GOP phrase for the NLRB's refined union election rules - "that will deprive employers of their right to speak to employees, stifle the right of workers to make informed decisions, and jeopardize the privacy of workers and their families," Ryan's regulatory agenda charges.

"These troubling actions are in addition to other actions that restricted access to secret ballot elections, made it more difficult for workers to challenge union representation, and weakened protections for neutral employers from union attacks."

His solution is "aggressive oversight of the NLRB's attempts to implement policies and regulations skewed in favor of special-interest union supporters" and "legislative solutions to overturn the board's extreme agenda and restore labor policies" of prior decades. He also wants laws to "guarantee fair union elections, reinstate the traditional joint-employer standard, and ensure bargaining units promote the best interests of all workers in a workplace." The fair elections section is GOP code for outlawing majority signup/card-check recognition.

The board's planned joint-employer standard would hold a franchise grantor - think McDonald's headquarters - and a franchise-holder - your local McDonald's - jointly responsible for obeying labor law, or for breaking it. Other Ryan proposals include:

Dumping OSHA's decision to let union representatives have "walk-around rights" in job safety and health accidents. Left unsaid: The union reps are called in at the request of the workers - or their families - who are hurt or killed. Ryan charges walk-around rights "promote a culture of union favoritism."
Changing financial rules, notably those enacted after the 2008 Great Recession and enforced by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CPFB). Ryan charges the agency is so powerful that its director - who cannot be removed except for cause - can "can declare any consumer-credit product 'unfair' or 'abusive' and outlaw it...

"While the bureau was designed to regulate the financial industry, in reality, it is micro-managing consumers' everyday lives, deciding which car they can buy, what kind of mortgage they qualify for, and limiting their access to lines of credit, credit cards, and free checking." He also wants to increase consumer access to "short-term credit" such as payday lenders.

"Other misguided and burdensome bureau policies include enriching class action trial lawyers at the expense of consumers by prohibiting mandatory arbitration clauses that prevent class action suits," Ryan adds.

The National Labor Relations Board, and, more recently, the 7^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, have tossed out such mandatory arbitration clauses, since arbitration is usually stacked against workers and consumers. The court says arbitration's class action ban breaks labor law rights of workers to join together in any way for mutual aid and protection.

And Ryan wants to repeal the Labor Department's new rule that orders financial advisors to put the interests of customers first, before their own. Workers and their allies strongly support DOL.
Drop Democratic President Barack Obama's executive orders affecting workers, especially the order that, Ryan says, "will unfairly deny federal contracts to an employer who is alleged (his emphasis) to have violated more than a dozen federal labor laws and equivalent state laws," such as the National Labor Relations Act, minimum wage and overtime pay laws and job safety and health laws.

"Federal bureaucrats-who may not even have expertise in federal labor law-will be empowered to review an employer's compliance history and decide whether the employer's actions demonstrate a 'lack of integrity of business ethics,'" Ryan's regulatory agenda charges.

Ryan admits that "no employer with a history of violating worker rights should be rewarded with federal contracts paid with taxpayer dollars," but he says the present government suspension and debarment system - imposing bans on violators - is enough "to hold bad actors accountable."

Ryan also decries "new restrictions on independent contractors," while not saying that employers misclassify workers as "independent contractors" to evade labor laws, Social Security, Medicare, workers comp, jobless benefits - and to ban workers from organizing.

The Labor Department's guidance on who can be an independent contractor "confines the workforce to an employer-employee relationship not suited for the 21^st century," Ryan's report charges. "The new guidance, combined with the department's aggressive enforcement, is alarming to employers who utilize independent contractors. These include companies that are part of the emerging 'sharing' economy, such as Uber, Airbnb, and TaskRabbit.

"Particularly in light of the new and evolving sharing economy, the end result is fewer opportunities" for businesses, fewer innovative services - he says - for consumers "and greater costs and burdens for employers."

Double the amount of time for public comments on agency rules. That would give businesses more time to marshal their lawyers and lobbyists and deluge agencies with opposition, including computer-generated letters, though Ryan did not say so.

Ryan singled out the Labor Department for making comment periods too short, in its rule doubling the salary cap under which workers are eligible for overtime pay and its rule telling 500,000 federal contractors - such as restaurants in national parks or U.S. museums - to provide workers paid sick leave.

"Although the overtime rule will affect a large number of employers - including small businesses, non-profits, universities, and local governments - and may cause significant disruptions in the workplaces that are likely to harm employers and their employees, the DOL provided only a 60-day comment period," Ryan's report complains. The comment period for paid sick leave was 30 days, but DOL later added 33 more.

Photo: House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis. speaks to reporters at the Republican National Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Consumers League warns teens about summer jobs that can kill

Fri, 10 Jun 2016 14:06:00 +0000

With summer coming and teenagers around the country seeking work, the National Consumers League is again warning teens - and their parents - of the most-dangerous jobs for those youths, and why.

"Jobs for teens are an important part of growing up and becoming an adult, providing both needed income and teaching valuable work skills. According to research, teen jobs increase future earnings and also decrease the likelihood the working teen will drop out of school," the nation's oldest consumer group warns. But some of those jobs have more danger than they're worth. As a result, a teenager dies on the job every two weeks, NCL notes.

NCL's Five Most Dangerous Jobs for Teens in 2016 are as tobacco harvesters, harvesting farm crops and using farm machinery, being part of "traveling youth sales crews," in construction and as landscapers, groundskeepers and in lawn service.

"Agriculture, construction, landscaping, and machinery operators all experience much higher occupational injury and fatality rates. And traveling sales crews expose vulnerable working teens to many dangers including vehicle accidents, arrest, sexual exploitation, and workplace violence," NCL explains. Its horrifying prior examples of deaths of teens include:

- Heather Marie Barley, 17, of Buckley, Mich., died suddenly while working on a hog farm last December. She inhaled carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide suspected to have come from a steam generator connected to a pressure washer

- On his first day on the job feeding tree limbs into a wood chipper, also last December, Mason Cox, 19, of Gastonia, N.C. was pulled into the chipper. Cox died and his upset employer had a heart attack.

- Oscar Martin-Refugio, 19, was shot in the heart by robbers as he worked in a Bridgeport, Conn., pizza shop last December. He died soon after.

NCL recommends teenagers and their parents discuss job possibilities, emphasize "a sense of safety consciousness that will help protect them on the job," and empower the teens to ask for needed safety training and to reject company or boss' requests that they undertake dangerous tasks.

The league also says teens should specifically reject jobs involving door-to-door sales out of their own neighborhoods, those with long-distance teen-only travel and/or extensive driving, jobs where they drive forklifts, tractors, and other potentially dangerous vehicles, jobs involving dangerous machines or use of chemicals, work in grain storage facilities such as silos and work on ladders, where they risk falls.

"Always follow safety training. Working safely and carefully may slow you down, but ignoring safe work procedures is a fast track to injury. There are hazards in every workplace - recognizing and dealing with them correctly may save your life," NCL adds. And ask for workplace training, beforehand.

Photo: Worker safety is highly important. | Youtube screenshot