People Before Profit blog

Under the gun, Congress OK’s 90-day fix on mass transit

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:20:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Acting with unexpected speed, lawmakers voted March 29 for a 90-day extension of federal highway and mass transit programs, averting a giant crash on April 1 that would have halted up to 130,000 construction projects nationwide and cost hundreds of thousands of building trades jobs.

But the temporary fix doesn't solve the basic partisan political fight over federal funds for highways, subways, buses and other transit - and that impasse left unions for both mass transit and highway workers fuming at the political game-playing.

That's because the ruling House GOP wouldn't even let lawmakers vote on a 2-year $109 billion bipartisan highway-mass transit bill the Democratic-run Senate approved earlier this month. The House OKd the 90-day bill on party lines just before noon on March 29, 266-158. The Senate zipped it through at 2:30 p.m. by voice vote.

House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., tried to bring up his own five-year bill, which defunds mass transit and orders privatization of many transit systems as well as food service on Amtrak. Laborers President Terry O'Sullivan says Mica's bill is so small it would actually cost jobs. Mica's measure was bounced, too.

O'Sullivan said he was "appalled" by the games. The House GOP's "radical wing succeeded in derailing passage of a long-term highway bill (the one approved recently in the Senate) that fully invests in America's transportation systems and protects good jobs. After nearly three years of temporary extensions, another 90-day extension shows incompetence and dysfunction.

"With one-in-four bridges in America deemed structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, House Republicans are forcing Americans to play Russian roulette every day when they drive to work, pick up groceries, or travel with their families,' he added. O'Sullivan noted the highway-mass transit bill should be "the single-largest jobs-creating legislation in the nation."

Amalgamated Transit Union President Larry Hanley was similarly caustic about the 90-day extension, time lawmakers should use to try to craft a long-term bill. Hanley also prefers the Senate bill. It lacks the anti-union sections in Mica's failed bill.

"House Republicans kicked the can down the road again, threatening the safety, security and reliability of our public transportation systems" by approving only the 90-day bill, ATU said. Hanley said the GOP seemed more interested in the upcoming House recess, adding: "Meanwhile, commuters all over the country are paying higher fares and waiting longer for crowded trains and buses to come, if they come at all."

Photo: clarkmaxwell // CC 2.0

Labor sees real right-wing conspiracy in the states

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 09:55:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - The story in the states in the second year of the GOP/Big Business war on workers is still one of labor fighting on multiple fronts in multiple states - and racking up some unlikely wins in unlikely places.

Unions must continue to mobilize, lobby, and reach out for allies to stop the constant stream of anti-worker legislation that keeps flowing into and out of state legislatures and governors' offices, says the AFL-CIO's top specialist in that field.

In a Mar. 26 speech to the Fire Fighters' legislative conference, Naomi Walker, the federation's director of state and local government relations, ran down a long list of anti-worker moves pending nationwide. Many of them were created by the right-wing-funded think tank, the secretive American Legislative Exchange Council.

The Right Wing, she said, has not learned from the backlash it received in Wisconsin and especially Ohio, where its law to strip public workers of all collective bargaining rights lost in a referendum last November, 61 percent to 39 percent.

Instead, it has come back to lawmakers with so-called "right to work" statutes, attacks on traditional defined benefit pensions, attempts to kill project labor agreements, and "paycheck protection" schemes designed to evict workers from politics. When that last idea failed in Michigan, she said the cabal went further, trying to ban deducting dues from unionized government workers' pay there, as well as in Utah and in Virginia.

The particular top target, Walker said, is still collective bargaining rights. "They know the public sector is the one sector of the labor movement that is growing," she explained. "So if they can take out the Teachers, police, and Fire Fighters, they can cripple the entire labor movement." Other anti-union moves Walker cited include:

Defined benefit pensions "are under attack in 15 states" with business in particular lobbying lawmakers to force their replacement for state and local government workers with 401(k)s and similar plans. Not only are those plans more financially risky for workers, but the politicians' "Wall Street donors and corporate types can benefit from the fees" charged for administering such individualized accounts," Walker notes.

Labor scored a big win in defeating prison privatization in Florida. The Teamsters - who represent thousands of Florida corrections officers - led the drive. Prison privatization also lost in Maine and Mississippi. Walker said "some of those pushing" privatization in Florida "were doing deals with the legislature to keep people in jail" after scheduled release dates "because otherwise, the prisons would have been unprofitable" for the private firms. The Florida win, plus wins on other issues in Missouri, occurred "because unions built coalitions with moderate Republicans," Walker said.

Labor lost its campaign against "right to work" in Indiana after backers "had money coming in from conservative groups" in D.C. and around the country. Labor's "only option there is to elect more labor-friendly legislators to overturn this," she said.

Walker predicted Ohio would be the next right to work (for less) battleground next year. GOP Gov. John Kasich, who pushed through the anti-collective bargaining law that got clobbered there, "knows it would be political suicide to bring this up in a presidential election year," she commented.

Fourteen states "have seen bills introduced to weaken worker protections for the building trades," though none have been enacted yet. And Walker said 32 states "stripped money out of the public schools." Another speaker noted schools had to fire so many workers that "public education employment is at its lowest since 1999."

One education cutter is Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker. He also shoved an anti-collective bargaining law through the then-totally-GOP-run legislature - and brought a June 5 recall vote down on his and state Republican lawmakers' heads.

Voter suppression laws endanger "one-third of our (worker) electorate," Walker warned. Pennsylvania's GOP governor signed the latest one, on Mar. 16. The laws "will hamstring our people and make them unable to go to the polls," she said. She hopes the Justice Department challenges more such laws, beyond those in Texas and South Carolina as racially discriminatory under the Voting Rights Act.

There have been further labor victories against the GOP and Big Business:

The Fire Fighters reported in their magazine that the South Dakota House Commerce Committee killed legislation to eliminate collective bargaining for public workers there. The vote was 13-0. (The GOP holds the state house, 50-19.) "We worked in a bipartisan manner" to explain the negative impact, said Jeff Zack, a special assistant to union president Harold Schaitberger. IAFF Local 814 President Michael Gramlick "advocated for a positive approach, positioning public employees as problem solvers and rational thinkers." Unionists statewide also emailed lawmakers.

On Mar. 27, Cristina Tzintzun, executive director of the Workers Defense Project in Austin, Texas, told a luncheon sponsored by Labor's Council for Latin American Advancement that "we got the majority-Republican legislature in the worst state in the country, Texas, to pass a law last year outlawing wage theft." That crime particularly hits minority-group workers, especially Latinas, she said.

Photo: People's World

Senator unveils pro-labor Rebuild America Act

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 01:39:00 +0000

As he promised labor leaders and their allies earlier this year, Senate Labor Committee Chairman Thomas Harkin, D-Iowa, unveiled Mar. 29 a new "Rebuild America Act" to "get the economy working for workers again."

The bill drew immediate praise from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. But with a crowded calendar, intense partisan gridlock in Congress and an implacably labor-hostile House GOP majority, it is not expected to go anywhere in the 112th Congress.

Harkin's bill "represents a sweeping and inspirational vision of how we can rebuild our economy on stronger foundations," Trumka said. The veteran lawmaker's plan "would foster shared prosperity by putting America back to work, rebuilding our infrastructure, repairing our safety net, and insisting that shared sacrifice start at the top -- with Wall Street and the wealthiest Americans."

In a prior speech, Harkin said his legislation would include pieces of the Employee Free Choice Act, labor's top legislative priority at the start of the 111^th Congress and the Obama administration in 2009. That measure, to level the playing field between workers and bosses in organizing and bargaining, was halted by a GOP filibuster threat - backed by a multimillion-dollar Chamber of Commerce scare campaign.

The senator "understands strong and vibrant unions are essential to creating the good, middle class jobs that can support a family and build a strong economy," Trumka said. "It is no accident that economic inequality has skyrocketed and upward mobility for working people has diminished as unions have been under siege."

He also praised Harkin's provisions to revive manufacturing, an increase in Social Security benefits, a plan to raise the minimum wage and for restoring overtime pay rights for millions of workers who lost them under the GOP Bush government. And Harkin's bill would "clamp down on rampant speculation on Wall Street," Trumka said.

"While too many in Congress spend their time focusing on handouts and tax cuts

for the 1 percent who broke our economy, the Rebuild America Act rightly focuses on making our economy work for the 99 percent who have so far picked up the tab for the crash of 2008 and the Great Recession," Trumka concluded.

Photo: The Rebuild America Act includes parts of the Original Employee Free Choice Act that was stalled by Republican filibuster. Via Flickr.

Raise the minimum wage

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:19:00 +0000

The federal minimum wage is now $7.25 per hour. If you work all year without layoff or penalty, and get a full tax refund, you will have earned $14,500.

The federal poverty level for a single individual is $11,170. For 2 people, or a pregnant woman, the federal poverty level is $15,130.

So, a couple, nevermind a family, is either suffering terribly, or tempted to indulge in outlaw, informal economies to survive,

But its worse than that. Consider a recent study of housing costs measured against the minimum wage.

The Out of Reach project is a side-by-side comparison of wages and rents in every county and metropolitan area.

The report calculates the amount of money a household must earn to afford a rent at the area's Fair Market Rent (FMR), based on an affordability standard of paying no more than 30% of income for housing costs.

From these calculations the hourly wage - also called the "housing wage" - a worker must earn to afford a two-bedroom unit is derived.

In the wake of the recent depression, with the death of Bush's "ownership society", more households choose renting over home ownership.

Consequently the demand for rental housing is surging, pushing "fair market rents" upward and vacancies down. For low income households and those on fixed incomes finding an affordable, decent apartment is incredibly challenging.

Here is their startling graph showing the hours at minimum wage needed to afford rent:

Of course the hours - even when calculated based on 30% of income for housing - do not capture equally dire measurements of minimum wage workers' ability to meet the "fair market prices" of the clothing, food, education, or health care, or other services their families need.

Lets use another graph from Jared Bernstein's blog to put the plight of minimum wage workers in a slightly broader context.

Yearly real weekly earnings changes measure if the median wage worker has more, or less, disposable income than a year ago. Disposable income does not include non-liquid kinds of benefit compensation (insurance, etc).

For most workers, "weekly" wages tells the whole story, since life is often a parable of "$5 in my pocket, and $500 I owe."

Despite claims of economic recovery heard recently, median weekly worker income for most months of the past two years, just like most years of the past 35 years, is either flat, or less, than the year before. In other words, those of us looking at the minimum wage and housing wage graph who feel a sigh of relief that "that's not us" may need a stronger cup of coffee: Most every month median wages and the minimum wage are getting closer!

The lesson of these graphs is a clear to me as John Donne's famous meditation. When you hear the stories of suffering and peril that accompany ALL minimum wage families, and some pompous Faux News economist opines that raising the minimum wage will only "cost jobs", do not ask for whom the bell tolls: It Tolls for Thee.

Photo: Creative Commons 3.0

Graph: Jared Berstien blog BLS

Missouri unions fight right-wing obstruction

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:30:00 +0000

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo - "The sun is shining on organized labor today," State Sen. Tim Green, told thousands of union members as they packed the State Capitol lawn here March 27 to demand an end to the attacks on workers' rights in the Republican-controlled legislature.

Green then introduced Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, a friend of organized labor who has repeatedly vetoed anti-worker legislation, - protecting Missouri families from the types of attacks inflicted upon union members and public workers in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana.

Nixon blasted the Republicans for claiming to care about the economy, but doing nothing to create jobs in the Show-Me-State.

However, in-spite of the obstructionism, Nixon said, Missouri has "spent 30 months in a row below the national average in unemployment."

Nixon added, "We're creating jobs across many different sectors." He listed off the various trades benefiting from a reinvigorated Missouri economy - construction workers, auto workers, carpenters, electricians, pipefitters, laborers, etc.

According to Nixon, over $1.5 billion is being re-invested in the auto industry in St. Louis and Kansas City, and $2.8 billion in an oil pipeline spanning through Missouri from Illinois to Oklahoma, potentially generating thousands of union jobs.

Additionally, Nixon said, to loud chants and applause, "We've added 41,000 union members in the past three years. That's the second largest increase in the U.S."

State Treasurer, Clint Zweifel, standing just steps from a statue of Thomas Jefferson, told the assembled union members, "Their plan - child labor, rolling back minimum wage, making it harder to organize, and end prevailing wage..."

"Their plan - to lower the bar, to take everything away from us," Zweifel, a Teamster, continued. "Our plan - economic fairness, stability, and opportunity. It's the American dream."

"They want to abolish organized labor in Missouri," State Sen. Ryan McKenna said. "There is a method to their madness."

"First, they want to reduce wages and eliminate prevailing wage. Second, they want to reduce your membership through so-called 'Right-to-Work.' Third, they want to eliminate your ability to participate in political action through pay-check deception," McKenna said.

Prevailing wage laws set industry standards in wages and benefits on publicly funded construction projects. The prevailing wage is usually the average union wage for a specific job in a specific trade and geographic area.

So-called 'Right-to-Work' legislation would weaken unions by forcing them to represent people who do not pay dues, but benefit from a union-negotiated contract, wages, and benefits. In 'Right-to-Work' states, workers make on average about $5,333 less than their union counterparts.

Paycheck deception, as unions call it, would severely weaken public sector unions' ability to collect dues and spend money on political campaigns.

State Rep. Jake Hummel, concluded the rally with a rousing speech.

Hummel, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1, said, "This is what trade unions look like. This is what the labor movement is all about."

"We are sick of these attacks on working families. I'm sick of it. I'm tired of it," he continued.

"Go back to your jobs and tell people what you saw. Tell them we have to stand up for what is right. Tell them to remember who is with us and who is against us. Tell them to remember in November."

The rally was called by the Missouri Building and Construction Trades Council and was planned to coincide with the Missouri AFL-CIO annual Labor Legislative Conference. Prior to the rally, many participants lobbied their elected officials and urged them to not support anti-worker legislation.

Just last week, over 250 union members from the Missouri State Workers' Union Local 6355, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the Service Employees International Union Local 1 marched to and rallied outside of the Capitol steps.

Organized labor here in the Show-Me-State hopes its recent visible show of force will send a clear message to the right-wing-controlled legislature: "We're mad as hell, and we're not going to take it anymore."

Photo: Tony Pecinovsky/PW

Teamsters highlight contradictions in Mexican trucks case

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:26:00 +0000

WASHINGTON -- The Teamsters have apparently caught the Obama Transportation Department in several contradictions in the two sides' continuing fight over the agency's pilot program to let selected Mexican trucks roll on all U.S. roads.

For example, the union's legal brief filed with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in D.C., says the agency admits the pilot program will produce between 2,800 and 4,100 inspections every year of the Mexican trucks, and it admits those trucks also do not meet U.S. environmental rules.

Yet at the same time, the government argues that the extra pollution from the Mexican trucks will have no impact on U.S. pollution - or U.S. truck drivers who, more than other drivers, are exposed to hazardous fumes on the roads.

The brief, filed last month, is part of the union's long battle with the government over letting trucks from selected Mexican companies roll on all U.S. roads. NAFTA, the controversial U.S.-Mexico-Canada "free trade" treaty, said any Mexican truck could roam anywhere in the U.S.

Thanks to Teamsters lobbying and legislation, Mexican trucks were restricted to a zone within 20 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border - until this "pilot project" and a predecessor under the Bush government.

The Transportation Department's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration "concedes its pilot program cannot prove that Mexico-domiciled carriers are as safe as U.S. carriers. Instead, the program adopts a "presumption that Mexico-domiciled motor carriers are as safe as U.S. motor carriers." FMCSA defends this hypothesis as common practice. But Congress required 'statistically valid findings' demonstrating that a grant of operating authority to Mexico-domiciled motor carriers is as safe as granting authority to U.S. carriers," the Teamsters' brief says.

The Mexican trucks program also does not "comply with several federal requirements governing highway safety and the grant of long-haul operating authority. FMCSA argues these standards should not apply to Mexico-domiciled carriers and the court should adopt the agency's presumption that long-haul trucking by Mexico-domiciled carriers will have no effect on highway safety. These arguments cannot overcome" the law, federal rules and "congressional intent to ensure trucking safety."

It also points out that Teamsters are uniquely affected by the Mexican trucks rolling over all U.S. roads. They're "those most likely to be harmed by highway safety problems," because of long hours on the roads and high exposure to diesel exhaust.

No trial date has been set for the case yet.

Photo: Teamsters members hold signs with a clear message. Gregory Bull/AP

Labor hits delay on new safety rule

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:14:00 +0000

ORLANDO, Fla. - The AFL-CIO is very upset that the Obama administration's Office of Management and Budget is sitting on - apparently indefinitely - a proposed job safety rule to cut worker exposure to silica dust.

"Business groups have intervened aggressively with OMB, the gatekeeper on federal regulatory actions, and the Small Business Administration, seeking to stop or weaken safety and health protections," the federation's executive council said during its meeting in Orlando, Fla., in mid-March.

Exhibit A for the federation is that OMB got the silica dust rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Feb., 2011. It was supposed to review it within 120 days, then put a final draft out for public comment.

The rule is supposed to tell firms how to cut exposure to silica dust. Some 7,000 workers sicken yearly from exposure to the dust and 200 die from diseases such as silicosis and lung cancer as a result, the fed said. The GOP-Bush government had also dragged its feet on the silica rule, the AFL-CIO said.

"But more than a year later, the draft proposed silica rule is still being held by OMB, when no indication when the review will be completed and the proposed rule issued," the fed said. Meanwhile, "more than 30 industry groups have met in private with OMB trying to derail" the silica rule.

Meanwhile, congressional Republicans are trying a wide range of tactics to delay or kill pro-worker job safety rules, both from OSHA and the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the federation said. Their tactics include trying to cut off funds for the two agencies and deny funds for enforcing specific rules.

And their pressure, the fed said, led OSHA to drop a proposal to have employers count - but not regulate - musculoskeletal disorders, also known as ergonomic injuries. Those are an estimated one-third of all injuries on the job.

"Delays in issuing needed rules leave workers at risk of unnecessary injury, risk, and death," the fed said.

The Obama administration defends its actions, saying that rules it has issued - not just from OSHA and MSHA but from other agencies - are crafted to ensure their benefits exceed their costs. He said, in a speech and in an op-ed piece in his hometown Chicago Tribune, that, net benefits from rules the administration has issued exceed their costs by $91 billion.

Photo: OSHA inspectors survey damaged homes. Bebeto Matthews/AP

Pennsylvania unions blast new voter ID law

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:57:00 +0000

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania has become the latest large state to enact a so-called "voter ID" law, and it would deprive 700,000 people of the right to vote, thus drawing a blast from the state AFL-CIO.

The GOP-run state legislature rushed the law through during the week of Mar. 12-16, and GOP Gov. Tom Corbett signed it "even before the ink dried" that Friday night without any public ceremony, the state labor federation said.

Corbett's law is similar to voter ID laws pushed elsewhere by the business-right wing cabal nationwide that also wages war on workers. The voter ID laws are designed to disenfranchise groups of people whose votes would threaten the cabal's corporatist, anti-worker agenda. Pennsylvania's law would hit senior citizens, the disabled, and lower-income workers without a state driver's license, the federation says.

"Corbett's action last night, in signing this legislation, reflects the unpopular and undemocratic ideas that suppress the right to vote," Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Rick Bloomingdale declared.

"His signature places unreasonable and unnecessary barriers on the right to vote for our most vulnerable citizens. He should be ashamed, not only by his association with this bill, but by hiding it away before citizens of our commonwealth knew what hit them."

Like their colleagues in other states, Republicans pushing the bill through the Pennsylvania legislature argued the voter ID law would prevent vote fraud. But a state association of county commissioners "found no evidence there is fraudulent voting that showing a photo ID would solve." The counties also estimated it would cost $11 million.

"This law is not about voter fraud, it's about passing flawed policies that are unpopular with the majority of Pennsylvanians," Bloomingdale added.

By contrast, Corbett has done little to save jobs of refinery workers around Philadelphia, the fed said. Two major oil companies have closed or will close three refineries, resulting in drastic drops in supplies of gasoline, jet fuel and other distilled petroleum products. The closures will cost 2,500 Steelworker jobs.

A GOP-run U.S. House subcommittee held a hearing on Mar. 19 on national security implications of the refinery closures, but did not invite worker representatives to testify. Two Obama administration witnesses joined two oil industry trade groups. Said state fed Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder: "Sadly, many of those thousands of unemployed workers in the past year are direct casualties of this (Corbett) administration's failed policies."

Photo: At last November's Occupy Philadelphia rally. Ben Sears/PW.

MO unions plan legislative fightback

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:59:00 +0000

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - "Elections matter. They really do make a difference," State Treasurer Clint Zweifel told about 300 union activists as the Missouri AFL-CIO convened its annual Labor Legislative Conference here on March 26.

Zweifel, a member of the Teamsters' union, emphasized the importance of the up-coming November elections for working families and urged everyone to vote. He said, "Elections are won or lost by just a few votes."

The Missouri AFL-CIO Labor Legislative Conference provides union members from all over the Show-Me State with a two-day opportunity to talk with their state representatives and state senators about issues important to working families.

Hugh McVey, Missouri AFL-CIO president, told the assembled union leaders, "It's no secret. We're under attack - not only here, but all across the country."

McVey reminded the assembled union members of the recent attacks on workers' rights in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana and said, "They are going after the core, the foundation of our society."

In fact, he added, the Republicans have "done nothing to address the real problems facing our country."

"Their grand plan is to make us spend all of our money on state fights so we won't have the resources for November."

Some Missouri politicians - like their counterparts in other states - want to strip workers of their democratic right to join a union and bargain collectively .

Right-wing republican legislatures here are hoping to pass legislation barring union shops (so-called "Right-to-Work," SB-438) and automatic union dues deductions (so-called "Pay-Check Protection," SB-553) for public workers.

"Right-to-Work" legislation has been passed in 23 other states. According to the AFL-CIO it drives down wages for everybody. In fact, workers living in so-called "Right-to-Work" states make about $5,333 less per-year than their union counterparts in other states ($35,500 compared to $30,167).

Missouri labor leaders are also concerned about SB-439, which would suspend prevailing wage laws in natural disaster areas. Prevailing wage is simply defined as the hourly wage, usual benefits and overtime paid to workers in a given area based on trade, occupation and skill level.

Republicans want to cynically use the tornado disaster in Joplin, Missouri as a pretext to drive down wages and living conditions in an already devastated area.

Additionally, a voter ID bill (SB-442) has been introduced requiring Missouri voters to produce a non-expired photo ID in order to vote in up-coming elections. Republicans claim it is necessary to prevent voter fraud.

However, according to state auditor Susan Montee, "The last documented case of voter fraud in Missouri was in 1936. There is no voter fraud in Missouri."

Montee, who is also running for the lieutenant governor's seat, continued, "They are determined to suppress our vote - because we don't vote the right way."

Montee added, "Voter suppression is alive and well in Missouri. And there are around 250,000 long-time, current Missouri voters who do not have photo IDs. That's 250,000 people who may not be able to vote."

She concluded by saying we are in the "midst of a shameless season of intolerance."

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon also addressed the Conference and said to loud applause, "We are making measurable progress. There are more union members in Missouri today than when I was elected."

According to the Governor, Missouri has gained 41,000 union members since 2008. Union membership in Missouri is currently 316,000.

He added, "It is clear we have turned the corner. We are heading in the right direction. We are working hand-in-glove to rebuild the economy. We need to make a loud statement in November."

"Now is the time. Organization is more important than ever," Nixon continued. "Now is the time. We have to stand together. Our steps must be forward and our unity must be absolute."

Photo: Missouri labor unionists at 2011 tax day rally in St. Louis. Courtesy of Jason Fedarow/SEIU state council.

Can labor recover from its critics? A reply to Francis Fox-Piven

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 04:06:00 +0000

The labor movement has more than its share of critics. It seems like nearly everyone is ready to give it advice, whether solicited or not.

A case in point: Francis Fox Piven, the renowned sociologist known for her seminal work on social movements, gave a talk to a group of graduate students at the University of Chicago recently. Her subject: "Can Labor Recover?"

According to a (seemingly sympathetic) blog by David Moberg in In These Times, Piven argued that the transformation of the labor movement lies in building a "mass strike movement" in which trade unionists think beyond the narrow calculations of monetary gains and losses.

"Maybe the mass strike movement will well up outside the labor movement and incorporate it" she said, "I hope so, because I think that the future of the labor movement depends on it."

The Occupy movement, Piven went on to say, should work with labor but "on its own terms, not labor's terms."

The labor movement "is not a movement, but a constellation of competing interests groups."

Then she added, "Labor is one of my favorites; it can rebuild, but not with the same leaders and structures. Without pressure from below and outside, I don't think unions can save themselves."

Wow! Listening to Piven, one gets the impression that labor and its leadership, other than telling the Occupy movement what to do, are sitting on their hands - self satisfied, clueless, and in need of a takeover from the outside.

At its core this estimate of labor not only amounts to a misrepresentation of what labor is doing, but also expresses a patronizing attitude toward the organization that represents working women and men.

Piven, at least from the Moberg blog, presents no evidence for her sweeping claims. Nor does she indicate who is going to change labor from the outside. One can only guess.

From my observations and experience, many labor leaders and members are responding to new challenges, reaching out to allies, creating new forms of organization, solidarity, and unity, and not least, diversifying their leadership.

Consider the following:

Without diminishing the importance of the Occupy movement last fall - a movement that changed the political discourse in the country - what labor did in Wisconsin and Ohio was nothing to sneeze at. Indeed, it was of tremendous significance.

Hundreds of thousands were mobilized in a sustained, creative, and tactically varied way to fight the initiatives of the Republican right at the state level. And in both states, the struggle goes on.

The AFL-CIO, moreover, has embraced and incorporated workers centers and other non-traditional forms of organization that are linked to mostly very low paid super exploited workers - immigrant workers, day laborers, taxi cab drivers in New York, and carwash workers in Los Angeles, to name a few.

Unions have extended their ties with other unions and workers around the world to take on the global corporations, and labor has continued to grow its own structures for political independence, including workers running for office.

Trade unions have embraced the Occupy movement. It didn't tell Occupy what to do; in fact, the AFL-CIO sent out a letter to all its affiliates counseling the opposite.

Labor has plans to activate 400,000 trade unionists and friends to do door-to-door work to educate and get out the vote in the fall elections. Of course, some on the left may think that this form of struggle pales in importance to a mass strike.

First of all, it is wrong to counterpose a mass strike against a full-scale mobilization of labor and its allies in the electoral arena.

In fact, I would go a step further and say from a strategic point of view that nothing is more important than winning a decisive victory against the right at the polls this November.

And the left and progressive movements should wholeheartedly support whatever helps to achieve this objective. After all, such a victory carries the potential to fundamentally alter the terrain of struggle on which the labor and people's movements fight.

Second, a mass strike can neither be hot housed, nor it is a cure all. Sure it would shift the ground on which labor fights, but its full impact grows to the degree that it spotlights the main class enemy and combines with other forms of struggle to effect a realignment of politics in a consistently anti-corporate direction.

Piven's take on the labor movement is not peculiar to her alone, but rather is emblematic of a section of the left, academic and otherwise. Which I guess is not surprising, given the distance between the world of the university and the world of working people.

In any case, the left, including the academic left, should be knowledgeable about the labor movement. It should hail and join its initiatives.

This doesn't preclude criticism, but it should be done in a constructive, unifying, and partisan way. It should be always mindful not only of the very difficult circumstances in which labor fights, but also the necessary role that it will play in any progressive and socialist thrust in U.S. politics.

Photo: At the rally where thousands of Ohioans joined together to make history by turning in 1,298,000 signatures to repeal SB 5. Ohio AFL-CIO

Labor says nation's health at stake in Supreme Court battle

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:12:00 +0000

The labor movement and its allies are saying that the right wing's use of the Supreme Court to try to destroy President Obama's Affordable Health Care Act endangers not just the new law itself, but the very health of the American people.

"On nearly every global yardstick that measures life expectancy and health," wrote OurFuture.org's Sam Pizzigatti today, "the just-published Annual review of Public Health analysis shows the U.S. now ranks either last among major developed nations or close to it."

Mike Hall, a spokesman for the AFL-CIO, said today, "Although the Affordable Health Care Act is not perfect and working family advocates are working hard to make sure it is implemented fairly, it's a milestone on the path to guaranteed high-quality health care for all and has helped millions of families."

Republican lawyers and attorneys general from 26 states have converged on the Supreme Court this week, vowing, nevertheless, to kill the law.

"More than 2.5 million young people now have coverage on their parent's insurance and more than 350 community health centers created by the new law are bringing care to 50 million Americans in underserved areas," said Emily Oshima, a policy expert at the Center for American Progress who, in an interview, defended the law. "More than 86 million people," she added, "32.5 million Medicare recipients and 54 million with private insurance have received preventive health care services and some 5.1 million seniors have saved $3.2 billion in prescription drug costs."

As the oral arguments got underway inside the High Court building in the nation's capital, the Health Care for America Now Coalition, a conglomeration of labor and community groups, began round-the-clock vigils and demonstrations outside the Court.

The Alliance for Retired Americans is in the process of staging more than two dozen events around the country to spotlight new Medicare benefits connected with the President's law and to educate seniors on where their elected officials stand on the issue of health care reform.

"The Affordable Health Care Act is helping seniors across the nation better afford to see a doctor and fill prescriptions. The 3.6 million seniors with the highest drug costs have already saved an average of $600 on their prescriptions," said Barbara Easterling, president of the alliance.

The Supreme Court began what will be three days of oral arguments on the President's health care reform law this morning.

Right-winger's want to use the provision of the law that requires people to purchase insurance to shoot down the entire law.

The government's case is that Congress has the authority to regulate interstate commerce and that the mandate in the health care law is doing just that by regulating how health care is financed. Health care, says the government, represents almost a fifth of the nation's economy and therefore constitutes interstate commerce.

Today's arguments before the Court, however, are over whether the right-wing lawsuits against the government can even proceed, because the 1867 Anti-Tax Injunction Act prohibits lawsuits against taxes until they have been imposed.

Tuesday afternoon the court will hear the bigger argument that Congress exceeded its constitutional authority with the new law's requirement that most people either buy insurance or pay a fine.

Photo: Health care supporters rally outside Supreme Court. March 26. Health Care for America Now (HCAN).

MI unions seek bargaining rights amendment

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:42:00 +0000

DETROIT -- A coalition of Michigan unions, led by the Teamsters and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, has launched a giant petition drive to put a referendum on this fall's ballot inserting the right to collective bargaining into the Wolverine State's constitution.

The drive, by www.protectourjobs.org, must gather at least 322,609 valid signatures by July 1. If it succeeds, the proposed constitutional amendment would go before the voters this fall.

The petition drive started Mar. 6, just before the GOP-dominated state legislature passed - and right-wing Gov. Rick Snyder signed - a so-called "paycheck protection" law. That bill bars automatic deductions from state and local workers' paychecks, even if the workers authorize them, for political action.

The business-GOP cabal that is waging the nationwide war on workers sees such "paycheck deception" laws as ways to cripple workers and unions, by depriving them of funds to use for political campaigns and for lobbying for pro-worker legislation and against the corporate agenda.

"Working families who built Michigan's middle class now want to rebuild it," Teamsters President James Hoffa said in a column on the international union's website, touting the constitutional amendment petition. "The amendment would guarantee the right to form, join, or help labor organizations and to bargain collectively with a public or private employer.

"I'm sure we'll succeed, because so many Michiganians are falling out of the middle class," Detroit native Hoffa added. "Working people in our state will sign the petition because they so desperately need to protect their wages, their benefits, and their voice in the workplace.

"They'll sign because they've seen CEOs arbitrarily move plants to Mexico or China when their workers don't have the protection of a union contract. They'll sign because they know workers who don't belong to a union have absolutely no say when the CEO slashes wages or benefits. And they'll sign because CEOs can unilaterally fire non-union American workers just to make the quarterly earnings statement look better."

He also predicted non-unionists would sign because they know that "without constitutional protection for collective bargaining, workers are at the mercy of politicians who owe their election to CEOs and Wall Street billionaires." Michigan has 671,000 union members, or 17.5 percent of its workforce, according to latest federal data.

Besides the Teamsters and AFSCME, other unions jumped into the petition drive. They include the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO, the state AFL-CIO, the Michigan Nurses Association, the Lecturers' Employee Organization, the Michigan Federation of Teachers, the United Auto Workers in the state, the Michigan State Utility Workers Council, the National Education Association, and the Michigan Education Association. The state's Democratic Party is also part of the coalition.

Metro Detroit AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Shawndrica Simmons says the proposed constitutional amendment would halt another right-wing scheme, to pass a so-called "right to work" law, in its tracks. Right to work laws, like the "paycheck deception" legislation, deprive unions of funds they need to represent workers - by making dues or similar payments optional and voluntary - while leaving unions saddled with the representation duties.

The amendment reads, in part, that "no law shall abridge, impair, or limit the right to collectively bargain for wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment."

"After almost two years of continuous Republican-led policy attacks, Michigan unions are fighting back with a sweeping proposal that would enshrine collective bargaining rights in the state constitution and put them beyond the reach of state lawmakers," Simmons added. If it's on the November ballot, she noted, it does not have to pass the legislature.

Not only would the constitutional amendment, if approved, prevent mounting of a right-to-work campaign, but it "would undo most if not all of what the state's lawless lawmakers have done in the past 14 months related to unions and bargaining powers," she said.

AFSCME lists more than 80 anti-worker measures pending or passed in the Michigan legislature. They include a law stripping collective bargaining rights from teachers, and a bill saying Michigan's Occupational Safety and Health Administration could not issue workplace safety standards tougher than existing federal rules.

"Extremist politicians in Lansing passed one anti-worker bill after another," added Hoffa. "They cut wages, health care benefits, retirement security, and safety protections. They moved bills to weaken teacher unions and to eliminate the rights of teaching assistants to organize.

"Meanwhile, our elected representatives cut $1.8 billion in taxes to multinationals least in need of tax relief: Banks, insurers, and oil companies. These corporate giveaways and political attacks on unions do nothing to create good jobs that support a family. What they do is enrich the one percent and make it easier to replace our once-strong middle class with non-union, low-wage workers." He warned, "The same CEOs and billionaires will pay for fierce and clever opposition to a constitutional amendment."

Photo: William Archie/AP

Workers across the country slam Verizon for refusing to talk

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:37:00 +0000

ORLANDO, Fla., - Members of the Communications Workers of America, other unions and student and community allies protested outside of a Verizon wireless store here Mar. 22 as part of a nationwide day of action for 45,000 Verizon workers demanding a fair contract from the telecommunications giant.

The workers - 35,000 represented by the CWA and 10,000 by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers - install and repair telephone and fiber-optic Internet and cable lines in nine northeastern and mid-Atlantic states. They have been in contract negotiations with the company for nine months.

The workers went on strike in August for about two weeks after the company had failed to negotiate seriously and demanded a staggering 100 givebacks from the workers. Verizon's wish list included concessions on pensions, transfer of health care costs to workers (almost $7,000 annually for active and retired workers), disability benefits, overtime, sick days, paid holidays, job security, outsourcing of work to non-union contractors (some overseas), merit pay and guaranteed raises.

The CWA filed bad-faith bargaining charges with the National Labor Relations Board, but workers returned to the job when Verizon agreed to their demand for a meaningful collective bargaining process.

Despite its promise, the extremely profitable mega-corporation, which made profits of $4.65 billion in the last quarter of 2011, and had "net cash" earnings during the year of almost $30 billion, has persisted in seeking concessions, and negotiations have dragged on. According to the CWA, the total value of the concessions is $1 billion--an average of $20,000 per union worker.

"Verizon is an extremely profitable company whose CEO, [Lowell] McAdam, has seen his salary triple in the past year," noted Steve Wisniewski, president of CWA Local 3108, which represents AT&T workers in Central Florida.

A proxy statement filed with the Federal Securities and Exchange Commission on March 20 reported that in 2011, his first year in the top job, McAdam was paid $23 million--$1.4 million in salary, almost $19 million in stock, and the rest in other forms of compensation. In 2010, when McAdam was still Verizon's COO he had to scrape by on a mere $7 million in compensation.

"I want to see Verizon negotiate a fair contract with their employees, seriously negotiate, not ask for these unreasonable demands," said Wisniewski.

"I do not work for Verizon," he said. "However, I just want a decent middle-class life, and I fear that if something doesn't change here with Verizon, I may be next."

Thursday's Orlando action was one of around 300 across the country. Spirited chants of "Verizon Workers Have Rights--Fight! Fight! / Union Workers Have Rights--Fight! Fight! / The Working Class Has Rights--Fight! Fight!" boomed from the sidewalk in front of the Verizon wireless store on Colonial Drive, one of Orlando's main roads. Around 50 demonstrators, many of them in red T-shirts and holding signs saying "Fight for Good Jobs--Stand Up to Corporate Greed at Verizon," made it loud and clear which side they're on in this struggle.

The protest was organized by Fight for Florida, an AFL-CIO backed group which opposes the anti-worker, anti-middle-class agenda of the Republican-dominated legislature and millionaire Gov. Rick Scott, and Central Florida Jobs With Justice in conjunction with CWA Local 3108. Other groups participating included community ally Organize Now! and the Student-Labor Action Project (SLAP) at the University of Central Florida.

"We're here to say as members of the working class: we've had enough," said Curtis Hierro, of SLAP, noting the importance of students and workers acting together for social and economic change.

Support for the CWA and IBEW workers has been an on-going campaign for SLAP, which is sponsored by Jobs with Justice and the United States Student Association. Hierro vowed the solidarity would continue. "We're going to keep doing it until the Verizon workers get a contract that's fair for them," he said.

A delegation of about 20 demonstrators attempted to enter the store to hand a letter to management outlining their grievances, but a manager blocked the door and would only allow two UCF students who both have Verizon wireless and an employee of the Central Florida AFL-CIO Central Labor Council to come inside. However, once they were inside, managers refused to speak to them about their concerns and said they would only address issues related to their phone service. They also called the police.

"They would not allow us to speak on behalf of the workers at all," said Mayra Uribe, Mobilization Coordinator of the Central Florida CLC. "They told us that if we spoke about anything besides phone service that we were going to be kicked out of the store, " Uribe said, adding that she felt the cops were there to "bully" them. When Natalie Intondi, one of the UCF students, asked how much it would cost to cancel her contract, the managers refused to look up this information for her.

Wages and benefits are just some of the concerns expressed by CWA members. "We'd like to see them [Verizon] pay their taxes, " said AT&T call center worker Jim Howe, of 3108, referring to the fact that Verizon paid zero in federal corporate income taxes from 2008-2010, and still managed to receive nearly a billion dollars in federal tax refunds.

Howe also would like to see the company "clean up their safety act" in light of the death of Douglas Lalima, a Verizon technician who was electrocuted on the job in New York last September. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently fined Verizon $140,000--the maximum allowed under law-- for 10 violations in Lalima's death.

According to a New York Times article (March 19), an OSHA investigation found that "Verizon repeatedly failed to provide Mr. Lalima and other technicians with life-saving equipment, ... and did not ensure that protective helmets and gloves were used during dangerous work operations. The administration also determined that Verizon did not provide adequate training to technicians who worked near high voltage lines, and that the company failed to list Mr. Lalima's death as a fatality in the required records."

Another purpose behind Thursday's national day of action was to build support for the CWA-backed U.S. Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act (H.R. 3596), which has been introduced in the U.S. House. The bill, sponsored by Reps. Tim Bishop, D-N.Y., and Dave McKinley, R-W. Va., would ban federal grants or guaranteed loans to American companies that move call center jobs overseas.

The legislation, which has picked up more than five dozen co-sponsors from both parties, would require that consumers be told the location of the call center to which they're speaking and would give them the right to transfer their call to a U.S. customer service agent, if preferred. Additionally, the bill would create a list of U.S companies that make a practice of exporting jobs.

To learn more about the Verizon workers' struggle and how you can support them, visit StopVerizonGreed.org and UnityatVerizon.com.

Local 3108 is inviting its allies and community supporters to participate in an informational picket outside an AT&T facility at 6021 S. Rio Grande Ave., Orlando, on Wed., April 4, from 4-6 p.m. (Meet at the Oakridge Road entrance.) The action is in support of 3108 members in contract negotiations with the company.

Photo: Ben Markeson/PW

Striking workers converge on Red Cross headquarters

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:08:00 +0000

CLEVELAND - With walkouts looming in two more regions, striking Northern Ohio Red Cross workers brought their anger and frustration to the agency's National Headquarters in Washington, D.C., March 19.

Riding all night in buses, 150 blood technicians and mobile unit operators, members of Teamsters Local 507, held a spirited rally in a nearby park and marched to the offices of the giant charity where they picketed with boisterous non-stop chants throughout the lunch hour.

The 250 workers in the nation's largest Red Cross region walked out Feb. 14 after nine months of futile talks for a new contract. The strike, affecting 19 northern Ohio counties, occurred as the agency insisted on reduced health care benefits, heavier workloads and conditions the union says threaten the safety of donors, employees and the blood supply.

"They're trying to erode our living standards. They want you to take ten to fifteen thousand dollars in cuts," Al Mixon, Principal Officer of the local told the cheering crowd. "I can't recommend that."

Red Cross, he said, is "wants to turn all of you into part-time workers."

Mixon pointed to last year's appointment of virulently anti-union Walmart CEO William Simon to the 22-member Red Cross Board of Governors as evidence for the agency's union-busting policies. As with other major national charities, the ARC board is dominated by former and current executives of giant corporations and Wall St. Banks.

"They are the 1 percent," Mixon said. "We are 99 percenters. They are trying to turn this into a Third World country."

Solidarity with the strikers was voiced by representatives of the District of Columbia Teamsters, the United Steelworkers (representing Red Cross workers in Georgia) and DC Jobs With Justice. Mike Parker, Principal Officer of Teamsters Local 580 representing Red Cross workers in Lansing, Michigan, announced to loud applause that a walkout would begin March 30 in that region.

"We're going to shut these people down," he said. "We're going to kill Red Cross greed with Teamster justice!"

The Lansing strike is set to begin a few days after Red Cross workers, members of the United Food and Commercial Workers, in Toledo plan to walk out March 27.

While Red Cross demands cuts in wages and benefits, its employees have been outraged at massive increases in pay to top executives, especially the more than $1 million salary of CEO Gail McGovern, who is also the agency's board.

"Gail McGovern, You Can't Hide - We Can See Your Greedy Side!" the pickets chanted as employees walked in and out of the headquarters.

"ARC Is Unfair - All We Want Is Our Fair Share!" they continued, adding "ARC Rich And Rude - We Don't Like Your Attitude!"

Wearing t-shirts reading "Red Cross - Cold Blooded," the strikers handed headquarters' employees green bills labeled "$496 Gail McGovern Bucks" representing the CEO's hourly wage. "Donate Your Blood - I Need Another Lexus," the bills read.

"We Won't Bleed For Red Cross Greed!" the pickets chanted.

Angela Hereford, an irrepressible young African-American phlebotomist with a powerful voice, led the chants. Prior to being a medical technician, she had been a cheerleader in High School and Junior High in Sandusky.

Candace Billups, a blood collection worker for 13 years, said Red Cross has cut back on employee health plans and benefits while doubling premiums.

"We now have only two choices with $100 premium each pay and no vision or dental," she said. "We want the Teamster health plan that includes medical, vision and dental and is cheaper."

Joanna Wilcox, the driver and blood technician in a mobile unit, said she must work 10-hour days with only one 15-minute break.

Like the other strikers she defiantly wore a floppy monkey pin in response to a statement allegedly made to a monthly employee meeting by Carolyn Kean, the Cleveland office's Senior Director of Collections, that she "could train monkeys to do your job."

Kean did not return calls for a comment to the People's World.

Click here to view videos of the labor action. Photo: Al Mixon with sign. Rick Nagin/PW

State workers' lobby day important for all workers

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 14:57:00 +0000

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - "What we're doing today isn't just important for public workers," Bradley Harmon, president of the Missouri State Workers' Union Local 6355, told about 250 union activists as they prepared to march on the State Capitol here on March 21.

"It's important for all workers," Harmon added. "What we're doing today isn't just important for Missouri. It's important for the United States of America."

Harmon, a fiery orator, rallied the assembled union members. He placed their immediate struggle for pay raises and collective bargaining into a larger national context for democracy and progressive change. He connected their day of lobbying to the up-coming November elections and the re-election of President Obama: "Today we march. November we vote."

In an earlier conversation with this reporter, Harmon said, "We want the tea party Republicans to think this is total war."

The public sector workers' lobby day consisted of union members from the Missouri State Workers' Union (CWA-MSWU), the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Jamie Reed, a MSWU member from St. Louis, told the People's World, "I don't think most of these politicians understand what we actually do."

Reed, a Department of Youth Services employee, works to keep at-risk youth out of jail, off drugs and out of gangs. She said, "Without state workers a lot of these kids end up back on the streets or in jail."

However, Reed is not only concerned about the human cost of budget cuts. She's concerned about the Missouri economy, too.

She said, "It costs tax payers more money in the long-run - if we don't intervene while they are young. A lot of these kids could end up on food stamps, in jail or on drugs. Every kid we reach saves the state money."

Missouri is currently running a $500 million budget deficit, and hundreds of public workers have already been laid-off. Union members think Missouri politicians should be focused on generating revenue, not cutting services.

Currently, the Show-Me-State is losing about $250 million annually in "unclaimed taxes," Clark Brown, from the SEIU State Council, told the assembled union members. He said we need "revenue enhancement" to grow our budget and give state workers' raises.

One popular piece of legislation being debated is the Main Street Fairness Act. This legislation would collect taxes on online sales and protect local small businesses by leveling the playing field with online retailers. Currently, online purchases are not taxed in Missouri.

This tax would generate an estimated $187 million, an amount that would likely increase as more and more consumers make purchases online. Currently 23 other states already claim this tax.

Another way to grow our revenue, said Brown, would be to increase the Missouri Tobacco Tax. Currently, cigarettes are taxed at $.17 in Missouri, the lowest tobacco tax in the United States. The national average tax is $1.42 per-pack.

According to Brown, a smoker, "Missouri could double its tobacco tax and still remain far below neighboring states."

In Kansas cigarettes are taxed at $.79 per-pack and in Illinois cigarettes are taxed at $.98 per-pack. The Department of Revenue estimates that raising the tobacco tax in Missouri from $.17 per-pack to $.34 per-pack would generate $94.8 million annually.

Missouri's public workers haven't had a pay raise in five years and are the lowest paid public workers in the country.

In fact, according to Brown, "Missouri state workers are 34 percent behind the national average in pay."

The Missouri House is currently debating a 2 percent pay raise for state workers at a cost of about $20.5 million - less than one-tenth of the "unclaimed taxes."

Brown added, "We have to stop the anti-workers agenda. They want to blame workers for the economy. But this is really about shutting us down, breaking the union and our collective power."

Josh McCarroll, from AFSCME District Council 72, summoned-up the lobby day when he said, "This is where the rubber meets the road. Make sure they understand we are paying attention. And we vote."

Photo: Tony Pecinovsky

Unions tackle states' practices that hurt workers

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 11:23:00 +0000

ORLADO, Fla. -- The labor movement is beginning to mount a legislative offensive in the states to stop what it says are "under the radar" attacks on workers.

"The big push to end collective bargaining rights and the push for so called right-to-work laws got a lot of attention in the states and nationally," said Naomi Walker, the AFL-CIO's Director of State Government Relations, in an interview here last week. "But they are only part of the problem. We are also mounting a push for legislation in many states that is designed to stop other practices that are used on the state level to hurt workers."

Walker was in Orlando attending a special meeting of the AFL-CIO's executive council focused on the 2012 elections.

She gave as an example of the legislation she spoke about, the Keep Jobs in the State Act, which, if passed, would prohibit states from contracting with or providing assistance to companies that ship work offshore.

"The bill ensures that state tax dollars are used to create jobs," Walker said, and "includes a money-back guarantee for state taxpayers: companies that violate the offshoring ban during the course of a contract must repay the state, and violators would be banned from receiving taxpayer dollars for five years."

States where the bill has been introduced are Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Washington and Virginia.

"Workers who are unemployed are facing a tough time being considered for new jobs and there is a lot states can do to assist them," said Walker. "Really outrageous are the 'help wanted ads' all around the country that tell unemployed workers they need not apply," she added.

The AFL-CIO is pushing the Fair Chance for Employment Act, she said. This would prohibit an employer from refusing to consider an applicant because he or she is currently unemployed and would bar any state contractor who violates the law from receiving state contracts for up to three years.

The bill has been introduced in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Indiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota Washington and Wisconsin.

Other areas the labor movement is tackling on a state level are the issues of raising state revenue by closing tax loopholes and by taxing the rich.

So far, only in Rhode Island has there been introduced a bill to raise state taxes on the wealthy. "This must be done in all the states," said Walker, "because massive cuts have and continue to be made in education, public safety, and other important services needed by children, seniors and working families, And lower and middle income people pay a much larger share of their income in state taxes than the very rich."

Only Pennsylvania has introduced a bill to close corporate state tax loopholes.

"States spend billions each year on outsourced services, as well as tax credits, deductions, exemptions and other breaks that they call tax expenditures," Walker explained, "yet do little to track what is spent or evaluate the impact and effectiveness."

Still another area the AFL-CIO wants states to address is the issue of misclassification of workers, an area that Walker said involves fraud by many employers.

"A growing number of employers are misclassifying workers as independent contractors in an effort to avoid paying certain taxes like Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment taxes," Walker noted. "With states having budget shortfalls, misclassification must be stopped. Its costing states millions of dollars in lost payroll and related tax revenue, and denying workers key safety net protections and rights.," Only two states, New Mexico and Washington, have introduced laws to halt this practice.

All of these bills are important," Walker said, "because they bring attention to the real causes of the economic crisis and they tell our elected officials to stop scapegoating workers as the cause and start instead focusing on passing bills that will help create jobs."

Photo: Union members join in the fight for workers rights, Recall Walker rally, March 12, Madison Wisc. Blake Deppe/PW

UK's labor leader Bob Crow builds solidarity at the Left Labor Project

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:49:00 +0000

NEW YORK CITY -- On March 14, the Left Labor Project hosted Bob Crow, General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers in the UK. He opened with a 40-minute overview of his union, their position on electoral process, the general political climate in the UK and the current struggle being waged by their working class to roll back the cuts by the Tory-led Government.

"We believe the trade union movement is not just about what wages or what contract you get but about the social side: Decent transportation, affordable housing, a decent welfare state. Decent hospitals and also when people retire we respect old age as well. So that's what we are about 24-7."

He talked about the necessity of socialism as the only way forward. "What else is there? Cuts and more cuts." While the government gave hundreds of billion pounds to the banks, Crow pointed out that "The Occupy Movement felt the full force of the government. While the same people were having people thrown out of their houses left, right and center. The real criminals are the bankers not the people sitting outside the churches."

There are 25 Members of Parliament (out of a total of 650 MPs) that the union supports on the ground and monetarily. "When one looks for our support we ask two questions: 1, will you support repealing anti-labor laws imposed during the Thatcher regime? And 2, will you reauthorize the nationalization of essential industries"? He added that 90% of the union membership does not belong to a political party.

Crow pointed out that under the New Labour Party and Tony Blair, more jobs were privatized than under the Thatcher government.

His union and labor in general do not support any party that wants to keep capitalism in tact and just "regulate" it. Rather labor supports candidates who openly advocate for socialism. He spoke extensively about labor breaking away from the major parties and creating the UK's Labour Party. Labor made tremendous gains after WWII: the Health Care System; the Rail and Maritime System and the Welfare State in general.

The problems we face here in the U.S. are very much the same as those faced by labor and youth in the UK as Crow pointed out, e.g., "this is the first generation in England that will not so as well as their parents. One in four youth don't have a job. Unemployment among the youth, the actual figure is about 16%. Our job is to give young people hope, jobs, and a peaceful world."

The Left Labor Project brings union leaders like Bob Crow to speak and build solidarity and understanding among international unions. Crow has been in the labor movement since he was sixteen. He has held various positions in the movement and in 2002 he was elected General Secretary. He was re-elected General Secretary in 2007 and 2012. On both occasions he was unopposed.

There is much to be learned from these forums. LLP has made progress in bringing New York labor unions together. This will be the third May Day that the labor unions will be "taking back May Day" to its rightful creators, the working class.

Photo: National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) at last year's Stop the Cuts rally. RMT Facebook album.

AFL-CIO defends women’s access to contraception

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:13:00 +0000

ORLANDO, Fla. - In the wake of a GOP-induced controversy over contraceptive rights and health care, the AFL-CIO has stepped forward to defend women's access to contraception, "regardless of where they work."

The resolution, pushed by the Coalition of Labor Union Women, was passed at the federation's executive council meeting here this week. It reads, in part, that "denial of contraceptive coverage is seen as discrimination against women and an attack on workers' right to basic health coverage" under the new health care law.

The labor movement has waded into the contraceptive rights controversy, for the first time ever, after a furor erupted over an Obama administration decision that said that institutions - though not churches - run by religious organizations must nonetheless provide contraceptive coverage to women through the institutions' health care plans.

But complaints, mostly from the GOP and the Catholic Church, arose that the regulation - part of a set of federal rules making contraceptive coverage part of basic health care under the new health care law - would force institutions to provide the health care coverage even when it was against their religious principles.

To solve that problem, the administration said the institutions' insurers - not the protesting institutions, such as hospitals and schools -- must pay for contraceptive coverage for their female workers.

The AFL-CIO's Mar. 14 resolution came to the defense of female workers:

"The right to quality health care has deteriorated into an attack on the character of the women who want nothing more than to have a personal decision in the matter," the resolution said. "Contraception is not only important in helping women and men plan their families, it is also used to treat or prevent many health conditions that affect women, including reducing their risk of developing ovarian and endometrial cancers."

"All women should have access to quality health care at a reasonable cost that is not determined by political agendas," the federation declared.

The health care law provides that coverage, but "efforts are being taken that would restrict a woman's ability" to get it, they said. It did not name the authors and sponsors of those efforts, but the campaign for restrictions has been led by the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the so-called "social issues" voters of the GOP.

Congressional Republicans have tried, so far unsuccessfully, to ban health care coverage of female contraception. Huge majorities of voters in both parties, plus independents, favor insurance coverage of female contraception.

Service Employees start campaign to expose secret campaign donors

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:39:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - The Service Employees have become one of several leading organizations creating a campaign to expose big corporate donors, who are secretly funding so-called 'SuperPACs,' and to drive them out of politics.

The campaign, announced in a Mar. 12 press conference at headquarters here of the Service Employees International Union, will use everything from publicity to boycotts to lawsuits to shame the firms and prevent them from controlling the political process through money, sponsors said.

They're starting with a $25,000 reward to anyone who comes forward with inside information about a corporation's hidden funding of a SuperPAC.

The groups launched their drive as reports circulated of ever-increasing checks to and spending by the SuperPACs, especially in the Republican presidential primary race. One such donor, Las Vegas casino multimillionaire Sheldon Adelson, has bankrolled the SuperPAC supporting the presidential bid by ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, with $11 million. The groups cited that as a prime example of corruption.

Some have criticized the labor movement for forming its own SuperPAC in response to the corporate power grab in the electoral arena.

But there are differences between the AFL-CIO's SuperPAC and the corporate-funded committees, said Ethan Romm of Health Care for America Now, a group working in coalition with SEIU. Unions, he said, are led by democratically elected officials and must be responsible to their members; corporations are not. "And in the 2010 campaign, [regular] corporate PACs outspent union PACs 20-to-1," he added.

Minn. GOP assaults workers with constitutional amendments

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:30:00 +0000

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Right-wing Minnesota politicians, taking part in the national war on workers, have turned towards putting two controversial state constitutional amendments on the Minnesota ballot this fall; organized labor has already begun to battle both.

One of the far-reaching proposals would write so-called "voter ID" laws into the state's basic charter, making it harder for minorities, the poor, college students, the elderly, those without drivers' licenses, and others to register and vote.

The other scheme would insert a so-called "right to work" law into the constitution, banning unions from collecting dues or equivalent fees from non-members covered by union contracts.

Right to work sounds innocent enough in name, but in reality it is yet another corporate attack on middle class families, union contracts, and workplace safety, unionists point out.

"These laws are nothing more than another attack on the middle class," Bobby Kasper, president of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, wrote in the St. Paul Union Advocate.

"We cannot sit back," he declared. "We cannot wait and see whether state lawmakers, looking to repay the corporations and wealthy donors who put them in office, will put a right to work constitutional amendment on the ballot next fall. We need to get the word out now: right to work is wrong for Minnesota.

"Contrary to its name, right to work doesn't guarantee workers any rights. Instead, it allows some workers to choose to pay nothing - and still enjoy the rights and protections of a union contract others are paying dues to maintain. That makes it harder for unions to bargain for contracts that improve workers' wages, benefits, and working conditions.

"In fact, workers in right to work states earn, on average, $6,150 less than workers in Minnesota. What's more, Minnesota has fewer workplace injuries, better public schools, and a higher percentage of people with health insurance coverage than states with right to work laws on the books.

"So who thinks right to work is a good idea? Corporations and CEOs do - and so do the politicians they helped put into office. Is it any surprise that the same politicians who bailed out Wall Street are now going after struggling middle class workers with right to work?

"We need you to tell your friends, family, and co-workers how bad right to work really is," Kasper concluded.

The other idea the right wing is pushing is to strip people of the right to vote - and thus deprive them of a key lever in the fight against corporate domination of politics.

Unmoved by an outpouring of public opposition from seniors, workers, and advocates for the poor, lawmakers in the Minnesota legislature appeared poised last month to push another constitutional amendment onto the November ballot: Voter ID.

The amendment, opposed by the state's unions, would restrict the right to vote to people able to present photo identification at the polls.

The amendment cleared the Minnesota House, and it was making its way through Senate committees. Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed a similar bill last year, but Minnesota governors cannot veto proposed constitutional amendments.

The voter ID amendment seems harmless enough, but opponents say the requirement, if passed, will suppress voter turnout among populations less likely to possess photo ID - including the elderly, minority groups, and people who don't drive.

Those opponents include the Minnesota AFL-CIO and the Minnesota chapter of AARP, which testified against the bill at a Senate committee hearing in February.

"We are very concerned that a constitutional amendment on Voter ID, if passed, would hamper the ability of many older Minnesotans to vote," AARP Minnesota said in a statement. "We believe that requiring a Voter ID will create unnecessary and costly burdens for many older voters."

New restrictions might be justified, opponents said, if voter fraud were a problem in Minnesota. But according to non-partisan audits of the state's elections, voter fraud is virtually non-existent in Minnesota.

That leads some foes to believe the problem Republicans are trying to solve with the voter ID amendment is that too many seniors and low-income Minnesotans are voting - and voting for Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidates.

That's the opinion of Northfield resident John Frasz, who joined a rally against voter suppression at the state capitol on Feb. 8. Republicans, he said, "aren't fooling anybody with this amendment. It's about keeping Democrats from voting. And it's the most un-American thing I've ever seen in Minnesota."

The Feb. 8 rally drew more than 100 opponents of voter ID to the state capitol. Action included a bit of street theater, as opponents of voter ID covered their mouths with dollar bills, symbolizing the corporate interests pushing voter ID and their attempt to silence poor and elderly voters with campaign cash.

The prior Feb. 1 hearing had to be called off before everyone in the crowd who wanted to testify against the amendment could do so. That included Ilo Madden, a 73-year-old St. Louis Park resident who is oxygen-dependent and on a respirator.

A regular absentee voter, Madden said, "One of the reasons we have absentee voting is so people like me, who have severe issues with mobility, can participate in our electoral process. Requiring me to present a photo ID in person before voting, would make it incredibly hard, if not impossible, for me to vote absentee."