People Before Profit blog

Federal lawmakers join state reps in attack on public workers

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 12:41:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Right-wing federal lawmakers, led by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., are backing up state government attacks on state and local workers' pensions through a measure that, if passed, would make the pensions virtually unaffordable.

The attacks, all in the GOP-run tea party-dominated House would, in the name of "transparency," drastically change assumptions that governments and unions must now make when figuring out whether a pension plan is solvent.

The combined impact of the changes, if approved, would be to force the pension plans to stop benefits, or worse, Fire Fighters' Legislative Director Barry Kasinitz told his union's legislative conference delegates, meeting in D.C. in mid-March.

The issue is important to millions of workers and their families. Federal data show state and local governments combined employ 16.4 million workers. Another speaker at the IAFF legislative conference calculated that Social Security does not cover some 70 percent of those workers. Originally, all were excluded.

That means millions of state and local workers and their families depend on the workers' pensions for their retirement income. Unions negotiate the pensions in contracts over the years. Non-unionists are at the mercy of employing governments.

The federal attack comes as states ranging from New York to Illinois to New Jersey and cities from Baltimore to San Diego to Little Rock use budget troubles and red ink to cut public workers' pensions. Often those governments haven't made their required payments to workers' pension funds, while the workers have, speakers said.

Kasinitz said Nunes' bill would virtually make a public pension plan not financially viable, by definition. And it would really penalize governments who go ahead, anyway.

Nunes and other Tea Partyites first attacked pensions frontally in 2011, but IAFF and other unions led a belated education campaign that killed the scheme. Now Nunes, his 49 GOP co-sponsors and lone Democrat Mike Quigley of Illinois want to attach their anti-pension bill to another piece of legislation, behind closed doors, Kasinitz said.

Nunes' bill says any public pension plan must be absolutely "risk free" and orders it to report its rate of return on its investments to the federal government. It now reports, publicly, to state and local officials. The bill also orders a plan to assume it can earn two percent yearly, at most, on its investments - regardless of how well the plan actually performs.

"There's not a pension plan in America that would qualify" as risk free "under that two percent standard," Kasinitz said.

"And if you don't meet that standard, the legislation says that we (the feds) take away your tax exemption for state and local bonds," which the governments issue - anticipating tax revenues - to finance everything from workers' pay to snow plows.

"They want to create a false report" about a pension plan's vulnerability "to create a crisis," Kasinitz told delegates, urging them to lobby against the legislation.

Another piece of GOP pension legislation would ban the feds from "bailing out" any state and local government - such as the city of Detroit, whose pension funds are severely underfunded - that declares bankruptcy.

That same measure, Kasinitz said, would also "call on every state to abolish its defined benefits pension plans for public employees." Those "traditional" pensions, with their guaranteed monthly retirement payouts, could be replaced with alternatives that pay less, either the public pension version of 401(k) plans, or "cash balance" plans.

Meanwhile, some half a dozen states will be the top battlegrounds in this year's fights over public workers' pensions, Jordan Marks of the National Public Pension Coalition told the IAFF members.

Illinois tops the list, he said. It has a $91 billion difference between available current state - not local - pension money and estimated future obligations. Gov. Pat Quinn, D-Ill., elected in 2010 with strong union support, is touring the state, Marks said, posing a choice of pensions or roads. Illinois has not made its required contributions. Members of state worker unions are offering to contribute 2 percent more in salary yearly.

The other states are Florida, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada and Louisiana. But workers have some weapons to fight back with, Marks said. They include educating state lawmakers that public workers don't get Social Security and studies that show converting traditional state pensions to 401(k)s with state matches costs a state more money and takes pension payments out of workers' pockets.

His group, which includes the AFL-CIO, the Fire Fighters, AFSCME, SEIU and both U.S. teachers unions, can provide more data for education, Marks added.

"Florida's pensions are 87 percent funded," in one example he gave. "But the state House speaker and state Senate majority leader," both Republicans, "want to move all the workers to a defined contribution plan," like a 401(k). "It's an ideological crusade."

Photo: Workers protest efforts to slash public worker pensions. John Bachtell/PW

Southwest Airlines ground crews walk picket lines

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:01:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. - Southwest Airlines ground workers took to the picket lines in 16 cities March 28, to protest contract proposals they say would compromise the airline's tradition of outstanding customer service.

On the lines for the informational picket were ramp, operations, provisioning and freight workers who have been negotiating for a new contract since July 2011.

Their local, Transport Workers Union Local 555, represents over 9,400 ground workers at Southwest Airlines terminals throughout the nation.

In Oakland, it was a family event, with kids carried in arms, riding in strollers and joining their parents to hoist a sign. And it was a solidarity action, with TWU 555's sister local, TWU Local 556 representing flight attendants, participating along with the Alameda Labor Council and members of a number of other unions.

On the line was negotiating committee member John Kaczmarek, a ground worker now working full time for the union.

Asked about the biggest issue in the talks, Kaczmarek pointed to Southwest's drive to contract out some 20 percent of ground jobs. "They want to get their foot in the door for contract labor," he said. "And then they want to dramatically increase part-time workers, dropping full-time positions to part-time where they don't pay benefits to families."

Also among issues in the negotiations, Kaczmarek said, are proposals for serious cuts in health care and compensation for workers hurt on the job.

"A lot of people don't realize that Southwest Airlines is the most successful airline flying," Kaczmarek said. "They posted $241 million in profits last year. They don't need to contract out our labor or take away our benefits. We're the ones who make it a pleasure to fly; we're the ones who make sure your bags get from A to B."

While many functions of ground crews are obvious, some workers perform vital functions not obvious to the average passenger. Kaczmarek pointed out that operations workers have responsibility for providing weight-and-balance information about what's on board a plane so pilots can set controls correctly to ensure safe takeoffs, flights and landings.

TWU 556 member Matthew Hettich said the flight attendants' union, which is preparing for its own contract talks, feels a "strong interest in Local 555 members getting the contract they deserve, that recognizes their role in Southwest's success. Upper management doesn't know how to do our jobs, and needs to recognize that the airline is profitable because of the hard work of its employees."

TWU 555's president, Charles Cerf, said in a statement, "We simply can't understand why management would compromise our tradition of excellence by making demands at the bargaining table to outsource our work, cut into our sick days, and make it harder for our members to be on the job. If we're not there, who is going to provide our passengers with the quality of service they have come to expect at Southwest?"

Picket lines were also up at airports in Buffalo, N.Y.; Baltimore, Md.; Chicago; Dallas; Ft. Lauderdale and Tampa, Fla.; Houston; Kansas City; Las Vegas, Nev.; Los Angeles; Nashville, Tenn.; Phoenix, Ariz. and Seattle-Tacoma, Wash.

Southwest Airlines: not so luvly to employees

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 11:36:00 +0000

DALLAS - Transport Workers Union 555 invited supporters to help them picket Love Field here on March 28. Around 75 union members and supporters carried out a very enthusiastic rally.

The union's contract with Southwest Airlines became amendable under the Railway Labor Act nearly two years ago. Since then, workers say the company has stalled in negotiations and brought an ever-increasing list of demands for cuts. Health care is an issue, as it is in nearly all negotiations between bosses and employees nowadays. Management wants to change their sick-pay rules.

A particularly unbearable demand from management is the union give-up a substantial part of their bargaining unit. The company wants to outsource baggage handling at all the smaller airports it serves. Southwest Airlines was originally a small regional airline with gates all over Texas.

Southwest advertised itself as "the luv airline" as a play on the fact that Love Field, the last airport that President Kennedy used, was their main base. Southwest was once well known among transportation workers as a good place to work. Longtime CEO Herb Kelleher had a reputation for fairness with the employees. Some of the original employees became relatively wealthy on employee stock options. Television ads still show happy baggage handlers eagerly carrying out the "bags fly free" slogan.

Today, it's not so luvly.

Photo: At the Love Field picket line, union members and supporters remind management it was union workers who helped build the company (PW/Jim Lane).

More firms challenge NLRB’s right to rule on their cases

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 14:54:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Two more companies have dragged the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) into federal appellate courts, questioning the agency's right to rule in their labor-management disputes because NLRB allegedly lacked a quorum.

Their filings, in courts in Chicago and New Orleans, force NLRB to scramble to defend its powers in judging labor law cases, arguing it had the required three members to do so since January 2012.

In the Chicago court, FTS, a sand refinery factory in Oakdale, Wis., challenges NLRB's order that it recognize, provide data to and bargain with Operating Engineers Local 136, which won a recognition election. In the New Orleans tribunal, Arlington, Texas, auto parts supplier Flex-N-Gate contests NLRB's decision that the firm's labor law-breaking skewed a recognition election among 80 workers. UAW lost that vote.

Both FTS and Flex-N-Gate are defending themselves not just on the specifics but - more importantly-using a January ruling by a 3-judge federal appeals panel in D.C. That court ruled the NLRB lacked a quorum to decide virtually every case in 2012.

FTS and Flex-N-Gate are two of 60 companies, so far, citing that D.C. ruling, says NLRB Communications Director Nancy Cleeland. All 60 say that decision, Noel Canning, means NLRB illegally judged their labor-management relations cases.

The D.C. judges said Democratic President Barack Obama's "recess appointments" to two NLRB seats were illegal, leaving the board with only one legal member, chairman Mark Gaston Pearce, and unable to do anything. Obama had to name the recess appointees after GOP Senate filibusters killed his nominations for regular NLRB terms.

The board has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take the Noel Canning case and resolve the mess. But even if the high court does so, the justices will not hear it before October at the earliest.

The objective of the GOP filibusters, and of big business in seeking the Noel Canning ruling, was to bring the NLRB to a grinding halt, preventing it from enforcing labor law, though that law is already weak and penalties against lawbreakers are small.

In both the FTS and Flex-N-Gate cases, the board told appeals judges it had the required three members in 2012, so its orders should be enforced and powers upheld.

"Noel Canning" the D.C. court's decision saying Obama's recess appointees were illegal, "is an outlier decision, and conflicts with decisions of three other (appeals) courts," NLRB's brief in the Wisconsin firm's case says.

"Indeed, the claims approved in Noel Canning are wrong as a matter of constitutional text, history, and purpose. They conflict with conclusions of every other court of appeals to address such challenges. And they would throw out nearly two centuries of long-accepted executive branch practice" in naming recess appointees.

"The board's order against" FTS "should be enforced, as the company failed to show the board improperly certified the union. The company bears the burden of proving the board's certification improper, and substantial evidence supports findings that the company failed to carry that burden."

The board's attorneys repeated the constitutional arguments in their brief in the Texas case. They also said Flex-N-Gate filed its constitutional claim too late.

"This court need not consider Flex-N-Gate's untimely arguments because it has forfeited them. Rather than raising any constitutional challenges in its opening brief, Flex-N-Gate elected to raise only labor issues. In so doing, it forfeited the constitutional challenges it is now belatedly advancing. Flex-N-Gate has no excuse for not raising in a timely manner arguments that were readily available to it," NLRB's attorneys said.

"Moreover, under clear Supreme Court case law and a plain reading of the governing statutes, appointments challenges like this are non-jurisdictional and do not go to this Court's authority to decide the dispute before it." No dates have been set for hearings of the FTS and Flex-N-Gate cases.

Photo: Andrew Samis/We Are Ohio

Missouri state workers lobby day

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 13:07:00 +0000

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo - "They want to take away your right to support your union," Bradley Harmon, president of the Missouri State Workers' Union (MSWU) CWA 6355, told 200 union activists and stewards as they rallied here on the Capitol steps March 27.

"They don't want us to be here," Harmon continued. "They want to kill us off this year so we won't be back next year."

Members of MSWU-CWA 6355, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1 and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) District Council 72 were rallying against so-called right-to-work (RTW) and paycheck deception legislation, both of-which are designed to bankrupt unions.

RTW allows people who do not pay union dues to benefit from a union negotiated contract, grievance procedure, health and pension benefits, and higher wages, while paycheck deception restricts the ways in-which unions can collect and spend dues payments.

Workers in RTW states are paid about $1,500 less per-year than their counter-parts in non-right to work states.

With the Capitol dome just behind him, Harmon said state workers weren't just here to lobby. They were here to send a message to the right-wing republicans that currently control the Missouri House and Senate.

He said, "We need to let these people know, this is our building. They are in our House. These temporary squatters are not going to unravel our social safety net or take away our union."

"We came here today, as one. And that gives us power, which scares the crap out of the people in that building. And I'm just fine with that," Harmon concluded.

Jeff Mazur, executive director of AFSCME DC 72, called RTW and paycheck deception "a ruse, a red hearing designed to take away your voice."

However, the rally and lobby day wasn't just about union members.

While the various unions represent workers in the Department of Social Services, the Department of Family Services, Mental Health workers, Probation, Parole and Correctional Officers, and Home Health Care workers, among many other job classifications, the rally and lobby day was also about the people they service.

For example, 1.2 million Missourians rely on the Department of Family Services (DFS) which is currently facing possible staffing cuts of up-to 30 percent. Adding insult to injury, over 5,700 state employees have been cut since 2008.

Nancy Cross, vice president of SEIU Local 1, said, "It is unacceptable that they are trying to cut our jobs to balance the budget."

CWA public sector vice president, Brooks Sunkett, agreed with Cross and added, "They want to use the budget shortfall created by their policies to cut public workers and the service we provide."

Sunkett, representing 150,000 CWA public sector workers, added, "You don't help fix the economy by cutting jobs."

He also emphasized the reality voiced by all of the assembled unionists when he said, "two-thirds of all Americans will at some point in their lives rely on our social safety net. We are the voice of the voiceless."

Missouri AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, Mike Louis, also took right-wing politicians to task when he said, "Inside of these walls are extremist politicians, attacking you, me, all of us." Louis continued, "We are here as the labor movement, public and private sector. We are united. We are one. And we're not going to take it."

After the rally state workers from all-across Missouri lobbied their representatives and senators against so-called right-to-work and paycheck deception legislation.

Harmon summed-up the mood of the rally and lobby day when he said, "This legislative session ends on May 17, and their right-wing, anti-worker agenda ends on May 17 too. But our union doesn't end on May 17. We'll keep going. We'll be here as long as it takes."

Photo: Tim Rowden, St. Louis Labor Tribune.

Unionists back marriage equality, in and out of high court

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 12:25:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Inside and outside the U.S. Supreme Court, unionists backed the right of same-sex couples to marry as the justices held hearings on two separate cases on the issue.

United for Marriage, an umbrella organization of gay rights supporters and activists, staged rallies outside the Supreme Court, drawing hundreds of people to its plaza. They included members of unions in the Metro D.C. Central Labor Council - which publicized the event - and Pride at Work, the AFL-CIO's constituency group for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender unionists.

Activists held similar rallies in other cities nationwide, again timed to coincide with the court's session. The justices will rule on the two cases by June 30.

Inside, the federation, Change To Win and the National Education Association previously joined together in filing "friend of the court" briefs supporting same-sex marriage and federal civil rights equality for same-sex couples. Also, union leaders issued prepared statements strongly supporting equality for same-sex couples.

The justices heard two cases involving the rights of same-sex couples. The first, on March 26, challenged a 2008 California referendum, Proposition 8, overturning that state's Supreme Court ruling that let gay couples marry. With huge but hidden financing from the Mormon Church, Prop 8 passed 52-48 percent. Polls show it would not pass today.

The second case, on March 27, asked the justices to toss out the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which the radical right pushed through the GOP-run Congress in 1996, denying federal benefits to same-sex spouses. That bars gays and lesbians from everything from joint deductions on tax returns to military death benefits.

In both cases, advocates of gay marriage said the referendum and DOMA violate equal protection of the law. The unions' briefs, which are not part of the court's hearing, came down strongly for the right of same-sex couples to marry and against the DOMA.

The Obama administration refused to defend DOMA, so House Republicans did.

Proposition 8 "perpetuates a two-tiered workforce" rife with discrimination by downgrading gay and lesbian workers below their colleagues in health care and other benefits, the unions said. Gays and lesbian workers are also deprived of "basic respect and dignity" that their heterosexual colleagues receive, the unions added.

"We bargain and advocate for domestic partner benefits in union contracts, for prohibitions forbidding employers from firing gay and lesbian workers because of sexual orientation, and for programs to help end discrimination in the workplace," they added.

That gives unions two reasons to argue that Prop 8 is discriminatory, illegal and should be outlawed, they explained. Prop 8 "inflicts economic harm on workers with same-sex partners by causing them to earn less money, pay higher taxes on their wages and benefits, and receive fewer valuable benefits and protections than their counterparts with different sex partners."

And Proposition 8 is "state-sanctioned endorsement of discrimination which, in turn, legitimizes the marginalization of gay men and lesbians in the workplace.

"Consequently, Proposition 8 severely impedes our ability to represent union members and to advocate and seek justice for all workers," the unions add.

DOMA is bad enough, the unions argued in their friend-of-the-court brief against it. Prop 8 only makes things worse for gay and lesbian workers, at least in California.

The unions' DOMA brief concentrated on the economic inequality the federal law imposes on gay and lesbian couples by barring benefits to them. "DOMA, by intention and design, ensures workers with same-sex spouses earn less money, pay higher taxes on their wages and benefits, and have available fewer valuable benefits than their counterparts with different-sex spouses," the unions said.

"DOMA impermissibly relegates an entire class of working families to a lower stratum of economic security by irrationally depriving married gay and lesbian workers of employment benefits extended to their colleagues. As such, DOMA deprives these, union members and other workers of equal protection of the law."

The union leaders took the same stand in their statements.

"Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender working people face numerous inequities in the workplace and in society as they struggle to care for their families," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. "Civil unions do not guarantee the 1,138 rights, benefits and responsibilities that are triggered by the word "marriage" under federal law.

"Most important, we should respect and honor our friends, neighbors, and family members who want to take care of their families and their loved ones - whatever their sexual orientation," he added.

"Marriage equality is an economic justice issue, and a social justice issue - and that makes it a union issue," added UFCW President Joe Hansen, chair of Change To Win. "In the UFCW, we have a long, proud history of standing up for fair and equal treatment for all workers - regardless of what they look like, where they come from, what language they speak, or who they love. These values are heartfelt."

"Relationship recognition matters for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers as a basic union issue, an economic justice issue and as a social justice issue," added a statement from Pride at Work. "Same-sex couples take a unique financial hit because their relationships aren't recognized under federal law due to DOMA, and they have less ability to care for and support their families in times of need. The right to equal pay and benefits for equal work is a fundamental component of labor struggles, as is the ability to work and support one's family with dignity and respect.

Other statements supporting same-sex marriage and rights came from UAW President Bob King, Communications Workers President Larry Cohen, Unite Here, Association of Flight Attendants-CWA President Veda Shook, AFT President Randi Weingarten and SEIU President Mary Kay Henry.

Ms. Henry is co-founder of SEIU's Lavender Caucus, a gay and lesbian group within the international union dedicated to improving rights for LGBTQ people within unions and at the workplace.

Ms. Weingarten had been out to her family, friends, and co-workers for many years. In 2007, she came out publically.

Photo: Pride at Work Facebook page

What I learned from the Immokalee workers

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 11:19:00 +0000

Earlier this month I marched for three days with Florida's Immokalee farmworkers and their supporters. I was a "summer soldier" compared to the many marchers - young and old - who had joyfully trekked 200 miles during the two-week-long event.

The march began in Ft. Myers, Florida, and ended in Lakeland, the home office of Publix supermarkets. So far this corporate giant has refused to even sit down and talk with the Immokalee workers, let alone consider their main demand - a mere penny more per pound for the tomatoes they pick.

Even though I marched for only a few days, I left with many strong impressions and some conclusions.

First, I was impressed by the determination, spirit, and organization of these workers. For more than a decade they have been battling the powerful food industry. And yet they seem undeterred by the difficulty of their undertaking. Older as well as younger marchers had bounce in their step, exuded confidence in their cause, and displayed a remarkable and collective discipline.

I was also impressed by the broad alliance that has been built in support of the Immokalee workers. This didn't happen spontaneously. Early on, these workers realized what more and more sections of the labor movement are concluding: Go-it-alone strategies don't work in an economic and political environment dominated by mega-corporations. Only coalitions that reach outward as well as engage in militant actions, that activate the grassroots and that combine various forms of struggle have the capacity to stop and reverse the corporate counteroffensive.

This offensive, championed by the right and too little resisted by centrist and liberal forces, has been as much political and ideological as economic. It's true that the economic terrain - offshoring, new technologies, the decline of old industries and the appearance of new ones, anemic recovery, etc. - shifted in ways that have been disadvantageous to the working class. But the main factor explaining the drop in living standards and erosion of rights of working people has been the one-sided intensification of the class struggle by the capitalist class starting nearly four decades ago.

Forty years later, this imbalance of power is being redressed as sections of labor like the Immokalee workers not only resist corporate power, but do it in new ways that accent the power of broad alliances and unity in action.

The presence of young activists in the march also made a big impression on me. Many were from college campuses; all were part of the sustainable food movement that has grown by leaps and bounds and links farm workers to activists in urban and campus settings. While a youth movement on the scale of the 1960s does not yet exist, growing youth activism around issues like this one bodes well for the future.

I was moved and even surprised by the support that the march received from Floridians driving by or watching from their homes or businesses. I have to admit that I'd expected some signs of hostility to the farm workers, most of whom are recent immigrants from Central America, but actually, I saw almost none of that. Instead, expressions of support were almost universal, and some were very enthusiastic. More than I appreciated, Florida appears to be changing under the impact of the economic crisis, shifting demographics, and declining support for right-wing politics.

Finally, the march reminded me once again that the barrier to economic justice is structured into the system of capitalism. Capitalists are greedy to be sure, but their greed is more than a misguided personal preoccupation. Their profit maximizing behavior springs from a system of social production whose inner logic requires of them the extraction of greater and greater profits from the labor of working people.

Some individual capitalists might even want to do the right thing. But the imperatives of intra-capitalist competition and capital accumulation compel them to constantly look for ways at the economic and political level to reduce the share of the product going to the worker, while maximizing the share going into their pockets for a fresh round of capital accumulation - not to mention their own luxury consumption.

This insight of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels led them to conclude that the mass struggles of working people and their allies to curb the excesses of capitalist society had to be coupled with battles to abolish the whole system of capitalist exploitation in favor of a just, democratic and free society - socialism.

The latter wasn't on the agenda of the Immokalee workers this month, but in this era of deepening and generalized capitalist crisis it is not a stretch to think that growing sections of workers and their allies will consider more fundamental solutions to the seemingly intractable problems they encounter in their everyday lives.

Photo: Immokalee farm workers march for justice. Josh Leclair/PW

U.S. and British transport workers form alliance

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 14:02:00 +0000

WASHINGTON and LONDON - The Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) and the UK-based National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers (RMT) announced today that both unions have agreed to a "Trans-Atlantic Alliance," to cooperate on safety issues; launch joint campaigns targeting employers in-common; and advance a global strategy promoting the right of workers to organize unions and bargain to improve their working lives.

"This is an important step for everyone who works in the transport industry on both sides of the Atlantic," said TWU International President James Little. "It means the voices of working men and women will be heard loud and clear in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. With privileged elites in both countries demanding 'austerity' for us while enjoying record profits and lavish lifestyles, there's never been a better time for workers to join hands across borders and across the ocean to build a stronger, smarter, and more sophisticated international labor movement."

"This is great news if you work in transport in the U.S. or the U.K.," said RMT General Secretary Bob Crow. "But if you're a corporate executive who doesn't want to treat workers fairly, or a government official who doesn't understand the value of public employees...watch out. We're stronger today than we were yesterday. We're going to pool resources, share research and conduct joint campaigns to advance the pay, pensions, health care and working conditions of transport workers on both sides of the Atlantic."

"This is the right move at the right time," said Little. "Our members face many of the same employers and the same wrong-headed government policies. Together, we can be a more effective voice for working people."

"Let's face it: Companies are global, and any trade union that doesn't operate on a global basis isn't really in the game," said Crow. "RMT members have always been forceful advocates for workers and for progressive issues, and TWU members are like-minded. It's a good fit and we're excited to move forward."

The U.S. Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) represents 200,000 workers and retirees, in commercial aviation, public transportation, passenger railroads and gaming. The U.K.-based National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) is Britain's fastest growing trade union, representing more than 80,000 members in almost every sector of the transport industry, from mainline and underground rail to shipping and offshore, buses, and road-freight.

Photo: Employees of Amtrak have formed an alliance with the TWU's U.K. partner union. Phil Gosney/Amtrak/AP

Arizonans fight to keep their mail coming (with video)

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 11:40:00 +0000

TUCSON, Ariz. - Hundreds of passing drivers honked in solidarity with 200 postal workers and community supporters' who rallied here Sunday afternoon to "save the Postal Service."

The National Association of Letter Carriers had declared March 24 as a national day of action to preserve six-day mail delivery.

Tucson, one of the poorest cities in the country. is particularly concerned about the loss of good union jobs, and is already threatened with the loss of it's large mail processing plant. The postal service wants to close dozens of plants. This will really hurt Tucson, a rapidly growing but poorer-than-average city of more than a million.

For over a year, the American Postal Workers Union, with Jobs with Justice in solidarity, has been rallying the community against this threat.

(story continues after video)

On Sunday the two unions were joined by the Mail Handlers, rural delivery unions, Jobs with Justice, Occupy Tucson and crowds of people simply wanting to preserve the popular American institution of mail delivery to their front doors.

Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva, meanwhile, told rallying postal workers in Phoenix, "A strong and vital postal service is enormously important to the economy" by supporting a 1.1 trillion mailing industry that employs over eight million Americans. "As we continue to recover from the worst recession since the 1930's, it makes no sense to eliminate the jobs of more than 200,000 workers - many of whom are veterans."

Photo: Richard Boren/PW

Rank and file longshore leader honored at memorial

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:53:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO - At a memorial tribute March 23, the South African government honored longtime International Longshore and Warehouse Union activist Leo Robinson - who helped spark the movement on the West Coast to boycott apartheid South Africa - with its Nelson Mandela Humanitarian Award.

In the 1980s, Robinson, who died Jan. 14, was a leader in the ILWU's boycott of South African ships seeking to unload cargo at West Coast ports. For 11 days in 1984, longshore workers refused to unload the South African ship Nedlloyd Kimberley as it lay docked in San Francisco Bay. Though a federal injunction forced the end of their boycott, it sparked a movement that spread throughout the West Coast and played a big part in anti-apartheid actions throughout the country.

"We express our gratitude because we know that without the leadership of Leo Robinson and the ILWU, the end of apartheid might not have come as quickly," Ebrahim Rasool, South Africa's ambassador to the U.S., said as he presented the award to Robinson's widow, Johnnie Robinson, together with a South African flag.

Rasool cited the observation of Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who was post-apartheid South Africa's first president, that apartheid could not have been defeated without the solidarity and leadership of the ILWU and Leo Robinson.

Cyril Ndaba, consul general at South Africa's consulate in Los Angeles, then presented the Nelson Mandela Humanitarian Award to the ILWU.

Robinson, a second-generation longshore worker, was born May 26, 1937. He became a longshore worker in the early 1960s. He became a rank-and-file union leader, and served 20 years on ILWU Local 10's Executive Board.

In response to the 1976 uprising of high school students in Soweto, a district of Johannesburg - many of whom were massacred by South African authorities - Robinson helped found the union's Southern African Liberation Support Committee. The next year he wrote a resolution for the union calling for a boycott of all South African cargo, and helped organize a community picket line that longshore workers refused to cross. The ILWU sponsored many events that brought southern African trade unionists and leaders of liberation struggles to the West Coast.

A founding member of the Northern California Chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Robinson worked with CBTU, the ILWU and other organizations to hold the first trade union conference on apartheid, at San Francisco State University.

At the memorial, Carl Jones, president of the Northern California CBTU chapter, announced that the chapter will present an award in Leo Robinson's name each year, to a worker who exhibits his characteristics of activist leadership and determination. Jones presented Johnnie Robinson with a photo montage of her husband's activities with CBTU.

Robinson was a leader in the fight-back against racist violence, spearheading successful campaigns against attacks on Black residents in Richmond and Oroville, Calif.

He was among the founders of the ILWU's African American Longshore Coalition, and helped initiate the 2004 Million Worker March in Washington, D.C.

Photo: Daily Worker/Daily World Photographs Collection, Tamiment Library, New York University

Governor calls unions the voice of American workers

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:16:00 +0000

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - "We live in a time in which more and more capital is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands," Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon told about 250 union delegates and activists here at the annual AFL-CIO Labor Legislative Conference on March 25 and 26.

He even compared the struggle for workers' rights today to the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911, where nearly 150 workers, mostly women burned to death when a fire broke-out in the ten-story building in-which they were working.

He added, without organized labor we wouldn't have the minimum wage, child labor laws, the 40-hour workweek, unemployment benefits, pensions or vacation time.

"Unions have long-been the voice of American workers and their families," he concluded.

Missouri AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, Mike Louis, agreed with Nixon, and said, right-wing Republicans in the legislature want to "do away with us and beat us down. That's their agenda. That's what they want to do to us."

The Republicans currently have an overwhelming majority in the Missouri legislature. However, most trade unionists are optimistic that enough moderate Republicans will break with their right-wing counter-parts, there-by keeping anti-worker, anti-union bills from passing with a veto-proof majority.

On top of the AFL-CIO critical list are so-called 'right-to-work,' paycheck deception and anti-prevailing wage laws.

Right to work for less laws are designed to bankrupt unions by allowing people who do not pay union dues to benefit from a union negotiated contract, grievance procedure, health and pension benefits, and higher wages - all without paying union dues.

While unemployment is higher in right to work for less states, workers in those states are also paid about $1,500 less per-year than their counter-parts in non-right to work for less states.

Paycheck deception laws restrict the ways in-which unions can collect and spend dues payments.

Two different paycheck deception bills have passed the Missouri House and Senate; both bills require unions to annually seek consent before dues can be collected or spent on political activity.

According to Bradley Harmon, president of the Missouri State Workers' Union (MSWU) CWA 6355, "Every public sector union in Missouri would cease to be a union. We would have zero members on January 1 if the Senate bill becomes law.

"Workers would have to sign authorization cards and keep signing authorization cards every year after that," Harmon said.

Firefighters and police officers are exempt from both bills.

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.

A majority of Missourians have rejected right to work for less, paycheck deception and anti-prevailing wage laws repeatedly over the years.

Governor Nixon told the assembled union members that workers have received over $5.5 million in back pay due to prevailing wage laws.

Nixon added that prevailing wage enforcement was "non-existent" when he became governor.

He said, in 2008 there were only 180 cases involving misclassified workers. "Since 2009," Nixon said, "there have been 26,000 cases involving misclassified workers."

He added, "We just took the reins off. We let the Department of Labor do its job."

Governor Nixon also talked about Medicaid expansion, calling it the "most fundamental economic issue" facing the state.

He said, not expanding Medicaid will "break our state budget, causing our financial house of cards to come tumbling down."

Currently the federal government pays for 60 percent of the cost of Medicaid coverage, while Missouri pays for 40 percent of the coverage.

According to provisions in the Affordable Care Act, the federal government will, starting in 2014 pay 100 percent of the cost of Medicaid expansion for calendar years 2014, 2015, and 2016, while paying at-least 90 percent of the funding thereafter.

Nixon jokingly explained, "One-hundred percent is more than sixty, and zero is less than forty."

He said, "Stick with me. This is hard: The budget works better with one-hundred percent federal money, than it does with sixty percent federal money."

Conservatively, Medicaid expansion would create 24,000 new jobs and expand health care coverage to an additional 260,000 uninsured people in the show-me-state. Currently, 600,000 Missourians do not have health care.

Secretary Treasurer Mike Louis said, "This is the most important labor legislative conference ever. We are under attack like never before."

After the morning session union members went over to the State Capital and lobbied their state representatives and senators against anti-worker legislation, and for Medicaid expansion.

"The 1 percent think that they have bought and paid for the Missouri legislature and are counting on them to pass anti-worker legislation," Harmon said.

"But they didn't count on the fierce resistance they are getting from organized labor in Missouri."

Photo: peoplesworld flickr

Paperworkers end strike, resume talks with Nippon

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 12:37:00 +0000

PORT ANGELES, Wash. --- Union paperworkers walked their picket line round-the-clock in chill spring weather here last week demanding that Nippon Paper resume "good faith" contract talks. They ended the walkout March 25 when the company came back to the bargaining table.

The 130 workers at the mill voted unanimously to strike Wednesday, March 20 when the company attempted to impose, unilaterally, their "best and final offer," a take-away scheme. It was the first work stoppage at the mill since 1984. The walkout was greeted with strong support in this union-conscious mill town with residents delivering food, doughnuts, coffee, and leaning on their horns as they drove by.

The owners plead that they have lost market share and the workers must sacrifice to keep the mill profitable. Picketers marching near the mill entrance last Friday debunked the company's pleas of poverty.

"They are building that biomass plant at a cost of over $71 million," said Rod Weekes, a spokesman for the strikers pointing to a big plant under construction just inside the mill entrance.

The biomass plant is scheduled to begin operations this September despite strong protests by the environmental movement. "That plant will run a generator and provide power for the mill and generate surplus electricity that the company can sell," Weekes said.

Nippon pleas of poverty, he added, ring hollow in the face of this major upgrade in the mill's efficiency.

"Right now we are engaged in an unfair labor practices strike. We feel that we have been bargaining in good faith," Weekes continued. "We'd like the company to come back to the bargaining table. It's just a 'take it or leave' package they have offered. That's no way to reach an agreement."

The mill at the base of Ediz Hook, a sand pit that stretches out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca has been a landmark of the Port Angeles skyline since Crown Zellerbach opened it in December 1920. Crown-Z sold the mill to Nippon Corporation in 2003. It produces newsprint used in the production of the Peninsula Daily News and other newspapers in the U.S. The mill also produces paper for advertising flyers and other light-duty paper products. Much of the paper produced at the mill is exported to Asia and Australia.

Nippon placed quarter-page ads in the Sunday edition of the Peninsula Daily News that read, "Now Hiring: Nippon Paper Industries USA is accepting qualified applicants for all positions.... Successful applicants are intended to be hired as permanent replacement workers." The jobless rate on the North Olympic Peninsula is above 11 percent and Nippon is resorting to the dirtiest of dirty tricks to break the strike.

Greg Pallesen, the International Vice President of the AWPPW drove up from Portland, Oregon, to assist the workers. "We want the company back at the bargaining table to bargain in good faith. Good faith bargaining is required by law," Pallesen told the People's World. "We've been bargaining with them for two years. We believe their goal is implementation of their final offer. We are still bargaining. We believe their attempt to implement their final offer unilaterally is illegal."

Represented by the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers (AWPPW), Local 155, the workers earlier filed an "unfair labor practices" complaint with the National Labor Relations Board charging that the Japanese-owned company has engaged in stalling tactics for nearly two years. That complaint is expected to be heard in April.

Pallesen said there are many unresolved issues on the table. "Nippon is a multinational corporation making a lot of money in the world. They have been given a lot of tax breaks."

AWPPW Local 155 "testified in Olympia in support of the biomass facility," he added. "As soon as the biomass plant is near completion, this is the thanks the workers get. Nippon wants to operate that plant on the backs of the workers. They ought to be ashamed of themselves."

Pallesen pointed out that the stock market is soaring with corporations reporting record high profits. "We have the right to be bargaining and getting the best pensions ever, the best medical benefits, and the best wages." Instead, the corporations demand outrageous takeaways in wages and benefits.

"International Paper got more than three billion dollars in tax breaks over two years. What did they do with those tax breaks? They invested in paper mills all over the world, in Indonesia, China. The Koch Brothers own Georgia Pacific. I don't even know how much they got in tax concessions. They get these tax breaks with no strings attached and then export the jobs overseas."

Weekes said he has been employed at the paper mill for 17 years and before that worked at the Rayonier mill for 23 years until that plant closed down permanently. "The way the economy is going, right now, the tax dollars we generate with our labor and the revenue we earn, we are a vital part of the local economy," Weekes added. "We spend our wages locally. There are more than 200 employee at this mill---130 hourly employees and 70 salaried. We create maybe another 1,000 jobs."

The mill, he said, is in the "top 10" employers on the North Olympic. The jobs and income generated by these millworkers, Weekes concluded "are the lifeblood of our community."

Photo: Tim Wheeler/PW

Letter carriers rally for six day delivery

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 11:20:00 +0000

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Chanting "five days no, six days yes," over 500 Connecticut letter carriers, family members and supporters gathered for a noon-time rally on the New Haven Green. The action was one of dozens throughout the country as part of the "Delivering for America" campaign to stop Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe from taking unilateral action to eliminate Saturday postal delivery in August, eliminating 22,000 jobs.

"There are people in Washington DC who would love to see Halliburton run the entire economy," declared Connecticut State AFL-CIO president John Olsen to applause. "This is about privatization. They want to stop six day delivery to put the Postal Service out of business," he added urging the letter carriers to keep the pressure on.

Senator Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, spoke condemned the 2007 law which required the Postal Service to set aside - in only ten years - funding for retiree health benefits for the next 75 years. This has cost the Postal Service $32 billion since 2007, accounting for 78 percent of its red ink during this period. "It is a travesty," said Blumenthal.

"No other entity has such a requirement. If Exxon was required to do that, it would put a strain on their resources as well," said DeLauro. "Delivery of mail is one of governments' foremost responsibilities."

On March 20, when the U.S. Senate passed the continuing resolution to fund the government through the current fiscal year ending September 30, it included language that would maintain six-day delivery until that time. The House passed the continuing resolution the next day, and sent it to President Obama to sign into law.

"We are in this struggle with you until six day becomes the permanent way," said Bob Proto, speaking on behalf of the New Haven Central Labor Council and the Unite-Here unions at Yale.

Several bills pending before the Senate and the House would make six-day delivery permanent, beyond September 30. They include S 316 and HR 630, a postal modernization act introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep Peter DeFazio; and H. Res 30, introduced by Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri.

Letter carriers and their families traveled from all corners of the state to participate in the Palm Sunday rally to save their jobs and protect the needs of the community.

"This is not just about you, your jobs, or the 23 postal facilities that would close in Connecticut," said Blumenthal. "It's about our economy, jobs, and economic progress. We are at a critical turning point in the economy. We ought to be united," he said emphasizing "Don't let anyone tell you we don't have the money."

Blumenthal also charged that Donahoe does not have the legal right to ignore the mandate of Congress for six-day delivery. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) had just issued an opinion that the USPS is bound by law and the continuing resolution "to continue six-day delivery and rural delivery of mail at not less than the 1983 level" of six days a week.

Speaking prior to the rallies, National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) president Fredric Rolando hailed the GAO ruling. "To cut a day of mail delivery would disrupt the nation's only universal delivery network, place disproportionate harm on rural communities, senior citizens, and small-business owners who rely on six-day mail service, and it would only serve to accelerate a financial 'death spiral' for the Postal Service," he said.

"If the Postmaster General doesn't listen to us on the New Haven Green, then we and the Letter Carriers will be at his house," declared Proto to the approval of the crowd.

Photo caption: Hundreds of letter carriers and their supporters rallied on the New Haven Green to defend Saturday mail delivery. Photo: Art Perlo

“Five day, no way,” postal workers say!

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 11:04:00 +0000

SOUTHFIELD, Mich - The chant came loud and clear: "Five day, no way." At the Post Office here and all across the nation, postal worker unions turned out in huge numbers on Sunday giving notice to the nation's elected officials that six-day mail delivery is here to stay and that the dismantling of the nation's postal service will not begin on their watch.

"It's a manufactured crisis" said Michael Sheridan, President of the South Macomb Letter Carriers Branch 4374, one of the nearly 800 people present at the very lively rally. He explained that over 80 percent of the Postal Service's red ink the last four years came from being forced to pre-fund retiree health care for 75 years. The extreme pre-funding was mandated by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement act of 2006.

The act requires the Postal Service to pay $5.5 billion a year into retiree health care, said Sheridan. "We currently have $46 billion dollars sitting in that fund, unusable until 2016."

Sandra Laemmel, pesident of Branch 1 NALC in Detroit, said the Postal Service is the "only organization that has to do that." We have to pre-fund for people who "aren't even born yet," she noted.

She also stated six-day delivery is every "American's tie to the world," saying many people do not have internet access and rely on critical Saturday deliveries like medical prescriptions.

Offering strong support to the postal workers was Michigan Rep. Gary Peters (D-14th) who promised to vote against pre-funding mandates and said he was "proud to stand" against Republican efforts to go after the labor movement both in Washington and Lansing.

Peters said we are going to send a "very clear message" that it was wrong for Republicans to turn Michigan into a right-to-work (for less) state. He also said though Governor Snyder initially said right-to-work (for less) was not on his agenda, we are going to let him know "defeating him is number one on our agenda." Snyder's term will end in 2014.

Roscoe Woods, president of the American Postal Workers Union, Local 480-481, said the mail unions have been incredibly innovative in trying to save the Postal Service money.

He mentioned 80,000 jobs have been shed through attrition and the unions have agreed to work rule changes.

But Woods said "it's just never enough. Once you do, it's always more. There are so many "private forces" out to snatch the work postal employees do, he said.

Royal Oak letter carrier John Dick put it another way "As out of date as they say we are, there are a lot of people that want to get their hands on this out of date system."

Photo: April Smith/PW

SF Symphony strikers protest out-of-tune execs

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 13:24:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO - Tired of prolonged stalling by management, over 100 musicians of the San Francisco Symphony - one of the country's top symphony orchestras - are now in the second week of a strike. On March 21 they took their protest to the streets.

As a quintet from the orchestra's brass section livened spirits and attracted passers-by, other musicians marched holding signs: "Management is out of tune!" "Bonuses for management, cuts for musicians," "Bring the music back!"

"This is about fairness, and an organization that has lost sight of its mission," said negotiating committee member Cathy Payne, who plays flute and piccolo. Payne said the symphony's management is focusing on a building campaign while expecting the orchestra members to take wage freezes and cuts in benefits.

If the orchestra were in financial trouble, she said, the musicians would accept a shared sacrifice.

But SFS' endowment, approaching $300 million, is the second largest of any orchestra in the country. Musicians point out that management spent $11 million on a centennial celebration last year, and is now planning to spend as much as half a billion dollars to expand its home auditorium, Davies Symphony Hall.

They also note that the orchestra has given large bonuses to its top executives. In the ten years from 2001 through calendar year 2011, the executive director's pay increased by 79 percent, while top executives' salaries went up by amounts significantly greater than increases accorded the players.

As in virtually all recent contract negotiations, health care looms as a big issue. "We've said we'll look at ways to find savings, and we've offered to pay more," Payne said. "But management is asking us to agree to a large cut."

Pensions are also on the table, said fellow negotiating committee member Linda Lukas, also a flautist. She said management is insisting on a freeze, and seeks to raise the retirement age.

The musicians are also asking for detailed information on how the orchestra's resources are used, including the relation of the budget to the endowment, and how public funds are spent.

Cellist Margaret Tait, an orchestra member since 1974, pointed out that musicians, who earn a median salary of around $140,000 a year, put in at least as much unpaid time in preparation and in maintaining their musical and technical abilities as they do in paid rehearsal and performance time.

In addition, she said, orchestra members must buy and maintain their own instruments and equipment, with players of stringed instruments often investing $200,000 or more to purchase a suitable instrument. (Article continues after slideshow.)

Joining the protest were members of nearby American Federation of Musicians locals and members of other unions as well as concerned listeners, as passing vehicles honked their support. The San Francisco Labor Council helped spread the word about the picket.

Talks between the musicians, represented by the American Federation of Musicians Local 6, and management have gone on for some eight months. The musicians' contract expired Feb. 10 - the same day it was announced that the orchestra had won its 15th Grammy Award, this time for the best orchestral performance of 2012.

The strike that started March 13 forced cancellation of a long-awaited East Coast tour, with concerts slated for New York's Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

The orchestra's musicians are asking supporters to contact Executive Director Brent Assink, bassink@sfsymphony.org, and/or Board President Sako Fisher, sfs@fishersf.com.

More information can be found at http://www.musiciansofthesanfranciscosymphony.org.

Photo: PW/Marilyn Bechtel

Sequester cuts mean idle planes, poultry plants and VA offices, says AFGE

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:40:00 +0000

ST. LOUIS - "Our message is clear," J. David Cox, international president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) said, "sequestration will have a tremendous negative impact, not only on our members, but on all Americans."

"Eventually, everybody will feel the pain," Cox added.

Cox, with about 250 AFGE members and supporters, rallied outside Republican U.S. Senator Roy Blunt's office here March 20 to protest the $85 billion in across-the-board cuts to vital social services and the military, known as sequestration.

While Blunt has supported amending sequestration to protect meat and poultry inspectors from furloughs, this is largely seen as an attempt to placate agribusiness as there are 148 meat and poultry facilities in rural Missouri. Under the terms of sequester, every meat, poultry and egg processing facility in the country could be forced to shut down for two-weeks between April and October, cutting into their profits. These facilities also employ thousands of people - and thousands of voters.

AFGE wants Blunt to support repealing sequestration, and raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations to help pay-down the federal budget deficit, not furlough federal employees, especially in this weak economy.

The protest was one of more than 150 rallies that took place all across the country led by AFGE and the AFL-CIO.

AFGE represents about 700,000 federal employees nationwide, and according to Cox "about 500,000 of them are subject to furloughs," including about 10,000 in the St. Louis area.

"Sequestration is bad for our country and for our economy," Cox continued. "The government needs to be creating more jobs, not less."

Randy Kiser, Midwest AFL-CIO field organizer, said, "Continuing tax breaks for the wealthy, while forcing hard working federal employees to go on furlough is outrageous."

According to the union, most of their members will face up to 22 days of unpaid furlough.

"Forcing hardworking Americans to take pay cuts will have a direct impact on our local economy," said Steven Hollis, president of AFGE Local 3354 here in St. Louis.

"Less money in their pockets means less money to spend locally on food, clothing, rent and other goods and services," Hollis continued. "Our elected officials should work together to strengthen our still-shaky economy, not pull the rug out from under local businesses and undermine recovery."

According to Cox, sequestration will impact "planes on the runway, air traffic controllers, sanitation and inspection workers and our veterans. This isn't just about us."

AFGE members include employees in the following agencies: Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, the Social Security Administration, the Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Justice.

"If federal employees are furloughed without pay, if offices and plants are shut down, if vacancies aren't filled because of these across-the-board budget cuts, then federal employees won't be able to do the work that the American public expects them to do," Cox added.

As union members and their supporters rallied, they chanted, "Sequestration has got to go! We don't want no furlough!"

Martin Rafanan, co-chair of the St. Louis Jobs with Justice Workers' Rights Board, said, "Sequestration will impact the entire community by cutting essential services. People rely on these vital services. The least among us will suffer the most."

"These workers are standing up for the entire community, and we need to support them and stand with them," Rafanan concluded.

Photo: Federal workers and supporters protest in Chicago, March 20, against the forced automatic budget cuts known as sequestration. (PW/Earchiel Johnson)

A union leader goes on a crusade for democracy

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 13:33:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - A top Communications Workers official has taken the union's democracy crusade to the good-government group Common Cause, urging that it's one big way to curb or stop the huge influence of corporate money in U.S. politics.

George Kohl, the union's director of collective bargaining, distributed hand-held cards showing the link between declining union density and declining U.S. median incomes at a March 14 seminar on campaign finance during Common Cause's "The Lessons of Watergate" conference.

He followed it up with the union's booklet - which is available to other unions as well - describing CWA's entire democracy crusade. It includes campaign finance reform, ending Senate filibusters, comprehensive immigration reform and voter registration and protection. CWA has been on the crusade for more than a year.

One of its causes is a constitutional amendment, which Common Cause also backs, saying that for purposes of politics, corporations are not persons and do not have the same rights as persons - including the right to unlimited cash-bought speech. In an infamous 2010 ruling, Citizens United, the U.S. Supreme Court said they did.

The prevalence of big corporate money in politics is in back of all the ills that afflict U.S. democracy, Kohl said. It fuels the careers of the filibustering Senate Republicans, who halt legislation such as the Employee Free Choice Act, he added.

And without the right to organize and bargain collectively, Kohl noted, workers cannot defend - much less increase - their living standards.

Corporate cash also pays for the secretive extremely pro-business American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), whose right-wing and anti-worker agenda dominates many states, other panelists said. They all offered ideas for curbing the influence of corporate contributions.

The corrupting influence of the corporate cash is the link between Watergate, 41 years ago, and today's broken political system, many speakers said throughout the Common Cause conference. Its president, Bob Edgar, urged the hundreds of attendees to make reclamation of democracy their main project.

But the crusade may take a long time, Kohl admitted. And a constitutional amendment's prospects are uncertain. So panelists offered other ways to combat the corrupting corporate cash - corruption that frequently hurts unionists, as corporate campaign finance committees outspend union counterparts by ratios of 8-1 or more.

One promising path is running through, of all places, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the federal agency that regulates stock markets and trading, said another panelist, Lisa Gilbert, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch.

Using new regulatory powers it got from the Dodd-Frank financial reform/crackdown law - enacted after Wall Street's speculative frenzy and collapse produced the Great Recession - the SEC is considering making firms more publicly accountable to their shareholders. That includes public worker pension funds.

Its latest proposal is to order firms to justify their political spending to shareholders publicly and in advance, and to explain how such spending is "good for business," Gilbert said. If enacted, that proposal would take effect at once.

Shareholders would then get a chance to weigh in, and possibly even vote, before firms spend their money for politicking by lobbies such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce or secretive political institutions such as ALEC. The Chamber alone spent $36 million directly - and millions more indirectly - in last year's campaign, she said.

The SEC has received a record 469,000 comments on its proposal "and only five have been negative," Gilbert said. But she urged unionists and others to join the pressure, since the agency's proposal is far from final.

Photo: Marcus Holowell/PW

Workers to Hyatt: Put housekeeper on board of directors

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:23:00 +0000

CHICAGO - After years of battling what it says are abusive working conditions at Hyatt hotels, housekeepers will convene here tonight to nominate one of their own to sit on the hotel's board of directors. The battles have included everything from picket lines and strikes to massive acts of peaceful civil disobedience that have resulted in hundreds of arrests.

Unite Here, a union representing 250,000 hospitality workers in the U.S. and Canada, says that Hyatt is the worst employer in the hotel industry. The union says that housekeepers are abused by imposition of life-threatening workloads and that the company has a habit of replacing longtime employees with minimum-wage temporary workers.

Workers at the world-wide chain's Chicago hotels now say that Hyatt would be better off if someone who actually serves hotel guests had a say in how the company is run. Chicago is Hyatt's hometown.

The gathering tonight will be at 5 p.m. at the city's Chicago Temple, 77 W. Washington Street with the public invited. Unions form all over Illinois say they will turn out in support. Hyatt workers battling the hotel giant have been championed not just by labor but by civil rights groups, including the National Organization of Women and the National Council of LaRaza.

People in the public relations department at Hyatt would not comment beyond standing by their statement, issued early in the day, that Cathy Youngblood, the housekeeper the workers want on the Hyatt board of directors, won't be considered for election this year because she hasn't filled out the appropriate paperwork and has therefore "missed the deadline."

"That doesn't matter," said Carly Karmel, Unite Here's Local 1 communications specialist. "What we are asking for is a structural change to Hyatt's board, one that always includes a worker involved in direct service to Hyatt customers."

Karmel said that tonight union members, hotel workers and supporters from the community will be getting together to endorse Hyatt housekeeper Cathy Youngblood for director.

"Tonight's gathering doesn't do anything to detract from what the Hyatt does in its own process of management," said Karmel. "We believe that Hyatt will be a lot better off if Hyatt has a worker on its board."

The Hyatt spokesman, while refusing to comment on whether a worker on its board was a good idea, reiterated only that the union "did not submit the required paperback on time so Youngblood's name won't appear on the ballot given to shareholders."

In January of this year Unite Here started a campaign it called Someone Like Me, with the purpose of getting a worker onto the Hyatt board.

None of the 12 who currently sit on Hyatt's board has experience as a hotel worker.

Tonight's event, the union says, will be a "nomination convention" to select Youngblood, who has been travelling across the U.S. meeting with legislators and organizations sharing her experiences as a housekeeper at Hyatt.

Photo: In their long battle with Hyatt, housekeepers have had strikes, picket lines, and even massive civil disobedience actions like the one pictured, in Chicago, where hundreds were arrested. UNITE HERE Local 1

Union leaders like Obama’s choice for labor secretary

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 11:21:00 +0000

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -A top union leader who worked closely with Thomas Perez, President Obama's nominee to be the nation's next Secretary of Labor, says Perez can bring labor and progressive firms together, as Perez did in Maryland.

Creating such alliances is one reason Perez "was a great secretary" of Labor, Licensing and Regulation in Maryland, adds Fred D. Mason, Jr., president of the Maryland-D.C. AFL-CIO, the umbrella organization for the state's unions.

"Plus, he understands workers' rights are human rights, and he's a human rights advocate," Mason adds of Perez, whom he worked with for years.

On March 18, Obama named Perez, now assistant attorney general for civil rights, to succeed Hilda Solis in the U.S. Labor Department's top job. Solis left on Jan. 5. Perez held the state labor post from 2006-2009, before the Justice Department post. He was in Justice's Civil Rights Division before, and was a Montgomery County, Md. councilman - its first Hispanic-named council member - from 2002-2006.

Mason said Perez was not only "very capable, but he understands federal, state, and local government" and forged "good relationships" with unions. Perez served under pro-worker Gov. Martin O'Malley, a potential 2016 Democratic presidential hopeful.

Perez also forged relationships with business, Mason said. He understands "you need to compromise" to get pro-worker measures through legislatures. Compromise has been notably lacking in the Nation's Capitol, at least as far as Congress' ruling Republicans are concerned.

One top initiative Perez and Mason worked on together was to convince the Maryland legislature to crack down on employers who misclassify workers as "independent contractors," depriving them of rights and benefits and the state of tax revenue. The other was to shift adult job training programs from the state Education Department - which concentrates on K-12 schools - to the Labor Department, and to fund them. Perez also revived budgets for state labor law enforcement, Mason said.

Perez "understands the American economy and the role businesses have in it," Mason explains. "But he insists workers have value and it should be respected." And Perez believes "it would be a mistake to put all businesses in an anti-worker box. Tom, because of his studied and deliberate approach to individual issues will identify employers who want to move forward and work with unions and workers, Mason says.

Jeff Buddle, a vice president of the Maryland Fire Fighters and president of IAFF Local 1664 in Montgomery County, agreed.

Perez "was a champion" of Fire Fighters and other protective service workers while on the county council, Buddle said. "He was always one of our biggest supporters, finding money not just for staffing, but for apparatus, too. I can't think of any instance where we were disappointed" by Perez' stands.

National union leaders also praised Obama's selection of Perez for the top Labor Department job.

"He can be a great Secretary of Labor, and we'll have his back" during Senate confirmation hearings and beyond, Fire Fighters President Harold Schaitberger said on March 18 during his union's legislative conference in D.C.

"At a time when our politics tilts so heavily towards corporations and the very wealthy, our country needs leaders like Perez to champion the cause of ordinarily working people," added AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. He said Perez would be "a strong advocate" for workers, their protections, and their right to organize.

Sarita Gupta, executive director of Jobs With Justice, cited Perez' civil rights work in lauding the nomination. Her organization advocates for and represents many low-income and minority-group member workers.

Perez is "a strong advocate for working Americans, particularly low-wage, and immigrant workers," she said. "This choice sends a clear message the administration is looking out for our nation's most vulnerable workers.

"Given Perez's credentials, we urge Congress to pursue a swift confirmation process so the agency can move forward with its agenda and implement critical policies, including the proposed rule extending minimum wage, overtime and other Fair Labor Standards Act rights to the 2.5 million caregivers working without labor protections in the United States.

"We know Tom Perez will continue to stand up for working people, putting their interests at the top of the agenda. We look forward to working together to ensure that the basic rights and safeguards of labor law are extended to all workers in this country and modernized to reflect the rapidly shifting nature of work in America."

But Southern Senate Republicans are already criticizing Perez' civil rights record, showing labor may have to mobilize to help him get the DOL job.

Photo: President Obama applauds after announcing he would nominate Thomas Perez (right) for labor secretary. Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Corporate America - you didn’t build that - really!

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 10:42:00 +0000

Remember during the 2012 elections when President Obama said, "You didn't build that." He was talking to big corporate America. He made the point that billions of tax dollars go into building infrastructure critical to the success for all kinds of businesses. You know, things like highways so that goods can be transported, or communications, research and development. That's not to mention the billions of public capital spent on education and training to prepare workers with the skills to actually build things.

After he said that, they had a fit in the corporate boardrooms and on Fox News! "Oh," they cried, "not only did we build our businesses, but we too pay taxes."

But the truth is (not even counting the billions of public dollars spent to support business), you still didn't build that!

It reminds me of Michael Moore's great program, TV Nation. They had a segment called CEO Challenge. Where CEOs were asked to do something with the product "they" make. For example the CEO of IBM didn't know how to format a computer disk. It was obvious he didn't build that.

Very few CEOs have any idea of the real work that goes into building the products that they sell. Very few owners and CEOs of big corporations have a clue as to exactly how their products are designed, tested, and built. Only in the smallest of companies do the owners spend real time in the workplace seeing or participating in actually building a product. So no, you really didn't build that.

What the owners really do, for the most part, is provide capital. Sometimes they actually have a good idea that they then get others to bring to life and then get others to figure out how to build. Other times they take good ideas from people who really do the work. So, no matter how you look at it, teams of workers who organize, design, and actually do the physical work, build most things.

The other thing that owners do is take the bulk of the profits from the things that others build and from the work that others perform. Everyone who works making things or providing services for a corporation instinctively knows that the money made off of the goods and services they produce are higher than the actual costs of wages, machinery, services, and other overhead. Or profit wouldn't be made. But owners (who think that they made that) claim all the profits.

You don't have to be a socialist to see that they didn't actually build that. Further you don't have to be a socialist to understand that real democracy should mean that as a part of the team that actually built that, you should have some say in how that profit is distributed and spent.

Let's call that social capital, as opposed to private capital. We need a much wider discussion of the idea of democracy and social capital in the modern world. It's not only a question of higher corporate and wealth taxes that can be used for the common good of society. It's also understanding that those higher taxes don't only come out of the pocket of the corporation and the rich that didn't build that, they also come out of the hard work of those who actually did build that. Not to mention that workers also pay taxes, often more than their employers.

Workers pay into social capital not only through their own taxes but also through their hard work that produces a large part of the actual capital that owners pay in taxes. It is only democratic that we have a greater say in how social funds are used.

Actually, that famous Republican, Abraham Lincoln, said it most eloquently: "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

What a great, short argument for social capital! And that should mean more spending, not less, on education, housing, health care, and other human needs. It should mean more social capital for the common good.

Photo: (CC)