People Before Profit blog

After Senate loss, fast-track fight shifts to House

Fri, 29 May 2015 15:28:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - After an expected Senate loss on so-called presidential "fast-track" trade promotion authority, workers, unions and their allies are increasing their attention on the GOP-run House, where the vote is expected to be much closer and up for grabs.

Facing off against them: The combined forces of President Obama, corporate titans and the House GOP leadership.

The Senate voted 62-37 on May 22 to approve fast-track, which would let Obama and his successor jam through Congress legislation implementing so-called "free trade" pacts with limited debate, no changes, no worker rights, no environmental protections and on single up-or-down votes. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, wants to pass fast-track by June 30.

But workers and their environmental, community, religious, retiree and human rights allies have marshaled forces to lobby lawmakers to oppose fast-track, notably the most-dangerous "free trade" pact it would allow, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

"We've been preparing for this fight for two years," says Communications Workers President Larry Cohen, who is particularly outspoken about the negative impact of the TPP.

He estimates there are around 15 still-uncommitted representatives on fast-track.

The TPP, like other trade pacts, has been negotiated in secret, and Obama says he needs fast-track to keep the secrecy and assure other nations that once the pact is signed, it stays as all the nations agreed. Unions and their allies reply it's not secret for companies, but only for the U.S. people and their lawmakers: Obama's trade representative has 600 corporate officials and lobbyists "advising" him in the room during the talks.

"Who wants to buy a pig in a poke?" Bricklayers President James Boland asks of the TPP. "If it's such a great deal, tell us what's in it.

"And if I go into a union hall and make an agreement" - a contract with management - "I need to be able to explain it. If I couldn't, I'd get thrown out at the next election," Boland adds.

That's what will happen to pro-fast-track lawmakers in November 2016, Steelworkers President Leo Gerard said in a statement after the Senate roll call.

"Americans expected their Senate to have a full debate about what our future trade policies should look like. What they got instead was an abbreviated debate designed to stifle dissent and discussion. Senators voting for cloture (ending debate) and passage made it clear they believe the status quo is good enough. The facts prove otherwise and, at election time, voters will remember who was on their side and who voted to sell them out," he predicted.

The pro-fast-track lawmakers "undermined the rights of working Americans," he added. "Workers want good jobs and wages, not more false promises," Gerard said. USW has already mobilized its extensive Rapid Response effort to campaign against fast-track. Cohen predicts 20,000 CWA activists will be out in the field against fast-track, too.

Unionists and their allies are also marshaling other arguments to persuade their U.S. representatives to vote against fast-track and the TPP. They include:

Fast-track and the TPP would let drug companies drive up prescription drug prices, says Richard Fiesta, executive director of the labor-backed Alliance for Retired Americans.

Fast-track "would enable changes to prescription drug prices to occur without open and full debate. Leaked versions of this secret deal suggest governments would have to pay 'competitive, market-driven prices' for drugs and medical devices. That sounds reasonable, but in reality it limits the ability of the U.S. government to regulate drug prices and promote the use of proven, generic drugs - two ways Medicare and Medicaid work to keep prescription drug prices affordable for retirees and low-income Americans," said Fiesta.

Fast-track, by allowing two more pacts, in services and with the European Union, would threaten USPS jobs, Letter Carriers President Fredric Rolando warned lawmakers in a recent letter. He said corporations and the EU would use secret trade courts - allowed by both pacts - to challenge the Postal Service's right to be the sole carrier of first-class mail.

"Trade agreements should not have the ability to deregulate the Postal Service" or to ban it from seeking new business, such as banking in unbanked areas, a postal union plan.

The Senate's fast-track vote "puts the powerful ahead of regular people," Teamsters President Jim Hoffa declared. His union will keep fighting fast-track, because of TPP. "We will meet with members in their district offices and let them know they are jeopardizing the livelihoods of their constituents if they approve this measure." Hoffa said fast-track's road to the TPP "will jeopardize the U.S. economy by shipping jobs overseas and lowering wages at home" and "it will hurt democracy by making it possible for foreign corporations to pursue the overturning of laws they don't like.

"This is not about being against trade. It is about sticking up for what America is supposed to stand for - a place where an honest worker can earn an honest wage that supports a family. Lawmakers shouldn't be turning their back on those they are supposed to represent," Hoffa concluded.

AFSCME said fast-track, by allowing low-wage, repressive nations to ship goods freely into the U.S., would not only steal jobs but weaken food safety standards. "Winning the House vote will largely depend upon the efforts of union members and activists in the states demanding their representative vote 'no,'" the union said. It gave a toll-free number 1-855-712-8441 for the call.

Gerard laid the blame on the GOP and corporate America. While Republicans have tried to rein in Obama's authority elsewhere, "When it comes to trade, the majority of them are beholden to corporate backers who are salivating at the prospect of increased profits at the expense of workers here in America and around the globe."

Photo: Bold Nebraska joined allies including AFL-CIO, Communications Workers of America, Alliance for Retired Americans at Congressman Brad Ashford's office on May 21 for a rally to urge him to VOTE NO on Fast-Track and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The shady trade deal is bad for workers and the environment.

New rules require contractors to obey labor laws

Fri, 29 May 2015 14:40:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - In a move that is expected to help millions of workers, the Labor Department and other federal agencies proposed new rules on May 27 governing federal contractors, mandating they must obey various labor laws - or correct their abuses with DOL guidance and help - if they want to keep bidding for and getting the government's business.

The new rules implement an executive order issued last year by President Barack Obama, but they won't take effect for at least 60 days - the time allowed for notices, comment and feedback. The rules would apply to all contracts of at least $500,000.

The new rules say that to bid on government business, contracting companies must certify they follow a variety of workplace laws, including the National Labor Relations Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Fair Labor Standards (minimum wage and overtime) Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act. And contractors would have to be responsible for their subcontractors' compliance.

Federal contractors also must give their workers "necessary information each pay period to verify the accuracy of their paycheck" including whether their employer considers them as "independent contractors," not covered by labor law, the rules say. Companies that get federal contracts employ more than one of every five U.S. workers, studies show.

And the rules "also ensure workers who may have been sexually assaulted or had their civil rights violated get their day in court, putting an end to mandatory pre-dispute arbitration agreements covering these claims at large federal contractors," DOL adds.

"Companies that violate labor laws will face consequences," said Debra Ness, executive director of the National Partnership of Women and Families. "That, in turn, will help prevent millions of workers from being subject to harmful or unlawful treatment," Ness said. Her group has campaigned for the new rules, because they would especially help underpaid woman workers.

She called DOL's proposed rules "good news for workers, taxpayers and the nation - and a major step forward in ensuring only companies that abide by our nation's labor laws get federal contracts.

"No worker should have her or his rights undermined, especially not at the hands of a company that contracts with the federal government. And no employer that flouts laws that promote fairness and worker safety should benefit from a federal contract. Employers that play by the rules have nothing to fear."

But the rules do not throw bad apples among contractors out of the barrel, by barring violators from bidding for federal pacts - unless federal contracting officers find those bad actors have a pattern of repeated, serious or willful violations of labor laws. Other violators would get a chance, with DOL aid and guidance, to correct their abuses, the rules say.

"The opportunity to contract with the federal government is a privilege, not an entitlement," Obama's Labor Secretary, Thomas Perez, warned. "Taxpayer dollars should not reward corporations that break the law, and contractors who meet their responsibilities should not have to compete against those who do not." Labor Department guidance "will provide contracting officers with the necessary information to ensure accurate, efficient, and consistent compliance with labor laws," he added.

DOL's rules declare that "It is the policy of the federal government to promote economy and efficiency in procurement by awarding contracts to contractors who promote safe, healthy, fair, and effective workplaces through compliance with labor laws.

"Contractors that consistently adhere to labor laws are more likely to have workplace practices that enhance productivity and increase the likelihood of timely, predictable, and satisfactory delivery of goods and services."

The prospective bidder - offeror-"must represent whether, in the past three years, it was found to have violated labor laws." If it admits to violations, the contracting officer "will require" details of the violations, including "mitigating circumstances and remedial measures, such as labor compliance agreements." And the bidder must update the info every six months.

"The contracting officer shall consider information concerning labor violations when determining whether a prospective contractor is a responsible source that has a satisfactory record of integrity and business ethics."

Photo: President Barack Obama signs an executive order titled "Fair Pay and Safe Workplace" Thursday, July 31, 2014, at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House grounds in Washington. The executive order requires prospective federal contractors to disclose labor law violations, informing federal agencies before they award federal contracts. At left is Labor Secretary Tom Perez. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Rail safety problems trigger protests

Fri, 29 May 2015 12:24:00 +0000

CHICAGO - The issue of rail safety has, in a manner of speaking, hit the streets.

Railroad Workers United reported that the first protest about safety, or lack of it, on rail lines occurred in Chicago on May 27. Activists from Rising Tide Chicago interrupted the keynote address by Burlington Northern-Santa Fe President Carl Ice to a convention of rail shippers. The activists held up signs reading "BNSF: Profits over safety" and "BNSF: Bomb trains kill."

The signs refer to recent wrecks of oil-laden trains. Many such trains pass through Chicago, the top U.S. rail junction. But earlier this year, one derailed and caught fire near Galena, in northwestern Illinois. Another derailed and exploded in North Dakota.

"BNSF makes billions of dollars putting our communities and climate at risk," protester Kevin Oliver told local reporters. "So we took this action to take a stand against the obscene wealth that is being generated at the expense of our safety."

Despite those disasters, BNSF and other railroads are lobbying for delays in safety devices, the protesters point out. They're opposing installing electronically controlled pneumatic braking systems to help slow speeds of oil trains and other freight trains.

The railroads also oppose another safety technology, positive train control (PTC). Several years ago, Congress mandated they install PTC nationwide by the end of this year, but now they're lobbying to postpone that deadline till 2020 or beyond.

That draws the ire of Railroad Workers United, a coalition of rank-and-file rail workers, many of them members of two leading rail unions: The Transportation Division of Smart, and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen, a Teamsters sector.

Railroad Workers United and the two unions quote experts as saying that had PTC been installed on the northbound Amtrak tracks in North Philadelphia, the May 12 fatal derailment there would have been prevented. Amtrak responded by planning to install cameras in locomotives. And it won't budge off its one-crewmember - the engineer - per train standard.

"It is roundly agreed by railroad executives, union officials, and industry insiders that had Positive Train Control (PTC) been in place and in effect on this section of track, the wreck would more than likely not have been possible," the group's resolution says.

"PTC would have resulted in a train brake application in order to slow the train, recognizing its speed was excessive and therefore unable to negotiate the tight curve ahead. PTC has been mandated by Congress, but complete implementation has been delayed on the Northeast Corridor and elsewhere for myriad reasons. In Amtrak's case, one of these reasons is a lack of adequate funding from Congress," the resolution adds.

"Amtrak has been underfunded for decades and forced to scrape by, cutting corners and deferring maintenance, ever under the microscope by a budget cutting Congress more concerned with ideological purity and political expediency than with safety and security."

Photo: Rising Tide Chicago

New NEA president Eskelsen Garcia brings verve, edge to union

Thu, 28 May 2015 15:17:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - Lily Eskelsen Garcia has seen poverty's impact on her students, so for her, the issue is personal.

And as a result, the new president of the National Education Association brings a new verve and something of an edge to leading the 3.2-million-member union.

Eskelsen Garcia took office just under a year ago in a contested election at the NEA's convention. The Salt Lake City teacher quickly made it clear that she's taking her union to places it hasn't been before to defend her kids, and their teachers. And combating poverty is one of those areas, because before she became a sixth grade teacher, Eskelsen Garcia taught kids in a day-care center for the homeless.

Those kids often dragged themselves to school, and had trouble learning while they were there, because they were hungry. "They hadn't had breakfast that morning-or dinner last night, either," she says. The plight of those children and others like them gives Eskelsen Garcia, the first woman in a quarter of a century to lead a union that is 80 percent female, an extra passion that occasionally has been absent in the NEA.

It's a passion that puts her on the front lines of such crusades as the Progressive Agenda, a multi-part plan, crafted by union leaders, progressive politicians and the grass-roots to enact a wide range of measures to turn around income inequality in the U.S. And she says that passion for kids even convinces parents and community members in conservative states, such as her home, Utah, to support a pro-public school agenda.

Eskelsen Garcia's passion also led her to set up "Lily's Blackboard" on the NEA website-a direct line of communication, updated almost every day, where she posts her observations, impressions and interactions, especially out beyond D.C., and gets immediate feedback.

This is a change from past years at the NEA, because the NEA itself is unusual. Though Mary Hatwood Futrell, the last female president before Eskelsen Garcia, declared NEA to be a union more than 20 years ago, in many states, it "officially" isn't. Unlike the other teachers' union, the American Federation of Teachers, NEA has dozens of branches in states-including Eskelsen Garcia's Utah-where the word "union" is a red flag for the ruling classes and the majority of voters. NEA Is still an association in those areas.

That's an attitude that Eskelsen Garcia says she finds when she discusses teachers' union issues-protecting teacher tenure, reducing class sizes, funding elementary education, and more-with teachers and school staffers, she told Press Associates Union News Service in an interview.

"Utah is very conservative, very Republican - and very pro-family and very pro-child," she explains. "Ask an average Mom there if she values affordable day-care for her kids" at one end of the school spectrum "and affordable college" at the other, and they respond "these are family values - before (putting in) the quotes." And family values "are the very things that I tell them I want to see for my students, my parents and for me," Eskelsen Garcia exclaims.

But it's not just pre-K and college that can help the kids, she points out even to the most-conservative parents: It's quality health care, a stable income, a fight against "institutions that don't help middle-class families. "And then, they get up and say 'Yes, I'm for that; yes, I'm for that.'"

The NEA, and other unions, fight for those causes. So Eskelsen Garcia sees her mission as one of getting people to look beyond the "who" is doing the fighting and focusing on "the what and whom" they're fighting for - the kids.

To help embattled union teachers help their kids, "We have to get beyond the label of the word" and its connotations and get people instead to look at the causes NEA espouses, and why it's advocating them, she says. And once they do, Eskelsen Garcia adds, she finds a lot of common ground with people who ordinarily reflexively react negatively to unions. The progressive agenda, she believes, is part of that common ground.

After all, she explains to her Utah colleagues and others in anti-union states, raising incomes of parents-the agenda's point-helps raise the educational levels of kids. And with statistics showing that 51 percent of the nation's public school students are now eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, a notable index of poverty, Eskelsen Garcia also finds parents of all ages, sexes, political colorations and income levels agreeing with her.

"We talk about the whole child - critical skills, creative skills, healthy kids - and we wind up talking about the whole family," she says. "Heads nod in agreement."

And there's one other way Eskelsen Garcia can open pathways to parents: Her singing. She doesn't advertise it, but she can hold her own - as fellow unionists found out in mid-May - with any famed female folk singer you care to name. And that's where her union side comes through, too: The organizer of a labor heritage event in D.C. chose her to close the program. And, with a few updated verses to recognize, among others, the union heroes of 9/11, she did, with Solidarity Forever.

Photo: NEA Today, Washington State strikes

Right-to-work loses in Illinois house, heads for Missouri veto

Thu, 28 May 2015 14:46:00 +0000

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (PAI) - In a huge rebuke to right-wing GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner's anti-worker agenda, the Democratic-run Illinois House voted his so-called right-to-work bill down, 72-0. While 37 state House Republicans, following Rauner's orders, voted present, another four didn't vote at all. One, Raymond Poe, joined the Democrats in opposing RTW.

The May 18 loss was a resounding defeat for the anti-worker forces nationwide, which are scheming to cut workers' wages, destroy their unions, and trash their rights. RTW forces are also apparently headed for another setback: The GOP-run Missouri legislature approved a RTW bill, but Gov. Jay Nixon (D) plans to veto it - and bipartisan minorities collared enough votes in both the state House and state Senate to uphold his veto.

The Missouri and Illinois legislative pushes are part of a nationwide campaign by the radical right, business and their right wing Republican puppets to emasculate workers' rights and unions, reduce wages to poverty levels and destroy opposition to the corporate agenda.

So-called right-to-work laws ban unions from inserting provisions for dues collection, or, for non-members a contract covers, agency fees collection, into any collective bargaining agreement. The object of such laws is to defund unions and workers, driving unions broke.

Other pieces of that campaign include repeal of prevailing wage laws, destruction of project labor agreements, cutting collective bargaining rights and emasculating teacher tenure.

Union leaders made it clear that defeating RTW was a top labor cause this year.

"We expect a 'No' vote," one Illinois Education Association (IEA) lobbyist told statewide political commentator Rich Miller. "Show that you are supportive of the middle class. A vote to the contrary and they will have to explain themselves to our members."

In a blog after reading that, commenter Hedley Lamarr added: "It's time for the IEA to realize that the Illinois GOP is not their friend."

And Illinois AFL-CIO President Mike Carrigan told statehouse reporters that, "Anything but a solid 'No' vote, will not be tolerated and will be considered as an inexcusable vote against labor."

Carrigan also specifically said that "Present" votes weren't acceptable. Skipping the vote wouldn't help. "Absences will be reviewed with suspicious eyes," Carrigan warned.

Knowing he would lose in Democratic-run state legislature, Rauner has been touring Illinois, urging local governments to enact their own RTW statutes, with a notable lack of success. But he hasn't introduced state legislation yet to let them do so.

His latest loss was in Franklin County, in the state's southernmost "Little Egypt" area. An overflow crowd of workers and unionists led the county board to move its meeting from its normal chamber to the courthouse, before unanimously defeating a RTW statute and passing a "resolution to protect the middle class." The crowd responded with a standing ovation.

That measure, adopted by a board in the heart of Illinois' coal country, says governments have no authority to pass Rauner's local right-to-work zones. It also rejects Rauner's demand to demolish prevailing wage requirements. The Franklin board's resolution declares, instead, that organized labor is an "historic cornerstone of the American middle class."

"Rauner's attempts to push local governments to support his agenda have fallen flat because local citizens have pushed back," Carrigan said in a prepared statement after the Franklin County vote on May 19. "Barely two dozen of the more than 1,000 Illinois municipalities have supported Rauner's anti-worker resolution, while more than twice that number have rejected or tabled it."

Over in Missouri, 64 of the 163 state representatives opposed RTW, the St. Louis Labor Tribune's tally showed. They included 41 Democrats, 22 Republicans and an independent. The 21-13 Senate RTW vote included four state senate Republicans. Both minorities are numerous enough to uphold Gov. Nixon's planned veto.

The Missouri bill was so extreme that it contemplated 15-day jail terms and unlimited civil penalties for union and business officials that violated it. Nixon said the bill is dead.

"Cooperating doesn't mean compromising on your principles," he said while reviewing the session's results. "And when the General Assembly passes legislation that would take our state backwards, like they did this past week, I won't hesitate to use my veto pen to protect the interests of the people of Missouri.

"The bill to make Missouri a so-called 'right-to-work' state would stifle our economic growth, weaken the middle class-and even subject Missouri employers to criminal and unlimited civil liability. I'll lay out my objections in greater detail in my veto message, but it's clear that attacking workers and threatening businesses is the wrong economic development strategy for our state and it's not what Missourians sent us here to do."

Union members in Missouri tried to head off RTW before the state's GOP majority passed it, but they were unsuccessful.

"There are approximately 1,000 union members here today," UFCW Local 655 President David Cook told state senators, gesturing to a standing-room-only crowd during a hearing on the legislation before the votes. "Where are the union members that are in favor of it? They're not out there! This is nothing more than a corporate power grab."

The St. Louis Labor Tribune contributed material for this story.

Photo: UFCW Local 665 lobbying team at the capitol building in Jefferson City, Missouri, to fight for workers rights. Facebook

Head of L.A. Federation of Labor thrilled with $15 wage victory

Thu, 28 May 2015 11:16:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - Perhaps no one is happier these days than Rusty Hicks, the man who holds the top job in the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. Just five months after his election as the federation's secretary treasurer, his vow to push for a $15 minimum wage in America's second most populous city has become reality.

The city council, of course, has just voted to raise the minimum wage, in steps, to $15 an hour.

"It's a great day for all working Angelenos," Hicks said May 26 in an exclusive phone interview with the Peoples World. "The voices of the workers have been heard and this gives us much to celebrate."

Hicks, who took over Jan. 1 from the "legendary," as he described her, Maria Elena Durazo, had declared at the outset that a hike in the minimum wage to $15 was his top priority. "The purpose of this labor federation is to battle against income inequality and to fight both for those who are currently organized into unions and for those who are not. Everyone rises together, there is no going it alone."

Hicks attributed much of the rapid success in achieving the wage hike to the fact that LA unions have been actively reaching out to work with non-traditional labor organizations, worker centers and community groups to fight for the interests of not just union workers, but everyone who works for a wage. The AFL-CIO, nationally, has been pushing this approach to building a broader labor movement for years now.

"The LA federation is very much in the forefront of this model of unionism that involves building partnerships with groups outside the labor movement," he said, noting that "hundreds of groups worked together in a coalition to win the minimum wage increase in LA including community , faith, and many other groups.

"We were in all the way with the Raise the Wage Campaign that joined these groups together to fight for the more than 750,000 low-wage workers in the Los Angeles area," Hicks said. (story continues after video)

Though new in his current job, Hicks who is 34, is not new to the business of building powerful organizations. He moved into his current job from the position of political director of the labor federation. In that role he helped turn the federation into a force to be reckoned with in California politics. Politicians not only in LA but all across the state have sought the fed's endorsements.

Hicks was elected to his position by hundreds of union reps who represent the federation's 800,000 members distributed through more than 300 union locals. He was the clear choice of his predecessor, Durazo, who took a national job with Unite Here, her old union, to enable her to promote her passions, civil rights, and immigration reform.

"Rusty is a brilliant young organizer," she told the Peoples World the day after the mass mobilizations by fast food workers earlier in the Spring, "and he will bring to this job the experience of a great political organizer as he continues the labor movement's commitment to immigration reform and civil rights."

"There was a change in leadership, but there's been no change in mission," Hicks said yesterday. "The labor movement continues now to fight for immigration reform, a path to citizenship for the undocumented millions. It cannot be otherwise. Labor is the movement of the workers, immigrants are a big part of the workforce."

Hicks said the labor movement's aim is to "to fight for the freedom of all workers to have a voice on the job, in the community, and at the ballot box."

He praised President Obama for his executive actions that allow millions to remain in the country without fear of expulsion and added, "There are millions in LA alone who need our support." He singled out wage theft as a particular area of concern for immigrant workers

Hicks also talked about President Obama who, he said, "has done many good things" for workers. The labor leader said, however, that he "could not understand why the president is pushing for the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal.

"The president has simply lost his way on this," Hicks said, "History shows that these types of trade deals end up hurting workers both here and abroad. Trade is fine, but not when it involves exporting our jobs or exploiting workers at home and overseas."

On the presidential elections Hicks said of the Republicans: "Among the Republican candidates you can't really distinguish between any of them. They are all spewing anti-worker rhetoric and pandering to the far right of their party.

"On the Democratic side, Sen. Clinton has a solid track record as a progressive and so does Sen. Bernie Sanders.

"I'm not sure, though," he said, "that labor should declare for anyone until things develop. What we want to do now is use the campaigns as much as possible to foster a conversation about income inequality and the ways to end it."

Hicks, who was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, said he learned in his youth about the need for workers to fight for their rights. His mother was a bookkeeper and he attended Austin College, coming to Los Angeles in 2003. He worked on the staffs of state assemblymen Mike Gordon and Ted Lieu, before taking the job as political director in the labor federation.

He serves now in the U.S. Naval Reserves in intelligence and beginning in August, 2012, spent a year in Afghanistan.

Photo: LA workers can now rejoice, as the city council has voted to raise the wage incrementally to $15 per hour. | Nick Ut/AP

Video by Rossana Cambron/PW

Kasich yanks collective bargaining rights from 10,000 Ohio care workers

Wed, 27 May 2015 16:21:00 +0000

COLUMBUS, Ohio (PAI) - Following the lead of the GOP-named majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, has gone one step further and yanked collective bargaining rights from 10,000 Ohio home health care and child care workers.

But while the justices ruled last year that unions could not even collect fair share fees from such workers - if those workers don't want to be members, but still receive union-negotiated protections - Kasich went further. He said unions can't even bargain for them.

Kasich's May 22 executive order "appalled" Becky Williams, president of SEIU 1199's district that includes Ohio, and those providers.

"By stripping collective bargaining rights from home care and childcare workers, Kasich is effectively attempting to silence thousands of low-wage workers, women and people of color from their ability to advocate for their clients and preserve quality care and services to the children, seniors and people with disabilities in our communities," she said.

"This is a volatile and uncertain time for Ohio's home care providers and consumers already because of radical moves by Kasich to effectively eliminate all independent home care providers and slash the pay of those that remain. Now, it is clear Kasich wants dismantle the ability of home care workers to organize a union" to silence "their ability to fight for improved funding and increased quality of service to Ohio's seniors and people with disabilities."

"This is another unsafe, unfair attack on Ohio's middle class families...and shows Kasich will stop at nothing to take away the voice of working people, no matter the cost."

An independent home care provider for the developmentally disabled, Amy Hurd, told 1199 that "It feels like Kasich doesn't understand the needs of seniors and people with disabilities. Why else would he want to eliminate our work, slash our pay and silence our voice? As providers, we know our clients need and deserve quality care providers who have the skills and experience that comes with a stable and well-resourced workforce. By cutting our wages, eliminating our jobs and robbing us of our rights, many home care workers like myself will be forced out of jobs and away from the clients we care about."

Photo: Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Friday rescinded a pair of executive orders allowing home health-care and child-care workers who do business with the state to unionize. (Jim Cole/Associated Press)

Store cleaners file class action suit for back pay, set strike date

Wed, 27 May 2015 14:27:00 +0000

MINNEAPOLIS (PAI) - Janitors who clean big-box and department stores in the Twin Cities announced two key developments in their campaign for better wages and working conditions: Setting a new strike deadline and filing a class-action lawsuit to recoup wages allegedly lost to wage theft.

Members of the Twin Cities worker center CTUL, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha/Center of Workers United in Struggle, took legal action in Hennepin County against cleaning contractor Capital Building Services Group. They allege that janitors who clean Macy's and Herberger's stores were paid less than minimum wage and did not receive overtime pay, among other offenses. They also set a new strike date of June 9.

The two retailers hire Capital, which in turn hires the workers. That gives the retail giants "deniability" about the wages and working conditions of janitors who clean its stores.

Eight current or former Capital employees joined the class action, which could grow to include other workers as the lawsuit advances. Several plaintiffs gathered for a May 20 press conference to announce the suit outside Macy's store on Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis.

Leyla Yusuf, a former Capital employee, said the company did not provide paycheck stubs with information on wages, hours and overtime to its employees. When she suspected she was not being paid in full, she demanded to see a pay stub.

"The reason I got fired is because I asked for my check stub," Yusuf said through a translator. "I spoke up, and I'll never be silenced. We are here to get it right."

The lawsuit comes roughly seven months after CTUL reached a historic agreement with a third big retailer, Target, on a policy to ensure safe conditions, fair wages and basic protections for all workers inside Target's Twin Cities stores - even those workers who toil for other companies, like subcontractors.

Target's influence in the local retail market sparked hope that the policy would have a ripple effect throughout the industry. Instead, workers say the two contractors that service area Target stores, Carlson Building Maintenance and Prestige Maintenance USA, are not abiding by the policy - and it's holding back progress for all cleaning workers as a result.

Maricela Flores and Jose Cabrera, CTUL members who work for Carlson, reported being required to work seven days per week - a violation of Target's Responsible Contractor Policy.

"I don't have enough time to rest," Cabrera said. "I don't have time spend with my family. Although Target created the new policy, we still have not seen necessary changes."

The subcontractors also have failed to respect workers' union rights, CTUL organizer Merle Payne said. "We've had a number of meetings where we've tried" to establish a pathway to organizing, Payne said. "But the companies aren't really meeting in good faith."

Now, CTUL members are giving Carlson, Prestige and six other contractors, including Capital, until June 9 to get serious about those meetings, or else they will call a strike.

Any work stoppage could affect 15 retail chains, including Macy's, Herberger's, Target, Kohl's and Sears.

Short-term, high-visibility strikes are gaining popularity among low-wage workers in the Twin Cities and nationwide as a strategy for putting pressure on employers and attracting more support. If janitors walk off the job June 9, it would mark their fifth strike in the Twin Cities over the last two years.

"It's too long that we've been waiting, too long that our petitions have gone without an answer," Luciano Balbuena, a Kimco Services employee who cleans Home Depot stores, said through a translator. "If we don't get a response, we're going on strike June 9."

Michael Moore, St. Paul Union Advocate

Photo: Workday Minnesota ‏@workdaymn May 26 Retail store cleaners file class action lawsuit, set strike date http://buff.ly/1LqyGl3 @CTUL_TC @unionadvocate

Today in history: Supreme Court okays sit-down strikes

Wed, 27 May 2015 11:55:00 +0000

Seventy-five years ago, on May 27, 1940, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Apex Hosiery Co. v. Leader, that a sit-down strike was not a violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act even if it interfered with interstate commerce. The company had sued for treble damages (triple their financial loss) under the Sherman Act, citing its Section 1: "Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, is hereby declared to be illegal."

On May 4, 1937, the American Federation of Full Fashioned Hosiery Workers, under its president, William Leader, declared a strike at Apex Hosiery Co., located at at 5th and Luzerne Streets in Philadelphia, and organized support among other workers in the city. When Apex refused to recognize the union, Leader declared a sit-down strike and led an occupation of the factory which lasted for seven weeks.

Locks on all gates and entrances to the plant were changed, and only strikers were given keys. No others were allowed to leave or enter without permission. During the occupation, the union supplied the strikers with food, blankets, cots, medical care, and paid them strike benefits. While occupying the factory, the strikers damaged property and equipment of the company, and all manufacturing operations ceased. The strikers retained possession of the plant until June 23, 1937, when they were forcibly ejected.

The company did not resume even partial manufacturing operations until August 19. In the meantime, the flow of hosiery products into interstate commerce was stopped.

The recent United Auto Workers sit-down at the GM plant in Flint was clearly an inspiration to the hosiery workers in Philadelphia, although there was scant record of damage done to the auto manufacturing equipment.

The Supreme Court declared that if the strike were found to be a restraint of trade, then "practically every strike in modern industry would be brought within the jurisdiction of the federal courts under the Sherman Act."

The mere fact that strikes or agreements not to work, entered into by laborers to compel employers to yield to their demands, may restrict the power of such employers to compete in the market does not fall within the legitimate purview of the Sherman Act. Apex did not show that the interruption of business caused by the strike affected, or was intended to affect, competition and prices in the market, which was the primary intent of the anti-trust law.

The court's decision did not directly address the destruction of property performed by the strikers, but only referred it to the state courts, as not in the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

The historic finding constituted a blow to employers seeking to pervert the intended meaning of the law as a way of attacking workers' rights.

Apex Hosiery closed operations in 1954, after 53 years in business.

Adapted from intellectualtakeout.org, peace history index, and other sources.

Photo: Apex Hosiery strike hits the streets of Philadelphia. | San Antonio Peace.center

U.S. call to support striking farmworkers in Baja California, Mexico

Fri, 22 May 2015 14:14:00 +0000

The United Farm Workers of America (UFW) in the United States has called for support for an epic struggle of mostly indigenous Mexican farm laborers in fruit farms in San Quintín in the Mexican state of Baja California Norte.

The UFW is circulating a petition directed at Driscoll and stores which stock its products, which the union asks everybody to sign.

Driscoll does not own the farms which are the focus of farmworker protests, but has such a large role in buying their products for distribution in the U.S. and beyond that it is in a position to pressure the growers to accede to the demands of the workers if it so desires. But Driscoll claims it is doing the best it can.

The San Quintín conflict has its roots in the dynamics of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. Readers may recall that when NAFTA was negotiated and signed, there was supposed to be a tradeoff for Mexican small farmers. It was recognized that opening up Mexico's internal markets to a massive influx of U.S. and Canadian corn and wheat would have the effect of displacing millions of Mexican grain farmers and their families, who would not be able to compete with the imported grains - which in many cases are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers.

However, the displaced grain farmers were supposed to be able to survive by getting jobs in foreign manufacturing concerns which were to flood into Mexico, attracted by the low wages. In addition, Mexican "specialty fruits and vegetables" were to have access to U.S. markets, providing another source of income for the former grain farmers.

Grain farmers were indeed displaced, but the jobs created by foreign corporations have neither been enough nor sufficiently well paid to keep body and soul together. This stimulated migration from Mexico to the United States. Since the U.S. does not hand out immigrant visas to poor displaced Mexican farmers, such immigration necessarily comes in "undocumented."

As for the prosperity to be gained by the increased access of Mexican "specialty" fruits and vegetables to U.S. markets, it has gone to wealthy landowners and growers and not to the displaced campesinos. Earlier this year, the Los Angeles Times published an eye-opening series on the conditions faced by Mexican migrant farm workers in these "specialty fruit and vegetable" production centers. The series, and many other reports, document substandard wages even by Mexican agriculture's standards, ghastly housing conditions in the work camps, violations of Mexican labor law, denial of benefits required by law, physical abuse, child labor and sexual harassment.

There is an ethnic and racist edge to this. About half of these migrant farmworkers in Mexico are indigenous people from southern states like Guerrero and Oaxaca. In the case of San Quintín, about 80 percent of the workers are indigenous people. Some do not speak Spanish but only Mixteco and other indigenous languages. They go to the poor and abusive conditions in the farm labor camps only because their ancient home communities are even poorer and getting poorer yet.

These are the conditions that caused the outbreak of protests in San Quintín in mid March. Protesters left the fields, blocked a major highway, the Transpeninsular, and carried out militant demonstrations in which many were injured and arrested. Local authorities, siding with the growers, carried out raids on the homes of the protesters.

The protests are not being organized by Mexico's officially recognized labor unions, which have strong ties to the Revolutionary Institutional Party that, under President Enrique Peña Nieto, runs the national government. The government of the state of Baja California Norte is controlled by the far right-wing PAN, or National Action Party, some of whose leading members are the selfsame growers against whom the farm workers are protesting. The organization representing the protesting farm workers is the Alliance of Farmworkers of San Quintín, which is supported by left-led independent unions and by the political left nationwide. The San Quintín workers aim to organize their own independent and democratic labor union.

At the end of last week, it appeared that a settlement was in sight. Negotiations carried out under the leadership of the governor of Baja California Norte, Francisco Vega de la Madrid (PAN), and including the presence - unwanted by the protesters - of three of the establishment labor federations, seemed to have hammered out an agreement. The terms include dropping the prosecution of arrested protesters, including the farm laborers in the benefits provided by the Mexican Social Security Institute, and a pay raise to 200 pesos per day (about $13 U.S.). All this was agreed to by the Mexican government. However at the end of the week, the growers, represented by the Agricultural Council of Baja California, announced that they had never agreed to that raise, and that they were sticking with a 15 percent raise offer. If the Mexican government wants the agricultural workers to be paid more, it should come up with the money itself, they added, claiming that the Mexican economy would collapse if such demands were acceded to.

Workers currently earn between $6.50 and $10.00 a day.

Correction: In a previous version of this story, it included a statement that the UFCW had called for a boycott but that was incorrect. It has called for pressure on Driscoll and launched an online petition. We regret the error.

Photo: A farmworker works in a strawberry field in Baja California, Mexico. | Omar Millan/AP

Cleveland labor launches campaign against racism

Fri, 22 May 2015 14:06:00 +0000

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Responding to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka's call for labor to mobilize in the fight against racism, the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor has launched a campaign to support the effort.

The action came in a strongly worded "Resolution on Racial and Economic Justice" adopted overwhelmingly by about 100 delegates at their monthly meeting May 13. The resolution, recommended by the Federation's Executive Committee which had met earlier in the day, originated in the labor body's Committee on Racial Justice and was later approved by its Political Action Committee and Retirees' Council. It hailed the initiative of the National AFL-CIO and committed the local federation "to help carry out this effort in every way possible."

Adoption came after delegates watched a video of Trumka speaking to the Missouri AFL-CIO convention in the wake of the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson.

Trumka's speech "makes me so proud," an emotional Meryl Johnson, a retired African American teacher, member of the Executive Committee and a leader of the Racial Justice Committee, told the delegates as she called for adoption of the resolution.

Roger Sikes, campaign manager for the federation, said he expected the resolution, along with a statement on racial and economic justice issued by the national AFL-CIO Executive Council at its February meeting in Atlanta, would be distributed to affiliated unions with close to 100,000 members. The text follows:

Resolution on Racial and Economic Justice

WHEREAS racism was systematically embedded in American society from our nation's founding when slavery was the dominant base of the economy and, despite historic and heroic struggles and progress to destroy its basis in law, continues to pervade the social and economic life of our country causing enormous harm and suffering to African Americans and other people of color, and

WHEREAS racism continues to be used as a means to divide working people and weaken their political and economic power with the aim of imposing austerity, the destruction of unions and the crippling of all democratic institutions and rights, and

WHEREAS the recent series of shocking incidents of deadly police violence against African Americans throughout the country including in Cleveland, have outraged many decent Americans and provoked a mass movement for reform of the criminal justice system, and

WHEREAS, because of these incidents AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka made a powerful appeal to the Missouri AFL-CIO Convention in February and later that month, at a meeting of the Executive Council in Atlanta, the AFL-CIO issued a statement calling on union members to mobilize in the fight to overcome racism throughout society as key to the fight to raise wages, create jobs and defend the survival and effectiveness of organized labor, and

WHEREAS, to implement this policy, the AFL-CIO has established a National Commission on Racial and Economic Justice, with plans to travel to cities across the country and hold broad discussions on this effort with labor leaders and constituency groups,

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor applauds, welcomes and endorses this important initiative of our national leadership and commits itself to help carry out this effort in every way possible, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the North Shore Federation of Labor invites the AFL-CIO National Commission on Racial and Economic Justice to hold its first session in the City of Cleveland, Ohio, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that as soon as a date for this session is set, the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor will hold a press conference to publicize the aims and purposes of the labor movement in this regard, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that in the meantime and in preparation for the event, the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor will distribute the national AFL-CIO statement to all affiliates and allied groups and encourage discussions at all levels on the importance of labor and its allies in playing a leading role in the national effort to overcome racism and racial injustice.

Photo: Charles Krupa/AP

Protesters serve notice to McDonald’s shareholders: $15 and union

Fri, 22 May 2015 13:04:00 +0000

OAK BROOK, Ill. - Surrounded by corporate office buildings, high-end shopping malls and major expressways, fast food workers from around the country marched to McDonald's headquarters here May 20 demanding $15 an hour and a union. The colorful banners, boisterous marchers and festive atmosphere livened up the sterile and austere setting. Police on bicycles lined the wide suburban street as workers, ministers and community activists chanted "$15! $15!" Two helicopters hovered over the warren of parking lots, plazas and malls as security guards made sure private property was not breached.

One bus of Chicago marchers, which had at least a dozen senior citizens on board, discharged its passengers in front of the headquarters of Hub Group, a multi-billion-dollar transportation management company, only to be met by red-faced executives barking at the racially diverse group of riders to get back on the bus. "This is private property!!!" one man bellowed. "You cannot be here." Pointing to one of his colleagues yelling at another group of bus riders, he said, "You know who that is? It's the CEO's son!"

One could not help but think, "Welcome to the class struggle in the 21st century."

For all the attempted intimidation, the demonstrators answered with a single-minded determination to send a message to McDonald's on the eve of its stockholders meeting: People are fed up with poverty wages.

Besides nearby Chicago, buses and participants came from across the country, including Pittsburgh, Pa., St. Louis, and Kansas City, Mo., Madison and Milwaukee, Wis., Minnesota New York and North Carolina.

Andrew McConnell, 33, a McDonald's drive-thru cashier in Kansas City, Kansas, has eight children and works more than one job. He said they live week-to-week. "It's very, very difficult," he said. "You have to find what you are going to do one week versus what you are going to do another week. You can't ever get it all done at the same time and that's part of the problem."

McConnell challenged the idea that paying $15 an hour would raise food prices. He pointed to the fast food giant's profits, which are more than $1 billion per year. He said, "They don't have to raise the price of food to give the workers what they owe us," adding that "every year the price of food goes up anyway."

Another corporate argument is that if they raise wages to $15 it will push teenagers out of the job market. But McConnell noted, "There are 35 million low wage workers in America and not all of them are teenagers. The majority of them are over the age of 27. [We] can't go find better jobs. We have to make the jobs we have better jobs." A 2012 Economic Policy Institute study backed up McConnell's numbers: 26 percent of the U.S. workforce (35 million) earn less than $10.55 an hour.

That sobering fact contrasts with another hair-raising statistic: The annual income of the 400 wealthiest individuals in the United States is equivalent to $97,000 an hour, according to billionaire Warren Buffett. In a New York Times article that makes the case for taxing the rich at higher rates, Buffett wrote that this "group's average income in 2009 was $202 million - which works out to a 'wage' of $97,000 per hour, based on a 40-hour workweek."

As the march turned down McDonald's Drive for a rally in front of the hamburger giant's corporate offices, the Rev. William Barber, architect of the Moral Monday Movement in North Carolina, marched behind the lead banner which read, "McDonald's: $15 and union rights, not food stamps #FightFor15."

Income inequality is a "deeply moral" issue, he said. Low-wage workers should be able to "enjoy the fruits of their labor."

These workers are "changing the conversation from minimum wage to living wage," Barber said. "This movement can penetrate systemic racial and economic injustice."

Barber compared the fight for higher wages and a union to other transformative movements in U.S. history. "These young people are as important as SNCC [Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee], this movement is as important as the abolitionists," he said. Along with winning essentials like jobs and health care, winning $15 an hour and union rights would be a "third Reconstruction," he added.

The Fight for 15 campaign announced Thursday that McDonald's workers had delivered 1.4 million petition signatures to the company's annual shareholder meeting calling for $15 an hour and union rights. In addition, four major public pension fund officials urged the company to curb "buybacks," a recent and widespread corporate practice of distributing profits among shareholders instead of investing in the company's long-term growth and improved wages for employees. McDonald's is also under U.S. government and global scrutiny for a variety of violations, including tax evasion and abusive labor practices, the campaign said.

Photo: Earchiel Johnson/PW

Los Angeles raising minimum wage to $15 by 2020

Thu, 21 May 2015 11:35:00 +0000

In a big win for workers and their allies, the Los Angeles City Council voted 14-1 on May 19 to raise the city's minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020 for large businesses and to that level by 2021 for smaller ones in the nation's second-largest city.

The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor was part of LA Raise The Wage.org, a coalition that campaigned hard for the hike. Raise The Wage cited studies showing the city's minimum wage hike could aid 800,000 low-paid workers - fast-food workers, janitors, retail workers, and health care workers. That's one of every four workers in L.A., the coalition said.

With the increase, L.A. joins an ever-lengthening list of cities and states that, fed up with congressional dysfunction on raising the federal minimum wage, have acted on their own. The first Los Angeles hike, to $10.50 an hour, would take effect July 1, 2016 for large enterprises and July 1, 2017 for those employing 50 people or fewer.

The business lobby, and especially the restaurant industry, opposed raising the city's minimum wage. The council gave them one concession, dropping a paid sick leave provision. Raise The Wage also said the restaurant lobby also pushed for a subminimum wage. It lost.

"Our city has taken a much-needed, significant step toward lifting hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty," said Raise The Wage Co-convenor Laphonza Butler after the vote. "It is critical that no Angeleno -- whether they're workers or owners of small businesses and nonprofits -- is left behind," added fellow co-convenor Rusty Hicks. Some non-profits could get a waiver, but only if their CEOs had pay limits, Raise The Wage noted.

Raise The Wage said the city's minimum wage hike would especially help restaurant servers and bartenders, as "46 percent are on public assistance while restaurants pulled in $8 billion last year. And tipped workers, the majority of whom do not work in the restaurant industry, face daunting challenges, including wage theft."

Photo: Workers celebrate the victory of LA's minimum wage being raised to $15 by 2020. | Damian Dovarganes/AP

Katrina smashed New Orleans, now SCOTUS smashes its teachers

Thu, 21 May 2015 11:03:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - The quest of 7,500 fired New Orleans teachers and school staffers for back pay and damages - union members summarily let go through a state takeover after Hurricane Katrina smashed their city and their schools almost a decade ago - ended May 18 in a loss at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Without comment and with votes unreported, the justices turned down the teachers' appeal of a Louisiana Supreme Court ruling denying them class action status to sue for millions of dollars as a result of the firings.

Before the losses at the two Supreme Courts, in D.C. and in Baton Rouge, the teachers and staffers, members of the American Federation of Teachers, had won in lower courts.

Those judges ruled the Orleans Parish School Board - which was left with fewer than six schools to run after the state's post-Katrina takeover - violated the teachers' "constitution-ally protected property right" to be rehired for reopened schools under the union contract.

But Louisiana's state supreme court ruled 5-2 for the school board and the U.S. Supreme Court, in Eddie Oliver vs. Orleans Parish School Board, agreed.

"Today, the judicial branch has again failed 7,500 citizens, but America has three branches of government," said the fired teachers' attorney, Willie Zanders Sr. "I plan to ask the legislative branch for a formal congressional hearing regarding $500 million in federal funds sent to help public school employees after Katrina, but Louisiana politicians had other plans."

That federal money didn't go to the fired teachers and aides, Zanders said. Instead $29 million went to New York financial consultants, $20 million to a Texas school security firm and millions more went to out-of-state school bus and food service companies. The state told federal officials a decade ago that Orleans Parish schools needed the money to keep staffers on basic payrolls while they helped rebuild the schools and the system, a state letter shows.

What it did not say is that the state turned over all but a handful of Orleans Parish (City/County) schools to the state-established Recovery School District, which converted them to non-union charters - and which refused to hire any of the teachers and staffers. And when Louisiana got the $500 million, it turned those funds over to the recovery district.

The firing of the teachers and dismantling of the public transit company, also unionized, by then-Mayor Ray Nagin, devastated the African-American middle class in what was then a two-thirds African-American, but also poor, city. Katrina also robbed New Orleans of approximately one-third of its population and cemented Louisiana's status as a deep-red state.

Photo: A teacher with the United Teachers of New Orleans holds a sign reading "United We Stand" in solidarity with the fired New Orleans teachers. | United Teachers Facebook page

Restaurant workers crash the “other” NRA’s trade show

Wed, 20 May 2015 15:52:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Restaurant workers attending a speech Monday by Arianna Huffington at the National Restaurant Association's trade show stood up and protested aloud the industry's wage policies.

Huffington, the editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post, gave a keynote speech that underlined the importance of people being able to achieve the American Dream.

As she spoke restaurant workers in the crowd rose to their feet holding signs that read, "$2.13 is not the American Dream," and began chanting "One Fair Wage."

One Fair Wage is a recently-launched campaign by the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United to eliminate what restaurant workers call an unfair two-tiered wage system in place for restaurant workers in favor of one fair minimum wage that would apply to everyone. The organization has 14,000 workers who are members in more than 30 cities.

The federal tipped minimum wage has been frozen at $2.13 an hour since 1991. It forces tipped workers, most of whom are women, to live off tips from customers rather than salaries from their employers.

As they stood up to protest, workers were ushered out of the room with some of them put under temporary arrest. Huffington interrupted her own remarks with support for the demonstrators, declaring, "I understand the demonstration. We all need to be cognizant that we are going through a difficult time in this country where inequality has grown, where more people are in poverty."

Dawn Sweeney, the president of the NRA, who was also on stage, ignored the demonstrators who spent the better part of three days at the industry trade show this week unsuccessfully trying to meet with her.

A day later restaurant workers again failed to meet with her when they staged a sit-inside the McCormick Center itself.

They walked out onto the main floor in the hall and unfurled two huge banners that read, "Dawn Sweeney, NRA President: Come Talk to Restaurant Workers About Our American Dream."

"You are being disruptive," said a security representative who ran out to the demonstrators.

"No, not disruptive," a spokesperson for the demonstrators shot back. "We just want to talk to Dawn Sweeney. The issue is that we can't live on $2.13 an hour. There are 13 million of us around the country and we have a lot of workers here from Chicago."

They complied with orders to roll up the banners and go outside, chanting, "You must know, $2.13 has got to go." The chants , which echoed through the hall, could be heard by hundreds of restaurant owners examining the latest piece of restaurant equipment and product displays being shown at the numerous booths.

"I know waiters and waitresses who make six figures," one opponent of raising the wage who attended the show said as he passed demonstrating restaurant workers.

One woman who works as a server in a Chicago restaurant said, "I struggle to pay my bills and raise my son in Chicago. The NRA does not admit it but they do everything they can to prevent us from getting a raise, to prevent us from getting health care. On top of that we deal with tips being stolen and even the low base wages being stolen. And NRA doesn't even want to hear from us when we have good suggestions to make that would benefit the restaurant business."

ROC United says the NRA's main purpose is to make the $700 billion dollar restaurant industry look good, and that it is the NRA which is behind the thus-far successful 20-year effort to keep wages frozen at their 1991 level.

The workers protesting inside were sent outside where they continued to picket and chant, "NRA You Must Know. $2.3 has got to go."

This week's demonstrations here at the restaurant industry's largest trade show followed the Apr. 15 convergence of hundreds of restaurant workers on the NRA's lobbying day effort in Washington D.C.

The restaurant workers visited lawmakers calling upon them to stop taking corporate contributions from the big restaurants.

They set up a pop-up cardboard restaurant, blocking four intersections in the city. The actions caused significant delays for the NRA bus caravan full of lobbyists that was headed for the Capitol.

Photo: ROC official Facebook page

Rail unions weigh in with more analysis on Amtrak crash

Wed, 20 May 2015 14:57:00 +0000

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Rail unions that represent most U.S. railroad operating personnel - including the union that represents engineers - are weighing in with more analysis of the fatal Amtrak crash in Philadelphia.

And in their joint statement, Presidents Dennis Pierce of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, a Teamsters sector, and John Previsich of the Transportation Division of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (Smart), say Congress shares some of the blame for the conditions which led to the May 12 crash.

The northbound Amtrak train crashed while rounding a curve in North Philadelphia. All of its cars derailed. Eight people were killed and another 200 were injured. Preliminary reports say the train was traveling more than 100 mph, double the speed limit on the curve.

One reason it was speeding is because Amtrak did not have the computerized Positive Train Control (PTC) system on its entire Northeast Corridor line, particularly that segment, due to lack of money for it from Congress. PTC would slow the train regardless of what the engineer did. And Congress passed legislation in 1981 that Amtrak interpreted as permitting it to run its passenger trains with one person - the engineer - as the crew.

"Armed with that legislative precedent - and mindful of where its funding originates - Amtrak has since 1983 refused to crew Northeast Corridor trains with more than one employee in the cab," the two presidents said.

The two unions "steadfastly maintain there should be two crew members in the cab of all trains to ensure public safety. But only Congress can change the legislation that reduced crew size on the Northeast Corridor."

Amtrak's PTC funding is also up to lawmakers, even though the federal government mandated seven years ago that railroads install PTC by the end of this year. There is no PTC on freight railroads, with a few exceptions, the union leaders added.

"The industry at large has spent the interim finding reasons to avoid implementing PTC technology. They have created the situation about which they all now complain - they say they cannot meet the Dec. 31 deadline. Each death caused by the delay of PTC implementation is one too many, yet Congress is preparing to consider a blanket five-year extension to 2020. This is most certainly not in the public interest."

Pierce and Previsich noted that since 2005, the National Transportation Safety Board, which is probing the Philly crash, has investigated 16 accidents "that could have been prevented or mitigated with PTC." And 52 people, including members of both unions, died in those crashes, while 942 more were injured.

"NTSB publicly stated" PTC technology would have prevented the Philadelphia crash. While "there is no disagreement over the value of PTC technology, there is no technology available today that can ever safely replace a second crew member in the cab."

Photo: The NTSB Go Team arrives on the scene of the Amtrak train No. 188 derailment in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. | Wikipedia, National Transportation Safety Board via Flickr, Public Domain

Pension plans at stake in Bricklayers dispute

Wed, 20 May 2015 14:49:00 +0000

ST. LOUIS (PAI) - In an effort to try and bring Bricklayers Local 1 their knees in current contract negotiations, the management trustees of the union's pension plan have filed a lawsuit against the union trustees over a proposal to radically change the union's pension plan. The outcome of this lawsuit has serious implications for unions across America.

The management trustees of the Bricklayers pension fund want to end the current defined benefit plan and replace it with a defined contribution plan. That is not unusual in the pension world today.

However, the management trustees want to kill one plan and start a new plan as an action of the pension trustees instead of the issue being a subject of collective bargaining during contract negotiations. In effect, the management trustees want to use the members' own retirement funds to get something they could never achieve through collective bargaining.

If a court rules in the management trustees' favor, it will have major negative consequences for union benefit plans across this country.

If the contractors are permitted to undermine the collective bargaining process and obtain through arbitration what they cannot achieve through negotiations, this will almost certainly occur throughout the country, potentially negatively impacting the retirements of millions of workers in pension plans

The union's position is straightforward: What the contractor trustees seek would cause a termination of the pension fund under federal law. They make these points:

Under the pension trust, the pension fund cannot be terminated without the ratification vote of the entire Local 1 membership.
The contractor trustees' proposal is unlawful because it would make the pension plan inconsistent with the collective bargaining agreement.
Finally, the decision to terminate the pension fund should be reserved for collective bargaining.

The issue first surfaced last July in a trustee meeting, which has equal numbers of labor and management representatives.

The contractor trustees proposed ending the current plan, freezing current benefit levels in place and launching an entirely new pension plan. The union trustees objected but the proposal was put to a vote where it failed in a tie.

Not satisfied with democracy at work, management trustees demanded the issue go to arbitration. The union trustees not only said "no," but "Hell no." Management trustees then sued in federal court. They claim the right to go to arbitration when the issue was stalemated.

"Not on your life!" said Local 1 Business Manager Don Brown with pent-up emotion.

"We're not about to let one man - an arbitrator - make a decision that impacts the lives of hundreds of bricklayers and apprentices, now and into the future!"

Pension issues have always been a split responsibility here, Brown said:

First, the overall amount of a proposed hourly wage increase is decided in collective bargaining.
Then, Local 1's executive board decides how the raise will be split between pension, health and welfare and the paycheck.
Finally, once the union has decided how the money will be split between the check and the benefits, the pension trustees then determine how the amount allocated by the executive board will be spent."

"The MCA [Mason Contractors Association of St. Louis] wants to kill our current pension and replace it with a lesser defined contribution plan, all in an effort to protect themselves against withdrawal liability," Brown said. The MCA's goal is to take away retirement security from bricklayers so that the contractors can be protected from withdrawal liability.

A defined benefit pension plan guarantees participants a specific level monthly dollar benefit determined by their length of service upon retirement. This specific benefit is paid every month regardless of the plan's investment performance.

A defined contribution plan guarantees no level of monthly benefits. Instead, dollars are put into a 401(k) style plan in each participant's name. The trust fund's investment advisors then invest those funds. As a result of those investments, the individual's account could see solid growth OR it could see substantial losses, just like the stock market since most of the plan's investments are in the stock market. Once the participant retires, they are entitled to the balance of money left in their individual account.

"They knew members would never vote to castrate their own pensions, so they thought they could accomplish the same thing at the pension fund meeting. They were dead wrong. This is a backdoor effort to circumvent negotiating over this critical issue, an issue that belongs in negotiations, not a decision made by ten trustees, half of whom stand to gain big time."

The arrangement Brown refers to is the demand by the management trustees to take the current $4.60 an hour that goes to fund the pension and split it into two parts:

First, $1.38 would go into the current frozen plan for what Brown calls a "special insurance fund" exclusively to protect the contractors. While this plan would be frozen with no future changes in member's benefits, it would build up funds to protect contractors if, at some point in the distant future, the plan was underfunded requiring contractors to pony up more money.

The hypocrisy of the contractor argument is that the Bricklayers Pension Fund is 97.5 percent funded and has no unfunded liabilities now or for the foreseeable future. Few pension plans in the nation can make that claim.

"This may be needed to protect the contractors decades into the future, but hurts our members now and forever into that same future," Brown added.

Second, the remaining $3.22 would go into a new 401(k) type plan. This type of plan guarantees no benefits at all but creates a pot of investment money in each person's name that is controlled by the fund's investment advisors. If the economy were to sour again, there could be substantial losses in the fund which means there will be less money available for a bricklayer's retirement.

"In other words," Brown said, "Our members take all the risk and the contractors none."

This concept has terrible consequences for members, Brown pointed out:

For current members, $1.38 an hour would be siphoned off and paid into the current plan even though it's being terminated/frozen for the rest of the Bricklayer's working life but would earn the bricklayer NO additional pension credits/benefits from the plan.
For apprentices, except for first year apprentices that are not covered by the pension, they will be contributing $1.38 into the terminated/frozen plan their entire working life but never gain any pension credits/benefits from that contribution.
A sour economy would mean less money available to bricklayers in the new plan when they are ready to retire since their money would be invested in stocks and bonds and subject to the whims of Wall Street and the stock market. "And we know where that led in 2008," Brown said.

Photo: Labor Tribune

Call goes out for boycott of Driscoll

Tue, 19 May 2015 16:02:00 +0000

Yet another boycott of Driscoll's products is being called for, by Mexican farm workers this time, echoing a similar call from Washington state workers, as all decry pay and conditions in the fields of Driscoll's suppliers.

A work stoppage began on March 17 in the San Quintín Valley, near Ensenada in the Mexican state of Baja California, as workers, promptly represented by Rúben Núñez from the Oaxaca sección 22 of the Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación, called for a minimum daily wage of 300 pesos (at about $.067 USD/peso that comes to almost $20/day).

Berrymex, one of the largest growers in the area, employing as many as 31,000 workers, is one of the many producers that supplies Driscoll's with berries. In response to the strike, Berrymex representatives agreed to increase pay for workers by 15 percent, though none have said how much workers would actually be paid under the new scale, instead speaking in terms of percentages.

Berrymex, though, is not the only Driscoll's supplier whose workers are calling for a boycott. Sakura Farms workers in Burlington, Washington, are also calling for a boycott of Driscoll's products. Ironically, many of the Washington workers are also from Oaxaca, in southern Mexico, and many have family members also participating in the strikes in San Quintín. An Oregon-based NGO, the Fair World Project, has even gone so far as to collect some 10,000 signatures from concerned consumers to present to Driscoll's, as well as other distributors of the Sakura Farms products.

Meanwhile, though Berrymex's promise to increase pay was enough for many workers to return to the fields, many others have resisted, continuing to fight for more.

"Seguimos con los 300 pesos de salario diario, que se pague a 30 pesos la caja de fresa. Se está pidiendo que se paguen los domingos, los días festivos. Todas las prestaciones de la Ley Federal del Trabajo," Núñez was quoted in Milenio as saying as negotiations continued in Mexicali, the capital of Baja California- demanding not only a minimum daily wage but all the benefits due under Mexican Federal Labor Law.

While there were also protests by workers, who blocked the Transpeninsular Highway south of Ensenada leading to as many as 200 arrests, during the initial work stoppage, representatives of the Baja California State as well as the Mexican Federal government have since sat down to negotiate. As negotiations have continued, however, a number of the workers representatives demanded in May that the 18 remaining jailed workers, 14 of which had been held since the original March 17 protests, be released - three of whom were being held on a bail of seven million pesos each, and a fourth on a bail of 500,000 pesos.

Those last 14 workers were released from prison in Ensenada on May 16, amid what seems to be an unusual agreement. Among the points of an apparent agreement of 13 points, were an agreement that the workers would return to the fields until processes could be developed and talks resumed June 4 regarding the terms of a pay scale that would be retroactive to May 24; an agreement that the growers would present a proposal "as close as possible" to the 200 pesos/day, and that the Federal Government would make up the difference, according to reporting by La Jornada on May 14.

In an unsurprising twist, however, the San Quintín growers have disavowed the proposal presided over by David Garay, representing the state and federal governments, and agreed to on May 14 by both government and worker representatives. Despite the expectation that the government representatives were also representing the interests of the growers, the growers said May 16 that Alberto Muñoz, legal representative of the growers at the negotiations, attended "unicamente para conocer lo que ahí se trataba, pero sin facultades para acordar o negociar," according to La Jornada - that is, only to be aware of how the negotiations were proceeding, but without any power to negotiate or make any agreements.

In light of this statement, the additional statement by the growers that "no habrá variación en esa postura ni en el porcentaje," that is to say, that there was no change in their position of the percentage pay increase of their offer from that initial offering of fifteen percent from May 27, is not unexpected.

After having dismissed the agreement for their part, however, it is rather surprising that the growers would then go on to declare that "estamos a la espera de que el Gobierno Federal nos indique los mecanismos de operación por el cual aportará los recursos adicionales para cubrir el diferencial y responder con el salario señalado."

That is- that they are looking forward to the Federal Government showing them the mechanisms and processes by which they plan to provide the resources, presumably expecting that the resources are to be provided to the growers, in order to cover the difference in the pay for the workers in order to satisfy them so that they will return to the fields... as indicated in the agreement.

Photo: zenlife15, Fatima Garcia

Labor steps up its crusade for undocumented workers

Tue, 19 May 2015 13:33:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Unionists, Latinos, undocumented workers and their allies stepped up their crusade for workplace rights for the undocumented, with a May 18 press conference highlighting what should have been a chance for millions to file for legal status.

Instead, thanks to a federal judge's injunction in Texas, which the Obama administration is appealing, the first day of filing, May 19, will be marked by marches and demonstrations nationwide for legalization.

And it will be marked by unions stepping up their efforts to teach and coach the estimated seven million undocumented workers on how to gather the proper documents and prepare to seek the right to stay in the U.S.

"We are going to ensure workers are ready to apply for it" - legal status - "and to fight for it," said United Food and Commercial Workers Executive Vice President Esther Lopez.

The press conference, hosted by the AFL-CIO, comes as the administration fights several Republican-dominated states - with Texas in the lead - over the executive order by President Barack Obama last November setting up a legal status program for undocumented adults (DAPA). The states are contesting his right to do that.

The judge, without ruling on the merits of the program, said Obama didn't follow needed federal procedures for publishing such rules and inviting comments. His injunction followed. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Tefere Gebre called it "a bump in the road."

The advocates for the workers, including members of the Ironworkers, Unite Here and Bricklayers President Jim Boland - who chairs the AFL-CIO's Immigration Committee - all stressed that helping regularize the status of the seven million undocumented workers would help all workers.

"How can we protect our own people when we see 20 percent of our (construction) workforce being deported?" Boland asked. The situation is even worse in specific states, he noted: Half of Texas' construction workers are undocumented, and both vulnerable to deportation and afraid to stand up for their rights, including the right to organize.

"And is it any wonder we see large-scale wage theft" among the undocumented, added Boland, himself an Irish immigrant to the U.S. years ago. "The only ones benefiting from this are abusive employers. We say enough is enough."

"When anybody is vulnerable at the workplace, everybody is vulnerable," declared Salvador Sarmiento of the National Day Laborers Organizing Network.

Obama's executive order, as well as comprehensive immigration reform, "remains in limbo," said Lopez, whose union includes tens of thousands of Latinos in the nation's grocery stores and meat and poultry processing plants, among other enterprises.

"To the politicians who did that, shame on you for breaking families apart. Shame on you for the racism and the ideology that is getting in the way of good public policy," she said.

Last year, a bipartisan Senate majority approved comprehensive immigration reform, including a 13-year path to legalization for the seven million undocumented workers and the four million undocumented youth. They're now legally in the U.S. under another Obama program, DACA, covering those in school or in the military. The GOP opposes that, too.

But while the Senate approved comprehensive immigration reform, the House GOP leadership, catering to its nativist and anti-Latino lawmakers - and their constituents - deep-sixed the measure, never even allowing a committee hearing, or a vote.

"What's been deferred is our dream" of becoming citizens and contributing to the U.S., said worker Carlos Castillo. "They've been halted because of politics."

The immigration impasse in D.C. leads Latinos and their advocates to work state by state to both pressure lawmakers and to demand interim measures to help the undocumented, such as getting them the rights to hold drivers licenses, Gebre, an immigrant, said. He explained Latinos and other immigrants are a big part of "the future of the labor movement."

But businesses are also a problem, as they both exploit the undocumented workers, through wage theft and threats of deportation, while using their presence as leverage against other workers and their rights, the speakers said.

"We know what they think of us, how little they pay us and how little they value our labor. We have no voice on the job," said David Benitez, an Ironworker and an El Salvadoran who immigrated to the U.S. a decade ago. Benitez and dozens of colleagues have been forced to strike a D.C. area construction firm over job safety and health issues - everything from dehydration to company pressure on workers not to report on-the-job injuries.

Other speakers noted that despite Obama's promises to deport only people with criminal records, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service has stepped up its cooperation with local police forces in roundups of workers nationwide - but by another name.

Lopez warned the rising Latino population would hold politicians accountable in 2016. Latinos are the nation's largest minority group, and GOP nominee Mitt Romney's anti-Latino, anti-immigrant stands in 2012 led to a 71 percent-27 percent Obama rout among Latino voters.

"We have questions for the candidates: Will they support DACA and DAPA? Will they oppose an enforcement-only solution? And will they support comprehensive immigration reform?" she said.

Photo: Wrongly classifying workers as independent contractors gets around laws like workers' compensation and family and medical leave. It's costing Texas construction workers millions, according to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 520 in Austin. Workers Defense Project.

Memorial Day massacre commemoration inspires Midwest steelworkers

Mon, 18 May 2015 16:52:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Members of the United Steel Workers, past and present, as well as community gathered on Chicago's South East Side to remember the lives lost and the lessons learned in the Memorial Day Massacre of 1937.

After forcing U.S. Steel to sign a labor contract, the Steel Workers Organizing Committee of the C.I.O. faced continued obstinacy from smaller firms including Republic Steel. In 1937 it came to a head with the "Little Steel Strike."

On Memorial Day, workers and supporters gathered at Sam's Place, now the church where the commemorators gather, and marched to the gates of Republic Steel. They were met, like many protests today are met, with a heavily armed police barricade.

As the protestors asserted their rights to protest, police grew increasingly agitated and soon began beating and opening fire on the aggrieved workers. In all, 10 were killed and over 60 seriously injured.

The memorial opened with an invocation and ceremonial reading of the names of the slain, including a 17-year-old boy who died of a gunshot wound to the back. Ten veiled members of United Steelworkers' Women of Steel group draped their veils around 10 small white crosses as the names were read and a bell was rung. Somber bagpipes bookended the observance.

No sooner than the meditation on the lives of these workers ended did the analysis of the worker's current conditions and future prospects begin.

Ebony Parker of USW Local 7-1 and member of the USW women's group, "Women of Steel," was one of the leaders in the oil workers strike from BP Whiting, an oil refinery in nearby Indiana.

"When I began to do the research about the 1937 Republic Steel Massacre, it was at that point that I realized how far we've truly come," Parker said.

Another Woman of Steel, Jessica El-Samad, second generation steel worker and member of USW Local 10-10 said, "I am proud to represent the many members of USW, but I am even more proud to pay respect to those who perished in the Memorial Day massacre in 1937. The men and women who we speak of today fought the battle that we continue to fight today and into the future."

The future for the USW appeared bright as the focus shifted to the youth in attendance. USW Next Generation is a program designed to inspire the young members of the USW and seeks to introduce young people to a life of activism.

Two high school students from nearby George Washington High School were honored for essays they wrote comparing the struggle of workers against Republic Steel to the struggle of the Chicago Teachers Union in 2012. Additionally, young Justin Willis of Next Generation presented AFL-CIO President and keynote speaker of the event Richard Trumka the "Kicking Ass for the Working Class" award.

According to Scott Marshall, leader of his district's chapter of Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR), participation in the community and among the workers has grown every year. This year marked a milestone, as it was the first time that the keynote speaker of the event was a member of the top leadership of the National AFL-CIO.

President Richard Trumka took the stage to thunderous applause and put a point on the memorial. "I don't know if we can do justice to the memory of the events because to treat them honestly is to describe truly, truly horrific actions," he said. "Yet, this massacre happened in the light of day and went unpunished."

"Quite frankly, the massacre happened because of the power of money to corrupt democracy and overpower the bill of rights."

He tied the corrupting influence of the rich to economic and political relations today, citing the unfathomable wealth of the Walton's and corporate CEO's and their abilities to flout the law.

"Corporate presidents and managers all over this country continue to violate that same federal law: the Wagner act, which has the job of encouraging unionism in America... its corruption when the power of money overcomes federal law like last year in Tennessee when a sitting Governor and a Senator campaigned with threats and intimidation against workers at a Volkswagen plant in Memphis. That's not the exception in America, that happens every day."

With regard to the brutality of the events themselves, the lawlessness of state actors, Trumka went as far as to invoke the specter of recent police murders in Ferguson and Baltimore. The Memorial Day massacre was filmed on a newsreel that was suppressed for years following the events. It showed the truth of the event, like the cell phone cameras employed in the streets today.

"See the authorities lied about the massacre to protect the police and the managers of Republic Steel who had amassed an arsenal of weapons to fight the workers efforts to form a union, and because of those lies and because the newsreel was kept from the public, the newspapers said the police had beaten back a mob. Yet, the truth wasn't forgotten and the massacre simply didn't wash away."

After the long list of speakers including Mayoral candidate Jesus "Chuy" Garcia gave their respects, the crowd of about 200 were led across the street to a memorial by Rev. Len Dubi who gave the benediction and closed the event.

"Our slogan for some time for the event has been 'They fought then, we fight now!' We remind ourselves and others that the labor movement has many times had to fight for it's very existence and that is true for today - so we remember to help build the fighting spirit for today" concluded Scott Marshall.

Photo: Patrick Foote/PW