Labor Union Blog

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lia href= http://www.laborradio.org/node/10352AFL-CIO President John Sweeney Says President Obama Must Make Broad Economic Changes That Favor Workersa//li
lia href= http://www.laborradio.org/node/10353Grim December Jobless Numbers – New York State Unemployment Up 52 Percent in ’08a//li
lia href= http://www.laborradio.org/node/10354Is Timothy Geithner Up To The Task As Treasury Secretary?a//li
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pNew York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner appears to be on his way to become the 75th United States Treasury Secretary, but not everyone is convinced he is up to the job. Jesse Russell reports:/p
pAfter winning approval of the Senate Finance Committee in an 18-5 vote, Timothy Geithner is expected to be officially appointed as Treasury Secretary by the Senate early next week. Center for Economic and Policy Research Co-Director Dean Baker, who recently published a new book titled “Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy” isn’t sold on Geithner qualifications for the secretary post./p

pBy Doug Cunningham/p
pGrim December jobless numbers as New York State sees a 52 percent increase in the number of unemployed workers. The Fiscal Policy Institute’s James Parrot./p
p[Parrot]: “Both the one-month increase in the unemployment rate and the 12 month increase in the number of unemployed are record increases and these are just astounding one-month increases.”/p

pBy Doug Cunningham/p
pAFL-CIO President John Sweeney says organized labor is working to ensure that concrete changes happen to improve the lives of millions of workers as the Obama era begins./p
p[Sweeney]: “We really need to create a broad-based package of economic changes to restore balance and insure that problems that got us into this mess will be fixed. I think e need swift and decisive leadership to get our country back on track.”/p
pSweeney says the Employee Free Choice Act reform to protect workers’ rights to form unions free of employer intimidation is a must for Congress to pass and President Obama to sign. The health care has to be fixed and Sweeney says workers need more help with joblessness , likely to get worse this year. He says some of that help should go directly to local governments./p

An $825 billion economic recovery program that creates and saves 3 million to 4 million jobs, extends vitally needed help to unemployed workers and provides to states—facing their severest budget shortfalls in decades—tax relief for working families and other measures is making its way through Congress. The plan, says AFSCME President Gerald McEntee

will protect and create jobs and help states and cities cope with the strain on their budgets. The bill sends a clear message of support for the vital public services—such as health care, education and law enforcement—Americans rely on during an economic crisis.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, introduced last week, was developed by the new Obama administration and congressional leaders. In a letter to Obama as the plan was being developed, several contractor groups and  unions, including the Electrical Workers (IBEW), Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), Plumbers and Pipe Fitters (UA) and Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA), wrote:

Construction has always been an engine of economic stimulus and can play that role once again. Increases in infrastructure investment can be quickly put to work and will have a direct, immediate and dramatic impact on the economy.

The bill could come to a vote next week in the House after several committees finish work on the bill, says Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

The Senate timetable is less clear, as Republicans may attempt to stall action, seeking larger business tax breaks. Click here to see new videos from Americans United for Change urging Republican senators to support the recovery package. But Senate and House leaders say they are aiming to finish work by Presidents Day, Feb. 16.

While finding levels will change as the committees work through the bill, they are likely to remain near the levels as introduced. Here are some highlights, but click here for a detailed summary of the spending portion of the bill and here for the tax provisions. The package includes:

• $90 billion to modernize roads, bridges, transit systems and waterways;
• $87 billion to help states fund Medicaid;
• $79 billion in state fiscal relief to prevent cutbacks in key services, including education and public safety;
• $54 billion for renewable energy/green jobs;
• $43 billion for increased and extended unemployment benefits and job training;
• $39 billion to help jobless workers obtain health care coverage;
• $16 billion for science and technology investments, including expanded broadband access.

Workers alone cannot save the nation’s auto industry. All stakeholders have to participate, including management, board members, dealers, suppliers, secured and unsecured creditors, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger says.

Speaking before the Automotive News World Conference in Detroit today, Gettelfinger said he looks forward to working with the Obama administration to rebuild the domestic auto industry. Click here to read the full speech.

He knows, and we know, that a strong manufacturing base, including a strong domestic auto industry, are vital to the future of the U.S. economy.

Gettelfinger warned the delegates that any attempt to single out workers to bear the brunt of the changes needed within the auto industry will fail because no one group can solve the problem alone.

Our contracts with Chrysler, Ford and GM [General Motors] represent only 10 percent of the cost of assembling a vehicle. But most days, it seems like we get 110 percent of the attention.

He disputed the claims that U.S. union autoworkers are less productive and produce inferior cars, citing the latest Harbour Report, a widely known independent measure of productivity at auto plants, that the 10 most productive auto plants in North America are all union plants. He also pointed out that U.S.-made cars consistently win awards for customer satisfaction and are recommended by Consumer Reports magazine.

So, the domestic auto industry is not in trouble because of union members or union contracts, the UAW leader says:

The problem is not a lack of quality, or a failure to produce fuel-efficient vehicles. The real problem is the most severe economic recession in decades, and a global credit crisis that has dried up funding for businesses and consumers.

While plans to save the auto industry are important, Gettelfinger says, the federal government must also tackle the “external factors that are major part of the crisis facing the domestic auto industry.”

• Fix the broken health care system.
• Reform our trading system. 
• Enact a bottom-up stimulus program that puts money in the hands of working people.

In the end, Gettelfinger says, it’s all about providing a better future for American families and the economy.

Putting money in the hands of working families will drive increased consumer spending power. It will drive increased auto sales. And it will drive a better and brighter future for our employers and for the millions of people who work in the U.S. auto industry.

In the latest issue of Rolling Stone, Nobel Prize-winning Princeton economist Paul Krugman has written an open letter to President Obama detailing the steps needed to end our economic crisis and turn the country around.

Krugman’s prescription includes quick and large-scale actions to save jobs, rebuild infrastructure and protect those whose health care, housing and retirement have been put at risk—but it also includes longer-term strategies to make sure America is “a more just and secure society.” High on Krugman’s list? In addition to health care reform and an economic recovery package, he stresses restoring workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life by passing the Employee Free Choice Act.

…you can do a lot to enhance workers’ rights. One is to start laying the groundwork to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it much harder for employers to intimidate workers who want to join a union…the legislation will enable America to take a huge step toward recapturing the middle-class society we’ve lost.

Krugman looks at another time when the United States and the world faced a serious threat to economic prosperity—the Great Depression—and says one of the most important factors to help the economy rise out of the Depression and into growth was what he describes as the “Great Compression”—the change from an unequal and economically divided society, rife with poverty, to a strong middle-class society. The ability of workers to form unions and bargain, made real by reforms to labor law, pulled the economy into prosperity:

…one important factor was the rise of organized labor: Union membership tripled between 1935 and 1945. Unions not only negotiated better wages for their own members, they also enhanced the bargaining power of workers throughout the economy. At the time, conservatives warned that wage gains would have disastrous economic effects—that the rise of unions would cripple employment and economic growth. But in fact, the Great Compression was followed by the great postwar boom, which doubled American living standards over the course of a generation.

As we’ve stated before, the economy is reeling from inter-related crises in housing, credit, manufacturing and health care, and one of the big factors fueling the nation’s economic crisis is the fact that workers have lost power in the workplace and have fallen behind as a result. Krugman, an economist respected around the world, recognizes that restoring balance to the economy will depend upon restoring power to workers.

The United Steelworkers (USW) launched a new website, “Make Our Future Work,” to assist workers in coping with the economic crisis and mobilize to put America back to work.

The site’s main feature is the USW’s “Main Street Recovery Plan,” released last month, which calls for a major economic campaign to pass a substantial, strategic and sustained economic recovery plan. The site offers strategy suggestions to mobilize your community to fight for an economic plan that creates new, well-paying jobs.  

USW President Leo Gerard joined hundreds of economists and dozens of labor and public interest leaders in releasing a statement calling for a minimum $900 billion program to revitalize manufacturing over the next two years. Says Gerard:

This plan invests in America’s future. It will get us on track to creating an economy that works for working families. I can’t imagine a successful economy that doesn’t have a strong, vibrant, forward-looking manufacturing sector, one that puts people back to work and makes the products of the new century. We need an economy that thrives on making things and creates wealth through middle class prosperity. 

The site enables workers to tell their stories about how the falling economy has affected their lives and offers tips on what to do if you are laid off.

To encourage consumers to buy products that sustain family-supporting jobs, the site offers a “Buy American Toolkit,” which lists union products made in the United States and other resources to support domestic manufacturing. There’s also a guide to the Employee Free Choice Act, which, if passed, would enable more workers to bargain for better wages, health care and retirement security—a true economic recovery package. 

The site also includes the latest information on the nation’s economic crisis and tips to mobilize union members to campaign for a economy that puts people back to work.