Labor Union Blog

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lia href =http://www.laborradio.org/node/10542Chicago Labor Looking To Maximize Economic Stimulus With Capital Billa//li
lia href =http://www.laborradio.org/node/10543Companies Accepting Stimulus Money Will Have To Try Harder To Hire U.S. Workersa//li
lia href =http://www.laborradio.org/node/10544Economic Report: Number Of U.S. Workers Age 65-74 Is Increasinga//li
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pEconomic Report:/p
pAccording to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, fewer workers are retiring when they hit 65. By 2016 the number of senior workers between the age of 65 and 74 are expected to rise by 83.4 percent. At the end of last year 68 percent of workers between the ages of 50 and 70 had no plans to retire. The deepening recession is expected to accelerate those numbers./p

pCompanies receiving federal money from the stimulus package will have a harder time hiring workers on H1-B visas. Jesse Russell reports:/p
pAll companies that receive money from the stimulus package will be categorized as “H1-B dependent” for two years, according to a provision in the bill that was signed by President Barack Obama this week. The stipulation is typically only applied to companies with a workforce made up of at least 15 percent of H-1B visa holders. Under the “dependent” status those companies need to prove that they have made an effort to find U.S. workers who are qualified for the position before bringing in an employee on the visa. The company will also need to prove that the job had first been offered to any U.S. workers that have applied and are equally qualified. It also requires proof that the position being filled by a visa worker hasn’t resulted in the loss of work for any U.S. workers in the previous 90 days. The U.S. has a cap of 85,000 H-1B visas annually. Companies that violate the H1-B provisions can be fined and banned from using the program./p

pAs Chicago looks for an economic shot in the arm from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dollars, there’s also a critical action the state can take to multiply the badly needed economic stimulus. Chicago Federation of Labor President Dennis Gannon says the state needs to resurrect a Capital Bill to kick start the Illinois roads and construction economy./p
p[Gannon]: We need to get a capital projects program here in the state of Illinois which we haven’t had in the last 20 years – it goes back to 1999 under Governor George Ryan. We are working with our legislative leaders in order to bring this project to the forefront. But it’s gonna take some guts/p

Katrina Blomdahl, writer-researcher for RNs Working Together, says the organization applauds moves to return bargaining rights to Veterans Affairs nurses. RNs Working Together is a coalition of 10 AFL-CIO unions representing more than 200,000 registered nurses nationally. 

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), a member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, and Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, reached out to right a serious wrong when they recently introduced crucial legislation (S. 362 and H.R. 949) to restore the collective bargaining rights of VA health care professionals, including registered nurses. 

For the past several years, health care professionals have been scrambling to meet soaring patient care demands from two wars and an aging population. Meanwhile, the professionals who provide the hands-on care to our veterans have seen their ability to have an effective voice in the workplace eroded by the Bush administration, intensifying the shortage in VA hospitals. The legislation sponsored by Rockefeller and Filner aims to reverse that trend.

Says J. David Cox, a registered nurse and the national secretary-treasurer of the federal government union, AFGE: 

This critical legislation will go a along way to ensure that the VA is a model employer who can compete for the best nurses and other health care professionals to care for our veterans. 

The change will come as a welcome relief to the health care professionals—including  registered nurses, physicians, physician assistants, dentists, podiatrists, optometrists and expanded duty dental assistants—who were singled out by the Bush administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for more limited bargaining rights. 

Ann Converso, RN, president of the United American Nurses (UAN), puts it this way: 

These important bills restore to nurses and other VA health care workers the ability to forcefully advocate for our patients with the protection of our union and the collective bargaining process behind us. 

In 1991, Congress enacted 38 USC Section 7422 to provide VA registered nurses with the same collective bargaining rights as other federal employees. Congress carved out some exceptions—most importantly, excluding the right to bargain collectively over disputes related to “direct patient care.” While the legislative history makes clear that Congress viewed “direct patient care” narrowly to mean medical procedures, not issues such as nurse compressed work schedules, the Bush administration used this exclusion as a wedge to separate health care workers from their rights. 

Cox notes that: 

Congress outlined its intent to afford VA employees the same collective bargaining rights as other federal employees, but unfortunately for the VA workforce and the veterans they care for, the VA’s current human resources policy has acted contrary to that intent. 

The new legislation would amend Section 7422 and put an end to years of unequal rights for front-line VA health care professionals appointed under Title 38. 

But the thorny questions still remain. Why did the VA single out Title 38 health care professionals and provide them with fewer rights than other VA health care professionals and doctors and nurses in military hospitals in the first place? 

It comes down to the cash squeeze. Wrestling rights away from nurses and other front-liners allows managers to demand prolonged overtime and enormous patient caseloads, instead of using the increased appropriations provided by Congress to hire additional staff or offer competitive pay and schedules to make the VA a real employer of choice. 

Our military veterans deserve a health care workforce that has a voice in their working conditions and in the delivery of care. And taxpayers deserve to have the precious health care dollars appropriated for the VA go to health care, rather than wasteful and harmful efforts that undermine the rights that workers need and deserve. 

It’s time for policies that support our nurses and our veterans. That’s why, as the largest organization of working registered nurses in the United States, RNs Working Together applauds Rep. Filner and Sen. Rockefeller for their effort to restore collective bargaining rights to these workers. 

When VA nurses have a meaningful voice in their workplace, and the full opportunity to advocate for their patients, then we’ll know for sure that our nation’s veterans are getting the safe, quality care that every patient deserves.

Barbara Easterling

Barbara Easterling, former secretary-treasurer of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the AFL-CIO, was elected president of the Alliance for Retired Americans today. She succeeds George Kourpias, who retired earlier this month.

Easterling says that as leader of the grassroots advocacy group of 3.5 million retired union members, she will continue the alliance’s aggressive outreach and education efforts aimed at retirees and lawmakers to strengthen Medicare, lower prescription drug costs and preserve Social Security for future generations.

“This is a critical time for our nation. Our economy is in crisis, and our health care system is in dire need of reform—it is more important than ever that we educate and mobilize retirees on these issues.”

Easterling, who retired from the CWA in 2008 after 16 years as the union’s secretary-treasurer, began her union career 35 years ago as a telephone operator in Akron, Ohio, and became an officer of CWA Local 4320. In 1995, she took a leave of absence to serve as secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, becoming the first woman to hold that position.

As many as 9 million homeowners who are facing foreclosure or struggling with skyrocketing monthly mortgage payments could save their homes under the terms of a home rescue plan President Obama unveiled yesterday.

When the Bush economy began to tank more than a year ago with banks failing and jobs vanishing, foreclosure signs and abandoned houses began sprouting in working and middle class and even up-scale neighborhoods around the nation. The AFL-CIO first called for a homeowners’ lifeline in late 2007. But the Bush administration preferred to bailout Wall Street instead of throwing a lifeline to Main Street. Says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney:

The swift action by the Obama administration to address the housing crisis is a welcome and refreshing change.

For more than a year, the Bush administration ignored calls from the AFL-CIO and others to address a coming foreclosure tsunami. Tragically, in the months that followed, the deepening housing debacle turned millions of families’ lives upside down and strengthened its chokehold on our economy

Nearly one in 10 mortgagers are either delinquent or in foreclosure and economists predict that without an initiative to help troubled homeowners, as many as 8 million homes could fall into foreclosure during the next four years. Said Obama in announcing the $275 billion housing plan:

Ts plan will not save every home, but will give millions of families facing financial ruin a chance to rebuild. It will prevent the worst consequences of this crisis from wreaking even greater havoc on the economy. And by bringing down the foreclosure rate, it will help shore up prices for everyone.

The plan would help some 4 million homeowners who are now at risk of losing their homes. It will provide incentives to lenders to change the terms of those loans to make them more affordable.

It also would help some 5 million homeowners who are current with their payments but have seen their monthly payments soar because of new high interest rates on their adjustable rate mortgages that threaten their ability to stay current. They have been unable to refinance because their home values have plunged, leaving them without enough equity in their homes to qualify for lower rate loans. The plan would allow them to refinance through Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which under the initiative received about $200 billion to increase available credit.

Another major provision of the Obama housing program would allow bankruptcy judges to change the terms of mortgages and reduce monthly payments to allow homeowners who are in bankruptcy to stay in their homes. But Congress must approve changes in bankruptcy laws before that can occur. Says Sweeney:

The strong plan from the administration correctly includes changing the bankruptcy laws to allow judges to modify the mortgages of distressed homeowners, including reducing the principal of these loans to the property’s current market value.

The crisis could not be more dire. An estimated eight million homes will fall into foreclosure over the next four years. Bankruptcy reform is a critical piece of the solution for working men and women.

Financial columnist Felix Salmon, at Conde Nast’s Portfolio.com, says

this plan aims straight at the heartland, where it really matters. It’s a good start.

Barbara Sard, the director of housing policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), told the American Prospect ”the plan looks very good in a number of respects” and calls the various government incentives aimed at encouraging financial institutions to modify loan terms “smart” and “clever.”

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich says the home rescue plan is imperative to helping stabilize the nation’s economy:

We’re in an economic crisis. And a failure to put millions of homeowners on a firmer footing would send more shock waves throughout the economy. Not only will more people lose their homes—surrounding homes will lose value as well, as neighborhoods become blighted with more empty houses. And lenders, worried that even more borrowers can’t repay loans, will stop making additional ones.

Bertha Lewis, CEO of the community activist group ACORN, says the housing rescue plan

will finally put the full power of the federal government behind homeowners trying to pay the mortgage and neighborhoods reeling from the crisis. It is imperative that all lenders participate and agree to higher standards, and that Congress quickly pass the bankruptcy legislation.

But what kind of opposition does the plan face in Congress?

The Center for American Progress (CAP) notes that even before Obama’s plan was released, congressional Republicans were gearing up for another just say “No” campaign like the one staged against the economic recovery package. Of course Republicans complained loudly that the recovery package didn’t do enough for homeowners. Logic and consistency has never been their strong suit.

This week at the Virginia AFL-CIO’s annual legislative conference, attendees wrote letters to their members of Congress in support of the Employee Free Choice Act. In Colorado, 55 religious leaders representing a wide array of faiths, cities and backgrounds sent a letter in support of the Employee Free Choice Act to Colorado’s U.S. House and Senate delegation. They asked for elected leaders to support workers’ freedom to bargain for a better life. In Raleigh, N.C., workers spoke out at a rally about the need for the Employee Free Choice Act.

You can read about grassroots actions like these at the new national Employee Free Choice Act Blog, where you can hear from workers and local union leaders, find out about events in their area and get the facts about what lawmakers representing your state are saying about the Employee Free Choice Act.

State federations in Arkansas, Colorado, Nebraska, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin have set up blogs to follow the fight for the Employee Free Choice Act, and more states will set up blogs soon. These blogs also will be updated regularly with photos and videos highlighting local efforts in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.

The biggest challenge to passing the Employee Free Choice Act is overcoming the national corporate disinformation campaign—and the best weapon is people power. Union members and activists working at the local level will be vital in creating the impetus needed to restore the freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life, and these state blogs are a great resource to find out more about this campaign.

The Employee Free Choice Act earned the support of bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress in 2007 but was blocked by a filibuster in the Senate. This year, with more pro-worker senators and a supportive White House, the freedom to form unions and bargain is closer than ever to realization—but it will require a broad national campaign to fight corporate lies, promote workers and hold elected leaders accountable. Check out the new Employee Free Choice Act blogs to find out more.

As President Obama meets with Canada’s leaders today for the first time to discuss a range of key bilateral and global issues, the heads of the United States and Canadian trade federations are urging both countries to: 

• Work cooperatively to address the current global economic crisis.
• Review and renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
• Adopt a series of complementary policies necessary to build a strong, fair economy for workers in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The AFL-CIO and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) sent to President Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper a letter in which they emphasize the role of working people throughout the process:

For too long, working people in both countries have been excluded from the decision-making processes that fundamentally affect their lives, as decisions were often made in the backrooms of power among elites. We ask both governments to commit to address these issues through ongoing consultations that are open, inclusive and fully transparent. This is the only way that a progressive vision of North America will take hold.

Obama ran for president on a platform supporting the enforceable labor and environmental protections in NAFTA, and voters last November sent to Congress at least 34 new House member and five new senators who called for major changes in trade policy, according to a report by the Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch.

The two union federations say the credible exit threat posed by U.S., Canadian (and now Mexican) employers has further limited the ability of workers to demand better wages and working conditions in line with productivity growth. They say strengthening NAFTA effectiveness in promoting and enforcing labor rights must involve: 

• Adherence to the International Labor Organization (ILO) core conventions, as well as effective enforcement of domestic labor laws.
• The overhaul of dispute resolution procedures concerning a violation of any of NAFTA’s labor and environmental obligations to ensure full, fair and expeditious resolutions.
• The political will of each government to act upon the findings and recommendations that result from the dispute settlement process. Failure to act upon those recommendations should be subject to immediate and dissuasive fines or sanctions.

Says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney:

President Obama fully appreciates the gravity of the global economic crisis and knows that our recovery will come through the rebuilding of a strong middle class with good jobs for all. We urge the United States, Canada, and Mexico to work together to build a stronger and more equitable North American economy,  where workers’ voices are heard and their rights are fully respected.

Noting that working people in both the United States and Canada are being hit hard by an economic crisis that was not of their making,” Canadian Labour Congress President Ken Georgetti says workers

are paying a terrible price for the unfettered greed and recklessness of a corporate elite upon whose advice our political leaders have relied for too long. Now is the time for a different approach; one that includes working people and shifts the focus towards their prosperity.

When it comes to making the connection between how union membership can benefit low-wage workers, create green jobs and, ultimately, bolster the nation’s sinking economy, Ian Kim gets it.

Kim is director of the Green-Collar Jobs Campaign at the Los Angeles-Oakland-based Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. He says President Obama’s economic recovery package offers the opportunity to connect low-wage workers with quality union jobs—quality “green jobs.” In Kim’s words:

We’re not talking about solar sweatshops or Wal-Mart windmills.

Coalition-building is what Kim says he does best—although he also holds an MBA. In the Los Angeles area, with a limited number of jobs available in recent years, Kim says there had been tension between efforts to connect low-wage workers with building trades unions that couldn’t take new recruits because sufficient jobs weren’t available. The economic recovery package can change all that.

Now with the creation of many union jobs, we have access to building partnerships with unions so that disadvantaged workers can be funneled into good union jobs.

Jobs like creating solar panels, weatherization and, yes, windmills.

Kim was in Washington, D.C., this week at the Center for American Progress (CAP) for a panel discussion on how low-wage workers fit into the recovery package. He was joined by advocates for youth and the economically disadvantaged as wel as a CAP economist. When an audience member asked how wages can be improved in states where there aren’t a lot of unions, panelists said the solution is to make it easier for workers to join unions—through passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. In other words, enabling more workers to join unions is pivotal to improving our economy.

The union movement is pushing hard for passage of the act, which, in the words of a report by the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee, would allow employees

to make their own decision about whether they want to bargain together—to advocate for fairer wages, benefits, and working conditions—without the threat or fear of harassment and retribution and fear of losing their livelihood.

Yesterday, CAP released a report showing how higher union wages benefit entire communities. The state-by-state analysis demonstrates that an increase in the rate of union membership of just 5 percent would increase total wages by $176 million in Nebraska, $503 million in Wisconsin and $852 million in Pennsylvania.

That’s not chump change, especially when states are sending layoff notices en masse to state employees and cutting services. As the report states:

One of the primary reasons why our current recession endures is that workers do not have the purchasing power they need to drive our economy…what is sustainable is an economy where workers are adequately rewarded and have the income they need to purchase goods. This is where unions come in.

Right now, 11.6 million U.S. workers are unemployed. In recent months, each time the Labor Department issues the jobs report, pundits and the media try to downplay the horrific numbers by saying the unemployment rate was higher in the early 1980s. Economist Heather Boushey puts that data twist to rest, noting that there are more unemployed workers now than in the early 1980s, and that

we’ve seen more jobs lost in the last three months than at any point since the end of World War II.

Back in California, in a state badly mismanaged by Arnie, Kim is eager to put the funds from the economic recovery program to work. As he sees it, they are a down payment on the future. The economic recovery package includes $500 million for green jobs training, training that will happen in partnership with unions to ensure the end-result is a family-supporting job. Also in California, where one-in-four students don’t finish high school—130,000 students a year—the future is hanging by a sweatshop.