Labor Union Blog

Economic Report:

The jobless rate for workers who only hold no high school diploma is nearly 15 percent, significantly higher than the 4.4 percent rate for those that hold a bachelor’s degree. That’s according to a study by the Center for American Progress who added that the jobless rate for workers without a high school diploma leapt by 7.3 percent from December 2007 to April 2009. For those holding only a high school diploma it was up 4.7 percent.

Legalization of same sex marriage would pay off economically for New York State. Jesse Russell reports.

A report from New York City’s comptroller office takes a hard look at how much that state would benefit from legalizing same-sex marriage. According to the study, the economy would see an influx of $210 million over three years. However, businesses would likely need to spend up to $69 million over those same three years in health insurance benefits to same-sex couples.

By Doug Cunningham

AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel says labor’s number one priority – the Employee Free Choice Act labor law reform – will become law. It makes it easier for workers to join unions by taking employer intimidation out of the picture. And Samuel says the bill won’t be gutted by compromise that destroys its original intent.

[Samuel]: “Yes, I think the Senate Democrats and particularly those in the leadership understand that this bill has to be meaningful. Although a very small number have said they might not be able to support the bill as it’s currently crafted, that’s really code for suggesting that there may need to be some small changes. But not changes that would undermine the basic thrust of the bill.”

Investing in our national physical infrastructure and moving to a greener economy present tremendous opportunities for the government and business, union and community groups to develop a new economic strategy that could restore the American Dream to millions of workers, the president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) said.

With as many as 100 million people living in families that earn less in real terms than their parents did at the same age, the American Dream is in trouble, BCTD President Mark Ayers told the America’s Future Now conference earlier this week.

If the situation persists where the vast majority of economic gains go to those at the very top and where most people are removed from upward mobility, then we are at risk of destabilizing our economic and social structures.

So, it is clear that this is a watershed moment in American history.

The key to spreading the American Dream, Ayers said, is to develop new partnerships that lead to a new model of economic development. The model, Ayers said, should be:

premised upon high levels of skills training and apprenticeships resulting in job opportunities, living wages and comprehensive health and retirement benefits for a lifetime.

Ayers said a powerful example of this new partnership was the unified effort to elect Barack Obama as president.

No single group—not unions, not social justice organizations, not the environmental movement—can claim sole credit for the victory on Nov. 4. It was all of us united behind a common cause and purpose for the first time in my 37-year career as an IBEW [Electrical Workers] member.

Channeling that spirit of cooperation to create common-sense ideas is key to creating a green economy, Ayers said. The public should not get “caught up in the media’s fascination with ‘green jobs’ and the view that these are entirely new jobs that will simply fall out of the sky,” he said. Instead, the key to a green economy is developing higher levels of job training and apprenticeships to meet new demands for the type of jobs construction workers have been doing for years.

For the most part, they are not new jobs. They are essentially the same jobs, requiring the same skills, which America’s building trades unions have been doing for over 100 years.

There is a vast potential for career development in green jobs, Ayers said. Most of the jobs would be associated with retrofitting of buildings to make them more environmentally sound and energy-efficient.

To isolate these jobs—any of them, including weatherization, from the larger construction industry and from the career pathways provided through formal apprenticeship training—is to condemn them to low-wage, dead-end futures.

We must initiate conversations and forge partnerships designed to ensure that these jobs serve as avenues to stable and prosperous careers.

Ayers said there will be many obstacles on the road to a new economy, including the “obstructionist residue within federal agencies, left over from the Bush era.”

But these can be overcome if we work together, and pool our organizational strengths to develop strong community-based coalitions that can craft a more durable brand of hope.  And when the dust clears, it is my deep hope that we will have renewed a sense of optimism and belief in the American Dream once again.

Part-time and adjunct faculty teaching at two private colleges, the Manhattan School of Music (MSM) and Cooper Union (CU), voted recently to join the New York State United Teachers, an affiliate of AFT and the National Education Association. The faculty members at both schools are all accomplished artists and working professionals who perform outside the college as well as teach.

The 150 part-time and adjunct faculty who teach in the MSM precollege program work on year-to-year contracts and make about half the pay of the regular faculty. In 2002, management cut off the precollege faculty’s access to health insurance that once had been available to all MSM teachers who taught at least 10 hours.

Susan Deaver, a precollege flute teacher at MSM, says:

With a union, we’re looking at a positive future. We’ll have job security, transparency, a fair grievance procedure, binding arbitration. We’ll still be working with administration, but on a level playing field.

The effort to form a union began in earnest last year, when MSM officials arbitrarily required precollege faculty to fill out new job applications. The application form included a fine-print clause allowing the school to release the faculty at any time. Many of the workers refused to complete the application.

Cooper Union is one of the most selective institutions in the country, offering degrees in art, architecture and engineering. Its students all attend on full scholarship. But the faculty doesn’t have the security of a guaranteed salary. Many of the CU faculty have not had a raise in up to 15 years. What is more, the college does not provide firm assurance of whether adjuncts will be teaching until just a few weeks before the semester begins, in some cases.

Sculptor Betsy Alwin, the newly elected president of the Union @ Cooper Union, says:

Because the lion’s share of teaching falls on adjuncts, they feel we should have a collective voice and speak together when we approach the administration.

The fight for justice, fair wages and safe working conditions for Southern California’s carwash workers—carwasheros—received a boost June 2 when the California Labor Commissioner filed a lawsuit to close nine carwashes operating illegally. The same day, the state Assembly passed a bill to continue the state law regulating carwashes the nine are charged with violating.

The CLEAN Carwash Campaign says two of the carwashes targeted in the lawsuit are

examples of the abusive practices in the industry that prompted passage of the Carwash Worker Law.

(Click here to read about new National Labor Relations Board charges brought against another Los Angeles carwash.)

CLEAN Carwash is leading a major citywide effort by unions, community and religious leaders and others seeking to eliminate abuses and uphold standards in the carwash industry. Click here to learn more about the campaign and how you can help.

Henry Huerta, director of the CLEAN Carwash Campaign, says the two carwashes, Auto Spa Express and Melrose Car Wash, have been cited for numerous violations, including failure to register with the state as the Carwash Worker law requires, failure to pay minimum wage and overtime, child labor violations and hazardous workplace conditions.

At Auto Spa Express, says Huerta, the carwash management also fired workers who supported efforts to organize a union with Carwash Workers Organizing Committee/United Steelworkers (CWOC/USW) and “blew the whistle” on health and safety hazards and wage violations at their workplace.

The CLEAN [Carwash] Campaign has been working over the past year to put a stop to the exploitative business practices of Auto Spa Express and Melrose Car Wash. We brought these practices to the Labor Commissioner’s attention and we are gratified that her office has taken these decisive measures to enforce the law in an industry that too often operates in its defiance….Workers at these carwashes have reported being cheated out of minimum wage and overtime for years, and they want to see justice done.

Meanwhile in Sacramento, the Carwash Worker law, set to expire at the end of the year, now goes to the state Senate’s Industrial Relations Committee, after the Assembly approved its reauthorization.

California leads the nation in the number of carwash operations, which are highly profitable with a typical return on investment of more than 40 percent, according to a CWOC/USW report, “Cleaning Up the Carwash Industry: Empowering Workers and Protecting Communities.” But as the report documents, profits from this industry are largely derived from violations of workers’ legal rights, including rampant non-compliance with minimum wage, overtime, rest and meal period requirements. Carwash workers routinely work between 50 hours and 60 hours a week and average $12,500 a year, with no benefits.

Today, the chorus of voices in support of the Employee Free Choice Act is joined by business leaders who know that workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain is good for them, too.

The new coalition, Business Leaders for a Fair Economy, includes entrepreneurs, employers and leaders of businesses large and small who agree that a strong economy is compatible with the protection of workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain. Indeed, these business leaders agree, workers able to bargain for benefits, wages and economic security are the foundation of an economy that works in the long term.

The coalition has released a new ad that will run in newspapers, like The Wall Street Journal, The Hill and Politico, aimed at the business community and political leaders.

Roger Smith, the president and CEO of American Income Life Insurance Co. and the chairman of the coalition’s advisory committee, says that giving more workers the freedom to form unions and bargain won’t undermine the economy—indeed, we can’t build purchasing power and create stable prosperity without it:

I believe that in these tough economic times, we need solutions that protect workers and support long-term growth and sustainability for American businesses. It does not have to be an either/or scenario. I personally can attest you can be a responsible employer that respects workers’ rights and have a thriving, profitable business accountable to its stakeholders.

Diana Ortiz, owner of Colorado-based Ortiz Enterprises LLC, is an award-winning small business owner who says workers need bargaining power to sustain businesses like hers:

As a business owner, I believe that workers should have the freedom to bargain with employers for good wages, health care and the opportunity to retire with dignity. Better wages mean that the whole community has more money to spend and to build our economy.

Smith says we need to rebuild the middle class if we’re going to make the economy work again, and the best way to do that is by giving workers the tools they need to bargain for a better life:

Historically, giving workers access to unions and negotiating with them in good faith to reach fair collective bargaining agreements has resulted in a dynamic workforce with shared prosperity. It is imperative for the future of American enterprise that business leaders support policies that create a robust middle class. The Employee Free Choice Act is good for the middle class, and what’s good for the middle class is ultimately good for our bottom line.

These business leaders join a broad coalition—ranging from economists to religious groups and environmental activists—who all agree that restoring workers’ freedom to form a union and bargain is critical to long-term economic strength.