Labor Union Blog

Economic Report:

How do the states stack up regarding unemployment? Michigan has the highest average rate in the nation at 14.1 percent followed in a close second by Oregon at 12.4 percent and Rhode Island and South Carolina at 12.1 percent. Michigan is also home to Detroit which has the weakest performing metro area in the country. The national average is 9.4 percent.

By Doug Cunningham

The National Union of Health Care Workers Monday filed a challenge to the homecare providers union election won by SEIU. NUHW alleges that SEIU spent an estimated $10 million and used intimidation and illegal threats in the election. NUHW was formed by leaders of an SEIU local taken over by the international union. It says just 117 votes out of nearly 6,000 cast could swing the election and it’s challenging the certification of the ballot count.

By Doug Cunningham

Workers are protesting today at more than a dozen Wells Fargo bank branches in a national day of action supporting Quad City Die Casting workers. The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, UE, is taking on Wells Fargo in a bid to get the bank to extend credit to Quad City Die Casting and save 100 jobs there. UE is the same union that occupied the Chicago Republic Windows and Doors factory last year in a sit-down strike when banks cut off credit to that company. Wells Fargo got $25 billion in federal bailout money, but is cutting off credit to a successfu

Six months of negotiations have gone to the dumps in Toronto. Jesse Russell reports:

Garbage is likely to begin piling up across Toronto as 24,0000 union city workers walked off the job Monday morning. Negotiations broke down during the midnight hour between the city and the union representing indoor and outdoor workers. As a result some city run day care centers cancelled, garbage pick ups were suspended, city dumps were closed, and some city centers were closed resulting in wedding postponements. Workers are trying to preserve sick days. Currently the contract gives those workers 18 days a year and any unused sick days each year can be banked and workers can cash them in when they retire.

By Doug Cunningham

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick says the U.S. Catholic Church has reached agreement with organized labor on principles to “Respect The Just Rights” of Catholic health care workers.

[McCarrick]: “It is up to the workers to decide through a fair process whether or not to be represented by a union.”

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.

[Sweeney]: “The theme that runs through all of this is the emphasis on workers rights to organize as part of church teaching.”

The renewable energy industry has grown steadily over the past decade, adding jobs at more than twice the national rate, according to a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

“The Clean Energy Economy: Repowering Jobs, Businesses and Investments Across America” reports on the first-ever count across all 50 states of the actual jobs, companies and venture capital investments that supply the growing market demand for environmentally friendly products and services.

The study found that solar and wind-power companies, energy-efficient light bulb makers, environmental engineering firms and others expanded their workforce by 9.1 percent from 1998 to 2007, while the average job growth in all industries was 3.7 percent.

There was a similar pattern at the state level, where job growth in the clean energy economy outperformed overall job growth in 38 states and the District of Columbia during the same period. 

The report also found that green jobs are poised to expand significantly, driven by increasing consumer demand, venture capital infusions and federal and state policy reforms. The study was completed before the Obama administration announced plans to make a greener economy a top national priority. The AFL-CIO and its affiliates are pushing to ensure that the green jobs created are also good jobs that provide a decent wage and benefits. 

“The clean energy economy is poised for explosive growth,” said Lori Grange, interim deputy director of the Pew Center on the States. 

These jobs are driving economic growth and environmental sustainability at a time when America needs both. There is a potential competitive advantage for federal and state policy leaders who act now to spur jobs, businesses and investments in the clean energy sector.

The report said the emerging clean energy economy is creating well-paying jobs in every state for people of all skill levels and educational backgrounds. 

“There is bipartisan support and a growing market demand for transitioning to the clean energy economy,” said Phyllis Cuttino, director, U.S. Global Warming Campaign at the Pew Environment Group.

Americans understand the transition is good for the overall economy, is creating new opportunities for jobs and business growth, and helps protect our national security by reducing our dependence on foreign oil.  Congress and the Obama administration can and must produce energy and global warming legislation that creates jobs, enhances energy independence and sustains our environment.

You can read the Pew report here and check out the state-by-state rankings here.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has announced a new step forward for workers at Catholic health facilities: a set of principles to ensure that workers have a fair process to bargain for a better life. 

In “Respecting the Just Rights of Workers: Guidance and Options for Catholic Health Care and Unions,” the USCCB, in cooperation with Catholic health care providers and the union movement, has laid out guidelines for Catholic health care ministries across the country.

These guidelines, and the process that produced them, are an encouraging model of cooperation and collaboration in protecting workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain. 

The new guidelines cover seven principles for employers when workers seek a union:

• Respect;
• Access to information;
• Truthful communication;
• Pressure-free environment;
• Expeditious process;
• Honoring employee decisions; and
• Meaningful enforcement of these principles. 

Taken together, the guidelines comprise a “peace agreement” between Catholic health care providers and unions in which Catholic hospitals drop their aggressive tactics in fighting unions, such as delays, one-on-one meetings, captive audience sessions, and threats and intimidations, in exchange for a union’s pledge not to run a public leverage campaign against the hospitals. 

The guidelines envision a local agreement that would be enforceable through an agreed-upon neutral party. 

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, former archbishop of Washington, chaired the three-way dialogue among unions, health care employers and bishops that resulted in the agreement. McCarrick said the guidelines are the result of “respectful, candid, constructive dialogue” over several years and represent “a practical consensus” for Catholic health care ministries. 

Catholic social teaching can and should guide relationships between management and labor. 

It should be up to workers to decide through a fair process whether to be represented by a union….we want to ensure that workers make these choices freely and fairly. 

Health care is a fundamental social good, McCarrick said—a human right. Catholic hospitals and health ministries need to provide health care consistently with Catholic values and teachings on the dignity of workers, he said.

The Catholic health care network includes 600 hospitals and 1,200 other health care agencies, so these principles are important to thousands of workers and the communities they serve across the country.

John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, says this is a landmark moment for health care workers: 

The foundation for reaching this agreement was mutual respect for the histories of both Catholic health care and workers’ rights. Because of their willingness to engage in dialogue, the bishops and the leaders of Catholic health care displayed real courage and leadership and have set an example for all to follow. 

Pope Benedict XVI recently noted that Catholic social teachings are strongly supportive of workers’ freedom to form unions and recognized the importance of workers’ rights in a modern economy. Unfortunately, recent studies show the freedom to form a union is at risk from a legal climate that allows management harassment and intimidation. The principles put forward by the Catholic bishops are an important response to these trends in the workplace.

In a narrow ruling today, the U.S. Supreme Court preserved a key component of the Voting Rights Act that requires certain states and localities with a history of voting discrimination to submit changes in voting procedures to the Department of Justice or a federal court before they can take effect. 

The 8-1ruling keeps in place one of the most important rules that fight voter discrimination. The surpisingly strong majority also deals a setback to conservative groups that have long sought to weaken federal voting rights laws. Clarence Thomas was the only justice to vote to void the voter protection provision. 

The High Court ruled that the Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District No. 1 in Austin, Texas, can apply to opt out of the advance approval requirement, reversing a lower federal court that found it could not. But the court said the district must still meet the current requirements of the law. Click here to read the decision in the case.

Says Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR):

In today’s near unanimous decision, the Supreme Court recognized the continuing relevance of the Voting Rights Act in its entirety and Congress’ role in protecting the right to vote for all Americans.

While the Voting Rights Act ended overt devices like poll taxes and literacy tests, it continues to serve as an important check against more disguised, but equally pernicious, forms of discrimination. Today’s decision reaffirms safeguards for minority voters in jurisdictions with a documented history of discrimination.

In 2006, Congress voted to extend Section 5 of the Civil Rights Act as part of the act’s overall reauthorization. Section 5 applies to all nine states—Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia—and to scores of counties and municipalities in other states that Congress found had a history of voter discrimination.

Civil rights lawyers say the Texas utility district was recruited by conservative legal groups and lawmakers to file suit soon after the Voting Acts Right was renewed. Those groups then championed the suit as it wound its way to the Supreme Court. The suit claimed that Section 5 is no longer necessary because voter discrimination is no longer a problem.

However, during the court’s April hearing, Debo Adegbile, director of litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said voting discrimination is “persistent and adaptive” and continues to “manifest itself through repetitive efforts” such as moving polling stations from one place to another before an election, implementing redistricting plans to weaken minority voting strength and preventing students of color from voting.

While Congress was debating the act’s reauthorization in 2006, the LCCR and other civil rights groups submitted 14 reports documenting voting discrimination in the states covered by Section 5. Says Henderson:

Voter disenfranchisement, intimidation, and discrimination continue on today—a fact that Congress recognized in 2006 when they renewed the Voting Rights Act for another 25 years.

Teachers at three Chicago charter schools voted overwhelmingly last week to join the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff (Chicago ACTS), an affiliate of the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) and AFT.

The 73-49 vote at the Civitas Schools sets a precedent for teachers at other charter schools whose staff want to organize, union leaders said.

Laura McMahon, an eighth-grade reading teacher at the Civitas Wrightwood campus, said:

Today’s historic victory sends a strong and clear message to Civitas school officials about our desire to have a say in our schools and work collaboratively. We expect Civitas will recognize the union now and begin the collective bargaining process.

The teachers’ effort points out the need for the Employee Free Choice Act. After a majority of the teachers signed cards in April saying they wanted to be represented by Chicago ACTS, the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board certified the union, as required by state law. But Civitas refused to recognize the union and petitioned the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to determine if an election should be held. The NLRB ruled in favor of the administrators and required an election rather than respecting the majority sign-up.

IFT President Ed Geppert praised the union’s newest members:

Throughout this historic effort, these dedicated men and women organized and campaigned with one goal—to work in partnership with their school administration and bring true collaboration to the educational decision-making process. The union that they successfully organized will be key to fostering that collaboration.

Emily Mueller, a high school Spanish teacher at the Civitas Northtown Academy, added:

We firmly believe teachers need a voice in the creation and implementation of school policy and should feel secure enough in their jobs to speak out on important issues. Success at Civitas schools can only come when we all work collaboratively as a team.