Labor Union Blog

Columbia University law professor Mark Barenberg proposes new strategies to ensure that trade agreements protect and advance workers’ rights and says “we should incorporate labor rights and standards in the fundamental ground rules of the new global economy.”  

Barenberg is author of a report released today, “Sustaining Workers’ Bargaining Power in an Age of Globalization.” In the report, he argues that trade pacts need rules to allow human rights organizations to constantly monitor whether U.S. trading partners actually comply with international labor rules.

The report, released by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) as part of its Agenda for Shared Prosperity, suggests specific policies that would result in the same type of tough enforcement rules to protect workers’ rights that now exist for violations of property rights in trade agreements.

Among other proposals, Barenberg calls not only for sanctions against individual companies that violate workers’ rights, but also for expansion of those punishments to the government involved and other companies that trade with the violators.

Barenberg says workers’ rights rules “must be as real and enforceable as the rights of investors.”

 We should not accept a trade agreement or trade legislation that tangibly advances the interests of investors and corporations but puts core labor rights only on paper, failing to bring about real gains for real workers.

AFL-CIO Policy Director Thea Lee says ensuring workers’ rights in trade agreements is good for business and the world economy. Speaking at a forum on “Labor and the American Trade Agenda” earlier this month, Lee said enforcing workers’ rights globally helps create markets for our products, provided policies are in place that develop the U.S. economy.

Lee said the relentless corporate onslaught against unions and the rush to move manufacturing jobs offshore in search of the lowest wages has decimated the middle class in the United States, but has not produced a middle class in other countries.

Hundreds of teachers and families rallied against education budget cuts today in Santa Fe, N.M.

Around the country, states are getting squeezed by the economic crisis, and state budgets are feeling the pressure. It’s imperative that we fight to make sure state budgets are not balanced at the expense of children and the services they need.

Today, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker is in New Mexico, leading a rally of more than 2,800 people to ensure a just budget that protects children and vital public services. 

Standing with New Mexico Federation of Labor president Christine Trujillo, Santa Fe Mayor David Coss and four state legislators, Holt Baker said the proposal for big cuts in the education budget will cost the state jobs and competitiveness in the future.

New Mexico’s schools, universities and state agencies could face 3.5 percent cuts in funding, and employees could face pay cuts as well, as legislators seek to avoid a $650 million deficit. Holt Baker said the cuts to education will fall most heavily on families already reeling from the economic crisis. 

New Mexico legislators are expected to begin a special session on the budget Oct. 17, so nearly 3,000 teachers and workers from around the state are rallying today at the capitol to let lawmakers know they need to put schools and families first. 

Holt Baker said that if the state follows through with these deep cuts, it will cripple social services and educational programs that are needed now, more than ever, to protect New Mexico’s children and prepare them for the future. Not only does this not make sense economically, she said, it makes no sense morally: 

State leaders are telling us there’s no choice. We have to accept overcrowded classrooms, lack of basic school supplies, cuts in health care for needy children and a shrinking public workforce.

A strong public education system is the best fuel for economic development and for a robust democracy. And to learn, children must have their basic health care needs met. I don’t know what benefit value we can place on a child’s education in dollar terms. I do know that nothing else we do for a child will yield benefits if we don’t provide basic health and education. 

New Mexico’s Native American children, Latino children and African American children are bearing the largest burden of cuts to education and health care. They are paying for the tax breaks for the rich and corporations. New Mexico’s poor families are carrying the load for tax cuts they haven’t seen so much as a penny from. 

Holt Baker said we need to build state budgets that keep our promises to the next generation, not just reward the wealthy few. 

The challenge of maintaining a strong public sector is critical to making sure we have an economy that works for everyone, she said. States like New Mexico need to make sure that education and health care are at the top of the list of priorities.

Outrage: The new owners of the Stella D’oro plant were in such a hurry to shaft their workers, they closed the plant a day earlier than scheduled. This from John Tarleton, who reports there is a rally at 3 p.m. today in the Bronx outside the Stella D’oro factory.

Stella D’oro closed its Bronx bakery a day ahead of schedule Thursday, officially putting its 136 unionized employees out of work.

The plant’s general manager Dan Meyers summoned the workers for a 3 p.m. meeting as the first shift was ending, informed them that the plant was closing and told them they should take any personal possessions before leaving. They responded by singing and chanting “the workers united will never be defeated” in their boss’s face for 10 minutes before exiting the factory, which has operated in the Bronx since 1932.

“We told him we were still united and we didn’t regret what we did,” said Gurdip Mann, a machinist who worked at the factory for 21 years.

The closing of the factory follows a bitter labor struggle between the workers and Brynwood Partners, a Connecticut-based private equity firm that bought Stella D’oro in 2006. The workers, who belong to BCTGWM Local 50, went on strike in August 2008 after management demanded steep wage and benefit cuts. They returned to their jobs producing cookies and breadsticks in July only to learn the company was being sold and moved to Ohio.

The workers, some still wearing their hairnets, were greeted by cheers from a small crowd of supporters as they trickled out of the factory. About 40 workers lingered outside the factory gates, not quite ready to let go of decades of their lives and the close web of friendships they had built working side-by-side at Stella.

“We know this product is not going to survive without us,” said George Kahssay, a 24-year Stella D’oro veteran. “We can find another job but they won’t find people like us anywhere. We stick together like a family.”

Kahssay said he had no regrets about going on strike and battling Brynwood until the end.

“We showed we cannot be humiliated by them,” he said “We are not slaves.”

Asset Stripping

Brynwood purchased Stella D’oro for $17 million and looked to flip it for a large profit after breaking the union, according to union attorney Louis Nikolaidis. When that failed, they sold the company to snackfood giant Lance which will move production to a non-union shop in Ashland, Ohio.

Local 50 President Joyce Alston said four prospective buyers contacted the union, expressing interest in purchasing Stella and keeping it in the Bronx but were rebuffed by Brynwood.

Revelations that the City granted Brynwood $425,000 in tax abatements in order to retool the factory with new machinery that will now be shipped to Ohio have fueled additional outrage over the Stella closing.

“It’s asset stripping,” said Tony O’Brien, a retired Queens College professor who has been active in the Stella D’oro Solidarity Committee which has worked to mobilize community support for the workers. “They take the name and the machines somewhere else and leave the workers behind. No wonder the country is in decline.”

“We have to do whatever we can to keep these machines here in the factory,” said Bronx Assemblymember Jose Rivera who also spoke in support of the Stella workers earlier in the afternoon at a press conference on the steps of City Hall that included Queens City Councilmember Tony Avella and the leaders of about a half-dozen union locals including PSC’s Barbara Bowen.

According to Gurdip Mann, the Stella D’oro workers considered trying to occupy the factory but nixed the idea when only a minority expressed support for doing so.

Workers who engage in such an action risk losing their severance pay which equals just under a week’s pay for each year worked at Stella.

However, the Stella workers may have a long struggle ahead of them to receive all of the benefits they are entitled to under their contract. According to Alston, Brynwood will pay the severance money but denies that it has to contribute to the workers’ pension and healthcare funds for the additional time covered by the severance pay.

“This is isn’t a misunderstanding. The contract language is very clear about this,” said Local President Joyce Alston who arrived about an hour after the factory closed.

Gathering the newly laid-off workers around her, Alston urged them not to cash any severance checks they receive from Brynwood without consulting the union.

“They are trying to frustrate everybody and drag this out in the courts,” she said. “They are thinking you will be happy to get a lump sum of money.”

Another rally outside the Stella D’oro factory is scheduled for today (Friday) from 3-7 p.m.

Awarding the $35 billion contract for the Air Force’s refueling tankers to Boeing Co. is the clear choice for “investing in American workers, American knowledge, American security, and America’s future,” the presidents of 10 AFL-CIO state federations say in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

 The letter, sent last week, urges the Pentagon to consider the impact on the U.S. economy and national security in deciding which company should receive the lucrative Air Force refueling tanker contract.

In September 2008, Gates, who also was George W. Bush’s defense chief, announced he was canceling the competition for the refueling tankers and leaving it to the next administration to decide. Gates said the competition between Boeing Co. and European-based EADS/Northrop Grumman was “too controversial” to be settled during the last four months of the Bush administration.

Awarding the largest single military contract to the EADS-Northrop Grumman partnership would not only be counterproductive to efforts to revive America’s economy, it also would jeopardize the U.S. industrial base and risk our security by giving EADS and all of its foreign suppliers the technological specifications of every military plane that the tankers refuel, the letter says.

If Seattle-based Boeing is awarded the air tanker deal, the contract would support at least 44,000 new and existing jobs in the United States, many of them family-sustaining union jobs, as well as more than 300 suppliers in 40 states, state federation presidents say. But under the EADS contract, only a few thousand lower-paying nonunion jobs would be created. 

The letter reads, in part:

Given the current state of the U.S. economy, taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be funding the economic growth of European countries. This money should be invested at home.

The U.S. military and the American citizens it protects should not be put in a position where any foreign government has control over our nation’s military capabilities.

The letter was co-signed by AFL-CIO state leaders Rebekah Friend (Ariz.), John Olsen (Conn.), Michael Carrigan (Ill.), Andy Sanchez (Kansas), Edward Gorman (Maine), Mark Gaffney (Mich.), Hugh McVey (Mo.), Tom Chamberlain (Ore.), Rick Bender (Wash.) and David Newby (Wis.)

Last year during the presidential election, Time magazine reported that Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was a “key figure” in the Pentagon’s attempt to complete the tanker deal.

According to the news magazine, McCain wrote letters and pushed the Pentagon to change the bidding process so that EADS’s government subsidies could not be considered when deciding to whom to award the contract. This placed Boeing, which receives no subsidies, at a clear disadvantage and conflicted with U.S. trade policy.

Students, parents and community members turned out yesterday in support of D.C. teachers.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka tells supporters of D.C. school employees the school district’s layoffs are ‘a cold hard case of union-busting.’

Thousands of students, parents, teachers and community members from across Washington, D.C., converged on the district’s Freedom Plaza yesterday afternoon to rally in support of hundreds of laid-off teachers.

Nearly 400 school employees have been laid off as a result of controversial decisions by D.C. school chancellor Michelle Rhee. The layoffs include 229 classroom teachers, many of them veterans. The Washington Teachers’ Union (WTU) has protested the layoffs, saying that many teachers have been targeted for their age and that the firings are poorly timed and an attempt to undermine the teachers’ contract.

At yesterday’s rally, reports Chris Garlock of the Metropolitan Washington Council, D.C. residents and students of all ages spoke out strongly in support of their teachers. It was one of the largest labor rallies in recent memory in the District. At the rally it was announced that a delegation of teachers sought to present to Mayor Adrian Fenty with a statement in opposition to the layoffs, but Fenty’s assistant wouldn’t even come to the door to accept it.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called the firings “a cold hard case of union busting,” and said that union members across the city stand in solidarity with fired teachers:

The labor movement is right here with you. We’ll stand shoulder to shoulder with you for as long as it takes.

Here and across the country, public education and our school children are the victims of wrong-headed efforts to fill state and local budget gaps. Children are the scapegoats. Class sizes are growing beyond anything that makes a shred of sense. After-school and early education programs are disappearing. Teachers are buying school supplies out of their own pockets, and children are losing teachers they love and trust.

Listen, you don’t make better schools by firing teachers. You don’t engage students in learning by disrespecting their educators. You don’t teach children values by discarding values.  You may close a short-term budget hole, but it’s at our children’s expense. And that price is too high to pay.

AFT President Randi Weingarten and other top union leaders, as well as members of the D.C. City Council, took part in the rally. City Council members have announced their intention to hold hearings into the public school system’s hiring and firing policies, and the WTU has filed suit to block the layoffs. Weingarten said that these cuts to vital teachers and school staff are hitting students the hardest.

Susan Dunn, a 23-year veteran teacher and the parent of a 6th grader, said the layoffs are exactly the wrong policy to sustain D.C. schools:

Rhee is just out of touch with what’s really happening in the schools. We don’t have a contract, we haven’t had a raise in five years and now they’re firing people without explanation. Morale is terrible.

Members of AFSCME Local 3145 in Connecticut demonstrate for a fair contract with the Red Cross.

Millions of Americans contribute blood and money to the Red Cross with the belief that the organization is well run and the blood supply is protected. But a new Jobs with Justice report raises serious concerns about donor safety and the security of the nation’s blood supply.

During a Jobs with Justice telephone press conference yesterday, Mary McDougal, who has worked for a decade at the Red Cross in Buffalo, N.Y., said the Red Cross must improve the way it treats workers and donors.

Red Cross headquarters in Washington, D.C., thinks it can run a blood drive like you run a McDonald’s. [They need to] hire the right people, give them proper training and listen to us.  

The Missouri Jobs with Justice Workers’ Rights Board released the report, “Labor Relations at the American Red Cross and Its Impact on Employee and Donor Safety,” after hearing from front-line Red Cross workers across the country. The investigative report outlines practices that jeopardize blood donors’ safety and the integrity of the blood supply, including long work hours that lead to fatigue and mistakes; sharp pay cuts that cause dramatic increases in employee turnover and hiring non-qualified workers instead of certified nurses.

According to the report:

From the degrading of requirements that medically trained personnel be present at blood drives, to the extraordinarily long workdays with minimal breaks demanded of many workers, to attacks on workers’ collective bargaining rights, management’s changes risk imperiling the safety of donors, the integrity of the blood supply, and the wellbeing of employees.

You can let the Red Cross know you want to ensure that the blood drives are safe here or tweet a message here.

Red Cross workers around the country are joining together to fight for the safety of the blood supply and donors. They say the Red Cross is seeking to replace nurses with unlicensed supervisors, force employees to work unrealistic schedules, make workers bear the increased costs of an inferior health care plan and turn blood collection into an assembly line process.

The national organization also is actively trying to marginalize and thwart the workers’ freedom to join a union. Ten unions represent only 2,500 of the 35,000 Red Cross employees. The organization was hit with 212 unfair labor practices charges by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) between 1996 and 2007. Contracts at seven locations have expired as long as 11 months ago with no new agreement.

Workers at two more locations have been negotiating for first contracts for an extended period and the Red Cross is challenging an NLRB election victory by AFSCME in Illinois over the inclusion of some workers in the bargaining unit. Locals have filed unfair labor practice charges at several locations over unilateral changes to the pension plan and other violations.  

Philip Dine, an award-winning journalist and author of the report, says:

Few national institutions have a prouder name or a more storied history than the American Red Cross. But many frontline blood workers see the Red Cross as an employer that is increasingly determined to cut expenses and increase revenues, even to the potential detriment of donor safety, employee wellbeing and the security of the nation’s blood supply.

Download a copy of the report here.

Teresa Cavazos, a phlebotomist of 11 years with the Red Cross in Tucson, Ariz., says she sometimes works 16- or 18-hour days.

Sometimes, you don’t get a break, if it’s that busy. They’ll give it to you at the end; they’ll say take 10 minutes before you clean up and put things away. That’s where I find it questionable on the part of the Red Cross. You’re not able to concentrate as clearly as you would, so you tend to make mistakes. It’s not safe for you; not safe for the donor.