Labor Union Blog

Bob Baugh, executive director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council and co-chair of the AFL-CIO Energy Task Force, sends us this report from the second day at the climate change talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, where 40 U.S. union members are part of a 400-member global union movement delegation led by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). Read our previous blogs on the climate change talks here, here, here and here.

Today, union delegates to the climate change talks received good news. For the first time since we arrived in Copenhagen, a U.S. negotiator said publicly that the Obama administration will propose language to support a “just transition” to a new green economy. Under a just transition program, workers have the right to a voice at their workplace, the right to form a union and bargain collectively and the right to have access to training on the latest technology.

At the morning meeting of the working group on a shared vision, U.S. negotiators for the first time spoke out in favor of just transition. One of AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka’s first official letters following his election was to Special Envoy Todd Stern in support of the having just translation language in a climate agreement.

The news that the United States supports the concept of just transition and wants to suggest language for it got everyone’s attention. But there still are procedural and other questions to be answered before it is a done deal. Specifically, what was the language the U.S. government wants to add or change? 

The U.S. labor delegation met with Trigg Talley, the lead U.S. negotiator on this section of the agreement. He told us the United States is “concerned about the long preamble of the shared vision statement, but they liked the positive ideas that our just transition language conveyed.” He said he wanted to make sure the concept was preserved as the document was shortened and to submit some language. 

We suggested he include language about quality jobs and decent work. As this blog is written, nothing is a done deal and we still do not know the end of the story but the beginning has certainly been encouraging.

The U.S. House of Representatives today took a big step toward reforming the risky and reckless practices on Wall Street that created the global financial crisis. By a 223-202 margin, lawmakers passed the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 (H.R. 4173), a package of reforms that would help protect Americans from a laundry list of practices from predatory lending to unregulated derivatives.

Introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, the bill is the most sweeping overhaul of the financial industry in more than 70 years. It would create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) to enforce consumer protection and civil rights laws that existing federal regulators have largely ignored. It also would provide increased transparency and regulation in financial derivatives such as those that brought down AIG and helped create the housing bubble.

The bill now goes to the Senate. The AFL-CIO is seeking to improve the bill further as it makes its way through Congress. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told the Financial Services Committee in October that Congress needed to reform the Federal Reserve System to get the big banks out of Reserve Bank boardrooms before it gave the Federal Reserve any more regulatory powers.

Trumka, who joined union members and allies at a rally outside the American Bankers Association meeting in Chicago in October, sent a clear message to bankers: “You work for us—not the other way around.”

Gloria Kortum and Mark Whetstone of AFGE delivered hundreds of letters in support of health care reform to their senator, Ben Nelson.

This week, union leaders and activists visited more than 100 members of Congress to deliver thousands of letters from union members with a simple message: Pass real health care reform now-without a new tax on workers’ benefits. 

Mark Whetstone and Gloria Kortum, two AFGE members, flew in from Nebraska on Wednesday to ask Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) to support real health care reform. Kortum and Whetstone say they’re concerned about the effects of the health care crisis on families and small businesses in Nebraska—and they hope that reform will be fairly financed, not by taxing benefits. Whetstone said:

One of the prime concerns for federal employees is the tax in the bill. It will have ramifications well into the future. We want to make sure Sen. Nelson knows we’re concerned about legislation that contains an excise tax. We know he’s a pivotal vote and he needs to hear from his constituents.

Kortum and Whetstone were excited union members and Working America members sent their handwritten letters to Congress. They delivered these letters to Sen. Nelson during their meeting. Gaeylnn Dooley, the Nebraska state director for Working America, says these letters show deep concerns about the health care system:

We talk to people every single night about the health care crisis. What we experience is that we’re fighting for health care reform in one of the states that needs the help the most. People here are really struggling, and they’re coming out to ask Nebraska senators to listen to them, not big insurance companies.

Ken Mass, president of the Nebraska State AFL-CIO, calls on Nelson to support real health care reform in the Omaha World-Herald.

Here’s more news from the fight for health care reform:

• Check out this great video from the Center for American Progress on why we need health care reform.
• A new study from the Center for Economic and Policy Research suggests that the broken health care system is the key factor behind our nation’s public debt.
• The Alliance for Retired Americans is delivering members of Congress holiday cards for health care reform.
• In case you were wondering: Yes, a public health insurance option is still very popular—more popular than the reform bill in general. This isn’t rocket science, senators!
• And, finally, your absurdity of the day: Fox News loudmouth Glenn Beck has a “plan” for health care: abolishing Medicare.

Wendy’s New Bakery Co., part of the Wendy’s/Arby’s Group fast-food chain, has illegally implemented concessionary contract terms proposed in bargaining at its Zanesville, Ohio, plant, according to federal unfair labor practice charges filed yesterday by Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 57. The 150 workers at the plant have been in negotiations for a new contract since March.

The union says the unilateral action by company guts the current health care plan, eliminates the pension plan and takes away workers’ rights guaranteed under the previous contract. BCTGM President Frank Hurt calls the action by the Wendy’s/Arby’s Group “a disgrace.”

For nearly three decades, members of Bakers Local 57 have taken pride in the quality products they make for Wendy’s stores and customers. The New Bakery workers have sacrificed much over the years in order to secure a quality contract with good health care coverage and a solid, guaranteed pension for themselves and their families. We will not quietly stand by and watch this company rob our members of their hard-earned benefits.

The company claims contract talks are at an impasse. But BCTGM representative John Price says the union has urged that talks continue and has offered dates to resume negotiations. He told Zanesville Times Recorder:

The company has been trying to force things on us since the beginning. They seem to have forgotten what a negotiation is about.

BCTGM has filed additional unfair labor practice charges claiming the plant’s manager has attempted to intimidate workers through surveillance of union activity, as well as specific efforts by management to circumvent the union by bargaining directly with individual employees. Says Hurt:

We intend to take all necessary and appropriate action to support our members, including a worldwide consumer boycott of Wendy’s and Arby’s restaurants if necessary.

The global union movement has thrown its support to the Ohio workers. In a letter to Wendy’s/Arby’s Group CEO and President Roland Smith, International Union of Food Workers (IUF) President Ron Oswald writes:

On behalf of the 12 million workers in 383 trade unions in 120 countries affiliated with the IUF, I ask you to direct your negotiators to return to the bargaining table and abandon their assault on the contract BCTGM Local 57 has with New Bakery workers. Stop demanding that your workers give up their health insurance and pensions and negotiate a fair contract.

In this cross-post from the United Steelworkers (USW) website, USW Vice President Fred Redmond challenges civil rights activists to volunteer to help fill the needs of those communities hit hard by the recession. Nationally, activists will come together for a day of service during the annual AFL-CIO Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance in Greensboro, N.C., Jan. 14-18, 2010. Click here for more information.    

Today, I issued a call to arms to the civil rights activists of the United Steelworkers union.

This was no summons to warfare, though.

To the contrary, I challenged USW civil rights committee members to shield the downtrodden in society, to aid those felled by the current economic crisis, to serve as their brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, not just for labor union companions, but for all fellow community members.

This is a call to arms because it will involve heavy lifting, I warned the USW committees at their 15th International Civil and Human Rights Conference in Pittsburgh.

We’ll get a feel for it this week as 85 of us lug books and movies to be donated to Pittsburgh’s Children’s Hospital, unpack boxes of food and stock shelves at the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank in Duquesne and distribute recyclable bags containing fruit to residents of Pittsburgh Housing Authority’s 10 senior citizen communities.

This economic downturn mangled the budgets of our food pantries, churches, schools, charities, even our local governments. The Great Recession has left them under-resourced and understaffed. And that is hurting our children, our elderly parents, our fragile relatives and our communities’ health.

We hear their plea. It is our communities calling us to arms. And we will reach out in response to them.

That does not diminish our civil rights committees’ traditional duties. These are crucial and will continue. They will investigate civil rights complaints and explain the value of diversity.

These functions simply can’t be set aside. That is what happened in the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department during the long, dark Bush years. A U.S. Government Accountability Office audit of the division’s activity showed a significant drop in litigation in several major anti-discrimination and voting rights areas during the Bush years. The Bush department pursued fewer cases when compared to enforcement during the Clinton years, according to the report released early in December.

This, of course, was deliberate by the Bush administration, which did not believe in enforcing civil rights law. We will not allow our new duties in the community to distract us from vigilantly pursuing civil rights complaints filed with our committees. Instead, we will assume this new function as an additional role.

It is a role that is basic to unions, which always have struggled to improve conditions for their members and their families.

At this moment, it’s vital that labor union civil rights activists everywhere—not just at the USW—take inspiration from the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service and intercede for the sake of their communities so hobbled by the effects of Wall Street recklessness.

Families are suffering under the highest unemployment in a quarter century. For every single job opening available, 6.3 unemployed job seekers are desperate to take it. Those who lose out are forfeiting their homes. Every month, banks file another 330,000 new foreclosure notices and seize another 75,000 homes.

Those lucky enough to have jobs have been pinched by pay and benefit cuts, furloughs and shortened hours. The average workweek is 33.2, nearly 7 hours short of 40, costing many workers nearly a whole day’s wages. The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) calculates that workers haven’t endured the worst of it yet. In its report, “The $1 Trillion Wage Deficit,” the center estimates that unemployment will cost workers more next year than this in lost income.

Families that can’t make mortgage payments also can’t meet tax obligations. Then local governments and school districts are caught short. Low tax revenues meant $30 billion in budget shortfalls for states this year, and, as a result, they will send even less money to aid cities and schools next year. Families without income don’t eat out or frequent local shops, so those decline. Contributions to local religious organizations and charities slack off, so at the very moment when their services are most needed, they’re least able to respond. The connections among people and groups so fundamental to community begin to dissipate and deteriorate.

So I propose that union civil rights activists volunteer to do whatever they can to fill those gaps in community service. Like workers across this country, our civil rights activists have suffered layoffs and furloughs and workweek reductions. So stepping forward as cash cows is unrealistic. But we can step up as volunteers, in our church groups, community organizations and schools. Our hands can help hold it together during these trying times.

We can link arms to help our communities. That is my call to arms.

Alliance for Retired Americans President Barbara Easterling looks at the fight for health care reform and other battles union retirees fought in 2009 and tells Alliance members: “You continually amaze me.”

As 2009 draws to a close, I want to say thanks for all you did this year to educate and mobilize your fellow union retirees on state and national issues. No matter how long the day, or how tough the fight, you consistently rose to the challenge.

It was an honor and a privilege to become president of the Alliance for Retired Americans earlier this year.  For me, the Alliance is a constant reminder of how people can accomplish great things when brought together around a common goal.

We’ve sure had our hands full this year with health care. I know this has been difficult. Seniors have been hit with a whirlwind of lies and scare tactics from insurance companies and political opportunists. Too often the truth gets lost in all this sound and fury—seniors actually have much to gain from health care reform.

Because of your great work in 2009, we have a chance to pass a law that will help Americans of all ages better afford to see a doctor or get a prescription filled. As I write this, we are nearing the finish line. But in this marathon health care debate, the last mile may be the hardest. We cannot stop now.

In 2010, we will need to finish health care reform, keep a watchful eye out for those who want to “reform” Social Security, and get ready for next fall’s elections. Older voters will make up more than one-third of the turnout in many states, so it will be more important than ever to educate our fellow retirees on the issues and where the candidates stand.

I hope you can join us in Las Vegas for the Alliance’s National Convention. From April 5-8, we will hold workshops and training sessions to strengthen our organizing and advocacy skills. We also will hear from leading experts in public policy, health care, aging and the media.

Again, thank you for all you do. Union retirees continually amaze me. You bring such experience, energy and passion to your work. You are making a difference.

Best wishes for happy and healthy holidays.

Dan Heck, Midwest regional director for Working America, recently visited Egypt as a member of a three-person delegation sponsored by the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center. This is his second post about his impressions of that country’s emerging independent union movement. Read Heck’s first post here. To learn more about Egyptian workers’ struggles to form free, independent unions, click here, here, here, here and here.      

I was particularly moved by the stories and requests of the workers in El-Mahalla el-Kubra, an Egyptian manufacturing city where working people have repeatedly stood up and demanded their rights. Even though the official trade union movement in Egypt opposes their efforts, the workers in El-Mahalla el-Kubra have organized and mobilized effectively at the grassroots for years. They play a leading role in the labor movement in Egypt and are an inspiration to working families around the world.

Crammed into a small room with about a hundred workers, we heard more than a dozen powerful stories from the workers in El-Mahalla el-Kubra. Some are dealing with unsafe work conditions and fear that if they were injured at work their employer would fire them. In some mills, choking dust fills the air, slowly destroying workers’ lungs. Some are forced to sign a letter of resignation on the first day of their job, so that an employer can fire them without cause at any time. Like here, some have been fired for organizing and demanding their rights.

Others face harassment, with the employer repeatedly moving them to new locations or changing schedules. Almost all are struggling with wages that barely allow them to stay above water. Many earn just a few dollars a day, some even less.

On top of this, foreign guest workers are being brought in to undercut even these meager wages.           

One worker discussed an employer that had left the country to avoid paying a decent wage. He asked whether it would be possible to have a U.S.-Egyptian trade agreement similar to the one we have with Jordan. Although there are still clear problems in Jordan, the agreement includes at least some protections for workers.

When I heard this question, I remembered a lot of the conversations I’ve had with workers in my home state of Ohio about this same issue. I saw a hint of what the world can look like if working families on opposite sides of the planet recognize and fight for their rights and dignity together. Something that had seemed abstract, that good trade agreements can help working people here and in other countries, suddenly became very real.

Good trade agreements can and should be one of the basic demands that working families everywhere make of their political leaders. They are one of the tools that can prevent a brutal “race to the bottom,” in which employers search the world for the most vulnerable and exploitable workers. This is one reason why we need to work hard to improve and strengthen worker protections in trade agreements and to ensure that we enforce these provisions consistently and energetically. We also have work to do in reforming other provisions of trade agreements, including the investment, procurement and services areas. 

The need for good, fair trade agreements is one of many concerns that working families in the United States and Egypt have in common.

Per-plexd wants to know:

What ever happened to those infrastructure jobs? Not the supposedly shovel-ready ones but the long-term ones. The ones that were going to help rebuild our roads, bridges, storm and sewages water systems ad nausem? You know, WPA, CCC, TVA style.

Tim in Sacramento says, “Green jobs present an enormous opportunity for our future.”

However, there’s concern that federal funds are subsidizing a low-road green economy. How do we ensure that green jobs are good union jobs that will help rebuild America’s middle class?

DC Proud points out: “In some urban areas, unemployment rates exceed 20 percent.”

Yet the particular plight of these communities is barely on the radar screen of many policymakers and even less so the mainstream media. What plans are there to target help to these areas?

Per-plexd, Tim and DC Proud have each submitted questions for AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who will hold a live webcast Dec. 15 to answer the top-ranked questions. I hope you will submit a question or vote on your favorite. The webcast, and the online tool to submit a question and vote on questions, is at: www.aflcio.org/open.

(Sign in here to participate if you have a Google account: http://bit.ly/7uk5gZ.)

The AFL-CIO has proposed a five-point plan to immediately address the nation’s jobs crisis, and Trumka took our message to the White House last week at President Obama’s Jobs Summit.

But we need to keep the heat on. It’s up to the grassroots to outshout Wall Street.

Also, be sure to stop by for the live online video discussion on Tuesday, Dec. 15, at 4 p.m. EST.

Because, as one person noted in the questions, “We can’t just flip burgers for one another.”

We need an economic game plan that creates jobs which support families.

This is a cross-post from the Firedoglake blog.