Labor Union Blog

Steve Stallone, International Labor Communications Association (ILCA) president and secretary/treasurer of the California Media Workers Guild, joined activists rallying today at Oakland’s airport.

Some 100 labor activists and supporters stirred up the normal bustle of Oakland International Airport on a Friday before a three-day weekend, rallying in support of Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) who work there and at airports around the country. They were decked in their union colors, displaying the breadth of support for the TSOs in the union movement.

Some 13,000 TSOs have joined AFGE and are still trying to get collective bargaining rights, AFGE organizer Joe Diggs told the crowd.

You can’t have a country that’s safe and secure without a workforce that’s safe and secure. We’re putting on a push to make it happen this year.

AFGE was out front of the effort to win them bargaining rights in the aftermath of 9/11—an eight-year-plus campaign.

Raymond Brooks, an AFGE rep working at the Oakland Airport for the past six years, said management’s arbitrary rules are not based on public security needs.

Two days ago, management singled out people without creases in their pants and told us to take them off and iron them. I never heard of that before. And we can’t wear any pin on our shirt collars, not even an American flag. We’re supposed to be protecting national security and they’re worried about pins. They just make up this stuff as they go along.

Art Pulaski, California Labor Federation executive secretary, told the crowd that although the TSOs protect the public, they don’t have protection.

They don’t have the freedom to collectively bargain for a decent wage. They can do that in Mexico, in Canada, in England, in France, in Russia, but not here. That’s why the AFGE is giving them full backing. And we’re here to say you have every union in California behind you.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka had planned to be at the rally to show the AFL-CIO’s commitment to the campaign, but the snowstorms that battered Washington, DC and much of the East kept him from making it.

Steve Ayala, a worker on the organizing committee at the Oakland airport, told the assembly that he was instructed in his training that he was on the front lines fighting terrorism.

I wear a badge and a uniform and have been injured in duty. If I haven’t earned the right to representation by now, tell me why not.

Visibly moved by the show of support, Ayala made one more request.

When you travel wear something that says “AFGE” on it and say to the guy asking you to take off your shoes, ‘We’re behind you.”

The 2001 Aviation Transportation Security Act gave TSA the discretion to grant workers collective bargaining rights, but the Bush administration resisted it at every turn. In January 2003 it issued an order prohibiting collective bargaining, claiming union representation would restrict the “flexibility” needed to fight terrorism. In 2007, both the House and the Senate voted to grant TSOs collective bargaining rights as part of their 9/11 Commission Recommendations bill, but withdrew the provision when Bush threatened to veto it.

Later that year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that John Gavello, an Oakland Airport TSO fired for union activity in 2004, could sue TSA for violation of his constitutional rights, including his rights of free speech and free association. After that decision, TSO membership in AFGE skyrocketed.

In the heat of the presidential campaign, then-candidate Barack Obama promised AFGE that if elected, he would ensure TSOs get bargaining rights. Although his nominee for TSA administrator, Erroll Southers, withdrew his bid after brutal attacks by Republicans in Congress, AFGE still expects the position to be filled with someone supportive of union rights.

In April 2009 the Transportation Security Workers Enhancement Act was introduced in the House (HR1881). It would grant TSOs the right to bargain collectively for fair and uniform workplace rules and move them under the General Schedule system of pay, give them due process, whistleblower protection, veteran preferences and leave policies other federal employees have, including other Department of Homeland Security employees such as those represented by AFGE working for the Border Patrol, FEMA and the Coast Guard. Currently, the bill is still in committee.

President Obama must act immediately to restore the ability of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to protect the rights of American workers by giving recess appointments to two nominees who are being blocked by Senate Republican obstructionists, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said today.

Writing on Huffington Post, Trumka put it this way:

The NLRB’s job is to protect workers’ rights—but for more than two years it has been functioning with only two members instead of the five it should have. Working people need an NLRB that can enforce the National Labor Relations Act—not one hobbled by vacancies.

Click here to read the entire post.

Saying “enough is enough,” Trumka is urging working people to take action now and call the White House switchboard at 202-456-1111or 202-456-1414 and demand that President Obama use his executive power to appoint Craig Becker and Mark Pearce to the NLRB during the Presidents Day recess.  

In a deal between the White House and the Senate minority, the Senate yesterday confirmed 27 non-controversial Obama appointees. But the NLRB nominees—Becker and Pearce—both highly qualified, well-respected labor lawyers who were nominated in July, were left out of the deal. The Republicans filibustered the Becker nomination, although he received a majority vote. The White House apparently has agreed not to make Presidents Day recess appointments—a process that allows the president to temporarily appoint his own nominee while Congress is out of session.

Trumka calls that decision:

 A big win for the Republicans. A big win for corporations that want to file down the teeth of the NLRB. A big loss for working people.

He adds that progressives must act quickly to build support for a fully functional NLRB.

Progressives should take every opportunity to let their congressional representatives and the White House know that protection of workers’ rights is one of the first and most important changes working people expected to see when they voted in 2008. It’s been 13 months since the inauguration—it’s time.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka today condemned the Feb. 11 decision by a Mexican appeals court to allow the Grupo Mexico mining company to fire 1,200 striking workers, members of the National Union of Mine and Metalworkers (SNTMMSRM), at its Cananea copper mine.

In a statement, Trumka said that by finding the strike illegal, despite the lack of evidence to support its decision, the court effectively eliminated the right to strike in Mexico. 

Trumka reaffirmed the strong support of the U.S. union movement for the SNTMMSRM and condemned the Mexican government’s four-year-long campaign to destroy the independent union.

The strike at the massive pit began in July 2007 over health and safety concerns. Workers also are upset that SNTMMSRM leader Napoleon Gómez Urrutia was forcefully removed from his position in 2006. Gómez, who now is living in Canada, spoke out against the Mexican government and the Grupo Mexico mining company in response to a tragic mine accident in Pasta de Conchos that left 65 miners dead, many of them members of unions.

Trumka also called on the Obama administration and congressional leadership to “take immediate and decisive steps to hold the Mexican government accountable for its systematic violations of fundamental worker rights and its effort to dismantle independent unions.”

Such attacks on the trade union movement thoroughly undercut the promise made years ago to U.S., Mexican and Canadian workers under the NAALC (North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation side agreement to NAFTA) that fundamental workers’ rights would be fully respected in North America.

Ninety percent of restaurant workers are not offered health insurance or sick days. That’s according to restaurant worker advocacy organization Restaurant Opportunities Centers United. In 2008 the average earnings for workers in the industry were less than $13,000. Two thousand five hundred workers were surveyed in five cities and 38 percent said they are forced to work off the clock. The federal minimum wage for wait staff has remained at $2.13 per hour since 1991.

Two thousand seven hundred Detroit city employees will see their benefits cut following a vote last week by the city council. The council voted 5 to 4 to cut so-called “fringe benefits.” Workers will see tuition reimbursement suspended, vacation and sick days reduced for new hires, and the elimination of coverage for fertility and impotence drugs. The latter will save the city an estimated $1.6 million per year.

Lede: Labor is not happy about the failure so far of Democrats to deliver meaningful change for workers. Doug Cunningham has more.

By Doug Cunningham

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In a rare move a labor union has rescinded the endorsement of a candidate to office. Last week The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 in Colorado withdrew an endorsement of Crisanta Duran who is seeking a seat in the House of Representatives. The Denver Post acquired a letter sent to the candidate from the union’s President that the endorsement was obtained through deception. Duran is a former legal council for the union and the union’s board endorsed her while her father was still President of the union.

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By Leo W. Gerard and Fred Redmond

On Feb. 1, 1960, when four African American college students sat down at a whites-only lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., they ignited a youth-led movement to challenge racial segregation and injustice in the South. 

The freshmen refused to stand and eat at the F.W. Woolworth counter as the policy of that time required. They were denied service but remained in their seats. The manager left the students alone hoping they would eventually leave. 

He assumed wrong.  

The following morning, 23 other men and women joined them. Within a week, the demonstration reached at least 1,000 people. Students in other North Carolina towns launched their own sit-ins. Within two months, the sit-in movement spread across the South. Within six months, the Greensboro Woolworth lunch counter was desegregated.

The “Greensboro Four,” as they were known, began a wave of nonviolent protests against segregation across America. The sit-ins came just as the demand for civil rights grew into a mass movement, one that changed our nation forever.

The involvement of young people in that movement—along with religious, labor and other community leaders—cannot be underestimated. Young people stood together to fight for a better future. They forced America to change for the better, to change for them.

Five decades later, it’s time for America’s youth to lead another revolution, one that forces the nation to solve the critical civil rights challenge of this time: good jobs to enable all America to thrive into the next century. Good jobs provide health insurance. Good jobs create strong communities. Good jobs support a high-quality educational system for all children.

Consider this: Of the more than 46 million uninsured Americans, 13.2 million are young adults—the fastest growing segment of citizens without health benefits. Hispanics and blacks are disproportionately impacted: one-third of Hispanics and one-fifth of blacks are uninsured compared to 13 percent of whites.

Behind the sobering statistic of 10 percent nationwide unemployment is this harsh reality: 20 million workers ages 16 to 24 were jobless last year. That’s more than 50 percent of all people in that age group. Unemployment rates for blacks and Hispanics are double that.

Sisters and brothers of the next generation, it’s time for a revolution. It’s time to stand up and be heard. It’s time to mobilize online and in the streets. Together, let’s tweet, facebook and text. Let’s rally, vote and, where necessary, sit in. Let’s lead the civil rights movement 2.0.

Let’s do more than celebrate Black History Month. Let’s respect that history by emulating the leadership and courage of the Greensboro Four, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., A. Philip Randolph and so many other giants.

They all knew that justice began with economic justice—that equal opportunity for everyone to work hard and provide for their families and communities would mean a better nation. They knew that good jobs provided a pathway to a better life, including racial harmony. They all knew that justice—as righteous as it obviously was—wasn’t going to happen without coordinated, sustained and organized action.

They knew they had to do something. And they did. This generation of activists went on to become America’s business owners, politicians, educators, doctors, lawyers, preachers and, yes, labor leaders who helped build this country and the middle class.

It’s time for another youth-led revolution.

If America is going to be prosperous, its young people must have the same opportunities we did, as our parents and grandparents did. Together, we need to revitalize the middle class and American communities. We need to make unions relevant to the workers of tomorrow and ensure opportunities for youngsters to grow and thrive.

At the United Steelworkers (USW), we believe manufacturing is the great equalizer, just as it was during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. But get the old, inaccurate, smoke stack-blowing stereotypes about manufacturing out of your head.

We’re talking about new, high-tech, clean, efficient and world-class manufacturing. The making of wind turbines and solar panels to power the clean energy industry; hybrid and electric cars; components for iPhones, laptop computers and other electronics; materials for energy-efficient office buildings, homes and roads. Parts needed for high-speed rail, modern schools, updated water lines, sewer systems and other infrastructure that’s costing us money and precious time in the fight against global warming.

 When America invests in manufacturing, everyone benefits. Check this out:

• Every manufacturing job supports five more jobs, compared to just one job supported by a service sector position.
• Manufacturing jobs pay an average 10 percent to 50 percent more than service sector jobs.
• Creating 2.5 million new manufacturing jobs would mean at least $100 billion for the American economy over the next decade.
• Domestic manufacturing is the green economy—it’s among the cleanest, most efficient and productive in the world. Factories in places like China do not have to follow environmental or health or safety rules, putting their workers and our environment in danger. The influx of imported toxic toys, poisoned dog food, tainted medicine, malfunctioning cars you’ve been hearing about? Cheap imported goods have a high price tag.
• Manufacturing post-World War II and after the civil rights movement created the black middle class, and manufacturing’s demise has been devastating to black families and communities. African Americans working in manufacturing declined from 23.9 percent in 1979 to 9.8 percent in 2007, the largest drop of any group.
• Black workers who belong to unions earn wages that are 12 percent higher, about $2 per hour more, than those of their nonunion counterparts.
• In fact, most union workers earn more than nonunion workers. More importantly, they have a voice to help win health care, stronger safety and health protections and retirement security. Just as Wall Street shareholders are entitled to a share of profits, the hard-working employees who help businesses succeed should get their fair share as well.

America needs a youth-led revolution for manufacturing.

Imagine the opportunities. Think about the difference in your lives, in your communities. America needs you in this fight, and you need to be in this fight.

As North America’s largest industrial union, we vow to be there for you, with you. Let’s work together to mold our proud grassroots traditions of getting things done with your generation’s emerging online- and technology-based mobilization that was such a force in the 2008 elections.

Let’s honor Black History Month in a way that would truly make the Greensboro Four and so many other heroes proud. Let’s begin a revolution.

Leo W. Gerard is president of the United Steelworkers and Fred Redmond is USW’s vice president for human affairs. This is a cross-post from The Huffington Post.

Earlier this week, Republicans proved the lesson we all learned in school, “the majority rules,” doesn’t apply to the U.S. Senate. With every single Republican vote and two from defecting Democrats (see below), Republicans sustained a filibuster against Craig Becker’s nomination to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

After the vote, President Obama cited the filibuster against Becker and Republican holds on more than 60 of his nominees and said he would consider using recess appointment strategy to break the stranglehold the Republican minority has put on the nominees.

When Congress is in recess, as it will be next week, a president may appoint someone to a post without congressional action. The recess appointment lasts through the current session of Congress.

If Obama follows through and appoints Becker or other blocked nominees, get ready for another dose of Republican hypocrisy as they undoubtedly will join with their corporate allies to whine about how the unfairness of recess appointments.

Of course they would be suffering from a convenient group memory loss. President George W. Bush not only made 171 recess appointments—Obama has not made any—Bush’s very first recess appointment was to the NLRB. On Aug. 31, 2001, he appointed Peter J. Hurtgen to be chairman of the NLRB.

That was just the start of his attempt to pack the board. He named seven other nominees to the NLRB via recess appointments. No one seems to recall any Republican hue and cry over those recess appointments.

The major difference is Bush’s picks were demonstrably pro-corporate and Chamber of Commerce approved. Becker scares Republicans and their big business buddies because of his background as labor lawyer and advocate for workers.

But as he told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension committee during his confirmation hearing:

I fully understand that, if confirmed, I will occupy a position far different from the positions I have occupied as a scholar, teacher, and advocate…if confirmed I will have a duty to implement the intent of Congress as expressed in the law, to consider impartially all views appropriately expressed to the Board.

Following the vote, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said:

We support President Obama’s expressed willingness to make recess appointments of critical posts in the federal government if that’s what it takes to get around minority delay and obstruction. [The] Republican-led filibuster has put political interests over the needs of America’s working families. For more than two years, the NLRB has had only two of its five members.  Without a fully staffed NLRB, working families face a major disadvantage in winning justice in the workplace

Those two defecting Democrats who supported the filibuster were Ben Nelson (Neb.) and Blanche Lincoln (Ark.). Give them a call and tell them how disappointed you are that they turned their backs back on working families. Nelson’s office phone is 202-224-6551 and Lincoln’s is 202-224-4843.