Labor Union Blog

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Workers Independent News Labor Radio
Internet Radio Program 05/21/10
Producers: Doug Cunningham & Jesse Russell

WIN’s Labor radio is made possible n part by underwriting from the American Federation of Teachers and from the Illinois AFL-CIO

Labor Radio Rundown:

1) WIN Newscast

2) WIN Interview: Doug Cunningham speaks with Lee Conrad of the Alliance@IBM on the net effect IBM’s policies are having on its employment in the U.S. and about unionization efforts at IBM around the world.

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Economic Report:

A stressful economy could be one of the reasons workers are putting on weight. According to a survey by careerbuilder.com, 44 percent of those polled have put on weight in their current jobs and 32 percent blame stress. A second reason cited in the survey is eating out. Half of those who took the survey said they eat out five times a week.

By Doug Cunningham

In that Pennsylvania congressional district where Democrat Mark Critz won this week, union get out the vote effort played an important role. Unions made 33,000 phone calls and knocked on 16,000 doors in the district. AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka says Critz ran a strong race fighting for the issues working families care about.

By Doug Cunningham

Unions are fighting hard in the Arkansas senate runoff election to back a more pro-working family candidate against incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln. AFSCME’s Gerald McEntee says his union is mounting a $1.4 million effort.

[MCEntee]: “This is part of a message to Democrats: We’re gonna work for you, we’re gonna work hard, provide a shield for you when it’s necessary and needed. But don’t take us for granted. And don’t cast vote after vote in opposition to workers.”

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Women who say they were discriminated against at one of the world’s largest drug makers have won the biggest sex discrimination suit in history. Jesse Russell reports:

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Frontier flight attendants, from left, Kim Mayne-Sasser, Emilio Trevino, Erika Schweitzer and John Warner came to Washington, D.C. for the vote count.

A strong majority of the 879 flight attendants at Frontier Airlines today voted to join the Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA).

Last September, a large group of Frontier flight attendants filed enough signatures for the National Mediation Board to order a representation election. The Frontier flight attendants are the third flight attendant group to choose AFA-CWA in the past year.

Says Erika Schweitzer, transitional AFA-CWA Frontier president:

Frontier flight attendants look forward to negotiating a contract that will protect our interests and address our issues. As AFA-CWA members, we will finally have a legally recognized voice to negotiate with management and gain protections that are specific to the needs of Frontier flight attendants.

 AFA-CWA President Patricia Friend welcomed the new members, saying:

Frontier flight attendants have a unique and proud history and with AFA-CWA representation, they will now begin to shape their future through a legally binding contract.

Frontier flight attendants are based in Denver and Milwaukee.

A disturbing new study shows African American families have fewer economic resources to fall back on during this economic crisis than do white families, mainly due to discrimination and tax policies that favor the rich.

The study by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University reveals that the wealth gap between blacks and whites has more than quadrupled over the course of a generation from $20,000 to $95,000. The researchers studied the same set of families over 23 years (1984-2007) and found that white families were able to build assets-what you own minus what you owe, excluding home equity-while blacks essentially lost assets. In fact, a typical white family is now five times richer than its African-American counterpart of the same class.

That means blacks had little or no money to start businesses, send children to college or ensure a secure retirement, the authors say. In fact, because many low-wealth families are forced to turn to high-interest rate credit for emergencies, about 25 percent of all African Americans owe more than they own. Read the entire study here.

Many minority families end up turning to predatory lenders because they have no other option, the study says. Also African Americans and Hispanics were at least twice as likely to receive high-cost home mortgages as whites with similar incomes, the study says.

A federal consumer financial  protection agency that would ensure fairness for consumers of all financial products would greatly help cash-strapped families to borrow money at decent rates, the study says.

The dramatic increase in the wealth gap in such a short time also reflects tax policies that favor the wealthy. Taxes on unearned income, such as investments and inheritance, fell sharply and are much lower than taxes on pay.

At the same time, persistent discrimination in housing, credit and employment also play a significant role in the gap between whites and blacks, according to the study..    

In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, one of the study’s co-authors, Thomas Shapiro, says one of the most disturbing aspects of the study shows wealth among the highest-income African Americans has actually fallen in recent years, while among whites of similar class and income it has surged. In 1984, high-income black Americans had more assets than middle-income whites. That is no longer true.

Shapiro told the Guardian:

This represents a broken chain of achievement. In the United States context, when we are thinking about racial equality and the economy we have focused for a long time on equal opportunity. The assumption in a democracy is that merit and achievement are going to be rewarded and the rewards here are financial assets. We should see some rough parity and we don’t.

The ongoing debate about immigration never seems to effectively address the real problem-our collective national addiction to cheap labor and low wages, says Mark Ayers, president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD).

In a column on BCTD’s website, Ayers says the enactment of Arizona’s anti-immigrant law has revived efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform at the national level. But before Congress rushes to pass immigration legislation, it must take into account that “in America today, it’s all about next quarter’s profits and the bottom line.”

While exploitative businesses and their apologists hide behind empty slogans like “free markets,” we know the only freedom they are fighting for is the freedom to exploit workers, steal wages and cut corners.

Ayers points out that certain industries, such as construction, rely heavily on undocumented labor. In recent years, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, undocumented workers accounted for as much as 25 percent of  the entire U.S. construction workforce. And in the residential construction sector, that number is even higher.

The construction industry’s business model is a “race to the bottom” predicated on exploitation of undocumented workers, Ayers says. That model has devastated construction workers’ wages. In fact, Ayers says, real wages for construction workers were 17 percent lower in 2006 than in 1973, adjusted for inflation.

Even when contractors are making money, workers are not seeing the gains. According to the federal government’s economic census, contractors’ profits grew between 1977 and 2002. However, the proportion of construction receipts spent for payroll and benefits actually declined by almost 14 percent during the same period, Ayers says.

With those types of statistics in mind, he says: 

it is simply idiotic for us, as a nation, to pass law after law-like the one in Arizona-and arrest someone with brown skin who can’t produce an ID when we don’t have the sense or the courage to address the real issue-companies maximizing profits at the expense of workers, using a business model that relies on the lowering of standards and wages industry-wide by exploiting a workforce without the legal standing to demand justice.

Instead of demagoguery and divisiveness, we need comprehensive immigration reform that stops this exploitation. America’s building trades unions and this great country were built by immigrants seeking a better life for themselves and their families. Whether it’s a temporary worker program that denies full rights and wages to those working in this country or the “Show Me Your Papers” law, anytime we treat immigrants like second-class citizens, we undermine our core values as Americans, and undermine the American Dream for all of us.

Click here to read the full column: “The 800 Pound Gorilla That Sits in the Middle of Arizona.”

Years ago, when I moved into a three-bedroom trailer in Ohio, it felt like moving on up to me. But then again, I wasn’t coming from a nearly $10,000-a-month, five-bedroom, seven-bath mansion with pecan-wood floors, a gourmet kitchen, three dining rooms and a swimming pool for which  taxpayers were footing the bill. 

Maybe that’s why Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) ungraciously turned down the Texas AFL-CIO’s offer to solve his temporary housing problem–the governor’s mansion is undergoing renovation, hence the rental–and save the taxpayers nearly $120,000 a year.  Every penny counts when the state is $11 billion in the hole and is slashing billions from schools, universities, public safety and other vital programs. 

Yesterday, the Texas AFL-CIO offered Perry the use of a brand spanking new, 1,100 square foot, three-bedroom, two-bath mobile home with brand new appliances for just $1 a year. On top of that, it is located at the state federation’s downtown Austin offices, within walking distance to the Capitol, cutting down Perry’s big carbon boot print from the black limo entourage that chauffeurs him to work each day from his gated community in the West Austin hills.

At the press conference with the shiny new green and white governor’s-mansion-in-waiting behind her, Texas AFL-CIO President Becky Moeller said that in light of the state’s $11 billion budget shortfall and coming budget cuts that threaten the jobs of thousands of state workers: 

The Texas AFL-CIO stands ready to offer Gov. Perry an opportunity to trade down. We are offering this modest but perfectly comfortable substitute for the extravagant $10,000-a-month, taxpayer-funded rental mansion beset by coyotes. 

In keeping with the reality faced by Texans in tough economic times, Gov. Perry might find that using taxpayer dollars to live like an ordinary Texan, rather than like a king, sends a better message. 

On top of the $1 a year rent, Moeller offered to foot the bill for furnishings, utility hook-ups and “other details to make certain the building is comfortable for temporary living.”  

That might be tough because Perry’s idea of comfortable living probably goes beyond a nice recliner and cable TV, according to a recent story by the Associated Press that documents the extravagant life behind the locked gates of his toney Barton Creek Estates.    

At Perry’s temporary home (listed for sale at $1.85 million in 2007) taxpayers have spent nearly $600,000 for rent, utilities, repairs, furnishings and supplies since Perry moved in, including:

• $18,000 for “consumables” such as household supplies and cleaning products.
• $44,000 for ground and lawn maintenance.
• $8,400 for pool maintenance.

Other items that taxpayers footed the bill for include a $1,000 “emergency repair” of the governor’s filtered ice machine and $70 for a two-year subscription to Food & Wine Magazine.

While Moeller didn’t say if the mobile mansion’s fridge had an icemaker, it was stocked with copies of Food and Wine and complimentary hair products, a nice touch for a politician noted for his well-coifed mane.

To be fair, and we are all about fairness, Perry has cut back on expenses to do his part to help the struggling state budget. The AP reports that Perry’s spokeswomen Allison Castle says Perry now has just one housekeeper and  one full-time chef. But there is also a part-time chef and a steward. Not exactly heartbreaking sacrifices or “doing without,” said Moeller.    

When the state has announced $1.2 billion in immediate budget cuts that effect public schools, universities and other core programs, we deplore the symbolism of a governor’s saying he is “cutting back” on luxury by suffering with one-and-a-half cooks. A governor who wouldn’t take $555 million in federal funds to help Texas workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own hasn’t hesitated to live in a gated millionaire’s community on the taxpayer dime.

What you see before you may not be fit for would-be royalty, but it is a decent compromise in tough times.

Mobile homes are good enough for the Texas families that live in 323,000 mobile homes in about 2,400 communities, according the Texas Manufactured Housing Association–plus tens of thousands more on private land. Maybe Perry would reconsider if it came with a gate, one of those nice inflatable pools and an outdoor grill to serve as a back-up kitchen for his one and half chefs.