Labor Union Blog

The 4,000 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) workers who lost two weeks of pay when they were furloughed during the Republican shutdown of the FAA, will receive back pay, the agency announced Friday.

House Republicans forced the shutdown of the FAA when they refused to vote for a clean extension of funding reauthorization for the agency that did not include provisions to overturn democratic union election rules for aviation and rail workers.

The August shutdown also cost 70,000 construction workers two weeks’ pay when the FAA was forced to issue stop work orders on more than 200 airport projects that halted important airport safety improvements. The shutdown cost some $400 million in uncollected airline ticket taxes.

The Republican target in the FAA shutdown was union election rules adopted last year by the National Mediation Board (NMB). Those rules say air and rail elections should be decided by a majority of votes cast. Previously under the Railway Labor Act (RLA), which covers rail and airline workers, each worker who did not cast a vote in a union representation election was automatically counted as a “No” vote. The public outcry over the shutdown was enormous.

In September, the House and Senate agreed to a temporary FAA reauthorization bill that runs through January. When Congress considers a permanent FAA reauthorization next year, Republicans are expected to launch another attack against the fair and democratic union election rules.

This is a crosspost by Pat Garofalo at Think Progress.

When President Obama released his plan for “the Buffett rule,” which involves closing tax loopholes and ensuring that millionaires pay their fair share in taxes, he explained that “middle-class families shouldn’t be paying higher taxes than millionaires and billionaires.” “Warren Buffett’s secretary shouldn’t pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett,” he said.

Ever since, Republicans have been attacking Obama for inciting “class warfare.” “It looks like the President wants to move down the class warfare path,” said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI). “I don’t think I would describe class warfare as leadership,” agreed Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH).

However, if calling for an end to millionaires having lower tax rates than their secretaries is class warfare, Obama is only the latest class warrior to occupy the Oval Office. In a June 6, 1985 speech at Northside High School in Atlanta, Georgia, then President Ronald Reagan explained that tax loopholes allowing a millionaire to pay lower taxes that a bus driver were “crazy,” because they allowed the “truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share”:

We’re going to close the unproductive tax loopholes that allow some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share. In theory, some of those loopholes were understandable, but in practice they sometimes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing, while a bus driver was paying ten percent of his salary, and that’s crazy. [...] Do you think the millionaire ought to pay more in taxes than the bus driver or less?

When Reagan asked the crowd whether millionaires should be paying more or less in taxes than a bus driver, the crowd resoundingly responded “more!” Reagan also told an Illinois crowd about a letter he had received from a man who said that tax loopholes allowed him to pay a lower tax rate than his secretary. “He wrote me the letter to tell me he’d like to come to Washington and testify before Congress as to how that’s possible for him to do and why it is wrong,” Reagan said.

A recent Daily Kos/SEIU “State of the Nation” poll conducted by Public Policy Polling found that 73 percent of Americans, including 66 percent of Republicans, favor the Buffett rule. Remember, it was Reagan who completely equalized the tax treatment of investment income and wage income, which is currently one of the key tax disparities that allows the wealthy to dramatically lower their tax rates.

As the Center for American Progress’ Seth Hanlon and Michael Linden put it, “in calling for the ‘Buffett Rule,’ Obama is merely calling for a return to basic fairness. He is echoing the very same call that Ronald Reagan made 25 years ago. Given the history, maybe we should be calling it the ‘Reagan Rule.’”

Emelle Israel, AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow, is in Minneapolis for the Next Up Young Workers Summit and sends us this report.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka came to Minneapolis today to help send off the 800 attendees concluding the Next Up Young Workers Summit. He capped off a successful weekend with an inspiring speech that called for young people to use their “critical imagination,” their ability to look at problems and come up with new and different solutions.

He told the crowd, “America needs a good dose of critical imagination right about now. We need ideas and energy. We need enthusiasm, optimism, that sense that everything is possible.…You are the future of this movement, and all of us—all of America’s working people—need and your critical imagination in a big way.”

At a time when the country is experiencing record poverty levels and young people and communities of color are experiencing rates of unemployment almost double the national average, Trumka encouraged Next Up attendees to draw upon themselves to find the strength to beat back attacks on the middle class:

“Our most critical resource is right here: the passion we feel, the love, the determination in our gut! We need to tap it for all it’s worth!”

He also encouraged attendees to take the next step and follow up their participation in the summit by taking on concrete leadership positions when they get back to their local unions and organizations:

“Each of us needs to provide leadership—forceful, ground-level leadership. We need to challenge ourselves and push each other to take risks, and that means to risk failure. We need to create strategic plans, put them into action and hold ourselves and each other accountable, so we actually carry through, and build our plans to the next level….Together we are the most powerful progressive force on the face of the earth.”

The 800 young workers, activists and students at the AFL-CIO Next Up Young Worker Summit in Minneapolis announced their strong support of the Occupy Wall Street protesters:

 ”The world in which we live isn’t working for the vast majority of people. The top 1 percent controls the economy, makes profits at the expense of working people, and dominates the political debate. Wall Street symbolizes this simple truth: a small group of people have the lives and livelihoods of working Americans in their hands.

“In the last two weeks, young people have sparked a movement on Wall Street, just as they did through the Arab Spring and in Wisconsin against Scott Walker. Participants at the AFL-CIO Next Up Young Worker Summit left Occupy Wall Street to join with young people in the labor movement to talk about how best to take back our economy for the middle class.

“Today, more than 800 Next Up participants from around the country stand with those on Wall Street who are making their voices heard. The future of our country depends on young people demanding the future we believe in. And we believe that Wall Street should pay for the damage they’ve done to our economy, our jobs, and our communities – foreclosing on homes, making massive profits with no oversight, and not sharing in building a future for the next generation.

“We stand together in calling for a country that doesn’t just work for the top 1 percent. We stand together to call for a sustainable future that doesn’t begin with massive tax breaks for the wealthy and end with austerity measures and a jobs crisis.

“We are one.”

Ja-Rei Wang, AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow, is in Minneapolis for the Next Up Young Workers Summit and sends us this report.

The focus stayed on jobs yesterday in Minneapolis on the third day of AFL-CIO’s Next Up Young Worker Summit. After attending workshops organized and led by summit participants, the 800 young workers, organizers and students came together for a town hall to discuss ways to keep the spotlight on the issue on every participant’s mind.

Fred Azcarate, AFL-CIO, led the America Wants to Work town hall and outlined the AFL-CIO’s six-point action plan to put America back to work. Participants built on those plans and brainstormed more ways to take action in their own communities. One of the main goals was to ensure people continue talking about and taking action for jobs. Some suggested using social media more effectively and consistently, which would then also draw the attention of the mainstream press.

Others reminded the audience to reach out to the unemployed and increase their visibility by urging them to contact their state representatives and make their presence known.

Several participants highlighted projects and coalitions that connect different groups and organizations and help build a broader social movement. One participant used the example of a green housing project in Boston that engages workers, residents and community members. Another participant discussed the ways the labor movement and the sustainable food movement are working together to transform the food service industry. Advocating for less processed foods and more sustainable produce can create the demand for more jobs involved in preparing real, healthy meals.

In closing, Azcarate called on participants to continue fighting for widespread change:

“Be bold.  Be broad.  The fight for jobs is not just about the labor fight.  It’s about everyone.”

The summit closes today after participants hear from AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, AFTRA member Lucas Neff of “Raising Hope” and SAG member RJ Mitte of “Breaking Bad.”

The middle class and the American Dream that created it are under attack as never before. But there is a real uprising sweeping the nation to save the middle class.

 The Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) is teaming up with Van Jones’ “Rebuild The Dream” organization for the “Take Back the American Dream” conference Oct. 3-5 in Washington, D.C. This year, the CAF annual conference will focus on adding gas to the grassroots fire that has already been lit in Wisconsin and town halls all over the country.

(Online registration for the conference is now closed. You may still register on-site starting at 8 a.m. on Monday at the Washington Hilton, 1919 Connecticut Ave, N.W. For an agenda, list of speakers and other conference information, click here.)

Writing in The Nation, CAF Co-Director Robert Borosage and Katrina vanden Heuvel, the magazine’s editor and publisher, say:

 … only a citizens’ movement can save an American dream that grows ever more distant. In the face of a failed economy and a corrupted politics, the only hope for renewal is that citizens lead and politicians follow.

Read the entire article, “Can a Movement  Save the American Dream?” here. 

Rising leaders like Van Jones will share innovative movement-building strategies that have begun to shake up politics. Leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus will join with the nation’s best community organizers to map out a cross-country drive for economic revival. Student leaders will share how social media is essential to stifle the forces that oppose the American Dream.

If you can’t make it to the conference, you can watch it live on Free Speech TV on DIRECTV channel 348, Dish Network channel 9415 and online at OurFuture.org and FreeSpeech.org. Watch conference sessions and exclusive live interviews hosted by Thom Hartmann, Chris Rabb, David Pakman, Latoya Peterson and Adele Stan.  You also can join the conversation on Facebook and follow on Twitter (@freespeechtv) via the conference hashtag #takeback11.