Labor Union Blog

Members of the National Taxi Workers Alliance receive their AFL-CIO charter.

Justin Molito from WGAE, Bhairavi Desai, president of the National Taxi Workers Alliance and Boston University Prof. David Weil take part in the Future of Work panel.

The National Taxi Workers Alliance made history when its leader, Bhairavi Desai, accepted the organization’s charter as a member of the AFL-CIO during an event today on “The Future of Work.” Highlighting the changing shape of the union movement, the event opened with remarks by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. Desai then took part in a panel discussion which included representatives of other labor organizations that represent workers who are either traditionally excluded from coverage by labor law, or for whom the changing shape of the economy is means the protections they have on paper mean little.

Joining Desai were Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance; Justin Molito, director of organizing for the Writers Guild of America, East; and Bill Cruice, founding executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, NNU. The panel was rounded out by economist David Weil, a professor at Boston University, who discussed how changing business models affected the exercise of employee rights. Before the program began, dozens of exuberant taxi workers, wearing T-shirts emblazoned with ”Justice, Rights, Respect, Dignity” crowded around Solis, Trumka and  Desai for a group photo in a hallway near President Trumka’s office. Trumka said the taxi workers are

an inspiring example of how working people are organizing even in the face of employment relations that have eroded all of our rights.

We spoke to one of those drivers, Lucky Abeysekra, a member of the Alliance’s organizing committee, who traveled with his union brothers and sisters from New York to mark the occasion of the charter. Abeysekra said that, as a taxi driver, he worked 72 hours a week — “more time than I get to spend with my family,” he said.

The Taxi Workers Alliance has its roots in New York City, where, according to Trumka, the taxi drivers’ bargaining rights were wiped out “literally overnight” under a rule change by the Reagan administration. Desai explained that under the new system, drivers no longer received a standard commission based on a split with the taxi owners of the day’s fares, and drivers were made to pay the cost of fuel. The struggle of the taxi workers is but one example of how the reshaping of the economy by those who hold power of workers’ lives is impacting the working conditions of people across all sectors. Trumka explained:

Increasingly we’re seeing companies adopt business models that free them from employment obligations to their employees, and especially … union representation and collective bargaining.

During the panel discussion, leaders of the various labor groups represented talked of their methods for holding their groups together, and engaging the community. Ai-jen Poo of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, shared how the alliance’s organizers initially went to parks and playgrounds to collect the stories of childcare workers and caregivers to the elderly. She also told of a monthly gathering that takes place “in a church basement in Brooklyn” where workers participate in a “story circle,” where they tell the story of the worklives. This keeps them connected to one another, she said, in an industry where workers are isolated by the very nature of their work. NNU’s Cruice discussed how workers at a hospital in Warren, Penn., stopped the outsourcing of lab work by showing up at the local Friday night football games and getting community members to sign a petition.

Gazing at the audience filled with taxi workers, Solis told them they were “a beautiful sight.” She applauded the strides made by the Taxi Alliance and predicted that in her home state of California, Los Angeles taxi workers would soon follow suit with their own organizing efforts, based on the example set by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance that formed the root of the national organization. She said:

You have a right to organize and, by golly, you should be allowed to do that.

Solis saw the taxi workers as setting an example for workers in other sectors. “I want to give a shout out to the domestic workers,” she said, noting the great vulnerability they endure as they go into the homes of their employers, often to care for children and the elderly, “giving comfort to our loved ones.”

The rights of domestic workers are often difficult to defend because they are not covered by the National Labor Relations Act.

Solis laid out some of the efforts the Labor Department is undertaking at her direction to protect the rights of unrepresented workers, noting a stepped-up program of investigations of employees who are misclassified in employer records. In 12 cities, the secretary said, Labor Department investigators have joined forces with the Internal Revenue Service to ensure that workers are properly classified when their work amounts to full-time employment, and that employers pay the appropriate taxes for those employees.

Desai said companies have had the upper hand for so long that they’re surprised when workers fight back. But she noted:

When they’ve robbed you of your dignity, what have you got to lose?

The Occupy Wall Street movement has spread from big cities to small towns, mobilizing a diverse group of people from young workers to grandmothers. Even “The New Yorker” has taken note, with a cover this week that portrays a group of “protestors” who have occupied Wall Street since its inception–and who would like to keep it that way. Take a look here. 

Meanwhile unions and union members around the country are throwing their support to the movement that is demanding Wall Street be held accountable, that financial institutions invest some of the trillions in profits they are sitting on into job creation and that Congress act to create jobs.

Transport Workers (TWU) President James Little says in this video that the Occupy Wall Street protestors have been the spark that set off this growing rebellion against greed and the huge economic inequality that has enriched the top 1 percent and left the other 99 percent behind.

If these people don’t get together and try to change some of the inequity that’s out there, no one’s going to do it.  It has to be done. It’s not being changed in Washington, not by legislators. They’ve got to wake up.

While much of the focus on union members joining the Occupy Wall Street actions has been on cities like New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago, workers in places like Pocatello, Ida., also are taking to the streets. This past Saturday, the Pocatello Central Labor Council mobilized to join the Occupy Pocatello march and rally.

It plays in Peoria too. First, Occupy Peoria activist joined in an America Wants to Work rally outside Rep. Aaron Shock’s (R) office during the AFL-CIO’s National Week of Action. That was followed by the West-Central Illinois Labor Council and Building Trades mobilizing with Occupy Peoria for march and rally. The council has also made meeting rooms and office space available to the group.

Tomorrow night in New York City protestors from Occupy Wall Street will join the Communications Workers of America (CWA) for a march to and a rally outside a Verizon Wireless store to protest corporate greed by Verizon. Verizon Wireless workers have been on the front lines of the struggle against corporate greed.  This summer they were forced on strike and while they have returned to work, the battle for a fair contract continues.

The call for economic justice and equality has long been a cornerstone in the labor/faith community. This week, Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) released an interfaith prayer service that can be used or adapted for faith communities looking to reflect and pray on the occupy movement. It’s designed to help people reflect on a moral economy within the context of their religious tradition. Written for clergy and religious leaders, the prayer service is aimed for those Occupying Wall Street and other cities, and for congregational use. Says IWJ executive director Kim Bobo:

The core issues here are the growing inequality in the nation, the lack of responsiveness to that and the job crisis.

The prayer service has been tailored for Christian, Jewish and Muslim congregations. Click here to download it.

You can take action now. Tell Congress its time for Wall Street to start Paying US Back! A tiny tax on financial services can generate billions of dollars. Sign the Bankster.com online petition here.

AFL-CIO communications staffer Nora Frederickson sends us this report.

With the deadline looming for members of a congressional Super Committee to decide how to cut the federal deficit by $1.2 trillion, local labor, religious and progressive activists took to the soapbox this week to petition Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the only member of the supercommittee from New England, to oppose any cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Labor leaders in Worchester joined the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and Rep. Jim McGovern for a forum this week that outlined the serious toll that proposed changes to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid would take on ordinary Americans. McGovern emphasized that the programs are essentially solvent, and that Social Security would pay out 100 percent of its obligations through 2036.

Paul Soucy, a representative from the United Steelworkers (USW), explained that raising the eligibility age for Social Security would endanger the lives of workers’ in hazardous occupations.

The work is very tough and at that age your body just begins to break down. At some places, you’re working with white hot metals that have been heated to about 2,000 degrees. A lot of guys, when they retire, are happy if they’ve just lost a couple of fingers or blown some vertebrae.

According to Joseph Baniukiewicz, a deacon at Christ the King Parish, cuts to Medicare and Medicaid would seriously endanger families already in financial trouble, and only add to the poverty crisis sweeping Massachusetts and the nation.

Worse, cutting Social Security will cost American jobs. More than 3,000 employees at the Social Security Administration were laid off this year, according to the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, and another 4,000 layoffs could follow in 2012.

The Massachusetts AFL-CIO and seven labor councils in Massachusetts have passed resolutions urging Kerry to publicly oppose any cuts. The committee must make its deficit-cutting recommendations Nov. 23. Kerry hasn’t made it publicly clear what course of action he would support.

A new report shows that more than 18,000 of the nation’s busiest bridges clustered in the nation’s metro areas are rated as “structurally deficient.” Overall, there are some 70,000 structurally deficient bridges, but those in the metro areas carry 75 percent of the traffic that must cross a deficient bridge each day, according to the report from Transportation for America.

If a bridge is rated structurally deficient by a federal, state or local agency that means it is in need of substantial repair or replacement. Click here for an AFL-CIO map of the nation’s bridges in need of serious repair. You can find the number of bridges in your state and the depth of your state’s jobs crisis that could be eased by putting people back to work fixing bridges and roads.

A major portion of President Obama’s American Jobs Act included funds to put hundreds of thousands of Americans back to work fixing the nation’s bridges and roads. The bill was blocked by a Republican filibuster, but Obama and Senate Democrats are breaking out portions of the bill for votes and the infrastructure provisions are likely to be introduced soon. 

James Corless, director of Transportation for America, says:

There are more deficient bridges in our metropolitan areas than there are McDonald’s restaurants in the entire country. These metropolitan-area bridges are most costly and difficult to fix, but they also are the most urgent, because they carry such a large share of the nation’s people and goods.

The report recommends that Congress should:

• Provide states with increased resources to repair and rebuild. States need federal support to back their efforts to prioritize repair and maintenance.
• Ensure that funds sent to states for bridge repair are used only for that purpose, unless a state can show it has addressed its repair needs.
• Require that new or rehabilitated bridges be built so that they are safe for everyone who uses them, whether they are in vehicles, on foot or bicycle, or using public transit.

Click here for the full report.

New figures on paychecks paint a grim picture for the average worker, while the ranks of those who annually make $1 million or more increased in 2010.

Journalist David Cay Johnston flipped through the data and pronounced the figures to be “awful”:

The median paycheck—half made more, half less—fell again in 2010, down 1.2 percent to $26,364. That works out to $507 a week, the lowest level, after adjusting for inflation, since 1999.

The number of Americans with any work fell again last year, down by more than a half million from 2009 to less than 150.4 million.

The study of the Medicare tax database at the U.S. Social Security Administration shows that while the unemployed struggled to make ends meet, and many of those with jobs saw their income decrease, the ranks of millionaires swelled by 20 percent, Johnston reports:

The number of workers making $1 million or more rose to almost 94,000 from 78,000 in 2009. However, that was still below some earlier years, including 2007, when more than 110,000 workers made more than $1 million each.

But when one considers that the economy crashed in 2008, that indicates a very robust recovery in record time for the millionaires and a worsening situation for everybody else. For those whom $1 million is chump change, the trend is echoed, according to Johnston, who writes that at the very top, the number of those “making more than $50 million rose in 2010 to 81, up from 72 the year before.”

Johnston suggests that these figures hold the key to why the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations are meeting with public approval:

These are important and powerful figures. Maybe the reason the government does not announce their release—and so far I am the only journalist who writes about them each year—is the data show how the United States smolders while Washington fiddles.

Jennifer Wright Dorr of Union Plus reports on the Union Plus Credit Card’s education rebates.

Sharon Wallace, of Ewing, N.J., a 32-year member and activist of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1036, recently learned that being a Union Plus Credit Card holder pays—$250, in fact. Wallace, a state government environmental engineer, received a $250 rebate for paying her college expenses with her union credit card as part of the Union Plus Education Rebate program.

Rebates of $250 are available until Dec. 31, for union members using their Union Plus Credit Card to pay for $1,000 in higher educational expenses—tuition, school supplies, books, test preparation and tutoring. Smaller rebates also are available to those who incurred fewer expenses. 

The education rebate helped Wallace defray the cost of attending the New Jersey Institute of Technology, where in May she received a Master of Science Degree in Civil Engineering. Says Wallace:

It’s expensive to go to college, so whatever you can do to save money really helps. The process is easy and the rebate comes quickly—so fast, in fact, that I really wasn’t expecting it. I hope card holders take advantage of the program before it ends at the end of this year.

The rebate program is just one of the many reasons why Wallace enjoys carrying the Union Plus Credit Card and using Union Plus benefits. She says she’s been a card holder for 20 years and:  

I’ve always been pleased with it because it’s tailored to union members. Union Plus is always coming up with great ways to provide good services and save union members money. As a union activist, I appreciate Union Plus for helping members pursue their dreams.

The following charges on a Union Plus Credit Card qualify for the rebate:

• Purchases made at post secondary educational institutions (college/university/ trade school) for college text books, tuition, tutoring, dining costs and other education-related expenses
• Fees from The Princeton Review college test preparation courses combined with test registration fees for the SAT, ACT, GRE, GMAT, MCAT and LSAT with a College Board or other test providers, and
• Fees for seeking college credit from learning gained from work and life experience through a Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) program from the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL).

The Union Plus Education Rebate may be spread over several purchases but all purchases must be made within one year of the date of the rebate application.  Purchases totaling $1,000, earn a $250 rebate; $500 in purchases earns a $125 rebate; and $200 in purchases earns a $50 rebate. There is a lifetime total rebate limit of $250.

Union families have until Dec. 31, 2011, to make eligible education-related purchases on their Union Plus Credit Card. Education Rebate applications with the required documentation must be received by Union Plus by Feb. 29, 2012. Click here to down load an application  .

Union Plus can also help you cut the cost of a higher education with scholarships and savings on test preparation. Learn more about ALL your education benefits at UnionPlus.org/Education including:

• $150,000 in Union Plus Scholarship awards are granted to students attending a two-year college, four-year college, graduate school or a recognized technical or trade school.
• $25,000 in scholarships to help union members and leaders obtain degrees at the National Labor College
• Save 15 percent to 60 percent on college and graduate school test preparation courses from The Princeton Review.

Ohio firefighters cast early ballots to vote ‘NO’ on Issue 2.

Deborah Dion with the Ohio AFL-CIO field program sends us this.

More than 250 firefighters and working families rallied for an early vote  in Mansfield, Ohio, to defeat Issue 2. Voting “NO” on Issue 2 would repeal S.B. 5, passed earlier this year, that gutted collective bargaining rights for public employees. Working families gathered at the historic Mansfield Fire Museum, which celebrates firefighter history, heritage and the first responders that keep the community safe.  Immediately following the rally, a caravan of a dozen jeeps carried 85 firefighters to the Richland County Board of Elections where they cast their vote against Issue 2/S.B. 5.  

Click here for more photos from the event.

Speaking at the rally, Dan Crow, president of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 266 and an active firefighter with the City of Mansfield, said:

Firefighters from all over Ohio have made concessions to help in these tough economic times and still we maintain vital services for our communities. But that is all under attack now.  Columbus politicians rammed through a law that blames working families for a problem they created. Issue 2 puts politics over safety, it takes away our only voice, and it affects everyone in our community. But we are standing together to stop it.

Mike Hassinger, a Mansfield firefighter, talked about how S.B. 5 makes it harder for firefighters, nurses, teachers and other public employees to fight for safer staffing levels, critical safety equipment and training that protects first responders.

S.B. 5 puts the safety of all our families at risk. It will make it harder for us to negotiate for things like radiation detectors or proper emergency vehicles.

There was a very poignant moment when Hassinger talked about the need to improve safety standards for firefighters, not take them away.

A friend of mine here today named Carl Easterday lost his eyesight due to chemicals he came in contact with at a fire scene,” he said.  “That fire occurred prior to 1983 and before we had the right to negotiate health and safety issues. The equipment in those days was inadequate. In the private sector you can go to OSHA if there is a safety issue in your workplace. But firefighters are not covered by OSHA. Our safety depends on our ability to bargain over those issues.

Carl wants everyone to know that since we gained collective bargaining rights, our safety and our equipment has improved dramatically, and we can’t return to the days when we could not get the right tools to keep us safe and get the job done.

Jen Lepard, a special-needs teacher from Mansfield, also spoke at the rally. Lepard talked about how collective bargaining rights for teachers have benefited students and their families for many years by enabling teachers to fight for the safety of the children they teach and to ensure they get the time and the attention the need.

When working with special needs children, the right ‘teacher to student ratio’ is critical for their success and safety. Many of our students have medical needs and they need a lot of one-on- one time. Thanks to our collective bargaining rights, we have been about to keep our classrooms at a sensible size ensuring their safety.

Now with Issue 2/S.B. 5, politicians think they know what’s best for our children. They want to take the decisions away from families and teachers and they want to take away our right to fight for our students.

Many other union members also attended the rally to join their fellow firefighters to say “NO” to Issue 2/S.B. 5.  Here are some other voices of Ohioans from yesterday’s event:

Jason Taylor, UFCW 1059 member and produce clerk for Kroger:

I’m here today to show my support for this fight. If all unions stick together we can defeat Issue 2/SB5.

Brian Speelman, president of USW Local 169, which represents workers at AKA Steel:

We are standing 100 percent behind our brothers and sisters in the public sector to  help them defeat Issue 2. An attack on one is an attack on all of us. 

Gary Utt, a 26-year UAW member who has served as a Richland County commissioner  for seven years:

We can’t let the State of Ohio government divide us; we have to be united in this attack on all unions.

Ron Davis, Crawford-Richland Central Labor Council president:

Even though Issue 2 does not affect manufacturing unions, we know S.B. 5 is just the beginning, and they will come after us next.  

Brian Danals, captain with station 2, City of Mansfield IAFF Local 266:

I’m casting my vote early because I want to spend all of my free time, when I’m not fighting fires, talking to as many people as I can and urging them to vote NO on Issue 2/SB5.

Chris Tager, City of Mansfield Firefighter, IAFF Local 266:

I’m tired of things being taken away from firefighters and other unions with the quick swipe of a pen – we need to stand up to Issue 2 and do it together.

Paul Rehbein, City of Mansfield Firefighter Local 266:

SB 5 takes away our manpower to fight fires. We are already short-staffed.  If SB5 passes we will have no collective bargaining rights to negotiate anything and that puts us at risk and the community at large.

Dan Crow, president of IAFF Local 266:

We have been mobilizing firefighters from several counties to knock on doors, and make phone calls to urge their neighbors and fellow union members to vote  NO on issue 2 SB 5.  In addition, we are reaching out to the general public,  handing out fliers every Friday night at five big high schools in the surrounding areas averaging 800-1,000 people at each school. And we have been talking one-on-one with students at Ohio State University and at North Central State College, telling them about how dangerous Issue 2/SB 5 really is for Ohioans and why they need to vote No on Issue 2.

As Occupy Wall Street protesters chant, “We Are the 99 Percent!” economists and reporters are [finally) turning their gaze to who comprises the top 1 percent of wealth-holders in the United States.

Writing at New Deal 2.0, Roosevelt Institute Fellow Mike Konczal suggests that OWS protesters have chosen the right bit of geography in which to root their movement: the financial district of Manhattan, which rules the fortunes of most Americans. Konczal explains:

[W]ho are the 1% and what do they do for a living? Are they all Wilt Chamberlains and Oprahs and other people taking part in the dynamism of the new economy? Nope. It’s same as it ever was—high-level management and the financial sector.

The graph shown above, taken from Konczal’s post, measures mean income growth by sector between 1979 and 2007. Note the top two lines: The financial sector, with its mortgage-based shenanigans, fueled the housing bubble, so we shouldn’t be surprised to find real estate magnates running a close second to the financial bosses among those who cleaned up just before the 2008 crash.

Elsewhere, Economic Policy Institute (EPI) President Lawrence Mishel weighs in with a look at how the top 1 percent have fared during the same period when compared with the lower 99 percent:

The Occupy Wall Street protesters…can back up their claims with economic data… [F]rom 1979 to 2007, inflation-adjusted incomes of the top 1 percent of households increased 224 percent while the top 0.1 percent (the top one-one thousandth of households), saw their incomes skyrocket by 390 percent. In contrast, incomes for the bottom 90 percent grew just 5 percent between 1979 and 2007.

At The Washington Post’s Wonk Blog, Suzy Khimm adds:

[T]he wealthiest 1 percent held an average of 225 times the wealth of the average median household in 2009 — a ratio that was 125 in 1962.

Back at New Deal 2.0, Konczal concludes:

There’s good reason to focus on the top 1% instead of the top 10 or 50%. There is evidence that financial pay at this elite level is correlated with deregulation and the other legal changes that brought on the crisis. High-ranking senior corporate executives’ pay has dwarfed workers’ salaries, but is only a reward for engaging in shady financial engineering practices. These problems require a legal solution and thus they require a democratic challenge and a rethinking of how we want to structure our economy. Here’s to the 99% and Occupy Wall Street helping get us there.

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AFL-CIO Community Services liaison Michael Smith helped out with this event and sends us this report.

More than 400 families received free food in Bedford, Mich., over the weekend as part of an event coordinated by the Monroe-Lenawee AFL-CIO, the Monroe County United Way and the Monroe County Opportunity Program.

The people who reach out for help are so thankful, and we’re just trying to help them prepare for a long winter.

Throughout the morning, families pulled into the parking lot at Bedford High School, collecting boxes containing frozen meat, canned vegetables and rice.