Labor Union Blog

Emmelle Israel, AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow, sends us this.

At the current rate, pay equity between men and women won’t occur for another 45 years, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR).

Add in the past 48 years since the Equal Pay Act was first signed into law and you have an almost 100-year long struggle for basic wage parity—even longer if you reach back into history and take into account all the women who stood up for themselves when they noticed their male counterparts were paid more for similar work.

The enduring wage disparity between female and male workers prompted a series of forums on Capitol Hill regarding the gender wage gap, sponsored by Women’s Policy, Inc.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler was a featured speaker, along with Susan Meisinger of HRExecutive Online at yesterday’s forum, moderated by Women’s Policy Inc. President Cindy Hall and Rep. Gwen Moore.

Shuler shared with attendees a story about her first job working at a restaurant as a waitress, making only five cents above minimum wage. All the waitresses were women and all the cooks were men. Although the men were already paid more than the women, the waitresses had to pool their tips together and divide the money with the cooks as well. It was her “first
experience with wage, gender and workplace frustration.”

But since her initial involvement with the labor movement, she said she has been part of the leading charge to ensure pay equality for women and all workers:

In the union movement everyone is paid the same for the same work… If we all stick together, we can demand more…The process of collective bargaining happens in increments, but the small increases add up.

The “union difference” allows for the bargaining of enforceable wage standards which leads to a 30 percent increase in average pay for women who are in a union compared to those who are not. That could be the difference between a lifetime of struggle or one of economic security for many working women.

Shuler also noted more work must be done to close the wage gap by bringing public and legislative attention to the issue, more enforceable standards—such as the Paycheck Fairness Act must be passed, and more women should be mentored to know their value and “be assertive, not apologetic” about asking for higher pay when they provide employers with high quality work.

Following the forum, a Q & A session between the speakers and attendees brought up even more discussion about interrelated
issues including studies on gender bias in society, occupational segregation between the sexes, and even the need for wage equity among the Congressional staff in the forum’s Capitol Hill venue.

Learn more about the issue and what you can do to help close the gender wage gap.

We can’t afford to wait for the issue to resolve itself.

The Boeing Co. considered several other locations before it announced this week that it will build its new generation 737 MAX at its Renton, Wash., facilities where skilled members of the SPEEA/International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 2001 and Machinists (IAM) District 751 have produced high quality aircraft for decades.

An independent study sponsored by the unions along with government and business groups helped convince Boeing that Renton was the best place to build the new generation 737.

The study, known as Project Pegasus, showed that Renton with the large pool of highly skilled workers was the best option with the lowest risk for the airline manufacturer, says SPEEA President Tom McCarty.

This was a very proactive effort to make sure these planes are designed and built by the most experienced and productive workforce in the world. [The decision] means secure jobs continuing far into the future.

SPEEA is preparing to begin contract negotiations with Boeing that should be underway soon. The IAM has reached a tentative agreement.

The 737 MAX project isn’t the first time SPPEA and the IAM have joined with Washington State’s aviation community to promote its aerospace workforce and bring jobs to the state.  Earlier this year, they went to the world famous Paris Air Show which draws thousands of aviation and aerospace companies looking for new products and technology and, in many cases, new manufacturing locations. One of the group’s tools was a video produced by the Washington State Labor Council that showcased Boeing’s union workers.

In the video, SPEEA member Michael Hochberg says that if he was “an aerospace company and wanted to find”

a large pool of talented people to help me make airplanes or make other aerospace products, I would think the Puget Sound is a great place because we have literally generations of people who have worked in airplanes, kids who have grown up with aerospace…it’s just an amazing place to do business for an aerospace company.

Click here for the video.

Katrina Dizon, president of Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA)-DC, sends us this.

APALA members joined a packed room at Eatonville Restaurant yesterday as the Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC-United) released its “Diners’ Guide 2012,” a booklet rating 150 of the most popular restaurants in the United States on a variety of workplace standards. Criteria include the restaurant’s high-road practices, the extent workers are tipped and non-tipped wages and access to paid sick leave and advancement opportunities.

The event was hosted by ROC-DC and brought together a panel of industry workers, high-road employers and consumers to talk about the importance of being an informed diner and supporting establishments that prioritize workers’ rights. ROC-DC leaders also spoke briefly about their new campaign against a well-known Washington, D.C., fine dining restaurant, Capital Grille, for various discrimination and wage theft allegations brought to their attention by former servers and current staff.

According to “Behind the Kitchen Door,” a report released by ROC-United last year, workers of color generally report lower median wages and higher employment law violations and lack of access to benefits than their white counterparts. They also face more barriers to promotions.

“Discrimination is incredibly rampant in this industry and this is why it’s important for us to work with organizations like APALA”, said Woong Chang, a ROC-DC member.

The playing field is incredibly skewed for people of color, and the Asian American community is especially vulnerable to this abuse when factors such as language barriers and immigration status come into play.

Chang was among workers who testified at the APALA-DC Workers’ Rights Hearing held last May. More details on ROC-DC’s ongoing campaigns will be discussed at APALA-DC’s upcoming karaoke fundraiser on Dec. 15. Copies of the 2012 Diners’ Guide will be distributed as well.

This is a cross-post from the North Carolina State AFL-CIO.

This lesson in hypocrisy brought to you by the letters “G-O-P.”

Yesterday, the Republican-controlled General Assembly adopted an error-filled, non-binding resolution lambasting the DNC for not doing more to hire in-state, nonunion companies to work the 2012 convention in Charlotte. It falsely claims that the Democratic National Convention is actively trying not to hire North Carolina workers.

“This is such an unnecessary resolution,” objected Rep. Paul Luebke because, in fact, “the DNC has an agreement to hire local people as much as possible.” To say otherwise is “simply not true,” he added.

Charlotte-area Rep. Becky Carney blasted Speaker Thom Tillis for wasting time and taxpayer dollars for a special session on a resolution having “nothing to do with the critical issues in this state right now.”

“We need to be up here talking about jobs for every North Carolinian that’s unemployed,” said Carney. “And what have we done here for three days? We have not talked about jobs.”

Unfortunately for North Carolina workers, state Republicans can’t be bothered to put their money where their mouth is. According to filings with the Federal Elections Commission, the NCGOP has outsourced its video production, logo design, and web services to a company in New Jersey.

Specifically, the NCGOP has paid one Mr. Riccardo Diaz, the Director of Media Affairs for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, $5,589.90 to produce web videos attacking the DNC and President Obama, to design the logo for its 2012 campaign, and to create the website for itself and for its own state convention!

How’s that for chutzpah?

While the Democratic National Convention is busy bringing millions of dollars to the state and local economy for its 2012 convention – including tens of thousands of convention guests, millions of dollars in investments to build up Charlotte infrastructure, and a worldwide media spotlight – the North Carolina Republican Party is paying a firm in New Jersey to attack the DNC.

Maybe Thom Tillis and Phil Berger need a resolution to remind Republicans that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

For sources, click here.

The following is by John August, executive director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions. Read the full version of his column at L&M Partnership.

Many of us are pleased that the Occupy movement resonates with so many. While not everyone is prepared to join one of the hundreds of encampments that have grown around the country over the past two months, it is not uncommon for mainstream media to recognize that they are articulating widespread public discontent. From MSNBC to the New York Times to many local and online  outlets, the media recognize that dominant themes of Occupy—income inequality and the need for good jobs—have become very popular themes. 

Just read Paul Krugman in the New York Times every few days, and he lays it out: almost all the wealth created in the United States over the past 30 years has gone to the top 10 percent, with even more going to the top 1 percent, and yet more going to the top one-tenth of one percent. What was once dismissed as the rhetoric of “class warfare” by the mainstream is, today, impossible to avoid.

I recently reread a report that I gave to the Delegate Assembly of the union of which I served as president from 1988 to 1994. The report was given in 1993, and the theme was income inequality, a theme that still explains in graphic and direct ways the impact of bad public policy and corporate leadership.

The Occupy movement and many other individuals and organizations are demanding change, and demanding new leadership to make that change. Much of the focus is on getting Congress to act, which makes sense. It is also true that trying to change the attitudes in Congress will take time, and that solutions coming from Washington may or may not solve inequity quickly or locally. Political change must come, and soon, with deep reforms that result in tens of millions of good jobs and the rebuilding of our economy based on those good jobs.

As this needed political change occurs, the government, business, unions and other major stakeholders will need models to point to success. It is clear that such transformation will occur in a globalized world full of competition. Rebuilding today’s economy will be a different experience from the last time the nation came out of a deep economic crisis in the 1930s.

Read the rest here.

Calpine workers and IBEW supporters take a moment to celebrate just before delivering petition to the National Labor Relations Board in San Francisco. More photos below.

This is a cross-post from Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1245.

Five Calpine employees delivered authorization cards to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in San Francisco on Dec. 1, the latest step in a campaign to gain union representation for workers at Calpine’s power plants in Northern California.

The Calpine employees were joined by about 50 supporters for a brief rally in front of the NLRB on San Francisco’s Market Street. Several Bay Area labor leaders offered words of encouragement to the Calpine organizers.

“We’re not asking for anything in particular. We’re not asking for better wages, better benefits,” said Mike Farmer, a long-time Calpine employee with decades of service in the industry. “What we want is a voice and some representation. We’re asking Calpine to allow us to have a free and fair election.”

Calpine employees and IBEW Local 1245, which is assisting the organizing drive, have called on company management to stop having “captive audience” meetings where employees are forced to listen to consultants who specialize in busting unions.

Also speaking at the rally was Lisa Jones, who said she wanted a transparent workplace, where the rules were known. Jones, an ICE Tech at Calpine, expressed thanks to all those who had taken time to attend the rally.

When the speeches were over, the Calpine employees delivered their petition to NLRB officials inside the building. They were accompanied by Jenny Marston, staff attorney for IBEW Local 1245.

Following the rally, the Calpine employees headed for a labor dinner hosted by the North Bay Labor Council, where local unionists were looking forward to honoring their organizing drive.

Mike Farmer, left photo, and Lisa Jones, right photo, speak at the rally at the NLRB.

UNITE-HERE President Mike Casey, left, offers encouragement to the Calpine organizers. At right is Local 1245 Organizer Fred Ross Jr.

Expressing labor’s solidarity with the Calpine workers are Susan Sachen, left photo, representing the two million-plus members of the California Labor Federation, and Tim Paulsen, right photo, leader of the San Francisco Labor Council.

Peter Olney, left photo, organizing director for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, expresses his union’s support for the Calpine organizing drive. At right, the signed authorization cards are handed to the National Labor Relations Board, which keeps the signatures confidential.

An official for the NLRB, center, accepts the documents submitted by the Calpine workers and IBEW Local 1245 staff attorney Jenny Marston on Dec. 1.

At a White House event today featuring President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton, AFT President Randi Weingarten represented labor leaders in joining university presidents and corporate executives in support of the presidential Better Buildings Challenge initiative.

President Obama announced that nearly $4 billion of investments have been committed already, including $2 billion by workers’ pension funds, CEOs, mayors and university presidents for energy-saving upgrades. The labor movement committed to work to invest $150 million in energy-efficient retrofit projects in the coming months.

The goal of the initiative, which builds on work begun by the AFL-CIO earlier this year with the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), is to spur job creation by harnessing private sector investment in energy upgrades in commercial and industrial buildings.

Working with the AFT, a broad coalition of public-sector unions, and the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), the AFL-CIO has been part of a CGI initiative for the retrofitting of union buildings, and has already exceeded its initial commitment of working with existing real estate-focused investment funds to invest between $10 million and $20 million of additional capital in energy-efficient retrofits of commercial, industrial, institutional and public buildings over the next six months.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who has been pushing for infrastructure and green-jobs investment at all levels, said in a statement:

The Better Buildings initiative has all the right components to make a real difference—it will create profitable investment opportunities for worker pension funds, create badly needed good jobs, increase America’s competitiveness around energy savings, and address the dangers of climate change.

Today’s action builds on 14 private sector commitments announced at the Clinton Global Initiative conference in June, including the labor movement’s aim to invest $10 billion in pension fund assets in job-creating infrastructure projects over the next five years.

The AFT has been retrofitting its headquarters building in Washington, D.C., to become LEED Silver certified, and the AFL-CIO has committed to a Better Buildings Challenge retrofit of its headquarters, expected to reduce energy consumption by 20 percent. As Weingarten explains:

We not only are asking others to commit to energy-saving retrofits, but we’re also doing it ourselves.

AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council Director Bob Baugh, a member of a global union delegation led by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), sends us another in a series of reports on the new round of United Nations climate change negotiations taking place now in Durban, South Africa.

The choice of Qatar for next year’s climate change conference drew an immediate and harsh reaction from the ITUC delegation. Qatar’s labor laws are highly restrictive. In a country where migrant workers make up the majority of the workforce—87 percent of the total population—government employees as well as non-Qatari nationals are not allowed to form or join unions.

We issued a statement calling on the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to reconsider the decision. Says Sharan Burrow, ITUC general secretary:

The international union movement will not accept climate change talks being held in a country which does not respect workers’ rights and is the highest emitter per capita in the world.

The drive by Qatar and other oil states to include reparations for the loss of potential oil revenues have been a problem in negotiations for years. This move would take funds from the poorest nations, the ones most in need of mitigation and adaptation assistance. In a Conference of the Parties (COP) such as the meeting now in Durban, the host country chairs the talks and has major influence over the agenda.  Qatar’s past performance and labor violations send all the wrong signals.  

Tensions are particularly high around the Kyoto Protocol because it is due to expire in 2012 and there is no new agreement in place.  The Kyoto Protocol was written 15 years ago and focused on prompting the developed world to cut emissions. There were few obligations placed upon the developing world.  

Yet the developing world now exceeds the developed world in emission release and China has surpassed the United States as the leading emitter a couple of years ago.  Several nations (Canada, Japan and Russia) are reluctant to make a second round of pledges when they see the need for a new agreement.  One subtle shift in the Kyoto dialogue is the admission that a new Kyoto round must include actions by developing nations, which is a central feature of a new agreement, and could be one of the bridges from Kyoto to a new agreement.                   

In the technical talks, the Green Climate Fund is the center of attention. The World Bank emerged from Cancun as the temporary trustee for three years. There is an advisory panel of nations that oversees the bank. There are many concerns over the role of the World Bank. Many nations want the U.N. and COP to have a stronger hand. If the Green Climate Fund reaches its goals, its revenues will far exceed those of the World Bank.  A proposal floated earlier this week that would allow the private sector access to the funds, created a storm of criticism. The ITUC supports a strong role for government and opposed the private sector proposal.

It wasn’t enough for presidential wanna-be Newt Gingrich to push child labor by proposing that poor kids clean schools. Now he says children from low-income families only work when the “job” is illegal. This from CBS News:

“Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works,” the former House speaker said at a campaign event at the Nationwide Insurance offices. “So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of ‘I do this and you give me cash,’ unless it’s illegal.”

As talk show host Stephanie Miller said last night on ”The Ed Schultz Show,” the corporate media has focused a lot on Gingrich’s odious personal behavior. But what hasn’t been given enough attention—and what clearly needs to be—is Gingrich’s extremist policy agenda, one that includes child labor.

The nation’s unemployment rate in November fell to 8.6 percent down from October’s 9 percent and the lowest since March 2009. The economy added 120,000 jobs last month, according to the latest figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Economists say the nation needs 130,000-150,000 new jobs each month to keep up with the growth of the workforce, and the large drop in the unemployment rate also is the result of some 315,000 workers dropping out of the labor force. The jobless rate counts only people who are actively looking for work.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says the drop in the jobless rate is welcome but closing “the 11 million jobs gap opened by the Great Recession will require far more aggressive growth.”

This week, however, instead of focusing on job creation, tone-deaf Republicans kept pressing forward on legislation to strip away long-standing safeguards of workers’ rights. Those in Congress should listen to working families and pass the American Jobs Act, starting with extending unemployment insurance and the payroll tax reduction.  As long as Congress continues to ignore these calls for action, our economic recovery remains in grave danger.

Economic Policy Institute (EPI) economist Heidi Shierholz says:

At this pace of job growth, it will be more than two decades before we get back down to the pre-recession unemployment rate. Moreover, a shrinking labor force is not the way we want to see unemployment drop.  At this rate of growth we are looking at a long, long schlep before our sick labor market recovers.

More than 13  million workers remain unemployed, but some 26 million Americans are unemployed, underemployed or have stopped looking for work. The number of long-term jobless (more than 27 weeks) was 5.7 million, or 43 percent of the total jobless.

Unemployment Insurance (UI) coverage for the long-term unemployed is set to expire Dec. 31 and nearly 2 million out-of-work Americans will be cut off from federal UI coverage the first week of January alone, unless Congress renews the program.  More than 6 million workers could potentially lose their critically needed UI coverage over the course of 2012.

Wednesday, some 200 jobless workers rallied on Capitol Hill and delivered 75,000 petitions urging Congress act now to extend unemployment insurance coverage. The rally kicked off week-long series of actions to demand Congress act and will culminate with a Dec. 8 Capitol Hill rally of jobless workers, union members and community and faith activists.

Today’s figures show that unemployment rate for adult men fell by 0.5 percentage point to 8.3 percent in November. The jobless rate for whites declined from 8 to 7.6 percent while the jobless rate for African Americans rose to 15.5 percent from 15.1 percent in October. The rates for adult women (7.8 percent), teenagers (23.7 percent) and Hispanics (11.4 percent) showed little or no change.