Labor Union Blog

In a small Kansas town, President Barack Obama yesterday issued his most populist call to date in defense of America’s middle class, advocating for massive investment in education and job-creating infrastructure-building programs, and for protections for working people from predatory financial institutions. Calling the present economic situation “a make-or-break moment for the middle class,” the president said:

I believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share, when everyone plays by the same rules. These aren’t Democratic values or Republican values. These aren’t 1 percent values or 99 percent values. They’re American values. And we have to reclaim them.

Adopting the language of the Occupy movement, Obama illustrated the gaping divide in the fortunes of the top 1 percent of income earners versus the rest of us:

In the last few decades, the average income of the top 1 percent has gone up by more than 250 percent to $1.2 million per year. I’m not talking about millionaires, people who have a million dollars. I’m saying people who make a million dollars every single year.

With unemployment still high and Republican members of Congress blocking virtually every attempt by the president to get people back to work, the Obama decried the “income inequality” that has resulted from years of trickle-down economics, a theory rooted in the disproven notion that the rich create wealth for everybody when their own coffers increase. Noting that today’s CEO averages an income that is 110 times that of the average worker, Obama explained:

This kind of gaping inequality gives lie to the promise that’s at the very heart of America: that this is a place where you can make it if you try. We tell people — we tell our kids — that in this country, even if you’re born with nothing, work hard and you can get into the middle class…And yet, over the last few decades, the rungs on the ladder of opportunity have grown farther and farther apart, and the middle class has shrunk.

The president’s choice of the town of Osawatomie, Kans., for delivering his hour-long speech echoed a stop made more than a century ago by President Theodore Roosevelt, when the progressive Republican unveiled his economic plan for what he called a New Nationalism, which he described as “an economic system under which each man shall be guaranteed the opportunity to show the best that there is in him.” Obama noted, to laughter from the crowd, that Roosevelt was derided as “a socialist” after presenting his plan.

In a school gymnasium festooned with red, white and blue bunting, Obama laid out the case for an economic patriotism that would serve the nation’s long-term economic interests while putting people back to work:

Today, manufacturers and other companies are setting up shop in places with the best infrastructure to ship their products, move their workers, and communicate with the rest of the world.  That’s why the over one million construction workers who lost their jobs when the housing market collapsed shouldn’t be sitting at home with nothing to do.  They should be rebuilding our roads and bridges; laying down faster railroads and broadband; modernizing our schools – all the things other countries are already doing to attract good jobs and businesses to their shores.

Senate Republicans have blocked votes on two major pieces of job-creating legislation: the American Jobs Act, and the Rebuild America Jobs Act.

The president also decried Republicans’ refusal to move forward with his nomination of Richard Cordray to head the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Board, which is designed to protect the 99 percent from predatory lending and other dubious practices by financial institutions — an entity whose creation most Republicans opposed.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has called for the confirmation of Cordray, and repeatedly called for an infrastructure rebuilding program. In February, Trumka testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, saying:

These projects create substantial long-term employment in manufacturing, design and engineering when we use the domestic U.S. supply chain to produce the materials that will be needed—from concrete, wire, steel and pipes to high-speed trains. And all this restores revenues for state and local public services struggling with budget holes as well.

Tomorrow in a prayer vigil on Capitol Hill and at actions at dozens of congressional offices around the nation, workers, activists and people of faith will demand Congress act now to extend long-term unemployment insurance (UI) benefits that expires Dec. 31. As many as 6 million people could lose their benefits next year if Congress does not act.

At the prayer vigil that will take place at 11 a.m. (EST) at Upper Senate Park (on the corner of New Jersey and Constitution Aves., NW), participants will wear and distribute white carnations to symbolize the millions of jobless workers who are threatened by congressional inaction.

If you can’t be there in person, Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) invites you to join the prayer event online. If you are on Facebook, click here to RSVP for the online prayer vigil. In an “Open letter to the 1 Percent” yesterday, the IWJ executive board wrote:

During this time of financial crisis and economic disparity, we affirm the God-given dignity of every person. We believe God loves all 100 percent of us and wants to use us to create a more just society.

Click here for the full letter.

You can also make your voice heard by clicking here and telling Congress not to adjourn for the year before they renew long-term UI benefits. No help for jobless, no vacation for Congress.

Don’t forget to the visit a new AFL-CIO website where jobless workers and their families and friends are sharing their experiences to prod Congress to extend long-term UI benefits.  Click here to read their stories or share yours. You also can share the stories on Facebook and via Twitter with the hashtag #extendUI.

Chris Garlock, communications director for the Metropolitan Washington [D.C.] Council, AFL-CIO, sends us this report on today’s takeover of K Street, part of this week’s Take Back the Capitol actions by unions and progressive and faith groups.

It was not a good day to be a Washington, D.C., lobbyist. Despite a steady rain, bands of activists roamed downtown Washington, massing outside lobbyist offices to chant “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!” and “We are the 99 percent!”

Wearing colorful ponchos and carrying banners denouncing corporate greed, the biggest contingents of demonstrators came from the ongoing “Take Back the Capitol” occupation on the National Mall that’s brought thousands from across the country this week to:

remind Congress to represent all Americans, not just the richest 1 percent.

Also joining in were occupiers from Occupy D.C. as well as members and leaders from the local labor, faith and community movements. The roving bands of chanting activists all converged at 16th and K streets—the heart of the influence peddling, corporate lobbyist nation—at noon, taking over the intersection as the crowd swelled to more than 2,000, chanting “Off the sidewalks and into the streets” and “When we fight, we win!”

As the drizzle turned into a downpour, spirits rose as a young woman led a gorgeous and moving rendition of the civil rights movement anthem “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around.” A chorus of defiant hopeful voices rose from the the rain-soaked street as they sang:

I’m gonna keep on a walkin’, keep on a talkin’, marchin’ til we get our jobs back.

Protesters blocked a number of intersections with sit-ins and, as of early this afternoon, police  reported 11 arrests.

Indiana Republican lawmakers—with the backing of the corporate-backed right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)—are readying another push to ram through a so-called right to work bill. But there are two pieces of good news for Hoosier working families.

Two University of Notre Dame economics professors have thoroughly debunked backers’ claims that ”right to work” for less laws attract businesses and create jobs, and a new poll finds that just 38 percent of those surveyed back the anti-worker legislation.

In a recent op-ed in the South Bend Tribune, professors Barbara Fick and Marty Wolfson show that so-called right to work laws actually lead to lower wages for everyone, not a business boom as a legislative study committee claimed in a report on the proposed law.

The committee gave five reasons for its recommendation. Four of the five reasons assert, in one form or another, that a [Right to work] law would attract businesses to Indiana. The committee stated that businesses often “exclude Indiana and other non-RTW states from consideration because of a perceived lack of flexibility and higher costs in their potential dealings with organized labor.” However, the committee did not identify any specific employers that chose not to locate in Indiana because of RTW.

[Right to work] undermines living standards for most workers and, in a globalized environment, is unlikely to lead to a long-lasting increase in economic growth.

Click here for the full piece.

Meanwhile, the survey found that support among Hoosier voters for this controversial, union-busting bill is weak, with just 38 percent favoring its passage while 47 percent stand in opposition. The survey also found that 67 percent of Hoosiers disagree with Statehouse Republicans’ decision to make “right to work” their top priority and wish they would move on to other issues.

Indiana State AFL-CIO President Nancy Guyott says the poll shows that “Hoosiers’ patience for these divisive and partisan attacks has run out.”

The numbers—among Democrats, Republicans and Independents—all show that Hoosiers are ready to move away from “right to work” and onto more important issues like fixing the economy.

Click here for more on the poll.

Among the huge and profitable corporations listed in the Fortune 500, many corporate giants managed to pay no state corporate income tax for at least one year between 2008 and 2010. A new report, “Corporate Tax Dodging in the Fifty States, 2008-2010,” from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), found that tax avoidance costs states some $42 billion in revenues over the course of the past three years, even as states struggle to meet their basic obligations to citizens.

The report is yet another showing how many massively profitable corporations pay little to no taxes. (ITEP’s and CTJ examined the top corporate tax-dodgers on the federal rolls, which we covered here.)

Looking at the tax records of 265 Fortune 500 corporations, the watchdog groups found 68 companies that managed to score, in the arena of  state corporate income tax, at least one tax-free year, as well as another 20 whose tax bill averaged zero or less for the entire three-year period covered by the report.

Who are these deadbeat corporations? Intel, the high-tech giant; DuPont, a major polluter; health care behemoth Baxter International; and utility provider Pepco Holdings, to name just a few.

In a statement, report co-author and ITEP Executive Director Matthew Gardner explained:

Our report shows these 265 corporations raked in a combined $1.33 trillion in profits in the last three years, and far too many have managed to shelter half or more of their profits from state taxes. They’re so busy avoiding taxes, it’s no wonder they’re not creating any new jobs.

More on corporate tax avoidance here, here and here.

Download “Corporate Tax Dodging in the Fifty States, 2008-2010″ in PDF format here.

Those who doubt the impact of Social Security benefits on local economies should look to rural America, where 9.3 percent of total personal income in rural counties came from Social Security payments in 2009. That’s according to a study by the Center for Rural Strategies, as reported by the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI).

Says NASI:

Social Security is particularly important to these rural communities because the money received from benefits is largely spent in the community.

Click here to read more and view a U.S. map breaking down the percent of total personal income from Social Security by county.

Verizon this week fired 40 workers who took part in the strike this summer by 45,000 Communications Workers of America (CWA) and Electrical Workers (IBEW) members. The corporation is alleging workers engaged in misconduct during the strike.

IBEW Local 2222 Legislative Director Paul Feeney told the Boston Globe:

We think this is a heavy-handed technique that Verizon is using to pressure us at the negotiating table. The union is going to fight this through the court. The company couldn’t prove to us that they did anything wrong.

CWA spokesperson Candace Johnson told the paper that other striking workers who were fired have returned to work after their records have been cleared.

We are continuing to pursue a fair determination for all Verizon workers who were fired.

The workers returned to work under the old contract, and negotiations for a new pact are continuing.