Labor Union Blog

Most people remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legendary 1963 Washington, D.C, “I Have a Dream” speech. But what most don’t know, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker said at the AFL-CIO’s Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Observance and National Conference in Detroit, is that “the seeds of Dr. King’s dream were sown first,” in the Motor City.

First in the speech he gave in June in Detroit, and later in his more widely known speech in Washington, Dr. King described his dream, the dream that one day the white sons of former slave owners and the black sons of those who had been enslaved would live together as brothers, judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their characters.

Yet we know that Dr. King’s dream was not merely a dream about friendship, not some story about two people communing across a great economic divide. His dream was about true equality—economic, political and social justice.

During yesterday’s opening ceremony, Holt Baker reminded the more than 550 labor and civil rights activists and leaders that King knew that “a chief tool for freedom and progress for all people was collective action:”

whether as a labor union in the workplace or as nonviolent civil disobedience in the shared spaces of this country… whether at a lunch counter or in a park near Wall Street.

She also noted the long partnership by the union movement and the civil rights movement and his close relationship with the UAW. But although the AFL-CIO endorsed the principles behind the March on Washington, the federation did not endorse the march itself.

Sisters and brothers, let’s not sugarcoat the past, and even as we honor Dr. King let’s also remember that the path forward then was as uncertain as it is now… that the coalitions Dr. King helped build did not come about by accident but by hard work and careful design.

Let’s honor Dr. King’s legacy, and use the path as a blueprint for the change and progress we want and need today.

“In the decades since Dr. King was taken from us,” said Holt Baker, “our nation may have made enormous strides in the direction of racial justice, but his vision was not simply an end to legalized racism” but a fight for economic justice too.

She noted that economic inequality in America is much worse than in King’s time and nearly 100 million Americans—nearly one in three—live in poverty or very close to it. More than 13 million Americans are unemployed and searching for work. Almost 6 million have been looking for more than six months, and millions more have given up altogether.

This economic injustice is no accident, but the result of intentional attacks. For years, these attacks have been quiet… undercover… but last year they came out into the open.

Holt Baker pointed to the attacks on collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin and Ohio and the Koch Brothers-funded American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) growing influence in Republican-controlled state legislatures around the country. In Michigan, Indiana and other states, lawmakers are pushing ALEC-written bills to attack working people and voting right. But those attacks have galvanized working families.

Little did we know, one year ago, of the troubles that lay in store, but we pushed back, we gathered our strength, we formed coalitions and rose to meet them.

We re-learned something important this year…. We saw again the strength of collective action, of public protest. We re-learned that we are not alone… and we have seen that when we stand together with those who share our values… the numbers are on our side… and victory can be ours!

She urged the conference attendees to remember Dr. King and to redouble efforts to

make real his prophecy our time—his message of justice for all, his message that the American Dream is for all of us and his absolute conviction that the American Dream may be a lofty dream but it begins with practical solutions.  Friends, work connects us all. The thirst for justice connects us all.

This year, we will stand together for jobs and for economic freedom. We’ll congregate in the public square…. And on Election Day we’ll march to the ballot box to cast our votes for economic, social and political justice.

Migrant workers face tremendous pressure and exploitation in dynamic and wealthy South Korea, reports the Solidarity Center’s Timothy Ryan.

In one of the richest and the most Internet-wired countries in the world, you might assume that workers’ and migrants’ rights are respected. You’d be wrong.

Between 200,000 and 700,000 migrants, a large number of them undocumented, work in South Korea. They represent several Asian countries, including Vietnam—home to the largest number of migrants to South Korea—as well as the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Nepal. They work in manufacturing, construction, fisheries and the service industry (e.g. hotel and domestic workers).

One important issue is that ethnic Korean-Chinese, who come to South Korea through a separate visa process, are given relatively preferential treatment because of their ethnic background. This lays the groundwork for inherent discrimination against workers from all the other countries, including in terms of wages. Many employers discriminate against migrants by refusing to pay them the minimum wage or forcing them to work up to 20 hours a day to get overtime pay.

Another issue is that South Korea is rather unique because companies do not use private recruiters to attract migrant workers. Instead, the government brings in migrant workers through memoranda of understanding with sending countries.

But South Korean unions, in concert and support with their brothers and sisters in the Nepali labor movement, are fighting back and making progress.

In the early 1990s, migrants started to organize. Manju Thapa, who arrived in South Korea from Nepal in 1993 at age 16, lost three fingers in an industrial accident. Now a women’s activist and the anchor of Migrant TV in Seoul, her efforts to organize workers are helping migrants attain their rights and a more equal playing field. Says Thapa:

I helped form the first migrant worker organizations in 1994-95 and was the first to actually win a compensation suit against the South Korean government.

The General Federation of Nepali Trade Unions (GEFONT), a labor federation in Nepal, was an early supporter of the new migrant movement in South Korea and, by 2001, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) began to support the migrant cause. In April 2005 the Migrants Trade Union (MTU) was formed, and the KCTU affiliated the union to its Seoul regional branch.

The MTU supports workers’ legal claims and offers training to migrants who go back to their home countries. The MTU also tries to connect returning migrants with organizations that help provide pre-departure training for workers about to leave their home country.

For every gain, however, problems remain. The South Korean government has
consistently deported MTU leaders—and is attempting to oust Michel Catuira, the
organization’s current president. The International Labor Organization (ILO)
has requested the South Korean judiciary to grant the renewal of Catuira’s
residence permit, opposing the government’s attempts to deport him. Meanwhile,
registration of the MTU has been delayed through a variety of legal maneuvers.

In November, the Committee on Freedom of Association at the ILO Governing Body urged the South Korean government to

refrain from any measures which might involve a risk of serious interference with trade union activities and might lead to the arrest and deportation of trade union leaders for reasons related to their election to trade union office.

The committee also noted that the case regarding MTU’s registration has been pending with the Supreme Court for more than four years. The committee expressed its firm expectation that

the government will proceed with the registration of the MTU without delay and supply full particulars in relation to this matter, as well as in reply to its previous recommendations.

International support may bring a turning point for migrant workers in South Korea. In the interim, the dedicated leaders of the MTU will continue to speak up for
oppressed workers and fight for their union’s existence.

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

You’d think that New Hampshire’s Republican leadership would have gotten the picture already.

When Gov. John Lynch vetoed their pet right to work bill, H.B. 474, after it passed the House and the Senate last year over the protests of thousands of Granite Staters, legislators in the House failed to get enough votes to override his veto.

But now, the Republican leadership in New Hampshire is throwing everything but the kitchen sink at working families in their newest attempt to dismantle unions in the Granite State.

It started with H.B. 383, a “right to work” for less bill that applies to state employees such as toll collectors, snowplow drivers and social workers. The bill is not a carbon copy of H.B. 474 but could easily be amended to apply to all workers. The House passed H.B. 383 on Jan. 5 by 212-128, falling short of the two-thirds threshold needed to override a veto from Gov. Lynch.

Protesters at the statehouse were undeterred to hear that H.B. 383 had passed.

Says Kelly Torosian, a Fairpoint technician and member of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 2320:

We’ll continue the fight until Speaker O’Brien stops playing games with our Legislature and starts making decisions that help New Hampshire workers and grow our economy.

And this definitely isn’t the end. A host of bills restricting collective bargaining for public employees—including the repeal of collective bargaining—are due to be heard in the Labor, Industrial, and Rehabilitative Service Committee on Jan. 19, and teachers, firefighters, state employees and community members are already gearing up to turn out and tell their lawmakers why these bills aren’t good for New Hampshire.

New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Mark MacKenzie explained that these bills are just the latest wave in a continuous assault on workers’ rights in New Hampshire.

As New Hampshire struggles out of this recession, Speaker [William] O’Brien has shown no wavering from the extreme Tea Party agenda that has cost us thousands of jobs in the Granite State. These laws are just another sign that the Speaker cannot admit defeat. He will push his agenda at any cost—regardless of how it impacts the people of New Hampshire.

For up-to-the-minute updates on the action during the hearings on Jan. 19, follow the New Hampshire AFL-CIO on Twitter at @NHAFLCIO.

Autumn has come and gone in Bastrop, Texas, but many of those who lost homes and possessions in the raging late-summer wildfires there still need help.  This week, Philip Lawhon jumped at the chance to use his skills as an electrician to keep the Bastrop relief effort humming.

Lawhon is director of member development for the 1,150-member Local 520 of the Electrical Workers (IBEW). He put on his tool belt when the Texas AFL-CIO—working with the Capital Area United Way in Austin—sent out a call for help wiring and lighting a temporary distribution center for the Bastrop County Wildfire Relief Center.

The center had been operating without power since October, trying to keep displaced residents supplied with the basics as they put their lives back together. Said Lawhon:

The relief workers were trying to arrange to get the wiring job done on their own. When we got the call, we got right on it.

More than 1,400 homes and many businesses were destroyed in the fires.

“People had no time to grab anything,” said Texas AFL-CIO President Becky Moeller.  Now, she said, burned-out structures and debris have vanished, leaving vacant lots dotting the streets of Bastrop, which lies 35 miles east of Austin.

Along with three United Way labor liaisons from other parts of the state, Moeller and the state federation have coordinated labor’s relief effort. Read more…

This is a cross-post by Karen Hickey, communications director at  the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO.

Earlier today, more than 125 Texans greeted Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on his fundraising trip to Austin. Walker was the keynote speaker at the right-wing Texas Public Policy Foundation’s annual policy orientation for Texas legislators.

Occupy Austin, the Texas AFL-CIO and the Austin community held a rally to support Wisconsin workers and to protest Walker’s anti-worker agenda.  Since taking office more than a year ago, Walker has staged an all out war on the middle class by stripping public employees of their collective bargaining rights, raising taxes on the poor, slashing education and health care funding, all while giving millions of dollars in tax breaks to corporate allies and the mega-rich.

Texas AFL-CIO President Becky Moeller:

We believe in welcoming all comers to Texas, and we won’t break with that tradition today. But we must protest the anti-union zealotry, if not the presence, of Wisconsin Gov. Walker.  Walker has played the partisan labor-bashing game since his election, doing the bidding of the Koch Brothers and other money player who want to tamp down worker rights, who can’t stand the idea that health care has become available to more of America and who would love to shave percentage points off democratic election participation.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told more than 400 leading investors at the Investor Summit on Climate Risk & Energy Solutions at the United Nations today that “The American labor movement is in the problem-solving business—looking for profitable investment opportunities that address climate risk and create jobs.”

We’re looking for partners, and we’re already working with many of you here today directly and indirectly to move capital to profitable and productive purposes, to step forward in addressing climate risk.

Trumka proposed hosting a dialogue on the risks of climate change and the need to move forward in a way that ensures broadly shared prosperity and a sustainable future.

Addressing climate risk is not a distraction from solving our economic problems…addressing climate risk means retooling our world—it means that every factory and  power plant, every home and office, every rail line and highway, every vehicle, locomotive and plane, every school and hospital, must be modernized, upgraded, renovated or replaced with something cleaner, more efficient,  less wasteful.

Taking on the threat of climate change means putting investment capital to work creating jobs.

But he also warned that any climate change battle plan must “engage with the people whose livelihoods are tied up with the carbon emissions.”

The truth is that in many places…there is fear that the “green economy” will turn into another version of the radical inequality that now haunts our society—another economy that works for the 1 percent and not for the 99 percent….We must ask ourselves, “How well does this pathway serve the least, the hardest to reach, the most likely to be left behind?” Places like West Virginia and the Ohio Valley must come first, not last.

Trumka said any practical plan to successfully combat climate change must include, “constructive dialogue between workers and their communities and environmental advocates, between investors and companies can forge pathways to fair and politically sustainable change—and that without it, we will not move forward.”

And we are ready to help lead that dialogue—to work together with others to shape a process for how we are going to address climate risk by putting America back to work, how we are going to build a smart grid and retool our vehicle fleet, catch up with our foreign competitors on high speed rail and wind and solar, retrofit coal plants and commercial buildings and modernize industry, how we are going to help communities prosper when coal plants and mines are closed, how we are going to create jobs for out of work construction workers—jobs that build America’s competitiveness, while we turn our nation’s economic future in a low carbon emissions direction.

He also detailed the union movement’s ongoing work around workers’ capital and investment in retrofits and infrastructure development. This effort includes investing more than $200 million in energy efficient retrofits, part of which is a partnership between the labor movement and the state of Oregon’s Cool Schools program to retrofit Oregon schools. Also, more than $1.2 billion in workers’ pension assets have been committed to job creating infrastructure investing—with new efforts under way in New York, Oregon and other states.

Click here for the full speech.

Is it patriotic to ship America’s jobs overseas? President Obama doesn’t think so. He’s right, of course. We live in a globally connected world, but let’s face it: Home-grown corporations must first focus on their own back yards—a novel concept all to many, it seems.

Obama implicitly raised the question yesterday during his Insourcing American Jobs Forum, which featured representatives from more than a dozen large and small businesses that have made decisions to bring jobs to the United States and to increase their investments here.

Pointing to the CEOs in the room, Obama said they ”take pride in hiring people here in America, not just because it’s increasingly the right thing to do for their bottom line, but also because it’s the right thing to do for their workers and for our communities and for our country.

I don’t want America to be a nation that’s primarily known for financial speculation and racking up debt buying stuff from other nations.  I want us to be known for making and selling products all over the world stamped with three proud words:  “Made in America.” And we can make that happen.

I don’t want the next generation of manufacturing jobs taking root in countries like China or Germany. I want them taking root in places like Michigan and Ohio and Virginia and North Carolina. And that’s a race that America can win. That’s the race businesses like these will help us win.

In the coming weeks, the president will put forward new tax proposals to
reward companies that choose to invest in America.

Lack of job creation in industries that pay solid middle-class wages is in part behind our nation’s rising inquality, and today White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Alan Krueger addressed the issue in detail.

TPM’s Sahil Kapur says Krueger blamed inequality on economic policies “tilted to favor top earners—including income tax reforms (presumably during the Bush era) and the ‘drastic cut in the estate tax.’ Central to the message is that inequalities in the system are jeopardizing our tradition of equality of opportunity,” as Krueger put it.

“If we had a high degree of income mobility we would be less concerned about the degree of inequality in any given year. But we do not,” he argued. “Moreover, as inequality has increased, evidence suggests that year-to-year or generation-to-generation economic mobility has decreased.”

Applauding the White House Insourcing Forum, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka makes clear the connection between job outsourcing and the nation’s escalating inequality—according to the Congressional Budget Office, the top 1 percent saw their incomes skyrocket by 275 percent between 1979 and 2007, compared with 18 percent for the bottom 20 percent. Says Trumka:

For too long, the 1 percent have sought and received tax breaks that actually created subsidies for corporations exporting good American jobs overseas.

America’s workers are not looking for handouts, they are looking for a chance to work hard and apply their best in the world skills in order to provide their families a middle-class life.

Hostess Brands, the company that has brought us such iconically American snacks as Twinkies, yesterday filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time since 2004. But the move does more than affect our universal sweet tooth—it has vast repercussions for some 5,000 workers, members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM).

BCTGM, which represents workers in 34 production facilities throughout the United States, has been working with Hostess for months to identify a mutually beneficial solution that would address the company’s financial difficulties. But according to BCTGM, the company has never offered a legitimate proposal that could be taken to the membership for consideration.

Says BCTGM President Frank Hurt:

I find it deeply offensive and highly disingenuous for the company to claim that its financial woes are the result of its union contracts and pension and health coverage obligations.  We contend that the company is in dire financial shape because of a string of failed business decisions made by a series of ineffective executives who have been running this company for the past decade.

In 2004, union members sacrificed to help make the company competitive, hoping the company would emerge from the last restructuring stronger and more competitive, says Hurt.

Hurt points out that the company’s portrayal in the media of its pension obligation problems is misleading. Hostess Brands had been a longstanding participant in a multi-employer (Taft-Hartley) pension fund. The nearly $1 billion the company refers to is its withdrawal liability. Every participant in multi-employer pension fund has withdrawal liability, which ensures that beneficiaries will receive negotiated pension benefits if a company leaves the fund.

The contributions Hostess had paid into the fund were negotiated through the collective bargaining process and are part of an overall economic compensation package. Pension benefits that retirees receive each month are paid by the fund and not the individual companies.

Hurt says the union will continue to work to find a solution that “protects the interests of our members and helps enable the company to remain a viable business entity.”

Elizabeth Boomer of the AFL-CIO International Affairs Department sends us this report in conjunction with the Solidarity Center.

Two years after a massive earthquake destroyed much of Haiti’s capital and surrounding towns, the Haitian people are still struggling to recover from the disaster and the entrenched poverty that it has exacerbated.

The solution, say Haitian workers, is a Haitian-driven reconstruction effort that focuses on sustainable, equitable development aimed at improving the lives of all citizens—not just a few. 

While unions and worker organizations have been calling for the creation of decent jobs that respect fundamental labor rights, pay living wages, and empower Haitians to provide for their families, little progress has been made toward that goal. In fact, more than 70 percent of the labor force do not have formal work and struggle to survive earning less than $2 a day.

To mark the grim anniversary, worker organizations are participating in marches and discussions organized by the larger community to draw attention to the enormous needs in Haiti. They also are educating workers and the community about their rights while continuing to provide the opportunity for workers from various sectors, both employed and unemployed, to meet. The Haitian labor movement has crafted a public policy statement of principles on decent work and a living wage, which it will release later this month. Workers plan to press for further improvements.

Ose Pierre, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center’s program representative in Haiti, says the deplorable conditions in which most Haitians live “are in stark contrast to the small pockets of improvement and the large-scale investments coming into the country.”

For those left homeless, access to the very basics—permanent shelter, food, jobs, water, transportation—is elusive. Much, much more needs to be done to create jobs and, at the same time, ensure that workers are paid decent wages and their rights are recognized and respected.

The Solidarity Center, which focuses on building the capacity of Haitian partners to develop and jointly advocate public policies that help working families, published a living wage survey for apparel workers in March 2011. The research found that prices for necessities and basic goods were out of reach for most workers. This remains true today: The cost of living has increased while wages, for the jobs in the formal economy, have stagnated.

Molly McCoy, Solidarity Center regional director for the Americas, says Haiti’s recovery “will depend on the ability of working people to earn a decent wage so that they can pay the rent, feed their children, and live a dignified life.”

Grinding poverty is never solved through low wages or exploitation. Our partners remain hopeful that the large-scale investments coming into Haiti, including the Caracol Industrial Park, create jobs that pay workers sufficiently to support their families and rebuild their lives and their country.

The Solidarity Center Response after the 2010 Earthquake
In a matter of seconds, the earthquake dramatically altered the scale and scope of the Haitian labor movement. Trade unions and worker organizations suffered huge reductions in membership due to mass casualties and severe unemployment. Many people were further burdened by catastrophic damage to their homes and belongings.

Within days after the quake, the Solidarity Center field office in the Dominican Republic launched a union-to-union emergency response, linking Dominican partners directly with Haitian workers and channeling emergency aid to workers through unions and labor support organizations. The Solidarity Center dispatched regular overland shipments of food, water, rehydration fluids, plastic tarps, diapers, blankets, first-aid supplies, medicine, and feminine hygiene kits to meet the most immediate needs. The Solidarity Center also directed funds to Haitian unions and labor support organizations to locate missing members and restore offices for use as shelters and food distribution centers.

In concert with these efforts, U.S. unions and workers made generous contributions to the Solidarity Center’s Earthquake Relief Fund, which enabled the Solidarity Center to respond to an array of urgent and ongoing needs identified by our Haitian trade union partners. Specifically, the Solidarity Center provided educational fees for children, served health care needs by setting up clinics and distributing hygiene kits, installed solar panels, and provided laptops to improve communication and support to empower Haitian workers to advocate for improved living conditions.

In Detroit—a historic crossroads for both the labor and civil rights movements—more than 550 activists and leaders of those movements will honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the AFL-CIO’s  annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Observance and National Conference.

The Jan. 12-16 observance will serve as an opportunity to recommit to working toward King’s cornerstone goals of economic and social justice. AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker says union, civil rights and community activists can honor King’s legacy by:

Redoubling our efforts to make real his prophecy our time—his message of justice for all, his message that the American Dream is for all of us.

The conference opens tonight and includes an awards presentation to civil rights veteran and lawmaker Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.). Conyers, who has been in office since 1964, is one of the founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Tomorrow, attendees will fan out across the Motor City for a day of community service projects at local shelters, food banks, schools and social service centers. In the evening, a town hall meeting moderated by national radio talk show host and civil rights activist Joe Madison will examine the growing attacks on voting rights, union workers, the jobless and immigrants.

Through a series of workshops Saturday, participants will explore developing political strategies for the upcoming elections and beyond; combating the economic crisis with solutions for the 99 percent; protecting public education; building coalistions; and using social media to advance social justice. The evening will close with a reception featuring the music that made Motown famous.

Sunday will feature a morning worship service at the Triumph Church and a visit to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Awards Banquet caps the day with honors to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and other civil rights, labor and community activists who exemplify King’s dedication and work.

Monday concludes with Detroit’s King Day Celebration at the Central United Methodist Church followed by the city’s annual King Day March.