Voices At Work

     

Andy Richards, AFL-CIO Field Communications assistant in Ohio, sends us this report.

UAW Local 1327 retiree Max Reynolds is no stranger to a labor phone bank.

“I’ve volunteered since 1960, and there are very few elections I’ve missed,” said Reynolds, in between making calls to Ohio union members at the Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 32 Hall in Lima, Ohio. He is a regular at the Lima call center, volunteering multiple times each week.

You just get hooked on it.

Hooked on it is an understatement. In 2008, Reynolds called thousands of union households and was awarded the UAW President’s Award for his years of volunteer work. “He out-called every person in the state in 2008, by himself with a manual phone,” says Bev Spetz, coordinator of Organizing for Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE/AFSCME) Local 4.

Lima Call Captain Lynda Mobley considers Reynolds an inspiration to her and other union members. OAPSE/AFSCME Local 4 member Mobley says:

When you think you can’t do anymore, you look at Max, at his age, and he still does more.

Even with major health issues, Reynolds is continuing his volunteer legacy this election because he sees this election as critical to Ohio workers.

If we don’t get [incumbent Gov. Ted] Strickland in their, labor has had it. We are going to go down the tubes.

He is hoping more people step up to volunteer with the Labor 2010 program.

I tell people that if you just volunteered once…I guarantee you will want to do it on a regular basis.

     

More than 3,000 Postal Workers (APWU) members sent a special delivery message to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) yesterday in Detroit—don’t end Saturday service, keep the mail moving six days a week.

Both the APWU and the Letter Carriers (NALC) are fighting USPS’s request to Congress to eliminate Saturday delivery.

In the Motor City for their biennial convention, the APWU members were joined in the march and rally by union members from the Metropolitan Detroit Central Labor Council, Michigan State AFL-CIO and community allies, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson. They denounced USPS management’s plan to cut mail delivery. Says APWU President William Burris:

Ending Saturday mail service would slow service, drive away business, and lead to the demise of the world’s most efficient, affordable, and trusted postal system.

Learn more from APWU’s Five-Day fact sheet and Save Saturday Service pages.

Read the AFL-CIO Executive Council statement denouncing five-day delivery.

Be sure to visit the NALC’s 5-Day Is the Wrong Way website.

MP3: 

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Transcript: 

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***WORKERS INDEPENDENT NEWS SERVICE***

Labor Radio Feature Story for 08/25/10 Newscast

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Workers Independent News Labor Radio
Internet Radio Program 08/25/10
Producers: Doug Cunningham & Jesse Russell

1) WIN Headlines August 25, 2010

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The streets of Detroit saw hundreds of postal workers marching through downtown on Tuesday chanting “Five day, no way.” The workers were gathered in the city for the American Postal Workers Union’s national convention and they were protesting a decision being considered that could see Saturday delivery dropped. Officials say it is a necessary change due to the decrease in mail volume. Postal workers argue that many people can’t go two days without mail delivery, such as the elderly who receive medications in the mail.

Coca Cola production lines in much of Washington state ground to a halt on Monday as more than 500 workers across the state walked off the job. The workers are represented by the Teamsters and the union said the workers walked out over the company’s failure to negotiate in good faith. The two sides have been at the bargaining table since April with the workers’ contract expiring on May 15. Some of the sticking points are proposals by the company to eliminate health care for retirees and raise health premiums by, what the union says amounts to 800 percent.

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The nation’s largest student association representing 4.5 million students is working with the AFL-CIO to support the DREAM Act immigration reform legislation. United States Student Association President Gregory Cendana says allowing undocumented immigrant high school graduates to earn permanent residency status through higher education and or military service as the DREAM Act does is good for the nation. He says most of these students have never known another country.

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At a time when construction owners are looking to get the best value for their dollar, they are increasingly turning to what they know works—project labor agreements (PLAs)—to ensure the work is on time and on budget.

The AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) reports that this year alone nearly 100 major public and private construction projects worth more than $80 billion have used PLAs, including the first two U.S. nuclear power plant construction projects in more than 40 years.

PLAs are pre-hire agreements between labor and management. The agreements require all construction jobs to be filled by local workers, includes diversity requirements, establishes wages and work rules covering overtime, working hours and dispute resolution and ensures that safety guidelines on the job site are enforced.

Despite the outcry last year from the usual chorus of anti-worker groups when President Obama issued an executive order mandating project labor agreements for federal construction projects, the fact is more and more private companies are jumping on the PLA bandwagon. Scores of agreements have been signed on behalf of such corporations as ConocoPhillips,  Southern Company, Exelon and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. Corporations and agencies ranging from Walt Disney World to the Tennessee Valley Authority, along with dozens of professional sports stadiums, and all eight of Toyota’s American manufacturing facilities, used PLAs. Even Wal-Mart, the world’s largest corporation whose entire corporate culture is focused on cost-cutting, is increasingly turning to PLAs when constructing its retail outlets.

PLAs provide career training opportunities for disadvantaged residents and BCTD says construction owners understand that PLAs promote productivity by allowing construction managers to more effectively coordinate the numerous contractors on the site, standardize working conditions and give contractors ready access to a local pool of well-trained and highly skilled workers who have undergone thorough background checks as part of the agreement.

    Palm worker in Colombia.        

Four U.S. union leaders report on a recent trip to Colombia, sponsored by the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center. The delegation included Benjamin Field and  Jeremy Ray from the South Bay  Labor Council, Jennifer Jannon, a Working America regional director, and Richard Shaw, executive secretary-treasurer of the Harris County (Texas) AFL-CIO. 

The figures speak for themselves. Colombia is the deadliest place in the world for trade union members. There have been 2,837 murders of union members since 1986 and 564 murders under President Alvaro Uribe, whose term ended Aug. 7. These numbers don’t include the “displacements,” people who were forced to leave or were driven away.  The murderers, who most often are members of paramilitary groups, escape prosecution about 96 percent of the time.

Our delegation met with union and community leaders in several areas where workers harvest the palm fruit from African palms. Areas like the Magdalena Medio region, where workers began organizing unions in the late 1960s and 1970s. In the 1980s, thugs terrorized and attacked the union members and the government enacted new restrictive labor laws that eliminated workers’ ability to bargain collectively. 

And then there’s Puerto Wilches, a town so poor it has no sewage treatment system and no potable water.  The people who live there face flooding, a polluted river and lack of health care.  We were told how families had been driven off their land by the palm oil growers, labeled as “radicals” for organizing. Their community has no police protection, leaving families at the mercy of paramilitary thugs hired by the growers. In the union hall, the names of murdered union leaders are displayed on a wall as a constant reminder.

Throughout the country, we learned about the ways Colombia’s elected leaders prevent workers from having a voice on the job. Leaders from the two major labor federations—the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT) and the Confederación de Trabajddores de Colombia (CTC)—explained that few workers are actually covered by the labor law. Colombian government leaders have stigmatized unions as guerilla sympathizers or terrorists and have criminalized many legitimate forms of protest.   

We also were briefed on so-called associated labor cooperatives. Cooperatives are supposed to be voluntary, worker-managed associations that distribute their collective gains to their members. In Colombia, some 2 million workers are in such arrangements. Workers in cooperatives are responsible for their own payroll taxes, including health insurance and pension payments. They must purchase or rent their own work tools and safety equipment and can be fined for any number of work rule infractions.  They often finish work with as much debt as their take home pay.

Finally, CUT spoke about the massive environmental degradation of Colombia’s land and water caused by the multinational corporations’ plundering of Colombia’s vast mineral wealth. The CUT leaders told us they do not want the U.S. government to pass the Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and asked us for our help in stopping it.    

In Bogata, we presented our findings to two officials in the Colombian Vice President’s Office on Human Rights. We told them we found:

• Unchecked violence from the paramilitaries, with no police force in place to counter it.
• Impunity—offenders not being found and punished.
• Fear.
• Exploitation of workers through cooperatives and the subsequent decline of unions.
• Environmental degradation.
• Lack of sewage treatment and potable water.
• Lack of services for the elderly.

We all agreed that the proposed U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement must not be passed until conditions for all workers in Colombia improve dramatically and there is genuine change. We must put pressure on the Colombian government and the multinationals that are repressing workers’ rights and  systemically exploiting and abusing workers.

While the Senate "recognizes" low-wage workers, more than 1.5 million home care workers are currently living at near-poverty level earning a median income of $17,000 a year. Most of these workers, who both love their work and are good at their work, must have two and three jobs to just make ends meet. Many of these workers need food stamps to put food on their tables. All this ultimately hurts the consumer, who often finds it difficult to find and retain high quality home care services.

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If anybody knows the ins and outs of Social Security, it’s Henry Ballantyne. He was the Social Security Administration’s chief actuary between 1982 and 2000. Today, he told a telephone press conference that

“Social Security is financially sound….We don’t need to raise the retirement age.”

The press conference, held with several Social Security advocates, addressed the growing number of reports that the federal budget deficit commission is likely to recommend raising the retirement age and making other cuts when it makes its recommendations after the November elections.

That post-election date is a convenient excuse for lawmakers, enabling them to dodge taking a stand to protect Social Security with the lame explanation that they are waiting to see what the commission recommends.

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters that his colleagues should show some backbone and courage and take a stand now.

Members of Congress should be saying we are opposed to raising retirement age, other cuts, taxes on benefits and privatization. We should state unequivocally that is something we will not support.

Works for us.

Also today, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) also released its “Top 10 Reasons Not to Raise the Retirement Age.” It’s not David Letterman funny, but then cutting Social Security is nothing to laugh at. Here are the top two reasons. Click here for the full list.

• Raising the retirement age is a benefit cut, and benefits are already too low. The average retiree receives less than $14,000 a year from Social Security, which is less than the minimum wage.
• Raising the retirement age cuts benefits for all retirees, whether they retire at age 62, age 70, or any other age—and it is a cut for retired workers’ spouses, widows and dependents as well. When the retirement age was raised from 65 to 67, it cut benefits by 13 percent for workers who retire at 65, meaning they lose, on average, $28,154 over the course of their expected retirement. Raising the retirement age further, to 70, would cut benefits another 19 percent, costing the average worker another $35,419, for a total loss of $63,573.

Michael Uehlein, Field Communications director for the Iowa Federation of Labor, sends us this report.

In Iowa today, the Alliance for Retired Americans is on the ground talking with seniors and Iowans about issues that affect retired older Americans. A proud union partner, the Alliance works for the security of working families heading into retirement.

The organization is focused on strengthening Social Security as a safety net for those who have paid into it and, in Iowa and around the nation, is a valuable partner to the labor movement and working families.  The Alliance “has been a fantastic asset,” says Iowa AFL-CIO President Ken Sagar.

They’re working not simply for Americans who are currently retired, but for those who will be retired in the future.

Midge Slater is organizing seniors in key locations around the state to spread the word and educate seniors about the choices they face on Election Day. “We’re also working to advance public policy that protects the economic security of older Americans,” she added.

Over the past few weeks, the Alliance has held birthday parties for Social Security, which turned 75 just weeks ago. While congressional Republicans like Steve King and Chuck Grassley fight to kill Social Security, which makes up some 40 percent of the income of older Americans, the Alliance is talking with Iowans who want to preserve the program, which has never added a cent to the federal deficit.

The Alliance is hosting another Social Security party on Wednesday, Aug. 25, at 2 p.m. at the Waterloo Public Library. Special guest speaker is Jonathan Schoeberl, an employee of Social Security. For questions, please contact Midge Slater at unionmaid42@gmail.com.

     

Unlike our nation’s economic competitors, such as China and Germany, which have national policies geared to increasing their economic development, the United States does not. While we admonish such countries to consume more and export less, they are figuring out ways to increase exports and consume less—and, in turn, are growing their economies far faster than the United States.

In a recent letter to President Obama, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and a group of bipartisan senators wrote that the key to turning our economy around and creating good new jobs is a national industrial policy that would emphasize long-range actions to rebuild our manufacturing base, which has been decimated over the past few decades. In short, they urged the adoption of a national manufacturing policy.

The loss of manufacturing plants and jobs has stifled economic opportunity for middle-class families and compromised our ability to compete in the 21st century economy. Indeed, for the last several decades, administrations have passed up critical opportunities to formulate a rational and comprehensive manufacturing policy. Continued apathy will undermine our country’s ability to achieve energy independence and place our military readiness at risk.

One-third of American manufacturing plants have shut down in the past 10 years, and today only 1,000 U.S. factories employ more than 1,000 workers, according to the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM). And we are losing high-tech workers at a faster rate than traditional manufacturing jobs, AAM says.

An emphasis on manufacturing is not only good policy, it’s popular. In a recent poll by Mark Mellman and Whit Ayers, 86 percent of the respondents say they back increased government support for manufacturing. A whopping 95 percent believe Congress and the president should spend more time creating jobs, and 85 percent believe they should focus on creating manufacturing jobs.

Writing at Huffington Post, Jared Bernstein, economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden and director of the Obama administration’s Middle Class Task Force, points out just how effective an industrial policy can be. He says the administration’s investment in the auto industry paid off in new jobs.

In the year before we took office, the auto industry shed 431,300 jobs. But in the 13 months since GM and Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy, auto industry employment has increased by 76,300, a huge reversal…close to 40,000 come from the suppliers. That’s the fastest year over year growth that they’ve seen in a decade.

They’re good manufacturing jobs, right here in America, staffed by highly productive men and women doing two important things: they’re building great new vehicles, and they’re writing a new chapter in the history of the American auto industry.

Who says opposites attract? Two billionaire CEOs—California Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and her deep-pocket angel, Henry Samueli—are pretty darn cozy. Both their companies have been targets of federal investigations, which looked into whether they were engaged in the same kind of shady Wall Street dealings that drove the economy into meltdown.

Last night, Samueli held a Whitman fundraiser at his beachside Corona Del Mar mansion, where $50,000 bought you four tickets to an “intimate” and “private” dinner with Whitman, four “photo opportunities” and eight tickets to a cocktail reception. For the more budget-minded, a mere $25,900 scored you two dinner tickets, two photo-ops and six cocktail tickets.

Whitman schmoozed and mingled with the high-powered, wealthy Republican and corporate queen-makers who want to see Whitman and her Wall Street agenda ruling California. She also walked off with several million dollars—the official accounting is not yet available. Of course, this piles on top of the $100 million of her own money she’s already spent.

Samueli was involved in the nation’s largest stock backdating scandal while CEO at Broadcom (click here for more), and Whitman’s decision to use him as conduit for campaign cash, says Art Pulaksi, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, makes it

clear that Whitman is growing bolder in her shameless attempt to buy this election. The fact that she would consort with controversial corporate figures like Samueli to fatten her already bloated war chest shows a serious lapse in judgment.

Steve Smith on the California Labor Federation’s blog, Labor’s Edge, writes the pair “have more in common than being billionaire CEOs” and draws the parallels between the two corporate insiders.  He also warns:

It’s pretty easy to imagine the enormous influence corporate types like Samueli would have in a Whitman administration. It’s also deeply troubling that it’s that very type of influence Wall Street had with George W. Bush, and we all know the end to that story. If we’ve learned anything from the economic meltdown caused by Wall Street’s greed, it’s that when corporate insiders get too close to government power, working people pay the price.

Grammy winner Steve Earle gave up Dr. Pepper to urge the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group to  negotiate a fair contract with workers at Motts, and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,300 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.

WORK STOPPAGES
RWDSU/UFCW, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group: Striking members of Retail, Warehouse and Department Store Union/UFCW (RWDSU/UFCW) Local 220 have won the support of Grammy winner Steve Earle, who is urging Dr. Pepper Snapple Group to negotiate a fair contract with the Mott’s workers and says that until then he will not drink his beloved Dr. Pepper. More than 300 workers went on strike May 23 to fight what they say is a highly profitable company just trying to take advantage of the weak economy by imposing wage and benefits cuts. To find out more about their struggle for justice and how you can help, visit www.nobadapples.com.

TNG-CWA, Albany Times Union: A victory for 11 workers at New York’s Albany Times Union when a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative law judge ordered the newspaper to rehire the workers who were fired last year. The Albany Newspaper Guild (TNG-CWA) applauded the judge’s determination that the paper violated the law when it declared an impasse and laid off the workers without notice to the union.

ICWUC/UFCW, Alliant Techsystems: Striking workers at ballistics manufacturer Alliant Techsystems Inc. in Rocket Center, W. Va., last week voted to return to work on a day-to-day basis as negotiations continue. The 700 members of the International Chemical Workers Union Council/UFCW (ICWUC/UFCW) went on strike when their previous contract expired Aug. 15.

NEGOTIATIONS
ATU, Twin Cities Metropolitan Council: Transit workers in the Twin Cities voted overwhelmingly to reject a two-year offer from the Metropolitan Council. The 2,200 members of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1005 could not accept the wage freeze and increased health care costs.

UNITEHERE!, Multiple Hilton hotels: Hotel workers at four Chicago Hilton hotels voted overwhelmingly in favor of authorizing a strike. The members of UNITEHERE! locals 1 and 450 say the hotel chain continues to use the down economy as an excuse to demand cuts despite improvements in business.

CWA, AT&T East and AT&T Advertising Solutions: Members of Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1298 are celebrating a three-year tentative agreement reached after nearly 18 months of tough negotiations with AT&T. The deal, if ratified, will cover more than 3,500 workers at AT&T East and AT&T Advertising Solutions and will be retroactive to April 5, 2009.

MNA-NNU, Multiple Duluth hospitals: Nurses at St. Luke’s Hospital and St. Mary’s-Duluth Clinic in Duluth, Minn., last Wednesday rejected the hospitals’ offers and authorized a one-day strike. The 1,300 nurses are members of the Minnesota Nurses Associatio-NNU (MNA-NNU).

SETTLEMENTS
IBEW, Verizon Communications: Members of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 824 in Tampa, Fla., on Friday ratified a new three-year contract with Verizon Communications Inc. BNA Daily Labor Report (subscription required) reports the deal covers 3,600 technicians and customer service representatives.

USW, Western Forest Products: 2,400 members of United Steelworkers (USW) locals 1-1937 and 1-85 in British Columbia ratified a four-year agreement with Western Forest Products. The pact includes a provision granting USW organizers access to nonunion worksites.

IBEW, Frontier Communications: Workers at Frontier Communications, formerly Verizon, in Oregon and Washington ratified a three-year contract retroactive to May 23. BNA Daily Labor Report (subscription required) reports that the contract covers 1,180 members of IBEW Local 89.

UFCW, Kroger Co.: Some 2,000 grocery workers at 18 mid-Atlantic stores ratified a new contract with Kroger Co. The workers are members of UFCW Local 204.

Disclaimer: This information is being provided for your information only.  As it is compiled from published news reports, not from individual unions, we cannot vouch for either its completeness or accuracy; readers who desire further information should directly contact the union involved.