Daily Kos: Daily Kos Labor

This week in the war on workers: California needs to take action on charter school fraud and waste

Saturday Mar 03, 2018 · 3:55 PM PST

2018/03/03 · 15:55

California spends more than $6 billion a year in public money on privately run charter schools. You would think that with an investment that size, the state would want to oversee where the money is going. You’d be wrong, a new report from In the Public Interest shows. There’s plenty of evidence of fraud and waste, to the tune of $149 million that can be traced with the limited information publicly available.

It seems like every few months another absurd story breaks about California’s charter schools. Like the principal that used public money to buy expensive meals and $5,700 in flowers while moonlighting as an NBA scout for the San Antonio Spurs.

Or the Oakland charter school that gave its founder a $74,820 Mercedes GL 450 and 10 percent of the federal grant money it received for books and other student needs.

Or former charter school director and current Los Angeles school board member Ref Rodriguez allegedly authorizing hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to nonprofits he oversaw during his tenure.

But the report points beyond those glaring examples to a need for systemic reform. Currently, there aren’t enough auditors, the state can only audit charters when a county school superintendent requests it, charter school managements can do a lot to keep their practices secret, local school districts have limited authority over charters, and local decisions can be overruled by the state.

In the Public Interest recommends that California “Mandate audits designed to detect and deter fraud rather than react to it,” ”Increase accountability and transparency of charter school financial practices,” and “Give democratically elected school boards final authorizing and monitoring authority.”

West Virginia teachers reject deal and stay on strike

By Laura Clawson

Friday Mar 02, 2018 · 11:29 AM PST

2018/03/02 · 11:29

Jacob Staggers, a sixth-grade English teacher at South Middle School in Morgantown, W.Va., holds up a sign outside the state Senate chambers at the Capitol in Charleston, W.Va., on Thursday, March 1, 2018. Teachers returned to the Capitol to pressure lawmakers to push through teacher pay raises and monitor progress on a task force that will eventually address their insurance coverage. (AP Photo/John Raby)

Striking West Virginia teachers were to go back to class on Thursday, according to a deal that was announced Tuesday evening. But the teachers voted with their feet and schools across the state are still closed on Friday. Teachers cite their lack of trust that the state legislature will follow through and give them the 5 percent raise Gov. Jim Justice promised, but pay isn't the major issue for many:

Teachers in West Virginia stressed to me on Tuesday that the salary issue pales in comparison to the key problem that prompted the walk-out: the rising costs associated with the state’s health-insurance system, the Public Employees Insurance Agency, typically referred to by its acronym PEIA. “[People] see us out here and think it’s money—they think it’s only about the pay raise. It is so not about the pay raise,” Annette Jordan, a teacher at Hedgesville High in Berkeley County, told me as she picketed in front of the school’s campus along Route 9. Holding a sign that read, “I’d take a bullet for YOUR child but PEIA WON’T cover it,” she explained that because of structural changes to the health-insurance system, her family’s monthly premiums would more than double starting July 1. An agreement hasn’t yet been reached on PEIA; Justice said on Tuesday that he’s going to appoint a task force to “try to look for solutions and a permanent fix” for the health-insurance system.

Even beyond that, the teachers are concerned about the broader state of education in West Virginia. The lack of funding for the schools and the ways teachers aren’t treated as respected professionals, combined with low pay and insurance problems, make it harder to recruit and retain teachers.

Daily Kos Labor digest

By Laura Clawson

Wednesday Feb 28, 2018 · 2:00 PM PST

2018/02/28 · 14:00

● Teachers organize national Black Lives Matter week of action.

● Corporate America is suppressing wages for many workers.

● Your periodic reminder: follow @blogwood.

● Here's how the Pregnancy Discrimination Act came to be:

… a case ended up going to the Supreme Court challenging General Electric's temporary disability benefits policy for its employees and the policy which provided for income replacement during times of incapacitation due to a medical condition expressly excluded pregnancy and childbirth. And so a group of women from General Electric challenged this exclusion as being sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act and the Supreme Court disagreed with them. The Supreme Court found that because not all women have children then pregnancy is not a sex based characteristic. It was just another kind of medical condition that the company had decided not to cover. In the infamous words of the court they divided the people covered under the policy as "pregnant and non-pregnant" persons.

Outrage ensued, and Congress took action.

● Portland, Oregon’s Burgerville just keeps firing its union-supporting workers.

● Disney World workers are struggling to get by on their low pay, even with a union to have their backs:

In an unprecedented challenge to Walt Disney Co., a coalition of 11 Disneyland unions is calling on the resort to raise its base wage to $20 an hour after a survey of 5,000 workers found many were hard-pressed to pay for food and medical expenses and 11 percent said they experienced homelessness in the past two years.

According to a 125-page report “Working for the Mouse,” to be unveiled at a town hall of union members at the Anaheim Sheraton Park Hotel on Wednesday, Feb. 28, federal census and economic data show the average hourly wage for Disneyland resort workers dropped to $13.36 from $15.80 in inflation-adjusted dollars between 2000 and 2017.

Of 17,000 workers represented by the 11 unions, 85 percent now earn less than $15 an hour with more than half earning less than $12, below the poverty line for a family of four, according to a team of researchers at Occidental College and the Economic Roundtable, a Los Angeles nonprofit that drafted the report at the unions’ behest.

West Virginia teachers get a win, but is the fight over?

By Laura Clawson

Wednesday Feb 28, 2018 · 12:09 PM PST

2018/02/28 · 12:09

David Reed, left, a teacher at Barrackville Elementary School, was part of the 1990 strike, and returned to almost the same spot outside the school, Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018, in Barrackville, W.Va., to protest PEIAâ€ˆand legislative changes. West Virginia public school teachers launched a statewide walkout Thursday that canceled classes in all 55 counties, protesting over pay hikes signed by the governor hours earlier that the teachers say don't go far enough. (Tammy Shriver/Times-West Virginian via AP)

The West Virginia teachers strike is ending … probably. Tuesday night, Gov. Jim Justice announced a deal for the teachers to get a five percent pay raise, with other state workers getting three percent. But, NPR reported, “it remains unknown whether leaders of the House and Senate will go along with the deal.” And it’s not clear that the teachers were satisfied, either. Health care was a key issue in their strike, and that remains unresolved, though Justice promised a task force to work on it.

The takeaway here is so mixed: immediate 5% raise and frozen PEIA is much better than the 5%-over-5-years and doubling insurance costs that caused the strike. But teachers and coaches I've talked tonight aren't happy. Some are even talking of picketing again tomorrow #55strong
— Scott Heins (@scottheins) February 28, 2018

UPDATE. Just spoke to a WV teacher: "All hell's breaking loose." Many teachers unsatisfied with deal, furious with gov and union leaders. Feel like other public workers got thrown under bus with lower raises. Angry there's no fix for health care. It sounds like a real mess.
— Dave Jamieson, LLC (@jamieson) February 28, 2018

State Sen. Richard Ojeda also expressed skepticism that the promised five percent raise would ever materialize, saying “Until I see a bill that is on paper that is going through the House and the Senate, it’s an empty promise.”

So we’ll see. Getting a Republican governor to back down to the extent that Justice did is a remarkable show of power by the teachers—but there are serious issues unresolved, and the follow-through on what they’ve been promised will tell the real story.

Trump administration to states: Stop cracking down on predatory student loan companies

By Laura Clawson

Tuesday Feb 27, 2018 · 11:40 AM PST

2018/02/27 · 11:40

STANFORD, CA - JUNE 15: Graduating Stanford University students partcipate in the "Wacky Walk" before the start of the 123rd Stanford commencement ceremony June 15, 2014 in Stanford, California. Microsoft founder and chairman Bill Gates and wife Melinda Gates shared the stage to deliver the commencement speech to Stanford University graduates. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

States are increasingly stepping in to protect student borrowers from predatory loan collection companies, and the Trump administration is riding in to the rescue—of the loan companies, not the students.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is preparing to issue a declaration that companies collecting federal student loans are off limits for state lawmakers and regulators. The “notice of interpretation” argues that only the federal government, not the states, has the authority to oversee federal student loan servicers, according to a draft of the document obtained by POLITICO. That includes industry giants like Navient and Nelnet. [...]

But consumer advocates and nearly half of the nation’s attorneys general disagree, arguing that states have the right to oversee companies operating within their borders that collect loan payments from their residents.

The industry’s lobbying efforts last year drew criticism from a group of 25 state attorneys general, led by New York’s Eric Schneiderman. In a letter, the attorneys general urged DeVos “to reject an ongoing campaign by student loan servicers and debt collectors to secure immunity for themselves from state-level oversight and enforcement.”

The Education Department “cannot sweep away state laws that apply to student loan servicers and debt collectors,” said the letter, which was also signed by a handful of GOP attorneys general, including Ken Paxton of Texas, Herbert Slatery of Tennessee and Cynthia Coffman of Colorado.

In other words, if it’s states and the little people on one side and giant loan companies on the other, the Trump Education Department, representing the supposedly populist president from the supposed party of states’ rights, is definitely supporting the giant loan companies. But it’s going to be a fight, and a fight that at least a few state-level Republicans are willing to join.

Trump appointee's conflict of interest forces labor board to toss anti-worker ruling

By Laura Clawson

Tuesday Feb 27, 2018 · 6:59 AM PST

2018/02/27 · 06:59

NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 10: A construction worker holds up a sign as fellow workers carry empty caskets representing workers killed on a construction site during a rally in lower Manhattan to demand a safer workplace on December 10, 2015 in New York City. Thousands of workers, clergy, public officials and advocates attended the afternoon rally which ended at City Hall and demanded new measures to protect workers in the building trade in Manhattan. In 2015, 16 workers died while on the job at a construction site in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

A Trump appointee’s conflict of interest has bitten the Trump administration’s anti-worker agenda in the ass. The National Labor Relations Board has vacated its Hy-Brand decision after the agency’s inspector general said that board member William Emanuel should not have voted due to his conflict of interest.

Hy-Brand reversed an Obama-era decision which expanded rights for workers directly employed by staffing agencies or franchise owners—under Browning-Ferris, companies couldn’t escape responsibility for the workers in their factories or warehouses or restaurants just by making sure someone else signed the paychecks. If a company determined the terms and conditions of employment, it could be treated as a joint employer. That had major implications for the huge temp worker industry and for the heavily franchised fast food industry, too.

Emanuel voted on Hy-Brand despite his former law firm having been involved in the earlier case, and that vote and that conflict of interest proved a problem:

In a report issued Feb. 9, NLRB Inspector General David Berry said Emanuel should not have cast a vote overturning Browning-Ferris. While Hy-Brand involved different companies, Berry wrote that the way the NLRB handled it amounted to a “do over” in which the new case was “merely the vehicle” to reconsider the old one—which at the time was still pending in federal court. Berry said the issue revealed “a serious and flagrant problem and/or deficiency” in the NLRB’s handling of conflict-of-interest issues.

The order vacating Hy-Brand was issued by a 3-0 vote in which Emanuel didn’t participate, according to a statement Monday from the agency, which said the move was made “in light of the determination by the board’s designated agency ethics official that member Emanuel is, and should have been, disqualified from participating in this proceeding.”

“This is, so far as I’m aware, unprecedented,” said former NLRB chair William Gould IV, a professor emeritus at Stanford’s law school. “There is no decision on a matter of such high import that has been vacated based upon a breach of conflict-of-interest rules.”

Don’t doubt the determination of Trump appointees and the Trump administration generally to find ways to hurt workers—they’re likely to look for another chance at a do-over and the House has already passed a bill overturning Browning-Ferris—but it’s nice to see rampant corruption and conflicts of interest get in Team Trump’s way for a change.

This week in the war on workers: West Virginia teachers walk out, closing schools statewide

By Laura Clawson

Saturday Feb 24, 2018 · 3:55 PM PST

2018/02/24 · 15:55

West Virginia teachers shut down public schools across the state on Thursday and Friday when they walked out over pay and benefits. The state currently ranks 48th in teacher pay, ahead of just Mississippi, Oklahoma, and South Dakota. The teachers had had enough:

Ms. Pinkerman, a single mother with a daughter in college, said she continued to look for jobs in neighboring Ohio and Kentucky, where the pay was better. She said the 4 percent combined raise, which was reduced from the 5 percent overall increase passed by the Senate, was “a huge slap in the face.”

“College is expensive. There’s always things you have to buy, constantly,” Ms. Pinkerman said. “It’s difficult whenever my premium keeps going up. My deductible’s high. It’s just really hard to make it.”

The average salary for teachers in West Virginia is $45,622 a year, well below the national average of $58,353. When the teachers last struck statewide, in 1990, their pay ranked 49th in the nation.

But those weren't the only issues:

Randolph, of the teachers union, cited pay and benefits as two key items that are easy to understand, but said the strike was about more than that.

“This is a cumulative strike,” she said. “I mean, the pay and the benefits have been problems for years, and there’s constantly been the promises of, ‘We’ll take care of this, we’ll take care of this.’ It’s finally gotten to the point where, you know, the promises aren’t enough.”

Who knows what, if anything, will change, but the teachers certainly made the point that they are motivated and united and able to make themselves heard.

Disney is using 'tax cut bonus' to try to force union workers to accept low pay

By Laura Clawson

Tuesday Feb 20, 2018 · 1:06 PM PST

2018/02/20 · 13:06

Disney got some positive press for saying it would give its workers a $1,000 tax cut bonus—but it’s using the bonus to try to force some of its lower-paid workers to accept a bad deal at the bargaining table. The entertainment giant carefully specified that the bonuses would go to union workers “currently working under existing union contracts”—and that doesn’t apply to everyone.

They say rank-and-file workers in December voted 93% against Disney's most recent offer of a 50-cent-an-hour raise over the next two years, coupled with a $200 signing bonus. Most unionized Disney World employees make less than $11 an hour, according to the union.

Only 3,000 make more than $15 an hour. The union says the average hourly wage for its members is $10.71.

Eric Clinton, president of the Unite Here local at the theme park, said Disney is forcing the union to accept that same rejected offer for its members to receive the $1,000 bonus due to other Disney employees. [...]

He said the union has filed an unfair labor practice complaint alleging that the demand amounts to punishing members for engaging in legally protected contract negotiations.

This maneuver by Disney shows what a load of bull these “tax cut bonuses” are to begin with—Republicans cut the corporate tax forever, but Disney isn’t offering its workers a raise that will be with them next year and the year after. It’s offering a one-time bonus while trying to low-ball on wages. Not just while trying to low-ball on wages—to use the bonus as bait to get workers to accept low pay. We see you, Disney.

This week in the war on workers: Who will be hurt most if Supreme Court rules against public unions?

By Laura Clawson

Saturday Feb 17, 2018 · 3:55 PM PST

2018/02/17 · 15:55

Who’s going to lose out the most if (when) the Supreme Court deals a body blow to public sector unions in the Janus case?

While the outcome of the case will affect about 17 million public-sector workers across the country, black women in particular could be hurt by Janus, as they are disproportionately represented in public sector jobs. They make up 17.7 percent of public-sector workers, or about 1.5 million workers.

Black women have traditionally faced a double pay gap—a gender pay gap and a racial wage gap. EPI research has shown that black women are paid only 65 cents of the dollar that their white male counterparts are paid. However, unions help reduce these pay gaps. Working black women in unions are paid 94.9 percent of what their black male counterparts make, while nonunion black women are paid just 91 percent of their counterparts.

Wounding that is part of the Republican payoff for stealing a Supreme Court seat.

Fast food workers mark fiftieth anniversary of Memphis sanitation strike with day of action

By Laura Clawson

Monday Feb 12, 2018 · 1:02 PM PST

2018/02/12 · 13:02

MIAMI, FL - NOVEMBER 10: Cecelia O'Brien (R) joins other workers to protest outside a McDonald's restaurant on November 10, 2015 in Miami, Florida. The protesters are demanding action from state legislators and presidential candidates to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

February 12 is the fiftieth anniversary of the Memphis sanitation workers strike, and to mark the occasion, thousands of fast food workers across the country walked off the job. In Memphis itself:

Seeing the rally nearby, 28-year-old Burger King employee Robin Curtis said she made a split-second decision to walk out on her job of about six months, telling her manager, "Time for a change."

"To make a change, if I have to quit, I will," said Curtis, who is working multiple jobs as she raised two children in South Memphis.

In Kansas City:

Bridget Hughes, a local mom of three, has worked in fast-food for 10 years. She spoke at the rally.

“Low wage workers today here in Kansas City and across the nation are carrying on the tradition of Dr. King and the sanitation workers. Every day, working people are overcoming our divisions and organizing together to win better for all of us. We know that McDonald’s and these billion-dollar companies are trying to rig the political and economic system against us. Are we going to let them do that? If we are going to win, we must use our strength in numbers and come together as one people.”

Check out more scenes from the strikes and rallies below.

This week in the war on workers: What do minimum wage increases mean for jobs?

By Laura Clawson

Saturday Feb 10, 2018 · 3:55 PM PST

2018/02/10 · 15:55

A study last year claimed that Seattle’s minimum wage had hurt low-income workers, a claim that went against both the vast majority of previous minimum wage studies and Seattle's booming economy. But a new study, co-authored by UMass economics professor Arindrajit Dube and incorporating 137 minimum wage increases, finds—again—that raises don’t hurt jobs:

On average, minimum-wage increases eliminated jobs paying below the new minimum, but added jobs paying at or above the new minimum. The two changes effectively cancel each other out. [...]

The decline in jobs paying less than the new minimum wage is offset by an increase in those paying more. Jobs further up the pay scale are largely unaffected, as economists would expect — the minor fluctuations beyond $4 above the new minimum wage are not statistically significant, the study found.

Yet another data point—or 137 of them—for voters (looking at you, Massachusetts) and lawmakers alike to keep in mind as they consider future minimum wage increases.

DeVos whines about 'hurtful' criticism on same day Education Department locks out protesters

By Laura Clawson

Friday Feb 09, 2018 · 10:41 AM PST

2018/02/09 · 10:41

WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 20: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos attends an event to celebrate Congress passing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act with Republican members of the House and Senate on the South Lawn of the White House December 20, 2017 in Washington, DC. The tax bill is the first major legislative victory for the GOP-controlled Congress and Trump since he took office almost one year ago. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) — Betsy DeVos

A group of union leaders, teachers, parents and students tried to deliver a report card to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos now that she’s been on the job for a year … but they were locked out. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen Garcia were at the head of a group of about 100 protesters bearing 80,000 failing report cards from people across the country, but though they’d requested an appointment, they were literally locked out of the Department of Education for not having an appointment.

In the report cards, parents and educators leveled criticisms like “education is not and should not be treated as a business,” and “Ms. DeVos should think about the children whose lives she is making infinitely harder with her actions.” [...]

“This is a remarkable moment,” Ms. Weingarten told the crowd, adding of the department: “They knew that teachers and parents and students from all over the country have actually taken their time to say what is going on in their schools. And here on Betsy DeVos’s anniversary, this is the first time that I have ever been to this building where we were not let in — where the educators, where the students, where the parents of America were locked out of the federal Department of Education.”

Eskelsen Garcia said, outside the locked doors, that “she is showing us who she is and we have always believed exactly who she is.” Perhaps DeVos’s staff were trying to protect her delicate fee-fees, as she has recently said that:

“It's hurtful to me when I’m criticized for not upholding the rights of students, the civil rights of students,” DeVos told a small group of media outlets, as reported by Politico.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” she added. “I have to turn it back around and say why do I keep getting criticized for that? I mean, nothing that I’ve done would suggest otherwise.”

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