This Labor Day, Wake Up Walmart, along with a large coalition of labor, environmental and community groups, are challenging Walmart to live up to their PR promises and join us in supporting the American Values Agenda for Change at Walmart.
To help with the effort, Wake Up Wal-Mart is airing two TV ads in major cities. Check out the first here and the second below the fold:
Monroe is the place to be this Labor Day weekend, and the highlight of the day is the dedication of the new neon sign at the Monroe County Labor History Museum, in downtown Monroe on Saturday, the only labor museum in the state.
The museum in the historic Phillip Murray Building at 41 W. Front St. - named in honor of Philip Murray, the first president of the United Steelworkers of America - is dedicated to Michigan's long and rich history of organized labor. Organized labor brought us the weekend, the 40 hour week, overtime pay, workplace safety standards, health insurance, unemployment insurance, worker's compensation and decent wages.
Lt. Gov. John Cherry will be the keynote speaker at 5 p.m., but before that there will be tours, an cream social and a moonwalk beginning at noon.
The Monroe County Council CIO Social and Welfare Association has been working on the restoration and improvement of the only labor museum in the state since 2001, and in February of 2007 it opened for business. There have been monetary donations - and they certainly can use more, but most of the work was done by the donated labor of union skilled tradesmen. It has been a work in progress, and a labor of love.
Bill Conner, the president of the Monroe County Council CIO Social and Welfare Association and the museum curator, said one of the biggest missions of the museum will be to educate children on the role labor has played in creating the middle class and improving the lot of workers; something that has been taken for granted.
But that's not all of the celebrations going on in in Monroe on Saturday to celebrate the huge contribution of organized labor. A 5-mile Labor Day walk from Sterling State Park to St. Mary's Park will step off at 10 a.m.
The downtown barbecue will begin around noon, and downtown restaurants will set up in tents so festival-goers can enjoy outdoor dining. Music will also start at noon on a stage at E. Front and Washington and go into the night. Also throughout the day, local artists will set up booths to sell their creations and nonprofit agencies will be on hand to tell visitors about their services. There will be face-painting and other activities.
Labor Day is, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. On June 28 1894 Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.
There has been a lot of talk this week about the surprising move by Walmart to publically support President Obama’s health care reform plan, supposedly positioning themselves as a
leader in the fight to bring health care to all Americans. As we mentioned in a post on our blog
yesterday, this might be easier to swallow if Walmart had any history of leading by example. Instead, they usually do just the opposite.
Given
Walmart’s long record of trying to build a positive
reputation on ineffective work-arounds to health care coverage
for employee, the recent revelations about sacrificing quality for cheap perescription drugs, and their deceptive PR campaign that severely overstated their workers’ health
care coverage, it’s not hard to understand our skepticism. [get the details in the extended entry]
Bobo says wage theft in America is the crime wave no one talks about, and she is right. Billions of dollars' worth of wages are stolen from millions of workers in the United States every year. The scope of these abuses is as staggering as it is wrong - paying workers far less than the legal minimum wage, purposefully misclassifying employees as independent contractors, and illegally denying workers overtime pay. But now people are starting to take notice -- and it is my hope that they do so starting with this very good book.
Chapter 5: Organizing to Stop Wage Theft: Why Unions Matter, starts with a story of 39 year-old Mercedes Herrerra. She came to this country from Mexico, lives in Houston since 1994 and works as a janitor for staffing agencies cleaning buildings and sports facilities. Bobo says she was never paid for overtime!
Her employers would tell her, "There is no overtime. After 40 hours you work for someone else." (This is not legal).
The story continues that after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the worker was hired by a cleaning firm contracted to clean the Reliance Center. She was in charge of keeping the bathrooms clean. Her staffing agency charged her $100 per week for her shoes, gloves, masks, cleaning supplies, and shuttle rides to the Center. She wasn't told when she was hired that such charges would be taken from her paycheck. As a result, her hourly wage fell significantly below minimum wage. (This is not legal).
The lower paid workers in our country are treated like crap. Union activists have been saying this for a long time. Some claim we blow it out of proportion or distort the reality -- for Herrerra, according to Bobo, worse than the wages stolen was her ill treatment. Managers would scream at her and her colleagues. Some would tell workers they were old and worthless.
You can read more here and here. Ted Kennedy has said the book offers "bold, practical, and progressive solutions for how policymakers and advocates can end the growing crisis of wage theft in America."
(Promoted because I'm tired of hearing the "EFCA takes away the ballot" nonsense. - promoted by djtyg)
Shilling for the Michigan Manufacturer's Association, the local business publication "MiBiz" recently carried a column by Chuck Hadden, the president of the organization who repeats the most oft-told lie about the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) (the truth, presumably, is still putting its shoes on):
While reading some messages on a local board I noticed an ad for the group "Lakeshore Union Free," yet another cowardly front group with slick website loaded with stock photography and propaganda about unions (particularly about the Employee Free Choice Act).
There's been a huge shift in power in recent years from labor to capital: corporate profits have been rising much faster than wages for some time now. It makes sense that capital would make use of its newfound power to reduce labor costs in a deflationary environment of rising unemployment. During the boom, companies laid off workers because those workers demanded, and cost, too much money. Now that workers have lost their negotiating leverage, we might start seeing more across-the-board pay cuts.
Drum summed it up perfectly: Heads I win, tails you lose! In boom times you get laid off, in slack times you get your pay cut.
Labor may finally be gaining an ally in Washington. Rep. Hilda Solis of California will be nominated as labor secretary by President-elect Barack Obama. Solis co-sponsored the Employee Free Choice Act in the 110th Congress and earned a 100% rating from the AFL-CIO last year.
Solis is 100 percent in labor's camp, and she won't need training wheels to get up-to-speed. What we don't know yet is how big a voice she will have when it comes to going toe-to-toe with the Commerce, Treasury and other Administration voices for business.
She'd better have a huge voice capable of shouting down the likes of Rick Berman and the "Center for Union Facts." Berman runs his own lobbying shop and said he expects to raise almost $30 million for an anti-labor coalition hoping to kill the Employee Free Choice Act.
Solis appears to have the passion and fight though. SEIU president Andy Stern said:
"She probably will be the labor secretary that has been on more picket lines and rallied more in support of workers rights than potentially anyone in American history."
And former Michigan Rep. David Bonior said Solis is "a terrific leader who I know first hand will work tirelessly on behalf of America's working families."
Solis sounds like a good fit. You can read more about her here.
Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama will hold a rally in Hart Plaza (Jefferson Ave. E. and Woodward Ave.), Detroit on Monday. The event is free, no ticket is required and the gates will open at 8:30 a.m. The program begins at 11:00 a.m. after the Labor Day Parade.
This is quick note to let everyone know that John Sweeney will be speaking at the Democratic National Convention around 7:30 p.m. tonight (our time). In a letter sent out from the AFL-CIO, he said the union was invited to speak because Barack Obama has made a commitment to us, and more importantly to you, to help improve our economy, give workers a free choice to join a union and ensure that everyone has the quality health care they deserve. He also said the Democratic Party platform is one of the most pro-worker platforms in recent memory.
Sweeney also added a postscript worth noting:
P.S. As a study in contrasts, when the Republicans hold their convention in Minneapolis next week, there won't be any labor leaders that I'm aware of addressing their delegates. And even more galling, their opening session is on Labor Day. If that's not a slap in the face to America's workers, I'm not sure what one is.
That's not surprising. In a debate last fall, McCain said that while unions played "a very important role in the history of the country," unions "have been serious excesses." And more recently, McCain said the fundamentals of the economy are strong. That's easy for him to say. McCain has about a dozen homes, a private plane, and the best health care his millions of dollars can buy. The reality is quite different for many Americans:
Earlier today, the U.S. Census' poverty figures revealed just how far the American economy has sunk under Bush-McCain policies: 37.3 million people were living in poverty in 2007, and 45.7 million, or 15.3 percent of the population, lack health insurance - 6 million more than when Bush took office 2001.
As Sweeney will say tonight, we deserve an America that works for everyone, not just big business.
Union nurses at Genesys Regional Medical Center in Grand Blanc fought hard to hold on to their middle-class jobs and won. The nurses, members of Teamsters Local 332, have been working under an extended contract since their old one expired in early May. They even held a rally where James Hoffa led hundreds of supporters in a chant of "We want a contract!" He was joined on the stage by Democratic union supporters Lt. Gov. John Cherry and Sen John Gleason.
Genesys had proposed a two-year wage freeze with a 1 percent increase in the third year. They also wanted to raise nurse to patient ratios, have the ability to switch their shifts with only ten days notice, and work part-timers full time hours. After weeks of negotiations, the hospital and union reached an agreement. These are the details:
Their number-one issue was patient safety and maintaining nurse-to-patient ratios, and they achieved their goal.
Another surprise is the economic package in the contract. The union says the hospital had proposed a pay freeze, then a one- and two-percent raise. The union fought against that and won.
The first year of the deal calls for the a four-percent pay raise, the second year, a five-percent pay raise. In years three and four, the nurses will get four-percent annual pay increases.
The nurses have until 9:00 p.m. tomorrow to vote on the contract which sounds fairly decent. They won't be getting rich, but it will help them tread water while prices for gas, food and other necessities continue to rise.
Kudos to the nurses and Teamsters for hanging tough and negotiating a good contract. The middle-class thanks you.
We all know the hit worker's wages take because of free-trade, but there's also a connection between global warming and free-trade according to the Sierra Club.
In addition, specific trade rules can inhibit the greening of our economy and the implementation of smart energy policies. Free trade has most significantly contributed to global warming in the following ways:
By promoting a 'race to the bottom' mentality where businesses are encouraged to relocate to countries with weak or non-existent environmental and labor laws.
By creating unsustainable consumption patterns and an onslaught of 'cheap' products that do not reflect their real cost in terms of their environmental or social impact. For example, the average American meal is now shipped approximately 1,500 miles from field to dinner plate (about the same distance as from Chicago to Boise).1 In climate-terms this means 435 fossil fuel calories to fly a 5-calorie strawberry.2
By sharply increasing the volumes and distances of goods shipped globally via fossil-fuel burning transportation (land, air, and water). Over the past 15 years, international trade has exploded and shipping capacity has grown by 50 percent.3 Satellite photographs show that trails of pollution thousands of miles long are causing semi-permanent clouds above shipping routes in the North Atlantic, Pacific and other oceans.4
By enabling rapid deforestation, natural resource depletion, and land conversion for industry, industrial agriculture, transportation, and commerce. Deforestation --which releases stored carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions --now accounts for 1/5 of global greenhouse gas emissions5.
By its trade rules which can thwart and/ or roll back policies crafted to protect communities and the environment such as local procurement regulations, renewable energy requirements, or standards regarding environmentally friendly production methods.
By its business-biased, closed-door trade tribunals. To date trade rulings have, by and large, sided with business interests over concerns for the environment.
Click here to learn more and see what their suggestions are for protecting communities, workers and the environment.
GM workers in Lansing have voted to approve a new contract agreement, which covers issues such as seniority, overtime and plant conditions for the three thousand workers. The vote ends the strike that lasted about a month. About 73% of the workers voted in favor of the contract.
Here's some followup information on the rally led by Teamsters President Jim Hoffa in support of the nurses from Genesys Regional Medical Center in Grand Blanc. (They're working under a 30-day extended contract after a deadline passed without a new contract. Genesys has proposed a two-year wage freeze with a 1 percent increase in the third year.)
The rally drew hundreds of supporters together and Hoffa led the crowd in a chant of "We want a contract!" He was joined on the stage by Democratic union supporters Lt. Gov. John Cherry and Sen John Gleason.
"This whole situation feels like David and Goliath. But we don't need more slingshots - we need bigger rocks. James P. Hoffa is our really big rock," Teamsters Local 332 President Nina Bugbee said shortly before the rally to support about 1,000 Genesys nurses embroiled in contract negotiations since Feb. 21. [...]
"This is bigger than what's going on at Genesys. This is about an attack on workers in every industry," said Bugbee. "Mr. Hoffa is here to lock arms with all unions to expose corporate greed and to help hang on to the American Dream of middle-class America."
This is bigger than what's going on at Genesys - or even American Axle. Whether blue collar or white collar, nearly seven in 10 Americans are worried about maintaining their standard of living. They can't afford to go backwards by giving up wages or accepting a pay freeze. They're struggling to pay for rising gas, food and health care on the money they're earning today.
It's not just wages that are under attack either...
Last month, Genesys Regional Medical Center outsourced a dozen unionized biomedical technicians without warning, and now more than 1,000 nurses - all members of Teamsters Local 332 - are working under a 30-day extended contract after a Friday deadline passed without a new contract in place.
A rally is being held at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, May 14, at the Trillium Center in Grand Blanc in support of the nurses. Teamsters President Jim Hoffa and Michigan Lt. Gov John Cherry will be on hand to lead it.
The nurses are fighting to maintain low nurse-to-patient ratios and to continue quality, affordable health care to patients at Genesys, which is part of Ascension Health System. Though the company has been racking up steep profits and executive pay has escalated, it wants to cut Genesys nurses own health care benefits and freeze wages in an effort to break the union.
This is a classic case of backward corporate priorities, Hoffa said. To obtain even higher profits, Ascension is going after our Teamster nurses -- at the expense of patient care in the community. Ascension needs to bargain in good faith and negotiate a contract that is fair to their nurses and their patients. Ascension must be reminded that patients come first.
Also scheduled to speak are Local 332 President Nina Bugbee and Duane Zuckschwerdt, Director of United Auto Workers Region 1C.
According to the union, "Genesys has proposed a two-year wage freeze with a 1 percent increase in the third year and changes in health insurance plans including increased co-pays and decreased sick-leave benefits for part-time workers."
Genesys Hospital nurses are the lowest paid in the Flint area according to this employee interviewed by WNEM.com. If you're in the Grand Blanc area on Wednesday, drop by the rally and show the nurses your support.
We need to support the AA strikers because the next worker being asked to give up wages and benefits could be you, or you, or me.
For a dozen biomedical technicians at Genesys Regional Medical Center in Grand Blanc, members of Teamsters Local 332, that statement hit home on Friday when their jobs were outsourced without any advance warning. According to a news report on WJRT-TV, this is how the employees were given the news:
Security officers escorted the laid-off workers from hospital property Friday.
According to an e-mail sent to employees, the hospital plans to outsource those jobs to save more than $280,000 this fiscal year. The move leaves a dozen biomedical technicians without a job and the Teamsters union fears more cuts are on the way.
Union officials have filed a grievance, saying they had no warning other than a fax on Friday morning.
"It should have been negotiated with us and we should have been notified," said Angela Oberman of Teamsters Local 332. "They had them turn in their keys, badges, cell phones and escorted out of the building. They weren't even allowed to go back into the department and get their personal effects out of there."
What a cowardly way to handle this situation. No warning they were about to lose their jobs and they learn their fate in an e-mail. And although security escorts have become standard practice, these employees weren't even allowed to retrieve their personal belongings. They were treated like common criminals according to Douglas Montague, one of the workers interviewed by WJRT.
Click the link and watch the interview. It's heartbreaking. Montague worked at Genesys for 30 years and had nothing but kind words to say about the hospital. He expected to retire from there in 7 years and said he doesn't know where to go from here. Sadly, that's the state of employer-employee relationships in this country. Workers aren't valued for their loyalty and hard work. The name of the game is labor at the cheapest wages possible.
Teamster officials fear these layoffs are part of a larger effort to bust the union. Local 332 represents about 400 technical workers (who negotiated a new contract a year ago) and 1,200 registered nurses. Negotiations are currently underway for a new contract for the nurses. Not surprisingly, union officials say they plan to consult legal counsel to determine if the employees' rights were violated.
Genesys did throw the laid-off employees a crumb a la Circuit City - the fired workers are welcome to apply for a job through the new company, TriMedx (at lower wages of course).
Take note, John McCain: Labor is calling for a general strike against the war. Specifically, the Vermont AFL-CIO is throwing their support behind the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), who announced it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1st to demand an immediate end to the war and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East.
Here's the VT AFL-CIO press release [my emphasis]:
The Executive Board of the Vermont AFL-CIO, representing thousands of workers in countless sectors across Vermont, have unanimously passed an historic resolution expressing their "unequivocal" support for the first US labor strike against the war in Iraq.
Montpelier, VT - The Executive Board of the Vermont AFL-CIO, representing thousands of workers in countless sectors across Vermont, have unanimously passed an historic resolution expressing their "unequivocal" support for the first US labor strike against the war in Iraq. The strike, being organized by the Longshore Caucus of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), will seek to shutdown all west coast ports for a period of 8 hours on the day of May 1st 2008. The Vermont AFL-CIO is the first state labor federation to publicly back the Longshoremen; other state federations are expected to follow.
The resolution, among other things, calls the war in Iraq "immoral, unwanted, and unnecessary", states that the vast majority of working Vermonters oppose the war, and contends that the war will only be brought to an end by "the direct actions of working people." Many other Vermont labor unions and organizations, including the Vermont Workers' Center, have also made official statements condemning the war.
The resolution also calls on working Vermonters to "discuss the actions of the Longshoremen, to wear anti-war buttons, and to take various actions of their own design and choosing in their workplace on May 1st, 2008."
"Workers in Vermont and all across this nation are against this war. We have already demanded that the government end it, but they have consistently failed to heed our words. Therefore working people are beginning to take concrete steps to make our resistance known. If the war does not immediately end we, the unions and working people of Vermont, will also be compelled to take appropriate action," said David Van Deusen, a District Vice President of the Vermont AFL-CIO.
Traven Leyshon, President of the Washington, Lamoille & Orange County Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, said, "Vermont labor has long called for an end to this war. The untold billions being spent on the war could instead be used to address our domestic needs. It is working people who pay the cost of the war - in some cases with our lives, but always with our sacrifices."
Labor looks out for us. The same can't be said for John McCain and friends.
You can read the full text of the resolution here.
A strike at Alliance Interiors was announced at 9 pm on Tue. April 15, 2008. Workers at the plant voted the UAW as bargaining agent for them in April of last year. The profitable company has dragged its feet throughout negotiations. This strike is likely to stop work at the nearby Delta Township Assembly plant which is supplied by Alliance.
The name of the company may be familiar because less than 2 years ago the company was given $2,550,000 in bonds from the Michigan Strategic Fund. The Michigan Strategic Fund was designed to promote smart economic growth by developing strategies and providing services to create and retain good jobs and a high quality of life according to the article linked to above.
I wonder if the cuts to wages and benefits are a part of the "high quality of life" that were part of the program. Federal, state and local taxes were waived from the bond to help insure that "good jobs" would stay local. I don't believe that this was the vision of the program and it looks like John and Jane taxpayer are getting stuck with the tab on another corporate tax break!
Hey, this is Nadia. I'm an SEIU staffer. Not sure how much this Ohio organizing debate is on the radar for folks who don't work for a union, but with the Labor Notes conference here this weekend, it's now local. Anyways, wanted to provide some context...
By now you may feel like you've heard quite enough of the back-and-forth between SEIU and the CNA over union representation of nurses and healthcare workers in Ohio. You may have also heard that the dispute runs deep and wide and goes back years and across state lines into Nevada, California, Texas and several others, and that the encounters have become more extreme.
And perhaps you're wondering-why should I care?
If this were just about CNA and SEIU, or even just about a dispute at an isolated hospital in one state, you could move on. The thing is, these struggles are not taking place in a vacuum-and what becomes of them has far-reaching impact that touches us all. At a time when the economy is bad and getting worse, and the number of workers represented by a union in this country is an anemic 12%, labor unions face a choice...and workers everywhere face the consequences.
Unions can fight for turf within the ever-shrinking pool of unionized workers, or we can get back on the offensive by reaching out to help more workers join unions to strengthen the hand of more working families.
Today marks the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's assassination in Memphis. King died fighting for labor and a living wage. He was there to support municipal sanitation workers who were striking for better pay, benefits and working conditions. King didn't die in vain. The strikers did ultimately win their strike and receive better pay, benefits and working conditions, which helped lift millions of other Americans into the middle class. However, the AFL-CIO reminds us that for all the good that came from that strike, labor rights and economic equality have been losing ground (which we know all too well here in Michigan):
Over the past three decades, however, this situation has taken a turn for the worse as both the number of jobs in manufacturing and the number of unionized jobs have declined sharply. In 1979, for example, manufacturing accounted for nearly one-quarter of all jobs in this country and about the same share of the total workforce was in a union. Today, only about one-in-10 jobs is in manufacturing, and roughly 13 percent of the workforce is in a union or represented by one at their workplace.
The decline in manufacturing employment reflects, in part, the country's massive and long-standing trade deficit. Instead of producing goods here, we now import a large share of the manufactured goods we consume.
Meanwhile, probably the most important reason for the simultaneous drop in unionization was corporate America's deliberate decision to adopt a more hostile attitude toward unions. Many firms have relocated plants overseas or in states with little union presence as part of a conscious effort to evade unions. [...]
Employers also regularly violate other aspects of the NLRA designed to protect workers' freedom to form unions. Research... has estimated that one-in-five workers actively involved in organizing a union can expect to be fired in the middle of a union organizing election.
And here in Michigan, we have the "right-to-work" crowd stirring the pot. These attacks on labor are discouraging, but as King often said, "We, as a people, will get to the promised land!"
Let me close by saying that I have the personal faith that mankind will somehow rise up to the occasion and give new directions to an age drifting rapidly to its doom. In spite of the tensions and uncertainties of this period something profoundly meaningful is taking place. Old systems of exploitation and oppression are passing away, and out of the womb of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born.
If Martin Luther King were alive today, I have no doubt he'd be openly critical of the economic inequality in our country. King believed all work has dignity and worth and it was a crime for people to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages. It's up to us to continue his fight.
