Texas AFL-CIO Takes Next Step to Expand Union Participation in Citizenship Drives
In January, delegates to the Texas AFL-CIO COPE Convention unanimously approved a far-reaching resolution calling for the state federation and affiliates to conduct citizenship drives across the state, with the long-term intent of registering new voters and changing the political environment.
On April 10, in a strategy meeting attended by union affiliates from across the state, the Texas AFL-CIO took the next step to fulfill the goals of that resolution.
We were honored to welcome as a major participant Esther Lopez, international secretary-treasurer of the United Food and Commercial Workers, whose union has done pioneering work on citizenship drives. Lopez described the initiative as “the throwdown in Texas.”
Rather than taking a “go big or go home” approach, Lopez said, unions need to “go deep” and commit to making citizenship drives “core union work” that goes hand in hand with organizing and political education. She said UFCW has done citizenship drives in big cities, but also in places such as Marshalltown, Iowa, and Tar Heel, N.C. The union has trained 700 volunteers and helped 3,000 UFCW members become citizens, Lopez said.
Lopez said citizenship drives transform the lives of working people.
Representatives from unions, central labor councils, constituency groups and allies were warm to the idea of designating members who will take responsibility for growing the program.
Allies from the Equal Justice Center, United We Dream, Casa Marianella and the Mexican Consulate detailed citizenship drives that have been held in Austin over the last few years.
The AFL-CIO passes along a startling statistic that makes Texas prime ground for union citizenship drives: Our state has more than 1 million people who are eligible to become naturalized citizens, based on an American Community Survey by the U.S. Census.
Eligible residents don’t move through the process at a high rate of speed because of cost ($725 to apply) and complexities of the application process. A growing number of employers and lenders are helping out with the expenses, either defraying costs outright or setting up manageable payment plans. As for the complexities, that’s where citizenship drives can make a giant difference.
We are not starting from ground zero. For years now, Education Austin has worked with the Texas AFL-CIO, other unions and allies in carrying out citizenship drives. Eleven Education Austin-led drives have resulted in completed applications for approximately 1,200 people, said Texas AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Montserrat Garibay, who took the lead in organizing citizenship drives when she worked at Education Austin.
The most recent one, which took place last week, resulted in 112 completed applications for naturalization. Applicants go to workshops ahead of the events to learn what information and documentation they need to fill out an application. On the day of the drive, they leave with a well-vetted application, down to a properly addressed envelope. The Austin events have generated hundreds of volunteers, including the officers and most of the staff of the Texas AFL-CIO. Few bouts with bureaucracy give us so much pleasure.
Texas AFL-CIO President Rick Levy said the next step will be to train union representatives on developing local citizenship drives. The unions and labor organizations at the meeting committed to identifying and sending such leaders for training in June or moving quickly to obtain officer approval.
Garibay emphasized the program has to be long-term. She said the potential for citizenship drives to accelerate the change happening in Texas is not around the corner.
“You’re not going to see changes in 2020,” said Garibay, who was naturalized five years ago. “It’s going to be a long process, but we have to be committed.”
Levy said the people who become citizens after going through the union process are instantly aware of the role their new status can play in their workplaces and in society. The potential is extraordinarily high, he said. “This program is an on-ramp for over 1 million people to become participating, voting Texans.”
Kenneth Quinnell Thu, 04/12/2018 - 10:45There's No Reason Not to Enter the BuildBuyUSA Video Contest
Did you know that BuildBuyUSA is sponsoring a "Make It in the USA" video contest? The competition offers four chances for you to win $5,000 by creating a short video about using your individual buying power to reward pro-union employers for recognizing working people's right to come together in union.
The great news is that the contest is for you. That's right, you have no reason not to enter the competition. I already can hear you coming up with reasons why you can't participate in the contest. Let me answer those concerns and then you can start on your path to the fame and fortune (well, a $5,000 fortune) you so richly deserve!
"Well, there's no way I qualify for this contest."
Sure, you do. All you have to do is be older than 18 and a U.S. resident.
"Creating original content is hard. How do I know the effort is worth it?"
The winners of the contest, and there are four of them, each get $5,000.
"Maybe I'm not in it for the money."
The winner of the best song also gets a recording session at the studios of the American Federation of Musicians in Los Angeles.
"I can't sing."
The contest has a category specifically for videos that aren't songs. And the winner of that category gets $5,000. Non-musical entries also are eligible for the union member-only category and the people's choice category. Your video can be anything; the only limit is your imagination.
"I'm not a union member."
You don't have to be a union member to enter the contest.
"But I am a union member. Does that mean I can't participate?"
You are welcome to participate, too. In fact, there is a separate category just for union members. At least one union member will win $5,000.
"How do I know that the judges are actually knowledgable about the music and the themes of the contest?"
You can check their credentials. The judges include actor/philanthropist/investor Ashton Kutcher, musician/activist Tom Morello, Demos President Heather McGhee, Emmy-nominated cinematographer Michael Goi, AFM Local 47 President John Acosta and musician/labor leader Dan Navarro!
"I don't do well with judges. I'm more of a people person."
Great, there is a people's choice category that will be publicily voted on. The top 20 entries that don't win the awards for best song, best non-song video and the union member category will be put to a public vote, with the winner getting $5,000.
"Nobody will want to listen to my original song, with people doing cover songs and such written by famous musicians."
The contest is limited to original material. There is one big exception. UNITE HERE (the modern International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union [ILGWU]) has invited participants to remake or sample their song "(Look for) the Union Label."
"I don't really have the time to make a video."
The video can't be longer than four minutes. And the submission deadline is April 25. That's two weeks away. Surely you have the time to record a four-minute video in a two-week timespan.
"I have no idea what the video should be about."
No problem. BuildBuyUSA has provided you with the themes.
"OK, well all that sounds good, but I don't know how to get more information about the contest."
BuildBuyUSA has you covered with this handy-dandy website!
So what are you waiting for? Get to work on your video today!
Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 04/11/2018 - 11:3411 Things You Need to Know on Equal Pay Day
Equal Pay Day calls attention to the persistent moral and economic injustice working women face. For a woman to earn as much as a man, she has to work a full year, plus more than a hundred extra days, all the way to April 10. The problem is even worse for women of color, LGBTQ women and part-time workers.
Here are 11 things you need to know on Equal Pay Day:
1. Equal Pay Day for women of color is even later: For black women, Equal Pay Day comes later because they are paid, on average, even less than white women. Equal Pay Day for black women is Aug. 7. For Native American women, it's Sept. 7. For Latinas, it's Nov. 1.
2. LGBTQ women face a host of related problems: A woman in a same-sex couple makes 79% of what a straight, white man makes. Additionally, they face higher rates of unemployment, discrimination and harassment on the job.
3. It will take decades to fix the problem if we don't act now: If nothing changes, it will take until 2059 for women to reach pay equality. For black women, parity won't come until 2124 and for Latinas, 2233.
4. Fixing the wage gap will reduce poverty: The poverty rate for women would be cut in half if the wage gap were eliminated. Additionally, 25.8 million children would benefit from closing the gap.
5. Fixing the wage gap would boost the economy: Eliminating the wage gap would increase women's earnings by $512.6 billion, a 2.8% boost to the country's gross domestic product. Women are consumers and the bulk of this new income would be injected directly into the economy.
6. Women aren't paid less because they choose to work in low-paying jobs: The gender pay gap persists in nearly every occupation, regardless of race, ethnicity, education, age and location.
7. Education alone isn't the solution: Women are paid less at every level of education. Women with advanced degrees get paid less than men with bachelor's degrees.
8. The Paycheck Fairness Act would help: This bipartisan legislation would close loopholes in existing law, break harmful patterns of pay discrimination and strengthen protections for women workers.
9. Being in a union makes a difference: Women who are represented by unions and collective bargaining contracts are closer to pay equality, making 94 cents per dollar that a white man makes.
10. Business leaders have a role in the solution: Individual business owners and leaders have the power to close the pay gap and improve people's lives. Catalyst offers five tips on what business leaders can do.
11. Many companies already are working on solutions: Learn from them.
Kenneth Quinnell Tue, 04/10/2018 - 11:38No Bargaining, No Justice: What Working People Are Doing This Week
Welcome to our regular feature, a look at what the various AFL-CIO unions and other working family organizations are doing across the country and beyond. The labor movement is big and active—here's a look at the broad range of activities we're engaged in this week.
A. Philip Randolph Institute:
Extensive Data Shows Punishing Reach of Racism for Black Boys https://t.co/QtawyIToik
— APRI National (DC) (@APRI_National) March 28, 2018Actors' Equity:
Beyond his own gifts as an actor, Soon-Tek Oh helped to greatly expand opportunities for Asian-American actors in theatre. We mourn his loss and offer condolences to his family and friends. #RIP https://t.co/PGw14COrrd
— Actors' Equity (@ActorsEquity) April 8, 2018AFGE:
AFGE members shouted "No bargaining, no justice!" outside of the Department of Education's headquarters last week. Here's the story → #1u #StandWithEdWorkers https://t.co/kR8lqBXmmM pic.twitter.com/9rAafODu7C
— AFGE (@AFGENational) April 5, 2018AFSCME:
Gregory Eliopoulos, a sewage treatment plant process worker and member of CSEA Local 1000, was killed on the job last fall. Now, the City of Watertown, New York, is being cited for safety violations in the wake of his death. https://t.co/W9uRj8wRsP pic.twitter.com/H9pi2zELrI
— AFSCME (@AFSCME) April 6, 2018AFT:
The teacher walkouts are a reminder that even professionals with master's degrees in some of the country's largest cities endure many of the same economic challenges associated with those in blue-collar jobs. https://t.co/UWiCHYVD5E
— AFT (@AFTunion) April 7, 2018Air Line Pilots Association:
Thank you @RepPeterDeFazio and @RepRickLarsen for urging @SecElaineChao and @StateDept to insist any new U.S.-UK air services agreement protects fair competition for U.S. workers & prohibits flags of convenience by airlines flying between U.S. & UK #OpenSkies pic.twitter.com/JmYvD9GD6H
— ALPA (@WeAreALPA) April 5, 2018Alliance for Retired Americans:
New research from @AHIPCoverage shows that patients with Medicaid have significantly better access to health care services than those without coverage: https://t.co/YlvLILIS71 #SaveMedicaid #ProtectOurCare pic.twitter.com/g21T5Adskp
— Alliance Retirees (@ActiveRetirees) April 9, 2018Amalgamated Transit Union:
Local 282-Rochester, NY, joins with advocates to push for more funding for #publictransit https://t.co/de4dF1lHqh #p2 #transit pic.twitter.com/kI5COdW7DT
— ATU, Transit Union (@ATUComm) March 30, 2018American Federation of Musicians:
We must change our antiquated #copyright laws. 80+ additional artists have joined our fight to pass the #CLASSICSAct, bringing the total number of artists who support the legislation to 300+ https://t.co/4ZOfN01nLe pic.twitter.com/AWL6ORkwHK
— Amer. Fed. Musicians (@The_AFM) April 5, 2018Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance:
#AAPIs can and will be the force to be reckoned in elections.
(Also, don't miss this photo of APALA Nevada members on this article, too!) https://t.co/jJ7r1X13Ne
Association of Flight Attendants-CWA:
“25 years ago, we used CHAOS to win raises of up to 60% for Flight Attendants...with power, comes respect.” -@afa_cwa’s @FlyingWithSara #afabod2018 pic.twitter.com/xxpcioktf3
— AFA-CWA (@afa_cwa) April 9, 2018Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers:
This morning, on the 50th anniversary of #MLK’s assassination, the BCTGM was among thousands who marched through the streets of Memphis in solidarity with the thousands who marched for justice and dignity 50 years ago. #IAM2018 pic.twitter.com/j5qNGE1tm6
— BCTGM International (@BCTGM) April 4, 2018Boilermakers:
Why union? How about higher wages. Union workers make 26% higher wages than non-union. And that's just one reason to @joinIBB #FormAUnion or check out our apprenticeship programs. pic.twitter.com/e126GAC0fv
— Boilermaker News (@boilermakernews) April 5, 2018Bricklayers:
Congratulations to @TuftsUniversity's dining hall workers on joining @UNITEHERE26! https://t.co/pLoLSGzpnX #Solidarity #1u #ThursdayThoughts
— Bricklayers Union (@IUBAC) April 5, 2018Coalition of Black Trade Unionists:
This is an important and alarming trend in labor relations. @BillFletcherJr @barbs73 @WSpriggs #1uMLK #1u https://t.co/XAw5ksnlRQ
— CBTU (@CBTU72) April 6, 2018Communications Workers of America:
Local 83711 works hard to make @IUE_CWAUnion STRONG. Local activists signed up 30+ members & developed new member activists. As the union's grown stronger, previously rigid MGMT has taken a more open approach to its relationship w/the union. Great job! #1u https://t.co/RAHgQAGI8v
— CWA (@CWAUnion) April 8, 2018Department for Professional Employees:
“Our members collaborate in their work and in their union, and we are proud that the editorial and production employees at Onion, Inc. will become part of this community of creative professionals.” - @WGAEast's @LowellPeterson. #1u #OnionIncUnion https://t.co/tEtIDG0RY1
— DPE (@DPEaflcio) April 9, 2018Electrical Workers:
"Gov. Rauner has shown to be essentially driven by the sole goal of breaking men and women of organized labor" https://t.co/YWTH46V0Nn #1u
— IBEW (@IBEW) April 6, 2018Farm Labor Organizing Committee:
Add your name to the petition demanding that convenience stores drop VUSE e-cigs until @RAI_News signs an agreement with @SupportFLOC giving farmworkers a voice to improve their working conditions. #BoycottVUSE https://t.co/yuFmTwvSKM
— Farm Labor Organizing Committee (@SupportFLOC) March 26, 2018Fire Fighters:
Encourage your mayor to participate in #IAFFMayorsFireOps a pre-conference event of the 86th Annual Conference of Mayors in Boston, MA on June 8th. Sign up today! https://t.co/fSPJaneIn6 pic.twitter.com/jPghF1QiLs
— IAFF (@IAFFNewsDesk) April 9, 2018Heat and Frost Insulators:
Are you wondering what it’s like to be an insulator? Can you picture yourself working for the Insulators Union? If you’ve thought about this as a career, reach out to us today and join others as they create a life-long career. https://t.co/9j9gPG2Jjz
— Insulators Union (@InsulatorsUnion) April 4, 2018International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers:
Our IFPTE delegation in Memphis for #IAM2018 represents a union and a labor movement inspired by and committed to achieving Dr. King's moral vision of justice. #MLK50 #1u #canlab pic.twitter.com/WZVa9bbdzC
— IFPTE (@IFPTE) April 4, 2018Ironworkers:
Ironworkers can earn six-figure salaries per year, as well as pensions, benefits and paid time off. It is also an alternative to college. https://t.co/CQRwmFEBn8 #MondayMotivation
— Ironworkers. (@TheIronworkers) April 9, 2018Jobs With Justice:
New York State wants to end unpredictable scheduling practices, which wreak havoc on the life of people working in the retail and service industries. https://t.co/R5jxdDFptL #FairScheduling #JustHours
— Jobs With Justice (@jwjnational) April 9, 2018Labor Council for Latin American Advancement:
Dr. King once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. Today we not only remember his powerful words but we recognize that we still live in an unjust world. We call for a just peace. #MLK50 #NoJusticeNoPeace
— LCLAA (@LCLAA) April 4, 2018Laborers:
ATTN Drivers: Obey road crews and signs when traveling through work zones! #LIUNA Flaggers are trained & highly skilled, they know how best to move traffic safely in work zones. Warning signs are there to help you and other drivers move safely. #workzonesafety pic.twitter.com/cil9KxpGrK
— LiUNA Chicago (@LiUNAchicago) April 9, 2018Machinists:
We build the @Boeing planes we fly on, the @LockheedMartin jets keeping us safe, the @ulalaunch rockets exploring our galaxy and the @harleydavidson bikes we ride.
We’re union and proud of it.
Maritime Trades Department:
MTD Joins Other Unions at I AM 2018 to Commemorate the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike of 1968 | Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO https://t.co/rNopvx4s0y
— MaritimeTrades (@Maritime_Trades) April 4, 2018Metal Trades Department:
All of us at Metal Trades Department send our condolences to the family of Senator Daniel Akaka. Senator Akaka was a great friend to the Department. May he rest in peace. https://t.co/NrvPe6Qk3e
— Metal Trades Dept. (@metaltradesafl) April 9, 2018Mine Workers:
The @KyLegislature has put every worker in KY at risk, especially coal miners: https://t.co/Xjuq2IGqKN #1u
— United Mine Workers (@MineWorkers) April 6, 2018National Air Traffic Controllers Association:
Take time to unwind during Stress Awareness Month. #DYK the National Institutes of Health has a free library eBook collection? Explore topics like the benefits of chocolate, sleep medicine & mindfulness. https://t.co/wrYlhIv50x pic.twitter.com/WOWcgQ383E
— NATCA (@NATCA) April 9, 2018National Association of Letter Carriers:
Letter carriers deserve to know the facts about the Postal Service with respect to the president’s latest tweets: https://t.co/Bx9qxn5mI2
— Letter Carriers (@NALC_National) April 4, 2018National Day Laborer Organizing Network:
“We have not backed down. We will continue to move forward.” - Orange County’s municipal seat, City of Santa Ana, reaffirms #CAValues, rejects Trump’s attack on California. #ICEoutofOC #ICEoutofCA #DefendSanctuary #sb54 pic.twitter.com/M9SvpVE9oG
— NDLON (@NDLON) April 4, 2018National Domestic Workers Alliance:
"Whether in the professional context or the family context, caregiving is difficult work, and the undervaluing of the role of the caregiver has meant that we too often leave their expertise and insight on the table." - @aijenpoo https://t.co/EqOGsWJsFv
— Domestic Workers (@domesticworkers) April 9, 2018National Nurses United:
No one should have to choose between food or medical care. Our patients and our communities need #MedicareforAll! #MondayMotivation pic.twitter.com/Nw0EaxsjnD
— NationalNursesUnited (@NationalNurses) April 9, 2018National Taxi Workers Alliance:
The real solution — the one that will require politicians to stand up to these Wall-Street-backed corporations — is to put a cap on the number of vehicles on city streets, not keep taking more money out of drivers’ pockets. @NYGovCuomo @NYCMayorsOffice https://t.co/cRv01CDI5I
— NY Taxi Workers (@NYTWA) April 6, 2018NewsGuild-CWA, The:
What’s happened to the newspaper industry cannot simply be explained by the rise of the internet. A lack of imagination is also to blame. Most owners have embraced cost cutting to maintain profits over trying to grow the business. https://t.co/dHawBJpiUM #AldenExposed
— NewsGuild (@news_guild) April 9, 2018NFL Players Association:
"Every employee deserves to be treated with respect...There is absolutely no justification for paying [cheerleaders] less than a fair wage and for making them endure discrimination in the workplace." - @DeSmithNFLPA
Economy Gains 103,000 Jobs in March; Unemployment Unchanged at 4.1%
The U.S. economy gained 103,000 jobs in March, and unemployment was unchanged at 4.1%, according to figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This continues the recovery of the labor market at a tempered pace, which means the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee should continue to let the economy grow and not raise interest rates.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka testified before Congress on a key solution that would boost jobs growth and provide other benefits to working people across the country:
One trillion dollars in new infrastructure investment would make a big difference to working Americans and put our nation on the path to sustainable prosperity. How we invest matters; it must be real investment and create good jobs.
Let me be clear: If we want good jobs, we must have high labor standards and protections for the people who build, maintain and operate our infrastructure. That’s not all. We need to make sure public money is used to support American jobs, American resources and American products.
In response to the March jobs numbers, AFL-CIO Chief Economist William Spriggs said:
With the adjustments made to lower the job growth numbers reported in January, the first quarter finished with job growth lower than last year's, which was lower than the previous year's.
He also tweeted:
Payroll rose 108,000 in March, slower growth than in February. With wages only up 2.7% over the year. Further Fed hikes are unwarranted with this moderation. @AFLCIO
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) April 6, 2018
March report from @BLS_gov adjust preliminary figures for January down and February up for a net of 50,000 lower than previously reported. This makes the first quarter modest growth a sign the Fed needs to rethink further rate hikes. @AFLCIO
— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) April 6, 2018Last month's biggest job gains were in professional and business services (33,000), health care (22,000), manufacturing (9,000) and mining (9,000), while retail (-4,000) and construction (-15,000) saw losses. Employment in other major industries, including wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, information, financial activities, leisure and hospitality and government, showed little or no change over the month.
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for teenagers (13.5%), blacks (6.9%), Hispanics (5.1%), adult women (3.7%), adult men (3.7%), whites (3.6%), and Asians (3.1%) showed little or no change in March.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed in March and accounted for 20.3% of the unemployed.
Kenneth Quinnell Fri, 04/06/2018 - 14:44We’re Reaching for that Mountaintop: The Working People Weekly List
Every week, we bring you a roundup of the top news and commentary about issues and events important to working families. Here’s this week’s Working People Weekly List.
Honoring the Life and Preserving the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.: “By recognizing social and economic justice as one and the same, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. understood the immense power working people have when they come together. He saw union representation as the clearest path out of poverty and into the middle class, and fought for the rights of all people to have good jobs and a voice at work.”
Trumka in Memphis: We’re Reaching for that Mountaintop: “At the 1961 AFL-CIO Convention, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that the labor-hater and labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature. He spews racism from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other.”
King’s Agenda for Working People Resonates 50 Years Later: “Fifty years ago this week, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his final speech in Memphis, Tennessee. In the decades since his assassination, much of the focus on King’s life has centered on his civil rights legacy. But his final days in Memphis are a reminder that he was also a relentless champion for the dignity of work.”
FLOC Calls for Convenience Stores to Stop Selling VUSE E-Cigarettes: “On April 9, 2007, Santiago Rafael Cruz was assassinated in the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) office in Mexico. The organizer gave his life in service of trying to improve the lives and workplaces of farm laborers. In his honor, FLOC will picket nationally outside 7-Eleven, Circle K, Kangaroo Express and Wawa convenience stores, calling on the corporations that run these stores to stop selling VUSE e-cigarettes.”
Caution: Your Right to a Timely Vote May Be at Risk: “Three years ago, the National Labor Relations Board took modest steps to streamline, modernize and improve the process by which workers petition for an election to vote on forming a union at work. The rules reduced unnecessary delay caused by management lawyers litigating issues in order to slow down elections and deprive workers of their right to vote.”
Martin Luther King Jr. Championed Civil Rights and Unions: “Kentuckians, including many union members, will march Wednesday in Frankfort in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was murdered April 4, 1968, in Memphis.”
It Is Always About the People: In the States Roundup: “It’s time once again to take a look at the ways working people are making progress in the states. Click on any of the links to follow the state federations and central labor councils on Twitter.”
Organizing Leads to Prosperity: What Working People Are Doing This Week: “Welcome to our regular feature, a look at what the various AFL-CIO unions and other working family organizations are doing across the country and beyond. The labor movement is big and active—here’s a look at the broad range of activities we’re engaged in this week.”
Kenneth Quinnell Fri, 04/06/2018 - 11:27NAFTA Should Work for Everyone—Not Just Investors
In the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump all recognized that workers and communities have lost trust in the North American Free Trade Agreement’s approach to globalization. They all said we should manage globalization differently.
Over the last few months, Canada, Mexico and the U.S. have had seven meetings to renegotiate NAFTA. To understand the renegotiations, we should know what was wrong with the original NAFTA and what we want in a new one.
I’m 100% in favor of trade. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone opposed to trade. We take pride when we export software, airplanes, apples and wheat. That’s never been the issue.
The central question is, “Who gets the gains from globalization?” The purpose of an economy is to raise living standards. Trade, more than most public policies, creates winners and losers.
The winners under NAFTA—global companies and investors who can move production to low-wage countries—have done very well. But when workers, communities and the environment are squeezed into decline, we are probably going in the wrong direction.
Consider four quick stories:
First story: During the original NAFTA negotiations, a labor advocate told an industry lobbyist that she agreed that manufacturing companies had a legitimate interest in protecting their investments from seizure or expropriation by foreign governments. That’s consistent with our legal tradition and should be part of NAFTA.
She asked the industry lobbyist if his business clients acknowledged that civil society also had a legitimate interest in protections in NAFTA for labor rights, human rights and other public interests.
“No. Not really,” he said. His role was to get the maximum possible leverage for his clients in the new global system. That meant global businesses could move work anywhere, take advantage of cheap labor, escape environmental and public health regulations, and otherwise get the best deal possible for their investors. This leverage would be even greater if NAFTA weakened bargaining power away from workers and communities.
Second story: An executive from UPS took a very different perspective at a trade conference in Seattle. She said labor rights and human rights were core values at UPS. She and UPS ran their global operations to respect workers and communities. Good for her and UPS!
Third story: The Trans-Pacific Partnership would have been our biggest trade agreement since NAFTA. It failed in Congress. At a conference in Boston, a lobbyist for a very large manufacturing association said TPP would have been great for the global companies in her organization. For them, TPP’s defeat was tragic.
After she spoke, I told her my first story—some time ago, an industry lobbyist said his goal was to maximize leverage, getting as much as possible for global investors, while keeping other stakeholders as weak as possible.
The industry lobbyist in Boston got very defensive, saying that was not at all the way her industry association saw things. I said, “Great!” Then her industry group should clearly state that they want our negotiators to get strong, enforceable protections for labor and environment, which reflect our values and legal traditions as a nation, in all future trade agreements.
Her business allies would get low tariffs and access to foreign markets, and TPP could protect their property from expropriation. We also would support high global standards to fight child labor, forced labor, human trafficking and slave labor—issues we thought we had settled 50 or 100 years ago. We could address climate change—arguably the defining problem of our time. TPP could sail through the Senate by a vote of 85-15.
The lobbyist in Boston had been defensive before. Now she was smokin’ mad at me. Maybe she thought I was patronizing her.
But my question really sits at the heart of the problems with our failed approach to globalization. Whose interests really matter to our negotiators? According to our own State Department rankings, five of the 12 TPP countries failed to meet global standards on human trafficking. A sixth TPP country was among the worst in the world on forced labor, child labor and slave labor. Just sayin’.
Fourth story: Members of the Coalition for a Prosperous America are manufacturers, family farm organizations and labor—all committed to producing in the U.S. CPA is very creative on specific policy options designed to rebuild our industrial base, help family farmers and share the gains from trade with all stakeholders. They are doing exactly what I suggested to the industry lobbyist in Boston. Everyone in CPA wants a prosperous America. To them, working together and sharing gains is eminently sensible.
It is unsustainable to turn our backs on workers, communities and the environment. A generation (or two) ago, business schools and CEOs talked about “stakeholder” interests. We all do better when all stakeholders do better. That outlook recognized legitimate common interests, helped build social cohesion and made stronger communities.
We can have legitimate national interests and raise living standards everywhere, without being xenophobic or nationalistic. Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Scandinavia, Singapore and South Korea recognize national interests. They also have more social cohesion than we do. We’ve had more social cohesion in our own history than we do now.
A good trade agreement should require any foreign company to meet minimum standards for labor, environment, human trafficking, food safety and other norms that reflect our values as a country as a condition for getting access to our markets.
Our current failed investor-centric NAFTA approach is exhausted socially, politically and economically. The UPS and CPA stories suggest it’s not that hard to set a more inclusive and sustainable path for globalization. We should accept no less.
Kenneth Quinnell Fri, 04/06/2018 - 11:14
Tags: NAFTA
Honoring the Life and Preserving the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
By recognizing social and economic justice as one and the same, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. understood the immense power working people have when they come together. He saw union representation as the clearest path out of poverty and into the middle class, and fought for the rights of all people to have good jobs and a voice at work.
In the Spring of 1968, those beliefs led King to Memphis, Tennessee, where 1,300 sanitation workers were on strike fighting deplorable working conditions, poverty-level wages and overt racism. Determined to improve their quality of life and build a better future for themselves, their families and their community, these workers demanded recognition of their union—and their humanity. Seeking the freedom to negotiate together for fair wages and dignity and respect on the job, they marched with now-iconic signs that read, "I am a man."
It was here, expressing solidarity with the striking workers and drawing parallels between social, racial and economic justice, that King was assassinated as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.
As our nation pauses to reflect upon the 50th anniversary of King’s tragic and untimely passing, we must do more than just commemorate past events. The anniversary of King’s death must be a call to carry his legacy forward, and continue working toward his dream of a fairer and more just society.
While progress has been made in the last half century, it is clear more work needs to be done. The same backward forces that sought to silence sanitation workers in Memphis five decades ago continue to attack the rights of working people across this country today. We see it in aggressive efforts to establish statewide right to work laws in places such as Missouri, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. We see it in efforts to gut safety protections for transportation workers and outsource good jobs to the lowest bidder. And we see it in the corporate-backed push to strip public employees of their rights via the Supreme Court case Janus v. AFSCME Council 31.
Indeed, the ideals King fought and died for—including access to good jobs, fair pay and safe working conditions—are the same ones working people are fighting for today.
Those struggles—combined with the teachings of Dr. King and the bravery and sacrifice of Memphis sanitation workers—have inspired our brothers and sisters at AFSCME and the Church of God in Christ to carry King’s legacy forward with the I AM 2018 initiative. Through this campaign, a new generation of activists will be mobilized. Voters will be trained on how to hold elected leaders accountable. And the freedom of all working people to join together to make life better for themselves, their families, and their communities will be advanced.
Transportation labor is proud to stand with those who have pledged to honor Dr. King’s life and dream by committing to carrying his legacy into the future. Today we also recommit our efforts to ensure Dr. King’s legacy lives on by fighting for policies that empower working people to join together in union. It is through our collective efforts that misery and despair will be transformed into hope and progress.
This post originally appeared at Transportation Trades Department.
Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 04/04/2018 - 14:57Trumka in Memphis: We’re reaching for that mountaintop
At the 1961 AFL-CIO Convention, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that the labor-hater and labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature. He spews racism from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other.
When the rich and powerful oppress others, they rarely go after just one community. They attack whatever unity they can find among working people. They know that united we rise and divided we fall.
It was 50 years ago that I first tasted the power of collective action in the coal mines of southwestern Pennsylvania. Standing together, we made those jobs safer. We demanded good pay, decent benefits and a better life. And we refused to let the bosses divide us.
That same year, we saw the resilience of working people right here in Memphis. Black workers had been deemed less than human. They were treated no better than the garbage they picked up every day. They were robbed of their economic security, their human dignity and in the case of Echol Cole and Robert Walker, their lives.
And then the workers turned tragedy into triumph. They showed their power. They went on strike and marched and rose their fists in the air. They said loudly and proudly for all of us to hear, “I am a man.” With Dr. King at their side, they changed the course of history.
Half a century later, too many working people are still being treated as less than. The woman grabbed without her consent. The immigrant forced to live and work in the shadows. The African-American still waiting to be judged by the content of their character. The trans person denied the dignity of a safe bathroom.
Their fight is OUR fight.
So on this day…we are pledging to finish what the sanitation workers started. We are making a promise to our nation and each other to win the dream Dr. King died for.
To the labor-hater and the race-baiter, the union-buster and corporate hustler, we say this:
We are men.
We are women.
We are teachers and steelworkers.
We are nurses and coal miners.
We are firefighters and sanitation workers.
WE are the American labor movement, the people who built this country into the most prosperous nation the world has ever known. And, we ain’t done yet.
We’re marching forward. We’re fighting back. We’re reaching for that mountaintop. And if we stick together, no one has a chance in hell of stopping us.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka was at AFSCME's "I AM 2018" opening rally today to mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 04/04/2018 - 13:21FLOC Calls for Convenience Stores to Stop Selling VUSE E-Cigarettes
On April 9, 2007, Santiago Rafael Cruz was assassinated in the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) office in Mexico. The organizer gave his life in service of trying to improve the lives and workplaces of farm laborers. In his honor, FLOC will picket nationally outside 7-Eleven, Circle K, Kangaroo Express and Wawa convenience stores, calling on the corporations that run these stores to stop selling VUSE e-cigarettes.
VUSE e-cigarettes are a hallmark product of Reynolds American’s tobacco line and are sold at most convenience stores, where 36% of all tobacco sales take place. FLOC and allies have been communicating with the corporate officers of 7-Eleven, Wawa and Couche-Tard (the parent corporation of Circle K and Kangaroo). Since the chains haven’t responded to repeated letters and emails, FLOC will rally outside stores across the country, calling on them to drop the VUSE brand.
For more than a decade, FLOC has been challenging Reynolds to end abuses and human rights violations in its tobacco supply chain. After ignoring FLOC for five years, Reynolds finally started holding talks in 2012, but the talks have yet to lead to an outcome that would guarantee these farm workers freedom to come together in union. FLOC is boycotting VUSE until Reynolds signs an agreement that guarantees farm workers freedom of association.
Stand with farm workers today by boycotting VUSE and demanding that convenience stores stop selling this product until Reynolds agrees to give farm workers a voice on the job. For information on how to get involved or to organize an action, email boycottvuse@floc.com.
Kenneth Quinnell Tue, 04/03/2018 - 16:29Caution: Your Right to a Timely Vote May Be at Risk
Three years ago, the National Labor Relations Board took modest steps to streamline, modernize and improve the process by which workers petition for an election to vote on forming a union at work. The rules reduced unnecessary delay caused by management lawyers litigating issues in order to slow down elections and deprive workers of their right to vote.
Under the rules, workers get to vote two weeks sooner—the median time from petition to election is 23 days, compared with 38 days under the old rules. This shows that the goal of reducing unnecessary delay has been met.
Unfortunately, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other corporate interests have been campaigning to get rid of the rules, saying they are unfair to businesses. First they tried lawsuits—and lost, with the rules upheld in full by courts in Washington, D.C., and Texas. Then the Chamber and their allies tried to block the rules with legislative action, which has so far failed.
But now three Republican appointees to the NLRB are asking for public comments on whether the rules should be changed. The two Democratic appointees to the NLRB—Mark Gaston Pearce and Lauren McFerran—disagree, saying the rules have worked well and there is no reason to change them.
The NLRB is taking public comments until April 18 on whether it should change the 2014 rules. Add your voice to the growing chorus telling the NLRB to keep the rules.
Kenneth Quinnell Tue, 04/03/2018 - 11:02King's Agenda for Working People Resonates 50 Years Later
Fifty years ago this week, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his final speech in Memphis, Tennessee. In the decades since his assassination, much of the focus on King’s life has centered on his civil rights legacy. But his final days in Memphis are a reminder that he was also a relentless champion for the dignity of work.
King was in Memphis in support of sanitation workers represented by AFSCME who were on strike after two members, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were crushed to death by a garbage truck. The strikers sought recognition of their union, a pay increase, overtime pay, merit promotions, safer working conditions and equal treatment of black workers.
But King wasn’t a latecomer to the fight to raise the voices of working people. He had long before figured out that the movement for civil rights and the movement for workers’ rights were one and the same. In 1961, he explained this in a speech to the AFL-CIO:
This unity of purpose is not an historical coincident. Negroes are almost entirely a working people. There are pitifully few Negro millionaires and few Negro employers. Our needs are identical with labor’s needs: decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old-age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children and respect in the community. That is why Negroes support labor’s demands and fight laws which curb labor. That is why the labor-hater and labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature, spewing anti-Negro epithets from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other mouth.
King is best known for his “I Have a Dream” speech given in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, organized by labor leaders A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin. While the media and historians have emphasized the speech’s civil rights themes, the event was just as much focused on jobs and the rights of working people.
The agenda of the march was no secret; organizers explicitly listed 10 demands. They included:
-
The creation of a massive federal jobs program to place all unemployed workers in meaningful and dignified jobs with decent wages.
-
The elimination of exceptions to the protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
-
The passage of a Fair Employment Practices Act that would bar discrimination in government employment and contracting.
-
The creation of a national minimum wage act that would provide a decent standard of living. (At the time, the demand was for at least $2 an hour. In today’s dollars, that amount would be $15.95 per hour.)
The remaining demands were all related to working people having the things they need to survive and prosper outside of the workplace or exercise their political rights:
-
The passage of comprehensive and effective civil rights legislation that would guarantee all Americans access to all public accommodations, decent housing, adequate and integrated education, and the right to vote.
-
The withholding of federal funds from all programs in which discrimination exists.
-
The desegregation of all school districts.
-
The enforcement of constitutional penalties against states that violate the voting rights of African Americans.
-
The issuance of an executive order banning discrimination in all housing supported by federal funds.
-
Giving the attorney general legal authority to use the courts to pursue relief from violation of constitutional rights.
King and his fellow civil and labor rights leaders laid out a good blueprint for improving our country and making our economy work better for all Americans, not just the few at the top. Speaking to sanitation workers in March of 1968, in one of the final speeches of his illustrious career, King called for equality and prosperity for all working people, regardless of race:
If you will judge anything here in this struggle, you’re commanding that this city will respect the dignity of labor. So often we overlook the worth and significance of those who are not in professional jobs, or those who are not in the so-called big jobs. But let me say to you tonight, that whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity, and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity, and it has worth. One day our society must come to see this. One day our society will come to respect the sanitation worker if it is to survive. For the person who picks up our garbage, in the final analysis, is as significant as the physician. All labor has worth. You are doing another thing. You are reminding, not only Memphis, but you are reminding the nation that it is a crime for people to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages. I need not remind you that this is the plight of our people all over America. The vast majority of Negroes in our country are still perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. My friends, we are living as a people in a literal depression. Now, you know when there is vast unemployment and underemployment in the black community, they call it a social problem. When there is vast unemployment and underemployment in the white community, they call it a depression. But we find ourselves living in a literal depression all over this country as a people. Now, the problem isn’t only unemployment. Do you know that most of the poor people in our country are working every day? They are making wages so low that they cannot begin to function in the mainstream of the economic life of our nation. These are facts which must be seen. And it is criminal to have people working on a full-time basis and a full-time job getting part-time income.
King was right. We must continue to pursue his vision of social and economic justice.
Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 04/02/2018 - 16:59Martin Luther King Jr. Championed Civil Rights and Unions
Kentuckians, including many union members, will march Wednesday in Frankfort in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was murdered April 4, 1968, in Memphis.
“The MLK Memorial March to Move” will travel along Capitol Avenue and conclude on the Capitol steps.
Dr. King returned to Memphis on April 3, 1968, to renew his stand in solidarity with striking African American sanitation workers who belonged to AFSCME Local 1733.
Dr. King saw the civil rights movement and the union movement as natural allies.
“As I have said many times, and believe with all my heart, the coalition that can have the greatest impact in the struggle for human dignity here in America is that of the Negro and the forces of labor, because their fortunes are so closely intertwined,” he said.
Dr. King warned that enemies of racial justice were also enemies of unions: “The labor-hater and labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature spewing anti-Negro epithets from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other mouth.”
He denounced “right to work” laws as a scam: “In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as ‘right to work.’ It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights.
“Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining by which unions have improved wages and working conditions of everyone.…Wherever these laws have been passed, wages are lower, job opportunities are fewer, and there are no civil rights. We do not intend to let them do this to us. We demand this fraud be stopped. Our weapon is our vote.”
Many union leaders have joined the struggle for equality and economic justice for all. Their numbers include residents of the Bluegrass State, among them Norbert Blume and Augusta Thomas of Louisville and W.C. Young of Paducah.
A Teamster, Blume, who died in 2011, served in the state House of Representatives from 1963 to 1978; he was speaker for the last six of those years. In 1964, he introduced legislation outlawing discrimination in public accommodations. Blume’s bill was a precursor to the Civil Rights Act of 1966, which Dr. King hailed as “the strongest and most comprehensive civil rights bill passed by a Southern state.”
Thomas, 85, is vice president for women and fair practices with the American Federation of Government Employees in Washington. In 1960, she journeyed from Louisville to Greensboro, N.C., to join the historic lunch-counter sit-ins. Angry whites spat on her and knocked her off a stool. Police arrested her twice.
A friend and schoolmate of Dr. King when she lived in Atlanta in her teens, Thomas joined him in Memphis 50 years ago. She heard his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech the night before he was killed. She was at the Lorraine Motel when he was assassinated and heard the shot that took his life.
A national labor and civil rights leader, Young, who died in 1996, spent most of his life in the union movement, retiring in 1987 as Chicago-based Region 10 director of the AFL-CIO’s Committee on Political Education. He said his wallet always included two cards—his union card and his NAACP card. The W.C. Young Award is the highest honor the Paducah-based Western Kentucky AFL-CIO Area Council bestows.
Like Young, Dr. King was a student of labor history. In 1965, the 30th anniversary of the landmark Wagner Act, he pointed out that when the 20th century turned, “women earned approximately 10 cents an hour, and men were fortunate to receive 20 cents an hour. The average workweek was 60 to 70 hours.”
He added, “During the ’30s, wages were a secondary issue; to have a job at all was the difference between the agony of starvation and a flicker of life. The nation, now so vigorous, reeled and tottered almost to total collapse. The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress.
“Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, government relief for the destitute and, above all, new wage levels that meant not mere survival, but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome. When in the ’30s the wave of union organization crested over our nation, it carried to secure shores not only itself but the whole society.”
Click here to listen to Kentucky State AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan talk about Dr. King’s support for unions and what they do.
This post originally appeared at Kentucky State AFL-CIO.
Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 04/02/2018 - 14:46
It Is Always About the People: In the States Roundup
It's time once again to take a look at the ways working people are making progress in the states. Click on any of the links to follow the state federations and central labor councils on Twitter.
Arkansas AFL-CIO:
https://t.co/dFg900qjAY
Say whaaaaat?! This is great news, right? This means the #arleg won't vote to cap WC benefits next session, correct? We certainly hope so. *crosses fingers* *takes a picture of post* #arlabor #1u @ARlaborradio @aryoungworkers @arlaborwomen
California Labor Federation:
Every day we organize and fight for working people, we honor the legacy of #CesarChavez. We'll never stop. Rest in Power, Cesar ✊ #1u #UnionStrong #CesarChavezDay pic.twitter.com/mvfxkafqRt
— California Labor Federation (@CaliforniaLabor) March 30, 2018Colorado AFL-CIO:
SB171 would define Colorado workers as independent contractors instead of employees while lining the pockets of billion-dollar corporations like Uber and Handy. Call your State Rep. & tell them to vote NO on SB171! #GoodJobsNOW #coleg pic.twitter.com/UUb1hJGwXp
— Colorado AFL-CIO (@AFLCIOCO) March 27, 2018Connecticut AFL-CIO:
#ImStickingWithTheUnion #1u https://t.co/dLLajC6OJa
— Connecticut AFL-CIO (@ConnAFLCIO) March 28, 2018Florida AFL-CIO:
"Despite these needs, a $3 billion budget surplus helped fuel a $171 million, election-year tax-cut package, approved by lawmakers as one of their last tasks before adjourning the 2018 session last week." https://t.co/SIFWMz3z5S
— Florida AFL-CIO (@FLAFLCIO) March 19, 2018Georgia AFL-CIO:
For gig economy workers in these states, rights are at risk https://t.co/UaaWDT8P6r via @CNNMoney Tell your State Sen NO on #HB789
— AFL-CIO Georgia (@AFLCIOGeorgia) March 21, 2018Indiana State AFL-CIO:
The relationship between you and your employers is not one of equals...being in a union fixes the imbalance #1U pic.twitter.com/jfDSOcZdBk
— Indiana AFL-CIO (@INAFLCIO) April 1, 2018Iowa Federation of Labor:
Workers accuse Trump administration, DeVos of union-busting https://t.co/vVUvHlk3o0
— Iowa AFL-CIO (@IowaAFLCIO) April 2, 2018Kansas State AFL-CIO:
Working Families aim to even things up. https://t.co/6evGAWjGc5
— Kansas AFL-CIO (@KansasAFLCIO) March 30, 2018Kentucky State AFL-CIO:
Another organization promoting an assault on injured workers. Shame on you, Kentucky Realtors.https://t.co/90F7BpQeqM https://t.co/LYk79zOuaG
— Kentucky AFL-CIO (@aflcioky) April 1, 2018Maine AFL-CIO:
Linda testified against @Governor_LePage's bill to give a tax cut to the top 1%. "Working people like myself would be better served by good health care and the chance to retire with dignity than more tax cuts for the wealthy." - Linda, Livermore Falls #mepolitics @steelworkers pic.twitter.com/5Xc4qCVamB
— Maine AFL-CIO (@MEAFLCIO) March 16, 2018Massachusetts AFL-CIO:
Great victory for working people in Lynn last night! #1u Lynn council votes to penalize contractors who violate state labor laws - Itemlive : Itemlive https://t.co/LpZCDVQVFj via @itemlive
— Massachusetts AFLCIO (@massaflcio) March 28, 2018Metro Washington (D.C.) Council AFL-CIO:
“Hell no!” to contract takeaways, say Ed Dept employees #afge pic.twitter.com/SI12dNBg23
— MetroDCLaborCouncil (@DCLabor) March 28, 2018Michigan AFL-CIO:
"Trump’s proposed infrastructure plan would make working people pay more, sell off our roads and bridges to corporations and rich investors, and leave the rest of us behind." @jimananich @MISenDems @stateinnovation https://t.co/Erg0VdVcWC
— Michigan AFL-CIO (@MIAFLCIO) March 26, 2018Minnesota AFL-CIO:
Minnesota IAM Local 623 Members Approve “Effects Agreement” at Closing Electrolux Plant https://t.co/MsEiwoREUZ via @workdaymn @MachinistsUnion #1u
— Minnesota AFL-CIO (@MNAFLCIO) April 1, 2018Missouri AFL-CIO:
Some in the #moleg some want to pave the way for self-driving semi-trucks in Missouri. We say NO on #HB1295 and #SB861! https://t.co/BriSt6xMLz
— Missouri AFL-CIO (@MOAFLCIO) March 31, 2018New Jersey State AFL-CIO:
NJ AFL-CIO Sec. Treas. Laurel Brennan testifies on behalf of #EqualPay for equal work. pic.twitter.com/N3Z39uv4og
— New Jersey AFL-CIO (@NJAFLCIO) March 19, 2018New Mexico AFL-CIO:
“Apprenticeships popular again as workers turn to trades” https://t.co/DycR0AU6JK .@LaborFed4NM @AFLCIO
— NMFL (@LaborFed4NM) March 29, 2018New York State AFL-CIO:
Statement of New York State AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento on Sexual Harassment Legislation Included in State Budget - New York is taking bold and decisive action against the scourge of sexual harassment in the workplace. Statement at https://t.co/kR9ivC6Ldu
— NYSAFLCIO (@NYSAFLCIO) March 31, 2018North Carolina AFL-CIO:
#OrganizeTheSouth: “Our stigma here is so bad in the South. Most people are ashamed to tell their neighbors that they are in a union,” he said. “And we actually want to change... https://t.co/e19kcHMqJY
— NC State AFL-CIO (@NCStateAFLCIO) March 28, 2018Ohio AFL-CIO:
Thanks @ATUComm Pres. Jordan for fighting to keep Columbus moving forward & safe. We know a bus is nothing without us! Smart City or no, buses should have trained @AFLCIO drivers We can be hi-tech & keep our humanity as well! https://t.co/AfZ35tFLVF
— Ohio AFL-CIO (@ohioaflcio) April 1, 2018Oklahoma State AFL-CIO:
Its important to know the numbers behind the budget crisis. https://t.co/V2kbxW3mlr
— Oklahoma AFL-CIO (@OK_AFL_CIO) March 23, 2018Oregon AFL-CIO:
"Workers at a Burgerville in Southeast Portland said they plan to file for a federal union election, a move that could place employees of the fast-food franchise at the forefront of a national labor fight.”https://t.co/vbZa6Ja0NO #1u #ORPOL
— Oregon AFL-CIO (@OregonAFLCIO) March 30, 2018Pennsylvania AFL-CIO:
#WomensHistoryMonth - Thank you to the women who, despite the sweat on their brow, found ways to resist and organize. Thank you to the women who raised us—the women who raised America. And thank you to the women who still do. https://t.co/FrgjZD9rHR
— PA AFL-CIO (@PaAFL_CIO) March 29, 2018Rhode Island AFL-CIO:
#FightFor15 #DPS #1u pic.twitter.com/X6Gx1MleaG
— Rhode Island AFL-CIO (@riaflcio) March 22, 2018South Carolina AFL-CIO:
Read and share https://t.co/NTUB3k59ZV
— SC AFL-CIO (@SCAFLCIO) March 29, 2018Texas AFL-CIO:
We are ready for 2018 Citizenship Drive tomorrow at Dobie Middle School. We will be assisting eligible permanent resident with their naturalization applications! #1u #TxLabor #HazteCiudadano @AFLCIOLatino @Tefere_Gebre @lizshuler @RickTxAFLCIO @RichardTrumka pic.twitter.com/8i0av3df1x
— Texas AFL-CIO (@TexasAFLCIO) March 30, 2018Virginia AFL-CIO:
#1u "Game developers look to unions to fix the industry’s exploitative workplace culture" https://t.co/AvG938EeI4
— Virginia AFL-CIO (@Virginia_AFLCIO) March 26, 2018Washington AFL-CIO:
Thank you, @GovInslee, @SenSaldana, @andybillig, and the many others who supported these historic bills! #waleg https://t.co/ApfsVUeaJU
— WA State AFL-CIO (@WAAFLCIO) March 20, 2018West Virginia AFL-CIO:
“We’re seeing a great field of pro-working family candidates in 2018.” WV AFL-CIO Endorses Candidates in 2018 Primary Election: https://t.co/OCkGxJOrS7 #wvpol pic.twitter.com/4nXM8HBkpf
— West Virginia AFLCIO (@WestVirginiaAFL) March 26, 2018Wisconsin State AFL-CIO:
VOTE VOTE VOTE! Record-breaking voter turnout possible for election Tuesday, based on early voting numbers, https://t.co/PtjgvCvYLc
— WI AFL-CIO (@wisaflcio) April 1, 2018 Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 04/02/2018 - 10:15Organizing Leads to Prosperity: What Working People Are Doing This Week
Welcome to our regular feature, a look at what the various AFL-CIO unions and other working family organizations are doing across the country and beyond. The labor movement is big and active—here's a look at the broad range of activities we're engaged in this week.
Actors' Equity:
"But theatre will not go away. Because theatre is a site, I am tempted to say a refuge. Where people congregate and instantly form communities. As we have always done." @SimonMcBurney for #WorldTheatreDay https://t.co/mVAE9yoQX8
— Actors' Equity (@ActorsEquity) March 27, 2018AFGE:
Staffing at the EEOC is at a historic low. We're hoping that changes soon. https://t.co/RIoCsmDZsG
— AFGE (@AFGENational) March 27, 2018AFSCME:
Workers at UCAN, a youth services agency in Chicago, voted to form a union with AFSCME Council 31 despite a strong anti-unionization campaign mounted by their employer. We welcome these fighters to the AFSCME family. https://t.co/p2CQL5XnmD pic.twitter.com/loHvm4RIpo
— AFSCME (@AFSCME) March 27, 2018AFT:
March 31: Engage students w the life & legacy of activist Cesar Chavez https://t.co/t7bShH1hU1 @sharemylesson #CesarChavezDay pic.twitter.com/BE9cnzBbWM
— AFT (@AFTunion) March 28, 2018Air Line Pilots Association:
@WeAreALPA celebrates Girls in Aviation Day Reno, helping to ignite girls’ enthusiasm for the industry! #GIAD, #ClearedToDream, #WAI2018Experience pic.twitter.com/kKSpWKdBKh
— ALPA (@WeAreALPA) March 24, 2018Alliance for Retired Americans:
Prices for the 20-most prescribed brand name drugs for seniors have risen an average of 12 percent each year since 2012. That's nearly 10 times higher than the rate of inflation. Older Americans can't live like this anymore. We need #RxForAll! https://t.co/fI6UJTipRV pic.twitter.com/qdwSYnbUJ3
— Alliance Retirees (@ActiveRetirees) March 27, 2018Amalgamated Transit Union:
Asleep at the Wheel: Close Call with Fatigued Dallas #Greyhound Driver Highlights Sweatshops on Wheels https://t.co/G3zvcww9Sz #1u #DriverFatiguePreventionAct pic.twitter.com/01nFP6qAFJ
— ATU, Transit Union (@ATUComm) March 23, 2018American Federation of Musicians:
Working people are under attack and they are rising up to join in union together! #Organize
https://t.co/RuNNTQor02
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance:
ICYMI: Tipped workers, educators, and public schools win in #omnibus bill, while fate of undocumented immigrants remains uncertain: https://t.co/7Zr1VhRXzP pic.twitter.com/Gn9TsBrDgR
— APALA (@APALAnational) March 26, 2018Association of Flight Attendants-CWA:
Thx to your advocacy, we are closer than ever to achieving our #Fightfor10! Our 10 hours min rest & Fatigue Risk Management Plan will be in the final version of the long-term bill as long as we continue to hold lawmakers accountable w/ our action. https://t.co/jivtCf6Be4
— AFA-CWA (@afa_cwa) March 24, 2018Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers:
MUST READ: The Baker Uprising - BCTGM | The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union https://t.co/7ff6EJOSgm
— BCTGM International (@BCTGM) March 22, 2018Boilermakers:
Better opportunities. A union can help you get better wages, benefits and a say in shaping your future. Check it out. #FormAUnion #Organize https://t.co/FnkGKuwOwu pic.twitter.com/aFYonllTtv
— Boilermakers Organizing (@joinIBB) March 22, 2018Communications Workers of America:
CWA has opened negotiations w/the State of New Jersey for 32k state employees! At stake are across-the-board wage increases & restoring withheld salary increments — annual raises state workers receive when they reach an annual milestone in state service. https://t.co/UdLD86yDEJ
— CWA (@CWAUnion) March 27, 2018Department for Professional Employees:
Interested in increasing the power of working people? Check out @WomenLeadLabor's new fellowship. Letters of interest due April 6. #1u https://t.co/jFAIZj3hK9
— DPE (@DPEaflcio) March 28, 2018Electrical Workers:
#IBEW urges bidding process for Puerto Rico power restoration https://t.co/nmNXTMeU7U
— IBEW (@IBEW) March 27, 2018Farm Labor Organizing Committee:
VP Justin Flores explains the #BoycottVUSE campaign and asks supporters in Winston Salem to join @SupportFLOC in boycotting @RAI_News tobacco product VUSE until Reynolds signs an agreement guaranteeing farmworkers protections to organize and join labor unions #1u pic.twitter.com/yg05Kwu4UC
— Farm Labor Organizing Committee (@SupportFLOC) March 26, 2018Fire Fighters:
Over 1,200 Days And Counting: San Antonio, TX #Fire Union Contract Still Lacks Resolution https://t.co/2nMbUX6wAX
— IAFF (@IAFFNewsDesk) March 28, 2018Heat and Frost Insulators:
Second year apprentice Damon Cannon working the Local 6 booth at the Brockton Workforce Investment Career Fair! pic.twitter.com/lZWowYup39
— Insulators Union (@InsulatorsUnion) March 27, 2018International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers:
"Describing the move as “mean spirited,” Debbie Jennings, president of International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 4, which represents workers at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine..." #IFPTELocal4 https://t.co/GuZ0Femmvr
— IFPTE Local 4 (@IFPTELocal4) March 23, 2018International Labor Communications Association:
#ILCAbookshelf This week we’re reading Julius G. Getman’s The Supreme Court on Unions from @CornellPress. An important book to understand Janus, so-called “Right-to-work” and the role of courts in shaping labor law https://t.co/azcEIVb8Kq #1u pic.twitter.com/5AR84FfzsX
— ILCA Communications (@ILCAonline) March 23, 2018Jobs With Justice:
NEW: A study of @Gap stores shows that predictable and consistent work schedules aren’t just good for working people, but can also help improve a store’s bottom line. Corporations should heed the findings and end their unstable scheduling practices. https://t.co/8FgKb1MqMH #1u
— Jobs With Justice (@jwjnational) March 28, 2018Laborers:
See which 15 states have the worst #roads and #infrastructure in US #RepairOurRoads #FixOurBridges https://t.co/w3lExvTfjH
— LIUNA (@LIUNA) March 28, 2018Machinists:
Workers at BMW Victoria join IAM | Canadian Labour Reporter https://t.co/55jTzesK1W
— Machinists Union (@MachinistsUnion) March 28, 2018Metal Trades Department:
Proud to see our affiliates leading the way on diversity in the trades. https://t.co/7r8OpJ3pNa
— Metal Trades Dept. (@metaltradesafl) March 27, 2018National Air Traffic Controllers Association:
#OnThisDay in 2008 #NATCA & the #FAA signed a Memorandum of Understanding establishing the ATSAP. This voluntary reporting program has helped advance safety culture in U.S. aviation, overall making the National Airspace System safer for all users.
https://t.co/fPNDsC7hlY pic.twitter.com/Q4ApgrZTXO
National Day Laborer Organizing Network:
Watch and share. Thanks to @BklynDefender! https://t.co/HwHzLY6yb6
— NDLON (@NDLON) March 27, 2018National Domestic Workers Alliance:
Rest in Power, Linda Brown. You and your family’s bravery in the face of bigotry has reshaped our country and leaves a powerful legacy of equality whose ramifications will be felt for many generations to come #BlackWomenLead #WomesHistoryMonth https://t.co/dgK5X8jMY2
— Domestic Workers (@domesticworkers) March 27, 2018National Nurses United:
In Healthcare Worker Safety, California Leads The Way https://t.co/krMfRstBrz #workplaceviolence
— NationalNursesUnited (@NationalNurses) March 27, 2018National Taxi Workers Alliance:
Please donate and share to support our brother Nicanor Ochisor's widow. Nicanor was a yellow taxi owner-driver who committed suicide after facing financial ruin. https://t.co/hqH37KdHBK
— NY Taxi Workers (@NYTWA) March 28, 2018The News Guild-CWA:
Philadelphia Media Network is adding six fellows to engage diverse audiences that they are 'simply not reaching.' @TNGLocal10. https://t.co/Wj46WSDTRo. pic.twitter.com/gHZGv9kXPg
— NewsGuild (@news_guild) March 28, 2018NFL Players Association:
Today, we're joining @AmDiabetesAssn advocates to take Capitol Hill by storm for the annual Call to Congress! Players are sharing the impact of diabetes on their lives with legislators. #ThisIsDiabetes #TeamTackle pic.twitter.com/oNXZwciNaA
— NFLPA (@NFLPA) March 22, 2018North America's Building Trades Unions:
"Privatization would leave small states like Maine in a lurch because there is no financial incentive for corporations to invest in small states where there is minimal return on investment." https://t.co/3vmYV4EUrE
— The Building Trades (@BldgTrdsUnions) March 27, 2018Plasterers and Cement Masons:
Thank you @dscc for putting forth a plan with BROAD and SUSTAINABLE investment in our infrastructure and America's workers. We look forward to continued discussions that will result in a bipartisan bill to rebuild America. #builditrightbuilditnow https://t.co/TgyhMqfrHx
— OPCMIA International (@opcmiaintl) March 27, 2018Pride At Work:
Congratulations to @rweingarten, President of @AFTunion, and her wife, Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum!
Make Your Easter Union-Made in America!
Easter is this Sunday, so here is a list of union-made in America treats to fill an Easter basket and your holiday dinner table brought to you by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor's resource site, Labor 411.
Easter candy
- Cadbury Creme Eggs and other chocolate products
- Dum Dums
- Gimbal’s Gourmet Jelly Beans
- Haviland Nonpareils
- Jelly Belly
- Laffy Taffy
- Malted Milk Eggs (PAAS, Mighty Malts)
- Marshmallow Peeps
- Mike and Ike
- Necco
- Smarties
- Tootsie Rolls and Pops
- Appleton Farms ham
- Black Forest ham
- Butterball ham
- Cook's ham
- Farmland Old Fashioned Pit Ham
- Farmland Original Pit Ham
- Fischer Meats lamb
- Hormel Honey Roasted Ham
- Tyson Foods ham
- Alta Dena
- Betty Crocker food coloring
- Clover Sonoma
- Horizon
Say No to Poverty Policies: The Working People Weekly List
Every week, we bring you a roundup of the top news and commentary about issues and events important to working families. Here’s this week’s Working People Weekly List.
Worker Death Shines Spotlight on Disney's Poverty Policies: "As a result of the federal tax cut, Disney promised that its employees would get $1,000 bonuses. Disney offered the bonuses to most of its employees with no conditions. But for 41,000 union members in Orlando, Florida, and Anaheim, California, Disney is requiring them to agree to the company's contract proposals in order to get the bonus."
How Unions Carried Pennsylvania’s 18th District — and Why the DNC Should Be Paying Attention: "Rep.-elect Conor Lamb made national waves with an improbable win last week in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District. He faced down $10 million in outside money funneled to his opponent by corporate and right-wing interests. He fought through a barrage of incessant, hyper-partisan attacks blanketing the airwaves. He was abandoned by his own party’s national infrastructure in a district that hadn’t elected a Democrat in nearly 15 years. And he still came out on top."
The Lessons of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Are Still Relevant 107 Years Later: "On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the top floors of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory. Firefighters arrived at the scene, but their ladders weren’t tall enough to reach the impacted area. Trapped inside because the owners had locked the fire escape exit doors, workers jumped to their deaths. Thirty minutes later, the fire was over, and 146 of the 500 workers—mostly young women—were dead."
The Racist Roots of Right to Work: "Proponents of 'right to work' laws often use lofty language to sell their agenda, with false appeals to freedom, among other high ideals. But right to work is about freedom only in this way: It’s about taking away the freedom of working people to join together in strong unions."
UAW Takes Action to Support Incarcerated Korean Trade Unionists: "A UAW representative recently returned from a trip to South Korea to try to secure the release of two key labor leaders jailed for their union activity. Since December 2015, Han Sang-gyun, who was president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, has been imprisoned for representing his members. And last December, KCTU General Secretary Lee Young-joo also was arrested after a 10-day hunger strike and two years of house arrest. There are other trade unionists who are charged or incarcerated as well."
The People's March Madness Sweet Sixteen: "Welcome to the AFL-CIO's March Madness Sweet Sixteen! But instead of focusing on the hottest basketball teams, we're focusing on the MARCH part of March Madness. Not the month, but actual marches."
New President for the New Mexico Federation of Labor: "On March 20, the New Mexico Federation of Labor Executive Board unanimously appointed Vince Alvarado as its new president. Alvarado is the business manager and financial secretary for International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) Local 49, a position he has held since 2010. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees for the SMART Local 49 Health Plan and Joint Apprenticeship and Training Council. Alvarado is a third-generation sheet metal worker originally from El Paso, Texas, who served in various leadership roles on the job and with his union for more than two decades. He is currently the only state federation leader in the country who comes from SMART."
JetBlue Inflight Crew Members Vote on Joining TWU: "Nearly 5,000 JetBlue inflight crew members have begun the voting process this week in an effort to join the Transport Workers (TWU). Last year, an overwhelming majority of the inflight crew members signed cards in favor of coming together to negotiate a fair and just contract. Ballots will be cast between now and April 17."
Puerto Rico: Those Unforgettable Days: "There are days in our lives that are unforgettable. They are entrenched in our minds. They follow us like perennial shadows. Six months ago, I spent five days in Puerto Rico—two weeks after Hurricane Maria devastated this Caribbean island. As I look back into this short trip, I see images and situations that have stayed with me. Memories that are a constant reminder of how much remains to be done to lift up all working families who were affected by this disaster. Here are some of these moments."
Trumka: The Politicians Screaming About a Trade War Are Beholden to Wall Street: "Wall Street’s hair is on fire about steel and aluminum tariffs imposed by President Trump, because closing mills and factories in the United States and moving them overseas is how investors enrich themselves. And those wealthy investors reap even fatter profits when offshore mills and factories violate trade laws. Wall Street doesn’t care about the social and economic costs of unfair trade, because working people and our communities pay the price."
It's About Dignity and Humanity: Worker Wins: "Our latest roundup of worker wins begins with a group of production assistants voting unanimously for a voice on the job and includes numerous examples of working people organizing, bargaining and mobilizing for a better life."
Today's Working Women Honor Their Courageous Foremothers: "Nearly two centuries ago, a group of women and girls—some as young as 12—decided they'd had enough. Laboring in the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, they faced exhausting 14-hour days, abusive supervisors and dangerous working conditions. When threatened with a pay cut, they finally put their foot down."
Drake: 'Tariffs to Protect U.S. National and Economic Security Are Overdue': "Celeste Drake, trade policy specialist at the AFL-CIO, participated in a discussion last week about trade and tariffs at The Dialogue."
Kenneth Quinnell Thu, 03/29/2018 - 09:28Worker Death Shines Spotlight on Disney's Poverty Policies
As a result of the federal tax cut, Disney promised that its employees would get $1,000 bonuses. Disney offered the bonuses to most of its employees with no conditions. But for 41,000 union members in Orlando, Florida, and Anaheim, California, Disney is requiring them to agree to the company's contract proposals in order to get the bonus.
In December, Disney workers in Orlando rejected the company's offer of a 50-cent pay raise, far below the livable wage that Disney's employees are fighting for. A new report shows that the overwhelming majority of Disney employees who responded said they do not earn enough for basic expenses every month.
Meanwhile, the tax cut will bring Disney some $2 billion every year. Giving every Disney employee the promised $1,000 bonus would cost Disney $125 million. The report on Disney employees revealed that more than 10% of working people at Disneyland resorts have been homeless or have not had a place to sleep in the past two years.
Yeweinisht "Weiny" Mesfin was one of those Disney employees who was homeless. Weiny's former co-worker, Vanessa Munoz, told Weiny's story to Left Voice:
I met [Weiny] in October 2013. Carsland was her home. You could find her in that land working from 11:30 p.m. to 8 a.m., six days a week. She always smiled and greeted you with a “hello.” Restrooms were her major.
The first month working with her in restrooms was hard. She had her own ways of doing things, and as soon as I got to know her, I knew what she liked and what she didn’t. She was good at her job and never once did I hear her complain about her job or her pay.
Every day she had a pear or apple for lunch and occasionally a muffin. Sometimes she’d buy me lunch and refuse to have me pay her back. So I would secretly pay for her muffins or lunch whenever I saw her walk into the cafe. "No, darling! It’s OK," was her reply whenever the lunch lady would tell her that her meal was paid for. She would then come to me and thank me but, the next day, would beat me and secretly buy me lunch. She was like that with everyone, not just me. If you had a birthday, she would chip in and help buy you a cake. Because that was the type of person she was. She was a kind person who was loved by everyone....
November 2016: Weiny goes missing right after Thanksgiving weekend. Working for almost five years for this company now, I was used to seeing people come and go. Some went and just never came back. Sometimes you saw it coming and sometimes you just didn’t. I wasn’t ready for her to go, and I never thought I’d see her go.
It took about a month for us to find her. It took endless messages, Facebook shares, phone calls and driving around. All it took was a message from her cousin that Wednesday morning in December. "We found Her. She is passed. Thank you for all that you did" was what it read. My heart dropped, and I wanted to just disappear. I felt like what I did wasn’t enough. I felt like I was to blame.
Soon enough, I found out more things about my friend, Weiny. I found out she was found in her car in a gym parking lot after suffering a heart attack. She sat in her car for almost a whole month waiting for someone to find her. Why? Because she lived in her car and that gym parking lot was her home. She would use the gym to shower and use the restroom.
She didn’t have enough money to get her own place, and my heart broke because all she did was give and give. Never once did she complain. But behind that smile and "good morning, darling" lived a whole different person. A woman struggling and working eight-hour shifts for six days for a company that didn’t even bother helping with flower arrangements. For a company that took and took from her and terminated her on the spot after her third no call, no show. A company that asked for her costumes back as soon as possible so they can give them to the next re-hire.
Someone out there on third shift at Disney now wears my Weiny’s beanie, her sweater, shirts and pants. Someone out there is about to give as much as Weiny did for a company that refuses to pay the employees an affordable living wage.
Read the rest of the story and take action today by telling Disney to pay all of its employees the promised $1,000 bonus.
Kenneth Quinnell Tue, 03/27/2018 - 10:59How Unions Carried Pennsylvania’s 18th District — and Why the DNC Should Be Paying Attention
Rep.-elect Conor Lamb made national waves with an improbable win last week in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District. He faced down $10 million in outside money funneled to his opponent by corporate and right-wing interests. He fought through a barrage of incessant, hyper-partisan attacks blanketing the airwaves. He was abandoned by his own party’s national infrastructure in a district that hadn’t elected a Democrat in nearly 15 years. And he still came out on top.
It wasn’t because of some stale advice whispered into his ear by an overpaid consultant. He doesn’t owe this victory to super PACs or corporate donations. It certainly wasn’t thanks to the Democratic Party establishment — it’s still finding its way out of an agenda and message that failed to resonate with working people in 2016.
The fact is: Working people and the power of a union-run, member-to-member campaign are what carried the 18th District.
This election came down to a fight between our grassroots labor coalition and state Rep. Rick Saccone’s corporate-funded, RNC-managed smear campaign. The outcome proved what we already knew: The path to power runs through the labor movement.
Conor will be settling into a new office in Washington because he proudly stood with unions in southwestern Pennsylvania.
Read the full post at Medium.
Kenneth Quinnell Tue, 03/27/2018 - 10:51The Lessons of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Are Still Relevant 107 Years Later
On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the top floors of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory. Firefighters arrived at the scene, but their ladders weren’t tall enough to reach the impacted area. Trapped inside because the owners had locked the fire escape exit doors, workers jumped to their deaths. Thirty minutes later, the fire was over, and 146 of the 500 workers—mostly young women—were dead.
Watch this video to learn more about the tragedy:
Many of us have read about the tragic Triangle fire in school textbooks. But the fire alone wasn’t what made the shirtwaist makers such a focal point for worker safety. In fact, workplace deaths weren’t uncommon at the time. It is estimated that more than 100 workers died every day on the job around 1911.
A week after the fire, Anne Morgan and Alva Belmont hosted a meeting at the Metropolitan Opera House to demand action on fire safety, and people of all backgrounds packed the hall. A few days later, more than 350,000 people participated in a funeral march for those lost at Triangle.
Three months later, responding to pressure from activists, New York’s governor signed a law creating the Factory Investigating Commission, which had unprecedented powers. The commission investigated nearly 2,000 factories in dozens of industries and, with the help of such workers’ rights advocates as Frances Perkins, enacted eight laws covering fire safety, factory inspections, and sanitation and employment rules for women and children. The following year, they pushed for 25 more laws—entirely revamping New York State’s labor protections and creating a state Department of Labor to enforce them. During the Roosevelt administration, Perkins and Robert Wagner (who chaired the commission) helped create the nation’s most sweeping worker protections through the New Deal, including the National Labor Relations Act.
The shirtwaist makers’ story inspired hundreds of activists across the state and the nation to push for fundamental reforms. And while there have been successes along the way, the problems that led to the Triangle fire are still present today. It was just five years ago, for instance, that the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh killed more than 1,100 garment workers.
As worker health and safety continues to be a significant issue both in the United States and abroad, the AFL-CIO took a strong stand at our 2017 Convention, passing a resolution on worker safety:
The right to a safe job is a fundamental worker right and a core union value. Every worker should be able to go to work and return home safely at the end of the day.
Throughout our entire history, through organizing, bargaining, education, legislation and mobilization, working people and their unions have fought for safe and healthful working conditions to protect workers from injury, illnesses and death. We have made real progress, winning strong laws and protections that have made jobs safer and saved workers’ lives.
Over the years, our fight has gotten harder as employers’ opposition to workers’ rights and protections has grown, and attacks on unions have intensified. We haven’t backed down. Most recently, after decades-long struggles, joining with allies we won groundbreaking standards to protect workers from silica, beryllium and coal dust, and stronger protections for workers to report injuries and exercise other safety and health rights.
Now all these hard-won gains are threatened. President Trump and many Republicans in Congress have launched an aggressive assault on worker protections.
The worker protections under assault include:
- Trump's proposed fiscal year 2019 budget cuts funding for the Department of Labor by 21%, including a 40% cut in job training for low-income adults, youth, and dislocated workers and the elimination of the Labor Department’s employment program for older workers.
- The budget also proposes to cut the Occupational Safety and Health Administration budget, eliminate OSHA’s worker training program and cut funding for coal mine enforcement, while proposing a 22% increase for the Office of Labor-Management Standards' oversight of unions.
- The budget also proposes to slash the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s job safety research budget by 40%, to move NIOSH to the National Institutes of Health from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and to remove the World Trade Center Health Program from NIOSH’s direction.
- OSHA delayed the effective date of the final beryllium standard originally issued in January 2017. Then it delayed enforcement of the standard until May 11, 2018. In June 2017, OSHA proposed to weaken the beryllium rule as it applies to the construction and maritime industries.
- OSHA delayed enforcement of the silica standard in construction, which in December was fully upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
- OSHA delayed the requirement for employers to electronically report summary injury and illness information to the agency set to go into effect on July 1, 2017, until December 31, 2017. OSHA has announced it intends to issue a proposal to revise or revoke some provisions of the rule.
- OSHA withdrew its policy that gave nonunion workers the right to have a representative participate in OSHA enforcement inspections on their behalf.
- The Mine Safety and Health Administration delayed the mine examination rule for metal and nonmetal mines from May 23, 2017, until Oct. 2, 2017, and then again until March 2, 2018. MSHA also proposed weakening changes to the rule, including delaying mine inspections until after work has begun, instead of before work commences.
- In November 2017, MSHA announced it would revisit the 2014 Coal Dust standard to examine its effectiveness and whether it should be modified to be less burdensome on industry. This comes at the same time NIOSH reported 400 cases of advanced black lung found by three clinics in Kentucky.
- OSHA withdrew over a dozen rules from the regulatory agenda, including standards on combustible dust, styrene, 1-bromopropane, noise in construction and an update of permissible exposure limits.
- The agency also suspended work on critical OSHA standards on workplace violence, infectious diseases, process safety management and emergency preparedness.
- MSHA withdrew rules on civil penalties and refuge alternatives in coal mines from the regulatory agenda and suspended work on new standards on silica and proximity detection systems for mobile mining equipment.
The Triangle Shirtwaist tragedy took place 107 years ago today. We have a long way to go to make sure that we prevent the next such tragedy and keep working people safe and healthy.
Kenneth Quinnell Sun, 03/25/2018 - 08:39
