Highlights from Day Two of the AFL-CIO 2017 Convention Kaveh Sardari, AFL-CIO

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka opened the second day of the AFL-CIO 2017 Convention talking about the importance of unions to democracy:

Millennials have never lived in an America where wages are growing, or worked in an economy where hard work and productivity blazed a trail into the middle class. They have never experienced an economy where more than 1 in 10 workers have the freedom to belong to a union and bargain together. The American idea that anything is possible if you work hard and play by the rules simply does not exist for many young people.

In other words, the attacks on the backbone of our nation—working people—constitutes nothing less than a clear and present danger to our democracy.

So we are going to fight back. Smartly. Strategically. As one united movement.

That is the primary focus of today’s session.

We are going to fight back against right to work, here in Missouri and across the country.

We are going to fight back against attacks on our wages, benefits and freedom to negotiate for good jobs.

And we are going to fight back against the right-wing propaganda machine that continues to slander unions and our members.

We’re going to do it by organizing.

During the convention, the delegates approved the following resolutions:

• Resolution 3: Engaging Our Members to Build Strong Unions: "Our leaders realize the best way to combat these threats is to focus on internal organizing, making sure all members and potential members see the value of remaining a part of or joining their union. If we fail to do this, our membership and communities will face ever-deepening challenges posed by income inequality, affordable access to quality health care, erosion of the middle class and the denial of basic workplace rights."
• Resolution 4: Organizing to Win Power for Working People: "AFL-CIO resolves to devise a labor movementwide strategy for making the promise of collective bargaining real for every worker."
  Resolution 13: Freedom to Spend Time with Family: "Work is a down payment on the freedom to spend time with our families. Unfortunately, that investment does not always pay off. Outdated workplace policies put working women in a particular bind, forcing them to make impossible choices between work, family and personal wellness. Women want new rules for an economy that works for all working people equally, and the freedom to build lives of value."
• Resolution 15: AFL-CIO Prioritizing Organizing and Growth of Affiliate Unions—All in the Service of Helping Working People Organize: "The work of the AFL-CIO on political campaigns, policy initiatives, legislative efforts, digital and data strategies, international alliances, health and safety, and legal defense should all be in the support of the mission of our AFL-CIO affiliated unions—to assist working people organizing for a better life. "
• Resolution 25: Criminal Justice Reform: A System of Corrections and Rehabilitation That Prioritizes Corrections and Rehabilitation: "The AFL-CIO shall actively support criminal justice reforms based upon previously passed policy positions: community policing, sentencing reform, removal of employment obstacles for the formerly incarcerated, restrictions on for-profit prisons and voting rights restoration."
• Resolution 43: I AM 2018: "The AFL-CIO supports the I AM 2018 Program to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."
• Resolution 44: Resolution in Support of Public Education: "The AFL-CIO joins with organizations across the country in support of public education and our continued commitment to the highest quality public education for all students."
• Resolution 45: Janus Resolution: "Therefore, be it resolved, that the entire AFL-CIO stands in solidarity with its public-sector members in this struggle; and be it further resolved, that this convention supports these unions’ ongoing efforts to provide public-service employees with a voice at work, and the freedom and power to have a better life for themselves and their communities. Be it finally resolved, that regardless of how the Supreme Court rules in Janus, these unions and their members will remain clear and powerful voices for economic justice."

Read more about today's convention:

Flint Water Crisis: You Don’t Mess Around with Kids: "Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha addressed the delegates at the AFL-CIO Convention today on the Flint water crisis. Here are some excerpts of her remarks:

"It's an honor to be here today at the AFL-CIO's 28th Constitutional Convention.

"My mom was a proud union teacher. My dad was a General Motors employee, benefiting from the contracts between the UAW and GM. My brother is a labor lawyer at a Washington, D.C., labor law firm. We are a union family."

Global Action for Local Power: "In St. Louis, representatives from more than 40 countries gathered with U.S. unions and their allies to discuss strategies to build global power for workers, from local workplaces to worldwide supply chains. They discussed how unions in local struggles made their campaigns stronger by reaching out across borders to partners and used global tools to leverage power."

USAS: Strengthening Student Power at the Bargaining Table: "United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) is the country’s largest student labor solidarity organization, with more than 150 university locals campaigning for union rights alongside campus workers, community members and garment workers producing college apparel overseas. 

"Students chanted, 'Whose university? Our university!' as they stormed their president’s office on a sunny spring day."

Check out the videos that were played during today's plenary session:

Watch @hamiltonnolan interview workers @unitehere @IBEW @AFGENational on secrets to organizing success: Part 1, Part 2.

 

Watch LIVE @hamiltonnolan interview workers @unitehere @IBEW @AFGENational on secrets to organizing success #AFLCIO… https://t.co/GvLgXOlGrZ

— AFL-CIO (@AFLCIO) October 23, 2017

Day Two of #AFLCIO17 comes to a close as union members head out for a day of action.

— AFL-CIO (@AFLCIO) October 23, 2017

 

@steelworkers host Int’l labor leaders at #AFLCIO17 https://t.co/v3pK6hFVn2

— Celeste Drake (@CDrakeFairTrade) October 23, 2017

Int’l labor leaders visit the historic Granite City locals # 1899, 50 and 68. #AFLCIO17 @steelworkers pic.twitter.com/clklTA4FkN

— Cathy Feingold (@AFLCIOGlobal) October 23, 2017

Check out more from this international exchange on AFLCIO Global Facebook page and @CDrakeFairTrade #AFLCIO17

— Cathy Feingold (@AFLCIOGlobal) October 23, 2017

Proud that delegates showed solidarity and joined @brucefranksjr and protestors outside #AFLCIO17.https://t.co/P5qvQKmeXb

— Jamilah Nasheed (@SenatorNasheed) October 23, 2017

NJ AFL-CIO presents strategies to build a winning labor candidates program at #AFLCIO17 pic.twitter.com/qxd4Gm1I4n

— New Jersey AFL-CIO (@NJAFLCIO) October 23, 2017

Check out the highlights from day one of the convention.

Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 10/23/2017 - 14:16

Tags: 2017 Convention

Flint Water Crisis: You Don’t Mess Around with Kids AFL-CIODr. Mona Hanna-Attisha addresses delegates of the 2017 AFL-CIO Convention.

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha addressed the delegates at the AFL-CIO Convention today on the Flint water crisis. Here are some excerpts of her remarks:

It's an honor to be here today at the AFL-CIO's 28th Constitutional Convention.

My mom was a proud union teacher. My dad was a General Motors employee, benefiting from the contracts between the UAW and GM. My brother is a labor lawyer at a Washington, D.C., labor law firm. We are a union family.

And it was our larger union family that was the first and most vocal to respond to the Flint, Michigan, crisis. Plumbers, teachers, autoworkers, nurses, postal workers and so many more.

The response to the crisis by Plumbers and Pipe Fitters (UA) General President Mark McManus and UA members, by delivering water, installing filters and replacing our lead pipes, reminds the country of the generosity and spirit of unions. And the UA knows we have a lot of work ahead of us—to replace the millions of lead pipes in this country.

Some 80 years ago, Flint was the birthplace of General Motors and the embodiment of the American Dream.

It's 1936. For 44 days, autoworkers battled company thugs, faced hunger and Michigan's cold winter demanding union recognition, decent wages and working conditions. The sit-down strikes in Flint were radical acts where workers literally took over and occupied factories.

And even our Flint kids raised their voices, fighting for a chance at a better life, a better future.

It took the personal intervention of the governor of Michigan and President Franklin D. Roosevelt to end the strike. And labor won. Their union, the UAW, was recognized.

For the first time, working people had access to the American Dream. A good life. Living wages, housing, health care, great schools and even a pension. This was called the Grand Bargain. And it was a great deal.

These fought-for wages helped push up wages across the country, for decades. Union and nonunion alike.

At one point, Flint had the highest per capita income and best public health outcomes in the country. People from all over the world moved to Flint. It was hailed as one of the world's great industrial cities, a promised land for generations of workers.

But what followed in Flint was decades of crisis—disinvestment, unemployment, racism, poverty, violence, the decline of unions, population loss, crumbling schools and almost every disparity you can think of.

It was a man-made disaster—the result of bad policy choices.

Today, Flint is where our inequality problems, our injustice problems are most striking. If you're born in Flint, your life expectancy is 15 years shorter than if you'd been born in a suburb. This is no one's dream.

And as a pediatrician, I'm in the business of dreams. It's my job to make sure our kids are healthy today, but more importantly, it's my job to make sure they have the brightest future possible.

Lilly is one of these kids. She's a daughter of Flint. She is four years old.  Lilly was born into a city that was almost bankrupt. A city that was taken over by a state-appointed emergency manager. The emergency manager's job was austerity, to save money, no matter the cost.

And the emergency manager severed a half-century relationship with fresh, great lakes pre-treated water and, instead, started drawing water from the local Flint River. But the Flint River water was not treated properly.

The heroic people of Flint raised their voices, our Flint kids raised their voices, and they raised their jugs of brown water.

But this poor, predominantly minority city was ignored. For 18 months, people were told to relax, while our children, like Lilly, were drinking contaminated water.

Mind you, we were drinking contaminated water in a city that is literally in the middle of the great lakes—the largest source of fresh water in the world.

The corrosive untreated water created a perfect storm for lead to leach out of our plumbing and into the bodies of our children. Lead is a potent irreversible neurotoxin. It impacts how we think and how we act. There is no safe level.

And the lead problem doesn't only affect Flint. Flint kids, like Chicago kids, St. Louis kids, Baltimore kids and Los Angeles kids—our country's most vulnerable children—are already burdened with higher rates of lead exposure, as well as every other type of toxic stress that threatens their future.

It is an environmental and social injustice, and in Flint, that injustice only widened.

I walked out of my clinic, and I stood up with proof that the untreated Flint River water was causing lead to leach into the bodies of children. The state of Michigan tried to discredit me and my science.

But you don't mess around with kids and you don't mess around with lead.

We fought back with hard facts and evidence. And finally, the truth of our science spoke truth to power.

We are now building a model public health program to best preserve the tomorrows, the dreams, of our children. Wrapping our children with science-based interventions that promote their development—home visiting, early literacy, universal preschool, school health, nutrition access and health care.

Said best by abolitionist Frederick Douglass, "It's easier to build strong children than repair broken men." In a city known for building strong cars, we are also now building strong kids.

But to truly fix Flint, and Flints everywhere, it will take rebuilding the American Dream, from the ground up.

Because the most potent medication I can prescribe is to lift our families out of poverty.

It's not just a labor issue, nor an economic issue. It is a public health issue. It is an American Dream issue.

And in the city where the American Dream was first born, we are moving forward as we strive for equality and justice and opportunity. We are not going to be defined by this crisis; but rather by our response. A response that proactively and positively invests in our children and their parents. With good jobs for our child care workers, teachers, nurses, plumbers and builders. As a pediatrician, I know that parents with good jobs make for healthy kids.

And this is where Flint's struggle is your struggle.

Because there are Flints everywhere. Too many of our nation's children—from the rust belt, to rural America, to coal country and beyond, black, brown and white—are waking up to the same nightmare—the nightmare of poverty, injustice and lost democracy.

This is the union movement's struggle.

Our kids need you in this fight. Our kids in Flint and our kids everywhere.

Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 10/23/2017 - 12:24

Tags: 2017 Convention

Global Action for Local Power AFL-CIO

In St. Louis, representatives from more than 40 countries gathered with U.S. unions and their allies to discuss strategies to build global power for workers, from local workplaces to worldwide supply chains. They discussed how unions in local struggles made their campaigns stronger by reaching out across borders to partners and used global tools to leverage power.

Tactics varied, from international shareholder actions led by the AFT at a global education company to working with global unions like IndustriAll to UNI, to make global framework agreements that were more effective in building membership and bargaining power for U.S. workers at European companies who wanted to join Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union/UFCW (RWDSU/UFCW) and several manufacturing unions like Machinists (IAM), UAW, United Steelworkers (USW), Electrical Workers (IBEW) and Communications Workers of America (CWA).

Workers from Bangladesh and Honduras provided examples of long struggles and victories that needed both local boots on the ground and cooperative strategies with global partners to eventually win. Strategies and tactics were not limited to wages, health and safety, but also to equality in the workplace, gender equity and fundamental rights like freedom of association.

International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) explained how Jobs to Move America employed global strategies to demand that taxpayer monies be used to buy from companies that accept and engage worker unions in U.S. operations.

As RWDSU president, Stuart Appelbaum, said at the conclusion of the discussion: "In our local New York struggle to organize retail workers at Zara, we could not have succeed without international allies like the Spanish unions and UNI global.” Likewise, Dirk Linder of IG Metall (Germany) explained how his union worked to support U.S. workers whose European employers began adopting anti-union tactics in their U.S. operations.

The bottom line is we can join, fight and win for workers, but we must work together across borders.

Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 10/23/2017 - 10:01

Tags: 2017 Convention

USAS: Strengthening Student Power at the Bargaining Table USAS

United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) is the country’s largest student labor solidarity organization, with more than 150 university locals campaigning for union rights alongside campus workers, community members and garment workers producing college apparel overseas.

Students chanted, “Whose university? Our university!” as they stormed their president’s office on a sunny spring day.

For more than a year and half, students of USAS Local 150 had organized alongside adjunct faculty fighting for a union at Fordham University in the Bronx, N.Y. What should have been a peaceful march to the president’s office ended with a violent assault on student activists by campus security. All the while, the president, vice president and dean waited behind closed doors as the chanting and tension only escalated outside. Soon after, the news of the incident spread nationally, as USAS members and alumni called more than a hundred times, demanding justice for the student activists and the freedom for adjuncts to unionize. The following week, the university president conceded, giving adjunct faculty the recognition for a union.

These victories are hard fought for. Students face serious consequences for organizing, often threatened with punitive sanctions, the removal of scholarships and more. The university is a labor market—both domestic and international, and when collectively organized, students hold the most power over the institution and the boss, being the university president. Because the university has a stake in tuition-paying students, students can take significant risks in solidarity with workers. Knowing this, USAS members have mobilized to secure major wins for workers on their campuses, in their communities and even overseas in the factories that produce collegiate apparel.

Just this year, a multitude of USAS locals organized alongside their campus workers to achieve a fair contract across many sectors: dining service workers with UNITE HERE, graduate students and adjunct faculty with UAW, AFT, SEIU and more. Harvard USAS Local 5 led a mass walkout and joined the strike of dining service workers to achieve a historic contract at the richest university on the planet. Students at Northeastern University this last week spent day and night canvassing in support of an impressive strike vote to achieve the same contract with UNITE HERE Local 26. In the words of Heidy Beirrero, a food service worker at Northeastern: “Without the students, there is no fight.”

USAS takes on the global race to the bottom by institutionalizing a core strategy against exploitation in the garment industry. In the early years of USAS, waves of student sit-ins led to the formation of university labor codes of conduct, which would then apply to the working conditions of garment workers producing collegiate apparel. When abuses are identified in factories producing for Nike, Adidas and others, USAS organizes in solidarity with garment workers to transform sweatshops into dignified union jobs in countries around the world, including Indonesia, Bangladesh, Honduras and more. Just this summer, we celebrate a victory against the world’s largest sportswear brand—Nike. Nike had decided to close its factory doors to independent inspectors, and USAS launched an international campaign in response. Because of student pressure, including sit-ins, protests and rallies—more than five major universities severed licensing contracts—costing the brand millions. We led two nationwide speaking tours with garment union leaders and coordinated more than 25 global protests against Nike, spanning five continents. Student and worker pressure resulted in a landmark factory access agreement between Nike and the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), granting unequivocal access to Nike supplier factories around the world. USAS showed Nike that sweatshop labor is not so cheap after all.

For more than 20 years, students have led the charge alongside the workers engaged in university supply chains. But now we are taking on that same fight for ourselves—student workers.

The largest employers in 15 states across the United States are actually universities. In states like California, Iowa, New York and others, a solution to economic inequality is sitting in our classrooms. Students are no longer accepting the university strategy of pitting student and full-time workers against each other in a system where all are overworked and underpaid. Across major university systems, student workers are leading the charge for a $15 minimum wage from the boss—the university president. We have taken the fight from the classroom and into the streets. Across private and public institutions, we are winning. From New York University, to Columbia and University of Washington-Seattle, student workers organized for a living wage for ALL campus employees, including themselves. The economic impact at UW-Seattle alone raised the wages of more than 9,500 university employees. Imagine the scale of impact across state university institutions, which employ thousands on a single campus, county or even state. USAS members are forming non-majority unions across new turf—their classrooms. Collectively, USAS is demanding an end to the economic crisis of the working poor on our campuses and communities.

What does our work mean for the future of the labor movement? For two decades, USAS has served as the the strongest student to union pipeline. In solidarity with our union brothers and sisters, USAS has equipped students with union organizing skills and strategy to take on the boss—and win. Our membership reflects what is the most multiracial and multi-ethnic generation in college yet, with a majority of our membership reflecting working-class communities of black, brown, immigrant, and LGBTQ backgrounds.

One out of four USAS members go on to work for labor unions and social justice organizations post graduation. More than ever, our labor movement is in need of innovative, passionate and young leaders. USAS is bringing student power to the bargaining table, and we aren’t slowing down.

Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 10/23/2017 - 09:19

Tags: 2017 Convention

Highlights from Day One of the AFL-CIO Convention Kaveh Sardari, AFL-CIO

Today, more than 1,200 union delegates and convention attendees joined together in St. Louis for the first day of the 2017 AFL-CIO Convention. Here are some of the key moments from the AFL-CIO convention in St. Louis.

The convention delegates unanimously re-elected Richard Trumka (UMWA) as president, Liz Shuler (IBEW) as secretary-treasurer and Tefere Gebre (UFCW) as executive vice president of AFL-CIO. In addition, delegates elected 55 vice presidents, who will serve as the Executive Council for a four-year term.

In his acceptance speech, Tefere Gebre said:

Sisters and brothers, these are tough times. 

For our country. For our movement. For our communities.

Between black and white. Between immigrant and native-born. But even in the face of these challenges, I have hope. 

Hope of a brighter day. Hope of a stronger tomorrow. Hope of an America with liberty and justice for all. Sisters and brothers, this is a job for the labor movement! 

We can bring our country together! 

I pledge to do my part. To lead with my heart. To never stop fighting.

In her acceptance speech, Liz Shuler said:

How do we fight for good jobs when they are increasingly automated or distorted as the nation’s social compact is under relentless attack?

We have reached a tipping point -- just focusing on protecting what we have, is far more dangerous than taking risks.

When automation threatens millions of jobs in the not-too-distant future...we can’t afford to be cautious.

When millions of people use their power online to oust CEOs and advocate for change, we need to harness that activism and use it to build a massive movement of working people.

Together we can build the support, leadership and encouragement for more unions to get in the game, experiment and find new strategies for success.

And in his acceptance speech, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said:

I am proud to stand before you and tell you we’re going to go forward toward a better day for all working people.

Our opponents are tough. They’re well-heeled and ruthless. But their deep pockets can’t overcome our deep passion for a fairer and more just nation. I say, bring it on!

America is hungry for change. Change doesn’t just happen—we will make it happen the same way our predecessors stared down the barrel of a harsh economic and political reality—and even guns—to form the labor movement.

A new day. A better day. For you, and me. Our children and grandchildren.

We’ll join together. We’ll fight together. We’ll win together, brothers and sisters, because we do the work. This is our country, and it’s high time that we took it back!

During the convention, the delegates approved the following resolutions:

• Resolution 7: Reviving Our Communities and Putting Millions to Work Rebuilding the Country: "The labor movement expects Congress to work with the administration to achieve the promises President Trump made in 2016 for a $1 trillion infrastructure plan. Yet we know that $1 trillion is not enough to fund existing needs, much less to invest in new infrastructure. The labor movement will fight for an infrastructure program that goes beyond this down payment and comprehensively invests in our nation’s future."

• Resolution 10: Encouraging Union Members to Run for Public Office: "With an urgent need to expand these efforts, we hereby resolve to strengthen the independent political voice for labor in local government by identifying and recruiting new candidates for local office, ensuring the candidates we recruit and endorse reflect the diversity of our labor movement. These labor candidates will champion pro-labor values and campaign aggressively and in partnership with labor."

• Resolution 16: Inclusion and Equity: Ensuring Equity and Inclusion Internally and Externally: "Politicians and corporations have used race and ethnicity, cultural differences and geography to divide us for decades. It is simple: If we are fighting each other, then we are not fighting together for better jobs, better schools, more affordable health care, good housing, strong communities and a more secure retirement for all. Eradicating bigotry is not just the moral thing to do—it is the only way we will win these things for all working families and leave a better future for our children."

• Resolution 24: Fighting Together for Workers in Manufacturing: "To win these fights, raise wages and improve diversity in manufacturing, we must activate workers to fight for political demands and to organize. We must insist on inclusion and solidarity, and reject exclusion and racism. The alternative is continued decline and the growth of a political narrative on manufacturing that is contrary to our values and our interests."

• Resolution 29: Resolution Supporting 100 Percent Buy American for Defense Procurement: "To fight for American jobs and American security, we will: Vigorously support eliminating all loopholes to Buy American laws, and demand that all goods purchased for defense procurement are manufactured in the United States; Strengthen and expand measures that apply to defense procurement and support our defense industrial base, including Buy American, the Defense Production Act, the Jones Act, the Specialty Metals Clause and the Berry Amendment; and Support measures to rectify U.S. dependence on any foreign-sourced critical military supplies and systems, including government support for establishing U.S. production capacity."

• Resolution 56: The Humanitarian Crisis in Puerto Rico and the Need for Immediate Federal Action: "Therefore, Be It Resolved, that the AFL-CIO Convention commends the heroic and courageous efforts of the AFL-CIO union members and volunteers who participated in the multi-union emergency relief mission; and Resolved, that the AFL-CIO expresses solidarity with our sisters and brothers in the Puerto Rico Federation of Labor and the Virgin Islands Central Labor Council in their efforts to rebuild and protect all their residents following the disaster."

Speaking at AFL-CIO's Diversity and Inclusion Pre-Conference, Petee Talley said:

I am honored to present the report on the AFL-CIO's "All of Us or None of Us" Convention Pre-Conference, held yesterday where over four hundred participants came to learn, share and be inspired.

Earlier this morning, faith leaders representing many denominations lifted up the universal teachings of love, tolerance and freedom.

There is no one in this room that doesn't know we are in a moment of crisis-not just in our movement, but in too many of our communities.

We can either retreat to our individual corners or we can come together to develop a roadmap that leads to an Economy that Works for All of Us.

In preparing for this year's pre-conference Central Labor Council, president Pat White and State Fed president, Mike Louis, shared with us the relationships they've been cultivating with many of their community allies in Saint Louis.

They've been working together to build a better community where workers' rights are protected, where voters are free to participate in a fair democracy, and where every job is a good job.

The theme of this convention is perfectly timed. We are about joining together in union. We are about fighting together, and we are about WINNING together.  

Read more about today's convention:

We Are the American Labor Movement, and We Will Not Be Denied: "Brothers and sisters, St. Louis is a historical gateway to the American frontier, in many ways to the American Dream—many unionists trace their roots to St. Louis and the Show Me state. It will be our entrance to a new vision of prosperity, not a cookie-cutter America dream of white picket fences but a dream shaped by each of us, a dream in which no one gets left behind."

Democracy is Not Just Nice, But Necessary: "At the AFL-CIO Convention’s Global Labor Symposium, the last panel of the day proved to be the most exciting. The topic was Unions at the Forefront of Democracy. After an inspiring introduction by Victor Baez, who leads the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas, the entire symposium went outside to join a rally led by Missouri State Rep. Bruce Franks, Jr. to support Black Lives Matter."

USA Hosts Community Fishing Day, Dedicates Willmore Park Piers: "Youth, veterans and seniors got to wet their lines at a fishing event at Willmore Park in St. Louis, Missouri, today, to celebrate the completion of two fishing piers restored by union volunteers. The event was hosted by the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) in conjunction with the AFL-CIO 28th Constitutional Convention."

In Missouri, Together We Win: "We would like to welcome the AFL-CIO Convention to our beautiful city. A city built by the hands of the labor movement. The world-famous Gateway Arch was built with 100% union labor in the early 1960s. Busch Stadium, the home of the 11-time world champion St. Louis Cardinals, was built by union men and women. The convention center, where we bring union members from every corner of the United States, was built by our brothers and sisters. St. Louis was not only built by union hands, but was once the shoe capital of the world, with union-made shoes made at Brown Shoe Co. Our city also was home to McDonnell Douglas, where machinists sent men to space. Not to mention the birthplace of the Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the Bricklayers (BAC). St. Louis is a union town, which makes it the perfect place to host this year’s AFL-CIO Convention."

Running for Office: Have You Ever Thought About It?: "I have spent the better part of the past decade asking elected leaders to vote the right way. Asking them to stand with us—as union workers, retirees, women, people of color and immigrants. I have done this by being in the streets, at rallies and protests, asking them to join us on the strike lines, and lobbying them in congressional offices, in our state legislature and in city halls."

Highlights from the AFL-CIO 2017 Diversity Pre-Conference and the Global Labor Symposium: "As part of its quadrennial convention, AFL-CIO is bringing together working families and activists to discuss diversity and inclusion and a separate meeting to discuss global labor issues. Here are some key Tweets from the 'All of Us or None of Us: Join, Fight and Win Together Pre-Conference' and 'Global Labor Symposium.'"

Using Government Procurement to Bring Good Jobs Back to the U.S.: "I am pleased to have the opportunity to share SMART's work on Jobs to Move America and to talk about how we have used public procurement—or government purchasing—to re-shore good American manufacturing jobs."

Brazil Undermines Labor Laws and Puts Women Workers at Great Risk: "Brazil's comprehensive labor laws have long provided a strong institutional framework for unions to defend workers' rights. Changes pushed through Congress this July by Brazil's un-elected president and a Congress compromised by corruption charges have greatly undermined the labor laws and will drastically change the legal context in which Brazil's unions work."

These videos showed the breadth and diversity of the labor movement and were shown during the plenary session. Here's what you missed:

Kenneth Quinnell Sun, 10/22/2017 - 19:11

Tags: 2017 Convention

We Are the American Labor Movement, and We Will Not Be Denied Kaveh Sardari, AFL-CIOAFL-CIO President Richard Trumka honored at the St. Louis Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) awards dinner before the 2017 AFL-CIO Convention.

Here are key excerpts from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka's opening remarks from the 2017 AFL-CIO Convention:

Brothers and sisters, St. Louis is a historical gateway to the American frontier, in many ways to the American Dream—many unionists trace their roots to St. Louis and the Show Me state.

It will be our entrance to a new vision of prosperity, not a cookie-cutter America dream of white picket fences but a dream shaped by each of us, a dream in which no one gets left behind.

We gather together as America and the world hunger for solidarity. We need it like we need air. We need it like we need each other. We need it like we need love. Yet fear, hatred, combined with a rigged economy and political system, stand in our way.

People are afraid we can’t get what we need, afraid that there isn’t enough or that it can’t be done. And as scared people sometimes do, some people hate those who seem needier than they are. This isn’t new. This is perhaps the central conflict that has dogged America for generations, divided or united. It’s a lesson we must learn again and again. 

You see, we stand together, as diverse as America in every way, and united by our shared brotherhood and sisterhood in our labor movement, which is built entirely on togetherness. We do it because it’s right. We do it because it works. We do it because our humanity, our belief in leaving no one behind, and our embrace of the idea that our diversity is what makes us strong, binds us. 

It’s no coincidence that America was founded on that same idea, unity works. Unionism is American. It is as Patriotic as the flag and the statue of liberty.

So are we. We are America. We are unionism. We represent 12.5 million women and men who have good jobs, who support their union, who need a labor movement, today, that can fight, win and grow, and be positioned to grow and thrive for years to come.

That’s our job at this convention, to represent our members while positioning our unions and our movement to grow, to give millions more the freedom to come together and bargain for good jobs and fairness.

At this convention in St. Louis, we will chart the path toward a thriving movement. 

You will notice an absence here. There are almost no politicians. That’s because this is a time for conversations with each other. Us. The people in this room.

We’re going to talk about political independence, voting rights and right to work. We’re going to talk about launching a renaissance to rebuild our infrastructure and revive manufacturing. We’re going to talk about diversity and inclusion. We’re going to talk about reforming our movement to ensure it remains a force no matter what changes arise in our economy—from robots to new business models. We’re going to talk about boosting the power of collective bargaining, growing our unions in the growth industries and connecting with new workers who want to embrace a day when every worker, every single worker in America, has the freedom to negotiate with his or her employer for a better life.

These are not easy conversations. Yet we will have them, and we’ll have them here.

There’s something radical about coming together, whether we’re here in this convention hall or out in the street on a picket line or at a march. I’ve felt it hundreds of times over my lifetime, and it never gets old.

I’m talking about how getting together can change you. You find yourself talking to people you never talked to before. You feel something, more unified, and more powerful, when you come into the same space with like-minded people who share your values and your passion and vision. How strong are our shared values?

Unity is a choice. As a labor movement, every day we make that choice. Sometimes we get it wrong, and it causes deep and lasting pain. Yet sometimes we get it right, and it’s so powerful. That’s what we want to focus on for the next four days. We want to make the right choice. We want unity.

I’ll tell you a quick story.

Not far from where we meet today, in southern Illinois to the east of us, a group of striking white coal miners, hungry and afraid, fired shots into a train of black replacement workers who had no idea the situation they had been brought into.

A handful of men, including the great United Mine Worker organizer and UMWA executive council member Richard L. Davis organized across racial lines in that environment. Davis did it. He was black, and he helped form the UMWA at our founding convention in 1890. In the face of fear, death and unspeakable sorrow, he gave us a model of solidarity that we need today. 

Our shared values brought those unionists together then, and our values can and will unite us again.

Our labor movement won’t merely respond to the attacks and survive, brothers and sisters. We will thrive.

Because we’re the ones who wake America up every single morning. We tuck her into bed at night. We build the cars, planes and infrastructure, lift the loads, drive the buses and ship the goods, pour the molds, connect our cities and the world. We teach, heal and make. We package, print and bake. From the East Coast to the West Coast, north, south and everywhere in between. We make America strong. We don’t duck and run. We don’t run and hide. We are the American labor movement, and we will not be denied!

Kenneth Quinnell Sun, 10/22/2017 - 12:54

Tags: 2017 Convention

Democracy is Not Just Nice, But Necessary AFL-CIO

At the AFL-CIO Convention’s Global Labor Symposium, the last panel of the day proved to be the most exciting. The topic was Unions at the Forefront of Democracy. After an inspiring introduction by Victor Baez, who leads the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas, the entire symposium went outside to join a rally led by Missouri State Rep. Bruce Franks, Jr. to support Black Lives Matter.

After the rally, Franks addressed the gathering, making clear that the struggle for justice, dignity and respect is universal. The audience grew more engaged as they heard about worker repression and denials of free speech in Brazil, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, and Iraq. Working people at the forefront of challenging authoritarian and repressive regimes have told stories of workers who risked job loss, arrests, and violence to protect and defend the rights of all citizens to stand up and fight back.

We don’t have all the answers yet. We are living in a time of widespread anti-unionism among global businesses. But working people are linking arms to share practices about effectively fighting back.

The bottom line was that workers can’t achieve gains by negotiating with employers if we can’t also speak out in protest; join the meetings, events and organizations of our choosing; and have the freedom to express our ideas in print and online. In other words, unions aren’t just workplace organizations-we are essential to defending democratic values.

Kenneth Quinnell Sun, 10/22/2017 - 12:12

Tags: 2017 Convention

USA Hosts Community Fishing Day, Dedicates Willmore Park Piers Union Sportsmen AllianceYouth, veterans and seniors received hands-on fishing instruction and assistance provided by USA volunteers at Willmore Park.

Youth, veterans and seniors got to wet their lines at a fishing event at Willmore Park in St. Louis, Missouri, today, to celebrate the completion of two fishing piers restored by union volunteers.

 

The event was hosted by the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) in conjunction with the AFL-CIO 28th Constitutional Convention.

The USA’s Work Boots on the Ground (WBG) conservation program brought together union volunteers from Missouri AFL-CIO, St. Louis Labor Council, St. Louis Building and Construction Trades, St. Louis Kansas City Carpenters Regional Council, EMLDC Laborers AGC Training Center, Iron Workers Local 396 and Painters and Allied Trades DC 58 to rebuild one fishing pier and install and paint a railing on another at Willmore Park to make them safe for visitors. The project was sponsored by PNC Capital Advisors and Aetna.

“St. Louis has a strong urban fishing heritage, and parks are an important part of our city’s culture,” said Missouri AFL-CIO President Mike Louis. “The project at Willmore Park united volunteers from many union trades for the common purpose of improving our community and public fishing access for all to enjoy for generations to come.”

A group of nearly 150 gathered to celebrate the new pier with speeches and a commemorative plaque before enjoying a free lunch. Immediately after lunch, a group of youth, veterans and seniors received hands-on fishing instruction and assistance provided by USA volunteers. All participants received a free fishing rod, reel and tackle courtesy of Pure Fishing.

“America’s urban parks are a true treasure providing large populations living within city limits access to the great outdoors. However, many of these parks have infrastructure that is deteriorating, and city budgets that simply can’t provide the necessary maintenance,” said USA CEO & Executive Director Scott Vance. “The USA has the most powerful tool available to help preserve our urban parks and outdoor heritage—skilled union members willing to give their time, expertise and passion to the cause. The Willmore Park project and community fishing day is true testament to our union volunteers, the power of Labor and their strong desire to give back more to their community than they receive.”

In addition to the companies and unions that helped restore the fishing piers, the following organizations helped make the fishing event possible: Vandaventer Place Retirement Center, Lively Stone Church of St. Louis, Missouri Veteran’s Home of St. Louis, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 58, Communications Workers of America Local 6300 and national and local AFL-CIO members.

 

Jackie Tortora Sat, 10/21/2017 - 19:25

Tags: 2017 Convention, Union Sportsman's Alliance

In Missouri, Together We Win AFL-CIO

We would like to welcome the AFL-CIO Convention to our beautiful city. A city built by the hands of the labor movement. The world-famous Gateway Arch was built with 100% union labor in the early 1960s. Busch Stadium, the home of the 11-time world champion St. Louis Cardinals, was built by union men and women. The convention center, where we bring union members from every corner of the United States, was built by our brothers and sisters. St. Louis was not only built by union hands, but was once the shoe capital of the world, with union-made shoes made at Brown Shoe Co. Our city also was home to McDonnell Douglas, where machinists sent men to space. Not to mention the birthplace of the Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the Bricklayers (BAC). St. Louis is a union town, which makes it the perfect place to host this year’s AFL-CIO Convention.

As you may know, Missouri has had its fair share of struggles, ranging from social unrest to the passage of union-busting laws. From previous unrest to the current situation, the labor movement has remained focused on building a stronger, more unified community. The labor movement will not stop fighting for equality for every single family. That is what the labor movement has always been about, and we are not about to stop now. Instead of fighting for working families, by passing policies that build a stronger community, politicians are working against us.

This past legislative session, Missouri politicians signed the “right to work” bill into law. However, this assault on ordinary working Missourians has not deterred us. Instead, Missourians have banded together to fight back. Over the course of several months, in the severe cold to the sweltering heat, working people collected signatures to put right to work on the ballot. By law, we needed 100,126 signatures in six of our eight congressional districts. But the working people of Missouri exceeded all expectations and turned in 310,567 signatures and qualified in all eight congressional districts. Right to work will be on the ballot in November 2018. It is going to be a fight for our very livelihood. With your help, we will defeat this disastrous anti-worker law that hurts all Missourians.

The Missouri AFL-CIO has never backed down. We are under attack by politicians and their billionaire buddies. Whether it be project labor agreements, paycheck deception, prevailing wage, lowering the minimum wage, right to work or the long list of anti-worker laws—we are the last line of defense for the middle class. Every one of us has a duty to fight for the middle class, who built this country. We are the leaders who will shape the future for our children and grandchildren. It is time to unite. Together we win.

Kenneth Quinnell Sat, 10/21/2017 - 15:14

Tags: 2017 Convention, Missouri

Running for Office: Have You Ever Thought About It? Teresa Mosqueda

I have spent the better part of the past decade asking elected leaders to vote the right way. Asking them to stand with us—as union workers, retirees, women, people of color and immigrants. I have done this by being in the streets, at rallies and protests, asking them to join us on the strike lines, and lobbying them in congressional offices, in our state legislature and in city halls.

Too often, I’d hear, “Let me think about it.”

After nearly a decade of hearing those words, I was determined to get more of us who have the lived experience of workers, women, people of color and immigrants into office. Working with the AFL-CIO, I ran the Path to Power program in Washington state that has helped train nearly 100 people to run for office. Half this year’s class is now on the ballot, and most candidates are slated to win. That’s what building power looks like. That’s what it looks like to make sure our voice is heard.

While training others to run, I would constantly hear: “Why aren’t you running? Have you ever thought about it?” I had always said no. Whether being encouraged by my own parents early on, or from our state’s speaker of the House over the years, I had always said no.

This year felt different. Donald Trump’s triumph last November brought everything into focus: everyone we have been working to protect and lift up is at risk: workers, women, people of color, immigrants, unions, the LGBTQIA community, our elders and kiddos.

 

We have all been pushed out of our comfort zone, to both resist and persist for our community. We’ve done this by being in the streets almost every weekend since the election, marching for women, workers and human rights. We’ve done this by being in airports demonstrating against the Muslim travel ban. And we’ve have done this by running for office, given the record numbers of women and people of color now on the ballot.

Local government now must be the first line of offence and the last line of defense when it comes to protect workers and residents. This year, I said yes.

I am running for Seattle City Council to represent our city at large. I am a third-generation Mexican American, Chicana, woman, renter, fierce advocate for health care and leader in the labor movement. Now, instead of asking someone else to vote the right way, I am hoping to bring my lived experience and progressive values into the office.

At 37 years old, I am a proud Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) Local 8 member. As the political director of the Washington State Labor Council, I proudly advocate on behalf of the half a million affiliated working people in our state. I have spent my whole life organizing to improve the health, well-being, economic justice and opportunity for vulnerable communities and working families. I have walked the halls of power fighting for health care for all children, reproductive health services, equal pay for women, and helped successfully lead and pass the minimum wage and paid sick days initiative for all Washington workers.

As union members, we know the importance of pushing for change from both the inside of the halls of power and from the outside with our bullhorns, our bodies and our community. It’s time for us—working people, union members, women, people of color, young people, LGBTQIA folks, immigrants—to say yes.  

I think you should run for office. Why not you? Who better to stand up and fight for workplace protections and living wage jobs than you? Who better to represent working people than someone from the labor movement? Who better to talk about the importance of a union, worker safety and retirement security?

To our sisters in the labor movement, as women it takes us on average seven times to be asked to run for office before we even think about the possibility. Have you ever thought about it?

We are at a critical time in our country’s history. A fresh wave of leaders is rising and running for office. I am one of them. Our place as union members is among them. So to all workers across our movement, let me ask you just one more time (and hope this is the seventh time some of you have been asked), have you ever thought about running for office?

Join me. I think you should run. Let’s bring our progressive values into the halls of power to stand up for our communities, the labor movement and working families.

Kenneth Quinnell Sat, 10/21/2017 - 15:01

Tags: 2017 Convention

Highlights from the AFL-CIO 2017 Diversity Pre-Conference and the Global Labor Symposium Kaveh Sardari, AFL-CIOMissouri House Rep. Bruce Franks Jr. addresses the AFL-CIO Diversity and Inclusion Conference ahead of the 2017 AFL-CIO Convention.

As part of its quadrennial convention, AFL-CIO is bringing together working families and activists to discuss diversity and inclusion and a separate meeting to discuss global labor issues. Here are some key Tweets from the "All of Us or None of Us: Join, Fight and Win Together Pre-Conference" and "Global Labor Symposium."

 

Our AFL-CIO Diversity and Inclusion and Global Labor Symposium pre-conferences are both happening now! Follow #aflcio17 #AllOfUsOrNoneOfUs

— AFL-CIO (@AFLCIO) October 21, 2017

 

WATCH LIVE: Rep @brucefranksjr discusses how to build independent political power #AFLCIO17 https://t.co/BDdMZQLK5i

— AFL-CIO (@AFLCIO) October 21, 2017

 

Great start to #AFLCIO17 diversity summit! All of Us or None of Us! with @Tefere_Gebre @RichardTrumka & @KarenInATX_ pic.twitter.com/aOFP7jsmql

— Liz Shuler (@lizshuler) October 21, 2017

 

@steelworkers Fred Redmond co-chair @AFLCIO Race Commission kicks off #AllofUsorNoneofUs #aflcio17 pic.twitter.com/R6QpQXT6Sf

— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) October 21, 2017

 

The need for international solidarity is as great as it’s ever been. We must fight for social justice everywhere. #aflcio17 @RichardTrumka

— Cathy Feingold (@AFLCIOGlobal) October 21, 2017

 

A strategic agenda & a plan is necessary to gain. Workers can't win alone or in a vacuum, says @steelworkers Pres. Gerard at #AFLCIO17 #1u

— Cathy Feingold (@AFLCIOGlobal) October 21, 2017

 

@lizshuler says that we should be leveraging #EqualPay on #aflcio17 panel w/ @votolatino @sagaftra @jqjp1 — AFL-CIO Latino (@AFLCIOLatino) October 21, 2017

 

Ken Rigmaiden President of Int'l Union of Painters and Allied Trades on the investments of the @AFLCIO Housing and Building Trusts #aflcio17 pic.twitter.com/DTS7g3Omwh

— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) October 21, 2017

 

inclusion is not about "optics"...this is about the future of our movement - Esther Lopez of @ufcw #AFLCIO17 #AllofUsorNoneofUs

— Carlos Jimenez (@CJ_DCLABOR) October 21, 2017

 

Fred Redmond stands with @NFLPA "There is a reason the First Amendment is first". @DeSmithNFLPA @CBTU72 @APRI_National #aflcio17 @AFLCIO pic.twitter.com/ES1lR3q90c

— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) October 21, 2017

 

none of us should ever be comfortable in a room without women or people of color - Esther Lopez to labor at #AFLCIO17 #AllofUsorNoneofUs pic.twitter.com/7kcLsAJhtH

— Carlos Jimenez (@CJ_DCLABOR) October 21, 2017

 

Karen Reyes a #DACA beneficiary and Special Ed Teacher, member @AFTunion speaking for American Creed of decency #aflcio17 #AllofUsorNoneofUs pic.twitter.com/JGFvpcp8Xp

— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) October 21, 2017

 

Jason Purnell on the effects of residential segregation that locks out opportunity #AllofUsorNoneofUs #aflcio17 pic.twitter.com/hluLfwS9Q2

— William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) October 21, 2017

 

Glenn Kelly, youngest Exec. Council member of Int'l Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers "we have to have a seat at the table to change" #AllofUsorNoneofUs — William E. Spriggs (@WSpriggs) October 21, 2017

 

"inequality is not inevitable... inequality is a choice!" - @RichardTrumka #AFLCIO17 #AllofUsorNoneofUs pic.twitter.com/Aiaj5F5Gsi

— Carlos Jimenez (@CJ_DCLABOR) October 21, 2017 Kenneth Quinnell Sat, 10/21/2017 - 13:59

Tags: 2017 Convention

Using Government Procurement to Bring Good Jobs Back to the U.S. AFL-CIO

Marc Norberg is the assistant to the general president of International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART). He gave these remarks at the AFL-CIO Convention in St. Louis today.

I am pleased to have the opportunity to share SMART's work on Jobs to Move America and to talk about how we have used public procurement—or government purchasing—to re-shore good American manufacturing jobs.

Jobs to Move America began as a national initiative to ensure that the billions of tax dollars spent on the purchase of buses and trains for our public transit systems results in the creation of family-sustaining, manufacturing jobs in the United States.

Historically, manufacturing has been a key pathway for Americans without a college education to enter into the middle class. Unfortunately, one of the last American railcar manufacturers—the Pullman Company—shuttered more than 35 years ago. Since that time, all of the major companies winning contracts to build trains for our public transit systems have been multi-national firms from around the world—German, French, Canadian, Japanese, Korean and, more recently, Chinese.

Jobs to Move America started back in 2010—at a time when the country was still struggling to recover from the Great Recession. Despite the fact that millions of Americans were unemployed, nearly all of the trains being purchased for our cities were being designed and engineered outside of the United States. Most of the high-value, high-skilled, highly paid manufacturing jobs for our trains also were being sent overseas. It was unthinkable. Billions of our tax dollars were bypassing U.S. workers.

For too long, the purchase of public goods in this country has been primarily driven by private, for-profit interest. Short-term cost savings and privatization are prioritized over long-term economic growth. Public agencies at the federal, state and local level largely have been reliant upon a race-to-the-bottom procurement framework, which has contributed to the dismantling of American manufacturing. Over the past several decades, we have lost millions of production jobs.

We needed a program for rebuilding our country’s middle class. We needed a global strategy that could leverage our taxpayer dollars to bring back American manufacturing, to get multi-national firms sending work overseas to bring more production state side and create more and better jobs for our communities.

We also needed a strategy to level the playing field for high road, union companies doing the right thing, that have a deep American footprint, and are investing in quality, family-sustaining jobs. 

Jobs to Move America developed the U.S. Employment Plan, which creates a competition upwards among companies vying for million- and billion-dollar transit projects in the United States. During the evaluation of bids submitted by companies in a competitive public procurement, manufacturers are scored based on the robustness of their U.S. jobs programs. Train builders can earn higher marks for committing to paying their workers family-sustaining wages, good benefits and for investments in things like union apprenticeship and jobs pipelines for low-income communities.

Over four years ago, Jobs to Move America partnered with the Chicago Federation of Labor to implement the U.S. Employment Plan policy on the city of Chicago’s $2 billion investment in new "El" train cars. I’m proud to share that as a result of this collaboration, in 2016, my union, SMART, along with the Electrical Workers (IBEW), and the Jobs to Move America coalition signed the first of its kind, landmark community benefits agreement with Chinese rail builder CRRC.

This past spring, we broke ground on CRRC’s new $100 million train factory in Chicago’s South Side. Railcar manufacturing is coming back to Chicago for the first time in more than 35 years, since the closing of the Pullman factory. CRRC’s factory is currently being built and constructed union. Workers on the assembly line will be wall-to-wall union. And people from the surrounding community will have priority hiring.

As CRRC looks to win new contracts in the U.S. and expands its domestic presence, it is key that we build off our local Chicago partnership to reach a national understanding. To ensure that the Chicago facility remains a permanent flagship and that all new CRRC investments and facilities are covered by the same high road standards that we achieved in Chicago—it is key that our union develop new strategies to reflect an increasingly globalized world.

We know that China is investing billions in the U.S. each year and likely will only be increasing their investment levels. We know that in an increasingly globalized economy, building cooperative relationships with a rising power like China is imperative to our union’s long-term success. We must reach mutual understanding and shared expectations.

Through SMART's work in Beijing with the IBEW, AFL-CIO, Jobs to Move America and All-China Federation of Trade Unions, we believe our Chicago partnership with CRRC can be a model for Sino-American relations.

At SMART, we understand that our union’s work can no longer be limited to a traditional organizing model or to a domestic strategy. We must adapt. We must be able to develop nimble and innovative, global strategies to address the new organizing context and grow the power of our great American labor movement.

Kenneth Quinnell Sat, 10/21/2017 - 12:37

Tags: 2017 Convention

Brazil Undermines Labor Laws and Puts Women Workers at Great Risk

Paloma dos Santos, president of the Union of the Cleaning Services Workers of Santos City and Region (Sindilimpeza-Sindicato dos trabalhadores em asseio e conservação da baixada santista) from Brazil, is at the AFL-CIO 2017 Convention this week and is part of the Brazil-Kenya women's delegation.

Brazil's comprehensive labor laws have long provided a strong institutional framework for unions to defend workers' rights. Changes pushed through Congress this July by Brazil's un-elected president and a Congress compromised by corruption charges have greatly undermined the labor laws and will drastically change the legal context in which Brazil's unions work.

By some accounts, this drastic overhauling of Brazilian labor law places the country on a path toward something more similar to the U.S. reality, weakening collective bargaining and unions' financial stability. While the comprehensive labor law was flawed, these changes cannot be called reforms.

They are expected to deeply affect women, people of color and many workers who were long excluded from these protections.

We are living moments of great loss, at work and in life.

In the case of Assaio e Conservação, women are the ones who are being hit the hardest because of outsourcing and the new labor reform, approved in the Brazilian National Congress, that takes countless workers' rights, a decision of total regression.

One of the consequences of changing these labor laws is that pregnant women will be working in unhealthy areas, which was previously against the law.

Another important issue that we work on daily is the issue of gender violence. Many of our women workers suffer violence at home and sometimes cannot return to work because they are hurt and embarrassed. Another situation we deal with is the issue of rape, which most of the time happens to women on their way to work.

We try to raise the awareness of these workers in the best possible way, through pamphlets and referrals to specific guidelines. The fight for women's rights, equality and parity at work is every day, every hour.

Kenneth Quinnell Sat, 10/21/2017 - 10:52

Tags: 2017 Convention, Brazil

Tennessee SMART Members Donate Time for Veteran

On Sept. 21, International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) Local 5 was notified that a local Chattanooga, Tennessee, veteran and his family had been left with an exposed metal roof by a shoddy local nonunion contractor.

Army veteran Kerry Hinton had paid this contractor to demo the existing asphalt shingled roof and replace it with sheet metal. During this process, the owner/operator of the nonunion firm was arrested and reportedly put in jail, leaving Kerry along with his wife and children with a mess on their hands.

Volunteers from SMART Sheet Metal Local 5, through the SMART ARMY,  along with assistance from Chase Plumbing and Mechanical went to work donating time and materials to help this family in need.

Special thanks to brothers Jacob Wheeler, George Painter, Jordan Burgin, Jason Andrews, John Kirk and Jeff Burgin who worked on the project.

This post originally appeared at SMART.

Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 10/18/2017 - 15:26

The State of Retirement Security in the United States NPPC

This week is National Retirement Security Week. Every year this week is used by the financial industry to promote retirement savings through their products and services. While we applaud the goal of promoting adequate retirement savings for all Americans, the reality is that many working families are not saving at all and are woefully unprepared for retirement. So this year, we are flipping the script and talking about National Retirement (In)Security Week.

The unfortunate truth is that many Americans are not saving enough for retirement (if they are saving at all) and will fall behind their standard of living in retirement. And they know it. According to polling released earlier this year, 88% agree that the nation faces a retirement savings crisis and 76% are concerned about their own ability to retire with security and dignity.

Much of the problem stems from lack of access to a retirement savings plan through an employer. At any given time, roughly half of working Americans do not have a retirement savings plan through their job. The overwhelming majority of people do not save for retirement if they do not have a plan through their employer. Most of the money in IRA plans are rollovers from 401(k) plans, not money contributed directly to the IRA plan. Among those who do contribute directly to an IRA, most of them also have access to a retirement savings plan through their employer.

Among workers who do have a retirement savings plan at work, there has been a significant shift over the past three decades from defined benefit pensions to defined contribution 401(k)-style plans. According to the Center for Retirement Research, in 1983, 62% of workers had a traditional pension and only 12% had a 401(k)-style plan. By 2016, only 17% were covered by a pension and 73% participated solely in a defined contribution plan. This is a remarkable shift and has a real impact on people’s retirement security.

The Economic Policy Institute has crunched the numbers on the retirement savings crisis. Among all working age (ages 32 to 61) families, the median retirement savings amount was $5,000 in 2013. Looking only at working age families with savings accounts (since nearly half have no savings), the median amount increases to $60,000. While this is significantly more, it is nowhere close to what the typical worker will need to finance a secure retirement.

Additionally, retirement savings is highly skewed. High income families are ten times as likely to have any retirement savings as low income families. Also, high income families own a greater share of retirement savings than they do of earned income. The top 20% of income earners receive 63% of all income in the United States, but they control 74% of all retirement savings.

Finally, for all income levels and demographic groups, retirement income from 401(k)s, IRAs and other defined contribution plans do NOT represent a significant share of income. For all people age 65 and older, only 8% receive income in retirement through a defined contribution plan and the median amount received is $5,400. Even for seniors in the top 20%, this source of income accounts for just 12% of retirement income (no group receives more than 12%).

The reality is that retirement prospects have worsened for many working families since the Great Recession. The percentage of working Americans participating in any type of retirement plan has declined from a peak of 60% in 2001 to 53% in 2013. For many, their retirement savings amounts are lower now than they were in 2007, just before the financial crisis. As we discuss the importance of retirement security this week, it is critical to have a clear sense of where most Americans are today and the challenges that they face.

This is a guest post from the National Public Pension Coalition.

Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 10/18/2017 - 09:57

A Better Way to Vote yaquina

Imagine a state where voters never have to even wait in line or present a photo ID in order to get their ballot. Where bad weather, traffic jams, working late or child care duties never have to interfere with a citizen’s intent to exercise his or her democratic franchise.

A state where it’s the government’s obligation—if it knows a citizen is a registered voter—to deliver the ballot, not force the voter to go to a specific polling location or arrange for an absentee ballot.

Such a state is Oregon, where voters in 2000 approved by a more than 2-1 margin to create what can best be called a "Vote at Home" election system. Two other states—Washington and Colorado—have now adopted the same system, as have 21 of Utah’s 29 counties.

In Vote at Home systems, U.S. Postal Service letter carriers deliver a ballot to every active registered voter about two weeks before every election. Voters typically mark their ballots at home, then have the option of returning them by mail or taking them to any one of hundreds of ballot drop-sites around the state. Voters’ signatures on the return envelope are verified against voter registration cards before ballots can be counted, to ensure election integrity.

This week, former Oregon Secretary of State Phil Keisling will be in Washington, D.C., for an event the AFL-CIO is co-sponsoring with the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) to talk about the many benefits of Vote at Home elections. Voters strongly approve of the system; it saves millions in taxpayer dollars in reduced election costs; and, perhaps most important of all, it spurs significantly higher voter turnout, especially in midterm elections. Keisling will be joined by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who was elected in 1996 in the nation’s first-ever federal election that used this system.

As America’s working men and women look ahead to future elections, Vote at Home seems like a simple, common-sense reform with exceptional power to reinvigorate American democracy. Just recently, a new organization—National Vote at Home Coalition—was launched to help support such efforts as a Vote at Home ballot measure campaign that was recently launched by progressive activists in South Dakota. Other ballot measure efforts also are being discussed for several other states, as well as legislative efforts in several other states.

In 2016, an estimated 60 million already registered voters didn’t cast a ballot—and more than 100 million didn’t in 2014. Maybe it’s time to start relying on the genius of Benjamin Franklin—and the U.S. Postal Service he created nearly 250 years ago—to start fixing that.

Kenneth Quinnell Tue, 10/17/2017 - 11:40

Partnership Brings Relief to Puerto Rico AFL-CIO

As part of the response to the devastation in Puerto Rico, working people and United Airlines teamed up to fly more than 300 first responders and skilled volunteers to help with relief and rebuilding. The partnership was a response to an urgent request from Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz for highly skilled workers.

In response, Cruz said:

I will always remember and, most importantly, San Juan will never forget the sight of hope and redemption of brotherhood and sisterhood of more than 300 union brothers and sisters stepping out of their buses with open hearts to help those whose cry for help some have tried to dismiss and diminish. Your compassion, your skills, but most of all, your great heart has strengthened our bodies have rebuilt our buildings, but most of all has touched our souls. We know we are not alone, for we know the union movement will never forsake us....

Where there are problems to be fixed, you do not run away, you stand by us every step of the way....

You embody the true nature of the American spirit of compassion, ingenuity, and resilience....

Your presence here reassures us with our minds and with our hearts that all Puerto Ricans have seen that not only is it the right thing to do, but it is the path for the future. San Juan will never be able to pay the debt of gratitude, brotherhood, and sisterhood that will forever bond us together.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler said:

Last week, I joined more than 300 hardworking union men and women who volunteered to help their fellow U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico and flew with them to San Juan in an airplane operated in partnership with United Airlines.

Nurses, doctors, engineers, carpenters, electricians, truck drivers and working people from different backgrounds joined together in a heartbeat and responded to the recovery efforts. Since landing, they have been working around the clock to help devastated communities.

Whether delivering critical aid, restoring power or saving lives—they are real life heroes and they’re making a real difference. And we’re in it for the long haul.

I could not be more proud to be part of a movement alongside these selfless and brave working women and men. We are proud of their work and honored to have a few of them join us today to tell you their personal accounts.

Kenneth Quinnell Tue, 10/17/2017 - 10:20

Texas Unions Partner with Mayor Turner to Send Supplies to Puerto Rico AFL-CIO

The Seafarers (SIU) union and other Houston-area unions organized a relief drive to collect supplies for Puerto Rican hurricane survivors.

Yesterday, leaders from the Texas labor movement joined together with Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner to load containers with vital supplies for a ship bound for Puerto Rico.

The Seafarers secured the shipping containers and organized with other local unions and the mayor’s office to collect materials being donated to Puerto Rican communities impacted by Hurricane Maria. Recent reports state that 85% of the island is still without electricity and 40% of the population still lack access to clean drinking water.

The cargo ship is delivering water, nonperishable food, toiletries, battery-powered electronics, mops, brooms and other desperately needed items to the Puerto Rico AFL-CIO in San Juan. The supplies will be shipped on the National Glory, a U.S.-flagged vessel owned and operated by National Shipping of America, that will be crewed by SIU members under the Jones Act. Plans to send more cargo to Puerto Rico are in the works.

"The labor movement is at its best when we work together during times of great need. We saw that here in Texas after Hurricane Harvey, and now we want to extend that help to Puerto Rico," said Zeph Capo, president of the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation.

Dean Corgey, vice president of the Gulf Coast Region of the Seafarers, said, "Mayor Turner has been a stalwart supporter of Houstonians and others harmed by hurricanes recently. We’re proud to be partnering with the mayor on this effort to bring aid to Puerto Rico."

Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 10/16/2017 - 16:05

Why the Best Protectors for Workers Are Other Workers IAFF

As concertgoers fled the mass shooting at the country music festival outside the Mandalay Bay in Clark County, Nev., at the end of the Las Vegas strip, dozens of off-duty fire fighters attending the concert sprang into action. Twelve were among the wounded by gunfire.

At the same time, more than 150 fire fighters and paramedics from Clark County Local 1908 and surrounding locals rushed to the scene to save lives, treat the wounded and help the survivors.

"Our members–including those attending the concert off duty–reacted as they always do," said IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger. "They put their training to work immediately, without hesitation and without regard for their own safety, making quick and difficult decisions on how best to save lives."

As the news of the unfolding tragedy flashed across the nation, the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) – the union representing more than 310,000 professional fire fighters and paramedics–also took action, reaching out to Clark County Local 1908 and other affiliates in the area to provide assistance.

On Monday morning after the shooting, Patrick Morrison–a retired Virginia fire fighter who heads the health and safety division at the IAFF, was on the phone with affiliates across the country to organize and mobilize experienced teams of peer support counselors and trauma specialists to help members involved in the response to the mass shooting. Within hours, he too was on a plane to Las Vegas.

"It’s easy to see a broken arm and treat it. It’s more difficult to see trauma to our brains or hearts," Morrison said. "Everyday, work for fire fighters and paramedics can be traumatic. Mass-casualty events can be much worse. We want to make sure our members understand the signs and symptoms of traumatic stress injuries, so we can treat them."

Many of the peer support counselors who arrived in Las Vegas have been through similar events. Some pulled bodies from the attack at the 2016 Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Fla., where 49 people were killed and 59 wounded. Others got a crash course in trauma from the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, or from the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.

All of them brought their personal stories to Las Vegas to help their union brothers and sisters.

At the school shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Col., Ray Rahne was a fire fighter who had responded like everyone else in his department. Afterwards, the Vietnam veteran, who is also a husband and father, would find himself crying at times. And he was skittish and jumpy.

"I would go from happy to depressed at the snap of the fingers. People started asking, ‘What’s going on?’ This went on for over a year. Finally, I thought, I don’t know. I’ve got to go see somebody," Rahne said.

Now retired from Littleton Fire and Rescue and a IAFF district vice president, Rahne got help and then joined his union’s growing movement to treat mental and emotional injuries to fire fighters, paramedics, and dispatchers.

Two years ago, the IAFF hired its first full-time and permanent behavior health specialist. This year, the union plans to hire a second. And, last March, the union opened the Center of Excellence for Behavioral Health Treatment and Recovery in Upper Marlboro, Md., exclusively for IAFF members.

"Health and safety is a big priority for us. We want to make sure all of our members are as safe as possible," Morrison said.

Kenneth Quinnell Fri, 10/13/2017 - 16:05

Joining Together: 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.

NAFTA Negotiators Send Corporate Whiners Back to Swamp: "Giant corporations, loyal to coin and faithless to country, staged a public display of blubbering in the run up to this week’s fourth round of negotiations to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)."

Las Vegas Dad Sells His Harley to Go to Puerto Rico and Drive Trucks to Help Hurricane Victims: "When Marcos Cruz heard about the need for truck drivers to help hurricane victims in Puerto Rico, he knew he could help. The single dad of two teenagers was born in Puerto Rico but has lived in Las Vegas for over 40 years."

From the Mountains of Puerto Rico: 'We Won’t Have Electricity Up Here for at Least a Year': "Adela Fígaro wasn’t worried when high winds began to lash her home, high on a hill in Las Marias, an area in the west-central region of Puerto Rico. The Dominican Republic native, with a quick wit and a big smile, had been through other serious storms in her 30-plus years living deep in the mountains of the island, about 60 miles from San Juan, where much of the island’s coffee and fruit is grown."

SEC Asked to Probe Trades of Student Loan Firm Navient: "A series of well-timed trades in shares of student loan giant Navient Corp. immediately before the Labor Day holiday weekend, after which a critical Trump administration policy announcement was made public, spurred the AFL-CIO to request that federal securities regulators review what it labeled potential insider trading."

United Airlines and Unions Fly Through Sham Attacks on Labor to Help Out in Puerto Rico: "Last week a United Boeing 777-300 flew from Newark to San Juan, carrying the assistance that Puerto Rico needs most after Hurricane Maria. Not just supplies, but 300 workers from 20 unions, all willing to work free to help the island rebuild."

5 Things You Need to Know About TPS or Temporary Protected Status: "In a turbulent world, countries with more privilege have a powerful ability to protect people from countries experiencing crises such as war, natural disaster or ongoing violence and prevent them from returning to conditions that could cost them their lives. Since 1990, the United States has allowed more than 300,000 immigrants from such countries to live and work here under Temporary Protected Status."

What Working People Are Saying About the Janus Supreme Court Case: "The U.S. Supreme Court has granted certiorari in the case Janus v. AFSCME Council 31, meaning the court will hold a hearing and make a ruling on the case. The case started with the billionaire governor of Illinois, Bruce Rauner, attempting to undercut the voice of public service workers through the courts. Janus is part of a broader strategy by corporate-funded organizations like the State Policy Network, which admits that the whole point of Janus is to strike a 'mortal blow' and 'defund and defang' unions. Working people are speaking out against these attempts to use the courts to attack their rights."

World Day for Decent Work: Immigrant Protections Essential for Achieving Decent Work: "Oct. 7 marks the 10th annual World Day for Decent Work, a day when unions across the globe mobilize for decent work. In local events, workers highlight issues of corporate greed, low wages, inequality and injustice. In the United States, immigrant workers and communities are under attack as the Donald Trump administration threatens some of the few protections available to immigrants in vulnerable circumstances. This undermines decent work and the ability of all working people to come together to assert their rights on the job."

NAFTA Negotiations Still Need Improvement: "On Sept. 27, the United States, Canada and Mexico finished the third round of the North American Free Trade Agreement renegotiation talks. We’ve been told these talks will 'get a better deal for our workers,' but the negotiating goals seem to prioritize getting a better deal for corporations that want to offshore jobs and decrease wages. That means NAFTA will continue to make it harder for you to get a raise."

Working Families Join Together to Help Puerto Rico: "As the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico continues, working people from across the country are joining together to help with recovery and rebuilding."

Miners Working with Congress to Solve Pension Crisis: "Strong bipartisan legislation has been introduced in recent congressional sessions to solve the pension crisis currently facing America's mine workers. The Miners Protection Act is a response to a growing insolvency problem with the Mine Workers (UMWA) 1974 Pension Plan. The legislation would protect the pensions of 87,000 current beneficiaries and 20,000 more who have vested for their pensions but have not yet begun drawing them. We've waited too long to see this problem addressed, and Congress should act now."

Working People Need Fair Currency Rules in #NAFTA: "One of the reasons that so-called U.S. 'trade' deals (such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA) should really be called 'offshoring' deals is that they do not contain any enforceable restrictions on currency misalignment and manipulation. Without such restrictions, countries can game the value of their currency to gain a trade advantage that provides corporations an incentive to strip jobs and wages from the U.S."

Working Families Respond to Mass Shooting in Nevada: "After yet another mass shooting last night, this time in Las Vegas, working families and their allies responded to the tragic evening. Below are their responses. Steve Sisolak, chair of Clark County Commission in Las Vegas, has set up a GoFundMe page to collect donations to aid the victims and their families. Please visit the Las Vegas Victims' Fund and contribute what you can."

Kenneth Quinnell Fri, 10/13/2017 - 12:34