Unionized Scientists March in Protest of Attacks on Science and Jobs
Of all the attacks on our civil society, the attacks on evidence-based science pose perhaps the greatest existential threat. Decisions being made about climate science and environmental protection at this critical time will shape the future of our planet.
Advances in research are produced by the twin pillars of dedicated scientists and an activated citizenry who demand that the best science be applied to today’s most pressing problems. Because scientists produce the facts that expose the lies currently being purveyed, the tip of the spear is pointed at the heart of science-based policy and research.
But the imminent threat also presents an extraordinary opportunity for the scientific community to unify around a message of resistance, one in which organized labor has a critical role to play. Unionized scientists are well-positioned to fight back against the false narratives being pushed by the administration and to advocate collectively for continued funding of crucial basic research. Science professionals need a workplace free from fear of corporate power and political malfeasance influencing their results. We are the protectors of truth and facts, and in that way we all are in service to the public. With scientific integrity, we speak truth to power.
Budget cuts are the beginning of the attack. For example, the Donald Trump administration is proposing a 31% cut in funding and 21% cut in workforce at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on top of less-heralded budget cuts over the past three years. Such low funding levels have not been seen since the 1970s, prior to the enactment of most of our national environmental laws. Enforcement is also targeted, crippling the EPA’s ability to protect human health.
Is this a good way to save money? Investments in environmental protection pay huge dividends for the country. For example, air pollution reductions will avoid 230,000 premature deaths and produce total benefits valued at $2 trillion in 2020, according to a 2011 study. This benefit exceeds costs by more than 30-to-1, to say nothing of the human suffering.
Scientists have long held the view that with enough data and evidence we will be able to convince skeptics that climate change is real, that humans are responsible and that immediate action must be taken. It is increasingly clear that this approach has not worked.
For the nearly 7,000 postdoctoral researchers at the University of California and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab represented by UAW Local 5810, having a union ensures strong workplace protections as well as a powerful, nationwide platform for advocacy when research comes under threat. And the collective power of the union is not limited to the workplace.
With a diverse membership that includes both higher education and the manufacturing sector, the UAW has been a leading advocate for climate change policies that both create healthy communities and address economic and racial inequities. And at the EPA, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 20/Engineers and Scientists of California (ESC) has rallied in opposition to the cuts and will continue to speak out, including in San Francisco at the March for Science.
Make no mistake. As organized scientists, we are in solidarity with our union brothers and sisters who have lost jobs and real income steadily over the past several decades. We support the creation of jobs in clean energy sectors and in green infrastructure projects.
It is time for scientists and the citizenry who depend on science to embrace our responsibility to advocate for sound policies. Our very lives and livelihood are now dependent on stepping collectively forward into the realm of political advocacy and action.
Together we will March for Science on April 22, in opposition to the damage that the current administration seeks to do to research and in solidarity with scientists, researchers, and concerned citizens who remain resolved, undeterred, and organized in the face of these threats.
Carly Ebben Eaton is a postdoctoral scholar and executive board member of UAW Local 5810. Kathy Setian was a project manager at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a steward of IFPTE Local 20, Engineers and Scientists of California. She will be a speaker at the April 22 March for Science in San Francisco.
Kenneth Quinnell Tue, 04/18/2017 - 13:34We Need Tax Reform That Works for Working People
Tomorrow, Americans will fulfill our civic duty of paying taxes to a system that is far from perfect or fair. As Congress reportedly is working on a plan to reform it, the AFL-CIO has a simple framework for what a serious proposal should include, and what should not be included. These are the standards we will judge it by:
Big corporations and the wealthy must pay their fair share of taxes: Our rigged and broken tax system lets big corporations and the wealthy avoid paying their fair share of taxes, sticking the rest of us with the tab. Any tax reform proposal must not cut taxes for big corporations or the wealthy. On the contrary, tax reform should restore taxes on the wealthiest estates and tax the income of investors as much as the income of working people. It's imperative that tax reform make our tax system more progressive than it is now. Big corporations and the wealthy must pay more in taxes than they pay now, so we can build an economy that works for all of us.
Tax reform must raise significantly more revenue: Tax reform must raise enough additional revenue over the long term to create good jobs and make the public investment we need in education, infrastructure, and meeting the needs of children, families, seniors, and communities. Any tax reform that reduces revenues in the short term or the long term is unacceptable. Additionally, cost estimates must be honest and not rely on gimmicks that hide the true long-term cost of tax cuts.
Tax reform must eliminate the tax incentive for corporations to shift jobs and profits offshore: Taxing offshore profits less than domestic profits creates an incentive for corporations to shift jobs and profits offshore, while giving global corporations a competitive advantage over domestic corporations. Tax reform must eliminate the tax incentive for corporations to shift jobs and profits offshore, a move that would raise nearly $1 trillion over 10 years. Reform must not include a “territorial” system that further reduces taxes on offshore profits and would increase the tax incentive for global corporations to shift jobs and profits offshore. Tax reform must also encourage investment in domestic manufacturing, production, and employment to ensure a robust manufacturing sector.
Global corporations must pay what they owe on past profits held offshore: Global corporations owe an estimated $700 billion in taxes on the $2.6 trillion in past profits they are holding offshore. Tax reform should use these one-time-only tax revenues to increase smart public investment in infrastructure rather than cut corporate tax rates permanently. The higher the tax rate on these accumulated offshore earnings, the more funding will be available for public investment in infrastructure.
Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 04/17/2017 - 11:00Tags: Tax Fairness
Joe Arpaio's Infamous Ariz. Tent City Closing
By the time former Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio lost his re-election bid in 2016, he was widely thought of as one of the worst sheriffs in the country, if not the worst. He was known for harsh anti-immigrant policies, accusations of racial profiling, misuse of funds and any number of other complaints—and the perfect symbol of everything wrong with his way of approaching law enforcement was Tent City.
Bearing signs with the horrible pun “In-Tents unit” (“intense,” get it?), Tent City was Arpaio’s silly “get tough on crime” idea. And it quickly gave Maricopa County, and Arizona, a reputation as a place where revenge and hate were the driving principles behind law enforcement, an approach as inefficient and ineffective as it is immoral.
Since 1993, as many as 1,700 inmates at a time were housed in a 7-acre plot of tents. Inmates were forced to wear stereotypical black-and-white striped prison uniforms and, seriously, pink underwear. This is the type of man Arpaio is. He wants prisoners not only to pay their debt to society but to be humiliated—and he thinks making men wear pink underwear is the way to do it.
More serious were accusations of inhumane conditions at the facility, where the Arizona heat could reach 110 degrees during the hottest parts of the year. Prisoners complained of expired food and undrinkable water.
Contrary to Arpaio’s claims, evidence shows that Tent City was not only an ineffective crime deterrent, but expensive as well. Newly elected sheriff Paul Penzone said closing it will save millions of dollars, making the prison more efficient, more effective, and safer for both inmates and prison employees:
The image of the tents as a deterrent to recidivism, and as a symbol of being tough on crime may have been true in the past. Today it is only a myth. Tent City is no longer an effective, efficient facility. It has been effective only as a distraction. The circus is over; the tents are coming down.
It’s good to see that this shameful part of Arizona, and American, history is finally ending.
Kenneth Quinnell Thu, 04/13/2017 - 11:57Tags: Joe Arpaio
The Plan Behind a Chicago Project to Lift Up Working People
Manufacturing jobs have been on a steady decline for several years because of trade deals, technological advancements and economic recessions. Despite this, manufacturing remains one of the most important sectors of the U.S. economy, employing more than 12 million workers, or about 9% of the total U.S. employment.
American cities continue to spend billions each year to buy major equipment, such as buses and railcars for public transportation systems. This spending has the potential to support tens of thousands of good manufacturing jobs. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, there will be 533,000 good middle-skill manufacturing jobs available over the next decade.
Jobs to Move Americais working with labor, business, community and governmental groups around the country to ensure money spent on building transportation infrastructure is also used to promote equity and bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. The organization also is advocating for workforce development and training programs that prepare working people for high-skilled careers that will help them succeed in the 21st-century economy.
Jobs to Move America and community partners recently managed to ensure a project in Chicago will create good jobs and long-term economic opportunities for the community. JMA worked with the Chicago Federation of Labor, the city of Chicago and the Chicago Transit Authority for four years to ensure that the U.S. Employment Plan was included as part of the CTA’s latest $1.3 billion project, which will supply up to 846 new railcars and replace about half of the CTA’s current fleet. The employment plan is a toolbox of policy resources transit agencies can include as part of their request for proposals to encourage bus and rail manufacturers to train and create good high-skilled U.S. jobs in communities that need it most.
The company that won the contract, CRRC Sifang America committed to building a new $100 million unionized facility on Chicago’s South Side, the first in 36 years. The company will spend $7.2 million to train 300 factory and construction workers. Additionally, CRRC has signed on to a community benefits agreement guaranteeing support for South Side residents and is part of a workforce-labor-business consortium that received a $4 million Department of Labor grant to develop an apprenticeship and training program, and a pipeline into manufacturing jobs in Chicago.
The work of JMA with labor and community partners leveraged a robust manufacturing jobs program that will strengthen the middle class, stimulate increased investment in new domestic manufacturing facilitie, and create opportunities for low-income communities. Most importantly, the Chicago work has set a precedent for the rest of the country, lifting up standards and creating a model for how communities and business can and should work together.
The idea behind JMA’s work is simple. There is a need to reframe the discussion about good jobs and economic prosperity away from a "cheapest is best" approach to a broader discussion about the economic impact of using taxpayer dollars to create good jobs, especially for those historically excluded from the manufacturing sector, like women and people of color.
Take, for instance, Kristian Mendoza in the Los Angeles area, a veteran who was struggling to find a good-paying job after his service. He was forced to commute to a job an hour-and-a-half each way from his home. The job paid so little he could barely afford the gas to get there and did not have the resources to take care of his two young children.
Because of the work of the JMA coalition in Los Angeles, a U.S. Employment Plan was implemented in a project of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Part of the agreement is a community-labor partnership with Kinkisharyo, the company that won that bid. The company committed to hiring and exploring skills training for disadvantaged U.S. workers. To date, the company has exceeded its commitments, employing some 400 workers, most of whom are people of color in a unionized factory.
Mendoza is one of the 400. After struggling for years, he has been able to move out of his family’s home and into a place close to the Kinkisharyo factory.
The JMA team is now working on multiple projects across the country, monitoring the industry for upcoming opportunities to maximize public transportation dollars and ensure there are more success stories like Mendoza’s.
Kenneth Quinnell Wed, 04/12/2017 - 11:23Tags: Jobs to Move America
100 Days into the 115th Congress, We Examine How They've Spent Their Time
In his first address to the newly sworn in 115th Congress, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) posed the following question: “Find one person [in this chamber] who doesn’t want to help the unemployed, or care for the sick, or educate the young…who here among us does not want to open wide the door to opportunity?”
Now as we're 100 days and counting into the 115th Congress, their actions give us the answer.
Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are certainly trying to “open wide the doors of opportunity,” but only if you are a CEO who profits by cutting corners on workers' health and safety, or siphoning off millions from their retirement accounts.
For people who are unemployed, both Ryan and McConnell supported a budget plan that would drastically cut back on job training, Meals on Wheels and education funding for children with disabilities.
For the sick, the Republican leaders tried to gut Obamacare and replace it with a plan that would deprive 24 million Americans of health insurance, tax working peoples’ benefits, slash Medicaid benefits for the elderly and people with disabilities, and jeopardize the future of Medicare for seniors.
And for education, they confirmed an education secretary who spent her billions undermining public education and attacking teachers.
During the first 100 days, the House voted 15 times and the Senate 13 times to wipe out Obama-era regulations that were protecting Americans from workplace hazards. They even removed one rule that requires corporations to simply keep accurate records of injuries, so they can be avoided in the future.
They voted to let CEOs cover up their past employment violations when they apply for new taxpayer-funded government contracts. The House passed several bills that will give corporations more power to stop federal regulators from passing commonsense safeguards in the future.
Just this week, they put a champion for corporate America on the U.S. Supreme Court and are working on a tax plan that would further reduce taxes on corporations and the rich while starving programs that support needy families.
One thing Congress didn’t seem to have time for was passing critical legislation that would keep the promise made to more than 22,000 retired coal miners who will lose their federally guaranteed health benefits on April 30.
Find one person in Congress who isn’t for helping the unemployed, the sick and the young? During the first 100 days, there were enough of them to form a voting majority in the U.S. House and Senate.
Jackie Tortora Tue, 04/11/2017 - 12:47Register for Webinar on Union Support for Pregnant and Breastfeeding Workers
It isn't just the rights of union members that increasingly are under attack in the current political environment; we are also seeing a growing number of attacks on the rights of women in the workplace. It's critical that pregnant and breastfeeding workers are included in our efforts to fight corporate greed and the legislative attacks that come along with that greed. During and after pregnancy, working women face increased job security and unfair treatment. Unions are in a good position to fight back in solidarity with those workers.
Join us Tuesday, April 18, for a live webinar from 2-3 p.m. ET, as the Labor Project for Working Families, the Center for Worklife Law and the AFL-CIO host a workshop on the role that unions can play in promoting protections for pregnant and breastfeeding workers. The presenters include: Carol Joyner, the director of the Labor Project for Working Families; Tiffany Beroid, a United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) member and past leader of "Respect the Bump"; Yona Rozen, associate general counsel for the AFL-CIO; and Liz Morris, the deputy director of the Center for WorkLife Law. The program is ideal for shop stewards and labor educators looking to understand what legal rights pregnant and breastfeeding workers have under federal and state law, and how to use common collective bargaining agreement terms to ensure fair treatment.
Register now for the webinar at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5292752489627736066.
Kenneth Quinnell Tue, 04/11/2017 - 11:46Congress Should Keep Promises to Mine Workers
Starting in the years after World War II, mine workers were an important part of the American economy. They did the hard, dangerous work that helped make sure the country prospered. Without them, the country could have been a much different place. And we promised them that we, as a country, would take care of their health care and retirement for their service. If Congress doesn't act soon, many retired mine workers could lose their health care and pensions.
Congress has until April 30 to pass legislation that would make sure we continue to keep this promise. On that day, the extension Congress passed in December will expire, as will funding for many retired mine workers' health care.
Call 855-976-9914 to tell Congress to pass the Miners Protection Act.
UMWA President Cecil Roberts spoke to the importance of passing the Miners Protection Act, which was introduced this year by West Virginia Sens. Joe Manchin (D) and Shelley Moore Capito (R):
We believe something will be done about the health care for 22,600 retirees and their dependents by the end of April, because if that doesn’t happen, they will lose their health coverage. I don’t believe the leadership on either side wants to see that happen.
We’ve got bipartisan support to this. It’s got to happen with respect to the health care.
No other group of workers actually was promised this by the United States government. These people earned these benefits. This is not a handout. This is not welfare. This is something these people are entitled to because they worked for it and energized this nation.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka addressed the legislation in his speech before the National Press Club last week:
Today UMWA retirees are on Capitol Hill lobbying for a fair retirement deal. Over 20,000 health care cut-off notices have been sent out and benefits are set to expire on April 30. We have a responsibility to keep our promise to America’s coal miners. Congress should send the Miners Protection Act to President Trump’s desk today.
Mining was a dangerous and difficult job and my family was not rich by any stretch. But unionism gave us a ladder to the middle class, and I got to climb it.
For too many people, that ladder is gone. We’re going to have to rebuild it. Rung by rung.
Follow the story with the hashtag #TheyEarnedIt and watch the video below to hear more about the story:
Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 04/10/2017 - 13:57
98,000 Jobs Added to the Economy in March, Unemployment Is 4.5%
The U.S. economy added 98,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate declined to 4.5%, according to figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The U.S. economy added 98,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate declined to 4.5%, according to figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
While the job growth was tepid in March, and the revisions for the numbers for January and February are weaker than earlier reported, the economy is continuing close to the trend of job growth that started under President Barack Obama. If we continue the trend of job growth over the past seven years he established, the economy will add another 25 million jobs in eight years. Oddly, the claim President Donald Trump has made is that he will create 25 million jobs.
Still, wage growth needs time to recover as does the share of workers employed so household incomes can recover to their 1999 peak. With modest job gains in March, the Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve that sets monetary policy needs to pause ahead of its proposed interest rate hike in June. The higher interest rates are meant to signal a return to normal, but we are not there, yet.
The biggest gains were in professional and business services (+56,000) and in mining (+11,000), while retail trade lost jobs (-30,000). Other sectors of note include health care (+14,000) and financial services (+9,000). According to BLS, construction employment saw little change in March (+6,000).
Employment in other major industries, including manufacturing, wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, leisure and hospitality, and government, showed little or no change over the month.
Among the demographic groups of working people, the unemployment rates for adult women (4.0%), white people (3.9%) and Hispanic people (5.1%) declined in March. The jobless rates for adult men (4.3%), teenagers (13.7%), black people (8.0%) and Asian people (3.3%) showed little or no change.
Jackie Tortora Fri, 04/07/2017 - 08:22Tags: jobs
Two Strangers and a Lifesaving Act of IBEW Brotherhood
This is a story about two brothers. One, a single father from Delaware, spends his days lashed to a painful but lifesaving dialysis machine, valuable time away from his three kids. The other, a first-year apprentice from Chicago, is ready to make an unthinkable sacrifice to put an end to that suffering.
This is a story about two brothers.
One, a single father from Delaware, spends his days lashed to a painful but lifesaving dialysis machine, valuable time away from his three kids. The other, a first-year apprentice from Chicago, is ready to make an unthinkable sacrifice to put an end to that suffering.
Last August, we brought you the story of Dave Amalfitano, a journeyman wireman with Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 313, from Wilmington, Delaware. He suffers from polycystic kidney disease, a genetic disorder that causes cysts to grow on the kidneys, inflating them to many times their normal size.
His diagnosis, which killed his father and afflicts his brother as well, requires a kidney transplant. There is no other medical solution. Without it, he’ll be tied to a dialysis machine until he dies.
So Amalfitano reached out to everyone he knew. When that failed to turn up a match, last summer he asked his business manager, Doug Drummond, to put up an appeal for a kidney donor on the union hall’s marquee. Local news coverage turned up dozens who were willing to undergo blood tests looking for a match, but none were successful.
When the electrical worker called, Amalfitano hoped to reach a wider audience, but the odds were still stacked against him—until Robert Vargas, a complete stranger, called.
“I put myself in his shoes,” Vargas said after seeing the story on the back page of the union newspaper. “I don’t know what my family would do without me, so I called Dave and told him, ‘If I’m a match, you can have my kidney.’”
Vargas, a member of IBEW Local 9 in Chicago, is a husband to Gabriela and a father to 3-year-old daughter Mia. He chalks his chance encounter with Amalfitano’s story to a higher power. “God wanted me to read that story,” he said. “I don’t read the paper very often. I was brought to that page.”
After speaking to Amalfitano, he connected with a University of Maryland hospital caseworker and started a battery of tests, parting with nearly 20 vials of blood to see if he and Amalfitano were compatible.
“The results came back and our blood was a perfect match,” Vargas said. “I’d been telling people the entire time, if I pass, it’s for a reason, and now I know that reason is to save Dave and to help him live a long, healthy life with his kids.”
Now, Vargas just needs to complete a physical, which he’ll do partially in Chicago and partially at the University of Maryland, and then doctors will schedule the surgery.
“Dave and I talk almost every day now,” Vargas said. “We’ve become really close over the course of this, and I’m hopeful that the next steps happen quickly so we can get him back up and running.”
IBEW Local 9 first-year apprentice Rob Vargas, from Chicago, pictured here with wife, Gabriela, and daughter, Mia.The major obstacles now are financial. Vargas is the sole provider for his family and could lose up to two months of work between doctors’ appointments, the surgery and a four-to-six-week recovery.
For Amalfitano, things have been hard since a medical complication forced him to quit working early last year. Despite an outpouring of generosity from members of Local 313 and the Wilmington community, he is in over his head financially. COBRA health insurance payments have been crippling, and the home he shares with daughter Anna, 15, and twin boys, Matthew and Leo, 13, has fallen into foreclosure.
“We’ll be OK,” Amalfitano said, “but Rob can’t make this enormous sacrifice of giving me a kidney unless we figure out a way to make up for the wages he’ll lose so he can keep taking care of his family. If we can raise enough to help save my house at the same time, that would be amazing.”
Vargas’ wife, Gabriela, has set up a fundraising page for the two of them, with the hopes of gathering enough to pay for both her family’s associated expenses and to help Amalfitano get out from under the foreclosure so he can have time to recover from the operation and return to work.
“So many people reached out wanting to help,” Amalfitano said. “But their blood type was wrong, or they weren’t a match. Rob is saving my life, but this is a way for other people who are touched by our story to help.”
IBEW 6th District International Vice President David Ruhmkorff said the sacrifice brother Vargas is prepared to make is in keeping with “the truest sense of brotherhood and solidarity.”
“It’s remarkable how the original article touched him, and it’s amazing what he’s stepping up to do,” Ruhmkorff said. “We talk about being the union of hearts and minds, but brother Vargas is showing us what the ‘heart’ part of that is really all about.”
For Amalfitano, he still hardly can believe Vargas found him and that his long, painful journey with this disease may finally be reaching its end.
“Rob is my lifesaver,” he said. “We both want this to work out so badly, and we’re so close to making it a reality. Thanks to the IBEW, thanks to the brotherhood we share through our union and, most of all, thanks to the gigantic heart of this young guy who’s willing to go through hell for me—a guy I didn’t even know until a few months ago—I can have a second chance.”
“That’s what it’s all about,” Vargas said. “I believe in second chances, and my brother Dave deserves his as much as any of us.”
You can donate to help Dave and Rob at GoFundMe.com/HelpRobSaveDave.
This post originally appeared on IBEW's website.
Jackie Tortora Thu, 04/06/2017 - 15:52Why I Chose a Union Voice at Thrillist
Shortly after news broke that Thrillist had secured a $100 million investment as part of a deal to merge with three other digital properties and create a new media behemoth, a few of us on the editorial staff began discussing the possibility of unionizing. We’d watched the process play out in digital media for the first time at Gawker (now Gizmodo), followed by Vice, Huffington Post and others. But, as one colleague put it in those early days, Thrillist seemed like a place where there was too much turnover, too little cohesion to make any serious attempt at organizing realistic.
That’s more or less how I felt, too—everyone tried to keep a nostril above water in the endless sea of internet content, we were on our own and I still felt “new,” even though I’d worked at Thrillist more than a year. On top of it all, I had zero organizing experience. But after we received assurances that no one would lose their jobs in the wake of the new investment (the proverbial kiss of death), those of us who’d talked decided there wasn’t much to lose. In a job where the product is instant, ephemeral, subject to the whims of a Facebook or Google algorithm, unionizing offered us a chance to create a lasting structure to secure benefits that easily fall by the wayside in an industry that, as we saw, makes money.
So I started talking to people, at every word in every conversation awaiting the inevitable, “I’m not interested in organizing.” It never came. Virtually everyone who’d spent significant time working in digital media shared similar experiences: working long, thankless hours toward unclear goals; receiving few or no benefits; adapting to an employer’s business “pivots,” which often rendered past work irrelevant; having little job security and no safety net; and working in offices with little diversity and less transparency. For many employees, myself included, Thrillist was the best job any of us had ever had in digital media; all the more reason to preserve and improve it.
For many employees, myself included, Thrillist was the best job any of us had ever had in digital media; all the more reason to preserve and improve it.
Luckily, my partner happens to be a member of the Writers Guild of America, so she gave me the contact info for someone at the Writers Guild of America, East, (WGAE); and a few hours after first emailing them, I had coffee with Justin, a WGAE organizer. Less than two weeks later, we had our first larger meeting with employees. After that night, I think the speed in which the process moved took everyone by surprise, but it happened, thanks to the strongest, most focused group effort in which I’ve participated.
Megan, our organizer, worked tirelessly and relentlessly, fielding emails, calls and texts from what is, stereotypically, a somewhat neurotic group given to overcommunication (it’s in our blood). Everyone on the organizing committee put in hours of conference calls, one-on-one conversations, happy hour chats and emails trying to round up support for a union.
That last bit, fortunately, was relatively easy. When the inevitable layoffs—accounting for around one-third of our group—hit, we’d just about reached the point at which we felt comfortable with strong majority support. By the time we announced our intention to unionize, less than a week later, more than 80% of staff had signed union cards.
Management didn’t take the news too well. After ignoring our formal request for voluntary recognition, upper management pulled edit staff into an anti-union meeting, where we were warned that organizing would interfere with the good relationships we’d forged with our managers, force people to talk through a lawyer, and reduce our flexibility as a company and workplace. The effect, essentially, was to add insult to injury. People got fired up, and thanks to some quick work by the organizing committee and a strategic pizza delivery (diversity of tactics) from the WGAE, staff signed a letter that week that said, essentially: We’re not dummies, we still want to unionize.
We’re not dummies, we still want to unionize.
To no avail. Once management rebuffed the letter, we pushed the envelope by publicizing our experience. If you’re in the business of media, the one thing that hurts you as much, if not more, than any other tangible labor tactic is negative press. A few hours following publication of Hamilton Nolan’s Deadspin article, media folks and WGAE members, in true solidarity, showed the ultimate 21st century sign of union support: Tweeting at our CEO.
Hey @Thrillist and @BenjLerer, still time left in the workday for you to quit wasting everyone's time and recognize the #ThrillistUnion.
— Elliott Kalan (@ElliottKalan) March 10, 2017And it worked! Hundreds of writers and WGAE members picked up the #ThrillistUnion hashtag, mentioned our CEO by name, pointing out (some more politely than others) the hypocrisy of claiming to be progressive while asking employees not to form a union. The outside counsel management had retained reached out to the WGAE quickly, and within a week, we’d consented to an online vote that would, for the third time, confirm the fact that we wanted to unionize. With around 95% of voters choosing “yes,” we became members of the Writers Guild of America, East.
The project is far from over, though, and it certainly doesn’t end with Thrillist. Digital media is ripe for organization, which doesn’t just protect editorial employees who bring value to companies that, in some cases, are valued at more than $1 billion; it also benefits the consumers of media those employees produce. When many of the entry-level jobs are unpaid, or pay so poorly and offer so few benefits that working in the industry effectively becomes the right of the privileged, can we expect to read fair, balanced stories that reflect the diverse nature of our society? When the CEOs of media companies cash in while refusing to pay writers, should we sit down, click through and shut up?
When one of the biggest producers of digital media on the planet preps for an IPO next year that will make a few people many millions of dollars, while its founder has made it clear he believes unions are a bad idea, should any of us feel good about the kinds of stories we click on absentmindedly while scrolling through social media?
The answer, in solidarity, is no.
Anthony Schneck is a Thrillist writer and member of the Writers Guild of America, East.
Jackie Tortora Thu, 04/06/2017 - 09:06Tags: Organizing
What Working People in Their Unions Are Doing to End Gender-Based Violence on the Job
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, a time to educate our communities about the prevalence of sexual assault and ways to prevent it. The labor movement is committed to ending sexual assault, and other forms of gender-based violence, especially when it occurs in the workplace.
Gender-based violence in the workplace refers to sexual violence in all of its forms that occurs at work, or on the way to and from work, including sexual harassment, stalking behaviors, assault and rape, trafficking, coercion, and restrictions on movement. Gender-based violence in the world of work encompasses both the impact of intimate partner violence on a survivor’s working life and abuse that occurs within the context of employment involving co-workers, managers, clients or patients.
Working women face violence at work on a daily basis. Did you know:
- Fifty-eight percent of hotel workers and 77% of casino workers surveyed in Chicago have been sexually harassed by a guest. Almost half of all hotel workers have had a guest answer the door naked or expose themselves. Most said they did not feel safe at work afterward.
- Sixty percent of women restaurant workers surveyed said they have been sexually harassed on the job, most on at least a weekly basis. Managers encouraged women workers to wear revealing clothes, creating a climate where objectification by both clientele and supervisors is normalized.
- Eighty-eight percent of women construction workers reported being sexually harassed at work.
- Forty-one percent of women meatpackers in Iowa reported unwanted touching on the job, and an additional 30% reported verbal harassment. After rejecting an aggressor’s advances, many respondents were threatened with termination or assigned work that was more difficult .
These shocking figures come from a new report from the AFL-CIO, Futures Without Violence and the Solidarity Center, which highlights the urgent need to end gender-based violence in the workplace in the United States.
Economic insecurity, particularly precarious employment, where people perform the duties required of a permanent job but are denied full-time job rights and are paid low wages, greatly contributes to vulnerability to gender-based violence. Women comprise the majority of part-time and temporary workers in the United States, as well as the majority of low-paid workers. People living paycheck to paycheck cannot afford to lose their job and are less likely to report abuse. The structure of the workplace also can create opportunities for abuse, particularly informal working arrangements, such as multiple levels of subcontracting, which decrease oversight and accountability. For example, property service workers like janitors are isolated in empty buildings at night, hired through layers of subcontractors, and managed by an attenuated chain of overwhelmingly male supervisors, all of which contributes to a higher risk of experiencing gender-based violence.
Working people in their unions have a critical role to play in confronting and eliminating gender-based violence at work. Working people come together and negotiate in collective bargaining agreements that can include measures to identify and address gender-based violence. For example, the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council negotiated language into an industrywide collective bargaining agreement that required panic buttons for all hotel housekeepers, and university graduate employees negotiated protections in their contract, including the ability to represent working people through grievance procedures. UNITE HERE Local 1’s #ComeForward campaign encouraged women to report incidents and end the culture of silence surrounding gender-based violence in the hospitality industry.
In June 2018, governments, unions and employers will meet at the International Labor Organization to develop an agreement on violence and harassment against women and men in the world of work. This is the first time that the ILO will develop an international agreement on the issue, and it is critical that we win a strong standard.
Learn more about the campaign here. As the report demonstrates, there are many areas where the United States needs to improve. Having an international framework will provide critical guidance on how to eliminate gender-based violence, at home and throughout the world.
Jackie Tortora Wed, 04/05/2017 - 09:22
Tags: Gender-based violence
Still Fighting for Equal Pay
Today is Equal Pay Day. We are 100 days into 2017, and today some women have finally reached the point where their earnings match their male counterparts’ 2016 earnings. We can’t forget that black and Latina women have to work even more until they reach pay parity.
While it’s shameful that women are still fighting to achieve equal pay, there are steps we can take to close the gap. The best way to close the pay gap is to form a union and bargain for a better life that includes equal pay. Through union contracts, women in their unions have closed the gap and received higher wages. In fact, union women earn $231 more a week than women who don’t have a union voice.
Wage disparities have long- and short-term negative effects. It contributes to the cycle of poverty and adds another barrier to being able to take care of our families, pay off debt, pay for child care and so much more.
Together, we can make equal pay for all women a reality.
Kenneth Quinnell Tue, 04/04/2017 - 14:30Tags: Equal Pay
Highlights from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka’s Major Address at the National Press Club
Today, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka gave a major address before the National Press Club, calling upon leaders of both parties to not only pursue an agenda that benefits working people across the country, but that strengthens the right of every American to negotiate for better wages and benefits. He described the choice we face as a country:
Republicans, and too many Democrats, have rigged our economy to enrich a select few at the expense of everyday, hardworking Americans. It has been a direct assault on our deeply held national values of unity, justice and broad opportunity. It’s been done under the guise of creating jobs and justified by a fanatical economic theory that seeks to remove or destroy anything seen as a barrier to the free market, including unions.
We see it in our trade deals that create special rights for corporations. We see it in our health care system that is a windfall for insurance companies and a complicated, unaffordable mess for patients and families. We see it in our financial sector that has become the master, not the servant, of the real economy.
Above all…we see it in our outdated labor laws that allow employers to steal wages and unfairly restrict the freedom of workers to form unions.
But inequality is not inevitable. It is a choice. We can choose to do better.
Trumka also laid out the pathway forward:
Let me be perfectly clear—we will never solve the problem unless every worker has the power to bargain with our employer. Nothing else raises wages better or more fairly.
Now it would seem that the Bill of Rights—with its freedoms of speech and assembly—affords every worker the right to bargain with their employer. But that is not how the system works in practice.
The law today only requires employers to bargain with recognized unions, so we are proposing something bold. Something better. Every worker…everybody…deserves a job and the power to make it a good job…to bargain for higher wages, safe working conditions and retirement security. Whether you’re black or white. Gay or straight. Immigrant or native-born. Union or not yet union.
If you tend crops in North Carolina or clean hotel rooms in New York City, if you’re an engineer in Seattle or an autoworker in Mississippi, you should have the right to bargain with your co-workers for a better life. And employers must abide by that right.
Some might say this is radical. I say it is fundamental. And there has never been a more important time for workers to assert our collective power.
And he laid out the choice President Donald Trump must make:
We are closing in on the first 100 days of President Trump’s administration, and two very different factions have emerged. There is a Wall Street wing that undermines Donald Trump’s promises to workers…and a competing wing that could win the progress working people need.
President Trump needs to decide who he stands with. The coal miners, farmers, steelworkers and other regular Americans who he promised to help in the campaign…or the Wall Street tycoons who are rigging the economy at our expense. This decision will be the single greatest test of his presidency.
Read the entire speech.
Kenneth Quinnell Tue, 04/04/2017 - 11:37Tags: Equal Pay, Collective Bargaining, TPP, NAFTA, Wall Street, Donald Trump
Watch the Livestream of AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka's National Press Club Speech Tomorrow
Tomorrow at 1 p.m., AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will give a major address at the National Press Club discussing trade and infrastructure job-creation opportunities in the U.S. He will also discuss potential threats to workers' rights and the labor movement's strategy to create a unifying agenda for working families, and the importance of ensuring that all workers - union and non-union - have the right to bargain collectively for better wages and working conditions.
Watch the livestream starting at 1 p.m. tomorrow. Trumka will take questions beginning at 2 p.m.
Kenneth Quinnell Mon, 04/03/2017 - 16:36Tags: National Press Club
The Spillway Saga: IBEW Members Work to Repair Damage at Oroville Dam
This post originally appeared at Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1245.
For nearly 50 years, the Oroville Dam has provided critical flood control, valuable hydroelectric power and essential irrigation as a key component of the California State Water Project. But in February 2017, all of that changed, and the dam quickly transformed from a powerful resource to a potential threat.
After a series of massive rainstorms tore through the state, the dam’s operators noticed significant damage to the main spillway, which is the primary channel used to prevent flooding. Due to the damage and the ongoing heavy rains, the main spillway was no longer able to drain the water from Lake Oroville quickly enough, and as a result, the dam’s emergency spillway went into operation for the first time since the dam opened in 1968. However, headward erosion of the emergency spillway meant that there was a serious possibility the dam’s concrete weir would collapse and cause massive, uncontrolled flooding in the downstream areas around the Feather River.
Emergency protocols quickly went into effect, and nearly 200,000 people were evacuated. Fortunately, the water level dropped, the weir held out, the crisis was averted and residents returned to their homes. But the damage to the dam was grave; both the main and emergency spillways require extensive repairs.
On the Scene
IBEW Local 1245 members have been on the scene at the dam since the very beginning, even before the water hit the emergency spillway. Initially, several crews from Pacific Gas & Electric were called in to remove the transmission towers and wires that were in the emergency spill channel. They utilized a helicopter to take down the power lines and towers and completed the work the day before the lake water entered the emergency spillway. The PG&E crews were then tasked with building a shoo-fly around the spill channel—which consisted of nine locations with 13 light duty steel poles—to restore power to that circuit.
Once the spillways were stabilized and the area was deemed safe, Local 1245 outside construction crews were brought in to help with the complex restoration work, which may take months or even years to complete.
“It’s extremely challenging because there are 15 different entities, at minimum, that we have to coordinate everything with, and we have to keep everybody safe,” said General Foreman Jeff Emerson, who comes out of IBEW Local 47 in Southern California. “It’s not just us here, there’s traffic control, there’s people doing inspections on the spillway, there’s the rock haul trucks that are moving the rock, the barges that are down there sluicing out the river…there’s so many moving parts here.”
The Utility Reporter caught up with Emerson and his crew a couple weeks after the crisis. They were working east of the spillway damage, at the base of the dam itself, and Emerson detailed precisely what was going on at the time.
“At first, we had to run an emergency line on the vacant side of the existing 230 lattice structures,” he explained. “Once we got that emergency line in and energized so they could energize the powerhouse and run the hydro plant, the next step is to run a temporary shoo-fly to move all the power lines up the hill, away from the spillway and the construction, so they can de-energize those lines and work on the spillway safely.”
The crews used a helicopter and sky crane to wreck out some of the vacant towers that were being undermined by the spillway erosion.
“My job today was to fly in with the helicopter and to remove insulators and travelers, because the tower is being wrecked out and everything that’s loose or could swing has to be removed so it’s just the structural steel that’s left,” said lineman Robert MacAllister, who comes out of IBEW Local 104, based in New England. “That way, when the sky crane comes, [what remains of the tower] can be rigged and lifted, and they’ll know what they’re dealing with as far as balance and load.”
Given the exceptionally steep terrain, the helicopter was a vital asset to the crews. What would have taken 45 minutes to traverse in a land vehicle took less than a minute in the chopper.
“Materials, tools and men can be put into exact positions in astounding time with the helicopter. It’s a very efficient process,” said MacAllister, who flew on the helicopter’s long line, suspended in the air and tethered in with two safety hooks attached to a harness. “It’s a very safe, very secure attachment. It’s a smooth ride, actually. Like driving a motorcycle, except you’re 500 or 1,000 feet off the ground. The wind is in your hair, you can see everything. It’s surreal and exciting.”
A Testament to the Union
The main contractor on the scene, Abercrombie Pipeline Services, had just become signatory to Local 1245 shortly before beginning work on the project (Outback Construction also assisted with the shoo-fly by digging holes into the bedrock). A number of the IBEW members working on this job came in from other areas outside of Local 1245’s jurisdiction. Most of them had never worked together before, and few had even encountered a job quite like this one. But they all had one thing in common—as IBEW linemen, they were able to draw upon their extensive skills and training and quickly formed bonds that enabled them to maximize their effectiveness on the job.
“I’ll tell you what’s great about the union—all of the guys that we’ve got working here came out with great attitudes,” noted Emerson. “They’re all working together to figure things out, and as soon as they figure something out, they tell the next crew…that’s the brotherhood of [the IBEW] right there, everybody teaching each other and showing each other the ‘tricks’ they’ve picked up. And the learning curve—how fast they learned how to do all this stuff—it’s pretty amazing. It’s a great testament to the union.”
“I love being in the union. It’s a rewarding experience, and [linework] is the job of a lifetime,” said MacAllister. “The skills, the people you meet, the knowledge, the work ethic, it’s all there. It’s the complete package. I love being a part of it, and I want to keep doing it for years and years.”
Kenneth Quinnell Fri, 03/31/2017 - 15:36Take the #NikeCoverUpChallenge and Demand Justice for Nike Workers
Join United Students Against Sweatshops and activists around the world who want to know—what is Nike trying to hide?
Nike, the gargantuan apparel brand that racked in more than $32 billion in revenue in 2016 alone, is dismantling critical protections for the workers who make its apparel. Thanks to student and worker organizing in response to deplorable conditions in apparel supply chains, many universities have required Nike and other major brands to allow independent inspection and monitoring in factories that produce college-brand apparel to prevent abuse. However, Nike recently decided to bar independent watchdog the Worker Rights Consortium from entering its factories.
Nike does not have a great track record on respecting human rights in its factories, including reports of wage theft, violence and discrimination against women, unsafe working conditions and retaliation against union organizers. The decision to refuse independent inspections could result in such human rights abuses going undiscovered.
If Nike is going to hide conditions in their factories, cover up their profit-making swoosh logo!
Joining the USAS #NikeCoverUpChallenge is simple:
1. Grab any piece of Nike gear you own: shirts, hats, shoes, etc.
2. Tape an X over the Nike swoosh with masking or duct tape and clearly write #NikeSweatshops over the tape.
3. Post a picture or a video across all social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter) with the caption: Nike, let the WRC inside! We can see your dirty side!
4. Use hashtags: #NikeCoverUpChallenge and #NikeSweatshops. Tag: @usas and @nike whenever you can.
5. Send all photos and videos to organize@usas.org.
6. Tell all your family and friends to do the same!
Check out: https://nikesweatshops.org for more info!
Jackie Tortora Thu, 03/30/2017 - 12:40Labor and Community Allies Fight for Jobs and Public Safety in Atlantic City
Atlantic City may be the gambling capital of the East Coast, but there are certain things that shouldn’t be left up to chance, namely public safety. However, bureaucrats in charge of the state takeover of Atlantic City are now ready to impose drastic budget cuts that will result in 50% fewer firefighters and the smallest police force since 1971.
Labor and Community Allies Fight for Jobs and Public Safety in Atlantic City
Atlantic City, New Jersey, may be the gambling capital of the East Coast, but there are certain things that shouldn’t be left up to chance, namely public safety. However, bureaucrats in charge of the state takeover of Atlantic City are now ready to impose drastic budget cuts that will result in 50% fewer firefighters and the smallest police force since 1971.
The New Jersey State AFL-CIO has joined with various labor and community allies to oppose these cuts that threaten safety and also undermine the economic recovery of Atlantic City. This community-based coalition has launched a campaign called “Don’t Gamble on Safety AC” that seeks to raise awareness of the impact of budget cuts.
During the campaign launch last week, one of the most salient voices was that of Officer Joshlee Vadell, who was shot in the head while heroically intervening in an armed robbery last year. Under the plan proposed by the state of New Jersey, disability payments for officers like Vadell could be cut, and the officers who rushed to save his life would face layoffs.
Watch Officer Vadell’s press conference speech, and be sure to check out highlights from the event.
Without ensuring safety, residents, businesses, visitors and workers are all put at risk. The New Jersey State AFL-CIO will stand with our brothers and sisters and the Atlantic City community to ensure that this fundamental community need is met.
The campaign will include billboards, direct mail, online advertising and multiple grassroots activities, including leafleting on the boardwalk and door-to-door canvassing to inform residents. For more information on the campaign, visit DontGambleOnSafetyAC.com.
admin Tue, 03/28/2017 - 09:01The House Republican Health Care Plan—a Betrayal of Working People that Keeps Getting Worse
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka blasted the Republican health care plan on which House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has announced plans for the House of Representatives to vote later today, stating in a letter:
This legislation is a betrayal of working people who will pay the price for it through medical care they can no longer afford, greater financial insecurity, fewer jobs and lives that end too soon. Though it masquerades as health policy, this legislation is really a massive redistribution of wealth away from working families to give even more to the wealthy few.
The House Republican Health Care Plan—a Betrayal of Working People that Keeps Getting Worse
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka blasted the Republican health care plan on which House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has announced plans for the House of Representatives to vote later today, stating in a letter:
This legislation is a betrayal of working people who will pay the price for it through medical care they can no longer afford, greater financial insecurity, fewer jobs and lives that end too soon. Though it masquerades as health policy, this legislation is really a massive redistribution of wealth away from working families to give even more to the wealthy few.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka blasted the Republican health care plan on which House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has announced plans for the House of Representatives to vote later today, stating in a letter:
This legislation is a betrayal of working people who will pay the price for it through medical care they can no longer afford, greater financial insecurity, fewer jobs and lives that end too soon. Though it masquerades as health policy, this legislation is really a massive redistribution of wealth away from working families to give even more to the wealthy few.
What we’ve seen already. We highlighted the major parts of the plan—known officially as the American Health Care Act and unofficially as Trumpcare—last week in another blog post (9 Ways the Republican Health Care Bill Makes Health Coverage in America Unaffordable and Out of Reach). Key takeaways were that the Republican plan, as written at that time:
- Takes health coverage away from 24 million people.
- Jacks up premiums for older people, as well as those with lower incomes and living in areas with high medical costs.
- Guts Medicaid, the program that ensures people struggling the most can get the care they need, by phasing out the Affordable Care Act expansion of Medicaid eligibility to more working-age adults and ending the federal funding guarantee in favor of a fixed per capita contribution.
- Cuts Medicare funding to give a huge tax break to the wealthy few and prescription drug companies.
- Taxes the health benefits of millions of working people while giving a huge tax break to health insurers and other companies, as well as the very wealthy.
Changes that make it even worse. Facing some opposition among their own members, President Donald Trump and House Republican leaders say they are making changes to win more votes. Unfortunately, the changes being considered will make things even worse overall. Major revisions that could end up in a final bill include:
- Even bigger cuts to Medicaid by ending the ACA’s expansion of benefits sooner, giving states the green light to impose new work requirements as a condition for getting Medicaid coverage, and creating a new block grant option for federal funding.
- Even bigger cuts in Medicare funding by giving the huge tax break to the wealthy few and prescription drug companies a year earlier.
- Even bigger tax cuts for the wealthy few, as well as for health insurers and other corporations, by starting them a year sooner.
- Allowing insurance companies to peddle health plans that exclude coverage for things like hospital stays, emergency care, pregnancy and related care, prescription drugs, and mental health and substance use disorder services (i.e., by eliminating the ACA requirement that health insurance cover “essential health benefits”).
There is still time for you to have a say. The House of Representatives has not voted yet. Call your representative now to oppose this health care bill: 1-866-829-3298.
admin Thu, 03/23/2017 - 09:16
