Manufacturing Decline Puts Economic, National Security at Risk

United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo W. Gerard

by Mike Hall, May 11, 2011

The nation “must dig in and redouble our efforts to ‘Make It In America‘,” said Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) at Senate hearing this afternoon on reviving the nation’s manufacturing base.

Testifying on behalf of the AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo W. Gerard told the Commerce, Science and Transportation committee:

American manufacturing is in dire circumstances and its future is in jeopardy. Our economic and national security is at risk. Despite the small uptick in manufacturing employment and production, it occurs against a backdrop of long-term decline and devastation.

He outlined several steps that must be taken to rebuild manufacturing and create jobs including:

•Aggressively enforce our trade laws and addressing China’s trade violations;
•Invest in infrastructure from roads to rail to clean energy technology, along with strong Buy American requirements;
•Eliminate tax breaks and loopholes that encourage companies to offshore and outsource jobs and enact tax incentives that encourage domestic manufacturing;
•Maintain strong intellectual property protections so that innovations and research and development breakthroughs result in American manufacturing jobs; and
•Increase training and education funds for worker so they will be equipped to be part of a high-skills workforce protected by strong labor laws

Click here for Gerard’s full testimony.

Rockefeller warned that calls for drastic federal budget cuts “have broad, and often troubling, implications for some of the hardest working Americans.”

Infrastructure investment is essential to promoting growth and creating jobs. There is no substitute for education and workforce training programs, or for helping small manufacturers and exporters find new markets.

Indiscriminate and unthinking budget cuts seeking a short term improvement in our deficit will leave our country’s economy at the mercy of the rest of the world’s economic power. It will hurt this country for years to come.

Trumka: Until DREAM Act Is Passed, Stop Deporting Our Future

by James Parks, May 11, 2011

Our elected leaders should act quickly to protect the interests of our nation’s youth and working people by enacting the DREAM Act and by bringing relief to these young people who continue to be jailed and deported, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said.

Trumka commended President Obama for pushing for the DREAM Act and called on the White House to grant deferred action and other measures to DREAM Act-eligible youth—”so we can stop deporting our nation’s future doctors, engineers and teachers.”

As DREAMer Gaby Pacheco says:

We know President Obama supports immigration reform. We know he supports the DREAM Act. That’s not in question. We need him to use his executive power to stop deportations of youths eligible for the DREAM Act, keeping families together until Congress is able to put its differences aside and acknowledge that we are part of the future of our great country.

Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) today introduced the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which would give conditional legal status and eventual citizenship to undocumented students who graduate from U.S. high schools, are of good moral character, arrived in the United States as minors and have been in the country continuously for at least five years prior to the bill’s enactment.

“With the DREAM Act, these college educated workers or military veterans will be given the opportunity to contribute to our nation’s economy and local communities instead of being thrown out of them,” Trumka said in a statement.

We urge Republicans in Congress to put aside their partisan agenda, recognize the plight of these young Americans and take the moral path for our country and for our economy.

Read Trumka’s full statement here.

The House passed the DREAM Act last December, but Republicans sidelined the bill in the Senate.

N.H. Gov. Lynch Vetoes Right to Work

by Mike Hall, May 11, 2011

New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch (D) vetoed a so-called right to work bill today, saying that “There is no evidence that this legislation will offer any benefits to New Hampshire’s economy or workers.”

Earlier this month, the bill passed the state Senate by a veto-proof majority but fell short of a super majority in the House, where a close override fight is expected.

In his veto message, Lynch says New Hampshire has a lower unemployment rate and a stronger economy than most states with so-called right to work laws. He also points out that in states with “right to work” for less laws, workers on average have a lower standard of living, bring home less in their paychecks and go without health insurance more frequently.

In my time as a CEO, in my years spent in the private sector turning around companies, and in my seven years as governor, I have never seen the so-called right-to-work law serve as a valuable economic development tool.

He also says that the push for “right to work” in New Hampshire is being driven by ”national outside interest groups and is not a result of problems facing New Hampshire businesses or workers.”

Click here for his full veto message.

Workers Show Union Spirit Helping Tornado Survivors

Many prayers were written on the windows of USW Local 2122’s union hall, which was turned into a relief center for the tornado survivors.

by James Parks, May 11, 2011

After the worst tornadoes in recent U.S. history tore through Alabama and across the southern United States last month, union members by the hundreds immediately began to do what we do best—mobilizing and organizing to help people in need.

Within hours of the storms, local union halls began setting up to become relief centers for the entire community. Large numbers of building trades union volunteers from throughout the region showed up to perform cleanup, support and relief work.

And despite the fragile economy, union members are digging deep into their pockets to help others. United Steelworkers (USW) locals in Fairfield, Ala., collected more than $30,000 at factory gates to help the tornado survivors.You can help working families and their communities recover from the tornadoes by donating money by:

•Visiting www.uwca.org.
•Texting “Union” to 50555. This will contribute $10 to the fund on your phone bill. Normal texting charges will apply.
•Sending a check payable to “United Way Union Tornado Relief Fund” to United Way Union Tornado Relief Fund, P.O. Box 320189, Birmingham, AL 35232. You can designate the checks to “Regional Fund,” “Alabama Fund” or “Central Alabama Fund” if you wish.

One of the hardest hit areas was Hueytown, Ala., about 20 miles west of Birmingham.

Terry Davis, the AFL-CIO Community Services liaison for Central Alabama, reports that the day after the tornados struck, USW members from Fairfield were on the ground collecting supplies, providing ice and manpower to help in the Pleasant Grove/Concord area. USW Local 2122 also opened its union hall to the community. AFT locals gathered and brought supplies into the impacted area. Communications Workers of America (CWA) members volunteered to man phones and assist in delivering food to survivors. Food and Commercial Workers ( UFCW) members were there also as part of their ”Feeding the Hungry” program.

As one observer said, “you could truly see the face of labor—one worker helping another.”

Electrical Workers (IBEW) members are cooking food and delivering it throughout the area, in addition to collecting donations for the victims. USW and Mineworkers (UMWA) members are transporting food and supplies and providing meals for emergency responders and victims in Tuscaloosa and other areas. Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) members were in Pratt City cooking and providing food.

Over the past weekend, the union spirit was really on display as more than 150 union volunteers showed up with a back hoe, a boom truck, chain saws, axes and strong backs to help clean up the damage. Davis says:

I’ve been in the labor movement since 1998 and seeing more than 150 of my union brothers and sister come together to help one another and their communities is the proudest moment of my union life and one of the proudest of my life.

Reid Blasts Republican Intimidation Tactics Against NLRB in Boeing Case

by Mike Hall, May 11, 2011

“Disgraceful and dangerous” is how Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) today described attempts by Republican senators and state attorneys general to intimidate the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). They are demanding the NLRB drop its complaint against the Boeing Co.

In April, the nonpartisan, independent NLRB issued a complaint against Boeing for moving a planned production line for its 787 Dreamliner from its unionized Puget Sound, Wash., plant to a nonunion facility in South Carolina. The complaint says the move was in retaliation against the Puget Sound workers for having previously exercised their federally guaranteed right to strike against Boeing and to prevent these workers from striking in the future.

In a videotaped interview with The Seattle Times, a senior Boeing executive said “the overriding factor” in the company’s decision to move the line wasn’t “the business climate. And it wasn’t the wages we’re paying today.” It was, he said, to avoid strikes. That is illegal. (For more information, check the NLRB’s fact sheet on the complaint against Boeing.)

The complaint set off a barrage of near hysterical criticism from Republicans and the right-wing media. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) went so far as to call the NLRB “thugs” and accused the agency of bullying Boeing.

But the criticism crossed the line to what Reid called “intimidation” when all 10 Republicans on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee signed a letter to the NLRB acting general counsel, Lafe Solomon, urging him to drop the complaint and, says Reid, linking their demand to Solomon’s pending nomination as general counsel.

In addition, eight Republican state attorneys general also signed a letter to Solomon calling on him to withdraw the complaint against Boeing.

This kind of interference is inappropriate. It is disgraceful and dangerous. We wouldn’t allow threats to prosecutors or U.S. Attorneys, trying to stop them from moving forward with charges they see fit to bring to the courts. And we shouldn’t stand for this. It may not be illegal, but it’s no better than the retaliation and intimidation that is the fundamental question in this case. It should stop.

Reid also pointed to the deep anti-union bias most Republican lawmakers hold.

We all know Republicans dislike organized labor. We know they disdain unions because unions demand fairness and equality from the Big Businesses Republicans so often shield at all costs.

And let’s be honest: Republicans are threatened by unions. They’re threatened because when a large, organized group is so concerned with workers’ rights, the members of that group vote in large numbers. And because Republicans and the Big Businesses they defend so often try to take away workers’ rights, workers don’t often vote Republican.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) assailed the Republicans’ “disturbing misinformation” campaign against the NLRB and said,

What we are really witnessing here is another example of the Republican assault on the middle class that has been echoing across the country for months now. Just as people are rising up in states across the country to tell governors and other elected leaders not to destroy their rights, we in this body also need to stand up and tell powerful and politically connected corporate CEOs that they are not above our nation’s laws.

Powerful corporate interests are pressuring members of this body to interfere with an independent agency, rather than let justice run its course. And we should not tolerate this interference.

In a remedial civics lesson for Republicans, Reid said that just as there is a system of checks and balances among the three branches of government and the NLRB serves as a check and balance between workers and employers. He also pointed out that the case is far from decided and Republicans should not prejudge the outcome.

We need agencies like the NLRB to be able to operate freely and without political pressures. We need to keep our independent agencies independent. This case is for them to decide, not us.