More Union/Labor News

Saturday August 27, 2011 by Bob Campbell, Communicator IAM LL731

Looking for more Union/Labor News? You have several choices: go to a specified Union/Labor website or visit The AFL-CIO http://aflcio.org/

The following are AFL-CIO Allied Groups:
Alliance for Retired Americans http://www.retiredamericans.org/

International Labor Communications Association http://ilcaonline.org/

National Labor College http://www.nlc.edu/

Solidarity Center http://www.solidaritycenter.org/

Union Plus Benefits http://www.unionplus.org/

Working America http://www.workingamerica.org/wa_splash3.cfm

Working for America Institute http://www.workingforamerica.org/

The following are AFL-CIO Constituency Groups
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance http://www.apalanet.org/

A Philip Randolh Institute http://www.apri.org/

Coalition of Black Trade Unionist http://www.cbtu.org/

Coalition of Labor Union Women http://www.cluw.org/

Labor Council for Latin American Advancement http://www.lclaa.org/

Look for more Union/Labor news links in the coming days.

Mark Pearce Named NLRB Chairman

by James Parks, Aug 27, 2011

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka today praised outgoing National Labor Relations Board Chairwoman Wilma Liebman and congratulated Mark Pearce on his nomination as chairman.

In a statement, Trumka said workers owe Liebman a “deep debt of graditude” for her service and “unwavering commitment” to enforcing the National Labor Relations Act.

Pearce, who has served on the NLRB since 2010, worked on the NLRB staff for 15 years before moving to private practice

Pirate Attacks Increase, but Fewer Ships Taken

by Mike Hall, Aug 27, 2011

We’ve brought you several stories on high seas piracy, especially in the Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, and described how the Seafarers (SIU) and global maritime unions are responding, including the “Save Our Seafarers” (SOS), anti-piracy campaign to push governments to do more to protect sailors and ships.

A new report shows attacks totaled 266 in the first six months of 2011, up from 196 incidents in the same period last year. But the pirates have captured fewer ships due to an increased naval presence in the troubled areas, one of the key elements that international seafaring unions pressed for with the SOS program.

Click here to read an update on the problems from the Seafarers LOG and here for more on the SOS program.

IAM Workers' Memorial 2001-2011

Fri. August 26, 2011

NFL Continues Unreasonable Demands on Players

by James Parks, Aug 26, 2011

The NFL is continuing to make unreasonable demands on players even after agreeing to a new collective bargaining agreement.

Writing in Phanatic Magazine, Matt Chaney says the players were getting railroaded on testing for recombinant human growth hormone or HGH. and they are refusing to go along any more.

For the last seven years, the players have questioned the accuracy and reliability of the HGH test the NFL seeks to implement. Chaney says the tests are part of the “shady dealings” of the quasi-governmental entities World Anti-Doping Agency and its American arm USADA, which are funded by government and sports groups. Chaney says:

WADA-USADA bureaucrats incessantly promote their closed “science” for dubious synthetic GH detection that’s ripped mercilessly by independent experts worldwide.

WADA has refused for years to provide scientific information justifying the reliability of their HGH test (validation studies, population studies, performance testing between labs, etc.),” according to Chaney. And players are fed up.

Read the entire article “WADA Stonewalls NFL Players on Suspect HGH Test” here.

King’s Dream of Economic Justice Still Far From Reality

by James Parks, Aug 26, 2011

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said organizing must begin at the grassroots.

Davon Lomax, a member of the Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 9 in New York, hasn’t worked for more than a year. One of his colleagues lost his home and ended up panhandling in the subways.

Katie Hofmann, a teacher in Cincinnati, Ohio, says more and more of her students are homeless. Teachers who have not had a pay raise for five years regularly go into their pockets to buy lunch for children who are hungry and whose families have no money.

King Center President Martin Luther King III recalled the close ties his father had with unions.

Lomax and Hofmann were two of the panelists who spoke at the AFL-CIO and The King Center symposium on “Jobs, Justice and the American Dream” this morning. Participants in the first panel, Jobs and the American Dream, agreed that 48 years after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the nation is still far from achieving his vision of a nation where everyone who wants to work has a good job and the freedom to achieve to the best of his or her abilities.

Rep. John Lewis called for working people to “make some noise.”

This morning’s panel on ”Jobs and the American Dream” was the first of two in the symposium. A second panel on “Justice and the American Dream” will follow.

(Watch a replay of the live panel here.)

Martin Luther King III, president of The King Center, echoed that theme, saying economic justice is even more of a concern today than 48 years ago.

Unemployed painter Davon Lomax said it’s time to create more jobs.

We’re here to do the work that must be done to represent what Martin Luther King stood for.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka reminded the crowd of about 300 that King’s vision was not simply an end to racism. He saw ending racism as part of a larger struggle for human dignity—a larger struggle centered on economic justice.

Jobs with Justice Director Sarita Gupta called for listening to ordinary Americans.

The tragedy of American history in our lifetime is that today, while we have defeated legal segregation and driven open racism from our public life, we live in a country less economically equal than in Dr. King’s time. Jobs are scarcer, it’s harder to go to college and the right to a voice on the job has been largely taken away from America’s workers.

Harvard professor Bruce Western said unions are key to fighting poverty.

To get Americans back to work will require people to come together and “make some noise” and “to get in trouble again” by taking to the streets and demanding that Congress approve the money for a massive national jobs program, said Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), the last living speaker from the 1963 March on Washington.

Both Sarita Gupta, executive director of Jobs with Justice, and Hofmann said organizing and mobilizing ordinary people are key to building the movement that will realize King’s dream of economic equality. Gupta said our leaders must listen to the concerns and the visions of ordinary Americans who know what’s wrong

Cincinnati teacher Katie Hofmann said Ohio workers are stepping up for change.

Hofmann pointed out that there is a passion for change in the country, citing one of her fellow teachers who ran the 100 miles between Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, to deliver petitions to get a referendum to overturn Gov. John Kasich’s law that took away public workers’ ability to bargain collectively.

Harvard professor Bruce Western added that unions are the key to creating the kinds of jobs we will need to restore our nation’s economy. He pointed out that the decline of unions coincides with the decline in good-paying jobs and the increase in job insecurity.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker summed up the call for good jobs this way:

For months now, the lives of millions of Americans have been shaken up by economic uncertainty. Just as our nation’s capital literally shook this week, we hope that discussions like the one we will have today will shake our elected officials to move with boldness and a fierce urgency of now. We call on our leaders to respond to the desperate cries of the people for jobs and justice

Protecting the Rights of Pregnant Women

This is a cross-post from MomsRising.org by Vibhuti Mehra from the Labor Project for Working Families.

It’s October 20, 2009. My lab results have just confirmed the news that my husband and I have been eagerly waiting to hear. I am pregnant. I am excited. I am overjoyed. I am nervous. I am anxious. My mind and body are gearing up to experience a plethora of emotions and sensations that will last for nine months and beyond. The first trimester goes without incident. We have just started announcing the news to family and friends. And then, unexpectedly, four months into my pregnancy, I experience bleeding. Memories of a past miscarriage take over the joyous experience. I am fearful. My ob-gyn advises reducing my workload and taking it easy until things settle back into rhythm. I call my workplace and, without much ado, my supervisor and I settle on a work-from-home arrangement until all is well.

Fortunately, all did go well and I gave birth to a healthy baby boy in July 2010. As I recovered from childbirth and later took time off to bond with my child, my union contract guaranteed that I wouldn’t lose pay or my family health coverage for the duration of my leave.

In 2009, Victoria Guillen, a dishwasher at the Grand Hyatt hotel in San Francisco, was pregnant, too. Victoria had a difficult, high-risk pregnancy, was advised by her doctor to take a long leave of absence. However, unlike my experience, Victoria had to struggle with her employers for her rights. Her managers wanted her to return to work three days after her due date or not come back at all. Victoria couldn’t return to work three days after her C-section. She lost her job. She fought back with the support of her union UNITEHERE! Local 2. After months of petitioning, Hyatt gave in and Victoria was allowed to return to her job. (Read Victoria’s story in her own words).

Pregnancy can be the most joyful and the most vulnerable time of a woman’s life. And the risk of complications during pregnancy or childbirth is a very real one. Statistics show that approximately 13 percent of women will have a complication from pregnancy requiring them to be hospitalized before delivery. 20 percent of pregnant women spend a minimum of one week on bed rest during the course of their pregnancy.

Working women make up nearly half of the American workforce. Three quarters of women in today’s workforce will become pregnant while employed. Nearly 30 percent of employed women in the United States take prenatal leave. But for too many women workers, pregnancy leave is simply not affordable. And for low-wage workers like Victoria, it is especially hard.

It is, therefore, important that we have workplace standards that safeguard not only the physical well-being of an expectant/new mother and her child, but also her economic security during the pregnancy and after childbirth. The benefits of pregnancy leave to the health of mothers and their babies are well-documented. Women need access to affordable pregnancy leave so that they can take time off before and after birth without losing pay and benefits.

In California, we are fortunate to have a State Disability Insurance (SDI) program that provides pregnant women and new mothers partial wage replacement while on disability and bonding leave. SDI includes the Paid Family Leave program which researchers recently found benefits both workers and employers.

The California Work & Family Coalition is advocating for an important legislation to protect the health of working mothers and their babies. Existing state law does not require that health insurance coverage be continued for women on pregnancy leave. This puts many pregnant women and new mothers at risk of losing their health coverage at the time they need it most. SB 299 will fix this problem. Learn more about this campaign.

For legal advice about pregnancy leave in California, please call Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center: (800) 880-8047 or Equal Rights Advocates: (800) 839-4372.

NLRB Says Workers Need to Know Their Rights, Biz World Flips Out

by Mike Hall, Aug 25, 2011

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a new and simple rule today. It says employers must display an 11-by-17-inch poster informing workers of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act, where they usually post notices to let workers know their rights.

Saying he applauded the new rule, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says:

Just as employers are required to notify their employees of their rights around health and safety, wages and discrimination on the job, this rule gives clear information to employees about their rights under this fundamental labor law so that workers are better equipped to exercise and enforce them.

Yet from the reaction of the Big Business, the notice is just a step away from the NLRB giving workers the right to drag employers into the street and beat them severely about the head and shoulders.

Keep in mind, this is a just a poster.

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) calls it an “unprecedented overreach of its authority… a punitive new rule…a new low…a trap for millions of businesses.”

It’s just a poster.

Peter Schaumber, a former NLRB chairman appointed by former President George W. Bush, told Bloomberg News, “It’s arbitrary, it’s capricious.”

It’s just a poster.

On the right-wing website GOPUSA, the new rule is “another disgusting government intrusion into private business.”

It’s just a poster. Just a poster similar to the ones the U.S. Department of Labor requires the thousands and thousands of federal contractors to post.

The NLRB says employers will not be required to distribute the notice via e-mail, voice mail, text messaging or related electronic communications “even if they customarily communicate with their employees in that manner and they may post notices in black and white as well as in color.”

All it needs to say is that employees have the right to act together to improve wages and working conditions, to form, join and assist a union, to bargain collectively with their employer. It also must say, “employees may refrain from any of these activities.” Pretty even handed, huh?

BTW, it won’t cost employers a penny because the NLRB will provide copies for free or employers can download it.

Romney: Better to Raise Retirement Age, Cut Benefits Than Fair Share Social Security Tax

by Mike Hall, Aug 25, 2011

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a group New Hampshire seniors, including members of the Alliance for Retired Americans, that he supports raising the retirement age or cutting benefits as opposed to asking all taxpayers to pay a fair share to strengthen Social Security.

Currently, all workers pay the Social Security payroll tax on the first $106,000 of their earnings. Earnings above $106,000 are exempt from the Social Security payroll tax. That means a grocery clerk or warehouse worker pays a bigger chunk of their income to Social Security than a hedge fund manager.

In a meeting in Lebanon, N.H., Alliance President Charlie Balban asked Romney if he would support raising the Social Security payroll tax beyond its current $106,000 cap to help strengthen Social Security.

One member of the audience told Romney, “We’re just asking that everybody pay at the same rate.”

Romney said he was opposed to having the wealthy pay Social Security payroll taxes on more or all of their income as most workers must. He said he instead would support raising the retirement age or cutting benefits by changing the way the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is calculated. CPI is used to determine cost of living adjustments for Special Security recipients.

Romney is referring to a proposed new inflation formula known as “chained CPI,” which, if implemented, would mean that a worker in 2011 at age 65 will see his or her Social Security benefits slashed by $6,000 over 15 years.

Survey: Teachers Have Big Impact on Students’ Lives

by James Parks, Aug 25, 2011

Next to immediate family, teachers have the most impact on people’s lives as they grow up, according to a survey by the ING Foundation.

The survey also found a large majority (88 percent) of Americans said they had a teacher who had a “significant positive impact” on their life, and 98 percent said they believe that a good teacher can change the course of a student’s life.

“As our research shows, effective teachers can have a significant influence on their students’ lives, yet their efforts are generally under-appreciated,” said Rhonda Mims, president of the ING Foundation.

Teachers are among the public employees who have come under attack in recent months and have been targeted for massive layoffs by extremist Republican state and local lawmakers. Those attacking teachers should take a look at the ING poll: Fully 83 percent of those surveyed said they had a teacher who helped build their confidence and self-esteem, while 79 percent say they had a teacher who encouraged them to pursue their dreams. Another 75 percent said a teacher served as a mentor or role model, and 54 percent said that a teacher helped them through a tough time.

The survey also revealed:
•Some 87 percent of Americans wish they had told their best teachers how much they appreciated their efforts.
•Teachers are perceived as receiving less gratitude than social workers, nurses, clergy or doctors.
•A whopping 94 percent of Americans agree that we need to do more to recognize our good teachers.

“It’s an unbelievable testament to the profession that Americans so resoundingly believe in a teacher’s ability to transform lives,” Mims said.

Whether sending a student down a path they hadn’t considered or simply ensuring them they are ready for the road ahead, a teacher’s impact can be profound and enduring.

The survey was conducted in conjunction with the annual National Teacher of the Year competition. To learn more, click here.

Hytek Workers Win IAM Representation

Thu. August 25, 2011

By more than a two-to-one margin, 165 workers at Hytek Finishes in Kent, WA voted to join the IAM. The election capped a four-month organizing effort by Seattle District Lodge 751, initiated by Hytek employees who approached the District for help. The workers specialize in various types of metal finishing and coating for aerospace manufacturers, including Boeing, Lockheed and Bell Helicopters.

“It was a ruthless, half-truth, anti-union campaign,” said District 751 Organizer Jesse Cote. Hytek, a subsidiary of Esterline Corp., hired anti-union professionals to thwart the campaign, held captive-audience meetings and spread false rumors; one being that key customers threatened to pull work from the company if the workers voted to join the IAM.

“The fact that so many people voted in favor of joining the union in the face of those threats speaks volumes about the character and integrity of the workers at Hytek,” said District 751 President and Directing Business Representative Tom Wroblewski. Wroblewski also noted that Esterline turned a profit of $46 million in its most-recent quarter, a 58-percent increase over the same quarter last year.

“Given all that, we feel management can afford to share some of those gains with the workers at Hytek whose hard work helped create those profits,” stated Wroblewski. “We’re proud to have the Hytek workers as part of our union, and we will support them in every way we can.”

The next step for the new Machinists at Hytek will be to negotiate a contract. District 751 has filed information requests with the company, asking for dates when talks can begin.

“The Hytek workers knew where to go when they needed help,” said Western Territory General Vice President Gary
Allen. “They approached the IAM, and now, collectively, have a voice in how they’re treated on the job. Welcome to the IAM, Hytek workers, and congratulations to everyone involved in making this campaign successful.”

WWW Center Welcomes AFSS Negotiators

Thu. August 25, 2011

Members of the IAM Bargaining Committee representing AFSS specialists employed by Lockheed Martin take part in a mock bargaining session during a week of preparations at the William W. Winpisinger Center.

A highly-skilled group of technicians known as Automated Flight Service Station (AFSS) Specialists met recently at the William W. Winpisinger Education & Technology Center to prepare for upcoming contract negotiations with employer Lockheed Martin.

The committee, representing Specialists at six Lockheed Martin locations, spent most of their week at the Harbor reviewing contract proposals and suggestions provided by fellow AFSS members in a recent bargaining survey. The committee also took part in a simulated bargaining session where the committee tested their skills against seasoned negotiator.

“This training was an eye opening experience,” said Milt Torres from Miami, FL. “I got a whole new perspective on bargaining that our members never see. I’m more enlightened about how difficult the process is and I understand how important it is to be prepared.”

The committee worked late into each evening with legal, financial and communications advisors to develop a strategic plan that will help them stay focused on the issues through negotiations and ratification.

“This is one of the most unified bargaining committees I’ve worked with in a very long time,” said Frank Carelli, IAM Director of Government Employees Department. “They thoroughly understand the issues and are prepared to do whatever it takes to get them resolved.”

The committee included John Schamel from Raleigh, NC, Renee Manon and ADBR Rick Ryan from Princeton, MN, Justin Southward, Marl Kostka and BR Rick Compher from Ashburn, VA, Milt Torres and BR Javier Almazan from Miami, FL, Paul Shepherd and GLR Bud Michel from Prescott, AZ and Ron Mercer, David Villa and BR David Faith from Fort Worth, TX.

Union Plus Helps IAM Welder Cut Health Care Costs

Thu. August 25, 2011

As a welder and 10-year member of IAM Local 1297, Melvin Reese knows a thing or two about working when the “heat is on,” but when illness kept him off the job, his stress level hit a boiling point. The costs of his wife’s monthly prescriptions were also adding up. Fortunately, Reese discovered the Union Plus Disability Grant and the Union Plus Prescription Discount Card to lessen the financial stress of illness.

“I have carried a Union Plus Credit Card for years and I’m glad I did because it made me eligible to receive a Union Plus Disability Grant. It was a tremendous help to my family,” says Reese, of Cleveland Heights, OH, who received $1,250 in assistance. “I’ve since learned of other Union Plus discounts and benefits available to union members. In addition to enjoying a 15% discount on my AT&T cell phone service, I recently signed up for the Union Plus Prescription Card. The discount card is definitely saving my family money.”

“Union Plus benefits can provide members with help when they need it most, especially during these difficult times,” said IAM General Secretary-Treasurer Warren Mart. “I congratulate Brother Reese and his family, and encourage all IAM members to take advantage of the programs available through Union Plus.”

Union members who have had the Union Plus Credit Card for at least one year, have been out of work for at least 90 days, and who experienced a loss of 25 percent or more of household income due to the illness or disability within the past six months may be eligible for disability assistance.

The Union Plus Prescription Discount Card, which comes at no cost, provides automatic savings of an average of 15 percent off brand name drugs and 40 percent off generic drugs. The card is best for union members who do not have insurance that covers prescriptions or who have household family members with insufficient prescription coverage. Spouses, domestic partners, children, parents, aunts and uncles of union members are all eligible for the no-cost prescription discount card.

To learn about the Union Plus benefits available to IAM members including discounts on AT&T wireless service, college test preparation, car rentals, legal services, health savings and much more, visit www.UnionPlus.org.