Play Ball!

by Mike Hall, Apr 17, 2011

With Major League Baseball’s 2011 season under way, our friends at the Alliance for American Manufacturing remind us that the all-American pastime still features some Made-in-USA sports gear.

Rawlings has been making baseball gloves since 1887. Despite diversifying overseas, Rawlings’ pro model and custom gloves are still made in Washington, Mo.

You can do what the pros do and have your glove tailor-made to your exact specifications at Rawlings’ Missouri factory.

You can’t have a ball game without a bat, so get a good grip on a Louisville Slugger. The wooden bats are crafted by members of the United Steelworkers (USW) at the company’s home in Louisville, Ky. The aluminum bats are produced in Ontario, Calif., by members of the Teamsters (IBT).

Chance Encounter Takes Shuler to Fox News

Liz Shuler, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer

by Mike Hall, Apr 16, 2011

Opportunity can strike at the strangest of times and places. For AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler, who believes in getting the union movement’s message out to audiences that normally don’t hear it, that opportunity came on a recent flight from Washington, D.C., to Detroit when Republican pollster/strategist and Fox News regular Frank Luntz sat right down in the middle seat next to her.

Because of that encounter, Shuler will be talking about teachers, firefighters, baggage handlers, nurses and other workers and their unions with Luntz on Sunday on Fox News prime time at 9 p.m. EDT.

Just minutes before the plane’s doors closed, Luntz, who had been bumped from his first-class seat, came down the aisle and pointed to the dreaded middle seat, says Shuler.

I thought, “I know this guy.” And after he got settled, we introduced ourselves and I said, “I’m Liz and I work for the AFL-CIO.” When he asked me what I did for the AFL-CIO and I told him I was the secretary-treasurer, he was kind of taken aback.

Shuler says they began talking during the bumpy flight—he’s a bit of a white knuckler—and Luntz outlined what he thought— from a conservative’s view—the labor movement was doing wrong and why it was losing some public support. Shuler countered with examples of worker successes and union innovations. That’s when he offered Shuler an appearance on his show.

We talk to ourselves a lot. We really need to be reaching out to audiences we normally don’t talk to and besides a lot of our members do watch Fox. This is an opportunity to reach some people who may have tuned us out and may even be pretty hostile.

In the segment taped earlier this week, Shuler appears in a modified town hall setting in front of some 30 audience members, divided about equally between people who voted for President Obama in 2008 and those who backed Sen. John McCain (R). They ask questions and then respond to Shuler’s answers via electronic devices that register their level of agreement or disagreement.

Florida AFL-CIO

Click here to get the latest information from the Florida AFL-CIO.

Plan Now to Attend IAM Human Rights Conference

Thu. April 14, 2011

The IAM conference, themed Embracing Diversity in the House of Labor, will be held September 1st – 5th at the Buena Vista Palace in the Walt Disney Resort, Lake Buena Vista, FL. A special discounted rate of $109 plus tax per night, single or double occupancy, has been arranged. To ensure the special rate, call 1-866-246-6563 and identify yourself as being with the “IAM Machinists Human Rights Conference.” Reservations must be made by August 1, 2011 to qualify for the discounted rate.

The conference will provide IAM human rights activists, women’s rights activists, community service activists and young workers the tools to better organize and network their efforts to improve conditions in the workplace, community and nation.

In addition to Rev. Sharpton, the conference’s workshops and conference activities are planned and designed to appeal to a wide cross section IAM members.

Discounted registration fees are available to those who register early. Click here for the official call letter, registration forms and details regarding early registration.

Should you have any questions, please contact the IAM Women’s and Human Rights Department at 301-967-4747.

GOP Budget Proposals Would Gut Medicare

Thu. April 14, 2011

When Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in 2010, they gave Paul Ryan, the new Chairman of the House Budget Committee, extraordinary powers to shape federal spending. Ryan is now proposing to use the deficit as an excuse to transform Medicare in radical ways.

Under Ryan’s budget blueprint, the current universal coverage Medicare system will be replaced by a voucher system in 2021. Vouchers will provide a fixed payment and force seniors to purchase private insurance. Increases in the voucher payments will be based on the general rate of inflation plus one percent, which is much lower than the medical inflation rate.

The change will force seniors to spend increasing amounts of their Social Security income to pay for the coverage they get now under the government-run, not-for-profit, Medicare system at a much lower cost. In the first year alone, the R.J. Eskow of Center for America’s Future estimates the gap between what the voucher will provide and what coverage will cost could range between $2,500 and $6,000 per year. And because the Medicare voucher payment goes up less than the increases in medical costs, the gap will widen every year.

The conservative press is claiming that these restructurings are necessary to control spending, but Eskow notes that “The top 25 hedge fund managers made a collective $22 billion last year. If they had been taxed under the same rules as cops, firefighters, nurses, and teachers, and if the President's proposed tax changes for the wealthiest earners had passed, these 25 people alone might reduce the Federal deficit by more than five billion dollars in a single year! But Rep. Ryan and his party prevented that from happening.

‘Party of deficit reduction’? Gosh, I don't think so.”

Click here for Eskow's full analysis.

Lawmakers Respond to IAM Campaign to Expand CrewPass

Thu. April 14, 2011

Two top members of the House Committee on Homeland Security have lent their voices and their influence to the IAM effort to include Flight Attendants among the flight crew members authorized to use the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) expedited security screening system. Under current TSA guidelines, only pilots are entitled to access secure areas using this method.

Earlier this year, Transportation GVP Robert Roach, Jr. and staff from the IAM Legislative Department met with Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, to discuss the issue and seek his support in extending coverage for CrewPASS to Flight Attendants.

Rep. Thompson explained that he believed it was Congress’ intent to extend the expedited screening system to include ALL aircraft crew members in the program, including Flight Attendants. The IAM requested he send a letter to TSA Administrator John Pistole explaining Congress’ intent.

In a letter dated April 12, Rep. Thompson and Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, (D-TX), the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Committee on Homeland Security, sent the letter the IAM requested.

Republicans Pass ‘Robin Hood in Reverse’ Budget Plan

by Mike Hall, Apr 15, 2011
On a near straight party line vote (235-193) this afternoon, the U.S. House passed the Republican budget plan that privatizes Medicare, cuts corporate taxes and taxes for the wealthy, cuts Medicaid funding repeals health care reform and costs up to 2 million jobs. All Democrats as well as four Republicans voted against the bill. (Get the vote breakdown here.)

Republicans say the huge spending cuts in the plan, developed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), are needed to reduce the federal deficit. But just a causal glance at the math shows the Republican budget plan cuts $4.3 trillion in spending and hands out $4.2 trillion in tax giveaways, mostly to the wealthy and corporations.

Even more disturbing, according to Moody Analytics and the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the Republican budget will cost between 1.7 million and 2.2 million jobs in the first two years alone. Last night in Chicago President Obama said:

Under [Republicans'] vision, we can’t invest in roads and bridges and broadband and high-speed rail. We need to build on the compromises we made last week, but we can’t compromise on our investments to grow, the investments we need to create jobs.

On the floor today, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, (D-Calif.), said the Republican plan is “a false economy,” that cuts deeply into investments that create jobs.

Edward Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD), says the Republican budget cuts to transportation would eliminate well over half a million transportation jobs and that number would soar higher with the loss of jobs in the related manufacturing, supplier and public sectors.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) President Robert Greenstein called the plan “Robin Hood in reverse:

Taken together, its proposals would produce the largest redistribution of income from the bottom to the top in modern U.S. history, while increasing poverty and inequality more than any measure in recent times and possibly in the nation’s history.

Seniors are hit especially hard by the Republican plan, which would privatize Medicare and replace it with a system of vouchers that, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, would double a senior’s health care spending. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projects that Ryan’s plan would have seniors paying $20,000 a year for Medicare in 2030, or 68 percent of the total cost of their coverage. That amount is currently 25 percent.

Today on Capitol Hill, the Alliance for Retired Americans and others rallied to protest the Medicare cuts that Republicans want to use to help pay for the tax breaks for corporations and the rich.

An overwhelming number of Americans oppose proposals to dismantle Medicare in the 2012 House Republican budget, according to a new poll by the Democracy Corps/Campaign for America’s Future. The proposed cuts to Medicare raise concerns for nearly two-thirds of respondent, raising “serious” doubts for 66 percent, and “very serious” doubts for 40 percent.

The poll also finds that when people hear more details about the Republican budget, they overwhelmingly dislike it. Click here for slide show presentation of the poll’s findings and here for a detailed analysis.

The Democratically-controlled Senate will offer its own budget plan when Congress returns from its two-week spring break May 2.

Court Slaps Down N.M. Gov.’s Labor Board Firings

by Mike Hall, Apr 15, 2011

A unanimous New Mexico State Supreme Court said Wednesday that tea party Republican Gov. Susana Martinez overstepped her authority when earlier this year she fired two members and the executive director of Public Employee Labor Relations Board. The New Mexico Federation of Labor (NMFL) filed suit against Martinez’s action.

The court ordered Martinez to reinstate the two fired board members.

The three-person labor board enforces the state’s public employee collective bargaining law and consists of one member chosen by state employee unions, one member chosen by state department heads and one member chosen by the other two members. Although the governor makes the official appointments, the selection process is performed by unions, management and the board itself.

The board also chooses an executive director. It’s not clear what will happen with the executive director’s position. The board could rehire the former director or choose another director.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reports:

The court agreed with arguments by Shane Youtz, who represented the New Mexico Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, that the board should maintain independence from the executive branch because by its very nature it decides cases involving the executive branch.

Youtz told the justices that of 43 cases pending before the board at the time of the firings, 17 directly involved the governor.

Repeal Drive for Ohio’s Anti-Worker Bill Moves Forward

by Mike Hall, Apr 15, 2011

The drive to repeal a law backed and recently signed by Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) that eliminates the rights of 350,000 public employees to bargain for middle-class jobs, got the official go ahead this morning. The Ohio attorney general and secretary of state certified the 1,000 signatures needed and approved the petition language submitted earlier this month.

The action now allows opponents of the bill to begin collecting signatures to put the repeal of SB. 5 on the November ballot. Workers and their allies need to gather 231,000 signatures by June 30 to qualify. If they do, the law will not go into effect and its fate will be decided by the voters.

We Are Ohio, a coalition of unions, community, student and other groups, is mobilizing volunteers to gather the signatures. If you live in Ohio, click here to find training sessions near you.

Last Saturday, more than 11,000 people rallied at the Capitol in Columbus to kick off the repeal campaign. Click here, here and here for more on the right against S.B. 5.

Qatar Airways Refuses to Use Union Labor at JFK

by Tula Connell, Apr 15, 2011

Members of Transport Workers (TWU) local unions from throughout the New York area, joined by Office and Professional Employees (OPEIU) 153, rallied yesterday outside Trump Tower in Manhattan, headquarters of Qatar Airways. Qatar is moving operations to Kennedy Airport Terminal 8, operated by American Airlines, but, unlike other foreign carriers, is not using American ground service workers who are members of TWU Local 501.

The company instead is contracting out the work to a third party. The union says this move, with American’s approval, is an attack on the wages, working conditions and job security of Local 501 members at Kennedy Airport.

Says Dave Virella, president of Local 501:

If Qatar doesn’t want to make use of the trained and experienced workforce at the American Airlines terminal, they should take their business elsewhere.