September 2009, Vol. 41 No. 9
News From the AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO launched estimated $15 million grassroots campaign during congressional August recess to support labor law reform and health care reform. Campaign consisted of mass mailings, running phone banks, distributing policy fliers at worksites and countering right-wing opposition at congressional town hall meetings. "This is expensive stuff," Gerald Shea, Assistant to the President for Governmental Affairs at the AFL-CIO, told news media. In Aug. 6 memo to federation Executive Council members, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said August mobilization is aimed at getting "Congress to side with working families and not insurance companies on health reform." He said, "At stake is nothing less than insurers' power to control what doctors we see, what treatments we get and how much of our wage dollars go to their fat profits."
AFL-CIO Secy.-Treas. Richard Trumka Aug. 6 criticized "corporate-funded mobs" who disrupt town hall meetings held by members of Congress during August recess. "Mob rule is not democracy," he said in statement. He said "these mobs" were being sent to block meaningful debate on health care reform "by their corporate and lobbyist bankrollers." He said their actions are a "desperation move" to slow the momentum for change. "Major health care reform is closer than ever to passage and it is no secret that special interests want to weaken or block it," Trumka warned. "We call on the insurance companies, the lobbyists and the Republican leaders who are cheering them on to halt these 'Brooks Brothers Riot' tactics. Health care is a crucial issue and everyone on all sides of the issue deserves to be heard."
Most effective way to improve balance between work and family is through collective bargaining, top AFL-CIO official recently testified before the congressional Joint Economic Committee. Karen Nussbaum, assistant to the president of the AFL-CIO and currently executive director of Working America, told panel members that collective bargaining allows workers to "talk directly with employers" to create customized improvements in work-family policies. Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act "would restore the right to collective bargaining, which would help create a contemporary version of work/life balance," she said. Nussbaum cited recent study by the Labor Project for Working Families which found that 46 percent of unionized workers receive full pay while on leave compared to 29 percent of nonunionized workers, while union companies are five times as likely as companies with no unionized workers to pay the entire family health insurance premium.
"America's workers congratulate Judge Sotomayor on her overwhelming confirmation to the United States Supreme Court," said federation's Sweeney on the swearing-in of nation's first Latino Supreme Court justice. "Throughout her nomination hearing Judge Sotomayor demonstrated that she is a stellar jurist with a strong intellect, a deep understanding of the law and the compassion to understand that her decisions will have a real and long-lasting impact on working families." Prior to her confirmation, Sweeney said Judge Sotomayor is the "living embodiment" of the American Dream who will bring to the High Court her experiences as a Latina raised in a working class family. She "will enrich the Supreme Court much as Justice Marshall's life experiences did before her," Sweeney said.
AFL-CIO's Building & Construction Trades Dept. recently charged Volkswagen failed to honor its promise of hiring locally in the construction of its new $1 billion plant at Enterprise South Industrial Park in Tennessee. Tom Owens, BC&TD director of marketing and communications, said many contracts are going to out-of-state firms and many workers currently hired are "undocumented workers." "An investigation by local Chattanooga groups is uncovering increasing evidence that Volkswagen is not living up to its promises to 'hire local' on the construction of its $1 billion production facility in Chattanooga," Owens told the news media. He noted Tennessee and the city of Chattanooga jointly offered $577 million in tax rebates and other incentives for Volkswagen to build the facility in Hamilton County. Owens said state and local officials should be more diligent to ensure that "Tennessee workers would be the beneficiaries of this largess."
International labor News
Wal-Mart Canada filed a court injunction against the United Food & Commercial Workers' union rights website over alleged trademark infringement. UFCW Canada said the giant retailer's action is an attempt to intimidate the union and thwart workers' organizing efforts. "This injunction request is an over the top assault on freedom of speech and on our ability to effectively communicate with Walmart workers," said Wayne Hanley, UFCW Canada national president, in a statement. Walmart filed the injunction with the Quebec Superior Court regarding a UFCW website called walmartworkerscanada.ca. Website now features the words "Under the threat of censorship," and the union is urging people to write to the corporation in opposition to the injunction. UFCW represents Wal-Mart employees at a store in St-Hyacinthe, Quebec.
National and Political News
Unemployment rate fell to 9.4 percent in July, from 9.5 percent in June, leading President Obama to proclaim the economy is "pointed in the right direction." Employers slashed 247,000 jobs, slowest rate of decline in nearly a year, but analysts feared job growth remained weak. "We still have a long way to go until our economy is growing and creating good jobs at a healthy rate and we will need decisive and timely action from our government in the meantime," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney who praised President Obama's economic recovery package. He warned that more needs to be done to create sustained growth and good jobs. "…the current deep and broad economic crisis is not going to be solved quickly or with one shot in the arm of economic stimulus," Sweeney said. Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute predicted, "We're still headed pretty quickly to 10 percent unemployment."
Share of U.S. service sector companies that sent jobs overseas as part of their business strategy more than doubled between 2005 and 2008, to 53 percent from 22 percent, according to a study released Aug. 3 by the Conference Board and Duke University's Center for International Business Education and Research. In addition, 60 percent of firms that reported using offshored services in 2008 expected to expand those activities within the next three years, while only a handful planned to relocate them back to the United States. Study was based on a 2007-2008 survey of more than 1,600 companies in the United States, Europe, and Australia. Most common reason cited was labor cost savings (90 percent). Although India and China remained the most popular locations for offshored services, outsourcing to other countries, such as Canada, Mexico, Philippines, and Russia, was growing, especially by small- and medium-sized firms.
Federal minimum wage increased in July by 70 cents to $7.25 an hour, improving pay checks for some 10 million workers. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said raise will act as a significant economic stimulus "at a moment when it is critically needed-one that will lift all boats so Americans and businesses can stay afloat and ride out this economic storm." Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimated raise puts an extra $2,000 yearly into paycheck of a full-time minimum wage worker. EPI said pay hike will generate $5.5 billion in consumer spending without any increase in government spending. Increase is last of the three-step minimum wage hike Congress passed in 2007, which was the first such increase since 1997. For more than a decade, congressional Republicans and the Bush administration had blocked a raise for the nation's lowest-paid workers.
News From Around the Labor Movement
Communications Workers of America reached tentative three-year contract with AT&T for 23,000 workers in California and Nevada, second to be concluded during this round of negotiations. CWA members in AT&T's western units also reached tentative agreement. Proposed contract is similar to pact which was accepted by 18,500 workers in AT&T's Midwest region. Workers will receive 3 percent wage increases in each of the contract's first two years and 2.75 in the last. Workers also will pay more for their health care. Meanwhile, CWA and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers members recently ratified three-year national contracts with Avaya Inc. covering more than 1,600 workers. Pacts continue fully employer-paid health care benefits, but workers will have to pay increases in copayments for some services. Company also pledged no layoffs for nine months, union representatives told news media. Workers also won $1,250 lump-sum payment in the first year and 2.75 percent wage increases in May 2010 and May 2011.
United Steelworkers (USW) pulled out of talks Aug. 4 with the American Petroleum Institute on developing two new safety standards involving worker fatigue and process-safety performance indicators. Union said oil industry stonewalled on efforts to improve both safety standards. USW President Leo Gerard charged "the industry refused to allow us to be equal partners with them in resolving health and safety problems." Discussions originated with a 2007 U.S. Chemical Safety Board report investigating BP's deadly Texas City, Texas, oil refinery explosion, which killed 15 contract workers in March 2005. Safety Board recommended that labor unions and the industry lead a working group to develop two standards in the aftermath of the disaster. "This industry will simply not get serious about developing standards that have real meat in them," said USW Vice President Gary Beevers.
The Newspaper Guild-CWA won a landmark court victory recently when the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the right of the union to use the company's e-mail system. Case began in 2000 when managers disciplined the president of TNG-CWA Local 37194 at the Eugene (Org.) Register-Guard for sending three e-mails to members about Guild business. Company said e-mail could only be used for business purposes and blocked the union from using it. After filing an unfair labor practice, the then-Bush-dominated NLRB sided with the company over two of the e-mails. But the union presented evidence before the U.S. Court of Appeals that the company's e-mail system was used by both employees and managers for a wide variety of non-company purposes while only the union was barred from using it. Court characterized the company's arguments as "simply more distortion than the words can bear."
United Food and Commercial Workers and Service Employees International Union combined two Wal-Mart workers' rights groups in order to "maximize the ability for Wal-Mart workers to win a voice on the job and bring change to the entire retail industry." UFCW's WakeUpWalMart.com and SEIU's Wal-Mart Watch, both formed in 2005, joined together under the WakeUpWalMart.com. UFCW President Joseph Hansen said in a statement that "Wal-Mart workers across America are standing up and demanding change, and the UFCW is standing with them to achieve the health care and labor law reforms that will restore and expand the middle class." SEIU Pres. Andy Stern added Wal-Mart workers are "best served by a single organization dedicated to supporting Wal-Mart workers..." Groups joined after 1,000 of the company's workers in more than 100 stores in 15 states signed union authorization cards seeking representation by UFCW.
United Auto Workers Local 218 members recently ratified a new, four-year labor agreement with Bell Helicopter Textron that ends six-week strike by 2,500 production and maintenance workers at eight plants in the Fort Worth, Texas, area. Plants make parts, components and assemblies for all Bell aircraft, including the V-22 Osprey and H-1 military helicopters. Workers began strike June 15 after rejecting company's "best and final" three-year contract offer because of proposed increases in medical costs and a plan to outsource janitors' work. According to union negotiating committee chair Tom Wells, new contract made changes that lessened medical hikes and increased wages even more in the fourth year. Although Bell still will outsource janitors' work, the company will try to offer them other, higher-paying jobs, Wells said. Negotiations grew tense as result of the company's use of replacement workers, although all union workers returned to their jobs.
For the first time in decades, General Electric announced it is building two new manufacturing plants in the U.S. after unions agreed to concessions. To help persuade GE to expand in Schenectady, N.Y. and Louisville, Ky., members of the International Union of Electrical Workers-CWA voted to accept a two-year wage freeze and a lower wage tier for new employees. In return, GE promised not to move any operations from there for two years. GE said the Schenectady, N.Y., plant will employ 350 workers and make high-density batteries that will turn many locomotives into diesel-electric hybrids. In Louisville, GE will add a factory that will employ 420 workers to produce hybrid electric water heaters now made in China. "We haven't had a new product here since the 1950s," said Jerry Carney, president of the IUE local in Louisville. "This new product has awoke a sleeping dinosaur. It gave us life."
United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil E. Roberts and International Secretary-Treasurer Daniel J. Kane received sufficient nominations from UMWA local unions to be reelected without opposition to their posts for a new five-year term, the union recently announced. "Dan and I are very humbled and honored to be given the opportunity by the membership of the UMWA to serve another term as their President and Secretary-Treasurer," Roberts said in a statement. "We look forward to confronting the challenges that face our members in the upcoming years, and continuing our fight to improve the jobs, wages and benefits of active and retired UMWA members." Roberts, who with 14 years in office is the second-longest serving President of the UMWA after John L. Lewis, is a member of the AIL/NILICO Labor Advisory Board. He replaced Richard Trumka after he was elected secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO.
In the Public Sector
In mid-August, train operators represented by Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 went back into negotiations with San Francisco's BART transit system after rejecting Aug. 12 a proposed contract. Service Employees Local 1021 members, however, previously accepted a similar deal which avoids layoffs and furloughs, but foregoes raises over next three years. "It's not a great contract. We wish we could have brought back something much, much better for our membership," SEIU Local 1021 Pres. Lisa Isler said. SEIU is BART's largest union, representing clerical and maintenance workers. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3993 also accepted a similar pact. BART is seeking $100 million in labor cuts over next four years to help close projected $310 million operating deficit. SF metropolitan regional transit system, one of the nation's biggest, carries nearly 350,000 riders daily.
Presidents of the two largest federal employee unions recently defended U.S. government's General Schedule pay system that the Bush administration attempted to eliminate, while citing the need to "modernize" 60-year old GS system that covers most 2 million federal employees. Speaking at the opening session of the "Excellence in Government" conference, both National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen M. Kelley and American Federation of Government Employees President John Gage said the GS system can be improved, although it is far better than the Pentagon's National Security Personnel System. Gage said the General Schedule "is basically a good system," but that "a new performance management program" could be incorporated into an updated pay classification arrangement. Obama administration wants to develop new performance measures to recognize superior employees in the GS system.
NLRB Rulings and Significant Court Decisions
United Steelworkers did not breach its duty of fair representation by requiring nonmembers covered by a union security clause to annually renew during a 30-day window their objection to paying agency fees for nonrepresentational expenses, Administrative Law Judge John H. West ruled Aug. 6. West recommended the NLRB dismiss complaint against USW filed on behalf of one employee of TriMas Corp., which does business as Cequent Towing Products in Goshen, Ind., and two employees of Chemtura Corp. in West Virginia. West said the union's actions in maintaining and applying the annual renewal procedure were not arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith. "The only burden is for the objector to annually renew in writing his or her objection within a 30-day period which is linked to his or her hire date," West said. Workers were represented by the anti-union National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation in Springfield, Va.
John Sweeney: Labor "Warrior-At-Large"
By John J. Sweeney, President, AFL-CIO
(Editor's Note: AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, a member of the AIL/NILICO Labor Advisory Board, retires at the federation's convention in mid-September. We asked John his thoughts on labor and what changes he sees in the future. This column is an AIL/NILICO Labor Letter exclusive.)
Whenever I'm asked about my "retirement," my reply is that you don't retire from your life. I'm stepping down as president of the AFL-CIO, but I'm stepping up into a new role as a labor warrior-at-large.
And you can bet that I will continue what I've been doing for the past 50 years, speaking up for and fighting for the working people of our wonderful country.
I didn't come into the House of Labor by the back door. Some of my earliest memories are of going to union meetings with my dad. He was a New York City bus driver and a member of TWU Local 100.
Over the last decade, when youngsters said they wanted to "be like Mike," they meant Michael Jordan; for me, it meant being like Mike Quill, the president of Local 100, who preached the value of solidarity and the folly of going it alone.
I got my first chance at union leadership when I helped lead the caddies at a local golf club where we went on strike for higher pay (at the bottom of the course's biggest hill) - we won a 75 cents per bag raise!
Since those days, it has been my privilege to serve working families and the labor movement in just about every capacity imaginable. I was a contract director for one of the biggest local labor unions in America, then a business agent, a vice president, a secretary-treasurer, and then president.
Our members were janitors, cleaners, doormen and elevator operators in the office and residential buildings in New York City. I helped them negotiate contracts, handled grievances and led three citywide strikes.
We didn't always win, but we stood up together and even when we lost, we made our employers pay a price they wouldn't forget. In all those early years, I had no idea how much was in store for me.
That I'd be elected president of my international union, the Service Employees, and help it nearly double its membership from 625,000 to 1.1 million.
Or that I'd be elected president of the AFL-CIO, simultaneously the highest-ranking and most humbling position a representative of working families can ever hope to reach.
For the past 14 years, it has given me a chance to visit hundreds of cities and towns across America and listen to the people who make our country work.
What have they taught me?
I've learned more about the goodness and the dreams of the women and men who do the work of our country.
And I've learned even more what Mike Quill believed, that when working people stick together, and stand together, we can win real change together.
I think we all have a right to be proud of what we've done by working together over the past 14 years - increasing the minimum wage, changing the debate over globalization, building the most powerful political and legislative program in the history of labor, helping elect the first African-American president in the history of our country.
But I'm equally proud of how we've changed the way we do things as a movement.
We're doing politics far differently. Instead of handing out checks to politicians and waiting for them to deliver, we demonstrate the strength of our vote and demand they deliver.
Instead of just pressing our working families agenda from the top down in Washington and state capitals, we've strengthened our movement at the state and local levels and we have hundreds of thousands grassroots union activists keeping the heat on from the bottom up.
We tapped the power of millions of working families who do not have a union on the job by launching Working America, our community affiliate that now has 3 million members.
We amplified the voices of working people by joining in an historic new partnership with the NEA, with the support of AFT.
We joined hands with workers - notably immigrant workers - organizing themselves through another set of historic new partnerships with worker centers. And we threw open the doors to the house of labor with a broad invitation to join our struggle - to young people, students, academics, the faith community, environmentalists, the civil rights community, the women's movement and more.
Now we're making sure those doors stay open by bringing more women and people of color into our leadership and providing aggressive education and training programs to help them - and other new leaders - acquire the skills they need to succeed.
It's hard work, and for every achievement, we have an equally long list of unfinished business - especially as we continue to pull out of our nation's economic maelstrom.
That's why I'm so excited by the activism and leadership I see across our movement today.
As the AFL-CIO heads to Pittsburgh for our convention in September, we are on the march and closer than ever to three of our most treasured goals: providing high quality, affordable health care for every family in America; reforming our economy to make it work for everyone; and restoring the freedom of workers to join unions and bargain for a better life without having to risk their jobs to do it.
We are also crossing into a new era for unions and our members. We are entering a time when I believe workers will begin to receive a fair share of the wealth we create, corporations and CEOs will finally be forced to put people before profits.
People will be judged not by the color of their skin, the accident of their birth, or their choice of a partner, but by the depth of their character and their contribution to the greater good.
I'll still be out front helping make it happen, and I hope I can count on you being right beside me.
AIL Supports Children’s National Medical Center/Dr. Bear’s Closet
At a recent meeting Roger Smith, President and CEO of AIL and Jules Pagano, Executive Director of AIL Labor Advisory Board learned about AIL Labor Advisory Board member Paul Almeida’s (President of the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO) work at Children’s National Medical Center as a patient care volunteer.
Patient care volunteers are specially trained to provide companionship and play activities for children and teenagers who are hospitalized on in-patient units. Volunteers visit and interact with patients in unit playrooms, at bedside, and in isolation rooms.
Volunteers offer a choice of recreational activities to patients or may spend time with infants and newborns that need some tender loving care.
Almeida is an evening and weekend volunteer who works with patients in the hematology and oncology units. Almeida recently began training to be part of the team that provides pre-surgical tours to patients who will be receiving surgery in the hospital.
During the meeting Roger Smith asked Almeida if AIL could help. Almeida told Roger and Jules about the Dr. Bear’s Closet program which provides donated toys, games, books and other items that help boost the spirits of patients of all ages.
A well-stocked Dr. Bear’s Closet ensures that every patient has a gift for holidays, birthdays and most importantly, a little something to serve as a reward for their courage in fighting an illness.
With the economy down, the donations have been down as well however, there is no shortage of sick children in need. Smith told Almeida the he knew how to help.
AIL VP Jules Pagano (left) presents donation to Children’s National Hospital on behalf of DEP Pres. Paul Almeida (right) who is a long-time patient care volunteer at the nationally renowned facility. Almeida praised the Children’s Volunteer Services Department which is run by an outstanding staff of dedicated individuals who fully understand the unique role that they play in the recovery of sick children.
If you would like to make a donation to this program checks should be made to Children’s National Medical Center/Dr. Bears Closet and sent to Volunteer Services Office Rm 1180, CNMC, 111 Michigan Ave NW, Washington, DC 20010-2970.
When the Good Pensions Go Away
Tom Mackell's book brings one stop shopping for the American worker to understand the jeopardy of their place in the wealth structure of America today and how each of them got rolled there.
In a book that should be required reading by every worker, from those raking leaves or pushing a broom up through even low to middle management, Mackell explains the history of how workers have been manipulated and looted by those at the top who could; while those who should have been watch dogs looked the other way or took advantage.
This book is also very much about an assault on the dignity of workers in the United States. Men and women who have worked the American dream and find themselves at the end with too little in retirement of both pension money and health insurance to get by may turn out to be the greater part of us. I do not think even Tom, while writing this book, expected the results of history to hit home as quickly as it did in the fall of 2008 when Wall Street imploded.
His book could not be timelier. Everyone who works needs to understand what is in this book if for no other reason than to protect their 401K investments not to mention protect themselves for the future.
Written in laymen's terms that bluntly explain what we as workers know and do not know; we are educated as to what now may be required of us and our leaders in order to improve our future. Tom Mackell provides in his book a call to action. This is an opening salvo to a discussion that needs to be informed by workers new into the work force all the way to men and women who are already retirees. (Well, maybe not retirees now, so much as legacies?) Each of us who plan to grow old in this 21st century need to work to assure ourselves that we can do so with dignity, and I believe Tom Mackell's call to action is a strong first step in that direction.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. Further, I think it should be required reading for high school seniors whether college bound or entering straight into the Labor Market.
Hugh Walsh
Remarks by Richard L. Trumka, Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO
SMWIA General Convention, Las Vegas, Nevada August 10, 2009
When I first started thinking over what I wanted to talk about today my first instinct was to go over the elections last year and talk a bit about all the incredible work you did not only to elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden but to give Congress the biggest progressive majority it's had in a generation.
I'm convinced that, years from now, when historians look at the 2008 elections, they're going to say that what made that victory happen wasn't websites or e-mail or TV ads. No: They're going to say it was because this union, and the entire labor movement, decided it was time to do whatever it takes to win. But as proud as we all are of what we did in the elections, I didn't come here to talk about where we've been.
I think we need to consider where we want to go.
Sure, it was an incredible victory, but we can't let it become a record to think of it as an achievement to build on.
Because what matters isn't the battle we won last year; it's whether we're going to take advantage of this moment and build the labor movement we need to create the America we want the America every worker deserves. An America where every job is a portal into the middle-class. An America where no man or woman ever retires into poverty.
An America where the kind of health insurance you have doesn't dictate the quality of health care you receive.
That's the America we want for our children and ourselves, but there's only one way we're ever going to get it:
It's not by pleading for it.
It's not by begging for it.
Brothers and sisters, it's not even by voting for it.
It's by educating!
It's by agitating!
It's by mobilizing!
It's by organizing!
It's by building a growing, fighting, winning American labor movement.
And we don't have a moment to spare!
Not one moment.
Because the simple truth is that working people in America today aren't being squeezed we are being crushed!
Today, there are nearly six times as many people looking for jobs as there are jobs to fill.
But, if you're a trade unionist you don't need to hear statistics. If you're in the labor movement, you're on the front lines and you see the pain and the fear and the suffering and the chaos every single day: It's the welder who worked at a shipyard for 15 years he lost his job and now he's using Visa cards to pay his mortgage. It's a young woman an apprentice she learned everything from blueprint reading to drafting to codes to T.A.B. (testing and air balancing). She was getting ready to buy a house, but now that's all in the past she can't even find a temp job.
It was Trevor Johnson.
Trevor was an out of work Hvac installer in Denver. But, last fall, he met a man named Lloyd, another installer whose pastor who owned a small heating and air conditioning company. Lloyd and the pastor wanted to help Trevor out. They knew these were awfully hard times for him. According to Lloyd, when the two once went to grab lunch at a Wendy's, Trevor was so broke that he couldn't even afford the price of a hamburger. Trevor was able to pick up a few small jobs just before Christmas, but things never really turned around for him. Lloyd lost touch with Trevor. The last time they spoke was in January. Then, last April, he got a call from a man named Shawn, a friend of Trevor's. The two of them had done some work for Shawn last November.
He was having a problem with the furnace we installed, Lloyd recalled.
After chatting for a bit I asked how Trevor he was doing. I'd recently tried to call Trevor, but wasn't able to reach him because his phone was disconnected. Shawn sighed for a second and told me Trevor had committed suicide a few weeks earlier.
Brothers and sisters, American workers have been beaten, and cheated and lied to.
We're losing our health care, we're losing our pensions, we're losing our jobs, and, for workers like Trevor Johnson, even the will to go on.
Well, I want to tell you something:
It wasn't the Sheet Metal Workers or any other union that was calling the shots at Bear- Stearns, and Lehman Brothers, and AIG and I can tell you for a fact that Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson never picked up the phone to ask me or Mike for our advice. But, I'm here to tell you that even though it wasn't organized labor that got us into this mess; we are the people who can lead America out of it!
But we can only do it if we seize this moment we can only do it if we act now we can only do it if we provide the leadership working people are demanding! Well, today I'm telling you that we will seize this moment! We will act and we will lead!
Brothers and sisters, organized labor can turn this country around and together we will!
That's the kind of trade unionism I believe in I know that's the kind of Mike believes in and I think it's the kind you believe in, too!
What kind of labor movement is it going to take to win?
A labor movement that isn't timid about getting out front and making the case that higher wages don't hold back the economy; higher wages are the only thing that can move it forward! A labor movement that stands up and tells the truth: that while business and government can create jobs, it takes a strong union to turn them into middle-class careers.
But it doesn't stop there.
We need a labor movement that's not afraid to use new strategies.
A labor movement that understands that tradition should always have a vote, but it must never have a veto; and that nostalgia for the past is no strategy for the future!
We need a unionism movement that makes sense to young people who are going to graduate from high school and college and go to work in a low-wage economy where temp jobs and freelance work are becoming more the rule than the exception.
An economy where decent health insurance is rare.
And good pensions Hell, they're almost unheard of!
The labor movement can't ask the next generation of workers to change how they earn their living to fit our model of collective bargaining.
No! We have to change our approach to better meet their needs.
That's the kind of labor movement we need to become!
A movement that doesn't only win strong labor laws, but that knows how to take advantage of them once we do.
We've been working hard to win the Employee Free Choice Act and I think we will.
But that's not enough: we need to have a strike force of 1,000 professional organizers whose only goal is to see to it that every worker who wants a union contract gets a union contract! Now, lately I've been talking a lot about this need to become more aggressive and more effective. And I know there are some employers who've been hearing about that and wondering what it all means for them.
A few weeks ago I read that someone at the Chamber of Commerce said they were concerned about our demonizing big business. That's the word they use: demonizing. Well, brothers and sisters, I think we ought to make an offer to outfits like the Chamber of Commerce and the A.B.C.: We'll stop demonizing you just as soon as you stop behaving like demons! They need to understand that we'll join forces with any company public sector or private sector who respects us as an equal partner and understands that their workforce is an asset, not an expense. But, at the same time, we will never surrender to CEOs and scab contractors who think they have the right to earn a good living, but their frontline workers don't.
Brothers and sisters, we only have one message for those companies when you push us, we will push back!
And we have a message to elected officials, too.
From the courthouse, to the statehouse, to the White House.
To those who believe in privatization and trashing everything from Davis-Bacon and Pals to OSHA and the right to organize. I'm talking about those dues-paying members of the right-wing hate machine. We need to be clear that if they thought we were a pain in their ass before, they ain't seen nothing yet!
But, to our friends. To leaders at every level of government who aren't afraid to stand up for workers. We want them to know that so long as you stand with working people the American labor movement will always, always, stand with you! And then there's that other group: those fair weather friends who can't seem to decide which side they're on. I'm talking about politicians who love to have our help come election time, but, always seem to forget us after the votes are counted.
You know who I mean. They've been in the news a lot lately.
They're the ones who say that they're all for health care reform so long as it doesn't offend the insurance industry and the drug companies.
They're the same people who're saying that the way to pay for it isn't to tax the rich; it's to tax our health care benefits!
They're the ones who lack the guts to tell the truth: that the only way we're ever going to get a handle on the health care crisis is by creating a public system that puts people before profits! Well, we need to send them a special message: it's that you may have forgotten what the labor movement did to get you elected; but, by God, we never will! And if you stab us in the back on health care this year don't you dare ask us for our support next year! And, since I'm here and talking about messages the labor movement ought to be sending, I think there's one that those of us in the AFL-CIO ought to be sending to our sisters and brothers in other unions.
Both those who had been part of the AFL-CIO, and those who never were. It's that we need to come together. You know, when corporate America looks at us they don't care which unions we come from; the only thing they see is a threat the labor movement. Well, brothers and sisters, if corporate America can look at us and see only one movement we sure as hell ought to be able to do the same!
We need those unions to affiliate because, if they don't, this moment this incredible opportunity to rebuild the labor movement will slip like through our fingers like sand. Together, we can build a stronger AFL-CIO and a labor movement that's united in purpose, not only in name.
But, brothers and sisters, I also have to tell you that we can't build a stronger labor movement when unions prey on each other.
Do I want the SEIU to rejoin the AFL-CIO You bet I do but only after Andy Stern stops raiding other unions!
Now, I told Mike that I've always been a big believer in the notion that speeches ought to end the same day they begin.
And I know you have a lot of business to conduct and I don't want to keep you from it. But a couple of weeks ago I was reading a magazine article it was about Bobby Kennedy. Like a lot of you here, I'm old enough to remember when Bobby Kennedy ran for president. It was around the time I first went into the mines. Well, as I was reading this article I remember how he would always say: Some men see things as they are and ask why, I dream things that never were and ask why not?
That's who we are. We're people who dream. We dream of people working at jobs where they're treated with respect and paid what they've truly earned. Jobs people look forward to going to every morning -- not the kind they can't wait to leave every night. We dream of working parents being able to look into their children's eyes and tell them that the money's going to be there for them to go to college, or learn a trade, and that they'll be able to raise their kids in a better America than the one they grew up in. And we dream of a nation where it doesn't matter what your color is or what sex or religion you are... or what country your family's from because, in America, everyone ought to have a seat at the table.
That's our dream ... and this is our moment to ask: Why not? Together we can make this our moment to build a movement that can turn this entire country around. And, I'm convinced, that together we will.
Together we will because we know that what binds us together is so much more important than anything that can drive us apart.
It's the knowledge that there is only one way working people ever won in the past and only one way we ever, ever will win in the future.
And it's not by laying back,
And it's not by sitting back,
And it's not by kicking back.
Brothers and sisters, it's by getting up off our rear ends and fighting back!
Joining, together.
Working, together.
Building, together.
Standing tall, and proud, and union, together!
That's what it's going to take to start winning, together!
Winning an America.
Where every man, woman and child who needs a doctor can see one!
Where every worker looking for a good job can find one!
And where every American who wants to have a union can join one!
Brothers and sisters, together, that's the America we can win and I swear to you that, together, that's the America we are going to win!
We're going to win because we're strong!
We're going to win because we're united!
We are going to win because we are the American labor movement, this is our moment, and we will not be denied!
Posted by John J. O'Grady, Treasurer, Council 238 American Federation of Government Employees
Common renovation activities like sanding, cutting, and demolition can create hazardous lead dust and chips by disturbing lead-based paint, which can be harmful to adults and children. To protect against this risk, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) issued on April 22, 2008, a rule requiring the use of lead-safe practices and other actions aimed at preventing lead poisoning.
Under the rule, beginning in April 2010, contractors performing renovation, repair and painting projects that disturb lead-based paint in homes, child care facilities, and schools built before 1978 must be certified and must follow specific work practices to prevent lead contamination. Union contractors will need to be trained and trainers will need to be certified. This may be a golden opportunity for the Chicago Labor Education Program (CLEP) to establish a training program for unions.
Renovation, Repair and Painting
Here is the link: www.epa.gov/lead/pubs/renovation.htm.
The Information for Contractors section starts at the bottom of page 3. The third paragraph of this section, beginning "Understand that after April 2010..." talks about the need for certification. Training is discussed further below.
Information for Contractors
As a contractor, you play an important role in helping to prevent lead exposure. Ordinary renovation and maintenance activities can create dust that contains lead. By following the lead-safe work practices, you can prevent lead hazards.
Contractors who perform renovation, repairs, and painting jobs in pre-1978 housing and child-occupied facilities must, before beginning work, provide owners, tenants, and child-care facilities with a copy of EPA's lead hazard information pamphlet Renovate Right: Important Lead Hazard Information for Families, Child Care Providers, and Schools (PDF) (20 pp, 3.3MB) | en español (PDF) (20 pp, 3.2MB). Contractors must document compliance with this requirement?EPA?s pre-renovation disclosure form (PDF) (1 pp, 36K) may be used for this purpose.
Understand that after April 2010, federal law will require you to be certified and to use lead-safe work practices. Read more about EPA's rules and lead-safe work practices in EPA's pamphlet Contractors: Lead Safety During Renovation (PDF) color, in English (2 pp, 826K) | color, en español (PDF) (2 pp, 334K) | HTML version | Other formats
Contractors who perform renovation, repairs, and painting jobs should also:
Take training to learn how to perform lead-safe work practices. Provide a copy of your EPA or state lead training certificate to your client.
Tell your client what lead-safe methods you will use to perform the job.
Learn the lead laws that apply to you regarding certification and lead-safe work practices beginning in April 2010.
Ask your client to share the results of any previously conducted lead tests.
Provide your client with references from at least three recent jobs involving homes built before 1978.
Keep records to demonstrate that you and your workers have been trained in lead-safe work practices and that you followed lead-safe work practices on the job. To make recordkeeping easier, you may use the sample recordkeeping checklist (PDF) (1 pg, 58K) that EPA has developed to help contractors comply with the renovation recordkeeping requirements that will take effect in April 2010. Read about how to comply with EPA's rule in the EPA Small Entity Compliance Guide to Renovate Right (PDF) (34 pp, 2.5MB) | en español (PDF) (34 pp, 1.3MB).
Read about how to use lead-safe work practices in EPA's Steps to Lead Safe Renovation, Repair and Painting (PDF) (36 pp, 878K) | en español (PDF) (36 pp, 1.5MB).
Questions?
Let me know or better yet, get in touch with Howard Zar of U.S. EPA Region 5 at zar.howard@epa.gov or (312) 886-6795. I have also copied a couple of our experts in the toxics section who are available to assist the CLEP in establishing this program.
John J. O'Grady
President, AFGE Local 704
Treasurer, AFGE Council 238
P.O. Box 1127
Chicago, IL 60690-1127
Telephone: 312.886.3575
Facsimile: 312.886.3582
E-mail: AFGE.Region5@epa.gov
Web Site: www.AFGECouncil238.org
National Consumers League’s 2009 Trumpeter Awards Dinner
Thursday, October 1 Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, 6 - 9 p.m.
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2009 Honorees
TRUMPETER AWARD
Steve Kroft
Correspondent, 60 Minutes
Hilda Solis
United States Secretary of Labor
FLORENCE KELLEY CONSUMER LEADERSHIP AWARD
Lynn Jimenez
Business Reporter, KGO Radio
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Please join us when the National Consumers League presents its annual Trumpeter Award to United States Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and Steve Kroft of CBS's award-winning 60 Minutes, and its coveted Florence Kelley Award to Lynn Jimenez, host of Your Money for San Francisco's KGO radio. These outstanding Americans have courageously raised their voices in support of a fairer marketplace, a safer workplace, and a more just society.
By sponsoring the Dinner, you'll be joining leaders of outstanding businesses, labor unions, and nonprofit organizations who support the League's ongoing consumer advocacy and education efforts. Contributions above the $64-per-person dinner cost are tax deductible.
For more information, please contact Larry Bostian at (202) 835-3323 or Kathy Downey at (202) 588-1857.
Click here to view the sponsorship form.
