Union women earn better wages & benefits

Gap with non-union greater than for men

Taken in part from WINS labor radio report

Women workers in unions earn an average 11.2 percent more than non-union women, says a report released in December. Unionized women workers are also more likely to have employer-paid health insurance and pensions. In low-wage occupations, unionized women are 26 percent more likely to get health insurance from their employers and 23 percent more likely to have a pension plan than non-union workers in similar jobs. That’s the latest from a Center on Economic and Policy Research.

"For women, joining a union makes as much sense as going to college," said John Schmitt, a senior economist at CEPR and the author of the study. "Joining a union raises a woman's wage as much as a full-year of college, and a union raises the chances a woman has health insurance by more than earning a four-year college degree."

Unions make an even bigger difference for women than for men says the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The typical unionized woman worker earned $809 last year, 86% of what a typical union man was paid. Non-union women earned $615 a week, just 80% of what non-union men got.
See the report.

First bill President Obama signed is for you!

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is now the law

Lilly Ledbetter being cheered on by supporters

Photo by Mark Gruenberg of TNG/CWA Local 32035 for PAI

On Jan. 29 President Obama signed a bill to restore to workers their right to sue an employer over illegal pay discrimination.

The U.S. Supreme Court crippled that right in 2007 when it told a Goodyear supervisor, Lilly Ledbetter, that she couldn’t sue over decades of being paid less than male supervisors, because she only found out about the pay differences toward the end of her career. The Court majority, all of them appointed by Republican presidents, overturned a jury award to Ledbetter. They claimed she lost her right to sue 180 days after the discrimination began, when she still had no idea she was being paid less, even though she continued to be paid less with every paycheck.

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Union membership rates by state, 2008

Graphic courtesy the BLS from PAI Chart Service

 

More workers belong to unions

Taken in part from PAI information

Union membership grew by 428,000 workers in 2008, pushing total union gains among the nation’s workers over the last two years to almost three-quarters of a million, the Labor Department reported.

Now 12.4% of all workers are union, compared to 12% in 2006. But don’t pop the champagne corks yet -- we’ve got a long way to go to catch up with earlier decades. Union membership peaked in the 1950s, way before union-busting consultants became a lucrative industry. More recently, in 1983, one in five workers (20%) belonged to a union. And our movement is graying. Only 5% of workers under 25 years old belong to unions.

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We’re on Facebook!

Become a fan of organizing women

Some of our Facebook fans

You now have a new way to network with women, organizers and other folks who want to help women organize. The Berger-Marks Foundation now has a Facebook page that you can join and participate in.

We urge you to become a "fan" of this page, so you can network with people whose union values you appreciate, keep up with what’s happening with women, jobs, and union organizing, and share your concerns, ideas and experiences. We’ll be posting a message there every time we have new grant news or have posted timely news updates on women, jobs, unions and organizing on the Berger-Marks web site.

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Union wins with private employers in education & health

KIPP charter schools go union in New York

The union also helps run this charter high school in the Bronx

The UFT teachers union announced a breakthrough in January, when a strong majority of teachers at the AMP charter school, run by the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), signed authorization cards saying they were unionizing. KIPP operates 66 schools in 19 states. Teachers at another New York KIPP charter school had already shown majority support for unionizing (and its Bronx charter school already had a union, carried over from when it was a public school).

The teachers at the two middle schools said they went union to get a stronger voice on the job and a fair discipline and evaluation system, and because the demands on them were too rigorous. They were making $10,000 more a year than teachers in the city’s traditional schools, but they had to work much longer hours, including two Saturdays a month. Many were getting burned out, and teachers feared that high turnover was hurting students.

"For us, unionization is ultimately all about student achievement and the ability of teachers to best serve students at this crucial middle school time," AMP teacher Emily Fernandez explained. The superintendent of the New York KIPP schools, KIPP founder David Levin, pledged to cooperate with union.

"We have often said that the charter school movement and unionization are things that can easily be harmonized," said Randi Weingarten, president of the UFT union. She urged KIPP to immediately recognize the union and begin bargaining for improvements.

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Testifying about sexual harassment is protected by law

Says unanimous Supreme Court

The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 on Jan. 27 that witnesses who speak out about sexual harassment on the job are protected under the law. The case involved Vicky Crawford, who worked for the Nashville school district for 30 years. When the city ‘s human resources investigator questioned Crawford during a probe into sexual harassment complaints by a female co-worker, she said that she too had been harassed by the male supervisor.

When the investigation ended, Crawford was fired along with two other women who testified about having been sexually harassed, although they hadn’t filed a complaint on their own behalf. Crawford then sued, saying she was fired in retaliation for testifying.

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Opportunities to learn, network & enjoy

Conferences & schools of interest in ‘09

Wed., Feb. 11, Washington D.C.
Thinking Big, Thinking Forward: America's Economic Future

Want to get insights into the future from Princeton economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman? Or Bob Kuttner? Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers is also a panelist at this star-studded conference of progressive voices.

This free event ponders the "New Deal Moment" that might help us "revitalize our infrastructure, create the clean energy economy, invest in people to build a "High-Wage America" and tackle the political resistance to real change." It’s sponsored by four labor-friendly groups, including The American Prospect and the Economic Policy Institute. Check the web site for more information & to register.

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‘My father is a despicable man… a union buster’

Son blasts powerful anti-union hired gun

You’ve run across the dirty work of Rick Berman, whether you realize it or not. "Known to his friends and enemies alike as ‘Dr. Evil,’ Berman has perfected the art of setting up non-profit ‘charitable’ groups to advance corporate interests," says the Center for Media and Democracy. His front groups have cozy names like the "Center for Consumer Freedom" (for fast food, smoking and alcohol) and Teachers Union Facts, (dissing tenure).

One of the most well-known is the Center for Union Facts, unionfacts.com which showers the media with misinformation about unions. Berman is also behind the Employee Freedom Action Committee, a business group trying to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act.

"My father is a despicable man.. a sort of human molester. An exploiter," Berman’s 42-year-old son David recently announced. The younger Berman quit as lead singer and songwriter for the indie rock band the "Silver Jews" when he revealed "my gravest secret… my father."

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Smithfield workers win 15-year battle

Vote union at world’s biggest meatpacking plant

In December workers in a huge plant in Tar Heel, N.C. voted 2041 to 1879 to be represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

''It feels great,'' Wanda Blue, a Smithfield hog counter, told the New York Times. ''It's like how Obama felt when he won. We made history. I favored the union because of respect," she added. "We weren't getting treated like we should.''

This wasn’t the first time they’d tried to vote union. But when they went through the standard Labor Board procedure – twice --it gave management a golden opportunity for rampant labor law-breaking during a drawn-out campaign. This time, it was different.

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CLUW joins Pearl of Wisdom campaign

And on Feb. 6, union women are wearing red

The Coalition of Labor Union Women celebrated Cervical Cancer Awareness Month in January by joining a new campaign to stamp out the second most common cancer in women around the world. Unions can be a powerful force to spread the word that this cancer is both deadly and preventable. To find out more – and get a very attractive goldtone pin showing you care – check out The Pearl of Wisdom Campaign to Prevent Cervical Cancer website which was officially launched on January 14.

The keys to eliminating this cancer, which we now know is caused by a virus, , says CLUW executive vice president Jean Hervey, are "effective screening and immunization programs." Hervey herself was diagnosed with the cervical disease – and effectively treated – after being screened with Pap and HPV tests.

In February the union coalition celebrates National Heart Month by urging women to wear red on February 6.

Union leaders welcome

New Labor Board Chair Wilma Liebman

"Democracy in the workplace is still basic to a democratic society, and collective bargaining is still basic to a fair economy." Those are the words of Wilma Liebman, the woman President Obama tapped to chair the NLRB ( National Labor Relations Board). Liebman believes the labor law she will administer "is the foundation of America’s commitment to human rights recognized around the world."

"What a refreshing change it will be to have a labor board that aims to safeguard rather than blockade workers’ rights," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said on hearing the news.

Liebman worked nine years with the Teamsters union, and in her eight years on the Board, she challenged the decisions of the majority that crippled legal protections for workers, while carving out new privileges for employers. It got so bad that unionists took to the streets in 2007 to protest a"September massacre" of 61 decisions.

Teamsters President James Hoffa is convinced that "Wilma understands the obstacles that American workers must surmount to join a union. She will bring her sense of fairness and decency to the job." But she'll still need a revived Board and laws to work with.

Supreme Court turns back ‘Free Riders’

Rejects ploy to avoid paying a share of national expenses

Under current law, the Maine State Employees Association, an SEIU affiliate, has to represent state worker Daniel B. Locke. Even though he refused to join the union, he’s protected by the union contract. For that protection, he pays an "agency fee" that’s lower than union dues because it doesn’t include what the courts define as "non-bargaining items" such as lobbying for laws that benefit workers.

But that wasn’t enough of a discount for Locke. He tried to get an even bigger free ride.

Locke and other agency-fee payers, with backing from business and anti-union groups, sued the state of Maine to get out of paying their share for national and international union activities like lawsuits to defend worker rights. They claimed that did not directly benefit them or the local. They had been paying $9.70 a month -- 49% of normal dues – of which $1.34 went to the national parent union.

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AFSCME invites students to learn about organizing

During Alternative union break

Alt Spring Break Class of '07

AFSCME is inviting college seniors who want to make a difference after they graduate to apply for its Alternative Union Break Program that offers five days of intensive training and organizing experience during spring breaks. Students can take classes on subjects like local labor history, visit workers in their homes, and sit in on campaign strategy sessions while being paid expenses and a small stipend. It could be a first step toward joining AFSCME’s year-long Organizer-in-Training program.

During last year’s AFSCME Alternative Winter Break in Oakland, California , students talked to over 140 child care providers and learned about AFSCME Local 3299’s efforts to organize on college campuses. They also saw presentations by Young Workers United, photojournalist David Bacon, and Patrice O'Neill, Executive Producer, The Working Group. The Union Scholars Program is jointly sponsored by the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) to help college students experience the labor movement.

Don’t stop now , say progressive leaders

Give people hope through organizing

As activists came to D.C. from around the country to witness Barack Obama’s inauguration on Jan. 20, they were invited to a special gathering on Monday, the day before the big event, on "Driving Change: The Role of Activists During the Obama Administration."

The meetings were packed with people who had helped get the new president elected and were considering what-next questions. Nan Aron of the Alliance for Justice, which sponsored the meeting, is convinced that "to make change, we have to work at the grass roots—now and from now on." She quoted FDR telling activists of his day who came to him with big ideas, "I agree with you. I want to do it. Now make me do it."

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New Curriculum for a Work-Family Educational Program

Download it for free

The Labor Project for Working Families has revised Making it Work Better: A Work Family Educational Program to help instructors, facilitators and discussion leaders educate union members and leaders about work-family issues.

The 3½-hour curriculum can be downloaded for free on the Labor Project's website. It features short modules that can be incorporated into existing union trainings or used in their entirety, with ideas on how to advance work-family issues on the job and push for progress in the community as well.


The Labor Project recommends using its publication, A Job and a Life: Organizing and Bargaining for Work Family Issues, available at a special training price of $5, as a companion guide to the curriculum. Order online or by contacting (510) 643-7088 or info@working-families.org.