Labor Project for Working Families wins grant

Research probes new Internet tools for organizing women

Taking inspiration from the way the Obama campaign used the Internet and social networking to organize at the grass roots level, the Labor Project for Working Families (LPWF) has won a Berger-Marks academic grant to see how those techniques might apply to organizing women.

They are launching a study of new online tools and how they’re now being used by women and organizers, both within and outside the labor movement. The study is also looking into whether the labor movement would appeal more to women workers, especially younger women, if it became more vocal on work-family issues, directed such issues into campaigns to boost pro-union sentiment among women, and used on-line networks to link up with groups organizing women around work-family issues.

LPWF is also investigating union interest in family initiatives launched by the White House and First Lady. It will be guided by advisory committee of younger women "well versed in new online tools and technology."

The report will be posted online and made available to groups that participate in the research.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski signs the law, flanked by union leaders and legislators who fought for it

 

Oregon workers can escape captive meetings

New law takes hold in January

Oregon’s governor signed into law on June 30 a ground-breaking bill that bars businesses from making workers sit through company meetings about religion or politics — including union organizing. Only churches and political parties can require attendance.

Governor Ted Kulongoski jumped the gun a little, since the official signing didn’t happen until July 23, when Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain and AFSCME representative Ralph Groener joined him.

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Pope stresses ‘importance’ of unions for protecting workers

Calls for unions to reach out to consumers and workers world-wide

In his latest encyclical, Pope Benedict XVI vigorously confirms the church’s strong support for union organizing, and calls on labor unions to look beyond their membership when protecting the rights of workers.

"The repeated calls issued within the Church’s social doctrine. . . for the promotion of workers’ associations that can defend their rights must therefore be honored today even more than in the past," the Pope concluded, "as a prompt and far-sighted response to the urgent need for new forms of cooperation at the international level, as well as the local level."

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20,000 University of Wisconsin Faculty Gain Bargaining Rights

On June 29, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle signed a historic budget that gives collective bargaining rights to more than 20,000 University of Wisconsin (UW) workers.

That simple act capped a 40-year struggle by faculty members to gain union rights . The new law covers 6,600 full-time, tenured and tenure-track faculty and 13,100 academic staff, which includes part-time and full-time lecturers, adjuncts, advisers, IT technicians and others. Another provision gives 3,200 research assistants the right to determine whether they want representation through the state’s first majority sign-up process.

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Western Michigan University instructors go union

Taken from AFL-CIO blog by James Parks

Instructors demonstrated their need for a union in 2007

After many Western Michigan’s instructors had gone 12 years without a raise, they took matters into their own hands and voted to join the Professional Instructors Organization (PIO) on June 29. PIO is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers.

"We look forward to working with the administration to improve communication, faculty recognition and long-term planning for the university’s mission in ways that will benefit students and the university community as a whole," explained School of Music instructor Karl Schrock.

Over the past two years, new unions representing contingent faculty and graduate employees have also been won at Michigan State University, Central Michigan University, Henry Ford Community College and Wayne State University, all affiliated with AFT Michigan.

 

Do unions make a difference for families?

Yes! New study shows how

Does a union make a job more family-friendly? Is it easier to synch a union job with family responsibilities and reach a healthy balance between work life and home life? In July, the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and the Labor Project for Working Families published their answer to those critical questions, based on a study that compares union and nonunion workplaces.

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In health care

Catholic Bishops agree to principles for union organizing

Taken from PAI article by Mark Gruenberg

Unions have won a commitment from the nation’s Catholic bishops to respect health care workers’ right to unionize at more than 600 U.S. Catholic hospitals, nursing homes and other health care facilities.

The bishops agreed to principles, unveiled June 22 by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney and SEIU 1199 President Dennis Rivera, that stress mutual respect and bar both sides from using threats, harassment, intimidation or coercion. The Cardinal said the workers could choose to unionize by an NLRB-run election or another method. Workers will get "equal access to information" from both union and management, and "a pressure-free environment," the Cardinal explained.

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Global union hails victory for denim workers in Bangladesh

Steelworkers played key role

Workers Uniting, the world’s first global union, just helped women workers score a major victory in far-away Bangladesh. Workers Uniting grew out of a partnership between Unite, the biggest union in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, and the United Steelworkers in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.

"For years young women at the R.L. Denim factory [in Bangladesh] were trapped under prison-like conditions, forced to work seven days a week, beaten, denied maternity leave and paid as little as 11 cents an hour," explained the union. But in late June, Metro Group – the third-largest retailer worldwide – agreed to drastically improve the treatment of the workers at the Denim factory, and reversed plans to take work from the plant.

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Smithfield's N.C. workers ratify first-ever union contract

The 17-year battle to unionize the Smithfield Foods Packing Co. pork plant in Tar Heel, N.C. finally met with resounding success, as workers voted yes to the four-year contract won in July after five months of negotiation. This is the first union contract for the approximately 4,600 workers at the plant.

In December 2008, by a vote of 2,041 to 1,879, workers at the massive hog plant defied years of company intimidation and voted to unionize with the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1208.

Tar Heel workers had tried and failed twice to organize since the plant opened in 1992. Smithfield had used illegal union-busting tactics to interfere with both union votes -- including firings, worker surveillance, deportation threats, sexual harassment, intimidation and violence. Most of the workers are black and Latino.

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Union nurse honored as NOW Woman of Action

Donna Smith, a community organizer and representative for the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), was chosen by the National Organization for Women’s (NOW) as their 2009 Woman of Action.

Smith was featured in Michael Moore’s 2007 movie, "SICKO" as a victim of our health care system. Despite having health insurance and benefits, Donna and her husband were forced out of their home and financially ruined by staggering health care costs. In one scene of the movie, Michael Moore takes Donna to Cuba to get treatment that their insurance wouldn’t pay for.

Smith later took her story and those of other victims of the broken health care system around the country to rallies, teach-ins, seminars and demonstrations. She is a founder of the health care advocacy group American Patients United.

Smith "epitomizes how to best confront the injustices in this world," said NOW President Kim Gandy.

Charter schools keep on organizing

Teachers are winning union recognition at more charter schools, including the Boston Conservatory Lab School, a school in Brooklyn that is part of the Knowledge Is Power Program, an Afro-centric school in Philadelphia, four campuses in the Accelerated School network in Los Angeles, and a Montessori school in Oregon. Moves toward unionizing have revealed greater teacher unrest than was previously known.

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Obama makes 3 picks to NLRB

Will bring board to full strength

Taken from a PAI article

Wilma Liebman will chair the full board

Labor justice was such a low priority under the Bush Administration that some positions for the National Labor Relations Board have been vacant since 2007. President Obama has now picked three people for the Board, and sent their names to Congress. When they’re approved, the board will finally be up to full strength.

The president nominated union attorney Craig Becker and pro-worker upstate New York attorney Mark Pearce.

By law the president had to pick a Republican, because the board must be split 3-2 between the parties. His choice for the Republican post is Brian Hayes, a long-time labor lawyer working on the management side, who was chief labor counsel for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee’s Republican minority.

Since three members’ terms expired, the remaining NLRB members, chair-designate Wilma Liebman, a Democrat, and Republican Peter Schaumber, plowed through more than 300 cases. Each was decided 2-0 with a third "phantom" member not voting, to make a quorum. But a federal appellate judge in D.C. earlier this year ruled that whole procedure illegal. The board lacks a real quorum, he said.

Women’s summer schools for August, ‘09

United Association for Labor Education logo

http://uale.org/

The Northeast Women's School is taking place August 2-7 at SUNY in Stonybrook, NY. Coordinators are Kitty Krupat (phone: 212-827-0200) and Debra Bergen (phone: 212-354-1275).

The Western Regional Summer Institute for Union Women takes place August 11 - 15, at UCLA DeNeve Plaza. Coordinator: Lanita Morris. Visit their website.

The Midwest School for Working Women is being held on the Bloomington campus, Indiana University on August 16-19, 2009. Coordinator: Marquita Walker

The Southern School for Union Women takes place at the Scarrit Bennett Center in Nashville, Tennessee, August 27- 30. Coordinator is Catherine Sutton, Middle Tennessee State University.

Union lawyers tapped to oversee Fed workers’ rights

Julia Clark to be General Counsel

Taken from PAI information

Federal workers are finally getting people who believe in their union rights to serve in the agency that they turn to when those rights are violated.

President Obama tapped Julia Clark, general counsel for the Professional and Technical Engineers, as general counsel for the Federal Labor Relations Authority. FLRA oversees labor-management relations between the federal government and its workers and unions. The White House praised her 20 years of experience practicing "law on behalf of unions and workers."

Ernie DuBester, who was a legislative lawyer for the AFL-CIO for 11 years before chairing the National Mediation Board during the Clinton administration, was also nominated June 4 to the FLRA.
"I am grateful these fine public servants have chosen to join my administration in fighting for working families and putting America on a path to prosperity," Obama commented.

Workers in N.J. get paid for family leave

New Jersey is now the second state in the nation (after California) where workers are guaranteed they can get paid take time off to care for a sick family member or bond with a newborn or newly adopted child. Since January, New Jersey workers have been contributing through payroll deductions to a paid-leave fund. Most workers can take up to six weeks of time off a year and still get about two-thirds of their pay, up to about $540 a week.

For more information, visit NJ Time to Care.

Wal-Mart workers who spoke June 4 at rally in St. Paul

Workday Minnesota

 

Wal-Mart threatened to fire workers who signed union cards

Say charges filed by UFCW union

Taken from reports on Minnesota Public Radio, Workday Minnesota and PAI

As Wal-Mart workers in St. Paul Minnesota got a union campaign underway, the huge retailer sent a team of corporate hatchet-men to St. Paul to do something about it. And what they did is blatantly illegal, says UFCW Local 789.

In June, according to charges the union filed with the NLRB, Wal-Mart warned workers that they could easily get a list of those who signed union cards and "that union supporters would not continue to be employed by Wal-Mart."

The UFCW accuses assistant store managers of asking workers if they had signed union cards and says the managers "interrogated" workers about their union support.

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Among countries with per-person income similar to ours, the United States is rock-bottom in granting maternity leave

Source: OECD Family Database, international Social Security Database. Chart adapted from The State of Working America 2008/2009

 

New run-down of state policies shows

Why U.S. family leave doesn’t go far enough

A run-down of state policies on family leave is available from Sloan Work and Family Research Network. Called "Paid Family Leave: One Solution to Helping Today's Working Families Meet Their Family Responsibilities at Critical Times.", the brief shows why the federal Family and Medical Leave Act doesn’t go far enough to meet most families’ needs. For example:

• The federal law doesn’t cover 45% of the workforce -- leaving millions of workers , many of whom are already underpaid and/or new mothers, without the right to time off. If you work for a company with less than 50 employees, haven’t been with the company for a year, or work part-time, you’re out of luck.
  
• The FMLA grants only unpaid leaves. So it’s no wonder that more than three out of four workers who qualify for FMLA leave didn’t take it; most couldn’t afford to do without a paycheck.
  
• Yet it’s critically important that new mothers get time off work. Newborn babies whose mothers are home for at least 12 weeks are more likely to get regular medical checkups and needed immunization shots, and to be breastfed. Working mothers who delay going back to work after giving birth are less likely to get depressed.

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Through the Labyrinth:

The Truth about How Women Become Leaders

Taken from review by Diana Philip

Is the "glass ceiling" the best way to describe the barriers women need to surmount today when they try to take on leadership roles? Not really, says this book by psychologists Alice H. Eagly and Linda L. Carli. The labyrinth is a better image to capture the complexity of the challenges women face in an era where discrimination often isn’t obvious.

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Yeah, it’s that bad

Huge job losses, short weeks, wage cuts

PAI chart based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data

How badly are workers getting battered by the recession? Here are grisly details from a New York Times article published July 27:

• The unemployment rate has not only doubled in the past 18 months, but as it hit 9.5 percent, unemployment skyrocketed way beyond what would be expected from the cuts in output and production.
  
• Employers aren’t just laying off excess workers, they’re " cutting into the bone" – an ominous sign that they don’t expect business to pick up.
  
• Nine million part-time workers want to work full-time.
  
• The workweek has shrunk to 33 hours — the shortest ever recorded.
  
• Only 59.5 percent of adults are working – a steep slide from the 64% who held jobs before George Bush took office. Not all of the dropouts are retirees.
  
• In sharp contrast with the 1980 recession, when the unemployed left town in droves to look for work, today’s jobless are staying put. Mobility is at an all-time recorded low, maybe because "people with underwater mortgages cannot afford to move," or because the areas they might move to are devastated by foreclosures.
  
• Now employers are also freezing or cutting paychecks. In June, overall wage growth was zero.

In July, the AFL-CIO Executive Council urgently appealed for a second round of economic recovery action.

Indianapolis hotel workers fight to break non-union grip

Taken from article on nuvo.net posted by Sarah Layden

President Obama strongly backed the union drive when he spoke at the Westin hotel

Jessie Ham is a bartender at The Eagle's Nest restaurant at the Hyatt in downtown Indianapolis – one of three hotels where workers are now determined to organize. All of Indianapolis’ hotels are non-union. Ham originally applied for a full-time operator position at the Hyatt, but was told she'd make more money as a cocktail waitress. Her hours were cut to part-time "almost right away," she said.

When the UNITE-HERE union approached Ham, she didn’t know much about unions, but after seeing the higher standards at unionized Chicago hotels, she became a believer.

Since then she's been active in speaking up for workers' rights, and starred in several videos making the YouTube rounds. In one, she tearfully describes hearing lewd comments from supervisors, comments about her clothes and her body, and assumptions that she received a tip because of her clothing or appearance. Her manager saw the videos and mentioned them to her.

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Making green jobs good jobs

Covanta case shows how hard that can be

Taken from AFL-CIO blog by James Parks

The National Labor Relations Board at the end of June issued a comprehensive complaint charging Covanta Energy Corp. and all of its U.S. subsidiaries with violating federal labor law.

More than 130 workers at Covanta’s Southeastern Massachusetts (SEMASS) facility in West Wareham, Mass. voted to join Utility Workers (UWUA) Local 369 in May 2008. The facility converts solid waste into energy by shredding and burning the trash. The workers have been trying to negotiate a first contract for more than a year.

The Covanta dispute not only points out the need for stronger laws, but also highlights the need to make sure that the new waves of green jobs are good jobs. Green jobs, like those at the SEMASS facility, can help rebuild our standard of living only if workers are truly free to unionize and bargain for better pay and conditions.

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Crisis hits workers caring for family members

Taken from article in Labor Family News newsletter of the Labor Project for Working Families

As many as 44 million people (in one out of every five households) find themselves caring for an adult/elderly relative or friend in the United States. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) estimates that this care is worth $375 billion in annual economic value to the nation, but it’s all unpaid.

More than half of family caregivers spend on average more than 10 percent of their household income ($5,531 per year) on out-of-pocket costs of caring for an adult/elderly relative, spouse, disabled sibling or friend, revealed a 2007 report from Evercare and the National Alliance for Caregiving. Their latest report, released this year, shows the added stress the recession is putting on caregivers. Half of those surveyed said they’re finding it hard to take time away from work to care for their relative or friend.

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