The latest news
Last updated: March 10, 2012
78 groups met March 15 deadline!
For grant applications from social-justice groups
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| Interfaith Worker Justice is one of the groups that won a grant in 2011 |
By the time the Berger-Marks Foundation closed the 2012 application period for grants to social-justice groups on March 15, 86 applications had come in through this web site.
The March 15 deadline was for grant applications from organizations that are not unions but promote workers' rights and have an impact on social justice. (But grants for union groups can still be submitted.) The Foundation will decide which groups to assist with training, conferences and educational materials aimed at women, with special consideration given to programs aimed at younger women workers.
About this year's grants.
Note: Unions, union federations, and councils can apply for our second type of grant, explained next:
1500 part-time professors win union at American University
Tired of being 'the academic version of migrant labor'
The adjunct professors who make up 40 percent of the faculty at American University in Washington D.C. — but account for just 4% of the salary budget — finally said “enough is enough," as one professor put it, and voted to join SEIU Local 500. The adjuncts, who are considered part-timers no matter how many hours they work, have been making just $2,900 to $4,000 per course at a university where the average tenured professor gets paid $150,025. They are, as one observer put it, “the academic world's version of migrant labor."
Take Mark Plane, a Public Archaeologist in Residence at AU, for example. Plane is teaching three courses while also providing administrative support. For all that he takes home a total of $19,700, with no benefits.
President revives Labor Board from near-death
Appointments restore law of the land for workers' rights
Anti-Union companies were licking their chops at the prospect of a labor board that would be effectively shut down when two appointments ran out at the end of the year. And that's just what Senate Republicans had planned. The Republicans have been using filibusters and other tricks to block nearly 200 of the president's appointments, “leaving vital positions vacant and neutralizing agencies they did not like," reported the New York Times.
When one of the last three members still on the Board had to leave at the end of the year, it looked like the Board wouldn't have the quorum the Supreme Court has said it needs to function. And with that blow, the government could no longer enforce the labor laws that are supposed to protect workers' right to organize. Corporate outlaws were jubilant.
17,000 workers at the new United Airlines join Machinists union
When United Airlines merged with Continental, the fate of 17,000 passenger service and reservation workers was up in the air. Would the unionized group at United lose their union or would the Continental workers, who had no union representing them, vote to unionize together with the United workers?
The answer that came on March 7, when the ballots from a seven-week election were finally counted,
was a strong vote for unionizing with the Machinists Union (IAM): 8,305 votes for the union vs. 5,865 for no representation. The union credited “a combination of grassroots organizing, legal prowess and sophisticated communication." The company had tried to keep some 1,000 fleet service workers from being included in the election, but the National Mediation Board insisted those workers had the right to vote.
Programming opportunity with Berger-Marks site
Foundation issues Request for Proposals
We are seeking a programmer/ web interface consultant to work with the webmaster and staff to create functions for an award to be announced in April. Applicants should have expertise in MYSQL and PHP programming and in database design and management. They should also be able to design user-friendly web interfaces and have strong digital communications skills.
For more information, download the Request for Proposals.
Spotlight on grant recipient
Restaurant servers fed up with $2.13 hourly wage
Grant helps 9to5 Atlanta organize & promote 'Restaurants with a Heart'
Isn't it time for tipped restaurant workers to get paid more than the $2.13 an hour that's now the legal minimum? With support from a 2011 Berger-Marks Foundation grant, Atlanta's 9to5 Fair Eats Campaign is bringing together servers to organize for change, and their grassroots campaign is getting the message to the public.
After surveying 60 restaurants last Spring, 9to5 Atlanta pinpointed nine that not only pay more than the minimum, but also offer benefits like paid time off and health insurance. Those “restaurants with a heart" were celebrated at a September news conference as a way to pressure other eateries to do the same.
Tipped over the edge
New report reveals rough conditions for women in restaurants
The Valentine's Day release of a new report, "Tipped Over the Edge: Gender Inequality in the Nation's Restaurant Industry," has been bringing much-needed media attention to the plight of restaurant workers. Written by the Restaurant Opportunities Center with 9to5 and 11 other women's organizations, the report documents what savvy restaurant patrons may already have noticed:
- Women are two out of every three of the people who wait on tables and otherwise hold jobs that depend on tips, where they can be paid a $2.13 subminimum wage. Yet women get less than half the better restaurant jobs that are covered by the $7.25 minimum wage.
- The federal subminimum wage for tipped workers has been frozen at $2.13 since 1991. While it was once around half the regular minimum wage, it's now lost 40 percent of its value in real terms.
Under Governor's order to allow union election & launch talks
Connecticut child care workers vote for SEIU
Home care workers also get right to elect a union
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| AFL-CIO |
By a wide margin — 1603 to 88 — the Connecticut workers who care for the children of families subsidized by the state's Care4Kids program have elected CSEA/SEIU Local 2001 to represent them in talks with the Department of Social Services. They now have the right to discuss pay and benefits, as well as the quality and availability of family child care, how to cut turnover, training, and professional development. The providers had been trying to organize with the union since 2005.
Governor Dannel Malloy got the ball rolling in September when he issued an executive order calling on providers to vote for a “majority representative" to hold non-binding talks with the DSS.
A second Executive Order called for a similar vote among the personal care attendants who help seniors and people with disabilities, and created a Workforce Council with which they could hold non-binding talks. The New England Health Care Employees Union District 1199, SEIU, is now active organizing personal care attendants, or PCAs.
Spotlight on grant recipient
With grant from Berger-Marks
Vermont Workers' Center helps child-care workers organize
Reaching out to parents, fighting discrimination
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| Vermont Workers Center |
“The aid that you have offered us has been invaluable to our efforts at organizing working women," the Vermont Workers' Center told us, in describing how it used its 2011 Berger-Marks grant.
The grant helped the Center step up work with the Vermont Early Educators United campaign, a drive to help child care workers organize into the American Federation of Teachers/United Professionals Vermont (AFT/UPV). Although it's not law yet, they helped convince the Vermont House of Representatives to pass groundbreaking legislation that would respect the right of child care workers to organize. Their Day of Action at the State House included testimony showing that most child-care providers are minimum-wage workers in businesses where employee turnover is 40 percent.
Spotlight on grant recipient
Inspired by Eleanor Roosevelt, aided by Berger-Marks
Why should women join unions?
Workshop guide & materials help women find the answer
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| O'Farrell (right) at Southern School for Union Women in Florida last August |
Inspired by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's powerful support of workers, Brigid O'Farrell not only wrote the book (“She Was One of Us: Eleanor Roosevelt and the American Worker,") but she also put together a discussion guide for use in workshops for union women.
This guide is designed for a 90 minute workshop of 10 to 20 people that takes a new approach to a subject that's near and dear to union organizers. The guide and other materials — including a slide presentation — are now available online to help workshop facilitators in “using our past to change our future!" O'Farrell fine-tuned the guide through a series of workshops in union schools held last summer and fall.
Download the guide and check out related resources..
Union victories in the City of Angels
Workers for restaurants, car washes & Mad Men get unionized
Raquel Houghton is both a cocktail server and an actor, which isn't unusual in Hollywood. She works at the upscale Delphine Restaurant in the W. Hollywood Hotel. And now she has an even better job — she's a union member.
Houghton is among the 130 workers at the Delphine who just won a union drive and joined UNITE HERE Local 11. Members of the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (AFTRA) played a key role in helping the Delphine workers organize.
With new Obama rule
Home-care workers would get wage floor
Why are they exempt from minimum wage, overtime rules?
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| President Obama speaks about minimum wage/overtime protections for in-home care workers at a “We Can't Wait" event |
| whitehouse.gov |
Some two million people work at jobs where they care for elderly and disabled people in their homes. Yet those workers don't even have to be paid the federal minimum wage, and they don't get anything extra for overtime. That's not fair, says President Obama, who wants to finally include them under wage and hour law with a new rule that's strongly backed by unions.
Why on earth were these important workers exempted from the Fair Labor Standards Act in the first place? Thirty-seven years ago when the home care industry was tiny, rule-makers decided that workers who care for the elderly and disabled were “companions" equal to babysitters, and not workers.
That might have something to do with a disrespect for women's work: almost all — 92 percent — of the excluded workers are women.
Even non-union workers have the right to sue as a group
Labor Board says companies can't make them waive that right
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| Managers can no longer make workers sign away their rights to sue as a group |
| Dreamstime |
Can a company strong-arm workers into signing an agreement where they pledge that they will never file a group class-action lawsuit over anything related to their jobs? Not anymore.
Such agreements were declared illegal by the National Labor Relations Board in January, because they violate federal labor law, which protects workers' rights to engage in concerted action Only management employees who aren't covered by labor law can be barred from filing group lawsuits.
In the case at hand, the Board ruled that D.R. Horton, a nationwide home-building company, could no longer make workers sign a waiver that would force them to bring claims to an arbitrator who was told to decide each case on an individual basis.
With Cablevision Victory
CWA wins union breakthrough in cable TV
Public leaders had pressed Cablevision to openly debate the union
The CWA made a breakthrough in the non-union cable TV industry in January, when 282 Cablevision workers in Brooklyn, N.Y. joined the union with a strong 180-86 vote. This sweet victory was 13 years in coming.
Workers had tried to organize twice before with both CWA and another union. The company's anti-union pressure, orchestrated by a well-known union-busting law firm, was intense — including meetings where supervisors pressured each worker one-on-one. But this time around the union won valuable public support.
Judge agrees with Labor Board
Companies have to post workers' union rights
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| Not all workers know their union rights |
| UE |
Yes, most businesses really do have to display a poster on workers' rights to organize in their workplaces, said the Judge. On March 1, Judge Amy Berman Jackson turned back challenges from business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, had gone ballistic over the simple requirement that employers should let workers know their legal rights. The NLRB recently passed a rule that those rights must be posted in all but the smallest workplaces.
Berman Jackson agreed that many workers — including recent immigrants, high school students and other employees in nonunion workplaces — don't know about their legal right to form unions or engage in collective bargaining, and “the notice-posting rule is a reasonable means of promoting awareness."
Michigan lawmakers tell student research assistants:
You may work for pay,
but you're not a worker
New law bars them from unionizing
A drive to unionize among graduate student research assistants at the University of Michigan got slapped down when the Michigan Legislature voted 62-45 to ban them from being considered public employees and strip them of their right to unionize. The state Senate, which is also dominated by Republicans, quickly followed suit, and delivered the bill to the Republican Governor's desk.
After failing two times
GE workers see the light, vote union
First organizing victory at GE in 10 years
This year GE got caught in the headlights when the public found out it avoided paying taxes on billions in profits; but what's gotten less attention is how hard the company also works to avoid unions. The company actually has a Union Avoidance Department whose courses show up on the resumes of corporate executives' profiles on Linked-In, reports In These Times.
Even so, this January 27, for the first time in 10 years, a group of GE workers succeeded in voting union.
Zombies invade music event, shout out for union rights
Young people aim to remake & revive union movement
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| Eric Lindberg |
Who were the 25 young people decked out in zombie gear who marched into a music event in a San Jose city park, held a flash mob, and then camped overnight to show support for workers trying to save their collective bargaining rights?
They were members of the CWA Next Generation Bay Area group that's been holding at least three events a month to build awareness over social justice issues. “Change doesn't just happen by itself," is the mantra of Eric Lindberg, secretary-treasurer of CWA Local 9423 and co-founder of Next Generation. “With the lack of education that happens surrounding social justice and workers' rights in schools right now, it's extremely important for us to educate and empower individuals, because it's the people who make change."
More news
2011 news
More news
"America’s last hope: A strong labor movement.
“The fate of the labor movement is the fate of American democracy.
"Without a strong countervailing force like organized labor, corporations and wealthy elites advancing their own interests are able to exert undue influence over the political system, as we’ve seen in every major policy debate of recent years."
— Dorian Warren, professor at Columbia University & fellow, Roosevelt Institute,
in salon.com, February 2012
“Universities recruit [part-time] adjuncts to cut costs, even as admissions are up, tuition is up, administrative overhead is way up, building construction is up, everything is up except pay for instructors.
"This is a moment in which people are saying ‘enough is enough.’”
– Mark Plane, part-time anthropology professor at American University who just joined SEIU.
"The Republicans’goal here is not simply to object to people who have views they think are out of the mainstream, but to shut down parts of the government they don’t like.”
– Senator Charles E. Schumer,
Democrat of New York,
on their refusal to approve presidential appointments
“Unions have been fighting the 1% vs 99% fight for more than 100 years. Now the rest of us are learning that this fight is also OUR fight.
“Unions work to bring We-the-People democracy to the workplace. Like the old story about how it is harder to break a bundle of sticks than the same sticks one stick at a time, unions are organizations of working people, banding together so their collective power can confront the power of concentrated wealth.
“The benefits that unions win don't just go to the union members, they become the standard…
“We all need to support the rights of working people to organize into unions and bargain collectively, to fight our fight, the 99% vs the 1%..”
– Dave Johnson, Campaign for America's Future, Huffington Post
Read the whole article
“I’ve only received a paycheck a handful of times. I receive a statement that says, ‘Your base pay of $2.13 has gone to pay your taxes,’ and you’re just left with the tips that you made.
"This past snowstorm, we were really really slow .. there were shifts where I only made $10 and did not have enough money to pay for my gas, my bills, my phone… My phone was cut off." Hear more
– Brooklyn Cole, 9to5 Atlanta member, talks about her life
as a server
"More than 10 million families rely on restaurant work for their survival. We need restaurants to provide good jobs that can support families and help strengthen our recovering economy.”
– Stephanie Cho, Coordinator of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Los Angeles
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| ROC members in L.A., protestng Darden's treatment of workers |
"If management waits until there is an organizing campaign going on to pay attention to employees, it's probably already too late.
“When you are in a union campaign, you have lost the credibility … . You can't make amends at that point."
– Jana Loewinger, vice president of employee relations at Darden Restaurants.
The Darden empire's Capital Giille eateries are now targeted coast-to-coast by a "Dignity at Darden" campaign launched by the Restaurant Opportunities Center. Is the V.P. failing to heed her own advice?
“It is important that those who care for both our youngest and our oldest citizens receive equitable pay and workforce security.
"This is about protecting our neighbors as much as collective bargaining.”
– Connecticut Governor
Dannel Malloy
"Right now, child-care providers are being treated as suggestion boxes, not full partners in the development of their field of expertise. A suggestion box is not the same as a workers’ union voice…
“The ability to unionize, and bargain, is about validation, respect and support.”
–Cathi Ste. Marie, home-based child-care provider in Vermont
"What is the value of collective bargaining for early childhood educators? It gives ordinary people the opportunity to come together in large numbers and help shape the big decisions that impact their lives and indirectly affect all of us…
“Large child-care centers... have the resources to advocate for themselves without a collective voice. Smaller providers (the majority of providers) do not have these same resources and do not have a voice."
– Crea Lintilhac, director, Lintilhac Foundation
in Shelburne, VT
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| AFL-CIO President Trumka hailed L.A. carwash workers and their union victory |
"With your voice and your solidarity, you're raising standards throughout your industry, you're raising the profile of the work you do, and you're improving child care and elder care across America.”
– AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka, who also spoke to a Domestic Workers Alliance rally in Sacramento, CA, where workers are trying to get the state to pass a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.
"Pitting non-union workers against union workers is like biting off one’s nose to spite one’s face. An unfair wage for workers means a $1 million bonus for the CEO…
“Individual rights are under attack in this country. If we don’t organize — and unionize — we’ll end up working for pennies while the rich get richer.”
– John Foster Way,
Norwich Bulletin
"The [labor] board’s decision recognizes the reality that employees, whether on Wall Street or Main Street, can’t enforce their rights one at a time. They need to be able to pool resources.”
– Justin M. Swartz,
New York Attorney,
on the Board's ruling to throw out company bans on group lawsuits
"If there is no struggle there is no progress.
"Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, want crops without plowing the ground.
"They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters...
" Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will."
— Fredrick Douglas,
quoted on a web page for IBM workers who want to unionize
“We wanted to start signaling to Cablevision that this is going to be unlike any other campaign that they have ever seen.
"We are seeking to organize not just these workers, but 1,500 Cablevision workers through the Tri State area, and we want Cablevision to change their anti-union behavior."
– Tim Dubnau, CWA organizer
“Young people are being told that they just have to suck it up and live in a world without jobs.
"We're being told that America can't afford teachers, but we can afford CEO tax cuts.
"We're being asked to accept a society that rewards wealth and punishes work. A society that makes it harder for young people to go to college. A society where hate is growing … It's shameful."
– Liz Shuler, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, in keynote address to the Next Up conference held this fall.
"The vote today to strip graduate research assistants of their right to organize as university workers [at the University of Michigan] was pure hypocrisy.
"Republicans talk a good game about small government, but today they were happy to use the heavy hand of state government to pursue their political goal of squashing unions.”
– Michigan Democratic Representative Jeff Irwin, who represents Ann Arbor, where the University of Michigan is located.
Grantee spotlight
- Restaurant servers fed up with $2.13 hourly wage
- Vermont Workers' Center helps child-care workers organize
- Why should women join unions?
News on this page
- 78 groups met March 15 deadline!
- 1500 part-time professors win union at American University
- President revives Labor Board from near-death
- 17,000 workers at the new United Airlines join Machinists union
- Programming opportunity with Berger-Marks site
- Tipped over the edge
- Connecticut child care workers vote for SEIU
- Union victories in the City of Angels
- Home-care workers would get wage floor
- Even non-union workers have the right to sue as a group
- CWA wins union breakthrough in cable TV
- Companies have to post workers' union rights
- You may work for pay,
but you're not a worker - GE workers see the light, vote union
- Zombies invade music event, shout out for union rights
More news
Grants awarded
March, 2011
2011 news