Labor

This Is What It’s Like To Sit Through An Anti-Union Meeting At Work

September 4, 2014 Dave Jamieson, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Coca Cola, Fedex, Labor, Staples, Unions

One day last fall, employees of Iron Mountain, a Boston-based records management company, were subjected to what union organizers like to call a captive audience meeting. Employers hold these anti-union meetings once they've gotten wind of an organizing campaign in their midst. Whether the meeting is led by in-house managers or outside consultants, the gist is usually the same: Joining a union is totally your call. But it's a really bad idea, and we're disappointed it's come to this. The spiel at an Iron Mountain facility near Atlanta, where the Teamsters were trying to organize truck drivers, wasn't unlike the anti-union speeches commonly delivered at other companies. What made this meeting different was that a pro-union worker in attendance was surreptitiously recording it. "We have the right to educate you," the Iron Mountain manager lectured his employees. "And we're going to exercise that right." Ben Speight, a Teamsters organizer in Atlanta, later posted the audio to SoundCloud, and it was picked up by Gawker, Salon, Al Jazeera and The Huffington Post, among other outlets. Since then, Speight has obtained a litany of similar recordings from meetings purportedly held at more recognizable companies, including Coca-Cola, Staples and FedEx.

The True Story Of Labor Day: Debunking The Myth

September 4, 2014 Eugene E. Ruyle, www.peaceandfreedom.org Educate! Labor, Worker Rights and Jobs

By Eugene E. Ruyle for Peace and Freedom. As we enter the Labor Day weekend, many on the left will repeat the myth that Labor Day has no historical significance and is simply a “gift” from capitalist politicians to break up the international solidarity of American workers by providing an alternative to May Day. For many years, I accepted this myth, even while marching with my union comrades in the annual Labor Day Parades in Wilmington, California. Then I learned that the first Labor Day was in 1882, four years BEFORE Haymarket and eight years BEFORE the first international May Day in 1890. How, then, could it have originated as an alternative to May Day? A little historical research revealed a much different, and more complex. This research showed that both Labor Day and May Day grew out of American labor struggles in the 1880s and, surprisingly, that the same man, Peter J. McGuire (1852-1906), who founded the International Brotherhood of Carpenters, is claimed as the “father” of both Labor Day and May Day!

Biggest Fast Food Workers Strike Ever

September 3, 2014 Strike Fast Food, www.strikefastfood.org Resist! Fast Food, Labor, Strike

McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s workers among those to walk off their jobs as movement continues to grow; home care workers join as movement spreads to new industry “All across the country right now there’s a national movement going on made up of fast-food workers organizing to lift wages so they can provide for their families with pride and dignity. There is no denying a simple truth. America deserves a raise. Give America a raise. …You know what, if I were looking for a job that lets me build some security for my family, I’d join a union. If I were busting my butt in the service industry and wanted an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work, I’d join a union. …I’d want a union looking out for me.” -- President Obama, Sept 1, 2014, Milwaukee, WI Coming off a convention at which they vowed to do “whatever it takes” to win $15 and the right to form a union, fast-food workers in more than 150 cities will walk off their jobs Thursday as their movement intensifies and continues to spread. A day after President Obama praised their campaign, workers from Oakland, Calif. to Opelika, Ala., said they will strike at the country’s major fast-food restaurants, including McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s and KFC. Workers in Little Rock, Ark. Minneapolis, Minn; and Rochester, NY are among those who will walk off their jobs for the first time.

Trade Agreements Hurt Jobs And Wages

September 1, 2014 Drew Martin and Bill Ebergardt, www.miamiherald.com Resist! Food Safety, Labor, TPP, Worker Rights and Jobs

We already know that so-called “free” trade agreements aren’t free — they hurt jobs and wages and are deeply irresponsible. Indeed, just two past “free” trade deals, NAFTA and China’s addition to the World Trade Organization, resulted in a net loss of almost 135,000 Florida jobs. In addition, when — and if — those workers got another job, their annual wages plummeted an average $13,500. That net loss cost Florida’s economy almost $2 billion in annual wages. The TPP will make things even worse because we’ll be competing with corporations relocating to countries like Vietnam, where the average minimum wage is a meager 56 cents per hour. This agreement will allow foreign corporations to sue the United States through international tribunals over nearly any laws that they allege would cut into their expected future profits. That includes laws designed to protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food on our dinner tables.

Labor Almost Invisible On TV Talk

September 1, 2014 FAIR, www.fair.org Educate! Conservative, Labor, Labor Union, Media

As the Labor Day holiday approaches, ask yourself how often you see unions represented on corporate-owned television. On the highest-profile public affairs shows, the answer is basically never. According to a search of the Sunday morning talkshows for this year (January-August), not a single representative of a labor union appeared on any of the four network programs (NBC's Meet the Press, ABC's This Week, Fox News Sunday and CBS's Face the Nation). Ironically, the one union leader discussed substantively on any of the programs was Ronald Reagan, the famously anti-union former president. He came up as an answer in an ABC "Powerhouse Puzzlers" quiz (3/2/14) as the only president to have headed a labor union, the Screen Actors Guild. And it's not that the shows couldn't have used a voice for working people. While normally preoccupied with Beltway politics, these shows touched on issues like poverty, jobs and workers' rights. There were even discussions of efforts to organize college athletes (Meet the Press, 3/23/14; Face the Nation, 3/30/14). But representatives of organized labor were not part of these conversations. The closest labor came to the Sunday chat show circuit was when Meet the Press (6/29/14) aired an excerpt of a Clinton Foundation event that included two quotes from Sara Horowitz of the Freelancers Union, which is not a certified union but a nonprofit organization that brokers health insurance for independent workers.

When We Stand Together, Working People Can Win

September 1, 2014 Susan Richardson, www.ufcw21.org Create! Inequality, Labor, Labor Unions

One hundred and twenty years ago, during another time of severe economic depression and social unrest in our country, President Grover Cleveland established Labor Day as a national holiday. It was not so much to honor as it was to appease organized labor. President Cleveland’s decision came days after he ordered federal troops to crush workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago who were striking for better wages and workplace conditions. Fast forward to 2014 and we see our country is still grappling with economic and social unrest as income inequality grows and the rights of workers to stick together for better workplace conditions continues to be challenged. I have lived in the Bellingham area since 1972 and have worked at Cost Cutter in Blaine for The Markets for 27 years. As a union member I have joined together with other grocery workers all across Puget Sound to protect our wages, benefits, and working conditions. And the community has stood right there with us. Despite efforts here in Washington by the big national grocery chains to cut pay and benefits and weaken our union, we have grown stronger. Not all workers are so fortunate and the cards are sometimes stacked against us. Too often, workers are harassed, intimidated and sometimes fired for sticking together to bargain for better wages and benefits. We have seen that locally with some of the workers at Walmart who have bravely stood up to this company and spoken out against their attempt to silence workers trying to act together to improve health and safety and improve their lives at work.

Organizing The ‘Organized’ Top Union Priority

September 1, 2014 Steve Early, www.popularresistance.org Organize! Labor, Unions

For many years, American unions have been trying to “organize of the unorganized” to offset, and, where possible, reverse their steady loss of dues-paying members. In union circles, a distinction was often made between this “external organizing”--to recruit workers who currently lack collective bargaining rights--and “internal organizing,” which involves engaging more members in contract fights and other forms of collective action aimed at strengthening existing bargaining units. Thanks to the growing success of corporate-backed “Right-to-Work” campaigns, these two forms of union outreach now greatly overlap. Virtually all labor organizations face the expanded challenge of recruiting and maintaining members in already unionized workplaces where the decision to provide financial support for the union has, for better or worse, become voluntary.

Labor Must Face Up To The Realities Of Climate Change

August 31, 2014 Joe Uehlein, www.portside.org Organize! Climate Change, Labor, Worker Rights and Jobs

Today the American labor movement -- like the rest of American society and like labor movements throughout the world -- is being forced to grapple with global warming, climate chaos, and climate protection strategies. The future of labor’s growth and vitality will depend on its ability to play a central role in the movement to build a sustainable future for the planet and its people. Climate change changes everything: Everything about how we organize society, how we conduct politics, even how we think of progress. For us in the labor movement, it must change how we envision the role of an organized labor movement in society. Society will change – either through the effects of climate degradation or through a colossal struggle to avert it. Labor has to decide whether to fight the transition to a climate-safe society or to help lead it.

Reform To Expose Big Political Donors Losing In California

August 31, 2014 David Dayen, www.salon.com Strategize! Campaign Finance, Elections, Labor, Unions

The biggest reason why it will be so hard to get money out of politics is that there’s so much money in politics. The system favors incumbents, from incumbent politicians to their incumbent funders. And they have little incentive to shake up the status quo that brought them to power, even if their constituents and their ideological principles call out for reform. This is precisely what’s playing out in California. One of the most liberal legislatures in the country has struggled to pass a campaign finance measure that would merely force disclosure on political advertising, because several labor unions that spend heavily on campaigns oppose it. This has infuriated progressive groups in California and across the nation. The bill, known as the California DISCLOSE Act, is based on the national DISCLOSE Act that came within one vote of passage back in 2010.

Minneapolis UPS Workers Protest Shipments To Missouri Police

August 27, 2014 Labor Notes, www.labornotes.org Resist! Ferguson, Labor, UPS

A dozen part-time UPS workers took protest action after discovering ties between Missouri law enforcement and a company whose shipments they handle each day. Some of us removed the company’s packages from trucks that would deliver them to law enforcement. Others, in solidarity, refused to ferry these packages to their intended trailers. Others posed with a sign reading “#handsupdontship.” The phrase “hands up, don’t shoot” has come to symbolize protest over the police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed, black 18-year-old in Ferguson, Missouri. We decided we could not be silent while our work was contributing to the militarized violence that police are directing at Ferguson residents in the aftermath of Brown’s death. ‘Urban Street Violence’ Law Enforcement Targets is based in Blaine, Minnesota. The company produces cardboard, steel, and plastic shooting-range targets. Some feature photos of people for police to practice shooting at.

Low-Paid Jobs Now Pay Even Worse Than Before The Recovery Began

August 23, 2014 Bryce Covert, www.thinkprogress.org Educate! Finance and the Economy, Inequality, Labor

Those who work in jobs that pay poorly are now making even less than they were when the recovery began, according to a new analysis from the National Employment Law Project (NELP). As the report notes, since the recovery started in 2009, “Lower- and mid-wage occupations experienced greater declines in their real wages than did higher-wage occupations.” Jobs that pay in the top two tiers saw a decline in wages between 2.1 and 2.5 percent. But those in the bottom three groups in terms of pay saw wages decline between 3.6 and 4.6 percent. Some of the low-wage jobs that employ the most people have suffered even more. The food service industry has seen big drops: an 8.3 percent decline for restaurant cooks, 6.3 percent for food preparation workers, and 3.5 percent for servers. Maids and housekeepers have seen wages decline by 5.8 percent, as have home health aides, while personal care aides have seen a 6.3 percent decline. And retail workers have had wages go down by 4.2 percent. Overall, across all jobs, median hourly wages have declined 3.4 percent between 2009 and 2013.

Who Are The New Union Busters?

August 21, 2014 Jacob Fischler and Evan McMorris-Santoro, www.buzzfeed.com Educate! Barack Obama, Labor, Law, Unions

President Obama’s innovative, take-no-prisoners campaigns crafted an elite force of operatives, skilled in the political arts. Now that they’re done helping Obama, however, it appears they have a new goal: weakening and defeating organized labor. On Tuesday, Obama’s former top White House adviser and 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe signed on with Uber, the company known for its slick app and on-demand cars — and efforts to break taxi-union holds on urban transportation. Plouffe joins former top Obama campaign and White House communications strategist Robert Gibbs and Obama’s national press secretary for the 2012 campaign Ben LaBolt, who are using their talents in a campaign against the power of teacher’s unions. Along with them is Obama’s 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina, who went to London to work for the reelection of England’s Conservative Party government, which is campaigning on a platform that includes new rules English labor says would make it “close to impossible” to go on strike. American labor is still wary of talking on the record about Obama, but union frustration with the path Obama’s campaign dream team has taken is palpable.

Is Worker Ownership A Way Forward For Market Basket?

August 15, 2014 Gar Alperovitz, www.truth-out.org Create! Cooperatives, Labor, Worker Rights and Jobs

The Market Basket situation is indeed, as many commentators have remarked, nearly unprecedented in the annals of American labor relations: When have we ever seen so many workers protest so vigorously for, rather than against, their boss! (For those new to the story, the New England supermarket chain has been wracked by massive employee protests, organized without any union involvement, after a faction of the family that owns the chain took control and ousted extremely popular CEO Arthur T. Demoulas. The mobilization in support of the former chief executive has resulted in nearly empty shelves and the mobilization of angry communities of formerly happy customers.) But beneath the surface of the singular job action, in which workers and community have banded together to demand the reinstatement of the former CEO, the conflict in New England points toward something much more fundamental: the need to build institutions that can sustain the kind of community- and worker-friendly business leadership that earned "good brother" Arthur T. such incredible loyalty. Happily, such institutions already exist, here in the United States. While undoubtedly not perfect as a form of workplace democracy, the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) offers a proven template for making the interest workers have in a thriving business part of the discussions about a company's future.

Latest Plan To Privatize Post Office Hits Unexpected Obstacle

August 14, 2014 David Morris, www.onthecommons.org Organize! Labor, Post Office, Privatization, Solidarity

The United States Postal Service (USPS) management just ran into a possible game-changing obstacle to its shameful pursuit of a fully privatized post office: labor solidarity. Here’s the background. For a decade the USPS has been aggressively shrinking, consolidating, and outsourcing the nation’s postal system. In July 2011 management upped the ante by announcing the rapid closure of 3600 local post offices, a step toward the eventual closing of as many as 15,000, half of all post offices in the nation. A groundswell of opposition erupted. Citizens in hundreds of towns mobilized to save a treasured institution that plays a key and sometimes defining role in their communities. In December 2011, after Congress appeared ready to impose a six-month moratorium on closures USPS management voluntarily adopted a freeze of the same length. In May 2012, the moratorium ended but management, possibly concerned about reviving a national backlash, embraced an ingenious stealth strategy. Rather than closures, management moved to slash hours at 13,000 post offices.

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