Workers

How Big Is America’s Employee-Owned Economy?

July 19, 2017 Thomas Dudley, www.medium.com Create! New Economy, Workers

By Thomas Dudley for Fifty By Fifty - Before we jump into EO, let’s take a look at the size of the American private sector. Each year, every business operating in our economy is counted by the U.S. Census Bureau. The results are summarized in the Statistics of U.S. Businesses (SUSB). According to the SUSB, in 2014 there were 5.8 million businesses employing 121 million Americans in the private sector. Not all of these businesses would be eligible to be employee-owned — for example companies setup by a lone freelancer. Looking at firms with at least 5 employees, we find 2.2 million businesses employing 115 million Americans. Now thinking about employee ownership, the most general notion of EO would include everyone who has any ownership stake in their place of work. There are numerous forms of ownership, but stock ownership is the core of American capitalism. After all, it is the stock owners who are entitled to a company’s profits and who elect the board of directors. If we define EO as encompassing everyone who owns at least one share of stock in their employer, we cast a wide net. This definition includes everyone from a low-level employee who owns a few shares in their 401k, to a partner at a law firm, to a CEO who owns 100% of their business. It’s reasonable to assert that over 99% of businesses in America employ at least one person who owns at least one share of stock.

Making Employee-Owned Enterprises Part Of The Income Inequality Solution

July 8, 2017 Mary Ann Beyster, www.democracycollaborative.org Create! Income inequality, New Economy, Ownership, Workers

By Mary Ann Beyster for Democracy Collaborative - With income inequality in the United States at record high levels, employee ownership is increasingly being lauded as a potential solution to spreading wealth more broadly. Most recently, research from the National Center for Employee Ownership released in May shows that employee owners have a household net worth that is 92 percent higher than non-employee owners. They also make 33 percent higher wages, and are far less likely to be laid off. But employee ownership requires new investment in order to get to scale. A new report by Mary Ann Beyster, president and trustee of the Foundation for Enterprise Development (FED), published by the Fifty by Fifty initiative of The Democracy Collaborative, examines the investing landscape for potential opportunities in employee ownership. The report, Impact Investing and Employee Ownership, reports on the results from six months of research showing that the opportunities for impact investors to support employee ownership are limited, but that an investing infrastructure is beginning to emerge across asset classes.

No Good Reason For Your Boss To Make 347 Times More

July 6, 2017 Steven Clifford, www.otherwords.org Educate! Class Struggle, Workers

By Steven Clifford for Other Words - CEO pay at America’s 500 largest companies averaged $13.1 million in 2016. That’s 347 times what the average employee makes. So CEOs make a lot of money. But, some say, so do athletes and movie stars. Why pick on corporate bosses, then? First, because the market sets compensation for athletes and movie stars, but not for CEOs. Teams and movie studios bid for athletes and movie stars. CEO pay is set by a rigged system that has nothing to do with supply and demand. NBA teams bid for LeBron James because his skills are portable: He’d be a superstar on any team. CEOs’ skills are much more closely tied to their knowledge of a single company — its finances, products, personnel, culture, competitors, etc. Such knowledge and skills are best gained working within the company, and not worth much outside. In fact, a CEO jumping between large companies happens less than once a year. And when they jump, they usually fail. Lacking a market, CEO pay is set by a series of complex administrative pay practices. Usually a board, often dominated by other sitting or retired CEOs, sets their CEO’s pay based on the compensation of other highly paid CEOs. The CEO can then double or triple this target by surpassing negotiated bonus goals.

On The Side Of BIW Workers

June 16, 2017 Bruce K. Gagnon, www.timesrecord.com Organize! Unions, Workers

By Bruce K. Gagnon for The Times Record - I am pro-union and my first job after the Air Force and college was working as an organizer for the United Farm Workers Union in Florida — organizing fruit pickers. A couple of years ago I was invited by a union member to march with BIW workers who were protesting against General Dynamics’ management efforts to slowly but surely break the union at the shipyard by outsourcing work to non-union shops. I eagerly joined the protest. Over the years I’ve heard directly from scores of BIW workers about their grievances against the company. Not only has GD come to the city of Bath with silver cup in hand (while its top CEO was pulling in multi-million dollar bonuses) asking for more tax breaks, but over the years the corporation has repeatedly gone to the state demanding tax cuts, always threatening to leave Maine. GD has done little to diversify away from all-military production at BIW, whether into commercial shipbuilding, or other major nonmilitary production. So when the military contracts slow down, workers get what amounts to permanent layoffs. GD frequently brings in nonunion middle managers and poorly trained supervisors who don’t know much about the ins and outs of shipbuilding in any given aspect of production, causing delays and inefficiencies for which the unions get blamed.

Baltimore Catholic Worker Stories Inspire

May 17, 2017 Len Shindel, www.baltimorepostexaminer.com Resist! Baltimore, Workers

By Len Shindel for Baltimore Post-Examiner - “This volume is one of real christian art. And real christian words,” writes David Simon, creator of “The Wire. He adds: “This is the beauty that comes from lives spent in service of real christian ideals in a very real and unchristian place called Baltimore, Maryland.” Like Simon, I was raised in a Jewish household. But, I, too, was deeply moved by Walsh’s and Bickham’s precious stories of urban struggle, published by Apprentice House, the country’s only campus-based, student–staffed book company at Loyola University, Maryland. These narratives, poems and pictures bare the couple’s pious, but irreverent and iconoclastic Catholicism, the joy of their service to the suffering, and their lifelong resistance against the forces of greed and militarism inside Baltimore’s Sowebo (Southwest Baltimore) and far beyond. In the story “Alley of Tears, 2014,” Willa, a former nurse and nun from Chicago, who had just been enjoying time with her three granddaughters, scurries to staunch the bleeding of Oscar Torres, a Mexican immigrant.

In 36 States, 21,000 AT&T Mobility Workers Vote to Strike

May 5, 2017 Dan DiMaggio, www.labornotes.org Resist! AT&T, Strikes, Workers

By Dan DiMaggio for Labor Notes - Pennsylvania AT&T Mobility activists are using Facebook Live, which allows users to create live videos for a Facebook audience, to talk to members about their rights, how to fill out a grievance form, and managerial misconduct during observations. In Stiffey’s unit, managers were refusing to allow union reps to sit in on observations, in which store managers grade workers on their performance on the sales floor. So he made a video explaining to members how to demand their legal right to union representation at an investigatory interview, or "Weingarten rights." “We suggested anytime that there’s a conversation with management, ask: Is this conversation going to be recorded in any way? Is it going to be placed into my employee file? Can or will it be used for discipline in the future? Is discipline going to be handed out in this conversation?” If the answer to any of those questions is yes, the union urges members to demand a union rep. “As a result, the number of sales reps who have really stepped up and pushed for their Weingarten rights has increased dramatically,” said Stiffey.

Which Way To The Barricades?

May 4, 2017 Steve Fraser and Nelson Lichtenstein, www.jacobinmag.com Strategize! Class Struggle, History, Strikes, US history, Workers

By Steve Fraser and Nelson Lichtenstein for Jacobin Magazine - Shelly’s “Masque of Anarchy” has been a spectral presence for nearly two hundred years, summoned at climactic moments of civil warfare. Composed to memorialize the 1819 Peterloo massacre, the poem commemorates the sixty thousand people who gathered at the very dawn of the industrial revolution to demand a radical expansion of suffrage, especially to those laboring in England’s dark satanic mills. Dozens died, hundreds were wounded. The poem wasn’t published for over a decade, until the Chartist movement took it up in 1832. Another ten years after that, it became the anthem of an almost nationwide general strike. Participants referred to the time leading up to that moment and the strikes that preceded it as “holy days.” Since then “Ye are many—they are few” has inspired rebellion, resistance, and liberation again and again. The New York garment worker strikes of 1911, the sit-down strikes of the 1930s, May 1968 in Paris, and, most recently, the pro-democracy congregations during the Arab Spring and the Occupy uprisings of 2011 are all etched in our collective memory. There are also largely unknown, but hardly less remarkable, general strikes: not just those that shut down Winnipeg and Seattle in 1919...

Here To Stay: Immigrant Workers Demand Justice, Respect On May Day

May 3, 2017 Anne Meador and John Zangas, www.dcmediagroup.us Resist! Class Struggle, Immigration, May Day, Undocumented, Workers, Working Class

By Anne Meador and John Zangas for DC Media Group - Thousands of people marched in the streets of Washington, DC to celebrate May Day, the holiday often known as International Workers’ Day, with defiant calls for a living wage, benefits, and safe working conditions. In light of President Trump’s assault on immigrants and refugees, the rallies and marches also became protests against refugee bans, deportations and raids on immigrant communities. Crowds filled Dupont Circle, Malcolm X Park, Freedom Plaza, and Courthouse in Arlington, then converged into marches to the White House. American flags mingled with Mexican flags and bright red socialist flags. Many of the large number of Hispanic participants were immigrants from Mexico and Central American countries, and, in spite of risks, even undocumented immigrants were present and vocal. While some might expect recent Trump initiatives, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and efforts to build a wall on the border of Mexico, to intimidate those born in another country, there was an unmistakable tone of defiance in every speech, chant and sign. “No papers, no fear!” they cried. Some signs advertised the hashtag #heretostay.

May Day In The Hood

May 1, 2017 John Reimann, www.thenorthstar.info Resist! International Workers Day, Labor, May Day, Workers, Workers Rights and Jobs

By John Reimann for North Star - So, I was walking down the street in my neighborhood, posting these leaflets (English and Spanish) for a May Day event in the neighborhood park. Got my backpack on, my cap to shield the sun, my stapler in hand. I’m starting to think, “what am I doing this for?”, feeling like Don Quixote. Then two young brothers come walking towards me, smoking a joint. I stop them and give them a leaflet. “You know about May Day – international workers’ day?” I ask. After a few words, the one young guy gets going. “We’re the original people, the Hebrews, brought over here. You can call us whatever – Africans, n____s, slaves. We’re the ones who built this country ourselves. Built it from scratch and never got nothing. We’re disrespected…” He talked a bit more on this subject. “As long as nothing is done about it, as long as we don’t get no reparations, nothing is going to change.” I agreed. “Yeah, you know the Three Musketeers?” I said. “Yeah. One for all and all for one,” he said.

Health Care Workers Bring Sanctuary Movement Into The Union

April 15, 2017 Porfirio Quintano, www.labornotes.org Resist! Health Care, Sanctuary Cities, Unions, Workers

By Porfirio Quintano for Labor Notes - I had no money and spoke no English when I illegally crossed the border into California 23 years ago, but I worked hard and fought for the right to stay here. Had I made that harrowing journey this year, I’m sure I’d be deported right back into the crosshairs of the Honduran government’s death squads that had targeted me and many other community organizers. Instead I quickly won a grant of political asylum—and later received full American citizenship. I know I’m one of the lucky ones. At the San Francisco hospital where I work, nine out of 10 members of my union are foreign-born. We never ask anyone about their immigration status, but I know several green card holders who are getting ready to apply for citizenship now that their place in America seems less secure. People might think the Bay Area is one big protective cocoon for immigrants, but that’s not the case. The suburb where I live is not a sanctuary city.

Hundreds Of Thousands Of Workers Will Strike May 1

April 3, 2017 Cora Lewis, www.buzzfeed.com Resist! May Day, Strikes, Workers

By Cora Lewis for BuzzFeed News - Members of SEIU United Service Workers West protest during May Day demonstrations at Los Angeles International Airport in 2012. Gus Ruelas / Reuters Since Donald Trump’s election, there has been no shortage of wildcat strikes by groups disproportionately affected by his administration’s policies. But this time around, organized labor is driving the effort. According to a coalition of groups leading the strike, more than 300,000 food chain workers and 40,000 unionized service workers have said they will walk off the job so far. Huerta’s union chapter represents tens of thousands of workers, including janitors, security officers and airport staff, while the Food Chain Workers Alliance, which represents workers throughout the food industry, says hundreds of thousands of its non-unionized members have committed to striking.

Workers Can Take Over Their Jobs And Become The Owners

April 1, 2017 Anna-Catherine Brigida, www.pri.org Create! Ownership, Workers

By Anna-Catherine Brigida for PRI - After almost 20 years working at Buenos Aires restaurant Los Chanchitos, José Pereyra sensed an imminent bankruptcy. The quality of the food and service was deteriorating, and the owner hadn’t paid workers for weeks, he said. Given Argentina’s economic instability, he feared for his livelihood and that of his co-workers. So, Pereyra called a meeting of the 25 waiters, cooks and busboys. After hours of deliberation, they decided to run the business themselves as a worker cooperative. On April 25, 2013, they staged a coup against the restaurant owner before their jobs disappeared. “Now we work without an owner, and our destiny is ours,” Pereyra said one morning at the traditional Argentine restaurant.

‘Day Without A Woman’ Strike Is Closing Schools Around The Country

March 8, 2017 Laura Bassett and Catherine Pearson, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Strikes, Women, Workers

By Laura Bassett and Catherine Pearson For The Huffington Post - WASHINGTON ― Dozens of schools up and down the East Coast have announced they will be closed on Wednesday as their teachers, the vast majority of whom are women, participate in the “Day Without A Woman” strike to protest President Donald Trump. All 16 public schools in Alexandria, Virginia, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools in North Carolina, and at least one preschool in Brooklyn, New York, have canceled classes for International Women’s Day on March 8, anticipating staff shortages. The Maple Street School in Brooklyn sent a letter to parents last week explaining that the preschool supports the political statement teachers are making by staying home.

March 8: Massive Women’s Rally At Department Of Labor

March 7, 2017 CJ Frogozo, www.womenworkersrising.org Resist! March, Washington DC, Women, Workers

By CJ Frogozo for Women Workers Rising - Washington, DC – On International Women’s Day, Wednesday, March 8th, women are rising at a massive rally in DC – WOMEN WORKERS RISING. Women workers will come together and RISE for Dignity, Equality, and Respect at and surrounding the US Department of Labor in DC. Organizers are calling all women and allies to come and be in solidarity with women workers – for an end to workplace violence and harassment and to promote pay equity, one fair living wage, paid leave, and labor rights at work. This rally will be on the day – and in solidarity with – women around the world rising for women’s rights, including the International Women’s Action and The Women’s March: A Day Without a Woman.

Political Strikes: What Can Workers Do To Protect Themselves?

March 3, 2017 Leora Smith, www.onlabor.org Resist! Labor, Strikes, Workers

By Leora Smith for On Labor - On January 28, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance called an hour-long work stoppage as a way to express their opposition to President Trump’s Executive Order banning immigration from seven Muslim majority countries and suspending refugee intake. A week later, Yemeni-American bodega owners in New York City protested the Order by closing their businesses and holding a thousands-strong protest in Brooklyn. On February 16, as part of an action called A Day Without Immigrants, thousands went on strike to highlight the contributions of immigrant workers. Each of these demonstrations employed the tactic of work stoppages to send a message. Each was labeled a “strike” in the media.

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