Thursday, March 11, 2010
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
This is What We Need
We need congress to pass a public option by way of reconciliation.
We need a congress where majority votes rule.
We need congress to get rid of the filibuster.
We need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
We need a republican with enough guts to stand up to the republican party of NO.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
RNC’s Michael Steele Becomes Union Man
By Leo W. Gerard
International President of the United Steelworkers Union
Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele appears to be suffering philosophical identity confusion, you know, like some people experience sexual identity confusion.
He’s got an organization named United STEELE Workers Union, white hardhat emblem and all, collecting members for him on Facebook. It had 255 worldwide as of June 19.
This is disconcerting on so many levels, least of which is that I head the original, authentic United Steelworkers Union (USW). It has, by the way, 1.2 million retired and active members in North America.
Far more importantly, Steele historically has expressed hostility toward unions. When President Obama agreed to help General Motors restructure in bankruptcy, for example, Steele said it was “another handout to the union cronies who helped bankroll his presidential campaign.” Now that there’s a union created in his own image, if Steele slams labor organizations, is he criticizing himself? Has he become a “union crony?”
Steele can perch that white hard hat atop his head, but he’s going to have to labor at learning some hard philosophical lessons before becoming a real steelworker, a true union man.
A union brother or sister knows it’s all for one and one for all. Our union brothers and sisters don’t see themselves as “ownership society” islands. That’s because they know when the sun stops shining, it’s nice to have union siblings to help clean up after the hurricane.
To join, Steele must learn that a union man has his brother’s back; he doesn’t stab him in the back. This may be a tough lesson for the Republican. Consider, for example, what Mark Bergeron, the STEELE Worker Union Facebook group administrator, says on his blog about the party’s 2008 nominee for president:
“How far to the left do we as Conservatives go to satisfy some of our Moderate ( Liberal ) Republicans? What sacrifices will we make to the Moderates? Abortion? Illegal Immiration [sic], a little more Socialism? Less Fiscal Responsibility? My point is that we have already made concessions to these softies and we got John McCain.”
In addition to insulting McCain, that smacks of exclusion. It is the Republican Party wringing itself out, shedding diversity at the insistence of its most conservative, self-appointed, over-amplified leader, Rush Limbaugh. So it has been reduced to little more than wealthy white protestant males — and wannabes. A union, by contrast, is a collective. By nature, then, it is inclusive. This may be a tough one for Steele to accept, considering he refused to stand up to Limbaugh earlier this year when the talk show host insisted he, not Steele, headed the Republican Party.
The STEELE Worker Union Facebook site says the group is interested in organizing. That’s a great first step in the correct direction. An important function of an international union, like the United Steelworkers, is to help employees at individual workplaces organize their local unions. Those efforts in recent years, however, have been thwarted by corporate campaigns of intimidation against union organizers and sympathizers. This is documented in a study called, “No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Organization,” released in May by Cornell University professor, Kate Bronfenbrenner.
Bronfenbrenner, who has researched labor issues for a quarter century, documents employers obstructing unionization by firing union organizers, threatening to close down the shop, cutting wages and benefits, and forcing workers to meet one-on-one with supervisors who interrogate them to determine whether they support the union. Bronfenbrenner found employers conducted these coercive tactics, many of which are illegal, in the run-up to union elections more frequently than in the past to dissuade workers from voting for unionization.
The upshot is that organizers and union sympathizers risk their livelihoods and corporations are increasingly killing unions. The Employee Free Choice Act now before Congress would significantly reduce that. It would allow workers — rather than the employer — to decide how to form the union. It would give workers the right to choose whether to form their union by collecting signatures from a majority of the workers or by conducting a secret ballot election. The threat-filled period before balloting could be eliminated, if the workers wanted.
The United Steelworkers union actively and vociferously supports the Employee Free Choice Act. If Michael Steele wants to be a real union man, he must do so as well. I will be waiting to hear from him. If I do, I will be glad to take him under my wing and mentor him. I will make him an Associate Member of the real United Steelworkers union. We will embrace him. Of course, I will warn my male members to be careful not to actually hug him because this is a guy, so touchy about unions, that he even used the word “crazy” to describe civil unions.
Friday, June 19, 2009
USW Rapid Response: Leading the Way on the Employee Free Choice Act!
The Employee Free Choice Act is at a critical point. A majority of lawmakers in the House and Senate are supportive. The President is willing to sign it into law. But, in the Senate, a process exists to talk a bill to death – “the filibuster” – and a Republican-led effort to kill the bill through this process is planned. To stop a filibuster, 60 votes are needed. We are just short of that goal.As disappointed as we are with the Senators who have not stepped up in this fight, we are not letting up for a minute.
Right now, USW members are continuing to keep up the pressure. In places like Pennsylvania, Arkansas and California, USW members are taking action again and again to target those Senators who haven’t yet given their support for the Employee Free Choice Act. This fight is coming down to a few key places across the country.
While we’re working on the ground, there is a group of Senators meeting to look at alternatives to the bill. We don’t know what the outcome of these talks will produce, but we remain committed to passing real labor law reform. Senator Harkin, who is leading this fight as Senator Kennedy deals with health issues, has vowed to either find a solution that works to get to 60 votes, or force those unsupportive Senators to take a vote on the original measure. This way, we know where they stand come election time. Either way, the vote could occur this summer, possibly within weeks.
As this situation continues to play out, we will keep you posted on any major developments. Thank you to everyone for being so diligent over the years on this issue. And, for those of you in key states, thank you for continuing to fight for all of us for justice in the workplace.
Source: USW Rapid Response
Monday, June 08, 2009
Proof of Need for Employee Free Choice Act
The workers at this factory desired union representation and voted to be represented by the United Steelworkers Union. They began negotiating with Georgia Pacific for their first contract but just couldn’t get the company to negotiate in good faith. In the mean time, Georgia Pacific illegally fired one employee and illegally disciplined other workers.
Georgia Pacific hoped that the workers would tire of the long fight for justice and give up. They didn’t.
Over two years later, an agreement was finally reached.
This is the type of labor laws that the Chamber of Commerce and the nutty Republicans want to continue.
There is no good reason in the world for a company to be able to stall and delay and refuse to bargain in good faith with their workers --only bad reasons. That being to make the workers believe that their being united has no meaning. That it’s all futile and hopeless. That they should give up and change their minds.
The Employee Free Choice Act would put a quick stop to this unfairness. It would require that a company pay through the nose when they break the law. It would require that a company negotiate in good faith and that an agreement be reached in a reasonable length of time.
Although Indiana Senator Evan Bayh supported the Employee Free Choice Act two years ago, he is now withholding his support.
Please call Senator Bayh Toll Free at 1-866-207-2060 and ask him to co-sponsor and vote for the Employee Free Choice Act. Employees deserve the right to bargain with their employer for secure jobs, health care, and retirement benefits and fair pay.
Our country needs a strong middle class and the Employee Free Choice Act the one way to get it.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
They Fought Then - We Fight Now
Having hired into, and retired from, a company where a local union already existed and whose workers already had a contract, I can’t fully appreciate what it must be like for workers to organize and then have their company refuse to recognize them as a union or to refuse to bargain, eventually to result in such a tragedy as that which took place at Republic Steel in South Chicago on May 30, 1937, the day we memorialize today. I can, however…….imagine.
Unfortunately, workers today face the same determination of companies to remain “union free” albeit with somewhat less violence.
My own experience was in 1980, when members of USWA Local 12775 and 13796 were forced to strike the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) for 242 days. Billed as the longest utility strike in American history at the time, it was a dispute where getting a contract seemed futile. That experience will be in my memory forever.
Not long after President Reagan’s firing of the PATCO workers, former USWA President Lynn Williams, with the help of the Steelworkers Union, formed the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees, (S.O.A.R.). Our organization is made up of thousands of Steelworker Retirees who have experienced similar labor disputes with companies that have refused to bargain.
Today, companies continue to fight workers attempts to organize. Not only do they unlawfully fire labor leaders, knowing that the cost of back pay is, to them, a small price to pay to stay “union free”, but they use intimidation, scare tactics and threats of moving or closing the plant, and when workers do elect representation, many times a company will refuse to negotiate a contract with them.
On top of that, when workers are forced to strike a company, they are faced with the hiring of permanent replacement workers.
NiSource is the parent company of NIPSCO and owner of the Northern Indiana Fuel and Light Company (NIFL). The workers at NIFL organized their union in January of 2005 and negotiated with the company for over a year, and yet they still had no contract. It was a disgrace.
Workers in the United States have had a belly full. The United Steelworkers and SOAR are supporting legislation that would address these problems. It’s called the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and I urge everyone to support it by asking their U.S. Senators to co-sponsor this legislation.
The working families at the Republic Steel plant in south Chicago helped set the stage for what is today the largest, strongest, most powerful industrial union in North America. It was the determination and guts of the founders of our great union in places like Republic Steel that gives today’s Steelworkers and members of SOAR that sense of resolve and the fortitude needed to continue in that same tradition. Remembering those who lost their lives and suffered from the massacre itself is, of course, very important. However, it was the determination of the workers after the event, never giving up the fight for recognition that gives us the resolve to “never give up on justice”. We are activists with a memory.
Building SOAR to increase our strength on senior issues is a high priority for our union. With the anti-union attitude of the far right wing in the United States today, there is nothing more important to our retirees than having a strong voice representing their interests. By becoming more active in the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR), we can make our voices heard more powerfully in the struggle to protect and extend the rights of retirees.
Charlie Averill, SOAR Secretary-Treasurer
Monday, May 18, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Russ Stilwell on Employee Free Choice
“The opponents of this legislation, mainly big greedy corporations, think that after years of trampling all over workers rights that now we’re going to believe them when they say they want to protect their employees by forcing the secret ballot election process on them, that is just ridiculous,” said Stilwell. “We know better than to trust that these corporations have their employees best interests in mind, if they did they would allow their workers to organize if they wanted to. Not to mention the Employee Free Choice Act does not do away with the secret ballot, it just lets the employees decide if they want it or not.”
“I encourage all of you to get involved in this grassroots campaign,” urged Stilwell. “We need to write, call, and meet with our Senators and Representatives so they know that working families are counting on them to support the Employee Free Choice Act.”
Source: Indiana AFL-CIO
Monday, April 13, 2009
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Generations Must Stand United for Employee Free Choice Act
By Barbara J. Easterling
President, Alliance for Retired Americans
Our nation’s economic crisis is affecting nearly everyone. Unless you are getting one of those big Wall Street bonuses, you are probably struggling to pay your bills, keep your home, or afford to see a doctor or fill a prescription. There is no longer any doubt that the fundamentals of our economy are broken.
One way out of this mess – and a way to help both current and future retirees – is for Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
The Employee Free Choice Act recognizes that our middle class is in trouble because more and more, big corporations hold all the cards. As they lavish their CEOs with bonuses and golden parachutes, they slash jobs and cut all the wrong corners on customer service and safety. They break their promises to workers and retirees, leaving millions without health care and retirement plans.
But standing up for yourself by forming a union hasn’t been easy. One in five workers trying to form a union is fired. Decades of “hear no evil, see no evil” enforcement of labor laws has given management the green light to harass and intimidate anyone who tries to exercise their rights on the job. Too often federal officials fail to protect law-abiding employees, and instead act like the lookout man at a bank robbery.
Ever since I joined a union – on my very first day as a telephone operator in Akron, Ohio – I have seen firsthand how collective bargaining is the best hope workers have for good jobs and good wages. Now, as president of the Alliance for Retired Americans, I see that as middle class jobs disappear, so does the prospect of a safe and secure retirement. Did you know that workers in a union are nearly three times more likely to have pensions and five times more likely to have health insurance benefits? A union contract helps you long past when your working days are done.
Most of my generation is no longer in the workforce. But we worry about our younger friends and family who struggle to either find a job or hang onto the one they have. If things stay as they are, will they ever be able to retire?
In times this tough, we must all stand together. All of us must educate our neighbors – and particularly our lawmakers – about how our right to collectively bargain is broken. Only through restoring fairness to our labor laws can we restore our nation’s middle class to the greatness that it once was.
Barbara J. Easterling was elected president of the Alliance for Retired Americans in February of this year. She was previously the secretary-treasurer of the Communications Workers of America. For more information, visit www.retiredamericans.org
Friday, April 10, 2009
Religious Organizations and Faith Groups Working Hard for the Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act
March 10, 2009
Led by Interfaith Worker Justice, religious organizations and faith groups have been working hard for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.
A dozen faith groups and 50 faith leaders came together March 9 at the Methodist House on Capitol Hill to reaffirm their support for the Employee Free Choice Act and to discuss the theological foundation of that support from Judaism, Catholicism, and Evangelical Christianity.
Rev. Adam Taylor of Sojourners quoted liberally from both the Old and New Testaments including Isaiah 58, Jeremiah 22 and St. Luke to make the point that God commands the faithful to fight poverty and inequality. He went on to say that in a society and economy as unequal as ours, organizing unions and restoring collective bargaining is one of the most important ways to fight poverty and inequality.
Citing the Papal Novarum, now 150 years old, Dr. Joseph McCartin said that Catholic teaching has long held that forming unions and protecting workers rights are essential to democracy and to the work of Catholicism in the public arena. Dr. McCartin is a professor of history and a founding member of Catholic Scholars for Workers Rights. They are circulating a statement supporting the Employee Free Choice Act at Catholic colleges and universities.
Renaye Manley of Interfaith Worker Justice moderated the meeting. IWJ's founder, Kim Bobo, reminded all that "All faith traditions teach that workers should be treated with respect and dignity and paid fairly. Unions serve vital roles in ensuring workers' just treatment and pay, which is why Interfaith Worker Justice supports the Employee Free Choice Act. In this time of economic crisis, workers need a voice in the future of their companies that comes through collective bargaining. "
Rev. Baldemar Velasquez, founder and president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee and ordained Pentecostal minister, was one of the last speakers. Although farmworers are not covered by federal labor law, he told of organizing 7000 farmworkers in North Carolina and thousands more in Ohio and across the midwest using majority signup.
Today, March 10, Rev. Jim Wallis, America's best known Evangelical preacher, author and founder of Sojourners, will testify for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act before the US Senate Labor Committee. Following that hearing, the Employee Free Choice Act will be formally introduced in the Congress by Senators Ted Kennedy and Tom Harkin and Rep. George Miller.
Source: Huffington Post
Thursday, April 09, 2009
IUN prof: U.S. needs Employee Free Choice Act
We have learned there was nothing free about unregulated markets; capital was "free" to invest in anything, including worthless paper. We, in contrast, are stuck with the bill.
"Free" trade has stripped the United States of its manufacturing base and left us with declining wages and standards of living. In Indiana, the result has been a dramatic increase in plant closings as companies shipped their work first to Mexico and now to Southeast Asia.
That certainly was never my understanding of the word "free."
The Bill of Rights asserts some of our "freedoms" as citizens, including the right to free speech and free assembly. But these freedoms are equally misleading when it comes to workers and the workplace.
When we are at work, we do not have the freedom to say what we think without consequences, and we do not have the freedom to assemble. Not on private property, anyhow.
For the past three decades, when workers have mentioned the word "union," they have risked their livelihoods. Often, they have lost their jobs, though ostensibly for some other reason.
Now a bill is before Congress to amend the National Labor Relations Act so workers can exercise their legal rights without losing their jobs. Let me explain this Employee Free Choice Act.
Under the Labor Relations Act, workers have the right to organize and bargain collectively through an organization of their choosing. This right, or freedom, is also supported by international law.
Yet when workers have exercised this right, they often have faced severe retaliation. Even if, despite firings and threats, workers vote in the majority for a union, employers have refused to bargain, as the law requires, "in good faith." What seemed like a good idea in 1936 -- a secret-ballot election -- became an opening for anti-union employers to delay and threaten firings, wage cuts or plant closures.
The Employee Free Choice Act is a simple measure to bring labor-management relations back under the law. It gives workers a choice, once they have decided to sign a union card. They can gain recognition directly with a majority of signed cards, or they can call for a secret ballot election.
From the business-side hoopla on this question, you wouldn't know that workers now would be able to decide whether to accept recognition directly or have a secret-ballot election. According to business spokespeople, workers would be forced to give up their secret-ballot vote. When did corporate CEOs begin worrying so much about workers' rights? That alone should be a clue that we need to look into the Act itself.
Under the Employee Free Choice Act, if workers choose a union, the company must bargain a contract, something that rarely happens today. With money, lawyers and time on their side, employers have robbed workers of the choice to be represented by a union by refusing to agree to anything.
Under the Employee Free Choice Act, if the union and the company cannot agree, then a third party will make the decision on the contract, based on the union's last offer and the company's last offer. This is called interest arbitration, or baseball arbitration. It's nothing new to labor-management relations. With interest arbitration as a final step, both parties are encouraged to make their best possible settlement offers.
Given that less than 10 percent of the private sector workforce is unionized, companies have had too much "freedom" to do as they please, unregulated by government and not accountable to their own workforce. We have seen what unregulated and unaccountable corporations do.
If we are to create jobs, rebuild our manufacturing base and offer a future to the next generation, we need to give workers a chance and a choice. Our congressional representatives need to support the Employee Free Choice Act and stop making excuses for those who destroyed our economy.
Ruth Needleman is a professor of labor studies at Indiana University Northwest.
This Article appeared in the Gary Post Tribune
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Congressman Joe Donnelly Supports Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)
"As you know, I believe that it is the right of every worker to organize and bargain collectively for fair pay, benefits, and appropriate working conditions if they so choose. Currently, when non-union employees want to organize and join a union, they can petition their employer simply by collecting signed authorization cards. However, the employer has the option to force an election governed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
The Employee Free Choice Act would allow workers who choose not to pursue the NLRB election process to certify a union as their collective bargaining representative by collecting signed authorization cards from a majority of the eligible workforce. In addition, the bill provides terms for mediation and arbitration during the negotiation of an initial contract and establishes stronger workplace enforcement of our labor laws.
I understand that good labor policy requires a careful balance between the financial challenges facing employers and the necessity of maintaining a strong workforce. I signed onto The Employee Free Choice Act because I believe it is a positive step in the direction of a more balanced economy, and I look forward to working with employers-both large and small-to ensure they have the tools and resources they need to stay competitive in today's global economy."
Joe Donnelly
Monday, March 30, 2009
Demonstration Tomorrow Morning
Fair Labor Agreement NOW
for Georgia Pacific Workers
Tuesday March 31 at 8:15 a.m.
Where: Hampton Inn, 1451 Silhavy Rd.,
(behind Strongbows at Route 30 & 49)
Valparaiso, IN
Georgia Pacific has insisted on wage and benefit concessions - despite making over $40 million in profits. This is a clear attempt to bust the union.
This is the best example I know of as to why the Employee Free Choice Act should be passed by Congress.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Go Obama Go!!
Eight years of RepubliCRAP.
The RepubliCANTS have dug us a pretty deep hole and now want to tell you to use a small shovel to dig us out of it.
Don’t listen to these crooks.
You got the steam roller. Keep it rolling. Get everything we voted for you to get. Don’t let up. Forget about trying to placate these ReCANTlicans.
Go for it. Put it all in one big package. Up or down vote.
Employee Free Choice Act.
Healthcare.
Energy.
Education.
Immigration
We’re behind you Barack. Don’t let them stop you.
Thanks.
Charlie Averill
Friday, March 13, 2009
It's about democracy and rights, not secret elections
By Jon Geenen
The absurdity of this is obvious. These are the same people who have fought every initiative to increase minimum wage. These are the people who provided unwavering support of NAFTA and other offshoring efforts that have decimated our manufacturing base. These are the people who worked tirelessly to defeat new health and safety regulations and environmental efforts related to cleaner water and air and safer chemicals, not to mention their vehement opposition to health care reform.
The American business community claims there is a travesty associated with the Employee Free Choice Act, and they are right. But the travesty has nothing to do with secret ballots. Like the master illusionist creating an act of prestidigitation, corporate America is undermining democracy, while at the same time pretending to be its biggest defender in the workplace.
The media efforts and the unlimited money provide a glimpse to the general public about how far corporations will go and how much they will spend to prevent workers from organizing a union. To be sure, their "democracy campaign" is a textbook strategy straight out of the union-busters handbook, complete with intensive misinformation campaigns, threats of plant closures, doom and gloom and the ostracizing and isolation of pro-union workers as un-American or out of sync with their peers. This time, rather than doing it to a worker in a plant, they are doing it to the general public.
The corporate-funded campaign attacks EFCA as undemocratic and warns that if passed into law, workers would lose access to a secret ballot election as a way to determine majority status for union representation. There is one problem with that. Workers absolutely would be entitled to a secret ballot election under EFCA.
EFCA would not prohibit or otherwise limit the use of the secret ballot. What it would do is say that the decision for workers about how and whether to form a union is a decision that is left workers - not to their bosses.
These opponents also would have you believe that somehow signing your name on a card to indicate your interest in a union is somehow a new or novel approach to organizing. There is a problem with this, too. That is how it works today and, for the most part, how it has worked since the 1930s. In order for workers to gain collective bargaining rights, workers always have had to demonstrate majority support. Signing cards or providing signatures is the first step in forming a union.
So what really would change with EFCA? Employees alone would decide how to show majority status in a unionization campaign. Why does corporate America really care? Because their ability to "intervene" becomes limited. You see, even though many progressive employers recognize unions by the card check method today, those that don't know that by demanding a National Labor Relations Board election, they gain 42 precious days to run an anti-union campaign where they can fire, demote, coerce, threaten and intimidate workers with little consequence and effectively block workers' attempts to (ironically) democratize the workplace. Under EFCA, employees would be more likely to have made that decision before the boss finds out, making the matter a decision for workers and workers alone as the Wagner Act originally envisioned.
Unfortunately, business knows what we all know: that except for the small minority of people who are simply philosophically opposed to unions, the rest of us believe, whether we belong to a union or not, that the right to unionize is a critical component of a democratic society. Democracy does not and cannot exist where strong and independent trade unions do not exist. In our country, the rise and fall of personal rights and liberty have paralleled the rise and fall of the labor movement. Why? Because the labor movement is a unique social movement that lends its voice to all working families, uniting the masses. This is what corporate America fears but doesn't dare say - because that truly would be undemocratic.
The so-called democracy card is simply a red herring.
Jon Geenen of Kaukauna is an international vice president with the United Steelworkers.
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