More than 1,800 University of Oregon (UO) faculty members now have a voice at work after they chose to join United Academics, an affiliate of AFT Oregon and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). The Oregon Employment Relations Board Friday certified the professors’ choice after the university dropped its objections.
The new union includes tenure- and non-tenure-track faculty, adjunct instructors, research associates and assistants and post-doctoral scholars. Scott Pratt, professor of philosophy, says the composition of the bargaining unit
paves the way for UO tenure-related and non-tenure-track faculty—working together—to have a more substantive voice in refocusing our university on the core mission of teaching and research.
In March, a majority of faculty members signed union authorization cards and the university initially filed objections. But after several meetings with the professors, the administration dropped those objections. Says English instructor Tina Boscha:
We now have the official means to negotiate and collectively bargain for better working conditions, transparency and accountability. This will improve the learning conditions of our students.
Meanwhile, Oregon State University (OSU) graduate employees are working hard to form a union. A strong majority of workers already have signed cards asking to join AFT Oregon Local 6069—the Coalition of Graduate Employees.
But OSU President Edward Ray will not agree to recognize the strong desire of nearly 800 graduate workers who have voted to form a union. Click here to sign a petition and help these workers join Oregon’s union movement.
Earlier this year, it looked like a battle was brewing between Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and the Cleveland Teachers Union (CTU). Jackson’s school reform plan would have eliminated collective bargaining and a number of other workplace provisions for teachers.
But CTU leaders, Jackson and other education advocates worked together to find common ground. This collaboration has resulted in an agreement in which both sides made tough choices and kept their focus on the children. But in the end, says the Cleveland Plain Dealer in a recent editorial:
They did it. And they did it right….Each side gave a little to give students a lot.
CTU President David Quolke says that by working with Jackson, the teachers were able to make “bad legislation better for educators and,”
most importantly, to move forward with our most important priority of providing a quality education and safe environment for the children that we see each day.
The extremist American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has announced it is disbanding its task force that developed and pushed the rash of voter suppression and “stand your ground ” laws passed in recent years by Republican-controlled state legislatures. But don’t believe that ALEC is backing off its attacks on workers, their wages and their unions. Meanwhile, the group continues to lose key members, with two more major companies severing ties with the right-wing group.
Although groups have been fighting ALEC’s radical agenda for some, ALEC’s involvement with the “Stand Your Ground” law in Florida, now at the center of the Trayvon Martin killing in Florida, sharply focused the spotlight the ALEC. So far, 10 large corporations have dropped their ALEC memberships.
ALEC claims it is disbanding its Public Safety and Elections Task Force to concentrate on “free market” and economic issues. But writes The Nation’s John Nichols:
The disbanding of the “Public Safety and Elections” task force looks in every sense to be a desperate attempt to slow an exodus of high-profile corporations from the group’s membership roll. It cannot be seen as anything other than a response to the pressure the group has felt as high-profile corporate members have been quitting it on an almost daily basis.
Reed Elsevier, publisher of prestigious scientific journals like Cell and The Lancet, and the owner of Lexis Nexis, dropped its ALEC membership. The big time publisher was also on the 23-member, inner circle ALEC Private Enterprise Board. Also the Arizona firm American Traffic Solutions, the pioneer in electronic traffic enforcement products such as red light and speed cameras has left ALEC.
With financial and ideological links to the extremist Koch brothers, ALEC peddles fill-in-your-state’s-name model legislation to suppress voting rights and eliminate collective bargaining. Its model bills include anti-immigrant legislation, right-wing measures on education and tax breaks for corporations.
Last summer, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), along with The Nation, issued ALEC Exposed a report that includes the more than 800 ALEC-authored model bills that have been passed or introduced by state lawmakers.
Says CMD Executive Director Lisa Graves:
ALEC’s announcement is a partial victory for the power of grassroots citizen action, but for Americans concerned about brand-name corporations underwriting ALEC’s extreme agenda to make it more difficult for American citizens to vote and to protect armed vigilantes, ALEC’s PR maneuver to try to distance itself from its record of extremism is an empty gesture unless it and the corporations that have bankrolled its operations work to repeal ALEC-backed laws.
She says that ALEC’s focus on a so-called ‘jobs’ agenda is:
a thinly disguised effort to make it more difficult for American families to hold corporations accountable when their drugs or other products kill or injure their loved ones, to strip workers of their rights to organize or even get sick pay to help care for their children when they are ill, limit the ability of the government to protect the health and safety of American families.
Tributes continue to come in for Mark Ayers, president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), who died unexpectedly April 8 at age 63. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka calls Ayers an “extraordinary leader and friend.”
Ayers was a 38-year member of the Electrical Workers (IBEW) and served in several capacities before being elected BCTD president in 2007. IBEW President Edwin Hill says of Ayers:
I can’t think of anyone who worked harder to build our common movement. His steady hand and activist spirit steered the IBEW and the Building Trades through some of the toughest times we’ve ever faced. But more than that: Mark was my friend.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis says she and Ayers “shared the same values.”
Whether it was fighting for investments in infrastructure and good construction jobs, securing decent wages and safe workplaces or protecting health benefits and pension plans, Mark stood proudly on the side of working people. And I was proud to stand with him.
Laborers (LIUNA) President Terry O’Sullivan says Ayers was a “true trade unionist and a valiant warrior for change.”
Ayers, says United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard, “set a standard as a trade unionist for us all to make the world a better place for everyone, but especially for those who struggle daily.”
Edward Wytkind, president of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD), says:
Mark’s passion and commitment were apparent to all of us in his never-ending battle to put millions of construction workers on the job rebuilding our nation.
Fire Fighters (IAFF) General President Harold Schaitberger says Ayers “knew the hardships of the people he fought for because, first and foremost, he was one of them.”
Everything he did revolved around making life better for those he stood shoulder to shoulder with on the job throughout his career.
Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) General President Joseph J. Nigro says, “Mark was committed to bettering the lives of working families, offering so much of himself through his service to the nation, his family, and to the labor movement.”
Bricklayers (BAC) President James Boland praises Ayers for:
His vision, guidance and a lifetime defending the rights of workers to fair wages, decent working conditions, good benefits and the chance to retire with dignity will live on to inspire not only those whose lives he touched but also future generations of trade unionists.
Ironworkers General President Walter Wise says from Ayers’ “days as a Navy aviator and throughout his career with the IBEW Workers and his leadership of the Building and Construction Trades Department”:
He has stood as a true trade unionist and a man of impeccable character and integrity.
Ayers served as the chair of the AFL-CIO Union Veterans Council since its founding in 2008. Union Veterans Council Director James Gilbert says:
On behalf of the officers, Executive Committee and Governing Board of the Union Veterans Council, I would like to express my deepest sympathies to the family and friends of President Ayers. As the founding chairperson of the AFL-CIO’s Union Veterans Council, President Ayers’ visionary leadership and determination were vital to the program’s success and will continue to serve as our inspiration in the future. President Ayers was an outspoken advocate for increased career and training opportunities and access to quality health care for our fellow veterans. The UVC will honor the work and memory of President Ayers by continuing the endeavors for which he championed.
Veterans Council staff coordinator Gordon Pavy says, “His leadership was instrumental for its initial success and growth over the past four years. All union veterans salute Mark and send condolences to his family.”
Jim Wasser, retired IBEW member and U.S. Navy veteran, says:
It was a great honor to have been with President Ayers for the founding of the Union Veterans Council in Ohio in 2008, and as a fellow Navy Vietnam veteran and IBEW member to have worked with him through the Union Veterans Council over the years. We will keep up the work he inspired us to do.
Darryl Moch, executive director of the Labor Heritage Foundation (LHF), says Ayers was a strong supporter of the LHF over the years and of art and culture of the movement.
His spirit and presence will be with us forever as we continue to fight for working people all around this nation and the world.
What’s the “job creation” centerpiece of the Romney/Ryan/Republican budget?
Cutting those burdensome, job-killing corporate taxes. American firms, according to Romney and friends, are being bled dry by the oppressive U.S. corporate tax rate. That might be good rhetoric, but it’s nowhere close to the truth.
A new report shows that most of the 30 Fortune 500 companies that paid no federal income tax from 2008 through 2010 were able to keep up their tax dodge two-step in 2011. Those nimble firms include Verizon, G.E., Boeing, Wells Fargo, Tenet Health Care and more.
Don’t feel bad for the other four. Their effective tax rate was less than 4 percent. Overall, says the report:
In total, 2008-11 federal income taxes for the 30 companies remained negative, despite $205 billion in pretax U.S. profits. Overall, they enjoyed an average effective federal income tax rate of negative 3.1 percent over the four years.
It’s not just the dirty 30 ducking taxes. Overall the actual tax rate corporations pay, called the “effective” tax rate, is at 12.1 percent of profits—far, far less than what most of us pay.
But these corporations and other big companies have armies of tax lawyers who squeeze cash through the tiniest of loopholes. If they paid their fair share—along the lines of what working families pay—it would help raise the kind of revenue needed to support essential programs and services for working families, military service personnel, students, veterans, seniors and the poor. The same vital programs Romney, Ryan and the Republicans want to cut.
Join 100,000 activists of the 99% Spring on April 17, Tax Day, to demand that the 1% and corporations pay their fair share. Click here to find a Tax Day action near you. Click here to find a training session near you.
On April 19, we will launch our updated Executive PayWatch site that will look at the hundreds of billions of dollars of cash from profits and tax breaks corporations are stashing while they lay off workers, send jobs overseas and pay outrageous CEO salaries, bonuses and perks.
Two new features on the AFL-CIO website introduce you to union members who are helping families in the Reading, Pa., community and who keep San Francisco’s iconic cable cars running.
Twenty years ago, when members of the United Steelworkers (USW) in Reading, Pa., came together to establish a food bank for families in need, it served about 40 union families. Two decades later, the Helping Hands Food Bank is serving more than 400 families in the community, union and nonunion alike.
Says Carl Ramich of USW Local 3733, who was one of the original food bank organizers:
“We pushed to organize it. Looking at it now, with how big it is, we’ve really accomplished something in this community.”
Go to www.aflcio.org and click on the “In Our Communities” box on the left to find out more and see a video.
A new “What I Do” video on the AFL-CIO homepage features members of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 6 who keep San Francisco’s famed cable cars running smoothly. Says Armando Guzman:
“People who come to visit San Francisco, they want to ride cable cars. I’m really proud to tell them, ‘Hey, I work on them.’”
Hop aboard our homepage, click on the “What I Do” box and take a ride up Powell and Hyde streets to Fisherman’s Wharf.
Don’t forget to share both videos with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.
Tomorrow, members of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) around the nation will join in the National Day of Action for Public Transportation organized by Occupy Boston. ATU President Larry Hanley says public transportation is critical to our nation’s economic recovery.
It’s the bankers and brokers—1%—who control the money for public transportation. It was their greed and corruption that brought our nation’s economy to its knees and destroyed America’s middle class. It’s time for our nation to invest in mass transit and improve the lives of the 99%, not pad the pockets of the 1%.
Hanley says massive service cuts, transit worker layoffs and higher passenger fares “are really just another kind of tax, levied on those who can least afford it.”
Occupy Boston says service cuts and fare hikes will have a “devastating and disproportionate impact on low-income communities, communities of color, students, workers, seniors and the environment.”
Hanley says the ATU has long believed that mass transit is an essential part of forging a sustainable future for our nation and that privatization of public transportation only leads to diminished service.
The nearly 2 million home care workers—about 92 percent of whom are women—who take care of the elderly and people with disabilities often work 12-hour days and 60 to 70 hours a week. But they are seldom paid overtime and their net income is often less than the minimum wage. Unlike workers covered by federal labor laws, they are not paid for all the hours they are on the clock, witnesses told a U.S. House hearing Tuesday.
Because of a 45-year-old rule, home care workers are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage, overtime and other provisions. In December the Obama administration proposed a rule to bring home care workers under the law’s protection.
Catherine Ruckelshaus, National Employment Law Project (NELP) legal co-director, told the House Education and Workforce Committee:
The poverty wages that typify the home care industry contribute to high employee turnover rates which are costly, threaten quality of care and can increase workloads and lower morale.…Long hours can also result in worse care for patients, as care-givers working 60- or 70-hour weeks face fatigue and stress performing what is a demanding job under any circumstances.
Nancy Leppink, deputy administrator for the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, told the committee:
The earnings of employees working as home health aides and as personal care aides remain among the lowest in the service industry….They work hard to take care of our families and neighbors, yet nearly 40 percent of in-home care workers have to rely on food stamps or other forms of public assistance in order to make ends meet.
She also said the cost of the rule to employers would be negligible, “less than one-fourth of 1 percent of the industry’s annual revenues.” Click here for her testimony.
Republicans on the panel and witnesses from the home care industry opposed the proposed rule.
When the rule was proposed, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called it “a long-overdue matter of basic justice for the hundreds of thousands of workers who do the vital work of providing at-home care for our nation’s elderly and disabled citizens.”
If you’re a regular reader of our AFL-CIO Now news blog, you might come to our site without stopping first at the AFL-CIO home page here. If you haven’t been there recently, you’ve missed a couple of additions and new features on how unions and union members are connecting with communities.
There is a great video addition to the “In Our Communities” section from the AFT that explores the work the union and its partners in the Reconnecting McDowell initiative are doing to improve education and the economy in McDowell County, W.Va., one of the poorest counties in the nation. After you watch the video, click here to learn more from AFT about Reconnecting McDowell.
In our "What I Do" feature, hear from James Petersen, head custodian—and more—in the Modesto (Calif.) City school system. Says Diane Scott, principal of Rose Avenue Elementary School:
Jim sees the big picture of education, not just ‘I’m here to clean the room.’ He understands the importance that the kids learn in a great environment. What he does is way beyond what he is contracted to do, it’s more than a job for him.
Find out how Petersen—a member of the California School Employees Association (CSEA)—helps kids learn and grow through his “From Rose Buds to Roses” school gardening project.
More than 1,500 Minnesota working men and women packed the state Capitol hallways Monday to protest a corporate-backed bill that would put a so-called right to work (RTW) state constitutional amendment on the November ballot.
The state Senate Judiciary Committee passed the bill (S.F. 1705) by a 7-6 vote, with one Republican joining five Democrats in voting against the bill.
Before the vote, Jennifer Michelson, a nurse at United Hospital and a member of the Minnesota Nurses Association, told Workday Minnesota:
This is yet another unfair and irresponsible corporate power grab that benefits only the 1%.
Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson said of the turnout at the Capitol, “there is sizable opposition to this reckless amendment that puts Minnesota’s high quality of life at risk.”
Plain and simple, the more people hear about this amendment, the more they realize that it is a bad deal for middle-class Minnesotans.
Because the measure is a proposed constitutional amendment, Gov. Mark Dayton (D) cannot veto the bill. The bill has to pass both the full Senate and House and it is unclear when those votes may occur.
Working families say the law is unfair, puts them and their communities at risk, has no place in the state Constitution and is unnecessary. Under existing law, no one in Minnesota can be forced to join a union—contrary to RTW backers’ claims.
While study after study shows that RTW laws do not boost job creation, backers continue to claim otherwise. Ursula Tuttle, a Minneapolis registered nurse, told the committee prior to the vote that she lived in Oklahoma in 2001 when voters there approved a “right to work” measure. She told the committee she voted in favor and later regretted it.
I believed it would create jobs. It didn’t create jobs, and we stayed poor.
Since the Oklahoma RTW law was passed, the state has lost about one-third of its manufacturing jobs.
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