Players in the MLB (and the NFL and the NBA) aren’t just on teams with each other. They also share a membership that transcends teams and that they maintain even as they get traded around the country: They’re union members.
Twelve members of the Major League Baseball Players Association have come forward to say that they want the union representation that they have to be more easily available to other workers, through the Employee Free Choice Act.
The players—Shane Victorino, Jimmy Rollins, Mark Teixeira, Heath Bell, Dave Bush, LaTroy Hawkins, Torii Hunter, John Lannan, Andrew Miller, J.J. Putz, Justin Verlander and Adam Wainwright—said in a statement:
All Americans should have the same opportunity we’ve had—to be able to join a union without being fired and to negotiate with their employers without being penalized. Today, our country is facing some tough times. Health care costs are skyrocketing. Families are losing homes. Savings and retirement income are disappearing overnight.
Now more than ever, we need a strong union movement to protect our jobs, our pensions, and our future. The Employee Free Choice Act simply guarantees a level playing field for all workers. It makes sure everyone plays by the same rules. That’s as important in the workplace as it is in baseball.
Tags: Employee Free Choice Act
This is huge news:
Amid a growing split in the business community over climate policy, Pacific Gas and Electric, a major California utility, is withdrawing from the United States Chamber of Commerce, citing “fundamental differences” with the chamber’s approach to global warming.
“We find it dismaying that the chamber neglects the indisputable fact that a decisive majority of experts have said the data on global warming are compelling and point to a threat that cannot be ignored,” Peter A. Darbee, the chairman of PG&E, wrote in a letter to the chamber.
Remember, the Chamber of Commerce isn’t just a leading climate change denier—so extreme that utility companies are having problems with it. The Chamber is also a major opponent of just about any change in law that would benefit working people. It’s a major opponent of health care reform. They’ve lobbied against health care reform.
Recent polls have shown that a broad majority of Americans favor a “public option” for health insurance. Yet public opinion may not be as powerful a force as the lobbying efforts of industries seeking to protect the status quo. Consumer groups that favor President Obama’s proposals to lower costs and expand coverage are being decidedly outspent and out-lobbied by drug manufacturers, insurers, HMOS and doctors’ associations.
In the first three months of 2009, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has spent more money on lobbying since 1998 than any other company, trade association, or advocacy group, and the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America (PhARMA)–the No. 6 all-time spender–paid lobbyists a combined $22.5 million to promote their interests.
And they’ve run misleading ads against it.
The Chamber of Commerce is a major opponent of the Employee Free Choice Act.
The Chamber of Commerce tries to pretend they speak for small business owners, because small businesses are popular. In reality, in the words of one small business owner,
“The US Chamber of Commerce doesn’t speak for small businesses any more than Burger King speaks for cows. While the Chamber works overtime to represent the narrow interests of bloated, wealthy corporations, our nation’s small businesses are struggling simply to keep their doors open.
The Chamber uses small businesses as a cover while it advances the interests of multinational corporations—against small business owners, against working people, against families, against children. Their climate change denialism is a perfect example of how they’ll hurt any and all of us to benefit big money.
Next time you hear the Chamber of Commerce trying to pretend their policies are in your best interest, remember: They’re Burger King, and in their eyes, you’re a cow.
(And PS, no, you are not a cow.)
Update: Add another one: New Mexico utility holding company PNM Resources has left the Chamber over its climate change position as well.
Tags: Chamber of Commerce, Employee Free Choice Act, Health Care
Picture it: You’re a hotel housekeeper. This is not an easy job. Workers in luxury hotels are suffering high rates of injury, especially as beds with heavier mattresses, extra sheets, and heavy duvets, become common while housekeepers are expected to clean the same number of rooms in the same time as before. (Don’t think you could hurt yourself making beds? Try lifting an expensive mattress.)
According to an article on a Toronto hotel worker,
A study conducted by Dublin’s union, UNITE HERE, found that room attendants’ injuries are on the rise as hotel ownership consolidates under a few multinationals that compete to out-luxuriate each other with more deluxe beds. Room attendants’ workloads are increasing dramatically but their rate of pay is not changing, nor is the time they’re allotted to clean each room. They are working harder and faster, often skipping breaks and meals. The study, which surveyed over 600 room attendants, reports that 91 percent suffer from job-related pain and most of them take pain medication.
As guests become more comfortable, room attendants are experiencing more pain. Dublin’s shoulders ache from the new Sheraton Sweet Sleeper beds, which have heavier mattresses and are covered with more sheets and pillows than ever before. One co-worker suffers from a torn rotator cuff (an injury common to baseball players), others have sore knees and backs. “Everyone I know has pain,” she says. “It’s criminal for us to be working so hard.”
So you’re working this not-easy, not-glamorous job, cleaning rooms you can’t afford to stay in at serious cost to your body. But hey, at least you’re making a living wage and you have benefits because you have a union. (Edit–though the workers are currently being supported by the union, they aren’t members. Which highlights the point, really.) So one day the boss tells you to train up some workers who are going to be vacation replacements, and you do it. And then the boss tells you you’re fired, and those vacation replacements you just trained? They’re getting your jobs, and they’ll be paid just over half what you were making—just $8 an hour—and no benefits. You, on the other hand, have no job.
That’s what just happened to Hyatt workers in Boston, as newspaper and blog readers not just in Massachusetts but around the country know by now. The governor has called the Hyatt CEO to register his concern, there’s been a rally of hundreds of people and Rep. Michael Capuano (also a Senate candidate) has called for a boycott, columnists as far away as Ohio have registered their disgust, and USA Today readers don’t like it either.
But ultimately, only Hyatt management gets to make this decision. That’s the state of labor law in the US today. Which is why, back in July, when Marriott “suspended measuring hours worked to maintain health care benefits,” I argued that though that was a great decision by an employer, it was also a reason this country needs stronger unions (in addition to, as Ezra Klein had argued, health care reform). It’s also a reason we need major labor law reform. Because you shouldn’t have to depend on getting lucky with a good boss—on working for Marriott, not Hyatt.
Hyatt management makes the decision—do right, or do wrong—but we can certainly all let them know what we think of the one they’ve made, and how it will affect our travel plans in future. In particular, if you have any role in the planning of conferences or other group events, let Hyatt know how many people you represent, and how you feel.
And we can support the Employee Free Choice Act and other labor law reform that will exact a higher price on scumbag employers like Hyatt.
Tags: Employee Free Choice Act
