PROTECTING IMMIGRANT FELLOW WORKERS FROM TRUMP ATTACKS

Labor Notes, an organization dedicated to the growth of the labor movement is holding a special on line workshop Jan. 6 to discuss what unions can do to protect immigrant fellow workers and union members from the threatened attacks by the incoming Trump administration.

The Labor Notes call to action, as posted on their website, reads as follows:

“As the Trump administration cracks down on undocumented workers, that persecution threatens the power and solidarity of all of us in the labor movement. From farm workers to food processing to janitors to taxi drivers to building trades to everyone whose labor makes society run, we draw strength from the recognition that an injury to one is an injury to all.

“Join rank-and-file union members at the Labor Notes National Call on building solidarity to support immigrant workers.

“When: Monday, January 6
Time: 8 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. ET / 5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. PT
Where: This is an online event and will be held via Zoom.

“This national online workshop will start with a panel of union members and leaders sharing lessons on how we beat divisions in our unions and communities, and then laying out action plans for how we go on offense when immigrant co-workers are under attack.”

Courtesy Locker Associates, New York

For further information and how you can join in the Zoom conference click this link.

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DECEMBER BITS & PIECES

PITTSBURGH NEWSPAPER WORKERS BEGIN THIRD YEAR ON STRIKE

Communication Workers of America strikers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette began their third year of picketing the newspaper this past October. It is one of the longest strikes in America today.

Members of the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh-CWA walked out two years ago after the paper  unilaterally cut off the healthcare of its production, advertising, and distribution workers. Despite several court decisions favoring the union, the newspaper still refuses to bargain in good faith.

CWA News, 12/5

 

AFL-CIO HEAD CALLS FOR LABOR-CENTERED DEMOCRATIC PARTY

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler this week outlined a program calling upon the Democratic National Committee to re-orient its goals by bringing “working people back to its center.” Noting that union members voted for Democratic endorsed candidates from the top of the ticket on down at a much higher rate than the general public, she outlined a four-point program for the DNC when it elects a new slate of officers in the coming months. To see her full statement, click on the link below.

AFL-CIO Press Release, 12/10

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WISCONSIN JUDGE NIXES LAW THAT LIMITED UNION RIGHTS

In a significant judicial victory, a judge in Wisconsin state court threw out a 2011 state law that had deprived public workers of the right to collective bargaining. The law, pushed through the legislature by the anti-labor governor at the time, Scott Walker, was enacted after Republicans won control the executive and legislative branches of the state government in 2010.

But, in a brazen political move, the law exempted police and firefighters unions, two unions that were supporters of Walker and Republicans. The law caused an uproar across the state at the time as thousands of workers turned out at the capital to protest it.

Judge Jacob Frost of Dane County Circuit Court ruled Dec. 2 that this selective choice of workers who get collective bargaining rights was a violation of the state constitution.

While former Gov. Walker condemned the decision of Judge Frost, the present governor, Tony Evers, hailed it as “great news for Wisconsin workers.” And Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Stephanie Bloomingdale declared that “restoring union freedoms to Wisconsin workers will strengthen Wisconsin’s middle class, lift up the voices of workers and lead to better public services for our communities.”

The decision is certain to be appealed.

NY Times, 12/2

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NLRB REPORTS BIG SURGE IN UNION ELECTION FILINGS

Since 2021, the year President Biden took office, the number of union election petitions filed with the National Labor Relations Board has skyrocketed, the board recently reported. In the last year alone, the requests have jumped 29 percent from nearly 2,600 to nearly 3,600. Under the law, if 30 percent of the workers in a workplace sign union authorization cards, the NLRB is charged with reviewing the petitions and conducting an election. And if a majority of the workers select a union, the employer must bargain in good faith with that union.

The big jump in union election filings reflects the  labor-friendly policies of the Biden administration and the presidential appointments to the NLRB that has changed the board’s policies.

Over the years, however, Republican appointees to the board have disproportionately been corporate-friendly lawyers, or even those advising companies on how to avoid unionization. This has severely weakened the ability of unions to get the board to enforce the law. Many unions have avoided the NLRB altogether.

The change in NLRB policies has created one big problem – a shortage of personnel to handle the huge caseload of approving petitions and supervising elections. The board pointed to the fact that when it faced a similar situation back in 2011 during the Obama administration, it had 62 percent more field staff. Cuts during the Trump years have since made the situation difficult.

Huffpost, 10/15

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OCTOBER BITS AND PIECES

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DOCK WORKERS SUSPEND STRIKE

After striking for just a few days, dock  workers at Atlantic and Gulf ports suspended their strike action until the end of the year unless negotiations between their union, the International Longshoreman’s Association, and the US Maritime Alliance, representing the shipping industry, reach a contract by then. (See item on Labor News page of this website.)  ILA members have been working under a six-year contract that expired Sept 30. During that time they have seen their real income deteriorate during the pandemic when many ports could not operate. The workers unload cargo from ships docked in the ports They are seeking substantial pay increases to make up for their losses and protection from automation severely cutting into their jobs.

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HAWAII HOSPITAL LOCKS OUT NURSES AFTER ONE-DAY STRIKE

In a brazen move to pressure nurses to accept a management offer, the management at Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women and Children in Hawaii locked out 600 nurses indefinitely beginning Sept. 14. The lockout began a day after the nurses held a one-day strike to protest the ongoing bullying tactics of the medical center in retaliation for nurses reporting unsafe staffing conditions and expressing their concern for the safety of patients.

The nurses, members of the Hawaii Nurses Association OPEIU Local 50, have been working without a contract since December 1st, 2023 and they refuse to give up on winning a contract that will hold the hospital accountable for unsafe staffing incidents.

Hawaii Nurses Assn bulletin. 9/14

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SEPTEMBER BITS & PIECES

AT&T WORKERS STRIKE, CITING COMPANY’S STALLING TACTICS

Accusing AT&T of deliberately delaying bargaining on a new contract, over 17,000 workers in nine southeastern states hit the bricks August 16 in a strike that has resulted in a tentative agreement. But the company has continued to stall on a final agreement. The strike involves technicians, customer service representatives, and workers who install and maintain the AT&T network. The union, Communication Workers of America, is seeking improvements in wages that take into account increases in the cost of living, keeping affordable health care, and protections for a younger tier of workers who are subject to forced overtime without notification. This practice by the company make it impossible for them to plan time with their families. The union has filed charges of unfair labor practices with the National Labor  Relations Board on AT&T’s delaying tactics.

 AT&T strike, 9.10

 

HOTEL WORKERS STRIKE OVER STAFFING CUTS

Communication Workers of America

About 10,000 hotel workers went out on strike over the Labor Day weekend, disrupting services at 25 Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott hotels across the country. The strike by members of Unite Here was set to last for several days during the busy holiday week. It affects hotels in Boston, Seattle, San Diego, Honolulu and San Jose, California and could spread to Oakland, California, Providence, Rhode Island, and New Haven, Connecticut, among other cities. The strikers are demanding reversal of the cuts in staffing that hotels put into place during the Covid pandemic when travel was reduced. But after the pandemic when hotel business recovered, the hotels maintained the cuts to save money, causing an overwhelming work load for current workers. The union is also demanding increases in pay in an industry that is severely underpaid.

Hotel Workers,9/2

 

EV BATTERY PLANT WORKERS JOIN UAW

After a majority of the 1,000 workers at the Ultium Cells battery plant in Spring Hills, Tennessee, signed union cards to join the United Auto Workers, the company agreed to recognize the union. Ultium manufactures battery cells for GM electric vehicles. The union victory is part of UAW’s plan to insure that it will keep representing workers in places that make auto parts during the transition to electric vehicles. The union finalized a contract with another Ultium plant in June that included a wage increase for workers from $15 to $35 an hour over three years plus a signing bonus and health and safety improvements.

The Tennessean, 9/4

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PROJECT 2025: WHAT’S IN STORE FOR LABOR IF TRUMP WINS

Anyone who cares about bettering the lives of working people, including their right to form and build unions, should read the section on labor in Project 2025, the blueprint for the Trump administration, should they win the White House again. It was drawn up by the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think-tank with close ties to Trump Republicans. And although Trump claims he doesn’t know anything about Project 2025, its authors and those connected to it are people who will most likely occupy prominent places in any Trump administration.

That’s why we highly recommend the excellent analysis of its labor section in Workbites, a website dealing with labor and other current issues. You can easily access he article by clicking in this link.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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‘DON’T  GET PLAYED BY THIS SCAB BILLIONAIRE’: UAW PREZ WARNING TO WORKERS

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In response to attempts by Donald Trump and Republicans to pose as friends of working people, UAW President Sean Fain had some harsh warnings to workers about what a future Trump presidency would hold.

The warnings came after Trump, in his acceptance speech at the Republican convention last week, called upon UAW members to fire Fain, its popular president, who had won for them the best auto workers contract in decades. During the strike earlier this year that produced the contract and saw President Biden join workers on the picket line, Trump appeared at a non-union auto plant and denounced the strike.

Fain lost no time in responding. “America’s autoworkers aren’t the problem,” he declared. “Our union isn’t the problem. The working class isn’t the problem. Corporate greed and the billionaires’ hero, mascot, and lap dog Donald Trump, are the problem. Don’t get played by this scab billionaire.”

Others reminded people that anti-labor actions were part and parcel of the Republican agenda, no matter what they may be saying in public now. One example cited was the action of former Wisconsin Republican governor Scott Walker, who withdrew the right of public sector unions to collective bargaining and outlawed dues checkoff at unionized shops statewide. Another was the actions of Trump while president in stacking the Labor Department and the National Labor Relations Board with anti-union lawyers and backing a series of court cases to weaken collective bargaining.

Jonathan Weisman in NY Times, 7/19

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SOME HARD FIGURES ON CORPORATE GREED

According to the AFL-CIO, the following facts emerge regarding America’s largest corporations and their top executives:

  • At least 55 of the largest corporations in America paid no federal corporate income taxes in 2021 despite enjoying substantial pretax profits in the United States. This continues a decades-long trend of corporate tax avoidance by the biggest U.S. corporations, and it appears to be the product of long-standing tax breaks preserved or expanded by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) as well as the CARES Act tax breaks enacted in the spring of 2020.
  • In 2022, CEOs of S&P 500 companies received, on average, $16.7 million in total compensation. This was the second-highest level of CEO pay in history for S&P 500 Index companies. It was 324 times more than then median pay of the average employee.

The AFL-CIO notes that the ratio of CEO-to-worker pay is important. A higher pay ratio could be a sign that companies suffer from a winner-take-all philosophy, where executives reap the lion’s share of compensation. A lower pay ratio could indicate the companies that are dedicated to creating high-wage jobs and investing in their employees for the company’s long-term health.

For full details, see AFL-CIO website items: Corporate Greed and Executive Pay Watch

 

 

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