STRIKE BY BUILDING CLEANERS PROMPTS MANAGEMENT FEELERS TO BARGAIN

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In June it was a big demonstration in front of the office building at 529 Fifth Avenue, called by the Service Employees International Union. Hundreds of their members who work in the area, picketed in front of the building at 44th Street in Manhattan’s diamond district in support of their union brothers and sisters. We reported on this demonstration in an earlier post.

Now, just a few weeks later, a strike by the building employees beginning July 10 seems to have stirred the management to reach out feelers about bargaining with the union. At issue was the fact that management, Fifth City Realty, an affiliate of Empire Capital, had recently acquired the building and brought in a new contractor, L&J Janitorial, to manage its janitorial services, L&J then unilaterally tore up the contract that had been negotiated between the old management and SEIU. The new janitorial service,  then proceeded to cut the wages of the buildings cleaners nearly in half to the city’s minimum wage of $16 an hour. cancelling worker benefits like family medical insurance and terminating long term employees, including full-time and part-time security officers and a fire safety director.

The action prompted a mass demonstration of hundreds of SEIU members and supporters on the streets around the building and a walkout by the buildings employees on July 10.

It didn’t take long for the owners and the janitorial contractor, which had adamantly refused to bargain with the union, to reach out to the union, potentially the first step in the negotiating process.

In response, then union agreed to temporarily suspend the strike but said that it’s still possible  for the strike to continue if L&J Janitorial delays negotiations or does not bargain in good faith with the union.

Labor Press, 7/13

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WE’RE BACK

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Many of you have been wondering why we haven’t posted any new items for several months, particularly since so much has been happening on the labor front. We’ve had some medical problems that prevented us from working on the website for a while.

But all is well now and we’re back and in good health. Below you’ll find some initial items that broke recently. Many more will follows. And thanks for staying with us.

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HEALTH CARE A MAJOR ISSUE AS UFT RETIREES OUST LEADERSHIP BY A WHOPPING TWO-THIRDS VOTE

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By Paul Becker

With health care for retirees the big issue, a major step forward in the fight for democratic unionism was registered last week when a rank-and-file slate swept the elections for officers and delegates of the retirees chapter of the United Federation of Teachers. The chapter vote has implications of trouble for the leadership of the UFT, which through its Unity caucus has been running the union since its founding nearly 65 years ago. The current UFT president, Michael Mulgrew, has held office for the past 15 years. He and the officers of the entire union are up for election next year.

NYC municipal retirees march down Broadway protesting the city’s ongoing campaign to push them into a for-profit, privatized Medicare Advantage plan. Photo by Joe Maniscalco, Workbites

The Retiree Advocate slate, ran up an impressive victory, scoring nearly two-thirds of the more than 27,000 votes and ousting the Unity caucus leadership of the retirees chapter. The UFT is New York’s Local 2 of the American Federation of Teachers.

Resentment against the UFT leadership has been building slowly during the past few years over the union’s acceptance of substandard contracts for teachers, paraprofessionals, and other New York City school employees. A growing number of union members also resent Unity caucus’ cling to power through a well-oiled political machine, abandoning principles of democratic unionism and playing ball with local and state politicians rather than fighting for its members. Unlike many unions, retired members can vote in union-wide elections and, until recently, have provided an important base of support for Unity caucus.

The key issue in this campaign was the attempt by UFT leaders, acting with the heads of other large municipal unions to force their members out of traditional Medicare and into a so-called Medicare Advantage plan. (The insurer for city workers would be the health insurance mega corporation, Aetna.) The move would affect hundreds of thousands of retired city workers. Over the years, these workers, including teachers, made concessions on other benefits over the promise that, upon retirement, they would have fully paid health care with the gap between Medicare payments and costs of medical treatments covered by the city. As such, teachers are covered by Medicare with GHI as the secondary insurer. The premiums for this secondary insurance were reimbursed. Under the new proposal, if teachers elected to stay with traditional Medicare, this reimbursement would be dropped, costing them a substantial amount of money that retirees with their limited income could ill afford.

The so-called Medicare Advantage plans, despite being sold under the label “advantage” and putting forth some enticements like free gym memberships, have some very important disadvantages. It is run by private corporations whose principal goal is bottom-line profits rather than making patients healthy. While some 85 to 90 percent of American doctors accept Medicare payments, under corporate Medicare Advantage, you have to choose from their panel of doctors. Thus, many teachers would have to abandon the doctors they have had over the years whom they have trusted and who know them to switch to a doctor they do not know.

Cartoon by Fred Wright. Courtesy United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers (UE)

Even more important, Medicare Advantage plans require pre-approval for many medical procedures. If pre-approval is denied, they won’t pay for it. The patient can appeal but it can still be denied, or even if it’s approved, it often takes time when a speedy treatment is necessary. During the campaign of teachers and other city workers against the planned switch, a number of people have come forward to tell of their experiences when the delay has resulted in severe damage including death to a family member or friend. Medicare, on the other hand, usually accepts the judgment of the doctors, except in cases of outright fraud. My own doctor, an outstanding physician who is recognized as one of New York City’s best cardiologists, complained to me that he now has to spend nearly half his time on the phone arguing with private insurance companies about the necessity of a medical treatment for patients who have been denied coverage.

These private insurance plans have been reaping fat rewards since Congress, about 30 years ago, allowed them to collect subsidies from Medicare that should have gone to health care for people on the government program. And recently, some of them have been caught defrauding Medicare by billing for services that were never delivered. Little wonder that giant insurance companies now crowd the field as they discover “there’s gold in them thar hills.”

Several months ago, a state court ruled that the city could not change the health care plan promised to retirees. The ruling was upheld by the New York State Appellate Court but New York Mayor Eric Adams has said he would appeal to the state Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state.

The win for the Retiree Advocate slate pledged to fight against forcing retired school employers into these private plans could have important implications not only for next year’s elections for union-wide UFT officers but for other unions of city workers which have endorsed the plan despite the growing objections of their retirees.

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SOME LATE-BREAKING ITEMS

FLORIDA JURY HOLDS CHIQUITA RESPONSIBLE FOR COLOMBIAN DEATH SQUAD

In an unprecedented legal development, a jury in he United Staes has held an American corporation legally liable for human rights atrocities abroad. A Florida jury on June 3, in a civil lawsuit brought by EarthRights InternationaL found Chiquita Brands guilty and liable for having knowingly financed a terrorist death squad in Colombia that murdered, tortured, and terrorized workers that picked their fruit to prevent them from forming unions in the 1990’a and 2000’s.

Chiquita, like many U.S. corporations, reaps super profits abroad where it pays workers miserable wages. The jury found that Chiquita illegally funded a designated terrorist death squad to the tune of $1.7 million from 1997 to 2004, inflicting untold suffering, including brutal murders of innocent people in the Colombian regions of Uraba and Magdalena. Until recently, Colombia’s right-wing governments, have been loyal supporters of U.S. policies in Latin America.

“The verdict does not bring back the husbands and sons who were killed,” said one attorney, “but it sets the record straight and places accountability for funding terrorism where it belongs: at Chiquita’s doorstep.” EarthRights declared that the verdict also “means some of the victims and families who suffered as a direct result of Chiquita’s actions will finally be compensated.”

Earth Rights, 7/3; Courtesy of Locker Associates, New York

 

AMAZON & TEAMSTERS AGREE TO AFFILIATE

In what Chris Smalls, president of the Amazon Labor Union, hailed as “an historic day for labor in America” his union has negotiated an agreement with the Teamsters Union to have the teamsters charter a new local known as Amazon Labor Union No. 1, International Brotherhood of Teamsters (ALU-IBT, Local 1). The union will represent or try to organize all AMAZON & TEAMSTERS AGREE TO AFFILIATE workers in New York City. The agreement still has to be ratified by ALU’s membership.

Two years ago, the ALU surprised everyone when it won a landmark election to organize 8,000 workers at the Amazon facility JFK8 on Staten Island, New York.

Labor Notes, 6/15

 

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UNIONS REGISTER BIG GAINS IN RECENT MONTHS

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Some big wins for labor over the past couple of months have signaled the rising power of the union movement. It may well be the opening shot across the bow against corporate attacks on unions over the last four decades that has resulted in a steady decline in the standard of living of working people.

UAW President Shawn Fain, shown with striking workers, has pledged an agressive organizing campaign at non-union auto facilities., Mandi Wright, Detroit Free Press

The biggest wins for workers were in the highly successful strike by the United Auto Workers against the Big Three car manufacturers – GM, Ford, and Stellantis.  Instead of the usual strike against the entire company at once, it adopted the rolling strike tactic, hitting a limited number of auto factories at each carmaker at a time. The companies never knew which would be next and the strikes at plants that played a vital part in car production affected production as a whole in other places.

And by framing the strike, not only as one conducted by a union against management, but as a fight for working people against the greed that has resulted in huge growth in corporate profits at the expense of declining standards for America’s working people, UAW President Sean Fain ignited the fighting working class spirit that built the union movement in decades past.

When the Big Three finally caved after about six weeks, the resulting contract the union won was the best in the union’s history, unmatched since the contracts won in 1937 after the Flint, Michigan, sitdown strike that built the union. The principal terms of the contract have been reported widely. Outstanding among them are a  25 percent wage increase over the four-and-a-half year contract and an end to the two-tier wage system that saw younger workers never able to earn what workers hired earlier could earn. An end to their second class status and their elevation to the pay scale enjoyed by older workers will give them extraordinary pay raises, in some cases up to 150 percent. The union also won a restoration of the cost-of-living (COLA) adjustment that had been a feature of UAW contracts from 1948 to 2008 when the union gave in to industry’s demand to end it.

And in an important union first, the contract guarantees that workers at battery production plants for its new electric cars will be included in the new master agreement, setting the stage for the union’ s announced goal of organizing non-union electric car manufacturers.

As of this writing, the contract was in the process of being voted on by the UAW membership.

Two other big wins this summer and fall were the contract won by Teamsters Union drivers at UPS without a strike but just the threat of one. In a contract agreed to just 24 hours before a strike was scheduled, 340,000 Teamster members at UPS won raises of $7.50 an hour over five years, with drivers’ pay climbing to $49 an hour and part-time workers receiving a pay increase of 48% on average. The agreement also ends a two-tiered classification for drivers, provides part-timers with longevity raises, adds Martin Luther King Day as a paid holiday off, and ends forced overtime on off days.

And the months long strike by the two unions representing TV and motion picture screen writers and actors has produced contracts with substantial gains. The Writers Guild of America, which represents 11,500 screenwriters, reached a tentative agreement with studios on Sept. 24 and ended its 148-day strike on Sept. 27. In the coming days, SAG-AFTRA members will vote on whether to accept their union’s deal, which includes hefty gains, like increases in compensation for streaming shows and films, better health care funding, concessions from studios on self-taped auditions, and guarantees that studios will not use artificial intelligence to create digital replicas of their likenesses without payment or approval.

And in just a few other recent labor actions:

In August, 15,000 American Airlines pilots won pay increases of 46% over four years. After a three-day strike earlier this month, 85,000 Kaiser Permanente workers won raises of 21%, as well as a $25 minimum wage for Kaiser’s workers in California. In March, 30,000 Los Angeles school district workers – bus drivers, cafeteria workers and teachers’ aides – won a 30% wage hike over four years. In Oregon, 1,400 nurses at Providence Portland hospitalsecured raises between 17% and 27% over two years.

And all indications are that it’s just the beginning.

NY Times, 10/31, 11/8; The Guardian, 10/24; Jacobin, 11/1

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AUTO WORKRS STRIKE SIGNALS A NEW CHAPTER IN UNION MILITANCY

The biggest news on the labor front this month is the strike by the United Auto Workers against selective plants of the Big Three auto makers. What makes it particularly ground-breaking is that, it signals the reawakening of the UAW, a union born in the militancy of the 1936-37sit-down strike against GM in Flint, Michigan.

The new president of UAW, Sean Fain was elected by a vote of the entire membership after years of a leadership that gave away many hard won gains of previous contracts. He has vowed to make up for the givebacks that has seen record billion dollar annual profits for the automakers while auto workers’ wages and conditions have stagnated. From being among the best paid manufacturing jobs 40 years ago they are now at the point where they have to work 60 hours or more a week just to keep their families afloat. At the same time, the compensation packages for the CEO’s of the Big Three are each over $20 million annually.

Fain has framed the strike as part of a larger struggle of working people against the greed of the corporation. The union is demanding, among other things, a 40 percent wage hike to compensate for the losses it has suffered in real wages in the past decade, a reduction in the work week to 32 hours at full 40-hour pay to share in the benefits of technology, an end to the two-tier wage system that has kept newer workers forever on a lower wage scale, and improvements in the pension system.

It is also demanding that workers at joint-venture battery shops that produce parts for electric vehicles be included in the union contract so that the conversion to electric vehicles do not result in lower standards for workers who produce those vehicles. This demand took a big step forward Oct. 6 when General Motors agreed to the UAW’s demand that workers at GM’s joint-venture EV battery factories will be covered under the automaker’s master contract with the union. It represents a historic breakthrough for American workers as they face transitions to a post–fossil fuel economy.

And in a sign of growing union solidarity, other unions have joined in support of the UAW, with their members joining the picket lines. In a mid-October development, Sean O’Brien, president of the Teamsters Union announced that teamsters will not cross UAW picket lines. Teamsters in the carhaul industry have declared that they will not deliver cars made by the Big Three until they settle with the union.

The American Prospect 9/15; 10/9

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AUTOWORKERS TAKE ON BIG THREE IN HISTORIC STRIKE

Union workers rally for a fair contract. Photo: In These Times

Once upon a time, autoworkers had the best jobs in American manufacturing industries. It was a time when unions were instrumental in building our country’s middle class. Workers at GM, Ford, and Chrysler were able to buy the new cars they were producing. They were able to afford a modest home, to send their children to a state university, to take a family vacation once a year. Flint, Michigan, home of the Fisher Body plant that built the bodies of GM cars, was a prosperous town.

But not any more. For the past four decades, as unions have come under attack from corporations and governments, led by right-wing Republicans (with help from some corporate-friendly Democrats), their strength has waned as their membership severely declined. Along with it, the middle class has been slowly disappearing along with areas of poverty in what had been the manufacturing belt of the country. And autoworkers along with the others have taken it on the chin. Many of their gains, hard won through years of struggle and union organization, were lost. Their union, the United Auto Workers, wound up negotiating union contracts that gave back gains in salaries and pensions, and that created a two-tier wage and pension system in which younger workers could never achieve the benefits their elders had won.

The defining moment came with the union contracts over the past decade when workers made big concessions after the companies pleaded that, facing foreign competition, they were in danger of closing down their factories. The workers made sacrifices while the companies piled up record profits. In just the first six months of this year, the Big Three – GM, Ford, and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler) – have reported $21 billion in profit and $5 in stock buybacks, rewarding their big shareholders with billions and their CEOs with annual compensation like GM’s top banana’s $29 million last year. And all the while, pleading that they couldn’t afford to give workers the pay and benefits they needed to catch up with some of the things they had lost. Meanwhile, the real wages of workers who make the cars have dipped by 30 percent over the past 20 years. Some make only $15.75 an hour, often having to work long overtime hours just to be able to support their families.

But now, finally, not any more say autoworkers and the UAW. Earlier this year, with some of the old leadership in jail for corruption, the membership elected new leaders by direct ballot, the first time in the union’s history.

With new leadership at the helm, led by  its president, Sean Fain, the biggest labor news this September has been the strike at selected sites of the Big Three, involving thus far about 15,000 workers, with the promise that this is just the opening salvo if union demands are not met. The strike has evoked strong support from a number of Democratic officials and lawmakers and as this article was being written, President Biden was making a special appearance on their picket line.

“Unions built the middle class,” President Biden shouted through a bullhorn on Tuesday. “It’s a fact!”Credit…Pete Marovich for The New York Times

What’s at stake? Aside from signaling that workers have had it and were not going to take it anymore, the specific demands of the union include:

  • Ending tiers.Before a major contract concession in 2007, newly hired auto workers could reach the maximum wage rate within three years and have guaranteed pensions and retiree healthcare. But ​“second-tier” workers — those hired since 2007 — must wait at least eight years before reaching top wage levels and get no pensions or post-retirement healthcare. The Big Three have also increasingly hired workers as low-paid temps, often extending the length of their supposedly ​“temporary” status before they can become permanent employees. The UAW wants to equalize pay and benefits so that all autoworkers, now and in the future, have pensions and retiree healthcare, and can reach maximum pay and permanent status within 90 days of being hired.
  • Double-digit raises.The multimillionaire CEOs of GM, Ford and Stellantis have gotten an average raise of 40% over the past four years, so the union is seeking similarly large raises of around 46% for autoworkers over the course of the four-year contract. The UAW is also calling for significant increases to the pension benefits paid to retirees.
  • Restoring cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs), which tie wages to inflation.Once a signature feature of autoworker contracts, the UAW’s former leadership agreed to suspend COLAs in 2009 as GM and Chrysler faced bankruptcy amid the Great Recession.
  • Work-life balance.Because their real hourly wages have fallen so dramatically amid years of concessions, many autoworkers put in 60 to 80-hour weeks to make ends meet, leaving less time to spend with their families. In addition to calling for more paid time off, the UAW is making the eye-catching demand for a 32-hour workweek at 40 hours’ pay. ​“If Covid did anything, it made people reflect on what’s important in life, and it sure as hell isn’t living in a factory,” Fain said last month.
  • Job security.With automakers shutting down factories and moving production to wherever in the world they can exploit workers the most — a process that has gone on for over 40 years and continues—the UAW is demanding the right to strike over plant closures and is calling for the creation of a Working Family Protection Program, which would make the companies keep employees at shuttered factories on payroll doing community service work.
  • Enhanced profit sharing. With the Big Three’s shareholders reaping the benefits of record profits, the union is proposing that workers get $2for every $1 million spent on stock buybacks and special dividends.
  • Ajust transition to electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing. Aided by federal subsidies, the Big Three are building EV battery plants as ​“joint ventures” with South Korean tech firms. But these new factories fall outside the collective bargaining agreements covering other UAW autoworkers, so wages and working conditions are far worse than at plants making gas-powered cars. As part of its fight to eliminate all tiers, the UAW wants to extend the same union standards to new EV plants. Since EV workers are not currently covered by the Big Three contracts, this is a public demand rather than a bargaining proposal. ​

A recent Gallup poll found that an unprecedented 75 percent of Americans side with the union in their contract fight. And it is, so far the biggest news in the current drive of American workers for a fair share of the wealth they are producing.

“Working people in this country know what’s really going on,” Fain said in a recent video. ​“We know what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck while the companies we work for make out like bandits…We know the truth, and the truth is that the cost of a strike might be high, but the cost of doing nothing is much higher.”

For the UAW rank-and-file worker, a retiree and former president of UAW Local 909 in Warren, Michigan, put it simply. “I think for the UAW rank and file it is so refreshing to see this and to begin to identify with the UAW that they want to identify with.”

NY Times, 9/26; In These Times, 9/11; The Lever, 9/12; The Atlantic, 9/15; Canary Media, 9/19; Portside, 9/18; courtesy Locker Associates, NY, 9/20.

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BERNIE SANDERS: ON LABOR DAY, 2023

On this Labor Day, when labor is stirring all over the country after a summer of strikes and union organizing, along with wide public approval of unions, it is fitting to reprint a tribute to the holiday by US Senator Bernie Sanders that were first printed in The Guardian, 9/4

By Bernie Sanders

Why this Labor Day is so consequential?

It’s not utopian thinking to imagine that, for the first time in world history, everyone could have a decent standard of living.

As we celebrate Labor Day, 2023 let’s take a quick look at the economy over the last few years.

Never before in American history have so few owned so much and has there been so much income and wealth inequality.

Never before in American history has there been such concentration of ownership in our economy with a handful of giant corporations controlling sector after sector, enjoying record-breaking profits.

Never before in American history have we seen a ruling class, utilizing a corrupt political system, exercise so much political power through their Super Pacs and ownership of media.

And never before in American history have we seen the level of greed, arrogance and irresponsibility that we see today on the part of the 1%. Corporate greed is rampant.

Meanwhile, as the billionaire class becomes richer and more powerful, over 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and many work for starvation wages and under terrible working conditions. Incredibly, despite huge increases in worker productivity and an explosion in technology, the average American worker is making over $45 a week less today than he or she did 50 years ago after adjusting for inflation.

Today, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, tens of millions struggle to put food on the table, find affordable housing, affordable healthcare, affordable prescription drugs, affordable childcare and affordable educational opportunities. In our country today we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major nation, and half of older workers have no savings as they face retirement.

And, in the midst of this massive inequality, the United States and the world face enormous economic transformation as a result of artificial intelligence, robotics and other new technologies. There is no question but that many of the jobs being done today will not be here in 10 or 20 years.

Let’s be clear. These technologies, which will greatly increase worker productivity, have the potential to be extraordinarily beneficial for humanity, or could cause devastating pain and dislocation for tens of millions of workers. The question is: who makes the decisions as to what happens in this radically changing economy, and who benefits from those decisions? Do we allow the “market” to throw working people out in the streets because they are “redundant”, or do we take advantage of the increased productivity this technology creates to improve the lives of all?

Throughout the history of humanity, the vast majority of people have had to struggle to feed themselves, find adequate shelter and eke out a living. The good news is that the revolutionary new technology, if used to benefit all of humanity and not just the rich and the powerful, could usher in a new era in human development. It is not utopian thinking to imagine that, for the first time in world history, we could enter a time in which every man, woman and child has a decent standard of living and improved quality of life.

In the United States, for example, the 40-hour work week, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, has been the legal definition of full-time work since 1940. Well, the world and technology have undergone enormous changes since 1940 and American workers are now 480% more productive than they were back then. It’s time for those standards to reflect contemporary reality. It’s time for a 32-hour work week with no loss in pay. It’s time that working families were able to take advantage of the increased productivity that new technologies provide so that they can enjoy more leisure time, family time, educational and cultural opportunities – and less stress.

Moving to a 32-hour work week with no loss of pay is not a radical idea. In fact, movement in that direction is already taking place in other developed countries. France, the seventh-largest economy in the world, has a 35-hour work week and is considering reducing it to 32 hours. The work week in Norway and Denmark is about 37 hours a week.

Recently, the United Kingdom conducted a four-day work week pilot program of 3,000 workers at over 60 companies. Not surprisingly, it showed that happy workers were more productive. The pilot was so successful that 92% of the companies that participated decided to maintain a four-day work week because of the benefits to both employers and employees.

Another pilot of nearly 1,000 workers at 33 companies in seven countries, found that revenue increased by more than 37% in the companies that participated and 97% percent of workers were happy with the four-day work week.

Needless to say, changes that benefit the working class of our country are not going to be easily handed over by the corporate elite. They have to be fought for – and won. And in that regard there has been some very good news over the last several years. We are now seeing workers stand up and fight for justice in a way we have not seen in decades. In America, more workers want to join unions; more workers are joining unions – 273,000 last year alone; and more workers are going out on strike for decent wages and benefits and winning. We’re seeing that increased militancy all across our economy – with truck drivers, auto workers, writers, actors, warehouse workers, healthcare professionals, graduate student teachers and baristas.

Let’s continue that struggle. Let’s think big, not small. Let’s create an economy and government that work for all, not just the few.

Happy Labor Day.

 

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NEVADA SCHOOL DISTRICT BECOMES A MICROCOSM OF THE NATIONWIDE ATTACKS AGAINST TEACHERS

The Clark County school district in Nevada is the 5th largest school district in the country. Its teachers union, the Clark County Education Association (CCEA), is not affiliated with either of the two national teacher unions, the National Educational Association or the American Federation of Teachers.

Teachers demonstrating for a fair contract at a meeting of the Clark County School Board in late August
Photo courtesy: Clark County Education Assn.

But the current fight taking place there is a microcosm of the situation unfolding around the country as individuals pushing anti-teacher and anti-education agendas and hostility toward teachers unions run for and sometimes get elected to local school boards. And when that hasn’t worked, state officials in places like Texas and Florida have sometimes moved to intercede with school curricula and administration.

In the most glaring example, one that made national news, the governor of Texas dismissed the Houston city elected school board and school superintendent and installed his own superintendent to run the schools. The new appointee, a former army ranger with no credentials or experience in teaching or school administration and probably couldn’t tell a lesson plan from a McDonald’s menu is now in charge of the education of children in the largest city in the state.

Unlike the more publicized situations, Clark County has not made national news. But the teachers in its schools and their union are currently locked in a battle with school district leadership, led by the school superintendent, Jesus Jara, that is treating teachers seeking to bargain for a contract with contempt. And it’s just a piece of the larger national picture.

The teachers there have been working without a contract this school year and their pay has stagnated. Earlier this year, they went to the state capital in Carson City to lobby for additional funds to pay for long overdue salary increases. They succeeded in getting the legislature to pass a bill and the governor to sign it that appropriated $250 million, specifically for teacher raises. It was part of a larger $2 billion education budget passed by governor Joe Lombardo. But the district school superintendent refused to access the state fund for teachers and will not even present the option to the school board for approval.

The lowest salary for teachers there right now is $50,115. The highest is $101,251. But getting to the maximum is complicated.” One Clark County educator said, “There have been years where salary increases have been frozen. Many veteran teachers feel like they are not being paid what they’re owed and make as much as a brand new teacher. It’s unfair.” Speaking of  the CCEA’s proposed contract demands, she added “This could be a once in a career raise for us. We are fighting for equity here. We have dealt with unfair salaries for too many years and we want the Clark County School District to use the money the state has given us. Teachers fought for that money in Carson City, and these raises are long overdue.”

The union has repeatedly called upon the  district leadership to negotiate a new contract and has presented proposals that would raise teacher salaries by 10 percent the first year and 8 percent the second year. It also called for an additional $5,000 adjustment to attract teachers where there are hard to fill vacancies and a 5 percent adjustment for Special Education teachers. Whereas the district contributes close to $1000 a month in health insurance premiums for school principals, it only pays about $700 a month for teachers, the union simply wants the district to pay the same amount monthly for teachers health insurance as they do for principals. In addition, an increase of 1.8% in state pension contributions started being taken from teacher paychecks this summer; the union wants the district to cover this increase. They have also called for time-and-a-half pay for overtime work spent on supervising after school extracurricular activities.

The district has refused to bargain with the union. Instead, it came back with an offer of only a 6 percent raise the first year and 1 percent the following year but with two stipulations – that teachers had to work a longer day and a sunset clause that the raises would expire after two years, and unless renewed, teachers would go back to their current salaries.

All summer long the union called upon the district leaders to engage in bargaining but the district leaders kept postponing bargaining sessions in what amounted to stalling tactics. Thus, the beginnings of the school year in August saw teachers without a new contract and stuck in the same mold as before.

The CCEA, spurred on by aroused resentment among its members, has begun to hold public protest demonstrations. When the school superintendent scheduled community meetings at coffee shops in Las Vegas to advocate his agenda, teachers showed up to demonstrate and present their side. The superintendent then decided to cancel all subsequent coffee shop meetings. At the early August meeting of the school board of trustees,  thousands of teachers demonstrated outside the meeting. The board shortened public comments due to the teachers presence, which caused an uproar that led to the meeting ending early. Another demonstration, perhaps larger, was set for the August 24 board meeting.

As we prepared this article the union is considering next steps. while the union and district continue to negotiate and the union decides what further actions it will take. Strikes by public employees are outlawed in the state of Nevada which makes the situation more difficult. And the district has further attacked the Clark County Education Association by suing it, seeking to take away its right to bargain for teachers for threatening a strike.

The United States was a pioneer in the establishment of free public education and teacher unions in the last 50 years have raised the status of the teachers and fought for more resources for public schools. The fight of Nevada teachers in this school district is part of the fight taking place all over the country for good schools with well-paid teachers and the ongoing battle to preserve American education.

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NYC RETIREES WIN BIG VICTORY

Photo AMANDA SALAZAR

New York City retirees won major victory earlier this month when a state Supreme Court judge permanently enjoined the city from switching retirees from their traditional Medicare to a Medicare Advantage plan. Retirees have been fighting this change that the city is trying to force down their throats for two years.

The scheme is the result of several years of secret negotiations between city administrations and the Municipal Labor Committee representing the unions of workers employed by New York City. Although the MLC is composed of many unions, the two largest ones, the United Federation of Teachers and DC 37 of AFSCME dominate the body. Several other unions have opposed the measure but they have been steamrolled over by the Big Two.

However, rank-and-file committees of the unions, including UFT and DC37 members have spung up, called rallies, testified at City Council meetings, and gained wide support in opposition to the change. They have disputed that the city’s claim that it will save the city $600 million. They have pointed to the fact that there would not be a problem if New York hadn’t tried to pay for a city workers’ promised raises several years ago by dipping into the health care trust fund, thereby pitting retirees against current workers. And they have pointed to a number of ways the city can come up with the money without penalizing retirees.

Ignoring all the protests and the blatant shortcomings in the enforced changes, Mayor Adams’ administration earlier this year signed a contract with Aetna, the giant health care company, to implement the plan. While the city claims that the plan is the same or better than their current one (these advantage plans often offer sweetening items like free gym memberships) they are profit-making companies that are notorious for saving money by requiring many medical procedures and doctor’s visits to get prior approval for payment, which is often denied. They also require you to choose only from panel of their doctors, which would require many retirees to leave the doctors of their choice for someone else. Not to mention that Aetna has been cited by the federal government as one of the leading insurance company perpetrators of Medicare fraud that has bilked the government out of billions of dollars.

The decision by Supreme Court Judge  Lyle Frank made permanent his temporary stay issued a month earlier. He noted that the city had repeatedly promised retirees that by forgoing other benefits when they were active workers, they would be assured of full Medicare and paid medigap coverage free of co-pays and with only a relatively small deductible when they retired. He ruled that the city could not renege on this commitment.

The ruling has thrown the entire plan onto hold, a temporary victory, since a spokesperson for Mayor Adams said he plans to appeal. If the judge’s ruling is upheld it will be a big win for the 250,000 NYC retirees in their two-year fight to preserve the health care they deserve.

The attempt by the city to make this move is part of a larger push by government administrations and legislative bodies to disembody Medicare, one of the federal government’s greatest achievements, and turn it over to the multi-billion dollar insurance industry, further subordinating the health of Americans to greedy bottom line corporate profits.

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