Labor Unions 101 – Words Have Meaning
LaFeminista posted a good Daily Kos diary about unions recently, and reading the diary and comments reminded me that despite my avid pro-union stance, until about 5 years ago when I lucked into a union job, I, like the vast majority of workers who are not as lucky as I am, really had no idea what it means to actually be a union member.
But I've managed to gain a little knowledge in the last few years and I feel that compiling and regurgitating that knowledge in a slightly altered form might be just the thing to clear some of the fog that's clouding the brains of my brothers and sisters on Daily Kos.
Join me over the fold for the first installment of my Labor Unions 101 series - Words Have Meaning.
Labor Union - A group of workers who engage in...
Collective Bargaining - negotiations on a contract that covers a union member's terms of employment. If contract talks break down or if the company grievously harms one or more of us, we may decide to...
Strike - Which is really the nuclear option - it hurts everybody. When there is a less drastic dispute, typically we might form a...
Picket Line - A group of workers demonstrating solidarity by protesting the actions of management. No one crosses picket lines except for...
Scabs - NOT my bothers and sisters. But picket lines and strikes are for bigger disputes. We usually start with a...
Grievance - An assertion by the union that one or more members has been treated unfairly by management. After a grievance is filed, a union representative and a company representative will get together and attempt to hash things out. A grievance must be filed by a representative of...
The Hall - Our collectively run Union Hall and the folks who work there. It can be a rented storefront or a dilapidated shack or just an average looking commercial building. It doesn't really matter what it looks like - it houses our business offices and it's where we get together for meetings and the planning of the revolution. We are...
Brothers and Sisters - Every member of the working class is my brother or my sister and union members are...
Craft - Any Union brother or sister. As opposed to...
Management - A supervisory employee not covered under a collective bargaining agreement. Management is paid to fight the union. Managers cross picket lines (see: Scab) and do our work when we strike. Managers have sold their soul to the company and thrive on carrying out the orders of the corporate suborners. Managers continuously fight amongst themselves and will knife each other in the back for a promotion because they have no...
Solidarity - The core tenet of unionism. Solidarity means I support my brothers and sisters above all. That doesn't mean that unions prevent the firing of horrible employees just because they are union - it means that the company will be made to justify any action against a union member. The company must honor our...
Weingarten Rights - "If this discussion could in any way lead to my being disciplined or terminated or have any effect on my personal working conditions, I respectfully request that my union representative, officer, or steward be present at this meeting. Without union representation I choose NOT to participate in this discussion." (Yes, a lot of us have it memorized.) That's right - a brother or sister is guaranteed representation by a...
Steward - Or Shop Steward - A brother or sister who has taken on extra responsibilities by agreeing to act as the union representative for a group of workers. Unfortunately, we have...
Right-to-work states - States which have passed anti-union laws as encouraged by...
Taft-Hartley - The 1947 federal anti-union act which specifies that the Steward must also represent...
Free Riders - Workers in right-to-work states who decline the chance to join the union and thus weaken the union by enjoying the benefits of union membership without paying...
Union Dues - Used for office expenses and the salaries of union officers as well as the costs of negotiating contracts and...
Organizing - Which is like proselytizing, only for a good cause. Because union shops make life better for all by putting upward pressure on...
Prevailing Wages - The wages and benefits in a region are affected by union contracts - non-union shops must be competitive if they are to attract good...
Workers - Anyone who works for a living. If you are not independently wealthy, if you rely on a paycheck to pay the bills and grow your savings, then you are a worker. If you are a worker and you are not pro-union, then you are a traitor to the...
Working Class - "The working class and the employing class have nothing in common." So says the preamble of the constitution of the...
Wobblies - The Industrial Workers of the World, or IWW, or Wobblies, are a legendary international union of workers which you can join. Formed in 1905 by socialists and anarchists, the Wobblies continue to organize oppressed American workers to this day, including Starbucks baristas and bicycle messengers, two groups who could really use a...
Break - Which I am going to take right now. If you got a problem with that, talk to my steward.
Wal-Mart’s evil plan
Don't be fooled by the rhetorical crap spewing forth from orificial Wal-Mart sources. While the company publicly claims to have seen the light on environmental issues and has even come out in favor of raising the minimum wage, internal documents reveal the truly sinister nature of the evil behemoth.
The AP reports that Wal-Mart is going green, sorta. Seeking to cut costs and salve a wounded reputation, the retailer will buy trucks that get better mileage and try to make do with less cardboard boxes.
And in a bid to divert attention from the fact that Wal-Mart employees can't afford basic necessities such as health care and rent, Wal-Mart has generously called for the feds to raise the minimum wage. The company has no plans to increase the wages it pays to its workers.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. unveiled an environmental plan Tuesday to boost energy efficiency, reduce waste and trim greenhouse gases as part of a wider effort to address issues where it has been pummeled by critics.
Wal-Mart chief executive Lee Scott said even a slight increase in Wal-Mart pay would eliminate a profit margin that generated $10-billion in profits last year.
Scott said the world's largest retailer had to be a "good steward for the environment" and thought that adopting greener practices would also be good for business by cutting costs.
"We are going to do well by doing good," he said.
But while Wal-Mart touted its environmental plan, Scott rejected calls to increase workers' pay that unions and other critics say is often below poverty level. Instead, he urged Congress to look at raising the U.S. minimum hourly wage for the first time since the mid 1990s.
Finally, in a much ballyhooed move, Wal-Mart loudly announced that it was making health care more affordable. Now, Wal-Mart associates need only fork over a sixth or so of their salary to see a doctor.
But wont all of these progressive sounding moves have an impact on Wal-Mart's huge annual profits? Uh, probably not.
An internal memo sent to Wal-Mart's board of directors proposes numerous ways to hold down spending on health care and other benefits while seeking to minimize damage to the retailer's reputation. Among the recommendations are hiring more part-time workers and discouraging unhealthy people from working at Wal-Mart.
In the memorandum, M. Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart's executive vice president for benefits, also recommends reducing 401(k) contributions and wooing younger, and presumably healthier, workers by offering education benefits. The memo voices concern that workers with seven years' seniority earn more than workers with one year's seniority, but are no more productive.
To discourage unhealthy job applicants, Ms. Chambers suggests that Wal-Mart arrange for "all jobs to include some physical activity (e.g., all cashiers do some cart-gathering)."
The memo acknowledged that Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, had to walk a fine line in restraining benefit costs because critics had attacked it for being stingy on wages and health coverage. Ms. Chambers acknowledged that 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart's 1.33 million United States employees were uninsured or on Medicaid.
......Under fire because less than 45 percent of its workers receive company health insurance, Wal-Mart announced a new plan on Monday that seeks to increase participation by allowing some employees to pay just $11 a month in premiums. Some health experts praised the plan for making coverage more affordable, but others criticized it, noting that full-time Wal-Mart employees, who earn on average around $17,500 a year, could face out-of-pocket expenses of $2,500 a year or more.
......Ms. Chambers proposed that employees pay more for their spouses' health insurance. She called for cutting 401(k) contributions to 3 percent of wages from 4 percent and cutting company-paid life insurance policies to $12,000 from the current level, equal to an employee's annual earnings.
......Ms. Chambers's memo voiced concern that workers were staying with the company longer, pushing up wage costs, although she stopped short of calling for efforts to push out more senior workers.
She wrote that "the cost of an associate with seven years of tenure is almost 55 percent more than the cost of an associate with one year of tenure, yet there is no difference in his or her productivity. Moreover, because we pay an associate more in salary and benefits as his or her tenure increases, we are pricing that associate out of the labor market, increasing the likelihood that he or she will stay with Wal-Mart."
The memo noted that Wal-Mart workers "are getting sicker than the national population, particularly in obesity-related diseases," including diabetes and coronary artery disease. The memo said Wal-Mart workers tended to overuse emergency rooms and underuse prescriptions and doctor visits, perhaps from previous experience with Medicaid.
The memo noted, "The least healthy, least productive associates are more satisfied with their benefits than other segments and are interested in longer careers with Wal-Mart."
The memo proposed incorporating physical activity in all jobs and promoting health savings accounts. Such accounts are financed with pretax dollars and allow workers to divert their contributions into retirement savings if they are not all spent on health care. Health experts say these accounts will be more attractive to younger, healthier workers.
"It will be far easier to attract and retain a healthier work force than it will be to change behavior in an existing one," the memo said. "These moves would also dissuade unhealthy people from coming to work at Wal-Mart."
Ron Pollack, executive director of Families U.S.A., a health care consumer-advocacy group, criticized the memo for recommending that more workers move into health plans with high deductibles.
"Their people are paying a very substantial portion of their earnings out of pocket for health care," he said. "These plans will cause these workers and their families to defer or refrain from getting needed care."
Poison Fruit: Santa Sweets grower hit with more fines
Ag-Mart, the Plant City producer of the popular Santa Sweets brand pesticide laden tomato, continues to rack up fines for possibly poisoning its workers, and at least one major grocery chain has decided to stop carrying its products pending an internal investigation into the possible poisoning of customers.
This time, it's North Carolina making the accusations that the farming giant broke rules about pesticide use, including sending workers into freshly sprayed fields and sending produce off to market too soon after applying poisons. Last week, Florida imposed over $111,000 in fines for similar violations.
And Publix has decided to drop Santa Sweets until it can be determined if tomatoes with excess pesticide residue are being shipped and sold.
Despite the mounting evidence, record fines in 2 states, and an ongoing investigation in a third state, Ag-Mart seems to be in a state of denial, claiming that all the investigators are wrong and that this whole thing is just a big misunderstanding.
See, despite a complex mapping and labeling system for their fields, they really don't know when workers are actually in said fields, so the investigators have no way of knowing, based on the shoddy records that Ag-Mart provided, whether or not workers were exposed to illegal and unsafe levels of freshly applied chemicals.
But even with the company's strident protestations to the contrary, it's becoming increasingly clear that Santa Sweets brand tomatoes are evil.
On September 26th......, Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson stood on the steps of the courthouse ...... with a basket of potentially toxic fruit. Despite warnings that its poison would turn his blood to acid, he told several hundred cheering spectators that he planned to eat the entire basket - and survive.
"The foolish Colonel will foam and froth at the mouth," his own doctor shouted, "and double over with appendicitis...... one dose and he is dead. He might even be exposing himself to brain fever. Should he by some unlikely chance survive his skin will stick to his stomach and cause cancer."
New and Improved Santa Sweets: ”A Little Less Poisonous!”
Plant City's Ag-mart was just fined a record amount by Florida for forcing workers into dangerous pesticide-laden fields and harvesting produce too soon after applying poisons.
Florida agriculture officials have slapped Ag-Mart Inc., one of the state's largest vegetable growers, with $111,200 in fines for 88 counts of pesticide misuse.
The "extensive violations" breached regulations designed to ensure consumer and worker safety, according to agriculture documents.
Ag-Mart officials declined to comment Wednesday on the state's action, which came little more than a week after the company announced it planned to stop using many of the pesticides in its arsenal.
The violations were uncovered during an investigation into the births several months ago of three malformed babies to farmworkers in Immokalee.
But in a report made public Wednesday, the state health department said it could find no link between the agricultural chemicals and the birth defects, which left one baby without arms and legs and another with a cleft palate and severe facial abnormalities. The third baby, born with multiple defects died shortly after birth. The mother of that child lost another malformed baby nearly two years before.
"This report might be more important for identifying what we don't know than what we do know," said Jay Feldman of the New York-based National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides.
The infants' parents worked in Ag-Mart tomato fields in Florida and North Carolina and lived near each other during the critical time period.
......Companies that do not comply with pesticide laws put consumers and farmworkers at risk, she said. Pesticide labels specify how soon a crop can be harvested after chemicals are applied, as well as how soon workers can re-enter the fields.
Sixty-five of the 88 violations Ag-Mart was cited for involve harvesting crops before the seven-day waiting period, in some cases picking the vegetables the day after they were sprayed.
Despite this, routine spot checks did not turn up illegal pesticide residues, according to agriculture officials.But that does not equate to food that's safe to eat or a field that's safe to work in, Feldman said.
For one thing, there are many pesticides -- some of them known endocrine disruptors -- for which the federal government has not set legal residue limits."Given this birth defect cluster and what it suggests, it really should be cause for evaluating whether the agency is looking at the problem in the best manner and whether it needs to do a better job of tracking exposures," Feldman said.
A Broward County lawyer representing the three families in the case calls the state's effort "a noninvestigation."
"Clearly they're looking for every reason to find no relationship to pesticides. Yet they can arrive at no other explanation," attorney Andrew Yaffa of Boca Raton said.
Similar fines are reportedly pending in North Carolina, and New Jersey is investigating possible violations in that state.
A day after Florida agriculture officials fined tomato-grower Ag-Mart Produce $111,200 in a complaint citing 88 pesticide violations, agriculture officials in North Carolina confirmed Thursday they had notified the company of at least as many violations in their state.
North Carolina agriculture officials would not elaborate on their findings or the amount of the fine until the company received notice via certified mail, a spokesman said.
An Environmental Protection Agency official in Washington confirmed that in North Carolina, it is alleged that Ag-Mart applied some pesticides more often than allowed by the label. The EPA, along with other federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, plans to analyze findings of the investigations in Florida and North Carolina, the EPA official said.
The company, which grows the popular Santa Sweets grape tomato, operates farms in Florida, North Carolina, New Jersey and Mexico.
Other investigations continue. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection confirmed Thursday that it, too, is investigating Ag-Mart's pesticide "use and practices" in that state. North Carolina health officials confirmed this week that they also are investigating Ag-Mart.
What does a company do when it's under fire for misusing chemicals and putting its workers and customers at great risk, possibly even causing birth defects? It slaps an “Organic” label on its products and touts its goal of ''protecting our most precious resources -the air we breathe and the land we cultivate.''
So, human life does not make the top two precious resources, but farm workers already knew that. And a field that was saturated with chemicals last season can be used for organic produce this year, instantly giving the grower some kind of environmental cred. Nice.
And even as the company appeals the decision for over $111,000 in fines by the Florida Department of Agriculture, Ag-Mart's president is among an elite group hosting a political fundraiser for Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson. I bet there's no chemical residue on the tomatoes at that particular soirée.
Ag-Mart President Don Long is on the 10-member host committee for the Nov. 9 event to be held in Naples.
......Invitations listing Long as a member of the host committee have been mailed.
Bronson said Thursday that he does not know who is going to the event, nor does he see a conflict of interest.
"Just because someone has had a fine or someone has had a problem doesn't mean that they can't be a part of the system ... and that means even a re-election campaign," he said.
Corporate welfare aids profits, not jobs
States and municipal governments have long been in the habit of providing tax breaks and other incentives to employers who promise to bring jobs to their region. Often, the per-job cost to the state more than offsets any economic gain, and lost tax revenues lead to infrastructure problems down the road.
Corporate welfare encourages states to compete with each other to reach the bottom of the barrel. If Georgia offers a company $100 million to locate there, then Florida is likely to offer even more, thus starving schools and roads and police and fire departments of much needed revenue. And the resulting jobs are often low paying and not guaranteed – the companies and and do pack up and abandon their new communities on a whim.
Ironically, corporations rarely see incentives as deal breakers. Rather, they are often simply icing on the cake that companies routinely demand and receive even after deciding to move to an area regardless of any incentives.
Look to Tampa's recent Whore Off victory for an example of how this all works. The city has promised the NFL over $11 million for one stinking football game, yet we can't seem to find any cash to feed our homeless or school our kids.
Anyway, the Supreme Court has decided to look at a case form Ohio in which a sweetheart corporate tax deal was ruled unconstitutional, and “corporate relocation specialists” are going batshit trying to justify the legalized bribery that has become the norm.
Unfortunately, the usually perceptive St. Pete Times buys into the corporate welfare argument with hardly a murmer of dissent, offering only a token paragraph or two way down toward the end of their article to counteract the empty arguments of the pro-welfare crowd.
A case to be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court could bar state and local governments from using certain incentives to lure business jobs, Florida's solicitor general warned Wednesday.
Chris Kise, author of a friend-of-the-court brief signed last month by Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist and 29 other state attorneys general, said a federal appeals court was wrong to rule unconstitutional an Ohio tax incentive that persuaded DaimlerChrysler Inc. to build a Jeep factory in Toledo. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held last year that the incentive hindered free trade among the states by rewarding only companies that created jobs in Ohio.
If that decision were upheld, Kise said, Florida and other states would no longer be allowed to use tax-based incentives to lure or retain employers. Such a ruling would not only contradict prior Supreme Court decisions but hasten the stream of U.S. companies moving overseas.
Not really. Globalization is the root cause of the overseas job loss. Does anyone truly want to compete with third world call centers to offer the lowest wages and most corporate friendly tax base?
At the core of this scandal are corrupted definitions of "competition" that obscure cause and effect. We must create no-tax zones for factories, say the governors, to be competitive with other states - even though the whole country is bleeding manufacturing jobs and the obvious issue is globalization. We have to create a new TIF district (that's "tax increment financing") and steal shoppers from neighboring suburbs, say the mayors, to compete for tax base - even though malls in older areas are dying.
Those who peddle and those who buy into these corrupted definitions salute the corporate bottom line while thumbing their noses at common sense, social science, and good government. These corruptions are the deliberate creations of a 50-year campaign by corporations to divide and conquer the states - as well as the suburbs. This corporate gospel of competition preaches that governments at all levels must not be allowed to cooperate with each other. Public relations campaigns, consulting studies, lobbying of federal and state legislators, litigation all the way to the Supreme Court - companies will do whatever it takes, but governments must not be allowed to work together against the corporate assault. They must be kept in the dark and allowed into the room only when it's time to talk about subsidies. Localities must compete for tax base by pirating jobs and retail sales from each other, even though this means chewing up farmland for wasteful sprawl and throwing away older areas, poor people, and past infrastructure investments.
At every level, this system demeans and degrades public officials: the economic development official forced to bid for an unknown company against unknown competing sites; the school board members who have no say in the property tax abatements that will corrode their budget; the revenue director whose sober advice is upstaged by the frothy projections of an economist rented by the Chamber of Commerce; the governor who overspends on a "trophy" project because she so fears being known as "the governor who lost us Mercedes-Benz." Those who would dare to ask an impertinent question are quickly singled out for ridicule and isolation: they must be against jobs.
These blindfolded public officials practice job creation guided by wolves posing as Seeing Eye dogs. Companies, on the other hand, often know just where they want to go (or stay), but create a bogus competitor in order to "whipsaw" locations against each other and get more subsidies from the place they intended to go to all along.
A retired North Carolina construction executive who had used this scam admitted during a lawsuit deposition:
"I hate to give the example, but we decided very early in the game we were going to locate somewhere in the Winston-Salem/Greensboro area and narrowed it down to Kernersville rather rapidly; but spent a lot of time in Siler City and Asheboro and other communities hearing their story, primarily to use as a leverage to get all we could out of Winston-Salem. Now I give you that as a local example. But a more recent one - in Dickson, Tennessee, we had about ten west Tennessee municipalities chasing us with all kinds of offers; although we knew through the whole process it was going to be Dickson. And it was unfair and probably, as bad as it sounds, we used the others to get what we could out of where we were going in the first place. . . . you know, I've been around it a long time; but to me it's the process. Usually, you know early where you are going, and you use your leverage."
Question of the day
Why hasn't Tampa Rep. Jim Davis signed on to to co-sponsor H.R. 3763, the bill to overturn President Bush's Gulf Coast Wage Cut?
Maybe we should write him right now and ask. Here's mine - feel free to fine tune and send it as your own.
Dear Rep. Davis:
I understand that you have not yet signed on as a co-sponsor for H.R. 3763, the bill to overturn President Bush's Gulf Coast Wage Cut.
I hope that you decide to co-sponsor this bill. Denying fair wages to the people who will be rebuilding and living in the devastated Gulf Coast region is incredibly unfair, to say the least.
Your previous waffling on CAFTA and your support of the bankruptcy bill might lead one to assume that you have no compassion for the working classes. I sincerely hope that you put that notion to rest with your immediate and enthusiastic support of HR 3763.
Remember - Jim finally came around and voted against CAFTA, this summer, but he was waffling for an awful long time. Does Jim Davis hate working people?
Trib to employers: Stand firm against equitable pay
Bemoaning the low Florida unemployment rate, the proudly conservative Tampa Tribune offers some unsolicited advice to those poor business owners who just can't seem to find anyone to fill their underpaid, overworked, benefit-free positions. Not surprisingly, neither fair wages nor finding someplace other than the newspaper's classified section in which to advertise are mentioned as possible strategies.
It's been four weeks since Mark Williams, manager of Dan's Fan City on North Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa, taped up a sign in his window and started advertising in the newspaper for an assistant manager.
He can count the number of applicants he's seen on one hand. And none of them was qualified for the job.
"It used to be that you knew when the newspaper ad hit -- you'd get a flood," Williams said. "You become more aware that it's an employee's market right now, not an employer's market."
Gary Bingham, manager of Allen Sports Center in Tampa, taped up a help wanted sign last week. He said he had seen few applicants -- and the folks applying for jobs seem to have unrealistic expectations about pay and hours.
"I don't understand it," he said. "I've worked here 18 years."
Yeah, it's suddenly like people around here expect to be able to pay rent and other living expenses with only one full time job. How unrealistic. Don't these silly applicants know that higher wages hurt us all? Why do these job seekers hate America?
Bob Rohrlack, senior vice president for business development at Enterprise Florida, said a protracted tight labor market could cause problems for the entire state, especially if small businesses have a difficult time finding workers.
Collectively, small businesses are major employers, account for three-fourths of all new jobs and diversify the state's business environment, he said.
"It can hurt the entire economy," Rohrlack said. "It's important that we're focused on what's happening here."
Scott Brown, chief economist for St. Petersburg-based Raymond James & Associates, said he's not worried about the tight labor market -- at least not yet.
Brown said a tight labor market might force employers to raise wages, which can contribute to higher prices and inflation for consumers.
That isn't happening yet, he said.
"I don't think we're seeing labor costs pressure as being too excessive," he said.
No, labor costs aren't too excessive, but those stupid employees keep hurting themselves and dying on the job and no one seems willing to replace them.
Florida is among the nation's leaders in job growth, according to state officials. Statewide unemployment dipped to 3.8 percent in July, well below the national jobless rate of 5 percent.
Indeed, many economists say the state's job market is at or near full employment, the point where everyone who wants a job has one. Although there's a long-standing debate whether full employment occurs when the jobless rate hits 3 percent or 4 percent, the consensus is that jobs are as plentiful as they've ever been here.
Still, critics say, Florida's sheer quantity of jobs can't disguise the lack of quality positions. Pay and benefits remain below national norms, and the Sunshine State continues to be one of the nation's most dangerous places for workers.
In his "State of Working Florida" report released today, Bruce Nissen, director of research at Florida International University's Center for Labor Research and Studies, points to some unflattering statistics: Wages are below the national average. Florida ranks 47th among all states in percentage of residents with health coverage and 49th in private-sector pension coverage.
And last month, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics said Florida trailed only California in the total number of workers who died on the job in 2004.
"It's easy to find a job, and that's good," Nissen said. "But we've got a structure in our state that skews us toward low-paying jobs."
The structure is called right-to-work.
It’s really a ‘right to work for less’
It’s no coincidence that some employer groups, Big Business and ultraconservative lawmakers back "right to work"laws because such laws weaken unions and in turn depress wages. Studies show that workers in "right to Work" states earn significantly less, while workers in non-"right to work" states earn significantly more. A primary reason is that workers with a union contract earn higher pay"weakening unions lowers average pay. Workers of color and women workers who are union members make significantly higher wages.
The average worker in a "right to work" state earns about $5,333 less a year than workers in other states. (source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2001)
Hispanic union members earn 45 percent ($180) more a week than nonunion Hispanic workers. (source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Jan. 2002 )
African Americans earn 30 percent ($140) more a week if they are union members. (source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Jan. 2002)
Union women earn 30 percent more ($149) a week than nonunion women. (source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Jan. 2002)
…"Right to work" laws reach far beyond wages. Quality-of-life issues such as health care, education, worker safety and poverty suffer greatly in "right to work" states.
In "right to work" states 21 percent more people are without health insurance compared with those in free-bargaining states. (source: State Rankings 2000, A Statistical View of the 50 United States, Morgan Quinto Press)
"Right to work" states spend $1,699 less per elementary and secondary pupil than other states. (source: Education Vital Signs, 2000"2001 school year)
The infant mortality rate in "right to work" states is 17 percent higher than in other states, and the poverty rate is 12.5 percent compared with 10.2 percent in other states. (source: State Rankings 2000, A Statistical View of the 50 United States, Morgan Quinto Press; U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, March 2002)
The rate of workplace death is 51 percent higher in "right to work" states. (source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2001; AFL-CIO, "Death on the Job," April 2002)
But I digress. Here's the Tribune's helpful advice to businesses who are unwilling to bow to the rules of supply and demand: cheat with part timers and college students.
• Be creative and flexible with job openings: It might be suitable to hire two part-time workers to fill a full-time opening
• Consider college students for part-time positions.
See, college students are young and naive enough to accept low pay. And part time positions traditionally have even fewer benefits than low paying full time jobs, so follow the Wal-Mart philosophy and make more and more positions “part time”.
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More:
Pamphlets in the Fight Against Taft-Hartley 1947-1948
How to Organize a Union in Your Workplace
'Right to Work' States Are Really Restricted Rights States (AFL-CIO)
Miami fights the power
(From the BlogWood mailbag)
Ever heard of the Continental Management Group? They run most of South Florida's condos. If you live in Miami, chances are they run yours.
Well, Continental's greed and poor service has gotten so bad, it's provoked this hilarious new music video:
The flash is funny, but what's going on in the lucrative luxury condo industry in South Florida is not. Leydis Borrero cleaned condos for ten years for Continental Group, the largest employer of condo workers. Her reward for a decade of loyalty and hard work was a paycheck of $7.25 an hour with no health insurance for herself or her four kids. When she joined together with her co-workers for a living wage, training opportunities, and family health care, Continental fired her.
Condo workers are finding out that they have a lot in common with condo residents who also get taken for a ride by property management companies like Continental. Fees keep going up, and Continental's parent company makes money by "cross-selling" additional services such as painting, landscaping, and pool cleaning.
Elected public officials, condo residents, and condo workers have been holding public forums and pushing for legislation requiring licensing, fiscal and ethical standards, and full disclosure of contracting relationships.
That's the new union movement. Giving a voice to the voiceless. Uniting with community groups for everyone's benefit. And making sure that working people have the tools and training they need to provide a service they can be proud of.
Check it out at Screw This Condo and CleanCondos.org.
For more information about how we're working with residents and other public officials to reform the condo industry, go to CleanCondos.org
To see what else the labor movement in south florida has been doing go to:
Jim Davis shows lukewarm support for working class
The House narrowly approved the Central American Free Trade Agreement this morning, delivering a hard-fought victory to President Bush while underscoring the nation's deep divisions over trade.
The 217 to 215 vote came just after midnight, in a dramatic finish that highlighted the intensity brought by both sides to the battle. When the usual 15-minute voting period expired at 11:17 p.m., the no votes outnumbered the yes votes by 180 to 175, with dozens of members undeclared. House Republican leaders kept the voting open for another 47 minutes, furiously rounding up holdouts in their own party until they had secured just enough to ensure approval.
The House vote was effectively the last hurdle -- and by far the steepest -- facing CAFTA, which will tear down barriers to trade and investment between the United States, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
......During last night's debate, which lasted 2 1/2 hours, the bitterness of the Democrats' opposition shone through in condemnations such as that by Ohio's Dennis J. Kucinich, who thundered: "CAFTA is for multinational companies who want to make a profit by shutting plants in the United States and moving to places with cheap labor."
......The Democrats voting in favor were Reps. Victor F. Snyder (Ark.), Melissa L. Bean (Ill.), Dennis Moore (Kan.), William J. Jefferson (La.), Ike Skelton (Mo.), Gregory Meeks (N.Y.), Edolphus Towns (N.Y.), Jim Cooper (Tenn.), John S. Tanner (Tenn.), Henry Cuellar (Tex.), Ruben Hinojosa (Tex.), Solomon P. Ortiz (Tex.), Jim Matheson (Utah), James P. Moran Jr. (Va.) and Norman D. Dicks (Wash.).
Jim Davis is not on this list. Call and thank him for doing the right thing.
WASHINGTON:
409 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-3376
FAX: (202) 225-5652
DISTRICT:
3315 Henderson Boulevard
Suite 100
Tampa, Florida 33609
(813) 354-9217
Florida Toll Free: 1 (888) 266-0205
Fax: (813) 354-9514
Satellite Office:
1186 62nd Avenue South
St. Petersburg, FL 33705
(727) 867-5301
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In west-central Florida, Reps. C.W. Bill Young, R-Indian Shores, and Adam Putnam, R-Bartow, voted for CAFTA. Jim Davis, D-Tampa, who is running for governor and usually supports free trade, voted against it.
Davis said he primarily voted no because he had concerns that the administration would not hold CAFTA countries accountable for enforcement of labor and environmental laws.
"Trade agreements are promises, and promises are only good if they are kept," he said.
BlogWood Redux: Why does Jim Davis hate Florida families?
Note: as promised earlier, during the next week or so of light blogging, I’ll be re-posting some stuff that may be relevant tocurrent events. This post first appeared in May. More on CAFTA here.
May 13th, 2005
Why does Jim Davis hate Florida families?
Actually, maybe I'm being a little too hard on Jim – maybe it's his love of big corporations, rather than his hatred of the Florida family, that spurred him to vote for the bankruptcy bill and publicly support DR-CAFTA.
The bill would make it much harder for families in distress to write off their debts and make a fresh start. Instead, many debtors would find themselves on an endless treadmill of payments.
The credit card companies say this is needed because people have been abusing the bankruptcy law, borrowing irresponsibly and walking away from debts. The facts say otherwise.
A vast majority of personal bankruptcies in the United States are the result of severe misfortune. One recent study found that more than half of bankruptcies are the result of medical emergencies. The rest are overwhelmingly the result either of job loss or of divorce.
To the extent that there is significant abuse of the system, it’s concentrated among the wealthy - including corporate executives found guilty of misleading investors - who can exploit loopholes in the law to protect their wealth, no matter how ill-gotten.
It makes it harder for average people to file for bankruptcy protection; it makes it easier for landlords to evict a bankrupt tenant; it endangers child support payments by giving a wider array of creditors a shot at post-bankruptcy income; it allows millionaires to shield an unlimited amount of value in homes and asset protection trusts; it makes it more difficult for small businesses to reorganize, while opening new loopholes for the Enrons of the world; it allows creditors to provide misleading information; and it does nothing to rein in lending abuses that frequently turn manageable debt into unmanageable crises. Even in failure, ordinary Americans do not get a level playing field.
As for DR-CAFTA ,
-CAFTA does NOT include adequate enforcement for violations of internationally recognized labor and environmental standards. It only requires enforcement of national law, which is often inadequate, and the penalty for violations is a set of modest fines, which the government pays back to itself.
-CAFTA’s worker rights protections are substantially weaker than those under current U.S. law, with higher standards (international standards) and tougher penalties (loss of trade privileges).
- CAFTA threatens the livelihoods of millions of small farmers in Central America and the Dominican Republic, while increasing domination by agricultural monopolies and hurting U.S. family farmers.
- CAFTA would prevent access to affordable life saving medicines in a region where half the population live in poverty.
- CAFTA will prohibit governments in the region from ensuring that foreign investment serves national development goals, and has a provision like NAFTA that would allow foreign corporations to sue governments that pass strong labor, public health or environmental laws.
CAFTA includes rules that promote privatization and deregulation of services including education, health care, postal service, construction, transportation and water supply. Such policies have proved particularly devastating for families living in poverty.
So, Jim, as he prepares his run for governor, seems much more concerned with the wants of powerful corporations than with the actual needs of his constituents. Call Mr. Davis and ask him why he hates Florida families.
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The vote may be very close, so call now.
The trade agreement that would erase tariffs between the United States and the Dominican Republic as well as Central America, opening the prospect of a vast exchange of crops and goods, once seemed to be the inevitable next step after NAFTA.
But now, a mix of influences has President Bush contemplating a losing fight for congressional approval. The problem is that the agreement's heavy tilt toward agriculture has cost DR-CAFTA, as it is known, some key GOP votes, including those of several Floridians. In addition, this latest free-trade proposal seems to be more harmed than helped by the record of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which opened economic borders between the United States, Mexico and Canada in 1994.
......Though DR-CAFTA was signed by country leaders in May last year, the Bush administration has delayed sending a bill to ratify it in Congress. Under special fast-track authority, the White House can speedily push through trade agreements, bypassing often lengthy committee proceedings that would try to amend the agreement.
"They haven't pulled the trigger because they don't want the embarrassment of losing," said Lori Wallach, a former trade lawyer and DR-CAFTA opponent who is director of Public Citizen Global Trade Watch. "There's never been a situation where an agreement has sat around this long."
Analysts say the blame lies with the poor track record of DR-CAFTA's big brother. NAFTA, which took effect more than a decade ago.
"It's very hard to make a case that NAFTA has had any benefits," said Mark Weisbrot, an economist at the Center for Economic Policy and Research in Washington, which is critical of U.S. trade deals.
Indeed, it's hard to pin down conclusive data on NAFTA's effect. Business interests highlight increased cross-border trade and a boom in the garment assembly industry in Mexico. But grass-roots activists stress job losses in the United States. Tomato and pepper farmers in Hillsborough County were among those hardest hit.
Whatever the truth, most agree there is a widespread perception that NAFTA has failed to live up to expectations. As a result, new agreements are met with less enthusiasm.
Several key Hispanic groups who backed NAFTA in the '90s are opposed to DR-CAFTA or have declined to support it.
"These agreements are a very hard sell," Weisbrot said. "They are incredibly unpopular."
Even so, the Bush administration says it intends to proceed as early as late May. "Over the next few months, one of our trade priorities will be the free trade agreement with Central America and the Dominican Republic," Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said at a March 30 board meeting of the National Association of Manufacturers in Miami-Dade County.
But it remains doubtful that the deal has the votes in Congress. A number of Republican members have broken ranks with the White House, including Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite of Crystal River and Rep. Mark Foley of West Palm Beach.
"There's no question that members remain concerned over the impact of NAFTA," Foley said after a committee hearing attended by Central American trade and labor ministers Thursday. "It's one of those steep inclines for the administration to climb."
Even so, the battle in Congress is just getting started, and there is time for compromise.
"There's maybe some tweaking that could be done" to make it more palatable for Floridians, said Foley, who represents a heavy sugar-growing constituency. "We'd like to be helpful. If they took sugar off the table, it would certainly help."
On the other hand, Democrat Rep. Jim Davis of Tampa says he is inclined to support free trade with Latin America. DR-CAFTA presents "important business opportunities" for Tampa Bay. "It's important to have ties with these countries," he said.
It is vehemently opposed by a statewide coalition of farm worker, labor, environmental and church groups. Labor activists say the deal fails to offer protection to workers in countries where workers rights are not enforced. Cheap U.S. exports could wipe out Central American farmers, raising unemployment and migration.
"Our opposition is based on the human factor and the practical effects of NAFTA," said Eric Rubin, state coordinator for the St. Petersburg-based Florida Fair Trade Coalition. The coalition has campaigned statewide via hundreds of thousands of mailings and weekly speaking engagements.
Rubin says DR-CAFTA enjoys little public support. "It's only a small and powerful segment of the business community that back it."