Archive for June, 2006
Minnesota Nurses, Florida Satellite TV Workers and More Choose Unions
From nurses in Minnesota to satellite TV workers in Florida and van and bus drivers in Colorado, America’s workers are winning respect and a union voice on the job in recent workplace victories.
Union workers earn 29 percent more than nonunion workers: $801 in median weekly earnings for full-time wage and salary work, compared with $622 for nonunion. The union wage benefit is even greater for minorities and women. Click here to find out these and other facts about the union difference.
Supreme Court Bars Some Employer Retaliation
Employers cannot retaliate against workers who file job discrimination complaints by suspending them or transferring them to less desirable work, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled late last week.
The National Women’s Law Center says the decision “sends a message to victims of workplace discrimination that they will be protected if they come forward.” The group filed a friend of the court brief for 30 women’s and civil rights groups.
The AFL-CIO also filed a brief in the case, which involved a female worker at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. railroad in Tennessee. After filing sexual harassment and discrimination complaints in 1997, Shelia White was transferred from her job as a forklift driver to a less desirable and more demanding job as track repair worker. She then was suspended without pay after filing a complaint with the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission.
Got Vacation?
It’s summer, and that means another Expedia.com survey to remind us how few vacation days most workers get in the United States.
The global online travel agency’s sixth annual “Vacation Deprivation,” survey found, no surprise, that U.S. workers receive the fewest vacation days per year on average compared with other major industrialized nations. The survey cites 14 days as average for an American worker, a number that doesn’t include federal holidays. But citing 14 days as an “average” figure also minimizes the extent to which millions of workers get no paid vacation, even while working two or more jobs.
In fact, 25.5 million private-sector workers in the United States do not have paid holidays and 22.2 million private-sector workers have no paid vacation, according to a survey of benefits by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Tune in and Turn on to a Union-Backed Concert for America’s Kids
The Musicians (AFM) tuned up for a huge jam session to help raise awareness—and money—about the need for working families to have access to quality after-school programs for their kids.
As part of the “JCPenney Jam: The Concert for America’s Kids,” AFM members played in the orchestra and backup bands and headlined performances in the concert filmed June 14 and set for broadcast Aug. 22 on CBS.
Says AFM President Thomas F. Lee:
Inadequate after-school supervision is a growing problem for working families and the U.S. as a whole. Yet quality after-school programs are a benefit to society as well as to the students who take them. These programs don’t just keep kids off the streets, they create healthier, brighter, more-engaged young people ready to take their place in society. The professional musicians of the AFM are proud to support the JCPenney Afterschool Fund, which is a leader in the quality after-school movement.
The concert will feature AFM members such as country star Kenny Chesney, soul signer John Legend and producer and popular songwriter David Foster. Hosted by television’s Dr. Phil McGraw and his wife Robin, the DVD/CD combo of the show will available at JCPenney stores, online at the chain’s website and through AOL, with the proceeds going to the after-school fund.
Recent studies show that more than 14 million children are unsupervised between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. each school day—putting them at risk of involvement in crime, drug abuse and other destructive behavior during these hours.
Check you local listings for time and channel.
Pride At Work: Building Pride for All Union Members
Thoughout the month of June, Gay Pride Month, members of the AFL-CIO constituency group Pride At Work (PAW) have been spreading the message that all workers, including those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) need protection from unscrupulous employers and a voice on the job to affect wages, working conditions and prevent discrimination.
“People need to understand that workers have no protection without a contract,” says Nancy Wohlforth, secretary-treasurer of the Office and Professional Employees, co-president of PAW and AFL-CIO international vice president.
122 National Labor College Graduates Step into Their Future
It’s been said that an employer’s greatest fear is an educated union member. Today, there are 122 more educated union members ready to work for economic justice on the job.
These union leaders and members and staff from across the country received their degrees today at the eighth annual National Labor College (NLC) commencement at the NLC campus in Silver Spring, Md.
The 2006 graduates include members of 33 unions who received 106 Bachelor of Arts degrees and 16 master’s degrees through the NLC’s partnership programs with the University of Baltimore and the American University.
“I’m pumped,” says Gwen Dunivent, a Southwest Airlines flight attendant from Dallas, who received her bachelor’s degree. Dunivent, a newly elected officer of Transport Workers (TWU) Local 556, used her vacation time to take classes.
Bargaining Digest Weekly
The New York legislature has passed a bill that would soften the effects of state agency stalling or bargaining in bad faith.
If a state agency negotiates in bad faith or stalls, employees would get an automatic 1 percent pay increase and an additional 0.5 percent after every three months that go by without a settlement.
The legislation also would reduce fines for state workers who strike under the Taylor law if the state is found to be bargaining in bad faith.
The measure was passed nearly unanimously in both houses, but it’s not certain if Gov. George Pataki (R) will sign or veto it–in which case a veto override is a strong possibility.
USW Workers Score Major Goals in Alcoa Contract
The USW International Union (USW) announced today that Alcoa workers had ratified a new four-year contract with the world’s largest aluminum company. The contract provides average 2.6 percent annual wage hikes for 9,000 employees at 15 plants across the nation, and each worker receives a $1,500 ratification bonus.
That’s only half the good news. The agreement is a major victory for USW workers over the company’s proposals to gut retiree health care and impose a two-tier system of benefits for new hires. The tentative settlement was reached May 31, just two hours before the contract was set to expire, averting a possible strike or lockout.
Oops. Your Fly’s Open. Getting Back at Bad Bosses and More
You think your boss sucks? You’re not alone. Take a look at some of the latest entries in the “My Bad Boss Contest,” sponsored by the AFL-CIO’s community affiliate Working America. The entries are pouring in from across the country, with reports of bosses who combine the worst features of a piranha, a Balkan war criminal, Ann Coulter and, well, that’s about as bad as it gets.
One worker writes about a terrible boss he had last year who “threatened to fire” him for using vacation time to visit family after his father passed away. This sensitive and fair-minded boss also pressured staff “into working overtime and would NOT pass our time cards when we put overtime on it.” But FunnyBoySacto and his fellow employees got their revenge when they let the boss “attend a meeting with an important client with his fly open. Serves the SOB right.” Indeed.
Federal Minimum Wage Is Stonewalled but Unions Are Moving Ahead in the States
Fed up with years-long congressional Republican and Bush White House roadblocks to raising the federal minimum wage, working families and their unions are stepping up their efforts to win pay increases on the state level.
This just in….We learned this afternoon from the Montana State AFL-CIO that the Raise Montana coalition today in Helena announced coalition volunteers have gathered the more than 22,000 signatures needed to place a $1-an-hour minimum wage hike—to $6.15 an hour—on the November ballot. The measure also would index the wage to inflation.
