Archive for April, 2007
More Injuries, Fewer Deaths on the Job
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Although the number of workplace deaths is declining, too many workers remain at risk and face death, injury or disease as a result of their jobs. Progress in protecting workers’ safety and health is slowing. For some groups of workers, jobs are becoming more dangerous, according to the AFL-CIO 2007 report, Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect.
The 16th edition of the national and state-by-state profile of worker safety and health in the United States reveals that in 2005 (the last year U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics are available) 5,734 workers died from workplace injuries, compared with 5,764 the previous year. But the figures show a significant increases in fatalities among Latino and foreign-born workers.
Employee Free Choice Act Would Lead to Better Jobs, Less Poverty
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This is the first in a series of blogs on the findings of a new Center for American Progress report, From Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half.
America is the richest nation in the world, yet 37 million Americans, nearly equivalent to the population of California, live below the poverty line and millions more struggle to get by every month. Over the past six years, the number of poor Americans has increased by 5 million and inequality have increased.
A major study released today by the Poverty Task Force of the Center for American Progress (CAP) finds that in 2005, the top 1 percent of American households held 19.3 percent of the nation’s income, equal to its largest share since 1929. At the same time, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that in 2005, those in the bottom 20 percent of the income scale had just 3.4 percent of total income.
Right now, one in eight Americans is considered officially poor and one in three is defined as low income. And those who have jobs aren’t faring much better. One-fourth of all workers are in jobs for which year-round full-time work would not pay enough to keep a family of four above the poverty threshold of $20,516.
Steelworkers Rally for Employee Free Choice
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| Steelworkers sent a message to lawmakers to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. |
(USW) rallied on Capitol Hill today to let our elected leaders know that America’s workers are paying ever-increasing prices for health care, housing and gasoline, while their paychecks do not grow.
The rally followed a day of lobbying on Capitol Hill as part of the union’s legislative conference. The USW members met with their representatives and senators on a wide range of issues important to working families: the Employee Free Choice Act, which is pending in the Senate (S. 1041), fair trade, national health care and energy.
Equal Pay for Women Still a Long Way Off
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Today is Equal Pay Day, the day that marks how far into the calendar year a woman must work to earn as much as a man earned last year. Even though women make up a growing portion of the workforce, they continue to make dramatically less than men.
At a national level, women are paid only 77 cents for every dollar a man is paid, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. At a time when America’s economy is facing a downturn, economist Evelyn Murphy, president and founder of The WAGE Project, estimates the wage gap costs the average full-time U.S. woman worker between $700,000 and $2 million over the course of her work life.
2,700 Steelworkers Settle at Appalachian Health Care Facilities
Some 2,700 members of the United Steelworkers (USW) on strike for three weeks at nine Appalachian Regional Healthcare hospital facilities will vote on a tentative agreement this week. Details of the settlement reached on Saturday will be released after the ratification vote, but Roger McGinnis, president of the Harlan, Ky., local, said:
We preserved our pension, contained our health insurance costs and improved our wages.
Nine USW locals represent certified nurse aides, licensed practical nurses, housekeepers, maintenance and clerical workers at facilities founded a half a century ago by the Mine Workers (UMWA) to care for miners and their families. The USW represents 36,000 members in health care and 850,000 overall in the United States and Canada.
Business and Conservatives Desperate to Stop Employee Free Choice Act
Over the weekend, we saw another example of how badly Big Business and its allies in Congress want to stop the Employee Free Choice Act. Today’s Daily Labor Report (subscription required) says Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) railed against the legislation during a speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation. He reportedly said the bill “promises to savagely curtail” workers’ right to a private-ballot election on whether they want union representation.
Hatch urged employer organizations and conservative groups to organize strong opposition to the legislation and to use talk shows, blogs and advertisements to educate the public about its “dangerous” provisions and rebut “fabrications” allegedly made by unions.
Canada Supreme Court Clears Way for Wal-Mart Union
Canada’s Supreme Court last week ended three years of legal stalling tactics by Wal-Mart and cleared the way for the Saskatchewan labor board to certify a union at the retail giant’s store there. Wal-Mart had appealed a lower court ruling authorizing the labor board to rule on applications to certify the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Canada to represent the workers at an outlet in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. The Supreme Court dismissed Wal-Mart’s appeal April 19. UFCW Local 1400 originally filed its application in April 2004 to represent workers at the Weyburn Wal-Mart, and the labor board’s hearings ended in December 2005 after a series of Wal-Mart challenges.
“Wal-Mart has said if their workers want a union, they can have one, so Wal-Mart should now stop delaying and listen to their workers and to the courts,” said UFCW Canada National President Wayne Hanley.
Congress Could Pass Minimum Wage Hike This Week
The new Congress is expected this week to raise America’s minimum wage for the first time in a decade. At the same time, the House sent a message to corporate CEOs that shareholders should have a say in how much executives are paid, a change the AFL-CIO has strongly backed. Senate Republicans have held up the increase by insisting on tax breaks for business as part of the package. Members of the House and Senate announced last Friday they reached agreement on $4.8 billion in tax relief for small businesses that will be paired with a minimum wage increase.
The House passed a bill Jan. 10 that would have boosted the federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25, without another round of tax breaks for business. Senate Republicans filibustered the House bill for a week in January, using Senate rules to force minimum wage backers to win 60 votes instead of a simply 51 majority and then killing the House bill on Jan. 24. By killing the House bill, Senate Republicans forced Senate Democrats to add $8.3 billion in business tax breaks. They then refused to allow the combined minimum wage and tax package to move to a conference with the House unless and until the House produced its own package of tax cuts for business.
A Nation’s Priorities Are in Its Budget
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| U.S. Federal Budget Deficit |
Balancing the federal budget is not a sexy subject matter. In fact, just the words “federal budget” put off most people because the issues involved are so complex and so, well, dull. But a recent gathering of economists at the nonprofit Economic Policy Institute (EPI) tried to make sense for the rest of us what a balanced budget really means—while agreeing that the nation’s current budget deficit cannot be addressed without a solution to America’s failed health care system.
As part of EPI’s fourth Agenda for Shared Prosperity forum last week, Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz gave the keynote address on “Getting Beyond Balanced Budget Mania and Addressing the Nation’s Needs.” Stiglitz was followed by a panel discussion that included Brookings Institute economist Henry Aaron, who spoke on chronic deficits; Children’s Project Director Joan Lombardi, who discussed investing in early childhood development; and EPI economist Max Sawicky, who spoke on why public investment matters. Launched in January, the Agenda for Shared Prosperity is a network of economists and policy makers who will propose and promote ideas to advance a comprehensive and workable economic program to address the nation’s problems.
