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Working Families Chalk up Wins in State Legislatures |
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The state legislative season is winding down, and working family activists chalked up some impressive wins—minimum wage increases, Employee Free Choice Act support—and mobilized to beat back beat back serious anti-worker attacks, including paycheck deception and TABOR (the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights).
State AFL-CIOs, local labor councils and community allies worked together on lobbying days, rallies and letter and e-mail campaigns. Here’s a rundown of the major actions so far in 2007. Some legislatures will resume their work soon, but most are out of session until the fall or later.
(For more information on these and other legislative action, visit the Progressive States Network. For in-depth policy information on working family issues, visit the Center for Policy Alternatives.)
Minimum Wage
With the federal minimum wage stuck at $5.15 an hour for more than a decade and Senate Republicans holding a minimum wage increase hostage for 132 days (and counting) low-wage workers continued to turn to state legislatures for a wage hike.
So far this year, four states have increased their minimum wage rates above the stagnant federal level. That bring the number to 22 states that have raised their minimum wages since the beginning of 2006. The four states that passed increases this year are:
- Iowa—to $6.20 an hour April 1 and $7.25 on Jan. 1, 2008;
- Kentucky—to $5.85 an hour July 1, to $6.55 on Jan. 1, 2008, and $7.25 on July 1, 2009;
- New Hampshire—to $6.50 an hour Sept. 1 and to $7.25 on Sept. 1, 2008; and
- New Mexico—to $6.50 an hour Jan. 1, 2008, and to $7.50 on Jan. 1, 2009.
Along with the minimum wage increases, Maryland became the first state in the nation to pass a living wage for government contract workers. The new law sets minimum wages for employees of government contractors at $11.30 an hour in the Baltimore-Washington area and at $8.50 an hour in the rest of the state.
In addition, workers who earn tips in Arkansas, Idaho, Montana and Missouri, joined with worker-friendly lawmakers to beat back attempts to shut them out of minimum wage hikes approved in those states last year.
Freedom to Form Unions
Although the Employee Free Choice Act is federal legislation, union activists had plenty to do at the state level to secure local lawmakers’ support of the critical bill, which would help ensure workers seeking to join unions are not harassed and intimidated by their employers.
The Employee Free Choice Act, which passed the House in March and is now in the Senate (S. 1041), has the support of several state legislatures that have passed resolutions in support of the landmark labor law.
So far this year, resolutions supporting the Employee Free Choice Act have passed in the Alabama House of Representatives, the Hawaii House, the Illinois House, the Kentucky House, the Michigan House, the Minnesota State Senate, the Wisconsin State Senate and the West Virginia House. Resolutions have been introduced in Arizona, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey, Oregon, South Dakota and Washington.
Majority sign-up, one of the key elements of the Employee Free Choice Act, allows workers to form unions when a majority sign union authorization cards.
Legislation giving state public employees majority sign-up rights was passed last week by the Massachusetts House and earlier this year by the New Hampshire State Senate, Oregon House and Vermont House. It also has been introduced in California, Minnesota and Rhode Island.
Workers’ Rights
The Worker Freedom Act would give workers the freedom to not attend employer-sponsored meetings on politics or religion. The New Hampshire and Oregon houses both passed worker freedom bills, and legislation has been introduced in Arizona, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey and West Virginia.
Trade
U.S. trade policy is set at the national level but has great impact at the state level—especially on jobs and state regulatory laws. Also, many states contract with companies that have outsourced other work and shipped U.S. jobs overseas.
Measures in several state legislatures seek to address trade. The Jobs and Democracy Act—versions of which have been introduced in 17 states—is designed to give state residents and lawmakers access to vital trade information on the impact of international trade on a state. Included in the provisions is the establishment of a Citizens Globalization Commission to asses the economic and legal impacts of trade agreements on the state. The commission would hold hearings and make recommendations to state and federal lawmakers and U.S. trade negotiators.
The legislation also requires the approval of the state legislature before a state is bound to an international trade agreement. The Hawaii House and Senate, Illinois House, New Hampshire Senate and Nevada House have passed the legislation.
Several state legislatures have passed resolutions opposing the current Fast Track trade-promotion authority reauthorization now before Congress. Fast Track allows the president to negotiate trade deals but prevents Congress from improving or rejecting harmful provisions by allowing only “yes” or “no” votes on such trade packages.
Working families strongly opposed the 2002 legislation, and the AFL-CIO union movement recently joined a coalition with other fair trade activists to battle against unfair trade deals, including renewal of Fast Track authority. The Alabama House, Hawaii House, Maine House and Senate and Montana Senate have approved anti-fast track resolutions. Resolutions are under consideration in Illinois, Michigan Minnesota, New Jersey, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Vermont.
Legislation is pending in several states that would prohibit them from contracting with or providing economic development assistance to companies that ship work offshore. The legislation also would require a company that ships jobs overseas to repay the state for the work and ban the firm from state contracts for five years. The measure has been introduced in Connecticut, Hawaii, New Hampshire, New York and Oklahoma.
Anti-Worker Measures
Working families aren’t the only groups lobbying state legislatures. Anti-union, corporate and extremists groups are extremely active. So-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) measures have surfaced in several states but have failed to win approval. But TABOR backers in South Carolina won House passage, and the state Senate is yet to act. Last year, voters in three states voted down TABOR ballot measures that severely restrict state spending for vital public services. In 2005, Colorado voters threw out the state’s TABOR law.
In a report last year, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says TABOR is an idea that just doesn’t work:
TABOR shrinks the scope of what government can accomplish and creates conditions that each year pit programs and services against each other for survival. And once such limits are embedded in a state constitution, they usually cannot be removed or modified. They undermine existing services for children, youth, and families and make any new initiatives virtually impossible to undertake.
In addition, paycheck deception legislation—a favorite of the far right—resurfaced in several states, but has failed make much headway. The aim of the extremist groups that back various versions of paycheck deception is to silence workers’ voice in politics.
Most paycheck deception initiatives take away the right of union members to use payroll deductions for political purposes, which is one of the best ways for union members to pool resources—bit by bit, through our unions.
The funds are used to counter the big money contributors who relentlessly write fat checks for corporate-backed candidates. In the 2004 election cycle, corporations outspent unions by a ratio of 23 to 1. Click here for an in-depth look at paycheck deception measures.
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