Archive for July, 2007
America Got a Raise Today
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It’s a big and busy day up here on Capitol Hill and an even bigger day for the millions of minimum wage workers who are set to receive their first raise in more than 10 years. Their hourly pay jumps from $5.15 an hour to $5.85, the first of three raises Congress approved that will bring the rate to $7.25 an hour in 2009. But it hasn’t been easy.
This morning in the Capitol building itself, a number of U.S. House members are taking a few victory laps around a radio row and blogger alley where our progressive allies are chronicling the end of the 10-year-plus roadblock the former Republican congressional majority had thrown in the way of Democrats’ attempts to raise the minimum wage. As a result of Republican roadblocking, the minimum wage now is at its lowest buying power in more than half a century.
YouTube Users Put Candidates on the Spot
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Would the Democratic hopefuls be willing to work for minimum wage if they were elected president? The question came not from a pundit or a news anchor but from Cecilia and Asanti, two friends from Pennsylvania.
This unusual question elicited illuminating answers. Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) acknowledged it was easy for most of those on the stage to say “Yes,” because they were financially secure anyway. For most people, though, the minimum wage isn’t adequate. “We don’t have Mitt Romney money,” Obama said, eliciting laughter, “but we could afford to do it for a few years. Most folks can’t.” Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd admitted that working at the minimum wage, he’d worry about the cost of educating his two daughters.
AFTRA Elects New President, Seeks Direct Affiliation with AFL-CIO
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| AFTRA President Roberta Reardon | |
The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) took two major steps toward building a stronger union this past weekend. During its biennial national convention July 21 in Philadelphia, delegates passed a resolution to seek direct affiliation with the AFL-CIO and elected actress Roberta Reardon as president.
The nearly 200 delegates chose Reardon by acclamation. She had served as president to complete the remainder of the term of John Connolly, who resigned in March to become executive director of the Actor’s Equity union.
Lilly Ledbetter: Congress Needs to Tackle Unfair Supreme Court Ruling
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Lilly Ledbetter doesn’t think much of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s listening skills.
Alito was part of the 5-4 majority that in May ruled Ledbetter was simply too late in filing suit over 20 years of pay discrimination at a Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Alabama where she was paid less than the men doing the same job.
The court said she should have initiated her lawsuit no more than 180 days after she received the first short paycheck, even though it took her years to discover the difference–and longer to dig up the proof. The decision tossed out a lower court’s award of $3.8 million for her for two decades of pay discrimination.
Health Care Tops List of Issues You Want Candidates to Discuss
We asked, “What Do YOU Want to Ask the Candidates,” and you’ve responded. Our contest to pick the questions you want asked at the AFL-CIO’s Presidential Candidates Forum has sparked great interest: As of noon today, when we ended the first round, we have more than 1,500 questions, and we’ve received more than 17,000 votes.
It’s clear you’re concerned about the future of the country and excited to take part in the process of picking the next president.
The issue you cared the most about? Health care, with 240 questions. Freedom to form unions was close behind with 179 questions. The war in Iraq drew 123 questions. Trade, outsourcing, immigration and impeachment all are on your minds. We’ve picked the most-voted-for questions in the most popular categories. Some of the top questions will be asked by moderator Keith Olbermann at the Aug. 7 forum in Chicago, which will be broadcast live on MSNBC television and XM Satellite Radio.
10,000 Child Care Providers Getting a Voice on the Job
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| Trudy Bean |
More than 10,000 child care providers in Kansas and Pennsylvania won collective bargaining rights this month when the states’ governors signed executive orders guaranteeing the workers a voice on the job.
In Kansas, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) signed the executive order granting bargaining rights to some 7,000 state licensed and regulated home child care providers. The state then certified the workers’ choice to join Child Care Providers Together Kansas/AFSCME, capping off their six-month drive for a voice at work.
Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, 4,000 child care workers will vote this fall on whether to join United Child Care Union—a local union formed by AFSCME and SEIU—following Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell’s executive order granting the workers collective bargaining rights.
Denver Drivers Choose ATU
In their first-ever union election, 269 drivers, employed by Veolia Transportation in Denver, voted last week and are now members of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1001. With this vote, more than 500 workers have joined Local 1001 this year.
The Denver victory is another in a series of wins for ATU, which vowed to put in place the model for organizing presented at the 2006 AFL-CIO Organizing Summit. Buoyed by their successes at Veolia and at First Transit in April, local union members are working to help workers at other transit companies, such as Laidlaw, join a union. Laidlaw is Denver’s only nonunion company operating city routes as a subcontractor.
‘Death Ships’ Case Highlights Plight of Vulnerable Workers
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| A survivor of the Thai ‘Death Ships’ signs the lawsuit against the boats’ owners. | |
John Hosinski of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center sends us this report about the center’s efforts to assist Burmese and Thai fishermen who had been kept at sea for three years without adequate food. Many died of starvation and their bodies were tossed overboard.
When 70 Thai and Burmese fishermen signed up for duty aboard a six-boat fleet of Thai fishing trawlers in July 2003, none thought the journey would end in a nightmare for all of them and death for many. But over the next three years, they were trapped at sea with inadequate supplies. Thirty-nine of the men slowly starved to death and the rest barely clung to life.
While some workers jumped into the sea, taking their own lives instead of enduring any more suffering, those who died onboard were simply tossed overboard. Returning to port some three years after setting sail, the survivors claim the boats’ owners—Thai-based Prapasnavee company—only offered to pay them about $93 when they were owed thousands of dollars.
‘Eva vs. Goliath’ and Other Fun Reads for Summer
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Looking for something shorter than new Harry Potter book? Can’t even fathom reading another politician’s self-serving biography or maybe burned out on formula murder mysteries with your favorite sleuth?
Here are a few reading recommendations for your perusal, courtesy of Jordan Barab, founder of the late, great workplace safety and health blog Confined Space who now is lending his health and safety expertise to the House Education and Labor Committee.
The first is an article in the Texas Monthly, “Eva vs. Goliath,” which says:
Eva Rowe was a wild child from a mobile home in the Louisiana woods until March 23, 2005, when her parents were killed in a refinery explosion in Texas City. Then she became a wild child with a fancy house in Beaumont and a dogged crusader who forced BP to own up to the truth about what happened that day.
Kucinich Takes on Both Parties’ Candidates
Steve Smith of the AFL-CIO Media Affairs Department joined union members in Ohio for the seventh AFL-CIO town hall forum for 2008 presidential candidates co-sponsored by the Ohio AFL-CIO.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich is known for his biting criticism of the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress on the war in Iraq, the economy and trade policy. However, today at a Working Families Vote 2008 AFL-CIO town hall meeting in Columbus, Ohio, Kucinich went after the Democratic presidential candidates with equal vigor, attacking (without mentioning names) both parties’ presidential hopefuls for their ties to corporate America, health care proposals and positions on the Iraq War.
Speaking about health care, Kucinich told an audience of union members and their families at the Pipefitters and Plumbers Local 189 that he is “the only candidate in this race who says it time to end [the private insurance] system.” Kucinich went on to chide members of both parties for supporting free trade agreements such as NAFTA that have decimated American manufacturing.
