Archive for August, 2007
Union Membership Means Mobility for Low-Wage Workers
Wage workers make more when they are represented by a union: In 2006, the union difference was $833 a week for workers in unions compared with $642 a week for nonunion workers. And union membership makes a big impact in improving access to health care and retirement security. Now, a new report out today highlights how the impact of union representation substantially raises wages and benefits in low-wage jobs.
The report, Unions and Upward Mobility for Low-Wage Workers, by the Washington, D.C.-based think tanks, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) and Inclusion, found that workers in 15 low-wage industries raised their wages, on average, about $1.75 per hour by joining a union. Union workers earned some 16 percent more than their non-union counterparts. Union workers in these same industries also were about 25 percentage points more likely to have health insurance or a pension plan.
Circuit City Firings: We Won’t Forget
Remember Circuit City’s callous firing of 3,400 workers last March because—and this is Circuit City’s explanation—the company was paying those workers too much, not that they weren’t doing their jobs or were being rude to customers or sleeping in the stockroom? The workers’ extravagant salaries, an average of about $12 an hour, broke the bank, according to Circuit City.
No doubt the electronic giant’s top executives—including CEO Philip Schoonover, who the Rocky Mountain News reported was forced to get by on just $8.52 million in 2006—hoped they’d take a little media hit and be done with it.
Fix the Income Gap or Face a ‘Terrible Future’
The axiom that you will succeed if you get an education and work hard—better known as the American Dream—is not a sure thing anymore. Today, if you want to be rich, you’d better be born that way or work your way up to being a CEO, says Allan Ornstein.
A professor of education at St. John’s University, Ornstein says a huge majority of Americans lost out in the economy over the past 20 to 25 years, even though college enrollment almost doubled.
About three of four workers lost real income since 1979, he says, despite a 40 percent increase in productivity. In 2001, the average CEO of a Fortune 500 company earned an astonishing 424 times more than the average worker—up from 40 times more in 1979. Yet, he says, the government has done nothing about it.
Clinton, Romney Unveil Contrasting Health Care Visions
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) both have been involved in health care—but with vastly different goals. Clinton spearheaded the effort for comprehensive reform during President Bill Clinton’s administration, while Romney signed problematic legislation in 2006 that required Massachusetts residents to buy their own health insurance. Now, each has made a major address this week on health care—offering starkly different visions for the future of our nation’s system.
Clinton, like other Democratic candidates, is looking for ways to broaden coverage, share responsibility and fix the market failures that have crippled the health care system. Romney, meanwhile, wants to leave more families in the hands of private insurers whose bottom lines don’t often match with quality, affordable care.
Dee-Lightful Landing for Southwest Flight Attendants
We have a dee-lightful follow-up to bring you. After flight attendants at Southwest Airlines staged a unique video protest—a clever take off on Cole Porter’s standard “It’s De Lovely”—over airline management’s move to place supervisors in crew slots normally reserved for trainees, known as “D” slots, Southwest said they would cease and dee-sist.
The video, performed by the Night and Day Trio of Washington, D.C., riffed on Porter’s “It’s delightful. It’s delicious. It’s delovely” lyrics, singing about Southwest’s actions, “It’s demeaning. It’s deceptive. It’s despicable.”
Barbara Easterling, First Female AFL-CIO Officer, Announces Retirement
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Barbara Easterling, the daughter of a coal miner, who became the first woman to serve as an officer of the AFL-CIO and longtime secretary-treasurer of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), is retiring.
Easterling, whose trailblazing work has inspired women in the union movement around the world, announced this week that she will retire at CWA’s 2008 convention.
CWA President Larry Cohen says:
When Barbara steps down, her talents, wisdom and activism will be missed not only throughout CWA, but also by the labor, women’s and human rights movements around the world.
Senate Set to Investigate Utah Coal Mine Disaster
A U.S. Senate committee will hold the first of what is likely to be several hearings and investigations into the Utah coal mine disaster where six miners are presumed dead and three rescuers were killed trying to reach the six.
The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services has asked Crandall Canyon Mine co-owner Robert Murray, Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) chief Richard Stickler and Mine Workers (UMWA) President Cecil Roberts to testify at a Sept. 5 hearing.
Two NY Firefighters Injured at Site of Last Weekend’s Fatal Fire
Two firefighters were injured yesterday after a piece of construction equipment fell from the Deutsche Bank building near Ground Zero, the same building where two other firefighters died during a major fire last weekend.
Although demolition work on the vacant and contaminated building had been halted after the fatal fire, a small group of workers reamined to shore up the building, remove debris and contain toxic material.
Mourning in Bush America: Greed Is Good
The six Utah coal miners still remain trapped after the Crandall Canyon mine collapse 22 days ago. And the three men who died trying to rescue the six miners are just being laid to rest. But owner Robert Murray was ready to move on—and make money.
After disappearing from the public for a few days last week, Murray was back, not to offer reassurances to the families of the trapped miners or expressions of regret for the length of time their loved ones have been buried, not to give condolences to the families of the deceased rescue workers or to proffer other basic civilities, but to assert that it’s time to start mining other sections of the mine. After all, what’s a few lost miners when there’s more profit to be made?
Even officials at the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) could not contain their outrage over Murray’s comments.
Machinist Member Wins House Seat in Special Election
It’s official. Laura Richardson, a Machinist member won—with 67 percent of the vote—a special election Tuesday in California to fill the 37th Congressional District seat left open following the April death of Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D).
In July, we told you how Richardson, a member of the California State Assembly, finished at the top of an 18-candidate primary, but was forced into a runoff because she didn’t win a majority. With the continuing help of the Los Angeles labor movement, she took care of that in the four-candidate general election field.
