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Labor Secretary Solis, VP Biden to Join AFL-CIO Executive Council Meeting |
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New Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, hundreds of Miami union and community members and top leaders of the AFL-CIO will gather tonight at the city’s Greater Bethel AME Church for a community forum on working families’ struggles in today’s faltering economy.
The forum kicks off the AFL-CIO Executive Council’s winter meeting, where union leaders will blueprint the union movement’s bargaining, legislative, organizing and political strategies for addressing the economic crisis slamming America’s working families.
One of the top items on the council’s agenda is a discussion of the next steps in the drive to enact the Employee Free Choice Act, to restore workers’ freedom to bargain with their companies for better wages and benefits. In conjunction with the Employee Free Choice Act strategy session, a new study of company interference in workers’ freedom to form unions is set for release Wednesday.
Tomorrow, Solis and the council will meet at Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 349’s union hall where Miami area construction workers will explain how the stalled construction market has cost jobs and put working families in peril. IBEW Local 349 is the site for all the council’s meetings this week.
Solis also will tour a local training facility where union apprentices are learning skills that will prepare them for jobs in the growing green job market.
Vice President Joe Biden will speak with the council on Thursday morning.
The council also will focus on bargaining in this economy, how to make green jobs family-supporting jobs (click here to learn more about the AFL-CIO’s new Center for Green Jobs) and discuss strategies to ensure we rebuild the economy in a way that works for everyone.
We will keep you updated on the community events and have daily reports on the council’s action.
Yesterday in Miami, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, met with the leaders of the 32 union that make up the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD).
The discussions centered on new investments to rebuild the nation’s crumbling transportation infrastructure and several legislative priorities, including fixing the broken collective bargaining system at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
In 2006, the FAA broke off contract talks with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) and imposed a new set of workrules that cut pay, eliminated certain rest periods and forced controllers to work overtime and six-day weeks. Because of the deplorable work environment, more than 2,600 controllers have left the agency that was already suffering from a serious staffing shortage.
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One More Reason WHY WE Need The Employee Free Choice Act NOW!
Imagine An Employer Firing a Worker for Trying to Organizing A Union
Union: Man Fired For Organizing Kenilworth Care Workers
By GARY PINNELL
Highlands Today
Published: March 1, 2009
SEBRING - Stanley Massaline has spent his adult life - 29 years - cooking in the cafeteria for the Kenilworth Care & Rehabilitation Center. But two weeks ago, he was terminated.
Massaline was told he was laid off. But his United Food & Commercial Workers Union representative, Glenn Harris, says Massaline was fired for organizing the rest of the Kenilworth Care workers.
A call on Friday to get Kenilworth Care’s side of the story was not returned by Administrator James Baker before press time.
“This is the proof,” said Harris, director of organizing for Local 1625. He held up a four-page document Massaline was required to sign, if he wanted to accept six weeks severance pay - almost $3,000.
“I didn’t sign it,” said Massaline. Instead, he took the document and left, and provided a copy when he and Harris contacted Highlands Today.
“You agree that you will not re-apply for employment with the Company or any of its affiliates and, if you should do so, the Company and its affiliates shall be entitled to reject your application for employment with impunity and shall not be liable for claims based on such rejection including, without limitation, a claim for rejection.”
“If he had been laid off,” Harris pointed out, “he would have been eligible for re-employment.”
On the same day Massaline was terminated, Harris filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging unfair labor practices. Harris wants Massaline rehired, with back pay. While companies are entitled to discourage unions, Harris said it is illegal to fire a worker for organizing.
Another clause in the termination contract caught Harris’s eye: “This release means you are forever releasing and relinquishing the Releasees from any rights you have to relief of any kind, including without limitation, any right to relief you may have under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, the federal Civil Rights Act if 1964, or any other federal, state, or local statute, ordinance, regulation, law or precedent.”
Whatever happens with Massaline, Harris said an election will be held at the Kenilworth Care learning room from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, March 20.
About 70 certified nursing assistants, restorative aides, food workers, housekeepers, laundry aides, central supply clerks, rehab techs, activities and maintenance assistants will be allowed to cast ballots, Harris said. Massaline had signatures from about 50 of them before he was terminated, he said.
“Your vote is secret and protected by the federal government,” Harris told workers in flyers posted at the facility.
After he was terminated, Harris said company officials told co-workers Massaline was let go because he is illiterate. Massaline said the issue had never been brought up before.
“He didn’t just forget how to read,” Harris said. “But it was okay for 29 years. He was fired for union activities.”
One More Reason WHY we Need The Employee Free Choice Act Now!:
The Employee Free Choice Act will:
Strengthen penalties against employers who break the law. Too many unscrupulous employers get away with breaking labor laws because the current penalties are too weak. The Employee Free Choice Act would increase penalties against employers who illegally fire or retaliate against pro-union workers during an organizing campaign or an effort to obtain a first contract. Read more about strengthened penalties.
Allow employers or employees to request mediation if they’re unable to negotiate a first contract. Under current law, anti-union employers often drag workers through lengthy negotiations by delaying bargaining sessions, withholding relevant information, and putting forth bogus proposals. Even though these tactics are illegal, there are no effective deterrents to prevent “surface bargaining.” The Employee Free Choice Act will strengthen workers’ ability to achieve a first contract within a reasonable period of time. Read more about mediation & arbitration.
The Employee Free Choice Act would allow workers to form a union through “majority sign-up.” If workers know they want a union, we should have laws that let them have it. The Employee Free Choice Act would require an employer to recognize its employees’ union when a majority has signed union authorization cards. Under current law, management can refuse to recognize a union even when 100 percent of employees have signed authorization cards. After a majority of workers have signed cards, an employer can still call for a separate election. Under the current system, then, the employer gets to decide whether a separate election is necessary. The Employee Free Choice Act would give this choice to the workers. Read more about majority sign-up.
Opposition Groups like The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace and their public relation firm Navigators Global continue to spread lies about the Employee Free Choice Act and never take notice or report about Employer Inimidation during a union campaign.
For more information on Employer Intimidation and Union-Busting FEAR Tactics Press Below
http://efcanow.blogspot.com/2009/02/just-say-no-to-employee-free-choice-act.html
For More Information on EFCA please visit our websites and blog
http://www.employeefreechoiceactnow.org
http://efcanow.blogspot.com/
http://efcaunionbustingclub.blogspot.com/
http://www.FreeChoiceActNow.Org
http://www.LaborUnionResources.Org
Tags: Employee Free Choice Act, EFCA, Free Choice Act, Kenilworth Care & Rehabilitation Center, Union Busting, Union Avoidance, Union Busting Tactics,Employer Intimidation,Stanley Massaline, United Food & Commercial Workers Sphere, Secret Ballot Protection Act, The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, Navigators Global, Secret Ballot, Card Check