Georgetown Panel Examines Wisconsin Uprising
A year ago, thousands of Wisconsin workers filled the statehouse and streets of Madison protesting Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) attack on their collective bargaining rights. The battle reverberated beyond the borders of Wisconsin, triggering a nationwide dialogue on collective bargaining.
On Wednesday, Feb. 15, the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University, will hold a special discussion focusing on what the Wisconsin protests mean a year later; the history, law, and politics of collective bargaining in the public sector; and what these public sector labor struggles mean for the country more generally.
The discussion will run from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Georgetown Law Gewirz Center on the 12th floor.
Georgetown University professor and Kalmanowitz Initiative Executive Director Joseph McCartin will lead the panel. Panelists include Craig Becker, a former National Labor Relations Board member, Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin (IAFF), Joseph P. Rugola, executive director of the Ohio Association of Public School Employees (OAPSE/AFSCME) and Newsweek and Daily Beast contributor, Eleanor Clift.
Ariz. Update: ‘Focus on Real Priorities,’ Union, Community Leaders Today at Capitol
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Donna Gratehouse, who blogs at DemocraticDiva and elsewhere on all things Arizona, sends us this.
It’s time for us to say enough! Let’s not let these bills see the light of day. Let’s focus on the real priorities of the state of Arizona—jobs, the economy, health care, education. Those are the priorities of Arizona, not the type of legislation that is pushed by the Goldwater Institute.
Gallardo went on to demand that the Goldwater Institute register as a lobbyist, as every other organization that influences legislation in Arizona has to do. (Watch his speech here.)
Some local reporters covering the press conference were surprised that much more ire was directed at the Goldwater Institute and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) than at Republican state senators. This might serve as a cue to them to go after these powerful groups with more vigilance than they’ve shown up to now.
Arizona Update: Public and Private Workers in Solidarity
Donna Gratehouse, who blogs at DemocraticDiva and elsewhere on all things Arizona, sends us this.
As Arizona’s “Wisconsin on Steroids” anti-worker bills get streamlined through committee hearings, Arizona labor leaders are gearing up to push back. This afternoon, I spoke with Roman Ulman, executive director of AFSCME Arizona. Ulman told me union leaders are still meeting with legislators at this point, urging them to support working families over corporate interests. As he said:
Senators on both sides of the aisle are telling me they are uncomfortable with the bills and are pleased that we’re talking and not walking at this point. Some of the Republicans have privately expressed to me that they’re tired of being terrorized by the Goldwater Institute and the Tea Party into voting for bad legislation. They want to focus on the budget and solving Arizona’s problems.
(Click here to sign a petition to tell all Arizona lawmakers to stop the attacks on firefighters, teachers, police officers and other hard-working public service workers.)
Private conversations aside, even the more principled Republican lawmakers in Arizona have a history of caving under under corporate pressure so it is expected that the majority will vote for the bills in the end. Ulman says union members and allies are prepared for that.
If it moves out of the Senate, all bets are off and we will march and take our case to the public.
Labor and community groups plan to hold a press conference on the lawn of the State Capitol in Phoenix on Thursday afternoon and are expecting a good sized crowd to turn out. Read the rest of this entry »
The Privatization of Public Services, State by State
Donald Cohen, founder and executive director of In the Public Interest, a national resource center on privatization and responsible contracting, sends us this.
It seems there’s no public service or piece of property that private companies are not eyeing as potential revenue streams. While funding anti-government think tanks like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), companies like Corrections Corporation of America, Waste Management, Maximus, Intuit, Laidlaw, Northrup Grumman, Koch Companies, Macquarie Capital Advisers, Pinnacle West, and UnitedHealthcare are hoping to use government as their candy store.
They want to take over our roads, bridges, parking lots, water systems, college dorms, and prisons. And they want to deliver public services like transit systems, school cafeterias, trash and recycling pick up, mental health services and many others. The following is a quick scan of just some of the proposals.
Water
The Emergency manager of Flint, Mich., is considering selling off its water and sewer systems to the highest bidder. The systems are currently generating revenues for the city.
Long Island’s Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano’s proposal is proposing to privatize the county’s sewage treatment system. Mangano also announced the privatization of Long Island Bus company to Veolia Transportation.
The Texas Lower Colorado River Authority is selling 18 retail water and wastewater systems in the Hill Country and in its southeast service area to [Canada-based] Corix Infrastructure.
Schools
School districts across the country are planning to contract out custodial, clerical, cafeteria and bus Read the rest of this entry »
Tell Labor Department to Adopt Home Care Worker Rule
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In December, the Obama administration proposed a new rule to bring the nation’s nearly 2 million home care workers under the protection of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA’s) minimum wage, overtime and other provisions.
But opponents who want to continue to deny these rights to home care workers are mounting a campaign to derail the proposed rule. With the public comment period now open, they are flooding the Department of Labor with negative comments and a barrage of lies, and their congressional friends are backing a bill (H.R. 3066) that attacks the proposed rule.
You can help these hardworking home care workers by clicking here to tell the Department of Labor to adopt the new FLSA rule for home care workers and here to send a message to your lawmakers urging them to oppose the bill.
Home care workers provide back-breaking personal care assistance to many older adults and individuals with disabilities. When President Obama announced the proposed rule, AFSCME President Gerald McEntee said: Read the rest of this entry »
Pensions Aren’t the Problem for State Budgets
This is a crosspost by AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Lee Saunders from Huffington Post.
Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, the Pravda of the 1 percent, is at it again, continuing its push to gut the retirement security of millions of middle class workers across the country while enriching the Wall Street moneymen who just three years ago took our economy over the cliff.
Virtually everyone agrees that our nation faces a retirement security crisis, but the Journal last week published a shameful op-ed calling for the elimination of pensions for nurses, firefighters, corrections officers and others who still have them. Having punched private-sector workers retirement in the gut, these folks won’t be happy until the whole concept of a secure retirement for working Americans is a thing of the past.
The typical AFSCME member — men and women who plow our streets, care for the sick, protect our children, clean our buildings and keep our communities safe — receives a pension of approximately $19,000 a year after a career of public service. The employees have earned and paid for these pensions. Employee contribution rates commonly amount to 3 percent to 10 percent of their paychecks. These contributions, combined with investment earnings, usually account for 75 percent or more of all pension benefit funding. Read the rest of this entry »
Video, Website Highlight AFSCME’s 75th Anniversary
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AFSCME is celebrating its 75th anniversary with a special website, a brand new video on the union’s history and a yearlong series of events.
The video features key moments in AFSCME’s history, including the union’s organizing campaigns, struggles to protect Social Security and pass affordable health care for all and the current battle to save and rebuild America’s working middle class.
The online exhibit at 75.afscme.org traces the union’s history from its origins as the Wisconsin State Employees Association to its charter with the AFL-CIO as AFSCME in 1936. It examines AFSCME’s fights in the 1930s and 40s to win collective bargaining rights and strong civil service laws, its strong involvement in the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
The exhibit also highlights the prominent role of women in AFSCME’s growth, the union’s fight for pay equity, child care health care, strong Social Security and today’s current fight for workers’ rights in Ohio, Wisconsin and other states where the extreme right wing has mounted attacks. Read the rest of this entry »
Dec. 10: NYC March for Voting Rights Begins at Koch Industries
Voting rights are human rights. To bring that point home, a coalition of labor, civil rights and community organizations will celebrate Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, with a Stand for Freedom march and rally, beginning at the Manhattan headquarters of Koch Industries, and ending at the United Nations’ Dag Hammarskjold Plaza.
Where and when:
Saturday, Dec. 10
10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.: Assemble 61st Street and Madison Avenue, Koch Industries New York City office.
11:30 a.m.: March from 61st Street and Madison Avenue to Dag Hammarskjold Plaza at 47th Street and 2nd Avenue
12:30 p.m.: Rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, across from the United Nations building
Earlier this year, as anti-labor laws swept state legislatures dominated by Republicans backed by the billionaire brothers, Charles and David Koch (who together own most of Koch Industries), some of these same legislatures passed laws designed to suppress voter turnout, especially targeting African Americans and immigrants. Read the rest of this entry »
N.H. Workers Buoyed by Today’s Victory
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AFL-CIO communications staffer Nora Frederickson sends us this report.
Workers and union leaders in New Hampshire were ecstatic that months of hard work in New Hampshire paid off today when the state House failed to override Gov. John Lynch’s (D) veto of a so-called right to work bill. Nearly 100 teachers, firefighters, postal workers and others showed up to ask their legislators to support the veto during the high-stakes session day and urged lawmakers to withstand pressure from Republican presidential candidates Jon Huntsman and Rick Perry as well as a rowdy group of Americans for Prosperity volunteers bused into New Hampshire for the day.
“I was confident that the reps on our side would be there, but it was still really nerve-wracking in the House,” said Felicia Augevich, a Fairpoint employee and member of Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1400 who helped monitor the session at the Legislature today.
I’m really proud of how everyone came together—Democrats and Republicans, private-sector and public-sector workers. We’re hoping that the victory today will send a positive message to the public, to the middle class, and to all of New Hampshire that collective bargaining really is what guarantees good wages and benefits for Americans. We’ve had one victory, but we still have a lot ahead of us.
Republicans on Super Committee Stood with the Bush Tax Cuts for the 1%
This evening’s announcement that the Super Committee on the federal deficit was unable to reach an agreement shows that the Republicans on the committee “have once again shown that if they can’t get their way, they take their marbles and go home,” says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.
“Getting their way” he says, means making the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy permanent, letting the top 1 percent off the hook on deficit reduction.
Getting their way means driving the economy further into a ditch—letting Wall Street run amok, refusing to take responsibility for their actions, and blaming everyone else. This, in a nutshell, is how our economy got broken in the first place.
Trumka says “If we want to fix our economy and put America back to work, we have to start focusing on the 99 percent, not the 1 percent.” Read the rest of this entry »
