U.S. Chamber to Members: It’s Cool to Make Your Employees Work on Christmas
This is a cross-post by Christy Setzer from U.S. Chamber Watch.
Dragging a little today? Desperately trying to focus on work while wishing you were still on a beach? Just be glad you don’t work for a member company of the U.S. Chamber of Congress—you might not have gotten that vacation at all.
In a toolkit for small business owners on the Chamber’s website, the lobbying organization advises modern-day Scrooge employers: “If you need to, you can require that [employees] work on Christmas Day, Thanksgiving Day, or any other traditional holiday.”
Report: Invest $1.7 Trillion in Infrastructure or Lose Jobs
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The nation needs to spend $1.7 trillion by 2020 to shore up its infrastructure, or it could lose more than 876,000 jobs, and hold back the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth by $3.1 trillion in the next nine years, according to a new report by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
Investing in infrastructure, especially highways and transit systems, would also create and save jobs and rejuvenate manufacturing, the ASCE said in the report released earlier this month. Download the full report, “Failure To Act,” here.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka agrees:
This report confirms what we have known for some time: If we do not substantially invest in infrastructure soon, we will put our economy, American business and American working families at risk.
Anti-Worker Conservatives Go Nuts-O Over Simple Rule Change
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) proposed a modest, common-sense rule to remove roadblocks for workers who want to vote on whether to form a union. But from the way the Chamber of Commerce and some Republicans are responding, it’s like the sky is falling—kind of like Chicken Little on steroids–with a message that’s become a broken record.
Here’s Randy Johnson, the Chamber’s chief labor official yesterday:
The proposal is one of the administration’s biggest gifts yet to organized labor.
Now here’s Michael Eastman, another Chamber official, talking on Monday about an unrelated proposed Labor Department rule improving transparency reporting by consultants:
This is probably the most significant handout to organized labor that we’ve seen in this administration. Read the rest of this entry »
Fire Fighters Push Back Against Fla. Gov., Chamber Attack
Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s (R) assault on fire fighters and other public employees—with the support of the Florida Chamber of Commerce—isn’t going over well with voters.
A new poll shows that 67 percent believe fire fighters, paramedics and other public employees deserve collective bargaining rights and 53 percent say those workers should have the right to have their dues deducted from their paychecks—something Scott and the Chamber want to outlaw. Says Fire Fighters (IAFF) President Harold Schaitberger:
Prohibiting dues deduction is nothing more than an attempt to gag workers.
He says the Chamber’s campaign backing Scott’s bill is trying to convince voters that “it has the best interests of fire fighters in mind.”
But the Chamber is nothing more than a partisan, political interest group with little use for those who stand in the way of its anti-worker agenda. The Chamber and anti-worker lawmakers want voters to believe Florida workers are forced to join unions, but membership is voluntary.
Click here to see an IAFF ad that began airing in Florida this week.
Ohio Chamber Member Resigns over Anti-Worker Bill
Boy, you know Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s policies are really bad when a Chamber of Commerce member resigns over them. Turning Technologies CEO Michael Broderick moments ago left the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber. Turning is a $40 million company touted worldwide by economic development officials as a regional success story. This from the Business Journal Daily:
In a letter to chairman of the board, Bonnie Burdman, and chamber CEO Tom Humphries, Broderick said he could no longer serve as a director. His resignation follows yesterday’s three-hour meeting of the chamber board, where Broderick urged directors to rescind the board’s endorsement of Senate Bill 5, the highly contentious legislation that would sharply curtail collective bargaining rights for public employees. Gov. Kasich’s office says he will sign S.B. 5 into law later today.
Read Broderick’s letter of resignation here.
The Triangle Fire: Still Burning Before Our Nation
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We hope you will share this special AFL-CIO Now feature on the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire with your friends, family and co-workers as a way to recognize America’s workers, past and present, who have sacrificed and continue to sacrifice so much to improve the lives of all workers.
When word got out two weeks ago that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker had ordered the windows of the state Capitol building bolted shut during the ongoing protests against his attacks on public employees, it was a chilling reminder of a similar action by the employers of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory.
Nearly 100 years ago to the day of Walker’s order—which he rescinded after public outrage—146 workers, mostly young immigrant girls, jumped to their deaths from the 10-story building, unable to escape a fire because factory foremen had locked all the doors. The owners, Isaac Harris and Max Blanck, worried the workers would steal from the company.
Madison Chamber Slams ‘Adversarial’ Moves Against Public Employees
The Greater Madison (Wis.) Chamber of Commerce has slammed the “adversarial way elected officials are approaching” public employees in Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) assault on good jobs and collective bargaining rights. Here’s part of the statement:
The GMCC supports the work to address the state budget deficit and the efforts toward improving the state’s economy. That support ends at the adversarial way elected officials are approaching it. Public policy issues of this magnitude should not be rushed through the legislative process. Given this state’s long history of collective bargaining, policy changes of this magnitude should be thoroughly debated for an adequate period of time, in good faith by both sides, with all potential consequences considered. Currently, that is not happening.
Not sure when last a Chamber of Commerce cited a state’s “long history of collective bargaining,” but maybe someone should check if that hot place has frozen over.
AFL-CIO, Chamber in Rare Agreement, Urge Infrastructure Investments
The AFL-CIO and the Chamber of Commerce don’t agree on very much. But today, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Chamber President Thomas Donohue told a Senate committee that labor and business agree on the vital need to invest in the nation’s transportation infrastructure to create jobs and boost the economy.
Trumka told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that the joint appearance “does not mean that hell has frozen over or that unicorns are now roaming the land.”
The fact is, while there are many policy areas where we have sharp differences, we both realize that our country needs to step up our “Investment in America” for business as well as working Americans to succeed.
Nominate Your Choice for ‘Scrooge of the Year’
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It’s the holiday season and time once again to say “bah humbug” to the most cold-hearted and greedy CEOs, corporations and politicians who exemplify the spirit of Ebenezer Scrooge.
This is the 11th year that Jobs with Justice (JwJ) will “honor” the person or group that has done the most to “scrooge” workers. And the floor is open for nominations. Beginning today, you can nominate your candidate for Scrooge of the Year, along with a brief description of why he or she deserves the award by clicking here.
The winner will join an infamous group. Last year’s winner was the Chamber of Commerce. Voters singled out the Chamber for its narrow, radical agenda advocating anti-worker, profit-focused solutions to the broken health care, labor and environmental systems.
In 2008, voters picked the entire lot of Wall Street executives whose unchecked corporate greed led to our nation’s economic disaster.
Our Votes Versus Corporate Cash Can Decide Election
A week from today we’ll have a chance to counter the hundreds of millions of dollars of secret corporate campaign cash that is blowing campaign spending records through the roof this election season.
Vote. Get your family to vote, your friends, your neighbors and your co-workers to vote. Vote for the candidates who won’t privatize Social Security, phase out Medicare, cut the minimum wage, ship jobs overseas, cripple Wall Street reform and repeal health care. If you haven’t already joined Labor 2010, click here to volunteer for this last week’s get-out-the-vote drive.
After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations could make unlimited campaign contributions, corporate money has been flowing to the Chamber of Commerce and a host of front groups with extremist agendas. Under tax and campaign finance laws, most such groups don’t have to disclose their donors until after the election. Read the rest of this entry »
