After 3 Years, Illinois Mental Health Workers Get a Contract
They fought for more than three years through a strike, a lockout and unfair treatment by management, and now mental health care workers at Heartland Human Services finally have a union contract.
The ordeal these workers went through to get their union contract is another example of why workers need the Employee Free Choice Act. If workers choose a union, they should get a fair first contract.
AFSCME reports that workers at Heartland, based in Effingham, Ill., formed a union with AFSCME Council 31 in February 2006. More than a year passed as workers tried to bargain for a fair first contract, and they finally decided to go on strike in July 2007. After a year on strike, workers tried to return to the bargaining table, but they were locked out by management, who refused to let them return to work. Finally, thanks to the hard work by Council 31 and action from the state of Illinois, which contracts with Heartland, Heartland and its workers have reached agreement on a contract that will let these hardworking mental health care workers get back to serving those in need.
Report: We Need Unions to Build an Economy with Good Jobs
A strong, sustainable economy doesn’t just depend on job creation—it depends on the creation of good jobs in which employees are paid fairly and receive health care and retirement benefits.
As workers across the country know, we’ve been heading in the wrong direction, and to turn the economy around, we need to give workers a shot at bargaining for a better life.
In a new report, “Creating Decent Jobs in the United States,” Jeannette Wicks-Lim of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts takes a close look at trends in employment, wages and benefits. She concludes that we need to make real policy changes to help improve jobs in this country—including restoring the freedom to form unions by passing the Employee Free Choice Act.
Get the Best View in D.C. and Help Support Employee Free Choice
 |
|
Join us at the AFL-CIO tomorrow night to take in the best view in Washington, D.C.—from our top floor looking across Lafayette Park, the White House and beyond—and help support the campaign for the Employee Free Choice Act.
From our eighth-floor balcony, you’ll get a chance to enjoy food, music and a stunning view of the White House—where, after eight years, we now have a friend to working families.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka and Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker will host the reception.
WHAT: Employee Free Choice Act fundraiser
WHERE: AFL-CIO, 815 16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. If you’re taking Metro, we’re a short block from the McPherson Square station, White House exit.
WHEN: Wednesday, Sept 2, from 6 p.m.-8 p.m.
As Labor Day Nears, Looking at the State of the Union Movement
 |
|
Today, along with the release of the AFL-CIO’s report, “Young Workers: A Lost Decade,” AFL-CIO leaders are taking a close look at where the union movement has come in recent years and where we need to go. With difficult fights ahead to create an economy that works for everyone, union members and allies around the country must continue to mobilize and educate so that we can reform health insurance, ensure job creation and pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
In a wide-ranging press conference today, the AFL-CIO’s top officers talked about their priorities and the future of the union movement. It’s a critical moment and an opportunity to rebuild a stronger, fairer economy.
As AFL-CIO President John Sweeney stated, we need to be fighting as hard to pass legislation on health care, the economy and the freedom to form unions as we did during the election:
It’s been an energizing year for working families…but it’s also been a hard one. For years we worked against the loss of health care, the loss of manufacturing jobs, the refusal to put any brakes on corporate greed and the refusal of our government to support working people under President Bush. The Bush legacy is devastating.
Trumka: Unions Key to Creating New Middle Class
 |
|
As the nation works to recover from recession and move into the decades to come, will we simply re-create the old economy or we will build a healthy new economy for the 21st century? And what role will the union movement have in answering that question? These issues were the subjects of a conversation with AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka this morning.
In an address sponsored by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, Trumka discussed health care, the Employee Free Choice Act, economic recovery and the future of unions. (You can read Trumka’s speech here.)
We’re not going to get ahead by mimicking the mistakes of the past and re-creating the cycles of debt bubbles and busts, Trumka said, but by giving workers the chance to earn their way into the middle class.
Montana Company Demanded Workers Sign Document Saying They Wouldn’t Form a Union
 |
|
In Great Falls, Mont., a former manager has come forward to say that her company tried to compel workers to revoke their own freedom to form a union.
The Great Falls Tribune reports that Keri Gorder, who spent eight years working at the Cost Cutters hair salon in Great Falls, left after being asked to pressure employees into signing a one-page agreement that would nullify future attempts to form a union. The hair salon’s parent company, Regis Corp., wanted to compel employees to sign the agreement, which would nullify any future authorization on their part to form a union and get the chance to bargain for a better life.
Authorization cards are a standard, legal feature of both the majority sign-up process and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process. They’re how workers show their interest in forming a union, and they’re an essential part of exercising this basic freedom. When a corporation—which controls workers’ jobs, hours and working conditions—tries to intimidate employees into revoking their own rights, it’s a sign of a broken system.
Society for the Study of Social Problems Supports Employee Free Choice
Add another organization to the long lists of groups supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. The Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP), an interdisciplinary community of academics and practitioners of social policy, has just announced their support of proposed labor law that would protect workers’ fundamental right to form a union and bargain.
At the SSSP annual meeting this month, delegates approved a resolution demanding quick passage of the Employee Free Choice Act to rebuild fairness in the workplace and a stronger economy.
The resolution reads, in part:
Union membership provides workers better wages and benefits, and protection from discrimination and unsafe workplaces, while benefiting whole communities by strengthening tax bases, promoting equal treatment and enhancing civic participation.
Big-Money Corporate Consultants Fight to Kill Employee Free Choice, Health Care
Behind the wide and well-funded disinformation campaign against pro-worker policies like the Employee Free Choice Act is a network of corporate funders and high-priced lobbying firms, aimed at distracting and confusing the public and the press on key issues. At the Center for American Progress’ Wonk Room blog, Pat Garofalo takes a close look at one such consulting firm, DDC, that is whipping up opposition to health insurance reform and the freedom to form unions.
DDC is being paid by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), an insurance industry lobbying group, to oppose a public option in health care. It’s also running an anti-Employee Free Choice Act website funded by Koch Industries, an oil company whose ample dollars flow to lobbying, political contributions and a broad array of right-wing organizations with innocuous-sounding names like “Americans for Prosperity” (AFP).
Across the Country, Celebrating Labor Day with a Call to Action
 |
||||
|
||||
From California to Maine and everywhere in between, union members and allies will celebrate Labor Day by taking action to make the nation work for everyone again—which means taking action on the economy, health care and the Employee Free Choice Act.
Congress is nearing the end of a monthlong recess, during which thousands of union members and a broad coalition of supporters around the country have been rallying, calling, writing letters and letting their elected leaders know that Employee Free Choice must be a top priority. This Labor Day weekend, Sept. 5-7, they’ll make that message heard at more than 180 public events.
In a message to union members, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says Labor Day marks a critical moment for union members and working families—despite the economic crisis, there’s a chance to make real change and improve people’s lives.
Op-Ed Highlights: What Employee Free Choice Means for Workers, Economy
|
|
Congress is still on recess, but the fight for the Employee Free Choice Act continues across the country and in the media. Here are two great op-eds that explain why we need to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
Netsy Firestein, director of the Labor Project for Working Families, writes in the San Jose Mercury News that the freedom to form unions and bargain will help workers provide for their families:
America’s working families are locked in a time vise. Our work hours are getting longer, our paychecks and benefits are shrinking, and we are struggling to raise and care for our families. The surging unemployment rate is only adding to our anxiety about holding down a job while juggling work and family responsibilities.
