N.Y. Times: Gov.’s Real Goal Is Gutting Political Strength of Middle Class
In state capitols like Madison, Wis., Columbus, Ohio and elsewhere, Republican governors and legislatures—under the guise of fixing broken state budgets—are pushing a myriad of bills that do far more than shore up states’ finances. As The New York Times points out in an editorial this morning:
In each case, Republican talk of balancing budgets is cover for the real purpose of gutting the political force of middle-class state workers.
This attack on middle-class jobs goes far beyond what Republican lawmakers have attempted in the past, says the Times.
Conservative leaders in most states with strong unions have in the past generally made accommodations with…labor, often winning support on social issues in return. That changed this year after wealthy conservatives poured tens of millions of dollars into the election campaigns of hard-right candidates like Mr. Kasich and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin.
The Republicans’ claim to be acting on behalf of taxpayers is not believable.
Click here for the full editorial.
N.Y. Times Profiles New Jersey State AFL-CIO Candidate School
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Last week, The New York Times discovered what we in the union movement have known for a long time (click here and here): The New Jersey State AFL-CIO’s Labor Candidate School—with more than 500 union members elected to office since 1997—is a unique and resounding success.
Times reporter Richard Perez-Pena writes that “it is hardly unusual for unions to be involved in political campaigns…they provide candidates with critical ground troops for time-intensive tasks like walking precincts and making phone calls.” But he adds that the New Jersey school is unique “in training its own members to run for office rather than work for other candidates.”
New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech tells Perez-Pena:
The concept was to take our members and apprentice them in the field of politics, just as we apprentice them in their own crafts. We started with zoning boards, school boards, councils, then mayor, freeholder, and then senators and assemblyman. Corporate America is very good at electing their people. If it’s good for them, why can’t it be good for us?”
NY Times: Nation’s Labor Laws Weak and Irrelevant
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The New York Times reports that the 75-year old National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the nation’s main labor law, is not getting better with age, but has become irrelevant for most workers and employers.
Reporter Steven Greenhouse highlights a new paper by Harvard Professor Richard Freeman, which finds that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), created by the NLRA, has not improved the process by which workers decide if they want a union. Instead, it has turned union elections in the private sector “into massive employer campaigns against unions.” You can read Greenhouse’s entire article here.
Congress Must Fix Trade Deficit by Addressing China Currency Manipulation
The U.S. trade deficit hit $49.9 million in June, the highest it’s been in nearly two years. But many in Congress don’t see the need to solve this dangerous imbalance by addressing the problem behind the deficit—China’s currency manipulation.
Economist Paul Krugman correctly opposes such a timid position. Today, he took issue with an editorial by the New York Times—his employer—that called for a soft approach to China. Krugman writes:
My colleagues believe that we should lecture the Chinese on what a bad thing they’re doing, but not actually threaten sanctions, lest we start a trade war. My belief is that this gets us nowhere.
Right now, China is following a policy that is, in effect, one of imposing high tariffs and providing large export subsidies because that’s what an undervalued currency does. That should be a violation of trade rules; it might in fact be a violation, but the language of the law is vague on the subject.
End the Denial. Label China a Currency Manipulator
America and China are publicly in denial about currency manipulation. Both officially state that China is not devaluing its currency.
In mid-March, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao flatly denied that China deliberately suppresses the value of its currency against the dollar, a practice that decreases the price of its exports and increases the cost of American goods imported into China. Similarly, the U.S. Treasury Department, which is required by the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 to name foreign currency manipulators in biannual reports, has not in the past decade and a half called out China—including in the past two reports submitted during the Obama administration.
China and America decline to acknowledge what everyone else knows: China suppresses the value of its currency to gain a trade advantage over America. The New York Times reported on the practice in a story published March 14, describing how currency manipulation has worked wonders for Chinese industry while killing American manufacturing. (Click here to tell the Treasury Department to stop denying that China is manipulating its currency.)
Health Care Reform Makes Us ‘More Decent’ Nation
This morning, The New York Times op-ed columnist Paul Krugman presented the straight-forward, reasoned and no-hype case why the U.S. House this weekend should pass health care reform.
For one thing, he writes, the bill would end abuses like those of a South Carolina health insurance company that had “a systematic policy of revoking its clients’ policies when they got sick.”
What is on the table, ready to go, is legislation that is fiscally responsible, takes major steps toward dealing with rising health care costs, and would make us a better, fairer, more decent nation.
Read Krugman’s entire column here and then call 1-877-3-AFLCIO and tell you representative to vote this Sunday to pass health care reform.
Boston Globe Workers Reach Tentative Pact; Unions Offer Options for Media Jobs Crisis
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After weeks of intense negotiations, including a 10-hour session last night, The Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America (TNG-CWA) and the Boston Globe reached a tentative agreement early this morning that, if approved, would prevent the closure of one of the nation’s oldest newspapers. Meanwhile, in testimony today in the Senate, media unions highlighted strategies for addressing the industry’s finanical crisis.
The New York Times Co., which owns the Globe, had demanded a 23 percent pay cut and changes in job-guarantee language. Details of the tentative deal were not released, pending a meeting with Guild members scheduled for tomorrow.
The Globe deal comes as newspapers across the country are struggling through the recession, which has caused sharp declines in circulation and advertising revenue. Newspapers have laid off staff, eliminated sections, entered into bankruptcy or shut down.
