Unionists Denounce Qatar as Choice for 2012 Climate Change Talks
AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council Director Bob Baugh, a member of a global union delegation led by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), sends us another in a series of reports on the new round of United Nations climate change negotiations taking place now in Durban, South Africa.
The choice of Qatar for next year’s climate change conference drew an immediate and harsh reaction from the ITUC delegation. Qatar’s labor laws are highly restrictive. In a country where migrant workers make up the majority of the workforce—87 percent of the total population—government employees as well as non-Qatari nationals are not allowed to form or join unions.
We issued a statement calling on the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to reconsider the decision. Says Sharan Burrow, ITUC general secretary:
The international union movement will not accept climate change talks being held in a country which does not respect workers’ rights and is the highest emitter per capita in the world.
Massachusetts Workers Mobilize as Deficit Deadline Looms
AFL-CIO communications staffer Nora Frederickson sends us this report.
As the congressional Super Committee’s deadline for a federal deficit reduction plan nears, more than 2,600 teachers, ironworkers, construction workers, nurses and others took to the streets in Massachusetts in recent days with a single message: no cuts.
Labor leaders and workers across the state have petitioned Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to pledge to protect America’s workers from devastating cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and have been making their voices heard—through postcards, forums with their members of Congress, resolutions and even an electronic billboard or two.
“We’re here to say no cuts to Social Security, no cuts to Medicare, no cuts to Medicaid, no cuts to the Postal Service,” Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman told thousands of workers and seniors from across New England at the Wang Theater in Boston,
and we want it for you, we want it for us and we want it for our children and grandchildren.
Report: Wage Theft Reaches Deep into the Low-Wage Economy
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A new report shows how wage theft reaches deep into the low-wage economy.
“The Movement to End Wage Theft” illustrates the problem with the stories of workers employed by a grocery chain, a temp agency, a construction company and other incorporated businesses. These workers’ wages were stolen by their employers who failed to pay the minimum wage or overtime, or refused to abide by work-break and safety rules.
Findings from a 2009 study cited by the study’s author, Nik Theodore of the University of Illinois at Chicago, concluded that 26 percent of low-wage workers in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles were paid less than the legal minimum wage, and 76 percent of workers who worked overtime were not paid the legally required overtime rate.
Here’s one account from the report (available here in PDF format):
For six years Modesta has worked as a cashier in a retail store in Brooklyn, New York. When she started at the job she was paid $5 an hour. She worked 60 hours, 6 days a week, but received no overtime pay. Last year she was given a “raise” and now earns $6.60 an hour—still well below the state minimum wage. Most of her co-workers are paid even less, but she says her employer has been able to continue this practice because the workers are too scared to complain.
Trumka at Take Back the American Dream Conference: ‘Bring It On!’
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Dave Johnson, a fellow at the Campaign for America’s Future, sends us this.
At the Take Back the American Dream conference this afternoon, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka described the unequal economic situation in the country today, saying:
Think about it: Bank of America, which makes about $1 billion a month, announces it’s going to charge customers $5 a month to use their own money to shop with their debit cards. Mind you this is the financial giant that paid its global banking and markets president nearly $30 million last year—and this year turned around and announced it’s going to fire 30,000 workers!
Trumka told the audience that the right wing is “banking on an upside-down America for its path to political power.” He described the right’s four-part plan:
Warning to Lawmakers: Don’t Ignore Missouri Working Families
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AFL-CIO Field Communications staffer Cathy Sherwin sends us this report.
Missouri union members, senior citizens, faith leaders and community groups have been trying for weeks and months to meet with their congressman, Republican Rep. Todd Akin, and ask him why he opposes Social Security and Medicare and his failure to support legislation that would get Missourians back to work. (See video at left which highlights just a few of Akin’s questionable comments.)
So far, he hasn’t been willing to meet with voters in his district, even though he’s been traveling far and wide to tea party meetings and fundraisers hours outside of his district. When his constituents held a town hall meeting a block from his office, he wouldn’t even contact them to decline, although he did issue a press statement saying he wouldn’t go to a “Union Hall,” calling the town hall meeting a “Rally and Protest.”
Well, Missouri activists are all over Twitter spreading the word today, with the help of Progress Missouri, Missouri ProVote and the Missouri Alliance for Retired Americans. There’s a new website, www.AskToddAkin.com, that lists some of Todd Akin’s votes and public statements on Medicare and Social Security and lets folks ask their own questions on Twitter using the #AskToddAkin hashtag.
Take part in the Twitter action with these retweets.
Nurses Sick over ‘Let Him Die’ Moment at Republican Debate
This week’s Republican debate has now achieved perverse fame for the “Let him die” moment that occurred when the audience cheered and applauded as Wolf Blitzer asked Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) whether society should just let a sick person die if he can’t afford health insurance.
As do all of us in the union movement, the National Nurses United (NNU) expressed revulsion at the cheering.
NNU Co-President Jean Ross, RN, called the audience’s response “stunning.”
My first reaction is how far have we degenerated as a society? Everything we do is geared toward preventing illness, and getting people well. If no one cares whether our patients get well, what are we doing advocating for them and fighting for them?
A broader question, says NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro, is:
one of national identity: Do we have—or even want—a country, a nation of common purpose and support—or just a collection of amoral individuals?
IKEA Workers Vote Overwhelmingly to Join Machinists
BREAKING: In a 221-69 vote, workers at the IKEA [Swedwood] plant in Danville, Va., voted to join the Machinists (IAM) today. The 318 employees assemble products for IKEA.
The workers, the IAM and the global union federation, Builders and Woodworkers International (BWI), launched a campaign in December to highlight what they say are labor and human rights abuses in the Danville, Va.-based Swedwood.
According to the workers, the issues at Swedwood include dangerous working conditions, forced overtime, discriminatory work practices, high injury rates, discharge of union supporters and harassment of union organizers.
UAW Local Fundraiser Buys Phone Cards for Troops
Robert Cebina, president of UAW Local 723 in Monroe, Mich., sends us this on the local’s recent fundraising effort.
We recently raised $2,300 during a fundraiser to buy phone cards for U.S. troops overseas. We held the fundraising event, which included a silent auction raffle for donated items and a 50/50 raffle, at the UAW Local 723 Union Hall in Monroe, Mich.
Fundraisers to buy troops phone cards, called “Mikies Minutes,” came about after Sgt. Mike Ingram, who was killed in Afghanistan while on patrol, said there was never enough time to call home and not enough phone cards to go around.
UAW Local 723 Veterans Committee and union members played a key role in making this the first fundraiser for Mikies Minutes. It was headed up by Dana Forbes, a member of the Veterans Committee and the chairman at the Frenchtown JCIM plant one. Forbes is also a veteran of Desert Storm.
N.H. Gov. Lynch Vetoes Right to Work
New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch (D) vetoed a so-called right to work bill today, saying that “There is no evidence that this legislation will offer any benefits to New Hampshire’s economy or workers.”
Earlier this month, the bill passed the state Senate by a veto-proof majority but fell short of a super majority in the House, where a close override fight is expected.
In his veto message, Lynch says New Hampshire has a lower unemployment rate and a stronger economy than most states with so-called right to work laws. He also points out that in states with “right to work” for less laws, workers on average have a lower standard of living, bring home less in their paychecks and go without health insurance more frequently.
In my time as a CEO, in my years spent in the private sector turning around companies, and in my seven years as governor, I have never seen the so-called right-to-work law serve as a valuable economic development tool.
He also says that the push for “right to work” in New Hampshire is being driven by ”national outside interest groups and is not a result of problems facing New Hampshire businesses or workers.”
Click here for his full veto message.
Ohio Senator Yanked Before Vote on Bargaining Rights Speaks Out
Half an hour before an Ohio state Senate committee voted on SB 5, the bill that would eliminate public employees’ right to bargain, the Senate Republican leader replaced a fellow Republican senator who opposed the bill with someone who supported it to guarantee the measure passed.
Now, State Sen. Bill Seitz from Cincinnati who was yanked from the committee, is speaking out. He told ThinkProgress in a telephone interview that he believes the bill goes too far. He said his abrupt removal sends a bad signal to Ohio workers concerned about their own future. He said he told State Senate President Tom Niehaus, the person who yanked Seitz off the committee:
I’m not sure it looks real good, particularly in the context of a management rights bill, to have you exercise management rights over your own roommate, friend, and fellow party member. Because if that’s what can happen to a sitting state senator, what’s going to happen to you if you’re a nervous firefighter, teacher, or policeman — what’s going to happen to you if this bill passes?
