Mike Garcia is president of SEIU-USWW, the union of 40,000 property service workers across California.

Zoila Sosa just lost her job. She and 15 of her coworkers.

But the company that owns the building she cleaned is no ordinary company. It's JPMorgan Chase - the Wall Street bank that made more than $100 billion last year and paid its CEO, Jamie Dimon, over $16 million.

If you add up the wages of the 16 workers that got laid off, it's 0.000005% of all the money Chase makes in one year. For the bank, it's a drop in the bucket. For the 16 workers, it's their entire lives. It's their kids' futures. And it's only one tiny piece of how Jamie Dimon's bank is keeping an entire economy from bouncing back.

Get the whole story and demand a meeting with Chase CEO Jamie Dimon: http://action.seiu.org/askjamie

This isn't about just those 16 workers. It's about every one of us trying to get out from under the crisis the banks caused - only to be stomped on by Chase. Even if you're not one of the thousands of people whose home Chase has taken away, or whose job they've eliminated during the recession, Chase is finding a way to make a profit at your expense.

Don't believe me? Check out these stats: http://action.seiu.org/askjamie

Here in my home state of California, Chase's stranglehold on the economy is everywhere. They've kicked California families out of their homes. They've laid off workers when times are already tough. They've sucked millions of our tax dollars out of our communities that so desperately need it. And it's a similar story across the US.

It's time to hold Jamie Dimon accountable for what his bank is doing - just like you held Ken Lewis accountable when he pulled the same dirty tricks as Bank of America CEO.  Step one is demanding a meeting face-to-face.

Can you help get all of us on Jamie Dimon's schedule? Click here: http://action.seiu.org/askjamie

Time to stop getting Chased originally appeared on SEIU.org on Thursday, Sep 2, 2010.

Check out Secretary Hilda Solis' State of the American Worker speech, where she says that she won't tolerate efforts to roll back workers' rights to organize a union.

WATCH: Secretary Solis' State of the American Worker Address originally appeared on SEIU.org on Wednesday, Sep 1, 2010.

According to a complaint filed by the federal government, Sodexo Human Resources director Elaine Stewart and three other Sodexo supervisors interfered with and coerced workers in Columbus, OH over protected union activity. The workers are seeking affordable healthcare, better working conditions, and respect from management. In return, they were threatened and interrogated.

In the government's formal complaint against Sodexo, issued on Friday by the National Labor Relations Board General Counsel, we see Sodexo employees hard at work to undermine collective bargaining:

• At Ohio State University, HR Director Elaine Stewart met with workers and "threatened" that they could not work at other Sodexo sites if they joined a union;
• At On-Line Computer Learning in Columbus, Sodexo General Manager Brooks Schultz "interrogated" a worker about union activity and told workers that "breaks would be unpaid if employees wished to engage in union activities;"
• At Crew Stadium, home to the Columbus Crew Major League Soccer team, Manager Will Sparrow "threatened" that employees could not work at other Sodexo sites if they joined a union;
• And at the Schottenstein Center, home to Ohio State's basketball and hockey teams, Chef Adams Dawkins "threatened" that employees who ordinarily received complimentary food would no longer receive it if they joined a union.

Based on these incidents, the government complaint concluded that Sodexo has been "interfering with, restraining, and coercing employees in the exercise of their rights" guaranteed by law. Such coercion is a violation of workers' civil rights and is illegal. The NLRB General Counsel will pursue a civil prosecution over the charges.

Sodexo consistently claims that it respects the rights of its workers to join unions, but the string of anti-union incidents in Columbus tell a different story. In fact, Sodexo is currently being investigated by the National Labor Relations Board for unlawful anti-union actions around the country. Taken together, the company's reality falls sorely short of its rhetoric.

You can read the full complaint here (PDF).

Coercion and Interrogation in Ohio -- That's So Sodexo originally appeared on SEIU.org on Wednesday, Sep 1, 2010.

Today, Freedom House released a new report rating the level of repression of workers' rights in 165 countries across the globe. Each of the countries' rankings was given based on a five-category scale ranging from "Free" to "Very Repressive." Some of the report's significant findings:

• 1/3 of the global population live in societies in which workers' rights suffer a significant degree of repression.
• Workers in the U.S. exist in a more restrictive labor rights environment than Western Europe, Canada and even Israel.
• A decline in union membership is not unique to the U.S. Declines have taken place in almost every developed country, and in countries such as Australia, Britain, Germany, and New Zealand, the decline has been substantial.

"Unique" State of Workers' Right in the U.S. The report shines on a light on the crisis point we've reached on workers' ability to organize unions in the context of constant employer attacks--especially when looking at the state of workers' rights in the United States.

The problems of workers are not restricted to countries with authoritarian political environments. The most glaring example of this phenomenon is the United States. While the country has adopted laws that in principle guarantee the rights of workers to form unions, engage in collective bargaining, and conduct strikes and other forms of workplace protest, these rights have been circumscribed in practice over the past three decades through a combination of court decisions, political initiatives, and government policies.

According to Freedom House's Arch Puddington, the distinct hostility of our country's overall political environment towards unions is so prevalent it's actually unique. According to the report's findings, this is largely due to mounting resistance by employers. The arsenals of tactics used by employers to stall unionization, combined with "a willingness to violate labor law" and the NLRB's slap-on-the-wrist penalties for these violations are all contributing in a big way to the decline of our unionized workforce. The rising role of permanent replacement workers has also played a big factor. Before 1981, no major U.S. industry had hired permanent replacements during a labor strike, even though the law allowed them to do so. This is no longer true, and has had the effect of nullifying the strike as a significant weapon in labor relations. The report, Global State of Workers' Rights: Free Labor in a Hostile World, can be downloaded in all its full (PDF) glory here.

New Global Report Highlights "Unique" State of Workers' Rights in the U.S. originally appeared on SEIU.org on Tuesday, Aug 31, 2010.

One Nation Working Together

PROMO: One Nation Working Together originally appeared on SEIU.org on Tuesday, Aug 31, 2010.

This morning, New York Governor Patterson signed into law the first-ever U.S. law that upholds domestic workers’ rights.  200,000 nannies, housekeepers, and elder caregivers in New York will be covered under a law that provides guaranteed sick days, overtime pay, a day of rest, protection from discrimination, and notice before termination.  This groundbreaking victory is a result of a six-year campaign led by Domestic Workers United and supported by a broad coalition of labor and community organizations, including JwJ coalitions in NY State.

“Today we correct an historic injustice by granting those who care for the elderly, raise our children and clean our homes the same essential rights to which all workers should be entitled,” Governor Paterson said. “I am grateful to the sponsors for their extraordinary efforts to enact this landmark bill, and most of all to those domestic workers who dreamed, planned, organized and then fought for many years, until they were able to see an

Continue reading First-Ever Law Protecting Domestic Workers’ Rights Signed in New York

In News Briefs, we go around the IBEW to hear about what’s going on with brothers and sisters across the country.

Traditional media coverage of the protest against Express Scripts, Inc. First, from MSNBC.

"We're not asking to be millionaires, we're just asking for fair wages, good healthcare and just a little bit of a better lifestyle," said Express Scripts Inc. employee Ray Teachey to the crowd assembled behind the Boilermakers Local 13 building.

Teachey - a member of the Service Employees International Union currently in negotiations with ESI, the second-largest pharmacy benefits manager in the country - is a father of six who has worked as a data entry technician at the company's Bensalem plant for seven years.

The union's contract expires in December and members said there are rumors that the Bucks County facility could be closed, putting more than 900 employees out of work.

"(The company) is being very vague about whether they want to close it," said Pam Rogers, the SEIU Healthcare PA chapter president and ESI employee. "They have asked us to make concessions and we have but they always seem to want more from us."

What kind of concessions? The article continues ...

"They want the pension cut out completely," she said. "They don't want to have to pay for it all anymore. They want to cut our healthcare benefits as well. We told them that we would pay for a portion of our healthcare in order to keep it, but it's still not enough for them."

The "America's Most Wanted Job Killers" bus tour started in Bucks County, PA and ended this afternoon in St. Louis, Missouri.

The St. Louis Business Journal picked up the story and closed with a bit of information about Express Script's profitability:

The pharmacy benefits manager (Nasdaq: ESRX), led by Chairman, President and Chief Executive George Paz, saw its second-quarter profit soar 51 percent to $289.9 million due to its $4.7 billion acquisition of pharmacy benefit business NextRx from WellPoint. Revenue more than doubled to $11.3 billion from $5.5 billion for the three months ended June 30.

More at www.AmericasMostWantedJobKillers.com.

"America's Most Wanted Job Killers" - Express Scripts Inc. originally appeared on SEIU.org on Monday, Aug 30, 2010.

Forty-seven years after the 1963 March on Washington, the union movement and our allies are preparing for our own march in October. Under the banner of One Nation Working Together, union members, civil rights activists and other concerned citizens will rally in support of good jobs, a quality education for every child, immigration reform and workers’ freedom to form a union.  Our rallying cry is that we must reverse the dangerous trend toward greater income inequality and finally create an economy that works for all.

To achieve that goal and to become a truly united nation working together, leaders of the One Nation coalition partners—particularly our nation’s labor leaders—could learn a valuable lesson from that earlier march on Washington: The road to justice and equality must go through the South.

During the 1963 march, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. eloquently illustrated this point when he said:

“Let freedom ring from the mountains of New York… Pennsylvania…. Colorado…. California. But not only that: Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia…. from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee….f rom

Continue reading Opinion: Workers Who Win the South Change the Nation

SEIU President Mary Kay Henry and SEIU members and leaders were part of a crowd of around 5,000 celebrating the 47th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream Speech" in Detroit, Michigan on Saturday.

While speaking at the Rebuild America March for Jobs, Justice and Peace, Henry recounted listening to King deliver his famous speech when she was 7 years old with her family. She told the story of Monnie Callan, a retired social worker and a member of 1199SEIU in New York. Monnie and her husband traveled hundreds of miles with two infants to hear Dr. King's dream for America.

Henry also spoke about what we need to do to put Americans back to work, fix our broken immigration system, and fully realize Dr. King's dream for our country.

"Dr. King knew better than anyone that we can't just wait for others to deliver the change we seek. Ordinary people acting in bold ways is the best way to transform the world," said Henry. "I believe that we must link arms--just as many of you did in Washington on that August afternoon in 1963--to to win justice for all Americans and make Dr. King's dream a true reality."

Henry was joined by Rev. Jesse Jackson; UAW President Bob King; Detroit Mayor Dave Bing; U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich.; U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.; state Sen. Hansen Clarke, D-Detroit, and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero and his running mate, Southfield Mayor Brenda Lawrence. (Read more in the Detroit Free Press).

Outside of Detroit, SEIU members and leaders celebrated Dr. King's dream at events across the country. SEIU Executive Vice President Gerry Hudson met with SEIU AfRam in Chicago, and 1199SEIU President George Gresham joined Rev. Al Sharpton, civil rights leaders, SEIU members, and others for the Reclaim the Dream rally in Washington, D.C.

  » Read Henry's entire speech.

  » View more photos on Flickr from the Detroit rally, courtesy of SEIU Healthcare Michigan.

Remembering the Dream in Detroit originally appeared on SEIU.org on Monday, Aug 30, 2010.