Unions push merger with US Airways

In a split decision on the lesser of perceived evils, five bargaining units of American Airlines’ largest union voted to accept management’s final offer on concessions, while two voted to reject it. Members of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) voted via phone and Internet beginning last week, and the results were announced on Tuesday. The vote took place against the backdrop of a bankruptcy union leaders opposed, a legal process they distrust and a potential merger they’ve endorsed.

"We're at the mercy of the court," Tulsa machinist Joe McGill, whose unit voted against the deal, told the Associated Press Tuesday. "I hope we can survive this, keep the maintenance base open and functioning, and maybe start to rebuild."

As I’ve previously reported, AMR—the parent company of American Airlines and its sibling American Eagle—filed for bankruptcy in November. AMR’s unions questioned the bankruptcy’s motivation, and its then-CEO’s resignation was announced the same day as the filing. Following two months of negotiations with its unions over proposed concessions, AMR filed with a bankruptcy judge to override its current union contracts. If approved, the motion would allow the company to impose greater concessions than those in its current offer.

With majorities ranging from 59 to 96 percent, American’s offer was approved by bargaining units consisting of fleet service clerks, dispatchers, ground school instructors, maintenance control technicians, and simulator technicians. While most bargaining units voted to ratify, TWU”s largest bargaining unit, which includes aircraft maintenance workers, voted 56-44 percent against it, as did store clerks (51-49 percent).  In total, 51 percent of 17,521 voting members voted to approve the terms.

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act was recently introduced in the U.S. House by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) — a bill that will ensure pregnant workers are able to maintain their jobs without limiting their ability to work and support their family. Take action in support of this bill here: AFSCME.org/pregnantworkers

According to the new Equal Rights Advocates’ report “Expecting a Baby, Not a Lay-Off,” there are 43 states that do not require employers to provide reasonable pregnancy accommodations for workers.

While women represent nearly half the workforce, in these states many employers refuse to give pregnant workers simple accommodations such as limiting heavy lifting. This noncooperation is especially unfair considering that many of the same accommodations pregnant workers ask for are provided under law for injured workers, and those covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 2008.

In a recent CNN special on the issue, Jeannette Cox tells the story of retail sales associate Heather Wiseman who “lost her job because consuming water while working violated store policy.” Because there were no federal or state laws protecting her, Wiseman had no recourse to her termination during a time when most families need stability the most.

Unwillingness to cooperate with pregnant workers often leads to women being fired or expectant mothers taking months of unnecessary unpaid leave with no promise they’ll have a job to come back to.

“At a time when American families are struggling to make ends meet, it’s imperative that we do everything we can to keep people in their jobs, and this is especially true for pregnant women on the verge of having another mouth to feed,” Rep. Nadler said. “Protecting the health and well being of pregnant women should be central to our society’s support for strong and stable families.  The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is an essential means of clarifying our laws to ensure that pregnant women and their families are not allowed to slip through the cracks.”

As AFSCME sisters and brothers, let's do our part and stand together to make sure that all working families are protected at the workplace, and that includes health and job security. Take action here: AFSCME.org/pregnantworkers

We’re hearing a lot about the federal budget and the deficit, about spending and taxes. I wondered what our government would’ve looked like in 2011 if we had balanced the budget, only spending what we took in. Hello, my name is Carolyn Federoff. I’m a federal employee and a member of the American Federation of Government Employees. And this presentation shows you what our government would’ve looked like.

This chart is from the Congressional Budget Office. It’s full of information, but I want you to focus on the bottom left. In 2011, we spent $3.6 trillion, and took in $2.3 trillion. What would it take to cut $1.3 trillion, and only spend what we brought in?

This is a picture of the Secretaries of the cabinet level agencies and Directors of some key Independent Agencies. At the bottom is our total spending in 2011, including our deficit spending. Let’s start our discussion about cutting with the “independent agencies.” You know—Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, the so-called extras. If we were to eliminate every independent agency except Social Security—since there is some agreement that some form of Social Security should continue—but if we were to eliminate every other independent agency, according to the Office of Management and Budget, in 2011, we would have saved…$253 billion! Wow! We didn’t even get down to a trillion dollars, and we wiped out …AMTRAK, the CIA, EPA, EEOC, NASA, the NLRB, Nat’l Endowment for the Arts and for the Humanities, the Security and Exchange Commission, the SBA, the TVA, and more! And we didn’t get rid of a fifth of the deficit. Clearly, it’s going to take more cutting.

Let’s start getting rid of the cabinet, from left to right, starting with Agriculture. We’re below a trillion dollars. Recognize, though, that we just eliminated all food inspectors, the school lunch program, all food stamps and other safety net programs. One in 7 Americans currently receives
food stamps, and half of those are children not of working age. But we’re going to have to do more cutting, so next is the Department of Transportation…that’s roads, bridges, mass transit systems, and air traffic controllers. We need to continue cutting, so next is the Department of Energy…no one’s looking out for nuclear security. Next is the Department of Homeland Security and we’ll eliminate the Department of Commerce…no more FEMA to help when a tornado blows through town, no border patrol, customs or immigration, and no more airport security; no more Census, no more patent office, no more promotion of exports. The next agency is the Department of Labor…no OSHA, MSHA, pension protections, unemployment insurance. We’re about half way to the $1.3 trillion we need just to balance the budget. Next we’ll move to the Department of the Interior…good bye Yosemite and the National Parks. After that, we’ll move to the Department of Housing and Urban Development…there goes about million units of housing for the elderly, and another million for families. Department of Education…bye-bye Pell Grants and student financial aid. We’ll eliminate discretionary spending at the Veteran’s Administration…that’s about 45% of their budget—that’s why you see about half of Secretary Shinseki. According to the Heritage Foundation, the discretionary budget is mostly Veterans healthcare, but we can’t afford to keep our promises to our veterans. Next is the discretionary budget at HHS…that’s about 16% of their budget, the remainder of their budget is for Medicare and Medicaid. And we finally broke the $1 trillion dollar mark. But to do it, we’ve eliminated funding for the National Institute of Health, which funds cancer research, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More to go, we’ll eliminate the Department of State…no more ambassadors or foreign aid. Next is the Department of Justice …which includes the Bureau of Prisons, the FBI and our criminal prosecution system. Eliminate the budget of the Treasury, except for interest payments on the debt…

We still have a gap of $200 billion, and the only Department untouched is Defense. We’re hearing a lot about the need to protect defense from cuts. So before we cut them, let’s do away with the budget for the Congress and for the Courts; that must be a lot for two whole branches of government, right? Even if we eliminate the entire budget for Congress and for the Courts, we still have a deficit of almost $188 billion. So we’ll have to make some defense cuts.

To completely eliminate the budget gap, we’d have to eliminate about 26% of the Defense budget. This picture still has Secretary Gates, while the Secretary of Defense is currently Secretary Panetta, but you get the point. This is your cabinet, ladies and gentlemen: 84% of Secretary Sebelius, 74% of Secretary Panetta, 97% of Secretary Geitner, and 55% of Secretary Shinseki. It’s also your entire government, since we eliminated Congress and the Courts. Now, when people realize that about 60% of our budget is related to “entitlement” spending—Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid—some decide that we have no choice but to reduce entitlements, to reduce benefits. So I started by investigating Social Security.

And when I looked at benefits, I said “really?” For most workers, Social Security provides less than $20,000 annually. In June 2010, the average Social Security retirement benefit was $1,170/month, or about $14,000 per year! In 2008, before the stock market crash, Social Security provided more than half of the retirement income for more than half of elderly beneficiaries. For 26% it provided more than 90% of their income. Keep in mind, these numbers reflect persons already retired—a population that had a greater likelihood of having a defined benefit pension plan with guaranteed retirement income. Since 1983, the proportion of workers covered by traditional pension plans has plummeted. Persons retiring in the future will probably be relying even more on Social Security. Social Security should not be cut.

But even so, for many people, government just feels too big! And studies show that people recoil from “big”—big labor, big business, big government. But the fish bowl—the United States—is really big! How big is the United States?

We have thousands of airports handling millions of passengers annually. We have hundreds of shipping ports, thousands of terminals, handling more than 9 million cargo containers annually. There are about 13 million truck and rail cars crossing the Canadian and Mexican borders annually. There are thousands of food facilities in the US subject to FDA inspection, with a congressional mandate to inspect thousands more foreign food facilities by 2016, with fewer than 3000 FDA inspectors. There are more than 7.5 million workplaces covered by OSHA, and only 1100 OSHA Inspectors. There are more than 24 million living veterans, 5 million of whom receive medical services annually from the VA. Approximately 10,000 people file for Social Security benefits, and thousands receive new or replacement Security Cards EVERY SINGLE DAY.

The population of the United States has increased more than 70% since 1960. And the quality of life—well, it’s increased significantly, too. In 1960…The interstate highway system was just beginning, and regular people didn’t hop on a plane to visit grandma for the holidays; in January, the produce aisle held only potatoes, onions and oranges; zip codes hadn’t been introduced yet; credit cards were rare, and credit card debt rarer; lead was in our paint and in our gasoline. In 1960…Lakes and rivers were so polluted, they could catch fire, and DDT use was wiping out the Bald Eagle; there was hardly any warning when a hurricane or tornado was heading for your town; there were no civil rights in the workplace, the marketplace or the polling place; penicillin was a wonder drug, and the iron lung was cutting edge medical technology.

Federal programs and federal employees have played a direct role in these and many more advances since 1960, maintaining the current quality of our lives and advancing positive change for the future.

But while what we expect from government has significantly increased and the US population has grown 70% since 1960, the number of federal employees has only increased 16%. Walmart has 2.1 million employees in the United States, with one mission—to sell you products. There are 2.1 million non-postal federal employees, with dozens of missions—to make sure food is safe, rivers are clean, borders are patrolled, and much, much more. In fact …2/3 of federal employees work for the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs and Justice, working to protect you and me, and serve our nation’s veterans. So, the United States is BIG, the population is rising, the federal government has a significant role to play in the quality of our life, and despite all the changes, the number of federal employees has stayed relatively stable. And taxes…?

Taxes are at the lowest level since 1958! USA Today reported that the total tax burden—the combined total of federal, state and local taxes– is at the lowest level since 1958! The United States is larger, government does more, and we are paying a smaller share of our income today than we did in 1960. And Grover Norquist and his allies talk about pushing revenue lower. They would take our country back. Back before 1958. Repeal a half century or more of progress.

People need to talk about increasing revenue and about restoring our government. People need to talk about revenues. Where’s the revenue? In 2011, the cost of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan was estimated to be $159 billion. Winding down these unfunded wars will help reduce the deficit. We need to talk about allowing the reckless Bush tax cuts to expire. We need to talk about a Financial Transaction tax. We need to talk about taxing capital gains as ordinary income. We need to talk about an estate tax on estates over $3.5 million.

We need to talk about JOBS! Putting people back to work will go a long way to improving our tax revenue. We have billions in estimated repairs needed for our water and sewer systems nationwide, and trillions in estimated repairs to our roads, bridges, airports and transit systems. We can invest in our nation, and generate revenue at the same time And we haven’t even talked about corporate tax loopholes and corporate welfare.

And we need to stop talking about decreasing Social Security benefits. Enough with the scare tactics. There’s a simple solution to ensuring Social Security’s solvency through our grandchildren’s lifetime. Scrap the Cap. 94% of workers pay Social Security taxes on 100% of their earnings. 6% of workers do not. That’s because there is a cap on wages subject to Social Security taxes; in 2012, all earnings above $110,100 are not subject to Social Security taxes. All of us need to pay Social Security taxes on all of our earnings. Scrap the cap.

So, what do we have? We have a big problem. We can’t cut our way out without gutting our government. People who talk about “taking back” our country are talking about taking our country back 50 years, and further tax cuts will take us back 100 years!

What do we have? We have a big country, with a modest sized government, and a small tax burden. None of us felt crushed by taxes in 2000, when Clinton left office. But then came the reckless aughts—the 2000s. Massive tax cuts, unfunded wars, and Wall Street speculators. It’s unfortunate that we’re going to have to pay to put it all back together. But the biggest beneficiaries of the reckless aughts ought to make the biggest contribution to balancing this budget.

What do we need? Revenue! The options include, winding down the war, allowing the reckless Bush Tax cuts to expire, raising taxes on the 1%, investing in our country and putting people back to work, and we need to save Social Security for the next 75 years, for our grandchildren—scrap the cap and extend Social Security taxes to all earnings. That’s the message that we need to take to our members, to our families and to our neighbors. Find a way to make the truth known.

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Last Thursday, May 10, at around 2 p.m., managers walked into Honeywell's uranium conversion plant in Metropolis, Ill., and told workers—both union and nonunion—they had to leave the plant immediately. Multiple workers present say a manager explained the sudden dismissal by noting that the company had to investigate "sabotage" of plant equipment.

Since May 10, Honeywell has allowed 100 of 170 nonunion salaried workers to return to work, and has allowed 90 of its 100 nonunion contactors to continue working in the plant. But none of the plant's 168 hourly union employees have been allowed to return to work—the company has informed them that they've been laid-off indefinitely. All laid-off union workers were immediately left without pay and health insurance. In contrast, when Honeywell locked out USW union workers in June 2010, it waited nearly three months to cut off their health insurance.

The Metropolis plant is no stranger to contentious labor relations. In 2010 and 2011, it  was the scene of a tense 13-month long lockout of United Steelworker (USW) members. That dispute was resolved last fall when the union ratified a new contract. Since then, however, the work environment has been tense; several key USW Local 7-669 leaders have been fired by Honeywell. Local 7-669 leaders say Honeywell is trying to bust the union. 

For many workers, the order by management to leave the plant felt like lock-out déjà vu. “I have been through a lockout and it felt like this. If this isn’t a lockout, I don’t know what it is,” Local 7-669 President Stephen Lech says.

by Chris Hicks

As graduation approaches for many college students this spring, the outlook for post-graduation will be dire. Instead of, “What do you plan to do next?” the questions are: “How much student debt are you graduating with?” or “Do you think you’ll be able to find a job?” The situation has grown grim for recent graduates. On top of 1 out of every 2 graduates being jobless or unemployed, students will graduate with an average of $25,000 in debt this year. On April 25th, student debt even surpassed the one trillion dollar mark – making student debt larger than credit card debt and auto loans.

The largest profiteer off of student debt, Sallie Mae, has been leading the crusade to make a buck off of students suffering the worst economic recession since the 1920’s. Already spending over one million dollars on lobbying in 2012, Sallie Mae has been one of the most aggressive lobbyists on the Hill using money received from students, to allow private lenders to use predatory practices, including hidden fees that further bury students in debt.

This spring, we have been taking the message of the 99% to the door steps of the 1% during corporate shareholder meetings. From mic-checks at Verizon demanding good jobs and getting thrown out of Bank of America for demanding answers about their bankrupt business practices, the fight continues on.

It’s become clear that student debt has spiraled out of control and now students are demanding debt forgiveness! May 24th students, workers, and recent graduates will be gathering in Newark, Delaware to confront Sallie Mae CEO Albert Lord and demand student debt forgiveness and that they keep their corporate money out of our democracy. We will be meeting at 8AM with the action starting at 9:30AM.

For more information, contact Chris Hicks from Student Labor Action Project at 202-316-0237 or chris@jwj.org. Reposted from the Jobs with Justice blog.

by Bob Simpson

Over the weekend of May 4-6, 1500 union members, workers’ center activists and working class rebels gathered at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Rosemont IL for the biennial Labor Notes Conference. Labor Notesis the monthly magazine for labor activists who “want to put the movement back into the labor movement.” The publication grew out of the rank and file labor revolts of the 1970’s and for the past 33 years has reported on key labor struggles and issues. Not satisfied with just writing about labor insurgencies, Labor Notes also convenes special organizing workshops in addition to their regular national conferences.

e action to show for it. Workers from 20 nations, including the USA attended the 2012 meeting.

Chicagoland was well represented on Friday’s opening night session. Uylonda Dickerson of Warehouse Workers for Justice(WWJ) opened the conference on Friday night with an impassioned welcome speech. Warehouse Workers for Justice is centered in Joliet IL. The big box stores like Target and Walmart rely on these workers to route shipments across the USA, but reward them with poverty wages, unsafe working conditions and sexual harassment from the labor contractors they hide behind. WWJ has challenged their practices with rallies, one-to-one organizing and court actions. Groups in California and New Jersey are doing similar work.

Labor Notes readers proudly think of themselves as part of the “International Troublemakers and Boat-Rockers Union”. Their symbol is the slingshot, a weapon  associated with David bringing down the mighty Goliath. It’s not an actual union of course, but  a state of mind. Their brand of aggressive organizing is  hated by global corporations. It is also unwelcome among those union leaders who cling to the tattered status quo of their big salaries with little effective action to show for it. Workers from 20 nations, including the USA attended the 2012 meeting.

 

Chicagoland was well represented on Friday’s opening night session. Uylonda Dickerson of Warehouse Workers for Justice(WWJ) opened the conference on Friday night with an impassioned welcome speech. Warehouse Workers for Justice is centered in Joliet IL. The big box stores like Target and Walmart rely on these workers to route shipments across the USA, but reward them with poverty wages, unsafe working conditions and sexual harassment from the labor contractors they hide behind. WWJ has challenged their practices with rallies, one-to-one organizing and court actions. Groups in California and New Jersey are doing similar work.

Warehouse Workers for Justice of IL, Warehouse Workers United of CA and New Labor of NJ receive an award for taking on the big shippers and the big box stores.

Alfredo Galdenez of the Restaurant Opportunities Center-Chicago(ROC-Chicago) also spoke Friday evening. ROC is confronting mega-resturant chains like Darden which owns and operates approximately nearly 2000 restaurants worldwide; including Capital Grille, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, and Longhorn Steakhouse. ROC is suing Darden based on allegations of racial discrimination, wage theft, and creating a hostile  work environment. Both WWJ and ROC have gone to court on behalf of workers, but also partner with community groups to publicize the cause of worker justice.Partnering with community groups was also the theme of the workshop on how transit workers and transit riders are creating alliances to save and improve public transit. Transit workers from Louisiana, Massachusetts, Florida and New York talked about the successful coalitions they have built with community groups. Both the Amalgamated Transit Workers(ATU) and the Transport Workers Union(TWU) were present.

Jackie Jeter President of ATU Local 689 of Washington DC.
My brother Craig, a retired bus operator, worked closely with her as legislative liaison.

Chicago bus and train operators listened to their stories and discussed Rahm Emanuel (aka “Mayor 1%”) and his recent efforts toward privatization of public services, including transit. The bus operators represented by Chicago’s Amalgamated Transit Union 241 were especially concerned. They are in a local which is under trusteeship because of poor financial management by the previous union leadership. They reported confusion and demoralization among Local 241 members which make it difficult to create and maintain strong ties with riders and community groups.

That afternoon, Jesse Sharkey, vice-president of the Chicago Teachers Union Local 1 took the microphone in a workshop so packed that hotel staff had to bring  extra chairs into the meeting. Sharkey is part of CORE (Coalition of Rank-and-File Educators) which swept into union office dedicated to union reform and grassroots activism with parent and community groups. Sharkey spoke of the immense challenges ahead as Mayor Emanuel (whose name elicited a chorus of boos) continues his union bashing and privatization efforts. Union activists from LA, NYC and other cities were clearly looking to Chicago as Ground Zero in the fight to defend teachers and public education.

The Chicago Teachers Union information table was a busy location

Occupy Wall Street got glowing endorsements in both speeches and informal discussions. You could see the influence everywhere from the transit workers’ orange “Occupy Transit” t-shirts to the many references to the 1% and the 99%. In fact the official theme of the conference   was “Solidarity for the 99%.” Occupy Chicago was represented by Jan Rudolfo of National Nurses United and Andy Manos. At a labor education workshop, Steve Ashby of Occupy Chicago’s Labor Outreach spoke of the cordial relationship between Occupy Chicago and labor that helped create a number of solidarity actions including a march of thousands against the Mortgage Bankers Association who met at the Art Institute last fall.

Overall there was a spirit of optimism throughout the conference, but no one was underestimating the challenges ahead. The wave of legislation against public employees led to huge demonstrations in Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio, but they have also resulted in layoffs and a full frontal attack on the very existence of unions. Private sector workers like Longview Washington’s longshore workers from Local 21 of the IWLU who sat down in front of trains to protest job losses and Verizon CWA and IBEW employees who hit the picket lines last summer were defending not just themselves, but workers everywhere who want to end the “race to the bottom” that the dominates the global economy today.

Troublemakers know how to party and laugh too. There was music and dancing to the sounds of  Mwelwa and Quinto Imperio  Rebel Diaz delivered some scorching political hiphop. Anne Feeney and Elise Bryant led the acoustic music crowd in two song sharing sessions. There was even a special workshop on making labor mischief to spark organizing with humor, skits and songwriting.

You can be sure that the 1500 “troublemakers” who met in Rosemont IL will be in the front lines of resistance. During the Saturday noon break, hundreds of Labor Notes conferees skipped lunch to march over to the nearby Hyatt Hotel to support the hospitality workers who are confronting the powerful Pritzker family(owners of the Hyatt chain. The Pritzker family is hellbent on turning hospitality work into a hellish nightmare of injuries and rock bottom wages. Did I mention that the Pritzkers are close allies of both Mayor Emanuel and President Obama?

The mid-day Hyatt protest near the Labor Notes conference

But of course Labor Notes readers are not really the “troublemakers.” That role falls to  powerful global corporations and their hired politicians like Wisconsin’s Scott Walker(Republican) and Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel(Democrat). Labor Notes is really a journal for “The Troubleshooters”, the first responders who will take on the toughest labor conflicts. They thrive on difficulty and meet obstacles with creativity and courage. In today’s ongoing class war, they carry on the tradition that was expressed in the most desperate days of World War II,”The difficult we do right now; the impossible will take a little longer.”

Bob “Bobbo” Simpson  spent many years as a history teacher on the South Side of Chicago in a working class neighborhood. He is now a social media writer based out of Oak Park Illinois. He works for WebTraxStudio which does work for unions, non-profit groups, social advocacy organizations and educational institutions.  He is also 1/2 of the Carol Simpson labor cartoon team. He regularly blogs at Daily Kos under the monicer Bobbosphere. This post originally appeared on DK, go there and recommend it.  He says”Because I am also submitting this to a local Chicago publication, the diary mentions mostly Chicago participants.: If you have a non-Chitown perspective on the Labor Notes conference, please share it with us.