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11/2011 Labor's Edge Blog Articles
11/30/11
Jobless in Wonderland
by Dick Meister
Finding a job is hard enough for the many millions of unemployed American workers. But, believe it or not, the fact that they are jobless keeps many employers from hiring them. That's right, being jobless keeps many workers from being hired for many of the jobs that are available.
It's crazy, sure. But once they're unemployed, many workers are destined to remain unemployed. Many employers are saying, in effect, that workers who are laid off by other employers, or who can't get other employers to hire them, must automatically be considered bad workers who they don't want to hire either.
11/29/11
California Has One Option Left to Stop The Bleeding
by Rick Jacobs, Joshua Pechthalt & Anthony Thigpenn
When we think of California, we imagine the state that allowed the three of us to be who we are, a state that gave us the California Dream. For years now, that dream has been quickly slipping away and now it's in danger of being lost forever.
California is not in crisis; crises are sudden and acute. California is in a chronic, grinding decline and it's providing a window into America's tomorrow. Here we have the richest and poorest, the most diverse population, high technology centers which lead the globe. And yet, here with 38 million people - 20% of the United States - we cannot find a path to leave the bounty that invigorated us for the next generation.
The answer will not come from Sacramento, just as on the national level it cannot come from Washington. It needs to come from all of us. It's simple: government has a central role in providing the basics of civilization, and that costs money.
11/28/11
AFL-CIO’s Housing Investment Trust Honors Union Construction Workers at Potrero Launch Project in San Francisco
by Emily Johnstone
The AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (HIT), in cooperation with the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council (BCTC) and Nibbi Brothers General Contractor, hosted a special lunch for union workers at the Potrero Launch Apartments construction site in the city’s Central Waterfront area. The union-built residential development will offer 196 rental units, create more than 460 union jobs during the construction period, and provide affordable housing, child care, and commercial development for the community.
11/21/11
YouthBuild’s Newest Graduating Class of Students Builds an Education, While Developing Practical Career Skills
by Patrick Pierce
YouthBuild, a national work-study program formed by the San Diego Labor Council in partnership with the San Diego Building Trades Council, hosted a graduation ceremony for its newest class of graduates on Friday, November 18.
Eleven students from San Diego County received high school diplomas and two students earned their General Equivalency Diploma (GED) in front on family members, friends, program instructors, and local elected officials.
11/18/11
The Occupy Movement’s Next Move: Retaking the Offensive in the Battle of the Story
by Steve Stallone
For the Occupy movement, as in battlefield of the narrative, whose story is being told, whose perspective is the dominant frame, who are perceived to be the heroes and villains, the criminals and victims, is crucial.
Remember when the stock market crashed in late 2008, how it was talked about around the office printer, in newspapers and on talk shows? Remember when Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and Bernie Madoff were household names spoken with disdain? When there were outraged cries for justice, televised Congressional hearings, and calls for accountability and restitution?
The mainstream media, spurred on by its journalistic tendencies, actually covered the real story of what happened—for a while. Then the right-wing spin machine fought back.
11/17/11
Labor Law for the 1%
by John Logan
Starting in early 2011, the GOP has launched an all-out attack on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) the likes of which has not been seen in six decades. In the latest development, Hill Republicans are promoting a bill — the ludicrously misnamed Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act (WDFA) — the culmination of several months of sustained GOP attacks on the NLRB.
Since June, Republican proposals have included the following: slashing the agency’s funding, preventing new appointments when it is reduced to two members (out of five) at the end of the year, subpoenaing all documents related to the controversial Boeing complaint and interviewing career NLRB employees about the case, undoing a NLRB decision allowing “micro bargaining units” and another on voluntary recognition agreements between employers and unions, diminishing its already weak remedial powers to combat illegal relocations and outsourcing, reversing a new rule on notice posting to inform employees of their workplace rights, blocking a proposed new rule to streamline the current antiquated union certification process — Republicans believe in streamlining the voting period for presidential elections but not for union elections — and, most boldly, abolishing the agency and dividing its powers between the Labor and Justice Departments.
11/17/11
Why California State University Faculty Will Strike on November 17
by Lillian Taiz
Today, November 17th, the faculty of this great university system will take the historic step of striking on two campuses—Cal State East Bay and Dominguez Hills.
Faculty and staff have been more than patient we have watched this administration focus obsessively on the wellbeing of Presidents and top managers and pay millions to consultants who duplicate the work of existing departments.
We have waited for years for this Chancellor and this Board to prioritize the people of California and the people out on the campuses—the students, staff and faculty —who built this system.
11/16/11
From L.A. to Ohio
by Renee Berg
It was quite an experience to be in Ohio to help defeat Issue 2/ SB5 and restore collective bargaining for 360,000 Ohio public employees. We were 90 union volunteers from Los Angeles who went to Columbus. We took vacations days and personal days. For the most part, we didn’t know each other, but we got to know each other really well over the course of four days going house to house.
11/14/11
AT&T, T-Mobile USA Merger Means Jobs
by Tim Paulson
Californians are impatient with the state of the economy - and afraid that the future may not bring better circumstances.
During the worst economic downturn in a generation, it's our job to make sure no opportunity to create new jobs and protect existing jobs is left on the table.
The much-discussed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile USA is an opportunity to create real jobs that are necessary for injecting life back into our economy. It will also give tens of thousands of T-Mobile workers the option for union representation at AT&T, the only major wireless company that gives employees the freedom to join unions. In fact, the pending merger represents the best opportunity we have seen in recent memory to organize in the growing technology sector.
11/11/11
APWU Says Honor Vets with Jobs
by Mike Hall
On Veterans Day today, lawmakers will make a lot of speeches honoring the service of the nation’s military veterans. But many of these same lawmakers are backing legislation that could cost the jobs of 26,000 veterans who work for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).
11/9/11
Pomona Students Can’t Speak with Food Workers—They Might Join a Union
by Adele Stan
If you’re a student at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., you’d best not speak with a campus food service worker who’s on break, unless you do so in a management-authorized area.
Will Mullaney, a senior at Pomona who also serves as the communications officer for the student government, said that when he tried to talk to an on-break food service worker in the cafeteria last month, "I was asked to leave by one of the managers, who cited a college policy that forbids dining hall employees from talking to non-employees while on their break unless they leave the building. This policy was passed by the administration after cafeteria workers expressed interest in forming their own union."
11/8/11
Separating Fact from Fiction: The Truth About the Right-Wing Attacks on the Postal Service
by Rebecca Band
The US Postal Service is the second largest employer in the United States, after the Department of Defense, employing more than half a million workers in good union jobs. It’s also the second largest employer of military veterans; more than 22% of all postal employees have served in the U.S. armed forces. But if Republicans in Congress get their way and succeed in ending Saturday mail delivery, as many as 200,000 Post Office jobs would be lost. With Veterans Day coming up, it couldn’t be a more fitting time to draw attention to this deceptive effort by the right wing to strip thousands of our brave service men and women of their jobs, and leave our troops returning home from war with even fewer employment options.
11/7/11
Occupational Health Watch: Cleaning Products Can Cause Asthma
by Barbara Materna, PhD.
A 37-year-old teacher developed new asthma at her workplace. She worked in an area where custodians used cleaning products at full strength instead of mixing them with water, as the label required. She now has asthma symptoms made worse by many different chemicals.
A 43-year-old high school custodian started having breathing problems when he used chemicals to clean the bathrooms and strip floor wax at work. It took a year for him to be diagnosed with asthma. He finally had to leave his job because of his asthma.
These are just two of the many California workers whose asthma was caused or made worse by cleaning products. Cleaning products are used in all workplaces and can cause or trigger work-related asthma.
11/4/11
Trucking Carrier Sacks 26 Drivers for Organizing at the Port of Los Angeles
by Eric Tate
With his last $8 in his wallet, Alberto Quiteno, a truck driver at the Port of Los Angeles, said goodbye to his wife and teenage daughters last Friday and traveled 8,000 miles to Melbourne to plea to his employer, the Australian logistics giant, Toll Group, for humane working conditions in the United States.
In his carry-on, Alberto had carefully packed a petition signed by 62 (out of 75) co-workers that local management had previously refused to accept. Along with it was a copy of a letter he sent to Toll Group CEO Paul Little before his journey to outline the mistreatment and local management missteps. Hearing no response, Alberto headed to LAX and boarded a plane, joined by officials representing America’s largest transportation union, the 1.4 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters.