Happy 100th Birthday, Department of Labor!
by Clyde Weiss | March 04, 2013
Today marks the centennial anniversary of the U.S. Department of Labor, an institution that has done much to improve the lives of workers since 1913. Its primary mission: Aid job seekers, wage earners and retirees, administer laws that keep workers safe and adequately paid, and fight employment discrimination.
On March 4, 1913, Pres. William Howard Taft signed a bill creating the U.S. Department of Labor. It was the first time that workers gained a voice with a seat in the President’s Cabinet. Since then, it has been a defender of workers’ rights in a battle that continues today.
A proclamation by Pres. Barack Obama states:
“Over the course of a century, the Department of Labor has fought to secure strong safeguards for workers and their families. It helped lay the cornerstones of middle class security, from the 40-hour work week and the minimum wage to family leave and pensions.”
The DOL’s mission may be 100 years old, but the need to defend workers’ rights is one that must be recommitted to daily. Today, the right of collective bargaining – for better wages and working conditions – is under attack like never before. So-called “right-to-work” (for less) bills advocated by corporate-backed groups such as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are spreading nationwide, threatening to undermine the very rights won during those 100 years.
Recently, in places like Indiana, Kansas and Ohio, the fight goes on. The DOL’s stated goal of “strengthening free collective bargaining” is a work in progress – one that AFSCME will continue to support with boots on the ground.
Learn more about the DOL. Check out the department’s centennial video, an interactive timeline, a collection of historical posters and newsletter vignettes, including an article on the DOL’s mission to protect the rights of union members with the creation of the Office of Labor-Management Standards.
AFSCME Member Helps Police Nab Robbery Suspect
by Clyde Weiss | February 27, 2013
When Richmond, Ind., Sanitary District employee James Darren Duncan, a member of Local 1791 (AFSCME Council 62), heard a broadcast description of a truck driven by a robbery suspect, it jogged his memory. He’d just seen a similar vehicle on his route.
Duncan immediately contacted Richmond Police Capt. Jim Branum to tell him what he knew. Police followed up, finding a man scraping a decal off a red pick-up truck. It was the same decal a passerby spotted on a truck a day earlier. That passerby connected the truck to a local store robbery that same day and notified the police.
Once the details of the robbery and suspect truck became public, Duncan realized that he, too, had seen the suspect vehicle and knew where it was. As a result of his quick thinking, police secured a warrant to search the suspect’s home. He was later charged with one count of armed robbery.
Richmond Police Department Capt. Bill Shake told a reporter for pal-item.com, “We would not have been able to solve this as fast if it had not been for citizen input.”
Duncan and Richmond resident Russell Mabry – who gave police the initial description of the suspect’s vehicle – were honored on Feb. 4 with a commendation from the Richmond Police Department. Duncan’s proclamation stated:
“Your dedication to the quality of life in Richmond and your community spirit and sense of teamwork as an employee of the City of Richmond; and with your assistance in locating the vehicle involved in the series of Village Pantry robberies is to be commended. You have raised the bar for many to achieve.”
Double-Speak on the Debt Crisis
by Clyde Weiss | February 27, 2013
Cutting the debt gets a lot of attention as a big agenda item of the far right. Now we learn that some of those who push to cut public spending, including funding of critical social programs like Medicare and Medicaid, are also some of the same people benefiting most from government spending.
A group called Fix the Debt, which advocates slashing the deficit by cutting such social safety net programs as Social Security and Medicare, includes “lobbyists, board members or executives for corporations that have worked aggressively to shape the contours of federal spending and taxes, including many of the tax breaks that would be at the heart of any broad overhaul,” according to The New York Times.
Fix the Debt, armed with a reported $43 million corporate-donor war chest, recently began a national advertising campaign urging President Obama and members of Congress to revise the tax code and also reduce long-term spending on social programs, The Times reported.
This comes after the group failed to win any of their three major objectives in the compromise “fiscal cliff” bill that Congress passed on New Year’s Day: cutting Social Security and Medicare spending, cutting corporate tax rates and shifting to a system that would grant a permanent corporate tax holiday on offshore income.
The real motive of this group is laid bare by The Times article. For instance, it highlights that a key member of Fix the Debt, former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia, “received more than $300,000 in compensation in 2011 as a board member of General Electric. The company is among the most aggressive in the country at minimizing its tax obligations.”
Another Fix the Debt leader, former Louisiana congressman Jim McCrery, is also a lobbyist whose “clients have included the Alliance for Savings and Investment, a group of large companies pushing to maintain low tax rates on dividend income, and the Win America Campaign, a coalition of multinational corporations that lobbied for a one-time “repatriation holiday” allowing them to move offshore profits back home without paying taxes.
Ironically, some Fix the Debt leaders represent companies that paid no net federal income tax from 2008 through 2010, including Boeing, Corning, General Electric, Honeywell and Verizon Communications. Helping to reduce the national debt by paying their fair share is obviously not on their agenda.
Fix the Debt’s “official” mission was to urge “Washington to agree to comprehensive debt reform that avoids the fiscal cliff and puts the long-term U.S. debt load on a gradual path of reduction.” Now we know its real motive is not to fix the debt unless it also protects the tax loopholes that benefit its members, even if it comes out of the hides of those who can least afford it. Learn more about the hypocrisy of Fix the Debt here.
Protestors Demand More Money for Schools, Local Governments
by Clyde Weiss | February 27, 2013
LIMA, Ohio – “More empty promises.” That was the theme of a demonstration by more than two dozen protestors, including AFSCME members, who stood in the freezing night air before Gov. John Kasich gave his State of the State address across the street.
Their message to the governor: No more budget cuts that hurt education and support for local governments. The demonstration, outside the Veterans Memorial Civic and Convention Center, was sponsored by the progressive labor group We Are Ohio.
“The last couple of years have been tough, but we’re working our way back,” said Bart Anderson, an electronic technician who works on the city of Lima’s water plants. Anderson, also president of Local 1002 (AFSCME Council 8), said it’s still a struggle to fund education, and the last school levy failed to pass. “As a community, we’re just getting by,” he said. “And from what I know about the budget, it’s just more empty promises.”
Mark Factor, a water treatment plant employee and Chief Steward of Local 1002, talked about the long-term pressure on the city of Lima’s budget. “When I first started working for the city in the 1990’s, we had 180 members. Now we are down to 120. It’s taken a while but it seems like they just keep chipping away.”
The protestors specifically objected to the governor’s inadequate support for the Local Government Fund, which provides funding for counties and municipalities. They also decried the governor’s lack of support for education funding.
Governor Kasich’s first budget cut $1 billion from state revenues going to local governments, and $1.8 billion from education. That’s $2.8 billion in all. Ohio’s cities and counties now have $600 million less to work with compared to what they received before Governor Kasich was elected. For the city of Lima and Allen County, the loss to local governments was $8 million, while education funding was reduced by $13 million – a total $21 million hit.
Kasich’s budget proposals aren’t the only thing that have riled up Ohioans lately. AFSCME members recently joined other activists at a “No Rights At Work” rally to fight back against tea-party efforts to put “right-to-work-for-less” legislation on the ballot. Read more about that here.
AFSCME Member Takes a Risk, Saves a Life
by Clyde Weiss | February 27, 2013
When it comes to public service, the job didn’t end with the shift for off-duty Minnesota State Patrol dispatcher Nicholas Carlson, a member of AFSCME Local 3142 (Council 5) who recently came to the rescue of an Alzheimer’s patient he found wandering down a road.
Carlson told TV station KARE-11 that he spotted the elderly man walking on the side of a road with a walker after 11 p.m. one night last month. The man, later identified as Clare Karsten, 88, a retired minister from New Brighton, had wandered off from an assisted living facility wearing only socks with no shoes, a light sweater and light slacks.
“It was 12 below zero out” at the time, recalled Carlson, a radio communications operator. He quickly turned his car around and headed back to the man. “He was like ‘Well, I was with a bunch of guys and they just left me here,’” Carlson told the TV interviewer. “I said, ‘Well, pretty cold outside. Maybe you should get in my vehicle and we will figure out where you live.’”
After contacting an on-duty dispatcher, Carlson waited for emergency personnel to arrive and transport Karsten to a nearby hospital, where he was treated.
Karsten’s son, Paul, praised Carlson’s willingness to take a chance and help a stranger. “I cannot tell you enough how good it felt to know that somebody made that effort, particularly in the middle of the night when you do not know who you are coming up on or you do not know what the circumstances are,” he told KARE-11. “I sometimes think we live in a pretty selfish society these days, but I find that people like him remind me that there are good people out there.”
AFSCME applauds the good work of Nicholas Carlson and all of our members who do their jobs faithfully, without expectations of public praise.
“Public service isn’t just a job; it’s a calling to make a real difference in our community,” says Council 5 Exec. Dir. Eliot Seide, also an AFSCME International vice president. “It’s a chance to truly help our neighbors, their families and strangers we’ve never met. Nick Carlson is an everyday hero; he’s part of what keeps our communities strong.”
Private Prison Company Buys Florida Atlantic University Stadium Name
by John Noonan | February 27, 2013
TALLAHASEE, Fla. -- GEO Group, the nation’s largest for-profit prison corporation, has decided to spruce up their image as a reckless and dangerous privateer by buying the naming rights to the new football stadium at Florida Atlantic University, a public university.
If GEO Group rings a bell it may be because they have a long and sordid history of unsanitary, unsafe, and inhumane conditions at their facilities; especially those that house children. GEO Group is also one of the top funders of the Republican Party of Florida. The company has given the party more than $1.2 million dollars in the past two election cycles alone.
While millions of dollars to the right wing has allowed GEO to secure lucrative private prison contracts, it’s done little to stop the outcry from children’s, immigrants’ rights, and social justice advocates. On Tuesday, Florida Atlantic University students protested the company’s plans with a sit-in in university officials offices.
GEO Group claims the $6 million dollar naming rights deal is a “philanthropic” donation, but some criminal justice advocates are not convinced. In an interview with The Huffington Post, Bob Libal, a criminal justice advocate says, "The company is dependent on public dollars for all of its profits. When you look at other things that GEO gives to, it's generally in communities where they either have contracts or are seeking contracts, and certainly Florida is a state where GEO has tremendous interest."
In the same interview, Don Sexton, a professor of marketing at Columbia University's Business School and president of the Arrow Group, a marketing firm says, “"If it's pure philanthropy, you don't ask for your name to go on the stadium. The only reason you want your name on the stadium is because you want to get something back."
See what talk show host Stephen Colbert had to say on the story below:
The Story of Sequestration, In Handy GIF Form
by Yanik Ruiz-Ramón | February 25, 2013
We've heard a lot lately about sequestration.
But how did our lawmakers get us to this point?
Let's take a look.
It all started back in 2010 when the tea party swept into the House of Representatives. They argued that the stimulus measures – taken by the Obama administration to lessen the depth of the recession – created too much debt. To reduce this debt they were going to slash government spending...
Now, every so often Congress authorizes how much money the government can borrow. This is called the debt ceiling. Tea partiers claimed that the debt ceiling was too damn high.
"The Debt Ceiling is Too Damn High!"
But they were actually using the debt ceiling as leverage to advance their agenda of shrinking government services and cutting programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
After taking the U.S. economy to the brink of default, the right wing agreed to raise the debt ceiling, but only if they were guaranteed some sort of massive spending cuts.
The Right Wing
And thus the sequester was born.
The sequester was supposed to be so painful that Congress would have to come up with a plan. It was acclaimed by both Democrats and Republicans as a victory of bipartisanship.
So Congress formed a "super committee" to pass a “grand bargain” that would reduce the deficit by the same amount as the sequester, but with a more balanced mix of cuts and increased revenue.
The super committee
But the tea party went like this:
Due to tea party obstructionism the super committee didn't come up with a plan. The tea party refused to even consider raising taxes or ending tax giveaways for the super rich and big corporations. All they wanted to do was cut, cut, cut. The can was kicked down the road until after the election.
It looked like this, but in slow motion.
Time passed. Obama got re-elected and most of America was like this:
The people who voted for the other guy were like this:
Immediately following the election there were two deadlines. The Bush tax cuts were going to expire, raising taxes on most Americans in the middle of a weak economy. At the same time, sequestration was going to kick in, slashing spending indiscriminately. This combination of tax hikes on the middle class and devastating spending cuts was known as the FISCAL CLIFF.
At least the scenery is nice.
Instead of jumping off the fiscal cliff, President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner decided it was time for a grand bargain. They would compromise by raising revenue and cutting spending at the same time. Thanks to stubbornness from extreme conservatives, the grand bargain ended up something like this:
Ultimately, Obama preserved tax cuts for working people and forced the right to raise taxes on many wealthy Americans. The right wasn't happy about it, but some of them voted for it anyway.
Side note: although taxes went up slightly for wealthy Americans, secretaries still have a higher tax rate than many millionaires and billionaires.
Millionaires and billionaires.
After obstructing yet another compromise, extreme Republicans decided the sequester was still a good idea. They would use it to force cuts to vital programs. They would then use that money to continue subsidizing tax giveaways for the super rich and big corporations. The sequester was postponed until March 1.
March 1 is upon us. So now the sequester is about to kick in and right wingers are doing nothing to stop it. They won't end tax giveaways on big corporations and the super rich. They will only cut spending on programs and services that benefit working Americans.
John Boehner & Co. figure that by letting the automatic spending cuts go into effect they will be in a better bargaining position to demand cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in the upcoming budget negotiations...even though these cuts will disproportionately affect senior citizens and working families.
Yeah, it's that messed up.
Most Americans feel like this:
The sequester will eliminate jobs, damaging our fragile economic recovery, and halt services that Americans, including our children, rely on. Things like food safety inspections, air traffic control, military training, pre-school education, community health centers, monitoring for water and air pollution, national parks, and nutritional aid for women, infants and children.
All because extremists in Congress refuse to eliminate special interest tax giveaways for the super rich and big corporations.
Tax giveaways for things like yachts.
So if this is how you feel:
"Oh, *hell* no!"
Then you should sign our petition telling Congress to Stop the Giveaways!
Illegal sale of Pennsylvania lotto blocked by state attorney general
by Kyle Weidleman | February 25, 2013
Gov. Tom Corbett exceeded his constitutional authority by signing a deal with a foreign gaming firm to privatize the Pennsylvania Lottery, ruled state Attorney General Kathleen Kane recently. Kane also concluded that the deal clashed with the state lottery act, the gaming act and applicable case law while also violating the state constitution.
By shifting the management of the lotto to Camelot Global Services PA, LLC—a private, foreign firm—as many as 170 state lottery workers, many of whom are AFSCME members, would have been out of a job. The contract would have also expanded the state lotto into electronic gambling machines, like keno. Kane ruled that the authority to privatize and expand the state lottery rests with the legislature, not the governor.
Corbett has not yet ruled out a court challenge to overturn the attorney general's ruling. AFSCME International Vice President and Council 13 Executive Director Dave Fillman called on the governor's administration "to move on and get to the business of making one of the nation's best lotteries even better."
Before cutting a deal with the British firm, Corbett promised that his plan would bring in more than $130 million in additional income for programs for seniors each year, although the Pennsylvania lotto has one of the lowest administrative costs in the nation. With little to cut, Camelot would have to go after lottery employees' compensation and jobs while looking for additional revenue streams—like electronic games—that would go after more lower-income players.
Gov. Corbett has shown his hand—he is willing to do whatever is necessary to privatize state services. Although AFSCME members and Pennsylvanians of all stripes scored a victory with the attorney general's ruling, Corbett is ready to go all in to sell off the Keystone State's assets.
Oscar-Nominated Films Pay Tribute to Working People
by Kate Childs Graham | February 22, 2013
As she accepted the Screen Actors Guild award for best supporting actress, Anne Hathaway said, “I’m just so glad I have dental.” While many mistook this for an offbeat remark, union members knew she was making a nod to her union, SAG-AFTRA. Hathaway has been a card-carrying member for more than 15 years.
Hathaway has also been nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Fantine in Les Miserables, one of several Oscar-nominated films that pay tribute to public service, social justice and working people.
Les Miserables, which has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, shows a country in the midst of violent class struggle. Following the death of General Jean Maximilien Lamarque – the only government official sympathetic to the struggles of the poor – a group of students organize a noble but ill-fated revolution. As they head into battle, the revolutionaries sing of solidarity.
Argo pays homage to members of the American Foreign Service Association as well as members of the Producers Guild of America. It tells the story of six Foreign Service workers who escape the Iranian hostage crisis, only to be indefinitely hidden in the Canadian Embassy. To get them out, CIA agent Tony Mendez, played by Ben Affleck, creates a cover story that the escapees are Canadian filmmakers, scouting locations in Iran for a sci-fi film. Mendez gets help from film producer Lester Siegel, played by Alan Arkin.
Perhaps the best look at the importance of public service in a 2013 Oscar-nominated film is in The Longest Daycare. In this animated short, Marge of The Simpsons fame drops baby daughter Maggie off at the Ayn Rand School for Tots. After going through a complex security check, a guard carries Maggie past the "Room for Gifted Babies" and puts her in the "Nothing Special" bleak corner instead. The daycare is the epitome of what the ideology of Ayn Rand – the Tea Party literary heroine who railed against public service and called the recipients of public services “moochers” – would breed. Those who seek to privatize child care services should take note.
Certainly, there were a few stand-out films about working families that didn’t make the Oscar-cut this year. We Are Wisconsin chronicles the lives and experiences of six people, including AFSCME Local 2436 member Rachel Friedman, who joined the protests against Gov. Scott Walker.
Another great film is Trash Dance, which tells the story of employees of the City of Austin’s Department of Solid Waste – all members of AFSCME Local 1624 – who put together an extraordinary dance spectacle featuring 16 garbage trucks and 24 sanitation workers.
Have another “should-be-nominated” film featuring union members? Tweet it to us using #unionfilms.
Reyes Calls on Fellow Union Members to Do What’s Right On Immigration Reform
by Pablo Ros | February 22, 2013
AFSCME Sec.-Treas. Laura Reyes urged fellow union members in Anaheim, Calif., this week to join together and fight for real immigration reform.
“Together we are going to fight to bring 11 million workers out of the shadows and let them see that the American Dream is not off limits to them,” she said, in a speech delivered at the Orange County Labor Federation Pathway to Citizenship Rally. “How we seize this moment will be our legacy.”
Earlier this month, a group of eight U.S. senators released a “Bipartisan Framework for Comprehensive Immigration Reform” calling for improvements in securing the border, a path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants, and an effective “employment verification system.” Since then, labor and business leaders have been working together to reach agreement on many of the features that such reform should take, including a potential guest worker program.
Reyes warned her audience that the road to comprehensive immigration reform will not be free of obstacles. But the labor movement has the power—“and the obligation that comes with power,” she said—to fight for fair working conditions and social justice, not just on behalf of workers in a local or bargaining unit, but on behalf of every worker.
“We believe in hard work, in the dignity of all work, and in respect for one another,” she added.
Reyes also recalled that the 11 million undocumented immigrants we call our neighbors and friends “moved here to build better lives for themselves and their families, just as immigrants always have.”
“We shop in the same stores. We support the same churches and charities. The children of immigrants—the Dreamers—want to serve our country, the only country they have ever known as home,” she said.
This week, AFL-CIO Pres. Richard Trumka and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Pres. Thomas Donohue released a joint statement of principles to guide legislation “in the complicated and important area of addressing lesser-skilled immigration to our country.” Their principles are that American workers should have a “first crack at available jobs”; that at times when employers cannot fill job openings with American workers, “it is important that our laws permit businesses to hire foreign workers without having to go through a cumbersome and inefficient process”; and that we make the system more transparent.
