January 30, 2013

National/Politics

Viewpoint: The Decline of Unions Is Your Problem Too
By Eric Liu, Time, Jan. 29, 2013

…. First, the fact is that when unions are stronger the economy as a whole does better.  …. Second, unions lift wages for non-union members too by creating a higher prevailing wage. Even if you aren’t a member your pay is influenced by the strength or weakness of organized labor. The presence of unions sets off a wage race to the top. Their absence sets off a race to the bottom. …. And it’s significant that innovative forms of worker organizing are now emerging, like Coworker.org or the National Domestic Workers Alliance
, that bypass traditional union structures altogether.

AFSCME President Lee Saunders and Secretary-Treasurer Laura Reyes on Senate Framework for Comprehensive Immigration Reform
AFSCME news release, MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2013

AFSCME Pres. Lee Saunders and Sec.-Treas. Laura Reyes issued the following statement on the Senate framework for comprehensive Immigration Reform: “Our union is heartened by the release of a bipartisan framework from eight United States Senators for comprehensive immigration reform. While many important policies and details remain to be debated, the framework release is an important first step in Congress moving forward on fixing our broken immigration system.

AFL-CIO chief vows ‘full-fledged campaign’ for immigration overhaul
By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News | Jan 29, 2013

Organized labor is “entirely behind” comprehensive immigration reform and will mount a “full-fledged” campaign to help drive it through Congress, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told Yahoo News on Tuesday.

To Open Eyes, W-2s List Cost of Providing a Health Plan
By ROBERT PEAR, New York Times, January 29, 2013

s workers open their W-2 forms this month, many will see a new box with information on the total cost of employer-sponsored health insurance coverage. To some, it will be a surprise, perhaps even a shock. Workers often have little idea how much they and their employers are paying for coverage. In many cases, economists say, workers give up cash compensation to get and keep health benefits. The disclosures, required by the 2010 health care law, are meant to make workers more cost-conscious. Health benefits are still tax-free. But labor unions and employer groups say it could be easier to tax them in the future, now that employers must report their value to the government.

Unions, Hollywood open to bankrolling Obama’s advocacy arm
By Kevin Bogardus, The Hill,  01/30/13 05:00 AM ET
 
Labor unions and Hollywood donors are open to bankrolling Organizing for Action, the outside group that has been formed in support of President Obama’s second-term agenda. Traditionally one of the biggest donors to Democrats, unions are considering putting their financial weight behind the group as it tries to harness the grassroots power of Obama’s reelection machine. …. While labor officials are expressing enthusiasm about Organizing for Action, they aren’t pledging unconditional financial support. 

Will “alt-labor” replace unions? As union membership steadily declines, new non-union workers' groups are filling the labor movement's biggest void
BY JOSH EIDELSON, THE AMERICAN PROSPECT/Salon.com, JAN 29, 2013 03:45 PM EST

…. His fellow demonstrators—a few co-workers and a couple of dozen staffers and activists from the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC)—picked up the chant, Occupy-style.…. The ROC is a labor group. But it’s not a union. It represents a new face of the U.S. labor movement—an often-ignored, little-understood array of groups organizing workers without the union label.  … Why are alt-labor groups like the ROC proliferating? To begin with, unions are in crisis. Over the past 20 years, private-sector unionization has plummeted to just 7 percent.  … There’s another reason for the rise of alt-labor: For an increasing number of U.S. workers, unions are not even an option.

Federal-union officials talk about budget battles
By Josh Hicks , Washington Post: January 30, 2013

Two of the nation’s largest federal labor groups will host legislative conferences in D.C. next month in hopes of influencing the upcoming budget battles relating to sequestration, a possible government shutdown and the debt ceiling. All of those issues involve serious stakes for government employees and agencies, and lawmakers in recent weeks have expressed little hope that Congress can reach a deal to avoid the first of those threats, the automatic spending cuts known as sequestration.

Union says Congress can save money by lowering amount paid for contractor salaries
By Joe Davidson, Washington Post: January 29

As policymakers prepare for the across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration, the largest federal employee union is taking the opportunity to press a pet peeve — large payments to federal contractors. Labor leaders, including those with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), have long pushed Congress to lower payments for contractor salaries. The cap on Defense Department contractor pay now stands at $763,000, which is much more than President Obama makes.

Why the GOP Really Wants to Cripple Labor Unions / Their agenda isn’t as pro-big business as you think.
Christopher Moraff,  Philly Post, Jan 29, 2013

In the past two national election cycles, in 2010 and 2012, organized labor has served as a massive progressive counterweight to the unchecked corporate power unleashed by the Supreme Court. In 2010, the public sector union The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees topped the list of all campaign contributors, spending nearly $90 million in an unsuccessful attempt to secure Democratic congressional supremacy.  … By weakening unions, RTW doesn’t just hurt workers, it hurts progressivism, and anyone who benefits from it (which, by extension, includes anyone who benefits from Democratic policies: i.e. the poor, minorities, women, the disabled, the LGBT community, the environment … shall I keep going?) …. . The real mission for the GOP is to take down the progressive money machine by emasculating its most prolific organizing base. I’d say that’s a battle worth fighting.

Study: State tax systems regressive
By Bernie Becker, The Hill,  01/30/13 07:02 AM ET
 
Practically every state charges a higher share of taxes from lower- and middle-class families than the highest earners, a new study from a liberal-leaning group found. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that the bottom 20 percent of earners paid an effective tax rate of 11.1 percent to state and local governments, while the top earning quintile paid about half as much – 5.6 percent. The middle 20 percent pays a rate of 9.4 percent. ITEP said that the methods states and localities use for raising revenues – which include income, property and sales taxes – can make their tax systems more regressive.

Panelists: Municipal Bankruptcies Will Be Uncommon This Year
by: JONATHAN HEMMERDINGER, Bond Buyer, Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Revenues at municipalities may increase slightly in 2013 and additional municipal bankruptcies will be uncommon as state and local governments continue a slow economic recovery, speakers at a conference said here Tuesday. But even if municipal health mends, lawsuits challenging the legality of recent pension cuts and other drastic measures taken by financially-strapped governments will continue through courts for years, and may eventually be decided by nation's highest court, said Frank Shafroth, director of George Mason University's State and Local Government Leadership Center who spoke on a panel at Governing's Outlook in the States & Localities Conference.

GDP Shows Surprise Drop for U.S. in Fourth Quarter
CNBC, Wednesday, 30 Jan 2013 | 8:11 AM ET

The U.S. economy posted a stunning drop of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter, defying expectations for slow growth and possibly providing incentive for more Federal Reserve stimulus. … Still, the weakness may be because of one-time factors. Government spending cuts and slower inventory growth subtracted a total of 2.6 percentage points from growth.

Private sector adds more jobs than expected in January
Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:07am EST, Reuters,

Private-sector employers added 192,000 jobs in January, more than economists were expecting, in a sign of growth in the labor market, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast the ADP National Employment Report would show a gain of 165,000 jobs. December's private payrolls were revised down to an increase of 185,000 from the previously reported 215,000.

Report: U.S. Corporations Aren't Paying Their Share of Taxes
01/29/2013 Kenneth Quinnell, AFL-CIO Now

The AFL-CIO has long called for an end to tax subsidies for companies that ship jobs overseas. Now, in a new report, Citizens for Tax Justice shows just how much money these loopholes are costing us. The new report finds that U.S. multinational corporations are engaging in a massive amount of tax avoidance, particularly through tax havens in small countries like Bermuda.

Nursing-Home Operators Turn to the U.S.
By A.D. PRUITT, Wall Street Journal, January 29, 2013, 8:20 p.m. ET

The Federal Housing Administration has come to the rescue of nursing-home operators that are having a tough time obtaining traditional financing for mortgage loans. Big banks are becoming more hesitant to make loans to nursing homes because of the uncertain health-care environment. Lenders are worried that nursing-home companies may face trouble repaying the loans in the future if they are hit with cutbacks by state governments or the federal Medicare program. To get by, nursing-home operators increasingly are lining up to get FHA-secured loans, mostly to refinance existing mortgages. But that is raising the possibility that taxpayers may be on the hook if the nursing homes begin defaulting on these loans at a much higher rate.

Press Release: WSU researchers find prison privatization can impede local job growth In rural communities
Washington State University, January 28, 2013

Building on earlier research in which they challenged the widespread belief that rural communities can create job growth by hosting state prisons, researchers at Washington State University have now found local job growth is often impeded in communities that become hosts to privately operated prisons. … The paper, "Prisons, Jobs and Privatization: The Impact of Prisons on Employment Growth in Rural U.S. Counties, 1997-2004" was recently accepted for publication in the journal Social Science Research. …. The researchers also determined that private prisons are less likely to contribute to employment stability than publicly run prisons because of their comparatively high turnover rate, which the researchers believe is the result of the relatively low wages paid by private prison operators.

State/Local

AZ: 2 of 3 House bills targeting public unions advance
Associated Press, Jan 30, 2013

The one bill that passed the House Government Committee outright on a 6-3 party line vote Tuesday was sponsored by the chairwoman of the committee, Rep. Michelle Ugenti, R-Fountain Hills. Her bill would force each city or town, county and fire district in Arizona to take a public vote on collecting union dues through paycheck deductions.  ….. The GOP-dominated committee initially failed to pass the second bill, which would require employee union negotiations be done entirely in public. …..A third bill that would ban so-called release time, which allows union officers who are public employees to handle some union activities while on the clock, was pulled Tuesday evening after it became clear it too would fail. FL: Spiritual leaders gather for state worker raises
Jan 30, 2013  | Tallahassee.com

The Rev. R.B. Holmes and other spiritual leaders Tuesday spoke as one in support of state workers getting a pay raise. Holmes, pastor of the Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, said state workers in the community have waited too long while living costs have increased. He said further that the group would recruit more clergy around the state to raise the volume of the message. … State workers have gone six years without a general pay raise.

FL: Study: Medicaid expansion may save state money
JOHN DORSCHNER, MIAMIHERALD.COM, Jan 29, 2012

Florida would save money over the next decade — not lose billions as Gov. Rick Scott has argued — by accepting Medicaid expansion under federal healthcare reforms, according to a detailed economic study. Miami-Dade legislators and healthcare industry leaders, getting together on Monday, heard about the report by Georgetown University — the most positive yet on a highly debated provision of what is often called Obamacare. Jack Hoadley, a senior researcher with the Georgetown Health Policy Institute, said the study was the first to calculate spin-off savings in other state programs if Florida accepted the expansion, which over the next 10 years could bring $26 billion in federal funds to provide insurance to an estimated 815,000 to 1.3 million Florida residents who are now uninsured.

GA: Hospital fee clears another hurdle
Misty Williams, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 7:17 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013

A state House of Representatives committee on Tuesday approved a plan by Gov. Nathan Deal that would extend a controversial fee on hospitals that brings in hundreds of millions of dollars to prop up the state’s ailing Medicaid program. Deal has urged lawmakers to fast-track passage of Senate Bill 24 that would give the state’s community health agency power to levy the 2-year-old fee, commonly called the “bed tax,” to help fill a nearly $700 million budget hole in Medicaid. …. Officials at Grady Memorial Hospital in downtown Atlanta and other safety net hospitals across the state have also warned they would likely be forced to significantly cut services.

IA: Four added to firefighter bargaining
TIM JAMISON, wcfcourier.com, Jan 30, 2013

Captains and the fire marshal will be allowed to join the firefighters' union after all. Waterloo City Council members voted unanimously Monday to approve a resolution to include the three captains and fire marshal in a collective bargaining agreement with the International Association of Firefighters Local 66. …. The fire command staff is following a move last year by two other employee groups to organize new bargaining units under the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees' Iowa Council 61.

IL: Editorial - Is this the new norm?
Southern, Jan 30, 2013

On the front page of today’s newspaper, you will find coverage about an attack on a correctional officer by a prisoner at Pontiac Correctional Center. ….. Ty Peterson, of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the bargaining unit for prison staff, said the employee attacked at Menard recently was transferred to the correctional center from Tamms, which still housed some inmates until the end of the year. Are you beginning to see a disturbing pattern? Is what we are seeing at Pontiac and Menard the “new normal”

IL: Deadbeat Illinois: Emergency service providers waiting for state
Dean Olsen, GateHouse News Service, Jan. 29, 2013 12:01 pm

….. There’s no end in sight to the payment delays. The Legislature approved $550 million in spending for state employee health coverage this fiscal year, but the bills for that coverage are expected to total $2.65 billion. The state paid $87 million in interest payments last year to medical providers owed money by the state insurance program, according to Scott Adams, director of research and employee benefits for Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

IL: Eastern office workers agree on new labor contract
11:26 pm, Tue Jan 29, 2013. By Stephanie Markham/ Daily Eastern News

A new labor agreement was reached for members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees local 981 clerical technical unit. The Board of Trustees approved labor negotiations during its Jan.18 meeting that will increase the wages of clerical-technical employees by 1 percent each year for the duration of their contract.

IL: Durbin: Repay federal funds if Midway privatized
Quad City Times, Jan 30, 2013

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin says the city of Chicago should repay any federal funds spent to update Midway International Airport if officials decide to sell or lease it. Durbin sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Tuesday urging him to carefully evaluate any airport privatization agreements. Chicago officials are considering privatizing Midway. Officials in San Juan, Puerto Rico are close to privatizing an airport there.

KS: Another bill opposed by unions introduced as House gears up for debate on paycheck measure
By Scott Rothschild, Journal World, January 29, 2013

As the Kansas House prepares to debate one anti-union bill, another anti-union bill was introduced Tuesday. The newest measure is House Bill 2123 and is called the "public employees freedom act." It is nearly identical to "model legislation" developed by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate backed group that describes its mission as promoting free markets, limited government, federalism and individual freedom “through a non-partisan public-private partnership of America’s state legislators, members of the private sector, the federal government and general public.”

ME: Two Maine bills would allow employees to not pay workplace unions
Whit Richardson, BDN,  Jan. 30, 2013, at 7:27 a.m.

Two controversial proposals that would make Maine a “right-to-work” state are back on the table in Augusta. Rep. Lawrence Lockman, R-Amherst, a freshman legislator on the Labor, Commerce, Research, and Economic Development Committee, has introduced two bills that would make Maine a right-to-work state. The first would allow employees to work at unionized private businesses without being forced to financially support a union as a condition of employment. The second bill would offer paycheck protection to state employees who don’t want to join a union, but are currently required to pay fees to the Maine State Employees Association.

ME: Group representing RSU 24 secretaries files for mediation
Jacqueline Weaver Tuesday, January 29, 2013 at 10:05 am, Fence Viewer

A newly formed labor group representing secretaries in Regional School Unit 24 (RSU 24) has filed for mediation after contract talks reached an impasse, according to Sylvie Perry, AFSCME Council 93 field representative. The union, Local 2178-03 of AFSCME Council 93 AFL-CIO, includes 20 secretaries.

MI: Pontiac’s Public Works employees say they were misled on privatization plan
Tuesday, January 29, 2013 By DUSTIN BLITCHOK,  The Oakland Press

The last day on the job for 10 employees at the city’s Department of Public Works is Thursday, and some of them say they were misled as the department’s functions were contracted out to five private companies. “We’re kept in the dark,” said a DPW employee who asked that his name not be used. …. Schimmel said the employees who received an early retirement signed off on the deal, along with AFSCME representatives.

MI: Gov. Rick Snyder: Lease decision could play role in city's fiscal assessment
January 30, 2013 |  By Joe Guillen and Matt Helms, Detroit Free Press

Gov. Rick Snyder won't appoint an emergency financial manager for Detroit just because the City Council refused to vote on a proposed state lease of Belle Isle, but the city's decision is sure to be considered as the state continues its overall assessment of Detroit's fiscal management, a spokesman for Snyder said Tuesday. "While the decision on Belle Isle will play a role in that report, the totality of Detroit's financial picture is what the governor is interested in," spokesman Caleb Buhs told the Free Press.

MI: Panel's stalling may delay vote on Belle Isle lease
BY DARREN A. NICHOLS AND CHRISTINE FERRETTI THE DETROIT NEWS, JANUARY 29, 2013 AT 10:35 AM

A controversial lease agreement to turn Belle Isle into a state park was stalled by a City Council committee Monday, possibly delaying a vote scheduled for today. … "A 90-year lease is ownership," said Phyllis McMillan, president of AFSCME Local 542, which represents employees on Belle Isle. "We have been getting by on duct tape while (Gov. Rick) Snyder and (Mayor Dave) Bing have been manipulating the red tape."

NH: Raymond faces groundwater projects that could hike taxes
By GRETYL MACALASTER, January 29. 2013 10:45PM Union Leader

…. Voters will also weigh in on a proposed three-year agreement with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 863 union, which Wheeler said is a "fair agreement" with compromises made by both the town and the union. The contract calls for an $8,760 increase in the first year which represents a one-cent impact on the tax rate per $1,000 of valuation.

NM: Christus St. Vincent, Union Settle Latest Grievance Dispute
By Jackie Jadrnak / Journal, Tue, Jan 29, 2013

Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center and its health care workers settled a union grievance Tuesday with a promise from hospital attorneys that workers will get staffing numbers that they asked for in three separate requests in the first six months of 2012. But both sides made the agreement with a verbal caveat from management that the information has to already exist — the administration won’t create or compile new data — and union members have to agree to keep certain information confidential. … Fonda Osborn, president of District 1199NM of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, acknowledged afterward she was “a little bit” apprehensive about the conditions, but would wait and see what the hospital produces.

NY: Bloomberg Proposes $70 Billion NYC Budget With No New Taxes
By Henry Goldman - Jan 29, 2013 5:24 PM ET, Bloomberg

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented a $70.1 billion preliminary budget that contains no new taxes and limits spending as billions of dollars remain tied up in disputes over state aid, taxi revenue and labor contracts. As many as 1,800 of 75,000 teaching positions may be cut through attrition in the next two school years if the state and federal governments withhold $1.7 billion in aid as a penalty for the city’s failure to agree with its teachers union on an evaluation plan, the mayor said.

NY: Cuomo: If governments do not want pension plan, opt out
3:31 PM, Jan 29, 2013  |  Ithaca Journal

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said his plan to allow local governments to essentially smooth out their pension costs wouldn’t be mandatory. If local leaders have concerns, don’t do it, Cuomo said.

OH: Raises for county workers to cost $79K
Tiffany Y. Latta, Springfield News Sun, 10:15 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013

More than 200 Clark County employees will get a pay hike this year. County commissioners unanimously approved 1 percent raises Tuesday for 43 non-union Job and Family Services of Clark County employees. And because of a clause in a 2011 contract, 168 JFS union workers also will receive the raise. …. JFS union members are a part of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Ohio Council, Local 1939. County commissioners unanimously approved 1 percent pay increases and a 5 percent increase to the maximum pay ranges for the union last year as part of a wage re-opener negotiated with AFSCME.

PA: Corbett to roll out plan to privatize sale of alcohol; will include wine, liquor and beer
AP: Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Gov. Tom Corbett is expected to call for auctioning off wine and liquor store licenses and opening beer and wine sales to a broad array of retailers, from big-box stores to drugstores. Corbett's office said the Republican governor will announce his plan Wednesday in Pittsburgh.

WI: UW Superior Students Blame State For Lack Of Funding
Jan 29, 2013 at 11:22 PM CST (NNCNOW.com)

Prosperity and a greater quality of life are the aim of those attending a rally at this hour in support for public education at UW Superior. …. Speakers include representatives from the American Federation of Teachers–Wisconsin, Wisconsin State Employees Union locals and community members.