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July 16, 2008National/PoliticalDemocrats See a Need for Further Economic StimulusBy PETER S. GOODMAN and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN New York Times July 16, 2008 Many economists have concluded that a second dose of government stimulus spending is required to prevent a broad economic unraveling and provide relief to millions of Americans grappling with joblessness, plunging home prices and tight credit. .. On Tuesday, Nancy Pelosi of California, the speaker of the House, and other House Democrats met with economists to draft another stimulus package, saying it was likely to include spending for roads, bridges, schools and other public facilities, as well as aid for states confronting smaller tax revenues in the face of the housing downturn. Fed Chief Bleak on Economic Outlook A sense of economic gloom gripped Washington on Tuesday as President Bush urged Americans not to lose faith, the Federal Reserve chairman offered a mostly bleak assessment of the difficulties ahead for the economy, and the administration’s latest effort to help the housing sector faced tough questioning in Congress. Despite widespread concern about losses suffered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two giant housing finance companies, the Bush administration’s call for quick passage of legislation to authorize the use of government funds to save them ran into heavy fire, especially among some Republicans concerned about taxpayer liability. Consumer price rise in June is fastest in 26 years Consumer prices shot up in June at the fastest pace in 26 years with two-thirds of the surge blamed on soaring energy prices. The Labor Department said Wednesday that the consumer price indexs jumped 1.1% last month, much worse than had been expected and biggest rise since June 1982. The index was up 5% from a year ago, biggest year-on-year rise since 1991. Democrats Seek to Bolster Wage and Hour Enforcement House Democrats want to put more teeth into the federal agency that helps workers collect pay that has been wrongly denied by their employers, but the thrust of their efforts probably won’t come until next year. At a House Education and Labor Committee hearing on Tuesday, July 15, the Government Accountability Office released a study showing that enforcement actions by the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division have fallen by more than one-third in the past decade—from 47,000 in 1997 to 30,000 in 2007. The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, asserted that the agency is short-staffed, fails to effectively utilize resources available for investigations, poorly targets industries where wage violations are likely to occur and does not properly assess its own performance. Congress Avoids Cutting Physicians’ Medicare Pay by Overriding Bush Veto Congress sent President Bush one of the strongest rebukes of his administration Tuesday, overturning his veto of a Medicare bill by a substantial margin in both chambers. The override marked a victory in a long ideological battle between Bush and congressional Democrats, largely over private Medicare plans known as Medicare Advantage. The legislation cuts those plans substantially. Related Washington Post Editorial: A Medicare Advantage / Congress rightly overrides President Bush's veto of a bill that levels the playing field between health-care providers . Dems to tie Fannie, Freddie aid to housing grants House Democrats, moving to accomplish a top priority in exchange for quick approval of the Bush administration's urgent rescue plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, intend to tie it to $3.9 billion in grants for neighborhoods hit hardest by foreclosures. More Homeowners Taking in Boarders When Barbara Terry fell behind on her mortgage payments earlier this year, she did the previously unthinkable. Through a local housing organization, she and her daughter, Imani, 9, rented part of their single-family house to a stranger. .. With residential mortgage foreclosures still on the rise, more homeowners nationwide are considering Miss Terry’s choice: whether to take in a boarder to keep their homes. Obama Leads by 8 Points In Poll Economy Remains The Top Concern Sen. Barack Obama holds his biggest advantage of the presidential campaign as the candidate best prepared to fix the nation's ailing economy, but lingering concerns about his readiness to handle international crises are keeping the race competitive, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Overall, the Democrat has a lead of 50 percent to 42 percent over Republican Sen. John McCain among registered voters nationwide, lifted by a big edge among women, and he has also regained an edge among political independents. But it is Obama's 19-point lead on the economy that has become a particularly steep challenge for McCain. Related article from the New York Times: Poll Finds Obama’s Run Isn’t Closing Divide on Race Issue Brief: The Crisis in State and Local Government Retiree Health Benefit Plans: Myths and Realities The Center for State and Local Government Excellence has issued its first issue brief on retiree health benefits, The Crisis in State and Local Government Retiree Health Benefit Plans: Myths and Realities. The brief, which was written by Robert L. Clark, professor of economics and management, innovation, and entrepreneurship in the College of Management, North Carolina State University, examines the current financial status of state retiree health plans. States with the lowest unfunded liabilities include North Dakota, Wyoming, Iowa, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Oklahoma; states with the largest include New Jersey, New York, California, North Carolina, Connecticut, Louisiana, and Texas. More Than 1,000 Workers Recently Join AFSCME Some 1,043 workers from New York to New Mexico, including child care workers and bus drivers, recently gained a voice on the job by joining AFSCME. In New York, 400 direct care workers at the Guild for Exceptional Children in Brooklyn voted in March for the Civil Service Employees Association/AFSCME Local 1000. Unbearable Bosses Odds are perhaps one in 10 that you've got a bad boss. And you may be stuck with him for a while: The tightening economy provides fewer new gigs for you -- and your boss. One in five workers feel a lot of pressure and one-third feel some pressure to stay with a bad boss, according to a new Working America survey. ... Working America, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, is launching its third annual bad-boss contest, in which workers write anonymous stories of mistreatment and misdeeds. The contest runs through mid-August at http://workingamerica.org/badboss. The Benefits of College Life / Health insurance and other perks are under scrutiny, but most employees at colleges do better than workers at private companies (no link) When it came to benefits for employees, higher education used to be at the head of the class. ... Now, however, higher education is a laggard when it comes to benefit trends. For its employees, that may be a good thing. American companies are trying to lower costs by trimming benefits. But colleges and universities are insulating workers from the most disruptive cuts. ... While employees aren't likely to lose their existing perks — with the possible exception of retirement health care — experts say they'll be taking on larger shares of the costs. And employees are likely to get little or no financial assist-ance when they buy new kinds of benefits like long-term-care insurance. Here's a look at what the future may hold for various benefits: Pension plans: Although companies are dumping pension plans with guaranteed benefits, many public colleges and universities have been immune to major pension cutbacks. ... Employee health insurance: Costs for health care continue to outpace inflation, and higher education is beginning to pay the price. To start, the glory days of premiums paid entirely by the employer are disappearing. ... Retiree health insurance: "This is really a dying benefit everywhere with the exception of higher ed and public education in general," says Mr. Clark. San Francisco and UC NewsSenator tells UC to quit threatening discipline for striking workers A state senator has demanded that the University of California quit threatening striking employees with disciplinary action, saying he will respond "appropriately" to any retaliation by the university. Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco/San Mateo, sent a letter to President Mark Yudof today expressing concern and support for the striking service workers. ... Service workers, who are represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, are asking for guaranteed overtime pay, a step system for salaries, uniform statewide wages and wage increases. Striking AFSCME UC Service Workers Defy Court Injunction “No es justo.” Strikers Victoria and Alicia tell me as I pull out my notebook at the picket line at Bancroft and College. They are two striking CAL housekeepers, who, between them have cleaned the University of California at Berkeley for over twenty years. They joined picket line chants from the sideline on the morning of the first day of a five-day strike. “UC, escucha, escucha, estamos en la lucha.” They were among the hundreds of Asian, African-American and Latino AFSCME 3299 workers who walked off the job through out the State of California UC System in violation of an injunction against their strike that was issued by court order last Friday. Related articles:
State/LocalCouncil may void sludge contract The City Council may move to void a $47 million sludge-hauling contract that is now the focus of an FBI investigation into whether council members, aides and city staffers accepted money to approve the deal. .. "The City Council has the responsibility of reversing the scandal," said John Riehl, president of AFSCME Local 207, which represents workers in Detroit's water and sewerage department. Riehl is a longtime opponent of the deal. Motown malfeasance stalls sludge pact here Mayor Nutter today said the city won’t turn over operation of its sludge plant to Houston-based Synagro, Inc. without a full review of allegations that company representatives bribed Detroit city officials to seal a similar deal in that city. “It has come to our attention that Synagro...has come under some scrutiny in connection with its work for the City of Detroit,” Nutter wrote in a letter to City Council President Anna C. Verna. “Please rest assured that we are reviewing these issues and will not proceed with the execution of the contract before that review is complete.” .... Synagro’s problems in Detroit have provided an opening for Local 394 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, representing the 60 workers at the Philadelphia plant. Last week the union distributed news clips from Detroit to Philadelphia City Council members, with a letter asking members to rescind their vote. Nutter said he would meet with union officials and hear their concerns before signing a contract with Synagro. State’s stance on new contract raises questions With voting already under way on a controversial contract proposal for state workers, it remains unclear what will happen if a majority rejects it. And that unanswered question has become a huge part of the increasingly heated debate because the Carcieri administration has done something that the state has not done in recent memory: send contract termination letters to each union. A typical letter says: “Please be advised, in accordance with the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement between the state of Rhode Island and [fill in the blank], that the state desires to terminate the agreement as of June 30, 2008.” ... While J. Michael Downey, president of the largest state employees union — Council 94, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO — accuses his union brethren of using the letters to try to “scare” the workers into approving the bad contracts they negotiated, other labor leaders say the workers have reason for concern. Time's up for workers to take state buyout The window has closed on Gov. Jon Corzine's plan to lure thousands of senior state workers into retirement. The deadline was 6 p.m. yesterday for eligible workers who wanted to sign on to the deal that promised enhanced health benefits and boosted retirement pay for those who agreed to step down by Aug. 1. But whether the $255 million in retirement bonuses Corzine offered was enough to lure more than 2,000 workers off the state payroll is an open question. County woes worry library staff The county’s fiscal problems have the 130 employees of the Schenectady County Public Library System worried about their jobs and the system’s future. Members of the system’s staff, who belong to the Civil Service Employees Association, are now attending meetings of both the county Legislature and the library Board of Trustees. Spokesman Ken Wagner said a representative is attending each meeting to stay informed. “We are worried about the county’s fiscal concerns and their impact on the library,” he said. City union wants overtime pay for 'stint' workers A city union that often is at odds with Mayor James Sottile has filed a grievance that states 21 workers in the city Department of Public Works should receive overtime pay for attending a training session on sexual harassment awareness. Bart Robins, president of the Kingston unit of the Civil Service Employees Association, and Troy Ashdown, the union's vice president, said the employees are so-called "stint" workers who were ordered to attend the training after they had completed their jobs for the day. Cuomo expands state probe of public payrolls In another expansion of the state's investigation, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office has sent out approximately 200 letters statewide -- about 100 of them on Long Island -- to professionals on public payrolls whose employment arrangements raised "red flags" to investigators because they may be improper, state officials said Tuesday. More than half of the 200 letters, which seek specific information about jobs and benefits such as pension credits, have been sent to lawyers. The rest -- in a significant expansion of Cuomo's investigation -- have gone to civil engineers, accountants and doctors who have been employees of local governments and school districts. The names of the recipients of the letters on Long Island could not be learned. Prince George's Employees Clash with Johnson Members of AFSCME unions that represent 2,000 county employees in Prince George's have voted to reject a request by county leaders to renegotiate the terms of their contract. Facing a $48 million budget shortfall in the tightening economy, County Executive Jack B. Johnson had asked all of the county's employee unions to return to the negotiating table to talk about reducing the sizes of their raises for the coming year. Without new talks, Johnson said it might be necessary to layoff some workers. ... "Our considered opinion is that the revenue decline that you now predict is neither new in its origin nor unexpected," AFSCME Council 67 Executive Director Glenard S. Middleton Sr. wrote in a letter to Johnson. Report: Calif. should close juvenile prisons A state watchdog commission has recommended that California phase out its antiquated juvenile prisons by 2011, replacing them with regional lockups run by the counties. The regional centers would hold only the most dangerous offenders under the proposal unveiled Monday by the watchdog Little Hoover Commission. Less serious offenders would be housed at local juvenile halls. Commissioners said the state also should end its three-year experiment with combining youth and adult prisons under the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Authority over youth prisons would be placed under an Office of Juvenile Justice reporting to the governor until the state ends its involvement. Ohio companies selling sweatshop wares to state .. Akter was among the speakers who highlighted "Subsidizing Sweatshops" a study released recently by a bunch of groups who are working to draw attention to worker exploitation overseas and on the U.S. companies and governments that are supporting it. Like the state of Ohio. According to the group, the state has contracts to purchase public employee uniforms from companies that employ such overseas sweatshops. .... According to the group that released the study, state and local governments should adopt resolutions ending public contracts with companies that turn to foreign sweatshops for the goods and services they market here. 4-day workweek may mean fewer holidays / Prospect of working on Columbus, Veterans days angers state employees The prospect of having to work on Columbus Day and Veterans Day has many state public employees questioning the newly announced four-day, 10-hour workweek. A memo Friday detailed the new proposal, angering many workers. "Americans already have fewer holidays than just about any other industrialized nation, and now they're taking away more holidays," said Audry Wood, executive director of the Utah Public Employees Association. ... Currently, state employees receive 88 hours of paid leave for the 11 state-recognized holidays. But with a 10-hour workday, employees would have gotten 110 hours off in vacation time if they got the 11 days off. ....... Other governments have avoided the holiday issue simply by giving employees 10 hours of pay for all the sanctioned holidays. Editorial: Four-day workweek? Don't be hasty, Bill ... New Mexico's Gov. Bill Richardson, hot on the heels of Utah counterpart Jon Huntsman, is thinking of putting huge numbers of state employees on a four-day workweek. Still others may be allowed to telecommute from home via computer. ... Some workers will find 10-hour days a drag — which might be reflected in their daily output. Others might thrive on a schedule giving them long weekends. The jury will be out, at any rate — while taxpayers wonder who'll be around to serve them. ... As for telecommuting, it must be approached with great caution, by management and workers alike: What kind of Big Brother surveillance will it take to make sure someone's actually at work 40 or more hours a week? .... Taxpayers should take comfort in his cautious approach — and help him keep an eye on its results. State backs carpools, flex time The nearly 6,000 state employees who work in Frankfort and live outside Franklin County are keenly aware of the record-high cost of commuting to work. Gov. Steve Beshear announced two initiatives Tuesday to help such state workers. At a Capitol news conference, Beshear said the state is implementing a new carpooling Web site — https://secure.kentucky.gov/governor/carpool/default.aspx — to link commuting state employees. And he is encouraging a more aggressive push toward flexible work hours instead of the traditional eight-hour Monday-through-Friday shifts. GOP Suggests, Democrats Decry Telecommuting Plan The best way to increase state workers' efficiency, House Republicans said Tuesday, is to have them telecommute — and that's what the GOP representatives want some of their 44 taxpayer-funded staffers at the Capitol to start doing. As part of a pilot program, the staffers would work from home, staying in touch with their offices by phone and computer link, House Republican leader Lawrence Cafero and others said at a press conference. .... But they need a bipartisan agreement to embark on the program — and a top Democrat wasn't buying it. "We always knew the Republicans were phoning it in; now they want to make it official policy," said Derek Slap, spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn. ... Slap said that very question of accountability — the assurance of a benefit to taxpayers — hasn't been addressed. Short week for state workers proposed The workweek for state employees should be changed to four 10-hour days, Rep. Don Marostica said Tuesday, noting the move would cut greenhouse gases, reduce traffic, and save money on road maintenance and energy. State tries to rescue Pike from huge debt The Patrick administration is engineering a large-scale financial rescue of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority that would allow the cash-strapped agency to refinance $800 million in debt to avoid potentially ruinous repayment terms. Treasurer Timothy Cahill said the Patrick administration is exposing taxpayers to heavy risk without demanding financial reforms at the Turnpike Authority. |
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