Speech by Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO National President

Thank you for that generous introduction. I’d like to take this opportunity to extend my appreciation to Marick Masters for the truly critical work he does here at Wayne State, a university that’s critical to the revival of mid-town Detroit and to the future of workers’ rights in America. I know that today’s events are a statement of Marick’s personal commitment to a fair and just economy, and I salute him for that.

Let’s give a round of applause for the important and thoughtful effort that has gone into this program, and into the extraordinary papers that have been presented today.

I would also like to recognize the leaders of our great labor movement—not only our presidents and vice presidents and secretary-treasurers, but our dedicated organizers and researchers and the other professionals who push and prod our movement forward a little bit every single day.

We like to say that the R&D starts on the factory floor—and that’s as true in the labor movement as it is in industry.

This is probably a good time, too, to point out some of the work we see coming out of Michigan that’s not so admirable. As you know, the right-wing Mackinac Center recently sent Freedom of Information Act Requests to faculty members of the labor studies program here at Wayne State and at other state universities in a blatant effort to intimidate academics at the schools into keeping quiet about political attacks on working people.

The chilling effect of these tactics on free speech is a threat not only to academic freedom but to our democracy. It’s an “interesting” translation of the Center’s slogan of “advancing liberty and prosperity” – and not unlike the corrupt midnight passage of Wisconsin’s so-called “budget repair” bill, or the last-minute packing of a committee in the Ohio legislature to force the passage of anti-worker bills.

For 30 years—for more than a generation—we’ve been fighting back against a coordinated, corporate-led assault on working people. Most of the time, we’ve gone from one fight to the next with scarcely a moment to rest. So it’s a gift, truly a gift, for us to stop today and reflect on where we are, how we got here and where we’re going. Thank you.

Media figures and business leaders have predicted the demise of the labor movement for decades. Even last week, we saw headlines like “Beyond Wisconsin, Could This Be the End of Labor Unions?” and “Labor: Is this the End?”

And it’s true that union membership in the private sector is below seven percent and overall it has dropped below twelve percent. As the number and density of union members has declined, so have middle-class wages, benefits and retirement security. The parallel between workers having a collective voice and broad-based prosperity is direct. As our strong union core has shrunk, the American middle class has withered. Wages have stagnated or fallen as workers failed to bring home their share of gains from rising productivity.

But union membership numbers aren’t a popularity poll, nor a reflection of a declining need for unions, just a sad reflection of how incredibly difficult it is for workers to form unions in our modern corporate environment. Put bluntly, too many of our business leaders do not believe in the basic human right to bargain collectively and don't respect the essential humanity of the people who create the wealth they enjoy. It's a bitter irony that these are the people who have created an entire industry to bust unions, modern day Pinkertons who specialize in creating cultures of fear and dissension to fight solidarity among workers.

We’ve seen the growth of union-busting in America before, 100 years ago, when unions were viewed under the law as illegal restraints on trade. Back then, judges ordered injunctions to stop strikes, and when workers demanded contracts, they were beaten in the streets. But that didn’t mean the labor movement was somehow irrelevant. And it didn’t stop the organizing.

Even in those terrible days, workers continued to seek justice.

What's different today? Do workers no longer have cause to organize?

Last week at a White House forum on working women, a domestic worker from New York said, “We’re not trying to get rich doing these jobs. We just want to be protected.”

Other workers at the forum told of WalMart’s mandatory, all-employee, anti-union meetings, about being treated like unthinking, unfeeling, unknowing cogs. An employee of
T-Mobile USA said she dreams of a time when she and her co-workers will have a contract and their ideas listened to.

So let me ask again: Are we looking at the end of unions in America?

Not even close. The labor movement isn’t a fad or even an institution of brick and stone. These structures around us are transitory, but the labor movement is not. It’s as resilient as democracy itself. The labor movement is working people—working people who have joined together for strength in numbers, for their common good. And history teaches us that whatever the odds, the labor movement will always spring up, often when its chances of survival seem most bleak.

I’m not being glib, or taking a serious problem lightly. I’m looking at our history and projecting it forward.

What has happened in recent decades to union membership in America?

Put simply, three things: The economy moved away from us for a host of reasons, we in labor did not respond quickly or creatively enough and the overall environment changed dramatically. That change didn’t happen by accident, but as a result of a sophisticated and long-term corporate strategy that has increased capital mobility while restricting the freedom of working people to exercise the right to bargain collectively for a better life. Jobs have vanished from industries where unions are strong. And the fragile job growth we’ve seen is mainly in non-union sectors.

Corporations have relentlessly shipped good-paying, heavily unionized manufacturing jobs overseas in exchange for a flood of cheap imports. Lobbyist-written free trade pacts have put our workers in direct competition with our impoverished brothers and sisters overseas, who lack basic freedoms and are paid pennies an hour. And always we hear the demand to cut taxes on corporations, or why should they stay in America? Employers don't need America anymore. So we'd better be grateful for what we have. And don't even think about making any demands.

Just drive up Woodward Avenue, or through any neighborhood, and you can see the effects of these policies.

The impact on our overall economy has been devastating. Study after study tells us the middle class has deteriorated while the richest one percent has taken more and more of America's wealth. And the real-life proof is all around us--cities and counties with no tax receipts forced to make devastating decisions, cutting teachers, police and fire departments and basic social services. And we see the flipside -- politicians who make political hay by attacking working people with decent pay and benefits as if we're somehow villainous -- for simply doing our jobs.

It takes a major act of courage for workers to launch an organizing effort today. There is not a worker who’s thought about forming a union who doesn’t understand that he or she may be fired for raising the idea.

But union-busting in the workplace among workers who feel vulnerable to begin with isn't the entire problem. America's workforce has fundamentally changed. Today’s basic workplace model for organizing in traditionally unionized industries is no longer enough.

Even if all 56 unions in the AFL-CIO quadrupled our organizing budgets, and put all of our resources into new campaigns, we would still be leaving more than 26 million workers employed in 13 major industries untouched by any organizing effort.

If we intend to grow enough to increase workers’ power—to be a check on unfettered corporate influence now and in the years to come, then we cannot stand for business as usual. We have to expect more and demand more of ourselves and our movement. None of us is deserving of the label of “leader” unless we are ready to step up to the challenges facing working people with organizing that is far, far greater than what we see today—and move beyond traditional organizing as well. Quite frankly, we cannot rely solely upon traditional organizing campaigns. Nor can union membership be defined solely by being covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
The tools that worked 40 and 50 years ago don't work anymore. We need new tools, new models.

You know, one hallmark of the labor movement is our practicality, the way we fashion answers out of the questions at hand.

That has always been the case when the labor movement has most needed to grow. We generate ideas that seemed radical at first, but which quickly become standard, ideas like helping factory workers unionize or bargaining for pensions—ideas that seem so obvious today. These ideas allowed millions of workers to form unions and to lift themselves and their families into the middle class.

So today, we have to answer the mobility of goods and capital with a truly global movement. I believe that we’re beginning to lay the groundwork of just such a comprehensive labor movement, one that can protect workers from Detroit to Juarez and Shanghai to Bogota.

For the first time, the entire global movement has committed to workers in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas, at one multi-national corporation—Deutsche Telekom/
T-Mobile USA.

When the German multinational bought into the US wireless market, and T-Mobile became one of the largest mobile telecom companies in the United States, the Communications Workers of America reached out to the largest telecom union in Germany, ver.di, to partner and eventually form a joint union, so that workers in the United States and Germany could speak with one voice—to demand that one company honor the same basic rights around the world as they do in Germany.

We are shifting our practices to ensure that deep grassroots organizing, led by workers employed in new industries, is tied to similar movements of workers employed by the same multinationals.

The UAW, here in Detroit, is doing more than ever to work with counterparts all over the world. No industry is more globalized than the auto industry.

We must transform our unions and how we work—how we operate internally and how we present ourselves to the public. We have to change the narrative away from our unions as faceless institutions and toward an understanding of unions as vital communities of working people.

We have to strengthen our relationships with our community partners and allies, especially in the African American, Asian and Latino communities, but also in the environmental, LGBT and other communities – we must be ONE – and that was the beauty and the strength of the incredible energy around the 1500 activities in the days surrounding April 4 where we proclaimed: We Are One, Respect Our Rights.

We must bore in deep on America’s changing demographics and shifting workforce. We have to reach out to young workers, not only by blogging and using social media like Facebook and Twitter, but by encouraging young trade unionist groups to form in every community and focusing hard on the needs of young workers. New workers are stepping into one of the cruelest economies in generations—the “gig economy,” some call it, offering young workers not jobs but a succession of short-term temporary no-benefit “gigs.” That requires a different kind of outreach and organizing.

And we must recognize and embrace the organizing already underway by working people excluded from traditional organizing—through worker centers and nontraditional organizations. In New York and a dozen other states, we're supporting domestic workers who are organizing. In some ways, it seems an impossible task. Each maid, each nanny has a different employer. This is a different model with untested tactics, but already it is inspiring and successful. Domestic Workers United is developing neighborhood-by-neighborhood contract standards and creating resource centers. And DWU campaigned for and passed a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in the New York state legislature. The bill lays out baseline working standards--including a reasonable workday and sick leave. And DWU is forming an alliance of domestic workers globally.

A similar campaign is underway to organize taxi drivers in New York City.

The success of our own AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America is a sign of another promising direction. Already more than 3 million strong, Working America shows that working people are ready to be part of something bigger to fight for good jobs and a just economy. We can build on that foundation and use it as a laboratory to find additional forms of representation. Working America has also built support for union organizing drives.

New organizing models alone aren't enough. New solutions require hope and the belief that collective action works. Fear is a tremendous barrier to organizing.

But hope can be fleeting, or it can grow with tremendous force. Sometimes it arrives when least expected. What will spark collective action? Who knew high food prices would be the tinder to ignite long-festering poverty and start a peaceful revolution in Egypt? Who predicted that tens of thousands would rally in Madison for weeks on end as an arrogant, over-reaching governor tried to strip public workers of bargaining rights?

The Wisconsin movement shows us that the public fervently believes working people have fundamental rights and no one should be forced to give up those rights. The nonstop rallies have given us an opening, a teachable moment for the nation. And it provided a wake-up call for union members and community partners. It is an opening, a chance for us to fight against corporate resistance and to propel the labor movement to rise to the challenge.

What will it take for workers across America to say, Hey, how can I change my job for the better? What about my rights? How can I join with my coworkers in a union?

Honestly, for years -- for years -- we’ve been trying to hold a national debate on collective bargaining, and thanks to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker—and a few of his friends—we’re having one. And guess what? We’re winning.

It’s clear to me that America’s working families have been pushed to the brink. Economic insecurity for everyday families has become the new norm—even as Wall Street has banked record profits and handed out record bonuses.

That’s why the labor movement has a rich and vibrant future. Unions have a strong future in America—because we need them to improve our lives.

I want to be very clear about this. Nobody who believes in working people should ever succumb to defeatism. Not after an electoral defeat. Not when corporations or political leaders vilify workers. Not when public opinion seems stacked against us—especially not when public opinion seems stacked against us.

We can no more embrace the defeat of working people than people can stop working. We live in a society built from the labor of working people, and too often the work itself degrades and dehumanizes us. As long as there is work, workers will organize.

I'm not saying that out of false bravado. We also cannot take success for granted. We face a truly grave crisis. I say this simply to lay out our mission as plainly as possible. Our question is never "if" the labor movement will continue, but "how"? And who will make it happen?

Quite frankly I've been inspired and encouraged by what I've heard today, especially as it seems lately that the opponents of working people cannot find enough ways to tangle with us. It's not enough that CEO-indebted governors and state legislatures across our nation pile on every anti-worker bill possible. They’ve set low-water marks with their truly ugly behavior.

I could recite a list that would raise your hair, but I don't want to keep you all day. But I do have to mention Maine's governor, who removed from the state’s labor department an
11-panel mural with scenes of mill workers, strikes and child laborers. The historical painting also depicts Francis Perkins, one of Maine’s great public servants, and one of America's. She was President Franklin Roosevelt's first Secretary of Labor and the woman behind the New Deal, that array of legislation that in so many ways provided capitalism in America with a saving grace.

These symbolic assaults on top of the very real efforts to fundamentally restrict the rights and freedoms of Americans in the workplace remind us of the depth, and the pathological nature, of the hatred some people have for workers. It's a hatred that almost seems directed at the dignity of workers itself, as if it’s somehow wrong or offensive to do a job and earn a paycheck.

But the over-reaching of anti-worker politicians today may have given us the game-changer we need. It may have provided the sparks for the next surge of labor. And it has certainly reminded America of its most basic dream, the dream that if we work hard, if we do our part, we can have a decent standard of living, health care, an education for our children and a measure of security in our old age.

Today we confront this fundamental choice. Will we accept decline? Or will we choose to honor the best promise our nation has to offer? United in a renewed labor movement, we can have the kind of prosperity that's uniquely American—broadly shared, enriching all of us—to rebuild the greatest middle class the world has ever known.

I have no doubt of the choice we'll make. We’ll rebuild America the way working people do, together, with hard work, with ingenuity, with solidarity.

Thank you for all you do. God bless you, and God bless America.

 

By Hilda L. Solis
U.S. Secretary of Labor
The Washington Post
Sunday, March 20, 2011

A century ago this week, in Lower Manhattan, a young social worker named Frances Perkins was having tea at the Greenwich Village townhouse of her friend, the socialite Margaret Morgan Norrie. They were interrupted by clanging fire truck bells. Then they heard the anguished screams: “Don’t jump!”

They raced out of the townhouse and ran toward the commotion: a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, just off Washington Square. Flames and black smoke shot from the top floors, and as they watched in shock, young girls and women, some alone, some clutching hands, inched up to the windows’ ledges — and jumped to their deaths.

Perkins would describe the scene in lectures later: “They couldn’t hold on any longer. There was no place to go. The fire was between them and any means of exit. It’s that awful choice people talk of — what kind of choice to make?” She added: “I shall never forget the frozen horror that came across as we stood with our hands on our throats watching that horrible sight, knowing that there was no help.”

The sewing factory employed more than 500 people, who worked long hours for low wages, in wretched and unsanitary conditions. They turned out “shirtwaists” — blouses with puffed sleeves and tight bodices popularized by the “Gibson Girl.” The factory owners had locked the fire-escape doors.

The seamstresses were trapped when fire raced through the sweatshop just before closing on March 25, 1911.

In less than 20 minutes, 146 people, mostly Italian and Jewish immigrant women and girls, were dead. The last six victims were officially identified just a few weeks ago. Triangle outraged the public and offered a grisly example of how powerless workers were without collective bargaining, because unionized garment workers received better pay and had safer conditions. And it galvanized Frances Perkins.

Twenty-two years later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her secretary of labor, the first woman to serve as a Cabinet secretary. During her 12-year tenure, she directed the formulation and implementation of the Social Security Act, one of the most important pieces of social legislation in our history. Among other extraordinary accomplishments, she helped create unemployment insurance, the minimum wage, and the legislation that guarantees the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively. She also established the department’s Labor Standards Bureau, a precursor to what is now the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Perkins clearly had the Triangle victims in mind as she weaved the nation’s social safety net.

Now I have the same job she once held, with the responsibility of repairing and strengthening that net. And although our passion for workers’ rights came from different paths (she was the daughter of privilege; I am the daughter of immigrant union members), I understand the impact that moment had on her work.

I had my own moment involving a sweatshop. Although it was not as horrifying as that afternoon was for Perkins, it fueled my beliefs. In 1995, 75 Thai immigrants were freed from a so-called factory in the city of El Monte, Calif., part of the district I represented in the state Senate. They had been forced to eat, sleep and work in a place they called home.

Their employer confiscated their passports and kept them like slaves. Threatened with violence to themselves or their families, the workers hunched over sewing machines in dimly lit garages bound by barbed wire, sewing brand-name clothing for less than $2 an hour. Most of them were women.

I met them shortly after they were freed and heard their stories. And at that moment, the unthinkable became real for me. I had assumed that sweatshops were a thing of the past. But they had just spread — from Perkins’s New York City to my Los Angeles, from the Italian and Eastern European immigrants victimized in her day to the Asian and Latino immigrants victimized in mine.

Combating garment sweatshops is, sadly, still on the labor secretary’s agenda. In the past fiscal year, the department’s Wage and Hour division conducted 374 investigations and collected $2.1 million for 2,215 workers, primarily in the major U.S. garment centers of Southern California and New York. In these cases, vulnerable immigrant workers have been deprived of minimum-wage pay, overtime pay and safe working conditions — all the haunting echoes of Triangle.

We have had many improvements in the past century. Today, we have more tools to pursue violators who deny workers their pay, including issuing subpoenas and preventing companies from shipping goods produced in violation of the law.

In 1911, more than 100 workers were estimated to have died on the job each day. In 2010, 4,340 workers were killed on the job — and more than 3.3 million were seriously injured. Last April 5, in a fiery explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia, 29 miners died in one day.

I was at the mine the next day, while rescue efforts still were underway.

In times of crisis, one often becomes two people. In one sense, I was simply Hilda, the person I’ve always been, there just to be by the family members’ sides as they kept vigil. In another sense, I was Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis, trying to convey to them the depth of their government’s commitment. In either case, no words can adequately express your emotion and sympathy. A grief that great can be endured only if it is shared — and then acted upon in good time.

Both Triangle and Upper Big Branch became calls to action. New York quickly implemented groundbreaking workplace safety laws and regulations, including fire exits. But nearly one year after Upper Big Branch, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, part of the Labor Department, still needs additional tools that only Congress can provide. And OSHA needs better tools, such as stricter penalties against employers who put their workers’ lives at risk, and stronger protections for whistle-blowers.

In both cases, if these workers had a voice — a union — and the ability to speak up about conditions, these events probably could have been prevented, because unions play an important role in making workplaces safer. In both cases, they had tried to organize and faced virulent opposition.

Today, workers and their allies are being met with that same kind of opposition. In states nationwide, working people are protesting the actions to strip them of collective bargaining. The Triangle fire and the Upper Big Branch explosion a century later make clear to me that workers want and need that voice — about wages and benefits, yes, but about more, too. Collective bargaining still means a seat at the table to discuss issues such as working conditions, workplace safety and workplace innovation, empowering individuals to do the best job they can. And it means dignity and a chance for Americans to earn a better life, whether they work in sewing factories or mines, build tall buildings or care for our neighbors, teach our children, or run into burning buildings when others run out of them.

I’ll be thinking about all of this as I make my way to New York on Friday for the 100th anniversary of the Triangle factory tragedy. The building is still there; it now houses offices for New York University. Thousands are expected to mark the occasion with a march, speeches, the reading of the victims’ names and the laying of flowers in their honor at the site by schoolchildren. It will be a powerful reminder of what we’ve lived through, and what we still have to do.

History is an extraordinary thing. You can choose to learn from it, or you can choose to repeat it.

For me, the choice is clear, as it was for Frances Perkins. We must always be a nation that catches workers before they fall.

For Immediate Release:
March 16, 2011

U.S. Nuclear Workers Respond to Catastrophe at Japan’s Fukushima Daichi Facility

WASHINGTON, DC – The Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), representing thousands of workers at nuclear facilities throughout the United States, expresses deepest sympathy for the Japanese people, especially the workers who are battling to avert further catastrophe at the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Station.

“Our Japanese brothers and sisters at the stricken plant are putting their lives on the line and showing the world what it takes to be a utility worker,” said UWUA President D. Michael Langford. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to them and their families. These are true heroes. Many of them have lost loved ones and their homes and belongings. Yet they put aside their own needs to remain on the job, exposing themselves to potentially harmful levels of radiation and other dangers in order to protect the lives of others. Utility workers are first responders. We are there before, during and after man-made and natural disasters, such as this horrific tsunami that swept over Japan.”

He continued, “At a time when workers are under attack as never before in our country, we must remember that we all rely on the dedication, skill and courage of ordinary working people, such as those at Fukushima, to help keep our communities safe.”

Through its bargaining relationships with owners of nuclear facilities, the UWUA and its members have a powerful voice in the industry and a seat at the table. This has enabled the UWUA to become a leading advocate for the safety and security of the nuclear facilities where its members work and live throughout the country.

 The Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA), AFL-CIO represents more than 50,000 workers in the energy, nuclear, electric, gas, steam and water industries. The UWUA stands by its motto -- “The members of the UWUA are the safest, best trained, most productive and the highest skilled utility workers in the world.”

March 17, 2011

To PSI Affiliates in Japan: 

The Utility Workers Union of America extends deepest sympathies to our brothers and sisters affected by the catastrophic devastation and destruction that has occurred in Japan.  We cannot imagine the extent of the loss and adversity that confronts you.   Our thoughts and prayers are with you. 

We offer our solidarity and support, and above all honor and commend you – for you are true heroes!  In times of crisis, it is often public service workers, like our own utility workers, who are first responders.  You are there before, during and after man-made and natural disasters such as this horrific tsunami that swept over Japan.  You are the brave men and women who put aside your own needs, remain on the job, often at great risk to your own health and safety, to provide for the welfare of others.   Your courage and dedication are admired by all. 

Our best wishes for you and your families. 

In Solidarity,

D. Michael Langford
UWUA National President

According to a new CSG report, stimulus-funded green jobs topped 51,700 in the sixth and final quarter of the Recovery Act. The report updates past CSG green job reports, the first, released in December 2009, which found that roughly 13,000 green jobs were created or saved in the first quarter of the Recovery Act.

The increase in jobs created or saved in the first quarter compared to the last quarter accounts for a 294% increase. Much of this significant increase is due to the delay in grant awarding, projects starting, and therefore jobs being created. These jobs were supported by programs funded by the Department of Energy, Department of Labor and Environmental Protection Agency.

Washington, Ohio, and California lead the nation in total green jobs with each state having created or saved over 3,700 jobs. Tennessee, Texas, and South Carolina are also among the leaders with over 2,000 green jobs funded by the Recovery Act. In Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Minnesota and Utah over 20% of all Recovery Act jobs are green jobs.

Per the Office of Management and Budget guidelines, Recovery Act recipients are not required to count cumulative jobs. As a result, the 51,700 jobs included in this report provide only a snapshot in time, which includes some jobs that were created in previous quarters that continue to be supported by Recovery Act funds, as well as new jobs initiated this quarter.

Roughly 9% of all Recovery Act funded jobs in the final quarter were green jobs. However, the future of these programs remains in doubt. The President’s FY 2012 budget proposes a “Race to the Green” program through the Department of Energy to further programs started under Recovery Act initiatives such as the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant. However, House leaders have proposed to zero out many stimulus-funded green jobs programs.

Chris Whatley, CSG’s Washington DC Director commented on the report: “The jury is still out on the impact of green jobs on America’s economic recovery. However, it is clear that a number of states were successful in leveraging stimulus funds to advance their economic development strategies.”

The Council of State Governments is the nation’s only organization serving all three branches of state government. CSG is a region-based forum that fosters the exchange of insights and ideas to help state officials shape public policy. (3/10/11)

Links:

Green Energy News
http://www.green-energy-news.com

Council of State Governments
http://www.csg.org: 

Report: Green Jobs Created or Saved in the Final Quarter of the Recovery Act
http://knowledgecenter.csg.org/drupal/content/green-jobs-created-or-saved-final-quarter-recovery-act,

Disclaimer, Forward-Looking or Safe Harbor Statement on original press release: No Disclaimer

March 1, 2011

Dear Local Union Leader:

As leaders of the National and International Unions that make up the AFL-CIO, we are calling upon all of our local unions to answer the challenge that has been laid down by the fights for survival of our movement.

We are meeting this week in Washington, D.C., to develop our plans and strategies to advance the fight for workers' rights against the corporate-led government assault we've seen in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and states all across the country. Even at this moment, tens of thousands of workers have taken to the streets to protest the assault on the fundamental freedoms of collective bargaining and the basic right to have a union.

As we respond to the crisis faced by workers in every one of our states and local communities - it becomes clearer than ever before that we need a movement that is strong and united at every level, and that has the ability to mobilize working people and our allies at the grass roots.

For these reasons, today we are calling on every one of our local unions to be certain that you join, affiliate and participate with the AFL-CIO Central Labor Councils in your communities. We cannot survive as a movement if we let solidarity be simply a word and not a way of life. We urge you to make this an immediate priority for your local union, and if you are uncertain where or how to affiliate with your state and local councils, please contact the AFL-CIO Field Department at (202-637-5280).

We need to strengthen the AFL-CIO at the local and state level and we need to do it now.

In Solidarity,

UWUA (Utility Workers Union of America) & Members of the AFL-CIO Executive Council

New York, N.Y.  Members of Utility Workers Union of America and other labor and consumer groups demonstrated against the anti-worker and anti-consumer policies of American Water outside the company’s “Investor Day” conference at the New York Stock Exchange today.  The company hosted the conference at the NYSE to discuss its preliminary year-end 2010 results. 

The union protest criticized exorbitant consumer rate hikes being pursued by American Water subsidiaries across the country, as well as the company’s attacks on affordable health care for its unionized employees during current negotiations for a new national benefits agreement. 

“American Water’s profit-driven policies may be good for top executives, but they are a disaster for consumers and working families,” stated Shawn Garvey, UWUA National Representative.  “While this company doles out lucrative pay packages to top executives, workers and consumers foot the bill in the form of ever-escalating water rates and steep cuts in employee benefits.” 

The demonstration was also punctuated by an appearance by The Billionaires, an activist group renowned for lampooning corporate greed of all kinds.  The activists, dressed in tuxedos and evening gowns, brandished champagne glasses and signs declaring, “Let Them Drink Champagne!” “Corporate Water?  I’ll Drink to That!” and “American Water – We Own It All!” 

Over the past year, American Water subsidiaries have filed for huge consumer rate hikes in regulatory proceedings across the nation, including 7% in New Jersey, 13% in West Virginia, 22% in Virginia, 28% in Tennessee, 29% in Kentucky, 35% in California, 56% in Arizona, and a staggering 160% wastewater increase in southeastern Pennsylvania. 

Meanwhile, American Water recently imposed painful concessions in healthcare benefits for union workers covered by its national benefits agreement, including a 52% hike in employee premiums for family insurance, steep increases in out-of-pocket expenses, and deep cuts in coverage levels.  Employees overwhelmingly rejected the proposed concessions during nationwide votes conducted last year by ten different unions covered by the national agreement. 

The consumer rate hikes and employee concessions demanded by American Water contrast sharply with the lucrative compensation packages awarded by the corporation to its top executives.  During 2009, for example, the company awarded nearly $7.5 million in total compensation to only five top executives, including $2.4 million to its former CEO.

The UWUA represents working men and women in the utility and related industries throughout the U.S., including 2,500 employees of American Water in 11 states.  UWUA members are committed to promoting the highest quality and safest utility services possible.  We believe that utility companies that treat the communities and customers they serve with respect, consideration, and the highest ethical and legal standards will also treat employees fairly.

WHEREAS, Americans are served every day by public service workers at the federal, state, county and city levels; and

 WHEREAS, the City of Pittsburgh has a long and proud tradition of providing a wide variety of services to its citizens, such as police and fire protection,

emergency response, trash and recycling collection, street construction and maintenance, traffic control, animal control, code enforcement, forestry, water and wastewater delivery and treatment, youth and senior programs, recreation programs, museum and cultural programs, park construction and maintenance, planning and engineering, electric and telecommunications utilities and more; and

WHEREAS, the employees who provide these direct services are supported by additional public service workers such as administrative support personnel, custodians, clerks, accountants, cashiers, payroll clerks, and human resource personnel; and

WHEREAS, the City of Pittsburgh sincerely appreciates the contributions of its public service workers and recognizes that they are critical to the successes of our city; and

 WHEREAS, public service workers offer professionalism and dedication throughout their employment and through each election cycle, ensuring continuity as leadership changes; and

 WHEREAS, our city’s public service workers keep Pittsburgh working effectively to serve the needs of our citizens;

 NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh does hereby proclaim Tuesday, February 15, 2011 Service Worker Day in the City of Pittsburgh.

 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City of Pittsburgh encourages all citizens to join us in recognizing the accomplishments and contributions of public service workers at all levels – federal, state, county and city. 

Sponsored by Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak 

Co-Sponsored by Council President Darlene M. Harris and Council members Rev. Ricky V. Burgess, Patrick Dowd, Bruce A. Kraus, R. Daniel Lavelle, William Peduto, Douglas Shields and Theresa Kail-Smith

Darlene M. Harris                                                       Attest: Linda Johnson-Wasler
President of Council                                                                 Clerk of Council

In Council, February 22, 2011

POLITICS: Enviro groups align with unions in fierce state labor battles
Elana Schor
E&E News
February 24, 2011

Most Americans view the intense political protests in Wisconsin through an apt but narrow prism: unions versus the governor and his allies. Yet many environmentalists are standing by labor's side in the fray at the state capital.

"We need to stand together to support the people who work every day to ensure that the air we breathe and the water we drink is safe," Shahla Werner, director of the Sierra Club's Badger State chapter, wrote to her members this week about the public employees who have thronged the Madison Statehouse in frustration with Gov. Scott Walker (R).

"These are the folks who connect us to the outdoors at our state parks and forests, and protect threatened and endangered species and the habitats they depend on," Werner wrote.

The union members are mobilized against a budget bill that Walker touts as necessary to close the state's $137 million deficit for this year but most workers view as an attack on labor rights. The bill's broad limits on collective bargaining have drawn the most attention -- but for environmental advocates, the battle in Madison represents a chance to defend their priorities while striking a blow for the middle-class "green jobs" that are often little more than a talking point on Capitol Hill.

A similar dynamic is playing out in Indiana, where Democratic state legislators have followed their Wisconsin counterparts in fleeing to Illinois in an attempt to stop legislation limiting union organizing from coming to a vote. Whether or not the bonds between labor and environmentalists undergo long-term strengthening in the wake of the Midwestern protests, the moment appears ripe for gains by the Blue-Green Alliance, a five-year-old partnership between the two Democratic-leaning camps.

Environmental groups in the Alliance, including the Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters (LCV), are working through their local chapters to add green-minded protesters to the ranks in Wisconsin. When the standoff began heating up last week, the Union of Concerned Scientists joined leaders of the United Steelworkers and Communications Workers of America unions in releasing statements of solidarity with the protesters.

For David Foster, a 17-year veteran of United Steelworkers who now leads the Blue-Green Alliance, the Wisconsin standoff crystallizes the contrast between "two very different views on what raises the common good in an industrialized society."

Supporters of Walker's bill, as well as similar state and federal efforts, are "part of an extremist right-wing orthodoxy that says the free market ought to govern everything, from the environment to labor markets," Foster said in an interview.

"There's another very different view that markets are imperfect and society benefits from regulations that we put on them, both to improve the environment and to improve living standards and the power of organizing for working people," he added.

Walker and his supporters sometimes evoke free-market rhetoric in urging labor groups to, as the governor put it yesterday at a news conference, "make a sacrifice" by curtailing some of their generous benefits in order to avert a deeper fiscal crisis.

Beyond ideology, however, the Wisconsin budget bill poses tangible threats to both labor and environmentalist priorities. Limiting collective bargaining in the state's $20 billion forest-products industry could torpedo several companies' certification by the independent Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), thus imperiling their contracts with sustainability-minded national vendors, according to several Democratic legislators.

In addition, green groups are pointing to prerequisites for federal transit funding to argue that limiting collective bargaining among that industry's workers could jeopardize as much as $50 million in Washington aid for Wisconsin bus and rail systems.

"We're already looking at transit cuts, and those [lost dollars] would be devastating," said Werner of the state Sierra Club in an interview. Her group is now pushing for passage of an amendment that would exempt transit workers from collective bargaining limits, one of at least 100 proposed changes to the budget bill that remains in limbo as Democrats continue their out-of-state work stoppage.

Anne Sayers, program director at LCV's Wisconsin chapter, pointed to a third provision in the budget bill with negative ramifications for environmentalists: language allowing the governor to convert press secretaries and liaisons at the state agriculture and natural resources departments into politically appointed positions.

After green groups narrowly lost a fight last year to restore the natural resources directorship to an independent post -- a proposal vetoed by Walker's Democratic predecessor -- extending political sway over state environmental planning would be an even more stinging setback, she added.

"This is a rare moment in history when a proposal is so bad, has such sweeping repercussions, is being done in such a thoughtless way, that everyone is united right now," Sayers said in an interview.

Brothers in arms, or for now?

The alliance's work to forge ties between unions and environmental groups is playing an ever-greater role in Democratic messaging, as two sectors that often comprise the party's strongest supporters align their sights on "green jobs" in retrofitting and other clean-energy industries. But whether the Wisconsin and Indiana protests can smooth over the roadblocks to further collaboration remains an open question.

Bowden Quinn, conservation coordinator at Sierra's Indiana chapter, said he would join union protesters at the Statehouse today to show support from environmentalists. Recalling his recent attendance at United Auto Workers meetings and his work with labor on the Grand Calumet Task Force, a partnership between United Steelworkers and conservationists aimed at cleaning up the Indiana river of the same name, Quinn said unions and greens have "definitely been converging" on key issues.

"More and more we see a commonality in our positions, that the Blue-Green Alliance and the steelworkers are supporting us because they see jobs are in renewable energy and energy efficiency," Quinn said in an interview. "It's been kind of slow progress ... but I really like the progress we've made."

Nonetheless, the Midwest is also home to a divisive debate over increased importation of Canadian oil sands that has split unions and environmentalists. While the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, AFL-CIO's Plumbers and Pipefitters, and Laborers International Union of North America have endorsed the $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline between the United States and Alberta, deeming it a potent job creator, green groups of all stripes are blasting the project as a threat to ecological and public health.

Sayers, of the LCV Wisconsin chapter, said the current protests are "as far as we can look" in terms of future partnerships with unions. Locals, she added, "are not thinking about this as a union issue ... for everybody I've met, it's a very personal issue with direct impacts on everyone."

WASHINGTON – ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis today issued the following statement regarding the Bureau of Labor Statistics report released today, Union Members -- 2010:

“Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that in 2010, the unionization rate of employed wage and salary workers was 11.9 percent, down from 12.3 percent in 2009. Among private sector employees, the rate dropped to 6.9 percent from 7.2 percent in 2009.

“The data also show the median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary union members were $917 per week, compared to $717 for workers not represented by unions. For Latinos, the wage disparity is even greater with union members earning an average of $771 compared to $512 for workers not represented by unions, a difference of 33.6 percent.

“When coupled with existing data showing that union members have access to better health care, retirement and leave benefits, today’s numbers make it clear that union jobs are not only good jobs, they are central to restoring our middle class.

“As workers across the country continue to face lower wages and difficulty finding work due to the recent recession, these numbers demonstrate the pressing need to provide workers with a voice in the workplace and protect their right to organize and bargain collectively.”

Harold Giberson (center) being welcomed back to work following the arbitrators decision to reinstate him.

In the Matter of the Arbitration between Utility Workers Union of America, Local 127 (“Union”), on behalf of grievant Harold Giberson, and Pacific Energy/Rocky Mountain Power (“Company”).

This is a discharge arbitration. In a nutshell, the Company discharged Mr. Giberson for acts of disloyalty, pointing to the language of the collective bargaining agreement, the written work rules, and common expectations of the employment relationship; and the Union argues that Mr. Giberson’s actions were entirely appropriate in his role as President of the local. The parties agree that the issue presented in arbitration is: Was the grievant terminated for just cause, and, if not, what is the appropriate remedy?........

………..On the other hand, the discharge issue addressed in the Advice Letter was “whether an employee’s communications were protected when he placed a newspaper ad, purchased and ran a robocall, and testified at a hearing of the public utility commission to oppose the Employer’s request for a rate increase.” That is not the issue before me. It a fundamental principle that just cause for discipline and discharge is measured by the reason given by the employer. It is not uncommon for an employer to cite several different acts of misbehavior as cause for a termination and to then prove some but not all of those allegations in arbitration. If the unproven claims were clearly minor, an arbitrator may let the discharge stand; but if they were the focus of the charges, then just cause was not shown. Here, to repeat, the reason given was a course of action focusing on the Union’s plan to try to fight the health cost allocation anew through the rate case; and that heart of the charge against Mr. Giberson was not a proper basis for his discipline, even though some of the closing acts of the series might have supported very substantial discipline if alleged all by themselves. Because the heart of the Company’s actual charge against Mr. Giberson was not a proper basis for his discipline, there was not just cause for his termination on that stated basis.

AWARD
The grievant was not terminated for just cause. As a remedy, the Company shall promptly reinstate him under the prior arrangement. By stipulation of the parties, I retain jurisdiction for the limited purpose of resolving any dispute that may arise under the terms of this award. That jurisdiction shall expire in 60 days unless extended for good cause shown.
Respectfully submitted
Howell L. Lankford
Arbitrator
Harold