[Educationforall] spam con huevos labor news, views and concerns, 2.03.12-II

Mon Feb 6 06:54:33 UTC 2012

CWA Newsletter: House Approves Attack on Workers' Rights, Senate Can Step Up‏ Black Employment and Unemployment in January 2012, Annual Report for 2011‏ALEC Education "Academy" Launches on Island Resort  Walmart Whistleblowers Stand Up to Retaliation  Strong Job Growth Leads to Drop in Black/Hispanic Unemployment  Paul Krugman | Clearing Up the Confusion Over "Made in China"  Once a Food Chain, Now a Corporate Supply Chain  High-Tech US Corporations Deny Skilled American Workers Jobs Through Abuse of Visa Loophole  How Will Mitt Romney Spin These Jobs Numbers?  Outrage: S.E.C. Lets Firms That Wrecked the Economy Get Away With Fraud  
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February 3, 2012House Approves Attack on Workers' Rights, Senate Can Step UpActivists 'Stand Up, Fight Back' at CWA Leg-Pol ConferenceBroken Senate RulesEconomic Justice and Ending the Offshoring of JobsGetting Corporate Money out of PoliticsVoter SuppressionBiden: 'We're Going to Make the State of the Unions Stronger'Pelosi: 'We Owe It to Our Founders' to Keep the American Dream AliveMoving Working Families' Issues ForwardCWA Officers Meet for First Presidents' MeetingUS Airways Flight Attendants Reach Tentative AgreementAmerican Airlines Agent Ad-Hoc Committee Gets Its Day in CourtHouse Approves Attack on Workers' Rights, Senate Can Step UpDespite strong Democratic opposition, the House of Representatives voted 248-169 to approve a blatant attack on workers' rights as part of the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization bill. Some 157 Democrats voted against the measure.CWA President Larry Cohen said that "the FAA Reauthorization Bill contains a cynical attack on organizing rights that should never have even been considered. It is consistent with lobbying by Delta and the leadership of the right wing majority."The provision provides that a majority of workers has to express interest or support for a union before the representation process can even begin. What is not enshrined in law is that if a majority of workers votes for union representation, those workers get their union."This is reprehensible in this or any democracy. Fair minded Senators should reject this bill and return it to the conference. This is not a clerical error; it is a deliberate attack on workplace rights. We are waiting for Senators to stand up for democracy at work!" Cohen said.CWA activists from the Leg-Pol conference took that message to Capitol Hill this week.CWA, AFA-CWA and 17 other unions representing nine million workers also joined together to condemn the deal and urge the House and Senate not to gut transportation workers' rights.CWA President Larry Cohen talks about what's at stake here.And watch Rep. George Miller (D-CA) stand up on the House floor against this attack on workers' rights.Activists 'Stand Up, Fight Back' at CWA Leg-Pol ConferenceMore than 700 CWA activists covered Capitol Hill as part of CWA's Legislative-Political conference in Washington. Their message to senators, representatives and staff: we're fighting back to restore democracy and economic justice for working families. CWA activists visited more than 350 congressional offices.CWA President Larry Cohen talks about what's at stake for working families.CWA President Larry Cohen said it will take real resistance, "peaceful nonviolent resistance," to confront the attacks on working families. "They attack us in every way, our jobs, our health care, our pensions. They control our political system. In the past we used resistance to overcome this assault. We need that today. We need a path and we will find it."Click here to watch highlights of the Leg-Pol conference. And get more updates atwww.cwa-union.org.Broken Senate RulesCWA President Larry Cohen said the latest attack on workers' rights — the ongoing effort by the Republican minority to rewrite the Railway Labor Act and make it harder for transportation workers to have a union representation election — was an outrage and the direct result of our broken Senate rules. "Because of those rules, no single advancement in workers' rights was ever discussed on the floor of the Senate, not for a single second," but the Republican minority can take draconian provisions and put them into law, he said.Rep. Jeff Merkley (D-OR).The only advancement in workers' rights we've won was the rule change made by the National Mediation Board last year that finally gave transportation workers the same democratic election process for union elections that is the standard in our country, Cohen said, and now, "this advancement is under attack, as we are, every minute.""We need to stand up and fight back. We will fight back when we go to the Senate, every single minute that we're up there."Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), as a freshman senator, was a key supporter of CWA's campaign to reform the Senate rules, and told activists he will continue to fight to end the filibuster rule and other provisions that block legislation from ever getting to the Senate floor.Economic Justice and Ending the Offshoring of JobsA bi-partisan bill to end the practice of using U.S. taxpayer dollars to support the offshoring of call center jobs was a big focus of activists' lobbying and speakers at the Leg-Pol conference.Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY).Ron Collins, CWA's chief of staff, led a panel on the bill introduced by Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) Local 13100 Vice President Patrice Mears-Swift and a T-Mobile call center worker (who can't be identified because of T-Mobile USA's anti-union intimidation) talked about how their jobs are at risk, as companies like Verizon and others look to send good jobs overseas.Mears-Swift, who works at a Verizon residential customer service center, said Verizon was one of the biggest opponents of the call center bill. "We need to keep good jobs here in the U.S., to protect taxpayers and communities from being taken advantage of by companies that promise everything when they hope to get tax breaks, but move jobs overseas all too quickly. A $100 billion company like Verizon shouldn't be using its profits to send jobs overseas."Collins, who joined a media teleconference with Reps. Bishop and Dave McKinley (R-WVA.), told reporters that CWA activists were heading to Capitol Hill to tell members of Congress that U.S. workers need the U.S. Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act.Bishop, whose parents both were CWA members, told the Leg-Pol activists that more cosponsors were signing on to the bill every day, with 27 now on board.The bill makes companies that move call center jobs overseas ineligible for federal grants or guaranteed loans; requires overseas workers to disclose their physical location at the start of a call, and enables consumers to request that their call be transferred to a representative within the U.S.Getting Corporate Money out of PoliticsRep. Keith Ellison (D-MN).Leg-Pol activists heard from several speakers who outlined exactly how workers can regain their voice in politics, by getting corporate money out of politics and reversing the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision of two years ago that opened the door to this democracy-destroying effort.Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) said we need to build the national will to get rid of Citizens United. "Democracy is not for sale. We need a constitutional amendment that states the obvious: corporations are not people."Bob Edgar, president and CEO of Common Cause, said the Citizens United decision is enabling corporations and the wealthy to hijack our government and take away the voice of ordinary Americans. CWA and Common Cause are working together, to restore democracy to the people.Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT.) agreed that "unity is the issue and fight back is the slogan. At the end of the day, there are more of us than them. We can roll over these guys because they have nothing to say about what's important to working families. But we must have a constitutional amendment to make it clear that corporations are not people."Voter SuppressionNAACP President Ben Jealous.Below: Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS).Efforts are underway in 38 states to deprive citizens of the rights to vote. This has nothing to do with voter fraud and everything to do with keeping people from voting.Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP, said the "flip side of buying elections is suppressing the vote." As much as Republicans tried to find big examples of voter fraud, they just couldn't, he said, coming up with maybe 25 cases per year over 50 years. "Our ability to defend our rights is leveraged on our ability to vote and turn out big numbers at the ballot box. The other side gets that, and that's why they're fighting hard to keep people from voting."Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said the voting requirements that states are adopting "are intended to discourage people from showing up to vote. I don't have to show a photo id to pay my taxes. We need to set public policy so that it makes sense and that we don't unfairly target people."CWA Secretary-Treasurer Annie Hill.A panel with CWA Secretary-Treasurer Annie Hill, D4 Vice President Seth Rosen and D6 Vice President Claude Cummings, looked at how CWA activists in Ohio, Wisconsin and Texas are fighting back against voter suppression.Biden: 'We're Going to Make the State of the Unions Stronger'Vice President Joe Biden.Forty years ago, CWA was the first union to endorse 29-year-old Joe Biden in his campaign to become a U.S. senator from Delaware. At CWA's Leg-Pol conference, Vice President Joe Biden thanked a new generation of CWAers after CWA endorsed the re-election of President Barack Obama and the Vice President.Read more on the endorsement here."Last week, President Obama talked to you about making the state of the union stronger," Biden said. "I want to talk to you about how we're going to make the state of the unions stronger."Watch Biden's speech here.Pelosi: 'We Owe It to Our Founders' to Keep the American Dream AliveHouse Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.Paying tribute to CWA's historic role in making the American Dream possible, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi praised CWA members for working hard today to restore the path to the middle class, just as CWA founders some 70 years ago got together to work for better wages, working conditions and benefits."That is a value, that is a tradition, that is a vision," she told CWA Leg-Pol activists, and the Democratic Party stands with the labor movement in its commitment to "reigniting the American Dream. Pelosi was greeted with cheers of "best speaker ever" and "you'll be back."Elections matter, she said. "We owe it to our founders, to keep going for our democracy."Watch Pelosi's remarks here.Moving Working Families' Issues ForwardRep. Joe Baca (D-CA).Rep. Joe Baca, (D-CA), said building relationships with members of Congress was critical to getting lawmakers' attention and support on the issues that matter to working families. "We want our families to have the same opportunities that others have, that we can pay our mortgage and send our kids to college."Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) outlined his six point plan to get the economy moving again. It includes investing in infrastructure and manufacturing, from smart grids and broadband access to a national manufacturing strategy. Another key point is the financial transaction tax that will fund programs that working families need.Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD) said when progressives join together with unions, community organizations and like minded people, "you can't break that." And that will be critical in the 2012 elections. "The real prize in 2012 will be protecting our workforce, our environment, social security and retirement benefits. On those issues, the lines are drawn for us."CWA members are ready to "stand up, fight back."AFL-CIO's Rich Trumka told CWA activists that "workers are turning the tide against attacks on their organizing and collective bargaining rights by 'turning outrage into mobilization and action.'"He called CWA's organizing and political action campaigns "models" for the labor movement. "No politician or political party will give us the power, because our power comes from us."Click here for more highlights from the Leg-Pol conference.CWA Officers Meet for First Presidents' MeetingFollowing the CWA Legislative-Political Conference, the first biennial presidents' meeting was held to deal with appeals. It was well attended by CWA local leaders.US Airways Flight Attendants Reach Tentative AgreementAFA-CWA reached a tentative agreement with US Airways this week on a single, combined contract to unite the 6,700 Flight Attendants at the airline from US Airways and the pre-merger America West. The airlines merged in 2005, and union negotiators fought hard to reach a fair agreement in the bargaining, which eventually went to federal mediation.The AFA-CWA presidents of each pre-merger airline, Mike Flores, representing pre-merger US Airways Flight Attendants and Deborah Volpe, representing pre-merger America West Flight Attendants, issued the following joint statement."This is about moving forward. These negotiations have been arduous, frustrating and far too long," they stated, noting "the process began in the midst of an industry restructuring and on the cusp of this new consolidation era. Until we gained the right to federal mediation with oversight by the National Mediation Board, management did not take our members seriously. Now, they do. We have been focused on reaching an agreement that recognizes the contributions of Flight Attendants to the success of the airline and getting that agreement in the hands of members for their consideration. And now, we will."After a full review, the tentative agreement will be presented to members in a ratification vote.American Airlines Agent Ad-Hoc Committee Gets Its Day in CourtAn ad hoc committee of passenger service agents organizing for a CWA voice at American Airlines convinced a U.S. bankruptcy judge to block a huge multimillion dollar payoff by parent company AMR Corp. to financial firms working on the airline's bankruptcy reorganization.AMR proposed the multimillion dollars payments to financial advisers despite moving to cut airline workers' jobs and benefits.Last week the bankruptcy judge blocked the company from entering into agreements to make large multimillion-dollar payments to other advisors until a hearing at the end of February.Despite having $4 billion on hand, AMR has paid just $6.5 million of the $100 million it owes to workers' pension plan.One leader of the agents' organizing campaign said that the fact that the agents' Ad Hoc Committee was recognized by the bankruptcy court is gratifying. "This counters the company's claim that our Ad Hoc committee would be powerless," said American Airlines agent Regina Reed. "Organizing together gives us strength."You have received this message through your subscription to a Communications Workers of America e-mail list.  If you did not subscribe or would like to unsubscribe click here.Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO, CLC. All Rights Reserved.
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 Leadership Schools · Workshops · Research Reports · Publications   Black Unemployment Rate Was 13.6% in January 2012, a decline from 15.8% in December 2011. Data Brief: Black Employment and Unemployment in January 2012February 3, 2012, by Steven Pitts » Data Brief  The unemployment rate for Blacks was 13.6 percent last month.* This is according to the latest report on the nation’s employment situation released Friday morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its monthly Employment Situation report. This rate was a sharp decrease from December, when unemployment in the Black community stood at 15.8 percent. For the nation as a whole, unemployment was 8.3 percent in January; this was a decline from December when the national unemployment rate stood at 8.5 percent.  Unemployment among whites was 7.4 percent; among Latinos, 10.5 percent. Comparable December 2011 figures were 7.5 percent and 11.0 percent respectively. Overall, total non-farm payroll employment increased by 243,000 jobs from last month. *Last month’s decline was highly unusual. Part of this steep drop results from new statistical weighting by the BLS. Even adjusting for this change, the large reduction is hard to explain.   Recently Released: Annual Report: Black Employment and Unemployment in 2011 » Annual report                 » Press release                    
This year-in-review summary of the Monthly Black Worker Report shows differences in male and female employment among racial groups. In 2011, Black female unemployment rates rose, while Black male unemployment rates fell. This differs from the situation of white workers, where the unemployment rates for both men and women fell. The Annual Report also outlines changes since the “end” of the Great Recession in June 2009: Black female unemployment rates have risen and Black male unemployment rates have fallen only slightly. In contrast, unemployment rates for both white men and white women fell over the same time period. Check out recent coverage of the Annual Report on BET.com and KGO Radio.                                                                                                                If you were forwarded this e-mail and wish to subscribe, please click here To find out more about the Labor Center Black Worker Project, please visit http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/blackworkers/   Stay connected to the Labor Center      DonateJoin our mailing listFollow usBecome a fan   Center for Labor Research and Education, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, University of California, Berkeley 2521 Channing Way # 5555 · Berkeley, CA 94720-5555 · TEL (510) 642-0323 · FAX (510) 642-6432 If you do not wish to receive occasional emails from the UC Berkeley Labor Center, please reply to clre_unsubscribe at berkeley.edu and place UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.  @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

ALEC Education "Academy" Launches on Island ResortDustin Beilke, PR Watch: "Imagine getting a report card from your teacher and finding out that you were graded not on how well you understood the course material or scored on the tests and assignments, but rather on to what extent you agreed with your teacher's strange public policy positions. That is the best way to understand the American Legislative Exchange Council's 17th Report Card on American Education released last week." Read the Article 

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Walmart Whistleblowers Stand Up to RetaliationYana Kunichoff, Truthout: "Unseen but ever present, behind the well-stocked shelves of Walmarts around the country are warehouse workers. This labor force is primarily employed by contracting firms that underpay workers and fire them summarily, according to advocates, but a group of 60 former employees at a Walmart warehouse in the Chicago suburbs are holding these contractors accountable for what they say are numerous labor violations." Read the Article 

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Strong Job Growth Leads to Drop in Black/Hispanic UnemploymentDean Baker, The Center for Economic and Policy Research: "The January report is undoubtedly one of the best reports that we have seen since the recession began. Clearly weather played some role in making the report better than otherwise would be the case, most obviously in the construction data, but good weather probably led to somewhat better numbers for manufacturing and restaurants as well. However, even with some reversal of this effect in future months, it is likely that we are on a somewhat stronger job growth path, perhaps as high as 200,000 a month." Read the Article 

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Paul Krugman | Clearing Up the Confusion Over "Made in China"Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: "On his blog, 'The Big Picture,' the author and commentator Barry Ritholtz sends us to a Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco paper from last summer that makes a point about which many people seem confused: Despite globalization and all that, the bulk of a consumer dollar spent in America falls on American-produced goods and services." Read the Article 

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Once a Food Chain, Now a Corporate Supply ChainKanya D'Almeida, Inter Press Service: "While Indian retailers are losing sleep over the possible entrance of multinationals like Walmart into the dense South Asian consumer market, very little thought has been given to the Indian small farmer, who stands to lose even more at the hands of the world's biggest commercial food retailer." Read the Article

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High-Tech US Corporations Deny Skilled American Workers Jobs Through Abuse of Visa Loophole
Read the Article at BuzzFlash

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How Will Mitt Romney Spin These Jobs Numbers?By Andy Kroll | Mother Jones Online
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Outrage: S.E.C. Lets Firms That Wrecked the Economy Get Away With FraudBy Steven D. | Booman Tribune
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