California's Solis to Head Labor Department

Barack Obama announced U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis as his choice for Labor Secretary. Solis is a five term Congresswoman from California and has a strong labor record and is a proponent of green jobs. Solis has one of the strongest pro-worker voting records in Congress and is a sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Her legislative accomplishments include spearheading a bill to provide workforce training for “green-collar” employment. Such initiatives are a hallmark of Obama’s plan to address the country’s energy needs and create new jobs. Solis, in 1994, was the first Latina elected to the California Senate, where she led the battle to increase the state's minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.75 an hour in 1996.

Maybe she'll help tackle a national living wage.

Not To Belabor Labor Day, But...

Here we are on the first Monday in September and it is Labor Day, which, according to the Department of Labor web site, "is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country."

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.
In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.

The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From them developed the movement to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.

The History Channel says this:

As the Industrial Revolution took hold of the nation, the average American in the late 1800s worked 12-hour days, seven days a week in order to make a basic living. Children were also working, as they provided cheap labor to employers and laws against child labor were not strongly enforced.

With the long hours and terrible working conditions, American unions became more prominent and voiced their demands for a better way of life. On Tuesday September 5, 1882, 10,000 workers marched from city hall to Union Square in New York City, holding the first-ever Labor Day parade. Participants took an upaid day-off to honor the workers of America, as well as vocalize issues they had with employers. As years passed, more states began to hold these parades, but Congress would not legalize the holiday until 12 years later.

On May 11, 1894, workers of the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago struck to protest wage cuts and the firing of union representatives. They sought support from their union led by Eugene V. Debs and on June 26 the American Railroad Union called a boycott of all Pullman railway cars. Within days, 50,000 rail workers complied and railroad traffic out of Chicago came to a halt. On July 4, President Grover Cleveland dispatched troops to Chicago. Much rioting and bloodshed ensued, but the government's actions broke the strike and the boycott soon collapsed. Debs and three other union officials were jailed for disobeying the injunction. The strike brought worker's rights to the public eye and Congress declared, in 1894, that the first Monday in September would be the holiday for workers, known as Labor Day.

In the 1886 there was an estimated 1 million trade union members (1886 was also the year that Congress voted to legally approve trade unions and Corporations received some of the rights or status of "individuals").

According to Truthout, "For the first time in the past quarter of a century, in 2007 US unions increased their share of membership among workers, according to the annual union membership report released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unions added about 310,000 members last year, raising the unionized share of the workforce to 12.1 percent from 12 percent in 2006.

The increase is small, and may well reflect statistical variation rather than an actual increase in the union membership share, but the uptick is striking because it is the first time the union share has increased since the bureau began collecting annual union membership rates in 1983.

The small national rise reflected a large increase in union membership in California, partially offset by substantial declines in the Midwest."

It is estimated that there are 2.4 union members in California alone and that total union membership sits at 12.1 percent of the U.S. work force (the AFL-CIO has a reported 10.5 million members and the fast growing SEIU has about 2 million members). The BLS puts total union membership at 15.7 million workers.

Interestingly, as the economy is tanking, interest in unions is increasing and unions are pushing hard to have Congress pass the Employee Free Choice Act which "would force employers to recognize the union as the workers' bargaining agent if 50 percent sign the authorization cards -- streamlining the process from six weeks to what could be a matter of days and doing away with the ballots. For decades, the process of a work force becoming unionized has been based on a secret-ballot election. First, workers with interest in a union sign authorization cards. If 30 percent sign, the National Labor Relations Board schedules an election that the government agency supervises. A majority vote allows in a union."


The Kansas City Star reports:

Opponents of the bill are focusing on the provision of replacing secret elections with card signing, calling it anti-democratic.

“Most people sign those (election authorization) cards just to get the union toughs off their back,” said Greg Mourad, director of legislation for the National Right to Work Committee. “In the current process, the unions get to have their say, and the companies get to have their say. Then the workers decided in the privacy of a secret-ballot election process. Whether or not the current process works, card check is not the solution to the perceived problem.”

Judy Ancel, director of the Institute for Labor Studies at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, said the bill would help level the playing field.

“Given the reign of terror employers are allowed to exercise during what’s commonly called the union-election process, the Employee Free Choice Act would help restore democracy to the workplace,” Ancel said.

Unions Go On Strike Until After the Primaries

Candidates looking for the union label from either the SEIU or AFL-CIO, will be bugging out as the unions announced they will not endorse any candidate until after the primaries. The 1.8 million member SEIU, which has been courted heavily by the Clinton, Edwards, and Obama camps, may be reluctant to endorse because of the implosion by Howard Dean in 2004. More from TPM.

Edwards: Will He or Won't He Walk the Line?

In August, before the Daily Kos convention, John Edwards walked the line with striking hotel workers in Chicago. With 73,000 of the UAW striking against General Motors, the question is, will Edwards join them too?

Earlier this month in Des Moines Edwards is quoted as having said, ``I want to be the president who walks down the White House lawn and says the word union, who walks down the White House lawn and makes certain that America understands the importance of the organized labor movement in the history of America.'' Edwards also said he has shown his support for labor and ``over 200 times over the past few years I have walked picket lines, worked personally in organizing campaigns, worked with employers to get them to open the process of union organizing in their personal business.''

Mr. Edwards, the UAW is calling.

UPDATE 9/24: Today, Senator John Edwards released the following statement in support of the striking UAW workers:

"I offer my strong support to the striking auto workers and look forward to a fair and speedy settlement that will improve the lives of these hard-working UAW members. And I call on General Motors to do what is right and realize that it has a responsibility to negotiate fairly and move quickly to settle a contract that respects the health, safety and economic security of the auto workers and their families. I also salute the courage of the auto workers to go on strike. Their fight for fair wages, safe workplaces, affordable health care and a secure retirement helps raise standards for workers all across America.

"Sadly, the issues on the bargaining table between General Motors and the United Auto Workers are not unique to Detroit - they represent the larger failures of Washington and public policies that have weakened unions and the middle class. The truth is now, more than ever, it's time for America to go in a new direction and start doing much more to strengthen America's unions and protect the rights of working Americans."

9/26 UPDATE: Elizabeth Edwards Walks UAW Picket Line.

9/26 UPDATE: STRIKE OVER - The United Auto Workers and General Motors Corp. tentatively agreed Wednesday to a contract that ends a two-day strike — the first nationwide walkout against the automaker in 37 years — and puts responsibility for retirees' health care into the union's hands.

Union members were told to begin reporting to work Wednesday. UAW officials said they hoped to begin talks with Ford and Chrysler even before GM workers vote on ratifying the pact.

News of the settlement sent GM shares more than 4 percent higher in morning trading Wednesday as Wall Street interpreted the deal as a win for the automaker.

GM and the UAW confirmed that the deal creates a GM-funded, UAW-run trust to administer retiree health care. The two sides gave no other details, but two people briefed on the contract told The Associated Press that it also would give workers bonuses and lump-sum payments and would pay some newly hired workers at lower rates.

The people requested anonymity because the details of the contract haven't been released publicly, including whatever concessions GM may have made over job security, which was the reason the UAW gave for walking off the job.

The union said the agreement with the nation's largest automaker was reached shortly after 3 a.m. The UAW canceled the strike about an hour later.

Edwards Gets Served...It's TWU

The Transport Workers Union of America (TWU), “the union that moves America,” announced today that it is endorsing Sen. John Edwards for President of the United States and the union will now work to move its members in New York and across the nation to support the Edwards candidacy.

In making the announcement, TWU President James C. Little said, “Some candidates seem to be figuring out how to best triangulate on campaign issues. John Edwards takes on subjects such as job security, health care, retirement and the growing gap in wealth between the rich and the middle class in a straight forward way that the country and working families desperately need.”

In his remarks to TWU members from around the country and others gathered at the union’s national headquarters in New York, Little noted that numerous polls show Edwards to be the most electable Democrat in the general election. The TWU president also said, "The next election must provide America with a President who will reverse the failure of leadership of the past seven years. We feel that Sen. Edwards best amplifies the issues that most concern our members,including issues of security against terrorism on our nation's transportation systems, as well as safety for workers and passengers on our nation's highways, railroads, mass transportation networks and airlines."

The Edwards endorsement followed an extensive discussion among TWU activists and officers. One of the most politically active unions, TWU has in recent years placed more volunteers in the field on a per-capita basis than any other AFL-CIO union. The union’s membership is especially strong in the early primary and caucus states of Nevada, Oklahoma and Florida.

Transport Workers Union of America (TWU) represents 200,000 workers and retirees, primarily in commercial aviation, public transportation, passenger railroads, and public utilities. Among TWU’s members are employees of Amtrak, the MTA in New York City, SEPTA in Philadelphia, ground workers at American Airlines and ground workers and flight attendants at Southwest Airlines. The union is an affiliate of the AFL-CIO. More information is available at www.twu.org.

Happy Labor Day

Most of us are too young to remember the golden age of labor unions. But most of us are living in the relative affluence that we do because of the labor movement. However, it has been far from sunny for the unions since the early 1980's when they were at the apex of their influence. Union membership stood at 12% in 2006, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics - down from 12.5% a year earlier. The rate has declined steadily from 20.1% in 1983, the first year for which comparable data is available, the BLS said. And when it comes to union membership, workers in the public sector outnumber private-sector employees five-to-one.

The labor movement in the US is working hard to remain relevant in the US. Protecting jobs is second only to development of new union memberships. With the poor record of the Bush Administration (actually any Republican administration) where union workers are concerned, it is no wonder that they are camping with Democrat frontrunners John Edwards and Hillary Clinton, as well as long-time union supporter Chris Dodd.

Unions are in need of a shot in the arm, especially in so-called "right to work states." Even with the recent raise in the minimum wage (factoid: 2.1% of union members earn the minimum wage v. 12% in the general work population) , the average union worker earns 21 to 32% more than the average non-union worker. This translates as a starting wage to be between $8.87 to $9.68 as compared the average minimum wage earner will earn in January of 2009 nationally.

The strategy for manufacturers has been to outsource manufacturing to countries with weak labor laws. For the skilled service sector, outsourcing has occurred as well. According to Common Dreams, "The number of U.S. high-tech and service jobs that have been moved overseas so far is relatively small, but ... the pace is quickening. Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research estimates about 830,000 such positions will be relocated to India, Russia and other low-wage nations by the end of 2005, and that 3.4 million jobs representing $136 billion in U.S. wages will be lost by 2015."

The bright side has been that unions are spreading to so-called white collar jobs in the aerospace industry, universities, and retailing. In addition, they continue to grow in the government sector.

While union gorwth has actually declined, it is important to remember that labor gained strength when poor labor practices were in place and when unemployment increased. With the current practices of corporations, these two factors are likely to revisit us.

Happy Labor Day union workers, its good you are here!

Edwards Looking for Union Label To Help Campaign

The Press-Citizen reports:

Labor unions will play a key part in expanding the American middle class, Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said Saturday.

“If we want to strengthen and grow the middle class, … the organized labor component is critical for that,” said Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina.

The comments, part of a 15-minute address before about 75 state union leaders, came at the Iowa Change to Win conference Saturday at Northwest Junior High. The conference was a meeting for a consortium of seven labor unions.

Edwards, who later spoke at a town hall meeting at the Johnson County Fairgrounds and appeared without wife Elizabeth Edwards, said labor unions provided workers a voice in the workplace. He advocated for the banning of the hiring of permanent replacements for striking workers and said workers should be able to unionize without opposition from businesses.

“If anybody can join the Republican Party by signing a card, I think anybody should be able to join a labor union in the same way,” he said to applause.

He also pushed for his universal health care plan, which he said would be paid for by revoking tax cuts President Bush pushed through in 2002. He said health care coverage was needed for workers to get the pay and benefits they seek in negotiations. More from the Press-Citizen