As the next Congressional fight over payroll tax extensions and unemployment benefits and pipelines gets set up in the next few weeks for either its final chapter or to be kicked down the road a bit farther, one or the other, you're going to hear a lot from our Republican friends about how much they value work and workers; most especially, they'll tell you, they value American jobs for American workers.
After all, they'll say, creating American jobs is the most important thing of all.
But if we were to look back over just the last few months, some would tell us, we could quickly find examples of how Republicans promote ideas that don't seem to value work or workers at all, much less American jobs.
Well as it turns out, "some" seem to be right; to illustrate one of those examples we'll look back a month or two or three to a time some Republicans might wish was long, long, ago, in a galaxy far, far away.
After doing a bit of mountain hiking a few days back, I had a chance to get involved in a great afternoon conversation with the Alliance for American Manufacturing's Mike Wessel, who also serves as a Commissioner with the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission; the conversation was about how we're doing when it comes to our relationship with China.
As it turns out, the two events went well together, because what I'm hearing from these guys is that we have a great big ol' mountain to climb if we hope to get back to a level playing field in our interactions with this most important country.
There's news to report across a variety of issues; that's why today we'll be talking about trade, human rights, cybersecurity, poverty and development, and the methods by which you can apply "soft power" to achieve hard results.
The entirely unanticipated result: all of this will reveal the naïveté of Ron Paul when it comes to foreign policy; we'll discuss that at the end.
When last we met, it was to discuss a Big Idea that the Obama Administration might apply to get some job creation going, despite a difficult Congress; the Big Idea was to look at the "Buy American" provisions that exist in our laws, regulations, and Executive Orders and see if we could practice a bit of "jobs arbitrage" by not just meeting the "Made in USA" requirements when governments across this country make purchases, but exceeding them.
(As it stands today, pretty much any "good or service" with more than 50% Made in USA content qualifies as a Made in USA purchase, even if 49% of the "good or service" comes from somewhere else).
At the time, I told you that if all went well we could look forward to comments from both Labor and the Administration as to the practicality of the Big Idea, and as it turns out I have comments for you that hit close to that mark - and a bit more besides:
On Saturday I just happened to bump into Congressman Adam Smith (WA-09); in the course of that conversation I told him what we're doing here, and he wanted to offer a few thoughts of his own...and when you put all that together, I think we're going to have a lot to talk about.
We gotta grow some jobs, and that's a fact, and we probably aren't going to be able to do it with big ol' jobs programs funded by the Federal Government, what with today's politics and all, and that means if this Administration wants to stay in the jobs game they're going to have to find some smaller and more creative ways to do it.
They are also going to have to come up with ideas that are pretty much "bulletproof", meaning that they are so hard to object to that even Allen West and Louie Gohmert will not want to be on record saying "no no no!"; alternatively, solutions that work around the legislative process entirely could represent the other form of "bulletproof-ery".
Well, I have one of those "maybe bulletproof" ideas for you today, and it has to do with how "Made in USA" the things are that our Government buys.
How would you feel if your employer decided one day to dramatically increase your healthcare costs? How would you feel if the company did this even while it was making hundreds of millions of dollars in profits?
That's the situation for 15,000 unionized Stop & Shop employees across Connecticut. Their contract has expired, and Stop & Shop is playing hardball, citing the recession as a reason to cut health and pension benefits. But the company - part of a multinational conglomerate - is actually doing quite well these days.
Stand with the workers and tell Stop & Shop to treat their employees with the dignity they deserve.
This Labor Day, Wake Up Walmart, along with a large coalition of labor, environmental and community groups, are challenging Walmart to live up to their PR promises and join us in supporting the American Values Agenda for Change at Walmart.
To help with the effort, Wake Up Wal-Mart is airing two TV ads in major cities. Check out the first here and the second below the fold:
There has been a lot of talk this week about the surprising move by Walmart to publically support President Obama’s health care reform plan, supposedly positioning themselves as a
leader in the fight to bring health care to all Americans. As we mentioned in a post on our blog
yesterday, this might be easier to swallow if Walmart had any history of leading by example. Instead, they usually do just the opposite.
Given
Walmart’s long record of trying to build a positive
reputation on ineffective work-arounds to health care coverage
for employee, the recent revelations about sacrificing quality for cheap perescription drugs, and their deceptive PR campaign that severely overstated their workers’ health
care coverage, it’s not hard to understand our skepticism. [get the details in the extended entry]
Another 787,000 Americans joined the ranks of the unemployed last month, and the unemployment rate increased to 9.4%. 14.5 million Americans are unemployed, more than at any time during the Great Depression. Add the 9.1 million underemployed and the 2.2 million "discouraged" workers and there are now an astonishing 25.8 million Americans unemployed or underemployed.
The critical need to re-employ America is not yet being addressed on the scale required to meet this challenge. But there is good news. Major organizing efforts are underway to build both the grassroots movement and the broader coalition that will be needed in the coming battle for jobs and economic recovery.
Thanks to all of the organizations and activists around the state who've been supporting the paid sick days bill. Now the media is finally getting the message: paid sick days protects working families and improves public heath. And it's smart business too.
No employee in Connecticut should fear losing a job for staying home when sick.
And employers should recognize that over the long haul their enterprises are likely to be more productive while in the care of healthy employees.
...
Allowing workers a reasonable cushion for those few times a year they are truly ill is not only the humane thing to do, it makes business sense, too.
The Appropriations Committee will be voting on the paid sick days bill on Monday.
If you haven't yet, please take a moment to send the members of Approps an email asking them to vote yes.
If you would like to see how your legislators voted on some important issues in this year's session you can go to http://www.electionvolunteers.org and click on "Committee Vote Tallies 2009"
At this time the votes included are:
- Judiciary Committee - Abolish the Death Penalty
- Government Administration and Elections Committee - Election Day (Voter)Registration
- Labor and Public Employees Committee - (Prohibiting) Captive Audience Meetings
- Labor and Public Employees Committee - Paid Sick Leave for Employees
- Public Health Committee - Sustinet Health Plan (proposed by the Universal Health Care Foundation)
More vote tallies will be added later. Comments suggesting others would be welcome.
The
Democratic Party often promotes itself as the party of "working
people." The boldness of the Party's accomplishments is
debatable, but by the yardstick of the Connecticut
AFL-CIO's
legislative scorecard, Democrats clearly come out
ahead. In 2007-2008, Dems scored, on average, 94% in the
House
and 84% in the Senate. Republicans, in contrast,
scored 32% in
the House and 40% in the Senate.
Labor either had an modest agenda or two very good years in
the House, because most
Democrats there had 100% records, producing a list too long to
acknowledge. In the Senate, however, only one
Democrat in office for the whole two-year period, Ed Gomes, had a
perfect voting record. (All others voted against an ethics
reform
bill, but most scored high otherwise.)
Every Republican in the
state scored below 60%. The worst of the worst -- those with
scores under 25% -- along with a list of their current Democratic
challengers, are:
Legislators
who were not in office for the entire period or who are not running for
office in 2008 are not included above. Notably, new
Republican
Senators Rob Kane & Rob Russo each scored at 20% in
their
first session.
Craig Miner
and John
Piscopo, the most
right-wing legislator in the state, had the worst labor
records in 2007-08, scoring perfect zeros. They
also have among the worst lifetime records.
Four out of ten working people in Connecticut don't have a single paid sick day available to them all year. Workers who feel compelled to show up work slower and get others sick, increasing costs for employers. Those who can't make it to work lose income. About one in four parents with a child under one does not have any paid sick time. All of the top twenty most competitive economies in the world - except the U.S. - guarantee paid sick days for workers.
In Connecticut, a network of organizations coordinated by Working Families has launched the Everybody Benefits campaign, which backs Senate Bill 217, designed to guarantee that workers in medium to large companies can earn a few days of sick time each year. Last year, the bill passed the Senate, but never got a vote in the House. This week it passed the Judiciary Committee and moves to the Senate.
Connecticut Fire Fighter Chris Tracy came up to Manchester, New Hampshire last Friday to be there for the roll-out of the International Association of Fire Fighters endorsement of Chris Dodd for President. After the event, he talked to a local TV reporter. Here's part of the interview:
Chris Tracy: ...we've had to use all together too often. With the SAFER Act they've provided equipment and funds back in the Nineties, before 2001. With the FIRE Act, rather the FIRE Act then, the SAFER Act later that helped us staff our equipment, and the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the energy, and the protection of the Constitution. Terrific, important issues that Americans understand. Here's the thing, you don't want a rookie to run the fire when you see your house on fire, and we have a seasoned professional here and we want him in the White House.
America's Professional Fire Fighters know that Chris Dodd has the experience and the bold ideas needed to keep America safe and secure while restoring our standing in the world. He's their pick to sit in the Oval Office in 2008 and Tracy does a great job articulating why Dodd's proven record of legislative leadership and success is the best recipe for the Presidency come January, 2009.
Another Labor Day draws to a close. A holiday more remembered as the "Last day of summer" and the start of another school year then for what gives it its name. Labor Day is a time of reflection for the work of American Laborers and more specifically the American Labor Movement. While there are those who will give us an abbreviated version of why we celebrate today, it's important to remember why we are here and why we must remain vigilant towards political AND economic power.
While most of us know the first Monday in September as Labor Day, here and around the world Labor Day is historically May 1st. Also known as May Day. Why the change? Well since I'm currently a history major...a little history lesson.
Last Sunday evening at the end of a long, hot, winding road through the state the Edwards family wrapped up their bus tour of NH. They were greeted by well over a thousand people at a Town Hall event on the banks of the river at lovely Prescott Park in downtown Portsmouth NH.
His remarks were sharp, clear and passionately delivered to an enthusiastic crowd.
He threw down the gauntlet on universal health care in the field and challenged the entire Democratic party on financing campaigns through lobbyist money. He presented the voters in attendance not only with his vision for change in this country, but he gave us a very clear picture of the kind of America that he wants us to create together. The grassroots are not only central to the campaign in this vision, but they need to be central going forward from January 20, 2009.
The full Q and A is now posted also: click here to see all of that tape.
Today's Hartford Courant and New Haven Register share the results of the annual Labor Day report issued by Connecticut Voices for Children, which looks at how well Connecticut's economic growth has been trickling down to wage-earners. Apparently, not very well:
The state's wage earners - low, median and high - earned less in real dollars in 2006 than in 2002, the report said.
Real wages for workers in every category are either flat or have declined, the report said. In real wages, someone who earned $18.36 an hour in 2001 earned $17.75 an hour last year, the report said.
"Health care costs are consuming a larger proportion of total compensation," said Hall, citing one reason for stagnant or declining wages. "There seems to be a disconnect between an economy that's doing well and the wages people are being paid."
The gain in lower-paying service jobs has not quite compensated for the loss of higher-paying manufacturing jobs.
The state continues to keep shedding manufacturing jobs, although the rate of loss is dropping. Those traditionally well-paying jobs are being replaced by lower-paying service jobs. "That is not a positive direction for our state economy and it is not a situation that is going to right itself," he said.
Things were different in the 1980s, when hourly workers saw real wage growth of 14.9 percent; in the 1990s, low wages dropped, but median wages increased slightly and high wages jumped the most.
The articles point out that these conditions are part of a national trend, and Connecticut Voices for Children say that wage-earners would benefit from a change in priorities:
The group is urging the state's policy-makers to strive for more higher-wage jobs, provide more child care and housing subsidies for low-wage families and invest more in education.
In a separate report issued in July, The Connecticut Department of Labor stated that; "we are now just 4,900 jobs short of our all-time high of 1,700,700 reached in July 2000."
The good news is that we're gaining jobs. The bad news is that although we have just about reached the number of jobs we had six years ago, the wages paid for the jobs being produced are not keeping pace with the cost of living.
Chris Dodd's campaign is set this week to announce a quite major labor endorsement: the International Association of Firefighters, according to a source familiar with the plans.
The endorsement comes as something as a surprise. Labor insiders had expected the union, one of labor's big endorsements, to go with one of the front-runners.
But the Connecticut senator is an old ally, and authored what's probably the most important piece of legislation in a decade for the IAFF: The 2000 FIRE Act, which channels federal money to local fire departments.
It's not set in stone yet.
A spokesman for the IAFF said he wasn't familiar with the plans.
Dodd campaign spokesman Hari Sevugan responded only that "We haven't been endorsed by the IAFF."
Just wanted to make sure this got mentioned here, even though it's not a strictly Connecticut issue, although it certainly effects many people here. The employee free choice act, one of the top priorities of labor in this year's congressional session, is dead. This bill would have allowed workers to form a union by card-check. The Senate did not reach cloture to end debate and vote. (51-48. They needed 60 votes to force a vote)
The bill would have given workers the right to insist on a procedure, known as majority sign-up, that allows employees at a workplace to form a union as soon as a majority of them signed cards saying they wanted one. Under current law, an employer facing a unionization drive can insist on a secret-ballot election. The bill fueled a feverish lobbying battle between business and labor. Corporate lobbyists and their Republican allies asserted that the bill would infringe on workers’ rights by denying employees the right to a secret-ballot election. Union officials and their Democratic allies said the bill was needed to help reverse labor’s decline, because employers often defeat unionization drives by intimidating and firing workers during secret-ballot elections.
60 Million Workers would join a union if given the opportunity. But this bill didn't even get the chance to get a presidential veto. And those 60 million workers can continue to get harassed and intimidated, and never have the option to gain a measure of job security, fair wages, decent benefits, and self-determination in the workplace.
A school bus driver is feeling ill and calls her supervisor in the morning complaining of a migraine headache. The manager tells her that the company does not offer paid sick days and she needs to come in to work anyway. Fearing not only the loss of pay but also the possible loss of her job, she starts her route despite her obvious symptoms - symptoms that impair her ability to drive and imperil the lives of children on her bus.
It's a frightening scenario - and even more so because it is entirely plausible.
The Senate passed the SB 601, the Paid Sick Days bil, last week 23-13. Now we've only got to make sure that the House brings it to a vote in the next two days. Make sure your State Rep. knows this bill is important to you.
Last Sunday evening at the end of a long, hot, winding road through the state the Edwards family wrapped up their bus tour of NH. They were greeted by well over a thousand people at a Town Hall event on the banks of the river at lovely Prescott Park in downtown Portsmouth NH.
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