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Join Labor in the Pulpits over Labor Day Weekend |
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Labor Day is less than a month away and America’s workers find themselves mired in the worst economic crisis since the 1930s Depression. Some 26 million U.S. workers are without jobs or full-time work. Even if you are working, it’s hard to make ends meet. In the richest country in the world, more than
Each Labor Day weekend, Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) and the AFL-CIO sponsor the Labor in the Pulpits/on the Bimah/in the Minbar program, which highlights the shared goals of the faith community and the union movement for a new vision for justice in our communities. (If you need materials for a Labor Day service or want to add your congregation to the list of participants in Labor in the Pulpits, click here or email Cynthia Brooke at cbrooke@iwj.org.)
ILWU Files Labor Rights Complaint Against Costa Rica |
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Jennifer Sargent, communications director of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s (ILWU) Coast Longshore Division, reports on the union’s complaint against Costa Rica under the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA).
The ILWU hopes a recent announcement that the U.S. Department of Labor is responding to a trade complaint against Guatemala for labor violations bodes well for its own recent filing of a complaint against Costa Rica.
On July 20, the ILWU Coast Longshore Division charged Costa Rica with “serious and repeated failures by the government of Costa Rica to effectively enforce its own labor laws” in an 18-page complaint with the Department of Labor’s Office of labor and Trade Affairs (OTLA). Less than a week after the ILWU’s filing, the Department of Labor took steps to initiate its first ever case under DR-CAFTA against a trade partner for labor rights violations by responding to a petition the AFL-CIO filed against Guatemala in 2008 DR-CAFTA.
“We hope that the announcement that the United States government wants Guatemala to take specific and effective action to curb labor rights violations is just the first of many steps that the Obama administration will take to pursue the failure to enforce labor laws among trade partners,” said ILWU President Robert McEllrath.
The AFL-CIO’s petition to the Department of Labor sat for more than two years without action. The ILWU’s petition against Costa Rica should be dealt with swiftly and decisively, in order to protect workers from further abuse, and to stop the systematic elimination of the labor organizations that protect them.
The ILWU’s recent complaint was filed in conjunction with two Costa Rican unions: the Sindicato de Trabajadores de JAPDEVA (SINTRAJAP) and Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos y Privados (ANEP).
You can download a copy of ILWU’s complaint here.
Among other violations, the Costa Rican unions’ complaint charges
The conduct of the Costa Rican government includes a government-run media campaign to discredit the union, removal of the democratically elected leadership of the union and imposition of a government-backed employer-run board of union directors, freezing of the union’s bank accounts, militarization of the ports in the run up to a complete takeover of the union, directing the police to raid and occupy the union’s business office, and entering into an unconstitutional multi-million dollar deal with the government-backed employer-run board of union directors to entice workers to leave the union and accept privatization of the ports.
The ILWU’s Coast Longshore Division has been assisting the SINTRAJAP longshore union since shortly after the government replaced the democratically elected leadership of SINTRAJAP in the middle of a two-year term and replaced it with a government-backed group in February. The Coast Longshore Division has placed full-page advertisements in Costa Rican newspapers to inform Costa Ricans of the government’s abuses,. It also sent a delegation to interview workers, meet with public officials, and document the abuses.
American longshoremen work for many of the same major shipping carriers and stevedoring companies as the ones operating in Costa Rica.
Dockworkers at Costa Rica’s Pacific port of Caldera were subjected to a similar privatization scheme in 2006 and are suffering mightily for it,” said McEllrath.
Ninety percent of longshore workers lost their jobs, those remaining saw their pay cut by two-thirds, and precarious working conditions have led to 46 waterfront deaths. Costa Rica must be held accountable for its ongoing and deliberate abuse against workers and their union rights.
Republican Leaders Boehner, Cantor Trash Workers |
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House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner has a few choice words for all the teachers, cops, fire fighters, and other workers who will be able to stay on the job because the U.S. Senate this week was able to break the Republican filibuster on the jobs bill.
He is calling these hard-working women and men: special interests. No different, apparently, from the special interests at the Wall Street banks, job-exporting corporations and big insurance companies Boehner and Republicans love to pal around with.
And as for autoworkers, House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) has some choice words for you too. More on that below.
Boehner says the jobs bill (the House is expected to pass it next week), which provides $26 billion in funding to bolster state budgets, including $10 billion to prevent massive teacher layoffs, is a “payoff” to unions and special interests. Read the rest of this entry »
Executive Council Focuses on Jobs, Election, Workers’ Rights |
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In the midst of the worst jobs crisis since the Depression, the AFL-CIO Executive Council laid out a road map for how the Obama administration and Congress can fundamentally revamp the nation’s economy so that it puts workers first. President Barack Obama, who addressed the Council on Aug. 4, seemed to get it when he said that making things in America is at the heart of the economic recovery. The Council also laid out plans for the critical fall elections.
In a series of statements, Council members reaffirmed the need for immediate adoption of the AFL-CIO’s five point plan to create new jobs and warned that reducing the deficit must come after we create more revenue-producing jobs. You can check out all the new Executive Council statements here.
AFSCME: Whitman’s $100 Million Finances ‘Outright Lie’ |
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Meg Whitman, probably the deepest-pocketed candidate on any ballot in recent memory, has poured more than $100 million, according to recent campaign finance reports, into her quest to buy California’s governorship and impose her Wall Street agenda on the Golden State.
A new television ad from AFSCME says the billionaire former eBay CEO and Goldman Sachs board member, “is spending her riches on a”
dishonest ad campaign the media has exposed as shameful and an outright lie. Meg Whitman—she won’t let the truth stop her, but you sure can. Read the rest of this entry »
July Jobs Numbers: Still a Crisis |
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Another 131,000 jobs were lost in July, and the U.S. unemployment rate remained at 9.5 percent, as in June. The new data out this morning from the Department of Labor reflects a lack of private-sector hiring and large numbers of jobless workers returning to the market. Private-sector hiring increased by 71,000 but was offset by the 143,000 decrease in temporary federal Census employees who completed their work. The unemployment rate was unchanged only because another 181,000 workers left the labor force.
The number of people who are underemployed, which includes those who are too discouraged to look for work or are working part time out of economic necessity, is 16.5 percent. Some 26 million U.S. workers are without jobs or full-time work.
Manufacturing employment increased by 36,000, health care by 27,000 jobs and mining by 7,000. Construction employment decreased by 11,000, with 10,000 out due to strikes. People of color continue to suffer disproportionately, with 15.6 percent of black workers unemployed and 12.1 percent of Latino workers jobless.
Now Is Time to Pass DREAM Act |
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In the highly competitive global economy, it doesn’t make sense to throw away the talents of our nation’s brightest and best high school graduates. But that’s exactly what we do every day by denying nearly 65,000 undocumented high school graduates a path to decent jobs and shutting the doors of higher education and the military to them.
The AFL-CIO Executive Council at its August meeting pointed out that these children—who were brought to this country by their parents—have grown up in the United States, attended local schools, and have demonstrated a sustained commitment to succeed in the educational system,. But immigration laws provide no avenue for these students to become legal residents.
Rather than being allowed to continue to excel in college as they have in high school, the Council statement said
These promising children will be forced into a job where they will have to either lie about their status, or work off the books. Neither outcome is just, nor is it good for our society.
The Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, would remedy this situation by allowing undocumented students who have lived in the United States for at least five years and have graduated from high school or received a graduate equivalency diploma (GED) to legalize their immigration status by pursuing a college education or serving in the U.S. military.
Report Shows Social Security Is Strong for the Long Term |
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Despite the nation’s overall economic problems, Social Security is still in long-term strong shape, according to the most recent report by the Social Security Board of Trustees. The trustees project that after 2037, tax revenue will be sufficient to pay 78 percent of full benefits. The projected funding shortfall over 75 years is actually lower than in last year’s report.
Also, a report by Medicare’s Board of Trustees shows that the recently enacted health care reform law will significantly slow Medicare cost growth, thereby extending the life of Medicare’s trust fund for 12 years, reducing Part B premiums and reducing the federal deficit.
Social Security’s $2.5 trillion trust fund will continue to grow for another 14 years and Social Security will pay out full benefits from its own dedicated resources for another 27 years, according to the report.
Says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka:
The reports are a needed comeuppance to right-wing, ideological opponents of Social Security and Medicare who, year after year, twist the facts Read the rest of this entry »
One Nation Formed to Bring Back the American Dream |
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Working people are frustrated and angered by the inability of lawmakers to stop the massive loss of jobs and decline in living standards, while Republicans—and some Democrats—freely hand over the economy to corporations that are growing richer and more powerful each day.
To help renew the American Dream for everyone, some 170 progressive groups, including the AFL-CIO, NAACP, National Council of La Raza and many affiliated unions, have come together in One Nation.
One Nation is a multi-racial, civil and human rights movement whose mission is to reorder our nation’s priorities to invest in our nation’s most valuable resource—our people. One Nation is holding an Oct. 2 rally at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. with tens of thousands of activists taking part. They will then return to their neighborhoods, congregations, schools and, especially, voting booths, fired up with new energy to take back the country.
On the same day, the union movement will walk door-to-door in targeted states around the country, mobilizing union members exactly one month before the fall elections.
Senate Sends State Aid, Teachers’ Jobs Bill to House |
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By a 61-39 vote today, the U.S. Senate put its finishing touches on an aid to state and local governments bill that would save or create nearly a million jobs for teachers, public employees, police officers, firefighters and others. The measure is fully paid for, in part because it closes tax loopholes for multi-national corporations that send U.S. jobs overseas.
The bill provides $16 billion for a Medicaid funding assistance program known as FMAP and $10 billion for teachers’ jobs. Without such funding, the states facing huge budget shortfalls will be forced to begin massive layoffs that could cost nearly a million workers their jobs.
Now it is up to the House to take the final vote before sending the bill to the White House for President Obama’s signature. Click here to tell your representative to vote for the bill and support Medicaid and teacher funding to save jobs. Read the rest of this entry »
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