Organized Labor: Part of the solution

Watch this video - particularly toward the 6 minute mark - concerning our Presidents views on working people and Organized Labor.

Please pass it on to some of our own local politicians - who supported President Obama but yet - don't understand the value of Organized Labor and the positive affect they have on the middleclass.

This -my friends - is an TRUE AMERICAN PRESIDENT. A President who truly cares for the people of the United States - INCLUDING the Middle Class people. This has not been the case during the last 8 years.

Barack Obama is a breath of fresh air and a welcome voice to everyone who works for a living AND ALSO TO THOSE THAT PROVIDE THEIR JOBS. He is going to provide stability.

This is the end of the cut throat corporate game plan that uses the backs of the working people as weapons against the competition.

The way for America to become prosporous is for business and labor to truly work together along with our government.
We need to invest in businesses AND good jobs. Organized Labor is part of the solution and we need to come together. This cannot happen if people don't start realizing that, as our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln said, " A house divided against itself cannot stand".

We need to take back America. Make American businesses and workers prosper.
We all make up this country. Business is important but so is Labor. There needs to be a cohesive effort between Business and Labor to band together. Any side that thinks our capitalistic system can survive into the near future without that happening is a fool.

Without businesses cooperation, no one would make enough money to purchase any businesses product. Without labors cooperation, there is no business that can reach its full financial potential.

The good news is that President Obama is ahead of the curve and understands this.

The bad news is that many of our local politicians - suprisingly being mostly Democrats - do not understand this yet.

Speaking specifically of Ulster County, many local politicians seem to believe that they are being nice to business when they are not nice to labor. They don't connect labor to the thousands of taxpaying families. They actually believe that good jobs are a bother, a nusiance.

That needs to change.

Most politicians in Orange and Dutchess DO UNDERSTAND that good jobs ARE IMPORTANT and that Organized Labor IS part of the solution. NOT ALL - BUT MOST.

TO QOUTE OUR 16TH PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN:
If any man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar. If any man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool."

Your comments are welcome.

Obama Overturns Bush Executive Order on Project Labor Agreements

 

aflcio.org

The men and women in the nation’s building and construction trades won a major victory today when President Obama signed an executive order overturning the Bush administration’s ban on project labor agreements (PLAs) on federal and federally funded construction.

The ban was one of the first orders signed by former President George W. Bush when he took office in 2001.

Mark H. Ayers, president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), praised Obama’s action, saying:

The Bush anti-PLA executive order was exactly the type of special interest-driven politics and policy that American voters rejected overwhelmingly last November.

We acknowledge and praise this executive order as being one of the first steps in ushering in a new, more pragmatic and value-conscious approach to governing.

Project labor agreements generally set wages and establish work rules and methods of settling grievances on large multi-contractor construction projects.

For more than 70 years before the Bush order, project labor agreements benefited communities, employers and workers by ensuring fair wages and benefits and on-time completion of projects.

Ayers says project labor agreements provide maximum benefit to construction users; union and non-union workers; union and non-union contractors; lenders and insurance companies; and taxpayers.

Project Labor Agreements are frequently negotiated to address a wide range of local and social needs, including the assurance of hiring of local residents, and outreach programs designed to offer local residents the opportunity for a career in the skilled trades.
Today’s action follows Obama’s three executive orders last week that reversed a trio of Bush-era orders governing the way federal contractors deal with union workers.

The new orders:

Require federal service contractors to offer jobs to current workers when contracts change.

Reverse a Bush order requiring federal contractors to post notice that workers can limit financial support of unions serving as their exclusive bargaining representatives.

Prevent federal contractors from being reimbursed for expenses meant to influence workers deciding whether to form a union and engage in collective bargaining.

Let the pendulum swing.

Rally, Rally, Rally

 

Report from Richard of Unionreview.com

Today I was one of many thousands of workers who rallied on Capitol Hill in support of the Employee Free Choice Act. It was a cold day in DC, but we turned up the heat around this very important piece of legislation.

Leo Gerard, President of the United Steel Workers, was the master of ceremonies. He introduced the crowd to labor leaders in attendance, which included the AFL-CIO's John Sweeney and Andy Stern from SEIU/ Change to Win. Larry Cohen, President of the Communications Workers of Amercia, and one of the union movement's most vocal on the Employee Free Choice Act was there. Richard Trumka, the Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO and other labor leaders from all the unions were all there as well. Union members from IATSE, the Teamsters, AFSCME, SEIU, USW and every other union were all there cheering on the speakers

The event, however, was not about the labor leaders who braved the cold to be counted or heard.

Instead the day was about the working people who came out to provide first-hand accounts of their trials and tribulations when trying to organize a union at their workplace.

It was about the workers who are dealing with old and out dated labor laws that are broken.

The workers who came to the podium told the cheering crowd that they would not have been fired from the jobs they loved and did well if the Employee Free Choice Act was enacted. One worker, who worked as a case manager at substance abuse clinic in California, said that he was fired afer he lead an organizing campaign to a successful election. He told everyone that he loved his job, that he didn't go into that line of work to get rich, that his profession was his passion. That case worker from California had a similar story to a warehouse worker from Ohio, who was eventually hired back to his job, with back pay, after five years.

Many readers here know of stories like those who were heard today in DC.

Most of us are already in full support of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Most of us understand what it means to be union in the United States, and most of us are ready to make it easier for the next generation to organize if and when they want to.

If you are not one of the 1.5 million to sign on in support of the Employee Choice Act, don't waste any more time. Go to aflcio.org and find the petition and sign it.

A Word About The Business Owners Union

First against minimum wage, prevailing wage, social security, unemployment insurance, providing health care and now, buying American? Wow.

Ulster County Last Again: No More Excuses For Consumer and Worker Safety

Just a little reality check for those of us in Ulster County - the only Hudson Valley county that does not require electrical contractors to be licensed. It just seems too easy for those who are not exposed to the dangers of electricity to play politics with the idea. If you know those people, pass this video on to them - they need to see it.

Maybe our new County Executive will prod the legislators to finally vote to protect us - like all of our surrounding counties do right now.

Get ready though, you will hear it is a burden on business, a huge cost to each customer and an assortment of other poor excuses, all designed to try to jusify why we don't need to license electrical contractors.

These are the excuses of political hacks, bought and paid for by people with something to hide. Which is probably a lack of knowledge of the electrical business.

It's all about the safety of workers and customers. It's about proper training and responsibility.....and it's about time!

The worst electricians in the Hudson Valley have one place to do business: in the Ulster County Electrical market.

Can you guess who their customers are?

Politicians in each party should support our safety as people and consumers.
Let's see some action.

Union Membership Skyrockets

For the second year in a row, the percentage of workers who belong to a union grew, according to the annual survey of union membership released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

In 2008, union membership grew by 428,000, increasing the percentage of union members in the workforce to 12.4 percent, up from 12.1 percent in 2007. Overall, 16.1 million workers carry union cards.

Union membership, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says, is especially valuable to working families as the nation’s economy is in the worst recession in decades.

Today’s numbers confirm what many working people already know: that if given the chance, American workers are choosing to join unions in larger numbers.

Workers in unions are much more likely to have health care benefits and a pension than those without a union; in today’s economy, that’s the difference between sinking and swimming.

The BLS survey also reports on the union advantage workers receive on payday. In 2008, full-time union workers earned a median weekly salary of $886 while nonunion workers were paid 28 percent less per week, $691.

Some 60 million workers say they would join a union if they had the opportunity.

But when workers try to form unions through the flawed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) process, employers routinely respond with threats, intimidation, firings and harassment.

Of the 311,000 new workers who joined unions in 2007, the latest year for which such figures are available, only 70,000 workers were able to form a union through the NLRB process. Today, most workers who form new unions do so after their employer has agreed to recognize their union through a majority sign-up process—a major provision of the Employee Free Choice Act.

The Employee Free Choice Act would restore the freedom of workers to form unions and bargain for a better life. While some 78 percent of the public support the legislation, Big Business is waging a multimillion-dollar disinformation campaign against the bill.

On top of that, congressional Republicans are vowing to kill the workers’ rights legislation.

In today’s economy, America’s working men and women need a fair shot at forming a union, now more than ever. The Employee Free Choice Act will give workers the freedom to bargain with their employers for better benefits, wages, and job security, and it will allow them—not their company—to decide how to form their union.

Mike Hall AFL-CIO:

Ulster County: We Insist On Low Wages For Our Residents!

The Ulster County Industrial Development Agency has suspended a requirement that construction workers be paid prevailing wages in order for a developer to receive tax benefits.

Michael Berardi, chairman of the IDA’s board of directors, said the six-member body voted unanimously last week to suspend the wage rule for one year.

For at least a year now the IDA board has tried their hardest to undermine their own policy and it has finally come to a head. The policy became a cheap excuse for the boards lack of success at attracting businesses to the county.

There are speculators that say some members on the IDA board purposely told half hearted developers to complain about the policy and feign reluctance to proceed because they would "have" to pay decent wages to construction workers.

That doesn't seem so far fetched considering all of the crying from Colony Liquors last year and the fact that they are building with prevailing wages in their new location in Greene County. Not to mention that prevailing wages actually fit into their budget here.

There is also a rumour that some on the board have kept a couple of developer pals in the wings so that after they finally killed the policy - they might look smart for once when these poor, needy developers step up. One of them owns half of Ulster and Orange County. He really needs the money.

I wonder if they made a new policy that said construction workers should be paid in food stamps if that would be more in line with their thinking?

Using their logic, the County whose people make the lowest wages are the biggest winners!

IDA board member Jennifer Fuentes, who supports decent wages, said she favored suspending the wage policy for a year because she believes it has nothing to do with the lack of developers seeking agency assistance and that the suspension will prove that.

Fuentes says that opponents have said repeatedly that the wage policy hampered development, and “now they have a year to prove that business will be pounding down the doors of Ulster County now that we have no standards.”

IDA board member David O’Halloran said the wage policy has been a roadblock to developers and that suspending it will send an encouraging signal to companies looking to build in Ulster County. Dave is obviously is against people in Ulster making decent wages. What a guy! Wonder where Dave works.

“We need to remove every possible barrier to allow business to grow, expand or relocate to Ulster County,” O’Halloran said. “We need to roll out the welcome mat.”

Sam Fratto, assistant business manager for Local 363 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said the IDA board should not have suspended the policy and never really gave it a chance.

“This (agency) was created to enhance the economic well being of residents in the area,” Fratto said. “It wasn’t made as a form of corporate welfare, which it has become.”

Rally the troops.