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Maine Gov. LePage Dramatically Changes His Story on Labor Mural Removal

Laura ClawsonFollowforDaily Kos Labor

There's a lot of competition for most evil among the governors elected in 2010; there's no competition for biggest buffoon. That is and always has been Maine's Paul LePage, and in this video clip, Brian Williams offers him the chance to burnish that reputation. Naturally, burnish he does.

Back when LePage was making headlines for having a labor history mural removed from Maine's Department of Labor, he offered a number of explanations for the decision—it was "one-sided," it made business owners uncomfortable, and so on. But all of his explanations made clear that the mural was removed because it depicted working people and their unions in a positive light.

Now, in response to Williams' question, he's claiming it's all about the funding:

LEPAGE: I have absolutely nothing about organized labor. My objection to the mural is simply where the money came from. The money was taken out of the unemployment insurance fund, which is dedicated to provide benefits to unemployed workers. They robbed that account to build a mural, and until they pay for it, it stays hidden. [...] We are putting it under safe lock and key.

As Political Correction notes,

LePage's new line accusing the department of 'robbing' the jobless to pay for a painting is smarter politically than his clearly stated original reasoning, but state officials say that "nobody lost any benefits to which they were entitled," according to the Portland Press Herald. Furthermore, the federal Department of Labor actually demanded that Maine return the money used to buy the mural if it is not going to be displayed any longer.

LePage getting some political sense will deprive the world of much-needed hilarity, but given that his recent forays into the news have included rejoicing over kids arriving at summer camp in private jets and signing a law easing child labor restrictions, it's not like he's about to become a political whiz en route to easy reelection.

A reproduction of the labor mural is on display at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C. until October 11.

 

Auto Workers Vote to Approve Contract with General Motors

Laura ClawsonFollowforDaily Kos Labor

UAW workers voted strongly to approve the contract negotiated last week; 65 percent of production workers and 63 percent of skilled trades workers were in favor.

"The UAW and GM entered into this set of bargaining as America struggles with record levels of unemployment and an economy that shows little sign of improvement," said UAW President Bob King.  Because of President Obama's and the American taxpayers' backing of our jobs and our companies, we were determined to work together with GM management to grow jobs in  the U.S. and to get more Americans back to work and we are doing just that.

"With the continued support and solidarity of our members at GM, we stood strong and not only stopped these proposed givebacks, but we made important gains for our members in this contract," King added.

UAW Vice President Joe Ashton, who directs the union's GM Department said, "We are enormously proud of our union and the UAW GM National Negotiating Committee.  In these uncertain economic times, we were able to win an agreement with GM that guarantees good American jobs at a good American company. When GM was down, our members sacrificed and saved GM. Now that GM is posting strong profits, our members, as a result of this agreement, are going to share in the company's success."  

According to the Detroit Free Press:

Just three UAW locals representing 3,400 workers were known to have voted against the contract. GM is planning to brief Wall Street analysts on the details of the deal this afternoon, an indication that management was confident the agreement will be ratified.

Some locals only narrowly approved the contract.

The Free Press also reports that:

At Ford, the UAW is optimistic it can reach an agreement by week’s end. UAW President Bob King and UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles met with the company on Tuesday and bargaining sessions are expected to continue until a deal is reached.

Things are moving rather more slowly at Chrysler, where the most recent contract extension lasts until Oct. 19.

 

Department of Labor Cracks Down on Wage Theft Through Misclassification

by Laura Clawson for Daily Kos Labor

The Department of Labor announced agreements  to cut down on wage theft through misclassification of workers. The agreements, with the Internal Revenue Service and a number of states, allow improved information sharing and law enforcement efforts against employers who misclassify workers as independent contractors to avoid paying benefits or overtime and other pay.

Cracking down on wage theft has been amajor focus for Labor Secretary Hilda Solis:

In 2010, the Labor Department collected nearly $4 million in back wages on behalf of about 6,500 employees who had been misclassified, a 400 percent increase over the amount collected in 2008. The department has hired about 300 additional investigators to probe wage theft complaints.

That includes cases like this:

Earlier this year, for example, the department recovered over $219,000 in back wages for 44 Boston-area restaurant workers who were misclassified as independent contractors by two restaurants. The restaurants had failed to pay them overtime and also weren't paying their payroll taxes.

Recently, the Department of Labor has been investigating large residential construction contractors. There are many more such examples out there. Wage theft takes many forms, from workers who work through lunch breaks or continue working after they've clocked out to those who simply aren't paid for their work; misclassification of workers as independent contractors frames exploited workers as entrepreneurs, a category our society values, while really depriving them of the freedom of self-employment and the stability and benefits of being a direct employee.

 

Reid Holding Vote on China Trade Bill Before Obama's Jobs Plan

Laura ClawsonFollowforDaily Kos Labor

Since the trade deficit with China has cost the United States 2.8 million jobs since 2001, there can be no serious question that addressing that issue is a jobs bill. And that's just what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is arguing as he schedules a vote on legislation creating penalties on Chinese currency manipulation before the vote on President Obama's jobs plan:

“I don’t think there’s anything more important for a jobs measure than China trade. That’s what we’re going to work on next week. China trade is a jobs bill. It’s long, long overdue,” he told reporters. “It’s a bipartisan bill, and I feel very comfortable we’re going to pass that.”

The bill passed the House overwhelmingly in 2010, but the politics of passing it now are complicated: Many Republican legislators support it, but Republican House leadership, namely John Boehner and Eric Cantor, do not. Reid and many Democratic legislators support it, but Obama "is not eager to confront China over its currency policy." However, Obama also has reasons not to oppose it, especially needing Reid to schedule a vote for his jobs plan:

One Senate Democratic aide said the Obama administration would be wise not to take potshots at the legislation, knowing it will depend on Reid to pass the jobs package and the trade bills.

Another Senate Democratic aide predicted the administration would steer clear of the issue regardless of Reid’s political maneuver because it does not want to oppose the popular bipartisan legislation.

If the bill passes the Senate but House Republican leadership refuses to bring it to a vote, Democrats have a weapon for their 2012 campaigns; meanwhile, Obama is likely hoping for just that outcome since it strengthens Democrats without forcing him to make a tough call.

 

Conservative War On Workers Continues With Gutting Of Labor Board

By Isaiah J. Poole for the Campaign for America's Future

House conservatives  threw another grenade today in their war on workers and the institutions designed to protect worker rights. They also continued to show their willingness to politically interfere in an administrative law process to impose their ideology and protect their political contributors.

Legislation passed by the House would prevent the National Labor Relations Board from punishing a corporation that, as an act of retaliation or intimidation against union workers, decides to move its operations out of a unionized facility. As The New York Times reports:

Republicans are angry that the labor board’s acting general counsel filed a complaint against Boeing in April, asserting that the company had built an assembly line in South Carolina to retaliate against unionized workers in Washington State for engaging in numerous strikes.

The National Labor Relations Act bars employers from taking any actions, including transferring an operation, in retaliation against workers for exercising their federally protected rights, including forming a union or going on strike.

Postal Workers and Allies Rally Across the Country to Save the Postal Service

Laura ClawsonFollowforDaily Kos Labor

(Wisconsin AFL-CIO)

Save America's Postal Service rallies were held across the country Tuesday, each drawing dozens to hundreds of postal workers and supporters.

Many of the individual rallies were small, but they were everywhere. In Joliet, Illinois, 200 workers rallied and brought 3,000 petition signatures to the office of Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican who insists on referring inaccurately to the Postal Service asking for a "bailout." Dozens gathered outside Rep. Dave Reichert's office in Washington state. In Washington, D.C., a suspicious package reported within blocks of the planned rally left dozens marching and chanting on a street that had been blocked to pedestrian and car traffic. Grand Rapids, Michigan. Charleston, West Virginia. Chico, California.

Momentum to End Discrimination Against Unemployed jobseekers Builds, but Discriminatory Ads Continue

 by Laura Clawson, Daily Kos Labor

Mitchell Hirsch catches a whole bunch of discriminatory job listings showing up at CareerBuilder.com:

The latest examples appear two months after the National Employment Law Project (NELP) released a report detailing similarly exclusionary job postings this spring.  Since then, federal legislation has been introduced that would ban hiring practices, including job ads, that discriminate against unemployed workers by excluding them from consideration for employment opportunities.  As these harmful practices have attracted growing attention, one leading job site -- Indeed.com -- recently announced it would no longer post such exclusionary ads.

That's even as the movement to ban such discrimination gains steam. Wednesday, Representatives Rosa DeLauro and Hank Johnson and Senator Richard Blumenthal, sponsors of House and Senate bills prohibiting discrimination against unemployed jobseekers, held a press conference on the issue, at which:

Congress today received a petition with 250,000 names in support of ending discrimination against the unemployed, said David Elliot, a spokesman with the Washington-based USAction, a federation of 22 state affiliates that advocates for human- service programs and support for public education.

Wisconsin: State Employee Contributions Hit the Lowest Paid Hardest

Mark E AndersenFollowforDaily Kos Labor

With the end of collective bargaining, for now, in Wisconsin; state employees don't have the powerful voice they once had. While unions and employees scramble to figure out this new world the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau released a report, that Democratic legislators requested, on Sept, 22nd.

The report clearly shows that Walker's budget bill does exactly what we on the left said it would. Raise costs on those that can least afford it,

[...] a state worker earning $25,000 a year will see their total pension and health care costs increase from 4.5 percent of their salary to 11.3 percent, which amounts to $2,828 a year [...]a worker earning $50,000 a year will see their share increase from 2.3 percent to 8.5 percent and workers earning $100,000 will see their cost increase from 1.1 percent to 6.7 percent, or $8,428 a year.

So the person who earns the least will see basically what amounts to a 6.8% pay cut. My representative, Terese Berceau (D- Madison) had this to say,

"It's completely inequitable that a middle class worker making $25,000 a year takes almost twice the effective pay cut of an employee making $125,000."

The table below shows how much of an inequity there is between the haves, the sorta haves and the have nots. The table below shows only healthcare contributions so this is even worse when you add in pension contributions.

It is not only inequitable it is statement on Republican economic policies. Tax cuts for the rich and everyone else pays. Note to any Republican/tea bagger types reading this...you will never be rich. Every time you vote for a Republican you are slitting your own throat.

The full reports are available here and here.

A hat tip to Blue Cheddar for forwarding me the actual reports above.

 

Trumka Cites Murders of 22 Union Leaders as Reason for Obama to Oppose Trade Deal with Colombia

Laura ClawsonFollowforDaily Kos Labor

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has sent President Obama a letter citing the murders of union leaders and other abuses of workers in Colombia as reasons for Obama not to advance the Colombia Trade Agreement:

Simply put, Colombia should not be rewarded with a trade agreement until it develops a proven track record of ensuring that workers can exercise the fundamental rights of free association and collective bargaining; preventing violence against union leaders and other social justice advocates; and bringing to justice those who perpetrated such crimes. Providing Colombia with unfettered access to the U.S. market, and beneficial terms for investment, government procurement, and other commercial areas without requiring sustained and measurable progress toward protecting human rights will undercut our leverage to encourage Colombia to follow up its promises and intentions with effective actions.

Already in 2011, 22 Colombian union leaders have been murdered, 15 of them since the government there implemented a labor action plan to improve the situation for workers. The letter lists their names and brief information about their lives and deaths: teachers, engineers, prison guards, banana plantation workers, shot or hanged with barbed wire or killed in intentional explosions.

The letter also cites the murder of six Catholic priests this year in Colombia, and the economic effects the trade agreement would have on the United States, including the loss or displacement of up to 55,000 jobs.

 

Republican-led Class Warfare - The Conservative Assault on the Middle Class Is Pervasive

By David Madland 

This material was published by the Center for American Progress.

Republican claims that President Barack Obama’s deficit reduction package is “class warfare” are sad attempts to hide the actual class warfare that House Republicans have been engaged in since they took power in January. Like the soot-covered pot calling the clean cooking kettle black, Republicans are deeming slight increases in taxes on the wealthy—to levels far below they have been historically—as class warfare to cover their own efforts to help the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.

Indeed Paul Ryan (R-WI), chairman of the House Budget Committee, is perhaps the worst offender. This weekend on “Fox News Sunday,” Rep. Ryan argued that the proposed “Buffett tax,” which creates a minimum tax for millionaires, is “class warfare,” yet his own budget proposal—supported by all but 4 Republicans in the House of Representatives—is the definition of class warfare.

The House Republican budget, the so-called Path to Prosperity, is chock full of policies that would make life easier for the wealthiest while increasing burdens upon middle class households. It cuts taxes for the wealthy, while increasing taxes on the middle class and significantly cutting programs such as Medicare on which the middle class depend.

As Unions Weaken So Does the Middle Class - New Census Data Shows the Importance of Unions to the Middle Class

By David Madland, Nick Bunker 

This material was created by the Center for American Progress Action Fund

New state income data released yesterday by the U.S. Census Bureau shows the importance of unions to boosting incomes for all middle-class households—union and nonunion alike. The 2010 income data makes it clear that strong unions are a critical factor in creating a middle-class society. Restoring the strength of unions would go a long way toward rebuilding the middle class.

The states with the lowest percentage of workers in unions—North Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Oklahoma, and Texas—all have relatively weak middle classes. In each of these states, the share of income going to the middle class (the middle 60 percent of the population by income) is below the national average, according to Census Bureau figures.

Mapping the Census data that has been released this fall to previous years also shows that over time the strength of the middle class and the strength of the union movement have tracked closely together. In 1968, the share of income going to the nation’s middle class was 53.2 percent, when 28 percent of all workers were members of unions. Since then, union membership steadily declined alongside the share of income going to the middle class. By 2010, the middle class only received 46.5 percent of income as union membership dropped to less than 12 percent of workers.

Latino and Black Poverty Rates Driven by Lack of Good Jobs and High Unemployment, finds EPI paper

From the Economic Policy Institute.

The causes of Latino and African American poverty rates are a lack of good jobs, high unemployment rates and high incarceration rates, not declining marriage rates, a new Economic Policy Institute (EPI) issue brief finds.  Reducing poverty and increasing marriage rates among Latinos and African Americans by EPI expert Algernon Austin also finds that reducing poverty among Latinos and African Americans would increase marriage rates among these groups.

Hispanic workers are more likely than African American or white workers to earn low wages.  In 2009, the share of Hispanics earning poverty-level wages was 18.3 percentage points above the share of white workers.  Hispanics have also experienced the largest drop in the share of workers in good jobs, which the paper defines as jobs that provide wages at 60 percent of the median household income for a full-time worker, health insurance and retirement benefits.

African Americans have consistently had the highest unemployment rates among the major racial groups—in the past 50 years, the U.S. has never achieved full employment for African Americans.  The African American community also suffers economically from the relatively large share of its members who are incarcerated and who do not receive an income.

Though marriage rates have declined for Latinos and African Americans (as well as for whites), these groups still want to marry at fairly high rates.  However, because of rising inequality, many members of these groups believe they cannot afford to do so.  It is likely that an anti-poverty agenda that targets the decline in good jobs, high unemployment and increasing incarceration rates would have the added effect of increasing marriage rates.

 

Ohio Public Workers Face Health Care Cuts and Safety Concerns if Senate Bill 5 is Not Repealed

by Laura Clawson, Daily Kos Labor

With the vote to repeal Ohio's Senate Bill 5, which eliminates most collective bargaining rights for public employees, coming up in November—it's on the ballot as Issue 2, and a "no" vote is a vote for repeal—Ohio is taking a look at how things would look if the law went into effect. The Dayton Daily News itemizes some of what would happen to state workers. The basic way the law works is this:

Grievance procedures, layoff rules, shift assignments, staffing minimums, health care coverage and scores of other items will be off the table. The union could still bargain on working conditions and wages, but management would have the right to impose its last offer if the two sides reach impasse.

Specific effects could include:

State workers pay 16.9 percent of the health care premium for a single plan and 17.8 percent for family plan coverage, according to the State Employment Relations Board health care survey. However, under SB 5 the union will have no say in what sort of health plans are offered and what kind of co-pays workers face.

[...]

Obama Administration Offers First Details on No Child Left Behind Waivers

Laura ClawsonFollowforDaily Kos Labor

As promised, the Obama administration has started providing some details of the No Child Left Behind waivers it will be issuing to states:

Senior administration officials said waivers will be awarded to states that adopt academic standards that ensure their high school graduates are ready for college or a career, measure school performance not merely by test results but by student improvement over time, and evaluate teachers and principals using a variety of measures, including but not limited to student test scores.

States will be required to launch “rigorous” campaigns to turn around their lowest-performing schools — the bottom 5 percent. And they will have to devise ways to focus on students with the greatest needs in another 10 percent of schools with low graduation rates or large achievement gaps between students of different races. States will also have greater flexibility with about $1 billion in funding for schools attended by poor children.

States will still be required to test all children in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school and report results by subgroups — including race, English learners and students with disabilities — so it is clear how every student is faring.

The plan drew a positive response from the National Education Association:

Millions of Households Receiving Food Stamps had No Cash Income in 2010

by Laura ClawsonFollowforDaily Kos Labor

With four or more job seekers for every available job for more than two years (PDF), it's no wonder that when the Agriculture Department recently released information about people on the supplemental nutrition assistance program (AKA food stamps AKA SNAP) in 2010, it turned out that a high proportion of them had been unemployed for the entire year: Less than 30 percent had earnings for the year, though 41 percent were in households in which someone had earned.

But the most striking thing was this:

But some 20% of households had no cash income of any kind last year, up from 15% in 2007, the year the recession began, and up from 7% in 1990.

That’s partly because most household heads who were receiving food stamps were also out of work. Just 21.8% of them had jobs in 2010, while 19.8% were jobless and looking for work.

SNAP covered 18.6 million households including 40.3 million people in 2010, and 20 percent of those households—3.7 million—had no cash income. The average SNAP benefit, by the way, is $287 per month, maxing out at $668 for a family of four. And even those households with other income averaged just $731 of income per month.

A 2010 New York Times article looking at the same phenomenon explained that food stamps:

...have taken on a greater role in the safety net for several reasons. Since the benefit buys only food, it draws less suspicion of abuse than cash aid and more political support. And the federal government pays for the whole benefit, giving states reason to maximize enrollment. States typically share in other programs’ costs.

Yet even drawing less suspicion and covering more Americans than ever before, SNAP has come under various forms of attack from Paul Ryan and others among the usual suspect pool.

(h/t Susie Madrak)