NEWSFEED: US union struggles

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State judge: Gerawan is guilty of bad-faith bargaining ...




State judge: Gerawan is guilty of bad-faith bargaining & illegally excluding some of its workers from the benefits of a union contract

Judge admonishes company’s ‘extreme’ ‘self-serving’ philosophy

A blistering 60-page decision issued Friday (April 14, 2017) by a state administrative judge found Gerawan Farming Inc. guilty of refusing to bargain in good faith with the United Farm Workers during 2013 and of illegally excluding from union contract benefits Gerawan employees supplied by farm labor contractors (Page 52).

Affected by the decision from Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB) Administrative Law Judge William L. Schmidt are approximately 5,000 Gerawan workers who were directly hired by the company that year (P. 10). Also impacted are an additional 800 to 1,500 workers hired through Gerawan’s farm labor contractors (P. 10). The family-owned company, operating on “about 12,000 acres (about 19 square miles) of farmland in Fresno and Madera counties,” is considered “the largest stone [tree] fruit producer in the United States” (P.10). (All quotes and page citations are from the judge’s decision, which can be read in its entirety at http://action.ufw.org/alj41417)

Judge Schmidt’s ruling invoked the state farm labor law’s “make whole” remedy, ordering Gerawan to make its workers whole for the increased wages and benefits they would have received between January 18 and June 6, 2013, the period during which Gerawan failed to bargain in good faith for a union contract and refused to negotiate at all over its labor contractor-supplied employees (Ps. 53-58). Other remedies imposed by the judge include requiring Gerawan to mail and post notices admitting it broke the law and promising not to do so again, and having those notices read by ALRB agents to all of its workers assembled at worksites on company time. Gerawan will also have to provide the notices to all workers hired within the next 12 months.

The judge admonished Gerawan Farming and its owners for proposing contract terms that were “clearly grounded on its own personal and very self-serving philosophy of freedom of choice” for its workers (P. 50). “That philosophy ultimately became so extreme that [Gerawan] even proposed to [a state mediator] that the union satisfy a one-year learning curve with its operations and its employees before” it could collect dues for fulfilling its legal duty to represent all workers and the sprawling company. “This ludicrous proposition has no support in the ALRA [Agricultural Labor Relations Act] or the history of its interpretation by the ALRB or the courts of California (P. 50).”

Such negotiating “proposals seek to impose [Gerawan’s] own special qualifications on the UFW in order to satisfactorily qualify as a proper representative of [the company’s] employees (P. 50). Nothing in any labor relations statute authorizes an employer to impose its own qualification standards on the employee representative. Indeed [both the state farm labor law and the National Labor Relations Board] prohibit employers from doing just that in order to protect the right of employees to independent representation (P. 50).”

Other key elements of the judge’s decision include:

• Gerawan illegally insisted on excluding farm labor contractor workers

California’s Agricultural Labor Relations Act “excludes farm labor contractors [FLCs] as employers…by design and deems an agricultural employer utilizing labor provided by an FLC to be the employer of the FLC workers for purposes of collective bargaining under the ALRA (P. 8).” Gerawan “violated [the law] by persistently refusing to bargain about the wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment of those unit employees who are employed by farm labor contractors (P. 53).”

“The statute aside, a substantial basis exists to infer that all parties [Gerawan and the UFW] understood and agreed that this specific bargaining unit [all the farm workers employed by Gerawan] included the agricultural employees employed by Gerawan’s FLCs (P. 9).”

Judge Schmidt ruled that Gerawan “violated its duty to bargain in good faith…by its insistence on…the exclusion of FLC workers from the core benefits of a collective-bargaining agreement (P. 52).”

• Gerawan illegally engaged in bad faith bargaining

The judge examined the parties’ bargaining history during the 1990s, after the UFW was certified as bargaining representative of Gerawan’s workers following its victory in a 1990 state-conducted secret-ballot election (Ps. 13-15). “I find it’s fair to infer that at some point in the mid-1990s [Gerawan] deliberately chose to ignore its duty to bargaining under the ALRA altogether (P. 46).” He added that, “there is scant evidence from which I have been able to discern from the history between these two parties that [Gerawan] harbored any intention of reaching any kind of agreement with the UFW. The more recent bargaining history [starting in 2013] strongly supports that conclusion (P. 46).”

Judge Schmidt noted that, “the UFW’s request to bargaining in October 2012, initially went completely unanswered for nearly three weeks. A response from [the company] emerged only after the UFW wrote again at the end of the month threatening to file an unfair labor practice charge in the absence of a prompt response (P. 46).” Gerawan’s “principals finally replied with a letter containing an unctuous tone, not one mention of the requested information [from the UFW], and a lecture about the UFW’s potential intent to evoke the [state’s Mandatory Mediation law] process that it set about in the following months to virtually guarantee (P. 46-47).” The 2002 Mandatory Mediation law allows farm workers to bring in neutral state mediators to hammer out union contracts if growers refuse to negotiate them during regular or voluntary bargaining.

“[Gerawan] delayed furnishing critical economic information until late June or early July 2013, following 12 bargaining sessions, plus two sessions with a [state] mediator. By doing so, the UFW asserts with some justification that it could not formulate a complete economic proposal through most of the voluntary bargaining period (P. 47).”

Meanwhile, the judge observed, Gerawan “engaged in a series of serious unfair labor practices away from the bargaining table in an effort to undermine and dislodge the UFW as the bargaining representative of its employees (P. 52).” (In a separate 81-page decision issued on April 15, 2016, the full Agricultural Labor Relations Board found Gerawan guilty of numerous violations of the law.) Judge Schmidt found “that the record supports the conclusion that [Gerawan] engaged in the bargaining examined here with no intention of ever reaching an agreement with the union and by persistently refusing to bargain concerning the employment terms of the FLC workers (P. 52).”

Therefore, “Commencing on January 18, 2013, and continuing through August 2013, [Gerawan] violated [the ALRA] by engaging in collective bargaining with the UFW concerning the wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment of the agricultural employees in the above unit with no intention of reaching an agreement with the UFW (P. 53).”

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[ckaihatsu]

Stealing overtime from working people


Chris,

Republicans in Congress are offering working people a false choice between time off and money. What they’re really doing is stealing overtime pay from working families.

The “Working Families Flexibility Act” (HR 1180)―also referred to as the comp time bill―would erode basic overtime protections for working people. The bill would allow employers to delay paying any wages for overtime work for as long as 13 months.

Most low- or moderate-wage working people whose paychecks are not enough, would always prefer to work extra hours to receive extra pay. Under comp time, these employees give up their right to overtime earnings in exchange for the promise of future time off (but with no guarantee of taking leave when they need it).

Write your Representative today and tell them to reject the “Working Families Flexibility Act,” which steals overtime from working people and erodes basic worker protections.

Overtime pay is an opportunity for working people to earn a little more while creating a disincentive for employers to overwork employees. The misnamed “Working Families Flexibility Act” would result in a pay cut for working people without any guaranteed flexibility or time off.

Under current law, an individual who works 60-hour weeks for five weeks at an hourly wage of $20 an hour would earn $7,000 (200 hours of straight time ($4,000) plus 100 hours of overtime ($3,000).

Under the comp time bill, the employee lends the $3,000 of overtime pay to the employer, without interest or security. The employer keeps the $3,000 until it agrees to pay it out as paid time off―or it pays the money back at the end of a year.

Congress is expected to take up this bill next week when they return from recess.

Write your Representative right now and tell them to reject the comp time bill, which gives employers the “flexibility” not to pay for overtime for as long as 13 months after it is worked.

Together let’s create an economy that supports working people and families, not one that allows employers to overwork and underpay their employees.

Thank you,

Heidi Shierholz
Senior Economist and Director of Policy, EPI Policy Center


Write your Representative today


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Volkswagen: stop union-busting in Chattanooga


Sign petition and support workers at Volkswagen, Chattanooga, USA, who are denied their legal right to forma union.
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Tell Volkswagen to stop union-busting!

In December 2015, an overwhelming majority of more than 70 per cent of the skilled-trades workers voted to be represented by IndustriALL affiliate United Autoworkers (UAW).

Yet VW Chattanooga is refusing to bargain with UAW Local 42, even after the U.S. government has ordered the company to enter into negotiations.

Unionization would mean staff can directly address concerns about excessive production demands, inadequate health and safety measures and exhausting work schedules.

Sign and share this petition and support workers at Volkswagen, who is violating a federal order and denying workers their right to form a union.

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These working families need your help


Chris,

Unless Congress and President Trump act this week, more than 22,000 coal miners and their families will lose desperately needed healthcare.

Without this coverage, tens of thousands of working families won’t be able to get the care they need. Many already are suffering from serious illness or injury as a result of their years in the mines, and the cost of care will bankrupt families and cause tremendous suffering.

These working people were promised they’d be covered for life. Congress needs to keep that promise—but time is running out.

Will you send a letter to your members of Congress and ask them to keep their promise by passing the Miners Protection Act before time runs out?

During the presidential campaign, Trump promised to look out for coal miners, but he’s been silent as thousands of hard-working families face the possibility of losing care they need.

More than 70 years ago, President Harry Truman forged an agreement with coal companies to ensure miners would be covered in retirement, but that agreement is now in jeopardy. As coal companies close down and declare bankruptcy, the fund that provides the healthcare must get more support from Congress.

Congress is dragging its feet. And despite Trump’s big talk of looking out for coal miners and standing up for the little guy during the campaign, he hasn’t said a single word publicly about this bill.

Demand that Congress keep its promise to working families and pass the Miners Protection Act now.

Through our work in McDowell County, W.Va., and during my travels in coal country, I’ve had an opportunity to meet and get to know the hard-working families of coal country. These men and women are just asking that Congress keep its promise—a promise made and kept for nearly 70 years. We stand in solidarity with these working families. Will you stand with us by asking Congress to keep its promise?

In unity,
Randi Weingarten
AFT President

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Lorretta Johnson, Secretary-Treasurer | Mary Cathryn Ricker, Executive Vice President
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TAKE ACTION: After 14 months, there’s still no update in Gerawan workers’ pesticide-spraying case

In February 2016, farm workers pruning peach orchards at Gerawan Farming (Prima brand) were sickened by pesticide drift from a neighboring farm while taking a break.


Take Action

Worker Miguel Miranda describes the scene, "We entered work at 7am and I saw that on the west side of the field, there were some machines fumigating the almonds. In block 118D, five crews were working in the same area. We got out for lunch at 10am and they were still fumigating. One of the machines came out in front of two crews. Our crew was about 15 rows from where the machine came out of. The foreman didn’t make any attempt to move us from the area. After a while I felt my eyes burning. I know that many felt ill, but didn’t report anything due to fear of retaliation from the company.”

After their break was up, the workers were ordered to return to their rows with no medical attention even though they complained of nausea, dizziness, and eye irritation. Workers weren’t even able to change out of their pesticide-drenched clothes!

This wasn’t the first time workers were sickened by exposure to pesticides while laboring at Gerawan Farming. Thousands of farm worker supporters cried foul and insisted the authorities do something quickly. The Fresno County Ag Commissioner has yet to take action! In a prior incident, it took the Ag Commissioner 15 months to find Gerawan guilty of violating the law — and the $5,000 penalty amounted to little more than a slap on the wrist.

This time, it’s been 14 months and this incident still remains under investigation. When we called the Fresno County Ag Commissioner on April 12th, we were told that these incidents take time to investigate. But during all this “time”, workers are left with no assurance that this won’t happen again. Shouldn’t their safety be a priority?

The CA Department of Pesticide Regulation's website says to contact them if you feel your complaint was not adequately investigated by your local Ag Commissioner's office. Fourteen months of hearing nothing is not adequate. Contact them now!

Take Action!
http://action.ufw.org/gerawan417

After you sign the petition, please ask your friends and family to sign too. You can send them an e-mail, post this campaign on your Facebook and/or Twitter page by clicking here or by going to http://action.ufw.org/page/share/gerawan417


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United Farm Workers, P.O. Box 62, Keene, CA 93531 •http://www.ufw.org • Privacy Policy

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Stand with Bernie to raise the minimum wage


Dear Chris,

This is big news, so I’ll keep it brief.

This morning, hundreds of low-wage federal contract workers went on strike to hold Donald Trump accountable to his promise to deliver “more jobs and better wages” for America’s workers. Trump’s first 100 days are nearly up and the promise is overdue.

That’s why Bernie Sanders and Keith Ellison made a big announcement at our rally today: they’re introducing a bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.

A $15 minimum wage would lift millions of families out of poverty, including hundreds of thousands of federal contractors who serve our country, support our troops, and still get paid wages that are too low to support their families.

Click here to add your name as a citizen co-sponsor of Bernie and Keith’s bill.



You don’t need me to tell you that anti-worker Republicans and big business will go all-out to defeat this bill, and keep wages low so their profits stay high. That’s why we need to send a message, loud and clear: Americans want a $15 minimum wage.

As Huffington Post noted, Congressional Democrats are uniting behind a $15 minimum wage. But to make it reality, we have to show that tens of thousands of Americans, from every part of the country, are demanding fair pay for workers.

Do you support a $15 minimum wage? If you do, click here to support Bernie and Keith’s bill.

Thank you for standing with us.
Joseph Geevarghese

P.S. If you missed our rally earlier, click here to watch it!








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Help make a $15/hour minimum wage happen!



GRAPHIC: Sign here button

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A full-time worker in the U.S. today can live in poverty, and millions do.

The United States has become a "developing nation" in which most people lack economic security, MIT economics professor Peter Temin concludes in a new book. Already numerous studies had found that the United States trails behind many countries in economic mobility.

To quickly send an email to your members of Congress -- expressing support for a $15-an-hour minimum wage -- click here.

To meet very basic needs in most of the United States already requires a full-time job at $15 per hour or more. Bills are now being introduced in both houses of Congress to create that standard by 2024, by which time $15 will be worth less -- and in the years that follow it would become worth even less -- except that miraculously this new legislation finally takes the step of indexing the minimum wage to the cost of living.

Click here to easily send one email to your Representative and your two Senators telling them to pass these bills and to be sure to include indexing the minimum wage to the cost of living.

The "Raise the Wage Act of 2017" is being introduced by Senators Bernie Sanders and Patty Murray, and Representatives Bobby Scott and Keith Ellison. It needs our support!

A standard of $15 may not seem like much, but it more than doubles the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 -- and gradually brings the tipped-employees minimum of $2.13 up to $15 as well. (Several states have set higher minimum wages.)

Since 1968, the federal minimum wage has lost much of its value. And as long as the struggle to raise it goes on, we will have to fend off the same tired old lies about what a minimum wage does. But the past many years – with some states and cities increasing minimum and living wages -- have produced enough data to make it crystal clear that:

- The majority of people whose wages are raised, directly and indirectly, by minimum wage increases are not teenagers.

- Minimum wage increases do not significantly increase unemployment.

- Minimum wage increases greatly benefit the economy as a whole.

- Minimum wage increases are very popular with the general public.


Click here to move this basic standard of human decency forward now.

After signing the petition, please use the tools on the next webpage to share it with your friends.

This work is only possible with your financial support. Please chip in $3 now.

-- The RootsAction.org Team

P.S. RootsAction is an independent online force endorsed by Jim Hightower, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cornel West, Daniel Ellsberg, Glenn Greenwald, Naomi Klein, Bill Fletcher Jr., Laura Flanders, former U.S. Senator James Abourezk, Frances Fox Piven, Lila Garrett, Phil Donahue, Sonali Kolhatkar, and many others.

Background:
> Ruptly TV: "Bernie Sanders calls on Congress to introduce $15 US minimum wage"
> Washington Post: "Sanders and 21 Democrats introduce bill to raise minimum wage to $15 an hour"



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We might strike at AT&T soon...


Good Jobs at AT&T Mobility


Chris Kaihatsu,

This is not a drill. AT&T wireless workers have been fighting for months for a fair union contract that protects good, family-supporting jobs and we're more frustrated than ever. So frustrated, we just took a big step and gave our 72-hour notice to the company that we may walk out at anytime. That means we're one step closer to 21,000 workers in 36 states striking for good jobs.

Today, we're taking our fight straight to AT&T's shareholders at their annual meeting in Dallas. Hundreds protested this morning outside the event and we delivered the petition you and over 67,000 other concerned customers and community members signed.

Will you stand with us again today? Share this on social media to spread the word about our fight.




SHARE ON FACEBOOK ►

TWEET ►


Last month, 17,000 AT&T landline workers on the West Coast - who've been working without a union contract for over a year now - walked off the job in a one-day strike. Following the news, AT&T's share price fell by 1%.*

We're not afraid to show our power to make sure AT&T stops taking advantage of working people. The company brings in $1 billion a month because of our hard work, but they keep offshoring more of our jobs out of the country and outsourcing operations to low-quality 3rd party dealers where customers regularly complain of deceptive sales practices.

If we strike, we'll let you know how you can help. In the meantime, thank you for your support and please show your support for our fight on social media.

In unity,
Dennis Trainor
Communications Workers of America

* http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...323-story.html

Good Jobs at AT&T
GoodJobsATT.org
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Make a statement on May Day





Dear Chris:

May 1 is International Workers’ Day, when working people around the world demonstrate to commemorate hard-fought victories for basic worker protections led and won by immigrants to stand for the advancement of all working people.
This year’s May Day holds particular significance given the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim climate and policies that have emerged under Trump.

More than 30,000 UNITE HERE members in dozens of cities will take part in actions in their communities, and will button-up in solidarity at their workplaces - sending a strong message that we will push back against attacks on our communities.


You can join in sending a message that we’re stronger when we stand together by changing your profile picture to reflect the buttons hospitality workers across the country are wearing for May 1.



March with us in one of the dozens of cities UNITE HERE members will join May Day actions; search by zip to find the closest to you.

On May 1, we are showing that we have the power and courage to push back against all the attacks on our communities – and win.


In solidarity,
Maria Elena Durazo
UNITE HERE Vice President Immigration, Civil Rights and Diversity

Connect with us!

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UNITE HERE | 275 7th Ave., New York, NY 10001 | www.unitehere.org | privacy policy

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Important Update and Breakthrough in the Reynolds Campaign!


Chris,

For the past 10 years, FLOC has marched in Winston Salem, denouncing labor violations and human rights abuses in Reynolds American Inc's supply chain. Earlier this year, British American Tobacco (BAT) announced that they will pay $49 Billion to acquire the remaining 58% of Reynolds, making BAT the world’s biggest tobacco company. When FLOC began the Reynolds campaign, both Reynolds and BAT stated that they would never meet with FLOC. Thanks to your support and the organized efforts of FLOC members, we have been meeting with both companies for a number of years and have seen them change their position on various issues. Since there is no Reynolds shareholder meeting, there will be no march on Reynolds next week, but our work is not yet over.

Yesterday, on the eve of Workers Memorial Day, leaders of FLOC traveled to London for the 7th time to challenge BAT during their Annual General Meeting (AGM) about their failure to be transparent and take concrete action despite numerous reports detailing human rights abuses on BAT contract farms. In BAT’s own audit report, they admitted instances of worker death by heat stroke, workers being sprayed by pesticides, and poor housing conditions, many of the same violations found in Reynold's own 2015 audit report. These human rights violations will continue until BAT stops taking cosmetic approaches and agrees to guarantee freedom of association and implement a practical mechanism that allows farmworkers to denounce abuses and act as their own auditors! Click here to read more about FLOC's meeting with BAT!

Even though there is no march on Reynolds, you can still support worker efforts to improve working conditions by making a donation to FLOC's partner organization the Campaign for Migrant Worker Justice.

Hasta la victoria!

The FLOC Team



To find out more about the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO, please visit our website at www.floc.com.

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Join a May Day Event!




This year hundreds of thousands are expected to participate in demonstrations, strikes, and shows of solidarity surrounding May Day, the International Day for Workers’ Solidarity.

Coast to coast, workers and allies will join together and fight for respect, dignity, equal rights, and opportunity for working people of all backgrounds – whether they be immigrants, coal and steel workers, services employees, grocery story workers or day laborers.

APWU encourages all members to take part in this historic day, and bring attention to workers’ issues at home and across the world!

May Day, the annual holiday recognizing the international working class, originated in the 1880s. The holiday was born out of the historic fight for the eight-hour day, centered in Chicago .

May Day is currently celebrated in over 80 countries, with mass rallies and in many countries a paid day off from work (though it is not recognized in the United States as a federal holiday).

On May Day 2006, workers mobilized in droves to protest proposed anti-immigrant legislation by the Bush administration. Eleven years later, history is repeating itself, as workers across the country prepare to come together in solidarity.

Check local listings for an event in your area.

May Day, the international day of worker solidarity, lives!

If you take part in an event, please send pictures of you, your family and/or co-workers to [email protected] for a chance to be featured on the APWU website or in future publications. Remember to wear your union gear!

1300 L Street NW, Washington, DC 20005 | www.apwu.org

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Will you support the fight for Press Freedom?


NewsMatters


Dear Chris kaihatsu,

Journalism is under attack, and members of The NewsGuild-CWA are at the frontlines of a fight to ensure our communities have access to accurate reporting.

That fight isn’t simply about government attempts to undermine the work journalists do – in many cases, it’s also about the companies that own newspapers. As an example, our NewsGuild brothers and sisters at GateHouse and Digital First Media have endured brutal staffing cuts – all to benefit a privileged few at each of those Wall Street companies.

I’m ready to take action to support my brothers and sisters at GateHouse and Digital First Media, and to stand up for press freedom nationwide.

May 3 marks World Press Freedom Day. Now more than ever, our democracy depends on journalism. But these two Wall Street companies - and others - are plundering newsrooms and damaging the critical role that newspapers play locally and nationally.

At Digital First Media, staffing levels have been cut by 30 percent in the last year alone. One week after the East Bay Times won a prestigious Pulitzer Prize, Digital First Media announced in April that it would lay off more than 20 percent of the staff. At GateHouse Media, our brothers and sisters face a similar plight, having endured dramatic staff cuts and no raises for several years.

You stood with us last year in our successful campaign for pay increases at Digital First Media – the first raises that many employees had received in more than a decade from DFM’s owner, New York hedge fund Alden Global Capital. We’re grateful for your support.

Now I’m ready to stand with my union brothers and sisters once again.

We’re fighting for fair contracts at newspapers owned by GateHouse and Digital First Media, but we’re also taking part in a nationwide effort to call attention to the importance of press freedom.

You can support our contract campaigns, and our fight for press freedom, by signing our petition at www.righttoreport.org. Once you’ve signed, please share the news on Facebook and Twitter using the hashtags #PressFreedom and #Right2Report.

It’s time for all of us to stand up for press freedom and for our brothers and sisters at newspapers nationwide. Can we count on your support?

Yes, I’ll sign the petition in support of press freedom and against Wall Street profiteering at the expense of journalism.

Your support is crucial to defending newspapers and our democracy.

In solidarity,

Bernie Lunzer
President
The NewsGuild-CWA

A NewsGuild Project
TNG-CWA
501 Third Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
www.newsguild.org

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Tech workers hit the streets


Silicon Valley Rising


Dear Chris Kaihatsu,

Yesterday, tech industry janitors, security officers, and cafeteria workers took to the streets, joining thousands for May Day in Silicon Valley. Together we marched through San Jose, tearing down symbolic walls of oppression and saying it’s time to build bridges, not walls.


Tech service workers march on May Day

Check out this article from CNN: “May Day protests put spotlight on tech's other immigrant workers.”

Thank you for helping move Google and other tech firms to ensure their service workers could take action yesterday. We'll need your support as we keep inspiring the tech industry to build an inclusive middle class.

In the coming months, we’ll be engaging the industry to tackle our region’s housing crisis, raise wages and working conditions for tech service workers, and leverage tech’s enormous power and wealth for good.

Thanks for standing with us!

In solidarity,

Derecka Mehrens
Co-founder

Contact Info:

2102 Almaden Road, Ste. 112
San Jose, CA 95125
Phone: 408.809.2120 Fax: 408.269.0183
Connect With Us:

Follow us on Twitter Like us on Facebook Email to [email protected]

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Working Class Hero


Dear Chris Kaihatsu,

“My name is Jose Herrera and for the past 17 years I’ve been hauling cargo at the ports and rail yards. I came to California from El Salvador in 1977 due to the civil war raging in that country at the time... It was a long fight, but 16 years after arriving I proudly became a U.S. citizen.” This is how the letter begins that I personally delivered to the mayors of Los Angeles and Long Beach because corporate lawbreakers across America – including those doing business on port property! – have driven hard working Americans like me into poverty.

Join me in calling on the LA and Long Beach Mayors to take a stand against corporate lawbreaking by ending wage theft at America’s largest port complex!



I want to share my story with you because I know there are millions of people who are fighting against a rigged system that has stolen the American Dream from us. It is time for us to come together and fix the rigged economic system that allows corporations like XPO Logistics to steal from workers, break the law, and hurt our communities. Here’s why I’m fighting and calling on the mayors of Los Angeles and Long Beach to stop corporate lawbreakers hurting workers at our ports:

I have been truck driver for XPO Logistics’ Cartage division since 2010. The company calls me an “independent contractor” so they can make deductions from my paycheck and discard me if I get hurt on the job. Last week, three of my co-workers and I got a letter from the California Labor Commissioner proving that I’m really an employee and awarding me money for the many illegal paycheck deductions the company took and the 4,325 hours of work they never paid me for. XPO has appealed the ruling and continues to misclassify me and deny me my employee rights.

Can you believe that a company can get away with stealing from one of its workers? Corporate lawbreaking is rampant, and it happens all across America. And there are 10,000 truck drivers at the Ports of LA and Long Beach in the same situation as me! Because it’s not just my future at stake but the stake of working men and women across America, I decided to stand up and fight by organizing and going on strike with my coworkers six times against XPO and other trucking companies.

I ask for your support by joining me in calling on the Mayors of Los Angeles and Long Beach to stop corporate lawbreakers hurting workers at our ports.

Will you join me by sharing this graphic on Facebook in an effort to get the mayors of LA and Long Beach to take action?

Thank you,

Jose Herrera
Misclassified Los Angeles/Long Beach Port Driver
XPO Logistics


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[ckaihatsu]

Students faced assault and eviction for speaking out


Students at Fordham University faced assault, eviction and now charges.

My name is Gina Foley, member of Fordham Students United, USAS Local 150. Our group has been organizing alongside adjunct faculty since 2015 in their fight for a union, and a voice at the table.
Last week, members of our group led a peaceful march to our President’s building to demand an answer on our faculty’s right to organize, and were instead met with physical assault by university employed public safety officers, disciplinary sanctions, and evictions.

Instead of protecting our right to free speech and collective action on campus - we were physically assaulted by our university safety officers. As we marched across campus to the President’s office, public safety officers approached our group and physically engaged our students - yanking on our shirts and bags. As we attempted to enter the building, we were roughly pushed, grabbed and pressed up against walls by public safety. Despite chanting louder and louder for them to “Let Us Go!”, the officers responded with escalated aggression. Several of our members left injured and traumatized by this experience.

Our President, Reverend Joseph McShane S.J. hid in his office while public safety officers physically assaulted students.

Join us in calling on Father McShane to end violent assault of student protesters.



Rather than address these attacks, the university is now charging multiple students with assault, evicted students out of on campus housing without notice, banned students from campus outside of class and work, and has demanded fourteen members of our group attend disciplinary hearings.

We need your support to show Fordham that intimidation and violence against students won’t stop our movement.

Call Father McShane now to demand an end to this retaliation.

If Fordham University can get away with this severe retaliation against student organizing, it sets a dangerous precedent for other universities to follow. Our Jesuit community is supposed to be rooted in values of social justice and cura personalis, “care for the whole person,” but instead, Father McShane continues to put profit over worker’s rights - and ignore student voices.

We ask your solidarity with students and faculty at Fordham University. Father McShane cannot stop us, we will continue to demand dignity for all of our faculty at Fordham University.

In solidarity,

Gina Foley

Fordham Students United

USAS Local 150





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United Students Against Sweatshops | USAS.org
Organizing for Student and Worker Power

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[ckaihatsu]

Listen to #Walmartwomen


Dear Chris Kaihatsu,

My name is Janie Grice and next month I’ll be speaking at Walmart’s annual shareholder meeting near Bentonville, AR.

As you can read in this article, the women who work at Walmart (together with our brothers, but we women are the majority!) are fighting for real policy changes at Walmart that will bring economic stability to our families.

Please support us by reading and share this on your FB page to let your friends know you stand with us:

What Walmart and the Trumps Get Wrong About #WomenWhoWork

Wages are only part of the picture, having a sick day policy that allows us to care for ourselves and our children is also critical. So is a fixed schedule, so we can arrange for day care and even get a second job to pay the bills.

Women have had enough of the empty words from Walmart’s CEO and from Trump and his daughter. People who work at Walmart and all U.S. workers need real pro-woman policies, not empty promises.

Please also join us by reading, sharing and signing on to Walmart Women’s Call for Economic Stability signed by #WalmartWomen across the country and many leading women's rights and economic justice organizations.

Together we’ll win for #Walmartwomen! We'll send you more soon on how you can get involved - winning a public commitment to real policy changes will take all of us.

Thank you,

Janie Grice, South Carolina

OUR Walmart







P.S. We’re also challenging Walmart and the Waltons to end their greenwashing and do more to protect our environment. Here’s a preview of how we’ll also bring that message to the shareholder’s meeting.

Organization United for Respect (OUR) is a non-profit organization, organized under the laws of the District of Columbia. OUR brings together low-income workers, their families and communities to improve working conditions in the retail industry throughout the United States, promote human and civil rights secured by law, build strong and healthy communities, and end all forms of discrimination. OUR Walmart is a project of OUR. OUR does not intend or seek to represent retail employees over terms and conditions of employment, or to bargain with retail employers, including Walmart.


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[ckaihatsu]

UIC workers picket for end to wage discrimination



By staff

Chicago, IL - On May 1, over 250 workers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) picketed to demand a fair contract. Many members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73 have been without a contract for almost two years.

In February, the University of Illinois campus in downstate Urbana-Champaign, settled with Local 73 members there for a three-year deal with modest wage increases in each year. UIC workers are being offered a wage increase in only one year of a four year contract. This is despite the fact that the cost of living is higher in Chicago.

Samella Wright, an administrative worker, was picketing because of the history of a racist pay disparity at UIC. When UIC opened in 1965, the mainly Black workers were hired at wages $1 or $2 an hour less than the mainly white workers in Urbana-Champaign. SEIU Local 73 fought for years to win pay equity with Urbana, finally winning in 2001 for most job titles.

Ms. Wright started working at UIC right out of high school in the early 1970s. By the time her title re-ceived parity with her Urbana counterpart, she had worked 60,000 hours at the lower pay rate. When the UIC workers finally gained the Urbana pay grade, there was no back pay in the agreement.

Mood of the masses

The Local 73 members who marched included building service and food service workers, nurses aides, medical assistants, lab techs and professionals. Jeff McCaster, a union steward and member of the Service and Maintenance bargaining committee helped lead chants. After the picket line, he said, “The members are ready for a fight for the deal that Urbana got.” Regina Russell, a customer service repre-sentative and part of the clerical bargaining team, said “The members in Patient Access are pissed off that once again, the university is introducing unequal wages and discriminating against us.”

The picketers started with the chant: “One, two, three, four! We won't take it anymore. Five, six, seven, eight, UI must not discriminate!”

As the picket line swelled, another chant rose from the crowd. “U – I, you know, racist treatment has got to go!” And then the mainly Black and Latino union members took up the chant from the Black Lives Matter movement, “What do we want? Justice? And if we don’t get it? Shut it down!”

More than 4000 workers are covered by the four expired contracts. Bargaining will continue in the coming days with a federal mediator.

Read more News and Views from the Peoples Struggle at http://www.fightbacknews.org. You can write to us at [email protected]

[ckaihatsu]

Workers Blacklisted for Speaking Out Need Your Help


Chris Kaihatsu,

In October 2015, 8 tobacco farmworkers decided to speak out against pervasive wage theft and intimidation on their farm in Newton Grove, NC where they were employed through the Farm Labor Contractor Jr. Perez. After the workers spoke to auditors from the tobacco company Phillip Morris International (PMI) as well as the US Department of Labor about the issues and saw no results, they collaborated with FLOC to stage a work stoppage to recover their stolen wages. The workers were then retaliated against and blacklisted by Jr. Perez, who continues to deny them employment.

PMI boasts having higher labor standards than most tobacco companies including freedom of association and collective bargaining rights for workers in their supply chain, but when FLOC has pressed them on how these standards apply to real life situations, they are silent. To date, PMI has not informed FLOC of any actions taken to protect and defend the 8 workers who risked their livelihoods to fix inequities in PMI’s supply chain.

On May 3, 2017 during PMI’s shareholders meeting in New York, President Velasquez and New York religious leaders questioned PMI on their lack of response to the blacklisting of the 8 FLOC members. They also presented a resolution that would allow PMI to fix systemic issues in their supply chain and empower more workers to come out of the shadows. In response, PMI Chairman Camilleri stated that they would work with both the Farm Labor Practices Group as well as FLOC to create a proper grievance mechanism that would transform their written policies into real tools that workers can use to correct labor violations. PMI needs to act fast, not just for the 8 workers blacklisted by Jr. Perez, but for all farmworkers who face human rights abuses but are silenced by the threat of retaliation. For more information on the meeting, click here!

Here are some tweets you can share in support of the 8 blacklisted workers and FLOC’s global campaign for freedom of association for all tobacco farm workers!

@InsidePMI standards without a mechanism to enforce them = no standards. Work with @SupportFLOC to #EndRetaliation

@InsidePMI No more empty promises! #Farmworkers need protections from retaliation and threats #EndRetaliation

@InsidePMI #Farmworkers are risking their livelihoods to fix inequities in your supply chain. How will you protect them? #EndRetaliation

@InsidePMI Do what’s right and use your power to #EndRetaliation and remove the 8 @SupportFLOC members from Jr. Perez’s blacklist!


Hasta La Victoria!

The FLOC Team


To find out more about the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO, please visit our website at www.floc.com.

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[ckaihatsu]

Teachers vote unanimously to strike at one of Chicago’s oldest charter schools

By staff

Chicago, IL - Union educators at Passages Charter School voted overwhelmingly to strike, May 4, after nearly a year of bargaining with management has failed to produce a decent contract. Teachers voted 43 to zero to strike, in a bargaining unit of 46 members. The May 4 vote authorizes the bargaining committee to set a strike date in the coming weeks if they do not receive an acceptable offer.

The strike would be the first of a charter school network in the nation.

Passages was one of the first charter schools created in Chicago, and today serves roughly 500 students -- including a large population of immigrant and refugee students of Asian and African heritage. Passages’ 46 union educators - including teachers, teachers assistants and paraprofessionals - were certified last April as members of ChiACTS Local 4343, which represents educators at 32 charter schools in Chicago. The school’s educators have been negotiating for a new contract since May of 2016.

“We care deeply about our students,” says third grade teacher Gina Mengarelli, a member of Passages’ ChiACTS bargaining team. “Many of our kids, as refugees and immigrants, look to the school as an environment to support the hopes and dreams they bring to their new country. It is simply wrong for management to invest so little in these children and the frontline workers who are responsible for their education. The primary reason we formed a union at Passages in the first place was so that we could have more voice in decisions that affect our students. And now we’re demanding a contract that allows that.”

The union educators charge that the school’s management spends too much on management and overhead compared to other single-site charters, and too little on staff and students. Many teachers with BAs and even master’s degrees earn salaries in the $30,000 - $40,000 range for work weeks that can top 60 hours. Spending on students’ education at Passages is also at the bottom of the barrel among comparable publicly-funded charter schools in Chicago.

At the same time, the current and former CEOs of AHS - Asian Human Services, the agency that runs Passages - together last year earned more than twice that of Forrest Claypool, the CEO of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and its 400,000 students. Last year, Passages paid their retired CEO $381,000 - and paid $540,000 in total last year to two people, their current and former CEOs. The combined current salaries for Passages’ 46 bargaining unit members is $1.7 million.

Besides refusing to consider teachers’ proposals to improve compensation, which is currently on average 20% lower than that at comparable charter schools in Chicago, management has also proposed eliminating paid maternity and paternity leave, a proposal completely unacceptable to educators at a workplace where the vast majority of employees are women. In addition, management in recent years has cut classes that include music and Spanish, which, along with Urdu, is the language most commonly spoken by immigrant students, and failed to fulfill promises to create recreational programs like basketball for students.

Teachers are also calling for greater fiscal oversight at the school, including improvements in the percentage of dollars that management spends on students instead of on its own compensation.

AHS spends a greater percentage of the Passages school budget on management costs and a lower percentage on direct student and personnel costs than every other single-site charter in the city except one. The average single-site charter spends a quarter on management and overhead for every dollar they spend on school staff and students, whereas Passages spends 50 cents for every dollar. Passages is also an outlier when it comes to teacher salaries, with teachers earning 20% less than teachers at other Chicago charters. That low spending level for the school’s dedicated teachers and staff lands Passages far below the average in budget comparisons across charters.

“We really believe in the mission of this school, but management needs to provide us the resources to carry out that mission, says Passages paraprofessional Ann Stella-Tayler. We’ve been negotiating for almost a year, and our members are united in telling AHS that it’s past time that they treat Passages students, teachers and staff fairly.”

Passages has no income outside of what it collects from Chicago Public Schools, and union members charge that the disparity in salaries for Passages educators and those at other charters is driven by AHS mismanagement of funds and the fact that AHS simply does not contribute enough to the school’s budget from its own funds. Chicago’s other single-site charters typically provide 5-10% of their financial resources from private fundraising revenue - a practice touted in the early days of the CPS push for charters as a way to harness private dollars to support publicly funded education. Passages raises zero dollars from private fundraising revenue.

“These educators are the heart of the school and their students’ greatest advocates,” says Chris Baehrend, President of ChiACTS Local 4343. “No teacher wants to strike. We want to be in class, with our students, where we belong. But if it takes a strike to force change that improves the education of Passages’ students, then our members will be on the picket line until we achieve those improvements.”

Passages’ union educators will be back at the bargaining table next week.

Read more News and Views from the Peoples Struggle at http://www.fightbacknews.org. You can write to us at [email protected]

[ckaihatsu]

Teachers OK Strike at Passages Charter - Labor Beat video


Teachers OK Strike at Passages Charter
https://youtu.be/b9arBD4vKP0

+ YouTube Video

Teachers at one of Chicago’s oldest charter schools have voted 100% in favor of authorizing a strike, if Passages Charter School makes it necessary to do just that. ChiACTS Local 4343 announced the vote of 43 Yes, 0 No at a May 4, 2017 rally in front of the school. Charter school unionization and faculty militancy has been increasing in the last year or so, with overwhelming pro-strike votes at Chicago charters UNO and ASPIRA more recently, the latter two votes convincing management to agree to a contract, thus averting any strike at the last minute. If Passages doesn’t see the slogan writing on the wall, this would become the first strike in charter school history nationally. Chicago is taking a lead in charter school unionization, complicating things for Education Secretary Betsy DeVoss’ school privatization/profit dreams. Length - 4:53


Gina Mengarelli, 3rd grade teacher, announces vote results. Photo: Labor Beat

Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner. Labor Beat is a non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220. Views are those of the producer Labor Beat. For info: [email protected], www.laborbeat.org. 312-226-3330. Labor Beat, 37 S. Ashland Ave., Chicago, IL 60607. For other Labor Beat videos, visit YouTube and search "Labor Beat". On Chicago CAN TV Channel 19, Thursdays 9:30 pm; Fridays 4:30 pm. Labor Beat is a regular cable-tv series in Chicago, Rockford, Urbana, IL; Philadelphia, PA; Princeton, NJ; Cambridge, MA.