WHY ALL AMERICANS NEED STRONG LABOR UNIONS

By William Barber II

August 29, 2017

This Labor Day, tens of thousands of men and women are rising up in Chicago and cities from coast to coast to demand that everyone in America have the right to organize and join a union.

I’m proud to stand with them, because their fight is central to the battle against poverty, racism, and inequality.  

Earlier this year I announced an effort by faith and moral leaders to carry forward Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of a Poor People’s Campaign. We are working across twenty-five states to alleviate the triad forces of poverty, militarism, and racism that Dr. King knew were poisoning our country then and still threaten us today.  

The first Poor People’s Campaign was launched by Dr. King less than a year before his death. His goal was to unite people from all backgrounds and races to confront the politicians who rigged the system against them. In pursuit of that vision, Dr. King traveled to Memphis in April 1968 and joined local sanitation workers fighting for their union rights – where he was assassinated.

Dr. King understood that with a union, the sanitation workers could win better pay, alleviate horrific working conditions, and secure better lives for their families. The fight for union rights was central to his conception of a Poor People’s Campaign – and it will be to our effort as well.

Unions can lift families out of poverty and give working people the power to combat systemic racism and injustice.

For many black Americans, public sector unions were the traditional path into the middle-class. black union workers earn $24/hour compared to an average of $17.78/hour for people without a union, and they’re more likely to have crucial benefits like health care.

However, years of attacks on unions and the right to organize by corporations and the politicians they support have led to a loss of bargaining power, wages, and wealth for workers.

Researchers at Harvard found that reductions in union jobs accounts for 33 percent inequality among men, and 40 percent among women since the early 1970s.

The losses cut across racial lines, but black workers have been hardest hit. Since 1983, the percentage of black workers in a union has declined 55.2 percent, compared to 43.6 percent for white workers. It’s no wonder that that more than halfof black working people make less than $15/hour.           

Coming together in unions gives workers more than just bargaining power. It gives them political power to defend against attacks on everything from healthcare to voting rights by a reactionary White House.

Unions helped lead the fight to pass the Affordable Care Act that extended health care to more than 20 million Americans, and have been at the forefront of the fight to block attempts by Congress and the Administration to gut it.

Unions give workers the power to fight for living wages on a mass scale. Union and nonunion workers fighting for $15/hour and the right to organize have won raises for another 20 million workers, and set 10 million on the road to a living wage of $15.

When working people stand together in unions, they can achieve incredible things.  

Recently, Pope Francis called labor unions “prophetic” institutions which provide “a voice to those who have none.”

He’s right. The fight for union rights is a fight against poverty and inequality, and the Bible is clear about both. There are 2,000 scriptures in the Bible that address poverty, and Jesus’s ministry started with the poor and those oppressed by the state.  

Today, working men and women across the nation are banding together to say that America needs unions. They’re fighting right-wing governors and legislators who have rolled back minimum wage increases from Birmingham to Kansas City, and who are trying to make it harder for workers to organize.

And they’re telling the politicians who have allowed or enabled attacks on unions that they must choose whether to stand with working people or with the powerful corporations and interests that hold down working people of all colors and creeds.

The New Poor People’s Campaign will join them in their fight.

Bills in Congress Would Short-Cut ‘Quickie Election Rule,’ ‘Micro-Unit’ Reversals

By Adam C. Doerr, Howard M. Bloom and Philip B. Rosen

August 28, 2017

With the recent confirmation of Marvin Kaplan to the National Labor Relations Board, the Obama (pro-union) Board is officially transitioning into a Trump (pro-business) Board. With that, Republicans hope, will come a change in the Board’s jurisprudence with respect to labor-friendly rulings by the Obama Board.

At the top of the “wish list for reversal” are the Board’s joint employer decision, its “quickie-election” rules, and its endorsement of “micro-units.”

Those doctrines, opponents argue, allow labor unions to ignore the wishes of union dissenters and gerrymander groups of employees who most support unionization to maximize the chances of unionization. Because shorter communications campaigns by employers reduce employers’ opportunity to effective communicate their “union-free” message to employees, unions win more often when elections are quicker.

At least some Republicans in Congress are not willing to wait for the Board to rule on appropriate test cases to reverse course.

The “Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act,” H.R. 2776, was introduced by Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) on June 6, 2017, and received prompt attention from the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Ten other Republican Representatives have signed on as co-sponsors, and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn) has introduced a virtually identical bill in the Senate (S. 1350).

H.R. 2776 would undo many key aspects of the “quickie election” rules, including:

1.   Requiring any pre-election hearing be held at least 14 days after the filing of a petition (instead of the average 8-10 days before a hearing under the current rules);

2.   Requiring all relevant and material issues that may moot or impact the election are resolved prior to the holding of the election. (Under current rules, most issues cannot be litigated until after the election); and

3.   Ensuring that an election is not held sooner than 35 days after the filing of a petition. (Elections are currently held in about 23 days, and sometimes as quick as 11 days, after petition is filed).

H.R. 2776 also would change how the Board analyzes a petitioned-for bargaining unit:

1.   The Board must determine “the” appropriate unit (rather than evaluate whether a proposed unit is “an” [one of possibly two or more] appropriate unit);

2.   The bargaining unit must include all employees with a “sufficient” community of interest, according to eight factors, and the burden is on the requesting party to demonstrate that certain employees should be excluded based on having sufficiently distinct interests; and

3.   Accretions (additions to an existing bargaining unit) must have an “overwhelming” community of interest before they are added.

While unions may “campaign” long before a petition is filed, and may directly ask employees whether they support unionization (which is illegal for employers to do), employers benefit from a longer campaign period to explain its message and perspective on unionization. By emphasizing the importance of inclusion of employees in the bargaining unit, the proposals would prevent unions from carving out dissenters based on slight differences in their particular work, conditions, or environment.

One way or another, expect to see significant changes in the NLRB’s jurisprudence.

North Korean missile flies over Japan, escalating tensions and prompting an angry response from Tokyo

By Anna Fifield

August 28, 2017

 North Korea launched a ballistic missile Tuesday morning that flew over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, public broadcaster NHK reported. The government issued an alert for residents in some prefectures to take cover.

Although North Korea has sent a missile over Japan once before – in 1998 – this launch comes at a time of heightened tensions. Pyongyang has been threatening to fire a missile over Japan and into the waters around the American territory of Guam. 

“We'll make the utmost effort to protect the public,” a visibly agitated Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, told reporters at his office early Tuesday morning. NHK showed Patriot missiles lined up in Japan, a staunch U.S. ally, ready to shoot down any incoming missiles.

The Japanese government convened an emergency national security council meeting for 8 a.m. to discuss the threat.

The missile was launched at 5:58 a.m. Japanese time from a site at Sunan, north of Pyongyang. Sunan is the location of the country’s main international airport.

There was initial confusion over how many missiles were fired. Japan reported that three missiles had been launched, but later clarified to say that it thought one missile had been launched but that it had broken into three parts during flight.

The missile flew over Hokkaido at 6:06 a.m. It traveled 733 miles to land in the Pacific Ocean east of Hokkaido’s Cape Erimo, NHK reported. 

South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff also confirmed that the missile had passed over Japan.

Tuesday’s launches, on the heels of three short-range missiles fired Saturday, come amid ongoing joint exercises between the United States and South Korean militaries, exercises that North Korea always strongly protests because it considers them preparation for an invasion

The launches mark a dangerous new escalation from Kim Jong Un’s regime. 

Kim — who has ordered the launch of 18 missiles this year alone, compared to the 16 missiles his father, Kim Jong Il, fired during 17 years in power —has defied international calls to stop his provocations.

Missile launches and nuclear tests are banned by the United Nations Security Council so the North Korean action consistutes a violation that will elicit more angry condemnation.

Missile launches and nuclear tests are banned by the United Nations Security Council so the North Korean action consistutes a violation that will elicit more angry condemnation.

Last month, North Korea launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles theoretically capable of reaching the mainland United States.

Kim’s regime had been threatening to fire a missile to pass over Japan and land near Guam, the American territory in the Pacific Ocean that is home to two huge U.S. military bases, by the middle of this month. However, Kim later said that after reviewing the plans, he would “watch the Yankees a little longer” before making a decision whether to launch.

North Korea listed prefectures including Hiroshima, Ehime and Kochi as on the flight path. But Tuesday’s missile went in the other direction, north over Hokkaido and away from Guam.

After the Guam threat, President Trump has warned North Korea that “things will happen to them like they never thought possible” should the isolated country attack the United States or its allies.

Trump’s business sought deal on a Trump Tower in Moscow while he ran for president

By Carol D. Leonning, Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman

August 27, 2017

While Donald Trump was running for president in late 2015 and early 2016, his company was pursuing a plan to develop a massive Trump Tower in Moscow, according to several people familiar with the proposal and new records reviewed by Trump Organization lawyers.

As part of the discussions, a Russian-born real estate developer urged Trump to come to Moscow to tout the proposal and suggested that he could get President Vladimir Putin to say “great things” about Trump, according to several people who have been briefed on his correspondence.

The developer, Felix Sater, predicted in a November 2015 email that he and Trump Organization leaders would soon be celebrating — both one of the biggest residential projects in real estate history and Donald Trump’s election as president, according to two of the people with knowledge of the exchange.

Sater wrote to Trump Organization Executive Vice President Michael Cohen “something to the effect of, ‘Can you believe two guys from Brooklyn are going to elect a president?’ ” said one person briefed on the email exchange. Sater emigrated from what was then the Soviet Union when he was 6 and grew up in Brooklyn.

Trump never went to Moscow as Sater proposed. And although investors and Trump’s company signed a letter of intent, they lacked the land and permits to proceed and the project was abandoned at the end of January 2016, just before the presidential primaries began, several people familiar with the proposal said.

Nevertheless, the details of the deal, which have not previously been disclosed, provide evidence that Trump’s business was actively pursuing significant commercial interests in Russia at the same time he was campaigning to be president — and in a position to determine U.S.-Russia relations. The new details from the emails, which are scheduled to be turned over to congressional investigators soon, also point to the likelihood of additional contacts between Russia-connected individuals and Trump associates during his presidential bid.

White House officials declined to comment for this report. Cohen, a longtime Trump legal adviser, declined to comment, but his attorney, Stephen Ryan, said his client “has been cooperating and will continue to cooperate with both the House and Senate intelligence committees, including providing them with documents and information and answering any questions they may have about the Moscow building proposal.”

In recent months, contacts between high-ranking and lower- level Trump aides and Russians have emerged. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, then a U.S. senator and campaign adviser, twice met Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Donald Trump Jr. organized a June 2016 meeting with campaign aide Jared Kushner, campaign manager Paul Manafort and a Russian lawyer after the president’s eldest son was promised that the lawyer would bring damaging information about Hillary Clinton as part of a Russian government effort to help the campaign.

Internal emails also show campaign adviser George Papadopoulos repeatedly sought to organize meetings with campaign officials, including Trump, and Putin or other Russians. His efforts were rebuffed.

The negotiations for the Moscow project ended before Trump’s business ties to Russia had become a major issue in the campaign. Trump denied having any business connections to Russia in July 2016, tweeting, “for the record, I have ZERO investments in Russia” and then insisting at a news conference the following day, “I have nothing to do with Russia.”

Discussions about the Moscow project began in earnest in September 2015, according to people briefed on the deal. An unidentified investor planned to build the project and, under a licensing agreement, put Trump’s name on it. Cohen acted as a lead negotiator for the Trump Organization. It is unclear how involved or aware Trump was of the negotiations.

As the talks progressed, Trump voiced numerous supportive comments about Putin, setting himself apart from his Republican rivals for the nomination.

By the end of 2015, Putin began offering praise in return.

“He says that he wants to move to another, closer level of relations. Can we really not welcome that? Of course, we welcome that,” Putin told reporters during his annual end-of-the year news conference. He called Trump a “colorful and talented” person. Trump said afterward that the compliment was an “honor.”

Though Putin’s comments came shortly after Sater suggested that the Russian president would speak favorably about Trump, there is no indication that the two are connected.

There is no public record that Trump has ever spoken about the effort to build a Trump Tower in 2015 and 2016.

Trump’s interests in building in Moscow, however, are long-standing. He had attempted to build a Trump property for three decades, starting with a failed effort in 1987 to partner with the Soviet government on a hotel project.

“Russia is one of the hottest places in the world for investment,” he said in a 2007 court deposition.

“We will be in Moscow at some point,” he promised in the deposition.

Sater was involved in at least one of those previous efforts. In 2005, the Trump Organization gave his development company, the Bayrock Group, an exclusive one-year deal to attempt to build a Moscow Trump Tower. Sater located a site for the project — an abandoned pencil factory — and worked closely with Trump on the deal, which did not come to fruition.

In an unrelated court case in 2008, Sater said in a deposition that he would personally provide Trump “verbal updates” on the deal.

“When I’d come back, pop my head into Mr. Trump’s office and tell him, you know, ‘Moving forward on the Moscow deal.’ And he would say, ‘All right,’ ” Sater said.

In the same testimony, Sater described traveling with Trump’s children, including joining Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. on a trip to Moscow at their father’s request.

“They were on their way by themselves, and he was all concerned,” Sater said. “He asked if I wouldn’t mind joining them and looking after them while they were in Moscow.”

Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, told The Washington Post last year that Sater happened to be in Moscow at the same time as Trump’s two adult children. “There was no accompanying them to Moscow,” he said.

Neither Sater nor his attorney responded to requests for comment.

Trump has repeatedly tried to distance himself from Sater, who served time in jail after assaulting a man with the stem of a broken margarita glass during a 1991 bar fight and then pleaded guilty in 1998 to his role in an organized- crime-linked stock fraud. Sater’s sentencing was delayed for years while he cooperated with the federal government on a series of criminal and national security-related investigations, federal officials have said.

During that time, Sater worked as an executive with Bayrock, whose offices were in Trump Tower, and brokered deals to license Trump’s name for developments in multiple U.S. and foreign cities. In 2010, Trump allowed Sater to briefly work out of Trump Organization office space and use a business card that identified him as a “senior adviser to Donald Trump.”

Still, when asked about Sater in 2013 court deposition, Trump said: “If he were sitting in the room right now, I really wouldn’t know what he looked like.” He added that he had spoken with Sater “not many” times.