Labor unions oppose Puerto Rico debt-relief bill

By Vicki Needham 

05/20/16

Seven of the nation’s largest labor unions on Friday urged House lawmakers to oppose a bill aimed at helping Puerto Rico restructure its $72 billion in debt.

The broad range of unions, including the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the United Auto Workers Union (UAW), said that the reworked fiscal measure would hurt workers on the island.  

In a letter to House lawmakers, the unions wrote that the bill “provides no economic stimulus, and in fact takes money out of the economy by reducing the minimum wage and overtime protections" for the more than 50,000 union members they represent in Puerto Rico. 

They urged Congress to "get back to work immediately to provide real solutions that allow Puerto Rico to negotiate a feasible debt restructuring plan, protects Puerto Rican workers and retirees, and provides economic stimulus so that the territory may achieve economic growth."

A markup of the reworked bill, which has bipartisan support on Capitol Hill and from the White House, will start Tuesday evening with opening statements. The panel will move to the bill on Wednesday morning, the House Natural Resources Committee announced on Friday.

The legislation would establish an outside control board to oversee Puerto Rico’s finances while allowing the debt restructuring through the courts.

“The people of Puerto Rico face an urgent humanitarian and fiscal crisis brought on by more than a decade of recession, excessive debt and Wall Street demands for austerity,” the unions wrote.

"Any restructuring package must also protect the accrued pension benefits of Puerto Rican workers and retirees, retain worker protections that apply to all working people in the U.S. including minimum wage and overtime protections, and preserve the democratic rights of the people of Puerto Rico," they wrote.

The measure is backed by the White House, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

The bill was repeatedly delayed as negotiators worked out issues raised by both parties and the White House.

Labor Unions and Al Sharpton: An Enduring Partner ship

By Carl Horowitz 

04/22/2016 

With few exceptions, unions are powerful engines of egalitarian policy and its most potent political vehicle, the Democratic Party.  As the party platform now heavily overlaps with that of demagogic black identity politicians like Al Sharpton, labor leaders have become prominent supporters of Sharpton and his New York-based nonprofit, National Action Network (NAN).  The bond was very much in evidence at Manhattan’s Sheraton Times Square Hotel last Friday afternoon at a panel, “The State of American Labor Unions Today,” one of nearly 30 panels convened during the NAN annual convention held April 13-16.  Despite a couple of no-shows, the speakers satisfied the mostly black crowd, calling for more union organizing, more government programs and more activism to counter the "racist" Right.

Labor and civil rights activists long have marched hand in hand, literally as well as figuratively.  Unions provided the main ammunition for civil rights federal legislation of a half-century or more ago.  Most Americans may not be aware of it, but the August 28, 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his defining “I Have a Dream” speech, was as much a rally for trade unionism as for civil rights.  King was the marquee speaker of the event, formally known as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, but it was labor officials who laid the groundwork.  The prime movers of that event were:  Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers; A. Philip Randolph, founder-president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and a vice president of the AFL-CIO; and Bayard Rustin, head of the AFL-CIO’s A. Philip Randolph Institute.  Martin Luther King’s fateful visits to Memphis in 1968 were prompted by requests for support from local black ministers for an organizing drive by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers (AFSCME) of city sanitation workers.  And decades later, as I explained in a Special Report for National Legal and Policy Center, various unions were establishing close links with self-styled "anti-racist" revolutionaries in opposing American military involvement in the Middle East.  

Al Sharpton knows all this.  That’s why one of the panels of the National Action Network four-day extravaganza last week consisted of highly partisan union officials and allies.  He also knows that blacks constitute a comparatively large share of the unionized work force.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 13.6 percent of all U.S. black workers in 2015 belonged to a labor union.  The respective percentages for whites, Asians and Hispanics were 10.8 percent, 9.8 percent and 9.4 percent.  Among New York City public-sector unions, especially local affiliates of AFSCME and the AFSCME District Council 37 Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the percentages for blacks appear to be far higher.  Vocal support was in evidence among the audience.

The principal speaker on the labor issues panel was J. David Cox, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees.  Cox, whose Washington, D.C.-based union represents roughly 675,000 federal and District of Columbia government workers, expressed the belief that most social problems in this country could be solved with large increases in union membership. Unions, he argued, are the primary engine of social progress.  Moreover, they stand out as true allies of racial minorities and women.  Cox, a native of North Carolina, stringently denounced the recent challenge by Rebecca Friedrichs and her co-plaintiff teachers to the longstanding public-sector union practice of forcing nonmembers to pay partial dues or “agency fees.”  Late in March, the U.S. Supreme Court, deadlocked at 4-4, declined to issue a ruling in that California case, effectively upholding a dismissal by a federal appeals court.

Others spoke, too, and with the same kind of urgency.  Jill Furillo, executive director of the New York State Nurses Association, spoke of her organization’s aggressive campaign to prevent hospital closings, singling out National Action Network for praise in siding with health care workers.  She declared:  “We must be advocates for communities.”  Brianne Gorod, chief counsel for the hard-Left Washignton, D.C.-based nonprofit legal group, Constitutional Accountability Center, echoed basic union positions on economics.  “It’s time to give America a raise,” she said.  "People need a raise, whether or not they belong to a union."  Gorod, like Cox, also expressed relief over the Supreme Court non-ruling in Friedrichs and anger over the fact that the plaintiffs even were given legal standing.  Henry Garrido, executive director of AFSCME District Council 37, was even more aggressive.  “There is an open war on labor in this country,” he said.  Garrido denounced the recent passage by the State of West Virginia of a Right to Work law that will protect private-sector workers in that state from mandatory dues contributions.  The Right to Work idea, he added, originated decades ago with a known “white racist” (which, even if true, is utterly irrelevant to the Right to Work principle itself).  He also skewered the Wisconsin public-sector reform law of 2011 as a disaster, claiming it has led to drastic cuts in wages and benefits and a doubling of fatal workplace accidents.  Shane Harris, a black San Diego pastor and president of the National Action Network chapter in that city, offered loud (if not necessarily persuasive) commentary.  He argued that unions should be seen as human rights organizations, not simply labor organizations.  Unions, Harris argued, are a reflection of a larger struggle for justice in every aspect of life; thus, all of us have a moral imperative to support them.

The panel might have been even more heated had a pair of listed invitees shown up:  Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and George Gresham, president of Service Employees Local 1199, which represents about 300,000 active and retired health care workers in New York City and elsewhere.  These are two of the most powerful union leaders in the country, not just in New York City.  The AFT, as much as any labor organization could, supported Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign of 2008.  And it is working overtime to get her elected this time around.  SEIU Local 1199 provided crucial help to the Obama White House in securing passage of the Affordable Care Act of 2010.  Al Sharpton knows who his political friends are. 

The interests of unions and National Action Network heavily intersect.  That’s why the AFGE, AFSCME, AFT, SEIU and New York State Nurses Association each helped bankroll the recently-concluded NAN convention.  And, no coincidence, that’s why NAN set up a labor issues panel for top representatives of these very organizations.  Unions, especially public-sector unions, are moving ever further leftward, especially on racial issues.  That’s the way the Reverend Al likes it.  Thanks to union support, Sharpton and his inner circle are now more equipped than ever to launch campaigns against chosen “racist” targets.  National Action Network and its union allies might wind up better off, but our nation as a whole surely won’t.

Autoworker union endorsement could come too late to influence Michigan primary

By Emily Lawler

2/17/2016

LANSING, MI -- Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders visited United Auto Workers Local 600 in Dearborn this week, but it's fully possible the union won't endorse a candidate until well after Michigan's March 8 primary.

"We have made no endorsements. Our regions are going through their internal processes which are ongoing," said UAW international spokesperson Brian Rothenberg.

In 2008, the UAW international executive board endorsed now-President Barack Obama in June, well after Michigan's January primary. President Barack Obama ran unopposed in Michigan's 2012 Democratic primary.

Where it does come into play ,the UAW endorsement can be powerful, said UAW Local 6000 legislative liaison Ray Holman.

"I think that the UAW is one of the most important and significant unions in the world and its home is right here in Michigan. So of course any endorsement from the UAW carries a lot of weight," Holman said.

Typically unions decide who they're supporting for president on the national or international level, and their state and local members mobilize for that person.

And the union boost can be significant. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Michigan had 585,000 union members in 2014. The Michigan AFL-CIO, a federation of union groups, boasts 1 million active and retired union members across the state.

That amounts to about 13 percent of the state's voting age population, which according to the census bureau totaled 7.69 million in 2014.

In 2008, the AFL-CIO endorsed Barack Obama in June, well after Michigan's primary. In 2012 the AFL-CIO endorsed him on March 13, also well after Michigan's Feb. 28 primary.

But some major unions have already handed down endorsements. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees endorsed Hillary Clinton in October.

AFSCME members "want the candidate who will be the most effective champion for working families, and who will be able to deliver a victory in this critically important election. AFSCME members believe that candidate is Hillary Clinton," said AFSCME President Lee Saunders in a statement.

AFSCME has between 60,000 and 65,000 members in the state, said Michigan AFSCME Council 25 legislative liaison Nick Ciaramitaro.

Clinton has also garnered endorsements from unions with big Michigan presences including the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and the SEIU, according to information provided by her campaign. The Sanders campaign, meanwhile, has gathered endorsements from National Nurses United, Communications Workers of America and American Postal Workers Union.

A holiday boost for UAW workers

Melissa Burden, Michael Wayland and Michael Martinez, The Detroit News12:32 a.m. EST November 24, 2015

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(Photo: The Detroit News)

An estimated 142,000 American autoworkers, including 60,000 in Michigan, will receive retroactive pay and $3,000-$10,000 signing bonuses before Christmas, following contract ratifications between Detroit’s Big Three and the United Auto Workers.

Collectively, contract bonuses from General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV are estimated to put more than $400 million, before taxes, into the pockets of hourly union members in this state. In addition, they’ll get retroactive pay from mid-September, when the previous contract expired.

Retailers across Metro Detroit and in plant communities across the U.S. are gearing up for the potential influx of buyers. Some businesses are soliciting autoworkers with special offers.

“Detroit’s retail fate and the auto industry are one and the same,” said Rachel Tronstein, president of Auburn Hills-based furniture retailer Gardner White. “We plan everything around it.”

At Gardner White furniture, autoworkers can receive about $500 cash back on purchases if they pay up front with bonus money. That offer can be combined with Black Friday deals.

GM and Ford contracts became effective Monday, following ratification Friday.

■Fiat Chrysler workers rejected their first tentative contract before passing a second, more lucrative deal. The automaker’s 36,600 U.S. hourly workers received ratification bonuses Nov. 6, according to a compensation time line obtained by The Detroit News. Entry-level, or in-progression, workers received $3,000; veteran workers received $4,000.

Fiat Chrysler-UAW workers are expected to get retroactive pay to make up the difference in wages from the time the former contract was extended until approval of the new contract — a period running from Sept. 15 through Oct. 25. Checks are expected Dec. 4.

■GM’s 52,700 U.S. hourly employees will receive lump-sum ratification payments of $8,000 for most hourly workers, and $2,000 for temporary workers. Those payments will come in Dec. 4 paychecks. The payout could total more than $420 million nationally, with more than $150 million going to GM’s Michigan workers.

Retroactive pay for GM hourly employees for the period of Sept. 15 through Nov. 23 is expected to be paid in lump sums in the second or third pay period of 2016. A $500 annual quality bonus payment will be made Dec. 11.

GM retirees, about 240,000 in all, will receive $500 checks that will be printed and mailed beginning Dec. 15.

■Ford workers will receive $8,500 ratification bonuses Dec. 4, followed by $1,500 advances in profit sharing on Dec. 11 and $250 annual competitive bonuses on Dec. 13. Workers will receive retroactive pay for the period from Sept. 15 through Nov. 23; those checks will be available by Dec. 20.

Workers at all three of the automakers will have to wait until February or March to receive profit-sharing bonuses based on how the each company’s North American operations performed in 2015.

Over the four years of the former contract, most Fiat Chrysler workers received about $16,500 in bonuses and profit sharing before taxes. Over the same four years, Ford hourly employees received up to $43,200 in bonuses and profit sharing before taxes, and GM workers received $39,250 pre-tax.

Angeline Eimers, an hourly worker at GM’s Pontiac’s Customer Care & Aftersales plant, said the payments over the next few weeks will come at a perfect time around the holidays. However, she isn’t planning a big shopping spree.

“I have nothing big planned for my bonus,” said Eimers, 25. “I’m just going to put it in the bank for now.”

William Sellers, a 56-year-old worker at Ford’s Ohio Assembly Plant, plans to use the money to help his two children pay their college tuition.

“It isn’t about buying a new Harley or a boat; it’s about taking care of your family,” he said. “Years ago, when the economy was robust, I think you could go out and buy a new car for five or six grand. Now, it’s more about building a foundation and saving.”

Susan Hiltz, a spokeswoman for AAA Michigan, said the bonus payments will help people to book vacations as the holidays and winter approach.

“It stands to reason we’ll see more people visiting our travel offices and booking trips,” she said.

For workers with their sights on new cars or trucks, retirees under the UAW-Fiat Chrysler deal receive $1,000 vouchers; GM retirees receive $500; and Ford retirees receive $250 during each year of the contract.

At least one Metro Detroit auto dealer is offering a special deal for UAW-Fiat Chrysler workers: Parkway Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram will match up to $1,750 on a down payment for UAW members and their families. The deal includes $750 from the company and $1,000 from the Clinton Township dealer.

“This is an unprecedented down-payment match,” said Mike Riley, Parkway general manager. “It keeps gaining momentum. We’re seeing more and more deals.”

Riley said a “few dozen” people have taken advantage of the deal, which started around the time workers were awarded their bonuses. It is expected to continue until the end of the year. Riley said the dealership could offer it again for union profit-sharing or other bonuses.

“It seems to be working,” he said. “So if it helps them and helps us, we will be doing it again.”

Ford workers approve UAW contract after late push by union leaders

Nick Bunkley    
Automotive News
November 20, 2015 - 11:30 pm ET -- UPDATED: 11/21/15 12:15 am ET - adds vote details

DETROIT -- A last-ditch push by UAW leaders to rally support for a proposed contract with Ford Motor Co. mustered just enough votes to overcome widespread opposition and bitterness among workers as the company generates record profits.

The union now has new four-year contracts in place with all three Detroit automakers.

The UAW said late Friday that 51.4 percent of Ford workers voted in favor of the deal -- a margin of about 1,100 votes out of more than 40,000 cast. Strong support at UAW Local 600, which represents workers at several large plants in Dearborn, Mich., turned the tide after the deal appeared destined for defeat.

“Our UAW members have ratified the national agreement after a long process and much debate,” UAW President Dennis Williams said in a statement. “The voice of the majority has secured a strong future that will provide job security and economic stability for themselves and their families.”

UAW officials spent the final days of voting urging Local 600 workers to vote “yes,” warning that a rejection would not result in a better contract and could instead lead to Ford pulling back on plans to invest $9 billion in its U.S. manufacturing operations.

Production workers approved the deal by a 51.3 percent margin, while 52.4 percent of voting skilled-trades workers gave their OK, the union said.

Some of the plants where opposition was strongest, including Louisville Assembly, Kentucky Truck and Chicago Assembly, were promised more jobs and investments of at least $600 million. As of Wednesday, the deal was failing by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent.

$8,500 signing bonus

The deal offers Ford’s 53,000 hourly workers a signing bonus of $8,500, plus a $1,500 advance on next year’s profit-sharing payout, which is expected to be more than $6,600.

Veteran workers will get 3 percent raises this year and in 2017 — their first in a decade — plus 4 percent lump-sum bonuses in 2016 and 2018. The deal puts workers hired since 2007 on a path to full wages within eight years, a period that many complained was too long.

“We are pleased,” John Fleming, Ford’s executive vice president for global manufacturing and labor affairs, said in a statement. “This agreement provides a good foundation for Ford Motor Company, our employees and our communities as we work together to create an even stronger business in the years ahead.”

The narrow approval avoids a potentially contentious and embarrassing situation for the UAW’s leadership, which also had trouble getting deals ratified with Fiat Chrysler and General Motors.

“There is no higher authority than the membership,” UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles, the union’s lead negotiator with Ford, said in a statement. “Through a fair and democratic process UAW-Ford members have delivered job security and strong economic gains for their families and communities.”

FCA workers turned down the first tentative agreement reached with that company, before approving a deal that went further toward eliminating the two-tier wage scale. Approval of a contract with GM was delayed after skilled-trades employees voted it down, but the UAW declared it ratified earlier Friday.

Some Ford workers pointed to the outcome at FCA as evidence that voting “no” would produce a better deal for themselves as well. But UAW leaders insisted that wasn’t accurate.

“If we thought there was another dollar on the table, we would’ve gotten it the first time,” Local 600 President Bernie Ricke said at a press conference Wednesday to counter the opposition.

Kristin Dziczek, director of the labor and industry group at the Center for Automotive Research, said the overall cost of the two FCA deals was virtually identical, but that the second agreement gave workers less job security in exchange for letting Tier 2 workers eventually earn more money.

You can reach Nick Bunkley at nbunkley@crain.com. -- Follow Nick on 

Tensions high as Ford-UAW contract voting nears end

 Brent Snavely, Detroit Free Press 8:15 p.m. EST November 20, 2015

UAW workers on edge as voting on a proposed Ford national contract goes down to the wire

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(Photo: Eric Seals, Detroit Free Press)

Yes or no?

UAW members at the Dearborn Truck Plant debated the union's national contract with Ford on Friday as they finished voting ... and awaited late-night word on the whether the imperiled agreement had passed.

"It’s a close vote," Nick Kottalis, chairman of UAW Local 600's Dearborn Truck Plant unit, said Friday afternoon. "It's the last day of voting on a national contract and it's close, so naturally tensions are high."

Some UAW members heading home from work argued that the union's tentative agreement with the automaker is fair while other workers said it doesn't provide nearly enough money to make up for the concessions workers sacrificed over the past decade.

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UAW declares GM contract ratified

That stark divide among workers at Ford's pickup plant are similar to a nearly evenly divided national workforce that was on the brink of rejecting an agreement that provides wage increases, bonuses and more than $9 billion in U.S. plant investment commitments.

“I hope they turn it down. We gave up a lot of concessions (in prior contracts)…we are not getting anything back," Mary Finney, 43, said as she left work Friday at Ford's Dearborn Truck Plant. "The $1,500 profit-sharing? We would be getting that anyway.”

Finney, who has worked at Ford for 21 years, said she wants raises in each year of the contract.

The agreement includes 3% raises in the first and third years of the contact and 4% lump sum payments in the second and fourth years.

Finney said she also believes the UAW can get a better contract if workers reject the agreement, even though UAW leaders have warned workers that might not be possible.

“You don’t settle with the first contract you get," she said. "That’s why it's called negotiations.”

But Charles Harvey, 62, of Bloomfield Hills said coworkers have unrealistic expectations, and said the raises and lump sum payments for longtime workers are adequate.

“It is a pretty good contract. I hope it passes," said Harvey, who also has a son who works at Flat Rock Assembly Plant.

Harvey said he likes that the contract provides the same signing bonuses to entry-level and longtime workers, unlike an agreement ratified last month by workers at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

"I don't think a lot of younger workers understand how good they have it," he said.

As of Friday, 52% of the more than 34,000 workers who voted nationwide had voted against the contract., according to an unofficial tally provided to the Free Press. For ratification, a majority of Ford's 52,900 voting workers would need to vote in favor of the agreement.

Official results of the nationwide tally were not expected until late Friday night at the earliest.

UAW officials made it clear that the ratification of the entire agreement came down to about 8,000 workers represented by UAW Local 600 in Dearborn. UAW Local 600 represents about 4,300 workers at the Dearborn Truck plant and nearly 4,000 more at Dearborn Stamping, Dearborn Engine, Dearborn Diversified and some other facilities.

Some workers on social media and elsewhere have charged that UAW representatives are strong-arming workers to vote in favor.

Kottalis said that's not the case. "We are doing our best to educate the voters — those who have questions," he said.

While Kottalis and most other elected UAW Local 600 officials are urging a yes vote, there is fierce opposition in Dearborn and at other Ford plants.

Many workers say they the agreement doesn't restore concessions workers gave up in prior contracts, such as cost-of-living increases. And they say it doesn't move entry-level workers to wages that match longtime workers fast enough.

If the deal is ratified, entry-level workers hired after 2007 who are making between $15.78 and $19.28 per hour would see their wages raised immediately to $17 to $22.50 and then up to about $29 per hour over an eight-year period. Many would reach the top wage faster.

Art Schwartz, president of Labor and Economics Associates in Ann Arbor and a former GM labor negotiator, said this year's contract talks are "unlike any one I've seen in my life....usually you get a deal and it's done."

Contact Brent Snavely: 313-222-6512 or bsnavely@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrentSnavely. Free Press staff writer Matt Dolan contributed to this report.