In the time it took for me to write this blog post, the for-profit health care industry spent $43,750. That’s about 15 minutes, and the amount is more than the average person, the kind of person that health care reform might really benefit, makes in a year.

Reading the Washington Post on the bus on the way to work this morning, I was shocked to see how much money the health care industry is spending on lobbyists: $1.4 million a day.**

For those of you keeping track: 12 minute bus ride = $35,000 spent by the health care industry on lobbying.

Most of this money is going to Capitol Hill insiders: persons with legislative or administrative experience working for members of Congress or former members of Congress themselves. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) spent $7 million in the first quarter of 2009. Pfizer spent $6 million in the same time period.

In Washington, people are used to industries throwing money around. It is a fact of daily life. But this amount is beyond anything that anyone has ever seen before. The oil industry, for example, spent record amounts in the first quarter of this year: an average of $49,444 a day.

That’s right. The health care industry is spending almost a million dollars a day more than the oil industry.

These folks gave money during the campaign cycle too. And when the health care industry gave a lot of money to a Senator, they became less likely to be supportive of a public option. This isn’t an accusation, either. This is statistically verified.

The people who are throwing massive amounts of cash around Washington are not the same people who would benefit from there being a public option for health insurance. According to the Post article:

“The aim of the lobbying blitz is simple: to minimize the damage to insurers, hospitals and other major sectors while maximizing the potential of up to 46 million uninsured Americans as new customers.”

The aim is not in keeping with the desires of the American people. 72 percent of Americans want a public option for health care. And the desire of the people and the desires of the big pockets are not in line.

So what’s more important, people’s health or insurance company profits? If the money going to lobbyists has anything to do with it, profits are going to take priority.

*Used Cars off of 1982′s Nebraska, which clocks at three minutes and ten seconds. The opinion that this is the best of Springsteen’s albums is my own.

**Calculations in this blog post are based on an 8 hour day.

From the Wall Street Journal.

“There was also support for the Democratic push to let people sign up for a public health-care plan that would compete with private companies, one of the toughest issues in the health-care debate. Three in four people said a public plan is extremely or quite important.”

This is from a paper whose editorial board hates the idea of a public option, who today gave Karl Rove space for an op-ed to say that the plan was a bad idea and use scare-tacticy phrases like “nationalization.”

So what’s going on? How can a paper print poll results on one page which clearly demonstrate that the public is indeed in the mood for a drastic change in current coverage, that 75% Americans believe that a public plan for health insurance is a good idea, and then print GOP scare tactics on their op-ed page?

Goes to show: the same poll finds that only 25% of Americans hold a positive view of the Republican party. That’s an all-time-low for what was once the party of Lincoln.

The scare tactics that the GOP is using against the public health care option are failing and making the party look bad in the process.

The poll also shows that people don’t want their benefits to be taxed, that maybe increasing taxes on the wealthiest among us is a better idea. We couldn’t agree more!

But what does LGBT right have to do workers? Why does labor celebrate Pride Month?

Labor’s mission is to give workers a voice in their place of business, a collective voice that is stronger than the sum of its individual parts in order to level the playing field between workers and management. We can negotiate pay and benefits, increase safety in the work place, ensure job security, and protect one another from unfair treatment. Protecting one another from unfair treatment is the particular tie that binds Labor to the LGBT movement.

Labor has always been involved in making sure that those who are discriminated against in our society are protected in their workplace. Protected from harassment, protected from unfair firings because of who they are, and guaranteed the same rights and benefits as those around them.

This was true in the Jim Crow South, where minorities were often the first to sign on to unions. This has always been true of women in the workplace.

And it is true of LGBT individuals. Unions push for partner benefits, for anti-discrimination language in contracts, for equal opportunity in the workplace. We lobby for legislation such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Action, which would ban discrimination in the workplace places upon sexual orientation or gender identity/gender expression. Because at the end of the day, that’s what it’s about: protecting one another. We raise our collective voice when our work schedules are too overbearing, when we have to decide between wages and health care benefits, when our job security is threatened–and when our co-workers are treated unfairly, for any reason.

This need for justice extends beyond the walls of the grocery store or the meat packing plant. This is why unions representing over 10 million workers have voiced their support for marriage equality. This is why unions donated more than $2 million in the fight against prop. 8 in California.

This is why we share this fight, and this is why LGBT Pride Month is important to us.

The American Prospect is doing a five-article series on working women, specifically bringing to people’s attention the women who don’t have the option to “opt out” of work.

Most families can no longer afford the cost of living without the woman of the household bringing in a steady income. Families are relying now, more then ever, on women bringing home a paycheck. As author Ann Friedman says, “The recession is an opportune moment to refocus that narrative about women and work on the majority of women who work- those who don’t have multiple degrees or high- power careers.”

All working people should read this article and the others in the series, which helps shine light on the truth about working women.

]]> http://www.ufcw.org/2009/06/10/american-prospect-turns-the-limelight-on-working-women/feed/ 0 http://www.ufcw.org/2009/05/29/kennedy-voice-of-senate-reason-on-health-care/ http://www.ufcw.org/2009/05/29/kennedy-voice-of-senate-reason-on-health-care/#comments Fri, 29 May 2009 19:25:00 +0000 UFCW http://ufcw.org/2009/05/29/kennedy-voice-of-senate-reason-on-health-care/ >Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) wrote an op-ed in the Boston Globe which was published in yesterday’s paper, and today the talking heads have been doing their thing: speculating and making it sound like they have information no one else does.

Instead of looking at the spin, let’s look the words from the lion’s mouth and then look at what we here at the UFCW have said.

Kennedy outlines five major elements that are included in his health care plan:

* A choice in health insurance for every American, including a public health insurance option.
* Cost reduction.
* Emphasis on preventative care.
* Home-care of the elderly and those with disabilities.
* Investment in training doctors and nurses.

The choice of a new public health insurance plan is a guaranteed backup that will always be there to ensure quality, affordable health care coverage no matter what. We applaud Senator Kennedy on making this a priority in the legislation he is putting before the Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions, which the Senator chairs.

On cost prevention, the Senator stated:

“We’ll go after fraud and abuse, cut red tape, and make sure that doctors and patients know of the latest, most effective therapies for their conditions.”

Remember a few weeks ago when the health care establishment said it could cut $2 trillion off the cost of health care in 10 years? Well a few days later they took it back. Senator Kennedy’s proposal might actually hold these groups accountable.

“The best way to treat a disease is to prevent it from ever striking. We’ll promote early screening for diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and depression.”

My grandmother, a font of New England wisdom much like the Senator, would give me the old “ounce of prevention” line when I didn’t want to brush my teeth as a kid. There is a lot of truth to that.

One program focusing on prevention is the CDC’s VERB campaign. VERB focused on getting “tweens” (what used to be call pre-teens) to be active to prevent childhood obesity and reduce risk to type-II diabetes, and by all measures has been successful.

These types of programs can reduce direct and indirect health care costs across the board.

Kennedy’s proposal is also great for some of the things that is does not include.

There is no mention of a “trigger” option, which had been floated in some circles. The trigger idea was that there would only be a public option if certain specific criteria were met, completely ignoring the fact that our health care system is already in crisis.

Also, Senator Kennedy didn’t mention anything about eliminitating the tax ememption of employer paid health care benefits, an idea that would do nothing to control the costs of health care while adding a huge burden to working Americans.

The H&M organizing effort involved majority sign-up, where a majority of H&M employees signed union cards to gain recognition. Sometimes called “card check,” majority sign-up is a provision of the Employee Free Choice Act which, if passed, would make it easier for more workers to get a union the way that the H&M workers did.

The majority sign-up model used to organize at H&M allowed workers to form a union more quickly than they would otherwise have been able to.

UFCW congratulates the members of RWDSU Local 1102 on their new contract!

Sotomayor was:

raised in a housing project in New York’s South Bronx by Puerto Rican parents who came to the United States during World War II. Her father was a factory worker who had a third-grade education and spoke no English. He died when she was 9, a year after she was diagnosed with Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes.

Sotomayor said she was strongly influenced by her mother, who served in the Women’s Army Corps and often worked two jobs to support Sotomayor and her brother, Juan.

“I have often said that I am all I am because of her, and I am only half the woman she is,” Sotomayor said, recognizing her mother and other family members seated in the audience as the president announced her nomination.

And she just happens to be fair-minded when it comes to labor laws, too. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney on Sotomayor:

Sotomayor has consistently interpreted our labor laws in the manner in which they were intended. She has enforced the right to be free of all types of discrimination in the workplace, to be paid the correct wages and to receive health benefits to which employees are entitled. She has recognized that persecution for union activity can be a basis for granting asylum in
this country.

Congratulations to Sotomayor, and to Obama for a wise choice. For many reasons.

Every 30 seconds someone goes bankrupt due to the high cost of health care. Taxing health care benefits this will only extend the current crisis.

Republicans also believe implementing a “trigger” proposal will help the health care crisis. Of course, a trigger proposal is not effective if the trigger never gets pulled. What this plan is really doing is not giving people the freedom to choose a health care plan that they feel best suits them and their needs and raising the cost of much needed health insurance.

This is not the correct approach to mending the broken health care system. It will only continue to drive more people away from affordable health insurance. Having a health care plan where no one is left out is what we truly need. People should have options when it comes to health care such as private insurance plans, keeping your current plan, or public health insurance that offers affordable coverage.

Help us fight on the right side of the health care debate. Join President Obama and Health Care for America Now in the fight for quality, affordable health care for all at Health Care for America Now!

Was I an evil villain from a cartoon series, working in cahoots with Captain Congestion and Lady Laryngitis to incapacitate the whole world for the sheer joy of it? Or an undercover agent paid by Big Pharma to boost sales? Not exactly. I had no paid sick days–so time away from work was money lost. And with bills to pay and no room in the budget to spare, a loss of money was not really a viable option.

And I was far from unusual. Millions of American workers are in the same boat: no paid sick days and no way to rest and recover from an illness, without taking a financial hit. As Ezra Klein says of companies today (in his new blog for The Washington Post):

Many don’t offer paid sick days because they don’t think doing so will make them money. That is to say, they make marginally more money by letting their workers fall ill. That may be a good decision for the employer. But it’s not good for the worker. And it’s an appalling state of affairs. Residents of the world’s richest nation should be able to stay home when they have the flu.

And IS it a” good decision for the employer?” What if many of their employees fall ill? What if their customers start getting sick, and business drops once word gets out? What if the sick employee doesn’t just have the flu–but the swine flu? What then?

I don’t have to come to work as a human infection any more, thanks to the union I belong to and the paid sick days I get as a result. And many union members around the country are greatful for their sick days–as are their co-workers and, though they may not realize, the company’s customers. But many other Americans don’t have a union or anyone looking out for them–and they don’t have the “luxury” of staying home when ill.

And articles like the one in the New York Times last week don’t help. That article admonished workers for going in when sick, and the author–a doctor–offers that “if you show up to work sick these days, you are not going to earn anyone’s admiration.”

Maybe not, but you’ll earn a paycheck. And an awful lot of people can’t get by without one. We need real solutions, not scolding. How about paid sick days for everyAmerican worker? It’s the only solution that makes sense.

Biden said it’s time to “level the playing field” for unions by passing a bill that would make it easier for workers to organize.

“You’ve got to climb up a hill with so many roadblocks on the way to organize that it’s just out of whack,” Biden told a conference of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which has about 1.6 million members.

“If a union is what you want, then a union is what you should get,” Biden said.

Biden also said that he and the President would not consider economic recovery efforts successful unless that growth creates “good, sustainable, livable jobs in the process:”

A key element, he said, is rebuilding the American labor movement, which has steadily declined since the 1950s.

“We will not consider it a success unless the middle class is growing, taking a piece of that productivity,” Biden said.

“I made the trip into Washington DC to stand with my fellow Walmart workers and to urge my Senators to pass the Employee Free Choice Act,” said Dominique Sloan a Dallas, Texas, Walmart worker:

We need change in this country. All you have to do is look at how all the money goes to CEOs. But when it comes to workers, its always the same, no health care or health care thats too expensive and low wages. We need to change that.

The National Organizing Committee is made up of Walmart workers from Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

Despite Walmart’s well-documented history of anti-working-family activities, workers say they are excited by the election of Barack Obama, excited that the President says it’s not too much to ask Walmart to pay decent wages and provide good health care, and excited that the Employee Free Choice Act can help bring the change that helps workers and makes Walmart live up to its responsibilities.

“I have three boys, and I had to get Florida Kids Care to cover their medical”, says Cheryl Guzman, a Walmart worker from Miami:

It’s either you eat, or you have medical coverage, and that’s not right. That’s why I’m part of Walmart Workers for Change.

Ten workers recently shared their stories in a new video, released earlier this week. Workers from the National Organizing Committee will be available to the press today after a Capitol Hill briefing at 10 a.m., in 328 Russell Senate Office Building.

Walmart Workers for Change is a new campaign made up of thousands of Walmart workers joining together to form a union and negotiate better benefits, higher wages, and more opportunity for a better future. The campaign is a project of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). The UFCW represents 1.3 million workers nationwide, with nearly one million working in the supermarket industry, and with many members working at national retail stores such as Bloomingdales, Macys, H&M, Modells Sporting Goods, Saks Fifth Avenue, RiteAid, CVS, and Syms.

Cross-posted at http://uniongal.blogspot.com/

Nebraskans Patricia Harris, Armando Martinez, and Jorge Angel – all UFCW members – were on Capitol Hill to share their experience about having a union at work and to urge their elected officials to support the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

“I know that having a union makes the difference because I have worked in places where employees were harassed and threatened when they tried to join a union,” Martinez said:

When I started working at the Hormel Foods plant in Freemont in 1998, UFCW Local Union 22 already represented the workers. All I needed to do was sign up to show I wanted to join.

Harris, Angel, and Martinez are urging Senators Mike Johanns (R-NE) and Ben Nelson (D-NE) to support the the Employee Free Choice Act. They are just a few of the hundreds of UFCW members and other workers from across the country who visited the halls of Congress to speak with their elected officials and urge passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Many of the workers have experienced firsthand the disappointment of being unable to join a union, despite the fact that a majority of they and their co-workers wanted to join one. Darlene Bruzio and her co-workers at Giant Eagle grocery store in Pennsylvania lost their union election, despite having majority support at work, because of employer interference. She said:

When you have more 80% support like we did at my store and still lose an election, you know that the system is broken. Congress has to realize that and pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

Another grocery worker, James Satler, is a former Fresh and Easy worker from California who says he was fired for trying to organize a union at his workplace:

I believe that if Congress really cares about fixing the economy, it should pass Employee Free Choice because it will allow us to have better wages and benefits. Our economy is stronger when more American workers have more money to spend.

Satler, along with Celia Cisneros and Diane Garcia, say they were fired for trying to form a union at their California workplaces. They are in town to urge Senators Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to support the Employee Free Choice.

“I noticed a lot of things that weren’t right at work and I called the union for help,” Garcia, a Pomona resident, said of her experience trying to form a union several years ago at Big Saver:

The company did not like the fact that we were trying to form a union and they did everything they could to prevent unionization. In the end, they fired me.

Cisneros’ experience is no different. Despite being a model worker for several years at Foster Farms, the Lindsay resident was fired when she became too involved with the union. She said:

I worked there for seven years without having one point against me. But when I became a vocal supporter of the union, they fired me and cut my medical insurance. I have a family to take care of. Fortunately, the union helped me get my job back.

UFCW Local 700 member Rick Jackson, a grocery worker in Indiana, was there to urge Senators Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Evan Bayh (D-IN) to support the bill.

“The union helped me and I know that having a union at work makes a difference,” said Jackson, a meat manager from Huntington.

Yolanda Abreu from Las Cruces, New Mexico was there to speak on Employee Free Choice. “When my coworkers and I tried to form a union at Albertsons, the company responded with threats and harassment.” She continued:

Managers held mandatory meetings bashing the union, threatened workers with loss of benefits, and offered preferential treatment to those who promised to oppose the union. Even after three elections and a year of waiting, we still face a company across the table that has little legal incentive to negotiate a contract quickly or fairly. There is no better proof that the current system is broken, and that workers need the Employee Free Choice Act to protect their right to join a union of their choosing.

Abreu is urging Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Tom Udall (D-NM) to support the bill. This is just the first step for her and other UFCW members and workers across the country, who have pledged to continue to contact their members of Congress, as well as write letters and blogs, sign cards, and take an active role in urging passage of Employee Free Choice.

On Tuesday, UFCW members and other workers from across the country will be visiting the halls of Congress to speak with their elected officials and urge the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Throughout the day, workers will be visiting their respective elected officials to share their stories about forming a union in the workplace, and to urge them to make the passage of the critical bill a priority.

Many of the workers have experienced firsthand the disappointment of being unable to join a union, despite the fact that a majority of they and their co-workers wanted to join one. Darlene Bruzio and her co-workers at Giant Eagle grocery store in Pennsylvania lost their union election, despite having majority support at work, because of employer interference. She said:

When you have more 80% support like we did at my store and still lose an election, you know that the system is broken. Congress has to realize that and pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

Another grocery worker, James Satler, is a former Fresh and Easy worker from California who says he was fired for trying to organize a union at his workplace:

I believe that if Congress really cares about fixing the economy, it should pass Employee Free Choice because it will allow us to have better wages and benefits. Our economy is stronger when more American workers have more money to spend.

Big business has been screaming itself hoarse over the “evils” of Employee Free Choice–and this is the result? Perhaps Americans realize that CEOs and greedy corporations aren’t exactly the most trustworthy messengers right now. Perhaps they realize that Employee Free Choice would help expand the middle class and get our economy back on track. Perhaps that’s what most Americans would like–a level playing field.

Whatever the reason, Employee Free Choice opponents are starting to lose the war of words. So far, much of their argument against the bill has been a panicked call to “save our secret ballots,” even though the Employee Free Choice Act would preserve the right to a secret ballot–just putting that choice in workers’ hands, not CEOs. As AFL-CIO Chief Lobbyist Bill Samuel told Politico:

That argument is not going to hold up when senators see that the secret ballot
is still an option for workers…Now they are shifting their argument,
saying unions are bad for the economy. I don’t think that holds up since a
lot of economists, including [White House adviser] Larry Summers, are saying
collective bargaining helps spread prosperity across the economy.

The new Gallup poll shows that overall, Americans seem to feel the same way–that unions are good for the economy, and good for America.

Ahoy, mateys. Welcome aboard the airtight entrepreneurial vessel that is Jim McTague’s version of America. Did you know that you’re probably a buccaneer at heart? And one willing to work for peanuts? Of course you are—you’d prefer it! At least, that’s what he claims in his odd opposition piece to Employee Free Choice:

My guess is that the decline of union membership in the private sector, from about 35% of workers in 1954 to 8% today, according to Epstein’s numbers, owes more to a hearty embrace of entrepreneurship than to union-bashing: Most of us are buccaneers at heart. Who wouldn’t want to work for relative peanuts and stock options for a visionary like Bill Gates, instead of for a steady paycheck and predictable, small-percentage annual pay increase at the local electric utility?

Yes, who indeed? It’s unclear who McTague is insulting more: working Americans with families, struggling to be responsible providers; entrepreneurs who demand more than just “relative peanuts”; or old-time buccaneers, who were in it for the adventure, sure—but mostly for the treasure and blood.

But after you stop laughing, you kind of have to wonder—is this how the business world really sees workers? As some kind of adventurer just working for the sheer fun of it, with no need for hard currency? Do they think workers who want those “predictable” jobs are lazy or unimaginative?

Or is McTague inadvertantly revealing more than he means to about the kind of workers who have, until recently, been most celebrated in today’s corporate America: the ones who acted like pirates and stole the hard-earned savings of honest Americans? Should we all be Bernie Madoffs? But of course, Bernie wasn’t exactly adventuring for peanuts, either.

America was build by adventurous spirits, no doubt. But after the adventuring is done, there are mouths to feed and bills to pay. All workers deserve good union jobs, with retirement security, a living wage, and affordable, quality health care. Big business wishes that ship had already sailed—but we’re going to make sure it stays anchored right here by passing the Employee Free Choice Act.

Unfortunately, today’s argument today sort of negates the one they’ve been using for months now–you know, “Big bad labor’s trying to get rid of secret ballots!!!!!! Aaaaah!!!”

Oh, and the argument’s also completely false.

CUF, in trying to distract from the real issue at hand, is arguing that secret ballots exist in name only today–and that evil unions like the UFCW use “deception” (their word, not mine) to get worker to sign up for unions all the time without elections. Out of the Trojan horse’s mouth:

The UFCW has been at the forefront of using EFCA-style Card Check/Neutrality campaigns to organize new workers. In those campaign, the union card is the only method of gauging an employee’s interest in joining the union. If the company agrees (which the union see to), then the union is certified. Basically, the card is the vote.

So if that’s the case, then what’s all this fuss about getting rid of secret ballots? It looks like the big bad UFCW already got rid of them, anyway, according to CUF’s blog, which refers mockingly to a UFCW union card reading, “Filling out and signing this card is a demonstration of your interest to be represented by UFCW Local 324. Doing so does NOT automatically make you a member.”

“…except when it does,” say the folks at the CUF, no doubt feeling snarky and clever. For folks claiming to be experts when it comes to labor, maybe they should learn a little about how union membership works.

You see, you don’t become a dues-paying member of a union when you sign an authorization card–even during majority sign up. Membership (and dues withdrawal) begins only when workers ratify a contract.

But CUF probably already knows this. Just like the corporations they work for, they’re petrified that the Employee Free Choice Act will help level the playing field for workers–and they’re throwing everything against the wall when it comes to Employee Free Choice, hoping something will stick. So if they seem to jump from false argument to false argument (“They’ll take away our secret ballots!” “They’ve already taken away our secret ballots!”) don’t worry if you’re left feeling a bit baffled.

After all, as Harry Truman once said, “If you can’t convince them, confuse them.”

After the hearing, Senator Harkin (D-IA) and Representative Miller (D-CA) introduced the bill in each chamber of Congress. UFCW members and members from other unions were there to show their support for Employee Free Choice as one important way to restore prosperityfor American workers in the economic downturn.

“I want Employee Free Choice to pass so that other workers can enjoy the benefits that I have,” said Jim Sanders, a Local 27 member at Shoppers Food Warehouse. “Even though the economy is bad right now, my wife and I are doing okay because we are both union members.”

“UFCW members and working families across the nation are standing firmly in support of thislegislation,” said UFCW International President Joe Hansen. “We will not let corporate America drown out reasonable debate on this issue with lies and exaggerations about the process by which workers can choose a union.”

In the coming weeks, UFCW members from all over the country will be traveling to Washington,D.C. to speak to their members of Congress and urge them to support Employee Free Choice.

At the invitation of President Barack Obama, UFCW President Joe Hansen is set to appear this afternoon at the White House Forum on Health Reform.

The full proceedings of the summit, which begins at 1:00 p.m. EST, can be observed live at www.WhiteHouse.gov.

President Hansen has been a consistent voice for quality, affordable health care. For nearly three decades, Hansen has played a key role in the negotiation of contracts covering hundreds of thousands of workers in the retail and food manufacturing industries.

An original member of the Citizens’ Health Care Working Group, President Hansen served as the sole worker representative in that congressionally chartered body. The group facilitated a groundbreaking national dialogue that resulted in a bipartisan consensus on the need for affordable, quality care for all Americans.

At the forum, President Hansen will focus on how workers and unions can play an important role in reforming a health care system paralyzed by insurance companies and entrenched special interests–a critical step in the effort to rebuild the American middle class.

And it’s not just lip service with President Obama and Vice President Biden. Over and over again, they’ve assured union members that we’ll have a place at the table when it comes to important decisions about the economy.

President Obama truly believes that labor is not the “other”–and that unions are essential to our economy. He said so again when addressing the AFL-CIO yesterday:

I want to repeat something that those of you who joined us for the Task Force announcement heard me say: I do not view the labor movement as part of the problem. To me, and to my administration, labor unions are a big part of the solution. We need to level the playing field for workers and the unions that represent their interests – because we cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor movement.

In his remarks, the President also outlined briefly what his adminstration had already done in a just a brief time to advance the rights of working families in this country. He spoke of signing the Lily Ledbetter Act into law, to ensure equal pay for equal work, and of signing a bill expanding SCHIP for children’s health care coverage. The President also restated his commitment to health care for all and passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

And President Obama also spoke of some important appointments which will prove invaluable to union members and working Americans in the coming months:

I’m also pleased to have nominated Hilda Solis, a daughter of union members and a lifelong champion for working families, to be my Secretary of Labor – and that Vice President Joe Biden has agreed to lead my administration’s Task Force on Middle Class Working Families. This Task Force will work hand in hand with my cabinet and White House agencies – as well as with all of you – to focus on growing and sustaining the middle class.

UFCW members and union members across the nation worked tirelessly to elect President Obama, because we knew he’d be an advocate for the hardworking men and women that make our country run. And we continue to see nothing but positive developments coming out of the White House in regards to unions and to the interests of working families nationwide. As the President made clear yesterday, unions “will always have a seat at the table.”

Click here to read the President’s full remarks yesterday on unions.

Five hundred and fifty gourmet grocery workers will receive nearly $1.5 million in unpaid wages, thanks to the efforts of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1500.

Watch the video here.

In 2008, several workers at Amish Markets and related stores Zeytinia, Zeytinz, and Zeytuna approached UFCW Local 1500 because they wanted to form a union at their stores.

The UFCW soon discovered that many workers were not being paid proper overtime and brought the violations to the attention of the New York State Department of Labor. The DOL conducted a sweep of nine locations and confirmed widespread wage and hour and labor violations.

Bruce W. Both, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500 said, “The New York State Department of Labor and the workers from Amish Markets, a gourmet grocery store serving high-end food products, deserve the gratitude of every taxpayer in the city because they had the courage to stand up and say: ‘This is wrong!’”

State Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith said of Amish Markets, “This employer was caught red-handed with his hand in the gourmet cooking jar.”

Local 1500 and the Building Blocks Project play a leading role in bringing good food, good jobs, and good health to New York’s neighborhoods by promoting and establishing policies that preserve existing supermarkets, develop new supermarkets and ensure the ability of grocery workers to form unions.

The Senate finally voted this afternoon to confirm Hilda Solis as Secretary of Labor and–no surprise, given her overwhelming qualifications for the job–the final vote was 80-17 to confirm.

UFCW members have a long history with Solis, who’s been an ally in health and safety issues and even during the Southern California strike, when she stood on the picket line in solidarity with workers (above).

We have no doubt that she’ll continue to be exactly what we need right now in a labor secretary–a strong advocate for America’s workers. She has her work cut out for her, but we know that she’ll be a major force in addressing our jobs crisis and strengthening the economy.

But the Fresh & Easy never lived up to the promises they made. James couldn’t afford the health care, made less than he was told he’d make–and somehow those promotional opportunities never came up for him.
So James did what millions of workers do every year when conditions at their workplace are unsatisfactory–he decided to try to organize a union at Fresh & Easy. He signed a union card and talked to his co-workers about the benefits of forming a union, becoming more active the more convinced he became that a union was the right way to go. You know where this is going, right?

When James and his co-workers asked Fresh & Easy to allow a neutral party to compare the cards signed against a list of employees provided by the company, so that they could see a majority of workers signed cards saying they wanted to join the union–James and his co-workers’ proposal was rejected and management insisted that they, not employees, be allowed to dictate the terms under which employees could choose to form a union.

Fresh & Easy then refused to recognize the employees’ decision to form a union.

Then, Fresh & Easy starting treating James differently, disciplining him for things that other employees were allowed to do, and finally firing James for what he believes were trumped up reasons to cover the REAL cause–his vocal support of a union.

James worked hard and wanted to move up in his grocery career and support his family. He might still be employed at Fresh & Easy if management had been forced to respect his decision to form a union. Instead, James lost a job and now has to pursue justice through the National Labor Relations Board, which could take years to decide his case.

The process for forming a union is broken. That’s why over 250,000 UFCW members and workers like James signed cards this years in support of passing Employee Free Choice–a bill that would make it easier for workers to form unions–with fear of intimidation or retaliation by employers. Employee Free Choice would level the playing field for working families in America.

And hundreds of thousands of other workers have joined us in signing cards. In fact, 1.5 million union members and supporters have signed cards to pass Employee Free Choice. And today, James will join thousands of workers in Washington, D.C., to deliver thousands of petitions demanding Congress pass the Employee Free Choice Act and make the economy work for everyone.

At 12:30 pm, a rally kicks off outside the U.S. Capitol, and workers will speak out about why the Employee Free Choice is needed to help level the playing field and fix our broken economy. Many of these workers are like James–workers who’ve been harrassed, intimidated, and fired for trying to form and union and improve their working conditions, wages, and benefits. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), two sponsors of the Employee Free Choice Act, will also speak about why this legislation is important.

Afer the rally, James and other workers will visit their members of Congress and tell their stories to underline the importance of passing Employee Free Choice. For more from workers on why this legislation is so important, check out www.ufcwforfreechoice.org.

union members represented 12.4 percent of employed workers, up from 12.1 percent a year earlier, according to a report from Bureau of Labor Statistics issued this morning. Until last year, union membership had generally been in a slow and steady decline since the 1950s.

The Post reports several different possible causes—and here’s a particularly revealing one:

“Part of what I think is happening is that the economy is shrinking but union jobs are not being shed because they have union contracts,” said Jim Walker, an economist with the Bureau of Labor Statistics who worked on the new figures.

And doesn’t that say it all? In tough economic times, in times of job uncertainty—-if you have union, you have job protection.

There are lots of reasons that more and more workers are choosing to join unions, including good benefits, better wages, and a say in the workplace-—but I can’t think of a better one during an economic crisis than job security.

Just a few of the ways UFCW members are participating:

• Over 500 members of Locals 5, 400, 655, 888, and 1000 traveled to New Orleans to participate in a two day service project. Members cleaned and restored parks and repaired three homes.
• Local 1099 members participated in a Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast and commemorative march.
• Members in Region 1 attended a multicultural, interfaith prayer service and choir concert on behalf of Long Island’s working poor
• Local 5 members and staff in California handed out gold UFCW bags along with Employee Free Choice & Wake-up Walmart materials to freedom train riders. The train travelled from the Diridon Station to San Francisco, CA train station, where riders marched from the train station to the San Francisco Civic Center and attended a program at the civic center on “A Service to Action.”
• Local 770 members attended the MLK Breakfast, coordinated with the L.A. AFL, as well as the Kingdom Day parade. These events included immigrant rights, community and religious organizations.
• Region 1 members attended a “Celebration of the Man and the Holiday” sponsored by Coney Island C.L.E.A.R.

UFCW members across the country were greatful for the chance to join in the spirit of service embodied by the life and work of Dr. King, and echoed now by President-elect Barack Obama.

Lundberg suggests Phillip Levine, a poet who often writes about the working people, might be an appropriate choice. Lundberg writes:

Levine might be the most poignant choice, given the country’s current economic
struggles. Raised in a blue collar family in Detroit, Levine writes poetry that
champions the working man.

Do you have a favorite poet who writes about work and workers? Who would you like to see Obama choose to read a poem at his inauguration?

Just listen to what Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott said at a recent analyst meeting, when asked about majority sign up, according to Frank:

“We like driving the car and we’re not going to give the steering wheel to anybody but us.”

Or how about a this hyperbolic statement from Home Depot Cofounder and former CEO Bernie Marcus:

“This is how a civilization disappears. I’m sitting here as an elder statesman, and I’m watching this happen, and I don’t believe it.”

He apparently doesn’t think our current economic crisis is anything to blink at. But oh, man, if more people start joining unions–if more people have health care, and pensions, and a living wage–then we’re really done for.

These CEOs aren’t interested in what’s best for workers, like they claim to be. What they’re interested in is one thing, and one thing only–keeping all the power, influence, and money in the hands of employers. When workers are able to join a union, then employers starting fretting about having their unlimited power taken away.

Too bad for them. But good for American workers. Employee Free Choice will strengthen our middle class and help restore the balance to our economy. And if that means no more multi-million dollar bonuses for greedy execs–well, I guess that’s why, according to Frank, Marcus also said that any retailer who doesn’t give money to anti-Employee Free Choice candidates and causes “should be shot, should be thrown out of their godamn jobs.”

Guess that pretty much says it all.

More options sounds pretty democratic, right? And how about the new option Employee Free Choice would give workers: the majority sign up option? Let’s see: a majority of workers sign cards saying they want to join a union…that sounds pretty democratic, too, huh?

Labor specialist Nathan Newman thinks so, too. He writes:

Horrors, the business lobby cries, weeping for the lost democratic voice of
their workers (as they threaten to fire anyone who supports the union during the
election), but here’s the thing– an NLRB election recognizes the union if a
majority of THOSE VOTING support the union, while the card check option requires
support from a majority of ALL WORKERS IN THAT COMPANY OR VOTING UNIT. So the latter option is harder and actually is more guaranteed to reflect the will of the workers.

More guaranteed to reflect the will of the workers. Who could object to that?

Well, companies who don’t want workers to unionize–that’s who. They understand that if this process more accurately reflects the will of workers–without throwing up all the blocks and obstacles that they can throw up now in a secret ballot election–that more workers will choose to join unions and have a voice on the job.

Horrors, indeed.

All because they were suspected of planning a non-violent political protest. It is still legal to do so, right?

These police teams of about 20 to 30 men had black masks on, black swat gear, drawn out large semi-automatic rifles and demands the residents to lie on the floor while they searched the houses. The officers refused to state why they were and in some cases, they didn’t even show a search warrant until after they took personal computers/laptops, journals and political materials. They even used code names like Terminator.

Clearly, these police officers were trying to intimidate these young politically aware protesters and that’s not cool!

You can watch some of the raids for yourself:

One thing is for sure, no matter what anyone’s political views are, they can not be persecuted for participating in legal political actions such as protests!

Video of another house that was raided: Bruce Nester

Courtland Cox on CNN saw the Martin Luther King Jr. “I Have a Dream” speech and heard Obama’s speech last night and was astounded.

Drew Hansen, author of “The Dream,” a book that analyzes King’s speech said, “I never thought in my lifetime that I would see one of us aspiring to be the head of our nation,” she said. “Mr. Obama leading us toward the presidency is like the Promised Land for us.”

Related article: Analysts, Media Commentators Praise Obama’s Speech

Last night, Obama gave his acceptance speech and moved many people; even Oprah Winfrey who claimed she “cried her eyelashes off.” Did he move you?

What did you like about any of the speeches?

Obama’s 2008 DNC Speech:
Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

A choice of wisdom. Choosing your VP is one of the most important decisions any presidential candidate will have to make. Biden compliments Obama which makes Obama’s decision a plus for him. Biden will bring 35 years of Senate experience, foreign policy experience and could actually appeal to the blue collar states.

Obama isn’t your typical Presidential candidate and Biden isn’t you typical VP. Take a look at why Biden appealed to Obama and will potentially appeal to you. As the DNC is kicked off this week, be sure to watch our Democratic leaders speak to America!

If you were running, who would you pick?

Related articles: Biden a Pragmatic Choice

Although it is your rightful duty as a citizen to vote, you do not have to stop there. You could also help your fellow citizens at the polls by volunteering to be a poll worker. Mobilize the Polls Program is aiming to recruit at least 500 poll workers under the age of 30 for the 2008 Presidential Election. In the past elections, young people have been criticized for not showing up to vote. But, that can change in this election. In fact, the number of young people registered to vote has already increased dramatically. But, we can do better than only being registered. Generation Y can be registered, show up to vote and volunteer to work the polls! So, how about it? With the new technologies that are being explored to enhance the voter experience this year, you know they could use our tech savvy abilities. To find out how to be a poll worker, click here.

The Employee Free Choice Act, which is backed by Senator Barack Obama, is percieved as a threat by these big businesses. In Quebec, employees have the option to join a union when the majority of workers want to, and they are guaranteed a first contract. This is unlike the United States where workers have to go through a lengthy process to gain union representation. The Employee Free Choice Act will simplify the process and give employees to have a chance for union representation.