Selected Articles, May 2008
Selected Articles, April 2008
Selected Articles, March 2008
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Volunteers, Supporters of Union Food Distribution Honored
 San Mateo County Central Labor Council Executive Secretary-Treasurer Shelley Kessler, Laborers Local 389 Business Manager Anthony Dimas, Plumbers Local 467 Business Agent Mike Swanson, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 101 Union Representative John Ulrich, SMCLC Community Services Director Rayna Lehman, and Machinists Local Lodge 1781 Community Services Chair Roberto Mendez at the Labor Council’s volunteer appreciation luncheon Feb. 14.
Volunteers who helped in the San Mateo County Central Labor Council’s 2007 Union Food Distribution and donors who support the annual Union Food and Toy Drive were honored at a luncheon Feb. 14 at Machinists Local Lodge 1781. The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 101, Plumbers Local 467, Machinists Local 1781, and Laborers Local 389 were presented with plaques for their ongoing support of the program.
SMCLC Community Services Director Rayna Lehman and Machinists Local Lodge 1781 Community Services Chair Roberto Mendez thanked the 127 volunteers, who collectively had contributed 3,045 hours to the Food Distribution program last year. The program distributed about 400 bags of food every month to union households facing hardship due to unemployment and layoffs. Over 140,000 pounds of food were bagged and distributed.
Lehman said that 49 individuals and 21 local unions affiliated with the Labor Council made donations.
The Labor Council’s Holiday Food and Toy Drive assisted 327 families in December, with 409 children receiving toys donated to the program. In December alone, 1,118 individuals received food assistance. Sixty-seven families also received hardship funds totalling $15,000 in 2007.
The UFCW contributed 1,000 turkeys during the holiday season. The food drive is also supported by the Second Harvest Food Bank and United Way of the Bay Area.
Machinists Local Lodge 1781 Community Services Chair Roberto Mendez, Local Lodge 1781Vice President Larry Wing, and San Mateo County Central Labor Council Community Services Director Rayna Lehman serve lunch for the Labor Council’s volunteers Feb. 14.
Selected Articles, February 2008
Rep. Tom Lantos: 1928 - 2008Labor Mourns the Passing of Congressman Tom Lantos
Court Upholds San Francisco Health Care Coverage
New Environmental Law Will Change Construction Forever: A Promising Future if We’re Ready
Selected Articles, January 2008
• Selected Articles, December 2007
• Selected Articles, November 2007
. . .
Labor News Briefs
Court Blocks Bush Administration from Implementing Flawed Social Security No-Match Rule
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction October 10 stopping the federal government from enforcing a new rule that could have used social security records for immigration enforcement. The ruling ensures that U.S. citizens and legal residents will not lose their jobs because of errors in the Social Security Administration database.
The order prevents any implementation—until the court makes a final ruling—of a Department of Homeland Security rule punishing employers if they do not take action after receiving Social Security “no match” letters.
The “no match” letters are notices that SSA sends once per year to employers who report a certain number of discrepancies between their employment records and SSA’s database. According to the government’s own records, 70 percent of the discrepancies belong to native-born U.S. citizens.
“No match” letters have long been used by employers to defeat worker organizing. Time after time, employers have tried to use the letters as a pretext to fire workers when they try to organize, file a wage claim or otherwise exercise their workers’ rights. The new rule would have given employers an even stronger pretext.
U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer found “the government’s proposal to disseminate no-match letters affecting more than eight million workers will, under the mandated timeline, result in the termination of lawfully employed workers.”
“This is a significant step towards overturning this unlawful rule, which would give employers an even stronger way to keep workers from freely forming unions,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. “More than 70 percent of SSA discrepancies refer to U.S. citizens, and...the mailing of the new ‘no match’ letters would result in irreparable harm to innocent workers and employers.”
The injunction comes as a result of a lawsuit filed in August by the AFL-CIO, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Law Center and the Central Labor Council of Alameda County, the San Francisco Labor Council, and the San Francisco Building Trades Council.
“The San Francisco Labor Council is proud to be involved in the fight to stop the federal government’s attack on workers’ rights and the right to organize,” said Tim Paulson, executive director of the San Francisco Labor Council. “Today’s ruling is a welcome step to overturning the federal government’s flawed and unlawful rule that would punish workers. The labor movement will continue to stand up for all workers.”
A preliminary injunction in September stopped the Social Security Administration from mailing new instructions on so-called “no-match” letters that identify workers with incorrect Social Security numbers.
In Emeryville, the Woodfin Hotel used “no-match” letters against workers asserting their rights under a local living wage ordinance.
“We joined the lawsuit on behalf of 100,000 union members in Alameda County,” said Sharon Cornu, Alameda County Labor Council Executive Secretary-Treasurer. “This proposal would have been a disaster for employers, workers, and people who care about basic justice. We heard from workers at the Social Security Administration that no plans were in place to administer the database and that there was inadequate staffing to correct inaccurate numbers.
“The workers most harmed by this extreme proposal would have been immigrant workers, documented and undocumented alike. American labor law fails to protect them, their freedom to choose a union and the right to bargain collectively. This proposal would heaped injury upon injury.
“We are proud to have played a role in stopping this attack on worker rights, but it is not enough. We will continue to work with faith organizations, community groups, and civil rights advocates in the fight for immigrant and worker rights,” she said.
Selected Articles, October 2007
Selected Articles, September 2007
Access to Health Care Should Be a Human Right
Labor-Community Coalition Demands Action on Health Care
San Mateo County Candidates Get Primer on Labor Concerns
. . .
Labor News Briefs
County Adopts Blue Ribbon Health Care Task Force Recommendations
Members of ACORN (The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) attended the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors meeting July 24.
“There is a looming health care crisis in the state and San Mateo County is not immune from it,” Supervisor Jerry Hill said at a meeting of the County Board of Supervisors July 24. The Board took up the proposals put forward by a Blue Ribbon Task Force on health care initiated by Hill and Supervisor Adrienne Tissier. “The Blue Ribbon Task Force recommendations are an important first step to restore sanity to a broken system,” Hill said.
The Task Force, composed of representatives of health care providers, community organizations, City and County government, and social service agencies looked at ways to the adult population who live at the 400 percent of poverty level (about $80,000 annually for a family of four) to get access to health care.
The group looked at designing a model for providing health insurance, finding a financing mechanism, and identifying the population to be served. The County has between 36 - 44,000 uninsured who earn below the 400 percent of poverty level.
Members of the task force and the public testified at the Board’s meeting. For details on the Task Force recommendations, check the County’s website at www.co.sanmateo.ca.us.
Tell Your Story About the Health Care Hustle
Have you ever gotten caught in the health care hustle? Have you experienced long waits in an emergency room or high bills that weren’t covered by insurance? Have you gotten pinched in the hustle of hospitals, insurance companies, major drug companies or anyone else out to make a buck?
Share your story with other union members through the AFL-CIO’s Working America website, online at www.workingamerica.org/healthcarehustle/.
Send your stories for publication in Labor to smclclabor@netscape.net
Selected Articles, August 2007
Virgin America Flights from SFO to Begin in August
It’s OUR Healthcare Road to Reform Tour Demands Action
Gaming Compacts Approved by State Legislature without Worker Protections
Labor News Briefs:
Musicians Union Offers “The Right Music for You... And Your Budget”
The American Federation of Musicians Local 6 in San Francisco has launched Pro Musician Source, an online listing of AFM Local 6 musicians, bands and orchestras for hire.
The website lists experienced professional musicians—from harpists and strolling violinists to rock bands, jazz groups, dance orchestras, and symphony orchestras.
The service is free, with no agency fees, offering referral to the musicians directly. Clients pay only for the musicians’ performance.
Individuals, organizations, or business looking for quality music can browse the AFM 6 musicians pages and bookmark selections, contact the musicians directly to discuss musical needs and pricing with the bandleader, and sign a contract to confirm the details of the performance. The contract will be filed with the AFM office.
The Pro Musician Source serves the following Bay Area locations: San Francisco, Alameda, Oakland, Berkeley, Piedmont, Emeryville, Albany, Marin County, and San Mateo County.
Call Local 6 at (415) 575-0777 or check www.afm6.org/ and click on the Pro Musicians Source link.
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Selected Articles, July 2007
Michael Moore Joins Nurses in Sacramento to Rally for Single Payer Health Care
Iraqi Unionists Speak Out Against U.S. Occupation and Privatization Schemes
California’s Health Care Crisis
LABOR News briefs:
California Community College Initiative Qualifies or Feb. ‘08 Ballot Unions’ dollars and hard work pay off; Next step: election campaign
The California Secretary of State’s office announced on April 25 that the California Community College Initiative has qualified for placement on the February 5,2008, ballot. It needed 598,105 signatures; 619,644 signatures were verified. Supporters had submitted more than 900,000 signatures in January.
If passed by voters, the initiative would require minimum levels of state funding that grows along with the student population, lower the cost of community college per unit to $15 (and limit future fee increases to no more than the cost of living) while at the same time granting the community college system more autonomy. The San Mateo Community College District (SMCCD) would benefit with an increase of over $3 million in the first year and up to $22 million more in funding by 2012.
Supporters of the initiative campaign, which as been actively supported by the California Federation of Teachers and AFT local unions around he state, spent $1.36 million and volunteered untold hours on signature-gathering in 2006.
- The Advocate, www.aft1493.org
Selected Articles, June 2007
Transportation Workers to Bush: ‘Enough Is Enough’
San Mateo Event Center To Be More Union-Friendly
UAL Pilots Picket at SFO,
Flight Attendants Rally at UAL Annual Meeting
Building Futures Graduates First Group of Building Trades Pre-Apprentices
Labor Federation Urges Legislators to Increase Workers’ Comp Benefits
The California Labor Federation is urging Sacramento legislators to increase benefits for workers who have been permanently disabled in the workplace, following a recent ruling by a Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board judge that current permanent disability (PD) benefits are in violation of California labor code. The decision is good news for the millions of permanently disabled workers who have been injured on the job.
In January 2005, the Schwarzenegger Administration adopted rules that slashed benefits to the most severely injured workers by over 50 percent. But on May 9, a Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board judge found that the Administration’s PD rating schedule violates labor code that requires research to justify benefits adjustments.
Judge Jacqueline Duncan found that “[t]he Administrative Director failed to base the adjusted rating schedule on data from additional empirical studies, as required by Labor Code 4660(b)(2).” Judge Duncan’s decision is a boon for worker advocates who have been struggling to restore PD benefits for injured workers.
Check out the California Labor Federation’s report on the Workers’ Compensation system at http://www.calaborfed.org/pdfs/Legislative/2007/WC_whitepaper_3.27.07.pdf.
Selected Articles, May 2007
Workers, Community Call for Socially Responsible Code of Conduct for Food Service Contractors
County Board of Supervisors Backs EFCA
California Labor Federation 2007 Legislative Agenda
Working for a Healthy California
Labor Meets with Bay Area Legislators
Project Labor Agreement Signed for Hetch Hetchy Water System Improvement Plan
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Opinion: Expanding Guest Worker Program a No Winner for Immigrants or the Nation
In a Los Angeles Times editorial in April, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, describe how temporary worker programs will negatively impact immigrant workers—and the nation.
Those programs “will assure a steady flow of cheap labor from essentially indentured workers too afraid of being deported to protest substandard wages, chiseled benefits and unsafe working conditions,” they wrote.
“Such a system will create a disenfranchised underclass of workers. That is not only morally indefensible, it is economically nonsensical. We’ve had plenty of bad experiences with such shortsighted answers to a complicated problem.”
The H-2A and H-2B visa programs bring in agricultural and other seasonal workers to pick crops, build houses and process seafood, among other jobs. Sweeney and Alvarado point out that workers in these programs typically borrow large amounts of money to pay travel expenses, fees and sometimes bribes to recruiters:
“That means that before they even begin to work, they are indebted. They leave their families at home, and they are essentially ‘bound’ to employers who can send them home on a whim and who do not have to prove a need to hire them in the first place.”
A new study by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United States, relates that it is not unusual for a Guatemalan worker to pay more than $2,500 in fees to obtain a seasonal guest worker position, about a year’s worth of income in Guatemala. And Thai workers have been known to pay as much as $10,000 for the chance to harvest crops in the orchards of the Pacific Northwest. Interest rates on the loans are sometimes as high as 20 percent a month. Homes and vehicles are required collateral.
The workers in these programs also receive little protection, if any. In late March, legislation was introduced to enhance protections for skilled guest workers.
The solution to the immigration crisis will require a new approach, Sweeney and Alvarado say. First, everyone who is admitted to work must immediately be on a track toward permanent residency or citizenship.
Other key reforms should include:
• Employers who can prove that they tried and failed to find U.S. workers should be able to hire foreign workers, but not under abusive conditions that have a negative effect on the wages and working conditions.
• Caps on the number of employment-based visas issued each year should be set by the U.S. Department of Labor based on economic indicators that establish the needs of particular industries, not by political compromise.
• Employers should not be allowed to recruit abroad, a practice that invites bribes, exorbitant fees and potential abuse. Instead, employers should be required to hire from applications filed by workers in their home countries through a computerized job bank.
• Foreign workers should enjoy the same rights and protections as U.S. workers, including freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life.
- James Parks, http://blog.aflcio.org
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Selected Articles, April 2007
California Nurses Association Joins AFL-CIO
DOT Grants Virgin America Tentative Approval to Fly
Airline Bankruptcies, Mergers and Profits Provoke Unions
AFL-CIO Urges Timetable for Troop Withdrawal from Iraq
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Monster Cable Workers Rally
Nearly 100 workers, community allies and musicians marched, protested, and sang songs March 3 outside the mansion of Monster Cable CEO Noel Lee in Hillsborough.
Joining laid-off workers were members of UNITE HERE Local 2, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 3267, the San Mateo Labor Council, United Healthcare Workers, UFCW RISE UP, SEIU 790, the Harvey Milk Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Democratic Club, Young Workers United,The San Francisco Living Wage Coalition, San Francisco State University student groups, the Raging Grannies, Chinese drum group Hei Gu, and singer-songwriters Valerie Orth and Bob Sanders.
The protest was held to pressure Lee to provide a fair severance and worker-community transistion fund for the 120 workers laid off last October by Monster Cable, which makes high-end audio cables and other audio accessories. Workers are not unionized and are being assisted by the Chinese Progressive Assocation of San Francisco. The organization is also seeking musician/labor/comnmunity support for a boycott campaign of Monster Cable.
On February 28 Congressmember Tom Lantos wrote Lee to urge the CEO to resolve the unfair treatment of the laid-off workers. Lantos offered to mediate a session between the CEO and the laid-off workers. The San Mateo County Central Labor Council is supporting the workers’ efforts and seeking help from other elected officials.
Check www.boycottmonster.org for updates and more information.
Steelworkers, Sierra Club Unite to Stop Illegally Logged Timber
The United Steelworkers (USW) and the Sierra Club are working together as part of the Blue Green Alliance to try to curb the trade of certain products made from illegally logged timber.
The two have called on the U.S. Department of Commerce to expand an existing investigation of unfair trade subsidies from illegal logging that violate international environmental standards and undercut the U.S. paper industry. They want the Commerce Department to investigate whether paper companies in Indonesia benefit from an unfair subsidy in the production of high-gloss and coated paper products made in part by using illegally logged timber.
It is the first time that unions and environmental groups have joined together to raise an environmental concern in this type of trade case.
Check www.bluegreenalliance.org/ for more information.
The National Labor College
The National Labor College (www.nlc.edu) has a variety of courses and Bachelor’s degree programs tailored especially for the labor movement—it’s the only accredited college in the world exclusively dedicated to educating union members, leaders, activists and staff. Located just minutes from Washington D.C., the NLC offers online courses and courses in a flexible, online, low residence format making it easy for full time workers with families to attend.
Selected Articles March 2007
House Committee Says Yes to Employee Free Choice Act, Bush Threatens Veto
Health Care Reform Discussed at Town Hall Meeting
Education and Labor Committee Hears Testimony On The Middle Class Squeeze
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Building Futures in the Building Trades
In partnership with the Building and Construction Trades Council of San Mateo County, the San Mateo Union High School District Adult Education Program has applied for and received a grant to launch a new program that will give 48 in-school and 80 out-of-school youth an opportunity to engage in an academic and self-improvement course that will prepare them for entry into one of the building trades’ apprenticeship programs.
Representatives from many San Mateo County Building Trades unions and apprenticeship programs met with SMUHSD Adult Ed. staff February 1 to discuss the new Building Futures program and plan its implementation. Several unions committed to provide guest instructors to introduce students to specific trades.
Students in the Building Futures program would take classes in elementary algebra, health science, composition and reading, as well as an introduction to the construction trades. Besides academic achievement, the program will also focus on personal growth, with classes on public speaking, interpersonal communication, and strength conditioning.
Kathleen Barber, Training Director for the IBEW Joint Apprenticeship Training Center helped to develop the curriculum. She said that the program would fill a need because, “Eventually we will be facing a skilled worker shortage. We are not getting enough skilled applicants now so the bottom line is we’re looking for qualified people who want to make a career in one of the trades.”
Students would receive hands-on training in various skills necessary to be successful in the trades, including electrical, plumbing, sheet metal, carpentry, painting, sheet rock, and drywall taping.
SMBCTC Business Manager Bill Nack said that students in the program would learn that “They have to be skilled, and they have to be serious about wanting a career.” He pointed out that some youth don’t have experience with jobs and schedules and would benefit from the life skills taught in the Building Futures program.
Unions represented at the Feb. 1 meeting included Carpenters Local 217, Electricians Local 617, Sheet Metal Workers Local 104, Roofers Local 40, Plumbers Local 467, Plasterers Local 66, Painters and Tapers Local 913, Operating Engineers Local 3, Cement Masons Local 300, and Sprinklerfitters Local 38.
Selected Articles February 2007
Arnold’s Health Care Plan: ‘A Plan Wal-Mart Can Love
House Fulfills Promise to Move Working Family Legislation in First 100 Hours
Sweeney, McEntee Blast Bush Iraq Troop Escalation
Global Warming Urgent Say Unions for 10,000 EPA Workers
• Selected Articles January 2007
It's Time to renew Our Vows
By Shelley Kessler
Employee Free Choice Act NOW!
AFL-CIO
Food Service Workers Seek Contractor Code of Conduct
The San Mateo County Central Labor Council is supporting a drive launched by UNITE HERE Local 2 in San Francisco/San Mateo and Local 19 in San Jose to gain support for a Socially Responsible Code of Conduct for food service contractors.
While many high-tech and biotech companies in the area are socially responsible employers whose workforce receives generous compensation and benefits packages, stock options, and a gourmet company cafeteria, some of the third party vendors who provide this food service are not.
One of the largest food service contractors in the high-tech and biotech industry is Guckenheimer Enterprise. Guckenheimer food service employees fall into the low wage economy—they are the working poor. In San Mateo County food service workers on average earn 69 percent less than the median income for the area. They live paycheck to paycheck, forced to rely on public assistance, our tax dollars, to make ends meet and obtain healthcare for themselves and their families.
“Guckenheimer is very successful and, like the rest of the high-tech and biotech industry, should become a socially responsible employer by providing their employees with fair wages and affordable health care,” said SMCLC Executive Secretary-Treasurer Shelley Kessler.
“Businesses, with the support of elected officials in San Mateo County, have an opportunity to raise employment standards by adopting a code of conduct for their contractors,” Kessler said. Codes of conduct usually include standards that ensure fair wages, compliance with state and federal laws, neutrality toward worker organizing, and worker retention when contractors change. Adoption of such a code across the industry would change the lives of these low wage workers.
The Labor Council is seeking support from local elected officials. Congressman Tom Lantos, Assemblyman Gene Mullin, East Palo Alto Mayor Ruben Abrica, and other elected leaders in San Mateo County are standing with these workers in their struggle for decency.
For more information, check www.serviceworkersrising.org.
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July 31, 2008
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