Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog » Labor Organizing

Just Cause: Saints Players and Union Should Challenge Penalties

Mariehurt — Tue, 08 May 2012 18:23:56 +0000

Saints Player Jonathan Vilma

New Orleans Ok, yes, I live in New Orleans, and by law, I’m a Saints fan, so it will be hard for some readers not to think I might be biased, but the Saints players who have been suspended for different periods from captain and linebacker Jonathan Vilma for the whole season to lesser penalties for others, are right to join with their union and challenge the NFL and these penalties. Simply put, the heart of any collective bargaining agreement such as the one between the owners and the players and their union, the NFL Players Association when it comes to discipline has to be “just cause.”

Just cause means that no worker covered by the agreement can be disciplined for any reason other than just cause. Furthermore, the final burden of proof in determining just cause always rests with the employer, not the union. Published reports indicate that the NLF bosses investigated the “bounty” program where allegedly players and coaches put money in a pool to encourage opposing players to be hurt and taken out of the game. When the NFLPA filed grievances on behalf of the players, the NLR refused to share the facts of the investigation or the so-called evidence justifying these suspensions with the players or their union. In labor law that’s not only a contract violation worthy of arbitration, but also an unfair labor practice before the National Labor Relations Board. The union always has the right to receive all available information and the files involving any disciplinary action which would take away a worker’s livelihood. Any union steward at any organized workplace would immediately tell you that when the boss refuses to share any information that justifies a decision, they are going to be wrong on those grounds alone.

Why are the sports pages missing the boat on these grievances?

Simple answer: sports writers are no longer cigar chewing, beer swilling working guys themselves represented by the Newspaper Guild, but folks who buy the management and owners’ story, hook, line, and sinker, so they don’t know the simplest truths about labor relations in sports.

Coach Sean Peyton and the other management types didn’t have a real choice. When the head of the NFL said they were dirty, that was the end of the discussion. They were management and agents of the owners, so end of story. They could hire lawyers, but it was easier to buckle down and bear up.

With union workers it’s a different story. Scott Fujita, now with another team, was categorical in his denial that he every participated in any action designed to hurt another player. Others have also been clear.

The head of the NFL only cares about the how the whole mess looks, not whether or not he made the right call on the participation of individual workers and their involvement. That’s why these running, tackling, football players have a union so they can fight for and force fairness, and make the employer, no matter how rich and powerful, prove their case based on “just cause,” not advertising dollars.

In fact it’s why all workers need a union, so people shouldn’t begrudge NFL players for having one and demanding a fair shake.

The Rarity of Labor Union Strikes in Today’s Economy and Labor Market and Lost Hope at NLRB

Mariehurt — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:50:44 +0000

New Orleans In Social Policy magazine we’ve published in the current issue a solid description of the ups and downs of a group of nursing home workers in Connecticut. The piece focused on the lessons learned in the course of a strike that the workers and the union felt was successful. We also published in an earlier issue last year an excerpt of a book calling for a revitalization of the role of strikes in labor relations.

Looking at a chart in the Wall Street Journal, it seems clear that workers are “voting with their seat,” rather than “voting with their feet” and hitting the street.

The 21^st Century is not a striking century for workers and their unions. The graphic recorded both strikes and lockouts, and it goes without saying that a lockout is a management tactic to coerce a unionized group of workers to accept certain terms and conditions of employment, in the same way that a strike is a tool for workers to try and bring a company to heel or , these days, back to reason. The chart indicted that in this century only once has there been more than 20 of these things and in some years, hardly a handful.

Caterpillar, the tractor maker, is once again a screaming canary in this mind shaft and trying to force its workers in plants to take frozen wages over 6 year contracts, with fewer and fewer seniority rights for shifts or jobs. Workers in Joilet, Illinois seem to have come to that cold place in the night where you may know the boss may beat you, but he’s going to have to whip you first.

No one pretends that this is a winning strategy, only that when there was no other recourse they then had no choice.

At the same time the “reforms” of the more activist Obama appointed members of the NLRB seem to have stalled again. The simple “notice” provision which would have required a posting of the law and protections for workers to organize freely at all workplaces, seems to have been stymied. The rules on quicker elections seem lost in a deep quiet zone as well, where perhaps no news is good news, since the only safe bet would be lawsuits trying to block the rules.

The election, if lost, would eviscerate the NLRB in the same way we now see the right moving to de-unionize the public sector in state after state. Where does this leave workers? Fewer strikes, more lockouts, and fewer victories from either one may argue for more corporate campaigns, but watching the Walmart corruption press rise and fall and the shell game of corporate social responsibility, and the diminishing “power” of the press, and it is clear that there is no silver bullet here. In the same way we need to adopt new organizing strategies, we need the same new thinking for action tactics.

Is Head Start Obama’s “No Child Left Behind?”

Mariehurt — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 20:27:45 +0000

New Orleans HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced that about 132 Head Start agencies charged with providing pre-school education for the poor will go through “redesignation.” Redesignation really means that they will lose their contracts and go through a rebidding process because they have been found deficient in some respect. Many of the deficiencies seem trivial, but the impacts are large since agencies in parts of Los Angeles, New York City, St. Louis, and Houston are among the large districts impacted in this rebidding “auction.”

The Administration is spinning this as a push to make sure the poor are getting the best in Head Start services and support, and I hope so. Unfortunately, the federal free-for-all on $7 billion in funding also seems somewhat political because Head Start though largely protected by funding cuts under Obama is under fire from different directions on how much impact the preparation for poor children in preschool has on long term performance. I worry that Obama’s Head Start initiative here could become to Obama what Bush’s No Child Left Behind has been: a critique without a program or solution!

Local 100 represents Head Start teachers and staff in Houston, Little Rock, and Shreveport, so we see the daily sweat, blood, and tears in good times and bad that dedicated workers give to educating these very young children to prepare them for the future. When studies question whether or not the advantages of Head Start last past the 1^st grade, we wonder whether Head Start is the problem or what happens in the increasingly beleaguered public school systems, where we also represent workers in Texas. There are more and more expectations with less support and resources.

I wouldn’t say that Head Start should be a sacred cow, but attacking the programs after years of defunding and funding freezes under Bush and as one of the few remaining programs that seeks to give the poor a break early in their lives, seems risky politics and bad policy in these polarized times where the right is looking for more scapegoats.

Video Series: Wade at the Center on Wisconsin Strategy

jstuart — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 22:03:54 +0000

Click the link below for more videos.

Coming into Wisconsin at Ground Zero of Class War in America

Mariehurt — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:23:26 +0000

Recall effort in Wisconsin

Milwaukee I couldn’t resist an invitation to speak at a panel on ACORN and community organizing this weekend at a conference of historians largely because it was being held in Milwaukee and it gave me an excuse for several days to see what was really happening here at ground zero in the class war that the right has declared on workers and regular citizens in Wisconsin and throughout the country. Social Policy just came out with a Special Report on Wisconsin One Year Later which had piqued my interest and given me a thorough introduction for just how devastating this has been beneath the headlines. Join me in reading the reports currently on the website.

There is a recall election set now with the primary only weeks away in early May and the general election for Governor in early June. The speed of the recall has made this a strange campaign. Watching the road from the airport into Milwaukee was curious because there were no yard signs visible, no billboards, and in fact no sign that there was anything out of the usual happening in Milwaukee.

The offices of SEIU Healthcare Wisconsin are in a re-purposed Baltz Brewery and are new and well put together with pale yellow walls and subdued purpose trim and doors everywhere. There are names on all of the doors and cavernous conference rooms though it is largely quite as a small training for the election is happening around a large table in the open atrium. The several stewards and volunteers are being told how “right-to-work” really works and why SEIU has endorsed their candidate for the Democratic primary.

The action is in the field, not the office, and that’s the good news, but predictably there is a breath exhaled after the giant recall effort that still has to be inhaled deeply for the second wind to test the full mettle of whether or not Scott Walker can be stopped here at the sharp point of the conservative surge in the Midwest.

“Justice Will Be Served” for Nail Salon Workers as Opportunity Knocks

Mariehurt — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:43:39 +0000

New Orleans A week long jury trial in federal court gave five nail salon worker employed by a Korean-owned chain in Long Island almost $250,000 in back pay and overtime for Fair Labor Standard Act violations for underpayment below minimum wages. The case for these marginal, often ignored service workers was brought forward by a coalition of organizations who are part of the “Justice Will Be Served” Campaign, spearheaded by the well known Chinatown Restaurant Workers in New York City.

A visit to the campaign’s website proves quickly that this has been a long time fight to organize marginal service workers by an independent group of organizations working in the New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey area, mostly employing a strategy of winning compliance with FLSA standards on wages. The charge, complaint, and enforcement strategy to build confidence in the workers inspiring more organizing, is a tedious and determined road for the campaign, but seemingly a sure one. The nail salon case dates back to 2009. Other accomplishments on the website date as far back as 2003. This is hard, patient work in the vineyards for service workers that need organization, but fall outside of the usual parameters of most institutional labor unions.

Organizers quoted in the New York papers yesterday hope that this inspires a wave of organizing among nail salon workers. That will probably not be the case, but what this victory may do is eventually provide some resources and deepen the commitment and interest in future organizing by the campaign and its member organizations, many of whom are likely supported now more by private resources than membership dues.

A strategy to move among marginal service workers has to be applauded. Victories on FLSA might create partnerships between organizations and law firms gaining more confidence in moving towards class actions for such workers and being able to fund the organizing through potential cy pres monies.

One can hear the organizing opportunity knocking loudly if anyone is still attuned to the sound.

Justice needs to be served for such workers!

Is Rough Worker “Care” an Indication of Bad Client Care?

Mariehurt — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:15:35 +0000

Bobby Jindal talks his version of Health Care Reform

New Orleans Here’s a dilemma. Our union, Local 100, United Labor Unions, represents a lot of workers in the Greater New Orleans, Lafayette, and Baton Rouge areas who live in small, residential “community” homes, as they are called, who are developmentally disabled. Some of the companies are large, some are smaller, some have been nonprofit and have become for profit, some were for profit and have become nonprofit over the years depending on the vicissitudes of the industry. With the crises in state financing, the reimbursement rates have been frozen or reduced by Governor Bobby Jindal and his ultra-conservative, hard fisted administration. We bargain with the companies and for the good of the clients and the workers need them to succeed and thrive.

Headlines blared out from the front page of the Times-Picayune last week as reports were issued by the Advocacy Center, a Louisiana nonprofit funded largely by the federal government, blasting 16 of the 509 homes in the state as the worst in the state. Where the shoe pinched hardest among the organizers and leaders of Local 100 was that all 6 of the worst homes in the New Orleans area, 5 in Kenner and 1 in the city, belonged to Progressive Health Providers, one of our union companies, which converted to a nonprofit years ago. Looking down the list, three of the homes, the two on Delaware and Fayette, are well known to me because it seems most of the grievances with PHP seem to arise at those homes.

According to the Times-Picayune the Advocacy Center report nailed these PHP-homes for “dirty conditions where holes in walls aren’t uncommen and upkeep and maintenance are spotty at best,” according to Nell Hahn, their litigation director. The report went on to say that “most resident are not provided with dental or mental care, and there seems to be little focus on offering individualized programs to determine the skill level of every resident with the goal of integrating as many as possible into the community….” Ouch! Our workers literally love these clients, and though many undoubtedly didn’t read the article, it was no surprise that everyone with the union was upset. When the Advocacy Center says that “these homes were selected because of problems that never seem to ‘get fixed’ for long…,” unfortunately, the painful truth is that that is often our experience in trying to resolve grievances and issues for the workers with the company as well. The shoe is pinching!

Company and state spokespeople predictably pushed back at the Advocacy Center report. The company almost seemed in their statement to be blaming the neighborhoods where the homes were located and attributing the problems to Katrina. Frankly, it was hard to follow.

You can run, but you can’t hide. We’ll reach out to the Advocacy Center and see what we can do as a union and as workers to fix the problems. We’ll reach out to the company as well and see if there’s a joint project that we can propose to get on a good list and get union homes off the bad list, but it’s hard to be optimistic. The culture of the company seems to be to resist, rather than resolve, to excuse, rather than to learn and solve, so they may see all of us as the enemy and crawl into the bunker, rather than uniting for the client. What the report and article don’t do is clearly call out that despite the fact that PHP is a nonprofit, it is managed by a for profit company, and that may be at the heart of the problem. Sometimes we have looked at PHP officials across the table and had to ask, “Are you really a nonprofit?”

It’s possible that the union and the workers may be more embarrassed, than the company, but somehow we all have to do better!

Back and Forth with Comcast and Small Progress to Date

Mariehurt — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:43:53 +0000

Mayor Hays of North Little Rock

New Orleans Our coalition has now sent a letter to the FCC asking for hearings and meetings in Houston and Philadelphia to try to focus Comcast on actually delivering on the requirements that it provide low cost Internet access to lower income families in its service areas. Comcast’s strategy is clear. They don’t want to do real outreach to the poor, they just want to do it with politicians where the props come easy and the donations slide smoothly into their pockets, producing lots of proclamations and damned little Internet.

My favorite response which is so typical of their strategy came from a letter to the Arkansas Times, a weekly paper based in Little Rock which had been following the efforts spearheaded by Local 100 United Labor Unions and Arkansas Community Organizations in that city. They obviously wheedle the Mayor of North Little Rock Patrick H. Hays into writing a letter to the paper offering them ridiculously effusive praise. Unfortunately the math in the letter about how good a job Comcast is doing is typical Comcast “pat my own back” overkill. As Hays drools his praise he comments that “40,000 nationwide have taken advantage” of the program (unaudited figures from Comcast, and highly suspect) and further he understands “that Comcast looks forward to multiplying those numbers 10,000 fold, and I eagerly anticipate many of those additions being from Central Arkansas.”

I have no doubt that Mayor Hays is hard at it in North Little Rock and doing one heckuva job, but next time he decides to shill for Comcast he ought to check their math before putting it on his letterhead. 40,000 times 10000 equal 400,000,000 people!!! Mayor, we don’t have that many people living in the USA yet. We have perhaps 313,000,000 and change according to the world population clock maintained by the U.S. Census. And, perhaps Comcast misled Mayor Hays, but they really don’t provide all of the Internet in the USA, though I’m sure they would like to do so! Sure hope some of those are in fact in Central Arkansas, since we sure can’t find many getting Internet Essentials yet.

Our coalition sent out an op-ed in response to the huge profits being recorded by Comcast. They can do so much better. Perhaps not as good as Mayor Hays believes, but maybe as good as we and the FCC require!

Comcast Internet Essentials Program Must Be Successful

Recently the New York Times reported on Comcast’s rising profits while families like mine are still waiting for Comcast to fill their promise of closing the digital divide through the Internet Essentials Program. In September of 2011, Comcast rolled out a national program to sign up families with children eligible for the free lunch program with $9.95 Internet, a computer and training. A few weeks ago they released their first public statement that reported that in Philadelphia only 463 or .3% of eligible families have enrolled in this program in their own hometown. In Houston they have enrolled 2000 out of 400,000 eligible families or .05% of eligible families.

It was reported last week that Comcast’s net income soared 45% to $1.3 billion because of the addition of NBC Universal, the same merger that requires Comcast to substantially increase broadband adoption in low income homes throughout Comcast’s service area. Today the Internet is an essential part of daily life, especially for my children. In January I attempted to apply for the Internet Essentials program but never received the application. This program is not working and Comcast is clearly not substantially increasing enrollment.

In Houston and Little Rock Local 100 United Unions represents Head Start workers and I work there and am eligible even under Comcast’s restrictive guidelines, but I still can’t get access to the program and get nothing but contradictory information.

Comcast must take their commitment to the FCC and to families on the other side of the digital divide seriously and take the large profits they are reporting and invest them in the successful implementation of the Internet Essentials program so it works for my family, my community and my city.

Union Density Continues Slip and Fall

Mariehurt — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:24:52 +0000

New Orleans I went by the gala reception on St. Charles Avenue last night to celebrate the fact that the SEIU International Executive Board was in town to see old friends and comrades. Past the music, food and short speeches, it was hard to find much evidence of good news for unions and organizing even from the union that has been categorically the single biggest success story over recent decades. The bloom is off the rose.

Part of the story is in the numbers which continue to slip and fall.

Bureau of Labor Statistics announced another slight drop last year of union membership compared to the overall non-farm workforce from 11.9 to 11.8%. Steven Greenhouse in the Times reports that union membership is now 14,760,000. The public sector percentage was 37% and about 7,560,000 and the private sector percentage is now only 6.9% with about 7,200,000. Private sector membership is clearly heading towards 5%, unless something serious and drastic happens.

The numbers could have been worse. There is speculation that the AFL-CIO is claiming 3,000,000 members from its Working America unit as part of their membership totals, which would be wild, since these are “canvassed” members rather than “real” dues paying members in local unions around the country. There are still scars on the ears of AFL-CIO staffers from 2008 who did phonebanking to the call list with that group and heard in no uncertain terms from many of these “members” that they had no idea they were part of a union?!? The BLS numbers come from the Current Population Survey of 60,000 households taken on a monthly basis so those are much more reliable indicators than those reported by unions themselves.

But, I’m grabbing at straws in saying that it could have been worse. This is plenty bad, and there’s no sign of anything being done in the labor movement to make it much better. Counting on the economy to make the numbers look a bit better is not a strategy!

More Heat on Comcast without Much Light from FCC

Mariehurt — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:47:35 +0000

New Orleans When a delegation of members from ACTION United showed up with baloney sandwiches at the Pittsburgh City Council meeting, the Council asked them to address the body and expressed concern with them about the difficulty that low income families are having making Comcast’s promises of greater access to the Internet a reality. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was clear that actions demanding accountability and access were now occurring in Houston, Little Rock, Shreveport, and Philadelphia (“Comcast’s Low-cost Internet Program Criticized”).

In Philadelphia members of ACTION United passed out 75 baloney sandwiches at the Comcast headquarters demanding the promised response from earlier meetings that indicated the company was considering improving its weak performance to date (“Activists Tangle Over Accessibility of Low-Income Program”). Ironically, Comcast seems to have convinced some school principals to apologize in their behalf and accept responsibility for the limited outreach that should have been the company’s responsibility, not the public school that hoped to partner with them and benefit. What a shell game?

There is no date for a reply in Houston yet? The meeting in Little Rock is still “sometime” in the first two weeks of February.

The FCC had called Houston, Little Rock, and Philadelphia to ask for our permission to share the letters with Comcast and send our complaints to the company. The Comcast lobbyist in Philly undoubtedly watched on his television as they read his email denying there were any complaints and begging the City Council to ignore our pleas.

Is the FCC trying to simply sweep this all under the rug and abandon their commitment to greater Internet access for lower income families by in effect pretending this is just Comcast’s “problem?”

Seems like we have no choice but to start having families file deceptive advertising complaints against Comcast with the FCC. The FCC will have a harder time passing that buck back to Comcast.

This shell game has to stop.

Comcast, Internet, Arrogance, and Free Speech

Mariehurt — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:56:35 +0000

New Orleans Another day, another dollar in Comcast land where it turns out in their view of the world, no promises need be kept, customers should pay and not be heard, government is only for them, not for the people, and if they say it’s good, then, damn, it must be good: Comcast-in-wonderland!

In Shreveport as Local 100 United Labor Union members pushed Comcast for action and access to the Internet for our Head Start parents, TV cameras were rolling and they were “not happy” as one of our members reported.

In Philadelphia where they had promised that there would be a detailed response to demands that our partner, ACTION United had brought forward in behalf of our coalition two weeks previously, yesterday came and went with no response from the company. Houston Local 100 members got the same response from two Comcast governmental relations guys in their meeting on Friday. Little Rock is waiting for its meeting soon. We are on a “need to know” basis!

In Philly and Pittsburgh, members of ACTION United are taking the Comcast issue forward with a “baloney” sandwich picnic in their honor today.

City staffers in Pittsburgh sympathetic to our demands that Comcast lower the digital divide forwarded us an email from the local Comcast executive which is priceless in its arrogance and, frankly, lack of good sense about the basics involved in a democracy including the freedom of speech for folks like us who want to really see their Internet program work. Somehow, Pittsburgh Comcast’s “Frank” seems to believe that if Comcast says “internet essentials” is a “great program,” then that ought to be enough said without worrying about the fact that no one is getting the Internet and virtually no one knows about the program. Ol’ Frank wants to pretend that’s all on the shoulders of the Pittsburgh School System, because they haven’t “reported any complaints.”

Frank, ol’ buddy, first it’s not the job of the public schools to shill your so-called “internet essentials” program for you, and, secondly, if virtually no one has heard of your so-called “great” program, how would they complain? And, who would they complain to? Well, Frank, they would do exactly what they are doing and complain to people and organizations just like us who are committed to making sure that Comcast delivers on their program to provide low cost internet access. And, despite your request to the Pittsburgh City Council members that they simply “not listen” to us as you indicated in your email, we’ve got news for you, they actually believe that it’s important to listen and respond to citizens (you might call them customers if you cared to actually really provide lower income families with internet!).

Don’t take my word for it. Listen to Frank’s own words drawn from his email:

I have communicated with the Pgh Public Schools yesterday and they told me they have not received any complaints about the program. We [Comcast?] ask that you do not [Frank’s bold!] engage with this group [ACTION United] and if any questions need to be answered please follow up with me. Internet Essentials is a great program and benefits all families whose children are on the Free lunch program whether they are a Comcast customer or not.

The whole email is a classic, and, personally, I would simply love [my emphasis!] to know how Frank believes that this program currently benefits “all families…whether they are a Comcast customer or not.”

But, answers to those questions are unlikely to be available today in Pittsburgh even to members of ACTION United; since Frank also made it clear he was not going to actually show up at the City Council meeting. Oh, no, not Frank, he’s a cable guy with Comcast. He signed off saying, he’ll “watch on TV.”

Hello, Comcast! Let us introduce you to America. It’s a different country than you imagined it might be! Live up to your word. Provide real access to the internet for the poor, and agree to be accountable to your promises. Hear our demands and “engage” with us directly!

We’re not Faith-Based and Thank the Lord for AGs!

Mariehurt — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:38:17 +0000

New Orleans Comcast deigned to meet with representatives of Local 100 United Labor Unions in their offices in Houston on Monday. Once again they tried to slather the butter on the bread with stories of their “good intentions” about internet access for the poor. Once again they promised that they would get back to us. Once again when we asked for real numbers of enrollees and real numbers of goals for outreach and enrollment, the only replies we could get still added up to “no.”

Orell Fitzsimmons, field director for Local 100, sitting in the meeting with a number of our leaders from Head Start units at Gulf Coast and Avance, who knew how little had been done to inform and enroll the children – and parents – they serve, had an excellent line for the Comcast representative. He informed Comcast clearly that, “We are not a faith-based organization. We can’t take your word on how well you think you are doing. We have to know the facts and the real numbers.” Fitzsimmons later told me he even quoted Ronald Reagan at one point from the old SALT missile days, and told Comcast we would need to be able to “verify.”

Maybe we weren’t hearing correctly, but the Comcast VP – they all seem to be VPs – seemed to be saying “make me!” Furthermore he seemed to be insinuating that only the FCC could make them produce the numbers. If that’s the case, then that’s where we will have to go to make this program work, if Comcast won’t live up to its promises.

On another front there was a report on possible progress for some of the homeowners facing foreclosure. The story, as always, was disconcerting when it came to the codependence of the feds with the banks. HUD secretary Shaun Donovan seemed to be wheeling and dealing to buy off different states to accept a deal which would reduce mortgage levels by a small number (the Times reported $20,000 per mortgage, which is a trickle in many communities), and tried to buy off California’s AG with a disproportionate share of the settlement. Luckily, it appears that a number of the state attorneys generals are hip to the fact that the banks only real interest seems to be a “get out of court free” card from them, which Donovan and the feds seem more than willing to help facilitate. Fortunately for many struggling homeowners a number of AGs are insisting that they will not waive their right to sue for the banks shenanigans.

At this point given how long suffering many homeowners have been and how many have already lost their houses, we all ought to hope for real justice, since clearly the time for a quick fix is long gone.