By Laura Clawson

– The oil workers strike widened over the weekend, with 1,400 workers at two BP refineries in Indiana and Ohio walking out:

The first nationwide strike by oil refinery workers since 1980, the addition of BP’s Whiting, Indiana, refinery and the company’s joint-venture refinery with Husky Energy in Toledo, Ohio, brings the total number of plants with strikers to 11, including refineries accounting for about 13 percent of total U.S. oil refining capacity. The original strike included workers in California, Kentucky, Texas and Washington.

The workers are emphasizing safety concerns, with good reason:

In January there were at least four major mishaps at a U.S. pipelines that resulted in costly explosions or spills. In 2013, Texas led the country in oil and gas sector fatalities with 106. Overall, oil and gas workers are six times more likely to die on the job than average Americans. With the recent growth of the industry due to the proliferation of new drilling techniques such as fracking, safety measures can suffer. In North Dakota, which has been at the forefront of the oil boom, the fatality rate for industry workers was three times the national average in 2013.

The companies are using scab labor to staff the affected plants, with one at half capacity due to delayed maintenance. Meanwhile, Shell continues to serve as the lead management-side negotiator for a nationwide contract. Late last week, the United Steelworkers rejected the latest offer from Shell as containing “minimal movement.”

Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/09/1363329/-Largest-oil-workers-strike-in-decades-expands

By Laura Clawson

– The United Steelworkers have rejected the latest offer from Shell for a contract covering oil refinery workers, saying that this offer contains “minimal movement” from earlier ones. About 4,000 workers are on strike in California, Kentucky, and Texas, affecting nine plants. However, management has brought in scab labor to keep the plants running.

A broader strike remains possible and “would threaten to disrupt as much as 64 percent of U.S. fuel output.” According to the union as the strike began:

“This work stoppage is about onerous overtime; unsafe staffing levels; dangerous conditions the industry continues to ignore; the daily occurrences of fires, emissions, leaks and explosions that threaten local communities without the industry doing much about it; the industry’s refusal to make opportunities for workers in the trade crafts; the flagrant contracting out that impacts health and safety on the job; and the erosion of our workplace, where qualified and experienced union workers are replaced by contractors when they leave or retire,” Beevers added.

In addition to safeguards against workplace fatigue and a reduction in the use of non-union contractors, the union is looking for bigger raises than in its last contract.

Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/07/1362586/-This-week-in-the-war-on-workers-Oil-workers-strike-continues

By Laura Clawson

– Gov. Chris Christie took a break Thursday from his busy schedule of being under federal investigation and fighting open records lawsuits to veto a package of “Buy American” bills the state legislature had sent him. The bills would have strengthened existing laws calling for public contracts to be carried out “where possible” with American-made goods:

The measure, which applied to contracts sufficiently large that they must be put out to bid, required government agencies to buy only products of which at least 50 percent of the cost comes from components “mined, produced or manufactured” in the United States.

The law would allow local and state governments to buy foreign goods in certain scenarios, including if the cost of the U.S.-produced product is more than 20 percent higher than a foreign item, or if U.S.-made products are not available “in reasonable quantity.” In those situations, however, companies would have to apply for a waiver from the law.

But those waivers weren’t enough for Christie, who has consistently looked for giveaways to business in the name of jobs, even as New Jersey job creation has lagged under him. According to the Alliance for American Manufacturing, existing “Buy American” laws aren’t consistently applied, and:

Consequently, New Jersey has lost more than 180,000 manufacturing jobs since 2001. […]

Manufacturing jobs currently make up 6 percent of New Jersey’s total employment, and the sector represents nearly 8.5 percent of New Jersey’s gross state product. While New Jersey now has 243,100 manufacturing jobs, it remains 63,000 short of its pre-recession level.

Christie is sinking in the polls, with his state’s voters thinking he’s more interested in his presidential ambitions than doing his current job as governor. But vetoing bipartisan “Buy American” legislation probably isn’t what they had in mind when he turned his attention back to New Jersey.

Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/06/1362723/-Christie-vetoes-Buy-American-bills-despite-New-Jersey-s-manufacturing-jobs-deficit

BY Lillian Osborne

– Why do unions matter? They increase wages and benefits for their members, sure—but do they have any impact on society as a whole?

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a progressive thinktank, published a chart earlier this week showing a striking correlation between the decline of union membership and the upsurge of income inequality.

While a variety of factors affect wealth inequality and union membership, it’s hard not to notice that the two graphs are nearly mirror images of each other: As union membership increases, the share of wealth by the richest 10 percent of Americans decreases; as membership goes down, the wealthy’s share goes up.

Based on studies by Colin Gordon and an updated analysis of tax data by Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, the percent of public and private sector workers in unions continues to fall, reaching its lowest rate since 1936 at 11.1 percent last year. At the same time, the share of income going to the top 10 percent of wage earners reached an all-time high of 47.8 percent in 2012.

As membership increased after 1936 during the Great Depression, peaking at 33.4 percent in 1945 and staying about the same until 1960, the top 10 percent’s share of wealth fell. At a height of 46.3 percent in 1932, the share of wealth held by the richest tenth fell to 31.5 percent by 1944, remaining stable till about 1980. As union membership steadily declined after 1980, the wealthiest Americans saw their share of riches surge.

Gordon explained the importance of unions in other realms beyond higher wages for their members: “Unions at midcentury also exerted considerable political clout, sustaining other political and economic choices (minimum wage, job-based health benefits, Social Security, high marginal tax rates, etc.) that dampened inequality.”

As Doug Henwood recently noted, despite the decline of overall membership recorded in the most recent figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unions still improve wages and working conditions considerably, especially for demographics subject to the most workplace discrimination.

The EPI’s chart is a visual testament to unions’ ability to impact not only their own members’ lives, but also the distribution of wealth in society as a whole. As unions decline, it’s not just union members who lose out—the entire society loses one of the main forces that can help make sure wealth doesn’t congeal among the richest.

While private-sector union membership, which accounts for five times more employment than public-sector union membership, continues to drop, public-sector unions have largely remained stable over the last 30 years. But with the continuing attacks on public-sector unions by right-to-work state legislation and Supreme Court cases, one of the last bastions of strong unionism in the U.S. may soon erode just like the private sector. If the EPI’s research is any indication, this could foreshadow more egregious income inequality to come.

Source: http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17603/one_chart_shows_how_unions_redistribute_wealth

By Jared Shelly

– Paid sick leave legislation has gotten one step closer to becoming a reality. A City Council committee unanimously passed an ordinance that would require paid sick leave for some workers in the city. They would be able to earn up to five paid sick days per year.

Although Mayor Michael Nutter has twice vetoed such legislation, he’s now on board, according to Chief of Staff Everett Gillison. He said the following, according to CBS Philly:

“Mayor Nutter believes the time for paid sick leave has come,” Gillison said. “It will be a boon to those who need it to take care of themselves, their children and their families while holding down a job.”

Councilman Bill Greenlee is championing the legislation. He doesn’t want people to feel compelled to come to work sick, spreading germs and possibly taking longer to recover.
Greenlee wants businesses that employ 10 or more to be subject to paid sick leave requirements, but the mayor wants the standard to be 15 employees. Joe Grace of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce is also in favor of a higher employee count, according to CBS Philly.

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/morning_roundup/2015/02/paid-sick-leave-moves-forward-and-now-had-mayors.html