It has been reported that Sprinklerfitters local #692 has reached a tentative contract deal with their contractors association effectively putting an end to their strike of over one week!

PhillyLabor congratulates the leadership and membership of Local #692 on a job well done!

A Phillylabor.com Story Worth Remembering and Re-Posting

– In a perfect world there would be no need for unions.

– People would treat each other with respect, fairness and dignity in the work place.

– Businesses would offer employees fair wages, benefits and working conditions in exchange for a fair day’s work. 8 for 8 we call it.

– Corporate greed would not exist

– CEO’s would not be taking multimillion dollar bonuses while laying off hundreds and some times thousands of employees

and so on…..

After all, there are labor laws, attorneys and the US Dept of Labor to protect people from unfair labor practices and in a perfect world, if ever a person’s rights were violated at their job, that person could just call their attorney who could file a grievance with the Department of Labor and a representative from the department would contact the employer and resolve the issue within a day or so right? Voila, problem solved correct? So why in the world do we need unions to do the job that attorneys do and that we have laws to regulate that the U.S. Department of Labor enforces? Oh if life were only that perfect!

There ‘s an old saying that my brother sometimes refers to that goes something like this….the cleanliness of theory is no match for the mess of reality. What does that have to do with unions, worker’s right’s and the topic at hand? Well let’s think about it for a second, As a member of a union, you have union representatives that communicate daily with union members and employer(s). If there’s a problem on the job, there’s a process to follow. Typically, the member informs the shop steward, the shop steward calls the union rep (some are business agents, others presidents and/or business managers) and within a day or two in most cases, there is a resolution to the situation. It’s not always that cut and dry but basically you get the picture.

On the other hand, let’s look at a real scenario that actually occurred in a non-union work place not long ago. A dedicated, hard working woman from Philadelphia Pa. (with standard monthly/weekly living expenses including a car payment, utilities, food, a rent etc) gets in an auto accident on her way to work. After being taken to the hospital ER by ambulance, her boss via cell phone in the emergency room informs her to please take as much time as she needs to get better because her health is the most important thing and her job will be waiting for her when she recovers. Wow, the injured women really appreciated the support from her employer. In her time of extreme pain and anxiety, her car may have been totaled and she may be in physical pain, but at least she’s alive and still has a job right. All’s well that ends well right? Fast forward approximately 10 days later, the day after the female employee was released from her doctor’s care for treatment of a severe concussion and facial lacerations, upon returning to work with a doctor’s note, this employee was notified by the same boss who told her to “get well” that she was terminated for missing work. Keeping in mind that the woman got in the auto accident on her way to work and it was the same boss that instructed her to take as much time as she needed to recover and that her job would be waiting when she got back, what recourse did the woman have to get her job back?

First, she asked the boss why she was mislead and told to take the necessary time needed to get better before coming back to work? Her boss told her that it was an upper management decision and there was nothing could be done. Then she approached the human resources department and then ownership but still no help. Finally, after unsuccessfully exhausting all avenues to resolve the situation at her work, she packed her things and left the office alone and devastated. Literally no-one at her former place of work would help her.

What were her options?

Ultimately, in her case, over the next week or so, after contacting several attorneys about her situation, finally one took the case. They then contacted the Dept of Labor and filed a law suit against the employer and started the legal process to both get her job back all the while she was unemployed and falling farther and farther behind on her bills.

In the long run, it’s been over a year since the incident and this woman still has yet to receive justice from the Dept of Labor and the lawsuit is still pending, she’s lost her apartment and her ability to pay her bills, not to mention her dignity and self esteem.

The Bottom line is that although there are laws, attorneys and government agencies that are suppose to represent people who are unjustly treated by their employers, these solutions often take time and by the time the person ends up filing a lawsuit and/or complaint, going through the investigation and litigation, and obtaining justice if they are lucky, the person could be adversely effected both financially and emotionally in the process.

In the end, if you are not a member of a union, you may very well be at the mercy of a ruthless employer and be forced to do whatever necessary to keep your job or lose it. Without representation or collective bargaining, as an employee, you have very little immediate recourse! It is like the old Bruce Springsteen song says, when your alone, your alone, when your alone, you ain’t nothing but alone.

In closing folks, if you want to understand more about the need for the Labor Movement in America and around the world and the reason they are worth fighting for now more than ever, all you have to do is open your eyes and go to http://www.labourstart.org/ and look around the world at places who either don’t have them, are trying to organize them or are fighting to keep them. Don’t kid your self for one minute that in this day and age extreme work place violations don’t still happen everyday and it can’t happen to you, that only happens in a perfect world and god knows nothing in this world is perfect!

The National Conference of Mayors Meeting is in Philadelphia on May 22nd and 23rd

AFSCME District Councils #33 and #47 along with the Philadelphia AFL-CIO, the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council and other unions as well as community allies will be holding TWO DAYS OF ACTION Against Mayor 1% Nutter

Location – Both Rallies will be held at the Westin Hotel Philadelphia

Time(s) – Wednesday May 22 at 2pm, Thursday May 23 at 8am

MARCH TO CITY HALL – After the Rally on Thursday morning, there will be a march to City Hall for the final vote by City Council on the Philadelphia City Budget

ATTIRE AND GUESTS – Union Members are encouraged to “Wear Your Union Colors and Bring Your Family, Friends and Neighbors!”

PURPOSE: Make Your Voice Heard!

MESSAGE – It is time for Mayor 1% Nutter to Settle Fair Contracts with AFSCME DC #33 and #47 and honor the arbitration award for Firefighter Local #22

Go to – https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151349129016367&set=a.470571811366.254290.87479501366&type=1&theater

The GOP wants to force ‘flexibility’ on employees, not bosses.

BY Leo Gerard, United Steelworkers President

A century ago, workers were a lot more “flexible” than they are now. Veritable Gumbies in the mills and mines and factories they were, distorting their lives to slog 10 or 12 hours a day, for six—even seven—days a week.

Then came the 40-hour week. And weekends. And eventually sick days. And paid vacation days. Now, bosses at mills and mines and factories regard these rules as coddling and believe the workers accustomed to them are resisting corporate demands.

The GOP has an app for that. It’s called the Working Families Flexibility Act. This legislation that the Republican majority in the U.S. House is expected to pass this week would force some old-time flexibility into 21st-century workers. The forced flexibility act would award bosses the power to “offer” compensatory time off instead of overtime pay. Bosses, not workers, would determine when the comp time could be taken. The proposal puts control in corporate hands, obliging wage earners to bend over backward for bosses exactly like their Gumby ancestors were compelled to.

Trade unionists and labor rights activists died to achieve the goal of eight-hour days and 40-hour weeks. They were shot and beaten in the streets during demonstrations organized by the eight-hour movement. Their slogan was: “Eight hours for work; eight hours for rest; eight hours for what we will.”

Finally, in 1938, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) as part of the New Deal, which gave workers and families rights and security that previously had been exclusive to the wealthy.

FLSA enforces the 40-hour week with a simple measure. It requires employers to pay time and a half to wage earners for each hour worked beyond 40 in a week. That creates a financial disincentive for bosses to order work beyond 40 hours. That also creates a financial incentive for companies to avoid overtime pay by hiring more workers. That was a significant bonus during the Great Depression.

Employers still could require overtime when they needed it, but it cost them, the way it costs workers who must pay extra for child care or miss coaching a Little League game or forego Sunday dinner with parents.

Now, Republicans want to relieve corporations of their share of the cost. In fact, the GOP scheme enables corporations to profit on overtime at the expense of workers. It would reduce the financial disincentive of requiring work beyond 40 hours, which means it would also reduce the financial incentive to hire more workers. That would be a tragedy during the Great Recession.

The forced flexibility act would enable employers to give workers comp time off instead of overtime pay. Republicans contend it would be the worker’s choice, but in reality bosses foreclose options when they make it extremely clear they want comp time selected.

And they’ll want workers to “choose” comp time. That’s because workers won’t be able to specify when they’ll take the compensatory time off. Bosses will have veto power on those requests. And as workers accrue more and more hours of overtime—up to 160 a year—to be compensated later as time off, the corporation retains an increasing share of the value of their labor.

With overtime pay, the worker gets the money in the next paycheck and spends or saves it as he pleases, earning interest if he banks it. Under the GOP forced flexibility proposal, the boss can deny time off requests for as long as a year, after which the company must pay the wage earner for the extra time worked. By then, the corporation has kept the workers’ earnings, and the interest on them, for 12 months.

And if the company goes bankrupt before paying for the accumulated overtime, the GOP provides no protection for workers. Workers would lose the earnings that they would have received immediately if they had been paid time-and-a-half in the next check.

The GOP is hyping their forced flexibility bill as a measure to help women. On websites and blogs popular among women, the GOP bought ads asking Democrats if they will “stand up for” working moms by forcing women to contort themselves to employers’ whims. The same party that defeated equity measures for women like the Equal Rights Amendment and the Paycheck Fairness Act now wants the women who voted against them big time in the last election to believe the GOP forced flexibility act is good for them.

Republicans are right that women need flexibility it their work lives. The flexibility to earn 100 percent of what men do in the same jobs, instead of 23 percent less, would be great. But not so great would be a federal law giving bosses the flexibility to force women to work extra hours with a vague promise of compensatory time off some day in the future if the boss feels like granting it.

The GOP forced flexibility act is part of a list of proposals House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, calls “Making Life Work.” That’s right, Republicans intend to make life nothing but work. No eight hours for sleep. No eight hours for anything you will. Just work, Gumby, just work.
Go To – http://inthesetimes.com/article/14957/gop_forcibly_making_working_families_flexible/

Obituary and Tribute to Elinor Marshall Glenn March 11, 1915 – April 24, 2013

It is with a heavy heart that we inform you of the death of Sister Elinor Glenn (SEIU), a founding member and original officer of the Coalition of Labor Union Women. Karen J. See, CLUW National President said , “CLUW’s legacy is that much richer as a result of Elinor Glenn. Her leadership, strength and wisdom contributed to CLUW’s growth and will inspire young leaders in the future.” She served as the CLUW National Vce President – West Coast from 1974-1975 and continued as a National Executive Board Member for several years. She was elected the National Corresponding Secretary from 1982-1991. Elinor had this to say about CLUW, “The beautiful part of CLUW is the sense of sisterhood that it set up while we were fighting for the goals for women.” Elinor was instrumental in organizing the Los Angeles chapter. Maggie Cook, LA Chapter President recalled that Elinor remained active in the chapter until 5 years ago and was a mentor to every woman that knew her. In the photo Elinor is 2nd from left (with blonde hair) and at the far left is Ruth Martin (with coat over arm) who served as chapter president from 1974-1999. Photo taken in 1980 of LA CLUW members protesting Litton.

Elinor was born in Brooklyn New York, the 3rd of 4 children, to politically progressive parents who supported the union movement. Her mother was an activist suffragette who was involved in many organizations and who Elinor remembered as a wonderful organizer; her father was a union tradesman (a member of the painters’ union) and builder who believed that boys and girls were entitled to the same education, a view not popularly held at that time. Elinor skipped several grades and entered New York University at 15. She majored in Economics and Drama.

Her first love was acting, starting before high school and performing in summer stock and Off Broadway. While in college she met the author Herman Wouk at a summer camp for theater artists and is supposed to be the model for the character Marjorie Morningstar in the book of that name.

During her college years Elinor led a successful student protest and this experience caused an awakening in Elinor that led to a life of activism. During this time she and other NYU students volunteered at the seafarers’ union.

She graduated college in 1934 at 19 years old and after being unable to find a job in theater, got a job teaching English and remedial reading in the public schools thru funding thru the WPA (Works Progress Administration) under Roosevelt’s New Deal. She became a Vice President of the WPA Teachers Union. She later became a private school teacher at Pleasantville Cottage School run by the Jewish charities.

Elinor moved to Los Angeles with her first husband in 1944 in the hopes of working as an actress. She also studied law for a year at Southwestern Law School. Elinor joined an acting troupe that performed in union halls. This experience made her realize that “she was on the wrong side of the footlights”. To earn money, she worked as a clerk with the Office of Price Administration (OPA). She organized a local union and was fired three times for union activity, but was reinstated each time. She was promoted to an Economist. She moved up the ranks of the National Federation of Federal Employees Local from steward to chief steward. When the Local merged with several state, city, and county locals, she was elected president of UPW (United Public Workers), Local 246, a position she held until 1945-6, when she began to work as an organizer-representative at Rancho Los Amigos Hospital.

However, becoming an organizer was not easy for a woman. As Elinor tells it, “Each time I went up the ladder it was a fight to recognize that a woman could do the job. And in each case, I suggested a temporary probation period to see whether I would make it or not…” After successfully organizing and handling grievances at Rancho Los Amigos Hospital, she began to organize workers at the other Los Angeles County hospitals. In 1953 UPW, Local 246 merged with SEIU Local 347. Ten years later they were chartered as Los Angeles County Employees Union, Local 434, and eventually Elinor became the General Manager. She was the first woman to achieve that position of any SEIU local. As a leader of 434, she organized thousands of employees and helped forge major gains for county workers, including a collective bargaining ordinance in 1969 and leading the first strike to protect wages and seniority rights of county workers.. She was elected to the SEIU International Executive Board in 1972 and retired from her union employment in 1979, although remained active in SEIU for years.

Amongst her honors: United Long Term Care Workers of SEIU established the Elinor Glenn Scholarship and the Jewish Labor Committee established the Elinor Glenn Leadership Award.

Kerry Newkirk CLUW National VP (SEIU) felt that, “Elinor was the most beautiful woman–inside and out–in any room she was in. She was a champion of women’s rights and responsible for mentoring and supporting a countless number of women labor leaders and activists. As a leader of SEIU, she is largely responsible for the organizing of public sector workers in California. Her warmth, humor, inspiration, and generosity will be deeply missed but she leaves a huge legacy–it can truly be said that she made a difference in the world.”

Elinor was married to Hack Glenn for many years; he died before her. They had a son, Norman Gleichman who died in January. He had served as the Deputy General Counsel of SEIU. Survivors include her daughter-in-law, Marie Ritzo and 2 grandchildren, Nick and Eve. A June memorial service is being planned. More details to follow.

Thanks to Wayne State Reuther Library, SEIU Interview 1994, plus other SEIU archives, 1986 interview, California State University, Long Beach and CLUW NEWS for information and photos.

Go to – http://www.cluw.org/?zone=%2Funionactive%2Fview_article.cfm&HomeID=280246