By Dave Jamieson

– More than a year after its initial election victory at a Guitar Center store, the union representing the chain’s first unionized employees is accusing the retailer of bargaining in “bad faith” and trying to purge the union.

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union has filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that Guitar Center has stalled in bargaining talks and “punished” workers who voted in favor of representation. Last year, RWDSU won elections at three Guitar Center stores, although those workers have yet to reach a collective bargaining contract with the company.

On Tuesday, Richard Trumka, the head of the AFL-CIO labor federation, accused Guitar Center ownership of using “shameful” tactics to avoid a contract with the unionized workers.

“The fight against Bain Capital and Ares Management for fair pay and decent health care for the Guitar Center workers is what the labor movement is all about,” Trumka said at RWDSU’s convention in Orlando, Florida. “The dirty tactics of Bain and Ares have been shameful and ugly. I want every Guitar Center worker to know the entire AFL-CIO and every one of our affiliates stands behind them in their efforts to win a fair contract.”

Bain Capital, Mitt Romney’s old investment firm, held a controlling stake in the music equipment retailer until April, when it completed a deal handing the reins over to the private equity firm Ares Management.

In an email, Guitar Center spokesman Christopher Bennett called the union’s claims “baseless,” noting that one worker recently withdrew his charge of an unfair labor practice.

“The RWDSU’s continued insistence on filing bogus charges against us and spreading misinformation to our associates and in the media is disappointing and a waste of everyone’s time,” Bennett said. “For more than a year we have respected the bargaining process and the law in dealing with the union.”

Bennett went on, “For 50 years our organization has put musicians and our people first. If the union had any respect for the bargaining process or our associates, they would keep this kind of rhetoric out of the headlines and stop taking cheap shots that nobody takes seriously

As HuffPost reported last year, RWDSU launched an organizing campaign at several Guitar Center stores, where workers had grievances related to job security, health care coverage and the company’s wage system for commissioned salespeople. The apparent discontent helped the union notch election victories at shops in New York, Chicago and Las Vegas, with two failed bids at other stores in New York.

The union now alleges that Guitar Center management has made a show of addressing workers’ grievances — but only at the company’s non-union stores.

Because unionized workers would be covered by their own contract, it’s perfectly normal for a company with both unionized and non-unionized employees to enact new pay-and-benefit policies exclusively for the non-union workforce. But in a letter to the federal labor board, RWDSU said that the company had “refused” to consider the same improvements for the unionized workers at the bargaining table, “all as a method for punishing the RWDSU represented employee for joining the Union.”

The labor board is investigating RWDSU’s complaints, which it could dismiss or choose to pursue further on behalf of the union.

Phil Andrews, director of the union’s retail organizing project, argued that Guitar Center is trying to send a message to other workers who might consider unionizing. “It’s a situation where the non-union stores were given a carrot in order to stay away from the union, and the union stores were being punished,” Andrews said. “That was the impression they wanted to give.”

When it comes to bargaining talks, RWDSU contends that Guitar Center has been dragging its feet in hopes that support for the union will erode before a contract gets signed. In its letter to the labor board, the union accused the company of engaging in “regressive bargaining,” changing its stance on wage-and-hour issues and “failing to respond” to proposals from the union.

“It became clear a few months ago to us that their intention was never to negotiate a good contract,” Andrews said.

According to National Labor Relations Board filings, Guitar Center is represented by Jackson Lewis, a law firm known for its “union avoidance” work.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/05/guitar-center-union_n_5652157.html?1407272719

The announcement of a cash advance is a positive development, but current funding levels will still leave the school district on life support and unable to properly educate our children.**

PHILADELPHIA—“While it is still unclear how Governor Corbett’s announcement of a $265 million advance will impact the on-time opening of schools, it is very clear that this does not represent new funding, nor will it be sufficient to adequately provide the resources Philadelphia’s children deserve.

“Last September, our schools opened with a startling lack of programs and services for schoolchildren. Our schools still do not have an acceptable number of counselors, nurses, librarians or secretaries. Last school year was especially trying for students and staff. Many children who needed medical attention did not have the service of a nurse when they needed it. College-bound students missed deadlines for submitting college applications because they couldn’t get an appointment with a counselor. Children lost access to art, music and extracurricular activities.

“There is no question that we need the State Legislature to quickly reconvene and pass cigarette tax legislation. Our schools desperately need the projected $45 million in revenue the tax would generate this year.

“But even with these funds, we know that last year’s dire scenarios are certain to repeat themselves in our schools this year. Over 300 instructional support personnel were laid off on July 31, which means that there will be even fewer adults on hand this year than last to foster a safe learning environment in our schools.

“This crisis is not limited to the current budget cycle. Though the state is constitutionally obligated to provide a thorough and efficient public education to every child in the commonwealth, it has for years been woefully deficient in meeting this obligation for Philadelphia’s children.

A cash advance and passage of cigarette tax alone are not enough to fix the damage done by Governor Corbett’s cuts to public education.”

Source: https://www.facebook.com/PhilaFedofTeachers

By Jim Melwert

– Septa and two unions representing Regional Rail workers met with the National Mediation Board in Washington today.

The board held the hearing with Septa and the two unions representing about 400 engineers and electrical workers on the transit agency’s Regional Rail lines.

A Septa spokesman says the board encouraged the two sides to go back to the negotiating table and continue talking.

While no talks are currently scheduled, Septa says they hope to continue negotiations soon.

Regional Rail employees represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen walked off the job in June, but were forced back one day later, after a presidential emergency board was convened. That delays any labor action for 240 days, half of which remain before the unions could take any further job action.

Source: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2014/08/04/federal-mediation-board-tells-septa-regional-rail-workers-to-keep-talking/

By Alan Pyke

– A new executive order from President Obama will make it harder for companies to win federal contracts if they violate their workers’ rights and withhold their wages, the White House announced Thursday.

Under the new rules, companies that apply for federal contracts larger than half a million dollars will have to disclose any major labor law violations they or their subcontractors have committed in the previous three years. Agencies will prioritize companies with clean records over those that abuse their workers’ rights when weighing contract bids. Each executive branch agency will have a specific bureaucrat in charge of determining whether a company’s lapses “rise to the level of a lack of integrity or business ethics,” according to a White House fact sheet on the rules.

The package of reforms will also prohibit companies that do business with the government from requiring their workers to agree to arbitration processes for workplace harassment or civil rights complaints, guaranteeing that workers who are sexually harassed or discriminated against can get their day in court.

The Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order will not kick in until 2016 and its provisions will only be applicable to new contracts, according to the White House fact sheet. But because the new scrutiny of labor law violations will apply to company performance over three years, the new rules serve to put contractors on notice that their treatment of workers today will affect their odds of winning their next contract. The move earned praise from a top official with the coalition of labor groups and activists that has been rallying low-wage federal contract workers to strike and demand action from the White House since the spring of 2013.

“Once again, the President is leading by example,” Change to Win deputy director Joseph Geevarghese said in a statement Thursday. “Just like the executive order raising the minimum wage had a ripple effect across the economy, we hope that this bold step by the President sends a clear signal to the private sector that you need to do right by your workers.”

An earlier Obama executive order raising the pay floor for workers on federal contracts to at least $10.10 per hour did not put a stop to strikes and protests by these workers. That order also has a delayed phase-in because the President cannot rewrite contracts that have already been signed. But starting with the next round of federal contracts, it will mean that the companies that provide basic food and janitorial services at federally-owned buildings, for example, cannot pay their employees less than $10.10 per hour. Such workers have staged regular strikes and protests calling on Obama to act over the past 15 months.

The lack of rules like these for federal contracts prior to Obama’s actions has meant that the federal government is among the largest employers of low-wage workers in the country. Almost 2 million Americans working for government contractors are paid too little to support a family — “more than the number of low-wage workers at Walmart and McDonalds combined,” according to a Demos report from 2013. By contrast, the executives at these same federal contractors earn a combined $23.9 billion per year.

Obama’s use of executive orders to combat congressional inaction on his legislative priorities has angered Republicans so much that they just voted to sue him over the practice. Obama’s latest focus has specifically been around federal contractors, and most recently he signed off on a package of executive order updates to provide LGBT federal contractors employment protections. Democrats in both houses have set their sights on the newest goal for federal contractors, however, introducing legislation to prevent government contracts from going to companies that move overseas to reduce their U.S. tax liability.

Source: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/07/31/3466134/obama-executive-order-contractors/

By The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers

Governor Corbett’s allies have once again derailed cigarette tax legislation that would have helped Philadelphia’s schools open in September.

Without the revenue from the cigarette tax, our children will lose even more critical programs and services.

Join the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers on, today, Friday, August 1 in front of Governor Corbett’s Philadelphia office to let the public know what schools will look like for Philly’s children in September if we don’t get sufficient funding!

WHAT: “Fight Back for Funding” Rally

WHEN: Today/Friday, August 1, 2014, 5:00 p.m.

WHERE: Governor Corbett’s Philadelphia Office, Broad and Walnut Streets

Source: https://www.facebook.com/PhilaFedofTeachers/photos/a.218510488179036.68169.146726832024069/864207286942683/?type=1&theater