By The AFL-CIO

– Memorial Day is the unofficial kickoff to the summer holiday season. Here’s some union-made food and drink to get your barbecue off to a great start.

Our list comes courtesy of Union Plus, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor’s LA Labor 411’s website. You can find these and other union-made products on your smart phone with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Buy Union app for iPhones, Androids and other phones.

Hot Dogs, Sausages, Other Grill Meats

Ball Park, Boar’s Head, Calumet, Dearborn Sausage Co., Fischer Meats, Hebrew National, Hofmann, Johnsonville, Oscar Mayer.

Condiments

French’s Mustard, Guldens Mustard, Heinz Catsup, Heinz Ketchup, Hidden Valley Ranch, Lucky Whip, Vlasic.

Buns and Bread

Ottenbergs, Sara Lee, Vie de France Bakery.

Sodas and Bottled Water

Bart’s, Coke, Diet Sprite, Pepsi, Sprite, American Springs, Pocono Northern Fall’s, Poland Spring.

Beer

Budweiser, Bud Light, Henry Weinhard’s Private Reserve, Mad River, Michelob, Miller, Rolling Rock.

Snacks and Dessert

Breyers Ice Cream, Flips Pretzels, Frito-Lay Chips, Good Humor Ice Cream.

Source: http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Other-News/Make-It-a-Union-Made-Memorial-Day-Barbecue

By Bianca Cunningham, with Zelig Stern

– Wireless is where Verizon makes most of its profits. But for decades, Verizon has kept a wall between union workers in its landline division and non-union workers in its wireless division. That’s how the corporation has maintained lower compensation and worse working conditions for wireless workers.

My co-workers and I have just taken the first step to tear down that wall.

After withstanding six weeks of intense union-busting, on May 14, retail sales reps and customer service reps at Verizon Wireless’s six Brooklyn retail stores voted 39 to 19 to join the our 40,000 landline brothers and sisters—and 80 wireless techs who joined in 1989—in the Communications Workers (CWA).

The telecom industry is a backbone of the modern economy, and its landline side has been heavily unionized for decades. But the wireless side has remained largely unorganized, outside of AT&T. I hope the stand we’ve taken here in Brooklyn sends a ripple effect through Verizon Wireless nationwide, and possibly even through the other major carriers, Sprint and T-Mobile.
Our Jobs Keep Growing

Growing up in a middle-class, two-parent household, I had dreams of one day working in corporate America. But when I graduated from college with an international business management degree in the middle of the Great Recession, finding a job seemed like finding that golden ticket in the chocolate bar. A couple months into my search, Verizon called me and I answered.

I wasn’t prepared to have my corporate ladder delusions shattered by the reality of today’s work environment—but hey, you live and you learn.

One thing I learned: Verizon Wireless has been gradually expanding our job duties, giving us new responsibilities without increasing our pay or informing us of the changes. This pattern began in 2010 when they ended their contract with Flextronics, whose employees were serving as technicians in the stores. That work was transferred to the sales reps and customer service people, who were already responsible for their own quota and operations.

So we are demanding clear job titles with descriptions. If they insist on increasing our job responsibilities, then we demand fair compensation.

Verizon Wireless workers in Brooklyn are also compensated at the same rate as workers in, say, Arkansas, even though Brooklyn is the third-most expensive place to live in the country. We’re fed up with working a full-time job on a retail schedule and barely being able to afford rent.

Organizing wireless workers will not only improve our working conditions, but also return bargaining power and help end concessionary contracts on the landline side. Management tells landline workers that the wireless side is more profitable, so “old technology” workers should take concessions. In reality, the wall between the divisions is a corporate fiction. Wireless services don’t work without landline infrastructure—each part needs the other.

CWA’s contract with Verizon Landline expires in about a year. If Verizon Wireless does not sign a quality contract with the newly organized Brooklyn retail workers before then, it’s possible the landline workers could leverage their negotiations to help their wireless counterparts. They’ve done this in the past for the metro area wireless technicians, the ones who joined in 1989.
Pioneering Drive

Before reaching out to CWA, I did my own research. I read up on the union, on previous authorization elections in different parts of the country, and on the correlation between declining union membership and declining wages.

Although unionizing Verizon Wireless had not been done before, I believed it was possible here in Brooklyn. I reached out to people I trusted in the company, people I knew had the respect of their peers.

When we felt the majority understood their value to the company, their potential power, and what was at stake, we called CWA to come in and help us organize further.

After going public, we showed unity by wearing red wristbands, and we adopted a “brother’s keeper” strategy: when Human Resources or management would approach a co-worker to discuss the union, we would insert ourselves into the conversation or stand around them so they didn’t feel alone. We checked up on people in different stores to make sure they were okay.

We also used technology to communicate and keep those who were weaker confident. I started a chat with GroupMe, a group text messaging service, and added everyone who had signed cards to be public. We also had CWA organizers, Verizon landline workers, and our attorney on the chat. GroupMe helped us to keep open dialogue about the anti-union rhetoric from management in each store. We also alerted each other about corporate visitors and any intel we’d collected to decipher their strategy.

It was intimidating to get constant visits from the company’s legal team, executive leadership, and HR in every store. We were visited constantly by high-level management such as Chief Operating Officer David Smalls, who encouraged us to vote against the union.

“Management hasn’t been honest or upfront about being anti-union,” said Tatiana Hill, one of my co-workers. “They have falsely appeared to be concerned for us as reps, rather than protecting their own interests.”

But despite this pressure we didn’t falter, because more than them, we meant business.

Source: http://labornotes.org/blogs/2014/05/verizon-retail-workers-win-union-vote-first-do-so

By Kathleen Carey

– The 600-member nurses’ union at the Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland voted overwhelmingly to approve a strike Wednesday with union officials continuing to cite staffing and safety as the key issues impeding a new contract. Crozer-Keystone Health System officials said they don’t understand why a strike is being authorized at this point.

“From the nurses’ perspective, we have proposals to get Crozer to take a closer look to improve staffing levels,” Bill Cruice, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, said.

The member nurses voted 350-2 to give their bargaining committee the authorization to call a strike, Cruice said, adding that any action would be preceded by a 10-day notice. “Our hope is, of course, to avoid the possibility of a strike,” he said.

A statement released by Grant Gegwich, Crozer-Keystone’s vice president of public relations and marketing, outlined the management’s position.

“We do not understand why the union is threatening to strike when they have not yet given us a complete set of proposals and have failed to respond to many of ours,” it read in part. “Out of the few proposals the union has given us, one proposes a staffing model that is not as good as the one we already maintain.”

Cruice said the union and the hospital have been negotiating for about five weeks, and more sessions are planned for May 28 and 29 with a federal mediator in attendance. The Crozer-Keystone statement said they have offered many dates for bargaining but the union only accepted four prior to the June 8 contract expiration.

Wage increases are not on the table for either party, Cruice said.

“It’s just not our focus right now,” he said, adding that staffing and security were the nurses’ main concerns.

The hospital statement said most of the proposals include wage increases and additional benefits. It did not specify, however, which side introduced these proposals.

Cruice said the nurses want the hospital to consider the magnitude of patients’ maladies when determining staffing rather than strict patient-to-nurse ratios.

“We want them to look at the severity of the illness,” he said. “There are a lot of patients who are very, very ill when they come to Crozer.”

In addition, Cruice said safety is a priority, especially following an incident last July when a patient who was lying in her hospital bed was struck in the abdomen by a stray bullet shortly before midnight after a shot was fired outside the hospital.

Citing safety as a priority, Crozer-Keystone officials stated changes such as additional security officers and back-ups, additional security cameras, non-lethal devices for security officers and controlled access for nursing units on evening shifts have been implemented.

In addition, they pointed to the creation of a Caregiver Support Team that assists employees in stressful situations and created partnerships with local police to enhance response time and support.

Cruice said the hospital wants to change some of the medical benefits.

“The hospital is always trying to cut benefits that nurses have,” Cruice said, “but, we’re focused on trying to improve conditions for nurses.”

Last year, Crozer-Kesytone joined with Abington Health, Aria Health and the Einstein Healthcare Network. Cruice said one of the hospital’s proposals is that employees who use hospitals outside of this alliance have to pay 25 percent of their medical bills after their deductible.

“Given where people live, it doesn’t really help much,” he said. “Nurses who work day-in, day-out, sometimes dodging bullets, we think it’s simply not right that they have to have such a huge burden when their own family is ill.”

The Crozer statement said the alliance would provide employees additional, more cost-effective choices.

The hospital system has faced a difficult year.

In February, Crozer-Keystone officials announced they were eliminating 250 employees, including physicians and managers, after losing almost $16 million in seven months. Funding issues arose due to the decline in hospital admissions, the continuing decrease in state funding and reimbursements, the smaller number of patients who have private insurance and the lower-than-anticipated volume of patients signing up on the Federal Insurance Exchange.

In addition, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the system’s debt and Crozer Keystone’s bond rating went from Baaa3 to Ba2.

“We are disappointed in the ratings change,” system officials said in their statement. “Unfortunately, changes in health care continue to have a negative effect on Crozer-Keystone and many other health care providers in our region and throughout the country.”

It said the management has cut costs and increased efficiencies in the system in what they believe will have a positive impact on their financial future.

Cruice said while Crozer’s current situation is challenging, the system’s previous financial stature has been a contrast.

“Over the last 14 years, Crozer’s finances have been remarkably consistent of being in the black and making a modest profit,” he said. “They might have an off year this year but their finances have been remarkably consistent over the years.”

The Crozer-Keystone statement indicated officials hope for more bargaining.

“We are happy to discuss staffing, safety and all other issues affecting our nurses,” it read. “But we cannot make progress until the union gives us proposals or counterproposals to discuss and agrees to bargaining dates upon which we can discuss them.

“We hope that if the union is truly concerned with patient care and safety, it will cease talking about walking out on patients,” it continued. “We deeply appreciate the understanding of our community as we work to resolve this matter.”
Source – http://www.delcotimes.com/business/20140522/crozer-chester-medical-centers-nurses-union-authorizes-strike

BY Cole Stangler

– From the debt-ceiling showdown to the “fiscal cliff” to the government shutdown of 2013, self-induced budget crises have become something of a hallmark of today’s Congress. In keeping with that tradition, Washington is now rapidly approaching the “transportation cliff.”

In October, the nation’s two-year transportation funding law will expire. That means the federal government won’t be allowed to finance upkeep of federal highways and bridges beyond what’s allocated before the deadline, or to award grants to states for new public transit projects like the expansion of Dallas’ light rail system.

Even before that, in late August, the federal Highway Trust Fund, which is the main source of money for these projects, is projected to go broke. Thousands of transit projects across the country will grind to a halt and 700,000 construction jobs will be put at risk, according to the White House.

As the squeeze nears, the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) and Transport Workers Union of America (TWU), whose members include public-transit operators and maintenance workers, are calling on Congress to get its act together. But they want more than a bare-bones bill. On Tuesday, hundreds of ATU and TWU members rallied at a park across the street from the Capitol Building, demanding that legislators expand federal investment in public transit.

“We need a long-term mass transit highway reauthorization bill, one that has real money to finance America’s infrastructure, highways, bridges, mass transit systems, so we don’t sink into a Third World in terms of mobility for tens of millions of people every day,” says Harry Lombardo, president of TWU. “Two years ago, instead of coming up with a comprehensive program and financing it to rebuild the infrastructure of America and expand mass transit or at least maintain it as we know it, they kicked the can down the road.”

Well-funded public transit, unions and their supporters say, is good for workers, riders and the environment. “It is one of those issues that is a true win-win in every regard,” Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said at the rally.

But in order to invest more, the government needs more revenue. That’s why the ATU and TWU back legislation sponsored by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) that would double the gas tax from 15 cents per gallon to 33.4 per cents per gallon. The current tax rate has stayed the same since 1993—the main reason for the Highway Trust Fund’s shoddy state.

“Right now, America’s running on fumes with its infrastructure,” Blumenauer said at the rally. “We really do need to raise the gas tax to give you the bill that you need and to avoid a food fight between transit and truckers and between red states and blue states. Put the money on the table; everybody can be satisfied.”

Larry Hanley, president of ATU, says a tax hike isn’t as controversial as it sounds.

“People don’t understand that they’re paying half today of what they did [20] years ago, per mile in gas taxes, because the gas taxes remained static [while] the amount of miles per gallon has gone up,” Hanley tells In These Times. “I think that if people take the time to explain that something has to be done to support our bridges, our roads and our transit, then the people will accept it. …The idea that the United States Congress can’t act and increase the tax to fund all these important programs is ridiculous.”

The AFL-CIO and Chamber of Commerce both back such a measure. And with the prospect of federal transit grants drying up, a number of states have already moved to increase their own fuel taxes.

The administration, however, has expressed opposition to a federal gas-tax hike. Instead the White House wants to generate revenue through a temporary corporate tax reform proposal. Larry Hanley says the ATU is open to additional means of raising revenue for transit projects, but says there’s no reason why any such measure needs to be temporary.

Blumenauer wasn’t the only member of Congress to make the one-block journey across Constitution Avenue. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and representatives Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) and Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) also spoke at the rally.

So too did Reverend Al Sharpton, who connected public transit funding to the civil rights struggle.

Noting that poor people and people of color are more dependent on public transit than other Americans, Sharpton told the crowd of trade unionists, “Labor rights for transit workers is civil rights for American people. …. When you cut off transit workers, you cut off the legs of people that live in the bottom 99 percent of this country, and we are not going to let you stand by and scapegoat transit workers to immobilize Americans. This is a fight for Americans everywhere.”

In 2005, Sharpton famously supported TWU Local 100’s three-day strike in New York City, blasting then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s use of the word “thuggish” to attack union leaders.

Mac Urata, inland transport section secretary for the United Kingdom-based International Transport Workers’ Federation, an international labor federation which has over 4.5 million members, connected the push to secure U.S. government financing with struggles against privatization and deregulation in Europe.

“It is about time that we find ways to promote public transit systems for the benefit of the workers and for the riders, and put the money where the system operates, and not into the pockets of these bosses,” Urata told the crowd. “It is about time that all national governments reverse their cuts in public transit and promote the most environmentally friendly mode of transport. … Your fight is our fight. You are not alone.”

Last week, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works passed a bill to maintain federal spending on highways and mass transit at current levels, an attempt to replace the transportation legislation that expires in October. But that bill did not address the Highway Trust Fund’s funding crisis—which means it’s unlikely to pass the full Senate and House without a corresponding revenue-raising plan. As the shortfall looms, other committees in Congress are soon expected to move forward on measures to boost the Trust Fund.

Source: http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/16732/as_transportation_cliff_nears_unions_rally_for_public_transit

By Daniel Denvir

– A first-grade student died today after falling ill at Jackson Elementary School in South Philadelphia, where no school nurse was on duty. Philadelphia schools have suffered dramatic staffing cuts to nurses and other positions in recent years.

“We had a very tragic day at Jackson Elementary,” says School District of Philadelphia spokesperson Fernando Gallard. Gallard says that the boy showed signs of distress in the classroom and was given CPR by one of three trained adults in the classroom. They called 911 immediately and an ambulance arrived to take him to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where he was pronounced dead an unknown time later.

The details of the boy’s condition (the student has not yet been identified) are unclear. But Ann Smigiel, Jackson’s nurse, worries that she might have been able to prevent it had she been on duty.
“There is no net for the staff or the children,” she says. “There’s no requirement to have any kind of medical team. It’s my job as the nurse to make sure there’s an emergency plan, and basically it is 911…The equipment isn’t there, nothing is there for them.”

Smigiel works at Jackson only on Thursdays and every other Friday. Until five years ago, Smigiel says that she was present at Jackson every single day. Smigiel says that she has worked at Jackson for 12 years, and worked for 15 years prior in an emergency room.

“If I were there would it have made a difference? I don’t know. But I’ve done CPR in the past and that little girl has a heart transplant now,” says Smigiel, who believes that student would have died had she not been present. “The benefit of having immediate medical care, immediate response, [and] clear decision-makers is absolutely a part of why she made it.”

Philadelphia public schools have long lacked necessary funding, but recent cuts by Gov. Tom Corbett have sent the District into an increasingly dire fiscal crises. As of last fall, there were 179 nurses working in public, private and parochial schools, down from 289 in 2011. In September, sixth-grader Laporshia Massey died of what her father described as an asthma attack after falling sick while no nurse was on duty at Bryant Elementary School. The death caused an outcry against school budget cuts, and Corbett soon released $45 million for the District that had been withheld on the condition of teachers union concessions. Corbett denied that the funding was related to Massey’s death.

School District Chief of Student Support Services Karyn Lynch says there will be psychologists and bereavement specialists at Jackson tomorrow. Many students will likely find out about the boy’s death when they arrive for school in the morning.

“This came completely out of the blue for the teaching staff as well as the students,” Lynch says. “Many of the students and certainly the teachers and the staff are very very upset about this.”

Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president Jerry Jordan said he is “absolutely shaken” by the death, and says it marked “another example of another under-resourced school.”

Jordan said it was “very upsetting to lose another child and know the nurse wasn’t available in the building, who could have been there to assist him.”

Two other Jackson students have also died off campus in recent years, says Smigiel, one from street violence and another from asthma. The school has been hit hard.

“The kids that we service are dying and it’s wrong. And it’s preventable in a lot of ways.”

Source: http://citypaper.net/article.php?Another-student-dies-after-falling-sick-at-Philly-school-with-no-nurse-on-duty-20397

Phillylabor.com Commentary – This situation is absolutely UNACCEPTABLE! Having a school nurse on premise during our children’s times of need should not be a budgetary issue. It IS a life safety issue. This is the second child we have lost in a school without a school nurse available to assist the child during a medical emergency. We need a solution to this situation immediately!

There is no excuse for our generation to be the first in modern times to NOT make viable public educational resources (including life safety resources) available to them in their time of need. WE ARE FAILING OUR CHILDREN AND WE NEED TO GET OUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT BEFORE THIS HAPPENS AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN!