by Laura Clawson

– Fast food workers. Software engineers. NFL cheerleaders. These are just a few of the groups of American workers who are suing over forms of wage theft, the umbrella term for the long list of ways employers cheat workers out of money they’ve earned. In recent months, NFL cheerleaders—most recently four former cheerleaders for the Buffalo Bills—have been filing lawsuits alleging that they were misclassified as independent contractors rather than employees, then paid amounts that worked out to below minimum wage.

Independent contractors are, by definition, supposed to be able to exercise at least some independence; one of the key measures of misclassification is how much control the employer exerts over the worker. The former Bills cheerleaders’ lawsuit reports the team and the management companies it retained to oversee the cheerleading program exerting extensive control over every aspect of their appearance and behavior while on the job:

In addition to the rules previously cited, defendants also provided the Jills with rules regarding general hygiene and body maintenance (a list of 17 rules), appearance etiquette (17 rules), conversation starters for appearances and general etiquette, etiquette for formal dining (25 rules), and rules for communicating with people with disabilities (17 rules).

The extensive rulebook set forth by defendants includes, inter alia, rules on how much bread to eat at a formal dinner, how to properly eat soup, how much to tip restaurant waiters, wedding etiquette, how to properly wash “intimate areas,” and how often to change tampons.

Following these rules, showing up for appearances, allowing themselves to be groped and harassed, was not exactly a ticket to wealth:

Jills were not paid for working game days. Neither were they paid for the mandatory biweekly practice sessions that usually lasted eight hours in total, according to the suit. On average, the cheerleaders involved in the suit averaged only a few hundred dollars per season, the highest amount being $1,800, the lowest $150. Not surprisingly, the lady who made $150 didn’t cheer the next year.

The Bills are the third NFL team to face such a lawsuit; the Oakland Raiders and Cincinnati Bengals have similarly been sued for paying cheerleaders amounts that worked out to well below minimum wage. And remember, this all is going on in an incredibly profitable industry that rakes in huge public subsidies.

Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/23/1294007/-NFL-cheerleaders-join-the-fight-against-wage-theft-suing-over-minimum-wage-violations

– Philly Jobs with Justice is turning fifteen. They will be celebrating with their founding supporters at their annual Jobs with Justice Solidarity Awards Dinner On May 7th at 5:30pm,

That’s fifteen years of fighting for worker justice

The event will be At The William Way LGBT Community Center at 1315 Spruce Street, Philadelphia
and will honor some of their founding member organizations including:

• AFSCME 1199c
• AFSCME DC 33
• AFSCME DC 47
• CWA District 2-13
• SEIU 32BJ Local 1201
• USW 10-1

Along with two special individuals:

• Liz McElroy, former Philadelphia Jobs with Justice labor co-chair

• John Braxton, Philadelphia Jobs with Justice founder

For ticket info, Go to: http://www.phillyjwj.org/

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

– Contracting out public services—which aims to help state and local governments save tax dollars—often has a harmful effect on the community, including worsening inequality and lowering wages.

A recent study, “The Decision to Contract Out: Understanding the Full Economic and Social Impacts,” finds that the savings of outsourcing varies widely and often diminish over time. The study, by Daphne T. Greenwood of the Colorado Center for Policy Studies at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, concludes that contracting out undermines our democratic principals by leading to corruption and less control over public funds.

“While reducing costs is most often the motive for outsourcing, a growing body of research documents that savings are minimal, on average,” the report says. “It is also not unusual for total costs to be greater when performed by private contracting firms than they were in-house.”

Studies show that contracting out typically leads to short-term savings of 5 to 10 percent. Over time, the savings often diminish because of a lack of competition and other factors.

Governments cite insufficient savings 52 percent of the time when they explain their decision to abandon contracts. In 61 percent of cases, governments cancel contracts because of inadequate services.

The Economic and Social Costs of Contracting Out

The savings of contracting out are usually achieved by lowering the wages and benefits of workers. That occurs at a great cost for the community, including:

• a decline in retail sales

• a worsening of the wage disparity between men and women, and between blacks and whites

• a reduction middle-class jobs and

• an increase in the dependency public services.

The push for contracting out began decades ago. The Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank, was one of the earliest proponents of shifting public assets and spending to the private sector.

States and municipalities picked up the practice in the late 1970s and the 1980s.

Municipalities contact out an estimated 35 percent of services. The federal government has doubled the amount it spends on contracts since 2000, with most of the spending on services.

While contractors reduce costs by paying front-line workers less, their administrative costs are typically higher than in the public sector, where managers often earn less. But the managers of private companies tend to spend less in the community, leading to a siphoning off of profits and taxes elsewhere.

“More money usually flows out of the local economy,” the report says. “That means less spending, especially in retail and dining establishments.”

In many instances, contractors pay their workers so little that they must rely on public assistance for housing, food and medical care. In California, for instance, school cafeteria workers employed by contractors receive an average of $1,743 in public benefits each year.

The report describes a number of indirect effects of outsourcing on government, the economy and the workforce.

Historically, the public sector has provided a ladder into the middle class for women and minorities. They are disproportionately hit by the contracting out of public-sector work.

“Women of all races, along with African-American males, sought out public employment for more equal treatment than they often found in the private sector,” the study says. “Outsourcing public jobs often lowers wages, takes away benefits and reduces opportunities for advancement up the job ladder—and disproportionately affects the groups who have struggled most to get a foothold in the labor market and the middle class. Maintaining ladders of opportunity is an important part of the promise of America that public decisions can help to maintain.”

Private sector companies have spent decades attacking unions, cutting back on health-care benefits and eliminating pensions. Now contracting out has become a weapon for eliminating “good jobs”–jobs with decent pay and benefits–in the pubic sector. Indeed, city officials in Colorado Springs described escaping long-term pension obligations as one of the reasons for contracting out there.

Comprehensive information about the workplace safety and health record of state and local contractors is not available, but substantial documentation exists on the record of federal contractors.

A recent U.S. Senate inquiry found that nearly 30 percent of the top violators of federal wage and health laws were federal contractors. The violations resulted in the deaths of 42 workers between 2007 and 2012.

One instance involved a worker who died after being sucked into an industrial dryer at a Cintas Corp. facility in Tulsa. The worker got caught in the dryer while he tried to untangle stuck clothes; he was spun around inside the dryer for 20 minutes at 300 degrees. Cintas had $3.4 million in federal contracts in 2012.

Weakening Accountability

Decades ago, the civil service system was established to combat nepotism, cronyism and corruption. Contracting out undermines civil service by funneling tax dollars to the private sector, where there is less transparency and accountability of tax dollars.

“In addition to having rights to privacy that collide with traditional expectations of transparency and accountability, private providers are generally not subject to conflict-of-interest laws, nepotism statues or ordinances, ethics codes or whistleblower protection for their employees, or restrictions on political involvement,” the study says.

Three examples of these problems:

• When Chicago considered contracting out its parking meter service for 75 years at a possible cost of $2 billion, it held three days of evaluation without public discussion.

• Denver awarded a company a contract to run a parkway for 99 years. The contract allows the company to object to mass transit projects and new and improved roads even though the life spans of streets are 45 years.

• The online posting of a contract for a Texas charter school contained blacked-out paragraphs in 100 of its 393 pages, according to a New York Times article cited by the study.

“The evidence for public control just keeps on piling up,” said Donald Cohen, executive director of In The Public Interest, a resource center on privatization and responsible contracting, commenting on the University of Colorado report. “What we need now at every level of government are policies that reflect what the evidence makes clear and that helps us prevent economic and social harm to our communities.”

Source – http://www.thenewcrossroads.com/2014/04/14/contracting-out-public-services-worsens-inequality-and-lowers-wages/

By PhillyLabor.com

Attention: Philadelphia Area Union Members and Supporters, Please Patronize The Following List of Quality and Dedicated Union and Pro-Union Businesses and Professionals and Receive preferred Services and Discounts when doing so:

Pond, Lehocky, Stern, Giordano
1.866.465.8795
30 South 17th Street, 17th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19103
info@pondlehocky.com
www.pondlehocky.com/

– Premier Philadelphia Law firm specializing in Worker’s Compensation and Social Security Compensation. Long time advocates of injured worker’s and the Philadelphia union community, the firm of Pond Lehocky, Stern and Giordano is committed to representing the rights of union members and working families injured on the job and seeking social security compensation benefits.

PNC BANK
Salvatore J. Patti
215-585-5889 – 215-585-8155
Regional Headquarters, PNC Bank Center
1600 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
salvatore.patti@pnc.com
www.pnc.com

– PNC is committed to helping Unions navigate their fiscal challenges. We are proud of our long legacy of being union-friendly, and we provide financial strength, stability and experience. PNC is specially structured to serve the needs of our Union relationships. We have a dedicated team of Commercial Bankers who collaborate to deliver Treasury Management and Taft-Hartley Plan services.

David Oscar, First Vice President — Morgan Stanley
610.408.1906
899 Cassatt Rd, SUITE 100
Berwyn, PA 19312

– A Wealth Advisor team at Morgan Stanley providing personalized financial solutions to fit your business or personal needs. Services include Retirement Planning, Estate Planning, Education Planning, Cash Management, Insurance, Lending Services, Business Lending and Banking.

Atalanta Sosnoff Capital, LLC
212.878.7578
101 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10178
jvs@atalantasosnoff.com
www.atalantasosnoff.com

– With a history dating back to 1981, Atalanta Sosnoff is a single strategy firm dedicated to achieving outperformance versus relevant benchmarks and peers regardless of the market environment. We are defined by our investment research, dedicated client service and high ethical standards.rnrnWe provide investment management services to Corporations, Endowments, Foundations, Taft-Hartley Funds, Governmental Entities, Major Broker/Dealers and Investment Advisory Firms, and High Net Worth Clients.

Gregory Management & Consulting Services
Wayne E. Gregory
215-498-5790
2869 Eagleville Road Audubon, PA 19403-2051
wegregory@gregorymcs.com
www.gregorymcs.com

Contracted Labor & Industry Relations Services to the Unionized Construction Industry, Multi-Employer Association Leadership, Management & Support Services
– Facilitating communication and collaboration amongst our construction employer associations, constructors, facility owners, building trades and governmental bodies with an emphasis on creating a centralized, focused community that actively promotes labor harmony, industry advancement, contractor opportunities and workforce development.

Stark & Stark
Carin A. O’Donnell, Esq.
267-907-9600 | Fax 267-9079659
777 Township Line Road, Suite 120, Yardley, PA 19067
codonnell@stark-stark.com
www.StarkInjuryGroup.com

– Carin A. O’Donnell, Esq. has a long history of representing union members and their families. Having grown up in a family of construction workers, Ms. O’Donnell understands the impact a serious injury can have on a family. She understands the construction trades and what workers face on a daily basis. Ms. O’Donnell concentrates her practice in representing workers injured in construction accidents, handling both the third party and workers’ compensation claims. She also handles other types of personal injury and wrongful death matters which occur as a result of motor vehicle accidents, motorcycle accidents and slip and fall accidents.

M&T Bank
Bill Wekluk – VP Labor & Taft-Hartley Services
(610) 520-8459
bwekluk@mtb.com
www.mtb.com

– With over 50 years of experience administering labor union benefit and operating funds, M&T Bank is the expert at creating tailored solutions to meet the needs of your union, your members, and your employers. The M&T Bank Labor Union Services Team is comprised of dedicated subject matter experts who know your business and will work with you to help customize the combination of services that will best meet your goals and objectives.

Sb1 Federal Credit Union
Jason C. Greer
VP Business Development
Phone 215-569-3700 x7746 | Fax 215-569-3713
1500 Spring Garden Street
Philadelphia, PA 19130
Jason.Greer@Sb1fcu.org
www.sb1fcu.org

– Governed by a volunteer Board of Directors since 1977, Sb1 is a not-for-profit credit union owned by its members. Profits are returned to the members in the form of better rates, fewer fees and convenient technologies. Sb1 is one of the largest federally insured financial cooperatives in Philadelphia. Anyone who lives, works, worships or attends school in Philadelphia, south of Lehigh Avenue, can utilize Sb1 products and services. For more information please visit www.sb1fcu.org. Special Offers – Sb1 Members can receive .50 APR* off any newly opened Auto, Personal, or term Home Equity loans, or an additional .50% APY* added to any new Share Certificates/IRAs and could also receive up to $125. Details apply and can be found at wwww.sb1fcu.org/earn125. *APR = Annual Percentage Rate. APY = Annual Percentage Yield.

Chimicles & Tikellis, LLP
Kevin Cauley (215) 439-9005
361 West Lancaster Avenue
Haverford, Pa 19041
kcauley@chimicles.com

Home

– Chimicles & Tikellis LLP (C&T) is a nationally recognized law firm that fights for its institutional clients’ rights as investors and third-party payors. Union health & welfare funds, pension funds, and annuity funds, retain C&T to recover for monies lost by the fund due to illegal activity that arises in the context of Shareholder Rights Litigation and Pharmaceutical and Health Care Litigation (including payment for defective drugs and devices, and overpayment for illegally overpriced drugs). With offices in the Philadelphia metro area and Wilmington, C&T attorneys have achieved billions of dollars in recoveries for their clients in class, shareholder derivative, and mass tort actions in courts nationwide. In addition to serving as litigation counsel, C&T also provides its institutional clients with comprehensive asset protection monitoring programs and trustee education. As a contingent-fee law firm, there is no cost to clients for these legal services.

Timothy Wade Insurance Agency
Nationwide
(215) 676-9000
Fax: (215) 676-9700
9699 Academy Rd
Philadelphia, PA 19114-2614

– A full service Nationwide Insurance brokerage, Tim Wade Agency has been providing preferred services to Philadelphia area union members for over 2 decades with an array of top quality insurance products ranging from Auto and Homeowners insurance to Life and Business Insurance Products at premium rates. Contact Tim Wade Agency and get a complimentary review on your current insurance policy as well as FREE quote on updated coverage.

Shirlee Friedman Esquire, of Lipschutz and Friedman
267-256-0660 (Ask for Attorney Shirlee Friedman directly)
1800 JFK Blvd. 5th floor
Philadelphia PA 19025
shirleefriedman@lipschutzandfriedman.com
www.lipschutzandfriedman.com

– Specializes in personal injury litigation in all of Pennsylvania (including but not limited to Philadelphia and surrounding counties) and New Jersey! If you are injured in any type of accident and you are worried about loss of income, pain, mounting medical bills etc, I can help you! You may have rights that you are not aware of! Read more

Jim Stevenson: Chapman Auto Group
Commercial Account Sales Manager
Ford Lincoln Volkswagen | Chrysler Dodge Jeep | Chevrolet Nissan Mazda
9371 Roosevelt Blvd
Phildelphia, PA 19114
215-698-7000 X 249
jstevenson@chapmanautogroup.com
www.chapmanautogroup.com

– CONTACT JIM STEVENSON ABOUT CHAPMAN’S SPECIAL UNION MEMBER PURCHASE PROGRAM – Chapman Auto Group is a proud sponsor of our area local unions and consequently we have established a special union member purchase program. The program is valid on any new or used, leased or purchased car, truck or SUV offered at any of our locations.

Laffey Bucci & Kent
215.399.9255
1800-220-7600
1435 Walnut Street, 7th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19020
JLAFFEY@LBK-LAW.COM
www.laffeybuccikent.com

– Jeff Laffey has represented hundreds of injured construction workers from all trades, including carpenters, plumbers, electricians, cement masons, iron-workers, laborers, and operating engineers. He has often lectured to various construction trades on workplace and on the job safety matters, and has respected long-standing, close relationships with a variety of union representatives. Read more

First Choice Lending Mortgage Corp.
215.750.6190
esther@firstchoicemoney.com
www.firstchoicemoney.com

– First Choice Lending Mortgage Corp. is the premier union mortgage company. With our no points, no bank fees program we are able to save you thousands of dollars on a purchase or refinance. Our program requires no out of pocket expense, and has reduced title fees for union members and their families with good or less than perfect credit. Over the years we have worked with more than a hundred locals in many states saving their members MILLIONS of dollars in closing costs while making their financial dreams come true! We also offer special programs for individuals who do not qualify for the above program, due to poor credit or lack of income. This program is similar to the above, however there will be 1-3 points charged.

Elections USA, Inc.
Ransom Shoup, 215.538.0779, ext. 422
PO Box 427
Richlandtown, PA 18955

– Elections USA, Inc. offers customized election solutions to meet the individual needs of its diversified customers. All of our election solutions provide top-quality products, software, and experienced service to meet your organization’s election requirements. We conduct Union, Association, College/University, and Tribal elections and contract ratifications all over the world with everything from Touch Screen Voting Machines, to Paper Ballots, to Online Elections and Surveys. All election services include our Certified Election Results Report.

Source: http://phillylabor.com/business-vendors-2/

– PhillyLabor.com would like wish all union brothers, sisters, supporters and families a joy filled and Happy Easter! We particularly want to keep those who are less fortunate in our thoughts in hopes that, with our help, prosperity will come their way!

In Solidarity!

PhillyLabor.com