By Joel Mathis

– A labor war is brewing in Pennsylvania. Bills are circulating in Harrisburg that would ban the state from deducting union dues from the checks of public employees. Supporters say it would empower workers by making it easier for workers to opt out of unions; the unions and their allies say the bill is intended to undermine labor’s political power in Pennsylvania.

Rick Bloomingdale, president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, led a rally in Harrisburg Tuesday, bringing out several thousand workers to oppose the bill He spoke to Philly Mag afterward, about the bill, about labor’s strength in the state, and why public and private sector workers should be allies instead of enemies.

Some excerpts:

There is a proposed bill that would end the practice of the state collecting union dues for public sector employees. Why is this so alarming to you and your membership?

What it does is outlaw our right to negotiate dues collection at the bargaining table. It’s an attack on workers’ rights, and it’s an attempt to silence workers. They’ve worked 37 and a half or 40 hours or whatever it is their working week is, and that money is now theirs and they choose to have their dues deducted out of their paycheck. And we negotiate that, and the employers get something back to offset that. It’s a negotiation, a give and take.

One of the reasons that this historically has happened is because the employer didn’t want lots of union reps on the work site doing hand collection of dues. So we’ve gotten to this automatic deduction that’s negotiated.

Your website published a letter from the Commonwealth Foundation suggesting that the purpose of the legislation is to “slay labor unions in Pennsylvania.” This has been, until now at least, a pretty labor-friendly state. Are the stakes really that high?

They are that high. I mean, Wisconsin and Michigan were states with high union density as well. These billionaires, they come in and they they ask these conservative legislators to dance to their tune. And they do, for the money. And as a result, you get these things that weaken the voice of workers.

Just as an example, in Wisconsin, they want to move everybody to a seven-day work week with no pay on weekends, no guarantee that you’d have two days off in a row. It would be a straight seven-day work week. So we’ve always said, “We brought you the weekend,” and now you have right-wing politicians, as labor gets weaker in Wisconsin, trying to take away the weekends.

Let me play devil’s advocate for a second, or at least let me use Grover Norquist as devil’s advocate. He had an op-ed with Reuters here in the last couple of days, and he suggests that this legislation would empower workers by making it easier for them to choose not to pay union dues and let them choose whether they want union representation. Why is that notion wrong?

Well, because they’ve already chosen union representation. They voted the union in. And unlike elections of our politicians, where they need 50 percent plus one of the people voting, we need fifty percent plus one of the entire bargaining unit. So if you have a bargaining unit of one hundred people, we need f51 votes — not if only 60 people vote we don’t need 31 votes, we need 51 votes. That’s how union elections work.

So they’ve already made a decision that they want their dues taken out. We do get elected in these positions and Norquist, he’s just wrong.

Public unions in particular get a lot of grief these days. We’re in an era where private sector middle class salaries are shrinking or stagnant. There is, as a result of that perhaps, a fair amount of resentment at robust government sector salaries. And there’s also an additional concern about whether public sector pensions are unsustainable. Knowing that those sentiments are out there, what is your case to the public for the value of public unions?

Well, first of all, public salaries aren’t robust. The average public sector worker makes less than the average private sector worker doing the same kind of work. The idea that pensions aren’t sustainable, it’s only because workers’ wages have been stagnant. And the reason workers’ wages have been stagnant isn’t that our companies aren’t making enough — they’re sitting on billions of dollars of cash — the problem is that workers haven’t gotten a share of their increased productivity.

They pit worker against worker, union against non-union, black against white, woman against man, gay against straight — they are very adept at pitting workers against each other in order to make sure that they run off with the money. That’s the real problem here. It’s not some workers make a couple of hundred dollars a week more than other workers. The problem is you’ve got companies that are sitting on billions in cash, almost I guess it’s trillions in profits, and they are not sharing those profits with the workers who actually produced the goods that have made them all that money.

What are the chances that we are going to get a nuclear Wisconsin-style battle out of this debate?

Well, I hope not. We continue to work with Republicans and Democrats on this issue, and we hope that folks will see the truth. If they really do believe in the free market, then they should let employees and employers bargain without interference from the government to restrict which issues can and cannot be bargained. Why they would take something like dues deduction off the table, for management to get something back, is beyond me, but that’s what they want to do.

And, like I’ve said, we’ll keep pushing on this issue. We’re gonna keep fighting it.

Source: http://www.phillymag.com/news/2014/01/29/5-questions-can-labor-unions-survive-pennsylvania/

By Randy LoBasso

– On Thursday morning, Philadelphia’s delegation to the Pennsylvania Senate spoke about their budget proposals for the next fiscal year, calling for a $300 million increase in education funding.

Just 23 percent of voters believe Gov. Tom Corbett deserves a second term, but they still need to take on another budget he signs, which the governor plans to outline next week during his address.

“Senate Democrats think that the more than $1 billion that’s been cut since the governor took office is unacceptable,” Ben Waxman, press secretary for State sen. Vincent Hughes, noted earlier this week. Hughes was joined by Sens. Shirley Kitchen, Christina Targtaglione, LeAnna Washington, and Larry Farnese in the media room at the School District of Philadelphia.

Democratic politicians on the other side of the state, in Pittsburgh, gave a similar address this morning, calling for Corbett to focus on education, Medicaid expansion, human services, jobs, and a minimum wage increase.

After a disastrous conclusion to last year’s budget session—which included passing, then repealing, Medicaid expansion—Pennsylvania’s Democrats hope to pounce on Corbett’s dismal approval ratings and his obvious need to restore some cuts if he wants any shot at re-election in November.

How do the Dems hope to get the cash? Democrats outlined a plan that includes reforming property tax laws; more aggressive tax collections; taxing smokeless tobacco; and, the biggest chunk of cash, expanding Medicaid to the commonwealth. Expanding the government healthcare program per Obamacare outlines, according to some estimates, would save the state between $822 and $1.6 billion in uncompensated costs and could produce a $400 million savings in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2014.

Gov. Corbett will be giving his budget address on Tuesday, February 4, though has already hinted at what he may be shoving in there. He noted he’d like to increase the pre-K funding by $10 million, though hasn’t said much else. Some news sources around the state have already noted that the administration is hinting at a deal, which would include something like lottery or liquor privatization, in exchange for increased education dollars.

Source: http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/phillynow/2014/01/30/philly-democrats-preempt-corbett-budget-by-outlining-priorities/

– PhillyLabor.com would like to Announce that Todd Farally of Sheetmetal Worker’s Local #19 is the new manager/administrator of our PhillyLabor.com Union Protest List Report on both our PhillyLabor.com website at: http://phillylabor.com/union-protest-list/ and on our Philly Labor app.

The Union Protest list is a very important informational resource that allows Philadelphia area union members the opportunity to identify and locate entities that are being protested by area and national unions as part of one convenient and centralized resource via our website and App!

Todd has done and will continue to do a fantastic job for Local #19 with their social media and online communications and we are very happy to benefit from his talents with PhillyLabor.com as well!.

Welcome Aboard Todd!!!

Joe Dougherty
PhillyLabor.com

Philly Labor salutes Steamfitters Local #420 Business Manager Anthony Gallagher for being a very inspirational and passionate guest speaker at the PhillyLabor.com Business To Labor Event this past Wednesday evening at Ironworkers local #401.

Along with providing a platform for unions and businesses to network and share resources, big part of what the PhillyLabor Business To Labor Events do is provide a forum to educate, inform and ultimately bridge the gap between labor and business.

Anthony’s speech was fantastic and gave all in attendance a very unique insight and perspective on what being a modern day labor leader is all about as well as what the future of labor looks like in Philadelphia.

As demonstrated throughout his speech, Anthony’s commitment to his members at local #420, his industry and contractors association, the labor movement throughout the Philadelphia region as well as his passion for causes involving our Veteran’s in America are second to none!

The Future of Labor in Philadelphia is in good hands with leaders like Anthony Gallagher at the helm!

PhillyLabor.com

By Daniel Denvir

– SugarHouse Casino contracted with the anti-union firm Kulture, beginning in 2010, in an effort to dissuade workers from organizing, according to documents filed by the firm and casino owners with the U.S. Department of Labor.

Kulture has “met with employees to discuss union card-signing activity,” helped run a “new-hire orientation,” and “presented informational meetings to company employees relative to the process of unionization,” the disclosures, relating to work performed through 2013, state.

The casino has employed the firm to fight union-organizing activity by Unite Here Local 54, which represents workers in textiles, hotels, restaurants and casinos.

But unlike other anti-union firms, Kulture is not run by buttoned-down lawyers, but is instead the brainchild of right-wing activist Peter List.

List publishes under the pseudonym Labor Union Report on his own website, and on the popular right-wing blog RedState.com, where he makes arguments that are far to the right of what one normally encounters in Philly politics: List contends that unions are part of a communist-aligned “organized war to destroy America,” that people in the White House seem to be “hoping that … someone somewhere will die” because of the sequestration, and that 47 percent of Americans “believe that they belong to the government.”

List’s avatar has also advised readers to “abandon California” and “let the socialist hordes have the state. To those parasites who believe that entitlements, high taxes, strangling labor laws, environmental regulations, unending illegal immigration and tax-the-rich schemes will somehow lead them into the promised land of prosperity, give them California.”

SugarHouse declined to discuss precisely what it has paid Kulture to do.

“We occasionally use consultants on various matters,” says spokesperson Leigh Whitaker. “We have nothing further to add.”

But High Penn Oversight, a company connected to SugarHouse ownership, has paid Kulture at least $429,964 since 2011.

List likewise did not respond to requests for an interview. But in a 2004 Fortune profile, he warned a reporter against publicly revealing his whereabouts. “Don’t even write what state I’m in,” he said. “I don’t need the Teamsters picketing out front.”

That may be bluster. Three years later, he signed a letter to Bloomberg Businessweek from New Jersey, where public documents show his business is based.

List, in a rare media interview, told Fortune his life story, explaining that he is a disaffected product of the labor movement. He worked at an AT&T factory represented by the Communications Workers of America, becoming chief shop steward. But then, everything changed. His job got outsourced to Mexico, so he went to college. He then became extremely interested in Ayn Rand, the novelist revered as an iconic philosopher on the libertarian right.

List has also been active in a right-wing strategy group called Groundswell that is planning a self-described “30 front war seeking to fundamentally transform the nation” toward conservative ends, according to Mother Jones magazine.

Candace Chewning, 31, who has worked as a server at SugarHouse’s Refinery restaurant for about a year, says she was shown a strongly anti-union video during her new-employee orientation.

The video, entitled “Little Card, Big Trouble,” re-enacts scenes from a fictional organizing drive featuring a scarere-mongering, money-hungry union organizer who manipulates hapless and confused workers.

“Signing a union-authorization card can be like signing a blank check,” says the narrator. “You won’t know what the real cost will be until it’s too late.”

After the screening, management opened the floor for comments, Chewning said.

“I wouldn’t feel comfortable in that situation saying, ‘Well I’m for a union, actually.’ I’m sitting in a room with three managers standing there. They just showed me this video that was very biased against unions,” she said.

List told Fortune that he was not a union buster but an “educator” and “communication specialist,” and that his job was to instruct management in how to stop a union without violating federal law. SugarHouse’s majority owner is Chicago billionaire and major Democratic fundraiser Neil Bluhm, who owns casinos in Pittsburgh and Des Plaines, Ill., where Unite Here is also organizing workers.

“We’re dismayed [that] such a prominent Democrat as Neil Bluhm would slap Philadelphia in the face by bringing in an outfit headed by an Obama-basher like this,” says Unite Here spokesperson Jon Scolnik.

Nothing, it seems, unites people like class conflict. SugarHouse Casino promised to create a lot of jobs when it defeated spirited local opposition and opened in 2010. Now, workers, management and a mysterious right-wing blogger are having a fight over what kind of jobs those will be.

Source: http://citypaper.net/article.php?SugarHouse-contracts-radical-anti-union-consultant-19424