To the Philadelphia Area Labor Community,

Have a Safe and Happy New Years Together With Your Families, Friends and Union Brothers and Sisters!

Here’s to a Happy and Prosperous 2014!

In Solidarity!

PhillyLabor.com

By The PA. AFL-CIO

Harrisburg, PA – While there are always plenty of New Year’s Eve “droppings” throughout the Susquehanna Valley, (everything from a strawberry, a bologna, a kiss, a rose, a wrench, or a pickle) you can add another with the State’s dropping of the misguided attempt to privatize the lottery.

After a year of granting extensions to Camelot’s bid to manage the Pennsylvania Lottery, Governor Corbett’s office issued a press release this morning to announce that the current extension would be allowed to expire.

The plan to privatize management of the lottery has been a source of controversy and criticism throughout 2013.

In February, Attorney General Kathleen Kane blocked the agreement, saying that it violated the State Constitution, the State Lottery Act, and the State Gaming Act.

Earlier this month, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale issued a press release calling on the Governor to stop spending taxpayer dollars in pursuit of Lottery privatization, citing legal and consulting costs that had ballooned from the original $725,000 to an estimated $4.6 million.

Throughout the year, the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO has called on the administration to drop this misguided privatization scheme.

“The Pennsylvania Lottery is the only lottery in the country that has 100% of its revenues go to benefit programs for senior citizens,” President Bloomingdale said. “Privatizing the management of the Lottery would siphon millions in profits out of Pennsylvania, and would raise serious concerns over accountability. We are relieved that the Governor has finally decided to let this bid expire.”

“Too much lottery revenue has already been lost in the pursuit of this privatization agenda,” Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder added. “Privatization just isn’t the answer, whether it is management of the PA Lottery, the Pennsylvania Turnpike, or the Wine & Spirits Stores: these schemes are presented as a financial boon for the State, but instead wind up costing the taxpayers in revenue, accountability, and quality of service.”

Source: http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=3338&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook

Dateline: Philadelphia, PA Monday, December 30, 2013 3:00 pm

Contact: Bob Wolper, 215-896-2970

Source: AFSCME District Council 33

Pete Matthews, the President of AFSCME District Council 33, the City Municipal Workers Union, along with Barry Cox, President of Local 403, Bobby Davis, President of Local 696 and Frank Halbherr, President of Local 1637 today announced that a four year contract settlement between local unions in District Council 33 and the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA) has been unanimously ratified by the union’s membership.

The agreement, also approved by the Board of the PPA, calls for bonuses for members, based on seniority, of between $600 and $2,400 as well as a 2.5% wage increase retroactive to September 1, 2013 and additional wage increases of 3% on September 1, 2014, 2.5% on September 1, 2015 and 3% on September 1, 2016. It also contained a schedule of technology fee payments to Parking Authority employees based on their job classifications.

Matthews announced that the Parking Authority also agreed to make increased contributions to the union’s Health and Welfare Fund.

“In addition to these increases in wages, bonuses and other increases as well as increased health benefit contributions for our members it is important to note that District Council 33 agreed to a contract that was fair to its members, the Parking Authority and the citizens of Philadelphia,” said Matthews. “This settlement is a result of honest bargaining with an employer that respects their employees.”

Parking Authority Board Chairman Joe Ashdale and Executive Director Vince Fenerty agreed with the settlement noting the urgency in reaching an accord with the union by stating that PPA employees had not had a raise since 2007 and that the PPA had a responsibility to provide “a living wage and reasonable benefits” and further characterized the wage increases as “modest” and the benefit increases as “adequate though not extravagant”.

Matthews said the contract settlement with the Parking Authority should serve as an example to the City of Philadelphia on how to achieve a fair contract settlement and bring a successful conclusion to a contract negotiation that has dragged on for more than five years due to the Nutter Administration’s insistence on what Matthews characterized as “unjustified concession demands” (i.e. furlough days, pension adjustment, work rule and health and welfare benefit changes). Matthews said that all District Council 33 members have continued to work in every department in the City for the last five plus years, (i.e., trash collection, snow emergencies, and crossing guards protecting our children), have not gone on strike and have helped the City financially by foregoing raises and health care increases during that time.

That opinion was recently shared by City Councilman Bobby Henon on his Facebook page. Referring to the catastrophic water main break on Frankford Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia as a specific example, Henon noted that District Council 33 members have been “working 12-16 hour work days during the holiday season on water main breaks from 2 inch to 60 inch mains – ALL without a contract”.

Matthews said that District Council 33 members, just like members working for the Parking Authority, have earned the right to a fair contract settlement as a result of their dedication and the sacrifices they have already made.

The union was instrumental in helping the Nutter Administration achieve legislative approval for an increase in the sales tax which generated over $425 million in new revenue and allowing pension trustees to defer pension payments saving the City millions of dollars.

“District Council 33 members who work for the City have waited long enough, and contributed more than their fair share to help the City through the recent recession, not receiving health benefit and wage increases in over five years,” said Matthews. “That has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in savings, five balanced budgets and kept the City on a steadfast growth to a Wall Street A plus bond rating that the Mayor himself said reflected the City’s strong financial management practices. It is time for the Nutter Administration to step up and follow the lead of the Philadelphia Parking Authority and get these contracts settled.”

By Michael Morrill

– The Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program ended on December 28 for 1.3 million jobless Americans. Unemployment benefits will be cut from as much as 73 weeks to 26 weeks.

Democrats fought to include UI in the year-end budget plan. But the GOP war on workers knows no shame — three days after Christmas, in the middle of winter, 1.3 million families just lost a critical lifeline.

The Senate will vote to renew UI in less than two weeks, but it won’t pass unless we make our voices heard.

TO SIGN THE PETITION to Demand that Congress Renews Unemployment Insurance Now, GO TO: http://petitions.moveon.org/keystoneprogress/sign/restore-emergency-unemployme-1?source=search&fb_test=0

By Sam Stein and Arthur Delaney

– David Torian is an Ivy League-educated lawyer and a onetime chief of staff to then-Rep. Michael McNulty (D-N.Y.). He has 23 years of experience in congressional and government relations, witnessed and practiced politics at the highest level, and has been well compensated along the way.

On Dec. 28, he will also be among the 1.3 million Americans who will lose their long-term federal unemployment insurance benefits.

Unemployment is not just a blue collar problem. As Torian’s experience shows, it can affect even Beltway power players. And it comes without much, if any, warning. When the consulting firm that Torian worked for after his time on the Hill folded, there were few options available. He took time off to help his sister tend to their ailing mother, who died at the end of 2012. The Washington resident then went looking for work. While he found that his government affairs experience was a draw, his age, 49, was not.

“I get interviews but lose out in the end because prospective employers tell me my experience makes me ‘over-qualified’ and they do not feel I would stay long in the position if it was offered,” Torian told The Huffington Post.

For over a year now, he has been receiving unemployment benefits as he tries to find a job. The benefits, roughly $430 a week, were set to last another few months. But he has been informed that his last check came this past Wednesday.

“The whole experience of not working and looking for work has been extremely stressful on me. It’s a pride issue. It is an embarrassment issue, too. A lot of my casual friends don’t know I’m not working. I’m too embarrassed to tell them that I’m out of work and on unemployment insurance,” he said. He had hesitated to talk on the record because of that.

When lawmakers skipped town for Christmas break this year, they left unresolved what to do about federal unemployment insurance. The benefits, available to jobless workers who had used up six months of state-funded compensation, had been running since the Great Recession hit in 2008. Early in 2012, Congress began scaling back the duration of federal benefits as the economy improved. There was uncertainty as to what would happen at the end of this year with even better economic conditions. Now, with the program set to lapse, recipients such as Torian are left gaming out a petrifying next few months.

Already, he said, he’s moved to a cheaper home, maxed out credit cards, and gone through his savings and 401(k) accounts. He’s found some work on the side through a friend. But the income isn’t enough. He figures that he can pay rent for three more months without the unemployment insurance. He’s thought about looking for more blue collar work. But he has no background or skill set in those fields.

“I’m in and out of depression mode,” he said. “I will stay in my apartment for days without leaving. It’s emotionally draining.”

Unlike food stamps — another safety net program that Congress likes to kick around — Americans don’t qualify for unemployment insurance by being poor. In fact, you can only qualify for unemployment benefits if you had a solid work history prior to being laid off. And you can only remain eligible by continuing to search for work.

Roughly 40 percent of Americans who’ve received long-term unemployment benefits since 2008 had previously earned between $30,000 and $75,000, according to an analysis of Census data by the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Earlier research by the Congressional Budget Office has shown that more than two-thirds of recipients had annual incomes more than twice the poverty level and that such households received 70 percent of all unemployment payments. In other words, unemployment insurance for the most part serves the middle class.

Yet up until recently, there was little apparent appetite to tackle the issue in Washington. Since early December, Democrats have waged an aggressive publicity campaign in favor of preserving the benefits, with daily statements from the White House and Democratic members of Congress. But even though he routinely threatens to spoil senators’ weekends and holidays with urgent votes, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said the Senate won’t vote on restoring the benefits until Jan. 6 at the earliest.

Advocates for the program aren’t particularly bullish on the likelihood of Congress’ restoring the benefits retroactively either. But Democrats have been buoyed by local press coverage of the issue. In an effort to amplify that coverage, several lawmakers have begun meeting directly with unemployment insurance recipients in addition to putting them on conference calls with national reporters. Bruce Hirshfield of Bethany, Conn., was one of those examples, highlighted by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) as representative of the wide universe of individuals set to take a hit.

Hirshfield has lived a largely ideal life. After leaving the insurance industry (where he had worked for 20 years), he joined a Connecticut bank as a vice president, earned a six-figure salary and lived comfortably with his wife and children, one of whom he had sent to college. The job was relatively stable and professionally stimulating. At 54 years old, he was happy.

Then it fell apart. The bank went through one, two, three restructurings. The last one cost Hirshfield his job.

He began training for a new career, taking a 30-week course in project management at the University of New Haven in hopes of widening his allure to prospective employers. But the search for work has been impossibly tough. He has been unemployed now for 14 months. For just over a year, he has been receiving unemployment benefits.

“It’s tough,” Hirshfield said in an interview. “I’m one of four children. I’m the youngest. My dad died when I was 18 and a half. My mom turned to me and said, ‘You are now the man of the house.’ That burned inside me. That really shaped me for who I am as a person. And now, here I am as the classic provider guy and I’m not that anymore in a sense.”

Repeatedly during the interview, Hirshfield stressed that he doesn’t think of himself as a “sob story.” His wife is working and he receives roughly $600 a week in benefits. He recognizes that others are in much worse straits. Yet when the long-term unemployment benefits expire on Dec. 28, he will face difficult choices. He has a daughter who is a junior in college and another who is in her senior year of high school. He has thought about selling his house, but isn’t sure he would qualify for a mortgage or if it would be financially smart.

Hirshfield says he’s more open now to blue collar work. But like Torian, he isn’t sure if his skill set would be appealing to such an employer and he stubbornly (he admits) wants to hold on to the life he built.

“You grow into a certain station in life, and you want to maintain that,” he said. He bristled at the notion that unemployment benefits had dulled his desire to find full-time work — a criticism of the program made most recently by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

“My motivation is not about getting unemployment benefits. My motivation is to get back to where I was,” Hirshfield said. “Rand Paul to me, I appreciate his perspective, he is a smart man, but I don’t necessarily agree with his viewpoints. I understand what he is saying, but he is dead wrong.”

With no immediate employment opportunities, Hirshfield has stretched his dollars as far as he can. He stopped going out to dinner, began doing some of his own auto repairs, drained his savings, dipped into his pension and whittled down his stock portfolio. With the remaining $20,000 or so, he is taking risky bets in hopes of high returns.

The day before the Dec. 28 deadline for unemployment benefits to lapse, he decided to cash in three $25 bonds that he had received as a bar mitzvah gift. They stopped accruing interest in 2000. He estimates he can get $400 out of them.

“I had held on to them largely for nostalgic value,” he said. “I never even thought about cashing them in. Never once gave it a second thought. Now I think, ‘Wow, I could get some groceries out of this.'”

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/27/congress-unemployment-insurance_n_4509790.html