BY Kevin Solari

– On December 17, adjunct faculty at Temple University in Philadelphia completed their card count and applied to the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board for union status. They are seeking to organize with the United Academics of Philadelphia (UAP), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) local for adjunct faculty, and the Temple Association of University Officials, the AFT union for Temple’s full-time faculty.

The university employs approximately 1,100 adjunct instructors. The UAP required signatures from 60 percent of the faculty to apply for authorization.

Elizabeth Spencer, a creative writing instructor at Temple University, said in a statement that the win would benefit both teachers and students: “Being able to negotiate over meaningful job security and knowing whether I’ll be able to return to Temple next semester will improve the educational experience for my students.”

Teaching as an adjunct can be a chaotic experience. Instructors often work at multiple campuses, have classes added or cancelled at the last minute and are almost always uncertain whether or not they will even be teaching the following semester. In addition to the positions’ constant uncertainty, most adjuncts lack decent wages or benefits. Yet this workforce makes up a large percentage of faculty across the country and, at some institutions, is responsible for teaching as much as 60 percent of courses.

As a result, adjuncts in recent years have been working together in a concerted effort to organize. The AFT and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have been experimenting with a new strategy of organizing citywide, not just individual campuses. UAP, for instance, has not only members from Temple, but from the University of Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, Community College of Philadelphia, and St. Joseph’s.

SEIU’s program, Adjunct Action, has succeeded in securing representation for adjuncts at schools in Washington D.C., Los Angeles and Boston. At Northeastern University in Boston, the instructors won against a university that hired the notorious union busting law firm of Jackson Lewis. And on December 16, the National Labor Relation Board issued a decision that would allow adjunct faculty at Pacific Lutheran University, in Tacoma, Washington, to join SEIU local 925. As difficult as public universities have been to organize, private schools have been even more resistant.

These successes are beginning to produce the kind of stability adjuncts are looking for. When Tufts University negotiated with its adjunct faculty this fall, the agreement gave adjunct faculty stable one-year contracts, and with more experience they can become eligible for two and three-year contracts. It also increased pay by 40 percent and revamps the evaluation process to focus on improvement, not punishment.

At Temple, Spencer looked forward to having that same stability. “By negotiating a fair contract with Temple, I know I’m working toward providing stability for my family.”

Source: http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17479/temples_adjunct_faculty_to_join_thousands_of_others_in_citywide_union

By Laura Clawson

– The Obama administration is outraging business lobby groups by doing something sort of novel and unexpected: aggressively enforcing labor law. The National Labor Relations Board is leading the way with a new rule modernizing and streamlining union representation elections, bringing them into the 21st century with electronic filing and cutting down on frivolous litigation and stall tactics. The labor board is also holding McDonald’s accountable for its own labor practices rather than allowing the fast food chain to continue shifting blame onto the franchise operators who are required to follow corporate rules. But it’s not just the NLRB:

Meanwhile, over at the Labor Department, the Wage and Hour Division’s collection of back pay has risen by more than a third under Obama, and man-hours dedicated to enforcement are up by half. A misclassification initiative was launched in response to a 2010 finding by Vice President Joe Biden’s Task Force on the Middle Class that 10 percent to 30 percent of all companies classified as independent contractors who met the legal definition of employees to avoid providing benefits and protections required under federal law. Wage and Hour is also now initiating significantly more of its investigations (as opposed to responding to worker complaints), and identifying violations at a much higher rate.

Much of the impetus for these changes has come from David Weil, a Boston University economist who — first as a consultant to Wage and Hour (initially hired under President George W. Bush) and, since May, Wage and Hour administrator — pressed the division to target enforcement efforts on industry sectors where wage theft is most common: restaurants, hotels, construction, janitorial services, agriculture, retail and manufacturing. Now businesses are bracing themselves for a proposed rule due early next year that is expected to at least partly reverse a long-term decline in the percentage of U.S. workers to whom employers must pay time-and-a-half when they work more than 40 hours a week.

It’s more than a little sad that this is what looks like major progress for workers, since what we’re talking about mostly consists of enforcing existing laws and ratcheting part of the way back to where things were in the 1970s. But that has been the sorry state of labor law in the United States. Even relatively modest actions like enforcing the law or preventing the worst employer abuses of the union representation election process have the potential to level the playing field just enough to give workers a fighting chance, and that’s the last thing groups like the Chamber of Commerce want to see.

Source – http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/22/1353544/-Workers-get-a-boost-as-Obama-administration-brings-labor-law-into-the-21st-century

By Edward deSciora

– Believing he is inheriting a debt of $2 billion, incoming Governor Tom Wolf presented a frank but hopeful financial picture of the commonwealth.

In a game of political fingerpointing, Wolf blames the states budgetary deficit on the Corbett Administration’s reliance on non-recurring revenues. Tom Corbett and Co. used the same excuse when he entered office four years ago, implicating former Governor Ed Rendell.

“We have a structural deficit and that it’s a big one,” Wolf said. “We need to think about solutions on the spending side. We need to think about solutions on the revenue side.Just hoping for growth doesn’t seem to be enough.”

Wolf remained committed to his campaign promises of increasing education funding, while also levying taxes against Marcellus Shale extractors.

Remaining hopeful for his upcoming term, Wolf discussed an openness to innovative solutions to budgetary problems.

“If we recognize there’s a problem, we could do some things that could be really actually very exciting” the Governor-Elect asserted.

Source: http://www.politicspa.com/pa-gov-wolf-discusses-the-bleak-financial-state-of-pennsylvania/62526/

By Dave Jamieson

– In a major blow to big franchisers, the National Labor Relations Board issued several complaints against McDonald’s on Friday, naming the fast food giant a “joint employer” alongside its franchisees accused of violating labor law.

The fast food industry has been fearing just such a move by the board, since it shows federal regulators are willing to hold large corporations responsible for the labor violations inside franchised stores. Until now, it’s generally been the franchisees operating the restaurants who’ve been held responsible.

“The complaints allege that McDonald’s USA, LLC and certain franchisees violated the rights of employees working at McDonald’s restaurants at various locations around the country,” the board said in a statement.

The alleged violations by McDonald’s and its franchisees included “making statements and taking actions against [workers] for engaging in activities aimed at improving their wages and working conditions.”

The franchise industry has been blasting the board for months for considering issuing such complaints. In a statement issued Friday, McDonald’s said the board’s actions “improperly and dramatically strike at the heart of the franchise system.”

The complaints issued Friday grew out of the Fight for $15 movement that’s sprouted in the past two years, with fast food workers staging periodic strikes in cities throughout the country to fight for higher wages. The board’s move marks a major victory for the union-backed campaign, as workers have tried to hold major franchisers like McDonald’s responsible for the actions of their franchisees.

McDonald’s took a shot at the campaign on Friday, saying unions were carrying out an attack.

“These allegations are driven in large part by a two-year, union-financed campaign that has targeted the McDonald’s brand and impacted McDonald’s restaurants,” the company said. “McDonald’s has taken the appropriate measures, working properly with its independent franchisees, to defend itself against that attack on its business.”

A McDonald’s spokeswoman did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for further comment.

Of 291 charges filed against McDonald’s by workers since 2012, the board said it found merit in 86 of them. As is custom, the board’s general counsel tried to hash out a settlement between McDonald’s and the complainants over the last few months, but only achieved that in a small number of the cases. The remaining charges have been grouped into 13 different complaints that will now be heard before the labor board’s regional offices.

Michael Wasser, policy analyst at the worker group Jobs with Justice, said in an email that the complaints provide McDonald’s workers with an opportunity to hold their “real boss” accountable.

“We know that McDonald’s sets rigorous operating standards for its franchisees, from menus, to uniforms to employment practices,” Wasser said. “And we know that they monitor and enforce those standards at the corporate level. So when these practices appear to break the law, accountability should start at the top.”

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/19/mcondalds-nlrb_n_6355810.html?ir=Business

– City Council passed a resolution sponsored by Councilman Kenyatta Johnson to hold hearings that would discuss raising the city’s minimum wage to $15 per hour. There are questions as to whether Council has such authority. If it does, would you support the higher wage?

Is raising the minimum wage in Philadelphia to $15 an hour a good idea?

To Vote, Go To: http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/pulse/poll/is-raising-the-minimum-wage-in-philadelphia-to-15-an-hour-a-good-idea/16172101

Brief PhillyLabor Editorial: Yes, providing low income workers the opportunity at a living wage will not only provide them with a better life, it will help give those people working in poverty the chance to get off of public assistance and thus will also help all tax payers.

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/pulse/poll/is-raising-the-minimum-wage-in-philadelphia-to-15-an-hour-a-good-idea/16172101