By Nick Field, Managing Editor

– Democratic nominee Tom Wolf has gotten quite the post-primary bounce.

In the first poll released after the former Department of Revenue Secretary won the Democratic primary, Tom Wolf holds a twenty point lead over the Governor.

According to Rasmussen Reports, 51% of likely voters would support Wolf while 31% would vote for Governor Tom Corbett. Only 14% of respondents were undecided.

As expected, Wolf is supported by 83% of Democrats yet only 59% of Republicans favor Corbett. Wolf pulls away 25% of PA Republicans and holds a ten point lead among independents.

Meanwhile, among those surveyed Governor Corbett’s job approval is 36% with 59% of voters disapproving of his performance.

On the issues, Wolf leads across the board. On the question as to whom the voters trust more on handling social issues the Democrat has a 51-27 advantage. 46% trust Wolf more when it comes to his handling of government and corruption while 26% trust Corbett.

The Democrat even holds the lead on questions like taxes and government spending. Voters trust Wolf by a 47-30 margin on the former and by a 46-30 margin on the latter.

Suffice it to say this is not good news for the incumbent. Additionally, Rasmussen is generally considered a Republican-leaning, though thoroughly credible, polling organization.

The silver linings for Gov. Corbett are that Wolf is just coming off an impressive win in the Democratic primary which usually juices a candidate’s numbers. There is also the high probability that PA Republicans will come back home and get behind Corbett eventually. Finally, this is just the beginning of the general election race, so the Governor has all of summer and the fall to close the gap.

The survey of 750 Likely Voters in Pennsylvania was conducted on May 27-28, 2014 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Source: http://www.politicspa.com/pa-gov-rasmussen-poll-wolf-51-corbett-31/58432/

By Laura Clawson

– It’s Supreme Court decision season, and one case to watch for is Harris v. Quinn, in which the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation is seeking essentially to overturn union rights for home care workers. The question, as is so often the case, is whether the Supreme Court will uphold the status quo or overturn years of precedent and undermine unions and worker organizing. Labor scholar John Logan sums up the key questions:

First, are home care aides correctly defined as public employees for the purposes of collective bargaining? […]

Second, can the union require non-members to pay “agency fees” to cover representation costs? […]

Third, is bargaining on behalf of home care aides inherently different? National Right to Work claims that bargaining on behalf of home care aides should be considered petitioning of government. […]

Finally, if the court were to side with NRTW’s extremist position and rule against the right to charge non-members agency fees, does that ruling apply only to home care aides or also to every public-sector worker in the country?

Unions and collective have improved working and living conditions for home care workers in many states, and in so doing have improved the level of service they’re able to offer. Home care workers only unionize after a vote, and those who do not want to support the union’s political activities can opt out of paying union dues, instead paying an agency or fair share fee that covers only the cost of representing them in the workplace. Whether this can continue, as courts have previously affirmed, is what the Supreme Court is now considering.

Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/29/1302824/-Home-care-workers-union-rights-at-stake-in-Supreme-Court-case

BY COUNCILWOMAN MARIAN TASCO/Philly Public Record

– After taking more than four years to arrive at a decision to sell PGW, the Nutter administration is now pushing for a rush to judgment by City Council regarding one of the most-significant decisions this City will ever make.

People are coming out of the woodwork to support the Mayor’s position. But how many of them have read the 85-page Asset Purchase Agreement between the City and UIL Holdings? How many actually understand its complex details?

Anyone who reads this Agreement will quickly learn that it does not reveal all of the specifics of the deal. Some of the fine print is buried in other documents (such as the Seller Disclosure Letter) which have not yet been made public.

I have publicly stated I do not support the proposed sale. In part, that is because the Nutter administration never seriously considered or evaluated other alternatives to permit the City to capture the upside benefits of owning PGW.

It is true we are the largest major city that still owns a gas utility. But we are also the only major city that owns a gas utility with strategically desirable facilities to liquefy and store natural gas.

Therefore, we need to fully analyze and understand both the short-term and the long-term implications of divesting ourselves permanently of such a valuable asset.

Given the complexity and importance of the proposed transaction, City Council would be irresponsible if we did not do our own due diligence. Appropriately, Council has retained a respected, independent consultant (Concentric Energy Advisors) to assist in the analysis. Concentric began its work, which includes digging into the myriad details of the thousands of pages of documents that were used in the sale process, just a little over one month ago.

Council is proceeding toward an informed decision with all deliberate speed. But we should not cut corners in the process to satisfy a deadline which was unilaterally set by the administration. When the administration tried to do the same thing with property taxes and the Actual Value Initiative, Council took the time to do it correctly with better results.

As Chicago’s experiment with privatization of its parking meters showed, if the responsible elected officials don’t carefully examine all of the details of a transaction, the citizens can get burned. Let’s not act in haste, only to repent at leisure.

Councilwoman Tasco represents the 9th Dist., including West and East Oak Lanes, Mt. Airy, Olney, Logan, Lawncrest and Oxford Circle. She is chair of the Philadelphia Gas Commission.

Source: http://www.phillyrecord.com/2014/05/another-opinion-2/

– In 2013, WorkReady Philadelphia provided over 7,600 summer job opportunities to young people ages 14-21. It was a great success but there is still work to be done.

Predictions for summer 2014 forecast that approximately 4,500 WorkReady summer jobs will be available for youth. This is a 40% decrease. This will be the lowest number of summer jobs for young people since 2003.

As many jobs as possible need to be generated to ensure that future generations are prepared for education and career.

Why Summer Jobs?

As the needs of our future workforce continue to change, it is more important than ever that we are providing ways for young people to acquire 21st century skills and gain exposure to successful careers that will benefit our city’s economy

Companies and organizations in this city, both large and small, can invest in the future workforce through WorkReady Philadelphia. WorkReady jobs will provide workforce exposure, instill leadership skills and create connections for long term economic opportunities, thus preparing youth for success in the local, regional and global economy.

Summer jobs have the potential to keep youth safe. In our city, where youth violence is increasingly prevalent, this is more important now than ever. This is an avenue to provide meaningful, productive activities for our youth this summer.

Studies show that there is a direct correlation between employment during the junior or senior year of high school and increased annual earnings through age 26, especially for those not attending college.

While the national unemployment rate has decreased a few percentage points, from 8.5% last January to 6.7% as of the January 10, 2014 Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the unemployment rate for youth between the ages of 16 to still remains alarmingly high at 20.2%, which is more than three times the national average.

Philadelphia’s unemployment rate is the highest when compared to all other local areas in Pennsylvania. Currently, Philadelphia’s unemployment level is 9.8%. This makes providing early work experiences for young people – especially low-income, minority youth –even more urgent. [Source: Pennsylvania Department of Labor Fast Facts]

Youth employment is at its lowest level since World War II. At this rate, a generation will grow up with little early work experience, missing the chance to build knowledge and acquire the job-readiness skills that come from holding part-time starter jobs. [Source: Annie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count Policy Report 2012]

Overall, 6.5 million people ages 16-24 are both out of school and out of work.

Reconnecting youth to education and employment requires a multifaceted approach. No one system or sector can do it alone.

Ways to help:

Hire a WorkReady youth to work for six weeks in July and August

Sponsor youth work experiences at other businesses or organizations.

If your work environment isn’t conducive to bringing a young person aboard, consider subsidizing the cost of a work experience elsewhere.

Spread the word throughout your networks

Get Recognized as a WorkReady Seal of Approval employer

Your existing program can be recognized as part of WorkReady by meeting the requirements found at: www.phillysummerjobs.org/seal

Reasons to join the Challenge:

Builds a Stronger Community

Values diversity Offer a “First Break”

Invest in our city’s future Stimulate the economy

Last summer, youth earned more than $6 million – money that was infused into the local economy.

Improve Outcomes for Youth

Economic opportunity Professional connections

Career awareness Academic achievement

Studies show that youth who miss out on an early work experience are more likely to endure later unemployment and are less likely to achieve higher levels of career attainment. Everyone needs opportunities in their teen years and young adulthood to experience work and attain the job-readiness skills needed for long-term success.

What’s the Investment?

The cost of supporting WorkReady summer work experiences is based on a blend of youth wages, programmatic and operating costs.

$1,700 = one summer job

Breakdown of the costs:

Recruiting youth from across the city and ensuring youth complete necessary employment paperwork.

Pre-screening and matching youth to available positions.

Paying youth wages and processing payroll.

Incorporating a Contextual Learning Component, connecting youth’s hands-on work experience with a work-based learning project or portfolio.

Identifying dedicated staff members that are assigned to support youth and worksites throughout the program.

Assistance in designing the entire WorkReady experience and/or development of specific projects.

Opportunities that will allow for investor exposure and networking

2014 Summer Jobs Challenge Partners:

Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce

Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO

Urban Affairs Coalition

City of Philadelphia

Blue Cross

United Way

School District of Philadelphia

For Additional Info, go to: www.phillysummerjobs.org

By Laura Clawson

– Today, it will have been five months since emergency aid for people unemployed for six months or longer expired. On Monday, it was seven weeks since the Senate passed a bill to extend the program. Then, help for millions of people struggling in an economy without enough jobs ran into the orange-brick wall of John Boehner, who has rebuffed appeals from members of his own caucus and the labor secretary alike. That means the prospects are poor:

[Democratic Rep. Sander] Levin says he and his colleagues in the House aren’t ready to concede and will continue to press Boehner to take up the measure, but so far all of their requests to negotiate a new deal on unemployment have been ignored by the speaker. “I think if they put an answer in the mail they forgot to put a stamp on it,” Levin says. But with a June 1 deadline around the corner, responsibility for reviving benefits will fall back to the Senate. After they went out on a limb in April, it’ll be tricky to find the same level of bipartisan accord.

Many Republicans who oppose extending unemployment insurance say that without the aid to fall back on, people will be pushed back to work. But reality doesn’t bear that out:

The economy has indeed improved, but not for the long-term unemployed, whose odds of finding a job are barely higher today than when the recession ended nearly five years ago. And the end of extended benefits hasn’t spurred the unemployed back to work; if anything, it has pushed them out of the labor force altogether.

Of the roughly 1.3 million Americans whose benefits disappeared with the end of the program, only about a quarter had found jobs as of March, about the same success rate as when the program was still in effect; roughly another quarter had given up searching.

Increased misery is the major result of the benefits cut-off, in other words. But there’s plenty of reason to believe that’s a good result as far as congressional Republicans are concerned.

Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/27/1302282/-Long-term-unemployed-living-in-limbo-thanks-to-Republican-obstructionism