By The Philly Public Record

– A diverse set of Philadelphia-based organizations have begun a wide-ranging campaign to defeat Mayor Nutter’s  plan to privatize Philadelphia Gas Works, the city’s publicly owned gas utility.

The broad coalition includes unions, consumer groups, neighborhood associations, and environmental groups. The announcement follows on the heels of Mayor Michael Nutter’s selection of UIL Holdings Corp. as the winning bidder for the utility. The group has targeted the upcoming Mar. 13 City Council meeting as its first coordinated action.

“This deal spells disaster on many levels,” said Sam Bernhardt, senior Pennsylvania organizer for Food & Water Watch. “It would increase consumers’ gas bills, leave many Philadelphians out in the cold, and could open the door for a liquefied natural-gas export facility in Philadelphia, encouraging fracking and endangering the public safety of Philadelphians.”

Stan Shapiro, vice-chair of Neighborhood Networks, noted, “The inherent corruption in this deal is highlighted by who put it together: JP Morgan. There is probably no financial firm in the world that has been fined so often or so much for financial wrongdoing as JP Morgan. In one case the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission fined a JP Morgan subsidiary $410 million in penalties and disgorgement for manipulating electricity markets in California and the Midwest.

“It is beyond preposterous for the City to have ever expected that this firm could be an ‘honest broker’ in working on anything involving the vital City utility that is PGW. The deal that it orchestrated must be rejected.”

Utility Workers Union of America Local 686 spokesman Frank Keel ripped the proposed sales as “a terrible development for the 1,150 active and 2,000 retired members of UWUA Local 686 and the city’s poor and elderly on fixed incomes. Whichever private entity ultimately wins PGW will never be able to match the existing low-income assistance program that protects the city’s poor. There also is no way a private entity’s workforce will have the same level of training and experience as our union members.”

Keel dispelled rumors the union was leaning toward the sale. “There was no understanding, no handshake agreement, no signed agreement between Local 686 and any of the bidders for PGW. We have been against the sale of PGW from the outset and nothing has changed,” he insisted.

Chris Robinson, a leader of the Green Party of Philadelphia, pointed out, “The Green Party has historically been opposed to privatization, the process of transferring ownership of a public service or property from the government to a for-profit business or to a nonprofit organization.

“Selling off the gas works is a huge mistake that flies in the face of good government,” said Tracy Carluccio, associate director of Delaware Riverkeeper Network. “Public-policy decisions such as not buying dirty fracked gas or not expanding polluting facilities such as the liquefied natural-gas plant will no longer be driven by the elected City Council who are accountable to Philadelphians but be in the hands of an out-of-reach company serving their bottom line. This sale will hurt Philadelphia and, in turn, hurt regional environmental quality, including the Delaware River.”

Source: http://www.phillyrecord.com/2014/03/broad-coalition-mobilizes-to-stop-pgw-sale/

By The PA. AFL-CIO

– The arguments that we are hearing in Pennsylvania in favor of paycheck deception are nothing new. For nearly 20 years, corporate interests have pushed paycheck deception bills in states all across the country. These efforts have consistently been rejected, overturned, or found blatantly unconstitutional.

Rightwing corporate groups have seen paycheck deception laws as a tool for undercutting the voices of working people, even if they won’t admit to it. In 1998, a paycheck deception ballot initiative, Proposition 226, in California failed 54-46. Even after the bill failed, corporate lobbyists trumpeted the bill as “a model for other states”.

That same year, a Nevada judge struck an identical ballot initiative from the ballot, calling it unconstitutional because it violated the First Amendment by unfairly targeting union members’ right to free speech, and because federal labor law already regulates the deduction of union dues and fees. In 2011, Arizona’s paycheck deception law was struck down a by a federal judge who found the law discriminatory because it exempted public safety unions.

Proponents of paycheck deception in Pennsylvania are arguing the same old recycled talking points that have been found unconstitutional in other states. They are trying to win with losing arguments – but unless working people stand up and educate their legislators with the facts, Pennsylvania could very well become the next state to pass paycheck deception.
Can you take five minutes to stand against paycheck deception (and save the Commonwealth a little time and money)?

TAKE ACTION – To  Contact your legislator and tell them NO on HB 1507 and SB 1034, Go To: http://act.aflcio.org/c/18/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=7849

Source: http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=3598

By Joel Mathis

– NewsWorks reports that the union which represents PGW’s employees will oppose selling the gas utility to a private owner.

Keith Holmes, president of the Gas Works Employees Union, said his members are counting on support from other unions.

“We’re going to oppose this sale and we’re going to do everything we can,” he said. “And we hope council sticks by us. Leading into this, they thought the city unions were going to break apart because they are going to put money into the city pension fund.

“That will never happen,” Holmes said. “There is no way any city union is going to try and benefit off the backs of another city union.”

Under the proposed deal, the city would sell PGW to Connecticut-based UIL Holdings Corp. for $1.8 billion.

Source: http://www.phillymag.com/news/2014/03/10/pgws-union-employees-oppose-sale/

By The PA. AFL-CIO

– This week, Pennsylvania saw the largest grass roots mobilization of workers since the huge rally at the Capitol in January.  On Monday and Tuesday in Pittsburgh, well over 1000 individuals braved single-digit temperatures and sub-zero wind chills to stand up for workers’ dignity at UPMC, and for the rights of all Pennsylvanians to organize with their coworkers for fairness on the job.

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is now Pennsylvania’s largest private employer, but in spite of their tax-exempt status and $1.3 billion in profits over the past three years, they are trying to stop hospital workers from organizing in Pittsburgh – just weeks after a lock-out of SEIU registered nurses at their medical center in Altoona.   UPMC is being supported in their fight against workers by the National Right to Work Foundation.

As if it weren’t enough that Pennsylvania’s workers must suffer union-busting employers, they are also currently under attack by union-busting legislators in Harrisburg, who are working hard to pass legislation that would defund public sector unions by interfering with dues collection.

The rallies in Pittsburgh this week were about calling attention to these fights once again, and sending a message that the Labor Movement will continue to stand together to fight for fairness and dignity on the job, and for the rights of all workers.  “Strength In Unity” is the theme of our 41stConstitutional Convention in Pittsburgh next month, and it is also how we will continue to weather these attacks from irresponsible employers and from extremist lawmakers.

The demonstrations began early Monday morning and continued throughout the day and into the evening, before resuming on Tuesday.  Mayor Bill Peduto’s office released a statement saying “More than 1,000 people exercised their First Amendment rights to peaceably assemble, and, by cooperating with police, no arrests have been reported.”

Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder and Community Services Director Carl Dillinger of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO attended the rally with the State Fed’s RV, and joined labor leaders from across the State in offering support to UPMC workers, many of whom has been harassed and wrongfully terminated in retaliation for demanding dignity on the job.

This rally, like the one in Harrisburg in January, is neither the first step nor the final word in the fight for workers’ rights in Pennsylvania.  Whether it is the struggle for dignity for UPMC workers, the fight against HB 1507, or fending off attacks on public pensions – the Labor Movement needs to continue to stand together and be ready to hold the line whenever the rights of workers’ are threatened or the dignity of work is degraded.

Source: http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=3591

By the PA. AFL-CIO

Union members and labor leaders from across Central PA held a press conference in York Pennsylvania on Wednesday, March 5 and accused some in the legislature of union-busting.  They urged area State Representatives to oppose legislation which unfairly attacks teachers, nurses, corrections officers and all public sector workers in Pennsylvania.

Fred Wilson, President of the Teamsters Local 776, helped lead the press conference which was hosted by Democratic State Representative Kevin Schreiber.  Tom Santone, President of the York-Adams Central Labor Council; Danny Grace, Secretary-Treasurer of IBT Local 830; Mickey Sgro, the Chair of the Central PA Area Labor Federation; and Frank Snyder, Secretary-Treasurer of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO all called for the defeat of HB1507 and its Senate counterpart, SB1034. They asked local Republican legislators to withdraw their support for these bills and to begin working together with their Democratic colleagues on the important business of putting Pennsylvanians back to work and supporting policies that expand the middle class.

After the press conference, attempts were made to have meetings with the Republican legislators – Rep. Seth Grove, R-Dover, Ron Miller, R-Jacobus and Stan Saylor, R-Windsor Twp. Governor Corbett has said that if this legislation reaches his desk that he will sign it.

Source: http://www.paaflcio.org/?p=3586