By Dave Heller

– Philadelphia has joined Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., as cities where consumers can avail themselves of a pro-labor business guide. Labor 411 has started publishing a Philadelphia edition online, which will appear in print in time for the Democratic National Convention here at the end of July.

Publisher Cherri Senders and Patrick Eiding, president of the Philadelphia Council of the AFL-CIO, spoke with NewsWorks Tonight host Dave Heller about the launch.

Source – http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/94008-a-411-to-find-fair-labor-businesses-

From The American Postal Workers Union

– The National Labor Relations Board hearing on the APWU’s challenge to the dirty deal between Staples and the U.S. Postal Service resumed in Washington, DC, on May 18, with union President Mark Dimondstein testifying.

Coincidentally, Staples’ poor financial results for the first quarter of 2016 were announced on Wednesday as well. Same-store sales declined 3 percent and foot traffic and the average order size were both down 2 percent.

Just to make sure Staples executives know that the APWU is intent on blocking their attempt to take over postal retail operations, activists greeted them with a spirited protest when they arrived for work at the company’s headquarters near Boston in the morning
Stop Staples organizers distributed flyers outside stores in several other cities as well, informing shoppers about the deal between the USPS and the office-supply chain. Many customers honored the boycott and left, promising not to shop at Staples.

And just last week the Federal Trade Commission handed the company a devastating defeat when it rejected its proposed merger with Office Depot.

“We won’t stop fighting this attempt to privatize the Postal Service’s retail operations until Staples gets out of the mail business,” Dimondstein said.

By Jared Brey

– The Philadelphia School District has a modest fund balance this year, meaning for the first time in recent memory it spent less money than it budgeted.

But that’s the result of “bad savings,” Councilwoman Helen Gym said during City Council’s hearings on the District’s budget Tuesday. It’s not that the district just managed its money well; instead, it failed to spend budgeted money on basic services, Gym said. That includes a gap of $1.3 million budgeted but not spent on school nurses, $4 million on maintenance and repair, and $2 million on special education bus attendants. In all, the district saved $65 million through staff vacancies and deferred maintenance, Gym pointed out.

The district could take immediate action to start refilling those vacancies by staffing up its Office of Talent, Gym said. In response, Superintendent William Hite said the district is hoping to hire a “talent officer” to manage recruiting within the next week. But he said the district expects challenges in hiring teachers in science, math, languages, and special education. He asked Council members to consider hosting job fairs and recommending potential applicants to the district.

In his opening remarks, Hite acknowledged that although the district isn’t begging Council for an immediate influx of cash, it still doesn’t have what it needs to give students the education they deserve.

“Short-term stability should not be confused with adequacy or equity,” Hite said.

Gym also said that the district needs to end split-grade classrooms and provide an appropriate level of clean water access in schools. (She introduced a bill in Council last week to mandate a ratio of at least one water fountain per 100 students in the district.)
Along with School Reform Commission Chairwoman Marjorie Neff, Hite said that the district is hoping to convene all of its funders for a conversation on how to address the district’s structural deficit. Because of a projected increase in operating costs and the loss of some revenue, including a planned sunsetting of the cigarette tax, the district expects to be looking at a $600 million budget deficit at the end of its current five-year plan.

Council members wanted to know what they could to make arrangements for resolving the projected deficit. District officials made no specific requests, saying only that they want to have a conversation with Council, the administration and state officials about finding the right mix of funding for schools.

Councilman David Oh briefly discussed a proposal to expand pre-K classes, which the Kenney administration is hoping to pay for with a three-cent tax on sugary beverages. The administration wants to use the revenue from that tax — which, although the rate is not yet set in stone, is expected to decrease over time in any scenario — to help develop non-district providers of pre-K services. Would it make more sense to give some of the soda tax revenue to the district to expand pre-K instead, Oh asked?

Council President Darrell Clarke raised similar questions in an interview on 6 ABC’s Inside Story this past weekend. More on that to come. Council will continue discussion of the school district’s budget with public testimony starting Wednesday morning at 10 a.m.

Source – http://www.phillymag.com/citified/2016/05/17/school-district-budget-hearing/

By the AFL-CIO

– AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka issued the following statement in reaction to new rules to modernize workplace injury reporting and protect workers who report injuries.

The new OSHA injury reporting rules will bring workplace injury and illness reporting into the 21st century and provide important new protections to workers who report injuries.

Until now, most workplace injury records have only been available at the workplace, making it impossible to know which employers have bad or good injury records. Employers in high hazard industries will now have to electronically submit a summary of their firms’ injuries and illnesses to OSHA each year, and large employers will have to submit more detailed injury and illness information. OSHA, workers, and the public will have access to this information.

This new transparency will assist OSHA and workers in identifying hazardous workplaces. In addition, employers will be able to compare their records with other employers in their industry and public health officials and researchers will be able to identify emerging trends. Most importantly, this data will help prevent future injuries, illnesses and deaths.

We are pleased that the new rules also include important protections to ensure that workers can report injuries without fear of retaliation. For far too long, in an effort to keep reported injury rates low, employers have retaliated against workers for reporting injuries, disciplining them for every injury or creating barriers to reporting. Now these violations will be subject to citations and penalties. With these stronger protections, workers will be more willing to report injuries, which will help with overall prevention.

Source – http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Political-Action-Legislation/AFL-CIO-Welcomes-OSHA-s-New-Injury-and-Illness-Reporting-Rules

For Immediate Release:

05/10/2016 – The following statement is from Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union:

“U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan made the right call today, upholding the Federal Trade Commission’s decision to block a deeply flawed merger between Staples and Office Depot.

“Starting the day this bad deal was unveiled, our union has said it would be bad news for consumers, small businesses and the U.S. economy. If the merger had been allowed to go through, Staples would be the only office supply superstore chain left standing. That would have led to higher prices and fewer choices.

“The FTC and Judge Sullivan did the right thing by enforcing our anti-trust laws.”

Source: http://www.apwu.org/news/press-release/apwu-says-court-made-right-call-staplesoffice-depot-merger