By Jane M. Von Bergen

– Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will woo Pennsylvania’s labor leaders this week at the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO’s convention in Philadelphia.

More than 700 labor leaders and delegates will gather in Philadelphia Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in a conference focused on politics – and other worker issues, including raising the minimum wage.

Clinton is expected to speak Wednesday morning at 11:15 and Sanders will address the group on Thursday at 10 a.m.

“Other than New York, we’re the next battle ground,” Richard “Rick” Bloomingdale, president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, said last week.

Also listed in the three-day line-up are former mine worker Richard Trumka, a Villanova Law School graduate and president of the national AFL-CIO, Mayor Kenney, Gov. Wolf, U.S. Rep. Bob Brady (D., Pa) and embattled attorney general Kathleen Kane.

“Politics will play a big role, getting our folks energized to protect what we won at the bargaining table,” Bloomingdale said.

Nationally, 14.8 million workers, or 11.1 percent of the workforce, were union members in 2015, with the number of members up slightly over 2014. In the public sector, 35.2 percent of employees are union members, compared to 6.7 percent in the private sector, according to U.S. Labor Department reports.

In Pennsylvania, 747,000 employees, or 13.3 percent of the state’s workforce, were union members in 2015, up from 703,000, and 13.3 percent in 2014.

Bloomingdale said the conference agenda includes about 65 resolutions – and only four are dealing with politics.

Other issues on the agenda include raising the minimum wage, passing public employee workplace safety laws, and protecting the Pennsylvania state store system from privatization, which union officials say, would lead to lower wages for the system’s workers.

Mayor Kenney and Patrick Eiding, president of the Philadelphia Council of the AFL-CIO, will open the conference at the Sheraton Downtown Hotel Tuesday morning.

Following them to the microphone will be Trumka, Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry Secretary Kathy Manderino, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale and Kane.

Frank Snyder, the secretary-treasurer of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, will lead a political roundtable Wednesday morning, describing the AFL-CIO’s efforts on behalf of the state AFL-CIO’s endorsed candidates. Brady is scheduled to speak Wednesday and Gov. Wolf on Thursday.

Bloomingdale said last week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that protected how public unions collect dues was a reprieve, but that the case got as far as it did “was a real wake-up call for us.”

“We have to get more workers, union or non-union fighting for their own economic justice and fairness.”

In Pennsylvania, public employee union due collection is a legislative issue. The Senate has passed a law saying that the government will no longer collect union dues via payroll deduction from the checks of public employees.

The bill is stalled in the House. If it passes and Gov. Wolf signs it, which is considered unlikely, it’ll be up to the unions to collect dues from their members.

Four local labor leaders will be honored at the convention: Harry Lombardo, president of the Transportation Workers Union of America; Michael Barnes, president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Local 8; Ryan Boyer, business manager of the Laborers’ district council of Philadephia metropolitan area and Eiding.

Source – http://www.philly.com/philly/business/labor_and_unions/20160405_Hillary_and_Bernie_to_address_AFL-CIO_this_week_in_Phila_.html

By Samuel H. Pond

• Beware the wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Across the country, in state houses largely influenced by insurance industry interests, there is an insidious attack on workers’ rights masquerading as “workers’ compensation reform”.

These sham reforms would return many workers, especially those in dangerous industries, to the dark days of the Industrial Revolution when little recourse existed for injured workers or their families.

Here in Pennsylvania, supporters of a bill sponsored by Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Lehigh, have already begun to encroach on the workers’ compensation system as it exists.

In a November 2015 memo to his colleagues, in which he sought support for his proposal, Mackenzie said it would implement “treatment guidelines” which have “successfully controlled costs, mitigated the frequency of surgery, and reduced the volume of addictive pharmaceuticals needlessly administered to workers.”

According to Mackenzie, injured workers would benefit from treatment guidelines.

That’s false.

Treatment guidelines, which are trumpeted as systematizing and creating uniformity in how workplace injuries are addressed, shift individualized care to an “evidence-based” statistical approach.  But medical care needs, particularly for serious injuries, cannot be analyzed by numbers or measured with algorithms.

Treatment guidelines, which would be developed by politically appointed panels having little or no public accountability, would allow the legislature to abdicate important statewide policy decisions.

In practice, treatment guidelines will reduce injured workers’ injuries and conditions to statistics to be manipulated and handled according to data charts and tables of “most efficient” practices, removing a treating doctor’s judgment altogether.

Clients too often struggle to prove their injuries and receive the compensation they’re entitled to because of insurance companies’ lack of compassion under the current law.

If this bill is passed, any remaining compassion will be eradicated.

One of our most memorable clients was a man affectionately named “Moose,” and his case is a prime example of the issues within the workers’ comp system.

Moose was a long-time union operating engineer before a malfunctioning piece of construction equipment left him permanently paralyzed and wheelchair-bound.

Despite his doctor assuring the insurance company that his medical conditions were work-related, the insurer continued to fight covering certain medical expenses.

Moose’s home was not functional in his injured condition, but the insurance company refused to pay for home modifications – something workers’ compensation should cover.

Moose’s daughter put off her wedding in order to help her parents pay for modifications to their home so Moose’s wife did not have to continue to bathe him in the living room – there was no bathroom on that floor.

Our firm was able to recover the money owed to Moose’s family for the home modifications, but not for months until after they were completed. It’s also well known that paraplegics suffer respiratory issues as a result of their condition.

The insurance company did not believe so, and our firm fought their denial until the day Moose died, more than six years after he was injured.

The current workers’ compensation system is stripping away the humanitarian intention of the original law.

Any further modifications to the law that removes human voices and human opinions will leave injured workers struggling to make ends meet and to receive quality medical care.

Mackenzie’s proposed legislation has not yet come to a vote by the Republican-controlled General Assembly. It’s still before the House Labor & Industry Committee.

The Workers’ Compensation Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association has recognized this mounting threat to workers’ rights and has responded with a resolution opposing the legislation.

First, the resolution notes that the usually parroted impetus for reform – cost containment – is not a problem in Pennsylvania.  In fact, “loss cost filings,” which are the base line premium variable that is used to calculate insurance premiums for employers, have decreased every year since 2012.

The resolution notes concerns with evidence-based medicine as proposed in the Mackenzie bill that should be of concern to both sides of the bar.

The politicized nature of the appointed panels who will determine the guidelines can easily operate as a double-edged sword.  In the real world, that sword is more likely to cut the injured worker.

All lawyers tasked with protecting injured workers must not allow Pennsylvania to become a state where profits are put before people’s health.

Our elected officials should be responsible policy-makers and be aware that their constituents’ health and well-being is not for sale to the highest bidder, or the lowest common statistical denominator.

This bogus “reform legislation” presents real threats to workers.  Tell our elected officials to protect workers’ rights, not destroy them.

Samuel H. Pond is the Managing Partner of Pond Lehocky Stern Giordano, a workers compensation law firm, in Philadelphia.

Source – http://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2016/03/heres_why_a_workers_comp_refor.html

By The American Postal Workers Union

Students organized coordinated actions in nine cities to send a message to the office-supply chain: The U.S. Mail is NOT for Sale.

– On the heels of their endorsement of the Stop Staples campaign in February, members of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) held a day of action at Staples locations on March 24 to show their support for the public Postal Service and against threats to privatize it.

USAS is a national student organization fighting for workers’ rights with chapters on over 150 campuses.

Actions were held in nine cities, including New York; Philadelphia; Boston; Austin, TX; Cambridge, MA; Durham, NC; Kent, OH, State College, PA, and Washington, DC.

More actions are planned for this week.

To learn more about how students are joining the fight against postal privatization check out usas.org/stopstaples/. Check out the slideshow for photos and tweets from the day of action.

Source – http://www.apwu.org/news/web-news-article/united-students-against-sweatshops-