The Worker Thread

[1 CAT FAN]

[Vrede too]

How Workers Can Demand Climate Justice
A Bargaining for the Common Good approach to the climate crisis

... Bargaining for the Common Good (BCG) is an innovative way of building community-labor alignments, bringing unions and allies together, that go beyond the limits to traditional collective bargaining and jointly shape bargaining campaigns that advance the mutual interests of workers and communities alike. It developed over the last decade out of the struggles of teachers in St. Paul, Chicago, and Seattle; out of the fights of public employees in San Diego and Los Angeles; and in other settings where unions partnered with their community allies to advance a common agenda through direct-action protests—including strikes—and campaigns that targeted the power structures of their communities.

The strike by members of the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) in January 2019 provides a great example of what BCG looks like in action. The union tackled issues that were central to the working-class communities the school district serves. The teachers won commitments from the district to reduce class sizes, increase investment in the schools, hire school nurses and full-time librarians, reduce standardized testing and random searches of students, provide more green spaces for students, and launch a dedicated hotline for immigrant families who need legal assistance....

In a recent article, Nato Green of SEIU Local 1021 called for unions to bargain over climate change. Green argued that the introduction of the Green New Deal resolution by Ocasio-Cortez and Markey opened the possibilities of constructing a common good framework through which to confront the climate catastrophe. We agree.

There are three areas in which BCG campaigns can help us link to existing climate justice work on the local level and move action agendas that are not dependent on Washington:

Climate change mitigation—reducing greenhouse gas emissions, with a just transition for workers, in order to slow global warming;
Environmental equity—pursuing an equitable distribution of environmental benefits and burdens in order to eradicate the legacy of environmental racism; and
Just recoveries—putting the interests of communities and workers before private profits in the wake of climate disasters, such as extreme storms and wildfires, and economic disasters, such as mine and plant closures.

BCG campaigns in these three areas can effectively link local efforts to national campaigns and begin to make the Green New Deal happen locally, from the ground up, while we also continue to fight for the change that is needed at the federal level....

I don't know much about this, but it sounds like a possible tool towards restoring the relevance of unions to the wider society.

[Vrede too]

Support the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act

Reject Trump’s Anti-Worker Labor Nominee
Tell your Senators to reject Secretary of Labor nominee Eugene Scalia.

[Vrede too]

Tell GM: We stand with striking workers

[O Really]

It could be presented as punitive, and probably is, but really, stopping heath coverage during a strike is neither unusual or illegal. It's a little unusual to turn the plan off this soon into the strike, but that's likely a sign GM expects it to drag on for a while. Anyway UAW will pick up the COBRA costs for the members and coverage will continue. Strikes are usually pretty miserable for everyone.

[Vrede too]

It could be presented as punitive, and probably is, but really, stopping heath coverage during a strike is neither unusual or illegal. It's a little unusual to turn the plan off this soon into the strike, but that's likely a sign GM expects it to drag on for a while. Anyway UAW will pick up the COBRA costs for the members and coverage will continue. Strikes are usually pretty miserable for everyone.

Thanks. My main interest is in a fair comprehensive settlement, not just the heath coverage issue.

[O Really]

“In business as in life, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.”

[Vrede too]

“In business as in life, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.”

Or what you AND your friends negotiate.

Tell Congress: Protect whistleblowers!

Petition to Congress:

We urge you to pass stronger protections and protect whistleblowers, especially from Donald Trump. Please strengthen existing laws to prevent retaliation, close loopholes, and clarify reporting rules. The House created a Whistleblower Ombudsman Office, and we urge the Senate to follow suit.

[Vrede too]

Tell Congress: Put Power in the Hands of Workers. Support the PRO (Protecting the Right to Organize) Act.

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Ask your Members of Congress to support the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Act

[Vrede too]

After Deaths, Amazon Lands on List of Most Dangerous Employers
"It seems Amazon values money way more than life. If they did their job right, I wouldn’t have had to bury my little brother.”

Tell Amazon: Stop using automated quotas to work employees to death!

[neoplacebo]

I saw this story yesterday and it's still on Yahoo's front page this morning. Wise County VA is a very depressed area of SW Virginia; for the past couple of years about every four months or so medical professionals in the surrounding areas have donated their time and services to poor folks that live there and provide medical, dental, and vision care to people that can't afford it. Local tv news stories about these events invariably reveal that people begin lining up at 3am or earlier to be near the head of the line for help. Ballad Health recently took over pretty much all the hospitals in E TN and SW VA; one of the first things they did was to de certify the hospital here in Kingsport as a level 1 trauma center; the closest one to me here is now 25 miles away. This article illustrates in stark terms what Ballad's main concern is.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/cant-pay-med ... 19820.html

[Vrede too]

I saw this story yesterday and it's still on Yahoo's front page this morning. Wise County VA is a very depressed area of SW Virginia; for the past couple of years about every four months or so medical professionals in the surrounding areas have donated their time and services to poor folks that live there and provide medical, dental, and vision care to people that can't afford it. Local tv news stories about these events invariably reveal that people begin lining up at 3am or earlier to be near the head of the line for help. Ballad Health recently took over pretty much all the hospitals in E TN and SW VA; one of the first things they did was to de certify the hospital here in Kingsport as a level 1 trauma center; the closest one to me here is now 25 miles away. This article illustrates in stark terms what Ballad's main concern is.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/cant-pay-med ... 19820.html

Asheville's Mission Hospital went on a flurry of absorbing smaller hospitals over the past decade. Most were non-profits, most communities were happy to do it, and there certainly were benefits to joining the network. Then Mission, itself a non-profit, sold out to a private company. This must have been the plan all along, yet it was never revealed to these smaller hospitals and their communities. I can't say what the effects have been, but it feels like a betrayal.

[Vrede too]

Write to Congress: Support the PRO (Protecting the Right to Organize) Act

[Vrede too]

Petition to the Senate:

"Support the Raise the Wage Act of 2019, which would give more than one in four Americans a raise."

[Vrede too]

A little-known agency that is supposed to protect workers is instead eroding workers’ basic labor rights

Donald Trump ran for president promising to uplift workers. But his actions have done the exact opposite.

According to a new EPI report, Trump appointees on the board of a small, independent agency called the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)—and the NLRB’s Trump-appointed general counsel (GC)—are working hard to undermine workers’ rights to join together in collective action to improve pay and working conditions.

As authors Celine McNicholas, Margaret Poydock, and Lynn Rhinehart warn, Trump’s appointees have ticked off one by one the 10 items on a U.S. Chamber of Commerce hit list of NLRB policies to overturn. And they’re not done yet: The NLRB plans to go after more worker protections in the months ahead....

[O Really]

(sigh) I know you like EPI articles, and I know I sometimes overly nit-pick them, but the NLRB a "little-known agency"? Seriously?

[Vrede too]

(sigh) I know you like EPI articles, and I know I sometimes overly nit-pick them, but the NLRB a "little-known agency"? Seriously?

I noticed that, too, but don't think it's significant enough to discount the rest of the article and report. Plus, you and I are old, well-educated, very involved lefties. In 45SHOLE's lovable, "poorly educated" America with the lowest union membership in over 100 (?) years, "little-known" MIGHT be true. I wouldn't bet the condo on it being well known.

[O Really]

(sigh) I know you like EPI articles, and I know I sometimes overly nit-pick them, but the NLRB a "little-known agency"? Seriously?

I noticed that, too, but don't think it's significant enough to discount the rest of the article and report. Plus, you and I are old, well-educated, very involved lefties. In 45SHOLE's lovable, "poorly educated" America with the lowest union membership in over 100 (?) years, "little-known" MIGHT be true. I wouldn't bet the condo on it being well known.

Historically, Dem Presidents have appointed pre-labor members; Repug Presidents have appointed anti-labor members. So it's no surprise that Trump would just try to decimate it as he is prone to do. But union membership was already at it lowest point even before Trump - and not particularly a result of unfavorable court decisions or NLRB rulings. Manufacturing and trades, (along with public service like teachers) were the backbone of union strength and there aren't so many of those anymore. Certainly states have done all they can to cut the nuts off public unions, but interest in union membership is down across the board. Legal obstacles and employer resistance is certainly no more now for the retail workers than it was for the textile workers and miners back in the day, but the retail unions can't seem to win elections. It's good to see at least some of the teachers bite back.

[Vrede too]

Historically, Dem Presidents have appointed pre-labor members; Repug Presidents have appointed anti-labor members. So it's no surprise that Trump would just try to decimate it as he is prone to do. But union membership was already at it lowest point even before Trump - and not particularly a result of unfavorable court decisions or NLRB rulings. Manufacturing and trades, (along with public service like teachers) were the backbone of union strength and there aren't so many of those anymore. Certainly states have done all they can to cut the nuts off public unions, but interest in union membership is down across the board. Legal obstacles and employer resistance is certainly no more now for the retail workers than it was for the textile workers and miners back in the day, but the retail unions can't seem to win elections. It's good to see at least some of the teachers bite back.

"pre-labor" - Are we still discussing workers?

I didn't mean to suggest that 45SHOLE is responsible for low union membership. I was merely stating it as a fact that could be part of the explanation IF NLRB is indeed "little-known", along with the poorly educated America that elected POSPOTUS.
http://www.blueridgedebate.com/forum/vi ... ed#p105562