Local News Roundup

See the dams we can burst by electing just one pro-labor executive in a red state?

More than 10,000 child care providers in Kansas and Pennsylvania won collective bargaining rights this month when the states’ governors signed executive orders guaranteeing the workers a voice on the job.In Kansas, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) signed the executive order granting bargaining rights to some 7,000 state licensed and regulated home child care providers. The state then certified the workers’ choice to join Child Care Providers Together Kansas/AFSCME, capping off their six-month drive for a voice at work.

This continues the trend of executive orders to guarantee service workers representation, especially child care workers. As the AFL-CIO pointed out, it happened in PA for 4,000 under Gov. Rendell's orders; in NY for 60,000 child care workers in May under orders from Gov. Spitzer; in December for 40,000 in Michigan; and also in Oregon, NJ, Iowa, alifornia, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio and Wisconsin. (Coincidentally, or probably not, al of those states but one, Minnesota, have Democratic governors).

Specifically, those working in child care jobs are absolutely crucial to the nation's future, and deserve the respect, fair pay and guarantees that should come with such a vital role in society. On a larger scale, as economy moves more and more in the direction of interpersonal "service" jobs, we've got to break down the walls early or face a forever-long struggle.

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Fremont school district employees looking for improved contract:

On behalf of 371 district employees, Service Employees International Union Local 1021 — which represents bus drivers, groundskeepers, cooks and other classified workers — is asking for unspecified raises, health benefit changes, an extra floating holiday and increased time off for various reasons.

Other requests include increasing the mileage reimbursement rate, cutting the length of time it takes to qualify for longevity pay and increasing the amount of that pay, and reducing from three to two the number of years a disciplinary action remains on an employee's record.

The union also is asking the district to pay the full premium on a health plan for an employee and his or her spouse if the worker retires early. The arrangement would continue until the employee reached age 65.

I know from personal experience that oftentimes devious education entities like to try to bilk workers by calling them academic employees, when the reality is that, as much as individuals may enjoy working in the educational environment, for financial and contract purposes, they are workers who happen to be in an academic setting. This comes up oftentimes in the fight for employers to contribute to an unemployment fund for summer vacation, when workers are mainly off (though they are required to come in often at random times) but not off long enough to find a job to make up for loss of income. This may not be the case here, but it's really just an example of things schools try to pull.

To be fair, oftentimes schools don't have a real steady flow of income to lavish on workers, so in many ways they are set apart from big business in the selfishness category, but I don't know that that is the case in Fremont.

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Always active Minnesota Labor Scene (it's even in the name of the party, Democratic Farmer and Laborers) applauds minimum wage increase, but correctly points out that much more is needed:

"It's a long overdue first step," said Eliot Seide, executive director of AFSCME Council 5. "But someone who earns $5.85 an hour brings home only $12,168. That person is still poor."

If the minimum wage was adjusted for inflation, it would be $9.27 an hour today, said Kris Jacobs, director of the JOBS NOW Coalition. And that wage would still not be enough for many people to make ends meet, according to the organization's annual "Job Gap" study.

Many of the working poor, she noted, live in greater Minnesota, where more than one out of four jobs pay less than $9.27 per hour.

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Patricia Wingo, co-chair of ACORN in the Frogtown neighborhood, said her organization's members will benefit from the wage increase, but want to see more.

"There is no middle class anymore – only rich and poor," she declared. Families are struggling with higher health care costs and food and gas prices. They work longer hours and spend less time with their families, she said.

"We can eliminate poverty in a generation by lifting the minimum wage to a livable wage," said Seide. "We can eliminate the phrase 'working poor.' Everyone who puts in an honest day's work should receive a fair day's pay. Full-time workers should earn enough to feed, clothe and shelter their families. We are the richest nation on the face of the planet and we can do better."

Damn straight. Check this out (thanks to Center for American Progress):

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While UAW struck an agreement with Delphi, the IUE-CWA, with fewer members, isn't taking things lying down:

The IUE-CWA union said it has filed a contract termination notice with automotive-parts supplier Delphi Corp., the first step in allowing its employees there to strike if no deal with the company is reached.

The IUE-CWA represents about 2,000 Delphi employees. Delphi already has finalized a deal with the United Auto Workers union, which represents the vast majority -- about 17,000 -- of its hourly workers.

Steelworkers and some other smaller unions, adding up to 3,000 employees along with IUE-CWA, are probably not getting the same kind of offers that the larger UAW got, a theory supported here:

Past union bargainers have noted GM typically is reluctant to give the union and other unions the same terms it negotiated with the larger UAW, forcing the smaller unions to take steps to push the issue.

And all this comes amid a tempest over temporary workers, otherwise known as unfortunate and abused pawns in forcing unions to make big concessions:

Besides roughly 240 temporary workers getting about $10 an hour with no benefits, Delphi Packard has a handful of former workers who returned at the lower rate after taking buyouts, plus a number of skilled trades workers.

John Fisher, a temp from Warren, said Plant 14, where he makes spark plug wires for General Motors Corp. and other automakers, is virtually all temporary workers, as is Plant 10, both in the North River Road Complex.

‘‘Does the company realize the plant will be shut down?’’ he said. ‘‘We’re bargaining chips.’’