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Archive for March, 2009

What Can a Union Do For You?

• Employees bargain with strength for wages, benefits and rights when they join together. That’s why it’s important to unionize.
• Under the employment at will doctrine, the cornerstone of American employment law, in general terms, unless you belong to a protected group, your employer has the right to discipline or terminate, with impunity, you for any reason — even a bad one — or for no reason at all. That’s why it is sometimes called the fire at will doctrine.
• However, with a collective bargaining agreement, you have rights. Management must have just cause for any disciplinary action taken against a union employee. You bargain over wages, health benefits, working conditions and a retirement plan for your future. But, you bargain collectively with the strength that comes from a collective voice.
• ITS ALWAYS wise to take full advantage of YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS.
• WITH A UNION, the employer must bargain and pay the wages negotiated.
• WITH A UNION, your rights on the job are spelled out and must be respected.
• WITH A UNION, you can stop abuses on the job. The union can prevent unjust and unfair treatment by giving you representation on the job and the right to file grievances if you are treated unfairly.
• WITH A UNION, you can negotiate for better holiday pay, vacations, health and welfare benefits, and job conditions.
• WITH A UNION, you have greater security on your job. Company management cannot fire you without good reason and they must respect your length of service if there are layoffs.

Civil Disobedience

Rosa Parks in 1955, with Martin Luther King, Jr. in the background.

Civil disobedience is the active refusal to obey certain laws, demands and commands of a government, or of an occupying power, without resorting to physical violence. It is one of the primary tactics of nonviolent resistance. In its most nonviolent form (known as ahimsa or satyagraha) it could be said that it is compassion in the form of respectful disagreement.

Civil disobedience is one of the many ways people have rebelled against unfair laws. It has been used in many well-documented nonviolent resistance movements in India (Gandhi‘s social welfare campaigns and campaigns for independence from the British Empire), in South Africa in the fight against apartheid, in the American Civil Rights Movement and in peace movements worldwide.

One of its earliest massive implementations was by Egyptians against the British occupation in the nonviolent 1919 Revolution.

Impeach the Pope

By Robert S. McElvaine
Professor of Arts & Letters, Millsaps College

Enough! No–Too much!

Amid all the justified outrage we all feel at Bernie Madoff and the AIG bandits, let us save some intense outrage for Pope Benedict XVI.

After insulting Muslims by declaring in 2006 that Muhammad had brought “things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached,” after reiterating  in 2008 that the subject of the ordination of women is not even open for discussion and declaring that anyone involved with the ordination of women will be automatically excommunicated.

After lifting in January of this year the excommunication of Holocaust-denier Richard Williamson, now Benedict XVI opens a visit to Africa by telling the people of a continent decimated by AIDS that the distribution of condoms “increases the problem” of the spread of AIDS.

I am a Catholic and the idea that such a man is God’s spokesperson on earth is absurd to me.

There are, of course, no provisions in the hierarchical institution set up, not by Jesus but by men who hijacked his name and in many cases perverted his teachings, for impeaching a pope and removing him from office. But there ought to be.

Congress Played Large Part in Excessive AIG Bonus Mess

If President Barack Obama wants to find a scapegoat for the mess at American International Group, he needs only to look east from the White House to the halls of Congress.

That’s where the legislation was enacted that laid the groundwork for AIG’s collapse, its subsequent multibillion-dollar bailout and even the millions of dollars in bonuses being paid to AIG executives that have so outraged Obama, members of Congress and taxpayers.

Call it the law of unintended consequences.

The controversy boiled over Monday when Obama took aim at the bonuses going to executives who oversaw the risky bets that sank the giant insurer.

AIG has taken out $170 billion in federal funds, and federal officials overseeing the company say it is not out of the woods yet. The backlash intensified over the weekend when the company, now 80 percent owned by U.S. taxpayers, said it was locked into paying $165 million in bonuses to key executives.

“We’ve asked the car dealers to restructure their organization, including workers restructuring their union contracts in order to save the auto industry,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. “We ought to be asking the leadership at AIG to make the same kind of concessions to save AIG and the taxpayers’ dollars.”

The Employee Free Choice Act may finally be the great equalizer between management and labor.

It’s only normal and expected that management, corporations, and CEO’s would fight the change that would give their workers a fair voice in labor relations.

Is it really so wrong as to think that the workers of America should also be allowed to share in the profits that they help create?

Or should we continue to pay obscene amounts of money to the captains of industry that have run our country and citizens into the ground?

We are at a precipice in this great country of ours. What we do next will decide our country’s future and the great democracy experiment.

Don’t forget what Henry Ford knew long ago.  When you pay your employees enough to buy your products, you have also significantly increased your market share.

Two thirds of the United States GDP is consumer spending.  Let the people earn a good wage and they will spend it.

Five Reasons to Support the Employee Free Choice Act

Today, the Employee Free Choice Act was introduced in Congress. Want some great reasons to support this bill that you’ve been hearing so much about? Here’s five. (And if you already support it, please contact your Members of Congress and ask them to do the same.)

1. Because more jobs should be good jobs.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last year, it’s no surprise that millions of Americans are out of work, losing their health care or their retirement money, or are otherwise in financial straits. Times are tough. And who’s taking this economic crisis on the chin? Well, we are, of course.

Four million people have lost their jobs since the recession began in December 2007. It’s not for lack of trying. In terms of productivity, people are working harder than ever– but American workers still haven’t gotten a raise. And while jobs and wages are down, the cost of living continues to rise: The average cost of family health insurance plan will go up to $24,000 by 2016. $24,000!

The Employee Free Choice Act says that workers should have the ability to bargain with their employers for better wages and benefits–like affordable quality health care.

2. It’s good for the economy.

One of the biggest reasons for our current economic crisis? People literally don’t have the cash they need to buy goods and services–which would in turn help the economy. Higher wages and higher benefits would give workers the purchasing power they need to buy more of the goods and services that this economy produces. According to a February report from the Center for American Progress Action Fund, unionization could pump more than $49 billion into the economy.

3. Barack Obama loves it, and so do most of you.

Not to mention Joe Biden, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, and majorities in both houses of Congress. And according to recent polling, 73% of the public supports it. Just last week, speaking in front of a labor gathering, President Obama vowed to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

4. Because CEOs should be helping workers, not hurting them.

Want to get really depressed about your paycheck? Compare it to a CEO’s. As a testament to the growing income disparity between CEOs and the workers they employ, look no further than Wal-Mart’s former CEO, Lee Scott. Scott earned $15,000 an hour in 2007 while Wal-Mart workers earned just $10.68 an hour. On average, CEOs earn 344 times what their typical employee makes.

And yet, when Goldman Sachs received $10 billion in Wall St. bailout funds, they turned around and spent $6.5 billion on bonuses! If the Employee Free Choice Act passed, workers would have more of an opportunity to share in the prosperity they helped create.

5. Because the other side is really scary.

Or at least, they’re trying their hardest to scare us. The corporate interests opposing the Employee Free Choice Act have warned of everything from rioting in the streets to, literally, Armageddon if the bill passes.

Corporate interests are bent on lying about the Employee Free Choice Act – they’d have you believe that the bill means the end of the secret ballot – but nothing could be further from the truth. The Employee Free Choice Act simply gives employees the choice to join unions – not the employers.

Right now, workers can join unions through majority sign-up or a secret ballot election, and they can do so under the Employee Free Choice Act, too. The only difference is it will be the employees’ choice, not the employers.

If you’re as fired up as we are, go to SEIU.org and sign up to help. It’s time for the Employee Free Choice Act.

Bankruptcy and Bad Credit Losing its Shame

Many People are Walking Away From Their Homes

Declaring personal bankruptcy may not carry the same stigma it once did.

As unemployment rates skyrocket and home values plummet, new attitudes toward debt may explain why more people are letting their homes and other assets go rather than working out a debt repayment plan in the nation’s bankruptcy courts.

“It’s not being looked at as a personal failure but a product of the times,” said credit counselor Rachel Hood.

“More people are throwing in the keys and saying, ‘OK, take my house,’ in a way I’ve never seen in the past. No matter how much they fight, at the end of the day, they’re still $50,000 underwater.

In the past, the home was a homeowner’s most important asset, but with tumbling property values, many find themselves owing far more than their home would sell for. For some, it often makes more sense to liquidate and start anew despite the hit on their credit.