ProgressNow.org Daily News Digest

Obama to name pro-union Rep. Hilda Solis to Labor post - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-solis19-2008dec19,0,9325.story Solis, 51, would be the third Latino member of Obama's Cabinet, a measure of diversity that has garnered praise from this fast-growing slice of the electorate. After Obama nominated New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to be his Commerce secretary, some Latino officials complained that they were being shut out of the most prestigious Cabinet posts. Richardson at one time had been rumored to be in line for secretary of State, before Obama offered him the Commerce slot. Rep. Joe Baca (D-Rialto) had cautioned that Obama's legislative agenda might face roadblocks unless more Latinos were installed in top positions. Since then, Obama has said he will nominate Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) as secretary of the Interior, and now Solis as Labor secretary. Prominent Latino officials are now praising the new Cabinet's makeup. In an interview Thursday, Baca said: "We're glad he listened to our voices and listened to the Hispanic community that came out and delivered for him on election day. It's a great day for the Hispanic community."

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Obama to Announce Final Cabinet Picks - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/18/AR2008121804057.html President-elect Barack Obama will announce the final selections for his Cabinet today, naming Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D-Calif.) as labor secretary and former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk as U.S. trade representative. The two will be in Chicago to be formally announced, along with Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.), Obama's choice for transportation secretary. With his selection of Solis, a liberal member of Congress, the president-elect appears to be moving toward his goal of promoting "green-collar jobs" -- those that help promote more energy efficiency, through projects such as retrofitting, something Solis has prioritized during her tenure in Congress. She is better known for her effort on energy issues than for her work on matters relating to labor; she sits on the Energy and Commerce Committee, the Natural Resources Committee, the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, and the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee -- but not the Education and Labor Committee. Nonetheless, labor leaders embraced the decision to name Solis, whose father was a Teamsters shop steward in Mexico, to the post. Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, issued a statement underscoring their long-standing alliance. "From the streets of Los Angeles where she marched with the janitors who were fighting for jobs with dignity that can support a family through SEIU's Justice for Janitors campaigns, to the halls of Congress where she has been an outspoken supporter of healthcare rights for all, a livable minimum wage, and workers' right to come together for a voice on the job, Hilda Solis has never backed down from the good fight to make the American Dream available to all," Stern said.

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Sit-In at Factory Ends With 2 Loan Agreements - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/us/11factory.html?ref=us The occupation of a window-manufacturing plant here by employees who were laid off last week ended Wednesday after a six-day standoff that brought them to national attention amid growing anxiety about the plight of workers in the deteriorating economy. Bank of America, which had cut off financing for the company, Republic Windows and Doors, said it would lend the company $1.35 million to help it meet the demands of the disgruntled workers. In addition, JPMorgan Chase, which owns 40 percent of the windows company, pledged an additional $400,000. The money will enable the company to pay 60 days of severance to more than 200 laid-off workers, who had been occupying a warehouse on this city’s North Side, as well as vacation time they had accrued but which the company had previously said it would not pay, union officials representing the workers said.

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Laid-Off Workers Approve Package, End Chicago Sit-In - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/10/AR2008121003975.html The plant's owners, union leaders and Bank of America forged the agreement Wednesday. Gutierrez said $1.75 million will go into an escrow account for the workers. Bank of America spokeswoman Julie Westermann said the company lent $1.35 million. Gutierrez said J.P. Morgan Chase added $400,000. Workers began their sit-in after the plant gave them three days' notice that it was closing.

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Bank Says It Will Consider Loan to Pay Workers in Factory Sit-In - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/us/10factory.html?ref=us Bank of America said Tuesday that it hoped to provide a limited amount of credit to allow a closed window and door factory here to pay money owed to workers who have been peacefully occupying the plant for five days to protest losing their jobs. “We’re trying to make that happen,” a bank spokeswoman, Julie Westermann, said early Tuesday evening. She said the company, Republic Windows and Doors, was meeting with union officials to determine how much compensation was owed to about 250 employees affected by the factory’s closing last Friday. “They need to come up with a number, and we’re prepared to talk about a loan to cover those benefits,” Ms. Westermann said, adding that because Republic’s credit “had run out,” the company would need a new loan.

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Chicago factory sit-in offers a window onto hard times - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-worker-sit-in9-2008dec09,0,7863346.story At Republic Windows and Doors, the standoff between workers, the company and the bank has become a symbol of the divide between rescue plans for Wall Street and Main Street.

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Battle Deepens Over Plan to Ease Union Organizing - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/08/AR2008120803408.html Business and labor groups are intensifying their battle over a measure that would make it easier to organize unions, offering a preview of what is certain to be one of the earliest and hardest-fought legislative battles in the new Congress. The Employee Free Choice Act would require employers to recognize unions once a majority of their workers sign cards of support. It also would require employers and unions to submit to binding arbitration if they are unable to reach a contract agreement within 120 days. The changes would be the most significant in federal labor law in six decades, both sides say. Labor leaders and other supporters -- including President-elect Barack Obama -- say the measure would help restore bargaining power to workers whose wages have fallen behind inflation in recent years.

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UAW Offers Detroit Concessions - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/03/AR2008120301474.html An angry Ron Gettelfinger, president of the United Auto Workers, said yesterday that his union was ready to make new concessions despite a landmark cost-cutting labor contract signed just last year, as he urged Congress and the Bush administration to step forward with a multibillion dollar rescue plan for Detroit's beleaguered automakers. The UAW, whose membership at the Big Three Detroit car manufacturers has dropped by half in the past five years, said it would let General Motors, Ford and Chrysler delay payments owed to a massive health-care fund for retired workers and suspend a program that pays laid off workers for up to two years. Gettelfinger made the new concessions reluctantly, complaining that the federal government was stepping in to rescue financial institutions while letting the car companies dangle near collapse. "I'm having a little problem myself understanding why there's a double standard here," he told reporters after a meeting of union leadership. "But we accept it and we'll play by those rules."

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Unions’ euphoria gives way to worry - The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/12/04/unions_euphoria_gives_way_to_worry/ After spending more than $300 million and providing thousands of foot soldiers to help elect Barack Obama, labor unions looked forward to good economic times, a warm relationship with a president for the first time in eight years, and quick passage of legislation designed to boost membership. But the financial crisis has jolted unions, weakening their position at the bargaining table and prompting calls to delay the pro-union legislation. Yesterday, the United Auto Workers union announced it would consider making new concessions in its labor contracts, a move that could lead to similar demands on other unions. The UAW's leader is slated to appear on Capitol Hill today alongside executives of the nation's three largest automakers, joining with the companies to ask Congress to approve $34 billion in loans they say would buy time to restructure and stave off bankruptcy, which they say would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs and possibly plunge the economy into a depression.

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Federal-Employee Unions Angered as Bush Bars National Security Workers - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/02/AR2008120202091.html Government unions yesterday criticized a White House executive order that bars certain workers at five federal departments from joining a union because they are engaged in intelligence gathering, investigations and other national security work. Offices covered by the order employ about 8,600 people within the Energy, Homeland Security, Justice, Transportation and Treasury departments. About 900 of them are Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives workers who have chosen to participate in collective bargaining and will lose their negotiated work rules, a White House spokesman said. Such rules typically cover working hours, scheduling and promotion procedures, for example. The National Treasury Employees Union, however, said the order covers about 1,500 workers in the ATF bargaining unit at the Justice Department, plus about 50 in the Office of International Affairs at Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Homeland Security Department.

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Some Federal Workers Lose Bargaining Rights - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/washington/02labor.html?_r=1 President Bush issued an executive order on Monday that denies collective bargaining rights to about 8,600 federal employees who work in law enforcement, intelligence and other agencies responsible for national security. Mr. Bush said it would be inconsistent with “national security requirements” to allow those employees to engage in collective bargaining with respect to the conditions of their employment. Among those affected are 5,000 employees of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is now part of the Justice Department. Scott M. Stanzel, a White House spokesman, said that 4,000 of those employees had not chosen to participate in collective bargaining. But he said that 900 were represented by collective bargaining units.

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Boeing Engineers Approve Work Contract - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-us-boeing.html?ref=business Boeing Co's second-largest union voted on Monday to approve the company's four-year contract offer, avoiding a second damaging strike at the plane maker's Seattle-area plants. A majority of the more than 20,000 members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace -- the union representing white-collar engineers and technicians -- voted in favor of the contract. The result is a boost for Boeing, which is still struggling to get its airplane production lines up to speed a month after its 27,000 machinists returned to work after a 58-day strike. SPEEA and Boeing negotiators reached a tentative deal almost three weeks ago, after two weeks of face-to-face negotiations.

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Labor Dept. Accused of Straying From Enforcement - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/30/AR2008113001900.html The next labor secretary will be taking charge of an agency widely criticized for walking away from its regulatory function across a range of issues, including wage and hour law and workplace safety. "My view is that this is a deeply troubled department," said Scott Lilly, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, who has written several reports critical of the agency's operation under the Bush administration. "As bad as the personnel situation may be in many departments, I think it tends to be worse in the Labor Department than in most places. "I think you've got people embedded there who are philosophically hostile to the mission of the agency." There are few federal agencies where the ideological differences separating many Democrats and Republicans play out more plainly. Labor is one of the government's largest regulatory enforcement agencies, overseeing issues from overtime payments and pension regulations to workplace safety and training programs. The agency has a total budget of $50.4 billion and 16,800 employees.

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Bush Aides Rush to Enact a Rule Obama Opposes - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/washington/30labor.html?ref=washington The Labor Department is racing to complete a new rule, strenuously opposed by President-elect Barack Obama, that would make it much harder for the government to regulate toxic substances and hazardous chemicals to which workers are exposed on the job. The rule, which has strong support from business groups, says that in assessing the risk from a particular substance, federal agencies should gather and analyze “industry-by-industry evidence” of employees’ exposure to it during their working lives. The proposal would, in many cases, add a step to the lengthy process of developing standards to protect workers’ health. Public health officials and labor unions said the rule would delay needed protections for workers, resulting in additional deaths and illnesses.

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Wal-Mart worker dies after shoppers knock him down - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-walmart-death29-2008nov29,0,4038125.story At 5:03 a.m. Friday, customers surged toward a Long Island Wal-Mart store's entrance. A 34-year-old temporary employee was killed when a "throng of shoppers . . . physically broke down the doors, knocking him to the ground," according to a statement from Nassau County officials. He was declared dead at a hospital at 6:03 a.m. The exact cause of death has not been determined. The surge at the Valley Stream store on Long Island also left three shoppers with minor injuries, and a pregnant 28-year-old woman was taken to a hospital, according to Nassau County officials. A Wal-Mart statement called the situation tragic. "The safety and security of our customers and associates is our top priority," the company said.

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GAO Report Says Labor Department Misled Congress on Cost of Outsourcing Jobs - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/24/AR2008112402796.html The Labor Department gave Congress inaccurate and unreliable numbers that understated the expense of contracting out its employees' work to private firms, according to a Government Accountability Office report released yesterday. The department's decisions in allowing contractors to compete for bureaucrats' work -- known as "competitive sourcing" -- also demoralized workers, according to most of the 60 agency employees interviewed by the GAO. "DOL's savings reports are not reliable: a sample of three reports contained inaccuracies, and others used projections when actual numbers were available, which sometimes resulted in overstated savings," the GAO report said. "Because of these and other weaknesses, DOL is hindered in its ability to determine if services are being provided more efficiently as a result of competitive sourcing." Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao began having some agency workers compete for their jobs in 2004, but since then few employees have actually lost their jobs and had their pay cut as a result of the privatizing effort, GAO found. Of the 314 federal workers who had a job change as a result of competitions with private firms, 263, or 84 percent, were either reassigned to positions with the same title and pay or were promoted. Of the 16 workers who were demoted, 14 kept their same professional grade or pay.

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White House: Bush now would sign measure providing additional benefits to long-term jobless—chica

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/sns-ap-jobless-benefits,0,7710697.story With weekly jobless claims benefits at a 16-year high, the White House said Thursday that President George W. Bush would quickly sign legislation pending in Congress to provide further unemployment benefits. The Senate this week is expected to take up a bill, already passed by the House, that would extend unemployment insurance checks for up to 13 additional weeks for jobless people whose benefits have run out. The Senate vote could occur as early as Thursday evening and would require support from 60 senators to pass. White House press secretary Dana Perino, discussing the worsening economic environment, said Bush is "always concerned" when people lose their jobs and is eager to help. More than 1.2 million jobs have been lost so far this year and the civilian jobless rate is at a 14-year high of 6.5 percent of the labor force.

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Firms Seek Delay in Payments to Pension Funds - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/business/economy/20pension.html?ref=washington Stung by outsize investment losses, some of the nation’s biggest companies are pushing Congress to roll back rules requiring them to put more money into their pension funds, just two years after President Bush signed a law meant to strengthen the pension system.

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Calls grow to overhaul 401(k) retirement plans - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fi-retire16-2008nov16,0,2620458.story The financial crisis, which has caused a dramatic decline in the value of the average worker's account, has undermined confidence in the system.

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Seeking Aid, Automakers Have a Friend in the U.A.W. - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/business/economy/17uaw.html?ref=business The union’s membership at General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Chrysler has been nearly halved to 139,000 workers in the past three years, and it continues to shrink with every new plant closing. When he and the leaders of Detroit’s Big Three speak at their scheduled hearing, Mr. Gettelfinger is likely to deliver the bleakest warning. A bankruptcy by any of the three companies in Detroit, Mr. Gettelfinger fears, would wipe out the rest of them. “It’s not just G.M. going bankrupt,” he said. “It’s all the rest of the industry that goes with it. Two of the three companies would go under, and there’s a high probability all three would go.” Perhaps it is no surprise that Mr. Gettelfinger would be a passionate advocate for saving union jobs and funneling $25 billion in federal loans to the beleaguered automakers. But Mr. Gettelfinger was briefed on G.M.’s dismal financial condition before its earnings were announced on Nov. 7, according to two people familiar with the meeting, part of a presentation to win his support for a potential merger of G.M. and Chrysler.

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FAA Labor Unions Seek Obama’s Help - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/14/AR2008111402794.html Labor unions at the Federal Aviation Administration are looking to President-elect Barack Obama for quick action to settle long-running contract conflicts at the agency. The agency's two largest labor unions, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association and the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, which represents technicians and safety inspectors, say their top priority is resolving the disputes. "We want a contract," said Patrick Forrey, the controllers' union president. "We've gone two years without a contract." Labor leaders say the unions will offer the new administration a "to-do list" involving presidential executive orders on assorted labor policy questions. One would reinstate a Clinton-era policy that required managers at federal agencies to work cooperatively with labor unions. The need, the leaders say, arises partly from labor's struggles with the Bush administration at agencies like the FAA. They spoke on condition of anonymity because discussions have not yet taken place.

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Labor Department finalizes new family leave regulations, including military family leave—chicagot

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/sns-ap-family-leave,0,2072148.story The Labor Department on Thursday announced final revisions in the Family and Medical Leave Act, including new rules defining how families of wounded service members will be able to take unpaid leave to care for them. While the addition of military families to the landmark law received positive reviews, the Labor Department's other revisions to the Act caused concern among labor and employee advocates. The AFL-CIO's Cecelie Counts said the new regulations dealing with military families were "fair" but called the rest a "rather stingy reading of the law." Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., said letting military families use the FMLA was necessary "to help military families balance work and family." But the "other changes to the Family and Medical Leave Act look like they will, on balance, benefit employers at the expense of workers," said Woolsey, a member of the House Education and Labor Committee.

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Labor Seeks Election Rewards - washingtonpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/05/AR2008110504137.html Bolstered by exit polling data showing that union members played a pivotal role in President-elect Barack Obama's victory, the AFL-CIO served notice yesterday that it views the election results as ratification of organized labor's ambitious agenda. Labor's top priority is passage of legislation that would make it easier to organize unions, which advocates say would help labor groups expand their shrinking numbers and win better wages and benefits for average workers, whose pay has stagnated in the last eight years. "In an economy that gives corporations far too much power, a union card remains the single best ticket into the middle class," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. Union membership has dropped from 20 percent to 12 percent of all U.S. workers over for the past quarter century.

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Striking union members ratify new contract with Boeing - Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-boeing2-2008nov02,0,393388.story Machinists union members ratified a new contract with the Boeing Co. on Saturday, ending an eight-week strike that had cut the airplane maker's profits and stalled jetliner deliveries. The vote by members of the International Assn. of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents about 27,000 workers at plants in Washington state, Oregon and Kansas, was about 74% in favor of the proposal five days after the two sides tentatively agreed to the deal and union leaders recommended its approval. The workers are expected to return to Boeing's commercial airplane factories, which have been closed since the Sept. 6 walkout, starting tonight. The union has said that the contract protects more than 5,000 factory jobs, prevents the outsourcing of certain positions and preserves healthcare benefits.

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Boeing’s machinists to vote; second union starts talks - USATODAY.com

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/manufacturing/2008-10-28-boeing-union-vote-talks_N.htm Just as 27,000 Boeing(BA) airplane factory workers prepare to vote on a tentative contract reached Monday, Boeing on Wednesday opens what could be tough contract talks with the union representing its 20,000 engineers. Boeing has been unable to produce planes for 53 days because of the strike by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents Boeing factory workers in Washington state, Oregon and Kansas. With help from federal mediators, Boeing and the IAM reached a tentative agreement Monday night. Boeing shares leaped $6.55, or 15.5%, to $48.91 Tuesday.

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