[NYC] Con Ed staff protest's company's poor wages/health benefits

suggested by Allen, re-posted from NY Daily News

Con Edison staff protests power company's poor wages and health benefits plan, 06/03/09

Con Edison CEO Kevin Burke's annual wages are, without a doubt, extremely generous. But the wages of workers who clean his luxurious Manhattan office every day are not.

Burke makes a whopping $7.3 million a year, but the men and women who maintain his office and power plants are paid a meager $8.50 an hour and get no benefits. Talk about disparity.

One of those workers is Fernando Cruz, a Dominican immigrant and 15-year Harlem resident. Cruz has been a maintenance worker at the Con Ed power plant at 14th St. and Avenue C for about a year. He works five days a week from 7a.m. to 3 p.m. His take-home pay is about $300 per week.

"I work at Con Ed, but need food stamps to get by," said Cruz, 31, the father of a 5-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl. "Now that even the subway has gone up, my weekly take-home pay is barely enough to pay for transportation.

"And with a monthly electricity bill of some $200," he added with some bitterness, "I feel that Con Ed is taking back whatever little I get paid,"

Cruz's predicament is not at all unusual among the maintenance workers who are members of Local 32BJ, the largest property service union in the country.

To dramatize their plight, hundreds of workers and their supporters rallied Tuesday at Union Square, a block from the Con Ed headquarters.

The workers, although not on Con Ed's payroll, were demanding that Burke hire contractors that pay decent wages.

"Although the cleaners are not direct employees of Con Edison, as a publicly regulated utility, your company has an obligation to ensure that it hires responsible contractors that employ workers at reasonable, livable wages with health benefits," state Sen. Thomas Duane wrote to Burke.

He was one of several state and city elected officials, including Assembly members Linda Rosenthal and Adriano Espaillat, and City Council members Miguel Martínez, Letitia James and Rosie Méndez, who have written to Burke urging him to hire responsible contractors. The utility is regulated by the state Public Service Commission.

Right now, the cleaning contractors Con Ed uses at its power plants, offices and electrical substations across the city are Nelson Services, Apple Maintenance, T&T Cleaning and Janitorial, Accent Maintenance and Martinez Cleaning.

Héctor Figueroa, secretary treasurer of Local 32BJ, said the union has met with a Con Ed vice president to discuss this issue.

"He told us that he was 'very sorry,' but that because these workers were not their employees, he didn't think this was Con Ed's problem," said Figueroa.

"But it isn't just a matter of legal obligation; there is also a moral obligation. What Con Ed is doing by not assuming responsibility is promoting hunger wages."

A BIG PART of the problem, Figueroa said, is that contrary to what happens in other states, in New York utilities are exempt from any prevailing wage laws. The union, he said, is asking legislators to reconsider.

Clearly, the unions and the workers are not asking for anything out of the ordinary. They just want to be fairly compensated for their work, to have sick days and health insurance for themselves and their families, as well as paid vacations.

They also are asking Con Edison, a company that makes millions every year, to use its considerable leverage with the contractors it hires.

"We are only asking for what should be rightly ours," Cruz said.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/07/02/2009-07-02_con_edison_works_say_.html#ixzz0KalJUkOJ&C

[Utah] Four Day Workweek

re-posted from NPR, Morning Edition

Utah Finds Surprising Benefits In 4-Day Workweek
By Jenny Brudin, 04/10/09

Last summer, amid surging gas prices, Utah became the first state in the nation to mandate a four-day workweek for state employees.

A recent assessment of the program by state planners found the expected energy cost savings haven't materialized, but there have been unexpected boosts to productivity and worker satisfaction.

Sonia Smith is one of the 18,000 state workers who began a four-day, 10-hour workweek eight months ago. At first, she says, she was shocked and scared about the change. The state accountant is a single mom, and she worried about child care for her 10-year-old son. Now, Smith is a champion of the switch.

"I like having the three-day weekend," Smith says. "I like being able to have one day set aside to do everything that I need to do, and then the other two days where I can devote to my son."

Every Friday morning now, Smith volunteers at her son's school. She helps students with their spelling tests and relishes the extra time with her son. Smith's family and baby sitter adjusted their schedules to enable her to work the adjusted hours.

Smith is among the 70 percent of Utah state employees surveyed who now say they prefer the shorter workweek. Mike Hansen, strategic planning manager in the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget, says one of the more surprising effects of this workday change is that employees are now taking significantly less leave.

"That's increased productivity — that's employees behind their desk more this year than the last two years, to the tune of 9 percent" less time off, Hansen says. Paid overtime is also down.

But when Utah implemented the shorter workweek, the goal was to cut energy use by 20 percent and save the state money — and those big savings haven't come through yet.

So far, energy use has been reduced — but only by 13 percent. Each of Utah's 900 government buildings is unique. State energy managers have to figure out how to turn everything off on Fridays — especially the massive heating and air conditioning units.

Energy specialists monitor kilowatt hours used at state buildings, looking for inefficiencies that might be driving costs up. In May, the state also plans to kick off a peer-to-peer energy reduction campaign in each department.

The shift to longer hours isn't without other challenges.

For Nicki Lockhart the change has taken a toll emotionally and physically. "I hate it," she says. "It is not working one single bit for me."

On a recent day, Lockhart walks around her office building. It's about 3:30 in the afternoon, right when fatigue is starting to set in, with nearly three more hours of work left to go. "A 10-hour day for me is like eternity," she says.

By the time the customer service agent gets home and eats dinner, she says, it's time for bed. By Friday, Lockhart is so stressed out, she gets headaches. She's one of the 20 percent of state employees who are still struggling with the change.

But the good news, for everybody, is that the reduction in Friday commuters and the energy savings in buildings have cut down the carbon dioxide pumped into the local air. And the public — the people these government offices serve — seems happy with the change.

Exiting the Department of Motor Vehicles office, Utah resident Jose Sales says he likes the 10-hour days the program created "because I can come in after work and take care of my business — 20 minutes and I'm done."

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman will decide next summer whether to make the four-day week permanent. If Utah's experiment succeeds, it could have an impact on thousands of workers across the country.

"Nobody else has done it like this on this scale," says Hansen of the Office of Budget and Planning, "and everybody is watching."

[Pakistan] Dancers Protest Ban of Mujra

re-posted from Independent.co.uk

By Patrick Cockburn and Issam Ahmed

Dancing Girls of Lahore Strike Taliban Law

LAHORE -- The dancing girls of Lahore, the cultural capital of Pakistan, are on strike in protest against the tide of Talibanisation that is threatening to destroy an art form that has flourished since the Mughal empire.

The strike, which is supported by the theatres where they perform, was sparked by the decision of Lahore High Court last month to ban the Mujra, the graceful and elaborate dance first developed in the Mughal courts 400 years ago, on the grounds that it is too sexually explicit.

"The Mujra by its very nature is supposed to be a seductive dance," says Badar Alam, a cultural expert. He recalls that attempts were made to ban it during the 1980s. "Gradually, it returned to commercial theatre, mostly by paying off officials. The question remains: does the government have the right to engage in moral policing?"

The government and High Court in particular have no doubt about their right to do just that. They have tried to encourage "family friendly" dances, but once-packed theatres are now near empty, despite dropping their prices from 300 rupees to 25 rupees a seat.

In the face of the strike and the lack of enthusiasm for alternative entertainment, the court has suspended its ban. It has, however, ordered dancers to cover their necks with shawls and wear shoes (they used to dance barefoot but the court deemed that too erotic). "Do they expect girls to dance in a burkha?" asks stage manager Jalal Mehmoud. "Mujra has been going on for so many years it is part of our culture."

The dancers are also distressed by the situation. "Theatre needs dance like food needs water," says Rabia, a dancer and actress. "Some girls were making up to 15,000 rupees in one night. Hundreds of these girls from poorer backgrounds will be out of the work if the crowds do not come back."

The ban on dancing is a symptom of a more dangerous trend in Pakistani society. "If the government engages in moral policing," says Badar Alam, "it gives vigilantes licence to do the same. It fuels intolerance and de-secularisation by violence and intimidation and opens the door to extreme Jihadi Islamic movements."

Over the past few months, there has been a crescendo of violence in support of fundamentalist morality in Lahore. In the middle-class Garhi Shahu neighbourhood, young men and women used to meet in fruit-juice bars. There was nothing particularly salacious going on but, two months ago, three bombs exploded among them, killing one man and wounding others.

One bomb went off in a juice bar called Disco, where Mohammed Zubair Khan said he doubted if his customers would ever come back. "Everybody's frightened," said Saeed Ahmed Afiz, the owner of a another bar. Asked what he thought of those who had ruined his business, he declared surprisingly: "They were not terrorists because they did not kill anybody. They did the right thing." Asked about the man who died, Mr Afiz added unfeelingly: "Maybe he was just here to see the show."

A striking feature of those suffering persecution from fundamentalists is not their fear but their acceptance that, if they had encouraged immorality, they deserved punishment. The main centre for selling CDs and DVDs in Lahore is Hall Road. But when one of the tough-looking shopkeepers received a threatening letter accusing him and others of selling risqué films, the mood was not one of defiance, but of submission. The traders heaped up the forbidden DVDs and CDs in the middle of Hall Road and made a giant bonfire. "I swear we sell no pornography," said one nervously.

[NC] Union organizing victory!

suggested by: Sendolo, re-posted from: Southernstudies.org

By Chris Kromm, Dec 12, 2008

VICTORY AT SMITHFIELD: Union scores big win in North Carolina

In what unions are hailing as a crucial victory in the South, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union prevailed in their 16-year campaign to organize the world's largest pork slaughterhouse.

By a vote of 2,041 to 1,879, workers at Smithfield Foods' massive hog plant in Tar Heel, N.C. voted to unionize the plant in what had become one of the most closely-watched labor battles in the country.

Virginia-based Smithfield had earned a national reputation for its hostility to organized labor: A 2005 report by Human Rights Watch had singled out Smithfield for creating a "climate of fear" among workers, including intimidation, harassment and even beatings of suspected activists.

Indeed, such tactics are what caused the two previous union elections at Smithfield to be dismissed:

The results of two previous elections at the plant in the 1990s were thrown out after federal officials declared that the company had harassed and fired union supporters, even forcing an employee to stamp the words "Vote No" on dead hogs.

Smithfield was forced to pay $1.1 million in back pay plus interest to employees who had been fired for union activity, after a federal judge ruled in the union's favor in 2006.

But workers at the plant soldiered on: Two years ago, 1,000 workers staged a wildcat strike over issues ranging from immigration raids to sexual harassment and Smithfield's failure to compensate workers for injuries suffered at the dangerous site. The following year, hundreds of workers walked out to protest the company's refusal to make Martin Luther King Day a paid holiday.

Union organizers say that not only tenacity but also unity among the largely African-American and Latino workforce was key to victory.

Also critical was the Justice for Smithfield campaign, launched in 2006 to mobilize national community, faith and consumer support for the union. Smithfield saw the Justice for Smithfield campaign as particularly dangerous: The company filed a racketeering lawsuit against the UFCW, claiming the solidarity campaign had cost them $900 million.

In a surprise move last month, the UFCW and Smithfield settled the lawsuit. The UFCW agreed scale down its national campaign, and the agribusiness giant agreed to stop its public attacks on the union as they headed towards this week's union election.

Last month's neutrality agreement was a critical turning point. As Jane Slaughter wrote in Labor Notes before the election, the pact's requirement that both sides avoid negative attacks in lobbying workers helped dispel the climate of fear that had thwarted the union:

The settlement is more favorable to the union than many 'neutrality' agreements that unions and companies have arrived at where both sides are limited to "factual' language."

Under the "factual" criterion, companies have distributed details about the worst union contracts in the country, talked about union officials' salaries, or made statements such as, "If you go on strike, we can permanently replace you."

The UFCW-Smithfield deal, though, uses a different standard: negativity. Both company and union may talk themselves up, but neither may disrespect the other. Smithfield can brag, for example, about its wages and working conditions--and if that impresses any workers in the plant, they can vote accordingly. UFCW can talk about what unions do for workers.

The Smithfield campaign signals that even in Southern states as notoriously hostile to labor as North Carolina, workers -- when free of intimidation and fear -- can and will organize.

[Illinois] Governor Suspends Bizz With Bank Of America

re-posted from Huffington Post

by Katharine Zaleski

Illinois Governor Suspends Business With Bank Of America

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich announced Monday that he is asking all Illinois government agencies to suspend business with Bank of America. Blagojevich contended that Bank Of America received a multi-billion dollar bailout from the government and should accordingly restore credit to the Republic Windows & Doors company in Chicago.

Officials from Bank of America, which canceled the company's financing, are scheduled to meet Monday afternoon with Republic officials and union leaders.

More about the protest:

About 200 workers who lost their jobs last week with little notice have been occupying the plant around-the-clock in eight-hour shifts, said Fried said. About 60 were inside early Monday.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez said Monday's meeting would address the workers' concerns.

Company officials have not commented since the sit-in began Friday, and have not responded to calls and e-mails. Gutierrez said company officials had signed a waiver permitting the opening of its financial records at the meeting.

Republic Windows and Doors told the workers on Dec. 2 that they would be out of work by the end of the week.

Fried said the company told the union that Bank of America had canceled its financing. The bank had said in a statement that it wasn't responsible for Republic's financial obligations to its employees.

[Chicago] Continued coverage of factory occupation

re-posted from Associated Press

Idled workers occupy factory in Chicago, By Rupa Shenoy

December 6, 2008

CHICAGO - Outraged and determined Chicago factory workers who were abruptly laid off this week have occupied their former workplace and say they won't leave until they get the severance and vacation pay they say they're owed.

The employees say they received three days notice their plant was closing. In the second day of a sit-in on the factory floor Saturday, about 250 union workers occupied the building in shifts while union leaders outside criticized a Wall Street bailout they say is leaving laborers behind.

About 50 workers sat on pallets and chairs inside the Republic Windows and Doors plant, supplied with donated food, sleeping bags and blankets. Leah Fried, an organizer with the United Electrical Workers, said the Chicago-based vinyl window manufacturer failed to give its 300 employees the 60 days' notice required by law before shutting.

During the takeover, workers have been shoveling snow and cleaning the building, Fried said.

"We're doing something we haven't done since the 1930s, so we're trying to make it work," Fried said.

She said the company can't pay employees because its creditor, Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America, won't let them. Crain's Chicago Business reported that Republic Windows' monthly sales had fallen to $2.9 million from $4 million during the past month. In a memo to the union, obtained by the business journal, Republic CEO Rich Gillman said the company had "no choice but to shut our doors."

Bank of America received $25 billion from the government's financial bailout package. The company said in a statement to news outlets Saturday that it isn't responsible for Republic's financial obligations to its employees.

Representatives of Republic Windows did not immediately respond Saturday to calls and e-mails seeking comment.

"Across cultures, religions, union and nonunion, we all say this bailout was a shame," said Richard Berg, president of Teamsters Local 743. "If this bailout should go to anything, it should go to the workers of this country."

Outside the plant, protesters wore stickers and carried signs that said, "You got bailed out, we got sold out."

Larry Spivack, regional director for American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31, said the peaceful action will add to Chicago's rich history in the labor movement, which includes the deadly 1886 Haymarket affair, when Chicago laborers and anarchists gathering in a square on the city's West Side drew national attention when an unidentified person threw a bomb at police.

"The history of workers is built on issues like this here today," Spivack said.

Police spokeswoman Laura Kubiak said authorities were aware of the situation and officers were patrolling the area.

Workers were angered when company officials didn't show up for a meeting Friday arranged by U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a Chicago Democrat, Fried said. Union officials said another meeting with the company is scheduled for Monday afternoon.

"We're going to stay here until we win justice," said Blanca Funes, 55, of Chicago, after occupying the building for several hours.

Speaking in Spanish, Funes said she fears losing her home without the wages she feels she's owed. A 13-year employee of Republic, she estimated her family can make do for three months without her paycheck.

Most of the factory's workers are Hispanic.

[Chicago] Laid Off Workers Occupy Factory

re-posted from the socialistworker.org

Lee Sustar reports from Chicago on an occupation by workers who want what's theirs from management and the Bank of America.

December 6, 2008

WORKERS OCCUPYING the Republic Windows & Doors factory slated for closure are vowing to remain in the Chicago plant until they win the $1.5 million in severance and vacation pay owed them by management.

In a tactic rarely used in the U.S. since the labor struggles of the 1930s, the workers, members of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) Local 1110, refused to leave the plant on December 5, its last scheduled day of operation.

"We decided to do it because this is money that belongs to us," said Maria Roman, who's worked at the plant for eight years. "These are our rights."

Word of the occupation spread quickly both among labor and immigrant rights activists--the overwhelming majority of the workers are Latinos. Seven local TV news stations showed up to do interviews and live reports, and a steady stream of activists arrived to bring donations of food and money and to plan solidarity actions.

Management claims that it can't continue operations because its main creditor, Bank of America (BoA), refuses to make any more loans to the company. After workers picketed BoA headquarters December 3, bank officials agreed to sit down with Republic management and UE to discuss the matter at a December 5 meeting arranged by U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill), said UE organizer Leah Fried.

BoA had said that it couldn't discuss the matter with the union directly without written approval from Republic's management. But Republic representatives failed to show up at the meeting, and plant managers prepared to close the doors for good--violating the federal WARN Act that requires 60 days notice of a plant closure.

The workers decided this couldn't go unchallenged. "The company and Bank of America are throwing the ball to one another, and we're in the middle," said Vicente Rangel, a shop steward and former vice president of Local 1110.

Many workers had suspected the company was planning to go out of business--and perhaps restart operations elsewhere. Several said managers had removed both production and office equipment in recent days.

Furthermore, while inventory records indicated there were plenty of parts in the plant, workers on the production line found shortages. And the order books, while certainly down from the peak years of the housing boom, didn't square with management's claims of a total collapse. "Where did all those windows go?" one worker asked.

Workers were especially outraged that Bank of America, which recently received a bailout in taxpayer money, won't provide credit to Republic. "They get $25 billion from the government, and won't loan a few million to this company so workers can keep their jobs?" said Ricardo Caceres, who has worked at the plant for six years.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

THE MEMBERS of Local 1110 have a history of struggle. In 2004, they decertified the Central States Joint Board--a union notorious for corruption and sweetheart contracts with management--and brought in UE, a far more democratic organization.

In May of this year, Local 1110 mobilized for a contract by organizing a "practice" picket, and 70 workers used their lunch break to confront the boss with a petition listing their demands. The workers were able to turn back company's effort to win major concessions and won solid pay increases.Now, management is trying to get revenge by pocketing money that belongs to the workers.

UE officials and workers acknowledge that it will be difficult to stop the plant from closing. But they're determined to get the money owed to them--and they believe that by fighting, they can set an example for other workers facing layoffs and plant closures as the recession deepens.

Negotiations are set for Monday, December 8. Whatever happens, however, the workers have already sent a message to employers that if they violate workers rights and the law, they can expect a fight.

"This is a message to the workers of America," said Vicente Rangel, the shop steward. "If we stand together, we will prevail until justice is done, and we get what we're due."

WHAT YOU CAN DO

If you live in the Chicago area, come to a rally on Saturday, December 6, at 12 Noon at Republic Windows, 1333 N. Hickory in Chicago, on Goose Island. If negotiations with Bank of America fail to resolve the issue, there will be a picket of BoA's Chicago headquarters at 231 S. LaSalle on Tuesday, December 9 at 12 noon.

Members of Local 1110 need your support. Make checks payable to the UE Local 1110 Solidarity Fund, and mail to: 37 S. Ashland, Chicago, IL 60607. Messages of support can be sent to leahfried@gmail.com. For more information, call UE at 312-829-8300.

At the Jobs with Justice Web site, you can send a message of protest to Bank of America.