Foes of Mich. workers take aim at prevailing wage again

Those behind an effort to sandbag Michigan's prevailing wage law are not giving up, despite the fact its first effort at a ballot measure failed because of the presence of a massive number of duplicate and improper names on the signature sheets.

Chris Fisher, leader of the anti-prevailing wage group, Protecting Michigan Taxpayers, has vowed to re-start the petition process, saying he would submit new petition language to the Secretary of State to do just that. He had to ditch the old campaign on Oct. 30.

Fisher's threat was prompted by an earlier press conference by the union-backed group, Protect Michigan Jobs, which found 43 percent of the 390,000 repeal signatures the so-called taxpayers group submitted to the state Board of Canvassers were invalid. That means the petition was more than 25,000 short of the 252,523 valid names state law required.

 Much of the funding for the petition effort came from the ultra-rich, ultra-right DeVos family of Grand Rapids, owners of the exploitative Amway direct sales firm. The Michigan campaign to repeal the prevailing wage, which would trash construction workers' wages and job protections, is part of a nationwide effort to destroy workers' pay and obliterate both their unions and their rights on the job.

Bart Carrigan, a co-chair of Protect Michigan Jobs and President and CEO of Associated General Contractors of Michigan, said the effort would be disastrous for workers:

Eliminating prevailing wage to cut wages and benefits of hard working skilled trades men and women in our state would hurt the Michigan economy, aggravating current worker shortages in the industry and discouraging young people from entering these valuable professions. Let's end this attack on skilled trade workers and the companies who hire them as quickly as possible, so we can focus on building a better Michigan.

Apparently, however, Protecting Michigan Taxpayers is confident that their deep-pocketed backers are willing to double-down on the incompetence of the anti-worker Associated Builders and Contractors and its signature collectors with their vow to re-start the petition process.

Now, having filed the petition paperwork, the group's new deadline to collect the necessary 252,523 signatures is in April 2016. If sufficient signatures are collected -- and approved -- the prevailing wage repeal question goes before the Republican-run state legislature. There, the building trades have been lobbying a handful of moderate Republican lawmakers not to approve it.

If the legislature votes down the measure or passes on it, the prevailing wage repeal question goes to the voters as a statewide referendum in November 2016. State surveys indicate strong support for prevailing wage, and construction industry leaders have also publicly expressed support for the law.

Stick up for workers, Michigan! Say no to repealing prevailing wage!

• Press Associates, Inc. contributed to this report.

America needs a long-term infrastructure solution

Congress has a work completion problem. The latest example came yesterday when the House approved a two-month extension of the Highway Trust Fund, which makes dollars available for transportation projects and maintenance. And the Senate is likely to follow suit by the end of the week.

More road construction would put Americans to work.

Stymied by gridlock, Capitol Hill lawmakers are ignoring the huge problems of U.S. infrastructure investment. Trillions are needed to improve roads, bridges, rail, mass transit, airports and ports in this country, but elected officials continually punt on the problem. Time is running short, however, as the Teamsters and others have repeatedly said.

The White House, frustrated by inaction, used yesterday's House action to call Congress on the mat. U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx noted in a blog that Tuesday's vote was the 33rd short-term funding measure in the last six years. He said the nation is suffering because of it:

On the surface, funding transportation drop-by-drop might not seem like such a big problem. But it is, and the facts are unassailable. This era of short-term patches and chronic federal underinvestment has crippled America’s ability to build the transportation system we need.

Both parties admit there has been a policy failure. But as an article in The Atlantic points out, the problem comes down to how to pay for such investment going forward:

The most popular alternative at the moment is to use revenue generated by taxing repatriated earnings that U.S. companies now keep overseas. But there is disagreement over the details of that proposal, and Republicans believe it would only work if included in a broader tax-reform plan—an even heavier political lift. In fact, the reason Congress is reauthorizing the Highway Trust Fund for just two months is because lawmakers couldn’t agree on how to fund it for the remainder of the year, let alone for the rest of the decade. It has enough money to last through July, and Republicans are reluctant to simply transfer more money from the Treasury’s general fund, as they have done in the past. As a result, Congress probably will have to pass yet another extension this summer, which would be the third in the last year. A highway bill lasting for more than two years hasn’t passed on Capitol Hill in a decade. 

The stopgap funding is bad, advocates say, because the biggest infrastructure projects can takes years of planning, and states won’t start them without knowing how much money they’ll get from the federal government. Industry officials estimate that $2 billion in projects have already been pulled back so far this year because of the inaction in Washington. 

All of this is frankly unacceptable. Now should be the time to build, repair and maintain America! But many on Capitol Hill seems more than happy to ignore our infrastructure woes. That decision not only hurts those who commute to work and earn a living on the road, it also prevents putting people to work earning good middle-class wages in transportation construction.

Lawmakers must do a better job here. They were elected to get things done, but instead offer only platitudes on why they're not. Investing in infrastructure would help businesses and workers alike, and would boost the economy.

Come on, Congress! Let's get America working!

100 truckers in three days: fast organizing through PLA

Organizing is tough, and it's not getting easier. But many Teamster locals are finding creative ways to bring in new members and strengthen the union.

The use of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) help level the playing field for construction workers through the protection of a union contract. But they can also boost organizing efforts. That’s why International Vice President Rome Aloise has spent nearly a decade envisioning a day when the Teamsters organize thousands of new construction workers under the promise of PLAs nationwide.

In Aloise's home state of California, it appears that day has already arrived.

Here's how Stu Helfer, business agent at Local 853 tells the story:

It took several years for the $250 million renovation of the Broadway Plaza Shopping Center in Walnut Creek, California to go from conception to groundbreaking. Ironically, it only took a couple of days to sign up more than one hundred end and super dump drivers who would be hauling the dirt and debris from that project to locations throughout the Bay Area. 

The whirlwind organizing began when Locals 853 and 315 got a tip and then visited the shopping center construction site rumored to be utilizing dozens of trucks.

The Union quickly learned that many of the trucks from the shopping center project were hauling their loads to the massive Oakland Army Base project. 

After Local 315 Business Agent Tom Clark and Stu Helfer (Northern California Construction Committee Chairman and Western Region International Representative for Construction) went to the site and spoke with the General Contractor. A few calls calls were made and shortly thereafter, the owner, who owns the 62-year old, upscale shopping center, made a “commitment” that the renovation project was to be an all union project which included the Teamsters. The owner then passed the word down to the general contractor, the excavating company, and the trucking company.

This lightning fast organizing wasn’t a fluke. Teamsters Local 853, led by Secretary-Treasurer Rome Aloise, has been in the forefront of organizing in construction. Local 853’s program has taken years to develop, involving endless job site visits, phone calls, demands for certified payroll, PLA negotiations, pre-job conferences, legislative efforts, and on and on. 

The situation in Walnut Creek is simply proof that persistence, cooperation and knowledge - and a friendly tip - can lead to some pretty spectacular results.

Today's Teamster News 12.20.14

Teamster News
Anne Arundel County Fire Department Battalion Chiefs Choose Teamsters  teamster.org   ...–Anne Arundel County Fire Department battalion chiefs have voted unanimously to join Teamsters Local 355 in Baltimore...
Negotiations At VIA Rail: The Teamsters Union And The Employer Have Requested A Conciliator  CNW News   ...The bargaining process between the 350 Locomotive Engineers at VIA Rail represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) and the rail carrier, are at a point that both parties agree that third party assistance would be beneficial...
CN reaches tentative labour agreement with Teamsters union representing locomotive engineers and conductors on Northern Quebec Internal Short Line  Yahoo Finance   ...The four-year agreement would provide wage increases and benefit improvements to 93 employees. Details of the agreement are being withheld pending ratification by the affected TCRC members. The union is expected to announce the results of the ratification vote by the end of February 2015...
Council Asks EPA For Bridgeton Landfill Contaminant Studies  KMOX   ...The St. Louis County Council has unanimously passed a resolution that pushes the Environmental Protection Agency to release studies on groundwater contamination at the Bridgeton Landfill...
Trade
Elizabeth Warren: Obama Trade Deal Could Undermine Wall Street Reform  Huffington Post   ..."With millions of families still struggling to recover from the last financial crisis and the Great Recession that followed, we cannot afford a trade deal that undermines the government's ability to protect the American economy."...
The consequences of a crumbling TTIP (opinion)  Euractiv   …A growing number of Europeans see TTIP as selling out Europe's social and environmental standards. Perhaps the EU and the US should have never undertaken this mammoth project...
State Battles
Warren County Passes Local Right-To-Work Law   ...The General Motors plant in Warren County is a closed shop, meaning its 888 employees must pay union dues in order to work there. But the Warren County Fiscal Court passed a local law Friday banning that practice in the future, defying the state's Democratic attorney general and taking the first step toward trying to overturn a 49-year-old state decision...
Minimum Wage On Agenda At Legislature  Albuquerque Journal   ...Two bills have been pre-filed this week by Democratic lawmakers, both seeking a hike in the state’s current $7.50-per-hour minimum wage – one of them to $8.30 an hour and the other to $10.10....
Minimum Wage In Louisville Upped To $9  Louisville Courier Journal   ...The Metro Council and Mayor Greg Fischer, who were at odds over increasing the minimum wage, reached an agreement Thursday night with the council voting to increase the minimum wage in Jefferson County to $9 an hour gradually over three years...
Ohio's Minimum Wage Increase Expected To Boost Economy By $40 Million  Cleveland Plain Dealer   ...As the calendar flips to 2015, Ohio's minimum wage will increase by 15 cents to $8.10 per hour, benefiting an estimated 313,000 low-wage workers in the state, according to a release from the National Employment Law Project, a non-partisan, nonprofit organization that advocates on issues affecting low-wage and unemployed workers. In addition, the minimum wage for tipped workers in Ohio will rise by 7 cents to $4.05 per hour...
War on Workers
Obama labor board comes down hard on McDonald’s  Politico   …In a significant victory for fast-food demonstrators, the Obama administration filed 13 legal complaints on Friday against McDonald’s USA, LLC, alleging 78 instances in which it violated federal labor law by punishing workers for taking part in fast food protests...
When the Well Educated Middle Class Joins the Working Poor  BillMoyers.com   ...Today, around three-quarters of all US college professors are classified as “contingent faculty” — those who aren’t on a tenure track — and about half are technically “part-time,” even though many of them teach a full-time load of classes. They may be highly educated professionals, but most adjuncts struggle to make ends meet with low pay, limited benefits and zero job security...
Yard Worker Killed  Trade Winds   ...The worker was on a ladder about 30 feet above the deck at the time. He lost his balance and fell, striking his head on a beam...
Employee Dies While Working At Dayton Sand And Gravel  Portland Press Herald   ...Goodwin Mills Fire Chief Roger Hooper said Libby was climbing down a ladder attached to a bucket truck when he went into cardiac arrest and fell....The death is the second at the business in two yearsl...
Construction Worker Dies In Emerson  NorthJersey.com   ...A construction worker was killed Thursday afternoon when he was working near a backhoe and was hit in the head by the machine’s rear bucket, authorities said...
Miscellaneous

Today's Teamster News 05.03.13

"Fix the Debt" CEOs Enjoy Taxpayer-Subsidized Pay  Institute for Policy Studies   ...A new report by IPS and Campaign for America's Future shows that America’s top CEOs are pocketing massive taxpayer subsidies at the same time they’re pushing austerity cutbacks in government programs that benefit ordinary citizens...
Foreclosure Settlement Checks Significantly Smaller Than Regulators Forecasted: Homeowners  Huffington Post   ...Adam Crain reckoned he was due $125,000. That amount would come as compensation for losing his Oak Harbor, Wash., home to foreclosure while he was serving aboard a naval vessel in the Middle East. He calculated that sum using a table distributed by federal regulators. Eight hundred dollars was all he received...
US Manufacturing Growth Slows; Construction Spending Falls  Reuters   ...The pace of U.S. manufacturing growth slowed in April as the sector expanded only modestly, an industry report showed on Wednesday. A separate report showed that construction spending fell in March...
Clinton waiting in the wings, Democratic group paves way for a woman president  NBC News   ...With former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton waiting in the wings, a prominent Democratic group launched an effort Thursday to pave the way for electing America's first woman president...
Koch brothers making Cassidy Senate campaign a 2014 priority  Times-Picayune   ...The conservative billionaire Koch brothers, who poured millions of dollars into the 2012 elections, have given their largest single political action committee donation for the 2014 mid-term races to Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, who is challenging Sen. Mary Landrieu, the three-term Democratic incumbent, in next year's Louisiana Senate race...
GOP Senator: I Voted Against Equal Pay For Women Because We Have Enough Laws  Think Progress   ...Women in full-time year-round jobs earned 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man. Yet, at a town hall earlier this week, Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) claimed that Congress has done enough to ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work. Indeed, she justified her vote against legislation intended to prevent employers from dodging federal equal pay law…
US flag-covered spire hoisted to NY's WTC roof  Associated Press   ...Adorned with an American flag that flapped in the breeze, the last pieces of a silver spire were hoisted to the top of the World Trade Center on Thursday as construction workers cheered its ascent...
A Single Garment Of Destiny’ For American And Bangladeshi Workers  Shanker Blog   ...“Injustice anywhere,” Martin Luther King famously wrote in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, “is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” Two recent events which might seem worlds apart provide evidence that working people around the globe are indeed tied together in King’s “single garment of destiny.”...
US trade deficit drops to $38.8 billion in March as flow of crude oil falls to 17-year low  Associated Press   ...The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in March for a second month as the daily flow of imported crude oil dropped to the lowest level in 17 years. The deficit with China hit a three-year low...
Rep. Chris Taylor: Judge astonished at Scott Walker's attack on rights  The Cap Times   ...Gov. Scott Walker boasts about having the courage to stand up to public workers. He’ll tell right-wing audiences that crowds of 100,000 protesters outside of his office didn’t rattle him. Yet Walker has spent the last eight months, and thousands of taxpayer dollars, issuing $200 citations to individuals for peacefully singing, holding signs and, in some instances, walking in circles around the rotunda...
Europe's workers cry May Day against austerity  The Guardian   ...May Day is traditionally a time when European workers would pause to celebrate labor rights and the reforms which were won from employers and governments in earlier days. But with more people out of work across Europe than ever before, there has been an outpouring of anger over the region's financial plight...
Texas state officials tell legislators that educating West residents about plant was local responsibility   Dallas Morning News   …Texas Department of Public Safety officials told state lawmakers that educating residents in West – and in other Texas towns – about possible dangers of chemicals stored in nearby facilities falls to local officials…
NC Senators Force ALEC Bill Through Committee Without Even Counting Votes  Nation of Change   ...ALEC and the SPN groups have made killing clean energy incentives a national priority this year; after failing in Kansas, facing delays in Ohio and having a rough start in North Carolina...
Tom Morello Liberates Four 'Union Town' Songs for May Day  SPIN   ...Get 'em while they're free. To commemorate International Workers' Day, a.k.a. May Day (May 1), political firebrand/'90s rock icon Tom Morello has partnered with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to share tracks from the Union Town EP, the 2011 release from Morello's Nightwatchman project...
Huge Response To Teamsters’ Tom Morello Labor Music Giveaway Crashed The Servers – But We’re Back!  IBT   ...Wow! The response to our Tom Morello “Union Town” music giveaway at Teamster.org was so overwhelming, it crashed the web servers! Luckily, we’re back up and running...
UPS driver honored for 30 years of safe deliveries  Yakima-Herald   ...Peggy Larson is too polite to tell us how to drive. But if more of us drove like she does, the roads would be a lot safer. Larson, 54, of Port Orchard last month completed her 30th accident-free year as a driver for United Parcel Service...

One World Trade Center

The spire of One World Trade Center was scheduled to be placed atop the under-construction building, but bad weather forced workers to reschedule. But that didn’t put a damper on the spirits of thousands of union men and women, including many Teamsters, who built the 104-floor skyscraper that replaces the fallen Twin Towers.

High winds forced the postponement, but when the spire is in place, the building's official height will be 1,776 feet. One World Trade Center is scheduled to open for business in 2014.

More than 1,200 Teamsters work on the site on any given day, mainly delivering materials. They have played a big role in the construction of the skyscraper and in 2011, Teamster magazine covered the progress. Here are some highlights from that story:

In World War I, Teamsters taught soldiers to drive trucks when the military was moving from a cavalry to motorized units. During a polio outbreak in the 1950s, Teamsters jumped into action to make and deliver vaccinations to the entire American population. In World War II, Teamsters raised money for war bonds, started scrap metal and rubber drives to assist the war effort, and more than 125,000 Teamsters served in the military during the war. The union immediately worked to help families, communities and employers who were devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Sept. 11, 2001, was a day like no other in our nation’s history, but Teamsters reacted with characteristic solidarity. Local unions and Joint Councils in the metro areas of New York City and Washington, D.C. all played a part in the rescue, recovery and cleanup efforts, and the International Union also took action to make sure members were protected from the economic fallout and health risks of the terrorist attacks. Teamsters from across North America donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Teamsters Disaster Relief Fund to help those in need. Today, Teamsters are working on rebuilding the site.

“I have heard our members describe their work on the World Trade Center site as an honor,” said Jim Hoffa, Teamsters General President. “We have never taken on a challenge that we can’t conquer. The World Trade Center project is a testament to the courage of our members on the day of the tragedy, and their commitment to the vision the planners have for making the site a crowning jewel of the nation’s largest city. As we work side by side with operating engineers, carpenters, electricians and more, the solidarity and strength of belonging to a union brotherhood shines ever brighter.”

“Our city suffered a devastating blow on Sept. 11, but I am so proud to know that our union brothers and sisters stepped up, dove in and worked to first excavate the site, dig the foundations for the new structures and now are helping raise the structures up into the air,” said George Miranda, International Vice President and President of Joint Council 16…

Teamster members have not stopped working at the Ground Zero site since the day of the attacks 10 years ago, and they now have a huge part in the rebuilding of the neighborhood.

“I believe the strength of our union brotherhood has been a good counter-balance to the despair and pain borne by the families of the victims of Sept. 11,” said Tom Gesauldi, President of Local 282, which is actively involved in construction at Ground Zero. “Our members are deeply committed to the rebuilding, or actually, the rebirth of the World Trade Center. Their commitment began on the first day of cleanup and continues today.”

“I worked on the cleanup, the excavation, of this site,” said John Mazzola. “Before my work here I was a concrete driver for 20 years. On 9/11 I was working on a construction site nearby.” Mazzola is an on-site steward for Local 282 and coordinates the deliveries to Towers 2, 3 and 4.

Teamsters also bring equipment to the site, such as mobile or crawler cranes. Kenny Montoux is a 28-year Teamster who has worked as a crane driver for 16 years. “I started work here two days after the towers came down,” Montoux said. “The construction here is a tribute back to New York. Bringing back the glory of what it once was.”

“It’s a shame what happened here, but I think we are building something beautiful,” said Billy Petrino, the on-site steward for Tower 3. “My father was a Teamster, too. I’m glad to be working here.”