All workers have right to unionize

Guest column: All workers have right to unionize
Mike Williquette 4/1/2008 Press Gazette

Ever since the employees of the Oneida casino contacted Teamsters Local 662 about forming a union at the casino, a virtual horde of people have come out of the woodwork to offer their opinions on unions. The employers have hired advisers to come in and try to convince the workers that unionizing would be bad for them, and the Green Bay Press-Gazette printed anti-union columns by Mick Hager three weeks in a row.

I wonder where all these people were when the workers' wages were frozen by the employers for the last 10 years. Why is it that there is so much concern for the workers at the casinos now? Could it be that with a union, the employers now will be forced to bargain with their workers collectively over wages, working conditions and benefits?

Organized labor has fought hard for generations to bring us the Fair Labor Standards Act, child labor laws, Workers Compensation, minimum wage laws, the 40-hour work week, paid holidays, Social Security, civil rights and Medicare benefits. None of these were voluntarily given up without a fight from corporate America.

Unions set a higher standard of living in America that the unorganized will never reach. When people are paid higher wages, it stimulates the economy. Ask anyone if they would rather have a union or a non-union job, and most will say union.

People who are represented by a union have many more rights than those who are not represented. The National Labor Relation Board protects union workers' rights. Individuals requesting help from the NLRB will first be asked if they have a union; if no union is present, there isn't much the Labor Board can do for them.

The bottom line is this: Employers who threaten their employees for organizing are breaking the law. Employees have rights afforded them under the National Labor Relations Act and are protected by such laws.

The history of organized labor's fight for workers' rights is not taught in today's classrooms, but it should be. Many men and women have died for these rights to bargain collectively with employers. Don't let anyone tell you that you don't have that right.

* "If I were a worker in a factory, the first thing I would do would be to join a union." President Franklin D. Roosevelt

* "The right to join the union of one's choice is unquestioned today, and is sanctioned and protected by law." President Harry S Truman

* "Today in America, unions have a secure place in our industrial life. ... I have no use for those regardless of their political party who hold some vain and foolish dream of spinning the clock back to days when organized labor was huddled, almost as a hapless mass. Only a fool would try to deprive working men and women of the right to join the union of their choice." Dwight D. Eisenhower

* "All that harms labor is treason to America." Abraham Lincoln

Mike Williquette is business agent of Teamsters General Local 662 and public sector chairman of Joint Council 39. E-mail: teamsters662gb@new.rr.com.

Job Classes

An area that continues to raise questions as well as hardships is the differences between the Custodian II and Custodian III job classes.

Supervisors as well as other administration and the union are aware that this is something that should be looked into.

A hardship scenario that stems from this is when an employee applies for a position, (in a different class or even just another building) and doesn’t get it.

This leads to friction between whoever was awarded the position, and who didn’t get it.

The duties and responsibilities between the Custodian II and III are nearly transparent to the employees and appear undefinably different (or at least inconsistent) even to supervisors.

Which begs the question, (one brought up many times to the union) why is there is such large pay difference between the two?

It would seem logical to try and dissipate that pay difference if for no other reason than to help foster a more harmonious working relation.

Another suggestion is to award positions solely on the basis of seniority.

Presently they are awarded based on qualifications.

Since everyone has their own take on who is qualified, this is what leaves the door open for later hardships. That door can be an open-and-shut case leaving no other false expectations, if changed to work off seniority.

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To all Custodians

Before our negotiation team went to the District back in September 2005. We were given a survey. On the back of the survey was a spot for additional comments/concerns. At least 3 custodians asked to have the job class of the Custodian III increased.

Having the job class increased was brought up at the April 30, 2005 general membership meeting. The union president and some members of the negotiation team agreed that "this is something that should be looked at."

Please have a look at the information below. This is from our contract, Page 17 of the 2002-05 contract. Please note the large gap in the job class in the custodial department.

The president suggested that this be brought up with the custodial department's supervisors. They both insist that reclassification is something for Human Resources. This is the all to typical pass the buck tactic. It seems to me, the union, the department's supervisors, and human resources will all have to work together on this.

My suggestion is persistence. If you would like to see something be done about this then bring the issue up often, with a multitude of different of people. Bring it up at every union meeting, plant the word with the union rep in each building. Make sure as many members as possible write this in on the upcoming pre-negotiations survey sheets.

And please bring this up during you next evaluation. I think the first part is to have the above group work on a revised accurate job description This seems to me to be a prerequisite for accurate and meaningful evaluation. Reworking the job description will also go hand in hand with creating an accurate wage and salary survey, and an new equitable wage and salary structure.

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The initial starting steps and class along with job descriptions where probably derived over 20 years ago. The responsibilities have changed, but the pay step/class and job descriptions really haven't.

Job descriptions clarify who is responsible for certain tasks, and help the employee understand the specific responsibilities of the position. Job descriptions are also helpful to applicants, supervisors, and personnel staff at every stage in the employment relationship. Accurate job descriptions are a prerequisite for accurate and meaningful evaluations, wage and salary surveys, and an equitable wage and salary structure.

The number of shared responsibilities has increased between the various custodial positions, yet the pay differences between these positions keeps spreading further apart due to a system of percent based wage increases.

Union misrepresentation

Having known she was part to initiating some disciplinary actions in 2004-2005 against an employee and then had the nerve to also act as a union representativefor that same person.

Once again there was little support from the Uniserv on this, as they advised not to circulate the petition while employees are on the clock.

"It is outside of my responsibilities and authority to become involved in local governance issues. Thus, I believe it would be inappropriate for me to advise you on issues regarding who should or should not be representing your local's interest."

This never did get circulated, but really should have.

To: The De Pere Educational Support Personnel Association Members

The undersigned association members feel our current president and grievance chair person, Janice C******* has failed in her duties to uphold the purposes of the union bylaws and her duty of fair representation.

Specifically we are no longer confident in her ability to aid and assist members and have been witness to conflicts of interest that have led to negligence of her duty of fair representation. We fell she puts our association in jeopardy through her repeated irresponsible behavior.

Furthermore;
-She was elected Sat June 7th, 2003. Bylaws dictate that officers serve for two years, and may be re-elected without an interviewing term. At our last general membership meeting at the end of the last school year we should have had an election of officers.
-During the process of developing the support staff evaluation from Janice claimed to have sought out and brought forward feedback from unit members to a committee consisting of administrators, supervisors, and herself. To the best of our knowledge this is a false claim.

The undersigned

Wages don't keep up with cost of energy

Real hourly pay for all workers down 0.6%
By Brian Tumulty Press-Gazette Washington bureau August 29, 2006

WASHINGTON — Inflation in general and higher energy costs in particular have wiped out wage gains among manufacturing workers since the end of the last recession in 2001, according to the National Association of Manufacturers.

The association said Monday that inflation-adjusted wages of manufacturing workers fell 1.7 percent between 2001 and last month, while real hourly wages for all types of workers fell 0.6 percent.

The association's report — released a day before the more comprehensive annual Census Bureau report on income and poverty — framed the wage problem in terms of national energy policy.

At Hudapack Metal Treating Inc., which operates two factories in southern Wisconsin and another in a Chicago suburb, president Gary Huss said rising natural gas prices have all but eliminated his ability to pay bonuses to his 170 employees.

"I don't have the cash to do it regularly right now," Huss said, adding that he still tries to provide a modest annual wage increase.

The National Association of Manufacturers is calling on Congress and the Bush administration to enact a "Manhattan Project" to develop new energy technologies such as coal gasification.

"Over the past year, energy prices have risen 23 percent due to increased global demand, limited domestic supplies, natural disasters and global instability," John Engler, the association's president and chief executive, said at a news conference.

Manufacturing employment rose only 17,000 in the 12 months that ended last month. Employment on the factory floor among production workers increased by 170,000 jobs, however, and was boosted by gains in export-oriented sectors such as computers and electronic products and aerospace. Most gains were offset by losses among nonproduction manufacturing jobs, which David Huether, the association's chief economist, said could be due to consolidation efforts and outsourcing.

Liberal economists have pointed to rising corporate profits and the continued growth in income inequality as contributing factors to the decline in average wages when inflation is taken into account.

Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, agreed with the association's analysis. "Real wages would be rising modestly if not for rising energy prices," he said.

But Baker said "the other part of the story" is the widening of income inequality that dates back to the early 1980s and halted only during the late 1990s.

Even among manufacturing workers there is an income gap, with higher skilled workers getting wage increases that have outpaced inflation while low skilled workers have not, according to the manufacturers group.

For once, blame the student

By Patrick Welsh USA Today 3/7/2006

Failure in the classroom is often tied to lack of funding, poor teachers or other ills. Here's a thought: Maybe it's the failed work ethic of todays kids. That's what I'm seeing in my school. Until reformers see this reality, little will change.

Last month, as I averaged the second-quarter grades for my senior English classes at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va., the same familiar pattern leapt out at me.

Kids who had emigrated from foreign countries such as Shewit Giovanni from Ethiopia, Farah Ali from Guyana and Edgar Awumey from Ghana often aced every test, while many of their U.S.-born classmates from upper-class homes with highly educated parents had a string of C's and D's.

As one would expect, the middle-class American kids usually had higher SAT verbal scores than did their immigrant classmates, many of whom had only been speaking English for a few years.

What many of the American kids I taught did not have was the motivation, self-discipline or work ethic of the foreign-born kids.

Politicians and education bureaucrats can talk all they want about reform, but until the work ethic of U.S. students changes, until they are willing to put in the time and effort to master their subjects, little will change.

A study released in December by University of Pennsylvania researchers Angela Duckworth and Martin Seligman suggests that the reason so many U.S. students are "falling short of their intellectual potential" is not "inadequate teachers, boring textbooks and large class sizes" and the rest of the usual litany cited by the so-called reformers, but "their failure to exercise self-discipline."

The sad fact is that in the USA, hard work on the part of students is no longer seen as a key factor in academic success. The groundbreaking work of Harold Stevenson and a multinational team at the University of Michigan comparing attitudes of Asian and American students sounded the alarm more than a decade ago.

Asian vs. U.S. students

When asked to identify the most important factors in their performance in math, the percentage of Japanese and Taiwanese students who answered "studying hard" was twice that of American students.

American students named native intelligence, and some said the home environment. But a clear majority of U.S. students put the responsibility on their teachers. A good teacher, they said, was the determining factor in how well they did in math.

"Kids have convinced parents that it is the teacher or the system that is the problem, not their own lack of effort," says Dave Roscher, a chemistry teacher at T.C. Williams in this Washington suburb. "In my day, parents didn't listen when kids complained about teachers. We are supposed to miraculously make kids learn even though they are not working."

As my colleague Ed Cannon puts it: "Today, the teacher is supposed to be responsible for motivating the kid. If they don't learn it is supposed to be our problem, not theirs."

And, of course, busy parents guilt-ridden over the little time they spend with their kids are big subscribers to this theory.

Maybe every generation of kids has wanted to take it easy, but until the past few decades students were not allowed to get away with it. "Nowadays, it's the kids who have the power. When they don't do the work and get lower grades, they scream and yell. Parents side with the kids who pressure teachers to lower standards," says Joel Kaplan, another chemistry teacher at T.C. Williams.

Every year, I have had parents come in to argue about the grades I have given in my AP English classes. To me, my grades are far too generous; to middle-class parents, they are often an affront to their sense of entitlement. If their kids do a modicum of work, many parents expect them to get at least a B. When I have given C's or D's to bright middle-class kids who have done poor or mediocre work, some parents have accused me of destroying their children's futures.

It is not only parents, however, who are siding with students in their attempts to get out of hard work.

Blame schools, too

"Schools play into it," says psychiatrist Lawrence Brain, who counsels affluent teenagers throughout the Washington metropolitan area. "I've been amazed to see how easy it is for kids in public schools to manipulate guidance counselors to get them out of classes they don't like. They have been sent a message that they don't have to struggle to achieve if things are not perfect."

Neither the high-stakes state exams, such as Virginia's Standards of Learning, nor the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act have succeeded in changing that message; both have turned into minimum-competency requirements aimed at the lowest in our school.

Colleges keep complaining that students are coming to them unprepared. Instead of raising admissions standards, however, they keep accepting mediocre students lest cuts have to be made in faculty and administration.

As a teacher, I don't object to the heightened standards required of educators in the No Child Left Behind law. Who among us would say we couldn't do a little better? Nonetheless, teachers have no control over student motivation and ambition, which have to come from the home, and from within each student.

Perhaps the best lesson I can pass along to my upper- and middle-class students is to merely point them in the direction of their foreign-born classmates, who can remind us all that education in America is still more a privilege than a right.

Patrick Welsh is an English teacher at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va., and a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.

Largest teachers union, AFL-CIO step closer

Largest teachers union, AFL-CIO step closer
By Greg Toppo and Brian Tumulty, USA TODAY 2/24/06

The nation's largest teachers union is poised to give its local chapters permission to join the AFL-CIO, setting the stage for a possible merger that could create a mega-union representing 4 million teachers and other employees.

Leaders of the National Education Association and AFL-CIO plan to announce on Monday that they will let local NEA affiliates join the AFL-CIO's central labor councils, local groups that coordinate union activity. The move would reverse longstanding policies separating NEA's 2.7 million members from the AFL-CIO, which includes the NEA's rival, the American Federation of Teachers.

Teachers in several cities and in three states — Florida, Minnesota and Montana — are already members of merged NEA/AFT unions. Teachers in New York are expected to merge this fall. The proposed agreement could pave the way for many more such arrangements.

NEA and AFL-CIO national leaders did not immediately respond to requests for interviews, but several local union officials confirmed the proposal and said they expect it to be announced at the AFL-CIO's Winter Executive Council Meeting in San Diego on Monday.

Dan Kaufman, spokesman for the Maryland State Teachers Association, an NEA affiliate, said he has seen the agreement. Wisconsin AFL-CIO President David Newby said he hadn't seen the exact language, but understood that it would facilitate more mergers. He represents 13 Midwest states as a non-voting member of the AFL-CIO executive council.

While NEA is not proposing a national merger, the agreement could help the AFL-CIO gain millions of members, replacing some of the more than 4 million it lost when several member unions broke off last year. It could also give the AFT a larger presence outside big cities.

"It's potentially very significant because it's no secret that there's a split in organized labor," says Andrew Rotherham, co-editor of the new book Collective Bargaining in Education. "The NEA, which has potentially millions of members, is essentially choosing a side."

The move could also benefit the NEA, which has suffered politically since 2002, when it began forcefully opposing President Bush's No Child Left Behind education reform law. AFT has been more amenable to some of the proposed reforms. "To the extent that there's less daylight between them, it's good for the NEA." Spokesman Dennis Tompkins of the New York State United Teachers, the AFT's largest affiliate with 525,000 members, said he was expecting Monday's announcement to confirm that dual affiliation is allowed.

"We've made the union stronger by bringing people with the same job titles and job descriptions under the same umbrella," he said.

Denis Hughes, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, estimated that 85% of the state's public employees, from teachers to public hospital employees, local highway departments and first responders, are unionized.

"This is a big move," said Mike Antonucci, a Sacramento-based teacher union watchdog who writes a widely read blog on unions.

A 1998 effort to merge the NEA and AFT failed after NEA members rejected it, but Antonucci calls the new agreement "a creeping merger" of the two unions, moving them closer to joining together. Together the two unions would represent about 4 million teachers and other workers, greatly impacting their bargaining authority.

But Antonucci said the proposal could create problems for the NEA, which generally puts every policy change — from major budget proposals to whether or not to authorize articles in its magazine on the dangers of perfume in school — to a vote at the union's convention, or representive assembly, each July.

"If they don't put it in front of the convention for some sort of vote, I'm pretty confident that someone's going to raise the issue," he said.

Brian Tumulty writes for Gannett News Service.

Reclassification for the president

During the DePere Educational Support Personnel Association 2005-07 Contract Negotiation a few positions were clarified with the help of an arbitrator. The High School Principal Secretary position held by Mary Lemke was clarified to be a union position, the District Account Payable Angie P*******, as well as the District Payroll Specialist held by Bruce M*******.

Interestingly enough at the General Membership meeting what was also failed to be mentioned was that High School Student Accounting Clerk position held Janice C********, who happens to be the Chief Negotiator and Union President went from a Job Class 6, to a Job Class 8, resulting in a $1.57 pay bump.