Workers Rights

From RebuildTheDream.com: "Everybody knows that the unions exist for no real reason except to bleed us dry, right? What have they done for us? The answers slowly dawn on this management meeting..."

Earlier this week, a delegation from the Missouri Chapter of The Sierra Club delivered a petition signed by 800 local members to Governor Jay Nixon’s office in the State Capitol.  The petition was simple:

"I stand with working families. We deserve the right to form unions as we see fit to protect our jobs and our communities."

With purely partisan efforts in both chambers of the General Assembly to limit workers' rights, the Sierra Club was inspired to take action on an issue that some might not see as part of their "normal" ballywhick.

But “environmentalists support labor rights," Mike Diel of Macon explained.  "Our state needs safe, good-paying jobs, as well as a healthy environment."

Kneeling: Patty Purves, John Hickey. Standing:  Melissa Hope, Jeanette Mott Oxford, Mike Diel, Tom Minihan, Barbara Yates, Ray Anderson. All are Sierra Club members.

“Hard hats and tree huggers share fundamental values --including the right to safe and healthy working conditions and the creation of good clean energy jobs,” said John Hickey, Missouri Chapter Director for the Sierra Club.  “The outstanding support that Sierra Club members have given to this petition proves that that point."

Gov. Jay Nixon released a statement this afternoon outlining strong opposition to the recently-passed SB 188, which would make it easier to discriminate in Missouri.  From the statement:

"Missouri is a state that welcomes all people, and believes that everyone should be treated with respect and dignity," Gov. Nixon said. "That means eliminating discrimination and removing the barriers of prejudice wherever they exist. Whether it be in the workplace, in housing or in public accommodations, discrimination is wrong. It will not be tolerated here in Missouri."

Governor Nixon said that Senate Bill 188 would undermine key provisions of the Missouri Human Rights Act, rolling back decades of progress in protecting civil rights, encouraging fair treatment and fostering mutual understanding and respect among all citizens.

"This bill would make it harder to prove discrimination in the workplace, and would throw new hurdles in the path of those whose rights have been violated," Gov. Nixon said. "That is unacceptable."

h/t @JRosenbaum and @TonyMess

Today in the Post-Dispatch:

The bill [SB188], sponsored by Sen. Brad Lager, R-Savannah, is this year’s version of the anti-whistleblower, anti-worker, pro-discrimination act pushed by Mr. Lager and various business interests last year. It is the top item on the Missouri Chamber of Commerce’s poorly named “Fix the Six” agenda.

This bill would fix nothing. It is intended to not protect whistleblowers and other workers, and it would make it easier to fire them...

[T]hose companies that have been on the other side — those that have fired employees because they’re black, or gay, or disabled, or because they blew the whistle on unethical or illegal conduct — would be shielded from justice if Mr. Nixon signs SB 188.

Today in the Post-Dispatch:

[W]e’re not overly concerned that Missouri Senate Republicans trotted out an anti-union “right-to-work” law for debate on Monday, under the false auspice of creating jobs. The debate lasted less than four hours, proof that the Senate isn’t serious about passing this measure...

[F]or the moment, do what Republicans have been doing: Forget the evidence. That’s not really why the Senate debated right-to-work in the first place. It’s about money, as in the kind politicians can raise when their base gets fired up...

The bottom line is that unions matter in Missouri. They help provide a reasonable living for thousands of middle-class employees along with their partners — yes, partners — in the business community. About 4,000 of those union members rallied at Kiener Plaza downtown preceding this week’s right-to-work mini-debate, and hundreds more filled the Senate galleries Monday night just to make that point.

Even the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a defacto arm of Missouri’s Republican Party, knew better than to include right-to-work legislation among its priorities this session.

Yesterday afternoon, more than four thousand workers, students, faith leaders and activists rallied at Kiener Plaza in Downtown St. Louis to show their disgust with state and federal efforts to roll back basic rights, gut the minimum wage and weaken the middle class so that the already wealthy can get even richer. For extensive coverage of the event, check out: 

• KSDK: Organized labor rally at Kiener Plaza
• Beacon: Thousands of union workers turn out to protest 'corporate greed' and attacks on bargaining rights
• Show Me Progress: Rally against corporate greed
• Occassional Planet: Solidarity rally draws big St. Louis crowd
  
• KMOX: Pro-Union Forces Rally Downtown
  

It isn't clear if the Post-Dispatch covered the rally at all.  Photos of the crowd and participants have been posted by Jobs With Justice, the AFL-CIO, Women's Voices Raised for Social Justice and others -- I've pulled together a few here. 

This weekend in the Star: "Take cover, Missouri workers, taxpayers and voters. Your state legislature has an agenda, and lawmakers are not about to let you stand in their way. The agenda is called 'fix the six.' It was handed to legislative leaders by a consortium of business groups headed by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The House bought the package wholesale. Now the Senate is also working its way down the list...A Missouri Chamber of Commerce news release says the 'fix the six' agenda would make Missouri 'a more attractive and competitive place to do business.' That’s debatable. But 'fix the six' would surely make Missouri a meaner place to live and work. Shame on those lawmakers who have accepted a special interest agenda so unquestionably."

This afternoon on KMOX, Senate President Pro Tem Rob Mayer (R-Dexter) said passing his right-to-work-for-less proposal will be "quite the challenge" this year. 

HOST MARK REARDON:  How likely, Senator, do you think that is this something that is going to pass this session?

MAYER:  Well, it's going to take a lot of work to get it passed this session, Mark.  We have -- we've got several senators, we're getting close to eighteen or twenty that I believe would support a right to work law.  But, as most of your listeners are probably aware, in the Senate we have a mechanism called a filibuster that can hold things up.   So, it's going to be quite the challenge...

Chad Garrison in the Riverfront Times: "The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry continued its mission this week of using the economic recession to scare lawmakers into thinking they need to make the state more 'job friendly' by stripping low-level employees of certain rights."

Via CQ's Political Wire: "A new USA Today/Gallup poll finds the public strongly opposes laws taking away the collective bargaining power of public employee unions as a way to ease state financial troubles: 61% would oppose a law in their state similar to one being considered in Wisconsin, compared with 33% who would favor such a law."

The Missouri Employee and Human Rights Coalition released an online video today as part of their effort to fight HB205 and SB188, sponsored by Rep. Kevin Elmer (R-Nixa) and Sen. Brad Lager (R-Savannah), respectively. "Our laws against workplace discrimination at work are more than 50 years old, and they have worked for all Missourians," the group writes in an email blast to supporters. "But big businesses want bigger advantages over small businesses, and they want to make employees and families even more vulnerable." 

For more on the proposal to make discrimination more acceptable in Missouri, check out this great op-ed from Rep. Stephen Webber (D-Columbia) published in the Post-Dispatch a few weeks ago.  HB205 has made it through the House committee process, and SB188 is scheduled for a Senate committee hearing tomorrow.

Sen. Kevin Engler (R-Farmington) and Sen. Jane Cunningham's (R-Chesterfield) proposal to gut the state's child labor laws: "I believe the measure is short-sided and makes no sense."

Sen. Jane Cunningham (R-Chesterfield) has a great idea for getting our economy back on track: eliminate the rules regarding child labor in Missouri.   Last week, she sponsored SB222 to drastically weaken Missouri's child labor rules, and the bill has been assigned to her General Laws committee in the Senate.   Mike Hall of the AFL-CIO's NOW blog summarizes Crazy Jane's proposal:

[T]here isn’t much that surprises me anymore, let alone shocks me. Well, today, I’m shocked.  Missouri State Sen. Jane Cunningham (R) has introduced a bill to minimize child labor laws. I could find all kinds of colorful words and descriptions to show just how crazed and outrageous is S.B. 222.

But let’s just use the official summary of the bill from the Missouri state Senate website and if you don’t believe me, click here and read it yourself.

• This act modifies the child labor laws.
• It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen.
• Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed.
• It also repeals the requirement that a child ages fourteen or fifteen obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed.
• Children under sixteen will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished.
• It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ.
• It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment.

This is absolutely insane.

The Post-Dispatch weighs in on the Missouri business lobby's "Fix the Six" platform: "With the possible exception of [authorizing the state to issue bonds for businesses to pay back what they've have borrowed from the federal government to pay unemployment insurance], the “Fix the Six” package looks more like a “Throw the Workers Under the Bus” package. Business-friendly is one thing. Business-promiscuous is quite another.

The Riverfront Times' Chad Garrison asks: Does Making Missouri More "Job Friendly" Always Require Screwing the Working Class?

Rep. Mike Cierpiot (R-Lee's Summit) introduced a constitutional amendment yesterday (HJR6) that he and co-sponsors say would guarantee "the right of individuals to vote by secret ballot." The resolution is really about limiting workers' rights to ask an employer to recognize a union after showing that a majority of workers demonstrate that they want to form a union.  

This is bad news for workers and their families -- and would also conflict with federal law.  Four other states have recently enacted similar measures, but the National Labor Relations Board informed those states' Attorneys General today that federal law pre-empts the state amendments.  From an NRLB press release:

The National Labor Relations Board today advised the Attorneys General of Arizona, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah that recently-approved state constitutional amendments governing the method by which employees choose union representation conflict with federal labor law and therefore are preempted by the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. 

The states were also advised that the Board has authorized the Acting General Counsel to file lawsuits in federal court, if necessary, to enjoin them from enforcing the laws. 

Under the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, private-sector employees have two ways to choose a union: They may vote in a secret-ballot election conducted by the NLRB, or they may persuade an employer to voluntarily recognize a union after showing majority support by signed authorization cards or other means.

The state amendments prohibit the second method and therefore interfere with the exercise of a  well-established federally-protected right. For that reason, they are preempted by the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Further details are available on this page, including a fact sheet prepared by the NLRB and copies of the advisory letters.

The international UNITE HERE union of hotel and textile workers called on the Democratic National Committee yesterday to reject bids by Cleveland and Charlotte to host their 2012 convention because they lack enough unionized hotel facilities.

Instead, UNITE HERE is throwing its support to St. Louis and Minneapolis.  "We think it's important to differentiate between the four [finalist] cities and see that Minneapolis and St. Louis rise to the top," said a union spokesman.

For more on yesterday's development, check out stories in Politico and the Post-Dispatch.

You can show your support for St. Louis's bid by joining their Facebook group here.  It's an no-brainer for people of all political persuasions.

Good stuff from The International Brotherhood of Boilermakers.

The correct answer is, "No."  But Michael Steele somehow can't muster the strength to say that Republicans aren't interested in reducing the minimum wage.  Given Steele's nack for telling whoever he happens to be talking to whatever they want to hear, his self-restraint on this issue is notable. 

The Washington Post: "Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked a Democratic plan to encourage companies to bring jobs back from overseas, as a united GOP caucus voted against a motion to debate the measure on the Senate floor. The motion failed 53 to 45. The legislation would have raised taxes on corporations that shift operations overseas, costing U.S. jobs. It also would have awarded companies that bring jobs back from abroad by offering a two-year hiatus from payroll taxes for those positions."

Sen. Kit Bond voted against the cloture motion, which requires 60 votes before the full bill can be brought up for a final vote.  Sen. Claire McCaskill supported the motion.