Press Conference on Pay Equity

A press conference will be held observing Pay Equity Day Tuesday, April 28, 1PM at the Fayetteville Public Library Walker Room. Pay Equity Day is the day to which women must work the following year to make the same money as a man made in the 12 months of the year before. Women must work 16 months for what men earn in one year. The press conference is being sponsored by The American Association of University Women Fayetteville Branch, Business and Professional Women of NW Arkansas, Democratic Women of Washington County, League of Women Voters of Arkansas, and National Organization of Women of Arkansas. Information from the new AAUW State by State Earnings Comparsion and the last University of Arkansas Wage Study will be shared. Where women are wage wise and what needs to be done to address the disparity will be discussed.

The agenda is as follows:

What is Pay Equity? - Dr. Berta Seitz

How are Women Progressing?

AAUW Report Highlights - Robin Coggins

University of Arkansas Research Report - Heather Schneller

So....What do we need to do?

Churches Speak out for Fairness and Equity - Rev. Lowell Grisham

Lilly Ledbetter Bill and Business & Professional Stance - Edwina Hancock

Fair Paycheck Bill and NOW Stance - Wanda Stephens

Presidential Commission on Women and Democratic Women Stance - J.P. Peters

LWV Stance - Dr. Mary Alice Serafini

Equal Rights Amendment Needed Now - Rep. Lindsley Smith

Summary

Questions from media.

For questions or further information, contact Berta Seitz, 479-442-6256, or email at berta.seitz@att.net.

Earth Day 2009: Green Jobs Can Be Good Jobs

On Earth Day 2009, there is a growing recognition that green jobs will play a key role in fighting global warming, creating energy self-sufficiency, helping the nation recover from the current recession and moving workers into stable middle-class jobs.

During a House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing this morning, David Foster, executive director of the Blue Green Alliance, a partnership of four unions and two environmental organizations, said in this economic crisis, creating jobs is a priority, and by passing climate change legislation this year, we can start putting America’s workers back to work building the clean energy economy.

To protect the environment and increase our energy independence, climate change legislation must focus on creating and retaining good, family-sustaining green jobs across the United States.

The Blue Green Alliance recently announced its principles for comprehensive climate change legislation. You can read the policy statement here.

Foster’s comments come one day after Labor Secretary Hilda Solis told a Senate committee that “we don’t want [green] jobs that don’t go anywhere. We want jobs with a career path.”

These are jobs that will provide economic security for our middle-class families while reducing our nation’s dependence on imported energy. These are also jobs that traditionally cannot be outsourced.

To promote the growth of good green jobs, the AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions have embraced projects ranging from making their own buildings more energy efficient to taking the lead on large-scale public policy issues.

Yesterday, the AFL-CIO, together with the leadership of its new Center for Green Jobs, announced a plan to reduce energy consumption, cut down waste and reduce the carbon footprint of its national headquarters.

In February we launched the Center for Green Jobs, with $1 million from the Working for America Institute, (WAI), the AFL-CIO’s workforce and economic development arm. The center will partner with affiliated unions to help pave the way to good union jobs in a variety of the country’s unionized and greening industries. The center also will spread the lessons of AFL-CIO affiliates who have successfully joined the green economy, especially in manufacturing.

We recently set up a Green Jobs website, which includes an interactive map that shows how much a state could receive for green jobs under President Obama’s economic recovery plan and how it would affect that state’s employment. Click here to check out the site.

Here are some other actions where the AFL-CIO unions are taking the lead to create a greener future:

• To ensure the green jobs created under the Obama economic recovery bill are family-supporting jobs, the WAI and the Center for Green Jobs have created standards to help community-level unionists assess the quality of jobs created under the Recovery Act. They also are urging the forming of new partnerships among employers, government, labor, community groups, environmentalists and other stakeholders to make sure the standards are carried out. Click here to find out more about the standards.
• The Mine Workers (UMWA), Boilermakers (IBB), Electrical Workers (IBEW) and the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council (IUC) are aggressively promoting the use of coal-generated electricity to provide jobs and help clean up the environment. Along with the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, the unions earlier this month released a study showing that using advanced clean coal technologies that capture and safely store carbon dioxide will create millions of high-skilled, high-wage jobs for U.S. workers. You can read the study here.
• UAW members, who have long pushed for more domestic production of fuel-efficient cars, last year produced environmentally friendly vehicles or components in plants in 30 cities in 14 states.
• The Machinists (IAM) work in a number of industries that are critical to reducing energy consumption and pollution, from energy-efficient heating and air conditioning systems and appliances to components for modernizing energy distribution systems in buildings.
• Members of the United Steelworkers (USW) manufacture wind turbines at several plants in Pennsylvania. Indeed, the proliferation of wind turbines is beginning to revive shuttered steel mills across the country. In Gary, Ind., two closed steel mills have been reopened to help meet the demand for steel plate to be used in wind turbines. The ore for these mills is mined by USW members and shipped on boats crewed also by members of the United Steelworkers.
• BCTD members are building more green buildings that use renewable energy to run more efficiently. One example is the David Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, site of the AFL-CIO’s upcoming 2009 convention. Built with union labor, it is the only entirely green convention center in the country.
• The Apollo Alliance, a coalition of business, labor, environmental and community leaders working to create a clean energy revolution in America, has developed Make It In America: the Apollo Green Manufacturing Action Plan (GreenMAP), a series of policy recommendations aimed at revitalizing America’s manufacturing sector by investing significant federal funding in the domestic manufacture of clean energy components.
• Last year, the Plumbers and Pipe Fitters (UA) unveiled its Green Training Trailer that is touring the country to introduce UA apprentices, journeyman-level workers and green building expo participants to renewable energy technologies and sustainable building concepts. Take a virtual tour of the trailer at the UA website and click on “The UA has Gone Green” icon.

On Earth Day, AFL-CIO Launches Green Initiative

To celebrate Earth Day, the AFL-CIO, together with the leadership of its new Center for Green Jobs, announced a plan to reduce energy consumption, cut down waste and reduce the carbon footprint of its national headquarters.

With green jobs emerging as a top public policy priority, the AFL-CIO is pushing to ensure that the new green jobs created are also good jobs that provide a decent wage and benefits.

Says Jeff Rickert, director of the Working for America Institute’s Center for Green Jobs:

It’s like the old saying goes, the AFL-CIO is thinking globally and acting locally, but doing so in a way that demonstrates how to use strategic investments that help the environment while relying on high-skilled work.

The specific steps we at the AFL-CIO are taking to green up our building include:

• Conducting a comprehensive energy audit to identify waste, lower overall energy usage and set the stage for a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification of our building in downtown Washington, D.C.
• Phasing out the use of Styrofoam and moving to union-made, 100 percent biodegradable containers.
• Convening a committee of union building managers to share best practices in green and energy efficient building management.

All of these energy savings measures and environmentally friendly initiatives will be conducted by union workers and the initiatives will lead to financial savings for the federation over the long term.

Not only is the AFL-CIO taking steps toward energy efficiency and protecting the environment, our upcoming convention is set for Pittsburgh’s David Lawrence Convention Center, the only entirely green convention center in the country.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports green jobs are becoming more popular. Community colleges across the country are seeing a surge of unemployed workers enrolling in courses that offer training for green jobs and teach students how to install solar panels, repair wind turbines, produce biofuels and do other work related to renewable energy.

The AFL-CIO and the union movement are working to ensure these new green jobs are good jobs by fighting for the right of every worker to freely choose a union by supporting the Employee Free Choice Act.

Speaking to a meeting of Vice President Biden’s Middle Class Task Force in February, United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard said any new green jobs also must be good jobs.

To rebuild our middle class, we must also be sure that the jobs created in this new, green economy are good jobs with family-supporting wages and benefits, that we maximize the number of jobs created in this economy, and that these jobs truly contribute to the protection of our environment for future generations of Americans.

A recent report, “High Road or Low Road? Job Quality in the New Green Economy,” by the grassroots community organization Good Jobs First, outlines strategies to ensure that green jobs are good jobs. The report found examples of employers who manufacture efficient energy systems that pay their workers a decent wage and treat them with respect. Click here to read the report.

The Good Jobs First report is one of several recent studies that discuss the impact of green jobs on the economy. The Center for Green Jobs last month created standards to help community-level unionists assess the quality of jobs created under the recovery act. The Center for Green Jobs also is urging the forming of new partnerships among employers, government, labor, community groups, environmentalists and other stakeholders to make sure the standards are carried out.

To find out more about green jobs and how they can be a key part of restoring our economy, visit the green jobs section of the AFL-CIO website here.

--James Parks

Washington County Democrats Urge Lincoln and Pryor to Back EFCA

The Washington County Democratic Central Committee unanimously adopted a Resolution last night supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, a position embraced by the Party's 2008 Platform, after an informative presentation by Alan Hughes, President of the Arkansas AFL-CIO.

The Resolution stated:

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Washington County Democratic Central Committee supports the Employee Free Choice Act, which would amend the national Labor Relations Act to provide for mandatory injunctions for unfair labor practices during organizing efforts, authorize the National Labor Relations Board to certify a union as the bargaining representation when a majority of employees voluntarily sign authorizations designating that union to represent them; provide for first contract mediation and arbitration; and establish meaningful penalties for violations of a worker’s freedom to choose a union; and,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Washington County Democratic Central Committee urges our Democratic United States Senators, Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln, to support the position of the Democratic Party, become co-sponsors of S. 560, to vote for cloture, and work to pass the Employee Free Choice Act to protect and preserve for America’s workers their freedom to choose for themselves whether or not to form a union; and,

BE IT ORDERED that the Secretary of the Washington County Democratic Central Committee shall transmit copies of this Resolution to Senator Mark Pryor and Senator Blanche Lincoln.

Plumbers Focus on Green Technology for Their Future

As we get set to mark Earth Day this week, it’s a good time to note one of the many ways the union movement is taking up the challenge to clean up our environment and create good jobs. Many building and construction unions are hard at work educating their members on the best ways to use energy efficient materials and other skills they will need to fill the green jobs of the future.

The Plumbers and Pipe Fitters (UA) has identified green technologies as a prime focus for the future of the union and the plumbing industry. Such technologies use less energy and natural resources than traditional technologies, have minimal impact on the environment and use materials that can be reused or recycled.

UA members are using these innovative new technologies in construction and retrofitting in both commercial and residential projects. The union has developed numerous unique approaches directed toward helping members and contractors gain leadership in this area.

UA President William Hite says the green future includes:

Everything from energy efficient building practices, water conservation efforts in the plumbing industry and the usage of environmentally compatible building practices and materials…. I believe the opportunities for the UA in this relatively new field are enormous.

Last year, the UA unveiled its Green Training Trailer that is touring the country to introduce UA apprentices, journeyman-level workers and green building expo participants to renewable energy technologies and sustainable building concepts. The 40-foot-long mobile classroom provides an overview of a number of power-generating technologies, including fuel cells, wind power and solar systems. It also covers new water treatment processes.

Visitors to the trailer gain hands-on experience with these technologies and can take classes leading toward a green awareness certification. Take a virtual tour of the trailer at the UA website, www.ua.org and click on “The UA has Gone Green” icon.

UA also is a founding member of the Green Mechanical Council, an alliance of manufacturers, skilled professionals, universities and other organizations dedicated to promoting environmentally friendly equipment and processes that maximize energy efficiency, conserve water and use renewable and sustainable fuel sources. The council—called “GreenMech”—conducts education and training activities.

(In future postings, we will report on other actions union members are taking at every level to clean up the environment and create good jobs.)

The AFL-CIO strongly backs efforts to combat global warming, achieve energy independence and revitalize American manufacturing in the process. In 2007, the AFL-CIO Executive Council issued a statement that said, in part:

It makes sense to seek energy independence through investments in infrastructure, clean coal/carbon sequestration, advanced technology vehicles and their key components, alternative energy resources (solar, thermal, wind, biomass, etc.) and energy-efficient buildings and appliances. Each of these should be linked to domestic investment and production.

To help working Americans prepare for the next generation of jobs, the AFL-CIO created the Center for Green Jobs. The center will partner with affiliated unions to help pave the way to good union jobs in a variety of the country’s unionized and greening industries. The center also will spread the lessons of AFL-CIO affiliates who have successfully joined the green economy, especially in manufacturing.

--James Parks, AFL-CIO

Honoring American Heroes

“We’re American seamen. We’re union members. We stuck together and did our jobs.”

Corporate leaders and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are on a multi-million dollar mission to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act, even as many of them, like Bank of America, take federal bailout money. The Wall Street crowd, with their private jets and huge bonuses, almost destroyed the American economy…

But, if you want to meet real union workers, the people who make the economy function and the people Lewis and his fellow CEOS wants to screw, meet the men from Maersk Alabama over at the AFL-CIO NOW blog:

“We didn’t have to retake the ship because we never surrendered it. We’re American seaman. We’re union members. We stuck together and did our jobs,” said John Cronan, third engineer and son of a merchant sailor

The AFL-CIO Maritime Trades Department (MTD) salutes the courageous efforts of the all-union crew aboard the Maersk Alabama for maintaining control of their vessel, as well as the heroic efforts of the U.S. Navy in rescuing Capt. Richard Phillips from his Somali captors.

Arkansas AFL-CIO President Alan Hughes to Speak in Fayetteville

Alan Hughes, President of the Arkansas AFL-CIO, will be in Fayetteville to share his views on the Employee Free Choice Act this week. He will be the featured speaker at the Washington County Democratic Central Committee meeting on Monday, April 20 at the Fayetteville Courtyard by Marriott (across from the Olive Garden). Social time begins at 6:00, and the Business Meeting begins at 6:30.

New Website Highlights Labor’s Art Heritage

For nearly 30 years, the Labor Heritage Foundation has worked to preserve and promote knowledge of the cultural heritage of the American worker through the arts, including music, poetry, written works, theater and artistic works.

Labor Heritage’s creative, user-friendly new website opens up the world of labor arts for labor activists and art lovers alike with the power to draw a new generation of artists.

At www.laborheritage.org, you’ll find many of the familiar services and some new ones. The main feature is a slide show with information about such popular events as the Great Labor Arts Exchange and Conference on Creative Organizing, the Joe Hill Award and a new Shades of Youth in Labor, where young people speak out on issues such as poverty and injustice.

Labor Heritage Foundation Chairwoman Elise Bryant says the website reflects the important role that art plays in the union movement.

Art displays the heart, soul and passion for equality and justice in the union movement. Union members learned long ago that life is more than work. We not only need bread, we need roses, too. Every successful progressive movement in the United States has been led by song. But we’re not just focusing on the past; we’re also introducing the new artists who are producing art for the union, peace and justice movements.

Also on the site, you’ll find quick links to the Labor Heritage Hall of Fame and an inventory of American labor landmarks. You can check out videos of recent events and a calendar of upcoming happenings.

If you’re in the market for labor-related books, music and art, there’s a link to the Labor Heritage store. For those with a history bent, there’s a labor history time line as well.

Labor Action: Blanche Lincoln in Springdale, Wednesday, April 15

Tomorrow Senator Lincoln will be discussing healthcare. Union members understand better than anyone the importance of affordable healthcare but we know that the fastest way for someone to get healthcare is to join a Union . We want to get as many people as possible to attend her event. We want to make sure she knows that working people everywhere support the Employee Free Choice Act and she should too. Join fellow Union members as we hold Senator Lincoln accountable. If you can attend the event please call me ASAP!!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

10:30 – 11:30 AM

Jones Family Resource Center, Atrium (JTL-Shop)

Community Clinic:

A Healthcare Ministry of St. Francis House NWA

614 E. Emma Avenue

Springdale, AR

Ben Lilienfeld

Rapid Response Coordinator

United Steelworkers

blilienfeld@usw.org

832.373.9754 cell

Wowza, New CEO Pay Numbers

In 2008, CEOs and other executives responsible for our current financial crisis pocketed millions of dollars from bonuses and golden parachutes, while our government spent billions of our dollars bailing out their companies.

Vikram S. Pandit, CEO of Citigroup Inc., received more than $38 million in total compensation in 2008, the same year his company took $50 billion in U.S. taxpayer money.

To shed light on executive pay, the AFL-CIO released Executive PayWatch 2009 earlier today. In this report, we learn that CEO perks alone grew in 2008 to an average of $336,248—or nine times the median salary of a full-time worker.

This comprehensive report includes much more information, including:

• Detailed CEO compensation data for some of the country's largest companies.
• Tools that allow you to compare your pay to the CEOs.
• Close-up case studies focusing on 10 executive compensation practices that define a broken system that leaves the American taxpayer holding the bag.
• The anatomy of a double standard: Executives enjoy job and retirement security while fighting the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow workers to form unions and bargain for basic security.
• Action for you to take to put balance back into our economy.
• Boot the CEO, a satisfying online game.

Outrageous executive pay is a symptom of a disease that has infected our entire economic system. It is a disease of greed and corruption made worse by the Bush administration’s obsession with further deregulating Wall Street and ideological aversion to oversight and accountability in our financial system.

Check out Executive PayWatch 2009 today and pass it around to your family and friends. It’s time to shed light on outrageous executive compensation, particularly while America’s working families are bearing the brunt of the worst economic crisis in our country since the Great Depression.

In Solidarity,

Marc Laitin
AFL-CIO Online Mobilization Coordinator

P.S. Mad about overpaid CEOs? So are we. The most important thing to do right now to curb executive pay is to fix our broken financial system by regulating our financial markets. Tell your representatives to draft legislation that truly strengthens our financial regulations and begins curing the disease that has infected our economic system.

Lincoln Under Siege From Both Sides For EFCA Position

Sen. Blanche Lincoln's decision to oppose the union-backed Employee Free Choice Act, two years after supporting it, seemed at the time to take a thorny topic off the electoral table for 2010. The moderate Arkansas Democrat faces a reelection campaign in the same state as the company most symbolic of the anti-EFCA effort: Wal-Mart.

But in the days since she said she would not support the bill in its current form, Lincoln has watched criticism and scrutiny build. Union officials, feeling burned, have begun organizing campaign activities in the state to bring the Senator back into the fold. That was expected. But Lincoln's move hasn't placated the conservative crowd either.

In an overlooked tweet, the day Lincoln announced her opposition, Tim Griffin, the former U.S. Attorney and a possible Arkansas Senate candidate, wrote: "Sen. Lincoln can't support EFCA in 'current form.' How is the 'current form' different from the legislation she co-sponsored and later voted for?"

In an Arkansas News article a few days later, Griffin declared: "I'm glad that she is coming my way on this issue. I'm disappointed that it took years for her to get there."

The chairman of the state's GOP, meanwhile, framed Lincoln's decision as purely political. "The length of time it has taken Sen. Lincoln to make this decision makes me wonder about her judgment," said Doyle Webb. "I question under what circumstance will she vote for that, since she sponsored a similar bill only two years ago, and what will be her decision two years from now or three."

The multifaceted criticisms have re-opened, however slightly, the debate over how moderate Democrats should approach labor politics. Lincoln remains in a strong position for her reelection campaign, having raised $1.7 million in the first three months of 2009. But even in that fundraising venture, she managed to offend a chunk of the labor movement. The Senator didn't come out against Employee Free Choice Act until after she raised $1 million of that $1.7 million during a kick-off event with Vice President Joe Biden, a prominent EFCA supporter. Some union folks viewed the timing with suspicion.

Meanwhile, local labor leaders are beginning to make overt political shows of disappointment within her home state, including a 150-person rally outside Lincoln's Arkansas office led by prize-winning author Barbara Ehrenreich. And national figures say they are formulating an appropriate push-back against the Democrat.

"Lincoln said she can't support the bill AS IS, so the question now is if actions are going to back up her words," said one labor official. "As the bill comes up for debate, there are going to be amendments and other ideas for major labor reform. Is she going to support working Americans or stand with big business? In this terrible economy, workers are struggling to keep their jobs and their homes while greedy executives take millions in bonuses and taxpayer money. Which side is she going to choose?"

In the end, the numbers facing Lincoln are complicated. Arkansas has only 85,000 workers under union contract -- a 7.3 percent density that is well below the national average, according to unionstats.com. Had she supported EFCA, she would have found herself a prime target from the business community -- she still might. But, had the legislation passed, it would have meant 75,000 more union members rallying to her cause in Arkansas and, according to the Center for American Progress, $166 million in increased wage earnings in her state.

from Huffington Post April 13, 2009

Talk Back

Several papers across Arkansas have been printing articles about what the Chamber of Commerce is saying on the Employee Free Choice Act. Here are examples from last week: Morning News, Arkansas Democrat Gazette - Northwest Edition, Benton County Daily Record. And here is a column from the NW Arkansas Times attacking unions, and yet another negative editorial from the Arkansas Dem Gazette.

You can help us set the record straight, by writing a letter to the editor for your local paper. If you'd like some help writing a letter, or would like some sample letters to work with, please email or call Laura at 501-265-9847.

There's also a tool you can use, that gives you talking points and submits the letter automatically for you. Don't forget to let us know when it's printed!

Last week the Texarkana Gazette printed our response to their editorial. There were also great letters by Bill Fritz in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Bradford Bowen in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Northwest Edition, Melba Collins and Edwin Stanfield in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Gordon Brehm in the Arkansas Times. There was a good article in the Heber Springs Sun-Times on Friday too. There was also a fairly balanced editorial in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette this weekend. Please keep an eye on the opinion page in your paper, and let us know if you see anything good or bad about the Employee Free Choice Act.

Labor Action: Blanche Lincoln - April 15

Senator Blanche Lincoln will be in Springdale "taking the pulse" of Arkansas citizens on April 15th. She will be holding forth from 10:30-11:30 a.m. at St. Francis Community Clinic, 614 East Emma Avenue (the old JTL Shops). We need to get as many union folks as possible asking her questions about a Public Option for health care as well as Employee Free Choice and why she won't co-sponsor or publicly support it. We need to let her know that Arkansans DO support these things.