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January 15, 2011
By Sam Hananel
Union leaders plan to launch a multimillion dollar campaign to boost the image of government workers and fend off pay cuts, benefit rollbacks and other anti-union measures in states under fiscal siege.
The scope of the effort is unusual in a non-election year, and it signals a growing concern that unions could lose significant clout in states where the political climate has changed with Republicans in control in many legislatures.
“It’s a pretty unprecedented attack on public sector workers and workers in all industries,” said Naomi Walker, director of state government relations at the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation.
Cash-strapped states from New York to California want to freeze wages or cut pension benefits of public employees to help balance budgets. At least 16 states are expected to consider legislation that would take away the right of unions to use payroll deductions for political purposes. And 10 other states may take up “right to work” bills that would prevent workers from being required to join or pay dues to a union.
Walker said unions plan to get their message out with phone banks, public rallies, and stepped-up lobbying efforts in at least a dozen state legislatures.
The action was set to kick off in Ohio on Friday night. Hundreds of workers planned to hold a candlelight vigil in Cincinnati to protest Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s plan to prohibit home health care and child care workers paid by the state from joining unions.
“These lawmakers are hiding behind the guise of fiscal austerity and budget cuts in order to move a conservative corporate agenda that seeks to weaken the power of workers to organize and bargain collectively for better wages and a better quality of life,” said AFL-CIO spokeswoman Alison Omens.
Other states where unions plan to focus include those where organized labor traditionally has wielded power, such as Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Read more @ Washington Examiner.
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Do Union members know/realize that their dues are being used in this manner? With the current economic downturn wouldn’t YOU think they would be reining in their OWN SPENDING?
Image? How about bleeding State and National coffers/budgets with pension funding, healthcare, etc. on the taxpayer dime?
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As a digression:
A labor powerhouse is oddly MIA in Walmart fight
The Central Labor Council has barely peeped amid loud union opposition to the retailer’s plans to enter New York. One possible reason: controversy over the reign of president Jack Ahern.
By Daniel Massey
January 14, 2011
Many of the usual suspects have lined up for the fight to stop Walmart from opening a store in the city, from unionized supermarket and retail workers to mom-and-pop shopkeepers. But nary a peep has been heard from local labor’s 1.4 million-member umbrella organization, the Central Labor Council, which has led the opposition to Walmart in the past.
Insiders say that’s because of a crisis in leadership at the organization that has accelerated since theVillage Voice ran a story late last month about CLC President Jack Ahern. The piece, by Tom Robbins and headlined “Central Labor Council’s Jack Ahern, A Supposed Reformer, Lives Large,” detailed a doubling of Mr. Ahern’s stipend to $80,000, union scholarships given to his children, and an extra salary he receives as a chairman of the Northeastern Engineers Federal Credit Union. [Emphasis added]
In the two years since Mr. Ahern took over from Gary LaBarbera, the Building & Construction Trades Council of Greater New York leader, at least five key staff members have resigned or chosen not to renew contracts. Ed Ott, the former executive director, left, although he remains a consultant. The chief of staff resigned in November. A senior government consultant and the longtime spokeswoman each resigned earlier this year, and the political director resigned but has not yet left.
“There were days when Harry Van Arsdale headed the CLC when it was an extremely powerful force,” said Joshua Freeman, a professor of history at Queens College, referring to the legendary chief of New York’s electrical workers union. “There have been other periods when it was less so, and we are now in a period when it’s fairly invisible as a public presence.”
If the CLC were stronger, it would likely be in the middle of the Walmart battle, as it has been in the past, though there is a separate internal labor issue with regard to the retail giant. Suffering from high unemployment rates and still angry over the defeat of the Kingsbridge Armory project last year, the building trades, who have previously joined in opposition to Walmart, are likely to support the company’s efforts this time around.
It has spent $30,000 since June on lobbyist Thomas Kelly, according to filings.
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