Northwest labor press., February 06, 2009, Page 11, Image 11

FEB. 6, 2009:NWLP
2/3/09
10:12 AM
Page 11
...Recession deepens: But help is on the way
(From Page 1)
months off. Plans for federal infrastructure invest-
ment could help.
As of press time, the U.S. House had passed and
the U.S. Senate was considering a $819 billion res-
cue bill — HR 1, the American Recovery and Rein-
vestment Act of 2009. The bill increases benefits to
the poor and unemployed, lowers taxes on working
people, and increases spending on a wide array of
infrastructure improvements in order to put people
back to work and stimulate economic activity.
The bill would extend unemployment benefits
by several months, increase the weekly benefit $25
for all unemployed workers getting benefits, and
for the first time, allow unemployed workers who
don’t have insurance to get on Medicaid — or have
up 65 percent of their COBRA payments reim-
bursed so they can keep employer-provided insur-
ance. It would also increase funding for food stamp
benefits, student financial aid, housing assistance,
and employment and training programs. It would
increase the earned income tax credit, which pro-
vides checks to households too poor to owe taxes.
And it would provide a “13th check” (a bonus of
one-month’s worth of benefits) to 7.5 million of the
poorest people in America — the blind, disabled,
and seniors who are entitled to Supplemental Secu-
rity Income.
A tax credit for individuals would put up to
$500 a year directly onto paychecks, through re-
duced withholding. Workers too poor to be with-
holding income tax would get the money as a direct
subsidy.
To increase employment, the bill appropriates
money for highway construction, mass transit, to
expand weatherization, to modernize the nation’s
electricity grid, promote energy efficiency, improve
maintenance at the Forest Service and National
Park Service, do environmental cleanup, do wild-
land fire management, renovate elementary and
secondary schools, repair Veterans Administration
hospitals, improve maintenance at Veterans ceme-
teries, and expand broadband Internet Service in ru-
ral areas.
State governments would get grants totaling al-
most $40 billion to stabilize budgets rocked by the
downturn.
And there are additional provisions. Employers
who get funds under the act will be required to use
the government’s E-Verify system to make sure
About 650 people attended a Jan. 31 “town hall”
on the economic crisis organized by Portland
Jobs With Justice. One message resounded —
the federal response needs to be bolder, and it
needs to stimulate the economy from the bottom
up. Speaking above is Martin Hart-Landsberg,
an economics professor at Lewis & Clark
College in Portland.
their employees are legally allowed to work in the
United States.
All Oregon and Washington Democrats voted for
the bill and all House Republicans voted against it.
If passed, the federal stimulus is expected to
have a multitude of local trickle down effects. For
example, Portland Public Schools could get $20
million for infrastructure improvements, said
spokesperson Matt Shelby. Shelby said the money
would go to energy efficiency upgrades — new
roofs, boilers, duct work, and windows.
The bill also expands the borrowing authority of
the Bonneville Power Administration by $3.25 bil-
lion. BPA is the federal power agency that supplies
much of the electricity in Washington and Oregon.
BPA spokesperson Scott Sims said that means a
green light for nine projects that otherwise would
not have happened, including 4,700 megawatts
worth of new wind farms, several new substations
along the Columbia Gorge and I-5 corridor, and
600 miles of new transmission line. Oregon’s share
of the projects could be the equivalent of about
1,000 construction jobs.
“Infrastructure spending is good bang for the
federal buck,” said Oregon Congressman Peter De-
Fazio in a press statement after the House vote. “It
has been proven time and again as a way to create
jobs and stimulate and an ailing economy.”
State governments don’t have the bottomless
credit of the federal government, but several legis-
lators told Oregon labor leaders Jan. 24 that would-
n’t stop them from digging deep to fund infrastruc-
ture.
“We are not going to sit on our hands in this ses-
sion of the Oregon Legislature and do nothing,”
Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney told par-
ticipants at a legislative conference organized by
the Oregon AFL-CIO.
As of press time, the Legislature was expecting
to finalize this week a bill to authorize $175 million
in bonds to pay for transportation projects and de-
ferred maintenance and capital construction proj-
ects at 11 state agencies, 17 community colleges,
and seven universities. Gov. Ted Kulongoski
pledged to sign the bill, which he said would enable
projects from Portland to Pendleton to break
ground by April 1.
Even local governments were getting in on re-
covery plans. On Jan. 13, Portland City Council un-
veiled a “Portland Job Creation and Business Stim-
ulus Package” that consisted of fast-tracking, over
the next 12 months, city public works and construc-
tion projects that had been slated for construction
over one to three years.
“It’s very encouraging that on all levels — fed-
eral, state, and city — government leaders are talk-
ing about what they can do to get infrastructure
projects out the door as soon as possible,” said
building trades Executive Secretary-Treasurer
Mohlis.
What remains to be seen is whether the econ-
omy can be rescued by public construction jobs and
extra money in the hands of the poorest. The cur-
rent wave of stimulus plans differs from those of
the Bush years in that they emphasize infrastructure
spending over tax cuts. “Infrastructure,” DeFazio
said, “is an investment that we can in good con-
science pass on to future generations, as opposed to
a tax cut that will be gone, with little to no benefit
to the economy, in a matter of months.”
Bailed-out bank uses taxpayer cash to fight EFCA
By SETH MICHAELS
National AFL-CIO
When Congress entrusted billions of
dollars to banks last fall, it wasn’t with
the expectation taxpayer money would
be used to hustle for political campaign
cash, spread disinformation and fight
legislation aimed at improving the
economy for everyone. Yet, that’s ex-
actly what Bank of America did last fall,
coordinating CEOs and lobbyists to op-
pose the Employee Free Choice Act.
According to reporting by Sam
Stein in The Huffington Post, within
three days of receiving $25 billion in
taxpayers’ money, Bank of America of-
ficials hosted an Oct. 17 conference
call with key corporate leaders to
strategize about the upcoming election
and how to fight the Employee Free
Choice Act in the next Congress.
FEBRUARY 6, 2009
Stein obtained audio of the call, led
by mega-lobbyist Rick Berman and
Bernie Marcus, founder and former
CEO of Home Depot. The call, which
included major finance industry figures
and representatives from big corpora-
tions (including AIG, itself a recipient
of $85 billion in taxpayer-funded
loans), featured apocalyptic rhetoric
and demands that those on the call do-
nate to anti-Employee Free Choice Act
politicians.
The audio Stein obtained features a
hysterical Marcus calling the Em-
ployee Free Choice Act “the demise of
a civilization” and insisting that corpo-
rate honchos who didn’t donate big
sums to anti-worker incumbent sena-
tors “should be shot, should be thrown
out of their [expletive] jobs.”
In the audio of the call, Berman lays
out the corporate lobbyists’ post-elec-
tion strategy: to try and scare members
of the Senate up for election in 2010,
hoping to create the appearance of un-
popularity and weaken senators’ re-
solve. The disinformation campaign is
already under way, with a bevy of anti-
Employee Free Choice Act front
groups dropping huge sums of money
from undisclosed corporate donors into
TV ads and lobbying.
Why are these industry leaders so
scared of the Employee Free Choice
Act? Because they know the same
thing that the bill’s proponents know:
that right now, U.S. labor laws are
badly tilted in favor of employers, and
under the Employee Free Choice Act,
workers, not companies, would have a
say in forming a union and bargaining
for health care, pensions, fair wages
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
and better working conditions.
Bank of America and its fellow cor-
porations have been the only winners
in the economy for a long time, and
they’ll stop at nothing to keep it that
way.
The better question, of course, is
why, after receiving billions from the
federal government, Bank of America
used its time and resources to coordi-
nate a disinformation campaign aimed
at soliciting political donations and pre-
venting a stronger, fairer economy and
the freedom to form unions and bar-
gain. It’s a sign of the hubris and lack of
accountability in the corporate com-
munity that Bank of America thought
they could get away with this — and
it’s a sign that the Employee Free
Choice Act is badly needed to restore
fairness to the economy.
...Bakery workers
get third crack at
joining Local #114
(From Page 9)
resentatives asked workers to air griev-
ances, and promised to do better.
One grievance about payroll han-
dling was fixed on the spot.
At a final meeting, two days before
the election, the company general man-
ager Dave Thurston told workers that a
vote for the union would be interpreted
as a vote of no confidence in the well-
liked local plant manager, Lou Flores.
Flores’ job might be on the line, in other
words.
According to several witness affi-
davits, Flores then pleaded for his sal-
vation in the meeting, and publicly ad-
dressed two employees he had just
hired: “Both of you guys asked me for a
chance … now I’m asking you for a
chance. Please, guys, vote no for the
union.”
“That changed the entire vote,” said
Lansing. “Now you’re no longer voting
on whether or not you want to be repre-
sented. Now you’re voting on the fate
of another human being.”
On election day, in a majority-immi-
grant workplace, a known pro-union
employee was called into the office and
informed that his green card had ex-
pired; he was sent home until he could
fix the problem.
When the vote was counted, it was
17-10 against unionization.
How does a majority on cards be-
come a minority on ballots? Partly
through legal methods, and partly
through illegal methods.
Again the union filed charges, list-
ing nine separate objections to the em-
ployer’s conduct, and arguing that
Cargill’s violations of the law poisoned
the atmosphere and made the results in-
valid. An agent investigated and made
a determination.
Required attendance at almost-daily
anti-union harangues? Legal.
But blaming the union for the com-
pany’s decision not to give raises — and
remedying a grievance right before the
election? Those crossed the line, the
NLRB found. The election was nulli-
fied, and a new one set — for Feb. 12.
Will Breadsong workers decide to
join the Bakers Union? We’ll find out.
But one thing is certain: If EFCA had
been the law of the land, this group of
30 would now be more than a year into
their first union contract, earning some-
thing closer to the union standard. Un-
der EFCA, workers would unionize as
soon as a majority sign cards. Employ-
ers would be deterred from violating
workers’ rights by stiffer penalties. And
if the two sides can’t agree in four
months, a neutral arbitrator can impose
a fair first-time contract.
“We don’t spend our members
money frivolously,” Lansing said. “We
look at each case and ask, first of all,
‘Can it go union?’ and secondly, ‘can
the employer afford to pay a decent
wage?’ If we feel those things can hap-
pen, then we will do everything we can
to help those workers. We feel that
Cargill can afford a decent wage.”
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