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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 2014)
National AFL-CIO promotes Schedules That Work for Workers By LIZ SHULER Last month, President Obama con- vened a White House Summit on Working Families, an event attended by national leaders in business and labor. The event was designed to put the is- sues of working families under a na- tional spotlight. I was proud to participate in this event, representing the AFL-CIO and millions of workers throughout the country, and I wrote at the time that collective action following the summit would be the true measure of the sum- mit’s success. While the summit brought much-needed attention to ur- gent issues facing working families, we need real solutions to help us meet the challenges we face. So I applaud Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Rosa DeLauro (D- Conn.) for taking an important step to deliver on the promise with their intro- duction of the Schedules That Work Act. Millions of hourly workers struggle under the burden of last-minute, unpre- dictable work scheduling practices. If you’re a full-time salaried employee, try to imagine finding out a day or two ahead of time what your work hours for the week will be. Now imagine you have no control over that schedule, whether your shift gets canceled unex- pectedly and there is no way to make adjustments so you can manage care for your children, take care of a parent or make your own medical appoint- ments. This is the reality for too many working families, especially those with jobs in retail, food service and clean- ing. And part of the reality is that the vast majority of these jobs are held by women. If we want families to succeed — a PAGE 8 L IZ S HULER goal endorsed, without exception, by policy makers of every stripe — work- ers need schedules that work for their families. The Schedules That Work Act would help America’s workers by: • Allowing workers to request a flexible schedule without fear of retali- ation; • Implementing a process that helps employers consider their requests; • Mandating that workers in retail, food service and cleaning fields would receive their schedules at least two weeks in advance and they would be paid for at least four hours of work if they report to work when scheduled but are sent home early; and • Providing an extra hour of pay if a worker has split shifts on the same day. These issues rarely make the evening news, but each night, in every corner of this great nation, these issues are on the minds of more and more people. Much more needs to be done, of course. While some states have in- creased the minimum wage, millions of hourly workers remain in poverty as they struggle to make a living wage. Millions more lack paid leave, a severe restriction on their ability to manage their families. In fact, Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, hits employees with a double whammy, paying about two- thirds of its employees less than $25,000 and maintaining irregular scheduling that prohibits most of its workers from earning what they need to support their families. Our work is just beginning. For working families, the summit was an important milestone. And the Sched- ules That Work Act is an important first step to fulfilling the promise of the summit. Support the Schedules That Work Act by contacting your elected officials today. (Liz Shuler is secretary treasurer of the national AFL-CIO and a member of Portland-based IBEW Local 125.) NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS IN MEMORIAM A celebration of life was held Aug. 10 in Berkeley, Calif., for J IM G ALLAGHER , a retired associate professor at the Uni- versity of Oregon’s Labor Education and Research Center (LERC). Gallagher died in Portland May 22 after a long ill- ness. He had suffered a stroke about three years ago, and had aphasia. Gallagher played a significant role in starting LERC because he had a re- spected track record as a trade union- ist, and he could convey that knowl- edge in the classroom. He was the second staff member to be hired at LERC. His biggest accomplishment there was establishment of an ongoing, tri-partite (labor, management and neu- trals) conference on public-sector labor relations. The Public Employment Re- lations Conference (PERC) continues to this day. He was founder and editor of the LERC Monograph Series. The 11 monographs are recognized both in Oregon and nationally as a tool for practitioners and as a reference for pro- fessionals and academics. The LERC Monograph Series is the only publica- tion from other than a law school which is listed by the prestigious West- law Publications directory. J AMES J OSEPH G ALLAGHER was born July 3,1934, in Irvington, New Jersey. He enlisted in the Air Force at the age of 18. Stationed in Europe, he wrote for one of the armed forces newspapers. He moved to California in the late 1950s. He majored in sociology at the University of California, Berkeley and graduated in the early ’60s. Gallagher’s career in labor relations started in Eureka, Calif., when the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) hired him as a business agent for the Humboldt County Employees Associa- tion. He worked there for two years be- fore accepting a job at the California Nurses Association in San Francisco. Gallagher represented registered nurses through the early part of the ’70s and then went to work for Municipal Employees Federation/AFSCME Lo- cal 101 (San Jose), the California Fed- eration of Teachers, the McGovern La- bor Committee, the UCLA Institute of Industrial Relations, and finally LERC, from where he retired in 1992. Gallagher was preceded in death by his wife, Pat Cook. She was a staffer at the national AFL-CIO. They met while attending George Meany National La- bor College. They married in 1991. Gallagher is survived by three daughters from previous marriages; six grandchildren; and an older brother. SEPTEMBER 5, 2014
