Take a Real Look at the Trans-Pacific Partnership FTA
AFL-CIO
Posted March 15, 2012
On March 1, President Obama released his 2012 Trade Policy Agenda and reiterated his commitment to move "full-speed ahead" in finalizing the Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement (TPP).  You may never have heard of the TPP—millions of your fellow Americans certainly haven’t. 

That is why the American Prospect’s special report on the TPP, Pacific Illusions, is so important.  Pacific Illusions shows how, so far, it doesn’t look like the TPP fixes the problems with U.S. trade policy that have been hurting workers for the past 20 years, which means the TPP could be a big mistake. 

Just what is the TPP anyway?  It’s a trade agreement between the United States and Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.  The United States Trade Representative (USTR) has called it “an ambitious, 21st-century” agreement. 

If passed, it would be the biggest free trade agreement since NAFTA, and that’s before including Japan, Mexico and Canada, which are waiting in the wings to join.  With an unemployment rate of more than 8 percent, and 2.8 million jobs lost to trade with China over the past decade, America’s workers have every right to be wary—is the TPP the right answer to create good jobs in America?
Read the source story here.

Good Jobs and Bad Jobs
The New York Times
Posted March 15, 2012
Often missing in the jobs, jobs, jobs conversation—John Boehner’s promise to focus on jobs, the fight over whether Democrats or Republicans are responsible for the lack of jobs, the paeans to private-sector job-creators, the denigration of public-sector job-creators—is that some jobs are better than others.

Which is why the decline in the jobless rate, from 9.1 percent last summer to 8.3 percent in February, is cause for only modest celebration.

As we wrote in one of our Wednesday editorials, “at least 40 percent of the new private sector jobs fall into low-paying categories.” People are finding work at bars and restaurants and in retail. By and large they’re not getting hired as teachers, librarians or road workers (better-paid, more secure positions.)

Something we didn’t mention in the editorial is how the good job/bad job divide is affecting the young. An article in the spring issue of Good magazine notes that nearly half of people in the 16 to 29 age bracket don’t have a job, and that a quarter of those who do work in the hospitality industry. The article also points to a study of 4 million Facebook profiles (I grant that it probably wouldn’t stand up to peer review as a scientific sampling), which found that “after the military, the top four employers listed by twenty-somethings were Walmart, Starbucks, Target, and Best Buy.” Those are often part-time jobs, and they’re not stable. They certainly don’t provide entry to the middle class.
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A.F.L.-C.I.O. Takes On Voter ID Laws
The New York Times
Posted March 15, 2012
A.F.L.-C.I.O. officials on Wednesday denounced the voter identification laws enacted in a dozen states and vowed to mount their biggest voter registration and protection efforts ever to counter these laws, which they said could disenfranchise millions of voters.

Union leaders, gathered here for their annual winter meeting, held a news conference to attack the laws, saying that Republican governors and Republican-dominated legislatures had enacted them to make voting harder for numerous Democratic-leaning groups, including students, minorities, elderly and the poor.

“Although they’re called voter ID laws, they are in fact voter suppression laws,” said Arlene Holt Baker, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s executive vice president. “If you are able to suppress the voice and vote of these groups of people, you have in fact been able to destroy democracy.”
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AFL-CIO Calls for Overturning Citizens United Case
AFL-CIO
Posted March 15, 2012
Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court gave business corporations and other groups the green light for unlimited independent campaign spending. That decision in the Citizens United case, says the AFL-CIO Executive Council, has “undermined democracy” and:

further tilted the playing field in favor of the 1% and against the 99%, whose voices are being drowned out by excessive spending and influence by corporations and the wealthy.

In a statement at its annual winter meeting in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., the council called for Citizens United to be overturned.
Read the source story here.

Bring back the 40-hour work week
Salon
Posted March 15, 2012
If you're lucky enough to have a job right now, you're probably doing everything possible to hold onto it. If the boss asks you to work 50 hours, you work 55. If she asks for 60, you give up weeknights and Saturdays, and work 65.

Odds are that you've been doing this for months, if not years, probably at the expense of your family life, your exercise routine, your diet, your stress levels and your sanity. You're burned out, tired, achy and utterly forgotten by your spouse, kids and dog. But you push on anyway, because everybody knows that working crazy hours is what it takes to prove that you're "passionate" and "productive" and "a team player" — the kind of person who might just have a chance to survive the next round of layoffs.

This is what work looks like now. It's been this way for so long that most American workers don't realize that for most of the 20th century, the broad consensus among American business leaders was that working people more than 40 hours a week was stupid, wasteful, dangerous and expensive — and the most telling sign of dangerously incompetent management to boot.
Read the source story here.

Support for repeat right-to-work bill diminishing
Foster's Daily Democrat
Posted March 15, 2012
The latest version of right-to-work legislation is losing the steam it needs to pass in New Hampshire.

The revised bill permits non-union employees to abstain from paying union fees for contract negotiations and allows them to negotiate on their own behalf, repealing the unions' exclusive bargaining powers.

Last year, the Legislature passed a right-to-work bill but didn't have the votes to override Gov. John Lynch's veto.

On Wednesday, the House passed the latest version, 198-139, but that also falls far short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.

A dwindling number of Republicans support the legislation as a few hop the fence to join a Republican faction and the entire Democratic caucus that oppose it.
Read the source story here.

Feeling the Heat
Publicola
Posted March 15, 2012
Two weeks ago, three Democrats gave the Republicans a budget victory. Now it looks like three Republicans (and a repentant Democrat) are giving the Democrats a victory: Senate Republicans in Olympia are going to roll out a budget proposal this morning that moves toward the Democratic position by making less or no cuts to education.

Sources inside the budget talks in Olympia tell Fizz that the Republicans, particularly moderate Sens. Joe Fain (R-47, Auburn), Andy Hill (R-45, Redmond), and Steve Litzow (R-41 Mercer Island) along with conservative Democrat Jim Kastama (D-25, Puyallup), were feeling the heat and urged Republican leadership to give in. (During last week’s coup, the three Puget Sound Republicans and Kastama voted for Republican ways and means chief Sen. Joe Zarelli’s (R-18, Ridgefield) budget, which cut education by $73 million vs. the Democrats’ zero cuts.)

Kastama is now the target of a campaign for more education funding by UW students (more than 1,500 “likes”) while Fain appeared to backtrack on his Facebook page just two days after the GOP coup, writing on March 4: “I am hopeful [budget negotiations] will restore some of the programs that appear to be on the chopping block.”
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Could employers dumping health insurance coverage decrease the deficit?
The Washington Post
Posted March 15, 2012
In the debate over health reform, there's a lot of crystal ball-gazing over whether employees will continue to offer health insurance, or send their employees to the new health insurance marketplaces where many could purchase subsidized coverage. One concern is that if lots of employers do this, the health reform law's price tag would skyrocket as more Americans have the federal government footing part of their insurance bill.

Avik Roy notices something interesting in a new CBO report out today, which comes to a different conclusion: Employer-dumping into the exchange could actually reduce the deficit, rather than increase it. That scenario would only play out, however, if employers compensated for dropped coverage by upping their employees' salaries.
Read the source story here.

Can This Labor-Backed Liberal Beat Scott Walker?
Mother Jones
Posted March 15, 2012
When she had to confront Wisconsin's powerful unions, Kathleen Falk bargained hard and won millions in concessions. Faced with a similar situation, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker "dropped the bomb," as he later put it, and stripped workers of their bargaining rights. Now, Falk is trying to strip Walker of his job.

For three straight years, from 2009 to 2011, Falk and negotiators from eight public-sector unions met in county government conference rooms or labor halls, ready to lock horns. Falk was executive of Dane County, Wisconsin's second-largest county and home to the state capital, Madison. Each time they met, the unions agreed to cuts for the county's 2,200 employees—a 5 percent pay cut one year, a 3 percent cut the next year, and new co-pays and higher deductibles the year after that.

The unions stung from the nearly $10 million in concessions. But looking back, what mattered to union negotiators, leaders, and rank-and-file members was that Falk met them at the table, looked them in the eyes, and negotiated. "It was going to be a tough pill to swallow," recalls Dian Palmer, president of Services Employees International Union's Healthcare Wisconsin chapter. "But there were no recalls for Kathleen Falk, because we worked together and got it done."
Read the source story here.

Where Was Walker Wednesday? In Palm Beach, FL, Taking Down $200,000+
The Political Environment
Posted March 15, 2012
Yeah, Scott Walker could 'return' to the private sector any old time where he wouldn't be tied to a crap salary from taxpayers of $144,000 a year, but while he's still got the job and unlimited "personal time, wink-wink" - - why not jet off to Palm Beach, Florida, or as they call it there, "the ATM of American politics "- - and pick up a cool $200,000+ in campaign cash and pledges from folks you've never met?

Reports the Palm Beach Daily News:

It’s good to have friends in Palm Beach, even if you’ve never met them before. 

Embattled Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker strode into the Town Hall council chambers Wednesday afternoon, briefly interrupting a coastal protection discussion, said basically hello, and was on his way.

But he did take a moment to congratulate the town’s elected officials for what he called their leadership position in cutting employee pensions and other benefits.

He also left Palm Beach $200,000 richer in contributions, with more to come from pledges following a luncheon Wednesday organized by Town Council President David Rosow and Lee Hanley, who hosted the event at his Palm Beach home.

“This is the ATM of American politics,” said Councilman Bill Diamond, who spends much of his time raising money for Republican candidates...

Read the source story here.

AFL-CIO Council: Organizing, Bargaining Key to Reversing Inequality
AFL-CIO
Posted March 15, 2012
Inequality in both wealth and income is greater than at any time since the early part of the last century. At the same time, says the AFL-CIO Executive Council, the best remedy to inequality and injustice—collective bargaining—is under increasing political attack in the private and public sectors. The assault on public workers’ rights is taking place at the federal, state and local levels.

But, says the council in a statement from its annual winter meeting in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.:  

Over the past year workers have shown they are prepared to stand up. Through statehouse demonstrations in Madison, Wis., ballot initiatives in Ohio and the movement of the 99%, workers are standing up for themselves, for their families and for their communities.

In the face of tremendous opposition from employers and political opponents, workers from across the spectrum—from Transportation Security Officers to carwash workers and television writers—have joined together to form unions.  
Read the source story here.

Public unions invest heavily in Colorado elections
Denver Post
Posted March 15, 2012
Public-sector unions, whose members are dependent upon decisions made by elected officials, were the state's top donors to committees that helped put those officials into office in 2010, according to a Denver Post analysis of state campaign data.

The unions contributed to an extensive number of local and legislative candidates and gave large donations to a handful of independent political committees. Most of those political groups, which can spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections, were part of a well-coordinated Democratic network targeting state-level contests.
Read the source story here.

Auto Parts Suppliers Hiring As Fast As They Can
NPR
Posted March 15, 2012
Detroit automakers are creating thousands of new jobs amid a sales boom. And as they expand, their suppliers are racing to keep up, adding tens of thousands of new jobs.

At Bridgewater Interiors in Warren, Mich., for example, the pace is intense. Hundreds of union employees scurry to fill a growing list of orders. The factory floor is packed with stacks of foam cushions, seat covers and headrests.
Read the source story here.

Wisconsin Legislation May Strip Towns of Authority to Stop Fracking
AlterNet
Posted March 15, 2012
One of the few tools for Wisconsin citizens to protect their health and land from the hazards of expanded frac sand mining across the state could be weakened by a newly introduced bill in the state legislature.

The state's Senate is considering a piece of legislation today aimed at "limiting the authority" of Wisconsin cities, villages or towns to enact a "development moratorium ordinance" -- a mechanism used recently by several local governments across the state to set aside time so they can investigate the effects of proposed mining on their community.
Read the source story here.

Arizona bill would force employees to prove they're not using birth control for sex
Feministing.com
Posted March 15, 2012
Why? Because it’s Arizona:

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 6-2 Monday to endorse a controversial bill that would allow Arizona employers the right to deny health insurance coverage for contraceptives based on religious objections.

Arizona House Bill 2625, authored by Majority Whip Debbie Lesko, R-Glendale, would permit employers to ask their employees for proof of medical prescription if they seek contraceptives for non-reproductive purposes, such as hormone control or acne treatment.

Virginity tests for everyone! Because let’s be real, this bill is pretty much on the brink of it. Erin at Jezebel also points out that because Arizona is an at-will employment state, employers could just fire their employees if they object to them being sexually responsible adults. (“Sexually” being the key word here.)
Read the source story here.