Thursday, Jul 31, 2014, 3:07 pm · By Amien Essif
McDonald’s Is ‘The Boss’—and That’s a Good Thing
Karla Baeza, left, and Mercy Lara, right, stand with signs celebrating the NLRB decision outside of the iconic 'Rock N Roll McDonald's' in Chicago. (Amien Essif)
On Thursday morning, about 15 Chicago McDonald’s employees rallied in front of the city's monumental downtown location, chanting, “Hey, corporate, you can’t hide, we can see your greedy side!”
It’s not the first time demonstrators associated with the two year-old fast-food workers’ movement have crowded the sidewalk outside the Rock N Roll McDonald's—once the chain's busiest location in America—calling for a $15 an hour minimum wage and the right to unionize without retaliation from their employer. This time, though, they're here to celebrate rather than protest.
The cause for excitement? On Tuesday, the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel Richard Griffin determined that McDonald’s can be treated as a “joint employer” at its franchises—which could make the corporation partly accountable for the labor practices of its franchisees.
“This is huge news,” says Nazly Damasio, a spokesperson for the Fight for 15 campaign, which organized today’s demonstration with support from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). “This is something that workers have known all along, that [McDonald’s is] responsible for the poverty wages and the poor working conditions in their stores. ...It’s very exciting. It re-energizes us in the fight.”
Thursday, Jul 31, 2014, 3:41 pm · By Bruce Vail
New Bill Defines Labor Rights As Civil Rights
Rep. Ellison has been a longtime advocate for workers' rights. Here, Ellison argues for the Employee Free Choice Act, a similar bill from 2009. (Bernard Pollack / Flickr / Creative Commons)
On Wednesday, a handful of Democratic Party lawmakers introduced a bill to turn the slogan “Labor Rights are Civil Rights” into the law of the land. While admitting the proposed legislation has little chance of passage in the current anti-labor environment, supporters say they hope shifting political winds may favor the bill sometime in the future.
A civil right is any right enshrined in the Constitution or legislation, such as freedom of assembly or freedom of the press. The new measure would affirm that labor rights are equally fundamental.
Titled the “Employee Empowerment Act,” the bill is short and simple. It would add a single paragraph to the 1935 National Labor Relations Act giving workers the right to sue employers in federal court for labor law violations, in the same way that individuals are allowed to bring lawsuits under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Under current law, workers must bring such complaints to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which is often criticized for being very slow to act and offering wronged workers little in the way of compensation.
The bill’s introduction was announced yesterday at a press conference on the Capitol Hill lawn headlined by three of the most pro-labor members of the House of Representatives: Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y).
Thursday, Jul 31, 2014, 12:15 pm · By Kari Lydersen
Want To Take Back Chicago? Here’s How, Say Activists
A new grassroots campaign is demanding that aldermen put the needs of working Chicagoans ahead of big businesses. (SEIU Local 1 / Flickr / Creative Commons).
In theory, Chicago’s City Council should represent the interests of the locals who elected them. In practice, though, prominent community leaders say the Council is more like a dog on a leash—and Mayor Rahm Emanuel holds the other end.
“Our city is sold piece-by-piece to private interests. Our communities, they don’t get parks, playgrounds, services or the jobs we need. Because all the money is flowing to greedy downtown corporations. And people don’t even know it’s happening.”
So say Rousemary Vega, a well-known parent activist from the Humboldt Park neighborhood, and Brandon Johnson, an organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union, in a short video that launched the project and website Take Back Chicago in July. In their narration, trading phrases back and forth like quick punches, Vega and Johnson take the mayor and the City Council to task for prioritizing big business over average communities—and for slashing funding to libraries, mental health clinics and other city services in the process.
The video, which depicts Chicago’s City Council as Mayor Emanuel’s loyal canine companion—literally—was just the first step in the advocacy group Grassroots Illinois Action (GIA)’s new campaign to challenge aldermen on their politics. As the campaign season leading up to the February 2015 mayoral and City Council elections heats up, GIA is beseeching locals to become better educated about the records and loyalties of their aldermen—Chicago’s term for members of City Council—and to contribute to the Take Back Chicago project that will help them do so.
Wednesday, Jul 30, 2014, 6:04 pm · By David Moberg
NLRB’s New Ruling Could Mean Great Things for Fast-Food Workers
For the last two years, increasing numbers of fast-food workers around the country—such as these striking employees at a May protest in Chicago—have been publicly holding their employers to higher standards. (Bob Simpson / Flickr / Creative Commons)
More than 1,300 fast-food workers gathered in Chicago last weekend to strategize ways to win a $15 an hour minimum wage and the right to form a union without harassment by their employer. Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel issued a ruling that could greatly help those workers and their peers form a union—if the courts do not reverse it.
The counsel, Richard Griffin, ruled that McDonald’s could be considered a co-employer alongside the franchisee who licenses the right to run a restaurant under McDonald’s corporate guidelines. Companies like McDonald’s have long argued that the franchisees alone are the employers, making them responsible for any resistance to worker organizing, policies on pay, and other personnel practices. According to David Weil, a former economics professor at Boston University and author of The Fissured Workplace, this strategy allows the corporation to profit at the expense of staff and franchisees—and to exercise power without being held responsible for what happens to workers.
If the ruling stands, workers will have stronger legal grounds for pressuring McDonald’s to remain neutral—and, in turn, keep franchisees neutral—on allowing workers to decide on a large scale whether they want a union. It could also hold McDonald’s liable for management decisions made at standalone restaurants around the country.
The NLRB decision gave a boost to the actions taken last weekend, when hundreds of fast-food workers arrived in Chicago for the first-ever Fight for 15 convention. They had traveled from metropolitan areas all over the country to affirm the movement’s two goals: a $15 hourly minimum wage and the right to form a union without retaliation. And over the course of Friday evening and Saturday, they hammered out a strategy for the future that includes expanded organizing, increased focus on corporate operations and acts of civil disobedience.
Wednesday, Jul 30, 2014, 4:24 pm · By Ethan Corey
How the ‘Schedules That Work’ Act Could Change the Lives of Millions of Workers
Nancy Reynolds, 67, says her unpredictable schedule makes it hard for her to manage her diabetes. (Photo courtesy OUR Walmart)
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly half of part-time workers aged 26 to 32 receive their schedules with less than a week’s notice—and their hours often vary dramatically. Such instability can be exhausting for employees, who must frequently try to fit childcare, school medical appointments or second jobs around uncertain routines and inconsistent paychecks. Still, many companies seem disinclined to make changes on their own, particularly in lower-paying industries: A July 2014 study from the University of Chicago found that 90 percent of fast-food employees reported work-hour fluctuations in the past month.
Lawmakers, however, are finally taking notice. Last week, Representatives George Miller (D-Calif.) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) introduced the Schedules That Work Act, which seeks to encourage employers to give employees steadier hours by imposing minor penalties for unpredictable schedules. Under the bill, employers would have to pay staff for an extra hour of work if they provide them with less than 24 hours’ notice of a shift. The bill also guarantees four hours’ pay minimum on any day an employee is scheduled to work for at least four hours, even if they are sent home early. Although Reps. Miller and DeLauro expect opposition from business leaders and Congressional Republicans, they hope the bill will raise awareness of the plight of part-time workers. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) have sponsored Senate versions of the same bill.
Nancy Reynolds, 67, knows firsthand how helpful such a bill could be. Reynolds has worked full-time in manufacturing, security and as a truck-stop fuel clerk, but she tells In These Times her part-time position as a Walmart cashier in Florida is one of the most demanding she’s ever held. Despite only scheduling her for 22 hours a week, Reynolds says Walmart requires her to be available at all hours for four days a week, and often changes her timetable less than a day in advance without giving her any notice. Reynolds says her constantly shifting routine leaves her little opportunity for a life outside Walmart, even disrupting her ability to treat her diabetes.
In These Times got in touch with Reynolds to discuss her job at Walmart, and why it’s so important for workers to have hours they can count on. This interview has been abridged and edited.
Monday, Jul 28, 2014, 8:00 am · By Amien Essif
Receptionist: ‘It’s Basically Just a Job That I Do During the Day’
Jamie Burns, who works as a receptionist in Chicago, says she passed up a promotion to have more time to write and perform comedy. (z_dead / Flickr / Creative Commons)
For three years in the early 1970s, journalist Studs Terkel gathered stories from a variety of American workers. He then compiled them into Working, an oral-history collection that went on to become a classic. Four decades after its publication, Working is more relevant than ever. Terkel, who regularly contributed to In These Times, once wrote, “I know the good fight—the fight for democracy, for civil rights, for the rights of workers has a future, for these values will live on in the pages of In These Times.” In honor of that sentiment and of Working’s 40th anniversary, ITT writers have invited a broad range of American workers to describe what they do, in their own words. More "Working at 40" stories can be found here.
In one of his interviews, Terkel spoke with Sharon Atkins, a receptionist at major business in the Midwest. She hated her job.“Until recently I’d cry in the morning,” she admitted. “There never seemed to be any end to it. Why am I doing this?”
Forty years later, the duties of a receptionist—answering phones, managing office supplies, scheduling meetings, and other tasks—remain largely unchanged. Yet when In These Times contributor Amien Essif spoke with Jamie Burns, a receptionist at the Chicago headquarters of a large automotive company, she didn’t have many complaints. Maybe that’s because she has a light at the end of the tunnel: comedy. For Burns, “It's basically just a job that I do during the day. ... The dream is to one day make money from comedy.” A minor success on YouTube for her Drew Barrymore impression, she plans to “rough it as a comedian” pretty soon and leave her front desk behind. This interview has been abridged and edited.
Thursday, Jul 24, 2014, 5:15 pm · By Amien Essif
A Staples Diet for Postal Workers
UPWA President Mark Dimondstein speaks at a rally in downtown Chicago while supporters hold up 'Wanted' posters of Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe. (Amien Essif)
More than 1,000 postal workers and allies gathered in downtown Chicago on Tuesday to promote a boycott against Staples as part of the American Postal Workers Union’s “Stop Staples” campaign. Late last year, the office supply giant set up “mini post offices” inside 82 outlets around the country, provoking anger among workers concerned for their salaries, their jobs, and the integrity of the postal service.
Tuesday’s protest, the largest of its kind since the National Day of Action on April 24, was held in conjunction with this week’s APWU convention. The rally’s temporary stage—erected in front of a Staples store and below Chicago’s elevated train tracks—hosted a pageant of labor leaders who spoke in turn, among them Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO; Jesse Jackson, leader of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition; and Mark Dimondstein, president of the APWU, who told the assembled crowd that “we’re gonna win this fight” against Staples office supply chain.
In November of last year, Staples made a deal with the United States Postal Service (USPS) to launch a Retail Partner Expansion pilot program, privileging Staples with the first nearly full-service postal counters outside of federal post offices. Participating Staples stores can offer a majority of the same products and services found in post offices, from stamps to USPS Tracking and Insurance.
Wednesday, Jul 23, 2014, 6:00 am · By Cole Stangler
BNSF Railway Engineers to Ride Solo
BNSF trains are expecting to switch to a one-member crew system. (David Wilson / Flickr / Creative Commons)
Originally publised at DeSmogBlog.
For decades, the U.S. railroad industry has successfully shed labor costs by shifting to smaller and smaller operating crews. Now, it’s on the verge of what was once an unthinkable victory: single-member crews, even on dangerous oil trains.
A tentative agreement reached by BNSF Railway and the Transportation Division of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation (SMART) union would allow a single engineer to operate most of the company’s routes. It would mark a dramatic change to a labor contract that covers about 3,000 workers, or 60 percent of the BNSF system.
It’s not just bad news for workers. The contract has major safety implications—especially amid North America’s dangerous, and sometimes deadly, crude-by-rail boom. Last year’s Bakken shale oil train derailment and explosion in Lac Mégantic, Quebec, which killed 47 people, brought increased scrutiny to oil trains.
Tuesday, Jul 22, 2014, 5:59 pm · By Bruce Vail
Atlantic City Workers Stunned As Casino Economy Begins to Crash
Facing stiff competition from other states who have legalized gambling, Atlantic City casinos such as Trump Plaza (pictured) plan to close, laying off thousands of workers. Doug Kerr / / Creative Commons
More than 1,000 workers at Atlantic City's Trump Plaza received notices July 14 that the hotel-casino planned to close its doors in just 65 days, eliminating all of their jobs. The news was not unexpected, though that fact doesn't make it any easier to handle for the workers whose livelihoods depend on a local gambling economy in danger of an historic crash.
"It's not surprising. A lot of people knew that eventually a shakeout would come," says James Karmel, an author, college professor and consultant who has studied Atlantic City closely. The city's gambling industry "is just not sustainable in its current form," he says, mainly because newer casinos in Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and elsewhere are luring New Jersey's gambling customers away. Total annual gaming revenue has crashed, Karmel says, from an all-time peak of $5.2 billion in 2006 to $2.9 billion last year.
Indeed, the Trump Plaza is not the first local casino to close due to the crash, nor is it expected to be the last. Early this year, the Atlantic Club Casino Hotel closed, resulting in the loss of 1,600 jobs. Caesars Entertainment Corporation-owned Showboat Atlantic City has already announced that it expects to close Aug. 31, eliminating the jobs of another 2,100 workers. And the Revel Casino Hotel, currently employing about 3,000 workers, is currently in bankruptcy court, and is said to be in danger of closing before the end of the year.
Bob McDevitt, President of UNITE HERE Local 54, the city's largest casino union, tells Working In These Times that a total of about 7,000 Atlantic City workers have received WARN notices, or job loss notifications, from their employers. "That's about 1 in 4 casino workers. ...We don't think that all of these will actually lose their jobs. The obituaries for Atlantic City are way premature," he says.
Tuesday, Jul 22, 2014, 3:10 pm · By Michael Arria
Cuomo Saves the Day?
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo shakes hands with United Transportation Union President Anthony Simon after mediating an agreement to end the four-year-old contract dispute between the MTA and its unions, averting a strike on the Long Island Railroad. (New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority / Flickr / Creative Commons)
On July 17, a tentative deal was reached between a coalition of eight unions representing New York’s Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) Workers and the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) after Governor Andrew Cuomo intervened in a bid to avoid a strike. The new deal means raises for the unions over six and a half years and, for the first time in its history, LIRR workers will contribute a percentage of their pay toward health insurance.
“I’m relieved, “ union representative Dean Devita said of the compromise. “I’m thrilled a strike was avoided.” LIRR employees had been working without a contract for four years.
But while the media and advocates alike are billing Cuomo’s actions as pro-labor, the governor’s history may be telling a different story.