ALF V1

1) Snapshot of the issues

Wisconsin

The Governor wants to restrict public sector unions to bargaining solely over wages, eliminating their ability to bargain over health care, working hours and vacations. Moreover, he wants to require unions to win an employee election every year to continue representing workers. The bill has passed the House but not the Senate; Democratic Senators are refusing to show up, to prevent the bill passing.

Ohio

Republicans are proposing a bill that would wipe out Ohio's nearly 30-year-old collective bargaining law. The Senate bill would eliminate collective bargaining rights and salary schedules for public employees across the state and allow hiring alternate workers during a strike. It would also end binding arbitration, an option favoured by the police and firefighters, who are not allowed to strike.

Republican Governor John Kasich has expressed his support for the bill in concept, but he has also signalled he may bring forth his own plan that could go even further - including banning public employee strikes.

Tennessee

A law that would abolish collective bargaining rights for teachers has passed a State Senate committee.

Indiana

The Indiana state Senate has approved a proposed law that would limit the power of teachers' unions. Several other proposed measures would weaken organized labour, most notably legislation that would bar any requirement that employees in unionized, private sector workplaces pay any union dues or fees.

New Jersey

New Jersey's Republican Governor Chris Christie has gained national fame by beating up on public school teachers.

General

States that are considering either weakening or removing entirely the ability of public sector workers to bargain collectively include Wisconsin, Ohio, South Dakota, Colorado, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire and Oklahoma.

Non-members

Legislative proposals in both Wisconsin and Ohio would bar unions from requiring non-members covered by union contracts to pay dues.

Teacher tenure

Teacher tenure is being targeted in five states: New Jersey, Nevada, Indiana, Idaho and Florida. Laws that would allow parents, by petition, to "trigger" an entire school district to move to charter schools or to voucher programs are expected in at least eleven states.

Benefits

Measures to dismantle benefits for government workers are expected in some form in all fifty states. Newt Gingrich and Jeb Bush, meanwhile, are pushing to allow states to declare bankruptcy, which would enable them to break their agreements that cover the pensions of hundreds of thousands of retired government workers.

Right-to-work legislation

Right-to-work legislation, which makes it illegal for employers to agree to have union membership or the equivalent dues payments as a condition of employment even when a majority of workers vote to form a union, has been filed in twelve states. This is in addition to the twenty two that already have such laws on the books.

In Virginia, the right-wing decided that the existing right-to-work law wasn't sufficient, and introduced a measure to embed the right-to-work provisions in the state Constitution.

Three more states - Montana, Ohio and Wisconsin - are expected to introduce right-to-work legislation this term.

Political action

Alabama passed legislation in January that bans public employee unions from collecting dues unless the unions first prove that none of the money will be used for supporting election campaigns. In every subsequent year after the initial certification, the union must submit itemized reports accounting for how its money is being spent.

This law has been introduced in four other states this year including Arizona, Kansas, Mississippi and Missouri. In California there has been a ballot initiative proposed that would do the same.

Unions are expecting twelve more states to file bills or initiatives banning the collection of union monies for politics.

Prevailing wage laws

Building and construction unions are facing their own daunting line up of bills that would gut prevailing wage laws and what are known as Project Labor Agreements (PLAs). These measures facilitate collective bargaining and the division of labour for unionized construction jobs, particularly construction jobs with public financing. It is expected that some twenty states will change their legislation to ban PLAs. In Iowa the new governor undid PLAs with his first executive order.

The new governor of Ohio, John Kasich, has pledged to eliminate prevailing wage laws. Missouri's legislation to ban prevailing wages has been introduced, and the new governor of Maine appointed the head of the building and construction industry organization to the position of state legislative director, a sure sign that he's serious about eliminating such laws. The AFL-CIO says it anticipates anti-prevailing wage laws in fifteen states.

Privatization

At the same time, a push to privatize public assets and services is mounting. Groups like In the Public Interest are working to hold back the privatization tide, but the momentum is on the other side.

2) What's going on?

Emboldened by November's election results, corporations and their right-wing allies have launched what they hope will be their final offensive against America's unions. Their immediate target is government workers' unions.

It isn't as if these types of attacks on unions are new; what's different is their scale, and intensity. After outspending unions in November's election by an estimated 4 to 1 margin, corporations and their allies are exploiting the fiscal crises across the nation to drive a stake into the heart of what is left of organized labour: public sector unions.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Annual Report for 2010, the overall union membership rate in America continued its slide, dropping from 12.3 percent to 11.9 percent. The private sector has just 6.9 percent of its work force unionized, while in the public sector, 36.2 percent of workers have unions. The public sector, in other words, is labour's last stronghold.

Embedded in the Wisconsin debate is a more fundamental dispute over the role, even the legitimacy, of public sector unions. The right wing argues that unions are not appropriate in the public sector because they can interfere with the democratic right of lawmakers to govern unimpeded.

But they are also well aware that hitting the public sector unions hard will weaken unionization in the US.

Grover Norquist laid out a sort of blueprint for the current right-wing assault in the February 2001 American Spectator. Identifying labour unions as the first of "five pillars" of Democratic strength, he outlined a game plan for destroying union power, key to the right's larger mission of abolishing all regulations that impede its agenda, from environmental laws to occupational safety to affirmative action.

The stakes for both political parties in this struggle are high, because where the campaign to gut public sector unions succeeds, Republicans will be poised for almost certain electoral gains. In general, across the nation, the lower the rate of unionization, the more Republican the state.

And in the most Democratic states, the public sector dominates the union scene.

In New York, for example, the most unionized state, the rate among government workers is 70.5 percent, next to 13.7 percent in the private sector. In California the unionization rate among government workers is 56.6 percent, compared with 9.3 percent among the private sector workforce.

There is a strong correlation, moreover, between Republican states, right-to-work laws, an overall worse quality of life for the average worker or poor person, and a more hostile climate for progressives, from environmentalists to civil rights activists.
Republicans have done a thorough analysis of this strategy of attacking the public employee unions, and it works in their favour politically:

1. It helps balance state budgets by hurting a small proportion of workers (6% of 124 million total US workers are members of public employee unions) even after many unions have given up pay raises and other concessions over the last few years. Instead of spreading the responsibility to pay for the cost of government services to all taxpayers, this approach lays it solely on one sector.

2. The workers it hurts tend to vote Democratic, and unions have supported Democratic candidates steadfastly since FDR. Cutting union membership and wages reduces dues going to the unions, and weakens their ability to make donations to Democratic candidates. On the other side, the conservative-led Supreme Court's ruling in the Citizens United case in January 2010 cleared the way for America's biggest corporations and pro-corporate organizations to contribute untold millions directly or indirectly to Republican campaigns.

3. It garners the support of the Tea Partiers (and their shadow supporters), who want to cut $100 billion out of the federal budget this year no matter who it hurts.

4. Attacking public unions hurts all workers, because strong unions set a standard of pay and benefits that non-union employers follow. Unions also reduce wage inequality because they raise wages more for low- and middle-wage workers than for higher-wage workers, and more for those less educated workers. The GOP's corporate masters want to keep their workers' wages and benefits low to maximize their profits and bonuses.

Not about budgets

Citing an anticipated budget deficit of $137 million this year and a $3.6 billion shortfall over the next two years, the Governor of Wisconsin argues that his measures to curb union power and bargaining are essential to help balance the budget.

Union leaders say that several of the Governor's proposals, including the one that would require elections each year to determine whether a majority of public employees want to keep their union, are really intended to cripple unions, not balance the budget.

It's clear that Governor Walker picked this is fight for the specific purpose of breaking the unions. Wisconsin had a surplus, and as soon as he was sworn in, Walker gave it away to special interests in order to put the state into deficit.

The governor has framed his assault on public workers' collective bargaining rights as a needed measure of fiscal austerity during tough times.

The reality is radically different. Firstly, rolling back workers' bargaining rights by itself saves almost nothing on its own. But Walker's doing it anyhow, to knock down a barrier and allow him to cut state employee benefits immediately.

Furthermore, this attack on the public sector unions comes less than a month after the state's fiscal bureau - the Wisconsin equivalent of the Congressional Budget Office - concluded that Wisconsin isn't even in need of austerity measures, and could conclude the fiscal year with a surplus. In fact, they say that the current budget shortfall is a direct result of tax cut policies Walker enacted in his first days in office.

"Walker was not forced into a budget repair bill by circumstances beyond his control," says Jack Norman, research director at the Institute for Wisconsin Future - a public interest think tank. "He wanted a budget repair bill and forced it by pushing through tax cuts... so he could rush through these other changes."

The Koch Brothers

The billionaire Koch brothers David H. Koch, and Charles G. Koch have long used their wallets to promote fiscal conservatism and combat regulation.

The president of a right wing think tank, Americans for Prosperity, Tim Phillips, has publicly argued that the Wisconsin cuts were not only necessary, but they also represented the start of a much needed nationwide move to slash public sector union benefits. What he did not mention was that his Virginia-based nonprofit group, whose budget surged to $40 million in 2010 from $7 million three years ago, was created and financed in large part by the Koch brothers.

The state chapter of Americans for Prosperity organized buses for hundreds of Wisconsin residents to go to the Capitol to support the governor's proposals.
State records also show that Koch Industries, their energy and consumer products conglomerate based in Wichita, Kansas, was one of the biggest contributors to the election campaign of Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

Even before the new governor was sworn in last month, executives from the Koch-backed group had worked behind the scenes to try to encourage a union showdown, Mr. Phillips said in an interview on Monday.

"We thought it was important to do," Mr. Phillips said, adding that his group is already working with activists and state officials in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania to urge them to take similar steps to curtail union benefits or give public employees the power to opt out of unions entirely.

This all amounts to proof of the expanding role played by nonprofit groups with murky ties to wealthy corporate executives, especially the Koch brothers, as they push a decidedly conservative agenda.

"The Koch brothers are the poster children of the effort by multinational corporate America to try to redefine the rights and values of American citizens," said Representative Gwen Moore, Democrat of Wisconsin, who joined with others in the union protests.

Campaign finance records in Washington show that donations by Koch Industries and its employees climbed to a total of $2 million in the last election cycle, twice as much as a decade ago, with 92 percent of that money going to Republicans. Donations in state government races - like in Wisconsin - have also surged in recent years, records show.

The Koch brothers helped finance conservative candidates in the fall campaigns through their company's political action committee, which spent $2.5 million, as well as through advocacy groups like Americans for Prosperity.

Many candidates they supported, including a number backed by the Tea Party, gained election as part of the Republican takeover of the House.

Common Cause, a liberal advocacy group, has filed a petition with the Justice Department challenging the Citizens United ruling which made limits on corporate spending in elections illegal, and arguing that Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas should not have taken part in the case because they had attended the Koch brothers' annual retreat as speakers and were biased.

Common Cause depicts the Koch brothers as symbols of the "unbridled corporate power" that they maintain was loosed by the Supreme Court ruling in the campaign finance case, which lifted a ban on corporate spending in elections.

"This is a critical moment for us," Mary Boyle, Vice President for Communications at Common Cause, said in an interview. "The Koch brothers embody this ability to tap vast corporate profits and influence policies that undermine the public welfare."

She said the Citizens United case had given the Koch brothers and others license to create "shadowy networks" of well off but largely anonymous donors to further their agenda.

NUPGE, Wed Mar 9 2011

Almost 80 years ago, the United States and much of the world were battling the Great Depression. Unemployment was high, stock market speculation drove regulatory reform, and the jobless were put to work through the New Deal, helping to rebuild communities across the U.S.

Workers achieved a major step forward when President Franklin D. Roosevelt passed the Wagner Act, putting in place a legislative framework that allowed workers to join unions without undue intimidation. By 1945, the Great Depression was long over, and the economy - booming due to Second World War production - converted to domestic goals, and an unheralded period of growth ensued. The ranks of unionized workers exploded, and the middle-class U.S. emerged.

This led to the United States' so-called "Golden Age" following the war. Productivity and the economy grew at a strong pace, and workers shared in the increasing wealth - both with rising wages and an expansion of universal public services. Just as importantly, people fought for and won an expansion of democratic, human, and labour rights.

A quick look at history is instructive for us because it stands in sharp contrast to the political response to economic crisis today. Unlike the legislative response of the Great Depression, the current recession has seen an assault on public sector workers across the U.S. The large deficits and debts are the result of an economic crisis caused by an out-of-control financial sector, but the big money is trying to pin the blame on public sector workers.

The political right sees an opportunity to finish off the American labour movement. Private-sector union density has fallen to seven per cent, and the sole sector with significant union density, the public sector, is under attack.

In Ohio, Indiana, Idaho, and Wisconsin, just to name a few, the right wing is mounting an all-out offensive against public-sector unions under the thin veil of austerity.

These assaults are not about curing deficits or managing states' debt loads. They are clearly about a political agenda that has been underway for the past quarter-century, with both legislative attacks and a global trade experience that has decimated the U.S. manufacturing base - all for the purpose of maximizing corporate profits at any cost. Workers' rights get in the way of this agenda, and the political right smells blood.

The agenda isn't about wage freezes or restraint bargaining, it is about eliminating public-sector workers' bargaining rights, as well as ending trade-union political-action efforts.

FDR, in his 12-plus years in office, narrowed the gap between the rich and the poor, and in addition to enacting the modern U.S. welfare state, empowered workers.

His efforts worked and contributed greatly to the most significant economic boom in U.S. history.

The Republicans' current agenda is about building their power at the expense of public-sector workers. It has little to do with fiscal responsibility, and everything to do with cutting off voices of dissent and opposition while paving the way for capital accumulation.

It is a strategy that won't work, but it will test the U.S. labour movement, and will perhaps present a unique opportunity for them to mount a much needed campaign to win over both their membership and the general public to confront the failed and punitive economic strategies of the right.

The attacks on Canada's public-sector workers may not be as bold, but they have started. and they are as deeply rooted in a right-wing ideology as we've seen south of the border.

Under dubious and unsubstantiated claims of saving Toronto taxpayers untold millions, newly elected mayor Rob Ford is moving to establish the beachhead for the Canadian right's own attack on the public sector.

Stripping Toronto Transit Commission workers of the right to strike and moving recklessly ahead with plans to contract out waste collection are top items on the Ford gravy-train hit list.

What's missing from Ford's plans, however, is any conclusive proof that these measures will save one dollar for city coffers.

For example, a detailed analysis of available data on the costs of private waste collection in neighbouring municipalities shows that Toronto stands to pay substantially more for waste collection if it's contracted out.

A troubling aspect of these attacks, whether they are happening in the U.S., in Canada, or anywhere else around the world, is the skewed portrayal of workers.

The large majority of public-sector workers are in health care, schools, social services, and local government. They are mostly women, and they are far from highly paid. Of the over 600,000 members of CUPE, the average annual pay is less than $40,000. It takes a certain amount of gall to portray these workers as privileged.

Gall, however, is something not lacking in the Canadian right. Instead of tackling this country's economic recovery in a responsible and equitable way, they take up a diversionary strategy in casting the public sector as scapegoats while extending even more corporate tax cuts to Canada's banks and finance industry. Corporate tax cuts, which at this point should surprise no one, have not been proven to generate any of the new jobs or investments it is claimed they will.

Attacking the public sector and attempting to foist all responsibility on workers is at best a mistake, at worst an all-out assault on the middle and working classes to consolidate the economic power of the world's corporations and the political influence of the world's right wing. This is not only unfair, it is misguided. More of the same economic policies that caused both the Great Depression and Great Recession may help boost business profits in the short run, but they are a recipe for long-term economic malaise and ever more devastating booms and busts.

These attacks are not only on the workers; they also take unjustified aim at our communities, large and small. Canadians are being asked not only to shoulder the deficits, but also to sacrifice the high-quality public services we have developed over generations.

It is undeniable that governments around the world are facing substantial and at times daunting financial woes after weathering the global economic recession. Stimulus spending has left a hefty debt that, if left unchecked, could plague generations to come.

As governments, however, they must ensure that all members of society contribute their fair share to the ongoing recovery. Public-sector workers the world over are prepared to do their part, but the responsibility cannot and should not be put on their shoulders alone.

The Mark, Wed Mar 9 2011
Byline: Paul Moist, National President of CUPE

NUPGE representatives are in Madison providing support and solidarity to Wisconsin public service workers. This is the first in a series of dispatches from Wisconsin, where the governor's union-busting is spurring a popular uprising.

Ottawa (9 Mar. 2011) - Every day for the past 20 days, there have been protests in the streets of Madison, Wisconsin's capital. Tens of thousands of people have joined the protests. The Republican state Governor, Scott Walker, wants to strip collective bargaining rights from 175,000 Wisconsin public service workers.

Under the proposed legislation, workers would no longer have a voice on key issues such as working conditions, health and safety, grievance procedures, or equality provisions. This is a full, frontal attack on collective bargaining rights, public sector unions and the entire US labour movement.

The following report and photos are from Holly Page (BCGEU/NUPGE) who is one of the NUPGE representatives in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Dispatch 1: "Wisconsin is the canary in the coal mine"

Of the thousands of protest signs I've seen, one of my favourite reads: "Wisconsin is the canary in the coal mine." It resonates with what could be the rolling out of union busting not only here in Madison, Wisconsin, but in Canada as well.

I arrived in Madison on the 20th day of the protests. The sounds are spectacular: chanting, drumming, people cheering. This has been unlike any demo I have ever been to.

The Wisconsin Capitol building is the focus of the protest. It sits in the middle of a huge, square block, surrounded by streets on all four sides. Forty to fifty thousand activists are walking around the square chanting and singing. There is a huge rally with another couple thousand people on one side of the building, and another rally with a thousand more people on the opposite side. People are lined up hundreds deep on the remaining sides of the building. Flags, banners and pickets can be seen everywhere. The mood and energy is incredibly powerful, and positive.

On every door of the Wisconsin Capitol building, there are coloured post it notes with messages to the elected. I posted a note of solidarity from the BCGEU. Today I will line up and hang our BCGEU Flag in solidarity.

Nearly every store and business has a sign in the window supporting the unions. There is a lot of local police presence here, but many of them are having pictures taken with protesters and shaking hands and hi-fiving people. The people of Madison are clearly supporting this rally.

Sprinkled throughout the crowds are palm trees all shapes and sizes. Last week, right wing news channel FOX News showed violent demonstrations on their newscasts. They said it was footage from Madison, Wisconsin, that happened to feature palm trees in the back ground. That was obviously not Madison, where the average temp now is six degrees celsius. Home made palm trees of all shapes and sizes now grace central Madison, along with signs stating "FOX lies." FOX News is engaged in a disinformation campaign, calling Madison protestors "greedy" and "violent unions."

As I type, I can hear bagpipes. Firefighters decked out in gear are playing bagpipes and drumming. As I get closer in the middle of the parade, I see Michael Moore has come to join the rally. He addressed the rally for about 20 minutes thanking everybody who has maintained a hold on Wisonsin's Capitol for almost three weeks.

He told them not to walk away. "We're going to do this together. Don't give up. Please don't give up," he said. (Click here for a video of Michael Moore's speech.)

Stay tuned for more BCGEU dispatches from Wisconsin.

NUPGE

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 340,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good.

NUPGE, Wed Mar 9 2011

One hundred years after the creation of International Women's Day, Alberta's largest labour organization is calling on the provincial government to take immediate action to give women an official voice in determining policies.

"Today, we are calling on the government to name a minister to be responsible for the Status of Women," says Nancy Furlong, secretary treasurer of the Alberta Federation of Labour, which represents 140,000 workers. "After a century, Alberta women are a long way off from equality. Women here earn on average only 72 cents for every dollar a man earns," she says.

"Clearly, Alberta's system does not work and needs to be fixed. Naming a minister to be responsible for the Status of Women is a simple step to ensure that Alberta women don't fall further behind. Having one minister take responsibility for this important issue will help to bring focus and may lead to improvements," says Furlong.

"Nationally, Canada used to be a world leader in addressing equality between men and women. But over the last 10 years we've gone from leader to laggard and now rank near the bottom of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in socio-economic equality alongside Turkey, South Korea, Mexico and the United States."

Within Canada, Alberta is the only jurisdiction that does not give women an institutional voice. Across the country, there are official advisory councils to government on the status of women, women's secretariats that form part of larger government ministries and, in select jurisdictions, entire ministerial portfolios dedicated to the status of women.

"Only in Alberta are women denied an official voice. We need to ensure women's rights aren't forgotten," says Furlong. "A Minister for the Status of Women would be able to analyze what happens in other jurisdictions to find which policies best contribute to women's equality."

For example, there is clear evidence that governments which invest in child care and early learning have a smaller pay gap between men and women. However, Alberta lags behind the rest of the country, with only 17 per cent of children having access to a regulated child-care space, compared with the national average of 20 per cent. In fact, Alberta is tied with PEI for the lowest spending per regulated child-care space in Canada.

"Alberta used to be at the forefront of the fight for equality, led by the Famous Five and their campaign to have women declared ‘persons' under the law. It is time for Alberta to take back that leadership role," says Furlong. "Alberta's women deserve better. We have waited 100 years since International Women's Day began. We must not be told to wait another 100 years."
-30-
Media Contact:
Nancy Furlong, Secretary Treasurer, Alberta Federation of Labour @ cell 780-720-8945

Friday's announcement of additional Occupational Health and Safety inspectors is one more step to ensuring Fort McMurray residents make it home safely from work at the end of the day.

So says Employment and Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk who announced that 30 new officers will be hired over the next three years with greater northern focus. They will conduct on-the-spot inspections of Alberta companies, educate employers and workers on OH&S legislation and investigate serious incidents.

In addition to the 16 officers hired in the 2010-11 fiscal year, another 10 will be added for each of the next three years. By 2014, the province will have 132 OHS officers, a 55% increase from the 86 officers in early 2010.

"It's good news for Fort McMurray and it's definitely good news for families in Fort McMurray," said Lukaszuk this morning. He noted that when a workplace fatality occurs it's someone's father, mother, brother, daughter who doesn't come home.

"This hopefully will be another step in keeping residents of Fort McMurray safe."

A couple of factors played into the announcement, said Lukaszuk.

He said that since he took over the ministry, has has made it his mission to bring balance between the educational and enforcement components of health and safety

While he quickly concluded the educational component was superb, he recognized some definite improvement was needed on the enforcement side.

"So I have provided our offices, and I will continue providing our officers with additional enforcement tools. In order for them to be effective and do the work I expect them to do, they need re-enforcement as well."

During recent visits to Fort McMurray, Lukaszuk said it was obvious that the economy is really starting to pick up, and that means not only more workers, but new workers coming here from other parts of Canada and abroad, and some of those new to the industry.

With those workers arriving in the area and as oilsands production increases, Lukaszuk said it's just a mater of being proactive to ensure workers remain safe in the region.

"It's obvious the region is very specialized. The oil and gas industry is overwhelming, a very particular skill set not many have so our Occupational Health and Safety officers will have to be more specialized in their region to be able to not only better interact with employers and employees and speak the same language, but to have a better understanding of the industry and it's requirements.

"A more familiarized officer makes better decisions, makes better investigations and I think we'll see results."

Over the coming weeks, occupational health and safety enforcement, inspections and investigations in Alberta will be divided into three regions instead of two. The traditional regions of north and south, divided near Red Deer, will become north, central and south, providing a greater focus in northern Alberta: the site of major economic activity, particularly in the oil and gas, and construction sectors.

While the Alberta Federation of Labour welcomed the announcement of additional officers, it says more needs to be done and questioned where the money was coming from to pay for the inspectors as the recently announced budget only allowed for a 1.5% increase for inspections.

"The answer is obvious to everyone. Occupational Health and Safety initiatives, all of them, education and enforcement, none of it is paid for by taxpayers, none of it appears in the budget. It's paid for by the WCB it's paid by employers in Alberta. They cover the entire bill for all the officers all the educational programs, prosecutions, everything.

"The AFL should be aware of that if they want to competently represent labour."

Lukaszuk also mentioned an announcement he made a few weeks ago about focus inspections that will be taking place this year. He likened the initiative to a drinking and driving checkstop by police when motorists are given fair warning the enhanced enforcement will be taking place. Once the initiative is complete, usually over the holiday season, police announce the number of vehicles stopped and charges laid.

"We're doing the same thing. Up and above our regular random inspections of all employers and places of employment in Alberta, we will be focusing on certain infractions. We already started focus inspections on forklifts and similar equipment, and that's based on my review of statistics," said Lukaszuk noting that type of equipment has proven to be dangerous.

The next focus will be young and inexperienced workers.

"The economy is really picking up so we're attracting workers to this province again, and many of them come from other industries so they're new to our Alberta industries, but also the school year will be ending very soon and we'll have a lot of students getting their summer jobs; often not familiar with the industrial environment ... their first time doing a particular job; often not very well trained," said Lukaszuk.

"I want to make sure these students, at the end of vacation, go back to school unharmed."

Fort McMurray Today, Mon Mar 7 2011
Byline: Carol Christian

"Fifteen million Americans bring you Edward P. Morgan and the news." From 1955 to 1967, that line, heard on the ABC radio network every weeknight at 7 P.M., heralded the nation's best news broadcast. Those fifteen million Americans were the members of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., a federation that included nearly every union in the land. Organized labor was powerful and, for the most part, respected. Its economic and political muscle had played an indispensable role in insuring that the benefits of postwar prosperity were widely shared, transforming much of what many had unironically called the proletariat into an important segment of the broad American middle class.

Labor has come a long way since then-a long way down. At the outset of the nineteen-sixties, one in four workers had the protection of a union. By the early eighties, after President Reagan destroyed the air-traffic controllers' union, the proportion was down to one in five. Now it's one in eight. In a workforce twice the size it was in Edward P. Morgan's heyday, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s onetime fifteen million has shrunk to twelve million, with a couple of million more in unions unaffiliated with the federation.

Organized labor's catastrophic decline has paralleled-and, to a disputed but indisputably substantial degree, precipitated-an equally dramatic rise in economic inequality. In 1980, the best-off tenth of American families collected about a third of the nation's income. Now they're getting close to half. The top one per cent is getting a full fifth, double what it got in 1980. The super-rich-the top one-tenth of the top one per cent, which is to say the top one-thousandth-have been the biggest winners of all. What is always called their "compensation" (wage workers lucky enough to have a job simply get paid) has quadrupled.

Over the same period, the composition of the labor movement, as it still defiantly styles itself, has radically changed. A few weeks ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that, for the first time, more union members are government workers, not private-sector employees. The Times quoted an official of the United States Chamber of Commerce as pronouncing himself "a little bit shocked," and he wasn't the only one. Yet this development has nothing to do with some imagined spike in public-sector unionism. It is entirely a function of the collapse of organized labor in the private sector. For the past four decades, the portion of the public workforce belonging to unions has held remarkably steady, at a little more than one in three. In the private sector, just one worker in fifteen carries a union card.

The causes of the disparity are many and mostly familiar, the hollowing out of American manufacturing notable among them. Unlike factories, government agencies cannot be relocated to China. Nor can government agencies flout the (notoriously weak) labor laws with the insouciance of private employers, many of whom, guided by anti-union "consultants," regard it as their fiduciary responsibility to fire troublesome workers illegally now and, in the rare cases where a worker tries to get justice, pay a trivial fine years later. In short, union-busting has traditionally been a matter for private business. But this winter it has suddenly gone public, and its weapon is not flouting laws but making them.

from the issue
cartoon bank
e-mail this
Last Friday-in the wee hours of morning, after two weeks of tumult and protest demonstrations-Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly passed a bill that is breathtaking in its fealty to the ideology of the far right. The bill, dictated by the new Republican governor, Scott Walker, strips the state's employees of their half-century-old right to bargain collectively-except over base pay, which can never be increased above inflation without a public referendum. It makes union dues purely voluntary and prohibits their collection via paycheck deduction. It requires the unions to face a certification vote every year-and, to get recertified, a union must win a majority of all employees, not just a majority of those voting.

The bill has not yet passed the Wisconsin Senate, because all fourteen members of its Democratic minority decamped for Illinois, thereby depriving the chamber of the quorum required for legislation of this type. Governor Walker claims that his bill is needed to close a budget gap. That is false: the unions have already agreed to all the cuts and givebacks he has demanded. Anyhow, Walker has called his dedication to deficit hawkery into question by pushing through large tax cuts for business (with more to come) and a law forbidding tax hikes without either a two-thirds legislative majority or a statewide referendum.

Liberals who applaud the Wisconsin senators' interstate flight have been accused of hypocrisy, given that these same liberals indignantly reject the undemocratic use of the filibuster in the Senate of the United States. The analogy is as clever as it is flawed. The Wisconsinites are not trying to kill the bill (they can't stay away forever); they merely want to delay a vote in the hope of mobilizing public support for compromise. And, instead of simply declaring an intention-the only effort a modern filibuster requires-they have to do something; to wit, camp out in cheap motels at their own expense, away from their families. They even have to forgo their own salaries: the Republicans have halted direct deposit to their skedaddling colleagues' bank accounts. If they want to get paid, they have to come back to Madison to pick up a paycheck. And the Democrats have another point: although Walker now claims that he ran on curbing collective bargaining as well as cutting employee benefits, no one has been able to find any record that he ever said anything of the kind.

What's getting awfully difficult to deny is that what the Wisconsin Republicans are doing-and they have plenty of imitators and admirers-is solely for a partisan purpose, and a potentially lethal one. Of the five biggest non-party organizational contributors to political campaigns in 2008, the top two were unions, both of them pro-Democratic and both composed partly or wholly of public-sector workers. The other three were pro-Republican business groups or PACs. In 2010, after the Supreme Court threw open the cash sluices in the Citizens United case, only one union made it into the top five, and it came in fifth. And from now on, thanks to five Justices, corporate campaign spending will be literally limitless.

Yes, unions will have the same freedom. But unions are already maxed out-and their resources, stretched to the breaking point, are diminishing. If, as Anatole France observed, the law in its majesty forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, the Supreme Court, in its majesty, permits both to spend as much as they can lay their hands on. If a Republican Party that has lately become rigidly, fanatically "conservative" can succeed in reducing public-sector unions to the parlous condition of their private-sector brethren, then organized labor-which, for all its failings, all its shortsightedness, all its "special interest" selfishness, remains the only truly formidable counterweight to the ever-growing political power of that top one-thousandth-will no longer be anything close to a match for organized money. And that will be the news, brought to you by a few very rich, very powerful Americans-and many, many billions of dollars.

New York, Mon Mar 7 2011
Byline: Hendrik Hertzberg

The province is bolstering the ranks of workplace safety inspectors, adding 30 new inspectors over the next three years.

Employment and Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk made the announcement Friday at a meeting of the Edmonton chapter of the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering, saying it is part of his commitment to making Alberta workplaces safer.

"This plan addresses the needs of today and the demands of tomorrow knowing full well that Alberta's economy is on the verge of an increase," he said. "I hope this sends a very strong signal to any company in Alberta who think the law, and particularly occupational health and safety law, does not apply to them."

Ten new inspectors will be added in each of the next three years, bringing a total of 132 inspectors to the province by 2014.

Lukaszuk told the audience employers who ignore safety at their businesses will face serious pressure to shape up.

"That is 132 workplace health and safety investigators sending a clear message that no company, no individual is above the law."

The Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL), a frequent critic of the government's workplace efforts, applauded the sentiment but said the new inspectors still come well short of addressing the problem.

In a press release issued Friday afternoon, AFL president Gil McGowan said many inspectors were cut from the province in the 1990s even while new workers were coming in to Alberta and that these new inspectors don't make up for it.

"Hiring these new inspectors may help us crawl some way back out of the hole that Klein dug, but it will not make us the leaders in safety that we need to be."

McGowan argued that, given the many dangerous industries that operate in the province, more inspectors are needed in Alberta to keep workers safe.

Lukaszuk said the system was not performing where he wanted it to be when he took over the ministry and he will continue to work towards reducing workplace deaths.

"It wasn't working to my standard by all means. A lot of the criticisms that were identified I agreed with," he said. "I am continuing to look and continuing to improve the system."

The department is currently doing an inspection blitz of forklift operators in the province, checking to see if the machinery is being used safely because of the role they have played in a number of workplace accidents.

The department announced the inspections in advance and Lukaszuk said that approach is similar to police forces that announce seat belt or impaired driving blitzes before heading out on the road.

"At the end of the day my goal is to make sure that equipment is being operated safely and that there are no accidents, so I am giving all employers fair warning."

McGowan also challenged the province to change the system so inspectors fine employers on the spot when they find safety infractions rather than issuing stop-work orders or other corrective actions.

Lukaszuk said the province is studying that idea and it could be coming to Alberta.

"We are looking at the possibility of administrative fines and other fines to be implemented in Alberta."

St. Albert Gazette, Sat Mar 5 2011
Byline: Ryan Tumilty

The Stelmach government's announcement of 30 new Occupational Health and Safety workplace inspectors is welcome, but Alberta still remains a dangerous place to work.

That's the message from president of the Alberta Federation of Labour which represents 140,000 workers in the province.

And while Gil McGowan says it's another step forward from the cost-cutting of the Klein years, he says with just a 1.5 percent increase in the budget for the new inspectors - he's cautious on whether this is just more government rhetoric.

"That ends up being an unfulfilled promise," says McGowan. "I'm hoping that this announcement leads to real change and a real increase in the number of frontline workers doing workplace inspections and that it doesn't turn into just a pre-election promise and is forgotten once the election is passed."

McGowan says the inspectors are especially needed as indicators point towards another economic boom coming to Alberta, and with it a rise in workplace safety incidents.

iNews880, Sat Mar 5 2011

Alberta's largest labour organization welcomes the announcement that 30 new Occupational Health and Safety inspectors will be hired, but says much more needs to be done to protect workers.

"This hiring of 10 new safety officers in each of the next three years must be seen in context," says Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, which represents 140,000 workers. "The government of Ralph Klein slashed the number of inspectors by about half in the early 1990s and we only got back to those numbers in 2009, when there were 86. This was despite the fact that our population had increased by one million and the size of our workforce had seen massive growth."

Alberta is one of the most dangerous places in Canada to work, with its concentration of jobs in industrial sectors that are hazardous, including petroleum development, construction, transportation, manufacturing and processing. Despite this, the Progressive Conservatives have spent less than other jurisdiction on worker health and safety.

"Because Alberta is such a dangerous place to work, we need to spend more than other provinces on safety. Hiring these new inspectors may help us crawl some way back out of the hole that Klein dug, but it will not make us the leaders in safety that we need to be," says McGowan.

"We must also question Employment and Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk on where the money for these inspectors will come from, because the amount for inspection went up only 1.5 per cent in the budget last week, which is less than inflation and population growth," he says.

"The AFL has long called for more inspectors to be hired. It is part of the 10-point action plan of safety we released last year. However, as Alberta heads into another boom, we need more action, more improvements to save the lives and limbs of Alberta's workers," says McGowan.

Inspectors must be given the power to issue on-site administrative fines and stop-work/stop-use orders in cases where they find violations. More resources should also be provided to Crown Prosecutors to pursue charges against workplace that violate the Occupational Health and Safety Code.

"Of the 142 people who lost their lives while at work from 2006 to 2009, the province prosecuted less than three per cent of the employers involved. That is simply unacceptable."

-30-

Media Contact:
Gil McGowan, President, Alberta Federation of Labour @ cell 780-218-9888 or office 780-483-3021

Alberta employers punished with creative sentence fines after a worker is seriously injured or killed will now be tracked under the same provincial system that looks at whether all other court-ordered penalties are paid or not.

The news comes on the same day that Alberta Employment and Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk announced he will be hiring 10 new occupational health and safety officers each year, for the next three years. These provincial employees conduct on-the-spot inspections of companies, educate employers and workers on safety laws, and investigate serious incidents.

These two new measures are part of a series of actions taken by the government to crack down on workplace safety offenders, an initiative begun last year.

In 2010, a major Herald investigation of Alberta workplace deaths and creative sentencing procedures highlighted the province's lack of oversight on penalties. Up until this year, the government hasn't systematically followed whether companies convicted of safety offences have actually paid their fines or not.

"We do have now a system in place for ensuring that occupational health and safety creative sentences are tracked and followed up on," said David Dear, a spokesman for Alberta Justice.

From now on, the fines will be tracked through a database in the same manner as other court-imposed penalties, such as speeding tickets. If they are not paid, the fines enforcement unit is called in to try to force the person or company to pay. As a last resort, the unit is able to seize assets and property.

Last fall, it was revealed Alberta companies haven't paid at least $1.7 million in traditional and creative fines levied for worker deaths or injuries. Today, at least five creative sentence fines remain outstanding.

These penalties are called "creative" because they allow the guilty party to pay the fine to a post-secondary institution, non-profit or other organization - instead of the government - for a program or service that will help to right the original wrong.

For instance, Syncrude was ordered last month to pay $365,000 to Keyano College after Calgarian Tom Miller was killed while working in Fort McMurray in December 2008.

Miller was crushed by a falling slab of ice and Syncrude pleaded guilty to failing to provide adequate safety protocols. In that vein, the fine will be directed to improve the curriculum for oilpatch workers facing winter conditions, and for a scholarship fund in Miller's name.

The government said Friday the province will have a total of 132 occupational health and safety officers in three years, a 53 per cent increase from early 2010.

Alberta Federation of Labour president Gil McGowan said while he's encouraged by the boost to officer ranks, he said the government is only now recovering from the Klein-era cuts of the mid-1990s. McGowan said Alberta has more high-risk industries and should have more safety officers than in other provinces.

Calgary Herald, Fri Mar 4 2011
Byline: Kelly Cryderman