Published By AMERICAN INCOME LIFE & NATIONAL INCOME LIFE LETTER LABOR ADVISORY BOARD OCTOBER 2013 Vol. 45 No. 6 SPECIAL REPORT labor federation, was elected Executive Vice to provide services. “Working America ON THE AFL-CIO President to replace Arlene Holt Baker who … is the fastest-growing organization for CONVENTION retired. AFL-CIO convention delegates put working people who don’t have a union new emphasis on organizing, building part- on the job,” said the AFL-CIO. These ef- The 12 million member AFL- nerships with community allies and other forts to promote “alternative labor groups” CIO, the nation’s largest affiliation of strategies to restore bargaining rights and are intended to include both workers (such unions, held its quadrennial convention in make democracy work for working families. as taxi drivers) who lack the legal right to Los Angeles September 8-11. Some 4,000 unionize, and student workers at university delegates attended the event. Delegates de- The AFL-CIO convention took and college campuses. The convention also bated labor’s future directions, elected offi- historic steps to rebuild its membership formally endorsed coalitions with worker cers and acted on a number of resolutions. and mobilize workers across America. The centers and other non-labor groups which President Richard Trumka and Secretary- convention adopted a resolution to promote share similar interests. Treasurer Liz Shuler were reelected to new “new forms” of membership for students terms. Tefere Gebre, a 45-year-old Ethiopi- and nonunion workers. A key element AFL-CIO President Richard an political refugee who immigrated to the of the initiative is to promote nonunion Trumka called on delegates to “do things United States as a teenager, and the execu- membership with Working America, the differently” and begin “the great work of re- tive director of the Orange County, Calif., AFL-CIO’s community affiliate designed awakening a movement of working people” in his keynote address September 9. “It is time, my friends, to turn America right side up. And to turn America right side up, we need a real working class movement. And if that’s going to happen, we, our institutions, have to do some things differently,” he said. He said despite victories over the past four years, labor faces a Republican Party com- mitted to “a concerted effort to destroy col- lective bargaining and wipe out our unions, all of our unions, private and public sector, in state after state.” He called on delegates to adopt a strategy outlined in the conven- tion resolutions “for winning broadly shared prosperity” in the nation. Organized labor pledged to build strong political alliances with progres- sive groups such as the NAACP, the Sierra Pictured left to right; Former AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt-Baker, AFL-CIO Club and the National Council of La Raza President Richard Trumka and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler. Flickr.com photo used to increase workers’ power at the ballot box. under Creative Commons from AFGE. “We have to create an economic, political JAMES WILLIAMS, General President Emeritus - International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, Chairman - AIL Labour Advisory Board VICTOR KAMBER, Vice President - American Income Life Insurance Company, Executive Director - AIL/NILICO Labor Advisory Board ROGER SMITH, Chief Executive Officer - American Income Life Insurance Company, President - AIL/NILICO Labor Advisory Board DENISE BOWYER, Vice President - American Income Life Insurance Company, Secretary - AIL/NILICO Labor Advisory Board Pg 2 LABOR LETTER and legislative climate where our members can succeed,” AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka told the news media. “Our opposi- tion is well-financed and determined. We’re too small to do it alone.” Trumka’s com- ments reflected the reality of union mem- bership’s decline to 11 percent, from 35 percent in the 1950s. “Only by combining together all these progressive groups are we going to be able to make the changes neces- sary to make the middle class stronger,” he said. Among the speakers were Sen. Eliza- beth Warren and new Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez. Eamon Gilmor, Tánaiste of the Irish Labour Party. Flickr.com photo used under Creative Commons from The Labour Party. AFL-CIO delegates on the last day of the convention dealt with the thorny Union of Sao Paulo, Juvandia Moreira, The Irish government will con- issue of the impact of the Affordable Care blamed executives of those financial entities sider reforms to give trade unions greater Act (ACA) on multi-employer health care for not paying attention to union demands. rights to collectively bargain on the part plans. Three days of closed-door meet- “Our objective is to affect technological of workers, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore an- ings resulted in a compromised resolution areas and transaction tables, to put pres- nounced. Action on the proposal is expected submitted by the Building and Construc- sure on bankers and make them negotiate later this fall. Speaking at an international tion Trades Department, the International as quickly as possible with employees,” she trade union conference in Dublin, he said Union of Operating Engineers and the said. Among other demands, the union is the government also will introduce leg- American Federation of Teachers. The reso- asking for an 11.9 percent wage settlement, islation to restore registered employment lution expressed labor’s apprehension about a minimum wage increase, an end to cuts, agreements as a mechanism for setting pay the implementation of the health care law better working conditions, more security and conditions for thousands of workers. and suggestions for change. The resolu- and more job offers for Afro-descendants. This system of wage determination was tion stated “federal agencies administering struck down by the courts early in the sum- the ACA have interpreted the Act in ways Costa Rica’s legislators have mer. Eamon Devoy, the general secretary of that are threatening the ability of workers approved, in first vote, a law that would the electricians’ union TEEU, who orga- to keep health care coverage through some ensure the rights of domestic service em- nized the conference, said since the collapse collectively bargained, non-profit health ployees in the country. The bill was a result of the registered employment agreement care funds.” Among other “fixes,” the reso- of an agreement between the International system last May strike notices had been lution said multi-employer plans should Labor Organization (ILO) and the Gov- served on 15 employers but all had “caved in have access to the ACA’s premium tax cred- ernment of Costa Rica. According to the to observing and maintaining the standards its and cost-sharing reductions and called Ministry of Labor, the most frequent com- we had set in this industry over many years.” for changes to the employer responsibility plaint filed by domestic workers is the non- rules. The AFL-CIO reiterated opposition payment of severance pay in the case of Delegates representing the to taxing workers’ health benefits and sup- layoff or firing. Among other protections, former Canadian Auto Workers and the port for the “preservation of collectively the bill bars all forms of abuse, harass- Communications, Energy and Paperwork- bargained plans, union administered plans, ment and violence, information on terms ers unions met over Labor Day weekend and other plans that cover unionized work- of work contract, access to the courts or a in Toronto to give formal approval to the ers, by eliminating the ACA Excise Tax, complaints mechanism and right to a safe creation of Unifor, the largest private sector Reinsurance Fee and all other fees.” and healthy environment. Typically, in do- union in Canada. More than 4,000 delegates mestic work in Costa Rica, men are hired attended the historic founding convention as gardeners, handymen, etc., while women of the new 300,000 member union created INTERNATIONAL work as maids, keeping house and caring out of the merger of the CAW and CEP. LABOR NEWS for children or seniors. A large number of According to union officials, thousands domestic workers in Costa Rica are for- more watched the convention through on- Brazilian employees of the eigners, with the single largest group com- line live streaming. Jerry Dias, a veteran of banking sector stopped work September 19 ing from Nicaragua. The Ministry of Labor the Canadian Auto Workers, was elected throughout almost the entire country to de- estimated some 13,000 men and 122,000 Unifor’s first president. “Unifor is here be- mand a wage settlement and better working women in Costa Rica work in domestic cause it’s time to stop playing defense and conditions. President of the Bank Workers services, in more than 150,000 homes. it’s time we started to play offense,” said LABOR LETTER Pg 3 Dias in his fiery inaugural address at Uni- 9,000 people in Germany, where the com- Union and worker advocates for’s founding convention in Toronto. “It’s pany generated $8.7 billion of its $61 billion applauded proposed rules by the U.S. Se- time to stop reacting and it’s time to start in global revenue last year in the country, curities and Exchange Commission to re- setting the agenda.” He said the union making it Amazon’s second-largest market quire U.S. corporations to disclose how the would welcome workers excluded from col- after the U.S. Ver.di represents some 2,000 paychecks of their chief executive officers lective bargaining and would devote 10 per- workers in Leipzig and 3,300 employees at compare with those of their workers. They cent of its revenues to organizing. Amazon’s Bad Hersfeld center. say disclosures would help investors iden- tify top-heavy compensation models where Australian Council of Trade CEOs of many U.S.