Building Back with the PRO Act a NEW UNION
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OFFICE AND PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION, AFL-CIO, CLC ISSUE 545 | SUMMER 2021 Building Back with the PRO Act A NEW UNION Why We Need Labor Oscar Winners Share Their Documentary ‘9to5’ with OPEIU In the 1970s, OPEIU members joined through vintage footage and Law Reform Now tens of thousands of women who took a interviews with the women involved stand for equality and fair treatment in the in the movement. Reichert and workplace, inspiring a movement — and the Bognar won the Best Documentary By Richard Lanigan 1980 movie “9 to 5” starring Jane Fonda, Oscar for their 2019 Netflix film President Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton. "American Factory." In standing up to their often chauvinistic The filmmakers joined OPEIU male bosses by organizing inside their unions members for an exclusive virtual and on the streets, these brave women panel sandwiched between three helped create better conditions for all showings of the documentary women in the workforce. as a part of the union’s first-ever But that work is still not finished. Some virtual OPEIU Movie Night. The OPEIU members involved in the 9to5 panel, moderated by original 9to5 who recently helped win union recognition ou drive to work every day, parking in the In 1978, after seeing the flagrant violations however, why would the employer commit movement joined an exclusive panel March movement member Kimberly Cook, featured at Augsburg University with Local 12 in Y lot across the street from your workplace committed by J.P. Stevens, the Senate took unfair labor practices? 23 with Julia Reichert and Steve Bognar, co- the filmmakers and OPEIU members across Minnesota, shared how the lessons from the for $35 a day. One day, you’re late and the lot up a bill to make it easier for employees to Since 1978, the percentage of the American producers and directors of "9to5: The Story generations. 9to5 movement are impacting today’s fight is full, forcing you to search for parking on a join a union and strengthen penalties when workforce protected under a union contract of a Movement." The new PBS documentary Maren Stoddard Mack and Deanna Davis, for women’s and workers’ rights. The panel nearby street. But, everywhere you look there an employer violated a worker’s rights. has gone from 26 percent to less than 12 tells the true story behind the popular movie both members of the organizing committee also featured two longtime union activists are “No Parking” signs. So, you park the car Conservative Republicans proposed more percent. With that loss of union density, and OPEIU member-leaders, Joan Weiss and and decide a ticket is a necessary risk. When than 500 amendments and filibustered the the number of sick days, vacation days and Rosalinda Aguirre, who expanded on the you return to your car the parking ticket waits bill out of session. The law never passed. holidays enjoyed by the average American interviews they gave in the documentary, for you under the windshield wiper. “Plead Forty-three years have passed since the worker has gone down. The number of sharing anecdotes and observations about guilty and send a $20 fine to the Parking Senate last considered labor law reform. people covered under a defined pension the past, present and future of women Violations Bureau,” the ticket reads. It strikes organizing for equity and dignity at work. you breaking the law is actually cheaper by With nearly 65 percent of all Americans supporting unions, $15 a day than doing the responsible thing To view the panel and parking in the lot. and about the same number saying they would join a discussion, scan For far too long, paying the fine is union if they had an opportunity, it is time to reform the the QR code with something more and more corporations have your phone. been willing to do rather than be responsible law and protect workers’ right to organize and bargain. employers. During the mid-1970s, union organizers Employers facing organizing campaigns, has declined to less than 10 percent of the from the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile such as Boeing in South Carolina, workforce. Also, during this period, the OPEIU hosted a panel with Academy Award-winning filmmakers Julia Reichert and Steve Bognar, bottom right, and OPEIU members who participated in the 9to5 movement that inspired the documentary. Workers Union attempted to organize Volkswagen in Tennessee, Nissan in percentage of workers with employer- employees of J.P. Stevens, which at the Mississippi and, most recently, Amazon in provided health coverage has declined time was the nation’s second largest textile Alabama, have all been accused of NLRA and the quality of that health care has manufacturer. The National Labor Relations violations. Companies faced with a union weakened. Retiree health insurance has all Act (NLRA) was about 40 years old. It organizing campaign regularly engage in but disappeared and real wages, adjusted for Labor Secretary Vows to Put Working People First was the first time in those 40 years a large surveillance, harassment, discharge of union inflation, have remained stagnant. On a call with labor leaders throughout the United States, "We can't be afraid to organize and get American company analyzed whether the supporters, threats to move the employer Today, for the first time in decades, the new Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh pledged to put the more members within our ranks," Walsh said, cost of the penalty under the NLRA would operation and coercive interrogation of Senate is debating whether to enact labor law interests of working people ahead of those of corporate underlining how he views his role at the labor be less than the cost of a change in working union supporters. reform. The bill is called the Protecting the America, saying he’ll work to lift up the middle class and department. conditions and decided to take on the cost Many profit-driven businesses have Right to Organize (PRO) Act. With nearly 65 strengthen the rights of all working people to join a union. Walsh, the former mayor of Boston and of the violations. J.P. Stevens was charged used the same cost-benefit analysis used percent of all Americans supporting unions, Walsh spoke of his plans for the future as head of the second-generation member of Laborers' with nearly 100 unfair labor practices. by J.P. Stevens to justify violating the law and about the same number saying they labor department, naming a laundry list of priorities he Local 223, said he supports a $15 minimum After the charges were heard before an and workers' rights. In effect, the United would join a union if they had an opportunity, hoped to help the Biden administration accomplish — some wage and thinks the $11 proposal floating administrative law judge, the National States has developed a culture where it is it is time to reform the law and protect legislative and others to be undertaken using his executive through Congress is too low, demonstrating his Labor Relations Board found J.P. Stevens acceptable to violate labor law as long as workers’ right to organize and bargain. authority. These included passing the PRO Act — the largest bold and unapologetically pro-labor stance. had violated the NLRA more than 20 times. the employer pays the associated fines. The labor law reform measure in decades — improving access to "I'm going to do everything I can to lift up The company paid millions of dollars in employer violates the law and then spins the For more about why we need the PRO Act, apprenticeships for women and people of color, creating good the American people and the middle class, fines and millions more to union busters facts, saying the workers never wanted the see the cover story, “Building Back with union jobs, tackling systemic racism in the workplace and union and nonunion," he said. "The window for rather than improve working conditions. union. If the workers didn’t want the union, the PRO Act,” beginning on page 6. ■ Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh. providing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers. organizing is wide open, and it's now." 2 | SUMMER 2021 WHITE COLLAR | 3 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR A NEW UNION Thanks for Free College Benefit ANALYSIS My name is Bernice Clemmons, and I’m an active member of Local 153. I just wanted to take the time to say how much This Time is Different: Opinion of Labor Unions Shifts I greatly appreciate the opportunity www.opeiu.org OPEIU provides all union members RICHARD LANIGAN from the Great Recession to the COVID Pandemic to further their education. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic causing unprecedented disruption globally, having Americans’ approval of unions is way up. Knowing why is vital to understanding something else to think about (school) how working people can use their power to affect change. has been a blessing and a reward for me. WHITE COLLAR (ISSN 0043-4876) is published quarterly by Office and Professional Employees International Union, 80 Eighth Avenue, Suite 201, New York, NY 10011. Periodical postage paid at n 2009, in the midst of the Great Recession, public approval Other factors can also explain this shift. Progressive, pro-union I would like to give a special thanks New York and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send to [OPEIU staffers] Suzanne Fenech- address changes to Office and Professional Employees International I for labor unions plummeted. Less than half of Americans politics have been rewarded at the ballot box and in the public Union, 80 Eighth Avenue, Suite 205, New York, NY 10011. Pascocello and Victoria Tirado-Roman, On the Cover: On International Workers' Day, or May Reproduction by the labor press of any or all material herein that summer, just 41 percent, reported a favorable opinion of arena.