Tag Archives: labor

Go, Worcester Community-Labor Coalition, go!!!! TODAY! BE THERE!

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TODAY! TUESDAY, January 26

5 p.m.

Worcester City Council Economic Development sub-Committee Meeting

Worcester City Hall

Today the Worcester Community-Labor Coalition and allies will be presenting our proposal for a Worcester TIF Policy to city leaders.

We believe all TIF recipients must meet Worcester’s Equal Opportunity, CORI and Anti-Discrimination policies.

We believe all big developments receiving tax dollars should be built legally and by reputable contractors.

We believe all people who receive jobs through projects created through the TIFs should be guaranteed a livable wage of $15/hr.

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Worcester is long overdue for a TIF Policy.

We need better oversight of how our tax dollars are being spent.

Worcester needs a TIF policy that supports targeted economic development without putting an additional burden on taxpayers.

We need to be certain that economic development created because of tax benefits, benefits the members of our community.

TIFs should:

create quality jobs for local residents, both construction and permanent jobs

create job opportunities for our young people

Big developers should be held to a higher standard when receiving tax relief.

PLEASE come to Worcester City Hall to support these proposals! Let Worcester city councilors know you support LOCAL LABOR, LOCAL YOUTH AND A LIVING WAGE!

This is why at tomorrow night’s City Council meeting Worcester city councilors must support local labor/apprentice program shops at the old Worcester Courthouse:

By Rosalie Tirella

I’m a blue-collar gal through and through. As working class as you can get!

I grew up working class/poor in Worcester’s Green Island neighborhood. My beloved Polish grandfather worked his whole life in the Dudley textile mills, PROUDLY joining the union there; my mother worked 6O!! hours a week at the old Oscar’s Cleaners on Millbury Street – a dry cleaners. For minimum wage, courtesy of cheapskates, the ASADOURIAN FAMILY, her whole life! EXPLOITED to the max.

I grew up around construction guys, day laborers. Exploited too.

My grandfather was an excellent carpenter, building this huge porch swing  for my Bapy, which proudly swung on our Lafayette Street front porch for years… He was always making things… stools, benches, even tin cups…

For five years I went out with the Old Injun Fighter (OIF) a contractor/ handyman/ carpenter who loved doing “finish work,” could put a porch on a house, put in a bathroom, and, yes, build a little home, if he needed to. He’s from blue collar Lynn, where his dad worked in the leather factories there. (His mother was a photographer for one of the city’s department stores. She was artistic, beautiful, mercurial/crazy … and ahead of her time…)

I put out InCity Times, which requires a lot of blue color LOCOMOTION! Such as delivering thousands of ICT newspapers every two weeks, running around selling ads, dealing with printing guys, knowing about skids, and lifts, and using your back the right way.

AS FAR AS WCLC AND ITS REQUESTS OF THE CITY of Worcester, REGARDING THE LABOR AT THE OLD COURTHOUSE and Brady Sullivan developers from New Hampshire I say:

YES! to the WCLC list!

Why?

Because, and I speak from experience/ a deep knowledge:

Lots of developers and contractors EXPLOIT workers. If they can get a borderline homeless neighborhood guy to do grunt construction work for $8 or ten bucks an hour, they will. The guy may have a drinking problem, he may collect social security disability, he may even have a drug problem.  Still … he is a body to exploit, someone to haul crap away, dig holes…He is dispensable. He is a sitting duck. HE WILL SAY YES. THIS ENABLES THE CONTRACTOR to save a TON of money by not going with a reputable shop that pays its laborers around 20 bucks an hour and its professional carpenters, bricklayers, etc even more $$$$.

CONTRACTORS HATE PAYING workers compensation.  It’s expensive.  The OIF will do it BECAUSE IT’S THE LAW AND IF CAUGHT BREAKING THE LAW HE WILL HAVE TO STOP WORK AND PAY A FINE, BUT HE HATES IT. If contractors can wiggle around the law, and not get caught, many will. TOUGH LUCK TO THE WORKER WHO FALLS OFF A ROOF AND BREAKS A LEG or trips on a cable and slips in the mud and cracks his head or drowns in the mud as a huge hole, without proper supports, fills up.

Which leads me to my next point … Construction worker is THE MOST DANGEROUS JOB THERE IS.

Not firefighter, not cops, BUT CONSTRUCTION WORKER.  Hundreds die or are critically injured every year.

BUILDING STUFF. Working on HUGE TRUCKS, working on scaffolding, working with drills and nail guns. Work sites run by slip shod contractors are booby traps, death traps. I know a great gifted carpenter who lost an eye on a job! Heartbreaking.

More guys die fixing buildings, building tunnels, digging holes, etc than fighting fires, etc. THE OLD INJUN FIGHTER NEVER LET ME FORGET THIS.

CONTRACTORS often hire illegal immigrants and exploit these fearful folks TO THE MAX. SOMETIMES ITS CLOSE TO SLAVE LABOR. This allows them to undercut legit shops and get the job…2. make more $$$. Contractors love to make money!

Several times in Worcester, at the GREENWOOD STREET PRICE CHOPPER supermarket, later at night, I saw several contractors in their vans coming out with wagons full of groceries. One guy: HE OPENED THE VAN BACK DOOR. I saw a huge group of laborers inside the van sitting on their haunches – they were dark skinned…They took the food.  He slammed the door. I WAS MORTIFIED.

Slave labor. Does anyone NOT believe this still goes in?? … here, too?

WHEN CONTRACTORS HIRE AND EXPLOIT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS THEY CHARGE the developer/customer as much as ONE THIRD TO A HALF less $$$ than a legit contractor who is FOLLOWING THE LAWS AND PAYING INTO WORKERS COMP, PAYING a living wage etc. does.

This gets them the job because their labor costs hit rock bottom, which they pass on to their customers. They undercut the union shops following the rules, paying their guys living wages.

This happens a lot in ROOFING (South American workers exploited here) and HARDWOOD FLOORING (Vietnamese workers here) .

The groups that are trying to educate WORCESTER CITY COUNCILORS, people like JACK DONAHUE OF THE CARPENTERS UNION, are not making stuff up.

They know, hands on, just how rotten things can be.

They are not commie lowlife hipsters trying to undermine America.

They are good family men, good standing members of the community. They live in Worcester and want what’s best for her.

THEY ARE FIGHTING FOR AMERICA AND THE AMERICAN WAY. (Not unlike Superman!)

We, as a city, need to develop the Worcester Courthouse, but NOT AT THE EXPENSE OF THE WORCESTER WORKER, LABOR LAWS, GOOD WAGES, A SAFE WORK SITE. The courthouse is a gem in a great safe Worcester neighborhood. The Worcester Art museum, Institute Park, WPI, the Worcester Historical Museum’s mansion are all in this great neighborhood. THERE WILL BE OTHER DEVELOPERS, if Brady Sullivan walks away. WE JUST NEED TO MARKET THE BUILDING WITH THE NEIGHBORHOOD and DO IT AGGRESSIVELY!

The carpenters union guys are GOOD GUYS supporting the American right to work safely and legally at a work site while MAKING A LIVING WAGE.

Worcester city councilors Ric Rushton, Joe Petty, George Russell, Phil Palmieri, Konnie Lukes, Tony Economou and colleagues must RESPECT where Donahue and his colleagues are coming from. BECAUSE THEY ARE SPEAKING TRUTH TO $$$/POWER.

The Worcester City Council must support the WCLC’ s recommendations tomorrow night!

Worcester Labor Coalition Fighting for Local Jobs

By William S. Coleman III, community activist

Reverend Clyde Tally, welcomed the Worcester Community Labor Coalition to AME Zion Church, Illinois Street, on Monday, Nov 17.  This well planned and organized meeting of labor and community leaders had the undivided and focused attention of state and locally elected leaders. The impressive leadership from the community shared their concerns and hopes that proposed economic development coming to our city would have a focused interest on making sure that Worcester residents were given priority consideration when hiring construction jobs begins.

Sandy Ellis, of the Massachusetts Nurses Association presented the purpose of the meeting and its goals.

Frank Kartheiser, of the Worcester Interfaith presented a brief history to the Worcester Community Labor Coalition.

Robert Thomas of The Martin Luther King Center highlighted the successes of the coalition in working with elected officials and notably State Senator Harriet Chandler.

Chris Condon, of CSC Solutions presented the results of a survey conducted between July 8th and 10th 2014. 400 registered voters in Worcester participated. Chris explained what a Community Benefit Agreement consists of:

“A Community Benefit Agreement  (CBA) is a contract negotiated between an institution/developer and a coalition representing a spectrum of community leaders. Elected officials participate to ensure the public needs are met.” In the CBA goals were spelled out for hiring talented individuals with previous obstacles to employment. Some targeted categories include: local residents, veterans, single parents, individuals with past felony conviction on their criminal records, women, people of color, and low income residents. The meeting highlighted the need for apprenticeship programs and training opportunities that will lead to good job careers.

A CBA benefits the community, the developers and a skilled and educated workforce.

David Minasian of the Carpenters Local 107, detailed the positive benefits of economic growth and development for our City.

Lenny Cooper, of the Worcester NAACP Unit # 2058 presented the goals for the Coalition.

Many community concerns were addressed by organizations like “Neighbor to Neighbor” when they put forth a need to adjust bus schedules that included express bus services to large employers and to the Auburn Mall.

The audience was given an opportunity to present questions to Coalition members and share their thoughts on important community concerns.

Richard Shea, Senate District Coordinator of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, elaborated on the challenges that poverty presents to students who drop out of high school and the need to rally for preschool education programs throughout our public schools.

Many elected officials attended this meeting and actively participated pledging their support to the goals of the Coalition and its goals.

MASS SECRETARY OF LABOR AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT TO LEAD NATIONAL ASSOCIATION

MASSACHUSETTS SECRETARY OF LABOR AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT TO LEAD THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENT LABOR OFFICIALS

BOSTON –  Massachusetts Secretary of Labor & Workforce Development Joanne F. Goldstein was elected to serve as president of the National Association of Government Labor Officials (NAGLO) last week at the association’s annual conference held in Boston.

NAGLO is a bi-partisan professional association representing Secretaries, Commissioners, and Directors of Labor for each state and territory of the United States. As president, Secretary Goldstein will lead NAGLO’s effort to promote shared ideas and best practices in protecting the nation’s workforce.

“NAGLO sets the stage to exchange new and diverse ideas from across the country’s top labor officials,” said Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD) Secretary Goldstein. “It’s an honor to be elected by my peers, and I am eager to collaborate with members to tackle the unique workforce challenges and opportunities we face in our home states as well as throughout the country.”

“Secretary Goldstein continues to be a tremendous advocate for job seekers and employers as we move our Commonwealth forward,” said Governor Deval L. Patrick. “I congratulate Joanne on this new leadership role with NAGLO, and I know she will do right by Massachusetts and the country.”

Secretary Goldstein succeeds Virginia’s Commissioner of the Department of Labor and Industry, Courtney Malveaux. “I am pleased that Secretary Goldstein has stepped in to lead NAGLO as it celebrates its 100th anniversary,” said outgoing NAGLO President Malveaux. “Secretary Goldstein is truly a public servant, a valued partner and a good friend.  I am confident she will lead the group well.”

Last week, Secretary Goldstein hosted the 2013 NAGLO Annual Conference in Boston from July 29 through July 31. The conference featured keynote speakers from the U.S. Department of Labor and many states as well as a series of presentations discussing worker misclassification, wage collection, apprenticeship and training, unemployment, prevailing wage, new technology and best practices among other topics. During the conference, Secretary Goldstein moderated a panel discussion titled “Addressing Worker Misclassification: A Win-Win for Business, Labor, and the Public.

EOLWD works on behalf of job seekers, apprentices, union members, claimants, employers, and researchers. Secretary Goldstein oversees a wide variety of programs and services to serve constituents across the Commonwealth, including the recent deployment of over $10 million in grants announced this summer to support workforce training for local employers and job seekers. Looking ahead, EOLWD anticipates further grant awards through the Workforce Training Fund, Health Care Workforce Transformation Fund, and other sources and releasing the annual report on the underground economy and employee misclassification by the fall 2013.

For more information about EOLWD, visit www.mass.gov/lwd. To learn more about NAGLO, visit www.naglo.org.

Where Does Occupy Wall Street Go From Here? A proposal from Michael Moore

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Friends,

This past weekend I participated in a four-hour meeting of Occupy Wall Street activists whose job it is to come up with the vision and goals of the movement. It was attended by 40+ people and the discussion was both inspiring and invigorating. Here is what we ended up proposing as the movement’s “vision statement” to the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street:

We Envision: [1] a truly free, democratic, and just society; [2] where we, the people, come together and solve our problems by consensus; [3] where people are encouraged to take personal and collective responsibility and participate in decision making; [4] where we learn to live in harmony and embrace principles of toleration and respect for diversity and the differing views of others; [5] where we secure the civil and human rights of all from violation by tyrannical forces and unjust governments; [6] where political and economic institutions work to benefit all, not just the privileged few; [7] where we provide full and free education to everyone, not merely to get jobs but to grow and flourish as human beings; [8] where we value human needs over monetary gain, to ensure decent standards of living without which effective democracy is impossible; [9] where we work together to protect the global environment to ensure that future generations will have safe and clean air, water and food supplies, and will be able to enjoy the beauty and bounty of nature that past generations have enjoyed.

The next step will be to develop a specific list of goals and demands. As one of the millions of people who are participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement, I would like to respectfully offer my suggestions of what we can all get behind now to wrestle the control of our country out of the hands of the 1% and place it squarely with the 99% majority.

Here is what I will propose to the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street:

10 Things We Want
A Proposal for Occupy Wall Street
Submitted by Michael Moore 

1. Eradicate the Bush tax cuts for the rich and institute new taxes on the wealthiest Americans and on corporations, including a tax on all trading on Wall Street (where they currently pay 0%).

2. Assess a penalty tax on any corporation that moves American jobs to other countries when that company is already making profits in America. Our jobs are the most important national treasure and they cannot be removed from the country simply because someone wants to make more money.

3. Require that all Americans pay the same Social Security tax on all of their earnings (normally, the middle class pays about 6% of their income to Social Security; someone making $1 million a year pays about 0.6% (or 90% less than the average person). This law would simply make the rich pay what everyone else pays.

4. Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, placing serious regulations on how business is conducted by Wall Street and the banks.

5. Investigate the Crash of 2008, and bring to justice those who committed any crimes.

6. Reorder our nation’s spending priorities (including the ending of all foreign wars and their cost of over $2 billion a week). This will re-open libraries, reinstate band and art and civics classes in our schools, fix our roads and bridges and infrastructure, wire the entire country for 21st century internet, and support scientific research that improves our lives.

7. Join the rest of the free world and create a single-payer, free and universal health care system that covers all Americans all of the time.

8. Immediately reduce carbon emissions that are destroying the planet and discover ways to live without the oil that will be depleted and gone by the end of this century.

9. Require corporations with more than 10,000 employees to restructure their board of directors so that 50% of its members are elected by the company’s workers. We can never have a real democracy as long as most people have no say in what happens at the place they spend most of their time: their job. (For any U.S. businesspeople freaking out at this idea because you think workers can’t run a successful company: Germany has a law like this and it has helped to make Germany the world’s leading manufacturing exporter.)

10. We, the people, must pass three constitutional amendments that will go a long way toward fixing the core problems we now have. These include:

a) A constitutional amendment that fixes our broken electoral system by 1) completely removing campaign contributions from the political process; 2) requiring all elections to be publicly financed; 3) moving election day to the weekend to increase voter turnout; 4) making all Americans registered voters at the moment of their birth; 5) banning computerized voting and requiring that all elections take place on paper ballots.

b) A constitutional amendment declaring that corporations are not people and do not have the constitutional rights of citizens. This amendment should also state that the interests of the general public and society must always come before the interests of corporations.

c) A constitutional amendment that will act as a “second bill of rights” as proposed by President Frankin D. Roosevelt: that every American has a human right to employment, to health care, to a free and full education, to breathe clean air, drink clean water and eat safe food, and to be cared for with dignity and respect in their old age.

Let me know what you think. Occupy Wall Street enjoys the support of millions. It is a movement that cannot be stopped. Become part of it by sharing your thoughts with me or online (at OccupyWallSt.org). Get involved in (or start!) your own local Occupy movement. Make some noise. You don’t have to pitch a tent in lower Manhattan to be an Occupier. You are one just by saying you are. This movement has no singular leader or spokesperson; every participant is a leader in their neighborhood, their school, their place of work. Each of you is a spokesperson to those whom you encounter. There are no dues to pay, no permission to seek in order to create an action.

We are but ten weeks old, yet we have already changed the national conversation. This is our moment, the one we’ve been hoping for, waiting for. If it’s going to happen it has to happen now. Don’t sit this one out. This is the real deal. This is it.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Yours,
Michael Moore

It’s over, but good info. to have …

Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis to host Sept. 19 press call on efforts to reduce misclassification of employees as independent contractors, non-employees
Call to follow signing of memorandums of understanding by
labor secretary, IRS commissioner, state labor commissioners

WASHINGTON – Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis, Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas H. Shulman and several state labor commissioners on Sept. 19 will sign memorandums of understanding on the improper classification of employees as independent contractors or other non-employees. Following the signing, Solis, Shulman and state officials will take part in a press teleconference to discuss how the U.S. Department of Labor, the IRS and state agencies will embark on new efforts, guided by these memorandums, to protect the rights of employees and level the playing field for responsible employers by reducing the practice conducted by some businesses of misclassifying employees.

WHO: Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis

IRS Commissioner Douglas H. Shulman

State officials from Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts (Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, Joanne F. Goldstein),
Minnesota, Missouri, Utah and Washington

WHAT: Media teleconference on efforts by federal and state agencies to reduce the business practice
of improperly classifying employees as contractors or other non-employees

WHEN: Monday, Sept. 19
11:30 a.m. EDT

WHERE: Call-in number: 800-593-7185

Protest at Clark U tomorrow (Sat., April 17)

Cafeteria workers, students, community groups to protest tomorrow civil rights violations by food service giant Sodexo at Clark University.

Cafeteria workers employed by food service contractor Sodexo at Clark University will be joined by student groups and community supporters in a march and rally on Saturday, April 17, near the Clark campus. The workers have been trying to form a union with SEIU Local 615.

The support for Sodexo workers has been escalating in Worcester. Recently three protesters were arrested on Main Street, Worcester during a protest of Sodexo’s legal violations. Saturday’s event at Clark is one of several across the country this week intended to protest Sodexo’s attacks on employees trying to form a union. Sodexo cafeteria workers, janitors, students, religious leaders and elected officials in 11 states will participate in rallies and lead strikes in some locations; and some individuals may participate in civil disobedience. Events are planned for Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Illinois, Colorado, Louisiana, Georgia and California.

Sodexo is the 22nd largest employer in the world, with more than 80,000 workers in the U.S. Sodexo made more than a billion dollars in profits in 2009, yet SEIU leaders note that the company pays its U.S. workers as little as $7.50 an hour and does not offer affordable healthcare options. Continue reading Protest at Clark U tomorrow (Sat., April 17)