On the picket line

California gov’t workers protest wage cuts

Delegates to the national convention of the State, County and Municipal Employees union took to the streets in San Francisco on July 30, upon hearing that California’s Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger intended to temporarily slash the hourly wages of more than 200,000 state workers to the federal minimum wage of $6.55 to pressure the Democratic-controlled legislature to agree to budget cuts.

Given the hikes in gas and food prices, the workers refuse to be victimized because of a $14.8 billion state budget deficit they didn’t create. According to the California Budget Project, tax cuts enacted since 1993 will cost the state $12 billion this year. (Associated Press, July 30)

Meanwhile, demonstrations are continuing in cities and towns all over the state. Workers at the Department of Motor Vehicles, who will be penalized by the cuts, demonstrated in San Diego and surrounding towns July 31 and Aug. 4. (San Diego Tribune, Aug. 4)

Democratic State Controller John Chiang has said he will refuse to obey the governor’s order and that the state has the money to pay the workers full salaries through September.

Verizon workers postpone strike

The Communications and Electrical Workers unions, which represent 65,000 Verizon workers from Maine to Virginia, agreed to put off their Aug. 3 strike because of progress in negotiations.

Thousands of workers rallied outside Verizon headquarters in New York City on July 25 to demand no change in health care coverage for current and retired workers and for job security provisions in their new contract.

One of the major sticking points is that Verizon has moved thousands of union jobs to non-union contractors or its non-union business division. The unions, which represent landline workers, also want to unionize wireless workers. (New York Times, July 27 & Aug. 4)

Protest Wal-Mart’s latest attack

Wal-Mart, the largest U.S. private employer that banks billions in profits each year, has abused workers’ rights yet again by trying to influence how they vote.

On Aug. 1 the Wall Street Journal reported that Wal-Mart has been holding meetings for store managers and department supervisors in seven states in which they assert that a vote for Democrats in November will lead to passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. That, they warn, will usher in unions and force companies to pay workers higher wages and provide health care benefits. One supervisor reported that “voting for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama would be tantamount to inviting unions in.”

To counter Wal-Mart, which planned to take its coercive voting campaign nationwide, the AFL-CIO immediately set up a petition demanding that Wal-Mart stop violating labor and voting laws. You can access the petition though the corresponding article posted on http://blog.aflcio.org/.

In a revealing aside, the WSJ noted that Wal-Mart is the leading member of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, which is a major funder of the $30 million anti-union campaign misnamed the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace.

Black farmers’ settlement grows

Passage of a farm bill by Congress in May opened up the possibility of justice for Black farmers who were not able to collect when the Agriculture Department settled a class-action lawsuit in 1998. In settling the suit, the government admitted that it had systematically discriminated against Black farmers, mainly from rural areas in the South, by routinely denying them loans, disaster assistance and other aid frequently given to white farmers.

At the time the suit was filed, 22,500 farmers filed claims and nearly two-thirds were awarded a total of $981 million in damages. Now claims of more than 70,000 other Black farmers could exceed $3 billion, far outstripping the $100 million lawmakers had budgeted. (New York Times, June 29)

Update on TWU dues check-off

After the heroic 2005 New York City transit strike, one of the penalties levied against Transit Workers Local 100 was revoking its right to dues check-off for its 33,000 members as of June 1, 2007. But the good news is that has not severely affected the TWU, reported the July 17-23 New York Amsterdam News.

Union President Roger Toussaint told the Harlem-based weekly that the union’s campaign to have members pay dues voluntarily “has been more successful than our friends would have hoped and our enemies would have anticipated.”

Although less than 10 percent of members are still delinquent, Toussaint said, “Bringing these members into good standing and in the process, showing them what the union does for them, will ultimately make the union a more powerful fighting force on the ground.”

Although the union was badly hurt by a similar penalty after the 1980 transit strike, this time technological advances like online banking and automatic checking or credit/debit card deductions are helping to keep dues flowing.

When a hearing was held to restore dues check-off in Brooklyn Supreme Court in October, the judge went beyond the Taylor Law, which makes it illegal for transit workers to strike, and demanded that all the union’s top officers and executive board sign an affidavit forever pledging not to strike. Asserting that will never happen, Toussaint said the union is appealing the judge’s ruling. If that fails to restore dues check-off, the next step is an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Federal minimum wage up slightly

The federal minimum wage rose to $6.55 on July 24. A final increase to $7.75 is due in 2009. That only raises the minimum wage in 25 states; the other 25 have minimums higher than $6.55. But do the math: Earning $7.75 for a 40-hour week for a full year adds up to $14,880—poverty wages for a single parent with two kids. Since mostly women of color earn the lowest wages, it’s high time to end sexist and racist underpayment of women and make the minimum wage a living wage.