NERCC staff recently spoke to a group of five workers employed at the Botany Bay development in Worcester who were owed more than $25,000 in wages and began making noise about it. Regular bannering was done at the site and last week a rally drew members of Local 107, representatives of the MetroWest Worker's Center, religious leaders and Worcester City Councilor Sarai Rivera.

The event led to pieces in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette and Vocero Hispano, which highlighted the wage theft and the unwillingness of the project developer to do anything but turn a blind eye. The bad publicity may force his hand, though, as regular events are gaining attention and the support of the community.
 

The Connecticut Department of Labor was joined by the US Department of Labor, OSHA and local and state police in raids of at least four construction sites in Stamford last week in an unprecedented effort to crack down on payroll fraud. The Stamford Advocate covered the raids and published a column by Angela Carella calling for developers to clean up their businesses.

The raids targeted three sites being built by Building and Land Technology and another by Greenfield Partners. The sites have all previously been the target of numerous public complaints as well as demonstrations by union carpenters and other trades workers. The Harbor Point project being built by BL&T has also been the site of numerious enforcement actions. More than 34 "Stop Work" orders had been issued at the project prior to last week's raids.

Investigators talked to more than 200 workers, according to media reports, and will sort out possible violations in the coming weeks after reviewing those interviews.
 

 A group of union carpenters were joined by senior citizens and others at a crowded meeting in Waltham to discuss the future of a former Polaroid site. The parcel is one of a handful of large projects slated for the Metro-West city. Union carpenters are watching closely to see if they will be the source of good jobs for local people or rampant fraud and profiteering by developers. With persistent action, they hope to ensure the former.

The Polaroid project--to be done in phases--will involve the construction of 180,000 square feet of retail space, 100,000 square feet for a Market Basket and another 100,000 square feet of office space.

Members of Local 275 were joined by members of other UBC locals who live in Waltham. Local 275 Business Manager Kevin Kelley was one of the few speakers at the meeting, expressing his desire for developers to make a commitment to decent standards on the project. The meeting was not open for everyone to speak, so carpenters made their feelings known by holding up and rotating small signs that read "Save The Middle Class"  on one side and "Build Union" on the other.

Members in Waltham plan to be active a other upcoming meetings, to discuss the Polaroid project as well as work at One Moody Street, with an eyee toward cementing Waltham as a strong union city. Members in and around Waltham who are interested in participating can contact Brother Kelley at Local 275's union  hall.

Brother Richie Trahan checked in to report on the Holiday Party held at the Carpenters Center for NERCC's Boston Retirees Club last month. Members from the four Boston locals were invited to attend and several dozen did. A group of retired members from Carpenters Local Unions 33, 40, 67 and 218 began meeting  last fall to develop a club for members who had hung up the tools, but not their desire to stay connected to each other and the union.

The group is meeting regularly on the 2nd Monday of the month at the Carpenters Center and hopes to schedule social, educational and union-building activities. The time for the meeting has not been made permanent. For more information or scheduling, contact Richie Trahan at 781-848-9597.

John Leavitt, the Business Agent for Local 1996 in Portland hit the airwaves this week to promote the union and help a disk jockey fill time as he stays on the air for four consecutive days. The Mark-a-thon is an annual event held by WCYY's Mark Curdo to raise money for the Center for Grieving Children. CYY is one of the radio stations on which NERCC and the New England Carpenters Labor Management Program place ads to promote the union and industry standards. They also carry radio broadcasts of New England Patriots games, on which the union advertises. Leavitt was on air with Mark on Tuesday afternoon at 3pm.

To all staff and local unions:

Yesterday was a good day for union carpenters across New England. Amazingly, all of the Council’s endorsed candidates won election. Obama swept the six states, including winning swing-state New Hampshire by a larger-than-expected margin. In the critical races -- Warren in Massachusetts, Murphy in Connecticut, Hassan/Kuster/Shea-Porter in New Hampshire, King in Maine, Cicilline in Rhode Island – our picks were all winners!!

There is no doubt in my mind that some of the credit for these outcomes belongs to all of you and our members. We worked as hard as we ever have in an election season. We used all the tools available to us – new and old techniques – to educate and mobilize our members. And they responded. Door knocking, phone banks, rallies, visibilities, robo-dials, tele-Town Halls. We had a good story to tell…and we told it well and often.

But it’s important to keep a clear-eyed perspective on where we stand the morning after Election Day 2012. In many ways, we “held serve”. We helped fend off the right wing Republican assault on the middle class. There should be a clear message to the nation’s anti-union forces that their philosophy is not welcome, that the voters do not buy an agenda that favors the wealthy over working families. Yet we still have a divided Congress; we still have a Republican Party that attacks unions. We have some new articulate champions but we also have some old foes. Paul Ryan is still chair of the House Budget Committee and there are no signs yet that the House leadership is prepared to move forward in terms of solving our country’s problems as opposed to scoring political points.

So, as much as all of us deserve to take a deep breath and feel a justified sense of pride in our efforts, we will need to remain vigilant. The economy will not fix itself; it will require more federal and state action to invest in jobs and people. And it will require our continued involvement. Our members need to work; that’s why we endorsed the candidates who understood that the best social program is a job.

Thank you all for your efforts these past weeks and months. It was worth it. Congratulations.

Mark Erlich
Executive Secretary-Treasurer
New England Regional Council of Carpenters
 

More than 50 members, representing ten local union affiliates of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters, gathered in Salem and Pelham, New Hampshire Saturday to knock on some doors. Members canvassed in support of President Barack Obama, Gubernatorial candidate Maggie Hassan and Annie Kuster, Second District candidate for United States House of Representatives. They visited with both union carpenters and members of the general public for several hours.

More than 75 carpenter stewards in Connecticut from Locals 24, 43 and 210 gathered last night to talk about upcoming elections in the state that could have a significant impact both locally and nationally. A United States Senate race between Congressman Chris Murphy and second-time candidate Linda McMahon of the WWE wrestling company is one of a handful of races in the country that could tilt the balance of power in the Senate. Members are also active in other races in the state.

After discussing issues of importance to union carpenters, the conversation turned to getting as many members active as possible. Stewards returned to jobsites today armed with information and schedules. The information is to educate fellow carpenters about the issues and the candidates, the schedules were for events at which members will reach out to even more members. Between now and Election Day on November 6, members will be participating in phone banks to contact registered members and talk to them about the importance of the election to their families, our union, the economy and the construction industry.
Members interested in participating in scheduled activity should contact their Local Union hall for dates and times.

In new report card, Republican Scott Brown fails to support new jobs and Massachusetts’ middle-class

Today, the New England Regional Council of Carpenters issued a report card on Senator Scott Brown’s failing efforts to support job-creating programs and middle-class families across the Commonwealth. Senator Brown received an F on today’s report card for opposing numerous jobs bills that would have supported thousands of good-paying jobs in Massachusetts, opposing the extension of essential unemployment benefits, and failing to fight for fair wages for working men and women.

"Try as he may, Scott Brown cannot run away from his votes along national Republican Party lines,” said Mark Erlich, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the New England Council of Carpenters. “Whether it's unemployment benefits, jobs bills, or standing up for fair wages, Scott Brown is not on the side of working families right here in Massachusetts. The attempts to re-make his image cannot mask his record. He sides with huge corporations and Wall Street instead of the thousands of Massachusetts families still looking for jobs.”

Today, the New England Carpenters gave Senator Brown an “F” for failing to stand up for working families. The grade was based on the following key votes: 

The New England Regional Council of Carpenters, along with the Massachusetts Building Trades Council and the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, officially announced their support of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren's "Rebuild Now" infrastructure investment plan.

Mark Erlich, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters, and Frank Callahan, president of the Massachusetts Building Trades Council ,told reporters that the industry needs a boost and that a plan like Warren's has the potential to put its members back to work.

Read more online here.

The New England Regional Council of Carpenters and other industry groups are calling on the Massachusetts legislature to make it a felony for employers to fail to purchase workers compensation insurance for their employees. Senate Bill 915, sponsored by Senator Katherine Clark (D-Melrose) and Majority Whip Ronald Mariano (D-Quincy) also has the backing of Attorney General Martha Coakley.

Operating without workers' compesnation insurance is currently a misdemeanor, punishable by upt oa year in prison or a find of up to $1,500. The new law would make the felongy punishapble by up to five years in state prison, two-and-a-half years in jail or a fine of up to $10,000.

NERCC Political Director Steve Joyce said that although union carpenters are always covered by workers' compensation insurance, they are still hurt by those who cheat.

"In an industry where work most often goes to whoever submits the lowest price, any contractor who does not purchase workers' compensation coverage has a competitive advantage right from the start over contractors who follow the law and have coverage," he said. "That negatively impacts any carpenter that works for a legitmate contractor. We're not looking to hurt all employers, we value the role they play in creating jobs. We just want everyone to comply with the law when they do it."

Even the Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM), a group that lobbies for businesses, support the bill. In a story by the State House News Service, John Regan, AIM's Executive Vice President described the current situation as unfair to too many.

"Their faliure to have that insurance in place means that if workers working for them get injured, the rest of the employer commnity pays the bill" and that making failure to have coverage a felony "reflects the seriousness of the issue, and conveys how important it is that coverage be in place."

According to the SHNS story, the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents has reported more than 1,000 cses costing the worekrs compensation fund $26 million in the last five years becuase their employer didn't have worers' compensation coverage. In recent years the department has routinely issued Stop Work Orders against more than 3,000 employer found to be operating without workers' compensation coverage.

For over a year, union carpenters and other trades workers in New England have been lending their time and valuable skills to assist in the construction of a hospital in Mirebalais, Haiti. After the devastating earthquake, the hospital is a source of hope in many ways. NERCC's Mark Erlich recently visited Haiti and wrote a piece for CommonWealth magazine about this amazing project.

Click here to see pictures taken by Mark Erlich during his trip.

While Republicans Governors and legislatures in the United States mounted a withering attack on public sector workers in 2011, rates of unionization among workers in the country remained steady, with some potentially positive signs for the future.

John Schmitt and Jannelle Jones from the Center for Economic Policy and Research broke down the numbers (reporduced in a post on truth-out.org over the weekend). In the public sector, the number of union members declined slightly in 2011, but union density went up. In the private sector, which has seen a greater decline in union members and union density over the years, the number of union members went up with union density holding steady.

The numbers indicate that even though there are fewer union jobs in the public sector, union jobs are being cut at a lower rate than nonunion positions. The increase in the number of union jobs in the private sector is also a positive indicator that anti-union efforts were not as successful in 2011.

Time will tell if the numbers indicate a reaction to attacks on union rights, which exploded on the public scene in Wisconsin and other states early in 2011 or a manifestation of the same frustration with economic inequality that spurred the "Occupy" movements later in the year. But they are good news for American workers.

A prominent article in the Boston Globe today revealed that state investigators are looking into the use and treatment of out-of-state shelter workers in the renovation of rooms at the Boston Copley Marriott. Union carpenters, painters and other union members have been demonstrating twice a week for months at the site against Baystate Interiors, Inc. of Woburn for undermining area standard for carpenters' wages and benefits.

Baystate is renovating several floors of rooms at the pricey downtown hotel owned by Host Hotels and using a California-based company named Installations Plus. Installations is using workers from a missionary shelter in Philadelphia to do work at the Marriott and allegedly violating wage and hour laws to do it.

The workers come from a drug and alcohol rehabilitation shelter in Philadelphia run by Victory Outreach International, an evangelical group based in the San Diego area.

“Our concern is that Host Hotels is trying to take advantage of the recession by bringing in out-of-state laborers to do work that has traditionally been done by local union tradespeople,’’ said Mark Erlich, president of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters.

The investigation is not the first trouble enforcement authorities have found on the site. The subcontractors working on the project--including Installations Plus--have been issued "Stop Work Orders" and paid fines for not having proper workers' compensation insurance.

Click here to view a NERCC-produced video about the demonstrations at the Boston Copley Marriott.

Multiple enforcement agencies in Massachusetts today announced that five subcontractors employed by Pulte on sites in Eastern Massachusetts have been ordered to pay workers more than $400,000 in owed wages and make payments totaling $141,000 to cover unpaid taxes.

The order is the result of investigations that began after workers complained to Representatives of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters that they had been unpaid for extended periods of time. Workers went on strike at several Pulte locations and filed complaints with the state.

"The investigation fined five separate subcontractors, but the real culprit is Pulte Homes, a multi-billion dollar national homebuilder," said Mark Erlich, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters. "Those subs are interchangeable and were just doing Pulte's bidding. Cheating is Pulte's business model and, unfortunately, that approach is far too common in the residential construction industry."

Subcontractors that were part of the order include:
--AM Construction Services and its President, Adimar Demoura, age 32 of Framingham, allegedly failed to pay four workers a total of $15,331.50 for framing work done on private residential projects in Braintree and Plymouth. They were also fined $22,500 in penalties.
--Five Stars Construction and its President, Alexandre Miranda, age 40 of Trumbull, Connecticut, allegedly failed to pay two workers a total of $30,700 for framing work done on a private condominium project in Natick. They were also fined $30,000 in penalties.
--Nunes Brothers Construction and its President, Tiago Aguiar M. Nunes, age 28 of Brooklyn, New York, allegedly failed to pay 23 workers a total of $99,086.75 for framing work done on private condominium and single-family homes projects in Braintree, Plymouth, Natick, and Northbridge. They were also fined $112,500 in penalties.
--Seven Seas Group and its President, Jackson Croscup, age 55 of Fall River, allegedly failed to pay five workers a total of $10,333 for framing work done on a private condominium project in Natick. They were also fined $20,075 in penalties.
--Two Brothers Construction and its President, Wellington DeLima Borges, age 41 of East Natick, allegedly failed to pay six workers a total of $34,751.50 for framing work done on a private home development project in Plymouth. They were also fined $34,500 in penalties.

Investigating the complaints were Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office (AGO), the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD), and the Joint Enforcement Task Force on the Underground Economy and Employee Misclassification (JTF). The JTF was established by Governor Deval Patrick through Executive Order #499 in March 2008 to coordinate multiple state agencies’ efforts to stamp out fraudulent employment activities by enforcing the state’s labor, licensing, and tax laws.

“All workers in the Commonwealth deserve to be paid for the wages they have earned, including their overtime,” said Attorney General Coakley. “We will continue to work together and take appropriate action to stop these unlawful business practices, level the playing field for companies and protect workers.”

“The Commonwealth is committed to insuring that all businesses carry both workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance coverage,” said Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Joanne F. Goldstein. “We will not tolerate employers or developers who proceed without this coverage, which puts employees at risk and employers who play by the rules at a competitive disadvantage. The Joint Task Force will continue to take all necessary action to protect legitimate employers, employees and the taxpayers of the Commonwealth.”

Fifty millworkers who are members of UBC Local 8093 working for Indiana Limestone Company have been on strike through the holidays after unanimously rejecting a concessionary contract. Difficult economic times have forced many Americans and union members to watch wages and working conditions slip backwards. And though they have not blindly agreed to every concession demanded of employers, union members and Americans have been flexible and realistic in working with employers to strike a balance between business viability and protecting a decent standard of living.

What's at play in Indiana, though, may have less to do with recent economic conditions than it does with the move my many American businesses from family run and privately owned to investor owned or publicly traded.

A piece by Joseph Varga for LaborNotes explains.

Resilience is the new player in Indiana’s limestone industry. Like Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital, Resilience specializes in “flipping” mid-range “stressed” companies like Indiana Limestone. The private equity firm buys them up, strips them down, lowers their labor costs, and sells them to investors.

It’s the same process that has occurred throughout the country for the past 30 years, turning family-owned businesses into “lean and mean” concerns, in the process destroying good union jobs and shrinking the tax base in communities that are struggling to survive.

While company officials make the usual statements about being fair-minded corporate citizens, the fact is that there had been only one other brief strike in Indiana Limestone’s long history, while in two years Resilience had made it clear it was only about lowering costs in order to resell.

According to the article, among the concessions sought by Resilience are elimination of "just cause" standards for discipline and an end to safety meetings, though the work done can be extremely dangerous.

Varga's piece goes on to detail the context in which the strike is taking place. The state has been at the forefront of battles over rescinding collective bargaining rights and enacting so-called "right to work" laws. It has also seen some pushback from workers--both union and nonunion--as well as younger citizens who have become involved in the "occupy" movement.

New understandings and alliances have been forming between the workers and young people eager to get involved and make a lasting difference in the future.

There's no happy ending to the story, at least yet. And there may not be. But one can't help feeling there could be better results in the future if the conversations between workers and their neighbors continue, creating a better understanding of each other and the common problems they face.

The Nashua Telegraph yesterday published a piece by Mark Mackenzie, President of the New Hampshire AFL-CIO calling for a New Year's resolution to help workers in 2012. The piece was a good summary of what workers want and deserve, but aren't gettingin today's America. Click through to read the piece and consider sharing it with others.

The decline in union membership in America accounts for a lot of the rise in income inequality, according to a new study by Harvard sociology professor Bruce Western.

“Our study underscores the role of unions as an equalizing force in the labor market,” said study author Bruce Western, a professor of sociology at Harvard University. “Most researchers studying wage inequality have focused on the effects of educational stratification—pay differences based on level of education—and have generally under-emphasized the impact of unions.”

From 1973 to 2007, wage inequality in the private sector increased by more than 40 percent among men, and by about 50 percent among women. In their study, Western and co-author Jake Rosenfeld, a professor of sociology at the University of Washington, examine the effects of union decline on both between-group inequality and within-group inequality. Between-group compares people from different demographics and industries, while within-group looks at people from the same demographics and industries.

Focusing on full-time, private sector workers, Western and Rosenfeld find that deunionization—the decline in the percentage of the labor force that is unionized—and educational stratification each explain about 33 percent of the rise in within-group wage inequality among men. Among women, deunionization explains about 20 percent of the increase in wage inequality, whereas education explains more than 40 percent.

Though conservative efforts to limit or eliminate the activity of unions is underway in several states this year, Republicans in Congress are running into opposition to some of their labor-related efforts from within their own party.

Twice in the last week a significant block of Republicans broke party ranks to support union positions on two significant votes. The first was an amendment to a spending bill that would have prohibited Davis Bacon prevailing wage requirements for any federal projects this year. Forty-eight Republicans in the House of Representatives joined every voting Democrat in opposing the measure, which was soundly defeated 189-233.

Republicans Charlie Bass and Frank Guinta of New Hampshire were the only New England Representatives to support the amendment. Roll Call vote results.

In a clear message to House Speaker John Boehner that he had over-reached, 60 Republican members of the House of Representatives also broke ranks last week to vote with Democrats on a bill amendment regarding funding for the National Labor Relations Board. The amendment would have de-funded the agency, which governs elections for union representation and rules on complaints of unfair labor practices by workers or management. Conservatives have complained that appointments to the Board by President Barack Obama have pushed the body to make more worker-friendly decisions.

Republican Frank Guinta of New Hampshire was the only New England Representative to support the amendment, which was defeated 176-250.

The Nation makes it frighteningly clear that as goes Wisconsin and some other states this year, so could go the labor movement.

It's taken as gospel in conservative circles--and sometimes the public at-large--that public employees make too much money. The common refrain is that "they should be treated more like workers in the private sector." A study by the Economic Policy Institute says that for many public workers, that would mean getting paid more. The study comparing compensation for public employees vs private sector workers in comparable jobs nation-wide is supplemented by state-by-state looks at the facts in Wisconsin, New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, California and Indiana.

Finally, are public employee pensions bankrupting government and in dire need of reform or elimination? Or have they simply been suffering a temporary setback due to the same stock market troubles that have equally damaged private 401(k)s? The Center for Economic and Policy Research concludes that pension funds may recover with the market and shouldn't' be the source of great panic. You can read their study here.

Here in New England, working people are rallying to support Wisconsin workers. On Tuesday rallies will be held at the State Houses in Massachusetts Rhode Island and Vermont.

Massachusetts
Tuesday at 4 pm at the State House in Boston.

Rhode Island
Tuesday at 4:30 pm at the State House in Providence.

Vermont
Tuesday at noon at the State House in Montpelier.

Rallies are being discussed and planned in other New England states. Details will be sent via the Council Update and posted to NERCCBlog.com as they become available.

Emily Rooney's Greater Boston recently ran a piece on the public perception of unions, followed by a three-person discussion. The conversation quickly turned into a bash session of public employee unions who's only role apparently should be making any and all concessions requested by management. Rooney leads the assault with one negative generalization after another.

The question of why public perception has turned against unions is a good one. Discussions about how unions--including individual union workers--can convince their friends and neighbors of the benefits of unions and collective bargaining are important and should take place. While this piece could have been a thoughtful jumping off point, it largely fails.

Mark Erlich, Executive Secretary-Treasurer was recently asked by the editors of Dissent magazine to write a piece summarizing his experience and thoughts about his career in the UBC and the labor movement. It is available here and follows him from an apprentice in Oregon in 1975 through his work as head of a regional union during hard times for construction workers and unions in America.

Dissent is a quarterly magazine featuring a liberal perspective on politics and culture that has been published since 1954.

Here's a great piece on Labor Day and unions, co-authored by Tom Iacobucci, Director of the Massachusetts Carpenters Training Fund. It ran in the Newburyport Daily News.

A message to union carpenters...

The construction industry is facing one of its toughest period in a long time. But as union carpenters, we still have reason to be proud. Proud of our skills, our union and the history of working people in which we all play a part.

Though now as often viewed as the milestone for the end of the summer, Labor Day exists to recognize and celebrate the working men and women of the United States who make it what it is. Few have more of a visible impact than the construction workers who build the roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, offices and homes of America.

So congratulations on the very important role you play by giving your skills, your hard work and your dedication. You have earned the respect of our nation.

To learn more about the origins (some disputed) of Labor Day, we invite you to visit the three articles linked below and to share them with others so that they might better understand and appreciate the role that unions have played and still play in our country.

The History of Labor Day, from the United States Department of Labor.
The Origins of Labor Day, from the News Hour with Jim Lehrer (2001).
Why Do We Get Labor Day Off? by Brendan I Koerner, for Slate.com.

At a Town Hall meeting in Iowa Tuesday, President Barack Obama was asked a question about supporting unions and responded strongly and clearly:

"I've said this before publicly and I'll say it again, I make no apologies for it. I am a pro-union guy.

"Our unions helped build our middle class. We take for granted so much stuff -- minimum wage laws, 40-hour work week, overtime, child labor laws. Those things wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for unions fighting for those rights. So even if you're not a member of a union, you've got to be appreciative of what unions have done.

"Now, a lot of things that we do don't get a lot of notice. We don't always generate headlines. But a lot of things that we're doing have to do with how is the Department of Labor operating to make sure that workplace safety rules are enforced; to make sure that if the federal government is helping to finance a program, that we've got a project labor agreement in place that assures that people are paid a decent wage and they're getting a fair deal. Who am I appointing to the National Labor Relations Board, so that when a union tries to organize, it doesn't take five years before you can even get a ruling, and then it turns out that the ruling somehow conveniently always is against the union.

"So there are a lot of things that we've been doing administratively to try to make sure that people just get the fair chance to organize.

"Now, look, some people don't want unions, and that's great. If you feel that you can look after your own interests, I respect that. But what we -- but one of the things that we stand for as Americans is the freedom to decide I'm going to join with my brothers and sisters at that workplace to try to get a better deal -- not through force, not through coercion, but just by us agreeing to bargain. And we just want to make sure that there's a level playing field in that process. That's something that I strongly believe in, and it's part of the American tradition.

"And sometimes people say, well, unions are what's making us not competitive. Well, that's just not true. Unions are only, at this point in the private sector, probably less than 10 percent of the economy. So the notion that somehow that's what is creating competition with other countries that pay lower wages, that's not the case. The fact of the matter is that is what's going to help us become competitive is if we've got middle-class workers making middle-class wages with middle-class benefits, who can then go out and shop, and support a family, and buy a new car and pay their mortgage, which will create more business opportunities and maintain America as the greatest market on Earth. And if we do that, then we're going to be successful."

MassINC, a nonpartisan think-tank based in Boston, will be hosting Steve Greenhouse, New York Times labor reporter and author of the book “The Big Squeeze; Tough Times for the American Worker” on April 7. The session, co-sponsored by the New England Regional Council of Carpenters, will focus on the book, which details how the culture and conditions of the American workplace have changed over the years and the significant impact those changes are having on both white- and blue-collar workers.

Greenhouse will be introduced by NERCC Executive Secretary-Treasurer Mark Erlich. The lunch meeting will take place at noon at the UMass club at the UMass Club, 225 Franklin Street, 33rd Floor in Boston. To register for the free event, please visit this link.

If you think the Obama administration isn’t doing enough for unions and workers in the United States, you might want to take a look at The Nation. Esther Kaplan has an informative piece on Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and the work she and her team are doing to reinvigorate the department.

“During the Bush years, the Department of Labor became a cautionary tale about what happens when foxes are asked to guard the henhouse. But since California Congresswoman Hilda Solis became labor secretary last winter, she has brought on board a team of lifelong advocates for working people--some of whom come from the ranks of organized labor--and has hired hundreds of new investigators and enforcers.

President Obama calls Solis part of his economic team, but the truth is she's not part of the daily huddle at the White House with Summers and Geithner and Orszag. She's tapped instead as a lead voice in the "jobs, jobs, jobs" choir, advocating for Obama's latest stimulus package. She has tiptoed into the realm of financial regulation, organizing a joint hearing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on the abysmal performance of target date retirement funds during the market crash, and she doles out hundreds of millions of dollars in job training funds, a decent chunk of which she has used to shape policy by channeling it to green industries. But Solis understands that her real influence lies in her power to enforce the nation's labor laws--the primary mission of the DoL. It's a role she embraced with relish at her swearing-in, where she announced with a grin, "To those who have for too long abused workers, put them in harm's way, denied them fair pay, let me be clear: there is a new sheriff in town."

Solis and her team are using techniques and personell that have been tested and succeeded on state levels, such as the crackdown on employee misclassification that was wildly successful in New York. The piece is an interesting look at the difference with a change of attitude.

On Sunday the Washington Post ran a piece by Alex MacGillis about the condition of the labor movement as popularly portrayed in the media. The story highlighted what he calls the five biggest myths. It is well worth the read for those who find themselves frustrated by union opponents who are long on hot air and anger but low on facts and perspective.

Full story here....

A majority of Americans now say unions are bad for the nation, according to Gallup polls. And the loss of two big trade shows at McCormick Place, for which the expense of union help was blamed, is bound to provoke more grumbling about organized labor in Chicago, traditionally one of the most loyal of union towns.

At the office building construction site at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Monroe Street, the talk among union workers the other day was tinged with bitterness. Many of the workers said they think they get a bad rap.

But at Gage, a fashionable cafe just a block from the pounding hammers and buzzing saws, Steve Thompson, a cyber-executive, said he considered $40-an-hour pay “unreasonable” for the crowd in steel-toe boots, “given their education and training.”

To workers in the trades, that kind of talk is as familiar as the freezing wind that slaps their faces on outdoor job sites, sometimes while working on a six-inch wide steel beam on the 75th floor.

From the Hill...

Organized labor is flexing its muscle in Senate negotiations over healthcare reform and winning important concessions from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

Reid has not given labor unions everything. But he has done enough to keep them from turning completely against the bill: including a version of the government-run health insurance program; raising the taxable level on high-cost insurance plans; and increasing the penalty for those companies that fail to provide health insurance to employees.

Keeping labor unions, a reliable Democratic-base group, on his side is an important accomplishment for Reid as he heads into a multi-week floor debate on the party’s biggest legislative priority. If unions were provoked to oppose the bill’s central provisions, it could tear apart the Senate Democratic Conference, pitting liberals against centrists.

Labor unions have put heavy pressure on Reid and other Senate Democrats to move away from the more centrist Senate Finance Committee bill and move closer to legislation approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.

David Macary makes the case that they do.

Here's part of what he has to say...

The truth is, the government fears and distrusts organized labor. Why? Because a powerful workers’ collective threatens the status quo. The federal government (and the corporations who run it) fear labor unions the way our country’s founders feared the common man, which was why they invented a device (the Electoral College) allowing them to circumvent the popular vote when necessary.

But the irony is so thick you can cut it with a knife. With the middle-class now under siege, organized labor isn’t the problem, it’s the cure. And it’s more than simple economics. It’s ethics. If Wall Street had been as law-abiding as our labor unions, there’s no banking collapse. If Wall Street had been as “honest” as the average American worker, there’s no crisis, no bail-out, no liquidation of financial institutions.

A piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette titled "Young people need unions" by Michael Fedor and Jennifer Jannon makes some interesting points many may take for granted.

In school, most of us weren't taught that America's working people, united in unions, fought to win weekends off, the 40-hour work week, the minimum wage and safe workplaces. Nor were we taught that union members now earn 30 percent more and are 52 percent more likely to have employer-provided health insurance than nonunion workers. Or that for women and people of color, the best guarantee of equal pay for equal work is a union contract.

A couple of local news outlets included NERCC staff in their coverage of Labor Day. The Quincy Patriot Ledger talked with and quoted Executive Secretary-Treasurer Mark Erlich for a story posted here.

The Worcester Telegram Gazette quoted Carpenters Local 107 Business Manager Jack Donahue in their story.

Below is the text of a speech by Mark Erlich, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters to the annual meeting of the Eastern Seaboard Apprenticeship Conference in Boston, MA. The speech was scheduled to be given at an event this evening at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.

----

Thank you for having me here tonight. It’s a pleasure to be speaking at the annual ESAC conference. The setting here is beautiful and the surroundings are enjoyable, but all of us know we are meeting in very troubled times.

Our construction industry has always been a barometer of the health of our nation’s economy, and when the bottom dropped out last fall, our members were among the first to feel the pain and among those occupations that have felt it the deepest. Unemployment in the construction trades now averages between 20 and 30%--even higher in some areas and among some trades, but rarely lower. Architectural billings have plummeted in 2009, meaning that the prospects for the future are not that hopeful. If the architects don’t draw, we don’t build.

Certainly, the stimulus money will have some impact but I think less than some of us would have hoped. In an effort to be bi-partisan, the final allocation of the $787 billion package included $288 in tax cuts and only $27 billion in traditional infrastructure investment. We welcome every single one of those dollars, but I do not believe they will be enough to clear our benches.

If, as they say, crisis offers opportunities, then perhaps this period is an opportunity to understand how we got to this point, to re-think some of our nation’s underlying values, and to look at the work we do in new and better ways.

I read a recent article by Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, the organization that works with financially troubled countries to get out from under economic crises. Johnson, representing a very mainstream organization, points out that the problems facing the United States are not unlike those of the so-called "banana republics" he dealt with at the IMF, where the problems were as much political as economic, where the ultimate obstacles involve the undemocratic control of their country’s economies.

According to Johnson, there is a "deeper and more disturbing similarity: elite business interests--financiers, in the case of the U.S.--played a central role in creating the crisis, making ever-larger gambles, with the implicit backing of the government, until the inevitable collapse."

For the past 25 years or so, finance boomed, starting with the Reagan years, and gaining strength with the deregulatory policies of the Clinton and bush administrations. Wall Street ran with the invention of securitization, interest-rate swaps, and credit-default swaps as sources of income. From 1973 to 1985, the financial sector had never earned more than 16 percent of domestic corporate profits. But in this decade, it reached 41 percent of all corporate profits. Pay rose just as dramatically. From 1948 to 1982, average compensation in the financial sector ranged between 99 percent and 108 percent of the average for all domestic private industries. From 1983, it shot upward, reaching 181 percent in 2007.

The American financial industry gained political power by promoting a belief system that what was good for Wall Street was good for the country. In a world that celebrates the idea of making money, it was easy to believe that the interests of the financial sector were the same as the interests of the country--and that the winners in that world knew better what was good for America than everyone else did.

But this belief system has proved empty and destructive. This is a time for all of us to ask: what is really important in our society? The glamor of money and celebrity or the value of hard work that is the bedrock of our nation’s strength? In the aftermath of 9/11, who in lower Manhattan led the efforts of rescue and recovery? Was it the celebrated investment bankers and fund managers who worked on Wall Street? No, it was the construction workers, cops, firefighters, and EMTs--all union members, by the way--who did the dirty work and possessed the skills to help New York and our country, begin a return to normalcy.

Unfortunately, a return to normalcy on Wall Street meant using workers’ pension funds and 401ks to bet the house on increasingly leveraged financial instruments. In the end, the house of cards came tumbling down and the ones who are paying the ultimate costs are America’s working families--the kinds of people who rescued those on Wall Street from the consequences of a terrorist attack.

What does all this have to do with our training mission? As members of the training community, it is our obligation to train our apprentices to become the most productive journeymen and women in the industry. In a highly competitive world, they need to be the best they can be, with a full array of skills. But they also need to become union citizens and our training programs need to include curricula on labor history, labor economics, and the rights and responsibilities of union members. They need to understand that it is not just enough to show up and put in an honest day’s work. They need to know that their futures and their families’ security depends on the strength of their union and their unions’ strength depend on their participation, support, and understanding of the issues.

They need to know that our society has seen an enormous growth in economic inequality since the 1970s and that trend coincides with the decline of union density. They need to know that, whereas 30 years ago the average American CEO earned about 30 or 40 times what an average worker earned, last year that CEO took home 344 times the typical worker’s pay. They need to know that in 2007, the top 50 hedge and private equity managers--the people who helped bring us our current situation--earned an average of $588 million, more than 19,000 times what an average worker earned.

They need to know that, contrary to popular mythology, our problems today were not caused by America’s workers or their unions. In fact, productivity is up 70% since 1980, while real wages have risen only 5% after inflation.

They need to know that it wasn’t always like this and that it doesn’t have to stay this way. For example, in 1955, America’s top 400 taxpayers paid three times more of their income in taxes than the top 400 of 2006. There used to be more of a sense that fairness, rather than unbridled competition, was the American way.

I once read a book that described the history of America as consisting of 3 different geometric shapes. Around the time of the transition from the 19th to the 20th century, America was like a pyramid, with a few wealthy people on the top and the rest of the population near the bottom. After World War II, things changed as a result of economic prosperity and the growth of the union movement. The country looked more like a diamond with a large middle class and smaller groups of very wealthy and very poor Americans. Today, we have more of a bottom-heavy hourglass with a larger group of wealthy Americans at the top, but a declining middle class as most Americans work harder and longer just to keep afloat.

Obviously, there are many differences between now and the "diamond" era, but one of the main ones is that the numbers of union members declined along with the political influence of labor organizations that fought for a nation based on valuing hard work and economic justice.

So when we think about training, we have to think about all aspects of a union industry. First, we have to teach the skills. But we also have to prepare our members for change--a constant in our modern lives. We need to view our crafts as occupations that will have to incorporate continuing lifelong education, i.e., journeymen upgrades as well as apprentice training. We have to adapt our curricula to reflect the new "green" techniques and technologies. We have to accommodate and welcome greater diversity in our workforce. The building trades have always been a pathway for bright and talented young people from all walks of life into the middle class. We are a nation of immigrants and we have to recognize that much of our future construction workforce may be coming from the new immigrant communities.

But above all, we need to build a set of values into our training. We need to remind our apprentices that they will be the ones who will build our society’s schools, roads and bridges, offices, and hospitals--and that should be a source of pride. We need to remind them that they are a key element of one of the most pivotal sectors of our nation’s economy; when they work, the economy is healthy. We need to tell them about the history of the labor movement, how virtually every social improvement in our country was a result of the progressive tradition of the labor movement.

And we need to ask them to be union citizens, to take on the great challenge of our time, to restore the role of unions as a counterweight to corporate greed and financial irresponsibility and as the central voice for economic justice in the united states.

First Trade Union Bank is sponsoring a financial review seminar designed for union officials. The seminar is for all union officers, employees, trustees and board members. We hope to see you there!

When: Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Lunch 12:30 - 1:30 PM*
Seminar 1:30 - 4:30 PM
* $30.00 Fee for lunch and materials. Please make checks payable to The Labor Guild. Scholarships also available.

Where: The Labor Guild
85 Commercial St.
Weymouth, MA 02188-2604

laborguild@aol.com
781.340.7881

Comprehensive Topics:
Understanding financial statements
Budgetary control, cash flow management
Accounting processes terms and concepts

Spots are going fast! Reserve your seat today! Please send your RSVP to Tom Iacobucci:

Email tiacobucci@ftub.com
Call 800-242-0272 ext. 7309

The Atlantic Monthly has an interesting and blunt piece in the May issue about the current economic situation in the United States. Titled "The Quiet Coup," it was written by Simon Johnson, a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. The IMF oversees the global financial system, working to smooth relationships between national economies and currencies. It also offers financial assistance and consultation to nation's in dire need.

As much as Americans might not like the title of the piece, the business community is less likely to appreciate Mr. Johnson's assessment of the current situation in the United States and his suggestions for how to fix it.

The New York Times ran an interesting piece over the weekend comparing unions and workers in America with their counterparts in Europe. The article questions why European workers seem quicker to take to the streets and take other actions to protect their interests. One American union leader said the answer is that there are more effective ways to accomplish things.

What's missing is any kind of analysis or discussion about how effective the tactics here are, compared to "over there." But it is an interesting speculative article with a topic worth considering.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) this morning released a report detailing how bad the Federal Government has been at helping workers who get cheated out of pay. The New York Times published a story in advance of the reports release about the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division.

The report looks like it will go a long way toward making it abundantly clear how the underground economy has been allowed to grow, even in periods of historic economic growth. According to the NYTimes story on the report, Federal investigators easily dismissed complaints from workers who reported they weren't paid properly without reaching legitimate resolutions. In other cases, they made workers wait for unreasonable periods before responding or ignored them altogether.

From the NYTimes story:

"In one case, the division failed to investigate a complaint that under-age children in Modesto, Calif., were working during school hours at a meatpacking plant with dangerous machinery, the G.A.O., the nonpartisan auditing arm of Congress, found.

"When an undercover agent posing as a dishwasher called four times to complain about not being paid overtime for 19 weeks, the division’s office in Miami failed to return his calls for four months, and when it did, the report said, an official told him it would take 8 to 10 months to begin investigating his case."

"In another case, the accountability office found that workers at a boarding school in Montana were not paid more than $200,000 in overtime. But when the employer offered to pay only $1,000 in back wages as the two-year statute of limitations approached, the division dropped the case."

As part of their "@ Odds" feature, the Boston Sunday Globe today featured an Opinion piece by NERCC Executive Secretary-Treasurer Mark Erlich. The opposing piece, which followed was written by Greg Beeman, President of the Associated Builders and Contractors, a group that opposes unions. The focus of the two pieces is the use of federal stimulus money in the construction industry and project labor agreements.

Another independent poll shows Americans would like it to be easier for unions to organize workers.

A new Gallup Poll finds just over half of Americans, 53%, favoring a new law that would make it easier for labor unions to organize workers; 39% oppose it. This is a key issue at stake with the Employee Free Choice Act now being considered in Congress.

Previous Gallup polling has shown that Americans are fundamentally sympathetic to labor unions, and these underlying attitudes are no doubt reflected in their general support for legislation characterized as making it easier for workers to unionize. For example, Gallup's annual polling on workplace issues, conducted each August, has found consistently high approval of labor unions in recent years, including a 59% approval rating last summer. The current level of support for a new law facilitating more union membership -- 53% in favor -- is only slightly less favorable to unions.

Local 424 Business Agent Rick Braccia checked in with some goings-on in his area...

--StreetWorks, the Master Developer of Downtown Quincy is presenting their proposal to the City Council on Monday night at City Hall at 7:00 P.M.
The plan was presented to the Building Trades last week. Although the project isn't a solution to our immediate needs for jobs, the potential for development in Quincy is unbelievable.

--There is a public hearing on Thursday night (March 5) at the former Watson Library in Braintree. This is a joint hearing by Braintree and Weymouth officials to explore infrastructure improvement as a means of attracting business development to Weymouth Landing.

--Last Tuesday night, there was a meeting of the Braintree Town Council Ordinance Committee at which NERCC Director of Organizing Brian Richardson, Local 33 President John Murphy, and Rick Braccia testified in support of a responsible employer ordinance (REO). The town currently has an REO Policy, but this is merely a recommendation to contractors doing public work in the town. If Braintree adopts this as an ordinance, it give legitimate contractors a more level playing field. The response of the committee was overwhelmingly positive. The REO is being proposed by Councilor Tom Bowes.

--The next VOC meeting is on March 11. On the same night, we are asking Quincy residents to attend the Planning Board meeting at City Hall at 7:00 P.M. The Planning Board is going to reject an application by anti-union, developer Michael Corcoran, and it would be beneficial to have some applause in the audience. A few years back, Corcoran was the developer of the Cliffwalk Apartments on Willard St that we held rallies and a six month picket line on. That was the job with Plumbhouse as a GC. In case nobody recalls, Plumbhouse is the guy who has his trucks lettered "Merit Shop Builds Best."

President Barack Obama yesterday reversed another Bush administration policy by issuing an Executive Order lifting a prohibition on the use of Project Labor Agreements on Federal construction projects and encouraging departments to use PLAs on projects valued at more than $25 million. The order specifically cites problems that may occur on large-scale construction projects when a structure for ensuring a steady supply of labor is not present, and when there is no formal process for resolving disputes, which are more common on sites with multiple employers on large sites.

The order stated, in part: "The use of a project labor agreement may prevent these problems from developing by providing structure and stability to large-scale construction projects, thereby promoting the efficient and expeditious completion of Federal construction contracts. Accordingly, it is the policy of the Federal Government to encourage executive agencies to consider requiring the use of project labor agreements in connection with large-scale construction projects in order to promote economy and efficiency in Federal procurement."

Project Labor Agreements had been used by the Federal Government for years before George W. Bush issued an Executive Order prohibiting their use. Though anti-union advocates lobbied hard for that move, private companies and state governments continued to use the agreements to establish fair standards and procedures for managing projects.

The Executive Order also directs the Office of Management and Budget to study and make recommendations on broader use of PLAs "with respect to both construction projects undertaken under Federal contracts and construction projects receiving Federal financial assistance."

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry publicly reinforced his support for the Employee Free Choice Act today in a Guest Opinion piece in the Fall River (MA) Herald News. The bill, which would make it easier for workers to organize using either card check recognition or a secret ballot election, will be the biggest labor battle in Washington in several years.

Most American say they would like to be in a union, if the opportunity were more readily available, but heavy handed campaign tactics and little enforcement against rule breaking employers during NLRB elections often keep organizing efforts from moving forward successfully.

President Barack Obama supported the bill during the campaign, but business groups have putting tremendous pressure on Senators and Representatives to prevent it from passing.

Robert Kuttner, Co-Founder and Co-Editor of The American Prospect wrote a column for the Huffington Post on the common agendas of President Barack Obama and America's labor unions.

What a difference a new President makes.

Upon creating a White House Task Force on Middle Class Working Families last Friday, President Barack Obama added these comments:

"I also believe that we have to reverse some of the policies' toward organized labor. "I don't see organized labor as part of the problem. To me, it's part of the solution.'

"When I talk about the middle class, I am talking about folks who are currently in the middle class, but also folks who are aspiring to be in the middle class,' the president said. "You cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor union.'

Sam Ellis, of the Boston Globe, wrote a piece yesterday on what could be the year of labor. He give significant play to the growing alliances between unions and churches.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, a federal government body, reported Tuesday that union membership in the United States has gone up. Both total union membership and union membership as a percentage of the national workforce have gone up.

Here's a bit from a Washington Post article.

The percentage of American workers belonging to a union jumped in 2008, the first statistically significant increase in the 25 years that the figure has been reported, reversing a long decline in union membership.

In 2008, union members represented 12.4 percent of employed workers, up from 12.1 percent a year earlier, according to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued yesterday. Union membership had been falling since the 1950s, when members constituted as much as a third of the U.S. workforce.

Another voice cites participation in unions (or lack thereof) as a reason for some current economic problems in America. This time it's former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, in the Los Angeles Times.

Why is this recession so deep, and what can be done to reverse it?

Hint: Go back about 50 years, when America's middle class was expanding and the economy was soaring. Paychecks were big enough to allow us to buy all the goods and services we produced. It was a virtuous circle. Good pay meant more purchases, and more purchases meant more jobs.

At the center of this virtuous circle were unions. In 1955, more than a third of working Americans belonged to one. Unions gave them the bargaining leverage they needed to get the paychecks that kept the economy going. So many Americans were unionized that wage agreements spilled over to nonunionized workplaces as well. Employers knew they had to match union wages to compete for workers and to recruit the best ones.

Fast forward to a new century. Now, fewer than 8% of private-sector workers are unionized. Corporate opponents argue that Americans no longer want unions. But public opinion surveys, such as a comprehensive poll that Peter D. Hart Research Associates conducted in 2006, suggest that a majority of workers would like to have a union to bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions. So there must be some other reason for this dramatic decline.

New York Times columnist--and Nobel Prize winning economist--Paul Krugman published an open letter to President Barack Obama in Rolling Stone magazine. The letter provides some guidance to President Obama on the economic moves he should make to reverse the decline of the American economy.

Among other steps, he supports an inrease in unionization and recommends passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Universal health care, then, should be your biggest priority after rescuing the economy. Providing coverage for all Americans can be for your administration what Social Security was for the New Deal. But the New Deal achieved something else: It made America a middle-class society. Under FDR, America went through what labor historians call the Great Compression, a dramatic rise in wages for ordinary workers that greatly reduced income inequality. Before the Great Compression, America was a society of rich and poor; afterward it was a society in which most people, rightly, considered themselves middle class. It may be hard to match that achievement today, but you can, at least, move the country in the right direction.

What caused the Great Compression? That's a complicated story, but one important factor was the rise of organized labor: Union membership tripled between 1935 and 1945. Unions not only negotiated better wages for their own members, they also enhanced the bargaining power of workers throughout the economy. At the time, conservatives warned that wage gains would have disastrous economic effects — that the rise of unions would cripple employment and economic growth. But in fact, the Great Compression was followed by the great postwar boom, which doubled American living standards over the course of a generation.

Unfortunately, the Great Compression was reversed starting in the 1970s, as American workers once again lost much of their bargaining power. This loss was partly due to changes in the world economy, as major U.S. manufacturing corporations started facing more international competition. But it also had a lot to do with politics, as first the Reagan administration, then the Bush administration, did all they could to undermine the ability of workers to organize.

You can make a start on reversing that process. Clearly, you won't be able to oversee a tripling of union membership anytime soon. But you can do a lot to enhance workers' rights. One is to start laying the groundwork to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it much harder for employers to intimidate workers who want to join a union. I know it probably won't happen in your first year, but if and when it does, the legislation will enable America to take a huge step toward recapturing the middle-class society we've lost.