From our friends at Missouri Jobs with Justice comes a little warning about the petitions that those paid canvassers outside the polling places on April 6 will be asking you to sign.  Don't sign!  Click the link to your left for more information.

Don't Sign the Petition to Eliminate the Earnings Tax

Get the FACTS about the Initiative to eliminate the St. Louis and Kansas City Earnings Tax. Visitwww.unitedformissourispriorities.org
to find out more about the initiative and how you can help prevent drastic cuts in vital city services.

Thank President Obama for his Support

We don't often thank our elected leaders when they do something good - like almost never!  So take a minute to send an email thank you card to President Obama for appointing two union supporters to the NLRB.

President Obama took a stand for America's workers. Send Obama a thank you card, and tell him to keep up the fight. WOW. First President Obama and Congress passed healthcare reform. And then, just this weekend,President Obama took another strong stand for working families. He filled much-needed vacancies on the National Labor Relations board (NLRB) – the agency tasked with protecting workers' rights. So we're putting together a thank you card, to show the president our appreciation. Will you add your name? Send a thank you card to President Obama and encourage him to keep the momentum going for working families. Obama's nominees – Craig Becker and Mark Pearce – are well respected and highly qualified labor lawyers who should have been confirmed months ago. But corporate front groups – including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – worked nonstop to block the appointments from coming to an up-or-down vote in the Senate.1 President Obama knew working people couldn't afford to wait any longer for the Labor Board to get to work. So he used his executive power to help the NLRB tackle its backlog of critical cases, making "recess appointments" when Congress left town. "I must act in the interest of the American people and exercise my authority to fill these positions," he said, "...I simply cannot allow partisan politics to stand in the way of the basic functioning of government." Click here and send a thank you card TODAY. It's an easy way to say "thanks for standing up for America's workers." Healthcare reform and these NLRB appointments are critical steps that will make a huge difference for millions of workers. But powerful anti-union lobbyists and corporate front groups will continue to fight every step that President Obama takes to help working families. That's why it's so important to show President Obama these actions have our support. Send a thank you card and tell Obama to keep up the fight. Thanks for all you do for workers' rights, Manny, Liz and the American Rights at Work team P.S. Here's what our thank you card looks like: 1http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-23/business-groups-urge-obama-against-naming-becker-to-labor-board.html

VOTE “NO” ON UNWORKABLE MSTA ANTI-BARGAINING AMENDMENT

The Missouri State Teacher's Association continues to try to divide teachers by pushing an anti-bargaining bill in Jefferson City.  Let your representative know that all employees deserve real collective bargaining by clicking the link below.

Missouri NEA Special Legislative Update
Week 12, March 29, 2010
By Otto Fajen
MNEA Legislative Director

The House is likely to debate and vote on an amendment to HB 1543 (Maynard Wallace) to add HB 1905 (Kevin Wilson), the MSTA anti-bargaining bill for teachers on the afternoon of Monday, March 29. The language would still prevent K-12 teachers from having the same right as other public employees to elect an exclusive bargaining representative.
The bill imposes on teachers an untested, unworkable process that would interfere with existing representation, relationships and bargained agreements in districts throughout Missouri and divide existing units that include more than just teachers. This harmful bill will lead to litigation against the state and leave school districts on the hook for designing a process to elect bargaining representation.
The Association strongly opposes HB 1905. An effective bargaining process must have a unified employee voice that can effectively reach an agreement. MNEA supports legislation that would treat all public employees fairly and that is built on broad consensus among public employee groups and public employers. An effective bargaining law must ultimately provide for exclusive bargaining representation, a clear duty for both employees and employers to bargain in good faith, binding agreements with a clear ratification process and a fair process to resolve impasse and grievances.
ACTION NEEDED: Your help is needed. If you haven't already done so, please call, write or e-mail to urge your state representative to oppose Rep. Kevin Wilson's amendment to add HB 1905, the teacher anti-bargaining bill, to HB 1543 (Maynard Wallace). The following link will connect you to the MNEA Legislative Action Center Action Alert on Rep. Wilson's anti-bargaining amendment on HB 1543. The Action Alert contains a brief summary and an editable message box to help you send an email to your state representative on the issue.
http://www.capwiz.com/nea/mo/issues/alert/?alertid=14869721&type=ST

Labor Board Finally Gets Quorum

Recess appointments to NLRB – OK for Bush, but not for Obama

Posted on March 28, 2010 by Wendy Phillips

President Obama decided to fill 15 key administration posts by recess appointment on Saturday.  The appointments fill senior positions in the Treasury, Commerce, and Homeland Security departments, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and seats on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Farm Credit Administration Board and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

However, it was Obama’s appointment of Craig Becker, a labor lawyer, to the NLRB, the federal agency that oversees relations between unions and employers, that drew intense fury from Republicans who argued that Becker would bring a radical pro-union agenda to the job.

The NLRB is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1935 to administer the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the primary law governing relations between unions and employers. The Board is supposed to consist of 5 members appointed by the President to 5-year terms with Senate consent.  The terms of the Board members are staggered such that the term of one member expires each year. Because of the political nature of Board appointments (with the serving President’s party controlling three positions), the last couple decades have seen many vacancies on the Board.

The NLRB had been operating with only 2 members since the appointments of two Board members expired on December 31, 2007.  The current Members, Chairperson Wilma B. Liebman (Democrat) and Member, Peter C. Schaumber (Republican), have acted as a quorum and issued over 500 decisions.

The question of the authority of the 2-member Board to make decisions was brought before the U.S Supreme Court in the case of New Process Steel v. NLRB, on March 23, 2010.  The authority of a two-member Board to make decisions and carry on the business of the agency has caused a split in the circuits.

The D.C. Circuit has held that the 2-member Board does not form a quorum and therefore has no authority to render decisions.  On the other hand, the First, Second, and Seventh Circuits have found that such a Board was contemplated under statute (Section 3(b) of the NLRA) and can validly express the authority of the agency.  It would be an administrative catastrophe of epic proportions if the 500 decisions issued by the 2 member Board were vacated by the Court’s decision in the New Process Steel case.

In spite of the possibility of the Board being crippled by an adverse SCOTUS decision, Republicans blocked Obama’s attempt to move a package of three NLRB nominees through the Senate last month when 31 Republicans (joined by 2 Senate Democrats) blocked the nomination by denying Democrats the 60 votes needed to end debate on the nomination.

“The president’s decision to override bipartisan Senate rejection of Craig Becker’s nomination is yet another episode of choosing a partisan path despite bipartisan opposition,” said U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

McConnell also objected to Obama’s appointment of Mark Pearce, a labor lawyer, to the NLRB, because he said that both he and Becker are Democrats.

In a statement announcing the recess appointments, Obama said he needed to act because Republicans were refusing to exercise their legislative responsibility in the interest of scoring political points.

“Most of the men and women whose appointments I am announcing today were approved by Senate committees months ago, yet still await a vote of the Senate,” Obama said in the statement issued Saturday. “At a time of economic emergency, two top appointees to the Department of Treasury have been held up for nearly six months. I simply cannot allow partisan politics to stand in the way of the basic functioning of government.”

The Constitution gives a president the power to fill vacancies without the Senate’s confirmation when the legislative body is in recess.  “The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session,” states Article II, Section 2. The recess appointees could theoretically serve without confirmation through the end of 2011, when the next Senate finishes its term. A recess appointment ends at the completion of the next Senate session or when a person is nominated and confirmed to the job, whichever comes first.

Democrats and union advocates call Republican opposition to the recess appointment to the NLRB two-faced and disingenuous.  Not only did Republican President George W. Bush make more than 170 recess appointments, but according to the Congressional Research Service, 8 of Bush’s recess appointments were to the NLRB.

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Obama to Appoint Pro-Labor Becker to NLRB?

It looks like President Obama is going appoint Craig Becker to the NLRB with a recess appointment!  Like I said in my last post, appointments make a huge difference.  You can tell how good Becker is by how freaked out the Chamber of Commerce and Republicans are over the news.  Health care, student loan reform and now a great NLRB appointment.  It's been a wonderful week in DC.  

GOP Warns Obama Against Recess Appointments To National Labor Relations Board

From The Wonk Room blog

This week, Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) said that he expects President Obama to recess appoint former AFL-CIO and SEIU lawyer Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) after Congress adjourns at the end of the week. Becker’s nomination — as well as those of two other NLRB nominees — have been held up by conservatives in Congress.
The administration has been hinting for a while that a recess appointment for Becker is coming, and today Senate Republicans — who are using Becker’s nomination as a proxy battle over the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) — fired off a letterto Obama making their displeasure with these developments known:

We are writing to urge you not to overturn the bipartisan vote against the nomination of Craig Becker to be a Member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) through a recess appointment. To do so would bypass the advice and consent traditions of the Senate…Taking this action would install a rejected nominee for an appointed term to the NLRB, setting an unfortunate precedent for all future nominations and future administrations.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), one of the principal authors of the letter, added that “if this administration chooses to recess appoint Mr. Becker, it would be just another example of putting the will of one special interest group over the will of the American people.”
These are pretty strong words from the GOP, claiming that Becker is a “rejected nominee,” who was voted down due to “the will of the American people.” You’d almost think he faced an up-or-down vote sometime.
However, if you thought that an up-or-down vote was ever held on Becker’s nomination, you’d be wrong. His nomination was filibustered, like so many others, as a motion to file cloture on his nomination was defeated by a 33-52 vote (with 15 senators missing the vote), eight short of the 60 needed to proceed to debate and a final vote.
So even if all of the non-voting members had voted no, Becker still would have received the approval of a majority of the Senate. But thanks to the Republicans using procedural votes to gum things up, Becker remains in limbo. And of course, conservatives didn’t seem to take umbrage with President George W. Bush’s multitude of recess appointments to the NLRB.
The NLRB has been in the spotlight this week because a case was heard by the Supreme Court that could invalidate more than 600 rulings that the board made while only two of its five members were in place. (The technical dispute revolves around whether or not two members constitutes a quorum). During oral arguments before the court, Chief Justice John Roberts directly asked why Obama has not simply solved the NLRB’s problem with recess appointments. And with the unprecedented obstruction that the Republicans are engaging in, that’s exactly the right question to ask.

UPDATEThe American Prospect's Adam Serwer adds:

Republicans have already acknowledged that their strategy is universal opposition to anything the administration wants to do, making the threat meaningless. Republicans have already killed all the hostages, and now they're demanding a chopper and a billion dollars transferred to a Swiss bank account. What's the point?

Think Politics Don't Matter?

Sometimes it's the behind the scenes appointments and regulations that can make a huge difference for working people.  Most people don't even know who Hilda Solis is, but the new Secretary of Labor has hit the ground running.  Here's a excerpt from an article in The Nation.  

"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."

For more, go to: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100412/kaplan.

Terrible TABOR

From Missouri NEA Legislative Update
by Otto Fajen

The House perfected HCS/HJR 87 (Allen Icet) on March 22 by a nearly party-line vote of 88-66.  HCS/HJR 87 is a constitutional spending limit similar to the Colorado provision known as “TABOR”, or the so-called “Taxpayer Bill of Rights.”  The HJR would impose a permanent, constitutional spending limit on state government and would limit annual growth in state appropriations to a cost of living adjustment factor plus a population growth factor.  The HJR even includes requirements for imposing further, permanent state income tax cuts if the spending limits are operational.
Missouri NEA strongly opposes this unneeded restriction.  Legislators should be able to construct a consensus revenue estimate and appropriate according to that estimate.  HJR 87’s limit would cause Missouri government to shrink year after year relative to the size of the overall economy.  TABOR-style limits are a proven failure and will permanently diminish the state's capacity to invest in education and other services we need in Missouri.

Watch a video on what TABOR has done to Colorado at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbF3_CiOtoM

Historic Step for Health Care!

I got this message from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka today. What a historic moment! And it’s thanks to you. When I was at the Capitol last night lobbying House members to vote for the health care reform legislation, I took with me your strength and that of millions of union members and health care activists like you. Winning the historic health care vote in the House simply could not have happened without you. The 4 million calls you made to Congress, the rallies you attended, the e-mails you sent, the way you never stopped making your voice heard for health care reform—that’s what made the difference. Thanks to you, we are right on the verge of ending obscene insurance company abuses that have denied and canceled coverage because people had the nerve to get sick. Thanks to you, we’ll start getting health care costs under control, make sure employers meet their responsibilities and get health care to 32 million people whose lives have been at risk without it. And after a lot of hard work, this legislation will not force middle class working people to pick up the tab. (Read more about it all here.) The Senate must approve the final language this week. Please don’t stop now. Keep the pressure on your senators. Keep making your voice heard. I know you can do it. See a message from President Trumka here: watch  Sincerely, Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO President

Merit pay sets candidate apart, Teacher group opposes idea.

Photo by Don Shrubshell | Buy this photo

Columbia Missouri National Education Association President Susan McClintic, left, begins the questioning of Columbia Board of Education candidates last night during a forum at Columbia Public Schools’ District Administration Building.

Just one Columbia Board of Education candidate said he supports merit pay last night at a forum sponsored by a teacher organization that opposes the idea of linking teacher pay to student achievement.

SLIDE SHOW

● COLUMBIA BOARD OF EDUCATION CANDIDATE FORUM

Dan Holt, one of three candidates for two open three-year seats on the board, said he would support a merit-pay system that teachers at individual school buildings design for their school. The system would incorporate more than current tests given to students, Holt said, but he did not elaborate. In his plan, the district would implement merit pay building by building, a change from how the district pays teachers now: one salary schedule that lets teachers earn more money for furthering their education and for years worked.

The teacher salary schedule does not take into account how effectively or how well the teacher performs.

“I think it needs to be introduced,” said Holt, whose wife, Lisa, is the chairwoman of the math department at Rock Bridge High School.

Holt was speaking at a school board candidate forum last night at the District Administration Building sponsored by the Columbia Missouri National Education Association, one of two teacher organizations recognized by the school board. CMNEA opposes merit pay.

Five candidates have decided to vie for three open seats on the school board. Holt and board members Jan Mees and Jim Whitt are competing for the two three-year seats available. Jonathan Sessions and Phil Peters are running for a one-year seat available because of board member Rosie Tippin’s resignation in May.

Mees opposes merit pay, saying the model judges the student more than the teacher. “Whose performance are you evaluating, really?” said Mees, who was a media specialist in the district for 21 years and receives campaign support from several Columbia Public Schools employees, who routinely oppose merit pay.

Whitt also was against the idea. “It really doesn’t work,” he said.

Peters said the district should study the effectiveness of merit-pay systems and then make its decision. “Every idea has to be on the table,” he said.

Sessions said merit pay is a good idea on paper but not in reality. He also said if teachers don’t support it, the district shouldn’t install it.

A merit-pay system for Columbia teachers is already being studied. At a January board work session, after a long debate about studying effective teachers and how to reward strong teachers, the school board OK’d the following language for a long-term district objective: “By 2014-15, the district will study, develop and consider implementation of an appropriate supplemental employee compensation system to recognize and reward outstanding performance in which a portion of employee pay will be based on student performance gains and/or other relevant factors.”

Reach Jonathon Braden at 573-815-1711 or e-mail jbraden@columbiatribune.com.

This article was published on page A12 of the Friday, March 19, 2010 edition of The Columbia Daily Tribune. 

REALLY BIG SALES TAX!

Thanks to Otto Fajen, MNEA Legislative Update

The House Ways and Means Committee will also hear HJR 56 (Ed Emery) on March 18.  HJR 56 is a proposed constitutional amendment, which, if approved by a statewide vote, would replace the state personal and corporate income taxes, corporate and bank franchise taxes, existing state sales and use taxes and local earnings taxes with a greatly expanded and increased sales tax on most sales of goods and services. In a masterstroke of Orwellian deception, proponents refer to this massive sales tax increase as the “Fair Tax.”
The state needs a responsible and sustainable tax policy to fund investment in public schools and other vital services. Perversely, the so-called “Fair Tax” proposal  would actually make Missouri's tax code profoundly less fair, less adequate and less sustainable.
This type of impractical, regressive tax change will keep Missouri from maintaining the revenue it needs to invest in public schools, public higher education and other vital public services like transportation and healthcare. 

Republican Senators Crusade Against a FedEx Union

Here's a good reason to ship UPS, rather than the union-busting Fed Ex.  

From Working In These Times

By Lindsay Beyerstein

Two Republican senators from Tennesse are doing a big favor for a big company from their home state by fighting unionization rights for drivers at the Memphis-based courier FedEx.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) has pledged to use "every right and privilege I have" to prevent FedEx drivers from organizing. The only reason FedEx can't organize now is because of a legal double stanard.

Other shipping companies like UPS are governed by the National Labor Relations Act, like the vast majority of employers in the United States. Whereas FedEx is subject to the Railway Labor Act, which denies them the basic organizing rights most employees take for granted.

The Railway Labor Act (RLA) is an old piece of union-busting legislation designed to curb the power of railroad unions by taking away their right to strike during an era when the rails were the backbone of the economy. As the airline industry became more important to the U.S., the RLA was extended to cover airlines.

FedEx is covered by the RLA because the courier started out as an airline and branched out into trucking. UPS started as a trucking company and branched out into shipping by air, so it falls under the NLRA. The two companies perform the same service, but their employees have different rights because of an accident of history.

Last week, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) placed a hold on the reauthorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration. The Senate version of the bill wouldn't give FedEx unionization rights, but Corker is launching a preemptive strike against any attempt by the House to insert that language in conference committee. The version of the $53.5 billion FAA reauthorization measure that passed the House last year includes unionization rights for FedEx.

Corker was forced to back down slightly yesterday after being widely ridiculed for putting a hold on a bill that didn't even contain the provision he objected to. He finally lifted the hold after meeting with the distraught families of plane crash victims who want the FAA reauthorization to pass as quickly as possible because it contains tougher aviation safety measures.

FedEx is dead set against a union and the company is prepared to spend big to wield influence in Washington. The company spent a whopping $16,370,000on lobbying in 2009, mostly to sway the FAA reauthorization.

FedEx is Corker's third largest corporate donor. The company's employees and PACs have enriched Corker's campaign and leadership PAC coffers by$57,800 over the past 5 years. FedEx is Alexander's 14th largest corporate donor. His campaign committee and leadership PAC have accepted $34,500FedEx dollars since 2005.

The Obama administration's poor relationship with Labor

From the Washington Post

by Ezra Klein

I don't know why administration officials even say things like this:

Vice President Joe Biden told the AFL-CIO that the Obama administration will still be able to push through a controversial union organizing bill that has been stalled for the past year and looked all but dead once Democrats lost their 60-seat super-majority in the Senate.

At the Buena Vista Palace Hotel in Orlando, Fla., where the labor federation is holding its annual winter meeting, Biden asked for continued support from union leaders despite the administration’s inability to push through two big items on labor’s wish list: the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for unions to organize new members, and a pro-union nominee to the National Labor Relations Board.

“I know it doesn’t seem like it, but we’ve come a long way in 12 months,” Biden told several hundred union officials. “In terms of the NLRB, we’re going to get it done. In the fight for EFCA, we’ve got to sit down and figure out where we go from here. … I think we’re going to get it done.”

This just isn't credible. They're not going to get card check done. They don't have the votes, and they'll be even further from having the votes come January. For Biden to say otherwise insults the intelligence of his audience.

In terms of NLRB, the White House decided against a recess appointment for Craig Becker, who got 52 votes but was blocked by a filibuster. Compare that to George W. Bush, whose first NLRB appointment was an anti-labor industry type who'd been held up by a filibuster and was seated through a recess appointment.

The White House has demanded a lot of compromise from organized labor (most notably on the excise tax) and offered very little in return, save for the occasional speech assuring unions that the administration would eventually fight for some element of their agenda. Not only is that not enough, but it's not smart in the long run: Democrats need a strong labor movement, yes, but so too do American workers. Without Labor, workers have no organized lobby advocating (however imperfectly) for their political interests and no countervailing force against the corporate sector. It's not a total accident that the decline of Labor tracked stagnation in the median wage (nor, to be sure, is it a full explanation).

The White House obviously can't pick all its fights at once, but as of yet, it hasn't picked any fights on Labor's behalf, or even shown a bare interest in doing so in the future. Some probably take that as Obama being usefully dismissive of a special interest, but in the long-run, letting Labor continue to decline is bad politics for Democrats and bad policy for workers.

By Ezra Klein  |  March 2, 2010; 3:33 PM ET

Columbia mayoral candidates addressed overtime and job growth

Columbia Missourian

BY KATHLEEN POINTER

COLUMBIA — On Monday night, members of the Mid-Missouri Labor Club questioned mayoral candidates about overtime pay, collective bargaining and council-manager government.

It is the first time the Labor Club held such a meeting with mayoral candidates.

MoreStory

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Related Media

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  Mayor candidate Jerry Wade answers questions from members of the mid-Missouri Labor Club at their monthly meeting on Monday evening. The forum provided a chance for the local labor union members to speak with the candidates about campaign concerns and issues one at a time.

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Related Articles

• Columbia mayoral candidates addressed overtime and job growth

Five of the six mayoral candidates were in attendance; candidate Sal Nuccio did not attend. Each had about 25 minutes to address the group of about 20 and answer questions.

Club members questioned Fourth Ward Councilman and mayoral candidate Jerry Wade’s City Council vote in September 2009 to restructure overtime hours for city workers.

“That decision last year is the single toughest decision I’ve made at City Council,” Wade said.

Wade added that when the city gets a “stable revenue stream” he wants to bring up the city workers at the bottom end of the salary scale.

During the meeting, James Turner, an MU employee, said Wade talked about overtime as if it was a gift.

Regina Guevara, a field representative with the Local 773 union, said she wasn’t happy with the way Wade voted on the overtime pay issue.

“He voted against the people,” she said. She added that understanding Wade as a potential mayor is easier because of his time on the council.

When asked about the council-manager form of government, candidate Sid Sullivan said the council shouldn’t be afraid to communicate with city workers when making policy decisions.

“As your mayor, I would certainly lead the charge in saying council has this authority,” Sullivan added.

When questioned about Boone Hospital Center construction projects, candidate Bob McDavid, who serves on the board of trustees at the hospital, said the board gives local preference when they can.

“We’re not going low bid, we’re going best bid,” he said.

McDavid also addressed the city’s relationship to MU during the question and answer session and said it was important to grow to attract people to the area.

Candidate Sean O’Day’s age was brought into question when Turner asked O’Day if he’d graduated yesterday. O’Day, 23, is the youngest candidate in the race. He is currently enrollyed at Moberly Area Community College.

“How do you expect to run a complex city like Columbia?” he added.

O’Day said he’d had been interested in politics for a long time and that he was very familiar with the issues facing the city.

Russ Unger, president of the club, asked O’Day if he supported issues especially important to the union workers, such as collective bargaining.

“Absolutely,” he said. “Workers have to be able to get together.”

Candidate Paul Love said programs would have to be cut because of city finances.

“Good, bad or otherwise, at least I’m being honest,” he said.

Love also said that he wanted to focus on bringing in high-technology jobs because “they just need people and power” and wouldn’t cause a lot of controversy.

Tim Nowlin, with the Glaziers Architectural Metal and Glass Workers Local 513 union, said there would be controversy if there were substandard wages, though.

“My face will be the first you’ll see out there with a sign around my neck,” Nowlin said.