Wednesday, February 29, 2012
City Council candidates talk collective bargaining, raises with unions
Wednesday, February 22, 2012 | 10:35 p.m. CST; updated 11:04 p.m. CST, Wednesday, February 22, 2012
BY KIP HILL
COLUMBIA — City Council hopefuls met with local labor group representatives Wednesday afternoon. For some, it was a chance to speak. For others, a chance to learn.
"A lot of the candidates don't understand the issues facing city employees," Russ Unger, president of the Mid-Missouri Labor Club, said. "Through this process, we hope we're educating them."
For about 30 minutes apiece, members of local unions peppered each council candidate with questions about wage increases, collective bargaining for public employees and the transparency of city government. All three Second Ward candidates were in attendance; Bill Tillotson from the Sixth Ward participated, but incumbent Barbara Hoppe was out of town. The meeting was rescheduled from Feb. 13 because of snow.
Last fall, the city approved a 25-cent-per-hour raise for most of its employees, their first since 2009. Gerod Crum, a crew member for the Street Division and a Third Ward resident, said city workers need more wage increases to keep up with the cost of living.
"They have a budget of $400 million," Crum said. "How come they can't set aside $2 million?"
The candidates differed on strategies to increase wages, though they agreed tightening the city's belt on spending in other areas should be the first step. Second Ward candidate Mike Atkinson proposed holding off on the construction of new parks.
"Unless there's federal money that says you can only use that on parks, then I'm not really going to support — at a time we're in a deficit — to buy more land and put a slide on it and some swings," Atkinson said. He added that funds should be used to maintain existing parks.
Tillotson said fiscal responsibility should start with increased transparency by city government. Tillotson, an independent insurance agent, said he'd looked at the city's prescription plan and found that employees can't mail-order prescription drugs, an oversight that could save the city $300,000 annually.
"That frees up money for salaries," he said. "That frees up money for benefits."
Tillotson said other departments would likely have ways to cut spending that would be more apparent if city records were publicly available.
Crum said he appreciated Tillotson's stance on increased transparency. He said workers in the Street Division have asked the city for details about proposed pension plan adjustments, which were prompted by a city task force finding that employee retirement benefits were running at a nearly $118 million deficit. Those requests have gone unanswered, Crum said.
Labor group members were also concerned about public workers' inability to collectively bargain with the city. David Anderson, a member of United Food and Commercial Workers International Local 2, said public workers lack a contract that would require the city to adhere to the rulings of a federal arbitrator.
"As a private sector employee, I have collective bargaining," Anderson said. "The public employees — what we call that is collective begging."
Second Ward candidate Michael Trapp, who said his father was a union meat cutter, said unions were the "bulwark" of the middle class. He said he would fully support contract labor agreements between the city and public workers, though he questioned current efforts to make that happen.
"I question whether the city has been doing what we call 'good faith negotiations,'" Trapp said. "If they have no plans to ever come to a final determination and sign a contract, that does not sound like good faith negotiations to me."
Crum said the city's position on negotiation has affected morale in his division.
"The city manager's going to do what he wants to do," Crum said.
Second Ward candidate Bill Pauls used the majority of his time with the group to throw out questions of his own. He scribbled notes when labor members discussed collective bargaining procedures and said public workers should have a right to negotiate with the city, just like private workers and their employers.
"I don't know why it's set up differently," Pauls said.
James T. Turner, a member of Laborer's International Union of North America Local 773 and a carpenter at MU, said after the meeting that he was impressed by Trapp.
"He seems to be of a union background," Turner said. "He's the closest related to our issues."
Anderson, a Second Ward resident, agreed. He said he was impressed by Trapp's knowledge of labor issues and was leaning toward the candidate following the interviews.
The municipal election will be held April 3.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Meeting tonight
City Council Candidates will be screened by the Labor Club tonight @ 4 p.m. at the Labor Temple. Come on out.
Friday, February 17, 2012
It's once in a lifetime that the Smithsonian Institute creates a traveling exhibit on work and working people. Throw in that they are involving organized labor and you gotta be there! Let's come out to support this exhibit and our own Sam White.
For those of you in mid-Missouri, I will be giving a lecture titled A Brief History of Work in the United States at the Churchill Museum Tuesday, February 28th at 5:00 PM to support the The Way We Worked exhibit. As you may know, the Churchill Museum at Westminster College in Fulton is hosting the Smithsonian’s The Way We Worked travelling exhibit until March 10th. Several labor organizations including the pipefitters, sheet metal workers, electricians, bricklayers, operators, and steelworkers have contributed to the exhibit. The lecture on the 28th will be about an hour and, I hope, entertaining. Here is a link to the Churchill Museum.
http://www.churchillmemorial.org/Pages/default.aspx
Sam White
For those of you in mid-Missouri, I will be giving a lecture titled A Brief History of Work in the United States at the Churchill Museum Tuesday, February 28th at 5:00 PM to support the The Way We Worked exhibit. As you may know, the Churchill Museum at Westminster College in Fulton is hosting the Smithsonian’s The Way We Worked travelling exhibit until March 10th. Several labor organizations including the pipefitters, sheet metal workers, electricians, bricklayers, operators, and steelworkers have contributed to the exhibit. The lecture on the 28th will be about an hour and, I hope, entertaining. Here is a link to the Churchill Museum.
http://www.churchillmemorial.org/Pages/default.aspx
Sam White
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Unions present priorities to city administrators
The Missouri Constitution gives these employees the right to "bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing." That means the right to bargain an agreement that binds both sides, just like every contract the city signs with contractors, service providers and vendors. Time to have the same respect for your employees that you have for outside companies. Sheesh!
By ANDREW DENNEY
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Columbia Tribune
As city leaders look ahead to budget talks for next fiscal year, representatives from unions speaking for Columbia city employees are outlining specific requests for improved working conditions.
Talks between unions, the Columbia City Council and city administrators are part of the annual “meet-and-confer” process in which unions can present their cases. Last week, four unions representing workers from the Columbia Fire, Police, Public Works, and Water and Light departments presented their proposals to the council.
The longest proposals came from Laborers' International Union of North America Local 773, which represents Public Works employees, Water and Light workers who work at the municipal power plant and Columbia Transit workers; and the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers Local 2, which represents Water and Light employees. Both are pushing for binding agreements with the city for wages and benefits for the employees they represent to prevent sudden changes by city administrators.
“It eliminates their flexibility to make changes any time they want to,” said David Desmond, a business manager for Local 2. City administrators generally have opposed entrance into binding agreements, saying agreements with unions could tie the city's hands in difficult fiscal circumstances.
Local 773 also has asked for a 50-cent-per-hour raise for Public Works employees and, in an attempt to alleviate wage compression within the department, a base pay rate for new hires. Regina Guevara, a field representative for Local 773, said a base rate for new hires would improve employee morale in the department by preventing a new hire from getting paid more than an employee who has spent some time with the department.
Guevara said Local 773 has about 240 city employees as part of its bargaining unit, of which 45 are dues-paying members of the union. Desmond said the St. Louis-based Local 2 has no dues-paying members from Columbia, but it has agreed to represent the workers.
Requests from unions representing employees of the fire and police departments had shorter wish lists. The Columbia Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 26 has asked for an additional floating holiday for all city employees and free parking for all city employees in city-owned garages. The International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1055 had only one request — that department administrators allow employees to see their written score for promotional tests.
First Ward Councilman Fred Schmidt said the council is in a “difficult place” in that it must balance fair compensation for city employees with taxpayers' concerns, but he said if the city could not provide raises, it could work in the short-term to reduce wage compression in some departments. “We'd love to do the best for everybody; there's just limited resources,” Schmidt said.
Third Ward Councilman Gary Kespohl said considering most city employees have received only a 25-cent-per-hour raise in the past three years and health insurance premiums have increased, workers have been “very patient” with city leaders. He said as economic conditions improve, ensuring the proper compensation of city employees should be a top priority for administrators.
“We're trying to get through this recessionary time, but we're going to get through it,” Kespohl said.
By ANDREW DENNEY
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Columbia Tribune
As city leaders look ahead to budget talks for next fiscal year, representatives from unions speaking for Columbia city employees are outlining specific requests for improved working conditions.
Talks between unions, the Columbia City Council and city administrators are part of the annual “meet-and-confer” process in which unions can present their cases. Last week, four unions representing workers from the Columbia Fire, Police, Public Works, and Water and Light departments presented their proposals to the council.
The longest proposals came from Laborers' International Union of North America Local 773, which represents Public Works employees, Water and Light workers who work at the municipal power plant and Columbia Transit workers; and the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers Local 2, which represents Water and Light employees. Both are pushing for binding agreements with the city for wages and benefits for the employees they represent to prevent sudden changes by city administrators.
“It eliminates their flexibility to make changes any time they want to,” said David Desmond, a business manager for Local 2. City administrators generally have opposed entrance into binding agreements, saying agreements with unions could tie the city's hands in difficult fiscal circumstances.
Local 773 also has asked for a 50-cent-per-hour raise for Public Works employees and, in an attempt to alleviate wage compression within the department, a base pay rate for new hires. Regina Guevara, a field representative for Local 773, said a base rate for new hires would improve employee morale in the department by preventing a new hire from getting paid more than an employee who has spent some time with the department.
Guevara said Local 773 has about 240 city employees as part of its bargaining unit, of which 45 are dues-paying members of the union. Desmond said the St. Louis-based Local 2 has no dues-paying members from Columbia, but it has agreed to represent the workers.
Requests from unions representing employees of the fire and police departments had shorter wish lists. The Columbia Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 26 has asked for an additional floating holiday for all city employees and free parking for all city employees in city-owned garages. The International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1055 had only one request — that department administrators allow employees to see their written score for promotional tests.
First Ward Councilman Fred Schmidt said the council is in a “difficult place” in that it must balance fair compensation for city employees with taxpayers' concerns, but he said if the city could not provide raises, it could work in the short-term to reduce wage compression in some departments. “We'd love to do the best for everybody; there's just limited resources,” Schmidt said.
Third Ward Councilman Gary Kespohl said considering most city employees have received only a 25-cent-per-hour raise in the past three years and health insurance premiums have increased, workers have been “very patient” with city leaders. He said as economic conditions improve, ensuring the proper compensation of city employees should be a top priority for administrators.
“We're trying to get through this recessionary time, but we're going to get through it,” Kespohl said.
For Reasons Unclear, Union Membership Changed Little in 2011
This is good news, sort of. Labor has to organize, organize, organize!
SATURDAY JAN 28, 2012 11:44 AM
BY DAVID MOBERG
In These Times
With all-too-few exceptions over the past three decades, each annual report on union membership from the Bureau of Labor Statistics has added another chapter in a story of decline—in numbers, union share of the workforce, or both.
In that context, the news on Friday could have been worse: 11.8 percent of the workforce belonged to unions in 2011 (with another 1.2 percent represented by unions but not members, typically in right-to-work states). That's down 0.1 percent from 2010, and down by a bit less than half since 1983, when comarable figures were first compiled (and 20.1 percent of workers belonged to unions).
But the number of union members grew last year by 49,000 (reaching 14.8 million, compared to 17.7 million in 1983). Even though governments cut out jobs of 61,000 public employees who were union members, there were 110,000 more private sector union members last year than in 2010. But public employees still make up more than half of organized labor.
Surprising as it may have been to have private business union membership grow while public sector membership declined, the union share of the private sector workforce remained unchanged--6.9 percent.
Meanwhile, a larger part of public workers belonged to unions--up to 37 percent from 36.2 percent in 2010. How could that happen?
Possibly, more nonunion public employees lost jobs than did union workers. But there were also some gains in public worker organizing, such as the American Federation of Government Employees success organizing 41,000 Transportation Security Administration employees, which contributed to the higher union share. In the end it is hard to tell the balance of influence between labor market changes and organizing.
Trying to explain the private sector union gains comes to the same murky conclusion. Perhaps employers disproportionately recalled unionized workers. Think of auto workers who were rehired as the industry recovered. Among the states, Michigan had the second largest gain in union membership. But weakly unionized Florida had the biggest gain in union membership, and labor strongholds like New York and California lost union members. The industries showing the biggest union membership gains were construction, healthcare, retail, metals, and transportation/warehousing--some fairly strongly unionized, others weak.
Another major potential explanation could be that private sector organizing made great progress. That's hard to tell. Results of National Labor Relations Board representation elections haven't been compiled yet for 2011, but in any case probably represent less than half of union recognition fights. The AFL- CIO used to survey unions to determine who organized what number of workers, but now no one appears to know.
There were private sector organizing victories. For example, the United Food and Commercial Workers (including its semi-autonomous RWDSU unit) scored big wins in beef and pork processing, retail, and warehousing. But even with its wins, UFCW membership overall remained constant at 1.3 million.
Ultimately, the needed statistics aren't available, the changes in the historical record are tiny, and the potential causes too complex to say much more than this: 2011 was neither a breakthrough for labor nor unusually disastrous. So it could have been better. (The questions as always, are how and when.) It could have been worse. (That's definitely what the Republicans are planning; it's less clear whether many Democrats are planning any way to make labor unions grow rapidly.)
But the tea leaves from the BLS give little hint of the future.
SATURDAY JAN 28, 2012 11:44 AM
BY DAVID MOBERG
In These Times
With all-too-few exceptions over the past three decades, each annual report on union membership from the Bureau of Labor Statistics has added another chapter in a story of decline—in numbers, union share of the workforce, or both.
In that context, the news on Friday could have been worse: 11.8 percent of the workforce belonged to unions in 2011 (with another 1.2 percent represented by unions but not members, typically in right-to-work states). That's down 0.1 percent from 2010, and down by a bit less than half since 1983, when comarable figures were first compiled (and 20.1 percent of workers belonged to unions).
But the number of union members grew last year by 49,000 (reaching 14.8 million, compared to 17.7 million in 1983). Even though governments cut out jobs of 61,000 public employees who were union members, there were 110,000 more private sector union members last year than in 2010. But public employees still make up more than half of organized labor.
Surprising as it may have been to have private business union membership grow while public sector membership declined, the union share of the private sector workforce remained unchanged--6.9 percent.
Meanwhile, a larger part of public workers belonged to unions--up to 37 percent from 36.2 percent in 2010. How could that happen?
Possibly, more nonunion public employees lost jobs than did union workers. But there were also some gains in public worker organizing, such as the American Federation of Government Employees success organizing 41,000 Transportation Security Administration employees, which contributed to the higher union share. In the end it is hard to tell the balance of influence between labor market changes and organizing.
Trying to explain the private sector union gains comes to the same murky conclusion. Perhaps employers disproportionately recalled unionized workers. Think of auto workers who were rehired as the industry recovered. Among the states, Michigan had the second largest gain in union membership. But weakly unionized Florida had the biggest gain in union membership, and labor strongholds like New York and California lost union members. The industries showing the biggest union membership gains were construction, healthcare, retail, metals, and transportation/warehousing--some fairly strongly unionized, others weak.
Another major potential explanation could be that private sector organizing made great progress. That's hard to tell. Results of National Labor Relations Board representation elections haven't been compiled yet for 2011, but in any case probably represent less than half of union recognition fights. The AFL- CIO used to survey unions to determine who organized what number of workers, but now no one appears to know.
There were private sector organizing victories. For example, the United Food and Commercial Workers (including its semi-autonomous RWDSU unit) scored big wins in beef and pork processing, retail, and warehousing. But even with its wins, UFCW membership overall remained constant at 1.3 million.
Ultimately, the needed statistics aren't available, the changes in the historical record are tiny, and the potential causes too complex to say much more than this: 2011 was neither a breakthrough for labor nor unusually disastrous. So it could have been better. (The questions as always, are how and when.) It could have been worse. (That's definitely what the Republicans are planning; it's less clear whether many Democrats are planning any way to make labor unions grow rapidly.)
But the tea leaves from the BLS give little hint of the future.
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