How did labor fare on Tuesday?
HAROLD MEYERSON NOVEMBER 9, 2012
Despite setbacks in several states, the American labor movement came out a clear winner in Tuesday’s elections. Most important, they played a key role in ensuring the re-election of President Obama, and contributed significantly to Democratic Senate victories in hotly contested races in Massachusetts, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Virginia.
How effective were the unions’ massive voter-education and mobilization programs in the swing states? This year, for the first time, the network exit polling didn’t ask whether respondents were union members, though it did ask if there was a union member in their household. Historically, while union-household voters are more pro-Democratic than voters with no union members at home, the gap is smaller than that between actual union members and non-members. Also historically, union membership doesn’t make much of a difference among, say, African-American women, who are going to vote Democratic at a 95-percent rate whether or not they belong to a union. Where membership matters is among white working-class voters. (Pollsters don’t ask voters if they’re working class—that’s a pretty subjective assessment—but they do ask if they went to college, so non-college-educated voters are the designated stand-ins for working-class voters.)
Nationwide, the exit polls showed only a small difference between the votes of white working class voters with a union member in their household and those with no union members—indeed, a rate just 2 percent higher. But in the swing states that the unions flooded with volunteers and money, the differences were far greater. In Ohio, non-union household, white-collar voters favored Mitt Romney over Obama by 59 percent to 39 percent. Such voters with a union member in the house, however, favored Obama by a 54 percent to 44 percent margin—a 15 point swing. Among white working-class men, the swing was even greater: 21 points. The numbers for Wisconsin tell a similar story: White working-class voters from non-union households preferred Romney by a 57 to 42 percent margin, while those from union households preferred Obama by 60 percent to 38 percent—an 18 point swing.
The one poll of union members (not just voters with union members in their households) was conducted by Hart Research for the AFL-CIO. Nationally (the poll doesn’t have state-level results), all union voters went for Obama over Romney by a 66 percent to 34 percent margin, while non-union voters backed Romney, 52 percent to 48 percent—an 18-point swing. Among white working-class men, union members voted for Obama at a 54.5 percent rate while non-members gave the president just 27.5 percent of their votes—a monumental swing of 27 points. Among white working-class women, who gave Obama 62.5 percent of their vote if they were union members and just 35.5 percent if they weren’t, the swing was also 27 points.
But union efforts weren’t confined this year just to getting out the vote of their own members. For years, the AFL-CIO has been building its Working America program in such key swing states as Ohio, using door-to-door canvassers to enlist residents of largely white working-class neighborhoods who aren’t union members into the AFL-CIO’s political program. This year, Working America members—of whom there were nearly 2 million in Ohio—voted for Obama at the same rate as union members: 66 percent. As well, the Citizens United decision enabled unions to contact all voters, even without enlisting them in any program at all. In Ohio, while the AFL-CIO was focusing on swing white working-class voters, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) undertook a massive voter-registration and turnout program of its own among African-American and Latino voters. With more than 2,300 volunteers working full time during the last four days of the campaign, the SEIU helped raise the African-American share of the vote in Ohio from 11 percent in 2008 to 15 percent this year. Nationally, the SEIU-funded Mi Familia Vota employed 600 organizers to mobilize Latino voters across the Sunbelt. The rising number of pro-Obama Latino voters in such key regions as California’s Inland Empire (where the Democrats picked up two Congressional seats from the Republicans), central Florida (where Osceola County has gone from providing 54 percent of the vote to George W. Bush in 2004 to giving Obama 54 percent in 2008 and 62 percent this year), and Colorado testify to the success of SEIU’s Latino election programs.
The unions’ record on ballot measures this week was mixed. They won very big in California, where they not only defeated a Republican-backed measure that would have restricted their ability to deploy their treasuries in election campaigns, but, by virtue of their intense door-to-door get out the vote efforts, also helped pass a measure backed by Governor Jerry Brown that raised taxes on the rich to fund California’s schools, and contributed to down-ticket victories that produced four more Democratic congressional seats and two-thirds Democratic supermajorities (the level required to raise taxes) in both houses of the state legislature. (Indeed, labor’s victories in California this year recall the similar spillover effects of their successful 1958 campaign to defeat a “right-to-work” ballot measure, when their turnout effort also helped put a liberal Democrat—Pat Brown, Jerry’s father—in the governor’s office and turned the legislature Democratic for the first time in many years.)
Labor also suffered some defeats on Tuesday’s ballot measures, notably in Michigan, where a union-backed initiative to enshrine collective-bargaining rights in the state constitution went down to a thumping (58 percent to 42 percent) defeat. Comparing the fate of this measure to the success unions had last year in Ohio, persuading voters to repeal the suspension of public employee collective-bargaining rights enacted a few months earlier by the Republican legislature and governor, suggests that voters are uneasy at rewriting the social contract in either direction. Moreover, there’s ample evidence both from polling and election results that voters are more inclined to favor worker rights than union power, however contradictory that sentiment may seem.
On the whole, however, Tuesday was a very good day for America’s unions, which demonstrated yet again their power at the polls. How much that power will carry over to the battle brewing on the grand bargain—whether they can keep Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid intact – remains to be seen.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Friday, November 2, 2012
Missouri Home Care Workers Prepare For Collective Bargaining After Decisive Legal Victory
Here's the AFSCME statement on the court victory for home health care workers. AFSCME and SEIU are working together. It's great to see workers winning some victories in Missouri - first the 1300 Columbia teachers voted for MNEA and now this.
MISSOURI HOME CARE WORKERS PREPARE FOR COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AFTER DECISIVE LEGAL VICTORY
State Supreme Court Rebuffs Union Foes' Last Request for Appeal; Sets Stage for Negotiation Over First Contract to Begin
In a climactic victory in their four-year struggle to improve their working conditions and strengthen the quality of care for the people they serve, 13,000 Missouri home care workers Tuesday cleared the last legal obstacle delaying negotiations on their first contract with the state.
The milestone came when the Missouri Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal to a lower court decision upholding a 2010 election in which the state's home care workers voted to form union. The ruling represents the legal end of the line for the union's opponents who had sought to invalidate the results of the election and obstruct collective bargaining on behalf of the workers who provide vital home care to the state's seniors and people with disabilities.
Home care workers perform essential services for their consumers such as bathing, cooking, cleaning and emergency response. They're also instrumental in curtailing costs the state would incur in nursing home expenditures if home care wasn't available.
"This ruling is a huge relief to people like me who rely on home care providers to help us live independently and stay out of nursing homes," said home care consumer Edna Austin of Crystal City. "The union will give them the resources they need to improve their working conditions, reducing turnover and providing more security for the consumers that hire them."
In May, the Court of Appeals for the Western District unanimously reversed a lower court ruling that had blocked state officials from certifying a 2010 election in which a majority of Missouri home care workers had voted to unionize, setting the stage to negotiate for stronger consumer protections, higher wages and professional training. By rebuffing the request to hear an appeal in that case, the Supreme Court Tuesday effectively squelched the last gasp effort by opponents to derail those negotiations.
The state's home care workers won the right to form a union after Missouri voters approved the Missouri Quality Home Care Act passed 2008 by a resounding 75 percent majority. Since the act's inception, home care providers around the state have worked to build a union that will protect consumer-directed, in-home care programs from cuts, and ensure providers working in those programs have the wages and training that will allow the programs to thrive and grow. Consumer-directed programs allow seniors and people with disabilities and individuals to live and receive care in their own homes from an attendant of their own choosing.
"Since 2008, Missouri voters and Missouri in-home care providers have spoken repeatedly in favor of allowing providers to organize themselves to protect the consumers who rely on these programs and improve training and wages," said Elinor Simmons of Moline Acre. "Thousands of caregivers are vindicated today, now that the courts have recognized the validity of the democratic choice they made to be represented by the Missouri Home Care Union."
The Missouri Home Care Union is the voice for home care attendants in Missouri. We are a joint local union, combining the strength of the nation's largest home care unions - AFSCME and SEIU. With a long track record for winning better wages and benefits for workers and protecting hours for consumers, our organization is poised to join with senior and disability allies in our state to improve home care services and ensure seniors and people with disabilities get the quality in-home care they need to maintain their independence.
MISSOURI HOME CARE WORKERS PREPARE FOR COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AFTER DECISIVE LEGAL VICTORY
State Supreme Court Rebuffs Union Foes' Last Request for Appeal; Sets Stage for Negotiation Over First Contract to Begin
In a climactic victory in their four-year struggle to improve their working conditions and strengthen the quality of care for the people they serve, 13,000 Missouri home care workers Tuesday cleared the last legal obstacle delaying negotiations on their first contract with the state.
The milestone came when the Missouri Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal to a lower court decision upholding a 2010 election in which the state's home care workers voted to form union. The ruling represents the legal end of the line for the union's opponents who had sought to invalidate the results of the election and obstruct collective bargaining on behalf of the workers who provide vital home care to the state's seniors and people with disabilities.
Home care workers perform essential services for their consumers such as bathing, cooking, cleaning and emergency response. They're also instrumental in curtailing costs the state would incur in nursing home expenditures if home care wasn't available.
"This ruling is a huge relief to people like me who rely on home care providers to help us live independently and stay out of nursing homes," said home care consumer Edna Austin of Crystal City. "The union will give them the resources they need to improve their working conditions, reducing turnover and providing more security for the consumers that hire them."
In May, the Court of Appeals for the Western District unanimously reversed a lower court ruling that had blocked state officials from certifying a 2010 election in which a majority of Missouri home care workers had voted to unionize, setting the stage to negotiate for stronger consumer protections, higher wages and professional training. By rebuffing the request to hear an appeal in that case, the Supreme Court Tuesday effectively squelched the last gasp effort by opponents to derail those negotiations.
The state's home care workers won the right to form a union after Missouri voters approved the Missouri Quality Home Care Act passed 2008 by a resounding 75 percent majority. Since the act's inception, home care providers around the state have worked to build a union that will protect consumer-directed, in-home care programs from cuts, and ensure providers working in those programs have the wages and training that will allow the programs to thrive and grow. Consumer-directed programs allow seniors and people with disabilities and individuals to live and receive care in their own homes from an attendant of their own choosing.
"Since 2008, Missouri voters and Missouri in-home care providers have spoken repeatedly in favor of allowing providers to organize themselves to protect the consumers who rely on these programs and improve training and wages," said Elinor Simmons of Moline Acre. "Thousands of caregivers are vindicated today, now that the courts have recognized the validity of the democratic choice they made to be represented by the Missouri Home Care Union."
The Missouri Home Care Union is the voice for home care attendants in Missouri. We are a joint local union, combining the strength of the nation's largest home care unions - AFSCME and SEIU. With a long track record for winning better wages and benefits for workers and protecting hours for consumers, our organization is poised to join with senior and disability allies in our state to improve home care services and ensure seniors and people with disabilities get the quality in-home care they need to maintain their independence.
Spence cites Chrysler closing as Nixon's failure; unions note decision made under Blunt In Backroom
Why can't this Spence guy get his facts straight? It's a good thing some UAW members attended this photo op to provide the facts to the media.
St. Louis Beacon
By Jo Mannies, Beacon political reporter
4:58 pm on Mon, 10.29.12
Dave Spence, the Republican nominee for Missouri governor, stood on a bluff Monday overlooking the empty site of what used to be the north Chrysler plant in Fenton, part of a complex that – with suppliers – employed 45,000 people.
A businessman, Spence said the lost jobs reflected the bad governmental policies that he contended are to blame for Missouri's economy lagging behind.
“We’ve got to lower the cost of doing business,” said Spence. “We’ve got to get factories in our state. … We’re simply losing jobs every single day.”
Among other things, Spence called for lawsuit reform and for changes in Missouri’s labor laws to make it a "right-to-work" state, which bars closed-union shops, in which all workers must pay union dues if a majority vote to join a union.
Standing with Spence were several area legislators, including state Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Glendale, and state House Speaker Tim Jones, R-Eureka. Schmitt praised Spence’s success as a businessman.
“We need a governor who understands what this site could be, emblematic of a new economy,’’ Schmitt said. “We need a governor who will not ignore the St. Louis region.”
Spence said he offered “real world common sense leadership.”
Spence also said that Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, deserved some blame for Chrysler’s closing in early 2009, throwing 6,300 people out of work. Spence asked why Nixon hadn’t been as active in protecting the Fenton operations as he was in providing state tax breaks that encouraged General Motors and Ford to remain and expand their operations.
Several union members standing nearby provided the answer: The first phase of the plants’ closings were announced in February 2007, almost two years before Nixon took office. The next round was announced by 2008. The governor at the time? Republican Matt Blunt.
Darin Gilley, former union president at a now-defunct firm supplying parts for the Chrysler plants, blasted Spence for “empty photo ops” and getting his facts wrong.
“It’s Matt Blunt’s failure,” Gilley said. “All of this happened long before Jay Nixon came in. Ford (in Hazelwood) closed under Matt Blunt’s leadership.”
Gilley, who now works at the GM plant in Wentzville, also cited statistics showing that many "right-to-work" states have higher unemployment rates than Missouri. Nixon has highlighted the state's unemployment rate, which is under 7 percent.
https://www.stlbeacon.org/lantern/public/resources/content/27773/images/IMG_6553_14831.60.JPG
Nixon is campaigning Tuesday in Wentzville and Liberty to promote his actions in expanding the Ford and GM operations.
“On his first full day in office, Gov. Nixon made clear that rebuilding the automotive industry would be a top priority by signing an executive order to establish the Missouri Automotive Jobs Task Force,” his campaign said in a statement. “Over the next two years, he made multiple trips to Detroit to meet with senior leaders from major automotive manufacturers and suppliers and the UAW. In 2010, he called a special session of the General Assembly to pass the Missouri Manufacturing Jobs Act, which provided innovative tools to attract next-generation manufacturing jobs to Missouri.
“As a result, Ford and GM are investing nearly $1.5 billion in Missouri and bringing 3,200 new automotive jobs to the state. In addition, major automotive suppliers, such as Magna, are investing in new technology and jobs.”
St. Louis Beacon
By Jo Mannies, Beacon political reporter
4:58 pm on Mon, 10.29.12
Dave Spence, the Republican nominee for Missouri governor, stood on a bluff Monday overlooking the empty site of what used to be the north Chrysler plant in Fenton, part of a complex that – with suppliers – employed 45,000 people.
A businessman, Spence said the lost jobs reflected the bad governmental policies that he contended are to blame for Missouri's economy lagging behind.
“We’ve got to lower the cost of doing business,” said Spence. “We’ve got to get factories in our state. … We’re simply losing jobs every single day.”
Among other things, Spence called for lawsuit reform and for changes in Missouri’s labor laws to make it a "right-to-work" state, which bars closed-union shops, in which all workers must pay union dues if a majority vote to join a union.
Standing with Spence were several area legislators, including state Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Glendale, and state House Speaker Tim Jones, R-Eureka. Schmitt praised Spence’s success as a businessman.
“We need a governor who understands what this site could be, emblematic of a new economy,’’ Schmitt said. “We need a governor who will not ignore the St. Louis region.”
Spence said he offered “real world common sense leadership.”
Spence also said that Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, deserved some blame for Chrysler’s closing in early 2009, throwing 6,300 people out of work. Spence asked why Nixon hadn’t been as active in protecting the Fenton operations as he was in providing state tax breaks that encouraged General Motors and Ford to remain and expand their operations.
Several union members standing nearby provided the answer: The first phase of the plants’ closings were announced in February 2007, almost two years before Nixon took office. The next round was announced by 2008. The governor at the time? Republican Matt Blunt.
Darin Gilley, former union president at a now-defunct firm supplying parts for the Chrysler plants, blasted Spence for “empty photo ops” and getting his facts wrong.
“It’s Matt Blunt’s failure,” Gilley said. “All of this happened long before Jay Nixon came in. Ford (in Hazelwood) closed under Matt Blunt’s leadership.”
Gilley, who now works at the GM plant in Wentzville, also cited statistics showing that many "right-to-work" states have higher unemployment rates than Missouri. Nixon has highlighted the state's unemployment rate, which is under 7 percent.
https://www.stlbeacon.org/lantern/public/resources/content/27773/images/IMG_6553_14831.60.JPG
Nixon is campaigning Tuesday in Wentzville and Liberty to promote his actions in expanding the Ford and GM operations.
“On his first full day in office, Gov. Nixon made clear that rebuilding the automotive industry would be a top priority by signing an executive order to establish the Missouri Automotive Jobs Task Force,” his campaign said in a statement. “Over the next two years, he made multiple trips to Detroit to meet with senior leaders from major automotive manufacturers and suppliers and the UAW. In 2010, he called a special session of the General Assembly to pass the Missouri Manufacturing Jobs Act, which provided innovative tools to attract next-generation manufacturing jobs to Missouri.
“As a result, Ford and GM are investing nearly $1.5 billion in Missouri and bringing 3,200 new automotive jobs to the state. In addition, major automotive suppliers, such as Magna, are investing in new technology and jobs.”
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Missouri Home Care Workers Prepare For Collective Bargaining After Decisive Legal Victory
Sacramento Bee
By SEIU Healthcare Missouri and Kansas
Published: Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012 - 1:39 pm
ST. LOUIS, Oct. 30, 2012 -- State Supreme Court Rebuffs Union Foes' Last Request for Appeal; Sets Stage for Negotiation Over First Contract to Begin
ST. LOUIS, Oct. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being released by SEIU Healthcare Missouri and Kansas:
In a climactic victory in their four-year struggle to improve their working conditions and strengthen the quality of care for the people they serve, 13,000 Missouri home care workers Tuesday cleared the last legal obstacle delaying negotiations on their first contract with the state.
The milestone came when the Missouri Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal to a lower court decision upholding a 2010 election in which the state's home care workers voted to form union. The ruling represents the legal end of the line for the union's opponents, who had sought to invalidate the results of the election and obstruct collective bargaining on behalf of workers who provide vital home care to the state's seniors and people with disabilities.
Home care workers perform essential services for their consumers, such as bathing, cooking, cleaning and emergency response. They're also instrumental in curtailing costs the state would incur on nursing home expenditures if home care wasn't available.
"This ruling is a huge relief to people like me who rely on home care providers to help us live independently and stay out of nursing homes," said home care consumer Edna Austin of Crystal City. "The union will give them the resources they need to improve their working conditions, reduce turnover and provide more security for consumers who hire them."
The state's home care workers won the right to form a union after Missouri voters approved the Missouri Quality Home Care Act passed 2008 by a resounding 75 percent majority. Home care workers subsequently voted to form their union, and opponents sought to stymie them in the courts.
"Since 2008, Missouri voters and Missouri in-home care providers have spoken repeatedly in favor of allowing providers to organize themselves to protect the consumers who rely on these programs and improve training and wages," said Elinor Simmons of Moline Acre. "Thousands of caregivers are vindicated today, now that the courts have upheld the validity of the democratic choice."
The Missouri Home Care Union is the voice for home care attendants in Missouri. We are a joint local union, combining the strength of two national unions -- AFSCME and SEIU.
SOURCE SEIU Healthcare Missouri and Kansas
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/30/4949360/missouri-home-care-workers-prepare.html#storylink=cpy
By SEIU Healthcare Missouri and Kansas
Published: Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012 - 1:39 pm
ST. LOUIS, Oct. 30, 2012 -- State Supreme Court Rebuffs Union Foes' Last Request for Appeal; Sets Stage for Negotiation Over First Contract to Begin
ST. LOUIS, Oct. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being released by SEIU Healthcare Missouri and Kansas:
In a climactic victory in their four-year struggle to improve their working conditions and strengthen the quality of care for the people they serve, 13,000 Missouri home care workers Tuesday cleared the last legal obstacle delaying negotiations on their first contract with the state.
The milestone came when the Missouri Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal to a lower court decision upholding a 2010 election in which the state's home care workers voted to form union. The ruling represents the legal end of the line for the union's opponents, who had sought to invalidate the results of the election and obstruct collective bargaining on behalf of workers who provide vital home care to the state's seniors and people with disabilities.
Home care workers perform essential services for their consumers, such as bathing, cooking, cleaning and emergency response. They're also instrumental in curtailing costs the state would incur on nursing home expenditures if home care wasn't available.
"This ruling is a huge relief to people like me who rely on home care providers to help us live independently and stay out of nursing homes," said home care consumer Edna Austin of Crystal City. "The union will give them the resources they need to improve their working conditions, reduce turnover and provide more security for consumers who hire them."
The state's home care workers won the right to form a union after Missouri voters approved the Missouri Quality Home Care Act passed 2008 by a resounding 75 percent majority. Home care workers subsequently voted to form their union, and opponents sought to stymie them in the courts.
"Since 2008, Missouri voters and Missouri in-home care providers have spoken repeatedly in favor of allowing providers to organize themselves to protect the consumers who rely on these programs and improve training and wages," said Elinor Simmons of Moline Acre. "Thousands of caregivers are vindicated today, now that the courts have upheld the validity of the democratic choice."
The Missouri Home Care Union is the voice for home care attendants in Missouri. We are a joint local union, combining the strength of two national unions -- AFSCME and SEIU.
SOURCE SEIU Healthcare Missouri and Kansas
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/30/4949360/missouri-home-care-workers-prepare.html#storylink=cpy
Missouri Home Care Union hopes for first contract
Yes! Finally.
Kansas City Star
JEFFERSON CITY -- A union representing 13,000 workers who provide in-home care to the disabled says it hopes a decision by the Missouri Supreme Court can clear the way for negotiations with the state on a contract.
The Supreme Court declined Tuesday to hear an appeal of a May ruling upholding a vote by the workers to be represented by the Missouri Home Care Union. The union says that clears the “last legal obstacle delaying negotiations” on its first contract.
The workers are paid by the state to help the disabled in their homes with daily tasks such as bathing and cleaning.
They were given the right to unionize under a 2008 ballot initiative approved by voters. But the certification of a subsequent unionization vote was tied up in court.
| The Associated Press
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/10/31/3893998/missouri-home-care-union-hopes.html#storylink=cpy
Kansas City Star
JEFFERSON CITY -- A union representing 13,000 workers who provide in-home care to the disabled says it hopes a decision by the Missouri Supreme Court can clear the way for negotiations with the state on a contract.
The Supreme Court declined Tuesday to hear an appeal of a May ruling upholding a vote by the workers to be represented by the Missouri Home Care Union. The union says that clears the “last legal obstacle delaying negotiations” on its first contract.
The workers are paid by the state to help the disabled in their homes with daily tasks such as bathing and cleaning.
They were given the right to unionize under a 2008 ballot initiative approved by voters. But the certification of a subsequent unionization vote was tied up in court.
| The Associated Press
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/10/31/3893998/missouri-home-care-union-hopes.html#storylink=cpy
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