LaborPains.org

The SEIU Local 1000 wants every state worker in California to know that they can take Columbus Day off, regardless of what the Department of Personnel Administration says.  Part of the approved budget from February, the holiday was to be eliminated along with Lincoln’s birthday, but the SEIU says this contract cannot be enforced. 

Everyone better be in their desks come next Monday. From KCRA News:

“While it is true that the Legislature changed the law, this was done as part of contract negotiations where we exchanged Columbus Day and Lincoln’s Birthday for two personal days,” wrote SEIU Local 1000 President Yvonne Walker in an e-mail sent to members on Friday.”When the Governor broke his word and failed to get our contract ratified by the Legislature, he also lost the ability to implement the new terms of our new contract. Therefore, our current contract, which grants Columbus Day as a holiday, is still in force.

“In response, the Department of Personnel Administration posted a notice on its Web site warning workers that they must use personal leave time to take off Columbus Day, and that if they do not get prior approval they will not be paid and will be considered absent without leave.”The two state holidays were eliminated,” governor’s spokesman Aaron McLear told KCRA 3 Friday evening. “It was passed in a budget. It was nothing to do with any contract.”

Image courtesy of Jippolito.

Linden, New Jersey finds itself on the stinky side of the budget shortfall.  Like many cities around the country, Linden was unable to make up a budget deficit of four million dollars–so the city decided to furlough city employees. The city had negotiated with unions to give everyone other than firefighters a three day unpaid furlough.  This gave employees three three day weekends this fall, but the problems started when the city made logistical decisions about when it is best to pick up trash–and changed the city’s Teamsters trash collectors furlough day.

The New Jersey Local News Service reports:

A turf war over city services in Linden turned into a labor dispute last week when the Teamsters filed a grievance on behalf of workers in the sanitation department. The workers are angry that the city rescheduled a furlough, robbing them of a three-day weekend, and are threatening to call in sick en masse, according to one city official.

“We’re very unhappy. We’re not switching.  We had an agreement on days, and we’re not switching,” said Joseph Caplette, president of the Linden Public Employees Association. [...]

The city public works department planned to cut trash days on Aug. 12, Oct. 16 and Nov. 27–days that would affect the 8th Ward in each case. [...]

But after protests from 8th Ward residents led by Councilwoman Michele Yamakaitis, the city changed the October furlough day from a Friday to Thursday, Oct. 15. It was a compromise that didn’t satisfy residents of other wards, politicians or trash collectors, who had lost their long weekend.

It is now likely there will be no one to pick up trash on Thursday or Friday.

Image courtesy of daquella manera.

Unions in California have a very, very short memory.  Just last week, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed California’s card check bill because he was upset by the union’s dismissal of his number one legislative priority.

The unions have forgotten that when SEIU gave United Farm Workers one million dollars to manhandle him into signing the state-wide card check bill, the Governor promptly pulled the bill out from the stack on his desk and vetoed it before UFW could even spend the money.

So when AB 88, the new deal for the 95,000 state workers represented by the SEIU Local 1000 (a deal which typically serves as the model for other state contracts) was stalling in the legislature this week, SEIU Local 1000 spokesman decided to insult the man holding the keys to the kingdom—-a strategy that clearly failed last week.

From Capitol Weekly:

“The idea is to get it on the governor’s desk and then either force him or shame him into signing it,” said SEIU 1000 spokesman Jim Zamora, before the Senate vote. He added, “If he refuses to sign it, he should explain why he is breaking a promise, why he is going back on an agreement that his representatives signed with us back in February. We realize economic conditions have changed since then, but we have also come forward with ways to make up the difference.”

And the real tragedy about the failed contract?  In it, unions were willing to give up Columbus Day AND Lincoln’s Birthday for the benefit of the good people of California. Never mind that four days later is President’s Day—when pretty much everyone else in the country celebrates Lincoln’s birthday. But have no fear, state workers in California get that day off too.

Image courtesy of This Year’s Love.

Labor unions want policy makers and the public to think that there are millions and millions of Americans out there who want to join unions but can’t.   It is then the express duty of labor unions to bring these workers a chance to unionize.

Where exactly are these millions of workers just wishing, hoping, and praying for a chance to unionize? Unions have yet to turn over a single survey proving their existence.  The sad truth is, unions are outdated and “old school.”  A recent survey by the Center for Union Facts found that 82% of working Americans don’t have any interest in joining unions. Where are the millions of American who want to join unions? Nowhere to be found.

That’s probably why the AFL-CIO is launching a new campaign to improve the image of unions among young people. The Wall Street Journal reports:

Many younger workers don’t see unions as relevant. This week, Richard Trumka, a third-generation coal miner likely this month to assume the helm of the nation’s largest labor federation, is launching Big Labor’s latest effort to change that. The 60-year-old secretary-treasurer of the 11-million-member AFL-CIO outlined a plan Monday before the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, to push for causes that more directly affect younger workers, including freelancers and temporary workers. Among the causes: affordable college education, protection for telecommuters and portable health care.

Richard Trumka, likely to take the helm of the AFL-CIO later this month, speaks Monday in Washington. “We’ve lost touch with a whole generation,” said Mr. Trumka, who is expected to become president of the AFL-CIO at its convention in Pittsburgh, running unopposed for the position. The latest drive comes at a time when labor sees new opportunities in a Democratic administration — despite grumbles that their top priorities, especially a bill to make labor organization easier, are falling by the wayside — but continues to face a decline of membership and interest. […] Business leaders argue that that labor’s ongoing woes reflect changes in the workforce, and say they expect little change from Mr. Trumka.

Everyone secretly likes watching a good sports fight. And while a baseball bench-clearer is fine and good, nothing beats a hockey smack-down. That’s what I feel like when watching the SEIU these past few weeks. It’s like the rest of the world is chanting: “Fight, fight, fight!”

In honor of that, imagine that Andy Stern is number 87 and Sal Rosselli is number 32 in this video.

European unions are always good for a chuckle:

Doing nothing for a living is not as easy as it looks. That was the militant message from Italy yesterday where artists’ nude models climbed back into their clothes and went on strike for better pay and conditions.

Employer Report writes on the writers’ strike:

For those who are paying attention to this (yawn) labor dispute, you are witnessing first-hand how little solidarity means to today’s union movement …

Click over to get the full story. And this recent Get Fuzzy comic strip may amuse you, or it may be another sign that the writers’ strike (like so many modern labor disputes) is better suited for the funny pages than the news section.

Carrying virtual placards reading “workers of the world unite” and demanding more or larger bonuses, IBM employees in Italy have launched a “virtual strike” in the virtual world known as Second Life.

We decided to check out the “strike” at IBM’s Second Life headquarters and give the picketers a little dose of UnionFacts.com. So we sent in our own virtual counter-protester — complete with slogan and sign.

All in all, we must report being disappointed in the verve of the virtual strikers. Most just stood around shouting typing platitudes.

No word yet on what constitutes “strike benefits” in a world where virtual deviance is virtually everywhere.

UPDATE: It is just another day on the virtual picket line for CUF, but now we’ve got a big, honkin’ sign. That’ll show ‘em.