LaborPains.org

Sometimes I think there is never a more abrupt reminder that sometimes unions….stink….than when the garbage starts piling up in idyllic suburban neighborhoods. The Teamsters know this. From the Wall Street Journal:

A deal that would have brought laid-off sanitation workers back on the job was voted down by the Teamsters Union local that represents them Wednesday night. The city has been struggling to pick up its trash since the beginning of the month, when a union fight, budget cuts, the heat wave and the Fourth of July holiday all came together to hinder trash pickup. [...]

The city is trying to get more crews out, said David Simpson, the mayor’s spokesman.[...]  They also keep calling in sick. Forty-eight workers pick up trash on a normal day in Yonkers. Forty-six called in sick Tuesday. [...] “We are left to assume that members of the Teamsters union, individual members, have taken it into their own hands to protest the budget cuts that are going into effect,” Mr. Simpson said.”

They also don’t seem particularly eager to clear things up. The Teamsters seem set on letting the wound fester. From yesterday:

“The offer is still on the table for the Teamsters union, which voted down a deal Wednesday afternoon that would have restored twice-a-week garbage pickup and all sanitation jobs. The mayor tried to get in touch with the union but had heard nothing back from them yesterday, Simpson said, adding that the current administration offer on the table “may not be available for long.”

Image courtesy of TorontoCityLife.

This falls under the “You can’t make this stuff up” catagory. From the Detroit Free Press:

City officials said that as many as a dozen rats were set loose in the [Yonkers] City Council chambers on Tuesday night, when union workers showed up to protest looming layoffs – a showdown that ultimately included expletive-filled taunts and squealing, scurrying rats. […] The incident came as dozens of Teamsters and other union members gathered outside City Hall to demonstrate against job cuts and included the appearance of a giant inflatable rat that is common at union rallies. Union members protested the cuts during the public comment portions of a council budget meeting and a subsequent regular board meeting.

Calls at Local 456 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters were not returned. Murtagh said he accepts assurances from union leaders who told him that they had no involvement in the release of the rats, an act he called “outrageous conduct by anyone, most especially employees of the city.” But he also said the incident raised questions about the union leadership. “If you take them at their word, then that shows to me that they have a complete lack of control over their membership, and indeed that their membership has a complete lack of respect for their leadership,” he said.

Image courtesy of Unknown User.

The Teamsters are contemplating a strike at funeral homes in Chicago, and I wish the good people of Chicago well. From the Chicago Sun Times:

The Teamsters and a funeral home chain are coming down to the wire in contract negotiations, raising the specter of a strike by funeral directors and drivers at 17 Chicago-area sites. The three-year contract between Chicago’s Teamsters Local 727 and Houston-based Service Corporation International expires at the end of the day June 30, and union officials said the two sides remain far apart on economics.

Now I won’t speak ill of the dead….but the Teamsters…..

From ABCNews:

“More than 500 decisions by the leading federal agency that referees disputes between labor and management will have to be reopened after the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the five-member board had operated illegally when its membership dwindled to two.

The high court, in a 5-4 ruling in which the court’s leading liberal — retiring Justice John Paul Stevens — sided with the court’s four most conservative members, said the law does not allow the National Labor Relations Board to operate while it is short-staffed because of political arguments. [...]

The decision means that more than 500 of employee-employer cases decided by the NLRB while its membership had dropped to two must now be reopened by the board, which currently has four members.”

Image courtesy of IslesPunkFan.

When I see quotes like this from politicians and labor leaders, I think that this is less like the resurrection of EFCA (Frankenstein style) and more like a haunting that just won’t go away. Which do you think is more apropos?

Pretending like EFCA isn’t dead will not make it less dead.

From Richard Trumka over the weekend at the UAW conference, as reported by the Detroit Free Press:

Trumka also called on UAW members to intensify phone calls, letter writing and other lobbying of their congressional representatives and senators to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. The bill, which the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and most companies vigorously oppose, would simplify the process for workers to call for union representation and limit certain tactics employers now use to discourage workers from voting in a union.

“We won’t quit until the EFCA becomes the law of the land and everyone who wants a union can have a union,” Trumka said.

Rep. John Lewis seconded that:

During a speech to UAW delegates at Cobo Center this afternoon, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., urged the union to continue to fight for labor law reforms, such as the Employee Free Choice Act.

“I do not understand it. … We control the White House. We control the Senate. We control the House of Representatives,” Lewis said. “Let’s pass it and pass it now.” Lewis, also a civil rights leader, applauded the UAW for its past history of supporting civil rights struggles.

Image courtesy of Stephen G.

Ever since Blanche Lincoln forced Bill Halter’s rout on Tuesday, I’ve wanted to hear what newly-elected, baby-out-with-the-bathwater, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry had to say. I was not disappointed. From Politico:

“SEIU President Mary Kay Henry, who last month replaced Obama ally Andy Stern, shrugged off the suggestion that the movement lost prestige by throwing so much money at a losing candidate in such a high-profile race.

“We’d do it again in a heartbeat,” she told POLITICO. “This isn’t about the White House, and it isn’t about us. This race was about working people all around this country who’ve lost jobs or watched their paychecks shrink.” On Thursday, in another assertion of independence from the Obama-led Democratic establishment, the SEIU plans to deliver 30,000 signatures on behalf of an independent challenger to Kissell, a freshman who voted against health care reform.

Shrinking paychecks? As a reminder, not all paychecks are created equal. Perhaps that is why the SEIU has their purple eyes set on the public sector?

According to new numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “[t]otal employer compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $27.73 per hour worked in March 2010.  Total employer compensation costs for State and local government workers averaged $39.81 per hour worked in March 2010.”

And we wonder why state budget’s are in the red.

In what is being described by CNN as a landslide by women, Blanche Lincoln managed to hold off labor-backed Bill Halter in the hotly (and nastily) contested Democratic primary race in Arkansas. The AFL-CIO called the loss a “tremendous victory” for working families, and SEIU stood by their man as well. If this is what a “tremendous victory” looks like and feels like, I hope that labor unions get “tremendous victories” more often. Reminds me of how they called losing to Scott Brown a “victory”. I see a pattern.

Labor groups poured about $10 million dollars into the primary run off after the May primary results. They spent the last few weeks hemorrhaging cash. The Hill ran through cash and boots by numbers yesterday:

“The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has spent more than $3 million on the race, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, while the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has spent more than $1.5 million. Labor groups are also putting activists in the field for what is expected to be a close election. The AFL-CIO has sent staff from its Washington office to help Halter supporters get to the polls, as has Working America, its community affiliate.

Working America’s 41 paid organizers in Arkansas have made 315,000 phone calls and knocked on 120,000 doors, canvassing voters in 27 cities and 17 counties in the state, according to spokeswoman Alison Omens. The group has also spent more than $1.3 million on ads…”

Politico’s Ben Smith got the most damning quote of ‘em all from the Lincoln-backing White House:

“Organized labor just flushed $10 million of their members’ money down the toilet on a pointless exercise,” the official said. “If even half that total had been well-targeted and applied in key House races across this country, that could have made a real difference in November.”

Sorry. No matter how many times these unions burn through their coffers, lose, and call it a “victory,” I don’t think that Lenin’s “A lie told often enough becomes the truth” applies. If I want to see some real victory, I think I’ll just watch the World Cup.

What is it with the American Red Cross?  Last December, the Teamsters were picketing facilities of the American Red Cross in Philadelphia. This time around, shift one state over–to West Virginia–and now its the SEIU employees striking.

The Red Cross won a court injunction to get them back to work in December. No word yet on whether that will happen this time around, but reports say the strike will end today. From WOWK:

American Red Cross employees around the region say they are picketing due to months of poor management, thus raising concerns of blood and donor safety. From Parkersburg to Huntington, members of the Service Employees International Union District 1199 began striking at 7 a.m. Wednesday.

In a statement released by the SEIU, members say they have finally had enough. “Cutting jobs, slashing wages and benefits of employees and cutting corners are affecting the safety of our blood supply.”

The only person I see affecting the the “safety of our blood supply” is the SEIU, and oh wait, the other unions that are involved:

Stiltner said the strikes are part of a national coalition with work stoppages in five other states. She said there have been stoppages in California, Connecticut, Michigan, Georgia and Buffalo, N. Y. “Our coalition includes the AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees), the CWA and Teamsters,” she said. ” This affects 15 workers locally, 32 in Huntington and thousands across the country.”

Their mothers would be so proud. They’ve shut down mobile units in three states for this particular strike:

Because of the strike, the American Red Cross has to close its doors and halt its mobile units in 34 counties:

West Virginia: Boone, Cabell, Clay, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Mason, Mingo, Putnam, Roane, Wayne, Wirt and Wood

Kentucky: Boyd, Bracken, Carter, Floyd, Greeup, Johnson, Lawrence, Lewis, Magoffin, Martin, Mason, Pike and Rowan

Ohio: Gallia, Jackson, Lawrence, Meigs, Pike, Scioto and Washington

Image courtesy of a visual invasion.