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Union Plus has awarded $150,000 in scholarships to 130 students representing 43 unions, including three children of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) members, in the 2011 Union Plus Scholarship Program.

 

The petition with more than 100,000 signatures calling on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from upcoming cases on the Affordable Care Act stretched from the sidewalk to the steps of the Supreme Court. The petition was circulated by Health Care for America Now ( HCAN) and The Other 98 % and unrolled last week.

Federal judges are required by law to recuse or remove themselves from cases when their “impartiality might be reasonably questioned.” Thomas’ wife, Virginia, not only has been an outspoken critic of the health care reform law, but Mike Sacks on Huffington Post points out that “she made a living lobbying against the law as the founder of the Tea Party group Liberty Central.”

HCAN Executive Director Ethan Rome says if Thomas refuses to recuse himself from a series of Affordable Care Act challenging the law that the court will hear next month, “it will threaten the integrity of the entire Supreme Court.” He said that in addition to Virginia Thomas’s work against health care reform, Thomas’s impartiality also comes under questions for other reasons.

Justice Thomas personally has aligned himself with conservative zealots and extremist organizations dedicated to throwing out the law. Unbelievably, on the same day the high court took this case, he and Associate Justice Antonin Scalia were honored at a dinner sponsored by the law firmthat will argue the case before the high court. Justice Thomas spoke at a secret conclave run by the billionaire Koch Brothers to raise funds for extremist front groups like Americans for Prosperity.

Sounds like some pretty darn reasonable questions about his impartiality.

 

A proposed new pension system puts the retirement security of New York firefighters, teachers, police officers and other public employees at risk, and the New York State AFL-CIO is fighting back.

In this new video and in state-wide radio ad and newspaper op-eds, the state federation urges lawmakers to “rebuild the middle class, not attack what’s left of it.

A proposed new pension system, known as Tier 6, puts workers between “a rock and hard place,” says New York State AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento. In a column in Journal News, he writes the system would force new state and local workers to:

choose between a dramatically diminished defined-benefit pension plan and a defined-contribution 401(k)-style plan.

Strong defined-benefit pensions offer a reliable, predictable benefit based on a retiree’s number of years worked and salary. It allows workers to plan for the future and provides retirees with predictable income. It also pools risk for all members of the plan. Defined-contribution, 401(k)-style plans base a retiree’s benefit on how much he or she can save in an individual account.

He also warns that private employers will see the state’s shift “as an invitation to reduce or eliminate benefits.”  If you’re a New Yorker, click here to send a message to your state legislators to oppose the Tier 6 plan.

Chart courtesy Talking Points Memo

Mitt Romney’s campaign is proving that while money can’t buy you love, it can buy a whole lot of ads. But they come at a tremendous cost: His campaign spent more in January than it brought in. According to spending reports, Romney’s Presidential campaign and the super PAC supporting him raised $13.1 million in January, but spent $32.7 million. Maybe Romney needs a refresher course in Accounting 101.

When it comes to fundraising, he is particularly weak among small donors, the people who provide small, but often regular, donations to a campaign. Although they don’t have deep pockets, these donors are a good barometer of how broad a candidate’s support is among regular folks. They tend to be enthusiastic door-knockers and phone-bankers, and they can contribute multiple times without ever reaching limits on contributions to federal candidates.

It’s no surprise that small donors are Romney’s Achilles’ heel. After all, he’s made countless comments that make it clear working families are not among his favorite constituents. One of the most telling was “corporations are people.”  

In contrast, small donors are the backbone of President Obama’s campaign. In fact, nearly half of what his campaign raised in 2011 came from individuals giving $200 or less.

If Romney faces Obama in the general election, the former Massachusetts governor better hope that the Supreme Court rules that corporations can grow legs, walk into the voting booth and cast ballots for him. Those may be the only votes Romney can count on. 

As we’ve written here, Apple’s record-breaking success in selling iPhones, iPads and iPods have come at a terrible cost: Workers at Foxconn, Apple’s largest supplier in China, have died from suicides, explosions and exhaustion from 30- to 60-hour shifts and many are students forced to work for the company to get their degrees.

Recently, Apple joined the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to arrange for inspections of its factories. These inspections will not expose—or  begin to solve—Apple’s problems. The FLA is funded and controlled by the multinational corporations it oversees, which means it is not at all  independent. As Scott Nova of the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) recently said, independence “means an organization is not funded and governed by the companies it is charged with investigating.”

Apple has been richly rewarded for its success. It is now the largest publicly traded company in the world, worth a whopping $465 billion. The company made $17.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011 alone—just shy of a 40 percent profit margin.

In fact, Apple could have tripled compensation for all the workers who make its products last year and still made $40 billion in profits.

Take a minute to sign our petition to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook. Tell him to ensure  that people integral to Apple’s success—workers who manufacture Apple’s  electronics—are treated fairly.

A couple days ago, Foxconn also announced a recent raise for some of its workers. But it looks like another PR smokescreen. According to Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior:

The new basic wage…only applies to the workers in Shenzhen. In inland provinces, where two-thirds of production workers are based, basic salary remains meager. Given that the inflation in China is high, Foxconn is just following the trend of wage increase in the electronics industry in China.

Apple needs to to immediately allow genuine unions, with truly independent factory inspections and worker trainings. Trying to brush this under the rug—or hide behind a front group like the FLA—only will make Apple’s PR problems worse.

Apple can be both innovative and ethical. Tell that to CEO Tim Cook by signing the petition.

This week, The Simpsons aired its 500th episode. Chronicling the life and the hilarity of a working family from the fictional town of Springfield, this animated sitcom has often taken on issues important to workers.

The best work-related episode and arguably the best Simpsons episode EVER, “Last Exit to Springfield,” aired in 1993. In that episode, Homer Simpson becomes the president of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant union and leads the workers in a strike to get their dental plan back. Montgomery Burns, the plant owner, tries again and again to break the union’s spirit, but they remain united.

Here are some memorable lines from that episode:

Carl: What do we want?
All: More equitable treatment at the hands of management!
Carl: When do we want it?
All: Soon!

Mr. Burns: We both want a fair union contract.
Homer: (thinking) Why is Mr. Burns being so nice to me?
Mr. Burns: And if you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.
Homer: (thinking) Wait a minute. Is he coming onto me?
Mr. Burns: I mean, if I should slip something into your pocket, what's the harm?
Homer: (thinking) My God! He is coming onto me!
Mr. Burns: After all, negotiations make strange bedfellows. (chuckle, wink)
Homer: (thinking) Aaahh! Sorry, Mr. Burns, but I don't go in for these backdoor shenanigans. Sure, I'm flattered, maybe even a little curious, but the answer is no!

Lisa: Do you really think you can get our dental plan back, dad?
Homer: Well, that depends on who's the better negotiator, Mr. Burns or me...
Bart: Dad, I'll trade you this delicious doorstop for your crummy old Danish.
Homer: Done and done!

In the end, the union wins back its dental plan, but not before Homer’s daughter, Lisa, sings her epic protest song:

Press Contact Galen Munroe [email protected] 202-624-6904

(WASHINGTON) – As Nuveen Investments seeks to refinance $1.1 billion in debt – just barely a year after the firm’s last billion dollar refinancing – the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is urging clients to carefully consider the firm’s suitability as an asset manager in light of its highly leveraged financial condition, as well as its oversight and control by private equity owners Madison Dearborn Partners. Some Teamster-affiliated funds have already moved investments away from Nuveen; others are reviewing their options.

“We are concerned that Nuveen is trapped in a debt service cycle that the company cannot escape,” said C. Thomas Keegel, General Secretary Treasurer of the Teamsters Union, whose affiliated pension and benefit funds have more than $100 billion in assets under management including some with Nuveen subsidiaries. “As part of the leveraged buyout led by Madison Dearborn Partners in 2007, Nuveen borrowed more than $3.1 billion at high interest rates. They have since refinanced that debt several times at even higher rates. We believe that kicking the can down the road will ultimately result in significantly higher fees for clients.”

Nuveen has reported losses nearly every quarter for the past three years. Their strategy of acquiring other asset management firms to restore revenues back to pre-melt down levels has yet to benefit Nuveen’s bottom line.

“We expect financial managers of our members’ retirement assets to be practical, responsible fiduciaries who use good judgment,” said Teamsters International Vice President Rome Aloise, Co-Chair of the Investment Committee for the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust, which together with other union funds, has withdrawn hundreds of millions of dollars invested with Nuveen or Nuveen-owned companies. “How can a company that can’t manage its own finances be trusted to invest wisely for its clients?”

Nuveen’s financial circumstances are no secret. Both Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s Investment Service currently rate Nuveen Investments just one level above “junk” status on their respective ratings scales.

Nuveen’s subsidiaries include: Nuveen Asset Management; Nuveen Hyde Park; NWQ Investment Management; Santa Barbara Asset Management; Symphony Asset Management; Tradewinds Global Investors; Winslow Capital Management, FAF Advisors, and Gresham Investment Management, LLC.

Founded in 1903, the Teamsters Union represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Visit http://www.teamster.org/ for more information. Follow us on Twitter @TeamsterPower.

(02/22/12) As the Postal Service prepares to announce which mail processing facilities will face consolidation beginning in mid-May, the APWU is fighting back. The union is continuing to oppose USPS plans to slash service, eliminate 35,000 jobs, and destroy the mail distribution network. "APWU members have done an outstanding job of expressing our concerns to members of Congress and the media,"said APWU President Cliff Guffey. "We face an uphill battle, so it is crucial that union members continue to make their voices heard."

Airtran Teamster Mechanics Overwhelmingly Ratify Seniority Integration With SWA Press Contact Galen Munroe [email protected] 202-624-6904

(WASHINGTON) – In a vote tallied yesterday, Teamster Mechanics at AirTran voted 278 to 42 to accept the seniority integration proposal negotiated on their behalf by Teamsters Local 528 in Atlanta, Ga. and the Teamsters Airline Division. However, the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA), who would not release their vote count, reported that the mechanics they represent at Southwest Airlines voted down the proposal.

AMFA provided no explanation for failing to release their vote count.

“It is unfortunate that our members at AirTran will now have to wait a while longer in order to gain the benefits of a merged seniority list and an amalgamated collective bargaining agreement,” said Capt. David Bourne, Director of the Teamsters Airline Division.

Founded in 1903, the Teamsters Union represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Visit www.teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @TeamsterPower.

AFL-CIO communications staffer Nora Frederickson sends us this.

At a time when the tea party-driven Republican agenda in New Hampshire’s state capitol is more unpopular than ever with voters on both sides of the aisle, Republican House Labor Committee Chairman Gary Daniels and his allies have ramped up their attacks on working people. In a work session yesterday, the House Labor Committee took another step towards dismantling New Hampshire’s collective bargaining rights law by voting no fewer than five anti-worker bills ‘ought to pass.’

The bills voted out of committee included:

• A new right-to-work for less bill similar to last year’s bill.
• A second right-to-work bill that is a backup in case HB 1677 fails.
• A bill that once repealed collective bargaining rights for teachers,  firefighters and other public workers; was stripped and amended in  committee to allow employers to lead decertifications of public unions.
• A bill that strips the requirement for a union to be the exclusive  representative of a bargaining unit out of the collective bargaining law.
• A  bill that gives the Legislature veto power over state and municipal employee contracts.
• A bill that prohibits automatic payroll deduction of union dues, but was  stripped and amended to split increases in health insurance 50-50 between  employers and employees if a contract expires.

Mark MacKenzie, president of the New Hampshire AFL-CIO, said Daniels has “admitted that his plan is to throw this handful of bills to the wall and see what sticks.”

Clearly, they have not listened to the thousands of working men and women in New Hampshire who have pleaded with them to stop attacking workers and move on to fixing the economy and creating jobs.

The House Committee’s vote comes at a time when the tea party-driven Republican agenda in Concord is increasingly unpopular with voters on both sides of the aisle. More than half of New Hampshire voters oppose bills to eliminate or alter the collective bargaining rights law, according to a poll from the Beneson Strategy Group.

Since November, Democrats or pro-labor Republicans have won five of five special House elections, indicating that voters will take their frustrations with the tea party-driven Republican leadership with them to the polls in November.

Elizabeth Boomer of the AFL-CIO International Affairs Department sends us this report.

Burma needs to address chronic human rights abuses before sanctions are lifted says a new report from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

Despite some positive signs of change in Burma, forced labor is still widely practiced, trade unions are illegal and hundreds of political prisoners remain in jail. The AFL-CIO agrees with the ITUC that the time is not ripe for a major revision of sanctions, and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton solidifying this position.

• The report argues that sanctions should only be lifted if the government of Burma:
• Eliminates forced labor. Widespread forced labor practices by civilian and military authorities in nearly all of the country’s states and divisions continue. The government of Burma has failed to fulfill any of the steps required of it to eliminate forced labor in the country, as recommended by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in 1998.
• Allows independent and democratic trade unions. Despite recently passing a Labor Organization Law, the government has yet to implement it. The law also contains significant flaws, and is undermined
  by other legislation. Further, the Federation of Trade Unions – Burma (FTUB), a member of the ITUC, is still a banned organization. The government of Burma, unions and employers and the ILO need to redraft the law and oversee its effective implementation.
• Frees all political prisoners. The government has released hundreds of political prisoners, yet more than a 1,000 remain in jail, and many more remain in exile. Prisoners need to be released unconditionally, and provided with rehabilitation. The laws that put them in jail in the first place need to be scrapped.

The report also calls on the Burmese authorities to end all other serious human rights abuses; enter into a nation-wide ceasefire and address the root causes of conflict; hold free and fair elections, including through amending the flawed 2008 constitution; and curtail the role of the military in government and the economy.

Specifically, the report calls for “a gradual, measured lifting of sanctions as the government of Burma makes progress on this complete list.”

The report has been developed in close consultation with the FTUB, and is in response to growing calls for the EU, US, Canada and Australia to lift their sanctions against Burma.

While the ITUC report mainly focuses on labor rights, it urges governments to be also guided by the recommendations of other civil society organizations that raise additional and compelling human rights
concerns.

Download the ITUC Burma sanctions benchmarks report.

For more information see also Are workers now free in Burma?
A note about Burma:  Although the military junta decided to change Burma’s name to Myanmar some years ago, the National League for Democracy, the Federation of Trade Unions-Burma, and all other exile and opposition groups continue to refuse to recognize this change and continue to use “Burma” as the name of the country.

The corporate interests behind the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) think the way to break the strength of unions is to undermine worker solidarity. That’s why they’re pushing right-to-work-for-less legislation in Arizona and other statehouses across the country. Their biggest success occurred this month in Indiana, which became the 23rd state to adopt the anti-worker measure. Now they’re gunning for workers in Minnesota.

One day after Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels signed the bill into law, two Minnesota state senators announced they, too, would introduce legislation to put a right-to-work-for-less measure before voters in November. If approved, it would change the state’s Constitution so workers who receive the benefits of a union contract (but don’t want to join a union) can keep those benefits without having to pay their fair share for representation.

We call those workers “free riders” because they take, for free, what others are willing to pay for.

Supporters of such legislation argue that it’s only fair to let workers decide if they want to pay dues. The Minnesota lawmakers also contend it will make the state more attractive to companies that want to locate or expand there.

But ALEC, the Mackinac Center and other groups pushing right-to-work-for-less legislation behind the scenes understand that it’s really not about fairness. They simply want to undermine the middle class by breaking the power of workers to stand up for their rights and lowering wages and benefits for everyone across the board – within and outside of a union.

“It’s an assault on the American belief that everyday people deserve decent wages, health care, and to be able to retire with dignity,” AFSCME Council 5 Exec. Dir. Eliot Seide said in a broadcast interview with Esme Murphy, Sunday morning anchor for WCCO-TV in Minnesota.

Seide, also an AFSCME International vice president, called the effort to pass right-to-work-for-less “a straight attack on collective bargaining, on stifling workers’ voices in the workplace, and it’s meant to hurt workers. It’s not meant to improve the lives of workers.”

For proof, Seide noted that Minnesota workers make, on average, $5,500 more than workers in states where the right-to-work-for-less is the law. “We also have lower poverty. We have better education. We have better health care. We have better quality of life.”

For evidence for his claims, check out the websites of AFSCME Council 5 and Council 65.

It’s not just earnings that are hurt by right-to-work-for-less laws. It’s also retirement security. Experts have found that pensions in right-to-work-for-less states were significantly lower – 4.8 percent lower.

That may be OK with corporations and the right-wing lawmakers who do their bidding, but it is not OK for the working middle class. As The New York Times said recently in an editorial, “Voters, unionized or not, should recognize the new “right to work” push for what it is: bad economics and cynical politics.”

 

This is a cross-post from Think Progress.

Though oil demand is at its lowest since 1997, oil prices (and gas prices along with them) are once again on the rise. Analysts are projecting gas prices will top $4 a gallon nationally and perhaps reach record highs later this year. Despite relatively low demand and surging production levels in the U.S., prices are of course rising due to myriad factors, including speculation and instability in the Middle East.

For their part, Republicans have latched on to these rising prices as proof that President Obama has pursued an “outrageously anti-American” energy policy. As with most other overheated conservative attacks on the president, the facts don’t line up in their favor.

Here’s FIVE key facts about rising gas prices, the GOP and Big Oil.

1. Domestic Energy Production Has Soared Under President Obama: The number of oil drilling rigs in the U.S. hit a record last week, having quadrupled in number over the past three years . Between oil and gas drilling rigs, the U.S. now has more rigs at work than the rest of the world combined. The current oil boom has buoyed the projections of some leading oil industry analysts:

“It’s staggering,” said Marshall Adkins, who directs energy research for the financial services firm Raymond James. “If we continue growing anywhere near that pace and keep squeezing demand out of the system, that puts you in a world where we are not importing oil in 10 years.”

2. President Obama Has Taken Huge Steps to Reduce Our Dependence on Oil: In addition to overseeing a dramatic increase in domestic energy production (including from renewable sources), the president has also taken steps to reduce the amount of oil we consume. Most notably, new modern standards requiring cars and light-duty trucks to achieve an average fuel economy rating of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 will cut U.S. oil use by 2.2 MILLION barrels of oil per day by 2025—a move that will save consumers $1.7 TRILLION and also cut greenhouse gas pollution by 6 BILLION metric tons. The 54.5 MPG standard by 2025 builds on an earlier Obama administration policy to increase fuel efficiency to 35.5 MPG by 2016, a one-third imrovement to fuel economy standards that had previously languished in neutral for more than 20 years. Even as gas prices are rising, Americans’ cars are becoming significantly more efficient.

3. Big Oil Made a Record $137 BILLION in Profits Last Year: Just the five largest oil companies—ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, BP, Chevron and Shell—booked a combined profit of $137 BILLION in 2011, even though these companies produced 4 percent less oil in 2011. And of course Big Oil’s record profits are directly related to increasing pain at the pump for American consumers.

4. Republican Politicians Oppose Ending Taxpayer Handouts to Big Oil: Every Republican presidential contender and nearly every Republican member of the House and Senate has signed a pledge to oppose ending taxpayer handouts to Big Oil—handouts that will add up to more than $40 BILLION over the next 10 years. In addition, Republicans have repeatedly voted in lockstep to block efforts to repeal the tax giveaways to Big Oil. President Obama, however, remains undaunted and has once again included repeal of these wasteful giveaways in his budget for 2013.

5. Republican Politicians Want to Cut Big Oil’s Taxes Even More: Both the House Republican budget plan released last year (and supported by nearly every Republican member of the House and Senate) and the tax plans of every GOP presidential contender call for cutting the corporate tax rate by one-third or more. This huge tax cut could result in another big windfall of billions of dollars for Big Oil. By contrast, President Obama has proposed closing wasteful tax loopholes and wants to clamp down on the use of foreign tax shelters (ExxonMobil uses at least 20) that allow huge corporations to avoid paying their fair share in U.S. taxes.

IN ONE SENTENCE: Instead of giving billions more in handouts to Big Oil despite the industry’s record-breaking profits, President Obama has presided over a dramatic increase in domestic energy production coupled with unprecedented efforts to decrease Americans’ spending at the pump by modernizing fuel economy standards.

WORKERS ACROSS CANADA are hailing Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s announcement of a $35 billion shipbuilding program under the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy.

Tags  Headline News, Shipbuilding

United Steelworkers International President Leo W. Gerard talked with progressive talk show host Ed Schultz about the forces working against wage earners, a "Journey for Justice" for workers and Republican candidate Rick Santorum.

They talked about the Koch brothers, their relationship with the Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and how they plan to go after labor, public sector unions and public education.

Gerard said, "We now know completely what his agenda is and his agenda is not to just beat up on the labor movement but to eviscerate the middle class."

They also talked about the 3-day "Journey for Justice," a 1,000-mile road trip From Fargo, Minn, to Findlay, Ohio, for union workers, their families and friends to highlight the greed of two companies - American Crystal Sugar Company Bakery, who locked out 1,300 Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) workers and of Cooper Tire and Rubber Co., who locked out 1,050 United Steelworkers (USW) members.

Lastly, they talked about the radical candidate who has shown his true colors against labor, Rick Santorum. "The Republican Party has moved to the extreme right. They are almost like a cult now," said Gerard.

Listen Here:

Supporters Deliver Petition Signed by Tens of Thousands to Crystal Sugar Headquarters

Hundreds of union members, their families, and supporters rallied in Moorhead, MN, today to protest the lockout of some 1,300 workers by American Crystal Sugar Company (ACS). After the rally, a delegation of labor and community leaders delivered a petition signed by more than 33,000 people to the company’s headquarters.

The petition calls on CEO David Berg to end the lockout and resume negotiations with his workers, members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM). The petition was circulated on the internet by American Rights at Work and the Minnesota AFL-CIO. More than 33,000 people had signed by Tuesday.

“This overwhelming response to our petition shows that people support our struggle for justice at Crystal Sugar,” said Nathan Rham, who has worked at the ACS Hillsboro factory for four years ... more

Earlier this month TWU and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) entered into partnership with the goal of building a stronger alliance that will benefit over the 850,000 members they jointly represent.   This partnership provides the unique opportunity for each of us to preserve and build upon TWU's and CWA's proud history.  We will stand in solidarity and work together on joint projects that will allow us to further our goals of economic and social justice for all working families. Both Unions will work together in the following areas:   Develop a closer relationship in order to maximize our efforts where we have common interests and issues.   Facilitate joint efforts, both Domestic and Internationally in order to achieve specific goals and objectives   Develop coordinated and innovative Legislative and Political campaigns and corporate strategies   Evaluate areas of shared density for future growth and support with major emphasis on organizing   Create information sharing mechanisms including research, education, training, health & safety, communications, legal etc. You can read the agreement letter signed by both TWU International President James C. Little and CWA International President Larry Cohen by clicking here.

(02/21/12) Current postal and federal employees won't have to pay more for their retirement benefits in order to fund an extension of the 2 percent payroll-tax holiday passed by the Congress last week, but new government workers will be required to pay 1.5 percent more to fund another portion of the bill, which extends unemployment benefits.

(02/21/12) Current postal and federal employees won't have to pay more for their retirement benefits in order to fund an extension of the 2 percent payroll-tax holiday passed by the Congress last week, but new government workers will be required to pay 1.5 percent more to fund another portion of the bill, which extends unemployment benefits.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka met with carwash workers and joined them in a press conference to announce new contracts.     

Workers at two more Southern California carwashes won their first contracts with carwash owners after they voted last year to join the United Steelworkers (USW) Local 675.

The workers at Vermont Carwash and Nava’s Carwash in South Los Angeles came together in the CLEAN Carwash Campaign to fight for their rights. The CLEAN Carwash Campaign is a coalition supported by the USW, the AFL-CIO and more than 100 community, faith and labor organizations in Los Angeles. For more information, visit www.cleancarwashla.org.

Today, the carwasheros celebrated their victory at a ceremony with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Says Trumka:

The headline should read: “Carwash workers make history in LA.” The labor movement and Los Angeles community stand shoulder to shoulder with them and their brother and sister carwash workers across LA who are working to follow in their path.

There are thousands of carwash workers who face deplorable working conditions every day: violations of health and safety laws, wage and hour laws, and anti-discrimination laws. Most of these workers are immigrants who all of them are without the power to fight back against the horrible conditions in which they work.

As part of the agreements, the carwasheros will receive a pay increase, additional safety equipment, and on-the-job training to prevent injury and illness.  The agreement also establishes rights that protect workers from being unfairly punished or dismissed by both car wash companies. Edwin Leones, a worker at Nava’s Car Wash, said:

We were able to negotiate fair schedules and a pay raise. But most importantly, we’ve been able to get a voice on the job and have a say in our conditions.

Villaraigosa says the contracts represent “a good paying job, a better standard of living, and a voice on the job for some of our city’s most exploited workers.”

Trumka is on a two-day California trip to highlight and support the efforts of low-wage, immigrant workers in Los Angeles and Sacramento. Earlier today he spoke at the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) conference in Los Angeles. In Sacramento tomorrow, he will join with domestic workers who are mobilizing to pass a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights in the state legislature.