Right-to-Work Law Gives Workers Reason to Celebrate on Labor Day

Labor Day 2013 certainly is a time to celebrate.

Workers across Michigan finally have the freedom to choose whether they want to pay dues or fees to a union as a condition of employment.

They get to decide if the hundreds of dollars (or more) they spend each year on dues or fees is best handed over to union executives for unknown and weakly documented expenses or kept at home and saved or used to fix leaky pipes, buy a new computer or go on a vacation.

They get to decide if they want to support a union that assumes all workers think the same, have the same values and support only one party in politics.

The freedom that workers get when their contracts expire and they can exercise their rights doesn’t spell the end for unions, or at least not the attentive ones. It begins an era of accountability. Unions now have to listen closely to their consumers or those consumers will walk away. It’s not such a novel concept, but it took decades to happen in Michigan.

Yes, for workers in Michigan, today certainly is a good day to celebrate.

Not surprisingly, some unions are clinging hard to the past. Look no further than the McProtests (apologies to McDonald’s) occurring in Detroit, Flint and select cities across the nation.

Fast food workers were told by "community organizers" cloaked in SEIU purple that they're not being paid enough and that they are being treated unfairly.

In a series of camera ready events, protesters briefly took to the streets last week to decry the conditions they've chosen to work in. They demanded $15 an hour and chanted about all the things that one would expect from a carefully organized union protest: fairness, corporate excess and equality.

There is nothing magical, logical or realistic about $15 an hour. After all, if $15 an hour is good, $30 an hour is better, right? Or $60?

Of course not, and unions know this as well as the companies that have to make payroll. Unskilled, entry level jobs were never meant to be career choices. They are gateway jobs where people gain the trust of others, share in the responsibility of a work environment, learn to communicate and pick up skills they use to get better jobs. 

Arbitrarily propping up wages leads to failure. Economists across the political spectrum have concluded that increases in the minimum wage hurt unskilled workers the most. Additionally, state's that have right-to-work laws, which don't force union members to pay dues or fees as a condition of employment, do better economically over time, according to a new study from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

The protests weren’t really about providing a living wage or punishing corporate CEOs. They were about padding union membership rolls, which is a dire necessity for unions these days given the declines in membership and interest in worker freedom here and across the nation.

Threats, hyperbole, intimidation and protests may have worked in the past, but times have changed. Michigan is a right-to-work state and workers have freedom.

Those are good reasons to celebrate.

Source from: http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/19083 

Growing Payrolls Probably Cut Unemployment: U.S. Economy Preview

Employers probably added jobs in July at about the same pace as in the prior month, helping trim unemployment as the U.S. economy emerged from a second-quarter slowdown, economists said before reports this week.

Payrolls rose by 185,000 after a 195,000 gain in June, and the jobless rate fell to 7.5 percent from 7.6 percent, according to the median forecast of economists in a Bloomberg survey ahead of Labor Department data due on Aug. 2. Other figures may show gross domestic product grew at a 1 percent annualized rate from April through June compared with 1.8 percent in the previous three months.

Growth was held back last quarter by the effect of cutbacks in federal government spending and higher taxes that are projected to fade in the remainder of 2013, allowing a pickup in demand that would sustain hiring. Federal Reserve policy makers, set to meet this week, will evaluate progress in the economy and the job market as they consider trimming monthly bond purchases.

“Hiring has been remarkably stable for the most part and there’s no reason to suspect that won’t continue,” said Brian Jones, a senior U.S. economist at Societe Generale in New York. “Economic growth is going to accelerate in the second half. Everybody is penciling in a tapering by the Fed in September.”

Overall payroll gains averaged 202,000 a month in the first half of this year, up from 180,000 in the final six months of 2012. Such gains are typically linked with GDP growing close to 3 percent, about double what government data may show this week, say economists at UniCredit Group and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.

GDP Revisions

The Commerce Department’s second-quarter GDP report on July 31 will also include comprehensive revisions that could affect data back to 1929. The new figures may help narrow the difference between employment and growth, the economists said.

The Fed will begin trimming its $85 billion in monthly bond in September, according to a growing number of economists surveyed by Bloomberg from July 18 to July 22. None of the 54 respondents expect the reductions to begin following the central bank’s meeting on July 30-31.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 (SPX) Index was little changed last week as investors weighed second-quarter earnings against the prospect for a change in Fed policy. The gauge has climbed 18.6 percent so far this year.

The GDP report may also show consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy, grew at a 1.6 percent annualized rate from April through June, according to the Bloomberg survey median. The prior quarter’s 2.6 percent pace was the strongest since the first three months of 2011.

Payroll Tax

Some of the slowdown in consumption may have been the lingering effect of the payroll tax, which reverted to its 2010 rate of 6.2 percent in January after holding at 4.2 percent for two years, resulting in lower take-home pay.

At the same time, gains in property values and share prices are lifting consumer confidence and helping households keep spending. A July 30 report from the Conference Board, a New York-based research group, will show its sentiment gauge in July was little changed from the five-year high reached in June.

Americans are increasing purchases of big-ticket items such as automobiles. Cars and light trucks sold at a 15.9 million annualized rate in June, the strongest since November 2007, according to figures from Ward’s Automotive Group.

Ford Motor Co. (F:US), the second-largest U.S. automaker, reported second-quarter per-share profit excluding some items that beat the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The Dearborn, Michigan-based company said it’ll hire 3,000 salaried employees this year, 800 more than originally planned.

Factory Rebound

Automobile sales are also helping to sustain factory activity. The Institute for Supply Management’s index of manufacturing, due on Aug. 1, advanced to a five-month high in July, according to the Bloomberg survey.

United Technologies Corp. (UTX:US), the maker of Carrier air conditioners, Pratt & Whitney jet engines and Otis elevators, is among companies citing gains in auto sales and housing starts as reasons to expect an improvement in coming quarters.

“The economy is recovering and we are seeing strength in the leading sectors,” Gregory Hayes, chief financial officer at the Hartford, Connecticut-based company, said on a July 23 earnings call. “Talk about economic uncertainty remains, but overall, our orders position us well for growth in the second half of the year.”

Other reports this week may show consumer confidence is rising amid the real-estate rebound. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 U.S. cities rose 12.4 percent in May from the same month in 2012, the biggest year-over-year increase since February 2006, economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted. The figures are due on July 30.

Source from: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-07-28/growing-payrolls-probably-cut-unemployment-u-dot-s-dot-economy-preview

Why the Revival of US Labor Might Start With Non-Union Workers

For workers in America, it can be hard to know where to turn when a boss pays you late or not at all, doesn't provide benefits, or just yells at you for no good reason.

That's why a Working America, a "community affiliate" of the AFL-CIO that focuses specifically on nonunion workers, launched a website last month that makes it easy to get that kind of information. FixMyJob.com is a bit like WebMD, but instead of typing in your aches and pains, you tell it about problems at your workplace. Launched on June 5, the site has already garnered 5,000 visitors, according to Working America organizer Chris Stergalas.

After choosing from a comprehensive list of workplaces and problems, visitors to FixMyJob.com get a set of resources and options for taking action. While unionization is a part of the solution for many problems, the site also informs workers about labor laws and instructs them on how to advance proposals to defend their rights. The site is a part of Working America's expanded new campaign to organize people in their communities in all 50 states, says Executive Director Karen Nussbaum.

In both online and offline campaigns, Nussbaum said, the aim of Working America is to reach beyond the workplace and rally support at the local level for a pro-labor agenda. Working America's list of priorities includes living wage laws, expanded health care, adequately funded public schools, and the protection of voting rights.

Before the launch of Working America, Nussbaum had served as founder and director of 9to5, National Association of Working Women; as director of the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor; and as an advisor to former AFL-CIO president John Sweeney. I recently spoke with her about her vision for Working America, about FixMyJob.com, and about what the 50-state expansion means for the prospects of union revival.

Working America was founded in 2003 partly as an answer to the question of how to mobilize people who are not union members but would benefit from activism by and for working people. Nussbaum said that, from the beginning, her staff "concentrated on talking to workers in their communities." Scoring success in mobilizing blue-collar voters for electoral campaigns, the organization created a foundation of members, and it is increasingly attempting to mobilize them around broader issues like working conditions, paid sick leave, and the right to join unions.

She added that the ultimate goal of Working America is "finding the connections with collective bargaining." But she's experimenting with different ways of organizing that might lead there. "It's about taking whatever path opens on the way."

In past years, Working America focused on battleground states during elections. But regional and statewide labor federations have pushed the organization to expand to all 50 states over the next five years. At first, Nussbaum said, that goal seemed "preposterous," but she has come to embrace it. Ultimately, she said, she appreciated the strategic value of supporting local labor structures as they connect with community allies and work on issues that go beyond a single workplace.

One reason why the 50-state strategy is necessary is the national proliferation of so-called "right-to-work" laws and attacks on voting rights, two issues that Working America has taken up in Pittsburgh, Penn..

Nussbaum describes the approach taken by activists leading the Pittsburgh campaign:
These are a group of mostly white people in their 40s and 50s. They decided that voter protection actually was the key issue for them. Their group set a goal of reaching a million people in the Pittsburgh area on the issue. Part of that million was going to be reached by doing letters to the editor and circulation of the newspaper and so on. It also included things like a guy who said, "I go to my hardware store every weekend and everybody there knows me, so I will set up a table at the hardware store every weekend," which is what he did. Another woman said that she dropped her father off at adult daycare every day, and so she would talk to the workers and other people at the adult daycare center.

This type of organizing taps into the existing frustrations that people have -- in the Pittsburgh case obstacles to voting -- and showing them how they can make a difference. "It's everybody recognizing their own networks," Nussbaum said. "I think that's the key to organizing, isn't it?"
She explained that Working America encourages people to see themselves as leaders within their own social circles, and, as it did in the case of the man in the hardware store, this recognition makes it easier to take action.

Nussbaum sees FixMyJob.com as a complement to these offline campaigns and as a means for introducing people to the labor movement. "Some people who use these tools will get turned on and they will become activists for life," she said. "Some will fail, but it will help create a new environment that I think supports what we're already beginning to see bubble up."

Source from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amy-b-dean/why-the-revival-of-us-lab_b_3607972.html

U.S. employment commission: Some criminal background checks are racist

The U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) filed lawsuits on Tuesday alleging that automaker BMW and budget grocery store chain Family Dollar discriminated against African American employees and applicants by denying them work based upon the results of criminal background checks.

The agency said in an advisory that while background checks themselves are not racist, they way they were applied — without individual consideration for each case — is.

In one case, a 14-year employee of a BMW facility in South Carolina was fired over a misdemeanor that was on the books for more than 20 years. In another, an applicant to Dollar General disclosed a drug arrest six years earlier and was offered the job, only to see it revoked once the criminal background check went through. A third complaint alleged that Dollar General rejected an applicant based upon inaccurate information contained in a background check and stood by the decision even after the record was corrected.

More than 90 percent of employers in the U.S. rely on criminal background and credit checks to screen employees, The Wall Street Journal noted. The EEOC recommends that employers not solely rely upon the data from the background checks, and that consideration be given to individual workers and applicants, along with the nature of their crime and how long ago it occurred.

According to the EEOC’s 2012 guidelines, employers have to watch out for biased statements about workers or applicants by their hiring managers, committing inconsistencies in the hiring process, and any major racial imbalance in their workforce statistics, or they could be in violation of the law.

For criminal background checks, universal application through policy without concern for individual employees or applicants can run afoul of the Civil Rights Act. Specifically, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of race. Due to the racial skews apparent in drug war arrest statistics –particularly for marijuana offenses, where non-whites are 400 percent more likely to have been arrested — universal application of background check policies affects African Americans far more than it does whites.

This trend has gone to such extremes that Princeton sociologist Devah Pager found in a 2003 study that black offenders are “less than half as likely” to get a job than white offenders, and even black non-offenders “fall behind” whites with felony records.

“Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination against job applicants and employees on account of their race,” EEOC Chairwoman Jacqueline A. Berrien said in prepared text. “Since issuing its first written policy guidance in the 1980s regarding the use of arrest and conviction records in employment decisions, the EEOC has advised employers that under certain circumstances, their use of that information to deny employment opportunities could be at odds with Title VII.”

According to the National Employment Law Project, Minnesota, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Connecticut and Colorado — along with about 40 cities and counties around the nation — have adopted “ban the box” laws that prohibit employers from asking applicants before a job has been offered whether they’ve committed felony crimes.

Source from: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/12/u-s-employment-commission-some-criminal-background-checks-are-racist/

Obama Says Job Market May ’Stall’ Due to Budget Cuts

President Barack Obama told a group of Democratic donors in Atlanta that the economy and job market could falter as a result of the automatic spending cuts that went into effect March 1.

“Because of some policies in Washington, like the sequester, growth may end up slowing,” Obama said at a luncheon for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “We may see once again the job market stall.”

The president was in Atlanta to give the commencement address at Morehouse College and he told the donors that while he was energized by the spirit of the graduates “they are entering into a job market that is still challenging.”

Earlier, at the commencement ceremony, Obama gave the labor market a more positive rendering. He told the graduates “you’re graduating into a job market that’s improving.”

American employers added more workers than forecast in April, sending the unemployment rate down to a four-year low of 7.5 percent. More Americans than projected filed claims for jobless benefits last week and manufacturing in the Philadelphia region unexpectedly shrank in May, signs that a slowdown in growth is rippling through the U.S. economy.

Source from: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-19/obama-says-job-market-may-stall-due-to-budget-cuts.html

An Overview Of California Labor Law Posters

The golden California state has endorsed various labor laws, which are designed and implemented to protect the interests of both, the employers and employees. These laws include health, employment policies and human rights to make sure that both, the workers as well as employees, can benefit equally from the course of contract. The California labor laws are quite comprehensive to be covered in one single article, but let us have a glance into some basic employer and employee rights enacted by the state. For any workplace or business organization, California labor law posters are a must have to inform the employees and employers about their obligations and rights as an important part of the state law.

OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Act) - This specific labor law supported by the California state provides employees a right of filing formal complaint against an employer, in case of dangerous or hazardous working conditions. Also, employees should be informed if they are anytime exposed to some hazardous materials as part of the work. Though, this law exempts all temporary, self employed or seasonal workers.

FMLA or Family Medical Leave Act- As per California labor law posters, every employee has a right to have job protected leave for up to twelve weeks per year. It depends on an employer, whether the leave is unpaid or paid, but each employee has the right to enjoy this leave credit. Though, there are few requirements or conditions for an employee to qualify for this leave credit, like he should be employed in the organization for minimum twelve months or have worked for at least 11, 250 hours before filing this leave. Besides, there are certain circumstances wherein the employees are given the right to go for leave, like undergoing any serious health problem, kin care or caring for a family member, birth of child, among various other things.

Personnel laws- California labor law requires every employer to ensure quite a healthy workplace and working environment for the employees. This means that the workplace must be free from any violence or sexual harassment. Besides, there should be apt safety policies which restrict unlawful behavior in the working environment. Additionally, all employees are protected by the law which limits the employers from accessing private staff files.

Leave and payroll rights- California labor law posters also include numerous pay regulations which are to be followed by the employers. However, the basic regulation is that the employees should be provided with minimum wage per hour, as specified by the state or federal law. Besides, the total working hours in a day covers the break and meal periods. Also, when taking a leave, there are flexible laws with respect to employers’ right to apply his discretion for sick leave, holidays or vacation and whether it is unpaid or paid.

Comprehending the basic labor laws of the California state, as mentioned above is quite significant to know about employee rights and make sure that these are protected in the best way possible against the employer liability. Apart from this, it also allows you to know about your obligations at workplace, so that you can do your job in the most effective way and in harmony with the employer. If you want to order California labor law posters, visit web http://www.easybusinessposters.com/products/california-total-labor-law-poster.html for details.

Law blog: Why employers should care about bullying

Source From: http://www.odt.co.nz/news/business/237569/law-blog-why-employers-should-care-about-bullying

Bullying hurts. Most know the sting of a hurtful jibe or playful punch. Being teased as a child forced me to grow a thick skin. I don't wince if someone calls me freckle face any more. But it becomes more sinister when adults are involved; especially at work where many of us spend most of our waking day. 

Why should employers care?
Because it pays to. Bullies harm people, productivity and ultimately the bottom line. Like any unidentified hazard, bullies cause casualties before you even know they exist. An employer can no longer pretend that hurt feelings won't cost them financially. 

An employee may raise a personal grievance (PG) for unjustified dismissal even if they have resigned because of a bully - an employee forced to resign because their employer failed to take their concerns seriously can claim they have been constructively dismissed. The Labour Court called this the "... wolf of dismissal in the sheep's clothing of resignation." i
 
A forced resignation could result from an employer behaving in a way that seriously damaged their employee's trust and confidence in them. An employer may undermine an employee's trust by failing to take all practicable steps to ensure their safety at work.  

Think of a situation where an employer fails to follow up a complaint of bullying behaviour causing the employee to become depressed due to work-related stress. Bullying in this sense is hazardous to your employees' health and has to be dealt with under the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992. 

Bullying or just plain rude?
Forgetting to wish your workmate "Happy Birthday" or providing constructive criticism about an employee's performance are unlikely to meet the threshold in the absence of something more calculated or unfair. The Employment Relations Authority has accepted that bullying is behaviour that is: 

... repeated and carried out with a desire to gain power or exert dominance and an intention to cause fear and distress. This behaviour usually includes elements of personal denigration and disdain of the person subject to it. It is intended to control the behaviour or actions of its target in particular ways. 
 
Isolated incidents of rudeness are unlikely to support a constructive dismissal claim. The Labour Court stated: ... the law does not compel parties to a contract to do more than perform it and it does not require them to perform it politely, nor is this Court empowered to enforce courtesy in the workplace, no matter how desirable in that environment that quality undoubtedly is. 

Not my problem?
Clearly an employer is responsible if they bully an employee directly. But an employer is also responsible for the actions of an employee who has authority over another (such as a manager). iv An employer must also ensure that members of the public and independent contractors do not create a hazardous working environment for their staff. 

Managers with a domineering, blunt and abrupt management style shouldn't assume staff can bat it back to avoid their obligations either. It is not acceptable for a manager to expect an employee to "sling it back" even if other staff do, to keep an aggressive exchange even.
 
This is especially so if a manager goes beyond generally accepted management norms. Similarly, an employer may not be justified in readily accepting a resignation where an employee faces difficulty dealing with a well known hazard that the employer has failed to provide training on - like the aggressive dogs that Power Meter Readers might face.
 
The risk of bullying from the public can also pose a risk worth remedying. For example, Council employees have been held to have reasonably objected to wearing name badges that displayed their surnames due to their concern that displaying their surnames could enable disgruntled members of the public to track them down to their home address and confront them. vii In the case referred to, the Employment Court accepted that: 

It was not being unduly alarmist to accept that there is a reasonable possibility that they could be subjected to violence or harassment at home as a result of being identified at work by a hostile member of the public.  
  
Removing surnames from badges amounted to an "entirely practicable" step for the employer to take; the requirement to wear badges with surnames, unreasonable.
 
Dealing with it
Increase awareness of the problem posed by bullies in the workplace. Employers should start by checking that a robust and realistic policy on bullying is in place, changes consulted on, its contents regularly reviewed and that managers apply it consistently. 

Clearly identify bullying as a hazard and aim to establish a culture that treats complaints seriously and encourages employees to report concerning behaviour - whether as a witness, victim or a bully. Employers shouldn't wait until a serious problem arises before putting in place systems to deal with it.