March 23, 2015

Women’s History Month: Celebrating the Lives of Addie Wyatt and Dolores Huerta

The third week of Women’s History Month gives us an opportunity to pay tribute to Addie Wyatt and Dolores Huerta, two extraordinary women who were shaped by the Great Depression, fought for workers’ rights during the height of the American Feminist Movement, and changed the face of organized labor.

Addie Loraine Cameron, better known as Addie L. Wyatt (1924 –2012), was born in Mississippi and moved to Chicago with her family in 1930.  When she was 17 years old, she married Claude S. Wyatt, Jr.

She began working in the meatpacking industry in 1941.  Although she applied for a job as a typist for Armour and Company, African American women were barred from holding clerical positions and she was sent to the canning department to pack stew in cans for the army. Due to a contract between Armour and the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA), she earned more working on the packinghouse floor canning stew than she would have made working as a typist, and joined the UPWA after learning that the union did not discriminate against its members.

In 1953, she was elected vice president of UPWA Local 56. In 1954, she became the first woman president of the local, and was soon tapped to serve as an international representative. She held this position through the 1968 merger of UPWA and the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen until 1974, when she became director of the newly formed Women’s Affairs Department. In 1970s, she became the first female international vice president in the history of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen and later served as director of its Human Rights and Women’s Affairs and Civil Rights Departments. She served as the first female African American international vice president of the UFCW after Amalgamated and the Retail Clerks International Union merged in 1979.

She and her husband were ordained ministers and founded the Vernon Park Church of God in Chicago.  She played an integral role in the civil rights movement, and joined Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in major civil rights marches, including the March on Washington, the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and the demonstration in Chicago. She was one of the founders of the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the country’s only national organization for union women. She was also a founding member of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and the National Organization of Women.

In 1984, Addie Wyatt retired from the labor movement as one of its highest ranked and most prominent African American and female officials. In honor of her work, she was named one of Time magazine′s Women of the Year in 1975, and one of Ebony magazine′s 100 most influential black Americans from 1980 to 1984. The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists established the Addie L. Wyatt Award in 1987. She was inducted into the Department of Labor’s Hall of Honor in 2012.

Dolores Clara Fernandez, better known as Dolores Huerta, was born in 1930 in New Mexico, and grew up in the farming community of Stockton, California. She earned a teaching degree at Delta Community College.  During that time, she met her first husband.  She later married Ventura Huerta. In the early 1950s, she worked as an elementary school teacher, and many of her students were the children of farm workers who were living in poverty.  Teaching the children of farm workers had a profound impact on her, and in 1955, she became one of the founders of the Stockton chapter of the Community Services Organization (CSO), which worked to improve social and economic conditions for farm workers and fight discrimination.  Through her work at the CSO, she met Cesar Chavez.

In 1960, she helped create the Agricultural Worker’s Association (AWA), and in 1962, she and Chavez launched the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), the predecessor to the United Farm Workers Union (UFW).

In 1965, she helped to organize the historic Delano Grape Strike and consumer boycott against growers of table grapes in California.  The strike involved thousands of grape workers and was a significant victory for the UFW—leading to a first contract with these growers. In 1967, the NFWA combined with the AWA to create the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee. During this time, she negotiated contracts for workers, fought against the use of harmful pesticides, and advocated for unemployment and healthcare benefits for agricultural workers. In 1973, she led another successful consumer boycott against California grape growers that resulted in the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, which allowed farm workers to form unions and bargain for better wages and working conditions.

Dolores Huerta stepped down from her position at the UFW in 1999, and established a foundation where she continues her work to improve the lives of workers, immigrants and women. She has received many honors for her activism, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

To learn more about Dolores Huerta, follow her on Twitter (@DoloresHuerta) or visit her foundation’s website at http://doloreshuerta.org/.

March 19, 2015

Local 400 Member Detective Tom Pyles of the Annapolis Police Department Is Making an Impact in More Ways Than One

This is a cross-post from Local 400

Detective Tom Pyles used to be a DJ at a local Annapolis, Maryland radio station, but left the broadcast industry for the badge at the age of 30 and hasn’t looked back. He’s always wanted to help people in his community, and boy, is he ever! In addition to his duties on the force, he’s collecting supplies to put in backpacks for foster children going into emergency care, something he’s called, “Backpacks for Love.”

“Unfortunately you see children who are abused and neglected–they need hope, they need dignity.” Pyles told ABC 2 in an interview. “So as they’re removed from a home, you try to give them that.”

Pyles explained that the reaction the children get when opening the backpacks is “ten times greater than opening a Christmas present—the way they react to them.”
Check out this great video profile of Local 400 member Detective Tom Pyles of the Annapolis Police Department. Our members do great things at work and in their communities.

March 18, 2015

UFCW Immigration Workshop Helps Local 75 Member Achieve Dream of Citizenship

Ernestina Aldana has been a UFCW Local 75 member since she started working at the John Morrell meat processing plant in Cincinnati in 1996. She moved to the U.S. from Guatemala with her husband and son in 1990. The family left Guatemala in search of opportunity and a better life. Ernestina and her husband, who also works at John Morrell, now have three children, the oldest of whom is in college.

“I wanted to become a United States citizen so that I could live and work with freedom and without fear. I wanted my children to have opportunities,” says Ernestina. “But it was the union that motivated me to finally do it.”

Ernestina attended Local 75’s first citizenship clinic on November 8, 2014. With the help of union and community volunteers, she completed her application that same day. On Friday, March 13, Ernestina took her oath of citizenship, along with two other UFCW members, at the federal courthouse in Cincinnati, Ohio.

A 19-year member of UFCW Local 75, Ernestina says union membership has meant more to her than higher wages and job security: “Being a union member gave me hope for the future. Having hope got me here today.”

March 16, 2015

Women’s History Month: The Fight for Maternity Leave and Fair Treatment for Pregnant Workers Continues

Did you know that the U.S. is the only industrialized country that doesn’t mandate maternity leave? The rest of North America, most of South America, Russia and Europe, Australia and some African an Asian countries all mandate both maternity AND paternity leave, but in the U.S., leave isn’t guaranteed by law for either parent.

Only nine countries don’t have laws that guarantee some paid leave for new mothers: the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Suriname, Tonga — and the United States. It’s 2015. How is this possible?

Although there have been many improvements in labor conditions for women in recent years, paid maternity leave is unattainable for countless women working in the United States.

But many progressive organizations, worker groups, and unions like the UFCW are fighting to change that.

In a recent status report on the well-being of women world-wide, the Clinton Foundation noted that “paid maternal leave supports women’s continued employment, job stability, and longer-term wage growth.”

Jessica Milli, a senior research associate at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) has also noted that “women still take on a disproportionate part of the care burden and have to take more time off. This has huge implications for their earnings, and their overall experience in the workplace.”

Thanks to worker activism, some employers are seeing the value in providing more paid maternity leave for their female employees, and are realizing that they are far more likely to retain their staff by doing so.

Recently, telecom company Vodafone announced that it will start giving full pay for the first 16 weeks of maternity leave for women and 100% of salary for a 30-hour week for the first six months after their return to work, making the company one of the first multinationals to introduce a worldwide minimum level of maternity pay.

Not only is this a significant help to women at the company, but Vodafone also revealed research that showed global businesses worldwide could save $19 billion a year by providing 16 weeks of fully paid maternity leave.

The analysis found that recruiting and training new employees to replace women who leave the workforce after having a baby costs $47 billion– far higher than the $28 billion cost of the extra benefits.

At Walmart–America’s largest retailer and private employer of women–there is still much work to be done in regards to getting better treatment for pregnant workers. In response to unethical and potentially unlawful treatment of pregnant workers and the widespread financial hardship forced onto working women at Walmart, Walmart moms formed together to create the group Respect the Bump.

Since banding together they have called for Walmart to publicly commit to better pay and protections at the country’s largest employer of women. With the support of the country’s leading women’s rights advocates, the group developed a list of urgent policy changes the company must make to ensure that the women who are helping the company profit are not living in poverty or putting their health at risk.

Thelma Moore, a member of Respect the Bump, was fired for taking time off to ensure her pregnancy was viable after an in-store accident. “Walmart could be paving the way for good jobs for working moms like us,” said Moore. “Instead, we’re fighting for bathroom breaks when we’re pregnant and steady schedules that let us get reliable childcare and put food on the table.”

The mothers of Respect the Bump are still working hard to advocate for better treatment, but in early 2014 their efforts payed off when Walmart quietly overhauled its pregnancy policy to provide basic accommodations for employees experiencing complications with their pregnancies, in a shift that could ease the way for hundreds of thousands of its other female employees who could have babies down the road.

Women’s History Month is the perfect time to reflect on how far women workers have come, but it should also serve as in important reminder that women are still not always treated equally in the workplace. For women, belonging to a union helps ensure a level playing field, protect against gender discrimination, and provides greater benefits than non-union counterparts.

March 13, 2015

The Right to Live in a Better, Fairer, and Just America

UFCW President Perrone had the following op-ed about “right to work” published in Medium.

This week, America witnessed the 25th statewide example of irresponsibility when Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin signed anti-family and anti-worker legislation known as “right-to-work.”

In an ideal world, the American people would have the right to expect their elected leaders to implement policies that make the lives of the hard-working men and women they represent better, fairer, and more just. After all, these amazing men and women in our factories, supermarkets, retail stores, car washes, meat packing plants, and countless other industries all across this nation work hard and sacrifice every day not just for themselves, but also for their families.

Regardless of their background, what they believe, where they are from, or whom they love, these millions of workers want what every one of us deserves — which is to have a chance for something much more for themselves and their families than a life defined by fear and the bare minimums. Unfortunately, fear and minimums, whether measured in terms of wages, benefits or rights, is what we have witnessed in America for too long.

Gov. Walker, like those before him, argues that right- to-work legislation is about creating greater wealth and opportunity for the economy by stopping unions. But we know his true motivation.

Higher wages, better benefits, equal pay for equal work, and protection from injustice and exploitation are the true rights unions fight for and Gov. Walker wants to take away these rights from men and women not just in Wisconsin, but all across America.

Instead of a better life, hard-working men and women in right-to-work states will earn lower wages in jobs with fewer benefits. Rather than a more promising future, these workers will have less job and retirement security. Without the protection of a strong union contract, women will face more struggles as they endure the painful and costly discrimination of greater unequal pay. LGBT workers will face greater fear and threats of being fired. And immigrant workers, whose fears are already fed by our broken immigration system, will face greater exploitation and mistreatment.

This is the brutal economic and societal thunder dome that America’s workers and families in right-to-work states now face and which, if he were to become president, Gov. Walker would seek to impose on the rest of this nation.

Right-to-work is not about creating wealth. Rather, it is about weakening the one institution — unions — that have done more to help all hard-working families have a better life. The International Monetary Fund recently released a report tying rising inequality to the decline in labor unions. By lowering standards and wages, right-to-work legislation will infect our economy like a virus and widen the gap between the rich and poor. It will worsen the daily struggles of all families whether they are union or not.

Rather than watching our elected leaders, regardless of party, fight for the right we all have to live in a better America, we are again witness to another politician who is determined to destroy what has helped make America the land of opportunity.

As a proud union of 1.3 million hard-working members, we believe that every man and woman who helps build, feed, and move this nation has the right to good pay, decent benefits, retirement security, justice in the workplace, and the opportunity to provide a good future for their family.

As we look ahead to 2016, the fight over what kind of America we want to live in is much more than about one radical governor from Wisconsin who wants to be president. This fight is about whether every worker has the right to a better, fairer and more just America. And, it is that vision of America which the UFCW and all of labor will fight for every single day.

March 12, 2015

Unions to Fight Trade Pact by Freezing Donations

UFCW stands in solidarity with the AFL-CIO as we fight to stop fast track trade deals that put downward pressure upon American wages.

The following article ran in the Wall Street Journal on March 10, 2015:

Unions to Fight Trade Pact by Freezing Donations

Dozens of major labor unions plan to freeze campaign contributions to members of Congress to pressure them to oppose fast-track trade legislation sought by President Barack Obama, according to labor officials.

The move is part of the unions’ campaign against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, which the Obama administration is negotiating with 11 nations around the Pacific Ocean. The unions worry the trade agreement could send more jobs to low-wage countries, including Vietnam and Malaysia.

Unions have opposed the TPP through demonstrations, letters to lawmakers and political ads, but withholding political contributions is a more forceful way of flexing their muscle. In the 2014 midterm elections, unions—the lifeblood of the Democratic Party—contributed about $65 million from their political-action committee, or PACs, to candidates, nearly all Democrats.

“Every single union in the AFL-CIO has agreed to join together to send Congress a message that if you mess with one of us you mess with all of us,” Harold Schaitberger,president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said Monday at the union’s legislative conference in Washington. “We need to cut the spigot off.”

The firefighters spearheaded the effort by challenging other union presidents to follow suit at an AFL-CIO executive council meeting in Atlanta last month. The union said it took the lead because fast track would create job losses, which would hurt communities’ tax bases and their ability to fund public services.

After the meeting, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka explained the freeze in confidential memos to members of his executive council, which consists of dozens of union presidents and other labor officials whose organizations are AFL-CIO members.

In one memo viewed by The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Trumka recapped part of the meeting, saying, “we have also agreed to freeze our PACs until after Fast Track has been decided to conserve our resources and underscore the importance of this fight for working people.” An AFL-CIO spokeswoman confirmed the memos.

Fast-track legislation, known formally as trade promotion authority, is seen as helping seal a TPP deal because the legislation would give the president the ability to complete trade agreements with the understanding that they would be presented to Congress for an up-or-down vote, without amendments or procedural hurdles. Proponents say it is needed to get an acceptable final deal from other countries in the talks, because many wouldn’t want to commit themselves if Congress could insist on amending a deal.

Economists say the TPP could weigh on some less competitive manufacturing industries, including light manufacturing andpossibly car makers, depending on the pact’s terms. Backers of Mr. Obama’s trade policy argue U.S. tariffs already are so low that the deal likely won’t cause a broad shift in the labor force. Most U.S. business groups and the farm lobby support Mr. Obama’s trade policy.

While it is still early in the 2016 campaign cycle, a pause now in contributions to lawmakers would signal that their votes on the fast-track bill could determine whether they get financial backing from labor for the elections. Proponents of the fast-track legislation are hoping to bring it to the House and Senate in coming months.

A spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee declined to comment.

Many Democrats publicly oppose the fast-track legislation. Still, the unions plan to temporarily cut off contributions to all members of Congress. “The reasoning is that this will put pressure on some of the Democrats who support the position of labor to put pressure on those who don’t,” said Thomas Buffenbarger, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union.

Mr. Buffenbarger said the freeze is supposed to last until Congress votes on fast track, which he expects could happen as soon as next month. After that, the executive council planned to reassess its strategy, said labor officials

The action is part of a heightened push on fast track by labor in recent weeks. More than 50 labor unions asserted in a March 2 letter to Congress that fast track is “undemocratic” and will lead to fewer jobs, lower wages and harm to the middle class.

“If you stand for higher wages, more jobs, and greater opportunities for America’s hardworking families, you must oppose fast track,” the labor leaders said, calling for “a new version” of trade negotiating authority “that brings the process out from behind closed doors.”

The labor leaders criticized fast track as a tool that has been used since the Nixon administration to promote deals such as Nafta that are “written largely” by large corporations to “make it easier for firms to invest offshore.”

Not every union that endorsed the letter is participating in the contribution freeze, according to at least one union that said it isn’t, but the vast majority are, said labor officials.

In the 2014 elections, labor unions spent nearly $235 million on political donations and other campaign spending, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, including about $65 million given directly to candidates via union PACs and roughly $170 million for television ads, mailings and other political activities on behalf of candidates. About 96% of it went to Democratic candidates.

By comparison, Wall Street spent about $195 million on the 2014 elections, but that money was much more evenly split between the two political parties, with Republicans receiving a majority.

A spokesman for the firefighters union said its ads bought through super PACs will be shut down. Other unions’ ad spending also could be affected.

On Capitol Hill, talks among committee leaders on the fast-track legislation have stalled over procedural issues in the bill.

U.S. officials are working on the TPP this week in Hawaii and say an agreement is possible in coming months. Backers of the trade pact want to finish the Pacific agreement this year before the coming election year could sour the politics. Fast-track legislation, if passed, would likely extend to the next president and apply to future international deals as well.