Disneyland Hotel Workers Fast For Safer Work

Disneyland hotel workers plan to begin a water-only fast today to protest what they describe as life-threatening safety issues on the job. The more than 2,000 bellmen, dishwashers, room attendants, and cooks, members of Unite Here! Local 11, have been working without a contract since February 2008. They say new work requirements at three resort hotels and the villas at the Grand Californian Hotel have led to serious health problems among workers, including heart attack, stroke and musculoskeletal injuries.

Disney management also is demanding to make drastic cuts in workers’ health insurance.

During the fast, eight Disneyland hotel workers, two Los Angeles International Airport food service employees–who also are members of the local–and one adult son of a Disneyland hotel worker will refrain from eating and consume only water. Fast participants will remain, 24-hours a day, in front of the Grand Californian Hotel, sleeping in tents on the sidewalk and surrounded by a large shrine to injured workers.

Part of the shrine will pay tribute to Grand Californian housekeeper Rosario Casas, who is out of work on disability after suffering a heart attack on the job in October.  Casas said her doctor said the heart attack was due to stress.

Narciso Guevara, a houseman at the Grand Californian Hotel, who plans to fast, said:

We’re fighting for our health. We need better, safer conditions on the job, healthcare we can afford, and even more importantly, we need the company to respect us.

Maria Navarro, a housekeeper at the Grand Californian, who was injured at work just three days after Disney remodeled the hotel, said she is fasting to bring attention to the injuries she and several of her co-workers have suffered.

Since the changes were implemented at the Grand Californian, things have gotten worse. There are many people in my department who are hurt, but work through the pain because they are afraid of losing their jobs. So much pressure creates an unsafe place. We must make it stop.

Throughout the fast, community and religious leaders, unions, musicians, students and residents will call on Disney to address the health and safety issues at the hotels to by participating in daily actions, rallies and concerts.

For more information on daily events and profiles of those participating in the fast, click here.

Snow? Oh, No. It’s Still the Economy
Here are a few tidbits worth noting from around the nation's economic scene. Bob Herbert at the New York Times puts the sorry U.S. unemployment rate in clearer--and more painful--perspective today, pointing out how the workers losing jobs are those who had almost no income to begin with. The highest group, with household incomes of $150,000 or more, had an unemployment rate during that quarter of 3.2 percent. The next highest, with incomes of $100,000 to 149,999, had an unemployment rate of 4 percent. Contrast those figures with the unemployment rate of the lowest group, which had annual household incomes of $12,499 or less. The unemployment rate of that group during the fourth quarter of last year was a staggering 30.8 percent. That’s more than five points higher than the overall jobless rate at the height of the Depression.

Senate Dem. Nelson Joins Republican Filibuster Against Obama’s NLRB Choice
With the nation's capitol under two-plus feet of snow, Nebraska's Sen. Ben Nelson (D) appears to have come down with a case of snow madness--a delirium that sometimes manifests itself in bizarre and illogical actions and speech. Nelson announced yesterday that he would back a Republican-led filibuster against President Obama's nominee to the National Labor Relations Board, Craig Becker. The vote is scheduled for later today. Call your senators today and tell them to stop obstructing President Obama's nominees, starting with Craig Becker. Nelson says he believes Becker, the Obama administration's choice for the NLRB, "would pursue a personal agenda there, rather than that of the administration." As Michael Whitney on FireDogLake writes:

How does that make any sense, when it's the Obama administration that nominated him twice?

Mass. AFL-CIO Futures Convention Spotlights Young Workers
John Drinkwater, organizing and mobilization coordinator for the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, sends us this report on how the state federation is helping build the future by tapping into the skills of today's young workers. Continuing its ongoing mission to develop young union leaders in the Commonwealth, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO's Third Annual Futures Convention elected a new Futures representative to a serve on the Massachusetts AFL-CIO Executive Council and head the Futures Program for the coming year. This year, delegates at the Feb. 5 and 6 convention voted among a group of three candidates nominated by their fellow delegates and chose Daniel Manning of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 2325 as their new rep. Ben Sherman of Sheet Metal Workers Local 17 and Christopher Deane of Iron Workers Local 7 also ran for the Futures seat. Manning will be the third young union member to hold the one-year term Futures seat, taking over for Allison-Doherty-LaCasse, a member of the Boston Teachers Union/AFT who served for the past year and led the Futures program through its successful second year. Jeremy McKeen, a member of the Lynn Teachers Union/AFT, served as the first Futures Representative in 2008.

LabourStart Sponsors Labor Video Contest
Have a video that depicts the plight of today's workers? LabourStart, the global online labor news service, is sponsoring a Labor Video of the Year competition, open to trade unionists and film-makers from around the world. The videos must be on the web and run less than 10 minutes. The films must focus on work, workers or workers' issues. You do not have to be the owner or producer of a video to submit it for the contest. The deadline for nominations is Feb. 15 at midnight GMT (Feb. 14 at 7:00 p.m. EST). An international panel of judges will prepare a short list of finalists, and online voting will begin sometime in March. Winners will be announced after two weeks of online voting and the winning films will screened at the LabourStart conference, July 9-11, 2010, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. For more information or to nominate a video, click here. LabourStart features daily labor news provided by a global network of more than 500 volunteer correspondents in more than 20 languages. Its news syndication service is used by some 700 trade union websites.

Judge to Pratt & Whitney: Keep Work in U.S.
A federal court issued an injunction Feb. 4 against Pratt & Whitney, preventing the company from moving work and equipment out of their Cheshire and East Hartford, Conn., plants and keeping 1,000 hourly and salaried workers on the job. Machinists (IAM) District 26 had filed suit, saying the decision to move the work violated their contract. The ruling stops the company's immediate plans to move the work to Singapore, Japan and the state of Georgiia. The contract expires on Dec.10, 2010. IAM officials say the union is gearing up for a fight to preserve these jobs and expand opportunities in the next contract. Jim Parent, assistant business rep for District 26, said:

We have a big job ahead of us now, securing these jobs in the next contract. We're ready for a fight, if that's what it takes. But we hope that after the dust settles, the company will recognize what we have said all along--these are the most highly skilled overhaul, repair and refurbishment workers in the world. Pratt may think that moving the work will save costs, but quality and reliability are crucial in aerospace operations. If they want the best performance possible for their demanding customers, Pratt should keep the work here.

‘Undercover Boss’: A Fairy Tale That Ignores Grim Reality

As kids, we all loved the sugar-coated fairy tales of handsome and brave princes rescuing beautiful princesses from despotic kings.

The new CBS “reality” show “Undercover Boss” that debuted last night after the Super Bowl is a 21st century sugar-coated fairy tale. But this time, the brave prince is actually a CEO who goes undercover as a regular worker near the bottom of the food chain. There he finds how hard and dirty the job is; how stifling and draconian the company’s workplace rules are; and how crappy the pay is.

Then after walking so many miles in an employee’s work boots, the boss sees the light and promotes workers, raises pay, eases rules and promises a new found respect for all workers.

(If your boss isn’t going undercover anytime soon, be sure to check out American Rights at Work’s new website, Fix Our Jobs, where you can vent about how lousy—and even how great—your job is and learn how to make it better. Click here to watch the video.)

But just like our childhood stories ignored the dark, bloody and scary Brothers Grimm originals, “Undercover Boss” ignores the grim reality of too many of today’s workplaces.

“Undercover Boss” is a sweet, happy-ending tale for a handful of workers, but make-believe for millions of others. The best way to make workplace improvement and worker rights a reality is with the Employee Free Choice Act, that would restore the right of workers to form unions and bargain for a better life.

The bosses portrayed on the show may indeed be sincere and a handful of workers will enjoy the benefits of their foxhole conversions. But what about the millions of workers whose CEO’s will never be on TV? That’s where unions come in: to ensure employees have a voice at the workplace, with family-supporting pay and affordable health care and retirement security.

Along with the restoring the freedom to form unions, rebuilding the middle class means fighting for health care legislation, strong enforcement of wage and hour laws, holding  Wall Street accountable and most importantly creating jobs. Unions and their members at the forefront of all these battles—out in the open—not undercover.

Job Creation Key to Ending Economic Crisis

As Congress considers whether to renew unemployment insurance (UI) for long-term jobless workers and extend COBRA to help unemployed workers maintain health care, they should take time to find out about the experiences of workers beyond the Washington, D.C., beltway.

Richard Duncan, who works for the Tennessee AFL-CIO technical assistance program, has met many unemployed workers. The assistance program helps union workers who have been laid off (see video above).

I’ve traveled the state of Tennessee and seen an enormous number of union brothers and sisters lose their jobs. Since 2006, I’ve seen the same people. They lose their job at one facility. Then they go to another facility, then there’s an additional layoff and they lose their job again.  

The extensions for UI and COBRA expire Feb. 28. Click here to tell your lawmakers it’s time to act.

Duncan’s video highlights workers urging Congress to act on the AFL-CIO’s five-point jobs program. Union members across the nation are rallying behind the AFL-CIO plan to create jobs now and President Obama’s jobs legislation. As AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said after Obama’s state of the union address:

Now it’s time for all of us to get busy and work together to bring the big changes that are essential-starting with enacting a jobs bill that is big enough to create jobs for the millions of people who want to work and can’t find jobs.  The time for small change is long gone.

Labor On the Air Around the Nation and World

Looking for the latest in international labor news? Now it’s just a click away with the launch of RadioLabour.net and its Solidarity News program. The weekly podcast will focus on union and workers’ activities and issues from around the world with special emphasis on emerging market and developing countries.

A new report, hosted by labor educator Marc Belanger, debuts each Monday morning. RadioLabour reporters will provide regular weekly presentations, and the audio cast will feature reports from unionists on particular events.

For union activists interested in learning more about progressive podcasting, be sure to check out the Labour Podcasting group on UnionBook. 

Don’t forget these working family, union friendly broadcasts, all available live streaming or via podcasts on their websites. 

• Workers Independent News-The daily broadcast looks at top worker-oriented news.
• Building Bridges-The weekly one hour program covers local, national and international labor and community issues.
• The Rick Smith Show-Pennsylvania activist Rick Smith, a Teamster member and ILCA vice president, hosts a two-hour labor talk each Saturday and Sunday, 12-2 p.m., broadcast and webcast on WHYL AM.
• America’s Workforce-Ed “Flash” Ferenc host the nation’s only daily labor radio program,  from 4-5 p.m. on  Cleveland’s WERE AM.
• The Solidarity Effect-Every Friday on KNDS FM in Fargo, N.D., Machinists Kevin and Heather Murch engage in-studio guests and the listening audience “in the social issues of our times from a working class perspective and also play some great music as well     
• The Union Edge-Long-time AFGE member Charles Showalter hosts this daily labor talk show.  
• Democratic Talk Radio-The weekly broadcast on WGPA AM advocates for American workers and consumers.
• Inside Government-AFGE’s weekly one-hour radio program on Federal News Radio features interviews and commentary on a wide range of subjects that impact the lives and livelihoods of federal and D.C. government workers and the general public
• Heartland Labor Forum-The Institute for Labor Studies at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) produces the weekly show for working people and has been “agitating on the air since 1989.”

U.S. Jobless Rate Now 9.7%, but Millions Fear Losing Unemployment Insurance

The U.S. unemployment rate fell from 10 percent to 9.7 percent in January, with 14.8 million workers now without jobs. Employment continued to decrease in construction and transportation and increase in retail, health care and temp work, according to U.S. Department of Labor data out this morning. Unemployment among black workers continued to worsen.

When both unemployed and underemployed workers are counted, there still are 25.5 million people without jobs or full-time work.

As AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says:

We welcome the news that unemployment dropped to 9.7%, but we shed another 20,000 jobs last month, following a revised 150,000 loss in December. These numbers underscore what we have been saying all along. Working families need bigger and bolder actions—in the short, medium and long term—to create jobs in the immediate future—or we risk permanent scarring of our economy and our workforce.

Among the worst aspects of the nation’s unacceptably high unemployment rate—and there are many—the growing numbers of long-term jobless workers is something that can, and must, be addressed immediately. Long-term U.S. unemployment (those without a job for 27 weeks or longer), with more than 6 million unemployed workers out of a job for more than six months. In January, the number of long-term unemployed workers worsened, to 6.3 million workers.

But the unemployment insurance (UI) extension for millions of workers expires Feb. 28, unless Congress—specifically, the Senate—takes action.

In December, the U.S. House passed a jobs bill that included a long-term UI and Cobra extension, but the U.S. Senate failed to act and Congress was forced to pass a short-term extension of both programs. (Click here to tell your lawmakers it’s time to act.)

According to National Employment Law Project estimates, of the nearly 1.2 million U.S. workers facing a cut off of benefits in March alone:

• 380,000 workers will exhaust their 26 weeks of state benefits without accessing the temporary EUC extension program or the permanent federal program of Extended Benefits.
• Another 814,000 workers will not be eligible to continue receiving EUC past their current tier of benefits.

A one-year extension of unemployment insurance is part of our AFL-CIO five-point jobs program, and the Obama administration supports a long-term extension. But it’s unclear what shape a Senate jobs bill will take. Senate Republicans say they will oppose any jobs legislation on a scale large enough most economists say will do real good.

After all, why should those senators worry? They have a job. For now.