Published 05 Jan, 2012
Last year, 2011 will be known as the year people stood up to anti-union legislation and governors, corporate greed and forming solidarity across the nation against the attacks on workers’ rights.
Here are the 11 most promising events from 2011.
1. Occupy Wall Street Inspires the 99 Percent to Fight Back
The birth of the Occupy Movement and its spread across the country and around the world was a hugely important development for all working people in 2011. TWU members can take pride that their union was one of the first to support this historic movement. Inspired in part by the Wisconsin uprising this protest of economic and social injustice fostered by corporate greed changed the focus of public dialogue to where it needs to be: on the needs of the middle class, working families, and poor and marginalized people — the 99 percent.
Although some occupiers have been evicted and their encampments destroyed, the protesters are right when they say no one can destroy an idea whose time has come. Millions more Americans now understand that the 1 percent have rigged the system to capture a larger and larger share of the world’s wealth and power, while the middle class and poor face unemployment, soaring student debt burdens, homelessness, and the disappearance of their retirement savings. Not only do people get it, they are doing something about it. As it becomes clear that neither corporate CEOs nor national political leaders have solutions to today’s deep crises, thousands of grassroots activists are working together to make the change we need. The Occupy Movement, which is often called “leaderless,” is actually full of emerging leaders who are building the skills and connections to create the economic and social changes that will benefit working families for decades to come.
2. Hard work by union members leads Ohio voters to repeal union-busting SB 5
When an anti-union Governor and legislature passed a law that would all but outlaw public sector collective bargaining, Ohio union members and their allies didn’t mourn, they organized. In only 90 days, TWU and other Ohio activists collected 1.3 million signatures, which filled a semi-truck, to repeal the union-busting SB 5. Once the referendum was on the ballot, unionists from all over the country united to defeat it. And defeat it we did. Ohio voters overwhelmingly voted to repeal the law, 61 to 39%. This important win built momentum for the Walker recall in Ohio and the 2012 elections. More importantly, it showed once again that when workers are united and strong, we win.
3. Wisconsin Leads the Way
When newly elected Koch Brothers front man Scott Walker pushed through the first law to effectively ban public sector collective bargaining, Wisconsinites immediately fought back. Thousands of young people put their lives on hold and occupied the State Capitol for weeks, inspiring all 14 Assembly Democrats to unprecedented discipline, principle and unity, and becoming a model for the nationwide Occupy movement. The so-called “Wisconsin 14” courageously left their homes and families and stayed out of state for the rest of the legislative session to try to prevent this assault on workers’ rights from becoming law.
Meanwhile, TWU members and hundreds of thousands of other workers’ rights activists from around the country descended on Wisconsin in the dead of winter to protest the measure. When the Governor and his allies in the State Senate failed to get the message and used legislative dirty tricks to ram the measure through, “Workers Rights are Human Rights” activists turned to the ballot box. Last summer, activists successfully recalled two of the leading union-busters in the State Senate. As soon as Walker became eligible for recall last November, activists went to work again, gathering over half a million signatures to recall the anti-union Governor in only a month of canvassing.
4. New NLRB Rules Help Protect Workers’ Rights
After Congress failed to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, President Obama’s appointees to the National Labor Relations Board used the rulemaking authority they have been granted by Congress to craft new regulations that would make it much harder for employers to use the tried and true tactic of busting unions by delaying elections. Under the old regulations, employers could endlessly delay elections by demanding hearings and pursuing appeals for years even where there was no disputed legal issue. The new rules preliminarily voted on by the Board in December will eliminate this loophole by requiring speedy elections and postponing legal fights until after the vote. Unfortunately, Republicans will probably refuse to confirm the President’s new appointments to the Board, leaving the new rules in legal limbo until after the 2012 elections.
5. New Hampshire Defeats Anti-Union “Right-to-Work” legislation
Last spring, New Hampshire’s Republican-controlled state legislature passed so-called right-to-work legislation that would undermine the right to collectively bargain. But Democratic Governor Lynch vetoed the bill, and thanks to the efforts of thousands of workers’ rights supporters who wrote, called and lobbied legislators to uphold the veto and protect the freedom to have a union, conservatives were not able to override the veto. Working people won this vote despite underhanded tactics by state House leaders and big-money lobbying from out-of-state interests. As they did in Wisconsin and Ohio, working people in New Hampshire—union and non-union alike—stood up in support of basic workers’ rights. They preserved good jobs with fair wages and benefits and struck a blow against the anti-worker agenda.
6. TWU wins ILO Ruling that NY Strike Ban Violates Human Rights
In a historic ruling last November, the International Labor Organization (ILO), an independent agency of the United Nations, upheld TWU’s Complaint and found that New York’s law banning all strikes by public sector workers, as well as the harsh punishments it imposes on “illegal” strikes (including fines, loss of dues check off and imprisonment of union leaders), violates the fundamental human right to Freedom of Association protected under ILO Conventions 87 and 98.
The complaint was based on New York’s response to TWU Local 100’s 60 hour strike in December 2005. New York State courts responded to the strike with an array of penalties, including a $2.5 million fine on the union, a penalty of an additional day’s lost pay for each day each worker was out on strike, personal fines on the top three officers, and jail time for the Local President. Most harmfully, the courts ordered an end to Local 100’s automatic dues check off.
But TWU’s flagship Local was not so easy to kill. The ILO said New York’s Taylor Law should be amended to comply with Freedom of Association principles and that the union and its members should be compensated for the fines, the suspension of dues checkoff, and the detention of Local 100’s then-President, Roger Toussaint. International President James C. Little said, “This ruling from the ILO, which pertains to the critical New York City transit sector, could become a spearhead for the American labor movement’s defense of the rights of public sector workers, and eventually spur re-shaping of U.S. law in this area.” Whether and when the New York legislature and courts decide to implement the ILO’s recommendations remains to be seen.
7. TWU wins Allegiant Election, makes progress on first contract
In late December 2010, Allegiant flight attendants voted overwhelmingly for representation by TWU. The hard-working Allegiant negotiating committee dedicated 2011 to negotiating the terms of their first contract, wrapping up their final session of the year just as the 2011 holiday season began. The team has made a lot of progress, with 15 articles signed off on by both sides, and six negotiation dates already set for the first three months of 2012. The parties left two of the harder provisions for last—compensation and hours of service—but TWU’s Allegiant team is excited about the progress they made last year, and optimistic about signing off on their first ever CBA this year.
8. Activism stalls job and climate killing Keystone XL pipeline
Under President Jim Little, TWU has been a leader in advocating for major “New Deal” type investments in infrastructure modernization and repair, public transportation, energy conservation and climate protection as a means of putting people to work and laying the foundations of a more sustainable economic future for the United States. This is a transition that sound science and sound economics tell us we must make today, not in some far off future, in order to prevent irreversible harm to our planet’s climate, and to provide good jobs now for the millions of Americans who desperately need them. The proposed Keystone XL pipeline would take us in the opposite direction, increasing our reliance on dirty bitumen sands oil and stalling critical efforts to create the jobs we need to transition to a more sustainable economy.
The pipeline appeared to be on a fast track to approval, but thanks to the efforts of TWU and a handful of other unions allied with millions of climate justice activists, in November the State Department delayed its decision on the project, and President Obama has said that if Republicans again try to force him to make a premature decision by tying the pipeline’s fate to another payroll tax cut extension early in 2012, he’ll kill the project for good.
9. Movements Build Strength by Connecting Across Borders
In 2011,we saw working people in the US – and the world — building a “matrix of intersecting and increasingly interconnected movements around the world—the Arab Spring, the Indignados in Spain, ongoing Latin American mobilizations and the most recent, Occupy in the US, among others–transforming the global web of politics,” according to Roberto Lovato, founder of presente.org.
TWU contributed to this development, serving on a Tribunal investigating abuses of workers’ rights by the Mexican government, participating in the UN climate negotiations, and playing a leading a role in the ITF, the global federation of transport unions. In 2011, TWU hosted an ITF strategy meeting in its new DC headquarters for unions of workers employed by the One World air carriers, and aided ITF campaigns in support of transport workers employed by Veolia in the United States and UPS in Turkey, among others.
10. New Protections For The Young And Uninsured
Thanks to one of the major provisions of the Affordable Health Care Act, 2.5 million 18-25 year olds received health insurance in 2011 by being able to stay on their parent’s plans until age 26. Without the so-called dependent provision in the health care reform bill, its likely most of these recent high school or college graduates would have joined the ranks of the uninsured. It’s progress, for sure, but there are still 8 million uninsured 18-25 year olds— either because their parents don’t have private health coverage, their employer doesn’t offer it or they can’t afford it. Young people who can’t continue on their parent’s insurance will get help from the new law in 2014, when many will become eligible for Medicaid and subsidies to help buy private insurance will kick in.
11. Consumers Get A New Watchdog For Their Wallets
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officially opened for business in July 2011. The CFPB was the brainchild of Elizabeth Warren, who was appointed by the President to get the agency up and running. After the financial collapse wiped out nearly $11 trillion of household wealth, much of it tangled up in sub-prime mortgages, the new Bureau was included in the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. The CFPB protects consumers from confusing, and often, predatory financial practices, through rule-making, enforcement and research. Republicans vehemently oppose the Bureau and are seeking to weaken its authority. They’ve pledged to filibuster any nominated director until the teeth are knocked out of the agency’s power, and so far, have made good on their promise.