Vol. 07-01

   January 11, 2007

The Iowa statehouse

New leaders, new members, new priorities—
worker issues front and center.

Think about it:

¨ no significant labor legislation since the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993

¨ a constant struggle  in Iowa to protect the most fundamental workers’ rights

¨ But now …….

Congress:   The first 100 Hours

   January 4th kicked off the opening session of the 110th Congress—and marks the start of the first big push for passage of working family priorities such as lower interest rates for student loans, affordable prescription drugs through Medicare, a higher minimum wage and more.

   Big changes are coming if the “First 100 Hours” script new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other House Democratic leaders developed is an indication.   The Democrats promise to hold corporations, Big Business and the ethically challenged accountable to higher standards.  First to pass—a  new ethics bill.

   It’ll be tougher in the Senate, where leaders also plan action but face a razor thin margin and where it takes 60 votes to get anything done. 

   And then Bush puts pen to paper—how much will he veto? Or will public pressure force him to do the right thing?

...from AFL-CIO Weblog - 1/4/2007

In Iowa: A new day on the hill

   Session after session, year after year, union lobbyists have been carrying working family issues up the long, steep steps of the Iowa state capitol “just to hold on to what we already have,” in the words of IFL Executive Vice President, Jan Laue.  The anti-worker spirit of the Bush White House and US Congress was alive and well in  the Iowa Legislature.  Without the veto power of a Democratic governor, and only recently a tie in the Senate, the Republican majority would have stripped Iowa’s workers of all rights, leaving them totally at the mercy of their employers. 

   Since November 7^th those steps to the capitol have gotten a lot less steep.  Democrats not only retained the Governorship with Chet Culver, they now enjoy  new majorities in both chambers of the Legislature: 30 to 20 in the Senate and 54 to 45 in the House.  Majority leaders in both chambers have let it be known that Democrats will focus on “bread and butter issues.”  The Republican obsession with more and more cuts in OSHA funding, workers’ comp, unemployment comp and taxes will have to take a back seat to the needs of working families. 

Not even a car to live in

   A new type of loan shark—the car title loan shark—has invaded our state.  In 2004 LoanMax opened 5 locations in Iowa.  Since then, over 1600 Iowans have had their cars repossessed.  Here’s the pitch: You get money on the spot and no credit check.  Here’s the catch: You have to give them your car title and an extra set of keys.  And you pay interest up to  360%.  Chances are good you soon won’t have a car to drive to work or even to live out of. 

   There ought to be a law against it, you might be thinking.  There almost was, but it was stopped by House Speaker Christopher Rants (who, by the way, received $40,000 for his 527 group from LoanMax). 

With the new majority in town, there will be a law against these land sharks that cruise our towns looking to prey on working families.

A government for the people

   With blue trumping red in a number of states on November 7^th, government can start doing again what it was meant to do— “promote the general welfare”  (so says the preamble to the Constitution).  The right-wing desire to destroy government was best expressed in the mean-spirited words of Bush insider Grover Norquist: Let’s “get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bath tub.” 

   “In the end, Republicans didn’t shrink the government.  But they did degrade it,” writes  New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.

   Yet by replacing the Democrats’ hallowed safety net with a cement slab, Republican policies made more and  more Americans reliant on, and aware of, the helping hand of government through Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.  These Republicans forgot that the masses of people they pushed ever closer to the poverty line have the right to vote.

Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO

Legislative Hospitality

Monday Evenings

(starting January 22)

5:00 - 7:00

Machinists Hall

2000 Walker Street

You're Invited!

Democrats find a winning issue

   The days of Republicans seducing voters to vote against their own economic interest by inserting wedge issues like gay marriage and gun rights into political campaigns are over.  In this last election Democrats found an issue that mended the splits those wedges had created  among voters: increasing the minimum wage. 

   In our own gubernatorial race, voters took notice whenever Chet Culver pointed out that while Republican Jim Nussle’s own Congressional salary grew by $31,000, he voted at least 10  times against raising the minimum wage. 

   One of the very first bills that Democrats will put forward, both in Washington DC and Iowa, will be to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 over two years.  With Republicans giving up their resistance to this first Democratic bill, up to 257,000 Iowans will soon be bringing more money home (and be less susceptible to loan sharking)!

December 9, 2006, 12:30 p.m.

North Central Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO

Marvin Gardens

809 Central Avenue Fort Dodge

December 9, 2006, 5:00 p.m.

North Iowa Nine Labor Council, AFL-CIO

Hanford Inn

3041 - 4th St. SW

Mason City

December 13, 2006, 5:30 p.m.

Black Hawk Union Council, AFL-CIO

Brown Bottle

209 West 5th

Waterloo

December 15, 2006, 5:30 p.m.

Hawkeye Labor Council,

AFL-CIO

Iowa City Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO

RWDSU #110 Hall

526 F Ave. NW

Cedar Rapids

December 16, 2006, 9:00 a.m.

Dubuque Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO

Labor Temple

1610 Garfield, Dubuque

December 16, 2006, 12:30 p.m.

Clinton Labor Congress,

AFL-CIO

Quad City Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO

Rusty Nail

2606 W. Locust

Davenport

December 16, 2006, 12:30 p.m.

Southwest Iowa Labor Council, AFL-CIO

Tish’s

1115 S. 35th St. Council Bluffs

December 16, 2006, 5:00 p.m.

Des Moines - Henry County Labor Council, AFL-CIO

Lee County Labor Council,

AFL-CIO

Parthenon Steakhouse

715 - 8th St.

Ft. Madison

December 16, 2006, 5:00 p.m.

Northwest Iowa Labor Council, AFL-CIO

UFCW #222

3038 S. Lakeport,

Sioux City

December 17, 2006, 12:30 p.m.

Southern Iowa Labor Council, AFL-CIO

UFCW #230 Hall

1305 E. Mary Ottumwa

December 18, 2006, 5:30 p.m.

Iowa Federation of Labor,

AFL-CIO

Machinists Hall

2000 Walker St.

Des Moines

We honor all good men—January 15

“When evil men plot, good men must plan.  When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind.  When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love.  Where evil men would seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo, good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice.”   
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr., 1929—1968

Bush Labor Dept. sued for Ignoring Worker Safety

   Like your PPE?  Want more?  Like it or not, personal protective equipment (PPE) saves lives and limbs!  By OSHA’s estimates,
● 400,000 workers have been injured and        
● 50 have died
due to the absence of an important federal rule, proposed in 1999 but
never issued as a standard by the Bush OSH administration.  The rule should have required employers to pay for PPE such as lifelines, face shields, gloves and other equipment used by an estimated 20 million workers.

   But the Bush administration failed to issue the standard, so on January 3 the AFL-CIO and the unaffiliated United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) filed suit against the U.S. Department of Labor for its inaction. The lawsuit asks for an order directing the secretary of labor to complete the protective gear rule within 60 days of the court’s order.   (AFL-CIO, 1/3,/07)

Note these dates! 

February 26-27-28, 2007

Iowa Federation

of Labor, AFL-CIO

9th Annual

Legislative Conference

¨ Updates on key legislation

¨ Lobbying Day

Adventureland Inn,

I-80 @ Highway 65

Altoona, Iowa

Legislative seminars.  The IFL held its annual series of legislative seminars for state representatives and senators in December.  Below,  union members and elected officials discuss IFL priorities in Fort Madison.

TOO MUCH???????

A most impressive pension indeed!

   Who says pension security in the United States is disappearing? At least 40 top U.S. executives ended last year anticipating  $1 million a year for life in annual pension benefits.  (NY Times annual executive pay round-up.) Among the happy pensioneers: Citigroup's former top exec, Sandy Weill. He'll be getting a $1 million annual pension and then some. Citigroup is also supplying him with a car and driver, secretarial support, and 10 years worth of free flights
on Citigroup corporate jets, plus a $3,846-a-day consulting gig. Weill, for the record, collected $1 billion in his last decade at Citigroup's executive summit. 

   We rely on secure Union pensions achieved through  collective bargaining, good  pension law, and a government that cares about working families!!

Upcoming educational programs, run in cooperation with the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO 

 For more information, or  to register:

• by phone (319) 335-4146,

• by FAX (319) 335-4464

• or by e-mail at  www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr