February 8, 2008

At the IFL Board meeting on February 1^st, the Executive Council unanimously elected Ken D. Sagar to replace retiring President Mark L. Smith.  Sagar has served the Federation as Secretary-Treasurer since 1997, a position he came to as an IBEW member, working for 10 years as an employee of Iowa Electric Light and Power Company at the Sutherland Generation Station near Marshalltown, and then, for over 12 years, serving as Business Manager/Financial Secretary of IBEW Local 204.  He was President of the Iowa Utility Workers Conference from 1987 to 1997 and President of the Iowa State Conference, IBEW from 1989 to 1997.

President Sagar is a member of the Labor Advisory Committee of the University of Iowa’s Labor Center and serves on the Iowa Workforce Development Board, and the John L. Lewis Commission.  From

1985 to 1991 he was on the Board of the United Way of East Central Iowa.  He is  currently Treasurer of the Iowa Democratic Party. 

Sagar commended outgoing
President Mark Smith “for his dedicated service to the cause of social and economic justice in Iowa.”  “I look forward to leading the Iowa Federation of
Labor, and am optimistic with regard to the current legislative session.  My goals include organizing the unorganized, organizing community action committees and expanding labor’s influence in an endeavor to build on efforts begun by my predecessors.”

Mark Smith Retires

 “Our job at the AFL-CIO is to keep the big guys from kicking the little guys around.”  This George Meany quote is how Mark Smith saw his role at the IFL in the 28+ years he worked at the Federation.  Mark traveled throughout the state from the days when he worked at the UI Labor Center in the 1970s, through his 18 years as IFL Secretary-Treasurer, and then as IFL President upon the retirement of President Jim Wengert in 1997.  Whether telling a joke at the expense of CEOs in the hospitality room, reading a verse on the importance of collective action by poet Adrienne Rich, or taking on a state legislator for a bad vote, he has been both engaging and courageous as he spoke to the conscience of the Iowa labor movement and the Democratic party. 

Former Governor Tom Vilsack once likened Mark Smith to his demanding, in-your-face high school football coach who made him a better player.  Ironworker Don Schuettpelz, at his own retirement party, called Smith “the smartest political thinker” he had ever known.      

 We wish him a long and happy retirement.

IFL Temporarily Eliminates
Secretary-Treasurer Slot

At its Feb 1 meeting, the IFL Executive Board voted unanimously to seek a waiver from the Constitution to leave the Secretary-Treasurer position vacant until the September convention.  To ensure the financial integrity of the Federation during this period, the full-time elected Executive Vice President, Janice K. Laue, will co-sign checks and authorizations, as well as provide financial oversight. 

 The Board intends to spend the next 4-5 months evaluating whether the position of Secretary-Treasurer should be filled or whether the organization should be reconfigured to serve the needs of the Iowa labor movement more efficiently and effectively.

 If the Board decides to recommend elimination of an officer position, the changes will be submitted to the national AFL-CIO for pre-approval prior to the September Convention and be voted on by delegates at the convention.  If it is determined that the organization needs to keep three full-time officers, all affiliates will be notified of the election for the vacant Secretary-Treasurer position, as well as the election for President.

Bills

to

Watch

 HF 2033 VETERANS MENTAL HEALTH COVERAGE   Requires insurance coverage benefits for veterans for treatment of mental illness and substance abuse.  IFL supports

HF 2095 INVESTMENT COUNSELING TAX EXEMPTION   Exempts investment counseling services from state sales tax.   IFL opposes

HF 2101 MATH AND SCIENCE INCENTIVE TAX CREDITS   Creates a mathematics and science teacher practical experience incentive program and provides a tax credit for the employer.  IFL opposes

HF 2139 PLUMBING LICENSURE   

Allows the plumbing and mechanical

 systems examining board to be 

established as soon as the bill is

 passed by the general assembly and 

signed by the governor; thus allowing 

the board to organize and promulgate 

necessary rules before the licensing 

requirements are effective.  The bill 

also postpones the licensing 

requirement for six months until 

January 1, 2009.  IFL supports

HF 2142 PRIVATE CAUSE OF ACTION   Allows an individual consumer to sue for damages in cases of consumer fraud.  IFL supports

HSB 592 STATE WHISTLEBLOWERS   Allows the Citizen’s Aide to decline to investigate a whistleblower’s complaint with written notice and give a copy of any investigative report to an employee whistleblower, the director of the employee’s agency, or the Governor if the director is the subject of the investigation, and to the Legislative Oversight Committee.  IFL opposes

HSB 600 UNEMPLOYMENT CHARGES   Does not allow an employer who wins a benefits appeal

to collect charges for benefits already paid if the employer failed to participate in the initial fact finding.  IFL supports

HSB 601 UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS   Establishes an alternative base period for persons who would otherwise be ineligible for benefits; authorizes training benefits for some workers who have exhausted their regular benefits; authorizes benefits for loss of employment due to family circumstances.  IFL supports

HSB 603 WAGE OVERDRAFT CHARGES   Allows an employee to file a wage claim for an overdraft charge anytime an employer fails to pay wages.  IFL supports

HSB 604 UNEMPLOYMENT REPORTING   Creates a $50 penalty for each delinquent or insufficient unemployment report from an employer and a $30 fee, plus costs, for a faulty unemployment payment to the DWD.  IFL supports

SF 2053 BARGAINING SUBJECTS   Makes staffing levels due to vacations a mandatory subject of bargaining with public employees.  IFL supports

SF 2056 ABSENTEE BALLOTS   Allows a voter to establish a status as an absentee voter and receive absentee ballots for all subsequent general elections without reapplying.  IFL supports

SF 2068 SKI TICKET EXEMPTION   Exempts ski lift tickets from the state sales tax.  IFL opposes

SF 2089 ABSENTEE BALLOT REQUESTS   Allows a voter to submit an application for an absentee ballot on a non-standard form if the form contains all of the information required by law.  IFL supports

SSB 3109 EARNED INCOME TAX CREDIT   

Increases the state earned income tax credit 

from 7 percent to 10 percent of the federal 

earned income tax credit.  IFL supports

Senator Harkin fights for Lilly Ledbetter
—and the millions like her who get stiffed on their pay

Remember Lilly?  She is the brave rubber worker who took on Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., which, as Senator Harkin says, “didn’t know what they were getting into by fighting Lilly Ledbetter.”  Lilly has become a tireless advocate for equal pay since she sued her employer for paying her $6,000 less than her lowest-paid male counterpart.”

Harkin’s Fair Pay Act requires that employers provide equal pay for equivalent jobs, but it also requires something else denied to Lilly: disclosure of pay scales and rates for all job categories at a given company without disclosing individual pay levels.  “This,” says Senator Harkin, “will give women the information they need to identify discriminatory pay practices and negotiate better for themselves – which, in the end, could reduce the need for costly litigation in the first place.”  We applaud our Senator for this tenacious pursuit of pay equity.

“I felt that [Supreme Court Justice] Alito from day one …  had a closed mind and was not going to listen to the arguments…They voted me down. They voted 5–4. I lost by one vote; it was not fair. It wasn’t even close to being fair.

“We must go to Congress, to the House and the Senate to prevent this from happening in the future to other females and minorities. I have a granddaughter who will come along in the workforce in about 20 years, and I hope that the law is changed and things will be much easier for her.” 

Lilly Ledbetter

Job Losses Shout Out for Action

Employers cut 17,000 jobs in January — the first such reduction in more than four years.   Manufacturers, construction firms and a variety of professional and business services eliminated jobs in January — reflecting the toll of the housing and credit debacles. Government jobs were cut, too. (AP)

And in the first days of February, Chrysler announced the closing of plants in Illinois, Delaware, Michigan and Ohio affecting about 10,500 employees.

President John Sweeney noted that  “the weakening job market is a kick in the stomach to working families already

 suffering a generation-long stagnation of  wages and rising insecurity.”   Sweeney repeated his call for  “an immediate economic stimulus package that  includes an extension of unemployment benefits and food stamps to get money  in the pockets of America’s unemployed workers right away.  Congress should  also provide fiscal relief to cash-strapped states so vital services to the  most vulnerable aren’t cut, especially Medicaid. To put Americans back to  work quickly, Congress should green-light ready-to-go construction projects  that would make desperately needed repairs to U.S. schools, bridges that  have been declared unsafe and sewage treatment infrastructure.”

What will Help the
Economy Most? 
What do the experts say?

In the Meantime:  Exxon Shatters Profit Records

Oil giant makes corporate history by booking $11.7 billion in quarterly profit; earns $1,300 a second in 2007 
CNN top story headline Feb 1, 08

   Economists are weighing in on what gives our economy the biggest “bang for the buck:”

¨ extended unemployment benefits----$1.73 worth of increased demand for every $1 spent

¨ tax rebates to all citizens---- $1.19 for every $1 spent

¨ reductions in tax rates —— 59¢ for every $1 spent.

¨ tax break for capital gains and dividends----9¢ for every $1 spent                

CTJ digest; NELP

Want to help do something about all this?

Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO

C.O.P.E. Convention

April 12

Inequality is Bad for our Health

The wider a society’s gaps between the affluent and everyone else, the more sickly the entire society, according to data from 24 major developed nations.  Researchers studied a wide range of social problems connected to a  society’s health, finding a strong association with income inequality.      They stress “the simple but important point that numerous social problems associated with relative deprivation — from ill health to poorer educational performance — are more common in more unequal societies.”  Raising national standards in health, education, and other fields “may be substantially dependent on reducing inequalities in each country.”  Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, “Placing Health in Context” November 2007, Social Science and Medicine. Too Much, 11/07.

But Economic
Equality is Healthy!

   “There is now good evidence, some of it published in the British Medical Journal, that the healthiest and happiest societies are those with the most equal distribution of income.” 

 
Fiona Godlee, editor,   BMJ, Editorial: Our Unequal Society, March 3, 2007

One of Ten…
Good Reasons to Support Prevailing Wage legislation.

Reason #10:  State and local governments should not be in the business of encouraging employers to bring workers in to fill low-paying jobs.  This undermines standards for worker well-being in the construction industry.  Prevailing wage would enable us to focus on stabilizing local economies and our workforce.   Prevailing wage allows the industry to establish market-level standards, with bidders placed on a level playing field, and the influence of government neutralized.
  Contact your legislators and tell them Iowa needs prevailing wage.

Bush scare tactics on taxes

   Bush misleading us?  Say it ain’t so.  But most taxpayers will get less than 1/3 of the $1800 in tax cuts Bush talked about in his last State of the Union talk.  Bush was pushing Congress to extend his tax cuts for the rich beyond 2010, trying to scare hard-pressed working families into supporting his policies for the wealthy, and overlooking the fact that Democrats running for President intend to protect those tax cuts for middle class families, while making sure the richest of the rich pay their fair share.

Iowa Federation of Labor,  AFL-CIO

Lobbyist Meeting

10:00 Monday Mornings

2000 Walker Street

Des Moines, Iowa

SAVE THESE DATES

Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO

Legislative Hospitality

Monday Evenings

5:00 - 7:00

Machinists Hall

2000 Walker Street
Des Moines

You’re invited!

Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO

C.O.P.E. Convention

April 12

 USW Local 310 Hall

125 NW Broadway

Des Moines, Iowa