April 27, 2008

Workers’ Memorial Day, April 28, 2008

“Mourn for the dead…”  Said Mother Jones……………

 In 2006, according to OSHA’s most recent data, more than 4.3 million workers were injured and 5,703 workers were killed in the United States due to job hazards. Another 50,000 died due to occupational diseases. 

   We remember them on April 28.

“...and fight like
hell for the living!” 

Our fight has gotten harder, as the Bush Administration acts on behalf of corporate, not worker, interests. This Administration has the worst record on safety rules in OSHA’s entire history, issuing no new significant rules during its first term.  Dozens of important safety rules have been withdrawn, and voluntary compliance has been favored over issuing new protective standards and enforcement.

For more on the challenges we face,
see below..

Collective Bargaining Bill in Governor’s Hands

Bills

to

Watch

HF 2663 STATEWIDE SCHOOL SALES TAX  Changes the local option school infrastructure sales tax into a state tax so that the state sales tax is raised to 6%; excludes the use tax collected on cars so that the tax on the sale of cars remains 5%.  Requires school districts to approve a revenue purposes statement for spending the funds.  Allows voters to petition for an election on the revenue purpose statement.  Includes as revenue purposes, the reduction of bond levy, regular and voter approved PPE levy, the public educational and recreational levy, and schoolhouse tax levy, and spending for infrastructure.  Requires the money to be spent in this order if the voters reject the school district revenue purpose statement.  Distributes the tax on a per-pupil basis, but guarantees that each district will receive as much money as it did under the local option tax formula.  Establishes a property tax relief fund for money in excess of that needed for local distribution.  Sunsets July, 2029.  IFL opposes

HSB 786 LOCAL TAX ISSUES  Allows a city franchise fee to be based on the percentage of gross revenues, up to 5%, without regard to the cost of regulating the franchise.  Authorizes a city to establish a sales tax TIF district to assist in the development or redevelopment of an athletic, cultural or entertainment facility or a retail mall.  Allows a city to enter into an agreement with the DED for assistance for all of the sales tax revenue collected in the district, subject to a legislative appropriation.  Allows a city to use revenues from the local school option tax for the city’s sales tax TIF.  Increases the maximum local hotel and motel tax rate to 9%.   IFL opposes

SSB 3287 LOCAL DEVELOPMENT SALES TAX  Authorizes special charter cities of over 75,000 to impose a 1% local sales tax, including on utilities, with 90% of the revenue going for economic development and 10% for public safety.  Requires that the tax be approved at an election.  IFL opposes

SSB 3288 RESEARCH TAX CREDITS CEILINGS  Limits the amount of the research activities tax credit for each business to $250,000.  Limits the amount of an additional research activities credit under the various enterprise zone programs to $250,000.   IFL supports

SSB 3289 REPEALING RESEARCH TAX CREDITS  Repeals the research activities tax credit and the additional research activities tax credits under the various enterprise jobs programs for contracts effective January 2009. 
IFL supports

SSB 3292 WAGE TAX & RURAL OFFICES  Repeals the wage-benefits tax credit program.  Appropriates $4 million to the DWD to operate its rural field offices.  IFL supports

Fair Share for the public sector passed the Senate but failed to pass the second funnel.  It is now dead for the session. 

Prevailing Wage legislation, HF 810 is in appropriations and therefore not subject to the funnel.  It is still a live bill.

Workers’ Compensation

We supported several workers’ compensation improvement bills this session. Choice of Doctor, HF 2608, our highest workers’ compensation priority, is in the Appropriations Committee and thus still a live bill.   Workers’ Compensation burial expenses passed and has been signed by the Governor. Two others have passed both houses and await the Governor’s signature:  HF 2542, Workers’ comp claims for out-of-state injuries and HF 2568, Workers’ comp shift differential.

The other two passed the Senate and are now in the House: SF 2303, Second Injury Fund and SF 2344, Workers’ comp benefit increase for unreasonable denial. 

Visualizing Worker Deaths, 2007

The markers on this image, created by the House Committee on Education and Labor,  represent just 10% of the work-related deaths last year.

• Donald Alexander, 61

• Zachary Brouhard, 26

• Earl Craig, 62

• Randy Criswell, 42

• Donald Elrod, 52

• Ricky Glenney, 52

• Jerry Graves, 45

• Ricky Gremmer, 50

• David Herda, 50

• Lance Hitchcock, 29

• John Hoffman, 51

• William Hummel, 40

• Eric Jones, 34

• Larry Keith, 60

• Kenny Kirsch, 52

• Dennis Lammers, 57

• David Lundeen, 24

• Bradley Mills, 38

• Randall Morris, 54

• Elizabeth Myers, 44

• Richard Olberding, 77

• Sally Peterson, 53

• Dennis Ragan, 57

• William Reynolds, 40

• Benjamin Robidoux, 37

• Jose Rodriguez, Jr. 44

• Sheila Kay Ross, 47

• James Schlarman, 54

• Gregory Schmitt, 54

• Melanie Selken, 54

• Michael Tabbert, 19

• Myron Vander Meulen, 61

• Kenneth Webb, 51

• Sean Wissink, 35

• Douglas Wood, 57

• David Wunnenberg, 54

When OSHA is in Industry Hands, What Happens?

    Twenty-four safety and health regulations have been withdrawn by the Bush administration in the 7+ years of its mal-administration:  16 of them in December, 2001, just months after Bush was sworn in.  Of the 24 withdrawn regulations, six were directly related to construction workers’ safety and health.  This is especially outrageous because construction is the most hazardous

 industry in the country, accounting for one-fourth of all deaths in recent OSHA information.  Six of the needed regulations dealt with air quality, including important regulations on perchloroethylene, glycol ethers, and other workplace toxins.

   Remember these numbers when Republicans talk about the “need”  to deregulate the economy—they are talking about our health and safety.

¨  Enforcement Declines
Percent of OSHA inspections resulting in citations, 1999-2006

Secret Checks to Big Business??

The Iowa Fiscal Partnership (a project of the Iowa Policy Project and the Child and Family Policy Center) has taken a closer look at the Research Activities Credit (RAC).

A February report by the Department of Revenue shows most of the money paid out over the years--$286 million--has gone to a small number of large, multistate corporations. This money is called a “refund.” Sounds like the company is getting back money it already paid the state, right?  Wrong!

A company can claim “research activities” far greater than what it owes in taxes.  It then gets the taxes it owes wiped away, and in addition gets a check from Iowa taxpayers to cover the remaining cost of the claimed “research activities.”

According to the report, 38 states have an RAC, but Iowa is one of only five states that allow the credit to be refundable.

 For the top 10 corporations claiming the credit, the “refund” checks have averaged $3 million.  They were among 134 corporations that paid no state income tax in FY2005 but instead received RAC checks from the state.

   The Revenue report found that, of all the money claimed by corporations for the RAC from 2000 to 2005, 92% consisted of secret checks, or “refunds” to undisclosed companies.  All this money goes out (of our schools, our roads, our other needs) to the tune of $30 million a year.

Are we benefiting from all this “research activity?”  The Revenue Department studied Iowa and other leading manufacturing states to look for the benefit:  the study results were inconclusive, and could not confirm that Iowa’s annual expenditure of some $30-plus million is actually having a significant effect on the level of research activity in the state.

“It would be more accurate”, says the Fiscal Partnership, “to simply call these “refunds” secret checks to companies that receive no oversight ...”.

Time to call a stop to this?  The IFL supports legislation to curb the secret checks:   “Bills to Watch". 

Read the article,  Spotlight on Secret Checks  (2/4/08) at
http://www.iowafiscal.org 

OSHA Under Bush: a Tool of Big Business

But When Working People Fight Back Through their Unions, We can Win

¨ 8.5 million Workers have no OSHA protection.

¨ Penalties for Violations are Weak—average is $906.

¨  No New Workplace Safety and Health Rules

¨ Ergonomic Hazards Still a Major Problem

¨ Employer Voluntary Programs, largely excluding unions, favored over enforcement.

¨ Workplace Injuries are Underreported —reports miss 2 out of 3 workplace injuries.

¨  Workers Discouraged from Reporting Injuries

¨ Workers not protected from Pandemic Flu —Labor Secretary Chao says OSHA cannot act until after a flu pandemic has occurred.

¨ OSHA, MSHA and NIOSH Funding Slashed—Since 2001, the OSHA budget has been cut by $25.4 million in real dollars — hundreds of jobs eliminated.

¨ Inadequate Medical Care for World Trade Center Responders —no medical care for sick responders who came from outside the New York area, Bush wants to slash FY 2009 funding for the WTC treatment program by 77%, leaving thousands of sick workers without access to necessary care.

Unions successfully:

¨ Pushed for the OSHA law in 1970 and the federal laws to protect miners in 1969 and 1977.

¨ Exposed brown and black lung disease.

¨ Negotiated contract language that protects us, where federal laws cannot.

¨ Bargained safety and health committees to improve safety and health at work.

¨ Pushed for the 40-hour workweek.

¨ Bargained time and 1/2 and double time for overtime.

¨ Bargained healthcare benefits and strong pensions.

Now all are threatened.

   We have a lot to do to make workplaces safer and to ensure that the U.S. workers are not disposable cogs in a machine.  And we know how to do it!

 How do we fight back?

¨ Organize and Mobilize

¨ Vote Labor-Endorsed Candidates

McCain Watch:  His Budget doesn’t Inspire our Confidence

John McCain's budget numbers do not add up, and would make the fiscal picture worse, according to experts:  McCain's promises to reduce wasteful spending if elected president in November would not begin to cover the costs of his proposed tax cuts.

Social Security and Medicare  McCain has not yet explained how he would rein in the health-care and retirement costs expected to swamp the budget as some 77 million people retire from the U.S. work force in the coming decades.

War costs and deficits  Plus, as President, McCain would inherit a $400 billion budget deficit, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that cost nearly $200 billion per year and a similar bill for interest payments on the $10 trillion national debt. (Mike Gehrke 3/11/08 Dem Party Blog)

Taxes   McCain voted to extend all of Bush's tax cuts  These tax cuts would apply a meat cleaver to spending on OSHA, consumer protection, environmental programs, job training and education, etc. etc. 

Taxes   McCain voted to extend all of Bush's tax cuts  These tax
cuts would apply a meat cleaver to spending on OSHA, consumer protection, environmental programs, job training and education, etc. etc. 

Earmarks  McCain is opposed to earmarks.  But since they are less than 1% of the federal budget, how would cutting them help?  Would those cuts help Iowa?

In 2007, Iowa received $152 million in earmarks, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.  The Des Moines Register looked at the projects and found among them:  dam improvements, establishment of a nursing program, school construction grants, highway reconstruction.

Time to start asking:
Who benefits and who loses in a McCain administration?

Bush Medicare Cuts Sacrifice Seniors

The Bush budget, says George J. Kourpias, President of the Alliance for Retired Americans (ARA), “targets the most vulnerable – seniors who need Medicare to afford to see a doctor – in favor of sustaining the record profits enjoyed by big drug and insurance companies.”  Kourpias sees the Bush administration standing by “its subsidies to

 large insurance companies – estimated to be $150 billion over the next ten years – to operate privatized Medicare Advantage plans, at a cost between 12 and 19 percent higher than if Medicare directly served these same people.”

Kourpias looks at the drug industry’s main trade group that spent “over $22 million on Washington lobbyists in 2007, a 25% increase over 2006.  At the same time, prescription prices rose 8%, twice the rate of inflation.” 

“Our generation’s working days may be over, but … 
I believe this is a fight we can – and must – win.”

Could Billionaires be the ones pushing the Bush Budget?

 Here are some questions about President Bush’s budget proposal:   

Who, exactly, wants to cut back on what the federal government spends on protecting the public,  consumers, workers and the environment?  By $15 billion or so...

Who wants to cut the number of federal regulations on business—and the number of inspectors?  And who wants to trim back federal help for seniors facing huge spikes in home heating bills?  

Who is pushing these cuts of programs that make us all safer, healthier, and better prepared for the future?    And who says we should  take this $15 billion, triple it, and give every dollar to taxpayers who make over $1 million a year?  

And who says we should keep those giveaways to millionaires going for the next ten years, with each year's giveaway larger than the last?

Well,  all this is exactly what President Bush proposed in his latest — and last — federal budget submission to Congress. 

And as for who’s pushing for all those cuts?   Makes you wonder…..  (but not much.)                                                                       2/11/08  Too Much 

Meanwhile, the
Middle Class:  “Hanging by a Thread”

America's middle class is hanging by an economic thread:

¨ Only 34% of white middle-income families are securely in the middle class, as compared to 26% of African-American families and only 18% of Latino families.

¨ 80% of families classified as "middle class" do not have sufficient assets to survive for just 3 months should their income drop.

¨ 21% of middle-class families have less than $100 per week remaining after meeting essential living expenses.

¨ And more than 50% of middle-class families have no net financial
assets whatsoever.      http://www.demos.org/pub1514.cfm

So How do we Fix all This?  “Stronger Unions”

What’s a major cause of the looming recession?  Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich says:  Widening inequality, “... largely because lower and middle-income workers no longer have the buying power they need to keep the economy going. … Median hourly wages, adjusted for inflation, are no higher than what they were three decades ago.”

What is the solution?  Reich argues that there is “no magic bullet for reversing the trend toward widening inequality.”  Reich says what this economy really needs is “stronger labor unions.   If low-paid workers in local service occupations, such as retail workers, hotel and restaurant employees, and people who work in hospitals were unionized, they'd have the bargaining leverage they need to get better wages. 

"They'd also have a voice for suggesting to management better ways of delivering services - often improving productivity enough to cover the higher pay.”

Reich supports EFCA, the Employee Free Choice Act because it would help rebuild unions.  Unions could then work, says Reich, to reverse the downward slide of lower and middle-income workers (and the US economy).   (SF Chronicle, 3/3/08)

What this economy really needs is “stronger labor unions…”

Upcoming…

· C.O.P.E. Convention - April 12 

· District Democratic and Republican conventions - April 26th.

· Labor 2008 Kick-Off and Political Action Training - May 2-3

· 2008 Iowa Community Services Conference - May 15th and 16th

·  State Democratic and Republican Conventions - June 14th

Labor Center

in cooperation with the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO,  presents:
2007-08 Courses for Union Members

Union Newsletters & Labor Communications

· Writing local union news stories:  Tips for features, interviews, and covering events

· How will I fill all this white space?  Finding content and graphics

· Integrating key state and national labor issues and labor history

· Beyond the monthly newsletter:  Leaflets, fliers, posters and union visibility

· Unions in the information age:  Web sites and e-mail