Labor’s Big Week, Keep It Going For May Day

Have you noticed that a large portion of the activists you know are showing up at work looking like they woke up on a park bench?

Can’t figure out why?

Well, there have been many victory celebrations this week and you might be looking at the red-eyed results.

This may have been the most successful week that organized workers have had in our city in a long time.

To kick the week off, the National Labor Rights Board threw out AlliedBarton’s final round of objections to our election.

Cecelia Lynch and I had a great time telling Swarthmore students about this victory last night as we helped them plan how they might be able to find a better security company.  Afterward we went and grabbed drinks at the Independence Brew Pub.

Not every one was happy with the results according the Philadelphia Inquirer…

“While we are disappointed with this result, we respect the board’s decision, and we are prepared to begin the bargaining process with the union,” Jim Gorman, AlliedBarton vice president and general manager, said in an e-mail statement Tuesday.

To give you a hint about where we are going next, check out WHYY…

Rodriguez says there is an urgency to hammer out a contract before a city budget is finalized by City Council in June.

That’s how the money flows: guards are paid by Allied Barton, which is hired by the Museum, which is partly funded by the City.

“All these things have to operate and move at the same time,” says Rodriguez. “We’re trying to make sure our negotiating process is well underway, so we know how to advise our supporters in City Hall about an allocation to the Museum.”

(Read:” There is an urgency to hammer,” it’s just my style)

Two day’s later, the largest strike in the nation finally came to an end.  Congressman Robert Brady played an important role in the final rounds of negotiations.  Again, Bob swoops in to save the day.  Long live, Bob Brady!

The members of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP) did well for themselves.  The disputed “Gag Clause” was taken out of the agreement.  This was essential, it was nothing more than a union busting provision.  They also got a 7% pay increase over 4 years, prevented the major health care changes for two years AND won BACK six free credit hours for all workers in the health care system of Temple University.

This is impressive.  The security guards at Temple were outsourced about a decade ago.  One of the main justifications was that Temple University didn’t want offer the guards children the tuition benefit anymore.  Now, because of the hard fought battle of the nurses, the non-union guards and custodians actually get this benefit back.

To make this victory even sweeter, due to Temple’s greed, the strike may be considered an illegal lock-out by the PA Labor Board.  If this occurs, Temple University will have to pay all of the nurses unemployment compensation.

Temple University illegally changed the terms of the nurses employment during the time in which the old collective bargaining agreement was in place.

I am crossing my fingers for this one.  Temple deserves to pay for the anti-worker environment that they have created over the last few years…

In a strange twist, Temple University Hospital may wind up paying its striking nurses and allied health professionals for their time on the picket line.

“They could be on the hook for a lot of money,” said Bill Cruice, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP). It could amount to $1.5 million, he estimated…

Under Pennsylvania labor law, whether a work stoppage is a strike or a lockout “depends on which party affects the status quo,” said David Smith, a spokesman for the state Department of Labor and Industry…

In March 2009, hospital management decided to eliminate the benefit, giving employees a two-semester grace period. Gomberg said the other unions went along with what she described as a policy change.

PASNAP did not. It filed unfair-labor-practice charges with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, saying that Temple had to negotiate that kind of change.

Temple disagreed. In the meantime, the union’s contract came to an end in September, but its members continued to work as negotiations continued.

In January, the Labor Relations Board ruled against Temple, ordering the hospital to pay refunds to affected workers.

Finally, after years of struggle the Taxi Workers Alliance of PA beat the Philadelphia Parking Authority(PPA) in court.

The PPA has been making life for these workers increasingly difficult in too many ways to name, but, a PA Commonwealth Court found that the PPA lacks the authority hand down any decrees.

In their response to the ruling, PPA’s spokes person Linda Miller claimed that the PPA is, “a unique hybrid agency with a local focus,” and therefore only answerable to God.

Well, though there are dark corporate and reactionary forces at work in the Gulf of Mexico and in Arizona, today, Philadelphia is shining!

Let’s keep it going!  Come and celebrate a great week for working people at the May Day celebration down at Elmwood Park (Take the Eastwick 36 Trolley to 71t St) .

There will be a bunch or artists and union speakers (including me) and they will breaking ground on a great worker memorial project.

Elmwood Park is going to erect picnic tables that commemorate historic union struggles like the Bread and Roses Strike and the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike.  The hand-made tables will be made to look like the copper buttons from a pair of worker jeans and each will be inscribed with a different historic labor event.

There will be a ground breaking ceremony at noon which will be followed by speakers and entertainment.

Come check it out!