And more:
- The National Labor Relations Board has filed additional unfair labor practices charges against Target in a union organizing drive last summer.
- Income mobility is one of those things that in popular mythology characterizes the United States—anyone can become a millionaire! supposedly—but in reality, not so much.
- I previously wrote about how Stephen Lerner had written an explanation of how something like Occupy Wall Street might work—even if the Occupy movement didn't know it—Harold Meyerson has a nice discussion of Lerner's career and ideas.
- In case you wanted to learn how to misclassify employees.
- Diarist Broke and Unemployed writes "Suddenly broke and unemployed, I put my faith in education and the Wizard of Jobs.
- Idaho's Tom Luna: Worst schools superintendent in the country? Certainly among the most in the pocket of big business; the New York Times details his plan to make kids take online classes regardless of what's good for them.
- Two Idaho anti-union laws were overturned by a federal judge for violating federal law:
The two measures, SB 1007 and 1006, were expansions of Idaho’s right-to-work law. One banned “job targeting programs” that use union dues to subsidize members’ wages as a way to help contractors win bids. The other banned “project labor agreements” through which contractors sign agreements with unionized workers while bidding on public works projects.
- Obama's recess appointments send some bullies a message.
Thirty-seven Indiana Democrats are on their third day of denying Republicans the 67-member quorum necessary to proceed with union-busting "right to work" legislation in the Indiana House of Representatives. The Democrats continue to not show up to the chamber despite now facing fines of $1,000 a day.
Why do Democrats continue to hold out, despite facing very real financial threats to themselves and their families, and despite Republicans holding a 60-40 majority in the House of Representatives? Because Democrats and unions are within striking distance of stopping the bill.
A source close to the process has told Daily Kos that Indiana Democrats are "very close to having the votes to defeat the bill on the floor." A total of 51 votes is needed to defeat the bill, and while Democrats are united in opposition, Republicans are divided.
This information is based on an anonymous source, so obviously take it with a grain of salt. Still, there is an intuitive logic backing it up. With multiple members of the Democratic caucus actually facing the possibility of losing their homes over this, at this point they would not be staying out of the chamber if the fight was hopeless.
As Indiana Democrats and unions scramble to round up the final votes needed to stop this bill, please send a supportive email to the Indiana House Democratic Caucus. It's a small gesture, but right now we need to offer whatever support we can.
Discuss 
Why do Democrats continue to hold out, despite facing very real financial threats to themselves and their families, and despite Republicans holding a 60-40 majority in the House of Representatives? Because Democrats and unions are within striking distance of stopping the bill.
A source close to the process has told Daily Kos that Indiana Democrats are "very close to having the votes to defeat the bill on the floor." A total of 51 votes is needed to defeat the bill, and while Democrats are united in opposition, Republicans are divided.
This information is based on an anonymous source, so obviously take it with a grain of salt. Still, there is an intuitive logic backing it up. With multiple members of the Democratic caucus actually facing the possibility of losing their homes over this, at this point they would not be staying out of the chamber if the fight was hopeless.
As Indiana Democrats and unions scramble to round up the final votes needed to stop this bill, please send a supportive email to the Indiana House Democratic Caucus. It's a small gesture, but right now we need to offer whatever support we can.
Despite the tininess of 0.5 percent, Republicans in Congress can be reliably expected to block the raise or try to trade it for another policy the president supports:
[American Federation of Government Employees President John] Gage said “a real threat” remains that Republicans will successfully enact a pay freeze as part of the payroll tax negotiations. AFGE and other unions believe Republicans should focus on raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans instead of federal employees, the vast majority of whom are middle-class wage earners.That sounds about right for Republicans: In exchange for a broad-based middle-class tax cut you'll be skewered for opposing, demand a sacrifice from a particular 2 million-person slice of the middle class that's already taken a big hit.
Elementary- and middle-school teachers who help raise their students’ standardized-test scores seem to have a wide-ranging, lasting positive effect on those students’ lives beyond academics, including lower teenage-pregnancy rates and greater college matriculation and adult earnings, according to a new study that tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years.The study, by economists Raj Chetty and John Friedman, both of Harvard, and Columbia's Jonah Rockoff, has yet to be reviewed by a journal for publication, but has been widely presented to other economists. It is a 93-page document dense with notations, appendices, tables, and equations, which means it's going to be extremely vulnerable to people on all sides of the education debate pulling out what suits them; based on the volume of tweets about the study by Hari "StudentsLast" Sevugan in the hours after the Times article came out, the corporate reform crowd can't wait to use this one study to start firing teachers.
But, as you might imagine, if good outcomes for students are what you care about, the policy picture is considerably more complex than this. This is one study, albeit a massive and carefully designed one. It takes its place among many other studies showing great uncertainty about how we can tell who is an effective teacher, how to support good teachers in their work, and what tests tell us about what works and what doesn't. For instance, one of the authors of this study, John Friedman, tells the Times that "The message is to fire people sooner rather than later." But, even if we assume that firing is the only answer and that offering training and support to increase teacher effectiveness shouldn't be tried, highly effective teachers don't spring fully formed from the head of Zeus. Other studies find that teacher effectiveness grows steadily for at least the first five years on the job. So if you fire someone "sooner rather than later," you may have lost a future highly effective teacher.
In other words, this study directs us to take value added measures seriously. But if good policy is what you care about, you don't base your policy on only one study. And, crucially, the question of what policies an emphasis on value added measures point us to remains very much open.
On Tuesday, the Netherlands' biggest pension fund, Algemeen Burgerlijk Pensioenfonds, with more than $300 billion in assets, announced that it was blacklisting the largest retailer in the world for noncompliance with the United Nations' Global Compact principles. The Global Compact presents a set of core values relating to human rights, labor standards, the environment and anti-corruption efforts. Sixteen other companies were blacklisted along with Walmart, nearly all of them excluded for producing chemical or nuclear weapons that violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.The event during the shareholder meeting played a part in ABP's decision:
ABP said on Wednesday that the decision to pull its investment from Walmart was not hasty. The fund declined to say how much money is involved, but according to ABP records, it had invested some 95 million euros, worth $121 million today, in U.S. Walmart stores as of June 30, 2011. The fund first sent a letter to Walmart executives in 2008, a year after ABP formalized its responsible-investing policy. Four years later, after many meetings with employees and all levels of management, ABP concluded the retail giant was still falling short.
But [ABP senior sustainability specialist Anna] Pot, who attended that meeting, thought it was useful. Although it was not the only factor driving ABP's decision to divest, it was among them. Also high on the list: a job description found on Walmart's website last June, seeking a new director of labor relations whose listed duties included "support continued union free workplace."There's an interesting contrast here. When Walmart workers rally outside corporate headquarters or speak to shareholders, Walmart comments in variously dismissive or patronizing ways. When a major pension fund that has invested more than $120 million in the company pulls out, Walmart declines to comment at all. But you have to wonder if it will change the tone the next time workers try to get Walmart's attention.
Workers are once again gathering at the Indiana statehouse as Republican legislators rush a so-called "right to work" bill through to passage. Once passed—and with Republicans holding commanding majorities in both the House and Senate, it will be passed—the law will force union members to pay for the union to represent their coworkers who choose not to be union members.
The Indianapolis Star reported Thursday evening that:
11:55 AM PT: One possible reason for the rush is that, in a few weeks, the Super Bowl will be bringing some prominent union members to Indianapolis. In a statement, the NFL Players Association says:
Discuss 
The Indianapolis Star reported Thursday evening that:
Usually bills are heard independently in the House and Senate, taking a few weeks in each chamber to be debated and voted upon.Friday morning, as the hearing began:
This year, the House and Senate have scheduled an unusual joint hearing on Friday for the “right to work” bill, and Bosma said it would be available then for possible amendment by the full House on Monday and a final vote in the House on Tuesday.
This morning, the House chamber — where the hearing is taking place — is packed with lobbyists and news media on the floor, with the public gallery filled, mainly with union members. Others are in the hallway, watching through the large glass windows at the back of the chamber.In a sense they are. They're awaiting the passage of a law that will not only fracture solidarity in the workplace but will drive down wages and working conditions for all Indiana workers. It's a sad day.
But so far, the protesters are silent, as if at a wake.
11:55 AM PT: One possible reason for the rush is that, in a few weeks, the Super Bowl will be bringing some prominent union members to Indianapolis. In a statement, the NFL Players Association says:
To win, we have to work together and look out for one another. Today, even as the city of Indianapolis is exemplifying that teamwork in preparing to host the Super Bowl, politicians are looking to destroy it trying to ram through so-called “right-to-work” legislation.
“Right-to-work” is a political ploy designed to destroy basic workers’ rights. It’s not about jobs or rights, and it’s the wrong priority for Indiana.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the private sector generated 212,000 jobs in December and the official unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent. It was the best job creation showing since April 2011 and the best jobless rate since February 2009. The numbers are seasonally adjusted. The number of officially unemployed is now 13.1 million with 5.6 million of those unemployed for six months or longer. Both the civilian labor force participation rate at 64 percent and the employment-population ratio at 58.5 percent were unchanged over the last month. About 50,000 Americans left the labor force in December.
If job creation were to continue at this level, it would take until July 2014 to return to the number of Americans who were employed in December 2007 when the recession started.
Revisions for payroll employment in October raised the numbers from 100,000 to 112,000 and for November lowered them from 120,000 to 100,000.
An alternative measure of unemployment called U6 includes part-time workers who want full-time work and some but not all of the millions of people who have become too discouraged to look for work. That number fell from 15.6 percent to 15.2 percent.
Here's what the numbers looked like for the most recent five Decembers:
December 2007: + 84,000
December 2008: -619,000
December 2009: -130,000
December 2010: +152,000
December 2011: +200,000
In the past 12 months, the best previous increases reported by the BLS were 210,000 in September, 217,000 in April and 235,000 in February.
Expectations had increased somewhat Thursday when ADP reported 325,000 private sector jobs had been created. Why such a gap between ADP and the BLS? Year-end reporting by ADP may reflect an accounting adjustment that has overstated job gains in the past.
The BLS jobs report is the product of a pair of surveys, one of business establishments and the Current Population Survey of households. The establishment survey determines how many new jobs were added. The CPS provides data that determine the official "headline" unemployment rate, also known as U3. That's the number that fell to 8.5 percent.
• Employment in the retail trade rose 28,000
• Transportation and warehousing rose 50,000
• Leisure and hospitality rose 24,000
• Mining rose 7000
• Professional and business services
• Health care rose 23,000
• Manufacturing rose 23,000
• Government employment fell 12,000
• The average workweek for production and non-supervisory workers rose to 34.4 hours.
• The average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 4 cents to $23.24.
To get a better handle on the BLS monthly job report, I urge you to read my post, Some advice on reading the numbers.
Discuss If job creation were to continue at this level, it would take until July 2014 to return to the number of Americans who were employed in December 2007 when the recession started.
Revisions for payroll employment in October raised the numbers from 100,000 to 112,000 and for November lowered them from 120,000 to 100,000.
An alternative measure of unemployment called U6 includes part-time workers who want full-time work and some but not all of the millions of people who have become too discouraged to look for work. That number fell from 15.6 percent to 15.2 percent.
Here's what the numbers looked like for the most recent five Decembers:
December 2007: + 84,000
December 2008: -619,000
December 2009: -130,000
December 2010: +152,000
December 2011: +200,000
In the past 12 months, the best previous increases reported by the BLS were 210,000 in September, 217,000 in April and 235,000 in February.
Expectations had increased somewhat Thursday when ADP reported 325,000 private sector jobs had been created. Why such a gap between ADP and the BLS? Year-end reporting by ADP may reflect an accounting adjustment that has overstated job gains in the past.
The BLS jobs report is the product of a pair of surveys, one of business establishments and the Current Population Survey of households. The establishment survey determines how many new jobs were added. The CPS provides data that determine the official "headline" unemployment rate, also known as U3. That's the number that fell to 8.5 percent.
[Mesirow Financial chief economist Diane Swonk expects] the December report to be better than those in some of the coming months, as Europe’s debt crisis continues and Washington budget and tax talks come back into focus.One aspect of newly created jobs that don't get much play in the media is wages. And there the news has not been particularly good:
“I’m looking at a slowdown in growth as we move into 2012 from the fourth quarter… we’ve gotten an uneven recovery that’s accelerating. That’s kind of like ‘a glass half full,’” she said. “I think we’re going to have some rocky months ahead. I think we’re going to have a slowdown in growth in the first half of the year with Europe still volatile, wreaking havoc on the stock market. Keeping volatility high just keeps people gun shy from hiring more.”
“If we can get between 100,000 and 200,000 (monthly nonfarm payrolls) for the whole year, that would make me extremely happy,” she said.
Trying to persuade locked-out workers in Canada to accept a sharp cut in pay, Caterpillar Inc. is citing lower wages elsewhere. But instead of pointing to the usual models of cheap and pliant labor, such as China or Mexico, it is using a more surprising example: the U.S.Among the details in the report today:
Wage and benefit costs at a Caterpillar rail-equipment plant in LaGrange, Ill., are less than half of those at the company's locomotive-assembly plant in London, Ontario, Caterpillar says.
The big equipment maker's stance illustrates how U.S. manufacturing, until recently given up for dead by many Americans, has become more competitive globally. Though the U.S. is hardly a low-wage country, it has become much more efficient, making it more attractive for global manufacturers. U.S. wage growth has been minimal, and manufacturers have found ways to use more-flexible work practices and increased automation to make the same amount of goods with far fewer people.
• Employment in the retail trade rose 28,000
• Transportation and warehousing rose 50,000
• Leisure and hospitality rose 24,000
• Mining rose 7000
• Professional and business services
• Health care rose 23,000
• Manufacturing rose 23,000
• Government employment fell 12,000
• The average workweek for production and non-supervisory workers rose to 34.4 hours.
• The average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 4 cents to $23.24.
To get a better handle on the BLS monthly job report, I urge you to read my post, Some advice on reading the numbers.
[T]he Federal government and private sector came together to commit to creating nearly 180,000 employment opportunities for low-income youth in the summer of 2012, with a goal of reaching 250,000 employment opportunities by the start of summer, at least 100,000 of which will be placements in paid jobs and internships.Currently, 70,000 commitments for "Learn and Earn" paying jobs have been made, from nonprofits to corporate giants like Bank of America to federal agencies. The other 110,000 commitments currently on the table are for unpaid internships and other occasions to learn "Life Skills" and "Work Skills" through workshops and mentoring.
The commitments for paying jobs are an unalloyed good. For kids who can't find jobs, the opportunity to attend skills workshops or be mentored is definitely better than nothing. In the case of unpaid internships the big question is whether young people are actually being mentored and learning useful things. The Obama administration will need to be sure that some oversight is put in place and kids aren't used as free labor without getting any benefits to themselves, something that is true of far too many unpaid internships. That said, the effort to create paying jobs for young people is another important step by this administration to get things done in the face of Republican obstruction in Congress.
It's been less than six weeks since New Hampshire Republicans failed to override Democratic Gov. John Lynch's veto of a so-called "right to work" law, which would force union members to pay the costs of representing coworkers who chose not to join a union.
Thwarted in that, Republicans apparently came back to the 2012 legislative session determined to work something anti-union into their busy schedule of voting to make gun permits optional and to dismantle consumer protections on heating oil. Thursday the state House passed a "right to work" bill applying to state workers by a 212-128 margin. That's a big margin, but since Democrats only hold 103 seats in the House, it actually represents bipartisan opposition to the bill.
New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Mark MacKenzie said in a statement:
Discuss 
Thwarted in that, Republicans apparently came back to the 2012 legislative session determined to work something anti-union into their busy schedule of voting to make gun permits optional and to dismantle consumer protections on heating oil. Thursday the state House passed a "right to work" bill applying to state workers by a 212-128 margin. That's a big margin, but since Democrats only hold 103 seats in the House, it actually represents bipartisan opposition to the bill.
New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Mark MacKenzie said in a statement:
While HB 383 only impacts state employees as currently written, it opens a back door for the Speaker and other Tea Party extremists to impose a right-to-work on all New Hampshire workers and businesses. Our legislators' continued opposition to the right-to-work law in any and all forms the Speaker that New Hampshire's people need jobs more than they need political attacks on workers.Since the state Senate passed the comprehensive RTW bill and had the votes to override the governor's veto of that, it's extremely likely this bill will pass the Senate. Once again, it's likely to come down to a veto override attempt.
Verizon and its unionized workers have still not reached a new contract agreement, despite the workers ending their strike over the summer when management said it would bargain in good faith. Workers have kept up the pressure, including with assists from Occupy Wall Street, but they still have no new contract.
Now, Verizon has sent its 45,000 union workers a video explaining earnestly why they should give in to the company's demands. The Communications Workers of America, one of the unions representing Verizon workers, has posted an edited-for-time version of the video, which features executives speaking earnestly in front of rows of cubicles, as if cubicles and not big offices are their usual environs. The video details company demands such as concessions on health care and the expectation that workers learn to do multiple jobs, with sales reps handling some tech functions and tech support workers handling some sales. CWA has also made a parody video, which you can see above, that cuts to the heart of how Verizon is talking to its workers.
The posted excerpt of the original video closes with an executive saying that "We're not asking you to make any adjustments that the other 135,000 employees at Verizon haven't already made to help keep our company strong." That's a pretty direct statement that Verizon is asking for a complete cave on the part of the unions. Because that's the point of a union, right? You join together with other workers and bargain collectively so that you're stronger than you would be as individuals and don't have to just accept whatever management wants to let you have. Verizon is in effect saying, "We already made our other workers take this shitty deal so we could make huge profits and pay our top executives tens of millions of dollars per year. Now we're demanding the same of you, and it would be so much more convenient if you'd lie down and take it."
Discuss Now, Verizon has sent its 45,000 union workers a video explaining earnestly why they should give in to the company's demands. The Communications Workers of America, one of the unions representing Verizon workers, has posted an edited-for-time version of the video, which features executives speaking earnestly in front of rows of cubicles, as if cubicles and not big offices are their usual environs. The video details company demands such as concessions on health care and the expectation that workers learn to do multiple jobs, with sales reps handling some tech functions and tech support workers handling some sales. CWA has also made a parody video, which you can see above, that cuts to the heart of how Verizon is talking to its workers.
The posted excerpt of the original video closes with an executive saying that "We're not asking you to make any adjustments that the other 135,000 employees at Verizon haven't already made to help keep our company strong." That's a pretty direct statement that Verizon is asking for a complete cave on the part of the unions. Because that's the point of a union, right? You join together with other workers and bargain collectively so that you're stronger than you would be as individuals and don't have to just accept whatever management wants to let you have. Verizon is in effect saying, "We already made our other workers take this shitty deal so we could make huge profits and pay our top executives tens of millions of dollars per year. Now we're demanding the same of you, and it would be so much more convenient if you'd lie down and take it."
A same-sex marriage bill failed by a narrow margin in Maryland last year, but the fight for equality hasn't ended in the state. Now, unions are getting involved. In the video above:
(Via Pam Spaulding)
Discuss “At 1199 SEIU, we support working families, not just certain families,” Ezekiel Jackson, an organizer for health-care workers in Maryland and the District, says in the video, in which he dons a Baltimore Orioles baseball cap. “That’s why bringing marriage equality to Maryland is important. It’s about making all families, including committed gay and lesbian couples, and their kids, stronger.”That's part of a broader push by unions:
Nationally, SEIU has been on record supporting marriage rights for gay couples since 2004. The service workers union was heavily involved in New York last year when that state passed a same-sex marriage bill.Unions plan to mobilize members to take action supporting the bill, including lobbying their representatives, and at a rally focused in part on marriage. Leaders say they will also consider how legislators vote on this issue in making endorsement decisions.
In Maryland, labor leaders are hoping to build upon that momentum with a broader coalition. At a November convention, the AFL-CIO affiliates unanimously passed a resolution supporting passage of legislation that [Gov. Martin] O’Malley has pledged to sponsor this year.
(Via Pam Spaulding)
Indiana Democrats are buying time against the so-called right to work law Republican legislators are pushing as their top priority in the state. Democratic state House members, who last year left the state to deny Republicans the quorum they needed to pass anti-worker and other bad bills, did not show up for the first day of the 2012 legislative session Wednesday:
Discuss 
House Minority Leader B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, said this was no walk-out, but a "filibuster."Meanwhile, union members and allies are streaming to the statehouse to lobby their legislators, hoping to get some Republicans to think twice before voting for the anti-union bill. However, the Indiana AFL-CIO reported Wednesday on Twitter that several legislators refused to meet with constituents. Workers are continuing the pressure at the statehouse on Thursday.
Democrats, he said, want "to prevent a bill being rammed down the public's throat. We refuse to let the most controversial public policy bill of the decade be railroaded through with the public being denied their fair and adequate input."
Instead of a joint hearing on Friday, Bauer said, Democrats want the legislature to hold hearings around the state on the issue. But while he said Democrats would not go to Illinois as they did in the 2011 stand-off, he did not promise Democrats would return if those hearings were held, saying only that they would be "very helpful" and "some kind of a carrot to the stick that they've given the people."
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