INDIVISIBLE Lambertville NJ / New Hope PA

Author: Indivisible Lambertville / New Hope

  • Pennsylvania Vote by Mail

    Pennsylvania Voters!  The deadline for applications to Vote by Mail in the primary is Tuesday, May 26, 2020. If you haven’t done so, hustle over to https://www.pavoterservices.pa.gov/OnlineAbsenteeApplication/#/OnlineAbsenteeBegin now.
    • If you’re a voter with a valid PA Driver’s License or PennDOT ID number, you may apply with this online form.
    • If you do not have one of these ID numbers, you will need to download a paper application and mail it to your County Board of Elections. Otherwise, you may visit your local county elections office.
    Once you have your ballot in hand, be sure to fill it out correctly and return to the Board of Elections by 8:00 pm on Election Day. Watch this instructional video on completing your mail-in ballot. below.
    For more information, visit https://bucksdemocrats.org for important dates and guidelines. Make your voice heard and thank you for being a Voter!

    How to Vote by Mail

  • The Dissolution of Worker Protections and Rights

    Contributed by Deb Kline.

    The slow, insidious decline in the power of the American Worker can no longer be ignored. Under Trump, The Department of Labor, established under the New Deal, has taken a carving knife to any form of protection killing off panels, agencies and regulations. 

    On May 1, International Workers Day, warehouse workers and grocery employees at Amazon and its subsidiary Whole Foods and gig workers for Instacart and Target-owned Shipt walked off the job. The workers — whose jobs have become more critical during coronavirus quarantines and stay-at-home orders — called for more personal protective equipment, professional cleaning services and hazard pay from their employers.

    The protests didn’t include all company employees and were comparatively small, however media and social media coverage exponentially increased the impact. Other professions such as healthcare and transit workers lent their support.   

    The hostility to labor in favor of business by the Trump administration and the GOP in general is widely-recognized. Now, coupled with the plight of frontline workers across industries, ranging from career professionals to lower-wage workers exposed to, sick and dying of COVID-19, and others who are struggling due to business closures, the situation has reached a boiling point. 

    The decline in the status and power of the American worker didn’t begin with Trump, but it’s surely been exacerbated. The Department of Labor is the agency that is supposed to look out for the worker, yet evidence makes it abundantly clear that its current mission does anything but that as staff and boards are changed or disbanded, regulations are slashed, anti-labor rulings and executive orders chip away at any protections they might offer. 

    The Secretary of Labor position – a revolving door since the inauguration, is now headed by Eugene Scalia (yes, his daddy was a SCOTUS judge)  since September 2019. As an attorney, Scalia handled many cases for businesses against employees and others, and repeatedly criticized for siding with large corporate interests against the working people. What a surprise. 

    The National Labor Relations Board (N.L.R.B.) has five members who are nominated by the president to serve staggered five-year terms. Trump’s N.L.R.B. has hamstrung union activism, with rulings favoring business and undermining vulnerable employees. See its rulings on McDonalds, Uber and graduate student employees. This long slide in the power of the worker gathered steam since the 80’s, when President Reagan notoriously declared the air traffic controller action illegal and fired more than 11,000 striking workers, hiring replacements. One of the Reagan administration’s lawyers in the case was Peter B. Robb, now general counsel of the N.L.R.B.

    It’s been said as unions go, so goes inequality. The division of income among Americans has increasingly tilted to the richest 10 percent, and away from everyone else, as union membership has ebbed. (see Just the Facts: Unions in this issue). In a few cases, companies have actually stepped up and done right by their employees, Patagonia comes to mind, but in general, businesses hold most if not all the cards outspending unions in political contributions by 16 to one during the 2016 election.  

    Further, five panels that were created by law to advise the labor secretary on how to improve health, safety and whistleblower protections in nearly every facet of the workforce have been outright killed or mothballed. Set up under OSHA – the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, these committees include: 

    • Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health Last meeting: June 20, 2017
        • Role: Has provided expertise on every OSHA standard in the construction industry for decades and must be consulted before the Department of Labor finalizes any construction industry-related rule-making, from ergonomic guidelines to work with hexavalent chromium.
        • Pending issues: Preventing trucks from backing up and killing workers, a common cause of death at construction sites, and new telecommunication tower standards, prompted by workers falling to their deaths while working on the towers.
    • National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health – Last meeting: Nov. 15, 2016.
      • Role: Advises on issues from reducing illness and injury in poultry line assembly to blood-borne pathogens, working closely with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. 
      • Pending issues: Regulations to protect temporary workers and emergency responders
    • Federal Advisory Council on Occupational Safety and Health – Last meeting: Sept. 8, 2016
      • Role: Developed federal training guidelines, adopted by OSHA, for workers’ health and safety, and helped to ensure that federal contractors work with unions on developing safe environments for such work as refueling nuclear submarines.
      • Pending issues: Recommendations to prevent workers at federal sites in Florida from Zika exposure.
    • Maritime Advisory Committee for Occupational Safety and Health – Last meeting: Aug. 10, 2016
      • Role: Provides advice and technical expertise on health and safety issues in shipyards, the longshore industry and commercial fishing vessels. Since the committee was created, fewer maritime workers have died annually of asphyxiation or drowning.
      • Pending issues: Implementation of a new, more aggressive beryllium standard that will take effect in May. Also, guidelines to prevent lead and other toxic exposure during welding.
    • Whistleblower Protection Advisory Committee – Last meeting: April 26, 2016
      • Role: Developed a first-of-its kind guideline for how employers in 22 industries should address whistleblower issues and created a forum at its meetings for the public to bring up issues they felt had been unfairly dealt with.
      • Pending issues: Whistleblower protection issues within the railroad industry, improving the relationship between OSHA’s health and safety programs and its whistleblower protection programs.

    Additional Resources: 

    U.S. Department of Labor 

    U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions – Legislation

    U.S. House Committee on Labor and Education – Bill Status and Tracking

    Congressional Record

     

    Sources
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/05/01/amazon-instacart-workers-strike/
    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/02/19/magazine/labor-law-unions.html
    https://www.propublica.org/article/trumps-labor-department-eviscerates-workplace-safety-panels

  • ACTION! Senators Release Proposals Supporting Frontline Workers

    Contributed by Deb Kline.

    Three proposals focusing on Frontline Workers have been unveiled by both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate for consideration in the fourth coronavirus relief package

    Three different proposals have been released by members of the U.S. Senate intended to support the frontline workers to varying degrees. The goal is to include more focused provisions to protect and reward these workers, and to stimulate interest in filling these much needed jobs. Ideally, some form of these proposals will be included in the fourth coronavirus relief package, and you can help by calling Congress and demanding their support. Don’t forget your state government, which in many cases has done more to protect its people than the federal government.

    Essential Workers Bill of Rights 

    In April, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Ro Khanna’s unveiled an “Essential Workers Bill of Rights,” which has been cheered by leading progressive organizations – including Indivisible and MoveOn – who are demanding the next coronavirus relief package take care of those on the frontlines of the pandemic.

    COVID-19 Hero’s Fund

    Also in April, Senate Democrats Charles Schumer (NY), Gary Peters (MI), Sherrod Brown (OH), Patty Murray (WA), Robert Casey (PA), and Tom Udall (NM) revealed the COVID-19 Hero’s Fund — a federal fund offering payments of up to $25,000, or $13 an hour and retroactive compensation for qualifying workers dating back to late January, when the public health emergency was first declared. Their plan also proposes a one-time payment of $15,000 to draw new workers into essential fields.

    • Uses a flat-dollar amount per hour premium model in order to ensure it is clear, simple, and lifts up particularly those workers making lower wages.
    • Would give each essential frontline worker $13/hour premium pay on top of regular wages for all hours worked in essential industries through the end of 2020.
    • Would cap the total maximum premium pay at $25,000 for each essential frontline worker earning less than $200,000 per year and $5,000 for each essential worker earning $200,000 or more per year.

    Patriot Pay

    Then on May 1, Utah Senator Mitt Romney released his Patriot Pay proposal aimed at providing bonus pay — up to $12 an hour on top of normal wages — for employees in eligible jobs. The increase would extend through May, June and July and would be paid out by employers and the federal government via a payroll tax credit. Workers in industries designated by Congress and the Department of Labor as essential, including hospitals, grocery stores and health manufacturing, could qualify for the hazard pay. 

    • For essential employees that make less than $50,000 annualized, employers would receive a 75% refundable payroll tax credit for a bonus up to $12 an hour.
    • For essential employees making over $50,000 annualized, the tax credit phases out by $24 for every additional $500 in income until annualized incomes hit $90,000.
    • The maximum tax credit is $1,440 per month, per employee, meaning a full-time worker would receive up to a $1,920 monthly bonus.

    Unlike the Democratic proposal however, Romney’s plan opts to offer employers a refundable payroll tax credit for paying out the bonuses to eligible employees. The plan states that employers would be refunded for up to three-quarters of hazard pay bonuses to employees making less than $90,000 a year. 

     

    • ACTION! Call your U.S. Senators and tell them to support the Essential Workers’ Bill of Rights and COVID-19 Hero’s Fund in the next coronavirus relief package. Find their contact information here.

     

    ACTION! Sign Indivisible.org’s The People’s Agenda Pledge to make sure your Representative opposes any coronavirus relief bill that does not 1) Keep people on payrolls; 2) Provide aid to the most vulnerable, including cash, food, debt relief and eviction protection; 3) Provide full healthcare coverage for all frontline workers, and 4) Enact a vote-by-mail requirement for all federal elections. Find all the tools you need plus at Indivisible.org The People’s Agenda

  • Into the Way Back Machine: History of the National Labor Relations Act

     Contributed by Deb Kline.

    The National Labor Relations Act, signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1935, was a response to bad corporate behavior during the Great Depression. As unemployment deepened in the early 1930s, companies used their leverage to break unions — by conditioning a job on a worker’s agreement not to join one, or hiring private security to threaten union leaders, or sending strikebreakers to interrupt picket lines. 

    The N.L.R.A. forced employers to the bargaining table by giving workers the right to collectively bargain. Along with investigating companies for interfering with organizing, the N.L.R.B. would hold elections for unions and certify them when they won. By the mid-1940s, union membership was at a high point of 35 percent of American workers, in contrast to the low of 2.5 million union members during the bad old days of 1933.  

    Then big business hit back. In 1947, over President Harry Truman’s veto, Republican majorities in Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act, which amended the N.L.R.A. by effectively permitting employers to use work time for mandatory anti-union meetings, banning sympathy strikes and boycotts and allowing states to pass right-to-work laws, which ban mandatory union dues for workers even though they are benefiting from a union’s representation. The last change is a big blow to labor’s political power because it reduces union membership and revenue.

    For decades, though membership began to decline, unions held their own in an economy that still centered on U.S.-based manufacturing.  Unions struggled to adjust to the hardball strikebreaking tactics just as a cascade of forces — deregulation, the outsourcing of factory work abroad and corporations’ increasing focus on maximizing shareholders’ wealth — ate away at workers’ job security. 

    The N.L.R.A. was unequal to the task of protecting them. When workers voted to start a union, it became routine for companies to contest the validity of the results, delaying certification for years. Nearly 20% of union organizers are fired during organizing activities – like those at McDonalds and Amazon.  

    Sources
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/05/01/amazon-instacart-workers-strike/
    https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/02/19/magazine/labor-law-unions.html
    https://www.propublica.org/article/trumps-labor-department-eviscerates-workplace-safety-panels

  • Trickle Up Economics

    Contributed by Amara Willey.

    Although fair pay and minimum wage legislation would likely help our economy, Republicans continue to block Federal protections that would eliminate gender and race discrimination in pay rates and wages or provide a living wage.  

    Women working full time in America earn a little over 80 percent of what men make on average, according to the Department of Labor. This gap has other factors besides discrimination, such as women choosing lower-paying fields than men, taking time off to have children, or being less inclined to negotiate. 

    On March 27, 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, an act designed to amend and strengthen the existing federal Equal Pay Act. With the current Republican held-Senate, however, it’s unlikely that the Fair and Equal Pay Act of 2019 (HR-2039) will become law.

    According to the bill, 

    “the  U.S.  economy  would   have   produced   additional   income   of   $447.6  billion  if  women  received  equal  pay;  this  represents  2.9  percent  of  2012  gross  domestic  product.” The act further asserts, “The  poverty  rate  for  all  working  women  would  be  cut  in  half,  falling  to  3.9  percent  from  8.1  percent” under the bill.

    We might ask why Republicans are so loath to accept legislation that would actually stimulate economic growth? Republicans cry job loss whenever fair pay legislation comes to a vote. 

    Several states including New Jersey, New York, and California already have fair pay legislation in place. Equal pay for equal work legislation typically compares job content rather than job title.

    Yet economic figures don’t substantiate Republican fears. In 2019, the real GDP increased 3.7 percent over the previous year in New Jersey. The figure is similar in New York. California’s GDP grew by 4.7 percent, comparable to the same rate in Texas, a state that doesn’t have fair wage legislation. Other states without fair wage legislation, such as Iowa and Alabama, had less growth, 2.3 and 2.7 percent respectively. 

    The laws that currently protect workers from wage discrimination based on gender and race are the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The proposed legislation tightens loopholes that require employers to prove why they are not offering equal pay based on real comparisons such as education and experience.

    Federal Minimum Wage

    A number of states have taken steps to raise the minimum wage from its 2009 increase to $7.25 an hour ($290/week). It’s hard to imagine how anyone in New Jersey or Pennsylvania over the age of 18 could live on that salary without working two or three jobs. 

    Some states — specifically California, Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, and Connecticut — have passed laws that gradually raise the state minimum wage to at least $15 per hour. Some major cities such as San Francisco, New York City, and Seattle have already raised their municipal minimum wage to $15/hour.

    Legislation backed by Democrats in Congress would also gradually increase the minimum wage to $15/hour, but has little hope of passing with the current Congress.

    Some of this legislation is due to the efforts of Fight for $15, which is a political movement working towards a federal minimum wage increase to $15/hour. The movement has involved strikes by low-paid workers such as those in child care, home health care, gas station and fast food workers, with demands to be paid more and the right to unionize. The organization is also advocating for protections for front-line workers, many of whom are in these fields and being forced to work. 

     

    • ACTION! Call your Senators and demand their support for the Fair Pay Act.

     

    Sources – 

    https://www.laboremploymentlawblog.com/2019/03/articles/discrimination/paycheck-fairness-act/

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/republicans-equal-pay_n_7062128

    https://www.statista.com/statistics/306787/new-jersey-gdp-growth/

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight_for_$15