The 800 office-technical and administrative-technical employees in Tulsa, Okla., now have a voice on the job after joining AFSCME Local 1180.

Says Laureen Gilroy, who works in the city’s Public Works Department:

Forming a union is our legal and democratic right, and we decided to exercise that right. Having a union means that we can work to improve conditions on the job and give employees a voice at work.

A majority of the employees submitted union interest ballots to the state’s Public Employees Relations Board this month. State law allows municipal employees in Oklahoma cities with populations of more than 35,000 to form unions.

Local 1180 President Mark Stodghill said he is proud to have the employees join the union.

They have gone much too long without a strong, organized voice in the workplace. Now it’s time that the union members of this new unit all roll up their sleeves and get their first contract to cement their rights as employees represented by a union.

The new union members join the city’s 911 operators, airport police and municipal labor and trades employees as members of Local 1180.

(crossposted from the AFL-CIO Now Blog)

The failure to enforce even weak U.S. labor laws has created an incentive for many employers to hire undocumented immigrant workers, several experts told a House committee earlier this week.

During the hearing, a chilling audiotape was played of an employer’s phone message to an immigrant worker who simply wanted to be paid for the work he had done. Listen to it and read more at the AFL-CIO Now Blog.

On April 28, AFSCME and the other unions of the AFL-CIO observe Workers Memorial Day to remember those who have suffered and died on the job and to renew the fight for safe workplaces. The toll of workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths is enormous. Each year, thousands of workers are killed, and millions more are injured or diseased because of their jobs.

Our fight for safe jobs has gotten harder because for more than seven years the Bush administration has refused to act. Instead, at the behest of corporate interests, the administration has moved to roll back workplace protections. Voluntary compliance has been favored over new standards and enforcement. Many workers have little or no safety and health protections, and major workplace hazards remain unaddressed.

This year, with the election, there is an opportunity to change the direction of the country and make workers’ issues a priority once again. More than three decades ago, Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act, promising every worker the right to a safe job. AFSCME and other unions have fought hard to make that promise a reality, winning safety and health protections that have saved hundreds of thousand of lives and prevented millions of workplace injuries. Yet millions of public employees across the country are still not protected by basic occupational safety and health laws.

On Workers Memorial Day, we will continue that fight. We will fight to create good jobs in this country and to guarantee health care for all. We will fight for the freedom of workers to form unions and, through their unions, to speak out and bargain for safe jobs, respect and a better future. We will demand that the country fulfill the promise of safe jobs. For all.

The AFL-CIO sent out this press release earlier today. Learn more about the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) on the AFSCME website.

(Washington, April 11) The AFL-CIO today called on the Bush Administration to drop its proposed changes to the Family and Medical Leave Act that would make it more difficult for workers to get the time off they need to care for themselves or their loved ones in emergencies. The changes were proposed by the Bush Administration in February; an open comment period on the changes ends today. The Department of Labor will review comments and decide on final regulations.

“The Department [of Labor] now proposes to make dozens of changes to the regulations, the vast majority of which impose tighter controls on the taking of FMLA leave in response to the urging of the business community. Workers gain very little under this proposal,” the AFL-CIO wrote in comments submitted to the Administration.

“The Family and Medical Leave Act is working. The Department of Labor’s own research says so,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said, referencing a Department of Labor (DOL) study that found workers taking FMLA had little effect on business growth, productivity and profitability. “These proposed regulations are nothing more than a goodbye gift from the Bush Administration to the business interests who have been trying to gut the Family and Medical Leave Act since it was enacted 15 years ago and have found an eager partner in Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.”

One of the changes of concern would limit workers’ ability to take earned paid leave while on FMLA. This would drastically reduce the effectiveness of the law, the AFL-CIO noted. “DOL’s own data shows that the availability of paid leave not only affects whether employees take FMLA leave, but is the single most important determinant of whether someone who needs leave actually takes it.”

Under current law, an employer who wants information from a health care provider about an employee’s reason for taking FMLA must both get permission from the worker to seek the information and have a medical professional talk directly to the worker’s health care provider. The proposed rules would let virtually any employer representative contact a worker’s health care provider and, in some circumstances, do so without the worker’s permission.

“These changes would jeopardize the confidentiality of employee medical information and provide employers with opportunities to abuse the information they receive,” the AFL-CIO wrote.

“The Bush Administration is proposing to ‘fix’ a situation that does not need to be fixed by granting the wishes of its business supporters,” said Sweeney.

Other proposed changes of concern would allow employers to require workers to make more frequent medical visits to get the necessary paperwork to show they need to take FMLA. For example, a worker with asthma who occasionally has to take FMLA for a day because of an attack could now be required to go to the doctor twice a year to certify the condition still exists.

Such changes “impose unnecessary burdens on employees who take FMLA leave as well as on their health care providers,” the AFL-CIO wrote, noting that workers will be required to pay for these visits, outright, through co-pays or through lost time at work.

The Department of Labor is also proposing that workers be required to notify employers of their intent to take FMLA before the start of the shift they will miss when unforeseen medical emergencies arise and to comply strictly with the employer’s usual call-in procedures to avoid discipline. Under current regulations workers can notify their employers as soon as practicable, so, for example, they would not be penalized because they could not call in during the actual asthma attack.

“This revision will likely have the effect of permitting minor deviations from an employer’s internal notice policy to result in wholesale denial or delay of rights guaranteed under the FMLA. For example, an employee who calls a deputy supervisor instead of the chief supervisor may be penalized for not following the employer’s customary call-in policy,” the AFL-CIO wrote.

On Friday, the nation mourned the tragic loss of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. For those of us committed to social and economic justice, it was a day to rededicate ourselves to the struggle to make this country a better place for everyone. For AFSCME, every April 4th is a special day to celebrate the life of Dr. King and the courage and will of the AFSCME strikers in Memphis whom King was supporting when he was killed.

Across the country, activists held rallies and marches and commemorative events, including several AFSCME affiliates. Local 1733 in Memphis, for example, held a march to the National Civil Rights Museum that received national media coverage. Local 3299 in California held a statewide protest to demand better wages and fair treatment. Images of the strikers’ “I Am A Man” placards were everywhere in the media, including on the front page of the Washington Post .

You can also read and hear strikers Taylor Rogers and Elmore Nickelberry movingly discuss the strike on NPR’s StoryCorps.

On Friday, John McCain went to Memphis as part of his presidential campaign, a brazen act of hypocrisy noted by President McEntee in his most recent entry on the Huffington Post, “McCain in Memphis: Straight Talk or Double Talk?”

And in case you missed it, we’ve posted a special splash page in honor of Dr. King at AFSCME.org which links to an updated MLK section of our website.

Speaking at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis on the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Sen. John McCain apologized for his vote in Congress opposing the national holiday celebrating Dr. King’s birthday. “I was wrong. I was wrong,” he said.

In his latest entry on The Huffington Post, AFSCME President Gerald McEntee says McCain has more to be ashamed of than that vote — in 1987, McCain went on record in support of the effort by controversial Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham to rescind Martin Luther King day as a state holiday.

Unfortunately, these brushes with bigotry are part of a pattern. In 1990, Senator McCain voted against the Civil Rights Act. During the Clinton Administration, he voted to defund the national commission promoting Dr. King’s vision for America.

Those are just a few examples of what Pres. McEntee calls “McCain double-talk,” so be sure to read the full post.

Forty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. traveled to Memphis, Tenn., to support 1,300 AFSCME sanitation workers on strike. The men had walked off the job to get the city to recognize their union: AFSCME Local 1733.

On the evening of April 3, 1968, Dr. King delivered his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech – the last formal remarks he would give before his assassination the following day.

A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research shows that Dr. King’s support for unions is more relevant than ever. As the AFL-CIO blog points out, the study

“found that black union workers earned, on average, 38 percent more than their nonunion peers.”

Ministers, community activists and students marched alongside the striking workers in their fight for dignity. Two weeks after Dr. King’s murder, they won collective bargaining rights and recognition of their union.

Community support for the Memphis strike has paved the way for successful coalition work to this day. Witness how the United Methodist Church joined workers at the Walker Methodist Health Center in Minneapolis to win their four-year fight to form a union with AFSCME. Broad community support is also sustaining the current organizing efforts of 10,000 employees at Chicago’s Resurrection Health Care.

This video illustrates the close ties between Dr. King’s dream and AFSCME’s ongoing struggle for social justice. Four decades later, his dream lives on.

AFSCME University of California employees (AFSCME Local 3299) are taking back their university. To that end, they’ve launched a special website: www.takebackuc.org.

The new site educates the general public about the important links between workers’ contract demands, patient care and student services at the University.

In short, UC Students are paying more for fewer services, and workers are struggling to make ends meet due to sub-standard wages. Meanwhile, the UC administration has put executive compensation above all else.

Local 3299’s campaign for justice has the support of hundreds of political, clergy, faculty and community leaders. You can show your support by checking out www.takebackuc.org.

(from American Rights at Work and their Shame on Elaine Campaign)

On this day in 1913, President William H. Taft signed legislation creating the Department of Labor to “to foster, promote and develop the welfare of working people, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment.”

It was also on this day in 1933 that President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated Frances Perkins for Secretary of Labor, the first female to ever hold a cabinet-level position.

The past seven years have been tough under the reign of Elaine. From dismantling worker safety and health protections to ruining DOL employee morale, we hope Elaine’s departure in 2008 brings an end to this dark era. It’s time for the Department of Labor to get back to working for all America’s workers.

You’ve heard the union slogan, ‘the folks that brought you the weekend.’ Well, the labor movement has helped make possible not just a few days off, but a wide range of benefits and rights that we all too often take for granted.

A clever blog post illustrates what unions and their allies have done through the eyes of an average guy somewhere in America. It’s worth a read:

Joe gets up at 6:00am to prepare his morning coffee. He fills his pot full of good clean drinking water because some liberal fought for minimum water quality standards. He takes his daily medication with his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some liberal fought to insure their safety and work as advertised. All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by his employers medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance, now Joe gets it too. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs this day. Joe’s bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry. …

Real the full story at Union Review.