“Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a measure intended to overturn a Supreme Court decision limiting pay discrimination suits in a politically charged vote certain to be replayed in the presidential and Congressional campaigns.”
From today’s New York Times (Republican Senators Block Pay Discrimination Measure)

Yesterday, Republican senators once again made it harder for women to overcome pay discrimination by preventing a measure known as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Impeccable timing: The vote on a measure supporting equal pay occurred the same week that we commemorate Equal Pay Day. It was marked this year on April 22 because that date represents how far into 2008 women must work just to be paid the same amount men received in 2007. That’s because women in the United States are paid just 77 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts.

The act would reverse a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision dismissing a suit by Lilly Ledbetter, an employee for 19 years at a Goodyear Tire plant in Alabama. Her suit alleged she was paid less than her male counterparts. “They treated me like a second-class citizen not only when I worked, but for the rest of my life,” Ledbetter, now retired, said yesterday, referring to the fact that the inequity in pay also affected her pension and Social Security.

Noted by Raising Kaine: “John McCain was conveniently absent for the vote, although he says he would have voted against it if he had been there doing his job like he’s supposed to be.”

AFSCME President Gerald McEntee, having spent much of the past three weeks in Pennsylvania, has a message for those who think the Democratic primary race has gone on too long: they’re wrong. In his latest entry on the Huffington Post, Pres. McEntee says this unprecedented campaign is giving voters nationwide the opportunity to make their voices heard.

The race is energizing the Democratic Party’s base as never before — bringing new activists into campaigns, increasing our fundraising and laying a solid and vibrant foundation for success in the fall against a Republican candidate who guarantees four more years of the Bush economic and foreign policy agenda.

Read the full post.

It’s been 45 years since equal pay became the law, and working women still are not paid as much as men for the same work.

Today is Equal Pay Day. Equal Pay Day was created in 1996 by the National Committee on Pay Equity to illustrate the gap between men’s and women’s wages. It is commemorated today because April 22 represents how far into 2008 women must work just to be paid the same amount men received in 2007.

Women in the United States are paid 77 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts. That’s $23 less for every $100 worth of work women do — $23 less to spend on groceries, housing, child care and other expenses. Over a lifetime of work, the 23 cents on the dollar adds up. The average 25-year-old working woman will lose more than $523,000 to unequal pay during her working life.

For women of color, the numbers are even worse. African-American women are paid 63 cents and Latinas 52 cents for every dollar men receive.

Since the 1970s, AFSCME has been one of the strongest advocates for closing the wage gap. AFSCME members have been the recipients of more than $1 billion in pay equity adjustments won at the bargaining table, in state and local legislatures, and through political action.

From staging strikes to landmark lawsuits, AFSCME has been on the frontline of the fight for equal pay.

• In 1981, members of AFSCME Local 101 in San Jose, Calif., went on strike to win pay equity after a city-initiated study showed that women’s jobs were underpaid and the city refused to take steps to address the inequity. This successful nine-day strike was the first time workers had walked off the job to demand equal pay. As a result, members received a contract that included $1.5 million dedicated to wage increases for female-dominated jobs.
• In 1982, AFSCME won $33.4 million to raise the pay for female-dominated jobs at the state government level in Minnesota.
• In 1983, AFSCME’s landmark lawsuit against the state of Washington resulted in an out-of-court settlement providing over $100 million in pay equity adjustments to 35,000 employees. This settlement ended AFSCME Council 28’s decade-long struggle to get the state to end pay disparities shown by the state’s own job evaluation studies.
• In 1991, AFSCME won a settlement that provided $7.5 million in wage increases and back pay to predominantly female and minority police communication technicians in the City of New York.
• In 2001, AFSCME settled the first class-action lawsuit under the Congressional Accountability Act for more than $2.5 million. As a result, 300 women employed or formerly employed by the Architect of the Capitol received pay upgrades and lump sum payments.

Read more on the issue of equal pay at the AFL-CIO Now Blog and from Ellen Bravo, former director of 9to5, National Association of Working Women and author of Taking on the Big Boys: Or Why Feminism Is Good for Families, Business and the Nation.

John McCain on the economy:

“You could make an argument that there’s been great progress economically over that period of time.” (the last seven years)
Bloomberg News, April 17, 2008

You don’t say?

The American people certainly aren’t buying John McCain’s argument. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll released this week shows that 90 percent of the American public gives the economy a negative rating, with a majority saying it’s in “poor” shape. Yet McCain insists on standing by the failed record of George W. Bush.

Maybe the vast majority of the public disagrees with Senator McCain because so do the vast majority of the facts. Check out this chart courtesy of Americans United for Change and their Bush Legacy Project:

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich has come out in support of Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential bid, but AFSCME President Gerald McEntee isn’t surprised. In his latest entry on the Huffington Post, Pres. McEntee points out that Reich has been criticizing Sen. Clinton’s positions for months — and that Reich’s record on labor rights leaves something to be desired.

Despite his reputation as a liberal and a friend of working men and women, Reich knows how to walk both sides of the street. I recall that he rarely, if ever, mentioned unions during his four years as Secretary of Labor. He has no problem backing proposals that cheer business more than labor, like ending the corporate income tax.

McEntee also takes issue with Reich’s positions on corporate responsibility and NAFTA. Read the full post.

During National Library Week (April 13-19), AFSCME recognizes the hard-working and indispensable librarians and library employees who guide our nation’s readers to the wealth of knowledge found in books, the Internet and other resources within their institutions. AFSCME, which represents more than 20,000 library workers nationwide, is using this occasion to call for increased library funding. Notes AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee:

“As the nation feels the pain of the weakening economy, people are turning to their libraries for resources to find employment and public services, to advance their education, and to learn. AFSCME salutes the library workers who make more than 123,000 libraries across the country happen.”

To learn more, check out the American Library Association-Allied Professional Association (ALA-APA), a nonprofit professional organization established to promote the mutual professional interests of librarians and other library workers.

Yesterday in Pittsburgh, John McCain responded to calls that he detail how, if elected president, he would address the economic crises facing our nation. What he offered are policies that would line the pockets of the powerful rather than helping America’s working families. Read for yourself.

McCain’s Plan for Working Class Offers Plenty for Corporate World
(Washington Post, April 16, 2008)
Sen. John McCain yesterday offered sweeping rhetoric about the economic plight of working-class Americans, promising immediate assistance even as he spelled out a tax and spending agenda whose benefits are aimed squarely at spurring corporate growth.

McCain Reverses Position to Support Bush Tax Cuts, New Plan Includes Billions in Breaks; Setting Up a Clash
(Wall Street Journal, April 16, 2008)
John McCain famously opposed President Bush’s tax cuts a few years ago, saying they would irresponsibly swell the budget deficit. Now the Arizona senator not only supports extending those cuts indefinitely, he is backing more than $200 billion a year in new breaks.

Johnny-Come-Lately
(New Republic, April 15, 2008)
There’s no way John McCain will succeed in selling his atrociously conceived, wildly irresponsible tax plan to the American people. So he’ll probably change course — again.

McCain ‘gas-tax holiday’ is a campaign retread
(MSNBC, April 15, 2008)

McCain Offers Populist Message, Corporate Tax Cuts
(washingtonpost.com The Trail blog, April 15, 2008)
Sen. John McCain today offered sweeping rhetoric about the economic plight of working-class America, even as he spelled out a tax and spending agenda whose benefits are aimed squarely at spurring business and corporate growth.

We are public service workers who provide the services that make America happen. We are taxpayers, too. So we work to improve the public’s understanding that there is a cost to the public services that all of us depend on and that everyone should pay their fair share. We are constantly on the alert for wasteful contracts, special-interest tax breaks and corporate subsidies that weaken government’s ability to provide quality public education, access to health care, decent transportation systems, and safe and healthy families and communities.

Sadly, there is vast inequality in our tax system that favors corporations over working people and the rich over the middle class. According to the Economic Policy Institute:

“Over the last 60 years, the U.S. tax code has dramatically shifted away from corporate taxes and toward taxes on individuals… The shrinking share of corporate taxes combined with an increase in payroll taxes has helped widen income inequality.”

That’s why at AFSCME we fight against corporate welfare and unfair and irresponsible tax cuts that benefit the wealthy few at the expense of working families.

This just out: A Time Magazine feature on executive compensation and how the “Say on Pay” movement began… at AFSCME. AFSCME has led shareholder reform efforts at major U.S. corporations such as AIG, Morgan Stanley and Home Depot and has played a leading role fighting for more democratic elections on corporate boards and has led the effort to restrain runaway executive pay. Read the full story.

Also out this week, USA Today ran a three-page feature on executive compensation complete with an interactive chart of CEO pay and stock awards at the top 50 companies in the S&P 500.

Today AFSCME is leading an effort to vote against the directors at Washington Mutual, who decided to award bonuses to executives despite the huge losses to the company from the subprime mortgage mess for which they were directly responsible. We will continue these efforts until skyrocketing CEO and executive pay is brought under control.

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.