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UNION NEWS
ACTIVITIES FOR CWA
KIDS WHEN SCHOOL IS CLOSED
Communication Workers of America
members can use the "Kids in the Workplace"
program at a number of work sites in the mid-Atlantic
Region. Parents of school-age children ages 5-12
can bring them to work on days when schools are
closed. The program is coordinated by Ceridian,
an outside agency, which provides age-appropriate
activities and runs approximately 15 days per
year at 60 sites. Parents also have access to
resource and referral services that provide information
on education for pre-school, school-aged children
and college referral advice for teens.
CWA & Verizon
UAW HELPS KIDS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR
The United Auto Workers has a number of summer
and holiday camp programs available to members’
children around the country at no charge or for
a low fee. During the school year, school children
of any age can also use the UAW’s tutoring
program. This popular program is run by trained
tutors who provide over-the-phone advice and instruction
on subjects like math and English during evenings
and weekends when parents may be working. UAW & Various Employers
STEELWORKERS ENJOY
VOLUNTARY OVERTIME
The United Steelworkers of America successfully
negotiated a voluntary overtime provision for
its members. The Company is required to notify
the union of any overtime needs at least 24 hours
in advance. Overtime is offered on a rotational
basis to qualified employees. Employees who do
not wish to be part of the overtime rotation are
required to submit a written notification to the
supervisor. Saturday and Sunday overtime is considered
separately and an employee is not required to
work one day to qualify for the other. USWA Local 9777 & Alberto-Culver USA,
Inc.
NEW PARENTS GET
BENEFITS WHILE ON LEAVE
Members of Massachusetts’ Employees of Toll
Roads, Bridges and Tunnels Local 127, Teamsters
can take up to 6 months of unpaid maternity or
parental leave without any loss of benefits or
seniority. Maternity leave is available to members
who have completed the probationary period. Parental
leave applies to fathers and new parents of an
adopted child and is available to members who
have worked for the company for 12 months. Members
applying for either maternity or parental leave
are not required to use any accrued sick leave
or vacation time. Employees of Toll Roads, Bridges and Tunnels
Local 127, IBT & State of Massachusetts
UNION MEMBERS WIN SHORTER WORK WEEK
Britain’s General Union (GMB) and Playtex,
the underwear manufacturer, conducted a survey
on various flextime options for the 450 hourly
employees and 150 office staff. The survey showed
that workers would prefer a 4-day week option
and an early start time. A pilot project was created
with GMB members working a 38.5-hour week over
four days. The new flextime schedule, giving workers
a 3-day weekend was very popular and was made
permanent. Britain’s General Union & Playtex
Products, Inc.
College-Bound:
Union Invests in Unique Teen Program
By Nicola Dones
The 1199SEIU/Employer Child Care Fund, negotiated
to address the child care needs of New York’s
Healthcare Union members, has 450 employers contributing
over 19 million dollars annually and serving more
than 12,000 members in the New York tri-state
area. The Fund offers a number of programs for
children of all ages and in 1996, following a
survey that highlighted the vast gap between teen
aspirations and their academic achievements, it
introduced WorkForce 2000—a partnership
between the 1199SEIU Child Care Fund and New York
University. The year-long program is designed
to help 14 - 17 year old teenagers prepare for
college through instruction, self-awareness and
counseling. Nine years ago, the pilot program
began with 25 students--today, 265 union members’
children participate.
Each student is evaluated and his/her needs identified
during an orientation at the start of the program
allowing staff to hone in on strengths and weaknesses
and then develop individualized plans. Patricia
Ryan who heads NYU’s Upward Bound/WF2000
Program and her staff are very committed to ensuring
that each teen succeeds. She states, “This
year we have 80 students who are seniors and more
than half will be the first in the family to go
to college.”
On Saturdays during the academic year, the students
spend up to 6 hours on the NYU campus where they
attend classes to improve or advance their skills.
The campus is buzzing with undergraduates and
in this energetic, academic environment, the students
experience the feel of college life: they attend
career and college planning workshops; meet with
a counselor to set goals for the year; and learn
to navigate the path that leads to college.
“For the whole school year, each teen has
a champion,” says Joanne Bentley, 1199SEIU
Child Care Fund Manager of WorkForce 2000. “There
is always someone in their corner encouraging
them to succeed.” Teachers at NYU tutor,
assist with applications, give advice on schools,
even escort students to college visits and open
houses. Fund staff plan activities to broaden
students’ cultural and political experiences.
Work internship supervisors offer the teens hands-on
practice in the field of their choice.
The union program begins with a weekend camp retreat
and ends with a summer work internship. Throughout
the year opportunities are provided for the teens
to participate in social, cultural and community
events like seeing a Broadway show or helping
out at a local soup kitchen. The Fund also conducts
parent workshops.
Brandon Moorer, whose mother is an Information
Systems operator at New York Presbyterian Hospital,
is a WorkForce 2000 participant. When he began
the program, he was failing in math. Not any more.
Brandon says, “When my high school friends
have a problem, they come to me. My math has greatly
improved because I’m willing to work at
it before it becomes a problem”. Brandon
is currently taking two classes at NYU—College
Survival and Calculus, and has been accepted into
the Engineering Program at Virginia State University.
What makes the program so successful? Joanne Bentley
praises Ryan and her NYU staff. “It’s
the people who make the program. They are truly
committed, dynamic individuals who understand
teens from all perspectives.” Brandon’s
mother Cynthia, who has built her own relationship
with Ryan and Brandon’s NYU teachers, agrees,
“I’ve never been involved in anything
where the director has been so accessible.”
Ryan herself speaks highly of the 1199SEIU/Employer
Child Care Fund staff. “They are the most
insightful, dedicated people I’ve ever met—this
union is really invested in its workers, their
families and the future of their children.”
For more information on WorkForce 2000 contact
Joanne Bentley, 1199SEIU Child Care Fund (646)
695-7346 or Pat Ryan, NYU at (212) 998-5115
Message from the
Executive Director, Netsy Firestein
A Job and A Life: Organizing and Bargaining
for Work Family Issues. We worked
hard to come up with an appropriate name that
would identify what our new manual was about,
but at the same time, not marginalize the issues.
As Tom Kochan points out in his article here,
working families have dual responsibilities –
as workers and as family members. When unions
advocate for public policies, or negotiate working
time and benefits, work and family issues are
part of the mix of what workers need for economic
security, along with good wages, health and retirement
benefits and safe workplaces. Working families
need affordable child care, paid sick, vacation
and family leave, control over their working hours
like flexible work schedules and no mandatory
overtime, help with elder care and more.
Due out later this month, A
Job and A Life is meant to serve
as a guide to unions to promote work and family
policies by advocating for better laws, negotiating
for strong contract language and using paid leave,
control over work hours or child care as organizing
issues. It provides hands on advice for starting
a work/family committee, negotiating for flexible
hours, passing a work and family bill of rights
and advocating for paid leave laws. Pre-order
your copy today or call us for bulk rates (20
or more).
A Working Families
Agenda for Unions and for America
By Thomas A. Kochan
The void in progressive leadership in national
politics opens an opportunity for the labor movement
to demonstrate it is the best source of hope and
progress for America’s working families.
In turn, the future of the American labor movement
may very well depend on it doing so.
What would be an agenda that resonates with working
families?
First, labor needs to recapture the debate over
values. All our various religious traditions stress
an economic system must be judged by whether it
delivers economic justice and improves the standard
of living of families. The essence of the American
dream is that parents will enable their children
to do better than they did. Labor needs to offer
a vision and strategy for families to once again
realize this dream.
Second, if it now takes two adult wage earners
to make ends meet, then labor should champion
reform of labor market policies and practices
to ensure that parents can attend to their dual
responsibilities of being productive workers and
responsible parents and community citizens. Thanks
to a labor-led coalition, California has shown
the way by passing a paid family leave policy.
Labor should build on this success in other states.
Historically, most progressive social policy innovations
started at the state level. Labor can once again
lead the way at the state level while national
politics remain barren territory.
Third, work family issues need to move to the
top of labor’s collective bargaining agenda.
Some, but not enough, unions are already leading
the way in negotiating flexible schedules and
more time off to deal with sickness and/or other
personal and family needs and by setting up joint
programs with employers to address child and elder
care, after-school, and other family concerns.
Work-family is the next frontier for innovation
and progress in collective bargaining.
Fourth, a new working families organizing model
is needed to attract a broad cross section of
working family members to the labor movement.
Since women accounted for three fourths of new
union members in the past decade, it is time to
ask what kind of organizing and representational
models are best suited to attract women? The Harvard
Union of Clerical and Technical Workers provides
a clue. Their organizing slogan: “You don’t
have to be anti-Harvard to be pro-union,”
the efforts they put into building a cohesive
and supportive membership community, and their
focus on delivering through collective bargaining
and daily problem solving the flexibility members
need to balance their work and family lives should
not go unnoticed by the rest of the labor movement.
Finally, labor needs to continue working in coalition
with other progressive forces—religious
groups, ethnic and immigration groups, students,
academics, women and family advocates, etc. to
leverage their collective power and put the needs
of working families back on the national agenda
where it belongs.
A more complete outline of this agenda is
provided in Thomas A. Kochan, “Restoring
the American Dream: A Working Families Agenda
for America”, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,
forthcoming summer, 2005.
Thomas A. Kochan is Co-Director of the MIT Workplace
Center.
Is
Preschool for All California’s Future?
By Jenya Cassidy
Did you know that ninety percent of brain growth
occurs before the age of 5? According to Preschool
California, an advocacy campaign building public
support for universal preschool in California,
by the time children reach age 4, they are eager
and capable learners and a quality preschool program
lays a strong foundation for elementary school
and beyond.
Preschool California organizes child care advocates,
parents, unions, businesses, teachers, family
child care providers, churches and even police
officers to begin the process of educating their
constituencies around the importance of preschool.
The goal of this education campaign is to build
support for an initiative that will make preschool
available to all 4-year-olds in the state. Organizers
expect the initiative to be on the ballot in June
of 2006. Preschool California has been laying
the groundwork for this initiative through community
meetings, policymaker education, resolutions,
media outreach and lobby days in the state’s
capitol.
California labor unions are playing a key role
in getting the preschool message out to their
members and working with Preschool California
on crafting the political grassroots strategy.
Catherine Atkin, President of Preschool California,
stresses the importance of labor’s involvement
in building this movement: "Labor unions
have two important roles in the preschool-for-all
movement. One is as beneficiaries: Union members
are so often working mothers and fathers, and
they want and need quality programs for their
children. The second role is to help make preschool
for all a reality. Unions are powerful advocates
with a long tradition of successful grassroots
mobilization. We'll need their help to get this
initiative on the ballot, and to make sure it
passes,” she said.
The California Labor Federation passed a resolution
calling for universal preschool at their 2004
state convention. The resolution, sponsored by
the California Federation of Teachers (CFT), calls
for funding for a universal preschool system that
meets the needs of working parents as well as
children, including quality full day care and
professional salaries for the emerging preschool
workforce. Service Employees International Union
(SEIU) and the California Teachers’ Association
(CTA), two of the state’s largest unions,
have representatives who sit on the advisory committee
along with business and child care advocates to
help craft the future ballot initiative.
California is not the only state with a movement
for universal preschool. As public consciousness
is raised about the importance of early childhood
education, advocates and unions in other states
are launching movements to find a way to provide
preschool for all.
Family
Medical Leave Act Under Threat
Twelve years ago, President Clinton
signed the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
into law, thereby allowing more than 50 million
workers to take job-protected leave for their
own serious illness or to care for a newborn child
or a seriously ill family member. Now, opponents
of the law are pressuring the Department of Labor
(DOL) to roll back the illnesses for which employees
can take job-protected leave and to impose a maximum
amount of time that employees could take intermittent
leave. An example of intermittent leave would
be an employee taking a short amount of time for
doctor’s appointments to treat a chronic
condition. The DOL is expected to propose changes
this spring. On the anniversary of the signing
of FMLA in February 2005, Debra L. Ness, President
of the National Partnership for Women and Families,
said, “Working women and men need the government
to provide real solutions as they struggle to
balance work and family, not take away these protections.
On this anniversary, we should be expanding the
FMLA, not fighting to save it.” For information
on how to join the fight to protect FMLA, go to
the National Partnership website: www.nationalpartnership.org.
The FMLA at a glance:
The FMLA allows workers to take up to 12 weeks
of unpaid, job protected leave to
- Bond with a newborn, newly adopted or foster child
- Care for a seriously ill family member (spouse, domestic partner, child, mother or father)
- Recover from your own serious health condition
- work for a company with at least 50 employees who work within a 75 mile radius
- have been employed a total of 12 months (may have been intermittent employment) and have worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12 month period preceding the FMLA leave
- Continue your health benefits during leave
- Post a notice detailing rights and responsibilities of both the employer and employee under the laws
- Provide detailed written information about these rights, and include information in the employee handbook (if one exists) on employee rights and responsibilities under the law
A Job and A
Life: Organizing and Bargaining for Work Family
Issues
“The union movement works every day
to help workers have good jobs AND care for their
families. This manual provides unions with the
tools they need for negotiating for critical policies
like paid family leave, flexible hours and child
care. It also helps unions advocate in state and
national arenas for good public policies that
benefit all working families, as the union movement
did with paid family leave in California.”
John Sweeney, President, AFL-CIO
This comprehensive new manual for union leaders,
activists, negotiating teams and organizers provides
all the information needed to successfully move
forward a work and family agenda.
The Manual includes information on:
• Getting started by
forming a committee, creating a fund, and adopting
the work and family bill of rights
•
Negotiating family-friendly contract language
on child care, family leave, flexible hours, elder
care and more
• Understanding current
state family leave laws
• Creating
a work and family member survey
An invaluable resource tool for every union to
address work and family issues!
Available for only $10 (free shipping). Call or
email for bulk prices (510) 643-7088; lpwf@berkeley.edu
Pre-order your copy now by sending a check to:
LPWF, 2521 Channing Way #5555, Berkeley, CA 94720
Or order online at www.laborproject.org
Labor Family News is published quarterly by:
Labor Project for Working Families
2521 Channing Way #5555
Berkeley, CA 94720
Ph: 510-643-7088
Fax: 510-642-6432
lpwf@berkeley.edu
www.working-families.org
Netsy Firestein
Editor
Jenya Cassidy
Managing Editor
Reprints Permitted With Acknowledgement. Call
us for an email version.
