Gutting the union Dr. King died to establish

    With the City of Memphis facing a large budget deficit, City Council members are considering all kinds of proposals to generate more revenue or cut expenses.
    One proposal that is sending chills down the backs of workers rights and civil rights activists comes from Councilman Kemp Conrad. In recent budget hearings, he has repeatedly brought up the idea of privatizing the City's entire sanitation department.

    These are the same workers who spent three months on strike in 1968 to win the right to a union - the workers who Dr. King died supporting.
    It isn't even clear if privatization would save the City money, since contractors would need to make a profit. What is clear is that long-time sanitation workers would be jobless. The companies that replace them will likely oppose workers having a union, pay low wages, and offer workers few benefits.
    Please join the hard-working people who keep our City running in rallying to stop privatization and severe job cuts:

Rally with City workers to stop privatization and cuts

Tuesday, June 7th

2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
CORRECTION: Rally starts at 3:00 p.m.

in front of City Hall, 125 N. Main St.

Want to take action with workers seeking justice? Sign up for email action alerts from Workers Interfaith Network at http://www.workersinterfaithnetwork.org/index/involved/subscribe.htm

Tennessee Legislative Wrap-Up: One for the Record Books

     The Tennessee General Assembly adjourned on Saturday, after months of attacking workers rights from many angles. The glimmers of hope: our local living wage laws withstood attempts to repeal them, and state workers got their first raise in four years. But the bad news is pretty awful: teachers' rights to collective bargaining were largely shredded; local governments can't prohibit discrimination; and all employers will have to use an incredibly flawed e-verify system to check job applicants eligibility to work.




Rev. Mary Edwards was one of dozens of WIN members who raised her voice for workers at the state legislature this year.


Here are the details on some of the most important bills affecting workers:

Teachers' Collective Bargaining
    Originally, anti-teacher forces tried to take away teachers' collective bargaining rights entirely. At the last minute, a compromise was arrived at that greatly reduces the role that teachers' unions can have in influencing teachers' working conditions.
    School districts are no longer required to engage in collective bargaining in districts where teachers have voted for union representation. Instead, teachers will elect committees of people to represent them. Union representatives can run for positions on these committees, but others will be included as well. The end result of negotiations will be memoranda of understanding, which cannot be legally enforced in the same way that a union contract can. And, while negotiations can include pay, insurance, and benefits, the committees will have no say over job assignments, bonuses, and other issues that are supposed to be related to student achievement.


Immigration
    Fortunately, consideration of an Arizona copypcat bill was delayed until 2012 because of the giant price tag to implementing the bill. So for now, local law enforcement isn't charged with enforcing federal immigration law.
   However, another misguided attempt by the state to take on immigration did pass: requiring employers to use the federal e-verify system to check job applicants' eligibility to work. While this may sound harmless, the Social Security's e-verify system is riddled with errors. It's also possible that the broader use of e-verify could lead to more wage theft. WIN has already seen employers who hire workers and wait to use the e-verify system until after they've done days or weeks of work. Federal law requires employers to pay these workers for the labor they've already done, even if they don't have proper work authorization. But plenty of employers will refuse to pay workers, using e-verify as an excuse.
    Tennessee employers will have to begin using the e-verify system in 2012.

Pay raises for University workers
    The budget passed by the legislature includes a 1.6% for all state workers, including University of Memphis employees. This is a step forward since the vast majority of workers haven't had any raise in four years.
    But if this very modest amount is distributed as a percentage amount, low-wage workers like U. of M. custodians could see only a $10 raise per pay period. As a WIN member, you've been pushing the University administration to distribute the raise as an equal dollar cost of living increase to all employees, so that it makes a real difference to workers who aren't paid a living wage. The University has not yet announced how the raise will be distributed, so we are still hopeful they will listen to the community outcry on this issue.

Criminalizing labor unions
    House and Senate committees passed a terrible bill that would allowed injunctions to be issued again unions for any violence committed by their members, even if the union did not condone the violence. The bill includes “intimidation” as “unlawful violence.”  An employee or employer could claim that asking someone to sign a petition in support of collective bargaining or even a political candidate constitutes “intimidation.” The bill only addressed violence by unions, and deliberately did not address possible violence by company officials against workers.
    Fortunately, this misguided bill was not passed on the House and Senate floor, and instead was sent back to committee for next year.

Repeal of Memphis and Shelby County living wage ordinances
    This bill, which would have invalidated large parts of the living wage ordinances you worked so hard to get passed, has been sent to summer study committee. Bills are often sent to summer study when there is not enough support to pass them. WIN will be monitoring the study committee, but it may be that the bill is not even brought up for discussion over the summer.


Special access to discriminate act
    All people have the right to work, regardless of their sexual orientation. But this bill takes away local governments abilities to stop discrimination among contractors who are funded by taxpayer dollars.

    The special access to discriminate act prohibits local governments in Tennessee from telling their contractors not to discriminate against workers because of their sexual orientation. It revokes an ordinance just passed by Nashville Metro Government which bars discrimination by the city's contractors.
   The bill passed both the House and Senate and has been signed into law by Governor Haslam, but a court challenge by opponents of the bill is expected.

Want to take action with workers seeking justice? Sign up for email action alerts from Workers Interfaith Network at http://www.workersinterfaithnetwork.org/index/involved/subscribe.htm

Workshop on Christian faith and immigration June 4th

Are you confused about how our current immigration system works?
Have you wondered why more immigrants don't just "follow the rules" and immigrate legally?
Do you want to explore what Old and New Testament scriptures teach about immigration?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you're invited to "Who is My Neighbor? a Workshop on Christian Faith and Immigration" on Saturday, June 4th from 9 a.m. to noon. The workshop will be held at Mid-South Christian College, 3097 Knight Road. It is sponsored by Christian Memphians for Immigration Reform and Workers Interfaith Network.

At the workshop you'll have the chance to explore the scriptures with other thoughtful Christians, learn more about the immigration process, and discuss possible responses to the challenges of immigration in our country and community.

For more information, contact Lisa Watson (3WatsonsATgmail.com) or Rev. Rebekah Gienapp (rebekahATworkersinterfaithnetwork.org) 

Want to take action with workers seeking justice? Sign up for email action alerts from Workers Interfaith Network at http://www.workersinterfaithnetwork.org/index/involved/subscribe.htm

State Legislative Update: Your Action Still Needed

     Here's your update on worker rights bills in the Tennessee Legislature. Workers still need you to sign a quick petition or make a short phone call on some of these bills.

     While this has been a very tough legislative session, you've shown that when Tennesseans act together, we can stall, and sometimes defeat, bad bills that attack workers' rights.

Taking away teachers' collective bargaining
     This bill takes away the right that Tennessee teachers have had for other 30 years to sit down with school boards to negotiate their wages and working conditions. Educational reform does not have to include taking away teachers' rights.     
Latest update: This bill has passed the Senate and was expected to pass the House yesterday. But a surprise amendment meant the bill has to go back to the Education committee again. This could mean that the votes are not present to pass the bill.                                                                                        
Action needed from you: Sign WIN's petition on change.org which will go to all legislators urging them to oppose this bill.

On March 15th, more than 1,000 Tennesseans raised our voices for workers' rights at the capitol. Your voice is needed again!

Fair raises for state higher education workers
This bill proposes a $2,000 flat dollar pay increase for all state higher education workers, who haven't had a raise in four years.
Latest update: While this bill is unlikely to be acted on, Gov. Haslam has proposed a 1.6% pay increase for state workers. It's important that this cost of living increase be distributed in a fair manner that benefits low wage workers the most. We are urging University of Memphis President Shirley Raines to distribute the raise as an equal dollar amount because this will help low-wage workers' paychecks the most.
Action needed from you: Call President Raines' office at 901-678-2234. Tell her that you are a community member who wants to see all University of Memphis workers earn a living wage. Ask her to take the first step toward the living wage by implementing an equal dollar cost of living increase for all employees.



Repeal of Memphis and Shelby County living wage ordinances
Good news! This bill, which would have invalidated large parts of the living wage ordinances you worked so hard to get passed, has been sent to summer study committee.
Latest update: Bills are often sent to summer study when there is not enough support to pass them. WIN will be monitoring the study committee, but it may be that the bill is not even brought up for discussion over the summer.
Action needed from you: Give yourself a round of applause for stopping this misguided bill that would have lowered workers' wages!

Anti-immigrant Arizona copycat bill
This bill requires that when police have "reasonable suspicion" that a person does not have legal immigration status, that law enforcement verify the person's immigration status. It will undoubtedly lead to racial profiling, and the fiscal note on the bill estimates state and local governments will have to spent nearly $5 million the first year alone to implement the bill.
Latest update: In the House, the bill has been delayed a couple of times in the Finance subcommittee. In the Senate, the Judiciary committee will not consider the bill until their last meeting of the session (probably 2 - 3 weeks from now.) This could be a sign that support for the bill is weakening.
Action needed from you: Our friends at the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition have a petition you can sign in opposition to this bill and other anti-immigrant bills.

Special access to discriminate act
This bill prohibits local governments in Tennessee from telling their contractors not to discriminate against workers because of their sexual orientation. If passed, it will overturn an ordinance just passed a few weeks ago in Nashville which bars discrimination by contractors of Metro Government. All people have the right to work, regardless of their sexual orientation.
Latest update: This bill has passed the House. The Senate State and Local Government was supposed to hear the bill this week, but has delayed it one week.
Action needed from you: Call Sen. Mark Norris, who sits on the State and Local Government committee at (615) 741-1967. Urge him to vote no on SB 632 because it takes away control that local governments should have over their own contracting process.



Want to take action with workers seeking justice? Sign up for email action alerts from Workers Interfaith Network at http://www.workersinterfaithnetwork.org/index/involved/subscribe.htm