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

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

State legislators prepare slew of anti-worker bills

Legislative session also presents opportunity for progress on

living wage for University workers

    The Tennessee Legislature begins its real work today, February 7th. Usually they wrap up their legislative session by mid-May. That means that the winter and spring are key times for you to advocate for workers' rights.

    University workers in Memphis and across the state have endured pay freezes for the past three years. As workloads have mounted and health insurance costs skyrocketed, low-wage workers have struggled to pay their bills.

   The budget passed by legislators could determine whether University workers move a significant step closer to a living wage. But the only way the state budget will include raises for low-wage University workers is if legislators hear from people like you.

  Your action will also be urgently needed to stop a number of anti-worker bills that have been introduced or are planned (legislators have just two weeks from today to introduce all bills for the session.)

   In the last legislative session (2009), a bill was narrowly defeated that would have repealed the local living wage ordinances you worked so hard to establish in Memphis and Shelby County. It is very likely this bill be introduced again this year.

   A number of proposed bills this year attack the rights of public employees, especially teachers, to have a union. One bill takes away teachers' unions ability to negotiate the terms of teachers' employment with boards of education. WIN members like you know that when workers have a voice in workplace decisions through their union, it creates a more stable, productive workplace.

   Worker rights and immigrant rights' advocates are also very concerned about promises by state Sen. Bill Ketron to introduce a state immigration bill similar to Arizon's controversial SB 1070. Such a law would allow local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law. It would likely lead to racial profiling of Latinos and anyone who police decide seems foreign-born. It could also give employers an incentive to call the police on workers who complain about wage theft or other abuses.

Take Action

1) If you don't get WIN's email action alerts already, sign up now. Once the legislature starts to move, bills can progress very quickly. I'll send you alerts when your urgent action is needed.

2) Tomorrow I'll be posting about how you can participate in the Lobby Day for Living Wages and Good Jobs on March 15th in Nashville.

Mississippi Senate passes Arizona-style anti-immigrant bill

"When a foreigner resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the foreigner. The foreigner who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the foreigner as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God." - Leviticus 19:33-34

   Yesterday the Mississippi Senate passed an anti-immigrant bill similar to Arizona SB 1070. The bill would authorize local law enforcement officers to check a person's immigration status if "reasonable suspicion" exists that the person may be in the country illegally during any "lawful stop, detention or arrest," according to the Jackson Clarion Ledger.

   It's not clear yet whether the Mississippi House, which defeated a similar bill last year, will pass the legislation.

   The passage of this bill breaks my heart and angers me at the same time. Hebrew and Christian scriptures instruct us over and over again to love immigrants as ourselves, and to treat them as we would our fellow citizens. Both Moses and Jesus lived for a time as refugees in a strange land. Yet whenever anti-immigrant measures are pushed forward, some of their loudest proponents are people who say their Christian faith is more important to them than anything.

   This bill also disturbs me because it's just one more example of a distraction from the real solution to our country's immigration crisis: comprehensive immigration reform that allows hard-working people who have already built lives in the United States to earn a path to becoming citizens.
  
   Law enforcement should be worried about this bill. Trust between immigrant communities and the police is already very low. If Mississippi follows Arizona's path, we can be certain that many immigrants will be afraid to report crimes that happen to them, which only makes those crimes more likely to happen.

   The Mississippi bill specifically instructs law enforcement that race or national origin can be used as suspicion that someone is undocumented. That may be better than not mentioning racial profiling at all, but how do we imagine officers are going to decide who seems suspicious and who does not? Racial profiling would likely still happen, and then police and sheriff's departments will be facing discrimination lawsuits.

   If you think this sounds like an exaggeration, take a look at this lawsuit filed in Nashville when the city almost had a U.S. citizen deported. He was suspected of being undocumented because he spoke poor English. And by the way, the Mississippi bill passed yesterday says officers can use poor English as grounds for checking someone's immigration status.

   When will people of faith began to take seriously the commandment to love our immigrant neighbors as ourselves? When will we speak up with our brothers and sisters who daily face the fear that they will be torn from their loved ones and deported just because of a traffic violation? When will we turn to the real work of developing immigration reform, instead of playing to people's worst fears and prejudices?

   How long, O Lord, how long?

Anti-immigrant measures promote wage theft

     Even though Arizona's controversial SB 1070 isn't scheduled to take effect until tomorrow, worker rights advocates in Arizona are already reporting a marked spike in wage theft reported by immigrant workers. As my co-workers from our national organization report on the In These Times blog, employers are telling undocumented workers in Phoenix "go ahead and try to make me pay you."
  
    Let's be clear: most workers who experience some form of wage theft are not undocumented: they're citizens or immigrants who have legal papers to work. But anti-immigrant measures like Arizona's SB 1070, and many that were considered in the Tennessee legislature this year, help create an environment where wage theft is more likely to happen to undocumented workers.
    
    That's because when workers know they can be arrested and eventually deported by local police, they're not likely to trust any government agency enough to report wage theft. Unscrupulous employers can embrace a pattern of wage theft, followed by firing employers who complain, knowing that few workers will want to speak up if deportation is the consequence. And if you're a dishonest employer, why wouldn't you hire even more workers and pay them below minimum wage if you knew there weren't going to be consequences? SB 1070 is already driving undocumented workers further underground where they can be taken advantage of even more than before.
    
    On the flip side, strong enforcement of wage and safety laws lessens the incentive that dishonest employers have to hire undocumented workers. And, it gets to the root of the problem: exploitation by some employers who want to operate in sweatshop conditions.
    
    Even though this year has had many bleak moments for those who believe in justice for all workers, there are some hopeful signs and potential new strategies out there. The Progressive States Network reports that in several states, worker rights advocates have been able to change the direction of anti-immigrant bills. They did it by adding amendments to them that strengthened workers' rights.

• In Connecticut, a bill that made it a state crime to hire undocumented immigrants was changed to a bill that went after all employers who don't pay workers' compensation. This is a win for all workers who are risking their lives on the job without the safety net of workers' compensation. 
• A Kansas anti-immigrant bill died after amendments were added to it that would severely punish employers who break wage laws.

       What other ways do you think we strengthen workers' rights while pressing for real immigration reform?

Why We Are Called to Stand Against Arizona's SB 1070

I've heard from a couple of Workers Interfaith Network members who are wondering why WIN is holding a prayer vigil next week to stand up for immigration reform, and against Arizona's SB 1070. Before I tell you why, I invite you to sign up for the Isaiah 58 vigil, which will be held next Tuesday, July 6th at 6:30 p.m. at Gaisman Park. Whether you are someone who is at risk of being racially profiled under bills like SB 1070, or you are someone like me who is relatively safe from the effects of it, it's important that we speak with one voice for justice.

So, why is WIN holding this vigil?

First, our faiths call us to speak, pray, and act for justice for immigrants in the same way that we speak, pray, and act for justice with people who were born in this country. As a Christian, my faith story is one in which leaders including Abraham, Moses, and Jesus lived the life of an immigrant. Matthew 25:31-46 makes the bold claim that whatever we do to the least among us, including refusing hospitality to immigrants, we have not done to Christ. In the Hebrew scriptures, God reminds us again and again that we are to love the immigrant as ourselves, because were were once strangers in the land of Egypt. (Exodus 23: 9, Leviticus 19:33-34). In God's eyes, there is no room for dividing ourselves into camps of native-born and camps of immigrants. We are all strangers on this earth, dependent on God's grace and care.

Second, Arizona's SB 1070 is a distraction from the needed solution to our immigration problems, which are very real. What is really needed is comprehensive immigration reform. If you are not an immigrant yourself, you may not realize that if you are an "unskilled" worker, it is next to impossible to immigrate legally to the United States unless you have close relatives who are citizens or green card holders. To say our immigration system is broken is a gross understatement. Enforcement actions like expanding local police powers on immigration, or focusing only on border security, will not work. As long as there is severe unemployment and poverty wages in other countries, people will continue to immigrate to the United States looking for work. It is in all of our best interests if more workers have a way to immigrate legally, instead of living in the shadows because they are undocumented.

Third, SB 1070 will almost certainly lead to some racial profiling of Latinos and other people of color. The law requires police to interrogate people about their immigration status during any lawful stop (such as a traffic stop), and allows the police to arrest someone without a warrant if they believe they are removable from the United States. So, if you have an accent, are Latino, or have dark skin, and you cannot persuade an officer that you are a legal resident of the United States, you could be headed to jail. For more information about the specifics of SB 1070 and why they matter, the Immigration Policy Center has done an excellent analysis of the law.

Fourth, SB 1070 will not make Arizonans safer. Law enforcement will have to spend more of their time investigating whether ordinary people who are just trying to work and make a life are undocumented, rather than investigating serious criminals. Crime being committed by drug cartels in states like Arizona won't be stopped by arresting and deporting hardworking construction workers, farmworkers, and janitors.

Finally, there are signs that legislation very similar to SB 1070 will likely show up in the Tennessee legislature in the 2011 session. Before they adjourned, the legislature passed a resolution praising Arizona for its actions. Legislators in 22 states have either introduced, or are considering introducing, copycat bills of SB 1070.

If Tennessee passes a similar bill, immigrants, both those who are documented and undocumented, will live in fear. Volunteers for churches and social service agencies that provide ministries of mercy to undocumented immigrants could face charges for simple things like providing someone a ride to church. State and local law enforcement will face an unfunded mandate to try to determine everyone's immigration status, while taking their attention away from serious and dangerous crimes. Tennessee will develop a reputation as an unwelcoming place that does not want diversity in our state.

Please stand with us next week on July 6th as we pray for justice. It will be an interfaith vigil, and we encourage people of all faith backgrounds to attend. If you can't be there, hold a personal vigil at your home or congregation next week. With either action, please be sure to sign up with WIN so that your name is added to a petition to Governor Bredesen, urging him to reject legislation like SB 1070 here in Tennessee.