May Newsletter

May 2013 Meets Every 4th Wednesday - Next Council Meeting May 22, 2013 Ceole Speight House of Labor - Harris County AFL-CIO Council 7:00 P.M. Our Web Sites: www.hcaflcio.org http://tx.aflcio.org/harriscounty/ 2013 LABOR DAY Weekend BBQ COOK-OFF Save the Date! Friday, August 30th – BBQ Team Move-In Public Events & Union Activities & BBQ Cook-Off Contest Saturday, August 31st (No Sunday Activities) Campbell Hall Exhibits, Pasadena Convention Center – 7902 Fairmont Pkwy Pasadena, Texas 77507 NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD – NLRB – IN JEOPARDY We hear again and again that elections matter. For Union members who have contracts with their employers, the National Labor Relations Board is the arbitrator in all union-employer contract/organizing matters. The President of the United States appoints the Board with the confirmation of the U.S. Senate. President Obama has made his nominations for the Board – a full 5 Member Board – 3 Democrats & 2 Republicans. If these nominations are not approved by the Senate by the end of August, the Board will have no quorum and it will not be able to issue decisions or take other actions to enforce workers’ rights. Yes, we will still have the National Labor Relations Act (1935) that establishes workers’ rights to form and join Unions, bargain contracts and appeal Unfair Labor Practices (ULP’s) of employers, but it will have no teeth and no enforcement mechanism in place. Union Members, just imagine for a moment what your employers can do to you without any enforcement of your rights to bargain collectively. If you are not in a Union, just imagine for a moment what your non-union employer will do to you with any restraints whatsoever. Recently, we just saw two previews of what can happen: the House just passed a bill substituting time-off for overtime pay and a court just ruled that the workplace poster does not have to have information on it regarding your rights to form or join a Union. The Wal-Marts of the world are in a ‘non-union ecstasy’ right now. Imagine what will happen when the NLRB is gone. You can do something about it. Call Texas Senators John Cornyn at 202-224-2934 and Ted Cruz at 202-224-5922 and ask them to confirm these five nominees now. AFL-CIO WANTS TO HEAR FROM YOU AFL-CIO PRE-CONVENTION LISTENING SESSIONS The AFL-CIO will be holding Convention in Los Angeles, California, September 8-11. This convention will be different, however. The difference being the present state of our Union movement for members and all workers and how are we going respond? The Convention theme, Building a Movement for Shared Prosperity says it all. There is no shared prosperity for workers. The inequities that exist in workers’ rights and income now compare to 100 years ago – 1913. This ‘back to the future’state in which we now find ourselves begs the question: What does the future hold for America’s workers with 94% of them not even in a Union? Answers to this question will have to reshape our Labor movement. What is the future going to be for working people? How can we build a real movement for broadly shared prosperity? What should unions look like tomorrow? What we are doing now is not working. What should we be doing? Let’s talk now! Go to www.aflcio2013.org to join in these discussions. AFL-CIO COUNCIL ENDORSEMENTS – WINNERS & LOSERS The Harris County AFL-CIO Council’s endorsements in the Lone Star College System Board of Trustees, its $497,720,000 Bond election and in the City of Pasadena Elections resulted in both winners and losers. In the Lone Star College System, the AFL-CIO endorsed candidate, Ron Trowbridge, won his election in Position 8. Elizabeth “Liz” Jensen, Position 1, and Janie Branham, Position 2, both lost their bids for a seat on the System’s Board of Trustees. The $497,720,000 Bond Proposition that was endorsed by the AFL-CIO Council narrowly lost also. In the City of Pasadena Municipal Elections, all AFL-CIO Council endorsements won with the exception of one candidate, Bruce Leamon, who will be in a run-off. The winners were: Mayor: Johnny Isbell - Winner City Council: District A: Ornaldo Ybarra – Winner, District B: Bruce Leamon – Run-Off District C: Don Harrison – Winner, District D: Patricia "Pat" Van Houte - Winner District E: Cody Ray Wheeler – Winner, District F: Phil Cayten - Winner The A. Philip Randolph Institute – APRI – Houston Meetings: 7:00 p.m., CWA, Local 6222, 2nd Wednesday (February, April, June, August, October) The Coalition of Labor Union Women – CLUW – 3rd Saturday, 1:00 p.m., APWU, Local 185, 102 W. Tidwell, 77022 The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists - CBTU – 3rd Monday, 6:00 p.m. – CWA, Local 6222 Labor Council For Latin American Advancement – LCLAA – 2nd Monday, – 6:00 p.m., AFL-CIO Council Young Trade Unionist - YTU Committee – 4th Wednesday, 5:30 p.m. (January – October), AFL-CIO Council - opeiu 129