SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
August 31, 2022
Sullivan’s Salvos 9/6/22
In this edition:
*Labor Day
*Great Labor Quote!
*Labor Day Picnic
*Labor Info
*RIP Elsie Vega
*Follow Up from Last Week
*Did You Know?
*Labor Day
Happy Labor Day Monday, September 5! I love Labor Day. Every Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day we set aside time to recall the folks whose service has given us our freedom. I have long felt we need to treat Labor Day in a similar fashion.
Please take a moment this Labor Day to remember the people who fought (and often died) to give us child labor laws, 40-hour weeks, weekends, overtime, vacations, the minimum wage, sick leave, parental leave, OSHA, employment nondiscrimination, pensions, Social Security, health insurance, and so much more.
Do not be fooled! Benevolent corporations did not GIVE these benefits to workers! They were earned by workers who sacrificed! It is a shame that so many average Janes and Joes have chosen to support our corporate masters versus supporting those whose efforts really benefit the masses.
Trust me – the average person has nothing to fear from unions. We all benefit when folks have safe and healthy workplaces. We all benefit when workers get adequate rest. We all benefit when workers receive good training. We all benefit when folks earn a living wage and have health insurance. Unions help improve the quality of life for all of us.
I feel as though I have accomplished some good labor-related things as a member of the Board of Supervisors. In response to the gutting of Prop 20, I led the charge to extend our collective bargaining agreements through June of 2021. Johnson County was the first county, city, or school district in Iowa to do so. We built our projects using Project Labor Agreements until the GOP prevented us from doing so. I have maintained very good relationships with our six (now 5) bargaining units, three (now two) PPME and three AFSCME. Finally, I have treated County employees with the respect they deserve.
I am proud to be a member of Local 716 of the American Federation of Teachers, an affiliate of the Iowa City Federation of Labor, and a Delegate to the Iowa City Federation of Labor. Happy Labor Day!
*Great Labor Quote!
The singer/songwriter Steve Earle said it best: “If you have a boss, you need a union!” Amen, brother!
*Labor Day Picnic
The Iowa City Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, is holding our annual Labor Day Picnic from noon-4pm on Monday, September 5 at Lower City Park in Iowa City. All friends of Labor are welcome. Please bring a dish to share.
*Labor Info
From the Economic Policy Institute, Report By Heidi Scheirholz, Margaret Poydock, Celine McNicholas, Lynne Rhinehart, and Daniel Perez, August 25, 2020.
Who are today’s union workers? While historically union members had been predominately white men, today’s union workers are a diverse group.
More than one in nine workers (16.4 million) are covered by a union contract (Shierholz 2020).
Almost two-thirds (65.2%) of workers covered by a union contract are women and/or people of color. Almost half (46.2%) are women. More than a third (36.1%) are Black, Hispanic, Asian American/Pacific Islander, or other people of color.
Black workers are the major racial/ethnic group most likely to be represented by unions: 13.5% of Black workers are covered by a contract, compared with 12.2% of white workers, 10.2% of Hispanic workers, and 10.5% of AAPI workers.
More than half (54.7%) of workers covered by a union contract have an associate degree or more education. More than two out of five (43.1%) have a bachelor’s degree or more education.
Union workers hail from a variety of sectors, but the biggest numbers are found in the public sector (7.9 million) and in private-sector industries like education and health services (2.1 million), manufacturing (1.4 million), transportation and utilities (1.2 million), construction (1.1 million), and wholesale and retail trade (917,000).
Since industries vary in size, industries with the highest numbers of union workers aren’t always the industries with the highest union coverage rate. The highest shares of workers covered by a union contract (the “union coverage rate”) are public-sector workers (37.8%) and private-sector workers in the transportation and utilities (19.4%), construction (14.1%), information (10.4%), manufacturing (9.8%), and educational and health services (9.4%) industries.
Unions raise wages for both union and nonunion workers! On average, a worker covered by a union contract earns 11.2% more in wages than a peer with similar education, occupation, and experience in a nonunionized workplace in the same industry; this wage advantage is known as the “union wage premium.”
And unions don’t just help union workers—they help all of us. When union density is high, nonunion workers benefit, because unions effectively set broader standards—including higher wages, as noted by Rosenfeld, Denice, and Laird (2016)—that nonunion employers must meet in order to attract and retain the workers they need (and to avoid facing a union organizing drive themselves).
The combination of the direct effect of unions on union members and this “spillover” effect to nonunion workers means unions are crucial in raising wages for working people and reducing income inequality. Research shows that deunionization accounts for a sizable share of the growth in inequality between typical (median) workers and workers at the high end of the wage distribution in recent decades—on the order of 13–20% for women and 33–37% for men.
Unions help raise wages for women and lessen racial wage gaps. Unions help raise women’s pay. Hourly wages for women represented by a union are 5.8% higher on average than for nonunionized women with comparable characteristics. Rigorous research shows that unions reduce gender wage gaps within given employers: For example, Biasi and Sarsons (2020) show that the expiration of teacher collective bargaining agreements led to a gender gap in wages between male and female teachers with similar credentials.
Unions also help close wage gaps for Black and Hispanic workers. Since collective bargaining lifts wages of Black and Hispanic workers closer to those of their white counterparts, Black and Hispanic workers get a larger boost from unionization. White workers represented by union are paid “just” 8.7% more than their nonunionized peers who are white, but Black workers represented by union are paid 13.7% more than their nonunionized peers who are Black, and Hispanic workers represented by unions are paid 20.1% more than their nonunionized peers who are Hispanic.
Unions provide workers with better benefits, including paid leave and health care. Union workers are more likely to be covered by employer-provided health insurance. More than nine in 10 workers covered by a union contract (94%) have access to employer-sponsored health benefits, compared with just 68% of nonunion workers. Further, union employers contribute more to their employee’s health care benefits. Union employers pay 86% of workers’ health care premiums while nonunion employers pay 79% of their workers’ health care premiums (BLS-EB 2019a).
Union workers also have greater access to paid sick days. Nine in 10 workers covered by a union contract (91%) have access to paid sick days, compared with 73% of nonunion workers. Almost all union workers in state and local government (97%) have paid sick days, compared with 86% of their nonunion peers. In the private sector, 86% of union workers have paid sick days compared with 72% of their nonunion peers (BLS-EB 2019b).
*RIP Elsie Vega
I was sorry to hear of the passing of Elsie Vega of Iowa City. Take a look at the following obituary for a glimpse into an amazing life!
https://www.lensingfuneral.com/obituaries/Elsie-Jean-Gauley-Vega?obId=25717779#/obituaryInfo
*Follow Up from Last Week
Some of you may recall that last week I complained that the domain rodsullivan.org linked directly to Phil Hemingway’s Facebook page. I spoke to Phil, and he assured me that he A) never bought the domain, and B) never created or authorized the link.
I take Phil at his word. I just wish whoever did this would undo it. Both Phil and I would appreciate it!
*DID YOU KNOW? In the wake of the massive unrest from the Haymarket Square Incident and other labor protests, Congress passed an act making Labor Day a legal holiday. On June 28, 1894, President Cleveland signed it into law.
Anyone interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the County website-
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---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 9:19 PM
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