UFT Reaches an Agreement with the Help of Mayor Blasio; Accounting Error Caught by Comptroller
On May 1, Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) President Michael Mulgrew announced the two sides reached a nine-year tentative agreement.
The agreement would be retroactive to Nov. 1, 2009 and run through Oct. 31, 2018. The deal includes retroactive pay increases as well as future increases. The total package amounts to an 18 percent increase in raises plus a $1,000 bonus.
The agreement would also simplify the teacher evaluation process by reducing the current 22 point criteria to just eight. Other highlights of the agreement include a 40 minute period each week for teachers to reach out to parents and new leadership positions such as “Model Teachers” and “Master Teachers” which will be compensated an additional $7,500 and $20,000 on top of salary per year, respectively.
On May 5, 2014, the proposal was approved by the UFT’s 89-member Board. A few days later, however, several sources reported the city comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, believed there were basic accounting problems with the deal.
Mr. Stringer’s team claimed by spreading out the back wages over several years rather than accounting for them up front during the first year of the deal was in violation of standard accounting principles.
While De Blasio’s administration maintained the original agreement was fiscally sound, they announced the agreement would be altered to reflect the $725 back wages in the current year’s budget and not over the next three years as initially agreed.
Chrysler CEO Eager to Negotiate with UAW One Year Early and End the Two-Tier Wage System
CEO of Chrysler Group and Fiat SPA chairman, Sergio Marchionne, said he wants to open negotiations with the United Auto Workers (UAW) one year early to begin talks about eliminating the two-tier wage structure.
Marchionne called the two-tier system his “biggest problem” during a panel session at the Brookings Institution on May 21. When asked to clarify if he believed the two-tier system was not sustainable, he said, “I don’t have two classes of citizens inside our shops. These are people that do the same things. One guy gets paid X, and the other guy gets paid fifty percent of X. It doesn’t work.”
The two-tier structure was developed in 2007 after Cerberus Capital Management LP acquired Chrysler from DaimlerChrysler AG. In 2009, Fiat acquired Chrysler during the company’s bankruptcy.
Like Marchionne, neither Chrysler employees nor their union favor the two-tiered structure. The UAW’s current President, Bob King has also said he wants to get rid of the two-tier structure where entry-level hires are paid about half the rate of experienced workers.
According to Reuters, Norwood Jewell, a UAW Vice President, said the key to eliminating the two-tier structure will be the UAW successfully organizing non-union plants in the U.S. South. Thus far, however, UAW has been unsuccessful in organizing one of its main southern targets: the Volkswagen AG’s assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The UAW will hold its quadrennial constitutional convention June 2-5. Delegates will vote for a new union president to replace current President Bob King.
The current agreements expire in September 2015. If negotiations begin next month as indicated by Marchionne, it would break the tradition of waiting until two months before the expiration date to start negotiations.
Study Shows OSHA Press Releases Successfully Improve Compliance
A Boston University study has preliminary data showing a positive correlation between enforcement press releases issued by OSHA and the number of violations found during subsequent inspections of similar businesses in the same area code.
The principle researcher, Matthew S. Johnson is an economics doctoral candidate at Boston University.
In his first study on the topic published in October 2013, Johnson found when an OSHA enforcement press release about an establishment is published, there is about a 50 percent decrease in total financial penalties and a 41 percent decrease in the number of violations found at subsequent inspections of peer group businesses. The press releases provide information about the violation and related financial penalty.
Peer groups were defined as all establishments sharing the same zip code and two digit industry code. The effects were measured against the control which was what occurred at subsequent inspections of peer group businesses when no press release was issued after an enforcement event.
In the study, Johnson explains 2009 was used as the start year because that is when OSHA implemented a policy to issue a press release whenever an inspection’s penalties exceed a particular threshold. The threshold is $40,000 for most of the country and $45,000 for certain regions. Prior to 2009, the various regions used different cutoffs which could range by more than $60,000.
According to Bloomberg BNA, OSHA’s press release policy has been criticized by employer attorneys as business groups because it unfairly “shames” companies before the employer can contest the violations.
Little Change in NLRB Election Data from 2012 to 2013
According to a preliminary report from Bloomberg BNA’s Research and Customs Solutions division, little changed from 2012 to 2013 regarding NLRB election trends.
The number of elections decreased slightly from 1,385 in 2013 to 1,377 in 2012. The union win rate, however, increased from 63.3 percent (877 wins) to 64.1 percent (882 wins). The total number of workers organized through NLRB election increased by 39,056 from 50,082 in 2012 to 89,138 in 2013.
AFL-CIO affiliates won 62.8 of their representation elections while unions in the Change to Win federation won 58.2 percent of their elections.
IBT participated in the most elections (351) in 2013. The teamster’s win rate was 56.7 percent which is slightly down from 2012’s 59.1 percent.
As in 2012, the SEIU organized by far the most workers with 53,472. IBT was next with 4,179 followed by the IAM with 3,560.
Bloomberg reported the 2013 decertification rate held steady falling less than one percentage point from 38.2 percent in 2012 to 37.8 percent in 2013.
IAM Employees End Strike; Ratify Agreement with L-3 Communications Army Fleet Support
Communication Army Fleet Support (AFS) workers represented by the International Association of Machinists (IAM) voted to ratified a five-year agreement on May 4, 2014.
Ninety-two percent of the votes were in favor of the agreement ending the week-long strike. The agreement was developed with the help of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service after the IAM members voted to strike on April 27. By the end of the week during which nearly 3,000 were on strike, an agreement was reached.
The agreement includes two percent wage increases each year and increases in employer pension contributions.
During negotiations, overtime was a key issue. The final agreement will allow employees to decline optional overtime without penalty when the assigned overtime falls outside of their scheduled overtime.
"This new agreement enables the AFS and IAM team to continue providing our world-class aviation logistical support for the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force institutional training on Fort Rucker,” AFS Vice President and General Manager Lowell Green said in a press release.
Over 4,000 New York City Airport Workers Sign SEIU Commitment Cards
On May 14, 2014 the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) announced over 4,000 workers signed cards supporting the union’s organizing drive aimed at cleaning, security and other workers at New York City-area airports.
The cards are not legally binding in any way, but according to the union, they serve as a demonstration of support to “herald their demands for better pay and benefits, dignity, respect and a voice in the work place.”
In January, the Port Authority’s executive director wrote a letter to four airlines – American, Delta, JetBlue and United, insisting, among other items, the airlines give $1 per hour raises to workers who make less than $9 per hour. In April, the Port Authority’s Board of Commissioners adopted the directives into a written policy statement.
While about 2,300 airport workers are already unionized, Local 32BJ of the SEIU is attempting to organize some 6,393 of the unrepresented workers. Another 1,000 employees, largely security officers, already belong to Local 32BJ and work for Port Authority contractors.
The local’s president, Hector Figueroa, said while “it certainly hasn’t been easy, a little over two years ago, a group of airport workers decided to take a stand for justice, dignity, for respect and for fair wages and benefits. Airport workers are now ready to say to the world that a majority of them of them want to be a part of 32BJ SEIU.