Workers rights: It’s a start

When the midterm vote was certified this month – the Illinois State Board of Elections said the Workers’ Rights Amendment received 2,212,999 yes votes out of 3,768,929 votes on the measure for a 58.72% approval of the total vote – emotions oddly bounced between two old pop songs: the Beatles’ “Long and Winding Road” and Chicago’s “Beginnings” (AKA “Only the Beginning”).

The sometimes difficult and treacherous path led to victory, but other obstacles may arise.

Hopefully, Illinoisans won’t be discouraged by new challenges.

After all, at least it’s a start.

The constitutional amendment voters approved was accepted by the state, but its wealthy and powerful opponents haven’t conceded its effects.

The 119-word amendment guarantees the right of employees to bargain over “wages, hours, and working conditions, and to protect their economic welfare and safety at work,” and prohibits the passage of any state or local law “that interferes with, that negates, or diminishes” that right. That includes the so-called Right-To-Work laws, which in more than 20 states prohibit contracts between employers and unions that require union membership as a condition of employment.

Amendment foes are probably going to dispute a few aspects of the amendment, such as who’s considered  an “employee” under the amendment, the amendment’s relationship to state and federal law, and what’s considered “economic welfare” or “safety at work.”

The former question  by business groups ties to the gig economy, such as ride-share drivers, or to “independent contractors,” whose compensations doesn’t include Social Security or other benefits employees get.

Supporters of the amendment have pointed to such working people – plus some misnamed “managers” or farm workers who haven’t been covered by labor law -- as people who could gain protections under the new amendment.

Opponents argue that independent contractors aren’t employees, but there’s a disputed definition and enforcement that the National Labor Relations Board recently addressed by urging a better definition to avoid employers misclassifying the status.

Much of the “Vote No” effort involved the conservative Illinois Policy Institute and it’s allied Liberty Justice Center, which months ago sued to keep the referendum off the ballot, asserting it would be unconstitutional, taking powers from the federal government.

That failed, but the Liberty Justice Center — the anti-union outfit that helped ex-Gov. Bruce Rauner successfully get the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the precedent of requiring public employees represented by unions to pay a portion of labor costs if they decline to be members — may return to the courts to resist the voters’ will in a judiciary now topped by a conservative, if not anti-union, majority on the Supreme Court.

Responding to a Chicago Tribune questioning about opponents’ claims that the amendment could be interpreted to mean new bargaining issues, Marc Poulos – executive director of the Indiana, Illinois and Iowa Foundation for Fair Contracting who helped draft the amendment – said the idea isn’t to create “a massive expansion of all kinds of mandatory subjects of bargaining.”

Instead, the amendment clarifies current mandatory subjects — wages, hours and working conditions — “with a wider lens than they do today,” said Marc Poulos, who spoke to the Labor Paper about the state Supreme Court race before the midterms.

The amendment should prevent business interests from coming to the legislature to try to decrease or destroy workers rights, he said.

“The overarching objective through this amendment is to get people to go to the bargaining table and get them to stop going to Springfield,” he told the Tribune. “We think the best place to do this is in bargaining.”

Staffing, wages main issues in AFSCME talks with City of Peoria

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3464 started bargaining with the City of Peoria on Nov. 21 on a contract to succeed the labor pact scheduled to expire December 31, with adequate staffing and wages the main issues.

AFSCME says personnel reductions in recent years have resulted in increased workloads, and regular step wage increases were suspended years ago, meaning experienced workers with almost a decade on the job are now paid about what relatively new hires make.

The union says while they’ve been forced to do “more with less,” affecting public services, management positions have received yearly raises of some 4%.

Local 3464 represents more than 170 employees under different contracts with the City, the Peoria Civic Center, the Peoria Housing Authority and the Peoria Public Library.

“In my department, in the Emergency Communications Center, we have not been fully staffed since 2008,” said Local 3464 Vice President Anthony Wallraven, a 911 dispatcher. “Members are contractually obligated to work 48 hours a week. Most of us are working 60 hours a week, at least. I don't think it's safe. It's led to burnout and low morale. They have been actively trying to hire, but people can make almost as much working at Costco and with much less stress and a better work schedule.

“In Community Development/Code Enforcement, they make less and have to do the work two people did 10 years ago,” he continued. “In the Police Records Department, as recently as six months ago they started out at $17 an hour.”

Working conditions have declined as the responsibilities have expanded with the City, Wallraven added.

“Since 2008, the city has cut staff by over 40% while at the same time continuing to annex new areas north of the city and expanding the size of Peoria,” he said. “I don't have the exact figure, but for example, there are as many firefighters in Peoria now as in 1984 when I was born, despite the city having dramatically.grown in territory.

“When people complain about a lack of municipal services in Peoria, that's a big reason why,” he continued. “We have gone from three full shifts of a civilian records department at the police station to one, so that people can't pay fines, register for things, get vehicles out of impound save for 9-5 Monday-Friday. We have gone from a regular rental inspection system to a complaint-based one, which has affected the quality of housing stock. This is because we have cut the number of code inspectors so that one is doing the work of two or three. For an example, there used to be two code inspectors and three or four code-inspector aides for the South end, doing environmental and code inspections. [Now] there is one inspector and one aide.”

In a statement, the City said its policy is to refrain from commenting on collective bargaining.

“We see all this go on as the city bends over backwards to subsidize real-estate developers with parking lots that studies the city commissioned said they didn't need in the Warehouse District, creates tax abatement districts that encompass whole parts of the city, and continues to create TIF districts that starve District 150 and the Park District of additional tax revenue,” Wallraven said.

Meanwhile, Local 3464 began negotiations with the Library on Nov. 29.

UAW helps Rivian workers report safety woes

NORMAL - A dozen Rivian workers in recent months have accused the EV automaker of safety violations, according to complaints filed with the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration.

The workers filed their complaints in coordination with the United Auto Workers union, which has been stepping up efforts to help workers organize Rivian.

The complaints allege the company ignored hazards and de-emphasized safety resources, and cite a range of health issues including broken bones, ear damage and environmental factors that could be connected to a miscarriage.

The safety problems could stem from management neglecting standards to meet increased demands to produce more of its pickup truck.

“At first, it was really great,” former UAW member Kailey Harvey told Bloomberg News.

“Slowly, as production kept climbing, the concern for safety dropped,” said Harvey, who started at Rivian last year.

Rivian said data it provides OSHA show it outperforms comparable facilities in health and safety, with a Total Recordable Incident Rate of 2.5 cases for every 200,000 hours worked. That’s less than the industry average of 6.4 cases, according to the company, which in a statement said, “We do not comment on open agency cases nor on any situation that has any potential pending litigation.”

OSHA is still investigating seven complaints at the Normal plant, an agency spokesperson told Bloomberg. The agency previously issued four “serious” citations against Rivian, including three that ended in settlements with the agency.

In February, a battery-pack explosion caused a fire with 10-foot-high flames, according to Harvey’s complaint.

“I witnessed a person pull the fire alarm and nothing happened,” she wrote.

After evacuating, employees were told to return to work through the smoke for a head count.

“People were coughing and at least one worker had an asthma attack while walking through the smoke,” she wrote, adding that since the fire “no drills or follow-up training have been held” for her shift about where to go in similar emergencies.

Workers’ claims “suggest a factory that is far from operational excellence,” said David Michaels, who led OSHA under former President Barack Obama and is now a professor at George Washington University’s public health school.

“If workers are being hurt, it is evidence that the factory management is not doing its job in ensuring that operations are being performed properly,” he continued. “These reported injuries reflect poor management control of production processes, suggesting that the quality of the factory’s output will also be suboptimal.”