An Injury to One is an Injury to All!VOL. 121

NO. 18MARCH 25, 2015WEDNESDAY

(ISSN 0023-6667)

High school students were able to perform virtual welding at Construct Tomorrow March10 at the Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 11 booth with instructor Scott Javner, right.

No change in ULP strike atCloquet’s SMI by USW 11-63

The “Iron Five” United Steelworkers Local 11-63 memberson strike at Speciality Minerals Inc on the Sappi property inCloquet continue to maintain their pickets due to virtually noaction at the bargaining table or on their National LaborRelations Act unfair labor practice (ULP) charges.

The five workers, all hired in 1988, have been on strike everyminute of 2015 after the company tried to force them to eat aconcessionary contract on health insurance, pension funding,what constitutes a work week, and refusal to grant a payincrease. The contract expired April 2014 and had three exten-sions.

USW 11-63 filed ULPs for SMI’s failing to bargain in goodfaith by providing requested, relevant information to bargaining.

“We’re still waiting on a response from the company and onour labor charges,” said USW District 11 Rep. Gerry Parzino.

The parties met in mediated session March 4 and had a con-ference call March 12 but that’s all Parzino would say.

The company called for a gag order that is rarely used, a con-firmation of their willingness to use a high priced union bustingattorney to battle five long time, skilled employees.

The pickets are located at the main entrance to Sappi onAvenue B. Stop by and give them some solidarity. They’re therefrom 5:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Donations to help the workers and their families can be sentto USW Local 11-63 Strike Fund, 1403 Avenue C, Cloquet, MN55720. Duluth Central Labor Body delegates made their second$499 donation to the strikers at their March 12 meeting.

Tentative pact in USW oil strike

Trades job fair huge success for students

There will be “ joint reviewon the local level of future,craft worker staffing needs,”said union Vice President TomConway. That includes newhiring plans “to be developedin conjunction with recruitmentand training programs.” Onebig union goal in the talks wasto ban the oil companies’increasing use of temps, espe-cially for safety measures.

The tentative pact also rais-es wages yearly and maintainscurrent cost-sharing ratios inhealth care. “Preserving ‘retro-gression’ clauses was also anobjective…and we accom-plished that,” said Vice Presi-dent Gary Beevers, who headsUSW’s oil sector. “There wasno way we could turn ourbacks to the accomplishmentsof prior contract negotiations.”

Shell will send the contractto all local Shell and Motivabargaining tables, expectinglocal refineries to offer thesame general terms, with addedbargaining over local condi-tions. Local union memberswill examine and vote on sub-sequent local settlements.

A week before the settle-ment, refinery workers ralliedfor a Safe Refineries SaveLives day of action at Shell’sHouston headquarters, then to afollow-up demonstration out-side the Marathon (BP) TexasCity refinery. But when theworkers tried to enter Shellheadquarters to serve a peti-tion, Shell called the police,who politely evicted them.There were no arrests.

“We salute the solidarityexhibited by our membership,”Steelworkers President LeoGerard said. “There was noway we would have won vastimprovements in safety andstaffing without it.”

That solidarity forced therefinery workers to strike at11:59 pm Jan. 31, when theirprior contract expired. SinceShell refused to budge on safe-ty issues, the strike spread to atleast a dozen refineries in Cal-ifornia, Ohio, Indiana, Texasand elsewhere. The union rep-resents some two-thirds of thenation’s oil refinery workers.

The union made safetyimprovements its top goal inthe talks, after at least a decadeof weekly refinery fires, explo-sions and related disasters. Thepact was reached on the eve ofthe 10th anniversary of one ofthe worst, the March 23, 2005explosion and fire at the thenthe BP refinery in Texas City,Texas. That blast killed 15workers and injured 180 others.

And on the anniversary, theformer Texas local judge whohandled 4,016 damage claimsfrom survivors and familieswrote an op-ed for the localpaper in the Galveston areadescribing the families’ miseryand backing the strike.

The tentative pact calls for“immediate review of staffingand workload assessments,with USW safety personnelinvolved at every facility,” theunion said. It also addresses“daily maintenance and repairwork in the plants.”

PITTSBURGH (PAI)—TheSteelworkers have reached atentative 4-year contract withShell Oil, the designated firmamong the nation’s “SevenSisters” oil companies in bar-gaining for a national patterncontract. The pact, announcedMarch 12, shows the industryagrees to improve safety meas-ures at the nation’s refineries,USW’s top goal in the talks.

The Duluth Building &Construction Trades Council’sinaugural “Construct Tomor-row” was a smashing successin Paulucci Hall March 10. Theevent found 325 high schoolstudents from 14 schools in theregion arriving in waves at dif-ferent scheduled times to learnabout each trades work at 14different stations.

“When Denfeld and Eaststudents returned to schoolafter their morning visits andtold others how good the eventwas, students were scramblingto get released from school sothey could attend an afternoonsession,” said Tom Albright,Civic Engagement Coordinatorfor the Duluth Public Schools.“This was a great way for stu-dents to learn about the Trades,

careers after high school, andoptions beyond a four-yeardegree.”

Students could do virtualwelding and painting, laybrick, work on electricalwiring, screw sheetrock, walkbeams and tie rebar, learn roof-ing and boilermaking, and be amillwright for a few minutesamong other jobs. There was alot of excitement in the hall.

“We had students fromGrand Marais to WillowRiver,” said DBCTC PresidentCraig Olson. “It was an impor-tant event for the students andour unions. We’ll be losing35% of our members to retire-ment in the next ten years andwe need good young people toenter the Trades. It was a greatday.”

When schools heard aboutthe event they had no problemattracting students interested inattending.

Kris Hoffman, a counselorat Grand Marais High School,said they bused 10% of theentire 9 –12 student populationto Construct Tomorrow.

“There was a lot of interestand not just because we’rebuilding a million dollarexpansion at the school for“shop” classes,” Hoffman said.“We’re even going to have aclass just for the girls. We’re

not going to stop building any-time soon,”

This was the seventhConstruct Tomorrow event inMinnesota after first gettingstarted about a year and halfago. Trades councils are part-nering with the MinnesotaDepartment of Labor & Indus-try’s Apprentice Outreach pro-gram to fund the events, whichare staffed by the union appren-ticeship training instructors.Unions have apprentices workthe events as well to allow thehigh school students to relate toother young people.

The Duluth WorkForceCenter did much of the organ-izing and registration work forthe event.

“We look forward to all ofthem keeping the programgoing,” said Albright.

Rick Martagon was theBricklayers & Allied Craft-workers Local 1 Apprentice-ship Coordinator. He has beenhired by DLI to work withConstruction Tomorrow andsays more events will be heldstatewide. You can contact himat rick.martagon@state.mn.us

More information onapprenticeships through theBuilding Trades is available atwww.constructioncareers.org,or the “Construct Tomorrow”Facebook page.

Training looking for friends of workingfamilies interested in political office

The North East Area LaborCouncil and Minnesota AFL-CIO will be hosting an inaugu-ral “Path To Power” trainingfor this region. The program isdesign to get union membersand friends of working familiesto run for political offices.

The free training is Satur-day, April 11, 8:30 a.m. to 5p.m. and Sunday, April 12,9:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Duluth’sEducation Minnesota office,639 East Central Entrance.Trainings are open to any unionmember or working families’champion. Coffee/bagels willbe provided each morning anda full lunch both days.

“We want to teach moreunion members and laboradvocates not only how to runfor office, but how to be aneffective advocate for workingfamilies once they get elected,”said NEALC Field OrganizerZach Sias. “We’ll work ondeveloping a message, how to

Judge Ann Walsh BradleyWisconsin AFL-CIO endored

When Wisconsin voters go to the polls Tuesday, April 7 theywill have a lot of local elections to decide (see ad on top of thispage, right). They will also have one statewide race that has aWisconsin State AFL-CIO-endorsed incumbent candidate forthe Wisconsin Supreme Court. If you’ve been followingWisconsin politics you know labor, and their state SupremeCourt, needs every friend workers can find.

Ann Walsh Bradley, a Wisconsin native and former schoolteacher, has served 19 years on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Her website is https://bradleyforjustice.com/

SUPERIOR FEDERATION OF LABOR ENDORSEMENTS: TUESDAY, APRIL 7

MAYORMAYOR – JIM PAINECITY COUNCILCITY COUNCIL

6th DISTRICT – GRAHAM GARFIELD8th DISTRICT – MIKE HERRICK & DAN O’NEILL

10th DISTRICT – ESTHER DALBECSCHOOL BOARD AT-LARGESCHOOL BOARD AT-LARGE

LEN ALBRECHTROB MOREHOUSECRAIG PETERSON

MIKE RAUNIO

Please remember to VOTEon Tuesday, April 7, 2015Paid for by Superior Federation of Labor,

Marlene Case, Treasurer

build a campaign team, learnhow to raise money, how toknock on doors and target vot-ers, and learn about issues fac-ing the labor movement andworking people today.”

The union movement hasbeen very effective in gettingmembers elected to MinnesotaLegislature. Recent unionmembers elected in this regioninclude Reps. Jennifer Schultz(UMD’s UEA), Erik Simonson(Fire Fighters), Mike Sundin(Painters & Allied Trades), andJason Metsa (UFCW). Sena-tors Tom Bakk (Carpenters)and Roger Reinert (LakeSuperior College faculty), andRep. Mary Murphy (DuluthFederation of Teachers) arealso union members.

Among topics to be dis-cussed at Path To Power are:

• Labor values• How to work with allies• Narrative/messaging• Stump speeches

• Using data/voter targeting• Working with media• GOTV, early voting, etc• Campaign planning• Budgeting• Fundraising• Managing volunteers“We know that the strongest

advocates for working familiesare our union members andlabor champions,” said Sias.“We need governments at alllevel that are attuned to thechallenges that working fami-lies face every day. Let’s makesure that our governments areaccountable to middle classand working class families,while we build a pipeline ofleadership for the future.”

Bill Emory, Path to PowerCoordinator for the MinnesotaAFL-CIO, said a pilot trainingweekend in January had over50 people in attendance.

“Let’s build on that successand build a movement of unionleaders and progressive cham-pions running for office here inMinnesota over the next fewyears,” Emory says.

Besides Duluth, trainingsare planned for Alexandria,Albert Lea, and the TwinCities.

The link to register forDuluth’s training is tinyurl.com/Path2PowerDuluth

You can contact Emory atwremory@mnaflcio.org or call1-800-652-9004.

USW NOTICE OF ELECTIONThursday, April 9, 2015

Steelworkers District 11, Local 9460The election for the offices of President, Vice President,Financial Secretary, Treasurer, Recording Secretary,Guide, Guard (Inner), Guard (Outer), three trustees,and Unit President, Unit Secretary and Stewards, willbe conducted by secret ballot on Thursday, April 9,2015 at each of the seven locations listed below:Ashland, WI: Chequamegon Clinic Community Room,415 Ellis Avenue, Polls: 5 p.m.-6:30 p.m.Spooner, WI: Essentia Health Spooner ConferenceRoom, 707 Ash Street, Polls: 11 a.m.-1 p.m.Hayward, WI: Essentia Health Hayward CommunityRoom, 11134 N. State Road 77, Polls: 11 a.m.-1 p.m.Sandstone, MN: Jan and Gary’s Dining, 945 Highway 23 N, Polls: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.Hibbing, MN: Essentia Health Hibbing CommunityRoom, 730 East 34th Street, Polls: 4 p.m.-6 p.m.Ely, MN: Essentia Health Ely Community Room300 West Conan Street, Polls: 5 p.m.-6 p.m.Duluth, MN: Duluth Labor Temple, Hall B, 2002 London Road, Polls: 6 a.m.-7 p.m.

The term of office will run for three years beginning May 19, 2015.In order to cast a ballot, you must be in good standingat the time of the election, on April 9, 2015. You mayvote at any of the above listed locations; however, if youvote at a location other than the voting site nearest your“normal” work location, you will be asked to cast a challenged ballot. Voter eligibility of these challengedballots will be determined following the close of allpolling sites, but before the tally begins. This procedure is in place to ensure that no membervotes at more than one location.In accordance with the Steelworkers Election Manual,you may cast an absentee ballot if your work will require you to be more than fifty (50) miles (eighty [80]kilometers) away from a designated polling place duringthe time of the election, or if you are prevented from appearing at the polls because of service in the armedforces, or vacation. Absentee ballot requests, statingthe specific work assignment or other reason for the request, should be made in writing to USW Local 9460,2002 London Rd. Suite 202, Duluth, MN 55812.The Election Supervisor will accept absentee ballot requests received up until 10:00 a.m. on Monday, April6, 2015. In order to be counted, your absentee ballotmust be received at 2002 London Rd., Suite 202, Duluth, MN 55812 by 1:30 p.m. on April 9, 2015.

PAGE 2 LABOR WORLD NEWS, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015

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I.U.O.E. Local 70Monthly Arrowhead Regional Meeting

Tuesday, April 14, 2015, 5:00 P.M. Duluth Labor Center, Hall B

Dave Monsour, Business Manager, (651) 646-4566

Ironworker RetireesMonthly BreakfastThursday, April 16

9:00 a.m.Bridgeman’s (Mall)Mt. Shadow Drive

Wisconsin’s new right towork (RTW) law could havesome difficult consequencesfor Minnesota-based unionsthat have jurisdiction in theBadger state. After listening toa presentation on the subject,Laborers Local 1091 BusinessManager Dan Olson said sar-castically, “We could be picket-ing our own jobs.” Dan is aSuperior native, his union isbased in Duluth and has juris-diction in BAD (Bayfield,Ashland, and Douglas) coun-ties in Wisconsin.

Duluth Labor Attorney TimAndrew gave the RTW presen-tation to members of the TwinPorts Construction LiaisonCommittee at their March 11meeting just two days afterGov. Walker signed the bill.

There are a number ofunions besides Building Tradesthat have jurisdiction in bothstates. IBEW 31 and USW9460 come to mind. The 1947Taft-Hartley Act amended theNLRA to allow states to opt outof union security agreements,which morphed into RTW laws

No matter what line of worka union covers the Wis RTW

law is pretty much the same forall. One big difference iswhether or not employersdeduct union dues from theirunion employees’ paychecksand give them to the unions.Another difference is whetherunions are a referral hall or not.

Wis’s RTW law doesn’t gointo effect for a union untiltheir current collective bargain-ing agreement with an employ-er runs out Andrew said.

Michigan’s RTW law wentinto effect two years ago.Olsonsaid trades’ unions there agreedto 1% raises to keep their con-tracts in force for ten moreyears before the law went intoeffect. He said Michiganunions are still doing very wellin spite of RTW, operating atover 90% of former levels.

Wisconsin workers will beable to decide not to be a mem-ber of their union, but the unionstill has a duty to representthem even if they’re not payingdues – even for grievances.Non-dues payers can’t attendunion meetings, vote on con-tracts, or run for union office.

But there’s also a categoryof “financial core” memberswho could pay dues to coverthe cost of collective bargain-ing alone, and not other things,such as charitable or politicaldonations.

RTW does not bar exclusivehiring halls, and in non-exclu-sive hiring hall situations, aunion is able to insist on mem-bership as a condition of accessto the hall Andrew says. But itcan get as convoluted as amember saying he only wantsto pay minimum dues to coverthe cost of the union maintain-ing a hiring hall.

The determining factor inwhether RTW applies is wherethe worker’s job is located, notwhere the union or employer is.Some workers shift jobsitesquite a bit like in construction.So a Wisconsin-based workerwho says he doesn’t want to

pay dues anymore could end upworking in Minnesota on aproject causing a problem likeOlson mentioned of “picketingour own jobs.” He’s kidding?

Some union employers willbe trying to use the law to fig-ure out how to lower wages ofcourse. Andrew says they can’thave two wage categories forwhether a worker is union ornot. Some will probably try.

The purpose of RTW laws isto starve unions financially byforcing them to representworkers without the workerspaying dues. The penalty forviolating the Wis RTW is aClass A misdemeanor punish-able by up to a $10,000 fine ornine months imprisonment orboth said Andrew. There prob-ably will be lawsuits againstunions as the National RTWcommittee is a litigious bunch.

Andrew suggested thatunions try to include languagein their agreements that saysemployers will allow the unionaccess to new hires. He saidunions will need to go aboutselling their services more thanthey’ve done in the past.

Minnesota is surrounded byRTW states now and bordercity unions have more legalloopholes to jump through. Ithasn’t kept MN unions fromtrying to make inroads intoNorth Dakota and its oil boom.Craig Olson, President of theDuluth Building & Construc-tion Trades Council, said MNunions have a 30-year historywith ND’s RTW law with littletrouble.

This law and how it willaffect unions and their mem-bers is a difficult one to under-stand. It involves a lot of legallanguage and ramifications,and financial consequences. I’dcall Tim Andrew for help.Don’t get your help from a guytrying to understand it by try-ing to write a column about it.You’ll be more confused andmake Republicans happy.

LABOR WORLD NEWS, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015 PAGE 3

LABOR WORLD(ISSN#0023-6667) is published

semi-monthly except one issue inApril, June, December (21 issues).The known office of publication isLabor World, 2002 London Road,Room 110, Duluth, MN 55812. Periodicals postage is paid at

Duluth MN 55806. POSTMASTER:

Send address changes to: Labor World, 2002 London Rd.,Room 110, Duluth, MN 55812

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Duluth AFL-CIO Central Labor BodySubscriptions: $25 Annually

Larry Sillanpa, Editor/ManagerDeborah Skoglund, Bookkeeper

Board of DirectorsPres/Treas Dan Leslie, IBEW 31;

VP Stacy Spexet, USW 9460;Sec Kathleen Adee, Education

MN; Mikael Sundin, Painters &Allied Trades 106; Dan O’Neill,

Plumbers & Steamfitters 11; Al LaFrenier, Workers’ United; Steve Risacher, Carpenters 361;

Tom Cvar, UFCW 1189Scott Dulas, NALC 114

S-70T W I N C I T I E S

D U L U T H

7

Plumbers & Steamfitters #11doesn’t support Republicans

Editor:After reading letters in the last Labor World I am compelled

to stand up for our members and state for the record that Plumb-ers and Steamfitters Local #11 has never supported WisconsinGov. Scott Walker or any Republican that has ran for a stateoffice in Minnesota or Wisconsin. In addition, as a member ofthe Executive Board of the Wisconsin Pipe Trades I have attend-ed many meetings and spoken out against giving any funds toRepublicans. We have voiced our opposition against funding ourenemies in both states. It’s easy to see from the last few electionsthat the northern part of Wisconsin gets it, but the lower twothirds of that state are so red I don’t know if we can save them.

Don’t be deceived by Minnesota Republicans reaching out toWisconsin businesses and telling them Minnesota is a worker-friendly state. If Republicans were in power in Minnesota wewould be right to work (RTW) in a heartbeat. Let’s not forget thedebate on changing the State Constitution in 2012 to makeMinnesota RTW.

If we want Minnesota to stay a Unionized State we need tostand together and support the legislators that have proven theyare listening, and not the Republicans that say they will help usif we would only elect them. They will vote what their party andits funders tell them and will not listen to the constituents that putthem in power. We learned about that from Wisconsin’s RTWlaw through its hearing process, where 1,750 spoke in oppositioncompared to 25 supporting that union busting legislation. TheRepublican majority and its leadership turned a deaf ear todemocracy and voted what their party and the people whobankroll it told them to do. Minnesota beware of the snake in thegrass and the promise of the forbidden fruit.

God bless the Union, in solidarity,Jeffrey Daveau, Sr., Business Manager

Plumbers and Steamfitters Local #11

Delegation pushes for talks on illegal steel imports

By Congressman Rick NolanWith more than 450 job layoffs pending at the Keewatin

Taconite and Magnetation operations on Minnesota’s IronRange, Governor Dayton, Senators Klobuchar and Franken, IronRange U.S. Steel Worker leaders and I have requested an urgentmeeting with Denis McDonough, the President’s Chief of Staff,and other top Administration officials. Together, we need todetermine what can be done immediately to stop the loss of thou-sands of steel and mining jobs across the nation stemming from

Unions: Don’t support GOPEditor: George Sundstrom’s comments (March 11 Labor World)

regarding union funding of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s re-election were right on the money and I would like to commendhim for them and comment further on one of his points.

I am always exasperated when any labor union endorses anyRepublican candidate. Are the members of that union not pay-ing attention? Time and time again, union-busting, anti-workerinitiatives such as “right to work” are brought forward by theGOP, overwhelmingly supported by Republican legislators, andlargely opposed by Democrats.

Unfortunately, some union’s leadership is so dim that they dolittle to educate their members on the real way to grow the econ-omy by attacking wealth inequality for all workers. They seemto believe sucking up to the business interests and union-bustingpoliticians will protect their own union. This never works. Thebusiness interests will always demand more, and never be satis-fied no matter how much money and power they have.

We in the rank and file, need to elect union officers that arestrong enough to stand up to the business interests and theirRepublican political party, the GOP. If we elect Republicans tounion offices it will be harder to get union-friendly politicianselected to public office.

Mike Kuitu, Retired Operating Engineer~NOTICE~Labor World 2015 issues:April 15 Workers Memorial;

See Delegation seeks talks...page 4

Pipe Trades Apprenticeship contest heldPlumbers and Steamfitters

Local 11 hosted the Minnesotaand North Dakota Pipe TradesApprenticeship Contest at theirAirpark Training FacilityMarch 18 and 19. Fifteen con-testants representing nine localunions competed in plumbing,welding, pipe fitting, sprinklerfitting, and heat, ventilatingand air conditioning. The com-petition included written test-

For the record: Keystone override voting in Senate

By a 62-37 vote on March 4, the Senate upheld PresidentBarack Obama’s veto of Republican-pushed legislation orderinghim to immediately approve construction of the entire -- andcontroversial -- Keystone XL oil pipeline from the Albertan tarsands to Nebraska and Oklahoma. Keystone supporters needed67 votes to override Obama's veto.

Democrats Michael Bennet (Colo.), Tom Carper (Del.), BobCasey (Pa.), Joe Manchin (W. Va.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), JonTester (Mont.) and John Warner (Va.) joined all 55 Republicansin voting to override Obama. The other 35 Democrats and bothindependents voted to uphold Obama’s veto. Democrat JoeDonnelly (Ind.) was absent.

Unions were divided on Keystone. Construction unions lob-bied for it, citing up to 40,000 construction jobs it would createover the two years needed to build it. Several constructionunions, including the Operating Engineers, the Laborers and theTeamsters, signed a Project Labor Agreement with pipelinesponsor TransCanada six years ago to use union members tobuild Keystone.

Other unions, led by National Nurses United and theAmalgamated Transit Union, lobbied against Keystone. Theycited the increased carbon emissions extraction of “dirty oil”from the tar sands would produce, and other threats to humanhealth. ~Press Associates, Inc. (PAI)

Delegation seeks talks...from page 3declining iron ore prices, illegal imports of foreign steel andthe failure to enforce existing trade agreements with Asiancountries. We intend to point out that despite growing demandfor steel in America, our own steel industry is operating at only75 percent of capacity while imports of low-grade steel, subsi-dized by foreign governments, have skyrocketed by 35 percentin just the past few months. In some cases, our so called “freetrade” agreements actually permit these below market priceimports. In other cases, trade agreements that prohibit theseimports are not being enforced. And in still other cases, when theInternational Trade Commission (ITC) does impose penalties onillegal imports - as they did against South Korea last year - thesanctions fail for lack of adequate enforcement.

As a result, some 50,000 good-paying jobs across our iron oreand steel industries are at risk. In addition to the pending layoffsat Keewatin and Magnetation - and the economic ripple effectsure to be felt across the Range as families tighten their belts -U.S. Steel has already laid off several thousand workers through-out the Midwest and South over just the past few months. Andmany more good jobs are likely to be lost unless we can put thebrakes on falling domestic steel prices by stopping illegalimports. Clearly, trade agreements that should be creating jobsand supporting our mining and steel industries are having theopposite effect. We look forward to bringing this situation direct-ly to the attention of the President, his Chief of Staff and our U.S.Trade Representative to get this economic disaster fixed for hardworking Minnesotans on the Range and all who benefit fromAmerica’s iron ore and steel industry and the jobs they support.

ing and hands-on projects ineach work category.

“These contestants all cameout at the top of their class intheir local unions as 4th and 5thyear apprentices,” said Plumb-ers & Steamfitters BusinessManager Jeff Daveau.

“This is a talented group ofcontestants,” said TrainingDirector Jack Pezze. “We did-n’t have any winners from

northern Minnesota but we hada lot of second place finishers.They all were good.”

The Training Facility wasbuzzing with a large gatheringof onlookers besides the con-testants, who were all buried intheir work competing for qual-ity and timeliness. Many stu-dents from Lake SuperiorCollege and WisconsinIndianhead Technical Collegewere touring the facility,observing the competition, andfiguring out how to get into theprogram in the incredible facil-ity.

“We’re able to show the stu-dents what we strive for inquality apprentices,” saidDaveau. “Many of those stu-dents will apply to our appren-ticeship programs.”

Daveau said the unionspends about a half million dol-lars a year on training. Local 11and Local 589 on the IronRange currently have about150 apprentices in variousstages of their five-year pro-grams. Daveau said it costsabout $25,000 to train anapprentice over their five years.

“A majority of them areworking every day for contrac-tors too,” said Daveau. “Wehave over a 90% graduationrate.”

Some of the union contrac-tors paid their apprentices toattend the competition lastweek.

Tip penalty still a bad idea(Saint Paul) - After the Republican-controlled Minnesota

House of Representatives voted to move proposed tip penaltylegislation forward, Raise the Wage Coalition co-chairs PeggyFlanagan (Children’s Defense Fund-Minnesota), Shar Knutson(Minnesota AFL-CIO), and Brian Rusche (Joint ReligiousLegislative Coalition) issued the following statement:

“No matter what supporters say, this bill would repeal, lower,and freeze the minimum wage for tipped workers acrossMinnesota. Passing legislation that lowers and freezes wages isone of the worst things we can do for working people, children,and families. Since 70 percent of servers are women, a tip penal-ty would especially hurt single mothers and their children.

“While the hospitality industry claims that a tip penaltywould raise wages for cooks and dishwashers, research showsthat kitchen staff in tip penalty states are usually paid less thanthey are in Minnesota. “Tips should be a reward for good serv-ice, not an excuse to pay workers less. We strongly urge StateSenators and Governor Dayton to protect the minimum wagelaw they enacted last year.”

PAGE 4 LABOR WORLD NEWS, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015

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Dan LaPlante, a 4th year apprentice for Plumbers &Steamfitters Local 11, competes in the plumbing division atthe Minnesota Pipe Trades contest March 19.

Law professors oppose TPP for its legal remedies favoring corporationsWASHINGTON (PAI)--

Some 100 law professors fromuniversities nationwide havetold congressional leaders thatthe controversial Trans-PacificPartnership (TPP) ‘free trade’pact includes an “unaccount-able, unreviewable” legal sys-tem solely for corporations.

Firms would then use thatsystem to challenge and smashfederal, state and local laws --even after they lose casesagainst those laws in U.S.courts -- the law professorsadd.

Their mid-March lettercomes as workers, unions andtheir allies muster a rising cam-paign against the TPP andagainst the Obama administra-tion’s planned request for so-called “fast-track” trade pro-

mnpower.com/safety

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motion authority (TPA). Fast-track would let PresidentBarack Obama (D) and his suc-cessor jam TPP and other tradepacts through Congress with-out changes, worker rights orenvironmental protections.

But to get the TPP, Obamafirst must convince lawmakersto pass fast-track, and he’s runinto trouble there, with work-ers, their allies and most con-gressional Democrats. The rul-ing GOP, or most of it, favorsfast-track. But there areenough lawmakers up for grabsthat unionists are making therounds of undecided solons.

Now, they’re also armedwith the law professors' letter.The professors say TPP letsbusinesses challenge and over-turn even existing protections,

such as safety and health laws.TPP would set up a system

of foreign trade courts, calledthe Investor-State DisputeSystem (ISDS), where “foreigncorporations (get) a speciallegal privilege, the right to ini-tiate dispute settlement pro-ceedings against a governmentfor actions that allegedly causea loss of profit for the corpora-tion,” says the letter, authoredby Erwin Chemerinsky, deanof the University of California-Irvine law school.

Another pending trade pact,with Europe, also includes thatcourt system, the letter says.The court system has noappeals process, their letterpoints out. And those tradecourts would also be open to16,000 foreign affiliates of

U.S. multinational corpora-tions, Public Citizen's TradeWatch points out, plus U.S.affiliates of foreign firms.

During the AFL-CIOExecutive Council meeting inAtlanta in February,Amalgamated Transit UnionPresident Larry Hanley told hisAtlanta local what ISDS coulddo. He said that, if allowedunder the European trade pact,firms could use the secret tradecourts to challenge a proposedAtlanta city ordinance raisingthe minimum wage there to$15 an hour.

“Essentially, corporationsuse ISDS to challenge govern-ment policies, actions, or deci-sions that they allege reducethe value of their investments.These challenges are not heardin a normal court but insteadbefore a tribunal of privatelawyers. This threatens domes-tic sovereignty and weakensthe rule of law by giving corpo-rations special legal rights,allowing them to ignoredomestic courts, and subjectingthe United States to extrajudi-cial private arbitration,” the let-ter adds.

“Corporations are able to re-litigate cases they have alreadylost in domestic courts.Further, they are able to do soin a private system lacking pro-cedural protections. As moremulti-national corporations are

based outside of the U.S., moresuch challenges will be broughtagainst the U.S...There is noappeals process. There is nooversight or accountability.”

And while the firms can suegovernments, governmentscan’t sue firms, they wrote.

“In recent years, corpora-tions challenged environmen-tal, health, and safety regula-tions, including decisions onplain packaging rules for ciga-rettes, toxics bans, naturalresource policies, health andsafety measures, and denials ofpermits for toxic waste dumps.Hundreds of cases have beenfiled against approximately100 governments. ISDSthreatens domestic sovereigntyby empowering foreign corpo-rations to bypass domesticcourt systems and privatelyenforce terms of a trade agree-ment.”

Meanwhile, the JapanTimes, that nation’s topEnglish-language paper,reported the TPP talks stalled -- again. The latest talks, inHonolulu, ended on March 15after a week of discussions.Trade ministers did not set adate for new discussions.

“We anticipate a delay fromthe scenario we heard earlier,”Kenichiro Sasae, Japan’sambassador to the U.S., said,referring to the goal of con-cluding the TPP this year.

LABOR WORLD NEWS, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015 PAGE 5

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Building Trades unions were out in force at the opening of the new Family Dollar storeon Commonwealth Ave. in Gary. The building was built by non-union contractors. Themembers leafletting turned away many shoppers on Friday the 13th.

Polling shows people want more accountability out of charter schoolsIn recent years, many states

have worked to promote thegrowth of charter schools, buthave failed to pay adequateattention to the importance ofcommonsense safeguards andprotections for parents, com-munities, and taxpayers. Now,new polling released last weekby In the Public Interest (ITPI)and the Center for PopularDemocracy (CPD) shows over-whelming national support forinitiatives to strengthen charterschool accountability andtransparency, improve teachertraining and qualifications, pre-vent fraud, serve high-need stu-dents, and ensure that neigh-borhood public schools are notadversely affected.

On a national press call,ITPI and CPD, organizationswith expertise in national andcommunity-level educationpolicy, were joined by MichaelBocian of GBA Strategies andRose Konigsberg, a teacher atTeaneck Community Charter torelease the “Charter SchoolAccountability Agenda,” a setof commonsense proposalsdesigned to help charterschools deliver on the promiseof public education.

The agenda is an 11-pointprogram for reform focused onaccountability, protectingneighborhood schools, protect-ing taxpayer funds, and highquality education for everychild.

Machinists file for recognitionat Charleston Boeing plant

The Machinists have gathered enough union recognition elec-tion petition cards to formally ask the National Labor RelationsBoard to schedule a vote at Boeing’s 787 Dream-liner plant inNorth Charleston, S.C. Their March 17 move is the latest chap-ter in a long-running saga which previously embroiled the aero-space manufacturer, its workers in the Pacific Northwest, theU.S. Senate, and the National Labor Relations Board.

The plant has 2,400 workers and “a significant number”signed cards, IAM said. NLRB rules require at least 30 percentof a worksite’s employees sign the cards before petitioning for avote. In practice, many unions try for signatures of at least halfof the workers.

The North Charleston workers “had reached out to the IAMregarding numerous workplace concerns, including forced over-time, fair wages and a lack of respect on the shop floor,” IAMsaid.

Management, backed by right wing Gov. Nikki Haley, R-S.C., is already campaigning against the Machinists. Sheattacked the workers in her State of the State address. Her slamagainst the Machinists referred to the long struggle over manu-facturing the Dreamliner in North Charleston. Boeing’s CEOhad openly said work on the plane, Boeing’s newest, would betaken away from the Pacific Northwest plants, in Seattle andEverett, Wash., with suppliers in Portland, Ore., and transferredto South Carolina in retaliation for the union’s representation ofits Pacific Northwest members.

That promise/threat led the NLRB to investigate whetherBoeing broke labor law. Its then-acting General Counsel and topenforcement officer, Lafe Solomon, tried to settle the disputethrough mediation. But when Boeing refused, he had to filelabor law-breaking -- formally called unfair labor practices --charges.

Solomon’s filing angered GOP senators, led by LindsayGraham, R-S.C., who then hamstrung the NLRB by filibusteringagainst Obama administration nominees for board seats, thusscheming to bring the agency to a dead halt.

And their filibuster in turn eventually led to the U.S. SupremeCourt case where the 5-man GOP court majority threw out all theNLRB rulings involving President Obama’s three “recessappointees” to the board. Obama had to name those recessappointees because the 5-person board – thanks to the filibuster– lacked enough members to function.

Back in North Charleston this year, “Boeing workers have alegal right to an election process that is free of intimidation andharassment,” said IAM lead organizer Mike Evans. “This is theirdecision and their decision alone. We expect Governor Haleyand her friends, who have no clue what it’s like to be a front-lineproduction employee for Boeing, to keep their personal biases tothemselves and remain neutral in the weeks leading up to theunion vote.”

Kyle Serrette, director ofeducation at CPD, said, “$100million in taxpayer dollarshave been wasted and over 100thousand children attend char-ter schools that are failing tomeet the needs of children. It’stime for lawmakers to addstronger oversight provisionsbefore more money is lost andmore children are enrolled infailing charter schools.”

“There has been too muchfocus by policy makers ongrowing the number of chartersand they haven’t paid attentionto making sure there is ade-quate public oversight and realaccountability,” said DonaldCohen. This Reform Agendawill help close that gap.

Mike Bocian with GBAStrategies shared the results ofa national poll of 1,000 regis-tered voters conducted onbehalf of ITPI and CPD fromJanuary 25th to the 29th. Amemo detailing the poll can befound at inthepublicinterest.o r g / s i t e s / d e f a u l t / f i l e s /C h a r t e r % 2 0 S c h o o l % 2 0Reform%20Memo.pdf

The poll’s key findingsinclude:

• A full 62% of voters wantto keep the number of charterschools the same or reduce thenumber of charter schools intheir area;

• 63% rate the quality ofeducation at public schools intheir neighborhood as excellent

or good;• 68% hold a favorable view

of public school teachers;• School choice ranks last in

a list of the biggest problemsfacing K-12 education;

Overwhelming majorities,as high as 89%, favor the“Charter SchoolAccountability Agenda” pro-posals to strengthen trans-parency and accountability,

teacher training and qualifica-tions, anti-fraud measures, andensuring high-need studentsare served.

“The overwhelming biparti-san support for this package ofreforms will be helpful to poli-cy makers across the country,”said Michael Bocian of GBAStrategies.

The “Charter SchoolAccountability Agenda” isbased on many of the standardsintroduced in the AnnenbergInstitute for School Reform’sreport, “Public Accountabilityfor Charter Schools.” A copyof that report can be found atannenberginstitute.org/?q=publication/charter-accountability-report

Moving Property or Concrete–

Hard work gets ’er done

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218-393-2328PAGE 6 LABOR WORLD NEWS, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015

PLEASE MENTION THIS LABOR WORLD AD

DIVORCE • PATERNITYCUSTODY/PARENTING TIMEGRANDPARENTING RIGHTSSTEP PARENT ADOPTIONS

FELONIES • DUI/DWIMISDEMEANORS • OFPS/HROS

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• Assemblers • Aviation• Auto Technicians

• Health Care • Drivers• Laborers • Machinists• Marine Maintenance

• Millwrights • WeldersIAM District 165

Call 320-252-4654

Get connected to resources throughout Minnesota!For services provided by the Community Services Programsponsored by the Duluth AFL-CIO Central Labor Body andthe United Way of Greater Duluth...Call 218-726-4775

Community Services ProgramLynette Swanberg, Director

424 West Superior Street Suite 402, Duluth, MN 55802

Donʼt know where to turn? Dial 2-1-1 or 1-800-543-7709 or visit

www.211unitedway.org

U.S. ranks 19th in retirement security

Wall St. bonuses obscene...from page 8reform was signed into law, regulators have still not imple-

mented Section 956 of that law, which prohibits financial indus-try pay packages that encourage “inappropriate risks.”

The proposal regulators released in 2011 ignores key lessonsfrom the last half-dozen years of financial scandals. It wouldonly apply pay restrictions to top executives, leaving off thehook traders and other employees whose activities could put thefinancial system at risk. The only specific pay restriction relatesto the timing of bonuses. Bankers would have to wait three yearsto collect half of their annual bonuses, which doesn’t amount tomuch of a disincentive to short-term recklessness.

The European Union now limits bonuses for key bank staff tono more than 100% of their base salaries, or up to 200% withshareholders’ approval. Americans for Financial Reform hasproposals for strengthening the proposed U.S. regulation.

Grant will help women into nontraditional career opportunities

Are you or someone you know, looking to change or add acareer in truck driving, carpentry or other nontraditional jobs?Officials estimate that 40 percent of the gender pay gap is attrib-uted to women doing different work from men, along with thelower value placed on female-dominated work.

Lake Superior College (LSC) has received a $63,500 grantfrom Minnesota’s Department of Employment and EconomicDevelopment (DEED) to increase the number of womenemployed in nontraditional jobs. The NontraditionalEmployment for Women (NEW) Project has been intentionallydesigned to break down barriers keeping women from accessingnontraditional opportunities, including support services fortransportation, childcare, tools and work clothing. Havingfemale mentors from carpentry and trucking available helpwomen see that expanding their career options and economicsecurity is doable. Carpenters Local 361 will be part of the stu-dent mentoring.

The project will provide 24 low income women in northeastMinnesota with hands-on training and the opportunity to:

(1) explore careers in construction, truck driving and othernontraditional jobs,

(2) receive training resulting in industry-recognized creden-tials and the ability to earn college credit,

(3) participate in job-preparation workshops and, (4) receive individualized support and incentives to reduce

barriers to training completion and job retention in male-domi-nated careers.

Eligibility includes being a Minnesota resident, completionof pre-requisite workshops and meeting income guidelines foradmission into this program.

Information sessions at the Duluth Workforce Center, 402West 1st Street, Duluth, are being held on Thursday, March 26,1 p.m. and Thursday, April 30, 1 p.m.

Information sessions at SOAR Career Solutions, 205 West2nd Street, Duluth, are being held on Wednesday, April 8, 2p.m., and Wednesday April 22 at 2 p.m.For additional informa-tion and application for this or other career opportunities, con-tact SOAR Career Solutions, (218) 722-3126 orinfo@soarcareers.org.

AFL-CIO Community Services and United Way partnershipprogram is here to offer guidance, help and support to our unionmembers, community, and local agencies supported throughUnited Way of Greater Duluth. Contact Community ServicesDirector, Lynette Swanberg, 218-726-4775,commservices@unitedwayduluth.org for more information onour program or for assistance.

By Jonnelle Marte The Washington PostWant more retirement secu-

rity? It might be time to moveto Switzerland. The UnitedStates ranked 19th in the worldfor retirement security, accord-ing to an annual ranking of 150countries by Natixis GlobalAsset Management. It’s heldthat spot for three years. Thisyear, it is ahead of Slovenia andjust behind France. Switzer-land topped the list for a secondyear.

Researchers compiled dataand scored each country in fourcategories: finances in retire-ment, health, quality of life andmaterial well-being.

The fact that the U.S. heldsteady at No. 19 doesn’t meanthe picture hasn’t improved. Itjust means that other countriesare improving at a faster rate,says Ed Farrington, executivevice president for retirement atNatixis. Japan moved up 10places from last year thanks toimprovements in health,according to the study.

And take Australia and NewZealand, which cracked the top10 list a few years ago andstayed there, helped in part byprograms that increased work-ers’ access to retirement sav-ings accounts, Farrington says.New Zealand has a govern-ment-run savings programcalled KiwiSaver, which auto-matically enrolls workers when

they start a new job, givingthem the ability to opt out ofthe savings plan. After threemonths of savings, workers canreceive a $1,000 contributionfrom the government.

Meanwhile in the U.S.,about half of workers aren’tcovered by a workplace retire-ment plan, the study notes.That lack of access makes itmore difficult for workers tosave, because it isn’t as easy forthem to have savings automati-cally deducted from their pay-checks and stashed into a sav-ings account. Some new initia-tives, such as the federal myRAsavings plan, could improveretirement security by makingit easier for more workers tosave. But many of these pro-grams are new and untested.

The ultra low interest ratesof recent years have made it

harder for people to see theirsavings grow. And because thenation has a high level of gov-ernment debt, it could becomeharder for the country to payout benefits for programs thatretirees depend on, such asSocial Security and Medicare,especially as more babyboomers enter retirement,according to the report.

American retirees do have afew advantages. The economyis growing faster, whichincrease the number of peopleworking, who could be savingfor retirement. Low inflationhas generally been good forretirees living on a fixedincome, Farrington says.

The U.S. moved up in thehealth category, to 19th, fromthe 21st, mostly because of anincrease in the number of peo-ple with health insurance.

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Off the Deep End: The Wall St. bonus pool and low wage workersBonuses doubled earnings

of all full-time federalminimum wage workers.

By Sarah AndersonInstitute for Policy StudiesWall Street banks handed

out $28.5 billion in bonuses totheir 167,800 employees lastyear, up 3 percent over 2013,according to new figures fromthe New York State Comp-troller. These annual bonusesare an extra reward on top ofbase salaries in the securitiesindustry, which averaged$190,970 in 2013.

To put these figures in per-spective, we’ve compared theWall Street payout to low-wageworkers’ earnings. We’ve alsocalculated how much more of anational economic boost wouldbe gained if similar sums werefunneled into the pockets of themillions of workers on the bot-tom end of the pay scale.

The $28.5 billion in bonusesdoled out to Wall Streetemployees is double the annualpay for all 1,007,000Americans who work full-timeat the current federal minimumwage of $7.25 per hour. WallStreet bonuses rose 3 percentlast year, despite a 4.5 percentdecline in industry profits. Thesize of the bonus pool was 27%higher than in 2009, the lasttime Congress increased theminimum wage.

Wall Street’s bonus culture,we learned from the 2008financial industry meltdown,creates an incentive for high-risk behaviors that endangerthe entire economy. A largeshare of low-wage earners, onthe other hand, spend everyworkday meeting basic humanneeds, such as providing foodservices and taking care of thedisabled and elderly.

Low-wage workers in manysectors have united around acall for “one fair wage” of aminimum of $15 per hour. Afew cities, including Seattleand San Francisco, havealready adopted $15 minimumwages. While this is more thandouble the current federal min-imum wage of $7.25, the sizeof the Wall Street bonus poolputs the figures in perspective.

The bonus pool is so large itwould be far more than enoughto lift all 2.9 million restaurantservers and bartenders, all 1.5million home health and per-sonal care aides, or all 2.2 mil-lion fast food preparation andserving workers up to $15 perhour.

Wall Street bonus seasonmay coincide with an uptick in

luxury goods sales, but a raisein the minimum wage wouldgive America’s economy amuch greater boost. To meetbasic needs, low-wage workerstend to spend nearly every dol-lar they make. The wealthy canafford to squirrel away more oftheir earnings.

All those dollars low-wage

workers spend create an eco-nomic ripple effect. Based onstandard fiscal multipliersestablished by Moody’sAnalytics, every extra dollargoing into the pockets of ahigh-income American onlyadds about $0.39 to the GDP.By contrast, every extra dollargoing into the pockets of low-

wage workers adds about $1.21to the national economy.

These pennies add up con-siderably on $28.5 billion inearnings. If the $28.5 billionWall Streeters pulled in onbonuses in 2014 had gone tominimum wage workersinstead, our GDP would havegrown by about $34.5 billion,

over triple the $11.1 billionboost expected from the WallStreet bonuses.

While workers’ wages stag-nate, the Wall Street bonus cul-ture is flourishing—in partbecause of regulatory foot-dragging. Nearly five yearsafter the Dodd-Frank financial

In December of 2013, the MinnesotaSupreme Court decided a case calledDYKOFF vs. EXCEL ENERGY. Sincethen employers and insurancecompanies have interpreted the rulingvery broadly and used it to deny injuredworkers the benefits they deserve.

We do not believe that eliminating abroad range of comp claims was theintent of this decision. We do believe

that most of the workers, who havebeen rejected, will get fair benefits inthe end.

If you have received a "benefitsdenied" letter using some of thereasons shown in red above, give us acall. It costs you nothing to meet withus. We can help you understand whereyour comp claim stands in light of theDykoff Decision.

PAGE 8 LABOR WORLD NEWS, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 2015

See Wall St. bonuses...page 7