Cleaners at Anheuser-Busch breweries in Newark and Rochester recently found themselves without jobs, despite years of loyal service to the "King of Beers." The brewing behemoth has brought in cleaning contractors who seem bent on cutting costs for the $23 billion dollar multinational on the backs of the working people who keep their plants running and profitable.

The new contracting companies, U.S. Metro Group Inc. and Dawn Brite, have refused to accept job applications from the laid-off custodians who have long worked for AB. These new contractors have slashed wages by a margin that's rumored to be around 40 percent.

As for benefits (like affordable quality healthcare)...there aren't any to speak of.

"Doesn't Anheuser-Busch get that we need to feed our families?" asked 32BJ member Luci Peralta, a cleaner who has worked at the Newark brewery for six years but was laid-off last week (pictured on the right next to Giovanny, another janitor that was laid off on Oct. 31). "With no income, I don't know how I'll put food on the table and make our house payments."

Since merging with Brazilian-Belgian brewing company InBev a year ago, American beer lovers have seen what was once a family-led company that spared little expense turn into "one that is focused intently on cost-cutting and profit margins." The company reported revenues of more than $23.5 billion in 2008.

However, in order to afford to buy Anheuser-Busch last year, InBev had to borrow very heavily from a syndicate of banks, including JP Morgan Chase. As a result, the combined group is now saddled with more than $50 billion in debt. Yet despite weaker sales in 2009, the company said in August that their net profit for the quarter rose 28 percent. What InBev is not saying is that they are trying to turn a huge profit in a downturn economy on the backs of their employees. And while AB's workers have already faced cuts and layoffs, it's a distinct possibility that InBev's attempts to balance their deficit asap will continue to threaten the jobs of current employees at the 11 other breweries and Anheuser-Busch facilities across the country.

The laid-off janitors at the Newark brewery had been making $13.30 an hour and receiving healthcare. Now, they're worrying how they're going to feed their children and pay their bills. "This is an awful time for Anheuser-Busch to watch these workers be put out on the street,"said Kevin Brown, New Jersey area director for SEIU. "The holidays are right around the corner, and in this economy, the workers may not find jobs that pay the same wages. They may only find minimum-wage jobs that don't even cover their basic bills."

On Saturday, 2,000 security officers who guard Kaiser Permanente facilities ratified a three-year contract with the largest security company in the world, Securitas. The victory by officers at Kaiser holds historic national significance--it is the first-ever national contract for private security officers. Officers will now have family healthcare and a wage increase of 40 cents per hour each year of the contract.

Among the gains officers have won as a result of this contract:

• Healthcare: Officers will now have healthcare with no deductibles, no cost for hospitalization, and $10 co-pays for doctor visits and prescriptions.
  
• Wages: New minimum wage rates set for all regions. Hourly wage increase of $.40 per year over life of the three year contract--so $1.20 total over the three years.
  
• Paid leave: Officers will receive two days per year of paid sick leave, and two days paid bereavement leave. A total of seven days per year will be granted for paid holidays.
  
• Job protections: Security officers stationed at Kaiser will be protected by a grievance procedure that prevents their employer from unfair and arbitrary treatment--providing a realm of job security that will truly make a difference in the guards' working environment.

It's pretty inspiring to see how far these hard working security officers have come over the past few years. Prior to being employed by Securitas, Kaiser guards endured almost four years of threats, intimidation and termination tactics while they struggled to form a union after working without a collective bargaining agreement for 15 years under contractor Inter-Con. During the years these guards were fighting for a voice on the job, they were making poverty wages and receiving very poor benefits--with absolutely no paid sick leave.

Three years without seeing a doctor? Not anymore
"Now that we have this new health care, I feel secure that if I get sick, or my kids get sick, I won't be afraid to take them to the doctor," said Dale Brown, a SEIU Local 24/7 member who works at Kaiser's South Sacramento hospital. "I haven't seen a doctor in almost three years, but now I can get all my necessary doctor visits and be comfortable about it," rejoiced Brown, who is the working mother of a 14-year-old daughter and a 20-year old son in college.

1,600 of the 2,000 officers who protect Kaiser Permanente facilities nationwide work at facilities in California. Other Securitas workers employed at facilities throughout four other states (including the DC metro area and Denver) are expected to vote on the proposed contract this week.

It's not often we get to bring you news of workers organizing to have a voice at work on such a large scale -- but today is one of those days! 13,00 home care attendants in Missouri's consumer directed home care program have voted to join the Missouri Home Care Union, a statewide union of home care attendants that's a joint local of AFSCME and SEIU.

The vote passed by a landslide margin of 85% "Yes" to 15% "No," and the election was conducted by the state Board of Mediation and was the largest of its kind in Missouri history.

In spite of the fact that home-based care is more cost-effective than institutional or nursing home care, many of the consumers in the state struggle to keep caregivers on the job--40-60% of attendants leave their positions every year. The central reason for this is that many home care attendants simply can't afford to stay at their jobs and take care of their families because they don't have health insurance benefits, sick days or vacation time.

With the number of elderly Missourians expected to rise more than 70 percent in the next twenty years, the demand for home care services will skyrocket. Which makes investing in the creation of good home care jobs to help build a stable workforce that will be able to ensure older Missourians can remain in the setting they prefer, their homes, is more important than ever.

"The next step is to join forces with consumers to make home care better and available to more Missourians," said Salem attendant Theresa Bach. Read more here.

In recent months, a whole slew of research has emerged showing why we need to restore workers' freedom to form unions and bargain through the Employee Free Choice Act.

Today, a new UC Berkeley report was released advance, granting further proof that the "union advantage" is substantial. The report, authored by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and the Labor Project for Working Families, found that companies with more unionized workers are more likely to pay for family health insurance premiums, embrace paid leave, and allow the use of personal leave to care for a sick child.

The economic crisis our nation is experiencing has been particularly devastating for workers, giving the need to pass legislation that will help ease the burden on working families a renewed urgency. Our economy is going full-throttle down a devastating path that's shrinking the middle class--but unions can help. Why? It's simple - unions raise wages and benefits for all workers, reduce worker turnover, protect our retirement, and lift up the economy by increasing the purchasing power of hard-working Americans.

"Today's report underscores that, at a time when many greedy corporations are cruelly cutting wages, healthcare and retirement security, unionized workplaces continue to promote family-friendly policies that build a strong middle-class," said SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger.

A few of the report's key findings:

Research has shown that 60 million American workers would join a union tomorrow if they could--and this report is further evidence of the many benefits unionized workers receive in the workplace compared to their nonunion counterparts. Unions have been responsible for the creation of the middle class, and pioneered such benefits as health care, pensions, even the weekend. But in the last several decades, forming a union in the workplace has become increasingly difficult, in large part because of the ineffectiveness of current labor law to protect and enforce workers' rights in the election process.

Study authors Jenifer MacGillvary of the Labor Center at the University of California-Berkeley and Netsy Firestein of the Labor Project for Working Families also note union members are more likely to have access to resources like child care referrals, education assistance, vacation days and wellness programs. "As a mother, I know that millions of women struggle to raise a healthy, happy family while their employers refuse to allow them to care for a sick child, or to provide affordable healthcare," said Anna Burger. "Passing the Employee Free Choice Act, critical legislation that would allow workers to bargain with their employers for better wages and benefits, would have ripple effects across the economy."

No matter what else we do to turn around America's economy and rebuild the middle class, we will not have broadly shared prosperity until we restore workers' free choice to bargain with their companies for a better life--without corporate intimidation. Read the full report: "Family-Friendly Workplaces: Do Unions Make a Difference?"

Fernando Cruz puts in 40 hour weeks at the Con Ed power plant at 14th St. and Avenue C in NYC. For his hard work, the father of two is paid $8.50 an hour, with no real health care and benefits. This results in a weekly take-home pay of around $300--not nearly enough pay his bills and support his family.

Fernando is one of more than 28 million people--about a quarter of the working-age workforce--who work full time yet still earn less than the income that marks the federal poverty line for a family of four: $9.04 per hour, a full-time salary of $18,800 a year. Although the 40-hour week is still considered the benchmark in American work culture, the fact is that working "9-to-5" for millions of low-wage workers doesn't result in financial compensation equaling that of a living wage...and so every day, workers like Fernando fall farther and farther behind.

Right now, the cleaning contractors Con Ed uses at its plants, offices and electrical substations across the city are Nelson Services, Apple Maintenance, T&T Cleaning and Janitorial, Accent Maintenance and Martinez Cleaning. SEIU 32BJ is demanding that Con Ed CEO Kevin Burke hire cleaning contractors that provide workers the wages and benefits they need to support their families. "What Con Ed is doing by not assuming responsibility [for the workers their contractors is promoting hunger wages," says 32BJ secretary-treasurer Héctor Figueroa.

Figueroa said the union has met with a VP of Con Ed to discuss the matter of contractors hired by the energy company not giving employees health benefits, sick leave or pensions, along with paying them only $8.50/hour. Their efforts were met with a "tough luck" response from the VP. "He told us that he was 'very sorry,' but that because these workers were not their employees, he didn't think this was Con Ed's problem," Figueroa reported to NY Daily News.

In recent Wal-Mart news, a really disturbing precedent: A Canadian court overturned the UFCW certification granted to Wal-Mart workers in December 2008, keeping alive a five-year-old battle between Wal-Mart and the union.

Workers in Saskatchewan, Canada first voted for union representation over four years ago, and Wal-Mart stalled and threw up every road block they could to keep the workers from getting a fair deal. And now, a Canadian judge has essentially ruled that because labor laws have changed since the Weyburn Wal-Mart workers legally won union representation, these workers are no longer represented by a union. According to the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, the UFCW applied for union certification in 2004 after a majority of workers in the proposed bargaining unit signed union cards. A vote by secret ballot was not required under labor laws in effect at that time. Changes to provincial labor law implemented in May 2008 now require a vote by secret ballot to certify a union--and Justice Peter Foley ruled this past week that the labor relations board erred in certifying the union at the Wayburn Wal-Mart.

Kevin Groh, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Canada, said workers now employed at the store "cheered" when they were told of the latest court ruling. This seems like an odd reaction, since Wal-Mart is not exactly known for offering generous salaries. Business Week reported in April, 2008, that Wal-Mart workers earn an average of $22,500 annually. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the threshold of poverty in 2006 for a family of four was $21,200.

In this dismal economy, low-wage workers are struggling more than ever to make ends meet. If they had a union, these Wal-Mart employees would be able to negotiate better health benefits, working conditions, and wages above the poverty line. This issue also speaks to the greater problem of the long and arduous process workers are forced to endure to gain union representation and a first contract. Our current labor system for workers trying to form a union has proven its inability to defend workers' rights in a timely manner time and time again. Sadly enough, the 4+ years these Wal-Mart workers endured in their fight for a union is not uncommon. Two years after first voting to form a union, a whopping 37 percent of workers still have no contract.

What do you think of this ruling? Was the Canadian court's decision to overturn the UFCW certification justified?

A group of 15 Senators led by Senator Harkins (D-IA) have sent a letter to Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, urging the Department of Labor to expand federal wage and hour laws to an estimated 1.5 million home care workers in the U.S., one of the fastest-growing professions in the country today.

In-home care providers belong to a growing labor force that earns average hourly wages lower than that of all other jobs in healthcare. These front-line caregivers also lack employment security, healthcare benefits, or even workers' compensation.

When the Department of Labor (DOL) amended the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1974 to cover domestic workers, it was to address concerns that wage and overtime protections would be extendeded to "companionship services" provided by teenagers, family members or friends on an occasional or informal basis [example: babysitters].

In reality, the FLSA has been anything but fair when it comes to home care workers. In the summer of 2007, the Supreme Court ruled to uphold the 1974 interpretation of the FLSA law ("Long Island Care at Home v. Coke"), which excludes home care workers. The Court's decision to deny home care workers a living wage and overtime compensation by upholding the "companionship exemption" essentially put the teenager who occasionally watches your kids on the same level with a worker trained to provide full-time and long-term care for seniors and disabled persons with essential care needs.

However, this 2007 court ruling also gives the agency -- under a new administration -- the right to change that interpretation. "[...] A professional caretaker is simply not the type of informal and casual relationship that Congress sought to exempt," reads the letter to the DOL.

"In the three decades since the exemption was created, the numbers of home care workers and their responsibilities have expanded dramatically as the population has aged and more and more people are choosing long-term care services in their homes rather than in institutions. Home care, increasingly, has become not casual work performed by a friend or family member but a full-time regular type of employment.

"It is critical that these professional workers, who provide essential services to our nation's elderly and disabled, have the same right to minimum wage and overtime pay as enjoyed by other workers."

SEIU, as part of a coalition that aims to shave $2 million in healthcare spending by implementing changes to care delivery in the long term care field, sent a letter to the Obama administration last week recommending cost savings by expanding home- and community-based services. Secretary Solis said on Friday that she shares the concerns of the Senators who are advocating for fair treatment of home care workers. "As secretary of labor, I intend to fulfill the department's mandate to protect America's workers, including home health care aides, who work demanding work schedules and receive low wages," Solis said.

If you want quality care, make home care work a quality job

Last week, home care workers in Ontario voted in favor of joining SEIU. In a vote held by the Ontario Labour Relations Board, personal support workers employed by the Victorian Order of Nurses in Brampton and Mississauga voted 83 percent in favor of joining SEIU Local 1 Canada. This past Monday, more good news raising the quality of life for home care aides broke, as 780 home care workers from Addus Healthcare became the first long term care workers to join SEIU Local 1107. They are the latest workers, along with those joining Local 1 Canada, to join SEIU in their growing campaign to raise standards and improve the quality of home care across North America.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, one of the fastest growing areas in health care is home health aides. But dedicated home care providers are frustrated by a system that often does not pay a living wage or offer health benefits. In 2008, a full-time home health aide made an average of $14,000. Thirty-six percent of home health aides in this country are uninsured and forty-five percent live below the federal poverty level income.

As more and more working Americans struggle to make ends meet, the ability to form a union is key to the economic stability, health, and well-being of American families. According to a poll released by Hart Research last week, a substantial majority of Americans (73 percent) support the Employee Free Choice Act as part of the common sense solutions critical to economic recovery and rebuilding the middle class.

A new national TV campaign launched today by American Rights at Work in support of the Employee Free Choice Act continues the call to action that it's time our economy worked for everyone. The ads feature workers making their case for the legislation and focus on the fact that Employee Free Choice will grant working people the power to bargain for better wages, benefits and increased job security.

The spots will air for two weeks on national cable TV shows CNN, MSNBC, Comedy Central (during The Daily Show and The Colbert Report) and during the Sunday talk shows--hopefully reaching wide audiences to educate the public on why this legislation is such an intrinsic part of the hope and change the American people voted for on Election Day.

Watch the tv ads:

Ad #1 - "Hope and Change"

Ad Transcript:
Worker #1: I hope to have some health care...for a change.
Worker #2: I hope to work just one job....for a change.
Worker #3: I hope to be able to save a little....for a change.
Voice over: We voted on Election Day for hope and change. Now it's time for action. The Employee Free Choice Act lets workers choose to join a union to earn better pay, health benefits and job security...The Employee Free Choice Act. It's time the economy worked for everyone again.

Ad #2 - "We Don't Ask"

Ad Transcript:
Worker #1: We're not CEOs making millions.
Worker #2: We don't have golden parachutes or option plans.
Worker #3: What we have is our hands, our hearts and our work ethic.
Worker #4: We are America's workforce.
Worker #5: The men and women who keep our economy going.
Worker #6: All we ask for is a level playing field.
Voice over: The Employee Free Choice Act will let workers choose to form a union to get better pay, health benefits and job security... The Employee Free Choice Act. It's time the economy worked for everyone again.

Read more about the many ways the Employee Free Choice Act will help get our economy back on track.

Senator Ben Nelson (NE) issued a clear statement aimed at secretly-funded advertisements running in Nebraska that attack the Employee Free Choice Act.

Nelson called the ads:

"Sleazy and intentionally confusing" ... "Unfair" ... "Demeaning and misleading" ... "Smear tactics that insult me and my fellow Nebraskans."

Local 226 President, Suzy Anderson, in Omaha, Nebraska commented,

Corporate America has shown just how out of touch they are with America's economic problems. They believe that the problem with our economy is that workers are paid too much and that their wages should be cut. For working families already struggling to make ends meet, that's the last thing they should have to worry about.

"This attack against working people from a business-funded front group is a desperate attempt to distract from what really matters," says SEIU National Political Director Jon Youngdahl, faulting the ad. "America's families need change that works to rebuild the middle class with the free choice to join unions for better wages, benefits, and retirement security. That's why we need the Employee Free Choice Act."

SEIU calls on "Americans for Job Security" to engage in an honest conversation with Nebraskans about their positions rather than trying to mislead Nebraskans.

Bullying Senator Nelson or other Members of Congress simply won't work, which the Senator made clear in his statement about the ads:

"These folks shot themselves in the foot. While aiming."

For more information:

• Read Senator Nelson's full statement.
• SEIU dismantled the ads as "out of touch" distractions and lists the myths of the ad.

Washington, D.C. --Wal-Mart Watch, a leading critic of the nation's largest employer and architect of an independent public education campaign to expose the truth about Wal-Mart's business practices, announced today that it is joining efforts to pass the Employee Free Choice Act so that Wal-Mart's employees and other workers around the country will have the choice to form a union to advocate for better wages and benefits.

"Since 2005, Wal-Mart Watch has successfully called public attention to Wal-Mart's bad business practices. It has become clear, however, that neither concern for its workers nor its own public image will persuade Wal-Mart to do right by its employees," said Wal-Mart Watch Executive Director David Nassar. "While Wal-Mart Watch did not begin with the premise that Wal-Mart needed a union, in this economic climate and with Wal-Mart's repeated intractability, the workers of Wal-Mart need the choice and the chance to unite their voices and bargain for better wages, better benefits and fair working conditions. The Employee Free Choice Act is that chance for Wal-Mart employees and workers all around this country."

To martial all available resources toward this effort, Wal-Mart Watch is merging its operations into the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to share knowledge and expertise and best serve the efforts to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. Wal-Mart Watch will also work closely with Change to Win and United Food and Commercial Workers to make sure that Wal-Mart employees do not miss out on this opportunity to make their voices heard.

"Even in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the Walton family and the Wal-Mart shareholders are continuing to prosper. But who gets left behind time and time again? The workers," said Andy Stern, President of SEIU and founder of Wal-Mart Watch. "Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott makes about $16,000 per hour; his employees make $10.86 per hour without benefits. Lee Scott could not be more clear when he was asked about the Employee Free Choice Act and said, 'We like driving the car and we're not going to give the steering wheel to anybody but us.' Well we've got news for Lee Scott: his passengers are tired of being driven into the ditch."