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WIN Week In Review August 1-3, 2008

By Doug Cunningham

On Thursday California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cut 22,000 jobs and slashed the pay for 200,000 state workers down to the federal minimum wage, effective in September. The California Labor Federation's Jeremy Smith says the governor is wrong to lash out at workers and their livelihoods to try to resolve the state's budget problem.

[Smith]: " We can't figure out why the governor thinks he should penalize them for the inability to get a budget passed."

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IBEW members rallied Thursday at Verizon’s Boston headquarters as a midnight Saturday strike deadline approaches. The highly profitable telecom giant could face a walkout by 70,000 workers. IBEW’s Paul Feeney says the Communications Workers of America and the IBEW are working together to try to reach a a new contract at Verizon. And Feeney says should a strike be necessary Saturday night, the IBEW will have plenty of support.

[Feeney]: “Workers really need to stick together. We're going to be reaching out to sympathetic organizations throughout the country. We're reaching out to many different labor unions through organizations like Jobs With Justice. There's a lot of people that we have that are ready to support us on Saturday night."

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Millions of workers nationwide have no paid sick days. That includes 5.4 million in California; 40 percent of the state’s workforce. California’s Healthy Families, Healthy Workplaces Act would change that by requiring employers to provide 5-9 paid sick days per year for workers. A new report on the public health effects of this proposal shows it would improve public health in California. Dr. Rajiv Bhatia co-wrote the report.

[Bhatia]: “Workers with paid sick days were more likely to go to doctors for preventative care, to take time off when sick and to care for their own children when their children were sick. We were really struck by the fact that those with the greatest need for paid sick days had the least access. California workers in poor health and with chronic diseases like hypertension were less likely to have paid sick days.”

Alicia Hershey is a San Francisco restaurant worker who sees the need for paid sick days firsthand.

[Hershey]: “When people are sick we tend to come into work anyway, because we need the money for that shift. So I know as a restaurant worker myself I rarely take off sick time.”

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Twenty-five thousand west coast dockworkers in the ILWU are taking a look at details of the contract agreement reached between the union and the Pacific Maritime Association as they decide whether or not to ratify it. The union says the agreement meets the needs of workers and of the industry.

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Wal-Mart managers and executives knew of widespread denial of breaks for its workers nationwide but turned a blind eye to the practice, according to a judge quoted in the publication Arkansas Business. Meghan Scott of WakeUpWalMart.com says the giant retailer faces more than 70 lawsuits nationwide for alleged labor violations.

[Scott]: “Since 2005 they’ve lost all three of their wage and hour class action lawsuits that it faced.”

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The AFL-CIO is reaching out to 600,000 union voters in the swing states of Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The labor federation is attempting to accurately define Senator Barack Obama to those voters.