Unions Are Hip Again

3,286

Morning Brew newsletter: US workers filed 3,286 petitions with the National Labor Relations Board this fiscal year, up from 1,638 three years ago. That is the first increase during a presidential term since the Gerald Ford administration in the mid-’70s, according to the Associated Press. President Biden touted the historic surge as proof that his pro-labor policies are working, contrasting his record with the Trump presidency, when there was a 22% decline. Per the AP, 16% of voters in 2020 were part of a union household, which is prevalent in the crucial battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

PensitoWire

Boeing CEO Might Want to Retire After All

The heart will still be beating, the employees will still be cowering.

— Jim McNerney, CEO of Boeing Aircraft, explaining why he won’t retire when he turns 65 next month. McNerney apologized for the part about his employees cowering, saying it was a joke, after their representatives labeled it, “the Jack Welch style of anti-personnel management.”

Gulag Wisconsin: GOP Anti-Union Law Replaces Union Workers with Prisoners

Raw Story:

Prison inmates have replaced union workers in Racine County, Wisconsin, thanks to the changes to the states collective bargaining laws that went into effect at the end of June.

The Journal Times reported prison inmates will now be able to do tasks such as landscaping, painting, and shoveling sidewalks in the winter that were previously performed by unionized employees.

Inmates are not required to do any work for the county, but can receive time off their sentence if they do. Racine County Executive Jim Ladwig said the use of prison labor would not result in any public works staff reductions.

“We’re gonna have them do landscaping at county buildings, have them pick up trash on the roads,” he told local Fox News 6. “So we can use some of the county personnel to do difficult tasks, such as putting in a parking lot at the park.”

Next up: Arrest people for joining unions and send them to prison where they will work for free.

Florida Residents Unite to “Awake the State”

AwakeStateSign at an “Awake the State” rally in Orlando

When the Florida legislature opened its 2011 session, there were a lot more people than usual in Tallahassee. The tea party sent in folks from all over, not just Florida, to support Gov. Rick Scott’s proposals to give away billions in revenue breaks to corporate interests and make it up by slashing paychecks and benefits to public service workers like teachers, rescue personnel, and law enforcement officers. But across Florida, counter-protests by these public servants and their supporters carried the day.

Ocoee Elementary School media specialist Isabel Chipungu electrified the Orlando crowd, declaring that teachers are being demonized.

“I love my job, but I’m angry,” she screamed from atop a picnic table in Senator Beth Johnson Park in downtown Orlando. “Teachers in this state are once again being made the scapegoat for all of the budget problems our politicians created. And we are again asked to pay the price. We have not had a raise in five years.”

While tea party zealots cultivate an air of chronic aggrievement and persecution, their leaders think nothing of taking back promises – and legal contracts – to union employees.

“People seem to have forgotten that the middle class is made up of hard-working individuals — firefighters, police officers, teachers, the people who pick up your garbage,” said Ron Glass, an Orlando firefighter who is secretary-treasurer of the International Association of Firefighters-Orlando, Local 1365.

Wisconsin Poll Shows Governor Would Lose Today

52%

Amount of votes for the Wisconsin governor’s race that candidate Tom Barrett would get if the election were held today, according to a new Public Policy Polling survey. Scott Walker, who narrowly won the actual contest last fall, would take only 45% of the vote. Only 32% of those surveyed said they or someone in their household was the member of a union.

Poll: Wisconsin Voters Heavily Favor Public Employees, Protesters

graph-wisconsin-protest-poll

HuffPost:

Respondents heard a list of people and groups involved in the controversy and were asked, for each one, if they agreed “with the positions they are taking in the current situation in the state capitol.” The results presented in the following chart prepared by the pollsters show large majorities agreeing with “public employees” (67 percent), “protestors at the state capitol” (62 percent) and “unions” (59 percent) but far fewer agreeing with “Republicans in the Legislature” (48 percent) or Scott Walker (43 percent agree and 53 percent disagree).