New York’s thousands of buildings pose a major challenge to greening the city.  Sixty-six percent of our energy use comes from buildings as does 77% of the greenhouse gases we produce, much more than any U.S. city. 

The Mayor and the President have made going green a top priority -- not just for the environment but to get people back to work.  Green jobs offer a fresh source of employment, but these jobs require special skills and relying on companies to provide training will take time and is too piece-meal to succeed. An industry-wide effort by labor and management is needed to provide workers with the skills they require.

In the real estate industry, 32BJ is working with building owners and managers to train workers in energy efficiency. Green Buildings, a joint initiative between 32BJ and the Realty Advisory Board, is giving superintendents, porters and other building maintenance workers the skills they need to help New York go green.  Many workers have already been trained by this initiative and if all goes according to plan, a thousand more could be trained in a year.

One building worker, John Sarich, cut energy bills by 20 percent at his building by making small, but effective changes. John’s story can be the norm rather than the exception if Green Buildings is expanded. Greening our buildings, which saves money, protects the environment and makes for good jobs, is within our reach and with a little help from the state and city, we can make a big impact on our city.

Mike Fishman
President, 32BJ SEIU

Published: April 5, 2009

In the debate over the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill in Congress to help workers join unions, many people have forgotten that our middle class flourished when more workers were in unions. With our economic recovery linked to efforts to strengthen the middle class, the bill is a good way to put workers and the economy back on the right track. As President Obama has said, “unions are part of the solution, not part of the problem.”

Here in Delaware workers efforts to unionize are being met with stiff resistance and intimidation. Optima Cleaning Systems - a cleaning contractor of the bailout recipient Wilmington Trust - has been obstructing unionization efforts, including the videotaping and photographing of union organizers attempting to speak to office cleaners who earn as little as $7.25 an hour with no quality and affordable healthcare.
 
These tactics are hard to stop and they make it nearly impossible for workers to join unions through elections within a reasonable period of time. Without a second, fall-back option for workers to unionize by signing a card -- an option which the Employee Free Choice Act would provide -- these and countless other workers are being denied a fair shot at joining a union.

The Employee Free Choice Act would restore some balance between labor and management by allowing workers to choose whether to join a union by signing union cards or through secret ballot, rather than letting management dictate the process. Labor laws have been so weakened over the last three decades that today one in four companies goes so far as to illegally fire workers for trying to form a union.

The imbalance between labor and management is evidenced by the ever widening income gap between the very wealthy and most Americans. Some 60 percent of our country’s wealth lies in the hands of the richest five percent of us.

It is not just that President Obama and top economists, such as Nobel winner Paul Krugman, support the Employee Free Choice Act as a way to rebuild the middle class. It’s that nearly 60 million Americans want to join a union but can’t, and fewer than 100,000 workers took part in a secret ballot elections last year. Revitalizing our economy depends on restoring our middle class, and restoring our middle class means we have to steer past the roadblocks that are holding back so many workers. The Employee Free Choice Act would help us navigate this terrain by allowing workers to unionize if they choose to, and in the process improve their lot and our economy as well.

Editor’s note: Fishman is president of 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union

Published: March 30, 2009

In the debate over the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill to help workers join unions, people have forgotten that the middle-class flourished when more workers were in unions. With the economic recovery hinging on a stronger middle class, the bill provides one way to get the job done. As President Obama has said, "unions are part of the solution, not part of the problem."

In Florida, we have seen that unions can create good jobs. Three years ago, cleaners and landscapers at the University of Miami, making as little as $6.40 an hour without health care or any benefits, sought to join a union. Seventy percent signed union cards, but the university refused to go union. It took a long and bitter fight, and a hunger strike, until the university let the workers unionize. Since then, wages jumped thirty percent and they now have healthcare.

Meanwhile, attempts to unionize at Nova Southeastern University were met with stiff resistance — including threats, intimidation and interrogation — all of which are illegal. After a majority of cleaners signed union cards, over 100 lost their jobs and Nova replaced the contractor with an anti-union one. For two years, the case has languished until last week when a judge ruled in favor of the workers. But while the judge found Nova mistreated the workers, they won't get their jobs back or compensation from this decision because penalties for companies violating labor law are weak. Without a way for workers to unionize by signing cards, these and other workers are being denied a fair shot at joining a union.

The Free Choice Act allows workers to decide between secret ballots or signing cards, rather than letting bosses dictate the process. Labor laws have been so weakened that 1- in-4 companies illegally fire workers for trying to form a union. Collective bargaining has been so undermined that there is an ever widening income gap between the very wealthy and most Americans. Sixty percent of America's wealth rests in the hands of the richest five percent.

It is not just that President Obama and top economists, like Nobel winner Paul Krugman, support the Free Choice Act as a way to rebuild the middle class. It's that 60 million Americans want to join a union but can't, and fewer than 100,000 workers got to take part in a secret ballot election last year.

Mike Fishman is president of 32BJ SEIU, the largest property service workers union on the East Coast.

The following article was submitted in response to IBD's opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act, proposed legislation that would recognize a union's role as the official bargaining representative if a majority of employees have authorized that representation by signing a card rather than requiring a secret ballot election.

Nobel economist Paul Krugman and other top economists who have flagged the dangers of our widening income gap are pointing to the Employee Free Choice Act as a way to strengthen the middle class and fuel our economic recovery.

That's because despite the rhetoric of a multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign, the bill is good for millions of workers and the economy.

Economic growth, as we have seen, is not sustainable when most workers don't benefit during the upswings. Today, almost 60% of our wealth sits in the hands of just the wealthiest top 5%.

Meanwhile, wages for most workers have stagnated because their ability to secure better wages and benefits has been undermined by watered-down labor laws that make it harder to join unions.

As President Obama recently said, "Unions are part of the solution, not part of the problem," in that they can help us restore our middle class — a key to our economic recovery. Most workers want to join a union but never get the chance because the rules have been changed over the years to favor employers.

In fact, nearly 60 million workers say they would join a union if they could, but — according to the Department of Labor — fewer than 100,000 workers got to take part in a secret-ballot election last year.

Under these weakened labor laws, irresponsible companies go to great lengths to prevent workers from joining a union. In fact, one in four companies go so far as to illegally fire workers for trying to form a union.

The Employee Free Choice Act would stop management abuse by restoring to workers the right they had decades ago — to decide for themselves whether they want to unionize or not, and by what means, rather than allowing management to dictate the process.

An American Tradition

By helping workers join unions, the Employee Free Choice Act is rooted in the American tradition of rewarding hard work. It would help workers secure good wages to support their families, obtain better and more affordable health care, and aspire to retiring with dignity.

In so doing, the bill helps strengthen our middle class, with no government handouts or cost to taxpayers, and gives a much-needed boost to the economy.

Workers who bargain their contracts with management collectively, as they do in virtually every industrialized country, earn better wages and benefits than nonunion workers.

On average, union workers make up to 30% more than nonunion workers and are nearly 60% more likely to have employer-paid health care. Workers earning a good wage contribute more to the economy through taxes and spending, and health care keeps workers healthy and on the job, which is good for businesses and the economy.

With a further decline in unions, our middle class would likely continue to shrink and consumer spending, which drives 70% of our economic output, would drop even further.

Krugman recently wrote President Obama saying that the ability of workers to form unions and bargain was key to pulling the economy out of the Great Depression and that passing the Free Choice Act is critical to helping the nation quickly rebuild the middle class in the midst of this recession.

Our economy is in peril, yet a few irresponsible CEOs still cling to their excessive bonuses at a time when too many workers are out in the cold with no jobs.

It is a disgrace that while Bank of America is still counting its $25 billion taxpayer-funded bailout, it is orchestrating a multimillion-dollar disinformation campaign to kill a worker-friendly bill that would help our economy.

And it's an outrage that just days after Obama called Wall Street bonuses "shameful," JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon publicly defended bonuses for all of his executives, claiming they all had very difficult jobs.

The bottom line is that the Employee Free Choice Act would make the process of joining unions fairer, and in so doing would help workers get higher wages and provide the much-needed boost to the economy we all need.

Unions are part of the solution because they have the power to strengthen our middle class, and in these difficult times, strengthening the middle class is the key to our economic revival.

Fishman is president of 32BJ, the largest property services union in the country, with more than 100,000 members in nine states and the District of Columbia.

It’s time for celebration as we commemorate Dr. King’s legacy and seat Barack Obama as our nation’s first African-American President.  But as we savor the hope of this historical moment, we must remember that the struggle for justice and equality continues – especially for security officers who protect public buildings in New York City.  For far too long, these hard working men and women, who are predominantly African American, have made up the ranks of the City’s working poor.

With the majority of officers earning an average wage of just $11.35 an hour, with no paid days off and minimal health care benefits, security officers and their families struggle to get by.  Many are forced to use public assistance.  Our families, communities and City are negatively impacted by this vicious cycle of poverty.

This month, 32BJ launches a campaign for higher wages and better benefits for close to 3,000 security officers who are contracted to protect city owned and leased buildings.  These officers work diligently at protecting our vital public spaces, but they remain underpaid and underappreciated.

New York City’s elected leaders have a responsibility to raise standards and help improve life for these security officers and their families.  Local legislators should take this role seriously, and can do so by reexamining and updating the City’s prevailing wage rules or by passing standard-raising legislation for city security contractors.  This would help ensure officers move out of poverty and receive adequate employer-paid health insurance and state-of-the-art training, so they can do their jobs most effectively.  Further, turning these poverty jobs into good jobs with employer-based benefits means that these workers will no longer be forced to depend on costly public programs.

It’s time to raise standards and do right by the workers who keep us safe and secure. Private sector security standards are being raised, including at venerable institutions and tourist locations.  Meanwhile, the City lags far behind.

These officers protect some of the City’s most sensitive and important sites.  All they want in return is the ability to support themselves and their families.  In the same spirit as Dr. King’s dream and its realization through Obama’s election, security officers throughout the City should finally have the opportunity to realize the American Dream.

32BJ and Brooklyn Congregations Together will celebrate President-elect Obama’s victory at an event honoring the spirit of Dr. King on Thursday, January 15, 2008.  The event will take place at 7 p.m. at Bedford Central Presbyterian Church at 1200 Dean Street in Brooklyn, NY.  All are welcome to attend.

Nearly two months after the voters spoke loud and clear for change in Albany, three state senators are holding up that change to their own agendas. Rather than moving forward on an ambitious and vitally important economic recovery plan, Senators Ruben Diaz and Carl Kruger and Senator-Elect Pedro Espada have decided to put their own interests ahead of New York.

The economic recession hitting our state is being felt most in the communities these senators represent.  In Brooklyn and the Bronx, 32BJ members and thousands of Latino families voted this past November hoping for legislation that would ease the burdens of a failing economy. Many of them, like thousands of other New Yorkers, already struggle to keep food on the table, a roof over their family's heads, and heat during the cold winter already upon us.

These working families need a united Democratic majority in Albany fighting to pass high quality affordable healthcare for all, to stop home foreclosures that will leave families out in the cold, to ensure our fair share of school aid, to promote rent regulations that will keep affordable housing available for working families, and to deliver the good jobs that New Yorkers so urgently need. 

The time to act is now.  Senators Diaz, Kruger, and Espadas' constituents voted for change with the hope of better days to come, and this is no time to be mired in petty politics.

A  Democratic majority will protect affordable housing, and fight for good wages and benefits.  In these tough economic times, Democratic leadership means our communities will not be first on the chopping block as programs are scaled back or funding is cut.  It means protection for our schools, senior centers, day care centers, health clinics and a host of other services that people need.

New Yorkers voted for a Democratic majority in the State Senate and Senators Diaz, Kruger, and Espada should stop blocking the will of the people and do what is best for our state.

Casi dos meses después de que los votantes pidieran, alto y claro, un cambio en Albany, tres senadores estatales están entorpeciendo este cambio por su propia agenda política. En lugar de avanzar en un plan de recuperación económica, los senadores Rubén Díaz y Carl Kruger y el senador electo Pedro Espada han decidido poner sus propios intereses por delante de Nueva York.

La recesión económica que golpea a nuestro estado se está haciendo sentir más en las comunidades que estos senadores representan. En Brooklyn y el Bronx, afiliados de la 32BJ y miles de familias latinas votaron en el mes de noviembre con la esperanza de conseguir una cámara legislativa que aliviara la carga de una economía fallida. Muchos de ellos, al igual que otros miles de neoyorquinos, están pasando apuros para poner comida en la mesa, un techo para sus familias, y protegerlos del frío invierno.

Estas familias necesitan una mayoría demócrata unida en Albany para luchar por un servicio de salud para todos, asequible y de calidad, para poner fin a los trámites de ejecución hipotecaria que están dejado a las familias en la intemperie, para asegurar las ayudas escolares, para promover reglamentos de alquiler que mantengan la vivienda asequible y dispo- nible para las familias trabajadoras, y para crear los empleos decentes que los neoyor- quinos necesitan con tanta urgencia.

El momento de actuar es ahora. Los constituyentes de los senadores Díaz, Kruger, y el senador electo Espada votaron por el cambio con la esperanza de mejores días por venir, y no hay tiempo para estar sumidos en juegos políticos del pasado.

Una mayoría democrática protegerá la vivienda asequible y luchará por buenos salarios y beneficios. En estos tiempos difíciles, la representación demócrata significa que nuestras comunidades no serán las primeros en sufrir los recortes servicios y la escasez de fondos. Significa la protección de nuestras escuelas, centros superiores, centros de cuidado diurno, nuestras clínicas de salud y una multitud de servicios que la gente utiliza a diario.

Nueva York votó a favor de una mayoría demócrata en el Senado Estatal y los Senadores Díaz, Kruger, el senador electo Espada debe dejar de bloquear la voluntad popular y hacer lo que es mejor para nuestro estado.

After years of stretching their budgets to cover basic expenses, New York City’s working families are at the breaking point. Despite long hours and multiple jobs, too many hard working men and women still find themselves struggling to pay the bills, take their kids to the doctor and put aside a few dollars for holiday gifts. In fact, more than three million New Yorkers are trying to make ends meet on low incomes.

There has never been a greater need for making the most of our tax dollars and promoting smart economic development. New York City must put forward new policies that will help get working families through these tough times.

To start, tax money spent on City development and public contracting should create good jobs that come with family-sustaining wages and health care benefits. A City-wide policy mirroring the requirements at Willets Point and Hunters Point, which set wage and benefit standards for new jobs, would ensure developers cannot make their money off City-funded projects without providing the good jobs New Yorkers desperately need.

Creating a green, sustainable New York City will also provide a long-term investment in our City’s future. With existing buildings projected to contribute more than 85 percent of the City’s carbon emissions and energy usage by 2030, mandating green retrofitting as well as requiring new developments to follow environmental standards is a win-win solution. We should create good new jobs in this growing industry, while reducing wasteful energy usage and helping the environment.

Creating a livable City for working families will help New York thrive again. Mandating inclusionary zoning in housing developments will ensure working New Yorkers can find affordable apartments without leaving the City, and improving transportation service will help New Yorkers get to work. Increasing child care and pre-K programs will help give our kids a head start and give parents the opportunity to hold onto steady jobs.

Good jobs are the foundation for healthy families and communities, and without the wages and benefits their families need, many New Yorkers remain on unsteady ground. New York City can turn this economic crisis into an opportunity by redefining the City’s economic development agenda, investing in the future – and giving New Yorkers a New Deal. Creating good jobs and making our City prosperous for all is a winning way to get through these tough times and provide the framework for a healthy future.

Representing more than 70,000 property service workers in New York City, 32BJ is the largest private sector union in New York.

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Published: August 1, 2008

On Thursday, the minimum wage rises to $6.55 an hour.  That’s a seventy cent raise in Virginia and forty cents in Maryland for people living in deep poverty and being hit hardest by the skyrocketing price of milk, bread and gas.  Minimum wage earners will take what they can get, but a few extra dollars a week doesn't help much. 

It’s not just minimum wage earners that are having a harder time, but one-third of all Americans who are struggling to get by on low wages.  And the number of low wage jobs – primarily service jobs in hotels, food prep, home health care and office cleaning – are growing.  In the next ten years, at least 5.3 million new jobs in our country will pay low wages unless something is done. 

In the Capital area, 3.1 million people are struggling to raise their families on low-wages.  No longer is it just unemployment, but also the rising tide of low-paying jobs that accounts for the high urban poverty rates in the area. Too many people are juggling multiple jobs, working more hours than they can count, and still not making enough to pay their bills. 

And as the number of working poor grows, so does the number of millionaires – now 10 million in the United States after the fifth consecutive annual increase. A smaller portion of this group, the top 1% of households take home 21.8% of all income - more than double the 8.9% rate of thirty years ago.  This is the highest concentration of income in the hands of the wealthiest one percent since 1928, a year before the great stock market crash.

At no time in our history has the disparity in personal income been so wide and in no other industrialized country today does the disparity even come close. Record-high CEO compensation is more than 400 times the take-home pay of an average American worker. For an industrialized country like ours, there is no parallel to this growing income divide between the highest- and lowest-paid workers. Corporate executives in England, for instance, make half as much as American business leaders while the lowest-paid workers there earn a higher wage than their American counterparts.

As we look towards the upcoming election, which will put the fate of our country in new hands, we must demand national policies to change the disturbing direction of our economy before it derails entirely. Pegging the minimum wage to a percentage of median income would raise it and then keep the lowest paid workers on pace with future increases of the rest of the workforce.  Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit – a budget cost that would easily be offset by closing tax loopholes for the very wealthy – would also help low-income families teetering on the brink of poverty.  

Aside from government action, companies, particularly those benefiting from tax breaks, must raise pay in low-wage industries if we are to make an immediate and wide scale impact on poverty.  Government programs alone will fall short of the mark, and unions have shown they can work with business responsibly to bring low-wage workers out of poverty.

In Maryland and Virginia, low wage union workers make 15 percent more in wages than their non-union counterparts and are 25 percent more likely to get employer-paid health care and a pension.  But joining a union can be hard for many workers who fear employer retribution.  Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which creates a more neutral environment for workers to decide on union membership, would help low-wage workers join the union and get the raises they need. 

We've long held to the notion that having a job means you can make ends meet.  But unless steps are taken to address the growing imbalance in our economy, we could wake up one day in a city of just the very rich and the working poor. 

Cuando el mínimo no llega

El pasado jueves el salario mínimo subió a $6.55 la hora. Un aumento de setenta céntimos en Virginia y cuarenta en Maryland para una población que vive en situación de pobreza y que está pasando serias dificultades para salir adelante ante los exorbitantes precios de la leche, el pan y el combustible. Los trabajadores que sobreviven con salarios mínimos aceptarán el aumento, pero unos cuantos dólares a la semana no representan una gran ayuda.

Hoy en día, un tercio de los estadounidenses trata de llegar a fin de mes con bajos salarios. Y el número de puestos de trabajo  de baja remuneración, principalmente empleos en servicios en hoteles, preparación de alimentos, cuidado de salud en el hogar y limpieza de oficinas, es cada vez mayor. En el próximo decenio, 5 millones de nuevos empleos van a pagar  salarios de pobreza a menos que se haga algo.

En el área capital más de tres millones de personas tienen dificultades serias para proveer para sus familias  con bajos salarios. Ya no sólo el desempleo condena a la pobreza, sino el creciente aumento de empleos de baja remuneración. Demasiadas personas tratan de compatibilizar varios trabajos, laborando más horas de las que pueden contar, y aún así, no llegar a fin de mes.

Y mientras el número de trabajadores aumenta, lo hace también el de millonarios. El año pasado marcó el quinto año consecutivo en el que el número de millonarios en nuestro país creció - ahora en 10 millones. El 1% de los hogares se lleva a casa el 21,8% de todos los ingresos - más del doble de la tasa del 9% de hace treinta años. Esta es la mayor concentración de riqueza en manos del 1% más rico desde 1928, un año antes del crack del 29.

En ningún momento de nuestra historia la disparidad entre ricos y pobres ha sido tan amplia y en ningún otro país industrializado la desigualdad está tan acentuada. La compensación de los altos ejecutivos  es 400 veces  mayor que la paga del trabajador americano medio. Estos niveles de desigualdad no tienen equivalente en ningún otro país industrializado. Los ejecutivos de las empresas en Inglaterra ganan la mitad que en los Estados Unidos, mientras los trabajadores peor pagados ganan salarios mayores que sus colegas americanos.

Con unas elecciones a la presidencia que pondrán el destino de nuestro país en nuevas manos, debemos exigir políticas nacionales para cambiar el rumbo de nuestra economía. Fijar el salario mínimo en un porcentaje de la renta media elevaría y luego mantendría los salarios más bajos, pegándolo así a futuros aumentos de los salarios. La ampliación del Earned Income Tax Credit - un coste que se vería compensado con el cierre de vías de escape de impuestos para los muy ricos - también ayudaría a las familias de bajos ingresos al borde de la pobreza.
.  
Pero si  realmente queremos  tener un impacto inmediato para reducir la pobreza a gran escala, además de la acción de los gobiernos, las empresas, en particular las que se benefician de desgravaciones fiscales, deben incrementar la remuneración de los  empleos que hoy son mayormente de bajos salarios. Los programas gubernamentales por sí solos no alcanzan, y los sindicatos han demostrado que pueden trabajar con las empresas  para, con responsabilidad, lograr  que los trabajadores de bajos salarios puedan salir de la pobreza.

En Maryland y Virginia, los trabajadores  sindicalizados que perciben  bajos salarios ganan un 15 por ciento más  que los no están afiliados y  tienen más probabilidades de obtener seguro médico pagado por el empleador y  pensión (un 25 por ciento más). Pero unirse a un sindicato puede ser una tarea difícil para muchos trabajadores que  temen represalias de los empleadores. La aprobación de la ley de libre elección de  los empleados (Employee Free Choice Act), que crea un ambiente más neutral para que los trabajadores decidan sobre la afiliación sindical, ayudaría a los trabajadores de bajos salarios a afiliarse a un sindicato y obtener los aumentos que necesitan.

Durante mucho tiempo hemos sostenido la idea de que tener un empleo significa poder llegar a  fin de mes. Sin embargo, a menos que se tomen medidas para abordar los crecientes desequilibrio de nuestra economía, podemos despertar un día en una ciudad en la que sólo habitan los acaudalados y los trabajadores pobres.

Mike Fishman
Presidente de la 32BJ SEIU
Con más de 100,000 afiliados la 32 BJ SEIU es la  mayor unión  del sector privado de la costa este.

Published: August 1, 2008

Last week’s national minimum wage bump to $6.55 an hour didn’t affect New Jersey’s lowest paid workers who were already earning the state rate of $7.15 an hour.  But the extra 60 cents an hour does little for them or the 1.8 million people in New Jersey who are struggling to cover the skyrocketing prices of milk, bread and gas with low wages. 

Today, nearly one-third of all Americans are trying to make ends meet on low wages.  And the number of low wage jobs – primarily service jobs in hotels, food prep, home health care and office cleaning – is growing.  In the next decade, 5 million new jobs will pay poverty-level wages unless something is done.

No longer is it just unemployment, but this rising tide of low-paying jobs, that accounts for some of the country’s highest poverty rates in New Jersey cities like Newark and Camden.  Too many people are juggling multiple jobs, working more hours than they can count, and still not making enough to pay their bills. 

At the same time, this past year marked the fifth straight year in which the number of millionaires in our country grew – now at 10 million. The top 1% of households take home 21.8% of all income - more than double the 9% rate of thirty years ago.  This is the highest concentration of income in the hands of the wealthiest one percent since 1928, a year before the great stock market crash. 

At no time in our history has the disparity in income been so wide and in no other industrialized country does the disparity come close. CEO compensation is more than 400 times the take-home pay of an average American worker. For an industrialized country, there is no parallel to this growing income divide between the highest- and lowest-paid workers. Corporate executives in England make half as much as those in America while the lowest-paid workers there earn a higher wage than their American counterparts.

As we look towards the upcoming election, which will put the fate of our country in new hands, we must demand national policies to change the direction of our economy. Pegging the minimum wage to a percentage of median income would raise it and then keep the lowest paid workers on pace with future increases of the rest of the workforce.  Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit – a cost that would be offset by closing tax loopholes for the very wealthy – would also help those low-income families teetering on the brink of poverty. 

Aside from government action, companies, particularly those benefiting from tax breaks, must raise pay in low-wage industries if we are to make an immediate and wide scale impact on poverty.  Government programs alone will fall short of the mark, and unions have shown they can work with business responsibly to bring low-wage workers out of poverty.

In New Jersey, low wage union workers make 14 percent more in wages than their non-union counterparts and are 25 percent more likely to get employer-paid health care and a pension.  But joining a union can be hard for many workers who fear employer retribution.  Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, a bi-partisan bill which would create a more neutral environment for workers to decide on union membership, would help low-wage workers join the union and get the raises they need. 

We've long held to the notion that having a job means you can make ends meet.  But unless steps are taken to address the growing imbalance in our economy, we could wake up one day in a city of just the very rich and the working poor. 

Mike Fishman
President 32BJ SEIU

With more than 100,000 members, including 8,000 in New Jersey, 32BJ SEIU is the largest private sector union on the East Coast. 

Revertir la marea de salarios de pobreza

La subida del salario mínimo a $6,55 la hora no tiene ningún efecto para los habitantes de Nueva Jersey, que ya ganan un salario mínimo de $ 7,15 por hora, pero si deja a 1,8 millones de residentes que viven en hogar con bajos ingresos en dificultades ante los exorbitantes precios los alimentos y el combustible.


Un tercio de los trabajadores estadounidenses apenas llega a fin de mes. Y el número de trabajos de baja remuneración; en servicios a hoteles, preparación de alimentos, cuidado en el hogar y limpieza es cada vez mayor: 5 millones en camino.

El desempleo ya no es el único factor de exclusión social. La marea de empleos de bajos salario desborda ciudades de Nueva Jersey como Newark y Camden, que padecen unas de las tasas de pobreza más altas del país. Demasiadas personan están tratando de compatibilizar varios trabajos, trabajando más horas de las que pueden contar y no llegar a fin de mes.

Al mismo tiempo, el año pasado marcó el quinto año consecutivo en el que el número de millonarios en nuestro país creció - ahora en 10 millones. El 1% de los hogares se lleva a casa el 21,8% de todos los ingresos - más del doble de la tasa del 9% de hace treinta años. Esta es la mayor concentración de riqueza en manos del 1% más rico desde 1928, un año antes del crack del 29.

En ningún momento de nuestra historia la disparidad entre ricos y pobres ha sido tan amplia y en ningún otro país industrializado la desigualdad está tan acentuada. La compensación de los altos ejecutivos  es 400 veces  mayor que la paga del trabajador americano medio. Estos niveles de desigualdad no tienen equivalente en ningún otro país industrializado. Los ejecutivos de las empresas en Inglaterra ganan la mitad que en los Estados Unidos, mientras los trabajadores peor pagados ganan salarios mayores que sus colegas americanos.

Con unas elecciones a la presidencia que pondrán el destino de nuestro país en nuevas manos, debemos exigir políticas nacionales para cambiar el rumbo de nuestra economía. Fijar el salario mínimo en un porcentaje de la renta media elevaría y luego mantendría los salarios más bajos, pegándolo así a futuros aumentos de los salarios. La ampliación del Earned Income Tax Credit - un coste que se vería compensado con el cierre de vías de escape de impuestos para los muy ricos - también ayudaría a las familias de bajos ingresos al borde de la pobreza.

Pero si realmente queremos  tener un impacto inmediato para reducir la pobreza a gran escala, además de la acción de los gobiernos, las empresas, en particular las que se benefician de desgravaciones fiscales, deben incrementar la remuneración de los  empleos que hoy son mayormente de bajos salarios. Los programas gubernamentales por sí solos no alcanzan, y los sindicatos han demostrado que pueden trabajar con las empresas  para, con responsabilidad, lograr  que los trabajadores de bajos salarios puedan salir de la pobreza.

En Nueva Jersey, los trabajadores sindicalizados que perciben  bajos salarios ganan un 14 por ciento más  que los no están afiliados y  más probabilidades de obtener seguro médico pagado por el empleador y  pensión (un 25 por ciento más). Pero unirse a un sindicato puede ser una tarea difícil para muchos trabajadores que  temen represalias de los empleadores. La aprobación de la ley de libre elección de  los empleados (Employee Free Choice Act), que crea un ambiente más neutral para que los trabajadores decidan sobre la afiliación sindical, ayudaría a los trabajadores de bajos salarios a afiliarse a un sindicato y obtener los aumentos que necesitan.

Durante mucho tiempo hemos sostenido la idea de que tener un empleo significa poder llegar a  fin de mes. Sin embargo, a menos que se tomen medidas para abordar los crecientes desequilibrio de nuestra economía, podemos despertar un día en una ciudad en la que sólo habitan los acaudalados y los trabajadores pobres.

Mike Fishman
Presidente SEIU 32BJ

Con más de 100,000 afiliados, entre ellos 70,000 en la ciudad de Nueva York, SEIU 32BJ es el mayor sindicato del sector privado en la Costa Este.

Last week’s national minimum wage bump to $6.55 an hour didn’t help Connecticut’s lowest paid workers who were already earning the state rate of $7.65 an hour.  But for the more than 700,000 Connecticut residents living in low-income households, the extra $1.10 an hour does very little, if anything at all, to cover the skyrocketing prices of milk, bread and gas. 

Today, nearly one-third of all Americans are trying to make ends meet on low wages.  And the number of low wage jobs – primarily service jobs in hotels, food prep, home health care and office cleaning – is growing.  In the next decade, 5 million new jobs will pay poverty-level wages unless something is done.

No longer is it just unemployment, but this rising tide of low-paying jobs, that accounts for poverty rates reaching up to 30 percent in Connecticut’s largest cities.  Too many people are juggling multiple jobs, working more hours than they can count, and still not making enough to pay their bills. 

At the same time, this past year marked the fifth straight year in which the number of millionaires in our country grew – now at 10 million. The top 1% of households take home 21.8% of all income - more than double the 9% rate of thirty years ago.  This is the highest concentration of income in the hands of the wealthiest one percent since 1928, a year before the great stock market crash. 

At no time in our history has the disparity in income been so wide and in no other industrialized country does the disparity come close. CEO compensation is more than 400 times the take-home pay of an average American worker. For an industrialized country, there is no parallel to this growing income divide between the highest- and lowest-paid workers. Corporate executives in England make half as much as those in America while the lowest-paid workers there earn a higher wage than their American counterparts.

As we look towards the upcoming election, which will put the fate of our country in new hands, we must demand national policies to change the direction of our economy. Pegging the minimum wage to a percentage of median income would raise it and then keep the lowest paid workers on pace with future increases of the rest of the workforce.  Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit – a cost that would be offset by closing tax loopholes for the very wealthy – would also help those low-income families teetering on the brink of poverty. 

Aside from government action, companies, particularly those benefiting from tax breaks, must raise pay in low-wage industries if we are to make an immediate and wide scale impact on poverty.  Government programs alone will fall short of the mark, and unions have shown they can work with business responsibly to bring low-wage workers out of poverty.

In Connecticut, low wage union workers make 21 percent more in wages than their non-union counterparts and are 25 percent more likely to get employer-paid health care and a pension.  But joining a union can be hard for many workers who fear employer retribution.  Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, a bi-partisan bill which would create a more neutral environment for workers to decide on union membership, would help low-wage workers join the union and get the raises they need. 

We've long held to the notion that having a job means you can make ends meet.  But unless steps are taken to address the growing imbalance in our economy, we could wake up one day in a city of just the very rich and the working poor. 

Mike Fishman
President 32BJ SEIU

With more than 100,000 members, including 4,400 in Connecticut, 32BJ SEIU is the largest private sector union on the East Coast. 

La subida del salario mínimo a $6,55 la hora no tiene ningún efecto para los habitantes de Connecticut, que ya ganan un salario mínimo de $ 7,65 por hora, pero si deja a los más de 700, 000  residentes  del Estado que viven en hogar con bajos ingresos en dificultades ante los exorbitantes precios los alimentos y el combustible.

Un tercio de los trabajadores estadounidenses apenas llega a fin de mes. Y el número de trabajos de baja remuneración; en servicios a hoteles, preparación de alimentos, cuidado en el hogar y limpieza es cada vez mayor: 5 millones en camino.

El desempleo ya no es el único factor de exclusión social. La marea de empleos de bajos salario desborda las grandes ciudades de Connecticut que alcanzan tasas de pobreza de hasta el 30%. Demasiadas personan están tratando de compatibilizar varios trabajos, trabajando más horas de las que pueden contar y no llegar a fin de mes.

Al mismo tiempo, el año pasado marcó el quinto año consecutivo en el que el número de millonarios en nuestro país creció - ahora en 10 millones. El 1% de los hogares se lleva a casa el 21,8% de todos los ingresos - más del doble de la tasa del 9% de hace treinta años. Esta es la mayor concentración de riqueza en manos del 1% más rico desde 1928, un año antes del crack del 29.

En ningún momento de nuestra historia la disparidad entre ricos y pobres ha sido tan amplia y en ningún otro país industrializado la desigualdad está tan acentuada. La compensación de los altos ejecutivos  es 400 veces  mayor que la paga del trabajador americano medio. Estos niveles de desigualdad no tienen equivalente en ningún otro país industrializado. Los ejecutivos de las empresas en Inglaterra ganan la mitad que en los Estados Unidos, mientras los trabajadores peor pagados ganan salarios mayores que sus colegas americanos.

Con unas elecciones a la presidencia que pondrán el destino de nuestro país en nuevas manos, debemos exigir políticas nacionales para cambiar el rumbo de nuestra economía. Fijar el salario mínimo en un porcentaje de la renta media elevaría y luego mantendría los salarios más bajos, pegándolo así a futuros aumentos de los salarios. La ampliación del Earned Income Tax Credit - un coste que se vería compensado con el cierre de vías de escape de impuestos para los muy ricos - también ayudaría a las familias de bajos ingresos al borde de la pobreza.

Pero si realmente queremos  tener un impacto inmediato para reducir la pobreza a gran escala, además de la acción de los gobiernos, las empresas, en particular las que se benefician de desgravaciones fiscales, deben incrementar la remuneración de los  empleos que hoy son mayormente de bajos salarios. Los programas gubernamentales por sí solos no alcanzan, y los sindicatos han demostrado que pueden trabajar con las empresas  para, con responsabilidad, lograr  que los trabajadores de bajos salarios puedan salir de la pobreza.

En Connecticut los trabajadores sindicalizados que perciben  bajos salarios ganan un 21 por ciento más  que los no están afiliados y  más probabilidades de obtener seguro médico pagado por el empleador y  pensión (un 25 por ciento más). Pero unirse a un sindicato puede ser una tarea difícil para muchos trabajadores que  temen represalias de los empleadores. La aprobación de la ley de libre elección de  los empleados (Employee Free Choice Act), que crea un ambiente más neutral para que los trabajadores decidan sobre la afiliación sindical, ayudaría a los trabajadores de bajos salarios a afiliarse a un sindicato y obtener los aumentos que necesitan.

Durante mucho tiempo hemos sostenido la idea de que tener un empleo significa poder llegar a  fin de mes. Sin embargo, a menos que se tomen medidas para abordar los crecientes desequilibrio de nuestra economía, podemos despertar un día en una ciudad en la que sólo habitan los acaudalados y los trabajadores pobres.

Mike Fishman
Presidente SEIU 32BJ

Con más de 100,000 afiliados, entre ellos 4,400 en Connecticut,, SEIU 32BJ es el mayor sindicato del sector privado en la Costa Este.

Last week’s minimum wage bump to $6.55 didn’t help New Yorkers already earning the higher, state-wide $7.15 rate or the six million low-wage working New Yorkers struggling to cover the skyrocketing prices of milk, bread and gas.

Nearly one-third of Americans are forced to make ends meet on low wages. And the number of low-wage service jobs in hotels, food prep, home health care and office cleaning is growing, with five million such jobs on the way.

Valentino Stronza, a security officer working at a Parmount-owned office building is trying to make ends meet, but his $10 an hour from Apollo Security isn't enough to pay the rent. Instead, he and his son share a bedroom in his sister's apartment. Valentino’s not alone – nearly one in four New Yorkers lives in poverty.

At the same time, CEO compensation has grown to 400 times the pay of an average worker. This was the fifth straight year in which the number of millionaires grew – now 10 million. The top 1 percent of households take home 21.8 percent of all income – twice the rate of 30 years ago – the highest concentration of income in the hands of the wealthiest 1 percent since 1928, a year before the stock market crash.

At no time in our history has the income gap been so wide and in no other city is it as great. New York City lays claim to the widest income gap in the country - with a 40% difference between the wealthiest 20% and the poorest 20%. In the U.S., CEO compensation is 400 times the take-home pay of an average American worker.
Pegging the minimum wage to median income would bring pay within range of the rest of the workforce. Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit would help low-income families teetering on the brink of poverty.

A citywide policy requiring publicly financed development projects to pay prevailing wages and benefits would ensure that new jobs enable working families to make ends meet. At Willets Point and Greenpoint-Williamsburg, where these conditions apply, good jobs are being created.

Government programs alone will fall short of the mark. Employers must work with unions to bring low-wage workers out of poverty. In New York, low-wage union workers make 16 percent more than non-union workers. But joining a union is hard for many workers who fear employer retribution. Passing the Employee Free Choice Act would help workers who want to join a union to do so.

Unless we correct the imbalance in our economy, we’re doomed to live in a city of just the very rich and the working poor.

"A version of this column first appeared in City Limits.

La subida del salario mínimo a $6,55 la hora no ayuda a los neoyorquinos que ya ganan un salario mínimo de $ 7,15 por hora y deja a 6,1 millones de neoyorquinos en dificultades ante los exorbitantes precios los alimentos y el combustible.

Un tercio de los trabajadores estadounidenses apenas llega a fin de mes y el número de trabajos de baja remuneración, en servicios a hoteles, preparación de alimentos, cuidado en el hogar y limpieza es cada vez mayor: 5 millones en camino.

Valentino Stronza trabaja como oficial de seguridad en unas oficinas de Paramount Group. Pero su salario de $10 la hora en Apollo Security no paga la renta. Padre e hijo comparten dormitorio en la casa de la hermana. Valentino no está solo; uno de cada cuatro neoyorquinos vive en pobreza.

Al mismo tiempo la compensación de los CEOs aumenta  400 veces más que la paga del trabajador medio. Por quinto año consecutivo el número de millonarios en nuestro país creció; ahora en 10 millones. El 1% de los hogares acumula el 21,8% de los ingresos; más del doble que hace 30 años. La mayor concentración de riqueza en manos del 1% más rico desde 1928, un año antes del crack bursatil.

Nunca antes la disparidad entre ricos y pobres ha sido tan amplia y en ninguna otra ciudad es tan grande. New York tiene la mayor brecha del país entre ricos y pobres; un 40% de diferencia en entre el 20% más rico y el 20% más pobre. 

Fijar el salario mínimo en un porcentaje de la renta media ajustaría los salarios bajas al resto de la fuerza de trabajo. La ampliación del Earned Income Tax Credit  también ayudaría a las familias al borde de la pobreza.

Localmente, una política de estándares salariales y beneficios para los trabajadores de los edificios construidos con financiación pública crearía empleos  decentes para las familias trabajadoras. En Willets Point y Greenpoint-Williamsburg estos requerimientos ya funcionan y se están creando cientos de trabajos.

Los programas gubernamentales por sí solos no alcanzan. Empleadores y sindicatos deben trabajar para que los trabajadores de bajos salarios puedan salir de la pobreza.  En Nueva York  los trabajadores  sindicalizados de bajos salarios ganan un 16 % más  que los no afiliados. Pero unirse a un sindicato es todavía una tarea difícil para quienes  temen represalias de los empleadores. Aprobar la Employee Free Choice Act  ayudaría a los trabajadores que  desean organizarse.

A menos que enfrentemos los crecientes desequilibrio de nuestra economía, despertaremos en una ciudad en la que sólo habitan los acaudalados y los trabajadores pobres.

Mike Fishman
Presidente SEIU 32BJ

Last week’s national minimum wage bump to $6.55 an hour didn’t affect New Yorkers who were already earning a higher $7.15 minimum set by the state. But the extra income does little for those who had been earning the previous federal minimum of $5.85 an hour – or the 6.1 million residents of New York state who are struggling to cover the skyrocketing prices of milk, bread and gas with low wages.

Today, nearly one-third of all Americans are trying to make ends meet on low wages. And the number of low-wage jobs – primarily service jobs in hotels, food prep, home health care and office cleaning – is growing. In the next decade, 5 million new jobs will pay poverty-level wages unless something is done.

Valentino Stronza, a security officer working at a Midtown office building owned by the Paramount Group, lives this struggle daily. He's doing his best to make ends meet, but earning only $10 an hour from Apollo Security isn't enough for him to provide the home he wants his son to have. To keep costs down, he and his son share a bedroom in his sister's apartment. He works overnight three days a week trying to put money aside so he and his son can move into their own place, but so far, the extra money has gone to paying off past medical expenses.

Valentino’s not alone – according to Mayor Bloomberg’s new poverty measurement, nearly one in four New Yorkers lives in poverty. Despite working hard to create better futures for their families, they are making little headway in an economy that's producing low-wage jobs like there's no tomorrow.

At the same time, this past year marked the fifth straight year in which the number of millionaires in our country grew – now at 10 million. The top 1 percent of households take home 21.8 percent of all income – more than double the 9 percent rate of 30 years ago. This is the highest concentration of income in the hands of the wealthiest 1 percent since 1928, a year before the great stock market crash.

At no time in our history has the disparity in income been so wide and in no other industrialized country does the disparity come close. CEO compensation is more than 400 times the take-home pay of an average American worker. For an industrialized country, there is no parallel to this growing income divide between the highest- and lowest-paid workers. Corporate executives in England make half as much as those in America, while the lowest-paid workers there earn a higher wage than their American counterparts.

As we look toward the upcoming election, which will put the fate of our country in new hands, we must demand national policies to change the direction of our economy. Pegging the minimum wage to a percentage of median income would raise it and then keep the lowest paid workers on pace with future increases of the rest of the workforce. Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit – a cost that would be offset by closing tax loopholes for the very wealthy – would also help those low-income families teetering on the brink of poverty.

Locally, a citywide policy requiring publicly financed development projects to pay prevailing wages and benefits to the workers who build and maintain the sites would ensure that newly created jobs provide what New York families need to get by. At Willets Point and Greenpoint-Williamsburg developments where these provisions have already been set in motion, hundreds of good jobs will be created for working New Yorkers.

Aside from government action, companies, particularly those benefiting from tax breaks, must raise pay in low-wage industries if we are to make an immediate and wide-scale impact on poverty. Government programs alone will fall short of the mark, and unions have shown they can work with business responsibly to bring low-wage workers out of poverty.

In New York, low-wage union workers make 16 percent more in wages than their non-union counterparts and are 25 percent more likely to get employer-paid health care and a pension. But joining a union can be hard for many workers who fear employer retribution. Federal passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, a bipartisan bill which would create a more neutral environment for workers to decide on union membership, would help low-wage workers join a union and get the raises they need.

Americans have long held to the notion that having a job means you can make ends meet. But unless steps are taken to address the growing imbalance in our economy, we could wake up one day in a city of just the very rich and the working poor.

Mike Fishman is president of SEIU 32BJ, with more than 100,000 members, including 70,000 in New York City, making it the largest private sector union on the East Coast.

Published: July 28, 2008

THURSDAY'S national minimum-wage bump to $6.55 an hour won't affect Pennsylvania workers who are already earning the state rate of $7.15 an hour. But the extra 60 cents does little for them or the 1.6 million Pennsylvanians struggling to cover the skyrocketing cost of milk, bread and gas with low wages.

Today, a third of all Americans are trying to make ends meet on low wages. And the number of low-wage jobs - primarily service jobs in hotels, food prep, home health care and office cleaning - is growing. Over the next decade, 5 million new jobs will pay poverty-level wages unless something is done.

Debra Fowlkes, a life-long Philadelphia resident, lives this struggle daily. She's doing her best to make ends meet, but earning just $9 an hour as a security officer at a state welfare agency doesn't support her three children. She can't remember the last time her bills were paid-up, and despite her hard work, she's lost hope of ever catching up.

Debra's not alone - one in four Philadelphians lives in poverty. Despite working hard to create better futures for their families, they are making little headway in an economy that's producing low-wage jobs like there's no tomorrow.

At the same time, this past year marked the fifth straight one in which the number of millionaires in our country grew - now at 10 million. The top 1 percent of households take home 22 percent of all income - more than double the 9 percent of 30 years ago. This is the highest concentration of income in the hands of the wealthiest one percent since 1928, a year before the great stock market crash.

At no time in our history has the disparity in income been so wide and in no other industrialized country does it come close.

CEO compensation is more than 400 times the take-home pay of an average U.S. worker. For an industrialized country, there is no parallel to this growing income divide between the highest- and lowest-paid workers. Corporate executives in England make half as much as those in the U.S. while the lowest-paid workers there earn a higher wage than their U.S. counterparts.

As we look toward the upcoming election, which will put the fate of our country in new hands, we must demand national policies to change the direction of our economy. Pegging the minimum wage to a percentage of median income would raise it and then keep the lowest-paid workers on pace with future increases of the rest of the workforce. Expanding the earned income tax credit - a cost that would be offset by closing tax loopholes for the very wealthy - would also help those low-income families teetering on the brink of poverty.

At the state level, establishing prevailing wages and benefits for workers at state-owned buildings and facilities, as well as publicly-funded projects, would be a critical step forward in making sure work paid enough to get by. In fact, Pennsylvania is behind the curve in establishing these standards which already exist in many neighboring states.

ASIDE FROM government action, companies, particularly those benefiting from tax breaks, must raise pay in low-wage industries if we are to make an immediate and widescale impact on poverty. Government programs alone will fall short, and unions have shown they can work with business responsibly to bring low-wage workers out of poverty.

In Pennsylvania, low-wage union workers make nearly 13 percent more in wages than their non-union counterparts and are 25 percent more likely to get employer-paid health care and a pension. But joining a union can be hard for many workers who fear employer retribution. Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which creates a more neutral environment for workers to decide on union membership, would help low-wage workers join the union and get the raises they need.

We've long held to the notion that having a job means you can make ends meet. But unless steps are taken to address the growing imbalance in our economy, we could wake up one day in a city of just the very rich and the working poor. *

Mike Fishman is president of 32BJ of SEIU, which includes 5,000 members in the Philadelphia area. 32BJ SEIU is the largest private sector union on the East Coast.

Published: June 2, 2008

Today, the two million member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the fastest growing labor union in the Americas, kicks of its Convention in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Over the next three days, nearly 2,000 member delegates from Local Unions in Canada, the United States, and Puerto Rico will meet to elect leaders, debate on issues such as health care, politics, the Iraq War and immigration and set the agenda for our union for the next four years.

This convention comes not a moment too soon. With income inequality at a record high and tax breaks for both the richest one percent and the largest corporations, Americans are eager for change. Gas prices and home prices are both heading in the wrong direction, and polls show that as many as 81 percent of all Americans believe this country is on the wrong track.

The challenges facing America today are the questions SEIU members will wrestle with in San Juan this week.

Justice for All: Building a Pro-Worker Movement
Before us, we see a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get our economy and our society back on track.

Key to seizing this moment and building a new American Dream that rewards hard work; ensures health care for all; provides for a secure retirement; and gives children from working families a chance to live better lives than those of their parents, is reinvigorating the role of the American labor movement.

Today's union members simply cannot expect to maintain and improve our living standards and working conditions if the percentage of union workers in our industries and our society continues to decline. We must renew and intensify our efforts to increase union membership and broaden our scope to prioritize the issues that make a difference in all working people's lives: healthcare, education, housing, transportation, public safety, immigration reform, and retirement security.

To that end SEIU's national leaders have committed ourselves to an ambitious new plan called "Justice for All." The plan is exactly what it sounds like.

Our union has recognized that if our members do well while all other workers are struggling, then we cannot claim victory. Not only does our mission to create a more just and humane world instruct us to look after the interests of all working people, but our pragmatism tells us that our members will face an uphill battle as long as only seven percent of the private workforce is represented by a union.
 
In order to deliver Justice for All, our union plans to restructure itself, redirect its resources and use its political voice to accomplish significant benefits for all working people, including:

• passing universal health care;
• passing comprehensive immigration reform that provides a path citizenship for hardworking, taxpaying immigrants;
• passing the Employee Free Choice Act, which restores the freedom of workers to have a voice on the job; and
• holding politicians accountable for the promises they make when they are courting our votes.

Fighting to Give Workers a Voice
Fighting for social and economic justice for the most vulnerable sectors of our workforce has always been part of the basic principles of the American labor movement. Raising labor standards is critical to growing and stabilizing the working and middle class.

Six years ago, SEIU launched a monumental organizing drive in support of security officers who often earn poverty-like wages while protecting multi-million dollar buildings. Since then, SEIU has brought more than 15,000 officers across the country into the union, helping them secure the fair wages and benefits they deserve.

Just last month, SEIU 32BJ won a first-ever union contract with thirty percent wage hikes and employer-paid health care for 1,500 security officers in Washington, DC. One should not underestimate the impact these victories have on low-income, predominantly African-American communities.

1199 SEIU has organized 60,000 new health care workers in the last seven years. In the last eight months alone, 1199 has added 24,600 newly organized members in 41 union elections. Many of these new members are in the home health care industry -- women and men who for too long got paid minimum wage with no health benefits while taking on the sometimes back-breaking work caring for seniors and disabled patients in their home.

1199's work on their behalf has secured union contracts that have led to wage increases and health benefits for thousands of homecare workers, professionalizing an industry where there is expected enormous growth in the coming years. And with these victories, we continue our fight to raise labor standards for all their low-wage workers.

Widespread change does not happen over night. And even winning on Election Day does not always do the trick. Change happens when working people band together for common causes and hold elected officials accountable for their leadership or lack thereof. It happens when all of us and those we elect to serve on our behalf realize that it is us -- the hard working men and women of America - who ultimately wield the real power to bring about change and justice for all.

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Opinion

Published: April 18, 2008

The debate in Congress over raising the number of H1-B visas for highly-skilled foreign workers reveals a self-defeating immigration policy that threatens to undermine our economy just when we need to get it back on track. America's ability to attract foreign workers, both highly skilled and low wage workers, has long fueled our competitive edge over many countries and been a source of our economic strength.

Our outdated and overly restrictive immigration quota system is cutting off the very source of labor that makes our economy strong in the first place.

We need to put the ugly politics of anti-immigrant propaganda behind us by bringing our immigration system into sync with today's economic reality.

Businesses must be allowed to meet their pressing labor demands with foreign born workers. At the same time, these same businesses must adhere to wage standards and work site protections.

Just as we must accept that there is an immediate need for highly-skilled technology experts, we must also accept the fact that low wage and often undocumented workers serve an indispensable role in our economy. We must acknowledge their contributions to our economy by integrating them into our cities and towns. In addition, we need to enhance the skill set of our workforce by strengthening our education system and investing in state-of-the-art worker training. Without improvements to education and worker training, we will remain overly dependent on temporary workers from other countries to fill our highly skilled jobs.

With an aging population that is shrinking our labor force we cannot afford to turn away the very workers we need to fuel our economic engine.

Immigrant workers bring us a just-in-the-nick-of time supply of labor to strengthen our economy.

Anti-immigrant claims that undocumented workers somehow steal jobs from U.S. citizens is baseless. The truth is these jobs do not appeal to most Americans because they pay so little.  But for low wage workers just arriving in this country, undocumented or otherwise, these jobs are their best shot at the American Dream. These new immigrants contribute to the economy by purchasing their groceries from local stores, renting their apartments from landlords, eating in restaurants owned locally and even starting businesses that create jobs for other workers struggling to make ends meet. In many cases, they have tax and social security deductions taken from their paychecks. Furthermore, immigrant workers enrich our cities with a cultural diversity that most cities boast about.

For U.S. businesses to remain competitive in the global marketplace, and for our economy to regain its strength, we need to make sure our companies have the access they need to highly skilled workers and service workers.

Its time to come to grips with our flawed immigration policies by providing our economic engine with the labor it needs to fire on all cylinders.

Mike Fishman is President of 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union -- one of the largest private sector unions in the country.

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Estado de negación sobre inmigración y economía

El debate en el Congreso sobre el aumento del número de visas H1-B para trabajadores extranjeros altamente calificados revela una política de inmigración contraproducente que amenaza con socavar nuestra economía, justo cuando más necesitamos enderezarla. La capacidad de los Estados Unidos para atraer trabajadores extranjeros; tanto altamente calificados como de bajos ingresos, ha impulsado durante mucho tiempo nuestra ventaja competitiva sobre muchos países y han sido una seña de identidad de nuestra fortaleza económica.

Sin embargo, un anticuado y excesivamente restrictivo sistema de inmigración está limitando la propia fuente de mano de obra que fortalece nuestra economía. Es necesario dejar a un lado la propaganda antiinmigrante y poner nuestro sistema de inmigración en sintonía con la actual realidad económica.

Las empresas deben tener la posibilidad de cumplir con sus apremiantes exigencias laborales con trabajadores extranjeros. Al mismo tiempo, esas mismas empresas deben cumplir con los estándares laborales y las normas de protección del centro de trabajo.

Así como tenemos que aceptar que hay una necesidad inmediata de expertos en tecnología, también en necesario saber que los trabajadores de bajos ingresos, a menudo indocumentados, realizan un papel indispensable en nuestra economía. Es imperante reconocer su contribución a nuestra economía mediante su integración en nuestras ciudades y pueblos, pero también debemos mejorar el conjunto de habilidades de nuestra fuerza de trabajo, fortalecer nuestro sistema educativo y aumentar la inversión en capacitación de los trabajadores. Sin mejoras en educación y capacitación, seguiremos dependiendo de los trabajadores temporales extranjeros para cubrir los puestos de trabajo de alta calificación.

Numerosos grupos anti-inmigrantes afirman que los trabajadores ilegales quitan puestos de trabajo a los americanos. Una afirmación que carece totalmente de fundamento. Estos puestos de trabajo, de salarios bajos, no llaman la atención de la mayoría de los estadounidenses; pero para los trabajadores que llegan a este país, indocumentados o no, son su mejor opción en alcanzar el sueño americano.

En el mercado global, para que las empresas de los EEUU puedan seguir siendo competitivas y que nuestra economía recupere su fuerza, tenemos que asegurarnos de que tengan acceso tanto a trabajadores altamente cualificados, como a los trabajadores de servicios.

Es hora de hacer frente a nuestras torpezas políticas en inmigración y garantizar la mano de obra necesaria para poner nuestro motor económico a todo gas.

Mike Fishman es presidente de la 32BJ de la Unión Internacional de Empleados de Servicio - uno de los mayores sindicatos del sector privado en EEUU.

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