On July 1, 2010, the New York State Legislature passed first-in-the-nation legislation (S2311/A1470) guaranteeing more than 200,000 domestic workers numerous never before enjoyed on-the-job benefits and protections. The bill passed 35-26 in the Senate (with three Republicans voting in favor; to see how your state senator voted, please click here) and 90-38 in the Assembly. Governor David Paterson has stated he will sign the legislation which will then take effect 90 days thereafter. Thus, finally, after six long years of struggle, New York domestic employees will now be treated with the dignity and respect that they rightfully deserve.
This writer first wrote about this legislation in April, 2009. However, opposition from various quarters caused the bills to stall in both legislative chambers. In fact, to get the current bill passed in 2010 additional compromises were required as the legislation does not now include worker entitlement to a two-week notice of termination, paid sick days or the right to form a union. (However, the legislation does require that the Department of Labor establish a working group and report to the Governor and Legislature by November 1, 2010 on the working conditions of domestic workers, the feasibility of their attaining benefits commensurate with other workers and their ability to unionize - so hope remains that these additional rights and protections may yet be attained.) Nonetheless the rights that are now guaranteed - while taken for granted by most employees today - are breathtaking in their scope for these long suffering and abused class of workers. These benefits and protections include the granting of time-and-a-half overtime pay if a domestic employee works over 40 hours per week (44 hours if the employee lives in the employer's home); provides that domestic workers may choose a day of rest each week; grants domestic workers three additional days of rest each year after one year of employment with the same employer; requires that domestic workers receive minimum wage and disability law/workers compensation benefits; and, provides protections against employer discrimination and sexual harassment. Indeed, these employees are now covered by the state's human rights law.
State Public Employee unions, including New York City District Council 37 (shown protesting on May 10, 2010, above), triumphed yesterday over Governor David Paterson preserving for their members an April 1, 2010 4% wage increase and preventing the Governor from imposing a 20% wage reduction through the illegal implementation of a one-day-a-week employee furlough.
By decision dated May 28, 2010, Federal District Court Judge Lawrence Kahn converted his May 17, 2010 Temporary Restraining Order into a Preliminary Injunction barring Governor David Paterson from "submitting, enacting, or implementing emergency appropriation bills containing the furlough and wage (increase suspension) provisions" challenged by the state public employee unions. The 27 page decision rightfully takes the unelected Paterson to task as "the contested terms were abruptly placed within a weekly emergency appropriations bill by the Governor after communications with state employee unions did not lead to desired results; that is, the contractual impairments were sudden and the sole work of the Executive and were proposed in a manner that largely precluded legislative deliberation." Such conduct violates the Contracts Clause of the United States Constitution.
On May 12, 2010, Federal District Court Judge Lawrence Kahn issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) prohibiting New York state Governor David Paterson from going through with his threat to illegally furlough state union employees beginning the week of May 17, 2010. Moreover, the Governor conceded that all plans for layoffs of any state employees are now also "on hold."
The TRO further prohibited any future state budget extender bills from containing any language implementing a one-day-a-week (or any) furlough of government employees until further order of the court. Notably, the court would not have granted such a TRO unless the plaintiffs (i.e., the unions) had shown "a likelihood of success on the merits" on their lawsuits. Moreover, the court further ordered that the 4% wage increases effective April 1, 2010, that Paterson had also illegally withheld, be paid to all affected union members.
The Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) and the Public Employees Federation (PEF) are jointly planning massive rallies to be held through-out the state at noon on Monday, May 10th, 2010 to oppose New York Governor David Paterson's outrageous attempt to "furlough" state unionized public employees. The one-day-a-week furloughs - with all management employees exempt! - would result in a 20% salary reduction for all affected employees - many earning under $30,000 per year. To find a rally location near you please click here.
The Governor's pathetic justification for this patently illegal action? The lack of an agreement with the legislature on a 2010/11 state budget - as if that failure on their part has anything to do with the state workforce! Paterson, who has repeatedly attempted to get the state legislature to respond to his budget requests without success, has now decided to financially harm and punish the state work force (with his management lackeys exempt of course) in an attempt to bludgeon the legislature into submission. Unfortunately for the unelected Governor, neither the legislature nor the state public employee unions consider Paterson's action legal.
The tragic occurrence (as shown by residents and family members in prayer and in mourning, above) in the West Virginia mining town of Montcoal on April 5, 2010, where 29 coal miners lost their lives after a methane gas explosion at Massey Energy Company's Upper Big Branch mine, may have been entirely preventable. Did this non-union company, with a long history of mine safety violations, sacrifice the welfare of its workers for the sake of higher profits? Notably, the Upper Big Branch mine has been cited for more than 1,342 safety violations since 2005. In fact, the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), which regulates the coal mining industry, has repeatedly issued violations against the Upper Big Branch mine for problems with its ventilation system - which is utilized to bring fresh air into the mine while help assuring that quantities of methane gas do not reach dangerous levels.
Massey's chief executive officer, Don Blankenship, has been described as one of the last of the "coal barons" and is rabidly anti-union. Indeed, when it comes to income or safety he seems to come down squarely on the side of profits as a 2005 company internal memo illustrates: "If you have been asked by your group presidents, supervisors, engineers, to do anything else other than to run coal (i.e. - build overcasts, do construction jobs, or whatever) you need to ignore them and run coal. This memo is necessary only because we seem not to understand that the coal pays the bills."
Ben Stein (pictured above), Republican, former Nixon administration official, fiscal conservative, CBS SundayMorning contributor and frequent cable news guest defended public employees this past Sunday, March 28, 2010, imploring fellow conservatives to stop "sneering" at these workers and pejoratively labeling them "bureaucrats." Indeed, the renowned commentator went on to say that "There is a basic assumption among many of us conservatives that bothers me. Basically, the assumption is that if a person is a government employee, then he or she is lazy and shiftless, a parasite just eating up tax dollars without doing anything." His critique of his brethren is absolutely right! So please, take stock while watching his full commentary by clicking here.
Stein is right on the button in denouncing those who label civil servants as "lazy and shiftless." Moreover, he entreated his fellow compatriots to ease off the nasty verbal and threatening abuse recently directed towards public employees. As he further advised: "Let's take our conservative noses out of the air and stop sneering at the people who serve us in the civil service. We would be awfully sad if they were gone, even the ones in the Department of Motor Vehicles."
UPDATED MARCH 25, 2010: On the evening of Thursday, March 25, 2010, the Reconciliation Bill was approved by the U.S. Senate by a vote of 56-43 and then again (due to very minor changes to student loan, Pell grant provisions) by the House of Representatives 220-207 . The corrective legislation now goes to President Barack Obama for certain approval.
On March 18, 2010, the 1.6 million members strong American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME) began distributing hundreds of first aid kits (pictured above) to protect Americans against the deadly virus of opposition to health care reform currently being spread by the health insurance industry and their Republican lackeys. The kits are being provided as a vote nears in the U.S. House of Representatives this Sunday on passing historic health care reform legislation.
UPDATED MARCH 19, 2010: Shortly, perhaps as early as this week, there will be an historic vote in the United States House of Representatives on approving health care reform legislation which has already passed the United States Senate. Organized labor and affordable health care advocates are taking no chances on such a vote failing due to the recalcitrance of certain members of Congress. Both the video below (which will run nation-wide beginning in mid-March 2010) and face-to-face meetings with such public officials are "warning shots" to keep wavering politicians - many of them New York House Members - in line. For a complete list of these "hesitant" members, click here.
On March 9, 2009 a citizens' posse numbering in the thousands marched to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington D.C., where the powerful health insurance lobbying group "America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)" was holding its annual policy conference. Their purpose: to arrest health insurance executives conspiring within to kill health care reform. Watch the video to observe the "arrests."
The Herd: Have Your Say
il 1, 2010 4% wage increase and preventing the Governor from imposing a 20% wage reduction through the illegal implementation of a one-day-a-week employee furlough. 
EF) are jointly planning massive rallies to be held through-out the state at noon on Monday, May 10th, 2010 to oppose New York Governor David Paterson's outrageous attempt to "furlough" state unionized public employees. The one-day-a-week furloughs - with all management employees exempt! - would result in a 20% salary reduction for all affected employees - many earning under $30,000 per year. To find a rally location near you 
