Will Vermont’s Information Superhighway Turn Into a Dirt Road?

By Mike O’Day, Verizon Employee, CWA Local 1400

You may or may not have heard, but Verizon has put its land-based telephone operations in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine on the auction block. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, the sale could be worth up to $8 billion as Verizon cuts off telephone lines in favor of wireless and broadband expansion. Landlines bought and paid for by rate-payers over the last century are about to be abandoned to the highest bidder with little regulatory oversight – and hundreds of good paying jobs across New England will be lost as a result.

Verizon’s landline sell-off is yet another example of a “race to the bottom” economy that will effect our jobs and economy, as well as the quality and reliability of local services. Over 130 customer service and administrative staff are represented by CWA Local 1400 and members of IBEW Local 2326 account for the remaining 450 Verizon jobs in Vermont, which includes all the technicians, operators, and engineering people who maintain and service the lines. Verizon also subcontracts 700 or more employees – everything from landscapers to electricians – widening the potential impact to over 1,250 working Vermonters.

What would the sell-off mean for Verizon?

• Decreased state regulation and public oversight.
• Desertion from the costly obligation to provide universal service to all areas of the state at the same price.
• Reduction of the pressure to build high speed internet networks in rural areas.
• A “take the money and run” attitude in order to concentrate high speed FIOS data and video networks in more populous states such as Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and California.

What does this mean for Vermont Ratepayers?

• Verizon wants to cherry-pick its customers by liquidating landlines in rural states to finance high-speed networks more populous states. This “rural redlining” will handicap Vermonters and Vermont businesses.
• The sale would allow Verizon, which has been guaranteed a profit for over a hundred years, to liquidate assets bought and paid for by the ratepayers in order to re-invest profits in bordering states.
• The exit of Verizon, a Fortune 500 company, would signal a set-back for the Vermont economy in state-of-the-art fiber-optic networks which are currently available to our neighbors in New York and Massachusetts.
• If the sale goes through, Vermonters will be at the mercy of an undercapitalized, highly leveraged company that will be expected to return a quick profit to its investors. That will equate to very little investment in high speed internet apart from the downtown areas, and reduced capital to support infrastructure.

What impact could this have on the Vermont labor movement?

• The companies currently showing an interest in Vermont – Fairpoint, Century Tel, and Citizens – all have an aversion to organized labor. They centralize call centers, not sharing the Vermont philosophy that local customers should speak with a local agent. They contract out construction work and use attrition to let existing contracts lapse.
• The sale would witness the further decline of good healthcare benefits and the loss of defined pension plans, and provide another example of corporate greed for short term gains.

As a regulated utility, cherry-picking customers must not be tolerated. Encourage your legislator to block the sale of Verizon, so that the information superhighway isn’t turned into a dirt road!

FOR MORE INFO: Visit http://www.stop-the-sale.org

Rally For Livable Wages at UVM

Student Labor Action Project
Students for Peace and Global Justice
RALLY
September 29th
NOON on the steps of Waterman, UVM
for
LIVABLE WAGES FOR ALL!
DIRECTLY EMPLOYED AND CONTRACTED WORKERS!
Come celebrate the Basic Needs Task Force's recommendation to the administration that calls for all directly employed workers to be brought to a livable wage!
Tell the UVM Administration to accept the recommendation and implement it as soon as possible!
Demand that contracted workers be included in the livable wage policy!
This is the University of Vermont's chance to be a leader in labor issues to Burlington, Vermont, and the whole country! With a real livable wage policy, we will send the message that we care about the workers that make this University run and make it great. By paying a livable wage, we will send the message that we believe our workers should not be living in poverty, and should be earning at least enough to support themselves and their families! Social justice is an important value of UVM, and a livable wage policy will help immensely in the pursuit of that goal. Lets work together to make UVM as great is it can be!
To find out more information, or if you or your club/organization are interested in endorsing this rally, please contact SLAP at uvmslap[at]riseup.net

Labor unites to make Burlington a Livable City

Labor unites to make Burlington a livable city

Published: Sunday, September 3, 2006
Burlington Free Press (versions also published in Times Argus and other VT newspapers)

By James Haslam

On the evening of Aug. 24, an unusual meeting took place. Burlington teachers, construction workers, University of Vermont faculty, service and maintenance workers from both UVM and Burlington public schools, and union representatives from the Burlington Electric Department, Chittenden County Transportation Authority, UPS, City Market and Burlington schools paraeducators sat down together to discuss how to make Burlington a "real livable city" for working people. It was fitting that this took place near the eve of Labor Day. We started by asking ourselves: "Is Burlington one of the 'top 10 most livable cities' in the country?" as has been boasted in national magazines. And, if so, livable for whom? The discussion, surprisingly, painted the picture of a different reality for thousands of community members who are feeling very insecure about the future. The common problems were pointed out:Health care costs are soaring. The system is broken, health care should be a basic right and companies shouldn't be profiting off the sick. There is no affordable housing.We can't afford to send our children to college.The costs of living are going up across the board, and wages aren't keeping up. Property taxes are not the way to fund our schools; they need to be funded by fair income taxes based on people's ability to pay.The point of this meeting wasn't just to list problems, but to do something about them. Burlington labor leaders began making plans on taking action. The first step is to recognize that there's a "race to the bottom" going on, where workers are forced to take less every passing year -- cuts in benefits, low wages, increased hours of work. Almost every employer, whether they be mega-corporations or public school administrations, are saying in unison that benefits need to be cut. Nowadays, unionized workers are the last workers to have affordable health care and decent retirement benefits, and now those are under attack. For workers who don't have unions, those benefits are often cut unilaterally, or they were never given in the first place. But even when union workers successfully fight back against concessions and hold on to decent benefits, the race to the bottom continues as the thousands of non-unionized workers continue to lose ground and good jobs disappear. Unionized workers are only 10 percent of the work force, but organized labor is still the only voice of all working people. On Labor Day we celebrate victories won by the labor movement: the weekend, the eight-hour workday, employer-funded health care, a more humane workplace, and Social Security. But as these past gains erode, the need for a new labor movement based in our communities, workplaces, and homes is increasingly important. On Labor Day 2006, labor leaders in Burlington are upholding this tradition when they say "Let's make Burlington a real livable city for everyone." At 10 a.m., Monday, join hundreds of Burlington-area community members for a Labor Day parade starting outside the H.O. Wheeler School on the corners of Elmwood Avenue and Archibald Street. The parade will make its way through the city and down to Battery Park where there will be a rally and free community picnic with hot dogs, hamburgers and ice cream. It will not only be a fun family day of celebration, but a starting point for a new movement in Burlington. A movement to establish affordable health care as a basic right, livable wages for all workers, the creation of much needed affordable housing and for people to have time to spend with their families. The race to the bottom must be stopped. Together we can make Burlington a real livable city for everyone.

James Haslam is the director of the Vermont Workers' Center Jobs With Justice. E-mail info@workerscenter.org to tell them what a livable city would mean to you and to learn more.

Organizer Position Opening

Vermont Workers’ Center – Jobs With Justice

Organizer Position Job Posting

The Vermont Workers Center - Jobs with Justice has an opening for a full-time organizer to coordinate our workers' rights and economic justice solidarity campaigns. Work in an exciting labor movement organization to:

· build and strengthen a coalition of unions, community organizations, and activists’ workers' rights mobilization network

· support workers winning a voice@work

· develop community support for workplace struggles

· organize a statewide movement for the right to healthcare

Responsibilities include:

· building organizing committees

· securing unpaid media

· pressuring decision makers

· juggling multiple responsibilities

We are looking for a proven organizer with demonstrated experience mobilizing people, moving people to action, and most importantly - winning! For a more detailed job description or to submit resumes & references send by July 21st to: PO Box 883, Montpelier, VT 05601 or email them to info@workerscenter.org.

Organizing to Win Affordable Health Care

by Traven Leyshon, VWC Member

On May 30th, leaders and activists from Vermont labor and community-based organizations met at the Vermont State Employees Association headquarters to craft an action campaign to build a powerful grassroots, labor-led movement for health care as a right, publicly financed, and divorced from employment. This follows on the Workers’ Center’s decision to build a winning universal health care campaign.

In the shadow of the Chittenden East teachers’ strike, three other recent teachers’ strikes, and other potential looming strikes over health care in Burlington and elsewhere — building a movement of unprecedented strength and depth in the face of this crisis must intensify.
As an action campaign we are uniting both those who may believe that Catamount “is a step toward universal coverage,” as well as those who think that it “is worse than no bill at all.” Anyway you add it up, Catamount shows the limits of relying on the current political establishment — even when under pressure from a commendable coalition like the Vermont Campaign for Health Care Security.

Without massive pressure from Vermonters, politics as usual would mean that the legislature will just focus on implementing the bill that was passed, and not move forward until it plays out over three years or so. In the interim, health care would become more unaffordable, and bitter strikes over health care would increase as school boards and businesses try to shift more of the costs onto our families.

At our well-attended Burlington forum on the health care crisis, Jen Henry, a nurse and President of the United Professions of Vermont/AFT, gave us the prescription for curing a sick system: unite labor and our community allies in educating and mobilizing our members, and build a grassroots movement that the politicians can’t ignore.

This spring the Workers’ Center worked with the NEA and others to hold cross-union workshops as part of building a grassroots health care campaign from the bottom up.
Another recent victory for the labor movement was when nurses and Workers’ Center members who support the Justice for Health Care Workers Campaign helped win passage of the Safe Staffing and Quality Patient Care Bill. This was a victory for disclosing proper staffing levels in Vermont hospitals and a step towards ensuring safe and quality patient care in our health care facilities.

Our May 17th Burlington public forum brought the voice of working people to this crisis: including nurses on the front line, firefighters, laid off factory workers struggling to keep insurance, and others fresh from the picket lines and contract campaigns where we’re fighting to keep affordable health care, including the Burlington & Chittenden East Education Associations; Burlington Electrical Department workers (IBEW Local 300); Copley United Nurses & Allied Professionals Local 5109; Fletcher Allen Nurses (UPV/AFT Local 5221); United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE); UVM Faculty (United Academics, AAU P/AFT); UVM Student Labor Action Project (SLAP); Vermont Ironworkers Local 474; and others. The panel was facilitated by Burlington Mayor Bob Kiss.

The Workers’ Center’s Health Care Action Committee is developing an effective organizing campaign that will mobilize thousands of Vermonters to change what is politically possible through intense organizing, education, and grassroots action. This summer we will be canvassing throughout neighborhoods in Barre, Burlington, Rutland, and southern Vermont.

If you’d like to help, please give us a call (802) 229-0009.

Work to End the Healthcare Crisis!
Building a movement for comprehensive health care reform will take the involvement of lots of Vermonters like yourself. From talking to neighbors & co-workers, petitioning, door-to-door canvassing, or writing letters to the editor… there are things you can do to help us build the solidarity and power we need to win!
Contact us at (802) 229-0009 or email info@workerscenter.org to get involved.

Student Labor Action Project: A Two Year Retrospective

by: Katherine Nopper

Living Wages–An Issue of Human Rights
Two years ago, a handful of students recognized a problem at the University of Vermont. Amidst major overhaul, both in terms of new building projects and progressive visioning over UVM’s future, conditions for people working at the University were largely neglected. The student-activists agreed that anyone working at UVM who did not receive a wage to support the cost of living in Burlington was being exploited. Working all day, with negligible benefits, and earning the bare minimum is a violation of human rights and the University had the influence and power to be responsible to the community.

A Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) Chapter was established, which over the past year has transformed into one of the most effective and enthusiastic social justice movements in the University’s history. Working in solidarity with the Vermont Workers’ Center (VWC), Peace and Justice Center (PJC), Vermont Livable Wage Campaign (VLWC), Living Wage Action Coalition, along with local unions and community leaders, the students researched current conditions at UVM and pressed for recognition and accountability by the administration.

Despite assertions by UVM’s President, Daniel Fogel, that only a “handful” of workers did not meet a living wage standard, the VLWC estimated that over a third (167 of 307) service and maintenance workers made less than the living wage of $12.02/hour. Wage trends from other college campuses showed that cafeteria workers, contracted by Sodexho, earned a miserly average of $8/hour. In addition, 279 of 632 clerical workers made less than $25,000, the living wage for a one-person family.

People Ignited Will Not Be Ignored
After the first meetings between SLAP leaders and the top administrators, it became clear that the administration would not accept the idea of a livable wage, and was not the least interested in investigating an issue that made workers rights, and not capital investment projects, a top priority.

The administration’s response fueled a fire that proved the issue was not going to fade away. SLAP students were outside the library, cafeteria halls, and bookstore nearly every day with megaphones, flyers, and banners, informing the student body about livable wages and the injustices that were being committed within their own campus community. Supported by the VWC, PJC, and area unions – including the United Academics faculty union, UE’s service and maintenance workers, UVM’s staff organized with UPV-AFT, and the Vermont Building Trades Council, the campus-wide solidarity campaign became known as “Good Jobs @ UVM.”

In the face of anti-union sentiments on campus and millions of dollars being spent on new construction projects without ensuring fair contracting standards, a “Do the Right Thing” petition began circulating on campus. The petition demanded that all employees had the right to organize without interference and intimidation from the University, and that the University adopt Responsible Contractor procurement policies to ensure that workers were afforded training, safety, pay and benefits to support their families. Meanwhile, the Student Government Association (SGA) debated a livable wage resolution where President Fogel informed the SGA of his “vision” and the financial stability of UVM, yet highlighted that debt is a “big problem.”

Last November, SLAP students and supporters of the Good Jobs @ UVM campaign delivered the petitions, now with over 1,200 signatures, at a Board of Trustees meeting followed by a noontime rally where over 100 students and community members showed their support. The rally also provided the first press coverage around the issue, proving that SLAP was serious about making changes. A week later, the SGA passed the living wage resolution unanimously, changing its name to the “Basic Needs Budget,” and created a committee to investigate the conditions and wages of UVM workers. Going into winter break students were finally gaining momentum.

SLAP Responds to Slow Moving Administrators
A formal set of demands was presented at the February Board of Trustees meeting asking UVM for responsive decisions and movement on three demands:

1. The adaptation of a livable-wage policy for all directly-employed and contracted UVM workers
2. Agreement to move to a strictly neutral position on union organizing, including the right to card-check neutrality
3. The establishment of Responsible Contractor policies including apprenticeship training programs

Administrators responded by citing the creation of the SGA committee investigating livable wages at UVM as proof of movement on demand number one, but flatly rejected the proposed card-check neutrality and claimed that all contracted construction adhered to strict environmental standards.

SLAP pointed out that the committee for livable wages had not met once in three months, even though it had promised its first report by the end of fall finals, and reiterated the demand that neutrality be guaranteed by written policy and that contracting standards include labor standards. A sufficient response and a plan for implementation were requested by April 7th.

As the deadline, and beginning of the SLAP “Week of Action” drew near, the administration still had not responded and the livable wage committee had not yet met. SLAP students knew that visibility and active community support would be needed.

The week began with a press conference, led by Stewart Acuff, National Organizing Director of the AFL-CIO. The following day SLAP members brought computers and cell phones to tables all over campus for classmates to send letters and messages of support for the implementation of a livable wage at UVM.

Students held a “dance-in” for livable wages in front of the President’s wing, dropped off letters for Fogel, held their weekly speak-out in front of the Waterman administration building, and delivered a final petition to the administration in support of all SLAP demands.

Finally on April 7th, a culminating rally took place on the steps of Waterman, turning out close to 200 students and a force of passionate community leaders. The message rang loud and clear, spoken by students, union leaders, politicians, and UVM faculty and staff: Livable Wages Now!

Solidarity in Action
Recognizing that the administration was going to continue to rebuff student and public demands, a group of 14 SLAP students participated in a direct action training. Early Monday morning, students approached the President’s wing of Waterman with packed camping bags, guitars, and pillows in hand with the intent to occupy the wing until their policy proposals were met. With a stroke of bad-luck, they were greeted by Vice President Michael Gower with key in hand. Frustrated, yet resilient, the “Slapatistas” retreated and regrouped.

During this crucial period of confusion and disillusionment, fellow SLAP students rose to the occasion. Students gathered on the green in front of Waterman to erect a “tent-city” – a visible display of solidarity in action for administrators in the building across the street. Over 30 tents were erected, including a dwelling made out of boxes and a “town hall” constructed out of picket fence materials. Students walked by on their way to classes, cars honked, and the visiting admitted students and their families curiously stared at the small village. The issue of livable wages was debated across campus, within classrooms, and amongst friends. The tent-dwellers were visited by Congressman Bernie Sanders, and the next day greeted with early morning coffee left by Representative David Zuckerman. Every day workers from across campus brought food or soda with words of thanks and appreciation, community businesses donated food, and random students came by to show their support.

Last minute efforts to convene the Livable Wage Committee were finally met, yet under guidelines set by the administration. UVM administrators had been forced to acknowledge the issues presented by SLAP throughout the year, but the creation of the task force was too little, too late, and promised nothing as far as implementation.

After three nights of sleeping outdoors and with the permit set to expire, tent-city activists were handed a warning notice, threatening jail time and thousands of dollars in fines if their stay lasted beyond the set hour. SLAP leader, Colin Robinson, was called into the President’s office and threatened with judicial action that would jeopardize his ability to graduate. Rather than submit to intimidation, SLAP students convened on the green well past the permit time to decide whether to end tent-city or not. Police eventually showed up with sirens and flashing lights, and students began to pack up their tents, illuminated by the headlights of nine police cars and a DUI arrest vehicle. In the confusion, eight students were issued citations despite the fact that all students were packing up peacefully.

“We’ll Be Back!”
The next edition of the school paper, The Vermont Cynic, was filled with the SLAP campaign issues and activities, and specifically highlighted the days of tent-city and its conclusion. An open letter from the faculty asked for an apology and explanation from the administration, and many passionate op-eds and in-depth articles explained the week’s events. It was also at this time that the labor community displayed its strength and solidarity with the students and movement at UVM. A community delegation was formed and greeted President Fogel the next Monday morning, demanding all charges be dropped and the adaptation of SLAP’s policy proposal.

President Fogel issued a campus-wide letter explaining UVM’s adherence to socially just values and specifically addressed SLAP’s actions. By finals week, the task force had met twice, debating not whether to establish a policy, but what terms and conditions the policy should include. These meetings will stretch into the summer, with strong leaders remaining in the area to lay the foundation for a firm proposal. SLAP is satisfied for the time being, but the students know that any process controlled by administrators promises little or no action.

In the fall, SLAP will be back out, with greater strength than ever. Changes have been set into motion and students will continue to call on the University to move towards an equitable living wage policy and jobs with justice. While the first step has been taken, only forward progress will be acceptable. The Slapatistas promise to continue working and raising a ruckus while UVM pays its workers poverty wages.

Vermont Labor Against the War Needs You…

by Traven Leyshon, VWC Member

On April 29th, Vermont union members joined the largest labor antiwar contingent ever in New York City. The spirited 15,000-20,000 trade union contingent came from across the country. Altogether, 350,000 people joined the March for Peace, Justice and Democracy.

Why Is Labor Speaking Out?
The war in Iraq is the single most important fact of life in the U.S. today. Some still ask why is labor against the war? That’s easy: health care, education, housing, jobs, heating assistance, our schools, you name it – on every front where community needs are not being met are directly linked to the resources are being squandered on this war.

Our family members and co-workers that have been sent to fight are paying the highest price for this war. We have an obligation to them, and to the Iraqi people, to end this war now. Unions representing millions of working people point to:

• National Guard and Reserve members taken from their jobs, families and communities for indefinite service (essentially a backdoor draft);
• Veterans’ benefits and services cut at the very time their need is growing;
• A war costing hundreds of billions of dollars has siphoned funds from programs to meet human needs – for jobs, health care, housing, education, infrastructure, care for victims of disasters, rebuilding the storm-ravaged Gulf area, protecting our environment and more;
• Millions of our tax dollars funneled to corporate cronies of the Bush administration and growing corruption in government;
• A war that has served as a smokescreen for a corporate assault on working people and our unions: pensions canceled, jobs outsourced & privatized, plants shuttered, immigrants scapegoated, and the safety net we fought to create in tatters;
• Tax breaks for the rich, subsidies for corporations, and the shaft for the rest of us.
  The official opposition of our unions to the war opens space for rank and file activists to educate and organize among our co-workers against the war. We are building a movement that links the war abroad to the war at home against working people and our unions.

The working class is the social force with the self-interest and power to end this endless war and injustice. At present, our labor movement’s consciousness, activity, and organization are far below the levels we needs to fulfill our urgent tasks. Intensive labor antiwar organizing can, and will, change that.

What We’re Doing About It
To that end Vermont Labor Against the War has been:

• Working closely with Military Families Speak Out and Iraq Veterans Against the War to bring speakers into union meetings and have discussions about the reality of what it means to be against the war in the military and to support our troops by bringing them home.
• Organizing labor contingents in anti-war demonstrations.
• Using flyers as tools to initiate respectful discussions with coworkers who believe “you can’t do anything” to end the war, or that supporting our troops means supporting the “war on terror.”
• Educating about the real, democratic, and secular opposition to the U.S. in Iraq, especially Iraq’s growing labor movement. Organizing discussions around the documentary “Meeting Face to Face: The Iraq-U.S. Labor Solidarity Tour” at union and public meetings.
• Organizing material aid for Iraqi unions, pressuring the government to allow Iraqi speakers into the U.S., pressuring the occupation authorities/Iraqi government to give the Iraqi labor movement space to organize, sponsoring a forum with a speaker from the Iraqi Freedom Congress, and an Iraq labor leader tour.
• Affiliating Vermont unions to US Labor Against the War, a national organization of over 125 labor organizations

We need to do much more! We’re talking about showing up at events to demand that politicians take a position for withdrawal and to hold them accountable. What are your ideas? Vermont Labor Against the War needs your input and energy. Please contact us at traven_l@earthlink.net.

Not One More Dollar, Not One More Day!
Bring Our Troops Home Now!
Take Care Of Them When They Return!

Hotline Volunteers Help to Achieve Workplace Resolution

To Vitaliy Pristupa, an immigrant from the Ukraine looking for a job, it seemed like a reasonable deal at the time. A private school bus company would train Vitaliy so he could receive a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) at no cost, in exchange for Vitaliy’s promise to work for the company for a year.

A few months into the new job, Vitaliy had the chance to take additional commercial drivers’ training on his own to upgrade his license. He asked his supervisor if he could work as a substitute bus driver while this training was going on and his boss approved the arrangement. When the training was done, Vitaliy was ready to go back to his regular shift, but his supervisor told him there was no work at the time and that he should check back later.

Vitaliy called several times over the next few months and was repeatedly given excuses for why he couldn’t work. His boss was busy . . . there’s no work . . .the company has been sold.
Then Vitaliy got a letter from a collection agency demanding he pay $500 in a debt to the school bus company for the CDL training. He called the school bus company and was told not to worry. After getting another letter and a phone call from the collection agency – he became very worried.

So Vitaliy called the Workers Rights Hotline. He doesn’t understand what is going on. He wants either to work off his debt or have the debt forgiven. It was a reasonable request.
The Hotline volunteers arranged for a group of Workers’ Center activists to visit the bus company. One of these supporters was Rev. Marcheta Townsend.

Marcheta explained, “I got involved because I think it’s important to help others, especially those folks who are new to our country and who may find it more difficult to maneuver in our culture.”

Marcheta and a couple of other volunteers spoke with representatives with the bus company. The Hotline crew explained that Vitaliy needed to either be re-employed or to have this debt forgiven. The visit – and a number of phone calls by Hotline volunteer, Dawn Stanger – paid off. Eventually the debt was forgiven and the Pristupas are free of the collection agency.

“I think the Workers Center is very good,” Vitaliy’s wife, Lidiya, said. “We didn’t know who to talk to, but someone told us to call the Hotline. We were just hoping someone could help. It’s good not to worry anymore.”

Case in Point: AP’s Firing of Chris Graff

By James Haslam

In a joint letter to the Associated Press (AP), Vermont Congressional delegation of Sen. Jim Jeffords, Sen. Patrick Leahy and Rep. Bernie Sanders expressed that they were “stunned, outraged and saddened by the summary dismissal” of longtime Vermont AP Bureau Chief Christopher Graff.

Chris Graff was a longtime AP employee, who by all accounts was doing his job, had not been informed he wasn’t doing his job and the AP did not cite financial reasons for the firing. In fact, the AP seems to not have provided any reason at all. Unfortunately, no one should be particularly stunned by this.

Everyday our Vermont Workers’ Rights Hotline receives calls of stunned and outraged Vermonters who have just experienced the same thing – the unjust legal realities of “at-will” employment. At-will employment means that if you do not have an employment contract your employer can end your employment for almost any reason, including no reason at all.

Our only hope is that the highly publicized firing of Mr. Graff and the outrage that has followed will shed some light on to the same plight experienced by thousands of Vermonters each year. Where at-will employment is the law of the land, the only way to have any job security is to organize with your co-workers to form a union. That is why it is so important for workers who want job security and the ability to have a voice about our working conditions to organize unions. It is also why it is so important for our elected officials, faith leaders and community members to support workers’ rights to organize.

It is also important to note that “at-will” employment is not the law of the land everywhere. Many other countries have what is called “just cause” employment policies, where there have to be good reasons to be fired, such as unsatisfactory job performance or financial reasons. In fact, if Chris Graff was working in Canada, AP’s firing would be illegal.

It should be noted that the news of massive protests and strikes by students and the labor movement in France (often reported to us by the AP) is in an effort to fight a new labor bill that would make at-will employment effective for young workers. We should be in the streets demanding an end to “at-will” employment in our country.

I hope more Vermonters will become just as outraged when any worker is wrongfully fired, support workers organizing unions and make “just cause” employment the law of the land. Call the Vermont Workers’ Rights Hotline to learn more toll-free at 866-229-0009.

James Haslam is the Director of the Vermont Workers’ Center – Jobs With Justice, www.workerscenter.org

UVM Rallies for Better Pay

Burlington Free Press , Friday, March 31, 2006
By Jill Fahy, Free Press Staff Writer

A group of University of Vermont students, staff and labor rights activists rallied on campus Thursday to demand better wages and working conditions for university workers and contractors not represented by a union.

The noon news conference at Old Mill, organized by the campus Student Labor Action Project, drew about 45 people. Among attendees were representatives for UVM staff -- clerical, professional and technical workers and supervisors -- who are the university's only employee groups not represented by a union.

Jennifer Larsen, a lab technician in UVM's geology department, said staff employees, particularly clerical staff, want more of a voice when it comes to discussions about wages, working conditions, retirement benefits and health benefits.

"The 1,800 employees who are still unrepresented are working to realize the same security afforded the faculty," Larsen said.

Nearly 300 of UVM's 632 clerical staff earn between $20,000 and $25,000 and are among the university's lowest paid workers, according to data from the Vermont Livable Wage Campaign.

University President Daniel Fogel said UVM always has been committed to providing fair and competitive wages for its employees."Among universities, UVM is among the most progressive employers in the nation," Fogel said. "The raises we've given staff on a percentage basis have been at the top of the region as compared to the other New England land grant universities."

About 50 percent of the university's staff employees support unionizing, Larsen said. Because the staff represents the university's largest employee group, it has taken time to gather support for taking a vote on whether to unionize, she added.

The rest of UVM's employees, including the full- and part-time faculty and the campus' maintenance workers, all work under separate contracts. Full-time faculty recently negotiated their second contract. Part-time faculty bargained for their first contract last month.

Colin Robinson, a UVM senior, said UVM's Students for Peace and Global Justice -- an umbrella group for the Student Labor Action Project -- have stood in solidarity with UVM's employee unions for the past four years.

Students also began advocating for construction workers who are pushing the university to change the way it contracts for building projects. Student activists have organized a number of rallies and speak-outs on campus in recent months, calling attention to faculty and staff grievances about working conditions and wages. Among the rallies was a demonstration in February during a UVM trustee meeting.

A 1986 UVM graduate, Larsen said she is impressed by the student support for university employees and contractors.

"As a former student, I'm astonished and thrilled these students are taking on this responsibility," Larsen said.

Contact Jill Fahy at 660-1898 or jfahy@bfp. burlingtonfreepress.com

Also check out the article in Seven Days: http://www.sevendaysvt.com/columns/local-matters-news/2006/reflecting-a-national-trend-local-student-labor-movement-finds-its-voice.html

SLAP Delivers Demands to UVM Board of Trustees

Students at the University of Vermont, including more than 1,200 who signed the Good Jobs @ UVM petition this past semester, countless staff, faculty, Sodexho employees, housekeeping staff, maintenance workers, construction workers and others all stand together in recognition of several demands central to a healthy, socially just institution. We acknowledge that these demands are not new, but rather have been brought to your attention as well as to the Board of Trustees over the past several years. Our concerns are not disparate, but instead are interwoven, and the concerns of each group reflect concerns for the whole community. The blatantly neglectful behavior of your administration in refusing any substantive resolution to these problems has been wholly inadequate, and here we call upon you the administration of the University of Vermont one last time to take action based on the following demands:

I. The University of Vermont will publicly recognize the importance of paying a living-wage to all workers who labor at or on behalf of the University, whether they are directly employed by UVM or by the University's contractors. The University of Vermont shall adopt a livable-wage policy to ensure all of its employees and contracted employees receive a minimum livable wage equal to the hourly rate of pay determined by the state of Vermont's Joint Fiscal Office for a single person in urban Vermont.[1] The University of Vermont shall pay its employees no less than a salary based on this livable wage and shall include the same livable wage figure in its negotiations and contracts for procurement of services from contractors. This minimum livable wage shall be paid for all hours worked, by UVM employees or by the employees of contractors hired by UVM, at or on behalf of UVM. To the extent possible, the University of Vermont will revise all existing contracts to reflect and include this policy before they are renewed, and all new contracts will reflect and include this policy.

II. As an institution founded upon the ideals of democracy and inclusion we call on UVM to agree to move to a strictly neutral position in regards to any organizing campaign. It is integral that all members of the University community are allowed to make their own decisions, free from coercion about whether they want a union. When more than 50% of workers in a unit sign cards authorizing representation by a particular union the university will agree to recognize this union, a process known as “card check”, rather than forcing workers through the complicated and undemocratic National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process. Furthermore, The University shall revise all existing contracts with subcontractors to reflect this requirement.

III. In an effort to promote positive community standards and buildings of the highest quality, UVM construction will be done by contractors who:

• Have a good safety record and provides training in the recognition and avoidance of hazards and specific training called for in the VOSHA standards.
• Shows proof of adequate and relevant insurance coverage for a particular project and must prove their compliance with workers' compensation statutes.
• Meets local prevailing wage standards, which includes health insurance and pension benefits.
• Contractors, who bid on UVM construction projects should maintain, participate in and contribute to bona fide apprentice training programs recognized by the U.S. D.O.L./B.A.T. which must meet twenty-two standards of apprenticeship regulated and audited by the US D.O.L./B.A.T., as outlined in 29 CFR 29.5.
• Are in compliance with the EPA, VOSHA, OSHA and other regulatory agencies and are in adherence to wage and hour standards, record keeping guidelines, child labor regulations and other components of the Fair Labor Standards Act are good indicators of a stable workforce.

We have recognized these demands to be fully attainable within the budget of the University. We have seen models of these practices implemented in numerous Universities nation wide, and expect UVM to stand committed to the acts of social responsibility we hear echoing from Waterman to Ira Allen Chapel. As a leader in the State of Vermont and an institution committed to social justice the Student Labor Action Project feels it is imperative that the Administration and Board of Trustees of the University of Vermont act on these three demands.

We request an official response no later than Friday, April 7th.

Sincerely,
The Student Labor Action Project

[1] Since 2001, the State of Vermont Joint Fiscal Office (JFO) has estimated the cost of basic needs and the equivalent livable wage, based on methodology first developed in Phase 1 of the VT Job Gap Study and expanded by a 1999 Special Legislative Committee. As part of Act 59 – passed during the 2005 VT Legislative Session – JFO updates these calculations every odd numbered year on or before January 15th.

Wal-Mart and the Low Road

By Ellen David Friedman

Listen to this commentary on VPR: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/vpr/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=872541

If Wal-Mart expands in Vermont – as it clearly intends to do – some will say this is great thing: New jobs and low cost goods. Not me. I know too much about Wal-Mart to want them to have more influence in my state. Here’s why:

Wal-Mart doesn't pay employees for all the hours they work. In California last week, for example, Wal-Mart was found to have deprived one hundred and sixteen thousand workers of their legally guaranteed lunch breaks. And there are currently over 40 pending wage-and-hour cases against Wal-Mart in twenty states.

Wal-Mart exploits undocumented workers. Last March Wal-Mart was ordered to pay eleven million dollars to immigrant workers who'd been forced to work off the clock cleaning stores.Wal-Mart discriminates against women. In 2001 a law suit found that women working for Wal-Mart averaged five thousand two hundred dollars a year less in wages then men. And just a year and a half ago, the largest class action lawsuit in history was filed on behalf of one point six million current and former women employees who claimed discrimination.

Wal-Mart treats workers with disabilities unfairly. In 2001, Wal-Mart had to settle thirteen lawsuits which all alleged discrimination against those with disabilities.

Wal-Mart breaks the law to keep unions out. The National Labor Relations Board has issued 60 complaints against Wal-Mart since 1995 for illegal retaliation including firings, unlawful surveillance, threats and intimidation.

Wal-Mart pays poverty wages. The average Wal-Mart worker makes about one thousand dollars less than the federal poverty guideline.

And a majority of Wal-Mart workers have lousy benefits. Tens of thousands of Wal-Mart workers rely on welfare for their health insurance, which leaves taxpayers picking up the cost while Wal-Mart's three billion dollars in annual profits are protected.

Taken all together, this paints an ugly picture of a corporate behemoth that increasingly molds our economy, and our world, to suit its needs. But some communities have decided to take action beyond the courts.

Earlier this month, in a stunning development, with a vote strong enough to override a veto by their Governor, the Maryland state legislature required Wal-Mart to spend eight per cent of payroll to cover their workers' health care, or else contribute the difference to the state's Medicaid fund. Bills along these same lines are now pending in thirty-one other state legislatures. And in Vermont, where the push for universal health care is strong, Wal-Mart should be made to pay its fair share as part of a system that covers everyone.

Wal-Mart is big enough to force itself on us. But it should be restrained from forcing its values on us. The fact is that Wal-Mart is a low-road employer. It gives us low prices, yes, but also low wages, low benefits, low regard for the environment and low respect for the diverse and homegrown economy we value in Vermont. Some communities and some states are trying to force Wal-Mart onto the high road. We should too.

Vermont Workers' Center at the World Social Forum in Venezuela (photos)

http://www.workerscenter.org/album/thumbnails.php?album=6

Organize to Win

Organize to Win: Old North End Community Fights to Save Neighborhood Elementary Schools
By James Haslam, Director of Vermont Workers’ Center – Jobs With Justice

When unions are at their best, workers are united – organizing with their fellow co-workers and crafting a campaign that brings them together to solve problems and win victories for everyone else who works for a living. It’s this basic model of creating positive change through unity, that workers have successfully used to improve rights and conditions they have at work and in their communities.

This fall, members of the Vermont Workers’ Center and residents of the Old North End put together a campaign to fight the closing of their neighborhood elementary schools along this same model.

Runaway healthcare costs coupled with decreasing federal funding for education created a situation where the Burlington School System began looking at ways they could balance the budget. Rumors began to fly that the School Board was once again looking to close one or both of the neighborhood schools in the Old North End – a working-class community which experiences the highest level of poverty in Vermont’s largest city. The two neighborhood elementary schools are also the most racially diverse in the entire state. It’s not a coincidence that these schools are constantly threatened with cuts and closures whenever there’s a budget shortfall. In the words of Barnes parent Siobhan Donegan, “Do not balance the budget on the backs of our kids – or any Burlington children!”

Workers’ Center members living in the Old North End began discussing what a devastating impact losing either of the neighborhood schools would have on their community. We needed to tell the School Board to take our elementary schools off the chopping block – for good. During extensive door-to-door canvassing before Labor Day Weekend, we learned that this sentiment was virtually unanimous among other residents.

Members of the Burlington School Board and Administration talked about their desire to “remove the educational barriers” to low-income students “trapped” in “homogenous” schools. They were considering moving the Old North End students to schools in wealthier neighborhoods where, they said, the students would do better because they’d have model peers from wealthier families. Old North End parents and community members immediately questioned how shipping their kids on city buses outside the neighborhood would help their kids, especially with serious transportation challenges and the inevitable decrease in parents’ ability to participate in their children’s education.

Community organizing meetings began in order to put a campaign together to stop the School Board from closing the schools. Workers’ Center members, parents, and neighbors formed a “Community Schools Coalition” and began collecting signatures on a petition calling on the School Board to keep the two neighborhood schools open. Members also developed allies in other parts of the city to put pressure on their elected board members. Dozens of community members were mobilized to pack Neighborhood Planning Assembly meetings where School Board members were presenting their plan. At the time, the Board members assured the crowd that there were no proposals to close either of the Old North End schools.

Community members kept on organizing. At a packed School Board meeting in early November, Barnes parent and Workers’ Center member, Jonathan Kissam, delivered over 500 petition signatures while supporters surrounded the School Board with signs saying “Keep Our Neighborhood Schools Open.”

Despite the organizing, the School Administration presented their proposal calling for the closing of Barnes as the centerpiece of cuts to the budget that very night. Two days later, over 40 parents and community members met at an emergency organizing meeting at the Barnes School. In the course of the next three weeks they canvassed neighborhoods all over the city, attended any community event they could, and distributed flyers to contact the School Board which generated dozens of calls and emails to stop the proposal.

A media splash was made during a rally at Barnes with over 60 parents, kids, and community members, which later generated dozens of letters to the editor. As a result of this work, the Burlington Free Press came out strongly in support of keeping the neighborhood schools open. The School Board responded by rescheduling a budget meeting to be a community forum at Barnes, where a packed gym of parents and supporters gave powerful testimony to keep the school open.

At the next School Board meeting, residents of the Old North End had their first step towards victory when the School Board voted not to close Barnes in this year’s budget, and adopted the campaign’s proposal to create a community task force to explore all options about how to best meet the educational needs of students with the stress on the city’s budget.

This major victory was not without a hitch. The new budget proposal included cutting the Barnes principle, social worker, librarian, and nurse. The parents knew these positions were vital to the success of their children and school, and that these cuts would start the slow death of Barnes. So the organizing continued. More calls were generated and another round of signatures were collected on an open letter calling for the positions to be restored. On January 10th, the letter and signatures were placed as an ad in the Burlington Free Press. That night, the School Board voted to restore almost all of the cut positions. Step by step, the coalition of parents and community members had won every demand.

In the course of a few months, parents and neighbors joined together to mobilize hundreds more community members and supports who participated in ways both large and small in the fight to keep their neighborhood schools open. Even when things looked bleak and people said that the Administration was just going to shove this down their throats, they kept going. Now they are monitoring and steering the work of the task force and have a voice in the decision.

On January 16th, the Burlington City Council placed an item on the town meeting ballot to support maintaining all six neighborhood schools. Coalition members are continuing to organize for a “Yes” vote on the budget and to ensure that the task force comes up with effective and equitable plans to make our schools the best for all children in Burlington. By organizing a strong voice to counter the easy way out – balancing the budget on children from working class neighborhoods – together we have won an important victory.

To find out the next steps in the Neighborhood schools organizing, go to www.burlingtoncommunityschools.org/ or call Heather Riemer at (802) 343-1468.

The Vermont Workers’ Center is an organization of working Vermont families committed to fighting for justice and respect in our communities and workplaces. To learn more and find out how to get involved go to www.workerscenter.org.

Teachers strike highlights health care crisis, need for unions

Teachers strike highlights health care crisis, need for unions
Times Argus Op-Ed, December 14, 2005

By James Haslam
The teachers' strike in Barre is just a dispute over who will shoulder more of the health care costs directly, the teachers or the school board. This was the heart of a two-week long strike of teachers in Colchester in October. Like most union members, for decades the teachers have given up wages in negotiations to protect their health insurance. Now, they are also being asked to give up this affordable health insurance benefit. The board wants to boost the health insurance premium co-pay to 20 percent over four years with no cap, for teachers. The Barre teachers have said they will accept more moderate increases — from 12 to 14 percent over four years — but want to keep current language that caps their obligation at a percentage of salary.

It is not helpful to anyone to have one group of workers lose health insurance benefits and for people with affordable health care to be dragged down into the unaffordable health care mess that most experience. That doesn't make it easier or cheaper for anyone else to get health insurance.

In fact, taxpayers are already paying for perhaps as much as 60 percent of all health care costs. Our taxes pay for school employees, state employees, municipal employees, the armed forces, veterans, federal employees, Medicaid and Medicare recipients. The problem is that many of us pay the majority of health care costs through our taxes, and still don't have any health care unless we pay our own premiums or just do without health insurance. That is what is unfair and that is a problem that is not fixed by teachers paying a higher co-pay. It is fixed by making health care a right to everybody.

Teachers in Barre, and many other union members, actually have what most workers want and need: an ability to have a say in how they are treated and negotiate what is fair and not have higher costs imposed on them. We should use them as a model and work towards a day when all workers have that same power in their own workplaces. The power of a seat at the table.

It is plain and simple: It is now time for health care reform. It is time that we make health care a basic right available to everybody and lift everyone up to the level where Barre teachers and other union members are. By eliminating profits and waste we can save enough money to have a universal system that covers everybody and takes health insurance out of the middle of contract negotiations. That way, the spiral is upward rather than downward.

James Haslam is the director of the Vermont Workers' Center – Jobs With Justice, which is working in a broad coalition to launch a statewide grassroots campaign to fight for universal health care. His email is james@workerscenter.org.

Barre Teachers Strike: The hard, necessary, fight against concessions

Many thanks to Workers Center members who rallied in support of the 170 Barre teachers during their eleven day strike. We know that unionized firefighters, municipal employees, state employees, electrical workers, UVM and state college employees -- and of course many, many teachers and school support staff -- joined the picket lines, brought food and made contributions to the BEA strike fund.

Details of the settlement still await ratification by all parties, but we've heard that the terms are considered to be a very fair and respectful compromise.

Here at the Workers Center we made outreach calls and sent Action Alerts to support the Barre strike, as we do for every struggle where community support is needed. We were saddened to see that some of our subscribers expressed negative reactions to this strike and want to offer a perspective which may help place this in a broader context:

Most union negotiations now, for all workers, are fighting off concessions: Nearly every unionized worker must fight hard these days just to maintain health insurance benefits, fair wage structures and other job protections that they'd won long ago. The globalized economy is in a "race to the bottom" and pushing everyone down. The health insurance crisis is just one symptom of a economy that is punishing all working people, and rewarding only the corporations and those who profit from them. All workers want to fight off concessions... but only certain workers, with the strength of a powerful union and community support, can fight back against concessions. And it is only this fight-back that slows the "race to the bottom."

We're not better off if we're all sliding to the lowest level: Some disgruntled people complain that "I don't have health insurance at my job, so teachers shouldn't either." By this logic, a downward spiral of ever-lower wages and ever-weaker health insurance benefits is exactly what we should all expect. But of course that's ridiculous. How can we fight for a high standard of wages and benefits for everyone if that standard no longer exists for anyone? Should it only be CEO's that have good benefits? Shouldn't we be joining hands to demand that all workers -- regardless of job or union status -- get what teachers have fought for?

Why are teachers be singled out? A lot of venom sometimes get unleashed at teachers because they are public employees whose salary is paid by local taxes. However, there are so many myths and holes in this that it doesn't hold up to scrutiny. First, here in Vermont, the local property tax has been replaced by a much fairer system that is based in large part on ability to pay. No one making less than $88,000 in household income has to pay more than about 2% of their income for school taxes. But beyond that, just consider that taxpayers are already paying for the health insurance of nearly 60% of all those who have health insurance -- those on Medicare, Medicaid, veterans, current members of the military, all federal employees, all state employees, all municipal employees, all elected officials... the list goes on and on. And wouldn't most people prefer to see their tax dollars spent on a good school system than on another nuclear weapons system? The point is that tax dollars for schools is the best social investment any of us can make.

Teachers are no different from all workers. Teachers have special work conditions, just as all workers do. Only electric line workers have to get out of bed in the middle of the night during ice storms to repair downed lines. Only nurses must be compassionate and skilled at the beds of seriously ill and dying patients. Only teachers have to shoulder responsibility for hundreds of diverse demands every hour of every day from students, parents, administrators and their communities. But what makes all workers the same is their universal need for wages comparable to others doing their job, for working conditions that allow them to do a good job, and for economic security and dignity.

United we stand, divided we fall. Ultimately, this is the most important point. Who benefits when workers criticize other workers? No one really does. We can all only benefit when we recognize the common cause we have as workers, and when we stand together to defend any worker who's in a brave fight against the race to the bottom.

Vermont workers recount injustices to rights panel

Shay Totten
Vermont Guardian
December 21, 2005

BURLINGTON — A panel of legislative and ecumenical leaders heard testimony from dozens of Vermonters about the challenges they face with low pay, a lack of job security, no health care for their families, and how many employers work against their efforts to form unions.

For many of the 12-member Worker's Rights Board, chaired by U.S. Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, the stories are nothing new. Worker after worker testified Dec. 10 under three broad themes: livable wages and good jobs; the right to organize and labor rights; and the right to health care.

The board was comprised of several Democratic lawmakers, one Progressive legislator, a student leader from the University of Vermont, a retiree, and several Burlington area religious leaders.

The panel, whose members were appointed by a coalition of labor organizations, has no strict mandate. In the coming weeks, however, the board will discuss specific actions it could take, or encourage others to take, as a result of the testimony it heard at the hearing, said James Haslam, director of the Vermont Worker's Center, an event sponsor.

The event, on the Trinity Campus of the University of Vermont, was held on International Human Rights Day to link the economic struggle of workers to the broader discussion of human rights, said Brady Fletcher of the Student Labor Action Project at UVM, one of the event sponsors.

"Human rights refers to many things and we don't associate, as we should, the issue of human rights with economic rights," said Sanders in an opening speech to the crowd. "To my mind, if someone cannot find a job that pays them a wage so that they and their family can live in dignity, that is a violation of human rights; if there are people across the street from here who work 40 hours a week but cannot find a doctor or dentist because they cannot buy health insurance, that's a violation of human rights. If people are living in poverty in the richest country in the world, that is a violation of human rights."

Given the location of the event, UVM's administration took the brunt of criticism from participants, many of whom are support and clerical staff members who are attempting to form a union.

"For years, UVM said that while their salaries weren't great, their benefits were," said Jennifer Larsen, a lab technician who has worked at UVM for 16 years. "Then they turned around and said that the benefits we get would bankrupt the university in 10 years, and they then gave us a large cut in our health insurance, and [no] salary increases.

"In the past five years, I have seen a 495 percent increase in premiums and that has not been matched by a salary increase — and in this academic-gone-corporate environment we have no power to speak out," Larsen added.

Two weeks ago, hundreds of students, UVM alumni, faculty, and staff, along with construction workers and community members rallied outside a UVM board of trustees meeting to call for fair labor standards on campus.

Lester Gockley, a UVM maintenance worker and member of the United Electrical Workers Local 267, said a lot of skilled jobs are going by the wayside at the university. "There is a blatant attempt to subcontract a lot of work," he said. And without a union in place to fight against this move, more jobs may have been lost by now.

"Since the arrival of UE at UVM, our organization has led an attempt to promote a livable wage, and UVM has fought this every step of the way," he said.

A UVM spokesman said the school does not openly work against union activity, as evident by the fact that four employee groups are unionized, and strives to ensure that all employees are cared for.

"Our approach with union organizing is that we simply want to make sure that our employees are in the best position to make a well-informed decision as to whether union representation is in their best interest," said Enrique Corredera, a UVM spokesman. "We also recognize the importance of well-compensated and well-cared for employees, whether they are faculty or staff as they are critical to the success of the institution and our ability to fulfill our vision."

Other than UVM employees, former employees at Wal-Mart and IBM, as well as staff members from the Community College of Vermont and Verizon, testified about the challenges they faced trying to form or maintain unions.

Haslam called the event an important step in bringing the real-life struggles of working families to the attention of people who have the power to make change.

"What we saw today was regular people coming together who have the audacity to say that we should have livable wages and good jobs, the freedom to organize, and that health care should be a basic right available to everybody," said Haslam. "And even though we are told that these things are not politically possible ... together we can change what is politically possible. This event was a step in that direction."

Teachers strike highlights health care crisis, need for unions

Times Argus Op-Ed
By James Haslam

The teachers' strike in Barre is just a dispute over who will shoulder more of the health care costs directly, the teachers or the school board. This was the heart of a two-week long strike of teachers in Colchester in October. Like most union members, for decades the teachers have given up wages in negotiations to protect their health insurance. Now, they are also being asked to give up this affordable health insurance benefit. The board wants to boost the health insurance premium co-pay to 20 percent over four years with no cap, for teachers. The Barre teachers have said they will accept more moderate increases — from 12 to 14 percent over four years — but want to keep current language that caps their obligation at a percentage of salary.

It is not helpful to anyone to have one group of workers lose health insurance benefits and for people with affordable health care to be dragged down into the unaffordable health care mess that most experience. That doesn't make it easier or cheaper for anyone else to get health insurance.

In fact, taxpayers are already paying for perhaps as much as 60 percent of all health care costs. Our taxes pay for school employees, state employees, municipal employees, the armed forces, veterans, federal employees, Medicaid and Medicare recipients. The problem is that many of us pay the majority of health care costs through our taxes, and still don't have any health care unless we pay our own premiums or just do without health insurance. That is what is unfair and that is a problem that is not fixed by teachers paying a higher co-pay. It is fixed by making health care a right to everybody.

Teachers in Barre, and many other union members, actually have what most workers want and need: an ability to have a say in how they are treated and negotiate what is fair and not have higher costs imposed on them. We should use them as a model and work towards a day when all workers have that same power in their own workplaces. The power of a seat at the table.

It is plain and simple: It is now time for health care reform. It is time that we make health care a basic right available to everybody and lift everyone up to the level where Barre teachers and other union members are. By eliminating profits and waste we can save enough money to have a universal system that covers everybody and takes health insurance out of the middle of contract negotiations. That way, the spiral is upward rather than downward.

James Haslam is the director of the Vermont Workers' Center — Jobs With Justice, which is working in a broad coalition to launch a statewide grassroots campaign to fight for universal health care.

What teachers' strike teaches us

Op-ed in Rutland Herald and Burlington Free Press.

By James Haslam

The Colchester teachers strike was Vermont's largest and longest strike in recent memory, a big-impact event that provoked wide-ranging discussion all over the state. After taking time to talk and think about this with many different people, I want to share some things I've learned.

One thing that was apparent in Colchester was that teachers are respected and valued for their important work with students. What was less widely understood was that the teachers' union directly contributes to the professionalism and high quality of the work force. The teachers' union has made it possible for people to choose this profession because it promises a stable, though modest, career. And though strikes are dramatic episodes, the union works year after year to provide good working environments for teachers which are, after all, the learning environments for their students.

Almost every single public school in Vermont has a teachers' union (all but one are local affiliates of the Vermont-National Education Association). There are almost 200 separate contracts negotiated by teachers. Since these are generally multiyear contracts, probably about one-third, or 70, are negotiated each year. The labor relations law for teachers has been on the books since 1969, so it's safe to say that perhaps 2,500 contracts have been negotiated in Vermont with only about 20 of those negotiations ending in a strike. That tells me the law works well and results in negotiated settlements — without a strike — 99 percent of the time.

It's clear that strikes are hard. They are hard on the workers, their employer and also the "clients," which in the case of a teachers' strike are students and their parents. But they are a legal, peaceful and reliable way of settling differences. In terms of disruption, a teachers' strike doesn't eliminate teaching days for students, but just delays them. The reports I've heard about returning Colchester teachers is that the re-entry with students was very successful and calm. Everyone got right back to the job of teaching and learning. Students are curious, and may learn something about legal ways that adults resolve their differences; a much better lesson than they "learn" about war, violence, and terrorism from the news every day.

The Vermont labor relations law for teachers lays out a long and formal process for contract negotiations. Every step has to be followed in a time line, including good faith bargaining, mediation and fact finding. The whole idea of the law is to help the school board and the teachers put forward their legitimate concerns, be treated with respect by the other side, and bargain back and forth until an acceptable compromise is reached. The very last step in the law allows the school board to impose its last offer on the teachers, and at the same time, allows the teachers to go on strike. This is in the law to balance out the power between the two parties. Without it, there are two bad choices: Either the negotiations go on and never end, or one side has unequal power over the other. Strikes are challenging, but they are a reliable means to create compromise; a very democratic method.

The sticking point in most contract fights is health care. Colchester teachers have paid 20 percent of their premiums for the last 10 years — significantly more than other school employees in Vermont — but the school board wanted to shift even more cost to teachers. This increase would have wiped out any raise in wages. The strike allowed them to work out an acceptable compromise. Without a union, workers have no equality with the employer, and health care costs just continue to pile up on the workers. The health care crisis is not solved by this approach. Until Vermont finally adopts a universal, publicly financed health care system, the struggle we saw in Colchester will be repeated over and over again.

James Haslam is director of the Vermont Workers' Center.

Op-Ed on Community Standards at UVM

By Colin M. Robinson '06

The University of Vermont is in a time of both transition and great success. It is a time when national attention around the academics, the student body and the "Vision" of the University is at peak. The administration has aspirations which would lead UVM back to the days of "Public Ivy" status and once again find its place among the top institutions of higher education in America. They also have aspiration to make the University not only the premier environmental University but also a leading institution for social and economic justice. President Fogel at his convocation address specifically mentioned UVM's need to "walk the walk" when is comes to issues of social and economic justice. However, currently this is not a reality.

The reality is that while UVM is in a time financial health and record enrollment, the workers that make this University tick — the faculty who teach us, the staff who help us, and the construction workers who are building the "vision" — are not all being given community and family sustaining wages and benefits. The full and part-time faculty union, United Academics, have both reached contract impasse with the University over these specific issues. They are being offered salary increased which do not keep up with the cost of living and rollbacks in benefits. This directly affects the Universities ability to attract and retain high quality faculty and thus OUR education.

The United Staff campaign to organize the 1,800 staff workers at UVM is battling against the University to give the staff collective bargaining rights to guarantee quality benefits, safe work places, and community sustaining wages. The University is using anti-union web pages and worker intimidation to make sure this is not a reality.

Furthermore, we need to make sure that the 9 million dollars in student fees which will go into the new Dudley H. Davis Student Center is not only being used for environmental sustainability but also community sustainability. This is to say that we must make sure that the workers building UVM make enough money to pay for their own children to come here. We must make sure the ideals of social and economic justice are literally built into the construction of the University, not just those of environmental justice.

As members of the University community and customers of the University — the ones paying for this University — it is impetrative that we make sure we are offering all workers at UVM livable wages, fair contracts, and freedom to organize. As we make strides towards being a "Public Ivy" we need to make sure the ideals of social justice are not lost in the national rankings. We must follow the lead of prestigious institutions of higher education like Georgetown University who as of fiscal year 2006 implemented "A Just Employment Policy" which gives livable wages to all employees and the ability to freely associate and organize. Students must show their support and solidarity with those who make the University of Vermont work — the faculty, the staff and the construction workers. Students must make sure social and economic justice at UVM is not just language but a reality; we must make sure UVM "walks the walk".

Join other students, staff, community members and faculty for the "Rally for Fair Faculty Contracts at UVM", Friday, September 23rd at 5pm to march from the AFL-CIO state convention at the Sheraton in South Burlington to the steps of the Royall Tyler Theatre. Make social justice a reality.

Colin Robinson is a student at UVM and a member of the Student Labor Action Project