Ongoing labor woes at Progress Energy's Shearon Harris plant illustrate security problems still afflicting potential terror targets in the post-9/11 world

More than two years after they voted to unionize with the Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America, the security officers at Progress Energy's Shearon Harris nuclear power plant near Raleigh, N.C. finally have a contract. It came after a protracted fight with the guards' direct employer -- Securitas, the world's largest private security firm -- and involved the firing of numerous union supporters and the intervention of the National Labor Relations Board, which found the company guilty of bargaining in bad faith.

But in an unusual twist, the union members didn't ratify the contract -- the union's international did. And the still-precarious situation faced by the Harris security officers illustrates ongoing security vulnerabilities in the post-9/11 world.

Some background: Three years ago, Harris guards approached the nuclear watchdog group N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network to report serious problems with plant security after their concerns were ignored by company officials and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Among the threats they identified were malfunctioning doors leading to vital parts of the facility, widespread cheating on security certification tests, and efforts to discourage employees from reporting on-the-job injuries, resulting in guards working at less than full physical capacity. The workers blamed the problems on a corporate culture focused on containing costs. N.C. WARN and the Union of Concerned Scientists filed formal complaints with the NRC, the NRC Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper.

In 2006, the NRC confirmed a number of charges in the initial complaint. And last year, in the first regulatory action of its kind since 9/11, the NRC fined Progress $65,000 for the confirmed violations.

At the same time the guards were trying to get the plant's security problems fixed, they were taking steps to improve their working conditions by organizing a union. Among the primary reasons cited by the guards for unionizing was overwork and fatigue -- significant problems throughout the industry after the 9/11 attacks, when the NRC ordered facilities to boost security after evidence surfaced that al-Qaeda had considered targeting nuclear power plants. In the summer of 2006, the Harris guards voted in the union in a close election.

The SPFPA expected that the ensuing contract negotiations would be difficult given Securitas' open hostility toward the union, and their expectations were met. Many union supporters were fired in what appeared to be a concerted effort to intimidate workers, and early versions of the contract offered up by the company actually took away more than 30 benefits that were already enjoyed by the guards. After the NLRB's intervention, Securitas gave back most of those takeaways, but its best and final offer refused to reinstate modest pay raises that had already been promised before the union vote. The guards' representatives balked at signing the contract without the pay raises.

Here's SPFPA President Emeritus Gene McConville (in photo at right) explaining what happened next in a letter being sent to the guards:

The SPFPA had two options in responding to [Securitas'] offer. We could have very easily walked away from this situation and left all of you at the mercy of your Employer. That would mean that you all would remain "at will" employees. We have decided that walking away would not be in your best interest and we will not do so.

The option that we selected is to have the International Executive Board ratify the agreement and to work very hard to represent you during the one year agreement. We hope that during that year, you will get to appreciate the many advantages of being represented by our Union.

Under the SPFPA's constitution, only members can vote on union ratification. But since none of the guards was paying union dues yet, there were still technically no members. In such a situation, the International has the authority to ratify, which it did. This means that for the year-long term of the contract, the guards enjoy certain rights -- such as seniority protections -- that they did not previously have.

"Our feeling was this was the right thing to do," McConville tells Facing South. "These people went out on a limb, and we didn't want to just cut that limb off."

What will happen after that year is up is uncertain at best. In the meantime, though, representatives of the watchdog groups that initially raised concerns about the security implications of the Harris guards' poor working conditions are responding to news of the contract ratification with cautious optimism.

Dave Lochbaum, a nuclear security expert with the Union of Concerned Scientists, says that resolving doubts over the contract's status is most likely a positive thing since uncertainty at work creates stress and distractions -- a serious problem for nuclear security guards' performance. He also reports that SPFPA has taken steps to improve security at other facilities where it represents guards. For example, when the South Texas Project -- a commercial nuclear power plant owned by NRG Energy, CPS Energy and the City of Austin -- and NRC failed to address a number of security grievances at the facility, SPFPA turned to Washington and the larger Service Employees International Union and got the problems corrected.

N.C. WARN Executive Director Jim Warren also thinks having a contract in place for the Harris guards is a good thing -- but not a sure thing.

"It would seem that having a work force that can defend itself against reprisals for reporting violations, having to work hurt, and illegal overtime, etc. would be a plus for security," he says. "However, given the Securitas and Progress history, I wouldn't be surprised if the fight continues."

Labels: 9/11, labor, NCWARN, NLRB, nuclear power, nuclear safety, private security, Progress Energy, Securitas, Shearon Harris, SPFPA, terrorism, union of concerned scientists, unions

The Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record reports that Wal-Mart's federal political action committee, the retailer's political arm, has been expanding its donations to candidates seeking North Carolina state office, including $54,000 to state-level candidates during the current election cycle.

According to the News & Record, in North Carolina, the PAC seems to support candidates with business-friendly reputations:

Of the 52 North Carolina state-level candidates to whom the PAC has given in the election cycle, recipients include Sen. Phil Berger, a Republican who represents Rockingham County and parts of Guilford County; Rep. Nelson Cole, a Reidsville Democrat; Sen. Kay Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat; and Rep. Hugh Holliman, a Lexington Democrat.

But Wal-Mart is not only stepping up its involvement in state-level policy-making. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the company has been holding mandatory meetings with store managers and department heads, encouraging them to oppose the election of Barack Obama and to vote against Democrats in U.S. Senate campaigns because of concerns over pro-labor union legislation. The Wall-Street Journal reported:

The Wal-Mart human-resources managers ... make it clear that voting for Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama would be tantamount to inviting unions in, according to Wal-Mart employees who attended gatherings in Maryland, Missouri and other states.

Wal-Mart continues to face scrutiny for its aggressive anti-union activity, policies that include shutting down the few stores where employees have been able to start organizing drives and firing many others for union activity. This latest anti-union activity surrounds Wal-Mart's fear that Democrats will resurrect the Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that, if passed, would make it much easier and quicker for employees to unionize. Wal-Mart, alongside other large corporations, has been putting heavy funds and resources into lobbying against the passage of the EFCA.

"We believe EFCA is a bad bill and we have been on record as opposing it for some time," David Tovar, a Wal-Mart spokesman, told the Wall Street Journal. "We feel educating our associates about the bill is the right thing to do."

Labels: labor, lobbyists, north carolina, wal-mart, workers' rights

Facing South's bi-weekly listing features new books about the U.S. South and books written by Southern writers.

Covering for the Bosses: Labor and the Southern Press by Joseph B. Atkins, 280 pages, University Press of Mississippi (July 2008)

From the publisher: Covering for the Bosses probes the difficult relationship between the press and organized labor in the South from the past to the present day. In gathering materials for this book, veteran journalist Joseph B. Atkins crisscrossed the region, interviewing workers, managers, labor organizers, immigrants, activists, and journalists, and canvassing labor archives. Covering for the Bosses shows how, with few exceptions, the press has been a key partner in the powerful alliance of business and political interests that keep the South the nation's least-unionized region.

For more information about the book, visit the University Press of Mississippi.

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Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice, by Bill Fletcher, Jr. and Fernando Gapasin, 324 pages, University of California Press (June 23, 2008)

From the publisher: Candid, incisive, and accessible, Solidarity Divided is a critical examination of labor's current crisis and a plan for a bold new way forward into the twenty-first century. Authors Bill Fletcher and Fernando Gapasin chart changes in U.S. manufacturing, examine the onslaught of globalization, consider the influence of the environment on labor, and provide the first broad analysis of the fallout from the 2000 and 2004 elections on the U.S. labor movement. Ultimately calling for a wide-ranging reexamination of the ideological and structural underpinnings of today's labor movement, this is essential reading for understanding how the battle for social justice can be fought and won.

For more information about the book, visit the University of California Press.

Labels: arts and culture, authors, book fridays, books, labor, southern culture, southern history, southern writers, workers' rights

Coca-Cola has agreed to pay $137.5 million to settle a shareholder lawsuit charging officials at the Atlanta-based company with misrepresenting or omitting information from public statements, causing artificial inflation of stock prices.

The plaintiffs in the class-action suit were led by two union pension funds: the Carpenters Health & Welfare Fund of Philadelphia, which held about $80 million in company stock at the time of the filing, and and Local 144 Nursing Home Pension Fund, now called 1199 SEIU Greater New York Pension Fund.

The company continues to deny any wrongdoing.

The settlement has taken some observers by surprise -- including Phil Mattera of the Corporate Research Project at Good Jobs First. Writing on the Dirt Diggers Digest blog, he notes:

Coca-Cola has not made it clear why it decided to settle a case it had fought for nearly eight years. The capitulation was all the more surprising in that it occurred shortly after the company prevailed in Delaware Supreme Court in another derivative suit brought by the Teamsters in 2006. In that case, the union charged that Coca-Cola used its control (35%) over its largest bottler, Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE), to maximize its own profits at the expense of CCE’s shareholders.

In recent years, Coke has faced a number of lawsuits over its business practices. An action filed in federal court in Miami against the company and several affiliates over the alleged kidnapping, torture and murder of trade unionists at its bottling plants in Colombia was dismissed in 2003. That suit was brought by the United Steelworkers of America and the International Labor Rights Fund.

However, the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke continues to pressure the company to get its Colombia bottling plants to end their alleged cooperation with paramilitary groups believed to be behind the killing.

(Photo of United Students Against Sweatshops protesting outside of Coca-Cola's 2006 shareholders meeting from KillerCoke.org)

Labels: coca cola, Colombia, labor, shareholder lawsuits

The Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers have emerged victorious in their campaign demanding that Burger King boost wages and improve working conditions for thousands of farmworkers.

As the AP reports, the campaign -- which saw Burger King being chastised in congressional hearings for using underhanded tactics to thwart the workers' efforts -- came to a close today:

The plan ends a bitter dispute between the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Miami-based fast-food company, the nation's second biggest hamburger chain.

Burger King agreed to pay 1.5 cents more per pound of tomatoes it buys from Florida growers, with the understanding that a penny of that will be passed to workers. The rest will go to growers to help cover additional payroll taxes and administrative costs they might incur, to encourage their participation.

The increase roughly doubles the earnings of the workers while they are picking tomatoes, the worker coalition said.

Labels: burger king, coalition of immokalee workers, Florida, labor, workers' rights

A new study confirms what other reports have documented: workers who don't have unions lose out in their paychecks.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research finds [pdf] that the "union premium" is 11.9% for employees nationally -- meaning, those who are part of a union take home almost 12% more in their paychecks each month than those without a union.

If you single out low-wage workers, the boost is even higher: 20.6%.

The findings are especially relevant in the South. Of the 10 states with the lowest number of workers represented by unions, eight are in the South.

The report estimates that in North Carolina -- the state with the lowest rate of union representation -- union membership boosted the wages of low- to middle-income workers by between 11% and 14% from 2003 to 2007.

Labels: center for economic and policy research, labor, unions

Since Hurricane Katrina, many employers on the Gulf Coast have turned to the federal H2B "guestworker" visa program to meet their need for employees. But labor rights advocates have long warned that the program is prone to abuse, since it ties foreign workers to a single employer for the entirety of their U.S. stay, creating a relationship of extreme dependence that's ripe for exploitation.

Today we got word from folks with the New Orleans Worker Justice Coalition about allegations of extreme abuse involving a Pascagoula, Miss. law enforcement official, a Texas shipyard, an Alabama labor recruiter and 30 Mexican men who came to this country looking for an opportunity to better support their families. Instead, the Mexicans are now hiding in New Orleans, without work or money.

The next time you hear President Bush or other politicians calling for expanding "temporary worker" programs, remember that this is what they're talking about:

For Immediate Release
August 22, 2007
New Orleans, LA
Contact: Saket Soni – 504 881 6610

Pascagoula Police Captain Kidnaps Guestworkers

Mexican H2B visa workers charge ranking officer with kidnapping, kidnapping with intent to enslave, false imprisonment, and gross civil rights abuses; File Notice of Intent to announce that they will bring major lawsuit.

More than 30 Mexican nationals who entered the country on H2B visas were kidnapped in Pascagoula, Mississippi by Captain George Tillman of the Pascagoula police department and a US labor recruiter.

Workers and advocates charged Tillman with State and Federal crimes kidnapping, kidnapping with intent to enslave, false imprisonment, human trafficking, and violations of the workers’ civil and constitutional rights. They filed a Notice of Intent declaring that that they will sue Tillman and the Pascagoula Police Department.

Workers released a formal statement today that recounted their journey as guestworkers across the post-Katrina Gulf Coast:

We are welders and pipefitters from Veracruz, Mexico, who entered the United States on H2B visas in July 2007. We are fathers and husbands, with families to feed. Like all workers we came to the United States because of economic desperation. We are here to feed our children, to send money to our families. We came to work for a Texas shipyard called Southwest Shipyards, LP.

Within days of our arrival we realized that recruiters had lied to us about the living and working conditions in the United States. Several of our co-workers sustained life-threatening injuries on the job. One man was electrocuted. When we organized to ask for safer conditions, we were threatened.

Faced with retaliation, we ran away from Southwest. We went to Alabama, where a recruitment agency named Black Hawk promised us jobs. We signed up with Black Hawk, but the agency packed all 30 of us in two trailers in rural Alabama -- and abandoned us. We stayed in the trailers for 6 days without food or transportation.

Desperate again, we escaped from the Alabama trailers to Pascagoula, Mississippi. There we were kidnapped by Captain George Tillman of the Pascagoula Police Department.

On the night of August 2, 2007, Captain George Tillman of the Pascagoula Police Department arrived at our doorstep in uniform, with his badge and gun. He was accompanied by another officer and the recruiter from Black Hawk. Tillman told us that the recruiter from Black Hawk was our "owner," and that we had to go with him. He said that if we didn't, we would face prison and deportation.

We resisted. But we were forced to pack our bags and get into vans. We were transported to a new location. Tillman and the others packed all 30 of us into three rooms. He warned us that the area would be monitored by the police.

The next morning the recruiter returned to take mugshots of us and videotape us. With the help of several organizations, we escaped, hid in a Walmart, and eventually fled to New Orleans, where we have been living in hiding without work or money.

Workers and advocates challenged federal officials to recognize that the H2B program is creating slave-like conditions for workers across the Gulf Coast. Thousands of guestworkers have arrived to work for US companies after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, said Daniel Castellanos, organizer with the Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity, a Gulf Coast-wide organization of guestworkers. "I am a guestworker and I know the realities of the H2B visa," said Castellanos. "We are brought here on false promises. Our members report being sold, being kidnapped, being told they are owned. Meanwhile survivors of Katrina and Rita are still shut out of work two years later. The federal government is allowing this. They’ve traded the old slaves for new slaves."

Nsombi Lambright, director of the American Civil Liberties Union-Mississippi called on Mississippi lawmakers to ensure that legislation outlawing kidnapping and human trafficking are enforced. "We can't leave it up to conscience to ensure that people of color and poor people are protected from the hundred of Tillmans out there. We have laws. They need to be enforced."

Workers and advocates called on US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to investigate the abuses of civil and constitutional rights guestworkers face in the Gulf Coast. Advocates pointed out that law enforcement seldom protects and often intentionally violates the civil rights of H2B visa workers. "Corporations, law enforcement agencies, and recuiters work hand-in-glove to coerce and control workers. Police often enforce company policy, not US law," said Bill Chandler, director of the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance.

Saket Soni of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice called Tillman's actions "immoral, unjust, illegal -- but not uncommon. Tillman's abuses tell us we need policy changes in Washington DC. But meanwhile, Tillman's going to have to pay up in Pascagoula."

Labels: Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, human rights, Hurricane Katrina, immigration, labor

A recent article in the Mississippi Sun Herald highlights a growing crisis among state employee pension funds, particularly in Mississippi where the state's pension fund is $6 billion short.

The article quotes the Wall Street journal as saying "State and local governments are amassing huge obligations in the form of unfunded retirement benefits from their workers," calling states' unfunded retiree and health benefits "a $2 trillion fiscal hole."

The most recent annual study of state pension funding by Wilshire Associates, an investment consulting and management company, found the following:

• The ratio of pension assets-to-liabilities, or funding ratio, for all 125 state pension plans was 88% in 2006, up from an estimated 87% in 2005.

• Of the 64 state retirement systems which reported actuarial data for 2006, 80% have market value of assets less than pension liabilities, or are underfunded. The average underfunded plan has a ratio of assets-to-liabilities equal to 79%.

• Of the 108 state retirement systems which reported actuarial data for 2005, 84% are underfunded. The average underfunded plan has a ratio of assets-to-liabilities equal to 82%.

In slogging through the most recent annual reports for state retirement systems around the South, we found that North Carolina and Florida are the only two states reporting fully funded pension plans. We also found that Mississippi's retirement system is not the only one struggling. Louisiana's is in worse shape, and Kentucky's is dead last.

Here are the states, ranked by pension funding ratio:

North Carolina	107%
Florida	107%
Tennessee	97%
Georgia	92%
West Virginia	87%
Alabama	84%
Arkansas	83%
Virginia	81%
South Carolina	72%
Mississippi	72%
Louisiana	64%
Kentucky	60%

Kentucky's annual report sums up the laundry list of challenges facing retirement system pension fund managers:

In recent years, funding levels for the pension funds have fallen dramatically in response to investment returns less than the actuarially assumed rate, higher than anticipated retirement rates, the 2006 assumption changes, and increasing expenditures for retiree Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA). Within the [State Employee and State Police Retirement] plans, employer contribution rate reductions enacted by the State Legislature have limited the plans ability to correct the declining funding levels.

To make up the shortfall, states are resorting to a variety of measures, such as increasing taxes, issuing bonds, and requiring employee payroll contributions to their pension plans.

One solution being discussed is to move away from defined benefit programs to defined contribution programs such as 401(K)s. Already the generally accepted standard in the corporate world, defined contribution plans shift the financial risks and management responsibility from the state and its taxpayers to individual employees. Some states are offering defined contribution plans in addition to the state's existing defined benefit plan, others offer a choice, still others are phasing in defined contribution plans for new hires.

The AFL-CIO is also monitoring the situation, and has this state-by-state "pension threat level" map. The map shows a "red alert" for Kentucky, and "yellow alerts" for South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

Labels: economic justice, labor

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) held a hearing yesterday on the adequacy of labor law enforcement in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. Among those testifying was Jennifer Rosenbaum with the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center, which helped bring several successful lawsuits against employers who stole wages from workers in the wake of the storm.

Not surprisingly, Rosenbaum concluded that enforcement was not adequate:

In my view, the [Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division] failed to provide a reasonable level of resources to the region, given the enormous scale of the disaster. Because of this failure, the DOL-WHD, through its New Orleans and Gulf Coast offices, had a limited ability to intervene and address the well-reported, epic wage theft that accompanied the reconstruction. The DOL-WHD thus allowed chains of subcontracted corporations to profit on the backs of the underpaid workers, particularly vulnerable migrant workers. In addition, the DOL-WHD failed to competently record and investigate many of the complaints that it did receive. In the resulting lawlessness, DOL-WHD utterly failed to protect migrant workers from minimum wage and overtime violations and from retaliation.

Other workers' advocates who testified at the hearing were Saket Soni and Jacob Horowitz with the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice, Tracie Washington of the Louisiana Justice Institute, Catherine Ruckelshaus with the National Employment Law Project and Ted Smukler of Interfaith Worker Justice.

IWJ recently released a report titled "Working on Faith: A Faithful Response to Worker Abuse in New Orleans." Based on interviews with 218 workers -- domestic and migrant -- in New Orleans last summer, the report reveals that:

* 47 percent reported not receiving all the pay they were entitled to while working in the region since Katrina;

* 55 percent said they received no overtime pay for hours worked beyond 40 per week;

* 58 percent said they were exposed at work to dangerous substances including mold, contaminated water and asbestos; and

* workers were unaware that the U.S. Department of Labor was an agency charged with protecting their rights.

Labels: economic justice, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, immigration, labor, new orleans, regulatory oversight

After passing the U.S. House in March, today the Employee Free Choice Act -- which guest blogger Tula Connell covered at Facing South last week) faltered in the Senate, with supporters failing to end a Republican-led filibuster:

Democrats were unable to get the 60 votes needed to force consideration of the Employee Free Choice Act, ending organized labor's chance to win its top legislative priority from Congress.

The final vote was 51-48.

The outcome was not a surprise, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., saying for months that he would stop the legislation in the Senate. The White House also made it clear that if the bill passed Congress it would be vetoed.

Most notable fact: the vote was nearly party-line, which meant that even Southern Democrats like Sens. Landrieu (LA), Lincoln and Pryor (AR) -- sometimes skittish about lining up with labor, given anti-union hostility in the region -- voted for it.

Read more at the AFL-CIO blog.

Labels: labor, Work and Community