Events for You

IWJKansas Salutes IAM Local 639

Reverend Charles R. Claycomb, pastor of University United Methodist Church, Wichita, and an IWJ Kansas board member recently attended a meeting of IAM Local 639 where he presented the union a check of $250 and an IWJ certificate to honor the union for standing up for workers rights.

Pine Valley Christian Church and IWJ Kansas

Invite you to attend a Faith and Labor Forum on Friday, March 8, 2013 at 7:00. Music will be provided by Shoulder to Shoulder. Speakers include Bryan Pfiefer and Rennie Holland, AFT, and Rev. David Hansen, IWJ Kansas. We will also learn about developments for the Sunflower Worker Center. This is a time to network and learn more about what is happening locally and in Kansas.

Communication Workers/Ver.di T-Mobile Rally

We are happy to share the following news from CWA. For more information please contact the Communications Workers of America office in Wichita.

We will have a German Delegation here from Dortmund call center/Ver.di union to highlight the differences between how they are treated in Germany and how the T-Mobile workers are treated here in the United States. They will also be highlighting their mission to make sure that jobs are not lost during the T-Mobile/MetroPCS merger. 

Please join us for this rally and bring any and all interested parties with you so we can highlight the differences in treatment between the workers in Germany and the United States. Lets make this a big rally.

When	Sat Mar 23, 2013 1pm – 3pm Central Time
Where	2525 N Woodlawn, Wichita, KS

Public Forum: Faith and Labor

If you are concerned about the future of labor and of our communities and you want to know what you can do to help create a positive environment for all workers and their families, please join us.

Friday, March 8, 2013

7:00 pm

Pine Valley Christian Church

5621 E. 21st Street

**************

Music provided by Shoulder to Shoulder

Speakers:

Mr. Bryan G. Pfiefer, Organizing Coordinator, American Federation of Teachers

Ms. Rennie Hudson, Organizer, American Federation of Teachers

Rev. Dr. David Hansen

Interfaith Worker Justice Kansas

Interim Pastor, Pine Valley Christian Church

Stand with Working Kansas Alliance Saturday

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=2ad1462c50995d53c5cebc996&id=0a4900e3e3&e=c8fe7b453c
This coming Saturday at 2pm workers from all across Kansas will be gathering in Topeka on the steps of the State Capitol to rally for workers rights! Join us in standing up for your rights, and telling Governor Brownback and the Kansas Legislature that it’s time to end these senseless attacks on the hard working men and women of Kansas.

Help us spread the word about Saturday by taking a moment to share this post on your social networks.

You can also RSVP to our event on Facebook by clicking here (http://www.facebook.com/events/569806503032239/) , and be sure to invite your friends, family, and coworkers to join us as well!

See you Saturday.
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Copyright © 2013 Working Kansas Alliance / Kansas Coalition for Workplace Safety, All rights reserved.

HB 2123 Attacks Unions

Kansas lawmakers have launched a frontal attack on unions. The Feb. 1, 2013, Wichita Eagle blog noted that, "Legislation, which the House approved Thursday, is entirely about trying to weaken unions--which is why it is being pushed by the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Americans for Prosperity." The goal, made clear in HB 2123, is to get rid of public sector unions. But don't take my word for it. The text of this bill is printed here. I am opposed to this bill and similar anti-union legislation.

There is no question that unions have improved working conditions and increased wages and brought better benefits for all workers--union and nonunion. Union members want good jobs, safe working conditions and good pay. These are things that make for healthier families and better communities. In future articles I will reflect on why  I believe worker rights should be of concern to members of faith communities and why now is the time to support working men and women in our community.
                                                                                    Reverend David Hansen, IWJ Kansas                                                                

                                                                                          

Session of 2013

HOUSE BILL No. 2123

By Committee on Commerce, Labor and Economic Development

1-29

AN ACT concerning public employees; enacting the public employees

freedom act.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:

Section 1. Sections 1 through 11 shall be known and may be cited as

the public employee freedom act.

Sec. 2. It is declared to be the policy of this state that:

(a) An employer and employee should be free to contract on their

own terms;

(b) mandatory collective bargaining laws violate this freedom; and

(c) as a result, it is hereby declared to be against the public policy of

this state to impose mandatory collective bargaining laws on public

employees and the organizations that represent such public employees in

the collective bargaining process.

Sec. 3. As used in this act, unless the context otherwise requires, the

following words and phrases shall have the meanings ascribed to them in

this section:

(a) "Employee organization" means any association or organization

of employees, and any agency, employee representation committee or plan

in which employees participate that exists, in whole or in part, to advocate

on behalf of employees about grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of

pay, hours of employment or conditions of work.

(b) (1) "Public employee" means a person holding a position by

appointment or employment in the government of this state, or any taxing

or political subdivision thereof, including, but not limited to, public

schools, any authority, commission or board, or in any other branch of

public service.

(2) The term "public employee" shall not include any employee

whose job involves managerial, supervisory, or confidential

responsibilities.

(c) "Public employer" means any state or local government,

government agency, government instrumentality, special district, joint

powers authority, school board or special purpose organization that

employs one or more persons in any capacity.

Sec. 4. (a) Public employees shall have the right to represent

themselves in their relations with their public employer.

HB 2123 2

(b) No provision of any agreement between an employee organization

and a public employer, or any other public policy, shall impose

representation by an employee organization on any public employee who

is not a member of such employee organization.

Sec. 5. No dues, fees, assessments or any other automatic payroll

deductions by public employers from public employee payroll

compensation shall be allowed for transmission to any public employee

organization, any intermediary or private individual, other than for primary

and supplemental pension plans, life, health and other employee benefits,

or contributions made to 501C(3) charitable organizations through a

workplace giving program.

Sec. 6. Any agreement, understanding, or practice, written or oral,

implied or expressed, between any employee organization and public

employer that violates the rights of employees as guaranteed by provisions

of this act, and amendments thereto, is hereby declared to be unlawful, null

and void, and shall have no legal effect. Any strike, picketing, boycott, or

other action by an employee organization for the purpose of inducing or

attempting to induce an employer to enter into any agreement prohibited

by this section is hereby declared to be for an illegal purpose and is a

violation of the provisions of this act.

Sec. 7. It shall be unlawful for any person, employee organization, or

officer, agent, or member thereof, to compel or attempt to compel such

employee or prospective employee to join, affiliate with, or financially

support an employee organization by any:

(a) Intimidation, threatened or actual, of an employee or prospective

employee, or an employee's or prospective employee's parents, spouse,

children, grandchildren, or any other persons residing in the employee's or

prospective employee's home; or

(b) damage or threatened damage to an employee's or prospective

employee's property.

Sec. 8. Any person who directly or indirectly violates any provision

of this act shall be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.

Sec. 9. It shall be the duty of the attorney general to investigate

complaints of violation or threatened violations of this act and to prosecute

any or all persons violating any of its provisions, and to take all means

available to the attorney general to ensure effective enforcement of this

act.

Sec. 10. The provisions of this act shall apply to all contracts or

extensions thereof entered into on or after the effective date of this act.

Sec. 11. If any provision of this act, including any amendment made

by this act, or the application of any such provision to any person or

circumstance, is held invalid, the validity of any other provision of this act,

or the application of such provision to other persons and circumstances,

HB 2123 3

shall not be affected thereby.

Sec. 12. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its

publication in the statute book.

First Annual Meeting of IWJ-Kansas at Newman University

After months of careful planning and organizing, Interfaith Worker Justice of Kansas, a new chapter of the national Interfaith Worker Justice organization, held its first annual meeting on January 12, 2013 at Newman University. The 25 attendees at the meeting included leaders from labor groups, churches, immigrant-rights organizations, and educational institutions in Kansas and Oklahoma, all of whom embraced the IWJ core mission to “mobilize people of faith and work advocates in support of economic justice and worker rights and the local, state, and national levels.”

Reverend Michael Livingston 

The meeting was held under the direction of Rev. David Hansen, Ph.D. the Director of IWJ Wichita, who addressed participants at the beginning of the meeting and introduced the keynote speaker, Rev. Michael Livingston, a national leader in the Interfaith Worker Justice Policy Department. In his address, Reverend Livingston highlighted the challenges that labor advocates face by turning a spotlight on New Labor, an IWJ affiliate organization that is creating worker’s centers in New York and New Jersey.

The New Labor Center in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Livingston reported, “is 2000 warehouse workers, mostly Latino and Haitian, who work for Wal-Mart but don’t work for Wal-Mart. . . . They are hired by temporary agencies as contract workers, but all they do is load and deliver and unload goods for Wal-Mart. Low pay, no health care benefits, unsafe working conditions, irregular hours, no paid sick days, no vacation time, no overtime, wages stolen, and don’t even think about trying to organize.”

Rev. Tim Lytle with Sister Mary Ellen Loch, CSJ    

The New Labor Center, he concluded, “is a lifeline for these workers, they are pulling themselves in from deep waters. Finding their voices, and standing up for themselves.” Reverend Livingston continued to lay out the IWJ legislative agenda, which includes comprehensive immigration reform, minimum-wage increases, and wage-theft regulation. On the local and the national level, IWJ chapters can help to move this agenda forward by bringing members of faith communities together with other community resources to support the rights and the dignity of labor.

Rev. Lytle with Sister JoAnn Mark, ASC          

Following Reverend Livingston’s address, IWJK board member, Rev. Tim Lytle of Unity Church, Wichita, presented  awards honoring the International Aerospace and Machinists Workers, Local 639 for their support of worker’s rights and to two orders of Catholic Sisters—The Adorers of the Blood of Christ and the Sisters of Saint Joseph—for their work with immigrant workers in the Wichita Community.

Meeting participants also heard an address from Ms. Sulma Arias, the Executive Director of Sunflower Community Action. Arias explained the connection between her own church-building experience and her current work for worker and immigrant justice, and she outlined the Sunflower Center’s vision for a Worker’s Center to assist immigrant workers in the Wichita area.

Ms. Sulma Arias, Executive Director of Sunflower  
Community Action, Wichita

“It’s a huge task,” Arias acknowledged, “If we are going to build it and make it a place where we can have conversations about how we are going to create strategies that will win rights for workers, we will have to look at the challenges from the eyes of immigrants through the eyes of labor, activists—it’s going to take all of us, because each one of us brings to the work an experience that is needed to make it happen.”

The meeting ended with the words of two local ministers, Lytle, who looked at the road ahead for IWJ-Kansas, and Rev. Charles Claycomb, University Methodist Church, who offered the Benediction. 

After the meeting, Rev. Hansen articulated his satisfaction with the results. “Our first annual gathering prepared the way for our next celebration on April 4 when we will bring members of the faith community and labor together to honor the life and ministry of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who, as we remember, was killed in Memphis as he stood in solidarity with the sanitation workers who were fighting for worker justice. This celebration will be held at University United Methodist Church at 7:00 PM. It is time to build a new coalition for hope and justice. It will take all of us, but we can do it.”

Participants in the first annual meeting of Interstate Workers Justice of Kansas

HB 2023 Needs You Now

Governor Sam Brownback and his conservative GOP legislators are stepping up their attacks on Kansas teachers - using teachers' paychecks for partisan political gain.

This week, the legislature will be voting on a measure, HB 2023, that will stop public employees, including all public teachers, from having control over their own paychecks. Instead, Brownback and his GOP allies want to dictate how public employees spend their own wages by stopping employees from directing funds to professional organizations.

Kansas teachers need your help now - contact your elected officials and tell them to stay out of public employees' paychecks!

We have seen this before in Ohio, Wisconsin, and Indiana. The Kansas GOP's goal is to silence teachers so they can more easily undercut school funding and teachers' wages.

But don't take our word for it - listen to what supporters of this government interference have to say. Eric Stafford, senior director of government affairs for the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, told the committee, “I need this bill passed so we can get rid of public sector unions.”

And Republican Rep. Peggy Mast even went so far as to call unionized teachers "bullies". It's not enough that the GOP has cut education funding for Kansas kids - they're now personally going after public educators.

It's clear - Kansas teachers and all public employees are under attack and we must act now! Contact your state representative and tell them you support workers' rights!

You can find your elected officials by entering your home address here. Call and e-mail the people elected to represent Kansans and tell them to keep the state out of Kansans' paychecks.

Thank you!

Reflecting Back, Looking Forward

Reflecting on 2012, we give prayerful thought to the 12.2 million Americans who found themselves without a job at the year’s end. As people of faith, we continue to be concerned about our country’s slow economic recovery. While we are encouraged by the steady growth experienced over the past year, we remain particularly concerned for those individuals often left on the margins of the economic recovery. We also recognize that budgetary and deficit reduction decisions soon to be made by Congress may either enhance or repress this growth.

We began the year with a jobless rate of 8.3%, and ended the year with a decreased rate of 7.8%. The average unemployment rate for 2012 was 8.1%. Still, we continue to be deeply concerned about the long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more), of which there were 4.8 million last month alone— 39.1% of the unemployed population. We were encouraged in December to see that Congress extended unemployment insurance through the end of the year, since this program is such a vital resource for the millions of people who are experiencing long-term unemployment.
Among specific worker groups the average unemployment rate in 2012 for adult men was 7.5%, adult women 7.4%, whites 7.2%, blacks 13.8%, Hispanics 10.3%, and Asians 6.0%. Charts with a month-by-month analysis of unemployment among specific worker groups can be found at the end of this statement.

Click here to read the full statement.

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Congressional Update: Thank You! Thank You!

Because of your efforts and the effort of thousands of other Americans, two million long-term unemployed workers will not face an abrupt cut-off of all jobless aid and millions more workers who will run out of state unemployment insurance during the year can seek assistance. Congress, as part of the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ deal that rushed through Washington over New Year’s weekend, approved an extension the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program through 2013.  

We commend the President and congressional leaders, especially Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) and Representative Sander Levin (D-MI) for their tireless efforts on behalf of the EUC program and the families so dependent on it. Without their prodding, insistence, and leadership, hardworking people who have fallen on difficult times would have gotten lost in the flurry and bluster of legislative activity.
Now we urge the new Congress to focus on putting all Americans back to work. While it’s all well and good that they preserved an essential safeguard against poverty and an important gateway to re-employment, we still need access to good jobs. Creating good jobs—with good wages and good benefits—is the only way to restore our economy and America’s failing middle class.

Thanks again to all who stood up for decent benefits for jobless workers.

Reverend Michael Livingston
Policy Director
Interfaith Worker Justice