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The AFL-CIO's Web page (www.aflcio.org) contains information that is vital to the working men and women the Union industry.  Within the site is a section specifically concerned with "Issues and Politics".  It addresses where President George W. Bush stands on working family issues.

During his election campaign, President Bush promised to be a "uniter, not a divider", and to place high priorities on working family concerns such as education and Social Security.

This site separates the rhetoric from reality.   It tracks the actions of Bush and his administration on working family issues and provides links for additional information.

Take a minute to visit www.aflcio.org; look around and see what it has to offer.  It is not just politics.  But being informed on the issues, understanding the current administration, and paying attention to the real story behind the man is crucial. 

We will soon be making decisions at the polls that will affect our lives and our livelihoods.  Be prepared to make conclusions based on all of the facts.

THE TRUTH ABOUT RIGHT-TO-WORK (FOR LESS) LEGISLATION

As a union Electrician would you like to work in a "Right-to-Work" state such as Florida where, if you can find a union contractor, the hourly wage in St. Petersburg is only $16.35 with a fringe package of $7.38?

"Right-to-Work" is a slick slogan designed to trick people into believing that it protects a worker's right to a job.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Right-to-Work legislation assures no worker a job, protects no worker against employer bias or retaliation, and undermines the workers' ability to build a strong union that bargains for fair wages and benefits.

Right-to-Work laws are essentially anti-union laws.  They are created by a loophole in the National Labor Relations Act, which allows a state to prohibit employers from negotiating a union security clause into a collective bargaining agreement.  A union security clause requires all workers who receive the benefits of a collective bargaining agreement to share the cost of that representation, through the payment of union dues.  Right-to-Work encourages some workers to ride the backs of their union brother and sisters by benefiting from good wages, benefits and job protections negotiated by the union without sharing the costs of winning and maintaining those benefits.

This anti-union Right-to-Work movement was started by the National Association of Manufacturers in 1905.  Along the way other anti-worker groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Farm Bureau joined in.  These are the same organizations that led the fight against the National Labor Relations Act, opposed child labor laws, minimum wage laws, unemployment insurance and worker's compensation. 

The latest group to join in this shameless Right-to-Work movement is the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) - a nationwide anti-union contractor association.  The ABC supported the passage of Right-to-Work in Oklahoma in 2001.  Upon passage of Right-to-Work, the ABC claimed it was a true victory and would set a national precedent for other states to follow. 

There are 23 states, which have become Right-to-Work (For-Less) states.  Don't be fooled into thinking that this can only happen in those other states.  The National Right-to-Work movement has set up shop in Indiana with one goal in mind - eliminate the unions.  A bill was introduced in the Indiana legislature in 2004, which would not only make Indiana a Right-to-Work state but also make it a criminal offense for employers to require payment of union dues. 

BECOME AN E-ACTIVIST

As you are aware, the change in administration and control of the Indiana House of Representatives has raised our concerns about what may take place during this year's General Assembly.  In order to keep our members advised and up to date, and as a means of contacting you if the need for action arises, the AFL-CIO has developed the E-Activists Program. 

I am encouraging all of our members to go to www.inaflcio.org and sign up as an activist.

An example of the reason we need your cooperation follows. Suppose there is a bill that will affect the building trades in a negative manner and we feel that our members need to contact their legislators.  If you are signed up an activist, we can contact you telling you about the bill and asking you to contact your legislator either by phone, fax or email.  If a legislator is contacted by hundreds of his/her constituents, they are going to take our concerns into consideration when making a decision regarding that bill.

This program can and will be a powerful tool if you use it.  I encourage each of you to sign up. 

The National Right to Work Committee, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the  Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) - what do these three organizations have in common?  They all oppose Project Labor Agreements (PLAs).  Why?  Because PLAs give every worker on a construction project the right of a collective bargaining agreement.

A PLA is a comprehensive pre-hire collective bargaining agreement. They are a guaranteed right under the National Labor Relations Act.  Under a PLA, the basic terms and conditions for labor are established in advance for everyone involved in the project.  A PLA becomes a bid specification that covers the most important element of any construction project  the worker.

PLAs date back to the 1938 construction of the Grand Coulee Dam in the state of Washington.  NASA used PLAs in the construction of Cape Canaveral, Fl, during the 1960's.  PLAs were also used on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and Disney World. 

In Indiana, PLAs have been used successfully for the past 19 years, on billions of dollars of projects including the Conseco Fieldhouse and the Destec Coal Gasification Project.  (See attached for a more complete listing of projects.)  Under our free market, the owners of these projects chose to utilize PLAs.  They did so because PLAs are a very important tool to ensure on-time and within budget completion of the job.

In spite of this successful history, the ABC, a small group of non-union contractors, has made outlawing PLAs one of their driving forces.  For the past several years, the ABC has been on a crusade across the country challenging PLAs in the courts.  Fortunately, they have lost virtually every court challenge.  In fact the U.S. Supreme Court, in the Boston Harbor case, ruled unanimously against the ABC and in favor of PLAs.

After losing their court battles, the ABC has now embarked on a shameless public relations campaign in an attempt to persuade state legislators to outlaw PLAs.  They have spent huge sums of money on television and print commercials to deny workers the right of a collective bargaining agreement under a PLA.  They have accused any politician who supports PLAs as being in the pocket of big labor.  They have even had the nerve to accuse union PLAs of being discriminatory - this coming from the ABC, an organization that in 2004 had only a 0.8% minority enrollment rate in their apprenticeship program.

Collective bargaining and Project Labor Agreements are your rights guaranteed by the National Labor Relations Act and the U.S. Supreme Court.  Don't let a few non-union contractors take control of our state legislature and outlaw PLAs.  

 PROJECTS IN INDIANA BUILT UNDER PLAs

INDIANA'S COMMON WAGE LAW - UNDER ATTACK

The Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), a small group of non-union contractors, is once again trying to cut your wages.  There is a crusade to convince our state legislators that the construction of public schools and universities should be exempt from the Common Wage law.   Additionally, there is a movement to eliminate all public construction under $500,000 from the scope of the Common Wage law.

How soon they forget the Indiana Common Wage rally of 1995, the largest rally ever to be held at a statehouse in the United States.  On Tuesday morning, March 14, 1995, over 22,000 working men and women marched on our State Capitol to block efforts by the ABC to make radical changes in the law.  Unfortunately, many legislators turned a deaf ear to our concerns and voted to change the law.  Only through subsequent law suits, filed by organized labor, did we recover from this legislative injustice.

Currently, the law requires contractors, on government-financed construction projects over $150,000, to pay workers no less than the common wage rate which prevails in that area.  Our law was designed to protect workers and contractors from the unscrupulous practice of cutting wages in order to be the low bidder on public construction work. This ensures that competition is based on: efficient management, sound engineering, good design and quality craftsmanship.

When the construction bid phase is underway, all construction contractors have available to them the same material prices.  Suppliers put together prices for the materials needed to complete the project, and these prices are then made available to anyone bidding the project. On a public works project, where wages are determined by law, the contract award will not be determined by materials and wages; but instead, by the contractors' ability to maximize efficiency and productivity through their supervisors and workers. Without area wage standards, contractors invariably cut wages to win work. As each new wage-low is reached, it becomes the unofficial ceiling for the next round of bidding. It then becomes a race-to-the-bottom on which contractor can "get away" with paying the lowest wage.

Indiana's Common Wage Law contributes substantially to the stability of the construction industry, which otherwise would not exist.  The common wage requirement provides the continuity required for the industry to maintain: craft skills, decent pay scales, privately funded training and health and retirement programs. This benefits all communities, all businesses, and all workers, as well as state and local treasuries.

Other than the greed of a few non-union contractors, why would anyone advocate the elimination of Common Wage on the construction of public schools?  We can't afford to take the risk of our children attending schools that were built by low-paid and under-skilled workers.  It is time to tell your legislators NO! to proposed changes in our Common Wage law.

PAYCHECK PROTECTION LEGISLATION

Like the shameless "right to work" campaign, the so-called "paycheck protection" movement is an extremist effort aimed at silencing the voice of American workers in the political process.  Special interest groups and non-union contractors have joined forces and are pushing to make "paycheck protection" the law of the land. The mastermind of this campaign is Grover Norquist, an extremist and confidant to Newt Gingrich.  In an interview with Reason magazine, Norquist declared that his objective is "[to] crush labor unions as a political entity".  Their plan is to legislate severe restrictions on union speech that applies to no other organizations, not even large corporations.

Paycheck protection laws place massive reporting and administrative burdens on unions by forcing them to secure annual written approval from every single member before spending any portion of his or her dues on educational activities.  These "educational activities" include informing members about issues and candidates, and communicating with government officials regarding prevailing wage, workers compensation, unemployment benefits, and project labor agreements.

"Paycheck protection" unfairly singles out unions, leaving big business and anti-union associations unaffected.  Huge corporations such as Enron, Haliburton, and WorldCom have spent millions of dollars on lobbying without any special consent from shareholders.  Special-interest groups like the Chamber of Commerce and the Associated Builder and Contractors (ABC) - a nationwide non-union contractor association - do not obtain special authorization from their dues-paying members before lobbying in support of anti-worker legislation. 

Rather than helping workers, "paycheck protection" is an effort by special interest groups to punish the unions for their successful efforts to enact workplace protections.  The unions have led the fight for the 40-hour workweek, the eight-hour day, minimum wage, occupational safety and health laws, the Fair Labor Standards Act, workers compensation, unemployment insurance, and the ban on child labor.  If these special interest groups can silence the voice of unions, through "paycheck protection" legislation, they will be free to pursue their anti-worker agenda of destroying the unions and driving down wages and benefits for American workers.

**PAYCHECK PROTECTION IS POLITICAL PAYBACK**

AGAINST

UNIONS AND AMERICAN WORKERS

LOCK-OUT TAGS FOR JOURNEYMEN WIREMEN AND JOURNEYMEN INSTALLER TECHNICIANS

For some time the Quality Connection has offered Lock-Out tags for all IBEW Local 481 Journeymen Inside Wiremen, and Journeymen Installer Technicians. This safety initiative was brought about in an effort to decrease the number of electrical injuries on the job.  These Lock-Out tags have your picture on them. If you prefer to use the picture on file from the Quality Connection, a request form is available at the Hall and the Credit Union. You may fill out the request form (a post card) and either leave it at the office, mail it, or email your request to todonnell@qc-indy.com. Your tag will be returned in the mail. If you have a different picture you prefer to use, the tags are available for pick up at the IBEW 481 office and the Credit Union. Should you decide to mail the form, the address is Nanci Fields, Executive Director, 9801 Fall Creek Road, #320, Indianapolis, IN 46256.