Tuesday, February 2, 2016
The House has already passed a paid sick leave bill, and Gov. Peter Shumlin has indicated his support. The Senate is expected to debate amendments Wednesday and then take its final vote.
“Why didn’t you exempt small employers with five or fewer employees?” Sen. Brian Campion (D-Bennington) asked during debate Tuesday. “That is the part I am truly struggling with.”
Sen. Kevin Mullin (R-Rutland), chairman of the Senate Economic Development Committee, which unanimously recommended the bill, defended the mandate that would affect all employers. Most of the Vermont workers who are without paid sick leave work for small businesses, he said.
Tags: health , labor , statehouse , Vermont Senate , legislature , Sen. Kevin Mullin , Sen. Brian Campion , Sen. Joe Benning , Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility , Rep. Sarah Copeland-Hanzas , Image , Web Only
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Later in the day, the Burlington-based progressive group Democracy for America did the same.
Both organizations made their decisions at the behest of members. While most labor unions leave it to their executive boards to dole out presidential endorsements, CWA president Chris Shelton said at a Washington, D.C., press conference Thursday morning that his union pledged from the start to abide by the results of a survey of its members.
"They voted decisively for Bernie Sanders," Shelton said. "This is absolutely a democratically come-to decision."
Similarly, DFA conducted a weeklong online poll that generated more than 271,000 votes. To win the organization's endorsement, a candidate had to win at least a two-thirds majority. In the end, Sanders took 87.9 percent, compared with 10.3 percent for former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and 1.1 percent for former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , presidential campaign , Communications Workers of America , Democracy for America , Recommended Reading , Image , Web Only
Friday, September 4, 2015
All the frivolity is meant to entice people to a serious cause: influencing Vermont’s elections and ultimately, its public policy. The event, from 2-6 p.m., is the launch party for Rights & Democracy, a left-leaning nonprofit organization that aims to bring a “political revolution” to Vermont in 2016.
Once the music has stopped and the barbecue has been digested, RAD plans to hit the streets and knock on doors with paid canvassers to support like-minded political candidates, said director James Haslam. He left his job running the Vermont Workers’ Center in July to start this venture.
“We are very much looking to have as big an impact as we can on the election next year,” Haslam said.
If Rights & Democracy succeeds, political candidates who sit anywhere right of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) could find themselves in a fight.
The organization’s viewpoint might make some Republicans choke on their Cheerios. “The last thing we need is to continue in the direction we’re going and shifting further to the right,” Haslam said.
Tags: cannabis related , James Haslam , Peter Shumlin , Rights & Democracy , Senator , Shap Smith , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Haslam announced Monday that he's stepping down as the center’s executive director in order to lead a new Vermont-based advocacy group called Rights and Democracy. It's slated to launch on Labor Day.
In his new gig, the 41-year-old Haslam hopes to elect state leaders who support causes the Workers' Center has long championed, such as livable wages, health care reform, affordable housing and environmentalism.
Suffice it to say, Haslam is dissatisfied with what politicians in Montpelier have accomplished on those fronts.
Tags: Senator , James Haslam , Vermont Workers' Center , Bernie Sanders , Peter Shumlin , Vermont politics , Image , Web Only
Thursday, July 2, 2015
"The vote was close," said Jason Serota-Winston, a nurse and member of the negotiating team for the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Care Professionals. The union keeps contract vote figures confidential, he said.
Serota-Winston attributed the narrow margin to members' frustration that several key issues remain unaddressed in the agreement, including safe staffing and safe lifting. Also not in the contract: pay equity for nurses, whether they work in outpatient clinics or the hospital.
The new contract raises all nurses' base pay by 1 percent in the first year and by a half percent in each of the next two years. Nurses haven't had base pay increases in either of the last two years, but had received a 1 percent increase in the first year of the most recent contract.
Tags: Laurie Aunchman , nurses , University of Vermont Medical Center , UVM Medical Center , Image , Web Only
Under the agreement, direct care staff will receive a 2.6 percent increase to their base salaries during the current fiscal year, which applies retroactively, and a 2 percent increase in FY 2016. Some staff will receive additional pay increases or bonuses, depending on licenses they hold, the shifts they work, the length of time they've worked at the center, and other factors.
Gordon Blaquiere, a field services director for AFSCME, served on the bargaining team. Noting that he's been negotiating for 30 years, he described the latest contract for Howard Center workers as one of the top 10 most successful contracts he's worked on.
The Howard Center, a nonprofit that serves people with developmental disabilities, substance abuse and mental health needs, employs roughly 1,500 people, but AFSCME only bargains on behalf of its 702 direct care workers. In a press release announcing the contract, the center noted that 127 of those workers are actual members of the union. (Blaquiere said the union has since signed up roughly 15 additional members.)
Tags: Howard Center , vermont legislature , AFSCME. Bob Bick , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
"He's a favorite son," says Martha Allen, a Canaan librarian who heads the Vermont-National Education Association. "And he's just right on all the issues."
The Vermont-NEA, which represents some 12,000 current and retired teachers, became the first union in the country Wednesday to endorse Sanders. Earlier this month, the South Carolina AFL-CIO's executive board passed a resolution supporting his candidacy, but its broader membership has yet to issue a formal endorsement.
While Vermont teachers may not make or break a national election, Allen promises to turn the Vermont-NEA's support into action — particularly in neighboring New Hampshire.
"We'll see what they need, where they need boots on the ground and send [our members] that way," she says.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Vermont-NEA , Labor , Endorsement , Martha Allen , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Working Vermont, a coalition of labor unions, is calling on the city to require that Uber treat its drivers as employees — instead of as independent contractors — in the temporary operating agreement it’s hashing out with the company. That would mean Uber would pay unemployment insurance and workers' compensation for its drivers.
Late last week, Necrason Group lobbyists David Mickenberg and Rebecca Ramos sent a letter on behalf of Working Vermont to Mayor Miro Weinberger, asking him to hold Uber to this requirement before signing off on an agreement. (Two city council committees are reviewing the agreement, which has not yet been finalized.)
Their demand came just ahead of a ruling by the California labor commissioner that holds that an Uber driver was an employee, not a contractor. Uber, which contends that its drivers are the latter, is appealing the ruling. It's facing a number of legal challenges, but it has prevailed in several similar cases in other states.
Tags: Uber , Vermont Department of Labor , Burlington , Image , Web Only
Monday, June 15, 2015
Sanders' three-day trip to Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and elsewhere came as House Democrats abandoned President Barack Obama on Friday and helped kill legislation that would give him greater power to negotiate a 12-nation trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. While Sanders has long opposed the TPP, Clinton has attempted to remain above the fray.
"I am not clear, nor do I believe the American people are clear, as to what Secretary Clinton's position is," Sanders told reporters in Indianola on Sunday, according to the Washington Post. "Is she for it or is she against it? Those are your two options. The president is for it. Most Democrats in the Congress are against it."
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Presidential Campaign , Iowa , Trans-Pacific Partnership , trade , Hillary Clinton , Elizabeth Warren , campaign trail , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Along with the layoffs, the state also plans to cut another 48 vacant positions in 14 departments. The cuts are part of $10.8 million in state personnel savings intended to help close a $113 million budget gap.
“It’s not a lot of fun,” said Agency of Administration Secretary Justin Johnson, whose own office will see two layoffs, which are technically called reductions in force, or RIFs.
“Fourteen RIFs are … 14 RIFs too many,” said Steve Howard, executive director of the Vermont State Employees Association, who fought the cuts that were once proposed to be more significant. “It’s not a good way to balance the budget.”
Tags: Vermont State Employees Association , Vermont legislature , layoffs , Peter Shumlin , Image , Web Only