CONGRESS BLOCKS OVERTIME CHANGES

A vigorous campaign led by the labor movement has prompted Congress to block, at least for now, the new Bush administration wage-and-hour rules that put some 6 million people at risk of losing their overtime pay.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Sept. 9 passed an amendment to a Department of Labor spending bill that reversed the new overtime rules. Twenty-one Republicans crossed over to support labor’s position. AFT president Edward J. McElroy called the amendment “a step in the right direction for working men and women. Instead of weakening the middle class as the Bush administration sought to do, we should be trying to strengthen it.” The Senate passed similar language blocking the changes. Despite these victories, the administration has threatened to veto the spending bill if this language remains in the final version sent to President Bush for his signature. The same day the new rules were to go into effect, hundreds of labor activists attended a rally in front of the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. Two AFT members were featured speakers at the rally. Cindy Weinraub, an early childhood teacher at the Katz Jewish Community Center in Cherry Hill, N.J., told the protesters that she loves her job despite the long hours and low wages. “It will be difficult to continue when I can barely afford to live,” said Weinraub.

The protesters at the AFL-CIO-sponsored rally were joined by Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who vowed to continue their efforts to stop the new regulations.

NEW CONTRACT AVOIDS FOOD SERVICE PRIVATIZATION

The Rochester (N.H.) city council unanimously voted in August to approve a three-year agreement for the district’s food service workers. The agreement not only includes wage increases totaling more than 12 percent over three years, but it also means that food service jobs will not be privatized by Chartwells, the district’s food service provider.

The school department wanted the option to privatize the jobs, but opponents successfully argued that privatization would not benefit the district and would endanger employee benefits and job security. All food service workers except the two managers are paid and receive benefits through the school department.

The new contract gives Chartwells more flexibility in setting wages and hours for employees and managing day-to-day cafeteria operations. In turn, food service employees may file grievances with the school department in the event of a dispute with a Chartwells’ management decision. Activism by members of the Rochester Federation of Teachers played an integral part in avoiding privatization and reaching a successful agreement.

CHARTERS UNDERPERFORM REGULAR PUBLIC SCHOOLS

A new AFT analysis of the 2003 national Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in math and reading shows that charter school students mostly underperform and sometimes score about as well as regular public school students.

AFT researchers were able to obtain and examine the NAEP data on charter schools even though the federal government has repeatedly delayed public reporting of those results. Those delays are especially disturbing because one of the sanctions for schools that persistently fail to make adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act is restructuring as a charter school. Many schools across the country are already in this predicament.

“Being transformed into a charter school is being held out as a solution for struggling public schools,” says F. Howard Nelson, lead author of the AFT report. “But these NAEP data reinforce years of independent research that shows that charter schools do no better and often underperform comparable, regular public schools.”

The full AFT report is available at www.aft.org/pubs-reports/downloads/teachers/NAEPCharterSchoolReport.pdf.

LACOUR JOINS MCELROY ON AFL-CIO COUNCIL

AFT secretary-treasurer Nat LaCour has been elected to the AFL-CIO executive council. LaCour, elected by acclamation at the council’s Aug. 9-11 meeting in Chicago, joins AFT president Edward J. McElroy and 47 other vice presidents and three AFL-CIO officers on the council.

LaCour, who was elected AFT secretary-treasurer at the AFT’s convention in Washington, D.C., in July, had previously served as the AFT’s executive vice president. He chaired the AFT’s organizing committee and its healthcare task force.

LaCour is the former president of AFT’s New Orleans affiliate, the United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO). In 1974, without the aid of a state public employee collective bargaining law, UTNO became the first teachers union in the Deep South to obtain a collective bargaining agreement with a school district.