Melissa Cropper, President of the Ohio Federation of Teachers spoke with America’s Work Force on Oct. 15 on improving conditions in charter schools.
Cropper first talked about the non-profit organization called Say Yes to Education and how they are working to ensure children in our communities have the means and opportunity to attend college. The organization works to provide scholarships for college or other post secondary schools to give kids the opportunity to further their education and have a fair shot at advancing in life. Cropper then discussed charter schools and how many of them in the area are underfunded and in desperate need of more resources for their classrooms. She hopes that Ohio’s legislatures are challenged to visit these schools and listen to these educators and committees about what needs to be done to improve their classrooms so that they can give their kids the best educational experience possible.
Sarah Lahm, a Minneapolis-based writer with the Progressive spoke with AWF on Oct. 15 about why Democrat candidates should target charter schools with parts of their agendas. She said that non-profit charter schools are in a never-ending battle against for-profit schools as they usually fall under the victim to being underfunded and under resourced. Lahm said that if a candidate could gain support from people in charter school areas by promising to help improve quality and conditions of schools, the candidate will find they will gain many supporters.
AWF host Ed “Flash” Ferenc spoke about Houston Airport Workers receiving an increase in minimum wage from $7 an hour up to $12 an hour.
Stein first spoke about the impeachment inquiry against President Trump. She said that she finds the reasons for his impeachment valid because he has been abusing his power for personal and political gain. Stein went on to talk about how President Trump paid Ukraine to investigate Democratic Presidential Candidate, Joe Biden, and although that in itself should not have been done, Trump found out that the Bidens have also been making shady business deals. She then talked about the ranked-choice voting system and the benefits of this method. Ranked-choice voting is when a person ranks the candidates in order of their preference of who they would want to win, and if their first choice did not win, their vote would go to their next choice and so on. Stein said that ranked-choice voting is working in Maine and she would like to see other states adopt this voting method soon.
Tom Germuska, Jr., editor of the Labor Citizen spoke with AWF on Oct. 9 about the upcoming issue of their monthly newspaper. One of the stories featured in the October edition of the Labor Citizen regards the grand opening of the Rocket Mortgage Field House in downtown Cleveland, formerly the Quicken Loans Arena. He talked about how the project was done using union labor and was completed on time and on budget with more than 20 percent of the man hours being completed using Cleveland residents. Germuska also discussed this year’s National Apprenticeship Week, being called National Save Apprenticeships Week and why registered apprenticeship programs are superior to Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Programs (IRAPs).
Melville talked about how in 2011 under the Restoring Access to Medication Act, a person would be able to go into any pharmacy and purchase over the counter medication and their health savings account would pay for it. He said that a person’s health savings account would cover anything that their insurance provider did not cover. Meville also talked about how the rapidly increasing prescription drug prices are out of control and congress needs to work on putting together legislation to fix the issue. He stated that there is a common sense bi-partisan bill in the works right now to make prescription drugs more affordable, but we will have to wait and see what will happen.
Frank Mathews, Administrative Director of District 4 of the Communication Workers of America joined AWF on Oct. 8 to talk about the AT&T tax scam and Protect the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. He said that with the AT&T tax scam, an investigation needs to be done and punishment needs to be distributed to AT&T for not following up on their promises of creating jobs after saving money from a tax break. Mathews said that action needs to be taken against AT&T so that other corporations do not try to follow suit on this and abuse the tax system. He then talked about how the PRO Act is necessary to help protect workers against any reprisal or punishment when discussing organizing in their workplace. Mathews stated that it helps encourage workers to have a voice and stand up for themselves and shifts power back to workers.
McConnell first warned listeners about falling for contractor scams. She said that contractors are going door-to-door and telling people that they have left over materials and resources to rework their driveway and are willing to provide them a service for a discounted price in order to get rid of their surplus of material. Once the person agrees to the service, the contractor will either provide a shoddy service, or no service at all and take the scamee’s money.
Mark Gruenberg, labor writer for Press Associates Union spoke with AWF on Oct. 7 about jobless numbers and labor and civil rights cases. On the topic of joblessness, he said that it is under 3.5 percent, but wage growth is only 2.9 percent, which is slow. He also talked about labor and civil rights cases that will be taken to court soon, some of them involving collective bargaining. Lastly, Gruenberg discussed the unions standing against President Trump, and the progress on the impeachment inquiry against him.
Duritsky spoke about the healthcare industry, manufacturing, productivity and wage growth. While talking about a quarterly economic review on the healthcare industry in northeast Ohio, he said that it had grown by nearly 20 percent, which would equate to about 3.8 million workers. Duritsky discussed how since the recession back in 2007, the manufacturing industry had been steadily recovering and jobs are being added across the industry. Lastly, he spoke about net wage growth since the 2007 recession. According to Team NEO’s report, the average net wage growth in northeast Ohio since 2007 has been 25 percent, which is still behind the national average.
Dorsey Hager, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council spoke with AWF on Oct. 4 about the Building Futures Program and their latest graduating class. He said that the program was designed to introduce high school aged kids in underprivileged and underserved areas to the building trades and show them that an apprenticeship will lead to a job that will put them on a path to the middle class. Hager also talked about Columbus candidates night where people can listen to candidates discuss their future goals and plans.
Crawford, who is from Flint, Michigan first spoke about the Flint water situation. He said that some parts of Flint still do not have clean drinking water and how there still needs to be work done to the cities water pipes to help fix the problem. Crawford then went on to talk about the UAW members who are striking at the GM plants and how GM cares more about their profits than their workers. He mentioned how the only way for the workers to get their voices heard is to show solidarity and come together collectively and say what it is that they want in their contracts. There will be no compromise if there is no organization in their demands. Lastly, Crawford said that the workers can’t overstep with their demands, they need to make them reasonable so there could continue to be conversation and progress towards compromise.
Dave Megenhardt, executive director for the United Labor Agency spoke with AWF on Oct. 2 about training workers in different sectors. The ULA provides programs to help people find the skills that they need in order to find a job. Megenhardt also talked about workers finding jobs where they have sustainable wages and could live off of just one job. He then discussed workers above the age of 50 getting laid off and having difficulty finding another job to last them until retirement. Lastly, Megenhardt spoke about the ULA’s unsung heroes banquet which is held every year.
Vance began his time with AWF explaining what the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance is all about. He said that they work to preserve and improve America’s park infrastructure, such as docks, boat piers, park benches, picnic tables and park bathrooms. Vance said that there is a 14 billion dollar backlog to improve America’s parks and they are in desperate need of improvements. One of the major reasons they do what they do is to allow children and families to have access to a safe, clean and pleasant recreation area outside and have people experience the outdoors rather than avoiding it. The organization is currently working in underprivileged and underfunded areas right now to give kids the chance at a recreational area they had never really had the chance to experience before. Lastly, he talked about how they work to preserve outdoor heritage by providing firearm safety lessons, and expose kids to fishing and hunting.
Tim Burga, President of the Ohio AFL-CIO spoke with AWF on Oct 1 about Ohio House Bill 6, the nuclear bailout bill. He explained that the AFL-CIO back the bill because it provided good union jobs, fossil fuel free energy and it put $125 million into appropriations for renewable energy. Burga also talked about the upcoming Democratic debate, which are to be held at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. He said that they will be discussing economic ideas and plans, wage raises and protection of social security, pensions and medicare.
Paul told a story about a company called Patriot Puck that sells hockey pucks and labels them “made in the USA,” but was discovered the majority of the materials used are from different countries and only the last touches on the pucks are complete in the USA. He said that the label on the box saying “made in the USA” is deceiving because the pucks are complete out of the country, imported to the US, then adding the “made in the USA” label, passing as an American made product. Paul then discussed congress moving to ban Chinese made railcars in the US and how they are looking to draw up a procurement contract.
Tim Linville, CEO of Construction Employers Association spoke with AWF on Sept. 30 about the Fannie Lewis Law being repealed in Ohio and voluntary action from local private and public organizations. He discussed how money being made locally should be put back into the locality to continue to make improvements to their city and programs. Linville said he would like to see both private and public organizations get involved in voluntary action to help make the most amount of improvements possible. Lastly, he talked about his company’s ACE Mentor Program in Cleveland and how it helps high school students discover the trades.
Newman began her discussion on censorship by discussing “Banned Books Week.” Banned Books Week is a celebration of a person’s freedom to read and access a book. She talked about Banned Books Week starting many years ago, beginning with the first banned book, Grapes of Wrath because it was “threatening” to California and their workers in agriculture. Newman then talked about censorship of people’s social media channels and workers getting fired for things they post. She said that people will say that the First Amendment should protect them, but it actually does not. If their employer or human resource manager sees something they posted that they deem inappropriate and doesn’t line-up with their company values, the employee could be fired, not being protected under the First Amendment.
Donnie Blatt, United Steelworkers District 1 director spoke with AWF on Sept. 27 about updates with their union. He talked about former General President Leo Gerard and the legacy he left with current General President, Dave McCall. He then talked about the USW union’s new agenda and what their new goal is moving forward with the steel tariffs on China. Lastly, he talked about organizing drives all around his state.