WHY UNIONS MATTER – Lest We Forget

WHY UNIONS MATTER Lest We Forget By Kath Michel Labor Day, held on the first Monday of September, was designated, in 1894, as an annual federal holiday to celebrate and show appreciation for the work of labor organizations and for their contribution to the American economy. After one hundred and six years, do we have anything left to celebrate? The Wisconsin Governor and his ilk have waged an all-out war on unions in Wisconsin. With stout financial support from a boatload of backers including Charles and David Koch, the Bradley Foundation (whose president and CEO, Michael W. Grebe, has mentored Walker most of his political career), Wisconsin ...

PREVAILING WAGE

PREVAILING WAGE By John Spiegelhoff Prevailing wage is the minimum hourly wage employers must pay certain workers who work on construction projects where state dollars are used to fund the construction. The prevailing wage includes the employer's cost of benefits. Prevailing wage is used in any construction project funded in whole or in part by federal or state funds. For example, state-funded projects can be projects to construct highways, roads, wastewater treatment plants, public utilities, colleges, schools or park and recreation improvements. The prevailing wage for these publically financed projects also varies from county to county or ...

WISCONSIN’S RANKING FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

WISCONSIN’S RANKING FOR SMALL BUSINESSES By Joyce Luedke DO YOU KNOW? June of 2015 in the latest Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation survey. ***The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurship , respected around the world, focuses on education and small business start-ups. See page 10 for rankings and page 67 for Wisconsin’s profile. *** Wisconsin’s job creation ranking in the nation fell from 31st in December, 2014, to 38th in March*** Wisconsin’s ranking for small business start-ups dropped from 45th in 2014 to 50th in, 2015. *** Wisconsin lags the nation: 2.3% job creation in the US versus 1.16% for Wisconsin in 2014. Wisconsin trails ...

WORKERS’ MEMORIAL DAY – APRIL 28TH

Unless you are a labor historian, you probably wouldn’t know who Mary “Mother” Jones was. But her legacy in the labor movement is immense. Mary Mother Jones was born Mary Harris in 1837 in Cork, Ireland. She moved to Toronto, Canada at ten years old due to the potato famine in Ireland. In her early adulthood she moved to the United States, married and had four children. In 1867 yellow fever struck her entire family leaving her a widow. She moved to Chicago where her small dressmaking shop eventually burned in the 1871 Chicago fire. In her later years, Mary Harris championed against deplorable working conditions, subsistence wages, twelve ...

Worker Exploitation Laws

A group of people decide to go out to eat. Everyone in the group knows that they will receive a bill when they finish eating. Two people in the group decide that the others will need to pay their dinner bill despite partaking in the benefits of the meal. After reading this hypothetical situation did you perhaps say to yourself “I would never think about doing something like that!” This hypothetical situation is similar to what people commonly and unfortunately call “Right to Work” laws. “Right to Work” is a name or slogan that can be accurately described as a misnomer. Most dictionary references define misnomer as follows: Misnomer ...