By Doug Cunningham

The Sheet Metal Workers International Association is fed up with Blue Dog Democrats not coming through for working families. Vincent Panvini is Director of Government Affairs for the Sheet Metal Workers. He says the union is cutting off political contributions until politicians come through on health care and the Employee Free Choice Act.

[Panvini]: ““They’re gutless and spineless, I call them. Not all of them, but some of them. Some of these Blue Dog Democrats – they forget where they came from and, you know, they drink the Kool-Aid.”

By Jesse Russell   Forty one percent of women earning between $40,000 to $60,000 a year spent more than 10 percent of income on out-of-pocket healthcare costs. That’s an increase of 20 percent between 2001 and 2007. Six in ten women with incomes between $20,000 and $40,000 per year report being unable to pay medical bills or being contacted by a collections agency. Those numbers are according to a study by the Commonwealth Fund.

 By Doug Cunningham

Democratic U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel says the Brynwood Partners private equity group should not get away with closing the Stella D’Oro plant after striking workers there won an NLRB ruling that returned them to work.

[Engel]: “That is a disgrace. Should not be happening in 2009. And this Congress needs to take note of it and needs to stand behind these workers."

 By Doug Cunningham

Comptroller candidate Melinda Katz says government is balance – maintaining the character and affordability of city neighborhoods

while keeping New Yorkers working with new development.

[Katz]: “One of the ways a controller can work on this is also work with the trade unions in order to try and see how we can get funding for some of the empty holes and some of the empty projects that are not able to continue in the city.”

According to the Fiscal Policy Institute an estimated 123,000 New Yorkers will benefit from Friday’s federal minimum wage increase. New York workers will only see a slight $.10 increase in hourly wages because the state minimum is currently $7.15. According to the Institute the minimum wage will be 21 percent below the peak value in 1970. In today’s dollars the minimum that year would have been worth $9.23 per hour. The increase equals a 1.4 percent raise for minimum wage workers, while inflation in the state has jumped by 4 percent since January 2007.  

Back-to-back studies show glaring racial unemployment discrepancies in the country’s Empire State. Jesse Russell reports:

Earlier this week New York City’s Comptroller released unemployment data showing a major discrepancy of unemployment rates based on race. The Fiscal Policy Institute also compared their own numbers for the last year ending on April 30^th. Chief Economist James Parrott said they discovered that while minorities continued to lose jobs, white workers actually gained jobs.

[Parrott]: The number of white non-hispanics with jobs actually increased by 130,000 whiles the combined employment of blacks, Hispanics, and Asians fell by 60,000. Now this is a city where members of minority groups account for 62 percent of the resident New York City workforce.

Parrott also worked out the real unemployment rate which accounts for people who are discouraged workers or working part time when they want full time.

[Parrott2]: In terms of, quote, real unemployment rate, what we see for black men in New York state that’s about 20 percent already and again that’s looking over a 12 month period.

 By Doug Cunningham

The Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance is rallying tonight in the Bronx to urge creation of good jobs in the redevelopment of the Kingsbridge Armory to meet the community’s needs. Stuart Applebaum is President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

[Applebaum]: “It comes to a question of what our vision for New York is. Whether or not this is going to be a city where people are going to go to work and earn a living with which they can support their families.”

 By Doug Cunningham

Stella D’Oro workers are filing an NLRB charge alleging that a private equity company is closing the plant to avoid the union. Local 50 President Joyce Alston.

[Alston]: “We cannot allow companies to use fear to force us into situations where we have jobs that can’t sustain our lifestyle. And we’re not talkin’ about getting’ rich, we’re talkin’ about just maintaining a decent life.”

 By Doug Cunningham

Comptroller candidate Melinda Katz says New York City needs jobs, and union jobs pay big dividends back to the city.

[Katz]: “Unions end up being a net positive for the city because they generate the income that works throughout the entire city.”

As Comptroller she will enforce prevailing wage laws.

[Katz]: “It’s important to have someone in there that understands that that’s an important aspect of their job.”

 WINnyc – 1010WINS – 07/08/09 – Plumbers/Helmets To Hardhats

By Doug Cunningham

For thousands of military veterans, the Helmets To Hardhats program and Plumbers union has been their path into solid middle-class jobs. Plumbers and Pipefitters International President Bill Hite.

[Hite]: “It’s been a great program. We’ve taken in thousands of members though the program. And it’s great. It’s the right thing to do. They’re over there and the soldiers are in Iraq and Afghanistan and all over the globe protecting our freedom and it’s the least we could do to give back to them.”