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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – First time jobless claims dropped by 6,000 during the week ending May 28, but still remained above 400,000 mark, signaling continued weakness in the employment sector of the economy.

The advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment compensation insurance claims was 422,000, down from the previous week’s revised figure of 428,000, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Economists say that initial unemployment claims must drop below the 400,000 mark and stay there for the labor market to recover from the massive job losses of the recent recession.

However, bringing the unemployment rate down might not happen anytime soon, since first time claims for unemployment compensation have stubbornly remained above the 400,000 mark for the past eight weeks.

News was no better for the less volatile 4-week moving average, which was 425,500, down by 14,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 439,500.

In addition, the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate at 3.0 percent for the week ending May 21 was unchanged from the previous week.

However, the total number of people claiming jobless benefits in all programs for the week ending May 14, the latest week for which such data is available, did drop. That number was 7,682,830, down by 56,742 from the prior week.

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending May 21 were:

• California (+7,053)
• Massachusetts (+1,948)
• South Carolina (+1,066)
• Wisconsin (+1,019)
• Pennsylvania (+959)

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Madison, WI, United States (AHN) – A Dane County judge on Thursday suspended the implementation of a law repealing collective bargaining for public employees in Wisconsin on grounds that Republican lawmakers passed it illegally.

Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi ruled that GOP senators violated the state’s open meetings law when they passed Act 10 on March 9 on short notice.

Under the open meetings law, the public should be given at least two hours’ notice for any public meetings.

Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, a Democrat, petitioned the court to block the law after Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca claimed in a complaint that the public and Democrat lawmakers were not notified properly of the convening of a Senate committee that amended the bill and voted to pass it into law.

Senate staff announced the meeting on bulletin boards in the Capitol and informed legislators by e-mail at past 4 p.m. on March 9. The committee convened at 6 p.m. that day so the notice was made less than two hours as mandated by state law.

Only 20 people were allowed to attend the meeting, with Barca as the only Democrat present. Some 3,000 people who were refused entry into the meeting room signed a petition to make a record of the incident.

Gov. Scott Walker sought the law to balance Wisconsin’s 2012-2013 budget. The case will go to the state Supreme Court, which will decide on June 6 if it will take it.

Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, the brother of Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, insisted that Act 10 was passed legally and expressed optimism that the Supreme Court will uphold its validity.

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Detroit, MI, United States (AHN) – Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is threatening workers in the city he will void their collective bargaining agreements by passing a new state law that would lead to the appointment of a fiscal manager who would cancel the pacts.

Bing is pushing for the municipal workers to pay more for health care and pensions.

Initiatives by Republican governors to cut government spending and labor power by curtailing collective bargaining rights have been largely successful even as union leaders protested such attempts in Wisconsin and Ohio. However, Bing did not encounter such stiff resistance among the 12,000 municipal workers.

Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, said the lack of massive objection to Bing’s budget proposals was probably due to the city workers viewing him as a political leader seeking concessions and not to emasculate the unions.

The city previously closed 24 offices spread over five days in the first quarter of 2011 as part of budget-mandated furloughs to cut costs. The offices closed on Jan. 31, Feb. 14 and 28, and March 14 and 28.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The number of jobless Americans filing first time claims for unemployment compensation benefits fell by 6,000 to 388,000 for the week ending March 26, the Labor Department said Thursday.

While the weekly number fell, the four-week moving average rose slightly by 3,250 claimants to 394,250, from the previous week’s revised average of 391,000. The jobless rate bounces around slightly from week-to-week, but it has generally been trending downward since the beginning of the year.

The percentage of unemployed Americans covered by unemployment compensation insurance remained stable at 3 percent for the week ending March 19, unchanged from the previous week.

The number of people filing ongoing claims for jobless benefits dropped by a modest 51,000 claims to 3,714,000 during the week ending March 19, the most recent week that data is available.

A total of 8,770,443 Americans claimed benefits in all jobless programs for the week ending March 12, the latest week for which such data is available.

In addition, extended benefits were available in 35 states and the District of Columbia for the week ending March 12. That number has remained stable since last year.

Those states were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

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Madison, WI, United States (AHN) – A Wisconsin judge issued a temporary restraining order to block implementation of an anti-labor law recently passed by the state legislature that restricts public unions.

Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issued the order Friday to suspend implementation of the new law that would severely restrict the collective bargaining rights of public unions.

Proponents of the bill, including the governor and the state lawmakers who voted for the bill claimed it was necessary to help balance government budgets. However, critics alleged it was nothing more than an attempt to bust unions.

Gov. Scott Governor Walker (R) signed the controversial budget repair bill last week. Sumi issued an order to block publication of the bill, a procedural step that must occur for a bill to become law.

In ruling, Sumi said that lawmakers probably violated the state’s open meetings law when they rushed the bill through. Sumi dismissed suggestions by state attorney general’s that fines against the lawmakers would be a sufficient penalty if they had violated open meeting laws by failing to give 24 hours notice to the public that they planned to meet when lawmakers met to facilitate moving the bill through the legislature.

Saying that the people owned the government, Sumi said it was critical to protect the people’s right to be present at meetings when government business was conducted.

Sumi made it plain that she was not ruling on the merits of the case. But she said that the bill cannot be implemented until the lawsuit against it is heard in court and a decision rendered on the case. However, she did say that lawmakers could reconsider the bill.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Both the number of Americans filing first time jobless claims and the number filing ongoing claims have dropped, the Department of Labor announced Thursday.

Initial unemployment claims filed during the week ending March 12 were 385,000, representing a decrease of 16,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 401,000.

The four-week moving average dropped to its lowest rate since July 2008. It was 386,250, a decrease of 7,000

Ongoing jobless benefits claims dropped by 80,000 to 3,706,000 during the week ending March 5, the most recent week for which data is available. That was below the 3,750,000 continuing claims economists had expected and it was the lowest number of continuing claims since September 2008.

Although the amount of time that individuals can claim jobless benefits varies by state, the maximum benefit period in 99 weeks. In addition, not every jobless American qualifies for unemployment benefits. The percentage of Americans covered by the unemployment insurance compensation program remained unchanged at 3.0 percent for the week ending March 5.

For the week ending Feb. 26, the number of people claiming benefits in all jobless programs was 8,953,610.

Extended benefits were available for the jobless in 35 states and the District of Columbia. Those states were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

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Washington, DC, United States (ProPublica) – by Sergio Hernandez

The term “collective bargaining” has been somewhat ubiquitous lately, as legislators in several states have moved to limit union rights. But while collective bargaining lies at the very heart of what unions do, how it works — especially in the public sector — is not always so straightforward.

What is “collective bargaining”?

Simply put, “collective bargaining” is the process through which employees band together to form a union and negotiate a contract with their boss that lays out certain employment conditions, including things like salaries, benefits, vacation time, work hours, safety conditions and grievance procedures.

Is collective bargaining a “right”?

Sort of.

The United States has officially recognized the right to unionize and bargain collectively since at least’35, when Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act, a federal law governing the formation of unions and the process of collective bargaining. (The U.N. has also long recognized collective bargaining as a fundamental right for workers.)

But the NLRA only applies to private employees. And while federal legislation has since extended certain collective bargaining rights to federal employees, state employees remain subject to their individual states’ laws.

In the cases of Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee and Idaho, legislators are seeking to limit the collective-bargaining rights of their state employees.

What’s the argument for limiting public employees’ right to unionize?

Well, public employees can have more leverage than private workers.

While private unions have an incentive to keep their demands reasonable (lest they drive their employers into bankruptcy and themselves into unemployment), public unions are in a different position. Paying government employees more might mean higher costs for taxpayers, but since it’s hard for most people to shop at a different government, there’s little incentive for public unions to scale back their demands.

Another concern is that public unions can politicize state agencies at the general public’s expense. The unions can use big money and get-out-the-vote muscle to back the election of politicians who will offer them cushy contracts — and leave taxpayers to foot the bills.

Supporters of public-sector unions counter that state employees still face the same workplace issues that private sector workers do, including scheduling, grievance procedures and safety conditions.

Why is this all an issue now?

Many of the states considering this kind of legislation are doing it, they say, in the hope it will help close their respective budget gaps. It’s unclear how much money limiting union rights will save and even harder to know whether legally limiting state workers’ union rights will have any practical effect. While it is within the states’ powers to limit (or even abolish altogether) their employees’ collective-bargaining rights, public employees have occasionally risked fines and jail time by holding illegal strikes.

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Madison, WI, United States (AHN) – Pro-union demonstrators are pledging to continue rallies outside the capitol Thursday after Republican senators, in a controversial move, passed legislation restricting public employees’ collective bargaining rights.

The measure had been stalled for three weeks after Democratic senators left the state to deny the chamber a quorum. However, Republican Senate leaders took advantage of technical rules and stripped the proposal of financial provisions. The amended bill allowed for a smaller quorum, and the bill passed 18-1.

Republican state Sen. Dale Schultz was the lone dissenter. He had earlier offered a compromise that was not acceptable to either side.

“I applaud the Legislature’s action today to stand up to the status quo and take a step in the right direction to balance the budget and reform government,” Gov. Scott Walker said in a statement after the vote. He had pushed for the changes as necessary to offset a $137 million budget deficit.

The Tea Party Express called the passage “a victory not only for the state, but for the nation.”

Opponents were virulent in their criticism of the Republican end run. “Their disrespect for the people of Wisconsin and their rights is an outrage that will never be forgotten,” Democratic Senate leader Mark Miller said in a statement.

State Rep. Peter Barca argued Republicans had violated open meetings laws by calling for the vote without the required 24-hours notice. He said he would refer the action to the attorney general.

The vote was called with only two hours notice.

State Sen. Robert Jauch, one of the Democrats who left the state, charged that “the governor has exposed himself as a fraud.”

A statement from the Wisconsin AFL-CIO called for a rally Thursday “to let Gov. Walker know the fight will continue.”

Activists have already begun recall campaigns against eight Republican senators.

The extensive attention to the legislation brought on by the absence of 14 Democratic senators has adversely affected Walker’s population. Elected with 52 percent of the vote last fall, a Rasmussen poll last week ound only 43 percent of likely votes approved of his job performance.

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Madison, WI, United States (AHN) – The impasse between Democrats and Republicans in Wisconsin over a budget bill that drastically limits collective bargaining rights grew deeper on Tuesday, even as more GOP senators were said to be wavering and considering a compromise.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker on Monday dismissed the latest request from Democrats to negotiate, calling the letter from state Sen. Mark Miller “ridiculous.” He insisted that collective bargaining is a fisal issue, blasting Miller for “car[ing] more about the union bosses than about the next generation.”

All 14 Democratic senators have fled to Illinois to prevent a quorum from being established in their chamber. Republicans hold the majority and need only one Democrat to establish a quorum of 20 to pass the governor’s budget plan.

The bill seeks to address a deficit of $137 million this year, and a projected deficit of $3.6 billion in 2013, without tax increases or layoffs. The GOP-controlled state Assembly passed the measure last month with four Republicans oppposing.

Under the proposal, public workers can’t negotiate their benefits and would have collective bargaining rights only on the issue of wages.

Government employees will see their payments for healthcare premiums rise to 12 percent, and for their retirement to 5.8 percent. They will have the option not to pay union dues, while unions will be required to seek certification every year.

The plan exempts police, fire and state patrol workers.

Workers have offered to agree to increasing their pension and health premium payments if they are allowed to keep theirbargaining rights. Democrats, who had been denied requests to meet with Walker before they fled the state, have also offered an alternative budget plan.

The governor has rejected both proposals, saying painful cuts have to be made to close the budget shortfall.

Walker’s budget fix has ignited labor unrest across the state, and tens of thousands of protesters have been rallying at the capitol, where security procedures have been in force to limit demonstrators inside the building.

The “Fab 14,” as the Democratic senators are called by protesters, have been cited for contempt by Republicans. Police have been ordered to detain them when they enter the state. Moreover, they have been meted a $100 fine for every day of their absence.

On Monday, there were conflicting reports that Democrats were ready to return to the Senate. No homecoming took place but an overture that was quickly rejected.

Miller sent a letter asking the governor and Republican state Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, the majority leader, for a meeting near the Wisconsin-Illinois border to formally restart negotiations.

“I assure you that Democratic state senators, despite our difference and the vigorous debate we have had, remain ready and willing to find a reasonable compromise,” Miller wrote.

Fitzgerald wrote in response, “Your stubbornness in trying to ignore the last election and protect the broken status quo is truly shameful. While we wait for you and your colleagues to finally show up, Senate Republicans continue to stand ready to do the job we were elected to do, here in Wisconsin. I hope you are enjoying your vacation, and your vacation from reality.”

The same day, however, two members of Fitzgerald’s caucus expressed interest in negotiating.

Sen. Luther Olsen told the Journal Sentinel, “They’re in the minority but holding some cards so you’ve got to negotiate, you can’t give up the whole ship.”

Sen. Rob Cowles told the Green Bay Press-Gazette that his fellow Republicans should be willing to meet halfway on parts of the budget bill that have no monetary impact. He said the GOP has gotten most of what it sought from unions in heathcare and pension payments.

“The important part is the monetary concessions. That’s the part that helps balance the budget. The other things are less monetary in nature,” Cowles said.

The comments of Cowles and Olsen come weeks after Sen. Dale Schultz became the first Republican to seek a compromise in the governor’s bill. Schultz wants an amendment ensuring workers would regain their bargaining rights in 2013.

It remains unclear how long the standoff will continue. What is certain is that the bill will see some lawmakers addressing discontent from voters even before their terms are up.

Unions have filed recall petitions against eight Republican senators, while supporters of the governor have filed recall petitions against eight Democratic lawmakers. The Wisconsin Democratic Party has filed an ethics complaint against the governor for possible violation of campaign finance law.

The compaint is about Walker’s recorded phone conversation with a blogger posing as campaign donor and billionaire industrialist David Koch. In the call, the governor says he had considered planting troublemakers among protesters, that he would not negotiate with Democrats and that he would use layoffs as leverage in the debate over the bill.

 

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Madison, WI, United States (AHN) – Democratic Wisconsin senators who refuse to return to the capitol will have to pay $100 for every day of their absence, the latest Republican effort in a standoff over an anti-union bill. Unions have also struck back strongly with a petition to recall GOP senators.

Senate Republicans voted late Wednesday to approve the fine on each of the 14 Democrats who fled to Illinois to prevent a quorum from being established in their chamber. The GOP holds the majority and needs only one Democrat to establish a quorum of 20 to pass a budget bill that has ignited nationwide labor unrest.

Unions have taken an equally aggressive tactic, filing petitions to recall eight state Senate Republicans who have supported the budget plan of Gov. Scott Walker.

“All across the state we will immediately join these efforts and begin collecting signatures, knocking on doors, making phone calls and talking to our friends and family,” Bryan Kennedy, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement.

“We will begin taking our state back before Gov. Walker is able to take it backward,” Kennedy added.

The budget fix, which passed in the state Assembly last week despite Democratic efforts, seeks to curb collective bargaining rights and to raise public workers’ payments for health plans and pensions.

Unions had offered to agree to pay more for their retirement and healthcare premiums so long as they had the right to collectively negotiate terms of their compensation.

But the governor has shown little interest in the financial concessions. He also insists that collective bargaining reform is a fiscal issue rather than a debate on workplace rights.

Walker, who won his first term only last November, has also warned that continued impasse over the bill would lead to layoffs. In response, protesters accused the governor of using layoffs as a political weapon.

Walker wants to close a $137 million deficit this year, and a projected deficit of $3.6 billion in 2013 without increasing taxes. His proposal would require payments of public employees for health premiums to rise to 12 percent, and payments for pensions to 5.8 percent.

The measure limits collective bargaining to base salaries, which means workers would have no power to negotiate their benefits. It allows employees not to pay union dues, and requires unions to seek certification every year.

Police, fire and state patrol workers are exempted from the union reforms.

The plan also reduces aid to local governments by $1.25 billion and aid to schools by nearly $900 million.

Democrats oppose stripping workers of collective bargaining rights. They say Walker had repeatedly denied their requests to meet and discuss the budget plan, forcing them to flee the state.

Early this week, Democratic Senate minority leader Mark Miller released an alternative budget prepared by the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

Unlike the governor’s plan, the Democratic proposal does not require refinancing $165 million in debt.

Although painful, the cuts proposed by Walker, which amount to about 6.7 percent of government spending, have not ignited as much controversy as what critics say is the governor’s refusal to negotiate and an effort by the state to silence opposition.

Protesters have been decrying a “lockdown” of the capitol, where thousands have been gathered day and night to make their sentiments known to lawmakers.

Members of the Assembly were issued eight tickets each to give to constituents for the governor’s address on Tuesday revealing details of his budget plan. But only 20 protesters were actually allowed to watch the speech from the chamber after they “swore to obey the rules.”

Some Democratic lawmakers complained that some constituents were not allowed into the capitol despite having tickets. State Rep. Kelda Helen Roys was denied entry after the budget speech and had to climb into a window to re-enter the building.

The fight for access in the capitol remains in court. A judge issued a temporary injunction on Tuesday ordering officials to open the building to the public during business hours and whenever hearings or session is being conducted.

The state Department of Administration, however, maintains the public always had access to the capitol. It began new procedures last weekend for receiving constituents to the capitol, including limiting visitors to eight per lawmaker.

The process involves law enforcement officers confirming if constituents have appointments with lawmakers, “badging” visitors and escorting them to their appointments, and then visitors being escorted back to the entrance by legislative staff.

Last week, the governor came under fire after he was recorded in a phone call with a blogger posing as billionaire industrialist and GOP donor David Koch, saying he had considered planting troublemakers among protesters. Walker also said he would woo Democrats back to the capitol by promising to “talk” but that he would never negotiate with them.

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