Category Archives: Labor

Unfortunate editorial comment dropped into S-A Pro Bowl story

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I’ve been bothered by a phrase slipped into the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s lead sports story on Sunday (yes, I do occasionally browse the sports section). The story, by Stephen Tsai, was a preview of the Pro Bowl which ran on the front page of the sports section on game day, with a headline in large type, “Ready for the Show“.

Tsai reviewed the problems the Pro Bowl has had attracting an audience over several years, and the changes made in the game’s format in an attempt to address those problems.

Tsai wrote:

The game’s relevance and entertainment value have been under review the past few years, particularly in 2012, when football became futbol, with flops and phantom tackles.

The competition was more palatable last year. But with Super Bowl players exempt from participation in what is essentially a postseason bye week, a makeover was needed.

So far, so good.

And then came a gratuitous editorial bomb, dropped in out of nowhere.

In concert with the players’ union — self-styled stakeholders — the format was changed. Instead of rosters divided by conference membership, a draft of Pro Bowlers was conducted.

Where did that come from?

“Self-Styled” reads as an anti-player or anti-union pejorative.

Here’s the definition of “self-styled” from the Free Dictionary:

self-styled (s?lf?st?ld?)
adj.

As characterized by oneself, often without right or justification: “poets, real or self-styled” (Constantine Fitzgibbon). See Usage Note at so-called.

Thesaurus.com suggests a list of synonyms, including “supposed,” “ostensible,” “pretended,” “professed,” “so-called,” etc.

So what the phrase appears to be signaling is that the players and their union aren’t really stakeholders in the NFL’s Pro Bowl, but pretend to be.

Is he really saying that the players–the actual people who play the game of football and take the risks it involves–shouldn’t at the table as stakeholders? Or that the players’ union is illegitimate?

Did Tsai mean to say any of these things? Or, one has to wonder, was the phrase inserted by an opinionated editor?

Is some explanation in order?

A union-friendly shopping list

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The AFL-CIO Now blog reminded readers this week that you can support the labor movement when shopping for your holiday meals. I found it interesting because I don’t usually look at food in this way.

As you prepare to head to the grocery store to pick up your Thanksgiving dinner ingredients, double check your shopping list to make sure your Turkey Day fixin’s are all union made in America. Check out some highlights from the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor’s resource site, Labor 411. Here are some of the best union-made Thanksgiving eats and tools from the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM), Machinists (IAM), United Steelworkers (USW) and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW).

What follows is the list of union made items.

Appetizers

Kraft/Nabisco crackers—BCTGM

Nabisco(Mondelez) crackers—BCTGM

Keebler (Kellogg) crackers—BCTGM

Turkey

Boar’s Head—UFCW

Butterball—UFCW

Foster Poultry Farms—UFCW

Thumann’s—UFCW

Cookware/Cutlery

Cutco knife—USW

All-Clad cookware—USW

Side Dishes

Ocean Spray Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce—IAM

Birds Eye vegetables—UFCW

Bread

Pillsbury crescent rolls, frozen and bake rolls/breads—BCTGM

Pillsbury pie crusts—BCTGM

Stroehmann bakery products (for stuffing)—BCTGM

Dessert

Sara Lee pumpkin, apple pie—BCTGM

Mother’s Kitchen cheese cakes—BCTGM

Nabisco (Mondelez) cookies—BCTGM

Rich’s pies and cakes—BCTGM

Other

Quaker Oats (for apple crisp)—BCTGM

You can also search the Labor 411 site for other items like wine, beer, etc.

Mayor seems to say counties failed to make key argument during police arbitration

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There’s a very strange story in today’s Star-Advertiser describing Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s reaction to the decision in the police officers’ wage arbitration (“Police pay deal shuts mayors out/County leaders had sought talks over standard-of-conduct pay, Caldwell says“).

The first two paragraphs lay out the mayor’s viewpoint:

Mayor Kirk Caldwell said Friday that he and other Hawaii mayors tried to meet with an arbitration recommendation panel about their concerns over significant increases in standard-of-conduct differential pay being considered for the state’s police officers but were told a decision had already been made.

“The mayors got together when we were told what the award was going to be. … We wanted to meet with the (arbitration) panel and pre­sent our case on the standard-of-conduct part of it,”?Caldwell said. “We never got a chance to. As we were moving forward … the window was shut, and they said, ‘We’re going to (go) forward and make the announcement.'”

The mayor makes it sound like the arbitrators unilaterally turned their backs on the mayors who were just trying to make their case.

But this was an arbitration proceeding, a legal process something akin to a trial, with arbitrators having to assess the arguments and evidence presented by the employers and the union. Both sides present their “last and best offer,” and then present witnesses and data to buttress their respective cases.

When the hearing is over, the arbitrators look at the record and make their call, based on that record compiled during the proceedings.

Caldwell says that when the mayors heard the decision, they wanted to go back and “present our case” on one issue. And were told it was too late.

Well, duh! If their case hadn’t been made during the lengthy proceedings, it’s because the counties failed to do it. There’s no one else to blame.

Wanting to come back with more arguments after the decision is announced is like getting through a trial, hearing the verdict that goes against you, and then wanting to go back in the courtroom and reopen the case because there was stuff you forgot to say that might have made a difference.

Reading between the lines, Mayor Caldwell is saying that the employers’ position in the arbitration was poorly argued and failed to cover a key provision. And by the time the mayor’s realized the weakness in their case, the proceedings were over.

I’m hoping for follow-up story looking at how & why the counties’ case went forward without what Caldwell says was a key argument, and why the mayors didn’t realize it until it was too late.

Hawaii Tribune-Herald owner again ordered to pay two reporters who were illegally fired

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Stephens Media, owner of the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, has been ordered to pay $212,951 in back wages and health fund premiums (plus interest interest compounded daily) to reporter Dave Smith, illegally suspended in March 2006 and later fired for actions protected by federal labor law, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled last week.

Hunter Bishop, another reported illegally fired for union activities, is due $17,950, plus interest, the judge ruled. The amount owed Bishop was reduced because his salary while employed by the Hawaii Newspaper Guild and, later, as an executive assistant to Hawaii Mayor Billy Kenoi, more than offset his lost wages during most of the disputed period.

The company must also pay $32,752 to the Newspaper Guild International Pension Fund for pension contributions that would have been paid if the two had not been fired.

Stephens Media has a well-deserved reputation for union busting, and has previously been found liable for numerous violations of federal labor law in this case and others.

The ruling by Administrative Law Judge Jeffrey D. Wedekind followed an appeal by the company of an earlier decision awarding back pay and related costs. Wedekind rejected most of the attempts by attorneys for Stephens Media to reduce the amounts owed the two men.

For example, the company argued Smith voluntarily relinquished his right to back pay when he began drawing receiving pension benefits after being fired. Wedekind ruled, however, that “‘retiring’ to collect pension benefits after being unlawfully discharged does not alone termini a discriminates right to backpay….”

However, Wedekind agreed with the company that it should not have to pay the two a $39 per week automobile allowance called for in the Guild contract.

Wedekind’s 15-page ruling, dated June 6, 2013, is available here.

Background:

Two wrongly-fired reporters still awaiting NLRB-ordered back pay
April 27th, 2013


DC court slaps Tribune-Herald for numerous labor law violations
April 23rd, 2012

National Labor Relations Board says Tribune-Herald owner violated labor laws
February 19th, 2011

Who cares about the Newspaper Guild’s battle with the Hawaii Tribune-Herald?
December 28th, 2009

NLRB ruling finds Hawaii Tribune-Herald and Stephens Media violated federal labor law
March 11th, 2008 ·

Labor board to hold hearings on union-busting allegations (Honolulu Weekly)
April 11, 2007

Hilo reporter fired over secret recording, Union charges newspaper with union bustingApril 28, 2006