All things must eventually come to an end, and CtW Connect is no exception; this is our last post.

I’ve been writing in this space for a little more than three years, and it’s been a real privilege to do so. We started this blog with the goal of providing a unique perspective on the news that matters to working people; I hope you’ve found that what we’ve brought you lived up to that mission.

CtW Connect may be over, but the struggle to win economic justice for working people goes on. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to check out the other blogs listed over there on the right-hand side of the page — they’re making important contributions in that struggle, and with your help they can do even more. And to get the latest news from across Change to Win, check in at our main Web site.

And with that, brothers and sisters, I bid you farewell!

Our final post Jason Lefkowitz

Great video from the University of Minnesota’s Labor Education Service of Minneapolis janitors (members of SEIU Local 26) rallying for good green jobs:

More details (along with photos) can be found at Workday Minnesota.

Janitors demand fair settlement with cleaning contractors Jason Lefkowitz

(Video transcript)

Big news out of the Labor Department today — they awarded $100 million in grants to programs training workers for the green jobs of the future:

Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis today announced nearly $100 million in green jobs training grants, as authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). The grants will support job training programs to help dislocated workers and others, including veterans, women, African Americans and Latinos, find jobs in expanding green industries and related occupations. Approximately $28 million of the total funds will support projects in communities impacted by auto industry restructuring.

Through the Energy Training Partnership Grants being administered by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, 25 projects ranging from approximately $1.4 to $5 million each will receive grants. These grants are built on strategic partnerships — requiring labor and business to work together.

The grants announced today are part of a $500 million program created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 — a.k.a. “the stimulus.”

For details about the individual programs awarded grants, click on over to the Labor Department’s announcement page.

UPDATE (Jan. 7): It’s not really clear from the list of grantees that DOL posted on their site, so I want to point out that training programs led by CtW-affiliated unions are prominent among those that received grants yesterday. For example, New York’s Shortman Fund (which was awarded a $2.8 million grant) is operated by SEIU 32BJ; SEIU locals also participate in H-CAP Inc. (granted $4.6 million); and LIUNA is active in training programs in Virginia, Rhode Island, Michigan, and Montana that were collectively awarded almost $17 million.

UPDATE (Jan. 7, 3:00PM): Quotes!

Mike Fishman, President of SEIU 32BJ:

High-impact, cost-effective labor-management programs like [the Shortman Fund’s] Green Supers are vital to the success of President Obama’s energy and environmental protection agenda. With nearly 80 percent of New York’s greenhouse gas emissions produced by buildings it’s imperative for owners, workers, environmental groups and the Federal government to jointly tackle this environmental challenge.

Terry O’Sullivan, General President, LIUNA:

Weatherization on a nationwide scale will require hundreds of thousands of skilled workers and LIUNA’s weatherization training program is leading the way while creating good jobs for working families and their communities. LIUNA’s credentialed weatherization workers will set the standard for a new American industry.

Grants will help dislocated workers, veterans, women, African Americans and Latinos find jobs in expanding green industries Jason Lefkowitz

Grants will help dislocated workers, veterans, women, African Americans and Latinos find jobs in expanding green industries Jason Lefkowitz

We’re back! Hope your holidays were happy ones. And what better way to come back from the holidays than with a story of giving?

Two days before Christmas, members of the CtW-affliated Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) in Flint, Michigan turned the weatherization skills they learned from their union’s training programs into a unique gift — a complete home retrofit for a local Korean War veteran, free of charge:

Along with the retrofit, which will significantly reduce the household’s energy bills for years to come, the laborers provided veteran Henry Kirkland and his family with a complete Christmas dinner.

Skilled union weatherization workers provide Michigan vet with free home retrofit and Christmas dinner Jason Lefkowitz

Skilled union weatherization workers provide Michigan vet with free home retrofit and Christmas dinner Jason Lefkowitz

Over the next two weeks, blogging here at CtW Connect is going to be light, because the complete staff of our editorial, photography, and research teams — which is to say, me — are going to be away for the holidays.

So I wanted to take a moment now to thank you for your readership and support of CtW Connect throughout 2009. It’s been quite a year! And it’s been a privilege to be able to share it with you.

From all of us at Change to Win to you and yours, have a safe and happy holiday season, and a joyous new year!

Due to the holidays, posting will be light for the next two weeks Jason Lefkowitz

Due to the holidays, posting will be light for the next two weeks Jason Lefkowitz

Due to the holidays, posting will be light for the next two weeks Jason Lefkowitz

Due to the holidays, posting will be light for the next two weeks Jason Lefkowitz

What loophole, you ask?

It’s called “employee misclassification,” and it’s an all-too-common tax dodge in today’s responsibility-free corporate America: to avoid having to pay the taxes and providing the benefits the law requires for their employees, corporations simply declare those employees “independent contractors,” a category for which these obligations do not exist.

Today the tax code offers misclassifiers a “safe harbor” if everyone else is behaving badly too. So it’s good to hear that Senator John Kerry, along with several of his Democratic colleagues in that chamber, are mounting a charge to close this egregious loophole in the law:

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) today introduced legislation to provide workers with the rights they deserve. A current tax loophole, which allows employers to misclassify some workers as “independent contractors,” denies employees valuable rights and protections. The Taxpayer Responsibility, Accountability and Consistency Act of 2009 will ensure workplace protections such as workers’ compensation, Social Security, Medicare, overtime, unemployment compensation, and the minimum wage are afforded to all employees.

The bill is co-sponsored by Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), and Paul Kirk (D-Mass.).

“This is about leveling the playing field and ensuring that America’s workers receive the protections and pay they deserve,” said Sen. Kerry. “We cannot continue to reward businesses who refuse to play by the rules.”

Indeed — and on top of stopping corporations from breaking the rules, closing the misclassification loophole would help narrow the budget deficit as well. Letting corporations weasel out of their tax obligations today just kicks more of the deficit down the road for our children and grandchildren to deal with tomorrow.

Senator Kerry’s bill is S.2882. It’s a slightly modified version of H.R. 5804, which was introduced in the House during the last Congress by Rep. James McDermott (D-WA). Both houses should take this opportunity to stand up for workers and taxpayers and vote to close the misclassification loophole.

Bill would close loophole allowing corporations to avoid paying taxes, benefits by misclassifying workers as "independent contractors" Jason Lefkowitz

Have you been watching the Senate tie itself into knots on health care reform and wondering what happens now?

You’re not alone — SEIU President Andy Stern is wondering that too. And he’s sent out an open letter to SEIU members across America sharing his thoughts on how to improve the Senate bill and asking for their opinions.

Since this is an issue that’s on every American’s mind right now, I thought readers of CtW Connect — whether you’re a member of SEIU, another CtW union, an AFL-CIO affiliated union, or simply a member of the public at large — might find President Stern’s thoughts to be of interest, so I’m reprinting his letter in full here. If you want to respond with your own thoughts, you can do so via the SEIU blog by leaving a comment here.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

A little over a year ago, you stood up and showed a nation that Yes, We Can. You knocked on doors, picked up phones, wrote your friends and family and neighbors and helped ring in a resounding victory. It was a win not just for a candidate, but for a people. For a country. For a promise of a better future for all of our kids and grandkids and generations to come.

And after that bright and shining day in November, you hung in there. At a time when people usually pack up, go home, and play the spectator sport of complaining about the system, you got up each and every day and did things both heroic and small to make sure that this time, we didn’t leave change to chance.

For nearly a century, Presidents and congressional leaders have debated how to fix our health insurance system. It has become a given that we can and must do better as a nation. But as surely as each generation has tried, each time, politics, special interests and scare tactics have blocked progress and made us come to believe we can’t: We can’t change, we can’t make our country better - plain and simple, we just can’t.

I am writing to you today because I believe this is the moment when we must stand as one and say enough.

We talked to more than 200,000 of our sisters and brothers all around the country as part of a Town Hall-style telephone call last week to talk about your questions, your concerns and your frustrations about what is happening in Washington with health insurance reform.

Cynthia from Maryland was worried about her health benefits being taxed.

Maria in California didn’t understand why the public option might be off the table.

Gerry from West Virginia wanted to know if he would be able to afford his health coverage.

One thing was clear: When SEIU stands up for affordable care every American can count on, we stand 2.2 million strong and ready to fight for the change our families, friends and neighbors; our patients and our nation need.

But at the very moment that we saw real and meaningful changes within our grasp, one Senator came forward to say “no we can’t.” He can’t let the Senate have an up-or-down vote on health insurance reform.

And the result of this Senator saying “we can’t?” The public option is declared impossible. Americans cannot purchase Medicare at an earlier age. The health insurance reform effort we have needed for a century is at risk.

SEIU does not accept that this monumental effort - that this reform that is so necessary to the health and wellbeing of our economy, our families and our future - can be over without a fight. A fight to make it work for you and your families.

Last night, we held a meeting with your International Executive Board—leaders from across the country. Leaders who know you, who understand what you are going through, and above all else, who believe that every one of you deserves a chance to weigh in on our next steps.

We talked about everything that makes this reform meaningful:

• The 30 million more people who will have healthcare they can count on;
• The people who will no longer lose their coverage if they get sick;
• All of us who no longer have to worry about being denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions;
• Women who will no longer be discriminated against just because of their gender.
• But we also recognized, that like you, we have concerns.

And while it is not entirely clear what the Senate bill will look like, it is becoming clearer that:

• For many people, care will still be too expensive to afford.
• Some of you would face an additional burden because your health insurance benefits would be taxed.
• And the best way we saw possible to hold insurance companies accountable was no longer an option.

So we asked ourselves - and we are asking you - the most critical question we have of this entire debate: where do we go from here?

We know we will fight. We will continue to fight for everything we know is important. We will fight to make care affordable. We will fight for real health insurance reforms. We will fight for employers to provide their employees with coverage. And, we will fight to pay for all of it responsibly without a tax on your benefits.

But we aren’t the only ones who must fight.

President Obama must remember his own words from the campaign. His call of “Yes We Can” was not just to us, not just to the millions of people who voted for him, but to himself. We all stood shoulder to shoulder with the President during his hard fought campaign. And, we will continue to stand with him but he must fight for the reform we all know is possible. He must fight for Cynthia, Maria, and Gerry - for every American.

Our challenge to you, to the President, to the Senate and to the House of Representatives is to fight. Now, more than ever, all of us must stand up, remember what health insurance reform is all about, and fight like hell to deliver real and meaningful reform to the American people.

In Solidarity,
Andy Stern

SEIU President Andy Stern on where heath care reform goes from here Jason Lefkowitz

I’ve told you before about the potential benefits of a national drive to weatherize American homes and buildings, both to the economy by creating good green jobs and to the environment by dramatically improving our nation’s energy efficiency.

So it was cool (if you’ll pardon the pun) to see President Barack Obama make the same point this morning in an appearance at a Home Depot in Northern Virginia:

In our nation’s buildings — our homes and our office consume almost 40 percent of the energy we use and contribute almost 40 percent of the carbon pollution that we produce and everybody is talking about right now in Copenhagen. Homes built in the first half of the last century can use about 50 percent more energy than homes that are built today. And because most of our homes and office aren’t energy-efficient, much of that energy just goes to waste, while costing our families and businesses money they can’t afford to throw away.

The simple act of retrofitting these buildings to make them more energy-efficient — installing new windows and doors, insulation, roofing, sealing leaks, modernizing heating and cooling equipment — is one of the fastest, easiest and cheapest things we can do to put Americans back to work while saving families money and reducing harmful emissions…

I know the idea may not be very glamorous — although I get really excited about it. We were at the roundtable and somebody said installation is not sexy. I disagree…

Here’s what’s sexy about it: saving money. Think about it this way: If you haven’t upgraded your home yet, it’s not just heat or cool air that’s escaping — it’s energy and money that you are wasting. If you saw $20 bills just sort of floating through the window up into the atmosphere, you’d try to figure out how you were going to keep that. But that’s exactly what’s happening because of the lack of efficiency in our buildings.

So what we want to do is create incentives that stimulate consumer spending, because folks buy materials from home improvement stores like this one, which then buys them from manufacturers. It spurs hiring because local contractors and construction workers do the installation. It saves consumers money — perhaps hundreds of dollars off their utility bills each year — and it reduces our energy consumption in the process.

And the President also took a moment to recognize the pioneering work of the (CtW-affiliated) Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) in helping train their members across the country to take the lead on weatherization:

And the workers, we have somebody who just got trained and is already on the job crawling through attics and putting all this stuff together. Over the course of six months or a year, somebody can get trained effectively. And LIUNA is doing terrific work with this — its apprenticeship program. And what this means is that people who are unemployed right now, they can get a marketable skill that they can take anywhere…

We are going to generate so much business for you, Frank. We are going to generate so much work for you guys from LIUNA. We’re going to create so much business — so many business opportunities for contractors here that over the course of the next several years, people are going to see this I think as an extraordinary opportunity, and it’s going to help America turn the corner when it comes to energy use.

I’m excited about it. I hope you are, too.

(A complete transcript of the President’s remarks from today’s event is available via the White House Web site.)