VICE PRESIDENT Ed Thomas

Working people today are hurting like never before. Wages are dropping, health care costs are increasing at alarming rates and pensions are slowly disappearing. For the first time in many years, people are worried that their children will be worse off than they are.

Union membership is the best way to stem this tide. Union members make almost 30 percent more than nonunion workers or approximately $10,000 a year. Union members are over 50 percent more likely to have employer provided health care, and the benefits and cost are better. With respect to pensions, Union members are almost 4 times more likely to have defined benefit pensions through their jobs.

Millions of people who don't have a Union have indicated they would join a Union but most won't get the chance in our corporate dominated system. Companies often intimidate, harass, coerce and even fire people who try to form Unions, as current labor law is helpless to stop them. Even when workers some how manage to join Unions, many companies delay bargaining and almost 50 percent of workers who form a Union never reach a first contract.

The Employee Free Choice Act would put the choice of whether to form a Union back in the workers' hands by giving them the option of using majority sign up. It would also guarantee that companies can't continue to delay the signing of a first contract, it provides for mediation or binding arbitration when it's needed. The Act also levels the playing field by assessing real penalties on companies that violate the law during organizing campaigns.

It has never been any clearer, what Americans need today is the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act!!!

LOCAL 19 ATTORNEY Tim Fadel

Electronic Privacy in the Workplace:
"Big Brother is Watching You"

Chief Justice Earl Warren of the United States Supreme Court once said that "[t]he fantastic advances in the field of electronic communication constitute a great danger to the privacy of the individual." Over three decades have passed since Justice Warren uttered these prophetic words and, by all accounts, the "internet revolution" has made its way into the lives of all Americans. Nearly all persons, regardless of their age, race, creed, or economic status, enjoy access to a computer, smart phone, or other electronic communication gadget. Just as individuals have adapted to using the internet, cell phones, and other electronic means of communication in their private lives, many employers have done the same. Today, it is commonplace for employers to provide their employees with access to either a computer, cell phone, or other electronic communication device that is intended to be used for both business and personal reasons. The use of an electronic means of communication in the workplace, however, is not without it's perils. Indeed, many employees have no idea of the degree to which their electronic communications and activities are accessible by their employer and the extent to which these communications can be used as a basis for discipline or discharge.

As a general rule, employees that use their employer's computers, email accounts, and cell phones have very few, if any, privacy protections. Because these devices are provided by the employer in order to assist employees in the performance of their work duties, courts have consistently held that employees have no legally protectable right or interest in ensuring that the manner in which these devices are used remain private. This is true even in those cases where an employer provides its workers with cell phones and allows employees to use the phone for all purposes including non-work related reasons. Accordingly, an employer has both the ability and the right to review and document any employee communications or activity - including personal calls and text messages - conducted through the use of an employer provided electronic device. This includes the right to document and review all text messages, phone call logs, voicemails and web browsing history.

It must also be noted that an employer's ability to monitor its workers electronic communications is not limited to activities using employer provided communication devices. Indeed, in this day and age where many people maintain "blogs", MySpace pages, websites, and Twitter accounts, employees should be acutely aware of the fact that all electronic publications made available to the general public are also equally available to their employer. Employees should therefore be keenly aware that any information or statements published electronically can, and often will, be used by an employer as basis for discipline or discharge.

Although an individual's right to privacy has been heralded as a cornerstone of the American way of life, traditional mechanisms used to ensure these rights are generally inapplicable to electronic publications made available to the public at large and electronic communications made through the use of an employer provided device. In fact, the only sure protections afforded to employees stem from the "just cause" provisions contained within any applicable collective bargaining agreements ("CBA"). In those instances where an employee enjoys the protections of a just cause clause, the employer bears the burden of proving that the electronic communication or publication, in and of itself, was of such a nature as to warrant termination. However, employees must bear in mind that while a just cause provision provides some protections from unwarranted intrusions into their privacy, it is not an absolute defense. Accordingly, the best practice is to assume that your employer will be able to see and document any and all electronic publications made available to the public at large and any electronic communications made through the use of an employer provided device.

As the National debate over health care reform continues we hear over and over the justification for doing nothing; that America has the best health care system in the world. Which may not be entirely true.

Americans spend more for health care than any other country in the world - by a large margin, but in terms of overall health and health care quality we fall short. These shortcomings result directly from the way American health care is paid for and delivered. We pay for quantity, not quality. Health care providers are paid based upon the tests and procedures they perform and not by the success of their treatments.

Our current health care system over tests, over treats and over spends. According to the Institute of Medicine over one-third of U.S. health care spending is wasted on tests and treatments that fail to accomplish anything and we are a less healthy society as a result.

According to a recent report in the Washington Post, at least 100,000 Americans die each year from infections that they acquired in hospitals while another 1½ million are harmed by medication errors. The U.S. ranks 29th out of 37 industrialized nations when it comes to obesity, heart disease and preventable deaths.

Americans paid over $13,000.00 annually on average for a family health insurance policy this past year which is more than double the cost that it was ten years ago. In Canada for example, similar coverage is provided to families for approximately $50.00 per month, and while this is not an endorsement for Canada's single payer health system, there is much to be learned from every country that provides better health care to more people at much lower prices than here in the United States.

It is time to take a cold hard look at what we are paying for and what we are getting in return. Health care reform should not be blocked by the interest of big business or anyone else using emotion or fear to protect a deeply flawed U.S. health care system.