Richmond Fed Names McKinsey's Thomas Barkin as Its President
Directors at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond confirmed Monday they had chosen Thomas Barkin, a senior executive at...
Directors at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond confirmed Monday they had chosen Thomas Barkin, a senior executive at global consulting firm McKinsey & Co., as the institution’s next president.
“We are fortunate to have found an extremely well-qualified individual to serve the Federal Reserve’s Fifth District and the American people,” Margaret Lewis, chair of the Richmond board of directors, said in a statement.
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Immigration Advocates Concerned Whether President Obama's Plans Will Help Families
New York Daily News - November 15, 2014, by Celeste Katz - Local advocacy groups — eager for details on President Obama...
New York Daily News - November 15, 2014, by Celeste Katz - Local advocacy groups — eager for details on President Obama’s plan to shield undocumented immigrants from deportation — are concerned many families may still be vulnerable.
At issue is the possibility Obama may limit work permits for parents of children who are in the U.S. legally to those who have been in the country 10 years.
“It’s very important that the President acts to include that segment of folks that have been here more than five years but less than 10 years,” said Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition.
Some advocates were careful to be gentle in their criticisms.
Lucia Gomez of La Fuente said, “The general consensus is everyone is extremely excited,” but added her members hope Obama goes “full force” with protections.
“We hope the Obama administration announces policies that will keep families together and allow for as many people as possible to live with dignity,” said Ana Maria Archila of the Center for Popular Democracy.
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Death Cab for Cutie Kick Off Anti-Trump Campaign ’30 Days, 30 Songs’
Death Cab for Cutie Kick Off Anti-Trump Campaign ’30 Days, 30 Songs’
A group of musicians will be using their music to help convince voters not to support Donald Trump. Titled “30 Days, 30...
A group of musicians will be using their music to help convince voters not to support Donald Trump. Titled “30 Days, 30 Songs,” the project will release one track each day between now and the election in the hopes of creating a “Trump-Free America.”
Related: Roger Waters Trashes Donald Trump at Desert Trip Festival
Death Cab for Cutie begins the project today (Oct 10) with the original track “Million Dollar Loan.”
Ben Gibbard said of the song, “Lyrically, ‘Million Dollar Loan’ deals with a particularly tone deaf moment in Donald Trump’s ascent to the Republican nomination. While campaigning in New Hampshire last year, he attempted to cast himself as a self-made man by claiming he built his fortune with just a ‘small loan of a million dollars’ from his father. Not only has this statement been proven to be wildly untrue, he was so flippant about it. It truly disgusted me. Donald Trump has repeatedly demonstrated that he is unworthy of the honor and responsibility of being President of the United States of America, and in no way, shape or form represents what this country truly stands for. He is beneath us.”
This week, Jim James, Aimee Mann, Thao Nguyen, clipping., and Bhi Bhiman will all share songs, and R.E.M. will premiere a never-before-heard track. New songs will be available every day at 9am PST on Spotify, and will appear 24 hours later on Apple Music.
Fans can also purchase individual songs with proceeds benefitting Center for Popular Democracy (CDP), which aims for Universal Voter Registration.
By Amanda Wicks
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Its Integrity Questioned, SUNY Institute Retreats From Politically Tinged Study
The Chronicle of Higher Education - April 28, 2014, by Paul Basken - The State University of New York’s Nelson A....
The Chronicle of Higher Education - April 28, 2014, by Paul Basken - The State University of New York’s Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government is backing away from a politically divisive report critical of a worker’s-rights law, admitting that the industry-financed analysis has multiple major flaws that undermine its central finding.
The report, published in February, criticizes New York State’s so-called Scaffold Law, which holds contractors and property owners legally liable for on-site injuries and accidents. The analysis suffers from "really big weaknesses," said the institute’s director, Thomas L. Gais, who added that he considers the report as not officially a product of his institute. The key analytical section of the report "is just really awful," he said.
The Rockefeller Institute prides itself as a provider of unbiased and empirical policy analysis. Defenders of the Scaffold Law, however, have complained that the institute tainted itself by accepting an $82,000 payment from a business group with construction-industry supporters to produce the report.
The report is "junk" and "fundamentally biased," said the Center for Popular Democracy and the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, two groups representing unionized workers and immigrants.
The case has shined a spotlight on the question of whether universities and their research institutes, as declining public financing leaves them increasingly reliant on private-sector support, are able to provide policy makers with objective technical advice.
There are hundreds of such institutes at universities around the country, and it’s often possible to "predict the policy outcomes from where their support comes from," said Sheldon Krimsky, a professor of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University who writes about bias in research.
A ‘Quality-Control Issue’
Mr. Gais, a social scientist who has led the Rockefeller Institute for four years, adamantly denied there was any bias in the report on behalf of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York. The alliance has long opposed the Scaffold Law, but Mr. Gais said he never expected to get any repeat business from the industry-affiliated group. "We got the money no matter what we wrote," he said.
The report instead suffered from what Mr. Gais called a "quality-control issue," in which a relatively new institute researcher, Michael R. Hattery, delivered it to the Lawsuit Reform Alliance without its being thoroughly reviewed at the institute.
Another major problem with the 89-page report, Mr. Gais said, lies with a section that uses a flawed statistical analysis to make the "counterintuitive" argument that New York’s worker-safety law actually leaves workers less safe.
That section’s author, R. Richard Geddes, an associate professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell University, also has drawn criticism within his own institution. At least two members of the labor-studies department at Cornell wrote newspaper op-eds criticizing Mr. Geddes’s work.
One, Richard W. Hurd, a professor of industrial and labor relations, wrote that Mr. Geddes had "misused sophisticated statistical techniques and produced inaccurate results." Lee H. Adler, an instructor of labor and employment law at Cornell, wrote that the episode reflects more than a century of attempts by business leaders to deprive workers of the fundamental right to sue.
Mr. Geddes emotionally denounced the criticism in an interview with The Chronicle, saying he had absolutely not been influenced by the source of money and describing his work as a state-of-the-art analysis of who actually gets injured on construction sites in New York State.
"I find that offensive, I find that deeply offensive, that they said my work is biased, after we spent hours and hours collecting the best data we could find," Mr. Geddes said.
A Valid Concern
Among its arguments, the report compares worker-injury records in New York and Illinois, which repealed a similar worker-protection law in 1995. The study found that both accident rates and costs declined in Illinois after repeal.
The labor groups said the study’s shortfalls included a failure to take into account situations where higher union-membership rates would encourage workers to report accidents, and workplaces where greater percentages of immigrants might depress reporting statistics.
Mr. Geddes said the critics bore the responsibility of showing how such factors would substantially have affected the report’s conclusions. Mr. Hattery said he also stood by the report but recognized that the possible effect of those omissions was a valid concern that should be assessed in future studies.
Mr. Geddes said he recognized some drawbacks in a system where academic institutes rely more heavily on private supporters. "It has made it harder because people without any evidence at all, any support, are attacking, are saying you’re biased," he said. "I find that profoundly offensive."
Mr. Hattery, however, said he welcomed the process now unfolding. "I don’t at all resent or have a problem with these kinds of questions’ being asked," he said. "When you think you have integrity and are humble and a good conscience, you’re probably in trouble."
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Senator Warren to Join Call to Alter Sales of Distressed Loans
Senator Warren to Join Call to Alter Sales of Distressed Loans
Housing advocates have attracted a prominent ally in their push to change the federal government’s policy of selling...
Housing advocates have attracted a prominent ally in their push to change the federal government’s policy of selling distressed mortgages at a discount to private equity firms and hedge funds.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, will join other lawmakers, advocates and community activists on Wednesday in a Washington rally to oppose the loan sale program.
The senator is expected to call on the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the federal overseer of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to make it easier for nonprofit organizations to bid for the bundles of distressed mortgages put up for auction, people briefed on the matter said.
The sale of distressed mortgages by HUD and the government-sponsored mortgage finance firms is drawing growing criticism from housing advocates and lawyers in recent months. The critics are concerned that the private buyers of distressed mortgages are moving to quickly to put borrowers into foreclosure as opposed to modifying the loans as housing officials had hoped.
The investors are buying loans often at a 30 percent discount.
One of the biggest buyers of distressed mortgages is Lone Star Funds, a $60 billion private equity firm based in Dallas. The firm, which is also buying soured mortgages directly from banks, has raised billions of dollars from investors, including public pensions to invest in distressed home loans.
The private equity firm’s practices in dealing with delinquent borrowers was the subject of a front-page article in The New York Times this week.
The housing advocates said that, in addition to noon rally with elected officials, they intended to protest outside of Lone Star’s offices in Washington.
Source: New York Times
Fed's Kashkari Gains Company in Concerns Over Raising Rates
Neel Kashkari labored through much of this year as the most prominent Federal Reserve official opposed to raising short...
Neel Kashkari labored through much of this year as the most prominent Federal Reserve official opposed to raising short-term interest rates. Lately, he's gained more company.
Mr. Kashkari, president of the Minneapolis Fed, has argued the central bank shouldn't be raising borrowing costs when inflation persists below its 2% target. He cast the only votes against the Fed's rate increases in March and June.
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How Did New York Become the Most Unionized State in the Country?
The Nation - September 3, 2014, by Michelle Chen - With all the filthy lucre sloshing around on Wall Street, New York...
The Nation - September 3, 2014, by Michelle Chen - With all the filthy lucre sloshing around on Wall Street, New York City may not strike you as a bastion of organized labor. But the city is in fact the nation’s leading union town. And in the past year, according to researchers at the City University of New York, there has even been a slight increase in unionization in the five boroughs.
About 24 percent of wage and salary workers in New York City are union members, a small but significant increase over the past year, from about 21.5 percent in 2012 . Statewide, according to Current Population Survey data analyzed in the study, New York remains the most union dense state in the country at 24.6 percent of workers.
According to the authors, Ruth Milkman and Stephanie Luce, the increase—amid a multi-year trend of decline—appears to be driven by hiring trends, not organizing new sectors. As the so-called “recovery” boosts labor demand, long unionized industries are just hiring more. “There are some new organizing efforts here and there, but nothing that accounts for this [increase],” Milkman tells The Nation. “It seems to just be shifts in the labor market reflecting long-unionized sectors that are rebounding.”
Union density in a large population offers only a rough gauge of actual labor activity. The overall number of union members may fluctuate from year to year whenever big unionized industries add or shed jobs, Milkman explains, but that does not capture, and could even mask, the effect of new union formation in smaller-scale workplaces—like the handful of immigrant workers who have recently unionized at local carwashes.
Much of last year’s growth in union workers has come in the construction industry, where unionization in the NYC metro area is about 27 percent, and 30 percent statewide—about twice the industry rate nationwide. But construction trades are a mixed bag, because employers can use both union and non-union workers on different jobs, and the industry runs on short-term contract work. Milkman says the recent trendlines point to growth in both union and non-union construction jobs, but with relatively strong growth among union members.
Overall, New York’s unionization rates are highest in the public sector, at about 70 percent. But surprisingly, recent expansion of union membership centers on private-sector workplaces. Alongside union boosts in the building trades, unions have made gains in building-based services, like janitors and porters, and hotels, where over a third of the labor force is union.
Though undocumented immigrants often work non-union jobs, immigrants (who make up about 37 percent of the city’s population) are rapidly joining the union ranks. Though newer immigrants have relatively low rates of unionization, according to the report, among immigrants who arrived before 1980, the rate is actually higher than that for US-born workers in both New York City and statewide. Black unionization rates have been the highest of any racial or ethnic group, Asians the lowest.
Though union workplaces generally offer higher wages and better benefits, union jobs face multiple threats from displacement and eroding working conditions. Building trades employers, for example, have recently shifted away from a longstanding agreement to stick to using union labor, enabling large developers to hire cheaper non-union and “off the books” workers, including many undocumented immigrants. A “two tier” labor structure, in which union and informal workers “compete,” may squeeze down job quality and undermine wages across the sector, by constraining workers’ ability to negotiate working conditions. A new condominium development plan in mid-town Manhattan seems to exhibit how the city’s economic “recovery” is banking on this trend. According to Crains, the project was recently sealed with “a special package of work-rule and wage concessions from construction unions that is expected to shave as much as 20 percent off labor costs—a savings of millions of dollars.”
According to a 2007 report by the think tank Fiscal Policy Institute, the prevalence of “underground” non-union construction workers led to hundreds of millions of dollars in hidden social costs, due to unpaid payroll taxes and public healthcare spending.
The city’s relatively high union density is rooted in a historical legacy of labor militancy, particularly in blue-collar trades and public services like mass transit. Over the course of the twentieth century, tough union shops cultivated what Milkman calls a workplace culture of “social democracy.”
Yet unions have not significantly penetrated newer, rapidly growing, service industries like retail and restaurants. Meanwhile, New York’s established manufacturing sectors maintain relatively high unionization rates, but the city has shed about half its manufacturing jobs since 2001.
Nonetheless, unions are more welcome in New York than most places in the country. Nationwide, unionization has tumbled since the 1980s after decades of deindustrialization and global offshoring. Today, only about 11 percent of workers belong to a union, and the right-wing backlash continues with “right to work” legislation, which impedes union organizing, and attacks on public sector collective bargaining rights.
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Andrew Friedman of the Center for Popular Democracy, which advocates for low-income workers and communities of color, says “the vast majority of New York’s workers are not unionized, do not have a voice at work and are forced to confront ever-more exploitative treatment at work.” For the city’s working class as a whole, Friedman says via e-mail:
Not withstanding this recent uptick in unionization rates, far too many workers, particularly workers of color, women and immigrant workers, in particular, continue to receive inadequate wages, inadequate hours, inadequate control over their schedules and inadequate respect and dignity on the job.
Unions are not the only way to empower workers. Recent efforts to “organize the unorganized”—the unprecedented wildcat mobilization of non-union fast-food workers, organizing day laborers through worker centers, or community-driven campaigns for a $15 minimum wage—all illustrate the promise as well as the challenges of building labor power, with or without a formal union.
The right to good, safe jobs is universal; unionization is sadly not. But the struggle is the same whether you’re a hotel housekeeper striking for a better contract, or a day laborer suing for unpaid back wages. New Yorkers are holding onto traditionally unionized jobs. But a revival of the labor movement requires building new traditions of organizing in workplaces where activism makes the most difference.
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Activist Ady Barkan says despite loss in Arizona, every seat is up for grabs
Activist Ady Barkan says despite loss in Arizona, every seat is up for grabs
Activist Ady Barkan, who is fighting ALS, is starting a new fight - to get people to vote. He’s asking people to “Be A...
Activist Ady Barkan, who is fighting ALS, is starting a new fight - to get people to vote. He’s asking people to “Be A Hero” and vote for candidates who protect healthcare. Ady tells Ali Velshi that with all the challenges he faces that if he can get out and vote, everyone can.
Watch the video here.
Language access order faces hurdles in implementation
Epoch Times – August 5, 2013, by Genevieve Belmaker - New York State residents with limited English language...
Epoch Times – August 5, 2013, by Genevieve Belmaker - New York State residents with limited English language proficiency still face problems with access to government services, according to a new study.
More than 2 million people in New York State have limited English proficiency (LEP), according to Make the Road New York (MRNY), an immigrant advocacy organization that has partnered with The Center for Popular Democracy to complete the study.
Despite the number of people with LEP and the 2011 executive order 26 issued by New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo for better provision of services, they still face many barriers accessing services.
Cuomo’s order requires that all state agencies that have direct public contact translate vital documents into the state’s top six LEP languages. The order also requires that interpretation and transportation services be provided in native languages if needed. But the study found two years later, that requirement has still not been fully implemented.
“There’s a growing number of cases where they are asking people to bring someone [for interpretation],” said Cornelia Brown, founder and executive director of the Multicultural Association of Medical Interpreters. “The one exception might be the Child Protective Services.”
Brown, who was speaking as part of a Monday, Aug. 5 conference call about the report, added that in many cases LEP people are asked to bring their own interpreters with no arrangement for reimbursement of any cost incurred.
In general, the report states that despite New York State’s indisputable position as a national leader in pro-immigrant policies, a “significant amount of work remains to be done to dismantle language barriers at government agencies that dispense key benefits and services.”
Some of the report’s key findings include that the majority of LEP New York State residents don’t get translated documents when trying to get access to state benefits and interpretation services. Despite the implementation shortfalls, most people who got translated materials or interpretation services said it was helpful.
To gather the data, MRNY and The Center for Popular Democracy worked with partner organizations across New York State starting in the spring of 2012 to survey LEP individuals in New York City, Long Island, Albany, Central New York and Buffalo.
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Home care workers rally in New Haven around terminated employee
Lara was joined by more than a dozen supporters Wednesday, organized by the Working Families Party, which has been...
Lara was joined by more than a dozen supporters Wednesday, organized by the Working Families Party, which has been advocating for a $15-an-hour wage, paid sick days and predictable schedules for this group of employees.
Management at Family Care VNA & Home Care at 495 Blake St., where Lara worked for more than three years in a 28-year career, called police to keep the protesters away from its office. The protesters continued to march on the sidewalk leading into the parking lot where the company is located.
After about an hour, Lindsay Farrell, state executive director for the Working Families Party, Julio Lopez of Make the Road, which is part of the Center for Popular Democracy, and Lara approached New Haven Officer Scott Durkin, who was standing outside the care agency’s office.
Durkin passed on a petition to management signed by more than 9,000 people asking that Family Care VNA & Home Care meet with Working Families to discuss workplace protections for its employees.
“I am here today because on Aug. 3 I got terminated for exercising ... freedom of speech. I was searching for a better workplace for my co-workers, for those who are afraid to speak, because this is their only source of income to maintain food on the table and a roof over their kids’ heads,” Lara said.
The longtime certified nursing assistant has been on panels with U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLaura, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy and Thomas E. Perez, secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor, talking about the conditions that CNAs face.
Lara said she never mentioned her employer, but spoke generally about the industry and the need for a pay upgrade, benefits and schedules they can count on.
“I believe that no human being should be treated like animals, because that is what they treated us like, paying us $10 an hour. We are a big asset to the company and if not physically fit ... how can we go out there and do our jobs?” Lara asked.
“What I am searching for is justice for me and so many other workers that do the same job as I do,” she said to the crowd.
Lara said this all began when she took off two days for emergency surgery for her gallbladder on Feb. 26. Her doctor recommended she stay out of work for two to three weeks.
A message seeking comment was left with Donna Simmons, a human resource specialist at Family Care.
Lara said she ended up back in the hospital because she returned to work too early. On May 22 and June 3, she had additional surgeries for an abscess on her breast for a total of eight days missed for health problems.
Lara said she put up with the $10-an-hour pay because “I like what I do and I enjoyed working with my patients and I didn’t want to leave them hanging.”
She said after the last surgery, her hours were cut from 54 hours a week to 14 hours, putting her behind on her rent and bills.
Lara said the firing not only hurt her financially, but “has taken away what I like and what I enjoy, which is working with people.” She said she is collecting unemployment compensation.
Lara said she feels that she was being punished for taking time off “to take care of my physical health.
She said when she was terminated, management alleged that she had used profanity in front of a client, but Lara said that was not true. She said they told her at that meeting Aug. 3 that she was being fired for “bashing the company.”
Lara said Lou Mangini, who works on constituent concerns in DeLauro’s New Haven office, has been in touch with her.
The letter from Working Families to Rita Krett, who is listed as the owner of the company, said Lara’s firing was “unacceptable and immoral.”
It promised to escalate its support of Lara and other workers if the company doesn’t improve conditions.
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