Texas Labor's Goals 2007

Why These Goals?

During the 80th Texas Legislative Session, organized labor will actively seek legislation that improves the quality of life for all working people in Texas and will actively oppose legislation that moves in the opposite direction. We seek fairness and dignity, not advantage, from state government.

In pursuing pro-worker goals, the United Labor Legislative Committee (ULLCO) joins hundreds of other groups and lobbyists who register with the Texas Ethics Commission for the benefit of their respective interests. Organized labor lobbies through the Texas AFL-CIO and its affiliates, as well as ULLCO. The Texas AFL-CIO works year round, while ULLCO functions only during legislative sessions.

Our goals can be short-range or long-range, of broad or specialized concern, ambitious for change or protective of a positive status quo. But our goals always aim for a better future not just for unions, but for an the working people of Texas.

We must live up to the words of President Kennedy: "The American labor movement has consistently demonstrated its devotion to the public interest. It is, and has been, good for all America."

Becky Moeller
ULLCO Chairman

Emmett Sheppard
ULLCO Vice-Chairman

D.L. "Dally" Willis
ULLCO Secretary

Eric Hartman
ULLCO Treasurer

Ed Sills
ULLCO Coordinator of Activities

What Is ULLCO?

The United Labor Legislative Committee is a coalition of Texas AFL-CIO member unions and unaffiliated unions that join for the purpose of lobbying.

The committee coordinates the union movement's positions on legislation and lobbying strategies during sessions of the Texas Legislature.

ULLCO's actions on legislation are made by a vote of member organizations. As a means of preserving consensus, ULLCO requires a two-thirds vote to take action on legislation. Individual union organizations reserve the right to take independent positions on legislation. On rare occasions, a union that belongs to ULLCO may take an opposite stance on a bill.

All labor lobbyists are paid by their own organizations and not ULLCO. When ULLCO takes a position, member lobbyists are assigned to make contact with legislators on behalf of ULLCO.

ULLCO meets at Texas AFL-CIO headquarters on the morning of each day the Legislature is in session. Observers are welcome. The labor movement stands eager to explain its position on legislation that affects working people.

In the 2007 session, ULLCO will adjust to changing circumstances and change emphasis when necessary. As foreseen in January, some of the leading issues for organized labor are on the following pages.

United Labor
Legislative Committee

Offices in the AFL-CIO
11th and Lavaca
P.O. Box 12727
Austin, Texas 78711
512/477-6195 • Fax: 512/477-2962
e-mail: labor@texasaflcio.org

LEGISLATIVE GOALS

Minimum Wage

The $5.15 per hour state minimum wage is an outrage - a level of pay that does not come remotely close to bringing a full-time worker out of poverty - and should be raised to a substantially higher amount. ULLCO supports legislation to raise the minimum wage to $6.15 an hour as soon as a new law takes effect then to $7.15 an hour one year later.

Thereafter, the state minimum wage should be indexed to inflation. This would avoid the long delays in raising the minimum wage and take the politics out of providing subsistence to low-wage workers who commit to full-time labor.

ULLCO continues to support Living Wage and Equal Pay legislation as well.

Workers' Compensation

Last session produced a major rewrite of the Texas workers' compensation law. HB 7 reorganized both the administration of the system and the way that medical care is delivered to injured workers. Since the passage of that legislation, the Texas AFL-CIO has been active in working to insure that the law is implemented in a way that is fair and true to the intent of the authors.

In the course of that process, it has become clear that there are some issues that still need to be addressed in the 80th Legislature.

First, we are concerned that the network medical model has not afforded sufficient choice to injured workers. The Texas AFL-CIO will support legislation that directs and empowers the Texas Department of Insurance to require greater choice.

Second, the Texas AFL-CIO will support legislation increasing benefits for injured workers. Research has shown that benefits have not kept pace with inflation, and that injured workers are at risk of falling further behind. Efforts to raise benefits significantly last session stalled. Insurance company profits are at very high levels. It is time to pass on some of the benefits of reform to injured workers.

Third, workers' compensation in Texas remains the only system in the nation that is not mandatory for employers. To strengthen the system on behalf of all workers, the Texas AFL-CIO supports efforts to make workers' compensation mandatory. In the alternative, we will support efforts to curb the most blatant abuses suffered by injured workers at the hands of employers who do not carry workers' compensation and to stiffen the penalties for non-compliance with notice and reporting requirements.

In addition to these proactive legislative efforts, the Texas AFL-CIO will monitor all workers' compensation legislation with an eye toward keeping injured workers as the focus of a system that treats them with fairness and dignity.

Public Education

The modest school funding and teacher pay raises passed in 2006 amount to a short-term fix, not a long-term solution to the unmet needs and chronic under-funding of Texas public education.

Since January 2003 we have defeated an onslaught of ill-advised legislation that would weaken contracts, due-process rights, and quality standards like class-size limits and teacher certification. In particular, we have successfully opposed school vouchers that would steer tax dollars from public schools to private schools that would be under significantly reduced state oversight.

In 2007 the Legislature needs to finish the job on school finance. With a budget surplus in 2008-2009 and with fair sharing of the tax burden by businesses in the long run, lawmakers can: restore education programs cut since 2003, such as pre-K grants, disciplinary alternative education, master teacher initiative and Student Success Initiative; restore retired and active school employees' health care funding; raise teacher pay at least to the national average; give school employees health care that is as good as the governor's; restore local funding capacity and enhance equity; provide extra funding for high-need students and reduce college tuition costs.

Specifically, we support:

I. Quality Education for Every Child

Ensure Quality in Every Classroom:

• Guarantee the education funding needed to achieve academic excellence for every student, pre-K -16
• Enforce class-size limits and apply them beyond K-4
• Assure universal access to pre-K and kindergarten
• Guarantee appropriately certified educators in every class
• Block vouchers and equivalent drains on public school funding
• Reward school personnel who take on added skills or tasks

Demand High Performance:

• Keep raising academic standards and provide necessary resources to help students meet those standards
• Hold districts and charter schools accountable for complete disclosure of how they spend taxpayer funds

Keep Our Schools Safe:

• Maintain teachers' authority to remove disruptive students
• Strengthen required notice to educators of violent offenders on campus
• Safeguard educators against retaliation for use of removal authority
• Ensure that every school has enough full-time school nurses to protect students' health

II. Professional Compensation for Quality Educators

Pay Raise:

• Raise teacher pay to match salaries for comparable private-sector jobs. and boost school funding to raise pay for all staff

Health Coverage as Good as the Governor's:

• Increase state funding for health insurance for all education employees, and reverse funding cuts and eligibility cutbacks for retiree care

Better Pensions:

• Increase the state contribution rate, raise retirement pay for all school employees and make future cost-of-Iiving adjustments automatic
• Reverse eligibility cutbacks and formula changes of 2003-2005 that have reduced benefits
• Repeal the federal Social Security offsets that cut duly earned benefits of Texas educators

Due Respect and Due Process:

• Extend basic due-process rights and benefits to all education employees, pre-K through 16
• Respect existing rights and benefits of all education employees and protect employees from retaliation for exercising their state-granted rights

A Role in Local Policy-Making:

• Let school boards bargain with an elected employee negotiating team on local contracts covering pay, benefits and working conditions

III. Testing Reform

• Let individual teachers decide when and if benchmark testing, drill and practice for TAKS and other TAKS test prep are appropriate for their students
• Replace exit-level TAKS with end-of-course tests properly aligned with curriculum and clearly defined state standards
• Bar use of standardized test results to determine financial incentives for teachers, unless teachers participate in developing the compensation plan and 80 percent approve of the plan
• Guarantee that tutoring by school employees outside the regular school day for students in danger of failing TAKS shall be voluntary and compensated
• Guarantee to schools and districts the resources and flexibility to implement research-based interventions to improve student achievement
• Guarantee interventions will continue for at least three years after a school is no longer rate "academically unacceptable"
• For schools not making "adequate yearly progress" under federal law, mandate use of a "learning environment index" to (a) identify and measure teaching and learning conditions known to enhance student achievement and (b) trigger targeted state aid to improve those conditions

Health Care

ULLCO supports the availability of necessary health care and affordable prescription drugs for every Texan. For the 2007 session, we believe the Legislature should restore full funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program to reach, at a minimum, the levels approved by the Legislature in 2001. ULLCO also supports CHIP rules that will make enrollment and renewal as simple and straightforward as possible for all eligible families. The CHIP program is the best idea yet to place decent health insurance in the hands of working poor families.

The Legislature needs to leverage public health care spending to demand better rates from providers and insurers for all state-related health care programs.

State and University Employees

State Employee legislative goals:

1. Statewide, across the board pay raise to restore a decent standard of living for state employees

• $5800 in salary increases for all state employees, including university employees, by September 2008

2. Restore quality, affordable health care and a secure retirement for state employees and retirees

• Cover all health care increases with new state fundind; no benefit cuts
• No "medical savings accounts" or "defined contribution"' conversions in state employee health or retirement plans
• Leverage public health care spending to demand better rates from providers and insurers
• Increase the state contribution to the ERS and TRS retirement funds

3. Defeat the plans to downsize, dismantle and privatize state services. Rebuild the abilities of agencies and universities to provide quality services to the people of Texas.

• Repeal provisions that privatize state services, including corrections, human services, protective services, employment services, mental health/mental retardation, and information technology services. Enact a moratorium on state-funded construction of private correctional facilities.
• Restore funding for human services, criminal justice, education, and other
  state programs to rebuild quality services.
• Eliminate the proposed 10% budget cuts as the basis for agency budgets.

4. Human and Workforce Services-related employees

• Cancel the Accenture call-center contract and rebuild human services eligibility.
• Cancel the Convergys/Access HR contract and rebuild agency-operated human resources.
• Adopt and fund staffing to meet nationally accepted caseload and workload standards for all programs
• Cancel plans to privatize Employment Services
• Defeat any plans to close, downsize or privatize state mental health/mental retardation facilities or services.
• Call on the federal government to restore cuts to state child support enforcement funding.

5. Public safety-related state employees: TDCJ Parole Division and TYC employees

• Create a career ladder system for TDCJ parole officers and TYC case managers to attract good employees and reward them for building seniority.
• Expand training programs for TYC juvenile correctional staff that assures Texans that juvenile correctional staff are fully prepared for their jobs
• Assure full protection for TDCJ and TYC staff for on-the-job health and safety hazards
• Include all TDCJ support staff and all TYC staff who have contact with offenders in the LECOSRF 20-year retirement program of the ERS
• Establish, and fund staffing for, a weighted caseload of 60:1 for TDCJ Parole officers.

6. Higher Education employees

• Fully fund higher education as an investment in Texas. Stop the trend of reduced funding for higher education which forces universities to turn to corporate grants and increases in student costs. Re-establish tuition caps and statewide regulation of tuition and fees.
• Repeal provisions that exclude university employees from statewide pay raises and that allow conversion of annual, holiday, and sick leave to "paid time off" plans.

Correctional Officers

Working conditions have deteriorated for the state's correctional officers to the point where ULLCO believes the state faces a growing crisis. Evidence for this has been in a series of prominent violent incidents in the Texas prison system, unacceptably large rates of turnover among prison employees and a dangerous number of vacancies in correctional officer positions.

ULLCO recommends:

• A major pay increase for correctional officers that brings them substantially closer to the national average for pay in their field.
• A revised classification system that attracts employees and then rewards them for building seniority.
• An expanded training system that assures Texans that correctional officers are fully prepared for their jobs.
• Continued attention to protection of correctional officers from health and safety hazards.

Other Public Employee Issues

ULLCO's additional priorities for all public employees include:

• The right to a contract. We oppose "employment at will" by the state or any political subdivision. The state ban on public employee collective bargaining should be lifted.
• The right of all public employees to designate any portion of earned income to organizations or agencies that do not claim the right to strike.
• Fair grievance procedures for all state and political subdivision employees.
• Continuation of strong fire, police and other public employee civil service.
• Improvement of retirement benefits for public employees through various pension plans. Increase the state contribution to ERS and IRS retirement funds.
• Protection of the right of public sector employees to run for and to hold public office.
• The promulgation of effective health and safety programs.
• Opposition to restrictions on a public employee's choice of residence.

Building & Construction Trades Issues

ULLCO's priorities for building & construction trades' workers include:

• Fair and equitable use of the prevailing wage law.
• Support improvement of the state prevailing wage law by:
  a. Mandating that all workers are classified and paid the correct hourly prevailing wage on all projects covered by the prevailing wage law.
  b. Determining prevailing wages in the state and each political subdivision by conducting wage surveys under the same procedures used by the US Department of Labor.
  c. Mandating the use of Certified Payrolls for all contractors and sub-contractors that secure work on projects covered under the state's prevailing wage laws. The Certified Payrolls would be treated as public records subject to the Texas Public Information Act.
• Support licensing of building and construction trades workers to promote quality workmanship and safety. This will assure the public that it is receiving a higher standard of accountability for safety.
• Support licensing of all contractors and sub-contractors that perform construction work in the state, both commercial and residential.
• Support the use of "Best Value Contract Bidding" with procedures that are fair and equitable to all parties that bid on construction and repair work for public projects covered by the stale prevailing wage law.
• Support awarding public projects covered under the prevailing wage law only to contractors and subcontractors that provide health insurance to their employees and dependents.
• Require each political division of the slate to allow only the use of apprentices registered by the OATELS (Office of Apprenticeship, Employer Labor Services) department of the U.S. Department of Labor at a lesser hourly pay rate than of the journeyman or mechanic on all public projects covered under the prevailing wage law. Contractors and subcontractors that do not sponsor a registered apprenticeship program must pay the prevailing wage for a journeyman or mechanic classification to any employee that performs occupational trade related work.
• Support "Collective Bargaining Carve Out" for employers and unions to set up their own voluntary workers' compensation medical delivery and dispute resolution systems. This would show the emphasis that Labor and Management have in promoting safety in the workplace. The program would ensure the best possible treatment is available to the injured worker that allows for a better recovery time to return to work.
• Oppose any attempt to repeal the state's prevailing wage law.
• Oppose any attempts to replace the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) codes with lesser codes when it affects the public welfare.

Electricity Market Deregulation

Workers and consumers in Texas must have the assurance that they will have access to safe, reliable electric power at affordable prices, and workers in the industry must be treated with dignity, fairness and respect.

ULLCO has consistently fought to ensure that the concerns of workers are addressed in the process of deregulation of the electric retail market. In our view, the promises of deregulation have not been realized in Texas. Consumers have not yet, nor are they likely to realize any significant benefits from the deregulation process. There have been reports of abuses of consumers in the transition process. Workers have faced layoffs and increasingly contentious labor-management relations.

The Legislature in this session should not take any action that would accelerate deregulation. In areas of the state that are currently not subject to deregulation, such as portions of West Texas, East Texas, El Paso, municipalities and co-ops, the Legislature should extend the dates for transition to deregulation.

In addition, ULLCO should work to ensure that the metering capacity remains under the umbrella of the investor owned utility, and that only utility employees who arc fully qualified should be able to work on meter equipment.

ULLCO will resist any effort to weaken the protections of Section 38.005 of the Utility Code, which ensures that utilities must maintain an adequate supply of trained personnel to meet safety and reliability standards.

Workforce Issues

The unemployment insurance system continues to fail to meet the needs of Texas workers. Texas is still among the lowest states in terms of the percentage of unemployed persons who qualify for unemployment benefits.

ULLCO supports expanding the pool of workers who qualify for unemployment insurance through adoption of the Alternative Base Period, and making benefits available to part-time workers. In addition, efforts to improve the solvency of the UI Trust Fund must not ride the backs of Texas workers. Any attempts to address fraud in the unemployment insurance system should begin with a coordinated effort to eliminate misclassification of workers for the purpose of avoiding payment of unemployment insurance.

Job training programs in Texas remain a key in an era when working people may have several different careers in a lifetime. In addition, Texas laws should reflect the principle that a good day's work deserves a good day's pay: Those who work should receive living wages.

ULLCO believes:

• Government-subsidized job training programs should be limited to fields that prepare workers for careers that offer living wages that arc substantially high-er than the minimum wage.
• Tax subsidies and abatements aimed at attracting jobs should be tied to specific performance goals that place added responsibility on the recipient of incentives.
• Welfare policies should ensure that placement of newly trained workers does not displace current workers in what would be a game of musical chairs.
• The unemployment insurance system needs to be modernized. Texas is among the lowest of states in the percentage of unemployed persons who qualify for unemployment benefits. ULLCO supports expanding the pool of workers who qualify. In particular, ULLCO supports legislation that would pay unemployment insurance to workers who become unemployed as the result of a strike that occurs off the employee's premises or as the result of a lockout.
• Affordable quality child care should be available to all working Texans.

Worker Justice Rights

ULLCO supports the right of all Texans to seek redress in the courts for injuries caused by personal or corporate misconduct. The right to hold wrongdoers accountable is a powerful means of assuring best practices when it comes to the safety of working people in their everyday lives.

ULLCO continues to oppose legislation aimed at protecting negligent third parties from legal action by injured workers merely because the employer carries workers' compensation insurance.

Transportation

We support:

• Authority for the Texas Department of Transportation to levy administrative penalties for railroad violations.
• Enhance railroad grade crossing safety, safe walkway conditions and continued funding of rail safety programs within the Department of Transportation.
• Continued inspection of hazardous materials on trains and other modes of public transportation, plus mandated medical monitoring of employees for hazardous materials exposure.
• U.S. Inspection of all trucks and trains entering the U.S. for safety and compliance with Texas and federal laws.
• Continued operation of trains with crews located in the cab of the locomotive.

We oppose:

• Triple trailers or increases in weight limits for trucks on our freeways.
• Legislation that allows business firms to "self-insure" themselves against workers' compensation claims.
• Legislation that allows rail carriers to self-insure for medical coverage for FELA matters.

Redistricting

ULLCO continues to oppose partisan attempts to skew the process of redrawing political boundaries.

Election Law

ULLCO continues to oppose efforts to erect hurdles to voting through partisan "Voter ID" proposals and the like, as well as bills that attempt to criminalize legitimate Get-Out-The-Vote activities.

Immigration Law

ULLCO supports the national AFL-CIO's position that seeks legal status for undocumented workers who have worked hard, paid their taxes and contributed to their communities. The full menu of labor rights, including a minimum wage, a safe workplace and the freedom to form unions, should apply to immigrant workers. As such, ULLCO will oppose legislative efforts that would apply second-class status to immigrant workers in Texas.

Other ULLCO Areas of Interest

While supporting continuing efforts to streamline the text of the Texas Constitution in a manner that does not change substantive law, ULLCO believes the Constitution fairly represents the long-standing wishes of Texans on how state government should operate and believes efforts to rewrite the Constitution may cause more harm than good. Tn particular, ULLCO adamantly opposes any effort to insert the so-called "right-to-work" law into the Texas Constitution.

ULLCO categorically opposes legislation that would single out labor unions by requiring them to obtain annual written permissions from members to exercise First Amendment rights to use voluntary dues money to participate in the political process. Such "Paycheck Deception" proposals amount to a partisan attack on labor unions.

ULLCO will work to ensure that the hate crimes law remains intact.

ULLCO supports expansion of the scope of the Texas Enterprise Fund to include grants for existing companies as a means of preserving jobs that offer strong wages and benefits. In a world of outsourcing, off-shoring and competition among states, a job saved is every bit as valuable as a job created. At the same time, ULLCO supports safeguards to ensure that any expenditures by the Enterprise Fund are connected to binding guarantees that middle-class jobs will be created or preserved.

ULLCO also supports:

• A property tax appraisal system that gives localities leeway to exercise "local control" to provide needed services and maintain equity for taxpayers. In particular, ULLCO opposes efforts to place artificial caps on appraisals or lower the threshold for calling tax rollback elections. On the flip side of the same coin. ULLCO opposes efforts to tie the Legislature's ability to set statewide standards by passing a constitutional amendment that would bar "unfunded mandates".
• A moratorium on and complete reevaluation of privatized toll roads in Texas. including a thorough examination of the limits such roads are placing on the construction of freeways that have traditionally been funded by federal, state and local resources. Also, an investigation of any plans to use the Trans-Texas Corridor to bypass U.S. labor by dock workers, seafarers and truck drivers.
• Environmental policies that protect jobs and respect the role of labor.
• Fair competition and continued expansion of jobs in the telecommunications industry.
• Legislation that would permit workers who do not have Social Security cards to present alternative proof of identity when applying for a Texas driver's license.
• Legislation barring employers or governmental agencies from taking out secret life insurance policies - known as "dead peasant" policies - on employees and pocketing any proceeds when the employer has no legitimate insurable interest.
• Differential pay for workers who are required to speak a foreign language to perform their jobs.
• Lien rights for fringe benefit collection.
• Protection of local option on transit authority funding.
• Expansion of incentives to attract producers of motion pictures.

UPCOMING ULLCO EVENTS

January 9 - 80th Legislature Convenes at noon
January 17 - TSEU Retiree Mini Lobby Day
January 24 - TSEU Health and Human Services Mini Lobby Day
January 31 - TSEU Parole Mini Lobby Day
February 7 - TSEU State School and State Hospital Mini Lobby Day
February 12 & 13 - Texas AFL-CIQ Legislative Conference; Fish Fry, Feb. 12
February 14 - TSEU Office of the Attorney Genera! Mini Lobby Day
February 15 - TSEU University Mini Lobby Day
February 22 - TSEU Family and Protective Services Mini Lobby Day
February 28 - TSEU Texas Youth Commission Mini Lobby Day
Early March - Texas Building Trades Lobby Day
March 7 - TSEU Texas Workforce Commission Mini Lobby Day
March 9 - 60th Day Deadline for filing bills
March 13-14 - Texas State Association of Elcetrical Workers Legislative Conference
April18 - TSEU Lobby Day 2007
May 28 - Last Day of the 80th Regular Session

>>> return to top of page <<<<

>>> contact the webmaster <<<