— About 530,000 were subject to mass layoffs in the last year, growth of nearly 5 percent, but a lower rate than five and 10 years ago.

— The median weekly earnings for American workers have not grown in real terms over the last eight years.*

— At $6.55, the federal minimum wage is worth 40 cents less per hour, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than it was a decade ago.

For some reason, the version of the AP story appearing in The Orlando Sentinel neglects to mention that the scoreboard shows

• After decades of decline, there was a small increase in the percentage of workers represented by unions.

Florida employers! To the barricades!

1. We start our review of the editorial pages with the reliably anti-union Orlando Sentinel, which had this to say about workers on its editorial pages today (which happens to be ... you know ... "Labor Day"): nuthin'.

To be sure, today's Sentinel includes the above-quoted AP piece about how terrible everything is: "Workers' Labor Day scorecard: Bad news on pay, unemployment, the minimum wage". However, nothing appears in the editorial pages. Hence, the editors Sentinel celebrates Labor Day by yet again ignoring the Labor Movement.**

No mention, for example that the BLS stats continue to show that union represented employees make much more than non-union folks, or, according to the Rutgers study, that union membership is on the uptick (see above).

But most incredibly, the Sentinel "editors" managed to ignore one of one of the most significant labor law cases in the Country, decided a few months ago, and arising in the Orlando Sentinel's back yard. You would also think the editors could bring themselves to at least mention the "successful" conclusion of a decade-plus long labor struggle; after all, the case has been given much national attention, and was the subject of a Congressional hearing. The Congressional release is here.

Why might the editors think it appropriate to mention this particular labor struggle on Labor Day?

Well, the strike occurred on "part of the Walt Disney World complex", and has been litigated (in Orlando of all places (who knew?)) before a federal administrative judge for more than decade - with trial flourishes, vigorous cross examination, lawyers arguing with each other in open court, sharp evidentiary objections, and all that fancy schmancy courtroom stuff that people like to read about.

Imagine (and this really requires suspension of disbelief) words kinda like the following on an editorial page somewhere in Florida:

Consider the Bush [NLRB] appointees' Sept. 11 ruling in the case of 44 longtime employees whom a Florida resort illegally fired -- the illegality of the firings was not in question -- while they were on strike over Grosvenor of Orlando's failure to bargain in good faith with their union. At issue was the amount of back pay the resort had to pay its workers.

The employees had been picketing for just four days when they were canned, and the picket line continued for several weeks.

Forty-three of the 44 workers found new employment within three months of being fired. In the view of Bush's commissars, however, the picketers should have abandoned their picketing as soon as they were pink-slipped -- surrendering instantly on their efforts to compel the resort to bargain, to recover their jobs, and to retain their seniority and benefits. The board denied full back pay to workers who hadn't sought employment within two weeks of being discharged because to do so, the Bush appointees wrote in unconscious homage to Dickens, "would be to reward idleness."

The work records of the discharged employees who stayed on the picket line too long are those of maids, waiters, kitchen and laundry workers in their 50s and 60s, all of whom resumed more or less the same work at other resorts within a few months. Reading their work histories, I doubt the idea of idleness even occurred to them. Some of them did obtain new jobs within two weeks, but their new employers didn't want them to report to work quite so soon. No matter: The board docked them for not landing what member Dennis Walsh, in an angry dissent, called "interim interim" jobs (since most of them believed they'd eventually return to Grosvenor) before their next job started.

Surely at least some of Florida's editorial boards registered their outrage - along the above lines - at the victimization of these salt of the earth Orlando workers, whose union had fought with them and for them, and won at every turn (until this September, 2007 decision which truncated back pay amounts)? Surely?

     Nah. Neither the Orlando Sentinel "editors" nor anyone holding themselves out to be newspaper company "editors" has anything at all to say about this injustice. One has to look elsewhere, to the pages Washington Post to find the above-quoted words.*** See generally "Those icky 'unions'" (scroll down).

     To be sure, the Grosvenor Hotel has not entirely escaped the Florida media's laser-like attention. Just days after the NLRB's October 2007, decision the Orlando Sentinel breathlessly trumpeted (i.e., published a press release) the following news:

To help promote its new look and name following a $25 million renovation, the Regal Sun Resort at Walt Disney World is offering discounts to Florida residents for stays at the hotel and for its MurderWatch Mystery Theatre [sic] dinner show.

Formerly known as the Grosvenor Resort, the lakefront resort in Lake Buena Vista is offering a 2-for-1 offer for dinner-theater tickets and a resident rate for overnight stays.

The hotel, the closest to the Downtown Disney entertainment complex, changed its name to Regal Sun Resort on Sept. 1, marking the completion of its property-wide renovation, including work on 626 guest rooms, seven suites, meeting space, lobby, restaurants and lounges. The project is complete except for some pool enhancements; at least one pool is remaining open as that work progresses.

"Guests will be able to dine with life-size dinosaurs at Downtown Disney".

     At the same time the Sentinel was publishing company press releases about how the Grosvenor Resort was offering a 2-for-1 offer for dinner-theater tickets", journalists from out-of-state (in this case New York) were advising their readers of the injustice that had occurred to the Grosvenor Resort housekeepers in Florida:

At Thursday’s hearing, a hotel housekeeper, Feliza Ryland, testified about her fight to win back pay after the board ruled in 2001 that she and 43 other workers had been illegally fired in 1996 in a labor dispute with Grosvenor Resorts in Orlando, Fla.

“It has now been more than 11 years since I was unlawfully fired,” Ms. Ryland said, “and I am still waiting to see the back pay, still waiting to see justice.”

In a decision in September, the board sharply reduced the workers’ back pay, saying they forfeited the right to full back pay because they picketed for several weeks in an effort to get their jobs back instead of looking for new jobs. The board’s majority wrote that giving full back pay would “reward idleness.”

"Critics Say Labor Board Favors Business". Here's a link to a video of the recent Congressional testimony of a housekeeper unlawfully fired in 1996.

     Shame on Florida's editorial boards, particularly the Orlando Sentinel, for ignoring this.

     2. The Tampa Trib editors kindly refrained from again penning the most embarrassing Labor Day editorial this year; last year they shared this delightful bit 'o wisdom with us:

The celebration of Labor Day is muted this year for most workers. Union membership is down, pay is flat and pensions are rare.

The one place unions are strong, pay is up and pensions are fat is public service. Local, state and federal employees now receive raises and benefits that are the envy of most taxpayers who pay for it all.

Most private employers have replaced costly pensions with investment accounts, such as the 401(k), because pension plans paid from future profits have proved disastrous.

Indeed, generous union-won pensions helped drive steel companies and airlines into bankruptcy. Now the auto industry is fighting for its life with a pension yoke around its neck. Consider that General Motors now pays four pensions for every worker on its payroll. Ford carries a similar burden, which adds about $1,700 to the cost of a new car.

What seemed smart corporate strategy in the 1950s and '60s became a crushing burden as payrolls were cut, ranks of retirees grew and foreign competition increased.

Pensions, and the unions that advocate them, are fading away everywhere except in government. ...

the act passed the House of Representatives in March 2007 by the vote of 241 to 185 (228 Democrats and 13 Republicans supported it). Unfortunately, it never reached a Senate vote. It couldn't overcome a Republican filibuster in June 2007; it failed a cloture motion to end debate with only 51 of the needed 60 votes in the Senate. Even if Congress had passed it, the president promised to veto it. Therefore, not only do the unions need a Democratic president, but a filibuster-proof Senate (about 10 more Democrats) as well. This may be possible, but it's highly unlikely.

"Unfortunately, it never reached a Senate vote"?  These are fighting words, that one wouldn't expect to see in any Florida newspaper, let alone the Trib, even if by a guest columnist.

      3. To their everlasting credit, The Miami Herald editors actually mention that it is "Labor Day" and (like last year),

Labor Day once again brings evidence that the American worker is hurting. A report by the Commerce Department on Friday, just before the holiday established as a national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the prosperity of the country, shows that their own well-being is imperiled. Income plunged in July by 0.7 percent, the biggest drop in almost three years. It's one of many signs that working-class families are ailing.

"American workers remain under stress". Perhaps one day the editors will acknowledge that "unionization" is one way to, ... you know ... prevent that "workers ... well-being is imperiled" thing.

      4. The "liberal" St. Pete Times editors have nothing to say about labor today, although Times columnist Robyn E. Blumner had this yesterday" "Here's our Labor Day reality: Worker productivity rose 2.5 percent a year between 2000 and 2007. Meanwhile wages stagnated, health benefits withered, defined-benefit pensions disappeared and income inequality soared." "Laboring under a sinking feeling".

 

     Blumner courageously brings herself to say things like "solidarity", "power of the labor movement", "bargaining pawer", and even "collective consciousness":

 

 

Unfortunately, the actual word "union" is nowhere to be seen in the piece.

 

     In our analysis of that piece yesterday (""Labor Day reality"".), wherein Blumner bemoaned the loss of "defined-benefit pensions", we reminded folks that the Times itself has been guilty of cheering on the elimination of these retirement benefits, including this delightful passage: "whether local governments can afford these lucrative retirement plans for deputies and police and firefighters at a time when private companies are shedding pension plans is a reasonable public policy question." "High cost of pensions straps cities" "High cost of pensions straps cities".

      5. Another Sam Zell product, the Sun-Sentinel is to be credited for at least recognizing the existence of "Labor Day": "Across our region and state, unemployment is up. So are home foreclosures, bankruptcies and the cost of living. Our housing markets rank among the worst, and there's no real light at the end of the tunnel. Considering all this, there is a palpable cloud of anxiety and uncertainty. So, given a chance to blow off steam for a well-earned three-day weekend, you can't help but understand why people would want to turn off the world." "Enjoy the holiday but be careful out there".

 

     No mention of "unions".

 

     6. The Tallahassee Democrat editorial board has this: "On the day when America honors its working men and women, the job outlook in Florida, at least for a while, is not rosy." The editors discuss the "just-released statewide jobs report, analyst Bruce Nissen of the Center for Labor Research and Studies at Florida International University said the combination of adverse economic indicators makes 'the near future look very worrisome for working Floridians.'". "There's work to do". 

 

     No mention of "unions".

     7. The Palm Beach Post editorial Board is apparently too "liberal" to engage on silly things like "Labor Day", let alone mention "unions".

     All in all, a typically insulting Labor Day here in Florida.

- - - - - - - - - -
*Also in today's news: "Personal incomes fell by a bigger-than-expected 0.7 percent in July, the biggest drop in nearly three years". "July incomes drop by largest amount in 3 years; consumer spending slowed as rebates tailed off".

**That the Orlando Sentinel would marginalize Labor Day is par for the course; after all, these are the same swells who ... well ... just read about it: "Send in the scabs" and "Picking scabs, part two".

That is not to say the word "union" is completely out of the picture for Orlando Sentinel "journalists"; we did get thos this morning about mysterious sounding "unionizing legislation": "A labor advocacy group will begin airing $5 million worth of ads Monday on national cable and in targeted states to press for legislation that would allow workers to organize without secret ballot elections. The ads, to launch on Labor Day by American Rights at Work, do not name either presidential candidate, but the message of economic hardship dovetails with Democratic nominee Barack Obama's campaign themes. The national ads will appear on CNN, MSNBC and CNN Headline News. The ads also will appear in states with vulnerable Republican senators — New Hampshire, Maine, Alaska, Minnesota and Oregon. The ads, expected to air at least four weeks, urge viewers to call the senators to demand their support for the legislation." "Pro-labor group airing $5 million in ads to promote unionizing legislation".

*** To be fair, the Gainesville Sun had a November 19, 2007 guest column by a UF history professor noting that, "in the Grosvenor Resort case ... the board went against 40 years of precedent to make it more difficult now for union supporters victimized by illegal discrimination to file back-pay claims." To our knowledge, that was the extent of the commentary by Florida's media companies.