Issue Position: Labor

Issue Position

The political efforts of the organized labor movement have been paramount to establishing many of the rights that workers in America are now guaranteed, including the minimum wage, worker's compensation and the forty-hour work week. Joe believes that unions are key to setting quality standards for workers, and that government needs to stand with organized labor and workers against radical right-wing attacks. What happened to unions in Wisconsin at the hands of deep-pocketed special-interest donors cannot be allowed to happen in Pennsylvania.

This issue is personal for Joe. He comes from a union family - his sister is a deputy regional field organizer for SEIU, his mother was a member of AFSCME local 1739 and his father was a member of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers from the 1970s through the 1990s, where he went through several hard-fought fights. Joe has seen what it means to have to strike for the right to fair pay.

Joe's legislative priorities for labor include:

*Preventing the privatization of the Liquor Control Board and keeping it a public trust
*Protecting unions from right to work legislation and paycheck protection legislation
*Rolling back 2012 changes to the unemployment law that have hurt trade unions
*Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 and then indexing it to inflation
*Privatization of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board

Joe opposes privatization because the math behind it simply does not add up.

First, The LCB generates over half a billion dollars to taxpayers in taxes and profits, and its sales have been growing. The loss of state income from controlled liquor sales would be difficult, if not impossible to replace. Republican claims that privatization would be a boon for the state are based in short-sighted solutions that would actually hurt state revenue in the long run. In fact, according to analysis by Public Financial Management (commissioned by former Governor Corbett), it's estimated that the state would have to come up with $408 million in new revenue each year to make privatization fiscally neutral.

Second, privatization will likely not create a significant number of jobs, while the LCB currently provides 3,500 union jobs and 5,000 jobs overall. Privatizing the LCB would put over 2,000 full-time LCB employees in unemployment, and the jobs that would be created could be part-time or lacking the benefits currently guaranteed to employees.

Third, privatization and the creation of for-profit wine and spirit stores increases public health risks, including serving minors or those who should not be served alcohol. The benefits of a trained, full-time and invested union workforce to control the sale of alcohol is something we would miss only when it is gone and less professional operations open in our neighborhoods.

Joe is open to reforms and modernizing the system so that consumers have the best possible options. It is notable that after Washington state privatized its liquor stores four years ago, consumers saw prices rise 10-30%.

Right to Work and Paycheck Protection Legislation

Joe stands opposed to right to work legislation. Right to work legislation is effectively a Trojan horse that actually drives down wages and, thus, damages a state's tax base. Too much damage has already been done to unions across the country, and Joe will oppose this legislation if elected.

Joe also opposes paycheck protection legislation. Especially in an era where unions have been under attack at the state level across the country from big money right-wing donors such as the Koch brothers, unions require the ability to generate the funds necessary to be politically active. All members of a bargaining unit benefit from union advocacy, whether or not they willingly support a union. It is only fair they pay for these ancillary benefits. Paycheck protection legislation undermines a union's ability to advocate for all of its members and all of the members of a bargaining unit.

Unemployment Reform

Joe supports restoring balance to the unemployment system after changes in 2012 disproportionately hit workers in the construction trades. Changes to unemployment rules four years ago made 41,000 workers ineligible for benefits because they earn too much of their annual pay during one three-month period. This has created a hole in the safety net for people who are ready to work, but for whom work is not always available. Those who rely on seasonal or construction work went from being able to earn almost 63% percent of their annual income in a three-month period to being able to earn slightly more than 50%. The result is an all or nothing situation that frequently leaves families with no support for an extended time - often during the lean winter months. Joe would join unions that are fighting to provide working families stability from fluctuations in work that depends on seasonal weather conditions.

Minimum Wage

Joe supports Governor Wolf's plan to raise the minimum wage to $10.10, and then indexing it to inflation so stagnant wages don't occur and workers across the state never find themselves as far behind as they are now. Too many Pennsylvanians work full-time jobs and still can't afford the basics for their families. Further, study after study has shown that a minimum wage increase would not damage the economy and may actually provide a stimulative benefit. It's time the PA Legislature got in line with literally every state bordering Pennsylvania and raised the minimum wage for its constituents.

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