Labor Day Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Labor Day heroes who aren’t even working

climate.us

I’ve come to honor Labor Day heroes who aren’t even working for pay.

ITEM 1: Fired Federal Employees Are Bringing Climate Change Info Back to the People. Scientists are preserving vital climate-related information amid the regime’s attacks on climate science.

“Since June 23, a group of former employees of the communications branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been busily resurrecting one of the government’s premier educational websites on climate change.

“Climate.gov was started in the early 2010s by communicators with NOAA, and for more than a decade it consistently produced high-quality graphics and other charts documenting rising global temperatures, changing rain patterns, drought conditions, El Niño impacts, and other climate-related data….

“In February 2025, as the so-called ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE) purges accelerated, most of the staff and contractors attached to the website were fired…

Let me interrupt this with something I did not fully know:

ITEM 2: DOGE officially shuts down on July 4, 2026!

“But the initiative did not come without a cost to taxpayers. In December 2025, the executive director of the environmental nonprofit group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) claimed the [regime] cost taxpayers an estimated $10 billion in 2025 through its deferred resignation program.

“Ironically, this unreasonably costly mass idling of civil servants was done in the name of ‘government efficiency.’

Back to our main story:

“A year after Climate.gov’s demise, [former employees] resurrected the vast majority of its materials…The new, privately run site is Climate.us, and it contains a wealth of sophisticated data sets and graphics on the world’s climate…”

Their work has inspired ex-government employees in several other agencies.

Former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) communicators are… now looking to resurrect climate-related EPA pages that have been taken down; a group called the Public Environmental Data Partners is attempting to rescue specialist environmental monitoring tools — it has some information online, but not yet a fully interactive website. Another group, the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative, is working to save specialized environmental justice screening tools. As the [regime] deliberately shreds decades of climate-related research, ex-government employees are attempting to ride to the rescue by creating a sort of shadow information-dispersal system. The American Geophysical Union, which most U.S. Earth scientists are members of, has been instrumental in putting the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change back on track after the Trump administration pulled support for its annual reports….

Replacement

The Climate.us site now is seeing close to a million visitors a month, putting it up there with where the NOAA-run site was before its demise. Teachers use it frequently, as do an array of others simply trying to get an accurate read on what is happening to the climate.

As with the old government-run website, Climate.us has a network of scientific advisers around the country willing to lend their expertise to the project and to make sure that what the communications people write up is scientifically accurate.

Preserving “this vital climate-related information in an era of administration-enforced environmental ignorance has become a mission. ‘Climate information shouldn’t be available to the public just on a political basis or a whim.’ There ought to be a way to ‘promote public climate literacy and to equip people to turn knowledge into meaningful conversations and climate-conscious actions.'”

I shared this news with a former dedicated employee of one of the agencies mentioned, and they were thrilled and heartened that the work they had participated in could be preserved.

“SO glad to see this! It reminds me of how people hurriedly photocopied files that Anne Gorsuch wanted destroyed under ray-gun. I knew some of them.” Not incidentally, Anne Gorsuch was the mother of current SCOTUS justice Neil Gorsuch.

They mentioned the Wayback Machine; unfortunately, I have found that route to climate.gov unsuccessful.

These unpaid workers are heroes, in my book. So on Labor Day, let me salute those who are doing the work to undo ignorance.

Albany Med picketed over contract

long eR wait times

I missed the announcement until too late, but Albany Med nurses picketed over their contract.

“On Tuesday evening, Aug. 20, nearly three weeks after their contract expired on July 31, New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) nurses at Albany Medical Center [held] an informational picket and candlelight vigil to demand a fair contract from hospital management and bring attention to the safety issues that currently plague the hospital. Nurses [were] joined by community members, patients, and elected leaders…

“Nurses pressed hospital management to continue bargaining with a mediator, and they continued to work under the expired contract. Although hospital management agreed to mediation, they have only agreed to one bargaining date so far, Aug. 26, nearly four weeks after the contract expired. Nurses demand the hospital return to the bargaining table and deliver a contract that will recruit and retain nurses. They maintain that patient safety is at stake.”

Ongoing battle

This is not a new issue, and New York State is a major player in the conversation. “The state Department of Health is investigating conditions at Albany Medical Center after nurses complained for months that management wasn’t meeting new state standards, set in 2022, for nurse-to-patient ratios, according to the New York State Nurses Association.

“NYSNA maintains that contract negotiations must address turnover to ensure patient safety. NYSNA has developed a safe staffing plan that Albany Med administrators agreed to and submitted to the New York State Department of Health. This plan, if accepted by the administrators, would be enforceable in the contract. NYSNA wants a pay offer that addresses the nurse staffing crisis that has left patients vulnerable after more nurses leave the hospital than they can retain. NYSNA also wants to include union rights in the contract, but administrators do not.”

The Union

Getting a nurses’ union at Albany Med was a battle. Back in 2021, Albany Med nurses voted to “accept the first union contract… after three contentious years…

“According to the New York State Nurses Association, nurses voted to approve their first union contract at the hospital with a 97 percent ‘yes’ vote. This comes after three years of tough talks that included very public disputes, including demonstrations, a one-day walkout, and charges of union-busting.”

Working too hard

So, getting unionized was only the first step in what has been an exhausting odyssey. “NYSNA nurse at Albany Medical Center, Jessica DeStefano, RN, recently wrote an opinion editorial in the Times Union explaining how patient care suffers when hospitals overburden nurses with too many patients. Patients have longer wait times and nurses resort to relying on family members to assist in some of their critical tasks in the absence of sufficient staffing support.

“Albany Med has the highest ER visit times in New York state, and nurses say that’s largely because hospital management is not doing what it takes to hire and retain enough qualified nurses at the bedside. NYSNA nurses received data from the hospital during negotiations that show that approximately 50 percent of Albany Med nurses have less than five years of bedside experience at Albany Med. There are currently nearly 600 vacant nursing positions. Albany Med’s nurse vacancy rate is nearly 25%, while a study found that the average national vacancy rate is 10%.”

As is often the case, there would have been no need for unionization had the employer done right by its staff. Check out Albany Med’s 2022 tax filings.

Happy Labor Day!

A worker organizing resource website

UNION!

The US Department of Labor is asking: “What has organizing a union meant for you? We want to hear your story.
“We’re gathering stories from workers for a new U.S. Department of Labor worker organizing resource website about how successful union organizing campaigns made their jobs better.”

Tell us:

What made you decide you wanted to organize a union at your job?
How has having a union improved your life?
What does being part of a union mean to you and your family?
Or anything else you’d like to share about your experience organizing a union!

Being familiar with others’ attempts at unionization, I find this a potentially helpful resource.

On the ground

I don’t know how I got on the email list for Union City, the Metro Washington Council News, AFL-CIO. But I’m glad I do. From August 15, “After a nine-day strike, ATU Local 689 MetroAccess workers have approved a new contract with private contractor Transdev. The more than 200 paratransit drivers, utility workers, dispatchers, maintenance workers, and road supervisors, who walked off the job on August 1 after months of intense negotiations, overwhelmingly (91%) ratified the contract.”

It reminds me that organized labor is not dead.

From Nation Of Change, July 29: ‘This victory is historic’: Massachusetts Trader Joe’s becomes first to unionize
“Our worker-led union ensures that we are protected and properly compensated—on our terms,” explained a crew member at the Hadley store.

From Truthout, June 23: Maine Chipotle Workers File to Form Company’s First-Ever Union. The workers recently staged a walkout over understaffing and safety concerns.

On the other hand, from Daily Koss, July 28: “We are looking for volunteers”: Local Chick-fil-A looks for volunteers instead of hiring people. As a result of the pushback, “A spokesperson for the company Chick-fil-A, which is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, told The Washington Post… that the Hendersonville [NC] store had “decided to end this program.”

Take this job…

Check out the State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report. Among other finds, Employee wellbeing is the new workplace imperative. See the Axios article, America’s workers are up for grabs. “Stress and burnout are rising in the U.S., but jobs are plentiful, and Americans are willing to move to new places for work.”

Peculiar year for American workers

The appropriately named Johnny Paycheck

It’s been a fascinating year for American workers. Job opportunities are coming back after being devastated by the pandemic. Yet it is clear that organizational leaders who expect the workplace to get back to “normal” are surprised.

Employees are quitting in masses. “Nearly 3.6 million Americans resigned in May [2021] alone. But it’s not an issue that’s specific to a certain industry, role, or even salary — it’s a workplace issue.

“A new Gallup analysis finds that 48% of America’s working population is actively job searching or watching for opportunities. Businesses are facing a staggeringly high quit rate… and a record-high number of unfilled positions. And Gallup discovered that workers in all job categories, from customer-facing service roles to highly professional positions, are actively or passively job hunting at roughly the same rate.”

Take this job and shove it

From The Atlantic: “Why the sudden burst of quitting? One general theory is that we’re living through a fundamental shift in the relationship between employees and bosses that could have profound implications for the future of work. Up and down the income ladder, workers have new reasons to tell their boss to shove it.

“Lower-wage workers who benefited from enhanced unemployment benefits throughout the pandemic may have returned to the job and realized they’re not being paid enough.” The poor pay has been true for decades, BTW.

“Now they’re putting their foot down, forcing restaurants and clothing stores to fork over a higher wage to keep people on staff.” This means that some workers are getting close to, or exceeding, the $15 per hour wage so many have demanded for several years.

“Meanwhile, white-collar workers say they feel overworked or generally burned out after a grueling pandemic year, and they’re marching to the corner office with new demands… Gallup finds that it takes more than a 20% pay raise to lure most employees away from a manager who engages them, and next to nothing to poach most disengaged workers.”

Daily stress

There is a global workplace survey commissioned by Gallup. In the United States and Canada, workers there “reported the highest rate of daily stress in the world during 2020.” Working women, younger workers were more stressed than their counterparts. “Only about one in three U.S. employees and one in five Canadian employees are engaged at work. Burnout prevention requires both high engagement and high employee wellbeing.”

It’s not just MORE money workers desire. Americans Are Willing to Take Pay Cuts to Never Go Into the Office Again. “A new survey shows 65% of workers who said their jobs could be done entirely remotely were willing to take a 5% reduction to stay at home.” But NOT a 20% reduction.

It could be worse

From Newsweek: In June, “The Supreme Court threw out a lawsuit that claimed the Minneapolis-based Cargill and the American arm of Switzerland-based Nestle ‘aided and abetted’ slavery by knowingly buying cocoa beans from farms that used child labor.

“Six African men brought the lawsuit, claiming that they were trafficked from Mali as children and forced to work long hours, then locked up at night, at cocoa farms in Ivory Coast, the world’s leading producer of cocoa. The group sought a class-action lawsuit on behalf of themselves, as well as who they say are thousands of other former child slaves.

“But justices ruled 8-1 that an appeals court improperly let the lawsuit against the food companies go forward in the U.S. as the respondents’ injuries ‘occurred entirely overseas’, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a majority opinion for the court.

A 2020 report funded by the U.S. Department of Labor found that the cocoa industry in West Africa was exploiting 1.6 million child laborers and that the use of child labor has risen despite industry promises to reduce it.

True? Fiction?

The American Dream. The Forgotten Employee.

Labor Day in the time of COVID

Maxing out the threshold

labormovement On this Labor Day, we see how the coronavirus has pointed out flaws in how we operate a number of systems. Of course, unemployment skyrocketed in the early days of the pandemic. “Millions of people lost their job-based health insurance. While many are people are theoretically eligible for other forms of health insurance coverage, it’s not always that simple.

“This two-minute video lays out the options: Medicaid, job-based coverage from a spouse or parent, ACA marketplace coverage, COBRA, and short-term insurance plans.

The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) plans may be able to elect continuous insurance coverage upon a “qualifying event,” such as losing a job or having hours reduced so that you’re no longer covered. That’s the upside. On the other hand, COBRA plans, in my experience, have been mighty expensive, especially when underemployed or unemployed.

The current regime’s constant attacks on “Obamacare” may have people believe the ACA is no longer an option. But it’s still there.Some folks thought the pandemic would aid the call for “Medicare for all,” or for all who want it. Perhaps, in a few months, it will.

HwOoMrEk

Having talked with a number of people who are working from home, I note some love it. They avoid much of the office politics, for example. On the other hand, others are having difficulty establishing a working day that is never over. This 2014 post in The Guardian, long before COVID-19, notes that “phones and emails enable bosses to pester staff at all hours. As a result, one-third of us feel unhappy about the time we devote to work and 40% of us are neglecting other parts of our lives because of work demands – which is likely to increase mental health problems.”

Our household fell into recognizing the separation of job and leisure when my wife was working from home in the spring. “Think you had a problem checking your work emails late at night? Without figuring out structure and boundaries it’s so easy to merge your work life and home life. Avoid that by putting a routine in place and physically separating work from home.

“For example, don’t plan to work from the couch. Instead, designate a space to work that’s away from living spaces and the kitchen. A desk in a bedroom, backroom, or spare room is perfect, preferably somewhere you can close the door if you share your living space with others. That works both ways because when your working day is over, you can shut the door on your job and ‘go home.'”

A lot of businesses are now also asking how to monitor employee internet activity so you need to get some good software if you need to do that.

You don’t feel well

Pre-COVID, a 2014 survey by the National Survey Foundation (NSF) concluded that 4 out of 10 Americans say they come to work sick simply because they don’t have much choice. Approximately 10% of those surveyed said they go to work sick. If you’re physically going to the job, that’s a terrible idea.

Undocumented immigrants, according to this CBS News report are particularly vulnerable. Generally excluded from the stimulus plans, many of these folks work, even when ill.

What if you are working at home and you feel as though someone ran you over with a truck? Obviously, you’re not going to infect your co-workers. Still, if you would have stayed home with your symptoms, you should take a sick day, if it’s available. “Plowing through” could just make one sicker.

“We NEED you!”

I’ve had enough conversations with unhappy employees to recognize a really disheartening phenomenon. There is a body of workers who actually have sick and/or vacation days accrued. However, they are discouraged, actively, or subtlely, from ever taking them. And often there’s a threshold, beyond which one can actually LOSE paid time off.

I remember feeling like the “indispensable employee” back in my FantaCo days. My boss insisted, correctly, that I should take time off. I decided to take eight successive Wednesdays off. The new comics came on Thursday, so this made sense. I read, went to the movies, cleaned my apartment, paid bills, and still had the weekends for fun.

We’re aware of how the Europeans take off more time than Americans. Yet, “almost as much productivity can happen, but within a defined set of hours… It’s setting an expectation; people don’t feel like they have to be checking email.”

An Abe Lincoln quote

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much the higher consideration.