WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 21, 2013) — Apple (like many giant, multinational corporations) has been avoiding paying the taxes they owe to the country by setting up foreign “subsidiaries” in tax-haven countries and moving jobs and profit centers out of the country. They have accumulated billions upon billions of dollars in these tax havens. Now they want a special tax break to reward them for doing that.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is scheduled to hold a hearing titled “Offshore Profit Shifting and the U.S. Tax Code — Part 2 (Apple Inc.)” with Apple’s Tim Cook. Apple is holding more than $100 billion in tax haven countries, to evade U.S. taxes. At the hearing, Cook (who had a 2011 compensation of $378 million) is expected to offer a proposal for changes to the corporate tax system.

Cook’s proposal is likely to be for a “tax repatriation holiday” and a “territorial tax system,” both of which mean giant, multinational companies like Apple will pay less in taxes, people like Cook will have even more money and We the People will end up with higher taxes, fewer good schools and good roads and police and teachers and the other things government does to make our lives better. As a bonus, this makes giant multinationals that move jobs and profits overseas even more competitive against smaller American companies that keep jobs and profits here and do not have foreign “subsidiaries” located in tax havens.

New Report on Apple’s Tax Avoidance

Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) and the AFL-CIO held a conference call Monday to talk about a new report by CTJ, Apple Holds Billions of Dollars in Foreign Tax Havens, documenting Apple’s offshore tax avoidance. The report states that,

An analysis of Apple Inc.’s financial reports makes clear that Apple has paid almost no income taxes to any country on its $102 billion in offshore cash holdings. That means that this cash hoard reflects profits that were shifted, on paper, out of countries where the profits were actually earned into foreign tax havens.

How much is this costing us? First, with Washington all aflutter over deficits, the tax dollars: $35.3 billion. From the report:

Applying this same U.S. tax rate to Apple’s $102.3 billion offshore cash hoard as of March 2013 would generate $35.3 billion in U.S. income taxes, without deferral.

Worse, however, is the cost in jobs and manufacturing infrastructure. The current tax laws encourage companies to move jobs, factories and profit centers out of the country. They actually subsidize this with tax breaks.

► In today’s NY Times — Apple’s web of tax shelters saved it billions — Even as Apple became the nation’s most profitable technology company, it avoided billions in taxes in the United States and around the world through a web of subsidiaries so complex it spanned continents and went beyond anything most experts had ever seen, Congressional investigators disclosed on Monday.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 9, 2013) — All of Washington’s Republican members of Congress — Reps. Doc Hastings, Jaime Herrera Beutler, Dave Reichert and Cathy McMorris Rodgers — voted Wednesday for legislation to allow employers of hourly workers to pay their employees less money. In fact, they have each signed on as co-sponsors of the bill. And they’ve done it not because it stands a chance of becoming law — it doesn’t — but because they think it will help their party “rebrand” itself as more family friendly.

H.R. 1406, named the “Working Families Flexibility Act,” would give employers the ability to avoid paying time-and-a-half overtime wages by offering compensatory time off, to be taken at the employer’s discretion. The bill’s proponents say workers get to choose between comp time and overtime pay, hence the “flexibility.” It passed the House on Wednesday 223-204 on a mostly party-line vote, with all six Democratic House members from Washington State voting “no.”

“This family-centered bill would allow employees to decide how to manage more of their time, whether that’s being with their child or an aging relative, or tending to personal responsibilities outside of work,” Herrera Beutler said.

But, as the AFL-CIO and other advocates for family-friendly workplace policies point out, H.R. 1406 does not allow workers to choose when they take comp time. That would be up to management. They say employers could simply refuse to schedule the comp time and pay the wages owed at the end of the year, amounting to employees giving a no-interest loan to their employer. But more importantly, opponents say workers who choose to keep their overtime pay could see their hours cut or be fired and would have no legal recourse.

“We are tired of being presented with false choices by Republicans and business,” said Jeff Johnson, President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO. “What is the choice between hard-earned overtime pay and comp time at the discretion of the employer? This is really a Bosses’ Flexibility Act.”

This video explains H.R. 1406:

The National Partnership for Women & Families testified against the bill, saying, “it would leave workers with neither pay nor time” and “magnifies the power imbalance between employer and employee.”

The measure has no hope of passing the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate and the White House has already warned of a veto by President Barack Obama should it somehow reach his desk. The Obama administration wrote:

This legislation undermines the existing right to hard-earned overtime pay, on which many working families rely to make ends meet, while misrepresenting itself as a workplace flexibility measure that gives power to employees over their own schedules.

With far more pressing issues like immigration reform and the absence of a federal budget, why would House Republicans waste time passing legislation like H.R. 1406 that is doomed to fail?

As reported by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes (below), HR. 1406 is part of the Republican Party’s effort to rebrand itself after devastating losses in the last election. Voters largely saw Republicans as out of touch with middle-class families because of their advocacy for policies that cut workers’ wages and benefits. H.R. 1406 demonstrates that the rebranding effort is not about changing the party’s priorities and values, it’s just about changing their talking points. An identical version of H.R. 1406 was introduced in 2003 (it died in committee), and in fact, replacing overtime pay with comp time has been a goal shared by Republicans and corporate lobbying groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for decades.

“If Republicans are truly interested in family-friendly work policies and not just rebranding themselves as something they are not, then let’s see their support for paid family leave, universal paid safe and sick leave, and universal paid vacation leave for all workers,” said the WSLC’s Johnson. “If they did these things then the rebranding exercise would be interesting.”

The AFL-CIO report features profiles of workers’ safety and health in each state and includes national information on workplace illnesses, injuries and fatalities as well as the number and frequency of workplace inspections, penalties, funding, staffing and public employee coverage under the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act). The report also addresses delays in the rule-making process and emerging hazards such as pandemic flu and other infectious diseases.

“Washington may have one of the lowest number of workplace fatalities in the country now, but there is still much work to be done to ensure that no worker fears for his or her health and well-being on the job,” said Lynne Dodson, Secretary-Treasurer of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO. “A good job is not defined only by the absence of physical danger. Working people deserve respect, dignity, good wages, healthcare, and opportunities to grow and to give back to one’s community.”

Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect was released after vigils, rallies and actions were held around Washington State across the country to commemorate all those workers who died and were injured on the job for Workers Memorial Day on April 28.

(May 6, 2013) — At our AFL-CIO Convention in September, the AFL-CIO needs to be ready to make decisions about how the union movement should change and what we can do together to make a better future for working people. We’re taking a hard look inward, at ourselves, and also asking for ideas from everybody who’ll share them—from people inside and outside the labor movement, from progressives, academics, student groups. We want ideas from anyone who cares deeply about building a real movement for working people.

Visit AFLCIO2013.org and join the conversation about the future of work.

These discussions will be happening all across the country, both in person and online. We’ve invited journalists, activists, academics and even a former Cabinet member to lead online discussions around some of today’s most pressing questions. How can we compete in a global economy? How can communities make an impact on workers’ rights? What’s the union movement’s proper relationship to the Democratic Party?

Please — share your ideas now at AFLCIO2013.org.

So far, the only member of Congress from Washington State among the resolution’s 81 co-sponsors is Rep. Jim McDermott (D-7th).

TAKE A STAND! – The Alliance for Retired Americans is urging all union members and their families to CLICK HERE to contact their members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor H.Con.Res. 34. The Stand will follow-up and report when additional members of Washington’s Congressional delegation sign on to H.Con.Res. 34 as co-sponsors.

In his 2014 budget plan, President Obama called for imposing a chained CPI formula that would reduce Social Security cost of living adjustments. The proposal was widely seen as an attempt to compromise with Republicans who are demanding Social Security and Medicare cuts, in exchange for GOP support for closing some corporate tax loopholes and raising federal revenue to balance the budget. Republicans have yet to make such an offer in response.

“Pursuit of bipartisanship cannot justify using our most vulnerable people as a bargaining chip,” said Rep. McDermott in a statement. “Seniors in America, half of whom live on about $22,000 annually, can’t afford to shoulder the financial burden of balancing our budget, which is exactly what a ‘chained’ Consumer Price Index would ask of them. Many Social Security recipients live paycheck to paycheck and don’t have money left over to finance Republicans’ insatiable appetite for more tax breaks.”

The AFL-CIO points out that the “chained CPI” is based on a fraudulent premise: that the CPI is rising faster than the actual cost of living experienced by seniors, veterans and millions of other vulnerable citizens living on meager incomes. In fact, because seniors in particular have limited flexibility and spend a disproportionate share of their income on health care, they tend to experience more rapid inflation than the general population.

Also, as noted in HCon.Res. 34, Social Security does not contribute to the federal budget deficit and shouldn’t be a part of those negotiations. Rep. Cicilline said the government should not be looking at Social Security as a source of funds to cut the deficit.

“Social Security isn’t an ‘entitlement program’ — it’s a promise our country has made that, after a lifetime of hard work, American seniors can enjoy their retirement years with peace of mind and economic security,” he said. “I will keep fighting to maintain these earned benefits for seniors, veterans, and individuals with disabilities.”

TAKE A STAND! — The Alliance for Retired Americans is urging all union members and their families to CLICK HERE to contact their members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor H.Con.Res. 34. The Stand will follow up an report when additional members of Washington’s Congressional delegation sign on to H.Con.Res. 34.

(April 18, 2013) — Yesterday the Senate Gang of Eight introduced their immigration bill. While there are many improvements that need to be made to the bill to make it a humane and family friendly piece of policy it is a great step forward and welcome.

Given the ideological gridlock that has come to define this Congress, it is hard to believe that we are this close to creating a pathway to citizenship for 11.5 million immigrant workers and their families. For decades, millions of workers have lived and worked in the shadows of our society and economy, afraid to speak up for their rights for fear of losing their jobs and worse yet being deported and separated from their families. Last year, 400,000 individuals were deported — 1,100 a day on average — ripping families and communities apart. This has to stop.

We will work to strengthen the workers’ rights sections of this bill so that all workers regardless of immigration status, whether they are current citizens, on the pathway to citizenship, in an H or W program status, guest worker, or new entrant, have the same protections under labor law so that they are free from intimidation and retaliation and have the right to back wages when they are fired illegally, the right to join a union if they so choose, and equal protection under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The bill also creates a common sense process for assessing and regulating the future flow of immigrant workers to the U.S. The bill sets up an independent agency using a data driven process to determine the real supply and demand needs for various skill levels in our economy and approves visas accordingly. This process is an attempt to rationalize the immigration process and protect the wage and benefit levels and rights of all workers in the U.S.

We look for improvements in the bill that will accelerate knocking down the current wait lists for citizenship status, more emphasis on family reunification, and removing or relaxing the conditionality of border security and proof of previous employment — something that could be quite difficult to do when you have worked in the underground economy for so long.

Labor will continue to work with the immigrant worker community to improve and gain support for this legislation as it moves the process. This will not be an easy process. But we all need to keep in mind that we are a country of immigrants. The United States was built on the blood, sweat, tears, and dreams of immigrant workers. Comprehensive Immigration Reform will only strengthen our country morally, economically, and culturally.

The following statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka regarding the Gang of Eight immigration bill was distributed Wednesday, April 17 by the AFL-CIO:

The bill introduced today is another step toward addressing a real crisis. The United States urgently needs a roadmap to citizenship for more than 11 million aspiring Americans. And while Washington, D.C., is full of legislative unveilings that dissolve into recriminations and unsolved problems, this time actually is different. Our cause is unstoppable. There will be a roadmap to citizenship in 2013.

As is to be expected in an 844-page first response to an issue as complex as immigration, there are several details in the bill that cause unintended, but serious, harm to immigrant workers and the broader labor market. We will work to correct those problems now that a bill is before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

We also want to emphasize that while we are making progress in Washington, there is an accelerating crisis of deportations in America. It isn’t a crisis when violent criminals or drug dealers are deported after due process, that’s common sense. But it is a crisis when workers who stand up for themselves in the workplace are deported after employers decide immigrant workers no longer know their place. It is a crisis when DREAMers are separated needlessly from their parents by deportation.

We know that there will be a roadmap to citizenship soon, but not soon enough for hundreds of thousands of hard working people and immigrant communities. We call on the administration to cease deportations of people who will soon be eligible for a long overdue roadmap to citizenship so the legislative process can proceed without prolonging the crisis.  That is the sensible and humane thing to do.  When a war is about to end, it makes sense to reach a cease-fire rather than extend the suffering needlessly.

Our role is to make sure that roadmap leads to citizenship achievable not only in theory but in fact.  Workers care for the elderly, mow our lawns or drive our taxis, work hard and deserve a reliable roadmap to citizenship. And so the labor movement’s entire grassroots structure will be mobilized throughout this process and across this country to make sure the roadmap is inclusive.

The labor movement’s role in the coming months is clear: continue to mobilize on behalf of not only an immigration reform bill, but a bill as compassionate and constructive as our country deserves. And so we will dedicate presidential campaign style resources to ensuring that all workers have a place on the roadmap to citizenship, to reuniting families, and establishing long overdue worker protections.

Along with our allies in the broad-based immigrant rights movement and in communities across the country, the labor movement says that the time for citizenship is now.

Statement online here: Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka On Gang of Eight Immigration Bill

For the latest updates, follow @AFLCIO and @RichardTrumka on Twitter.

Did you know that the CEOs of the Campaign to Fix the Debt, the corporate front group that wants to cut Social Security and Medicare and lower corporate taxes, have parked more than $418 billion of untaxed corporate profits overseas? Overall it is estimated that U.S. corporations have as much as $1.9 trillion sheltered overseas. That would make a nice down payment on fixing the debt.

You can read about “Fix the Debt” and more in the 2013 edition of the AFL-CIO’s Executive PayWatch launched on Tuesday. PayWatch not only shines a light on Fix the Debt hypocrisy, but it also explores the huge wage gap between CEO pay and the average U.S. worker. PayWatch started in 1997.

Visit www.paywatch.org.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka notes that since 1982, the CEO versus worker pay gap has jumped from 42 times more than the average rank-and-file worker to 2012’s record 354 times greater. In real dollars, a CEO of a Standard and Poor’s 500 Index company averaged $12.3 million a year in total compensation, while the average rank-and-file worker earned $36,654. Says Trumka:

Runaway CEO pay is fueling economic inequality in the U.S. and undermining our shared prosperity. In addition, high levels of CEO pay can encourage excessive risk by CEOs, which hurts the long-term prospects of the companies they run.

PayWatch also unveils several new features this year, including:

• The retirement multimillion-dollar nest eggs of the leading Business Roundtable CEOs — the same group that wants to cut Social Security benefits;
• The records of 40 of the largest mutual funds and their votes on CEO pay proposals for the companies in which they invest;
• The CEO to worker pay gap around the world; and
• Trends in CEO pay.

As in past years, visitors to PayWatch can compare their pay and benefit package to that of a CEO, search the CEO pay database and take action to rein-in CEO pay.

Here’s a closer look.

Fix the Debt

Behind Fix the Debt are more than 80 of the nation’s most powerful chief executive officers. This group says it wants to lower the deficit by “reforming” Medicare and Medicaid, “strengthening” Social Security and passing “comprehensive and pro-growth tax reform” that “lowers rates.” Translation: cut workers’ retirement security to pay for tax cuts for rich people and corporate America.

The group claims U.S. corporations are overtaxed and that’s why U.S. firms have sheltered as much as $1.9 trillion offshore. It also has estimated that 63 companies whose CEOs are members of Fix the Debt have accumulated $418 billion in overseas cash. Keeping this money overseas deprived the U.S. government of an estimated $134 billion in tax revenue, adding to—rather than cutting—the country’s deficit.

BTW on corporate taxes? Corporate taxes fell from 26.4% of total tax revenue in 1950 to just 7.4% of total tax revenue in 2010. The Washington Post found that in the late 1960s and early 1970s, companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average routinely paid up to 50% of their worldwide profits in federal taxes. Today, most of these companies pay less than half that rate.

Learn more.

Business Roundtable’s Golden Nest Eggs

The Business Roundtable, which represents more than 100 CEOs of the nation’s blue-chip companies, wants to increase the retirement age for Social Security and Medicare to 70. Under current law, the retirement age for collecting full Social Security benefits will rise to 67 for those born after 1959 from 65, where it’s at presently. The current eligibility age for Medicare is 65. On top of that the group wants to cut Social Security benefits by changing the way cost-of-living increases are calculated—known as chained CPI.

While seniors under the Business Roundtable proposals will work longer, pay more for health care and earn less in retirement, Business Roundtable CEOs are well prepared for retirement. On average, the CEOs on the Business Roundtable’s executive committee have accumulated more than $35 million in pension and deferred compensation benefits. In contrast, 57% of America’s workers have less than $25,000 in savings for their own retirement.

Learn more.

Mutual Funds and CEO Pay

The AFL-CIO’s Mutual Fund Votes Survey examines the votes cast by 78 of the largest mutual fund families on executive compensation at the public companies they are invested in. Mutual funds own more than one-fifth of all shares in U.S. public companies, giving them a great deal of influence in determining executive pay at these companies.

Each fund received a letter grade (A to F) for votes on shareholders’ proposals to reform executive compensation, from pay to golden parachutes and more; on executive compensation plans firms submit for shareholder votes; and say-on-pay votes that are advisory resolutions on executive compensation that are submitted for shareholder approval at company annual meetings.

Five mutual funds received an overall A grade for their executive pay actions, seven flunked every test.

Find out more.

CEO Pay Around the World 

Not only do U.S. CEOs make a lot more money than their own employees (354 times more) but they also make far more than CEOs of comparably sized companies in other developed countries. The AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch interactive map lets you click on each country to compare.

Check it out.

Visit www.paywatch.org.

Under the bill, the NLRB would not be permitted to issue new decisions, enforce existing decisions, be able to prevent or remedy unfair labor practices, or defend the right of employees to join a union and bargain collectively with employers.

In the end, after much arm-twisting by Republican leadership, the measure squeaked by on a vote of 219-209 with all Democrats and 10 Republicans voting “no.”

Washington State’s delegation voted along strict party lines with Republican Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler, Doc Hastings, Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Dave Reichert all voting for H.R. 1120, and Democrats Suzan DelBene, Rick Larsen, Derek Kilmer, Jim McDermott, Adam Smith and Denny Heck voting against the measure.

“The National Labor Relations Board plays a critical role in addressing disputes for both workers and employers,” Rep. Kilmer said. “By suspending its activities, Congress would allow violations of workers’ rights to go unremedied. This legislation would only create uncertainty in our labor-management system — the opposite of what Congress should be providing at a time when we should be focused on getting this economy moving and improving wages and working conditions.”

Fortunately, this bill will not be taken up by the Senate, but it is symbolic of the right-wing’s anti-worker agenda.

► ALSO today In The Hill — Labor fight one front in GOP war (by Juan Williams) — The NLRB, along with the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau and appellate courts, is a key target for the GOP’s cynical — but successful — strategy of negating the American people’s decision to twice elect a liberal Democrat as president. Republicans are trying to deny him the control he should rightfully have over who should run government agencies. The NLRB is the focus of Republican efforts to defeat the president’s power because the GOP sees fundraising gold in telling the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and big corporations that they are preventing  Democrats from giving unions the right to more easily organize.

AFL-CIO Now contributed to this report.

Nearly 70 turned out at Spokane Valley Post Office on March 24 to call on the USPS to Save 6-Day Delivery.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 11, 2013) — The U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday that it will keep Saturday delivery, saying a recent bill passed by Congress prevents it from doing so. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe had previously announced that the USPS would end Saturday mail delivery this August, but maintain package delivery Monday through Saturday.

Although Congress passed an appropriations bill that specifically barred the USPS from going to five-day delivery, until Wednesday’s announcement, the USPS hadn’t backed away from its plans.

National Association of Letter Carriers President Fredric Rolando said, “It seems to be sinking in with the postmaster general that the law is not on his side in this matter.”

Cutting a day of mail delivery would not save the Postal Service money, but would instead drive more business away to look for more reliable alternatives, sending the agency into a spiral toward insolvency from which it would be extremely hard to recover.

The USPS “should focus its efforts on growing the business first, rather than cutting it to the bone and hope something good happens afterward,” he says.

Since the USPS announcement that Saturday mail delivery would end protests have occurred throughout the nation — including several here in Washington state — to urge against the proposal. Here is video coverage of the most recent rally held in Seattle on Sunday, March 24.

Although the USPS has dropped its plan to end Saturday delivery, it says it would do so if Congress lets it.

“Although disappointed with this Congressional action, the (USPS) will follow the law and … delay implementation of its new delivery schedule until legislation is passed that provides the Postal Service with the authority to implement a financially appropriate and responsible delivery schedule,” the agency said in a statement.

Postal unions have tried to work with USPS management to develop costs savings and growth measures. Just this past November, a USPS report shows that worker productivity has increased while both operational expense and the Postal Service’s deficit have dropped significantly.

The root cause of the agency’s fiscal problems is the unique congressional requirement—the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) — that USPS prefund retirement benefits for decades into the future. Repeal of that requirement would restore financial stability to the USPS. Says Rolando:

Without this requirement to spend billions each year to pre-fund the health benefits of future retirees—something no other government agency or private enterprise must do—the USPS would actually have shown a $100 million profit in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2013.

In related developments, the American Postal Workers Union has denounced plans by the USPS to accelerate the closure of 71 mail processing plants, including one in Pasco, Wash., that were due to remain in operation though 2014. Says APWU President Cliff Guffey:

The Postal Service is on the brink of cutting service in a way that will permanently damage our treasured institution. This would be a tragic mistake, and it is unnecessary….Congress must act now to enact meaningful postal reform—reform that restores the Postal Service to financial stability without destroying service or harming postal workers.

Read more from the APWU.

AFL-CIO Now contributed to this report.

The AFL-CIO has learned President Obama’s budget will cut Social Security and Medicare benefits for working families. The so-called “chained” CPI will cut Social Security benefits and middle-income seniors (people who made $47,000 a year and more) will be asked to pay higher Medicare premiums.

Not only do the majority of America’s workers across the political spectrum oppose benefit cuts to the social insurance system, this is bad policy that will slow economic recovery even further.

TAKE A STAND! Please sign the petition calling on the president to reject cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and to repeal the sequester.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the “chained” CPI is wrong-headed policy.

Millions of Americans remain out of work and the job market is especially devastating for young people.  Young people ages 20-24 are facing 13.3% unemployment rates. Without the prospect of good jobs in their early and crucial earning years, these young people will bear the cost of these proposed cuts in Social Security.

In a time of rampant income inequality and stagnant wages, a blow to retirement security is the last thing we need.

It’s unconscionable we’re asking seniors, people with disabilities and veterans to be squeezed of every last penny when corporations and the wealthiest 2% are not paying their fair share of taxes, despite soaring profits.

This year alone, the job-killing sequester will cost 750,000 people their jobs. We need to invest in America’s workers, not pull the rug out from under them.

The “chained” CPI is based on a fraudulent premise: that the CPI is rising faster than the actual cost of living experienced by seniors, veterans and millions of other vulnerable citizens living on meager incomes. In fact, because seniors in particular have limited flexibility and spend a disproportionate share of their income on health care, they tend to experience more rapid inflation than the general population.

“Chained” CPI also hits the vulnerable people in the country — people with disabilities who get long-term Social Security benefits and women, because they live longer.

America elected President Obama to protect us from bad Washington ideas like “chained” CPI, not to advocate for them.

Sign the petition calling on the president to reject cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and to repeal the sequester.