A LIFETIME OF SERVICE TO MASSACHUSETTS
Labor
Fighting for Workers’ Rights
Senator Kennedy has spent his career standing up for the rights of workers, the backbone of America’s economy, battling for workplace safety, mine safety, fair wages, the right to organize and more.
“He has always been for the working people. Whenever we need a buck, Ted is right there for us.”- Stanley Buonagorio, Boston Resident (The Boston Globe, Kennedy is Bay State’s working man, Scott Lehigh, 4/9/99)
“Today the working families of Massachusetts mourn the passing of the biggest voice and the biggest champion of the ‘little guy’ to ever serve in the United States Senate. His legacy on workers’ rights, civil rights, and human rights lives on in the quality of life and freedoms he ensured would be extended to all Americans, regardless of race, religion, gender, disability, economic status or any other factor. The Massachusetts AFL-CIO joins the entire world in expressing our condolences to the Kennedy Family during this incredibly solemn time. The enormity of the loss of Ted Kennedy cannot be overstated, especially in terms of the impact his life has had on the pursuit of social and economic justice in this country. Ted Kennedy epitomized humanity in every sense of the word. His larger-than-life presence was only outpaced by his kindness in the form of even the smallest, most humane gestures. Few public figures had the impact on others that Senator Kennedy had, traversing the entire spectrum from the indelible mark he left in both the history books and on individual lives.
“The great lesson of his life is that even the hardest challenges are no match for determination in the pursuit of what is right. The working men and women of organized labor, and all working families, have been so fortunate that Senator Kennedy’s mission for a better country matched the virtues of our Labor Movement. We are overcome at this monumental loss, but we will honor his life and his legacy the only way we know how. In the spirit of one of Ted Kennedy’s favorite poems, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO will strive, seek, find and not yield in the pursuit we shared with our Senator of improving the lives of all workers in this nation. Through that work, the dream will indeed live on.”- Robert J. Haynes, President, Massachusetts AFL-CIO
Raising the Minimum Wage
Senator Kennedy is recognized by many as the leading Congressional proponent of a fair minimum wage, which was increased 16 times during his nearly half century of Senate service. While serving as Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Senator Kennedy’s most recent efforts culminated in 2007 with the first increase in the federal minimum wage in a decade. Thirteen million American workers, including 46,000 in Massachusetts, benefitted from the raise, which increased the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour in three phases.
Strengthening Unemployment Insurance
Senator Kennedy has led the charge to ensure that laid-off workers receive extended unemployment benefits while they search for new jobs. As a result of his efforts, Congress approved legislation last year to provide 20 additional weeks of compensation to out-of-work Americans, plus 13 more weeks for workers in high unemployment states. Senator Kennedy recently joined fellow Democrats in increasing unemployment benefits by $25 per week and extending the program of emergency benefits through the end of 2009, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Kennedy’s has long fought to ensure that all unemployed people in Massachusetts and nationwide have the tools they need to get back on their feet. His legislation to overhaul and modernize the unemployment insurance system was also included in the economic recovery legislation – it provides strong incentives to states to cover more laid-off part-time and low-wage workers. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts will receive more than $162 million in federal unemployment funding under this new law, helping to ensure that many more unemployed workers in Massachusetts can feed their families and keep a roof over their heads.
Helping Americans Meet the Needs of Work and Family
Millions of working Americans find there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to manage the competing demands of their jobs and their families. Senator Kennedy has tirelessly pursued policies helping working men and women manage these competing responsibilities. He has called consistently fought for legislation that not only help workers earn a decent living, but also assure them time to meet obligations to their families and communities.
In the early 1990s, Senator Kennedy fought to pass the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which allows workers to take unpaid leave to care for a new baby, their own serious illness, or the serious illness of a child, parent or spouse. Since the law’s passage, more than 60 million workers have been able to take time off from work to care for a loved one or get medical treatment without fearing that they would lose their jobs. Senator Kennedy has joined his colleague Senator Dodd, in the fight to defend these essential protections.
Building on the success of the FMLA, Senator Kennedy has been the leading proponent of legislation to provide workers with paid sick days to address short-term health care and family caregiving needs. Most Americans assume that paid sick days are a right, but they’re not: 40 percent of Massachusetts workers, or 1.4 million employees, lack even a single paid sick day that they can use to care for themselves or a family member who is ill. These employees must choose between the jobs they need and the family they love. Senator Kennedy believes that hard-working Americans deserve better, which is why he introduced the Healthy Families Act. The legislation would allow workers to earn up to seven days of paid sick leave each year to care for their own medical needs and those of their family members.
Caring for family also means taking time to care for a child or sick relative in need. These needs often require flexible work schedules—but many workers are afraid to ask for flexible arrangements for fear of jeopardizing their jobs. Senator Kennedy introduced the Working Families Flexibility Act to ensure workers have the right to request flexible work arrangements so they can both meet family obligations and do their jobs.
Fighting for Equal Pay for Equal Work
Senator Kennedy has consistently fought for the rights of women, including the right to equal pay for doing the same jobs as their male counterparts.
Senator Kennedy has consistently fought for the rights of women, including the right to equal pay for doing the same jobs as their male counterparts. In 2009, women in Massachusetts earned only 78 cents for every dollar earned by men. Women of color fared worse – African-American women received 61 cents and Latinas only 50 cents for every dollar earned by a white man. As Senator Kennedy has said, “Working women must have a paycheck that works for them. Economic security cannot be achieved without paycheck security, and paychecks should reflect the fair value of the job performed. For women, this means equal pay for equal work. Without it, they are less able to provide an economic safety net for themselves and their families, less able to purchase a home, less able to go to college, or send their children to college.”
In 2007, the Supreme Court’s decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire Company made it more difficult for workers to challenge all forms of pay discrimination, including discrimination based on race, sex, religion, national origin, age, or disability. Senator Kennedy was a leader in passing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to restore a fair rule for filing pay discrimination cases. The Act became the first major legislation signed by President Obama.
“When Senator Kennedy came to our picket line, it truly was one of the greatest days to be a nurse in Massachusetts. The nurses were absolutely inspired by Kennedy’s presence and his advocacy, but they also felt encourage that with Senator Kennedy’s involvement, we could be rounding a corner... He made an enormous difference.” – Sandy Ellis (Lowell Sun, Kennedy has always fought for working men and women. Julie Mehegan, 2/24/02).
Enhancing Worker Safety
Senator Kennedy has been a long-standing champion of worker safety. America has made major progress toward guaranteeing every American worker a safe working environment, but too many employees are still being injured or killed on the job. In 2008, 66 workers in Massachusetts alone lost their lives on the job, and an additional 660 workers died from occupational diseases.
Senator Kennedy wrote and introduced legislation to honor the memory of workers who died in the workplace by requiring companies that fatally endanger their workers to pay significant penalties. In 2008, he issued a strong report documenting the failure of current law to make employers take worker safety seriously. The bill expands current safety laws to cover employees who are not currently protected, including the more than 350,000 public sector workers in the Commonwealth who are not currently protected by the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The legislation also increases penalties for employers who put their employees at risk, and protects the public’s right to know about unsafe workplace violations.
Protecting the Right to Organize and Associate Freely
Senator Kennedy believes strongly that protecting workers’ voices on the job is essential to the survival of the middle class. Unfortunately, too many unscrupulous employers do not respect their workers’ basic right to form a union and bargain for fair wages, decent benefits, and safe working conditions. In 2007, almost 30,000 U.S. workers lost pay or benefits because their employer broke the law and violated these rights.
Senator Kennedy has led the battle to restore fairness to the workplace by introducing the Employee Free Choice Act, which will protect the right of workers to organize and join a union, and stop the epidemic of employer anti-union violations. Support for this important legislation continues to grow—in 2007, the bill passed the House, and a majority of the Senate voted to begin debating this vital legislation, but the bill was halted by a Republican filibuster. Kennedy reintroduced the bill in 2009.
In addition, Senator Kennedy has been a cosponsor of bills to restore collective bargaining rights to groups of nurses, construction workers, and graduate student teaching assistants – including more than 68,000 in Massachusetts –who were stripped of their rights by the Bush-dominated National Labor Relations Board.
Compensating Energy Employees
Senator Kennedy was a key sponsor of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act of 2000, which compensates men and women who, in helping to build our nation’s defenses, were often unknowingly exposed to radiation and other toxic substances. He helped to push through key reforms to the program in 2004 to ensure that nuclear workers and their surviving family members receive the compensation they are owed. As of August 2009, 528 workers at facilities in Massachusetts have received more than 14 million in compensation and medical benefits under this program.
Protecting the Rights of Federal Employees
Senator Kennedy has always been a champion of the rights of federal employees, and was a leading opponent of the Bush Administration’s efforts to privatize the jobs of federal workers without fair competition or demonstrated cost savings. In January 2008, under Senator Kennedy’s leadership Congress passed legislation to substantially restrict the privatization of federal jobs, including prohibiting the outsourcing of federal work to private contractors that do not provide adequate health benefits to their employees.
Senator Kennedy has also been a longstanding advocate for federal employee collective bargaining rights. He fought hard against proposals by the Bush administration to change federal personnel rules and effectively eliminate the ability of federal employees at the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to engage in collective bargaining. This dangerous proposal would have undermined the rights of more than 6,400 defense employees in Massachusetts alone. Two federal courts have now ruled that this proposal violates the law, and in January 2008 Congress took substantial steps advocated by Senator Kennedy to restore collective bargaining rights to national security personnel.
Senator Kennedy has played an ongoing role in the current challenges facing Massachusetts federal workers. For example, working with Rep. Tsongas, he has fought against the planned closure of the IRS processing facility in Andover, Massachusetts. He has also consistently led the effort to bring fair pay to federal workers in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, who are unfairly excluded from federal locality pay.
