Howie Hawkins for Congress

Labor Agenda

Howie Hawkins for Congress
www.howiehawkins.org

Howie Hawkins is a member of Teamsters Local 317 and active in the national Teamster rank-and-file reform caucus, Teamsters for a Democratic Union, and US Labor Against the War. Howie works unloading trucks and rail cars at UPS.

LABOR LAW REFORM

Increase NLRB funding and staffing so complaints against employers are handled in a timely fashion and employers receive strong and speedy penalties for breaking labor laws.

Enact the proposed federal Employee Free Choice Act, providing for:

Majority card-check recognition of unions.

Triple back pay for workers fired for union organizing.

Mandatory contract arbitration at union request after 90 days bargaining for first contract for newly recognized bargaining unit.

Repeal Taft-Hartley and Other Repressive Labor Laws: Repeal the Taft-Hartley Act, the Hatch Act, and other labor laws which have crippled labor's ability to organize by outlawing or severely restricting labor's basic organizing tools: strikes, boycotts, pickets, and political action.

A Workers' Bill of Rights: Enact a set of legally enforceable civil rights, independent of collective bargaining, which (1) extend the Bill of Rights protections of free speech, association, and assembly into all workplaces, (2) establishes workers' rights to living wages, portable pensions, information about chemicals used, report labor and environmental violations, refuse unsafe work, and participate in enterprise governance, and (3) establishes workers' rights to freedom from discharge at will, employer search and seizure in the workplace, sexual harassment, and unequal pay for work of comparable worth.

Expand Workers' Rights to Organize and Enjoy Free Time:

Ban striker replacements.

Triple back pay for illegally locked-out workers.

Unemployment compensation for striking or locked out workers.

Binding contract arbitration at union request.

Full rights for farm workers, public employees, immigrants, and "workfare" workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Ban prison slave labor: End the use of US prisoners to produce goods and services for sale to the public.

Double-time pay for all overtime.

Prohibit mandatory overtime.

6 weeks paid vacation annually in addition to federal holidays.

1 year paid educational leave for every 7 years worked.

1 year parental leave for each child born with no loss of seniority.

Right to work shorter hours: No discrimination in pay and promotion against workers who choose to work short hours; no two-tier wage systems between part-timers and full-timers.

PROGRESSIVE TAX REFORM

Progressive Taxation of Income and Wealth

Simple, Progressive Income Taxes: Enact a no loopholes, graduated personal income tax with equal taxation of all income, regardless of source. Provide an income tax credit for each dependent to replace and fully compensate for the current exemptions and deductions that benefit to the average taxpayer, such as the home mortgage deduction and medical deductions.

Eliminate Regressive Payroll Taxes: Fund Social Security, Health Care, Unemployment Insurance, and Workers Compensation out of progressive income and wealth taxes.

Guaranteed Minimum Income: Build taxable Basic Income Grants into the progressive income tax structure to create a Universal Social Security system that ensures everyone has income for at least a modest standard of living above the poverty line.

Cap CEO Salaries: Cap the tax deductibility of any compensation for executives at 20 times the lowest paid worker in the company.

Close Offshore Tax Shelters: An estimated $5 trillion has been hidden from taxation by wealthy individuals and corporations in offshore tax shelters.

End Corporate Welfare: Put subsidies that sever the public interest in the federal budget where they can be publicly debated and scrutinized instead of hidden as tax breaks in complicated tax codes.

Progressively Graduated Corporate Revenue and Asset Taxes

Wealth Tax: Enact a progressive tax on the net wealth of the top 5% of households.

Inheritance Tax: Replace the loophole-ridden estate tax with a no-loopholes, progressive inheritance tax on inheritances over $1 million.

Federal Revenue Sharing: Reduce state and local government dependence on regressive sales and property taxes through federal revenue sharing that combines centralized collection of progressive taxes with decentralized decisions on spending.

Tax Bads, Not Goods

Ecological Taxes: Tax pollution, resource extraction, harmful products, and the use of our common wealth of natural capital (land sites according to land value, public timber and grazing lands, ocean and freshwater resources, oil and minerals, electromagnetic spectrum, satellite orbital zones).

Stock and Bond Transfer Tax: Encourage a shift from speculative to productive investments through a federal stock and bond transfer tax on all securities transactions.

Currency Speculation Tax: An internationally uniform tax on currency conversion to discourage speculation. Revenues from the currency speculation tax should be channeled through international agencies into ecologically sustainable, democratically controlled development in poor countries.

Advertising Tax: A tax on advertising earmarked to fund a decentralized, pluralistic media system of real public broadcasting, public service broadcasting on commercial media, and independent nonprofit, noncommercial media.

ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS

Jobs for All at Living Wages—Public works and services to guarantee living wage jobs for all. The government should be the employer of last resort providing jobs meeting community-defined needs for infrastructure, public amenities, and services.

A Minimum Wage that is a Living Wage—Raise the federal minimum wage to a level that can support at family of four at a modest standard of living.

A Guaranteed Minimum Income—Build taxable Basic Income Grants into the progressive income tax structure to create a Universal Social Security system that ensures everyone has income for at least a modest standard of living above the poverty line.

•Social Security—No privatization. As an immediate step, secure funding for the indefinite future by raising the cap on the Social Security tax for high incomes. In longer run, fund Social Security through progressive income and wealth taxes, not regressive payroll taxes. Also, restore the 65 year old retirement age. Social Security is not in crisis. The government has a general fiscal crisis and has used the Social Security surplus to cover some of the revenue shortfall. The answer is not to cut Social Security, but to restore the fiscal integrity of the federal government through progressive tax reform and military spending cuts.

Medicare for All—Health insurance for all through a single public insurer.

Affordable Housing, Energy, Food, and Mass Transit—To make these basic necessities affordable requires public investment aimed at providing them. Leaving these to the market alone has failed.

Lifelong Public Education—Tuition-Free from Head Start through University.

Secure Defined-Benefit Pensions for All Workers—Make corporations pay 10% of profits annually in new shares to a universal defined-benefit pension system in which all workers are vested and which is administered by workers’ elected representatives.

The Right of Small Farms and Businesses to Free Enterprise and Fair Competition—End government favoritism and subsidies for the giant banks and corporations. Strengthen and enforce anti-trust laws.

Fair Trade—Repeal NAFTA, WTO, Permanent Normal Trade Relations for China, and other corporate-managed “free trade” agreements that undermine democratic regulation and domestic manufacturing. Negotiate new trade agreements that make companies meet rising labor, consumer, and environmental standards. Protect important industries with tariffs like we protect endangered species.