Obama pushing free community college - Jobs Day - Private pensions suffered in 2014 Presented by DoorDash

With help from Marianne LeVine, Alex Guillén and Timothy Noah

OBAMA U: TWO YEARS OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE, FREE OF CHARGE — President Barack Obama is in Knoxville, Tenn., today to announce a major proposal to make two years of community college free for American students, potentially benefiting 9 million students annually and saving them an average of $3,800 in tuition. “Obama will need the approval of Congress to realize his proposal,” writes POLITICO’s Allie Grasgreen. So far, that plan doesn’t have an official price tag — other than ‘significant,’ according to White House officials. But administration officials insisted on a call with reporters Thursday evening that ‘this is a proposal with bipartisan appeal.’”


“Case in point: Republican Gov. Bill Haslam, whose brainchild Tennessee Promise program strongly influenced Obama’s proposal. Beginning this year, any high school graduate in that state is eligible for two years of free community college tuition under the Tennessee Promise.” http://politi.co/1BNgYml

JOBS DAY: 2014 ENDS WITH A BANG AND A WHIMPER — “The economy added 252,000 jobs in December, the Labor Department reported Friday, down from November’s robust increase of 321,000 jobs,” POLITICO’s Timothy Noah writes. “Unemployment was 5.6 percent, down from November’s 5.8 percent, and average hourly private-sector earnings were down 5 cents, down from November’s 6-cent increase. Analysts had expected slower job growth compared to November, predicting the creation of about 245,000 jobs.”

“Overall, 2014 created more jobs than any year since 1999, as unemployment fell from close to 7 percent to below 6 percent. The economy grew a brisk 5 percent in the third quarter, and close to that in the second quarter, indicating that the recovery from the Great Recession of 2007-09 was no longer an anemic one.”

“But the picture for wages, both through 2014 and over the past decade and a half, remains dismal. Average hourly private-sector wages grew only 1.7 percent in 2014, leaving median income well below its level not only before the Great Recession began but also after the recession ended. Five-and-a-half years of economic recovery should have increased median income. Instead, they’ve lowered it.” http://politi.co/1wC 0Sc3 ?

PRIVATE PENSIONS GOT LESS SOLVENT IN 2014: The aggregate funded status for private pension plans declined to 80 percent in 2014, a nine percent decrease over the previous year, according to an analysis from Towers Watson, a benefits consultant. The study, which looked at the pension plans of 411 Fortune 1000 firms with December fiscal-year-end dates, found a combined shortfall of $343 billion, double last year’s. The report attributes the larger shortfall to low interest rates and longer life expectancies. The Society of Actuaries estimates that gains in life span could increase private pension liabilities by 4 to 8 percent.

The report also found assets increased by 3 percent in 2014, signaling an investment return of 9 percent. Towers Watson estimates that companies contributed $30 billion to their pension plans in 2014, 29 percent less than during the previous year and the lowest contribution level since 2008. Last year’s shortfall increase contrasted with gains in the stock market. http://goo.gl/iZmKfn

GOOD MORNING and welcome to Morning Shift, POLITICO's daily tipsheet on labor and employment policy. Send tips, corrections, exclusives, and wool sweaters to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],and [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter at @ politicomahoney, @ TimothyNoah1, @ MikeElk, @ marianne_levine, @ ProMorningShift and @ POLITICOPro.

IRONWORKERS LEADER AT TRIAL — “A union official's testimony Thursday in a racketeering trial showed the sometimes desperate — and violent — measures taken by ironworkers to keep their members employed and keep Philadelphia a union town,” the A.P.’s Maryclaire Dale writes.

Dale is writing about Joseph Dougherty, a former leader of Ironworkers Local 401 currently being tried on federal racketeering charges. Dougherty allegedly ordered his members to make “war” on the city’s non-union construction sites through vandalism.

Prosecutors allege Dougherty’s members sometimes took “night work” a little far. Three Ironworkers admitted to setting a Quaker Meeting House ablaze in 2012 because non-union labor was building it. Dougherty could spend the rest of his life in prison if found guilty of the charges, according to Dale. http://bit.ly/1DE3Hhw

NEW MEXICO GOVERNOR PUSHES RIGHT-TO-WORK — Speaking to 500 business leaders yesterday, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, a Republican, vowed to lobby the state’s legislature to pass right-to-work legislation during its next session, according to Albuquerque Journal’s Dan Boyd. The remarks “were Martinez’s strongest to date on the subject,” Boyd writes. Twenty-four states in the U.S. have right-to-work laws freeing workers from any legal obligation to pay dues or their equivalent to unions that bargain collectively on their behalf.

“It is fundamentally wrong to require membership [in a union] in order to get a job … or take money from the paychecks of our workers by force,” Martinez said. New Mexico’s House is controlled by Republicans, and its Senate is controlled by Democrats, some of whom vow to fight right-to-work, according to Boyd. http://bit.ly/1xMmmat

KY RIGHT-TO-WORK BILL MOVES TO STATE SENATE, WHERE IT WILL DIE — Kentucky’s state senate approved a bill to make the state right to work, according to WUKY’s Josh James. “Floor leader Damon Thayer characterized the bill as the ‘absolute best step’ the chamber could take to stimulate job growth, adding that it also levels the playing field for workers.” Thayer: ‘Let the union make the case for why they are beneficial and then let the employee decide for him or herself whether joining that union is right or wrong for that person.”

“In rebuttal, Sen. Ray Jones pointed to the problem of employees enjoying the benefits of union-negotiated contracts without contributing to the union." Kentucky’s House is majority Democrat and will kill the legislation, James writes. http://bit.ly/1BRyoOV

SAN BERDOO BONDHOLDER WANTS CA PENSIONS CUT — San Bernardino, Calif., officials last year said during bankruptcy proceedings that they wouldn’t challenge cut public pensions. Unions and workers breathed a sigh of relief because a court in a similar case involving Stockton, Calif. had signaled it was willing to cut pension benefits. Now a European bondholder, Erste Europäische Pfandbrief-und Kommunalkreditbank AG (EEPK), is challenging San Bernardino’s decision. “EEPK's suit speaks to the wider fight between Wall Street and pension funds over how they are treated in municipal bankruptcies,” Reuters’ Tim Reid writes. http://reut.rs/1Dr22OO

WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCES LABOR NOMINATIONS: President Obama announced that he will nominate Kristen Kulinowski to the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board and re-appoint Barbara B. Franklin and Edward F. Hartfield to the Federal Service Impasses Panel, part of the Federal Labor Relations Authority. Kulinowski currently works on the research staff of the D A Science and Technology Policy Institute. Franklin and Hartfield have served as members of the Federal Service Impasses Panel since 2009. Hartfield also served on the panel from 1994 to 2002. http://goo.gl/dzSkSr

APPEALS COURT RULES AGAINST GM PENSIONERS — “In a split decision Wednesday, the Sixth Circuit found that an employee pension agreement between General Motors LLC, the United Automobile Workers and Delphi Corp. does not qualify as a pension plan under federal law and a lower court properly tossed litigation brought by former employees who say the companies welshed on the agreement,” Law360’s Aebra Coe writes. Read the full opinion here: http://1.usa.gov/1AycliW

FMSHRC WILL REVIEW JUDGE’S POV RULING —The Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission will review an administrative law judge's dismissal of one of the first "pattern of violation" (POV) notices issued by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Judge William Moran ruled in November that the POV notice in question, issued to a Patriot Coal subsidiary in 2013, wasn't valid because the agency never clearly defined what constitutes a pattern. (Refresher: http://politico.pro/1w4iDiT). In an order issued Thursday, the three FMSHRC commissioners will weigh whether the judge had the jurisdiction to rule on the validity of the POV notice — and, if he did, whether that ruling was correct. MSHA has 30 days to file an opening brief. FMSHRC’s order: http://politico.pro/1AxIWFR

SOBERING STATS ABOUT OREGON’S LOW-WAGE WORKFORCE: “Over 400,000 Oregonians — roughly 25 percent of the state’s entire workforce — are employed in low-wage work. Further, about one in 7 Oregon workers receive public assistance,” according to a new report from the University of Oregon’s Labor Education and Research and Sociology Department. Read the full report here: http://bit.ly/17nn042

COFFEE BREAK

— Business groups are not happy with researchers chosen for minimum wage study in Los Angeles, from the Los Angeles Times: http://lat.ms/1zYkkRd

— Coca-Cola cutting 1,600-1,800 jobs, from the New York Times: http://nyti.ms/1x1ycIm

— Judge keeps most of gag order in place in Blankenship case, from the AP: http://bit.ly/1IwlAjb

— Former New York Times labor reporter Steven Greenhouse explains why the media started caring about labor again, from the Atlantic: http://theatln.tc/1x0ANSK

— Bonus Greenhouse: Salon’s Elias Isquith talks to Greenhouse about the future of American labor: http://bit.ly/1tOsF7T

— NLRB to hear complaint against L+M Medical Group, from The Day: http://bit.ly/1tRwheV

— New York’s state wage board can’t decide on tipped minimum wage hike, from Syracuse.com: http://bit.ly/14w325j

— J.C. Penney closing 40 stores, laying off more than 2,000, from the AP: http://abcn.ws/1zXMQ5r

— A day in the life of a fast food worker’s family, from New York Magazine: http://nym.ag/1AxVwVB

— Guards should be paid for sleep time, California state appeals court says, from Law360: http://bit.ly/17nM4I7

MORNING SHIFT IS OVER. Enjoy your weekend.

Follow us on Twitter Rebecca Rainey @rebeccaarainey