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DC LERA welcomes Merrilee Logue of BCBSA to the Board of Governors

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The Board of Governors of the Washington, DC Chapter of the Labor and Employment Relations Association voted to accept the nomination of Merrilee Logue to serve as a DC LERA Board Member at its meeting on April 19, 2023. Merrilee is Executive Director of the BCBS Association National Labor Office and replaces Bonnie Summers, who recently retired.

Merrilee became Executive Director of BCBSA NLO in August 2022. She is an experienced executive with over 30 years in the healthcare industry, with demonstrated leadership in Labor Relations, Healthcare and Employee Benefits. In addition to her experience in the healthcare industry, Merrilee has served as a Board Member  of Crossroads4Hope, and the Boys and Girls Club of Atlantic City.

You can get to know Merrilee a bit by tuning into this video. Welcome, Merrilee!

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DC LERA holds event on Collective Bargaining in Baseball at GWU

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By Frank Fasi III, Teaching Assistant and Student of Business and Finance, George Washington University

On May 4th, 2023, a DC LERA panel was held at the George Washington University School of Business to discuss the labor-management relations in professional baseball, with a focus on the minor leagues. Speaking that day was Brad Snyder, a Professor of Law at Georgetown University who has published numerous books relating to sports and the legal environment. Joined by him was Simon Rosenblum-Larson, an organizer and former minor league baseball player drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays, and program director for “More than Baseball,” a non-profit working toward the betterment of working conditions for minor league players, as well as the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center. Moderating the discussion was Mark Hyman, Director of the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism at the University of Maryland and co-director of The Great China Baseball Hunt, an upcoming documentary exploring the world of baseball in China.

In attendance were members of DC LERA and baseball fanatics. Guests ranged from current university students simply interested in sports to foreign dignitaries from various embassies. All were intrigued to learn about the unspoken complexities of labor relations within the minor league, a topic the MLB too often attempts to hide from the public eye.

Topics covered varied from player salaries being below the poverty level to conditions of baseball academies in Latin America. Mr. Rosenblum-Larson had much to share regarding the process of unionizing the minor leagues and the integration into the MLBPA, the union representing all major and minor league athletes. He went into great detail about the first ratified minor-league collective bargaining agreement discussing both the huge improvements in the agreement and the areas where progress is still needed. Professor Snyder spoke about past instances of players being too afraid to speak-out against Major League Baseball due to concerns for retaliation, relating to Rosenblum-Larson’s own story of being released from the team after revealing sub-optimal working conditions in a Washington Post article. All panelists were knowledgeable and passionate about their expertise, engaging the audience and propelling the discussion of what goes on behind-the-scenes of major and minor league baseball.

The event was co-sponsored by the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism of University of Maryland, the American Constitution Society DC Lawyer Chapter, and the Masters of Human Resources Program, Department of Management, GW School of Business.

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DC LERA thanks Bonnie Summers of BCBSA for service on Board

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Bonnie Summers steps down from the board of DC LERA as she hands over responsibility to Merrilee Logue as Executive Director of the Blue Cross-Blue Shield (BCBS) National Labor Office.  Bonnie’s involvement with BCBS National Labor Office spans nearly four decades, including 20 years as the Executive Director.   The BCBS National Labor Office acts as a liaison between organized labor and 34 BCBS companies across the United States, serving over 17 million workers, retirees, and their families.  Bonnie played a critical role in national LERA, joining the Executive Board in 2002, and played an important role in launching the health care industry council of LERA.  She also was an active member and board member of DC LERA for the past 20 years.   We know Bonnie’s passion for healthcare and organized labor will continue and we look forward to her participation in DC and National LERA events in the future.

Steve Sleigh, President, Sleigh Strategies LLC

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DC LERA hosts Betony Jones of Department of Energy for talk on Green Energy Jobs

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By Mohamed El-Zein, Research Associate, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office

On March 15, 2023, the Washington, DC Chapter of Labor and Employment Relations Association (DC LERA, dclera.org) hosted a roundtable discussion with Betony Jones, Director of the Office of Energy Jobs at the U.S. Department of Energy. The event was held at the Embassy of Sweden.

Betony’s team at DOE supervises the adoption and implementation of Community Benefits Plans with groups that receive funding and loans under recently created infrastructure programs Community Benefits Plans are based on a set of four core policy priorities: investing in America’s workforce; engaging communities and labor (including through project labor agreements); advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility; and implementing Justice 40. These key principles, when incorporated comprehensively into project proposals and executed upon, will help ensure broadly shared prosperity in the clean energy transition. These programs help create clean energy jobs that are stable, just, and equitable for American workers.

The passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the CHIPS Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act is bringing about massive investments and public funding through both direct investments and tax credits for advanced manufacturing and climate and energy infrastructure. The laws demonstrate on-the-ground to American workers that addressing the climate crisis can be done with investments that create good jobs and economic opportunities. Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions can help American workers get into and remain in the middle class while helping the U.S. economy grow.

Applicants for funding create Community Benefits Plans and submit them to DOE for review in order to compete for funds to support the commercialization of particular technologies. Applicants must make commitments to creating quality jobs with a plan for attracting, investing in, and retaining the skilled workforce necessary to achieve project success. These plans must focus on relevant workplace issues such as wages and benefits, health and safety, investments in training, and affirmative support for worker organizing and collective bargaining. In addition, these plans need to detail efforts to improve diversity, equity, inclusion, and access such as providing childcare benefits to get more women in the workplace, ensuring better access for workers who have had trouble within the legal system in the past, supporting pre-apprenticeship programs that allow for access into the middle class without a college degree, and breaking barriers to entry to work for individuals in underserved and marginalized communities. These are examples of pathways for American workers to the middle class.

The implementation of Community Benefits Plans, including through the use of collective bargaining agreements and other legally-enforceable community benefits agreements has enabled proactive outreach from companies to labor unions fostering dialogue and signing MOUs and neutrality agreements, which unions report is unprecedented.

The open dialogue discussion allowed the audience to raise concerns regarding this transition to clean energy and its effects on well-established communities that have relied heavily on the fossil fuels industry. Betony emphasized that these policies aim to include, not alienate, these communities and enable them to transition from the traditional energy sector with economic diversification and equally good jobs in the clean energy sector. Some of these clean energy policies are driving investments to fossil fuel dependent communities to support the economic and energy transition.

The goal of the Office of Energy Jobs is to support the transition to a more resilient, cleaner, reliable energy system by focusing on improved job quality in the energy sector.  By focusing on attracting and retaining skilled workers with good-quality jobs, plans for diversity and inclusion, benefits to underserved and marginalized communities, and accountability to the community and the workers. the U.S. can create an equitable energy system while revitalizing the middle class. You can learn more about these programs and other initiatives to create an equitable and just economy for American workers in the hyperlinks below.

References

Community Benefits Programs 

Creating Green Economy through Union Jobs

Bipartisan Infrastructure and Investment and Jobs Act

Inflation Reduction Act

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Tribute to Daniel Haufler, DC LERA Board Member

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Today we buried a friend and brother, our fellow LERA member Daniel Haufler. He passed away on 27 February 2023 while serving at the German Embassy in Washington, DC. As Labor Counselor, Daniel was part of the LERA family. His remains were brought to Berlin, his home of many years, where he was laid to rest today.

“Inspiration is hard to come by. You have to take it where you find it.” Those words by one of his favorite singers, Bob Dylan, seem to be a fitting motive for Daniel’s life. A native of the German city of Mainz, Daniel was eager to explore places in near and far. Just in time for the falling of the Berlin Wall, he moved to Berlin in 1989 to study literature and history. His studies later led him to Munich as well as across the Atlantic, to Duke University.

An avid reader and a true intellectual, Daniel followed his calling and became a journalist. He is remembered as a talented and passionate opinion editor, working for many years at the German newspapers taz and Berliner Zeitung. A “collector of opinions”, a former colleague called him. A good listener, intellectually curious, unobtrusive with his own views, everyone agreed.

In 2017, he took on a position as Managing Editor at the German trade union confederation DGB where he was in charge of the debate journal Gegenblende, publishing op-eds on current political and social issues and launching a podcast.

When, in 2021, the opportunity arose to move to Washington, DC to work as Labor Counselor at the German Embassy, he happily accepted, returning to the US, a country he had come to love during his days at Duke University.

The many friends who came to his side during the last days of his brief terminal illness were a testament to Daniel’s exceptional kindheartedness and his ability to maintain long and meaningful friendships – over decades and across long distances.

Anja Wehler-Schoeck

Berlin, Germany