Letter in Support of NAICS Code Changes for Digital-Native News Organizations
July 28, 2021
Re: DPE Comment on North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)—Updates for 2022 (Docket ID USBC-2021-0004).
Dear Ms. Leslie,
On behalf of the 24 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I write in support of the Economic Classification Policy Committee’s recommendations for NAICS code changes for online industries in the information sector. In particular, DPE supports the ECPC recommendations in section B3, which would group internet news and periodical publishers with other similar publishers, regardless of their product delivery mechanism.
The NAICS classification of Internet news and periodical publishers is of particular concern for DPE as many journalists and other news professionals who work for digital-native news organizations are members of our affiliate union Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE). This change will allow these professionals to be counted among their colleagues for the purposes of public policy, statistical analysis, and other important uses.
Currently, Internet news and periodical outlets are included in NAICS code 519130, Internet publishing and broadcasting and web search portals. This overly broad classification places news organizations such as Vox and Slate in the same category as search engines like Google and Bing and social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter. However, beyond their shared use of the Internet as a common resource, Internet news and periodical publishers have very little in common with these other businesses.
The proposed NAICS update correctly recognizes that Internet news and periodical publishers, known colloquially as “digital-native publications” or “digital-native news” organizations, are much more similar to newspapers (current NAICS code 511110) and periodicals (current NAICS code 511120). Digital-native outlets employ journalists, editors, and other media professionals to collect and disseminate news and information on a variety of topics and themes through mediums that can include a combination of writing, video, and podcasting. Outlets like Vox, HuffPost, Thrillist, Curbed, Gizmodo, Refinery29, Slate, SB Nation, and Talking Points Memo cover local and national businesses, politics, and sports, in addition to other issues Americans need to know about – science, health care, the economy, and more. These companies typically maintain editorial standards and operate news bureaus, just like traditional newspapers and magazines. However, unlike legacy newspapers and magazines, Internet news and periodical publishers do not distribute print versions of their content.
The overly broad nature of certain current NAICS codes, including 519130, can make it difficult to properly tailor public policies that are intended for certain industries. For instance, when Congress responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, some relief proposals were targeted to certain industries based on NAICS codes. Designing programs to provide assistance to news organizations hurt by the pandemic’s economic impact posed a challenge because the existing NAICS codes did not group all news organizations together in a distinct category.
Fortunately, the proposed NAICS code updates included in 86 FR 35350 solve this problem, which is why DPE voices its support for the improvements. If approved, the new NAICS codes 513110 and 513120 will properly situate digital-native news businesses in their relevant industries, newspaper publishers and periodical publishers. Print publications are increasingly reliant on revenue from both digital subscriptions and online advertising as a growing majority of Americans read the news online. Additionally, news professionals move seamlessly between digital-native and print-based news publishers throughout their careers and the proposed updates will ensure that professionals working for Internet news and periodical outlets are counted in statistical reports alongside their peers at other publications. As the news business continues to transform, it is critical that policy makers and the public have the most accurate classification of businesses in the industry, regardless of transmission methods.
DPE appreciates OMB taking our perspective and our suggestions into consideration. If you have any questions, please contact DPE Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser at mwasser@dpeaflcio.org.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dorning, President
Statement for the Record for July 13th House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship hearing on U.S. immigration policies
July 13, 2021
Dear Chairwoman Lofgren and Ranking Member McClintock,
On behalf of the 24 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFL CIO (DPE), I wish to share our perspective on how U.S. immigration policies affect the country’s professional workforce and the ability to attract international talent.
The topic of today’s hearing is directly relevant to DPE’s affiliate unions, which represent over four million professional, technical, and other highly skilled workers. The members of DPE’s unions come from a diverse array of backgrounds, nationalities, and immigration experiences. Within our coalition are U.S. citizens, permanent residents, DACA beneficiaries, and professionals working on an array of temporary nonimmigrant visas - including F, J, H, O, and P visas. Members of DPE affiliate unions are professionals employed in nearly every industry as well as international graduate employees wanting to continue working in the United States.
DPE has long advocated for fundamental reforms to the U.S. immigration system to ensure enforceable workers’ rights and labor standards in any visa program affecting professionals. We oppose low road immigration policies that benefit corporate interests by allowing differential treatment of workers as a source of cheap labor, and we support smart policies that ensure all working people can earn a fair return on their work. DPE’s guiding belief is that U.S. immigration policies must work for professionals, and not just employers.
That is why DPE supports the Keep STEM Talent Act. Introduced in the House last Congress by Reps. Bill Foster (IL) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX), this legislation offers a high road approach for allowing talented graduates from U.S. colleges and universities to continue contributing to the American economy while ensuring that they can earn a fair return on their work. Under this legislation, international graduates who have earned STEM advanced degrees from American universities are exempt from the annual green card caps so long as their employers receive approved labor certifications and pay them above the median wage level for the occupation and geographic area. By offering in-demand graduates a direct path to permanence, rather than forcing them to accept precarious, temporary visas, this approach reinforces the professionalism of the STEM workforce and affords individuals agency in the labor market. DPE urges the Subcommittee to consider this legislation as it considers how immigration policies can attract talent to the United States.
DPE’s commitment to a high-road immigration system is also why we advocate for policies that empower professionals. DPE supports allowing professionals to self-petition for permanent status and providing labor market mobility to individuals with approved I-140s. DPE also advocates for prohibitions on “breach fees,” the far too common practice of employers requiring employees to sign one-sided contracts with enormous financial penalties that effectively bind these professionals to their jobs in exchange for sponsoring them for permanent status. DPE believes the Subcommittee should pursue these reforms so that the world’s talent will feel certain that they will not face employer coercion if they come to work in the United States.
DPE also supports improvements to tracking the education to workforce pipeline. Underpinning the focus of this hearing is the question of the supply of available, qualified professionals in the United States. This Subcommittee, and the Congress as a whole, should have the most accurate statistical picture possible. It is not enough to take the corporate lobby at its word. After all, DPE has watched in recent years too many employers claim they cannot find qualified workers, only to layoff their employees, including members of our unions, and require them to train their foreign replacements as a condition for their severance.
While federal and state efforts have made strides to better track the education to workforce pipeline, Congress can and should take concrete steps to improve STEM education and workforce research and data and to assist workers, employers, and educators make informed decisions.1 Currently, national surveys by the Census (Community Population Survey) and Bureau of Labor Statistics (Occupational Employment Statistics Survey) are the basis for identifying education and occupation trends. While the surveys provide valuable and suitable information for a variety of purposes, the data produced does not effectively identify state, regional, and national trends for STEM education and the STEM workforce.
Unemployment Insurance (UI) wage records, which are filed on a quarterly basis by employers, provide a picture of industry employment and separations, hours worked, and wages. However, UI records are currently a missed opportunity to capture accurate and dynamic occupational data. Done correctly, the inclusion of occupational data in UI wage records would give policymakers, education systems, and all stakeholders insight to national, regional and local labor markets. Enhanced UI wage records could connect credentials and training to specific occupations and provide career mapping information over the course of changes and shifts to the economy.
Following the recommendations of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Workforce Information Advisory Council, Congress should make a strong federal policy commitment toward a phased‐in, well‐managed and properly funded process for collecting and analyzing high‐quality occupation data via states' UI systems' wage records. This policy commitment should be supported with increased funding for research and IT needs at the various state agencies performing education and workforce analysis. Finally, the benefit of overhauling and aligning UI records to provide occupational data should be articulated to the business community, education systems, and workers and students in the education-to-workforce pipeline and those in career transition.
In sum, professionals need and expect coherent immigration policies to lift labor standards and protect all workers, regardless of their immigration status. If Congress wants to welcome the world’s talent and recognize their contributions to our economy, it should understand the need and identify ways to ensure that these individuals are able to earn fair, family-supporting pay in an environment free from coercion. That means pursuing a high-road approach to immigration that puts professionals first by lifting wages, promoting worker empowerment, and ensuring that they can exercise their workplace rights free of retaliation or coercion. DPE stands ready to work with the Subcommittee to pass immigration reform that meets this mark.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser at mwasser@dpeaflcio.org or (202) 638-0320.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dorning, President
Letter in Support of the American Music Fairness Act (AMFA)
June 24, 2021
Dear Member of Congress,
On behalf of the 24 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I write in support of the American Music Fairness Act (AMFA). This bipartisan legislation would ensure that performers, including members of DPE’s affiliate unions, are compensated when their songs are played on terrestrial (AM/FM) radio.
American terrestrial radio stations pad their profits at the expense of music professionals. These broadcasters earn billions in advertising revenue each year while not paying the performers whose music is responsible for the audiences undergirding terrestrial radio’s business model. The AMFA would right this wrong by ensuring performers can earn a fair return for their work.
The AMFA would also ensure that foreign countries pay American artists and musicians when their songs are played abroad. Currently, other countries regularly seize the royalties owed to U.S. performers because American terrestrial radio stations do not pay for music performances. Passing the AMFA therefore will also provide U.S. performers access to hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars in payments from outside the United States.
With the United States starting to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic impact, there is an urgent need for Congress to ensure that performers are paid when their works are played on terrestrial radio here and abroad. Due to their work occurring in public venues and on job sites requiring close personal contact, nearly all artists and musicians have been unable to earn money performing live since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Meanwhile, terrestrial radio stations have weathered the pandemic by profiting off the playing of these creative professionals’ musical works. This inequity can and must be fixed.
It is for this reason that I ask you to join me in supporting the AMFA. Now is the time for Congress to close a loophole that has prevented union creative professionals from earning fair compensation when their songs are played on terrestrial radio.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser at mwasser@dpeaflcio.org or (202) 638-0320.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dorning, President
DPE Comment on Identifying Barriers Across USCIS Benefits and Services
May 19, 2021
Re: DPE Comment on Identifying Barriers Across U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Benefits and Services (DHS Docket No. USCIS-2021-0004)
Dear Ms. Deshommes,
On behalf of the 24 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFL CIO (DPE), thank you for the opportunity to provide our perspective on how U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) can eliminate barriers and improve services for U.S. citizens and foreign citizens.
DPE’s 24 national unions represent over four million professional, technical, and other highly skilled workers. The members of DPE’s unions come from a diverse array of backgrounds, nationalities, and immigration experiences. Within our coalition are U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and professionals working on an array of temporary nonimmigrant visas - including F, J, H, O, and P visas. Union professionals also work in industries where employers commonly use these temporary nonimmigrant visa programs, in particular the H-1B visa program. Our recommendations for USCIS are informed by the lived experiences of our unions and their members.
Improve visa processing times to promote the economic interests of professionals
Some union professionals’ livelihoods are inextricably linked to USCIS services, and processing delays can have serious consequences for them, including the loss of job opportunities. The American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM) represents members on both sides of the border. Canadian members of the AFM rely on the P 2 reciprocal exchange visa program to perform in the U.S. The treatment of Canadian AFM members by USCIS warrants particular attention because of the unique nature of AFM representing both Canadian and U.S. musicians. For these creative professionals, delayed processing has meant missing gigs because approval to work in the United States came after the performance date passed. When this happens, the U.S. professionals scheduled to work alongside these performers can lose out on work too. We urge USCIS to look for ways to streamline processing for Canadian members of AFM. We also urge that when processing delays result in P-2 petitions being approved after the performance date, USCIS refund fees or apply the fees to subsequent P-2 reciprocal exchange visa petitions.
815 16th Street, NW, 6th Floor, Washington, DC 20006 (202) 638-0320 www.dpeaflcio.org
Similarly, for faculty members and graduate employees, USCIS processing delays can affect travel plans, enrollment, grants, research, study, and employment. We recommend that USCIS take the necessary steps to improve staffing levels at its service centers so that the agency is capable of adjudicating petitions within the time frames set by statute and regulations.
Strengthen and protect the union consultation process for O and P visas
Included in DPE are 12 national unions that represent people who work in our country’s arts, entertainment, and media industries. These unions serve as advisors in the adjudication of O and P visa petitions, the visa categories used by artists, entertainers, and support personnel who want to work temporarily in the United States. The unions’ expertise helps maintain standards and educate USCIS adjudicators about industry nuance.
Our affiliate unions in the arts and entertainment industries take seriously their role as advisors in the O and P visa petition process. The unions use their advisory role to help ensure that employers adhere to existing industry practices and standards, not to deny work opportunities for qualified foreign performers. Any weakening of these unions’ consultation rights would undermine the ability of these unions to maintain the workplace standards that their members fought hard to achieve. Lowered standards would hurt all performers, including those individuals coming from other countries to work in the United States.
At the same time, there are improvements USCIS can make that would better protect performers and their workplace standards, while bringing clarity, predictability, and fairness to the O and P visa petition process. We recommend USCIS:
• Give union consultation letters greater weight. Labor unions provide favorable letters to petitioners in the vast majority of cases. However, USCIS does approve petitions over union objections and denies petitions despite union approval, effectively disregarding union expertise. In the adjudication process, USCIS should give greater weight to union expertise. Additionally, in cases where USCIS did not follow union expertise, USCIS should provide the union a brief written explanation, thus, allowing for the opportunity for USCIS and consulting unions to learn from each other.
• Take additional steps to prevent fraud and abuse. Nearly every labor union that provides consultation letters for petitioners has had their letterhead fraudulently altered by O and P visa petitioners, threatening the integrity of the O and P visa system. Fraudulent submission of labor union consultation letters is made possible by the fact that, until recently, labor unions were required to submit their consultation letters to the petitioner and not to USCIS. Unions may now send consultation letters directly to USCIS in instances when a letter is not favorable to an O or P visa petitioner. This improvement should be more formally codified and expanded to require the direct submission of all consultation letters to USCIS with a copy to the petitioner. Additionally, unions that regularly participate in the consultation process should be called on to help develop training materials to educate O and P visa adjudicators about industry standards and practices and how to identify signs of potential fraud in petitions.
• Open lines of communication with consulting unions. Unions have little ability to directly communicate with USCIS to raise concerns about fraud and abuse when it happens, and USCIS rarely informs the unions that provide consultation letters of the outcomes of visa adjudication cases. In order to strengthen the integrity of the O and P visa system, direct lines of communication must be established and notification must be given to the consulting union of petition adjudication outcomes.
Adopt a wage-based allocation process for the H-1B visa program
USCIS has the authority to determine how the government selects H-1B petitions subject to the annual numerical limit. The statute requires the agency to select petitions in the order in which they are received, which is practically impossible when USCIS receives more petitions than available visas. When this occurs currently, USCIS uses a random lottery process that was never formalized through the regulatory process.
We urge USCIS to reissue, through proper notice and comment, rules to adopt a visa allocation process that is more formalized and transparent, and that prioritizes the petitions of employers paying the highest wages, rather than the existing method of an ad hoc random lottery. Establishing a wage-based allocation system will provide certainty to employers, while increasing the number of international graduates from U.S. colleges and universities hired on H 1B visas since education, experience, and time in the U.S. should command higher salaries. At the same time, a wage-based allocation system will advantage direct-hire employers, including start-ups and small businesses, over the large outsourcers whose business model is built on gaming the random lottery to increase their chances of “winning” large shares of H-1B visas every year.1
Join in an interagency effort to protect professionals’ workplace rights
Professionals working on temporary work visa programs are particularly at risk for exploitation because employers control their ability to live and work in the United States. This dynamic also means that individuals’ immigration statuses can be used against them in retaliation for blowing the whistle on workplace crimes. When this happens, unscrupulous employers lower standards for all working people, including U.S. professionals.
We urge USCIS to join in an interagency effort similar to the Interagency Working Group for the Consistent Enforcement of Federal Labor, Employment, and Immigration Laws that existed at the end of the Obama Administration. An interagency working group will improve communications between the labor, employment, and immigration agencies, and also send a signal to low-road employers that immigration laws cannot be used to threaten or intimidate professionals exercising their workplace rights.
An interagency working group can also provide a forum for reviewing current rules and engaging in new rulemaking where necessary to better protect workers’ rights. As an example, updated regulations are better needed to protect F-1 and J-1 beneficiaries. The F-1 regulations2 require “a full course of study” and the J-1 regulations3require a sponsor to terminate an exchange visitor’s participation in the program if they “fail to pursue the activities for which he or she was admitted to the United States.” The U.S. government should clarify both regulations to make clear that labor protest, including strikes, are protected and would not be grounds under either regulation for any adverse action either from employers or the government. The F-1 regulations also include a provision called “effect of strike” which requires the suspension of work authorization in case of a strike.4 The government should clarify these regulations so that employers cannot use them to threaten professionals who are organizing unions or striking.5
DPE appreciates USCIS taking our perspective and our suggestions into consideration. USCIS has an important mission and its work impacts the lives of union professionals on a near daily basis. We are available as a resource and welcome the opportunity to follow-up on any of the above issues.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser at mwasser@dpeaflcio.org.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dorning, President
Letter in Opposition to the Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA)
April 15, 2021
Dear Member of Congress,
On behalf of the 24 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFLCIO (DPE), I write to express strong opposition to the Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA). This bill would deny music professionals, including many members of DPE affiliate unions, the right to be paid fairly for their work. I ask that you neither co-sponsor nor otherwise support this legislation.
The LRFA is not about freedom, but rather the ability of major corporations to pad their profits at the expense of recording artists. American terrestrial radio stations have long profited from playing songs without compensating the artists and musicians who performed these creative works. These recording artists are not guaranteed a share of the advertising revenue their performances help generate. The LRFA would enshrine this injustice by misclassifying fair payments for the use of recording artists’ works as a “tax.”
Recording artists, like all professionals, deserve a fair return on their work. Just as you would not consider nurses’ pay to be a tax on hospitals, you should not accept the premise, put forward by the LRFA’s supporters, that frees them of the responsibility to pay artists and musicians for use of their recorded performances.
As the United States just begins to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic impact, it is high time for Congress to ensure that recording artists have a performance right across all music platforms, including terrestrial radio. With their work occurring in public venues and on job sites requiring close personal contact, nearly all artists and musicians have been unable to earn money performing live since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Meanwhile, terrestrial radio stations have been able to weather the pandemic by profiting off the playing of these creative professionals’ musical works. This inequity can and must be fixed.
It is for this reason that I respectfully ask that you oppose the LRFA. Congress should be working to provide a performance right for recording artists across all music listening platforms, not blocking their ability to be paid for the work they do.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser at mwasser@dpeaflcio.org or (202) 638-0320.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dorning, President
Letter Supporting H.R. 842, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act of 2021
March 8, 2021
Re: H.R. 842, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act of 2021
Dear Representative,
On behalf of the 24 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I strongly urge you to support H.R. 842, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act of 2021, and to oppose any weakening amendments and any Motion to Recommit when the House of Representatives considers this bill. The PRO Act will ensure that professionals can exercise their right to join together in union and negotiate collectively with their employers by restoring the original intent of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
DPE knows from our 2016 national survey of nonunion professionals that a majority of professionals want to join together in union. Unfortunately, in too many instances, employers are able to violate the NLRA and deny professionals their right to form a union with their colleagues.
The PRO Act will help ensure all professionals can achieve their right to join together in union and negotiate collectively with their employers to improve their lives and their workplaces. The legislation modernizes the NLRA so that it has remedies consistent with other workplace laws, ending the perverse incentive that exists currently for employers to break the law. Companies and individual corporate officers will be subject to financial penalties if they violate the NLRA, and professionals will have the ability to bring their cases to federal court. Further, the PRO Act will provide for fair union elections. The bill will also stop employers from hiding behind a subcontractor or other intermediary, or deliberately misclassifying professional employees as supervisors or independent contractors to evade their employer responsibilities.
Recognizing that professionals can only fully realize the value of joining together in union when they have a written contract, the PRO Act will also put a stop to employers using tactics that prevent employees from achieving a union contract. The legislation establishes a process for mediation and arbitration to assist employers and their employees with reaching agreement on a first contract. A written contract – just like CEOs have – is how union professionals can guarantee pay and benefits, ensure a voice in decisions affecting them at work, and secure pathways to sustain their careers.
The PRO Act also recognizes that professionals must be able to picket or withhold their labor in order to have the power necessary to improve their workplaces. The legislation will prevent employers from hiring permanent replacement workers in instances when professionals decide they have no choice but to go on strike. In addition, nonunion professionals will be able to engage in collective action to enforce basic workplace rights, instead of being required to pursue justice on their own through employer-favored arbitration proceedings.
Lastly, the PRO Act would eliminate state right to work laws. Secretive special interest groups and their billionaire funders push these laws in an effort to give corporations more power at the expense of everyday professionals. We must learn from the experience of the past seven decades, which has shown that people in states with right to work have lower wages and reduced access to quality health care and retirement security.
The experience of the more than four million professional, technical, and other highly-skilled workers who make up DPE’s 24 national unions demonstrates that working people do better when they can negotiate collectively for better pay and improved working conditions. That is why a majority of nonunion professionals want to join together with colleagues and negotiate with their own employers. And it is why I urge you to support the PRO Act when it comes before you for a vote on the House floor.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser at (202) 638-0320 or mwasser@dpeaflcio.org.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dorning, President
House/Senate Letter Urging Access to the Paycheck Protection Program for Digital-Native News Organizations
February 9, 2021
Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, Chairwoman Velazquez, and Chairman Cardin,
On behalf of the 24 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I write in support of expanding Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) eligibility to digital-native news organizations that do not already qualify for PPP loans. Included in DPE is the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), whose members include journalists and other media professionals working for a number of digital-native news organizations. Expanding PPP access to digital-native news organizations will help ensure these professionals can stay on the job at a time when access to reliable news and information is essential.
As background, in the December 2020 COVID-19 relief and omnibus funding bill, Congress provided PPP eligibility to newspapers, broadcast television, and radio stations. Digital-native news organizations were not covered by this legislation because they are classified under a different NAICS code than newspapers, broadcast TV stations, and radio stations. Digital-native sites also generally do not otherwise qualify for PPP loans because most companies have more than 500 employees. As a result, excluded from the Payroll Protection Program are the more than 16,000 journalists and news professionals, including thousands of union professionals, who work for digital-native outlets doing similar local, regional, and national reporting as their counterparts at newspapers and television and radio stations.
The COVID-19 pandemic has decimated the news industry’s advertising revenues across all formats, print, television, radio, and digital-native. Absent immediate access to payroll support to weather the pandemic’s impact, journalists and other media professionals working for digital-native news organizations will continue suffering layoffs and furloughs, and in an era when people turn first to their phones, tablets, and computers for news, the public will lose access to reliable information about their local communities. It is for this reason that I ask that you expand PPP eligibility to digital-native news organizations that do not already qualify for the program.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser, at mwasser@dpeaflcio.org or (202) 638-0320 x. 11.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dorning, President
COVID-19 Relief and Recovery Priorities for Creative Professionals
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to devastate creative professionals. Economic relief aimed at supporting creative professionals during the pandemic is urgently needed. The economic devastation goes beyond creative professionals’ wages, affecting their health insurance and retirement security due to the near total work stoppage. In normal times, these everyday individuals help power a sector that generates more than four percent of the country’s GDP and employs more than four million people. However, to date, this sector has lost an estimated $14.1 billion in economic activity due to COVID-19,[1] and losses are expected to continue as many theaters, soundstages, and performance venues remain dark well into 2021.
Economic relief will also be needed so that employment in this vital sector can return to pre-pandemic levels when it is safe to go back to work. Helping get creative professionals back to work safely will help the economy as a whole recover faster, as their industries’ audiences spend an estimated $31.47 per person, per event, beyond the cost of admission on lodging, restaurants, clothing, transportation, and other goods and services.[2]
Relief
Extend and expand COVID-19 economic support programs
Extend Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, and Mixed Earner Unemployment Compensation through December 31, 2021.
Extend the Families First Coronavirus Response Act’s paid leave provisions through December 31, 2021 and expand its coverage to professionals working for companies with 500 or more employees.
Preserve access to affordable, quality healthcare
Subsidize 100 percent of a person’s COBRA costs for one year.
Extend COBRA eligibility to 36 months.
Provide economic support for multiemployer health plans that are waiving cost-sharing or keeping ineligible members on their plans for reasons related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Protect the pension funds of creative professionals
Allow multiemployer pension plans to:
Freeze zone status for at least one year, based on provisions similar to the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008.
Smooth investment and contribution base unit (“CBU”) losses in the funding standard account, and investment losses in the development of the actuarial value of assets, following provisions similar to the Pension Relief Act of 2010.
Institute a special partition program at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) to deal with critically endangered multiemployer plans without increasing burdens on healthy pension plans.
Shore up the PBGC through government funding, rather than by depriving healthy plans of funds needed to cover plan obligations.
Protect the collection and dissemination of news and information
Expand Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) access already provided for print, radio, and television news organizations to digital-native news organizations to keep news professionals on the job at a time when news is essential.
Provide fair access to government economic support for all nonprofits
Extend PPP access to 501(c)5 organizations in line with local chambers of commerce, trade associations, and other 501(c)6 organizations’ existing PPP access.
Ensure tax fairness for middle-class creative professionals
Allow middle-class creative professionals to deduct necessary business expenses by including the Performing Artist Tax Parity Act of 2019, bipartisan legislation that would update the Qualified Performing Artist tax deduction.
Sector Recovery
General
Establish a federal insurance program for pandemic-related losses to encourage the resumption of productions and performances that will put creative professionals back to work.
A federal insurance program has been available previously, and is needed for the sector to resume hiring creative professionals to work productions and performances. Knowing that potential pandemic-related losses are insured will motivate banks and other private lenders to invest in productions and performances that may need to shut down if a cast member tests positive.
Create a nonrefundable tax credit for businesses to cover the costs of COVID-19 workplace safety compliance, including expenses for sanitation, personal protective equipment (“PPE”), and testing.
Live Theater and Performances
Appropriate $9 billion dollars for the National Endowment for the Arts to help jump start productions and put people back to work across the nonprofit arts sector.
Dedicate 75 percent of the $9 billion for the NEA to expand grant capacity to ensure arts organizations can continue operations, keep arts professionals employed, and immediately resume productions when it is safe to do so.
Authorize the NEA to distribute the remaining money to temporary programs that put arts professionals to work on projects that can lift the spirits of Americans as the country emerges from the pandemic. Such projects could include:
“Reopening America” performing arts tours that bring music, theater, dance, opera, and variety performances to big cities and small towns across the country at minimal cost to Americans, particularly areas that do not often see touring performances.
Increased USO performances for the military and their families at military bases here in the United States and abroad.
Free matinee performances of nearby musical, theatrical, dance, opera, and variety productions for K-12 school children and the residents of retirement homes and assisted-living centers who were particularly isolated during the pandemic.
Encourage employers to put creative professionals back to work quickly.
Provide a temporary, two-year partial employer tax credit for each person employed in the cast or crew of musical, theatrical, dance, opera, or variety performance.[3]
Incentivize private support for the arts.
Permanently reinstate the business entertainment tax deduction.
Provide a temporary, two-year individual entertainment tax deduction for the purchase of tickets to live arts and entertainment performances up to $400 per individual/$800 per joint filer.
Film and Television
Pass a National Broadband Program to allow more households access to high-speed Internet and the ability to stream content, which in turn will increase residual income for union creative professionals and their health and retirement funds. Such a broadband program should provide federal funds to companies to provide high-speed Internet to unserved areas of the country.[4] Companies receiving such funds must honor any existing collective bargaining agreements they have, be prohibited from outsourcing of U.S. jobs, and must remain neutral during any union organizing drive.
Public Radio and Television
Commit to a two-year temporary funding infusion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to help stations that are affected by reduced charitable giving as a result of COVID-19’s economic impact.[5] Funding should support:
Continued operations at public radio and broadcasting stations.
Maintaining employment at public radio and broadcast stations, including the rehiring of employees laid-off or furloughed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Grants to seed American-based productions of new content for public television and radio.
Triple the grant capacity of the National Endowment for the Humanity’s Media Projects program, which supports the development, production, and distribution of radio, podcast, television, and long-form documentary film projects that engage general audiences with humanities ideas in creative and appealing ways.
News and Information
Pass a two-year temporary tax credit to maintain journalists and other media workers on payroll across all formats - print, radio, TV, and digital - to ensure continued information at a time when it is needed most and as industry recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic’s shock to advertising revenue.
Appropriate and direct federal advertising dollars for programs where community outreach is needed for spending on local media.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser at (202) 638-0320 ext. 11 or mwasser@dpeaflcio.org
[1] Americans for the Arts. (2020) “The Economic Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on the Arts and Cultural Sector.” Retrieved on November 9, 2020 from https://www.americansforthearts.org/by-topic/disaster-preparedness/the-economic-impact-of-coronavirus-on-the-arts-and-culture-sector.
[2] “Arts Audiences.” (2017).Arts and Economic Prosperity Five. Americans for the Arts. Retrieved on January 25, 2020 from https://www.americansforthearts.org/sites/default/files/aep5/PDF_Files/NationalFindings_StatisticalReport.pdf.
[3] The tax credit should go to new hires and individuals re-hired to work for the same employer on multiple productions or performances.
[4] An unserved area of the country would be defined as one where citizens do not have access to the FCC’s standard for broadband which is download speeds of a minimum of 25 Mbps and upload speeds of a minimum of 3 Mbps.
[5] The 2008 Great Recession led to a 7 percent reduction in charitable giving in 2008 and a 6.2 percent reduction in 2009. Charitable giving did not recover back to pre-recession levels until 2014. (Reich, Rob & Wimer, Christopher. 2012. Charitable Giving and the Great Recession. Stanford, CA: Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality. Retrieved from https://inequality.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/CharitableGiving_fact_sheet.pdf)
Economic Support Needed for Creative Professional Impacted by COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to hurt the arts, entertainment, and media industries, and the need for continued economic support for impacted creative professionals, including members of our unions, only grows more urgent. In normal times, these industries help power a sector that generates more than 4 percent of the country’s GDP and employs more than four million people. However, to date, this sector has lost an estimated $14.1 billion in economic activity due to COVID-19[1], and losses will continue as many theaters, soundstages, and performance venues remain dark well into next year. While some have continued to work, the industries’ employment rates are well below normal levels. With their work occurring in public venues and on job sites requiring close personal contact, many creative professionals will likely be some of the last workers able to return safely to their jobs due to expected longer-term social distancing requirements.
Protect professionals designated as essential workers and those returning to the workplace
· Require the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to issue an Emergency Temporary Standard to protect workers from occupational exposure to infectious diseases, including COVID-19.
· For any professionals designated as essential or returning to the workplace:
o Guarantee access to employer-provided personal protective equipment.
o Require employers to implement and enforce workplace social distancing policies that limit exposure to COVID-19.
o Require employers keep professionals who become infected with COVID-19 on payroll, remain responsible for affected professionals’ health care costs, and cover any family care costs accrued by affected professionals as a result of treating a COVID-19 diagnosis.
o Require hazard pay as additional compensation for professionals deemed essential who are working outside their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
o Provide flexibility or alternative work options for professionals deemed essential but who live with immunocompromised individuals.
Extend and expand COVID-19 economic support programs
· Extend the CARES Act’s unemployment insurance provisions, including the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, through July 1, 2021.
· Ensure professionals earning both W2 and 1099/self-employment income receive the full benefits of the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.
· Expand the Families First Coronavirus Response Act’s paid leave provisions to professionals working for companies with 500 or more employees.
Preserve access to affordable, quality healthcare
· Subsidize 100 percent of a person’s COBRA costs for one year.
· Extend COBRA eligibility to 36 months.
· Provide economic support for multiemployer health plans that are waiving cost-sharing or keeping ineligible members on their plans for reasons related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Protect the pension funds of creative professionals
· Allow multiemployer pension plans to:
o Freeze zone status for at least one year, based on provisions similar to the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008;
o Smooth investment and contribution base unit (“CBU”) losses in the funding standard account, and investment losses in the development of the actuarial value of assets, following provisions similar to the Pension Relief Act of 2010.
· Institute a special partition program at the PBGC to deal with critically endangered multiemployer plans without increasing burdens on healthy pension plans.
· Shore up the PBGC through government funding, not the robbing of healthy pension plans.
Provide economic support for organizations in the arts, entertainment, and media industries that gets people back to work
· Appropriate $9 billion in emergency supplemental funding to ensure nonprofit arts organizations and public broadcasting stations can continue operations, keep people employed, and be ready to immediately resume productions when it is safe to do so.
o The $4 billion should be administered by the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. No less than 60% of the $4 billion should be in the form of direct grants. Any federal money distributed by a state or local arts agency must comply with the conditions of a direct grant.
o For live theater employers unable to receive federal arts funding, ensure access to low-interest loans for the purpose of operational continuity, continued employment, and the ability to resume productions when it is safe to do so.
o Any organization accessing supplemental federal arts funding or a low-interest loan must attest that it will adhere to conditions no less stringent than Sec. 4003(c)(3)(D)(i) of the CARES Act. (e.g. minimum employment requirements, layoff prohibitions, outsource/offshore prohibitions, non-abrogation of collective bargaining agreements, union neutrality, etc.)
· Extend and enhance the Section 181 film tax deduction.
· Restore the long-standing business tax deduction for live entertainment event ticket purchases.
Protect the collection and dissemination of news and information
· Provide temporary payroll support for people working in print, radio, television, and digital-native news to keep them on the job at a time when news is essential.
· Appropriate and direct federal advertising dollars for programs where community outreach is needed for spending on local media.
Ensure tax fairness for middle-class creative professionals
· Allow middle-class creative professionals to deduct necessary business expenses by including the Performing Artist Tax Parity Act of 2019, bipartisan legislation that would update the Qualified Performing Artist tax deduction.
Prohibit post-employment restrictive covenants for journalists and other media employees until December 31, 2021
· To ensure journalists and other media employees are able to find and accept new work during the COVID-19 pandemic, prohibit employers from enforcing any anti-competitive restrictive covenant.
Provide fair access to government economic support for all nonprofits
· Allow all nonprofits, including labor unions, access to the Paycheck Protection Program, not just 501(c)3 organizations.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser at (202) 638-0320 ext. 11 or mwasser@dpeaflcio.org
[1] Americans for the Arts. (2020) “The Economic Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on the Arts and Cultural Sector.” Retrieved on November 9, 2020 from https://www.americansforthearts.org/by-topic/disaster-preparedness/the-economic-impact-of-coronavirus-on-the-arts-and-culture-sector.
Creative Professionals’ Priorities for the Next Phase of COVID-19 Legislation
We urge Congress to provide continued economic support for creative professionals, including the members of our unions, by enacting the following priorities in the next COVID-19 related legislation. Economic relief is crucial for the more than four million people working in the arts, entertainment, and media industries. They power a sector responsible for 4.2 percent of the United States’ GDP and a positive trade balance. Their work occurs in public venues and on job sites requiring close personal contact. Some continue to work during this crisis. For example, news media professionals are risking their health to collect and disseminate information critical to the public’s safety and stagecraft professionals have been drafted into service erecting temporary hospitals and treatment centers. Most other creative professionals, however, will likely be some of the last workers able to return safely to their jobs due to expected longer-term social distancing requirements.
Protect professionals designated as essential workers
Require the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to issue an Emergency Temporary Standard to protect workers from occupational exposure to infectious diseases, including COVID-19.
For any professional deemed an essential worker:
Guarantee access to employer-provided personal protective equipment (PPE).
Require employers to implement and enforce workplace social distancing policies that limit exposure to COVID-19.
Require employers keep essential workers who become infected with COVID-19 on payroll, remain responsible for affected workers’ health care costs, and cover any family care costs accrued by affected workers as a result of treating a COVID-19 diagnosis.
Require hazard pay as additional compensation for working outside their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Provide flexibility or alternative work options for workers deemed essential but who live with immunocompromised individuals.
Preserve access to affordable, quality healthcare
Subsidize 100 percent of a person’s COBRA costs for one year.
Extend COBRA eligibility to 36 months.
Provide economic support for multiemployer plans that are waiving cost-sharing or keeping ineligible members on their plans for reasons related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Protect the pension funds of creative professionals
Allow multiemployer pension plans to:
Freeze zone status for at least one year, based on provisions similar to the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008.
Smooth investment and contribution base unit (“CBU”) losses in the funding standard account, and investment losses in the development of the actuarial value of assets, following provisions similar to the Pension Relief Act of 2010.
Institute a special partition program at the PBGC to deal with critically endangered multiemployer plans without increasing burdens on healthy pension plans.
Shore up the PBGC through government funding, not through the robbing of healthy pension plans.
Provide economic support for organizations in the arts, entertainment, and media industries that gets people back to work
Appropriate $4 billion in emergency supplemental funding to ensure nonprofit arts organizations and public broadcasting stations can continue operations, keep people employed, and be ready to immediately resume productions when it is safe to do so.
The $4 billion should be administered by the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. No less than 60 percent of the $4 billion should be in the form of direct grants. Any federal money distributed by a state or local arts agency must comply with the conditions of a direct grant.
For live theater employers unable to receive federal arts funding, ensure access to low-interest loans for the purpose of operational continuity, continued employment, and the ability to resume productions when it is safe to do so.
Any organization accessing supplemental federal arts funding or a low-interest loan must attest that it will adhere to conditions no less stringent than Sec. 4003(c)(3)(D)(i) of the CARES Act. (e.g. minimum employment requirements, layoff prohibitions, outsource/offshore prohibitions, non-abrogation of collective bargaining agreements, union neutrality, etc.)
Extend and enhance the Section 181 film tax deduction.
Restore the long-standing business tax deduction for live entertainment event ticket purchases.
Create a journalism-specific stimulus program to protect the dissemination of news and information
Provide news media organizations with access to an affordable loan program or a grant program that enables continued operations and keeps journalists and other news media professionals employed.
Require that 80 percent of any loan or grant going to a news media organization be spent on journalism, including payroll costs associated with gathering and distributing news and information.
Condition loan or grant access on an organizational attestation that it will adhere to conditions no less stringent than Sec. 4003(c)(3)(D)(i) of the CARES Act. (e.g. minimum employment requirements, layoff prohibitions, outsource/offshore prohibitions, non-abrogation of collective bargaining agreements, union neutrality, etc.)
Appropriate and direct federal advertising dollars for programs where community outreach is needed for spending on local media.
Ensure tax fairness for middle class creative professionals
Pass H.R. 3121, the Performing Artist Tax Parity Act of 2019, bipartisan legislation that would update the Qualified Performing Artist tax deduction, allowing middle class creative professionals to deduct necessary business expenses.
Prohibit post-employment restrictive covenants for journalists and other media employees until December 31, 2020
To ensure journalists and other media employees are able to find and accept new work during the COVID-19 pandemic, prohibit employers from enforcing any anti-competitive restrictive covenant.
Provide fair access to government economic support for all nonprofits
Allow all nonprofits, including labor unions, access to the Paycheck Protection Program, not just 501(c)3 organizations.
Extend and expand existing COVID-19 economic support programs
Expand the Families First Coronavirus Response Act’s paid leave provisions to professionals working for companies with 500 or more employees.
Extend the CARES Act’s unemployment insurance provisions, including the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, through December 31, 2020.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser at (202) 638-0320 ext. 11 or mwasser@dpeaflcio.org
Letter Supporting the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, H.R. 2474
February 4, 2020
Re: H.R. 2474, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act
Dear Representative,
On behalf of the 24 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I urge you to support H.R. 2474, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, and to oppose any weakening amendments and any Motion to Recommit when the House of Representatives considers this bill. The PRO Act will ensure that professionals can exercise their right to join together in union and negotiate collectively with their employers by restoring the original intent of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
DPE knows from our 2016 national survey of nonunion professionals that a majority of professionals want to join together in union. Unfortunately, in too many instances, employers are able to violate the NLRA and deny professionals their right to form a union with their colleagues.
The PRO Act will help ensure all professionals can achieve their right to join together in union and negotiate collectively with their employers to improve their lives and their workplaces. The legislation modernizes the NLRA so that it has remedies consistent with other workplace laws, ending the perverse incentive that exists currently for employers to break the law. Companies and individual corporate officers will be subject to financial penalties if they violate the NLRA, and professionals will have the ability to bring their cases to federal court. Further, the PRO Act will provide for fair union elections. The bill will also stop employers from hiding behind a subcontractor or other intermediary, or deliberately misclassifying professional employees as supervisors or independent contractors to evade their employer responsibilities.
Recognizing that professionals can only fully realize the value of joining together in union when they have a written contract, the PRO Act will also put a stop to employers using tactics that prevent employees from achieving a union contract. The legislation establishes a process for mediation and arbitration to assist employers and their employees with reaching agreement on a first contract. A written contract – just like CEOs have – is how union professionals can guarantee pay and benefits, ensure a voice in decisions affecting them at work, and secure pathways to sustain their careers.
The PRO Act also recognizes that professionals must be able to picket or withhold their labor in order to have the power necessary to improve their workplaces. The legislation will prevent employers from hiring permanent replacement workers in instances when professionals decide they have no choice but to go on strike. In addition, nonunion professionals will be able to engage in collective action to enforce basic workplace rights, instead of being required to pursue justice on their own through employer-favored arbitration proceedings.
Lastly, the PRO Act would eliminate state right to work laws. Secretive special interest groups and their billionaire funders push these laws in an effort to give corporations more power at the expense of everyday professionals. We must learn from the experience of the past seven decades, which has shown that people in states with right to work laws have lower wages and reduced access to quality health care and retirement security.
The experience of the more than four million professional, technical, and other highly-skilled workers who make up DPE’s 24 national unions demonstrates that working people do better when they can negotiate collectively for better pay and improved working conditions. That is why a majority of nonunion professionals want to join together with their colleagues and negotiate with their own employers. And it is why I urge you to support the PRO Act when it comes before you for a vote on the House floor.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser at (202) 638-0320 ext. 11.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dorning, President
Letter Supporting the Restoring Justice for Workers Act, H.R. 2749
September 10, 2019
Re: H.R. 2749, the Restoring Justice for Workers Act
Dear Representative,
On behalf of the 24 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I strongly urge you to support H.R. 2749, the Restoring Justice for Workers Act. In 2018, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Epic Systems v. Lewis that employers may lawfully require employees to agree, as a condition of employment, to pursue work-related claims in individual arbitrations. H.R. 2749 would restore the right of working people to join together to pursue employment and civil rights claims in court.
Today more than 60 million employees, including millions of professionals, are subject to mandatory employment arbitration.[1] Many of these people also are prohibited by class action waivers from pursuing collective legal action, even in the form of arbitration. Simply in order to work, these individuals are locked into an employer-created dispute resolution process that research shows regularly produces employer-favorable outcomes if they want to enforce statutory rights, including the Fair Labor Standards Act’s wage and hour protections and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act’s anti-discrimination prohibitions.[2] The fact that female employees and African-American employees are the most likely to be subject to mandatory employment arbitration makes the problem that much more concerning.[3]
It is important to understand that mandatory employment arbitration is not the same as the arbitration procedures found in the collective bargaining agreements of DPE affiliates and other labor unions. Unlike with mandatory employment arbitration, employers negotiate labor arbitration procedures with employees and their unions, ensuring that employees’ due process rights are protected and the procedure is fair to both sides. Further, labor arbitration procedures are intended for disagreements over the provisions of a private contract, not the enforcement of statutory rights.
Congressional action is urgently needed. With the U.S. Supreme Court’s pro-employer decision in Epic Systems, we are likely to see a dramatic expansion of mandatory employment arbitration, particularly in provisions that prevent employees from taking collective legal action. We know this because employers previously expanded their use of mandatory employment arbitration after another employer-friendly U.S. Supreme Court decision in a 2011 case that upheld the use of class action waivers in mandatory arbitration provisions.[4] The U.S. Supreme Court’s Epic Systems decision removes any lingering doubt for employers considering mandating employment arbitration on their workforces.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Epic Systems decision blessed a rigged system that leaves working people without a fair opportunity to enforce their statutory rights. Fortunately Congress has the opportunity to right this wrong by making clear that employees need not give up their right to the U.S. court system, and their right to pursue justice together, when they go to work. It is for this reason that I ask you to co-sponsor H.R. 2749, and vote yes when the legislation comes before the U.S. House of Representatives for a vote.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE Assistant to the President/Legislative Director Michael Wasser at (202) 638-0320 x. 119
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dorning, President
[1] Colvin, Alexander J.S. (2018, Apr. 6). The growing use of mandatory arbitration. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute. Available here: https://www.epi.org/files/pdf/144131.pdf.
[2] Stone, Katherine W. and Alexander J.S. Colvin. (2015, Dec. 7). The arbitration epidemic. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute. Available here: https://www.epi.org/publication/the-arbitration-epidemic/.
[3] Colvin 2018
[4] Ibid.
House/Senate Letter Opposing the Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA)
March 14, 2019
Dear Representative/Senator,
On behalf of the 24 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I write to express strong opposition to the Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA). This bill would deny music professionals, many of whom are members of DPE affiliate unions, the right to be paid fairly for their work. I ask that you neither co-sponsor nor otherwise support this legislation.
Despite its well-intending name, the LRFA would serve to pad the profits of major corporations at the expense of recording artists. American terrestrial radio stations have long profited from playing songs without compensating the artists and musicians who performed these creative works. These recording artists are not guaranteed a share of the advertising revenue their performances help generate. The LRFA would enshrine this injustice by misclassifying fair payments for the use of recording artists’ works as a “tax.”
Recording artists, like all professionals, deserve a fair return on their work. Just as you would not consider nurses’ pay to be a tax on hospitals, you should not accept the premise put forward by the LRFA’s supporters that frees them of the responsibility to pay artists and musicians for use of their recorded performances.
It is for this reason that I respectfully ask that you oppose the LRFA. Congress should be working to provide a performance right for recording artists across all music listening platforms, not blocking their ability to be paid for the work they do.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser at (202) 638-0320 x.119.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dorning, President
Letter Opposing ACCESS to Recordings Act
May 30, 2018
The Honorable Ron Wyden
United States Senate
221 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Wyden,
On behalf of the 24 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I write to express strong opposition to the recently introduced Accessibility for Curators, Creators, Educators, Scholars, and Society to Recordings Act (“ACCESS to Recordings Act”). This bill is a significant threat to the economic security of our country’s legacy creators and working musicians and vocalists, many of whom are members of DPE affiliate unions. The ACCESS to Recordings Act also undermines these music professionals’ ability to end discriminatory pay practices.
Recording artists, like all professionals, deserve a fair return on their work. Music professionals must be able to benefit from the intellectual property they created in order to be properly compensated. The full term previously established and promised by Congress in 1998 for creators to benefit from their works must be fulfilled. The ACCESS to Recordings Act breaks that promise and takes several years of compensation away from music professionals, denying them the pay and retirement security they have earned. Shortchanging musical artists by stripping away years of compensation undermines the promise of a better deal for these working professionals.
DPE strongly supports S. 2823, the Music Modernization Act (MMA), which includes the Compensating Legacy Artists for their Songs, Service, and Important Contributions to Society (CLASSICS) Act. The MMA would stop unfair, discriminatory pay practices against older musicians by some digital services while providing efficiencies and exceptions for users, curators, educators, scholars, archives, libraries, and digital music services during the current term already established and promised by Congress.
DPE asks that you reconsider stripping away the current rights of music professionals and support full and fair compensation to those artists who have contributed immensely to our nation’s culture and society. If you have any questions, please contact DPE Legislative and Outreach Director, Michael Wasser at (202) 638-0320 x.119.
Sincerely,
Paul E. Almeida, President
Letter Supporting the Serrano Amendment
May 16, 2018
Re: Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19) Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) appropriation bill
Dear Representative,
On behalf of the 24 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I write to you regarding the House Appropriations Committee’s May 17th mark-up of the Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19) Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) appropriation bill. DPE urges you to support an amendment we understand Representative José E. Serrano will offer that protects the judicial independence of Immigration Judges (IJs) and the due process rights of people who appear before them.
Rep. Serrano’s amendment prevents the Department of Justice (DOJ) from carrying out its planned use of production quotas and case completion deadlines in the performance evaluations of IJs. DPE believes that using production quotas and case completion deadlines will threaten the professional integrity of the IJs and the political independence of the immigration courts, without actually producing the desired efficiency.
Production quotas and case completion deadlines do not offer a fair, accurate assessment of an IJ’s performance. Rather these standards simply measure the speed at which IJs move cases through the docket. Prioritizing speed in the immigration courts can and will come at the expense of individuals’ due process rights and the immigration courts’ own independence.
By disallowing DOJ from imposing production quotas and case completion deadlines, Rep. Serrano’s amendment helps ensure IJs can conduct impartial hearings. Fair hearings, in turn, reduce the number of appeals instigated by individuals who assert their rights were sacrificed for expediency’s sake. Since appeals take time and cost taxpayer money, Rep. Serrano’s amendment contributes to a more efficient immigration courts system.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE Legislative and Outreach Director, Michael Wasser at (202) 638-0320, x.119
Sincerely,
Paul E. Almeida, President
Letter Opposing Quotas for Immigration Judges
April 17, 2018
The Honorable Chuck Grassley The Honorable Dianne Feinstein
135 Hart Senate Office Building 331 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510 Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Chairman Grassley and Ranking Member Feinstein,
On behalf of the 24 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I write regarding the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Executive Office of Immigration Review’s (EOIR) intention to include production quotas and case completion deadlines in the performance evaluations of Immigration Judges (IJ). DPE believes that such measures will threaten the professional integrity of the IJs and the political independence of the immigration courts, without actually producing the desired efficiency.
IJs should have their performance fairly evaluated in a manner that is in line with established judicial standards of evaluating the job performance of judges. Production quotas and case completion deadlines do not allow for a fair, accurate assessment of an IJ’s performance. Instead these performance measures merely indicate the speed at which IJs move cases through the docket. While we all desire efficient public services, an undue focus on expediency in a setting like the immigration courts can and will come at the expense of individuals’ due process rights and the immigration courts’ own independence.
DPE recommends that you take immediate steps to stop DOJ and EOIR from evaluating IJs based on production quotas by working with appropriators to defund implementation of the planned quotas policy through the Fiscal Year 2019 (FY2019) Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bill. We also recommend that you introduce and work to pass bipartisan legislation that removes the immigration courts from DOJ’s jurisdiction in order to safeguard the immigration courts’ role as a neutral, independent body.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE Legislative and Outreach Director, Michael Wasser at (202) 638-0320, x119.
Sincerely,
Paul E. Almeida, President
Letter Opposing the Immigration Innovation (I-Squared) Act of 2018, S. 2344
February 5, 2018
Re: S. 2344, the Immigration Innovation (I-Squared) Act of 2018
Dear Senator,
On behalf of the 23 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I urge you to oppose S. 2344, the Immigration Innovation (I-Squared) Act of 2018. Recently introduced by Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ), this legislation would dramatically expand the H-1B visa program without adequate protections for American professionals or the people working on H-1B visas. As such, the legislation would exacerbate the existing problems with the H-1B visa program, including employer use of the H-1B visa to outsource and offshore good jobs. DPE asks that you not co-sponsor the I-Squared legislation, and that you vote against S. 2344 as either a standalone bill or an amendment to other immigration legislation should the opportunity arise.
S. 2344 More than Doubles Size of H-1B Visa Program without Adequate Worker Protections
I-Squared would increase the number of capped H-1B visas from 65,000 annually to as many as 195,000 visas, while also eliminating the annual cap of an additional 20,000 H-1B visas for post-graduate students graduating from U.S. universities and colleges with STEM degrees. In addition, I-Squared would exempt multiple classes of H-1B visas from the cap, further increasing the total size of the H-1B visa program. Under I-Squared, the number of capped H-1B visas would increase based on the number of filed H-1B petitions. Because I-Squared would continue to allow the majority of H-1B employers to forego attesting that they looked for qualified, available U.S. workers, filed petitions only reveal employer interest in hiring H-1B workers, not evidence of a labor shortage.
S. 2344 Would Allow Employers to Continue Outsourcing and Offshoring Good Jobs
The H-1B program permits employers to pay H-1B workers below market wages and does not expressly forbid displacement of existing workers. The lack of displacement protections made it possible for employers like Abbott Labs; Cargill; EverSource Energy; Harley Davidson; New York Life Insurance Company; Southern California Edison; the University of California, San Francisco; Walt Disney World; and many others to layoff their U.S. workers and replace them with cheaper, more exploitable H-1B guest workers.
I-Squared does not correct the flaws with the current H-1B program that employers exploit. Employers would still be able to pay H-1B workers below the going rate for a U.S. counterpart in a given occupation and area. Meanwhile, I-Squared would require displaced workers show their employers’ knowledge and intent to replace them with H-1B workers, a nearly-impossible standard to prove. DPE has no doubt that employers and their capable attorneys will devise schemes that show a lack of knowledge or intent of displacement, but the effect will be the same: more news stories about Americans who have lost their jobs because companies outsourced their work to H-1B employers.
Real Reforms Needed to Fix H-1B Visa Program
DPE does not oppose the existence of the H-1B visa program, but it must be reformed to work for U.S. workers, highly-skilled foreign workers, and employers. Such reform must include recruitment and non-displacement requirements for all H-1B employers, higher wages for H-1B workers, and robust enforcement of H-1B program rules. DPE also believes that H-1B workers should have the ability to self-petition for legal permanent residence and be able to more easily change jobs, both in the H-1B program and while waiting for available immigrant visas. However, enhanced job portability is not a panacea by itself, particularly when employers can continue to underpay H-1B workers and displace working Americans. It is for that reason that I urge you to oppose S. 2344.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE Legislative and Outreach Director, Michael Wasser at (202) 638-0320 x. 119.
Sincerely,
Paul E. Almeida, President
Letter on the Markup of the Protect and Grow American Jobs Act, H.R. 170
November 14, 2017
The Honorable Robert Goodlatte The Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
Chairman Ranking Member
Committee on the Judiciary Committee on the Judiciary
United States House of Representatives United States House of Representatives
2138 Rayburn House Office Building 2138 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515 Washington, D.C. 20515
Re: Protect and Grow American Jobs Act (H.R. 170)
Dear Chairman Goodlatte and Ranking Member Conyers:
On behalf of the 23 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I write to inform you that, absent improvements described below, DPE cannot support the amendment in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 170 that we understand Representative Issa will introduce at the House Judiciary Committee’s November 8, 2017, markup of H.R. 170, the Protect and Grow American Jobs Act.
We appreciate Rep. Issa’s recognition that the H-1B visa program is in need of reform that must include increased, funded enforcement of the program’s rules; greater protections against displacement; and higher wages for people working on H-1B visas. However, H.R. 170’s provisions would only apply to H-1B dependent employers. Most H-1B employers will still not be required to first look for an available, qualified U.S. worker or to promise that they will not fire existing U.S. workers in place of H-1B workers. Most employers will also continue to be able to pay H-1B workers at levels well below that of equivalent U.S. workers. Meanwhile, H.R. 170 does nothing to change the power dynamics within the program that make H-1B workers vulnerable to coercion, exploitation, and retaliation.
H.R. 170’s limited scope also means that the bill will not accomplish its objective to stop outsourcing through the H-1B visa program. While H.R. 170 would establish new requirements for H-1B dependent employers that place H-1B workers at a third party worksite, these requirements do not extend to non H-1B dependent employers placing H-1B workers at third party worksites. We expect corporations will contract with non H-1B dependent employers that are engaged in the outsourcing and offshoring of work since plenty of such companies exist. Accenture, for instance, is not an H-1B dependent employer, but it hired over 6,800 H-1B workers in Fiscal Year 2016. When Health Care Service Company in Illinois laid off approximately 540 IT professionals in 2016, it replaced them with contracted H-1B workers employed by Accenture and Cognizant Technology Solutions. The same is true for New York Life Insurance Company, who in 2014 laid off approximately 300 accounting and IT employees, replacing them with contracted H-1B workers employed by Accenture and Tata Consultancy Services.
H.R. 170 also would weaken the H-1B dependent employer definition by lifting the threshold from at least 15 percent of employees working on H-1B visas to 20 percent of full-time equivalent employees for employers with at least 51 employees. As a result, fewer, not more employers will be subject to the bill’s provisions that are intended to protect workers.
To account for the amendment’s weaknesses, DPE urges the committee to make the following improvements to H.R. 170’s substitute language:
· Extend H.R. 170’s provisions to any third party placement of H-1B workers: If Congress is serious about stopping employers from using the H-1B visa to outsource work and displace American workers, then it should stop this practice in all instances, not just in situations involving H-1B dependent employers.
· Strengthen the H-1B dependent employer definition: Employers who rely on the H-1B visa program to hire ten percent of their workforce must be considered H-1B dependent. Improving the H-1B dependent employer definition will strengthen H.R. 170 by increasing the number of people that it would protect.
· Count L-1 workers in the determination of H-1B dependent status: A government audit found that the top users of the L-1 visa are many of the very same companies H.R. 170 purports to target with tougher enforcement. Including L-1 workers in the tally that determines an employer’s H-1B dependent status will help ensure existing H-1B dependent companies cannot outrun the bill’s requirements by simply turning to the L-1 program.
Even with these improvements added to it, H.R. 170 does not provide the type of whole scale reform that is needed to fix the H-1B visa program and the other high-skilled guest worker visa programs. DPE supports making the following four reforms to all high-skilled guest worker programs (H-1B, L-1, B-1 in lieu of H-1B, and OPT), which would ensure that high-skilled guest workers are used to complement, rather than displace U.S. workers. If there is a shortage of qualified U.S. workers and employers are already paying market wages as many claim, then employers should not fear these reforms. DPE recommends:
1) An increase in the prevailing wage standard for guest workers so that employers do not have an incentive to hire nonimmigrants to cut labor costs;
2) Requiring all employers to advertise and offer jobs to available, qualified U.S. workers and to attest that they will not replace existing U.S. workers with nonimmigrants;
3) Allowing nonimmigrants to self-petition for green cards; and
4) Robust enforcement of guest worker visa programs that includes regular audits of the top petitioners to ensure compliance with the above provisions and an effective mechanism for nonimmigrants and U.S. workers to report violations without fear of retaliation.
Finally, the lack of data on these guest worker visa programs allows employers to evade scrutiny. Congress should ensure that the public is provided with all available data, including how many nonimmigrants are in the country; occupation, employer, and work location information; and how much they are actually being paid.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE Legislative and Outreach Director, Michael Wasser at (202) 638-0320 x.119.
Sincerely,
Paul E. Almeida, President
Letter Supporting the DREAM Act of 2017, S. 1615
October 10, 2017
Senator Charles Grassley, Chairman
Senate Judiciary Committee
135 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Senator Dianne Feinstein, Ranking Member
Senate Judiciary Committee
331 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Chairman Grassley and Ranking Member Feinstein,
On behalf of the 23 national unions in the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I strongly urge you to support the DREAM Act of 2017 (S. 1615) without amendment. Absent Congressional action, nearly 800,000 young people will lose their ability to live and work in the only land they know as home if the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is terminated. The bipartisan DREAM Act would ensure these contributing members of our communities, workplaces, and military can stay out of the shadows, continue to work, and have a pathway to citizenship.
U.S. citizens and DACA beneficiaries alike benefit from the DACA program, and we will all be better off with Congress providing a permanent resolution of the Dreamers’ immigration status through passage of the DREAM Act. DACA beneficiaries are on par with U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents in terms of their individual bargaining power as employees. They can walk away from a bad job and exercise their workplace rights without fear that unscrupulous employers may use their immigration status to threaten or retaliate against them.
All professionals do better because DACA beneficiaries can push for higher pay, join together in union to improve their workplaces, and blow the whistle on workplace crimes without fear that employers will use their immigration status as a retaliatory weapon. Additionally, all professionals will be worse off if DACA beneficiaries lose their ability to live and work out of the shadows in the United States.
The stories of Jose Galvan, Karen Reyes, Selene Meza, and Esther Lee demonstrate the positive impact DACA beneficiaries have had on our economy, our workplaces, and our communities.
Jose Galvan, aspiring Stage Directors and Choreographers Society member
Jose Galvan is a theater professional, aspiring member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC), and a DACA beneficiary. He came to the United States from Mexico as a two year old with his mother and brother. They decided to come to the United States to reunite with Jose’s father, who had been living, working, and paying taxes in California.
Jose was the first in his family to graduate high school, and earned a full, merit-based scholarship to attend the University of San Diego (USD). At USD, Jose discovered his passion for theater.
“I fell in love, because I learned as an artist I had a voice,” said Jose of his introduction to theater. “I could use art to start a dialogue, make people feel something, question something, make a difference.”
Jose went on to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in theatre arts and performance studies with an emphasis in directing. While a senior at the University of San Diego, Jose became the first artistic and literary intern for the Old Globe in San Diego, a theater modeled after Shakespeare’s Old Globe in London. Following graduation, Jose was offered a job in the Arts Engagement Department at the Old Globe.
Jose now has a career in theater. Most recently, he directed a show for children of military families that aimed to help them deal with the unique challenges they face with loved ones in the armed forces. The show toured military bases, armories, and armed services’ YMCAs. Jose is now working towards graduate school and getting his master's degree in directing.
Jose spent essentially his whole life in the United States—it is all he knows. The impending loss of DACA means that Jose could lose his ability to work legally, his access to health insurance, his opportunity to pursue a MFA, and his home. The end of DACA also means the United States could lose someone who has already made important contributions to the country and is on a path to making many more.
Karen Reyes, American Federation of Teachers member
Karen Reyes is a DACAmented teacher and a member of Education Austin, part of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Karen came to the United States from Mexico at the age of two. She grew up the United States and always thought of herself as a typical American kid—since that’s who she was. However, once she realized she was undocumented, she began to hold back, frozen by fear.
“I held back from friendships, I held back from activities, I held back from applying to the universities that I really wanted to attend, because would they want me even with my status,” said Karen.
Fortunately, Karen was able to attend college and pursue her dream of working in education. She earned a private scholarship to attend the Deaf Education and Hearing Science program at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
In 2012, Karen was able to become a DACA beneficiary and teach children who are deaf and hard of hearing. Karen is helping these students and their families communicate and achieve their own dreams.
“DACA made me find my voice and made me be able to live without fear. DACA made me visible, it has empowered me and made it possible for me to come out of the shadows and fight for myself and for the other 800,000-plus Dreamers,” said Karen. “We must defend DACA because, after living here for 26 years, I am here to stay.”
Selene Meza, Office and Professional Employees International Union member
Selene Meza is a DACA beneficiary serving on the front lines of the opioid epidemic as a chemical dependency professional in Bellingham, Washington. Selene arrived in the United States with her family when she was 13. As a young teenage she knew she did not have documents, but at that time she did not know what that meant.
In high school, Selene realized that she was at a disadvantage because she was undocumented. She could not work summer jobs like her friends, and she didn’t think she could go to college. Fortunately, Selene was able to attend community college and then transfer to a four year school to earn her bachelor’s in psychology. Selene was the first in her family to graduate from college.
While finishing college, Selene initially qualified for DACA. The work authorization Selene received through DACA meant that she could put her degree to use. Selene went to work at a community behavioral health clinic, where she still works today as an addiction treatment counselor. Selene helps people fighting addictions to heroin and works with patients’ families. She is a member of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 8.
As a DACA beneficiary, Selene has been able to contribute to her household, which includes her husband and two young children. The end of DACA without a legislative solution will not only pull an important resource away from the fight against the disease of addiction, but it will also make it difficult for Selene to provide for her family.
Esther Lee, Writers Guild of America, East member
Esther Lee is a ThinkProgress reporter, member of Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), and has been a beneficiary of the DACA program since 2012. When Esther was two years old, she escaped domestic violence with her mother by coming to the United States from Taiwan. Esther spent her childhood in California.
After she graduated from high school, Esther was able to attend New York University. She paid for her education with money earned working, along with financial assistance from family.
Esther earned her DACA approval in 2012. Her work authorization from DACA meant that she could pursue her journalism career.
“Coming out of the shadows meant that I was able to get a job that didn’t leave me at the whim of my employers,” Esther notes.
For Esther, the stability provided by DACA has proved instrumental in getting her where she is today as a reporter with ThinkProgress.
With DACA’s end on the horizon, the DREAM Act is needed now more than ever. I strongly urge you to support the DREAM Act of 2017 without amendment to allow young professionals like Jose, Karen, Selene, and Esther to continue to contribute to the American economy.
Sincerely,
Paul E. Almeida
President
AEMI Letter on NAFTA Modernization
September 6, 2017
Ambassador Robert E. Lighthizer
Office of the United States Trade Representative
600 17th Street NW
Washington, DC 20508
VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION
Dear Ambassador Lighthizer,
The Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE) is a coalition of national unions representing more than four million professional and technical workers. Included in DPE are 12 national unions that represent people who work in the arts, entertainment, and media industries. Our unions’ members are actors, craftspeople, choreographers, dancers, directors, musicians, stunt performers, instrumentalists, writers, singers, stage managers, and many other creative professionals.
We write to you with the understanding that the modernization of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) may include discussions about NAFTA’s copyright and intellectual property provisions. As our unions’ members depend on the sale of legitimate content to earn fair wages and benefits, we urge you to prioritize the protection and enforcement of copyright provisions in any such discussions.
In today’s internet era, creative content can be transmitted across borders at speeds and in quantities few could imagine when NAFTA was originally negotiated. Strong copyright protections appropriate for today’s digital age are needed to help ensure fair compensation for the professionals who imagine, develop, design, and give life to creative works that are responsible for over $1 trillion in annual economic activity and regularly generate a positive trade balance for the United States.
Any weakening of copyright protections for creative professionals in NAFTA modernization could upend the economic security of middle-class Americans who work in copyright-reliant industries. Stolen or otherwise illegitimate content undermines the value of creative professionals’ work and threatens their hard-won pay and benefits.
We therefore ask that you prioritize the protection and enforcement of copyright provisions in the modernization of NAFTA for our unions’ members, part of the 5.5 million people working in core copyright industries.
Sincerely,
Kate Shindle
President, Actors’ Equity Association
Ray Hair
International President, American Federation of Musicians
James Odom
President, American Guild of Musical Artists
Judy Little
Acting President, American Guild of Variety Artists
Paul E. Almeida
President, Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO
Thomas Schlamme
President, Directors Guild of America
Carlo Fiorletta
President, Guild of Italian American Artists
Matthew D. Loeb
International President, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts
Lonnie R. Stephenson
International President, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Richard Lanigan
President, Office and Professional Employees International Union
Gabrielle Carteris
President, SAG-AFTRA
Pam MacKinnon
President, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society
Michael Winship
President, Writers Guild of America, East