People Before Profit blog

Grand theft auto

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 08:16:00 +0000

The “Big Three” U.S. automakers lie, cheat and steal. Something to keep in mind as we watch GM, Ford and Chrysler negotiate with the United Auto Workers union.

Let’s take the lies first. The Big Three are not poor and they are not running out of money. If they declare bankruptcy, it will be because they can legally hide their international investments and profits and their past domestic profits from consideration. They do not have to cut the wages and benefits of autoworkers to stay afloat. In fact, wage and benefit increases would not end their profits. But the Big Three might have to make do with a bit smaller stock dividend. Autoworkers know all about making do with less. In the last 20 years of concessions, autoworkers and retirees have already sacrificed enough.

Do the auto companies really cheat? Well, is it cheating to shake hands on an agreement and then not live up to it? The Big Three became the Big Three on the hard work of generations of autoworkers. They made trillions of dollars over the years because autoworkers raced assembly lines to turn out the cars. Now those retired workers are reduced to being called burdensome “legacy costs.”

Whatever the details of the various contracts, the Big Three promised those workers a defined pension (a set pension amount based on length of service) and health care in lieu of money up front in more wages. Now the auto companies want to cheat and break that promise in the name of reducing “legacy costs.”

But stealing? Whoa! But think about it. Woody Guthrie put it well, in his song about Pretty Boy Floyd, the outlaw: “Some will rob you with a six gun, and some with a fountain pen.” With the stroke of a pen, the Big Three shut down productive operations and shift jobs and capital offshore. That capital and those jobs are “made in the USA” by workers. When whole communities die, when workers lose their homes, when kids can’t go to college, when people die early for lack of health care: that’s grand theft.

For those of us not at the bargaining table, there’s really not much we can do to stop this lying, cheating and stealing, right? Wrong. This is not just an economic struggle between autoworkers and the Big Three. This is also a political struggle between corporate power and the working class, between the Big Three and the rest of us.

We can let the autoworkers know that we stand in solidarity. That we understand that their fight is for all of us. That manufacturing industries are still central to the economic sustainability of a modern economy. We might not be able to do much about what happens directly at the bargaining table, it’s true, but it’s a much longer struggle. We can begin to question the right of giant transnational corporations like the Big Three to undermine and dismantle our manufacturing base.

We can work to make manufacturing jobs and economic sustainability issues in the 2008 elections. Candidates who want workers’ votes should tell us how they will pursue industrial policies that rebuild our country’s roads, bridges and transportation systems. We can make passage of the Conyers universal, single-payer health care bill (HR 676) an issue. We can demand bankruptcy law reform that puts workers at the top of the list for repayment and forces corporations to put all their worldwide assets on the table.

And we can ask all of the candidates how they will use their office to guarantee passage of the Employee Free Choice Act so that every autoworker in this country can join the union. When workers from Mercedes, BMW, Toyota, Honda and Kia are also at the table in Detroit, the union will have much more leverage. Then autoworkers can once again set standards that help raise all workers and their families to a better life.

Scott Marshall (scott @rednet.org) is chair of the Communist Party USA’s Labor Commission.

EDITORIAL: How wealth is created

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 08:03:00 +0000

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.” — Abraham Lincoln’s Message to Congress, Dec. 3, 1861.

Capitalists, the owners of capital, spend billions of dollars trying to erase this basic truth. Lincoln, today, would understand that wealth is not created by big bankers and financiers staring at computers on Wall Street. The trillions of dollars they send flying around the world electronically, the billions they hide in hedge funds and their personal bank accounts, are really wealth created by the work of steelworkers, hotel housekeepers, autoworkers, nurses, electricians, computer programmers and truck drivers.

Wealth is made when workers take raw materials, the bounty of nature, and turn them into useful products that meet people’s needs — iron ore becomes steel becomes bridges.

You’ve got to wonder what Lincoln would have thought about the millions being made off of bottled water by the giant soda pop transnationals. Water is one of the basic building blocks of life. It belongs to all. Yet capitalists can hire workers to put it in plastic bottles and sell it for a tidy profit. Without workers to make the plastic, to build and run the bottling machines, there would be no “water” capital. Bottled water has its uses. But Lincoln put a priority on the “common good.” He probably would have been more in favor of spending the capital created by those workers to provide clean drinking water for the millions on this planet who do without.

Labor Day is a good time to renew the idea that labor is “prior to” capital. Labor, the overwhelming majority of our people, has the right to demand that capital be invested in rebuilding our country, not sent overseas in search of greater profit. As our great labor anthem, “Solidarity Forever,” says it: “They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn, But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn.”

Remember that on this Labor Day.

Autoworkers and national health care

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 06:25:00 +0000

Back in the 1950s, Charles Wilson, then GM’s president, declared, “What’s good for General Motors is good for America.”

Reeking with more arrogance than corporate benevolence, the quote certainly doesn’t apply anymore, if it ever did. With most of GM’s production, profit and workforce coming from overseas, maybe we ought to update Wilson’s quote to say, “What’s good for America is good for General Motors, at least the part that’s still American.”

According to GM, the American part is losing money hand over fist, $39 million in the second quarter of 2007 alone. Meanwhile, the global part of GM is making money fist over hand, $227 million during the same quarter in Asia and $213 million in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.

No surprises there, right?

What’s remarkable, though, is that GM raked in $217 million worth of profits in Europe, where wages are the highest in the world, vacation time is four to five weeks, taxes are higher to pay for benefits like government-paid family and medical leave, unions are stronger, business practices are more rigidly regulated and a shorter workweek is the norm.

By all rights, GM should be fleeing Europe quicker than it is leaving Flint, Mich., its original home. But why leave when you can make Third World profits in a First World region?

But the question has to be asked: If GM can do so well in “socialistic Europe,” why can’t it do just as well here in the United States?

Simple answer: It can.

The one big difference between GM making a profit in the United States and continuing to lose money is that $30 labor cost differential between GM (as well as Ford and Chrysler) and Toyota. Since non-unionized Toyota workers in the U.S. are already making higher wages, including bonuses, than GM workers, the big difference is not that — it’s health care costs.

Toyota pays out a mere $215 per vehicle for health care, primarily because it has very few retired workers. On the other hand, GM pays out $1,635 per vehicle to cover health care costs for its active and retired workers, a difference of $1,420.

Meanwhile, GM’s Canadian division pays only $197 per vehicle for health care, just $97 more than Toyota Canada pays. So what’s the big secret to reducing GM’s health care costs and leveling the playing field with its chief competitor? No secret at all. It’s national health care. Canada and Europe have it. We don’t.

If Rep. John Conyers’ Expanded and Improved Medicare for All bill, HR 676, was passed today, GM’s loss of $333 per vehicle would turn into a $1,100 profit tomorrow.

So what’s the hold-up here when the benefits to business are so obvious? Opposition to national health care by GM and other companies can’t be based on sound business thinking; it has to be ideological. GM and Corporate America fear the “creeping socialism” national health care represents.

The funny thing is they seem to be able to live with it — and do quite well by it — in Europe and Canada. So why would they prefer to battle their U.S. workers in contract talks over who pays what for health care?

The smart thing for them to do is simply join hands with their partners in the United Auto Workers, as well as Ford and Chrysler, and head out for Washington, D.C., as soon as possible. The UAW can lobby their guys in the Democratic Party. The Detroit Three can lobby their folks on the Republican side.

Together they should be able to pull together a veto-proof Congress that can get America a First World health care system passed next year that covers everybody, saves us all money and keeps more of our good-paying manufacturing jobs from being shipped overseas.

Dave Mortimer is a labor activist in Detroit.

N.Y. transit union spurs fight for safety

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 06:15:00 +0000

NEW YORK — In June the New York Legislature passed a measure sponsored by the Transport Workers Union designed to enhance the safety of union members and all workers who toil in proximity to the moving trains in New York City’s subway system.

On July 3, the bill was signed into law by the newly elected Democratic governor, Eliot Spitzer, over the objections of some officials of the Metropolitan Transit Authority and New York City Transit (NYCT).

Management objected to the bill because it effectively ends NYCT’s self-enforcement of safety regulations, which the union has long condemned as ineffective.

Over the last several years, the union has cited NYCT management’s intense pressure to keep the system moving no matter what, coupled with a “blame the victim” culture, as contributing to the high frequency of fatalities, injuries and near-misses to which TWU members have been subjected.

In a recent message to the entire union membership, TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint demanded an end to the “tug of war” between “management’s constant call to do more” and “transit workers’ need to live longer.”

The deaths on the tracks of TWU Local members Daniel Boggs on April 24 and Marvin Franklin on April 29 brought the issue of the dangers of transit work, and the inadequacies of the self-enforcement system, to the forefront of public attention.

The former Republican governor, George Pataki, had blocked a previous track safety bill, and the present Republican-controlled state Senate balked at the track safety legislation in the most resent legislative session. However, the two deaths put pressure on the Senate to act, although not without foot-dragging and attempts to weaken the bill.

Once the Senate acted, the bill was quickly signed by Gov. Spitzer.

Among the measures mandated by the bill is the creation of a three-member Track Safety Task Force comprising a representative from the NYS Department of Labor and the presidents of TWU Local 100 and NYCT. The new panel will take its place alongside a six-member union-management task force that was set up at the union’s initiative in the wake of the two recent fatalities.

Other safety initiatives stemming from the new legislation, the existing task force, or the union include pre-job and on-track safety audits; improved flagging protection for workers on the tracks, including measures to control the movement of trains on tracks adjacent to work areas; improvements in communications of train operational conditions to work crews; and expedited identification and repair of faulty emergency telephone and “power down” boxes. In addition, the testing of a special “alerter device” designed to give workers prior warning of oncoming trains has been fast-tracked.

Environmental contributors to accidents on the tracks such as noise and poor illumination are also being addressed. Noise from machinery used in a work area can mask the sound of approaching trains, so a number of noise abatement measures have been implemented.

Rules regarding adequate lighting of work areas have been in place since 2004, but were often ignored by transit managers.

Now the union intends to use the tools provided by the new law and the joint task forces to insure compliance with safety and health regulations and to create a culture of safety on the tracks.

gbono @cpusa.org

Casino workers talk union

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 06:11:00 +0000

Talk of union is running high in the world’s largest casino located in southeastern Connecticut. Since opening 15 years ago, Foxwoods, which employs 12,000, has become the biggest private employer in the state.

Most of the dealers who have operated table games at the casino since it opened remember how Foxwoods’ management, the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, and employees had the common goal of creating the world’s largest gaming playground. Lavish parties were thrown, health coverage rivaled the best, and holiday season bonuses were as high as $1,500.

Then, not in concert with the mantra, “we’re all in this together,” the cutbacks began. Over the past five years, employee benefits were gutted by an overzealous managerial team hired by the tribe. Instead of appreciation for their sacrifices, dealers faced oppressive policies. A point system of progressive discipline, including dismissal, was applied to lateness or absenteeism regardless of circumstances.

The only recourse open to employees with grievances was the Employee Group Council (EGC), a panel of concerned Foxwoods employees representing the different occupational departments. Their purpose was to present employee grievances to management and the tribe in an informal setting, so that solutions might be mutually agreed upon. However, EGC representatives were ineffective in the face of managerial stiff-arming.

Management lost employees’ trust. Dealers charged that management systematically ripped off tips by under-calculating the “toke rate,” the share of table earnings that dealers rely on to bolster their $4 an hour wage. Management refused efforts to negotiate employee oversight of the calculation of the toke rate.

Although an organizing drive in the late 1990s by the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees did not take hold at Foxwoods, recent union organizing efforts in the gaming industry have been successful. In the past six months, more than five casinos in Atlantic City have accepted the will of employees who voted for union representation. The latest this week is the workers at Tropicana Resort and Casino.

Although real estate has always been controlled by the affluent in this part of Connecticut, the cost of housing skyrocketed after the construction of Foxwoods. Dealers were priced out of the real estate market, unable to live anywhere near their place of employment.

Commute times are often an hour each way. The commute time is longer for those who wait for infrequent bus shuttles at “park and ride” sites and employee parking lots. The resulting tardiness becomes grounds for disciplinary action.

Willful take-backs of essential benefits started about five years ago, and were cutting to the bone last year when an anonymous web site, Madatfoxwoods.com, surfaced. This site became a sounding board where dealers, waiters, cleaning personnel, house cleaners and even security workers posted complaints and grievances, and is where talk of a union began.

The site was used to share ideas and strategy, as well as to release tension after an 8-hour tour of disrespect at the hands of casino management. Through this site, dealers, without the aid of a union, planned a sickout for New Year’s Day and evening, a huge revenue day for casinos.

Foxwoods management, also aware of the goings-on at Madatfoxwoods.com, prepared for the sickout by beefing up scheduling for that time and by declaring New Year’s Day a “peak day,” with additional discipline for no-shows.

Even so, between 200 and 300 dealers were reportedly absent, and a statement was made. In response, Foxwoods broke a promise to revisit dealer compensation packages before the next peak period, Chinese New Year, in February.

The next delaying tactic was to promise dealers a 5 percent across-the-board raise. Finally, as tensions continued to grow, and Madatfoxwoods.com flourished with new support for the union, Foxwoods cut off two-way communications with dealers and all other departments by unceremoniously eradicating the EGC. The so-called 5 percent raise amounted to a net increase of 2 cents for some dealers. No one got 5 percent, but Foxwoods reported to all media they had implemented a 5 percent raise for their dealers.

By March 2007, the United Auto Workers union began to make inroads to unionize Foxwoods dealers. Having organized “corporate” casinos, the UAW would now navigate the tricky waters of the “tribal” casino and the sovereign land issues involved. The union was ready to move forward as the ink dried on a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that a California “tribal casino” must abide by the National Labor Relations Act if it employs U.S. citizens. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal publicly upheld the ruling, and declared it applicable to the state of Connecticut.

Foxwoods has hired the law firm of Jackson Lewis, which specializes in resisting efforts to unionize. Numerous allegations of unlawful tactics have been filed. Union organizing has been hampered by surveillance cameras all over the casino property, including parking lots. Today the drive continues, as Foxwoods dealers anxiously await the election.

Paul Neal is a union activist in Connecticut.

NYC taxi drivers prepare to strike

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 05:32:00 +0000

NEW YORK — Yellow taxicab drivers here are prepared to strike if the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) continues to refuse to negotiate with them about sweeping changes they are imposing on the city’s 44,000 drivers. The TLC, backed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is mandating that all of the city’s some 13,000 yellow medallion taxicabs be equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) hardware.

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a union with 10,000 member-drivers, held a press conference last week announcing that cab drivers are prepared to strike for 48 hours beginning at 5 a.m., Sept. 5, unless the TLC agrees to negotiate a settlement that addresses drivers’ concerns about the system. In February, the organization became a member of the New York City Central Labor Council, which represents 400 unions in the city.

The GPS system will track all taxi trips and fares. The taximeter will not operate unless the GPS works, meaning drivers cannot work if the system is inoperative. Plus, taxis will be tracked whether they are working or not, since the GPS beeps incessantly if it is not engaged while driving.

The system will effectively allow the TLC to monitor taxi patterns and fares in order to adjust fares and fees, but not likely to support drivers. There is no navigation feature that would make the GPS useful for finding a destination or dispatching cabs.

Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the Taxi Worker Alliance, said at a press conference, “We do not understand why the TLC is mandating an unnecessary luxury technology on cabs.”

The several thousand dollar cost for installing the GPS will be passed on to drivers, and 5 percent of every fare will go to the taxi garages as a processing fee.

Suspiciously, the contract to provide the GPS units to the city was awarded to Ron Sherman, head of the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, the garage owners’ association.

Drivers are also concerned about privacy intrusion from the GPS. One driver at the press conference held a sign reading, “GPS tracks passengers too!”

New York taxi drivers work long hours under difficult working conditions, often being stiffed for fares, facing safety issues and paying high lease rates to the TLC, medallion owners and garages. High gas costs also dig into cab drivers’ earnings. Few drivers actually own medallions and depend on leasing medallions or renting cars from garages at rates upward of $100 per day.

Taxi workers are asking passengers to support them. They hope to avoid a strike by reaching a resolution with the TLC. One driver, Thiam Mor, asked for passengers to “Talk to the city. Talk to the mayor. Call the TLC and ask them to negotiate a resolution to this issue.”

If drivers go out next week, it would be the first taxi strike in the city since their 24-hour work stoppage in 1998.

ldellapiana @cpusa.org

It was murder in the mines, expert charges

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 05:25:00 +0000

Mine safety expert Jack Spadaro charges Crandall Canyon, Utah, mine owner Robert Murray with murder and the Bush administration’s Mine Safety and Health Agency (MSHA) with aiding and abetting.

“None of this should have happened,” Spadaro said, anger pushing aside his gentle West Virginia twang. “Murray murdered those miners in the collapse and, then, in the rescue. The rescuers were working in the same conditions that caused the collapse. MSHA is complicit. Murray is a criminal.”

In 2004, Spadaro retired after serving as director of the National Mine Health and Safety Academy, the main training center for federal mine inspectors. Under Spadaro’s leadership, inspector training increased and courses were upgraded. Enrollment increased from 17,000 to 30,000 a year.

Spadaro brought 38 years of coal mining engineering, environmental expertise, mine inspection and legal experience to the next generation of inspectors. He said the growing death in the mines results from Bush administration appointments and policies “to take care of the industry.”

In 2006, 47 miners went to work and never came home, the highest number of fatalities since 1995. As of Aug. 16, 17 miners have died at work, not including the six miners currently trapped in Utah.

On Aug. 6, the Crandall Canyon mine collapsed, trapping the six nearly 2,000 feet beneath a mountain. Despite continued “bumps” from the mountain, mine owner Murray ordered a rescue operation which, in addition to drilling from the top, had miners going into the collapsed entrance.

The coal rescuers removed coal trying to reach the trapped men. That coal is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, which went to the company, Murray Energy. There was no second entrance or escape passage at Crandall Canyon.

Gary Jensen, an inspector Spadaro trained, died in the rescue effort, along with Dale Ray Black, 48, and Brandon Kimber, 29. Their deaths mark the first time in 100 years of coal mining in Utah that rescuers were killed.

“I talked to Gary and he warned Murray Energy that the operation was dangerous,” Spadaro said. Despite warnings and citations issued by MSHA in May, Murray Energy ordered miners to keep digging using the “retreat mining” technique.

“Murray bought this mine in August ’06,” Spadaro continued. “The previous company had ceased operations because they decided it was too unsafe. They had been mining coal using the responsible longwall method for years, and the only coal left was in the barrier pillars. They are huge, 120 feet high and 80 feet wide. That was the coal, or the profits Murray wanted. It’s mining on the cheap.”

It only took two days for Murray Energy to get permission for retreat mining approved by MSHA’s Western District.

Outrage by miners, local residents, elected officials and the United Mine Workers union reversed the announcement by Murray Energy that rescue efforts would cease and production would resume. Even though miners at Crandall Canyon are not members of the UMWA, federal legislation enables the union to represent miners when it comes to health and safety issues.

As of Aug. 28, a seventh hole is being drilled from the top of the mountain that is large enough to drop a robotic camera into the shaft seeking the trapped miners.

MSHA ordered Murray Energy to halt production at the nearby Tower Mine, at 2,200 feet deep, one of the deepest in the country. Murray laid off 170 miners and offered them jobs at operations in Illinois and Ohio.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who has been at the mining disaster site since Aug. 6, created the first-ever Utah Mine Safety Commission, which includes Dennis O’Dell representing the UMWA. The state commission has begun an investigation into the mine collapse.

In early September, the U.S. Senate will hold hearings on the disaster.

dwinebr696 @aol.com

Hotel workers, many immigrants, win wage gain

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 05:23:00 +0000

EMERYVILLE, Calif. — After over a year of struggle, workers at the Woodfin Suites hotel here won a big victory Aug. 27 in their struggle to be paid according to the city’s 2005 living wage law.

In a unanimous late-night vote, the City Council ruled that the hotel must pay out more than $300,000 by mid-September. Included are some $250,000 in back pay to workers, a $45,000 fine to the city and $21,000 for an operating permit. The Woodfin has exhausted its appeals under city law, but said it plans to appeal in court.

After a rally that drew hundreds of labor and community supporters to the City Hall steps, the hearing began with a dramatic moment as Mayor Nora Davis ordered the Woodfin’s lawyer to leave the council chambers for disrupting the proceedings. He later returned after promising to follow the rules.

The labor struggle began after Emeryville passed the living wage ordinance in November 2005. When, months later, Woodfin workers — many of them immigrants — demanded their living wage and told the City Council they were not being paid according to the new law, the hotel threatened some with firing under alleged Social Security no-match letters.

Despite public pressure, including ongoing labor-community picket lines and rallies, as well as City Council actions and court rulings holding off the firings, 12 workers were ultimately fired. Their claim that the hotel retaliated against them because they insisted on their rights is still pending in court.

Throughout, the workers have been supported by the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), the Alameda County Central Labor Council and dozens of union and community organizations.

“Emeryville has been pretty much a pro-business city, but with this egregious mistreatment of workers, the city lost its patience,” EBASE spokesperson Sarah Norr told the World. “We hope this victory will let other people know they can win if they stick to it.”

As the Woodfin workers celebrated their victory, immigrant rights organizations, including the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, were launching a two-week-long special campaign for congressional investigations into the root causes of the growing wave of migrant deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border, and the rampant human rights abuses by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other law enforcement officials, the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights announced this week.

At an Aug. 27 media conference that brought together leaders from organizations around the country, NNIRR said the campaign, starting Aug. 28, would call on Congress and people of conscience to demand an end to the escalating immigration raids, jailings and deportations, as well as the militarization of the border and the impending flood of no match letters under the administration’s recent administrative order.

Besides the soaring deaths at the border, especially along the Arizona-Sonora border where over 200 migrants are known to have died since Oct. 1, participants expressed grave concern over the spread of military-style enforcement methods, growing collaboration between immigration authorities and local law enforcement, and abusive detention practices that are affecting immigrants and U.S. citizens throughout the country. They cited the role of NAFTA and similar agreements in forcing migrants to leave their homes in search of survival.

The recent deportation of Mexican immigrant Elvira Arellano “symbolizes the experience of millions of people living and working in the U.S. who are being separated on a daily basis,” Isabel Garcia of the Tucson, Ariz.-based Coalicion de Derechos Humanos told the press conference.

“Right now the immigration enforcement and border control policies are creating a devastating humanitarian crisis that is being visited on immigrant and refugee communities in the United States. Families are being shattered and communities traumatized,” said NNIRR spokesperson Arnoldo Garcia.

“An aspect that we are highlighting here is that immigration is now seen through the lens of the war on terror, which has complicated the situation of migrant communities and for everyone living along the border,” said Pedro Rios of the American Friends Service Committee’s U.S.-Mexico Border Program.

“We strongly oppose the very framework on which recent immigration reform proposals have been built,” said Shiu-Ming Cheer of the California-based South Asian Network. “These have been built on advancing corporate business interests and so-called free trade policies at home and abroad, which would assure that more generations of communities would be forcibly displaced,” she added.

mbechtel @pww.org

Labor launches drive for universal health care by 2009

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 05:12:00 +0000

High-quality health care for all Americans moved closer to reality this Labor Day with the 13-million-member AFL-CIO unveiling a major drive to achieve universal health care by 2009.

“The out-of-control cost of health care is crippling American families and American businesses,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney told reporters at the federation’s annual briefing Aug. 29. “Labor’s campaign is based on the simple premise that no one in America should go without health care, and we’re going to make sure candidates and elected leaders understand that the people will accept nothing less.”

The AFL-CIO launched a drive that it says will result, by 2009, in all Americans being able to benefit from a health insurance system that:

• controls rising and irrational costs,

• provides comprehensive, high-quality health care to all,

• gives every family the opportunity for preventive care,

• preserves the ability to choose doctors,

• has government controlling costs, guaranteeing fairness and efficiency, and eliminating private insurer greed and incompetence,

• lowers employer costs,

• builds on positive elements of programs like Medicare and draws upon experiences that work in other countries.

Some AFL-CIO unions back HR 676, the bill introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) that would institute single-payer, national health care for all and eliminate the private insurance companies altogether. Asked if he supports HR 676, Sweeney said, “The Conyers bill is in line with our vision for secure, high-quality health care for all Americans.” He added, “Rather than wedding ourselves to one bill at this time, we are building grassroots support for health care reform and plan to work with a worker-friendly president and Congress to enact meaningful reform after the 2008 elections.”

Sweeney declared, “There is no real chance that meaningful health care reform will be enacted while this president is still in office. Rather than fight a losing battle, we are building a 1-million-member mobilization team of activists and working with a broad group of allies to keep comprehensive health care reform at the top of the political agenda in 2008 and to ensure that the real work of fixing the health care sytem actually gets done after the elections.”

After Sweeney made his announcement he introduced workers from across the country who spoke passionately about why health care reform is so crucial.

Mary Florio, a nurse for over 30 years at a hospital in Washington, D.C., and a member of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, came forward first. “People coming into our emergency room are sicker than they have ever been before,” she said. “I just took care of a man who developed pain in his mouth a few weeks ago but didn’t have the money to get treated. By the time he got to me, his face was completely swollen and his eyes were almost totally shut.

“I did my best to take good care of him,” she said, almost in tears, “but it should never have gotten so bad for him. This health care system needs to be fixed now.”

Jean Tome, a nonunion retail worker from Columbus, Ohio, also joined Sweeney at the podium. Tome belongs to Working America, the AFL-CIO’s affiliate for workers at nonunion sites.

“I’m one of 47 million who are without health insurance,” she said. “I recently suffered for weeks with pink eye and strep throat. I stayed home and was docked my wages, but as bad as my throat hurt and blistered I couldn’t go to the doctor. It’s hard to believe, but I couldn’t pay for medical care because I live paycheck-to-paycheck. This is the richest country in the world, isn’t it? What has brought us to this?”

Heather Booth, AFL-CIO national health care campaign director, outlined for reporters how she expects that “1 million union activists will go door to door between now and 2008 and talk to many millions about this health care situation.”

“Make no mistake,” she said, “this is a campaign that labor intends to win.”

One reporter was skeptical about labor’s ability to turn out a million canvassers. “We had more than a quarter of a million going door to door in the 2006 congressional elections,” Sweeney answered, “and this time we are launching the biggest drive in the elections that labor has ever mounted in the history of this country. We are starting a lot earlier than usual and we fully expect to have an army out there at least four times the size of the one we deployed in the last elections.”

In addition to kicking off the federation’s health care drive, Sweeney also discussed the difficult situation workers face this Labor Day and the need for fair trade, good jobs and the freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life. Together, health care and these issues “will form the economic framework for labor’s election agenda,” he said.

jwojcik @pww.org

Workers of the world unite for health care, pensions and wages

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 03:52:00 +0000

On Labor Day, Sept. 3, tens of thousands of Southland union members, their families and supporters representing over 50 unions will march together on the streets of Wilmington, Calif., to honor Labor Day, and call attention to current labor disputes and issues that affect all working people in the United States.

A parade begins at 10 a.m. and will feature the International Longshore Workers Union Drill Team from San Francisco, marching bands and drill teams from Verdugo Hills, Huntington Park and San Pedro High Schools, plus labor-themed floats.

Following the march, a rally and picnic will be held for the entire family in historic Banning Park with free soft drinks and hot dogs provided by the Harbor Labor Coalition. Also at the park there will be Union booths with information on current struggles.

Rally speakers include: Joseph Radisich, ILWU international vice president, Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, Jim Santangelo, secretary-treasurer of Local 848/president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Joint Council 42 Ron Morgan, president American Federation of Television and Radio Artists Dick Slauson, executive director, Los Angeles-Orange County Building and Construction Trades Council A.J. Duffy, president United Teachers of Los Angeles Christina Vasquez, international vice president UNITE HERE Liliana Sanchez, KPFK Elections Coordinator, KPFK Media Sponsor Music provided by Brian Young Blues Band.

When and where: Parade at 10 a.m. Wilmington, Calif., rally and picnic at Banning Park.

For more information on the parade, rally and picnic call 562-595-1891 extension 100.

CARTOON: Coal will be mined safely

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 07:24:00 +0000

Immigrant workers stand up and win

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 05:44:00 +0000

CHICAGO — Ten days after walking off their jobs, immigrant workers at Cygnus Corp.’s soap factory here scored a victory by being hired back without reprisals and with an increase in pay.

An executive from Cygnus’ parent company flew in, fired the director of human resources and authorized a pay increase without firing any of the workers who participated in the strike.

The strike began on July 30, when Cygnus told workers with unclear immigration status that they would be fired if their status was not resolved by Aug. 10.

The threat of immigration reprisals based on “no match” Social Security numbers was made after workers had complained to management about low wages.

Wages started at $6.50 per hour until recently, when the minimum wage was increased to $7.50 per hour. Prevailing wages for bottling and packaging liquid detergents and soaps, however, are $8.50 per hour.

Workers at the plant, almost all Mexican immigrants, are divided by Cygnus as either temporary or full-time. All workers, whatever their designation, were making the same pay, with no benefits.

Some of the “temporary” workers have been there as long as 11 years.

The workers decided to strike even though they have no union representation.

Shortly after the strike began, representatives of International Association of Machinists (IAM) District 8 visited the picket lines and, within days, the workers had categorically voted to have the IAM become their union.

Cygnus, which is based in Riverdale, Ill., is owned by Marietta Corp., which is in turn controlled by Ares Management, a $16 billion multinational private equity firm that also owns the Samsonite luggage company, the Maidenform lingerie brand, the Serta mattress manufacturer, and the House of Blues music venue chain.

To counteract the strike, Cygnus hired replacement workers from a temporary staffing agency that primarily employs African Americans, in a brazen attempt to divide the workers along racial lines.

Fired nurses testify for patient safety

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 05:39:00 +0000

MESQUITE, Texas — A panel of community leaders here heard testimony on the health care situation in North Texas on Aug. 15. The firing of three registered nurses who stood up for patient safety in spite of the Mesquite hospital’s insistence that profits come first prompted the hearing.

Hospital administrators sent RNs Sandra Taylor, Diana Sepeda and Nancy Friesen home, and fired them later, because they insisted on serving only the number of patients for whom they could safely care. Supporters unanimously believe the real reason was that the three nurses are outspoken supporters of an organizing drive by the National Nurses Organizing Committee.

Taylor told the panel about her extensive experience in other hospitals and in other areas. She concluded that, in her opinion, “Texas is worse” on patient safety. She said the only reason hospital administrators say that a nursing shortage exists is because “qualified nurses are leaving the bedside because they are discouraged by their work situations.”

Sepeda said hospital administrators in North Texas not only fired the three nurses, but illegally blacklisted them as well. Friesen compared her experiences in Canada with the United States and concluded that patients were far safer in her home country. Even though Canada may have less advanced medical equipment, it has much better staffing ratios, she said.

Nurses rose from the audience to report their own experiences. One nursing supervisor and one human relations executive from hospitals rose to defend the system, but angry working nurses refuted their claims. The hearing came on the same day that newspapers carried the story that the United States, which spends much more money on health care than any other nation, had fallen to 42nd in life expectancy.

The panel members were: Texas state Rep. Roberto Alonzo, community activist Harriet Irby, the Rev. C.E. Clark, Texas Alliance for Retired Americans Secretary Gene Lantz and retired biochemistry professor Morton Traeger. After hearing the discussion and asking questions, they brought four conclusions forward:

• Safe staffing ratios need to be encoded into Texas law;

• Health care professionals should not be forced to work outside their area of expertise;

• Texas nurses need adequate “whistleblower” protection;

• Health care professionals should have more input into hospital decisions.

Guild fights union-busting by media giant

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 05:21:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. — The national media chain that now owns nearly all daily newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area said Aug. 13 it was withdrawing recognition of the union representing newsroom employees.

Media advocates see it as part of a national epidemic of media mergers that make working journalists and editorial staff their first targets, and threaten “key elements in our democracy.”

The move drew immediate fire from the Northern California Media Guild. Guild representative Carl Hall said workers are determined to fight for their union.

William Dean Singleton’s Denver-based MediaNews Group, which owns the Alameda News Group including papers in Oakland, Hayward, Fremont and other communities, last year bought the Contra Costa Newspapers, including the Walnut Creek-based Contra Costa Times.

The 11 papers in the newly merged Bay Area News Group-East Bay (BANG-EB) will still be published separately, but will pool many editorial functions.

Near the end of a long e-mail, BANG-EB Publisher John Armstrong told workers at the new entity that since unorganized editorial staff are now the majority, “we withdrew recognition from the Guild effective today.”

Some 130 union-represented Alameda News Group editorial workers are part of the merger, along with 170 from the nonunion Contra Costa papers. Alameda News Group workers signed their first contract in 1998, after a decade-long struggle to win union recognition. The Contra Costa Newspapers have historically been nonunion.

Workers at the San Jose Mercury News, also recently bought by MediaNews, are represented by another Guild local and covered by a different contract. They are not included in the decertification attempt.

The Guild has protested to the National Labor Relations Board, which took testimony in the case early last week.

“We’re in the midst of a number of steps” to fight back against BANG’s attempt to eliminate the union, Guild representative Carl Hall said in a telephone interview. “We’re going to use all appropriate options: public outreach, organizing the unorganized, legal efforts.”

Hall, a reporter on leave from the San Francisco Chronicle (not owned by MediaNews), said workers at the unionized BANG papers are determined to fight to keep their union, and have put forward the slogan, “One Big BANG, One Guild Universe!”

“We’re in touch with workers at the Contra Costa Times and other BANG newspapers who want union representation, and we will support them,” he added.

In the epidemic of media mergers, “the people squeezed the hardest are working journalists,” Craig Aaron, communications director with the media policy organization Free Press, told the World. “Time and time again, the first people cut are the people in the newsrooms, while foreign and local bureaus are closed,” he said. “Those who are left must do more stories with less resources.”

Aaron said “tens of thousands” of journalists nationwide have lost their jobs in the consolidations.

Calling newspapers “key elements in our democracy,” Aaron emphasized that they “are not just any business.” While local newspapers have generally continued to make good profits, he said, they face continued pressure from Wall St. to make bigger gains each year.

MediaNews Group, the fourth largest U.S. newspaper company, owns 57 daily newspapers in 12 states.

Since last December the Mercury News has suffered 66 newsroom layoffs. After 31 workers were laid off last month, San Jose Newspaper Guild Executive Officer Luther Jackson said on the union web site that besides the “major blow” to workers and their families, “readers will also quickly feel the loss of such a talented and dedicated group of newspaper professionals.”

Workers at the St. Paul, Minn., Pioneer Press were greeted last month with a long list of MediaNews contract proposals including a two-tier wage system, cuts in sick and disability time, an end to daily overtime, and management rights to set and change schedules, rules and assignments without Guild involvement.

MediaNews workers have won some, too. Last fall employees at the York, Pa., Daily Record and York Dispatch Sunday News won a settlement with MediaNews over a long list of unfair labor practices charges they had filed with the NLRB.

mbechtel @pww.org

Fury and grief in Utah mining town

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 05:08:00 +0000

The same day that Jocka Jones laid to rest her brother, who was killed trying to rescue six trapped Utah miners, officials of the Crandall Canyon Mine said it would soon be back in business.

Choking back tears during a phone interview Aug. 22, Jones said her brother, Dale Ray Black, 48, “will have died in vain if one more person is killed in that mine.”

With the underground rescue operation halted, the owner of the mine, Robert Murray, suggested that other parts of the mine remained safe for work and that mining should resume. Murray blamed the initial cave-in on an earthquake and denied that the company had been engaged in “retreat” mining, the most dangerous type of mining, often used by companies to retrieve coal out of a largely spent mine.

Lee Siegel, a seismologist at the University of Utah, told the World, “There was no earthquake. The mine cave-in was the earthquake and that’s that.”

Dennis O’Dell, a science writer for the University of Utah and a spokesman for its seismographic stations, said maps showed that “they were doing retreat mining.”

Plus, Crandall Canyon, a nonunion mine, is “extremely dangerous” and “has been repeatedly cited for safety violations,” O’Dell said. “I am sure a lot more will come out in investigations afterwards.”

Jones, along with her grief, has a lot of questions. “We don’t know what to think,” she said. “Someone has dropped the ball here. I don’t know if it is the mine owner or MSHA [the Mine Safety and Health Administration]. If it’s too dangerous to rescue those men, how could it be safe to start up the mine again?”

She said her daughter, away at school, “e-mailed us after the first collapse and told us the mine had been cited by MSHA two years in a row for not having an escape route and for the second violation they were fined only $60 dollars.”

“I buried my brother yesterday,” Jones said. “They have stopped the rescue. How can they send workers down there to resume mining if it’s that dangerous? I don’t want one more worker to die. We’ve got to put a stop to this pillar [retreat] mining. It’s just too dangerous.”

Jones discussed “the hard choices workers here have to face.”

“I don’t want my children to have to go down into a dangerous mine,” she said, “but I have a nephew who is also a miner. He can’t just leave what is a good living for him and his family. What will he do? Where will he go? That coal mine is the way people here have survived.”

Crying, she expressed gratitude to “all the miners and all the people who turned out for my brother’s funeral.” Among the crowds paying respect to her brother, she said, were many relatives of the trapped miners who may forever be entombed under the mountain. “I cried for them,” she said. “At least for me, I know where my brother is. I embraced as many of them as I could, because their suffering is worse than mine.”

Families of the trapped miners, angry over the cessation of rescue efforts, are demanding that a hole be drilled large enough to run a rescue capsule into the collapsed mine. “We need to get that big hole punched to get those big men out,” Cesar Sanchez, whose brother Manuel is trapped, told reporters.

“My brother is trapped underground,” said Steve Allred about his brother Kerry. “They’re basically giving up and that’s

unacceptable. One way or another we’ve got to have closure.”

Jones commented, “The company says such a plan would be too dangerous. But it’s not too dangerous to restart the mine?”

She said she can’t understand why it has taken so long to implement the new safety law Congress passed last year.

After 12 miners were killed at the Sago Mine in West Virginia in January 2006, Congress passed a bill that requires mining companies to track workers deep underground. It was signed into law in June 2006, but allows companies three years to install two-way communication devices and wireless systems that keep aboveground personnel abreast of miners’ whereabouts.

“We can track what goes on underground on Mars,” Jones said. “Can we not do this for my brother and my nephew here in the mine? Their lives count for something, don’t they?”

Union officials have repeatedly criticized MSHA for not pushing mine owners hard enough to rapidly install these systems.

O’Dell said, “The technology is there. The fact is that communication systems like this are in use in European countries, and even if such systems might not have saved these miners, they would at least make it possible to recover their bodies.”

Other union officials had very few, if any, praises for mine owner Robert Murray. Reacting to Murray’s announced plan to re-start the mine, UMWA President Cecil Roberts said, “In an industry long known for having quite a few greedy and uncaring mine operators, this statement is perhaps the most callous I have ever heard.”

jwojcik @pww.org

Related stories on the Utah mine disaster:

Miners’ lives take back seat to profit, by Denise Winebrenner Edwards

Utah mine was unsafe, by John Wojcik

Chicago teachers may be forced to strike

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 05:44:00 +0000

CHICAGO — Thirty-two thousand members of the Chicago Teachers Union are prepared to go on strike, if they have to, before school starts here on Sept. 4.

Hundreds of teachers met at Plumber’s Hall to discuss contract negotiations with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). The union’s contract expired earlier this year.

“Anything is possible,” said CTU President Marilyn Stewart to the press after the meeting on Aug. 9. “A strike is not our first option,” she said, but added that the union was not afraid to use it. Our members “deserve respect.”

Stewart took issue with a recent news article calling on the CTU “to step up to the plate” and make an agreement.

“We gave our goals to the district over a year ago,” she pointed out. “They have been dragging their feet.”

Stewart said the union and the board have tentatively agreed to some things, but issues like wages, health care and job security remain in question.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has called for year-long schooling and longer school days.

Stewart said if teachers and students are in class during the summer heat, they will need air conditioning.

The occupants of City Hall should cut off their air conditioning to see what it’s like, she said.

Stewart was asked about the working families who will have to find someone to watch their children while at work during a strike.

“Our members are these families,” she replied.

At one point during the press briefing, CTU members stood up and chanted, “We want a contract! We want a contract!”

“It’s been very frustrating and outrageous to see what these teachers go through,” said Stewart.

“CPS is a $5 billion industry,” said Stewart. “They have the money in their budget to fund our contract.

“We can make this system the best in the nation, and you don’t have to privatize to do it,” she said, referring to the city’s Renaissance 2010 plans to expand charter and private contract schools.

Part of the problem, observers add, is the deadlock in Springfield, Ill., over the state budget. School districts do not know how much money they will be getting this year.

The union will meet again on Aug. 22. CTU members hope by then the two sides will have made an agreement.

plozano @pww.org

Delivery workers want fair shake at Saigon Grill

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 05:39:00 +0000

NEW YORK — Lin Xin Wei, a Chinese immigrant who came to the United States from his home province of Fujian, wants to work, support his family and achieve a better living.

Instead, he has spent the past three years employed as a deliveryman, working long hours, receiving poor wages and being subjected to a grueling work environment.

“Anyone who wants to come to America just wants to make their dreams come true,” Lin said.

Now, in order to make those dreams come true, Lin and his co-workers have decided to fight for better conditions.

Earlier this year, Lin and 35 other delivery workers for the Saigon Grill in Manhattan were locked out of their workplace for organizing a legal action against their employer. Their grievances are numerous. They assert that the Saigon Grill was paying them $1.60 an hour, $3.25 less than the state-mandated minimum wage for tipped workers. Additionally, workers were not compensated for overtime hours, even though most worked an average of 70 hours per week.

On top of the illegally low wages, Saigon Grill’s delivery workers encountered many safety issues like theft and assault in the course of their work. All stolen money and stolen meals were the financial responsibility of the delivery workers; medical care for their injuries on the job was their burden as well.

The delivery workers, most of whom are immigrants, have been picketing in front of the restaurant’s two locations here for five months now. Most of the workers have found new jobs, and picket on their days off. They are joined by college students, members of the Asian American community, volunteers from the Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association, members of the 318 Restaurant Workers Union and others.

The result? Delivery service has stopped, and some patrons are boycotting the restaurant in protest.

Saigon Grill’s management declined to comment, but did provide a flyer from the owner which claims, “The delivery workers tried to extort $2 million from me. I will not give in to this kind of conduct.”

Lin and his former colleagues will continue to press their demands for humane — and legal — wages. In the meantime, their activism has helped inspire other New York City restaurant workers to struggle for better wages and conditions.

maryslosson @gmail.com

AFL-CIO widens 2008 agenda

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 05:17:00 +0000

CHICAGO — The labor movement showed what it is made of Aug. 7 at Soldier Field when 17,000 union members and their families challenged seven Democratic presidential candidates to explain to the nation how they will change things.

The biggest presidential debate in history was, however, only one event among several in which the AFL-CIO leadership further developed a working families agenda.

During their Aug. 6-8 executive council meeting here, union leaders set plans to deal with labor’s endorsement of presidential candidates, to overcome Republican roadblocks to easier union organizing, to ensure labor’s influence in the political arena well beyond the 2008 elections and to make universal health care for all Americans a reality.

A month ago, the council decided not to endorse a particular candidate and issued a statement declaring that member unions are free to endorse in the primaries if they wish. It is expected, of course, that virtually the entire labor movement will back the Democratic nominee in the general election.

In its statement issued the day after the presidential debate, the council praised all the contenders and said the 17,000 gathered at Soldier Field “had met with the next president of the United States and six other candidates.” The candidates at the gathering were Senators Joseph Biden, Hillary Clinton, Christopher Dodd and Barack Obama, former Sen. John Edwards, Gov. Bill Richardson and Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

“The Democratic candidates are strong on issues most central to working people’s lives,” the council statement read, but still need “continued engagement” from unions and their members “to promote full understanding of workers’ difficulties and dreams.”

The council continued: “It is clear that our members support a number of the candidates. Many of our members told us the candidates are impressive. For this reason the AFL-CIO has decided not to proceed with a decision process that would lead to support for a single candidate at this time.”

On the issue of the right of workers to choose union representation, the council noted that there is unanimous agreement among the seven Democratic presidential hopefuls on backing the Employee Free Choice Act. The bill would require companies to recognize and bargain with a union as soon as a majority of employees indicate by their signatures on cards that they want union representation.

The council went a step further, however, and urged member unions to demand that candidates disclose exactly how they would achieve passage of the EFCA, particularly since no one expects that, even with a Democratic victory, the right-wing will roll over and play dead on this issue.

The Employee Free Choice Act passed the Democratic run House this year 241-185, and then, despite winning a 51-48 majority vote in the Senate, stalled because the GOP garnered enough votes for a filibuster.

United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard, who was at the council meeting, said, “I don’t want someone who just says he or she will sign the EFCA into law. I want someone who will show how he or she is going to help quarterback it.”

The executive council also made it clear that labor’s involvement in the electoral arena will go well beyond the 2008 elections. Labor is getting ready to plunge into the battles for control of state legislatures, according to Karen Ackerman, the federation’s political action director.

“Unions won’t just concentrate on the top of the ticket. We’re looking at the legislatures now, with an eye towards redistricting after 2010, when lawmakers could re-draw state and congressional district lines to elect more worker-friendly candidates,” Ackerman said in an interview during the council meeting.

“And there may be more to come in the House, the Senate and among governorships,” she said. “After all, who would have thought at this time two years ago, that Virginia and Montana would be in play?” She was referring to two U.S. Senate races won by Democratic and labor-backed candidates James Webb and Jon Tester in Virginia and Montana, respectively.

On another key issue, the council decided to put universal, quality health care at the top of its national election agenda, putting it on a par with its drive to pass the EFCA.

The council did not, however, endorse specific health care legislation. Some of its member unions, including the Steelworkers, the California Nurses Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, back HR 676, which would set up a government-run, single-payer system that would cover everyone and eliminate private insurance companies altogether.

The council set up a special health care panel of union presidents to develop proposals for which plan the federation should support.

jwojcik @pww.org

Miners lives take back seat to profit

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 05:01:00 +0000

When Louis Alonso Hernandez, 23, Manuel Sanchez, 41, Kerry Allred, 57, Brandon Phillips, 24, Don Erickson, 50, and Carlos Payan, in his 20s, began their 12-hour shift 1,500 feet underground at the Crandall Canyon mine Aug. 6, they fully expected to see their families at the end of the day.

Now their families are gathered, praying and waiting as over 100 rescue workers, including members of the United Mine Workers Union, furiously drill and dig to find the miners.

The Crandall Canyon mine is nonunion.

Eight hours into their 12-hour shift, the mine collapsed at 2:48 a.m. Four members of the 10-man crew escaped. As we go to press, rescue efforts continue.

Solidarity messages have flooded into the trapped miners’ families from across the country. Sago Mine families, 2,500 miles away in West Virginia, sent their prayers and expressed their determination to demand the federal government force coal companies to make the mines safe.

“I have shed many tears this evening,” Peggy Cohen, daughter of Fred Ware, who died in the Sago Mine disaster in January 2006, wrote to the Charleston Gazette. “My heart aches for them [the Utah families].”

Pam Campbell, sister-in-law of Sago disaster victim Marty Bennett, wrote that despite all the publicity, congressional hearings, state and federal laws and politicians’ speeches and promises, coal mines remain as dangerous as they were before the Sago disaster.

“The fines have been minimal, and until MSHA [the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration] starts cracking down with stiff fines for violations that are putting these miners at risk, more and more miners are going to die,” Campbell wrote. “Repeat violations should not be tolerated at any of our nation’s mines. Enough is not being done. How many more miners have to die before some one listens?”

For millionaire coal operator Robert E. Murray, owner of Crandall Canyon mine, this is not the first time his company has been cited for breaking federal mine safety laws. According to MSHA records, since January 2004 MSHA cited the Crandall Canyon mine for 325 violations, 118 of them considered serious enough to have possibly caused death or injury.

The company was fined a total of $6,000 for the violations, but there is no record of their payment of the fines or corrections of the problems. The mine has been inspected six times so far this year, and fined $3,773 for 40 violations.

A mine organized by the UMWA would not tolerate such dangerous conditions. “When you are talking about [almost 120 violations in three years], that would be alarming to me,” said the union’s western regional director, Bob Butero, based in Denver. “If it were one of our union mines, we wouldn’t allow that pattern to continue.” A union organizing effort at Crandall Canyon several years ago failed.

Meanwhile, mine owner Murray, CEO of Cleveland-area-based Murray Energy Corp., is busy counting up profits and writing checks to Republican candidates.

In 2006, the miners at Murray’s Genwal Complex, which includes the 71 miners at the Crandall Canyon mine, dug 604,975 tons of coal used in the production of electricity. Their work brought in $25.5 million to the company.

Murray Energy owns 11 mines in four states. Its 3,000 miners produced 20 million tons of coal in 2006, worth an estimated $844 million. In terms of 12-hour shifts and productivity, that translates to about $281,000 per miner. Murray Energy is the 12th largest coal company in the country.

It should come as no surprise that, while there are no records that Murray ever wrote a check to a Democratic candidate for any office, anywhere, there is a long paper trail of contributions to Republicans. The Federal Elections Commission reports that since 2005, Murray, through the Murray Energy Corp. Political Action Committee, has contributed more than $155,000 to GOP candidates.

dwinebr696 @aol.com

Texas unionists demand health care for all

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 07:43:00 +0000

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Coming to this coastal city from all corners of the Lone Star State, a strikingly diverse group of delegates — men and women of many nationalities, young and old — gathered for the 47th constitutional convention of the Texas AFL-CIO Aug. 1-4.

Delegates were treated to a variety of speakers who repeatedly emphasized the importance of political organization among labor activists to achieve legislation that benefits working people. Numerous speakers talked about the importance of achieving universal health care and passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a law that would make it easier for workers to form unions.

Many speakers focused on recent electoral successes in Texas, both in increasing the number of Democrats in the state Legislature and in the U.S. House of Representatives. Delegates were exuberant over labor’s role in breaking the back of the notoriously right-wing political machine of former GOP Rep. Tom DeLay, and over the election of Democrats Ciro Rodriguez and Nick Lampson to Congress.

The importance of unity and organization was also a common theme. Becky Moeller, president-elect of the Texas AFL-CIO and the first woman to hold that office, told the delegates, “To make progress, we have to band together. ... Together and united we can leave organized labor’s footprint in Texas.”

The convention called for passage of HR 676, a bill introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) that would provide single-payer health care for all persons in the U.S. The Texas AFL-CIO added its name to 81 central labor councils, 297 union organizations and 20 state AFL-CIOs that have endorsed HR 676.

Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America, urged the delegates to support universal health care. He pointed out that whenever the CWA goes to the bargaining table with AT&T, headquartered in San Antonio, the company always tries to cut health care benefits.

CWA has asked AT&T to work with the union to pass universal health care, noting that “in other democracies it is considered a right.” Cohen quoted a veteran who had recently returned from Iraq as saying that his worst fear is that “I’ll get a job with no health care.”

Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO and a native Texan, called for a national health care plan and enactment of the EFCA. She called for a president “who will be on our side.”

“It all goes back to Woody Guthrie,” she said, “and how he sang 60 years ago. He said, ‘This land was made for you and me.’ His song is still true today. This land was not made to keep working people down. This land wasn’t made for union busting and race baiting and gay bashing or for oppressing women and immigrants and people with disabilities.”

Chavez-Thompson continued: “This land wasn’t made for us to be poor, scared, insulted and denied a voice when we need it the most. This land wasn’t made to break our spirit in the sweatshops and break our backs in the fields. This land was made for you and me to be strong and proud.”

phill1917 @comcast.net