People Before Profit blog

2008: What a year for labor

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:40:00 +0000

Talk about a sea change. A President-elect who actually walks on picketlines rather than busts unions. Unprecedented independent labor political action that arguably made the difference in changing the direction of our country.

Stunning victories at Smithfield Foods in Tar Heel, North Carolina (read here), at Republic Windows in Chicago (read here) , and Boeing in Seattle (read here) .

New higher levels of labor unity – it’s been a long time since the whole labor movement has been so united on a presidential candidate. The most unifying and far-reaching discussion in labor of racism as a central block to working class and trade union unity since the 1930s. (read here) (and here)

And important new steps towards a truly international labor movement (read here < popuplink http://laborupfront.blogspot.com/2008/07/steelworkers-convention-2008-history-in.html http://laborupfront.blogspot.com/2008/07/steelworkers-convention-2008-history-in.html)>.

Of course it comes in the midst of the worst economic crisis for working families in 70+ years. A fighting labor movement, in step with our new President, in step with the broad coalition who powered the Obama and Congressional victories, is critical for these times. 2009 shapes up to be a year of big change and big struggle. And the labor movement is powered with happy warriors who have the hope and determination for the change we need.

Scott Marshall is chair of the Communist Party's Labor Commission.

Union win at Smithfield points to importance of Employee Free Choice Act

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:19:00 +0000

TAR HEEL, N.C. (PAI)--After 15 years, three elections and rampant company labor law-breaking during the campaigns before the first two, the United Food and Commercial Workers finally won recognition at Smithfield company’s giant pork processing and packing plant in Tar Heel, N.C.

The Dec. 11 victory, by a 2,041-1,879 margin, will lead to creation of a new UFCW local to represent the 4,700 workers at the world’s largest pork-processing factory, which is also located in the nation’s least-unionized state. As part of a court settlement leading to the latest vote, Smithfield agreed to immediately recognize the results, rather than appealing the election to the National Labor Relations Board.

“It’s been a 15-year struggle, but the important message out of it is that not only did UFCW stay with it, but the workers did, too,” union President Joe Hansen said.

“When workers have a fair process, they choose a voice on the job,” said UFCW Organizing Director Pat O’Neill. “This is a great victory for the Tar Heel workers. I know they are looking forward to sitting down at the bargaining table with Smithfield to negotiate a contract.

“The UFCW has (26) constructive union contracts with Smithfield plants around the country. Those contracts benefit workers, the company and the community. We believe the workers here in Tar Heel can achieve a similar agreement,” he added.

Thirteen-year Tar Heel worker Ronnie Ann Simmons, who has gone through all three votes -- 1994, 1997 and now -- at the plant, said she and her colleagues are thrilled.

“This moment has been a long time coming. We stuck together, and now we have a say on the job,” she added. Simmons and her colleagues “never lost hope and never stopped fighting,” added union spokeswoman Jill Cashen. “And they went through hell” to get their union.

A new feature of this third campaign to unionize Tar Heel was spontaneous inside organizing by the workers and organized confrontations with managers over working conditions and other issues. One such confrontation was over a GOP Bush regime Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid, seeking workers to arrest, at the plant last year. Management was forced to stop turning over workers’ names to ICE.

The win at the plant is also important because Tar Heel is the largest pork-processing plant in an industry infamous for worker abuse. “This drive should be important to the whole labor movement, because it shows workers are ready to sign up if you give them the chance,” as the Employee Free Choice Act would, Cashen said.

The year in headlines: election and economy

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 10:30:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI)--The election, the election, the election…and the economy.

Or maybe, by the end of the year, it was: The economy, the economy, the economy and the election. Or, actually, it was both.

As reflected in the headlines of the year in Press Associates Union News Service, the economy and the election became increasingly intertwined. The very first headline in the first issue of January was a steep jump in joblessness, to 5 percent. And after that, things only got worse. Against that background, the campaign revved up.

Unemployment increased to 6.7 percent in November, financial institutions imploded, Congress passed a $700 billion bailout for banks, with unions demanding -- unsuccessfully -- that money be allotted to help individual workers and families who were losing mortgages, homes and jobs. It also approved a stimulus package in February that gave every taxpayer a one-time check, and by the end of the year was considering a much bigger package that would include more jobless benefits, spending to rebuild the nation’s roads, bridges, schools and airports, and much more.

Also by year’s end, two of the nation’s three domestic auto firms -- GM and Chrysler -- were teetering on the brink of collapse, thanks to the nationwide credit crunch, as the bankers took the government’s billions and sat on them.

The financial crash dovetailed with the campaign. Unionists spent the first part of the year sorting out which Democratic hopeful to back. Four drew support: Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) -- who ultimately won the nomination and the endorsement of first, Change To Win and, later, the AFL-CIO -- Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.). Three others did not.

Once it became clear Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) would be the GOP nominee to succeed anti-worker GOP President George W. Bush, unionists launched a “McCain Revealed” campaign to spotlight his anti-worker voting record and his plans to continue the Bush regime’s anti-labor policies. An anti-Bush bus toured the country.

When Obama won the Democratic nod, union leaders faced a second need: To convince the many unionists who voted for Clinton -- or who had never had a chance to even consider an African-American for any office at all -- to back Obama. Labor hit the campaign trail, hard: 250,000 volunteers, millions of home visits, site visits, leaflets.

Both campaigns worked, aided by the economic maelstrom that hit in September: Failing mortgages, collapsing banks, rising joblessness, unpopular bailouts, and all. At the beginning of that month, McCain and Obama were tied in the polls. Obama won in November, 53 percent -47 percent. Among unionists, Obama won 67 percent -30 percent. And among the few unionists who considered race among their top factors in their vote, he won 3-to-1.

There were other key developments. Some were: Union membership increased by 311,000 in 2007, the first substantial jump in years. Senate GOP filibusters killed key pro-worker legislation, notably the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act -- to restore workers’ rights to sue employers for sexual pay discrimination -- and a $14 billion rescue package for the auto firms. The Employee Free Choice Act was delayed till next year. With Overnite Transportation now part of unionized UPS, the Teamsters signed up more than 10,000 of its workers. Bush’s DOT let anti-union Delta Airlines devour wall-to-wall-union Northwest. 2008 ended with a sit-down strike success in Chicago.

But the top stories overall were a big labor win in the election, with Obama beating McCain, at least seven more Senate Democrats and a bigger pro-worker House majority -- and the economic crash the Illinoisan will inherit from Bush on Jan. 20.

We must pass the Employee Free Choice Act

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 04:51:00 +0000

Original source: In today’s New York Times, the editorial board makes a strong, clearly argued and unambiguous case that President-elect Obama needs to strengthen working families by pushing for a quick passage of the Employee Free Choice Act and giving his Labor Secretary-designate, Rep. Hilda Solis, the power she needs to protect workers.

The editorial lays out several challenges ahead for Obama, Solis and the fight to defend workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain. Giving workers the power to improve their own lives and the support they need in the administration must be a top priority if we are to restore an economy that works for everyone.

Here’s what the Times has to say about the Employee Free Choice Act, which Obama and Solis both co-sponsored in Congress:

The measure is vital legislation and should not be postponed. Even modest increases in the share of the unionized labor force push wages upward, because nonunion workplaces must keep up with unionized ones that collectively bargain for increases. By giving employees a bigger say in compensation issues, unions also help to establish corporate norms, the absence of which has contributed to unjustifiable disparities between executive pay and rank-and-file pay.

As The New York Times aptly points out, the corporate argument that giving more workers the freedom to form unions and bargain will hurt a declining economy is exactly backwards. Indeed, as we’ve often noted, the current economic weakness is due to the fact that for far too long, workers have had less and less power to bargain for better wages, benefits and job security.

There is a strong argument that the slack labor market of a recession actually makes unions all the more important. Without a united front, workers will have even less bargaining power in the recession than they had during the growth years of this decade, when they largely failed to get raises even as productivity and profits soared. If paycontinues to lag, it will only prolong the downturn by inhibiting spending.

The editorial also makes a strong case for giving Solis–described as an “unfailing advocate for workers’ rights” and a leader on issues affecting working families–the ability to reverse the Bush administration’s years of short-sighted and anti-worker rulings on workplace safety, overtime and other key issues.

AFL-CIO Blog

Obama creates historic White House task force

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:05:00 +0000

The Obama Transition Team announced the formation of an historic task force this week – the White House Task Force on Working Families. According to the transition team's announcement, Vice President-elect Joe Biden will head the task force.

The task force will work with various federal agencies that handle or oversee 'key issues facing middle class and working families.' The task force will advise President Obama on executive orders and propose legislative and policy items that aim to boost the standards of living of working families.

In addition, the task force will work with members of Congress, representatives of labor, advocacy groups and business as part of its mandate, the transition team stated.

Specifically, Obama has asked the task force to find ways to expand education and training opportunities, improve work and family balance, restore labor standards and workplace safety, protect working family incomes and improve retirement security.

“My administration will be absolutely committed to the future of America’s middle-class and working families,' Obama said in a press statement. 'They will be front and center every day in our work in the White House.'

Biden added, “President-elect Obama and I know the economic health of working families has eroded, and we intend to turn that around.”

In a statement Dec. 22 following the announcement, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney welcome the formation of the task force and expressed willingness to work with it. The improvement of the lives of the working families will take a lot of work, however, he suggested.

'Working families are facing an extraordinary and unprecedented set of challenges right now,' Sweeney said. '[T]he economy is in meltdown; the real wages and incomes of middle class Americans have been stagnant or eroding for decades; savings and home values have plummeted; and our nation’s health care and retirement security systems are in dire need of reform.'

Change to Win labor federation Chair Anna Burger added that the formation of the task force demonstrates a commitment on the part of the administration to the needs of working families.

She added, 'Hardworking men and women are struggling to make ends meet because of stagnant wages and declining family incomes. Personal consumption is the largest component of the US economy and workers' wages are the largest single source of consumer spending. Without action to stimulate wage increases, consumption will continue to falter, and the economy will slip deeper into recession.'

According to the Obama transition team, members of the White House Task Force on Working Families will include the secretaries of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Commerce, as well as the directors of the National Economic Council, the Office of Management and Budget, the Domestic Policy Council, and the chair of the Council of Economic Advisors.

If Obama's appointments are approved by the Senate, the task force would include (in order) Hilda Solis, Tom Daschle, Arne Duncan, Bill Richardson, Peter Orszag, Melody Barnes and Christina Romer.

Another bank draws worker anger: Teamsters picket KeyBank for funding union-busting

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:40:00 +0000

CLEVELAND — Teamsters and supporters from Jobs with Justice and Working America picketed the corporate headquarters of KeyBank here Dec. 19, accusing the bank of funding a union-busting drive by Oak Harbor Freight Lines.

The action was in solidarity with some 600 drivers in the 13th week of a very tough strike in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

The company, one of the largest and most profitable freight haulers on the West Coast, has hired scabs, cancelled retirees’ health care and violated U.S. labor law, the union charged.

“We are here today because KeyBank is underwriting this rogue company,” said Frank Burdell, president of Teamsters Local 407, representing truckers in the Cleveland area. In addition, he said, the bank is getting $2.5 billion from the Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP) — the $700 billion bailout approved by Congress.

“That money is supposed to provide relief to those hardest hit in this economy, but instead they are using it to buy other banks and subsidize union-busting,” the union leader said.

After over a year of fruitless bargaining for a new contract, the Teamsters struck Sept. 22 when the company bypassed the union and tried to negotiate directly with the workers — a violation of labor law, Burdell said. The Teamsters have filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board and are awaiting a decision.

Al Hobart, West Coast vice president of the Teamsters, called the company’s actions “the most intrusive I’ve been associated with” in 33 years as a union representative, according to a story in the Puget Sound Business Journal distributed at the rally. He said the dispute is at “the top of the heap” of national labor disputes.

To draw attention to the fight, Teamsters members on Oct. 21 rappelled down the side of a building next to the San Francisco headquarters of Gap, Inc., the clothing retailer, which was using Oak Harbor for deliveries. Since then Gap, as well as other big retail customers and the state of Washington have stopped using the company.

As demonstrators here chanted “Hey, hey, ho, ho — corporate greed has got to go,” Nakeisha Gibson, a member of Working America, wearing a pig mask and a tuxedo jacket, made mock attempts to put her hand in their pockets and steal purses.

Similar actions were held in Buffalo, Indianapolis, Detroit, Portland and Seattle.

A Texan for trade rep?

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 03:10:00 +0000

DALLAS — At a luncheon for union leaders, I asked what people hoped to see in new government appointments. 'Nobody from Texas,' was the sharpest and most agreed-on response. Neoconservative Republicans have dominated all state offices since Bush first ran for governor in the mid 1990s. Even before that, under Democratic Gov. Ann Richards and President Clinton, state leaders set up a big 'Yee-haw' for NAFTA.

Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, whose NAFTA 'Yee-haw' was as loud as any, was chosen as the Obama administration's trade representative. The announcement came on the same day that a strongly pro-worker congresswoman, Hilda Solis, won the labor secretary spot. Labor celebrated Solis and expressed some concern about Kirk on the same Dec. 19 morning.

Although African Americans and other progressives here in Dallas were proud when Ron Kirk became our first non-white mayor, we also knew that he was a long-time lobbyist for the city's shadow-government Citizen's Alliance and for other unseemly groups and causes. His terms in office did not change anybody's opinion. His main 'accomplishments' were the big sports auditorium now known as the American Airlines Center and the toll-road boondoggle known as the 'Trinity River Project.' Both have been enriching the rich and discomforting the rest since Kirk was in office.

On the other hand, Texas labor and other progressives worked hard for Kirk when he headed the Democratic ticket in his run for U.S. Senate in 2002. Nobody faulted him for losing. Republicans won all statewide offices then and since then.

Ed Sills, communications secretary for the Texas AFL-CIO, remarked on labor's good relationship with Ron Kirk during the 2002 campaign, but added, 'We should have no illusions on this particular appointment, though. As an attorney at Vinson & Elkins, which advocates for clients who hold the unfettered 'free trade' position, Kirk will bear careful watching on trade policy.'

Kirk-supporting editors at the Dallas Morning News, totally devoted to NAFTA and other anti-worker policies, celebrated the appointment with extensive news stories. They pointed out that labor may not be entirely happy with the Kirk appointment, but that Obama had reportedly offered the trade rep position earlier to Congressman Xavier Becerra of Los Angeles. Becerra turned it down and was quoted saying that trade 'would not be priority No. 1, and perhaps, not even priority No. 2 or 3' for Mr. Obama.

Congressman, faith and labor leaders urge release of jailed workers

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 03:04:00 +0000

MINNEAPOLIS (Workday Minnesota) — Imagine you sell your home, even borrow money, to move to another community where you are promised a good job. But when you get there, you're forced to live in near-slavery conditions.

When you report the situation to the authorities, you're arrested and put in jail. The employer, meanwhile, faces no penalties and continues to reap profits from your work.

That — in a nutshell — is the situation faced by 23 workers from India currently held in the Fargo, N.D., jail by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement. On Thursday, community leaders in Minnesota — including Congressman Keith Ellison and the Rev. Craig Johnson, bishop of the Minneapolis Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America — issued a call for the workers' release.

'It is important that people of faith stand in solidarity with those among us who have been wrongly accused,' Johnson told a group gathered in front of the U.S. Federal Building in downtown Minneapolis.

'We have a perverse situation,' said Ellison. 'It's unjust, it's wrong and we're not going to stand silent while it goes on.'

Lured to the United States

More than 300 workers were lured to the United States from their homes in India by promises of good jobs at a Mississippi shipyard operated by Signal International, said Saket Soni of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice. Many sold homes or property to make the trip and paid $20,000 each to a recruiter, he said.

In the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, thousands of immigrants were lured to the Gulf Coast with such promises, Soni said.

When they arrived, they discovered squalid living conditions. When they tried to organize to improve their lot, they were threatened with deportation, Soni said.

Some of the workers contacted the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice, which helped them report the situation to the Department of Justice. But the department is dragging its feet on investigating the case, while some of the workers have been swept up in immigration raids.

The workers, who entered the country with guest worker visas, are really victims of human trafficking, said Soni. Earlier this year, the men marched on foot from New Orleans to Washington, D.C., to put pressure on the Department of Justice to investigate the case and to allow them “continued presence,” a temporary visa status that allows victims of trafficking to work in the country while the investigation is still ongoing.

Some of the workers later got jobs in North Dakota, where they were picked up by immigration officials and have been held for nearly two months. The workers at the Fargo jail are currently engaged in a hunger strike.

Showing support

Last week, Ellison and faith leaders joined in a 24-hour fast to show solidarity. They also contacted the Department of Justice to urge the workers' release and an investigation of Signal International.

'To Signal International, we say, 'shame on you!'' said Ray Waldron, president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO.

Ellison said the workers' plight might seem far-removed from the lives of most Americans, but their case has implications for everyone.

'When these workers are exploited in this manner, this diminishes all labor,' Ellison said. 'This exploits all labor.'

In a statement, Signal International said their 'employment practices and facilities have been inspected by representatives of the Department of Labor, the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of State.'

Thursday's news conference was coordinated by ISAIAH, a Twin Cities faith organization. Several of its members participated in the solidarity fast, the organization said.

Faith and community groups also have held rallies in Fargo to support the jailed workers. Supporters are urging people to contact Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairs of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, who oversee the Department of Justice.

To take action

E-mail members of Congress through the website of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice, www.nowcrj.org

----- Barb Kucera is editor of Workday Minnesota (www.workdayminnesota.org).

OPINION: Renegotiating NAFTA an uphill but winnable fight

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 02:58:00 +0000

One of the demands of U.S. workers in the election just past was a renegotiation of NAFTA. Canadian workers have similar concerns. In Mexico, the demand to reorganize NAFTA comes most strongly from small farmers, but is also advanced by workers and the left. It is a winnable, but uphill, fight.

When Obama takes office on Jan. 20, he will, ironically, be the most left-wing head of government of the three NAFTA countries, and the only one of the three who has said anything about renegotiating the terms of the pact.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, of the Conservative Party, is a fanatical free trader, and the right wing in Canada has issued dire threats that if Obama tries to reopen NAFTA, Canada will use the opportunity to demand increased prices for Canadian raw materials.

Mexican president Felipe Calderon, of the right-wing National Action Party (PAN), has not thought twice about hurting the poorest farmers and workers in his own country rather than violate the “principles” of 'free' trade in foodstuffs. As a result of his policies and those of his immediate predecessors, living standards Mexico were already plunging before the recent financial crisis, which is striking Mexico with brutal force.

Calderon was elected in 2006 in a very fishy election, narrowly defeating a left-leaning, NAFTA-critical candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD). But the next presidential election under Mexican law is not until 2012. There are congressional elections on July 1, 2009, but the main left-center opposition party, the PRD, is in utter disarray from infighting.

In Canada, Harper’s Conservatives failed in October to get an absolute majority in Parliament, but remain in power anyway.

Fortunately in each of the three NAFTA countries, the governments are not going to have the only say.

Mexican small farmers and workers are worried that NAFTA undermines agriculture and manufacturing. Subsidized U.S. and Canadian products, especially grains, have driven farmers off the land by the millions, and U.S.-based monopolies such as Wal-Mart have taken over many other areas of the Mexican economy, undermining the country’s economic sovereignty and drastically eliminating the total number of jobs available. In several Mexican states, remittances from Mexican immigrants in the United States now exceed the total income from wages and salaries by up to 50 percent. But the remittances, which peaked in 2007 at about $24 billion, now are dropping sharply, because Mexican immigrant workers are being laid off or paid less due to the financial crisis.

Over the last couple of years there have been anti-NAFTA protests in Mexico, mostly organized by farmers. There has been some support for this movement from the most progressive sectors of Mexican labor, which will likely grow as the financial crisis deepens.

In the United States and Canada, workers and their unions are concerned about job flight under NAFTA. This facilitated Obama’s and the Democrats’ victories in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and other crucial Northern manufacturing states, and the pressure for opening up the NAFTA issue will continue from those sectors. Yet opposition to NAFTA renegotiation is very strong here too.

Can labor, farmers and others in all three NAFTA countries unite to force a renegotiation of NAFTA? Yes, but there are some obstacles to overcome.

In the United States, demagogues have played with the concern about jobs going to Mexico to whip up anti-Mexican feeling. Combining agitation against NAFTA with insults against the Mexican people plays directly into the hands of NAFTA’s monopoly supporters. We must be clear that NAFTA hurts workers and poor farmers in all three countries, and only benefits the monopolies. Cross-border working class and mass unity is the only way to achieve a renegotiation of NAFTA.

In the United States, a coherent approach to fighting for NAFTA renegotiation will come from organized labor, from smaller-scale farmers, from environmentalists, and also from the immigrant rights movement, the most advanced sectors of which have adopted the goal of renegotiating NAFTA because of the pact’s role in forcing people out of Mexico.

A trinational parliamentary working group on NAFTA renegotiation was started this spring by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Canadian Member of Parliament Peter Julian (New Democratic Party), and Mexican federal Senator Yeidckol Polevnsky (PRD). An April 28, 2008, statement from this group indicates a propitious beginning:

“The harsh truth that Bush, Harper and Calderon won’t face is that during the 14 years of NAFTA, the citizens of our three countries have faced growing inequality and stagnating wages. In the case of Mexico the collapse of opportunity has been so severe that out-migration to the United States has more than doubled to an all-all time high of 500,000 people per year. The poor and the middle class have borne the brunt of the damage and dislocation, while the richest few concentrate unprecedented levels of wealth.”

That statement encapsulates the potential for a unified struggle to renegotiate NAFTA; it is up to us to drive home the message.

Emile Schepers is an immigrant rights activist.

New green world waits in the wings

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 07:47:00 +0000

Mid-December brought developments at global, national, state and local levels in the race to reverse global warming and grow the economy.

California’s Air Resources Board, Dec. 11, unanimously passed a first-ever comprehensive blueprint to reach the goal set by the state’s groundbreaking legislation — Global Warming Solutions Act — that requires cutting greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. CARB is part of the state’s Environmental Protection Agency.

The plan will cut greenhouse gas emissions, diversify energy sources, save energy, create new jobs and enhance public health. CARB says the so-called “scoping plan” is built on a “balanced mix of strategies” that will cut emission by some 30 percent and “grow the economy in a clean and sustainable direction.”

“California is sending a message to Congress that we can fight global warming and invest in a clean energy economy that spurs job growth and economic security,” Annie Notthoff, California advocacy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement.

The plan is expected to substantially cut premature deaths, lung disease and lost workdays. The University of California at Berkeley says it can create over 400,000 new efficiency and climate-action-driven jobs.

The day after it approved the blueprint, CARB passed new regulations to sharply cut noxious emissions from the estimated 1 million diesel trucks operating in the state. By 2014, all truck owners must install diesel exhaust filters on their trucks. Owners must replace pre-2010 engines on a staggered schedule by 2022. Long-haul truckers must install fuel-efficient tires and aerodynamic devices on their trailers to lower greenhouse gas emissions and boost fuel economy.

The Union of Concerned Scientists said that by 2020, the new rules would save 1.4 billion gallons of fuel and prevent nearly 10,000 premature deaths and many thousands of hospitalizations for heart and lung diseases.

While CARB emphasized its commitment to make sure disadvantaged communities are not harmed, environmental justice advocates fear the plan’s cap-and-trade provisions will lead to more heavily polluting sites

in low-income and minority communities.

As California was taking action, the latest United Nations conference on climate change was finishing its work. The gathering, to prepare a new global pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions, brought nearly 4,000 delegates and 5,500 observers and journalists to Poznan, Poland Dec. 1-12.

The International Trade Union Confederation delegation of over 100 unionists from more than 40 countries, including over 20 from North America, had “official constituency” status for the first time. Among U.S. unions were steelworkers, farmworkers, mineworkers, utility workers and public sector workers.

The delegation emphasized a “just transition framework” including investment in good union jobs, green technologies and infrastructure, and help for workers displaced or negatively affected by the new treaty’s implementation, whether in developed or developing countries.

“I’ve represented unions in international conferences since the mid-’90s, and this was the best example I’ve seen of overall coordination on strategy,” Carl Wood, national regulatory affairs director for the Utility Workers Union of America, said in a telephone interview.

Wood said labor representatives from more developed countries feel their countries are obligated to help less developed nations with the transition. “From the labor standpoint it’s a seamless web,” he said. “The developing world isn’t responsible for much of the climate change, but they are on the receiving end of the problems. Countries need help to develop in an ecologically sound way.”

Conference participants saw energy efficiency as having great potential for employment, Wood said. Bringing buildings up to energy efficiency standards is very labor intensive, and when it is done in a labor-friendly way, lots of new good union jobs can be created.

Many participants felt the conference was hampered by continued foot-dragging from the lame-duck Bush administration delegation, but expressed confidence that progress for a new treaty to replace the Kyoto agreement will pick up when the new administration takes office.

Cities are also developing their own plans. Earlier this month, the U.S. Conference of Mayors announced a list of more than 11,000 “ready-to-go” infrastructure projects with a price tag of over $73 billion, that it says would create nearly 850,000 jobs in the next two years.

On Dec. 11 the City of Oakland held a public workshop to help develop its Energy and Climate Action Plan. In a far-ranging discussion, participants emphasized the importance of environmental justice measures and the broad benefits to the community from good green jobs.

mbechtel @pww.org

Forget Stella DOro cookies! Support striking workers

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 06:34:00 +0000

BRONX, N.Y. — My mother loved Stella D’Oro “S” cookies. She would eat two every morning, dunking the anise-flavored delight in her coffee. I always felt a loyalty to the brand based on that childhood memory. But no more.

Below the elevated “1” train here, dozens of workers are walking a picket line in front of a block-long building flying Stella D’Oro’s red, white and green flag. Many of these workers, like the tricolor, are originally from Italy. Many have spent 40 years of their lives bringing the public cookies and breadsticks.

Stella D’Oro, no longer a “family-owned and operated” business, is just another company, owned by private equity firm Brynwood Partners of Greenwich, Conn. It has followed modern-day capitalism’s business practice — wring as much as possible out of workers, and if there is a union and collective bargaining agreement in your way, steamroll over them.

One hundred forty workers represented by Local 50 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers tried to negotiate a contract in good faith with the company — their old contract expired in June. The company demanded massive cuts in wages and benefits. In August, after management walked out of a negotiating session and refused to return, the workers felt they were forced to strike.

Brynwood partner Hendrik J. Hartong III did not return a phone call from this reporter.

The workers call the company’s demands a “reverse contract.” Instead of getting a raise each year, two-thirds of the workforce would get a dollar-an-hour wage cut for the five years of the proposed contract.

The company also wants to slash vacation time, eliminate four paid holidays and all 12 sick days, and raise workers’ health care costs by 20 percent.

To add insult to injury, the company called the union in November and said that as of Dec. 31 it is pulling out of the existing guaranteed-benefit pension plan. Instead, it is forcing workers to accept a 401(k) plan, so discredited by the Wall Street crash.

A first shift of workers walked the picket line in 20° weather Dec. 8. Their anger was palpable. “Lying, thieving #$%#,” was one response. Not one union member has crossed the picket line.

One worker, Giuseppe, asked, “How is it possible to criticize other countries about what they do and then treat us workers like this with ‘take it or leave it’ attitude?”

A woman worker said she had lived just across the street when she started working at the factory in 1968. Introducing her foreman, she said proudly, “He makes beautiful breadsticks.”

But when she complained, “Now they bring in Black people to do our jobs,” what a discussion ensued! “They do that all the time,” someone piped up, “to pit people against each other — white against black against Latino.”

“Yeah,” said someone else, “we have to be together. We can’t let the company divide us.”

Then someone brought up the Republic Door and Window workers in Chicago who were in their third day of a sit-in. “Look, Obama supports the Republic workers. It’s all about sticking together,” said another.

In a Dec. 15 telephone interview, Local 50 President Joyce Alston called the Stella D’Oro workers a “terrific group.”

Some of the new hires the company has brought in leave quickly, she’s been told. “When I was on the picket line, some even came over and said ‘You guys are right.’”

Alston said, “The economic times we are in couldn’t be worse to have a fight. But not one union member has crossed or thought about crossing the picket line.”

They know a thing or two about solidarity, she said, noting that the pay cut the company proposed was “for two-thirds of the workforce — mostly women.” The company would have given 30- or 50-cent-an-hour raises to one-third of the workforce — higher skill-level, mostly men — but the workers didn’t let the company break the union that way, she said. The company wants to “render us obsolete,” she said, but the workers won’t allow it.

Alston said the union has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board against the company, which she hopes will add to the union’s leverage. “Everybody is talking about the banks and bailing everybody out, but they don’t understand that the working people of this country need to be bailed out,” she said.

As Giuseppe put it, “This strike is like a chain. If we break, it’s finished for everybody. What I worry about most is the future for the children.”

My mom, during her retirement, started making her own biscotti. Below is a recipe she used. Try it, instead of buying union-busting Stella D’Oro. Create some holiday solidarity memories for your family, co-workers and friends.

You can send solidarity greetings and support to BCTGM Local 50, 145 Talmadge Road Suite 17, Edison NJ 08817, or e-mail: BCTGMlocal50@aol.com.

Ivy’s biscotti:

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar; 1 cup butter, melted; 4 tablespoons anise seed; 4 tblsps. anisette; 3 tblsps. whiskey; 2 cups sliced almonds; 6 eggs; 5 1/2 cups flour; 1 tblsp. baking powder.

Directions:

Mix sugar with butter, anise seed, anisette, whiskey and nuts. Beat in eggs. Mix flour with baking powder and stir into the sugar mixture. Blend thoroughly. Cover and chill for 2-3 hours. Grease baking sheets. Shape dough into flat loaves that are 1/2-3/4 inch thick and 2 inches wide and length of the baking sheet. Place two loaves on one sheet parallel and well apart. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 min. Take from oven and let loaves cool – just until you can touch them. Cut in diagonal slices about 1/2 inch thick. Lay slices on cut side, close together on baking sheets. Return to 375 degree oven for 15 minutes more or until lightly toasted. Cool on wire racks and store in airtight containers.

UAW Michigan family holds onto Christmas

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 11:20:00 +0000

DETROIT — Gibraltar Trade Center in Taylor, Mich., stood to make a lot of money Dec. 12 with the scheduled appearance there of ex-Tiger pitching great and Hall of Famer Jim Bunning. Michigan residents were supposed to pay $35 apiece for Bunning’s autographed baseballs.

But the whole plan fell apart when people realized that Bunning, now a Republican senator, conspired with his right-wing buddies to kill the auto loan. Hours before his scheduled appearance, Gibraltar management cancelled the gig, issuing a statement about how they could not, in good conscience, provide a forum to someone who had participated in an attack against the people of Michigan.

And that’s how the killing of the auto loan is seen from here: an attack on the state and the whole Midwest.

Waking up in a cold sweat

Like many moms with daughters in elementary school, Jolyn Gismond is thinking hard about how she can give her family a good Christmas this year.

Her two daughters need new clothes and wouldn’t mind getting things they probably don’t need as much. “Maybe we can’t afford everything they need. No, definitely we can’t,” she says.

Cities and towns in Michigan are filled with families, like the Gismonds, saying, “Not right now, not just yet” every passing day to all kinds of purchases. For them, the auto industry’s survival will determine their survival.

They wake up at night, sweating over questions that intrude on their thoughts round the clock.

The Gismonds and many other families ask questions like these: “Now that the GOP senators killed the loan for the Big Three, will President Bush act? What if Ford or General Motors end up bankrupt? All of our friends are UAW. We help each other. What will we do if they cut us all?

“It’s going to be bad even if loans to the Big Three are approved. Just how many more thousands of us will lose our jobs, no matter what kind of bailout they get? What would happen?”

“We have two kids,” Jolyn said. “A lot of our friends have kids.”

Bankruptcy could mean industrial wasteland

Deep down, they really know the answers to their questions. If the Big Three go bankrupt in just days or weeks, certainly no later than the beginning of January, there will be an avalanche of plant shutdowns and layoffs by automakers and suppliers that will, like a neutron bomb, turn Michigan and much of the Midwest into an industrial wasteland.

Many economists say the destruction won’t stop until 3 million more people join the ranks of the unemployed. Many of those millions will have to prepare for foreclosure.

Regardless of whether the companies get a government loan, Chrysler LLC has already said it is closing 29 plants, laying off 53,000 workers and defaulting on $7 billion it owes to suppliers.

Detroit’s hardship holiday

Jolyn’s husband, Rich, is fourth generation UAW. He worked at the American Axle plant in Hamtramck. After a long strike earlier this year the company slashed positions by buying out a big chunk of the workforce, Rich included. Those who stayed on the job took a 50 percent pay cut – from $27 to $14. We couldn’t afford that,” Jolyn told the World during an interview Dec.12.

In the midst of what has become Detroit’s “hardship holiday,” she says the family isn’t on the brink of disaster yet because “we paid off our equity with the buyout money but the good-paying auto job is gone forever.” The family is worried because Rich is disabled now due to a severe back injury sustained while at work in the Hamtramck plant and the insurance company is now refusing to pay his medical bills. “Not exactly the life of an overpaid UAW family,” Jolyn noted.

“We’ve cut back on everything. A trip we were dreaming about, home improvements and even Christmas presents have to wait. But there is a silver lining to that cloud. We’ve been able to sit down with our daughters and discuss with them how there are a lot of things more important than material goods and credit card purchases. They understand and we’re closer than ever these days.

“What we really hated was having to face not having the annual Christmas party we have thrown for our friends. For 11 years now, 80 or more friends, almost all of them UAW, many for generations, look forward to that party.”

Media myth: $72 an hour

Jolyn talked to the World a day after the $14-billion lifeline to Detroit’s automakers was killed in the U.S. Senate by right-wing Republicans refusing to back down from their attempt to force wage concessions on the UAW by the end of next year. The UAW resisted the trashing of its current contract because, unlike the companies, it was the only party to the talks that was asked to make immediate concessions.

“Make sure you let everyone know we’re not the $72 an hour greedy folks much of the media says we are,” Jolyn said. She was referring to widespread acceptance by the media of the recent statement by a New York Times columnist that autoworkers make that much money and that they would have to give back a lot if the auto industry is to be saved.

The reality is that autoworkers get $28 an hour and that under the recently instituted two-tier wage system, new hires get only $14. Many autoworkers, including those at American Axle, have suffered 50 percent wage cuts to $14 an hour.

Republicans declare class war

All over Michigan people see the refusal by GOP senators to agree to an auto loan as an attempt to break the UAW and, along with it, destroy the entire labor movement.

“You don’t think for one minute that they are really worried about $14 billion dollars when they just gave $700 billion to Wall Street with almost no strings attached, do you?” asked William Alford, president of UAW Local 235. His local represents American Axle workers at the Hamtramck plant where Rich Gismond worked before he was bought out.

Alford was interviewed by the World at the union hall near the plant. “The Republicans were firing a shot against the UAW,” he said. “They are willing to see the American car companies die if that’s what it takes to destroy this union. They see this as their last best chance to kill this union, stop the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act next year and then kill the labor movement all together. After Obama’s election they are worried. Workers are getting stronger and more organized.” The Republicans “don’t want this so they’ll do everything they can to stop us,” Alford said.

At the Local 22 union hall in Detroit, Huck Atterberry, the benefits administrator, used even stronger language. “This is class war they have declared against us. People have to wise up. We are just the first domino. Their purpose is to knock down the entire labor movement.”

He said that the nation needs to hold onto the industry and that it could easily be retooled to play a major part in production for improved mass transit systems across the country.

Atterberry’s local represents workers who make the Cadillac and Buick Lucerne. It’s the second largest local in the country representing GM workers.

“There’s a lot at stake here,” he said. “If you destroy the labor movement you also destroy what, in effect, constitutes the civil rights movement. When those layoffs hit, Black workers will get hit extra hard.”

‘What will I do if I lose my job?’

Only a day earlier, General Motors, which employs 96,000 workers at 47 plants in the United States, announced drastic cuts in both production and workforce. Twenty one plants will be on furlough for the month of January. The company admits it has already hired bankruptcy attorneys.

The Steelworkers union reports that, already, only nine of the 29 basic steel plants in the nation are operating.

Jane McDermott, an African-American worker leaving the Warren Truck plant at the end of her shift choked back tears as she told the World, “It’s Christmas. I have kids. What will I do if I lose my job?”

Atterberry pointed out the importance of labor and civil rights unity and GOP efforts to divide these key forces. He described Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and others who led the effort against the auto loan as “people who haven’t stopped fighting the Civil War. The labor movement up north was a big part of the effort to help out in New Orleans after that hurricane. This is no way to pay us back. We have to come together as a nation to get through this thing.”

It just may be that people are coming together in the way Atterberry hopes. Statements of solidarity and support for the UAW are coming in from all over the country.

Post-election hope, and a new (small) victory

And Jolyn Gismond says that “after the election we are hopeful. At first I voted for Obama because I felt he understood us better. Now, after seeing McCain vote against us after all his trips to auto plants, I am happier than ever that I made the right decision. Obama understands that we are not going to be bashed around anymore.”

It’s that working class resiliency and tenacity that get families of all colors and backgrounds through these tough times.

And on their annual Christmas party, Jolyn said, “We didn’t have to cancel. The whole crew is coming together. Each one is bringing over food, drinks, dessert or whatever, so, economic storm or not, we’re going to have our Christmas.”

A win for workers is a win for all

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 10:55:00 +0000

Employee Free Choice Act is key to recovery

As 2008 comes to an end the labor movement has much to celebrate including the election of our first African American president, the win for union representation for the Smithfield slaughterhouse workers in Tar Heel, N.C., and the settlement won by Chicago union workers who led a six-day sit-in at their factory.

Responding to the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, many are demanding a people’s bailout that puts Main Street working families before Wall Street.

Millions voted for change and working people are coming together and saying, “Enough!” In their unity the message is: an injury to one is an injury to all. At rallies nationwide they shout, “Yes we can” and “Yes we did.”

“We have achieved victory,” said Armando Robles on Dec.10. He’s president of Local 1110 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America which led 250 Chicago workers in a six-day occupation of the Republic Windows and Doors factory.

Their sit-in began after Republic, in violation of the law, gave only three days’ notice that the factory would close. Republic said its main creditor, Bank of America, had cut off financing. Bank of America had recently received a $25 billion bailout package from the federal government but apparently decided it wouldn’t use that money to keep manufacturing enterprises going.

But as the sit-in drew national and even international attention, Republic’s management, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase agreed on a $1.75 million settlement with the workers and their union. Each worker is expected to receive eight weeks’ salary, all accrued vacation pay and two months’ paid health care.

Support for the workers came in droves. Fellow workers, both union and non-union, community groups, religious organizations, small businesses, immigrant rights groups, Chicago’s City Council, state leaders and President-elect Barack Obama were among the many who backed their struggle.

“We the workers are an example for all working men and women who have come together and united for our basic rights,” Republic worker Felipe Pillado told the World.

Another worker, Fanor

Benabidez, said he and his co-workers were very happy with the support they received. “And we’re especially happy that we have Obama’s support because it gives us courage that we are going to win,” he said.

Meanwhile, after a 15-year struggle, workers at Smithfield Packing slaughterhouse in Tar Heel, N.C., the world’s largest hog processing plant, voted to unionize with the United Food and Commercial Workers. The vote, 52 percent to 48 percent for the union, was the largest private-sector union victory in recent history and followed the biggest drive ever by the UFCW.

“It feels great,” said Smithfield worker Wanda Blue in a press interview. “It’s like how Obama felt when he won. We made history.”

Many feel the political climate surrounding the election of Obama spurred the union victory.

“The election of Barack Obama may have eased people’s concerns about speaking out and standing up for a union,” Cornell University labor studies professor Richard Hurd told The New York Times.

Another Smithfield worker, Lydia Victoria said, “People came together and wanted fair treatment. We fought so long to get this, and it finally happened.”

Speakers at a Chicago rally for the Republic workers in front of Bank of America offices connected the workers’struggle to other pressing issues such as creating green jobs, a moratorium on evictions linked to foreclosures, the right to health care and housing, retirement security and same-sex marriage rights.

“Workers are sticking together and fighting back and we don’t have to take it anymore,” said Fran Tobin of Jobs with Justice. “We need a people’s bailout, not a Wall Street bailout.”

Many single out passage of the Employee Free Choice Act as a critical part of labor’s fight for economic justice. The bill aims to eliminate barriers to workers seeking union representation and is key to any meaningful economic recovery, speakers at a Dec. 16 community-labor forum in Cleveland pointed out.

But just as with the bailout, powerful forces are working to block the bill and prevent any gain for workers and communities.

The Cleveland forum was organized to respond to the local branch of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Cleveland Partnership, which is going all out to defeat employee free choice.

The chamber, spearheading a national campaign against the bill, has raised over $200 million for the battle, which it calls “Armageddon.”

Those opposed to employee free choice are “extremely short-sighted,” said Michael Ettlinger of the Center for American Progress.

“The economy for working people has been in decline since 2000, with growing poverty and unemployment and declining average incomes,” he said.

“The recession was papered over by artificially raised housing values, but now, with that bubble burst, the economy is in general decline and expected to get worse. Credit, even for routine business operations, has dried up and unless companies regain confidence they can sell their goods and services, the entire economy could collapse.”

Ettlinger praised the programs advocated by President-elect Obama to increase mass purchasing power and create jobs. He noted, however, that “the Employee Free Choice Act in this situation is especially important. We not only need jobs, we need good jobs so that people can buy more than just food and shelter.

“This is not just about unions and workers; this bill would improve the general well-being,” Ettlinger said. “It is about raising American living standards.”

John Ryan, an aide to Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), said higher wages paid to union workers would add to the economy. He noted that unions have a far-reaching effect because, in more heavily unionized areas, non-union companies feel pressure to raise wages to meet union standards.

“Collective bargaining is the key to U.S. prosperity,” Ryan declared.

Given the well-funded and organized opposition, it will take a big effort to enact the Employee Free Choice Act, but with Obama and majorities in both houses of Congress, including some Republicans backing it, it could be approved, he said.

Labor would like to see the bill become an integral part of Obama’s recovery package and is working for it to be adopted in the House in March and in the Senate in May.

The fight for what is essentially the most important bill to labor in more than 30 years parallels the biggest upsurge in labor in at least as many years. The feeling of workers during this time is perhaps best expressed by what Raul Flores, one of the Republic workers, said in Chicago: “We are workers and we deserve respect because it is us workers that are America. And we will be united and stand together no matter where we come from.”

Union leaders welcome Solis choice as labor secretary

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:05:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI)--Union leaders welcomed the choice of pro-worker Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) as Labor Secretary in the incoming Democratic Obama administration. If confirmed by the Senate, Solis would replace anti-worker GOP Bush Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.

Solis, a veteran legislator from Los Angeles and a resident of El Monte, would also be the third Hispanic member of Obama’s Cabinet, joining New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, named Commerce Secretary and Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar nominated as Interior Secretary.

One labor source said Solis’ name was put forward by Service Employees President Andrew Stern, whose union -- along with the Change To Win coalition -- endorsed Obama’s presidential candidacy long before the AFL-CIO did. SEIU is the biggest union in CTW.

But leaders ranging from CTW Chair Anna Burger to AFL-CIO President John Sweeney to RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum all welcomed the Solis appointment.

So did former House Minority Whip David Bonior (D-Mich.), now chair of pro-labor American Rights At Work, and ARW Executive Director Mary Beth Maxwell. Both had been on lists circulated for the job, with Pride at Work enthusiastically pushing Maxwell. Bonior dropped out of the running to endorse her. Both praised Solis, who sits on the group’s board.

Maxwell called Solis 'a great choice” who “brings the expertise and leadership required to a department in desperate need of reform and will champion common sense policies like the Employee Free Choice Act to restore balance and create an economy that works for everyone.” Bonior, citing his work with Solis since she entered Congress in 2001 -- he was there until 2004 -- called her “a terrific leader who I know first-hand will work tirelessly on behalf of America’s working families.”

Sweeney said the AFL-CIO is “thrilled at the prospect of having Solis as our nation's next Labor Secretary. We're confident that she will return the department one of its core missions -- to defend workers' basic rights in our nation's workplaces. She's proven to be a passionate leader and advocate for all working families. In fact, she's voted with working men and women 97 percent of the time. The AFL-CIO looks forward to working with Solis as she charts new territory for our nation's working men and women.”

Appelbaum called Solis “outstanding” with “a life-long commitment to working people. Solis, like Obama, “knows first-hand how unions can lift poverty wage workers into the middle-class,” he added.

“Since the RWDSU is deeply involved in organizing immigrants working in retail, food processing, poultry and other industries, I'm particularly thrilled by the prospect of having a Labor Secretary who shares our outrage over the abuse immigrant workers face each day,” he added.

Burger said Solis, a daughter of Mexican and Nicaraguan immigrants, “has never forgotten where she comes from, and how she got to where she is today.”

Solis “would make the Labor Department an agency that once again protects and promotes the well-being of America’s working men and women. President-elect Obama promised to make government work for working Americans and the appointment of Hilda Solis would make that promise real,” Burger added. Solis “fought to provide working families with a safe workplace, a healthy environment, a decent standard of living, affordable health care and equal opportunity. Solis does not just vote on behalf of workers, she is their unwavering and tireless voice. She has one of the strongest pro-worker voting records in Congress and is a sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act,” Burger pointed out.

On her congressional website, Solis touts her support for raising the minimum wage -- in California as a state senator in 1996 and in the House after coming to D.C. --and creating “green jobs.”

That includes backing the 10-year project to rebuild U.S. manufacturing via “green industry” plants, creating millions of jobs while moving towards energy independence, and pushed mostly notably by the Steel Workers, the Communications Workers and their Blue-Green Alliance with environmental groups.

“I am a strong supporter of workers' rights and cosponsored the Employee Free Choice Act. This vital legislation strengthens the right to organize and opposes any effort to dismantle the 40-hour work week and the overtime requirements provided under the Fair Labor Standards Act,” she added.

And Solis said she inserted a $125 million green-collar job training program into the energy bill the then-Republican Congress sent to Bush in 2007. But that money was only authorized; how much was actually doled out is unclear.

The only dissent, so far, to Solis came from the so-called Competitive Enterprise Institute, part of the radical right coalition. It carped that union campaign finance committees are top contributors to Solis’ campaigns. Under Bush’s Labor Secretary, Elaine Chao, the Labor Department was ordered to harass, punish and weaken unions. CEI did not say whether the radical right would instruct GOP senators to filibuster against Solis.

Rural women working harder for the money, study finds

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 09:37:00 +0000

DURHAM, N.H. — In rural America, 70 percent of married mothers with children under six work for pay, finds a new report spanning nearly 40 years of women’s employment trends. As men’s employment rates have dropped over the past four decades, more rural women are working to keep the lights on at home.

The report, from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, is the first major study of women’s employment trends to tease out differences between rural and urban women’s work.

“The rural America of our collective imagination is changing. Mom is no longer home in the kitchen, and dad is no longer on the tractor or in the mines,” says Carsey Institute family demographer Kristin Smith, author of “Working Hard for the Money: Trends in Women’s Employment 1970 – 2007.” Rural women are just as likely as their urban counterparts to work for pay, says Smith, but they earn less, have fewer occupational choices, and have seen their family income decline as men’s wages have not kept pace with inflation.

Using employment estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey March Supplements, the report looks at women’s work trends, both nationally and in rural and urban America. Smith documents five major changes in the nature of women and work:

* The increase in women’s employment

* The recent “opting out” phenomenon

* The rise in women’s earnings and declines in the earnings gap

* The increase in the working poor

* The decline in the traditional family structure of a husband as breadwinner with a stay-at-home wife

Among the report’s key findings:

College graduates work more but earn less in rural areas. In rural areas, college-educated women reap less of an “education dividend” than their urban peers, earning on average 81 cents to every dollar urban college graduates earned. Types of jobs available in rural versus urban areas explains some of this disparity: while the top eight occupations held by highly educated (master’s degree or higher) women in urban areas include well-paying doctor and lawyer positions, two low-paying jobs — preschool and kindergarten teachers — are among the top eight for master’s-level women in rural areas.

“Opting out” is less of an option in rural areas. The phenomenon of women leaving the workplace by choice in favor of family — as well as the less-told story of mothers being pushed off the corporate ladder by inflexible workplaces — is a largely urban phenomenon, the report finds. Since 2000, the share of college-educated mothers of young children in the workforce in the country’s cities and suburbs has declined from 75 percent to 71 percent. That decline in employment was steeper than among college-educated rural mothers with young children, of whom 86 percent were in the workforce in 2000 and by 2007, 85 percent.

“Rural mothers with young children are more likely to work for pay than their urban peers, as well-paying, traditionally male jobs in farming, mining or mills disappear,” says Smith, who is also a research assistant professor of sociology at UNH.

Further, the report finds that despite the media’s focus on college-educated “career” women leaving the workplace since the early 2000s, the decline in employment was even higher among mothers — urban and rural — with no college degree. For mothers of young children with less than a high school degree, employment rates fell from 50 percent in 2000 to 43 percent in 2007.

Women are winning more of the bread. Women’s increased employment and earnings, coupled with men’s declining wages and employment, translates into a larger economic provider role for women. While 46 percent of husbands were sole providers in married-couple families in 1970, by 2007, that share dropped to 24 percent. By 2007, a large majority of couples were dual providers, a trend strikingly similar among rural and urban married couple families. In fact, it is increases in women’s earnings that are keeping families from slipping because the husbands’ earnings have lost ground.

The report recommends several policies to address women’s changing roles in the workplace and in the family, with particular focus on rural women workers. “Rural families are particularly challenged in balancing work and family responsibilities. Many rural communities lack stable employment and opportunities for mobility and confront persistent poverty, particularly among mothers with young children,” says Smith.

Creating flexible workplaces, expanding child care options and subsidies, raising the minimum wage and diversifying the rural labor market are policies that would support working families.

To download a copy of the report, go to carseyinstitute.unh.edu/publications/Report-Smith-WorkingHard.pdf.

Class struggle clarified

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 05:22:00 +0000

Americans are gaining a much clearer view of the ongoing class struggle. National Jobs with Justice (JwJ) and other organizations are calling for a “People’s Bailout” in opposition to the handouts flowing from the Bush Administration to the biggest bankers. Activists across the nation responded to JwJ’s call for a week of action, December 7-13. North Texas students responded in the college town of Denton, an hour north of Dallas.

Twenty-five students and 6 JwJ activists from Dallas gathered in front of the Wells Fargo Bank in the middle of downtown. Organizer Stewart Minor kicked off the responsive chant, “I don’t know but I’ve been told, C-E-O pockets are lined with gold!” A large percentage of the passing drivers honked their solidarity. The crowd sang “Which Side Are You On” before breaking into the standby, “The People United, Will Never Be Defeated” in English and Spanish, “El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido.”.

Leaflets, which had already been distributed all over the University of North Texas, followed the wording suggested from National JwJ:

As many predicted, the Wall Street Bail-out has proven to be the gross give-away to the same financial bigwigs that have been pocketing millions while wrecking the real economy. Little or no benefit has gone to the working people and the real economy, at a time that we face the greatest economic crisis since the 1930s. By the time Obama is sworn in, hundreds of thousands of additional people will lose their jobs, lose their homes and lose their health care.

It’s time for a “People’s Bail-Out” that fixes the real economy, restores a voice for working people in challenging corporate greed, provides emergency help to the victims of the crisis and begins building a fair economy that works for all, addressing crises in housing, health care, jobs, retirement security and the environment.

Jobs with Justice coalitions and ally organizations around the country will take part in an emergency campaign over the next 2 ½ months to get Congress and the new administration to enact a Peoples Bail-Out.

Immediately we call for:

Pass a large economic stimulus/recovery package, on the scale of the emergency we face;

Pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA);

Stop evictions due to foreclosures;

Emergency action so people losing jobs don’t lose health care.

Lay the groundwork for a long-term recovery program including:

Green jobs and clean energy;

Restore worker justice, including EFCA and other reforms;

Health care for all;

Retirement security;

Re-regulate the finance system and make the speculators pay to clean-up their mess

Fair Trade and Migration policies

Republic workers win victory for entire labor movement

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 10:49:00 +0000

CHICAGO – “The occupation is over,” said factory worker Armando Robles to reporters here late Dec. 10, amid a celebratory crowd of his fellow co-workers that chanted, “Yes we did.”

“We have achieved victory,” added Robles who is president of Local 1110 with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America who has been representing over 250 workers that led a six-day sit-in and occupation at the Republic Windows and Doors factory on the city’s northside.

“We said we will not go until we got justice and we have it,” said Robles.

The workers, union leaders, Republic management and its lenders Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase agreed on a $1.75 million settlement ending the occupation where the Chicago workers cause became a symbol of unity, hope and struggle for labor rights nationwide.

Each worker is expected to receive eight weeks salary, all accrued vacation pay and two months paid health care. The workers occupied their work site after the company violated federal law when the workers were given three-day notice that the factory would be closing down.

Federal labor laws require 60 days’ notice in case of plant closings and large layoffs. Republic owners said it needed to shut down the factory because their main credit lender Bank of America had cut off it’s expected financing. Bank of America recently received a $25 billion bailout package from the federal government but decided it wouldn’t go to keep manufacturing operations running.

Anger grew among the workers after they found out that Republic owners formed a new company and bought a new plant in Iowa, where apparently labor costs are less expensive. Meanwhile the workers vowed to fight and they occupied the Chicago factory until they were granted assurances they would receive the money owed to them.

Finally after three days and close to 20 hours of negotiations a deal was made.

Support poured in from all parts of the country. Workers, both union and non-union, community groups, religious organizations, small businesses, immigrant rights groups, elected officials, Chicago’s city council, state leaders and the President-elect were among the many who spoke out in favor of the workers.

Prior to the deal and earlier in the day on Dec. 10 several hundred people marched in support of the Republic workers in front of Chicago’s downtown Bank of America building at the heart of the city’s financial district.

Demonstrators said the banks failure to act on behalf of the workers was an example of corporate greed, which is the major cause of the current U.S. economic crisis leaving hard working people out in the cold.

Many of the Republic workers were present at the rally including Heribeto Bernabe who is originally from Michoacán, Mexico and has worked at the factory for the last 20 years. Speaking to the World in Spanish Bernabe said the workers are 90 percent Latino.

Along with several of his co-workers Bernabe said he was at the rally because given the current economic conditions throughout the country workers like him deserve what he is owed from the company.

“I don’t think I would want to work for the company again,” said Bernabe. “They don’t respect anybody. They told us on Wednesday that Friday was our last day with no vacation pay. They just put us out on the street because they claimed they did not have the money to pay us. But we know that they bought another factory in Iowa,” he said.

Bernabe added, “For us this movement is really important especially to fight against injustice.” Bernabe said he would finish fighting for his rights till the end and then he will look for new employment. “I have hope that I will find a new job,” he said.

Felipe Pillado is from Guerrero, Mexico and has worked at the factory for the last 10 years and said his biggest support comes from his wife and two kids.

“We the workers are an example for all working men and women who have come together and united for our basic rights,” said Pillado.

Another worker, Fanor Benabidez, who is also Mexican, has worked for the company for 7 years and said he and his co-workers are very happy with all the support they have received nationwide. “And we are especially happy that we have Obama’s support because it gives us courage that we are going to win. And this will be a win for all workers,” noted Benabidez.

Job With Justice organized the action and it’s allies during a week of action that included rallies nationwide calling for a people’s bailout. Speakers at the Chicago demonstration called primarily for the support of the Chicago workers but also connected their struggle to other important issues such as creating green jobs, a moratorium on evictions linked to foreclosures, the right to health care and housing and retirement security.

“Workers are sticking together and fighting back and we don’t have to take it anymore,” said Fran Tobin with Jobs With Justice. “We need a people’s bailout, not a Wall Street bailout,” he said.

Bob Kingsley, UE director of organization said the sit-down and occupation tactic dates back to the origins of the labor movement.

“Our creed is that we wage an aggressive struggle for workers everyday because it’s a matter of economic justice,” said Kingsley. “These Chicago workers are the face of the suffering working class today. But more importantly they are the face of resistance,” he added.

“It’s not right that CEO’s and banks are put first and not working families,” said Kingsley. “Something is wrong, things have to change and they have to begin somewhere and it’s beginning right here in Chicago.”

Raul Flores, one of the factory workers and union member addressed the crowd.

“This cause is for all workers and we will not break the chain,” said Flores. “We are workers and we deserve respect because it is us the workers that are America and we will be united and stand together no matter where we come from,” noted Flores.

Union officials have created a foundation to collect donations in the attempt to keep the factory open and allow the workers to retain their jobs.

plozano @ pww.org

Anti-worker Republicans block auto aid

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 08:34:00 +0000

DETROIT — It looks like autoworkers have dodged a bullet. Congress seems likely to pass some sort of “bridge” loan to keep General Motors, and perhaps Chrysler, from declaring bankruptcy and throwing union contracts and jobs on the trash heap.

Congressional Democrats have drafted terms of a $15 billion dollar government loan for GM and Chrysler to help them survive through March 31. (Ford has asked for a $9 billion line of credit.) The loan still needs the support of 10 or more Republican senators to avoid a filibuster, and then needs to be signed by President Bush. It places restrictions on executive pay, sets up government oversight of the companies’ operations, and gives the federal government a stake in the companies.

The additional 10 votes needed from Republican senators will not be easy to come by. Former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently wrote a New York Times op-ed titled, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” Romney, the wealthiest of all the 2008 presidential contenders (assets worth up to $250 million), argued for bankruptcy for the auto industry as the way to impose new union contracts that slash worker and retiree income and benefits.

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, opposes any federal government assistance to avert bankruptcy. Shelby’s state ranks sixth on the list of states with the most autoworkers, almost all non-union. Yet those jobs exist because of generous handouts to foreign auto companies by the state of Alabama.

Here in the Motor City many are wondering why Congress and the Bush administration were quick to deliver to the banks and insurance companies federal aid that dwarfs anything asked by the Big Three. At least, Motowners say, the auto companies are producing something real.

Detroit City Council President Pro-tem JoAnn Watson, who traveled on her “own dime” to Washington to lobby on behalf of autoworker jobs, has been asking why blue collar workers are being told to make the lion’s share of the sacrifices. She noted that no furor was raised about overpaid bankers and other well-paid financial personnel.

African American workers are more concentrated in the automotive industry than in the labor force as a whole. For Detroit, with its 85 percent African American population, already suffering from double-digit unemployment, the loss of more auto jobs and wages would be a devastating blow.

The United Auto Workers union has agreed to consider re-opening its contract to see what additional concessions it might negotiate. Most likely concessions are eliminating a jobs bank that provides pay for some 3,000 laid off workers, and allowing auto companies to delay contributions to the retiree health and benefits fund negotiated last year. But UAW President Ron Gettelfinger told the Senate Banking Committee the union opposes any attempt to make the workers “shoulder the entire burden of any restructuring.”

He noted, “Wages and benefits only make up 10 percent of the costs of the domestic auto companies. So the current difficulties facing the Detroit-based auto companies cannot be blamed on workers and retirees.”

Gettelfinger pointed out that autoworkers earn on average $28 an hour, not $70 as widely reported, and last year’s contract conceded a $14 starting wage for new workers. A union worker’s average benefits add up to about another $10 an hour. The phony $70 figure comes from an accounting sleight-of-hand that inflates the labor cost for active workers by adding on the companies’ costs for “legacy” benefits for hundreds of thousands of GM, Ford and Chrysler retirees.

“The main reason that Chrysler, Ford and GM have higher legacy costs than the foreign nameplate operations in the United States is not because their retiree benefits are much higher — it’s because they have so many more retirees,” the UAW says in a list of questions and answers on its web site.

Working families and retirees have less discretionary money to spend than ever — almost all is earmarked for recurrent bills like housing, heating and health care. While multi-millionaires like Mitt Romney may not worry about such things, how will goods be bought and production pick up if the wages of unionized workers are seen as the problem instead of the solution? This is another reason why labor is fighting so hard — and the rest of the country should join them — to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. It would make union organizing a fairer process and would result in better wages for all working people.

jrummel @pww.org

Autoworkers rally for good jobs

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 08:14:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO — “I don’t know but I’ve been told, Wall St. got bailed out with gold,” and “What kind of jobs? Good jobs!” they chanted, as they circled the entrance to Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office, a giant United Auto Workers union banner floating overhead.

The scene was a Dec. 6 rally by over 200 autoworkers, other UAW members and their union and community supporters, urging Congress to protect workers’ livelihoods by approving a bridge loan to the Big Three auto makers: General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.

Asked what she thinks is needed to stimulate the economy, Mary Elliott replied, “Just help working people in America. Wall Street gets bailed out, but working people need help.” Elliott, financial secretary of UAW Local 2244 — which represents workers at New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc., the GM-Toyota joint venture plant in Fremont, Calif. — said she hopes the plant will start producing fuel-efficient vehicles.

Said autoworker Allen Schuck, “They want us to take further concessions, but Wall St. and its employees didn’t take cuts” in return for that bailout. Schuck said cuts could cause his eight-member family to lose their house and health benefits. He called for a national health care program like those in Canada and Europe, and emphasized that workers “can’t bear financial responsibility for everything in this country.”

Leo Garcia, a retiree and UAW Local 2244’s second vice president, shared Schuck’s concerns about workers bearing most of the burden. “Company executives claim labor costs are too high, but they’re only about 10 percent of the cost of making a car,” he said. “The companies need to cut executive pay and bonuses.” Garcia said rescue funds should be “put to good use, such as building hybrids instead of gas guzzlers. Once GM was a big successful company,” he added. “They can get that back but they will have to do things differently.”

As the workers paused briefly in their chanting, Alameda Labor Council head Sharon Cornu assured them of the Council’s support and pointed out that “nine out of 10” of the country’s most productive auto plants are unionized. “The criterion to save the industry must be fuel economy,” she added. “I know our union plant will set the pace.”

Newly elected California Assemblymember Nancy Skinner told the workers, “The economy depends on workers, not on ‘fat cats’ who come to hearings in corporate jets. Any one of them could be fired and it wouldn’t hurt the economy.”

As the rally wound to a close, hospital worker Doug Jones, a member of United Healthcare Workers West, observed, “The work autoworkers do, and their compensation, is the essence of middle class America. This fight is important for the economy now and in the future. It is entirely possible for us to win.”

mbechtel @pww.org

Republic sit-in ends, workers declare victory!

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 05:40:00 +0000

CHICAGO — Workers occupying Republic Windows and Doors declared victory after they unanimously voted to approve a settlement reached after three days of negotiations with the company and Bank of American, its chief creditor.

“The occupation is over,” said Armando Robles, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers Local (UE) 1110 president. “We have achieved victory. We said we will not go until we got justice and we have it.” UE represents the 250 production workers at the plant.

The settlement totals $1.75 million and provides workers with eight weeks of pay, two months of continued health coverage and accrued and unused vacation pay. Money from Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, which owns 40% of the company, will be placed in a separate fund to administer the payments.

'This is about more than just money, said UE Western Region President Carl Rosen. 'It's about what can be achieved when workers organize and stand up for justice.'

The workers weren’t able to save the plant, which will close. However, UE Director of Organization Bob Kingsley announced the creation of a new foundation dedicated to reopening the plant starting with seed money from the UE national union and the thousands of dollars of donations to UE Local 1110's Solidarity Fund that have come in from across the country and around the world. The fund will be called the “Window of Opportunity Fund.”

The occupation started Dec. 5 when it was shut down after the company’s main financier, Bank of America, refused to extend a line of credit. The occupation became a symbol of workers across the country struggling with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and what’s seen as a failure of the federal bailout of banks and financial institutions. The day the occupation started, the U.S. Labor Department said 533,000 more jobs were lost in November.

The action created a storm of outrage because Bank of America recently received a $25 billion bailout package from the federal government, but decided it wouldn’t go to keep manufacturing operations running. When the company skipped a Dec. 5 meeting with the United Electrical Workers’ union (UE) and Bank of America, the workers unanimously voted to stage a sit-in.

“These workers are to this struggle perhaps what Rosa Parks was to social justice 50 years ago,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson said. “This, in many ways, is the beginning of a larger movement for mass action to resist economic violence.”

The action against some of the most powerful economic forces in the nation generated worldwide solidarity and support including from President-elect Barack Obama, who called the workers’ demands “absolutely right.” Food, money and solidarity messages poured in and area unions, religious and community activists demonstrated daily with the workers.

Many solidarity actions were part of the Jobs with Justice Coalition People’s Bailout Now Week of Actions Dec. 7-13. A group of religious leaders in town for a meeting of Interfaith Workers Justice rallied at the plant Dec. 9.

“We’re here to stand with these workers to support them in their struggle for justice,” Rev. Nelson Johnson told the World. Johnson is co-president and board member of Interfaith Worker Justice and vice-president of the Pulpit Forum in Greensboro, N.C.

“People need to work and this is no time for the banks or the company to betray the interests of the American people who made this [bailout] money available for moments precisely like this one that should directly benefit the workers here,” said Johnson.

The company, maker of vinyl windows for the home construction market, had employed 300 workers at the factory, including 250 unionized production workers, for 45 years. The firm started as a family operation but now the Wall Street behemoths Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, have controlling interest in the company.

Republic closed the factory with three days notice when Bank of America refused it a $5 million line of credit. As chief investor, BA has effectively controlled the company’s finances. The abrupt closure clearly violated the federal WARN Act, requiring employers to give 60 days notice of a mass layoff (Illinois state law mandates 75 days) or pay the workers and continue their health benefits for that time.

City, county and state officials called for breaking ties with Bank of America if they don’t release funds so the workers could receive what they were owed. They also called for an investigation into what Bank of America is doing with the bailout funds, perhaps investing in overseas operations but not in the United States.

“The government gave $25 billion to BA. They are supposed to work with businesses to keep them open, not shut them down,” Lalo Munoz, 54, told the World. Munoz, a machine operator, had worked at the plant for 34 years.

Others see the banks and corporations as taking advantage of the financial and economic crisis to break unions, shed worker benefits and pensions. UE spokespersons say Republic, which received millions of dollars in city subsidies, bought a similar plant in Iowa. Speculation is production will be restarted in the non-union Iowa plant. The role of the banks in this decision is not known.

“The workers want Bank of America to keep the plant open and the workers employed,” said UE's Rosen. “There is always a demand for windows and doors. But with Barack Obama’s stimulus proposal, there will be even greater demand for the products made by Republic’s workers. It doesn’t make sense to close this plant when the need is so obvious.'

jbachtell @ cpusa.org