People Before Profit blog

2009: The year labor started turning its hopes into reality

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:51:00 +0000

Only a year ago, despite a super recession that had tightened its grip on their country, American workers were full of hope that a new day had dawned.

Twelve months later they are taking stock of many gains even as they dig in their heels for what has become a protracted battle to fix the economic calamity left by the Bush administration.

The year started with the nation's first African American president, backed by the labor movement, replacing the most anti-worker president in perhaps 100 years.

Barack Obama arrived in the nation's capital with a large Democratic majority in the House and a big, although not filibuster-proof, majority in the Senate.

George Bush and his big business backers had driven the economy into the worst economic crash since the Great Depression. Labor unions, their allies and many of the Democrats in Congress began pushing programs designed to end the recession and, in mid-winter, some of their most important goals seemed within reach. These included universal health care and the Employee Free Choice Act, a law that would make it easier to expand the ranks of the labor movement.

One by one, in some cases as new laws passed by Congress and in others as executive orders signed by President Obama, pro-worker measures were enacted.

They included the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act, inclusion of flight attendants under the protection of the Family and Medical leave Act, the re-instatement of Project Labor Agreements on federally funded construction projects, rules that forbid contractors from using federal funds against union organizing, rules that require agencies to inform workers of their union organizing rights and the opening of talks to end the Bush administration's attack on the Air Traffic Controllers.

The president won passage of a massive economic stimulus package that almost all economists credit with having saved many jobs that otherwise would have been lost in the Great Recession.

The new president invited union leaders into the White House where he told them that unions were not part of the problem but "part of the solution."

Even with these changes, however, there were early signals that disappointments were on the horizon and that it would take a major struggle to ensure that the gains made would be consolidated.

Republicans in the Senate had 40 votes but the Democrats never really had the 60 they could count on to prevent filibusters.

That problem forced the Obama administration to compromise on its first major domestic effort, a massive stimulus package. The compromise resulted in a watered-down version of the jobs creation part of the stimulus package, particularly the part that was meant to rebuild the nation's tattered infrastructure. Republicans were also able to divert some of the job creation effort into tax breaks for businesses.

Another part of the problem with the economic measures taken was the strategic decision, pushed first by the GOP but then supported by many Democratic lawmakers, to bail out Wall Street before bailing out Main Street.

As the Obama administration, the labor movement and all its allies struggled to solve problems on numerous fronts the unemployment rate continued to soar into the double digits. As 2009 draws to a close and the New Year approaches the labor movement, and its progressive allies, some Democratic lawmakers among them, are demanding a second stimulus package. Only this time they want the focus to be jobs, especially the millions of green jobs needed to meet immediate infrastructure needs and to rebuild the nation's manufacturing base

Predictably, the response from the GOP is "no." Obstructing progress, as usual, they are claiming that jobs programs are unaffordable and that they will add to the deficit. Labor, with the backing of reputable economists, is arguing that government spending is needed now to boost the economy and lay the groundwork for long-term deficit reduction.

On health care, meanwhile, the bill finally approved by the Senate, historic as it is for the curbs it places on the insurance companies, looks much different than what the labor movement had hoped for in the beginning of the year. In the Senate, the progressive version passed earlier in the year by the Senate's Health Committee was scuttled in favor of the less comprehensive reform bill put forward by the Finance Committee.

The labor movement finds itself fighting, as we close out 2009, for more cost control measures to be added to the bill - measures that would have been provided by a strong public option. Labor is also opposing the portion of the bill that taxes workers' health insurance.

GOP delaying tactics on passage of health care reform also combined with the lack of 60 sure votes to break Republican filibusters to hold up passage, this year, of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would level the playing field between workers and bosses in organizing and bargaining.

The lead Senate sponsor of the EFCA, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who took over that role from the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., attempted to negotiate a compromise to get the 60 votes but ended up having to focus on health care, instead.

The labor movement has made it clear, however, that it intends to fight like never before to ensure that the changes it won this year will be added to next year and that it intends to remain a powerful force in American politics.

That was the message that came out of the AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh last fall. The federation elected its Secretary-Treasurer, Richard Trumka as its new president to replace John Sweeney, who retired.

Trumka is backing ongoing efforts to re-unite the nation's two labor federations, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win, and he has served notice that politicians in both parties who double-cross the labor movement will, in 2010, face working-class voters ready and able to turn them out of office. He is saying that from now on no lawmaker will be able to take labor's support for granted.

When it comes to ending the recession, the federation says, all politicians will be judged in 2010 on how well they address what labor sees as the top priority for the new year -the creation of the millions of good-paying jobs needed to guarantee that everyone in the nation who wants a job will have a job.

U.S. union members delivered jobs message in Copenhagen

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:23:00 +0000

Forty union members from the United States made the trip to the climate change talks in Copenhagen this month. Their aim was to make sure world leaders heard workers' view about what should be done to save the planet.

Carl Wood, regulatory director of the Utility Workers Union of America and a Democratic candidate for state assembly in Southern California, was among them. Wood expressed frustration about the lack of progress on a firm binding agreement. But, he said, the world labor movement succeeded in making it clear to the world's leaders that "workers, their families and their unions are watching."

"We made it clear that we want the leaders of the world to commit to an agreement that results in a world we can live in, and good jobs that go along with creating that better world," Wood said.

Sharan Burrows, president of the International Trade Union Confederation and leader of the Australian Confederation of Trade Unions, said the labor movement is now on record "in support of the highest ambitions for binding targets in developing nations. We urge nations to accept transparency, to ensure trust through a global treaty that is completed in the first half of 2010."

Burrows called upon wealthy nations to lay the foundations for that trust by providing the financing and technology to kick-start low-carbon development, investment in climate resilience, and decent jobs toward those ends. She said, "The investments will transform our economies and create millions of new jobs as we rebuild after the devastation of the global financial crisis."

Furthering this theme, Wood said, "Those who say we have too much work restoring the economy to be bothered with dealing with the environment have it exactly upside down. Climate change is actually an opportunity to rebuild the economy."

Wood noted that 40 percent of the energy use in America is heating and cooling using electricity, natural gas and fuel oil, and it also involves transportation which uses petroleum. "These two areas are highly susceptible to efficiency, for example by weatherization or green jobs in building mass transit. The labor movement understands this and intends to build for this future," he said.

Mike Langford, president of the Utility Workers Union, told reporters at a press conference, "Renewable energy, and the green jobs that come along with it, are key to our economic growth."

"In order to lead the world in renewable energy technologies, and create good jobs that support our families and communities, we must look at ways to rebuild and revitalize American manufacturing," he said.

"We can't keep doing what we're doing."

Photo: Demonstration on the last day of the UN climate summit in Copenhagen, Dec. 18. (AP/Polfoto, Jens Dige)

Bah humbug!

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:49:00 +0000

Fewer days off - good or bad? Can we have shorter hours and good pay? People's World readers might think it's a no-brainer. But this season there's an online debate on this very question, sponsored by The Economist magazine, and you can weigh in.

John De Graaf is executive director of Take Back Your Time, an organization dedicated to fighting for the right of all Americans to have paid vacation time and "more opportunities for free time in our lives." He will be taking on Northwestern University Professor Robert Gordon, an expert on inflation, unemployment and productivity issues. (With these academic qualifications, could Gordon have been the brains behind the guy with the clipboard who used to stand behind me in my days on the assembly line?)

The question before the house is: "This house believes that Europeans would be better off with fewer holidays and higher incomes."

De Graaf says, "When I first read this resolution I thought there was some mistake, that the real resolution must be: 'This house believes that Americans get too little holiday time.'"

He invites Take Back Your Time supporters to have a look at the debate and express themselves. Gordon's and De Graaf's opening statements are already posted. The rebuttals will be added on Thursday and the closing statements on Saturday. Readers will have until Dec. 31 to vote for whichever arguments they feel are the strongest and to make comments of their own. "Comments must be reasoned and polite'" adds De Graaf.

To join in the debate, go to the overview on The Economist's web site.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alancleaver/ / CC BY 2.0

Labor Dept. to force firms to disclose union-busting tactics

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:06:00 +0000

Among at least 20 new rules President Obama's Labor Department plans to introduce in the new year is one that would require companies to file financial disclosures on their union-busting activity.

In a series of web chats over the last few weeks, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has been pledging that 2010 will be a year in which her agency steps up what is already regarded as a strong effort by the department to go to bat for workers.

Solis is saying, in those web chats, that the efforts will involve not just new rules but stronger enforcement. To that end, the Labor Department is hiring 100 additional inspectors.

"The department's emphasis will be on green jobs, on more enforcement, protection of workers, and helping returning veterans receive employment assistance and job training," the Secretary of Labor says in one message, "but, in addition, we have 22 new regulatory items on the agenda."

Forcing companies to make more disclosures regarding their union busting is perhaps, one of the most important changes that the department plans.

Solis notes that companies have actually used loopholes in existing law to avoid such disclosure. "Under the Labor-Management Disclosure Act," the 1959 GOP-passed Landrum-Griffin law, "an employer must report an agreement with a consultant hired to persuade employees as to their collective bargaining rights," Solis said.

The law allows employers, however, an exemption if the consultants are merely "advising" the employers on these matters. Solis says, "The exemption is overly broad because indirect efforts to persuade are considered ‘advice' and are not reportable under the current interpretation of the exemption."

In one of the on-line chats Deputy Assistant Secretary for Labor-Management Standards John Lund talked about how the department has already actually pulled back additional disclosure requirements that the Bush administration had put on unions, particularly teachers unions and other public sector unions.

"This matter has not been finally decided. The issue is under consideration and will be the subject of an open and transparent rulemaking process," he said.

Earlier this year the Labor Department nixed plans hatched by the Bush administration to impose additional disclosure rules on individual union officers and shop stewards. Bush wanted to force these individuals to provide line-item spending reports and to include in those reports everything from paychecks to paper clips used for union-related activity.
Another rule change the Labor Department wants to make would create a separate ergonomic job injury log in Occupational Safety and Health Administration reports. Companies would be required to faithfully maintain these logs and send copies of them to OSHA.

There was such a rule in the past but the very first piece of legislation signed into law by President Bush, passed by a GOP Congress, eliminated that rule.
Ergonomic injuries, repetitive-motion injuries and musculoskeletal disorders, amount to a third of all on-the-job injuries.

Another planned change is the hiring by the Wage and Hour Division of 250 new investigators. The division will focus on industries with high violation rates and large numbers of "vulnerable" workers, according to Deputy Administrator Nancy Leppink in her on-line chat.

The industries Leppink referred to include agriculture, restaurants, janitorial, construction and car washes.

She said her division is trying to make it easier for workers to report wage and hour violations, including failure to provide overtime pay and underpayment of minimum wages or Davis-Bacon wages.

To make it easier, "because workers are fearful of losing their jobs in this economy and therefore less likely to file complaints when they are cheated," Leppink said complaints can be filed by third parties, "as long as the third party has sufficient information to indicate a probable violation.The third party complainant can call the Wage and Hour office or the toll-free helpline at 866-4US-WAGE."

Still another new regulation the department plans is one that orders coal mines to reduce miners' exposure to coal dust, a documented cause of "black lung" and other diseases.
The present rule, setting a limit of 2 mg. of coal dust per cubic meter of air, was set in 1972. A 1995 federal study, which the Bush administration never acted on, called for a lower limit and listed proposed tougher enforcement actions.

Photo: AP Alex Brandon

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, left, talks with Attorney General Eric Holder, before President Barack Obama signs a proclamation celebrating the 19th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act in the East Room at the White House in Washington Friday, July 24, 2009.

At nation’s airports, security officers battle for a union

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:43:00 +0000

CLEVELAND - Labor activists rallied in support of transportation security officers (TSOs) seeking union bargaining rights at Cleveland Hopkins Airport Thursday. The one-hour morning and afternoon actions on the flight departure deck were among dozens of similar protests held at airports throughout the U.S. during a National Solidarity Week called by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).

Nearly half the 257 TSOs at Hopkins have joined the union, Joe Gattarello, president of Cleveland Local 615, said.

"They are paying union dues even without a contract or bargaining rights," he said, adding that nearly the same fraction of the 38,000 TSOs nationwide have also joined.

What is the reason for the strong desire to organize?

"Favoritism, cronyism and nepotism run rampant in all the airports," said national AFGE organizer Vickie Pennington.

When George W. Bush set up the Transportation Security Administration in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, Admiral James M. Loy, Bush's appointee to head up airport security, immediately announced that, unlike workers at all other federal agencies, TSOs would have no right to form a union and bargain a contract.

Federal security directors appointed at each airport have exercised arbitrary power, Pennington said. This includes all working conditions - petty harassment of workers who complain, purposely misfiling workers compensation claims, and arbitrary actions on allocation of sick days and family and medical leave, preserving seniority of workers who are promoted and granting raises and bonuses.

"These things are discretionary at each airport," she said.

"It all depends on who you know, who you hang out with, who you play football with," said Gattarello, adding that his pay has been frozen since he started organizing the union in 2003.

"The next few weeks are critical in our legislative and political campaign to represent workers at TSA," the AFGE declared in a statement released to the media.

The union says President Obama has promised to rescind Bush administration anti-union edicts and give TSOs bargaining rights. The appointment of Erroll Southers, Obama's nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration, has been put on hold by an undisclosed Republican senator that the union believes is Jim DeMint of South Carolina. But the union is hopeful that the solidarity actions will push the process forward. In addition, AFGE is backing a bill in the House, HR 1881, that would permanently grant bargaining rights for the TSA workforce.

Photo: Transportation security officers and supporters rally at Cleveland's Hopkins Airport Dec. 17. (Photo by Les Wiley)

Labor on Senate health bill: Substantial changes must be made

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:18:00 +0000

For the health care bill that is emerging in the Senate "to be worthy of the support of working men and women, substantial changes must be made," declared Richard Trumka, the federation's president in a statement this afternoon. The statement, which followed by 24 hours an emergency session during which the federation's executive council discussed the Senate compromise, said, "The AFL-CIO intends to fight on behalf of all working families to make those changes and win health care reform that is deserving of the name.

"The absolute refusal of Republicans in the Senate to support health care reform and the hijacking of the bill by defenders of the insurance industry has brought us a bill that is inadequate," said Trumka. "It is too kind to the insurance industry."

The official AFL-CIO statement on the compromise measure lists three changes that it says should be made in the Senate bill.

First, the federation wants a public health insurance option which it described as "the way to break the stranglehold of the insurance industry over consumers that has led to double digit premium increases virtually every year."

Second, the statement says, more must be done to make employers pay their fair share of the costs of reform
.
A third "must," according to the statement, is that "the benefits of hard-working Americans cannot be taxed to pay for health care reform - that's no way to rein in insurance companies and it's the wrong way to pay for health care reform."

Trumka did indicate, however, that the federation considers some parts of the Senate bill to be positive. "It will provide health insurance to 30 million more Americans and provide subsidies to low-income individuals and families," he said. "Benefits will have to meet minimum standards and insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions or impose lifetime or unreasonable annual limits. The bill also included some relief for plans with early retirees as well as delivery system reforms that may lead to lower costs over the long haul."

Trumka noted, however, that "because the bill bends toward the insurance industry, it will not check costs in the short term, and its financing asks working people and the country to pay the price. The House bill is the model for genuine health care reform. Working people cannot accept anything less than real reform."

At a Thursday press conference the Service Employees International Union indicated that it too is seeking similar improvements in the Senate bill and specified that it hopes the House-Senate conference on the bill will result in some of those improvements.

"We think it's time for the Senate to take a vote," declared Andy Stern, the union's president.

"It's time for the obstructionists to get out of the way and it's time to write the final chapter on this health care bill. It's time to move to conference and we will fight so that the process there will result in something better than what we see in the Senate now."

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/labor2008/ / CC BY 2.0

Working people cannot accept anything less than real reform, says labor leader

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:49:00 +0000

Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka
On Health Care Bill
December 17, 2009

The labor movement has been fighting for health care for nearly 100 years and we are not about to stop fighting now, when it really matters.

But for this health care bill to be worthy of the support of working men and women, substantial changes must be made. The AFL-CIO intends to fight on behalf of all working families to make those changes and win health care reform that is deserving of the name.

The absolute refusal of Republicans in the Senate to support health care reform and the hijacking of the bill by defenders of the insurance industry have brought us a Senate bill that is inadequate: It is too kind to the insurance industry.

Genuine health care reform must bring down health costs, hold insurance companies accountable, assure that Americans can get the health care they need and be financed fairly.

• That's why we are championing a public health insurance option: It is the way to break the stranglehold of the insurance industry over consumers that has led to double digit premium increases virtually every year.

• Employers must pay their fair share.

• And the benefits of hard-working Americans cannot be taxed to pay for health care reform-that's no way to rein in insurance companies and it's the wrong way to pay for health care reform.

Those are the changes for which we will be fighting in the coming days.

The Senate bill does some good things: It will provide health insurance to 30 million more Americans and provide subsidies to low income individuals and families. Benefits will have to meet minimum standards and insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions or impose lifetime or unreasonable annual limits. The bill also includes some relief for plans with early retirees as well as delivery system reforms that may lead to lower costs over the long haul. And Senate leaders have made a commitment to close the Medicare prescription drugs donut hole which is so costly to seniors.

But because it bends toward the insurance industry, the Senate bill will not check costs in the short term, and its financing asks working people and the country to pay the price, even as benefits are cut.

The House bill is the model for genuine health care reform. Working people cannot accept anything less than real reform.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/italintheheart/ / CC BY 2.0

Labor weighs its next move in the health care battle

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:34:00 +0000

While a clear position on the latest Senate compromises on health care reform did not emerge from closed-door meetings of the nation's labor leaders last night what did emerge was a clear signal that labor is determined to continue the fight for health care that is affordable, for reform that curbs the power of the insurance companies, for rules that require corporations to cover their workers and for an approach that makes the wealthy pay a fair share of the cost.

Before it convened yesterday in an emergency session there were reports that the AFL-CIO Executive Council, angry over what it sees as the Senate's retreat on health care reform, would consider a resolution to oppose the latest deal which, among other things dumps both a government-run public option and a compromise replacement for that option, a Medicare buy-in for those 55 and older.

A high-level aide to the president of a union active in the fight for health care reform, on condition of anonymity, told the World last night that the reports were accurate and that union leaders expressed their anger about the compromise at the Wednesday meeting. He said, however, that no decision was reached because many at the meeting want time for labor and its allies in the fight for health care reform to work out a coordinated response to the continuing right wing attacks on health care reform.

That attack continued yesterday as Republicans tried to stall debate in the Senate by forcing the Senate clerk to read a 767 page amendment to the bill that would allow individual states to set up their own single-payer health insurance systems.

The aide told the World that labor leaders at the emergency meeting yesterday were "angry beyond words" that Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt., had to withdraw the amendment. Many of the unions represented in the federation's Executive Council support single-payer health insurance. After 100 pages and three hours, an angry Sanders gave up.

The aide told the World that, "Most of the executive council members are very angry about what is going on in the Senate and a good number see the bill that has emerged so far as a bailout of the insurance industry. Some even see the mandate for everyone to buy coverage as a bad thing now that the bill has been weakened so much."

The aide said, however, that "despite the anger labor leaders want to continue the fight to push for what they can. They realize that we are in a very tough situation here. Some noted, at the meeting, that Sen. Sherrod Brown, a leader in this fight for reform, is still saying he will back the bill because it includes some very important reforms."

That position seemed to be reflected yesterday in a statement released by the Service Employees International Union, whose leaders also met yesterday to deal with issues raised by the Senate compromise.

The SEIU statement noted that positives in the bill include coverage of an additional 30 million people, ending the ability of insurers to cancel policies when people get sick, ending denial of coverage to people with pre-existing conditions and ending some of the discrimination women face because of their gender. The statement said the union had problems with the bill, however, because "for many people, care will still be too expensive to afford, some of you would face an additional burden because your health insurance benefits would be taxed, and the best way we saw possible to hold insurance companies accountable is no longer an option."

It is clear that on both sides of the health care battle the fight is continuing.
Even after all the concessions he has won to weaken reform, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman yesterday demanded assurances from Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic Majority Leader, that the House-Senate Conference report won't include the public option. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., joined him in that demand.

The public option could be re-inserted into the bill when the House-Senate conference irons out the differences between the stronger House bill and the weaker Senate bill. Lieberman is worried about that possibility because labor and its allies will continue their push for what they see as real reform after the Senate passes its version and because the rules of the Senate don't give senators as much leverage to block a conference report as they give for blocking an original bill.

The labor movement, for its part, is signaling its intention to continue pushing.
"We know we will fight," SEIU said in its statement yesterday. "We will continue the fight for everything we know is important. We will fight to make care affordable. We will fight for real health insurance reforms. We will fight for employers to provide their employees with coverage. And we will fight to pay for it without taxing workers' benefits."

The union plans a news conference later today to tell the White House and Congress why the Senate bill has to be improved.

Photo: Robert F. Bukaty/AP People march for health care reform, July 18, in Portland, Maine.

House to pass jobs bill

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:59:00 +0000

While AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, in a live webcast yesterday, answered questions about the jobs crisis from workers all over the country, Democratic leaders announced that they aim to pass a bill this week that will create millions of jobs.
The measure includes a considerable part of the labor federation's five-point jobs program, an issue Trumka discussed during the webcast.

One bill in the House will include $48 billion for "shovel-ready" construction projects and $27 billion in aid to states to keep teachers, police and public service workers on payroll. A second measure would help small businesses obtain loans and extend unemployment benefits.

House leaders said half of the $150 billion price tag will come from a $700 billion federal fund for bank bailouts approved by Congress last year. The labor movement's jobs program includes a demand that TARP funds be used to create jobs and encourage community banks to extend loans to small businesses.

Democratic leaders said the House would pass the legislation as early as today. While the safety net procedures, including extension of jobless benefits, could become law by next week, the jobs package component will not be considered by the Senate until at least January.

"This is legislation that brings jobs to Main Street by increasing credit for small businesses, by rebuilding the infrastructure of America and by keeping police and firemen and teachers on the job," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters.

While Pelosi made her remarks more than 5,500 people were voting on more than 150 questions workers had submitted for the AFL-CIO webcast. Those who called in asked questions on a wide range of subjects including green jobs, training, trade and unemployment in particularly distressed areas.

During his webcast Trumka tied the jobs crisis to what he called "the entire neo-liberal project - putting markets ahead of people, fighting regulations and unions." He said "that course has failed us."

Taking aim at joblessness among the nation's youth, he said. "We are going to have a young worker summit next year, to talk to young workers and build a strategy together."
He said that unions, before they endorse candidates, will be watching closely their records on job creation.

The unemployment benefits extension the House plans to pass right away would be for two months, although they plan to ultimately extend those benefits by six months. Health-care subsidies for the jobless and food-stamp programs would also be extended.
The extensions of the so-called "lifelines" will be combined with a $630 billion military spending bill which President Obama wants to sign into law by next week.

The funds for the "shovel ready" infrastructure projects and for additional aid to the states will be voted on separately and will not be taken up by the Senate until January.
Under the heading of "infrastructure," highway construction will get $27.5 billion and transit programs will get $8.4 billion. There will be $2 billion for improvement of drinking-water systems and $2 billion for affordable housing.

The state aid portion of the bill, pays for retaining public service workers, including teachers, to the tune of $23 billion.

Of the $185 billion that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says banks will return to the TARP program, $75 billion can, according to Democratic leaders, be used to help pay for the jobs program. TARP money, according to budget rules, cannot be used to pay for life-line extensions or for the $24 billion the bill includes to help states pay for health insurance for the poor.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/labor2008/ / CC BY 2.0

Newspaper guild protests benefit cuts

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:21:00 +0000

ST. LOUIS - "Lee Enterprises is cutting retirees' health care, not because they are losing money, but because they want more profits," said Shannon Duffy, business manager for the St. Louis Newspaper Guild to about 100 Guild members and supporters as they rallied outside the St. Louis Post-Dispatch building here Dec. 15.

Lee Enterprises, which owns the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, recently canceled the company-paid health insurance plan for retirees. Most retirees received notices in the mail post marked Dec. 4, just weeks before the Christmas holiday. They will lose their health care subsidy effective January 1, 2010.

"They are going after everybody," Duffy continued. "They don't care what time of the year it is. This is all about corporate greed. They are making profits off of your backs."

According to Dan Mckay, president of the Teamsters Local 600, "corporate greed is a spreading disease taking over our country. It has to stop."

Some retirees have monthly health care plans costing over $1,500. Additionally, the St. Louis Newspaper Guild expects Lee Enterprises to attempt to cut health care benefits during the next round of contract negotiations for current members. The St. Louis Newspaper Guild represents over 300 news and advertising employees at the Post-Dispatch.

In 2008 Lee Enterprises CEO Mary Junck received a $2.5 million compensation package, and Lee CFO Carl Schmidt received $1.2 million in compensation. Lee is based in Davenport, Iowa and owns 53 newspapers across the country.

"For executives to enrich themselves while cutting health care for the elderly is morally repugnant," said Duffy.

According to the Guild, union members were promised company-paid health care for life. As a result, many retired before becoming eligible for Medicare. In many cases, health care premiums exceed company pensions.

"Lee is reneging on a promise made to men and women who dedicated their working lives to the Post-Dispatch," said Duffy. "That promise is explicit in union contracts."

The Guild is currently pursuing a lawsuit against Lee aimed at forcing it to pay the full cost of retiree health care.

Photo: PW/Tony Pecinovsky

Wal-Mart warehouse workers file wage theft suit

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:01:00 +0000

ELLWOOD, Ill. - Workers employed by a large staffing agency at a Wal-Mart warehouse here filed a class action lawsuit Dec. 10 alleging that Select-Remedy, the temp agency contracted to staff the warehouse has been shorting wages over the past several years.

The lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, also alleges that the company did not pay time-and-a-half for overtime work.

The workers, who distribute products to stores in the Midwest, say they were paid in split checks to avoid overtime payments. They also claim they were not fully paid for hours worked, a practice known as "wage theft."

The suit, filed under the Illinois Day Labor and Temporary Services Act, targets Select-Remedy, a California-based nationwide temp agency also known as Real Time Staffing Services, Inc. The workers are being represented by the Working Hands legal clinic

In a press release Ruben Bautista, a worker and plaintiff in the suit said, "Wal-Mart is the richest company in the world, but the people who distribute their products are treated like slaves." He continued, "Our suit is against the temp agency, but we hold Wal-Mart responsible for what has happened to us. They control what happens in their warehouse."

Miguel Deniz, another worker said something was wrong when he began to notice he was getting paid fewer hours than he had worked. Deniz said the company was dividing up his work hours into short blocks to avoid both the appearance of his working more than 40 hours a week and the necessity of paying him overtime.

Speaking to a reporter with In These Times, Deniz, a 62-year old veteran day laborer said he almost always never got paid his complete hours of work.

"To avoid paying us 40 hours, they gave us six hours here, six hours there," he said. "Also, if in four days I worked 30 hours, they only paid me for 17 or 18."

Deniz adds he would work for 57 hours and only get paid for 35.

"I think it's unjust that we're not getting paid complete hours for overtime. We're being defrauded," he said during a press conference in front of a Chicago west side Wal-Mart store Dec. 10.

"It's an injustice and an abuse what they are committing against us,"
said Deniz.

Critics say the giant Centerpoint Intermodal Center in Elwood, Ill., where the Wal-Mart warehouse is located made Chicago the distribution capital of the hemisphere.

"Retailers like Wal-Mart take advantage of Chicago's position as a rail and transport hub," said Abraham Mwaura, coordinator of Warehouse Workers for Justice. "They made $3.24 billion last quarter, but they wont even pay their workers what they are owed. We can't allow this in our community."

A Wal-Mart spokesperson has reportedly said the company hired another company to manage its warehouse, which hired the temp agency. Wal-Mart says they work to comply with all labor laws and regulations and they rely on their third-party vendors to do the same.

According to Mark Meinster, board member with Warehouse Workers for Justice, Will County, where the Wal-Mart warehouse is located, has the highest concentration of temp agencies in Illinois on a per capita basis. Speaking to the Bolingbrook Sun, Meinster notes some distribution companies hire temp agencies to avoid paying benefits including health insurance, and vacation and holiday pay.

"We feel that the logistics industry in Will County needs to look at this problem and take responsibility for what's happening in this supply chain," he said. "These could be very good, blue-collar jobs. There's no reason these jobs shouldn't be paying a living wage and shouldn't be providing decent benefits for people."

Meinster points out that violations against the Wal-Mart warehouse workers are not seen everywhere. However they are prevalent in multiple warehouses given that 70 percent of the industry are temporary workers.

It's the law if you work for one employer more than 40 hours a week, they have to pay you time and a half, he said.

Chris Williams, an attorney representing the workers said Select-Remedy is primarily responsible for the alleged wage. Yet Wal-Mart and other big warehouse owners who contract with temp agencies are also ultimately at fault both legally and practically.

Big companies like Wal-Mart pit smaller temp agencies against each other to get the lowest price, he said.

They'll do whatever it takes to drive labor costs down and the only way to make a profit is to cheat the workers, he said.

Festive crowd greets annual Philadelphia PW awards banquet

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:38:00 +0000

PHILADELPHIA - A crowd of 90 supporters turned out for the annual People's Weekly World banquet here to honor United Steelworkers Local 404 as well as longtime People's World supporter Lou Incognito. The banquet honored Local 404 for its role in building the labor movement locally and for the union's role nationally in organizing the "Blue Green Alliance". Their award was accepted by local president Lindsay Patterson, who in turn presented a plaque to retiring subdistrict director Donald Harper. Also in attendance were USW District 10 director John De Fazio and Assistant Director John Zanetti, who both travelled from Pittsburgh for the event.

Honoree Lou Incognito, a supporter and distributor of, and writer for the paper for many years, was accompanied by a large contingent of his family including his (grown up) children as well as grandchildren. He gave an engaging account of his intellectual journey which led him eventually to the realization that the social justice principles he learned in Catholic school could best be realized in progressive working-class political activity.

James Bradford closed the program with a demonstration of the new People's World website and the extensive possibilities it presents for political and social justice activists. Those in attendance appeared to consider this banquet a fitting and appropriate kick off for the holiday season.

Boycott Wendy's!

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:34:00 +0000

DUBLIN, Ohio - "This is corporate greed at its finest," stated Ohio state Rep. Dan Stewart, addressing an angry crowd of unionists and supporters at Wendy's headquarters here. "At some point we have to demand to know; ‘Just how many billions are enough? Just exactly how low should worker's wages and benefits be driven down to? And, ultimately, who exactly is supposed to buy their burgers when we reach that point?'"

Central Ohio unionists and supporters braved cold weather to demand that Wendy's corporation stop its holiday assault on union bakers, their families and the nearby community of Zanesville.

"I know one thing," said United Food and Commercial Workers member Joan Fluharty, "I've eaten the last Wendy's burger I'll ever eat. It's just getting to the point that these stinking, greedy corporations will take everything we have, everything our families and communities have, and all just so they can get richer! This has to stop!"

For over 30 years bakers in Zanesville, members of Bakers Local 57 have produced all the buns for Wendy's. They've had a decent relationship with management and have supported their families with good paying jobs, health care and have retired with real pensions. They've been a solid support for the Zanesville community, paying taxes, supporting local schools, etc. When Dave Thomas started Wendy's, it was a local, family owned business, with decent food at fair prices that treated its workers decently. Now all that is changing, due to an epidemic of corporate greed.

Recently, Wendy's was taken over by another corporate giant; Arby's. Not content with the massive profits they're now making, Arby's has issued demands that the workers in Zanesville give up their health care, one vacation week and job rights. Even worse, they are stealing the retiree's health care and wiping out all pensions for new retirees.

"This is just outright corporate greed at its most vicious, and this at holiday time," stated Bakers Union Business Agent Vester Newsome. "We need to stand together and draw a line somewhere to protect regular working families. We're going to stand up for justice and we ask the public to stand with us!"

The Bakers have taken a unanimous strike vote, but hope that they don't have to exercise that right. They're asking the public to not eat at Wendy's at this time, and to call corporate headquarters, 614-764-3100, to demand that the new owners stop trying to destroy unions and communities.

"Sometimes it's just plain too much, and we have to draw a line in the sand and say, ‘No damn more, it ends here,'" said Walt Workman, secretary treasurer of the Central Ohio Central Labor Council. "The Bakers are going to go national with this campaign and we're going to do everything in our power to help them. I think the rest of labor and the American people will support justice when they hear what's going on here!"

Photo: www.bctgm.org/linked sites/JusticeForWendysBakers/

Joy and inspiration mark Chicago People’s World banquet

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 05:59:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Enjoying great music, food and politics, a full house celebrated the 22nd Annual People's World Banquet Dec. 6 at the Parthenon Restaurant. Several thousand dollars was raised for the PW Fund Drive from supporters who dug deep despite the hard economic times.

The attendees, a rainbow crowd of labor, community and religious activists, entered the festive room to the sounds of the jazz trio, Lovers in Arms, and a running slide show of photos from struggles over the past year.

PW staff writer Pepe Lozano welcomed everyone. Oohs and aahs greeted waiters bearing the house specialty, Saganaki, or flaming cheese.

The program was emceed by Katie Jordan, president of Chicago Coalition for Labor Union Women. She said it was vital for all progressive organizations to share in solidarity and CLUW was excited to be supporting the PW. She said the PW was a unique news source whose voice was needed now more than ever.

Author and labor leader Amy Dean keynoted the event. In introducing her, CPUSA labor secretary Scott Marshall called her work visionary and innovative. Dean recounted how she learned some enduring lessons as a young organizer for the ILGWU working with Rudy Lozano and through the election of Harold Washington as Mayor of Chicago, including the kind of commitment it took to fight for worker's rights, the need to build grassroots movements and win political power to effect real change.

She noted while electoral coalitions are one thing, governing coalitions are often another. It's vital that labor and its allies have a say in what policies unfold once their candidates are elected. Dean said much more must be done to build up the movement to ensure the Obama agenda and progressive change is advanced in Congress.

Before the dinner Dean signed copies of her new book, "A New, New Deal: How regional activism can reshape the American Labor Movement" which she co-authored with David Reynolds.

The program was punctuated by a joyful performance of Mescolanza, a new performance group of movement veterans Terry Davis, James Thindwa, Sijisfredo Aviles and Bob Huston who hope to carry multi-cultural social justice song to the picket line, rallies and events. Tim Yeager with his accordion joined them at the end for Solidarity Forever and the International.

For their outstanding contributions to worker's and social justice, the People's World also bestowed the Chris Hani-Rudy Lozano award on Dean, the South Austin Coalition, Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff (AFT), Campaign for Better Health Care (CBHC) and Carmen Cohn, a long time reader and supporter of the People's World and rank-and-file organizer at Resurrection Hospitals.

Jonathan Vanderbrug, Health Care Justice Director for CBHC, the largest coalition of health care activists and consumers in Illinois, drew attention to the historic political juncture the nation finds itself in. He urged everyone to continue pressing his or her elected officials to pass health care reform with the public option. He said a victory was vital for future reforms including in immigration, climate change, financial reform on Wall Street and passage of EFCA.

Accepting the award on behalf of South Austin Coalition (SACCC) was community organizer Elce Redmond who is also a steering committee member of Chicago Jobs with Justice. The SACCC has a distinguished history organizing grassroots actions on the West Side of Chicago against foreclosures, for living wages and worker's rights. Redmond urged everyone to stick together and to raise the fight for a massive public works jobs program especially for the distressed African American and Latino communities.

Several leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union joined Chicago ACTS - AFT organizers Hugo Hernandez and Thindwa. Hernandez recounted the pioneering union organizing drive of teachers at three Chicago charter schools last spring. In negotiating the new contracts, ACTS is helping close a big wage and benefit gap between teachers at public and privatized schools, and regulating workload for the first time.

The workers at Resurrection Hospitals have been fighting to join AFSCME for seven years. Many have been fired and threatened. But this hasn't stopped Carmen Cohn, a physical therapist, from participating in the organizing campaign. Cohn described how the workers are being mistreated and just the act of organizing the union has forced some concessions from hospital management.

It was over all too soon. Attendees left the event with stomachs and hearts full.

Photo: Chicago CLUW president Katie Jordan with Amy Dean.

Workers hit tax on ‘Cadillac’ health plans, ‘You are taxing Chevrolets!’

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:41:00 +0000

Workers, union members and lawmakers rallied in the nation's capital yesterday in support of health care reform but against funding it with a new tax on health benefits.

The demonstration was in response to findings in a report commissioned by the Communications Workers of America that the tax on workers' health insurance included in the latest Senate compromise plan would hit 30 million families in the first five years of the plan.

CWA members from all over the country lobbied their representatives to vote against the tax and to vote for the House-backed surcharges on the rich.

We're not rich," said CWA Local 2204 member Valerie Castle-Stanley, who works for AT&T in Norton Va. "We're average middle class Americans. We need quality health care. There's no question that companies will look for ways to pass on this tax. They're sure not going to pay for it. That means my benefits will be cut and my costs will go up. I support health care reform but I can't afford this tax."

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who has introduced an amendment to remove a benefits tax from the Senate bill, and Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., were joined by workers from across the country who stand to suffer if the new benefits tax becomes law.

Sanders warned that "some of my colleagues would have you believe the tax only falls on 'Cadillac' plans, but the truth is that the plans this bill will tax are more like Chevrolets."

"Taxing benefits would hurt all workers. We know that one in five workers would be hurt by this tax and that's a lot more people than just union members," said AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker, who was at the rally.

The CWA, meanwhile, also released the results of a poll yesterday that shows 70 percent of likely voters think a tax on health care benefits is the wrong way to pay for health care reform. Some 55 percent favor paying for health care reform as it is in the bill passed by the House - with a surtax on the very wealthiest households.

The Senate's compromise health care bill would set a tax on health plans worth more than $8,500 per year for individuals and $23,000 per year for families. For those in high-risk occupations, for retirees 55 or older and for residents in the 17 highest-cost states, the bill would tax plans worth more than $9,850 for individuals and $26,000 for families.

Labor says the modest tax on the richest, who it notes benefited disproportionately from the Bush tax cuts and the unequal economy of recent years, is much fairer than hitting workers struggling in today's economy.

The CWA and a number of other unions are also saying that the Senate plan lets some of the nation's biggest employers, ones that provide little or no benefits, off the hook while it taxes employers who actually are providing decent benefits.

A full-page union ad appearing in newspapers all over the country declares that Wal-Mart, the world's largest private employer, "notorious for its low wages, rabid anti-unionism and high-cost health care, would be virtually unaffected by the Senate's health care revision." The ad, co-signed by the United Food and Commercial Workers, the Teamsters, the Steelworkers the Farm Workers and the Auto Workers, says, "The Senate wants to make the Wal-Mart model into law."

James Hoffa, president of the Teamsters, said, "Millions of Americans will pay thousands of dollars more in taxes under the Senate's proposal to finance health reform. Millions more will have their benefits cut, even if they don't belong to a union.

Hoffa cited a Mercer Consulting survey showing two-thirds of firms would slash benefits instead of paying the tax and another 23 percent would load it onto their workers.

Photo: Sen. Bernie Sanders. http://www.flickr.com/photos/8078800@N07/ / CC BY 2.0

Addison, Ill., Teamsters strike enters 8th week

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 06:57:00 +0000

Workers from Teamsters Local 705 have been on strike for eight weeks against Pain Enterprises in Addison, Ill. They decided to strike because the company threatened to reduce their health benefits, eliminate their pension, and cut twages drastically.

Pain Enterprises is a company that has been making dry ice products for over 50 years. While the workers are striking, Pain has been using scab truck drivers to deliver their products. Local 705 decided to use a bold tactic in which they would follow the trucks and picket outside of each of the delivery destinations.

Solidarity has come from different unions such as SEIU and Teamsters Local 743 whose members went through a similar struggle earlier in the year with SK Tools, as well as other rank-and-file Local 705 members from different companies.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ampersandyslexia/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Obama presses jobless aid, job creation

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:16:00 +0000

Restoring job growth and returning people to work is a top White House priority, President Obama said in a major speech yesterday.

"There are more than 7 million fewer Americans with jobs today than when this recession began," he said. "That's a staggering figure and one that reflects not only the depths of the hole from which we must ascend, but also a continuing human tragedy. And it speaks to an urgent need to accelerate growth in the short term while laying a new foundation for lasting economic growth."

Obama said the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act he signed into law early this year prevented an even worse crisis by adding jobs at a critical time but, with joblessness at a quarter century high, more needs to be done to replace the millions of jobs lost as a result of the recession and of years of failed policies.

"Our work is far from done," the president declared, speaking at the Brookings Institution, a policy think tank. "For even though we have reduced the deluge of job losses to a relative trickle, we are not yet creating jobs at a pace to help all those families who have been swept up in the flood."

He proposed extending unemployment insurance and COBRA benefits for the jobless, incentives to homeowners for energy efficiency measures, incentives to small businesses to encourage hiring, use of remaining funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) for small business loans, aid to states and localities to help preserve services and jobs and boosting infrastructure projects including rail, water systems, broadband networks, clean energy projects and bridges.

Obama's proposals were formulated after a White House jobs summit last week.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who attended that summit, praised Obama's speech but left little doubt that the labor movement will continue to press for even bigger and bolder action on the jobs front. While there is considerable overlap between the president's plan and the federation's five-point jobs program, the AFL-CIO proposals go further than those enunciated thus far by the administration.

"I am encouraged that President Obama and his team are proposing many of the same steps that we see as the most promising, efficient routes to job creation," Trumka declared. "We'll be watching closely to see how Obama and Congress put these proposals into effect in the coming weeks and months."

While the president's plan borrows from the AFL-CIO plan in its call for use of remaining TARP funds for job creation, the AFL-CIO program includes additional major proposals. Among them are a call for a massive federally funded program to create jobs in communities, including restoration of environmental disasters, provision of child care and tutoring and cleaning up abandoned housing and properties, all separate from and in addition to currently existing public jobs.

Some in the labor movement have also called for re-creating the types of projects initiated by President Franklin Roosevelt in his New Deal of the 1930s. Thea Lee, the AFL-CIO's policy director, has been saying that even with tax breaks and other incentives business will be slow to create jobs because unemployment has left too many unable to buy the products that would be created. Her reasoning is that a New Deal type of program would create jobs immediately and thereby create the market for those products.

Nevertheless, progressives expressed support for the administration's focus on jobs.
Arlene-Holt-Baker, the AFL-CIO's executive vice president and the nation's highest-ranking African-American labor leader, said she was "glad to see President Obama focused on the urgent needs of families and communities hit by the jobs crisis. The president showed he understands the dire situation working people are struggling with in this economy, and he's going to fight hard to put people back to work and give working families and small businesses the help they need."

Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said, "I was also pleased to hear the president's commitment to ensure that state and local governments get the help they need to save the jobs of workers who are providing essential services during this deep economic crisis."

Observers note that Obama's proposals are for practical initiatives that appear to reflect much more of the thinking of progressives in and out of his administration than they do the thinking of individuals like Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and National Economic Council director Larry Summers, both of whom backed the notion that once things got better on Wall Street, everyone else would benefit.

The labor movement would also like to see the administration change policies it sees as helping to cause unemployment, rather than cure it.

Labor supports restructuring of the auto-industry bailout, for example, to prevent plant closures that are happening as part of that bailout. Others want new approaches to international trade that address both outsourcing of jobs and the country's gaping trade deficit.

Labor is backing what it sees as a progressive, job-creating, trade reform bill introduced this week in the Senate by Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown. The measure already has 125 supporters in the House.

"We want trade and we want more of it. But we need a new direction," said Brown, after he introduced the bill, the Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment Act. "Done wrong, trade sends our jobs overseas. Done right, trade can foster new business and job growth at home, and can lift up workers in developing nations."

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sis/ / CC BY 2.0

Nurses unite to form largest RN union ever

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:56:00 +0000

As lawmakers continue to debate legislation to overhaul the country's health care system, three nurses unions merged Dec. 7 to form the largest-ever labor union of registered nurses in U.S. history.

At its founding convention in Phoenix, the new union, National Nurses United (NNU), consists of 150,000 members and said its top priority would be to work toward organizing the overwhelming majority of nurses without union representation in the country and give them a stronger voice in health care reform.

The unanimously approved merger brings together the California Nurses Association, with 83,000 members in California and several other states; the United American Nurses, with 45,000 members, mostly in the Midwest; and the 22,000-member Massachusetts Nurses Association.

"The promise of the future has arrived with all the unlimited potential, creativity, vision, and power represented by the delegates in the room," said Karen Higgins, an RN from Massachusetts, and one of the three newly elected co-presidents of NNU.

Secretary-Treasurer of the UAN and NNU Co-President Jean Ross added, "This is where we need to be, together as one, moving across the country."

Deborah Burger, also NNU co-president and RN with the CAN/NNOC notes, "We are going to make sure we organize every single direct care RN in this country. RNs and our patients deserve to have a national nurses movement that can advocate for them."

Leaders of NNU pledge to fight for universal quality health care for all. They also seek to give nurses greater leverage in collective bargaining after decades of growth in national hospital chains that have largely resisted union organizing.

National studies have shown that nurses who are represented by a union make an average of 5 to 10 percent more than nonunion members. Of roughly 1.5 million nurses that provide direct patient care in U.S. hospitals and clinics, about 80 percent are nonunion, NNU officials say.

National Nurses United promises to move quickly with its ambitious agenda of organizing nurses nationwide, defending and advancing the interests of direct-care RNs and patients. They also plan to establish a more influential voice for RNs in Washington, helping to pass key patient care reforms, such as national nurse to patient ratios, and building stronger international ties with nurses around the world.

The day after its announcement NNU hit the ground running with a rally outside the Phoenix offices of the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association. Organizers emphasized nurses would step up efforts to challenge hospital industry attacks on nurse's rights, economic and workplace standards, patient care conditions, opposition to ratios and other critical legislation. The group also says it will work to pass the Employee Free Choice Act to enhance the ability of nurses and other working people to form unions.

At the rally Ross said NNU plans to send a signal to the Arizona hospital association and the American hospital industry.

"We will not be silenced, we will not be stopped," she said. "Hospital associations around the country oppose safe staffing legislation that guarantees patients the care they need, and with their allies intimidate RNs when we try to organize a union. That intimidation must stop."

Ross continued, "We know that union RNs provide quality care, better care because we have real power on our units, to speak out and advocate for our patients. We also know that America is hurting. As nurses we see the consequences every day. We know that at the heart of the current crisis is the stagnation of wages, the erosion of living standards, and the loss of buying power for American workers that has coincided with three decades of attacks on the rights of American workers to form unions and bargain collectively."

Ross also pointed out, "When workers have a greater voice to lift up their standards, all of America prospers. That's why we need the Employee Free Choice Act, to restore balance to our system of labor law," she said.

"The greatest economic stimulus, economic recovery plan would be to restore the right for more American workers to from unions and raise standards for themselves and their families and their communities," said Ross.

Rose Ann DeMoro, a national vice president of the AFL-CIO was chosen to be NNUs executive director and said RNs can be the most powerful voice in the country.

"It is our responsibility, as NNU to be agents of change, to be the warriors we've admired in history, to inspire the nurses of this country that this is their home," she said.

The new nurses union comes at a time when President Barack Obama is battling to rally support for one of his top domestic priorities, reforming the current U.S. health care system and extend coverage to millions of uninsured people nationwide.

Obama faces sharp divisions among lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled Congress over his proposal for a new government-run insurance plan, or public option, a measure fiercely opposed by Republicans and private health insurers.

NNUs formation was eight months in the making and will be governed by an executive council comprised of three co-presidents, a secretary-treasurer and 11 vice presidents.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/labor2008/ / CC BY 2.0

Union fights move by auto giants to slash jobs

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:19:00 +0000

Earlier this year General Motors and Chrysler took billions in federal loan guarantees in exchange for a promise to keep workers employed here in America.

That was then.

Now, the Teamsters say, the two auto giants are moving to slash thousands of union jobs held by the people who transport new vehicles by truck from the plants to the dealerships.

In a telephone press conference this week Fred Zuckerman, director of the union’s Auto Transport Division, charged that the two car companies are reducing their costs by outsourcing the carhauling to non-union private operators who are often unqualified for the job. So far 400 of the union haulers have been fired and the union says as many as 9,000 could end up losing their jobs.

Determined to fight back, the Teamsters have brought the issue into the halls of Congress with a report entitled “Damaged When Delivered.” The report documents the poor condition in which some of the new vehicles are being delivered to dealerships by the non-union haulers.

Two members of the House, Rep. Lacy Clay, D-Mo., and Rep. Joe Baca, D-Calif., have taken up the union’s cause. A spokesperson for Clay said, however, that there is nothing that can be done on a legislative level.

“All you can do is bring this deal to the attention of the Obama administration and the Treasury Department,” Clay said at the press conference. The Treasury Department administers the loans to GM and Chrysler, now called Fiat-Chrysler. “We’ll let them know we’re shining a light on this,” Clay added. “It is outrageous that after taking billions of dollars from U.S. taxpayers, GM and Fiat-Chrysler would try to destroy good-paying American jobs that offer a living wage with decent benefits.”

The Teamsters are making a major issue of how the companies are risking expensive investments by putting the jobs in the hands of non-union outfits that pay little attention to training and safety.

They noted at the press conference that with a typical car costing more than $20,000 and with a car carrier costing as much as $250,000 there is too high a level of risk involved with placing the valuable cargo in the hands of untrained individuals.

Bud Palmer, a carhaul driver from Jessup, Md., said that one of the non-union contractors in his state was using straps rather than chains to secure cars on rigs.

“I’ve talked to drivers who had heavy-duty pick-up trucks held on the carhaulers by two straps, not by four chains,” Palmer said. “I was trained for a month in how to properly secure a vehicle on the big car carriers. At Chrysler they’re training these guys for a week and sending them out on the road. Palmer said that to try to keep his job he accepted a 12 percent pay cut but that after taking the pay cut he was fired anyway.

Consumer auto safety activist Rosemary Shahan told reporters at the press conference that much of the damage occurring to the cars being transported this way is “hidden damage,” especially to the undercarriages. She said that the companies have already refused to honor repair warranties after consumer complaints about damages resulting from the cutbacks.

New Haven People’s World Amistad award celebration big success

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:59:00 +0000

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The diverse and inspired overflow crowd stayed to the end of the remarkable celebration of People's World Amistad Award honorees Anna Montalvo, Gwen Mills and Art Perry on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Communist Party USA. The theme of the event was "Keep the Ball Rolling....to win jobs with union rights, health care, peace and equality!" Unity and struggle were the messages of the day.

Bill Collins of the Rabble Rousers got everyone going with his new song "Health Care is Our Right," followed by a film, "Building on 90 Years of Struggle," which highlighted Connecticut struggles and activists and the role of the Communist Party for People before Profits policies. Everyone enjoyed all the photos.

Beto Castillo performed two Mexican songs to the delight of all. And then it was time for the award presentations.

Event chair Paul Neal presented Anna Montalvo, president of AFSCME Local 1522 in Bridgeport with citations from the New Haven Board of Aldermen and the Connecticut General Assembly. As he presented the large framed Amistad Award, AFSCME Council 4 Executive Director Sal Luciano brought out how strong Anna has been in leading a large local with many different worksites including public works where the guys had to learn to take leadership from a woman.

Anna's acceptance speech was personal, moving and complete starting from her life as a child who had to learn English to be the interpreter for her parents to her election as the first woman and first Latina to the local union presidency. Many of her sister and brother members, as well as her family, were present in support.

New Haven Aldermen Jackie James and Allan Brison presented the citations to Gwen Mills, political field director of Unite-Here unions for Connecticut and Rhode Island. Shirley Lawrence, lead organizer for Connecticut Center for a New Economy, recalled their ten years of working together and praised Gwen's decision to be a part of the labor movement as she presented the Amistad Award. Gwen spoke of her family and her union in accepting, and recalled many efforts with the Peoples Center over the years.

Working Families director Jon Green and State Rep Gary Holder-Winfield presented the citations to Art Perry, Connecticut political director of SEIU 32BJ Justice for Janitors . Joelle Fishman, chair of the CT Communist Party USA, presented the Amistad Award, remembering when they first met over 30 years ago while Art was working at Southbury Training School and the successful struggles to keep the facility open. She emphasized Art's deep commitment to the power of working people, and as political director has never lost that connection to the members he serves. In accepting, Art had many thanks to family, friends and co-workers and said that no matter what comes, this award will always be his highest honor.

The awardees were celebrated with a poem by Ras Mo Moses, "Working Class People" along with Baub Bidon and backed up with Jeff Fuller on bass and Richard Hill on percussion. Ras Mo invited artists to join the group in a year long cultural project to culminate in a concert for next year's anniversary celebration.

Everyone was thrilled by Aishah Jenkins and Kendra Strester two high school students who performed "Stand by Me" with piano and bass accompaniment.

Joelle Fishman presented the afternoon's call to action for organizing the unorganized, building even bigger grass roots mobilization on the issues including health care, no troops to Afghanistan, public works job creation and the employee free choice act. She presented certificates of appreciation to Dorothy Johnson and Brian Steinberg for their tireless work over many years delivering the People's Weekly World to workers' homes and getting them involved in the struggle.

Applause greeted the announcement that the People's World now daily on-line will have a mini Connecticut print edition as of January, when the national print edition ends.

Finally, led by Bill Collins, all the musicians led the audience in singing Solidarity Forever as people rose to their feet and joined hands in the air.

The delicious home made supper and holiday gift table rounded out an inspiring and forward looking afternoon enjoyed by all.

A 54 page greeting book raised necessary funds to keep the paper going, and offered a handsome and exciting keepsake of the labor and people's movement in Connecticut.

Those in attendance left uplifted and determined to keep the ball rolling.

The 90th anniversary of the Communist Party proud was done proud!!!

Click here to see a slideshow of the event.

Or watch here,

90th anniversary & Amistad Awards

Photo: Henry Lowendorf