People Before Profit blog

Of the people, by the people, for the people

Fri, 27 Feb 2004 08:34:00 +0000

Opinion

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, long a mouthpiece for U.S. monopoly corporations and Wall Street speculators and now a servant of the big business Bush administration, delivered an economic report to Congress recently that had but one aim: to give economic advice and leadership to promote and protect profits.

The problems of 18 million unemployed, underemployed and never-to-be-employed were the furthest thing from Greenspan’s mind.

Greenspan said he would not raise interest rates at this time because the economy was not overheating. In other words, jobs, income and consumer demand were not growing.

Only 113,000 new jobs were created in January. But 175,000 new jobs were predicted. Did that alarming shortfall bother the feds? Not on your life.

Greenspan said that if the economy heated up – i.e., more jobs and more consumer demand – then he would hike interest rates to slow economic activity.

Did it bother Mr. Greenspan that Bush economists predicted a 1.7 million gain in jobs for 2003, but instead working people suffered a 400,000-job loss? Again, not on your life.

Greenspan is supposed to protect all the people, not only the corporations and their profits. Where does it say in the U.S. Constitution that capitalism, the private-profit system, is the economic law of the land?

Bush’s economic team is playing fast and loose with the lives and livelihood of the American people.

Bush and company say there will be 2.6 million more people working this year. Yes, and the moon is made of green cheese, isn’t it?

Gregory Mankiw, chairman of Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, says that exporting jobs “is good for the country.” Shouldn’t Mr. Greenspan, in the interests of all the people, explain the Bush fakery so that people can make informed decisions?

The fact is, after the Bush team is kicked out, the fakers like Greenspan and Mankiw should not be far behind. Then the government’s finance hierarchy should be cleaned out and turned into pro-people departments and agencies.

There is a growing anger and concern among working people over the flippant and duplicitous treatment they are getting from the Bush administration, corporations and Wall Street.

Wall Street’s so-called “recovery” is touted as an economic recovery. But it really is a profit and job loss “recovery.” Speedup, overtime, wage and benefit cuts, job loss to low-wage areas abroad are the underpinnings of the Wall Street recovery.

The rising tide of anger among the people needs to be channeled into positive ideas and mass actions. This is the only way it can be a successful positive force.

New alliances need to be built to do that – both for the short and long term. The most basic unity alliance is that of the employed and unemployed. The best place to begin organizing the unemployed is in local union halls. Organizing the unemployed and bringing them into collective action is a solid way for those still employed to build job protection. Together they can build alliances with other groups such as civil rights, peace, women, environmental, public education, and seniors.

Together they can change the Congress, get rid of the job-killers and start working to build a new America, where people are more important than profits. A new America where those who run government agencies work and speak for the people, not Wall Street.

Abraham Lincoln said: “Labor is prior to capital. Without labor there would be no capital. Therefore, labor deserves much the higher consideration.”

November 2, 2004, can be the first long stride we take on the road to a new America.

Pat Barile is a member of the National Board of the Communist Party USA. He can be reached at pww@pww.org.

Supermarket workers in Northeast win contract

Fri, 27 Feb 2004 06:24:00 +0000

The big issue in our contract was health care, which is also the major issue in California, where 70,000 members of our union (United Food and Commercial Workers) are on strike. We took a collection in the store for the workers in California, and a lot of us contributed.

Stop & Shop wanted to dismantle our union health plan, and charge a co-pay for coverage with a private HMO. In negotiations, we were able to maintain our health plan without co-pays, but we had to agree that new hires would work two years before they could get benefits – it had been one year. But overall, it is a great victory to hold the line on co-pays, considering what’s happening in California.

The contract covers five locals and 42,000 workers in three states. The company tried to separate us by getting different locals to agree to different expiration dates. We stopped that.

The hourly starting wage for part-time workers was $7.50 with some workers earning as much as $15 depending on seniority. Part-timers will get a modest increase of 80 cents per hour over the life of the contract. Increases for full-time workers are higher. To cut down salary costs, the company has been replacing full-time workers with part-timers so that the majority now work part-time but they still receive free medical benefits and pensions.

A co-worker at Stop & Shop used to work at Wal-Mart, where he was treated badly and benefits were very expensive. He’s much happier now, working in a union shop. That’s the kind of message the workers at Wal-Mart need to get. In California, the supermarkets are using Wal-Mart as an excuse to cut benefits and introduce co-pays. Even in this area, Wal-Mart is competing with Stop & Shop. If Wal-Mart keeps growing without being organized, I don’t know how much longer we’ll be able to stop co-pays at Stop & Shop. That’s why organizing Wal-Mart, and other companies like them, is important to the whole labor movement.

It is a huge victory to continue to receive medical benefits without any employee contributions, including co-pays, in addition to higher wages.

– Ray Milici, worker at Stop & Shop in New Haven, Conn. The union there reached a contract settlement Feb. 14, averting an impending strike. Milici can be reached at pww@pww.org.

Southwest, the LUV airline, is a heart-breaker

Fri, 27 Feb 2004 05:58:00 +0000

DALLAS – Flight attendants in Transport Workers Union Local 556 sent a powerful Valentine’s Day message to the bosses at Southwest Airlines Feb. 13 with informational pickets and rallies at all seven major airports served. There were over 100 off-duty workers at each site for three hours at midday.

At Love Field here, 150 flight attendants were joined by members of other TWU locals, Teamsters, Auto Workers, Communications Workers, Needletrade Workers, and Jobs with Justice. Many of them carried printed red signs that said, “Has the ‘LUV’ Airline Lost its Heart? They’re Breaking Ours!” Cars and trucks responded to their “Honk if you are with us!” signs.

Every time a Southwest plane approached the landing strip, the crowd went wild with shouts and waving. They chanted and cheered through the entire three hours. Conga lines formed to weave through the crowd shouting, “Two, four, six, eight, Come on, Jim, negotiate!” Jim Parker, CEO at Southwest, received the blame for nearly two years of company stalling on a decent contract.

The main issue is pay. They said that they are 30 percent behind their colleagues at other airlines. Their supporters from other unions are infuriated when they learn that the flight attendants are forced to work through their breaks. They clean the airplanes while they are on the ground, but only get paid when they are in the air.

In the past, the airline has profited from a lack of militancy from their unions. Previous concessions have helped make Southwest Airlines the envy of stockholders throughout the industry.

But the caving days are over, according to union leaders like President Thom McDaniel and Dallas AFL-CIO delegate Gwen Dunivent. Dunivent told reporters, “This is a whole new day for Southwest Airlines flight attendants.”

The author can be reached at flittle7@yahoo.com.

Illinois Senate race offers historic opportunity

Fri, 27 Feb 2004 04:51:00 +0000

CHICAGO – The race for the Democratic nomination for the open U.S. Senate seat in Illinois has boiled down to a three-person race, according to polls. Millionaire Blair Hull has a slight lead after pouring $18 million of his own money into an advertising blitz. State Sen. Barak Obama and State Controller Dan Hynes trail him, with a large undecided vote remaining. The primary will be held March 16.

At several campaign rallies across this city on Feb. 21, Obama said that after the presidential race, the Senate race in Illinois might be the most important. He noted the historic potential of his campaign, aside from helping break the Republican majority. If successful he would be only the third African American since Reconstruction elected to the U.S. Senate.

“People are really hurting across Illinois. It’s a jobless recovery. Laid-off industrial workers are now competing with their children for $7-per-hour jobs at Wal-Mart,” said Obama: “Fifty-year-old white workers are facing nearly the same future as young African American men from the South Side, 50 percent of whom are out of work and out of school.”

“If I’m elected you get a three-for,” said Obama. “You get a Democrat, greater diversity and someone with backbone who will fight the Bush agenda.”

At a North Side rally for Obama, Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky noted that these are extraordinary times that require a different kind of leadership in the fight against ultra-right policies.

“We don’t need any old Democrat,” said Schakowsky, “We don’t need a go-along, get-along senator. It is amazing that it’s the 21st century and there are no African Americans in the U.S. Senate.”

Obama spoke out against going to war in Iraq at a mass rally in Chicago in August 2002.

Of all the candidates, Obama can boast the most diverse support. While Hynes has the backing of the state AFL-CIO and the bulk of the Democratic machine, Obama has the support of several key unions including the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees; Service Employees; Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees; the state American Federation of Teachers; Chicago Teachers Union and Teamsters Local 705, the second largest in the country. Obama has a 90 percent voting record on labor issues in the Illinois Senate.

In addition to widespread support in the African American community, Obama has also received the backing of several independent Latino elected officials led by State Sen. Miguel del Valle, Rep. Cynthia Soto and Alderman Ray Colon. Alderman Joe Moore from the North Side is also backing him.

Many progressive organizations have thrown their support to Obama, including the Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters. In its endorsement, Citizen Action/Illinois praised Obama’s 96 percent voting record on consumer issues. President William McNary said Obama “will be a strong voice in Washington on behalf of working families.”

Noting that Hull has thrown around his considerable fortune to gain endorsements of elected officials and Chicago ward organizations, Schakowsky said the key to victory would be “voter identification and get-out-the-vote. People power beats money any day of the week.”

The author can be reached at jbachtell@rednet.org.

Teachers: Leave this man behind

Fri, 27 Feb 2004 04:43:00 +0000

Education Secretary Rod Paige should step down for attaching the “terrorist” label to 2.7 million schoolteachers and their union, the National Education Association, said Reg Weaver, NEA president.

The nation’s hardworking teachers came home from their classrooms Feb. 23 to hear themselves and their professional organization “insulted beyond repair” by President Bush’s top education official “with words filled with hatred,” said Weaver, who demanded an apology from Bush. Weaver’s comments were part of a firestorm of protest ignited by the revelation of Paige’s shocking characterization.

“Shame on you,” wrote one New Jersey educator in an e-mail to Paige. “Think about your teachers and think about where you are now. Trust me, you didn’t get there alone and it wasn’t a terrorist who helped you.”

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney charged, “The Bush administration would like to label all those who disagree with it as ‘terrorists.’”

Paige’s remarks, made at a meeting of the nation’s governors, came in response to the NEA’s hard-hitting – and increasingly effective – criticisms of the centerpiece of this administration’s education policy, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The NEA has aired a series of radio commercials (available on its website www.nea.org) exposing NCLB’s devastating impact. Whole states, from Utah to Virginia, are rebelling against the destructive provisions of the heavy-handed law.

According to the NEA, a January survey found 63 percent of registered voters now believe the federal government should increase funding for public schools, and 9 of 10 wanted schools assessed on a number of criteria, not just standardized tests.

NCLB passed in 2002, replacing the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, defining the federal government’s oversight and financial assistance to public schools. Critics charge that through NCLB the federal government forces many requirements upon school districts, but does not fund them. The NEA points out the Bush administration fell $32 billion short of funding NCLB in 2003, leaving local school districts, which already bear over 90 percent of education costs, to pick up the slack.

Eight other education programs, including Head Start, Pell Grants, and Title 1 funds for disadvantaged students, came up a total of $49 billion short. The total of the two shortfalls is eerily close to the $87 billion allotted for prosecuting the war in Iraq.

“We will continue to insist on fixing the law’s inadequate funding and unworkable rules that stand in the way of a quality education for all children,” Weaver said in a statement Feb. 24. “If the Bush administration cannot work with the public school employees who educate these children every day, then it is time to find new leadership who can.”

The much-touted NCLB was a “set-up” to set the stage for turning public education over to private corporations to make a profit, Steve Wollmer, spokesperson for New Jersey Educational Association, said. “It isn’t about leaving no child behind,” he told the World. “It’s about leaving schools behind to make way for vouchers.”

Wollmer says the law’s primary intent is to create a massive failure rate and public hysteria. The failure rate is being created by the reliance on standardized tests as the sole measure of student achievement, and punitive measures against schools that don’t meet rigid yearly improvement requirements.

Wollmer also pointed to the law’s impact on teachers. “Creative, talented teachers are leaving in droves,” he said. “They don’t want to be robots who teach kids to take tests.”

Classroom teachers are livid about being called terrorists and have been bombarding Paige and Bush with emails full of outrage.

“If you feel threatened by responsible educational organizations fighting for legislative change in Congress then I suggest you resign immediately. Your contempt of working people is symbolic of an administration that is engaged in an all-out attack on children in need,“” wrote one teacher.

“If the administration’s goal was to wake people up, they have succeeded,” NJEA’s Wollmer said. Paige’s attack has had “an incredibly galvanizing effect.” In an optimistic look toward the November presidential election, Wollmer recalled the fate of the last candidate who “tried to drive a wedge” between teachers and their unions. In accepting the Republican nomination in 1996, Bob Dole threatened, “To the teachers union, I say I will disregard your political power for the sake of parents and children.”

Dole didn’t make it to the White House, Wollmer pointed out, “and now we see him on TV hawking Viagra.”

The author can be reached at rwood@pww.org.

Congress abandons millions of jobless

Fri, 27 Feb 2004 04:38:00 +0000

HAMDEN, Conn. – While the White House backed off empty job creation claims last week, machinists, teamsters, building trades, and municipal workers crowded into the Job Center here, angry at the failure of the Republican-controlled Congress to extend unemployment benefits at a time of high job loss.

They came at the invitation of Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.). Carrying the fight for an extension of jobless benefits to the grass roots, DeLauro joined union leaders and unemployed workers who called on the U.S. Senate to vote for an extension, and President Bush to release the funds.

Linda Giagrande, a 56-year-old single mother who retired early from her 16-year position with the city of West Haven in order to avoid layoff, told her story of finding no new job, exhausting all her savings, and living without any income for the last month while trying to keep her daughter in college.

“It’s not about numbers,” DeLauro said. “It’s about people trying to get their kids through school, people making car payments, mortgage and rent payments. That’s what this is about.”

The fight takes place against the backdrop of the largest job loss since the depression of the 1930s. Nearly 3 million jobs, primarily in the manufacturing sector, have been lost since Bush took office. New jobs that have opened up are largely low-wage and nonunion. Nearly every state has suffered, including states the Midwest and the South, which have been hit especially hard. Official unemployment rates are highest for African Americans (10.5 percent), Latinos (7.3 percent), and teenagers (16.7 percent).

In his economic report of Feb. 10 Bush projected that anywhere from 2.6 to 3.8 million jobs will be created this year. Nine days later he was forced to retract the claims when U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow refused to endorse that projection. In December, an anemic 1,000 new jobs were created. Meeting the economic report’s projections would require 235,000-316,000 new jobs a month.

“The Republican argument that the economy is recovering quickly rings hollow for unemployed workers,” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said in a press statement. “Behind the hype remains the reality that the nation remains mired in a deep job crisis. Tax breaks for the rich will not pay the mortgage and utility bills for the unemployed.”

For many workers, the need to change trade policies, invest in infrastructure repair, and create good jobs is the number one issue in the presidential election.

“On Labor Day, President Bush said he would level the playing field. Instead of improving conditions for those on the bottom, he meant lowering conditions for workers who have won gains,” said Lori Pelltier, secretary treasurer of the Connecticut AFL-CIO.

Pelltier, who has for decades fought downsizing and layoffs as a union leader at the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies, thanked DeLauro for her efforts. Citing the ripple effect of losing 45,000 manufacturing jobs in the state in three years, Pelltier pointed to the layoffs of state and municipal workers.

DeLauro, who sits on the House budget committee, described the “breathtaking arrogance” of the testimony of Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, who admitted to openly encouraging employers to send jobs overseas on the basis that outsourcing is part of international trade.

“It was rather incredible that he came before the budget committee without a plan to create jobs in America,” she said.

Over 8 million workers are unemployed. In December, 1.9 million workers had been unemployed for 26 weeks or more. Two million unemployed stand to exhaust their benefits by June, the largest number in history, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Tina McQuiggan, Job Center program manager here, emphasized that once a worker becomes unemployed it is harder and harder to find another job. The number of Connecticut workers who exhausted 26 weeks of benefits without finding a job is up to 37.8 percent, and 70 percent were still without work after the 13-week extension in 2003.

Underscoring the need for a public campaign, DeLauro ripped Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s (R-Texas) statement that the extension passed by the House would be deleted before reaching the president’s desk for signature. “That means the voices of 227 members of Congress who represent millions of people would go unheard,” she warned, urging those present to alert their organizations to “make your collective voices heard so we can do what’s right as a government.”

Also this week, the Bush administration came under fire for reclassifying fast food jobs into the manufacturing sector. “Bureaucratic shuffling ... does nothing to address the very real economic problems facing American workers,” Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) replied.

The author can be reached at joelle.fishman@pobox.com. Terrie Albano contributed to this article.

Labor working to take back Ohio

Thu, 26 Feb 2004 15:33:00 +0000

CLEVELAND – On Dec. 9, 1,500 union activists packed the Columbus, Ohio, Veterans Memorial Hall for a “Take Back Ohio/Labor 2004” conference. Energized and determined, they headed home filled with the crusading spirit sweeping the country that “Bush out the door in 2004” must be the only possible result of this year’s election campaign.

At the conference, an Elections 2004 Task Force presented the “Ohio plan” to “take back our country in 2004 and take back Ohio in 2006.” The plan is integrated with the national AFL-CIO 2004 campaign.

Phase One, January through March, is to have at least 80 percent of union members registered to vote, and to begin leafleting on issues. The national AFL-CIO is contacting local union members throughout the country who have been inactive, do not vote, or are not registered.

The goal is to increase the vote of these members, sometimes called “swing voters,” by 5 percent. Millions of them are being contacted with mailings and phone banks working out of the national AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, and state federations.

A second part of Phase One is building an election infrastructure in affiliated local unions that will reach all members on job sites, in union halls, and in their homes. The aim is to increase the labor vote an additional 5 percent. Special emphasis is placed on selecting local union and job-site coordinators in every local union. One thousand of these coordinators were present at the Columbus conference. Most AFL-CIO staff have been assigned to build local union action committees headed up by the coordinators. Monthly leaflets are being provided by the national AFL-CIO to the local unions for distribution.

County labor federations are forming committees to assist the locals with their work. The Cleveland AFL-CIO’s committee, which was already in place from past elections, has tripled in size.

The county committees have a second function: to reach out to community organizations and pull together broad-based, labor-community registration campaigns. In Cleveland and other Ohio cities, labor is coming together with the NAACP National Voter Fund, church leaders, Working America, peace groups, and a variety of other organizations.

These coalitions are conducting loosely coordinated but highly effective registration and issue-oriented work in wards and precincts. In Cleveland, Working America is reported to have 50,000 nonunion workers signed to cards expressing their desire to be in a union and active in election work.

But the level of activity is far from uniform throughout Ohio, nor in other states. Organizations working on a national level are not yet functioning in many localities, especially in smaller communities outside of large urban centers.

Activists who are feeling the fires for change and want to get involved may want to look up their labor federations, local unions, NAACP chapters, active clergy, peace groups, or teachers’ unions. If nothing is moving, then a few friends can get something started with registration cards from the local election board.

Ongoing actions by the steelworkers fighting for pensions and health care are related to the Labor 2004 campaign. Democratic candidates are committing themselves to replacing Bush’s Labor Department and Pension Board Guarantee Corporation appointees, and ensuring that workers’ pensions will be paid. Northeastern Ohio cities are passing resolutions demanding the PBGC pay full pensions. A March 15 rally is scheduled in the steel town of Canton.

The Dennis Kucinich campaign is providing an outlet for many who support his message for getting the corporate thieves out of Iraq and the UN in, for putting an end to the “criminal” CEOs’ ability to outsource everything – including their corporate headquarters – to dodge taxes, and for getting workers back to work by investing billions in rebuilding our country’s infrastructure and creating new sources of energy that don’t rely on oil. He has picked up on the “two Americas” slogan and is going to closed mills and factories, and depressed neighborhoods, to emphasize the need for jobs and health care.

Delegates at county AFL-CIO meetings have enthusiastically grabbed Kucinich yard signs, bumper stickers, and campaign flyers. Most unions present at these meetings have endorsed and are working for other candidates, but all say Kucinich has a message that has to get out.

Bush out the door in 2004!

The author can be reached at wallyk@ncweb.com.

Philly shows brotherly love to grocery strikers

Fri, 20 Feb 2004 10:32:00 +0000

PHILADELPHIA – At a Feb. 12 rally at a local Acme supermarket, union and community members had a strong message for shoppers here: “Don’t shop at Acme.”

Pointing at the store, Pat Eiding, president of the Philadelphia Central Labor Council, said, “Corporate America is right there. If we don’t stop them now, they will be doing the same thing to workers here – taking away our health care benefits.” Acme is owned by Albertsons, which along with Kroger/Ralphs, locked out its Southern California workers Oct. 11, when Safeway/Vons workers went on strike to protect their health benefits.

Two grocery workers from Los Angeles, members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770, spoke to the crowd. Cynthia Hernandez has worked for Albertsons for five years, since she was 16.

“I was able to support my baby daughter,” Hernandez said. “Now I must depend on food stamps. The company wants to reduce our health coverage by 50 percent and make us pay more for it. It’s not fair. Don’t shop at Acme. Let the billionaires suffer.”

Tracy Richardson told the rally she has worked for Albertsons for 12 years. “We don’t make a lot of money,” she said. “Eighty percent of the workers are part-time, 24 to 36 hours a week at $10 an hour, $19,000 a year. I can’t make it without health care benefits.”

Pat Gillespie, representing the Building Trades, noted that the grocery chains had made $9.7 billion in profits in 2002. A spokesman for the Communication Workers of America recalled, “We won our battle with Verizon because of union solidarity,” and promised financial support for Local 770.

Henry Nicholas, president of health care workers union 1199C, said, “When workers have no health care, our members have no jobs.” He pleaded with workers to “stay out of the Bushes” in the 2004 election.

Although Acme workers presently have a decent contract in Philadelphia, Wendell W. Young III, president of UFCW Local 1776, worried about the threat to the entire labor movement if Albertsons gets away with taking health care benefits from its Southern California workers.

Merrilee Milstein, AFL-CIO regional director, called for union solidarity. The rally ended with Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union Local President Thurston Hyman leading a prayer for workers’ rights. While a delegation including Rep. Joe Hoeffel (D-Pa.) spoke with the store manager, a shopper stopped to ask why the crowd was there. When she heard the facts, she said, “That’s outrageous. I’ll take back what I bought.”

Volunteers signed up for informational picketing at Acme markets. Hernandez and Richardson expressed their gratitude to all who came out to support their struggle.

The author can be reached at phillyrose1@earthlink.net.

Grocery workers win lawmakers backing

Thu, 19 Feb 2004 15:01:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES – If Safeway and its CEO Steve Burd have their way, the 21st century will have conditions more like the 19th century for working families, said Connie Leyva, president of Local 1428 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, speaking to a panel led by four Democratic California congresspeople.

The panel was convened Feb. 13 at Loyola Marymount University here to examine the impact on working families of the five-month old strike and lockout of 70,000 Southern California grocery workers.

Leyva stated that under the employers’ proposal, the low-paid grocery workers will not be able to afford adequate health care for themselves and their families, nor will they qualify for MediCal (California’s Medicaid program). New workers would probably end up with no health care at all and would soon replace the protected union workers, making for more Wal-Mart-style jobs.

The California Grocers Association calls their concept a “new model of competition and worker-community cooperation.” But Leyva says it aims to create “a whole underclass of employees that puts a big target on our back.”

Rep. George Miller was more blunt. “Your new model of a competitive market and community, frankly, sucks!” he said, addressing the supermarket chains’ management, which had failed to show up.

Republican legislators were also no-shows, but hundreds of grocery workers filled the meeting hall to hear from union representatives and the congresspeople.

Rep. Linda Sanchez commended her colleague, Rep. Miller, for his eloquence, pointing to the trend for more and more corporate thievery by dumping health care for the workers and leaving them in part-time, underpaid jobs with no security or benefits.

Miller discounted the companies’ excuse of competition from nonunion Wal-Mart.

“Of course the prices at Wal-Mart and Costco are cheaper,” he said. “They stole it. This is the model for many corporations today.” Also participating in the panel were Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard and Grace Napolitano.

Across town a day earlier, Longshore Local 13 members presented 272 individual checks totaling $100,000 to members of striking and locked-out UFCW locals who otherwise would lose their health care when their benefits expire at the end of the month.

And on Presidents’ Day, Feb. 16, grocery workers and supporters literally rolled up their sleeves to donate to a blood drive as a way to say thank you to the people of Southern California who have supported their battle to “hold the line on health care.” According to a report from the Associated Press, Safeway is losing at least $20 million a month as a result of the strike.

Roberta Wood contributed to this story. The author can be reached at kelsdrumr@webtv.net.click here for Spanish text

Industrial union for rail workers

Thu, 19 Feb 2004 13:22:00 +0000

Workers’ Correspondence

Jan. 1, 2004, was a historic date for railroad unionism but was little noticed outside the industry. The Teamsters and the oldest of the rail craft unions, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, merged. The controversy amongst rail workers about the issues of a truckers’ union essentially taking over a rail union has been mixed with positive feelings about Teamsters President Hoffa’s invitation to all rail labor to form one big umbrella, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.

The historic weakness of craft unionism, pointed out first by rail unionism’s greatest leader, Eugene V. Debs, has been glaring and obvious to many in the last 20 years. The Teamsters have actually formally invited all rail labor to join via the method of merger and this suddenly realistic potential of unity and industrial unionism has excited many. Yet many feel leery of merging with a union that has politically lobbied against pro-rail issues and has had historic problems with internal democracy.

Railway car mechanics have particularly strong grievances against the weak bargaining strategy of their union and might be fertile ground for a pro merger movement.

Since January, the new Rail conference of the Teamsters has brought in 1,400 new train crew members on the Canadian Pacific and has put out formal merger proposals across the North American rail unions. There has been one reliable source this writer spoke with who maintains that two rail unions have shown serious interest. With many reservations and some very positive glimmers of hope, a number of rail workers are awaiting further developments.

One thing is certain, and that is that craft unionism in the rail industry long ago exhausted its positive potential. Five or 10 small unions bargaining separately cannot match the power of one big union standing up to the rail industry as a united front from the engine house to the clerks office to the locomotives’ cabs.

– Phil Amadon Phil Amadon is a 27-year railway car mechanic in Ohio. Reprinted by permission from the website of Steelwheel (steelwheel.org), the railway car mechanics’ rank and file organization.

W.E.B. Du Bois cites profits, racism as threat to democracy

Thu, 19 Feb 2004 12:32:00 +0000

I represent millions of citizens of the United States who are just as opposed to war as you are. ... Perhaps I can best perform my duty to my country and to the cause of world peace by taking a short time to explain the historic reasons for the part which the United States is playing in the world today. I can do this the more appropriately because I represent that large group of 15 million Americans, one tenth of the nation, who in a sense explain America’s pressing problems. ...

The history of the United States in the last 75 years has been one of the great series of events in human history. With marvelous technique based on scientific knowledge, with organized expert management, vast natural resources, and worldwide commerce, this country has built the greatest industrial machine in history. ...

Our industry is today controlled ... by 1,000 individuals and is conducted primarily for their profit and power. ... [T]oday large numbers of Americans firmly believe that the success of monopolized industry controlled by an oligarchy is the success of this nation. It is not; and the high standard of living in the United States and its productive capacity is not due to monopoly and private profit, but has come in spite of this and indicates clearly how much higher standards of living might have been reached not only in America but throughout the world, if the bounty of the United States and its industrial planning had been administered for the progress of the masses instead of the power and luxury of the few.

The power of private corporate wealth in the United States has throttled democracy and this was made possible by the color caste which followed Reconstruction after the Civil War. When the Negro was disfranchised in the South, the white South was and is owned increasingly by the industrial North. Thus caste, which deprived the mass of Negroes of political and civil rights and compelled them to accept the lowest wage, lay underneath the vast industrial profit of the years 1890 to 1900 when the greatest combinations of capital took place.

The fight of Negroes for democracy in these years was the main movement of the kind in the United States. They began to gain the sympathy and cooperation of those liberal whites who succeeded the Abolitionists and who now realized that physical emancipation of a working class must be followed by political and economic emancipation or means nothing. For more than half a century this battle of a group of black and white Americans ... has gone on and made striking progress. ... But the mischief and long neglect of democracy has already spread throughout the nation.

A large percentage of eligible voters do not get to the polls. Democracy has no part in industry, save through the violence or threatened violence of the strike. No great American industry admits that it could or should be controlled by those who do its work. But unless democratic methods enter industry, democracy fails to function in other parts of life. Our political life is admittedly under the control of organized wealth and while the socialized organization of all our work proceeds, its management remains under oligarchic control. ...

... In the United States today the object is to center and increase the power of those who control organized wealth and they seek to prove to Americans that no other system is so successful in human progress. But instead of leaving proof of this to the free investigation of science, the reports of a free press, and the discussion of the public platform, … organized wealth owns the press and chief newsgathering organs and is exercising increased control over the schools and making public discussion and even free thinking difficult and often impossible.

The cure for this ... is for the American people to take over the control of the nation in industry as well as government. ... But knowledge of this, of its success and of its prevalence in other lands, does not reach the mass of people. They are being carried away by almost hysterical propaganda that the freedoms which they have and such individual initiative as remains are being threatened and that a third world war is the only remedy.

Not all America has succumbed to this indefensible belief. … There are millions of other Americans who agree with … the peace movement. I bring you their greetings.

Excerpted from “The Autobiography of W.E.B. Du Bois,” published by International Publishers in 1968.

Dont kiss health care goodbye

Fri, 13 Feb 2004 05:51:00 +0000

Grocery worker supporters geared up to mark Valentine’s Day week with the distribution of 20,000 “Don’t Kiss Healthcare Goodbye” leaflets in Washington, D.C., Metro stations. As the 70,000 Southern California grocery workers dug in for their 16th week of strike or lock out, an action calendar of solidarity actions spanned the country coast to coast.

According to AFL-CIO spokesperson Sarah Massey, there have been rallies, vigils, marches and information hand outs in cities in six major market areas of Safeway Corporation – Philadelphia, Seattle, Northern California, Baltimore/Washington, and Portland, Ore.

On Feb. 5, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson led hundreds of protesters at a Wall Street rally in New York City. A similar action was called for Feb. 11 in San Francisco at the Pacific Stock Exchange.

Despite enormous executive bonuses and profits in recent years, the alliance of grocery chain giants is demanding huge cuts in employee healthcare benefits and a two-tiered pay scale. The workers’ union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, charges that the giant corporations’ proposals will result in the de-funding of health care plans and the elimination of benefits for grocery workers and their families.

“If the companies succeed,” said a union statement, “it could open the floodgates for other employers to do the same – tragically adding more people to the millions of Americans already uninsured.”

Health benefits for workers on the line expired as of Dec. 31 but hundreds of families, hardship cases identified by the locals, are being helped by contributions from unions and individuals, not only from Southern California, but around the world, according to UFCW spokesperson Ellen Anreder. Millions of dollars have been donated both to the UFCW and to the AFL-CIO’s “Hold the Line for Healthcare Fund.” Nevertheless, thousands of families, many headed by single mothers, are now without health care.

Safeway, Kroger and Albertsons have lost a combined $2 billion in sales in their 852 Southern California stores, according to the New York Times. They are now fighting a lawsuit filed by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer charging that their pre-strike revenue sharing agreement violates the federal antitrust law. A federal mediator announced the resumption of talks this week.

The author can be reached at rwood@pww.org

8 killed in Dominican general strike

Fri, 13 Feb 2004 05:33:00 +0000

Eight people were killed during a general strike that shook the Dominican Republic for 48 hours on Jan. 28-29. The general strike, which was organized by the National Coordinating Body of People’s Organizations and Labor Unions, was called to protest the Dominican government’s signing of a new agreement with the International Monetary Fund.

The Coordinating Body said the government offered weapons to its followers in order to attack the strikers. Besides those killed, more than 100 people were injured, and over 600 were arrested by government forces.

Ramón Pérez Figuereo, spokesperson for the Coordinating Body and a trade union leader, said that the strike, which had the support of labor unions, the left parties and the Catholic Church, was a success, with 97 percent participation. He explained that people are getting poorer, and the Hipólito Mejías government has no viable alternative to offer to put an end to the crisis that is lashing this Caribbean nation.

The Dominican Republic is suffering under an inflation rate of more than 40 percent. The official unemployment rate is at 17 percent, even though many say that this figure is far too low.

The economic crisis has prompted thousands of citizens to leave the country for Puerto Rico or the U.S. In January, the U.S. Coast Guard reportedly detained 1,474 people trying to enter Puerto Rico, the overwhelming majority of them Dominicans. The Puerto Rican police report the arrest of 1,019 undocumented Dominicans during the same one-month period.

Leaders of the Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) in Puerto Rico say that Dominicans are fleeing their country because of the “ungovernability” of the Mejías administration. Since the PRD is divided over the country’s crisis, it is expected that the PLD presidential candidate, Leonel Fernández, will win the upcoming elections. At the same time, however, critics of Fernández hold out no real hope that he will change the situation, because it was under his presidency from 1996 to 2000 that the PLD applied a neoliberal economic policy of globalization.

The author can be reached at j.a.cruz@comcast.net.

Iraqi workers still denied basic rights

Fri, 13 Feb 2004 04:35:00 +0000

PHILADELPHIA – While Iraqi workers currently face daunting conditions such as spiraling inflation and 70 percent unemployment, they are refusing to let restrictive, anti-labor laws stop their organizing work.

This was the message of two trade unionists – Clarence Thomas, former secretary-treasurer of Local 10 of International Longshore Workers Union, and labor journalist David Bacon – during a recent visit here. Thomas and Bacon were reporting on their recent trip to Iraq where they met with Iraqi workers and union leaders. They have been touring the U.S. to report on their findings.

About 200 people crowded into the Quaker meeting house here to watch video clips and slides of their meetings with Iraqi oil workers, textile workers and other trade unionists, both men and women. The event was sponsored by the AFL-CIO Central Labor Council, and, in his opening remarks, Philadelphia CLC President Pat Eiding noted that the council had been among the first to pass a resolution against the war in January of 2003.

Thomas recounted the militant history of Iraqi trade unions going back to their origins under British colonial occupation and their subsequent restrictions under the Saddam Hussein regime. While they do not mourn the passing of that regime, workers in Iraq are actively organizing now for trade union rights in the future. They see this as an urgent task because, as Bacon pointed out, the Bush administration’s occupation authority is ironically continuing to enforce the 1987 labor laws of the old regime.

Thomas and Bacon stressed their intent to show the “humanity of the Iraqi people” in their day-to-day struggles, which we are not shown on major network or cable television.

The meeting had added significance because it brought together members of the East and West Coast longshore unions. At the beginning of his talk, Thomas, a third-generation longshoreman, reviewed the militant history of his own union, the ILWU, and its opposition to apartheid in the 1980s and to the coup in Chile in 1973.

After the presentation, Jim Savage, grievance chair of PACE Local 2-1, which represents the Marcus Hook oil refinery workers, speaking from the floor, extended his “personal sentiments” to the Iraqi oil workers and asked what could be done to support them.

Thomas and Bacon said the answer to that question is contained in the “Report on working conditions and labor rights” in Iraq available from U.S. Labor Against the War. Workers here should demand respect for trade union rights in Iraq, a halt to the privatization of Iraq’s state-owned assets, the return of U.S. troops to their homes, and a congressional investigation of the violation of labor rights and corporate profiteering in Iraq.

The next stop on their tour, which to date has taken them to 13 cities, is set for Seattle on Feb. 18.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org.

Industrial unions say Beat Bush!

Fri, 13 Feb 2004 04:30:00 +0000

WASHINGTON – You know you’re at a great conference when, before the first speaker can finish even one paragraph, 3,000 screaming workers jump to their feet, whooping and hollering to beat George Bush. That about sums up the Industrial Union Council’s 2004 legislative conference held here Feb. 3.

The day before the conference, powdered ricin, a toxin, was found in a mailroom of the Senate office building and they shut down Capitol Hill. “If there is danger on the Hill, it’s not in some little powder packets. The danger is in those who hold power up there,” said Joslyn Williams, president of the Metropolitan Washington Labor Council, in opening the meeting.

“But we are here to liberate the White House and the Congress. Come back in 2005 and I guarantee you the greatest labor celebration ever for taking back our country,” he vowed.

That’s when all hell broke loose. The energy and enthusiasm around the “Beat Bush” theme just grew the rest of the day.

Richard Trumka, chair of the IUC and AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, reported to the conference on the first year’s work of the IUC, the manufacturing crisis, and the IUC’s 2004 action agenda to beat Bush. He pointed out that there have been 41 consecutive months of manufacturing job loss, a record even longer than the Great Depression.

Trumka made a special point of condemning the Bush administration’s use of funds – part of the special $87 billion appropriation for the Iraq war – on police action against anti-FTAA demonstrators in Miami. After showing a brief video of the protests and the police violence, he called it a disgrace that tax money was used to crush civil liberties.

Linda Chavez-Thompson, AFL-CIO executive vice-president, reported on its “Voice@Work” campaign. She said that central to the project now is building support in Congress for the Employee Free Choice Act, introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy (S. 1925) and Rep. George Miller (HR 3619). This bill would grant union recognition if a majority of workers in a workplace sign authorization cards (commonly called “card check”) and would stiffen penalties for illegal company tactics against union organizing drives.

Chavez-Thompson also got the crowd going when she described the fighting spirit of the striking grocery workers in Southern California. She had everyone on their feet as the strikers’ chant – “One day longer, one day stronger” – echoed around the hall.

Bill Lucy, president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, gave a rousing call for unity in the fight to defeat Bush and the far right in Congress. He noted that African Americans and Latinos had lost a disproportionately high number of the more than 2.6 million manufacturing jobs lost during the Bush years.

He said that labor has to be honest and admit that Bush had “won” in 2000 by splitting workers and convincing some to vote against their best interests on race issues and on social wedge issues.

“But,” Lucy said to a standing ovation, “we have to come together across the broad spectrum that makes up the union movement so we can take back 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.” Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi also gave rousing anti-Bush speeches.

Many of the industrial unions, including the Autoworkers, Steelworkers, and PACE, held their own legislative conferences built around the IUC conference. The Steelworkers’ conference featured excellent panels on health care, the economy, fair trade issues, and on organizing and the Employee Free Choice Act.

The IUC delegates ended their session with a trip to Capitol Hill to lobby on the issues.

The author can be reached at scott@rednet.org.

Michigan voters focus on job losses

Thu, 12 Feb 2004 11:21:00 +0000

YPSILANTI, Mich. – Disappearing jobs. That is the issue that primarily motivated nearly 150,000 Michigan voters to participate in the Democratic presidential caucus. Since George W. Bush took office, 140,000 manufacturing jobs were lost and the state’s official unemployment rate stands at 7.2 percent.

For Michigan voters, Bush’s claim that jobs are returning is like his claim that Iraq had WMDs. They just aren’t there.

Participants in this second-largest caucus in Democratic Party history in Michigan have consistently expressed their belief that Bush’s political interests were not the same as theirs. One steelworker here said he felt that “Bush’s foreign interests have outweighed his domestic interests.” And this is why he will not be voting for Bush in 2004.

Sen. John Kerry ended up with 52 percent of the vote in Michigan. Howard Dean had 17 percent, John Edwards 13 percent, and Al Sharpton and Wesley Clark each had 7 percent. Dennis Kucinich got 3 percent of the vote.

Unity to defeat Bush was another key factor in the huge turnout. After announcing the vote totals in Lansing, Lt. Governor John Cherry remarked that “140,000 plus Democrats came out to the polls today and the loser was George W. Bush.”

The large manufacturing unions, such as the United Autoworkers and the Steelworkers, played only a minor role in the caucus, as the UAW didn’t endorse any candidate and the USWA had endorsed Gephardt. It is expected, however, that as the Democratic nominee becomes clearer, they will be mobilizing their membership and the community to turn out the vote against Bush.

The author can be reached at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net.

Fred Gaboury, dean of labor writers, 78

Thu, 12 Feb 2004 11:11:00 +0000

Fred Gaboury, a logger from the Pacific Northwest, had Paul Bunyan-sized hands so big he couldn’t make his fingers hit the right typewriter keys. Yet in 30 years as a peerless labor writer, he interviewed hundreds of workers – first as editor of Labor Today and then as a writer for People’s Weekly World. His stories from the front lines of the class struggle prompted many to call him the “Dean of American Labor Journalists.”

Gaboury died of cancer in Chicago Jan. 29. He was 78. Loyalty was his strong suit. He lived the PWW’s proud slogan, “We take sides … Yours!” He was a member of both the PWW Editorial Board and the National Committee of the Communist Party USA. Until the end he participated in PWW story meetings, venting his pithy and profane opinions about George W. Bush and urging wider coverage of the effort to oust him next November. He was honored as a hero of the labor movement at a PWW banquet in Chicago last fall.

For more than a decade he was a regular at AFL-CIO Executive Council meetings. This reporter caught a glimpse last week of the affection for this gruff, larger-than-life, labor writer. I visited the offices of Donna DeWitt, president of the South Carolina AFL-CIO. She greeted me and then she asked, “How’s Fred?” Her face fell when I told her of Fred’s passing.

“He always made us laugh every time we spoke with him,” DeWitt said. “We will miss him.” Her office assistant nodded in agreement.

Scott Marshall, labor secretary of the Communist Party and one of Gaboury’s closest co-workers, said, “What I always admired about Fred was that he always found a way to connect with workers and union leaders alike. When Fred interviewed someone on a picket line, or in a union hall, he immediately connected with them. People could tell instinctively that he knew all about hard jobs and tough union politics from his own experience. He identified with them and they knew it was real.”

Gaboury worked with Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), a leader of the Congressional Black Caucus, helping to organize a grassroots movement in support of Conyers’ bill to create millions of jobs by shortening the workweek to 35 hours.

As field organizer of the Chicago-based Trade Unionists For Action and Democracy (TUAD) during the 1970s, Gaboury helped mobilize the rank and file movement seeking to break out of the “stand pat” trade unionism of AFL-CIO presidents George Meany and Lane Kirkland. He lived in Gary, Ind., with his wife, Jean Thurmond, during those tumultuous years.

That movement reached a high point in the spring of 1981 when union activists met in Buffalo, N.Y., to plan a huge march on Washington. Kirkland opposed the march but support mushroomed so quickly that he reversed course. On “Solidarity Day,” Sept. 19, 1981, hundreds of thousands of trade unionists marched in the streets of Washington protesting Reagan’s smashing of the air traffic controllers union. Gaboury organized the distribution of nearly 100,000 copies of Labor Today at that march.

In 1984, TUAD produced a button with a prune-faced Reagan caricature and the slogan, “Out the door in 84.” More than 80,000 buttons were sold.

All these efforts bore fruit in October of 1995 with the election of John Sweeney, Linda Chavez-Thompson and Rich Trumka to lead the AFL-CIO.

In the late 1980s, Gaboury replaced Ernest DeMaio, a founder of the United Electrical Workers, as UN representative of the Prague-based World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU). He became a familiar figure in the corridors of the United Nations and also wrote extensively on UN affairs.

Fred Gaboury was born in Longview, Wash., on Dec. 29, 1925. A year or so later, his mother, Vivian, moved with her growing family to Port Angeles where her parents lived. She met and married Harvey Gaboury, a construction worker. They moved to a stump farm in the foothills where Fred attended Mount Pleasant Elementary School. He graduated with straight A’s from Port Angeles High School. He was drafted into the Air Force during World War II and briefly attended West Point after the war.

He returned to Port Angeles in 1946 and married Betty Johnson, a high school classmate. They later divorced.

Gaboury went to work as a logger. Under the tutelage of Communist loggers Don Hamerquist and Russ Farrell, Gaboury became a militant rank-and-filer in the International Woodworkers of America (IWA). Hamerquist trained Gaboury as a topper and rigger, the most dangerous (and prestigious) job in the nation’s second-most-dangerous industry.

Gaboury once said he must have climbed a thousand trees in his career, the highest exceeding 215 feet (the height of a 20-story building). When he joined the staff of the PWW in the early 1990s, he wrote a column under a pen name, “Hy Clymber.”

As a 13-year-old, this writer rode the Weyerhaeuser Timber Co. crew bus with Gaboury high up into the Olympic foothills one cold, rainy dawn and watched him rig a 120-foot Douglas fir as a spar tree. Later, he won first prize at a logging show during the Irrigation Festival in Sequim, Wash., for his climbing skills.

His sister, Lillian, remembers that after World War II, there was a strike in the woods every year or so and loggers were the highest paid industrial workers in the region. “Fred was always a picket captain,” she said. “The timber companies hated him so much they put out a contract on him, ‘a thousand dollars dead or alive.’” They obviously didn’t succeed.

But the timber barons found a more effective way to smash the union. The leader of the IWA in northwestern Washington was Karly Larsen, a Communist Party member. He was forced to resign under the Taft Hartley Act and was indicted under the Smith Act in 1952. The Communist Party of Washington State waged a heroic battle to “defend Karly Larsen.” Fred Gaboury and his mother led that battle in Clallam County. He lived to see the anti-communist clause removed from the AFL-CIO constitution.

Terrie Albano, PWW editor, said, “Fred’s contribution to the paper was immeasurable. Not only was he a terrific writer and editor, he was also a journalist-activist who helped shape history.”

Fred Gaboury is survived by his companion, Marianne Ogren, son, Rob, daughter, Cindy, brother, David, and sisters Lillian and Adele. His wife Jean Thurmond preceded him in death in 1990. Memorials are being planned for Fred Gaboury in both Chicago and Washington State.

4 copper workers killed in Iran

Fri, 06 Feb 2004 08:46:00 +0000

Four workers from a copper smelter were killed and dozens were injured while engaging in a peaceful sit-in protest at the plant’s entrance in Khatunabad in southeastern Iran Jan. 25. The workers were demanding that management fulfill its promise of permanent jobs for the smelter’s 1,500 temporary workers.

The workers were brutally attacked by the local police and special intelligence forces of the ruling regime of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to a statement by the Tudeh Party of Iran. Local authorities blamed an “unknown motorcycle bikers’ group” for the attack on the workers.

The Tudeh Party said that the attack is a symptom of the ruling regime’s desperation in the face of growing resistance to its anti-people policies and a deteriorating economy.

“We call upon all progressive forces, and particularly trade unions all around the world, to send protest letters to the regime’s embassies to condemn this criminal act,” the Tudeh Party statement said. In the U.S., the Iran Interests Section is located in the Embassy of Pakistan, 2209 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20007.

Iraqs workers face long road

Fri, 06 Feb 2004 07:13:00 +0000

Opinion

There has been a long history of trade union struggle in Iraq against colonialism and for national independence. Often, it has been a struggle simply for survival.

When the monarchy was overthrown in the revolution of 1958, unions became legal in Iraq for the first time after working underground since the British occupation in the 1920s.

However, workers still had no guarantees for their rights and jobs.

In 1963, the CIA organized a coup that overthrew the government of Karim Kassem and installed the Ba’ath Party in power.

Saddam Hussein took control of the Ba’ath Party and government in 1968 and, in 1977, purged unions of his political opponents and drove radical political parties underground or into exile.

Progressive and patriotic leaders of the unions organized after 1958 were sacked, driven into exile and even executed.

Saddam transformed many trade union bodies into state-run Ba’athist “yellow” unions. These became agencies of violence – organs run by the secret police which carried out bloody repression.

The Workers Democratic Trade Union Movement

(WDTUM), which was established in 1980, played a significant role in opposing Saddam’s attacks on trade unions.

In 1987, Saddam tightened the noose on independent trade unions and rights to organize, and strikes were banned.

Following the fall of the dictatorship and the illegal U.S. occupation of the country in April, the WDTUM formed the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU) in order to set about building independent and democratic workers’ organizations.

A grassroots democratic labor movement has to be built from the bottom up, despite desperate shortages of funds and equipment.

We have had great support from British labor organizations such as the National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers, Fire Brigades Union, Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association and the Scottish Trades Union Congress, and our representatives have met many other organizations.

Labour member of Parliament Harry Barnes has also played a crucial role, and we have enjoyed worldwide support from other countries, including South African and Italian unions.

There is no constitution yet, so it is unclear what trade union rights will exist and international solidarity was never more important than now. It is clear that attacks on trade unionists and their organizations have continued.

Many of Saddam’s anti-union laws are still being enforced by the U.S. occupation authority. Unemployment is still ballooning after U.S. occupation forces privatized the entire economy and are allowing foreign companies to take over entire industries and export profits.

If those workers have no legal union, no right to bargain and no contracts, then mass privatization and the accompanying huge job losses will face much less resistance.

Unrest is also increasing at Western companies bringing in cheap labor from south Asia since all Iraqis are seen as a security risk. This use of cheap labor is reminiscent of the British policy following their invasion of Iraq nearly 100 years ago.

A vivid example of the problems that we face was recently revealed to me by Baghdad rail union committee president Reesa Salman, who explained how jobs were under threat due to Western plans for mass rail privatization.

He said that passenger trains had a driver and an assistant as well as a guard and a ticket collector, but, now, Bechtel is in charge of the railway sector and it intends to subcontract work to British companies.

“The Iraqi railway has a wealth of technical talent and skilled labor that can rebuild our industry – these are the people who you can see here today. We don’t need to be controlled by a foreign company,” he said.

However, on June 5, Coalition Provisional Authority head Paul Bremer issued a decree, called Public Notice Number One, prohibiting “pronouncements and material that incite civil disorder, rioting or damage to property.”

The phrase can easily be interpreted to mean strikes or other organized protests. Those who violate the decree “will be subject to immediate detention by coalition security forces and held as a security internee under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949” – in other words, as a prisoner of war.

On Dec. 6, U.S. occupation forces escalated their efforts to paralyze Iraq’s new trade union movement. U.S. soldiers raided the federation’s headquarters and arrested eight members of the ITFU leadership, including the general secretary of the transport and communications workers union.

The building was ransacked, lists of names were removed, banners were torn down or smeared with paint. and it remains sealed to this day.

Although the eight were released, there has been no explanation from the Coalition Provisional Authority for this vicious attack.

As you can see, our fledging movement is faced with a huge task and escalating hostility from U.S. forces.

However, workers are resisting. Our history shows us that the struggle against imperialism begins not with masked bandits, but with workers struggling for representation and democracy for our devastated country.

Abdullah Muhsin is the international representative of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions. This article originally appeared in the Morning Star (U.K.). For more on IFTU see www.iraqitradeunions.org.

Texas grocery worker: Fighting to keep our heads up

Fri, 06 Feb 2004 05:14:00 +0000

Here in my section of Texas, grocery store workers like us are fighting to keep our heads up. As far as California is concerned, we haven’t really been able to do much because there is a growing belief that workers in Texas may soon be facing the same situation, i.e. taking away our health benefits, overtime privileges, etc.

In fact, at my particular store, most of our workers who are seniors have been facing age discrimination on a large scale. They are being assigned to stocking tasks that are difficult for some older people to complete.

Even though management isn’t being too aggressive about it yet, it seems obvious that they are trying to get rid of the more senior employees to replace them with younger recruits that they won’t have to pay as much. To them, it’s not about work experience or the environment created by friendly and older employees. It’s about money. They can hire two new people who are desperate for jobs for about the same amount of money that they would be paying an employee who has worked for them for 20 years, and it is our belief that that is exactly what the upper management wants to do.

Our local UFCW chapter sent the Los Angeles chapter a letter showing our support, and I have heard that some money was contributed, but as far as I know, not much more than that has been done.

I know literally a dozen people with strong work experience who are working at any job that they can find. It really makes me sick sometimes to hear about the strength of our economy when I know people with college degrees who run into a bad financial situation and have to work three or four part-time jobs just to make ends meet, and the management at these jobs only look at these people as numbers and not people who are trying to support their families. Management knows that they are in a desperate situation, and they take advantage of it.

For example, I have a relative who works at Wal-Mart (strongly anti-union) and he is forced to work late almost every single day. Whenever he has tried to refuse, the manager on the scene always tells him “there’s 50 people out there who would love to have your job.” So what choice does he have, especially with kids? None!

And that is part of the reason why I have decided to join the CPUSA. The other is that, with the growing apathy of corporations towards their workers, I feel that in the future we may be facing some unrest on behalf of the lower and worker class workers in this country.

If the major retail and food stores continue to overturn their senior workers and those who may be a little “slower” than the majority, they will be taking away the main places of employment for these people, because in reality, places such as Wal-Mart are realistically the best jobs that some of these people can get.

There’s no bit of telling how bad the outcome of this could be 10 or 20 years down the road. Without jobs, many will probably turn to crime, and most will definitely face extreme poverty. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Sincerely, T. Plescence, Houston, Texas (pww@pww.org)