People Before Profit blog

The scandal of vanishing vacation time

Fri, 25 Jul 2003 04:05:00 +0000

From Berlin, New York Times correspondent Richard Bernstein reports on what he presents as the question of the day: Have Germans “become too addicted to leisure time for their own good?”

Bernstein seems genuinely agitated that German workers have come to view an annual six-week vacation plus an additional nine to 12 paid holidays as an “inalienable right.” He quotes approvingly Wolfgang Clement, the German minister of labor and economics, that Germans should “work more and vacation less.”

It seems Bernstein views the fact that German workers “actually work fewer hours per year than anybody else in the advanced industrial world – 1,557 hours a year in the former West Germany compared to … 1,900 in the U.S.” as a violation of the natural order.

Bernstein is clearly more comfortable with the working conditions of American workers, “who have no recent history of labor struggle or national traumas [but] simply see work as a good in itself.” And he proudly reports that U.S. workers simply don’t believe in “an inalienable right to an idle August and take pride in postponing retirement, or taking a second career [i.e., a second job].”

As a foreign correspondent, perhaps Bernstein has spent too much time abroad (recently retracing the epic Asian journey of a seventh century Chinese monk in a personal search for insight and philosophical serenity) that he’s simply out of touch with the real situation of the U.S. working class. But my guess is he doesn’t want to be bothered with the facts behind what Arthur Fromm of MSNBC.com calls “the scandal of America’s vacation time.”

“We Americans,” Fromm writes, “put up with the shortest, most miserably limited vacations of any advanced, prosperous nation.”

In a piece for ABC News entitled “Vacation Deprivation,” Catherine Valenti reports that American workers are legally entitled to zero vacation days. Even at the executive level, she says, “you’re seeing a complete burn-out of vacation time.”

In an article in The American Prospect, Robert Reich reports that “the average American worker gets two weeks paid vacation each year. That’s it.” Compared to the 25-30 vacation days a year for workers in the European Union, U.S. workers get 10.3 days a year. Reich writes: “Take a few extra days off on Christmas and New Year’s, a long weekend ... in the spring, and that leaves only a little more than a week’s vacation for the summer.”

For workers in the low-wage, part-time labor markets, who have come to represent a growing share of the labor force, a paid vacation is only a dream.

The closest thing to a “paid vacation” that many workers see are their periods of receiving unemployment compensation. Some 400,000-plus have been laid off each week for the past 21 weeks. But unemployment checks (while they last) are hardly enough to pay the bills, let alone pay for the Ultimate Journey across Asia in search of enlightenment.

And forget vacations in retirement. In its report, “The State of Working America 2002-03,” the Economic Policy Institute observed, “Only households at the very top of the income spectrum are likely to be adequately prepared for retirement. … For two out of five Americans, income from Social Security [and pensions] will replace less than half their pre-retirement incomes.” According to a recent report from CBS.com entitled “Seniors Scan ‘Help Wanted’ Ads,” roughly 4.5 million older Americans are currently working, many in minimum wage jobs. The head of the Alliance of Retired Americans, Edward Coyle, is quoted saying, “It’s a very demeaning way to live out [our] lives. … The baby boomers who are approaching retirement are quite frankly panicked.”

Looking through Bernstein’s elitist prism, however, seniors will presumably “take pride” in a full life of work, not like those lazy Germans.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

UAW fights for pay, health care, pensions

Fri, 25 Jul 2003 03:56:00 +0000

Negotiations on a new contract between the United Auto Workers and the Big Three automakers have begun. Most of the speculation in the news media has focused on the so-called “dire straits” that the auto companies are facing.

The last two years have not been good in the U.S. auto industry, with both market-share and profits dropping. The mainline media have harped on the weakness of the economy as a reason to expect the union to be willing to take some form of concessions. The “conventional wisdom” is that the companies must bring health care and pension costs down to improve their standing on Wall Street. This translates to forcing workers to pay part of their health insurance costs and to accept reductions in pensions.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and other union leaders have steadfastly refused to budge on these issues, pledging not to let the problem of soaring health care costs be solved on the backs of the union workers. However, there is also talk of allowing the companies out of the no-plant-closing provisions negotiated in the last contract.

All this hype in the media about the contract is having an effect among some workers. Some talk about this being a contract where we simply hold our own and wait for a better economy. Some see the closing of a couple of the plants that work only one shift as inevitable. Everyone realizes the huge impact of the foreign transplants and sees the fact that they are almost all non-union as a real problem.

But a lot of workers also know that for eight years or more there were big profits for the Big Three. The companies made billions of dollars in profits and paid hundreds of millions in bonuses to upper management.

One of the big improvements for the workers that came two contracts ago was the reinstatement of the annual 3 percent pay increase, which replaced the lump sum payments that had been a leftover from the early 80s. These wage increases are just as important as improvements in benefits. This is especially true for younger workers with families who have less seniority and who oftentimes are just getting started economically. Increased wages mean an improved quality of life. Despite the drop in the economy, the Big Three still bring enough resources to the table to retain the 3 percent annual wage increase. Now is not the time to go cheap on the very same people who were the foundation for the financial success of the 1990s.

– a Detroit Ford worker

Unthinkable Undrinkable. Stop the killing, boycott Coke

Fri, 25 Jul 2003 03:30:00 +0000

“We are doing this to save the lives of our members,” declared Colombian union leader Javier Luis Correa, launching an international boycott of Coca-Cola products July 22. Correa, president of Colombia’s National Union of Food Industry Workers (SINALTRAINAL), accused Coke of attacking the union by way of paramilitary death squads that get rid of union activists.

The union reports that eight union members and the wife of a Coca-Cola worker have been assassinated, 67 are living under death threats, their families have been threatened and relatives kidnapped, demonstrations have been attacked, and union offices searched, bombed and burned.

The boycott has the endorsement of the country’s main trade union federation, the CUT, as well as the World Social Forum. SINALTRAINAL’s demands include no more assassinations and full reparations to the families of the victims.

The United Steelworkers of America and the International Labor Rights Fund filed a suit in U.S. court in July 2001 on behalf of SINALTRAINAL against Coca-Cola. The Steelworkers union maintains that the multinational is responsible for the intimidation and murder of union organizers in its bottling plants in Colombia.

The author can be reached at rwood@pww.org

Rubber workers fight for jobs, families

Fri, 25 Jul 2003 03:16:00 +0000

PITTSBURGH – Until there is a flat or a broken belt, usually in the dead of winter, middle of nowhere, tires or rubber belts are not even a blip on the radar. Unless, that is, you’re a rubber worker.

Tens of thousands of workers and their families, first members of the United Rubber Workers and now, since the 1995 merger, members of the United Steelworkers union (USWA), have been building tires, hundreds of millions of tires, for generations. In 2002, motorists bought 205 million replacement tires alone, and that doesn’t count tires on new vehicles.

Tires are big business, $70 billion a year, dominated by global giants of Bridgestone/Firestone, Michelin/Uniroyal/Goodrich and Goodyear/Kelly-Springfield/Dunlap (GKD) corporations.

On June 27, Goodyear put its “last offer” on the table in its negotiations with the union. The offer included closing all the plants in the U.S., except a single non-union facility, and moving the work to Southeast Asia. That is just for openers. This cup of hemlock included all the health care and pension cuts right out of the same book read by corporations everywhere.

Rubber workers rejected the offer and left. No negotiations are scheduled. The union is fighting for a moratorium on plant closings and restructuring the company to protect jobs, health and pensions.

Goodyear is the target company for the 2003 contract negotiations – this contract will become the industry standard. On April 23, union contracts at Bridgestone/Firestone and Michelin/Uniroyal expired. On July 5, the Goodyear agreement ran out. Workers are continuing to work under the old contracts, but it is day-to-day.

While rubber is not steel, there is one important similarity: bloated executive pay. Goodyear posted a significant profit for nine straight years, 1992-2001. In 2001, it reported a $203 million loss and slashed 10,000 jobs. That same year, the Akron Beacon Journal reports, Chairman and CEO Sam Gibara took home a $1.25 million bonus on top of his $1.3 million salary. Other top executives got huge bonuses, too.

Meanwhile, the workers’ pension fund was under-funded that year to the tune of $2 billion.

The union has been busy. Over the weekend of July 19, all 14 local unions, representing about 30,000 workers, hosted community picnics, rallies and ice cream socials in their respective towns. The purpose, said USWA Local 878L President Kevin Terrett, reached by phone in Union City, Tenn., was to “bring the union’s message to the community so that they will understand. We are not out to hurt this company, work against this company. It is in the best interests of our members if they make money.” With the exception of top corporate officers, it is in no one’s best interest if the plant closes.

Local 878L has 3,300 members and is the largest local union in the chain. Their jobs are central to Union City, a community of 11,000 in northwest Tennessee. This fight is about saving jobs; it is about saving their community.

Terrett is confident that the union will be successful in winning a contract. “It is not always good business sense to move to cheaper labor,” he said. “If they close and destroy the pensions, who is going to buy tires? Retirees are a tremendous market. But they can’t buy Goodyear tires if they have no money. We will not allow this company to destroy itself and everything.”

Rubber workers are informed, united, and have a plan to get a contract. In April, workers voted by a 97.3 percent margin to strike Goodyear. They initiated “T-shirt” days, Tuesdays and Thursdays, when members wear T-shirts to work with “Family Security” written across the front.

At a March meeting in Cincinnati, U.S. rubber workers met with their brothers and sisters from 27 countries including the UK, Brazil, Germany, Turkey and Belgium, to map out an international strategy.

“Once the company sees we are forceful about our rights,” says Terrett, “and we can make them see that, we are going to win.” Terrett speaks from experience. In 1976, a four-month strike resulted in major gains for rubber workers, as did a three-week strike in 1997.

The author can be reached at dwinebr696@aol.com

86,000 telecom workers OK strike against Verizon

Fri, 25 Jul 2003 02:33:00 +0000

A major labor struggle is now under way in the eastern U.S., pitting 60,000 members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and 26,000 members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) against the communications industry giant, Verizon Communications Inc.

The parties are trying to hammer out regional and local agreements covering workers in 13 New England and mid-Atlantic states. With the present contract expiring Aug. 2, union leaders report over 90 percent of workers across the region voting in favor of strike authorization.

Negotiations began in June in an atmosphere colored by the December 2002 layoff of thousands of workers in what was described by the company as “an effort to remain competitive.” But on July 11 an arbitrator ruled that the December layoffs violated the job security stipulations of the existing contract and ordered Verizon to put 2,300 CWA members back on the job.

CWA District 1 Vice President Larry Mancino hailed the ruling, saying that it would give the reinstated workers “their lives back.” Stunned Verizon negotiators canceled the day’s bargaining sessions. IBEW spokesman Jim Spellane told the World that 1,100 of that union’s members will also be called back as a result of the arbitration decision. Significantly, one of the givebacks demanded by management in the present negotiations is elimination of this recourse to arbitration.

Going into the negotiations, Verizon management said its goal was to “become a smaller company,” and spoke of the need to have “flexibility to adjust our workforce” as well as “work rule flexibility.”

The feeling among workers is that Verizon management wants them to pay for management’s mistakes. Early in the negotiations, CWA District 13 Vice President Larry Maisano told management, “Our members are not going to pay for your mismanagement.”

As in many recent labor negotiations, health care is a major issue. The unions won non-contributory health coverage in 1970, but management is now proposing to cut benefits and require premium payments from workers. Verizon is also demanding the elimination of both the limits on forced overtime and the job security provisions that were won in the 2000 contract. In addition, the company is seeking givebacks in disability, family care and training for advancement.

The unions are seeking not only to protect past gains, but also to limit sub-contracting and to lower barriers to organizing in areas of new technology, such as the company’s wireless and internet service divisions.

Verizon is the largest provider of communications services in the U.S. In 2002, its net profits were over $4 billion despite $12 billion lost in “bad investments.” Nine top Verizon executives made over $395 million in compensation over the past five years.

The CWA has 700,000 members, mainly in communications-related industries, and the IBEW has 95,000 of its 775,000 members in telecommunications.

The author can be reached at gamoo@compuserve.com

UNITE! lives up to its name

Fri, 25 Jul 2003 02:29:00 +0000

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – “This union speaks many languages. We are many different colors. We’re marching shoulder-to-shoulder because our weapon is solidarity. Take one of us on and you’ve taken on all of us,” declared President Bruce Raynor to over 2,000 Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) members, delegates, staff, guests, and retirees gathered at Bally’s convention center here, July 21, at the union’s Second Constitutional Convention. UNITE’s diversity was apparent as a “March of Delegations” brought Asian, Latino, Black, Brown and white members from all over the country together.

The delegates drew on successes of the past four years, including the gain of 65,000 new members, to address the pressing issues of strengthening the labor movement and member mobilization. And they committed themselves to defeating George W. Bush in the 2004 elections.

Raynor’s opening touched on issues confronting working people – unemployment, corporate greed, NAFTA, health care, immigrants’ rights and the 2004 elections. “The Bush administration … [is] hell bent on making the rich richer,” he said, adding, “Bush is the most dangerous president we’ve had in our lifetime.”

Mario Arredondo, of the UNITE Chicago and Central States Joint Board, told the World, “Bush is rich. He doesn’t care what happens to working people. We’re going to get rid of him in 2004.” Arredondo said that the Bush administration’s attacks on overtime pay regulations are “just another tactic to give money to the rich.”

With the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride set to start in September, UNITE has placed special emphasis on organizing the unorganized, especially among immigrant workers who, according to Raynor, “are being exploited like there is no tomorrow.”

In a wide-ranging discussion, delegates addressed the union’s major campaign of organizing the 17,000 workers at Cintas, the nation’s largest uniform rental provider and industrial launderer, as well as the adoption of the “Campaign for the Future,” an aggressive, multi-pronged plan designed to ensure UNITE’s long-term growth and stability.

The campaign’s main objectives are improving wage and living standards for the union’s 250,000 members by organizing entire companies and sectors; doubling efforts to organize more members; and defending jobs by promoting union-made uniforms and government purchases from union shops. The plan also includes building the movement for justice by working with other unions, and community, student and religious organizations. The Campaign for the Future looks to add 100,000 new UNITE members by the

On the second day of the meeting, in near 100-degree weather, delegates set up a picket at Al Phillips Laundry, the largest dry cleaner chain in the city, where UNITE members have been on strike since July 8 over unfair labor practice charges. From the picket line, Isabel Guerrero, president of UNITE Local 66 in Lawrence, Mass., told the World, “We’re all in this together. We all need more benefits and better wages. These sisters and brothers just want what’s right.”

Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, also at the picket line, said, “As long as it takes, what ever it takes, Al Phillips, Cintas, we’re in this together. And we will win.”

Back at Bally’s, delegates attended workshops on international organizing, media relations, immigration rights, local union finance, retiree benefits, mobilizing volunteers, and winning respect and building power.

UNITE’s internationalism showed during a convention discussion of the effects of NAFTA on North American and Mexican workers. “Our government has entered into trade agreements that hurt … workers,” Raynor said, adding, “Mexican workers earn less today than they did before NAFTA was passed.” Worker and trade union guests from Columbia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, England, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Mexico, South Africa and Thailand also attended the five-day convention.

UNITE, whose members work in apparel, textile, industrial laundries, distribution and retail was formed in 1995 by the merger of two of the nation’s oldest unions, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) and the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU).

The author can be reached at tonypec@pww.org

Lawmakers tell Cintas: Respect workers

Fri, 18 Jul 2003 05:23:00 +0000

WASHINGTON – Cintas workers held up a banner that read, “Uniform Justice,” at a July 9 Capitol Hill news conference as lawmakers flayed the $2 billion uniform laundry firm for harassment of their workers to keep the union out.

“We stand here today in solidarity, and in support of the hard fought and hard won rights of workers to organize in the workplace,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.). She announced that 91 members of Congress have co-signed her letter to Cintas CEO Robert Kohlhepp urging the company to halt its antiunion intimidation of its 27,000 employees. DeLauro recalled her mother’s life of toil as a low-wage garment worker and the role of unions in improving workers’ lives in the past century.

She was flanked by Teamsters President James Hoffa Jr. and Bruce Raynor, president of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE), at the open-air event. The two unions have joined in an effort to unionize Cintas.

Victor Hidalgo, who emigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador, said he was illegally fired for advocating a union at the Cintas plant outside New Haven, Conn. His coworker, Teresa Moreno, from Mexico, said she has worked at the plant since 1992 and earns $8 an hour. “A majority of the workers are immigrants,” she said in Spanish. “The company wants to intimidate us so we won’t organize. They want to know who is with the union. They have fired my fellow workers for supporting the union. … I know we need a union in our plant to better our conditions.”

DeLauro’s letter states, “We believe that a card-check neutrality agreement in which ground rules for Cintas’ and the unions’ behavior are clearly articulated would be the best option for determining whether or not employees wish to be represented by a union.”

Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, told the crowd that the Cintas CEO gave the Republican Party $1.1 million in campaign contributions, second highest individual contributor to the GOP. Cintas in Spanish means “too late,” he said, adding, “This is a ‘too late’ corporation that has to be held accountable for its corrupt behavior.”

UNITE’s Raynor said, “Cintas is a $2 billion company that in some cases is willing to spend up to $3,400 per worker to break the union and to deny workers their right to choose a union. But Cintas can’t spare the money to pay above poverty wages, to provide fair overtime or decent benefits.”

Cintas has “crushed 49 unions” in swallowing up scores of smaller industrial laundries in recent years. But now, he said, “UNITE and the Teamsters are going to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Cintas workers in their struggle for union rights.”

Raynor said 100 unfair labor practice complaints have been filed against Cintas. “All legal recourses are being taken advantage of.” But Big Business frustrates these legal appeals, he said.” A card check neutrality agreement is the best option.”

Victor Hidalgo told the World that since he was fired he has worked full time as a volunteer to unionize the plant. “There is no question we will win,” he said. “We’ve had victories already. There are improvements in working conditions, health and safety. The company won’t admit it, but everyone knows the improvements are because of the union.”

The author can be reached at greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com

Landslide victory for Head Start workers

Fri, 18 Jul 2003 03:49:00 +0000

Union density for Head Start workers in San Diego County reached 100 percent when 186 workers at Episcopal Community Services (ECS) Head Start recently voted 168-7 for Service Employees International Union Local 2028.

Now employees will begin to work towards getting a strong first union contract. Concerns are health care costs (especially family benefits, which run over $200 per month), better pay, and a bilingual pay differential at an agency with an overwhelmingly Latina workforce.

ECS workers complain that shortages of supplies, including food for the children, has been an increasing problem in recent years, even as top management salaries have risen dramatically. Head Start workers who join SEIU are joining a nationwide movement against Bush’s cuts to social programs, including his “reauthorization” package (H.R. 2210), which threatens to turn the Head Start program over to cash-strapped state governments. Such a shift will translate into cuts, school closings, and layoffs. Entire state programs could be eliminated.

ECS’s election follows on the heels of a union victory for Alpha Kappa Alpha Head Start employees just one week earlier. And in February of this year, 850 Neighborhood House Association workers joined Local 2028.

Head Start was one of the “Great Society” programs. Head Start activists note that the program has made a huge difference in the lives of millions of low-income families since the National Head Start Act was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. The recent chain of union successes in San Diego county is an important step in Head Start’s defense, and a reminder that even in these difficult times, workers continue to struggle and win.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

Organizing at America West

Fri, 18 Jul 2003 03:46:00 +0000

Chara, from Tucson, Ariz., sends the following report about the organizing campaign of customer service representatives (CSRs) at America West Airlines.

I am a CSR of 19 years, and I am an organizer. This is the fourth campaign I have worked on at America West. The airline flies nationwide, so it is an incredible task to organize every city that we fly to. The turnover is tremendous “upstairs,” where passenger service is, simply because our Corporate doesn’t pay enough to keep people. To give you an idea, I make $13.37 now after 19 years of service, with no retirement except 401(k) and flying privileges that can be taken away at anytime because nothing is in writing. We have sick days, but we’re penalized for using them – we’re written up. But our Corporate wants “the sun, moon, and stars” from our workers.

Our unit is about 3,000 people nationwide, so we had to have key people in every city. I have been there a long time so I have a lot of contacts. I feel the Teamsters Union is the strongest and best-organized that I have seen to accomplish this most difficult task. Every local at every city stepped up to pull this together, but it took almost a year, starting in January 2002, to accomplish the card drive and file with the NMB [the National Mediation Board, which oversees union recognition votes in the airline industry].

The voting took place in November 2002, and the NMB used a new system of electronic voting. Employees were instructed to call a special number and go through a phone menu of pushing buttons to register their votes. I felt very uncomfortable with this process. I was in Washington, D.C., to see the vote totaled on Nov. 8. We had done a poll before our election, and our calculations showed us ahead by 500, so we were in shock when the NMB agent pushed the button and we lost. There was no way of double-checking the vote. Then, talking with our key people, we found over 100 violations by management, and we filed all of them. But after six months, the NMB ruled in favor of America West Corporate, against the employees.

Here is an excerpt from the letter I have sent the NMB members Francis Duggan, Edward Fitzmaurice, and Harry Hoglander:

“It is beyond me how you could arrive at this answer … you did not even interview one single person who filed a complaint. I can only surmise that your ‘investigation’ was a total farce. … You have deliberately looked away from fairness and justice and dealt a devastating blow to our People. I sincerely hope that this unrighteous decision will haunt you forever.

“I can advise you of this, keep your eyes on the West, just as the Phoenix has risen from the ashes, the America West Agents will rise again as well. It is my greatest goal to destroy the modern day slavery that America West Corporate and the NMB are trying to promote.”

County votes to join Tyson boycott

Fri, 18 Jul 2003 02:36:00 +0000

MADISON, Wis. – Backed by a display of public support, arguments for solidarity won the day as the Dane County Board of Supervisors voted here July 10 to suspend its purchases of all products made by Tyson Foods. The vote was 23-9.

The “Justice for Jefferson” resolution was introduced by 5th District Supervisor Echnaton Vedder in response to a strike of 470 workers at the Doskocil Food Service plant in neighboring Jefferson County.

After purchasing the plant, Tyson demanded workers accept a series of concessions, including a 30 percent reduction in wages. The workers, members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 538, struck Feb. 28 after determining that Tyson would not fairly negotiate. An unfair labor practices charge is pending. According to Vedder, the county purchases roughly $30,000 of Tyson products each year.

Before the vote, about 100 workers and community members gathered with signs and banners on the steps of Madison’s City County Building to display their support for the measure. Heather Allen of the Four Lakes Green Party acted as emcee and led the throng in a chant of “Boycott Tyson!”

Also addressing the crowd were legislative sponsors of the resolution, Tyson workers, and union leaders. Plant worker Chuck Moehling described the local impact of Tyson’s practices, saying, “We’re trying to keep our families intact in that community.” But he also reminded supporters that the strike is of national importance. With Tyson’s 30 percent share of the industry market, Moehling said, “they have a major say in what goes on in our state and nation.”

Jim Cavanaugh, president of Wisconsin’s South Central Federation of Labor, said the county needed to tell Tyson, “If you come into our state and try to lower our standard of living, we will not do business with you.”

The Madison School Board approved a similar resolution last week, and plans for similar resolutions are pending for the city of Madison and for Jefferson County.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org

UAW sets national priorities

Fri, 11 Jul 2003 03:01:00 +0000

DETROIT – “The only time I’m going backward is when I’m in my car backing out of a parking spot,” said United Auto Workers President Ron Gettlefinger at a press conference at the union’s Solidarity House, June 17. “We’re just not going to shift health care costs on the backs of our workers,” he said, referring to the union’s resistance to making concessions on health care at the pending contract talks with the Big Three auto companies.

As the mid-July contract talks near, UAW leaders have begun to unveil the 750,000-member union’s national public policy priorities, which include a universal national health care system, retirement security based on defined-benefit pensions, protection of workers’ rights (especially the right to organize), and “fair trade policies that protect the environment and workers’ rights,” Gettlefinger said.

According to a UAW statement, the U.S. spends more than 14 percent of its gross domestic product on health care, but the quality, affordability and availability of care compare unfavorably to most industrialized nations. Gettlefinger called the health care situation a “national disgrace,” and said that cost-shifting to workers “does not contain the cost, and it does not improve the quality of health care.”

Referring to the movement of manufacturing jobs into Mexico since NAFTA’s passage, he said, “Our loss has not been Mexico’s gain. Nobody wins in the race to the bottom.”

– Joel Wendland

Building community the union way

Fri, 11 Jul 2003 02:58:00 +0000

How do you fight diabetes by kissing a pig? Midge Collette, the president of Amalgamated United Auto Workers Local 292 in Kokomo, Ind., knows. After the members of her union, who build auto parts at the Delphi Delco plant, raised over $7,000 for the American Diabetes Association (ADA) last February, she was awarded the honor of kissing Mr. Wiggles, a large pot-bellied beast used by the ADA for the purpose.

Aside from improving their wages and conditions as a collective bargaining unit, workers in the UAW find ways to improve their neighborhoods and strengthen their class through community service.

UAW locals all over the Midwest and upper South have raised money for Toys for Tots, veterans, homeless programs, food banks, clothing drives, and associations that fight diseases. When Peterbilt workers in Madison, Tenn., members of UAW Local 1832, were locked out by their employers, Local 737 members in nearby Nashville raised $6,000 and donated hundreds of items such as clothes and toys to make sure their brothers and sisters enjoyed Christmas. Local 737 also formed the Rescue Squad to help the local police hunt for missing persons.

These Ford glass plant workers also regularly donate money, time and household items to single mothers recovering from substance abuse. Up north, workers from Toledo, Ohio’s GM power train plant, Local 14, raised $9,000 recently to help homeless and battered women and to provide assistance to needy veterans.

Just across the border near Adrian, Mich., Local 2031 members at GM’s Delphi parts plant supported local veterans at Veterans Committee fundraisers last December. The events’ proceeds bought Christmas gifts and necessities for veterans hospitalized at the Battle Creek Veterans Administration Medical Center.

Retiree members of Local 685 in Indiana raised over $1,000 to help provide transportation service for veterans of World War II and the Korean War to local VA hospitals.

At a time when the Bush administration is cutting deeply into VA healthcare budgets, these special services provided some relief. Further north, workers at American Axle in Three Rivers, Mich., members of Local 2093, raffled off a wooden playhouse they built for $2,300. This money was donated to Habitat for Humanity.

If you aren’t a union member or watch “The Sopranos” too much, you might have the mistaken impression that union members are corrupt, selfish or uninterested in giving back to their communities. This is a phony image the corporations and the right love to push in order to hide their own corruption and greed.

The author can be reached at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net

Day laborers fight for justice

Fri, 11 Jul 2003 02:16:00 +0000

CHICAGO – The Workers’ Center was up in two hours. The work was done July 2 by about 25 Latino immigrant day laborers who took up a collection, bought some two-by-fours and plywood, and nailed them together. They were constructing a hiring site in an abandoned city bus turnaround in the Albany Park neighborhood.

The workers inaugurated the site as the Juan Diego Democratic Workers’ Center, named after the historic Mexican figure who was recently made a saint.

Each morning for the past 15 years about 250 workers have gathered to get work in construction, demolition and landscaping, sometimes causing traffic jams on Lawrence Avenue near Pulaski. After complaints by businesses, the workers began searching for a new site. The bus turnaround on Pulaski proved to be an ideal location, which they have occupied for three months.

While they finished hammering the last nails, the workers waited for the police to arrive and evict them. On the ground lay a sign that said “No nos moveran – We will not be moved.” Alderwoman Margaret Laurino had vowed to have the Park District fence off the site by noon July 1. That deadline came and went.

“We will take the risk of being arrested, if that’s what it takes,” said Jose Landaverde, an organizer with the Latino Union of Chicago. “These workers have families to feed. You can’t take their livelihoods away from them.”

“Even if the center is destroyed, we will not go away,” said one worker. “We will continue to gather for work.” The workers said they are at the mercy of employers who routinely cheat them out of pay. They are often forced to work 12 hours a day and for sub-minimum wages. The center is envisioned as a future hiring hall and place for the protection of their rights.

The workers had held several meetings with Laurino to work out a mutually beneficial arrangement. She initially suggested the bus turnaround, but then became more hostile. At one point she told the workers she would be glad to buy them one-way tickets out of her district. Then she set the deadline for them to leave the property.

In addition to the Latino Union, the workers were being supported by a coalition of groups called the Friends of Albany Park Day Laborers that includes the Chicago Jobs with Justice, Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues, the Mexican Solidarity Committee, the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs and Centro Sin Fronteras.

The same organizations are campaigning to create workers’ centers in other hiring locations that would combine a hiring hall, legal assistance, education and supportive services with full worker participation.

The author can be reached at jbachtell@rednet.org

Unemployment up, Black youth hardest hit

Fri, 11 Jul 2003 02:08:00 +0000

Nothing in the June unemployment report – unemployment up 0.3 percent to 6.4 percent with 11 million workers either unemployed, forced to work part-time or too “discouraged” to look for non-existent jobs, and two million workers out of work for 27 weeks or more – is cause for celebration.

But with all of that, the most disturbing number comes from an analysis of the report by the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF). According to CDF, nearly three-fifths (59.1 percent) of the nation’s youth between the ages of 16 and 19 are without jobs.

“This is the highest June jobless rate for youth in the 55 years that data have been reported and the highest ever for a summer month,” CDF says, adding: “Joblessness among Black and Hispanic teens was even higher: 78.3 percent for Black teens (the highest since 1983) and 68.4 percent for Latino teens, the highest reported for young Latinos.”

In a statement accompanying the release of the report, Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund said, “The 2001 tax cut did not produce the jobs that teens need to supplement family income or earn money to pay for college.” She said a study by the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges shows that college tuition fees have seen increased by 10 percent or more in 22 states.

“If benefits from the Bush administration’s massive tax cuts to the wealthy were supposed to trickle down to the rest of the work force, they are not reaching young people,” said Edelman. “How shameful that the Bush administration hands billions to millionaires but will not help provide jobs for young people who desperately need them.”

The CDF statement blasted the Bush administration’s proposal to eliminate the Youth Opportunity Grant program that, it said, is a crucial part of reducing teen unemployment. The latest data for large cities (April, 2000) show the highest rates of out-of-school youth without employment were in Hartford, Conn. (70.5 percent), New Orleans, Louisiana (69.4 percent), Brownsville, Texas (68.1 percent), Miami, Fla. (67.5 percent), and Gary, Ind.(67.3 percent).

Union solidarity gets the job done!

Fri, 04 Jul 2003 05:30:00 +0000

Workers’ correspondence

Creative tactics on the part of 360 workers at Johanna Foods’ Flemington, N.J., plant, overcame a “take it or leave it” proposal by company president Robert Fascina that included a new 50 percent co-pay on healthcare and meager 5 cent per hour yearly raises.

Johanna Foods produces fruit juices and yogurt products for supermarkets across the Northeast. Workers in the yogurt plant belong to a separate local. When a new guard post and gate were installed at the yogurt facility and Fascina failed to show up at a negotiating session, the company’s tactic became clear: force us out on strike while maintaining production at the yogurt plant.

We were caught between an unacceptable offer and the prospect of a strike with the yogurt division still working. The negotiating team contacted Local 863 workers at the area Pathmark distribution center. Pathmark is a major buyer of Johanna Foods products. Next day, 14 tractor-trailer loads of Johanna Foods products came back to the plant, undelivered. Local 863 members at Pathmark told Fascina to get a contract with us, and then they’d unload his product. With 14 truckloads of juices rotting on the docks, and our workers making more every day, management changed its tune. Within days, company negotiators were back at the table.

The new tentative agreement drops the co-pay for healthcare; provides for 50 cent per hour raises per each year of a five-year agreement and introduces a 10 cent per hour shift differential for evening and night work. We even made progress on the two-tier pay system. Currently, workers from the company’s mothballed milk division earn $3.50 per hour more than other workers. We had originally wanted to eliminate this gap by negotiating an immediate $3.50 increase in non-milk workers’ pay. Instead, the bargaining team negotiated a clause stating that as senior employees in the upper tier leave, the senior person in the lower tier moves up. All told, Johanna Foods workers will see a cumulative wage increase of $2.80 over the life of the contract – more than ten times the company’s “best” offer. And no co-pay on health care!

– A proud member of Teamsters Local 863

Lorenzo and Anita Torrez honored at CPUSA meeting

Fri, 04 Jul 2003 04:27:00 +0000

In an emotional program that frequently brought audience members to their feet and provoked shouts of “Si, se puede!”, Anita and Lorenzo Torrez, two participants in the historic filming of Salt of the Earth, were honored at a special session of the CPUSA’s national committee on June 28.

Fifty years have elapsed since the award-winning Salt of the Earth was filmed. The movie portrays the struggle of Mexican American miners and their wives in a bitter strike against the Empire Zinc Company in New Mexico in 1950.

Lorenzo Torrez was one of the strikers and, when the film was made in 1953, had a speaking role. Anita was involved in the movie, too, and special emphasis in the film is given to the role of women in helping to win the strike.

The movie made cinema history in several ways: not only did the miners and their wives portray themselves in the film, but the lead actress, Rosaura Revueltas, was deported by the U.S. government before the filming was completed, its producer and writer were blacklisted for many years, and the film was the only movie banned in the U.S. during the anti-Communist hysteria of the McCarthy years. It wasn’t shown to the public until 1965.

“Fifty years later,” said Anita, “Salt of the Earth seems to be reviving.” The things it stood for – including the struggle for worker dignity and social equality – are still the things to fight for, she said.

Lorenzo related how the workers sent the film’s script back to Hollywood for a re-write many times to ensure that the leading role of the Mexican American miners was accurately portrayed.

He said that the fury of the mine operators against the workers in 1950 was fueled by two things: “They didn’t want to pay us as much as the white miners were getting, and the companies feared that the Mexican American workers were becoming politically astute. So they went after the union.”

Tributes to the couple came from Roberta Wood, labor editor of the PWW/NM, Dee Myles, chair of the CPUSA education commission, Evelina Alarcon, vice-chair of the CPUSA, Jarvis Tyner, executive vice-chair of the Party, Carolyn Trowbridge, a spokesperson from their Party club in Tucson, and Sam Webb, national chairman of the CPUSA. Alarcon called the couple “the epitome of what Communists should be,” whose life stories and personal warmth have inspired countless Mexican American youth. Webb called Lorenzo and Anita “the true salt of the earth, our gems,” and “great fighters for our class, for the Mexican American people, and for our Party.”

– Mark Almberg

Teamsters join Seamsters to clean up laundry

Fri, 04 Jul 2003 03:38:00 +0000

Forming a landmark partnership, two international unions, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and UNITE (Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees) announced a joint effort to bring safe working conditions, dignity, and a decent standard of living to 17,000 workers at the nation’s largest industrial laundry.

James Hoffa and Bruce Raynor, leaders of the two respective unions, announced the plan to organize Cintas, a notoriously anti-union nationwide uniform supplier, at a rally June 25 at Chicago’s Teamster City. “This is a historic day for our two unions,” said Hoffa.

Laundry workers who sort, process, press, and pack uniforms, as well as those in other facilities who manufacture them, make up about 60 percent of Cintas’ work force and will organize with UNITE, union spokesperson Kate Shaller told the World.

The 7,000 truck drivers who deliver the uniforms and are also classified as sales and service reps will be organized by the Teamsters.

UNITE, which has made bringing justice to laundry workers part of its core mission, launched the campaign against the laundry giant earlier this year in the wake of a successful five-year campaign to bring 40,000 laundry workers from smaller facilities under union protection. While Cintas employees report being paid below the federal poverty line, the company reported $234 million in profits in 2002.

Cintas workers at the rally where the announcement was made were clearly excited about the significant resources the Teamsters bring to the campaign. Fully one-quarter of the Teamsters’ one million members wear uniforms every day, and hundreds of thousands of them wear uniforms made and cleaned by Cintas. The Teamsters can put pressure on Cintas by informing existing Teamsters employers who contract with Cintas about the company’s illegal conduct, which has resulted in hundreds of OSHA citations for violations of health and safety laws and charges of labor law violations.

This partnership “breaks ground for the labor movement in a number of ways” AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stuart Acuff told the World. National campaigns are significant, but pretty rare, he said, and joint campaigns, are “certainly something we want to encourage.” The AFL-CIO has been supporting the Cintas campaign since its inception, with staff and finances, he added.

Santa Ana Ventura, a worker at Cintas said, “I’m glad to know the Teamsters and UNITE will help us form a union, because we’re sick of Cintas breaking the law and cheating its workers.”

The author can be reached at rwood@pww.org

Workers tell Bush: Hands off overtime

Fri, 04 Jul 2003 02:05:00 +0000

WASHINGTON – Hundreds of angry workers from across the nation picketed the U.S. Labor Department June 30 to protest a new Bush administration regulation that could terminate overtime pay for eight million workers.

The Labor Department claims employees engaged in an “executive, administrative, or professional capacity” would lose overtime protection. But the protesters countered that workers earning as little as $22,100 per year could be exempted from the overtime law.

At least 42 Democratic senators and 100 Democratic House members sent letters to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao demanding that she rescind the new work rules.

“Our grandparents died for the 40 hour workweek. Don’t let the government take it away,” said a hand-lettered placard carried by one union picketer. Another proclaimed, “May 1886: 15 killed marching for the eight hour day,” a reference to the 1886 Haymarket Massacre in Chicago commemorated by workers every year on May Day.

“Did you know that the Labor Department did not have one hearing on a plan to cut overtime pay for eight million workers?” thundered AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Rich Trumka at a sidewalk rally. The AFL-CIO had rented space in the Labor Department auditorium, a routine practice. But Labor Secretary Elaine Chao cancelled the meeting when she got wind of its purpose.

During the 90-day comment period, which expired June 30, more than 75,000 people sent in messages of protest.

“Taking away overtime will kill jobs,” Trumka continued. “This is economic poison. Overtime pay for work beyond 40 hours a week is a legacy of a century-long fight by workers for dignity and respect. The American working class is not going to allow them to turn back the clock.”

Crews from at least 15 network and cable news crews covered the event. Morton Bahr, president of the Communications Workers of America (which includes the Newspaper Guild), told these workers they will be among the first denied coverage under the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act which requires time-and-a-half wages for every hour worked beyond 40 hours in a given week.

“There is a sleeper in these rules that would permit employers to apply these regulations to twenty million or more workers,” Bahr told the World. “This is a juicy incentive for the enormous greed we have seen from corporate leaders in recent years. Workers across this country will make their voices heard when they march to their polling places in November 2004 and cast their ballots.”

Judith Conti, Legal Services Director of the D.C. Employment Justice Center, said that “far and away the biggest problem we see is unpaid wages, unpaid overtime. … These regulations will give employers added incentives to chisel on wages. This is a dangerous, slippery slope.”

Bob Adams, a bakery manager with a supermarket chain in Minneapolis-St. Paul, told the crowd that he could be forced to work 56 or 60 hours at straight time pay. “This is part of a systematic assault on working Americans,” he said.” If we don’t stop it now, it will spread to all workers.”

Tim O’Brien, a reporter at a newspaper in upstate New York, said starting salaries at his newspaper are $28,000. “These are clearly working class jobs. I can barely pay my bills. Overtime is not for luxury items. It pays to fix the roof.”

John Garrity of Philadelphia said he represents 2,000 civil service employees. At least 500 face loss of overtime protection, he said. “This is a pay cut for 500 public employees,” he said. “We saw the greed and corruption of Enron and WorldCom. This is the same thing. I want to see a million people in Washington protesting these cuts. It’s a disgrace!”

Maurice Thomas, a broadcasting engineer at ABC for 25 years said, “I was on the job while my kids were growing up. I missed their birthday parties to insure a clear, bright image on the evening news. Now they are going to take away my pay. This is a travesty against working people, a crime against those who work in the media.”

Beverly Daniels, a staff worker for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, held a placard, “Bush, keep your filthy hands out of my paycheck.”

“This is an issue for workers in every industry,” Daniels said. “We’ve been fighting all our lives for fair wages and decent hours and now they want to take it away from us.”

Jered Bernstein and Ross Eisenbrey of the Economic Policy Institute exposed the new regulations in a 17-page report. “The Administration’s proposal would create, in effect, a massive subsidy to employers paid for by their employees,” the report charges. “It will create a rush-to-the-bottom pressure that will eventually force even reluctant employers to participate to keep their labor costs competitive.”

In their letter to Chao, the senators charged, “Our citizens are working longer hours than ever before, longer than in any other industrial nation. At least one in five employees has a workweek that exceeds 50 hours. Protecting the 40-hour workweek is vital to balancing work responsibilities and family needs.”

The author can be reached at greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com

Latin America fights neolibralism

Tue, 01 Jul 2003 09:07:00 +0000

When the Peruvian trade union movement organized demonstrations this month in support of the public school teachers’ strike and against the government-imposed State of Emergency, the demonstrations turned into protests against President Alejandro Toledo’s neoliberal economic policies as a whole and not just the trade union issues.

Meanwhile in Ecuador, 210,000 teachers had also been on strike for a month, staging mass hunger strikes. As in Peru, the teachers were joined by other workers presenting their demands. The strike also protested the government of Lucio Gutierrez signing a new $205 million loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund and implementing neoliberal economic policies. Gutierrez gave in to the public education workers after they met in a conference with the trade unions of oil workers, public employees, other unions, and organizations of the indigenous peoples to map out joint actions against the government’s policies.

In Mexico demonstrations against NAFTA and neoliberalism have been taking place since the mid-1990s.

Last January, over 100,000 Mexican farmers protested the implementation of provisions, under NAFTA, that would allow a flood of U.S. agricultural products into Mexico. Mexican farmer organizations say without protective tariffs they won’t be able to compete with subsidized U.S. agricultural imports. The farm groups report that every year 600 farmers leave agriculture because they just can’t afford to continue.

After threats of an agricultural strike, supported by labor unions, the government of President Vicente Fox signed an agreement last April with a coalition of agricultural organizations that would increase the budget to help the agricultural sector, even though government spokespeople kept insisting that there were no problems with NAFTA in farming.

A number of farmer groups refused to sign because the government would not agree to the main demand that the agricultural sections of NAFTA be renegotiated. Those organizations have committed themselves to keep on fighting.

Spectacular failure of Argentine model

In Argentina the government of Carlos Menem instituted neoliberal policies in the 1990s. As always, these “free-market economic reforms” included the privatization of state companies, throwing thousands of people out of work and prompting a general strike in August 1997. In Tucuman, the smallest of the provinces, 60 percent of the workers took part in the strike. The people of Tucuman were later subjected to another indignity of neoliberalism – their water was privatized and sold to a French firm which raised fees and cut services.

At the end of 2001 Menem’s neoliberal policies, continued by his successors, brought the country to an economic collapse. The street demonstrations brought down the government which resulted in Argentina having five different presidents in a month’s time. Argentina was, together with Chile, previously touted as the best example of neoliberal policies in motion.

Struggles against privatization mount

Other countries have experienced massive strikes against their government’s neoliberal policies.

Paraguay has seen many farmer and other protests. Last year the government imposed a State of Emergency, suspending civil liberties, to deal with the massive anti-“free market” demonstration. The demonstrations won some demands and forced the government to scale back on some of its privatization schemes.

In 2000, the Bolivian government was forced by popular demonstrations to cancel the privatization contract for the Cochabamba water system that it had given to the U.S. transnational Bechtel. Now Bechtel is suing Bolivia through the World Bank’s International Center for the Settlement of Investments Dispute in secret proceedings.

In 1997, people in Puerto Rico launched the fight against the plan to privatize the Puerto Rican Telephone Company (PRTC). This fight included a general strike that effectively closed down this U.S. colony for two days. A similar struggle had succeeded in keeping the company public in 1990. Even though Governor Pedro Rossello was ultimately successful in selling off the phone company as well as privatizing health care, this action, along with others, presented him as being against the national interests of the Puerto Rican people and his candidate lost the election to the current governor two years ago.

In El Salvador health care workers just concluded a nine-month long strike against the health care privatization scheme of President Francisco Flores. Flores has been forced to accept a plan for national health care reform that includes representatives of all sectors of Salvadoran society, including the workers and their trade unions.

Mounting strikes, ferment, turmoil

Every country in Latin America, with the exception of socialist Cuba, has implemented neoliberal policies. These “free market” policies have been lauded by governments and business alike as the solution to the problems of poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment. Instead, these policies have brought about more poverty for working people and greater control for the transnational corporations, especially U.S. banks and corporations. It has also widened the income gap between the poor and the richest sectors of each country, and pushed each country into deeper debt to U.S. banks.

The resulting protests and strikes – many of them increasingly political in character – have led many of the Latin American government leaders to proclaim that they will fight for a free trade agreement “with a human face.” This is causing fear in U.S. ruling class circles and the Bush administration that the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) may not be negotiated by 2005 as planned.

Political fallout

The discontent has also created a climate where politicians who support the neoliberal model have lost office. Some votes have gone to others who support similar policies, while others to candidates who have campaigned against that model.

The election of candidates who campaigned on a left program against neoliberalism and won the governments of a number of nations has complicated the attempt to impose a neoliberal “solutions” to the problems of underdevelopment in the Americas.

In Brazil, the election of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was not a vote for a socialist alternative but a vote against the previous government for following the dictates of the IMF and the World Bank and their austerity programs. Lula had support from sectors of the Brazilian national bourgeoisie that considered the neoliberal model as being detrimental to their own interests. Lately Lula has been accused of conceding too much to the IMF, even though before his election he said that he was inheriting many onerous obligations to the IMF from his predecessor.

In Ecuador, with support from the broad left, Lucio Gutierrez was elected president. He campaigned on a pro-Ecuador, anti-neoliberalism platform. However, like all the heads of states in the Americas, the pressures come not only from below, but also from the U.S. and the international financial institutions. Recently Gutierrez declared that he wants to be “the best ally of the Bush administration” in the Americas.

Of course, the election of Hugo Chavez to the presidency of Venezuela is one of the most dramatic manifestations of popular rejection of the corrupt, ruling oligarchies that have so often saddled Latin American countries. Widespread support for Chavez among the workers and poor of Venezuela also flows from his determination to resist U.S. economic and political domination. Chavez himself has stated that the reason the U.S. government wants to destabilize his government is because Venezuela has taken a stand against the FTAA and neoliberalism.

Colombia under U.S. military pressure

At the recently concluded summit of the Rio Group in Cuzo, Peru, last month, Ecuador President Lucio Gutierrez came out in support of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and attacked the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). He said, “The UN should pressure the FARC to accept peace or help fight them.” In the past Gutierrez has publicly resisted pressures by the government of Alvaro Uribe to condemn the FARC.

Colombia remains a primary target of the U.S. State Department, the Pentagon, and U.S. corporations. The country is rich in natural resources (including oil), exploitable labor, and is strategically located. The U.S. government has appropriated over $2 billion for Plan Colombia, an anti-insurgency program thinly disguised as a “war on drugs.”

The FARC has resisted the efforts by the Uribe government and the U.S. government to destroy it. It has rejected any ultimatum to negotiate on terms dictated by the Uribe government. The FARC and the people’s movement in Colombia are demanding a negotiated peace proposal that would let the FARC enter the peaceful political life of the country without any retaliation and with guarantees of democratic reforms. In the 1980s the FARC tried to enter the political process peacefully, setting up the Patriotic Union party. Thousands of Patriotic Union members and leaders were assassinated, including its candidates for president.

FTAA as new Monroe Doctrine

Many in Latin American see the FTAA as a new Monroe Doctrine, with the goal of U.S. control of the Western Hemisphere. In fact, the term used by many in the anti-neoliberal and anti-globalization movement is “annexation.” They view “free trade,” combined with politico-military programs like Plan Colombia, as a way to make the U.S. dominant in the region.

Like Plan Colombia, the Andean Regional Initiative is a program that is supposed to be for the purpose of eradicating the cultivation of opium and cocaine as part of the war on drugs. But, according to a U.S. State Department fact sheet on the Andean Initiative, “Important U.S. national interests are at stake in the region.” It cites the slow pace of economic development and “inconsistent liberalization” as obstacles to U.S. plans. Besides Colombia, the Andean Initiative includes Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.

Regional economic integration

There is another issue that may complicate the establishment of the Free Trade Area of the Americas and that is the current fight for economic integration as a way to present a strong Latin America against the economic might of the United States and the European Union. The Common Market of the Southern Cone (MERCOSUR), the Central American Common Market, and the Andean Community of Nations as well as the Rio Group were set up to work, in part, toward the economic integration of Latin American countries.

The Brazilian president, Lula, has suggested that the FTAA be delayed so that organizations like MERCOSUR can be strengthened. The newly elected Argentine president, Nestor Kirchner, is proposing to strengthen MERCOSUR by adding countries like Venezuela.

At the Rio Group summit, which includes every Latin American and Caribbean country with the exception of Cuba, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez presented a plan to discuss an alternative to the FTAA. He criticized the summit for not having a discussion of the FTAA on its agenda and proposed a Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas. He said that his government was working to change FTAA, but if that was not possible, it would work for a different plan. Chavez said the FTAA cannot work as presently constituted because “without the integration of the countries of South America and the Caribbean, we would have no possibility of surviving the FTAA.” The Rio Group, acting independently of the U.S., also decided to invite Cuba to participate at its next summit.

The author can be reached at jacruz@attbi.com

* * * * * *

What is Neoliberalism?

Neoliberalism is the laissez-faire capitalism of today. It is the application of libertarian ideas to the economic field. The term is used more in Latin America than in the rest of the world, although many of its ideas were born in the USA. It is a political-economic philosophy that fights for no restrictions on capital and less government control on doing business.

Neoliberalism is characterized by free trade, free flow of capital across borders with no tariffs, unfettered foreign investments, deregulation, privatization of state-owned enterprises, and broadening the tax base.

Many of the current ideas for the neoliberal economic model came from the Economics Department of the University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman.

Many of Friedman’s ideas were put into place in the U.S. Without going into the basis for them, some of the economic proposals associated with Milton Friedman are the privatization of Social Security, a flat income tax rate, eliminating tax deductions (including those that benefit working-class and poor people), and promoting school vouchers.

Friedman’s ideas were first put into place in Chile, under the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who had led the overthrow of the democratically-elected government of socialist President Salvador Allende. From 1973 to 1989 Friedman’s ideas were implemented by his people. Labor union rights, minimum wage, the state pension system, and taxes on corporate profits and the rich were abolished. Government social services were closed down. State-owned enterprises were privatized, resulting in thousands of workers being thrown out of work. During the 16 years of what Friedman called “the Chile miracle,” the income gap became larger, unemployment rose from 4 percent to 22 percent, the 20 percent poverty rate doubled, and real wages dropped 40 percent.

Despite the murderous repression that the Pinochet regime was known for, thousands of Chileans took to the streets in mass demonstrations. With the economy collapsing, the fascist government was forced to rehire public sector workers and reinstitute many of the laws and programs in place before the coup.

– José A. Cruz

Starbucks hit for Cintas contract

Tue, 01 Jul 2003 08:57:00 +0000

Across the country last week, upscale coffee company Starbucks felt the heat for contracting with union-buster Cintas Corp. to launder aprons, mats and linens. Cintas has been cited repeatedly for breaking the law by discriminating, dumping untreated wastewater, and violating labor law.

The Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE!), which is organizing at all 300 Cintas plants, rallied outside Starbucks in many cities calling on the company to stop doing business with Cintas until they sign a union contract with the workers. Starbucks has long claimed to be a socially responsible business. Their mission statement says they “embrace diversity … buy, sell and use environmentally friendly products … and treat each other with dignity and respect.”

Hundreds of delegates to the New Jersey State AFL-CIO legislative conference rallied at Starbucks’ boardwalk stores in Atlantic City. In New Haven, Conn., the unions at Yale were among labor and community supporters to join with Cintas workers across the street from the campus Starbucks, as passing cars honked in solidarity. One week earlier, the Philadelphia City Council passed a resolution calling on Starbucks to end their contract with Cintas until the workers are treated fairly.

Cintas is under investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for violating federal health and safety standards and endangering workers’ lives. Two Cintas workers have died because of illegal and unsafe working conditions. Cintas is also under investigation for over 100 violations of federal labor law, including illegally firing and retaliating against pro-union employees. In April, a national class action lawsuit was filed alleging that Cintas has failed to pay its delivery drivers overtime.

The author can be reached at joelle.fishman@pobox.com