People Before Profit blog

Wide support for garbage workers

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 07:20:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. — As Waste Management, Inc.’s lockout of garbage workers in Alameda County communities entered its fourth week, union pickets at the company’s headquarters here were more determined than ever.

In a conversation sometimes overwhelmed by car and truck horns blaring solidarity, Francisco, a 19-year garbage truck driver, said support for the locked-out workers from other unions and the public has been overwhelming.

“When we go back, we’ll have to work extra hard to clean up the mess so our customers will be happy,” he said.

As talks between Teamsters Local 70 and Waste Management continued with a federal mediator, the company claims replacement workers have brought things back to normal. But in the last week the city has received over 550 complaints, and over 2,300 since the lockout began July 2. Other cities have experienced similar problems.

Waste Management, the nation’s largest solid waste firm, wants to shift more health costs to workers, impose a “no strike, no lockout” clause, and strip the right to appeal from workers allegedly violating safety rules.

The Amalgamated Transit Union, whose members include bus drivers and other area transit workers, was well represented on the picket line July 23, together with the Teamsters, the Machinists, and recycling, landfill and clerical workers at Waste Management who are honoring their picket lines.

“We have to stand together. The tactics they’re using on the garbage workers could someday be used on us,” said ATU recording secretary Rebecca Jones. She added that the money Waste Management is spending on bringing in replacement workers, housing them in hotels and providing security guards “could fund the garbage workers’ medical benefits for five or ten years.”

ATU staff member Doutje Schuler called the lockout of workers who had pledged to work during the talks “immoral and cruel,” and said she opposes companies having the right to shut workers out of their livelihoods.

mbechtel @pww.org

Thank you, Senator McConnell

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 06:28:00 +0000

During the House and Senate debates on the Employee Free Choice Act, some of my friends got riled up by all the right-wing nuts attacking the EFCA because the Communists support it. I got a lot of e-mail from folks disturbed by the red-baiting and anti-communism. Some were indignant, and some worried that the Communist Party’s support for the EFCA was being used to taint the legislation.

I had a different reaction. Thank you, National Association of Manufacturers. Thank you, Senators McConnell, Chambliss and Isakson. Thank you, Reps. Foxx and Brown-Waite. And thank you, Fox News. All of you blasted the EFCA by saying that the bill is supported by the Communist Party. You’ve given us great publicity and helped make it clear to millions where the Communists stand on labor issues.

The Republicans in Congress mentioned above, swelling with emotion, posed their opposition in terms of defending the sacred rights of the American worker. Who are they trying to kid? The AFL-CIO rates them all below 17 percent on their lifetime voting record for labor. And the NAM and Fox News? Give me a break! Their positions on labor are clear and long established.

Not one member of either the House or the Senate who supports the EFCA got defensive about the anti-communist attack. Even the smarter anti-labor Republicans ignored it. And most important, no one in labor freaked out. Anti-communism just ain’t what it used to be.

Anti-communism has a terrible history in our country and remains a hiding place for scoundrels — mainly anti-labor, pro-big-business scoundrels.

Let’s be clear. Disagreeing with Communist positions or ideas is not anti-communism. We have to debate, defend and explain our ideas like everyone else in a democracy. Anti-communism is attacking, fear-mongering and demonizing in order to intimidate and stop debate. In the U.S. it has mainly been used to attack labor, civil rights and other progressive movements. It’s as irrational as the bogeyman. I always liked the Fred Wright cartoon of years ago that showed a policeman beating someone on a picket line carrying a sign that reads “Anti-Communist union.” The caption has the cop saying, “I don’t care what kind of Communist you are!”

At the end of World War II, the powers that be unleashed the infamous Sen. Joe McCarthy. His main target was the new and growing CIO industrial unions. The NAM, the Chamber of Commerce and the big corporations were right in there with McCarthy. Hundreds of great labor leaders, both Communist and non-Communist, were driven out of their unions and their jobs. Everyone on the left from mildly liberal to Communist was targeted. Even some conservatives who actually believed in and defended civil liberties got the treatment.

The fear lingered on for years. While many progressives and many in labor long ago rejected anti-communism for what it really is, it wasn’t till the last few years that the AFL-CIO and some big industrial unions like the Steelworkers removed anti-communist exclusion clauses from their constitutions.

But now it’s gone beyond just tolerance and the basics of democracy. Increasingly, many in the labor movement see the real contributions and hard work that Communists bring. We hate the system — capitalism sucks! We support the workers and the people against the giant transnationals. Every picket line, every union struggle, every anti-capitalist-globalization movement, we are there. It’s kind of like the old “Ghostbusters” movie: Who you gonna call? You want get rid of ghosts call ghostbusters. You want to fight the corporations and the right wing for workers, call the Communists.

Anti-communism remains the refuge of scoundrels. Just look at how the ultra-right is able to demonize the word “liberal.” Their anti-liberal baiting is just a “kinder, gentler” form of red-baiting. It’s all about fear and being bullied. It’s all about not wanting to face real debate or to be exposed as shills for corporate and right-wing interests. Don’t want the basic right of free association for workers? Call it undemocratic and blame the Communists. Don’t want to join the rest of the industrialized world in recognizing health care as a right and making it universal and free? Call it socialized medicine — that should stop the debate.

Besides, the red-baiters in Congress have bigger fish to fry than workers’ rights. Take Sen. Saxby Chambliss. Remember, he’s the guy who demonized Max Cleland to win election in 2004 — Cleland, a triple amputee from his stint in Vietnam, was not patriotic enough. Now Chambliss has hot legislation to abolish all federal taxes and the IRS and substitute a state-by-state flat tax. In addition, he has a bill to name July “National Watermelon Month.”

Well, Communists probably don’t have much of a beef with National Watermelon Month, but yea, Saxby, we Reds do oppose your wing-nut scheme to shift all taxes off the corporations, banks and billionaires and onto the backs of working people. Typical Communists!

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

Auto CEOs drool over Delphis takeaways

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 05:13:00 +0000

DETROIT — The United Auto Workers union battled to get a new contract with Delphi and is now beginning tough negotiations with the Big Three automakers, Ford, GM and Chrysler.

The Delphi contract includes the closure of 10 UAW plants, with the company keeping four in operation. Seven additional plants will be sold.

Delphi had previously enacted wage cuts of approximately $10 an hour for most of its employees. The new agreement will extend the wage cuts to about 4,000 workers who were at Delphi when it was spun off by General Motors. Their pay will drop from $27 per hour to between $14 and $18.50. These former GM workers will be offered $105,000 over three years in exchange for taking the lower wages or buyouts of between $70,000 and $140,000.

The contract was approved by 68 percent of the workers, despite the painful takebacks. The settlement points to the problems of workers fighting multinational corporations in an era of globalization.

When Delphi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, its chairman, Steve Miller, only accounted for the company’s U.S. operations. He purposely excluded Delphi’s foreign factories, which employ 115,000 workers and operate in low-wage countries such as Mexico and China. These are moneymaking operations, but U.S. bankruptcy laws allow the super-profits made at the expense of low-wage workers in countries throughout the world to be excluded.

Delphi sought court approval to dissolve the union contract, throw out the pension plan and cut wages and benefits by up to 75 percent. While demanding big concessions from the union, Delphi asked the bankruptcy court to allow it to reward its top managers with hundreds of millions of dollars in salary and stock options. “Hogs slopping at the trough of corporate greed” was how UAW President Ron Gettelfinger referred to the Delphi brass.

Since the Delphi concessions were forced on the union in June, GM stock has risen 23 percent. It is hard to read anything into this other than that investors are looking for similar concessions from the UAW in September. Ford’s stock, too, has risen, though not as dramatically since the Delphi deal.

Still to be fought out are the local agreements. One bone of contention will be GM’s and Delphi’s language in the national contract stating they want more flexibility to have skilled workers do production work and allow more outsourcing of union jobs.

GM’s “willingness” to grease the skids and help forge the deal by offering buyouts and buy-downs works in their favor. A strike would have been crippling for GM (GM is Delphi’s biggest customer) and GM has been subsidizing Delphi by paying higher prices for parts. With more Delphi plants closed, they will be freer to look for cheaper foreign parts. The Big Three have been telling their suppliers to leave the country to remain competitive.

Anti-labor forces would like to use the agreement with Delphi to bludgeon the rest of the labor movement. For example, comments have been posted on the web calling on Michigan teachers to also “face reality” and accept contract concessions.

At the same time, a recent analysis in the Detroit Free Press showed that 80 top executives at Ford, GM and a dozen auto suppliers had an average income of $4.2 million in 2006, a 22 percent increase over 2005.

As the UAW begins negotiations with GM, Ford and Chrysler, all who are not multimillionaires have a stake in the autoworkers’ struggle.

jrummel @pww.org

Texans greet long overdue minimum wage hike

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 04:31:00 +0000

HOUSTON — Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) held a special press conference July 22 at the Christian Rescue Mission Church in the heart of the 3rd Ward, near this city’s downtown, to celebrate the first increase of the federal minimum wage in 10 years.

Her main objective was to publicize the raise among poor and working people in her district, so they can effectively demand it from their employers.

The federal minimum wage increased from $5.15 an hour to $5.85 an hour effective July 24. Next July it will climb to $6.55, and by July 2009 it will rise to $7.25.

Participants in the event included representatives from the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees union, ACORN and faith-based groups.

Jackson Lee has worked tirelessly on behalf of her district’s poor and working people, and was instrumental in getting the legislation passed in Congress despite stiff opposition from the ultra-right. She noted that on “Tuesday, July 24, more than 13 million workers will receive a long overdue raise. When the minimum wage increase is fully phased in in 2009, minimum wage workers will have an extra $4,400 to feed, clothe, house and educate their families.”

She stressed that since the minimum wage in Texas has been the old federal minimum, $5.15 an hour, 888,000 Texans will see an immediate increase in their hourly pay. An estimated 1,774,000 Texas workers overall will likely benefit from the raise, she said.

Jackson Lee pointed out that currently, a minimum wage worker earns an income nearly $6,000 below the poverty level for a family of three. In contrast, she said, “the average CEO now earns 821 times more than a minimum wage worker, earning more before lunchtime than the minimum wage worker earns all year.”

She noted that over the recent period the cost of milk is up 24 percent, bread is up 25 percent, public college tuition is up 96 percent, health insurance is up 97 percent and the cost of regular gas is up 149 percent. However, she said, the minimum wage has not increased one cent since 1997, and, when adjusted for inflation, today’s minimum wage is less than it was in 1995.

Women, disadvantaged workers and working households at the bottom of the income scale will be disproportionately helped by the wage hike. She said this increase will help reverse the trend of declining real wages for low-wage workers and their families.

Jackson Lee pointed out the modern-day tragedy that many of the families of soldiers fighting in Iraq are on food stamps because their incomes are so low. Ten percent of military spouses earn between $5.15 and $7.25 per hour. About 50,000 military families will benefit from the minimum wage boost.

Jolanda Jones, a Houston lawyer who represents clients who cannot afford an attorney, said that disadvantaged people are targeted by the criminal justice system. She said the raise in minimum wage will help families defend themselves and ultimately will make our cities safer because “desperate people do desperate things.”

Another participant in the event, a resident of the community, declared, “Hard work deserves fair pay.”

phill1917 @comcast.net

Asian American unionists step up fight for equality, 2008 victory

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 04:13:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, an AFL-CIO affiliate, brought hundreds of trade unionists here July 19-22 to celebrate their struggles and to chart a path for further advances and victory for working families in the 2008 elections.

The theme of APALA’s 9th biennial convention was “Living the Legacy,” saluting the centuries-long struggle of Asian American and Pacific Islander workers against racist oppression and super-exploitation.

A second theme was implementing Resolution No. 2, adopted at the AFL-CIO’s 2005 convention, to improve racial and gender diversity in the federation’s leadership.

APALA President Maria Somma told the delegates the group has tripled in membership since it was founded 15 years ago. There are now more Asian Pacific American union organizers, she said, “due in large part to our partnership with the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute.” Participants included delegates from Change to Win unions along with AFL-CIO members.

Like the rest of organized labor, Somma continued, APALA “has seen the decline in union membership, stagnant wages, disappearing pensions, massive job losses and eroding health care benefits. Unrestricted free market policies are wreaking havoc on workers and benefiting only corporate executives and the wealthy.”

In a plenary on political action, Christine Chen, executive director of Asian Pacific Islander Vote, said Asian and Pacific Islander voter clout is increasing. In Washington state, Democrat Christine Gregoire won the race for governor by only 146 votes last November. Asian American and Pacific Islander votes were her victory margin, Chen said.

In Virginia, Sen. George Allen’s use of a racist slur galvanized Asian American voters, who voted 76 percent for Democratic victor Jim Webb.

Yet the Asian American vote still lags, Chen said. “We need to educate voters not only to get out and vote but to insist that candidates support our interests and our values.”

Glenn Magpantay of the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund said Asian American voters in 2006 “faced discrimination, racial profiling and harassment” similar to Republican vote suppression tactics in 2000. Even so, “Asian Americans voted for change just as voters in general voted for change,” he said.

Asian Americans have supported “legalization of undocumented immigrants and reducing immigration backlogs while they opposed making undocumented a crime,” Magpantay said.

Karen Ackerman, AFL-CIO political action director, called the 2008 elections an opportunity “to shift the obscene imbalance of power going to the corporations while workers are losing out.”

Yet, “the Democrats have not made the sale. This is not going to be a slam-dunk,” she said.

Ackerman pointed out that in 1993, when the House, Senate and White House were all in Democratic hands, the passage of NAFTA produced devastating consequences for American workers.

The “strategic goal” for workers, she said, is a political realignment “to establish a long-term progressive, pro-worker, pro-union political environment in this country.”

Tony Sarmiento, APALA executive board member, chaired a “Town Hall Meeting” featuring panelists from other AFL-CIO constituency groups.

A. Philip Randolph Institute President Richard Womack addressed the need for more action to have labor’s leadership reflect the diversity the membership. “We must go back to our local unions and ask: ‘What are you doing to implement Resolution No. 2?’ If you don’t get involved, make a push, it isn’t going to happen,” he said. “We want to look at the leadership of the labor movement in years to come and say: ‘We have won a seat at the table.’”

Gabriela Lemus, executive director of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, said solving job loss created by anti-worker trade policy “will not be by building walls along our borders but by addressing the underlying crisis of unemployment generated by NAFTA.” The key to winning in 2008, she said, is “coalition building, reaching out, working at ground level to build it up.”

Carole Rosenstein, Coalition of Labor Union Women executive director, said women were instrumental in the 2006 victory. “Our campaign against the war in Iraq was decisive. The war in Iraq impacts everybody, women and their families and we plan to continue pressing that issue,” she said, drawing a big round of applause.

The executive director of Pride at Work, Jeremy Bishop, urged enactment of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act banning job bias against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender workers. “Power is not given away,” he said. “It is only when you demand it that power is ceded. Don’t take no for an answer.”

After the panel, Sarmiento told the World, “The Asian American trade unionists here understand what is at stake. These are people actively engaged in shaping the future of our country, the future of the labor movement.”

Michael Yee, treasurer of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3 in New York City, told this reporter, “With the passion APALA has, I know they will take the fight back to the locals and make sure we have a more diverse and inclusive labor movement. The Bush administration is trying to take away many of the protections workers have and push through anti-worker legislation. An inclusive, unified labor movement means we can fight better to defend those protections.”

greenerpastures21212 @yahoo.com

As nightmare scenario unfolds in one plant, auto union fights for American way of life

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 04:09:00 +0000

BELVIDERE, Ill. — Pretend you’re an autoworker and you’re having a bad dream. In your dream it’s 2008, one year after the Big Three — GM, Chrysler and Ford — got away with murder in contract negotiations.

There are now two “classes” of workers in your plant doing exactly the same work but earning unequal pay. The companies said they had to have this “two class” system because it would allow them to save on wages.

You’re one of the “lower class” workers. You work next to someone who makes $30 an hour with health benefits and vacation time. You get $18 an hour, no benefits, no vacation, and can be fired any time.

You’re angry. And so is your friend, an “upper class” worker.

She gets laid off when production slows. The company sends her home early but it keeps “lower class” workers over in the body shop because they work for less.

“All for one and one for all” seems to be a thing of the past.

You can wake up from this “nightmare.” But workers at the Chrysler plant here can’t. They are already living it.

Their union, the United Auto Workers, is determined to see that the nightmare doesn’t become reality for workers anywhere else and has demanded that the “two class” system at Belvidere be abolished.

The system was introduced in 2006 at Belvidere, the only “Big Three” auto assembly plant in the U.S. where it exists.

Forrest Ammons assembles Dodge Calibers, Jeep Compasses and Jeep Patriots at Belvidere alongside workers who make $10 an hour more than he does. Ammons, 35, is what the company calls an “enhanced temporary worker.” This designation sets him and others in his category apart not just from their co-workers but from all other Big Three assembly plant workers.

Ammons and his fellow “enhanced temporary workers” have filed a federal lawsuit claiming the company never made it clear to workers that they were applying for lower-paying positions until they had already committed to taking the jobs.

As bargaining for a new contract begins, GM, Ford and Chrysler will push the UAW for concessions in key areas including wages and benefits and will try to dump responsibility for retiree health care onto the union.

Ammons said he and the other “enhanced temporary workers” are “not temporary at all, we are here for years.” He noted, “We don’t get dental or vision coverage, no pension time, no guaranteed raises and they can get rid of us whenever they want.”

Although Chrysler management refused to give figures, employees said that at least 300 of the 600 “enhanced temporary workers” have been laid off so far.

Full-time Belvidere workers are also angry.

On July 20, David J. Nagy, 42, was outside the UAW Local 1268 union hall on the other side of a cornfield that bordered the plant. He, like most of the full-time workers, was on layoff that began a week earlier, leaving only 30 in the plant.

“They keep sending us home,” he said, “either all week or for a few hours.” He felt it was wrong that a full-time worker in one part of the plant could be sent home early while “enhanced temporary workers” who are paid less are kept on for a full shift in the body shop.

What angered him most, however, was that the secretary in the union office had told him he was ineligible for unemployment benefits. “You gotta be out for two weeks. That’s why they get rid of us for a week and then bring us back in,” he said.

Tom Daniels, 38, another displaced full-timer, pulled up alongside the union hall. After getting off his Harley, he complained, “The companies are a lot better off than they let on. Ford is supposed to be in such bad shape but they are spending over a billion on a new plant in Eastern Europe and they want more from us. We have given plenty. Enough is enough.”

Daniels called the “two class” wage system “un-American.”

“They do the same work. They should get the same pay,” he said.

Daniels also asked, “How long before Chrysler says it wants the lower scale for all of us? They’ll say we all should work for $18.”

William Pruitt, vice president of Local 1268, which represents the Belvidere workers, said his local wants “temporary enhanced workers” to become permanent when the new contract is signed. “At our plant they are no less important than anyone else,” he said.

At Take 20, a bar-restaurant near the plant, the barmaid said she worries about her customers “because it’s not good to see all the things you work for your whole life start to disappear. And, with lower paid people, I make less tips.”

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger began talks with GM and Ford July 23 by assailing the growing rich-poor divide. “It’s not just about us,” he said. “These negotiations are about everybody. We’re bargaining for our country as a whole.”

jwojcik @pww.org

EDITORIAL: America needs a break

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 06:53:00 +0000

It’s summer. The warm sun means you can put on shorts, pack your stuff and head off for a stretch at the beach, in the woods or at a resort hotel or maybe plan to have your cake and eat it too in a European café.

Or can you?

Vacations are vanishing in the United States. One in four American workers get no paid vacation at all. Nearly half don’t take even a solid week off. The average vacation in the U.S. is now only a long weekend.

In most industrial countries people get five or six weeks off. The absolute minimum allowed by law anywhere in Europe is 20 days of paid vacation after the first year on the job.

Vacations are as important to health as checking cholesterol or getting exercise. Research shows that an annual vacation can cut the risk of death from heart disease in women by 50 percent and in men by 32 percent.

Driven by their push for ever-fatter profits, U.S. companies are engaged in a drive to further reduce vacation days and other paid time off.

We support the “Take Back Your Time” campaign, which has called for Congress to enact national legislation guaranteeing at least three weeks of paid vacation for all American workers. Passage of such a law would end the shameful situation in which the United States is the only industrial nation that fails to legally guarantee the right to a paid vacation. While they are at it, our legislators should add guarantees for paid time off for sick leave and for childbirth. We’re also the only industrial nation that doesn’t guarantee these.

With his innumerable vacations at his ranch, including the one he took as Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast and killed thousands, President Bush knows the value of time off. He should have no trouble signing the bill when it comes across his desk. (Unless he’s on vacation at the time.)

We need the Healthy Families Act

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 04:54:00 +0000

Worker's Correspondence

Every day, hundreds of thousands of Americans who are really too sick to work trudge off to their jobs, in spite of their fevers, sore throats, headaches, sprains and strains. Hundreds of thousands of children, after receiving a dose of Tylenol or Motrin, are sent off to day care or school with similar ailments, when they should be home under the watchful eye of a parent.

These things happen because more than half of all Americans get no paid time off for their own or their families’ illnesses or injuries. They are forced into choosing between a paycheck (and sometimes even keeping their jobs) or staying home to care for themselves or their children.

Needless to say, someone who isn’t feeling well isn’t a very productive worker. To look at it more humanely, no one should be forced to choose between their health, or their children’s health, and keeping their job.

From a public health standpoint, do we really want people with fevers serving the public or standing next to other workers on the job? Do we really want sick children mingling with other children in schools and day care? (As we know, children are masters at mingling!)

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) have introduced the Healthy Families Act (S 910 and HR 1542), which would guarantee paid sick leave for all who work for businesses which employ 15 or more workers. The act calls for seven days of paid sick leave per year for full-time (30 or more hours per week) workers and a pro-rated amount of sick time for part-time (at least 20 hours per week) workers. The sick leave can be used for personal illness or the illness of a family member.

Senators and representatives should be inundated with calls asking them to sponsor the Healthy Families Act (S 910 and HR 1542). Its passage will have a positive impact on families as well as the health of the public at large.

Trash, and solidarity, grow

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 04:36:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. — As Waste Management of Alameda County’s lockout of nearly 500 union drivers entered its third week, mountains of garbage continued to grow in many parts of Oakland and neighboring communities. Solidarity with the members of Teamsters Local 70 continued to grow as well, as government, communications, transit, health care, and service workers, along with members of ACORN, joined the drivers, machinists, landfill, clerical and recycling workers on the picket lines they set up after the company locked out the drivers on July 2.

After a weeklong gap, union and Waste Management negotiators held talks with a federal mediator July 16. Talks were to resume July 18. Oakland Mayor Ronald Dellums, who helped restart negotiations, said he was “cautiously optimistic,” and Local 70 leader Chuck Mack called the session productive. Meanwhile, the city of Oakland has sued the company, charging it has breached its contract and created a public nuisance.

“It’s bold of Waste Management to lock out the East Bay workers and then to mislead the public about what they will do to pick up trash,” Mack said in a telephone interview. “They promised to send trucks over the weekend; they sent out 30 trucks on Saturday and none on Sunday.”

Asked about the lockout’s potential significance for contract talks elsewhere in the country, Mack responded, “If they can muscle up here, it sends a message that ‘we did it to one of the strongest union worksites and we can do it to you, too.’”

For several hours July 16, longshore workers at the Port of Oakland honored a picket line the teamsters set up after a Waste Management truck driven by replacement workers entered the Maersk SeaLand terminal. Union members also honored picket lines Local 70 set up at Waste Management facilities in the northern California communities of Walnut Creek, Stockton and Sonora.

Support for the locked-out workers was demonstrated dramatically at a July 11 rally that drew several hundred labor and community participants to Waste Management’s Davis Street facility in San Leandro.

Amid expressions of support from area elected officials, Machinists union leader Don Crosatto pointed to Waste Management’s long-term agenda. “They want to break up the bargaining units; there are over 100 of them around the U.S.,” he said. “They don’t want them talking to each other; they sure don’t want them negotiating together. If they succeed in fragmenting us, they will systematically destroy us.”

Crosatto’s union, Machinists Lodge 1546, was also in negotiations for a new contract after its former agreement with Waste Management expired.

As the rally broke up, customer service representative Diana Hernandez, a member of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 6, told the World, “We have to be strong in our support for the Teamsters. We’re family, basically. What affects them now will affect us when our next contract talks come up.”

Key issues in the talks between the Teamsters and Waste Management, which had been underway for several months before the June 30 contract expiration and the July 2 lockout, are the company’s effort to shift more health care costs to workers, its attempt to end workers’ rights to appeal alleged safety violations, and a proposed “no strike, no lockout” clause the workers say would keep them from honoring other unions’ picket lines.

Waste Management of Alameda County serves 200,000 homes and 9,000 businesses in 10 cities. The company is the country’s largest solid waste firm, with some 21 million residential, industrial, municipal and commercial customers in the United States and Canada.

Waste Management maintains a team of replacement workers who are ready to go anywhere in the country, for extra pay, during labor disputes.

mbechtel @pww.org

At NAACPs Motown meet, its all about Black-labor unity

Fri, 20 Jul 2007 04:03:00 +0000

DETROIT — Meeting in the heart of Motor City, a historic center of autoworkers and the African American working class, the NAACP placed ending racism and inequality and strengthening labor/Black unity high on the agenda of its 98th annual convention.

NAACP Chairman Julian Bond opened the civil rights organization’s convention July 8 with an impassioned rebuke of the Bush agenda.

Speaking to the assembled 3,000 delegates, Bond lashed out at the Supreme Court’s recent decision supporting school segregation, the Bush administration’s purposeful inaction during Hurricane Katrina — what he said some people would characterize as a “modern-day lynching,” and the war in Iraq.

Speaking of the Supreme Court’s ruling against the use of race to remedy segregated schools in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, Bond said, “The notion that race ought not be considered in remedying racial discrimination is ludicrous. Now the ludicrous has become law.”

Bond said there are “no non-racial remedies for racial discrimination.” In the past, he said, “segregationists mandated the separation of Blacks and whites in all public places; now, neo-segregationists want to end racial remedies in all public places” in addition to placing restrictions on ballot access.

Bond pointed out that the “core issues” the organization works on have remained the same through much of its history: poverty, a biased criminal justice system, denial of voting rights, unequal education, disparities in earning power and job opportunities and lack of health care. He said the NAACP is still fighting to eliminate the racism and prejudices that feed these inequalities and social ills.

Citing the importance of the defeat of far-right candidates in 2006, and pointing to the upcoming 2008 election, Bond said, “What happened on Election Day last November was not an election — it was an intervention.” The people, he said, have begun to “restore government to its true principles.”

A convention highlight was the NAACP Labor Luncheon on July 11. National, state and local labor leadership along with NAACP leaders expressed the unity of interests both organizations have.

Mary Beth Maxwell, president of American Rights at Work, told the luncheon audience that worker rights include both civil rights and human rights. She said there is a crisis in the workplace because every day “workers are fired, intimidated and harassed.”

The legal system that promises to protect workers is in shambles, Maxwell said. She called for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, a law that would make it easier for workers to organize, adding, “It’s not about if — it’s about when.” She said that unionization of nonunion auto plants would mean that Black workers at the Nissan plant in Mississippi, for example, would be paid the same as white workers.

The importance of the long history and close ties of labor with the NAACP were highlighted by UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, the luncheon’s keynote speaker. Gettelfinger said those ties were built fighting together shoulder-to-shoulder, not watching from the sidelines. He said all 18 members of the union’s international executive board and all retired board members are lifetime members of the NAACP.

Gettelfinger spoke of the important role the NAACP, the UAW and other unions played in trying to defeat Michigan Proposition 2, the anti-affirmative action measure that passed in the 2006 election. Acknowledging it was a setback for Michigan, he said, “We lost the battle this time, but we have not lost the war. We strengthened our coalition and we will be much better prepared for the next battle.”

He spoke about a 1961 speech to labor given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. where King spoke about the shared vision of the labor movement and the civil rights movement. In the speech, Gettelfinger said, King said the needs of African Americans were identical with labor’s needs: decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old age security, education for children and respect in the community. He quoted King: “Any crisis which lacerates you is one from which we bleed.”

Looking toward next year’s election, Gettelfinger said, “These next months give us an opportunity to forge alliances and strengthen partnerships.” He said the Supreme Court’s June 26 decision to allow segregation only makes the upcoming election more important. “We must elect a president who will not turn his back on the promises and the progress we have made,” he said.

Gettelfinger concluded his remarks making a strong case for universal, single-payer health insurance and said the “broken health care system” is one of the issues that will unite the people of the country.

The luncheon ended with a march to Detroit’s Labor Legacy monument to protest the anti-worker practices of Wal-Mart.

The next day, the convention was addressed by nine candidates for the U.S. presidency, eight Democrats and one Republican.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, one the nation’s oldest and most influential civil rights groups, was founded in 1909. It currently has about 300,000 members.

jrummel @pww.org

As garbage ripens, Waste Management locks out 500 workers

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 03:58:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. — As leftovers from July 4 barbecues festered in the hot summer sun, locked-out workers were on the picket line at garbage giant Waste Management here and in other San Francisco Bay Area communities this week.

On July 2, just two days after the previous contract expired, Waste Management suddenly locked out 500 workers represented by Teamsters Local 70 at facilities serving Oakland, Emeryville, Castro Valley, Hayward and several other Alameda County communities.

The action came despite the union’s pledge that its members would stay on the job as talks for a new contract continued. Local 70 has neither taken a strike vote nor requested strike sanction from the Alameda County Central Labor Council.

Waste Management hired 200 “replacement workers” to pick up garbage, but put collections of yard waste and recycling on hold.

A July 9 session with a federal mediator was described by both sides as unproductive, and at press time, no further talks were scheduled.

Among key issues are the company’s efforts to shift a larger share of health care costs to workers, and to impose new disciplinary measures for safety and health violations. Waste Management is also reportedly demanding a “no strike” clause in the new contract.

“Locking out workers when we’ve pledged to stay on the job during the talks has all the appearances of an attempt to bust the union,” Teamsters Local 70 Secretary-Treasurer Chuck Mack said in a telephone interview. “They are basically saying, ‘the public be damned.’ The only way that makes sense is if they want to break the union.”

Calling safety and health “a priority for us,” Mack said the union believes education and training are the best ways to achieve overall improvements and that workers who have allegedly violated rules should have the right to appeal.

The Alameda County Central Labor Council responded to the lockout by granting picket-line authorization to Teamsters Local 70. Other Waste Management workers are represented by Machinists Local 1546 and ILWU Warehouse Local 6, which have declared their wholehearted solidarity with the Teamsters.

Labor and community supporters are joining in 24-hour picketing.

“The issue here is the right to honor picket lines and the right to collective bargaining,” Labor Council head Sharon Cornu said in a statement. “The company has been blowing smoke about a variety of side issues, while their real goal is to stop union brothers and sisters from supporting each other and bargaining good contracts,” she said. “They picked the wrong place and the wrong members for this fight,” Cornu added. “Labor, community and political leaders are resolutely behind the workers from all three unions.”

Oakland Mayor Ronald Dellums said in a statement that he is “deeply disappointed” by the company’s action, in view of its stated support for a no-strike, no lockout policy during the talks, and warned that the lockout would jeopardize Oakland residents’ health and safety.

The Teamsters Union also charges Waste Management with violating a promise it made in a July 2001 letter pledging not to seek concessions in future negotiations. In a statement just before the contract expired, Local 70 said, “Despite this very clear and indisputable promise, the company has done nothing but make demands for takeaways in every negotiation session to date.”

Reports in local news media have emphasized residents’ increasing distress as heaps of uncollected garbage and trash grow in front of their homes.

One East Oakland resident described streets lined with overflowing cans and additional bags of garbage, and warned that if the situation persists through another heat wave, things could “get ugly” with homeowners.

Another pointed out that a replacement worker apparently didn’t know how to operate the truck, since he was manually dumping trash into the back.

On July 9, a replacement crew set off a grassfire that burned a quarter acre near an Oakland Catholic high school when it accidentally downed an electrical power line.

mbechtel @pww.org

Bus drivers strike to keep heads above water

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 03:51:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES — On the heels of a fare increase for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority comes a strike by coach operators for the neighboring Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA). The drivers are represented by Teamsters Local 952.

According to a report by Kristen Monaco of California State University at Long Beach, the economic package being offered by the OCTA does not keep pace with inflation. Orange County has some of the highest prices in the nation for housing, gasoline, insurance, food and other commodities.

The city of Santa Ana has been hardest hit by the strike. Residents of Santa Ana are the poorest of the poor in Orange County. They depend on buses for all their transportation needs. Without bus service, they have been left stranded.

The OCTA is staffing only a minimal number of bus lines in Santa Ana, including the popular line 43, which runs from Fullerton down Harbor Boulevard to Costa Mesa. Supervisors are doing the driving from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The bus mechanics belong to the same union as the drivers, but are working under a separate labor agreement. The union has sent letters to all the mechanics letting them know that it is their right not to cross the sanctioned picket lines of the drivers. So far, the strike is solid.

Assemblyman Jose Solorio, representing the 69th District, which runs through the heart of Orange County, has issued a statement calling on the OCTA board of directors to instruct their negotiators to bargain fairly with the drivers and their union.

“I support the efforts of Teamsters Local 952 to secure a fair contract,” Solorio said. “OCTA’s coach operators are an essential part of the OCTA and our community. I believe they deserve a wage increase and fair benefits to be able to deal with inflation, and continue to provide for their families.”

Monaco’s report shows that the transit authority’s previous contract with the bus drivers, from 2004 to 2006, did not keep pace with inflation. The actual value of the workers’ pay and benefits declined 3.39 percent by the end of 2006. According to the report, OCTA’s proposal to deal with this “underage” would actually not fully catch the workers up until 2009. That means “the reduction in the real value of the compensation package will continue to erode, since the underage persists for three years,” the report says.

Arthur Leahy, OCTA’s CEO, has rejected the union’s proposed economic package.

The union’s secretary-treasurer, Patrick Kelly, was in round-the-clock negotiations and unavailable for comment. A call to the union’s bargaining unit hotline revealed that the union and OCTA negotiators returned to the bargaining table on July 9, and that bargaining has continued with some progress.

Drivers, neighbors push clean ports, decent jobs

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 05:15:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. — The blue T-shirts of the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports were everywhere, proclaiming that port truck drivers, area union members, neighborhood residents and environmental activists are united to win decent pay and conditions for the drivers and a healthful environment for the Port of Oakland’s workers and neighbors.

“We’re here to stop the exploitation of the truckers and the community. The safety of the public requires safe, environmentally sound trucks,” Chuck Mack, director of the Teamsters Union’s Port Division, told some 200 drivers and their supporters at a June 27 noontime rally at Middle Harbor Park, an island of green nestled amid the cranes, stacked containers and constant clatter of the port.

Mack was referring to the “sweatshop on wheels” experienced by drivers who are paid by the load, forced to endure long waits and often end up with as little as $8 an hour. Meanwhile, nearby residents suffer from exhaust fumes and are largely left out of jobs and other economic benefits from the port.

“This is about wages, benefits and workers’ rights,” Mack said. “If we don’t succeed in this change, we won’t be able to clean up the environment.”

Before the rally, drivers told their stories. “We’re paid by the trip, whatever the boss gives us after taking out his share,” said Jaime Magana, a driver at the port for the last two years. “We’re not paid for waiting, here or in San Francisco,” he added, as other drivers nodded their agreement. “We might get $130 for a whole day’s work, and out of that we must pay for everything for our trucks — fuel, maintenance, whatever.”

Said fellow driver Abdul Khan, “We want to be paid a reasonable rate. We need benefits and pay for waiting time. With the union we’d be lots happier.”

The Teamsters have long sought to organize port truck drivers, who became “independent contractors” ineligible for union representation when the trucking industry was deregulated in 1980.

Some 2,500 drivers contract with over 100 small trucking firms operating at the Port of Oakland. Pollution from idling and poorly maintained trucks has led to soaring rates of asthma and other respiratory problems, especially among the very young and very old, in surrounding neighborhoods.

Addressing the rally, Labor Council head Sharon Cornu emphasized that the Port of Oakland has a responsibility to use the public lands it occupies to provide good jobs for area residents as well as a healthful environment. “All our unions and community allies stand solidly behind the drivers,” she said.

Longtime neighborhood and environmental activist Margaret Gordon added, “The port must change its system so that we have clean air and decent jobs.”

Last fall the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports in Oakland came together to urge the port to drastically cut harmful emissions and clean up the surrounding environment, to improve conditions for port workers and open jobs to local residents. Among its members are the Alameda County Central Labor Council, the Teamsters union, ACORN, the Alameda County Public Health Department and many environmental, community and neighborhood organizations. In recent weeks a task force of Port of Oakland officials, environmentalists, union and business representatives, including several coalition members, began work on a Maritime Air Quality Improvement Program slated for completion early next year.

The Oakland effort is part of a campaign at ports around the country. A similar coalition has been working to improve labor and environmental conditions at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

In April, the southern California ports announced a plan to slash air pollution from port trucks by more than 80 percent over five years. Under its provisions, drivers would become employees of trucking firms which in turn would bid on contracts with high environmental, equipment and workplace standards. As discussions on implementation continue, the L.A.-Long Beach Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports is collecting signatures on an online petition, calling for a “strong, aggressive Clean Trucks Program” (www.cleanports.org/ctppetition).

mbechtel @pww.org