People Before Profit blog

Public workers: Take back America for working people

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:22:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO — It was clear from the starting gavel: the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees convention here, July 28-Aug. 1, would be about reclaiming America for working people after eight years of the Bush administration.

From the opening remarks of Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas and California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, through the keynote speeches of AFSCME’s President Gerald McEntee and Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy, and the many union activists who described their struggles in vivid terms, nearly 6,000 delegates, alternates and guests were signaling their determination to turn their country from a course of enriching the few at the expense of the many and draining lives and resources in Iraq while imperiling democracy, public services and livelihoods at home.

The urgency of electing Barack Obama president in November was a major theme in the convention’s opening days.

Obama “has earned the [Democratic Party] nomination; now it is our turn,” McEntee told the first plenary session. “Obama is a fighter on our issues,” he said. “I have never seen an election more clear: We can elect John McCain and have four more years” of the Bush administration’s destructive policies, “or we can elect Obama. Our challenge is to take back America for working people.”

While calling Afghanistan “the real war,” McEntee decried the Iraq war’s enormous cost in lives and money. “The position of our union is to bring the troops home, care for them, and use the funds for services at home,” he said.

Said Lucy, “Forty years after the struggle of sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn., 40 years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, 40 years after the assassination of Robert Kennedy, this union embraces the candidacy of a man by the name of Barack Obama — young enough to hope, with faith enough to dream, with vision to change this nation.”

Calling Obama’s nomination “a monumental event,” Lucy said it must be understood in the context of the centuries-long struggles to overcome slavery, lynchings and Jim Crow and to win civil rights.

McEntee told the delegates AFSCME is proud of the work it did for Hillary Clinton, whom the union endorsed during the primaries. “We now have a Democratic Party nominee,” he said, “and this union will be his biggest, strongest supporter.”

Clinton is to address the convention on July 31, as will Obama by satellite.

Many speakers, including AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt-Baker, also stressed the urgency of electing a Congress with even greater commitment to issues vital to ordinary Americans.

The union is announcing plans to field “a powerful army” of 40,000 activists to win victories for pro-worker candidates at all levels of government.

AFSCME’s new slogan, “We make America happen,” reflects the enormous range of public sector work performed by its 1.4 million members, from child care to nursing, from legal services to sanitation and maintenance work.

A thread running through many discussions was the urgency of passing the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) to assure the right of workers to join a union.

Citing AFSCME’s organizing of 145,000 workers since its 2006 convention, McEntee told the delegates of union members around the country who have won new organizing and bargaining rights and first contracts.

Another major theme was upholding and expanding public services and fighting back against the far right’s drive for privatization.

“Public service has been defined by many as a true reflection and extension of democracy,” Lucy told the crowd. “Our responsibility goes beyond quick fixes and political gimmicks,” he said. “Our responsibility is building and maintaining a nation.”

In their presentations to the convention and in interviews, convention participants also told of the struggles they are waging to uphold workers’ rights in their communities.

Anna Montalvo, president of AFSCME Local 1522 in Bridgeport, Conn., described the local’s victorious fightback against the local school board’s attempt to lay off 102 workers, of whom 87 were AFSCME school workers — math assistants, library assistants and special education van drivers — during a budget crisis. The union mobilized the support of parents, students, community members and members of other unions. In the end, Montalvo said, nearly all the jobs were saved.

“The union is not just about what we do on the job, but what we do with the community,” she said.

At one of the many convention booths, Glenda Washington and Beverly Pope-Smith, home care workers and members of AFSCME Local 389 in New York City, were collecting signatures petitioning Congress to end the exemption of home care workers from receiving overtime pay. “Home care workers are employees,” the petition says. “They work. They require overtime pay to supplement their inadequate incomes. Change the law now.”

Longshore union, employers reach tentative pact

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 06:03:00 +0000

Leaders of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) announced July 28 that they have reached a preliminary agreement for a new six-year contract, to replace the agreement that expired July 1.

The tentative pact covers some 25,000 West Coast longshore workers at 29 U.S. West Coast ports. The PMA represents 71 domestic and international carriers, terminal operators and stevedoring companies operating at those ports.

In a joint statement, ILWU International President Bob McEllrath and PMA President Jim McKenna said the proposed pact meets the needs of both workers and the industry, and “allows West Coast ports to be competitive and provides the good jobs that workers and communities need.”

No details were released pending ratification by the union and association memberships, but McEllrath and McKenna said that in the meantime, the former contract would be extended and normal port operations would resume.

The PMA claimed workers had engaged in a slowdown at the ports of Los Angeles-Long Beach and Oakland, but ILWU spokesperson Craig Merrilees called actions like coordinated coffee breaks “a modest response to worker frustration” over the slow pace of the talks, which started March 17.

In mid-June, the union said tentative agreement had been reached on maintaining current health and welfare benefits.

mbechtel@pww.org

What would Harry Bridges do?

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 09:39:00 +0000

LONG BEACH, Calif.—Legendary, militant union leader Harry Bridges was born July 28, 1901. Yet, more than 100 years later, the city of Long Beach declared July 28, 2008, to be Harry Bridges Day celebrating the man and the contributions of the union he helped found, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. The ILWU is recognized for its “long history of grassroots democracy, advocacy of social justice and a commitment to the community.”

The Long Beach-Los Angeles harbor, which handles 40 percent of the nations imports, is a stronghold of the ILWU.

Which is why on July 27, the ILWU Southern California District Council and Long Beach City Councilman Dee Andrews held a pancake breakfast to celebrate the birthdays of Bridges and the councilman at McBride Park in a multiracial, working class community here.

The Peoples Weekly World asked numerous breakfasters what they thought Bridges would be doing today.

Councilman Andrews said “Bridges was a key leader who helped open the doors of the unions to people of color. I know he would be helping to elect the first Black president, Barack Obama who is a strong labor supporter.

Congresswoman Laura Richardson said, “Bridges was all about working people, whoever and wherever they were, he would be protecting working people and fighting for higher living standards, advocating for benefits.

“He would be working hard to pass the Employee Free Choice Act so the workers can have unions where the majority of them want one, he would be fighting hard on the housing crisis and telling us all to be more active”

“Bridges would be out organizing,” agreed three rank and file workers who load petroleum coke at the port and who became ILWU Local 13 members just two years ago when the workers decertified a company union.

“We got a $10 raise over three years and full medical, dental and eye care and just $5 for prescription,” said Steve Cannon who was fired during the struggle but reinstated when the ILWU was certified.

“It changed everyone’s lives, before we were all sinking into poverty, getting 30 cents a year raises” said David Morales.

“Before I was doing all kinds of jobs everyday, now I have one job. I used to just work and pay bills, now I can do things with my daughters,” said Ben Cuevas.

Longtime longshore activist and leader Dave Arian, now president of the Harry Bridges Institute said, “Harry would be campaigning for Obama and for peace and standing up for immigrants’ rights.” Bridges, an immigrant from Australia, often faced deportation threats by red-baiting anti-labor government officials.

Recently-elected Assemblyman and veteran labor activist Warren Furutani said Bridges would be “in the thick of it all” especially in the issues of “transportation and the ports, labor rights, good jobs, and a quality environment.”

State Senator Allan Lowenthal said Bridges would be “putting forth a workers manifest and not be frightened by globalization but fight for American workers. Too many say we have to give in, kowtow to the multinationals who move jobs all about with no care for anything but their profits.”

Lowenthal also is the author of state bill SB1322 that would delete membership in the Communist Party and refusal to sign a loyalty oath as a reason for firing a public worker. “No one should be fired for political beliefs, it is unconstitutional but still such laws are on the books,” said Lowenthal adding that citizens like many Quakers will not swear to bear arms.

Bridges immigrated to the United States in 1920 and soon was a port worker and union advocate. In 1934, he helped lead a successful west coast wide strike that grew to a general strike in the San Francisco Bay area. He lead in organizing other port and transport workers like warehouse workers inland. Under Bridges leadership, the ILWU was formed and chartered in the newly militant CIO labor federation, it fought for equal rights for minority workers. It refused to load ships with war materials for fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in WWII. He protested the Vietnam War, apartheid and dictatorships in Latin America. He retired in 1977 as a union leader and died on March 30, 1990 at the age of 88.

The ILWU, with which his name is historically linked, represents more than 65,000 workers in six states and Canada. It has 60 locals uniting longshore workers, marine clerks, foremen, warehouse workers, watchmen, ferry and tugboat workers, bookstore, mining, tourism industry and agricultural workers.

Good Jobs, Clean Air! Rally backs clean, safe ports plan

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 05:59:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. — If a broad coalition of labor and community activists, health advocates and environmentalists has its way, pollution from ports around the country will be cut drastically in coming years, while at the same time, a group of port workers wrongly called “independent contractors” will gain a living wage and benefits.

The Port of Los Angeles has already approved a Clean Trucks Program, and in the coming months, Oakland could become the nation’s second port to do so.

“This idea of good jobs and clean air, it’s based on the ideas that made America great,” Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told over 2,000 labor, environmental and community activists here as they prepared to march to the port July 22.

As international trade increases, Villaraigosa said, “we want to make sure the people who move those goods move them with jobs that pay a living wage, a union wage that has health care and pension benefits. Business has said for a long time, what’s good for business is good for America,” he added. “But what’s good for labor is good for America as well.”

Oakland Mayor Ronald Dellums thanked his LA counterpart “for his guts, his heart, his courage, his integrity,” and for being “the first mayor in America” to stand up for such a program. He vowed that Oakland will be second.

The neighboring ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together are the nation’s largest container port, and Oakland ranks fourth.

The California Air Resources Board says port-related pollution causes 2,400 deaths statewide each year. Rates of asthma and other respiratory diseases soar in neighborhoods near the ports, while dock workers and truck drivers constantly breathe diesel soot.

Though their trucks are among the big polluters, port drivers themselves can’t afford to buy and maintain low emission trucks. Forced into “independent contractor” status since deregulation in 1980, they earn as little as $10 and $11 an hour.

The LA Port Commissioners voted in March for a phased-in Clean Trucks Program under which all trucks must meet 2007 emissions standards by January 2012. Trucking firms must gradually hire drivers as employees, taking over responsibility to maintain the trucks. The workers will then have the right to organize.

The LA City Council and Mayor Villaraigosa support the program. Long Beach, which started planning in tandem with LA, split off earlier this year and okayed a program under which drivers will continue as independent contractors.

The Oakland action was organized by the Clean and Safe Ports Coalition of dozens of labor, environmental, health, community and faith-based organizations. The California Labor Federation made the demonstration part of its biennial convention. Among dozens of unions participating were many Teamster locals. Marchers also included participants from Miami, New York/New Jersey and Seattle, where Clean and Safe Ports coalitions are starting to work, as well as from LA/Long Beach.

Luis Jimenez, an Oakland Port driver for 12 years, told the World that after paying insurance, diesel fuel, repairs and registration fees, he has almost nothing left. While fuel costs soar, he said, rates the trucking firms pay have stayed the same “for seven or eight years.”

Under new state air quality standards, Jimenez must replace his 1992 truck by the end of next year. But, he said, even with programs to help the truckers financially, he can neither afford to buy a new, “clean” truck or to retrofit his current truck with a new filter.

“The trucking companies have saved a great deal of money through our being classified as independent contractors,” he said. “They don’t pay health insurance, disability, workers compensation or any benefits. It’s time for them to give back some of what they have taken.”

Victor Uno, first vice president of the port commissioners and business agent of IBEW Local 595, said commissioners know the current “broken” port trucking system contributes to unacceptable diesel emissions, polluted air and other health impacts on residents and workers. “Truck drivers are integral to our port operations,” he said. “They must be on the road to a good wage, union health care benefits, and a good union job.”

James Hoffa, general president of the Teamsters union, pledged continuing wholehearted support. “The drivers want to have what we have, good wages, health care, pensions,” he said. “It’s going to be a long march, but we’re moving as never before, and we’re going to get the job done,” he said.

The issue could be decided in Oakland before the end of the year, according to Doug Bloch of Oakland’s Clean and Safe Ports coalition. Bloch called attention to a petition on www.oakland.cleanandsafeports.org, urging the Port of Oakland to adopt the plan.

But challenges lie ahead, as the Wal-Marts, Targets and big trucking companies show their displeasure at having to share some of their profits. The American Trucking Association said this week it will file a lawsuit against both LA and Long Beach, despite the differences in their Clean Trucks programs.

mbechtel @pww.org

Aliquippa For Obama fired up, ready to go: Organizing in a hard-hit steel town

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:10:00 +0000

You knew something special was happening when the youngest, freshest face in the room got up, took charge and called the meeting to order — “Hello, I’m Scout Sanders, and welcome to the first meeting of Aliquippa for Obama!”

Sanders was a full-time Obama volunteer, a student from the University of Connecticut, and her bright smile and enthusiasm brightened up a room of about 30 residents of Aliquippa and a few other nearby towns. Those who came were all ages, from young teenagers to retired workers in their seventies, a little more than half were African American, about two-thirds were women.

Aliquippa is a severely stressed milltown in Beaver County, Western Pennsylvania. At one time nearly 30,000 people lived here, mostly steelworkers and their families. Now it’s down to 12,000, with 6,000 low-income African Americans hanging on in the central area, with the white workers living in the border neighborhoods. The home of Mike Ditka, Tony Dorsett and other great athletes, it’s a tough, no-nonsense place in dire need of a hopeful future. The meeting was in a bright and well-cared-for church-run coffee house, Uncommon Grounds, on the mostly boarded up main street.

“As a young person, I was concerned for my future,” Scout explained, “and I saw a lot of social injustice around me. I wanted change, and when I heard about Barack Obama and his programs, I felt he was different, and he offered real hope for change. That’s why I’m here, but enough about me. I want to hear why all of you are here.”

It was a tried and true opener. One by one, everyone got to know everyone.

Some spoke bitterly about the past and present, but everyone was hopeful for the future and the prospects offered by this election.

“There’s a change gonna come,” said one young African American woman working a number of part-time jobs. “You can sense it in the street, you can feel it in the air. Lord knows it’s about time.” The whole room agreed.

“This young man, Obama, knows about us,” said an older Black man, a former steelworker in the now shut down mill. “His first job was being a community organizer among out-of-work steelworkers in Chicago. He knows about us first hand. When have we ever had a candidate like that? McCain? McCain don’t know nothing about us. He just hangs out with those who created this mess. We have got to put Obama in the White House, no two ways about it.”

A middle-aged white woman from one of the working-class housing “plans” on the surrounding hills agreed. “I’ve studied his positions, and they’re the best by far,” she said. “But I’ve also learned about Michelle. I even read her college thesis. I tell you, she is one smart, strong woman, with a very analytical mind. She will be a powerful partner and help to him, and we need a First Lady like her.”

“We know what has to be done,” said another older worker. “First, we have to stop this war, because it’s ruining everything else. Then we have to start on the country’s infrastructure, which is rusting away and falling apart. We can get some mills up again, and start on some alternative energy investments. Then we can get some jobs, some health care, some decent schools.”

“Yes, the war and health care,” says a women from Ambridge, a neighboring town. She gives everyone a “Healthcare Not Warfare” single-payer flyer from the local 4th CD Progressive Democrats of America. “And come to our vigil against the war every Saturday at the Beaver Courthouse, 1 p.m!”

“Obama can’t do it alone,” added another. “It’s got to start right here. We got to get some better people in office right here, and then every other level of government, all the way to the top. We know what happens when they’re not accountable to us.”

Nearly everyone had a sense of history about 2008. “We haven’t seen anything like him since Dr. King and Kennedy,” one man said. “Both Kennedys, Bobby too.” Aliquippa, Black and white, still has strong affection for the Kennedys. One Black woman describes how she met JFK just a block away from the meeting site, and how she tells her children about it.

“We are going to make history,” an older Black man says. “I have been waiting for it all my life. We are going to be part of something truly great.” One woman nearly brings everyone to tears. “You can see it in the faces of the children — five, ten, thirteen years old. Obama comes on TV and their faces beam, they stop whatever they’re doing, and they listen with quiet excitement. They know, they KNOW this is different.”

And so it goes, until everyone has had their say. Scout takes charge again, and the other volunteers are passing out lists. “Get out your cell phones. We like to make calls at all these meetings.” She gives quick instructions on how these are registered Democrats, and our task is to find out where they stand.

Next is program and organization. “Where are the best places we can register voters?” she shouts. “Giant Eagle, the supermarket,” says one. “The San Rocco Italian Festival next month,” says another. “That’s fine,” says one Black man, “but you white folks have to help us out in some of these places.” Everyone agrees.

Organization? One guy puts out a plan for running a tight ship, with people responsible for different tasks. Everyone likes it, but wants to think over who does what.

“This is a good start, but there’s people who should be here who aren’t here yet,” says one. “So next time every one bring one, no, bring two!”

They’ll meet again in a week, and they leave, fired up. It will be a tight race, with the right wing stirring up racism and religious bigotry out in the surrounding townships. But it looks like McCain is still going to have a tough fight in this neck of the woods.

In budget battle, Calif. governor threatens state workers pay

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:19:00 +0000

State workers are reacting with outrage to reports July 23 that Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to sign an executive order on July 28, temporarily cutting pay for over 200,000 state employees to the federal minimum wage, $6.55 per hour. The order, effective with the August pay period, would last until a budget is signed. Workers would then be paid their full back salaries.

The governor’s office would neither confirm nor deny the reports.

The legislature has been stymied in its efforts to overcome a $15 billion-plus deficit in the $101 billion general fund for the fiscal year that started July 1. California is the only state requiring a two thirds legislative majority to pass a budget and to raise taxes; the Democrats’ majority in both houses does not reach that level.

A Democrat-led legislative conference committee has proposed raising tax brackets for the very rich and closing tax loopholes to help plug the deficit. But Republicans continue to insist the budget must be balanced entirely through draconian cuts including health, education and social services.

In the draft order, Schwarzenegger claimed the late budget is causing “a real and substantial risk” that the state will run out of money to pay its bills.

But Controller John Chiang, a Democrat, immediately countered with a statement that California will continue to be able to make all payments, including payroll, through September. “Forcing public servants to involuntarily loan the State cash by foregoing their hard-earned paychecks puts an untenable burden on our teachers, health care workers and those who provide critical public services,” he said.

Chiang called the move a “poorly devised strategy” to press the legislature to act on the budget, and his spokesperson said he would ignore such an order — probably resulting in a court battle.

“I’m asking all state workers to join me in calling faxing, e-mailing the governor and let him know, don’t sign this order,” said Yvonne Walker, president of SEIU Local 1000, which represents some 94,000 state workers. “We’re in a budget crisis,” she told the local’s video newscast, “we don’t need to make it a budget catastrophe.” Meanwhile, hundreds of state workers took their protest to the State Capitol with a noontime march and rally.

“I don’t believe the governor would put public servants in the crossfire of this budget battle,” Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said in a statement. “But this action would speak to the need for all of us — including the governor — to negotiate a balanced, responsible budget that protects our schools and the safety net before we run out of cash.”

mbechtel @pww.org

AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka on Racism and Obama

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 03:48:00 +0000

AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Richard Trumka delivers a powerful speech at the Steelworkers convention in early July about racism and the 2008 elections.

Wage theft, Bush-style

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:23:00 +0000

In an unlikely team-up, impartial investigators from the Government Accountability Office joined a low-income workers’ advocate at congressional hearings July 15 to tell lawmakers that President Bush’s Labor Department has failed to enforce minimum wage and overtime laws and that low-wage workers are routinely being robbed of their earnings.

Enforcement of laws that require employers to pay at least the minimum wage and overtime rates has sunk to record lows under the Bush administration, they said.

Investigators for the GAO described for members of the House Education and Labor Committee how the Labor Department’s Wage and Hours Division routinely fails to count complaints, refers workers with legitimate complaints to private lawyers and closes half its cases with perfunctory calls simply requesting employers to settle the matters. Workers lose most of the cases, they said.

Kim Bobo, executive director of the Interfaith Worker Justice program in Chicago, joined GAO investigators at the hearing. Her group operates counseling centers and sponsors activities, including assistance with union organizing, for low-income workers around the country. “The wage and hour division is so understaffed,” she said, “that it is actually now doing fewer investigations of wage and hour complaints than it did in 1941, the year it was founded. Wages are simply being stolen.”

Only one witness at the hearing disagreed with the evidence presented by the GAO. At one point, Alexander Passantino, acting director of the Wage and Hour Division, interrupted a GAO investigator and yelled, “Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.”

When pressed by lawmakers, however, he admitted, “The agency doesn’t handle all the complaints it gets,” and said, “I have repeatedly asked for more money to hire more inspectors but have been turned down.” He ducked out of the room before lawmakers or reporters could ask him about the resources he had requested or who, in the administration, had turned him down.

The Wage and Hour Division is responsible for enforcement of the 70-year-old Fair Labor Standards Act, under which it came into existence. The law established both the minimum wage and the right to overtime pay after 40 hours of work in a week. Anne Marie Lasowski, a GAO investigator, said, “It’s not working for low-wage workers. They are becoming victims because the law is not being enforced.”

Greg Kutz, another GAO investigator, said, “There’s another way that workers are cheated. The agency is so understaffed with attorneys who can follow up on cases that many times the employer wins and the worker gets nothing because the statute of limitations runs out even before the Labor Department can file a complaint.” Kutz said that in one case involving 24 workers at a garment factory in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., workers lost $60,000 in wages when their case was dropped because of lack of available attorneys.

Lasowski told lawmakers that there has been a sharp decline in enforcement action under the Bush administration. She said the number of wage and hour inspectors has been slashed during that period from 942 to 732.

A GAO report issued before the hearings showed that while the Wage and Hour Division handled 47,000 cases in 1997, it handled only 30,000 last year.

The report also criticized the Labor Department for failing to use data it already has to target employers who are repeat offenders. The department already knows, the GAO said, who the repeat offenders are because of information presented to it by labor unions and groups like Interfaith Worker Justice.

Data already available to the department shows that the most blatant abuse of wage and overtime laws occurs in the poultry processing, garment, agriculture, hotel, restaurant and health care industries. The Wage and Hour Division would uncover and solve more violations if it would focus in these problem areas, Bobo said.

“Those are the industries that have the highest percentages of low-wage workers and they hurt the most when their employers cheat,” Bobo declared. “And they also have high proportions of immigrant workers who can’t afford the high-priced lawyers that the Labor Department refers them to.”

Although the Fair Labor Standards Act covers all workers in the U.S., regardless of immigration status, undocumented workers are the least likely to complain, she noted. “It is time to punish those who steal workers’ wages in meaningful ways — with hefty fines and jail terms.”

Rep. Phil Hare (D-Ill.), a member of the congressional committee, was a union shop steward in a Rockford, Ill., textile plant before he was elected to Congress. When asked if, in that role, he had gotten complaints about wage and hour violations, he said, “A lot of complaints, every single month.”

jwojcik @pww.org

Campus workers end week-long strike

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:52:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. — Thousands of service workers returned to their jobs on University of California campuses July 21, after a week-long strike to protest the university’s stonewalling of their demands for fair compensation in contract negotiations dragging on since last year.

The strikers, members of AFSCME Local 3299, wound up their week on the picket line with rallies June 18 in Los Angeles and at the university president’s office in Oakland. In both cities workers were joined by Democratic state legislators as well as other area unions.

Wages hold center stage. Pay as low as $10 an hour — significantly lower than at the less wealthy state universities and community colleges — forces many service workers to hold two or three jobs. Virtually all are eligible for public assistance programs.

In an action repeated on other UC campuses, the Alameda County Labor Council donated $5,000 in groceries to the UC Berkeley strikers and their families.

At the Oakland rally, state Senator Leland Yee, the Senate’s number two leader, called the poverty wages “outrageous.” Referring to over $825,000 in yearly compensation reportedly offered new UC President Mark Yudof, Yee added, “It’s wrong when administrators make six figures and you make only two.”

“You have the moral high ground here,” Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, chair of the state Assembly’s Labor and Employment Committee, told the crowd. “I used to be a custodian,” he said. “I understand what’s involved with that. We are doing this work, we add dignity to the system, they have to treat us with dignity and make sure we are all part of the same system of justice.”

As workers and their supporters gathered in Oakland, Nicolas Gutierrez, an AFSCME bargaining committee member representing UC Santa Cruz service workers, told the World the top issue is equal pay for equal work.

“When people leave eight hours at UC to go to their second job, who watches their kids?” Gutierrez asked. “Kids get in trouble when families don’t have time to spend with them.”

Some 8,500 service workers — janitors, gardeners, kitchen workers and parking attendants, among others — on UC’s 10 campuses are represented by AFSCME Local 3299, along with another 11,000 patient care technical workers covered by a separate contract. Service workers have been negotiating since last fall, patient care workers even longer.

The union said an overwhelming 97.5 percent of service workers voted in May to authorize a strike.

Claiming the union had not adequately notified it of the dates, UC got a court injunction against the strike. The union, in turn, said it had indeed notified the university in advance, and emphasized that university workers’ strikes “are allowed and legally protected by state law.” AFSCME filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board charging UC with illegally intimidating workers.

Yee, Swanson and other legislators promised to keep the workers’ situation in mind when the university’s budget is discussed.

Others have noted, however, that most of the workers’ pay doesn’t come from the deficit-challenged state budget. Instead, nearly 80 percent comes from the UC hospital budget, with over $371 million in profits in 2007, or from self-funded university projects.

Jennifer Early, a temporary summer worker at UC Berkeley, said she came to the Oakland rally because the university’s intimidation tactics frightened many people out of participating. “I’m out here because some people don’t have a voice,” she said. “It’s important to support unions because without them, you’ll always be scared.”

Among many campus and other unions participating were members of the University Professional and Technical Employees. Tanya Smith, UPTE Local 1’s president, said two contracts covering some 10,000 technical and research workers expired June 30.

Calling UC “not creative” in negotiations, Smith said UPTE faces similar issues in talks that started in March, with wages lagging behind comparable institutions and benefits threatened with erosion. “What happens with AFSCME workers impacts us very directly,” she said.

In Los Angeles, state legislators including Sen. Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) and labor leaders including Maria Elena Durazo, head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, rallied with workers to mark the last day of the strike.

mbechtel @pww.org

Longshore talks continue after contract expired

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:30:00 +0000

West Coast longshore workers of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union are continuing talks with the employers’ Pacific Maritime Association for a new agreement, following the July 1 expiration of their contract.

“We’re making progress and moving in the right direction,” ILWU International President Bob McEllrath told the union’s Longshore Caucus last week. But, he said, “it’s going to take a while longer.”

In mid-June tentative agreement was reached on maintaining current health and welfare benefits.

“That’s important considering how many negotiations around the country have floundered around the issue of health benefits,” ILWU communications director Craig Merrilees said in a June 21 telephone interview.

Overall, Merrilees said, “it’s a bit frustrating, because we’re now about three weeks past the contract expiration. But progress is being made and the talks are moving along. Hopefully it won’t be too much longer before an agreement is reached.”

Meanwhile, the PMA complained that workers at the Los Angeles/Long Beach complex were engaging in a slowdown, including coordinated coffee breaks, that they claimed cut productivity as much as 20 to 30 percent during one day shift last week.

The ILWU points out that “unit breaks,” when workers take their breaks together, are legal under the expired contract.

Merrilees downplayed the breaks’ impact, but called the actions “a modest response to the worker frustration that has been building because the contract hasn’t been settled.”

He added, “The workers are taking coffee breaks, but the ports are open, the cargo is moving, and the companies are making money, so it’s hard to understand why they’d be grousing so much about a little coffee break.”

Though Merrilees wouldn’t comment on remaining issues in the negotiations, worker safety on the job is known to be high on the list. The union says a dozen workers have died on the docks during the 2002-2008 contract, and points out that longshore workers experience more deaths per 100,000 workers than even police and firefighters.

Parallel with the overall negotiations, longshore locals are talking with the employers’ association to reach “local supplemental agreements” on issues at their ports. Earlier this month longshore workers at Tacoma protested when they said a PMA representative came to talks unprepared and unable to respond. But management there quickly agreed to continue negotiating the local pact. Merrilees said he had not heard of other significant conflicts around the local agreements.

mbechtel @pww.org

McCain bashes workers, public education at NAACP meet

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:18:00 +0000

“Bashing workers” was how AFL-CIO executive vice president Arlene Holt-Baker, characterized presumptive Republican nominee John McCain's speech at the 99th convention of the NAACP in Cincinnati on Wednesday. 'He took the opportunity to, quite frankly, bash workers who are in education, our teachers,' she said, according to reporter Jim Provanche of the Toledo Blade. The labor leader continued 'I do not believe we should be moving toward discounting public education. Public education should be funded adequately. Teachers should be compensated adequately so we’d see more people coming into the system to teach.' McCain's speech at the civil rights conference promoted school vouchers and privatization.

Taking a swipe at Obama and the AFT McCain said, 'In remarks to the American Federation of Teachers last weekend, Senator Obama dismissed public support for private school vouchers for low-income Americans as 'tired rhetoric' about vouchers and school choice. All that went over well with the teachers union, but where does it leave families and their children who are stuck in failing schools?'

A few moments later he ratcheted up the attack, 'No entrenched bureaucracy or union should deny parents that choice and children that opportunity,' to attend a charter school.

Holt-Baker responded McCain “ignores the need for smaller classrooms and better-paid teachers, which she said would improve education” said Mark Naymik of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He continued, “Holt-Baker said McCain deserved credit for attending but said the speech was 'an opportunity to bash' public school teachers.”

Holt-Baker spoke at the NAACP's labor luncheon against a backdrop that read “The NAACP and Organized Labor: Two Movements, One Goal,” and devoted much of her speech to responding to McCain's attack on public education. Unity between labor and the African American community has been a long standing tradition of US politics, as indicated by NAACP chair Julian Bond at an AFL-CIO 50th anniversary celebration two years ago; “ I know the mutual benefits that grew from the historic alliance between organized labor and the movement for civil rights – benefits we all must work to strengthen and extend today.”

McCain received a tepid but polite welcome at the event with over half the audience of 2000 remaining in their chairs with arms folded when he was introduced. The Republican in an attempt to tout his knowledge of civil rights history referenced Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T Washington to a White House dinner to the chagrin and “outrage ... in many quarters.” McCain may not have realized Washington is seen by many in the audience as an accomodator to prejudice in those “many quarters”

Meanwhile, as McCain was invoking the spirit of Booker Washington in Cincinnati, Democrat Barack Obama was opening 20 new field offices in Republican districts in Virginia, seat of the former Confederacy in a clear signal that state is in play in November. In addition polls now show a rough parity in support between McCain and Obama in North and South Carolina, bad news for the Republican labor basher.

Teachers union rolls out new vision for Americas schools

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:07:00 +0000

Three women elected to lead 1.4-million-member union

CHICAGO — “Can you imagine a federal law that promoted community schools — schools that serve the neediest children by bringing together under one roof all the services and activities they and their families need?

“Imagine schools that are open all day and offer afterschool and evening recreational activities and homework assistance. High schools that allow students to sign up for morning, afternoon or evening classes.

“And suppose the schools included child care and dental, medical and counseling clinics, English language instruction open to all community residents, GED programs and even legal assistance.”

With these words Randi Weingarten brought thousands of teachers to their feet in sustained applause, cheering for her union’s bold new vision of the public school of the 21st century. She did it just moments after the votes of 3,000 delegates at the American Federation of Teachers convention here were counted July 14 and it was announced that she was the union’s newly elected president.

Weingarten is currently president of New York’s United Federation of Teachers, the AFT’s largest local.

Along with Weingarten the convention elected two other women to fill the top three jobs at the AFT which, with 1.4 million members, is one of the largest and fastest growing unions in the AFL-CIO. It is now the only U.S. union whose three top officials are women.

Antonia Cortese, currently the union’s executive vice president, was elected secretary-treasurer. Loretta Johnson, who is AFT vice president, head of the Maryland AFT and president of the Baltimore Teachers’ Union’s paraprofessional chapter, was named executive vice president.

Weingarten told reporters after the convention that she and her two top officers were on their way to Washington, where they would begin meeting with people on Capitol Hill to start laying out the union’s vision as the basis for a new education law.

She said the task of developing a new education law is number one on the nation’s education agenda and goes well beyond simply scrapping the No Child Left Behind law currently in place. She left no doubt, however, that the union intends to fight NCLB, which is strongly backed by the Bush administration.

“We need to prepare our students for 21st century jobs,” she said. “Employers are looking for workers who can devise new solutions. But how will kids who have spent 12 years learning to keep their pencil marks inside the bubbles ever be able to think outside the box?”

“NCLB slams the schoolhouse door on much of what makes up modern civilization and replaces it with multiple choice questions,” she added.

Weingerten said NCLB is particularly disastrous for non-college-bound students. “Its test-driven curricula has meant a neglect of the technical and higher-order thinking skills that could prepare these students for jobs in the knowledge economy too.”

Recognizing that funding is crucial to any massive overhaul of the nation’s education system, the union added its voice again to the growing chorus in the labor movement calling for an end to the war in Iraq.

The delegates approved what is perhaps one of the strongest resolutions against the war by any U.S. union. It described the “war on terror” as an “ideological construct that obscures the real reasons for the war — control over wealth and resources.”

“The Bush administration,” the AFT resolution declared, “has used the idea of a ‘war on terror’ to justify permanent and preemptive war and to provide political cover for attacking and occupying Iraq and possibly launching future attacks against Iran.”

The resolution also noted that the “war on terror provides the Bush administration with the political cover to massively increase U.S. investment in war and disinvest in education, health care, environmental safety and other human needs, while at the same time transferring billions of dollars from public treasuries to private corporations for unprecedented war profiteering.”

The delegates voted July 13 to endorse Barack Obama for president. The union had backed Hillary Clinton in the primaries.

Obama addressed the delegates by live satellite feed. His remarks were followed by a rousing ovation.

Weingarten said the choice in the 2008 elections is clear. “Barack Obama says we need to overhaul American education. John McCain has said he wants more of the same. Obama wants to invest in our public schools. McCain supports private school vouchers. Obama wants to invest in health insurance for all, including every child. McCain voted against extending health benefits to children and wants to tax workers who still have employer-paid health care benefits.

“Sen. Obama will make history,” she declared, “not only because of who he is but because of where he will lead America.”

jwojcik @pww.org

Move beyond testing, punishing, NEA leader says

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:00:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — The nation’s capital played host to over 10,000 elected delegates of the National Education Association’s 87th annual representative assembly July 1-6. Teachers, educational support and administrative personnel were joined by thousands of other allied professionals and trade unionists and guests at what was billed as the world’s largest democratic deliberative body.

The assembly’s festive atmosphere did not diminish the fact that teachers were acutely aware that public schooling and its future is a main item on the nation’s domestic agenda, especially in this presidential election year.

The assembly voted by 79 percent to endorse Democrat Barack Obama for president. NEA President Reg Weaver told the delegates, “Barack Obama has stood with educators throughout his career in public service. It’s time for change. We need a pro-public-education president who will treat children as more than test scores.”

Noting how the basic national education law — No Child Left Behind (NCLB) — has failed, Weaver (the fourth Black person to hold the NEA presidency) told the delegates that “the federal government must move beyond testing, labeling and punishing, and begin partnering with states to close achievement gaps for all students.” Moreover, Weaver said, the federal government must “focus on equity, opportunity and targeted assistance to underserved communities.”

Thousands of delegates wore T-shirts proclaiming that the NCLB law should be erased, re-written and then re-authorized. Several delegates interviewed went further and said the law should be abolished outright and replaced with new legislation more friendly towards urban students, educators and their schools.

In a show of gratitude for NEA’s endorsement, Obama spoke to the assembly by satellite broadcast. He applauded the 3-million-plus-member union for its efforts to advance its “Great Public Schools for Every Student by 2020” program. He noted that the NEA’s program “provides critical starting points for a new educational compact.”

Obama pointed out that his Republican rival John McCain “has been in Washington nearly 30 years. McCain’s got a pretty slim record on education. And when he's taken a stand it’s the wrong one.” He said that McCain's tax breaks for the richest Americans are unjust, and that McCain is against allocating money to hire 100,000 new teachers.

NEA has launched a $50 million campaign to elect pro-public-education candidates in the 2008 elections. The aim is to elect a president and Congress friendly to public education and push them to deliver on NEA’s aim for new directions in public schooling.

At times debate grew very heated in the voting on more than 200 resolutions and new business items. On questions of militarism, U.S. imperialism, the threat to attack Iran, immigration reform, reparations for Black American enslavement and the like, the great majority of delegates demonstrated a willingness to listen to the debates and then vote for progressive positions.

Delegates tipped their hats to visiting foreign educators and human rights activists, including leaders from Latin America, Britain, Germany, Morocco and the Philippines. Thulas Nxesi, secretary general of the South African Democratic Teachers Union, told the crowd that his union has benefitted from the leadership and guidance of the NEA since the end of the apartheid era.

Next year the NEA will meet in San Diego. By then George Bush will be gone but his educational legacy — including the problematic No Child Left Behind law — will remain. The big questions are: Will NCLB stay as is or will it be revamped and brought into line with the NEA’s position? Will the foundation for the NEA's Great Public Schools vision for 2020 be set in motion? If Obama is elected, the NEA hopes that its bet on him will begin to pay off with support for the goals and programs the union holds dear. Mahdi Ibn-Ziyad is an NEA member who lives in Camden, N.J.

Workers Uniting history in the making

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 08:13:00 +0000

The United Steelworkers union made history with its convention just held in Las Vegas. That’s history with a capital H. The kind of history that can forever change labor and our country. The kind of history that was made in 1935 when the CIO — Committee for Industrial Organization — was formed.

The establishment of the CIO was neither the beginning nor the end of the struggle for industrial unionism in the U.S. and Canada. But it did mark a historic organizational turning point for labor. By its founding, the CIO moved beyond the general idea to the particular struggle to organize workers on an industrial basis. This advance by labor was crucial to match the development of monopoly capitalism.

Even long before 1935 there was a strong left/center core of unions and union leaders who fully understood that “craft” unionism could not match the power of giant corporations with factories all over the country, and even the world. They also saw that local unions with only local contracts would have little leverage in dealing with giant monopolies that could shift production and force workers to compete across state lines. Inherent to industrial unionism was the idea that all workers in a company and in a workplace should be organized in the same union with the same master contract. Also inherent in the thinking behind industrial unionism was the idea that unions had to fully participate in political struggles in addition to the direct economic struggles of workers.

Remember the name “Workers Uniting.”

It may very well be the CIO of our time. On July 2, the Steelworkers (USW), the largest industrial union in the U.S. and Canada, and Unite the Union, the largest industrial union in the United Kingdom and Ireland, signed an agreement clearing the way for the creation of Workers Uniting. This will be the world's first global union.

There can be no doubt that the new union sees its mission as broad and transformative.

'Globalization has given financiers license to exploit workers in developing countries at the expense of our members in the developed world. This new union is crucial for challenging the growing power of global capital,' said USW President Leo Gerard to loud applause from the over 3,200 delegates.

Workers Uniting, in its constitution, calls on its members to 'build global union activism, recognizing that uniting as workers across international boundaries is the only way to challenge the injustices of globalization.”

It is also clear that this merger is only the beginning. Workers Uniting is in talks with other unions around the world. It plans to very quickly open offices in Central America, the Middle East, Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa and other regions. The USW convention featured international delegations from 29 countries.

The new global union makes clear that it will go beyond ‘pure and simple trade unionism. Rather it will be championing international working class solidarity, economically, politically and socially, on a global scale. For example, the USW and Unite the Union, even before the merger, have been collaborating on worker justice and solidarity efforts in Colombia, where more trade unionists are murdered every year than anywhere else in the world. And convention delegates saw a powerful video featuring the unions’ combined efforts to bring economic and social justice to rubber workers in Liberia.

The formation of the CIO did not take place in a political or economic vacuum. Nor did its success. It was a perfect storm. The CIO was born in response to a new level of corporate attacks on working families and labor. It grew out of a failing capitalist economy. It grew out of intense legislative and political action by the CIO unions. And it grew in tandem with broad social movements of the day, movements that challenged racism and discrimination against women, that promoted independent political action, that fought for unemployment compensation and social security.

Sound familiar? The USW convention reflected much the same kind of perfect storm. All of this was totally entwined with the possibilities of change represented by the Barack Obama campaign. Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, called on labor to lead the fight against the “evil of racism” in order to elect Obama. The convention rang with calls from the rank-and-file delegates and the leadership for national health care, economic justice, passage of the Employee Free Choice Act and the right to organize, ending the war in Iraq, preserving Social Security and pensions, defending civil liberties, and on and on — all reflecting activism and involvement in the broader social movements of the day.

In his comments to the convention, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney recognized the moment when he said, “Your alliances with world federations and unions in Australia, Brazil, Germany and Mexico have provided us with a blueprint for worldwide solidarity, and your merger with Unite the Union makes a mockery of the empty rhetoric of so many other organizations that give lip-service to global solidarity and global unionism — but do nothing to advance it.”

The founding of Workers Uniting is not the beginning or the end of “workers of the world unite.” But it is a remarkable turning point in the right direction. History has been made and global labor power is in the making.

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

Connecticut labor gears up for big election drive

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:17:00 +0000

HARTFORD, Conn. — Lightening storms may have kept national AFL-CIO President John Sweeney’s plane from landing here in time for the Connecticut AFL-CIO convention June 23, but nothing could stop the delegates’ determination to prepare for their strongest mobilization ever in the 2008 elections.

“We’re at a turning point,” said state AFL-CIO President John Olsen, calling on everyone to go out and organize. “We got the House and Senate back in 2006 and now we have to get the presidency back so we can win the Employee Free Choice Act, universal health care and an energy policy like the Apollo plan.”

Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd was warmly welcomed by the delegates. Decrying the disparities in America, he lauded the labor movement for hard fought battles for workers’ gains “not given benevolently by corporate America,” and passionately called for an all-out push to elect Barack Obama on Nov. 4.

Saying he hopes the Employee Free Choice Act will be the first bill on the new president’s desk, Dodd emphasized that “this election will determine what kind of country, what kind of world, we leave to our children and grandchildren … We can’t afford four more years of Bush.”

The convention unanimously adopted a resolution reaffirming opposition to the war by national and state labor bodies, and asserting that Obama “shares labor’s opposition … while John McCain supports the war and President Bush’s military policy.”

The resolution urges unions to inform their members “of McCain’s pro-war position and how it is directly related to his anti-union economic policies; and how the continuation of the war is fueling the current economic crisis.”

Bill Shortell, representing the Machinists Union and the Bristol Labor Council, recalled asking, when the war began, “Is this an issue for us?” to which his buddy replied, “Who’s going to speak for me if the union doesn’t speak for me?” Shortell called on the delegates to “take a strong position and back candidates committed to get us out of Iraq and end this bloodshed as soon as possible.”

A heated debate took place over the endorsement of Jim Himes, a pro-labor, antiwar Democrat challenging incumbent Republican Chris Shays (4th Congressional District), a leading proponent of Bush’s Iraq war policies. Shays was the only representative from Connecticut to vote for additional funding of the war last month. He had angered the endorsement committee during an interview in which he objected to a question on the war, saying, “Why are you asking me about that? That’s not a labor issue.”

Delegates from the Building Trades said Shays helped get them contracts and work, and therefore asked that the endorsement for Himes be withheld.

AFSCME delegate Blair Bertaccini got a round of applause when he called on the convention to “support candidates who support us as a class, as workers, not just one particular sector. Otherwise we will keep losing numbers and become irrelevant.” Himes won the endorsement overwhelmingly.

The convention also committed to help Democratic Reps. Chris Murphy (5th CD) and Joe Courtney (2nd CD) return to Congress. They both defeated Republicans in 2006 and have been targeted by the Republican National Committee for smear attacks.

Speaking to delegates from the 3rd CD, which she represents, Rep. Rosa DeLauro thanked the labor movement for enabling her to win by large majorities. “With big margins I can take on the strong fights, which those with small margins many not feel free to do,” she said, referring to the vote against further funds for the war.

Delegates signed up for the Labor 2008 program, including speaking to members in their workplace and at home. Signatures were collected on postcards for the Employee Free Choice Act which will be presented to the new president in January.

A moment of silence honored prominent union leaders who recently died, including Merrilee Milstein, former District 1199 vice president and then deputy regional director of the AFL-CIO, known for her dedication and commitment to organizing and building diversity within the labor movement.

The convention adopted a strategic plan for the elections and legislative and organizing goals. A Diversity Dialogue will be held Sept. 20 with the aim of developing new union leaders. AFL-CIO representative Barbara Nicole Holtz urged delegates to attend, projecting the conference as a model for other states.

joelle.fishman @pobox.com

Unions say free trade pact would stoke Colombia strife

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:13:00 +0000

Teamsters Union president James Hoffa and Jorge Gamboa, president of the National Petroleum Workers Union of Colombia, warn that ratifying the U.S.-Colombia “free trade” agreement would continue the long civil war that results in hostage-taking there.

The deal, they say, would let big multinational monopolies further cut Colombian workers’ wages and slash their few current on-the-job protections. Hoffa and Gamboa told a joint July 1 telephone news conference that if the trade agreement passes the U.S. Congress, thousands more Colombians will have no alternative but illegal coca cultivation to feed their families.

Coca cultivation and uncontrolled activity by right-wing paramilitaries financed by companies like Chiquita and Coca-Cola are widely acknowledged as major elements fueling the country’s on-going civil war. The paramilitaries have killed tens of thousands of Colombians, including 2,500 trade unionists, since 1991.

Gamboa explained the connection between the civil war and the U.S-Colombia Free Trade Agreement: “The paramilitaries receive money from the multinationals for murder of labor leaders. If the agreement is passed the companies will have even more incentive to continue paying the paramilitaries because the trade agreement would let them cut workers’ wages and violently suppress organizing drives.”

Hoffa said the agreement would hurt American workers by encouraging further off-shoring of jobs and by putting downward pressure on U.S. wages and working conditions. He urged the Democratic-controlled Congress to defeat pending legislation implementing the pact. He also condemned Republican presidential candidate John McCain for using his recent trip to Colombia to push the agreement, calling McCain “out of touch with U.S. workers who oppose such trade pacts.”

The U.S., Hoffa said, “shouldn’t be dealing with regimes that torture and kill their own citizens. John McCain should know that better than anyone.” The Teamsters are urging everyone to call the senator at (202) 224-2235 and tell him, “No deals with murderers.”

jwojcik @pww.org

ICE throws working moms in jail

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:10:00 +0000

‘How does this keep this country safe?’ asks labor leader

HOUSTON — 200 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swept up and arrested 166 workers at Action Rags,U.S.A., June 25, just north of the Houston Ship Channel here. Seventy were detained and the rest had to be released because they were U.S. citizens. Reports indicate that as many as 70 percent of those detained were women, 10 of whom were pregnant and most of whom were working to feed families.

Most of those arrested were from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

The women rounded up in the raid were rag sorters earning extremely low pay and contending daily with dangerous working conditions including excessive heat.

Maria Lopez, a friend of some of those at the plant, told KHOU TV that “they didn’t have fans, they didn’t have AC. You could say it’s an oven in there.”

Lopez, who was outside the plant after the raid, said, “I’m here because of some relatives of a friend, a very close family to ours. I won’t lie: they don’t have papers and they’re working to help their mom and sisters. My mother-in-law’s in there. Her son was to have an operation on his ear and she had to come to work to get some money for the operation.”

ICE says it will release the ten women who are pregnant with orders to report to an immigration court.

Another four detainees had to be transported for medical treatment. One woman fell 20 feet off a stack of wooden pallets where she was hiding from the agents during the raid.

Two of the company’s owners and three managers were arrested on July 2 for hiring undocumented workers.

Many spouses in the local community are, as a result of the raid, without their partners. Children are without parents and many have protested against the raid.

Events such as the raid are known to cause emotional trauma in the victims. People who are exposed to severe life trauma are more vulnerable to the development of chronic mental conditions such as post traumatic stress disorder, mood disorders, depression, panic disorder and some psychotic conditions. Sleep and appetite disturbance as well as problems in relating to other people may render the person permanently disabled and unable to work and function in a normal way.

Children are the victims when their parents are ripped out of the family unexpectedly. Psychologists note that an experience like the raid can leave an otherwise normal child with a chronic sense of insecurity and anxiety that could be permanently debilitating. Some children of those detained in immigration raids are permanently separated from their parents. Some are taken to ICE detention facilities and are put in isolation with no access to education. Some exhibit severe behavioral disturbance as a result of this trauma and are taken to inpatient psychiatric facilities for treatment. All of these experiences, psychologists say, can compound the original trauma.

When parents are detained children are typically placed in the custody of Child Protective Services. When the parents are deported children remain in foster homes in this country, resulting in orphaned children with living parents.

The horror of all of this, social service professionals note, is the fact that the resulting trauma is entirely unnecessary and is resulting from a form of brutality that probably has little historical precedent.

The exceptions were when the children of slaves in this country were cruelly separated from their parents or when concentration camp prisoners in Nazi Germany were separated from their children.

The irony of the situation is that undocumented immigrant workers embody what is best about the United States: the country’s diversity and “can-do” spirit, immigrant rights advocates say. Adding insult to injury, the system further punishes them for their hard work by subjecting them to unreasonable immigration laws.

The labor movement has increasingly played a major role in showing how this entire situation hurts the majority of workers in the United States by serving as a mechanism for lowering all wages and as a wedge issue to divide groups that have an interest in fighting together for better conditions for everyone.

More than 100 members of a variety of labor and community groups demonstrated June 27 in front of the Mickey Leland Federal Building here to protest the raids.

Mike Espinoza of SEIU told the protesters, “Our question to the federal government is very simple. How does putting a working woman in jail keep this country safe?”

phill1917 @comcast.net

Steelworkers vow to fight racism, elect Obama

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:00:00 +0000

LAS VEGAS — Over 3,000 Steelworker delegates filled the Las Vegas Bally Hotel convention center last week with raring-to-go enthusiasm for “taking back America for working people” in the 2008 elections. One delegate described it as more like a strike vote than a convention. “The membership is fired up and ready to go. We don’t have to be rallied by the leadership, they just need to turn us loose and tell us where to be,” she said.

Declaring that “there is no evil that has inflicted more pain and suffering than the evil of racism in our country,” Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, brought the United Steelworkers of America (USW) delegates to their feet in thunderous applause when he told them, “We have a special responsibility to fight this evil. Not by calling anyone racist, but by educating those who won’t vote for Barack Obama because he is Black.”

Trumka told the delegates that they have to ask their neighbors, friends and fellow workers who say they won’t vote for Obama because he is Black: “Do you want to end the war in Iraq? Do you want universal health care for all? Do you want to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and guarantee the right to organize? Do you want four more years of Bush policies that have moved 3.4 million jobs offshore and ruined our economy? Do you want to continue higher gas prices?”

Trumka echoed the fighting spirit of the delegates by concluding, “We are not afraid to fight. We are ready to fight.”

The mood of the convention was clear from the response of the delegates to the opening keynote by USW President Leo Gerard.

Speaking of the last eight years of vicious Bush administration attacks on labor, Gerard said, “We need to fight. We need to be willing to fight.” This was greeted by a thunderous standing ovation.

“Make no mistake,” Gerard declared, “Impoverished workers in the developing world are as much our brothers and sisters as the men and women who brought our union to life. Our adversaries call this global scheme of worker exploitation ‘free trade’. Let us call it what it is — union-busting on steroids. And our response has to be clear: ‘We’ve had enough and we’re not taking that crap anymore’.” Again, a long, loud standing ovation.

“We can make history by working and voting for Barack Obama. Obama — who time and again has said he’ll push for the Employee Free Choice Act. Obama — who’ll go to bat for universal health care that lowers costs. Obama — who’s got a plan to revitalize manufacturing. So, sisters and brothers — there’s a real choice this time around. We can have real change by shooting for the stars. Or we can shoot ourselves in the foot and get four more years of Bush’s assault on working people with John McCain.” Again, a thunderous standing ovation.

Delegates at the mikes and in the hallways made clear the fighting spirit that shaped this convention.

Speakers from the floor told stories of plant occupations and sit-down strikes in Canada. They too were met with standing ovations.

The convention made history in many ways.

It ratified and established the first trans-Atlantic union by merging the USW with the UK’s 2 million-member Unite the Union to found the Workers Uniting union.

The delegates voted unanimously to seat Carol Landry, the first woman, ever, on the international executive board, as a vice president.

To gear up for fights ahead, delegates voted to increase dues to build a mighty war chest for their strike and defense fund.

Some might be tempted to describe this convention as union leaders preaching to the choir. But a better description would be union leaders listening to their mobilized and fired up army of activists ready to pour into the streets to fight and to win.

Workers at auto plant keep McCain at a distance

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:11:00 +0000

Only a handful of auto workers at the Lordstown, Ohio plant showed up for a meeting that management arranged for those who wanted to meet Republican presidential candidate John McCain when he toured the plant June 27.

“Management invited him,” said Tim Niles, a worker in the plant. “It had nothing to do with us. We’re with Obama.”

The problem that the virtual boycott represented for McCain is that Niles, who is white and is a registered Democrat, is the type of voter McCain is counting on if he is to win the “swing” state of Ohio. McCain’s trip to the auto plant was part of the Republican strategy to win blue collar workers and if the reaction he got at the plant June 27 is any indication he is in trouble. Although management welcomed him with a red carpet tour, workers gave him the cold shoulder.

Greg George, another white worker at the plant told a reporter for the Financial Times, “We’re a working-class factory, McCain calls himself a moderate, but his party has been a disaster for working people over the past eight years.” The opinion he voiced to the reporter parallels closely the position put forward in literature distributed by the United Auto Workers, the union that represents workers in the plant.

Analysts say the only way McCain can win states like Ohio and Pennsylvania is to attract so-called Reagan Democrats – white, working-class voters who switched to the Republican column in the 1980’s to back Ronald Reagan. Since the “Reagan Democrats” can’t be won over on the basis of McCain’s economic record, he has to appeal to them by exploiting existing fears on the issue of “national security” and by raising doubts about Obama’s “experience” and “values.” In addition, he counts on the ultra-right to supplement this strategy with outright appeals to racism.

So far, the McCain strategy does not seem to be working. The latest polls show him trailing in Ohio and Pennsylvania and nationally.

George said that workers who did attend the meeting with McCain “weren’t too impressed with what he had to say.” McCain supported the “free trade” agreements that unions blame for loss of jobs. He blamed the Great Depression of the 1930’s on lack of free trade, rather than on corporate greed. Rather than calling for the types of massive jobs programs that pulled the country out of that depression, he offered only vague promises that he would “put the country first over party.”

Lordstown is part of a section of Ohio that has suffered massive loss of manufacturing jobs, particularly in the steel industry. It is in the highly industrialized Trumbull County where John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate in 2004, beat George Bush by 24 points.

jwojcik @pww.org

Union takes a stand against cruelty

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:49:00 +0000

FARMERS BRANCH, Texas — The Unite Here union struck a blow June 24 against some particularly vicious anti-immigrant ordinances in place in a Texas town.

One of the worst of those ordinances seeks to instill fear by making it a crime to even go home after a long day’s work. A new law on the books in Farmers Branch, Texas, imposes fines on landlords who rent rooms or apartments to people who might be undocumented.

Despite the fact that the Texas Supreme Court has declared the town ordinance in violation of the state constitution, city leaders, including the mayor, are pushing hard to levy the fines on landlords.

More than 50 members of the union, joined by activists from the Ironworkers Union and Jobs with Justice, marched in front of the Farmers Branch city hall to protest what they called a “racist” and “cruel” ordinance.

The unionists and their supporters support an overhaul of immigration laws with a path to citizenship for undocumented workers.