People Before Profit blog

The first shot in the war for health care

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 08:26:00 +0000

Pollsters with their questionnaires were all over the moviegoers waiting in line for the sneak preview of “Sicko” on June 23 in Dallas. They seemed particularly interested in finding out why people were motivated to turn out.

Certainly, the moviegoers were motivated. Tickets sold out long before the scheduled opening, and later, in the theater, part of the audience was standing through the entire movie.

“Was it the newspaper ad?” they asked. “Was it the TV or radio announcements? Was it the publicity over government threats against Moore for having gone to Cuba?”

None of the suggested reasons was right for me. I wrote in mine: “News.”

Every news report is full of health care heartbreak. The same newspaper that announced the sneak preview carried this headline, “Two Fort Worth hospitals on list for heart patient deaths.” Fort Worth had made the “Top 5” hospitals nationwide for number of questionable deaths under medical supervision.

The paper also had a cartoon lamenting the fact that Texas is 49th in health care among the 50 states.

I didn’t know beforehand that the movie would talk about health problems associated with childbearing and early child rearing, but the headline the day after the movie was, “Foster children’s injuries investigated.”

There are long and completely disgusting statewide scandals behind each of those headlines.

The most telling headline had appeared a week earlier. It was about the only people in Texas who are actually trying to do something about the health care crisis, the National Nurses Organizing Committee. The headline read, “Fired nurses protest at Mesquite Hospital.”

The recent session of the Texas Legislature had coldly ignored the nurses’ attempt to pass a bill limiting patient/nurse ratios and providing protection for whistleblowers. As soon as the session closed, one of the hospitals right outside Dallas insisted that nurses take unreasonable and unsafe patient loads. When one of them refused, they fired her; then another; then another. The three fired nurses and their supporters have redoubled their efforts for patient protection since then.

Health care activists are leafleting and circulating petitions outside the theaters where “Sicko” is showing. One of the three martyred nurses was waiting for the crowd as we left. She told me that every detail of Michael Moore’s condemnation of America’s for-profit health care system was true and accurate. “Our system isn’t even a health care system,” she told us, “It’s sickness care.”

Part of the motivation question was answered just by looking at the theater audience. Although it was an evening showing, gray and silver were the dominant hair colors. Wheelchairs and crutches were prominent. Americans, especially disabled and older Americans, are worried to distraction about for-profit medical corporations.

None of us was disappointed in the film. One of my friends cried through most of it, and other viewers could be heard gasping for breath. We all broke out in cheers and applause twice, and there was a standing ovation at the end. With enviable filmmaking dexterity, Moore covers almost every aspect of the dirty national scandal, except for the notorious failure of veterans’ care, which would require a full movie by itself.

Although Moore fans seeking his usual humorous approach were not disappointed, they were also impressed with this greatly increased emphasis on compassion for the victims. This film does more than expose atrocities. Much more than in Moore’s other films, “Sicko” reveals real solutions that are actually working in other capitalist countries and, even more so, in revolutionary Cuba.

“Sicko” will be remembered as the first shot in an American war over patient treatment that will last at least into November 2008. Go see the movie and join the war.

Jim Lane (flittle7 @yahoo.com) is a labor activist in North Texas.

Editorial: EFCA fight has just begun

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 06:12:00 +0000

Though the Employee Free Choice Act could not gain the 60 Senate votes needed to end debate June 26 and move to a decision on final passage, its backing by a 51-48 majority contains hope for the future. The bill, which earlier passed the House by a bipartisan 241-185 vote, also focuses a glaring spotlight on the refusal of virtually all Senate Republicans even to allow a vote on a fair decision-making process for the over half of U.S. workers who say they would join a union if they could. By contrast, every Democrat voted to move the bill forward.

The benefits of union membership are clear: union wages are 30 percent higher than nonunion wages, 80 percent of union workers have health coverage compared to only 49 percent of nonunion workers, union members are almost twice as likely to have paid sick days and four times as likely to have a guaranteed pension — not to mention a voice at work.

Also clear are the ways employers seek to keep their workforces nonunion. Almost all make workers attend anti-union meetings, 80 percent require supervisors to be trained on how to attack unions and half threaten to close or downsize if workers unionize. Three-quarters hire consultants to run anti-union campaigns, and a quarter of private sector employers illegally fire workers for supporting a union.

Corporate America and its representatives in government have made much of the bill’s emphasis on card-check rather than secret-ballot election. But their rhetoric turns democracy on its head. The measure’s chief Senate sponsor, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), said before the vote, “No one would tolerate an election where one candidate could force the voters to listen to their campaign ads, but the other couldn’t even enter the state; where one candidate signs the voters’ paychecks but the other can’t find out who the voters are.”

The anti-union dividing line was stark and clear in the Senate vote. As United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard said, the Employee Free Choice will remain an active issue for working families and communities “until we achieve a Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate and elect a new president in 2008.”

New Mexico labor focuses on 2008 elections

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 05:37:00 +0000

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — From the opening remarks by New Mexico AFL-CIO President Christine Trujillo to the speeches of various dignitaries at the state labor federation’s biannual convention here, June 15-16, it’s clear the labor movement is readying for the 2008 elections.

Outstanding presentations were made by two of the many convention participants: Joe Shirley, president of the Navajo Nation, and Dr. Irasema Garza, national political director of Working America, the community affiliate of the AFL-CIO.

Shirley, after describing a number of positive joint campaigns and initiatives by the New Mexico Federation of Labor and the Navajo Nation, declared his commitment to ongoing solidarity between the two groups. Referring to the 2008 election campaign, he said, “Working as a team, we can make things happen.”

Garza said Working America’s goal is organizing nonunion working people. She called it a massive effort to “reach the mass, develop the working class, and then to kick ass.”

She described the success the group has had in states like Ohio, where, based on common working-class issues such as health care and jobs, canvassers knocked on doors and found a very receptive audience. In three out of four contacts, the canvassers were able to sign people up into the program.

Individuals who sign up for Working America become eligible to participate in all the mobilization efforts of the organization, she said. Based on the results of the 2006 elections in the Midwest, the group decided to expand the program to the Southwest.

As an indication of labor’s political support for Working America, the Iron Workers union presented a $10,000 check to the group.

Many politicians addressed the convention, including Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, Attorney General Gary King, State Treasurer James Lewis and Rep. Tom Udall.

Udall called for strengthening collective bargaining nationwide. He got a standing ovation when he concluded, referring to the war in Iraq, “It is time for the troops to come home!”

Nations first Green Jobs Corps poised for launch

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 05:49:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. — With City Council approval of $250,000 in seed money expected this week, Oakland is poised to launch the nation’s first Green Jobs Corps program to train young people with limited job prospects for good jobs in growing “green” industries.

The program, initiated by the Oakland Apollo Alliance, would provide “life skills,” job readiness skills, and literacy and vocational training to young adults with barriers to employment, including lack of job skills and education, language barriers or a history with the criminal justice system. It would also provide them with wraparound services such as help with child care and transportation.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 13 percent of the city’s children under 18, and 10 percent of the overall population, live in poverty.

Participants would be trained for such “green-collar” jobs as installing solar panels, constructing energy-efficient buildings or retrofitting older ones with energy-saving features. At the same time, the Apollo Alliance would work to build links between jobs training programs and “green” employers.

The seed money would come from lawsuit settlement money the city received after the state of California sued energy firms for their role in the corporate-created “energy crisis” that hit the state six years ago. Funds from the settlement must be spent on energy efficiency projects.

The program is backed by Oakland Mayor Ronald Dellums and several City Council members, as well as the Alameda County Central Labor Council and many environmental and community organizations. The Oakland Apollo Alliance, co-chaired by Van Jones, president of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, and Victor Uno, business manager, IBEW Local 595, is a coalition of labor unions, environmental and community organizations and green businesses.

“We are members of the Apollo Alliance, and we are very excited by the work the Ella Baker Center is doing with this program,” Sharon Cornu, executive secretary-treasurer of the Alameda County CLC, told the World. “We look forward to helping in any way that’s needed.”

The Green Jobs Corps, expected to launch early next year, aims to involve an initial contingent of 40 young adults ages 18-35 in a three-month training program involving both classroom and hands-on work, the latter for pay. Included would be a course on how to get into union apprenticeship programs.

The program is to be based at Peralta Community Colleges, the area’s community college system, and some parts of the program will be for credit. Trainees will then be placed in six-month paid internships with area green employers. Support services will continue during the internships and for a year after trainees graduate from the program. Graduates will be helped to find quality jobs in the area.

Meanwhile, in a related development, the first steps are being taken by the Port of Oakland, environmentalists, union and business representatives, and West Oakland community organizations to develop a far-reaching Maritime Air Quality Improvement Program (MAQIP) along the lines of the plan announced earlier this year by the Ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach.

Port workers, people who live around the port, and environmentalists have long complained of the harmful effects of diesel particulate matter and nitrogen oxides emitted by trucks and ships. With diesel exhaust concentrations five times higher than elsewhere in the city, many people living near the port suffer asthma and bronchitis, and the incidence of cancer is high.

Under a mandate from the California Air Resources Board, all California ports must come up with plans to cut emissions, MAQIP co-chair Margaret Gordon said in a telephone interview. “This is the first time in history that the port has undertaken such a thing,” said Gordon, a longtime West Oakland community activist and co-chair of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project. MAQIP’s other co-chairs are Omar Benjamin, executive director of the Port of Oakland, and Jack Broadbent, executive officer of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

A task force of over 30 representatives of community and environmental organizations, elected officials, unions, and shipping and trucking companies held its first meeting June 11. It is expected that the plan will be completed early next year.

mbechtel @pww.org

Sicko energizes health care debate

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 04:49:00 +0000

Even before it officially opens in thousands of theaters across the country on June 29, Michael Moore’s latest documentary “Sicko” is already impacting the national health care debate.

Over 1,000 nurses and supporters braved sweltering heat to join Moore at a June 12 rally in Sacramento, Calif., sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee. The rally was preceded by a news conference and an informal briefing for legislators, and followed by a screening of “Sicko” for the nurses and an official evening premiere.

Wearing bright red “Sicko” T-shirts, the rallying nurses chorused, “Hey ho, hey ho, private health care is sick-o,” and “What do we want? Single payer! When do we want it? Now!”

Rally participants urged adoption of the single-payer bill now before the state Legislature, SB 840, the California Universal Healthcare Act, sponsored by state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, and HR 676, the U.S. National Health Insurance Act, introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich).

“There is no room for the concept of profit when it comes to taking care of people who are sick,” Moore told the crowd.

Also addressing the rally were Drs. David Himmelstein and Quentin Young, leaders of Physicians for a National Health Program.

Other previews were slated for this week in Chicago, New York, Washington and Manchester, N.H.

Noting that California “has in the past been at the forefront of raising the minimum wage, of demanding pollution controls, so many things,” Moore told a morning press conference, “It is my sincere hope that California will once again lead the way in taking on the private profit-making companies that are gouging the citizens of this state and this country, to line their pockets at the expense of those who are sick and need help.”

With every other western industrialized country making it a human right to see a doctor, Moore said, “We’re the wealthiest country on earth, and I do not understand why we allow this problem to continue.”

At a briefing for legislators, Kuehl told Moore, “I’m personally very grateful you made this film. It’s telling, finally, the American people that their health care system is very sick.”

Single-payer bills before other state legislatures include SB 755 in Massachusetts and HB 311 in Illinois.

Moore’s film depicts the horror stories experienced by Americans who are denied health care by private insurance companies, and shows how the insurance-based health care system is set up to keep things that way. It also shows examples of other nations’ health systems where insurance companies don’t rule the roost.

Among the film’s protagonists: Dawnelle Keys of Los Angeles, whose toddler daughter, Mychelle, died after she was denied emergency care at an “out of network” hospital.

Perhaps the most spectacular episode is the one in which Moore takes New York City rescue workers denied care for Sept. 11-related illnesses first to Guantanamo, where he asks unsuccessfully for the same care accorded prisoners the U.S. has incarcerated there, and then to Havana, where the workers are welcomed and treated.

For the June 29 official openings, the CNA/NNOC and Physicians for a National Health Program, together with other health care workers’ unions, are planning a “Scrubs for Sicko” campaign with caregivers in “Sicko scrubs” at every theater where the film is shown.

Though at the start of this week the campaign had just begun to mobilize for these actions, involving some 3,000 showings, “we’ve already signed up over 500 nurses,” CNA/NNOC spokesman Shum Preston said in a telephone interview.

Preston said caregivers at the openings will ask people to urge their elected officials to support Conyers’ HR 676. “We’re also starting a nurses’ pledge movement to withdraw all investments from for-profit insurance companies, and calling on politicians to stop accepting donations from insurance companies,” he added.

“‘Sicko’ is the right movie at the right time,” Preston said, “because it crystallizes a lot of feelings people have about health care, and points to the basic problem being the insurance companies’ profits.”

One effect of the mobilizations around the film is that nurses’ organizations from all over the country are coming together to work on national policy, Preston said. “It’s already changing the health care debate from ‘what about the health care crisis?’ to ‘what about the insurance companies and their profits?’”

mbechtel @pww.org

This strike belongs to all who believe in justice!

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 04:40:00 +0000

CHICAGO — Four years after 150 employees walked off the job at the historic Congress Plaza Hotel to protest cuts in wages and health benefits, workers continue to picket, saying they are holding out for a fair contract.

Their spirits soared as 2,000 labor and community activists from all over the upper Midwest joined them June 15 on the picket line and at a spirited rally in front of the Michigan Avenue hotel.

“This strike belongs to all who believe in justice,” Dennis Gannon, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, told the crowd after a band sent by the Chicago Federation of Musicians paused in its rendition of “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

Four years ago, management slashed room attendants’ pay from $8.83 to $8.21 per hour with no raise allowed until 2010. The standard housekeeper wage in Chicago is now $13.20 an hour. The hotel also drastically reduced health care benefits and eliminated pensions, triggering the strike.

“This has necessitated a complete change in lifestyle for our family,” said striker Danny Surnash, who was born in Jamaica. “How can they be so heartless and have so little sympathy?” he asked the crowd, adding, “People have to pay rent and send the kids to school — we will do what is right and we are going to stand out here as long as it takes.”

Henry Tamarin, international executive vice president of the striking union, Local 1 of Unite Here, received thunderous applause when he told the crowd, “Every worker in this great city and around the country owes a debt of gratitude to these strikers — hotel workers everywhere are making better wages because of the battle these workers are fighting.”

Unite Here took its battle for the Congress Hotel workers into the electoral arena this year, and succeeded in dumping anti-labor 2nd Ward Alderman Madeline Haithcock, who had received $5,000 in campaign contributions from the hotel.

“Just wait until this hotel comes to us for a variance because they want to put a luxury park or a pool on the roof,” said Robert Fioretti, the labor-backed candidate who defeated Haithcock. “I know they have violations in there — we’ll fine them for everything!” he declared as the crowd roared its approval. The hotel is located in the 2nd Ward.

The Congress Hotel, which opened in 1893, has catered to presidents, foreign dignitaries, opera performers, stage and media celebrities, and business travelers. The strike has obviously affected the full range of hotel services.

Hotel customers interviewed by this reporter on June 15 were not happy with conditions. “This is really awful about what the hotel is doing,” said Michael Bowman from Kansas City, Mo. “If I had known, I wouldn’t be here. I’ll never come back again.”

As he made his way through the demonstrators after checking out, Bob Epstein of Ann Arbor, Mich., said, “When I arrived yesterday is when I became aware of the strike, and I made immediate arrangements to move to the Hilton on the next block.”

Said Joan McGinty, “We paid $1,150 to stay in a dirty, stinking hotel with lousy customer service. The carpets needed replacing and were dirty. I want all my money refunded.”

Hotel security wouldn’t let the World enter the building on the day of the demonstration. Two days later this reporter did gain access, and found many unsanitary and dangerous conditions.

The hotel’s seventh floor was out of use and the lights were off. Even so, the floor was accessible to customers by both stairs and elevator.

Fire extinguishers were missing from two fire extinguisher boxes on the tenth floor.

A customer on the third floor showed the World three full garbage bags leaning against the soda vending machine and a 3-foot by 2-foot piece of wallpaper hanging from the top of a doorway. She said she had to keep her toilet seat up to catch drops from a leak in the bathroom ceiling and management had not responded to her complaints.

This reporter asked at the front desk to see the hotel manager. After two minutes a security staff member emerged and said, “Kindly leave or I will have to call the police.”

jwojcik @pww.org

Ohio goes after prevailing wage crooks

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 09:15:00 +0000

CLEVELAND — On June 4, Marc Dann, Ohio’s new attorney general, announced an enforcement program targeting contractors who violate Ohio’s prevailing wage law.

“We’re going to aggressively pursue this strategy in the future,” Dann said in announcing a settlement of $452,855 in back wages owed to employees of 19 subcontractors, and $113,755 in fines against the contractors for violation of Ohio’s prevailing wage law.

The case arose during a $50 million cleanup of industrial sediment in the Ashtabula River. A lawsuit, filed on behalf the 117 employees who were due back wages, was initiated by Ashtabula Laborers Local 245.

Robert Kennedy, superintendent of the Ohio Commerce Department’s Wage and Hour Division, said investigators found companies paid workers $10 to $15 an hour, when the prevailing wage is $28.

Dann held a news conference to stress his seriousness about enforcement, assigning six attorneys “to get the job done.”

“When it becomes cheaper to cheat, there’s no incentive to comply with the law,” he said.

Loree Soggs, executive secretary of the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council, described Dann’s pledge to enforce the prevailing wage measure as an “unbelievable change in climate.”

“The penalties are the first time since 1990 that the state has levied fines against a project in which workers did not receive prevailing wages,” according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. It was at that time that Ohio’s government was taken over by Republicans, led by the election of Gov. George Voinovich.

Before that, under Gov. Richard Celeste, a Democrat, the Commerce Department’s labor division had 35 inspectors and four attorneys working on prevailing wages. Half the inspectors were members of trade unions. Over $1 million a year was being collected in back wages due construction workers, with fines levied against contractors breaking the law. Criminal prosecution was being pressed in the courts against two of the worst habitual violators.

The Voinovich administration, upon taking office, immediately fired the union inspectors and the attorneys. That’s why no penalties were levied “since 1990.” In fact, there has been little or no enforcement since that time.

But enforcement of labor laws by the new administration will not go unchallenged. Pro-corporate legislators like state Sen. Larry Mumpers, who have already eliminated schools and highways from the Ohio prevailing wage law, said, “If we do it without prevailing wage cheaper, we ought to get out of it. If it were up to me, I’d get rid of prevailing wage.”

The battle goes on, but the “unbelievable change in climate” shows workers can win when they and their unions are united in common cause and struggle.

Workers with rights, not guests who are slaves

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 06:00:00 +0000

Growing up in western Texas as the daughter of cotton sharecroppers, I spent my summers weeding cotton, five days a week, 10 hours a day, in 95-degree heat. As grueling as this workload was, others had it even worse.

For foreign workers toiling as “guest workers” (or “braceros”) alongside us in the cotton fields, the five-day workweek was an impossible luxury. They were often stiffed on wages, and health care was simply nonexistent. Viewing them as units of production, employers worked them to their limit, knowing that the following season a fresh unsuspecting batch would arrive.

Well-documented abuses

The horrific abuses suffered by workers in programs such as the bracero program are well documented and indisputable. And although most people like to think of bracero programs as a phenomenon of the past, the reality is that their legacy of exploitation and abuse continues to thrive in contemporary American society through modern guest worker programs such as the H2-A and H2-B.

Like undocumented workers, “guest workers” in this country face enormous obstacles in enforcing their labor rights.

H-2 programs

The H-2 guest worker programs bring in agricultural and other seasonal workers to pick crops, do construction and work in the seafood industry, among other jobs. Workers typically borrow large amounts of money to pay travel expenses, fees and even bribes to recruiters. That means that before they even begin to work, they are indebted.

According to a new study published by the Southern Poverty Law Center, it is not unusual for a Guatemalan worker to pay more than $2,500 in fees to obtain a seasonal guest worker position, about a year’s worth of income in Guatemala. And Thai workers have been known to pay as much as $10,000 for the chance to harvest crops in the orchards of the Pacific Northwest. Interest rates on the loans are sometimes as high as 20 percent a month. Homes and vehicles are required collateral.

Handcuffed workers have no rights

Handcuffed by their debt and bound to employers who can send them home on a whim, the “guests” are forced to remain and work for employers even when their pay and working conditions are second-rate, hazardous or abusive. Hungry children inevitably trump protest. Technically, these programs include some legal protections, but in reality, those protections exist mostly on paper. Government enforcement is almost nonexistent. Private attorneys refuse to take cases, and language barriers make it virtually impossible for workers to speak out.

Undocumented immigrants face similar obstacles at work. Because they are under the constant threat of deportation, they cannot effectively assert their rights at the workplace, and employers routinely take advantage of them.

The result is that both guest workers and undocumented workers end up working the most dangerous and most exploitative jobs in our country.

Situation worsens

It’s getting worse, not better. Among foreign-born workers, workplace fatalities increased by an alarming 46 percent between 1992 and 2002. Since 1992, fatalities among Hispanic workers have increased by 65 percent.

When immigrant workers try to correct such injustices by forming unions, they are cruelly harassed, intimidated and even terminated for their actions. When all else fails to break a union drive, employers simply call in the immigration authorities and everyone gets deported for standing up for basic human rights.

An injury to one is an injury to all

For years, the AFL-CIO has campaigned for an end to the exploitation and abuse of immigrant workers who are here working hard and contributing to our economy. The best way to guarantee the wages and rights of all workers in this country is to give every immigrant the opportunity to become a citizen, with all the rights and duties that entails.

The exploitation of immigrant workers hurts us all. When standards are driven down for some workers, they are driven down for all workers. For this same reason, guest worker programs must by squarely rejected. Because workers in these programs are always dependent on their host employers for both for their livelihoods and legal status, these programs create a disenfranchised underclass of workers.

Labor rights for all

History, economics and common sense dictate that exploitation of workers will continue as long as it makes economic sense for employers to do so. We must step outside of the status quo and revise the current immigration law in a way that guarantees full labor rights for future foreign workers and reflects real labor market conditions by restructuring the current permanent employment visa category. That is, future foreign workers should be welcomed as permanent residents with full rights at the onset — not as disposable “guests.” This is the only way to guarantee that foreign workers enjoy the same rights and protections as all other U.S. workers, including the freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life.

As a nation that prides itself on fair treatment and equality, how can we possibly settle for anything less?

Linda Chavez-Thompson is the executive vice president of the AFL-CIO, representing 10 million workers. She is the highest-ranking woman and Latina in that labor federation. The above commentary written by her appeared on the AFL-CIO web site June 6 and in a recent issue of Forbes Magazine.

David Bacon (dbacon @igc.org) is a labor journalist and photographer who lives in the Bay Area of California. His photos (and related quotations) are taken from his book “Communities Without Borders: Images and Voices from the World of Migration,” published by Cornell University/ILR Press.

Bush campaigns to revive immigration bill

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 05:24:00 +0000

In his June 9 national radio address, President Bush strongly endorsed the “Grand Bargain” immigration bill, S 1348, that stalled in the Senate, June 7, when just 45 of a necessary 60 senators were ready to bring the issue to a vote after two weeks of debate.

Expressing hope the bill would be revived, Bush added, “Like many senators, I believe the bill will need to be further improved.”

What kind of “improvements” Bush is after, and what he gets, will be critical to whether the bill, or a close version of it, becomes law. The question is: How far to the right can Bush help shepherd the bill through the Senate and House?

Bush is clearly working to get something passed. On June 11, he told the press, “I’ll see you at the signing.” For only the second time in his tenure, he will go to Capitol Hill to lobby.

With 41 of the Senate’s 48 Republican senators refusing to come to a vote on the Grand Bargain, the changes Bush seeks will no doubt try to address their demands — embodied in their slogans “no amnesty” and “temporary means temporary” — for a narrower bill that effectively blocks a path to permanent residency for currently undocumented workers and future immigrants.

In the push to reopen debate and pass the law, the White House web site features “fact sheets” that stress the bill’s punitive, restrictive measures, and emphasizes how, under its provisions, immigrants will pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits.

Bush and the Republican senators are basically united on the issue of temporary or “guest worker” programs. In a May 23 vote on whether to eliminate the guest worker provisions, only two Republicans voted yes. In a June 6 vote to “sunset” the temporary worker program, i.e. to have it expire and require a re-vote in five years, 36 of 47 Republicans voted no.

It was only after the sunset provisions were pushed through by the Democratic leadership that Republican opposition to voting on the whole bill was strong enough to decisively prevail. Part of Bush’s work to “improve” the bill likely will be to work to expand the guest worker provisions.

Bush and the Republican senators are also substantially in agreement on prioritizing business needs over family reunification. The Republican senators strongly criticize family reunification measures under which permanent resident and naturalized immigrants can sponsor close relatives for permanent residency, calling them a form of “chain migration.”

Although Bush does not endorse eliminating family reunification entirely, the White House web site stresses the Senate bill “will not increase chain migration.” Weakening family reunification is one way Bush could win Republican senators’ votes.

The most challenging area for Bush is dealing with the issue of a path to permanent residency and citizenship.

Last year there were enough Republican votes to pass an immigration bill with a path to citizenship, but that bill excluded all undocumented people who had been in the U.S. for two years or less, relegating them instead to temporary worker programs. The current bill would make all those who had immigrated prior to Jan. 1, 2007, eligible to apply for legalization.

Eliminating a path to legalization would cause the bill to lose Democratic support. The flawed essence of a possible compromise is the exchange of a path to citizenship for expanded temporary worker programs and more visas for high-tech workers. No matter what, Bush will likely explore ways to make full legalization more difficult.

Many Republican senators will push hard to make the bill more restrictive and punitive, and work with Bush in a “good cop, bad cop” scenario. Many will not work with Bush: 21 of the 47 Republican senators are up for election, and racist, anti-immigrant demagoguery is part of their strategy for a big right-wing turnout.

Meanwhile labor, civil and immigrant rights groups, Latino and other large immigrant communities, and religious groups find much of the bill’s right-wing features unacceptable and are opposing it.

President John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO, which advocates a path to permanent residency citizenship and strong family reunification measures, said, “With the support of the immigrant rights community, we will continue to pursue an immigration plan that places workers’ rights at the forefront and removes economic incentives for exploitation.”

rosalio_munoz @sbcglobal.net

Smithfield worker dies

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 07:10:00 +0000

Smithfield Packing livestock worker Emmanuel McKoy, 27, died June 1 in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Although the cause of his death has not been determined, McKoy struggled with Type 1 diabetes and experienced health problems from the disease.

McKoy began working in the livestock department of the notorious Smithfield Tar Heel plant in October of 2006. The plant has been cited by Human Rights Watch and the United Nations for human and labor rights violations.

He was part of the union organizing effort there despite the hostile opposition of the company and even wore his “Justice at Smithfield” T-shirt when he was photographed for his Smithfield ID badge.

McKoy was hospitalized on two occasions in the last seven months due to diabetes, and he was threatened with termination by his supervisor if he missed any additional time because of his illness. When McKoy returned to work after his January hospitalization, Smithfield put him on a job from which he could not be relieved to take his required insulin.

The Justice at Smithfield Campaign is asking that donations to help the family he leaves behind be sent to the Emanuel McKoy Memorial Fund at Interfaith Worker Justice, 1020 West Byrn Mawr Ave., 4th Fl., Chicago IL 60660.

jwojcik @pww.org

Buried alive: a terrible way to die

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 07:01:00 +0000

Workers’ Correspondence

Being buried alive is a terrible way to die. If you are working in a trench and it caves in with just your head sticking out it makes great news. The drama of the rescue operation draws the news media like bees to honey. However, if you are buried alive it does not make much news and is listed in the back pages.

The AFL-CIO web site states: “Each year more then 6 million U.S. workers are injured or become sick on the job. 50,000 U.S. workers die from occupational illness and nearly 6,000 are killed on the job.”

That’s why safety was my first concern at my last union job. I was working on Donald Trump’s Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City. It was a good job. Sketching out piping arrangements at foreman’s pay. The construction official in my hometown offered me a plumbing inspector’s job. Figuring it would be a good retirement job, I accepted.

I immediately ran into problems with the anti-union mayor. He ordered me not to wear my union jacket during my inspections. Next, the mayor called me to his office with a complaint “from Washington.” He said they wanted to know what I was trying to do to the largest nonunion contractor in the county. My reply was easy: “Calling for code compliance.”

When I was required to inspect pipe work in a trench, I would red tag the job if the trench did not meet OSHA standards. The problem was that OSHA safety standards were not in the National Standard Plumbing Code. Knowing that nonunion workers would return to the trench when I left the job scene, I called all of the workers out of the trench. Then I gave each of them my card. I instructed them, when they got home that night, to give the card to their wife. Inform her, I told them, that if you get buried alive in that trench, I will testify for her in court.

I thought a code change would help alleviate the problem. So in January 2005, I proposed adding OSHA standards to the rules and regulations on safety. This change would give the plumbing inspector grounds for red tagging improper and unsafe trenching. The change finally came out and reads:

“Trenching and excavations for the installation of underground piping shall be performed in accordance with occupational safety and health requirements.”

Now, I am not a lawyer. Did they water down what I had asked for, to put OSHA standards into the Plumbing Code?

Wall Streets role in the immigration debate

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 05:04:00 +0000

News Analysis

The Senate “Grand Bargain” immigration bill ensures that immigration will be a major legislative issue this year.

President Bush, with Wall Street backing, is pushing hard for a policy that would legalize undocumented workers but keep them in a subservient status for more than a decade. His proposals would also relegate future “lower-skilled status workers” to perpetual servitude.

He’s using the righteous demand of legalization as a lever to move through what his administration and finance capital wanted all along. And finance capital wants it done this year, well before Bush leaves office.

The Wall Street Journal is supporting the passage of just such a business-friendly bill. Former Federal Reserve Bank chair Alan Greenspan and current chair Ben Bernanke have called for a flexible policy of increasing immigration for a higher labor force growth rate to increase investment and productivity, and lower unit labor costs and entitlement spending.

In January 2000, Greenspan concluded immigration was a key to the economic growth of the nineties. Bush made it a policy and was negotiating a temporary worker program with then Mexican President Fox until Sept. 11, 2001.

In November 2003, the Dallas Federal Reserve concluded in its paper “U.S. Immigrant and Economic Growth: Putting Policy on Hold” that the 9/11 adjustments had “put potentially beneficial reforms such as a guest worker program” on hold. A few weeks later, on Jan. 7, 2004, Bush called for a large new temporary worker program.

The paper argued that immigration was economically beneficial “by providing workers when and where they are needed,” adding, “Immigration raises the speed limit of the economy by keeping wage and price pressures at bay.”

Another way of putting it is, “keep it coming and keep it cheap.”

Assessing Wall Street’s and the Fed’s role in the crafting of immigration policy is important because of their more macroeconomic view. The Bush policy of keep-it-coming-keep-it-cheap is that of the financial sector whose goal is to produce high returns for investors.

A major signal from the financial sector to push hard for a bill was sent May 17 by Greenspan. That morning, a few hours before the Grand Bargain was announced, Greenspan told a group of Georgia industrialists that “the lack of enough skilled workers to build up U.S. infrastructure” could be solved with the “stroke of a pen,” referring to the passage of an immigration bill.

Georgia is the state with the strongest anti-immigrant legislation. No May Day immigrant rights marches were held there this year. Greenspan’s unstated message was that cheap immigrant labor policy was key to getting bonds for major capital projects.

The immigrant rights movement is fighting hard for legalization policies that could improve the status of the undocumented, who face increased raids, police brutality, state and local repressive policies, and falling living standards. There are differences over how possible this is and what tactics to follow. These differences are amplified by Bush’s two key leverages — the veto and the ability to terrorize immigrants and employers with raids.

Those fighting for legalization should not be intimidated by the far-right-wing rhetoric against legalization, although it is intense, nor be led to believe this is the last shot for legalization. The American people, in a growing majority, support this demand. But Bush has been adept at using such pressures to move the legislative negotiations to the benefit of financal corporations and to the detriment to immigrant and all other workers.

Winning victories or even holding the line with Bush in office on any issue requires maximum unity and broad coalition building. In the Senate, where the Bush right-wing leverage is strongest, the legislation is likely to be unacceptable. The Grand Bargain projects a subservient status for future immigrants, which will undermine democracy in every way. In the House, labor and community leverage is stronger but not dominant. Momentum must be built there to fight on every aspect of the bill.

rosalio_munoz @sbcglobal.net

Dont go to Farmer Joes, unionists urge

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 05:00:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. — When a business has a growth spurt and expands its workforce tenfold, one might think the owners would appreciate the workers’ role in their success. But last summer, as the organic grocery Farmer Joe’s Marketplace opened a second outlet in a former Albertson’s supermarket, a very different picture emerged.

In a recent conversation, nine members of a workers’ committee that’s been organizing since last August to unionize the now 100-plus workforce told of their struggle to overcome a concerted anti-union drive by owners Joe and Diana Tam. Because the campaign is continuing, the workers asked not to be identified.

In December, just as a majority of the workers were ready to join the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), the owners hired an anti-union consultant and started firing union supporters, committee members said.

Before the new store opened, said one, workers regularly put in 10-hour shifts, five days a week, with no overtime pay. Their wages average $9 an hour, and they have no benefits beyond a modest vacation allowance which must also cover sick days.

Promised a wage hike when the new store opened, workers did get a small increase, but at the same time, their hours were cut. “We were also promised benefits,” the worker said, “but we weren’t told what they were. The union-busting outfit told us we have benefits and don’t need a union.”

Another committee member said management circulated an anti-union petition among the workers. “The owners gave a petition to everyone, and said, ‘you’re either with the union or you’re with us.’ Some people signed it because they were afraid they would lose their jobs.”

A third worker added, “Now the managers look for any mistakes. They spy all day. There is a lot of favoritism. We never even take breaks any more. We give them time and work, but they don’t give us any respect. How can they claim to respect us if they never ask what we want?”

In an ironic twist, co-owner Joe Tam was a UFCW member for 19 years, and the union-busting firm the Tams hired is run by two former members of other unions.

Though the Tams contend they are willing to have workers go through the National Labor Relations Board’s election process, the workers say it would be fairer to decide the matter by card-check, a procedure the union is demanding.

“We don’t want to go through those meetings with the owners and the union-busters,” said an organizing committee member. “We would have a much better chance for a fair decision if we had the Employee Free Choice Act.” The EFCA, which has passed the House of Representatives and is now before the Senate, would let workers unionize when a majority have signed cards to do so.

The workers’ struggle at Farmer Joe’s highlights the need to organize workers in the rapidly growing organic grocery market, said UFCW Local 5 Communications Director Mike Henneberry. “What used to be a niche market is now the market,” he said, adding that most of the rapidly spreading outlets for organic foods, including major chains such as Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, are nonunion.

Union and community members are now picketing five afternoons a week to support the organizing drive, Henneberry said. He added that backing “is great” among neighborhood residents, many of whom are union members.

A boycott of the store, called by the union and community supporters, is supported by the California Labor Federation. In a recent week, organizers said, some 167 people decided not to shop at the store when told by the pickets about the labor conflict.

mbechtel @pww.org

Court to women: Equal pay, no way

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 04:46:00 +0000

Question: What court ruled recently that paying women less is OK as long as you don’t get caught for 180 days?

Answer: The Supreme Court of the United States.

Question: What court laid out a blueprint showing companies that discriminate how they can get away with it?

Answer: The Supreme Court of the United States.

The Supreme Court limited the ability of workers to sue for pay discrimination in a May 29 ruling against a Goodyear employee who earned $6,500 less than her male counterparts but who, the court said, waited too long to complain.

The 5-4 decision cited a clause in a federal civil rights law that sets a 180-day deadline for workers to claim they are victims of pay discrimination because of their race, sex, religion or national origin.

The decision ended a long-running lawsuit by a woman who had suffered blatant wage discrimination at Goodyear.

Not even attempting to cover his intent to defend discrimination, Justice Samuel Alito wrote: “Without a deadline, employers would find it difficult to defend against claims arising from employment decisions that are long past.”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing in dissent for the court’s liberal members, urged Congress to amend the law to correct the court’s “parsimonious reading” of it.

Lily Ledbetter, a longtime supervisor at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.’s plant in Gadsden, Ala., sued for sex discrimination because her pay was significantly lower than that of men who did similar jobs. After 19 years with Goodyear, Ledbetter was making $45,000 a year, $6,500 less than the lowest paid male supervisor.

A jury sided with Ledbetter but an appeals court overturned the verdict, saying she had “waited too long to begin her lawsuit.”

The Supreme Court agreed that workers who “wait too long” are just plain out of luck. Alito said, “The passage of time may seriously diminish the ability of the parties and the factfinder to reconstruct what actually happened.”

“They basically said, ‘It’s OK, boys. Just keep it quiet for 180 days and you’re home free,’” said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women.

Ledbetter said she couldn’t possibly sue before the 180th day on her job because she knew that new employees are not supposed to “rock the boat” and that, as a new worker, she had no reason to believe that such pay diversity even existed.

Ginsburg wrote: “In our view, this court does not comprehend, or is indifferent to, the insidious way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination.” She noted that Ledbetter’s pay started out comparable to what men were making but slipped over time.

Karen Elliott, head teller at a branch of a Chase Bank branch in Chicago, told the World, “The ruling shows the court majority has no knowledge about what is going on in the real world. It shows they don’t understand at all what women face. If the company can keep the discrimination hidden for 181 days, they can then continue to discriminate and suffer no consequences.”

Gandy said NOW is acting on several fronts against the Supreme Court ruling.

“First,” she said, “we are organizing all across the country to demand that Congress pass and the president sign legislation that will repair the damage to our hard-fought pay discrimination laws.

“Second, we are calling the press all over this country and urging them to cover this story in a serious way. Not enough people understand the incredible damage that has been done here by the Supreme Court. The word has to get out and when it does people will act to reverse this.”

Spokespeople for Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) indicated almost immediately after the ruling that the two lawmakers will draft legislation that, in effect, reverses the court decision. Many other legislators are expected to join the fight.

“We must demand that this legislation be so clear that no [high court] justice can misunderstand or pretend to misunderstand,” Gandy said. She said that the issue will be a major topic at NOW’s July 13-15 convention in Detroit.

jwojcik @pww.org

Arrested over health care

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 04:32:00 +0000

Twenty-two union leaders were arrested at the State Capitol in Hartford, Conn., June 1, as they called for universal health care.

The arrests were made at different locations throughout the Capitol building amid a heavy police presence. The union leaders were sitting-in outside the offices of the governor, the speaker of the House and the president of the Senate when they were grabbed by the police.

The sit-ins followed a rally by over a hundred activists outside the building who had demanded that the state institute universal health care coverage in the six days before the legislative session ended. Universal health care was the top issue before the Connecticut Legislature this year.

Among the labor leaders arrested was Brian Petronella, president of the 11,000-member Local 371 of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. He told the World that he sat in at the governor’s office because “many low-wage workers, including retail and supermarket workers, are forced to have their children on the state-operated program for kids who wouldn’t otherwise have health care.”

“It’s an outrage,” he said, “that they give you an application when you are hired, an application for state assistance, because they know they offer nothing in terms of wages and benefits.”

Wal-Mart was among the first companies to start doing this, and others have since joined the pack.

When it was noted, during the interview with the World, that a militant action by labor leaders such as the one in which he was involved brings the struggle for decent health care to a new level, Petronella said, “If more labor leaders all over the country did this type of thing, we would make a great deal more progress on the issue of health care and on a lot of other issues.”

Another labor leader arrested was Robert Madore, director of the 67,000-member Region 9A of the United Automobile Workers union. Madore told the press who were present in the Capitol that he began sitting in at Republican Gov. Jodi M. Bell’s office after she failed to appear for a requested meeting with union leaders at 4 p.m.

“We’ve been trying to communicate with the governor since December,” Madore said. “She didn’t even have the courtesy to respond, nor did she call, nor did she fax. We prepared to be arrested and we were going to wait as long as we had to. We think this issue needs to be brought to a head.”

Leaders from many other unions, including the American Federation of Teachers, the International Association of Machinists, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Teamsters, the Service Employees International Union, the Working Families Party, and the Connecticut Citizens Action Group participated in the rally.

The 22 who were arrested were charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, and later released.

Michael Fallon, the Capitol police chief, said that six were arrested because they refused to end their sit-in at the governor’s office and that 16 were arrested because they were blocking various stairwells in the building.

John Olson, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, addressed the crowds demonstrating outside. He was cheered wildly when he held up a sign bearing the names of state lawmakers the labor movement had helped to elect along with the message, “We expect you to deliver!”

The heat had been on the Legislature to pass a bill that addresses the needs of more than 400,000 people in Connecticut who have no health coverage, and thousands more who are underinsured, because in 2006, despite the election of a Republican governor, Connecticut voters put in a veto-proof Democratic House and Senate.

The insurance companies, whose national headquarters line major streets in Hartford, have lobbied the legislators, telling them that universal coverage will cost more than the state can afford. A state legislative study, however, showed that Connecticut would actually save over $1 million.

Recent polls show that 84 percent of the people in the state support universal health care.

On May 5, the Universal Health Care Foundation sponsored a rally outside the Capitol attended by over 5,000 people. Since then, thousands of letters, postcards and visits to legislators, along with vigils at the Capitol, have kept up the momentum.

Although the Legislature fell short, later in the week, of passing universal health care reform, many see the growth of a broad-based movement for universal health care across the state as a big plus.

In the early morning hours of June 6, before adjournment, the Senate and House passed a bill that would extend coverage to low-income and some middle-income working people by broadening eligibility and increasing reimbursements to providers. The governor said she will veto the bill.

“It is good they’ve done this, but it’s a far cry from universal health care reform,” said Beverly Brakeman of Citizens for Economic Opportunity, one of the groups leading the fight for universal health care in the state.

The rally that took place prior to the arrests of the union leaders was part of a week of action involving, in addition to trade unionists, retirees, clergy, business leaders and grassroots activists, all pressuring the Legislature to pass universal health care reform.

jwojcik @pww.org

Joelle Fishman contributed to this story.

Michigan labor reflects on its history

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 09:29:00 +0000

DETROIT — The Michigan Labor History Society held its annual meeting May 19 at the hall of Local 22 of the United Auto Workers union here.

One of the recent accomplishments of the society has been the establishment of the Michigan Labor Legacy Project, which resulted in the building of the “Transcending” monument in downtown Detroit as a memorial to labor’s past struggles.

During the regular business meeting part of the agenda, a report was made on the Labor Day Mobilization Lunch and the Labor Day Parade.

Dave Elsila, one of the society’s officers, reported that he had encountered several South Korean union brothers and sisters viewing “Transcending.” He learned they were in the U.S. to negotiate with Delphi Corp. to try to stop a plant closing in their country, as Delphi and other multinational corporations now consider South Korea to be a “high-wage country.”

Better coordination between U.S. unions and unions from other countries was suggested by several speakers.

An additional purpose of this year's meeting was to commemorate more than seven decades of labor struggles, including the 75th anniversary of the Ford Hunger March; the 70th anniversary of the Little Steel Strike; the 70th anniversary of the “Battle of the Overpass,” where Ford thugs attacked union supporters; and the 70th anniversary of the Flint Sit-down Strike.

Marc Stepp, retired vice president of the Chrysler Department of the UAW, spoke about the Flint strike, describing the difficulties the workers faced in establishing the union in the heart of the General Motors empire and the opposition of the Flint city officials to the unionization drive. The workers adopted the sit-down tactic so the corporation would not be able to hire scabs to break the strike if the workers were to walk out.

Stepp mentioned that the early organizers of the union were socialists and Wobblies (members of the Industrial Workers of the World). He also gave credit to the pioneering work of Wyndham Mortimer, first vice president of the UAW, and Bob Travis, another union leader, both of whom were Communist Party members.

Mortimer and Travis, along with Roy Reuther, a socialist, were instrumental in obtaining a one-page contract with General Motors recognizing the union as the sole representative of the GM workers. This important first step was a breakthrough, and made it possible for other unions to get recognition in the auto industry.

One important fact that was not mentioned is the existence of a Communist Party club in the GM plant at that time, which helped to give leadership to the sit-downers.

Responding to a question about the pending negotiations between the UAW and Chrysler and the threat to weaken health care for GM, Ford and Chrysler workers, Stepp suggested the auto companies should join the labor movement in promoting national health care, because the health care crisis cannot be solved at the bargaining table.

Workers rally to build justice at Pulte

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 04:50:00 +0000

BIRMINGHAM, Mich. — Led by several Latino construction workers from the Southwest and by Robert Masciola of the national AFL-CIO, an informational rally was held outside of the shareholders meeting of Pulte Homes, Inc., at the Community House in this upscale suburb of Detroit, May 10.

Among those present were Saundra Williams, president of the Detroit Metropolitan AFL-CIO, representing 300,000 workers, and Brenda Moon, also from the national AFL-CIO. Representatives of the Plumbers Union and the Operating Engineers joined them.

The rally was called by the “Building Justice” organizing campaign that involves the Painters union, the Sheet Metal Workers union and Roofers Local 135.

Pulte Homes is the top-ranked U.S. homebuilder. It is on the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest corporations, moving up 34 points to number 147 in the 2006 rankings.

In the midst of a national turndown in the U.S. housing market, Pulte still raked in $687 million in 2006. However, workers on Pulte job sites regularly report dangerous working conditions, pressure to work too quickly and to bypass recognized safety precautions, substandard wages, lack of vacation and sick days, and lack of affordable family health care.

In 2006, Pulte’s chairman/

CEO got a pay boost of nearly 12 percent. That year the total compensation for the company’s top five officers was $46.9 million.

One Mexican American woman worker spoke about how workers at various Pulte work sites wanted to fill up their water jugs at the on-site Pulte office, but were told the water was only for those who work in the office.

A business agent from the Sheet Metal Workers, who is also a Pulte stockholder, attempted to enter the meeting but was grabbed by one of the private security goons hired by Pulte. The police arrested the guard, and he was charged with misdemeanor battery.

Border insecurity rises, as does the temperature

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 04:30:00 +0000

TUCSON, Ariz. — While Congress debates “tougher security at the border,” the temperature is rising above 100 degrees in the Sonoran Desert. Already 84 bodies have been found along the Mexico-Arizona border, more than this time last year.

Instead of treating migrants as victims of U.S. and Mexican economic policy, they are treated like invaders by the National Guard, Border Patrol, Minutemen and other vigilantes, bandits, and now, Blackwater and other mercenary “armies.”

Once arrested, migrants are often abused by the Border Patrol, deprived of water, food and emergency care, and deliberately separated from family members.

“This is a failed border policy. It’s immoral,” said longtime border activist Pancho Medina. “When will the people of this country realize what is happening to people from our neighboring countries, ‘friendly nations,’ people who once traveled freely on their land, people who have lived in this area for thousands of years?”

No More Deaths (NMD), one of several organizations in southern Arizona helping migrants, is gearing up for another summer of rescues. Members have been walking the trails along the border, observing the foot traffic in order to set up camps and be available for aid. They have signed up hundreds of volunteers from across the country.

Last summer, NMD began setting up aid stations on the Mexican side for deportees who are literally dumped at the border by Wackenhut, a private prison company notorious for human rights violations.

Deportees are left at the border truck crossing in Nogales, Ariz., where they must walk three miles to Nogales, Mexico. Dropping them at the truck crossing keeps tourists from spotting the dehydrated, injured, robbed, disoriented and emotionally distressed people as they limp or are carried across.

Women and children are often brought in the dark of night when the border crossing is officially closed, leaving them especially vulnerable to injury or getting lost.

Blisters, bites, sprains and severe dehydration are common. Volunteers wash migrants’ feet and treat their wounds, offer water, food, a cell phone to make a call, and a few options for their next steps.

“We are the eyes and ears of how migrants are treated by Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies. It’s horrifying,” said Maryada Vallet, coordinator of the Northern Mexico humanitarian aid centers for NMD. She adds that up to 1,000 people are being deported to this place every day, and over 100,000 have been helped since the project started last July.

“The humanitarian presence has certainly prevented more deaths and suffering,” Vallet said. “It gives an ounce of support and a safe place for migrants to decide what they will do next.” She said NMD has added shelters in Nogales and in Agua Prieta, Mexico, where people are also being “dumped.”

Volunteers who care for the shelters 24/7 are people who have been deported several times and can’t return to the U.S. without fear of prison. Gilberto Flores, who lived in San Jose, Calif., for many years and whose family is still there, now runs the shelter and says he will stay as long as people need help. His work is heroic, but he shrugs it off and says he has nowhere else to go.

Volunteers from many groups on the U.S. side carry food from Casa Maria soup kitchen in Tucson, along with medicine and supplies, including diapers, socks, and shoelaces (the Border Patrol removes these from deportees). The state of Sonora has a fulltime person at the shelter helping people reconnect with family in Mexico and get emergency care.

Most deportees will try crossing again. As they regroup and heal in Nogales, they know that every day the thermometer is rising. Some still have unhealed wounds but want to stick with friends and family. The cat-and-mouse game of trying to enter the country becomes extremely risky.

The Rev. Robert Carney, who serves the migrant and border community, helped a young woman from Guerrero who was limping from apparently torn ligaments. She was frightened, alone and in shock. When he asked her if she would try again she said, “I have three children.”

Carney said, “I cringe when I hear people say migrants are seeking a better life. It’s much more than that — it’s life or death.”

To learn more about border rescue and aid efforts, visit www.nomoredeaths.org.

nmyers @igc.org

Black unionists assail wage, wealth gaps

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 04:02:00 +0000

Stressing civil rights and labor rights, delegates eye 2008 elections

CHICAGO — Answering the question, “Are the civil rights and labor movements united?” with a resounding “more than ever,” the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists held its 36th international convention here May 23-28.

More than 1,200 union leaders and rank-and-file members came from 70 U.S. and Canadian cities to participate in the convention, held at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

The gathering, which delivered a blistering critique of wage and wealth inequality, gave a rousing welcome to Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.

William Lucy, president of the CBTU, declared, “The rich and powerful have apparently concluded that millions of people in this country and millions more around the world are permanently expendable.”

“In their hands, war, famine, disease, incarceration and random violence have now become the real weapons of mass destruction, eliminating those who can no longer be absorbed into the economic system or be exploited by its corporate masters,” he said.

Lucy, international secretary-treasurer of the 1.4-million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and a member of the AFL-CIO’s executive council, told the cheering delegates that “this convention more than any poll or political pundit is the true barometer of the mood and priorities of Black workers: get out of Iraq, continue to change the makeup of Congress, kick the Republicans out of the White House and close the obscene wage-wealth gap between rich and poor.”

He warned the convention, however, that despite “the historic defeat of Republicans in Congress and in the Senate in 2006, we cannot rest. Time is running short to close the economic gap between the haves and the have-nots.”

Lucy and others at the convention noted that Black workers have been hardest hit by layoffs and by cuts in the “social safety net.” For Blacks, they noted, the safety net has never been more than paper-thin.

Lucy also laced into the White House foreign policy team. “When you pair George W. Bush with Dead-eye Dick Cheney, the modern day Machiavelli, you have the scariest White House duo since Nixon and Agnew. They have turned the Department of Defense into the Department of Evil.”

Introducing Obama to the convention, Lucy emphasized that to gain labor’s support, all candidates, whatever the office, must support labor’s agenda and especially the strengthening of the right to organize and the Employee Free Choice Act.

“I believe it is significant but not surprising that Senator Obama chose to speak at a convention of 1,200 Black trade unionists during this phase of his campaign,” Lucy said.

“He understands, as he has said, that when workers can join unions, not only do workers prosper, but America prospers.

“Senator Obama knows,” Lucy added, “that Black union activists bring a reservoir of political experience and energy that has benefited past presidential candidates like the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Bill Clinton.”

Obama spoke out strongly for the Employee Free Choice Act, saying “it strengthens union organizing rights and establishes meaningful penalties for employers who violate workers’ rights.” Calling current labor law “outmoded” and “unable to advance workers’ rights,” Obama said, “the National Labor Relations Board too often works for companies, not for labor.”

The delegates gave Obama a standing ovation when he declared, “We need a president who doesn’t choke when he says the word ‘union.’”

Obama spoke out for peace, noting that “$275 million a day could be put into health care and schools if we stop this disgraceful war in Iraq.”

The CBTU delegates spent an entire day planning upcoming political actions. Noting labor’s important role in defeating the extreme right in the 2006 elections, they launched a sophisticated voter registration drive involving the enrollment of 1 million new voters in key districts across the country. Each of those new voters will be responsible for enrolling five additional voters from their shops or communities. If the plan works, 6 million new pro-labor voters will cast ballots in key districts in 2008.

Karen Ackerman, political action director for the AFL-CIO, told the delegates, “Gone are the days when labor can afford to remain neutral in any election.”

In an impressive presentation on the labor movement’s strategy and tactics in the coming elections, Ackerman said the AFL-CIO has targeted key races so labor can focus on particular House and Senate contests in 2008.

She emphasized that labor’s presence in the electoral arena must go beyond 2008.

“Even when we increase our majorities in the House and Senate and when we take back the White House in ’08, we cannot relax,” Ackerman said. She showed, state by state, how labor will target gubernatorial and state legislative races all over the country so that in 2011, when congressional redistricting takes place, the extreme right will not be able to use the process to undermine pro-labor people or to elect right-wingers.

jwojcik @pww.org