People Before Profit blog

ILWU rep brings greetings from Danny Glover to CBTU

Fri, 30 May 2003 03:30:00 +0000

Clarence Thomas, executive board member of CBTU Northern California and executive board member of ILWU Local 10, read Danny Glover’s greetings to the CBTU convention. Thomas and Glover were students together at San Francisco State University. Glover’s statement said, in part, “A climate of fear has been generated from certain right-wing and reactionary forces. … [T]hese attacks are not about me – these attacks are on the first amendment and on our constitutional rights and therefore the attacks are on all of us. One of the reasons that I have resisted these attacks is because I am doing so for all of those people who don’t have high profile name recognition, who can’t afford a lawyer, and who don’t have money to hire a publicist. We cannot allow ourselves to be silenced!”

The convention passed a strong resolution supporting Danny Glover against attempts by right-wing activists to have him fired from MCI’s advertising because of his opposition to the war against Iraq.

CBTU calls for Bush defeat

Fri, 30 May 2003 03:17:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO – A defiant William “Bill” Lucy, president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), blasted the policies of the Bush administration in his keynote speech to the more than 1,400 delegates attending the organization’s 32nd Convention, May 21-26. Lucy condemned the Iraq war as a “weapon of mass distraction – a distraction from the failed economic policies that devastated American families; a distraction from the fact that 2.4 million jobs have been lost in the last 29 months.”

To repeated and enthusiastic applause, Lucy also criticized Bush’s handling of the national debt; attacks on affirmative action; tax breaks for the rich; attacks on civil liberties; and efforts to stack the courts with right-wing, racist ideologues. Lucy condemned what he called the “unchecked immorality of Corporate America,” aided and abetted by the Bush administration.

But reflecting a deep frustration with those in the Democratic Party and even the labor movement who would take the African-American vote for granted in 2004, the convention strongly supported Lucy’s criticism of AFL-CIO funding of the Partnership for America’s Families. The organization was endorsed by the AFL-CIO at it’s Feb. executive council meeting. He called on the AFL-CIO to reject the assessment that CBTU and other constituency labor organizations are “ineffective and not accountable” and therefore should not be funded in their voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts. The convention gave unanimous support for a resolution urging the AFL-CIO to reconsider its relationship with the Partnership.

In his keynote speech to the convention’s Awards Dinner and Banquet, Jesse Jackson also spoke against taking the Black vote for granted. He noted that the civil rights movement had cemented a coalition with progressive labor and religious leaders to defeat Jim Crow in the 1960s.

Jackson said that Rainbow/PUSH will be calling a conference in early June to rebuild similar coalitions.

In welcoming the delegates to San Francisco, Mayor Willie Brown called for massive voter registration drives in public housing projects across the country to help defeat Bush and the Republican right wing. He said it had worked in San Francisco even though many claimed you couldn’t get poor people to vote. In fact, Brown said, turnout in the last mayoral election was higher in a number of housing projects than in some wealthier neighborhoods.

Comedian Dick Gregory, a long time civil rights activist, had the convention rolling with laughter in describing the absurdities of the Bush administration. He said that CBTU is dangerous to Bush because it dares to have influence on public policy. “King was killed because he was determining public policy,” he said. “That is what they fear most.”

Ron Gettelfinger, president of the United Auto Workers, also addressed the opening session. Gettelfinger, citing the crisis in healthcare as his opening theme, blasted the corporations and said, “Every time we go to the negotiating table they try to cost-shift the crisis onto the backs of the workers. Cost shifting won’t work.” He continued, “Health care can’t be solved at the bargaining table. It requires a national single payer solution.” In urging the defeat of Bush, Gettelfinger said, “Bush is not on the side of the rich, he’s on the side of the very rich.”

There was tremendous energy and enthusiasm in the five-day convention. The second day featured a National Women’s Conference, a tradition at these annual meetings. Women’s participation and leadership in CBTU has mushroomed since its founding. A variety of workshops focused on important issues: building the Immigrants Freedom Ride, the Urban Policy Crisis in America, and the Economic Impact of Civil and Human Rights. The conference also featured a Youth Conference.

Scott Marshall can be reached atand Jim Wilkerson at pww@pww.org

CPUSA hosts health care meet

Thu, 29 May 2003 09:31:00 +0000

NEW YORK – “Health care is a life or death question,” said Scott Marshall, Communist Party USA (CPUSA) Labor Secretary, at a recent national meeting here. “Sixty million people are without health care each year, and that number is growing. People are being turned away from hospitals, being denied medicine – people are dying because of this crisis.”

The meeting, sponsored by the CPUSA, focused on the crisis in the current health care system and the need to do something about it.

People without health insurance have a 25 percent higher mortality rate than others, said Sarita Gupta of Jobs with Justice. “The crisis impacts even worse on communities of color,” Gupta added. “Forty percent of Latinos and 20 percent of African Americans are uninsured.”

Pedro Rodriguez, a member of the Alliance for Retired Americans, said, “With the rising cost of prescription drugs, [senior citizens] have to choose between food and medicine, or housing and medicine.”

United Steelworkers of America member, Bruce Bostik, said that in addition to the heavy human cost of the present system, there is also an economic cost. The crisis in the steel industry, he said, was caused in part by the healthcare system. U.S. steel companies, which have to pay a large cost for health care, are less able to compete with companies in countries where the governments bear these costs.

Conference participants worked out strategies for the battle to bring about healthcare for all. The conference resolved that a bill introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) “is the one national bill that’s out there that gives us a handle to begin to coalesce around in terms of a national movement.”

The bill, HR-676, would extend Medicare to cover all people in the United States. The plan would guarantee health care to everyone, and would not allow private insurance that duplicates benefits to exist. Conference participants agreed that support for this bill should not be seen as a counter to other health legislation that has been introduced into Congress. Participants resolved to work for Congressional endorsements of the bill and to help find a Senate sponsor, emphasizing the fight at the grassroots level.

Everyone agreed the labor movement must be an integral part of any successful campaign to bring about a universal healthcare system, noting that it is already moving ahead on this struggle.

The author can be reached at dmargolis@pww.org

Outsourcing slashes pay of auto parts workers

Thu, 29 May 2003 09:22:00 +0000

DETROIT – Last week Chrysler Group announced the sale of its 60 percent stake in its New Castle, Ind., parts plant to Metaldyne Corporation. Along with the sale, it was announced that plant workers will be forced to take a pay cut from $28 to $18 an hour. Last December, according to company documents, Metaldyne and Chrysler arranged for Metaldyne to run the New Castle plant while Chrysler maintained majority control. The 1,400 workers, members of United Auto Workers Local 371, are enraged over what they perceive as a breach of their contract with DaimlerChrysler. The Local filed a grievance last fall and is looking for further avenues to fight back.

Ford has also taken measures to outsource production in order to cut costs, moving parts production to Visteon, a majority-owned subsidiary. The other member of the Big Three automakers, General Motors, spun off Delphi for similar reasons. Following Chrysler’s pattern, Ford recently announced the beginning of the process of moving parts production from its Visteon plants to parts supplier Johnson Controls. Ford expects to cut as much as $25 per worker per hour in this action.

Both Ford and Chrysler are projected to profit between $1 and $2.5 billion in 2003, even though the number of unsold cars left in dealers’ lots is the largest in years due to the decline in sales. Most analysts agree the projected profits come, not through increased sales, but through reducing labor costs – wages, benefits, overtime, and hours of workers.

The biggest trend in cost-cutting is not in outsourcing, however, but in layoffs and projected plant closings, with the UAW losing 40,000 autoworkers since 1999. Meanwhile, retiree numbers have grown steadily and costs of health care and pensions continue to rise.

Four years ago, the UAW negotiated what is considered to be an excellent health insurance package for its auto members, and a moratorium on plant closings for four years. This solid contract, according to a recent Reuters report, may be under attack this year as contract talks open in July. The Big Three are begging for “relief” in order to become “more competitive.” They certainly have their eyes on reducing the quality of the health care package and their pension liabilities.

The author, a UAW member, can be reached at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net

Stanley Works machinists win contract gains

Fri, 23 May 2003 02:20:00 +0000

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. – Machinists Union members voted by a three-to-one margin May 21 to end their strike against Stanley Works and accept a revised offer from management. Workers voted at a morning meeting here.

The new offer by Stanley management includes an additional pension increase, raises for 150 workers formerly excluded, reduced increases for prescription drugs, and new language to help curtail subcontracting of maintenance work within the plant.

The biggest boost to job security for Stanley workers came with the news that CEO John Trani stated his intention to retire. Under Trani, work has drained out of New Britain for sweatshops abroad, referred to by the company as “low cost countries.”

For the first time since 1968, Stanley Works came to a grinding halt on Mother’s Day night, May 10, as members of Machinist Local Lodges 1433 and 1249 of District 26 voted overwhelmingly to reject the company’s final contract offer.

Workers young and old, men and women, of many races and nationalities, walked out in rain and thunder, determined to stand firm for job security. Within three days, local elected officials and union members from across the state staged a large support rally at the Curtis Street gate, in the very spot where protests last year stopped the company from moving its corporate address to Bermuda to avoid paying taxes.

Over the years workers have been downsized, New Britain has lost its tax base, and those still on the job have watched anxiously as the company shrank from 5,000 hourly workers to the current total of 450.

Stanley Works, an S&P 500 company, boasts on its website that “this is the 127th consecutive year in which the company has paid dividends, a record for industrial companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange.” First-quarter dividends were up 8 percent over last year.

“After years of broken promises, rejected attempts to work cooperatively to save jobs, and layoffs after layoffs – we’ve reached our limit,” said the Hardware City Strike News put out by the striking locals. “Stanley Works would not listen. But now they must.”

The union members gathered wide support during their strike with Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal speaking at a solidarity rally along with John Olsen, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO. Olsen pointed to all the labor leaders present in the rally crowd who are also engaged in bitter labor battles with the State of Connecticut, Hartford cleaning contractors, Cintas Laundry and Yale University and Hospital.

Nearly every car honked in support of the strikers. One woman driver pulled over. “I got laid off in January,” she said. “I had to come by to show support.”

In a press statement released after the vote, Donald D’Amato, president of Machinist Local 1433, said, “We didn’t get everything we wanted. But we made gains. More important, we showed Stanley Works that they cannot take us for granted. We’ll return to work with our heads held high.”

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

Unionists launch drive to win White House

Fri, 23 May 2003 01:28:00 +0000

DES MOINES – Nearly 1,000 union leaders and activists from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees got a close-up look at the Democratic presidential candidates at the union’s first-time Presidential Town Hall here on May 16 and 17. In his opening remarks AFSCME President Gerald McEntee blasted the Bush White House, calling the 2004 elections “critical for AFSCME members and all of America’s working families.”

Union activists from across the country challenged the nine candidates to explain their views on health care, the economic crisis, homeland security, the right to organize, Supreme Court appointments, civil liberties, corporate corruption and other issues.

McEntee outlined the grim situation facing working families: “We’ve lost nearly 2 million jobs since President Bush took office. The president has cut taxes for the very wealthy and is trying to cut their taxes even more. State and local governments are suffering their worst fiscal crisis since World War II. Pensions are under attack. Health care is in crisis. Corporate greed is on the rise. Our economy is in decline.”

Calling Bush “a president who coddles corporations, stands up only for the very wealthy and attacks workers and their unions,” McEntee told the gathering: “Sisters and brothers, we must take back the White House and take back America.”

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, Sens. John Edwards (S.C.), Dick Gephart (Mo.) and Bob Graham (Fla.), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio), former Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (Ill.) and Rev. Al Sharpton from New York took the stage, making opening statements and responding to questions. Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), who attended the reception the night before but could not attend Saturday’s town hall, fielded questions via satellite hook-up. Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) videotaped an interview since he could not make the Saturday event for religious reasons. President Bush declined the union’s invitation.

Candidates answered six prepared questions presented by AFSCME members and responded to additional questions from union members lined up behind floor microphones.

New York City Fire Department emergency paramedic Joseph Conzo, who was in the World Trade Center during the Sept. 11, 2001, rescue effort, said the Bush administration is not releasing funds for first-responders, while New York, in the midst of a huge budget crisis, is closing firehouses. “He let us down. How would you improve homeland security?” he asked the candidates.

Later he told the World New York AFSCME members will participate in the “biggest and largest Get Out the Vote movement” ever. “You have to be part of the solution, otherwise you are part of the problem.” AFSCME, with 1.4 million members, has considerable political clout.

The candidates aimed their attacks at the devastating policies of the Bush administration, not each other, speaking strongly against privatization of public services and for expanded health care coverage and protection of labor rights and civil liberties.

Many emphasized their working class and trade union roots. And most reflected the theme of a class divide with a Bush administration that represents extreme wealth and far right policies.

Edwards said, “[Bush] comes from a place where wealth is inherited, not earned, where opportunity is hoarded, not shared … They honor wealth, we honor the work that produces wealth.”

Dean received a warm response when he argued to win you have to take on Bush directly, saying many are angry with the Democratic Party for not standing up and fighting.

Health care was a top issue. Most candidates outlined programs for expanding health coverage. Kucinich’s was the most far-reaching, calling for taking the profit out of health care and creating a single-payer, “Medicare for all” program. He also received strong responses to his “Workers’ White House” theme. Sharpton, another favorite of the crowd, drew standing ovations for his sharp jibes at the Bush administration.

Many of the candidates questioned the costs and rationale for occupying Iraq. Graham accused the Oval Office of a cover-up on national security. Kerry, a Vietnam veteran, was one of the few to discuss broader foreign policy. He drew applause when he said although the U.S. has military might second to none, “we need to make some friends,” alluding to the Bush policies of unilateralism and preemption. He also got a strong response when he noted that he had opposed Ronald Reagan’s dirty war in Central America, and “blew the whistle” on Oliver North.

Finding an “electable” Democratic candidate is a major concern for AFSCME. McEntee told reporters the union is “focused like a laser on defeating George Bush.” The Town Hall was the kick-off to engaging AFSCME membership in an endorsement process expected to culminate this fall. The event also initiated a grassroots mobilization of the union’s membership “to fight like hell” to win the White House.

The union sees the 2004 elections as even more critical for working families, and for American democracy. “If this crowd wins again, we may not even be able to hold one of these town hall meetings,” McEntee commented.

Paul Johnson, an Iowa Department of Transportation worker and president of Local 2999, and Janet Hansen, a mental health worker from Cherokee, Iowa, told the World their most important issues are “health care, no privatization of Social Security, helping kids and helping seniors.” Asked what it will take to defeat George W. Bush and elect a worker-friendly president, Hansen said, “Since we don’t have a lot of money, it’s going to take muscle and determination from the grassroots.” It will take “door-nocking, phone calling, parades, signs,” added Johnson.

The authors can be reached atand suewebb@pww.org.

Defending the right to organize

Thu, 22 May 2003 09:39:00 +0000

CHICAGO – “The NLRB is a meat-grinder,” said AFL-CIO Director of Organizing Stuart Acuff, “and most workers who enter into it are ground up into sausage.”

Acuff was one of a trio of national labor leaders speaking at a recent organizing conference sponsored by the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL). A long-time activist and former leader of the Atlanta Federation of Labor, Acuff asserted “the saddest fact in America – American workers no longer have the right to organize.”

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was established when Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in 1935. The original intention of the act was to codify workers’ rights to organize into unions. The NLRA set up an election process, overseen by the NLRB, which was supposed to be free of employer threats and coercion that made it difficult for workers to organize a union. While this process was instrumental in helping millions of workers to form unions during its first decades of existence, subsequent anti-labor legislation, court rulings, right-wing Board appointees, and union-busting employer practices have undermined it to the point that union organizers say the NLRB actually inhibits the right to organize.

“It ain’t a right if you’re afraid to use it,” Acuff said.

Bruce Rayner, president of UNITE! (Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees) gave examples of his union’s actions to create the right to organize, and he didn’t mince any words. “We’ve got to change what our unions are doing,” he said, “and organize with a vengeance. We need to be willing to get down and dirty with the corporations.”

UNITE has rallied community support with creative and aggressive “corporate campaigns” aimed at forcing employers to grant union recognition through “card check,” a straightforward process under which union recognition is granted after a majority of workers sign union cards, thus by-passing the NLRB election procedure.

Terrence O’Sullivan, head of the 800,000-member Laborers Union (LIUNA), gave a building trades perspective to the organizing push. He emphasized the need for a strategic approach that doesn’t just go for numbers, but looks at building “market share,” the share of work in a given industry that is done with union labor. The Laborers focus on market share rather than raw membership numbers because it is the share of the market that workers control that determines their ability to win better pay, benefits and working conditions, says LIUNA’s website.

O’Sullivan said the battle for market share includes fighting for legislation that requires government contracts to include provisions for apprenticeship programs and takes into account employer safety records to “level the playing field” for union contractors. “We can’t have successful organizing without successful political programs,” he said.

O’Sullivan linked organizing with fighting for the rights of “undocumented immigrants who have contributed to our economy and many of whom are long-time members of our of organizations,” adding: “Our commitment and tenacity to immigration reform will define organized labor for decades to come.” O’Sullivan went on to challenge the delegates to “look at the history of our country – as proud as we are to be Americans – our country has a history of discrimination .… [We must] make sure history doesn’t repeat itself.”

From the podium, CFL leaders Dennis Gannon and Tim Leahy applauded in agreement. “You’ll be hearing a lot about the [Immigrants’ Rights] Freedom Rides from the CFL,” said Gannon. The Federation is planning a major initiative this summer in sending off Chicago’s contingent to the national activity, which will bring busloads of immigrant workers and their supporters from eight cities across the nation to lobby in Washington and rally in New York.

In another sign of the CFL’s departure from “business as usual,” Gannon announced to the standing-room-only gathering that he and Leahy had decided to cut the conference registration fee in half to allow for maximum attendance.

Teamster 705 organizer Jackie Tyler found the meeting’s militancy “very refreshing. It made me want to get up and fight right now,” the former UPS worker told the World. Tyler liked the emphasis on involving the membership in organizing. “Our local does that, and it works,” she said.

The author can be reached at rwood@pww.org

West Coast Longshore maps fightback

Thu, 22 May 2003 09:36:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO – The longshore division of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which met here on May 5-9, made it clear that dockers are not resting on the laurels of the recent contract victory against their employers, the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA).

Representatives from 30 West Coast longshore locals, who caucused for five days following the 32nd ILWU Convention, agreed that a new fightback strategy was crucial if they are to succeed against the Bush administration and global shipping employers.

“We cannot let our guard down anymore. The fight is not over, it has just begun,” said ILWU International President James Spinosa. He reminded the caucus that during negotiations the PMA was more focused on battling the ILWU outside of the bargaining room than inside of it.

Longshore officers emphasized that the PMA initiated an anti-union public relations attack in the media and brought in the West Coast Waterfront Coalition of retailers to lobby legislators against the ILWU at the state and federal level, practices not used in negotiations before.

“We have no choice. The PMA wants to break the hold our union has on the West Coast by any means available. We must adopt a game plan in response,” Spinosa said.

High up in that new ILWU game plan is the proposal to build up the union’s Political Action Fund, to beef up docker presence in Washington, D.C., and to intensify involvement in local politics and the 2004 elections.

“We must recognize that our government has the ability to legislate away our legal rights and our jobs,” said the officers who reported to the caucus. They also noted the pressure exerted on the union during negotiations by the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Labor, and other governmental agencies.

Acknowledging the need to act, the caucus will ask over 10,000 longshore members to each give a $50 per year voluntary donation to the Political Action Fund. That would amount to well over a half-million dollars.

Delegates were upset about the Bush administration and others in Congress using security as a ruse to kill union jobs at the ports and to destroy the union.

Local 10’s Lawrence Thibeaux, an ILWU legislative team member, told the caucus that legislators don’t want to discuss real security like the need for seals on containers. Instead, he said, they emphasize more control over workers: background checks, national ID cards and searches.

Mike Mitre of Local 13 in Los Angeles heads up the ILWU’s port security work. He said that the PMA is preparing a port security study that will ultimately be turned over to Congress. He also reported that PMA chief Joseph Miniace is being proposed to be the new chairman of the Marine Transportation System committee.

That scenario worries Los Angeles Local 63’s Peter Payton, another legislative team member, who warned that the PMA and members of Congress “may use security to try to go after the longshore dispatch system.”

The caucus voted to fund several new projects to buttress their power on the docks, including projects in public relations (to counter the PMA’s anti-union media apparatus), membership education, coalition building, research, and international solidarity. “International solidarity must be cultivated continuously, not only when needed,” said the longshore officers.

The caucus also agreed to fund a research project that will make organizing recommendations. Peter Olney, associate director at the Institute for Labor and Employment, reported that jobs are expanding in the industry but not in the traditional longshore port. That calls for carefully selecting the best organizing targets in the cargo-handling chain, he said.

Dave Arian from Local 13 spoke to the importance of research. “Before this contract, we were not prepared to deal with the employer other than at the point of production. We have to keep track of the capitalist world. How was it that Stevedoring Services of America (SSA) was able to dominate the PMA in negotiations and then get a contract in Iraq?” he asked.

The caucus broke from its meeting on May 7 to congregate at the Oakland Courthouse in solidarity with Local 10 Business Agent Jack Heyman, who was arrested and beaten up by police during a peaceful anti-war protest at the port of Oakland on April 7. When dockers filled the halls of the courthouse, it was announced that no charges would be pressed against Heyman that day.

The author can be reached at evnalarcon@aol.com

From the Charleston 5 victory to the 2004 elections

Thu, 22 May 2003 08:37:00 +0000

The following interview with Kenneth Riley Jr., president of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) Local 1422 in Charleston, S.C., took place during the recent convention of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).

Riley was the spearhead of a two-year campaign in defense of five dockers in Charleston, S.C., known as the Charleston 5. The struggle began Jan. 20, 2000 when 600 police in full riot gear attacked members of the ILA who were conducting a lawful picketline to protest the use of a nonunion crew to unload a Danish freighter. Police in armored vehicles, on horseback, in helicopters and in patrol boats injured many longshoremen, including Riley.

Police arrested five dockers, four African Americans from Local 1422 and one white from Local 1771. Republican State Attorney General Charles Condon charged the five with conspiracy to riot, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

In May 2000, Riley appealed to the ILWU convention for support. The ILWU made the campaign a priority and contributed over $300,000 to the defense fund. Nearly two years later that support, along with solidarity from the AFL-CIO, world labor, civil rights and community groups freed the Charleston 5, who received only minor fines.

Q: It has been three years since we interviewed you at the Portland, Ore., convention, when you sought ILWU support for the Charleston 5. They are free now. How do you view that struggle?

A: I look at it as a great victory. It was a victory that was seriously needed by everyone, especially considering that we won after Sept. 11, when labor was getting beat up and it was considered un-American to make a stand against any employer.

It was also an opportunity to build new friendships and to create a new network of supporters for future struggles. It was a perfect example of what you can do by building unity and solidarity among workers – not just among dockworkers but among workers all around the world.

International solidarity is something that works. It helps to solidify struggles. With this new global economy with corporations dominating all foreign countries – in fact, corporations dominate everything – I think we have to give more effort to building solidarity not only in this country but around the world.

Q: How are the Charleston 5 now?

A: They are doing very well. They are back working and living productive lives. My membership is more enlightened. They are more knowledgeable about the movement.

Q: So what happened to Republican Attorney General Charles Condon who called for “jail, jail and more jail” for the Charleston 5?

A: That is the better part of the story. Everyone seems to have won as far as labor is concerned, but Charlie Condon lost the most. He has disappeared from the political scene.

This guy was riding high. He was the most visible figure in the state – top gun, with great aspirations of becoming the governor by using the Charleston 5 as a launching pad for his campaign. Turned out that in the primary he only received 14 percent of the vote. A few months later he was headed back down to Charleston to practice law.

Q: The ILWU just went through a contract battle and emerged with a huge victory. Do you think the Charleston 5 fight impacted on that outcome?

A: I think it did because a worldwide network of support had just been re-energized in support for the Charleston 5. The network hadn’t even had time to collect dust. The contacts were fresh.

When the ILWU called for solidarity early on in the negotiations, a lot of us came to San Francisco. (Teamsters President James R.) Hoffa, the International Transportation Federation, the International Dockers Council, the Maritime Union of Australia and the Panama pilots sat at the negotiating table, to show the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) that there was broad-based support for the ILWU.

In the end the PMA had to recognize that to really take on the ILWU, they were risking exposing themselves to actions taken around the world.

Q: What are your observations about the ILWU Convention, and the new relationship between the ILA and ILWU?

A: The ILWU is a great institution, a perfect example of a democratic union. They have their problems like everyone else but, overall, I think they are on the right track.

Talking with my members who are here, I think that for first time they feel that there is a meaningful effort for our two unions (ILWU and ILA) to start trying to build a better relationship. On our side, that primarily comes from the rank and file. Our members want more than rhetoric; they want action.

Q: Can the Charleston 5 struggle be given a lot of credit for that?

A: We definitely would not have been here if it wasn’t for the Charleston 5. We’ve always had the ILA international president come to speak at the ILWU convention and then he would leave; and the ILWU president came to speak to the ILA convention, but there was little communication afterwards. There is a change now.

The ILWU came to defend the Charleston 5 in our time of need. A new bond flourished as a result. It was a rank-and-file connection to the West Coast that grew to what we see today.

That process continues. My local reciprocated support to the ILWU during their contract fight. They knew that there would be a response coming from Charleston.

Q: How do things look for your upcoming contract negotiations?

I don’t think that we’ll have as many issues as the West Coast. The number one issue for us will be health care. Other issues have to do with a wage increase, increases in contribution to our pension and welfare package, dealing with new hires and how long it will be before they get up to the basic longshore rate.

Q: South Carolina is a focus of attention by Democratic presidential candidates now. What is going on?

A: It is interesting. South Carolina has been forsaken land by international unions and the Democratic Party. And now it just happens that our Democratic primary has been moved high on the schedule and some believe that who gains momentum coming out of South Carolina will pretty much seize the Democratic nomination.

The Democratic Party is reaching out to labor to try to build an African American component. They are in a state where pretty much the party is in a shambles with no established system. So there are those on the ground trying to rebuild the party while also trying to make sure that the right candidate comes out the victor in South Carolina.

Q: You and your local are being widely sought after by candidates?

A: Yes. There are three major metropolitan areas in South Carolina – Charleston, Columbia and Greensboro. The candidates feel that you cannot really begin to tap into labor, the Black community, or the Black vote without coming to the ILA, so every candidate has been reaching out to us.

Q: How do you look at challenge of the 2004 elections?

A: We have to win. When I say we, I mean the Democrats. We have to take back the seat from George W. Bush. This time around we don’t have the time to toy around with other parties. Practically speaking, no party has a better shot at taking the White House away from Republicans than the Democrats. So, let’s not divide up the votes.

I’ve been in a lot of circles and some say the Democrats have forsaken us, too. That’s all fine and good but if Bush gets re-elected in 2004 we will be in terrible trouble.

Q: What issues do candidates have to address to motivate people to vote?

A: Social Security, health care, and an agenda for working families. Dealing with corporate greed and misconduct and the ailing economy are important. Also, we can’t do everything by military might. We can’t boast like President Bush is doing – that we can just drop some bombs whenever we like. It doesn’t work that way. Both foreign and domestic policies have to be addressed. We have to build the movement on the ground to energize people.

Q: Our readers supported the Charleston 5 and shared that victory with you. Do you have a message for them?

A: Yes, a great, great deal of gratitude. I don’t care what persuasion, belief, background, they came from, we appreciated their support. If we had just relied on the mainstream, we would never have achieved the victory that we did. I really believe that if we had put up walls and partitions between people because of their beliefs, we would not have achieved the victory that we have.

If we are going to talk about uniting workers worldwide, there are going to be all kinds of theories. If we cannot accept those differences in this country, then forget about building a worldwide movement.

The author can be reached at evnalarcon@aol.com

U.S. health care: Crisis, solutions, action plan

Fri, 16 May 2003 04:09:00 +0000

The United Steel Workers of America (USWA) hosted a national forum on the health care crisis at its headquarters in Pittsburgh on April 27. James English, secretary-treasurer of the USWA, set the stage for the forum, pointing to a Census Bureau report showing that 41.4 million people lacked health insurance in 2001. (As we go to press, the Congressional Budget Office has said that nearly 60 million may be without health insurance in the U.S. at some point during each year.)

English spoke to a standing room only crowd of union and community activists – ordinary people coming together in common cause, recognizing the crisis, finding its causes, and working to come up solutions and an action plan.

The struggle around solving the crisis in the U.S. health care system promises to be one of the defining struggles in 2003 and for the 2004 elections.

We reprint here excerpts of English’s remarks, along with excerpts from other speeches presented at the meeting.

– The editors

A crisis needs action

By James English

According to the National Academy of Sciences, being uninsured for even a year diminishes a person’s general health; that lack of health insurance leads to delayed diagnoses, life-threatening complications and ultimately 18,000 premature deaths each year. Lack of insurance translates into 600 premature breast cancer deaths, 1,400 deaths among HIV-infected patients, and 1,400 premature deaths due to under-treated hypertension.

Many of [the uninsured] are children whose parents cannot afford health insurance but do not qualify for Medicare. And they include a disproportionate number of African Americans, Latinos, American Indians and Alaskan Natives.

A study by the Steelworkers union indicates that manufacturing companies spend some $6.83/hr. to provide health insurance for their employees, compared to $2.10/hr. in Canada. Small wonder, then, that Canadian business leaders support Canada’s government-run health care system, or that 30 of Ontario’s largest employers said they would be happy to pay higher taxes for a national prescription drug plan.

So what can we do about the problem?

Number one: Don’t get side tracked by phony issues. Solving the medical malpractice insurance problem needs to be dealt with – but it will not solve the health insurance problem.

Second, we should not just dismiss partial solutions. The problems are enormous – we may have to proceed in steps rather than in leaps.

Three, stay informed. And while you’re at it, check the positions of the candidates.

Next: Stir up the pot. Write letters. Attend rallies. Talk to your neighbors. The presidential campaign affords a valuable opportunity to push the envelope.

The problems that we face are enormous. No one should kid themselves about that. Our job is to find a way to get our message out so that those running for any and all elected office are forced to deal with this issue.

James English is secretary-treasurer of the USWA.

People ask: ‘Where’s the plan?’

By Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich

It’s a sad commentary that Washington can find money for a trillion-dollar tax cut but not for universal health care. They were able to spend $65 million for the first installment on war against Iraq—but no money for universal health care.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said it all: “Of all the inequalities, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”

When South Africa broke the shackles of apartheid and it wrote a Constitution saying, “Everyone has a right to health care services.”

It is time to break the shackles of a system that has turned managed care into managed money. Health care is a matter of human dignity and of the common good. A government that derives its legitimacy from armed force while the health needs of its people are weighed and found wanting, needs to be stirred by conscience and by action.

This is our challenge and let it be our philosophy: to repair the health of our nation, to establish health care as a human right, and to create a single-payer universal health care system.

People ask: “Where’s the plan?” Well, there is a plan – one sponsored by myself, Congressman John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Congressman James McDermott (D-Wash.), and 21 others. It’s called Medicare for All (HR-676) and it creates a single-payer universal health care plan.

It guarantees access to health care to everyone. It guarantees a universal standard of best-quality medical care and lower costs. It will expand Medicare benefits to cover all medically necessary procedures – and eliminate private insurance. Other government programs like Medicaid would be subsumed under Medicare for All. All private health facilities would be converted to non-profit status.

Medicare for All would cost the same $2.2 trillion we now spend on health care every year. We start with existing annual government spending of $852.5 billion. We would maintain existing federal, state and local revenues from health-related programs – another $194 billion – with the exception of the revenues that now come from the health premiums of employees of the federal government.

Another $440 billion would come from a payroll tax of 6.6 percent on all public and private employers, nearly two percent less than the average 8.5 percent employers now pay for employee health insurance.

There would be no deductibles – another $200 billion saved.

Under Medicare for All, we would close loopholes that allow employers to deduct the cost of heath insurance when paying income taxes – and save another $230 billion.

We could generate significant cost savings by consolidating administrative costs in a situation where these costs go as high as 18 percent under our present system, compared to three percent for Medicare and Medicaid.

HR-676 would save as much as $180 billion through bulk purchase of prescription drugs.

But people will say, “There’s still gotta be money.” That’s right. We’ll stop the administration’s tax cuts and put those dollars in places that are productive for society: health care, education, job programs and protecting Social Security.

In order to get money for guaranteed health care, we could cancel the national missile defense system – and save $100 billion over ten years. We could still have a strong defense by canceling sophisticated weaponries that don’t work. But one thing for sure: we’re not going to have national health care if we pursue the policies of perpetual war and endless tax cuts.

The call for universal health care is a call to the conscience of America. It is the issue that can define who we are as a people. If we demand that everyone who seeks the Democratic nomination take an unqualified position on universal, single-payer health care, if we demand that we get profit and corporate control out of the health care system. If we demand that, we will help shape the future for the American people.

Don’t let anyone tell you we cannot do this. Don’t let anyone tell you we must wait longer. The time for waiting is over. The time for action is now: 2003 is the year to start and 2004 will be the year to deliver.

Dennis J. Kucinich is the Democratic congressman for Ohio’s 10th Congressional District.

It’s high time we get it done

By Jonathan Ross

The United States has a long history of efforts to establish some form of national health care, beginning with President Theodore Roosevelt’s proposed a national health insurance system in 1911. He’d visited Germany where the Kaiser set it up put it in place to keep the Socialists away.

The Commission of Costs of Medical Care was set up in 1927 and delivered their report in 1932 and that called for tax-based financing, highly trained personnel, and specialty care centralized in high quality care facilities.

These ideas were incorporated in the Wagner Health Act of 1937. Just when President Franklin Roosevelt was willing to take it up, we had a war that changed everything. Prior to World War II, a smattering of people had their health care attached to a job and that’s where we ended up and have been ever since. Our challenge was – and is – is to get out from under that system.

So in 1960 John Kennedy said he wanted a national health insurance program, modeled after the Medicaid system. While doctors may not want it, the family package is wonderful. It covers hospitals, doctors, nursing homes, drugs, rehabilitation care – it’s an excellent, extensive and comprehensive package.

We’d all be lucky if we had that package. And you know what? We can all have that package, because that’s what Mr. Conyers and Mr. Kucinich are focused on. They are going to use Medicare for their

model because people know that Medicare works – that that you can’t lie to them about it.

So, what happened in the Great Society of the administrations of Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson? We got Medicare and we got Medicaid.

So then we got President Bill Clinton, who wanted to do deal with health care at the national level. Trouble is, he made a deal with the devil – he made a deal with the big insurers. He told them, “Look, I’ll turn everybody over to you. Just cover everybody.” Pretty soon the Harry and Louise ads popped out and that was the end of that.

Let’s talk principles: That’s the first thing we have to do when we talk to people. We should ask questions like what they think the health care system should be built on.

They want cost control? We’ve got to talk about that because if we can’t control costs, it isn’t going to work. Dick Gephardt is talking about $251 billion extra dollars. It’s not going to fly. Clinton wanted $100 billion. It didn’t fly. So we’ve got to make sure there’s built-in cost control.

Do you want insurance companies trumping your doctor and hospital? It’s bad enough to be sick. It’s even worse to have some damned bureaucrat telling your doctors what they may or may not do.

There must be improvement and assurance built into the system. That means public accountability to get rid of the frauds and cheats.

So here we are again. And the question is, Why are we in this room?

Our answer is simple: Because it’s high time that we get it done. We’re here because, as the Kaiser Family Foundation says, 92 percent of Americans think the present Congress needs to deal with full medical care insurance.

Doctors take an oath to serve patients, to do no harm. The guys who run the insurance companies haven’t taken any oath. The law says their duty is to their stockholders, not to their patients, and to make as much money as they can for their stockholders. We can change that—this meeting today is another step in that direction.

Jonathan Ross, M.D., is past president of Physicians for a National Health Program.

It works in Canada

By Lynn Williams

In America you are trying to get a national health plan. In Canada, we’re trying to save one. We’ve been attacked by the same people – the insurance companies and the right-wingers – and the same budget-cutting drives in both countries. And the battle is continuous.

So we’ve been struggling and fighting with them. But they have made inroads – there has been some deterioration in the system. But it finally it came to the point where the government appointed a Royal Commission to study the health care system.

The outpouring from the people was overwhelming. When it came time for the commission to make its report, it had to report that the Canadian people want their health care system. They want it fixed. They want the money put back into it so it can be run decently. So the government put millions of dollars in the budget to help finance the system and we’re on the way to getting it back in place.

There’s another very interesting fact. Over the years these people would attack the system from every conceivable angle. But no political party ever went to the people with a program to get rid of a public health care system.

Now a few words about how the system works. General practitioners are the gatekeepers of the system. I have a choice of specialists through the GP. I go to them. I show them my card. I sign in and that’s the end of it. Consider what happened to my daughter when she had her last child. When she left the hospital she had one bill to pay – the cost of a long-distance call to her sister. That’s it.

I once lived in the United States and now I’m back in Canada. I’ll confess: I miss several things from the U.S. But I don’t miss the horror stories in the U.S. papers about health care – horror stories about families having to pay rent for nursing homes, about choosing between medical care and food, about going bankrupt because of high medical bills. We don’t see these stories in Canadian papers. Under the health care system in Canada, they just don’t exist.

Lynn Williams is president of Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees.

May Day 2003: Drawing strength from Brazil

Fri, 16 May 2003 03:23:00 +0000

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Hundreds of workers and fair trade activists celebrated May Day here by gathering to hear union and Workers’ Party activist Marcelo Borges Sereno describe “Organizing to win union power: How Lula did it.” Sereno is chief of staff to President Luis Ignacio “Lula” da Silva of Brazil. The Milwaukee County Labor Council (MCLC), the Wisconsin Fair Trade Campaign, and the AFL-CIO Field Mobilization Department sponsored Sereno’s trip.

Sereno drew on the history of May Day, which began as a commemoration of the repression of union protesters in Milwaukee and Chicago. Just as the events of 1886 had an “impact on trade unions throughout the world,” Sereno said the success of the Workers’ Party could act as a similar example. However, he stressed, “change in the world will not occur without change here in the U.S. We need you.”

He recounted an address that Lula gave to workers as he took office where he told them “my success is tied to yours.” Sereno said the Workers’ Party of Brazil cannot afford to fail because there would be “consequences for the left wing throughout the world.”

Sereno said the Workers’ Party’s fight, beginning in 1980 at the end of Brazil’s military dictatorship, “was a fight for democracy.” He described how the Workers’ Party developed a broad coalition of social movements, landless peasants, progressive Catholics, and various Marxist organizations in addition to trade unions, who were all committed to democracy and the fight for free elections. Sereno, a former organizational secretary of the Brazilian Labor Federation (CUT), paid tribute to the special role labor played in the fight for democracy, highlighting the ten general strikes from 1980 to 1990 as part of that fight.

Though the Workers’ Party and the coalition have come a long way, the new government faces many challenges. Sereno explained how the government faces neo-liberal policies of past administrations, including large debts. Their first challenge was to stabilize the national currency and to curb inflation. They were forced to make cuts in various government programs, such as pensions for public sector employees, while transferring some funds to the private sector. This has naturally led to disagreements and tensions within the coalition, which is all part of the challenges facing this new government.

John Goldstein, president of the MCLC, described the tour as a “great opportunity to hear the story of how opposition to unfair trade policies helped propel workers to victory in Brazil.”

Steve Watrous, an activist with the Wisconsin Fair Trade Campaign, said “the Workers’ Party campaigned against the same unfair trade policies, such as NAFTA expansion and the World Bank, that have decimated Milwaukee’s industrial base and now threaten services.”

The author can be reached at babette37@juno.com

UMWA: Coal dust testing changes monstrous

Fri, 16 May 2003 03:06:00 +0000

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Although they get the headlines and the TV crews, coal mine explosions and cave-ins have not been the leading cause of death of coal miners for 50 years. Black lung, a disease that destroys the lungs as a result of breathing coal dust, killed 55,000 miners between 1968 and 1990 and still takes the lives of 1,000 miners per year.

The Bush administration is proposing a federal takeover of dust testing and to dramatically loosen the standards for conducting the tests. Currently the coal mine operators do the testing. The 1969 Black Lung Bill, or Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, requires 34 coal dust tests per year per mine. The Bush Administration would take over the sampling and reduce the number of tests to three or six per year at some mines.

Carrying signs saying, “Dust Kills” and “Less Sampling Equals more Health Problems,” over 500 miners protested on the Capitol steps in Charleston as the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) held a hearing on the changes on May 8.

The new regulations “show the complete disregard that David Lauriski and the Bush administration have for miners and working people in general,” United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) District 17 (Charleston area) President Joe Carter told the rally.

Bush appointed Lauriski assistant labor secretary for mine health and safety in 2002. Lauriski was a coal company executive for 30 years.

“Monstrous, complicated and wrong-headed” was Joseph Main’s reaction to the proposed changes. Main is the director of the UMWA’s safety and health department.

“We’re talking about reversing back to (dust conditions) prior to the 1969 Act,” said Main. “Miners would breathe more dust under this rule.”

There is a solution, said union President Cecil Roberts. “The debate over reforming the respirable dust program must be resolved in favor of miners’ health – not operator interests,” he said. The union, some operators, and doctors support the use of a new continuous dust sampling device developed by the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety.

Marvin Nichols, director of the MSHA’s standards office, backs the use of air purifying respirators completely enclosing a miner’s head, like a helmet.

President Roberts questioned the proposal, saying that the helmet is heavy, cumbersome and uncomfortable. The 1969 Black Lung Act specifically says that “respirators shall not be substituted for environmental control measures in the active workings of coal mines.”

The National Mining Association, a consortium of coal and energy companies, has not taken an official position on the changes. Association spokesman Bruce Watzman said that the industry supports federal take over of dust sampling, but is still working to understand other proposed changes in the regulations.

A 1998 Louisville Courier-Journal series exposed widespread fraud, scams and scandals in coal dust testing conducted by the mine owners. After interviewing 255 working and retired miners and studying seven million government documents, the newspaper concluded that the tests were tainted and that enforcement of standards was lax. Inspections were botched, with 11 inspectors convicted of taking bribes. Dust inspections were more accurate in union mines than non-union mines.

The newspaper found that strip miners also contracted Black Lung because of the amount of dust swirling in those above-ground facilities.

In an interview, the safety director of Shamrock Mining, one of the largest companies in the country, said, “The health of the men never entered into it. Controlling the dust just wasn’t part of the calculation. Production is number one.”

The hearing in Charleston is one of a series that began in Washington County, Pa. MSHA will be holding field hearings in Evansville, Ind., Lexington, Ky., Birmingham, Ala., and Grand Junction, Colo. The UMWA will participate in each one and is organizing demonstrations to save miners’ health.

Nurses cheer call to oust Bush

Fri, 16 May 2003 02:42:00 +0000

WASHINGTON – About 500 union nurses, both registered and practical, fanned out on Capitol Hill May 6 to protest the billions in tax cuts George W. Bush and Congress are doling out to the rich while Medicare and Medicaid are slashed, 41 million people lack health insurance, and hospitals are woefully understaffed.

The occasion was the 9th Nurses Congress sponsored by the United Nurses of America (UNA), an affiliate of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Members of other nurses’ unions also attended, including the United American Nurses, American Federation of Teachers, Service Employees International Union, Communications Workers of America, and United Food and Commercial Workers.

UNA Co-chair Katherine Sackman praised the newfound unity in the struggle but chided the attendees for not paying more attention to the plight of LPNs. “We know that nurse staffing is not at safe levels,” she said. “Now more than ever it’s important that nurses unite. We feel the crisis in health care as workers who care about our patients. We must reach out to others or they will stick us with the same numbers of patients.”

AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee touched off cheers, laughter and applause with a withering blast at George W. Bush and the Republican leadership of Congress.

“This White House crowd really plays hardball,” McEntee quipped, reporting that he sometimes crouches in his Washington office for fear they will “fly some of those bombers over” to take care of him.

McEntee decried the shortage of 100,000 registered nurses across the nation, a figure expected to zoom to 450,000 by 2008. He cited a report by the New England Journal of Medicine that 53 percent of doctors blame nurse understaffing for “medical errors.” That same report found a 31 percent higher patient death rate in understaffed hospitals.

McEntee linked the understaffing problem to the overall healthcare crisis, including 41 million uninsured.

McEntee said that the average cost of a prescription drug in 1992 was $28.50. By 2010 it will reach $72.94. Bush’s budget, embraced by the GOP leadership, slashes Medicare by $214 billion, Medicaid by $93 billion, and Food Stamps by $12 billion, McEntee charged. He praised the labor movement for mounting a pressure campaign on Senate Finance Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) that resulted in $20 billion in fiscal relief for cities and states, although the figure is far short of the need in the face of their $200 billion combined revenue shortfall.

“In my 44 years of public service, I’ve never seen our country in worse shape,” McEntee said. “Worse than Bush the father. Worse than Ronald Reagan ... If this same crowd is back for another four years, the damage they have done, you can double that. We need to send George W. Bush back to Texas.”

He continued: “Cheney? We’re going to find him in that undisclosed location and lock him in there! And Tom DeLay? We’re going to send him back to that exterminating company in Houston.” The crowd cheered.

AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer William Lucy pointed out that airline pilots have strict limits on their hours of work for reasons of safety. “How about you guys?” he asked. “Certainly you know best how well you can provide care after hours and hours of work. I think we have to come together and demand that we will take care of the sick and injured ... Bush dares to push a $726 billion additional tax cut while our nation’s budget deficit stands at $307 billion, while we have to pay the $100 billion-plus bill for the Iraqi war.”

Denuta Lobada, a registered nurse, told the World she has joined UNA’s drive to unionize her hospital, Resurrection Medical Center, as well as St. Francis Hospital, both Roman Catholic healthcare facilities in Chicago. “On March 15, we had a summit for all the nurses, dietary workers, housekeepers, lab technicians, and pharmacy workers,” she said. “We’re trying to organize everybody into one union. We all recognize there is a crisis in nursing. Many of us are burned out and are leaving the profession.”

Union nurses are raising the exhausting overtime work as a bargaining issue, Lobada said. But ultimately national legislation is needed to provide relief. “That’s why we went to Capitol Hill. There is no legislation pending that provides limits on overtime and mandated staffing nurse-patient ratios. We visited Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Sen. Dick Durbin. Both of them committed to help us. First, we have to stop the cutbacks in Medicaid.”

The author can be reached at greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com

Unemployed to Congress: Give us our jobless pay

Fri, 16 May 2003 01:57:00 +0000

WASHINGTON – Hundreds of jobless workers picketed the Labor Department and then marched to Capitol Hill on May 13 to demand that Congress approve another 26-week extension in unemployment compensation for 4.5 million workers who are running out of benefits.

The protest, sponsored by the AFL-CIO and by a coalition of groups fighting for jobs or income, came eight days before Temporary Emergency Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) runs out on May 31. Leaders of the march charged that House GOP leaders have repeatedly killed amendments sponsored by Democrats to further extend benefits as joblessness soars to a nine year high.

“These checks pay my rent,” said one placard carried by an unemployed worker who came here with a busload from the Philadelphia Unemployment Project. “Tax cuts: the rich get richer, the poor poorer,” read another.

The United Steelworkers of America (USWA) brought busloads from York and Reading, Pa., and from the ISG steel plant at Sparrows Point, Md. There were also contingents from UNITE, the Communications Workers of America, and the Glassworkers. “Who needs a pink slip? Bush needs a pink slip!” the crowd chanted as they picketed outside the Labor Department.

As he marched, USWA President Leo Gerard told the World, “Since Bush became President, we’ve lost an average of 263 jobs per hour.”

“It is unconscionable that he would be giving tax breaks to the rich,” Gerard continued, “while we have to lobby here for extending unemployment benefits. Close to 4.5 million workers have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks and face loss of their jobless benefits unless Congress acts.”

The march ended in a rally in Senate Park. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said, “President Bush and some in Congress don’t seem to understand that tax cuts for the privileged few will not create the jobs you need, will not help the states recover from the recession.”

He denounced Bush for embracing a “failed economic policy that has already cost us two million jobs. But Bush is pushing ahead with the same playbook, pushing ahead with another tax cut for the rich. He couldn’t be more wrong. What we need is an economic policy that creates decent jobs immediately.” Bush’s policy of terminating jobless benefits while handing huge tax cuts for the rich is “economic sabotage,” Sweeney charged.

Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) touched off boos when he announced that an hour earlier, the Republican leadership again blocked his amendment, co-sponsored by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), to extend the TEUC program beyond June 1 with another 26-week extension of benefits. His measure would also extend jobless pay for another 13 weeks for workers who have already exhausted an earlier extension without finding a new job, and would provide $40 billion in emergency assistance to states with huge deficits.

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) has introduced a similar package in the Senate. Because Congress plans to recess for the Memorial Day weekend and TEUC is scheduled to expire May 31, protesters point out that Congress must pass an extension right away.

Peter Roman-Friedman, USWA legislative representative, told the World, “The Republicans have blocked extensions of jobless benefits at least ten times on both procedural and substantive grounds, both in committee and on the House floor. The situation for millions of longterm unemployed is really dire.”

Vera Matty, who worked nine years as an executive assistant and office receptionist in Long Island City, N.Y., told the World, “I lost my job Nov. 16, 2001. I was on unemployment compensation for a while but then it ran out. That means I have no income and no job. I live on borrowed money. I am a historian. I know how hard it is to change things. It takes a hard fight.”

Bob Polanowski, who retired after 38 years at Sparrows Point, said steelworkers who retire now face cuts in their pensions and health care benefits. Steelworkers and others laid off across the nation, he said, “are being shortchanged by the government. Look at how much they are spending in Afghanistan, the Philippines, Iraq: hundreds of billions. Yet workers here have to fight to get their benefits. Our infrastructure needs to be rebuilt, roads, bridges, water and sewerage systems. There ought to be plenty of jobs.”

Regina McDonald came with a busload from the Bronx. “Yes, I’m unemployed,” she told the World. “I was a counselor in the prison system in New York. I am the single mother of four children. I am about to run out of benefits and I have no other income of any kind. I really need this extension of benefits.”

The Bush administration is cutting jobs, McDonald said, “cutting programs that help people. All those poor soldiers in Iraq will come back after risking their lives to find that veterans’ benefits have been cut and there are no jobs. Maybe they will end up on welfare.”

The author can be reached at greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com

CBTU stays in the forefront

Thu, 15 May 2003 08:35:00 +0000

“The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) has to be the lightning rod to mobilize labor to formulate actions to turn things around,” stated Lew Moye, chairman of the organization’s St. Louis chapter. Moye expects St. Louis to be represented by 40 to 50 members at the CBTU national convention in San Francisco this weekend where 1,500 delegates and guest from 60 chapters will gather.

Moye stressed the importance of this year’s meet, given the national job loss situation. “On the shop floor, it’s jobs, trade issues and the Bush administration moves to do away with our overtime pay that are on people’s minds,” said Moye, who is shop chairman for United Auto Workers Local 110 at the St. Louis South Assembly plant. Workers there build Chrysler minivans.

The CBTU’s annual Memorial Day weekend conventions have become a fixture on labor’s calendar. It was a resolution passed at its 1980 meeting, at the initiative of steelworkers in the Chicago chapter, that first called for a national labor march on Washington against the anti-labor policies of the Reagan administration. After many locals and internationals adopted that call, the AFL-CIO called the historic Solidarity Day March in 1981.

“Historically the CBTU has always been in the forefront,” said Moye, citing the group’s pioneering role in building support for South African trade unions’ freedom struggles and in the fight for jobs. “We have to continue to play that role. Political action will certainly be very high on the agenda. We definitely need to make changes at all levels, particularly presidential,” he continued. “Mobilizing for 2004 has to be key.”

St. Louis chapter trustee Jim Wilkerson, who attended CBTU’s founding convention with Moye 32 years ago, agreed, pointing out that this week several chapter members were attending a labor-sponsored voter-mobilization workshop in Philadelphia. Wilkerson said these members will train other St. Louis workers to work on voter education and registration. “Voter education is critical,” said Wilkerson, a member of Operating Engineers Local 513. “Bush is looking for every way to split the working class, trying to confuse workers with issues like guns.” In looking for ways to build unity, Wilkerson recalls the late 1970s, when the CBTU in St. Louis “did a hell of a job mobilizing to keep Missouri from joining the ranks of right-to-work states.” That effort was not forgotten. “Just a few weeks ago,” continued Wilkerson, “a young white ironworker on the job told me how his father had told him about the critical role of Black workers in that battle.”

The convention’s theme of “Advancing the Working Families Agenda” seems right on target with the release this week of the disturbing findings of a study on the wage gap in California by the not-for-profit Public Policy Institute of California. The study found that average hourly wages for African- American men in California were only $15.41, compared to $20.83 for white men, or just 74 cents on the dollar. This differential has increased from 1989, when African-American men made 81 percent of the wages of white men. The report, “Racial and Ethnic Wage Gaps in the California Wage Market,” found that differences in educational levels accounted for only a few cents in the gap, and that differences in occupations filled by the two groups could not be responsible for the differences at all. This wage gap will surely be one of the “tough issues to tackle on our watch” that CBTU president William Lucy referred to in his call to the convention. Lucy urged delegates to come “with your sleeves rolled up, ready to work.”

The author can be reached at rwood@pww.org

Fleecing the family

Fri, 09 May 2003 04:15:00 +0000

Opinion

Boy, there is no shortage of creatively terrible ideas from the Republican Party these days. Those folks are just full of notions about how to make people’s lives worse – one horrible idea after another bursting out like popcorn – and all of them with these sickeningly cute names attached to them. Consider the Family Time and Workplace Flexibility Act (Senate version) and the Family Time Flexibility Act (House version). The Bush administration is leading the charge with proposed new rules that will erode the 40-hour workweek and affect more than 80 million workers now protected by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

To hear the Republicans tell it, you’d think these were family-friendly bills, something like Clinton’s Family Leave Act, designed to help you balance the difficult combined demands of work and family. With such a smarm of butter over their visages do the Republicans go on about the joys of “flexibility” and “freedom of choice” that you would have to read the bills for maybe 30 seconds before figuring out they’re about repealing the 40-hour workweek and ending overtime.

As The American Prospect magazine notes, when Republicans talk about “flexibility,” it means letting business do whatever it wants without standards, mandates or worker and consumer rights. Ever since FDR’s New Deal, working overtime gets you time-and-a-half in money, which has the happy effect of holding the workweek down to 40 hours – or at least preventing it from ballooning grossly.

The proposed Bush rules, which the two Republican bills codify and expand, would:

* Exclude previously-protected workers who were entitled to overtime by reclassifying them as managers. Companies are already using this ploy where they can get away with it. Say you’re frying burgers on the night shift at McDonald’s, making overtime, and suddenly – congratulations – you’re the assistant night manager, with no raise and no overtime.

* Eliminate certain middle-income workers from overtime protections by adding an income limit, above which workers no longer qualify for overtime. You like that? You make too much to earn overtime.

* Remove overtime protection from large numbers of workers in aerospace, defense, health care, high tech and other industries.

Pay attention, this one is coming right out of your paycheck.

Big Bidness is lobbying hard on these bills. If you work overtime to pay your bills, look out. The trick is, employers get to substitute comp time for overtime, and the employers get the right to decide when – or even if – a worker gets to take his or her comp time. The legislation provides no meaningful protection against employers requiring workers to take time off instead of cash and no protection against employers assigning overtime only to workers who agree to take time instead of cash. Everybody gets screwed on this one, except the bosses. Isn’t it lovely?

The proposed rules changes and the Republican bills provide a strong financial incentive for employers to lengthen the workweek, on top of an already staggering load. By 1999, in one decade, the average work year had expanded by 184 hours, according to Kevin Phillips’ book Wealth and Democracy.

He writes, “The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the typical American works 350 hours more per year than the typical European, the equivalent of nine work weeks.”

The bills give employers a new right to delay paying any wages for overtime work for as long as 13 months. According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, under the new bills an employee who works overtime hours in a given week might not receive any pay or time off for that work until more than a year later, at the employer’s discretion.

“Without receiving interest or security, the employees in essence lend their overtime pay to the employers in the hope of getting it back some time later as paid time off,” the report states. “Employees’ overtime compensation is put at risk of loss in the event of business failure and closure, bankruptcy or fraud. Furthermore, employees get no guarantee of time off when they want or need it.”

The EPI explains why Big Bidness loves these bills: “A company with 200,000 FLSA-covered employees might get 160 free hours at $7 an hour from each of them (160 hours is the maximum allowed under the bills). That’s the equivalent of $224 million that the company wouldn’t have to pay its workers for up to a year after the worker has earned it. Considering that, under normal circumstances, the employer might have to pay 6 percent interest for a commercial loan of this magnitude, it could save $13 million by relying on comp time to ‘borrow’ from its employees instead.”

The slick marketing and smoke on this one are a wonder to behold. We’re being told that private sector workers will get the same “benefit” of comp time as public employees. Wow, keen, except the government has no profit motive for pushing comp time instead of overtime. Boy, does this stink.

Molly Ivins is former editor of The Texas Observer, and is author of Molly Ivins Can’t Say That Can She? This article originally appeared at TomPaine.com

May Day around the world

Fri, 09 May 2003 03:08:00 +0000

Iraq: Iraqi communists marked May Day for the first time in many decades, marching in central Baghdad under giant banners calling for security, democracy and peace in their country. The demonstration, which started in historic Fardus Square, drew many hundreds of men, women and children who wore red scarves bearing the hammer and sickle emblem and proudly waved red flags.

In its May Day statement Iraq’s Workers Democratic Trade Union Movement expressed confidence that democracy will triumph in Iraq. It stressed, however, that “while foreign forces still occupy our beloved country, it is difficult to build democracy.” The Union called on the occupying forces to “transfer power to the people of Iraq and allow them to set up an interim, broadly-based patriotic and democratic coalition government” leading to “free and fair elections under the direct control of the UN.”

Cuba: One million people massed in Havana’s Jose Marti Revolution Square heard President Fidel Castro say, “We do not want Cuban or U.S. blood to be shed in a war, we do not want an incalculable number of lives of persons who could be friends lost in any battle. But,” he continued, “never did a people have such sacred things to defend, or such profound convictions for which to fight.”

Speaking to a crowd, which also heard from trade union leaders, students and academics from Uruguay, Germany, Spain, the U.S., Mexico and other countries, the Cuban president stated his profound conviction that ideas can do more than weapons, however sophisticated and powerful. “Let us say it like Che when he bade us farewell: ‘Ever onwards to victory!’” he declared to tumultuous applause.

Rev. Lucius Walker of the U.S. organization Pastors for Peace called recent Bush administration actions toward Cuba the worst provocation in history by a U.S. administration. “But I come to state that you are loved, you are respected, you are appreciated and you are supported” by the millions of U.S. citizens opposed to the Bush administration’s hostility, provocation and violation of diplomatic norms, he said.

Israel: Many thousands of Arab and Jewish marchers joined together for impressive May Day demonstrations. In Nazareth, the northern city with the largest Arab Palestinian population in Israel, thousands participated in the demonstration called by the communist-led Hadash Front. In Tel Aviv, the Socialist Trade Union youth organization, the Communist Party and Youth League and several left movements brought demonstrators together for a march through the city’s main streets.

Greece: The All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) organized demonstrations with participation of hundreds of trade unions, youth and student associations and peasant organizations in some 60 communities including Athens, Thessaloniki, Pireaus and Patra.

In Athens tens of thousands gathered at Pedion of Areos Square and marched to a big demonstration in front of the U.S. embassy, to protest the government’s plans to slash social welfare and insurance systems, and to declare their solidarity with socialist Cuba, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Palestinian and Iraqi people.

The delegation of the Communist Party of Greece was headed by General Secretary Aleka Paparigha. Also participating was Honorary Chairman Harilaos Florakis.

Brazil: Some 1.2 million workers took to the streets of Sao Paolo to celebrate the election of former metal workers and union leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as president of Brazil.

“On May 1, 1980, I could not participate because I was in prison,” Lula said from the pulpit of a church outside Sao Paulo near the industrial area where he had worked. “For the next 23 years, I came with others to this mass,” he said.

Japan: Hundreds of thousands of union workers rallied to call for more jobs in face of severe unemployment, and to protest the Japanese government’s move to review the constitutional ban on war. Rallies were organized at nearly 400 locations throughout Japan by the three national labor federations, Zenroren, Rengo and the National Trade Council (Zenrokyo). Zenroren demonstrators brought together some 334,000 people at rallies around the country. In addition to economic issues, its demonstrations took aim at the government’s war contingency bills and a measure to revise the Labor Standards Law – now before the national legislature.

Compiled by Marilyn Bechtel, who can be reached at cpusainternat@mindspring.com.

Hans Lebrecht contributed to this article.

A legacy and a pledge

Fri, 09 May 2003 02:50:00 +0000

May 1 is a symbolic day of struggle and international solidarity among all the workers of the world. It is also the day I was born.

On a May Day morning, 26 years ago, my parents, along with various activists, were preparing to lead a workers rights and solidarity march through the streets of the Pilsen community in Chicago. As they were about to leave our house my mother, Lupe Lozano, started to go into labor. Although my father, Rudy Lozano, was one of the main organizers and leaders of the event, my mom insisted that they go straight to the hospital. As she was being prepared for delivery, my father was nowhere in sight. At about the same time I came into the world, my father was leading a march in the name of social justice, peace and equality for all working class people.

My mom has shared this story with me over the years. She continues to express that she and my father always wished for a May Day baby. I guess their wish came true.

Every year I feel that I was born into a worldwide movement whose historical progress and revolutionary destiny could not pause even for the gift of life. As I celebrate my 26th birthday, I also celebrate the life and legacy of my father, and the strength, courage and love my mom continues to share with me and my brothers. Together we have come very far and together we will make a difference. Our unity, commitment and dedication to socialism is real justice for Rudy Lozano.

Pepe Lozano is a leader of the Chicago Young Communist League and can be reached at pepelozano43@onebox.com. His parents,

Rudy and Lupe, were leaders in the movements for political independence, labor and immigrants rights. Rudy, an organizer with the

International Ladies Garment Workers Union, was an aldermanic

candidate and key figure in the hard-fought 1983 election campaign of Harold Washington, Chicago’s first African American mayor. Rudy was assassinated shortly after Washington’s election, leaving a family and community grieving but determinedly carrying on his struggles.

Cleveland fights for healthcare

Fri, 09 May 2003 02:46:00 +0000

CLEVELAND – The battle for affordable healthcare was the central theme of this year’s May Day event here, where, for the second year in a row, the Cleveland AFL-CIO officially observed this historic working-class holiday.

For decades, the May Day holiday was kept alive by left-progressives, ignored by the labor movement and unknown to nearly all workers. This is no longer the case in Cleveland. The annual May Day event is now seen as a time to bring the most active unionists and advanced ideas into the mainstream of the labor movement.

Nearly 200 people attended the May 2 event. More than $5,000 was raised for the Coalition for Affordable Prescription Drugs, the statewide coalition of 300 organizations that is battling the big pharmaceutical companies for a Prescription Drug Fair Pricing Act in Ohio. The master of ceremonies was Tom Frisbie, president of the Cleveland AFL-CIO.

Dr. Wendy Johnson, medical director of Cleveland’s Dept. of Public Health, spoke of the nationwide crisis in health care and the 75 million people who have lacked health insurance at some time during the past two years.

Pete Talley, secretary-treasurer of the Ohio AFL-CIO, described the work of the Rx Coalition. Despite court challenges by the drug companies, the coalitionis growing and will launch a mass campaign to pressure the legislature to pass the bill.

Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (D-Ohio) said “healthcare is a right, not a privilege,” and the money from the Bush tax cut proposal could provide prescription drug coverage for every American.

Favorite-son presidential candidate Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) condemned the Bush administration’s rush to war and plans for tax cuts, saying you can’t have funds for healthcare, schools and jobs with huge war costs and huge tax cuts for the rich. “Everything all of us have worked for is on the line,” he said, adding that he would soon announce a plan to take private insurance out of healthcare and provides universal healthcare for all. He received two standing ovations.

Three activists were recognized for their dedication to the cause of working people: Athena Godet-Calogeras, co-chair of the Coalition for Affordable Prescription Drugs, State Representative Dale Miller, author of the Rx fair pricing bill, and Nancy Colon, Teamster rank-and-file leader.

D.C. rallies for immigrant rights

Fri, 09 May 2003 02:42:00 +0000

WASHINGTON – Immigrant workers observed May Day with a Capitol Hill rally to demand that Congress grant legal residency to 8.5 million undocumented workers by passing the FREEDOM Act. They then moved downtown to a “Justice for Janitors” rally that turned into a May Day celebration of a contract victory for 4,000 custodial workers here.

Members of the Toledo-based Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) traveled to the capital by bus and were joined by members of the Laborers International Union, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and other worker groups from across the nation affiliated with the National Coalition for Dignity & Amnesty for Undocumented Immigrants (NCDAUI). They waved scarlet banners emblazoned with the words, “Hasta Victoria” and chanted “Bush, escucha, estamos en la lucha” (Bush, listen up. We are fighting back!).

SEIU Local 82 Secretary-Treasurer Jaime Contreras told the rally, “We are here to show our support for hard working, taxpaying immigrant workers, to keep their voices alive. Today is May Day. It is appropriate to be here today. These are people who work hard every day for $8 an hour without healthcare benefits.” Many of Local 82 members are immigrant workers.

He told the World Local 82 members were prepared to strike to win a fair contract for custodial workers locked in hard negotiations with owners of commercial buildings in downtown Washington. The rally erupted in cheers when the SEIU negotiating team arrived with news that the building owners had minutes earlier agreed to provide healthcare benefits and a wage increase. Ian Burlin, a SEIU Local 82 spokesman, called the contract won by D.C. janitors “groundbreaking.” With similar victories for janitors in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Orange County, Calif., “it’s pretty significant that these victories were won without a strike,” following a strong victory after a three-week strike in Boston, he said.

Two years ago, support for legalizing the status of undocumented workers was gaining broad support in Congress. But the Bush administration seized on the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack to launch a frontal assault on immigrant rights with thousands of immigrants held in detention, deported without due process, and the U.S.-Mexico border militarized in the name of “homeland security.”

“While immigrant soldiers fight and die for this country abroad, immigrants at home are still denied the most basic rights,” NCDAUI said in a atatement. More than a dozen non-citizen immigrant soldiers have died in Iraq, about one in ten of the U.S. casualties.

FLOC leader Beatriz Maya said undocumented immigrant workers do backbreaking labor in agriculture, construction, and the service industry, paying billions each year in taxes but enjoying none of the benefits of citizenship. “Transnational corporations are trying to control workers to provide for cheap labor,” she said, adding that U.S. corporations are pushing for an expansion of “bracero” or “guest worker” programs that deny immigrant workers’ rights to organize, live and work in this country.

She said the FREEDOM Act would legalize all undocumented immigrants and create a new temporary residence status granting workers the right to live and work in the U.S. for three consecutive years with the right to seek a three-year extension and to apply for permanent residence status.

The author can be reached at greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com