People Before Profit blog

Migrant workers in Greece wage historic strike

Thu, 29 May 2008 00:27:00 +0000

ATHENS — Migrant workers laboring in the strawberry fields of Nea Manolada, in Greece’s southern Peloponnese region, where 90 percent of the country’s strawberry production is concentrated, waged a historic strike last month that will pave the way for immigrant workers in the country to battle for their rights, side by side with Greek workers. After a three-day strike April 18-20, the field laborers returned to work with a wage increase to 25-26 euros per day. Their wages had been 22-23 euros for a full workday. The strikers have vowed to continue their fight for a daily wage of 30 euros.

Though over 2,000 of the 2,500 agricultural laborers in Nea Manolada are undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Bulgaria, Albania, Romania and other countries, they fought back against police terror and the vicious attacks of the large producers, demanding better working and living conditions as well as a higher wage. The All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) has been in Manolada for the past year aiding migrant laborers to organize their struggle and to link these issues to wider workers’ struggles throughout Greece.

On May 11, PAME forces from all over Peloponnese and nearby islands mobilized in Manolada in a mass show of support for the field laborers. The rally’s theme was “Greek and Immigrant Workers United in Struggle!” Large landowners made determined efforts to turn Greek farmers against PAME and the strikers, claiming that immigrant labor costs Greeks their jobs.

Migrant agricultural laborers in Nea Manolada live and work in squalid conditions. They are forced to work every day, including Sunday. Lost days mean lost wages and the threat of firing. They harvest strawberries in greenhouses in 113 degrees Fahrenheit. There are no toilets at the work site; workers must use the fields. The only water supply comes from the pipes used to water the strawberries.

Many workers live in the greenhouses because they cannot afford rent elsewhere. They cover their makeshift beds of wood pallets with newspapers and rags. No running water, electricity or toilets are available. Those “lucky” enough to have housing live with 25 people or more sharing one toilet in abandoned village houses or warehouses where they pay up to 50 euro per month per person.

Workers must pay out of pocket for all medical care, to a government that refuses to grant free medical care to undocumented permanent immigrants. Yet they have many medical problems because of the exhausting work and the excessive use of pesticides and fungicides without protective equipment. Many workers are raising young children under such foul and desperate conditions.

The government refuses to guarantee the workers’ basic rights but instead does all it can to support the “right” of large landowners to extract the greatest maximum profit from them. Just half an hour of work represents the actual cost of labor on a given day; the other six and a half hours line the pockets of the boss. In clearer terms, on average a strawberry worker fills five crates per hour, with 10 boxes per crate. Each box is sold for roughly 3 euros. Do the math!

Given the profits involved, it is clear why strikers and members of PAME were under attack. From the very first day, strikers were terrorized by the bosses. During the strike’s second day, three of the Greek Communist Party (KKE) members present for support were attacked and wounded, while armed groups stormed the workers’ shanties. Threats and provocations continued into the third day while the police looked on.

On the third day, landowners agreed to increase wages and strikers agreed to go back to work, vowing to continue their struggle for a 30 euro daily wage. KKE is demanding that the Ministries of Labor and the Interior intervene, with no results as yet.

The strike shows migrants have power when that power is channeled into mass collective action. KKE proposes a framework of organization and struggle for the needs of migrants and their families including immediate legalization and equal rights in work, health care, education and social security.

Theres a movement going on out there

Wed, 28 May 2008 08:40:00 +0000

These remarks, given at the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists convention in St. Louis, May 22, are reprinted from the AFL-CIO web site, www.aflcio.org. Arlene Holt Baker is AFL-CIO executive vice president.

In the last eight months, I have addressed thousands of labor activists and community activists. And while all these audiences have been filled with folks who share my values for social and economic justice, it is this audience that embodies so much of the opportunity I was given to become what I am in this labor movement. CBTU and its leaders have been mentors, teachers, advisers, good sisters and brothers, and you are among the labor leaders that I most love and respect.

You know that gospel song that says, “If it had not been for the Lord on my side, where would I be?” Well, when I look back over my life, I ask myself — like a lot of us in this hall must ask ourselves — where would we be as African-American labor leaders and activists if there had not been a Bill Lucy and a CBTU on our side, where would we be? Where would we be?

It is in this audience that you see leaders and activists who really get it — and know that our labor movement is a stronger and better labor movement when we are a united labor movement.

I was thinking the other day about the last two times that I addressed the CBTU convention, and I remember it was in Orlando, Florida, in 2001 when I addressed you as assistant to the president of the AFL-CIO and talked about the need to ensure that in future elections every vote be protected and counted.

Then I spoke before you again in 2004 in Atlanta, as president of Voices for Working Families, where we again talked about the need not only to register voters, educate voters, and get out the vote — but the need to protect the vote.

Here we are again. I stand before you with a different title, but the message is the same. It is through the vote in 2008 that we once again will have a chance to reclaim our nation.

To take back what was stolen from us in Florida in 2000.

To restore our confidence that we truly live in a nation of laws.

To recapture our pride in our leaders and our esteem in the world.

To recover our aspirations as a nation to embody the hopes of humanity, the hopes of those who work hard every day in every corner of our planet.

Brothers and sisters, history weighs heavily on us this year. We meet midway between two terrible anniversaries. April 4th was the 40th anniversary of the passing of our beloved Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And next month will be the 40th anniversary of the murder of Robert Kennedy at the end of a long Democratic primary battle.

As we’ve celebrated Dr. King’s life and work and as we begin to remember the contributions of Bobby Kennedy we’re reminded that people working together can bring about great change, that we can literally change the course of history. We know it because we’ve done it. And now I see people coming together again all across our country.

Something very special is going on in America. We’ve seen it in the upsurge of voter registration during the Democratic primaries, we’ve seen it in impressive voter turnouts in state after state.

We are also seeing it in the unprecedented numbers of those turning out for candidates’ rallies. Those 75,000 people who turned out for Obama in Oregon were signaling that this is so much bigger than just one candidate, it’s about a universal yearning for something better.

Big, bold, beautiful change

But people are not just angry and frustrated and upset at the direction of our country. They’ve moved on past that into a determination like we haven’t seen since the days of Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy. There’s a movement going on out there, sisters and brothers. We can feel it and we see it everywhere we go. Folks are determined to keep on pushing. There is a determination to take back the reins of power and turn our country around.

And we’re not talking about a left turn or a right turn, brothers and sisters, we are talking about a U-turn.

I was fortunate to be in Memphis last month and I was once again strengthened by the images of the brave sanitation workers Dr. King marched with and their slogan, “I Am A Man.” If those workers could stand up to injustice and for their right to have a union despite beatings, being called “boy” and worse — death threats and starvation — then we as a labor movement and as a people cannot fail to stand up and fight to reclaim our country.

Forty years ago, after Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy were taken from us, our politics entered into a terrible downward spiral of division and frustration. We never were able to finish the work they began, so the great issues of that time — an unjust foreign war, a country grappling with the poisonous legacies of racism and sexism, poverty, health care, housing — they are the issues of today.

It is as if our nation’s political life has been frozen in place.

But something is happening now, brothers and sisters, you can feel the change coming. Americans want change in who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, change up on Capitol Hill, change in the U.S. Supreme Court — big, bold, beautiful change.

As a woman, and an African-American, I am so proud we at last have such a magnificent choice and a chance for change before us.

I am also proud that labor has helped change the debate over the direction of our country. Americans want to talk about the issues — they know the economy isn’t working.

Now we are poised to go beyond debate and make those changes.

But, of course, there will be those who will once again try to make this election about the slogans and code words designed to divide us, not the great challenges that we must come together as a nation to address.

In 1961, Dr. Martin Luther King spoke to the AFL-CIO’s 4th Annual Convention about the very issues that face us today. The title of that speech was, “When the Negro wins, labor wins.”

He said, and I quote, “A duality of interest of labor and the Negroes makes any crisis which lacerates you a crisis from which we bleed. As we stand on the threshold of the second half of the twentieth century, a crisis confronts us both.

“Those who in the second half of the nineteenth century could not tolerate organized labor have had a rebirth of power and seek to regain the despotism of that era while retaining the wealth and privileges of the twentieth century.

“Whether it be the ultra-right wing in the form of Birch societies or the alliance which former President Eisenhower denounced, the alliance between big military and big industry, or the coalition of southern Dixiecrats and northern reactionaries, whatever the form, these menaces now threaten everything decent and fair in American life. Their target is labor, liberals and the Negro people.”

Here we are 46 years later and Dr. King’s remarks to the AFL-CIO then are just as relevant today. The big difference is that the list of those most disdained by the ultra-conservative right wing has only expanded. It no longer includes just labor and the Negro and liberals — it now includes new immigrants of all races, gays and lesbians, and the working poor, who are disproportionately single mothers and people of color.

It is precisely those on this list that we in the labor movement have aligned ourselves with in a coalition that will make possible the realization of the dream we all share for the economic and social justice Dr. King lived and died for.

Those of us in this hall know all too well what the results of bad public policy and misguided principles that put profits over people are doing to weaken the voices of workers and our unions and what the devastating effects are on our communities.

Let’s look at what is happening to black and brown youth, particularly our young men — our fathers, sons and nephews.

According to Craig Watkins, a University of Texas researcher interviewed for the Washington Post’s groundbreaking 2006 series titled “Being a Black Man:”

“When you look at American popular culture, the percentage of African-American men graduating from college has nearly quadrupled since the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and yet more African-American men earn their high school equivalency diplomas in prison each year than graduate from college. Thirteen percent of the African-American adult male population has lost the right to vote because of felony disenfranchisement laws. This is the new poll tax and the new Jim Crow.

“The same forces that advocate growing the industrial prison complex, in more instances than not, reject progressive public policies that would provide these young African-American men an opportunity for quality public education at an early age, such as pre-kindergarten, smaller classrooms and increased teacher pay that would attract more individuals into the field of education who are interested in saving all of our at-risk youth.”

We cannot let them divide us

But while we have made alliances to reclaim our dreams, this election season has been divisive. No matter whom we nominate for president, those who cannot tolerate us will try to perpetuate those divisions.

Brothers and sisters, we cannot let them divide us, because America surely is not ready for a third Bush term, and that’s just what John McCain is promising us. John McCain is George Bush and we must not let him turn that around.

We have had eight years of disastrous leadership. But in a way, George W. Bush is nothing but the logical conclusion of the ideas that have dominated our country since Ronald Reagan put a happy face on the very politics of privilege Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy warned us against.

After a generation of stagnant wages and tax breaks for the rich, we are in the midst of an economic crisis, a foreign policy crisis and an energy crisis that are in fact all tied together and cannot be ignored any longer.

We have a health care crisis — 47 million uninsured, 9 million of them children. Here we are the richest country in the world — we can find $12 billion a month to spend on a war in Iraq that was waged on a lie about weapons of mass destruction but we leave millions of our own citizens to fight a war against asthma, cancer, HIV-AIDS and diabetes without the weapon of health care coverage.

Right here in Missouri, the Iraq war has cost Missourians over $8 billion and George Bush wants to spend $2 billion more. Right here in Missouri, that money could have been used to provide 745,000 children with health care or hire an additional 40,974 elementary school teachers. In St. Louis alone, 33,190 additional children could have been provided health care.

We have a pension crisis — only 20 percent of the private-sector workforce is in a real pension plan — down from 50 percent in 1980.

We have an energy and environmental crisis and an infrastructure crisis. The price of gas goes up, bridges go down, and every day we move closer to ecological disaster.

This morning as we gather here under this roof, there are millions of Americans about to lose the roof from over their heads because of a system of deregulation that allowed our financial institutions to prey on millions of our most vulnerable, who simply wanted a piece of the American Dream, a home. And guess who these people are? They are disproportionately people of color and single women. For example, in Baltimore, Maryland, more than half of the foreclosures in one Baltimore neighborhood have been homes owned by women.

Just this week, the United States Senate got legislation moving that will provide some emergency funding to homeowners threatened with foreclosures, but we know it will not help enough people, when foreclosures are expected to reach two million — and Bush may not even sign the bill.

What a shame. We can move over a weekend to bail out Wall Street, but we have to debate and debate when it comes to giving a helping hand to Main Street. Because of this unregulated system, we are all suffering — as we see our own neighbors walk away from their homes, “For Sale” signs on every corner—– and if we are fortunate enough to own a home, see home equity decline. Wrong-headed policies, sisters and brothers.

Seen this bad movie before?

These last couple of weeks, we have watched the horror in Burma and now in China. And we have watched President Bush talk about a government that won’t respond, that leaves its ethnic minorities to clean up their own dead, that can’t get water to people suffering in tropical heat.

Someone said to me, now does that sound familiar to you? Have we seen this bad movie before? Yes, we have, and the producer, director and star of our horror movie is the ideological agenda and the administration of George W. Bush.

Working people in the United States may not have suffered like the Burmese or the Chinese. But when we called at 3 p.m. or 3 a.m., our calls went unanswered, no matter how urgent. For years, we have been calling in a panic as we have seen 3,518,000 industrial jobs, good $20-an-hour jobs — gone. African Americans are calling, Mr. President, because in manufacturing, we fell from 23.9 percent in 1979 to 9.8 percent last year. Pick up the phone, Mr. President.

We know that our economy is in tough shape. We also know that even in the best of times, many African American communities are forced to tolerate levels of unemployment unseen in most white communities.

Economic downturns like the one we are experiencing take African Americans from a bad situation to a worse one. Right now unemployment among the population as a whole is 5 percent. Among African Americans it is 8.6 percent.

Over two percent of the black workers are long-term unemployed. For other groups it is less than one percent.

Yet George Bush opposes extending federal unemployment insurance to the millions who will exhaust their state benefits before finding a job. Pick up the phone Mr. President.

Two million foreclosures, and, literally, the federal government phone lines to provide help were down.

Our great city of New Orleans left a shell of itself — three years later, its schools still empty and abandoned.

4,000 Americans dead in Iraq, and more suicides among returning troops, and Dick Cheney says, “So?”

But the president sure answered the phone when the super-rich who benefit from his tax policies and Bear Stearns called.

Brothers and sisters, I don’t know who will answer the phone on January 20th when we call the White House — it may be the first African American, or perhaps the first woman — but we have to make sure it isn’t the man George Bush says can best continue down the path he has laid. He doesn’t answer the phone.

John McCain has voted with George Bush 89 percent of the time — last year it was 95 percent.

So for the AFL-CIO, we are already busy defining John McCain for our members — by launching our “McCainRevealed” website giving all the details of his awful voting record. And by sending demonstrators to speak the truth to power every time McCain attends another fancy fundraiser.

We’re letting the whole world know that John McCain voted against the minimum wage and that he wants to privatize Social Security, turn it into a giant 401K. We’re letting everyone know that McCain shows no interest in providing health care for 47 million uninsured — or bringing down crippling health care costs for the rest of us. He wants the market forces to take care of the problem.

We’re letting them know that he supports trade policies that send American jobs offshore — and don’t provide labor and environmental protections. And we are certainly letting them know that John McCain opposes the rights of workers to freely form and join unions to build a better future and that he voted against the Employee Free Choice Act.

But this election cannot be only about John McCain’s failings. It must be about working people’s vision — our vision of a new direction for our country. A vision that includes universal health care, the elimination of poverty, good jobs, and the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Can’t take right to vote for granted

In the months to come, as we embark on this historic journey, we will once again need the help of CBTU. We have learned painfully that in this third century of our republic, we cannot take our right to vote for granted. We have to defend it.

There are people in our political system who think that voting is a privilege reserved for those like themselves, that it should be fenced in with tests and taxes, that it is fair and right to confuse and intimidate people into not voting.

I read last week their latest idea is that you have to show a birth certificate to vote. This is again what Dr. King was talking about all those years ago. How very sad for our country that the list of the disenfranchisers now begins with the Chief Justice of the United States of America.

But when I look out at all of you, I’m looking at an army of people prepared to have the backs of those that will most likely be impacted by the other side’s voter suppression tactics. The AFL-CIO, along with our other partners, needs you to help us protect the right of all Americans to vote. So I encourage you to please get involved in the AFL-CIO’s Voter Protection Project. If you’re interested, talk to Petee Talley.

We must emerge from this election with every vote being counted because we know if every vote is counted in this election, we will have a stronger congressional majority and a president who will stand up for working families.

But we have to look past the election and on to January and beyond, because our hopes and dreams are tempered with experience.

Because we know, as A. Philip Randolph taught us, and I quote:

“At the banquet table of nature, there are no reserved seats. You get what you can take, and you keep what you can hold. If you can't take anything, you won't get anything, and if you can't hold anything, you won't keep anything. And you can't take anything without organization.”

To change our country, workers must organize for power. And we need more than organization — my hope is that we truly blossom into a much stronger movement. There is a difference between an organization and a movement. In an organization, you make the calls to turn people out to a meeting. In a movement, you make the calls to find a bigger hall than the one you had booked.

We are one movement, and we have to start acting like one

That’s the kind of movement and the kind of organization we are looking for. Yet today, although we have made some progress toward unity, our organizations are divided. But the AFL-CIO is convinced we are one movement, and we will have to start acting like one.

We will need all our strength as a movement to make sure we get the change our members will vote for, and not just the same mush of Wall Street policies with excuses and flattery.

If we can be divided and bought off for small change, we will be settling for crumbs — when what working Americans need, what African Americans need, is a full meal. And if that happens, this moment that is so full of promise will turn out to be just another spin of the revolving door of Washington.

The great test of whether we can make real change for working Americans will be passing the Employee Free Choice Act. It is about taking away fear — the fear of coming together to form a union. There can be no movement when there is fear. So the next Congress must pass — and the next president must not just sign but fight for — the Employee Free Choice Act. Stand up and fight.

And even before that fight comes to Congress again next year, we have a chance to demonstrate we can stand together for workers’ freedom to organize on June 21st in Atlantic City where casino dealers are struggling to organize with the UAW to support their families while they witness millions and millions of dollars being transferred before their eyes from the pocketbooks of the poor and the working class to the safe deposit boxes of the rich casino owners.

We have fliers with the details of June 21st and we ask you to take them home with you, copy them, and get them out to your friends, your family, your co-workers — like a giant chain letter for justice. Pass it on.

CBTU, brothers and sisters, we have to seize this historic opportunity and not let it go, not let it slip away.

We are here between these two grim anniversaries. And as each day passes, I think more and more of Bobby Kennedy, a young man who at another time when people were being tested, found it within himself to take into the mainstream of American politics the unifying moral vision of Dr. King.

My friends, a debt is due. It is due to us — to our country. It is a debt soaked in Dr. King’s blood and in Bobby’s blood — a debt in hanging chads and flooded homes and young men and women lost in faraway deserts.

Like any debt, it is a promise, a promise of “health care for all” that was never made good, a promise of dignity at work betrayed, the promise of an end to poverty forgotten.

Let me bring these remarks to a conclusion by listening to Bobby Kennedy: “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.”

CBTU, the debt has come due. It is time to collect. We are going to collect. CBTU, you and I and the working people of this country, we are going to spark a movement of those who are ready to make their voices heard in shaping the new America we must build together – and we are going collect our debt this November.

Thank you.

Workers Correspondence -- After 13 weeks, a slap in the face

Wed, 28 May 2008 08:12:00 +0000

I have written tons of letters and blogs the past few months but I have been so overwhelmed with this that I really wasn’t sure of my thoughts.

I have been quite vocal and supportive of my husband and the union employees. I have written probably a hundred letters to anybody I can think of and some influential people many times. I have gone to every rally. The wrath of Dauch [American Axle CEO Dick Dauch] can be explained as demoralizing, heartbreaking, and has put a never-ending stress on everyone associated with it. It is discouraging to receive such a “slap in the face” after 13 weeks on strike.

I never thought that we would be in the situation that we are in right now. Fourteen years ago I felt blessed when my husband (then boyfriend) started at AAM [American Axle Manufacturing]. He was a fourth-generation employee with many uncles, cousins, aunts and even friends there. Most of them retired from this plant successfully. I thought this was the place that would always supply us with a roof over our heads, the ability to support a family and raise our girls all the way through college.

This contract is an insult. However, I believe if the men and women of AAM don’t accept it they will never see another dime. He [Dauch] has us between a rock and a hard place.

Now, on paper, we will not be able to pay all our bills. With this new contract, Dauch has taken the equivalent of one and a half house payments from us monthly. We also have to pay for benefits, further reducing our income. The buydown or buyout only compensates for three years. What do we do after that? I really don’t know what we are going to do yet. We talk about it every day and find there just isn’t enough.

What good is talking dollar amounts when we can become just another statistic and lose our home? The fact is that my husband’s pension is frozen, even if he does return. It isn’t enough for the 14 years of dedicated and backbreaking service my husband gave. When I say backbreaking I mean it. My husband has injured his back a few times. The first time was three days before our wedding when he had to be taken out of work on a stretcher. The AAM doctor has said if he does it again it will require surgery. This makes it difficult to find another job too.

I truly can’t understand how Dauch can offer these insulting buydowns and buyouts while continuing to sleep at night. How can a man that had so much compassion and good words for the American worker turn into such a heartless and vengeful man? I find it hard to stomach that he can look at himself in the mirror every day knowing that there are more than 3,600 families fighting to stay alive out here all because of his greed and lust for power. Ideally, I would love for my husband to take the buyout and kiss AAM goodbye. I don’t want my husband to work for a man who has no compassion for his employees or their families. I don’t want to live every day wondering whether my husband is still going to have a job and at what wage. Will anything like this happen again in four years? Do we want to be around to find out? These past 13 weeks have been the most trying thing we have gone through together and no matter what happens it is going to be a long time before we are able to get past this financial and emotional mess he has thrown us into.

I would like to say I was overwhelmed and thankful for all the support people have given to my husband and the union employees of AAM. I have seen much generosity from many UAW locals. They supplied food, money, and I even saw words of encouragement on their signs as I drove past union halls. I have had friends offer to help us financially, bring dinner over and just send e-mails or call making sure we were OK.

I even received words of encouragement from strangers when they would see or hear my husband was an AAM employee. This just shows that there are still people out there who care and who have compassion. Knowing that they are there helps us along the way.

— J.G., Belleville, Mich.

Non-union home builder feels the heat

Sat, 24 May 2008 09:55:00 +0000

BIRMINGHAM, Mich. — To wear a lemon costume in public you have to be pretty serious about your cause. So upset was Terry Templeton with the inferior construction of her Pulte-built home that the Arizona resident traveled all the way to Michigan to air her complaints at a shareholders meeting of Pulte Homes Inc.

At a demonstration outside the meeting, Templeton said, “I’m here because I don’t want another family to go through the suffering we’ve gone through. I thought they were a quality reputable company. They lied to me, they lied to my family and they are doing it to other folks. I cannot let that happen to one more person.”

After being told so many times by the company that it was only her house that had the problems (minimum of eight to 10 plumbing leaks, entire ceiling fell downstairs, electrical arcs, mold, stucco problems and more), Templeton began talking to her neighbors and discovered the problems are “pretty much throughout the entire subdivision.”

It’s easy to see where those problems come from after talking to the workers who actually build the homes. Speed-up and denial of rights on the job are a big problem. “They ask us to finish homes in less time than is possible” and deny workers basic necessities like drinking water, all of which makes conditions unsafe, said Gilberto Lopez, who worked for a Nevada Pulte subcontractor doing painting and drywall work.

Building trades workers from Michigan who participated in the rally said they see the growth of non-union builders like Pulte (who have a big presence in the state) as a threat to their jobs.

With non-union builders, worker safety and home quality suffer, said Martin Brna and Tony Morgan, members of Painters District Council 22 in Michigan. They told this reporter, “You have to know the material you’re dealing with, the hazards you’re dealing with — there are lots and lots of different factors.”

“We have strict safety standards on union jobs,” they said, but, in contrast, “you won’t see OSHA on a lot of these non-union jobs. Pulte has a terrible reputation in how they treat their workers.”

Detroit Metro AFL-CIO President Saundra Williams said Pulte must stop building “lemons.” She said, “They must provide better pay, the proper equipment, and make worksite safety a higher priority. Is that too much to ask?”

In spite of the economic downturn, Williams said, Pulte Homes has been an extremely profitable company. “This company rode the wave of the building boom and its top officers and shareholders were rewarded very, very handsomely. I wish I could say the same for the workers who build these homes,” she said.

Before a delegation representing workers and homeowners went into the stockholders meeting, Father Norman Thomas, from the Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues, said that like others in Catholic circles around Detroit, he thought the Pulte name was a good name — “until I went to Las Vegas.” He said, “I want to tell them [the stockholders] what I experienced there because we met with the workers and we saw the homes. I want to let them know a lot of people know the other side.”

jrummel @ pww.org

Indian workers on hunger strike rally at the Capitol

Thu, 22 May 2008 13:47:00 +0000

A group of Indian workers and their supporters in the U.S. labor movement rallied at the U.S. Capitol building May 20 after the workers staged a 'water only' strike at the White House that began six days earlier.

The five who staged the hunger strike and almost 500 other pipe fitters and welders were lured from their homes in India all the way to Mississippi where they were told high paying jobs and permanent residency status were waiting for them. Soon after their arrival, they were promised, their families could join them. Signal International, the shipyard company that recruited and hired them with the false promises, charged them as much as $20,000 apiece for the trip to America.

They were forced to pay half their wages to rent filthy, cramped trailers in a section of the shipyard surrounded by barbed wire. Much of their remaining wage was taken to service their $20,000 debt and, with the company holding their passports, they were kept as virtual prison laborers.

When they complained about either their living or working conditions, company supervisors threatened them with firing, which for a “guest worker” with an H-2B visa, means automatic deportation.

The labor movement opposes the H-2B visa program which they see as rife with abuse. Originally designed so that employers who had difficulty finding skilled workers in the U.S. could get government permission to temporarily bring in workers from abroad, the program is now used by big companies to import tens of thousands of low wage laborers, driving down working conditions for all U.S. workers.

The hunger strikers spent the first few days sitting peacefully on the grass in Lafayette Park across from the White House. They received immediate encouragement from the 10 million-member AFL-CIO with Jon Hiatt, general counsel for the federation declaring, “We are proud to support the hunger strike by these Signal workers, and their campaign to shed light on the abuses of the U.S. government’s H-2B guest worker program.”

The group moved on the third day to sit in front of the Indian embassy. One of the workers, Muruganantham Kanhasami, said in a statement issued for him by the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice, “If we, the workers of India, can have the courage to talk to U.S. Congressmen and U.S. federal authorities, then surely the Indian government can do the same, so that no other Indian worker suffers as we did.”

Standing with his fellow workers in front of the statue of Gandhi outside the embassy, Kanhasami urged the Indian government to press the U.S. for a congressional investigation and to press the U.S. to allow the workers to remain here while the matter is investigated.

Saket Soni, director of the New Orleans Workers Center for Racial Justice, said that so far the Indian government has offered the workers only vague statements regarding protocol. “These workers are risking their lives in the hope that the Indian government will find the courage to pressure the U.S. government to grant them dignity, and protect future workers,” he declared.

The workers are part of a class action lawsuit against Signal International and the lawyers it paid to lure them to the United States. In addition to helping pay their travel costs, the AFL-CIO helped with getting the workers legal representation. The lawsuit charges Signal International and its lawyers with human trafficking.

Among the union leaders who came out to support the workers as they sat across from the White House was Michael Wilson, the UFCW vice president for legislative affairs. “The H-2B visa system,” he declared, “puts workers in a situation where they have no labor rights or civil rights and they become indentured servants. These workers should not have to wait for another Emancipation Proclamation before they get justice.”

Some measure of justice might just be on the way.

Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), after the rally, expressed support for both the hunger strike and the legal actions the Indian workers have taken. “All of this underscores that the U.S. guest worker program is in serious need of reform,” he said. Miller, who chairs the House Education and Labor Committee, added that he will not support a guest worker program until there is a guaranteed end to the abuses.

Editorial: Look whos talking about the working class

Thu, 22 May 2008 06:54:00 +0000

If Marx and Engels were around today, listening to the corporate media pundits on cable and in print, they might have started their Manifesto with, “A spectre is haunting the U.S. 2008 elections – the spectre of communism.” All of a sudden these folks have discovered the working class. Talk about the disappearing middle class.

Problem is though, corporate media has only discovered a caricature of the working class. Since punditry depends so much on “slice and dice” analysis, their “working class” seems to be only a very narrow section that they define as “blue-collar, white male workers.”

In fact working class describes the overwhelming majority in this country. Part of the problem is that class is not determined mainly by income. Sure, poor people are mostly working class, but so are most people who have “middle” incomes. Union jobs, skilled jobs, and most white collar jobs are also working class. Middle income people don’t live off the profits of other people’s work. If you are employed by a company that makes profits from your work then you are working class.

But the more worrisome problem with the pundits’ new discovery of the working class is an obvious racist bent. Implicitly African Americans and Latinos are poor people who supposedly don’t work, and only white blue collar workers are working class. As in, so and so candidate is getting the “working class” vote.

In this “discovered” world Black, Brown and white workers seem to occupy parallel universes. In fact almost every workplace, every factory, every office is a multiracial, multinational beehive of interaction. One of the most important characteristics of working class is the social interaction and cooperation that it takes to get most work done – you have to work together.

People who work together also influence and learn from each other in many ways. African Americans and Latinos are overwhelmingly working class as are whites. Sure some are influenced by racist ideas, but in today’s world what binds workers together is much stronger than the negative influence of racism. Workers are bound together by declining incomes and a bad economy, by lack of health care, by high gas and food prices, and by rejection of a brutal and unnecessary war.

Barack Obama is getting a larger percentage of the total working class vote than any other Democratic Party presidential candidate since the 1960s. And that vote, united, scares the hell out of rightwing Republicans and corporate America.

Photo gallery: Silicon Valley janitors go on strike

Thu, 22 May 2008 06:14:00 +0000

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA (5/20/08) -- Silicon Valley janitors, mostly immigrants from Mexico and Central America, walked out of Cisco Systems and Yahoo buildings in the first day of a Bay Area-wide strike intended to force building service contractors to sign a new agreement with their union, Service Employees Local 1877. The union represents more than 6,000 janitors in the San Francisco area, whose wages are not even half what the Economic Policy Institute says it takes to meet basic needs for a family of four, or $54,000 annually. It takes more than 77% of a Bay Area janitor's wages to rent a one-bedroom apartment in San Jose. LA/Orange County janitors just signed a new contract after a one-day strike, and now have to work only 6 months to become eligible for medical care. In the Bay Area it takes 2.5 years. 'Silicon Valley's wealthy corporations could do the right thing, but are so far choosing to leave hardworking families struggling to make ends meet,' said Mike Garcia, president of Local 1877.

Security officers stand up for a union

Wed, 21 May 2008 07:51:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. — They’re the only workers inside Kaiser health care facilities, whether employed directly or contracted, who are denied the right to form a union. And as hundreds of them demonstrated with a three-day unfair labor practices strike against employer Inter-Con Security at 15 northern California Kaiser facilities May 6-8, security officers are “fed up, won’t take it no more!” Southern California officers joined in a one day action May 8.

Since November 2005, the 1,500 Inter-Con security officers in California have sought to form a union with SEIU. Inter-Con has responded with a barrage of intimidation; as a result the workers have filed many complaints with the National Labor Relations Board over Inter-Con’s spying, threats and retaliation.

Hundreds of security officers rallied in Oakland’s Mosswood Park May 8 before marching around the medical center’s facilities.

As the rally was about to begin, workers from Kaiser’s medical center in Modesto gathered round to tell their stories. “We need unions because there is too much harassment,” said Julia Benavente. “They want us to come to work early without being paid. They make us pay for our uniforms. Our supervisors limit our break time but they take whatever they want. And they don’t let us talk about the union at our work site.”

Sarabjit Kaur told how she had been forbidden to cover her head with a scarf as required by her religion. While she was pregnant with her now 18 month old son, she said, supervisors made her stand for long periods out in the hot summer sun. After transferring to another facility, she is now allowed to cover her head “as a special case.”

Said Petronilo Asiatico, “We want to be professionals. But when I was hired as a new security officer, there was no real training. And when we need advice to handle a special situation, our managers won’t answer our questions.”

Others said they had been forced to work during paid “vacation” time, and highlighted the need for a grievance procedure.

The security officers have strong solidarity from SEIU and other unions. “We have to tell Kaiser that we demand Inter-Con recognize the union. This is about economic justice, this is about raising people out of poverty!” SEIU Local 1021 President Damita Davis-Howard told the rally.

“We support you every step of the way, Alameda Labor Council spokesperson T.C. Wilson told the workers. “You see that the Teamsters, the Operating Engineers haven’t crossed your picket lines. When you mess with one of us, you take us all on.”

SEIU points out that Kaiser security officers organized with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union are paid between $15 and $18 per hour with free family health care and other benefits, while Kaiser’s non-union Inter-Con officers earn as little as $10.40 per hour, have a long wait to get health coverage, and have no other benefits.

The union says thousands of organized security workers in California have won first contracts raising wages and health care benefits by nearly 40 percent.

mbechtel@ pww.org

Jobs with Justice celebrates, organizes

Sat, 17 May 2008 08:35:00 +0000

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Jobs with Justice continues as a tremendous asset for organized labor, but new and exciting trends were also evident at its national conference here May 2-4. The organization that was founded by five industrial unions in 1987 has continued to grow and fulfill its original purpose of reaching outside labor’s ranks to assist the union movement. Now, it is also organizing the broader working class in the United States and abroad.

Executive Director Sarita Gupta announced proudly to the 1,000 conference attendees that Jobs with Justice had exceeded its goal of tripling its activist database, and that 45 active coalitions now belong directly to the network. Each coalition includes unions, churches, community groups, civil rights organizations and occupation groups not easily incorporated into the traditional structures of unions. Some chapters have been organized in Brazil and other countries.

Domestic workers, independent taxi drivers, day laborers, security guards, former prisoners, mobile home owners, tenants, foreign construction workers brought here by employers, and other hard-to-organize groups now look to Jobs with Justice and its associated networks for help in organizing. Their confidence is being rewarded with success after success, as explained by speakers at the conference.

At the same time, speakers noted, JwJ’s commitment to organized labor is shown by its support for national health care, fair trade laws and the right to organize as codified in the Employee Free Choice Act. One JwJ goal is to work with the AFL-CIO’s campaign to gather 1 million signed supporters for this vital legislation.

Jobs with Justice is a not-for-profit and thus cannot endorse or support political candidates, but a number of workshop leaders pointed out that a fundamental change in Washington is needed to accomplish working people’s goals.

Internationalism was evident throughout the conference. A raffle was conducted to benefit Colombian workers, and a large group of “guest” workers from India took the stage to explain their fight to make American contractors live up to their promises. The men and women from India had already marched from New Orleans, where they were brought as cheap labor for hurricane disaster clean-up, to Washington D.C. They announced that they would begin fasting for justice on May 14.

The Jobs with Justice Education Fund is conducting a worldwide fight for living wages that includes worker correspondents and cooperating organizations in Asian nations.

The first speaker introduced at the conference’s opening plenary session set off a pattern for wildly enthusiastic responses that lasted through the entire event. When International Longshore Workers Union (ILWU) Organizing Director Peter Olney announced that his union had shut down West Coast ports on May 1 to oppose the Iraq war, the 1,000 JwJ activists rose to shout, applaud and shake their fists in solidarity. Olney said government officials and employers viewed the ILWU action as an act of defiance. “Of course it was an act of defiance!” he told the wildly enthusiastic crowd.

Hardly any sector of the world working class, hardly any concern of workers, was overlooked during the three-day conference.

A new strategic planning process to meet the needs of today’s new situation was emphasized throughout the meeting.

Jobs with Justice leaders reject any description of their organization as one that primarily studies and talks. They are an activist organization, and they demonstrated it with a march of a diverse crowd of about 2,000 from the conference hotel to the Rhode Island state Capitol, where they demanded fair treatment for state workers.

Workshops reflected the many struggles that JwJ activists are involved in such as health care, immigrant rights, funding public services, organizing, and stopping war. At a workshop titled “Low-Wage Workers Organizing! Workers’ Centers and Other Models,” one of the panelists began his short address in Spanish by saying, “Workers of the world, unite!”

American Axle workers keep up the fight

Thu, 15 May 2008 10:42:00 +0000

DETROIT -- No one at American Axle expected to be out for three months, but workers continue to keep the dozen or so gates of the sprawling American Axle complex in Detroit fully staffed. While there have been different proposals to end the strike it seems like every time a possible solution is at hand, American Axle steps back to ask for more concessions. While American Axle has previously demanded the closing of forge plants in Detroit and New York, its latest demand was to add yet another third plant (in New York ) to the hit list.

Forge workers are members of UAW local 262 and almost 300 of them are on the chopping block. Picketers talked about the tough times facing all working people. “It’s Bushonomics,” said Mark a picketer outside the forge, “they’re trying to get rid of the middle class. You got the rich and the poor with not much in between.”

He pointed to the foreclosure crisis as an example of the crisis hitting working people and asked, “How are you going to refinance your house when it’s worth 150,000 but you owe 165,000?” Jokingly he added, “It’s getting so we’re going to have to move in the woods and live off the deer and fish.”

The word from picketers is that some work is being done for $10.50 an hour at a non-union American Axle plant in Oxford, some 40 miles away. If so, one doesn’t have to travel outside the country to find cheap labor.

That must be exactly what another striker from local 235 Tim Langan meant when he said if things keep going like they are “we’ll be the cheapest workers in the world.” Half jokingly he added, “The only thing we export is jobs.” Earlier in the strike, CEO Dick Dauch had warned that he had the flexibility to export jobs all over the world and the right to do so.

Picketers said they’re still getting good help from UAW locals, different unions and others from the community. A long strike needs a well-organized Community Services Committee and the UAW has one of the best. Eric Webb, Community Services member of Local 235 at American Axle showed off the well-stocked food pantry committee members work to keep full. A couple of times every week members go out and bring in contributions from area grocery stores, churches, unions and other organizations. Insuring the strikers have enough to eat isn’t the only problem the committee works on. After three months, financial problems grow. The committee is also there to give help and advice on mortgage payments and other pressing bills. In addition there are the labor liaisons from the United Way (all labor appointed) who also organize assistance to help the strikers survive all the problems associated with the lack of a weekly paycheck.

Most people, including the union, thought the strike would be over long before this. After GM’s offer of $200 million to help with buyouts and buy-downs (money up front to compensate for the lower-wage American Axle was offering) didn’t produce movement by American Axle toward a settlement, you see why as one worker put it “corporate greed is killing us.”

Checks, messages and resolutions of support can be sent to:

UAW Local 235 Attn: Adrian King, President 2140 Holbrook Ave. Hamtramck, MI 48212 phone: 313-871-1190

Connecticut PWW Friends honor workers with Newsmaker Awards

Wed, 14 May 2008 05:20:00 +0000

Newly organized union members, activists and community leaders gathered in New Haven on Sunday May 4 to celebrate the annual presentation of Peoples Weekly World Newsmaker Awards for International Workers Day. Two thousand dealers at Foxwoods Casino who won union representation with UAW Region 9A and workers at New England Linen who won representation with UNITE HERE received the awards and a pledge that the community will continue to stand by them.

The workers were warmly applauded as they came forward to tell their stories and express appreciation for the solidarity. Both groups of workers faced legal challenges, highlighting the importance of the Employee Free Choice Act as an issue in the 2008 elections.

After a two-year drive, workers at New England Linen voted 'yes' for the union in February in a card check election. But their union was not certified. The Dana rule, initiated under the Bush administration, requires a second secret ballot election if 30 percent of workers sign a petition within 45 days.

On April 23, the workers emerged even stronger, and voted overwhelmingly 80 percent for the union. Company tactics to stop the union included selective raises given to some workers, and rumors that workers would lose eligibility for rent assistance.

The workers told the crowd to loud applause that they stuck with the union to achieve better health and safety conditions, medical insurance and the right to respect and dignity.

Dealers at Foxwoods told of their determination to win union recognition despite many obstacles including constant camera surveillance. Their overwhelming victory was upheld by the Courts after the company challenged the election on the basis that the casino is owned by the Mashentucket Pequot sovereign nation. The company is continuing to appeal.

The union dealers said they could not have won without all the support they received, and told of many improvements they have already won in their workplace. MGM is opening a new facility at Foxwoods this month, hoping to keep out the union. A statewide rally in solidarity with the casino workers will be held on Sunday, May 18 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

John Olsen, president of the Connecticut AFL CIO, said all of labor stands by these two groups of courageous workers, and called for support of the one million signature campaign for changing labor laws with the Employee Free Choice Act.

Greeting the rise of activism throughout the country, reflected at the event, Olsen urged those present to continue to make their message heard. Calling for an end to divisions and labeling he emphasized the need to join together to make a change in the country.

Shirl Wilkins, of New Growth Praise Center, spoke of her trip to Philadelphia to get out the vote for Barak Obama with the Change to Win unions. Her mother participated in door knocking for the first time, and said it is a turning point in her life. “I’m new at this, and I have a lot to learn,” Wilkins said, “but what I do know is that we must continue to come together and be united.”

In a call to action, Connecticut Communist Party chair Joelle Fishman emphasized that workers right to organize is key because collectively working people can change the politics of our country.

“This is a time of awakening, a time of great promise,” she said. “The corporate media is doing all it can to spread division and poison and bust things up....As a people we have to keep our eyes on the prize, and not give in to provocations, especially racism, which is used as a cover for right-wing, anti-worker policies that hurt us all.”

While putting dollars and checks into the collection buckets for the Peoples Weekly World fund drive totaling $3,000, everyone joined in chants adapted from the May 1st immigrant workers unity march in New Haven. “Who’s got the power? – we’ve got the power! What kind of power? Workers’ power” and Si Se Puede, Yes We Can.

The event opened with a slide show presentation “May Day Around the World” and closed out with a piano jazz selection by a worker from New England Linen. It was a great day for celebration.

Young workers discuss future in labor movement

Wed, 14 May 2008 04:42:00 +0000

“Why don’t young workers have an affiliate within the AFL-CIO?”

This was one of the questions raised on May 3rd in a strategy session held at the National Conference of Jobs with Justice. young workers, organized and unorganized, discussed the relationship between the younger generations and the labor movement.

Although U.S. union density rates over all remain low, young workers have the lowest rates, at below 5 percent. And the unemployment rate for young workers actively looking for work reached 18 percent in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

There has been activity in organizing students in solidarity with the labor movement, peaking in the establishment of the Organizing Institute from the AFL-CIO, the Student Labor Action Project within Jobs with Justice and the US Student Association, and the United Students Against Sweatshops — who worked closely with UNITE-HERE to aid garment and textile workers in the late 1990s.

However, less has been done to organize young workers. Although there are some local successes to point to, such as the Young Workers United campaign to win sick days in San Francisco, a national void remains in young worker organizing.

That is until recently.

Jaime Sorenson, a young worker in Oregon, founded AFSCME Next Wave to provide a forum to develop and train young leaders within the union.

“Reality snuck up on us when we realized that a majority of our leaders were about to retire at the same time, and we wanted to ensure the survival of our union with new, young leaders that were prepared to lead,” said Sorenson. “We strongly encourage mentoring, so young workers know the history, and why things are the way they are.”

Sorenson and Next Wave are currently working on a tool kit that will be available at AFSCME’s June convention.

At the recent meeting of national young worker groups, Sorenson said AFSCME young workers differed early on from their elders in leadership in the presidential race, favoring an endorsement of Barack Obama, over AFSCME-endorsed Hillary Clinton.

The strategy session, co-facilitated by the Student Labor Action Project and the Young Communist League-USA, was the first time many young worker organizations and union young worker programs had been in the same room together.

Representatives from several unions including UFCW Young Workers, SEIU 1199 Young Workers and UNITE-HERE joined non-union organizations like the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC) of NY and the newly formed Young Workers Collective to brainstorm potential points of solidarity and collaboration. Ideas ranged from a simple listserv to a national network that meets on a regular basis. Participants were interested in officer trainings for young workers as well as other tools to help young people become more active in their unions.

“We want to be more involved in our unions and know that we are making a contribution,” said Jill Peters, a young electrician and IBEW member from Chicago. “We founded the Young Workers Collective to better engage all young workers in the struggle for labor rights, both in our unions and in our communities.”

According to Peters, one of the biggest problems is that young people, especially those without a union, don’t think they can do anything about problems they face at work. “It is important to let young workers know that we can have power, and we can organize.”

Passion ran deep and spirits were high as all groups committed to continuing this ground-breaking effort.

Reps cite criminal cover-up in deadly Utah mine blasts

Tue, 13 May 2008 23:57:00 +0000

WASHINGTON--Top company officials at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Huntington, Utah, where nine miners perished in August 2007, concealed facts that would have prevented the deaths and should be criminally charged, according to a Congressional report released May 8. The report also charged that the company should never have asked the government for permission to remove coal from the area of the mine collapse and federal officials should never have approved the request.

House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.) formally asked the Justice Department, in an April 29 letter attached to the report, to investigate the two blasts at the mine. The first trapped and killed six miners and the second killed three rescuers, including a Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) inspector.

The letter from Miller urges the Justice Department to determine whether the mine manager, Laine W. Adair, on his own or in collusion with the owner, Murray Energy Corp., made intentionally false statements to government officials about the condition of the mine before the August disaster. The report issued by Miller’s committee says the false statements were indeed made by company reps.

On Aug. 6, roof supports in a section of the mine gave way in a disaster that registered 3.9 on the Richter scale, entombing the first six miners who died. The rescuers died 10 days later when more tunnels collapsed.

The Congressional report called the deaths avoidable because five months earlier in another section of the mine another collapse had occurred, offering “clear red flags” that the mine was unstable. Rather than inform federal mining officials about the March collapse, the mine operators cleaned up the site and went on with work in a close-by section.

“Even after the near-disaster in March, the company forged ahead with plans to do the same kind of retreat mining in the South Barrier that it had done, with nearly catastrophic consequences, in the North Barrier,” Miller declared.

To make matters worse, the report noted that earlier documents prepared by the federal Bureau of Land Management, which owns the land on which the mine is located, had indicated that the mine was unsafe due to deteriorating coal pillars holding up sections of its roof.

Retreat mining occurs when after a mine is excavated miners extract coal from pillars that have been left intact to hold up the mine’s ceiling, backing out of the mine as they remove the remaining coal.

The findings contradict Robert Murray, the chief executive of the Murray Energy Corp. He has continued to insist that the initial deaths were not foreseeable because the collapse was caused by an “earthquake” rather than mining operations.Murray is also contradicted by seismologists at the University of Utah who have insisted that no earthquake occurred.

When reached by phone, relatives of the dead miners would not discuss the matter. They filed a lawsuit against the company last month. Colin King, a lawyer in Salt Lake City representing them, called the findings in the report “troubling.”

“The nine miners who died would all be alive today if Murray Energy had heeded the clear warning signs that were there to see after the March disaster,” said King, adding, “Instead the company continued with their same plan to pull out the coal because of their greed and that makes their conduct worse than negligent. It is pro-actively criminal.”

All mine company representatives who were called to testify before the Congressional Committee, including Murray, refused to answer questions and, citing their Fifth Amendment rights, refused to cooperate with the committee in any other way.

At his press conference releasing the report, Miller blasted MSHA for its lack of vigilance. He accused the federal agency of uncritically approving the company’s retreat mining plan “despite clear evidence of prior problems at Crandall Canyon and despite having conducted no inspections while the retreat mining was going on.”

He also noted that intensive computer analysis of conditions in the mine, carried out by consultants hired by the Congressional committee, revealed that “the company’s decision to pull down more pillars caused remaining pillars to burst and the explosions to occur.”

Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts, who has cited Crandall Canyon as a reason for the mine safety legislation approved by Miller’s committee earlier this year, hailed the report. He said it proved, again, the union’s assertion that the fatal blasts should never have occurred.

“Nine miners are dead today that should not be,” Roberts declared, adding, “Family members have wept and been left inconsolable. Wives, parents and children are without husbands, sons and fathers. Our nation and its leaders can no longer watch these tragedies unfold, wring our hands and say, ‘How horrible,’ and then stand aside and do little to prevent them.”

PAI contributed to this story

Protect Social Security customer service

Sat, 10 May 2008 06:07:00 +0000

Workers’ Correspondence

We thought the push to privatize Social Security was dead. Failing to privatize Social Security, the administration has slashed the agency’s budget. These tactics ensure that the next time we have to fight to save Social Security, the public’s view of the Social Security Administration (SSA) might not be so favorable.

Agency employees lost to attrition are not replaced. Agency staffing is at levels lower than in the 1970s even though disability and retirement claims have risen and hearing case backlogs have increased dramatically.

SSA is being handed new workloads (Medicare subsidy programs, rulings appeals, review of evidentiary requirements for Social Security cards required by Homeland Security, and now immigration work verifications).

Customer service is no longer the “world class” service the public was accustomed to. One person now handles programs that used to require two or more representatives. The chance for error increases as the workers deal with speedup.

Employees are rushed off the phones by management, which leads to insufficient (even incorrect) information being provided to callers.

Internet filing is another potential customer nightmare.

Don’t worry, though. The public can go online and take care of themselves.

The claims representatives have gone through months of training in order to properly advise customers of their filing rights and laws, but now the public, (with no training) can figure out their own “non-covered earnings years” and muddle through their own “annual earnings test.”

Privacy and fraud on the Internet? Don’t worry, they don’t suspect that anyone other than the proper applicant will file, even when we know another party might have all of our personal identification information. Internet filing, in most cases, will require no proof of identity, age or citizenship.

They say that an agency employee can have contact with these claimants if need be. As it is there are big delays in re-contacting employees and it can be expected that internet contacts will take a back seat to the crushing load of in-office activity.

If going online isn’t an option, the customer can always pay a third party company to complete the forms SSA should be handling. These aren’t the attorneys that handle the appeals; they are companies that have set up “for profit” businesses to help in filing claims.

Long-time employees who used to be able to provide top-notch service to the public are frustrated with the agency. Employees take pride in their work and value and care for their customers. Employees are in a state of despair, knowing there are not enough people on the job to take care of our elderly, disabled or poor customers.

More employees are reporting stress-related illnesses than ever before due to the environment.

SSA is also closing offices across the country. The commissioner states that only urban offices with 15 or fewer employees will be looked at for closure. However rural offices have been closed, forcing the public to travel more than 70 miles for service.

Office closings are described as consolidation and called cost-efficient. Many of the offices with less than 15 employees used to have more, but due to non-replacement of departed employees they have fallen below 15. When the offices are consolidated, the amount of work to be done is consolidated with another office even though the members of people served don’t decrease.

SSA needs to be taken off budget in order to be able to cover the reasonable expenses necessary for the public to be served.

A bill has been introduced by Rep. B. Higgins (D-N.Y.), the Social Security Customer Service Improvement Act, HR 5110, which will:

• require SSA to provide Congress a nonpartisan, detailed yearly budget estimate; the budget estimate would include yearly statistics of the number of cases pending at hearing offices, the rate at which the case backlogs are increasing or decreasing, the average length of time it takes for claims to be administered and staffing level trends at offices over time;

• prohibit SSA from closing or limiting hours at local offices without providing Congress with at least six months notice and thoughtful justifications for closure;

• require SSA to inform Congress of changes to how it staffs offices at least three months before a proposed change could be implemented.

This important legislation will ensure that customer service is at a level that citizens deserve. We are asking for co-sponsors of the bill. Please contact your representative for support of this legislation.

Darlene Tinsley is secretary-treasurer of American Federation of Government Employees Local 3448, Willoughby, Ohio

Reclaiming May Day: Marching together for all workers

Sat, 10 May 2008 05:26:00 +0000

U.S. workers are reclaiming May Day, which they initiated over 120 years ago, and are giving the day new meaning in the drive to end the war and occupation in Iraq.

Reflecting the holiday’s origins when immigrant workers played a big part in the fight for the eight hour day, this year’s observances melded workers’ struggles for decent wages and conditions with the struggles of largely working-class immigrant communities for human and civil rights and an end to criminalization through ICE raids and no match letters. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants were joined by many union contingents as they marched in cities throughout the country.

Longshore workers: End Iraq war The closure of all 29 west coast ports by longshore workers, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, marked the first such labor action to protest the war. Their protest was supported by a number of labor councils and unions around the country.

“This powerful action, which was initiated by the West Coast dock workers union, should be taken very seriously by every elected official, every member of Congress, the White House and every candidate running for office,” Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) told the workers in a message. Lee, a leading opponent of the war, called the ILWU “an outstanding leader of the U.S. labor movement,” and said the action was a sign that American working men and women “know how connected everything is.”

Lee’s message was read at a noontime rally in San Francisco’s Justin Herman Plaza. Earlier, many participants had marched along the Embarcadero from the longshore union hall. Organizers said up to 3,000 members of unions, peace organizations and community groups participated in the two events. While most signs emphasized ending the war, immigrant rights issues were well represented.

The Oakland Education Association’s banners were prominent in the march.

“The connection between the war and education is so direct,” OEA president Betty Olson-Jones told the World. “I often look at the figures for how much has been spent on the war and think how many teachers could have been hired with that money.”

The day shift work stoppage observed by the 25,000 West Coast longshore workers followed a resolution passed last February by the elected delegates of the Longshore Caucus. Employers refused to accommodate the union’s request, though it was consistent with their contract.

“Longshore workers are standing down on the job and standing up for America,” ILWU President Bob McEllrath said in a statement. “We’re supporting the troops and telling politicians in Washington that it’s time to end the war in Iraq.”

While the big shipping corporations aren’t accountable to any country and are only concerned with making money, McEllrath said, longshore workers “are different. We’re loyal to America, and we won’t stand by while our country, our troops and our economy are destroyed by a war that’s bankrupting us to the tune of $3 trillion. It’s time to stand up, and we’re doing our part today.”

Unions & immigrants join hands In Oakland, Calif., government, health care and service workers, painters, teachers and other union members joined with thousands from Latino, Asian and other immigrant communities in a march from Fruitvale Plaza, in the heart of a heavily Latino neighborhood, to a rally at City Hall.

Demonstrators demanded that the Homeland Security Department abandon its proposed new regulations telling employers they must fire workers who can’t resolve a Social Security no match letter in 90 days, and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) end its anti-immigrant raids and stop interfering in union organizing and other worker justice struggles.

“People are already experiencing more discrimination in hiring and on the job because of the no match letters and the E-verification system,” Maricruz Manzanarez, a service worker at the University of California, told the World. Pointing out that undocumented immigrants “pay taxes,” and want to work to support their families, Manzanarez added, “The biggest need we have now is a comprehensive immigration law” with a “reasonable” path to citizenship.

Protests also took place in San Francisco and Berkeley, while around the Bay Area, university students held walk-outs and teach-ins to protest proposed cuts to the state education budget.

In Salem, Ore., several thousand people gathered at the State Capitol to demonstrate their commitment to defeat anti-immigrant legislation and to demand immigration reform and restoration of the right to an Oregon drivers’ license. Dancers prayed and blessed the crowd, which included many middle and high school students and families.

State Senator Chip Shields reminded the audience that he voted against Oregon Senate bill 1080, which made it a requirement to prove legal presence in the U.S. before applying for an Oregon driver’s license or ID card. He cited trade agreements like NAFTA and CAFTA as factors that drive people from their places of birth to other places to work.

In Portland, Ore., thousands marched for immigrants’ and workers’ rights, while hundreds of longshore workers joined their union brothers and sisters in shutting down all West Coast ports to protest the war. Workers gathered at noon to throw hundreds of flowers into the Willamette River, symbolizing U.S. and Iraqi war dead.

In Philadelphia, several hundred students from Tilden Middle School joined union and community members in Elmwood Park. Jim Moran of the Pennsylvania Labor History Society told the crowd about the workers’ struggle in the late 19th century for the eight-hour day, while Cathy Brady of the Service Employees International Union announced a project to build a labor monument in the park, honoring past leaders and events in labor history.

In Washington, D.C., demonstrators picketed the offices of the Republican and Democratic National Committees before going to a rally in Malcolm X Park. There Central American and Mexican American immigrants were joined by Native Americans from Virginia as well as African American and white residents. Said Salvadoran immigrant Sonia Umanzor, “We are going to change the face of being a criminal to being a worker who gets up at 5 in the morning to put food on our tables.”

mbechtel (at) pww.org Rosita Johnson, Bob Rossi and Emile Schepers contributed to this article.