People Before Profit blog

Labor sin fruto

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:50:00 +0000

Julia Preston, reportera del diario The New York Times, escribiendo desde Washington, D.C., describe las peras pudriéndose en los árboles en el condado Lake de California, pues no hay mano de obra agrícola para cosecharlas. Rancheros le dicen que 70.000 de los 450.000 trabajadores agrícolas de este estado han desaparecido este año. El periódico más prestigioso de EEUU se está dejando engañar por la industria de agricultura, que desea un nuevo programa de “braceros”, y se queja de una falta de mano de obra laboral para conseguirlo.

Hace dos semanas, en las arboledas de olivos en el cercano condado de Tehama, casi no vi frutas en los olivos. Lluvia y frió esta primavera dañó la cosecha, y los trabajadores salen en busca de empleo en otra parte.

Siempre existen variaciones en cosechas locales, y en el número de trabajadores que se necesitan. Pero el periódico The New York Times pinta una cuadro falso. He pasado ocho meses viajando en los valles de California y todavía no he visto frutas podridas. Pero sí he visto condiciones bastante horribles para los trabajadores.

Los californianos necesitan una perspectiva más realista sobre la mano de obra agrícola.

Hoy en día cada vez más trabajadores agrícolas vienen de pueblos pequeños en el Sur de México y hasta de Centroamérica. En las viñas y arboledas de cítrico, es tan frecuente oír a los trabajadores conversar en mixteco, purépucha o triquí, lenguas indígenas precolombianas de México, que en castellano.

Están enriqueciendo a California, tanto en lo material como en lo cultural. Para los que les encanta el mole, eso es motivo para celebrar. Hoy en día el festival Guelaguetza expone los bailes tradicionales de Oaxaca en Fresno, Santa María y San Diego. Más allá de la temporada de la cosecha, cuando no hay mucho trabajo en los campos, tejedores triquíes producen rebozos brillantes.

Pero lo que ganan en salario estas familias casi no los dejan sobrevivir. Como dijo Abraham Lincoln, “El trabajo crea toda la riqueza”, pero los trabajadores agrícolas no se quedan con esta riqueza. Hace 25 años, cuando el sindicato UFW fue más influyente, convenios sindicales garantizaron casi el doble del salario mínimo de aquellos tiempos. Hoy en día, en casi todos los trabajos en la agricultura, el salario es el mínimo de California de $6,75 por hora. Y tomando en cuenta la inflación, el mínimo hoy es menos que en aquel entonces.

Los trabajadores agrícolas están en peores condiciones que hace más de 2 decenios, pero el precio de las frutas en los supermercados se ha duplicado.

Los salarios bajos tienen un costo humano.

Significan que las familias viven en caravanas muy llenas de gente, o empacados como sardinas en apartamentos y garajes, con muchas personas durmiendo en un solo cuarto. Los trabajadores indígenas están en peores condiciones como la mayoría, como es el caso con trabajadores que viajan siguiendo las cosechas. Estos trabajadores migratorios a menudo viven en coches, o hasta duermen en los campos debajo de los árboles. Sus ingresos son demasiado bajos para rentar vivienda mejor.

Hay una crisis de vivienda en el campo de California. Durante medio siglo, los rancheros han demolido a los antiguos campos laborales para trabajadores migratorios. Estos lugares nunca eran sitios lujosos para vivir, pero es peor no tener nada.

En el norte de México, he visto niños trabajando en el campo pero este año, los vi en California también. Cuando las familias traen a sus hijos a trabajar, no es que no les valen su preparación escolar o su futuro. Es porque no pueden pagar sus cuentas con solo el trabajo de los adultos.

¿Que haría una diferencia?

En primer lugar, sindicalización lo haría. El sindicato agrícola UFW alzó los salarios hacen decenios, logrando las mejores condiciones de vida para la mano de obra agrícola en la historia de California. Pero los terratenientes han manifestado una hostilidad implacable a la sindicalización. Y para los indocumentados, inscribirse en un sindicato o exigir sus derechos puede conllevar el riesgo no solo de ser despedido sino de la deportación.

Hacer cumplir las leyes también mejoraría las vidas de los trabajadores. La agencia de Asistencia Legal Rural de California hace una obra heroica inspeccionando las condiciones en el campo y ayudando a los trabajadores a que entiendan sus derechos, pero es una lucha muy dura también. A muchos trabajadores todavía se les pagan por debajo del salario mínimo, los envenenan con insecticidas, o los obligan a trabajar en condiciones ilegales.

Otorgándoles a los trabajadores un estado legal — un carnet de residencia permanente — les ayudaría a organizar sin arriesgarse a la deportación. Familias inmigrantes necesitan la igualdad, la estabilidad y el reconocimiento de su contribución importante.

Pero los dueños no desean aumentar los salarios para atraer a más trabajadores. En lugar de eso desean reclutar trabajadoress desde otros países con visas temporales, no permanentes, y así conseguir una fuente confiable de personas que pueden trabajar en este país, pero no pueden permanecer. Esto es repetir el programa fracasado de “braceros” de los años 1940 y 1950.

Con un programa de trabajadores temporales, los salarios en el campo no van a aumentar. Más bien, los trabajadores agrícolas estarán proporcionando un subsidio a la industria de agricultura por medio de salarios bajos, en el nombre de mantener “competitiva” a la agricultura de California. Las huelgas y los sindicatos que aumentan a los ingresos de las familias, se ven como amenazas.

Hemos visto todo esto antes, durante el programa Bracero. Cuando hubo huelga de trabajadores residentes, los rancheros trajeron a los braceros. Y si acaso hubo huelga de braceros, fueron deportados. Por eso fue que César Chávez, Ernesto Galarza y Bert Corona al fin convencieron al Congreso a que terminara el programa bracero en 1964. La primera huelga en contra de la industria de viñas por el sindicato de campesinos, empezó el año siguiente.

Darles a los rancheros un programa de braceros es un fallo que no debemos repetir. Mucho mejor es mano de obra agrícola que puede apoyar a sus familias.

David Bacon es un fotógrafo y reportero especializado en asuntos laborales. Este artículo apareció antes en el San Francisco Chronicle.

You are the news: Readers we need your eyes and ears

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 07:01:00 +0000

Readers – we need your eyes and ears

The newspaper of America’s working class needs eyes and ears in every workplace and every community. In the time-honored tradition of working-class journalism, the People’s Weekly World actively solicits input from workers and our allies everywhere.

A worker correspondent doesn’t need a degree in journalism or courses in photography to be of service to his or her class. All anyone needs is an appreciation of how important truth is to our movement. The working class cannot survive and triumph without good information, and that is the role of the working-class press.

It is no secret that almost all American “news agencies” are owned by a few corporate giants. Nor is it a secret that they collude with the right wing in government to “spin” the facts to favor the wealthy. Only a broad collective effort by honest volunteers can counter the weight of corporate-backed reports that crush truth to the ground.

At a recent meeting of the World’s editorial board, all who were present agreed that we need to find more ways to encourage worker correspondents. We talked about the important news sources they represent, and also about the importance of having many workers’ “voices” and writing styles within the paper.

The People’s Weekly World staff asks you to please take up your part. Send in your news tips and articles, in any state of completion, now. Send us your photos. Write to or to the People’s Weekly World, 3339 S. Halsted St., Chicago, IL 60608, or fax us at (773) 446-9928. Or give us a call at (773) 446-9920.

Labor movement continues to develop in China

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 06:41:00 +0000

NewsAnalysis

The Communist Party of China has just ended its annual central committee meeting, vowing to rebuild and renew its public health system and other social safety nets. It also emphasized efforts to improve education and raise the living standards for workers while narrowing the income gap between city and countryside.

This is valuable context for considering the far-reaching new labor legislation now being debated in China. New labor laws will greatly enhance the power of unions to negotiate and enforce labor contracts, and significantly increase penalties and fines for companies not complying with Chinese labor law on wages, hours and working conditions.

New laws would also give workers added protections and rights in forming a union and make it harder for workers to be laid off or fired. (Current Chinese labor law says that if even one worker in a workplace asks for a union then it must be recognized by the employer — somewhat stronger than the card check neutrality now being fought for by U.S. labor.)

The transnational corporations in China are howling. The New York Times reports, “Some of the world’s big companies have expressed concern that the new rules would revive some aspects of socialism and borrow too heavily from labor law in union-friendly countries like France and Germany.” The Times goes on to describe how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and big companies are “waging an intense lobbying campaign” to try to scuttle the law.

When the Chinese government and the Communist Party of China (CPC) began the process of “opening up” economically and allowing private foreign investment in the 1980s, they realized the process would bring with it problems. How to deal with these problems has been a constant debate in China all along.

As large transnationals opened operations, one key problem was how ill-prepared Chinese unions were to deal with large capitalist corporations. General Motors, Boeing, Wal-Mart, Kodak and many others came to China for cheap labor and a huge new market. In short, to reap extra profits.

Several years ago the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) began discussion about how best to respond and change in the face of these new employers whose main interest was giant profits, not the common good of society and the working class. Most of these foreign owned companies brought with them the usual capitalist hostility to labor unions and a bag of anti-worker tricks and practices to get around labor law.

Wal-Mart was the poster boy for such ruthless anti-union, anti-worker cutthroat policies. Wal-Mart celebrated 10 years in China this past August, 10 years of Wal-Mart making it clear that it did not intend to honor Chinese labor law. It took the ACFTU several years of intense struggle to force Wal-Mart to recognize and bargain with the union. This campaign included working closely with the CPC and local governments to protect Wal-Mart workers from retaliation and firings for union activity. Just this month the ACFTU announced victory, with unions recognized at all 62 Wal-Mart stores in China.

The ACFTU focused on Wal-Mart precisely because of its world wide anti-union reputation. The new labor law and the campaign to organize Wal-Mart are two sides of the union federation’s adjustment and change to better fight for workers.

From the CPC central committee meeting it seems clear that China is beginning to see raising the standards of living for workers as the beginning of a shift from export-driven economic growth to consumer- and domestic-driven growth. In other words, raising the living standards of workers raises the domestic demand for goods and services.

For the ACFTU this means not only strengthening the unions but also, given the profiteering nature of the capitalist transnationals, adopting more class struggle forms of unionism. This strategy will continue and develop. The ACFTU already notes that since the victory at Wal-Mart, new unions have been established at some 300 other foreign companies. Now the federation’s strategy is to target foreign companies it considers to be the most anti-union. At the top of their list is Kodak, Dell and Taiwan’s Foxconn Electronics. They plan to double the number of unions in foreign-owned companies by the end of the year.

This important shift in Chinese unions should also go a long way in opening doors with U.S. labor for building international solidarity against the transnationals.

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

Sacramento clergy support Hotel Workers Rising

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 06:01:00 +0000

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — On Oct.19, four clergymen, representing Catholic, Protestant and Jewish faiths, tried to deliver a statement called “On Hospitality and Human Dignity” signed by 47 local Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim clerics to the management of the Sheraton Grand Hotel in downtown Sacramento.

“It is a painful irony that those who provide hospitality to travelers and guests in the United States and Canada are so often denied living wages, fair working conditions and basic human dignity by the hotels that employ them,” the statement said in part.

The delegation was told that none of the managers were then available, but was promised a meeting with them the next day.

Outside the hotel, over 300 union hotel workers and their supporters from local unions, community organizations, colleges, high schools and churches marched in a spirited picket line, all wearing red T-shirts and chanting and singing to the accompaniment of drums and noisemakers.

The gathering was nearly twice as large as the previous community picket line at the Sheraton two weeks earlier, and before the demonstration broke up, they chanted, “We’ll be back, we’ll be back,” promising to return in even larger numbers on Nov. 2.

The Unite Here Local 49 “Hotel Workers Rising” campaign to gain better union contracts for hotel employees here has been escalating this fall. A growing coalition of local clergy, community leaders, elected officials and small businessmen have been sending delegations to the Sheraton management to urge raises and better health care and working conditions for their employees.

Another community support event sponsored by the Stonewall Democratic Club featured Cleve Jones, national founder of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, who is spearheading a national campaign called “Sleep With the Right People” (www.sleepwiththerightpeople.org). The campaign urges a boycott of hotels who are trying to thwart Hotel Workers Rising efforts.

The Sheraton Grand is the largest and newest of the five union hotels in Sacramento. Negotiations have been underway for some months, and the employees have been doing informational leafleting outside the hotel.

“Moses was one of the great historical labor organizers,” Rabbi Reuven Taff of Congregation Mosaic Law told the Oct. 19 gathering, after reporting on the clerical delegation. “While the Israelites toiled, Moses tried to intercede with the Pharaoh, and then led them out of slavery.

“Everyone deserves life and a living wage,” he said.

Miners death brings this year's total to 42

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 05:56:00 +0000

Some 100 union coal miners jammed the Mine Safety and Health Administration district office in Morgantown, W.Va., Oct. 24. They demanded stepped up enforcement of safety laws, oxygen packs and other equipment, and more mine inspectors. They also protested President Bush’s appointment of a coal operator to head the federal mine safety agency.

The day before, the year’s death toll in the mines rose to 42, the highest number since 1991, when 22 miners were killed.

Dale Russell Reightler, 43, father of three, died inside the R&D Coal Company Buck Mountain anthracite mine, nearly a half-mile underground in eastern Pennsylvania. Preliminary press reports said that, after checking the atmosphere for volatile methane gas, miners set off two explosions safely. A third explosion was the fatal blast. Four miners and a foreman escaped. It took R&D an hour to report the explosion, a violation of the new mine safety law that could carry a fine of $60,000.

Word spread rapidly through the tiny, close-knit Tremont, Pa., mining community. Resident Diana Cara told The Associated Press that neighbors were bringing food and comfort to Reightler’s family. “The folks here really take care of each other,” Cara said.

R&D Coal, in operation since 1995, has not had a fatality until now and does not have a long list of MSHA safety citations. In 2004, production was shut down when four miners suffered broken bones from an air-line burst.

The Buck Mountain mine is typical for anthracite coal mining. Anthracite is a hard coal that comes from eastern Pennsylvania, and was once widely used. It’s now a small but profitable part of the industry. Employing only nine miners, who produce 15,000 tons per year, the site generates $701,100, or $77,900 per miner, for R&D Coal each year.

Just days before the Reightler family found out their father was not coming home, three other miners were killed:

• Thomas Channell Jr., 49, was killed Oct. 20 when a mine wall collapsed, pinning him against a shuttle car. Channell was working underground inside Alpha Natural Resources’ Whitetail Kittanning mine in Preston County, W.Va. MSHA records show that the owners had been cited for 293 violations so far in 2006. There had been 25 roof falls or wall collapses at the mine. MSHA only fined the company an average of $235 per incident.

• A seven-foot rock fell on mine supervisor Jerry McKinney, Oct.11, killing him inside the Jim Walters Resources’ No. 4 mine in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

• On Oct. 6, miner Joe Seay, 56, was killed inside D&R Company Coal Mine No. 2 near Barbourville, Ky. Seay was mining a narrow 24-inch seam when a 5-foot-long slab of rock fell on him, killing him instantly, according to county Deputy Coroner Mike Johnson. Since 2005, the state cited Lloyd Cole and Larry Hubbard, owners of D&R Coal Company, 14 times and MSHA found 30 violations.

In a statement, the United Mine Workers union demanded that MSHA “take immediate action” to enforce the nation’s safety laws. The union said this should include reviewing mine safety regulations dropped by the Bush administration in 2001.

On Oct. 19, while the Senate was in recess, Bush appointed Richard Stickler, former head of Bethlehem Steel’s mining division, BethEnergy, to head MSHA. Stickler ran the Pennsylvania state mine safety agency from 1997-2003. During his watch, nine coal miners were trapped for three days in a flooded underground mine at Quecreek, near Somerset, Pa. Stickler was rejected twice by the Senate but the recess appointment puts him in charge of MSHA until 2007.

Stickler “lacks the trust of the miners he’s charged to protect,” said Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.). “We need a bulldog agency that will place miner safety over all priorities,” not an agency that places “a higher priority on mine production than on miner protection.”

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said, “The Senate had twice returned this flawed nomination to the White House. But just like so many other matters, the president refused to listen and proceeded on a dangerous and unwise course.

“Hopefully, the November elections will send a clear message” and change the balance of power in Congress towards pro-worker policies, Sweeney said.

No fruits for their labor

Sat, 21 Oct 2006 06:26:00 +0000

Julia Preston, a New York Times reporter writing from Washington, D.C., describes pears rotting on trees in Lake County, Calif., owing to a lack of farm workers to pick them. Growers tell her 70,000 of the state’s 450,000 farm workers are missing. America’s newspaper of record is being spun by agribusiness, which wants a new bracero program, and complains of a labor shortage to get it.

Two weeks ago, in the olive groves of nearby Tehama County, I saw hardly any fruit on the trees. Rain and cold weather this spring hurt the crop, and workers were leaving to find work elsewhere.

There are always local variations in crops, and the number of workers needed to pick them. But the Times is painting a false picture. I’ve spent eight months traveling through California valleys and I have yet to see rotting fruit. I have seen some pretty miserable conditions for workers, though.

Californians need a reality check about farm labor.

Today more and more agricultural workers migrate from small towns in southern Mexico and even Central America. In the grape rows and citrus trees, you’re as likely to hear Mixtec or Purepecha or Triqui — indigenous languages that predate Columbus — as you are to hear Spanish.

They are making California a richer place, in wealth and culture. For those who love spicy mole sauce, that’s reason to celebrate. Today the Guelaguetza festival showcases Oaxacan dances in Fresno, Santa Maria and San Diego. Families of Triqui weavers create brilliant rebozos, in the off-season winter months when there’s not much work in the fields.

But the wages these families earn are barely enough to survive. As Abe Lincoln said, “labor creates all wealth,” but farm workers get precious little of it. Twenty five years ago, at the height of the influence of the United Farm Workers, union contracts guaranteed almost twice the minimum wage of the time. Today, the hourly wage in almost every farm job is the minimum wage — $6.75 an hour. And taking inflation into account, the minimum is lower today than it was then.

Farm workers are worse off than they’ve been for over two decades, while the supermarket price of fruit has more than doubled.

Low wages have a human cost.

In housing, it means that families live in cramped trailers, or packed like sardines in apartments and garages, with many people sleeping in a single room. Indigenous workers have worse conditions than most, along with workers who travel with the crops. Migrants often live in cars, sometimes even sleeping in the fields or under the trees. Income is too low to rent anything better.

Housing is in crisis in rural California. Over the last half-century, growers demolished the old labor camps for migrant workers. They were never great places to live, but having no place is worse.

I’ve seen children working in fields in northern Mexico, but this year I saw them working here too. When families bring their kids to work, it’s not because they don’t value their education or future. It’s because they can’t make ends meet with the labor of adults alone.

What would make a difference?

Unions would. The UFW pushed wages up decades ago, getting the best standard of living California farm workers ever received. But growers have been implacably hostile to union organizing. And for undocumented workers, joining a union or demanding rights can mean risking not just firing, but deportation.

Enforcing the law would better workers’ lives too. California Rural Legal Assistance does a heroic job inspecting field conditions, and helping workers understand their rights. But that’s an uphill struggle too. Many workers still get paid less than the minimum, are poisoned with pesticides, or work in illegal conditions.

Giving workers real legal status — a green card, or permanent residence visa — would help them organize without risking deportation. Immigrant families need equality, stability and recognition of their important contribution.

But growers don’t want to raise wages to attract labor. Instead, they want to recruit workers outside the country on temporary visas, not permanent ones — a steady supply of people who can work, but can’t stay. This is a repeat of the old, failed bracero program of the 1940s and ’50s.

With a temporary labor program, farm wages will not rise. Instead, farm workers will subsidize agribusiness with low wages, in the name of keeping California agriculture “competitive.” Strikes and unions that raise family income will be regarded as a threat.

We’ve seen this before. During the bracero program, when resident workers struck, growers brought in braceros. And if braceros struck, they were deported. That’s why Cesar Chavez, Ernesto Galarza and Bert Corona finally convinced Congress to end the program in 1964. The UFW’s first grape strike began the year after the bracero law was repealed.

Giving employers a bracero program is a failed idea, one we shouldn’t repeat. Farm labor that can support families is better.

David Bacon is a photographer and reporter who specializes in labor issues. This article originally appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle and is reprinted by permission of the author.

Americas seniors build a mighty movement

Sat, 21 Oct 2006 05:50:00 +0000

Today a mighty groundswell of senior fightback is underway. Its effect will be felt in the November elections. Retiree leader George Kourpias recently went so far as to say, “Retirees will determine who wins the 2006 elections.” Kourpias, president of ARA (Alliance for Retired Americans) added, “To us, Nov. 7 is not just Election Day, it’s Judgment Day.”

In the 2004 elections, many seniors were taken in by the Republican claims to “family values.” The majority over age 65 voted for George W. Bush. They gave him a 53 percent approval rating. Since that time, seniors have had a rude awakening. Their approval of Bush nose-dived down to 33 percent, the largest drop of any age group. There was a reason for this drop.

By 2005, America’s retirees had seen their pensions and health care plans undermined and their Social Security under clear attack. A frontal assault on the right of Americans to enjoy the retirement plans that they had been promised throughout their working lives was completely unprecedented and unexpected. For senior Americans, three political issues have taken on knife-point sharpness. They are Social Security, health care and pensions. These issues are in addition to concerns that seniors share with other Americans: peace, education and democracy.

Social Security

When President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act in 1935, he did so over the strong objections of the Republican Party. As reported in an AFL-CIO leaflet, 99 percent of Republicans in the House and 63 percent in the Senate tried to kill Social Security before it was born. They tried to send the Social Security bill back to committee, where it would have died.

After that, Republicans made repeated attempts to end the program, even though it quickly became one of the most successful government programs of all time.

In 1978, George W. Bush campaigned to privatize Social Security in his unsuccessful run for Congress. After his narrow re-election in 2004, he said he would use his “political capital” to accomplish this long-held goal.

An uprising of American seniors, largely led by unions and the newly formed Alliance for Retired Americans, built up sufficient pressure in 2005 to stop privatization plans. During 2006, some right-wing politicians have kept quiet about privatizing Social Security. Others, including Bush himself, have let it be known that they will try again. Bush has put money in his proposed 2007 budget for privatizing Social Security. Saving Social Security remains a key issue in the Nov. 7 elections.

‘Golden Promise’ vs. ‘FOG’

The ARA and unions are key partners in the Coalition to Save Social Security. At the ARA convention in Washington, D.C., this September, ARA was part of a Save Social Security rally on the lawn outside the Capitol. A dramatic event of the rally was the march of a large number of Democratic Party congresspersons, led by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. They marched from the Capitol to the rally stage to sign the “Golden Promise,” a pledge to vote against privatizing Social Security.

To counteract the “Golden Promise,” the falsely named “For Our Grandchildren” group sent each member of Congress a different pledge. They want to “keep all options on the table” including privatization.

“It’s appropriate that the acronym for this pro-privatization group is FOG,” said Edward Coyle, executive director of the Alliance. “By purposefully failing to mention their Social Security goals, those behind FOG are using a cloudy pledge to trick members of Congress into considering private accounts, even when they overwhelmingly rejected such plans last year.”

Pensions

The regular pensions that the companies pay for are under severe attack. In 1985, there were 100,000 defined benefit pensions. Today there are less than 33,000. Less than 20 percent of workers still have regular pension plans with a defined benefit.

Many pensions were lost when companies went bankrupt. That was a form of stealing from workers. Often unions had sacrificed part of a wage increase to win improved pensions. In the past, workers in bankrupt companies were left with nothing.

But in 1974, the labor movement won some pension insurance through the federal PBGC (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation). However, this insurance does not cover retiree’s health benefits. Loss of medical insurance is a terrible blow when plants close.

Little wonder that corporations favor the 401(k) plans that are paid by the employees. There are 700,000 such plans today. The employer may but is not required to pay a matching contribution. The risk lies with the workers. As Enron workers well know, there is no insurance for these plans. The pension paid by the 401(k) plan, if any, depends on how well investments perform.

There are now 25 million American workers with no retirement plan, other than Social Security. Also, unlike Social Security, private pensions do not go up with the cost of living. It is the opinion of this writer that we must fight to raise Social Security to a level that provides a decent living for all retirees. Private pensions, unlike Social Security, are in the hands of greedy corporations. These corporations, with the cooperation of bankruptcy judges, are ripping pension plans away from retirees and disregarding all the promises they made to their workers.

Health care

Labor won the Medicare program for retirees aged 65 or more in 1965. President Johnson credited the old National Council for Senior Citizens with this achievement when he signed the bill. The ARA, successor to the National Council, calls Medicare “the nation’s largest and most successful health insurance system.” Medicare serves 40 million senior and disabled beneficiaries. In fact, the movement for universal health care often describes its demand as, “Medicare for All.”

Like Social Security, Medicare is now under attack by Republicans who opposed its passage in the first place. Seniors were severely disappointed when President Bush rammed the 2003 Medicare Law through Congress. This law, the ARA warns, “is more about dismantling the Medicare program than providing a prescription drug benefit.” Only 181 pages of the act are about medicines. The remaining 500 pages are so-called “modernization,” or destruction of Medicare by privatization.

For the first time, in January 2007, there will be a means test for Medicare. Those with higher incomes will pay more. Those with adjusted incomes over $80,000 a year will pay $111.50 to $170.50 a month in 2007. That could go as high as $375 a month by 2009. Some with higher incomes will leave Medicare, a step towards destroying Medicare by privatization.

The reviled ‘Donut Hole’

As of Sept. 22, 2006, the majority in the Part D drug program had fallen into the reviled “Donut Hole.” They are pushed into the Donut Hole when they have bought medicines costing $2,250 in 2006. That $2,250 includes what the insurance company has paid plus what the retiree has paid. In the “Hole,” they find themselves continuing to pay premiums but receiving no drug benefit! In 2007, the process starts again. It is expected that seniors will fall in the “Hole” earlier in the year because drug prices are going up.

At the September ARA Convention, the retiree delegates passed a resolution demanding, “A strengthened Medicare program with expanded benefits.” Many delegates voiced support of HR 676, a single-payer, universal coverage bill that includes all the retiree demands. The ARA resolution calls for Medicare coverage of early retirees at affordable premium rates; supports repeal of the Part B premiums means-testing and for allowing Medicare to offer a drug benefit directly, with the right to bargain for lower prices.

Seniors fight back

The right wing attacks against all aspects of retirement comfort have made the necessity of organizing agonizingly clear to older Americans. Many AARP members were appalled when AARP helped pass Bush’s 2003 Medicare Act that included Part D. This act increases the profits of insurance and drug companies but threatens the future of Medicare. Fortunately, a new voice for seniors has come on the scene, 3.7 million strong. It is the Alliance for Retired Americans with a strong labor base and a growing number of church and neighborhood clubs. Over 27 states have ARA councils and more are on the way.

ARA has incredible potential for organizing beyond its union base. Anyone can join for $10/year: union or non-union, retired or active worker. ARA has a dynamic weekly news service for computer users. Anyone can sign up for it from www.retiredamericans.org.

Recently, ARA President George Kourpias put out a national call for Alliance members who are willing to live in key congressional districts during the last four to six weeks of the 2006 political campaign. Expenses would be covered. Volunteers can e-mailor telephone (888) 373-6497 and press option 4.

Jim Lane (flittle7@yahoo.com) is a retired Texas unionist and newly active in the ARA. Beatrice Lumpkin (bealumpkin@aol.com) is a leader of Illinois Alliance of Retired Americans and a longtime activist in South Chicago and among steelworkers. George Edwards contributed to this article.

Northwest strikers to vote

Sat, 21 Oct 2006 05:41:00 +0000

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — The 14-month strike by 4,000 mechanics, cleaners and custodians at Northwest Airlines may end within 30 days if a majority of the workers, represented by the independent Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, ratify a tentative agreement.

The deal, announced Oct. 9, won’t mean immediate jobs for the strikers, the union said. Instead, members will have the choice of going on layoff and possibly being recalled to a position in the future, or leaving the company and accepting 10 weeks’ worth of separation pay. Workers who crossed the picket line and new hires during the strike will keep their jobs under the terms of the proposed settlement.

AMFA, which ousted the Machinists at Northwest years before, took the workers out on strike rather than agree to $203 million in pay and benefits cuts the airline demanded before it went into bankruptcy last year.

Details of the voting process have not been announced, but it is expected to occur within 30 days, AMFA said. “Ballot information will be sent to each member who is actively on strike status, but not to those who crossed the picket line or to members who previously resigned or retired,” it added. The deal runs through Dec. 31, 2011.

“I am convinced this is the best offer we could get. The membership will decide the future of our strike,” said AMFA Local 5 President Dennis Sutton on his Twin Cities-based local’s web site.

All provisions in the settlement are subject to changes by a bankruptcy court. Northwest has been in bankruptcy since Sept. 14, 2005, about a month after the strike began. The airline has demanded a series of concessions from all employee groups, including pilots, flight attendants and ground workers.

This summer, AMFA estimated 3,551 members remained on strike, 306 crossed the picket line and returned to work, 328 had retired and 184 had resigned.

The strikers got a small boost last month when the Minnesota Court of Appeals overruled the state and said the striking Northwest workers there are entitled to jobless benefits. It said the 25 percent pay cuts demanded by the airline constituted “a constructive lockout,” thus entitling the workers to benefits.

Will the proposed settlement be ratified? In an unscientific poll conducted on AMFA Local 33’s web site, 55 percent of respondents say no, 33 percent say yes and 12 percent have “no idea.”

— Workday Minnesota

Teacher-student strike wave sweeps Greece

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 06:29:00 +0000

ATHENS, Greece — The nationwide public school system here has been virtually shut down as preschool and primary school teachers enter the fourth week of their strike, high school teachers conduct two-day work stoppages, and junior and senior high school students begin coordinated takeovers of their schools.

Junior and senior high schools students across Greece shut their schools down Oct. 9-10 in a series of nationally planned actions. The takeovers continue a wave of student protests that started at the beginning of the new school year, when students often found themselves without teachers in overcrowded classrooms and decrepit buildings, and were told they had to pay out-of-pocket for their books.

University students and professors are also holding demonstrations in large numbers, showing their solidarity and gearing up for their own strike activity.

Educators and students are reacting to European Union mandates that would rock the foundations of the historically stalwart public education system on the continent. Following policy-setting EU meetings in Lisbon, Portugal, and Bologna, Italy, in recent years, reforms are being introduced in all EU countries that would radically alter the education system’s basic character.

The reforms are creating an elite education “market,” characterized by privatization and rising fees, for those who can afford it. The steady erosion of the educational role of the public school is accompanied by the systematic downgrading of teachers, including by keeping their salaries low. Flexible work concepts are also being introduced, undermining standards in the name of reducing costs.

Preschool and primary school teachers have been on strike since Sept. 18, battling to force the government to accept a minimum set of demands that include a pay increase to bring starting salaries up from 950 euros ($1,200) a month to a livable salary of 1,400 euros ($1,765) per month.

Greek teachers are among the lowest paid in Europe, with an annual starting salary of 12,555 euros ($15,820) compared with 37,350 euros in Germany, 19,401 in Britain, 17,528 in Italy, and 17,463 in France.

Striking teachers, parents and students are marching in weekly demonstrations in major cities in a protest wave that continues to build in intensity and breadth as more and more people turn out to show their support. Union federations and union locals from all branches of the economy have passed solidarity resolutions with the teachers and students, and class-oriented trade union forces continue to swell the ranks of demonstrators.

Demonstrations often take place on streets lined with police. Riot police were called in early on to intimidate demonstrators, including by firing tear gas into the crowds. But the protests have only continued to mount, and the teachers union remains firm in its demands.

The government has thus far refused to back down. Its only concession was to offer teachers 2 euros more on a proposed monthly supplement totaling 105 euros, beginning January 2007. No discussion of a significant pay increase is under consideration.

Trade unionists aligned with the All-Greek Workers Militant Front have outlined a basic platform of struggle that includes the fight for an educational system that meets people’s needs.

The platform’s central tenets include the following: free, public education for all without class and racial barriers; an increase in government funding for schools and the abolition of all types of private education; a stop to school sell-offs to local authorities, leading to whole school systems being bought up by corporations; an end to short-term contracting of teachers; an end to imposing flexible work hours; steady, permanent employment for all teachers with a dignified salary, including an 1,800 euro starting salary; and full pensions after 30 years of employment at 80 percent of final salary.

700 unionists ring bells to knock out Santorum

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 05:33:00 +0000

Angry steelworkers drive Bush brother into subway closet

PITTSBURGH — Laughter, cheers and applause filled the Steelworkers union headquarters here, Oct. 7, when Allegheny County Labor Council President Jack Shea introduced steelworkers who had forced Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to flee into a subway closet the day before. Bush had ventured into this steel town to try to boost the campaign of Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, whose voting record is 90 percent anti-labor.

“Steelworkers aren’t kidding when they say ‘Pittsburgh is a Santorum-free zone,’” said Shea.

More than 150 local union volunteers savored the story as they finished their coffee, reviewed their suburban maps and assembled their two-person teams to hit the streets, ready to deliver literature and talk to union voters.

The big turnout on a picture-perfect fall day usually filled with football, soccer, errands and harvest festivals said it all: Union members who drive buses, wire buildings, make steel, clean downtown buildings, provide health care and raise families were ready to sacrifice and act to dump the Republicans in November.

A day earlier, steelworkers joined a protest rally outside a Santorum fundraiser at the exclusive Duquesne Club, where Jeb Bush was a speaker. On the sidewalk, Bush inadvertently ran into about 30 steelworkers carrying signs reading, “Honk if you’re sick of Rick” and “Pittsburgh is a Santorum-free zone.” According to local press accounts, Bush threw a kiss at the steelworkers, who chanted, “We don’t want you here.”

Another group of about 75 steelworkers recognized Bush and joined in the chanting, Jon Vandenburgh, a researcher for the union, told the Post Gazette.

Bush slipped onto an escalator going down into a nearby subway station. Steelworkers took the steps and followed. Once inside the station, Bush was trapped. Port Authority police arrived with a canine unit. They “protected” the brother of President Bush by putting him into a utility closet and closing the door. Bush stayed there until the steelworkers and others left. Port Authority Police used tasers on two people but no one was hospitalized.

Pittsburgh police monitored the protest, didn’t intervene and said it was peaceful. No arrests or citations were issued.

Fired up by the steelworkers’ actions, Shea and his grandson, joined by USW Secretary-Treasurer Jim English and state Steelworkers leader John DeFazio, led the Labor Walk volunteers out of the union hall to their cars, heading to door-knocking destinations in suburban communities.

“We want to duplicate this enthusiasm every Saturday and throughout the week,” Shea told the World. “We want to touch all our members, not just in Allegheny County, but in the surrounding counties, 8-12 times — phone, door to door and job site. We are doing it. This is a must-win.” The county labor council represents 164 local unions.

Shea added that about 700 volunteers from unions in both the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win federation were out knocking doors together in Allegheny and four surrounding counties.

This reporter teamed up with retired steelworker Tony Slomkowski and headed to suburban Shaler Township. Slomkowski worked 40 years at Allegheny Technologies, formerly Allegheny Ludlum, maker of specialty steel, serving as USW Local 1196 president. Some of the metal in the World Trade Center was made at Allegheny Ludlum.

Door knocking in Western Pennsylvania is not for the faint of heart. Climbing up and down hills to reach houses spread far apart on streets and narrow lanes without sidewalks presents challenges even to the physically fit. Slomkowski, a member of Veterans for Peace and American Legion Post 226, is a tried and true campaigner. There is no one he can’t talk with, listen to and convince.

Knocking on doors in Shaler, talking politics, generated grapevine discussions throughout the area. Later that evening a friend called to say that at the hospital where she works, the steelworkers campaigning in Shaler was the talk of the lunchroom.

“This is what it takes to win,” said Slomkowski. “Turnout, turnout, turnout. We have to take our message directly, one at a time, to voters, our members. People were talking about the Republican ads on health care where Santorum and Hart [Melissa Hart, the incumbent Republican congresswoman in this district] take credit for good health care. The people told me that wasn’t true. It’s a lie. I just added that Santorum led the charge to privatize Social Security and hasn’t given up.”

We finished our lists and returned to Pittsburgh and a late lunch. Over hoagies and pop, volunteers from all the unions traded political experiences and debated the Steelers. The sign-up sheets filled up as union members figured out how to juggle work and family to squeeze a couple of hours through the week to walk or phone.

“We have a long way to go to rebuild our unions after what Reagan and the ’80s did to us,” says Slomkowski. “We are on our way and we are going to do it in November and continue with new activists and leaders.”

While remembering 9/11, dont forget the workers

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 08:45:00 +0000

• Study shows ground zero workers face serious health problems

• Bush administration offered cover-ups and lies

With media reports about the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and report cards on “homeland security,” President Bush is seeking to win back the mantle of great protector of the American people that has served him so well in past elections.

But there is another story that should accompany each and every 9/11 commemoration report: The official death toll from the 9/11 attacks is placed at 2,819. But as a recent study confirms, the real toll of 9/11 is actually much higher and still growing.

Exposure to a toxic burning brew of caustic concrete dust, asbestos, PCBs, jet fuel, and plastics, lead, chromium, mercury, vinyl chloride, benzene, human bodies and thousands of other substances has seriously damaged the health of thousands of workers who worked to clean up the remains of the World Trade Center. In fact, it may be decades before we know the true toll of the World Trade Center in illness and early death.

But the true tragedy is that much of this additional pain, illness and death could have been prevented, if it hadn’t been for the lies and inaction — lasting half a decade — of the federal government, and to a lesser extent, the government of New York City.

Breakthrough study released

On Sept. 5, the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York released the largest study yet of thousands of ground zero workers that confirms “the impact of the rescue and recovery effort on their health has been more widespread and persistent than previously thought, and is likely to linger far into the future.” Only one worker is confirmed to have died from the effects of the smoke, although several others should probably be added to the list as well.

The study covered 9,442 workers and focused only on respiratory problems, although workers also suffered from severe gastrointestinal and psychological effects such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder as well. Later studies will focus on psychological effects.

“There should no longer be any doubt about the health effects of the World Trade Center disaster,” said Dr. Robin Herbert, the head of the study and co-director of Mount Sinai’s World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program. “Our patients are sick, and they will need ongoing care for the rest of their lives.”

The results, in brief:

• Roughly 70 percent of nearly 10,000 workers tested at Mount Sinai from 2002 to 2004 reported that they had new or substantially worsened respiratory problems while or after working at ground zero.

• One-third of the patients in the new study showed diminished lung capacity in tests designed to measure the amount of air a person can exhale.

• 46.5 percent reported symptoms like chest tightness, shortness of breath and dry cough that generally affect the lower airways of the lungs.

• 62.5 percent reported upper-respiratory symptoms like sinusitis and nose and throat irritations.

• Among nonsmokers, 28 percent were found to have some breathing impairment, more than double the rate for nonsmokers in the general population.

• Firefighters and others who arrived at the site earliest had the worst problems.

Long-term effects

Most workers interviewed about the health effects of working on the pile tell of their symptoms getting worse, and the doctors agree.

The doctors said that the persistent nature of the respiratory symptoms raised troubling questions about the workers’ long-term health. Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, a founder of the screening program at Mount Sinai and an author of the new study, said that the toxic nature of the trade center dust had led doctors to conclude that there would be serious health issues for years to come, especially for workers who were exposed to the heaviest concentrations in the early days after the terrorist attack.

“This was extremely toxic dust,” Landrigan said, noting that some samples showed the dust to be as caustic as drain cleaner. The dust also contained innumerable tiny shards of glass, which could get lodged in the lungs, and a stew of toxic and carcinogenic substances, like asbestos and dioxin, that could potentially lead to cancer decades from now.

Other serious problems plague the victims as well. For example, 40 percent of those who went to Mount Sinai for medical screening did not have health insurance, and will thus not get proper medical care. And as they become sicker and unable to work, more will lose their health insurance.

In addition, many workers received incorrect treatments because their physicians weren’t aware of the protocols for treating patients. Although Mount Sinai established a protocol, or guidelines, for treating the responders who were already showing characteristic signs of illness in 2002, New York City’s Health Department didn’t issue diagnostic guidelines until early September, almost five years after the buildings collapsed.

Spinning results

Only the mayor of New York didn’t seem too impressed with the study.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, speaking at a news conference at City Hall last month, questioned the conclusiveness of the study, saying that statistics could suggest a connection between events, but not prove a direct link.

“I don’t believe that you can say specifically a particular problem came from this particular event,” he said. Nonetheless, Bloomberg announced that the city would create a screening and treatment program for anyone exposed to the trade center dust or fumes.

The mayor did, however, announce the establishment of a $37.5 million city monitoring and treatment program that will offer its services at no charge to residents of Manhattan or Brooklyn, office workers, city employees and volunteers, and people involved in debris removal and cleanup.

EPA’s false assurances that the air was OK

Three days after the buildings collapsed, then-U.S. Environmental Protection Administrator Christie Whitman issued a press release: “Monitoring and sampling conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday have been very reassuring about potential exposure of rescue workers and the public to environmental contamination.” Two weeks later, Mayor Rudy Giuliani said rescue workers faced minimal risk because the air quality was “safe and acceptable.”

But in August 2003, an internal EPA inspector general’s report found that White House officials had instructed the agency to be less alarming and more reassuring to the public in the first few days after the attack, even though they didn’t have the information to support that assurance.

Earlier this year, a federal judge found that Whitman deliberately misled the public when she reassured the public after the collapse of the World Trade Centers that the air was safe to breathe in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.

And this August, documents and memos obtained by Newsday revealed that city officials, pressured by building and business owners to open up downtown New York in the vicinity of the collapsed World Trade Center buildings following 9/11, ignored advice from experts, possibly dooming thousands to illness, shorter lives and early death. The documents show that city officials may have opened up hazardous areas prematurely, even though they were warned by other officials at the New York Department of Environmental Protection that the air may have still been hazardous.

The false assurances of EPA and the city of New York served as a preamble to one of the biggest scandals of this tragedy: OSHA’s failure to enforce the use of respirators.

OHSA’s failures

Although New York Times writer Anthony DePalma didn’t go into the whole respirator issue in his Sept. 6 article about the study, last June he wrote a long piece in the Times about the “botched opportunities, confused policies and contradictions that failed to ensure [workers’] safety.”

As bad as EPA was, I wrote then, in reviewing DePalma’s article, that the real culprit was the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the agency tasked by Congress to ensure the health and safety of American workers. And there’s no exception for federally declared disasters.

As the magnitude of the recovery operation grew clearer, attempts were made to bring order to the operation. On Sept. 20, 2001, the city issued its first safety plan, and it asked OSHA to take charge of distributing respirators. In what would become a controversial move, OSHA used its discretionary powers to decide not to enforce workplace safety regulations but to act in a supportive role that would not slow down operations.

“Given that the site was operating under emergency conditions, it was normal that we should suspend our enforcement action and assume the roles of consultation and technical assistance,” Patricia Clark, OSHA regional administrator for New York, said in a 2003 OSHA publication.

What we’re dealing with here is a traditional conflict between production (in this case, cleaning up the site as quickly as possible) and worker safety, along with the additional political push by the can-do Bush administration to get things cleaned up quickly.

It has been argued that the World Trade Center site (as well as the post-Katrina Gulf) was an emergency and, at least in the immediate, chaotic aftermath, there may have been nothing OSHA could have done to enforce respirator use.

But the cleanup of the site went on for nine months beyond the initial emergency. In addition, similar “emergency conditions” didn’t stop officials from escorting workers off the Pentagon crash site if they weren’t wearing proper respiratory gear, and the Times reported that more than 90 percent of the workers at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island (where the debris from the World Trade Center site was dumped), which was overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers, wore respirators.

The current situation

The federal government has finally started to take the situation seriously. Following the first confirmed death of a rescue worker, Bush appointed John Howard, director of The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, to coordinate the federal government’s 9/11 health efforts. But even Howard admits, “costly delays and missed opportunities may have shattered responders’ trust in government.” Although many are relieved that someone is in charge, the problems continue.

Howard, who was trained as a pulmonary specialist, has not assigned a single one of his 1,300 employees to work full-time on ground zero medical issues, though about 20 work on such issues part- time. And though the institute has a budget of about $285 million, he has not received any additional money to address the complex medical issues involved.

“I’m a czar without a budget,” he said.

Money continues to be a serious problem. Although money has been available for screening and monitoring programs run by Mount Sinai, until last year, almost no money was available for treatment. Last year, New York’s congressional delegation convinced the Bush administration to restore $125 million in unused workers’ compenation funds that it had threatened to take back, but that still doesn’t come close to what will be needed.

Finally, a new law was passed in New York making most people who performed rescue, recovery or cleanup work after the collapse of the World Trade Center eligible to register with the Workers’ Compensation Board. Anyone who is registered who develops a 9/11-related illness at any time in the future will be eligible to file a workers’ compensation claim. Failure to register by Aug. 14, 2007, will make it impossible to file a claim even if the worker develops a 9/11-related illness.

What does it all mean?

Finally, take a look at a Sept. 5 article at tomdispatch.com by public health historians David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz, authors of the just published “Are We Ready? Public Health Since 9/11.” Rosner and Markowitz note that the New York public health system worked when 9/11 happened. Emergency health services were ready to go, measures were taken to prevent food from rotting, vermin infestations and mosquito outbreaks. But that was soon to end.

It took no time at all for the administration to start systematically undercutting the efforts of experienced health administrators in New York and at the national Centers for Disease Control, they write. By pressing them to return the city to “normal” and feeding them doctored information about dust levels — ignoring scientific uncertainties about the dangers that lingered in the air — the administration lied to support a national policy of denial.

Putting in place a dysfunctional bureaucracy would soon undermine the public’s trust in the whole health system in downtown Manhattan, Rosner and Markowitz say. In the process, it also effectively crippled systems already in existence to protect workers, local residents and children attending school in the area. As a result, what promised to be an extraordinary example of a government bureaucracy actually working turned into a disaster and later became the de facto model for the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.

The next step was the starvation of the national public health system while money was wasted on wild goose chases like smallpox immunizations and the war in Iraq instead of “laboratories, well-baby clinic care, and inoculation campaigns.” And here we are today.

Return to numbers

In the wake of September 11th, the public health community saw its sanest initiatives stifled and its priorities distorted. While money is now less available for the inoculation of babies from the real threats of rubella, mumps and measles, as hoped-for funds to prevent as many as 350,000 children from getting lead poisoning are no longer on anyone’s agenda, as federal funds to support health education have been rescinded, and as (unbelievably enough) money needed to protect U.S. ports from dirty bombs or bioterrorism have all but vanished, Katrina victims still wander the nation wondering whether they will be able to see a physician.

Finally, let’s return to the numbers. The main result of the Mount Sinai study was that 70 percent of the ground zero workers studied had serious respiratory problems. An estimated 40,000 persons worked at ground zero during those months. Given the fact that these symptoms are getting worse for many, that many symptoms have not yet been studied, that we’ve already seen some deaths, and that we have not begun to see the long-term effects of the smoke, what kind of numbers will we be looking at in 30 years and how will they compare to those lost on 9/11 itself? I shudder to think.

Jordan Barab runs the award-winning “Confined Space” blog (spewingforth.blogspot.com), which provides news and commentary on workplace health and safety, labor and politics. This article originally appeared on Confined Space, Sept. 6, 2006.