People Before Profit blog

Ohio union leader walks Road to Recovery

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:57:00 +0000

BARBERTON, Ohio — “No blisters yet, but I’ve got a darned shin splint,” said Ohio AFL-CIO President Joe Rugola as he walked into this rustbelt city near Akron last week. “The wonderful folks I’ve met on this walk have kept me so up, emotionally, that I don’t even feel it any more.”

Rugola has walked about 200 miles across Ohio, stopping at plants in each community that have closed up shop since the Bush regime came to power in 2002. At each closed plant he’s met with local workers and townsfolk, generated media coverage, if possible, and planted a large sign that states: “180,000 jobs lost — Bush/McCain legacy!”

Early in his walk, which the Ohio AFL-CIO is calling the “Road To Recovery,” Rugola was joined by German and Japanese reporters along with local media. “Most local newspapers in the smaller communities have covered us,” he said. “But it’s really about letting the working people in these hard-hit areas know that organized labor is still fighting for them, that there is still hope and that we can turn things around if they get out and vote for change and elect Obama!”

At his first Barberton stop, the former J & R Tire, Rugola was greeted by a crowd that included many unionists, former J & R workers and retiree activists, as well as Bob Genet, IBEW member and newly elected mayor of Barberton. A traveling van from the Alliance of Retired Americans was also there to support Rugola’s effort.

“There were 1,800 good manufacturing jobs here,” said Genet. “That’s 1,800 families that have lost jobs and a huge blow to our local tax base. But it’s more than that. That is where all of our fathers worked. They used to hire family members. It was a good union shop, part of our family here. Now it’s just an old rusty building, thanks to the policies of this administration.”

After a short rally and planting the sign, the crowd walked two miles to the padlocked and rusting shell that used to be Midwest Rubber, where another 400 jobs were lost.

“My brother worked there for over 25 years,” said AFL-CIO Retiree Council leader Charlie Lemon. “Now the damned thing just looks like an old, haunted prison or something.”

The group walked with Rugola from there to the former shops at Five Star Mold, where 140 Ohio jobs were lost. They finished up at Reiter Dairy, where 400 Barberton workers used to make a good living.

“Economists speak of somewhere between 8 and 11 secondary jobs being lost for every manufacturing job that is lost,” said John Wagner, president of the Summit County AFL-CIO. “That’s 25,000-30,000 jobs stolen away from this city by the trade, tax and manufacturing policies of Bush and his corporate friends.”

Wagner continued, “The bankers yell and they get to raid the public treasury. It’s here and places like Barberton that really need bailing out.”

Next on Rugola’s walking tour is Dayton, a city hard-hit by plant closures and home foreclosures. The big Morain Auto plant there is scheduled to close its doors this month and local housing activists estimate over 9,000 homes are now in foreclosure and boarded up.

Rugola’s “Road To Recovery” will finish up Nov. 3 in Columbus, where large crowds are expected to welcome him. “On Tuesday I get to vote, and we all hope to celebrate on Wednesday,” Rugola said.

Today we vote, tomorrow we march

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:40:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES — “When we elect Barack — knock on wood — we will have someone who responds to labor, to people’s needs, the plight of immigrants. But he can’t win change alone. It will take a larger movement,” said Maria Elena Durazo, leader of the 840,000-member Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

One of the most dynamic labor leaders in the country, she has been at the center of organizing, negotiating and election efforts that have made Los Angeles a union city — with a county-wide labor force that is 19 percent organized compared to a national rate of 11 percent.

In the midst of mobilizing for a union voter turnout in the hundreds of thousands, phone banking and sending workers to battleground states, Durazo dedicated three days this month to fasting for immigrant rights. She encamped with scores of other fasters at La Plaza Olvera, the historic and geographical center of Los Angeles.

On Oct. 25, after her first day of fasting, she sat down beside her tent for an interview with the People’s Weekly World about the Bush administration’s impact on working people and the prospects for change with this election.

“We have had a great degree of success locally with home care, truckers, janitors, construction and other industries but the scale has to be two to three times more,” she said soberly. “Labor has political clout locally but not as strong in the state and nation. There are more and more poverty-level jobs, the cost of living has risen with gas prices, record repossessions increasing deportation.”

“Our only protection in a looming depression is a stronger movement that can fight back” against corporate takeaways and raiding of the national treasury, she said. “What we are doing in this election is unprecedented: city and statewide we are sending hundreds and hundreds of members to work full-time in battleground states. This is proof of what we can do, of our potential when we know what is at stake.”

Continued action will be needed to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, defend Social Security, win comprehensive immigration reform and end the war in Iraq, Durazo stressed. “We will have to take the lead. If we don’t, the Democrats will weaken” under corporate pressure, she said.

Republicans have been among the worst in advocating anti-labor policies, but many Democrats are from conservative and moderate districts and don’t have pro-labor backgrounds, she noted.

“It has not only become more difficult to organize, it has become more dangerous, like going back to the days of Joe Hill,” Durazo said, referring to the legendary labor organizer who was hanged for his organizing efforts.

“The immigration raids are increasing, workers are treated like terrorists,” she added. “I firmly believe the unions have to invest more and more into organizing, regardless of the law — it is our responsibility.”

Reviewing the Bush administration, she reflected that “their disdain for human rights and international guarantees has not been seen for decades.”

“The world is watching our election and expects the people will change the direction,” she said. “If the voters elect McCain, respect will be lost for our people.”

Durazo said, “I have joined in this fast to remind the Latino community and others of the importance of the vote.”

The Fast For Our Future, organized and supported by immigrants rights, clergy, youth and labor activists, is calling for a million people to sign a pledge to vote for immigrant rights, to fast one day, to mobilize others to support the campaign, and to work on the issue after the election.

“We have to realize the slogan of 2006: Today we march, tomorrow we vote,” said Durazo. Asked what comes next, she said, “Today we vote, tomorrow we march.”

rosalio_munoz@sbcglobal.net

Obama ground game surges in Western Pa.

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:13:00 +0000

With time running out, John McCain floundered against surging voter support for Barack Obama in Pennsylvania and other battleground states that could determine who wins the presidency Nov. 4.

Thousands of Obama enthusiasts packed the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh Oct. 27, and another huge crowd turned out on the other end of Pennsylvania in Chester the next day as Obama hammered McCain for proposing hundreds of billions in tax giveaways to the rich when 10,000 working families are losing their homes in foreclosure every month. Obama and running mate Joe Biden were attracting these massive crowds with their message of multiracial and regional unity while Sarah Palin continued divisive comments about “pro-American” versus “anti-American” parts of the country.

An army of volunteers has carried Obama’s message door to door in communities throughout western Pennsylvania.

George Edwards, 90, a leader of the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR), told the World that SOAR and the AFL-CIO-affiliated Alliance for Retired Americans held a big rally in Pittsburgh featuring Hillary Clinton a few days ago. “She gave a very good speech asking people to support Obama,” said Edwards. “I think Obama is going to carry Pennsylvania. I think this is going to be a sweep, a real turning point in our history, like the election of Franklin Roosevelt.”

Obama has built a powerful grassroots coalition, Edwards continued. “I was around during the election of Roosevelt. He too was put in the White House by a coalition. But this time we have a much better coalition. The labor movement was still weak back then. Now they are a real force.”

“What we need today,” he added, “is a new New Deal that provides jobs and health care for working families.”

Carl Davidson, a lifelong peace and justice activist now retired in blue collar Beaver County, said he has been going door to door with about 100 union members every weekend working for Obama.

“I’ve gotten more confident in the last couple of weeks,” he said. “The main reason is the Wall Street crash. It has caused a lot of older workers to break in Obama’s direction.”

In the primary election, Democratic voters in Beaver County cast their ballots 70 percent for Hillary Clinton and 30 percent for Obama. “So the question is how these Clinton voters will vote Nov. 4,” Davidson said.

Now, more and more people are using the “O” word, he said, meaning they plan to vote for Obama as well as the rest of the Democratic ticket.

A high point was a rally at International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 712 in Vanport. Speakers included AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard, Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Bill George and retired Steelers linebacker Edmund Nelson. Nelson told the crowd, “I’m for Barack Obama because I hate this war in Iraq.”

Davidson chuckled. “That speech got the loudest applause of all.”

Obama draws his strength from the grassroots, Davidson continued. “It’s three movements coming together — the labor movement, the African American people and the young anti-war Obama volunteers. These young people work their hearts out.”

Obama, he said, “understands the tactics of mass movements. His campaign is very innovative. He is the first presidential candidate who understands the Internet, the power of social networking.”

Without understanding the Internet, Obama would not have won the Iowa caucuses last February, Davidson said.

Obama has used the Internet as a tool of mass organization, mobilization and fundraising. Nearly four million donors have contributed more than $600 million to Obama’s campaign, mostly in amounts under $100. “McCain is doing everything the old time, top down way,” said Davidson, while Obama is out-organizing McCain, carrying his campaign into every battleground state, into states McCain thought were safe. “Obama may carry West Virginia. Polls show it is a toss-up,” Davidson concluded.

greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com

Unions help shift red states to blue

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 07:51:00 +0000

A united labor movement, fighting for a U.S. economy that once again creates millions of good-paying jobs, is on the verge of making history.

In the final days of the election countdown, an unprecedented labor mobilization to make Barack Obama President Obama has helped force John McCain to defend states like Virginia, Ohio, Florida and North Carolina — states once seen as solidly Republican, but now making a historic shift.

Labor leaders and rank-and-file union members are proud of what they see as the key role they have played in shaping how the public views Obama on the economy — seeing him as far more qualified than McCain to cope with the raging crisis.

When Obama addressed more than 100,000 in Denver last week, he put forward a theme that has been part of labor’s effort to elect him. “We know what the Bush-McCain philosophy looks like,” Obama declared. “It is a philosophy that says we should give more and more to millionaires and billionaires and hope that it trickles down.”

Virginia, long considered a “red” state, exemplifies how the labor movement has helped to send the Republicans running scared.

Hundreds of workers greeted Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on her recent visit to Richmond. Carrying signs with slogans like “Obama u betcha” and “Wiser older women for Obama-Biden” and “It’s the economy — Sarah. Don’t change the subject,” they cheered and drew honks of support from the steady stream of cars passing by.

That action took place only days after Nancy Pfotenhauer, one of McCain’s senior advisers, tried to convince an NBC commentator that Virginia’s tilt to Obama was only because of northern Virginia which, she said, didn’t qualify as the “real” Virginia because it is home to “Democrats who moved in from D.C.”

Richmond, according to Pfotenhauer, is part of the “real” Virginia. And union activity has been intense not only there, but also throughout the state.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka mentioned Virginia in a recent talk at the University of Illinois in Chicago. His description of labor’s effort there contrasted sharply with the divide-and-conquer approach of the McCain campaign: “The effort in Virginia was built from the ground up by affiliates across the state working together. It’s one movement of men and women, young and old, white collar and blue collar, of every race, every faith joining together, working together, fighting together, winning together.” Trumka himself has made history this year by spearheading a concerted campaign by labor to combat the effects of racism in this election.

On the national level the labor movement has launched an intense get-out-the-vote drive for the final days of the campaign.

The AFL-CIO has a record 250,000 volunteers and 4,000 paid staffers assigned to 20 battleground states in the presidential race, 12 Senate races and 60 House races. In some states, like Minnesota, Oregon and New Hampshire, the unions are involved in both the presidential contest and a Senate race, and in New Hampshire they are also working on a House campaign.

The other top battleground states for labor are Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Virginia and North Carolina, two of the least unionized states in the country, are also on the list.

Union efforts for Obama in both Virginia and North Carolina are being spearheaded by the Communications Workers and the Steelworkers, two of the largest unions in Virginia.

The AFL-CIO estimates that total spending by its member unions will be $250 million.

This does not include spending by Change to Win, the other major labor federation. One Change to Win union, the Service Employees, is, by itself, spending more than $100 million.

During the last seven days of the campaign 25,000 union volunteers from California, Illinois and New York, which are not battleground states, are being deployed into the battlegrounds to make contact with union voters. The levels at which volunteers and staff engage voters are unprecedented.

Josh LeClair, a union volunteer in Orlando, Fla., told the World that he met a retired autoworker who was a World War II veteran at the man’s trailer home. The gentleman greeted him with a vow that “he could not vote for that Muslim.” LeClair spent over an hour with the veteran debunking false rumors, and discussing McCain’s record on Social Security and veterans’ benefits. He went back a day later with literature on the issues and spent time telling the voter about his grandfather, also a World War II vet and was able to part company with the voter who told him he was now an Obama supporter.

The final push plan also features 70 million phone calls, 10 million door knocks, 57 million mailings and the distribution at worksites of 27 million fliers focusing on economic issues.

Also included is what the AFL-CIO calls a “microtargeted approach” to some of the most difficult-to-reach voters, including veterans, retirees and gun owners. Many of these voters have been contacted 20 or more times and the unions plan to reach all of them in the final days of the campaign.

A nationwide “Final Four Day Blitz” is under way to reach every union member identified as an Obama voter and ensure their turnout.

Voter-protection programs are under way in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Virginia, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada. In Ohio and Michigan labor’s voter protection groups have already done extensive work rebuking claims made by the GOP in those states that numerous groups of people are, for various reasons, ineligible to vote. The protection program is placing union poll watchers at polling places across those states.

jwojcik@pww.org

Unions help shift red states to blue

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 07:44:00 +0000

Smithfield drops lawsuit against union

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:34:00 +0000

In a victory for workers at the nation’s largest pork processing plant Smithfield Foods, located in Tar Heel, N.C., dropped a racketeering and extortion lawsuit against the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), Oct. 27, with the union agreeing to suspend its economic and publicity campaign against the company.

Both sides agreed to rules for a union organizing election for workers at the slaughterhouse. The union had sought an election under “neutral” auspices but the settlement was sealed, so it is unclear how or when the election will be held.

While company and union officials would not comment, Richard Hurd, a professor of labor studies at Cornell University who has tracked this struggle closely, said in a press interview, that the possibility of pro-labor Barack Obama winning the presidency played a role in Smithfield’s decision to settle the case.

People in the labor movement expect an Obama presidency to lead to changes on the National Labor Relations Board making conditions more favorable for unions.

Obama has also pledged to sign into law the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow workers to choose union representation at a worksite when a simple majority sign cards indicating that this is their desire.

This would avoid the current system of holding elections at worksites with the company able to intimidate and fire workers seen as friendly toward the union organizing drive.

Workers went through this process twice at Smithfield, in 1993 and 1997. The union narrowly lost those elections but a federal appeals court determined that Smithfield improperly influenced the process. The company was forced to pay $1.1 million in back wages, plus interest, to workers fired as a result of its union-busting effort.

Since that time the company has worked with the Department of Homeland Security to facilitate massive immigration raids at the plant, also aimed at weakening support for the union.

The company sued the union and an array of other organizations last October, about a year and a half after the groups began a sustained campaign against worker abuse and union busting at the Tar Heel plant. Almost 5,000 workers are employed at the plant, which processes 32,000 hogs per day.

The UFCW has been working to organize the plant for 13 years.

The union insisted that Smithfield’s conduct in the elections made it nearly impossible to hold a fair secret-ballot election and asked that the company recognize the union once a majority of workers signed union cards. Smithfield rejected that approach. Company and union officials will not comment on the deal for the new election because U.S. District Judge Robert Payne has ordered the parties to say nothing further about the accord until after the election.

“The union is getting what they believe is a fair election, and the company is getting them to call off the negative publicity,” Hurd said.

The Smithfield suit was aimed at a wide variety of groups and individuals involved in the fight for justice at the plant. It named not just the union but also Jobs with Justice, Research Associates of America, and Change-to-Win, the labor federation to which the UFCW belongs. Also named were numerous individuals including UFCW President Joe Hansen, the union’s Smithfield campaign director Gene Bruskin, and Andy Stern, SEIU president.

Since the campaign against Smithfield began city councils all over the country have passed resolutions and started boycotts of Smithfield products. The state of Massachussetts has banned the company’s products from all store shelves.

The company filed its lawsuit under a 1970 statute designed to battle gangsters’ extortion schemes – the racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). That act is now being used by companies to silence corporate critics. It has also been used to file suits in recent months against the Service Employees (SEIU) who are trying to organize security guards at Wackenhut and against the UFCW which is trying to organize grocery stores in Arizona.

Smithfield’s lawsuit claimed the campaign against it was resulting in severe financial losses.

“Whatever economic consequences flow from free speech, they are not considered in the law sufficient to deprive people of free speech,” said Joan Bertin, director of the National Coalition Against Censorship. The group is one of many that sees the RICO law as unconstitutional.

The “so called crime” that the unions and the others committed, she said, was to employ strategies long used to educate the public, garner support and pressure a big corporation.

The union’s position has been that it had to mount an aggressive campaign for consumer and community support because Smithfield repeatedly violated laws that are supposed to allow workers to organize.

jwojcik @ pww.org

Machinists win tentative deal with Boeing

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 05:17:00 +0000

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) announced Oct. 27 that it has reached a tentative agreement with the Boeing Company on a contract that will improve job security for its members and curb the amount of work the company can outsource.

The agreement came after a five day period of talks in which federal mediators participated. The union was represented at the bargaining table by IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger and IAM General Vice President Rich Michalski.

Job security and outsourcing were critical issues in the strike that began Sept. 6. Other issues resolved by the negotiators were wages, health care benefits for current and future employees, pensions, and, according to a union statement, “work rule changes designed to improve productivity.”

A union spokesman reached by phone would not give further details of the accord. They will not be released, he said, until they can be compiled and distributed to union members at all Boeing locations.

The tentative accord has the unanimous backing of the IAM negotiating committee and will be presented to members for a ratification vote. A simple majority of the vote, which will take place within five days, is required for contract ratification.

“This tentative agreement is the result of hard work and sacrifice by many people,” said IAM Aerospace Coordinator Mark Blondin. “But no one deserves more credit than the workers at Boeing, who conducted themselves with dignity and determination throughout this ordeal. On behalf of the entire negotiating committee, I want to say it has been an honor to serve as their representatives.”

The IAM represents 27,000 workers at Boeing facilities in Kansas, Oregon, Washington and California.

Who a president puts on the bench matters much in the lives of workers

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 10:09:00 +0000

In the final presidential debate John McCain boasted that he would appoint judges based on experience and he castigated Barack Obama for wanting to appoint judges “who have a liberal philosophy.”

Obama answered that a court appointee must have certain beliefs that include a sense of fairness for all individuals and groups in our society. He used the example of Lilly Ledbetter, who sued Goodyear because it paid her less than it paid men who did the same work. Obama said it was poorly chosen Supreme Court justices who ruled that her lawsuit was no good because it came more than 150 days after she was hired, even though she didn’t know until then that she had been the victim of pay discrimination. Obama implied that he would have picked judges who would have ruled in Ledbetter’s favor.

The president gets to pick not just Supreme Court justices but also federal court judges for districts all over the country. Even as the last presidential debate was taking place there were cases before these courts that illustrate the importance of the issues Obama raised about picking good judges. Cases recently decided in these courts have made a world of difference in the everyday lives of workers.

Because of a good judicial appointment, workers recently won a case in Denver. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals there ruled Oct. 1 that Wal-Mart had changed the hours of its pharmacists, Steven Justice and Ghassan Abdalla, so frequently between 1993 and 1998 that they were, in fact, hourly employees and not “salaried.” The ruling means that, unlike “salaried” employees, they are entitled to time-and-a-half pay for all the overtime hours they worked.

The case shows not just the importance of appointing fair judges but also of the 10 federal courts themselves. With the U.S. Supreme Court hearing fewer and fewer cases each year, more cases involving worker rights are now decided in the federal courts.

Companies use an almost incredible variety of tactics to bust unions.

A federal court in Indiana recently sorted out and ruled in favor of the workers in one of these situations.

There was a newly organized unit of Teamsters Local 716 at Spurlino Materials Co. in Indianapolis last year when the company was helping build the Colts’ new football stadium. On the surface everything looked OK. A project labor agreement covered the construction, and Spurlino followed it by paying the required higher wages for work done on the stadium. Spurlino still wanted to bust the newly organized union, however. The first step it took to achieve this goal was to deny the higher paid assignments to the three cement truck drivers — Ron Eversole, Gary Stevenson and Matt Bales — who had led the Teamsters organizing drive. The company ignored seniority and used a variety of methods to steer the more lucrative assignments away from the union organizers. Fearing the same might happen to them, other drivers in the 35-member unit started to stay away from union meetings, thus weakening the unit considerably.

The Teamsters complained and the National Labor Relations Board in Indiana ordered Spurlino to cease discriminating against the union organizers.

Spurlino sued the NLRB in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court.

The court ruled against Spurlino, in favor of the NLRB and the workers. The ruling noted that the company was trying to weaken the Teamster unit so it could stall in meeting its responsibility to bargain with the union. The court said: “The longer an employer is able to chill union participation or avoid bargaining, the less likely it is the union will be able to organize and to represent employees effectively. The risk is particularly true in cases involving fledgling unions, where passage of time is critical.

“The court, noting the precipitous decline in union participation, credits the testimony of many Spurlino employees who stated they were hesitant to attend union meetings because they feared discrimination. If Spurlino is allowed to proceed in its quest to defeat the union before it becomes firmly established, then merely requiring the company to pay its employees damage after the fact will not remedy the adverse impact to the union and the employees.”

Not all the cases before the federal courts go so well for the workers. An appeals court in California ruled Oct. 9 that it is OK, at least in Los Angeles, to pay teachers less than the minimum wage.

Ernest Kettenring, an adult education teacher, sued the Los Angeles school district for having underpaid him. The district pays its adult ed teachers a regular periodic amount called a “salary.”

The time he spent preparing lesson plans and performing assignments outside the classroom caused him to spend many more hours than the number used to calculate his flat rate or “salary.” On an hourly basis he actually earned less than the required state minimum wage.

The trial court ruled that the state minimum wage provisions did not apply to the school, district, because adult education teachers “fall within the professional exemption” of state law. The appellate court agreed and the workers lost an important battle.

In another blow to workers, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled Sept. 9 that an employee could not recoup back taxes she paid when she was wrongfully classified as an “independent contractor.”

Carrie Umland worked for Hartford Insurance as an “independent contractor” from 2000 to 2003. Companies frequently use the “independent contractor” loophole to evade paying Social Security taxes, Medicare and workers’ compensation.

In Umland’s case, however, the company withheld 15.3 percent of her pay, the equivalent of the employer’s and employee’s share of Social Security taxes. When it signed her onto a new employment contract the company asked Umland if she wanted to be classified as an “employee” instead.

She agreed. In such cases the company is allowed to withhold only the employee’s share, 7.65 percent of the taxes. The company continued to withhold 15.3 percent and Umland sued on behalf of herself and others similarly ripped off.

Incredibly, the appellate judges ruled against her and her co-workers. For the time she was an “independent contractor,” the court said, she was not misclassified because she had agreed to that status. Since then, they ruled, federal law bars her and the others from suing the company for over-witholding. Only the Internal Revenue Service, the court ruled, which gets the tax money from company withholdings, can do that, the judges said.

These are only a few examples of why labor unions have included the issue of court appointments on the long list of concerns they have regarding the presidential election. While the McCain campaign has framed many of the court cases of interest to the labor movement as “boondoggles for trial lawyers,” unions and workers see the courts as an important arena in the struggle for workers’ rights. It’s one of the many reasons they have for fighting for the election of Obama.

PAI contributed to this story.

First Black president? Detroit labor legend wonders if it's all a dream

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 08:59:00 +0000

DETROIT, Mich. — These days, as millions nationwide work to elect the first African American president, 96-year-old Dave Moore, longtime labor and community leader, wonders if it’s all just a dream.

“I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but I’ve been Black all my life, and sometimes I don’t know if I’m dreaming,” Moore told the World. He said he was “blown away” at how many white votes Barack Obama won during the primaries and the impressive display of thousands of white voters at Obama rallies across the country.

“When I wake up the next day after the election and Obama wins, then I will know that this country has begun to take a turn for the better,” said Moore.

Born April 6, 1912, as a teenager Moore left what he calls the “slave state of South Carolina” with his family and moved to Detroit. New to the big city, he says he had never seen so many people before hustling and bustling about.

Moore recalls joining a community water polo team as a youth on the city’s East Side, at a time when “colored” and “white” signs were common. His team made it to the finals and traveled across town to a park in a predominantly white area to face an all-white team. Although the park required segregated seating, Moore said the players ignored the rule and sat where they wanted because the mayor of Detroit had declared the city’s public areas open to all. “And we won the city championship,” Moore said proudly.

Moore remembers the Great Depression of the 1930s when people had little food and ate rotten vegetables and fruits to get by. “And we didn’t have heat in the winter so we would use wood from the porch out front to stay warm,” he said. People at that time lived through “hardships, suffering, pain and agony while the fat cats gobbled up all the money.” His parents lost $500 when banks closed. That was a lot of money back then, said Moore. “All of us were suffering like hell.”

Moore became active with the Unemployed Councils, which mobilized people to fight against mass hunger and home evictions. Those experiences taught Moore the importance of unity among Black, white and Latino workers. People came together and rallied for their basic rights against rich employers who left millions out in the cold.

Moore’s most memorable and proudest moment came in 1941 when he was instrumental in organizing workers into the United Auto Workers union at the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Mich. At the time Ford was the third largest industrial giant in the world and 75 percent of the workforce there had been laid off with no public relief. People were dying from cold and hunger.

In 1932 Moore helped lead a hunger march where five union members fell victim to machine guns fired by thugs hired by anti-union Henry Ford. It was the multiracial unity among the workers that overcame the divisions that Ford tried to provoke. That struggle eventually opened the door to the organization of the nation’s auto industry and the founding of the UAW.

Moore was eventually elected to leadership positions at UAW Local 600, the powerful Ford local. Like many others, however, Moore fell victim to McCarthyism and was dismissed from his elected position in 1951. But as McCarthyism waned, he was reinstated in 1963 and was assigned as a national UAW representative. Moore was a founding member of the National Negro Labor Council and served as a legislative assistant to legendary Rep. George Crockett. Later Detroit Mayor Coleman Young appointed Moore the city’s senior citizens director.

Reflecting on the history he has lived and battled through, Moore said the Black community has been hit the hardest with the current economic crisis. “We got a lot of people unemployed today,” he said, adding that many of his neighbors have been laid off from the once booming auto industry. Moore believes the economic meltdown is going to propel Obama to become the first Black president, but “it’s not going to be easy for him.”

During the Depression of the 1930s, President Roosevelt had the people behind him, said Moore. “And that is what Obama needs to do — have the people behind him. I believe the key to Obama’s campaign lies with the working people.”

“I think Obama has the best program, but no matter what happens the fat cats of Wall Street and tycoons of big industry are the ones who control the finances of this country,” he said. “They don’t want to see a movement for unity of all people coming together.”

“It’s a long, long road that working and poor people have to travel but we have to remember this is a capitalist country and the fat cats on Wall Street will do whatever they can to keep it that way. Take a look at this country’s history — big business has always called the shots. I hope Obama goes all the way when he says he’s for change.”

When it comes to fighting for unions, multiracial unity, civil rights and peace, Moore has seen it all, he said — he knows what it means to struggle for a working people’s agenda in victory and defeat. Today, he sees great hope for the future.

“I’d like to see unity of all people one day where racism in this country is behind us,” he said. “I’d like to see a world where people don’t have to worry about starvation or unemployment. Where youngsters can get an education and become contributors to the betterment of society. Where our country’s government truly plays a role to help educate our children in a world based on peace, understanding and brotherhood regardless of race, creed, religion or color.”

Moore is looking forward to seeing a step in that direction with the election of Obama on Nov. 4

plozano @ pww.org

Jobs for workers come first

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:29:00 +0000

Just days after the Communications Workers of America put forward a comprehensive economic recovery plan for Main Street, Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke told Congress Oct. 20 that despite government efforts thus far, the economy remains in deep trouble.

He told lawmakers that the economy will “likely be weak for several quarters, with risk of a protracted slowdown.” Main Street, thus far left out of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, lost 175,000 jobs in September alone and almost 1 million since January.

The CWA recovery plan, unveiled Oct. 15, includes passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, comprehensive universal health care, a systematic approach to long-range investment in job-creating infrastructure, and creation of universal broadband and Internet coverage in America.

The union’s proposal came as Democratic congressional leaders, faced with continuing disastrous economic news, laid plans to call lawmakers back on Nov. 17 to pass a $150 billion economic stimulus package. The CWA proposal also came as it released an “Are We Better Off than We Were Eight Years Ago?” political campaign pamphlet which it is distributing in key swing states.

Congressional Democrats want the economic stimulus package to include extended unemployment benefits, infrastructure projects and aid to states to help pay for Medicaid and other costs resulting from the spiraling unemployment rate. The contours of the package were hammered out at a joint meeting of the Democratic leadership and top union leaders earlier this year after the first stimulus package was passed. However, a Senate GOP filibuster blocked it and President Bush threatened a veto.

House Republicans on Oct. 20 said again they will oppose the new package. They called instead for speeding up offshore oil drilling, lowering taxes on corporations that earn money from overseas subsidiaries, and suspending capital gains taxes.

CWA President Larry Cohen said the Democratic congressional plan is much closer to what an economic stimulus package should be, “but while the stimulus would be immediate, the union’s plan is more long-term. It helps workers get jobs.”

“We’ve seen an enormous handout for Wall Street, now we need real attention to Main Street,” Cohen said. “That means the creation of quality jobs by developing alternate energy sources, necessary repair to our highways, bridges, schools and communities and especially important, investment in the global economic engine for the 21st century, the build-out of high speed Internet networks.”

“Jobs for workers come first,” Cohen told the World in an Oct. 20 telephone interview, “before lawmakers grant any further bailouts to Wall Street or breaks to corporations that outsource jobs.”

He said health care reform is needed because the present system leaves 46 million uninsured and the number grows even as workers switch jobs. He said universal health care is also needed because employers who do provide quality health care are left at a competitive disadvantage with those, “like Wal-Mart, who don’t.”

Asked why the Employee Free Choice Act is critical to economic recovery, Cohen said, “It would not only help level the playing field between workers and bosses in organizing drives and at the bargaining table but it is essential if there is to be a counterweight to corporate greed. It also gives workers the bargaining power they need to restore their standard of living which eroded under Bush, and is even more endangered now with the financial crush. Real bargaining rights are the best economic stimulus for restoring our middle class.”

Under pressure from an angry working class and its unions, John McCain has increasingly tried in his campaign to portray the GOP, because of its tax policy, as the true friend of the middle class. His recent dialogue with the so-called Joe the Plumber is one example.

McCain campaign efforts in that regard, however, may be backfiring. With the help of Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 440 in Indiana, which is now a battleground state, the World contacted a real “Joe the Plumber.”

“I heard his plan about health care, where McCain wants to tax our benefits,” said Joe Gutzwiller, a licensed plumber in Indianapolis. “Who is he trying to kid? He wants to tax our benefits and he’s all for the big corporations. He would leave all of us middle-class people entirely out of the picture. Obama is trying to give the middle class a tax break and that will help stimulate the economy.”

jwojcik@pww.org

Race to the finish

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:12:00 +0000

Sprinting into the homestretch, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is widening his lead over GOP rival John McCain. Obama is addressing enormous cheering crowds in battleground states across the nation.

More than 100,000 gathered to hear him in Gateway Arch park in St. Louis, near the courthouse where before the Civil War, fugitive slave Dred Scott appealed against his return to slavery. Later that day Obama drew 75,000 across the state in Kansas City, Mo.

McCain, on the other hand, drew a paltry 2,000 in an affluent St. Louis suburb two days later.

Like other bellwether states, Missouri is trending toward Obama.

“I think Obama is going to win Missouri,” Jim Wilkerson, who attended the St. Louis rally, told the World. “The people were stretched wall-to-wall to hear Obama speak.”

Wilkerson, a member of Operating Engineers Local 513, is also active in the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. He voiced pride that organized labor played a major role in Obama’s rally — the largest political campaign event in U.S. history. The labor movement also helped register nearly 200,000 new voters in Missouri, Wilkerson said. “That could be Obama’s margin of victory.”

The AFL-CIO launched the labor movement’s largest-ever get-out-the-vote effort Oct. 21 with 250,000 volunteers working to turn out 13 million union voters to elect Obama and increase Democratic majorities in Congress.

The labor movement and its allies are also engaged in the biggest-ever “election protection” campaign to ensure voting rights of an estimated 10 million newly registered voters. They face a vicious drive by the McCain-Palin campaign and the Republican Party to purge them from voter rolls amid hysterical claims of “voter fraud.”

Targeted is ACORN, the low-income multi-racial community organization that has registered over 1.3 million new voters, a majority African American and Latino. A miniscule number of those registrations were faulty and ACORN flagged them when delivering them to boards of election, as required by law.

The Michigan Republican Party admitted in court last week it engaged in an “illegal scheme” to “use mortgage foreclosure lists to deny foreclosure victims their right to vote.” The settlement of a lawsuit to block the vote-scrubbing plan “has the force of law and ensures that the Republicans cannot disenfranchise families facing foreclosures,” the court ruled.

The U.S. Supreme Court last week reversed a lower court ruling in Ohio that upheld a Republican lawsuit aimed at stripping 200,000 new voters of their voting rights. Over 700,000 new voters have been signed up there.

Donita Judge, lead attorney in Ohio for the Advancement Project, a voting rights group, hailed the Supreme Court’s ruling. “This is a real win for these new voters,” she told the World by telephone. “These lawsuits are basically just vote suppression, an attempt to intimidate voters and keep them away from the polls. Whenever you have an attempt to suppress votes in a battleground state like Ohio, it could have a big impact. Bush’s margin in Ohio in the 2004 election was something like 119,000 votes.”

The high court ruled the Ohio Republican Party had no legal standing for its lawsuit and the federal courts had no jurisdiction to intervene, she said. Furthermore, Ohio state law bars any purging of voter rolls within 19 days of an election. “The Ohio Republicans put all their eggs in one basket and the Supreme Court ruled against them,” she said.

The labor movement, along with ACORN and other grassroots organizations, signed up 430,000 new voters in Florida this year — 58 percent Democrat, 24 percent Republican and 18 percent third party or independent. Both Pinellas and Orange counties were flipped from majority Republican to majority Democrat along the crucial Interstate 4 corridor from Orlando to Tampa.

Memories of Florida’s role in the stolen 2000 election are still fresh, including Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris’ purging of 96,000 mostly African American voters from voting rolls that year. But Gov. Charlie Crist seems wary of repeating that sordid history. He told reporters there have been few problems with faulty voter registrations or enrolling new voters in his state.

Joining Obama at an Orlando rally of over 50,000, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said, “we are 15 days from the finish line and we cannot falter, we cannot stop, we cannot take a single vote for granted.” With Florida having the nation’s highest mortgage foreclosure rate and disastrously high unemployment, “We cannot risk four more years of the same failed Republican policies.”

Obama said later he is inviting the governors of Michigan, Ohio, Colorado and New Mexico to an Oct.28 “Jobs Summit” in Lake Worth, Fla., to discuss measures to stave off what could be the worst economic recession since the Great Depression. All four states went for Bush in 2004 but are now leaning toward Obama.

greenerpastures21212@yahoo.com

Flushing out the worker-wannabes

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 06:01:00 +0000

Why are the plumbers in the photo on this page wearing carpenter tool belts? And why are they wielding shiny new $9.99 Home Depot toilet plungers instead of wrenches? True, Halloween is costume time, but it’s not because of the holiday that corporate types are playing dress-up.

Across the country, packs of snarling Republican operatives are pulling on overalls and proclaiming themselves “Joe the plumber” to set the stage for their fight for economic policies to benefit the super-rich.

It’s a pattern with these corporate types. Seems like every time business wants a tax break, they break out their worker disguises.

Back in March 2001, the National Association of Manufacturers sent out a memo to business groups urging them to “dress down” at a rally in support of Big Business tax cuts. “We do not need people in suits,” read the memo. “The people who participate must appear to be REAL WORKER types. We plan to have hard hats for people to wear; other groups are providing waiters/waitresses and other types of workers.”

So for all of us “worker types” out there, it may be fair to ask, what’s behind this worker-wannabe-ism on the part of corporate America?

Do they actually want to do the work?

I don’t think so. In my 20 years working in a sewage treatment plant, I don’t recall any Wall Street types ever showing up in overalls to spend a day with me and my co-workers calibrating flow meters in the scum chamber.

A better answer might be that capitalists recognize that they need workers to front for their economic policies. For starters, working people constitute a much larger pool of voters than multimillionaires. But there’s a deeper reason too.

Workers have moral authority. After all, it’s workers in the factories and the farms who create all the products, plain and fancy. It’s workers who provide the services that keep us alive and make our civilization what it is.

While hedge fund managers, insurance executives and CEOs make their living manipulating these resources, it’s workers, as a class, who actually create the values.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve all heard a lot of complex explanations of the financial crisis. In pondering all that, it’s important to keep one basic principle in mind: It’s labor that creates all wealth. As long as workers are not getting the full value of the products created by their labor, the world economy will be out of balance and crises will occur. In the short term, that imbalance can be addressed by making sure workers get a larger share of their product: better wages, health care, less taxes. In the long run, to do away with the imbalance requires an economic system without exploitation.

Workers come in all clothing styles. It’s not our wardrobe choices we have in common, it’s our need to cooperate — on the job and in the political arena — to make a better life for ourselves and our families.

This year, as Halloween and voting seasons overlap, if we can get past the corporate trick, we’ll be up for a treat.

Roberta Wood (rwood@pww.org) is a member of the People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo editorial board.

OPINION: Whats at stake for retirees

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:08:00 +0000

When retirees go to the polls on Nov. 4, not only is their own retirement at stake, but so is the prospect of a stable, secure retirement for their children and grandchildren.

Tough times are hitting people of all ages, but those on fixed incomes are bearing the brunt of our failed economy. Steep increases in gas, groceries, health care, and home heating bills have been devastating for older Americans. According to a new study by the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, those 55 and older now account for nearly one quarter of all bankruptcies in the nation.

That is why this fall’s election is so important to current and future retirees. On the issues facing older voters – Social Security, health care, and energy – the records of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain could not be more different.

Barack Obama has a detailed plan to strengthen Social Security to keep it strong for generations to come. And because he knows how hard it is for retirees to get by, his economic recovery plan would eliminate income tax for seniors earning less than $50,000 per year.

John McCain, in contrast, embraces President Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security, which would take money out of the Social Security Trust Fund and create private accounts tied to the roulette wheel of the stock market. With all that is going on lately, Wall Street is the last place you want to put your Social Security. According to the Congressional Budget Office, Americans’ retirement accounts have lost up to $2 trillion in the past 15 months. We have a major retirement crisis on our hands.

In July, John McCain, who receives $23,000 in annual Social Security benefits, said it was “an absolute disgrace” that younger workers must pay for current Social Security beneficiaries. Senator McCain voted to raise the Social Security retirement age from 65 to 67. Nearly one in six Americans receives Social Security benefits, including (2 million in Ohio, 1.8 million in Michigan, 2.4 million in Pennsylvania). They are our elderly, our widows and widowers, and our young children who have seen a parent die. It is our nation’s most successful anti-poverty program. If Social Security benefits did not exist, an estimated 44 percent of seniors would be living in poverty today.

Barack Obama would expand access to high-quality, affordable health care, but John McCain would tax employer-provided health benefits and lead many companies to drop coverage, particularly for retirees. A study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that the McCain health care plan would fall far short of what retirees would need to cover their premiums and out-of-pocket costs, particularly for those with pre-existing conditions. Senator McCain voted to raise the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67.

Another cold winter for many is just around the corner, and seniors on fixed incomes are already wondering if they will have to choose between eating dinner and keeping their house warm. The U.S. Energy Department is expecting home heating oil to cost 30 percent more this winter, along with a 19 percent increase for natural gas. Barack Obama will increase the Low-Income Heating and Energy Assistance Program, a vital service for which Senator McCain has repeatedly voted against any increases.

Retirees built this country. They built our roads and our bridges, worked in our factories and our fields, and fought overseas to defend our freedoms. They raised us to believe that the American dream still exists. These strong men and women are my heroes. In this election, we must make sure that all they worked for – and all they taught us to believe in – will still exist across America.

Richard Trumka is Secretary Treasurer of the 10 million member American Federation of Labor – Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Real plumbers ratchet up support for Obama, EFCA

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 05:50:00 +0000

DETROIT -- Six thousand building and construction trades workers from various parts of Michigan marched to the McNamara Federal Building here to show support for the Employee Free Choice Act and the election of Sen. Barack Obama as President of the United States.

The workers marched from IBEW local 58 and included Painters, Plasterers, Teamsters, Operating Engineers, Carpenters and Millwrights, Elevator Construction, Pipefitters, Electricians, Sheetmetal workers and as the president of Plumbers local 98 pointed out “some real plumbers not Joe the plumber of McCain-Palin fame who isn’t a plumber after all.”

Mark Gaffney, president of the Michigan AFL-CIO who introduced Pat Devlin, president of the Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council encouraged everyone to keep the phone banks and labor walks going and take two days off: Nov. 3 and Nov. 4 Election Day and not let up until we elect President Obama and a 60-seat majority in the U.S. Senate.

Devlin who introduced Richard Trumka, secretary- treasurer of the AFL-CIO encouraged the workers to go back to their work places and talk to those undecided workers and explain why we need to elect Obama.

Trumka also spoke of the last eight years as anti labor and the National Labor Relations Board as the anti labor board because of its delaying tactics. “Which is why we need the Employee Free choice Act,” he said. He compared this period to the 1930s, and said “During the debate the other night Obama said he would not sign a trade agreement with Columbia because of their policy of imprisoning and killing trade unionists. That’s why we need to elect Obama.”

A number of union presidents spoke, as did a representative of James Hoffa, president of The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who said, “We have our differences in the labor movement, but we must all work together to elect Obama president and get the Employee Free Choice Act” passed.

Gary Peters, a pro labor Democrat running against arch reactionary Republican Rep. Knollenberg spoke against giving tax breaks to companies who move overseas.

Congressman John Dingell talked about his father being one of the sponsors of the Wagner Act and compared the Employee Free Choice Act to it.

Dingell is a hunter and fisherman and said Obama won’t take your guns away but will make it possible for you to afford to go hunting.

Winning for workers in California's battleground districts

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 09:26:00 +0000

As we enter the home stretch of what just might be the most exciting campaign season in history, working people have never been more energized for change. Voter registration has skyrocketed, volunteers are turning out in droves, and new national leadership is on the horizon.

California's working families are dedicated to getting a new wave of lawmakers to Sacramento. By securing a two-thirds majority in the state legislature, we can win important worker protections, override gubernatorial vetoes, get a fair state budget and pass the legislation we need to help our families through these difficult times.

That's why we're working hard to win important races in the state Senate and Assembly this year, bringing us closer to a worker-friendly majority in the state legislature. We're just six seats shy in the Assembly and two seats away in the Senate, and this year we have the opportunity to win as many as five new seats in the Assembly, as well as new seat in the Senate. Below are our top races in 2008.

Assembly District 10 (Amador, Sacramento and San Joaquin counties). Although new to politics, labor-endorsed candidate Alyson Huber believes that common-sense solutions can help us tackle many of the problems facing our state. As a lawyer, she is fighting to promote justice and equality within our legal system, and, as a working mother, she understands the pressures that working families face every day.

Assembly District 15 (Alameda, Contra Costa, San Joaquin and Sacramento counties). A former school board member, Joan Buchanan understands school finance, facilities, curriculum, and the need to work with the entire education family to realize sustained improvements. Her expertise in budgeting and organizational development has served the community well, and would be a decisive asset in Sacramento.

Assembly District 26 (San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties). A veteran, farmer, and former school board member, John Eisenhut has vowed to advance our commitment to quality education, control healthcare costs and increase access to quality health care. John has pledged to work to bring borrowers and lenders together so that as many loans as possible can be salvaged to save homes from foreclosure.

Assembly District 78 (San Diego County). Marty Block is a retired union member, active community volunteer and respected elected official with a strong background in advocating for working people. Marty has vowed to expand educational opportunities for Californians by keeping community colleges affordable, in order to promote job training, career advancement and higher education.

Assembly District 80 (Riverside and Imperial counties). Manuel Perez has fought for health care for farm workers, seniors and working families. He also worked to create new school-based health clinics to ensure kids are healthy and ready to learn. Manuel is dedicated to expanding workforce development and job training, bringing new technology to the community and creating well-paying green-collar jobs.

Senate District 19 (Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties). An experienced legislator, Hannah-Beth Jackson has worked hard to restore excellence in our schools. Hannah-Beth is dedicated to sensible health care reform, conserving our environment, consumer protections and standing up for the victims of domestic violence.

Assembly District 30 (Fresno, Kings, Kern and Tulare counties). Fran Florez is hoping to capture the seat being vacated by Nicole Parra. As Mayor of Shafter, Fran has worked aggressively to bring good jobs to the community in the fields of communications, technology and manufacturing.

Senate District 5 (Yolo, Solano, San Joaquin and Sacramento counties)- After 6 years in the Assembly, Lois Wolk is running to succeed Michael Machado in Senate District 5. Lois has voted to ensure workers have the freedom to join the union, and she stood up for our jobs when she voted to prohibit the use of taxpayer funds to create jobs in another country.

We've got a lot on the line this election. Our jobs, homes, health insurance, pensions and college funds are all at risk. Now is the time to work for positive change for our state, and every single individual can make a difference. If you haven't already, register to vote today at http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_vr.htm (the deadline for voter registration is October 20). Talk to your co-workers and neighbors about voting, and remind them what's at stake. Phone banks and precinct walks are in full swing across the state. To find a labor-sponsored event in your area, visit http://www.calaborfed.org/events/Election2008.html

Art Pulaski is executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation.

McCain links to anti-union casino no surprise to workers

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 04:46:00 +0000

When scores of dealers and their supporters rallied at Connecticut’s Foxwoods Casino last May for their right to representation by United Auto Workers Region 9A, which they had voted for overwhelmingly, passersby were quick to honk in support.

A year earlier, Sen. John McCain enjoyed a gambling weekend at Foxwoods with lobbyists Scott Reed and Rick Davis, in seeming conflict of interest with his role as chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. Davis is now McCain’s campaign manager.

Casino management ties to McCain, exposed last month in The New York Times, come as no surprise. McCain is an ardent foe of workers’ right to organize.

Foxwoods’ management is refusing to recognize the dealers’ union vote on the grounds that the casino, located on Mashantucket Pequot sovereign territory, should be exempt from National Labor Relations Board rulings.

Because the casino is a corporate entity at which nearly all workers and customers are not tribe members, a court ruled that the casino workers are covered by the NLRB.

Commenting on the ruling last year, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal called that ruling a “historic victory” that “opens a new era for working men and women at tribal casinos in Connecticut and across the country.

“While we respect the principles of tribal sovereignty, this ruling guarantees that basic rights deserve respect, no matter who the employee,” Blumenthal said.

This week, casino management responded by filing an appeal of the NLRB order to negotiate a contract, and announced the layoff of 700 workers.

This billion dollar casino is the world’s largest, and Connecticut’s biggest private employer. The dealers’ union web site is in eight languages, indicating the diversity of the workforce.

Since the union election Foxwoods has been stalling for time, trying to create an atmosphere which causes dealers to quit or be fired. The management has also seen fit to award across-the-board raises to virtually every other occupation in the casino complex while dealers’ salaries have remained stagnant.

Dealers recruited from the original casino to work in the new MGM tower are required to serve a three-month probationary period which allows Foxwoods to fire them at will with no recourse for reinstatement at either casino. The net result of these firings is one less union dealer for Foxwoods to contend with.

Dealers have been required to meet certain physical characteristics in order to be considered for work in the MGM tower. Men are required to remove all facial hair and have a physique that can adorn the cover of GQ Magazine and women must have the proportions of a Barbie Doll.

As irritating as these requirements might seem, the issue that caused the Foxwoods dealers and the UAW to set up informational picket lines last May is the fact that Foxwoods separated Foxwoods and MGM dealers tips (tokes). “One casino, one union, one toke, no smoke” was the most popular chant, also addressing the demand for a smoke-free work environment. The UAW and the dealers feel that this is yet another attempt by Foxwoods to divide and destroy the solidarity of the dealers after their legally awarded election victory.

The May support rally was attended by local, state and national politicians and union officers including Connecticut AFL-CIO President John Olsen; UAW Region 9A Director Bob Madore and state Attorney General Blumenthal, as well as members of other unions and organizations. Of course, the real honored guests were the Foxwoods dealers themselves.

McCain’s ties to the gambling industry raise the stakes of the presidential election for the dealers as their struggle for a union contract continues.

Union retirees turning Florida from red to blue

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:41:00 +0000

FORT MEYERS, Fla. — Labor activists in this very Republican area of Florida are feeling traction in their efforts to elect Barack Obama president. The Alliance of Retired Americans (ARA), United Auto Workers retirees and other union activists held a rousing rally here this week to urge turnout to elect the first African American president. Fort Meyers, located on the southwestern coast, is part of Lee County, which went 52 percent for Bush in 2004.

According to most polls, Obama leads John McCain by 5 points in this “red” state.

The ARA announced its endorsement of Obama in several key battleground states including Florida. In a state known for attracting millions of retirees, the endorsement by ARA is no small matter. It is a national retirees organization that includes many affiliated union retiree organizations and works closely with the AFL-CIO and other labor-related groups.

Speakers at the rally here stressed McCain’s horrible record, mirroring George Bush’s policies on Social Security, labor rights, health care, energy and even veterans’ affairs. In contrast, Obama’s record on these issues shows clear pro-retiree, pro-union leadership, speakers said.

Rally speakers also put front and center the key issue that would keep some union retirees from voting for Obama, namely racial prejudice. Like efforts in many other conservative areas of the country, supporters here are finding that a direct approach to the problem of racism is getting a heartening response from workers. Not since the 1930s, when the battle cry of the Congress of Industrial Organizations was “Black and White, Unite and Fight,” has labor’s voice for unity and equality been so loud and demanding.

Bob McNatt, president of the UAW’s Southwest Florida Retired Workers Council, made it clear that working people can’t allow themselves to be blinded by prejudice. “We have to vote for our real interests!” he told the rally. “And you have to talk to your neighbors, your sisters, your children, your cousins and your union buddies about this.”

The hall echoed with cheers and “Amens.” As one retiree put it afterwards, “What I’m hearing is we want a Black friend in the White House, not a white enemy.”

It is clear from efforts here that unions are in full gear in these last few weeks until the election. Earlier in the week, in a national United Steelworkers activists conference call, the union’s president, Leo Gerard, told participants that more than 8,000 full-time USW volunteers are in the field and said that number will reach 10,000 deployed before Election Day — especially in battleground states. Volunteer workers throughout the labor movement have been involved in discussions and educational forums on how to talk to fellow members about Obama.

This summer AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Rich Trumka lit up the USW’s national convention with his call to fight racism, saying, “There’s no evil that’s inflicted more pain and more suffering than racism.” He reminded the cheering delegates of labor’s special responsibility to fight for class unity because, “We know, better than anyone else, how racism is used to divide working people.” As the Fort Myers rally well illustrated, his speech set off a storm of labor activity throughout the nation.

Trumka’s speech has become a primer for labor activists. As reported last week at pww.org, it has taken on a life of its own on the Internet. Blogs, YouTube videos and e-mails have been burning the electrons circulating the speech and spreading the word.

In addition to mobilizing for Obama, labor is also putting great emphasis on the House and Senate races. Besides labor walks, phone-banking and workplace contact, in key Senate races unions are hosting “worker roundtables” to step up support and mobilization. There is growing confidence that a filibuster-proof Senate is within reach. Several Senate seats that just a few months ago were considered safe by the GOP are now in play. Labor activists around the country report a rising sense that real change is at hand.

scott@rednet.org

West Coast longshore workers OK new contract

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 05:07:00 +0000

West Coast longshore workers last week ratified a new six-year contract with the Pacific Maritime Association of waterfront employers. The new pact covers some 65,000 longshore workers and marine clerks, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, at 29 West Coast ports. The PMA represents 71 domestic and international carriers, terminal operators and stevedoring companies operating at those ports.

ILWU spokesperson Craig Merrilees sees the contract’s preservation of existing health benefits as “an important priority and a major milestone.” In a telephone interview, Merrilees called the expansion of pension benefits an accomplishment that is “contrary to what most workers are experiencing these days.”

Wage gains of $.50 per hour in the first two years, followed by $1.00 an hour in the remaining years “are modest,” he said, “but the jobs continue to be among the best blue collar jobs in the United States.” The base hourly wage under the contract is $31.18 per hour, with higher rates according to skill categories.

The union also won a pledge that it will have jurisdiction over maintenance and repair work at new West Coast facilities. In Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland, a fourth position was added under each crane, restoring a position cut in the 2002 contract.

The workers okayed the agreement by a 3 to 1 margin. Merrilees said some members felt the wage increases were too modest and the contract was too long.

Bargaining began last March. Workers stayed on the job while talks continued past the old pact’s July 1 expiration date. At the end of July ILWU and PMA negotiators said they had reached tentative agreement; after its meeting in mid-August the Longshore Caucus unanimously decided to send the contract to the members for a ratification vote.

mbechtel @ pww.org

Workers, Oakland residents press Clean Trucks Program

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 05:03:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. — Now that the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have begun to implement the nation’s first comprehensive Clean Trucks Program, Oakland’s port truck drivers and their union and community supporters are wondering how much longer it will take before the Port of Oakland follows their example.

Drivers and supporters gathered outside the Port Commission Building Oct. 7 at the call of the labor-environmental-community Clean and Safe Ports Coalition, to urge that Oakland’s new policy must be ready for a vote in January.

On Oct. 1, the two southern California ports put into effect their long-awaited program to help clean the air at the port and in surrounding communities by drastically cutting the amount of diesel soot emitted by trucks there. At the heart of the plan is a “concession” system under which trucking companies must observe certain conditions in order to serve the port. These include a phased ban on older, heavily polluting trucks so that by 2012, all trucks must meet 2007 emissions standards. Port truck drivers — now independent contractors — will also become employees of trucking companies, which must then maintain the trucks.

LA and Long Beach together handle some 40 percent of goods entering and leaving the U.S. They are serviced by nearly 17,000 truck drivers. The Clean Trucks Program is part of a larger Clean Air Action Plan to cut total emissions nearly in half at the two ports by 2012.

The Oakland Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports says slashing the diesel emissions would drastically cut the incidence of asthma and other respiratory diseases suffered by drivers, other port workers and surrounding residents. The coalition also says it is grossly unfair to force the drivers, whose income averages $30,000 a year, to spend up to $28,000 to retrofit an existing truck, or far more to buy a new one meeting more stringent state air standards taking effect next year.

Lorenzo, a driver at the port for the last two years, said he would be forced to spend $10-20,000 to bring his 1994 truck up to standard. “That’s money I just don’t have,” he said. “We’re seeing the reality of a broken system that hurts us, our families and the community.”

The father of three children, ages 8, 12 and 14, Lorenzo said he barely makes a living. “Our family has no benefits,” he said. “As things are now, the government has to pay for our health care or we can’t afford to take our children to the hospital.”

“We independent truck drivers make the economy move. Anything that moves in this country is moved by an independent driver,” Lorenzo added.

As employees, drivers would also be eligible to organize with a union, which Lorenzo and his co-workers see as vital to move beyond their current “sweatshop on wheels” existence. Lorenzo said the Teamsters Union — a member of the Clean and Safe Ports Coalition along with the Alameda Labor Council and other area unions — “has a good plan” for the drivers. “The trucking companies don’t recognize or respect our work, and without anyone to represent us we’ve been in a tough spot,” he said.

As the group prepared to go into the Port Commission meeting, Teamsters Union leader Chuck Mack told them, “Unfortunately, try as we might, we haven’t yet gotten the Port Commission to move this project forward. We want Oakland’s port to do what they did in Los Angeles.”

While the program’s startup went smoothly in Los Angeles and Long Beach, some clouds still linger on the horizon. The American Trucking Association, which contends the concession requirement violates federal interstate commerce regulations, tried but failed to stop the launch last month. On Oct. 8 the ATA filed a brief contesting the concession model.

In the meantime, the Federal Maritime Commission is investigating whether the Port of Los Angeles violated federal maritime regulations with its requirement that drivers must be employees of the trucking firms. Long Beach allows both independent and employee drivers to work.

Calling the commission’s probe “kind of a last stand,” a member of the Clean and Safe Ports Coalition in southern California said several previous court decisions indicate the two ports “are on solid ground.”

mbechtel @ pww.org

Apollo Alliance: green jobs are the future

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 07:14:00 +0000

SAN LEANDRO, Calif. — While financial calamity and soaring unemployment dominated media headlines last week, a nationwide coalition of labor, environmental, business and community organizations was making news of a different sort with its bold new program to put millions to work at good-paying jobs, “greening” America and fighting global warming.

With an eye to the coming of a new administration to Washington, the Apollo Alliance is launching its New Apollo Program: An Economic Strategy for American Prosperity, across the U.S. this month. The program was first unveiled Oct. 4 at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ Alameda County Electrical Training Center here.

The Alliance says its “comprehensive economic investment strategy” can “generate and invest $500 billion over the next ten years and create more than 5 million high quality green-collar jobs” by speeding the country’s development of its vast clean energy resources. The coalition says its program will help stabilize climate change and move the U.S. toward energy security, as it transforms the U.S. into the global leader of the new green economy.

“As I watched this whole financial crisis unravel, I realized that what has happened to us is that we have an economy built on paper,” keynote speaker Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), head of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee told the audience. “America has to get back to the basics,” she said, “and that means producing things here, with our hands, with our brains. What could be more real than a project to get us off foreign oil, make us energy independent, fight global warming, and while you’re doing that, create great paying jobs?”

With 10 million unemployed in the U.S., including some 1.5 million in California, “the real question is how we get beyond the failed policies of the last several years and build something that’s real and lasting and gives America prosperity in the 21st century,” said Apollo Alliance chair Phil Angelides. The former California state treasurer called for bringing home the $120 billion a year now spent in Iraq “essentially defending our oil pipelines” to build the green economy and train its workers.

One of the most important aspects of the New Apollo Program is the opportunities it opens for African American, Latino and other youth who face challenges to employment. People in California and across the country “are thirsty not only for solutions to our environmental and energy crises but also for real solutions to the growing divide between rich and poor, solutions to poverty,” said Ian Kim, who heads the Green Collar Jobs Campaign at the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.

Kim told of the center’s work to develop the Oakland Green Jobs Corps, which provides training so low-income area residents can qualify for well-paying green jobs. Calling the jobs corps “so far, an exception,” he said the Apollo Alliance seeks to make sure “the most disadvantaged communities and people are among the first in line to be able to benefit from the green economy.”

The Alliance’s new green jobs “will be a golden era for building trades people,” said Bob Balgenorth, head of the California Building and Construction Trades Council. Citing the council’s “Get Real” program of new green technology education, Balgenorth said the new opportunities “can be the future” for people who today don’t see a future for themselves.

Also speaking were California Labor Federation head Art Pulaski; Community Fuels CEO Lisa Mortenson and the Sierra Club’s Carl Zichella.

The New Apollo Program calls for producing a quarter of the nation’s power from renewable sources and upgrading the energy efficiency of buildings by at least 30 percent by 2025, as well as modernizing the power grid and improving transit systems. Priority would go to programs creating high-quality local jobs in construction.

U.S. factories would be retooled to build renewable energy systems and high-efficiency, alternative-fuel vehicles using U.S.-made components. The national investment in clean energy research and development would be doubled.

Besides job training programs and union apprenticeships, the program would also set up a “cap and invest” program to cut carbon emissions and reinvest resources to build a new clean energy economy.

Other launch events this month are set for Columbus, Ohio; Seattle; Denver; Detroit; upstate New York; Portland and Pennsylvania.

mbechtel @pww.org