People Before Profit blog

Haymarket landmark finally established

Fri, 24 Sep 2004 06:39:00 +0000

CHICAGO — The Teamsters trucked it up from downstate. The Chicago Federation of Labor had lobbied for the funding from the state of Illinois. The Illinois Labor History Society campaigned tirelessly for it. The city of Chicago and police finally came to the table. Even present-day anarchists were mentioned at its unveiling, but they weren’t happy about it.

More than 100 years after the bombing and police riot at Haymarket Square, the site finally has an appropriate marker. Approximately 200 people attended the “official” Haymarket statue unveiling here, Sept. 14, near the corner of DesPlaines and Randolph streets.

Illinois Senate President Emile Jones, a principal in securing the funding for the project, said it was a long time coming, but the statue is a “tribute to working men and women.”

On the very site where workers gathered May 4, 1886, to protest the violent police attack on their union brothers and sisters at McCormick Harvester, during a militant strike for the 8-hour day, sits a unique statue created by artist Mary Brogger. In a reddish hue, a dozen figures surround a wagon, similar to the one used by the rally speakers that fateful night.

Figures stand on top of the wagon triumphantly; others are helping to put wheels on. They are faceless but clearly working together. Brogger’s Haymarket statue, according to project manager Nathan Mason, represents “society working together.” It’s more figurative about the meaning of Haymarket than historical, he said.

“It only took 118 years but it’s here,” CFL President Dennis Gannon said. It’s the labor movement’s and international labor community’s salute to Albert Parsons, August Spies and the other Haymarket Martyrs, he said, adding that their courage paved the way for freedoms we enjoy today.

The struggle for the 8-hour day is the basis of what labor’s about, Gannon said. “We can accomplish things together. No one does it alone, in a vacuum.”

Gannon then launched into an attack on the Bush presidency. “These freedoms are under attack by the current president. Workplace rights, overtime pay, OSHA are all being eliminated,” he said. Haymarket is a lesson about protecting civil and human rights, he said, pointing out that’s what union rights are. “All workers need to have a voice,” Gannon said. “Are we under attack? Sure.”

It was a “travesty,” Gannon said, not to have an appropriate monument. We have union guests come in from all over the world, he said, and they want to see where Haymarket was.

The site has been a landmark since 1992. William Adelman, labor historian and past president of the Illinois Labor History Society, served on the committee that chose the statue. “The case of the Haymarket Martyrs was a terrible travesty of justice,” he said. Six of the eight weren’t even at the May 4 rally. These were innocent people.”

“The meaning of Haymarket that the committee could all agree on was freedom of speech and assembly,” Adelman said. Two police representatives also sat on the committee.

“But, for me, Haymarket’s real issues were also the rights of minorities, the 8-hour day and the rights of workers to form free and democratic unions.”

Haymarket and Chicago is recognized as the birthplace for May Day, the international labor holiday. A special Haymarket statue dedication, sponsored by the Illinois Labor History Society, will be held on May Day, 2005.

The author can be reached at talbano@pww.org.

Public workers hit the streets in S. Africa

Fri, 24 Sep 2004 05:24:00 +0000

Hundreds of thousands of South African public workers held a one-day strike Sept. 16 over the government’s rejection of their demands for a 7 percent wage hike, an across-the-boards medical aid and housing allowance, and review of a provision linking salaries to inflation for the next two years.

Nearly all South Africa’s 1.1 million public workers are represented by unions affiliated to the three major trade union federations — the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU), the Federation of Unions of South Africa and the National Council of Trade Unions.

Over 700,000 reportedly joined the strike, and hundreds of thousands marched in some 25 cities around the country. In Pretoria, the capital, over 50,000 unionists, led by COSATU President Willie Madisha, marched to the government headquarters, where they blew whistles and sang songs from the anti-apartheid struggle before presenting a memorandum to Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi. COSATU spokesperson Patrick Craven called the demonstration a “show of unprecedented solidarity across the board.”

Calling the government’s offer of a 6 percent increase “unacceptable,” COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said the proposal amounted to a wage freeze in real terms and failed to recognize the increased productivity of public workers. He also cited the recent victory by the metalworkers union, which won a 7.5 percent increase, plus better benefits.

Noting that the South African Communist Party does not involve itself directly in details of collective bargaining, and shares the expressed wishes of both sides to have avoided the strike, General Secretary Blade Nzimande pointed to “a disturbing tendency to headline disruptions to services to learners, pensioners and other recipients, while the legitimate concerns of public services workers are entirely marginalized.”

In a statement on the eve of the strike, Nzimande warned against pitting the interests of workers against the rest of the population, “as if public service workers and their families were not also citizens, learners and pensioners.” He called attention to an “incessant campaign of denigration of the public sector by the privileged” who do not depend on it for education, health care or pensions, and said the strike needed to be understood against the daily pressures public workers face at “overburdened and underfunded” public institutions.

“The SACP calls for a holistic approach in dealing with the current dispute,” he said. “Much as the SACP would not like to see the disruption of public services, we fully support the right of workers to strike,” he said.

Farm workers win big in North Carolina

Fri, 24 Sep 2004 03:56:00 +0000

Eight thousand farm workers won union recognition Sept. 16 with the signing of what the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) called the largest union contract in North Carolina history.

The pact with the North Carolina Growers’ Association (NCGA) made history on other counts as well. The new union members are “guest” farm workers from Mexico who come to work in North Carolina with “H2A” visas issued through the U.S. Department of Labor. They are the first such workers to be organized in U.S. history. The state of North Carolina has the most rapidly growing Latino population in the nation.

The contract came after years of organizing in the fields by FLOC and the union’s unrelenting five-year boycott campaign of the Mt. Olive Pickle Co., the nation’s second largest pickle producer. FLOC is based in Toledo, Ohio, a state which ranks number six in the nation in cucumber production. North Carolina is number one.

Although Mt. Olive’s president, Bill Bryan, maintained that the boycott had not affected his company’s sales, at the contract signing ceremony he declared himself “one pickle packer who’s glad to be out of a pickle today.” Bryan conceded that while he disagreed with the boycott, “I respect the dedication and persistence [FLOC president] Baldemar Velasquez and FLOC supporters have shown in pursuing their goals.”

Key to reaching an accord with the growers’ association was a side agreement by the Mt. Olive Pickle Co. for a 10 percent increase in both wages and prices to growers over three years. Most growers who contract with Mt. Olive are NCGA members.

The 1,000 growers who make up the NCGA routinely hire farm laborers for the H2A temporary guest worker program through recruiting companies in Mexico, FLOC National Boycott Director Beatriz Maya told the World. The North Carolina growing season is long, and the workers generally stay from March through December, moving from one crop to the next, including cucumbers, sweet potatoes, tobacco and Christmas trees.

Without a union, the workers have been subject to abuse on both sides of the border, Maya explained. Many tell stories of having to pay bribes in Mexico of up to $500 to get hired. Once on the job, there is no process to insure that they get the promised wages or that safe working conditions or even drinking water are available. Those who complain have found themselves blacklisted for the next year’s hiring. The abuses of the H2A program by recruiters, contractors, growers, and the NCGA will now be addressed through the union grievance process, said Maya.

The agreement will facilitate the development of a system of seniority based on number of years worked, growers’ requests and union membership. The new contract also provides for a role for FLOC in Mexico in overseeing the recruitment process. There, Maya said, union organizers will assure the elimination of the blacklist.

This historic moment is not the end of the story of the struggle for farm worker rights and economic justice, but the opening of a new chapter in the book, a FLOC statement said. The union organized a 79-member farm worker advisory group from which the negotiating committee was drawn. Now it will move to elect camp representatives for the more than 1,000 labor camps in North Carolina. Education meetings will be called for these same camps.

Only days after the agreement took effect, the union was already involved in processing grievances relating to wage rates, Maya said.

The signing ceremony, held on Mexican Independence Day at the United Church of Christ in Raleigh, N.C., was full of symbols and emotion. The tragic death of farm worker Urbano Ramirez in 2001 was remembered. Ramirez, a 34-year-old father of five, was found dead in a field by his co-workers. A victim of heatstroke or pesticide poisoning, he had been left to languish without medical attention after becoming ill while working for hours in the summer sun without water.

“We will never forget those who started this,” H2A worker Jose Hernandez-Coronado said. “We will continue struggling and give it all we’ve got, because there is still work to do, for ourselves and our families in Mexico.” He added, “We also sign this contract for the future generations who will come in the coming years.”

The union is pressing ahead with its legislative campaign for a road to legalization and citizenship for America’s millions of undocumented workers. FLOC President Velasquez noted that besides the H2A workers, the agricultural industry almost exclusively utilizes undocumented workers, “and the conditions of those workers are tragic and shameful.”

The author can be reached at rwood@pww.org.

Michigan nurses strike for patient care

Fri, 17 Sep 2004 03:26:00 +0000

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. — “We’re out here for the patients,” said Mary James, a medical-surgical nurse at Mount Clemens General Hospital. “We can’t give them proper care. Money is not an issue — just give us more help,” she said.

James, a picket captain with over 30 years of nursing experience, was one of more than 500 nurses of Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 40 who went on strike Aug. 9 for better staffing levels and a modest wage increase. On Sept. 13, the nurses voted 316-21 to end the strike, agreeing to a 2 percent raise and a commitment from the hospital to hire 25 more full-time nurses.

Shortly before the settlement, on Sept. 10, James told the World that insufficient staffing at the hospital has jeopardized patient care and that the problem is getting worse. “They haven’t replaced the 100 or so nurses who have quit in the past two years,” she said, noting that it’s not unusual for each nurse to be responsible for six, eight or even more patients.

Some states have legislation mandating adequate staffing levels and the nurses and other health care advocates are working to pass similar legislation in Michigan.

Rosanna Lucci, a medical-surgical nurse for the past seven years, said maintaining nurse staffing levels is crucial because patients who are admitted today are in worse shape, health-wise, than in previous years. Lucci said insurance company “utilization reviews” mean that only the sickest patients gain hospital admittance. Such patients require a higher level of care.

Lucci said, “We are in the front lines trying to be advocates for patients.” In addition to fighting for quality health care for their patients, Lucci said a big part of nursing is teaching patients how to care for themselves after they are discharged. Both advocacy and teaching require large amounts of a nurse’s time, she said.

Arlene Reinhart, an anesthesia nurse in surgical services, said a second issue of the strike was the hospital’s push for cross-training. The hospital wants to be able to “pull you” from your area and send you to an area that is not your specialty, she said. Reinhart said that in this day and age nursing, like all medical services, is very specialized. “Would you want your auto mechanic doing open heart surgery?” Reinhart asked.

Picket captain Shannon Gottado, who works in the labor and delivery department, said it used to be that hospitals put nurses’ needs at the top, but now it’s all about cutting costs.

During the strike, the hospital brought in scabs from the U.S. Nursing Corp. based in Colorado. It paid them $40 per hour plus expenses, about 40 percent more than the top pay for skilled nurses, according to Nora Walsh, another longtime nurse.

Nurses are following the November elections and are carefully evaluating which candidates support labor. A concern for President George Bush might be that many are looking for a change. “We need Kerry in office,” said Gottado.

The author can be reached at pww@pww.org.

Overtime fight wins a rare victory on Capitol Hill

Fri, 17 Sep 2004 03:15:00 +0000

News Analysis

These days, with Bush in the White House and Congress locked down under Republican control, a legislative victory for workers is rare. But 22 Republican members of Congress, many from swing states, and under intense election year pressure, defied President Bush and voted for legislation Sept. 9 that would preserve overtime pay for up to 6 million American workers.

While the battle for the 40-hour work week is far from won — the Senate is expected to begin work on its version of the appropriations bill this week — the House action, which Associated Press characterized as a “sharp rebuke” of the administration, indicates that the ultra-right monolith is not as strong as it’s cracked up to be. And this pre-election victory demonstrates winning tactics that can lead to Bush’s defeat on Nov. 2.

The House voted 223-193 — not even close — to attach an amendment introduced by Rep. Dave Obey (D-Wis.) to the appropriations bill that authorizes spending on health and education. Obey’s amendment blocks the Department of Labor from spending any money to put its new rules into effect. These new rules grant employers the option of avoiding their overtime obligations by reclassifying not only whit-collar, but also blue- collar and pink-collar workers, as “managers” and “professionals.” The new rules took effect Aug. 23.

The AFL-CIO came out swinging when the new rules were originally proposed in March 2003. “We weren’t alone, all worker and economic justice advocates got on board,” AFL-CIO spokesperson Sarah Massey told the World. Even though the great majority of union members would not be immediately affected because they work under collective bargaining agreements that protect their overtime pay, organized labor took the long view and came out as a strong fighter for the whole working class — union and nonunion.

Due to its quick and aggressive action, it was the labor movement that clearly defined the issue for the American people. “It was a pay takeaway, clear and simple,” said Massey.

A massive protest campaign bombarded members of Congress with 1.6 million messages — letters, faxes, and especially e-mails. The result: another vote, the fifth time in Congress, to stop the Bush administration from slashing overtime paychecks.

“I think that organized labor has raised enough legitimate questions about how this new overtime rule would work that we are justified in using the appropriations process to block its implementation,” said Rep. Phil English (R-Pa.) in a statement explaining his vote to defeat the new overtime regulations. A spokesperson for Tim Murphy, another Pennsylvania Republican who voted no, explained Murphy’s vote bluntly: “We have a lot of union members in our district.”

The overtime fight is not just symbolic — it’s about dollars and cents. Overtime pay, for those who currently get it, makes up 25 percent of wages, an average of $160 a week. Bush’s corporate constituency stands to pump up its profit margins by keeping these billions out of workers’ paychecks and in corporate bank accounts.

Roberta Wood, the PWW’s labor editor, can be reached at rwood@pww.org.

Labor grass roots harvest a bumper crop

Fri, 10 Sep 2004 02:12:00 +0000

PITTSBURGH — “In 2000, I voted my gun. In 2004, I’m voting my job!” read the banner draped across steel beams on one of several Ironworkers floats in this city’s Labor Day parade. Below the banner, picket signs said, “Is your son/daughter working? Or are they dying in Iraq? For what?” and “Bush just took 17 percent of your pension check — had enough?”

As in Pittsburgh, Labor Day week activities across the nation registered a new level of militancy and mobilization tying the critical issues of jobs, health care and pensions to the Nov. 2 elections.

Five hundred miles southwest, in Lexington, Ky., 1,000 coal miners and their families flooded the streets around the federal courthouse on Aug. 31, protesting the decision of bankruptcy Judge William Howard to allow Horizon, the nation’s fourth largest coal company, to void its contract with the United Mineworkers Union and cancel health care benefits to 800 miners and 2,300 retirees, many suffering from black lung disease.

Police arrested 16 miners who blocked the courthouse entrance, including UMWA President Cecil Roberts. Roberts called for massive civil disobedience to reform federal bankruptcy laws, adding that the union is making this a “front burner issue” this election season.

The Pittsburgh parade, the largest Kerry for president rally in Western Pennsylvania to date, drew over 80,000 workers, high school bands and drill teams. On the streets, thousands shouted, “You go girl,” as Teresa Heinz Kerry locked arms with labor leaders and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.

Carpenters and Boilermakers; Verizon workers and elevator installers; electricians and sheet metal workers; nurses and laborers hundreds strong, strollers and kids by the hand marched with T-shirts proudly proclaiming their support for the Kerry-Edwards ticket.

Steelworkers, active and retired, who had more people than Labor Day T-shirts, were loud. “Hey, hey, ho, ho George Bush has got to go,” vibrated the windows in the corporate skyscrapers as they roared down Pittsburgh streets.

Gathered around the steelworkers’ street corner rally were Anita Rapele and Anne Painter, hospital workers, members of Service Employees/1199 P from Canonsburg in Western Pennsylvania’s Washington County. They have been on strike for 98 days trying to get a humane contract from the Presbyterian Home. The Home is running scabs.

“Washington County is all working-class people and we are we are catching hell,” said Rapele. “No jobs, schools falling apart, no health care or just a little bit of health care. There’s Kerry bumper stickers all over the place in Washington County. I know because we put ‘em there,” Rapele explains. “We got Kerry signs on our picket lines. We are phoning and doing voter registration. Us little people, we are going to change this country. Take it back.”

On the other side of this battleground state in Philadelphia, Election Commissioner Edgar Howard announced to the Labor Day parade that Philadelphia has now registered over one million voters, the most in the city’s history. Eight hundred thousand are registered as Democrats. A thousand teachers in red shirts led the massive Labor Day parade, highlighting the fact that they and city workers are working under an extension of their old contract, still struggling for a fair settlement.

One battleground state over, 10,000 rallied in Cleveland for Labor Day, while in Cincinnati 15,000 attended the annual labor council picnic. In Michigan, a crowd estimated at 25,000 marched through Detroit’s streets.

In Portland, Ore., workers marched in support of returning veterans who have lost their jobs, while in Seattle working families took to the streets in front of a Manpower temp agency office to highlight the replacement of good-paying manufacturing jobs with temporary and service jobs.

Texas labor leaders, who fanned out across that giant state to attend Labor Day activities, reported high turnouts and great enthusiasm at all events. In the small town of Tyler, in East Texas, 1,500 union supporters ate barbecue and heard Rep. Max Sandlin stress the importance of ending the Bush administration’s devotion to outsourcing jobs overseas.

Record turnouts came on top of the unprecedented mobilization of labor’s ranks in a massive Sept. 2 labor-to-neighbor voter education action, the largest single-day election mobilization in the union movement’s history. Volunteers even turned out in seven locations in Florida, despite the looming threat from Hurricane Frances, the AFL-CIO reported. Despite Bush attacks, “the grass roots movement is not slowing down, it’s expanding, and it recognizes the ballot box,” a Pittsburgh steelworker activist told the World.

As if to prove the point, observers noted that at the Pittsburgh parade’s conclusion, there was not one political sign on the street or in the trash bins; not one sticker, button or flyer. All the political material apparently went home to lawn signs, front windows, neighborhood centers, union halls and senior citizen centers.

The author can be reached at dwinebr696@aol.com. Jim Lane and Roberta Wood contributed to this story.