People Before Profit blog

Hundreds rally to stop Chrysler plant closing

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:19:00 +0000

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. - "Build them where they sell them" was the battle cry from hundreds of autoworkers and their supporters at a rally in front of Chrysler's Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (SHAP) Sept. 25. The plant, eight miles north of Detroit, is scheduled to close in December 2010 but the union here is aggressively working to reverse that decision.

The plant, which makes the Chrysler Sebring and Avenger mid-sized sedans and the Sebring convertible, is one of eight Chrysler plants that are slated to close.

Since June, Chrysler has been run by Fiat under a U.S. government-aided bankruptcy reorganization. Upsetting many here is that while Chrysler/Fiat received $10 billion in U.S. taxpayer money (and 2.5 billion Canadian tax dollars) all of the plants that are scheduled to close are here in the U.S.

At the rally here, motorists and truckers traveling down Van Dyke Avenue honked, gave thumbs up and shouted encouragement to the assembled crowd.

Participants expressed concern not only about their own personal future but also about the well-being of the communities they live in if this and other plants close. Yolanda Mallett put it bluntly: "We need to keep SHAP open because SHAP feeds this community. I'm a production worker. I'm a worker and we want to work. Give us a product and we can make it."

She continued, "If these jobs are lost, we don't have any income. There is a ripple jobs effect. Our money supports community businesses. If we lose our jobs, we can't support those businesses and they can't support the community by providing jobs."

Bill Parker, president of United Auto Workers Local 1700 at SHAP, said, "We want to make sure the plant stays open and jobs remain in Sterling Heights and this area. It's not just Sterling Heights; it's all the great industrial areas around like Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago, Cleveland and St Louis that are being impacted. We need to keep these jobs here."

That fear of what life will be like without manufacturing jobs was brought up by John Ursul, a production worker since 1994. He wondered "What's an economic recovery going to look like as a service economy?

That's a thought Victoria Reyna found hard to bear. Reyna works in final assembly, doing such things as putting in moldings and checking to see seatbelts are in working order. "We all need these jobs," she said. "It's what we depend on; what we need to survive."

Jobs with Justice coordinator Bill Bryce pointed out that Local 1700 has been a bastion of activist leadership and support for other unions and locals. "They have given generously and freely of time and money," he said. The demise of the local "would be a big blow."

General Baker, a retired UAW veteran who has been a part of many fights to keep plants open and jobs in the Detroit area, said that, at a minimum, "until we get a strong social safety net, these plants must remain open so people can survive." He also hoped the large turnout at the rally would be a spark to ignite a larger, united movement to save manufacturing jobs.

Indeed, the rally heard many declarations of support from other Chrysler and UAW locals. Some came from out of state, such as the greetings brought from Chrysler locals in Kenosha, Wis., and Kokomo, Ind., whose plants are also scheduled to close.

Also pledging assistance were a number of elected officials, and it was announced that on the previous day the Michigan House of Representatives had unanimously passed a resolution calling for keeping the plant open.

During the program, Parker told the crowd that men and women should not lose their jobs because workers elsewhere are paid much less to do the same work. More plant closings will worsen the state budget crisis, he noted. Businesses up and down Van Dyke Avenue and beyond depend on our spending, he said. Chrysler and Fiat must reverse their decision to close SHAP, the union leader declared.

jrummel@pww.org

William (Bill) Adelman remembered

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:40:00 +0000

A life of devotion to the pursuit of labor history came to an abrupt end on Sept. 15 with the death of William J Adelman, a founder of the Illinois Labor History Society and its vice president.

The cause of death was a heart attack.

Adelman began his professional career as a high school history teacher. Later Professor Adelman joined the faculty of the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

He was one of the few academics offering a labor history perspective in the Chicago region during the 60s and 70s. His lectures, seminars and tours to labor sites became extremely popular, particularly in the labor union community. His content was always designed to produce the maximum understanding of the historical roots of contemporary issues, and his encyclopedic knowledge of the subject was legendary.

As one of an informal group of labor attorneys, educators and editors he helped create the Haymarket Workers Memorial Committee which issued a call for a ceremony in Haymarket Square on May 1, 1969, to correct public misunderstanding of the "so-called" Haymarket riot. The success of that effort led to the incorporation of the Illinois Labor History Society and Adelman's election as vice president that same year.

Aware of the need for better teaching tools, Adelman produced self-guided tours to the Pullman community where the great strike of 1894 had taken place and to areas associated with the Haymarket Tragedy of 1886.

He continued the series with Pilsen and the West Side, including the Ashland Avenue neighborhood known as Union Row, because of its numerous labor union headquarters.

His visual works began in the 16mm days with "Packingtown USA" followed by "Palace Cars and Paradise," a walking tour of the Pullman community with Adelman himself as guide. Both have been transferred to video. Most of these materials are available today through the Illinois Labor History Society.

He served on the official public committee to select the sculptor for the Haymarket Memorial sculpture installed by the City of Chicago in Haymarket Square in 2004, after 35 years of agitation by the labor community. This historic event followed the naming of the Haymarket Martyrs Monument in Forest Home Cemetery as a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. National Park Service in 1998. Adelman had urged such action at a conference held by the Park Service.

In May 2009, Adelman's "Haymarket Revisited" was republished in the English language by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions in New Delhi with a foreword by its president, M.K. Pandhe. In this new version entitled "Glorious Saga of May Day Martyrs," Pandhe notes that he and his wife had been members of a Haymarket tour party in 2008. Pandhe declares: "...I must mention the remarkable guidance given by Prof. William J. Adelman. For over two hours he narrated the entire background to us in a lucid manner which reflected his firm commitment to the working class and their legitimate struggles... I was deeply impressed by the book and thought that Indian readers should know about the glorious struggle of the Chicago workers."

Adelman was immediately informed when the book arrived at the ILHS office in late August of this year, but unfortunately he did not have the opportunity to see it before his untimely death.

Adelman was 77 and had lived in Oak Park. He was the beloved life partner of David Staley and spouse of Nora Jill Adelman; loving father of Michelle, Marguerite (Robert Ackland), Michael, Marc (Trish) and Jessica Adelman; cherished grandfather of Jon, Ben, Jeffrey, Elinora and Gwendolen; dear brother of Sandra (John) Walsh; dear uncle of John (Melissa), Timothy (Michelle) and Karen (Robert).

William was a professor of Labor & Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois, Chicago and was a founding member/vice president of the Illinois History Labor Society.

"Bill Adelman was a friend, mentor and colleague. His death is a loss to me personally and to the many folks who have come to know that the true story of America is really the one written and unwritten by the workers who have created all wealth in this country," said Larry Spivack, president of Illinois Labor History Society.

Memorial donations to Illinois Labor History Society or the Miller, Cook & Wood Theater Scholarship at OPRF High School are appreciated. Info: 708-383-3191.

Leslie Orear is president emeritus of Illinois Labor History Society.

Sugar company to blame for deaths, federal agency says

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:56:00 +0000

An independent federal board says a series of explosions triggered by combustible dust in confined spaces caused the fatal Imperial Sugar refinery disaster near Savannah, Ga., that killed 14 workers and injured 36 last year.

In a report released Sept. 24, the Chemical Safety Board blames the company for the February 2008 disaster, which leveled the factory. It also says the then Bush-controlled Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fell down on the job by not imposing standards on factories to control combustible dust.

The CSB held a public meeting Sept. 24 near the refinery site in Fort Wentworth to discuss the new report.

Under President Obama's new acting OSHA administrator, former union job safety and health specialist Jordan Barab, the agency has started working on comprehensive combustible dust standards.

Union health and safety specialists welcomed the report on the Imperial Sugar blast and its recommendations for comprehensive and strong OSHA combustible dust standards that companies must meet. The unions, however, want immediate and forceful action.

Evan Yeats, a spokesperson for the United Food and Commercial Workers, charged that, given its findings, the CSB is failing workers by not calling for "immediate, emergency changes in OSHA procedures to protect workers."

Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., who represents Fort Wentworth, backed up the union, saying, "This report makes clear why we need an immediate temporary standard to prevent tragedies like the one we had at Imperial Sugar. I commend the Department of Labor for the steps they've taken to get permanent rules governing combustible dust on the books, but the hard reality is that it could be years before those regulations are in place."

Barrow has introduced a bill that would require an immediate temporary standard until a permanent one is devised.

CSB Chairman John Bresland spoke at the public meeting about his anger at the Bush administration's lack of action after many complaints by his board over the years. He said, "Perhaps a bill is the way to go. It's never been tested." In the past, he said, companies have been able to successfully challenge in court many temporary OSHA regulations.

The disaster at Imperial Sugar was part of a much larger national problem. The CSB report notes that previous investigations it conducted showed that from 1980-2005 there were at least 281 combustible dust fires and explosions that caused at least 118 workers to die and more than 700 others to suffer injury, not to mention extensive damage to industrial facilities.

The CSB says it actually went to OSHA in November 2006, 15 months before the Imperial Sugar tragedy, in an attempt to get the government to develop a comprehensive regulatory standard for combustible dust.

The Bush administration did nothing, however, until the explosions and deaths in Georgia. Then it sent letters to factories saying it would check for dust hazards.

The CSB report says the Imperial Sugar disaster was actually a series of blasts "from ongoing releases of sugar from inadequately designed and maintained dust collection equipment, conveyors and sugar handling equipment.

"Inadequate housekeeping practices allowed highly combustible sugar dust and granulated sugar to build up throughout the refinery's packing buildings," the report says.

CSB probers say the first explosion was inside a sugar conveyor located beneath two large storage silos. Shortly before the explosion, the company had enclosed the conveyor with steel panels, "creating a confined, unventilated space where sugar dust could accumulate to an explosive concentration.

"Sugar dust inside the enclosed conveyor was likely ignited by an overheated bearing, causing an explosion that traveled into the adjacent packing buildings, dislodging sugar dust accumulations and spilled sugar located on equipment, floors and other horizontal services.

"The result was a powerful cascade of secondary dust explosions that fatally injured 14 workers and injured 36 others, many with life-threatening burns. The refinery's packing buildings were largely destroyed by the blasts and ensuing fires."

In a telephone interview, CSB's investigative supervisor, John Vorderbrueggen, an engineer, blamed the company.

"Imperial's management, as well as managers at Wentworth, did not take effective actions over many years to control dust explosion hazards - even as smaller fires and explosions continued at their plants and at other sugar facilities around the country," he said.

The CSB report notes that sugar refineries have known about the combustible dust hazard since 1925, if not before. Fort Wentworth managers "started getting concerned about dust conditions there 42 years ago," the report says.

Ten workers died in two sugar dust explosions at the plant in the 1960s, but the company did nothing.

Before the latest explosions, workers testified, spilled sugar was knee-deep in places on the floor and sugar dust had coated equipment and other elevated surfaces.

Ignoring the buildup of combustible dust and sugar is not the only thing Imperial's management was guilty of, according to the CSB report.

There had been no evacuation drills for workers and there was no properly functioning emergency lighting system in place. Both of these problems "made it difficult for workers to escape from the labyrinth of explosion-damaged buildings as the fires continued to spread," the report says.

Company managers and public relations personnel have not returned calls for comments.

The union is saying that, while it agrees with the CSB report, it has many concerns.

Yeats, who represented the union at the Sept. 24 community meeting, got up and said, "You realize this is all just a public relations event, right?" He was particularly angry about parts of the report that called for trade associations of various manufacturers to monitor themselves.

"It represents no protection for workers," Yeats said. "Since their last report last December, we have called on the CSB to insist that OSHA implement immediate, temporary measures to address this. They did not. The process of changing OSHA regulations takes years."

The CSB is an independent federal agency responsible for investigating industrial chemical accidents. The board members are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. CSB investigators are charged with examining all aspects of chemical accidents, including physical causes such as equipment failure as well as inadequacies in safety regulations, codes, standards, management systems, training and industry practices. While the board cannot issue fines, it makes safety recommendations to plants, industry groups, labor groups and regulatory bodies such as OSHA and the Environmental Protection Administration.

jwojcik@pww.org

We're back!

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:25:00 +0000

We're back!

Yes, like the little engine that could, the People's World is a daily again, in a bigger, better and more powerful format, reaching tens of thousands of readers through the ever-widening medium of the Internet.

We are proud, and unique among news media, to trace our heritage of progressive, working class, noncommercial journalism back to 1924. Over the past 85 years we've made many transitions - changing our frequency, our formats, our appearance, our size and style - to meet the challenges of the times and the limits of our finances.

Throughout all the ups and downs, we've kept on publishing and stuck to our roots and our principles - journalism of, by and for America's working class and people.

In January 1958, when our predecessor The Daily Worker stopped daily publication, it pledged: "We'll be back! Fighting for peace, democracy and socialism."

And we did come back, continuing as a weekly, then a semiweekly, then again a daily, then back to a weekly for the past 18 years.

Today, we are thrilled to make a bold new transition to our state-of-the-art People's World web site - peoplesworld.org.

We'll be adding initiatives and improvements as we go. Top among them will be a focus on harnessing the power of ever-changing communications tools to reach America's workers, young and old, on the job or out of work, struggling to get by and to make a better world for themselves, their families, their communities and their world.

You can be part of it in so many ways:

• Read an article you like? Don't just appreciate it - e-mail it to friends, co-workers, family members, activists in your community. Repost it (with a link to the original, of course) at web sites you follow. Print it and post it on a work or neighborhood bulletin board. These are vital ways to build our readership and network of support.

• Let us know what you think about an article or topic - post a comment online.

• Send us a short report and photo about something happening in your area. For how-tos, contact us at contact@peoplesworld.org.

• Make a donation to carry it forward - no amount is too big or too small.

It takes plain old American gumption, grit and determination to take this big, bold step. We know there will be bumps along the way - when has that ever not been the case in the people's movement? But with your help, we'll keep marching down that road we stepped out on 85 years ago.

Yes, we're back! Fighting for peace, democracy and socialism.

Fired hotel housekeepers reject Hyatt ‘job offer’

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:15:00 +0000

Although they are not in the union, 78 of the 100 fired Boston Hyatt housekeepers met late yesterday at the Unite Here Local 26 office and voted unanimously to reject the hotel chain's offer to place them in jobs with a staffing organization.

After the meeting at a press conference across the street from the Hyatt Regency Boston the women chanted "No Way Hyatt" as Janice Loux, president of the union local, declared an official boycott against the Hyatt.

Workers at the press conference made it clear that they will settle for nothing less than reinstatement in their full-time jobs and that they did not want temporary jobs designed to put other workers out on the street.

The union-led boycott will involve a major national campaign by Unite Here to convince Hyatt customers to cease doing business with the hospitality giant.

Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick, meanwhile, is continuing with plans for a state boycott against Hyatt. His intention is to withhold all state business from the chain.

Hyatt ignited a firestorm of protests across the country after it had its housekeepers in Boston train workers from a staffing agency. The housekeepers were told the trainees would be vacation replacements but when the training was complete the workers were fired and replaced by the trainees who earned half the pay.

Hundreds of workers were arrested in massive peaceful civil disobedience actions last week at Hyatt hotels as far away as Chicago and San Francisco.

Responding to all the pressure on Friday, Hyatt offered the fired Boston housekeepers "full-time" positions with United Services Companies, a Chicago-based staffing outfit that provides low-wage labor to hospitals, hotels and retail stores.

Hyatt, in an attempt to sweeten its offer, said that if the fired workers accept a job with the outfit they will be guaranteed their Hyatt rate of pay through the end of next year and their Hyatt health benefits through the end of March.

Those who don't take that offer, Hyatt said, would be offered "career assistance" and receive their Hyatt wages through the end of March.
Hyatt is already losing scheduled business conventions and regular guests are getting on the Internet and blogging about plans they are making to register at other hotels.
Angela Norena, a fired housekeeper at a Boston hotel, participated in the civil disobedience action in Chicago last week.

"You cannot imagine how bad they were to us.," she said, as she prepared to sit, in protest, in the middle of the street outside a Chicago Hyatt. "I came to America 21 years ago and for all those years worked my fingers to the bone for them here in the land of opportunity.

"They came to me and said ‘don't worry, you are too important for us to lose. Just train this person so we have someone here when you are on vacation.' I believed them. I taught the person everything I knew. And then they came to me and said, ‘we don't need you anymore.' I'm mad as hell. After 21 years I made $15.22 an hour and they kicked me out and replaced me with the woman I trained. They are paying her $8.00 an hour."

Hyatt Regency Boston manager Phil Stamm was "on the phone" every time the Peoples World reached his office for comment, according to his administrative assistant. He did not answer requests for a return call.

Labor organizing workers with social media

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:01:00 +0000

More and more labor leaders nationwide agree using social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and MySpace on the Internet these days is a groundbreaking way to reach and organize workers.

"Across the country, union members are using the new social media to mobilize workers and share information," writes James Parks on the AFL-CIO's Now Blog.

Darren DeMarco is the information technology director with the Electrical Workers (IBEW) and believes utilizing social media to reach workers is a strong complement to traditional forms of organizing.

"I think you have to use every tool out there to organize," said DeMarco. "You have these tools out there where the user can very easily set up their own website, set up a Facebook page, reach out to friends and start a conversation with people they could not before."

In his blog, Parks writes about Steve Selby, an organizer with IBEW in York, Pa., who urgently needed to reach 300 workers at a local Comcast office. Rather than stand outside the office each day passing out literature to workers, Selby decided to set up a MySpace account. Once the account was up and running Selby began handing out fliers directing the workers to his MySpace page in order to share important information with them.

Union activists are finding out that social media reaches more people faster and cheaper than many traditional forms of communication, writes Parks. For example the AFL-CIO live tweeted President Barack Obama's address at the AFL-CIO convention recently.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka recently stated that union leaders need to reach out to young workers in particular and prioritize their important presence in the U.S. labor movement. Trumka said he values social media as a new tool to reach the next generation so that young people continue to fight for workers' rights.

Last month Trumka was the keynote speaker at the Netroots Nation annual conference where progressive bloggers, journalists and activists come together to exchange ideas about how to be more effective when using modern technology to influence the public debate.

"When I was growing up, and working in the coal mines, I certainly wasn't tweeting about it," said Trumka.

"In just a few years you have grown into a new force in progressive politics and also in American journalism," Trumka added. "We are seeing a revolution in communications and we face a big challenge to keep progressives at the head of the curve. Our successes, including this conference, gives us hope that we will," said Trumka.

"Many of us in the labor movement have fretted over the death of the labor beat at newspapers across the country. But we are seeing today that your work in the blogosphere is the equivalent of letting a thousand flowers bloom."

The AFL-CIO along with more than a dozen affiliated unions is reaching out to potential new members and educating current ones through social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube.

Many agree face-to-face contact and person-to-person handouts will always be an important part of organizing and sharing information with workers. But at the same time using new tools such as social media on the Internet can only help share that information and develop relationships with people on a massive scale at the click of mouse, activists say.

Using social media as well as face-to-face contact in spreading the good word about workers' rights should complement each other and be utilized together to organize, labor leaders say.

Unions with a Facebook page or Twitter or both include: AFSCME, AFT, AIR Line Pilots (ALPA), American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CAN/NNOC), Electrical Workers (IBEW), Fire Fighters (IAFF), Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA), Transport Workers (TWU), UNITE-HERE, United American Nurses (UAN), and Unites Steelworkers (USW).

plozano@pww.org

Unite-Here says: Sí se puede, yes we can!

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:10:00 +0000

Resurrection Health Care workers vow: ‘We’ll win our union’

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:38:00 +0000

CHICAGO - "This vigil is a symbol of our commitment to justice. We are not giving up. We'll keep on organizing and win a union at Resurrection Health Care (RHC)," declared Shirley Brown. "We'll continue to fight for better lives

Brown, a leading rank-and-file organizer, was speaking at the conclusion of a 36-hour Vigil for Justice Sept. 26 sponsored by Healthcare Employees Acting at Resurrection Together (HEART), AFSCME and their labor, religious and community allies in support of a 7-year fight for union recognition for 8,000 workers.

Resurrection is a network of 8 hospitals sponsored by two Catholic orders - the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth and the Sisters of the Resurrection. It is the largest Catholic health care provider in Chicago.

The vigil took place in front of the Resurrection Medical Center and corporate offices, a sprawling complex on both sides of W. Talcott Drive. The vigil was conducted in the shadow of massive new construction.

Organizers estimated over 300 people attended and expressed their solidarity. Most wrote messages on pieces of cloth that were strung on a fence in front of Resurrection property. A steady blare of horns from passing cars and trucks expressed their support was heard throughout the vigil.

"All this property and Resurrection can't afford to pay a decent wage?" asked Mamie Johnson, an AFSCME Local 2600 member, as she shook her head in disbelief. "They need their butt whipped," added her husband Gene, a retired postal worker. Both had arrived that morning on a bus full of AFSCME members from Springfield.

There is a growing anger among the workers over stepped up harassment and pressure exerted by Resurrection. Nurses and health care workers are being forced to adopt heavier workloads as RHC trims its workforce.

Carmen Cohn has worked at Resurrection for 15 years as an occupational therapist. She has seen steady deterioration in patient care, safety and an increase in workload and productivity. She said union recognition was essential to protect both workers and patients.

"Each occupational therapist is being pressured to work harder and produce more. I worked harder this year and my pay was frozen," said Cohn.

Aides have been eliminated who assisted in lifting heavy patients. So Cohn has to lift patients herself or wait for an aide to become available. "Workers are angry over new RHC rules that make them use their first four vacation days if they get sick."

"We are facing fear, intimidation and misinformation," said Kelly Bellinger, a labor and delivery RN with 15 years at RHC. "We demand Resurrection give its employees rights and a process free from fear, harassment and intimidation. We want a voice at the bedsides and safe staffing levels."

Resurrection has resisted the organizing drive, intimidated, harassed and fired union activists. Many employees were too intimidated to join the vigil, but waved, honked and gave the thumbs-up as they completed their shifts and left for home.

In June the US Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted a set of guiding principals calling for a fair process for health care workers to decide if they want a union or not. AFSCME Council 31 President Henry Bayer blasted the increasing corporatization of Resurrection, "They don't care what the bishops say. All they care about is making money!"

Miguel Mora brought his baby son Diego Ramon to the vigil in support of his wife, a Resurrection mental health professional. Mora, an AFSCME member at the Illinois Department of Health care and Family Services said Resurrection is using the climate of fear to exploit immigrant workers too.

One of Mora's clients was a Resurrection laundry worker who qualified for state services because of the low pay she receives. She was being sexually harassed on the job and it was affecting her family life. Mora hooked her up with the Interfaith Committee for Workers Issues (now ARISE Chicago) and she became active in the organizing drive. "This experience gave her confidence to fight, said Mora.

Lillie Smith Beacham is an RN in the Mother-Baby unit of West Suburban Hospital. She resented the massive new construction while staffing levels are being cut. The ratio of nurses to mother-baby couples had been 1 to 4 and is now 1 to 6 in many cases.

"I feel confident we'll win, but it will take time. Many of the workers are fearful of management. They are being watched. Once they get past the fear factor and understand the need for the union for Resurrection to function, we'll win," she said.

"Moses and the people wandered in the desert in search of the Promised Land. For 40 years the people didn't feel sure they would get there. Civil Rights activists put one foot in front of the other during a long difficult struggle. They were following a higher calling," Rev. CJ Hawking, executive director of ARISE Chicago told the RHC workers. "Keep up the fight and you will get to the Promised Land."

New AFL-CIO leaders set fighting tone

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:50:00 +0000

If their first two weeks in office are any indication, the people elected Sept. 16 as the new leaders of the AFL-CIO at the federation's convention in Pittsburgh were serious when they said that they would be different kinds of labor leaders.

Rather than taking their time moving into their Washington offices overlooking the White House, they have been crisscrossing the country, leading marches, speaking at health care rallies, putting pressure on world leaders and even going to the financial fortresses on Wall Street to demand radical reform.

The AFL-CIO held health care marches on Sept. 22 in cities all over the country, demanding health care reform with a strong public option and curbs on the power of the insurance companies.

Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker led a parade through downtown Philadelphia that massed around the headquarters of Cigna, the insurance giant. She said, "The insurers have a chokehold on the United States. America is in a big fight over health care. The American people are on one side. Big insurance is on the other."

The labor led marches on health care and on financial reform took place as key committees in Congress addressed both issues.

While Holt-Baker was leading marchers in Philadelphia the Senate Finance Committee was dragging itself through the 564 GOP sponsored amendments to a bill that the AFL-CIO had already characterized as weak and unacceptable. A progressive member of the committee, Jay Rockefeller, D-W. Va., said that the GOP, on behalf of insurers, was trying to "slow-walk" health care reform to death.

Richard Trumka, the AFL-CIO's newly elected president, led the charge on Wall Street with a march and rally, also on Sept. 22. His move was timed to coincide with discussions in the House Financial Services Committee, which, on the day of the Wall Street demonstration, was near agreement on comprehensive financial reform. The committee's bill, if passed by the full Congress, would regulate not just bankers, but the brokers, hedge fund dealers, derivative traders and other financiers responsible for massive unemployment and home foreclosures.

In her attacks against insurance companies Holt Baker accused them of "buying and paying for the radical right protests and near riots against health care reform that disrupted congressional town hall meetings this summer." At one of the tea bagger actions she described, a St. Louis union member suffered a broken shoulder after being beaten by right-wing thugs.
"All across America today people have something to say about big insurance - we're sick of it," Holt-Baker said. "We're sick of insurance companies telling doctors what they can and can't do. That has to stop. "We're sick of our family members and friends getting denied coverage because they were once sick. That has to stop. We're sick of insurance company policies that reward denying claims. That has to stop.

"And we're sick of their using our premium money to work against health care reform We're sick of them telling their employees to join the Town Hall screamers against health care reform. That has to stop," she said.

Only 48 hours after Holt-Baker's Sept. 22 speech the AFL-CIO fired off letters to the state insurance commissioners in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New York, demanding investigations of whether the insurance companies in those states were increasing premiums in order to cover the costs of their lobbying campaigns against health care reform. "The health care industry's lobbying expenditures clearly impacted consumers' health care costs," Trumka wrote. "We believe that insurer lobbying expenses led to excessive rate hikes."

At some of the health care demonstrations, including one at the Blue Cross Blue Shield headquarters in Portland, Ore., the trade unionists demanded abolition of the health insurance companies altogether, calling for a single-payer government run health care system.

At its convention in Pittsburgh the AFL-CIO approved two health care resolutions. One backed single payer insurance and the other called, in the meantime, for support for versions of the reform bill that would create a strong public option and would avoid taxing workers who currently have plans paid by their employers.

The AFL-CIO demonstrations on Wall Street were particularly dramatic. Standing outside the New York Stock Exchange, Trumka, blamed the economic crash on "the speculators who are inside." He described them as "the real beast" and said "they must be reigned in." He called for creation of a strong consumer protection agency. The Obama administration has called for the creation of such an agency and creation of such a body is included in the House Committee bill.

Trumka said: "I've got a message for Citibank and AIG and every other financial institution getting rich at the expense of working families trying to recover from this recession: If you lock out families wanting homes and businesses desperately needing capital to create new jobs and opportunities for families, if you take money from U.S. taxpayers and spend it on more speculation instead of investing it in creating jobs, if you lard your executives with bonuses and largesse while you're squeezing families out of their homes with unfair lending, we're going to fight you.

"We're going to tell the truth about you're doing. And we're advocating for new regulations to make sure the financial sector is the servant to the real economy and not its master. The bankers and brokers caused this mess, while workers are paying the price," Trumka declared

"We are here to demand more accountability today from our financial system, from Wall Street, from the ‘Masters of the Universe' who speculate in phony instruments rather than invest in the real economy. And we're here to support President Obama's call here on Wall Street for tough new regulations to keep our economy safe from speculators and the apostles of greed," Trumka said.

Labor tells G-20 to save planet and its workers

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 07:59:00 +0000

PITTSBURGH — It was clear at a rally here last night that the labor and environmental movements are more united now than ever before as they put forward demands on leaders of the G-20 nations that they believe are needed to rescue both workers and the planet.

As world leaders began arriving for their economic summit here, Richard Trumka, newly elected president of the AFL-CIO, addressed a rally that featured former Vice President Al Gore and environmental and union leaders.

Trumka told the gathering that a "new economic order" is needed both to pull workers out of the current economic crisis and to save the planet from the threat of global warming.

"The world cannot continue with globalization that works only for the very richest and leaves workers behind," Trumka declared.

The rally, attended by many activists in the labor and environmental movements, was organized by the United Steelworkers, the largest industrial union in the U.S., Repower America and the Blue-Green Alliance, among other organizations.

Environmental groups and unions issued a special joint declaration earlier in the day.

"Together labor and environmental organizations are a fighting force for change," the declaration read. "This is our time - the time to let the powers gathered here this week know what we want and what we stand for. We want a clean energy economy that creates good jobs and we want a safe and healthy planet.

"We need a new economic order that respects both workers and the planet. Globalization that benefits only the rich, the assault on workers and the planet, and the devastation it breeds has got to go."

Banks, real estate companies and insurance firms are among a virtual parade of big businesses that are touting Pittsburgh as an example of how beneficial globalization, big business style, can be to American cities. Major efforts are under way by business groups to attract additional investment to the city.

Trumka took on this issue during his presentation.
"Pittsburgh indeed did grow," Trumka said, "but not because of the export of jobs. The growth here came despite the banks and the corporations, not because of them."

He went on to explain how new higher tech jobs were created and how training for them was provided. He also explained how the ability to hold onto at least some of the manufacturing base and the role unions played in that fight made Pittsburgh different from some other locations devastated by de-industrialization.

Trumka said labor and environmental groups are demanding that the world leaders implement a four-part program.

The program calls for strict regulations, worldwide, on the finance industry, major public investment in clean energy and transportation, controls on carbon emissions, and strong support for the right of workers to form

Detroit fights for access to fresh food

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 07:09:00 +0000

But it doesn't get more basic than putting food on the table, and on this score too, Detroit is at the bottom.

A complaint heard often here is about the absence of a large "regular" grocery store. Where else in the country will you find a city of 900,000 without a real full-sized supermarket selling fresh, quality food?

On Thursday I caught a presentation by Rick Blocker, secretary treasurer of Local 876 United Food and Commercial Workers, on Detroit's grocery store problem. Blocker lives in Detroit, but, like many others, must leave the city to do his food shopping.

Very few Detroit neighborhoods have access to fresh fruit and vegetables, said Blocker. In any neighborhood you can easily "walk to get high-fat foods, but have to drive to get quality food."

The people of Detroit have a right to high-quality food, he said. That "right" has been denied since 2007 when the Farmer Jack grocery store chain closed and left the city without any national food chain operating within its borders.

Also devastating, said Blocker, was the loss of Farmer Jack's 4,900 union employees. Today, 3,700 of them, many living in the city, are still without jobs.

To bring quality food back to the city, Blocker outlined how his union has joined with MOSES, a local group of diverse religious congregations that organizes for social justice, to develop a two-pronged approach.

On the one hand they are pressuring those small businesses that do sell food (often gas stations and small owner-operated stores) to maintain quality standards, by distributing "checklists" to community residents. The checklists ask residents to monitor stores on such things as cleanliness, ensuring that no food items are past the "sell by" date, and making sure refrigerated sections have thermometers and are kept at proper temperatures.

Second, they are working to open a cooperatively run, full-service supermarket in the city. Blocker indicated a location has been identified. In May, he noted, 250 people from the community turned out to voice support for the project.

Asked why the union is involved in such a campaign, he said that in addition to the community need for accessible healthy food, employees of union stores "have benefits such as health care and are insured that such things as promotions and work schedules are handled fairly." The community also benefits and becomes stronger "when the union insures community standards are met," he said.

Blocker has the experience to know. For 17 years he worked at a Detroit grocery store, eventually working his way up to become manger of the store's dairy department. "It didn't depend on who I knew," he said, pointing to the union's ability to enforce fair promotions.

He is confident the campaign will be successful. "We are not just giving lip service," he said. "We have dedicated a lot of resources to the project. We are going to do what we have to, to get a quality store in the city."

Cooperation between labor and the community is essential to rebuild Detroit and solve problems like this, he emphasized.

Blocker's talk was organized by the Center for Community-Based Enterprise, which organized events bringing together Michigan labor, religious and community groups to discuss how problems can be addressed by grassroots initiatives.

jrummel @ pww.org

Wells Fargo guilty of crimes against workers, rally charges

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 07:04:00 +0000

"Wells Fargo is a criminal offender in the banking community," said Susan Hurley, executive director with Chicago Jobs With Justice, the group that organized the action.

Hurley said the bank received $25 billion in federal bailout funds from taxpayers, yet they continue to give out multi-million dollar bonuses to their executives.

Nearly a year since Congress authorized hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out the financial industry, major banks like Wells Fargo are selling out working people by closing small businesses and forcing layoffs and home foreclosures, said Hurley.

According to Hurley the bank has foreclosed on 4,000 homes in the Chicago area alone. They also spend millions lobbying against the interests of working people, she added.

The logic to give banks money was to save our economy, even though we all know they engineered the crisis to begin with, said Hurley. "Instead they have kept the money for themselves and that's not okay with us," she said.

Hurley hopes Congress gets serious about re-regulating the current financial mess and pass stronger legislation that protects workers, consumers, and homeowners.

"We want Wells Fargo to keep people in their homes and to put those foreclosed homes back into the hands of the community," she said. "So we are here today to take a stand for an economic recovery that supports working people not just the wealthy."

Speakers at the rally also demanded that Wells Fargo pay money owed to union workers at the Quad Cities Die Casting company in Moline, Ill. The bank decided to liquidate and close the company recently leaving the workers jobless and devastating the town.

"I think it's terrible what Wells Fargo did to my brothers and sisters," said Deb Johann, leader with United Electrical Local 1174 and former Quad City worker. "They took $25 billion from taxpayers to save their skins, but when it comes to thousands of dollars in pay and benefits we have worked hard for, the bank is delinquent in payment," she said. "We made millions this summer working hard at Quad City and now Wells Fargo is stepping in to take that money and stiff us on what we earned."

What Wells Fargo has done is unfair and the money they spent on bonuses for their executives could be better utilized for people losing their jobs and their homes, critics say. And it's not right how Wells Fargo has a history of taking advantage of homeowners, especially minorities, setting them up to fail in bad predatory lending practices, they add.

Many at the rally represented different struggles having to do with Wells Fargo's bad policies including Susan Aarup, an activist with Access Living, a group that advocates for people with disabilities. Aarup, who uses a wheel chair, said she worked for the city for 12 years before being laid off.

Aurup said finding a new job these days is tough. But what's more upsetting is how Wells Fargo discriminates against hiring people like her, she said.

"The disabled community has a 70 percent unemployment rate in Chicago," said Aarup. "I'm demanding that Wells Fargo employ people with disabilities to fix this problem," she said.

Many religious leaders were also present including Rev. Robin Hood with Clergy Committed to Community. "What Wells Fargo is doing to workers and homeowners is immoral and appalling and they should be held accountable for their criminal actions," he said. "They're predatory lenders and criminal offenders."

Rev. Calvin Morris with the Community Renewal Society said at the end of it all it's workers who are the people that produce the wealth in this country and financial institutions like Wells Fargo should support them in their right to join unions.

"We are not afraid," said Morris. "And we are demanding our fair share especially when it comes to economic justice," he said. "We will not be silent because our power is resident in the people and we the workers are that people."

During the rally organizers of the action enacted a mini-skit called, "A People's Trial of Wells Fargo" about how the bank employs bad practices toward working people. The trial in the skit found the bank and it's chairman Richard Kovacevich guilty of criminal charges.

At the end of the rally activists chanted, "Wells Fargo, we'll be back! And that's a fact!"

plozano@pww.org

Machinists file lawsuit to save jobs

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:36:00 +0000

"This is pure corporate greed. They just want to make more money," said one of the workers at the recent Connecticut AFL-CIO convention. Anger is high on the shop floor and workers are mobilized. Despite the millions of dollars the two operations have made for P&W and UTC, the company says it is moving for even higher profits.

After weeks of talks in which the union offered major concessions to keep the jobs in Connecticut, the company, which produces and maintains jet engines for commercial and military aircraft, announced it would not change its plans. The repair facility in Cheshire is slated to close by 2011 and a smaller repair unit in East Hartford is slated to close next year.

A "Workplace Guarantees Clause" in the union contract requires the company to meet with the union and make every reasonable effort to preserve work. The lawsuit has been filed on the basis that the company's decision was made prior to those talks.

In 1999 the IAM won a similar suit to save parts repair work in the East Hartford plant. In a dramatic result, trucks on their way to Texas had to turn around and replace the equipment in the East Hartford plant, where the work continues today. Union leaders say they expect to win this lawsuit as well.

State Treasurer Denise Nappier has called upon the top executives at UTC to reduce their compensation to save the 1,050 jobs at Pratt and the probable 5,000 additional jobs that would be lost in a ripple effect. She said the $20 million additional savings the corporation is seeking can be found in the $70 million compensation received by the company's top five executives in 2008.

During negotiations the union offered $80 million in wage cuts and other savings to the company and the State of Connecticut offered $100 million in assistance over five years.

On Sept. 22 union leaders were joined by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal at a press conference announcing the legal challenge to stop Pratt's plans to eliminate the Connecticut repair shop jobs. They emphasized that the company had apparently made its decision prior to the meet-and-confer process and never seriously considered any other alternatives.

At the biennial convention of the Connecticut AFL-CIO earlier this month, a resolution of solidarity was unanimously passed, calling for an investigation into the flight of capital. To revitalize manufacturing in this country, the resolution urged support for the TRADE Act introduced to Congress this year, which would set new rules for U.S. trade pacts including enforceable labor standards.

Speaking from the floor, IAM leader Bill Shortell said this latest attempt to take a third of the remaining workforce out of the state and country by a profitable company receiving government contracts is being opposed by the entire congressional delegation. "We need legislative tools," he said. "The multinationals have no nation. The Trade Act must be passed. Corporations must be controlled."

Ron Front, who works in the Middletown P&W plant, emphasized, "This affects every single one of us. We have to stop them now. Sending work overseas is unacceptable."

Sal Luciano, president of AFSCME Council 4, called for a strong message to the company. He said, "Pratt & Whitney is threatening to take the jobs to Japan and Singapore. Both have universal health care. It is happening to the rest of us, cutting down to the bottom."

The convention also unanimously passed a resolution in support of single-payer health care and held a rally demanding passage of health care reform with a public option.

Hotel workers stage sit-in at Hyatt

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:00:00 +0000

CHICAGO - About 200 hospitality workers and supporters were arrested here Sept. 24 as part of a civil disobedience action in the streets outside the Hyatt Hotel and corporate headquarters. Those who participated in the sit-in, blocking rush hour traffic for more than an hour, were cheered on by almost 1,000 demonstrators who jammed the sidewalks in front of and across the street from the hotel. All those arrested were bussed to a special police facility where they were given citations and released.

The largest civil disobedience action by workers here in many years came less than a year after other workers in Chicago made history last winter by occupying a window and door factory after the owner shut it down.

The sit-in was organized by Unite Here Local 1, the union that represents 15,000 hotel and food service workers in Chicago and casino workers in Northwest Indiana. The action came amid escalating labor disputes with Chicago hotels and growing public backlash against Hyatt hotels for the recent firing of 100 housekeepers in Boston. Unite Here Local 1 is in contract negotiations with hotel employers, including the Hyatt. Their contract expired Aug. 31.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick confirmed Sept. 25 that he has ordered state employees to stop doing business with Hyatt hotels until it rehires the fired workers. Hyatt fired the workers and brought in lower-paid replacements the laid-off workers had trained.

Reflecting the national nature of the outrage, 92 hotel workers in San Francisco were arrested in a simultaneous civil disobedience action, also on Sept. 24.

The protests capped months of anger in the ranks of hotel workers here and around the country who are criticizing their employers for driving down wages, increasing workloads, cutting health benefits and jobs.

Susan Tynon, a banquet server at the Hyatt here told the World, as she sat in the middle of Chicago Ave., arms linked to co-workers on her left and right, that "Hyatt made $200 billion in profits in the last ten years and now they are trying to use the excuse that the economy is bad to cut jobs, cut benefits and make one of us do the work of three. I'm sitting here because I'd rather go to jail than to a hospital for being worked to death - if they get away with this I wouldn't be able to go to a hospital anyway - they're trying to cut our health benefits."

Cheers and applause broke out from the crowds of supporters lining Chicago Ave. every time another dozen or so workers, wearing their uniforms and placards reading "I Am Not Afraid," moved into the street, linked arms and sat down. Among those arrested were community leaders including Chicago Alderman Ricardo Munoz and Jane Ramsey, executive director of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs.

"These men and women wash your plates and make your beds. They are our brothers and sisters," Munoz said as he sat down in the middle of the street.

Frances La Rowell, a housekeeper at the Blackstone Hotel, was among the first to sit down. "I am not afraid," she said, "I'm doing this because I have breast cancer and I have children to take care of. They want to cut my health benefits and pay. The chemotherapy is really rough but it's not as bad as what they are doing to us at work."

Despite the urgency of their own struggles on the job here, almost everyone expressed support for the workers in Boston.

In that city, on August 31, Hyatt fired the housekeepers (all women) and replaced them with low wage workers from a contractor in Georgia after telling the women they were training "vacation" replacements.

Angela Norena, a fired housekeeper at a Boston Hyatt told the World, "You cannot imagine how bad they were to us. I came to America 21 years ago and for all those years worked my fingers to the bone for them here in the land of opportunity.

"They came to me and said 'don't worry, you are too important to us to lose. Just train this person so we have someone here when you are on vacation.' I believed them. I taught the person everything I knew. And then they came to me and said, 'we don't need you anymore.' I'm mad as hell. After 21 years, I made $15.22 an hour and they kicked me out and replaced me with a woman I trained. They are paying her $8.00 an hour."

Norena then linked arms with several local hotel workers, moved into the street and sat down. One of the workers who joined her in the sit-in was Claudette Evans, a floor care attendant at the Chicago Hyatt for 11 years. "They can arrest me because what the Hyatt did to those housekeepers in Boston is unthinkable and by sitting down, I'm standing up for those ladies," Evans said. "I'm also standing up for myself and my mother, who's been a housekeeper here too for 14 years. Our future, our health and our jobs depend on this."

Earlier in the day Norena joined a delegation of women working in Chicago hotels in an appeal to Hyatt owner Penny Pritzker, who was giving a talk at the Sheraton Chicago, to bring back the "Hyatt 100" housekeepers in Boston.

Hyatt, which made $1.3 billion in profits from 2004 to 2008, is 85 percent owned by Chicago's Pritzker family. Pritzker was at the Sheraton Sept. 24 addressing a conference of the National Center for the Seniors Housing and Care Industry.

Pritzker made no comments to the workers and reportedly ran away from them. Norena said she was "disappointed" but would "continue to fight until every last one of us gets our jobs back."

(Photos and video by ProgressIllinois.com)

Labor talks green jobs and manufacturing at G-20

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:29:00 +0000

The USW, North America's largest industrial union, is a co-sponsor of several events at its Pittsburgh headquarters today, including an all day seminar. Newly elected AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is attending the session.

Gerard and Trumka are among some 50 union leaders from across the globe who are calling on President Obama and other G-20 leaders meeting here this week to create a coordinated international economic recovery and sustainable growth plan that aims with laser-like precision on job creation, public investment and lifting up conditions for the world's most vulnerable workers.

In a special "Pittsburgh Declaration," the labor leaders are demanding that the G-20, among other things:

"Begin to develop a model of growth based on a balanced economy, one that is economically efficient, socially just and environmentally sustainable.

"Combat the rise of wage deflation and reverse the growth of income inequality by extending the coverage of collective bargaining, and strengthening wage-setting institutions to establish a decent floor in labor markets.

"Resolve insolvent banks immediately and establish new rules and mechanisms to control global finance with full stakeholder engagement.

"Lay groundwork for a far reaching and ambitious climate change agreement later this year."

"What we are doing is demanding that the leaders end the failed policies that have generated massive inequality between and within nations and that are the root causes of the current global crisis," Gerard said. "We can no longer have a model of growth based on debt-financed consumption. We must invest in good jobs - jobs that help us protect our environment and our communities - while lifting workers up around the world.

Tonight labor will participate in a huge "Rally for Clean Energy Jobs," co-sponsored by the USW, Repower America, the Alliance for Climate Protection and the Blue Green Alliance.

In Pittsburgh this week there are many protest groups, in addition to organized labor, that are, as at previous international summits, already battling over their ability to voice opposition to international corporate politics.

Yesterday, lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights argued before a Pennsylvania U.S. District Court that there was evidence of unconstitutional search and seizure by police against the Seeds of Peace Collective and the Three Rivers Climate Convergence.

Last Friday police confiscated a school bus from which Seeds of Peace activists were serving food to demonstrators. On Sunday, the Pittsburgh residence where the group was based was raided by 30 police with submachine guns, who demanded to search the premises for weapons. They found food, but no weapons.

The Three Rivers Climate Convergence has been denied permits for overnight camping in city parks. The city has restricted use by protesters of several city parks to the hours of 6 am to 11 pm. The group has a camp in Schenley Park.

Another encampment, highlighting the plight of women refugees, has been set up by Code Pink in Point State Park.

One of several jobs marches and an interfaith march, both of which had legal permits for designated routes, according to the ACLU, were re-routed by police because of requests by the convention center to route them away from the facility. Witold Walcak, the state director of the ACLU, responded by telling the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that the area around the convention center "isn't private property. It's a through street, and they had a permit."

SLIDESHOW Before G20, Pittsburgh marches for jobs

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:38:00 +0000

The marches are part of a week of demonstrations, cultural events, teach-ins and workshops protesting global economic policies that benefit transnational corporations and capital at the expense of labor, workers, their families and the environment.

http://picasaweb.google.com/pww4online/JobsMarchPittsburghG20#5384032559375700626

Labor demands global justice

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 08:28:00 +0000

PITTSBURGH - As the AFL-CIO wrapped up its 26th Convention here and world leaders got ready for the G-20 summit next week, U.S. and international trade unionists are demanding a new global economy that is fair to workers.

On Sept. 17, the federation passed a resolution calling for coordinated efforts by the AFL-CIO and unions around the world to seek international solutions to the challenges facing the world's workers.

Interestingly, world labor leaders don't just see this as a question of the American labor movement helping out its brothers and sisters around the world. Many see it is as a question of them helping U.S. workers win rights that workers in other industrialized countries already have.

Sharan Burrow
During a break in convention proceedings Sharan Burrow, president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, told the World, "Because this is a crisis that was made in America and has spread all around the world the solution demands major job-producing breakthroughs in the United States. Your efforts at winning major health care reform and passage of the Employee Free Choice Act are examples of what has to be done to help fix the entire global economy."

Burrow also said, "The international labor movement has to put on the pressure during the G-20 summit. If the leaders have the guts to do it there will be a new world of possibilities."

She said that cooperation by unions from all over the world is also needed to push up minimum wages all over the world. "By itself, this will amount to an enormous global stimulus package."

On the last day of the convention, Bill Lucy, secretary-treasurer of AFSCME, thanked the many international delegates who attended and called on world leaders to increase their efforts to turn around the world economy. "Just as the global union movement is connected by solidarity and a shared commitment to social and economic justice, today we are connected by a worldwide economic crisis. Given the specter of a persistent global job crisis, there is an urgent need for a far more aggressive and internationally oriented recovery strategy."

The resolution calls on the G-20 nations, including the United States, to dedicate more funding to economic recovery and job creation, as well as international union cooperation in protecting the freedom of workers to organize. It also demands that strong measures be taken to fix the broken international banking system.

As many as 50 U.S. labor leaders will join the national leadership of the AFL-CIO in returning to this city next week where they will join their international union colleagues to demand that global leaders address the international jobs crisis.

Led by newly elected AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and International Trades Union Confederation President Guy Ryder, they plan to tell President Obama and the other leaders of the G-20 that a second round of world-wide stimulus spending, this time concentrated on immediate job creation, is urgently needed.

"The lessons to be learned from the economic catastrophe of the last year are that it just isn't safe to leave the globalized economy in the hands of rampant global capital," Ryder told the AFL-CIO convention on its closing day. "And government must step back into the ring of public life and meet its responsibility to protect and provide for all citizens - not just the few marked out by wealth and privilege for consideration by those in power."

As the start of the G-20 approaches, there is concern that local officials are trying to curb dissent, reacting to past confrontations at global summits in Seattle and Miami that featured police violence against union protesters. Entrance into the city center, already limited to a few bridges over its rivers, will be more limited to three designated entry points.

On EFCA, Specter changes views...constantly

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 06:16:00 +0000

PITTSBURGH -- Before the first full day session of the 26th AFL-CIO convention opened here last Monday the federation's officers met privately with a group of reporters who asked them about reports that Sen. Arlen Specter, D, Pa., was now in favor of passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Specter, when he was still a Republican last year, was one of the bill's sponsors in the Senate.

As the extreme right wing began to solidify its control over the GOP he switched and said he was opposed to the labor law reform measure. Then he became a Democrat but said it didn't mean he could be counted on to back the EFCA. Still later he said he would support a version of the bill but that he wanted a version without "majority sign-up" or "card check," as he called it.

"Isn't it amazing how some people will change their positions?" was the response then federation president John Sweeney gave to reporters Monday morning.

Speaking before the full convention later that day Specter got polite applause from wary delegates when he said, "I predict that by the end of the year a version of EFCA will pass that will satisfy the AFL-CIO."

Only 30 minutes later, in response to a question from the Peoples World, off the convention floor he said, "I could never support a measure that eliminates free elections" and he indicated that he even had problems with the provision that prevents companies from stalling on a first contract, once a union is formed.

He said he wanted to make sure that any arbitrator would pick one or another of the union's or the company's "last best offer," rather than just splitting the difference down the middle and he would not commit himself on backing a very short period of time between the day a majority of workers sign up in support of a union and the date on which an election would have to beheld.

He was equally evasive on the question of health care, saying he supported President Obama's efforts at health care reform and that he was "happy" that "single-payer is on the table."

It was difficult to find delegates at the convention who were confident that Specter is a trustworthy spokesman for legislative concerns important to workers.

When the Peoples World asked Richard Trumka, now the federation's president, about this later in the day he said that "the labor movement is still fighting for majority sign-up."

Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers, who has been close to the negotiations, agreed and said any "compromise" on majority sign-up would have to guarantee that companies can't manipulate how their workers would vote in an election.

The compromise that involves an election being held in a matter of days with automatic recognition of the union if the company tried to influence votes would address this problem, Cohen said. He made it clear that that another idea Specter threw out when he talked with reporters, one that involved triple damages if the company fired union organizers during the election period, was not acceptable. He noted that companies don't mind spending a lot of money to prevent unions from being organized.

"We will continue to fight for real labor law reform and I believe, with the support of the president, workers will win this one," Cohen said.

Two of top three posts go to women in AFL-CIO election

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 06:01:00 +0000

PITTSBURGH -- In a session packed with emotion, delegates to the 26th AFL-CIO Convention yesterday elected a historic leadership team.

Two women, Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler and Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker join the new president, Richard Trumka, as the federation's top three leaders.

Shuler, 39, is the youngest person ever to become an officer of the AFL-CIO.

All three were voted in by acclamation.

Trumka previously served as the federation's secretary-treasurer, Shuler served as executive assistant to Electrical Workers President Edwin Hill and Holt Baker was re-elected. Outgoing federation president, John Sweeney, formally nominated Trumka.

Teresa Albano
John Sweeney, right, passes the gavel to new AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka.
Trumka talked about how he was raised in a union family in Pennsylvania's coal country.

"Even though the face of the labor movement is different, one thing today is the same as it was then - the surest way to lift workers and families into the middle class is with the strength that can only come with a union contract.

"That truth hasn't been more critical than it is right now because today the American middle class isn't being squeezed - we are being crushed."

Trumka said that even though it wasn't the labor movement that created the economic disaster it is the labor movement that will lead the nation out of it. People rose to their feet in prolonged, thunderous applause.

Shuler pledged to manage the AFL-CIO's finances responsibly and transparently.

"We need to revitalize and unify labor at every level," she declared. "We need to reach out to unorganized workers - especially those under 35 - who, for whatever reason, don't see us as the answer to the economic problems we face."

Holt Baker said her mission would be passage of the Employee Free Choice Act and reaching out to a new generation of workers, to give them a chance at the American dream.

"We're not just concerned about labor's family. Our fight is really about ensuring life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all families," Holt Baker said, adding, "I believe with every fiber in my body that our movement must keep on ensuring that millions of workers in this country have the dignity and respect they deserve. That means good wages, affordable health care and continuous job training. If we don't fight for this, who will?"

In addition to the top three officers convention delegates elected 51 vice presidents who will make up the AFL-CIO Executive Council.

Unite-Here rejoins AFL-CIO

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 04:56:00 +0000

PITTSBURGH - The last day of the AFL-CIO Convention opened on a high note as newly elected federation President Richard Trumka announced that Unite-Here is re-affiliating with the federation. The 250,000 member Unite-Here was one of the unions that left the AFL-CIO in 2005 to join the Change-to-Win federation.

Unite-Here President John Wilhelm said, "In Unite-Here, we know what a fighter for workers Rich Trumka is and we pledge to stand with him and fight to get workers what they deserve: a piece of the American dream. Solidarity will always overcome division and we will continue to be a strong and growing member in the house of labor.

The newly elected leadership of the AFL-CIO has been saying that organizational unity in the labor movement would be a natural outgrowth of de-facto unity that has been building in the movement for years - particularly around the 2006 and 2008 elections, the fight for national health care and the struggle for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.

The move by Unite-Here indicates, observers say, that the new AFL-CIO leadership will push for unions that left the federation to rejoin. At one time it was thought that consideration was being given to form an entirely new federation.