People Before Profit blog

New York reclaims May Day

Tue, 04 May 2010 11:50:00 +0000

NEW YORK - The workers of the world united here, literally, May 1 in a historic rally, organized by the labor and immigrants' rights movements. Its aim was simple: demand government action on jobs, end harassment of immigrant workers, and "reclaim May Day."

The rally was planned well before the Arizona anti-immigrant law was passed, but repeal of the law became a significant rallying cry of the demonstration. The other main demand was for jobs for all.

May 1 - May Day - is celebrated around the world as a day honoring international solidarity and workers' rights, but until recently it was largely forgotten in the U.S., though it originated in Chicago out of the fight the eight-hour workday. Over the past several years, this date has become synonymous with the immigrant rights' movement as a day for large rallies in cities across the U.S.

This year in New York, labor unions came together with immigration coalitions to "reclaim" the holiday. International solidarity and unity of the world's working class against the capitalist class have always been the main themes of May Day, so the alliance of the two overlapping movements proved a good fit: organizers estimated that 20,000 - 25,000 people turned out.

"I'm so proud to be here with what America is," Rep. Charles Rangel, who shared the stage with Rep. Nydia Velazquez, told the crowd. "Here we have people from Puerto Rico, people from Taiwan, people from Africa, people from Europe, people from Israel: that is the United States of America."

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn remarked that New York "is and will stay an immigrant city."

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker, who is both the top African American and top woman in the nation's labor movement, made the case that immigrant rights are bound up with the rights of all workers.

Noting that thousands of workers have died in workplace-related injuries, Holt Baker asked, "Is it in our nation's interest to have workers too scared to report hazards? Too frightened to stand up for their rights and basic protections on their job, like minimum wage, or the right to form a union?" Second-class status, she argued, divides working people and allows working conditions to slide downwards. "We need an America that guarantees safe workplaces, and protects workers' rights - all workers' rights - regardless of race, regardless of gender or ethnicity or nationality or immigration status," she declared.

"What has happened in Arizona is abominable," New York City Council member Melissa Mark Viverito told the rally. "We need to make sure that what happened in Arizona is the exception and not the rule in this country." Viverito, co-chair of the council's progressive caucus, said the federal government should expedite a review of the Arizona law, so it can be rolled back as unconstitutional before it goes into effect.

Calling for a city boycott of Arizona, Viverito said, "We must ask our officials to look at ways we can disinvest our money, our pension money, from corporations in Arizona to send a very strong message about where we stand."

New York is the perfect backdrop for a holiday like May Day. The city's working people come from virtually all nations in the world and speak more than 800 different languages, making the city the most linguistically diverse on the planet. In addition, New York is known for its strong labor movement: the union density is far higher than in most American cities, many tens of thousands of workers are organized, and labor routinely plays a significant role in local, state and federal elections.

Photo and video: PW/Libero DellaPiana

Workers memorial dedicated in Hartford

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 12:03:00 +0000

HARTFORD - A permanent workers memorial was dedicated in Hartford's Bushnell Park on Workers' Memorial Day, culminating a 20 year effort by the Connecticut AFL-CIO. The stone monument honors all workers who where injured or lost their lives while at their work site. The inscription quotes Mother Jones, "Mourn for the Dead - Fight for the Living."

John Olsen, Connecticut AFL-CIO president, lead the 20-year struggle. He spoke on the steps of the State Capitol to the crowd that gathered to commemorate the memorial on April 28.

A large group of legislators, led by State Senator Edith Prague and House Majority Leader Chris Donovan, presented a citation and pledged to continue to fight for workers' safety.

A group of striking District 1199 workers joined the march from the State Capitol to the memorial in Bushnell Park. Olsen recognized the workers whose main strike issue is health care benefits.

The names of each worker killed this year were read followed by a bell ring. Among those named were the workers killed at the Kleen Energy Plant explosion in Middletown in February.

Workers Memorial Day was initiated by the AFL-CIO after the collapse of the Connecticut L'Ambiance Plaza in Bridgeport, with a devastating loss of workers' lives. More than 100 events are planned this year throughout the world to recognize and remember workers injured or killed on the job.

Nationally 5,071 workers died on the job and 3.7 million were injured in 2008 according to the most recent figures in the new report by the AFL-CIO.

It took 20 years to achieve the memorial because of objections to the location on state capitol grounds or in Bushnell Park. The persistence of the Connecticut AFL-CIO won that struggle.

Photo by Tom Connolly

Government workers fired for credit problems

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 11:37:00 +0000

CLEVELAND - Federal employees, classified as "security risks" because of credit problems, protested mass firings and suspensions at a hearing with Congresswoman Marcia Fudge here April 23.

The American Federation of Government Employees Local 3283, called the meeting to air grievances after the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) fired 20 workers and began discharge proceedings against 54 others at its office in Cleveland. The agency issues pay checks to military personnel and government officials.

Under a policy enacted under the Bush Administration in 2005 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, DFAS employees were reclassified to require security clearances and be subject to termination for credit problems.

"This policy is wrong," Fudge said. "I will take your concerns if necessary all the way to the president of the United States." The average American, she said, has $10,000 in credit card debt.

"I have debt on my credit card and I have a security clearance," she said. " Dedicated employees are losing their livelihoods. A person with credit problems is not a security risk. This is not over. I want to make sure this doesn't happen to another DFAS employee."

Regina Hairston testified she had worked for various federal agencies for 33 years before being discharged by DFAS last September.

"I feel very hurt," she said. "I'm going through a remodification of my mortgage. I'm financially devastated. It's a slap in the face that I could be coerced into giving away national secrets."

Steven Marshall, a DFAS customer service representative until being fired in February, said he had five children and his wife was in school.

"Life was hard when I had a job," he said. "I got a letter that there were three problems on my credit report. I loved my job. I helped people. I had a good service record."

He said there should be a credit counseling and consolidation program as there is in the armed forces.

Such a program is actually recommended in the policy directive that reclassified the employees, said Greg Harmon, the local's first vice president, but DFAS refused the union's request to implement it.

"We have organized our own ‘lunch and learn' program with speakers to tell our members how to repair and maintain good credit, set up a budget and manage their money."

Harmon said he is one of the workers facing discharge because of debt he incurred in a small business he started. He said that the only sensitive information available to DFAS employees is the Social Security numbers of personnel getting pay checks.

"The majority of the workers facing discharge are single Black women with children," he added. According to statistics released by the union 84% are African American, 73% are women and 64% have only high school education.

But, he said, the majority of the 1700 union members at the Cleveland office are white.

Discharges were put on hold after Fudge and three other area Congressmen sent a letter to DFAS director Terrie McKay demanding a review of the policy late last month.

"I want to know what is the credit criteria for taking away someone's security clearance," Fudge said. "The other thing that bothers me is that especially in these difficult times we are not giving people a chance to make things right. We are supposed to be a country of second chances."

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/snofla/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

CFL leader says: Tax big banks to create good jobs

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 12:54:00 +0000

Dennis Gannon, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, on Monday called for a stock transaction tax to make the big banks pay to create good jobs now. At a press conference in front of the offices of Goldman Sachs he announced that a coalition of labor, community and faith based organizations would me marching on Chicago's LaSalle Street financial district Wednesday, April 28th, to demand that they help pay to clean up the mess they created and put people back to work. The Chicago march is one of a number of demonstrations around the country targeting Wall Street and the big banks. Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO will lead one on Thursday on Wall Street in New York City.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/anthonysjennings/ / CC BY 2.0

Hero of labor, Will Parry, celebrates 90th birthday

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:21:00 +0000

SEATTLE - At his 90th birthday party, April 24, Will Parry picked up his guitar and led 400 union brothers and sisters, family, comrades, and friends in singing "Carry It On," ending, "No more tears, for we're still singing."

Sponsored by the Puget Sound Alliance of Retired Americans, the celebration resounded with songs, poetry, and heartfelt tributes. Parry together with his late wife, Louise, helped build the labor movement and the senior citizen movement in the Pacific Northwest. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Washington, he worked as a factory worker at Longview Fiber, a box factory organized by the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers.

Robby Stern, PSARA president, told the banquet crowd, "Will has had an inspiring presence in the lives of everyone who is here. I have had the responsibility of stepping into the incredible shoes of the incredible Will Parry."

Stern urged the crowd to help place on the ballot an initiative to establish a "a really progressive income tax in Washington State." The initiative would tax couples with $400,000 income while lowering property taxes 20 percent. Washington State's soak-the-poor 8 percent sales tax has generated sharply lower revenues during this recession, forcing health care and public education cutbacks. "Sign up if you are prepared to go out and collect signatures," Stern said. "This is the opportunity of our lifetime and we have to win it."

Rep. Jim McDermott's aide, David Loud, read a letter from the lawmaker hailing Parry as a leader of the fight for comprehensive, universal health care reform. "We are indebted to you for your years of service," McDermott wrote.

Ed Coyle, executive director of the Alliance of Retired Americans, brought greetings from ARA headquarters in Washington. He said the staff waits for the arrival of the PSARA's newsletter, the Retiree Advocate, edited by Parry. He praised Parry as a national leader of the senior citizen movement.

Parry's family was there, including his daughter Naomi, his son Jon and his brother Tom who told the crowd of their childhood and youth together, Will's years in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II and his excellence as a high school and college scholar and athlete.

Jeff Johnson, assistant to the president of the Washington State Labor Council, spoke of Parry's affiliation with the Communist Party of Washington State, the Pension Union and the Washington Commonwealth Federation that "became so strong they elected a Communist to the legislature" during the 1940s.

Parry was targeted in the Red Scare of the 1950s, Johnson continued. "The Taft Hartley Act was passed and radicals were being purged from the labor movement. As Will said, 'They drove the radicals out and it took the starch out of the labor movement.'"

In recent years, the Washington Labor Council "honored him as a hero of the Washington State labor movement," Johnson concluded.

Bill Farris, president of AWPPW Local 817 at the corrugated box plant where Parry worked for many years, said, "He's an advocate for people who needed help, an advocate for the union. I've lost count of the number of picketlines I've walked with Will."

Lynn Domingo, an organizer with Legacy of Equality, Leadership, and Organizing, said she enrolled in a labor history course Parry was teaching at Shoreline Community College. "I was floundering, wondering where I was going," she said. "I have to thank you for the salvation you provided in that class."

Thurston Muskelly, board member of the Central Area Senior Center, praised Parry for his fightback against President Reagan's drive to "destroy public health." The center was facing bankruptcy and Parry spearheaded a fund drive that brought in $131,000.

Ron McGaha, a member of Machinists Local 751, recited a poem he wrote about Parry: "On his very first night, he rose up in bed and to his mother he said, ‘I'll nurse from the left, not from the right' ... Will taught us all in ways great and small, that progress always comes from the left, not the right." The room erupted in laughter and cheers.

Rebel Voices sang their ballad, Borderlines: "I lose my job to El Salvador where for fifty cents a day a woman sweats her life away and now they tell me she's my enemy" and the last line, "Someday our day will come around and we will stand and face our common enemy."

With his guitar slung over his shoulder, Parry thanked the crowd and echoed the appeal to get enough signatures to put the State Income Tax initiative on the ballot.

"I'm glad my birthday served as an excuse to get us all together," he said. It is a time, he said, to celebrate the unity and strength of the movement, "not the feeble strength of one."

Photo: Will Parry takes the podium with his guitar. Tim Wheeler/PW

Obama at miners’ memorial asks ‘How can we fail them?’

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:32:00 +0000

"We are here to memorialize 29 Americans: Carl Acord. Jason Atkins. Christopher Bell. Gregory Steven Brock. Kenneth Allan Chapman. Robert Clark. Charles Timothy Davis. Cory Davis. Michael Lee Elswick. William I. Griffith. Steven Harrah. Edward Dean Jones. Richard K. Lane. William Roosevelt Lynch. Nicholas Darrell McCroskey. Joe Marcum. Ronald Lee Maynor. James E. Mooney. Adam Keith Morgan. Rex L. Mullins. Joshua S. Napper. Howard D. Payne. Dillard Earl Persinger. Joel R. Price. Deward Scott. Gary Quarles. Grover Dale Skeens. Benny Willingham. Ricky Workman. "

Thus began President Obama's eulogy at the memorial for the 29 miners killed in a Massey Energy coal mine in Montcoal, West Virginia. Thousands attended the memorial, held in the Beckley, W.Va., Convention Center. After naming each of miners, Obama gave a succinct picture of their working life:

"Up at 4:30, 5 at the latest, they began their day, as they worked, in darkness. In coveralls and hard-toe boots, a hardhat over their heads, they would sit quietly for their hour-long journey, five miles into the mountain, the only light the lamp on their caps, or the glow from the mantrip they rode in.

"Day after day, they would burrow into the coal, the fruits of their labor, what we so often take for granted: the electricity that lights up convention centers like this; that lights up our churches and homes, our schools and offices; the energy that powers our country and the world."

Quoting from letters received from "a coal miner's daughter," or from "I am proud to be from a family of miners," or from "I am the son of a coal miner," Obama cited the common theme of "Don't let this happen again."

"How can we fail them?" the president said. "How can a nation that relies on its miners not do everything in its power to protect them? How can we let anyone in this country put their lives at risk by simply showing up to work; by simply pursuing the American dream?"

The response of the families and community in attendance to Obama's appeal was powerful and positive. The press throughout West Virginia has been very generous in its response as well. Local talk radio hosts and call-ins on the Winners and Losers radio program in Shepherdstown, W.Va., gave it "two thumbs up."

There were also remarks from Vice President Joe Biden, West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, Senator Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and others, pledging answers to the questions of families and communities about what went wrong at Massey in Montcoal. West Virginia's senior senator, Robert Byrd, appealed to God for comfort.

Congressman Nick Rahall from the 3rd District of West Virginia made this promise:

"I want to know why this tragedy happened; and to assure West Virginians that there will be a thorough investigation. We will seek answers about the cause of this disaster. We will look for inadequacies in the law and enforcement practices, and I will work to fix any we find. We will scrutinize the health and safety violations at this mine to see whether the law was circumvented and miners' precious lives were willfully put at risk, and there will be accountability."

During the service and introductions, the president sat next to a woman who lost three family members in the mine tragedy - a son and two grandchildren, the Davis boys. And his presence appeared to genuinely comfort her.

Nearly the entire state and federal leadership of West Virginia were in attendance at the memorial, signaling it as an emotional flashpoint for a number of sensitive political, energy, environmental and economic challenges facing the region, and the nation. While coal mining is essential to sustaining energy, it is likely to be a declining share of emerging energy technologies, according to many studies. The Beckley area is home to much "mountaintop removal" mining, also by Massey Energy. There is great environmental controversy surrounding the impact of this kind of mining on rivers, streams, wells and other water sources. The memorial suggest the loss of the 29 miners' lives may yet help unlock the logjam on upcoming energy and climate change legislation - all of which will greatly affect the lives of miners, and all Americans.

Photo: President Obama walks with Linda Davis, the grandmother of deceased miner Cory Davis, during a memorial for the victims of the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion in Beckley, W.Va., April 25. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza, http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/04/25/families-big-branch-mine-our-hearts-ache-alongside-you)

Safety high on the agenda for Workers Memorial Day

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 11:25:00 +0000

Miners are killed. If a worker dies at a job site where the company failed to correct violations the executives are guilty of a criminal offense. They can go to jail for life.

Such is the law of the land - not here in the United States but in Canada, the vast country to our north. The Canadian Parliament passed the Westray Law a decade after the Westray mine explosion in Nova Scotia in 1993 when 11 miners lost their lives.

If an American labor leader had his way we would have an Upper Big Branch Law that does the same thing here - "make the lives of workers matter to their employers."

According to Leo Gerard, president of the United Steel Workers, "The most important thing to come out of a mine is the miner." He said that "in an economic climate that prizes profits over life," a law like the one in Canada would "provide a vehicle to punish the reckless and provoke safety by the callous. In Canada, the law sets priorities: People first, profits second."

Gerard made these remarks only a week before Workers Memorial Day on April 28. It is a day when workers and their unions pause to remember the more than 5,000 workers who die each year on the job, 50,000 others who perish from occupational diseases, and the millions of others who get hurt at work or fall ill on the job but live.

The Steelworkers president is reminding people of the anti-worker attitude of Steve Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, operator of the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia that exploded April 5, killing 29 miners.

"Fines and lawsuit settlements have proved ineffective in forcing the likes of Massey to reform," Gerard said. "Even after a $4.2 million fine at another Massey mine where two miners died in early 2006, Massey kept breaking the law at Upper Big branch. And Massey paid Blankenship a salary more than twice that amount - $11.2 million in 2006."

While the union leader is spending the time just before Workers Memorial Day urging criminal penalties for safety violators, a top federal court in Washington D.C., on April 16, handed workers a victory in their fight for safer working conditions.

The court upheld , last week, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration's power to levy multiple fines against safety violators - one fine per worker involved in each incident, and also one fine per violation per worker.

OSHA had fined a contractor in Texas on 22 counts of safety violations, two for each of 11 workers involved. They had been hired to clean out a building containing asbestos.

Eleven of the counts against the contractor, Erik K. Ho, were for failing to provide the workers with training on how to handle asbestos. The other 11 were because Ho had failed to provide each of the workers with respirators.

Ho and three business groups, including the National Association of Homebuilders, sued both OSHA and the internal agency appellate panel that upheld OSHA's ruling. The businesses argued that since all the problems were at the same place, there should only be two violations. Had they won Ho would have faced only two fines with each one being from $7,000 to $70,000, not 22 fines, each within that range.

Also coming as Workers Memorial Day approaches are special April 27 hearings by the Senate's Employment and Workplace Safety Committee. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who chairs the committee, says the hearings will zero in on both the recent coal mine disaster and the oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico last week.

Murray has co-authored legislation that would strengthen OSHA. The Protecting America's Workplace Act, as it is called, would, for the first time in 20 years, increase the fines OSHA could levy and would make accidents that kill workers on the job into felonies punishable by 10 to 15 year jail terms.

She does not expect her bill to hit the Senate floor any time soon, however.

"It's really challenging to try to get time for it, with regulatory reform in the banking industry, extending jobless benefits, job creation legislation and energy legislation, among other things, all lined up in front of the OSHA measure," she said.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/labor2008/ / CC BY 2.0

Protesters address Ohio Union's design and employee treatment

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:57:00 +0000

COLUMBUS, Ohio (The Lantern) -- Chants and drumbeats rang outside the new Ohio Union as two groups took advantage of the opening ceremonies Monday to draw attention to two very different issues.

Ohio State architecture students complained that the $118 million building is visually dull. And a group of students concerned about social-justice issues joined with union members to protest how food-service workers are treated at the Schottenstein Center and Ohio Stadium.

The student organization United Students Against Sweatshops, members of the local chapter of the Service Employees International Union, and some workers complained that a contractor that works for the Athletic Department treats its employees badly.

The Athletic Department has a contract with Sodexo, which provides food-service workers for the Schottenstein Center and the stadium.

Juanita Sanchez, the leader of the 20 protesters, said Sodexo hasn't given many workers raises or promotions in a long time.

Furthermore, the company doesn't provide any benefits, she said.

"We want to bring awareness to labor practices," Sanchez said. "Ohio State is the largest university in the country and has the power to influence others."

The protesters handed out leaflets that claimed that Sodexo employees at OSU "make as little as $8.50 an hour, and many have no benefits."

Chelsea Pflum, a member of the sweatshop group, said that students involved made attempts to contact President E. Gordon Gee about Sodexo but received no response.

However, the organization did meet with Kate Wolford, Gee's chief assistant, Pflum said.

In the letters, USAS urges Gee to "extend the right to organize and collectively bargain to subcontracted workers on our campus." The organization developed an "Ohio State University Labor Code of Conduct" that was sent along with the letters to Gee.

"These OSU workers have faced anti-union intimidation from their employer for standing up for their rights. Through OSU's contract with Sodexo, you have the ability to ensure that OSU subcontracted employees are able to organize and collectively bargain without fear of intimidation or discrimination," USAS said in a letter to Gee.

Pflum said many employees are facing foreclosure on their homes and are struggling to pay medical bills.

Sanchez and Pflum said they hoped the protest would spur conversation between Gee and student groups.

Students, employees and pedestrians watched the protest and weighed in with their opinions.

"I support it. My dad is a union representative in Columbus. OSU is big enough, they can share the wealth," said Molly Shack, a second-year in international studies and Spanish.

Sanchez said because of the new union's cost, the public has a right to know what is going on at OSU when tax dollars are involved.

Before the protest on behalf of food-service workers, a group of about 30 architecture students began to march, protesting the design of the new building. Led by Greg Delaney, a recent OSU graduate, the group strived to bring awareness to the university's architectural practices.

"We think OSU is very progressive, but the architecture is very conservative," Delaney said.

He said the use of brick for the building is not contemporary and that there are ways to use a dominant material and still have a building look modern.

"The location of the Union and use of brick sets the architecture backward," he said.

The architecture students did not want to attack OSU or halt the opening of the union, Delaney said. He said their mission was to raise awareness because people in the United States don't have enough knowledge about architecture.

Knowlton Hall, the architecture building on campus, is an example of progressive architecture, he said. Delaney said he feels the Union should embody the spirit of the university, which cannot be achieved by simply throwing scarlet and gray on the inside of the building.

Gee said he was not aware of the protests going on outside the new Union when interviewed by The Lantern.

"The university is a place for people to voice their opinions," Gee said, "and I'm glad they're doing it."

This article is from The Lantern, republished with permission.

Photo: The Lantern

“Workers of the world stuck together” and won at Hugo Boss

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:46:00 +0000

Streaming into bright Spring sunlight in the parking lot in front of the Hugo Boss men's suit plant in Brooklyn, Ohio, workers shouted, "We did it!" and "We have our jobs!"

They had just voted 142 -32 to accept a new three-year contract won by their union at 3 am that morning ending a battle, that seemed at times hopeless after the company announced in December it would close the plant April 27 and shift production to Turkey and Slovenia.

"I've got my job and she's got to eat," said Anthony Senart, 23, holding the hand of his 6-year old daughter, Kaira. Senart had been laid off two weeks earlier as the plant gradually went into a complete shut down. "I'll go back to work in six weeks. I feel excellent. I get to keep working."

Tired but proud, Bruce Raynor, the National President of Workers United SEIU gave details of the new agreement at a hastily called press conference with the union members, their supporters and public officials including Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland.

"The workers stood up like champions," he said. "But we could not have done this alone. We had the support of our political leaders, unions around the world, Danny Glover, religious leaders and this entire community."

The union, he said, had to take a pay cut, "but we kept the average wage above $10 an hour. We kept the health insurance, 11 holidays and the pensions."

"The workers," he said "still have decent jobs, will pay taxes and be able to support their families."

Under threat of sanctions from the National Labor Relations Board, the company returned to the bargaining table April 21, but, Raynor said, the breakthrough came because of "global pressure."

Reversal of a plant-closing decision like this is "almost unprecedented," he said, but in the image-conscious fashion industry, brand and label are key. "Hugo Boss's reputation was on the line."

The plant closing was protested by state pension funds in Ohio, California, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, which had hundreds of millions invested in Permira, a British private equity firm with controlling interest in Hugo Boss.

Sen. Sherrod Brown had threatened to hold hearings and Congressman Dennis Kucinich and local officials spoke at rallies organized by the union, the North Shore AFL-CIO and Cleveland Jobs With Justice. Actor and social activist Danny Glover met with the workers on a plant tour and organized a boycott of Hugo Boss apparel at the recent Oscars ceremony.

Protests also came from IG Metall, the powerful German union that sits on Hugo Boss's board and Spanish unions picketed an international tennis tournament sponsored by the company.

"Even the Turkish unions signed letters of support," Raynor said. "The workers of the world stuck together."

But the bargaining was long and hard, he said. "At one am this morning they were still asking us to take $9 an hour. By 2 am we got it up to $10. The CEO was on the phone all night from Germany. We had their attention."

The company hired round the clock security guards and locked down the plant when negotiations resumed to prevent workers from occupying it but now it will reopen as soon as fabric arrives and the cutters can be brought back, Raynor said. It should be fully operational in six to eight weeks.

Whereas previously the workers had been forced to accept short weeks, they will now be guaranteed 40 hours work, he said. "And the company must give us 140 days notice if they get the bright idea they want to close it again."

Photo: Ned Davis

Chicago labor to march for jobs

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 14:06:00 +0000

Under the banner of "Good Jobs Now! Make Wall Street Pay" Chicago labor and allies will be marching on LaSalle Street, Chicago's version of Wall Street. The march on Wednesday, April 28^th (11am, Willis Tower, 233 S. Wacker Dr.) is part of a series of demonstrations aimed at the banks and big investment houses. Chicago's action is aimed at Goldman Sachs, headquartered in the Willis Tower, formally the Sears Tower. The Chicago action is the day before Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, will lead a demonstration on Wall Street. Other major actions are also being planned around the country. You can look for an event in your area here.

Reflecting the rising tide of struggle, April 28^th will be a very busy day in action for jobs in Chicago. Chicago Jobs w/ Justice, also a big mobilizer for the march on LaSalle Street, is hosting a Worker's Rights Board on the jobs crisis. These Jobs w/ Justice forums have been very effective around the country. This one will feature the voices of workers from every sector of the economy and what needs to be done to put people back to work.

Meanwhile momentum is still building for Congressman George Miller's Local Jobs for America Act (HR 4812). At latest count 150 members of Congress have enlisted as co-sponsors. You can check to see if your representative has signed on at this website. If not get your friends, co-workers and neighbors to call, email and write letters asking them to co-sponsor.

Another critical jobs bill was introduced last week by Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa. Titled the Keep Our Educators Working Act of 2010 (S. 3206). Estimates are that between 100,000 and 300,000 public education jobs are in danger of being cut before the beginning of next year's school year. The Harkin Bill is an emergency piece of legislation that will help save those jobs. Read the bill here.

Photo: Scott Marshall/PW

Nursing home workers strike hard-line Spectrum Corp.

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 15:30:00 +0000

HARTFORD, Conn. - Nurses, nursing assistants and elder-care support staff at four skilled nursing homes operated by Spectrum Healthcare went on strike in Ansonia, Derby, Hartford and Winsted, Conn., this week. The workers at the four homes are holding picket lines every day from 6 a.m. to 12 midnight until a settlement is reached. It is the first nursing home strike by the New England 1199 union in seven years.

Labor and community supporters are urged to attend a rally on Saturday, April 24, marking day 10 of the strike. It will be held at 11 a.m. at the Park Place Health Center in Hartford.

The Spectrum Corporation has intimidated, suspended and fired dozens of workers at the four nursing homes over the past year during contract negotiations. The workers are fighting unfair labor practices and the threat of permanent replacements. They have been without a contract since March 2009.

While union workers provide excellent care to their patients, proven by Spectrum's five-star rating, the nursing home chain is one of the most dangerous places to work in the nation. Injuries at Spectrum are twice as frequent as the national average. At the same time, Spectrum is trying to cut light-duty pay for injured workers.

Last month the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) sent letters to 15,000 workplaces nationally that have the highest number of employee injuries and illnesses among all U.S. workplaces. All four of the Spectrum nursing homes were on that list. For the workers this has meant days away from work, restricted work activities, and job transfers.

Referring to Spectrum's poor health and safety record, District 1199 Vice President Almena Thompson said, "Yet they want to slash pay for workers injured on the job to $10 per hour if the nature of the injuries require lighter-duty work."

Despite the efforts of a federal mediator to find a resolution to the contract dispute, Spectrum, based in Vernon, Conn., made virtually no movement on the key issues in negotiations, which were attended by more than 100 members from all four of the affected fatalities. The union's negotiating committee offered to meet all day and through the night, but the company's attorney refused the offer.

Thompson pointed out, "Operators of 32 other nursing homes covering almost 4,000 long-term care workers in Connecticut agreed to contracts that skipped raises in 2009 but included a 2.5 percent wage increase this year. Spectrum is demanding that their employees go without any wage increases until July 2011- more then two and a half years."

"Then Spectrum threatens to hire permanent replacements as workers exercise their legal right to strike. If the other operators can come to terms, why can't Spectrum?" she asked.

Thompson said the union has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board regarding the company's firing of dozens of workers and intimidation of others since the contract expired.

The union has begun a TV campaign focused on Spectrum. The first ad can be seen at the union's website: http://www.seiu1199ne.org/

The four nursing homes are: Birmingham Health Center in Derby, Hilltop Health Center in Ansonia, Laurel Hill Healthcare in Winsted, and Park Place Health Center in Hartford.

Photo: PW/Tom Connolly

Don’t do business at Congress Hotel, strikers urge

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 15:27:00 +0000

CHICAGO - "We're here to ask your support in our strike against the Congress Hotel. Our families have been suffering for seven long years," Amelia told a sympathetic receptionist at the Italian Trade Commission here.

The receptionist nodded and responded that no, they weren't using any hotel rooms at the Congress. She promised to do what she could to relay our concerns to the head of the commission.

I joined Amelia, five other Congress strikers and Roberto, an organizer from Unite Here Local 1, as they made the rounds. They spend nearly every day traveling around Chicago making their case, hoping to dissuade everyone from using the hotel. They end their day with another picket line at the Congress.

About 140 workers struck the Congress Hotel on June 10, 2003, after the owners imposed a lower wage rate than the master agreement negotiated with hotels across the city.

As the strike's seventh anniversary approaches, it's become a growing disgrace for the city. The occasion will be marked by another big demonstration around the hotel.

While walking to our next appointment the other day, the strikers told me about what they were going through. I couldn't help but admire their courage and perseverance. They are heroes of the labor movement but, like most workers, unassuming. Despite tremendous hardship, they remain upbeat and determined to win.

Last year, the strikers made over 500 visits and got $700,000 worth of hotel business cancelled.

On this particular day we were speaking to several trade associations participating in the upcoming PACK International Expo 2010 at McCormick Place. The expo will draw 45,000 participants to view the packaging and processing industry's newest innovations. They book a lot of hotel rooms, including, usually, at the Congress.

It's estimated that trade shows and conventions provide half of all the hotel business in the city. In addition, the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau route a lot of people to hotels including the Congress.

The strikers say the tourism bureau is thinly disguising the hotel industry's support for the Congress management. The industry average wage is $14.20 per hour while the Congress pays $8.83 per hour. Keeping business flowing to the Congress sets up a lower wage and benefit standard for the rest of the industry.

The hospitality industry here says times are bad and is demanding concessions. In reality the big hotels are making profits, just not big enough for them. They're shedding employees and making those remaining work harder.

Nasario is one of the strikers. As he put it, "I was seven years in the Congress and now I'm seven years on strike - seven in and seven out." Nasario gets by with part-time work, cleaning one of the large office buildings downtown. Life has been very difficult.

Roberto told me about an incident on the picket line where a pedestrian spit on one of the strikers. He shook his head at how heartless some people can be. But most people are very supportive, he said.

At another trade association we visited, two management personnel greeted us. They took our information and said they don't use the Congress but would pass along the message. As they walked away, I overheard one tell the other, "I can't believe it's been seven years."

Afterwards, we sat and had coffee. Amelia, who now works part-time at McDonald's, proudly told me her son is following in her activist footsteps. He's a leader of the Immigrant Youth Justice League, a group of undocumented youth who have "come out of the shadows."

Amelia,, like the others refuses to give up. And she's passing the mantle of the quest for justice to her children. With fighters like this, there's no way they and we can lose.

Photo: Congress Hotel strikers (PW/John Bachtell)

Emotions high as Cleveland lays off teachers, school staff

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 10:27:00 +0000

CLEVELAND - Another land mine left by Wall Street's assault on American communities exploded here Tuesday night when the school board voted to lay off nearly 10 percent of its employees including 545 teachers, 117 support staff and 111 principals and other building administrators.

The action came at an emotional three-and-a-half-hour meeting attended by some 750 members of the Cleveland Teachers Union and their supporters, who filled the board's auditorium and two overflow areas.

Anger was directed at District CEO Dr. Eugene Sanders for failing to work with the union to avoid layoffs he said were driven by an expected $52.8 million deficit in the coming school year.

The budget shortfall is part of a national funding crisis, he said, which is expected to mean layoffs in nearly every school district. Revenues for education, generally coming from property taxes, have plummeted with the home foreclosure crisis caused by Wall Street speculators.

The board had voted in February to close 16 schools, and when it was announced the cuts would mean class size in grades four through 12 would rise to 45, members of the audience shouted "What about the kids?" and " What about ‘continuous improvement'?"

Sanders acknowledged it would be difficult for teachers to handle classes that large and urged that the union agree to cuts in pay and health insurance.

He promised to consider a union proposal to give incentives to teachers for early retirement and allow the district to hire new teachers at lower entry-level salaries. The union has said the plan would save over $19 million a year.

CTU President David Quolke received a standing ovation as he asked that more time be taken to consider alternatives to the layoffs. The cuts, he said, would severely undermine "the academic progress we are striving to attain."

"There will be an increase in classroom disruptions and overall decrease in school safety," he said.

Harriet Applegate, executive secretary of the North Shore AFL-CIO, was loudly cheered as she called the layoffs "unconscionable" and demanded to know why every alternative had not been explored before resorting to such massive cuts.

The meeting became a spirited union rally as the board left to meet privately for over an hour. CTU trustee Meryl Johnson led repeated singing of "We Shall Not Be Moved" and "Solidarity Forever." The singing continued as Sanders and the eight board members, all appointed by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, filed back into the room. A board attorney was called on to say that state law and the union contract required immediate action on layoffs.

As lists of the laid off employees were handed out to the audience, the board voted unanimously, with two abstentions, for the plan.

Union officials said they would continue efforts to negotiate and seek to reverse the decision. The American Federation of Teachers, with which the CTU is affiliated, has called for passage of the Keep Our Educators Working Act (S 3206) introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, to provide $23 billion to school districts. The same amount for schools is proposed in the Local Jobs for America Act, HR 4812, introduced in the House by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., which currently has 149 co-sponsors. Some 250,000 teachers' jobs were saved by the Obama administration's first stimulus.

Photo: Cleveland teachers and supporters react to the school board's layoff decision. (Debbie Kline)

Jobs top building trades’ agenda

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:29:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI)--The union presidents who sit on the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department board have spent the past two years trying to build relationships with leading national contractors "and key industry players," in order to create private-sector union jobs, Building Trades President Mark Ayers said.

And in at least one large construction area -- nuclear power -- they appear to be succeeding. BCTD signed an agreement on April 19 with yet another utility, this one in Texas, to have union labor build two more nuclear power plants.

That makes three signed agreements, covering five potential nuclear power plants, in the last two years, he said. The two Texas plants join two in Georgia announced the month before. Ayers noted four of the five plants are in the anti-union South. That's no coincidence, he added, construction union presidents want to expand organized labor's presence there and are uniting with community groups to do so.

Construction joblessness is above 20% and bank credit for private construction has been yanked in the recession.

The nuclear power construction alone will be worth $50 billion and 100 million hours of new work over the next decade, he said. That's important at a time when construction industry unemployment is more than 20%. Nuclear power is in President Obama's "alternative energy basket," in order to cut-down the country's dependence on carbon-based fossil fuels, a major contributor to global climate change.

Ayers urged delegates to push for "a balanced energy and climate bill that will generate tens of thousands of construction jobs now and in the future." The House passed a cap-and-trade climate control bill in December.

Boilermakers Legislative Director Abraham Breehey told a separate session that the three senators working on an energy bill compromise -- John Kerry, D-Mass., Lindsay Graham R-S.C., and Joseph Lieberman, Ind.-Conn. -- will unveil their legislation on April 26.

It will include Davis-Bacon prevailing wage protections, Breehey added.

"We have to incentivize our private sector" to lend money to upgrade the nation's power grid, build 12 nuclear power plants, increase offshore oil drilling and finance massive energy conservation through weatherization and other measures, Breehey said.

Other top points in Ayers' keynote address included: PLAs, health care and recruiting young people, especially minority youth, for apprenticeship programs and jobs.

Democratic President Barack Obama's executive order last year, restoring the option of project labor agreements (PLAs) in federal construction. Anti-worker GOP President George W. Bush had banned PLAs.

"We have seen three major government jobs in Hawaii, California and Oregon go union in the past few weeks. There will be many more. That's what we're fighting for and that's what the president is delivering ... jobs," Ayers declared.

The health care fight "is not over" even after Congress approved and Obama signed the massive revision of the U.S. health insurance system. "It is far from perfect....We will continue to push for employer mandates in the construction industry that level the playing field for small union employers -- life blood of our unions -- and for a public option that will provide real competition for the insurance companies," Ayers said.

As he did in 2009, Ayers urged all building trades unions to go out into low-income and minority communities, and recruit youths for training and apprenticeship programs. He praised building trades councils in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Portland, Cleveland and the San Francisco Bay Area -- and elsewhere -- for doing so.

Replenishing construction unions' ranks from those communities is a demogra-phic necessity, Ayers told the overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly male crowd.

"We are aging," he bluntly said. "Over the years, we've been stereotyped as male, pale and stale. And while that's much less true today" than before "we're still haunted" by that image, Ayers warned.

"If we want to keep this movement alive and vibrant, if we want to ensure future construction workers have the same opportunity for a decent life...then we need to look for new ways of doing business," he declared. He also called the recruiting of young and minority workers through community outreach the "smart" thing to do.

"As we build better, more-collaborative relationships with communities, we also build power. And when the interests of our unions and the communities in which we work converge, there is no power that can stop us, no adversary that can divide us," Ayers concluded.

Photo: In Philadelphia, the building trades are reaching out to high school youth for apprenticeship and job opportunities. Ben Sears/PW

POWER Act would curb worker abuse, senator says

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 12:32:00 +0000

Flanked by civil rights and union leaders, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., announced April14 at a Capitol Hill press conference, legislation that would strengthen worker and immigrant rights.

Menendez said the POWER Act (Protect Our Workers from Exploitation and Retaliation) was written in response to numerous reports from around the country that employers use the threat of deportation and immigration raids to retaliate against workers who speak up for their rights on the job.

One such story comes from Daniel Castellanos, an engineer from Lima, Peru.

Castellanos was recruited to work in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when 1000s of Gulf Coast residents were looking for work and housing.

"Daniel's employer paid half the wages of a U.S. worker, subjected the workers to atrocious conditions, and counted on their fear of deportation to keep them quiet. When Daniel led the workers in a public fight for respect and dignity, the employer fired him. This bill would protect Daniel and others like him so they can speak out without fear or trepidation against abusive employers. This bill would help our economy by making sure American workers and immigrant workers are treated fairly alike," Menendez said.

There are numerous examples of abuse by employers using workplace raids as a bludgeon to keep "workers in their place" and maximize their rate of profit.

Civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and union leaders supported Menendez's move because the POWER Act would provide vital labor protections and guard workers against employer retaliation.

"The POWER Act will provide courageous workers with the necessary tools to ensure that their rights to organize and work in a safe and lawful work environment are protected," said Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center.

Hincapié said abusive employers know they can use deportation threats to thwart union organizing, and keep workers in line if they dare speak out about wages or unsafe working conditions.

"This undercuts other employers and creates a 'race to the bottom' that America can ill-afford," she said.

The "race to the bottom," experts say, is a contributing factor to the stagnant wages and growing wealth gap U.S. workers have experienced in the last decades.

In a statement, SEIU Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina welcomed the bill and spoke of his own family's experience in the "race to the bottom."

"I know this story all too well. My family came to this country in the 1950s under the notorious Bracero program that brought in needed farm help, but did not provide protections from abusive employers, low wages and terrible working conditions. Over the decades, our immigration laws have changed, but the ability of unscrupulous employers to threaten workers with abuse, deportation or withholding of wages has not."

Medina said U.S.-born workers are hurt by the abuse as well, and don't gain rights or more wages from workplace raids and threats of deportation.

"When some workers are easy to exploit, it depresses wages and creates dangerous working conditions for all. Nobody wins--not American workers, not immigrants and certainly not well-intended business owners who play by the rules," he said.

The bill's introduction comes at the same time a broad-based immigrant and labor rights coalition is mobilizing for comprehensive immigration reform, which would include a path to legalization and citizenship, workplace and civil rights and family reunification.

To read about the key provisions of the POWER Act, go to, National Immigration Law Center.

More stories on workplace raids and immigrant worker abuse at peoplesworld.org:

Largest-ever workplace raid terrorizes 600 workers in Miss.

Study finds workplace raids unlawful

Meatpackers union sues on immigration raids

No justice, no pizza!

Used and abused: guest workers and U.S. immigration reform

Photo: After a workplace raid at a kosher meatpacking plant in the town of Postville, Iowa, some 1,200 people protested the treatment of immigrant workers. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellenmac/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Florida gov. vetoes anti-teacher bill

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 16:08:00 +0000

TALLAHASSEE - Florida's Republican Gov. Charlie Crist defied members of his own party last week by vetoing anti-teacher legislation that would have eliminated tenure for public school teachers and gutted community-based input into public education. The veto came after massive protests organized by teachers, parents and other public school advocates.

The legislation, Senate Bill 6, was the cornerstone of a state GOP effort to restructure public education. It was couched in terms of "rewarding" teachers for improvements in student performance on standardized tests.

"We're thankful that the governor realized what some lawmakers wouldn't," said Florida Education Association President Andy Ford. "SB 6 was formulated without an ounce of input from anyone within the public school community. Teachers, administrators and parents weren't consulted and their views of this radical legislation were dismissed repeatedly by many legislators. But Governor Crist listened," Ford said in a statement.

Crist called the bill "seriously flawed" and also objected to the way in which Florida's Republican lawmakers rammed the bill through the legislature. Both the Senate bill and its House counterpart had been passed by rather close margins amid a concerted effort by the Florida Education Association to rally teachers statewide against the two bills.

Crist has been seeking the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by GOP Sen. Mel Martinez. He is facing a primary challenge from ultra-right candidate Marco Rubio, who has been embraced by Tea Party supporters and others who have long questioned Crist's commitment to their brand of conservatism. In the wake of his veto, an act in opposition to Florida's Republican leadership, many expect Crist to drop out of the Republican primary and seek the Senate seat as an independent. If he does so, recent polls show him ahead of both Rubio and Democratic party challengers.

Photo: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, left, is greeted in by a crowd of parents, teachers and other public education supporters who thanked him for vetoing Florida Senate Bill 6, in Jacksonville, Fla., April 17. (AP/The Florida Times-Union, Bob Mack)

Hoffa gets university award, cites labor’s challenges

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:44:00 +0000

DETROIT - Teamsters union President James Hoffa received the first Wayne State University "Labor Leaders on Labor" award at a ceremony here this month. Hoffa is a Detroit native and graduate of the city's Cooley High School.

At the standing-room-only event, Hoffa gave a spirited account of the work of his union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which has organized 80,000 people over the last two years, and the challenges labor faces in undoing the damage of decades of Republican rule.

"The American labor movement, overall, is going through tough times," Hoffa said. "I've been in Washington since 1999 and I can tell you that after being there for over 10 years I'm a bigger Democrat now than I've ever been. It is a very, very divided place. It really is a battle between the rich and the poor."

The labor movement gives people hope and a voice to stop the growing inequality, he said.

The rich get richer and poor poorer because the system is stacked in favor of Wall Street, Hoffa said. "Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley had record profits, made billions of dollars, but cities can't pay their bills and people are being laid off. These are the same companies that were bailed out by the government, amazing."

"What is wrong with this picture?" he asked. "Aren't our cities too big to fail?"

Saving and creating jobs is critical to turning the country around, he said. If you are a young person graduating from high school in Detroit, he asked the crowd, where do you look for work when the jobs are all gone?

Noting that the labor movement is fighting for health care for everybody, for unemployment insurance, for increasing the minimum wage, Hoffa said these are important for all Americans, not just trade unionists, and yet Republicans are trying to block them

Government needs to pay attention to working people, the people that count most, pay the taxes and are the great base of this economy, he declared.

Hoffa praised President Obama in this regard, contrasting his administration to his predecessors: "Under Bush Two, we were under attack day and night. It was all business, business, business, labor got nothing."

He said the Teamsters are proud they were the first major union to support Obama. "The election of Barack Obama was basically a watershed in America," he said. "Pundits might talk about the enthusiasm being gone but he's had a tremendous affect on us in the labor movement."

Referring to the tea-baggers who call Obama a socialist, Hoffa said the same was said of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and others who supported labor reform in the 1930s, adding, "If he's a socialist, I'm a socialist."

Hoffa drew big applause when he lauded the newly passed health care reform package

If there is one criticism labor has, it is that the pace of change is too slow, he said. The labor movement is holding the president's feet to the fire because the adminstration has to produce results for America's workers, Hoffa said, and Obama "knows that."

Hoffa said this president faces challenges others did not because moderates in the Republican Party that Presidents Roosevelt and Johnson used to win Social Security and the Civil Rights Act no longer exist. To get health care passed the president realized he finally had to "take the gloves off," Hoffa said.

He said labor is excited about Obama's appointments to the National Labor Relations Board and executive orders that will help unions organize and contribute to turning the economy around.

We now have a secretary of labor that puts the word "labor" back in "Secretary of Labor," Hoffa said. The mine, food and bridge inspectors that Bush eliminated came back to haunt us, he said, and those jobs are now being filled. "We need people to police big business."

Photo: Hoffa, left, speaks with Wayne State University President Jay Noren, M.D., at the "Labor Leaders on Labor" award ceremony. (PW/John Rummel)

Mine union leader on Massey CEO: Handcuff and jail him!

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 15:35:00 +0000

West Virginia coal miners stopped production April 16 to mourn the 29 miners killed in the explosion at Massey Energy's non-union Upper Big Branch mine, April 5, the worst mine disaster in 40 years. The day was dedicated to reviewing safety procedures even as President Barack Obama during a Rose Garden news conference ordered a top-to-bottom review of mine safety enforcement.

United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts, speaking to the Pennsylvania State AFL-CIO Convention in Pittsburgh, called for the arrest of Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship for sacrificing miners' lives to squeeze out maximum profits. "U.S. marshalls should go to where he lives," Roberts thundered. "Handcuff him, put him in chains, take him to jail, set his fine at $40 million." The crowd roared.

Later, Roberts hailed President Obama's statement on mine safety. "His commitment to miners' health and safety is, in my experience, unmatched by any previous president," Roberts said, adding, "I especially applaud President Obama's determination that miners must have the right to refuse to work in unsafe conditions. UMWA members ... have that right written into their contracts, but non-union miners do not have the protection of a contract and are at risk of being fired if they refuse to work in conditions that threaten their lives or their health."

Roberts pointed out that 25-year old Josh Napper, had written a letter to his family just before he went to work voicing fears for his life due to the gassy, dusty conditions in the mine, so bad the mine had been evacuated several times in recent weeks. Napper was one of the 29 miners killed in the blast.

"There is something wrong with this picture," Roberts said. "When young men go off to war, they write these kinds of letters ... you're not supposed to write that letter when you're going off to work."

Obama called for stiffer inspection and enforcement. Flanked by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health Joe Main, and Mine Safety and Health Administrator Kevin Stricklin, the president told reporters, "There's still a lot that we don't know but we do know that this tragedy was triggered by a failure at the Upper Big Branch mine - a failure first and foremost of management, but also a failure of oversight and a failure of laws so riddled with loopholes that they allow unsafe conditions to continue."

Stronger mine safety laws were passed in 2006 after the Sago Mine disaster, Obama continued, "but safety violators like Massey have still been able to find ways to put their bottom line before the safety of their workers, filing endless appeals instead of paying fines and fixing safety problems.

"I refuse to accept any number of miner deaths as simply a cost of doing business," Obama said.

The president added, "For a long time, the mine safety agency (MSHA) was stacked with former mine executives and industry players." Obama said he is proud that MSHA is now headed by "former miners and health safety experts," Joe Main, former UMW director of safety and health, and mining engineer Kevin Stricklin, a lifelong advocate of miner safety.

Massey Energy "should be held accountable for decisions they made and preventive measures they failed to take," Obama continued. "But this isn't just about a single mine. It's about all our mines. The safety record at the Massey Upper Big Branch mine was troubling [and] far too many mines aren't doing enough to protect their workers' safety."

"In addition," Obama added, "we need to make sure that miners themselves, and not just the government or mine operators, are empowered to report any safety violations."

Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, announced his committee will hold hearings on the disaster.

Photo: President Obama speaks on mine safety in the Rose Garden of the White House, April 15, 2010, with, from left, Mine Safety and Health Administrator Kevin Stricklin, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health Joe Main. (AP/Charles Dharapak)

Building workers rally on ruling class turf

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:50:00 +0000

NEW YORK - Thousands of energized New York City unionized apartment building workers and their supporters marched April 13 from Central Park to ritzy Park Avenue to a rally on their contract demands. With egotiations with the industry association representing most owners, the Realty Advisory Board (RAB), going nowhere, the union representing the workers, Local 32BJ SEIU, called for the event to garner support for their cause and ready the workers for a possible strike.

In the four years since the last contract, prices have increased by over 11% while wages have gone up only 8.5%. Now, in the negotiations, the RAB is calling for reductions in both wages and benefits.

Leaders of 32BJ SEIU, including its president Mike Fishman, as well as leaders of several other unions, pointed out that the members work hard not only to take care of their buildings but also to help the residents who live in them by maintaining safe, healthy environments. Now it is time for the workers to get something in return, a fair contract.

The New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, and New York City Comptroller John Liu all spoke in support of the union, emphasizing that the many contributions the workers give to the quality of life in New York City and the importance of maintaining the ability of working people to continue to afford to live here require the need for a fair contract with increases in both wages and benefits. Later in the program, over one dozen members of the New York City Council appeared on the stage with the union leaders in a show of support.

The union represents 30,000 workers who provide services in 3,200 apartment buildings with over one million residents throughout New York City. Contract talks began on March 9. On April 1, union members authorized a strike if one is necessary. On Thursday, their bargaining team will go to round the clock negotiations with the RAB. The current contract expires at 12:01 am on April 21, and failure to agree to a new one by then could result in the workers walking picket lines. The union leaders emphasized that they and their members don't want to strike, but they will if they have to. And they will win.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/everyskyline/ / CC BY 2.0

Labor turns up heat in battle to curb Wall Street

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:16:00 +0000

As news of more criminal activity by the nation's big financial institutions continued to pile up today, the labor movement pushed hard for a massive turnout at a march and rally on Wall Street April 29. Predicting that well over 10,000 demonstrators will descend on the center of world capital that day, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said, "We are taking this fight straight to Wall Street. They created this mess and now they have to pay."

In a nationally viewed webcast, Trumka said that labor is demanding not just strict new financial reforms but also taxes on financial transactions that can help pay to "fill the 11 million job hole that their recklessness has created."

"While millions of workers lost their jobs, their homes and their retirement savings the chief executive officer of Bank of America took home $29,930,431 in total compensation," he declared.

The national outrage over executive pay, sparked when six large banks took $700 billion in taxpayer bailouts at the end of the Bush administration, has mushroomed into a national movement for finance reform and a push by the nation's unions to compel Wall Street to pay for massive job creation.

In an attempt to put the brakes on financial reform, the 10 wealthiest hedge fund managers have pumped more than $1 million into the campaign coffers of numerous congressional representatives. Consumer advocates warned this week that this is one of the reasons hedge fund managers would get off too easily if the finance reform bill put forward by Senate Finance Committee chairman Christopher Dodd is not strengthened.

Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., who joined Trumka in the webcast, said, "Bank lobbyists are running around all over Washington handing out $5,000 checks to lawmakers who will help them stop finance reform. The American people have to know about this. What do they think about their representatives being bought off like this?"

There were separate reports today that the Chamber of Commerce, by itself, has already spent $3 million to kill the Obama administration's plan to set up a consumer financial protection agency.

In response, the White House says it is launching a series of speeches and newspaper op-eds this week to draw attention to the financial regulatory overhaul and its impact on the economy.

Trumka discussed how the Dodd bill should be strengthened.

"It must ensure that the Consumer Finance Protection Agency has the independence and full authority to protect consumers from dangerous financial products and practices," he said.

"It has to bring transparency to our shadow capital markets, requiring that these transactions are fully transparent, and allow regulators to break up banks that become 'too big to fail.'"

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said today, in support of the Dodd bill, that it would ensure no further taxpayer bailouts and that when big firms fail they would follow a "bankruptcy regime" whereby equity holders would lose and assets would be sold.

Trumka said he supports an amendment by Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown from Ohio which would require that the salaries of any workers affected would be moved to the top of the list of financial obligations that would have to be settled.

As if to underline the timeliness of Trumka's webcast today and the push for a march on Wall Street, Senate investigators disclosed that Washington Mutual intentionally created the toxic assets that contributed to the economic collapse. Investigators found that the company's executives knowingly created a "mortgage time bomb" by making sub-prime loans they knew would go bad and then packaging them into risky securities.

The bank took loans in which it had discovered fraudulent activity such as false income statements and rolled them into mortgage securities sold to investors unaware of the fraud.

WaMu executives were questioned about this before Congress today but a decision about whether to refer the matter to the Justice Department for possible criminal charges will not be made until Friday.

Rep. Grayson expressed his anger today that "not one single person has yet to be prosecuted for criminal activity regarding the destruction of one-fifth of the wealth of the American economy."

Also along these lines, The New York Times reported today that Lehman Brothers created a secret company to shift high-risk transactions off its books:

"Entities like Castle Hudson are part of a vast financial system that operates in the shadow of Wall Street, largely beyond the reach of regulators," the article said. Such companies exchange bad investments for cash, making the banks look stronger than they are.

Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase came out fighting against the Obama administration's proposal for relief for homeowners.

In testimony today Davis Lowman, chief executive officer for home loan lending at JPMorgan, attacked the president's proposal that lenders decrease the amounts owed on home mortgages by people who are unemployed. He told Congress that it is the responsibility of homeowners to bear the losses that result from borrowing they could not afford.

Photo: http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/paywatch/