People Before Profit blog

Unionists in Tampa describe a Romney dystopia

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:57:00 +0000

TAMPA, Fl. - On the third day of the GOP convention here this week, AFL-CIO marchers used theatrical presentations to paint a picture of what unions say could be a nightmare scenario in America if Mitt Romney were to be elected president.

Teachers, postal workers, and many others marched. Florida workers alerted others who joined them that what is going on now under a Republican governor in their state could be the fate of the nation were Romney to win in November.

"The one percent own the corporations and they aren't creating any jobs," laborer Mike St. Claire told the local press.

Marchers depicted scenes of what they said Romney's America would like. They gave out "Romney dollars," little dollar bills that illustrate the difference between the minimum wage and a living wage.

Workers carried "Save America's Postal Service" signs, wore shirts with slogans such as "I make a difference every day."

"They are killing the middle class," said protester Pat Kelly, an Ocala, Fla. Member of the Communications Workers of America union. "We are becoming a third world country."

Communications Workers of America member Steve Wisniewoki of Orlando works for AT&T Century Link and said his employer was taken over in the past year by an investment firm similar to Bain Capital, a company that Romney once headed. Since the takeover, the investment firm has stopped paying into pensions for new hires. "They are taking away our overtime," said Wisniewoki, who is also the local union president.

"A Romney presidency would be a mirror of what he did at Bain for workers - layoffs and outsourcing," said Eddie Vale, the former AFL-CIO spokesman who now speaks for its Super PAC, the Workers Voice,

The GOP platform is the most anti-labor platform it has ever adopted, endorsing open shop states, ending project labor agreements, privatizing the postal service, weakening OSHA, and calling for vouchers for private schools.

Unions are fighting back, however.

"The attacks on working families all cross the country has fired people up about the threat they are under and has them ready to oppose Romney bringing these attacks to the national level," Vale said.

Unions have pledged to put 400,00 "boots on the ground," union workers who will canvass door to door.

GOP wants government to turn its back on us

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 18:43:00 +0000

The Republican Party's 2012 platform, adopted at its convention in Tampa, Fla., is so radical it would have the government "turn its back on its citizens" and trash every-thing from veterans' health care to food safety inspections, a top union leader says.

As a result, millions of people would be harmed, adds J. David Cox Sr., the new president of the American Federation of Government Employees. But that's just one of many sharp differences between the GOP on one side and workers on the other.

Cox issued his analysis after perusing parts of the platform revealed in advance from various sources. The Republican National Committee was one: It put parts of the platform up on its website temporarily before the convention began.

Besides the domestic programs Cox said the GOP would wreck, the platform, along with GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's 59-point economic plan covers other issues of interest to workers. Together they paint a picture of a nominee and his party that, with a few exceptions, sharply opposes positions taken by labor.

The platform even lauds GOP governors who "saved their states from fiscal disaster by reforming their laws governing public employee unions" - a subtle endorsement of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's abolition of collective bargaining there.

Two of the few areas of agreement are supporting construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which construction unions favor but some other unions - notably the Steelworkers and the Transport Workers - oppose, and on China's currency.

Construction unions favor Keystone because it would bring an estimated 20,000 high-paying union jobs to workers now suffering 12% "official" unemployment: The pipeline's sponsor, TransCanada, signed a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) with unions for its building many years ago. USW and TWU agree with environmentalists Keystone would greatly harm the environment by importing "dirty oil" from Canadian tar sands.

Both labor and Romney say China's artificially low currency gives its exports an unfair advantage and costs U.S. jobs. The platform calls for declaring China a "currency manipulator" on Day #1 of a GOP presidency, opening the way to sanctions.

The GOP platform and Romney disagree with labor on virtually everything else:

On one key domestic issue, a top one for the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the platform repeats a goal from 2008: A complete ban on federal funding for abortion in almost all cases - with no exceptions for rape or incest.

The platform also opposes U.S. ratification of the UN convention (treaty) on protecting women's rights. It advocates importing more "guest workers" into the U.S. for farm work, while proposing "greater scrutiny of overseas labor contractors to prevent imposition of usurious terms" on temp workers they send to this country.

The GOP platform also states "Russia should be granted permanent normal trade relations, but not without sanctions on Russian officials who have used government to violate human rights." Legislation to let Russia into the World Trade Organization, without any connection with labor rights, is pending in the relevant GOP-run House committee dealing with trade. The foreign policy section of the platform is otherwise silent on trade pacts, including one being negotiated with Pacific Rim nations.

Romney promised the anti-union Associated Builders and Contractors that he would revoke Democratic President Barack Obama's executive orders encouraging PLAs on federally funded construction.

The platform supports anti-Hispanic immigration laws modeled on the draconian Arizona measure, SB1070. The U.S. Supreme Court threw out most of that law earlier this year as an infringement on a federal area, but left its provision letting local law enforcement personnel stop and question people who look different. They cannot arrest and deport the drivers, however, without going through extensive checks. Unions opposing the law, led by the Service Employees, say it leads to racial profiling and SEIU criticized the GOP for adopting the Arizona law in its platform.

"State efforts to reduce illegal immigration must be encouraged, not attacked," the GOP platform says. It also opposes the Dream Act for youngsters who enlist in the military or in college. Unions oppose the racist laws, and back the Dream Act.

Romney's own economic plan also splits sharply with workers on labor rights:

Romney flatly opposes the Employee Free Choice Act, labor's top legislative cause. EFCA - doomed by a Senate GOP filibuster - would have helped level the playing field between workers and bosses in union organizing drives and in bargaining for first contracts. He also goes farther, by backing specific GOP legislation pushed by right wing Southern Republicans to outlaw voluntary "majority sign up" or card check recognition of unions at workplaces.

Answering a survey question from the Fraternal Order of Police - an answer not included in his economic blueprint - Romney opposed legislation ordering states that now ban collective bargaining with government workers to bargain with workers' unions. He said he opposes any extension of collective bargaining rights for public workers at all (see separate story).

Romney's economic plan also includes a push for so-called "right to work" laws nationwide, a key cause of the Radical Right and business for more than 50 years. The Boston Globe also reported Romney backs a so-called "paycheck protection" law, virtually banning workers' voluntary political campaign contributions.

Romney has proposed extending "school choice" vouchers to parents of low-income schoolchildren nationwide, for use in private as well as public schools. Right Wingers see vouchers as one way to strip public schools of money and unionized teachers of their jobs, while funneling funds to religious (or segregated) schools.

Cox, whose union is plurality-Republican, said the real harm from the GOP's platform is in its total anti-government attitude, which extends beyond trashing federal workers to trashing the programs they run.

"GOP leaders continue to promote the belief that government is to blame for all of the nation's ills and that the solution lies in taking a hacksaw to federal programs that everyone in this country relies on," he said.

Romney "would arbitrarily downsize the federal workforce, dismantle Medicare and Social Security, outsource our national security to profit-driven private sector companies, reverse all steps by the Obama administration to protect consumers from a repeat of the financial crisis that began under the Bush administration, and end vital regulatory functions that ensure the safety of our air, water, homes and worksites.

"The GOP platform makes 'government' out to be a dirty word, and that is a shame. Government employees run the best health care system in the world, treating returning soldiers at Veterans Affairs (VA Department) medical centers across the country," adds Cox, a VA worker from North Carolina.

"Government employees ensure millions of Social Security checks get processed and delivered to senior citizens every month. Government employees inspect meat, poultry and eggs as they move from the farm to your dinner table, so you know they're safe to eat. Government employees guard our borders and our prisons so the streets are safe, and they support our war fighters at home and abroad.

"Without proper staffing and funding, these government services would simply cease to exist, leaving millions of Americans high and dry. It's hard for me to imagine a country that would turn its back on its citizens, but that's exactly what this GOP platform proposes to do," he concluded.

Romney opposes bargaining rights for fire fighters and police

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 18:14:00 +0000

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has told an employee organization, the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), that "I will oppose" expanding collective bargaining rights for public workers if he wins the White House.

Romney's statement, in a written response to an FOP questionnaire, is in line with his attempt, as Massachusetts governor, to strip Fire Fighters and police officers throughout the state of their collective bargaining rights.

It's also in line with current policy pushed in Republican-run states, notably Ohio and Wisconsin, to strip state and local workers of all collective bargaining rights. Romney backed the efforts. Labor beat back the attempt in Ohio, through a referendum that restored collective bargaining, by a 61%-39% margin, but it lost in Wisconsin.

FOP sent a wide-ranging questionnaire on workers' issues to both Romney and incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama. One key question stated FOP's support for the Employee-Employer Public Safety Cooperation Act, legislation pushed in Congress - principally by the Fire Fighters - to tell those states that ban collective bargaining with public safety workers that they cannot do so.

Obama supports the bill, said he would sign it when it reaches him, and reminded FOP he cosponsored it while he was a senator from Illinois. Romney said he opposes the legislation, but tried to soften his stand by surrounding it with praise for the FOP and a promise to "consult" with "all stakeholders" about other issues.

"I disagree with the Fraternal Order of Police on this point," Romney wrote. "I believe labor unions - including public employee unions - can be constructive forces in our communities and I would look forward to working closely with them as president." But he then quoted FDR, of all people, as saying collective bargaining "cannot be transplanted into the public service."

"I agree with this view, and I would not support an expansion of collective bargaining rights for public employees," Romney wrote.

Romney and Obama also split on whether first responders facing discipline by top brass should have due-process rights, another piece of legislation pushed by FOP. And they split, too, on pensions for public workers. Obama, again, was for due process, without any qualifications, and said he "supports continuation of defined benefit" - traditional - "pensions for all federal law enforcement employees."

Romney would leave due process for the first responders up to state and local governments, and wants to shift the workers into "defined contribution" pensions, which he claims would be less costly to taxpayers. Workers take the risk on those plans.

"I do not believe it is the place of the federal government to impose specific processes or standards on state and local governments," he wrote. "Local communities should be responsible for the management of their own public safety institutions, and I expect such local control will ultimately benefit not only the communities but also the law enforcement officers who serve them.

"Defined contribution (pension) plans help to control costs and protect future taxpayers, offer employees greater flexibility and choice, and avoid situations in which unfunded liabilities threaten both government budgets and retirement security. I would not seek to use the power of the federal government to prevent state or local governments from making this transition," Romney added.

Independent studies have shown that, with few exceptions, unfounded public worker pension liabilities do not threaten budgets. The threats come from declining state income tax and local property tax revenues, due to the Great Recession.

Photo: Peoplesworld

Today in Labor History: Union formed, rich taxed, scaffolds made safer

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:44:00 +0000

On August 30, 1834, delegates from several East Coast cities met in convention to form the National Trades' Union, uniting national craft unions and citywide trades' unions to oppose "the most unequal and unjustifiable distribution of wealth of society in the hands of a few individuals." But the union collapsed with the 1837 economic crisis of recession, bank failures and then record high unemployment.

On August 30, 1935 President Franklin Roosevelt's Wealth Tax Act increased taxes on the rich and big business and lowered taxes for small businesses.

On August 30, 1996 the Occupational Safety and Health Administration published a first-time-ever set of scaffold safety rules designed to protect 2.3 million construction workers. The rules are generally attributed with saving the lives of at least 50 construction workers every year and preventing the injury of at least 9,500 other workers each year.

Photo: Participants work on their techniques and safety procedures during a suspended scaffolding training class at the John B. Scola Training Center, Queens, New York, which trains union bricklayers and other construction workers. Seth Wenig/AP

A life in organizing, an interview with Stewart Acuff

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 16:03:00 +0000

Ever since Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker survived the labor-led campaign to recall him there has been a deluge of articles and soothsaying about the "decline of unions." The usual right-wing suspects can barely suppress their relief. Somewhat surprising to me, they have been strangely tempered compared with my expectations --- no doubt struck with terror at the memory of the tens of thousands of Wisconsin workers who occupied the capital and recalled two state senators in protest against the cruel and ugly attacks by Republicans on public services. The old Wobbly slogan "When the working people sneeze in unison-the temples of Wall Street tremble" still holds.

Liberal and mainstream pundits (not born with a silver spoon) appeared to heave a regretful but unsurprised sigh, with only a nervous recollection that the labor movement made it possible for their parents and grandparents to give them the education, and culture, required to publish and pontificate.

Then there was a new inflammation of the left-wing anti-unionism, with screeds on the "errors" of labor leadership erupting across the blogosphere. For the latter, promoting "civil wars in labor" is the platform of "principle". The famed parable of the ship employed to refute Libertarian economics applies perfectly to this trend:

"The owner of a ship noticed that his ship was filling with water. He knew, or should have known, there were many possible causes: leaks in the hull, the bilge pump being broken, waves washing over, condensation. He heard the bilge pump running too slow, he saw water from waves pouring in the open hatches, but what concerned him most of all --- he smelled urine in the hold! Repulsed, he ordered the crew to the fore deck and then gave them a lengthy, stern harangue on hygienic use of the head.

"While he was lecturing the crew, his ship sank due to a combination of causes: large, unobserved leaks in the hull, a bilge pump that was running but not pumping correctly, and condensation that had shorted out warning circuitry."

Enter Stewart Acuff, former national AFL-CIO organizing director and the most successful organizer in recent labor history. His call into my radio program in West Virginia was like a dose of elixir to a man walking a desert and about to just sit down amidst the rattlesnakes and hand over his last canteen to another thirsty stranger with an outstretched hand. "You take the water, " the man says. "I can't make it. You can make it through without me..." No," says the stranger. "We're going to make it out of here-together."

Acuff is a fellow who can turn the old Merle Haggard Appalachian tune "All my friends are going to be strangers" on its head-"All those strangers, are my friends."

A key voice in the design of the Employee Free Choice Act, Acuff responded to my query about how much change the very modest improvements in labor law the bill would bring, with his signature faith in working people. Yes, he agreed, the changes are modest-but they will give working people a chance to spread their wings, to develop the synergy that simply standing up to power on your own legs can bring. And that synergy can change the world. Workers could join a union without being subjected instantly to the terror, threats, firings, violence and psychological torture that the current National Labor Relations Board certification process demands.

Stewart's message immediately rings true. It brings to mind an early campaign in an all-women electronics shop in Western Massachusetts. One of the leaders was a young woman from an extremely abusive, self-esteem killing background. But at the conclusion of the successful campaign and strike to get a contract, she proclaimed, proudly-I have found out who I really am."

On the subject of Wisconsin, brother Acuff acknowledged the difficulties and obstacles-contrasting the recall procedure with the easier to understand, successful campaign against Ohio's SB 5 -- a measure to roll back collective bargaining rights similar to Walker's efforts; conceding the imperfections of candidate running against Walker in the recall.

But he emphasized the positive-the unprecedented political mobilization of grass roots forces in both state efforts. He noted that Wisconsin's Republicans were taking no victory laps, that the power in labor's dedication to justice-not just for themselves, but for all who labor and all the people they serve --- tells a powerful lesson-we can turn all the rats out of the public institutions they have captured and corrupted, and save our democracy, for which those who came before laid down their lives, and it our duty to preserve and expand for those who follow us.

Acuff was full of examples from around the world of the better life available to working people wherever they find out who they really are. He dwelt on the narrative of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva-beloved in Brazil as simply Lula-who began work at 13 as a shoeshine boy, and rose to lead the Brazilian trade union movement, the Workers Party, and the presidency of his country, accomplishing his nation's greatest rollback of poverty and advance of working people's rights in its history.

I am ready to roll, Stewart! I have not yet read your new book yet-but I will, as soon as I get my next social security check! My friend Scott Marshall read it-his review is here.

But I already know the conclusion. Read it! And don't mourn. Organize!!

Photo: (PW)

Today in labor history: Katrina slams New Orleans

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 11:28:00 +0000

On Aug. 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans, leading to the worst natural (and also man-made) disaster in U.S. history.

Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city up to the rooftops of many houses and small buildings. Winds of 145 miles per hour cut power lines and destroyed homes. Entire neighborhoods, like New Orleans' Ninth Ward, were devastated. Katrina caused record storm surges all along the Gulf Coast. The surges overwhelmed the levees that protected New Orleans, which is 6 feet below sea level.

Estimates are that Katrina caused more than 1,300 deaths and up to $150 billion in damages to both private property and public infrastructure, including New Orleans' famous Charity Hospital. One million people were displaced by the disaster, a phenomenon unseen in the United States since the Great Depression of the 1920s and '30s. Four hundred thousand people lost their jobs as a result of Katrina's devastation.

The Bush administration's response was widely assailed.

Working people of New Orleans and surrounding areas continue to struggle to rebuild their livelihoods and communities. Unions are part of that struggle.

Photo: In New Orleans, people sit on a roof waiting to be rescued a day after Hurricane Katrina hit. Jocelyn Augustino/FEMA

Today in labor history: March on Washington and MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 15:27:00 +0000

On this day in 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. joined by civil rights and labor unions organized the historic March on Washington. The march was officially called the "March for Jobs and Freedom." Dr. King delivered his historic "I Have a Dream Speech" at the event. Coming on the heels of a number of significant civil rights struggle primarily in the South but also in other parts of the country for voting rights and against segregation, the march helped pass the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. It also laid the basis for the Fair Housing Act. Union leader A Philip Randolf was a key initiator. Bayard Rustin was the principal organizer of the march. The 300,0000 strong demonstration - one of the largest assemblies to amass in Washington - began at the Lincoln Memorial and ended at the U.S. Capitol.

Photo: Wkikpedia

Tampa workers descend on Bain-owned company

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 14:31:00 +0000

TAMPA, Fla. - Some 200 workers protested Aug. 27 outside the Bloomin' Brands corporate headquarters here demanding that Mitt Romney's company, Bain Capital, pay its workers more and that it stop outsourcing their jobs.

"How many millions do you need? We've got hungry mouths to feed!," they chanted, as they waved signs reading, "Don't let Bain Capital destroy the middle class."

Boomin' Brands owns Outback Steakhouse, Bonefish Grill and other restaurant chains and is controlled by Bain Capital, the private equity firm founded by Romney. The Republican presidential candidate continues to be the firm's major investor.

Mike Stuart, 29, of Philadelphia was among the workers in the crowd. He told the local press that he has been working for a Bain-owned music chain, the Guitar Center, for five years and is still making $7.25 an hour, the minimum wage. "I'm not looking to be a millionaire, but a couple of extra dollars would help out," he said.

Other workers there said the minimum wage should be raised to ten to twelve dollars an hour for anyone to be able to live off of it.

Workers from Bain-owned Sensata Technologies who are about to have their jobs outsourced were protesting Aug. 27 at the "Romneyville" encampment here.

Sensata Technologies, which makes sensors and controls for the auto industry and is owned by Bain Capital, plans to close the Freeport, Il. Plant by the end of this year and relocate in China. Workers at the plant, including the ones protesting here, had to train their replacements from China.

"There's always a chance we can stop this," Cheryl Rendecker, who has worked at the plant for 33 years told the Peoples World. Rendecker said there is no union in the plant "but labor has helped us to build the fight, and we have gotten a lot of community support.

Rendecker said that severance pay will amount to just a week's pay for every year at the plant which, in her case, means 26 weeks pay.

Joanne Penniston, a six-year plant veteran and single mother of two, the older a grade "A" junior high school student, said, "Gov. Romney needs to personally get involved in this. He is still tied to Bain and can get them to turn this around. I know it's a big battle but it was such a good feeling to be marching peacefully with all the others."

Photo: Chris O'Meara/AP Photo

Court rules in favor of Michigan collective bargaining vote

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 14:23:00 +0000

A proposal to preserve collective bargaining rights for Michigan workers must be placed on the November ballot, the state's Court of Appeals has ruled.

The four-member Board of State Canvassers - two Republicans and two Democrats - had deadlocked on allowing the vote, with the Republicans opposed. Some 700,000 Michigan voters had signed petitions to place the measure on the ballot after a series of attacks on the rights of workers by Gov. Rick Snyder and Republican lawmakers.

Only a week ago Snyder filed a brief with the Court opposing a vote on the proposal.

"Corporate special interests pushed Lansing politicians to pressure the court before the decision," said Michigan State4 AFL-CIO President Karla Swift. "But the court confirmed there is no legal reason to deny people the opportunity to vote on the proposal.

"Working people must now be ready" Swift said, "to counteract the corporate special interest money that is about to flood into our state to confuse the issue and defeat working families at the ballot box."

Photo: Workers' rights rally in downtown Ann Arbor. Ben Seese // CC 2.0

Today in labor history: W.E.B. Du Bois dies in Ghana

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 15:22:00 +0000

On this day in 1963 on the eve of the historic March on Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois died in Accra, Ghana. Dr. Du Bois was the foremost African American scholar and activist of the 20th century. Du Bois helped found the Niagra Movement, the NAACP and led five Pan African Congresses. He edited the Crisis Magazine, the Encyclopedia Africana and authored several books among them three autobiographies. He moved to Ghana two years earlier at the invitation of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's president. Prior to moving to Ghana Dr. Du Bois joined the Communist Party saying, "Capitalism cannot reform itself; it is doomed to self-destruction. No universal selfishness can bring social good to all. Communism the effort to give all men what they need and to ask of each the best they can contribute, this is the only way of human life."

Photo: Creative Commons 3.0

Hostess hits workers with ultimatum

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 10:11:00 +0000

Management at bankrupt Hostess products - maker of Twinkies, cupcakes, Wonder Bread and other baked goods - hit its unions, notably the Teamsters and the Bakery Workers (BCTGM), with a "last, best and final" offer ultimatum on August 16.

If the unions - those two plus the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union-didn't accept its "offer," the firm threatened to dump their contracts, as bankruptcy law allows when a firm is "reorganizing." Hostess filed for bankruptcy in January.

Teamsters Secretary-Treasurer Ken Hall, whose union represents 7,500 Hostess workers, flatly denounced the "offer," but said bargainers are sending it to the workers anyway, since rejection could mean loss of their jobs.

"The Teamster Bakery Conference leadership and the leadership of the union believe that you, the Teamster Hostess members, should have the right to determine your future. We are not and cannot endorse the company's final offer," Hall said.

"But given that the likely consequence of rejecting it outright means the loss of your jobs, it is our duty to inform you, to the best of our ability, of what the offer means to you and your livelihoods and to let you vote on your future and the future of Hostess." The union held local meetings of Hostess workers from Aug. 20-26, with mail-in voting on the offer to follow through mid-September.

BCTGM President Frank Hurt had similarly caustic words. In a prior letter to members, he pointed out BCTGM's 5,000 members at Hostess had made numerous concessions in prior years to help keep the mismanaged firm financially afloat, but Hostess still wanted to use the bankruptcy process to dump its BCTGM contracts.

"When Hostess filed for bankruptcy on January 11, it also filed to have union contracts abrogated via a bankruptcy code 1113 procedure," Hurt wrote in that late May open letter. "The company's strategy was to force a concessionary contract upon the members through the bankruptcy court."

Acting on advice from their bankruptcy lawyers, BCTGM did not participate in the trial portion of the bankruptcy process, Hurt added. To do so would cost the union millions and end in a probable loss, since bankruptcy law is tilted against workers.

"BCTGM International decided the best strategy was to control the process, which we feel we have been very successful in doing thus far," he added then. But the firm's "last, best and final offer," stuffed with concessions by the workers, shows the outcome of a bankruptcy proceeding.

Gregory Rayburn, the new company CEO, wrote to all workers on August 8, saying everyone - executives included - would take an 8% pay cut next year, and that workers would also lose money by paying more for health insurance. That includes the Teamsters, the BCTGM members and 500 Hostess workers represented by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

His letter also said Hostess would not pay millions of dollars It owes to the union-negotiated pension plans. It stopped paying into the pensions late last year and wouldn't do so for three more years, Rayburn wrote.

"I would never sign this piece of crap," Hurt responded to In These Times. He suspects the Hostess managers want to break the firm up and sell it off, piece by piece, leaving the workers jobless and without union contract protection.

On April 18, Hostess got the federal bankruptcy judge's permission to dump the BCTGM contracts, but Rayburn hasn't used it - yet. If it does, "we will be free to strike," Hurt wrote to his members.

Photo: Clarissa Peterson // CC 2.0

Labor mounts drive to protect Latino vote

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 10:05:00 +0000

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The Laborers and Labor's Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), one of the AFL-CIO's constituency groups, have joined together in a voter registration and protection drive to ensure that tens of thousands of Hispanic-named voters not only register to vote in time for the November election, but that their votes are protected and counted, too.

Speaking August 21 at the Laborers Local 11 hall in an industrial area of the D.C. suburb of Alexandria, Va., and in interviews, LCLAA Executive Director Hector Sanchez and Laborers Latino Caucus President Edison Severino said the groups would concentrate on swing states in general and Virginia - notably Northern Virginia - in particular.

They're joined in their drive by other progressive groups, Hispanic groups - such as La Familia Vota - and labor allies, added Noah Feldman, Northern Virginia organizer of Virginia New Majority.

"At a time when the Latino community is under attack nationwide, civic participation" through voting and protecting the right to vote "is crucial," Sanchez said.

"It's also time to say 'enough is enough'" to those who would deprive Latinos of the vote.

The launch of the Laborers-LCLAA campaign was particularly timely: Even as the event was occurring, participants reported, via their mobile communications devices, that the Obama administration Justice Department had decided not to challenge Virginia's version of "voter ID" laws.

Those laws, shoved through by GOP-run state governments in Florida, Texas, South Carolina, Georgia, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Virginia, and elsewhere, are specifically designed, all the speakers said, to knock minority-group voters off the rolls this fall. And they also could intimidate other potential voters, the speakers added.

News reports said Virginia's law does not mandate voters show a state-issued ID - a utility bill or other identification would do-and the state would be sending out ID cards to every registered voter, anyway.

LCLAA will focus its efforts in key areas of "swing states," Sanchez said. One area will be in the I-4 corridor running through Orlando, Fla., where then-Democratic nominee Barack Obama pulled in enough new Hispanic voters in 2008 to swing the entire Sunshine State to his side.

Another area will be Northern Virginia, which has a high and growing share of the estimated 60,000 unregistered Hispanic-named voters in the Old Dominion, this year's premier "swing state" in the Nov. 6 presidential election, Sanchez added. Other top LCLAA efforts will be in Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada, among others.

In some cases, LCLAA and the union have already sent in organizers from out of state into the swing states, arming them with campaign materials and lists of activists.

Indeed, three Laborers organizers from out of state "safe" Obama states - two from New York and another from New England - came to the Virginia meeting to help.

The objective for the Laborers, Severino said, is to have each organizer enlist 20 rank-and-file Latino unionists every day, who in then would recruit even more of their colleagues. All of them would walk precincts, register Latinos as voters - and then make sure they're protected at the polls.

LCLAA plans to sign up 5,000-8,000 new Latino voters in the I-4 corridor before Labor Day, with a similar number in Northern Virginia and other thousands in the other swing states, Sanchez told PAI. LCLAA's 56 chapters will release organizers for the effort. "They're all getting involved, but a lot of the work is going to be by volunteers."

And the group will also focus on voter protection, especially after the Obama administration decided to let the Virginia law stand. In Florida, Latino groups are challenging that state's much harsher "Voter ID" laws, but only in the five counties - out of 67 - covered by the federal Voting Rights Act. The Justice Department has challenged the voter ID laws in South Carolina and Texas.

In Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth Court, the state's second highest, threw out an ACLU challenge to the Keystone State's restrictive law, which a GOP state leader had openly boasted would achieve the objective of giving Pennsylvania to presumed GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney this fall.

"Some politicians are using it" - voter suppression - "against communities of color, especially Latinos," Sanchez said.

There's a third objective in the whole Latino voter registration and protection drive, both union leaders said: Educating voters about which presidential ticket - incumbent Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden - are on the side of workers, and which, Romney and VP pick Paul Ryan, are not.

"This election will indeed make a difference," Severino exhorted the group who gathered to distribute information cards telling voters, in English and Spanish, how to register and protect their rights. "If we allow people who don't agree with the agenda of working people to be elected, we'll take a beating."

Photo: Ho John Lee // CC 2.0

Today in Labor History: One of the first labor newspapers is published

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 12:02:00 +0000

On August 24, 1827, The Journeymen Mechanics' Advocate began publication in Philadelphia, the outgrowth of a strike by carpenters demanding a shorter, 10-hour day. Although the strike was lost, labor journalism blossomed.

In volume 1 of Philip Foner's mammoth "History of the Labor Movement in the United States," published by International Publishers, he writes:

"Along with the rise of the workers' parties went the formation of labor papers. Almost fifty labor weeklies were published in the cities and towns during the years 1827-1832."

According to the Labor Press Project at the University of Washington:

"Early labor papers commanded political and social recognition, calling for reduced working hours, public education, and the abolishment of debtors' prisons.

By the end of the 19th century, working-class newspapers proliferated in cities across the country. Between 1880-1940, thousands of labor and radical publications circulated, constituting a golden age for working-class newspapers. "

Many state historical societies have collections of area labor union newspapers.

Peoplesworld.org daily news website is the direct descendant of the Daily Worker, part of the American independent and free press tradition in the U.S. Since the first issue of the Daily Worker came off the press in 1924, this press has been in the battles of the U.S. working class and people's movements.

Photo: Labor papers called for the abolishment of debtors' prisons such as this one that operated in eastern Virginia.

Minimum wage hike would actually add jobs

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 11:30:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Raising the federal minimum wage from its present $7.25 hourly to $9.80 over the next two years would create 100,000 new jobs, and at no cost to the federal government, the Economic Policy Institute calculates.

The EPI study, by Doug Hall and David Cooper, flies in the face of business and right-wing assertions that a minimum wage hike would - and always has - cost jobs.

But the two explain that the proposed increase, in three 85-cents-per-hour increments over the next two years, would generate an additional $25 billion in economic activity, virtually all of it in consumer purchasing power. That would increase demand for goods and services and, to meet that demand, businesses would have to create jobs, the two said. It would also help 28 million workers, directly and indirectly.

Cooper and Hall studied the impact of minimum wage hike bills by Senate Labor Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the Republican-run House Education and the Workforce Committee. Given successful Republican filibustering in the Senate and the ideologically rigid anti-worker GOP majority running the House, both are dead in 2012. But Miller and Harkin want to lay the groundwork for future debates on raising the minimum wage.

"Using the same standard fiscal multipliers to analyze the jobs impact of an increase in compensation of low-wage workers and decrease in corporate profits that result from a minimum-wage increase, we find that increasing the national minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.80 per hour by July 1, 2014, would result in a net increase in economic activity of approximately $25 billion over the phase-in period, and over that period would generate approximately 100,000 new jobs," the EPI study says.

Jobs would be created in each state. Almost nine of every ten workers who would benefit would be over the age of 20 - not teenagers, again countering a right-wing argument - and 54.5 percent would be woman workers, the study found.

"Though the resulting employment impact is modest in the context of the millions of workers currently unemployed nationwide, creating tens of thousands of jobs would be a step in the right direction and would boost the economy."

As with past minimum-wage hikes, the increase would benefit more than just the lowest-paid workers. "Like unemployment insurance benefits or tax breaks for low- and middle-income workers, raising the minimum wage puts more money in the pockets of working families when they need it most, thereby augmenting their spending power.

Economists generally recognize that low-wage workers are more likely than any other income group to spend any extra earnings immediately on previously unaffordable basic needs or services," EPI's study says. The study is on EPI's website.

Photo: Wisconsin Jobs Now/Flickr

Catholic bishops condemn exploitation, back unions

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 10:11:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - The nation's Catholic bishops have strongly denounced worker exploitation in the U.S. economy, and reaffirmed the positive role that unions play, in their annual Labor Day statement.

But while the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops reiterated their strong support for workers' rights, the open question is whether - or how many - of their most-powerful parishioners, especially in the business community and in politics, are paying attention.

Nevertheless, the bishops' statement is important for its moral backing of workers - it's explicit on that - and for its criticism of an economy that leaves too many behind.

"Exploitation of working people, whether subtle or obvious, injures their humanity and denies their inherent dignity. Exploited and mistreated workers require our care and solidarity. An economy that allows this exploitation and abuse demands our attention and action," the bishops said.

"Our nation needs an economic renewal that places workers and their families at the center of economic life and creates enough decent jobs for everyone who can work. Work is more than a paycheck; it helps raise our families, develop our potential, share in God's creation, and contribute to the common good," the bishops conference declared.

Unions have a large and essential role to that renewal, the bishops stated. And they called political candidates' silence on poverty, bad working conditions and workers' rights as "ominous and disheartening."

"Our church has long taught unions are 'an indispensable element of social life, especially in modern industrialized societies' and are examples of the traditional Catholic principles. At their best, unions demonstrate solidarity by bringing workers together to speak and act collectively to protect their rights and pursue the common good.

"Catholic social teaching supports the right of workers to choose whether to organize, join a union, and bargain collectively, and to exercise these rights without reprisal," the statement adds.

The bishops' statement wasn't wholly pro-union: It alluded to the differences between the church and some unions over reproductive rights, but without using those words or openly mentioning the issue.

"Some union actions can contribute to excessive polarization and intense partisanship, can pursue positions that conflict with the common good, or can focus on just narrow self-interests," the bishops said. But "when labor institutions fall short, it does not negate Catholic teaching in support of unions and the protection of working people, but calls out for a renewed focus and candid dialogue on how to best defend workers.

"Indeed, economic renewal that places working people and their families at the center of economic life cannot take place without effective unions. This renewal requires business, religious, labor, and civic organizations to work together to help working people defend their dignity, claim their rights, and have a voice in the workplace and broader economy."

The bishops also said that both politicians and parishioners should consider the moral imperatives of workers' rights and alleviating poverty when making their choices at the ballot box.

"Despite unacceptable levels of poverty, few candidates and elected officials speak about pervasive poverty or offer a path to overcome it. We need to hear from those who seek to lead this country about what specific steps they would take to lift people out of poverty," they declared.

Both U.S. vice presidential candidates, incumbent Democrat Joseph Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the GOP challenger, are Catholic, though the bishops did not explicitly name them. But their statement said parishioners have a political duty, too.

"In this election year, Catholics should review and act on" prior economic principles the church - and the U.S. bishops - laid down. The key one is that "economic decisions and institutions should be assessed according to whether they protect or undermine the dignity of the human person.

"Social and economic policies should foster the creation of jobs for all who can work with decent working conditions and just wages. Barriers to equal pay and employment for women and those facing unjust discrimination" - including immigrants, another section of the statement says - "must be overcome."

And while affirming - their word - "economic freedom, initiative, and the right to private property," the bishops' statement adds in its very next sentence that "workers, owners, employers, and unions should work together to create decent jobs, build a more just economy, and advance the common good."

Photo: Bishops join in prayer during the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. David Goldman/AP

Today in labor history: Air Line Stewardesses Association formed

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 13:53:00 +0000

Today in 1945, five flight attendants formed the Air Line Stewardesses Association (ALSA), the first-ever labor union representing female flight attendants. The first president was Ada Brown Greenfield. ALSA was partly a powerful response to the industry's social climate of the time, in which women were forced to retire at the age of 32 and had harsh height and appearance requirements.

The union later became the Association of Flight Attendants in 1973. In 2004, in order to better maintain services after a massive layoff of flight attendants following the September 11th attacks, the AFA voted to merge with the Communication Workers of America, which is how it remains today.

Photo: Stewardess serving dinner aboard an American airliner, circa 1941. Library of Congress

Today in labor history: The Great Fire of 1910

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 13:28:00 +0000

In the summer of 1910, a devastating series of forest fires swept over Idaho, Montana, and Washington, culminating on August 20 in what is known as the "Big Blowup."

President William Taft sent 4,000 troops to supplement thousands of workers and firefighters battling the blazes, and by August 19, it appeared the fires were successfully being extinguished.

On August 20, however, hurricane-force winds swept through the region, fanning embers and low flames back to life all across the Northern Rockies. There was no stopping or containing the fire. Workers rushed to their jobs on the trains, evacuating towns just ahead of the flames. Forester Edward G. Stahl recalled that flames hundreds of feet high were "fanned by a tornadic wind so violent that the flames flattened out ahead, swooping to earth in great darting curves, truly a veritable red demon from hell."

Workers trapped on the job throughout the region had to find ingenious ways to survive. Miners, for example, huddled for many hours in mineshafts under wet blankets to keep from perishing. They took turns battling thick smoke and haze to wet down the blankets covering their coworkers.

The fire burned more than three million acres, an area larger than the size of the state of Connecticut, with at least 92 killed. Smoke from the fire reached Maine and Massachusetts and soot from the fire settled on Greenland.

After the fire, the Forestry Service developed the first comprehensive program to fight and prevent fires and the federal government became involved, employing technology and science in an ongoing national effort. Some of the tools used even today to fight fires were actually invented by workers battling the Great Fire of 1910. Eventually the model we have today, one that employs the use of fire itself as a weapon in the overall fire-fighting effort was developed.

Photo: Image of a town completely destroyed after the fire went through. Idaho Historical Society

Federal union protests GOP Ryan: He hustles for the 1%

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 13:26:00 +0000

LAS VEGAS - The American Federation of Government Emloyees elected Secretary-Treasurer J. David Cox, a VA hospital worker from North Carolina, as their new president on August 15 at the union's convention in Las Vegas.

Then, 1,000 delegates descended on a GOP fundraiser nearby to protest the budget-slashing, jobs-cutting policies of its headliner, vice presidential pick Paul Ryan.

Cox succeeds John Gage, who served three three-year terms and then retired. Cox promised to work on strengthening AFGE "by embracing the union´s diverse membership and building consensus among members."

AFGE, the largest federal workers' union, is one of the few unions whose membership is plurality Republican. That makes its protest at the closed-door fundraiser featuring Ryan, the Wisconsin congressman and House Budget committee chairman, and Las Vegas multibillionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson doubly notable.

Ryan's budget, which the GOP-run House approved earlier this year on a party-line vote - and which presumed presidential nominee Mitt Romney endorsed - "delivers more tax breaks to the wealthiest one percent, while slashing vital federal programs such as Medicare and Medicaid," the union said.

Gage led the picketing outside the Venetian Hotel-Casino, site of the Ryan-Adelson exclusive fundraiser. The AFGE members and their allies from the Nevada AFL-CIO chanted "Romney Hood, Ryan Hood, not in our neighborhood." Unionists held signs reading "Paul Ryan: Hustling for the 1%"and "Romney/Ryan Road to Ruin."

"Romney's selection of Ryan as his running mate indicates just how much contempt this ticket will have for the federal workforce and the vital programs we deliver to the American public each and every day," Gage said. Ryan's budget plan also sharply cuts the federal workforce and increases federal worker pension contributions.

Romney and Ryan have a "grand economic recovery plan to deliver more tax breaks to the millionaires and billionaires, oil companies, and Wall Street firms who continue to score record profits while the rest of the country struggles to recover," AFGE officials said.

Meanwhile food inspectors, veterans care workers and other workers - public and private sector - would lose their jobs.

"We think the choice of Ryan, with his extremely specific anti-federal employee budget proposals, makes it crystal clear that the Ryan budget will be the plan for a Romney administration," said Beth Moten, the union's legislative and political director.

"The strength of unity is the only way we are going to fight back against the anti-government and anti-union forces that want to dismantle the vital programs and services federal employees provide each and every day to millions of Americans," Cox said on taking over the presidency.

"I am honored and humbled that AFGE´s members chose me to lead this fight," he said.

Eugene Hudson Jr. was elected secretary-treasurer, succeeding Cox, and Augusta Thomas was re-elected national vice president.

Photo: AFGE members protest Paul Ryan in Nevada. AFGE website

Voters say bring back call center jobs

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 12:49:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Citing overwhelming popular and bipartisan support, the Communications Workers are launching an advertising and ground game campaign in 50 legislative races nationwide around the issues of offshore call centers and bringing the jobs back to the United States.

"The issue has real salience, and officials should be paying attention to it," said CWA Chief of Staff Ron Collins in a telephone press conference on Aug. 14.

"The call center industry is three percent of the entire [U.S.] workforce, but because of offshoring, it lost 500,000 jobs from 2006 to 2010.

"The debate about sending good jobs overseas is more than just politics. The question is does it help our economy or not?" he added.

The survey of 805 likely voters, commissioned by CWA, showed that, by a 78-13 percent margin, voters have a negative view of foreign call centers, pollster Celinda Lake reported. Even Republicans oppose such call centers, by 75-14 percent. Feelings are so high that Lake compared them to overwhelming support for raising the minimum wage.

"The intensity of this one is off the charts" to the point where voters consider opposition to offshoring not just an issue but a fundamental value, she said.

"Voters strongly and broadly support a variety of proposals in response to the offshoring of call center jobs, including ending tax breaks, grants, and loans to companies that offshore jobs, and another proposal that would give consumers the right to be transferred to a customer service agent in the United States," the survey adds.

CWA will launch a two-pronged ad campaign. One set of ads will praise the bipartisan group of lawmakers, led by Reps. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Tim Bishop, D-N.Y., and David McKinley, R-W. Va. who authored legislation to curb the offshoring and return call center jobs to the U.S.

The other set of ads will demand that other lawmakers support bringing the call center jobs back - carrying the implication that voters would remember those who don't.

"In addition to the media campaign, we'll have our local political action committees in 900 locals" publicize the call center issue, and put it on the lawmakers' radar for the November election, Collins said.

"We also have many many members who have been laid off" from call centers when firms closed those facilities and moved them to low-wage nations overseas, he added. "We'll get those folks involved, too."

Photo: U.S. call centers like this empty one lost 500,000 jobs from 2006 to 2010 due to offshoring. Petiatil/Wikipedia

Today in labor history: National Apprenticeship Act of 1937

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:43:00 +0000

Today marks the 75^th anniversary of the passage of the National Apprenticeship Act also known as the Fitzgerald Act. This act of Congress, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, established a national advisory committee to research and draft regulations establishing minimum standards for apprenticeship programs. In the 1930s, widespread protests by workers on issues of health and job safety contributed to the passage of this important law.

It was later amended to permit the Labor Dept. to issue regulations protecting the health, safety and general welfare of apprentices, and to encourage the use of contracts in their hiring and employment.

The Fitzgerald Act is administered by the Employment and Training Administration in the Department of Labor. The standards governing apprenticeship programs are located in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations at Title 29, CFR Part 29. Regulations banning racial, ethnic, religious, age and gender discrimination in apprenticeship programs are located at Title 29, CFR Part 30.

Since 2009 apprenticeship programs for green jobs training have received grants from the DOL through the economic stimulus program, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. One example is the grant to the ironworkers for green jobs training covering 20 counties within five states that have been adversely affected by auto plant shutdowns.

Photo: At an apprenticeship program in Charlotte, North Carolina, created in agreement with the N.C. Department of Labor (NCDOL).