People Before Profit blog

2013: Year of the bold new labor movement

Fri, 20 Dec 2013 16:18:00 +0000

When the news media talks about "labor," people think about unions.

This year, however, organized labor joined with community, civil rights and other organizations and, together, they fashioned themselves into a new movement.

And the AFL-CIO, after months of discussions, in town hall meetings and online, opened the ranks of organized labor itself to every single worker in America, regardless of his or her place of employment or current or past status as a union member.

It was a matter of survival, union leaders said. Only by reaching out, they added, would labor be able to beat back the unprecedented wave of attacks against it and give America's workers the clout they need to fight for living wages, safe working conditions, health care and a decent life while on the job and in retirement.

In 2013, poll after poll showed that the clear majority of Americans see the wealth gap as the big problem facing the nation. The idea that the 1 percent are crushing the 99 percent moved from beyond the Occupy Wall Street protesters who first popularized it to become a majority view. Labor took that idea into the AFL-CIO's convention in September, and staked out new ground in its struggle to reverse a situation in which just one of every eight workers in the U.S. is unionized.

"We can't do it alone," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said when he accepted his re-election as the federation's president.

"Tonight in America," Trumka said, "a child will be going to sleep with a stomach growling with hunger, with an immigrant parent sitting behind bars waiting to be deported, or with a father who is falling out of the middle class and a mother who is struggling as a minimum wage earner. The question is, 'Who will speak for them?' The answer is, 'We will.'"

The AFL-CIO's executive council will meet in Texas in February 2014 to hammer out specific ways in which organizations outside the traditional labor movement can formally be integrated into the federation.

This has to be done, Trumka said at the convention, because the times call for bringing unions, the organized, the unrepresented and the unorganized together in one "mass movement."

"So what's the big deal?" some said after the convention. "Labor has always worked together with other organizations." The difference this time, the union leaders say, is that they intend to keep the coalition together on a permanent basis.

Even the temporary alliances labor has formed recently have lasted longer and have had more success than many alliances formed in the past. A good example is the Democracy Initiative formed this year by the Communications Workers of America.

No less than 51 organizations were brought together under its umbrella. The movement eventually forced the U.S. Senate to overcome GOP filibusters and confirm a full five-member National Labor Relations Board.

Rather than dissolving itself, the Democracy Initiative continued to apply pressure and recently won another victory by convincing Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to get rid of the 60-vote requirement to override filibusters against executive branch nominees, as well as judges up to the level of federal district and appeals courts.

"We're going to continue pushing until the right wing is unable to filibuster anything - including important legislation," says CWA President Larry Cohen.

The recent "fast for families" on Capitol Hill, the dramatic event led by former SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Eliseo Medina, was only one part of labor's involvement in an ongoing fight for immigration reform in 2013.

Major progress was evident with the Senate's passage of a bill providing a 13-year path to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented people,

The measure, although far from perfect, would also bring all who register for "blue cards" as provisional immigrants under the protection of U.S. labor law. Unions see this as beneficial for the entire workforce, including those who are citizens, because it would decrease the ability of employers to exploit any of their workers.

The GOP-controlled House put the brakes on everything, however, by refusing to even consider comprehensive immigration reform this year.

On another front, the nation saw a major rising up of its low-wage workers in 2013, with people at fast food outlets and big box stores staging actions all across the country.

Walmart alone had to deal with 1,500 walkouts while fast food places dealt with walkouts in almost all major cities. The workers demanded $15 an hour, respect on the job and the right to organize.

The labor movement and its allies also spent an unprecedented amount of time in 2013 exposing a variety of right-wing schemes designed to weaken worker power in America.

Thousands choked the streets of downtown Chicago as they marched on a secretive meeting of the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council. Across the country unions and their allies campaigned against so-called voter ID laws, exposing their racist intent and building support for overturning them.

And unions and their allies fought hard against the push by right-wing lawmakers to put in so-called right-to-work laws.

In places like Detroit they have been battling the efforts of Republican governors and lawmakers to override the authority of democratically elected local officials.

Unions say they will be mounting full-scale fights to support local authorities when those authorities are looking out for the interests of workers. Numerous cities and towns, for example, have instituted minimum wage laws higher than the $7.25 provided by the federal government. Republican lawmakers are beginning to push state laws that would override these decisions and labor says it is ready to do battle on the issue.

Unions and their allies were also vital, this year, in ending the tea party-provoked government shutdown.

Labor's continued push against the sequester cuts are widely seen as having been instrumental in the passage of a bipartisan budget compromise last week that restored $43 billion of the sequester cuts. However they were not able to overcome stony Republican opposition to extending unemployment insurance which is expiring - thus leaving the nation's jobless out in the cold.

As the year ends millions of workers, their unions and others are taking time out to make the holidays a good time for those jobless and the rest of the 99 percent who are most in need.

Thousands of children whose parents are out of work are the object of special efforts this time of year.

Unions in Oregon, for example, got together this week with the community services groups that joined them at the AFL-CIO convention last fall and sponsored one of many events at the Sheet Metal Workers Local 16 union hall. The children got handmade stockings from Oregon's American Federation of Teachers. Everyone got a turkey lunch and dessert made by members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Union. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and a variety of community groups sponsored the Santa Claus, face painting and bags full of gifts. A second pile of gifts was given out to the unemployed parents.

2013 was a tough year for labor and its allies and it looks like 2014 will be another tough one. As the folks in Oregon proved this week, however, workers and their friends never seem to lose their spirit.

Photo: In Chicago: taking over State Street! Retail workers striking at Sears, Macy's and Walgreens, December 5. Fight for 15 - Lucha por 15 Facebook.

L & M nurses and techs back on the job as negotiations continue

Thu, 19 Dec 2013 15:07:00 +0000

NEW LONDON, Conn. - Cheered on by a crowd of 200 co-workers and labor and community supporters, the first group of nurses and techs returned to work on Dec. 20 after being illegally locked out by Lawrence & Memorial (L&M) Hospital for 19 days, as contract negotiations continue.

The caregivers' return to work temporarily halts a standoff over the future of health service delivery for the region. Lawrence & Memorial Corporation (LMC) representatives unilaterally ordered an end to the unlawful lockout after talks with the unions representing the hospital's caregivers failed to produce a mutual agreement.

"No one can dispute that ending this illegal lockout is a win for our community," said L&M Hospital registered nurse (RN) Lisa D'Abrosca. "We're back to the bedside caring for our patients, and that was always our 'number one' priority. And we've moved the administration to protect vital health services for now. But we're still committed to resolve our community's long-term crisis of care," said D'Abrosca, who serves as president of AFT Local 5049 and represents the hospital's approximately 540 RNs.

The workers are deamnding that the corporation stop shifting patient care services away from the community hospital while the matter remains a subject of collective bargaining negotiations. Union leaders and LMC representatives exchanged numerous proposals to address the issue during efforts that began in September to achieve successor agreements for contracts that expired November 16. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has also taken up the dispute and sworn testimony is scheduled to be heard next month in an ongoing trial over the matter.

"We've never given up on preserving access to quality patient care," said L&M Hospital sleep lab technician Stephanie Johnson. "We always said that coming together with management -- especially when we're talking about our patients -- was possible and preferable. Now that we're back to work, we hope the administration gets back on track and is willing to work with us," said Johnson, president of AFT Local 5051, representing approximately 250 licensed practical nurses (LPNs), healthcare technicians and technologists at the hospital.

Efforts to resolve the issue in contract negotiations last month stalled and led to a vote by the members of both unions authorizing a strike to protest the unfair practice. The nurses and techs remain committed to assuring community access to quality care by skilled professionals.

"Hospital leadership has shown that they were actually listening to the community," said Melodie Peters, an LPN who worked at L&M Hospital for 15 years and serves as president of AFT Connecticut. "Pulling the plug on an illegal lockout demonstrates that the message the people of this region were delivering was received, loud and clear," said Peters, also a former state senator.

Widespread encouragement and solidarity from patients, their families, civic leaders, and elected officials has bouyed the nurses and techs before and during the illegal lockout. Over $65,000.00 in donations have been made to a "hardship fund" that AFT Connecticut and its national union last week set up to provide relief for the caregivers. Nearly 1,000 gifts were donated for a holiday gift delivery the federation and the United Labor Agency on Tuesday coordinated for caregivers' children. A new ad in the "I Am L+M" public awareness effort was today placed in The Day thanking the community for their ongoing support throughout this crisis.

Among those who came to show solidarity as the workers returned to their jobs were 50 Yale University workers, members of Locals 34 and 35 Unite-Here.

Photo: Yale Univeristy workers were among nearly 200 who rallied in support as L & M caregivers went back on the job, ending their lockout on December 20. Matt O'Connor.

Tell Congress to extend unemployment benefits now!

Thu, 19 Dec 2013 13:47:00 +0000

When Congress passed a compromise budget this week, the long-term unemployed were left out in the cold. The devastating Republican holiday gift for 1.3 million families is an end to emergency unemployment compensation on December 28.

However, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid were spared. The voices of millions of people warning Congress to make cuts at their own peril won the day.

The best gift that we in the 99 percent can give to unemployed family, friends and neighbors is a resounding message demanding that Congress take immediate action to extend emergency unemployment benefits.

In addition to the 1.3 million who will be immediately cut off, an additional 3.6 million people will lose benefits in the coming year unless Congress acts.

While the budget compromise averted a government shutdown and restored some of the human needs cuts made under the sequester, the positive impact on the economy will be canceled out if unemployment is not extended.

Progressive States Network has published an interactive state-by-state map of the impact of ending unemployment compensation. "Over the next 12 months, nearly five million Americans will be cut off if Congress fails to extend the emergency program. Every single state will see thousands of its residents suffer and sustain massive layoffs as a result."

PSN also provides information about the growing economic crisis in North Carolina, the only state that cut emergency benefits earlier this year.

"We started cutting too deeply years ago, and we've just been cutting more ever since," said Rep. Raul Grijalva, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, calling for an end to "austerity economics," which has sacrificed the needs of people for massive tax cuts to big corporations and the wealthy along with bloated military spending.

The compromise budget left all the tax breaks and loopholes for Wall St. and the super rich intact. This fight to end inequality is shaping the battles ahead for 2014.

Already, tea party Republicans are threatening to demand new cuts when the debt ceiling is reached in February. There is danger of a new attack on Social Security and Medicare. The cuts to SNAP (food stamps) made on November 1 have not been restored and could become bigger leaving children and families without basic nutrition. Millions of families are stranded as housing and heating assistance runs out.

Members of Congress need a storm of calls and messages while they are home for the holidays demanding an immediate restoration of unemployment insurance and restoration of cuts to food stamps.

As well, Congress should completely repeal the sequester, and fully fund the country's real needs like decaying infrastructure, renewable energy, housing, and essential services like education, scientific research, and public safety and expand Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Your holiday message to Congress may be the best gift you give!

Join with the AFL-CIO campaign to call Congress at 1-877-318-0483 with the message "extend unemployment insurance now."

Sign Rep. Keith Ellison's petition to Congress to extend unemployment insurance

To find your members of Congress click here for your Representative and here for your Senators.

Photo: AP

Today in labor history: The human cost of mining

Thu, 19 Dec 2013 13:18:00 +0000

On December 19, 1907, 239 workers died in a coal mine explosion at the Darr mine in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania. This same day in 1984, 27 workers at Wilberg Mine died in Orangeville, Utah.

Why have so many died in mine disasters? Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1902; Monongah, West Virginia, in 1907; Upper Big Branch, West Virginia in 2010; the Sago mine disaster in 2006; Crandall Canyon mine in Utah, 2007 to name just a few. Some disasters happened over 100 years ago but they are still happening.

One woman whose brother died in the rescue attempt to save trapped workers in Crandall Canyon said it's the hard choices workers have to face. "I don't want my children to have to go down into a dangerous mine," she said, "but I have a nephew who is also a miner. He can't just leave what is a good living for him and his family. What will he do? Where will he go? That coal mine is the way people here have survived."

There is no lack of evidence that mine owners drive for profits at the expense of safety, and union mine workers fight them every step of the way. Even in retirement miners must continue to fight for their hard earned pensions.

Photo: A monument to the Darr Mine Disaster. Text reads "DARR MINE DISASTER. On December 19, 1907, just south of Van Meter, PA, an explosion ripped through the Darr Mine killing 239 Miners. One of the worst mining disasters in the nation. This prompted the ban of open flame mining lamps. Presented by: Belle Vernon Rotary Club." Wikipedia, CC 3.0.

Port workers in 10 nations taking on IKEA

Thu, 19 Dec 2013 12:00:00 +0000

RICHMOND, B.C. (PAI) - Port unions in 10 nations, including the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, demonstrated Dec. 17 against multinational furniture giant Ikea's lockout of 350 Teamsters workers from its Richmond, British Columbia, store since May 13.

The protests, arranged by the London-based International Transport Workers Federation, occurred in Tokyo, Rotterdam, Holland, Vancouver, B.C., Gothenburg, Sweden, Helsinki, Finland, Kristiansand, Norway, Aarhus, Denmark, Felixstowe, Britain, Zeebrugge, Belgium, and Sydney, Australia.

They follow a detailed report on the Swedish-founded, Dutch-owned firm's mistreatment of the workers, issued last month by the ITF and UNI, another global union confederation. Representatives of the locked-out workers also told their stories that month to Swedish media on a trip there to challenge the $36 billion company.

Ikea locked out the workers after they rejected company demand for a 2-tier wage system and an end to family health care benefits. "The report calls on Ikea to end its lockout and end its use of anti-union lawyers at the bargaining table," the union said.

An international fact finding commission concluded "Ikea Richmond has fallen short in a number of ways with local norms, practices and laws and global standards set by Ikea." It recommended that Ikea management in Richmond end the lockout and return to the bargaining table, with no preconditions."

"Attempts to circumvent the Richmond work force's rights to association and collective bargaining mirror practices reported by Ikea workers about management in Turkey, Vietnam and Bangladesh," the report adds.

"Ikea must...break with the radical anti-union agenda in Canada and ensure its legal counsel follows the global standards of Ikea," the report says. And Ikea should work with UNI on a "global framework agreement" for its worldwide labor relations, "confirming its commitment to social dialogue and the right to association and collective bargaining," the report adds.

"Long-serving workers" in Ikea's Richmond store report that relations slid rapidly downhill starting with a 3-week 2007 strike management forced. Before, there was "a culture of social dialogue and respect between management and the unionized work force." The workers beat back management's demand for the 2-tier wage system.

Since settlement of that strike, "relations have deteriorated" as managers avoid resolving even minor issues. The union has had to file 18 workplace grievances in the last three years, compared to seven grievances from 1995-2010. Turnover at the top hasn't helped, as Ikea imported outside managers not familiar with either Ikea or the cooperative culture of the Richmond store. It also hired the anti-union law firm.

"Access to the building by union representatives was restricted. There were new problems with membership applications, dues check-off, chronic mistakes in seniority lists and unresponsiveness to calls and emails from union representatives," the report adds. And unionized workers at Richmond were isolated from contact with non-union Ikea workers at the firm's other 11 Canadian stores.

Photo: IkeaHurtsFamilies

Walmart warehouse workers win $4.68 million settlement

Thu, 19 Dec 2013 11:42:00 +0000

MIRA LOMA, Calif. - Some 568 workers who toiled in a Mira Loma, Calif., warehouse for Schneider Logistics, a subcontractor that handles Walmart's goods, will share in a $4.68 million class action settlement of their claims for unpaid wages for meal times, break times and denied overtime, a federal judge ruled on Dec. 4.

U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder ruling means that Schneider, the warehouse owner, must actually pay the workers $3.03 million. The rest goes to attorney's fees and to reimburse California for its probes into the wage-and-hour violations at the warehouse.

"Over five years workers were shorted overtime and regular pay, they were denied rest breaks and meal breaks as required by the law and the company failed to keep accurate records or to provide itemized wage statements," said Warehouse Workers United, the union-supported organization of warehouse workers nationwide that handled the case. The settlement also orders Schneider to obey the law.

Schneider even forced workers to sign waivers promising not to complain about the shorted overtime meal and rest breaks. The settlement kills the waivers, too.

The Schneider case is the latest win for warehouse workers in their multi-state campaign to force Walmart and its contractors to obey labor law, and provide decent wages and working conditions. The Walmart workers' drive in turn is part of a larger nationwide effort by low-wage workers to achieve living wages and the right to organize.

Walmart was not a part of this case, even though Schneider's warehouse exclusively handles goods for the retail mega-monster, known for its low wages, lousy benefits and rampant labor law-breaking. Walmart itself has had to repay workers for unpaid overtime and break time in many states.

And the retailer is not out of the woods yet with its warehouse workers. A federal judge handling a pending case against Walmart involving another California complex ruled in Jan. 2013 Walmart is a joint employer there and can be liable for violations.

"The brave workers who came forward to expose a deep pattern of abuse and fraud in Walmart's contracted facility risked their jobs and their livelihoods, but today they are vindicated," said Warehouse Workers United Director Guadelupe Palma.

"Like courageous warehouse workers across Southern California's Inland Empire ...plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit helped end a years-long practice by Schneider, one of Walmart's largest contractors, of shorting pay checks of hundreds of workers," she said. Schneider also must change its employment practices, starting with "a normal schedule of five eight-hour workdays."

Photo: Warehouse Workers United Facebook page

Today in labor history: Operation PUSH founded

Wed, 18 Dec 2013 17:37:00 +0000

On December 18, 1971 Operation PUSH, an acronym for People United to Save (later Serve) Humanity was founded, as an organization which advocated black self-help and achieved a broad audience for its progressive stances on issues of social justice.

Eventually the organization was able to expand into areas of social and political development for blacks in Chicago and across the nation.

The 1970s saw various tactics used to pursue Operation PUSH 's objectives including direct action campaigns, weekly radio broadcasts, and awards through which Rev. Jesse Jackson, the founder, and his new organization supported black homeowners, workers, and businesses, and honored prominent blacks in the U.S. and abroad.

Operation PUSH was concerned with minority youth reading, and it championed education through PUSH-Excel, a spin-off program that emphasized keeping inner-city youths in school while assisting them with job placement. The program, which persuaded inner city youth to pledge in writing to study two hours per night and which involves parental monitoring, impressed President Carter, whose administration became a large sponsor after Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Joseph Califano and Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall courted Jackson.

They were very successful at committing major corporations with large presences in the black community to adopt affirmative action programs in which they hired more black executives and supervisors and to buy from black suppliers, wholesalers, and distributors. Operation PUSH employed prayer vigils as a technique to call attention to issues.

Operation PUSH staged several boycotts including early 1980s boycotts of Anheuser Busch and Coca Cola as well as a 1986 boycott of CBS television affiliates. The boycotts became so well known that at one point David Duke supporters referred to a boycott of Nike, Inc. as if whites were being oppressed by blacks. Nike spokesperson, Michael Jordan, disavowed the Nike boycott. The boycotts of Budweiser, and Coke as well as one against Kentucky Fried Chicken were touted for having won minority job concessions from white businesses.

Wikipedia Contributed to this article

Eugene Debs: Dreaming of a red Christmas

Wed, 18 Dec 2013 14:36:00 +0000

With the holiday season upon us, it's worthwhile to remember Christmas 1921, the day that arguably the most successful socialist in American history, Eugene Debs, was released from prison. Let's hope the rising generation of working-class leaders can surpass his achievements without diluting his egalitarian vision.

In 1918, Debs made a speech in Ohio opposing World War I. "Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder," he told the crowd. "And that is war, in a nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles." For this, he was charged with sedition.

At his trial later that year, Debs freely admitted he opposed World War I and called no witnesses. In boundlessly empathic words that would be his most widely-quoted, Debs told the court, "Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free." Debs was sentenced to 10 years of incarceration.

Debs had been imprisoned decades before, in 1895 for his leadership of the Pullman Strike. According to historian Howard Zinn, strikers at the time "tied up the railroad system, burned hundreds of railway cars, and were met with the full force of the capitalist state: Attorney General Richard Olney, a former railroad lawyer, got a court injunction to prohibit blocking trains. President [Grover] Cleveland called out the army, which used bayonets and rifle fire on a crowd of 5,000 strike sympathizers in Chicago. Seven hundred were arrested. Thirteen were shot to death."

While under lock and key for opposing World War I, the aging Debs ran as the Socialist Party's candidate for president of the United States for his fifth and final time in 1920. "Although he topped his 1912 total, the 919,000 ballots cast for convict 9653 did so only barely, and his share of the national vote dropped from 6 to 3 percent," according to historian Nick Salvatore.

Succumbing to public pressure, a few days prior to Christmas the next year President Warren Harding decided that Debs, along with 22 other political prisoners, would have their sentences commuted, effective on the 1921 holiday, according to Salvatore.

"The president offered individual acts of clemency for two dozen [political] prisoners, leaving more than a hundred still behind bars, and ignoring the call for general amnesty," writes historian Ernest Freeberg. "Debs had often insisted that he would only leave prison after all his fellow comrades were released, and if he accepted his freedom now, he would break that promise."

According to Freeberg, the elderly Debs' cellmate "insisted that a true revolutionary would reject Harding's offer, escalating the conflict to stir radical ferment." But Debs' outside supporters urged him to accept the offer, arguing he could do more good for the others while at liberty. He ultimately took their advice.

"On the day of his release, the warden ignored prison regulations and opened every cell-block to allow more than 2,000 inmates to gather in front of the main jail building to say good-bye to Eugene Debs," according to Howard Zinn. "As he started down the walkway from the prison, a roar went up and he turned, tears streaming down his face, and stretched out his arms to the other prisoners."

Debs then traveled by rail to the nation's capital to meet with President Warren Harding and Attorney General Harry Daugherty. Daugherty claimed Debs came of his own "volition," but Debs said his trip was "at the request" of the attorney general, according to the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette. Debs said he had been given a ticket by the warden to Washington, despite having planned on going home to Indiana.

"[Debs] announced that, instead of riding in the expensive Pullman car provided by the government, he would travel in a more humble coach and donate the difference to Russia's famine victims," Freeberg writes. "He also gave his prison-issued five-dollar bill to the legal defense fund for Sacco and Vanzetti."

The meeting between Harding and Debs was apparently cordial. Harding is reported to have risen to shake the socialist's hand, saying, "I have heard so damned much about you, Mr. Debs, that I am now very glad to meet you personally." According to Freeberg, Debs told reporters afterward that he believed Harding to be a "very kind gentleman."

"Some speculated that the meeting had been arranged to satisfy the president's simple curiosity about this man, so beloved and so hated," writes Freeberg. "Others suggested that Harding tried to persuade Debs to abandon his radical views, or at least tone down his revolutionary rhetoric in the name of national harmony."

Either way, according to Freeberg, Debs said to reporters afterwards that he had told the president he was committed to his political trajectory prior to his imprisonment. The New York Times reported that a crowd of 50,000 supporters greeted the socialist leader upon his return to his home of Terre Haute, Indiana. He would die a few years later, in 1926, at the age of 70, of heart failure.

Photo: Eugene V. Debs leaving the federal penitentiary in Atlanta, on Christmas Day 1921. Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons

Community to casino: Stop harassing your workers!

Wed, 18 Dec 2013 13:23:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Clergy and community leaders from Chicago and the northwest suburbs delivered a petition today signed by 33 allies supporting employees at the Rivers Casino Des Plaines.

The organizations involved with the petition are calling on the casino to immediately halt intimidation tactics that violate federal labor law.

Workers at the casino are organizing in response to unsafe working conditions, chronic understaffing, and lack of job security. The dispute entangles Chicago billionaire Neil Bluhm, who is the chairman of the company that owns Rivers Casino.

"As a member of the faith community, I support, and the United Methodist Church supports, the right of workers to organize free from fear and intimidation," said Reverend Betty Jo (B.J.) Birkhahn-Rommelfanger, United Methodist Pastor at the Church of the Incarnation in Arlington Heights, Il. "We call on the casino to stop threatening workers who are standing up for respect, job security, and dignity."

Last month, Unite Here, Local 1 filed 31 unfair labor practice charges against the Rivers Casino with the National Labor Review Board (NLRB). The charges show how the company has violated federal law, responding to workers' efforts to organize with an aggressive anti-union campaign that includes threats, surveillance, and other intimidation tactics.

"My coworkers and I are scared, but I am standing up because I am fighting for my family," said Kenneth Fung, line cook at Rivers Casino. "I will not let fear get in the way of us making change."

"Mr. Bluhm and other owners who have profited from the casino must direct management to immediately stop its illegal fear campaign against the workers who helped Rivers Casino become the most successful casino in the state of Illinois," said Rabbi Brant Rosen of the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in Evanston and co-chairperson of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council.

Non-union casino workers at two Bluhm casinos in Pennsylvania report similar management-led intimidation techniques. At the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, the casino settled 29 charges filed against it after the NLRB General Counsel found merit in the charges and authorized a complaint filed against the company based on them. The NLRB is also reviewing charges filed against the SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia surrounding the firing of a union supporter.

Furthermore, in 2011, the NLRB found that Rivers Casino Pittsburgh broke federal labor law. The NLRB ruled that the casino "restricted employees' right to engage in union activity at the workplace and illegally surveilled union activity.

Photo: Rivers Casino Des Plaines Facebook page

D.C. Council votes to support minimum wage hike to $11.50

Wed, 18 Dec 2013 11:32:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - In a preliminary vote expected to mirror the final vote early next year, the D.C. Council voted unanimously to support a plan to raise the minimum wage in the District of Columbia to $11.50.

A final vote must still take place, but no member has expressed any intention to vote differently and Mayor Vincent Gray (D) has suggested he is willing to sign the bill, in contrast to his recent veto of a measure to require big-box retailers like Walmart to pay a living wage.

The D.C. Council appears to have the votes to override an unlikely veto, something they fell one vote short of on the big-box store bill.

The vote comes on the heels of two Maryland suburbs minimum wage increase votes.

Montgomery County and Prince George's County, also voted to raise their minimum wages to $11.50. Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett has indicated he will sign the bill into law.

Prince George's County Executive Rushern L. Baker III has expressed opposition to a minimum wage increase and it is unclear whether he will sign the bill into law.

The D.C. wage increase would be phased in a year earlier than it would in the two counties, taking full effect by 2016.

Not only would the legislation increase the wage from its current rate of $8.25, which is a dollar higher than the national minimum wage, but it would also index the wage to inflation. Washington, D.C., is set to become one of the cities with the highest minimum wage in the country.

The council also voted unanimously to require employers to provide five paid sick days to tipped workers, who had been exempt from paid sick days rules. The change will protect both workers and customers, who will be less likely to be exposed to illnesses.

This article appeared in today's AFL-CIO Now Blog.

Photo: AP

Union women call for freedom of Cuban 5

Tue, 17 Dec 2013 14:46:00 +0000

RENO, Nev. - The Cuban 5 should be released and returned to their families, declared a resolution passed unanimously by the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) at its national convention in November. CLUW is the AFL-CIO's constituency group representing women trade unionists.

Citing its longstanding role as an advocate for human rights, peace, solidarity and friendly relations with working women around the world, CLUW also urged its members to contact Secretary of State John Kerry, urging the U.S. State Department to grant a visa to Adriana Perez, wife of Cuban 5 prisoner Gerardo Hernandez, in order that she may visit with her husband.

The five Cubans referred to in the resolution were arrested in 1998 and convicted following a controversial trial for monitoring Miami-based groups planning terrorist actions in Cuba.

"We Americans would certainly have appreciated it if, before it happened, someone had uncovered and prevented the horrid terrorist plot of 9/11, " said CLUW delegate Diane Mohney, speaking in favor of the resolution. "That's what the Cuban 5 were doing for their country," not spying, she added. Mohney, a retired Philadelphia school nurse, was one of 400 delegates at the gathering here in Reno, Nev.

The resolution was submitted by the Chicago chapter of the coalition. It cited a compelling video by one of the organization's founders, United Farm Workers leader Dolores Huerta. In the video, Huerta dramatically calls for freedom for the five in order "to show the world that the U.S. is a country of compassion, honesty and fairness."

Full text of the CLUW resolution:

RESOLUTION NO. 3:

SUPPORT HUMANITARIAN POLICY FOR THE CUBAN FIVE

Since being founded in 1974, CLUW has been a voice for women in the labor movement, standing for unification of families. One way we work towards this is through political action, such as communicating with our representatives in government.

CLUW has also stood for human rights, peace, solidarity and friendly relations with working women around the world.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, denial of the right of a spouse to visit their incarcerated husband or wife is a violation of human rights. But Adriana Perez, whose husband has been incarcerated for 15 years in the U.S. Penitentiary in Victorville, California, has been denied the right to visit her husband, Gerardo Hernandez, for that entire time.

The case of Mr. Hernandez and 4 other Cubans (known as the Cuban 5) has received very little attention in the U.S. press. However, it is widely known around the world because the activities for which they were convicted posed no threat to the American people (they were monitoring the activities of anti-Cuba terrorist groups based in Miami which had planned and carried out deadly bombings of Cuba);

One of CLUW's founding vice presidents, Dolores Huerta, has called on Americans to work for the release of the Cuban 5 "to show the world that the U.S. is a country of compassion, honesty and fairness."

Click here to see video.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

We request Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) members contact Secretary of State John Kerry to urge the U.S. State Department to grant a visa to Adriana Perez in order that she may visit with her husband, Gerardo Hernandez.

CLUW members join with our founding member Dolores Huerta, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and eight Nobel Prize winners in calling for the Cuban 5 to be released and returned to their families.

CLUW members urge fellow constituency groups to add to this humanitarian call.

Submitted by Katie Jordan, Workers' United, President, Chicago Chapter, CLUW

Passed unanimously

Note: This is one of scores of resolutions and statements from U.S. and other unions, labor organizations and labor activists who have spoken out in support of the Cuban 5.

Photo: CLUW

Today in labor history: Wright brothers make first flight

Tue, 17 Dec 2013 14:33:00 +0000

At 10:35 a.m. on this day in 1903, Orville Wright flew the Flyer over 120 feet of ground for 12 seconds. The flight was conducted just outside of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and was the first-ever flight by a manned, controlled aircraft. The Wright brothers selected Kitty Hawk to conduct their first flight because it had regular wind, hills, and sand (to ensure a soft landing).

The brothers first went to Kitty Hawk a few days prior, on December 14. Interestingly, they flipped a coin to see who would get to fly the aircraft. Wilbur won. However, the attempt was a failure. The Flyer crashed and had to be repaired.

Finally, the flight happened on the 17th, to cheers of "Wright On!" by onlookers. Though excited about their victory, the brothers did not rest, and made three additional flights that day, with the fourth being their best: Wilbur piloted the aircraft for 59 seconds over 852 feet.

Photo: Flight of the Flyer on December 17, 1903. Wikipedia (CC)

Amazon workers battle their bosses in Seattle and Germany

Mon, 16 Dec 2013 16:22:00 +0000

SEATTLE - While hundreds of Amazon workers in Germany were out on strike today, German union leaders hooked up here with some 50 protesting workers and U.S. labor leaders at Amazon's world headquarters. The action here drew the support of a dozen unions representing tens of thousands of workers in the state of Washington.

The strikes today by 700 workers at Amazon's warehouse in Bad Hersfeld and more than 200 in the company's facility in Leipzig are part of the first wave of strikes ever, anywhere in the world, against the e-commerce behemoth.

Among the Germans protesting in Seattle today were representatives from the German union, Ver.di (the United Services Union) and a worker from an Amazon warehouse in Germany. Among the U.S. unions turning out people for the protest against Amazon here today were the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, the Teamsters, the Communications Workers of America, the Service Employees International Union, Unite Here, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the Martin Luther King Jr. County Labor Council.

"We're standing in solidarity with them (the German workers)," said Kathy Cummings, communications director of the Washington state AFL-CIO, which organized the protest in Seattle today. "We are asking that Amazon respect the union there in Germany and negotiate in a way that is acceptable to Ver.di.

"We'd love for them to consider the American workers as well," Cummings said. "We haven't gotten far in organizing Amazon here. They don't respect the unions here and they don't want them in their company.

Thus far, Amazon's anti-union bias has thwarted any attempts by its U.S. warehouse workers to have a union.

Amazon's workers in Germany, however, appear determined to fight.

Ver.di is insisting upon a contract for Amazon workers that is similar to the ones in place at retail and mail-order businesses all over Germany. The union says this is only fair because Amazon workers deserve no less than all the rest of Germany's retail workers. Amazon insists on classifying its workers as logistics workers, rather than retail workers, allowing the company to pay lower rates.

"Amazon is paying low wages and the workers operate under pressure for high performance and, at best, only short contracts," said Stefanie Nutzenbegrer, a member of the union's board of directors. Union leaders decided to travel to Seattle to increase pressure on Amazon that, thus far, has refused to negotiate with Ver.di.

"Based on the philosophy of Amazon, 'work hard, have fun, make history' - one has to emphasize: it's the employees of Amazon in Germany, who are now making history by taking to the streets for their demands," said Frank Bsirske, chairman of Ver.di. "What is characterizing the corporate culture of Amazon will not be left into the hands of managers - the employees are now taking the initiative."

The German labor leaders said the joint action by German and American unions was a sign of the times.

"The act of solidarity of American unions for the strikes in Germany is a powerful sign that cooperation among workers is not bounded by national borders and continents. These protests are an encouraging response to the questionable methods of a global company like Amazon."

Workers have been stepping up pressure on high tech companies, generally, in recent months, as the companies continue to pile up unprecedented profits.

There were reports last week, for example, of protesters blocking a Google bus transporting workers to its Silicon Valley headquarters.

Amazon's announcement several weeks ago that it will pursue delivery by drones spurred widespread jokes and derisive comments not just all over the Internet but on TV comedy shows and in publications around the world.

"For the retailer, the moment when machines prepare and deliver packages could not come too soon," wrote David Streitfeld in the New York Times Dec. 16. "Humans are too much trouble."

Union leaders say that Amazon tries to convey the idea that people should be happy for the opportunity to work for a sophisticated high tech firm.

"They don't want people to realize that life at an Amazon warehouse is tough. Hi-tech or not, the bottom line is that the people in those places are performing hard physical labor," said Cummings. "These workers are the backbone of Amazon and they deserve respect, not a company that misclassifies and then refuses to talk to them."

Amazon says it prefers to resolve employment issues directly with workers at individual worksites rather than having to deal with a union.

Photo: An Amazon employee moves packages at a fulfillment center in Goodyear, Ariz. Ross D. Franklin/AP

Today in labor history: Beethoven’s music belongs to all of us

Mon, 16 Dec 2013 15:22:00 +0000

Ludwig van Beethoven was born December 16, 1770 in Bonn, now Germany, then the capital of Cologne and part of the Holy Roman Empire. He was a brilliant pianist and one of the most famous and influential of all composers. He was considered a child prodigy and is said to have studied with Mozart and Hayden in Vienna.

Like all cultural workers of the time, even geniuses had to rely on the well-off nobility to be their patrons. But Beethoven's behavior was anything but sycophantic. One story has him walking with friends when a nobleman passes by. They all bow but he does not. When asked why, he intimated that noblemen were a dime a dozen but there was only one Beethoven!

At one time he was an admirer of Napoleon who rose to prominence during the latter years of the French Revolution. Beethoven's Third Symphony "Heroica" was dedicated to Napoleon. But when he declared himself emperor, bringing back the monarchy to France, Beethoven tore up his dedication page.

The famous opening to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony -- dah dah dah dum -- has had different interpretation over the years. Some said it was the sound of birds chirping that inspire him, others that it was fate knocking at the door.

Matthew Guerrieri has written a book about this symphony, called The First Four Notes: Beethoven's Fifth and the Human Imagination. Guerrieri writes about how Beethoven's piece resonated with everyone from revolutionaries to Romantics, and German nationalists to anti-German resistance fighters.

In an NPR interview, Guerrieri said: "The way I approach the Fifth Symphony's opening movement, is via the French Revolution, which Beethoven was very caught up in at the time, and the music associated with the French Revolution, and that particular hymn [of Claude Joseph] Rouget de Lisle, " who wrote La Marseillaise: "I will die, sword in hand, for the rights of man and for the glory of the revolution and the Republic.

Beethoven's 9th Symphony is considered by many to be his finest accomplishment, composed towards the end of his life when he was totally deaf. Its choral finale was the first time a major composer used voices in a symphony. Beethoven decided early on that he wanted to compose a musical setting for German poet Friedrich von Schiller's poem with its vision of the unity of all mankind, Ode an die Freude, Ode to Joy, ideals that Beethoven shared.

There have been several "flash mob" performances of the finale and it has often been performed at national and international peace rallies and conferences.

The works of Beethoven, including small ensemble pieces and piano sonatas as well as the symphonies, are performed and enjoyed worldwide and belong to all of us.

Barbara Russum contributed to this article.

Photo: The Kinshasa Symphony Orchestra performing Beethoven's 9^th symphony.

Union seeks more than just shutdown of 52 bad bus firms

Mon, 16 Dec 2013 12:07:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - The government's Dec. 12 shutdown of 52 intercity and tour bus companies for unsafe conditions and unsafe driving is welcome, but does not solve the basic industry ills that lead to those problems, Amalgamated Transit Union President Larry Hanley says.

That's because intercity bus firms are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act, the law that orders firms to pay workers a minimum wage and overtime. That allows bus firms to overwork and underpay their drivers, leading to fatal crashes caused by fatigue, Hanley adds. The firms don't maintain their buses, either, federal data show.

"While this 'Quick Strike' operation" against the offending bus firms "is critically important, any serious proposal to clean up the discount bus industry must, unequivocally, address driver fatigue," Hanley says. His union represents workers at Greyhound and other intercity bus companies, along with city bus and subway workers.

Those workers, under union contracts, don't suffer fatigue, and get decent wages so they - unlike the intercity and tour bus drivers - don't have to take second jobs to make ends meet. "Until Congress deals with bus driver fatigue we will continue to see carnage on the highways," Hanley explained. Citing federal figures, ATU notes driver fatigue produces 36 percent of U.S. motor coach fatalities.

Hundreds of the "fly-by-night" bus firms - Chinatown expresses and the like - "get away with paying their bus drivers criminally low wages, forcing drivers to work 100 hours a week or more, often balancing two or three jobs, just to make a living," says Hanley. "Unsuspecting customers get on these buses and disaster can strike."

ATU has campaigned for regulation of the bus firms, and legislation to mandate decent pay and overtime. The firms sprang up after bus deregulation in 1980. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., introduced a bill with those mandates, but it's gone nowhere.

Those were the bus firms the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which regulates buses, shuttered on Dec. 10, the culmination of an 8-month investigation of more than 250 intercity and tour bus firms, Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said.

"Bus travel is increasingly popular because it is a convenient, inexpensive option for students, groups and families," Foxx said in a statement. "But it must also be safe. Through Operation Quick Strike and our regular enforcement, we're shutting down companies that put passengers at risk and educating the public on safe motor coach travel." Besides shutting 52 firms, FMCSA pulled 340 unsafe buses off the road, out of 1,300 inspected. It's targeting another 240 bus firms for follow-up probes. Riders can check a firm's record through a mobile phone app (application), SaferBus.

Photo: Federal regulators shut down 52 bus companies nationwide in a safety crackdown that started in April. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration officials acknowledged the investigations were partly prompted by a February bus crash near San Bernardino, pictured above, that killed eight people. Nick Ut/AP

Domino’s agrees to reinstate 25 fired in New York

Fri, 13 Dec 2013 13:45:00 +0000

NEW YORK - Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced an agreement with 3683 Washington Heights Pizza, LLC to reinstate workers whose employment with a Domino's pizza store ended suddenly Saturday night, following a wage dispute with store management. All 25 workers will be reinstated by Sunday at the latest.

"Because of this agreement, 25 workers will be back to work in time for the holidays," said Attorney General Schneiderman. "New York's labor laws exist to ensure the protection and fair treatment of employees in the workplace. My office will take swift action where there is any indication that an employer may have retaliated against workers for complaining about illegal labor conditions."

The dispute in this case focused on employees' complaints, which they shared with management, that they were being paid a "tipped" wage for spending excessive time performing untipped kitchen work. Under New York law, employees who regularly receive tips may be paid a lower hourly wage and the employer may claim a "tip credit," providing certain circumstances are met.

Currently, the tip credit for delivery workers is $1.60 per hour, so they must be paid at least $5.65 per hour in wages. However, in order to ensure that the lower wage applies only to those who genuinely have the opportunity to receive tips, state and federal laws limit the amount of time a lower-paid, tipped employee may perform untipped work, such as cleaning or kitchen work. Furthermore, New York law prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who have made good-faith complaints to their employer or to government agencies regarding violations of New York labor law.

The Attorney General's signed agreement addresses only the reinstatement of the 25 employees and does not resolve an ongoing investigation into other potential labor law violations.

This case was referred to the Attorney General's Office by New York City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez and New York Communities for Change, an advocacy group.

Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez said, "This victory solidifies New York State and New York City's long-standing commitment to worker's rights and is symbolic for the low wage worker movement across the country. Attorney General Schneiderman's office played a pivotal role in ensuring the workers were returned to their jobs, and they had the full support of the Northern Manhattan community, who was on the ground every day over the past week. This shows that not only will our community and elected officials stand up for those treated unfairly, but that we will see the fight through until justice is served. I want to thank Attorney General Schneiderman and his Labor Bureau for their dedication to the workers of our community."

State Senator Adriano Espaillat said, "I want to thank Attorney General Schneiderman for helping our community resolve this heartless case of worker exploitation, and make sure the rights of all New Yorkers are respected. I'm glad these employees are returning to work - this time without the abusive demands that Domino's had subjected them to."

Assemblywoman Gabriela Rosa said, "These 25 brave men, who put their livelihoods on the line in the face of oppression, proved firsthand that a unified workforce is infinitely more powerful than the owners of these fast food chains. We also proved that when people have the courage to stand up for their rights, the community will rally behind them. For four straight days we told Domino's we would not back down. Now we must build on this momentum to demand that the fast food industry pay the workers the living wage they deserve."

"The decision to bring Washington Heights Domino's employees back to work is a victory not only for them and their families, but for the entire Northern Manhattan community," said Council Member-elect Mark Levine. "I was proud to stand alongside my fellow Northern Manhattan elected officials in demanding workers rights and the fair and equitable treatment for all that those who work hard for an honest wage. We as a community must continue to demand that all those who contribute to the local economy and provide a valuable service be treated with respect. I applaud the efforts of Attorney General Schneiderman's office and am sure these workers are extremely grateful for their assistance."

Jonathan Westin, Executive Director of New York Communities for Change, said, "Fast food workers have a champion in Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. The $200 billion fast food industry is one of the wealthiest in this country. There's no excuse for companies like Domino's not following the law and there's no reason why its workers should be forced to work off the clock or for less than minimum wage."

Kendall Fells, Organizing Director for Fast Food Forward, said, "Today's victory is great news not just for these Domino's workers, but for all of New York City's 50,000 fast food workers. It sends a clear message that New York will not tolerate a $200 billion industry stealing wages from its hard-working employees."

Jose Sanchez, one of the reinstated Domino's employees, said, "We are overjoyed by the Attorney General's fight on our behalf, and are excited to be able to return to work at a legal wage. This was never just about us alone -- it was about the 84 percent of New York fast-food workers who, like us, are victims of wage theft in our city. My fellow employees and I were so moved by the solidarity and support we received from this community. As we keep up our push for $15/hour and the right to form a union, we know the community has our back."

The case was handled by Assistant Attorney General Andrew Elmore and Labor Bureau Chief Terri Gerstein, with additional contributions by Assistant Attorneys General Haeya Yim, Kevin Lynch, and Claudia Henriquez and Legal Assistant Yadira Filpo, under the supervision of Executive Deputy Attorney General for Social Justice Alvin Bragg.

Photo: New York Domino's workers who staged a walkout on Dec. 5 (pictured) have now had their jobs reinstated. DailyKos

When miners’ children died: Italian Hall massacre, 100 years later

Fri, 13 Dec 2013 13:32:00 +0000

DETROIT - Metro Detroiters gathered at Central United Methodist Church Dec. 8 to observe the 100th anniversary of a historic strike by miners in Michigan's Copper Country and to watch a new film on the Italian Hall disaster in which scores of miners' children died.

The film, 1913 Massacre, deals with both the bitter eight-month strike and the children's deaths during a Christmas Eve party. At the party, someone, perhaps a strikebreaker, gave a false cry of "fire" that led to a panicked rush to a narrow staircase where 73 people, 59 of them children, suffocated trying to leave.

The disaster shook the people of Calumet and surrounding communities in the copper-rich Keweenaw region of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. A miles-long funeral procession took the small white caskets for burial at Lake View Cemetery overlooking Lake Superior, where headstones today mark the tragedy.

By the time of the strike, over 7,000 miners had joined the Western Federation of Miners and had written to the Calumet and Hecla Mining Corporation for a meeting to discuss hours, wages, and working conditions. Miners worked 12-hour days six days a week and earned $3 a day. In 1912 alone, accidents caused an average of nearly one death and more than 12 serious injuries every week.

But mine owners ignored the miners' appeal. Asked by a congressional committee if he would negotiate wages with workers, Boston-based James McNaughton, president of C&H, said, "This is my pocketbook. It is mine. It would be foolish to arbitrate that question. I have decided it in my own mind."

Miners picketed, rallied, and held parades to press their demands, and well known leaders like Mother Jones and Ella Reeve Bloor came to join them. After the Italian Hall disaster, many miners left town and within four months the strike drew to a close. Miners got a small wage increase and a reduction in working hours, but little else. It would not be until 1943 that they would win their first contract with the help of the Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers union, later to become part of the Steelworkers. The last mine closed in 1968.

I knew something about the copper strike, having spent many summer vacations as a youth in Calumet, where my mother was born to Finnish immigrants who were farming on company land. Finns, Croats, Italians, Slovenes, Scots, and other immigrants made up a large part of the population and the workforce in the mines.

But it wasn't until the late 1970s that I learned that our family had a connection to the Christmas Eve tragedy.

My uncle, Ted Taipalus, was visiting us in Detroit, and I had put on the phonograph a recording of Woody Guthrie's ballad, "1913 Massacre," based on the Italian Hall tragedy. To my surprise, Ted suddenly said, "I was there." His father had been a striking miner, and he, then 10 years old, and his brothers and sisters had gone to the party along with other strikers' children. While he and his brothers escaped death by going out a second-floor window, two little sisters, Ellen, 7, and Mildred, 5, were both caught in the staircase crush and died.

The loss of the two young girls hurt his father terribly, Ted said. "He took me in his arms and cried like a baby. I had never seen my Dad cry before." After the strike ended, Ted said, a mine boss came to his father and asked him to return to work. But so devastated was he from the loss of his daughters, he, like many miners, would never go back into the mines again.

Ted, who went on to join the Border Patrol on the Detroit River across from Canada during Prohibition, returned to Calumet in 1955.

"With my brother-in-law and others, I went to the Eagles Hall for a couple beers," he recalled. "Someone suggested that we go upstairs to watch a dance that was going on. I took one look into that room and froze. I suddenly realized that it was the old Italian Hall and the stairs were where my sisters died. I had to get out of there. I never wanted to go back."

The Italian Hall itself, on Seventh Street in Calumet, was demolished in 1984, a decision that many residents opposed. Today, visitors can learn about the tragedy at a peaceful memorial park on the site built with the help of the Steelworkers and Operating Engineers unions. The arched doorway to the fatal stairway remains, and plaques tell the story of the tragedy.

Last summer, hundreds of people of Finnish descent from throughout the U.S. and Canada gathered at the site for ceremonies during the national FinnFest to honor the memory of those who died. Government officials and a children's choir from Finland participated in the ceremonies. At the nearby village hall, the names of each of the victims were displayed with flowers.

The National Park Service, which has designated the Keweenaw region as a National Historical Park, runs a visitors' center in Calumet, and holds regular walking tours that end at the Italian Hall site.

Portions of this article appeared earlier in Looking Back, Moving Forward, the publication of the Michigan Labor History Society, whose website (http://mlhs.wayne.edu) has more on the Italian Hall tragedy. The film 1913 Massacre is available on DVD for $25 at www.1913massacre.com.

Photo: Families of the Italian Hall victims bury the dead after a three-mile march to Lake View Cemetery. Courtesy Michigan Labor History Society/Michigan Tech Archives

Domino's Pizza locks out workers after wage protest

Thu, 12 Dec 2013 15:35:00 +0000

NEW YORK - Domino's Pizza has told its workers what they can expect when they exercise their right to demand a living wage. The pizza chain has locked them out in the cold.

Locked out by management for the fourth consecutive day 25 Domino's Pizza employees are walking a picket line with diverse community support at their side. Dozens of neighbors including members of the labor and faith communities, stood with councilman Ydanis Rodigrez and assemblywoman Gabriela Rosa in the freezing cold, demanding the chain store reinstate the workers.

Bairon Solorzano, one of the Domino's 25, married the mother of his adorable 3 1/2 year old daughter this past Monday, the second day of the lock out. He has been working on and off at that Domino's location for the past three years.

Looking back Solorzano explained, "In 2010 when I started working for Domino's, pay was $5.65 an hour. It has not been raised a cent since then. If you don't believe me go apply for the deliveryman job." The surrounding community listened in astonishment. "When we speak up about wage theft and respect on the job, our supervisor tells us the door is there. If we have a problem or complaint, we can leave."

Tipped employees like Solorzano are legally allowed to receive as little as $5-per-hour, meaning Domino's was not technically breaking the law for the past three years as it paid $5.65 an hour to Solorzano and the other deliverymen. Nor did the company break the law in charging a delivery fee easily confused by customers as a tip but collected by management. It's clear that Domino's doesn't need to break the law to maintain its profit margins in the millions of dollars and its workforce in a state of poverty.

Fast food workers across the country are standing up to the billion dollar industry, demanding $15 and a union. The demand was born in New York City but somehow franchises in Washington Heights have largely avoided the movement.

The Domino's 25 were inspired by Fast-Food Forward and the national strikes it has led over the past year. They were inspired to take action by the McDonalds workers down the hill on the corner of Broadway.

That store made the news one hot day this past summer when the store's kitchen air conditioner was out and the workers request for management to resolve the situation went ignored. The McDonalds workers were fresh off a one-day strike and defiantly walked out. With support from labor, faith, community and local politicians on high, each and every worker was brought back to work with cool air blowing.

On Dec. 5 Domino's employees and the militant McDonalds workers both went on strike, joining the national action. Those who participated in the Dec. 5 national strikest have been facing retaliation from management ever since.

"We were not allowed to go out on deliveries but asked to mop the floors and do odd jobs around the office, where there was no chance of us receiving tips. We were asked to do this for our same wage ($5.65). We walked out in protest and have not been let back into work since then," said José Rudi Pérez Torres, another locked out employee.

Community board 12 chair, George Fernandez, called on community members to "not spend your money where our neighbors are mistreated. No Domino's until they put the 25 locked out employees back to work." the crowed cheered him on and quickly synthesized the statement to "No Justice No Pizza."

Photo: Estevan Bassett-Nembhard/PW

Locked out L&M nurses, techs get outpouring of support

Thu, 12 Dec 2013 13:43:00 +0000

NEW LONDON, Conn. - Support is mounting daily for 800 courageous locked out nurses and tech workers at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital (L&M) here, as the corporation failed to show up for further negotiations.

The locked out caregivers have created a community on the picket line with music and tents to ward off the cold wintery weather. Local residents stop by frequently with pizza, donuts, coffee and sandwiches.

Down the block at the union hall of AFT Locals 5049 and 5051, committees are busy receiving strike fund contributions, toys for the children of striking families, and assisting members with filing for unemployment insurance. AFT Connecticut and its national union set up a militancy/defense fund that raised over $20,000.00 in days to provide relief with the economic hardship of the lockout.

Last week local clergy, political leaders and advocates joined the nurses and techs for a round table discussion on healthcare access at St. Mary's Star of the Sea Church. The local Elks Club hosted a pasta dinner attended by 350 caregivers and family members. Connecticut Building and Construction Trades Council union members organized a cookout and potluck lunch on the picket line attended by more than 300. Students from East Lyme High School organized a contingent sporting their athletic teams' maroon colors to come demonstrate support for the hospital's caregivers.

A delegation from the Connecticut Alliance for Retired Americans (ARA) held a press conference at the picket line to add their voices of solidarity. Speaking about the needs of seniors, ARA President Bette Marafino said, "Whether we like to believe it or not, our members often need hospital services. If L&M will treat their family of employees like this, how will they treat us when we need hospital services?" ARA members from the Machinists union and the Peoples Center also addressed the crowd.

The workers on the picket line kept thanking the delegation for coming out in the cold to show support. In picket line conversation the caregivers expressed determination to stand firm on principle for union representation and quality health care, citing Nelson Mandela as an inspiration.

Instead of sitting down at the bargaining table to settle the dispute, the corporation cut the workers off of health care coverage. In response the federal labor department's employee benefits security administration is helping those who have no other options obtain medical and dental insurance through COBRA.

The corporation is waging war against the caregivers in the local media with full-page ads distorting the facts to imply that it is the union workers who are not willing to negotiate, and create a climate of mistrust among the caregivers and the entire community. They are attempting to negotiate by e-mails and through the press instead of at the bargaining table.

The union placed an "open letter" in the New London-based newspaper, The Day, to the board of directors appealing for them to take action and get their CEO and hospital managers to end the lockout, return the caregivers to their patients' bedside, and restore the community's trust in their community hospital.

"This community understands that we've always been there for them," said Stephanie Johnson, an L&M sleep lab technician with 12 years of bedside care experience. "They're not falling for all the false and misleading claims that hospital management keeps making about why they've locked us out. We want them to know that we appreciate their trust in us," said Johnson, who also serves as Local 5051's president.

"I knew I had to stand up for my community and for my patients," said Alison Silva, a CAT scan technologist with 10 years experience at L&M Hospital. "I am 35 weeks pregnant and the corporation has canceled my health insurance. I still think we are doing the right thing, but I just can't believe they would be so cruel," said Silva.

Throughout Connecticut hospitals are engaging in activities similar to the practice of L&M to outsource work to non-union facilities. In Waterbury, a struggle is underway to prevent the entrance of a for-profit hospital into their community. In New Britain and New Haven, workers are battling loss of jobs and diminished quality of care at their hospitals due to outsourcing,

The popular picket line chants, "We are all L&M" and "patients before profits" tell the story that caregivers and community are coming together and standing strong.

Photo: Bette Marafino, president of Connecticut Alliance for Retired Americans, gives solidarity greeting to locked out L&M workers on the picket line. (Jenny Kenny)

Today in labor history: Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison born

Thu, 12 Dec 2013 13:35:00 +0000

William Lloyd Garrison, one of the nation's most outstanding abolitionist leaders, was born Dec. 12, 1805, in Newburyport, Mass.

From humble beginnings as the son of immigrants from the British colony of New Brunswick, in present-day Canada, Garrison became a printer, and used the power of the press to advocate and organize for abolition of slavery. In 1831 he founded and edited The Liberator, an anti-slavery newspaper. Its motto was "Our country is the world - our countrymen are mankind."

In The Liberator's first edition, Jan. 1, 1831, Garrison famously declared:

"I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; - but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest - I will not equivocate - I will not excuse - I will not retreat a single inch - AND I WILL BE HEARD."

And he was heard. The Liberator that gained an enormous circulation across the country, and was read by prominent political figures.

By 1832 Garrison had gained a wide following that enabled him to found the New England Anti-Slavery Society, which became a national center for the abolitionist movement. The following year Garrison and other leading abolitionists from 10 states founded the American Anti-Slavery Society. By 1838, the AAS had 1,350 local chapters with around 250,000 members.

Garrison and other abolitionist leaders such as Frederick Douglass and Wendell Phillips often debated and disagreed on the difficult tactics of the anti-slavery struggle, yet they were comrades in the movement.

Garrison championed women's rights at a time when some felt that cause had to wait for later. He supported women's rights advocates Angelina and Sarah Grimke and Lucy Stone. In 1840, when the World Anti-Slavery Convention meeting in London refused to seat America's women delegates, Garrison refused to take his seat as a delegate, and joined the women in the spectator's gallery.

Garrison died on May 24, 1879. Wendell Phillips and Frederick Douglass were among those giving eulogies at public memorial services for Garrison. Douglass said, "It was the glory of this man that he could stand alone with the truth, and calmly await the result."

An excellent biography, All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery, by Henry Mayer, gives a vivid account of the man, the movement and the controversies, highly relevant for today. Highly recommended reading.

Photo: Portrait of William Lloyd Garrison by Nathaniel Jocelyn, oil on panel, 1833, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. Wikimedia Commons