People Before Profit blog

Wisconsin's Walker fails to squelch free speech

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:55:00 +0000

MADISON, Wisc. - The movement to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who earlier this year stripped public employees of their collective bargaining rights, has been marked by large scale protests. Some 30,000 people rallied around the Capitol just last month. Earlier this year, thousands staged a round-the clock-occupation of the state Capitol.

In order to put an end to these public demonstrations for workers' rights, Gov. Walker used the Department of Administration, the agency in charge of state facilities and run by a Walker appointee, to institute new rules curbing free speech.

But on Dec. 19, over 200 people gathered without permission at the Capitol despite the new access policy.

One of the many requirements under the new Walker policy is a minimum 72-hour advance written notice in order to get a permit for any assembly of four or more people for the purpose of promoting any cause.

The policy, as written, also requires any individual who wishes to hand out handbills or fliers to obtain a permit for that as well.

Further, state bureaucrats can hold groups that organize demonstrations liable for the actions of those in attendance and others beyond their control. Groups will be required to cover the cost of police and custodial staffing for their event, and the determination of cost will be made by the DOA.

Any advance police staffing decisions will be based on the content of the demonstrators' speech, and the determined potential for conflict with controversial or unpopular groups.

The state provides no waiver. Many say the policy gives state bureaucrats far too much discretion to assign liability and limit or deny permits to disfavored groups and demonstrators. Plus, critics say, groups that represent poor and low income Wisconsinites will bear a disproportionate burden.

Other critics say DOA seems to be trying to shield the public officials from criticism, and is doing so with complete disregard of democracy and constitutional rights.

The crowd at the unpermitted demonstration was a mixture of people of all ages and backgrounds. It included people from labor unions, Occupy Wisconsin, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Coalition to Recall Scott Walker, and many other groups and individuals.

Despite the seriousness of the issue, the crowd passed the time peacefully by chanting, "This is what democracy looks like," and singing, "We Shall Overcome."

And, keeping with the spirit of the season, holiday carole lyrics were modified to call for Scott Walker's recall.

Several people read from the U.S. Constitution First Amendment as well.

One observer noted that two people tried to create a fight, for the sole purpose of getting Capitol police involved. The crowds and demonstrators did not react, and the provocateurs were asked to leave the rally.

Even though the new policy prohibits banners from being hung in the Capitol Rotunda, the crowd effectively ignored all the new rules, and fully exercised their First Amendment rights.

No one was arrested. The demonstration was peaceful, and even contained an element of holiday cheer!

The recall movement is pressing forward to Jan. 17, 2012, which is the filing deadline to submit the required 540,000 signatures to force a recall election.

Photo: (PW/Syrus Mehrparast)

Wind industry blows off worker safety

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:52:00 +0000

Wind energy production in the U.S. may see a steady rise in the future. However, the wind industry has an ongoing situation that needs to be remedied, reports MSNBC; they have fallen short on worker safety.

Thousands of giant wind machines used in the industry violate a federal requirement - in short, they don't allow enough maneuvering space for technicians who work inside the towers. In fact, it often prevents them from being able to get up and down their ladders safely.

There are roughly 36,000 towers in the U.S., and that number is always increasing. The majority of them are produced overseas, where the manufacturers ignore the U.S. standard for safety.

Patrick Bell, a senior safety engineer with the California division of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said that luckily, they aren't aware of serious worker injuries so far. However, he emphasized that these overseas companies "evidently didn't look into U.S. codes and standards - especially safety standards - in doing their designs."

The American Wind Energy Association and the United Steelworkers union have released a joint "Framework Agreement," according to Reliable Plant, in order to create a "Partnership for Progress" - a push to accelerate wind production in the U.S.

USW international president Leo Gerard remarked, "The Framework Agreement is the beginning of a road map to help ensure that our nation makes real progress in developing alternative and renewable sources of energy production on a scale that is commensurate with its vast potential. We expect this will advance the promise of green jobs being key to our future."

At the moment, Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials are bewildered by the current number of safety violations, and are trying to determine the extent of the hazard - and what action ought to be taken.

"We could conceivably issue citations," said Bell, "But we might end up taking all of our compliance officers off other industries to run from one wind farm to the next."

There are also other serious safety issues.

In August 2007, one worker was killed and another injured due to the collapse of a tower at a wind farm near Wasco, Ore. And just last year, OSHA fined Outland Energy Services $378,000 for safety violations when a worker suffered severe electrical burns at an Illinois wind farm in October.

Clearly, something is wrong.

In an attempt to right these wrongs, AWEA has teamed with OSHA, forging an alliance that will focus on worker exposure to electrical, crane, and fall hazards in the wind-energy industry.

David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, commented, "As part of the emerging green jobs industry, wind-energy jobs promise to be kinder to the environment and transform our economy, but these jobs are not necessarily safer for American workers. I am confident that our alliance with AWEA will further OSHA's mission to ensure that wind energy workers are protected from preventable injuries and death."

As part of their two-year initiative, OSHA and AWEA plan to develop materials for workers that specifically address maintenance and operation standards. They will also hold forums to discuss safety hazards and potential violations, and to raise awareness among workers about these types of situations.

Two field technicians in the industry are trying to draw attention to these issues as well, as they have been exposed to the problem - and are stunned by its prevalence.

Ed Oliver, 47, of Dana Point, Calif. noted, "Between my friends and I, we've been in thousands of wind turbines and haven't found one that's compliant with this issue."

"We can't believe this exists everywhere we go," added Nick Nichols, 45, of Zephyr Cove, Nev. "The regulations are there for a reason."

Photo: Robin Scholz/AP Photos & The News-Gazette

Florida Gov. Scott’s budget would slash Medicaid by $1.8 billion

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:04:00 +0000

ORLANDO, Fla. - With Gov. Rick Scott's approval rating sliding 7 points this month to a new personal low of 26%, Scott released his 2012-13 budget proposal, which would makes cuts to Medicaid, increases money to education, and gives more corporate hand outs to Florida businesses.

Scott's severest cuts ($1.8 billion) in the budget are directed at Medicaid, the program that is the health care safety net for the most needy in our communities.

Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida, an organization that represents public and teaching hospitals, said in a statement, "The largest safety net provider in Florida, Jackson Health System, says the proposed cuts will potentially impact the continued delivery of programs across the entire continuum of care, from children's services to long-term care.

"Jackson is already struggling to treat all of the uncompensated and charity care cases it receives due to declining sources of public revenue available. Should the proposed cuts pass, the impact to the hospital would be so great that Jackson would be forced to limit care to those unfunded or underfunded patients it currently serves."

The governor's proposed increase in funding to Florida's K-12 adds up to nearly $1 billion - a $100 increase per student. While many Florida school boards and teachers welcome the $1 billion boost to education, the budget falls short of making real progress.

According to News Service of Florida, many of Florida's Democratic legislators agreed that the increase in spending is good, but that the 2011 education budget was slashed by $1.3 billion. Meaning that with the proposed budgets increase in education funding, Florida's education system still won't be back to the levels in was before Scott took office. This puts per-student spending that peaked at close to $7,100 per child in 2007-2008, to the current year's spending level of $6,262.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Democratic state Sen. Nan Rich said, "Pitting one critical priority against another is not the solution Floridians expect from the leader of the fourth-largest state in the nation. School books-versus-seniors or teachers-versus-public safety should not be among the options."

At a time when many Florida families are struggling with unemployment, Scott's budget also calls for the elimination of nearly 4,500 state jobs - mostly from the state's prison system.

All this while the governor is expected to pass another reduction of the corporate income tax, which brings $1.8 billion into the state.

Fraught with racism, unchecked power, Michigan officials question emergency mgrs.

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:40:00 +0000

DETROIT - The appointment of emergency managers in Michigan cities of Benton Harbor, Flint, Pontiac and Ecorse prompted Congressmen John Conyers Jr., Hansen Clarke and Gary Peters, plus dozens of state and local officials to sign and send a letter to Governor Rick Snyder requesting a meeting to express "our concerns of Michigan's Emergency Financial Management law, its prior applications and its possible pending application to the city of Detroit."

The letter sent last week said, "Although we come to this matter from a variety of political perspectives and ideologies, we share in the belief that applications of the Emergency Manager Law have the potential to irreparably and irreversibly undermine both voting and collective bargaining rights."

The signers said they had a particular concern the law may be "disproportionately applied to disenfranchise persons of color."

The letter notes if the law is applied to Detroit, approximately 50% of African Americans in the state would be under the authority of unelected managers.

In addition, Conyers has called on Attorney General Eric Holder to review the constitutionality of Michigan's law, which appoints an emergency manager, who, according to the Kalamazoo Gazette Editorial Board, "could terminate contracts held by teachers and local government employees, strip local elected officials of most of their powers and, ultimately, vest authority in some appointee from outside the community."

A stark example of the power of emergency mangers emerged earlier this week when it was announced that Pontiac's emergency manager is selling city assets including five fire stations, two cemeteries, two landfills, 11 water-pumping stations, two community centers, the public library and a police station.

A state financial report released Dec. 21 purportedly showed Detroit's debt deeper than expected and heightened the danger of the state appointing an emergency manager.

An emergency manager for Detroit will result in severe cuts for those already living under harsh conditions.

A prevalent misconception is that Detroit's problems are the result of mismanagement. Whatever faults there may be, today's elected officials are doing a job that is certainly no worse than those who ran the city decades before.

What has changed is the downsizing of Detroit's auto dependent economy, and corporate decisions to move jobs out of the city, state and country.

In addition, a housing crisis, where blame lies with Wall Street not Detroit, has resulted in foreclosures, vacancies and a further erosion of the tax base.

It might be better to ask why many cities throughout the country are facing deficits. The nation is not poorer nation than it was 30 years ago. The problem is wealth is concentrated in the hands of the one percent.

What many are asking is if we could bail out Wall Street why not Detroit?

Photo: (PW/John Rummel)

Communist Party initiates veterans committee

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:37:00 +0000

CHICAGO - With the Iraq war officially over, leaving 4,500 U.S. troops and 100,000 Iraqis dead plus tens of thousands wounded, the soldiers who fought and experienced the horror are returning home. They're stepping out of one war zone and into another.

Faced with high rates of unemployment and discrimination in hiring, many are coping with horrific injuries and post traumatic stress disorder, fueling drug and alcohol abuse, and divorce and record suicide rates.

Others will simply to be shipped out again to Afghanistan.

The experience is causing veterans to draw basic conclusions about the real nature of U.S. foreign policy and even capitalism.

Understandably there's been an influx of veterans, including combat veterans, into the ranks of the Communist Party USA and Young Communist League. I spoke with some of these veterans, who asked me to use their first names.

Among those who joined recently, and are organizing a new CPUSA veterans committee, is Greg, who served as a military police at Bagram Air Force base in Afghanistan.

He said he still gets nightmares from what he witnessed travelling back and forth between Bagram, Kabul and Kandahar.

"A lot of veterans like myself go to war and want to do the right thing for our country," he said.

"We come home and can't even find jobs, not even part-time. I've found a lot of companies are hesitant to hire veterans, because veterans may have mental or physical issues. That shouldn't be."

Greg said he's also experienced racism and ageism.

"When I got home my old company hired me back like they were supposed to. But soon after, that they laid me off which happens to a lot of veterans," Greg said.

"That really pushed me over the edge. I had read a lot of the history of the party. The next day I got on line and joined the CPUSA," he said.

The son of a Detroit autoworker, Greg said his family told him he did the right thing when he went home for Thanksgiving.

"You were always the rebel of the family," he said they told him.

Greg is active in the growing movement of the unemployed in Chicago, and is concerned about what the returning troops will do for work.

Another veteran, Frank, joined the CPUSA in September. He grew up east of Los Angeles, amid the foothills of the picturesque San Gabriel Mountains. Orange and avocado groves surrounded his hometown.

By the time he graduated high school they were replaced by a growing population and industry associated with the Vietnam War buildup.

Frank was drafted and spent two years in the Army. He was trained as a tank commander and saw combat in Vietnam, serving a tour of duty.

"Little by little, I realized in Vietnam, this supposed capitalist democracy wasn't working. This wasn't what the Vietnamese people needed. They would be much better off with socialism," Frank said.

"When I got back there weren't a lot of jobs for tank commanders and I had to deal with a lot of other things, nightmares of the things I'd seen. These young men and women returning [from Iraq] are dealing with similar things," he said.

"There has to be a better way. Socialism is the way we have to go if there's ever going to be equality between people and countries. And that's what led me to join the CPUSA," said Frank.

Today Frank is a leader of Veterans for Peace, and is fighting hard for programs to address the needs of veterans.

"Many of the returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have issues they are not aware of. It's good to talk to older vets who have been thru it," he said.

Benny was born in Goree, Texas, into a family of migrant workers. He first went into the fields at age six, picking cotton, fruit and "every kind of vegetable you can name" in fields and orchards across the country.

He served in the U.S. Army in 1968-69, and after doing basic training in Fort Campbell, Ky., shipped out to Vietnam with the 1^st Air Calvary.

"When I was sent to Vietnam we were told we were fighting communism so the Vietnamese people could be free," said Benny, 61. "After seeing all the guys being killed I realized we weren't fighting for what they said we were. Instead it was about enriching corporations."

"It was wrong the way we were treated when we came back, as if it was our fault," he said.

"When we got out, the VA wouldn't give you any medical attention. Today's returning vets stand a better chance, but they still need a lot of help."

"We're setting up this [veterans] group to help our members get resources and fight for jobs," he said.

Benny joined the Communist Party last year after going through a long process of struggling with the anti-communism that he said he was inculcated with during the war.

"It's been ground into our heads so much. So you sit down, and try to figure out what the truth is," he said.

"I realized the kind of society of peace and equality the party envisions is really what I wanted too."

The new CPUSA veterans committee can be contacted at veterans@cpusa.org.

Photo: (Jon Orlando/IVAW.org)

Mind reading machines on the way?

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:49:00 +0000

Based on societal trends and extensive study, technology giant IBM has predicted that in the near future, machines will read minds.

IBM expects to see the fruits of its research emerge by at least 2017. In its yearly assessment of upcoming innovative technology, IBM noted the significance of such a development. "From Houdini to Skywalker to X-Men," they said, "Mind reading has merely been wishful thinking for science fiction fans for decades. But their wish may soon come true.

"IBM scientists are among those who are researching how to link your brain to your devices, such as a computer or a smartphone."

They gave examples, including the idea of calling someone up by simply thinking it, or willing a cursor to move across a computer screen.

Current potential precursors to this technology already exist.

A project called BrainGate - a brain implant system developed by biotech company Cyberkinetics, was created to aid those who have lost control of bodily functions - like limbs, for example. A computer chip implanted in the head monitors brain activity in the person, and converts their intentions into computer commands. This is a strong example of a direct link between mind and technology.

As research in this area continues, IBM depicts a future in which retina scans or facial recognition will replace passwords for social networks; where "you will be able to walk up to an ATM machine to securely withdraw money by simply speaking your name, or looking into a tiny sensor that can recognize the unique patterns in the retina of your eye," as IBM suggested.

"Or by doing the same," they offered, "You can check your account balance on your mobile phone or tablet."

They also predicted technology could produce electrical power via any type of movement - be it walking, bike riding, or non-human movement, like water flowing through the pipes of homes.

In an age when much science fiction slowly becomes fringe science, and then eventually becomes accepted science, one might recall one of the three laws of sci-fi novelist Arthur C. Clarke: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." With that being said, this potential development is quite non-magical, and very much planted firmly in reality, as scientists are beginning to observe.

As a report by Mashable explained, "This isn't telepathy, so those hoping to get a real-time stream of thoughts from an individual had best look to shows like Heroes or Babylon 5." What IBM envisions is quite different, they said. The technology itself would be based on a simple brain-machine interface (BMI), which can detect different types of brainwaves and tell a computer to respond accordingly.

The announcement by IBM was part of their "5 in 5 initiative," which is a forecast of five innovations that will help transform aspects of modern life within the next five years. The overall assessment includes and calculates not only the availability and effectiveness of such technology, but "the likelihood of its large-scale adoption."

Photo: "A dummy unit depicting the design of a BrainGate interface." Paul Wicks/Wikipedia

Pell grants under fire

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:49:00 +0000

The president's emphasis on education in his Osawatomie speech frankly means that free or highly subsidized subsidized higher education should be an explicit part, not just phrasemaking, of the domestic policy agenda.

Since the great leaps forward in education in the 1960s and 1970s, many barriers to both access to and completion of higher learning have arisen, and most are consequences of a sustained attack by Republicans on what used to be a bipartisan consensus for a well-established role for government.

Despite these attacks and the consequent rise of education costs above what working-class families can afford, there have been some recent accomplishments that perhaps have not gotten enough recognition, except from conservatives who are actively hacking away at them. Namely, the increase in Pell grants.

Around 10 million undergraduates get help from Pell Grants these days, and the maximum grant was recently raised to $5,550. The figures below show a) the increase in Pell spending and b) the increase in the share of undergrads with Pell grants.

Jared Bernstein offers some comments on these numbers: "Importantly, according to the Department of Education, about 40 percent of the increased expenditures in the top figure is cyclical, i.e., due to the increase in college attendance that you expect to see in recession, as job opportunities become scarce. The rest would then be attributable to increased eligibility and higher grants."

This shows the administrations efforts in the face of the bleating ignoramuses chorus from the extreme fundamentalist Christian factions. Plus college tuitions have gone up too, almost as fast as health care, while incomes for most families have fallen in real terms.

As Kelsey Merrick has written: "...expansions to the Pell Grant program successfully shielded low- and moderate-income students from tuition increases in 2010. But the maximum award currently covers only 10 percent to 15 percent of the average costs of a four-year college."

Pell grants will not by themselves overcome all the barriers kids from less advantaged families face in accessing and completing college, though they help. So why is the right wing gunning for the program?

Basically, because it's increasing and any government spending outside of defense is automatically guilty without a trial, even though the trend is expected to flatten out soon.

Jared Bernstein writes, "The appropriations bill just negotiated cuts the number of Pell-eligible semesters from 18 to 12, thereby generally limiting grants to six years. It also reduces the family income level at which students would be automatically eligible for the grant from $30,000 to $23,000 (though higher income families can get grants depending on their means and the cost of their school)."

It's not unreasonable to limit semesters of Pell but given that the six-year college completion rate is down to about 50 percent, the trends are very worrisome.

Here are immediate remedies that should be incorporated into the president's program:

1. Support for programs that smooth the transition from two- and four-year colleges

2. Protect Pell grants for families in the bottom half of the income scale

3. Federal countercyclical policy that automatically holds down tuition increases at public colleges in recession.

But producing a 21st century workforce that can lift the next generation higher requires more than short-term remedies. Markets appear to place no cost on the failure to provide for the young and the unborn. But the cost is vast. I do not agree with Paul Krugman and some others, by the way, who claim there is no "structural" crisis in the workforce. The mismatch of skills and the opportunities and requirements of the future is vast and still growing. An entire industrial paradigm that planned for the future from the New Deal/World War II era has been crushed by the Reaganite financialization binge - and there is currently nothing in its place.

On education and youth, Mr. President, the time for action is now.

Photo: Department of Education/Center for Budget Priorities

New bill would open the way to cleaner ports

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:22:00 +0000

Members of Congress are stepping up the fight to overturn a longstanding roadblock to cleaning up air pollution affecting some 87 million people living near major U.S. ports, and to establishing fair working conditions for many of the 110,000 truck drivers serving the ports.

S. 2011, the Clean Ports Act, introduced Dec. 16 by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. with five other original co-sponsors, would give local governments new ways to make companies operating big-rig trucks at the ports comply with emissions limits. The measure is a companion bill to H.R. 572, earlier introduced into the House of Representatives by Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.

Gillibrand, a member of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, said Congress "must act to provide New York, and cities all across the country, with the common sense tools they need to improve the quality of air and quality of life for millions of people."

The Clean Ports Act would clarify an obscure provision in the 30-year-old Motor Carrier Act barring local agencies from using their regulatory powers to enforce clean air standards.

This would open the way for regulations such as the Port of Los Angeles' attempt to require that trucking firms hire their drivers - now classified as "independent contractors" - as employees, and take responsibility to make sure the trucks meet environmental standards.

Though other provisions survived, that requirement was overturned when the American Trucking Associations sued to gut the port's Clean Trucks Program.

In a statement, David Foster, executive director of the nationwide BlueGreen Alliance of unions and environmental organizations, said the measure would "free ports across the country to do right by their communities, workers, and the environment, all the while supporting a healthy bottom line."

Foster said he hopes S. 2011 "will help ensure the cost of improving air quality is shouldered by the industries affecting it, and not by the hard-working drivers."

Introduction of the Clean Ports Act in the Senate is the latest action in a long-running fight by environmental groups, unions and port drivers to clean up the diesel emissions that are causing high rates of asthma and heart disease in areas near the nation's ports, and to win fair working conditions for drivers, including the right to organize.

A key part of that struggle is ending the drivers' misclassification. After deregulation of the trucking industry in 1980, most drivers are now responsible for the condition of their trucks, while being denied health coverage, workers' compensation and unemployment benefits. Others now must pay trucking firms to lease their trucks.

In an Open Letter from America's Port Truck Drivers issued Dec. 12, the day the Occupy movement protested at West Coast ports, a group of port drivers told of working long hours under unhealthy and unsafe conditions while being denied even the right to negotiate their rates of payment.

According to a recent report, The Big-Rig, Poverty, Pollution and the Misclassification of Truck Drivers at America's Ports contract drivers now are paid an average of less than $12 an hour, compared to nearly $15 for employees.

Under the Obama administration, the Labor Department is also working hard to end misclassification of the drivers and many other workers as independent contractors. The department, which has hired 300 new investigators, has recovered over $5 million in back wages for nearly 8,000 misclassified workers - five times as much as was collected in the last year of the Bush administration.

Besides the BlueGreen Alliance, supporters of Sen. Gillibrand's bill include the mayors and city councils of New York and Newark, N.J., the mayors of Los Angeles, Oakland and Seattle, the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports , the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, the Alliance for a Greater New York, the Sierra Club and the International

Photo: Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports

Corporations pay zero state taxes

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:33:00 +0000

While state budgets, jobs and social programs are taking the worst hits since the Great Depression, the nation's largest corporations are paying little or no state taxes.

Out of the top 265 consistently profitable Fortune 500 corporations, 68 companies paid no state corporate income tax in at least one of the last three years and 20 of them averaged a tax rate of zero or less during the 2008-2010 period.

This is the conclusion of the study, "Corporate Tax Dodging in Fifty States, 2008-2010," done by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and released by the California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) earlier this month.

"Thanks to the armies of accountants, paying taxes has become optional for some of the most profitable corporations in the world," said Pedro Morillas, CALPIRG legislative director. "That leaves small businesses and individual taxpayers to pick up the tab."

The corporations that paid no net income tax over all three-years include brand names Goodrich, DuPont, Intel and International Paper.

Citing California as an example, the study revealed that the tax bills of 33 corporations ranged from minus-1.5 percent (McKesson Corp.) to 8 percent (Apple).

Wells Fargo bank, California's corporation with the biggest profit at $49.7 billion during the period, paid 0.7 percent in state taxes and second-place Intel Corp., with $23.3 billion in profits, paid zero state income taxes.

The report reveals that the 265 corporations piled up a combined $1.33 trillion in profits in the last three years.

"Far too many (companies) have managed to shelter half or more of their profits from state taxes," said Matthew Gardner, ITEP's Executive Director and the report's co-author. "They're so busy avoiding taxes, it's no wonder they're not creating any new jobs."

In its own study last year, CALPIRG revealed that household tax filers in California pay an average $435 in additional federal taxes to make up for the revenue lost due to offshore tax havens. That report is titled "How Much Did Offshore Tax Havens Cost You in 2010."

Photo: Tax the rich protest outside Citicorp's downtown Los Angeles offices in April. By craigdietrich (CC BY 2.0)

Unions urge House GOP to stop holding workers and the jobless hostage

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:41:00 +0000

The Republican-run House Rules Committee early Tuesday morning voted to block a full House vote on the bipartisan Senate compromise that extends unemployment insurance benefits and also extends the payroll tax cut for workers and employers. Without House approval, the unemployment benefits and tax cut expire Dec. 31.

The AFL-CIO is urging everyone to call House Speaker John Boehner at 202-225-0600, telling him to stop playing politics with the lives of working families and pass the Senate's bipartisan bill to extend unemployment aid and the middle class tax cuts now.

"While the bipartisan compromise negotiated by Republican and Democratic leadership and approved overwhelmingly by 89 senators is not ideal, it would give millions of working families assurance as they head into the holidays that their unemployment benefits will not be cut off in January," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

House Republicans, rather than extend the tax cut or the unemployment benefits, wanted to first change those programs to their liking. Last week they voted on an unemployment benefits extension that cut by more than half the number of weeks workers can collect next year. Their bill also extended the payroll tax cut, but rather than financing it with a small tax on millionaires, it slashes federal workers' pay.

"Two things the House Republicans are most passionate about," charged Trumka, "are protecting millionaires from having to pay taxes and cutting unemployment benefits."

The rescheduling from Monday night to Tuesday of the House vote on the Senate compromise was a maneuver to buy the leadership time to find a way to save face for GOP lawmakers who did not want to be seen casting votes against tax cuts for workers and aid to the jobless.

Under the plan in place yesterday, if enough Republicans had split with their party and voted for the extensions, the Senate compromise would have passed, saving the tax cuts and extending the jobless benefits for two months. Under the procedure now in place the compromise goes down because of inaction by the House.

Democrats blasted the Republicans' procedural moves. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., met with reporters last night, charging that the postponement of the vote until today was proof that GOP leaders were afraid of a direct vote and that their real aim was to increase taxes on 160 million Americans without taking responsibility for doing so.

The GOP, meanwhile, has been rapidly losing credibility with the American public on the issue of taxes. In a new ABC/Washington Post poll voters say they trusted President Obama to do a better job handling taxes than Republicans by a margin of 48 to 41 percent. The results are a dramatic shift from just two months ago, when voters favored the GOP, 46 percent to 39 percent.

Senate Democrats have made it clear that House Republicans will have to bear responsibility for killing the bipartisan compromise. They accused House Speaker John Boehner of walking away from the deal as a capitulation to tea party extremists who, they said, have no intention of reopening talks. They declared that if the House rejects a plan that passed 89 to 10 in the Senate it would amount to killing the tax cut for workers and to cutting off unemployment benefits for millions.

Boehner claimed that all Republicans were doing was temporarily rejecting two-month payroll tax cuts and that his party wanted a full-year solution.

Capitol Hill observers note the hypocrisy of that position, saying that it was Republicans, two years ago, who argued that a two-month payroll tax cut would effectively stimulate the economy. During that discussion Republicans had called for a total payroll tax holiday, reducing the tax to zero for a two month period.

Democrats and the President have, from the beginning, called for a full one-year extension of both the tax cut and the unemployment benefits. It was GOP opposition that forced them to go for a two-month compromise.

Millions face disaster next week if Congress fails to extend the unemployment benefits lifeline.

Two million will be cut off in January, alone, according to estimates from the National Employment Law Project. Without the federal extensions no one can get more than 26 weeks of benefits. In six states, workers will have even fewer than the 26 weeks of benefits that state programs have historically provided because of cuts those states made to their own programs this year.

Photo: People's World

Connecticut youth lead fight for jobs

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:22:00 +0000

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The Young Communist League and a new youth organization called the New Elm City Dream are on the front lines of the fight for jobs in Connecticut. The number of deaths in 2011 due to violence has risen to 32 in New Haven, where these youth groups are focused on linking the problem of youth violence to the lack of job opportunities. Most of the people who have been killed are young African American men. Most youth of color living in New Haven and other urban communities in Connecticut have been personally affected by violence.

The YCL helped found the New Elm City Dream this past September by organizing a Youth Jobs Roundtable, which was attended by over 40 young people and a number of adult leaders in the labor movement, elected officials, and other community organizations. At this meeting, youth from New Haven, also known as the "Elm City", and its surrounding areas identified a list of challenges they face as young people. These challenges included violence, teen pregnancy, lack of job opportunities, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant hatred, drugs in the community, and struggling to gain respect from adults. The adults at the meeting from the labor movement and elsewhere in the city committed their support for a Youth Jobs Campaign.

Prior to this September meeting, the Young Communist League was part of the massive, successful community effort in New Haven during the summer of 2011 to elect 14 working-class leaders to the city's Board of Aldermen, where leaders with a working-class political orientation now hold a majority.

Having laid this foundation, the New Elm City Dream and the YCL are pushing the issue of jobs for youth into the public conversation in Connecticut. The first action the youth took was the collection of 650 signatures on a petition in support of Obama's American Jobs Act and Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky's Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act. The petition organizing led up to an action on November 2, when the New Elm City Dream led its first Youth Jobs March on the New Haven Green. The march was attended by over 200 people, including 80 youth and many allies from the labor and Occupy New Haven movements.

On Nov. 17, the New Elm City Dream teamed up with MoveOn.org and New Haven's Unemployed Action Committee to hold a press conference in front of the Dixwell Avenue Q House, one of New Haven's most historic youth and community centers. The Q House was a significant, comprehensive resource center in the heart of the African American community. It was closed down 10 years ago due to lack of funding, and community cries to reopen the center have been repeatedly ignored and disrespected since that time. The November 17 press conference called for jobs for youth and adults who want to work to rebuild centers like the Q House.

On December 4, at the People's World Amistad Awards in New Haven, the Communist Party, YCL, and the New Elm City Dream presented a full artistic program based on the theme of "Jobs for Youth, Jobs for All!" The program included dancers, slam poets, jazz musicians, graffiti artists, and more. Over 300 people filled the auditorium at the rally-style event, which highlighted the young people and their role in advocating for their own rights to decent jobs and decent lives.

On December 6, the labor movement, Occupy New Haven, the New Elm City Dream, and others came together in a march for jobs and safe streets that was attended by over 1,000 people. Marchers flooded the first floor of City Hall on the rainy December evening, symbolizing the new political strength working people have in the city following the aldermanic elections. The youth from the New Elm City Dream were asked to lead the 1,000-person march.

On December 8, nine young people from the New Elm City Dream rode 40 minutes up the highway to Hartford, the state capital, for a rally in front of Sen. Joseph Lieberman's office. The rally was organized by the Connecticut State AFL-CIO and the Hartford Labor Council, and called for jobs and an extension of unemployment insurance. The youth presented a giant card to Lieberman's representative, calling on the senator to support jobs for youth and jobs for all. During a camera interview with Fox News, Teyanna Gray, a New Haven high school student, stated, "When I get money from babysitting or other jobs, I use it to help my mom out with groceries and other things we need for my family. But I'm concerned because if I see my mom struggling now, I know I will need a good job to pay for things when I get to be an adult. So that's why we're saying that the youth need jobs too, to be able to provide for ourselves, and we promise we won't let you down."

Throughout the marches, rallies, and press conferences, the young people from the YCL and the New Elm City Dream have spoken publicly about the ways that violence has affected their lives. The November 2 Youth Jobs March began with a candlelight vigil to recognize the young people who have been killed in New Haven due to gun violence. Latoya Agnew, a 19-year-old from New Haven's Newhallville neighborhood, bravely shared her experience with gun violence at the November 17 press conference and the march on December 6. "When I was 12, my best friend and cousin was arrested and taken to jail," she said. "Then, when he was 18, he was shot, and I was with him when he got shot. Thankfully he didn't die, but the police didn't do anything about the guy who shot him, so when he went back to get revenge he was arrested again.

"Now he's in jail, and the only way I can communicate with him is through letters and phone calls," she said, her voice breaking.

The success of the youth jobs organizing in Connecticut is an indication that there is a national need to link record youth unemployment levels with the other urgent issues that urban youth face, including the perverse frequency of deaths amongst their peers. The decision the young people have made to connect youth violence with the lack of job opportunities has also created a strong link between the youth, the labor movement, and Occupy in New Haven. Capria Marks, 16-year-old member of the New Elm City Dream, MC'd the speaking program at the Youth Jobs March on November 2. In her opening statements, she said, "When I was younger, I would hear about my friends' grandparents dying, my parents' elders dying, and that was sad, but it seemed more normal. But now, we're losing our friends, our peers, our high school students! This has got to stop. The youth are here taking a stand to say we need jobs. If you remember in the civil rights movement, it was the youth who went to the front lines and even went to jail for what they believed. We are doing the same."

Photo: People's World

GOP killing payroll tax compromise and jobless benefits

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:54:00 +0000

A temporary payroll tax cut compromise and extension of unemployment benefits passed by a wide margin in the Senate and was announced by President Obama on Saturday morning. But now it is expected to fail in the Republican-controlled House Monday night.

The deal for a two-month extension fell apart only hours after the president went on national television expressing gratitude to the Senate and saying he expected the agreement to pass the House and be turned into a 12-month extension as soon as Congress re-convenes early in 2012.

Tea party Republicans in the House balked Saturday afternoon during briefings on the agreement by their GOP leaders. Nothing it appeared, not even a provision to speed up the decision process for construction of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast, would satisfy these tea party Republicans, sources said.

The latest GOP brinksmanship sets the stage for smaller paychecks for 160 million Americans next month and the potential loss of unemployment benefits for millions without jobs.

For millions of long-term jobless people watching the news this weekend being at home for the holidays became even more miserable and unnerving than it has been already.

Jamie Barrett of Charlotte, N.C., who lost her job as an administrative assistant in December 2010, is one of 70,000 in that state who will lose benefits Dec. 31. Barrett, a single mom of three small children -- two with asthma and another with a heart murmur -- has 10 years experience as an administrator.

"It's painful," she said. "It's hurtful, because I'm not able to provide the big Christmas that I'm used to for my kids just to make sure that we have money so we can have a roof over our heads," she recently told the Charlotte Post.

Barrett said she has been applying for 10-15 jobs a day, over 100 a week at times, searching online sites from Career Builder to Monster Jobs to staffing agencies. "If you cut these benefits," she said, "It will be to a point where I will not have the resources to even get to a job interview."

Republican House Speaker John Boehner, on national news shows over the weekend, claimed that Republican lawmakers in the House oppose the extensions approved in the 89-10 vote in the Senate because it was "just kicking the can down the road."

The collapse of the deal has economists fearing a major setback for the economy, which has struggled to maintain even the semblance of a very fragile recovery.

A Politico commentary noted, "The failure of Congress to enact an extension to Obama's tax cut plays into his hands politically. For months, the president has been running against a dysfunctional Congress."

"We are witnessing a pattern of Speaker Boehner walking away from bipartisan compromises to kowtow to his extreme tea party wing of his caucus," Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said in a statement. "This is the latest example of the tea party Republicans sacrificing the good of the country on the altar of extreme ideology."

Back in July, Boehner and Obama were said to be close to reaching a big "deficit-reduction" agreement but Boehner backed off due to tea party Republicans refusing to consider any income tax increase on the wealthy.

With Senate Democrats saying yesterday that they have no intention of returning to Washington before the opening of the next session in January 2012, the likelihood of smaller paychecks and no benefits for many millions is higher than ever.

"There are only two choices for the House Republicans at this point," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "Pass this bipartisan compromise or else they alone will be responsible for letting taxes rise on the middle class."

Tea party Republicans are digging in their heels, many believe, because what they really want is radical changes to, if not outright elimination of, unemployment benefits. Legislation to extend the payroll tax cuts that passed the Republican-controlled House last week included an array of measures aimed at weakening the unemployment insurance program, as well as restrictions on welfare programs including Aid to Families with Dependent Children. These measures, which the rightwing has traditionally fought to impose on social safety net programs, call for drug tests, shortened time limits, stricter requirements regarding the search for work, forced enrollment in education programs and a variety of other policy changes.

In so doing, observers note, tea party Republicans are frightening even other Republicans because they are adding white, middle-class and older Americans to the minority groups they have traditionally attacked. Most of those collecting unemployment benefits are white and older, and a sizeable number are actually part of the GOP's core constituency.

Although Senate Republicans voted for the compromise bill on Saturday, they backed off by Sunday, throwing their support behind Boehner, saying they now favor a yearlong extension. That, of course, was the plan originally favored by President Obama and the Democrats but opposed by Republicans.

As if to confirm that there are absolutely no limits to all the Republican obstruction, the GOP has now even blocked President Obama's nominee to head the Government Printing Office.

William Boarman, the president's nominee, told The Hill Monday that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had "worked hard to clear the objections of Hatch and Isakson (two Republican senators) and they thought it was a done deal, and then they just said no, and they wouldn't give them a reason."

Photo: At a "Vigil for the Unemployed" in Philadelphia. (Matt Rourke/AP)

Tenants' struggles heat up at the Chelsea hotel

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:21:00 +0000

NEW YORK - These days there is a noticeable fine dust permeating the air throughout this historic landmark hotel. Upon entering his apartment after work, one tenant walked into his bathroom to find that the ceiling had collapsed.

These are the conditions the tenants are living with as the new owner Joseph Chetrit proceeds to turn the Hotel Chelsea into a high-end living space. The hotel workers, members of 32BJ, were fired soon after the purchase, and the demolition work is being done by non-union workers hired by Marge NY Inc., a non union company contracted by Chetrit.

Built between 1883 and 1885, the twelve-story redbrick building was one of the city's first private apartment cooperatives opened to the public in 1884. In May 2011, the hotel was sold to real estate developer Joseph Chetrit for $80 million dollars. Long-time residents remain in the building, some of them protected by state rent regulations.

Many notable artists, writers and musicians have lived and created some of their finest works while staying at the Chelsea: Arthur Miller, Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams, Stanley Kubrick, Shirley Clarke, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and many, many others.

Laborers Local 79 has been at the worksite for the past two weeks; they are trying to get the City EPA to investigate the premises for violations of City Building Codes. One of the Local 79 workers expressed why they were there: "We are protesting the construction that is going on in the hotel, they are doing demolition in the building and we are trying to talk to the construction workers, organize the workers."

The renovations prompted complaints by the remaining tenants of health hazards caused by the construction. These are being investigated by the city's Buildings Department, which found violations. A Local 79 member said of the non-union workers at the site: "They are not aware of what they are doing. There may be asbestos in the building - we don't know. The tenants are concerned because of what is going on, concerned for their safety."

New York City has had a dismal record concerning oversight of construction. There were several fatal accidents in the past several years. As reported in the New York Times, fatal construction accidents have grown at an alarming rate in New York City, rising 61 percent in the year that ended on Sept. 30, [2008] amid a continuing building boom. Many of the 29 victims were Hispanic immigrants working for small contractors in nonunion jobs.

After a fatal crane collapse on the East Side in 2008 killed seven people and injured 24 others, Mayor Bloomberg pushed for the resignation of Patricia J. Lancaster, commissioner of the Buildings Department, who had been in the process of trying to make the department more accountable to the public safety.

In an interview with Zoe Pappas of the Chelsea Hotel Tenants Association and their lawyer Sam Himmelstein on WBAI's HousingNotebook, they discussed the unsafe renovations and harassing techniques of the new landlord.

Pappas said: "Demolition [documents] shows they are going to demolish the existing walls of the hotel rooms. Another plan was to show the new configuration, but we haven't seen the plans and you can't see the plans before they are approved." This is a major concern of the tenants because it will show whether the tenants may be displaced or not. Last week a tenant was assaulted and his camera confiscated because he was taking pictures of the work being done.

According to press reports, tenant lawyer Himmelstein says that representatives of the owner, the developer Joseph Chetrit, repeatedly rebuff requests for a meeting. "You leave me no alternative but to litigate," Mr. Himmelstein wrote in an e-mail to the owner's lawyer last week. "Perhaps your clients will be more reasonable in front of a judge."

The two sides were scheduled to meet in court on December 16. Pappas remarked, "We are doing it because we have no choice."

Photo: Chelsea Hotel in 2010. harry_nl (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

GOP sets oil pipeline as condition for payroll tax cut for workers

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:59:00 +0000

Republicans are holding extension of payroll tax cuts hostage to their scheme to approve an environmentally devastating oil pipeline extension through vast parts of the country.

As they put the pressure on Senate Democrats to go along with an extension of the Keystone XL pipeline that President Obama has put on hold, members of CREDO Action swamped Capitol Hill with more than 10,000 calls to Senate offices on Friday.

Republicans intend to force their pipeline through by adding a clause to the President's payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits extension package. It would strip the President of the authority he exercised recently to put an environmentally problematic project on hold, says CREDO.

The House measure would force the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to decide on the Keystone issue in 30 days' time, and in the process, would restrict FERC's discretion to reject the project.

Elijah Zarlin, campaign manager of CREDO Action, elaborated on why this could be a serious blow to the U.S. labor movement: "During the worst economy in generations," he said, "Republicans are holding hostage benefits that their constituents urgently need in order to force a decision on an oil pipeline that kills more American jobs than it creates.

"Republicans are profoundly un-American, and Democrats who can't draw a line in the sand and say so ought to seriously question whether they are qualified to serve in public office."

CREDO is urging progressives everywhere - and simply anyone concerned on this vital issue - to take their concerns to those Democrats who are willing to compromise; to say, "No back room deals on Keystone XL."

House Speaker John Boener, R-Ohio, who is apparently acting under the pretense that the bill is fair in exchange for passing the President's preferred tax cut, said that the package will "turn chicken sh*t into chicken salad."

Not so, those in protest believe. What it is, they note, is a clear act of extortion on behalf of a foreign oil company.

Furthermore, Becky Bond, political director of CREDO Action, remarked, "Look, Republicans are not just going after Keystone XL because they are tools of the oil industry. It's because we beat them on Keystone, and they will settle for nothing less than total domination.

"With over 10,000 phone calls in less than six hours, CREDO members are sending an unmistakable message to Senate Democrats that - this time - we will not allow them to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory."

Photo: "Protesters outside the White House on Nov. 6 demand a stop to the Keystone XL pipeline." Evan Vucci/AP Photos

White House hits Medicare privatization scheme

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:21:00 +0000

The White House has joined a national chorus of protests against the so-called bi-partisan Ryan-Wyden plan to turn Medicare into a voucher system.

The plan makes Medicare into a "subsidy" system where recipients "choose" from among private insurers and then get "subsidies" to help pay the bills.

Yesterday, Washington state's Democratic senator Ron Wyden, and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., announced that they were teaming up to back a bill that would turn Medicare into a voucher plan by 2022.

The Obama administration has already added its voice to the growing chorus of opposition coming from all over the country. The White House called the Ryan-Wyden proposal a new plan based on Newt Gingrich's old ideas.

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said the plan "would end Medicare as we know it for millions of seniors.

"The Wyden-Ryan scheme could, over time, cause the traditional Medicare program to 'wither on the vine,' because it would raise premiums, forcing many seniors to leave traditional Medicare and join private plans."

Supporters of the so-called bi-partisan plan claim they are applying the logic of health care reform with the new proposal. Namely, Medicare becomes a subsidy system with people choosing their private insurer. Opponents note that the logic of reform is to move in the other direction, with the current reforms eventually evolving into a single-payer system.

Opponents see Wyden's support for the new Ryan plan as dangerous. Some say Wyden has come to the rescue for Ryan by giving him a way to soften his image as a hardcore right-winger and appear more reasonable. Polls show that Ryan's right-wing image is making his re-election effort very difficult, even in a conservative Wisconsin district.

Supporters of Medicare note that GOP claims to support choice for patients are not valid reasons to oppose the program.

The advantages of choice in health care relate less to choice of insurance plans, they note, than to choice of care providers, which traditional Medicare now provides. It is the private plans, they note, that are often the most restrictive when it comes to choosing a provider.

Private plans are no match for Medicare, they add, when it comes also to improving quality of care and cost reduction. This is because Medicare's size gives it the strength that no private plan can match to push for changes in the system that will result in better quality and lower costs.

Opponents of private plans note that you can never make projections about how much they will save in dollars, but you can always predict that, when it comes to costs, they will be shifted to the elderly, the disabled, and the poor.

Supreme Court to hear Arizona immigration case in 2012

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:19:00 +0000

The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Monday that it is going to hear three politically charged cases in its upcoming 2012 session. First, the State of Arizona's appeal of a lower court's ruling against parts of a draconian immigration law. Second, a challenge to the Obama administration's health care reform. Third, ruling on a contentious congressional redistrict controversy in Texas.

In each of these cases, the court's deliberations are likely to become embroiled with election year politics. Decisions are expected to come down in June of 2012, which will make it hard for them not to have an electoral impact.

Arizona seeks to overturn an earlier ruling by the federal court of appeals for the 9^th District, which supported a suit by the Obama administration against the controversial SB 1070 immigration law. The administration based its argument on the idea that certain aspects of the Arizona law infringe upon the domain of the federal government.

These aspects, which are blocked by the 9^th District appeals court's ruling this past summer, include:

Establishing that simply being in the country without authorization, and failing to register with the federal government, is a state crime.
Making it illegal, under state law, to work or to solicit employment if one is in the country without authorization.
Requiring state and local police officers to look into the immigration status of people they stop or arrest if they believe they might be undocumented immigrants, before they can be released. Immigrants' rights activists see this as opening the door to unlimited profiling of Latinos and others.
It allows arrest without warrant of persons police believe may have committed crimes that would subject them to deportation if convicted.

The Arizona law has led to massive protest demonstrations and boycotts of the state. It has also encouraged other right-wing, Republican-dominated state legislatures to pass laws that are as drastic or worse, especially a recent one in Alabama.

Arizona Republican politicians, including Governor Jan Brewer, defend the law as necessary to stop what they call an "invasion" of "illegal aliens". They argue, also, that the federal government cannot claim an exclusive right to run immigration enforcement operations when it is actually not doing so. Brewer claims that the law was necessary to protect Arizonans from a wave of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, though most experts think her lurid claims are wildly exaggerated.

Anti-immigration organizations hailed the decision of the court to hear the Arizona case. The administration and pro-immigrant groups were less enthusiastic. However, the National Immigration Forum, which favors legalization of the undocumented, sounded a hopeful note: "Draconian, state based laws make our communities less safe, are costly to U.S. taxpayers and fail to fix our immigration challenges. These laws disrupt community policing initiatives and burden local police departments with responsibilities that belong to the federal government. Local police serve the public best when they are focused on protecting communities, rather than demanding papers and attempting to sort out technical immigration questions. We look forward to the Supreme Court's decision and urge the federal government to put politics aside [and] start work soon on a comprehensive fix to our immigration system"

In fact, the Obama administration has done some of the things the Republicans demand. Most notably, it has sharply increased the rate of deportations as compared to the Bush administration, dismaying many in the Latino and immigrants' rights movement. It has also put taxpayer money into a border fence, and sent National Guard troops to the border. Through its Secure Communities Program, it is already deputizing state, county and local police to carry out the functions of immigration enforcement agents.

The major positive step the Obama administration has taken in response to the demands of the immigrants' rights movement is to announce that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the branch of the Department of Homeland Security which is in charge of these things, will be encouraged to use more discretion as to who, among both people currently in immigration custody that those not yet arrested, should be deported.

The idea is that the focus now will be heavily on deporting people who have serious criminal records, and not on family people who, aside from the immigration infraction, do not have such records. This has, of course, been sharply criticized by the Republicans.

The motive of mostly Republican politicians for introducing these immigration laws has to be seen in the light of electoral politics. No matter how much the Democratic administration might "crack down on immigrants," this year's crop of Republican politicians will not be satisfied because they do not want to "solve the problem" of undocumented immigration; they want to keep the pot boiling so that they can still win points by their anti-immigrant zeal. The same can be said of Republican efforts to get President Obama's health care reform declared unconstitutional.

Photo: Protestors confront Ariz. State Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, author of Arizona's immigration bill SB1070, outside the Federal Courthouse in Phoenix. The Supreme Court agreed Dec. 12 to rule on Arizona's controversial law. (Matt York/AP)

Wisconsin under Walker loses 18,000 jobs a year

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:23:00 +0000

MADISON, Wis. - The Institute for Wisconsin's Future has released a report, "The Price of Extremism," that shows, in no uncertain terms, that the policies of Republican Gov. Scott Walker are a dismal failure.

In fact, the report shows, the governor's policies cost the state more than 18,000 full-time private sector jobs so far, during the first year of the Walker budget.

The report finds that four Walker initiatives in particular have cost the greatest number of jobs.

The state lost 5,400 jobs because of cuts to education and health alone.

Cuts in aid to low-income families cost 1,200 jobs.

4,700 jobs were lost, the report says, because the governor rejected federal funds.

In addition, the economic ripple effects of the budget cost the state at least 6,900 jobs, according to the document.

"In tough times, the worst thing a governor can do is further shrink the economy by stifling spending," said Jack Norman, research director for the Institute for Wisconsin's Future. "Gov. Walker has taken huge amounts of money out of the economy through budget cuts, attacks on workers and increased taxes on low-income families. This leads businesses to have fewer customers, workers to have fewer jobs and local governments to have less revenues."

According to Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, the Walker budget, along with stripping public employees of their collective bargaining rights, decreased the spending power of public employees by $3,668 a year for the typical public employee making $40,000 a year.

"This has a huge affect on local economies that will result in $700 million leaving Wisconsin's economy," said Neunfeldt. "This is money that was spent at the local corner store and in small businesses in communities across the state. The end economic result for Wisconsin is the loss of 6,900 private-sector jobs.

"This report serves as yet another reminder," said Neunfeldt, "that Gov. Walker must be recalled for the4 sake of Wisconin."

Unions and their allies have already collected almost two thirds of the more than 500,000 signatures they need to get a recall motion on the ballot in the state.

Panel sees progress on holding corporate execs accountable

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:57:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - The "say-on-pay" movement, holding corporate executives financially accountable for their risky decisions, is making progress, despite corporate resistance to it and to all other aspects of financial reform and clean-up, a panel of reform advocates says.

Panel members warned, however, that the corporate interests - including but not limited to the banks and other financiers - are still battling the law tooth and nail, by lobbying against giving law enforcers any money and blocking nomination and appointment of key federal overseers.

The Americans for Financial Reform, the labor-backed group that helped mobilize public opinion to crack down on Wall Street after the 2008 crash, convened the panel at the AFL-CIO on Dec. 12. And panel members said their work, and that of other financial reform advocates, is incomplete, because what they won must be protected.

The discussion occurred against a backdrop of congressional Republican plans to emasculate financial reform in various ways.

The GOP-run House, for example, wants to freeze spending at the Securities and Exchange Commission and cut it at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the two current federal agencies given the task of writing and enforcing new rules to curb the financiers and their shenanigans.

And a Senate GOP filibuster halted Democratic President Barack Obama's nomination of former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The agency would have the power to crack down on the financiers - everyone from payday lenders to big banks peddling shaky mortgages and mortgage-based securities - who endanger consumers. But the GOP blocked Cordray because they want to water down the agency.

Nevertheless, panel members said, "say on pay," advisory resolutions mandated by the Dodd-Frank financial regulation law, have resulted in executive turnover at top corporations, including eight of the Fortune 500. Many others altered their behavior to conform to the law. But it's not enough, since the say on pay is only advisory.

That's led two big California state worker pension funds, the California Public Employees Retirement fund (Calpers) and the $146 billion California Teachers

retirement fund, to take the lead in campaigning for tougher corporate governance, said

Anne Sheehan, corporate governance director for the teachers' fund.

Not only is her fund pushing say on pay resolutions at firms it invests in to hold corporate officers accountable for long-term thinking and long-term returns, but Sheehan's contacting her counterparts at big mutual funds to join the campaign. Her fund opposed 23 percent of corporate pay packages last year. It also opposed supposedly independent corporate "compensation committee" directors who created them.

Still, that's only one move in the crusade against corporate excess.

Sarah Anderson of the Institute for Policy Studies pointed out "there's a big backlash from companies" against a requirement of the Dodd-Frank securities law, which applies to all firms, to disclose their top executives' compensation as a multiple of how much they pay their average worker. The current ratio of CEO pay to average worker's pay is 325-1.

Some firms even say they can't compute their workers' pay, which prompted AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka to offer to help them. "Give me your spreadsheets and a computer and in two days, I'll have it," he said with a grin.

But the desire for secrecy and opposition to federal controls are why the big banks that got the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) taxpayer bailout repaid the funds so fast, Anderson added. They didn't want to disclose their executives' pay, much less limit it - which the law did for any firm taking federal funds.

All this led the panel, Trumka and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., who keynoted the conference, to warn advocates that the fight continues. Cummings added it must expand, to aid Main Street with money that should come, rightfully, from Wall Street.

One possible point of leverage: Federal contracts. Companies do billions of dollars worth of business with the federal government, panelists said. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance, a Department of Labor agency, could write limits on executive pay at government vendors into its contract requirements.

But in the meantime, the corporate executives, financial and non-financial, are back to their old ways, said Anderson warned: Taking huge financial packages while taking huge financial risks for short-term gains and ignoring long-term investing.

And that's the real risk she added. Outside analysts and investigators have concluded that the risky financing, driven by high executive compensation and the focus on short-term gains, led directly to the risky housing investments and other phony financial instruments.

This article was written by Mark Gruenberg and distributed by PAI.

GOP makes new round of shutdown threats

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:52:00 +0000

Late last night the Obama administration warned that the president is opposed to Republican provisions in the "omnibus" bill to keep the government running after tomorrow.

The administration wants, instead, passage of a short-term budget measure to allow for more time for negotiations on both the budget bill and the extension of the payroll tax cut for workers.

A short term bill funding the government expires tomorrow and without action by Congress, the government will partially shut down.

The Republican language the administration opposes would gut Wall Street financial reform by failing to fund the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and would drastically weaken President Obama's ability to conduct foreign policy.

The GOP has attached a provision to the bill that would reinstate restrictions on travel to Cuba that were lifted or liberalized by President Obama in 2009.

The GOP hopes to ram through its version of the bill by tomorrow so it can allow its members to clear out for the Christmas holiday. That would increase pressure on the Senate to accept both the spending bill the GOP wants and the Republican version of the payroll tax cut that avoids any new taxes on millionaires.

It is already clear that Republican intransigence on the matter of not taxing the rich is forcing Democrats to come up with a compromise that allows the tax cut for workers to be extended without adding a millionaire's tax.

Since Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is reported to have ruled out further cuts to discretionary spending, the approach backed by Republicans. Thus far Republicans have not shown a willingness to make any concessions in exchange for Democrats dropping the tax on millionaires.

Federal workers are living a double nightmare this holiday season. In addition to facing layoffs if the government shuts down, the GOP bill calls for adding 12 months to the two year freeze currently clamped on their paychecks. The GOP plan also calls for larger payments by workers into their pension plans and for cuts in the pensions themselves.

"A shutdown would be devastating for federal workers at agencies where funding has not yet been approved by Congress," said William R. Dougan, president of the National Federation of Federal Employees.

"Federal workers are the scapegoats," said Eddie Eitches, President of Local 476 of the American Federation of Government Employees. He said that the interests of his workers are apparently not of major concern to Republican lawmakers.

Several Democratic lawmakers, however, on a conference call yesterday that was sponsored by the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, denounced the GOP attack on federal workers. Those on the call included Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., and Reps. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., James Moran, D-Va., and Gerald Connolly, D-Va.

Cardin described a letter he and other senators sent to Reid demanding that the Senate "reject any proposals that call for pay freezes or other forms of compensation reduction for federal workers, or significant reductions in the federal workforce."

Senators who signed the letter were Democrats Barbara Mikulski, Md., Barbara Boxer, Calif., James Webb, Va., Tom Harkin, Iowa., Mark Warner, Va., Carl Levin, Mich., and Daniel Akaka, Hawaii.

Connolly said the GOP shows its hypocrisy when it insists on paying for a payroll tax cut for the middle class while pushing unpaid-for tax cuts for the rich.

"It is ironic to me," he said, "that Republicans have abandoned their own ideology, long-standing, that tax cuts pay for themselves and don't need to be offset at all."

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., was one of only 14 Republicans to vote against his party's bill. "Some would have the one year tax holiday financed through a long-term structural attack on federal employees," he said. He then reminded his fellow lawmakers that "some federal civilians risk their lives on behalf of the nation and provide many vital services."

Photo: On a street corner in Los Angeles, a cart belonging to a homeless person. Poster image depicts House Speaker John Boehner. The ranks of the nation's poor have swelled to a record 46.2 million - nearly 1 in 6 Americans. (Jae C. Hong/AP)

West Coast ports shut down in protest

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:45:00 +0000

Today, nearly 1,000 rank-and-file unionists, non-union workers, the unemployed, the retired, students, veterans and other members of the 99 percent marched on the Port of Portland, Ore., to shut down "Wall Street on the Waterfront."

Terminals 4, 5 and 6 were closed by port authorities after access was blocked by Occupy Portland demonstrators in two shifts, at 6:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. The action was taken in solidarity with the West Coast Port Shutdown movement, ILWU Local 21, and Los Angeles port truck drivers.

"The support from workers at the port has been incredible. We were out at the ports talking to workers multiple times a day during the organizing of this action and today we see them honoring the community picket," said Jordan McIntyre, a union painter and activist. "Occupy is a place for union members, non-union, and the unemployed to gather together to change the inequality of wealth and power in our system."

Goldman Sachs, the majority shareholder in Stevedore Services of America, which has full operational management at Terminal 5, was a major target of the demonstrations. LA port truck drivers are in a labor struggle with SSA to end what the drivers term a "sweatshop on wheels." 17,000 truck drivers in Los Angeles are on strike to demand the right to organize.

EGT, a multinational grain export corporation and another target of the action, has refused to honor International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 21's contract in Longview, Wash.