People Before Profit blog

Unsung hero of farmworker movement Richard Chavez dies

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:13:00 +0000

The civil rights, labor and farm worker community is mourning the loss of Richard E. Chavez, long-time farm worker and civil rights advocate and brother of Cesar Chavez, who died July 27 at 81 in Bakersfield, Calif.

"Richard was one of those little-known giants in our organization," said current United Farm Workers president Arturo Rodriguez to Bakersfield.com. "Those of us who have been a part of the organization know and understand the effectiveness of his leadership."

President Obama also paid tribute to the many contributions made by Richard Chavez.

"Richard fought for basic labor rights but also worked to improve the quality of life for countless farm workers," said Obama in a statement. "And beyond his work, Richard was a family man."

Obama added, "Richard understood that the struggle for a more perfect union and a better life for all America's workers didn't end with any particular victory or defeat, but instead required a commitment to getting up every single day to keep at it."

Richard Estrada Chavez was born on Nov. 12, 1929, in Yuma, Ariz. When he was eight years old, his family was forced into migrant farm work when the family farm was lost to taxes during the Great Depression. They migrated to California where Richard and his older brother, Cesar Chavez, began working in the fields, orchards and vineyards throughout the state. In 1949, the brothers left farm labor to work in the lumber mills.

In 1951, Richard started a carpenter's union apprenticeship program in San Jose and found work framing suburban homes. By 1952, he had moved to Delano and was president of the Delano chapter of the Community Service Organization, a Latino civil rights group.

By trade, Richard was a skilled carpenter and building contractor. But in 1966, he left his job as a carpenter and committed himself to helping his brother Cesar build the organization that would become the United Farm Workers union.

Richard is credited with helping to build the Forty Acres complex in Delano, which became the union's headquarters. He worked as a union organizer, planning grape and lettuce boycotts as director of the Detroit, Mich., boycott in 1972-73 and the New York City boycotts in 1973-74. Richard was in charge of administering union contracts and oversaw union bargaining.

He retired from the union in 1983 but stayed active in the Cesar Chavez Foundation and the Dolores Huerta Foundation, as well as building a tract of homes in Tehachapi and custom homes in Los Angeles.

Many UFW offices, clinics and service centers have been designed, built and remodeled by Richard. He is also known for designing the iconic black Aztec eagle, the powerful symbol that to this day flies on UFW flags.

Civil rights leaders say Richard Chavez laid foundations in communities and in the civil rights movement that will prove to be stronger and longer lasting than the concrete and timber that compose the buildings he helped build. Richard dedicated his life to fulfilling the dream envisioned by him, his brother and his family, in which farm workers, Latinos and all Americans would one day achieve full access to justice.

"Richard Chavez was a gentle and unsung hero of the farm worker and broader civil rights movements," said Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican and Legal Defense Educational Fund, in a statement. "His quiet and reassuring presence will be greatly missed."

In 1993, after Cesar's death, Richard Chavez crafted the simple wooden coffin that carried his brother to rest in the La Paz compound in Keene, Calif., the UFW's current headquarters.

Dolores Huerta, his longtime companion of over 40 years, ten children, seven stepchildren and three great grandchildren survive Richard Chavez.

Photo: Richard E. Chavez/UFW Facebook page.

Union victory is sweet, says Piedmont Airlines worker (video)

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:12:00 +0000

Three thousand baggage handlers and passenger service agents at Piedmont Airlines, based in Charlotte, N.C. and Phila., Pa., voted "Union, yes!" last year after the federal National Mediation Board remedied a rule that favored employers. (Video below)

Instead of counting the votes cast in a union election and allowing the majority to rule, the NMB counted all the workers in a bargaining unit whether they voted or not. That meant a "stay at home" vote was then counted as a "No."

The Obama administration NMB remedied the blatant pro-employer bias in the Railway Labor Act, which regulates labor relations in the nation's railroads and airlines, in July 2010.

At this year's Communications Workers of America convention in Las Vegas, July 12, Piedmont Airlines ramp worker Abdur Dilal tells the more than 1,100 delegates and guests about the hard-fought campaign to win collective bargaining rights, and their next step: bargaining a contract.

Photo: Piedmont Airlines worker and union organizer Abdur Dilal speaks to CWA convention. (PW/Teresa Albano)

IKEA workers win their union

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:13:00 +0000

DANVILLE, Va. - In a 221-69 vote, workers at the IKEA Swedwood plant here voted to have the Machinists union become their official representative.

The victory comes after more than two years of struggle to unionize by workers who have battled what they describe as low wages, forced overtime, high injury rates, discriminatory work practices, harassment of union organizers and discharge of union supporters.

"It's absolutely outrageous, it's wonderful," said the lead union organizer, William Street over the phone Wednesday night from the Holiday Inn Express here where workers were celebrating. Street is director of the woodworking division of the International Association of Machinists, the union that now represents the workers.

The election was conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. The election was necessary because IKEA had exercised its right, under the law, to insist on an election rather than abide by the results of card check drives in which clear majorities of the workforce had indicated their desire to unionize.

"The workers and their union are sending a message around the world," said an elated Street, "that American workers are not going to accept treatment as third world people with no rights. This is a clear message to transnational, multi-national, and foreign corporations that they cannot expect to get away with mistreating U.S. workers."

Street gave an example of the mistreatment he was talking about. He said that only last March, Maria Blair, a "petite woman" at the Danville plant had been forced to do continual 50 lb. lifts. When she tried to convince a supervisor that the work was causing her injury she was threatened with firing. She continued working until she collapsed and was rushed to the hospital with a herniated disc. While recuperating from surgery she was fired, Street said.

"This was a victory for so many of the single moms at the plant," said Tammy Cassels, herself a single mother and an IAM volunteer who came in from out of town to canvass in Danville right up until the election. "For these women their day starts as soon as their feet hit the floor in the morning and doesn't end until they go to sleep at night. At work these women, some of them barely 100 lbs. themselves, have to do repeated lifting of 50 lbs. of wood. I admire them. This is their victory."

Coreta Giles, a Danville worker who was among the celebrants last night, told the local press that she voted for the union "so we can have a voice, so we can be heard and so we can have another leg to stand on when we have to."

Giles said the heat inside the plant was a big factor in her decision to back the union. The Danville plant is not air-conditioned and is routinely 15 to 20 degrees hotter than outside, according to Street. "Yesterday it was 95 outside and 115 inside," he said. "Tomorrow it will be 100 degrees outside."

A big issue for almost everyone who backed the union, said Street, is the fact that IKEA pays its Swedish workforce $19 an hour with five weeks paid vacation. Fulltime workers at Danville get $8 an hour and get 12 vacation days a year, eight of which are determined by management.

Street said that as soon as the NLRB certifies the results of the election, which should be in less than 10 days, workers will call their first official union meeting and begin the bargaining process.

The union considers the victory particularly significant because the company, it says, spared no efforts to sway the outcome of the elections.

Workers, the union says, were forced to attend management-run anti-union propaganda sessions, were promised bonuses if the union were to be defeated and there were rumors of plant closure if the union were to win the election.

After the vote company spokesman Ken Brown said, "We accept the decision and will work with their union in a mutually cooperative and respectful manner."

"We'll see," said Street. "We would like to believe that management will honor the workers' decision and engage in a fair bargaining process."

Photo: Bill Street, the lead organizer for the union, happily spreads the good news about the big union win at IKEA. Photo courtesy of IAM.

NAACP rallies for grocery workers, labor rights

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 13:03:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - Hundreds of delegates to the NAACP's 102nd convention marched July 27 through the streets downtown in support of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which is in negotiations with Vons, Ralph's and Albertson's supermarket companies.

The union represents 62,000 grocery workers who were asked to give up half their salaries to pay for health benefits. Maria Elena Durazo, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor secretary treasurer, spoke at the rally after the march, thanking the NAACP delegates and leaders for their support of labor and pointing out that these companies had made $5 billion in profit in 2009.

Durazo continued, saying it was necessary to make the fight a national stand against corporations operating are in the ghettos. Noting that people talk of "food deserts" in poor neighborhoods, she said the term is a misnomer: Deserts are natural, but these neighborhoods have been made barren by corporations who have pulled out.

During the rally, Councilmember Herb J. Wesson Jr. spoke directly in front of the Ralph's to a diverse crowd that held up signs reading, "Support Grocery Workers," "Affordable Healthcare Not Welfare," "NAACP Delegates Support Grocery Workers," "Labor Can Win" and "Healthcare is a Right."

"When I was 17 years old, I got my very first job. And it was for a Kroger operation back in Cleveland, Ohio. I made about a buck seventy-five an hour. And I was so excited about how much my paycheck was gonna be that I spent my money before I got it. I figured, well, I'm gonna get a check of a hundred-something dollars and I was gonna buy hats, pants and shoes. So I get my check and I saw that there was a deduction for union dues. So I got pissed off!" Wesson said.

He continued, "I went home and talked to my father who worked all his life at the Chevrolet [plant], [and I] explained to him how upset I was - and I have never been hit so hard on the top of my head ... But he took the time to explain to me the importance of unions. He took the time to talk to me about a fraternity and a sorority that worked to ensure that there are good, middle class jobs. And if one person is there protecting another, and that there's strength at numbers. At 17 I began to learn this."

After Wesson spoke, a UFCW organizer called forward a young Ralph's worker to speak, his voice hoarse from shouting during the march. He remembered the 2003 and 2004 lockout and strike.

"We're back at the table again where we all were seven years ago," he said. "I was one of those people that just started working for Ralphs, been there about two years. During the lockout, the strike, we were thrown out on the street. During that time I had a son born. He was born with a heart murmur."

He stops momentarily, his emotions stuck in his throat. The crowd urges him to go on.

"Needless to say, till this day, my community has still not recovered from that. We're still paying the bills. Two days ago someone called, told me, 'Hey, we need some money.' Quit asking me for money I don't have. We work five to six days a week and we work hard. And to hear that these corporations - all three of them - Ralphs, Vons and Albertson's, in order for us to keep our medical coverage, they want half our checks - half of it," he said.

Organizations in attendance in addition to the UFCW and the NAACP included, SEIU, the American Federation of Teachers, clergy members, elected representatives and the Progressive Jewish Alliance, which included children and adults. The NAACP has put a special focus on building relations with the labor movement.

At the end of the rally, several demonstrators and UFCW and NAACP members danced as organizers aptly played "Respect" by Aretha Franklin.

Photo: Luis Rivas/PW

Honeywell lockout nearing settlement (video)

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:15:00 +0000

METROPOLIS, Ill - Steelworkers from USW Local 7-669 will be voting this week on a tentative contract with Honeywell. Despite the union's best efforts, including a willingness to work under their old contract while continuing to negotiate, Honeywell locked them out over 13 months ago. In premeditated fashion, the company had scabs ready to take over operations when they walked the union members out of the plant. It was a clear effort to break the union.

The plant here in Metropolis processes uranium used to make fuel rods for nuclear power plants. The 230 workers here use some of the deadliest chemicals known. The cancer rate for these workers is 10 times higher than the average population. More than 40 steelworkers from the Metropolis plant have died of cancer and others are fighting the deadly disease. Yet one of the big demands Honeywell made before the lockout was cuts in health care for employees and retirees.

In the video below, Darrel Lillie, president of local 7-669 talks about the last 13 months and the issues involved. He highlights the role of global solidarity and community support in the fight for a fair contract. Details are not available pending ratification of the membership, but it is clear that these steelworkers have stopped a major effort to take advantage of a bad economy to bust their union.

Honeywell Lockout Win for Workers from Scott Marshall on Vimeo.

Photo: Scott Marshall/PW

Danville IKEA workers voting today on union

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:35:00 +0000

DANVILLE, Va. - An election today at IKEA's Swedwood furniture plant will determine whether workers at the plant will have a union to represent them.

One of the big problems, according to the union, is that among the 318 workers casting ballots are 30 "team captains" who Swedwood, the IKEA subsidiary that runs the plant, wanted to include in the process.

Machinists union organizer William Street says that even with those 30 supervisors included in the pool of eligible voters the union has a clear majority of 55 percent. Union supporters note, however, that companies have a built in advantage when elections occur at the worksite with workers fearful that bosses are able to figure out how workers vote.

Street said the union's campaign of contacting workers continued right up to the last minute.

A company spokesman, Ken Brown, said "Swedwood supports freedom of association and thus the co-workers' right to choose or not choose a union."

Union reps say that if IKEA was serious about its commitment to freedom of association it would not have forced workers to accept 30 supervisors as part of the group of eligible voters. The company has not respected the right of its workers to choose not to associate with supervisors in their bargaining unit, the union says.

The Machinists have said they would be willing to help "team captains," if they really wanted a union, to form a separate bargaining unit.

Union supporters note that statements by management that it wants everyone eligible to vote today really mean that the company wants to be sure the team captains vote in order to dilute the strength of pro-union workers.

The International Association of Machinists' woodworking division has been helping workers who want a union at the plant since early 2009. The company has repeatedly refused to recognize the union despite the fact that majorities of the workers have signed pledge cards of union support. It agreed last month to the secret ballot election that is being held today.

Previous stories in the Peoples World and elsewhere have documented a variety of circumstances at Danville that have fueled support for unionization. These include mandatory forced overtime, unsafe working conditions and discrimination based on race, sex and age.

A major issue is the fact that IKEA pays workers in Sweden $16 per hour for the same work that earns Danville workers only $8 an hour. The Swedwood plant is the only IKEA factory in the United States.

IKEA says that its own inspections of the plant show that most of the worker's complaints are unfounded.

"If that were really true, the union wouldn't be involved," said Street.

Image: Ikea stores worldwide as of 2009: green, in operation: blue, proposed. Wikimedia Commons.

NFL owners and players agree on new labor deal

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:20:00 +0000

After a 4-and-a-half month lockout in the National Football League, players and owners finally agreed on a new collective bargaining agreement earlier this week.

"The whole deal for everybody is truly an upgrade," Robbie Gould, Chicago Bears kicker and player, told Associated Press. "If you look at the whole concept of the deal - for the owners, obviously, they wanted a percentage back. We gave them a percentage back. For the players, workers compensation, the revenue sharing," he said.

According to the agreement, the players came away with better salaries and benefits and safer working conditions. And the owners are gaining a higher percentage of the more than $9 billion in annual league revenues, expected to rise significantly.

"I think at the end of the day, the deal is fair for everyone," notes Gould.

The biggest issue in the labor dispute was splitting the league's revenue. In the new 10-year deal, the split is about 53 percent to owners and 47 percent to players. In the old contract, that percentage was closer to a 50-50 arrangement.

For the players, they will receive an increase in salaries and benefits, with the salary cap at $120 million, plus $22 million in benefits, for 2011. The owners are obligated to spend 99 percent of the salary cap in 2011-12 in cash. The players also won new work rules and shortened offseason workouts, which they say will result in fewer injuries and the probability of longer careers. Better health benefits, including more than $1 billion for post-career injuries are also part of the deal.

The owners are gaining more money to invest as gross revenues rise. Owners note the new ten-year labor deal will make it easier for them to work out long-term business deals. Owners are also happy that they will have more money to assist in the development of new stadiums. They also note they now have the ability to pay less money to untested rookies especially high-first round draft picks. That savings will now be redirected to veteran players.

However, both sides did not get everything they were hoping for.

The players didn't win from the owners the opt-out clause sought by NFL Players Association (NFLPA) chief DeMaurice Smith. Yet the players have retained a 16-game regular season over 18 games, which NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was pushing for.

Smith told the Associated Press, "We didn't get everything that either side wanted ... but we did arrive at a deal that we think is fair and balanced."

The owners and players say the new deal indicates a win-win conclusion to months of contentious negotiations.

After the union recertification and the vote by the nearly 1,900 players to approve the new agreement, issues like player discipline, drug testing, disability programs and pensions will still have to be worked out and negotiated.

According to Dave Zirin, sportswriter for The Nation, despite the overarching football lockout, one of the longest work stoppages in NFL history, the players and their union walked away from the new deal as the real winners.

Summarizing the lengthy negotiation process, Zirin writes, "At the opening kickoff, the sides weren't close to evenly matched. I think that what the NFLPA has done is the equivalent of the Bad News Bears squeaking out a victory against the 1927 New York Yankees. It's The Haiti Kid taking down King Kong Bundy. It's workers, in an age of austerity, beating back the bosses and showing that solidarity is the only way to win."

Zirin concludes, "In the end, this deal - against all odds - is a victory for players, their families, their health and their long-term financial solvency. It's also an example for workers across the country. There is power in labor and there is power in solidarity."

Photo: NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, right, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Employers cheat workers and the tax man

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:13:00 +0000

DALLAS - Texas construction companies are cheating the state out of as much as $175 million a year by misclassifying ordinary workers as "independent contractors," according to a commentary by the Texas AFL-CIO. The original report came from WFAA-TV in Dallas.

They reported a particular case in which the Mansfield Independent School District decided to spend $39 million on the Center for Performing Arts. They sought the lowest bids and awarded the contract to AB Rebar.

In a sworn deposition about the Mansfield job, the owner was asked, "Do you pay - do you withhold taxes?" His reply: "No, I don't pay taxes. I don't pay their taxes." The television report raised the question, "Did he get the low bid because he isn't paying payroll taxes?"

More than state law is concerned. If an actual worker is misclassified as an "independent contractor," then he or she doesn't get federal taxes or Social Security credit either. Employers save big. The national AFL-CIO has been calling attention to such cheating recently.

The Texas Workforce Commission is in charge of enforcing work laws, and Commissioner Ronny Congeleton, who is a member of Teamsters Local 745 and represents workers, tried to get the commission to ask state legislators for penalties. The other two commissioners, one representing business and the other representing "the public" voted him down.

Photo: Texas Workforce Commissioner Ronnie Congleton (left) and Texas AFL-CIO leader Emmett Sheppard. Jim Lane/PW

Longshore workers battle union-buster (video)

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:35:00 +0000

LONGVIEW, Wash. - Longshore workers, members of Local 21 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), stood on their picket lines outside EGT's new grain terminal at the Port of Longview here July 25 in a prolonged battle against the grain giant's drive to bust the ILWU.

It was a day marked by the arrest of seven of the workers on bogus "trespassing" charges.

"The police ran over the foot of one of our pickets and then arrested us," said one of the workers detained and then released on $50 bail. Like all the ILWU members we spoke to on the picket line, he declined to give his name because he is not an authorized union spokesperson.

"I was one of the 700 who sat down on the railroad tracks July 14 blocking delivery of a trainload of grain," he said. "We never saw the train. They stopped it back at the switching yard because there were so many of us standing and sitting on the tracks."

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad has suspended grain deliveries to the huge facility for the duration of the labor dispute.

There was a militant, fighting spirit among the workers, many of them young men and women wearing camouflage T-shirts that brought back memories of the 1989 Pittston Coal strike when the striking United Mine Workers wore camouflage shirts with the slogan, "Overcome Evil With Good" and "In God We Trust." These young dockworkers stenciled on the back of their T-shirts "Stop the War on Workers" and "No Wisconsin Here" referring to the union-busting drive by Wisconsin's Republican Governor, Scott Walker.

An older dockworker said EGT is an international consortium that includes Bunge North America, a St, Louis-based grain corporation that reported $2.5 billion in profits last year.

"This billionaire corporation thought we were just a little, isolated union local and they could come in here and just crush us," he said. "I believe they bit off more than they can chew." (Story continues after video.)

The ILWU, he explained, was in talks with EGT for more than a year as the towering grain elevators and conveyers of the terminal were constructed on land EGT leased from the Port of Longview. But EGT filed a lawsuit against the Port of Longview demanding that the court nullify a clause in the lease requiring the company to hire Local 21 members. The lawsuit could take years to be litigated.

A young worker pointed out that the Port of Longview has had a longstanding agreement that only Local 21 workers will be employed at the port. Every other enterprise, including a nearby yard filled with thousands of logs piled forty feet high awaiting export uses ILWU labor, he said. "EGT is in effect privatizing a public dock, owned by the Port of Longview, and bringing in scab labor to bust our union" he said.

EGT has contracted with Operating Engineers Local 701 based in Oregon whose officials have brazenly said they have no compunctions about stealing the jobs of workers in a fraternal local. Local 21 members are so angry at this treachery they also hold signs that proclaim, "701 Scabs."

One day, Local 21 pickets used a pickup truck to break through EGT's chain link fence and occupy the EGT terminal to keep the scabs from working. About 100 Local 21 workers were arrested.

Unions throughout the Pacific Northwest have converged on Longview to march on Local 21 picket lines, to attend rallies, and also held a July 24 barbeque at Local 21's hiring hall.

Marc Hinton, a member of Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 26 in Longview was standing on the picket line holding a sign that read, "An Injury to One is an Injury to All." He noted, "We're here to support the ILWU all the way. This is an issue of a company trying to take away good, union jobs. If they succeed, we could be next."

The 200-member Local 21 could gain 50 jobs if they prevail in this battle. Longview and its twin city, Kelso, have been hammered by plant shutdowns. Kaiser Aluminum and Crown Zellerbach, a paper company, closed mills here years ago destroying more than a thousand jobs. The local economy never fully recovered.

Nearly 200 businesses in Longview and Kelso have placed signs in their windows proclaiming, "We Support the ILWU."

Tony White, owner of Wood's Logging Supply, said he had no hesitation about displaying the sign. "The guys have been buying their supplies from us for thirty years. It makes me feel good to support the ILWU."

A steady stream of Local 21 members, active and retired, arrived at the union's hiring hall decorated with a portrait of ILWU founder Harry Bridges. Distributed to the workers was "Voice of the ILWU" a one-page newsletter with a message from Local 21 President Dan Coffman, telling them "how proud I am of the membership and the pensioners during our time of crisis. The showing of solidarity is something to behold. We need to be patient and prepare for the long haul in this battle with EGT. We need to stay strong and stay together and we will prevail."

Photo: Longshore workers and supporters protest scab workers at the Port of Longview. (Terrie Albano/PW)

Youth spirit sparks Asian American labor meet

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:32:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. - The largest convention ever of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, held here last weekend, celebrated outstanding achievements in the fight to stop wage theft and to uphold the rights of immigrant and low-wage workers. The convention also looked ahead to APALA's role in the continuing struggle for good jobs and labor rights for all workers and for a just immigration policy.

The July 21-24 gathering, with the theme, "Generations United: Our Jobs, Our Rights, Our Future!" brought together some 725 participants, including many young people, both APALA members and guests - among them many students who actively support the labor movement.

Addressing the opening session, U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis recounted the Obama administration's role in combating the economic crisis, noting that since Barack Obama became president, some 2.2 million private sector jobs have been created and millions more saved.

"One thing the president won't negotiate is the livelihood and wellbeing of middle class and working class families," Solis told the audience, adding, "If students and seniors are going to sacrifice, oil companies should, too."

Solis drew a standing ovation and thunderous applause as she pledged the administration's continuing support for the DREAM Act, which would provide a path to citizenship for young undocumented immigrants who earn a four-year college degree or serve in the military. Republican opposition has stalled the bill in Congress.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler stressed the challenges faced by workers experiencing sharp attacks on labor rights in the midst of profound economic crisis. "The bedrock right even to form a union is under attack in state after state," she said. "It's our job to bring the rights we fight for to every working man and woman."

Shuler praised APALA's outreach work, and called for educating the broad community that creating jobs, and the resulting consumer spending and tax revenue, benefit the entire community.

A surprise appearance by undocumented, prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas drew a warm welcome from the crowd.

A spirited noontime march sent some 1,700 convention attendees, area union and community members surging through the heart of downtown Oakland to a City Hall rally, where union and community speakers pledged their solidarity in upcoming struggles for jobs, workers' and immigrant rights.

Alameda Labor Council vice president Gary Jimenez told the crowd, "There's a moral bankruptcy on Wall St., and a moral bankruptcy in Corporate America and we need to change that!"

Jimenez called on fellow unionists to "right the balance of power and make our economy fair for all, to rebuild a strong labor movement that leads the fight for change. Are you ready to fight?" he challenged the rally-goers. "Damn right!" they chorused back.

Alameda Building Trades Council head Andreas Cluver pledged his council's solidarity with "organized and unorganized workers, public workers, immigrant workers, of all ethnic backgrounds who are fighting greedy corporate interests and right wing politicians and ideologues."

But the loudest applause was reserved for UC Berkeley DREAM Act student Ju Hong, who told why he has joined other students around the country in proclaiming himself "undocumented and unafraid."

Born in South Korea, Hong came to the U.S. with his family a decade ago. When he graduated from high school he learned their tourist visa had expired. After a time in the shadows, he revealed his secret.

"This is a human rights issue and we must all stand together," Hong told the crowd. "Today we are calling on President Obama to stop all deportations of young undocumented students. This is our home, our country, and we want to be part of society to make this nation a better place."

During the weekend, convention panels addressed the urgent need for fair immigration reform, the impact of the economic crisis on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, the need for strong united organizing campaigns, and the fight-back against wage theft.

Photo: DREAM Act student Ju Hong addressing the convention. Marilyn Bechtel/PW

Locked out on the Great Lakes

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:48:00 +0000

The epidemic of corporate greed sweeping our nation is alive and well on the Great Lakes. GATX, owners of American Steamship Co., has locked out the workers, members of the United Steelworkers union, who operate its ore boats on the Lakes. The lockout is now going into its second year. GATX normally runs six ore boats on the Great Lakes, running all the way from Buffalo to Duluth, with ports in Cleveland, Detroit and Lorain.

"Every other ore carrier on the Great Lakes settled, with fair agreements for all," according to USW representative Tim Buxton. "We have a pattern that everyone bargained on, that is everyone except GATX. All these guys have done is surface bargain, demanding cuts that affect our people's safety and trying to take away medical care."

So the major issues in this fight are twofold. GATX is demanding big cuts in the number of workers manning the boats, far below what every other ore carrier has on the Lakes. And GATX is trying to force the workers to pay for their medical coverage, which had been covered by the pattern agreement up until now.

"These manning cuts demanded by GATX would put our members in grave danger, and GATX knows it," said USW Local 5000 President Dan Sager. "It's all about corporate greed," he said. "Every other Great Lakes carrier settled on health care and manning issues and they are making decent profits. GATX would be also if they would settle with us instead of trying to put greed above workers' safety!"

The hazards of working on the Great Lakes ships drew worldwide attention in 1975 when a taconite ore boat, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, sank with its entire crew in a Lake Superior storm. The tragedy was immortalized by Canadian folksinger Gordon Lightfoot in his hit song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." See video below.

GATX is now trying to run its ore boats with scabs instead of the unionized crews who know how to operate the boats. But they've only been able to run two of six ore boats on the Lakes this year.

"The solidarity of our members, of the whole labor movement on the Lakes has just been fantastic," Sager said. "In all this time, not one union member has crossed our picket line, not one member has failed at any time to stand picket duty, and we can't picket until a GATX boats docks at one of the ports. Our folks, families, have supported our fight 100%. We'll be here one day longer than this greedy company!"

Sager went on to talk about the "tremendous solidarity" of all the unions on the Lakes. He spoke of the USW strike fund, which has helped many of the locked out steelworkers save their homes and trucks during this long struggle. The USW is also working with the Department of Labor to try to force an end to the lockout. While he wouldn't speak of any one union or union member, "because everyone has stuck together 100 percent, all the unions are helping us, and I don't want to center anyone out and leave out another," Sager did want to speak of the exceptional role played by the USW Women of Steel.

"They brought toys for kids at Christmas. They've walked our lines. They've done gate collections and are there every time we need help. Women of Steel are what solidarity is all about," Sager said.

We can all help the locked out Great Lakes steelworkers. Donations, collections and solidarity resolutions are encouraged and can be sent to:

USW, Local 5000 Strike & Defense Fund
17535 Rosbough Dr., St. 101
Middleburg Hts., Ohio 44130

As well, folks can call or send letters to GATX, urging them to stop running scabs, using talks to create unsafe conditions & trying to bust the union and to settle with the USW. GATX can be contacted at:

American Steamship Co.
Center Point Corporate Park
Williamsville, NYk 14221
716-635-0222

"This fight is a USW priority," said USW District Director Dave McCall. "If they can hurt one of us, all of us are next. United we stand and united we will win!"

"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"

Photo: (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Unions hit GOP's "Boeing Bill"

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:11:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Call it "The Boeing Bill." But what it really is, union leaders say, is a move to strip the National Labor Relations Board of much of its power to rule for and protect workers' rights.

Nevertheless, labor's objections didn't derail the intensely ideological GOP majority on the House Education and the Workforce Committee from ramming the so-called "Protecting Jobs From Government Interference Act" (HR 2587) through on a party-line vote on July 21.

GOP Committee Chairman John Kline's measure grew out of a complaint the board's general counsel, its top enforcement officer, filed against Boeing earlier this year, months after Boeing said it would start producing its 787 Dreamliner passenger plane at its new plant in the anti-union, right-to-work state of South Carolina.

The Machinists, citing public statements from Boeing officials from its CEO on down, said Boeing really sent production to South Carolina to retaliate against IAM for past exercise of its duty to represent and defend workers in the firm's aircraft production and parts plants in Washington state and Oregon.

Such open retaliation against workers for exercising their rights, including the right to strike, is illegal under labor law. The NLRB tried to mediate the dispute between Boeing and the Machinists, but when the company refused to budge, the agency reluctantly filed its complaint. The case is now before an administrative law judge.

That's not the way the ruling Republicans on the House panel see it. They want to protect Boeing's right - or any company's right - to locate whenever and wherever it wants, by taking away NLRB's power to prevent such relocation when it is motivated by attacks on workers rights. The AFL-CIO and the Machinists said the GOP bill would do far more than that.

"Retaliating against workers, like Boeing is alleged to have done, is against the law," AFL-CIO Legislative Director Bill Samuel wrote lawmakers. It's also illegal, he noted, for firms "to refuse to bargain and instead, move for the purpose of denying workers union representation."

The Boeing bill would "take away NLRB's authority to restore workers to their jobs when companies eliminate work simply to eliminate workers who are pro-union," he stated. It would take away NLRB's retaliatory power to defend workers in such cases, he added. But it would also give companies free rein to pick up and move overseas and destroy U.S. jobs. "It legalizes the most-despicable form of outsourcing, by keeping the NLRB from being able to stop it," Samuel said.

It’s our turn: Campaign to repeal Senate Bill 5 takes off

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:46:00 +0000

COLUMBUS, Ohio - More that 600 union leaders from throughout Ohio stood and cheered Thursday as state AFL-CIO President Tim Burga announced that the measure to repeal union-busting Senate Bill 5 had just been certified for the Nov. 8 ballot.

"Labor is more energized than I have seen it before," Burga said, referring to the record 1.3 million signatures collected by over 10,000 volunteers to place the measure on the ballot. Secretary of State John Husted determined that over 915,000 signaturewere valid - four times the number needed. In addition, the requirement that at least 3 percent of voters sign in half of Ohio's counties was reached in all 88 counties.

"This is an unprecedented achievement," Burga told the meeting, convened at the Plumbers and Pipefitters Hall here to kick off the next phase of the fight to repeal SB 5. The law, passed in March, strips public employees of the right to bargain collectively.

It was a standing-room-only crowd gathered in sweltering heat to hear Burga, national AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and other officials rally the troops and map plans to mobilize 1.7 million voters in union households as well as all of labor's allies for a successful grassroots campaign.

The crowd was buoyed by a Quinnipac poll released the previous day showing the effort is gaining momentum. According to the survey, voters back repeal of SB 5 by a margin of 56 percent to 32 percent and disapprove of Republican Gov. John Kasich 50 percent to 35 percent.

"You will take this fight over the finish line," Trumka said. "You will restore the rights of 365,000 public employees!"

"The corporations bought politicians. They thought they could knock us down and knock us out. They gave us their best shot and we're still standing," he said. "Now it's our turn."

"This will affect the entire labor movement across America," Trumka said. "Either way, the outcome of this fight will be a game-changer. The right wing sees this as an opportunity to defeat all working people and you are going to put an end to it right here."

Warning of a massive "anti-union ad blitz," funded by ultra-right groups tied to Karl Rove and the billionaire Koch brothers, Trumka said "every member must be educated and mobilized to answer their lies."

"We must educate every last voter and show how this affects our families and children," he said. "Voters in Ohio are furious now. Politicians were elected promising to create jobs and they turned on working people."

Twenty-five million are desperately looking for work, Trumka said. "We can and must do better. We must create a future of long-term broadly shared prosperity. We need a future where CEOs aren't the only ones to make ends meet."

Evidence of the growing fightback was demonstrated that evening as 70,000 Ohioans took part in a telephone town hall meeting with Trumka, Burga, Alliance of Retired Americans President Barbara Easterling and former state AFL-CIO President Joe Rugola. For over an hour the leaders took calls from rank-and-file workers and retirees discussing the threat of SB 5 to education, public safety and community services and how to win the repeal campaign in November.

"The time has come to stop these right-wingers in their tracks," said Don Stiltner, a retired sheet metal worker.

"We are going to canvass labor-to-labor and labor-to-neighbor," Trumka responded. "We are going to distribute worksite leaflets, make phone calls, run radio and TV ads. We are going to reach out to our allies in the religious community, to the NAACP, to students and retirees.

"We are going to stop these right-wing extremists who are scapegoating workers and public employees and doing nothing to create jobs."

Photo: ProgressOhio // CC 2.0

Verizon workers to take strike vote July 25 (video)

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:26:00 +0000

Some 45,000 Verizon workers represented by Communications Workers of America will vote on July 25 whether they would strike or not if the union and management cannot come to agreement on a new contract.

CWA, along with International Brotherhood Electrical Workers, have been in negotiations with the profitable telecom since June.

Union leaders say the corporation's proposal is a huge step backwards for active workers and retirees. The proposal shifts thousands of dollars of expenses onto workers' and retirees' backs in health care, wages and other benefits hard-won over the last five decades, like double time on Sundays and night differentials.

"They have taken every single thing we've bargained for in the last 50 years, and said they want it back," said CWA District 1 Vice President Chris Shelton in a passionate and militant speech at the union's convention July 12. (Story continues after video.)

Meanwhile, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg took home $27 million last year alone, plus a gold-plated health care plan.

Verizon put a "medical plan on the table that will cost retirees $6,000 a year, for some retirees that's their whole pension. ... We're not going backwards, goddamn it, we're going forwards," Shelton said.

"What's at stake here brothers and sisters is our members' very lives, because they want to take away their health care so that retirees and active members alike will not be able to afford health care and they may die in the process. Well I'm not in the business and you're not in the business of killing our members, are you?" he rallied.

"No!" the crowd responded unanimously.

On July 30, Verizon workers on the East Coast and New England will rally at Verizon headquarters in New York City to send a message to the company that union members, "won't go back."

Photo: CWA members rally at the opening of bargaining talks in June at Verizon headquarters in New York City. (Dawn Sickles/CWA 1101)

Picket lines in 9 cities slam Hyatt

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 12:12:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO - Over 1,100 noisy, determined pickets packed the sidewalk in front of the Grand Hyatt Hotel July 21, protesting the hotel's failure to sign a contract with Unite Here! Local 2 almost two years after the previous contract expired. Nearly 100 were arrested after they blocked Stockton St. in an act of peaceful civil disobedience.

The hotel workers and their union and community allies were participating in nationwide coordinated actions that drew thousands of protesters to Hyatts in nine cities around the country.

In this city, other major hotel chains, including Hilton and Intercontinental, signed new contracts earlier this year, replacing agreements that expired in August 2009, and worker-led boycotts against them have ended. But Hyatt has remained a holdout, and the street rang with calls, "Don't check in, check out!" as protesters urged incoming guests to join the boycott.

The union says Hyatt has eliminated jobs, replaced career housekeepers with minimum wage temporary workers, and imposed dangerous workloads on those who remain. In addition, the hotel chain wants to take away union members' right to act in support of other Hyatt workers around the country.

Speaking in Spanish, Antonia Cortez, a housekeeper at the Grand Hyatt for 36 years, emphasized the importance of the workers' right to "stand up for Hyatt workers throughout North America." She told the pickets, "I want them to respect us by signing the contract. We're fighting for all the workers who don't have a union. Alone we can't win, but together we will."

Cortez also emphasized that housekeepers have extremely high injury rates, the result of speedup and the bigger mattresses and ever-increasing layers of bedding with which they must deal every day.

Unite Here! calls hotel housekeepers "the invisible backbone of the hotel industry. The grittier aspects of their jobs - the work of scrubbing toilets, changing sheets, and encountering guests alone behind closed doors - are the hidden foundation on which an atmosphere of luxury and comfort are built."

Hyatt has put enormous pressure on its workers across North America in recent years. In 2009, three Boston Hyatts fired their entire housekeeping staff, totaling nearly 100 workers, and replaced them with lower-paid temporary workers. Some Hyatt housekeepers must clean as many as 30 rooms a day, double the number typically required at union hotels.

Chicago was among the nine cities where Hyatt workers conducted actions July 21. Park Hyatt workers who struck and picketed in 100 degree heat were treated to an especially egregious tactic: the hotel management reportedly sought to bake them out by turning the heat lamps on for an hour. They didn't succeed.

In Chicago, too, Hyatt is the last holdout after other major chains signed new contracts earlier this year.

In San Antonio, Texas, some 300 Hyatt workers joined the national protest.

In Honolulu, union and community protesters crowded the sidewalk in front of the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa, where workers performed a bed-making skit to demonstrate the trials housekeepers must endure.

UAW sues military contractor over union-busting

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:28:00 +0000

HURST, Texas - United Auto Workers Local 317 has filed labor charges against giant military contractor Bell Helicopter for "an attempt to weaken and eliminate the union." The company provoked the union by transferring another 100 union jobs to its scab facility in Amarillo.

It's another chapter in a long tragedy. A couple of decades ago, the union workers at Bell Helicopter threw themselves into a national lobbying effort to get the U.S. government to buy their radical new aircraft, the V-22 Osprey. It was designed to carry soldiers with a vertical takeoff and reasonably fast horizontal flight. Even when Osprey vehicles crashed and killed passengers, the company and the union continued working for military approval. When it finally came, the bosses showed their gratitude by opening a new non-union facility in Amarillo and moving much of the work there. The union's efforts to organize a new local in one of Texas's most reactionary areas failed.

Most of Bell's about 3,000 production workers are in UAW Local 218, but some of the salaried office workers are in the much smaller Local 317. Both unions operate from the new building on Hurst Boulevard Local 218 owns. Usually, they are very close, but last summer's long and difficult strike may have put a strain on relations. Local 317's contract usually expires very closely after Local 218's. If 218 goes on strike, 317 almost always follows suit. But not last year.

Although Local 218 fought long and bravely, they were not very happy with the final result, and some members blamed Local 317. In subsequent union elections, both union locals nearly suffered a "clean sweep" with mostly new officers.

Bell Helicopter management, the unions charge, is union busting. The precedent for such legal action came in recent months when the CEO of Boeing publicly stated that they were moving work out of Washington State to a new non-union facility in South Carolina just to spite the union. The National Labor Relations Board ruled that Boeing broke labor law and, so far, the decision has been upheld.

If UAW 317 can win this legal victory, it will be a giant plus for all workers.

Photo: The locals' headquarters. Jim Lane/PW

Union culture making a comeback

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:14:00 +0000

DALLAS - North Texans are following a national trend toward bringing union culture back into the American consciousness. They have set up a "Union Song Revival" for 1 p.m. on July 24 at the United Auto Workers headquarters at 2218 E Main Street in Grand Prairie, just west of Dallas.

The program says that professionals Kenny Winfree ("I'm a Union Card") and Lisa Markley ("Bread and Roses") will headline a long list of local talent singing and reading poetry. The union is co-sponsoring with North Texas Jobs with Justice.

Kenny Winfree, a member of the local, recently returned from the Great Labor Arts Exchange at AFL-CIO headquarters with the idea of a local action. The fact that unions in Oklahoma City presented a major culture fest last year inspired people to join in with Winfree. The Texas event is less ambitious, but is nevertheless the first local effort of its kind in anybody's memory. Admission is free.

Winfree, a native of Tennessee, performs in a Bluegrass style, while Lisa Markley's main song comes from a textile strike in the early 20th century. But other contributions will be so new that they have never been heard before. Three new hymns were written by one of the Jobs with Justice activists, Chaplain Jann Aldredge-Clanton. Several new twists on older tunes were invented by activist Dean Recklaw, who has been the number one fighter against the jobs crisis in North Texas for years. Below is Recklaw's new song. It is sung to the tune of the 1960s Coasters classic, "Poison Ivy."

"Unemployment"
By Dean Recklaw

It takes away your pride
And tears you up inside
You'd like it very much
If Bernanke were not so out of touch!

Unemployment!
Unemployment!
You would like to be working
But employers' always jerking you arrow,wow,wow,wow-ow-ound

You feel you're goin' crazy
'Cause people call you lazy
Your head is full of doubt
And your wife and your benefits ran out!

Unemployment!
Unemployment!
And the longer you're jobless
Then the harder a new job is to be fou,wow,wow,wow-ow-ound

They took my health insurance
But I felt great assurance,
I've always been a wiz at interviews;
But time keeps passing by me
And makes me wonder, "Why me?
How long before I'm finished paying dues?"

It's no good getting pissed
You're too old to enlist
Someone else has got your job
They got corn, and they left you with the cob

Unemployment!
Unemployment!
You got cut with no warning
It's another Monday Morning going dow,wow,wow,wow-ow-own

Friends & fam'ly shun ya
The credit comp'nies dun ya
The politicians try to buy your vote;
Your Senator won't listen,
Your Governor is missin',
Your IRS man has you by the throat;

The only real solution
Looks like a revolution;
We'll be gathering in mobs
We want jobs, we want nothing more than jobs

Unemployment
Unemployment
You would like to be working
But employers always jerking you arrow,wow,wow,wow-ow-ound
You would like to be working
But instead you go berzerking arrow,wow,wow,wow-ow-ound

Photo via Flickr.

1877 St. Louis General Strike: lessons for today (video)

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:01:00 +0000

On July 16, a group of labor and community activists gathered in Granite City, Ill., to remember the 1877 St. Louis general strike. It was a festive occasion with speakers, music and food.

Northern Illinois University professor Rosemary Feurer and Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees leader Ed Sadlowski both spoke about the lessons of the 1877 strike for today's struggles against union busting. Both speakers keyed in on the on-going struggles in Wisconsin and other states.

For several hours, labor and community activists exchanged experiences and ideas about how to roll back the attacks on workers and their unions. Much of the discussion centered on how to build labor unity, and on how to broaden out the coalitions needed to stop the multiple assaults on the working class.

St Louis 1877 General Strike from Scott Marshall on Vimeo.

Photo: Flier.

Union leaders blast White House Wal-Mart alliance

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 11:40:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - The heads of the nation's two labor federations, plus Teamsters President James Hoffa, sharply criticized the Obama White House's alliance with Wal-Mart, announced June 20, due to the retail monster's lousy jobs and anti-worker stands.

The alliance, unveiled in a ceremony that also featured other retailers, was designed to highlight the stores' commitment to bringing fresh groceries to underserved urban and rural areas. It's part of the fresh food/healthy eating campaign run by First Lady Michelle Obama.

As part of its commitment, Wal-Mart pledged to erect 275 new stores, especially in low-income urban communities that lack grocery chain stores.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and Change To Win Chair Joe Hansen - who also heads the leading union for food store workers, United Food and Commercial Workers - said the administration ignores Wal-Mart's negative impact on workers and cities. They said the mega-chain pays virtual poverty wages, while benefits are expensive or non-existent. Hoffa added that Wal-Mart's wages are so low that its workers' kids run the risk of malnutrition because their parents lack cash to buy healthy food.

"Working families urgently need leadership that will get Americans back to good jobs, paying taxes, spending in their communities and saving for retirement. Today's White House event, which highlights Wal-Mart's expansion in urban areas, undercuts the message of the need for good jobs that can rebuild our middle class," Trumka and Hansen said. Hansen's union has been trying to organize Wal-Mart for years.

"When Wal-Mart opens in a community, it regularly displaces existing jobs with poverty-level jobs," the union leaders said. "Tens of thousands of Wal-Mart associates" - the firm's name for its workers - "qualify for and utilize food stamps, Medicare and Medicaid. In this time of budgetary stress, Wal-Mart's business model is subsidized on the backs of taxpayers.

"There is no economic justification for our nation's largest private employer to pay wages so low that any of its employees qualify for public assistance. And there is no justification for highlighting a private employer with a business model based on suppressing wages for its 1.4 million hourly workers."

If you're going to create jobs, in short, make sure they're "good jobs on the scale
that is needed," when unemployment is above 9 percent, Trumka and Hansen said. "We ask the administration to stand with communities that have called on Wal-Mart to strengthen the communities it enters rather than drive standards and wages down."

Hoffa made the link between Wal-Mart's low wages and kids' bad nutrition.

"Companies like Wal-Mart, which don't pay their workers a decent wage, condemn children to poverty, poor nutrition and shrinking prospects for their futures," he said. Its "CEO recently commented company shoppers are ‘running out of money.' That's a big clue the problem with our economy is lack of good jobs. I urge the White House to reconsider its involvement with Wal-Mart unless Wal-Mart agrees to create the kind of good jobs that can provide its employees with a decent standard of living."

Wal-Mart has used its jobs magnet to particularly try to enter very-low-income areas of U.S. cities. It recently won a store in the Pullman area of Obama's hometown of Chicago - ironically, a neighborhood that is also a symbol of prior corporate greed against workers - and is campaigning for stores in the poorest areas of D.C. and New York.

Stand Up for Ohio hosts festival to "bring awesome back"

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:39:00 +0000

In a video interview, Communications Workers of America local 4300 Vice President Ronald Gay Jr., talks about the labor-community coalition, Stand Up for Ohio, and its efforts to repeal union-busting SB 5 and build a movement for good jobs and strong communities. Gay extends an invitation to all for the Sat., Aug. 20 Stand Up for Ohio festival in Columbus at the state fairgrounds.

On the festival's website, Bring Awesome Back, it says:

"Ohio has given the world nothing less than football, aviation, Superman and Rock 'N Roll! We are an awesome state and although we've fallen on some hard times we're not going to sit down and wait for others to act! On Saturday, August 20th we will hold a one day, FREE music festival to bring Awesome back to Ohio. There will be informative speakers throughout the day touching on a range of issues important to our jobs and communities. Together we can rebuild the American Dream of Good Jobs and Strong Communities."

Check out the full line-up of music and performers at www.bringawesomeback.org.