People Before Profit blog

Caravan brings aid to striking workers

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:10:00 +0000

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Elected officials, union members and community supporters piled into a school bus and seven cars last Saturday, July 24, for a 10 mile solidarity caravan from Connecticut cities of New Haven to Ansonia and Derby in support of nursing home workers on the 101st day of their strike.

Braving a heat wave, the contingent carried food and drink to the picket lines at Hilltop and Birmingham nursing homes, two of four facilities owned by Spectrum corporation on strike since mid-April.

"Our members have devoted years of their lives to the patients inside," exclaimed Carmen Boudier, president of 1199 New England. During contract negotiations the company put many take backs on the table including a cut in pay to $10 an hour for any worker injured on the job. OSHA has cited the company as one of the worst health and safety violators in Connecticut.

"These workers are fighting to give the best health care. They deserve to be treated with respect," she concluded to cheers.

One striker with 30 years seniority said angrily that she learned one of her patients with dementia is only getting changed once a month. Families of the patients have formed a group to support the strike. Their website reports on gross violations of patient health and safety since the strike began.

As family members drove up to the entrance, the picket line parted with the chant, "up with the families, yea, yea; down with the bosses, boo, boo."

After walking the line at Hilltop in Ansonia, the caravan continued on to Birmingham in Derby with more food and solidarity.

"It's hot, but we have to turn up the heat," said State Rep Gary Holder-Winfield of New Haven. "You may feel invisible, but we see you," he said. "We will come back and bring others."

Speaking of the union household he grew up in, State Rep. Michael Lawlor of East Haven lauded the workers for "blazing a trail for all health care workers in our state."

Gathered under a canopy to hear the remarks, Boudier reminded everyone that the state and national budgets are critical for the well being of Medicare patients. She called on everyone to participate in the primary elections on August 10 and then to unite for a massive effort to get out the vote in November.

"Forward always, backward never," chanted the crowd led by Ray Pompano, representing 40,000 members of UE union, urging the workers to "stick together in solidarity."

The New Haven strike support committee was formed two weeks earlier to organize the caravan which left from the New Haven Peoples Center. A large contingent from Unite Here, representing the workers at Yale University, participated in the action to support the striking members of 1199 New England, SEIU. During two years of strife between the two internationals, solidarity between workers in New Haven remained firm.

Also joining the action were State Comptroller Nancy Wyman and East Haven Mayor April Capone.

Large solidarity actions have taken place at the two striking homes in Hartford and Winsted including a civil disobedience with arrests of 21 community leaders and elected officials.

The 400 nursing, dietary, housekeeping and laundry workers went on strike April 15, more than one year after their contracts expired. During that time Spectrum Healthcare fired, suspended and intimidated dozens of workers who no longer had full union protections. Union charges of unfair labor practices and illegal permanent worker replacement have been upheld by the National Labor Relations Board.

All other 40 unionized nursing homes in Connecticut settled their contracts without a strike.

Photo: Members of Unite Here at Yale University were among 50 union members, community supporters and elected officials bringing solidarity to nursing home workers, members of SEIU 1199NE. The support caravan travelled from New Haven to the nursing homes in Ansonia and Derby, Conn. (Art Perlo/PW)

CWA takes sober look at labor's challenges

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:38:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI)--Saying labor's current struggle "is not hopeless, just hard," Communications Workers President Larry Cohen laid out a long list of challenges his union and the rest of the movement face in the months and years ahead.

From declining numbers due to the Great Recession to lack of labor unity, from Senate GOP filibusters bringing government to a halt to the apparent death -- for that very reason -- of the Employee Free Choice Act, Cohen warned his union convention's delegates they and other unionists have a hard row to hoe.

CWA took time out from politics and organizing to pass a resolution demanding withdrawal of U.S. troops and contractors from both Iraq and Afghanistan. The measure, pushed by U.S. Labor Against War, won by a majority show of hands. But delegates spent the rest of their time on U.S. politics and CWA internal business.

"The current situation for our union is serious and urgent," Cohen explained. "The U.S. labor movement remains locked in a downward spiral...with falling membership, nearly all defense in bargaining, organizing rights near the bottom of the 20 largest world economies, falling real wages in the U.S. for nearly 40 years, and a political system at the federal level that is all but paralyzed, despite the 2008 election results," he said in his keynote address on July 26 in Washington.

By contrast, he added, "Corporate power measured in every way is at an all-time high. The wage gap between management and front-line workers in the U.S. is up to 500 times and accepted by most. The political power of the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable has never been greater, with total control on economic issues in the Republican Party and huge influence among nearly all Democrats as well.

And while Cohen contended "there remains a significant difference, well worth voting for," between the two political parties, he admitted labor is often on its own, without help from politicians.

"There is no path right now for any relief in bargaining and organizing rights and economic reform has been minimal," he said.

To combat those problems, Cohen laid out a number of initiatives the 1,000-plus delegates endorsed. They included:

A political campaign focus to kill the Senate filibuster, which the 41-member Senate GOP minority now uses to block virtually everything from major legislation -- like EFCA -- down to presidential appointments.
Creation of new national and international coalitions for labor's causes. With only 7% of the private workforce, "labor alone cannot move our agenda," Cohen said.

CWA's partners for progressive causes include the NAACP, the Sierra Club, the Blue-Green Alliance and the "One Nation" coalition that is organizing a mass political march on Washington on Oct. 2, followed by a month of intensive political campaigning.

"As important as that will be, in demonstrating that we can mobilize far better than Tea Party and Right Wingers, for us, 'One Nation' is a reset of our political agenda and key partners for change," he explained.

Cohen also singled out CWA's international partner, the 2-million-member German telecom union ver.di. Ver.di represents Deutsche Telekom (DT) workers. German law gives it seats on the firm's board, along with mandatory joint labor-management meetings to hash out issues. DT's biggest foreign subsidiary is T-Mobile in the U.S., where CWA has been campaigning to organize thousands of workers.

T-Mobile is using classic U.S. anti-worker tactics, including labor law-breaking, to thwart the campaign. So CWA and ver.di formed a joint union for the T-Mobile workers, and ver.di is putting pressure on DT to change T-Mobile's stance. Two ver.di leaders and a T-Mobile worker from New Jersey later addressed the delegates.

There are some bright spots for labor, and Cohen highlighted them, including Obama administration officials at the Labor Department are increasing enforcement of wage and hour and health and safety laws.

Obama's appointees to the National Mediation Board -- which oversees labor-management relations at airlines and railroads -- resulted in a new ruling by the board that unions need only win a majority of ballots cast, not an absolute majority of all voters, to represent workers at a firm.

That ruling, he said, opened the way for the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA to again try to organize the 20,000 flight attendants at "New Delta."

New Delta is the combined airline created when red-state anti-union Delta swallowed wall-to-wall-union blue-state Northwest.

At Northwest, AFA represented 7,000 Northwest flight attendants.

Cohen confidently predicted that with an election in coming months -- NMB has yet to set a date -- AFA-CWA would represent all New Delta flight attendants within a year.

"We also filed for 3,000 customer service workers at Piedmont and 20,000 other customer service workers are organizing at American and American Eagle -- all of this possible just with the rule change" supported by Obama-named NMB members, including former AFA President Linda Puchala, Cohen pointed out.

Besides the anti-war resolution, the convention also:

Approved a 2010-2011 budget and starting after the 2011 convention CWA will hold conventions every other year, instead of yearly.
Blasted the Red Cross' anti-union stand. The non-profit demands pay and benefit cuts from its CWA, UFCW, OPEIU, AFSCME and SEIU member-workers. CWA asked its locals to contact United Way area affiliates, since the Red Cross is a big beneficiary of United Way funds, "and request they contact ARC to demand" it "respect the collective bargaining process, consistent with United Way policy."
Criticized the attack on public employees and their pensions

The Iraq-Afghanistan withdrawal resolution linked the wars together and demanded redirection of money spent on them to domestic needs, including care for returning injured and wounded troops.

One delegate, an Air Force veteran who recently returned from Afghanistan, opposed it, and two other delegates spoke for it.

Photo: CWA delegates at the 72^nd Convention. (CWA)

Unions join religious leaders in Arizona law protests

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:01:00 +0000

PHOENIX (PAI)--Unionists joined religious leaders on July 29 in mass protests against Arizona's draconian anti-immigrant law -- even though a federal judge in Phoenix halted enforcement of parts of the legislation the day before.

In a telephone press conference from Phoenix, hosted by labor-backed Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ), the religious leaders quickly cited five unions -- the Steelworkers, the United Food and Commercial Workers, Unite Here, the Service Employees and the Auto Workers -- whom they said would participate in the protests in up to 15 cities. More unions were expected to join, the religious leaders added.

Besides Phoenix, protests occurred in Chicago, Oakland, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, San Francisco, New York City, Houston, Philadelphia, Charlotte, N.C., Toledo, Ohio, Memphis, Tenn., and Albany, N.Y., IWJ said.

The protests had two points: One was to campaign against Arizona's law, SB 1070, which is aimed at anyone who "looks different," notably Hispanics. The other is to push for comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to legalization for the estimated 11 million undocumented workers now in the U.S.

"If we allow undocumented workers to remain so, not only can they be exploited, but all workers are in danger," said Kim Bobo, director of Chicago-based IWJ, a national network of 27 centers that help and defend exploited workers.

The immediate target of the religious-led protests was SB 1070, which mandated that state and local law enforcement officials could stop anyone who looks suspicious and immediately demand to see their papers proving their right to reside in the U.S. If the person stopped lacks papers, they can be arrested, detained and deported.

Bobo and her colleagues bluntly said the law would cause "racial profiling," aimed at Hispanics. Other religious leaders on the call included Presbyterian and Unitarian ministers and an Islamic imam from Los Angeles.

On July 28, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton in Phoenix, responding to an Obama administration lawsuit, temporarily halted enforcement of several sections of the law -- including requiring people to carry papers and letting police stop anyone on looks.

But that still left other sections of the law alive, such as a ban on stopping to pick up day laborers, said Rev. Trina Zelle, head of IWJ's Arizona affiliate. She added that though enforcement wasn't supposed to begin until July 29, it started as soon as the law passed in April. And vicious employers stripped workers of wages -- by only partially paying them -- and overtime, Zelle added, by threatening workers with the law.

Photo: Labor unions, religious groups and other allies join mass protests across the country against Arizona's draconian immigration law. Jobs with Justice supporters held this protest in Louisville, Ky., (Ed Reinke/AP)

Lawmaker goes to bat for home care workers

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:29:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI)--Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., is trying to get the nation's home health care workers the right to earn at least the minimum wage and overtime.

Following in the footsteps of fellow California Democrat Lynn Woolsey -- who tried to get the workers the pay three years ago -- Sanchez introduced a bill to overturn a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision saying those workers aren't covered by the pay law, the Fair Labor Standards Act. Woolsey's bill went nowhere.

The Service Employees Union supported the elderly New York home health care worker -- who has since died -- and argued the 2007 case to the justices for her minimum wage and overtime. They lost. SEIU then strongly backed Woolsey's bill. When Sanchez re-introduced it on July 28, both SEIU and AFSCME supported it.

"Laws should respect all hard working Americans equally," Sanchez said at a press conference with home health care groups. "No matter whether you sit behind a corporate desk or care for an elderly person in a home, all work has dignity."

Last year, Sanchez asked Obama Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to issue regulations that could help home health care workers get better wages. But Sanchez said the issue is important enough for legislation, too.

"As the daughter of a father living with Alzheimer's, I know just how important home care workers are. Yet, every year, home-care aides land on Forbes magazine's list of the '25 worst-paying jobs in America,'" Sanchez added.

"Regardless of the work you do, if you do it well, you should be compensated enough to take care of your family and put food on the table," she concluded.

Photo: (Family Nursing)

Students claim win over Nike sweatshops

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:57:00 +0000

PORTLAND, Ore. (PAI)--Labor-backed United Students Against Sweatshops claimed a big win on July 26 when the world's largest shoe and apparel maker, Nike, agreed to pay the full $2.5 million two Honduran subcontractors owed their 1,800 workers after the subcontractors closed the plants and broke that nation's labor laws.

The money will be paid to the workers through their Honduran union, CGT. The workers' organizing drive in Honduras was one reason the subcontractors, Hugger and Vision Tex, closed the plants in January 2009. Nike previously denied any responsibility.

The workers will get $1.5 million in legally mandated severance pay, and be eligible for priority hiring by Nike's other Honduran suppliers. They'll also get nine free months of medical care through the Honduran social security system, and paid job training. Nike also committed to expand its sourcing in Honduras as its overall business expands and to give priority hiring to the 1,800 workers.

"This is a watershed moment for USAS and the anti-sweatshop movement. Ever since the 1990s, when Nike led the race to the bottom that produced shocking sweatshop headlines, the sportswear giant has refused to acknowledge responsibility for worker abuses at its subcontracted supplier factories where workers actually cut and sew Nike products," said Jack Mahoney of USAS.

"Today that era is over," he continued. "Nike's full payment of the severance owed to workers at these contracted supplier factories sets an unmistakable precedent: Apparel corporations will be held accountable for workers' rights in their supply chain. No more excuses."

USAS cited three key points in its campaign against Nike, its second such success against a sportswear multi-national that used subcontractors to exploit workers in developing nations.

One was a series of scathing reports by independent monitors about wages and working conditions at Nike's subcontractors. The reports by the Worker Rights Consortium led to a national "Nike Truth Tour" campaign by USAS featuring Honduran workers and U.S. activists. USAS is now active at more than 150 campuses.

"Students used the reports to illustrate how Nike violated universities' codes of conduct and to compel universities to take action and cut contracts with Nike," Mahoney said.

Two universities, Wisconsin and Cornell, then terminated their Nike apparel contracts, pushing the firm to settle, USAS said.

Photo: Ex-workers demand Nike pay them what they're owed at a rally in Honduras, June 12, 2010. (USAS)

Teachers, parents protest school layoffs

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:31:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Nearly a hundred teachers, parents, students, labor leaders and community activists rallied at the Chicago Board of Education building here July 28 against recent massive teacher layoffs.

Last week Chicago Public Schools sent out 600 layoff notices to 400 teachers and 200 staff at elementary schools. Last month, 239 teachers who were not assigned to a specific school were also laid off.

In all, up to 1,500 Chicago teachers may lose their jobs before the school year begins.

The Chicago Teachers Union said the cuts are unacceptable and are demanding their members be hired back.

"Educators who work on the front lines are not willing to accept these measures," said CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey. "We're going to speak out and defend public education and we don't buy the argument that our society is too poor to afford good schools. This is everybody's struggle now."

The cuts are part of the school district's effort to address a $370 million budget shortfall. High school classes are being increased from 28 to 33 students, and programs including world languages, bilingual education, gifted and after school programs are on the chopping block.

Gertrude Williams said she is one of the teachers who were recently laid off.

"We're concerned about our schools and teachers are bitter," she said. "Some have over 20 years on the job and now fired."

Williams said she has a message for Mayor Richard Daley and the Board of Education.

"You set these policies and we followed your rules. And this is how you reward us?"

Mary Maloney said she, too, recently got the pink slip and has been a teacher for 20 years.

"It's not really about the money, it's about power," said Maloney. "They're trying to pressure the CTU to avoid a four percent raise in our contract. It's about union busting and privatizing our schools."

Maloney notes most teachers are underpaid and overworked. "In the summer most of us have to get jobs just to make ends meet," she said.

Others said teachers are so discouraged they some want to leave the profession altogether.

Schools chief Ron Huberman has blamed the union for a portion of the cuts, saying $135 million could be saved if they agreed to relinquish promised four percent pay raises.

However, CTU officials claim teachers have already made concessions, including hits to their pensions.

Community groups, along with the union, continue to demand schools be reimbursed by tax dollars that have been diverted by TIFs (tax increment financing zones). TIFs are part of a controversial, so-called urban renewal program, wherein the property taxes that go to schools and parks are frozen and any increases over the next 23 years are funneled to private development.

Critics note in Chicago, most of the city, including wealthy downtown neighborhoods, is covered by TIFs, which are supposed to be a tool used only in "blighted" areas.

The CTU contends as much as half a billion a year that should have gone in part to schools was diverted by TIFs. Community leaders say the money often ends up in the hands of politically connected developers and other private for-profit projects.

Jorge Ramirez, leader with the Chicago Federation of Labor was at the rally to support the teachers.

"Cost savings is not a good approach to collective bargaining and what is needed is an open and constructive dialogue that's transparent to foster good participation on both sides," he said. "And the leadership of the CTU has offered good suggestions to help get the budget in line."

Susan Hurley, executive director of Chicago Jobs with Justice, said raising class sizes to 33 pupils is inexcusable.

"It's just babysitting at that point," she said. "Our schools need more teachers not fewer. Public education is a fundamental right and it's equally important to maintain unions there."

Educators and youth advocates say increasing class sizes and cutting programs is detrimental to low-income communities especially given the deadly violence that has plagued Chicago public school students in recent years. After school programs are commonly know as safe spaces for young people and alternatives to gang activity.

Carlos Fernandez, with the Chicago Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff Local 4343, said during an economic crisis, teachers are crucial to community development.

"More layoffs only threaten the economic stability of already struggling communities and such policies are a bad investment," he said.

Photo: Outside Chicago's City Hall, teachers and allies walk a picketline protesting layoffs, bigger classes and program cuts, July 28. (John Bachtell/PW)

SEIU, Unite Here settle dispute

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:15:00 +0000

The Service Employees International Union and Unite Here, two of the nation's most influential unions, this week announced a settlement that brings to an end a dispute that has troubled the labor movement for over a year.

SEIU represents workers in health care, public services and property services while Unite Here represents workers in the hotel, hospitality, restaurant and gaming industries.

Disagreement between the two unions came to a head in early 2009 when the part of Unite Here that represents workers in the "needle trades" and laundries formed Workers United, an entity that then joined SEIU.

The leadership of Workers United was part of the old garment workers union that had merged with the hotel workers to form Unite Here in 2005.

The merger, for a variety of reasons, encountered problems and in February 2009, Unite Here President Bruce Raynor, who was about to be removed from his post, walked out with a significant portion of the membership and finances, forming the Workers United Group, which affiliated with SEIU.

A major issue has been who would get ultimate control of the Amalgamated Bank, which with $5 billion in assets, is the only union-run bank in the United States. The bank was originally set-up by the garment workers union.

Under the agreement between the SEIU and Unite Here, SEIU's Workers United gets control of the bank. Unite Here gets control of the union's 28-story office building in New York, valued at $85 million.

Unite Here will also get control of $75 million in funds the two sides have been disputing, money that had been frozen by a federal judge.

Another important part of the agreement is that SEIU has agreed that for the next 24 years it will not compete with Unite Here in the unionization of hotel and gaming workers anywhere in the U.S., Canada or Puerto Rico.

This piece of the agreement is significant for Unite Here because the hospitality and gaming industries are rapid growth industries. This leaves room for a significant growth in Unite Here's membership.

SEIU, with more than 2 million members, is already one of the nation's fastest growing unions.

While Workers United appears to have gotten the better financial deal, the trades and laundry industries it represents are seen as much slower growth industries and more difficult to organize.

Unite Here President John Wilhelm said, "I credit SEIU President Mary Kay Henry for personally devoting her energy to making this agreement."

For SEIU's Henry, it's a matter of focusing on the bigger issues.

"We cannot be spending our time fighting one another over workers who are already represented when there are far too many people who want and need a voice on the job," said SEIU's Henry. "Our resources and our attention must be put towards solutions for the crisis workers face right now."

Henry added, "There are 26 million people out of work and far too many who are facing cutbacks, layoffs, and benefit reduction. This moment calls on all of us in the American labor movement to dedicate ourselves to being part of the solution."

Photo: SEIU President Mary Kay Henry, center, with others from SEIU. (seiu.org)

Jobs, labor and WPA's living legacy

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:06:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. - With official unemployment standing at 9.5 percent nationally and at 12.3 percent in California - and far higher in many hard-hit communities - interest is growing in the history and legacy of Depression-era New Deal programs like the Works Progress Administration.

At its biennial convention earlier this month, the California Labor Federation passed a resolution calling on the AFL-CIO and "all of organized labor" to fight for a WPA-type program "fully funded by the government," providing "socially-useful" work paying union wages and benefits. The resolution points out that the WPA and related government programs were "a response to a tremendous mass movement" throughout the U.S. It urges support for the Oct. 2 march for jobs in Washington, D.C. backed by the NAACP, AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union and a broad range of organizations and individuals.

The San Francisco Labor Council passed a similar resolution earlier this year, endorsing the April 2010 national commemoration of the WPA's 75th anniversary in Washington, D.C. and calling for "enactment of a similar bold sweeping jobs program today."

And at its national convention last September, the AFL-CIO passed a resolution urging "a Works Progress Administration-style jobs program to rebuild America's manufacturing sector and put 7 million Americans back to work immediately."

The country's largest employer during the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration put more than 8.5 million people to work on projects ranging from public buildings to infrastructure to schools, hospitals and parks - to say nothing of murals, plays, music and literature - from 1935 to 1943.

The San Francisco Bay Area's month-long LaborFest has featured several programs celebrating different aspects of the work of the WPA and related New Deal government agencies including the Public Works Administration (PWA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). (Story continues below slideshow.)

Along with celebrations of the WPA's cultural legacy, tours led by participants in California's Living New Deal Project have highlighted public buildings and other facilities that continue in active use today, some seven decades after they were constructed.

Among many such public structures detailed on the project's website, livingnewdeal.berkeley.edu:

The Alameda County Superior Court building, in downtown Oakland, was built by the Public Works Administration. Today it houses the Registrar of Voters as well as the court and related government offices.
Several buildings on the Berkeley High School campus. The shop and science buildings were built by the WPA. The Little Theater was a PWA project. Bas reliefs were created under the Federal Art Project. Berkeley High School, with over 3,000 students, is the city's only high school, and is one of the largest high schools in northern California.
Berkeley's City Hall, the Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center, was originally built for the Farm Credit Association. The six-story building is now Berkeley's city hall.
The Casting Pools and Anglers' Lodge in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park were built by the WPA. The complex has hosted several national casting tournaments over the years.
A number of facilities at the Port of Oakland, including wharfs, berthing spaces, railroad tracks and warehouses, were built with participation of the WPA, PWA and other federal agencies.
The Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge was a PWA project; the High Street and Park Street Bridges connecting Oakland with the city of Alameda were built with WPA and PWA participation.
San Francisco's Sunshine School, a PWA project, was originally a school for physically challenged children. It has been a continuation high school and now houses the Family Developmental center, part of the city's Family Services Agency.

With such a living heritage from projects that flourished seven decades ago, imagine the effect a new, massive WPA-type program could have throughout the 21st century!

Photo: The Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center in Berkeley, Calif. (Marilyn Bechtel/PW)

Thousands of hotel workers protest at Hyatts nationwide

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:00:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Thousands of Unite Here members and their labor and community supporters took to the streets in 15 cities across the U.S. and Canada July 22 in a coordinated protest at Hyatt hotels.

Peaceful civil disobedience marked protests in several cities.

The demonstrators were expressing their outrage at the Hyatt's layoffs, slashing of workers' hours and takeaway demands in contract talks, at the same time the giant hotel chain has reported having over $1.3 billion in available cash and its wealthy owners, the Pritzker family, took in over $900 million from the hotel's first public offering in November 2009.

Here in Chicago - Pritzker family headquarters - hundreds of workers sat down in the street in front of the Hyatt Regency's glass tower that rises high above the Chicago River. They were cheered on by 1,000 supporters lining both sides of the drive in front of the hotel.

Twenty five sit-in participants were arrested after demonstrators blocked traffic for nearly an hour.

As onlookers cheered, the workers, with signs reading "Enough is Enough!" pinned to their backs, entered the street in single file and sat down in rows. "We are human beings, enough is enough!" they chanted as they sat, arms linked, filling the street from one end to the other.

One demonstrator - a Hyatt Regency room attendant -- said the last two years have been really difficult.

"Hyatt laid me off for eight months, and I have a newborn baby to support." When she finally returned, she said she found several co-workers had injured their backs because of new heavy mattresses and a heavier workload.

"What was already a hard job just got harder, and I am standing up to Hyatt, because their profits are coming back but we're still in pain."

Sit-in participant Christian Saez, a hotel cook, said of current contract negotiations, "We're not stupid. We may not have the formal education but we know what's going on."

In an attempt to drown out the workers' voices, hotel management sent two plain clothes security personnel to operate a sand blaster near the main entrance.

When reporters tried to ask the sandblasters why they were operating the machinery without actually sand-blasting anything, they were prevented from doing so by Mike Patia, who said he was responsible for hotel security.

"I have no comment about what they are doing," he said.

Standing in front of a hastily rigged banner reading, "Hyatt appreciates its associates," he said, "You'll have to remove yourself from here because this is private property."

In San Francisco, some 1,400 Unite Here! Local 2 members and their labor and community supporters packed the streets surrounding upscale Union Square as they marched to the Grand Hyatt hotel.

Along with the San Francisco Labor Council and dozens of unions, many community and faith organizations were also represented, including the Progressive Jewish Alliance. "We think it's very important to support workers' rights," said PJA member Kate Smallenburg. "We see a lot of problems with the big hotels, including not allowing workers to organize."

Once at their destination, over 150 demonstrators sat down in the middle of the street, proudly displaying their frowny-faced "Shame on Hyatt" placards and refusing to move as ordered by police. They were cited and later released by police.

Over 9,000 San Francisco hotel workers are among the 45,000 across North America who are in contract talks with major hotel chains. The union says the Hyatt is demanding "hundreds of dollars in monthly family health care premiums, reduced pensions and wages."

Protests were also held in Vancouver, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Monterey, Honolulu, Boston, Toronto, Miami, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, San Antonio, Santa Clara and San Diego.

Unite Here says that while the hotel industry nationwide is rebounding strongly from the recession and is expected to gain further in 2011 and 2012, hotels continue to squeeze workers and cut staff. Nationally, over 115,000 hotel industry jobs have been cut since 2008, including 46,000 in the first quarter of 2010. In a particularly notorious example, Hyatt last year fired the entire housekeeping staff at three Boston-area hotels, replacing them with minimum-wage contract workers.

Photo: San Francisco hotel workers and supporters take to the streets on July 22. (Marilyn Bechtel/PW)

Slideshow photos: From Texas (Vivian Weinstein/PW); Chicago (Scott Marshall/PW); San Francisco (Marilyn Bechtel/PW)

Message to my fellow workers: China-bashing is a bad idea

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:09:00 +0000

In the July 10, 2010, edition of the British magazine The Economist, there is an article about China's banks, referred to as the "Great Wall Street." The Economist is the British version of the Wall Street Journal. This article, with a little bit of attached explanation, I believe, can help my fellow workers understand why China-bashing in the labor movement is a bad idea.

Any sleazy politician or Wall Street banker knows the best way to take people's minds off mistakes you have made is to focus their attention on somebody else. Problems with NAFTA and runaway corporate greed have given a lot of people associated with corporate America reason to point the finger at China as the culprit of America's economic problems while dodging their own responsibility. Unfortunately some folks in labor, including in my own union, have fallen for this ploy. In my view, the corporate ruling class and their system of profits first, people last, is the enemy, not China.

My union, the International Association of Machinists, has a front-cover article in the summer 2010 edition of the IAM Journal on the TRADE Act, backed by the IAM, featuring a picture of Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown (Democrat), one of the co-sponsors of the bill.

The TRADE (Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment) Act is supposed to fix the problems caused by NAFTA and other damaging trade agreements signed by the United States government. But the IAM Journal article says, on page 13: "A far more serious threat lies just across the Pacific, where the rules of trade are even more skewed, less enforced and government transparency is taboo. That menacing threat to fair globalization: China."

The IAM Journal goes on to say: "The Economic Policy Institute estimates as many as 2.4 million U.S. jobs have been lost to China between 2001 and 2008 alone," and "Experts say China has created an unfair trade advantage for themselves through the manipulation of its currency, cheap labor and government subsidies for its industries."

The British Economist says, "While American and European banks have been busy blowing up, China's have been transformed from communist bureaucracies crippled by bad debts into to something resembling world beaters." The article goes on to say that China's banks are government banks, and China did not suffer from the recent crisis because "they never entirely left the government's embrace. So although they make money ... the state owns a majority stake and the Communist Party appoints the top brass, whose pay is a fraction of that of their Western peers. Those bosses, with their dual role as party bigwigs and chief executives, are beholden to a higher authority than the stockmarket."

The overwhelming evidence from all sources that are reliable is that the policy that China's state banks follow that supersedes the stock market is that the banks' job is to develop China in an all-around way and overcome the poverty of millions of Chinese people. In the last 30 years, since it changed course, away from the disastrous policies of the Cultural Revolution, and returned to its original platform of development and poverty-relief, China, according to the International Monetary Fund, has lifted more people out of poverty than at any other point in the history of the human race.

Corporate talking heads have claimed that this great economic development has only been possible because China embraced capitalism, but the Economist complains that China does not run according to the laws of the standard capitalist system. In fact, China has used market forces under government or socialist control to achieve this amazing economic miracle.

The Economist also says, "Rich countries tried to kick-start their economies by getting central banks to lend to banks, which, frustratingly, have hoarded the liquidity. As in 1999, after the Asian crisis, China's politicians just cut out the middleman and told the banks to supply more credit ... Even in rich countries with privately owned banks, supervisors are eyeing the tools used by China's regulators to control credit. Communist Party diktat has been relabelled as 'macroprudential supervision.'"

Many in the U.S. labor movement have seen China's enormous stimulus package job creation through government-funded infrastructure programs as a model for what a U.S. job stimulus plan should look like. My union, the IAM, clearly calls for a national industrial policy and massive investment in infrastructure - surprisingly, just like our friends in China have actually done, not just talked about.

Solidarity between workers of all nations is the only way to get workers in the United States and elsewhere out of the massive economic crisis. Solidarity requires that we support efforts by workers in other countries who support policies that help workers rise up out of poverty. Despite many problems, most commentators agree the majority of Chinese workers support the policies of development, opening up to the outside world, and socialist control for the betterment of the nation, pursued by the Chinese government.

We cannot forget that it was U.S multinational corporations who chose to find and use the cheapest labor anywhere in the world they could find it. We cannot forget that China was a poor country when it opened up to direct foreign investment over 30 years ago. They use their poverty as an asset to develop the whole nation and have done quite well with this policy. Some poor countries using the capitalist model, rather than China's market-socialist model, have enriched an elite and left their nation underdeveloped and their masses with no hope.

We must put issues such as China's so-called "currency manipulation" in the context of government banks that put the nation's development first, before the stock market.

China's cautious monetary policy has actually been useful to the whole world, making China the rock in the global economy that can help the rest of the world climb out of this terrible recession. China is already out of the recession, so what about us?

Solidarity between workers, rather than competition, is our way out. We need a massive government investment in infrastructure to kick-start our economy, just like the Chinese are doing. Our enemy is not Chinese bankers that protected China from a banking crash, but the so-called deficit hawks who are crying on a false note that we must sacrifice Social Security and Medicare, and that we must not have another job-creating stimulus package or infrastructure investment.

It is not poor workers in Mexico who stole jobs from U.S. autoworkers. It is Ford, Chrysler and GM that sought out cheaper labor, obeying the dictates of the capitalist system. It is not Chinese economic policies that are the enemies of U.S. workers, but the corporate ruling class in the United States pursuing greedy policies that enrich themselves and bankrupt the U.S. working class. The Chinese government is pursuing policies that strengthen workers' trade union organizations. We can unite with the workers in China who are organizing to fight for their rights. We can march with the AFL-CIO, SEIU, and the NAACP on October 2, 2010, for "Jobs, Justice, and Peace."

And first and foremost, we can fight for a massive job-creating stimulus investment in our country's infrastructure and defeat the ultra-right in this November's election.

Photo: Workers in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. http://www.flickr.com/photos/conbon/2253178883/ cc 2.0

NBA lockout?

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:47:00 +0000

It looks like the NBA is on the verge of another lockout, making it the second time ever in professional basketball history.

A lockout means the owners refuse to let the players take the court in order to drive down the amount of money all players get - from the highest to the lowest paid.

In the 1998-99 season games were reduced to 50 as a result of the NBA's owners locking out the players until a new collective bargaining agreement was reached.

Of the 450 NBA players that played in the 2009 season, only 55 experienced the lockout.

The NBA needs to decide by Dec. 15, 2010, whether to extend the collective bargaining agreement through the 2011-12 season. It's set to expire June 30, 2011.

With an ailing economy, NBA teams nationwide are seeing profits fall faster than Shaquille O'Neal's game. Right now NBA profits are ranked at a quarter of a billion dollars -- $250 million - and losses were projected to be $400 million. NBA's David Stern revised the number Monday, July19, to $370 million.

The NBA's Players Association takes issue with the owners' numbers. "Our position is that David is mistaken," NBPA Executive Director G. William Hunter told The Associated Press, adding he believes things are "much, much better than they maintain."

But the decrease of ticket sales means the NBA's salary cap is expected to drop for the second time next season. The cap is expected to drop $2-3 million from its current $58.6 million and has a strong possibility of another decline in the 2010-11 season.

The league has a $1.7 billion credit facility. Twelve teams accepted the league's offer to borrow $200 million from JPMorgan Chase.

"I'm preparing for a lockout right now and I haven't seen anything to change that notion. Hopefully I'll see something over the next several months," NBPA's Hunter said. "As of this moment, it's full speed ahead for me in preparing the players for a worst-case scenario," he told ESPN.com

The most "hated" man in the NBA right now, LeBron James, is the only reason the NBA hasn't had a lockout. His popularity and impact has made a huge difference. Before he was signed to Miami, many teams knew he would be a free agent, and all the teams in the NBA made sure they had enough money to offer a good deal. This cleared cap space, therefore improving the NBA's financial issue a bit.

For basketball fans, no need to worry. If there is another lockout the NBA will get through it easily once again. Players will have to re-sign. Those multi-million dollar contracts mean nothing after players give more than half of their contracts to the government and their agent. We can't forget to mention the massive houses and fancy cars players buy. Then factor in their entourage and a couple of bad investments, this is your formula to end the lockout.

Photo: Basketball fanatic and radio station employee Marty Anderson gives a jubilant double thumbs-up to passing, honking traffic in Portland, Ore., in 1999, after hearing that the NBA owners and players union had come to an agreement. Don Ryan/AP

1,000 to be arrested at Hyatt protests in 15 cities

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 12:41:00 +0000

CHICAGO - More than 1,000 workers across the U.S. and Canada are preparing today to stage non-violent civil disobedience actions with thousands of others backing them up at Hyatt hotels in 15 different cities.

The workers, who received civil disobedience training from their union, Unite Here, and the thousands who are expected to turn out in support, include hotel cooks, bellman, dishwashers and housekeepers.

"The rich take unfair advantage of everything, even a recession," said Anne Marie Strassel, a union spokesperson here where 300 are preparing for arrest and thousands are expected to turn out as witnesses.

Strassel said hotel workers are enduring staff cuts, reduced hours and physical injury on the job. "Hyatt wants to take more away and lock workers into recession contracts even if the economy rebounds," she said.

The Hyatt chain is run by Chicago's Pritzker family, one of the wealthiest in the nation.

When Hyatt became a publically traded corporation in November, 2009 the Pritzkers yielded a reported $900 million from the sale. Hyatt share values, after the sale, soared 65 percent within six months.

Despite the record profits, Hyatt fired its entire housekeeping staff from its three Boston-area hotels and replaced them with minimum wage workers from a subcontracting agency.

The union says the actions today are particularly timely in at least 10 of the 15 cities, where 45,000 contracts it has at the hotels are about to expire.

In a statement issued this morning the union called on supporters in or near Chicago, Honolulu, San Francisco, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Rosemont, Boston, Vancouver, Toronto, Miami, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, San Antonio, Santa Clara or San Diego to call 312-617-0495 for event times and locations in those cities.

Photo: Courtesy of Local 1 UNITE HERE

Steel union rallies at Omnova headquarters

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 10:10:00 +0000

Twelve striking Mississippi steelworkers and over 100 supporters held a spirited rally at the corporate headquarters of Omnova Solutions in Fairlawn, Ohio, demanding the company return to the bargaining table and negotiate a new contract.

The transnational with production at 20 facilities in the U.S., Europe and Asia, makes commercial wall coverings, vinyl vehicle seats for mass transit and school buses and other coated fabrics. Its 174 employees, members of USW Local 748L, in Columbus, MS, walked out May 21 after one bargaining session in which the company presented a take it or leave it "final offer" demanding elimination of the defined benefit pension plan and major cuts in wages and health care.

Despite the recession, the company recently reported record profits and sales.

"We'll stay out as long as we have to," said Ronald Crowe, 38-year employee in the plant's ink department. "We've had practically no wage increase in the past four contracts. They want to take away everything we've won since 1992."

Crowe described Tob Coss, the plant's manager who came in a year and a half ago as "a union buster," who had carried out similar policies at the company's plants in Auburn and Jeannette, Pa.

A delegation was turned away by security guards when it attempted to present a letter to CEO Kevin McMullen "calling on you and your local bargaining committee to come back to the table and engage in meaningful negotiations."

Mattie Andrews, a 32-year employee and truck driver, said McMullen was "hiding" in the building. "His salary is $3 million and he wants to cut our pay," she said.

"They won't talk to us," said Dave McCall, director of the union in Ohio. "So maybe we'll talk to their investors. Maybe we'll talk to their customers."

In the past the company has had major contracts with Holiday Inns and casinos in Las Vegas.

"We're serving notice that an injury to some steelworkers in Mississippi is an injury to all steelworkers in Ohio," McCall said to loud applause.

Local Vice President Gene Gore voiced deep appreciation for the support he received in Ohio.

"This is overwhelming to us," he said. "I can't thank you enough."

Photo: Debbie Kline

Unemployment benefits extension clears hurdle in Senate

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 17:53:00 +0000

Millions of jobless Americans will continue to receive unemployment benefits through November after a GOP-led filibuster was finally killed today in the U.S. Senate.

Democrats were able to get the 60 votes required to end the Republican obstruction after swearing in a new Democratic senator from West Virginia, Carte Goodwin. He will temporarily fill the seat left vacant by the June 28 death of Robert Byrd.

The unemployment extension received dramatic support from President Obama yesterday when he made a joint White House statement with several unemployed workers.

It will extend benefits for those who have already used their standard 26 weeks of unemployment, including 3 million who have been cut off without any aid whatsoever.

The measure is expected to be approved after a final vote in the Senate and a vote in the House of representatives.

Republicans who have been opposing the extension said today that they also support extending the benefits but are concerned that the $34 billion cost should not add to the deficit. "Of course we ought to extend unemployment," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "But we ought to pay for it."

The vote to end the filibuster came only a few minutes after Goodwin was sworn in, giving the Democrats the 60 votes they needed.

Goodwin was ushered onto the Senate floor by West Virginia's senior senator, Democrat Jay Rockefeller.

Vice President Joe Biden said "Hey Carte, welcome," and then proceeded to administer the oath of office.

Only two republicans, Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, voted for the unemployment extension. Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska was the one Democrat who voted against it. "I support extending unemployment benefits for Nebraskans and Americans who remain out of work," Nelson said. "However, I opposed the Senate's unemployment bill today because it should have, and it could have, been paid for."

"Finally, finally, finally," said Sen. Barbara Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland. She called the unemployment insurance program a social comport with American workers that meant "when you hit a speed bump and have to be laid off through no fault of your own, there will be a safety net so that you do not fall."

Democrats are criticizing Republican willingness to set aside deficit concerns when they pushed through tax cuts for the rich, but not when unemployment pay for ordinary workers was at stake.

The bill could be approved in both houses of Congress and signed into law by the President as early as Wednesday night.

Photo: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

President Barack Obama stands with, from left to right: Denise Gibson from Brooklyn, N.Y., Jim Chukalas from Fredon Township, N.J., and Leslie Macko from Charlottesville, Va., all unemployed, as he speaks about the unemployment insurance and the economy in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, July 19.

Labor steps up 2010 grassroots election push

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:03:00 +0000

Union officials with the nation's largest labor group, the AFL-CIO, which represents about 11 million workers, say they plan to step up the pressure as the midterm 2010 election cycle approaches. AFL-CIO leaders say they have begun a grassroots push for Democrats in battleground states that see the need for a major jobs program and support policies that help working families.

"I think it is an absolute political reality [that Democrats could lose the House]," said AFL-CIO Political Director Karen Ackerman to the Huffington Post. "There are over 60 races that are in play, incumbents whose elections are endangered. Are we demoralized? No. Are we prepared to take a look at who are the best fighters on behalf of working people's issues and put the most support behind those folks and engage where we have the greatest union density? Yes. And we can make a major difference in those races," she said.

Calling it a "firewall" election strategy for the 2010, AFL-CIO leaders say they plan to prioritize congressional races that - sealed off from a broader wave of Republican wins - would prevent the House from being run by Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, in the next cycle.

"The House is a serious issue," Ackerman notes. "Speaker Boehner would probably not work for us."

AFL-CIO organizers hit the ground last week in 25 states as part of a widespread campaign to inform voters about the labor records of congressional and gubernatorial candidates.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a recent statement said, "If politicians are fighting for working families, then we will work our hearts out for them. If they aren't delivering and think they can take our support for granted, then they may be awfully lonely come November."

Trumka added, "People aren't interested in campaign slogans or promises; they want results."

Labor plans to be fully engaged and began distributing more than 300,000 political fliers to members at 164 worksites in the 25 states. They also initiated a two-week program to spark one-on-one conversations among members about labor-backed candidates. The nationwide effort is operating in states like Iowa and Indiana in the Midwest; New York and Pennsylvania out east; and California and Washington on the West Coast.

It's no surprise that the vast majority of candidates receiving support this year will be Democrats. Union leaders and members note the GOP has consistently blocked or voted against major issues such as last year's economic stimulus package and the health care reform bill.

Trumka said the AFL-CIO would not back members of Congress who voted against such measures.

"If politicians want the support of working families in November, they need to create good jobs here in America now," he said.

Although some GOP candidates may be endorsed, AFL-CIO officials say they have to make the case with its members that even though expectations may not have been met with the Obama administration or with the majorities in Congress, the alternative will be much worse. Most Republican candidates want to privatize or eliminate public-sector jobs as well as change pension plans, they charge. And the union vote has to be consolidated, they note.

Ackerman says resources will determine how certain important races can be swayed or saved throughout the country.

"It involves resources, in terms of doing more mail, more phones, more worksite leafleting, more door-to-door knocks," she said.

The push is also based on all of the 56 national and international AFL-CIO affiliates participating as well, she said.

Photo: Casie Yoder http://www.flickr.com/photos/labor2008/3002321345

From left: Melissa Aponte and Pat Reed, AFSCME Local 432 president, from Chicago with their driver Dave Parkinson of IUOE Local 139 in Milwaukee, before hitting the streets to Get Out The Vote for Barack Obama and other Wisconsin State AFL-CIO-endorsed candidates.

Extension of aid to jobless should pass Senate Tuesday

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:18:00 +0000

By stripping out any provisions that create jobs and by waiting until Tuesday when Carte Goodwin, a Democrat, is set to be sworn in to replace the late Sen. Robert Byrd of W.Va., Democrats are expected to have the 60 votes needed to cut off a GOP filibuster against extension of unemployment benefits.

They plan to take the vote that will end the filibuster just minutes after the new Democratic senator is seated.

The move will free the Senate to approve a measure that will extend until November the standard jobless benefits millions have exhausted.

President Obama, this morning, ripped Republicans who, he said, supported such extensions of jobless benefits under Republican presidents but oppose them now. Obama attacked Republicans for their unwillingness to help the jobless, on the one hand, and their enthusiasm for tax breaks for the rich, on the other hand.

Republican leaders meanwhile, appearing on TV over the weekend, may have left local GOP candidates open to charges that their party has done nothing but embrace the Bush agenda. During an hour-long discussion on Meet the Press, National Republican Congressional Campaign Chairman Pete Sessions and National Republican Senate Campaign Chairman John Cornyn were repeatedly asked to name one policy difference they had with the Bush administration. Sessions finally said, "We need to go back to the exact same agenda."

Although the latest aid to the jobless package has been scaled back, Jim Bunning, the first GOP senator to campaign nationally against jobless aid, is still not satisfied. "The Democrats are still saying to us that this (the jobless situation) is an emergency. This is not an emergency," said Bunning.

Photo: AP Photo/The Courier-Journal, Michael Hayman Protesters gathered outside the offices of Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell's office in Louisville, July 7, to protest McConnell's leading a Republican filibuster that blocked an extension of federal jobless benefits.

Dallas sanitation workers fight for a living wage

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:42:00 +0000

DALLAS - Civil rights activists gathered in the historic Mt Olive Lutheran Church on the morning of July 17 to help the United Laborers Union Local 100 gain support for sanitation workers. The long history of American civil rights struggles laced the past and present together.

Reverend Peter Johnson presided. Rev. Johnson came to Dallas in the 1960s as a representative of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's Southern Christian Leadership Conference and talked about the last struggle that Dr. King personally led, for Memphis sanitation workers, and its similarity to the situation now. He talked about the fearsome days of bombings, when the only meeting place safe enough for civil rights meetings was the basement of that very church. He pointed out one of the members of the audience who had marched with him, and with Dr. King, in Selma, Alabama. He pointed out Ernest McMillan who, as a leader of the original Black Panthers, set the tone for militant struggle in the 1960s and 1970s. Another longtime veteran in attendance was Wade Rathke, founder of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) 40 years earlier in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Dallas, Wade Rathke said, is the only city in America paying its trash haulers minimum wage. The truck drivers make only $10 an hour, but the men lifting the trash bins try to survive on minimum wage. Part of the reason is that the city has privatized the work and subcontracted it to a number of small companies.

A number of the workers talked about their poor pay, lack of any benefits, and the dangers of trash hauling. Erick Jones said that the company does everything possible to divide the workers and circumvent all efforts to organize. "When they think we're going to have a meeting, they schedule mandatory overtime," he told the crowd. Another worker talked about a painful virus he had contracted. When he was diagnosed at the County Hospital, the doctors surmised immediately that he was a Dallas trash hauler, because they are the only ones at risk of contracting the virus.

The unionists did not reveal their tactics, except to say that they are gathering support and momentum to confront the power structure. Several of the activists suggested ways to bring attention to the movement. One of them suggested that they gather forces to attend the First Baptist Church in downtown Dallas, where they would pray for forgiveness for the sins of Mayor Leppert, who is on the church's board of deacons. First Baptist is historically the very center of white people's power in Dallas, and is known throughout the South for the worst in reactionary ideology.

Almost everybody spoke about the need for unity, both for the sanitation workers and for other causes. Several of the speakers pointed out that the Dallas sanitation workers' struggle take place before a background of much larger and more general problems for American workers. The jobs crisis, it was said, is pressuring all wages and benefits downward. While workers have been victimized, the wealthiest Americans have enjoyed over 30 years of corporate welfare, handouts, and tax abatements.

Congressional hearing held on Delphi pension issues

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 12:30:00 +0000

"Ohio is losing $58 million a year because our pensions were cut," stated Bruce Gump, president of the Delphi Salaried Retirees Committee, in testimony at a hearing of the Congressional Finances Committee in Canfield, Ohio, July 14. Ohio Congressmen Charlie Wilson and Tim Ryan were instrumental in bringing the hearing here to investigate cuts made by the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. (PBGC), the agency which takes over underfunded pension plans from companies in bankruptcy.

Although Delphi, a former subsidiary of General Motors, was bankrupt, its pension plan was fully funded but became intertwined in the GM bankruptcy and was taken over by the PBGC resulting in cuts in benefits and health care. The retirees filed a lawsuit protesting the cuts.

Ohio Lt. Governor, and U.S. Senate candidate Lee Fisher received loud applause for his comments.

"We cannot allow Delphi and many other retirees to be evicted from the American dream," he said. "We all have a stake in the fight for retiree justice. Pensions are not handouts. Workers paid into these agreements and they earned them for their long service to the companies. They are contracts, and a contract with working people cannot be less valuable than any other contract. We must fight to make certain that Delphi, and all retirees, are treated fairly!"

"This situation is part of an overall attack on retiree security," said Rep. Ryan. "It needs to be addressed as part of a national solution to the issue of retiree security."

He called for passage of the Protecting American Retirees in Corporate Bankruptcies Act (HR 4677/ S 3033) that would move worker/retiree claims from the bottom to the top in corporate bankruptcies.

Congressman Wilson called for tightening pension and bankruptcy laws, which were weakened under Republican administrations. He said the hearing would provide a spur to get these issues addressed by Congress.

"Retirees receiving PBGC pensions are hardly living 'the life of Riley,' said Norm Wernet, Ohio director of the Alliance of Retired Americans. "The average PBGC-based pension for an Ohio retiree is only $6,156 a year."

"These earnings," stated Wernet, "combined with the overall attack on retiree benefits, will not support any sustained recovery in our depressed economy."

Aside from the bankruptcy reform bills, he urged passage of jobs bills and requiring the wealthy, who do not now pay Social Security taxes, to do so.

The Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR) also voiced support for these measures and for extending unemployment compensation and more funding to strengthen the PBGC.

"I think we've broken down some fences," said Delphi retiree John Vogel, "so that we can have a much stronger campaign for retiree justice that will involve salaried and union workers as well as the whole community!"

Mike Rubicz contributed to this article.

Hotel workers training for civil disobedience in 15 cities

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:13:00 +0000

CHICAGO - More than 1,000 cooks, dishwashers and housekeepers are taking an unusual detour on their way home from work this week. They are stopping off at two-hour training sessions where their union is preparing them to carry out nonviolent civil disobedience on July 22 at Hyatt hotels in 15 cities across the nation.

The workers, many of whom have never engaged in anything like this before, say they have endured staff cuts, reduced hours, and injuries. Now they say they will sit down in the streets because they are fed up and they're not going to take it anymore.

Two hundred were at one of the training sessions here on Tuesday. Their union, Unite Here, conducted the training in a large auditorium at the West Loop headquarters of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Projected onto a large screen in the hall were the words of the 2nd century Roman poet Juvenal: "Dare to do things worthy of imprisonment if you mean to be of consequence."

Among the workers attending was Renee Walker, laid off a year ago at Chicago's Blackstone Hotel. Walker, who is celebrating a favorable ruling this week that restores her job with back pay, was asked why she is joining a civil disobedience action at another hotel.

"I didn't know what I was going to do when they fired us," she said, apologizing for tears that streamed down her cheeks as she spoke. "The union said, 'We know what we're going to do Renee, we're going to fight.' And we fought and we won. I'm going to sit down in the street with my brothers and sisters at the Hyatt because I don't want anyone else to ever have to go through what I went through at the Blackstone."

Earlier this week the National Labor Relations Board found that Walker's employer, the Blackstone, had violated federal law by illegally firing workers, cutting staff benefits and circulating a petition to decertify the union. The hotel was ordered to reinstate the 14 workers it fired, compensate them for lost wages with interest, reinstate the health insurance plan it had cancelled, compensate employees for illegal increases in their health plan co-pays and end its refusal to bargain with the union.

Some of the people at the civil disobedience training session were not hotel workers at all. They said they were there to give support to the effort by also getting arrested.

"The bible demands justice for workers," said Rabbi Brant Rosen of Chicago. "I am here because Jews have a long history of standing up for worker justice. I am here in a different way today because I believe that today we have to take a new path, a path of solidarity."

The rabbi noted that he was a "white, middle class liberal in a crowd of lower paid workers," many of whom were Black, Latino or immigrants. He said, "It was a while ago since many Jews experienced the direct oppression and poverty experienced by these workers. My role as a religious leader in those days might have been to help lead the fight for justice. Now, I think, it has to be a role of solidarity. I am saying to these workers, 'I will follow your lead, and I am here to back you up and give you witness and support."

Unite Here is asking that thousands turn out at support demonstrations for those being arrested on July 22.

Anne Marie Strassel, a spokesperson for the union, said that will send a powerful message.

Here in Chicago, the Pritzker family, which runs the Hyatt, is one of the wealthiest and most politically influential families in America, according to Strassel.

"People like the Pritzkers are taking unfair advantage," she said. "While many hotel workers live in poverty, the Pritzker family cashed out over $900 million in their sale of Hyatt shares in November 2009, and Hyatt shares climbed 65 percent within the first six months of the sale."

The Hyatt, earlier that year, fired its entire housekeeping staff from its three Boston-area hotels and replaced them with workers from a subcontracting agency earning minimum wage.

The union says the civil disobedience and support demonstrations are important because of timing. In 2010 contracts covering 45,000 unionized hotel workers in 10 cities expire and become subject to bargaining.

In addition to Chicago, the July 22 actions will take place in Honolulu, San Francisco, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Monterey, Boston, Vancouver, Toronto, Miami, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, San Antonio, Santa Clara and San Diego.

At the training session here, participants lined up to practice their civil disobedience techinique. In groups of 10, the Black, white, Latino, young and old workers filed out onto the auditorium floor, linked arms and sat down.

When union staffers posing as police came to "arrest" them, the workers followed their instructions to the "T." They were composed, serious and alert. They looked to their marshals for guidance. They maintained steady eye contact with the "police." No one joked. No one laughed. Breaking the law, their instructors had told them, is serious business.

"The statement we're making here and the statement that we will make on the 22nd is that we are human beings," said Renee Walker.

Photo: Workers practice at the union hall for a sit-in they plan at a Chicago Hyatt hotel on July 22. (Photo courtesy Local 1, Unite Here)

AFT honors Filipino teachers in Louisiana

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:18:00 +0000

SEATTLE - The American Federation of Teachers convention here honored 300 Filipino teachers in Louisiana who fought back against an unscrupulous recruiting agency that lured them to the U.S. where they worked under conditions of near-peonage.

Dr. Lorretta Johnson, AFT executive vice president, presented the President's International Democracy Award to Ingrid Jomento-Cruz, founder of the Filipino Educators Federation of Louisiana, in a July 9 ceremony. "It took great courage for the Filipino teachers to come forward," Johnson said. "Just think about the qualities these teachers have: personal courage, the willingness to speak up and the belief in collective action."

Johnson pointed out that her home local, the Baltimore Teachers Union, has welcomed many Filipino teachers into its ranks and elected Filipina Aileen Mercado to the BTU Executive Board.

When the Filipino teachers contacted the AFT, the union responded quickly, Jomento-Cruz told the convention. "A few years ago, we were voiceless, vulnerable, and scared. Today we are organizing and we will never be silent again about our human rights and labor rights."

A video projected on giant screens told the harrowing story of the Filipino teachers. They paid the Los Angeles recruiting company $15,000 each as a placement fee for teaching positions promising $40,000 in annual salaries.

But when they arrived in Los Angeles they were told they had to pay thousands of dollars more and would be placed in Louisiana, contrary to earlier promises. The video shows the prison-like building they were housed in when they arrived in Louisiana, surrounded by a chain link fence with razor-wire coiled along the top.

The teachers were held incommunicado but Jomento-Cruz managed to contact the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, which launched an investigation and helped the teachers organize.

An AFT lawsuit resulted in the Louisiana Workforce Commission ordering the company to refund the $1.8 million in hidden fees to the teachers.

The Filipino Educators Federation also filed a complaint with the U.S. Labor Department protesting inflated fees, commissions and rents their recruiter attempted to collect from them in return for U.S. work visas.

Jomento-Cruz said the AFT solidarity was in the Filipino spirit of "bayanihan," in which neighbors help a relocating family by carrying the family's house on their shoulders to their new location. "We can clearly see the heroes in the community collectively work and sacrifice for each other," she said. "In essence, bayanihan is ... one with the spirit of unionism."

Others were honored at the convention for acts of solidarity. A resolution praised the outpouring of humanitarian aid for the people of Haiti after the January earthquake, including members of the AFT-affiliated Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals who flew to Haiti to provide emergency health care after the disaster. The resolution calls on the U.S. government to help Haiti establish a system of public "free, universal education" which it has never had.

The convention approved a resolution calling for a speedy end to the war in Afghanistan, opposing "further escalation" and urging a "specific timetable for the rapid, orderly withdrawal of all armed forces and military contractors from Afghanistan."

The resolution calls for "the reallocation of the funds that would otherwise be directed to the war in Afghanistan for job creation, education, health care and other urgently needed social programs for working people in this country."

Another resolution calls for an end to repression of teachers and trade unionists in Honduras and ending the U.S. recognition of the "illegitimate government" in Honduras.

Progressive teachers submitted a resolution lauding Cuban educators "who have worked diligently over the past half-century in eradicating illiteracy in their country" and supporting "their continued work in this area."

The same resolution condemned the half-century U.S. embargo for causing the Cuban people hardship. The resolution urged the government to increase the "remittances" Cuban-Americans are allowed to send their relatives in Cuba, "end individual and group travel restrictions to Cuba, and "begin fruitful discussions with Cuba" on increased exchanges between the two nations.

However, the resolution was "precluded" in favor of a resolution hostile to the Cuban government and expressing support for a dissident Cuban group called the Colegio de Pedagogos Independientes.

Photo: Filipino teachers from Louisiana receive the AFT's award, July 9 in Seattle. AFT President Randi Weingarten is second from right. (Filipino Educators Federation)