People Before Profit blog

Labor rolls out its plan to defeat GOP in November

Thu, 31 Jul 2014 14:50:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Undeterred by polls that show Republicans in a strong position for the 2014 elections despite their relentless attacks on workers, the nation's union leaders, gathered here this weekend for a meeting of the AFL-CIO's executive council, believe it is entirely possible to deal significant defeats to the right wing this November.

"You know what our problem is," said the federation's Political Committee chairman, Lee Saunders, "It's turnout. We have prioritized the election races and we have to get our people out. The local unions are being mobilized. If we get our people out, we win and if we don't - well then we have problems. "We cannot have a repeat of 2010," he warned. "That would be a disaster."

In that year the Republican base voted while many in the coalition that elected President Obama stayed home, resulting in the election of scores of tea party Republicans. In off year elections it is often the more conservative voters that turn out to vote.

The first priority, according to Saunders, who is also president of the 1.6 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is the state elections in four key states - Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Florida where unions aim to defeat sitting right-wing governors. In Minnesota, the goal is to keep it Democratic and in two additional states just added to the list, Illinois and Connecticut, the goal is to protect Democratic incumbents in the governors' mansions.

The second priority, he said, is to prevent the Republicans from taking over the Senate and the third is to defeat as many anti-labor members of the House as possible, electing pro-labor candidates in their place.

On retaking the House, the federation's legislative director, Bill Samuels said the "challenge will be to get people to vote down ballot" to remove as many tea party Republicans from the House as possible. He noted that House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi met with council members yesterday to discuss what she said was an approach to retake control of the House from Republicans.

"No one is giving up on the House," said Bill Samuels, the federation's legislative director. That's why we have Pelosi speaking here today."

Saunders defended the decision to concentrate heavily on the state races, however, saying "state houses and legislatures are covering a lot of ground" in laws that affect workers. Since Congress is dysfunctional. We have to involve voters in local politics." Saunders talked about the races in the different key states.

In Ohio, he said, there is a problem because the incumbent GOP governor, John Kasich, "has a lot of money. Ed has to raise more money and we will try to help with that."

Kasich is being challenged by Ed Fitzgerald, the Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) executive.

In Pennsylvania, Saunders said, unions are putting a lot of people on the ground to campaign for the Democrat, Tom Wolf. They are buoyed by opinion polls that show Corbett under water.

Regarding Wisconsin, Saunders said "Mary Burke (the Democratic candidate for governor) is running an excellent campaign" against Scott Walker (the incumbent Republican), whose law stripped 200,000 state and local workers of bargaining rights, and their unions of dues. "Individual unions and will be heavily involved," there, said Saunders. "The economy in the state is still suffering," which will help Burke, he added.

On the situation in Michigan, reclaiming the state legislature "will be tough," Saunders said. The GOP controls the state senate by better than a 2-to-1 ratio and has a 59-51 state house lead. So unions will concentrate on ousting GOP Gov. Rick Snyder. Snyder's legislative successes include a right-to-work for less law, a law letting the state impose a czar on "failing" local governments - used to force Detroit into bankruptcy - and abolition of teacher tenure, among other items.

In Minnesota, Saunders said incumbent Democratic-Farmer-Labor Gov. Mark Dayton, who has worked with the recent DFL state legislative majority to approve pro-worker and pro-woman worker laws, "is in fine shape." But, he added, "We have to protect the legislature." Dayton won the governor's chair in 2010 with 44 percent in a three-way race. That election left him with a GOP-run legislature, and gridlock, leading to a 2-week state shutdown. Democrats took over the legislature in the 2012 balloting.

In Florida, Republican-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist "is in a close race" against his GOP successor, right-wing former hospital chain CEO Rick Scott. Crist will win only if all of labor mobilizes in unity against Scott, Saunders warned.

Saunders warned that Gov. Pat Quinn, D-Ill., is in trouble after alienating unionists over pensions. "Illinois is important, even though we haven't seen eye-to-eye with Quinn on issues," Saunders admits. The state AFSCME is suing to overturn Quinn's pension cuts. "But if he (Quinn) doesn't win, we're in trouble," the AFSCME chief said.

And Connecticut Democrat Daniel Malloy, who once walked a picket line with striking nurses, "has to rebuild alliances," particularly with teachers, Saunders says. "He won narrowly the last time around," with 50 percent of the vote. "But his (Republican) opponent has talked a lot about having 'a Wisconsin moment,'" in the Nutmeg State.

He also called Iowa "a sleeper race" where the pro-worker Democrat "is closing the gap" against long-time GOP incumbent Terry Branstad.

Add all that up, Saunders said, and labor not only must try to win opposition-held seats, but "also protect its friends." But it all comes back to motivating unionists and their allies, he said.

"If we get out our base, and educate, and mobilize and organize our community allies across the country, we win. If we don't get our base out and sit on our hands, we lose."

Photo: Labor and other anti-Walker allies protest inside the capital, February 26, 2011. Madison, WI. Blake Deppe/PW.

Labor leaders say from now on union organizing will be different

Thu, 31 Jul 2014 11:22:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - If the mood of America's top union leaders here is any indication, they are fighting mad, and they and the workers they represent are not going to take it anymore. Meeting here this week, members of the AFL-CIO Executive Council vow to continue to fight the corporate and right-wing attacks on labor, which has implications for union organizing itself.

When he came out of a closed door session of the council here July 30 Larry Cohen, the chair of the AFL-CIO's organizing committee, said that from here on out union organizing is going to take on a different face: "You're going to see, as you did with the auto workers in Chattanooga, the establishment by workers of more and more 'membership organizations,' groups that workers join voluntarily to fight for their rights, groups that don't, at first, have collective bargaining contracts in place but get there after they grow."

Cohen spoke about the different approach after a meeting in which executive council members grappled with the issue of how to corporations and right-wing tea party lawmakers who are more determined than ever to deplete unions of their resources, silence workers who might join them and cripple their ability to take action.

His reference to Chattanooga had to do with the announcement in early July by the United Auto Workers and pro-union workers at the Volkswagen plant there, that they were setting up UAW Local 42 (the number that appeared on Baseball player Jackie Robinson's uniform).

The local was established despite the fact that the union lost a representation election at the plant by a vote of 712 to 626. Although VW had remained officially neutral the state's Republican governor and Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Corker ran round-the-clock ad campaigns telling workers they would lose their jobs if they voted for the union.

Although Local 42 is not the official collective bargaining agent for the workers yet, "we fully expect that it will be recognized by the company for that purpose when a majority of the workers have joined."

In the meantime, union leaders note, the enormous number of workers at the plant who do want the union have at least some form of representation and a good tool with which to win official collective bargaining status.

"I fully expect that the UAW is going to do this at a lot of the transplants all over the South," Cohen said. By "transplants" he was referring to the many foreign-owned auto plants that have been opening across the South. Unlike Volkswagen, not all of those companies want to see a union in place with Nissan, which has a huge operation in Canton, Mississippi, being at the top of that list.

"We have to fight for representation for workers with or without collective bargaining contracts," Cohen said.

His own union has a history of working on the membership organization approach to union organizing, he said.

"The Mississippi Alliance of State Employees is part of CWA and it started out as the State Workers Organizing Committee," Cohen said. "We got the idea of the name from the Steel Workers Organizing Committee back in the 1930's." The SOC was the representation that steelworkers had until the movement eventually grew into a powerful Steelworkers union.

And it's not just unions that can lend support to setting up the new membership organizations that would represent unrepresented workers, he said, pointing to major assistance from Mississippi NAACP members in organizing city and state workers in Jackson, Mississippi. The CWA has also organized Texas state employees into Local 6186, another union local established, in this case where collective bargaining rights do not exist for the public workers involved.

Cohen said not waiting to establish representative groups, including union locals, until there is official collective bargaining is critical for a host of reasons, including the ability to influence political events. "Look at Seattle," he said, "and the ability of fast food workers there to put on the pressure to win the $15 minimum wage.

"What's being done with this different, if not totally new, form of organizing is at the core of what has to be done to defeat the right wing," he said, "and it is a critical part of what workers are doing to defend their own interests and advance their rights."

Labor leaders here say none of this means, however, that traditional forms of union organizing will be abandoned and some, in fact, report huge successes there despite the political power wielded by anti-union forces.

The 1.6 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, for example, reported 90,000 new members since January and attributes much of that growth, particularly among EMT's and home health aids, to "face-to-face" organizing.

"We understand what it means to be tossed around in rough seas," said Lee Saunders, president of the AFSCME. The goal is getting to where workers have their just due and that takes keeping your sights on where you are going, courage and perspective."

Photo: UAW Secretary-Treasurer Gary Casteel stands with Volkswagen Chattanooga employees as he speaks during a news conference July 10 to announce the formation of a new local. Despite narrowly losing a representation election the UAW set up Local 42 to represent Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga who did support the union and they expect the local will become the official bargaining rep for the entire plant when a majority of VW employees join. It is expected that this approach will be taken widely across the South and other parts of the country. Doug Strickland/ Chattanooga Times Free Press/AP

Protesters tell Apple: Ensure fair treatment for security guards

Mon, 28 Jul 2014 14:48:00 +0000

CUPERTINO, Calif. - "Hey hey, ho ho, union busting's got to go" rang out across the Apple "campus" here June 23. Union and community activists called on the iconic computer and smartphone manufacturer to push for fair treatment of security workers by subcontractor Security Industry Specialists (SIS), based in Culver City. Apple, along with Google, eBay, and other leading tech firms have contracted out their security services to SIS.

Apple is booming, but security guards working for SIS can barely make ends meet, especially here in Silicon Valley, which has some of the highest housing prices in the nation. Santa Clara County has one of the highest median income in the U.S. - $91,000 - but one-third of the households here don't have enough income to meet basic needs. A typical security guard with SIS earns $16 an hour and usually gets, at most, 30 hours of work a week, and no benefits - not nearly enough for basic living expenses in an area where average rents for a small apartment range around $2,000 a month.

While Apple, Google, and other high-tech giants boast record profits, the cost of basic necessities for a family of four in Silicon Valley rose by nearly 20 percent between 2008 and 2012 - while average workers' wages declined over the same period by three percent.

According to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which already has 35,000 private security workers organized, SIS has responded with fear and intimidation to workers' efforts to form a union. At its last meeting, the South Bay Labor Council AFL-CIO gave strong support to the security workers' struggle. The solid turnout of unionists at the June 23 rally, especially from the California School Employees' Association (easily visible in their blue T-shirts), shows that labor is ready to take on the tech giants in Silicon Valley and the firms to which it contracts out.

Photo: Henry Millstein/PW

Today in labor history: Army attacks protesting veterans in D.C.

Mon, 28 Jul 2014 12:11:00 +0000

On July 28, 1932, General Douglas MacArthur, assisted by Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, led troops in burning to the ground a shantytown built near the U.S. Capitol by unemployed veterans.

The shantytown was built by thousands of unemployed WWI veterans, camping there to demand a bonus Congress had promised them but never paid. 20,000 ex-servicemen led by a former cannery worker named Walter W. Walters and calling themselves the "Bonus Expeditionary Forces," had been camped out. Many were unemployed due to the Great Depression.

Cavalry troops and tanks fired tear gas at the veterans and their families and then set the buildings on fire. MacArthur and President Herbert Hoover said they had saved the nation from revolution.

This was a time when the great Depression worsened; thousands marched and rallied across the country for jobs. Communists, socialists, labor leaders and community activists led the struggles. Conservative government and military leaders were vehemently anti-communist and used the threat of "revolution" against people in terrible financial distress and needing immediate help.

"Flames rose high over the desolate Anacostia flats at midnight tonight," read the first sentence of the "New York Times" account, "and a pitiful stream of refugee veterans of the World War walked out of their home of the past two months, going they knew not where."

Read more about this incident at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/peopleevents/pandeAMEX89.html

"Few images from the Great Depression are more indelible than the rout of the Bonus Marchers. At the time, the sight of the federal government turning on its own citizens-veterans, no less-raised doubts about the fate of the republic. It still has the power to shock decades later."

Workday Minnesota contributed to this article.
Photo: The burning of the shantytown, Wikipedia, Public Domain.

GOP pushing Labor Department to go easy on wage theft

Mon, 28 Jul 2014 11:52:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Right-wing Republicans who run the House Education and the Workforce Committee are apparently pushing the Labor Department to ease up on wage theft, in favor of "compliance assistance" - department counsel to businesses. But DOL is resisting, an advocate for low-wage workers says.

The push came at a July 23 subcommittee hearing, where lawmakers noted a steep rise in the last two decades in lawsuits alleging wage and hour violations. They commissioned a report from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office about the increase.

GAO found most of the increase in lawsuits came from private lawyers, while the share of the suits filed by the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division had declined. Wage and hour law lets workers and their lawyers sue for wage theft, too.

"You'd think employers were engaged in some kind of coordinated national conspiracy to deny workers their rights," said panel chairman Tim Walberg, R-Mich. He denied that.

"Improving guidance could increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the department's efforts to help employers voluntarily comply with the law," Walberg claimed.

The Wage and Hour Division's role is important because it enforces minimum wage laws, overtime pay laws and child labor laws. And the lawbreaking is widespread, Judith Conti of the National Employment Law Project told the panel's worker protections subcommittee.

A 2009 academic report on wage and hour violations in the nation's three largest cities, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, Broken Laws, Unprotected Workers found "an astounding 68 percent of those surveyed experienced at least one pay-related violation in the work week preceding the survey."

"More than one-fourth (26 percent) of workers were paid less than the legally required minimum wage in the previous work week, and 60 percent of these workers were underpaid by more than $1 per hour," Conti testified.

Nearly a quarter of the workers came to work early or stayed late, but 70 percent of that quarter "received no compensation for this 'off the clock' work." Of the workers who survive on tips, 30 percent did not get the tipped minimum wage - $2.13 an hour - and one in eight said employers or supervisors stole some of the tips.

The average worker who suffered lost 18 percent of her pay, Conti added. Most did not report the wage theft to DOL's Wage and Hour Division for fear of retaliation - suffered by 43 percent of those who reported wage theft. Most workers reporting wage theft are women.

If wage theft through underpayment of the minimum wage is bad, theft of overtime pay is worse, she told the lawmakers. One of Wage and Hour's main duties is to pursue overtime pay violations. The survey showed three-fourths of the workers were shorted overtime pay.

In 12 occupations, more than half of the workers reported being denied overtime pay: Child care (90.2 percent denial), stock and office clerks (86 percent), home health care (82.7 percent), beauty/dry cleaning and general repair workers (81.9 percent), car wash workers and parking attendants (77.9 percent), waiters, cafeteria workers and bartenders (77.9 percent), retail salespersons (76.2 percent), janitors and grounds workers (71.2 percent), garment workers (69.9 percent), cooks and dishwashers (67.8 percent), construction workers (66.1 percent) and cashiers (58.8 percent).

"Extrapolating from these findings, the research team estimated that in these three cities alone, low-wage workers lose more than $56.4 million per week as a result of employment and labor law violations," Conti said.

"At a moment when our economy continues to suffer from lack of demand, these findings suggest that one important key to economic recovery is more vigorous enforcement of wage and hour protections, so workers are paid what they earn, and can pump money back into their local economies. It goes without saying that wage theft of this magnitude also contributes to the phenomenon of working poverty."

The subcommittee's ruling Republicans ignored Conti's data and concentrated on the rising numbers of lawsuits. They suggested solving the problem by having DOL issue more "guidance" to companies, while cutting down on enforcement. The GOP Bush regime emphasized "guidance" and "compliance assistance" over enforcement of various labor laws.

"What's the harm in assisting employers in understanding their legal responsibilities?" Walberg asked. "Why wouldn't we want to help employers understand their obligations, so they can stop spending time inside a court-room and instead invest their resources into growing a successful business and creating jobs?"

Photo: Steven Senne/AP

Kellogg's lockout of bakery workers headed for court

Fri, 25 Jul 2014 15:21:00 +0000

MEMPHIS (PAI) -- Kellogg's long lockout of 226 workers at its Memphis, Tenn., cereal plant is headed for federal court.

That's because U.S. District Judge Samuel Mays in Memphis refused on July 16 to throw out the National Labor Relations Board's suit against the giant cereal maker. That left the way open for a full-scale trial in federal circuit court in New Orleans.

The board seeks a court injunction ordering Kellogg's to take the workers back and bargain in good faith with their union, the Bakery, Confectionery and Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM). Kellogg's locked the workers out Oct. 22, 2013 after the workers refused to accept its contract demands for pay cuts and huge health care premium rises.

"The unnecessary suffering imposed by Kellogg on these 226 families has occurred for one reason and one reason alone: Kellogg's insatiable thirst for profit even if it means destroying the very lives of its employees and their families to achieve it," said BCTGM President David Durkee.

The lockout has attracted nationwide notice, since most of the Memphis workforce is African-American or Hispanic-named. The NAACP has alerted its chapters to the struggle and other civil rights groups have joined the coalition backing the workers.

Durkee and the workers, aided by the AFL-CIO's Office of Investment, also took their cause to Kellogg's recent shareholders' meeting at its Battle Creek, Mich., headquarters with a resolution ordering the firm's directors to provide a public "human rights risk assessment" showing if company actions in that field would help or hurt its internationally known brand.

"Perhaps if the company had done a robust assessment on its U.S. operations it would have discovered that a potential public relations disaster was brewing in Memphis," Durkee added. It certainly did during the meeting: Besides the demonstration outside the meeting, the 8-year-old daughter of one locked-out worker walked up to the directors with letters from all the children asking why their parents aren't working.

Photo: BCTGM.

Today in Labor History: The Alliance for Labor Action forms

Thu, 24 Jul 2014 16:27:00 +0000

On July 24, 1968, Teamsters President Frank Fitzsimmons and UAW President Walter Reuther formed the Alliance for Labor Action. They were soon be joined by several smaller unions.

This national trade union center organized unorganized workers and pursued progressive political and social projects.

Fitzsimmons and Reuther were the only labor leaders present at the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 9 of that year.

The ALA launched an ambitious organizing campaign in the fall of 1969 targeting black workers in Atlanta, Georgia. It had a $4 million dollar budget, involving 50 staff organizers, 200 volunteer member-organizers and an extensive public relations campaign.

The ALA supported the civil rights movement and vocally opposed the war in Vietnam, which included endorsing anti-war rallies and taking part in peace marches. The ALA also advocated fighting for universal health care.

The Alliance existed until it disbanded in January 1972

Photo: Walter Reuther takes part in a civil rights march in Washington, circa 1963. Wikipedia

Are children working on Minnesota school construction sites?

Thu, 24 Jul 2014 14:05:00 +0000

MINNETONKA, Minn. (PAI and Workday Minnesota) -- The Laborers International Union has identified a second possible case of child labor being used on Minnesota construction sites and has alerted authorities at both the state and national level.

Laborers Local 563 submitted a formal complaint in mid-July to the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry and the federal Department of Labor, regarding a possible violation of child labor laws at a construction site at a Minnetonka elementary school.

The complaint, verified by union representatives, documents that a minor child was apparently working on a concrete pour at Scenic Heights Elementary School at 5650 Scenic Heights Dr., in Minnetonka. A Local 563 representative was at the school for an unrelated matter, when he noticed the boy, who appeared to be underage.

The boy initially claimed to be 18, but a co-worker whom the boy identified as his father admitted the boy was not an adult, the union said.

The complaint is the second of its kind the Laborers filed in July. Previously, a child was discovered working on a similar school renovation project in nearby Edina. "It's becoming clear that these aren't isolated incidents, but rather a disturbing trend of contractors cutting corners and putting children in harm's way," said Tim Mackey, business manager for Local 563. "Children should be learning in the classroom, not building them."

State and federal law both regulate employment of children under age 18. Under the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act, violators are subject of fines of up to $10,000 for each child they employ; a second conviction may result in imprisonment.

Mackey said the Minnetonka School District has not yet responded to the complaint.

"This is serious and the school district needs to understand that," he said. "And if the school district thinks this is limited to child labor, they may be in for a surprise. A contractor that permits child labor on a construction site may also be cutting corners when he comes to construction quality and public safety." He added Local 563 intends to see this issue through to a conclusion.

"We intend to make sure all the responsible parties are held accountable, and we will keep our eyes open for further potential violations," Mackey said. "With so many skilled and well-trained workers eager to work, there is no need for any child - especially a child without proper training and safety gear- to be on a job site."

Photo: The Laborers Union says a youth under age 18 was working on this school construction site in Minnetonka, in possible violation of state and federal law. Workday Minnesota.

Letter carriers: U.S. mail not for sale!

Thu, 24 Jul 2014 13:35:00 +0000

PHILADELPHIA - "Today, in two of the greatest cities in the U.S, two of our country's greatest unions stand together and protest the move toward privatization and the continuing attempts to degrade our postal service!"

These were the words of President Frederic Rolando of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) to several hundred of his members just before they headed out to march through the streets of downtown here to the nearest Staples store. He was referring to the solidarity being shown between his union and the American Postal Workers Union, which had its own demonstration in downtown Chicago. The two unions held their respective conventions this week in Philadelphia and Chicago.

The NALC has over 7,500 delegates attending its 125th anniversary convention here through July 25. They are representing the unions roughly 290,000 members. This morning, in a poignant moment as part of the union's health and safety campaign, the delegates honored several of its members who had been seriously injured on the job, usually while working the mail in dangerous traffic conditions.

Delegates, who often emphasized their pride in being part of the largest organized workforce in the nation, told peoplesworld.org that they are concerned not just about the privatization threat and the threat to eliminate Saturday delivery but about the possibility of attempts to end door to door delivery service altogether.

The action at the Staples store here was one of hundreds of protests that have been taking place all across the country, protests that were triggered by the announcement last fall of a "sweetheart" deal between Staples and the United States Postal Service. The deal resulted in the establishment of mini-post offices in 82 Staples stores.

As the spirited demonstrators moved through the crowded rush hour streets, chants of "The U.S. mail is not for sale!" and "Donahoe has got to go!" echoed from buildings along the route. The second chant referred to Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, who the unions see as pushing the Staples deal, a scheme they say that amounts to privatization of mail services.

Motorists stopped in traffic along the route frequently greeted the marchers by honking their horns in support and giving thumbs up signs.

Workers are demanding the firing of Donahoe because they see him using his position not to strengthen the U.S. Postal Service but, among other things, to privatize mail service by putting post offices in 82 Staples stores. These stores are staffed by Staples employees who often earn only the minimum wage, not by trained postal workers sworn to protect the mail. They also are angry about what they say is his refusal to fight service cuts, including attempts to end Saturday delivery of mail.

The announcement last fall of the no-bid "sweetheart" deal between Staples and the Postal Service triggered hundreds of demonstrations across the country at Staples stores that have continued right up to the national postal union conventions this week.

Many other national unions have gotten on board with the boycott. Delegates to the American Federation of Teachers convention in Los Angeles voted July 12 to join the boycott which has also been endorsed by the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the International Association of Firefighters.

The joining of the boycott by the AFT is considered particularly important. There are estimates that a teacher boycott of Staples could cost the chain $3.5 billion. The average teacher, according to the AFT, spends $1,000 a year on school supplies.

The unions charge that Staples, which initially opened the "postal counters" at the 82 stores, is using workers in high-turnover jobs to perform the difficult and sometimes high stress work of postal workers.

Rolando told the Philly marchers, "Staples aims to use untrained, low-wage, non-union workers to replace the regular postal craft workers." He explained, "We do not oppose the workers. We would support any efforts to organize them. But the USPS already has a well-trained workforce. The American people want and deserve a first class postal service network."

At the Staples store, Bill Lucini, the union's national business agent for the Philadelphia region (Region 12), delivered petitions with thousands of signatures stating that the union would continue to urge a boycott of Staples as long as the chain is in contract to perform any work that should be done by postal workers.

Postal workers have been warning that an announcement by Staples on July 7 that it was phasing out its no-bid deal with the USPS was made out of concern for the effect of the boycott, not because it really intended to end its privatization deal with USPS.

Lucini, the Philly business agent for NALC, said that Staples is continuing to perform shipping work normally done by USPS postal workers.

Mark Dimondstein, president of the APWU, said, only a day after the announcement, that it was a "ruse" aimed at derailing the boycott.

Photo: NALC members marching in Philly. Ben Sears/PW

Postal workers and supporters rally to save the mail

Wed, 23 Jul 2014 14:02:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Chants of "U.S. mail is not for sale" and "Stop Staples" echoed through the canyons of this city's downtown skyscrapers yesterday as thousands of union postal workers, teachers and other supporters rallied outside a Staples Store in the Loop.

The rally was called by the American Postal Workers Union, which is holding its national convention here this week.

Protesters also shouted demands to fire Patrick Donahue, the U.S. Postmaster. Instead of earning his $245,000 salary by strengthening the U.S. Postal Service, they said, Donahue has been trying to privatize mail service by putting post offices in 82 Staples stores. These stores are staffed by Staples employees who often earn only the minimum wage, not by trained postal workers sworn to protect the mail.

APWU members have marched in front of Staples stores at locations across the nation since January. The demonstrations by APWU members and members of other postal unions, including the Letter Carriers and Mail Handlers, were triggered by the announcement last fall of a no-bid "sweetheart" deal for a "pilot project" in more than 80 Staples stores.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, brought the support of the nation's largest labor federation by speaking at the Chicago rally yesterday. Also among the speakers was the Rev. Jesse Jackson, president of the Rainbow PUSH coalition who led several chants including "Public jobs belong to public people" and "They say cutback, we say fight back."

The sea of blue-shirted members of the APWU was complimented by groups of red-shirted Chicago Teachers Union members who pledged to boycott Staples until the chain quits trying to privatize the post office. Jesse Sharkey, CTU vice-president, reported that the 5-million member American Federation of Teachers supported the Staples boycott. He estimated the annual cost to Staples of the boycott as $3.4 billion. The average teacher spends about $1000 a year on classroom supplies.

Video: Standing Up, Fighting Back! - Stop Staples Rally (Article continues after video)

Delegates to the American Federation of Teachers convention had voted July 12 to join the "Don't Buy Staples" campaign which has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the International Association of Firefighters and many other labor and community groups.

Thousands of members of the National Association of Letter Carriers also protested the Staples deal Tuesday in connection with their national convention in Philadelphia.

Demonstrators left the Chicago rally with spirits high but understanding that the fight was ongoing and they could not let down their guard. A July 7, 2014 Postal Service letter to the APWU had claimed that it was terminating the no-bid deal with Staples and replacing it with an 'approved shipper' program.

APWU President Mark Dimondstein called the letter a ruse aimed at derailing the boycott of Staples. "About a week ago, the USPS and Staples attempted to derail the boycott. They announced the pilot program was over but admitted that Staples clerks would continue to do the work of uniformed postal workers under a program with a different name.

"We've got news for them," Dimondstein added. "Our campaign to stand up for living-wage jobs and quality service for our customers isn't over until we say it's over."

Richard Shelley, the coordinator of the APWU's "Stop Staples" campaign said the Postal Service, through the Staples deal, is engaging in a "transfer of living wage jobs to lower wage jobs."

Photo: Screen shot from video.

Today in labor history: Lincoln tells advisors about Emancipation Proclamation

Tue, 22 Jul 2014 15:02:00 +0000

On this day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln informs his chief advisors and cabinet that he will issue a proclamation to free slaves, but adds that he will wait until the Union Army has achieved a substantial military victory to make the announcement, history.com reports.

"Attempting to stitch together a nation mired in a bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln made a last-ditch, but carefully calculated, executive decision regarding the institution of slavery in America. At the time of the meeting with his cabinet, things were not looking good for the Union. The Confederate Army had overcome Union troops in significant battles and Britain and France were set to officially recognize the Confederacy as a separate nation," reports the website.

It then adds, "The issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation had less to do with ending slavery than saving the crumbling union. In an August 1862 letter to New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley, Lincoln confessed 'my paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it is not either to save or to destroy slavery.' He hoped a strong statement declaring a national policy of emancipation would stimulate a rush of the South's slaves into the ranks of the Union Army, thus depleting the Confederacy's labor force, on which it depended to wage war against the North."

However, that analysis falls short. The proclamation was not without compromise. It did not free all Blacks from bondage. The few thousand slaves in the border states of Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware and Maryland, for example, were left as "property," as Lincoln saw other pathways to end slavery there; he did not want to give any encouragement for pro-slavery forces in those states to break from the Union.

Yet the Emancipation Proclamation marked the first time the U.S. government took an intentional action to end slavery. It was a dramatic departure from the beginning of the war and Lincoln's first term when he said he had no intention of abolishing slavery where it existed. The war had begun as a fight to restore the Union to its pre-war status quo: half-free, half enslaved. But with the Emancipation Proclamation, the war became a battle for human freedom and the final end to bondage.

The proclamation changed the course and nature of the Civil War. Frederick Douglass, who was reportedly jubilant over the proclamation, called it a "first step" toward forever ending slavery, and said it would be a "moral bombshell" to the Confederacy.

The proclamation declared that former slaves (and free Blacks) could enlist in the Army or Navy, thereby officially fighting for their own freedom as well as for the country. Close to 200,000 African Americans did just that and bolstered the Union's moral and military capacity.

Before the proclamation was written, slaves had already taken crucial steps for their own emancipation. They had begun to flee plantations for the perceived freedom behind Union Army lines. There they received an inconsistent response from Army commanders, because Lincoln and Congress had no formal policy on ending slavery, historian Eric Foner writes in "The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. Some commanders sent runaway slaves back to their owners, while others gave them some semblance of freedom, including wages for work.

An abolitionist U.S. general and commander, David Hunter, created a political problem for Lincoln in May 1862. Hunter freed all the slaves in his region and ordered that Black volunteers be allowed to enlist as soldiers. Lincoln publicly revoked the order.

But that didn't stop the slaves, nor the abolitionist movement from pushing for emancipation. Lincoln realized the necessity of such an action. By September 1862, he announced the first draft of the proclamation.

W.E.B. Du Bois writes that slaves running to Union lines were, in fact, conducting a "general strike," withdrawing his or her labor from slave owners and offering it to the Union.

"As soon, however, as it became clear that the Union armies would not or could not return fugitive slaves, and that the masters with all their fume and fury were uncertain of victory, the slave entered upon a general strike against slavery," he wrote, adding that the slaves' "withdrawal and bestowal of his [and her] labor decided the war."

After the proclamation was signed and issued, the nation - black and white - celebrated. Some abolitionists complained that the proclamation was issued only for military reasons and didn't, in fact, free a single slave. But that was not the prevailing mood or outlook. What the masses of people saw in the Emancipation Proclamation was a promise of freedom. It would not come without more struggle and sacrifice, as the war would still rage for two more years. But without that proclamation, there would be no promise, no moral victory to sustain the fight, no light at the end of the dark, bloody tunnel.

In the wake of the Emancipation Proclamation victory came a great momentum that led to the Union's war victory, 13^th, 14^th and 15^th Amendments and Reconstruction - all advances for democracy.

Photo: Lincoln presents the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet. Painted by Francis Bicknell Carpenter in 1864. Shown from left to right are: Edwin M. Stanton, secretary of war (seated); Salmon P. Chase, secretary of the treasury (standing); Abraham Lincoln; Gideon Welles, secretary of the navy (seated); Caleb Blood Smith, secretary of the interior (standing); William H. Seward, secretary of state (seated); Montgomery Blair, postmaster general (standing); Edward Bates, attorney general (seated). (Wikipedia/public domain)

Unite Here: Organizing to change lives

Tue, 22 Jul 2014 12:54:00 +0000

BOSTON -- Unite Here set an extraordinary goal with its convention theme, "Changing 50,000 more lives." Having organized over 10,000 new members in the past year, the 800 delegates enthusiastically agreed to keep up that pace and organize at least 10,000 new members every year until their next convention in 2019.

Newly organized members who work at hotel, gaming, food service, and manufacturing jobs inspired the convention from the start when they filled the stage and told their stories.

The entire convention was structured to highlight how for low-wage workers, winning a union is the key to a decent quality of life with respect and dignity at work.

It was exciting to participate with a busload of members of Locals 34 and 35 at Yale University who took a day off work to travel from New Haven to Boston for a convention rally in solidarity with workers seeking a fair unionization process at the Double Tree Suites owned by Harvard.

The giant picket line in front of the hotel spilled over the Charles River bridge as 800 delegates and 300 guests traveled by school bus from Unite Here's convention site to picket the hotel.

Double Tree workers signed cards with Unite Here Local 26 in 2013, but management has not agreed on a fair process to recognize the union. The workers say that they want a union to get health coverage, a fair process and respect on the job.

In his convention address, Unite Here president D. Taylor singled out highlights from around the country, including the unions at Yale as one example of growing the union and building union and community alliances. To cheers and applause he recognized the contracts won by Locals 34 and 35 for opening the doors for 1,000 New Haven residents to get hired at Yale over four years through the newly created New Haven Works program

That program, designed to address high unemployment in New Haven's largely African American and Latino neighborhoods, was developed as a project of the New Haven Board of Alders, to which eight Unite Here members have been elected, along with members and supporters of several other unions.

Rev. Scott Marks, founder of New Haven Rising which is organizing in the community with the support of Unite Here, testified to the injustice of youth and people of color being cut off from living wage jobs. Surrounded by his family, he challenged the union to continue to reach out in order to grow.

Tyisha Walker, a New Haven Alderwoman (city council) and officer of Local 35, the service and maintenance union at Yale, came to the podium with her colleagues and told how they decided to run for public office and organize in the community with the skills they learned in the union. She reported on the progress made to meet the needs of youth and create jobs for neighborhood residents.

The 270,000 member Unite Here was credited in the AFL-CIO's 2013 membership report with adding more new members than any other union in the federation.

In his remarks to the convention, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka recalled the victorious seven-year strike at Frontier in Las Vegas that ended in 1998 and "inspired a generation." The strike was led by D. Taylor and former Unite Here president John Wilhelm. Union membership in Las Vegas grew from 17,000 members in the 1980's to over 50,000 members today.

"Working people need you again," Trumka told the convention to applause. "We need your political action. We need you for legislative accountability. We need your voter registration. And we need your organizing, we need it to show working people everywhere we can stand together, in solidarity, for a better life. It works."

Quoting the poet Maya Angelou, Trumka said, "power and hope are rising.... It has risen up from the hotels and casinos and the taxi stands and from the early bus, when the domestic workers travel across town together for a day's work. It comes from the Facebook pages where Walmart workers meet and learn how much they have in common, and how strong they are. It comes from the college graduates trying to find jobs under crushing debt, and from those earning our terribly low, low minimum wage.

"And it is up to you and me, to each of us, to help make the voices of America, our America, heard in the workplace and in our national life."

One of those who shared her story is Tatiana Lam, who works at Einstein Bros. Bagels at Cal State East Bay in Hayward, California. "We've changed where I work so that people no longer think fast food jobs are a path to nowhere. Since we won our first contract this year, I now make over $16 an hour and can afford healthcare for my young daughter and my husband."

Also addressing the convention were union members who are learning to become organizers through the Organizing Beyond Barriers (OBB) program. A janitor at Castlewood Country Club in Oakland, California, and member of Local 2850 which won a lockout after two and a half years on the picket line, told how her experience moved her to be part of OBB. Her daughter, who stayed away from the picket line at first, was transformed in that struggle, and told the convention to loud applause that she is now also training with OBB hoping to organize a union at the low wage job where she works.

The convention was also addressed by Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Attending a day of the convention and picketing on behalf of Doubletree workers gave new confidence to the Unite Here workers at Yale who returned to New Haven determined to fight even harder for members on the job, for the union-community alliance and access to jobs, and to stop the national right-wing agenda from coming to Connecticut.

Photo: Unite Here president D. Taylor joins new members on stage at Unite Here convention in Boston June 26, 2014. PW.

Changing the balance of power between Capital and Labor

Mon, 21 Jul 2014 13:42:00 +0000

The following is from the Communist Party USA convention discussion website. David Mirtz is a member from the Bronx, labor and community activist. Under the slogan, "People and nature before profit," the CPUSA held its convention in Chicago, June 13-15. It was live streamed and recently broadcast on C-Span. Peoplesworld.org will continue to provide CPUSA coverage and repost discussion articles. Join the continuing conversation on theory, politics and culture at peoplesworld.org, Twitter #cpusa95 or Facebook.

"Experience has further demonstrated that certain practices by some labor organizations, their officers, and members have the intent or the necessary effect of burdening or obstructing commerce by preventing the free flow of goods in such commerce through strikes and other forms of industrial unrest or through concerted activities which impair the interests of the public in the free flow of such commerce. The elimination of such practices is a necessary condition to the assurance of the rights herein guaranteed."

The above quote is from the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. It ensured the right of workers to organize and collective bargain not as an end in itself, but to "eliminate the causes of certain substantial obstructions to the free flow of commerce" The Act represented the beginning of a new phase in the American labor movement.

The NLRA was a response to a 50-year period of significant labor unrest. This unrest was not limited to union members, which, usually fluctuated around 10 percent, but reflected the influence of Labor despite its size, the stage of capitalist development and the surge of socialist-led movements over the previous decades. The most notable, The Paris Commune of 1871, the Great Upheaval of 1877 in the U.S., the 1917 Russian revolution and the crushed German revolution of 1918.

The NLRA, precipitated the growth of unions to their highest levels in the 1950's, but it restricted labors ability to strike, boycott and take other industrial actions. It institutionalized the Capital/Labor struggle into a legal framework, and while granting labor some significant rights, by codifying the primacy of the "free flow of commerce" was clearly on Capital's terms. The naked violence of Capital of the previous era, which could at least be matched in the streets and factories by organized workers, was replaced by one where Capital, with its army of lawyers, lobbyists, politicians and funds, is clearly the greater power.

In response to massive union growth and waves of strikes after WWII, Congress passed the Taft - Hartley Act of 1947. The Act outlawed sympathy strikes and boycotts, perhaps the most effective tools in Labor's arsenal and required union officials to state they were not members of any 'subversive' organizations. Taft-Hartley was a direct assault on Labor, aimed at the heart of Labor's power and militancy. Laws since have restricted Labor's ability to express its most fundamental identity and its most potent weapon, collective action, worker solidarity. Along with later concession by Labor, is it any wonder Labor's power has eroded over time?

The framing document notes the recent upsurge in the broad labor movement and changes within the AFL-CIO but will these developments be enough to turn the tide for Labor? By themselves it's questionable, but they have that potential. What must be done to help ensure this process? One correct assumption is that a bigger Labor movement is needed. Bigger is better to be sure, but a deeper answer is needed, especially since trying to grow, is what Labor has been attempting for the last 20 or so years. Organizing shouldn't be downplayed or abandoned, but organizing alone will not be enough. Labor must find ways to reassert the heart of its identity - the right of working people to directly come together in acts of solidarity with each other. It's impossible to think about the development of class consciousness and the transformation of the working class into a class 'for itself' otherwise. Can we really conceive of a revived labor movement restricted by the rights of the "free flow of goods" or accepting the social relations dictated by capitalism? Our task is to expose that central contradiction and give it concrete meaning. The right of the 'free flow of commerce' must not trump the right, legal or not, of working people to act collectively in their interests.

Another correct assumption is the need for Labor's increased political independence. Labor's growing embrace of political action has, and can, motivate millions to participate in politics in a new way. Focused on concrete issues and campaigns, it can tip the balance of power on the city, state and even national level. But is political independence enough? Certainly it is an important and decisive step, but only if it is tied to involvement in the broad democratic struggles of the day and is a part of Labor becoming a broad, transformational force in society. In Marx's words writing on trade unions in 1866 "They must convince the world at large that their efforts, far from being narrow and selfish, aim at the emancipation of the downtrodden millions."

Corporate America constantly seeks to expand its control over everyday life. Democracy is under attack because its stands in the way of its relentless pursuit of profit. Only by being deeply involved in today's democratic struggles, not just those immediately related to Labor, can the Labor movement engage its existing members and win over broader sections of working people to its side.

Finally, the framing document points out the role of Communists and the left in the labor movement, and asks, "how can we better move the whole party into the day-to-day struggles of the labor movement?" But the question needs to be broadened. What is needed is not just to move the party into the day-to-day struggles of Labor, but how can we help move Labor into the broad democratic struggles of the day. This means being involved not only inside the labor movement but also outside, in other social movements, arguing for the role and issues of working people in these fights.

The private appropriation of socially produced wealth is capitalism's central mechanism. Today's social movements including Labor may be a long way from embracing socialism but many are open to people-oriented solutions that question Capital's ability to appropriate that wealth and restrict working people's power. Our slogan "People and Nature before Profits" must be more than agitational it must become program and policy - proposals that seek to restrict the power of capitalism and advance solutions that address its systemic crisis - its increasing inability to address human needs, both basic and spiritual.

Important as it is to make our case to labor leaders, both traditional and new, more, is our role on a grassroots level raising the political education of working people that is on a disturbingly low level. Are we not engaged in a struggle for the hearts and minds of working people? Can we rely on the Labor movement alone to do it? Unfortunately not. Education will not be successful solely based on the their economic struggles and experiences. While difficult, workers often instinctively know where their basic economic interests are. More challenging is convincing working people where their political, their class interests lie. In particular among white workers who often remain the most backward sections of our class.

It is a profound challenge, but it must be met if we are to meet today's demands. As Lenin noted in "What is to be Done":

"[I]t is possible to 'raise the activity of the working masses' only when this activity is not restricted to political agitation on an economic basis.

"The consciousness of the working masses cannot be genuine class-consciousness, unless the workers learn, from concrete and above all from topical, political facts and events to observe every other social class in all its manifestations of its intellectual, ethical, and political life; ...the self knowledge of the working class is indissolubly bound up, ... with the practical, understanding of the relationship between all the various classes of modern society, acquired through the experience of political life."

We are involved in this process, but it must be greatly strengthened. We are a small party with very limited resources. The People's World is our most consistent tool in this respect and we must find ways to expand its coverage of struggles big and small; to broaden its readership as well as those writing for the website; to deepen its analytical character in order to help its readers understand developments taking place around them.

We must engage the people we are involved with in these struggles and in our daily lives. How can we together develop a better understanding of events taking place and what can we do based on this understanding? If our goal is to engage in this activity just to get people to join the party, we are missing the point. The point is to get working people to understand and act in their class interests. Some will join the party if we ask them, most will not. But even those who do not, will shape the thinking of those around them, and view the party as an invaluable resource in helping them understand and act in the world.

Photo: Madison, Wis., March 2011. John Bachtell/PW

AFSCME helping 12,000 Chicago cab drivers unionize

Thu, 17 Jul 2014 15:42:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Over 1,000 delegates to the 41^st AFSCME International Convention left McCormick Place July 16 and travelled on foot, by car, by train and by bus to the Thompson Center where they told the 12,000 cab drivers of this city who are trying to unionize that they are not alone.

"This is so beautiful," said David Adenekan, one of those cab drivers, as he looked out over the sea of green AFSCME T-shirts filling the downtown streets. "America is beautiful," said Adenekan who came here 20 years ago from Nigeria. "It is beautiful because it has unions who fight for the people and this is beautiful because here is one of the most powerful of those unions coming all out to cover our backs."

The way Adenekan, who has a wife and two sons, 2 and 5 years old, tells it the cab drivers of Chicago need to have someone "cover" their backs.

"Most of us are losing at least $7,500 a year because of some awful rules the city put in back in 2012," he said. The loss of more than seven thousand dollars income for the average driver, Adenekan explained, results from a combination of factors including higher lease rates charged by the companies that own the cabs, reduced work hours and high credit card fees.

Adenekan said he needs a union because "The drivers, not the companies or the passengers, have to pay the credit card fees, and we have to pay every cent of the ever increasing gas costs. We face police harassment over minor regulations. The result of all this is that even if we put in 60 or 70 hours a week we end up with an hourly rate less than the federal minimum wage."

Adenekan said cabbies began organizing themselves into Cab Drivers United in the spring and have been rapidly gaining membership. "Just look and listen to that," he said as the crowds outside the glass front of the Thompson Center began chanting and shouting in response to speakers on the rally platform. "This is a big deal today," Adenekan said, smiling from ear to ear. "What is happening today is a big step forward for us. We are eventually going to be able to win this thing."

The impression Adenekan gives is that, as important as both pay and benefits are (there currently are no benefits or sick days), cab drivers in the Windy City are concerned about a lot more. "This has to do with dignity," he said. "Forty-six years ago sanitation workers in the South carried those signs that said 'I am Man.' Well that holds true today. "

"Cab drivers are ambassadors for this city," he said. "If you get off a plane at O'Hare, I am the first person you meet in Chicago. I am proud of this and I work to make sure that you are welcomed and are having a pleasant trip. Don't I deserve something other than harassment and a sub-minimum wage?"

Meanwhile on the podium, Rev. Dr. William Barber II, president of the North Carolina NAACP and leader of that state's Moral Monday movement, was whipping up the crowd in support of Adenekan and his fellow cab drivers.

"Cab drivers are more than just faces behind a wheel," said Barber. "Without them the city would come to a standstill. You don't want to see a city with no cab drivers. We must not allow those who drive us to be themselves driven into poverty.

"Instead of degrading them, harassing them and fining them we should be giving them the dignity that comes with membership in a union - a living wage and the ability to support themselves and their families."

Photo: Marching in Support of Chicago Cab Drivers: AFSCME activists rally to support Chicago cab drivers who are trying to build a union with AFSCME. The rally was held July 16 during AFSCME's 41st International Convention. Photo credit: Tessa Berg, convention website.

Today in labor history: Pullman strike leader murder sparks huge protest funeral

Thu, 17 Jul 2014 15:00:00 +0000

On this day in 1894, during the Pullman strike, Charles Leonard, a representative of Omaha Railway murdered Charles Luth, a railroad switchman and union activist. Luth was protesting the use of scab labor during the strike. A huge funeral ensured at St. Paul's historic Rice Park. The strike was led by the American Railway Union (ARU) founded by socialist leader Eugene Debs.

When the company refused to recognize the union Debs led a massive boycott against all trains that carried Pullman cas. As a result most rail lines west of Detroit were shutdown. At its peak the labor action involved some 250,000 workers in 27 states.

Photo: Wikipedia (CC)

AFL-CIO student interns organize on Tobacco Road

Thu, 17 Jul 2014 14:35:00 +0000

AFL-CIO Union Summer interns have joined members of the Farm Workers Organizing Committee (FLOC) in a drive to organize thousands of North Carolina tobacco farm workers as part of FLOC's "Respect, Recognition, Raise" campaign and fight for a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, respect in the workplace and union recognition.

Many farm workers who harvest and tend tobacco often live in labor camps with inadequate or nonfunctioning toilets and showers and other substandard conditions, suffer from illnesses resulting from nicotine poisoning and exposure to dangerous pesticides and work long hours for below-poverty wages.

Here are the stories of two Union Summer activists and the workers they met. Click on their names for more and click here for more from the "Respect, Recognition, Raise" blog.

Anna Vilches:

"I have had some very good days with my team and some days that have not been so awesome. Already we have met so many workers who are demanding change. As we speak to them, we begin to understand that most of them know just how bad they are being treated and that they are workers who deserve dignity, respect and recognition for the hard work they do every day. The most common demand that workers ask for are higher wages. In North Carolina, minimum wage is $7.25, which is what undocumented workers and workers without a H-2A visa usually make. Those who do come with a H-2A contract should be making a minimum of $9.87 an hour. Yet, the workers we have spoken to agree that these wages are not appropriate for the amount of work they do.

"There have been other problems that have been mentioned. For example, at one of the camps we recently visited, the workers said they do not have access to bathrooms out in the fields while they work. I'm sure if more people knew about these conditions they would be shocked to find out that this is the way workers are treated in this country, particularly workers who help put food on our tables.

Briosha Sanders:

"I'd seen third world poverty before when I worked with a nonprofit organization in Honduras in the summer of 2012, but I still felt shocked when I went out to the camps of the trabajadores with whom FLOC organizers work to build community power. It was shocking, I think, because for the first time I was faced with the harsh realization that there is a widespread human trafficking operation of cheap labor thriving in my back yard.

"One of the ugliest things I've seen in the fields confronted me this past Tuesday night when my companeros y yo visited a worker camp in North Carolina that was surrounded by barbwire fence. For me, it looked like a prison. It made me think of a cage where the workers are contained until they are needed to work in the fields. There were approximately 60 people living in five to six trailers with worn out mattresses backed into a small space, allowing hardly enough room for people to move around.

"I realized that the poverty I witnessed in Honduras and the exploitation that the workers here in North Carolina experience are connected. Although, abstractly, I understood that they stem from the same roots of capitalism, imperialism, and racism, it was another thing altogether to witness the blatant disregard for even the most basic human rights that farmworkers are forced to endure every day. Wage theft, physical and verbal abuse, scorching heat and denial of water and/or lunch breaks and on and on."

Photo: FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez, AFL-CIO Executive VP Tefere Gebre, Representative Marcy Kaptur and UK MP's Ian Lavery and James Sheridan are currently touring tobacco fields in North Carolina, comparing the state of labor and human rights on union and non-union farms. The conditions vary considerably, but every tobacco field is hot in July! FLOC Facebook page.

Home care workers file for largest union election in Minnesota history

Thu, 17 Jul 2014 13:54:00 +0000

ST. PAUL, Minn. (PAI and Workday Minnesota)--With support from the clients they serve, Minnesota workers who care for people in their homes officially filed representation election cards in early July to form a union. Organizing under the slogan, "Invisible No More," they said unionizing will improve pay, working conditions and the quality of care.

Minnesota's Bureau of Mediation Services will conduct a mail ballot election among the state's 26,000 home care workers, making it the largest single union vote in state history.

The workers seek representation by SEIU Healthcare Minnesota, a statewide Service Employees local. They filed cards signed by more than 9,000 home care workers, triggering the process for a vote. Organizers expect the election to take place in August.

"We are coming together because we know that in other states where home care workers have formed a union, they have won significant wage increases, access to benefits and training opportunities, and most importantly, a voice in the state decisions that affect them," said Darleen Henry, a home care worker from Rosemount.

Home care workers are employed by their clients - seniors and people with disabilities - but are paid mainly through public funds. Some home care workers gave up good-paying jobs to become personal care assistants and direct support professionals for a family member.

"My partner, Nicole, needs PCA (personal care assistant) support 24 hours a day. With the help of several other PCAs, I work every day to see that she gets the care she needs to accomplish her goals," said Tyler Frank, a home care worker from New Hope.

"Because of the high turnover of Nicole's workers and the extra work their absence leaves for me, I often have to support Nicole at the expense of my own aspirations. We need to recognize the importance of home care work and make it a stable career-that will improve the stability of my life and Nicole's life," Frank added.

Pay is so low that many caregivers qualify for food stamps. They don't receive paid sick leave or health or retirement benefits.

"I had a hysterectomy and went to work the following day because missing work means that my children do not eat," said Shaquonica Johnson, a home care worker from Brooklyn Park. "I am here today because for too long, the work I and over 26,000 other Minnesotans do for a living-the work of caring for our neighbors, keeping seniors and people with disabilities in their homes and communities - has been made invisible, and when we win our union, we will finally be invisible no more."

Clients who depend on home care workers are supporting the unionization effort.

"The high turnover, from the low pay and lack of benefits, causes turmoil for families," said Nikki Villavicencio, a married home care recipient from Maplewood and mother of a 2-ear-old daughter. "Current conditions often make me wonder, why is this field so under-valued? Why is it the workers who support my family are treated as if they are invisible? My family knows that when home care workers win their union, it will help not only them, but us."

Photo: SEIU Healthcare Minnesota Facebook page

At AFT meet, energized resistance to attacks on education

Thu, 17 Jul 2014 12:22:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - An energized resistance to ongoing attacks on education was on display at this year's American Federation of Teachers national convention here, July 11-14. Under the theme of "Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education," speakers and more than 3,500 delegates pledged to rebuff attacks by corporate forces on teachers, while also vowing to bring back equity in higher education for students and faculty.

Keynote speaker Rev. Dr. William Barber, founder of North Carolina's "Moral Mondays," sounded the charge in support of public education and teachers. Addressing the convention for 40 minutes, Barber developed the theme that supporting education means fighting for civil rights and helping to end racism and class oppression. "Every time we fail to educate a child on the front end of life, it costs us on the back side of life," he said. "Every time those in our nation attack teachers and undermine public education, it rips not only the nation's economy, it rips at the very integrity of who we are."

Political strategist Donna Brazile, self-described in her address as a "labor Democrat," teaches at Georgetown University and is presently organizing her fellow part-time faculty adjuncts into a union.

Brazile described the recent Vergara v. California decision as "perverse," in its ruling that teacher tenure violates the civil rights of children. Social and economic inequality are the result of bad policies that have resulted in 22% of children living today under the federal poverty line, Brazile reported.

"As a lifelong Democrat I am ashamed by attempts by some within in my own party ... who are trying to undermine public schools under the guise of reform," Brazile said. "Let me state this bluntly: the assault on public education is an assault on the principles of democracy and the foundation of our country."

Brazile introduced Democrats for Public Education, a new organization to counter Democrats for Education Reform and other billionaire-funded organizations that pour money into charters and laws rolling back union protections. Former Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio and former Gov. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan will be working in partnership with Brazile in the new organization.

Tom Torlakson, California's Superintendent of Education, highlighted the progressive role of the California Federation of Teachers in crafting a bill in response to the crisis of education cuts, sending Proposition 30, a measure that would raise taxes on the wealthy, to the polls and winning.

Citing the adage "No good deed goes unpunished", Torlakson decried the attempts to roll back teacher protections in California by corporate interests via the Vergara v. California decision. Torlakson, facing an election year challenge from a former Wall Street trader turned charter school CEO, contrasted his own approach to doing work in education policy, bolstered by experience as a classroom teacher of many years. "I'm proud to take the teacher's approach into all of my work," he told the AFT delegates.

In the sphere of higher education, this year's convention featured the first-ever meeting of the Adjunct Caucus, a body created by adjunct activist William Lipkin and other part-time faculty, to address the lack of equity for part-time college and university instructors.

As part of the promise to reclaim quality public education, the AFT has also created a web resource addressing the challenges of contingent labor, connecting the need to end the exploitation of part-time instructors with the need to curb rising tuition costs that limit educational opportunities for students. The AFT has been conducting its own surveys of contingent faculty and creating a campaign to raise awareness of the negative effects of the over-reliance on part-timers on higher education and teachers.

Part-time faculty often have no access to benefits like health coverage. In response, the AFT has partnered with the Freelancer's Union to offer a health plan to adjunct faculty, including part-timers who are not part of the AFT. The program is slated to open for applications for the fall enrollment period.

Video of Barber's keynote speech at the AFT Convention:

Photo: A scene at the American Federation of Teachers convention, Los Angeles, July 13. AFT Facebook page

Union says postal service is not really pulling out of Staples

Wed, 16 Jul 2014 14:58:00 +0000

Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union, said a Staples announcement this week that it was ending its no-bid deal with the U.S. Postal Service is a ruse.

Staples made the announcement saying it was replacing the mini-post offices with an "approved shipper program" already in place at thousands of other retailers the postal service uses to do a variety of deliveries.

"Staples and the USPS are changing the name of the program, without addressing the fundamental concerns of postal workers and postal customers," Dimondstein said, adding, "If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck."

A USPS spokesperson all but confirmed the union claims when he told the Boston Globe: "We look forward to continuing the partnership (with Staples) whether its called Retail Partner Expansion (the name given to the post office program in Staples) or approved shipper. We just want our customers to know they can continue to get postal services at these 82 (Staples) locations."

Dimondstein said "the country has a right to postal services provided by highly trained, uniformed USPS employees who are sworn to defend the mail" and that the attempt to "trick" people shows the recent "Don't Buy Staples" movement is having an impact.

In the state of Massachusetts, the home state for Staples, prominent political figures have been backing the boycott, among them gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley.

Earlier this week the American Federation of Teachers and its 1.6 million members joined the anti-Staples boycott.

Unions oppose the privatization of postal services because programs like the one in place at Staples undermine the role of post office and shift postal worker jobs to lower paid and less experienced retail store staff.

"We intend to keep up the pressure until Staples gets out of the mail business altogether," Dimondstein said.

Photo: The American Federation of Teachers on Monday backed the boycott of Staples. AFL-CIO blog

Trumka: Humanitarian crisis brought out the best and worst in us

Wed, 16 Jul 2014 14:45:00 +0000

In response to the ongoing humanitarian crisis of unaccompanied immigrant children fleeing violence in Central America and coming into the United States and surrendering to Border Patrol agents, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka issued a statement saying that the crisis has brought about the best and worst amongst us.

Trumka continues:

"Alarmingly, in places like Murrieta, California and Vassar, Michigan, we have seen ugly reminders of racism and hatred directed toward children. The spewing of nativist venom, the taking up of arms and the fear-mongering about crime and disease harken back to dark periods in our history and have no business taking place under the banner of our flag.

"On the other hand, around the country we have also seen a tremendous outpouring of compassion and concern for the plight of these women and children. We are proud to say that local unions have joined with faith and community groups to collect needed supplies, provide shelter and support and call for humane treatment.

"The situation along the border is a refugee crisis that requires a humane, lawful response and must not be politicized. The labor movement calls upon national and community leaders to respond to the crisis in a manner that meets our obligations under U.S. and international law and comports with basic human rights and American values. This means ensuring full due process and providing the additional resources necessary to ensure the well-being and fair treatment of children and refugees. It also requires taking an honest assessment of the root causes of the crisis, including the long-term impact of U.S. policies on immigration, trade and foreign affairs.

"We cannot lend credibility to Republican assertions that a refugee crisis is proof that we should continue to deport hard working people who have been contributing members of our society for years. These are simply new excuses to justify failed policies. Lifting the pressure on immigrant workers was needed before the child refugee story developed, and it is no less urgent today. The administration must act now to keep all families together, uphold our standards as a humanitarian nation and advance the decent work agenda necessary to improve conditions both at home and abroad."

The AFL-CIO is calling upon President Barack Obama to take action to adjust these failed policies. Sign our petition asking the president to do more to keep families together and move toward a more fair and humane policy.

This article is reposted from the AFL-CIO NOW blog.

Photo: Child detainees play as others sleep in a holding cell. Eric Gay/AP