People Before Profit blog

Single-payer healthcare gets backing from Medicare’s “creator”

Fri, 31 Jul 2015 12:35:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - The last surviving "creator" of the original Medicare proposal of 1965 is enthusiastically endorsing Medicare for all - also known as single-payer government-run universal national health care.

"What Bernie said goes for me, too!" declared Max Fine, the surviving member of an early-1960s commission President John F. Kennedy appointed to write the Medicare draft. Congress passed Medicare in 1965 and President Lyndon Johnson signed it.

The "Bernie" whom Fine cited at the July 30 rally in D.C. was Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt., the featured speaker. The D.C. rally was one of dozens nationally, organized by National Nurses United and joined by other unions, to both celebrate Medicare's 50th birthday and to launch a new campaign for single-payer health care.

Sanders has pushed "Medicare For All" for years and intends to reintroduce it "soon," he said. It has virtually no chance in the Republican-run 114th Congress. "Health care is a right, not a privilege," Sanders told the several hundred people - unionists and retirees -- north of the Capitol. Other rallies, from coast to coast, drew hundreds more.

"Our goal is everybody is in and nobody is out" on health care, added NNU Co-President Karen Higgins, a registered nurse from Massachusetts.

"When you're sick, you should go to the doctor," without worrying about how to pay, said Sanders, who seeks the Democratic presidential nomination. "When you go to the hospital, you should not come out in bankruptcy." Medicare has ended such outcomes for the elderly, he said. Medicare for all would do so for the entire country, he declared, to cheers.

Those lines from Sanders drew a standing ovation from the AFL-CIO Executive Council the day before, NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro reported. The council added single-payer to labor's comprehensive "Raising Wages" economic platform, its political yardstick.

Fine urged the crowd to lobby to expand Medicare. "There would be no Medicare without the labor movement," he told the group, which included members and retirees from the Communications Workers, The Newspaper Guild, the Letter Carriers, the Amalgamated Transit Union, the Steelworkers (SOAR), the Teachers, and the Postal Workers.

Photo: Bernie Sanders and nurses celebrate 50th anniversary of Medicare and demand single-payer health insurance at Capitol in D.C. | National Nurses United Facebook page

Hillary Clinton pledges to push Employee Free Choice

Fri, 31 Jul 2015 11:09:00 +0000

SILVER SPRING, Md. - Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton supports comprehensive labor law reform. And she says she really means it.

The former New York senator and Secretary of State under President Obama told the AFL-CIO Executive Council on July 30 that "I believe worker power is vital to increasing incomes," in words she repeated at a subsequent press conference.

"I was an original co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act while I was in the Senate and will do everything I can to pass it" if elected to the Oval Office, she declared.

Clinton was the most-notable of a parade of presidential hopefuls who addressed the council behind closed doors on July 29-30 in the D.C. suburb of Silver Spring, Md. The others were her top challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt. - who is running in the Democratic primaries - former Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., and former Govs. Martin O'Malley, D-Md., and Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., the sole Republican to accept the union leaders' invitation.

The Employee Free Choice Act, now dead, was labor's top legislative cause at the start of the Obama administration. It would have helped level the playing field between workers and bosses in organizing drives and in gaining first contracts, through card-check recognition, heavier fines for labor law-breaking and mandatory arbitration when first-contract negotiations hit impasses, among other measures.

But big business and right wing lobbying, a Senate filibuster threat and Obama's decision not to really push it - though he said he would sign EFCA if it ever reached his desk - combined to kill the measure. Labor is now working on drafting an even stronger labor law reform bill, but that would have zero chance in the Republican-run 114th Congress.

Besides EFCA, all five hopefuls discussed workers' issues, from national health care to trade to raising the minimum wage, with the Democrats mostly pushing pro-worker stands.

Sanders drew a standing ovation when he reiterated his plan to push single-payer government-run national health insurance, replacing the current jury-rigged expensive private insurer-dominated system. He also arrived just after action on that issue: The council voted unanimously the same day to add single-payer to the "Raising Wages" platform that unions and their members will use to evaluate politicians next year.

And while Sanders came out strongly for a $15 federal minimum wage - a bill he introduced the week before - Clinton advocated a raise in the wage, now $7.25, but without naming a figure. But then she gave kudos to a $12/hourly minimum wage bill introduced by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va. "Murray's very effective at getting things done," Clinton said. "So let's get behind a proposal that has a chance of passage."

And while both Sanders and Clinton said the minimum wage, after the initial hikes, should be indexed to inflation, Clinton also praised cities and states that haven't waited for the feds, but have raised their own minimums.

"It's important we set a national minimum and then get out of the way of the cities and states that want to go higher," such as New York and Los Angeles, she explained.

By contrast, Huckabee, the lone Republican, did not advocate raising the minimum wage. He called for a maximum wage, without defining that, instead. Asked about labor law reform, he said that should be left to the states, because the federal government gets too intrusive. His state, Arkansas, was the first right to work (for less) state, in 1944. One of the immediate effects of the move in that state was to prevent thousands of black workers from being able to join unions.

Clinton also differed with Sanders and O'Malley on trade. Sanders touted his 25-year legislative record of opposing job-losing trade pacts, rattling them off: "NAFTA, CAFTA, PNTR and the WTO," the latter two being normal trade relations with China and Chinese admission to the World Trade Organization.

Then Sanders vowed to scrap the Trans Pacific Partnership, too. Workers and unions also oppose the TPP, without worker rights and with a secret pro-business trade court that could override state, local and federal laws that might harm present and future profits. O'Malley also opposes the TPP, and both opposed Obama's fast-track law, which permits such pacts.

"We extensively discussed trade in general and the TPP in particular," Clinton said. She told the leaders that "at this point, I'm hearing there have been some changes in a direction I might approve" towards stronger worker rights and lessened influence of that trade court.

"I've publicly and privately urged the White House to pay more attention to worker rights, environmental protections and the international dispute settlement mechanism," Clinton said she told the leaders. But she still would not give her stand on fast-track, which is now law.

Sanders blasted "institutional racism," and said he would as president push against it and for police reform. Clinton and Sanders both blasted the current campaign finance system, which lets corporations and the rich dominate politics monetarily and on the airwaves. Clinton said she would even back a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision that let loose the floods.

The council's session with the contenders is part of labor's overall endorsement process, which will finish next year. But union leaders at the council session are also using the closed-door meetings - including tough q-&-a to help sort out their unions' preferences.

The executive board of one union, the Teachers, has already endorsed Clinton.

Weingarten, talking with reporters, defended her union's early endorsement. In so many words, she praised Sanders, Clinton and O'Malley for their pro-worker positions, but said only Clinton can win.

"As someone who believes you have to fight against the oligarchs, I loved that he used that word," Weingarten said of Sanders. "This is someone who has spent 25 years" in Con-gress "fighting to change that balance" between the rich and the rest of us, "just as we have.

"But what we need is someone to win to change that balance, and she's in the best position" to do so, Weingarten said of Clinton.

"Bernie is in line with our issues, top to bottom," said RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United. "He educated us" on backing single-payer government-run national health insurance, a key NNU cause which the union highlighted in national rallies on July 30, Medicare's 50th birthday.

"And Bernie said 'Barack Obama had a campaign about our hopes'" -- including enacting labor law reform -- and built an organization" to achieve election, DeMoro noted. "But after he was elected" in 2008, "everyone crept away.

"Bernie was saying 'We need a social movement. We need participation.' It's a democracy after all," said DeMoro, whose union will make its decision in September.

Other union leaders, asked informally after the sessions about which candidate could best relate to regular voters, split.

"Bernie, because he knows people's lives," DeMoro said during the Medicare-for-all rally. But another female council member, asked if any contenders can relate, replied "I don't think so. They're all pretty much in a bubble." A male union president said "Huckabee was smooth, but it was like we were on a TV show." Huckabee has been a Fox commentator. "And O'Malley was a little lethargic, except at the end. Bernie, Bernie, we all love Bernie."

Before the contenders took the headlines, the council tackled several other top issues, notably immigration and organizing.

The union leaders discussed organizing initiatives focusing on poultry workers, temps, domestic workers, restaurant workers, retail workers, janitors, seafood workers, migrant workers, child care workers, amusement park workers and even pine tree cutters. All are among the huge and growing mass of low-wage no-benefit exploited workers in the U.S. Many of them are immigrants and huge shares of them are minorities, women, or both.

Leaders discussed ways to reach and aid those workers, including state and local campaigns to raise the minimum wage, and a drive to stop wage theft. Reaching the workers includes using more social media and creating more worker centers.

The immigration issue took a new twist: The AFL-CIO is strenuously lobbying the Obama administration to rein in what federation staffers call "a rogue agency," the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service. ICE agents, staffers said, are in "an all-out war" by still intervening at worksites during organizing drives, when employers call on them for aid.

Photo: Clinton told labor leaders and the press at the AFL-CIO executive council this week that she will push the Employee Free Choice Act, which would overhaul labor law in this country. | AP

AFL-CIO to hold regular talks on racism beginning in September

Thu, 30 Jul 2015 13:27:00 +0000

SILVER SPRING, Md. - Yesterday, as part of the AFL-CIO Executive Council meetings, the AFL-CIO Commission on Racial and Economic Justice held its first meeting. The meeting included labor leaders and academic advisors who, as a group, decided to launch a series of internal conversations in the labor movement around the role of race in unions, workplaces and in the broader communities.

After the meeting the AFL-CIO issued a statement drafted by the commision which read, "The recent activism of the Black Lives Matter movement has created a national and global conversation about the insidious role that racism plays in the lives of black people.

"Since the death of Trayvon Martin," the statement said, "the AFL-CIO has worked to open a constructive dialogue around the role of race. This has included a speech by AFL-CIO President Trumka in Ferguson and a discussion among local labor leaders in the wake of Michael Brown's death.

The commission paid special attention, apparently, to the harm that racism does to white, as well as Black workers.

"In addition the AFL-CIO is working with affiliates, constituency groups and community partners to educate workers and analyze the way racism weakens the collective power of all working people and harms both people of color and white workers," the statement read.

Over the next few months the AFL-CIO is expected, as a result of the work of the new commission, to identify practices within local labor bodies that build solidarity among white members and members of color, and expose practices that undermine or obstruct solidarity and constructive relationships.

The commission hopes to expand the AFL-CIO's work to address the challenges faced by all communities of color including new immigrants who face discrimination on the job, and are also more likely to get trapped in the criminal justice system.

The commission was formed at the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting in February this year.

The AFL-CIO yesterday named the following members of the commission:

President Marc Perrone, UFCW, Co-Chair
Vice President Fred Redmond, USW, Co-Chair
President James Boland, Bricklayers
President Tom Buffenbarger
President J. David Cox, AFGE
Executive Vice President Tefere Gebre, AFL-CIO
Secretary-Treasurer Lorretta Johnson, AFT
Secretary-Treasurer Laura Reyes, AFSCME
President Kenneth Rigmaiden, IUPAT
Secretary-Treasurer, Liz Shuler, AFL-CIO
President Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO

The advisory council will include:

Dorian Warren, Roosevelt Institute Fellow & MSNBC Host, Co-Chair
Ian Haney-Lopez, Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley, Co-Chair
Ana Avendano, Vice President of Labor Participation, United Way
Judith Brown-Dianis, Co-Director, Advancement Project
Bill Fletcher, Labor Scholar & Consultant
Jack Hayn, Assistant to President, IUPAT
Courtney Jenkins, Young Worker Advisory Council, APWU
Terry Melvin, Secretary-Treasurer of NY State AFL-CIO, President of Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Chair of Labor Commission for Community Action
Steven Pitts, Associate Chair, University of California at Berkeley Labor Center
Petee Talley, Secretary-Treasurer of OH State AFL-CIO, Ohio Coalition on Black Civic Participation
Robin Williams, Associate Director, Civil Rights and Community Action Department, UFCW

Photo: David Carson/AP

AFL-CIO leaders push presidential candidates on labor’s Raising Wages Agenda

Thu, 30 Jul 2015 11:16:00 +0000

SILVER SPRING, Md. - Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont met with union leaders and the press here yesterday to explain why they want labor's endorsement in the 2016 presidential race. They will be followed here today by two other Democrats, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb.

The nation's largest labor federation has rarely endorsed a presidential candidate in the primaries, however. The AFL-CIO's endorsement of Walter Mondale in 1983 and their endorsement of Al Gore in 1999 were the only exceptions.

The announcement recently by the American Federation of Teachers that it is backing Clinton was the beginning of a process that normally sees individual unions going their own way for the primaries and coming together on one choice for the general election in November. Sources in the leadership of two other unions here indicated today that both the Amalgamated Transit Union and National Nurses United will announce within days that they are backing Bernie Sanders.

The discussions on presidential politics have created so much of a stir, however, that union leaders today, in a closed session, will reopen discussion to evaluate what the candidates said here this week and to review the federation's endorsement policy - in short, to decide whether they will continue to abide the recommendation of their political committee to hold off on an AFL-CIO endorsement at this time.

Regardless of statements made behind or in front of closed doors it was clear that Bernie Sanders yesterday captured the hearts of the union leaders assembled here. The applause he got could be heard from one end of the enormous union hall to the other and on several floors of the conference center here.

Sanders, according to a source, told the union leaders that the nation is at a "crossroads."

"I can't say it as eloquently as he did," the source said, but "he said time is running out for us to do what has to be done - that is to create a sustained mass movement that will fight to carry out progressive policies. When Obama was elected the coalition that got him there fell apart and he was left alone. A new mass movement has to be built and this time it must be sustained. Bernie understands this and the union leaders know he understands this in a way no other candidate does," the source said. "He is closer to all our positions than anyone else."

Members of the press had a chance to question Sanders when he came out of his session with the union leaders. "I have a 98 percent lifetime voting record with labor," he said, "but more important I know that we have to build a permanent movement to fight the oligarchs that have taken over this country. I don't say 'no cuts to Social Security, I say it has to be expanded, increased and cover more millions. I have just introduced legislation for a $15 minimum wage across the country. The Affordable Care Act got insurance for millions but we need more - we need a national health care system that covers everyone. I'm introducing legislation for that but we need a movement that will fight for it."

Sanders said he wants his campaign to operate the way such a mass movement needs to operate. "We are using social media to set up events in 3,000 locations at a time to reach 80,000 people at a time. It is our answer to the super PACs and oligarchs that have taken over the process of democracy," he said. "My vision is not just a labor endorsement. I want to see a mass movement of which labor is a big and vital part."

"But can you win, Bernie?" one reporter asked him.

"Well CNN is pretty infallible, isn't it?" he asked. "They released polls on Sunday that have me running ahead of Scott Walker, Donald Trump, and Bush in one to one matchups. So I guess that answers that question."

Sanders touched on many topics including the issue of mass incarceration and continuing police attacks on black people.

Sanders praised President Obama for visiting a federal prison recently and calling for criminal law reform and he pointedly addressed the recent death of Sandra Bland in Texas.

"Look, there is no way that a white person who fails to signal a lane change would end up dead in a jailhouse three days later. So there is real structural racism that has to be fought and eliminated," he said.

"Many police are hard working people doing a job to protect the citizenry," he said, "but for cops to beat up innocent people because of their skin color - this must end. Racism not only harms the victims," he said, "but it divides and weakens the solidarity of all the people who must fight together to take back this country."

Randi Weingarten, whose union endorsed Clinton already said, "Bernie is great, he has been on the front lines for many years and I love that he even uses the word 'oligarch' but our union backed Hillary Clinton because we believe she has not just the program we support but because she can actually win the election. These are serious times and we are proud of our choice. She will be a great president."

Weingarten said she wanted to make it clear that her personal friendship or association with Clinton over the years had nothing to do with her union's choice.

"I'm a union leader for many years," Weingarten said. "A leader in New York where Hillary was senator. It's my job to form relationships and alliances with lawmakers who will work with us. This is what I am supposed to do. Working with Hillary has been great. She produces and I think she will make a great president."

While a source said Martin O'Malley was received well he indicated that he did not "set the place on fire," the way Sanders did. O'Malley stressed his support for labor law reform, minimum wage hikes and a host of other issues important to the AFL-CIO.

Huckabee's presentation was interesting with union leaders saying they gave him credit for even showing up at the meeting.

Huckabee told reporters when he emerged that he had "shared values with the AFL-CIO in that I, like them, want to see good jobs for millions of American workers."

He would not commit to anything that would strengthen collective bargaining rights, however, saying he preferred to leave the matter to the states "where they know best on the local level what should be done."

While he said he would not "necessarily" move to eliminate the federal minimum wage, he said he opposes raising it. "We need training so people can get $30 an hour jobs. I want to put them into $30 an hour jobs, not just raise up the minimum wage," he said. He called his proposal a "proposal instead for a maximum wage."

Reporters asked him if he stood behind his comparison last week of the Iran nuke deal with the Holocaust. One reporter noted that even strongly pro-Israel groups have not come out in favor of his remarks.

"I stand by what I said," he told the reporters. "Iran has been calling for death to America for many years. We have to root out terrorism." The total time he gave reporters to question him was under five minutes.

"I'm a religious gay Jew," Weingarten told reporters after Huckabee left, so "I am not happy with his Holocaust remarks. Nevertheless, it is a sign of the times and just how important the fight is for the lives of real people that five major presidential candidates would come here in a 24-hour period. It's a shame that only one GOP candidate saw fit to show up here, though."

Photo: As he did in this photo, Bernie Sanders impressed union leaders positively when he met with them at the AFL-CIO summer executive council meeting in Silver Spring, Md. yesterday. | Andy Dubeck/AP

AFL-CIO adds single-payer insurance to its Raising Wages campaign

Wed, 29 Jul 2015 15:31:00 +0000

SIlVER SPRING, Md. - Union leaders meeting here today in closed session passed a resolution that calls upon the AFL-CIO to add a demand for single-payer heath insurance to the federation's Raising Wages campaign.

A source who attended the meeting discussed the resolution and the debate around it with the Peoples World and other news outlets on condition of anonymity.

The labor movement is acutely aware this year that attempts by companies to force workers to pay more of the share of their health care costs is threatening gains that are being made on the wage front, the source said. "Essentially, the union presidents feel that what is being gained in wages can be taken away in health care costs," he explained.

He further said that union leaders today talked about another ominous development on the health care front - the merging of health care companies is on the rise so they can collude to force prices up.

AFL-CIO unions are currently negotiating new contracts for five million workers across the nation. "There isn't a union in here," the source said, "that isn't facing this issue at the bargaining table right now. The companies are hell-bent on taking away health care benefits already won."

He said that union leaders at the meeting this morning talked about a steady rise in price gouging "everywhere" by health care companies. "Add in the mergers and you see what they are up to."

He said that the unions recognize that although the Affordable Health Care Act now in place was a step forward it is not adequate if workers' wages and standards of living are top be protected.

The AFL-CIO has already called for passage of single-payer health insurance, "which would be the only solution to this problem," the source said.

The resolution passed at the closed-door session of the AFL-CIO executive council this morning incorporates the demand for single-payer health insurance into the federation's Raising Wages campaign.

On other matters the source said the federation's political committee has called for waiting before the AFL-CIO makes a presidential endorsement. "That has been the position for a while," the source said but that position will be "re-opened," the source said, for a full discussion by the executive council tomorrow.

Asked if that move was because of pressure by labor supporters of one presidential candidate or another, the source said it was motivated by a desire to have a full and open discussion of presidential campaign endorsements by representatives of all of the nation's unions.

Photo: National Nurses United/Flickr

Top union leader describes GOP presidential hopefuls as money-grubbing

Wed, 29 Jul 2015 13:32:00 +0000

Donald Trump says exactly what the GOP believes. It's a simple axiom: personal wealth accumulation is everything. Republican Party officials believe individuals like The Donald attain riches through their own guts, glory and gumption with not an iota of aid from community, country or, frankly, inherited wealth.

It's just that when The Donald expresses their credo, he ignores the shinola and emphasizes the crass. Instead of going with the slick 2012 GOP convention theme, "I built that," to aggrandize individual capitalist conquest, The Donald slammed a group of his primary competitors for serving their nation instead of themselves.

What The Donald failed to acknowledge is that some of them, like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, serve themselves through their so-called public service. This year, for example, Walker took a quarter billion dollars from Wisconsin higher education, gave it instead to a project by billionaire sports team owners to construct a new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks, and now one of those rich guys, Jon Hammes, co-chairs Walker's national campaign fund raising.

It's a brilliant scam. The Donald, master of bankruptcies with four under his belt, really should be impressed. Walker is forcing the great majority of Wisconsin workers to pay taxes, not for projects they prize like schools or highways, but instead to further enrich millionaires who, in turn, fill Walker's campaign pockets!

The Donald elevates capitalist endeavors, even those achieved through bankruptcy, over public service, suggesting non-millionaires are unqualified for office: "A number of my competitors for the Republican nomination have no business running for president...Many are failed politicians or people who would be unable to succeed in the private sector."

This echoes the derisive comments the previous Republican nominee for president, the quarter-billionaire Mitt Romney, made about American people generally. He slammed nearly half of them, 47 percent, as slackers who receive government aid after they failed to be born to a famous rich man, as Romney was, and then leverage that silver spoon to make millions for themselves.

Never mind that many of the 47 percent receive Social Security that they earned through a lifetime of hard work. Never mind that guys like Jon Hammes fatten their already bulging wallets with government handouts.

A specific "failed politician" The Donald blasted was U.S. Sen. John McCain. The Arizona Republican, who suffers to this day from injuries he endured as a prisoner of war, didn't defeat Barack Obama for the presidency. So The Donald called McCain a loser, a person who The Donald would fire, in fact, according to The Donald, not even a war hero.

The Donald explained that he preferred guys who didn't get captured, guys like himself who evaded military service with a bone spur he claims he had on he forgets which foot, guys who pursued their self-interest at the same time soldiers like McCain risked their lives for their country.

While The Donald cruised around Manhattan in his daddy's limo, caroused at private clubs and collected his first million working for his daddy's firm, McCain volunteered for military service, suffered three shattered limbs when his jet was shot down, endured torture in a Viet Cong prisoner of war camp for five years and refused to jump ahead of other prisoners for release, an offer the enemy made based on McCain's familial connection to military brass.

McCain joined up to make his father and grandfather, both four-star admirals, proud, not to exploit them to benefit himself in the way that The Donald used his daddy.

My union, the United Steelworkers, supported Barack Obama for president and agrees with McCain on virtually no policy issue. Ever. It is, however, without question that McCain responded honorably to the call of duty for his country and sacrificed incalculably for that.

Despite McCain's achievements as a soldier and a senator, The Donald felt entitled to belittle him as "incapable of doing anything" because he didn't make millions by demanding rent money from impoverished tenants, as The Donald launched his career doing.

Money is everything for politicians like Trump and Romney and GOP candidate Carly Fiorina, who laid off 30,000 workers when she ran Hewlett-Packard then stuffed a $40 million golden parachute in her purse before leaving the ailing firm. For them, individual schemes to accrue cash are paramount. And the amount of dough collected is the true measure of a man. Or woman.

It may come as a surprise, then, to these self-aggrandizing capitalists that most Americans don't believe human greatness is the sum of private jets and mega yachts bought with profits made on the backs of furloughed workers. And particularly relevant to politicians who evangelize careless Randian capitalism in the Bible belt is a recent poll that found the values of the faithful to be the antithesis of money worship.

Lake Research Partners released a survey last week of likely 2016 voters who are religious or faith affiliated. It found that devout voters reject the Republican concept that individuals build businesses by themselves and that every citizen must struggle alone in society competing for survival against neighbors and work mates. They rebuffed a culture based on the Donald Trump reality show The Apprentice - where contestants stomp each other to get ahead.

Instead, these religious voters believe in community where members sustain and strengthen each other. They expressed strong support for policies that inure to the collective good including paid sick leave, increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour and investment in children even if that means raising taxes.

This, frankly, is not a surprising finding in a religious country that is a closely bound collection of states. Citizens of the United States have found that they can achieve far more through affiliation and cooperation. No individual state, not even the big ones like Texas or California or New York, could have won World War II.

But 50 states together, with young people volunteering for military service and women stepping up to work in factories and old people buying war bonds, generated the synergistic power of community essential for victory.

Republicans who denigrate those values do so at their own peril. Americans aren't selfish. They don't live by The Apprentice theme song, "For the Love of Money." Americans are better than that. And they deserve better than mean-spirited, self-serving politicians.

Leo Gerard is president of the United Steelworkers, one of the nation's largest and most politically active unions.

Photo: Wikipedia (CC)

Today in labor history: Fast-food workers strike for $15 in seven U.S. cities

Wed, 29 Jul 2015 11:29:00 +0000

On this date in 2013, only two years ago, fast-food workers in restaurant chains such as McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Subway and Domino's Pizza, walked off their jobs and demonstrated in the thousands for a higher paycheck - $15 an hour.

The federal minimum wage at that time was $7.25 an hour - and still is! The nation looked on with admiration and wonderment at this seemingly quixotic demand to more than double wages. Strikers appeared on the streets in front of fast-food restaurants in New York City, Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Mo., and Flint, Mich. They also demanded the right to form a union and warned of a vigorous response if owners retaliated against them.

The contemporary movement for higher wages was inspired by the 2011 Occupy movement, which made it clear to the nation that economic inequality had reached proportions not known since before the economic crash of 1929. The Service Employees International Union and other unions and local action groups have provided funds and organizing personnel to the minimum-wage workers' movement.

The minimum wage has not risen since 2007, and prices on everything have gone up considerably since then. Real wages have actually declined precipitously in the years since, as the 1 percent have sucked up almost every penny of profit and worker productivity in the recovery from the long 2008 recession.

Even President Obama's call to raise the wage to $9 an hour not only got no traction from the GOP-controlled Congress, but minimum-wage workers themselves said it's still not a living wage, and insisted on $15.

A number of states and cities have dealt with congressional inaction by passing higher minimum wage laws, in some places up to $15 an hour by the year 2020, such as recently in Los Angeles, which will also include a cost of living adjustment.

Fast food companies - such as McDonald's, with over 14,000 locations just in the U.S. alone - have made the claim that their franchises are individually and locally owned, and that the corporate headquarters does not set wage and employment policies. Recent court cases have largely debunked that argument, deciding that the eateries are not that independent.

Fast-food titans take down salaries averaging over $15 million for top CEOs, while American workers in the bottom 20 percent - 28 million employees - are paid less than $9.89 an hour ($20,570 a year for a full-time worker). Income in that sector has actually fallen 5 percent since 2006. But the situation is actually worse than that: Many employers keep their work staff on for less than full-time hours per week, thus avoiding the need to provide benefits.

Fast-food corporations like to claim that it's mostly teenagers working a few after-school hours a week who are the majority of their employees, with a high turnover rate. But studies have shown a very different picture: Most employees are adults who rely on this job as their primary income, for themselves and in many cases for their family as well. And if they wanted to find other work, there is none available.

One complaint fast-food workers have made - echoed in other low-wage industries as well - is that their lives are thrown into chaos because managers post work schedules so erratically, and so late, and often so punitively, that it's impossible for workers to plan their week to commit regular hours for a second job, or for classes, or even for child care. Almost every fast-food workers can show you their burns and scrapes from the job.

The mood of the working class has shifted dramatically in the two years since those first brave walkouts. The demand for $15 an hour has spread across the country. If one city passes $15, the neighboring city will feel the pressure to do so as well. And if the lowest-paid workers will receive $15 an hour, that will in theory bump up wages for everyone.

The movement is more than just about wages; it's about consciousness as well. Sen. Bernie Sanders's campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination on the part of is a direct offshoot of this new wave of anti-corporate populism in America, and has already begun changing the conversation in America.

Photo: A Fight for 15 demonstration during 2014 in Los Angeles. | Rossana Cambron/PW

Presidential candidates knocking at labor’s door this week

Wed, 29 Jul 2015 10:24:00 +0000

SILVER SPRING, Md. - Five presidential candidates will appear here today and tomorrow before a gathering of leaders of almost every union in the nation.

The AFL-CIO is opening the summer meeting of its Executive Council where it hopes to lay out a strategy to unite workers across the country behind its Raising Wages Agenda and behind a broad program of progressive action.

It will be no easy task, they say, to turn things around for American workers who have been battered for decades by stagnant wages and many other attacks on their standard of living.

Labor leaders are hoping to achieve this while at the same time ensuring that the keys to the White House are not handed over in 2016 to one of the anti-labor ideologues now vying for the Republican nomination.

"It is the specifics of the Raising Wages Agenda that will drive our in-person discussions with the five presidential candidates here this week," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said yesterday.

The candidates who will make a pitch here for labor support include former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, also a Democrat and former Arkansas governor and current star of Fox News, Republican Mike Huckabee.

Huckabee, who tried to wiggle out of 16th place in the Republican field this week by making sensational and outrageous comparisons between the Iran nuclear deal and the Holocaust, has little or no serious support among labor leaders. He was endorsed only in the Republican primaries in 2008 by the International Association of Machinists, which endorsed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries that year.

Most union leaders here agree with remarks made by Leo Gerard recently regarding the GOP field of candidates. "I don't see a Republican that's worth talking to," Gerard told a press conference during a Good Jobs Green Jobs meeting in Washington D.C.

Gerard is among many labor leaders here who have not yet made an official endorsement. Sanders, however, is a favorite among many Steelworkers, having received standing ovations from them at a number of rallies.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers and a close ally of Clinton, has announced her union's support for the former Secretary of State. A substantial number of AFT members, however, are backing Sanders.

The AFL-CIO in North Carolina and the federation in Vermont were prepared to endorse Sanders recently but held up upon request of the AFL-CIO leadership, which wants to apply maximum pressure on all the candidates while preserving unity in the labor movement. From their point of view the policy is working.

Lawrence Michel, president of the pro-labor Economic Policy Institute noted recently, for example, that Clinton, in her speech on the economy, described the income gap and wage stagnation as the result of conscious policy decisions, not random cycles in the economy. This, he noted, has been the position of the labor movement for a long time.

For their part, the Sanders people are pleased that the AFL-CIO is not expected to endorse this week. Their view is that his candidacy will continue to gain momentum and thereby eventually win the support of a united labor movement.

Clearly the Republican candidate most detested by labor leaders here is Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker who proudly proclaims that "we took on the unions, and we won, we won!"

Walker continued to goad union members last week at the conference of the right wing American Legislative Exchange Council in San Diego where he boasted to the corporate lobbyists in attendance: "I understand you had a few protesters yesterday. For me that's just getting warmed up. That's nothing. I got 100,000 protesters."

Union leaders here say they are determined to prevent Walker from getting away with his campaign to blame all the ills of society on organized labor. "Scott Walker is a national disgrace," Trumka said in a short but blunt statement he issued when Walker announced last month that he was running.

It's not all just grit and determination by labor leaders gathered here this week to do battle on the economy. There is also a definite mood of celebration and excitement.

Union leaders are encouraged by what they see as unprecedented numbers of workers joining the fight for a Raising Wages Agenda and by the fact that in one place after another across America the minimum wage is being raised despite the intransigence of Washington Republicans.

Many here are also proud that their unions are bargaining hard for new contracts for as many as five million workers this year.

"Yet real challenges remain," warns Eric Hauser, the AFL-CIO's communications director. "Anti-worker voices have no shortage of money. Failed trade policies loom and mass incarceration and social justice inequalities persist. And workers remain skeptical that politicians will fight for them."

"The raising wages agenda is about more than income," Trumka said yesterday just before the official opening of the meeting. "We also need fundamental reforms like paid time off to care for a loved one, reliable and flexible schedules, equal pay for equal work, and the right to form a union free from employer interference."

Of the candidates slated to speak here this week, he said: "We want to know what their plan is to raise wages, what economic advisers they will listen to and what actions they will take to make our economy fairer for working families. Our Raising Wages Agenda, not any candidate's political party, is the measuring stick we will use in 2016."

There is also talk here among AFL-CIO staff of adding a new demand to the federation's long-standing fight for comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

Despite directives from the Obama administration, AFL-CIO staffers note that ICE is still raiding workplaces and cooperating with unscrupulous employers to harass immigrant workers. AFL-CIO staffers working on immigration policy are even describing ICE now as a "rogue agency." They want the labor movement to turn up its pressure on the Obama Administration to reign in ICE and halt its policies of harassment and deportation.

Photo: The mass outpouring of workers fighting for higher minimum wage laws all over the country are a source of pride for labor leaders gathered at the AFL-CIO's summer executive council meeting. | Mike Groll/AP

Minnesota, workers want AT&T to comply with state paid leave law

Tue, 28 Jul 2015 13:59:00 +0000

MINNEAPOLIS (PAI and Workday Minnesota) - Paid family and sick leave may be the law now for many companies in Minnesota, but that doesn't necessarily mean the state's businesses - which fought it - are going to obey it.

And such corporate defiance, by AT&T, led members of the Communications Workers and their families to rally outside the U.S. Courthouse in Minneapolis on July 17. They then packed a courtroom where the state of Minnesota and the company faced off over the enforcement of paid sick leave legislation.

Senior employees of AT&T are being denied paid sick leave that is guaranteed under their union contract and protected by state law, the workers said. In May, some 200 workers walked off the job at AT&T's downtown Minneapolis office to protest the company's actions.

In June, Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry Commissioner Ken Peterson wrote AT&T Human Resources Manager Barb Meyer, directing the company to comply with Minnesota statutes on paid sick leave. When it didn't, attorney Jonathan Moler argued the state's case before U.S. District Judge Michael Davis.

The state does not require employers to provide paid sick leave, but if they do, they must comply with state law that says the leave can be used to care for children and other family members, Moler said. The law also says the amount of leave used for this purpose cannot be less than 160 hours in any 12-month period.

"AT&T wants to provide paid sick leave that falls below Minnesota's minimum standard," Moler said.

Company attorney Noah Lipschultz retorted that the state department's action is pre-empted by federal law and that the sick leave issue should be settled through the collective bargaining process. Federal law now has unpaid sick and family leave. Efforts to enact paid leave are marooned in the Republican-run 114^th Congress.

"The issue is 'Who gets to decide?' Lipschultz told Davis. "Who gets to interpret the contract?"

CWA members said AT&T's policy affects their ability to care for loved ones.

Debra Derke, a 30-year employee, was joined by her husband and three daughters as she addressed a rally before the court proceeding. "This is the reason we are here today," she said, motioning toward her husband, Kyle, who now uses a wheelchair after suffering a stroke, heart attack and other health problems. Derke said she and daughters Paige, Nicole and Megan are juggling his care and need her to be able to use her paid sick leave.

Don Waalen-Radzevicius, a 29-year employee, said he was denied paid sick leave to help care for his husband when he was hospitalized.

"There's no reason that a company that has as much money as AT&T does, who continues to make as much money as AT&T does, continues to stomp on us, who make that money for them," he said. "It's a simple request. Follow the law."

The CWA has filed several grievances on behalf of affected employees. At the same time, the union hopes the court will uphold the state's ability to take action in such cases.

Following the oral arguments, Davis said, "We'll sort through the issues and have a ruling out as quickly as possible" on whether the case can move forward.

Barb Kucera, Editor, Workday Minnesota

Photo: CWA members rallied outside the U.S. Courthouse where the State of Minnesota and AT&T faced off over enforcement of paid sick leave laws. Workday Minnesota.

Striking federal contract workers demand "$15 and a union"

Tue, 28 Jul 2015 12:30:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Almost 1,000 striking low-wage workers employed by federal contractors rallied at the Russell Senate Office Building here and demanded $15 an hour and the right to join a union. Two Executive Orders supposedly issued to help them have not helped much.

The one-day strike was coordinated by Good Jobs Nation, which is supported by the Change to Win labor federation, Interfaith Worker Justice and the Campaign for America's Future, among other organizations.

The strikers work at the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, Smithsonian museums and at other federal sites. They cook and serve food, maintain cafeterias and clean offices. All are employed by huge corporations that have been awarded contracts by the federal government.

All earn poverty wages.

Sonita Bailey, a cashier at a café inside the U.S. Capitol, told the crowd she earns so little she also works a second job at Kentucky Fried Chicken. "KFC pays me more," she said. "I work 70 hours a week. It's hurting my health."

Charles Gladden works full time at Senate buildings, but was homeless until he received temporary housing from a charity. "This is not right," he said. "As a worker for the federal government I should not have to rely on charity."

Following a similar one-day strike almost two years ago, President Obama issued an Executive Order raising the minimum wage for federal contract workers to $10.10 an hour. However, according to Good Jobs Nation leaders, many contractors did not comply at all and others used gimmicks to cheat the workers out of portions of their pay.

The workers went on strike again and won an Executive Order mandating penalties for employers who cheat. However, the Order is not being consistently enforced.

Furthermore, even when workers get the full $10.10 an hour, they have discovered it's not enough to provide security for their families.

So they went on strike again, this time demanding a Model Employer Executive Order calling for federal contracts to be awarded only to corporations that pay at least $15 an hour and allow workers to unionize.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., and other members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus addressed the rally at the Russell Building. Sanders said, "The United States is the richest nation in the history of the world. It is unconscionable that only a small number of people at the very top own the vast majority of these riches." He announced his intention to introduce a bill calling for a national $15-an-hour minimum wage.

"LA City and LA County have raised their minimum wage to $15 an hour," he said. "So has Seattle, and New York is about to. The federal government should be the leader, not playing follow the leader."

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Mich., said "the biggest low wage employer in the U.S. is not McDonald's or KFC or Wendy's, it's the U.S. government itself. This must stop."

The crowd responded by chanting what they wanted: "15 and a union."

Photo: Larry Rubin/PW

"La Bestia" victims call for immigration reform

Mon, 27 Jul 2015 16:57:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - "We are living evidence of the harm being done to people by the immigration policies of the U.S.," José Hernández said in Spanish at a meeting here of Trabajadores Unidos (Workers United) of Washington, DC.

Hernández lost his left leg and arm and part of his right hand when he fell from the top of a moving freight train while trying to reach the U.S. He knew that riding on the top of the train would be dangerous but, like thousands of other migrants from Central America, he had no choice. He was desperate to escape poverty in Honduras.

Because of his injuries, he had to return home.

That was twelve years ago. Now he's come to the U.S. to fight for immigration policy reform with other men from the Asociación de Migrantes Retornados con Discapacidad (AMIREDIS), the Association of Migrants Returned with Disabilities. They are also organizing a campaign to urge the U.S. government to help improve the economies of Central American countries so that people do not have to leave their homes in the first place.

"The U.S. must stop sending military aid to the governments of Honduras and other Central American countries," Hernández said. "Instead, the U.S. should help create more jobs."

The Trabajadores Unidos meeting was part of a six city tour by AMIREDIS from Dallas to DC. Members of the group have met with faith based organizations, students, workers, migrant rights organizations, and media. They would like to meet with President Obama.

"'We want President Barack Obama to see the truth of what happens to migrants, the consequences of his immigration policies," said Hernández. "We want him to know that the more people he deports, there will only be more poverty, more violence in our countries. And all the money they're spending to put weapons on the border, that's only causing more death, more kidnappings.'"

Seventeen men from AMIREDIS set out from Honduras February 26 as part La Caravana de los Mutilados (the Caravan of the Mutilated). They crossed Guatemala and Mexico, meeting along the way with government officials and civic leaders. Four stayed in Mexico. The rest crossed the U.S. border March 19 and asked for humanitarian asylum. Border Patrol agents threw them all into a detention center in Pearsall, Texas.

"We were treated like dogs," Hernández recalled. Despite his disabilities, he was put in chains when guards moved him from one place to another.

Thanks to a nationwide campaign, the men were freed after six weeks. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and the Honduran Consulate coerced three of them to sign voluntary deportation agreements, but the remaining ten have asked for U.S. visas. Their request is under review.

Meanwhile, they can continue to describe to U.S. groups the realities faced by people wanting to come here to build better lives.

Some half million people from Central American countries try to reach the U.S. every year. Relatively few make it.

The migrants must go through Mexico, but borders are closed and guarded. For those who cannot afford smuggling fees as high as $10,000, a ride atop a freight train is the surest way to cross Mexico. These trains are known across Central America as "la bestia," the beast. They carry a variety of products to the U.S., including food, automobiles, transportation equipment, cement, chemicals, and plastics. There are no passenger cars, so migrants must hitch a ride on top of the moving trains, facing physical dangers that range from amputation to death if they fall or are pushed.

"The main problem," Hernández explained, "is fatigue and hunger. People must walk for many days, most with very little to eat, before they get to la bestia. Their senses and reflexes are weak at the very time they must be very alert and strong to hang on to the train."

Hernández said he lost his limbs as a result of trying to stretch out and relax on top of a train. He fell off and the train ran over him. He was very lucky, he said, that his accident happened in a heavily populated area. Someone saw him fall and called for help. "If you fall where there is no people, you die," he said.

Aside from being injured, there are many other dangers, Hernández said. Robbers prey upon migrants, gangs kidnap them and rapists attack women.

There were nine men from AMIREDIS at the Trabajadores Unidos meeting.

Trabajadores Unidos Executive Director Arturo Griffiths said, "Two years ago we got organized to address the problems of Latino day laborers in DC; but those problems cannot be solved completely without addressing the issues of immigration in general."

The group voted to give full support to AMIREDIS.

To learn more, and to make a donation to AMIREDIS, go here.

Photo: Asociación de Migrantes Retornados con Discapacidad, Facebook

Netroots Nation delegates discussed unions' role in progressive causes

Thu, 23 Jul 2015 16:47:00 +0000

PHOENIX - Some delegates to the massive Netroots Nation conference in Phoenix, July 16-19, discussed unions' role in progressive causes - and the need for progressives to support unionists and workers' rights.

But seminars on that issue and others took a back seat to the top topics of the conference, comprehensive immigration reform, the battle against anti-Latino racist local sheriff Joe Arpaio, and the battle against racial injustice, whose advocates took over a presidential candidates' forum.

The conference drew thousands of activists from labor, civil rights, environmentalist, progressive media and other causes. It also drew two Democratic presidential hopefuls: Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt., and former Gov. Martin O'Malley, D-Md. The purported front-runner, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who addressed the first Netroots conference a decade ago, pointedly stayed away from this year's meeting.

Unionists at the confab included a large delegation from the Communications Workers, a former top Unite Here activist, and AFL-CIO officials Liz Shuler and Tefere Gebre. The latter two spoke off-the-cuff.

CWA delegates were part of a panel on re-enfranchising people with felony convictions, most of whom are minorities. Another panel was headlined "Unions as the answer to the defining issue of our time," income inequality.

Unionists at Netroots also dived into broader democracy issues, including voting rights and money in politics, two topics of the 52-group multi-million-member Democracy Alliance retired CWA President Larry Cohen and the union founded.

And they discussed the anti-fast-track fight in Arizona - and lessons learned from that fight nationwide over presidential trade authority. That fight will continue, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a separate speech in Texas, as labor will lobby to defeat the worst pact fast-track allows, the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Unions and their allies ultimately lost the fight over fast-track, which opens the door to so-called pro-plutocrat "free trade" pacts without worker rights and with threats to state, federal and local pro-worker laws. Intensive lobbying and arm-twisting by business, Congress' ruling Republicans and President Barack Obama (D) won him fast-track.

"Citizens and activists across the country are fed up with a government that seems to no longer respond to their needs, but rather the donor class and special interests that don't represent the vast majority of Americans," said CWA Democracy Programs Director Tova Wang, and Democracy Initiative Political Strategist Gregory Moore.

"All our progressive goals are not disparate, but only achievable by connecting them under the umbrella of money in politics and voting rights," the CWAers added.

The sessions with Sanders and O'Malley were taken over by activists protesting oppression of African-Americans.

Tia Oso, executive director of the Black Immigrant Network, walked on stage, shook hands with O'Malley and welcomed both him and Sanders to Arizona.

"Welcome to Arizona where a black trans-woman cannot walk down the street. Welcome to Arizona where Martin Luther King Day was repealed by a Republican governor," she said.

"We want to talk about individuals that come from Cameroon, and Somalia, and Jamaica, and Central America. Are you going to talk about the Afro-Mexicans that are being caught at the border? Are you going to talk about Arizona and our state legislature, 75 percent of whom are members of ALEC?" Oso asked.

ALEC is the secretive radical right American Legislative Exchange Council, a business-GOP cabal, which met at the same time Netroots did, but in San Diego. ALEC crafts union-smashing laws as well as the shoot-on-sight state legislation that let a so-called Neighborhood Watch volunteer kill unarmed African-American teen Trayvon Martin in Florida - the first of the unjustifiable killings that Oso and other activists cite.

ALEC's Republican puppets then push such laws - from union-busting to shoot-on-sight to Arizona's notorious anti-Latino SB1050 -- through compliant legislatures.

At Netroots, Oso's group "held space" and recited the names of persons of color who died at the hands of police. "If I die in police custody, know that silence helped kill me, white supremacy helped kill me" they intoned.

The protesters made it clear that they wanted to hear how the candidates would address state and police violence against people of color. They were not satisfied, they said, with statements about broad economic policies and proposals.

Netroots convention-goers insisted the advocates let O'Malley speak, but they were rebuked. "We are only obligated to listen to the truth!" was one remark.

Sanders got similar treatment when he tried to make the point that large multinational corporations control both the media and the economy, subjugating workers and minorities.

"We want you to talk about black lives right now at this moment," one advocate responded. None of what Sanders said "matters if I'm dead," another shouted. "If I die in police custody, income inequality didn't kill me!" a third yelled.

Patrick J. Foote of the People's World contributed material for this story.

Photo: Arrest Arpaio not the people! Local activists and attendees at Netroots Nation 15 march to the Phoenix Sheriff's Department demanding Sheriff Joe Arpaio be arrested. Earchiel Johnson/PW flickr

Today in labor history: Brewery workers unite!

Wed, 22 Jul 2015 11:23:00 +0000

On this date in 1886, brewery workers in San Francisco declared a historic victory against the brewery owners. In June they had formed the Brewery Workers Union, comprised mostly of socialist German workers. Their goal was most importantly to resist the prevailing 16-18 hour workday. But they achieved much more. On July 22, 1886 the breweries admitted defeat and gave in to union demands for free beer, the closed shop, freedom to live anywhere for brewery workers (who had up until then typically lived in the brewery itself), a 10-hour day, six-day week, wages of $15-18 per week, and a board of arbitration.

The brewery workers borrowed a tactic from their fellow Irish immigrants: the boycott, which had been used in Ireland primarily around rent and land demands. The objective was to create social ostracism and support for the labor cause.

The year 1886 is, of course, historic for the American labor movement in other ways as well. It was the year of the Haymarket Riot in Chicago, where the demand for a shorter work day was also led by German socialists and anarchists, and which led to the establishment of May Day as the international workers holiday.

Other brewery workers unions emerged around the same time in such cities as Philadelphia, Baltimore, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, and elsewhere, under the auspices of the Knights of Labor.

Another tactic embraced by the brewery workers was the use of the union label, designed to encourage the development of a mutually supportive culture among all sectors of the working class. If workers saw the union label on their bottle of beer, it could only inspire them to think about unionizing in their own shop.

Another significant characteristic of the brewery workers union is that it organized all crafts within the industry into one union - drivers, firemen, engineers, and maltsters. As such it was the first successful industrial union, which led in time to the One Big Union concept of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and later to the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).

The close association between taverns and particular breweries led in short order to the establishment of the Hotel, Restaurant Employees and Bartenders Union in 1891, whose descendent is to this day once of the most powerful forces in the labor movement. Bars and eateries proudly displayed their union shop certificate.

On October 2, 1886, the union launched their newspaper, the Brewery Worker (Brauer-Zeitung in German), which declared itself a socialist organ. It published the following credo, which has not gone out of style well over a century later: "The abolition of classes and class government is our object."

Adapted in part from foundsf.org and Brewing Battles: A History of American Beer by Amy Mittelman.

Obama names emergency board in NJ Transit dispute

Fri, 17 Jul 2015 14:40:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - A presidential emergency board will wade in, take testimony and suggest a solution for the ongoing labor-management dispute at New Jersey Transit, one of the nation's busiest commuter railroads. The railroad carries almost one million passengers daily.

President Obama named the board, at the request of the unions representing the railroad's 4,000 workers, on July 16. It's the third such Presidential Emergency Board (PEB) Obama had to name, all of them dealing with management intransigence at commuter railroads.

The latest board, chaired by veteran labor arbitrator Elizabeth Wesman and joined by arbitrator Barbara Deinhardt and attorney Ann Kenis, must report by August 16. Weisman has also taught at various upstate New York universities, while Deinhardt was a professor in New York City. Kenis, a Chicagoan, worked for several unions there, among other positions.

"The transit rail system is vital to our nation's economy, and it's crucial that we ensure it runs smoothly. That's why I'm grateful these talented individuals have agreed to serve the American people by helping to swiftly and appropriately resolve these labor-management disputes," the president said in a statement.

Health care is the key issue in almost four years of fruitless talks between New Jersey Transit and its unions, now united in the New Jersey Transit Rail Coalition. When talks went nowhere, the union coalition asked Obama to appoint the board, after asking the National Mediation Board, which governs union-management relations in railroads and airlines, to release them from arbitration with management.

The release could open the way for a strike, or for New Jersey Transit to lock out the workers. The unions made clear they asked for the presidential board so they would not be forced to strike. "By announcing our intention to invoke a PEB, we want to remove any fears the riding public may have that a strike could occur in July," the coalition had said.

"We seek a voluntary settlement and not a strike. That having been said, we must strive for the best but prepare for the worst," BLET-Teamsters New Jersey Transit General Chairman David Decker said when the coalition sought the board. "This coalition has one goal, a fair contract for our transportation and mechanical brothers and sisters at New Jersey Transit", added John McCloskey, chairman of Smart's Railroad, Mechanical and Engineering sector. "Negotiations were at a complete standstill, so this request...is a necessary one."

Photo: Wikipedia

GOP funding bill would force the NLRB to lay off one-third of its staff

Fri, 17 Jul 2015 14:28:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - The Obama administration is blasting a Republican-authored money bill for the National Labor Relations Board, the Labor Department and other agencies, saying the cuts would force the NLRB to lay off one-third of its staff.

In an eight-page letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., Obama's Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew detailed dozens of objections to the money bill, which also covers the Labor, Education and Health and Human Services Departments.

"The board would be forced to reduce its staffing levels by over one-third, hampering its ability to investigate and litigate unfair labor practices and conduct secret ballot elections around the nation," Lew told Cochran.

But Lew stopped short of saying Obama would veto the Senate bill. And his letter did not compare the Senate's bill to the more-draconian House GOP money bill for the NLRB and the other agencies. That measure has the same cut and the same bans on NLRB action.

"We have a number of serious concerns about this legislation, which would underfund these important investments" in health care, public health, job training and education "and (which) includes highly problematic ideologically motivated provisions," Lew wrote to Cochran.

"The cuts would result in tens of thousands of the nation's most vulnerable children losing access to Head Start, millions of fewer workers receiving job training and employment services, and drastic cuts to scientific research awards and grants, along with other impacts that would hurt the economy, the middle class, and Americans working hard to reach the middle class," Lew added. He also objected to cutbacks in student aid grants and oversight.

One of the most-drastic cuts, Lew said, is to the NLRB. It's so large, he added, that the agency might have trouble doing its job of overseeing and ruling on labor-management relations for most of the private sector, plus the Postal Service.

The Senate's planned money bill would "slash funding for the National Labor Relations Board by more than $30 million, or 11 percent, below both the president's budget and below even the 2013 post-sequester levels, crippling its ability to protect workers from unlawful treatment on the job for taking action to improve their working conditions," Lew said.

Lew also objected to two ideological "riders" senators included, hampering the agency's ability to enforce labor law. The House version of the measure has those riders, too.

"Other riders in the bill would harm workers. For example, the bill blocks a (Labor Department) regulation that would protect retirement savers by ensuring that investment advisors are acting in the best interest of their clients. This is a commonsense rule that protects those saving for retirement from being steered into investments that are in their advisors' financial interest, but not theirs," Lew said.

And it "blocks NLRB's rules to level the playing field for workers who want to vote on whether to have a voice in the workplace and interferes with the NLRB's adjudicatory function by prohibiting it from deciding cases regarding joint-employer standards or the appropriate size of a bargaining unit," he said. But job safety agencies get hurt by GOP cuts, too, Lew added.

"The bill also prevents the Occupational Safety and Health Administration from moving ahead to update 40-year-old exposure limits for respirable silica, which can cause cancer and silicosis-an incurable and sometimes fatal lung disease.

"The administration believes that the Congress should consider appropriations bills free of ideological provisions," Lew said right after that.

The anti-OSHA rider is on top of cuts in OSHA's funding and funding for the Mine Safety and Health Administration. The administration objects to those slashes, totaling $106 million (11 percent) below Obama's budget request.

Such cuts "would lead to fewer inspections of dangerous workplaces, a slower response to fatalities and serious injuries, and diminished protections for workers who report unsafe and unscrupulous behavior," Lew said.

"This would result in weaker protections for low-wage workers deprived of fair pay, parents who seek to take legally protected leave after their children are born, and underage workers who are put in harm's way. As a result, almost $80 million less in back wages would be recovered-money that would make a real difference for these workers and their families.

The Senate bill "underfunds enforcement of minimum wage, child labor, family leave, and other wage and hour laws by $67 million, or 24 percent, below the president's budget," Lew said. And he objected to the Senate's plan totally ax $35 million in grants to states to encourage them to enact paid family leave laws.

"Millions of families cannot afford to use unpaid leave," which is now law. "The United States is the only advanced economy that does not offer paid maternity leave and one of only two advanced countries that do not offer paid sick leave," he said.

That's why Obama's Labor Department is using the grants to encourage the states to act. Left unsaid: Federal family leave legislation, supported by unions and pushed by women's groups, is going nowhere in the anti-worker Republican-run Congress.

Lew also said the Labor-HHS bill "fails to protect the quality of service at the Social Security Administration (SSA)," cutting the money by $892 million. Cutting funding for SSA concerns both their union, AFGE, and the elderly whom Social Security serves.

AFGE has launched rallies and lobbying in Congress to push for full funding, with increases, not cuts, in Social Security administration and staffing. Its members tell lawmakers of the jammed phone lines, closed offices, long wait times for information and SSA's scheme to force everyone to sign up for benefits online - a method that, without guidance, leads to non-reversible errors which cost retirees money. Lew's letter repeated most of those arguments.

Photo: AFGE, We are the doctors, border patrol agents, scientists, and food inspectors that keep America healthy and safe. We are AFGE.

Clinton, Sanders meet top union leaders

Thu, 16 Jul 2015 14:10:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - The two leading Democratic presidential contenders - at least in public polls - met behind closed doors July 13 and 14 with top union leaders to talk positions and strategy.

Unionists met separately with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and with Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind.-Vt. The meetings occurred just after Clinton unveiled her economic blueprint, including pro-worker planks, in a New York speech.

And the meetings with Sanders at Postal Workers headquarters and at Clinton's campaign manager's D.C. house contrasted with the anti-worker anti-union bombast marking the formal presidential campaign debut of right wing Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wis.

Walker opened his drive on July 13 by glorifying his efforts at trashing Wisconsin's public workers unions, and after signing a state budget that weakened tenure protections for state universities' professors and that cut the university system's budget by $250 million.

Participants in the D.C. meetings with Clinton on July 14 and Sanders on July 13 declined to give details of what was discussed, saying those matters are confidential. But both candidates made positive impressions, they said.

Workers' support is important to all presidential hopefuls, but especially to Democrats Clinton, Sanders, former Govs. Martin O'Malley (Md.) and Lincoln Chafee (R.I.) and former Sen. Jim Webb (Va.). That's because unionists and their families not only turn out to vote, especially in presidential years, but they provide effective ground troops for campaigns.

"I think Bernie (Sanders) is voicing the concerns of average working people, completely free from the influence of the bankers, the brokers and the bastards," said one union leader who attended Sanders' session. But that leader also took pains to say Clinton qualifies, too.

"He (Sanders) is speaking to the anger people have, and proposing solutions," the union president said. Among Sanders' stands, he added: Opposing "the climate of budget austerity where we cannot do anything for the American people," increasing Social Security payments and the system's revenues and investing in rebuilding U.S. cities and infrastructure.

Clinton is addressing many of the same issues. Her closed-door session with the leaders was one day after her major economic speech in New York, where she declared "we have to build a growth and fairness economy.

"You can't have one without the other," she said. Points within that economy include:

Raising the wages of the middle class by, among other things, enacting paid family leave and other pro-family measures, such as raising the minimum wage. Low-paid workers "don't need a lecture. They need a raise," she said.
Strong union support. Clinton specifically denounced Walker on that, drawing a contrast with her own stands. Her prior pro-union statements were one reason the American Federation of Teachers board endorsed her two days before.

"Republican governors like Scott Walker have made their names stomping on workers' rights," Clinton declared in New York. "I will fight back against these mean-spirited, misguided attacks."

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who did not attend the closed-door meeting with Sanders, was more caustic about Walker, calling him "a national disgrace."

Photo: AP

The push is on to save Social Security, create jobs for youth

Thu, 16 Jul 2015 12:04:00 +0000

Passing the Employ Young Americans Now Act (S.1506) would be an important step in the fight to preserve and expand Social Security.

Jobs for youth

Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders introduced S.1506, along with Rep. John Conyers (H.R.2714), in response to the crisis in youth unemployment. This summer, there is a shortage of at least 6.5 million jobs for young people aged 16-24. During the rest of the year, the shortage averages about five million. In many urban communities of color, but also in smaller towns and rural areas, real youth unemployment exceeds 50 percent.

Sanders' Employ Young Americans Now Act (S.1506) would spend $5.5 billion to provide one million young Americans with jobs and provide job training to hundreds of thousands more. The funds would be directed to those communities with the highest youth employment, providing significant impact in African American, Latino, and Native American neighborhoods and many small towns and rural areas.

Social Security

Opponents of Social Security often pit the interests of youth against security for seniors. They say that greedy seniors are living high off the hog at the expense of their grandchildren. They say that we must cut Social Security today, or there will be nothing left when for workers retiring in 30, 40, or 50 years. They have convinced many young people that "Social Security will not be there for me."

These lies are financed and spread by billionaires who want working people, old and young, to fight each other over crumbs, while the one percent keep getting a larger chunk of the pie.

How can we be sure Social Security will be around for those retiring in 2040 and beyond? A national jobs for youth program is an important part. Here's why.

Meeting future needs

The future of Social Security depends on the state of the U.S. economy. Will the working age population of this country be able to produce enough goods and services so that retirees can have a decent standard of living, without shortchanging the needs of everyone else for shelter, health care, education? And will that be possible with the aging population?

The productivity of the economy depends on many things. But among the most basic and essential are a skilled workforce and a robust infrastructure, so that workers can produce the necessary goods and services.

Teenagers and young adults today will be "prime age" workers 10, 20, and 30 years from now. Everyone in our country will be depending on them to make the country work. They will be the doctors and teachers, the truck drivers and service workers, the government administrators and utility workers. The Employ Young Americans Now Act can help young people gain work experience they meed for them to develop the job and social skills to be a highly productive part of society. Which, in turn, can lead to an economy strong enough to maintain and expand Social Security while meeting the needs of the rest of the population.

Support for the Employ Young Americans Now Act is not only an instance of solidarity between the generations of working class people; it important for guaranteeing the future of Social Security.

Legislation

In addition to the Employ Young Americans Now Act, Sanders has submitted two other bills which impact jobs and Social Security.

The Social Security Expansion Act (S.731) would modestly increase benefits, especially for low-income retirees. Rep. Conyers is also a sponsor.

The Rebuild America Now Act (S.268) would invest $1 trillion over five years to rebuild America's crumbling network of roads, bridges and transit systems and other infrastructure projects, and create or maintain at least 13 million decent-paying jobs. Along with a skilled workforce, a robust infrastructure is essential for an economy capable of meeting people's needs.

Sanders' presidential campaign has helped make expanding Social Security a national issue. And he has long been an advocate for our nation's infrastructure and workers. These three bills, together, are an important base for a program to insure economic security for American working families.

Photo: New Haven youth activists speak at a 2013 rally to defend Social Security. | Art Perlo

Time to raise Social Security benefits: highlights of Retired Americans Conference

Thu, 16 Jul 2015 11:02:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - The 2015 Alliance for Retired Americans Legislative Conference took place July 7 thru 10. The week began with great speakers and informative workshops for senior and labor activists. It also included "storming Capital Hill" to lobby the Senate and the House on a variety of issues.

Scrapping the cap on taxable income so that the billionaires and millionaires pay their fair share on all their income just as most seniors have to do, was a big issue.

In addition ARA and labor seniors raised fully funding Medicare and Medicaid and not "voucherizing" or privatizing them. Other issues included passionate calls for defeating the TPP trade deal, raising the minimum wage, massive federal infrastructure projects to rebuild the country and millions back to work.

Video highlights here: https://vimeo.com/133583713

Ara Legislative Conference Highlights 2015 from Scott Marshall on Vimeo.

Photo: PW

Abolition of two-tier wage system tops UAW bargaining with GM

Wed, 15 Jul 2015 15:05:00 +0000

DETROIT - Abolition of the two-tier wage system at the nation's "Detroit 3" car companies, and raising all workers at those firms to the top tier, is apparently the top bargaining goal of the United Auto Workers, who opened talks with General Motors on July 13.

While UAW President Dennis Williams' official announcement referred only obliquely to the two-tier wage system, news reports indicated he was more explicit: He wants to kill it.

The union and the Detroit 3 - GM, Ford and, now, FiatChrysler - agreed on the two-tier systems when the carmakers were hemorrhaging money during the Great Recession. Under the system, new hires at the firms make half of what veteran workers in the same jobs make.

The Detroit 3 have been adding jobs ever since they recovered from the recession, and from the bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler. Fiat bought Chrysler in a deal the Obama administration helped engineer. The administration also restructured the bankruptcy terms for the "new GM" to keep that firm alive.

A new contract with GM would replace the current four-year pact, which expires at midnight on Sept. 14. Though the talks with GM were the first to start, Williams told Detroit-based automotive writers the union has yet to pick one of the three for its "pattern contract."

Unlike past decades, however, the UAW's "pattern contract," regardless of which car company signs it, may not be a template for other wage-and-benefits packages, union and non-union nationwide.

That's because while the car companies were the largest single sector of the U.S. economy in the 1950s and early 1960s - and GM was the nation's largest employer - those titles have been ceded to the low-wage service sector and to viciously anti-worker anti-union, low-paying Wal-Mart, respectively.

Pattern or not, UAW quoted Williams as saying it's important to the union to bridge the wage gap "between entry-level and legacy employees."

The lower tier of GM workers - the new hires - earn between $15.78 and $19.28 hourly. They're "not middle class the way they should be," Williams said. Their veteran colleagues on the higher tier earn $28-$33 hourly. The higher rates are for skilled crafts, such as electricians.

"These negotiations will not be easy. But they are no more difficult than those we've had in the past," Williams said. "We have a membership that has, because of the economy, had stagnant wages, and we plan to address that. We all plan to bridge that gap."

Williams said that as GM and the other two Detroit-based automakers have recovered economically - GM earned $6.6 billion on U.S. operations last year - GM and the UAW created a "very good profit-sharing program" that benefited the workers.

But "after the last two bargaining periods, UAW members made a lot of sacrifices to help GM achieve prosperity. Now, we feel like it's our time," said Williams. "Our goal is for GM to prosper, for shareholders and consumers to win and for all UAW members to share in the prosperity of their achievements. We can all win."

Speaking to the union's auto bargaining conference in late March, Williams had previously denounced the low-wage second tier.

"A society built on low-wage jobs does not deliver purchasing power," he said then.

Health care may also come up, but in an odd way, in the talks, Williams indicated in his discussions with the auto writers. That's because, as part of the rescue, GM sold its health plan for rank-and-file workers to the UAW's Voluntary Employees Benefits Association (VEBA), which now administers it.

And VEBA apparently runs the plan so well that the company has asked UAW if it would be willing to add the white-collar, non-union share of the workforce to the plan. Doing so would give the plan more income, more members - and more leverage to get reasonable prices from doctors and hospitals.

Photo: UAW workers install a trailer hitch on a vehicle. | GMC Facebook page

Today in labor history: black farmer union leader murdered by sheriff’s posse

Wed, 15 Jul 2015 14:16:00 +0000

After leading fierce battles on behalf of sharecroppers and tenant farmers in Alabama, Ralph Gray, a leader of the Croppers' and Farm Workers Union in Tallapoosa County, was brutally murdered July 15, 1931, by a heavily armed white mob, organized by the county's sheriff.

Utilizing Robin D.G. Kelley's seminal "Hammer and Hoe" as a source, Steven Niven for the Oxford Index writes:

"One of 15 children, Gray was born into a family with a strong radical tradition. His father, whose name and occupation are unknown, was the son of Alfred Gray, an African American state legislator in Perry County, Alabama, during Reconstruction who famously vowed to fight for the Constitution 'until hell freezes over.' A critic of both white racism and the inadequacy of the Freedmen's Bureau, Alfred Gray recognized that his outspoken militancy came at a price. 'I may go to hell,' he told an interracial gathering in Uniontown in 1868; 'my home is hell, but the white man shall go there with me' (Kelley, 39).

"Ralph Gray, who was only one year old when Reconstruction ended in Alabama, grew up hearing stories of his grandfather's radicalism. But like most of his black neighbors, he also suffered from the failure and suppression of that radicalism: working long hours on his parents' farm from an early age and migrating to the rapidly industrializing city of Birmingham in search of work in the early 1890s before returning to Tallapoosa at age twenty-two, in 1895, to marry and become a tenant farmer."

In 1931, a white merchant, John Langley, cheated Gray out of money from a federal loan that Gray had received. Gray filed a complaint with the state Agricultural Extension Service, after which Langley attempted - unsuccessfully - to beat him as Gray won that fight.

These experiences led Gray to read the Southern Worker (a peoplesworld.org predecessor) "whose articles on the plight of tenant farmers and sharecroppers and their efforts to fight back against unscrupulous merchants and landlords struck a chord with his own experiences," writes Niven.

"Alongside his brother Tommy Gray, Ralph Gray joined the Communist Party and helped found a Tallapoosa branch of the Croppers' and Farm Workers Union (CFWU) in April 1930. The timing was propitious, since it coincided with a decision by several landlords in the county to withdraw all cash and food advances from their tenants to try to force them to seek work in a recently opened sawmill that the landlords also operated. The CFWU's demand that landlords restore the traditional cash advances struck a chord with Tallapoosa blacks, as did its program calling for a minimum wage of a dollar a day, the right of tenants to market their own crops, the extension of the school year for black children to nine months, and the provision of free school transportation.

"By July 1931, the Grays, assisted by Mack Coad, an unemployed black Communist steelworker from Birmingham, had increased CFWU membership in Tallapoosa to eight hundred but had achieved few concrete victories other than the restoration of cash advances for a few tenants. Nevertheless, the simple fact of black political organizing, not to mention the involvement of the Communist Party, terrified the region's white power structure and made a violent confrontation almost inevitable. On 15 July 1931 Tallapoosa County Sheriff Kyle Young deputized a posse of whites to break up a meeting near Camp Hill, where eighty CFWU members had gathered to discuss the case of the Scottsboro Boys, nine African American youths falsely accused of raping two white women who had been sentenced to death by an all-white jury five days earlier. After assaulting many of the unionists, both male and female, the white vigilantes moved on to the home of Tommy Gray and attacked him and his wife, who suffered a fractured skull.

"The beatings ended after the timely arrival of an armed and extremely angry Ralph Gray. Upon discovering copies of the Southern Worker, the police arrested two of the unionists for possessing Communist Party literature. Unbowed, a crowd of 150 CFWU members gathered the following night at a church near Camp Hill. Expecting white vigilantes or the authorities - the two were barely distinguishable - Ralph Gray established a picket line and stood guard a quarter-mile from the meeting. When Sheriff Young, his deputy, and Camp Hill's chief of police approached Gray, an argument ensued, and shots were exchanged. A New York Times report claiming that Gray fired first was based largely on police accounts.

"Within moments both Young and Gray were on the ground, the sheriff shot in the stomach, Gray unable to move because of several bullet wounds in his legs. While Young was rushed to a nearby hospital and a posse moved on to break up and fire on the CFWU meeting, Gray was left at the side of the road to die. Some comrades rescued him, however, took him home, and called a doctor.

"The physician responded to the call but also apparently alerted the police to Gray's whereabouts, prompting the heavily armed white posse, now 150 strong, to descend on Gray's home. There one of the posse forced a pistol into Gray's mouth and shot him dead. After burning down his home, the mob then placed Gray's brutally beaten and bullet-riddled body on the steps of the county courthouse, a clear warning to other Tallapoosa blacks of the consequences of joining the Croppers' Union or the communists.

"In the days that followed, the police arrested as many as fifty-five union members, all of them black, charging most with weapons offenses but indicting five for murder. Many of the unionists were beaten by the police and white mobs, and an uncertain number were killed, though several escaped, fearing that the Camp Hill police chief would succeed in his professed desire to 'kill every member of the "Reds" ... and throw them in the creek'" (Kelley, 41).

Efforts to stifle sharecropper activism briefly succeeded, but the worsening plight of tenant farmers throughout the South soon led to other organizing efforts, including the founding of five chapters of a revived CFWU, now known as the Sharecroppers Union (SCU), in Tallapoosa County in August 1931. Among the SCU's first members in Tallapoosa was a young sharecropper named Ned Cobb, whose story was told pseudonymously by Theodore Rosengarten in the book All God's Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw (1974).

Gray was honored in party and left literature, most notably in Ruby Weems's poem, "The Murder of Ralph Gray."

First published in PW on July 15, 2013