People Before Profit blog

State workers tell Missouri lawmakers: Stop stealing from us

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:02:00 +0000

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - "We are here to let these people know what is really going on," said Missouri State Workers' Union (MSWU-CWA 6355) president Bradley Harmon to about 250 union members here on the Capital steps March 30.

"If you want good services, you have to stop stealing from public employees," he yelled as legislators continue to debate taking away workers' rights through so-called right-to-work and pay check deception legislation.

"You have to stop stealing from the disabled, from children, and from senior citizens," Harmon continued. "Everyday our work is vital to the state of Missouri. Without us Missouri stops."

The MSWU and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) called the lobby day to bring attention to Missouri's public workers, the worst paid public workers in the nation. The average public worker in Missouri makes about $32,000 annually and hasn't had a pay raise in three years.

Additionally, last year state workers agreed to contribute 4 percent of their salaries to their pensions, the state mileage rate was cut to $.37 cents and out-of-pockets health care costs have increased with higher premiums and deductibles.

Over the past year over 3,000 state worker jobs have been cut, but the state's budget problems persist.

Clark Brown from SEIU said to the group, "You are our face, the face of state workers. They want to blame our states' fiscal problems on you, but the average state worker makes about 15 percent less than their private sector counterparts." Brown continued, "The fact is they are picking on us. They need to get off our backs and stop blaming us."

The Missouri House and Senate are both republican dominated. One of their top priorities this legislative session is SB 202, known as pay check deception.

"Pay check deception would bankrupt us," said Brown. "It would be the death of state workers" and lead to worker discrimination, he added.

SB 202 would institute up-to an $8 surcharge every pay-period for union dues deductions, robbing unions of much needed dues moneys. Additionally, SB 202 singles out union dues deductions specifically where-as other deductions (charities, etc.) do not have the same surcharge.

According to Herb Johnson, MO AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, "SB 202 would eliminate your ability to participate in the political process. It is an unconstitutional piece of crap. And we're going to kill this bill."

Missouri state workers are also concerned about so-called right-to-work legislation, SB1. Simply put, so-called right-to-work legislation outlaws "union shops" by forcing unions to represent workers who do not pay union dues. This legislation would weaken all unions, and lower pay and benefits for all workers.

Workers in so-called right-to-work states make about $5,500 less on average than their counterparts in other states. Additionally, 78 percent of union employers provide health care, where-as 51 percent of non-union employers do not provide health care, and 77 percent of union employers provide defined benefits pensions, where-as only 20 percent of non-union employers do.

"If we let this happen we're not going to have unions in Missouri," emphasized Brown. But, "We are one!" he said. "Right-to-work? Not in our state! Pay check deception? Not in our state!"

Image: Mark Esters, MSWU-CWA 6355/PW

Justices dig into details of Wal-Mart sex discrimination

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:47:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court dug into the details of Wal-Mart's alleged years of discrimination against the retail behemoth's own woman workers, trying to figure out whether those women as a class legally could sue the monster company.

In an high-octane back-and-forth oral argument March 29, several justices wondered whether the lawyers for the women were advancing a novel theory: that Wal-Mart kept tight rein over its thousands of store managers and yet gave them enough freedom to - combined with the slant in the training it gave them - practice widespread sexual discrimination in pay and promotions.

The justices are considering Wal-Mart's claim that the estimated 1.6 million present and former female workers at the retail megafirm have the right to sue it as a class for widespread, long-time discrimination in pay and promotions based on sex.

Wal-Mart, which has battled that right in the courts for a decade, says they must sue it one by one. And at one point in the March 29 hearing, Wal-Mart's attorney denied they could even do that. The actual case has yet to go to trial.

"The plaintiffs did not have to prove there was an actual policy of discrimination and that that was the company's policy, but they at least needed to point to a policy that was common and that linked all of these disparate individuals and disparate locations and different people together," Wal-Mart attorney Theodore Boutrous told Justice Samuel Alito.

"Their argument is the common policy is giving tens of thousands of individuals discretion to do whatever they want. That is not commonality. It's the opposite."

Justice Anthony Kennedy, considered the potential "swing vote" on the court, was even more skeptical than that.

"A city is not liable for a constitutional violation unless it has a policy. Would you think we could use that as an analogue to determine whether or not there is a common question here?" he asked.

"The analogue is that if a company had a policy, a general policy, of discrimination as opposed to here, where it's a general policy against discrimination, and (we) saw patterns throughout the company and because of sex, because of gender, continued to allow the pattern to exist, that would raise a different question," Boutrous replied.

Boutrous also claimed, to Chief Justice John Roberts, that if the women lost certification as a class - and thus couldn't sue Wal-Mart as a group - they couldn't sue individually, either.

The justices got Joseph Sellers, the attorney for the women, to describe what they were seeking, besides back wages, should they ever get to - and win - a class-action trial in lower courts. The case has been going for a decade with the two sides battling over the right to a class action, and not the facts of the discrimination itself.

"An injunction would look like a series of remedial measures that would direct Wal-Mart to provide for detailed criteria by which to make pay and promotion decisions that are job-related in a way that hasn't been true up until now. It would provide for it to hold managers accountable for the decisions they make. It would ensure effective oversight of these pay and promotion decisions," Sellers replied. "The company had allowed these problems to fester."

"The company did have, by the way, information regularly submitted to it about pay decisions, it took no action, and it did not effectively monitor" its managers, he said.

"What you need to do is show that there were disparities sufficiently substantial to create an inference of discrimination with respect to a discrete practice."

Roberts tried to get Sellers to compare Wal-Mart's pay policies to the wider society. Sellers, gently, said the point was to concentrate on Wal-Mart.

"Wal-Mart's obligation under Title VII" of the Civil Rights Act is to "ensure its managers do not make pay decisions because of sex, and the comparison that's relevant is between men and women at Wal-Mart, not the general population that includes people in retail, but includes railroad workers and all kinds of other people. That's not the appropriate comparison," Sellers replied.

"It's not clear to me: What is the unlawful policy that Wal-Mart has adopted, under your theory of the case?" Kennedy asked.

"Our theory is Wal-Mart provided to its managers unchecked discretion...that was used to pay women less than men who were doing the same work in the same facilities at the same time, even though those women had more seniority and higher performance, and" that Wal-Mart "provided fewer opportunities for promotion than women because of sex," Sellers replied.

"Your complaint faces in two directions," Kennedy concluded.

The justices will decide the case by June 30.

Justices protect workers who file verbal complaints

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 16:11:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - A complaint is a complaint, and it's valid - and protected - whether it's verbal or in writing, at least under the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act.

That's what the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 6-2, on March 22 in Kevin Kasten's retaliation case against St. Gobain Plastics Corp.

And its ruling could help low-income, often-abused workers everywhere.

Kasten complained verbally and repeatedly to his supervisors several years ago about misplaced time clocks at the plant. The clocks were placed in such a way that the workers could not get time credit - or get paid - for the time they spent putting on or taking off protective gear. He even warned the misplaced time clocks could lead to a lawsuit. Federal law says firms must pay workers for that gear time.

Not only did St. Gobain brush Kasten aside, they fired him in Dec. 2006, and he sued. St. Gobain tried to get his case tossed out by saying he was basing his complaint about being illegally fired on his time clock complaints - and those had to be in writing.

That's not the way the law reads, Justice Stephen Breyer replied for the majority. Though lower courts said only written complaints are covered, the high court said "no," that both oral and written complaints are legit. Thus, St. Gobain illegally retaliated against Kasten.

"The act protects employees who have 'filed any complaint,' Breyer wrote. "The language of the provision, considered in isolation, may be open to competing interpretations. But considering the provision in conjunction with the purpose and context leads us to conclude that only one interpretation is permissible," namely that a complaint is a complaint, orally or in writing."

To buttress his point, Breyer cited state laws, federal rules and court decisions as far back as 1925, all allowing oral complaints and claims. Breyer also pointed out that when FDR proposed the law in 1937, he advocated allowing oral complaints.

"Why would Congress want to limit the enforcement scheme's effectiveness by inhibiting use of the act's complaint procedure by those who would find it difficult to reduce their complaints to writing, particularly illiterate, less educated, or overworked workers?" Breyer asked. "President Franklin Roosevelt pointed out at the time that these were the workers most in need of the act's help."

"In many plants where there is a high degree of illiteracy, the writing of grievances by employees works a substantial hardship," he continued. "In other plants where there is considerable dirt and special clothes must be worn, it is often not practicable to write up grievances during work hours."

Conditions may have changed, but the law has not - and verbal complaints are legal and company retaliation against complainers is illegal, Breyer said.

Image: S.E.B. // CC BY-NC 2.0

Video: Angry workers confront Wisconsin's governor

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 16:08:00 +0000

JANESVILLE, Wis. - Over 3,000 angry workers and their supporters picketed Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who was speaking to a Chamber of Commerce meeting in Janesville, Wisconsin on March 29^th. (video below)

The protesters massed at all the entrances to the Holiday Inn Express here and booed those driving in to hear Walker speak. Security was tight and Janesville police checked each driver as they listened to chants of "Shame, shame, shame," and "Hey Hey Ho Ho, Governor Walker has got to go!"

(Story continues below video)

Janesville Protest v Walker from Scott Marshall on Vimeo.

Most of the police were clearly sympathetic to the demonstrators. Still, in a friendly way, they were trying to keep everyone on the sidewalks and out of the street. Finally, organized righteous frustration broke out. The people just poured into the street and marched up to the front of the hotel and surrounded the main entrance.

The protesters were already in a festive mood when word came that the judge who had issued the temporary restraining order had now issued a strong injunction against implementing the anti-labor law. Noting that the law had violated the states open meetings act, the judge also said she would enforce her order with criminal charges if necessary.

A steelworker expressed the mood of the demonstration when he said he was glad to be adding to Walker and the Chamber's indigestion.

Image: Scott Marshall/PW

No means no! Wisconsin judge blocks Walker bill - again

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:04:00 +0000

MADISON, Wis. - A judge here ruled March 29 that a restraining order is still in force blocking a law that kills collective bargaining rights for public workers. Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issued the ruling yesterday after Republican Gov. Scott Walker defied the restraining order she issued last week.

In issuing the restraining order last week, Judge Sumi said the ramming through of the bill by Republican lawmakers without adequate notice likely violated the state's public notification requirements.

Ignoring the restraining order, the governor has already begun implementing some of the harshest anti-worker aspects of the bill: He has ended the collection of union dues by the state from the paychecks of public workers and he has increased the amounts deducted from their paychecks for healthcare benefits.

Wisconsin Republicans continued their finagling to try to justify the governor's actions. Wisconsin law clearly stipulates that a bill passed by both houses of the state Legislature and signed by the governor becomes law only after it is published by the secretary of state. Secretary of State Doug La Follette, a Democrat, has not published the measure because of the restraining order in place against his doing so. Last Friday, the Legislative Reference Bureau published the bill, and Republican lawmakers said that step made the anti-worker bill into a law.

Walker's moves drew strong condemnation from Wisconsin AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt.

"This guy thinks he is a dictator who can ignore the laws of Wisconsin and trample down workers' rights in his extreme overreach for absolute power," Neuenfeldt said. "By attempting to unilaterally publish a bill and implement it as law in the face of a court order to the contrary shows Walker and his Republican pals completely unfit to govern the state of Wisconsin."

Judge Sumi, yesterday, also blasted the governor. She said the actions of Walker and the Republican lawmakers, or anyone else who ignores the restraining order, put them "in peril of sanctions" and serve to "jeopardize the stability of the state."

It was revealed during the court hearing yesterday that the Legislative Reference Bureau had been strong-armed into publishing the bill by Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. Visibly uncomfortable staffers of the bureau were asked in court if they had been put under pressure. After hesitating, Cathlene Hanahan, deputy chief of the bureau, said of Fitzgerald, "He is our boss. His asking could be seen as insisting." Stephen Miller, the bureau's director, said he did not believe the publishing of the bill by his bureau would make it law.

The judge's latest ruling, observers note, is a warning to state agencies such as the Department of Administration, which has begun implementing the anti-union bill, that they too are in violation of the court order.

Republicans are now claiming that state agencies like the DOA are not parties to the lawsuit and are not subject to Sumi's restraining order.

Asked if the agency would observe the court order, DOA Secretary Mike Huebsch said, in a phone interview, "We will continue to confer with our legal counsel and have more information about how to move forward in the near future."

Commenting on the Republican resistance to the court orders, Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller, D-Morona, said, "They seem incapable of hearing people who say they are wrong."

All over Wisconsin, meanwhile, unions and their allies continue their fight against Republican attacks on workers' rights.

On April 4 the state will be the scene of major gatherings and protests in a national Day of Action. The labor movement picked that day because it was on April 4, 1968, that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, where he had gone to stand with sanitation workers demanding their right to bargain collectively under the auspices of AFSCME, the public employees' union

Thousands are expected to kick off the actions in Madison a day earlier, on April 3, by marching on the Capitol and massing in the rotunda for an event titled "Been to the Mountaintop." Inside the Capitol they will conduct a mass singing of labor songs, with local unions providing thousands of songbooks.

On April 4 AFSCME will help lead a Poor People's Campaign march and rally at Madison's City Hall. The Rev. Jesse Jackson will address thousands who gather for a rally at the Capitol, followed by a candlelight vigil expected to fill the grounds surrounding the building well into the night.

Also, on that day there will be Rock the Vote rallies around the state, in preparation for crucial state Supreme Court elections April 5, when labor and its allies hope to elect Assistant Attorney General Joanne Kloppenburg to the state's high court and defeat pro-Walker incumbent David Prosser.

The Rock the Vote rallies are also intended to build support for recall campaigns against Republican state senators. The rallies are planned for Milwaukee, De Pere, Janesville, La Crosse, Sheboygan and numerous other towns and cities.

Image: Thousands are getting ready to protest Gov. Walker and his illegal anti-union moves. Teresa Albano/PW

Ohio Republicans set to pass SB 5, repeal drive begins

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 14:37:00 +0000

COLUMBUS, Ohio - The situation is very fluid, shifting daily, but Ohio House Republicans have the votes to pass the vicious anti-worker Senate Bill 5, which was approved earlier by the state Senate. They are expected to pass the bill this week, with Ohio Gov. John Kasich likely to sign it next week.

Organized labor, meanwhile, has built a massive coalition of community, religious, academic, retiree and allied groups to oppose the legislation and has already announced its intention to immediately mount a campaign to put the bill on the November ballot as a referendum.

While we won't really know the total damage that SB 5 will do until we can see the entire bill, with amendments, we do know that it is a massive corporate attack on the right of public workers to bargain collectively. Among other things, SB 5 would:

End the right of public workers to bargain collectively over most issues, including health care, safety and pensions.
Outlaw strikes by public workers.
Impose "merit pay" on public workers, meaning bosses can pay those they choose more, while paying others who don't "suck up" less!
Set up a "right to work" (for less) situation for public workers in Ohio, ending closed shops, and thus, the power of workers to bargain effectively.
Set up procedure to end union representation, by 30 percent of a shop petitioning to decertify a union.

Gov. Kasich and his fellow Ohio Republicans sold this outrageous attack on community standards and union representation by stating that it was needed to "balance the budget." However, just prior to putting SB 5 forward they had OK'd a huge set of tax cuts for corporations. Questions on why they've continued giving away public funds when there is such a crisis, requiring the elimination of basic human rights to solve, have gone unanswered by GOP spokesmen.

Fight for justice

All Ohio unions, and a massive coalition of community, faith and pro-justice groups have united in a push to immediately mount a huge campaign to put SB 5 on the November ballot. To do so will require a huge, united campaign.

Putting SB 5 repeal on the fall ballot requires a petition with 231,000 valid signatures, including 3 percent of those who voted for governor in 44 of the state's 88 counties. There will be approximately 90 days to accomplish this, and it will be necessary to get twice the required number of signatures to be sure there are enough.

"We need all the help we can get," said Jeanette Mauk, Ohio AFL-CIO field director. "To get this on the ballot, then win this battle for justice, will require a huge effort. Anyone wanting to help can find work in this fight!"

All this week rallies are being organized at the Statehouse. Ohioans are urged to join the rallies and support workers fighting for justice.

Mauk is heading up a drive to create "labor action teams" that will help spearhead the fight against SB 5. To join a LABOR ACTION TEAM, you can email jmauk@ohaflcio.org , contact Mauk at 614-224-8271 (ext. 7144), or just pop into to the Ohio AFL-CIO office at 395 E. Broad St., Columbus.

Phone banks are now set up and running Monday-Saturday (9 a.m.-7 p.m.) at the Ohio AFL-CIO offices, 395 E Broad St. People who can volunteer for an hour, or longer, are asked to call Scott at 614-259-8146, or just come down to the office and help out. The call responses are running overwhelmingly against SB 5, in support of workers, families and communities.

To receive text messages from the Ohio AFL-CIO on the fight against SB 5, folks can text "ohaflcio" to 313131

On Thursday, March 31, an extremely important town hall meeting in Columbus has been organized by Democratic legislators opposed to SB 5. Those initially sponsoring the event are State Reps. Michael Stinziano, Ted Celeste, Nancy Garland and Tracy Maxwell Heard.

Union members and supporters are urged to turn out en masse for this significant, first of its kind, event. "Show up, have your say," labor activists urge. A big turnout, they say, will show that these legislators have strong support for voting for workers, for our communities, and against SB 5!

Thursday's town hall meeting will be at 6 p.m. at the IBEW union hall, 23 W. 2nd Ave., Columbus

A related action will take place here on Monday, April 4. Forty-three years ago on April 4, Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., while leading a fight to support striking Memphis sanitation workers. Those workers were fighting, using their right to bargain collectively, and to strike if they were treated unfairly - both rights now being taking away from Ohio public workers by Republican legislators. Dr. King gave his life for the rights of all working folks.

An April 4 program will take place at the King Arts Complex, 867 Mt. Vernon Ave., Columbus, with speakers, music and faith leaders.

Image: A sea of union members and allies protest anti-working people laws. Photo by Debbie Kline

Missouri unions mobilize against anti-worker bills

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 11:54:00 +0000

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - "These people are not our friends," said Mike Louis, from International Association Machinists District 9, referring to the new crop of right-wing Republicans that now control the Missouri House and Senate. Louis was speaking here at the annual Missouri AFL-CIO Labor Legislative Conference March 28.

According to Herb Johnson, Missouri AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, "We are faced with the big three: SB 1, so-called 'Right to Work'; SB 202, pay check deception; and HJR 6, so-called "Save Our Secret Ballots'."

SB 1 was the first piece of legislation introduced into the Missouri Senate this year. Republicans claim it will create a better business climate and create jobs.

However, according to Sam White, from the University of Missouri Labor Education Program, "'Right to Work' means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. But one thing is certain: 'Right to Work' does not increase earnings for working families. It does not create jobs."

Workers in so-called right-to-work states make about $5,500 less a year than workers in other states ($35,500 compared to $30,167). Union density is far lower in right-to-work states; 6.6 percent compared to 15.1 percent. Additionally, right-to-work states spend about $2,670 less per pupil on elementary and secondary education than other states.

Most importantly, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, workplace deaths are 52.9 percent higher in right-to-work states.

Simply put, so-called right-to-work legislation outlaws "union shops" by forcing unions to represent workers who do not pay union dues. Right-to-work legislation attacks union density, weakens collective bargaining rights for all workers and lowers wages.

Secretary-treasurer Johnson added, "They have only one thing on their mind - to attack our very existence. It is a waste of time, a waste of taxpayer dollars and a great big pack of lies. It is outrageous and unconstitutional, and it's going down the crapper."

State Treasurer and Teamster Clint Zweifel told conference participants, "Unions are the building blocks of our economic recovery. Union jobs create opportunity, an entry point into the middle class."

"They aren't simply attacking the institutions of labor. They are attacking the infrastructure that unions have built. They are attacking our families, our communities. They are attacking our hope, our optimism, and the idea that we can do better," Zweifel added.

He continued, saying that, as treasurer, "I make investments. Your tax dollars are invested in companies that invest in you, not kick you while you're down."

Also on the Republican agenda is HJR 6, so-called "Save Our Secret Ballot". According to the Missouri AFL-CIO, HJR 6 fixes a "problem" that doesn't exist; federal law already requires unions to hold secret ballot elections.

According to McVey, paycheck deception (SB 202) would "get us out of politics, which is what they want. They want us out of politics."

Attorney General Chris Koster highlighted the plight of state workers. He said, "We are not going to fix this economy by taking $32,000 jobs and turning them into $25,000 jobs."

"State workers' wages have actually gone backwards 10, 12, 15 percent," Koster added.

The average state worker in Missouri makes about $32,000 a year, and according to the Missouri State Workers' Union, are the worst paid state workers in the nation. Paycheck deception would make payroll deduction of union dues especially difficult for state workers.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon also spoke with conference participants. He said, "Unions have long-been the voice of America's working families. We have an opportunity to stop these attacks, to not just retain what we have, but to move onto the offensive. We have an opportunity to move forward in 2012."

Nixon reminded union members that the labor movement grew by 10,000 members in Missouri last year, saying, "In order to succeed we have to organize and be willing to work collectively."

State Representative Bert Atkins summed up the mood of the conference when he said, "This isn't about unions. This is about harming those organizations that protect workers. Without a union we are just individuals. Unions are the voice of the working class in this country."

Union members will spend the rest of the conference lobbying their representatives and senators against anti-worker legislation.

Image: Stock photo of Gov. Nixon, who spoke at the conference. Provided by his office.

UAW delegates vow to build mass movement

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:08:00 +0000

DETROIT - The United Auto Workers Special Bargaining Convention, held here last week, was like nothing this reporter has attended before. The March 22-24 event was three days of preparing the union to do battle with, and defeat, extremist Republicans and Wall Street. The goal of building broad unity within the working class movement and with all its allies to fight to save our nation was front and center.

That was reflected in the union's invitation to Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, head of Green for All, to address the convention. Introducing her, UAW President Bob King said the union is now a "proud member" of the labor-environmental Blue-Green Alliance.

In an earlier era, the UAW had sided with U.S. auto corporations in opposing higher fuel-efficiency requirements for cars and trucks, with the idea that any curb on the companies would hurt autoworkers. But that outlook has changed.

Ellis-Lamkins quickly won over the 1,200 delegates and guests here, saying, "We both fight for good clean jobs. There is no better movement to be a part of." And she brought the house down when she declared, "This room is filled with heroes and heroines. People who believe this country is for all."

To deafening applause she continued, "When you return home after the convention and people ask what you were doing, answer: ‘I was saving our country.' This is a revolution to keep our country. You are not alone. Organizations like ours are with you."

Reacting to her remarks, UAW Local 963 President Mike McComb, from Adrian, Mich., said he is a strong supporter of clean manufacturing. He pointed to Ohio Governor John Kasich's refusal to accept federal funds for high-speed rail. That's "insane," McComb said. "It's missing the boat, it's so obvious."

A presentation on nonviolent direct action by activist Lisa Fithian was an indication that union leaders are looking at a variety of tactics to meet today's challenges. Recalling the 1936-37 Flint, Mich., sit-down strikers, King said, "This is how the UAW was won. If we don't build a mass street movement, we will hand our children a world that is not as good."

Delegates rose to their feet again and again during a talk by actor and activist Danny Glover. Receiving the UAW's social justice award, Glover said, "The economic paradigm has failed us. We need a new vision of humanity. Whatever we call it, it is being built by workers in Wisconsin and Indiana."

Developing global solidarity is increasingly see as important to the survival of this union - and every other union. The UAW is moving quickly on this front.

UAW Secretary-Treasurer Dennis Williams said the union has established a Global Organizing Institute. The goal is to focus on one transnational company's disrespect for global human rights in this country and abroad. Williams said interns from other countries have been in the U.S., talking to workers at unorganized "transplant" companies here, and learning the tools to organize autoworkers in their respective countries.

The interns have come from India, Australia, South Korea, Japan, China and other countries. Interestingly, while talking to workers here, they were surprised to learn the steep challenges U.S. workers face in organizing unions.

Chidambaram Sai Prasad, from India, told delegates, "This is not the idea of America that we had. We thought that America is a free country and that people had rights."

Another focus at the conference was solidarity with public sector workers. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten gave a moving defense of public workers under attack by Republicans here in Michigan and in other states.

Weingarten warned that Republicans are "hoping people will be so demoralized they won't go to the polls" in 2012.

That happened in November 2010, said Lew Moye, a retired Chrysler worker who is president of the St. Louis chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. But now, he said, "Everybody is ready for the 2012 elections. Now is the time. We lost some members in 2010 to the Republicans. We've started the process to bring them back home."

Radio and TV host Ed Schultz told cheering delegates, "If they can turn you all into cheap labor, they will put up the banner: ‘Mission Accomplished.' We can't let them do it."

Fittingly, the convention did not adjourn until delegates marched to the downtown Detroit office of Bank of America. Chanting "Money for schools, not for banks. We pay taxes, why don't you?" the 1,000-plus crowd temporarily shut down the bank.

"We didn't cause this crisis but we are the ones being attacked" said Tiffany Bush, a UAW Local 1781 member who works at Blue Care Network in Southfield, Mich. Bank of America should "pay taxes like everybody else," she said.

As the convention delegates headed to the bank, UAW workers from Wisconsin marched in front. Mike Godlewski, vice president of UAW Local 75 in Milwaukee, said, "The more solidarity between unions, the better chance we have to save collective bargaining for everybody." He said he was "fired up," ready to "spread the word" about the convention's proceedings.

That summed up the spirit here as delegates headed home.

Photo: UAW delegates march to the Bank of America office in downtown Detroit, March 24. PW/John Rummel

Corrected 3/31/11: An earlier version of this article had an incrrect name for Blue Care Network in Southfield, Mich.

New Yorkers keep Triangle fire legacy alive

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 16:12:00 +0000

NEW YORK (March 25) - Thousands of New Yorkers marked the 100th anniversary of the worst industrial accident in city history - the deadly Triangle Shirtwaist fire - with a ceremony at the site where 146 garment workers died.

The 100th anniversary has prompted more media attention this year than perhaps previous ones, along with more prominent speakers like U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and Sen. Charles Schumer.

But it has been the thousands of everyday New Yorkers, including the family members of victims and survivors, that have kept alive the memory and legacy of the Triangle workers.

"It's an historical day, a sentimental day for me," said Steve Byer. "I was raised in the garment industry and with the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. I've been alive for 58 years and coming to these for 50 years."

Byer credited the labor movement for winning job safety and workers' rights laws. "If it wasn't for this a lot of fire laws and labor laws would not have been passed," he said.

The victims of the Triangle fire were mainly young immigrant women. Many of them jumped to their deaths to escape the flames because the doors had been locked by factory management. Some workers attempted to douse the flames, only to find that the water supply for the fire hoses had been cut off.

The fire galvanized the labor movement and prompted many improvements in fire safety, such as laws mandating fire drills, and labor law reform.

One attendee, Rita, said she has been coming to the site of the factory every year since moving to New York in 1992. "I remember when i was 10 years old growing up in Iowa, I saw a TV show about this fire," she said. "I come by every year after the ceremony to see the carnations. So i wanted to come today to pay tribute. I took the day off work. It's a day we should all remember. It's brought a lot of changes, but at a horrible cost for the victims and their families."

A militant labor organizer of the time, Clara Lemlich, had led a strike of 400 of her coworkers at Triangle just two years before the fire in 1909. While still recovering from a severe beating by management thugs, Lemlich, a Communist, delivered a rousing speech at a rally a few weeks later that helped convince garment workers across the city to take part in a general strike.

Within days, 20,000 walked off the job, demanding a 20 percent raise, a 52-hour workweek, overtime pay, and collective bargaining rights. They also called on city leaders to institute and enforce better workplace health and safety standards.

"I was brought up knowing about the Triangle Shirtwaist factory. My father was a garment worker, my father-in-law was a pattern maker. I know they would have wanted to be here today so I showed up. I'm not in a union but I support unions. They gave us the weekend and put bread and food on our table," said David Schaeffer.

The Triangle commemoration brought yesterdays struggles in today's context, joining union, women and immigrant rights' issues together in a common bond.

"One hundred years ago immigrant workers spoke Yiddish, Russian and Italian. Today they speak Chinese and Spanish," said Laborers Local 79 business manager John Delgado in introducing Wilfredo, an immigrant worker whose "story needs to be told."

"I came here to work and got a job. I felt fortunate. But 100 years after this terrible even where so many died, some things have not changed. I was not paid overtime, I have no benefits, at work doors are locked with padlocks, and there are no bathrooms. Workers then needed a union and still need unions," Wilfredo said.

George Gresham, president of 1199SEIU, pointed to economic forces still at work then and now.

"It's not enough to recognize that it was corporate greed that took the lives of these women and men 100 years ago, when it is still corporate greed that is the problem today," he said.

New York Sen. Schumer fired up the crowd when he said, "Today, some on the far right want to rob workers of their hard-earned collective bargaining rights. They seek to fray the social safety net under the false pretense of fiscal austerity.

Today, ladies and gentlemen, those hard gains are under threat across the United States by those who want to drag our nation back to 1911."

The commemoration provided an opportunity to pass on the labor history of yesterday and issues of today to the next generation. Students from Canada buddied up with their peers from Queen's PS 65 for a field trip to the site.

"We learned about the history of working in a factory, and then we came here to New York to look at [the Triangle factory] on the 100th anniversary and how it came to be that now we have Saturdays and Sundays off," said one of the students.

Photo: (Gabe Falsetta/PW)

Union sees AT&T buyout of T-Mobile as good for workers

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 15:40:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - AT&T's planned $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile from that wireless carrier's owner, Deutsche Telekom, could open the way for unionization of the thousands of T-Mobile workers who have been denied a voice on the job, the Communications Workers of America says.

That's because CWA has a "company neutrality" agreement built into its contract with AT&T, which also covers any other company that the Dallas-based AT&T buys.

"CWA and the labor movement in Germany, have partnered to support T-Mobile workers in the U.S., and the global union movement has been a strong supporter of this effort," CWA President Larry Cohen said. "CWA and ver.di, the German union, formed a joint union - TU - that represents T-Mobile workers on both sides of the Atlantic.

"Hundreds of TU members in the U.S. will welcome this news since of all the possible partners, AT&T will mean better employment security and a management record of full neutrality toward union membership and a bargaining voice," he continued. "For T-Mobile USA workers who want a voice in their workplace, this acquisition can provide a fresh start with T-Mobile management. Some 42,000 AT&T Mobility employees are union represented," he noted.

"If the deal goes through, the same principle of management neutrality that AT&T follows would apply, so workers could make up their own minds about bargaining rights and a union voice," CWA Communications Director Candice Johnson said.

The proposed deal, approved by the boards of both companies and announced March 20, would make AT&T the largest provider of mobile and high-speed broadband service in the U.S. In return for T-Mobile, Deutsche Telekom would get $25 billion in cash and 8 percent of AT&T's stock, worth $14 billion. That would make it the largest single AT&T stockholder and give the German company an AT&T board seat. By German law, ver.di has a seat on Deutsche Telekom's board.

But U.S. regulators must still approve the deal, and they're encountering opposition from T-Mobile customers who contend AT&T provides inferior service.

CWA's Johnson said the union's analysis of the deal showed it was good for the T-Mobile workers, including the 23,000 the union has been trying to organize - over company opposition and labor law-breaking - for years. It leaves AT&T debt-free, meaning it can invest money in hiring more workers to expand and buildout its wireless broadband network, she pointed out. T-Mobile's other suitor, Sprint, "is notoriously anti-union" and would have had to borrow billions both to buy T-Mobile and to merge the two firms' operating systems, which are different from one another. AT&T and T-Mobile have the same system.

Image: Communications Workers of America // CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Upper Big Branch miner describes scene at blast

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:04:00 +0000

UPPER BIG BRANCH MINE, W. Va. - On that dismal day in West Virginia history, when the Upper Big Branch mine exploded, a son of one of the miners, Eddie, went from person to person asking: "Is there any word?"

The heartbreaking answer, about his father and 28 of his colleagues, was "no."

Former Upper Big Branch miner Stanley "Goose" Stewart recounted that scene - and others - on March 21, in a soft voice with a lilting West Virginia accent, to a crowd of people jammed into a congressional hearing room.

Stewart and Christopher Jones, a Louisiana lawyer and brother of one of the 11 men killed when BP's Deepwater Horizon deep sea oil well exploded, burned and sank in the Gulf of Mexico a year ago, recounted their stories to a rapt audience gathered to commemorate the centennial of yet another tragedy: The March 25, 1911, Triangle Shirtwaist Co. fire in Manhattan.

The meeting, run by the National Consumers League, several unions and their allies, was to honor the 146 Triangle victims - and to remind listeners that workplace safety is still subject to the whims of corporations that put people over profits, a century later, and to renew a mass campaign for workers' rights in both safety and unionization.

What transfixed the crowd were the personal stories, particularly the one "Goose" told about the April 5, 2010, explosion at the Massey Coal Company's Upper Big Branch mine. The two stories also reminded the listeners that workers' lives are at risk - and that when workers die on the job, whole communities suffer.

Upper Big Branch "was one of the most unsafe mines I've worked in, and I've worked in the mines for 35 years," Stewart said. He had been a union miner - in mines represented by the United Mine Workers - where conditions were safer, until Massey, known for its flagrant disregard of safety standards, bought them out.

"It was a cult-like atmosphere" at Massey, where the command was "push-push-push and load that coal," he said. "But you can load coal safely," Stewart added.

Conditions at Upper Big Branch were so bad, he noted, that fellow miners told him they feared for their lives. "There's no ventilation at the far end" of the long mine wall, three miles deep inside the mountain, one told him. Ventilation is a key to any underground coal mine - and later probes called Upper Big Branch's ventilation lacking.

And, then, that April 5, the blast occurred.

"The day of the explosion, I was 300 feet inside the mine entrance, sitting on a man ship" and waiting to be conveyed further into the mine, Stewart explained. There, Goose would join his friends - miners are a close-knit community in the West Virginia mountains - "Spanky (the one who feared for his life), Eddie, Eddie's two nephews, Timmy, "Griff" and the others.

"In a matter of seconds, I felt a slight breeze coming from inside the mine - and that was wrong. We were three miles at least from the point of the explosion, but it was like a hurricane hit. We stumbled out as fast as we could and then turned and looked. Buckets and debris were flying out.

"One guy said there must have been a big roof fall" inside. "I said, 'No roof fall is going to create what we experienced. The mine blew up.'"

The management team arrived before rescue teams and went in - they were the ones Eddie's son talked to - but what came out, Stewart said, was another man ship with nine men in it. Eight were dead. More followed later. The bodies were laid out on the pavement of a parking lot, and Stewart made sure there were blankets under each.

"I couldn't just let them lie there on that cold concrete," he added. "And I crossed their hands" in front of their chests. "They needed some respect."

"And then I sat down and cried."

Stewart has told his story several times on Capitol Hill, adding that for families, the worst part was uncertainty. His wife, for example, couldn't get through by phone, and knew something had happened, but didn't know what.

Stewart still sees his friends in his mind's eye, especially at night when he usually can't sleep without strong medicine. He's told his story while urging lawmakers to strengthen mine safety laws and crack down on rogue operators, such as Massey.

So has Jones, who lost his brother Gordon, a "mud" engineer checking the mixture used to keep oil pressure down at a well, when the Deepwater Horizon exploded. BP "has a lot of money riding on this. The only way they'll make changes is if they have incentives" to do so - such as big fines and jail terms -- he said.

Jones noted a Steelworkers local president in Louisiana - USW represents oil workers, though not those on deep sea rigs - told him the federal fine against BP for a 2005 refinery blast, at Texas City, Texas, was $50 million, a record. "Or about 20 minutes worth of their profits," Jones commented. "How much incentive is that?"

Workers target bank backing Gov. Walker

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 15:48:00 +0000

MADISON, Wis. - There's a bank in the Midwest that still hasn't repaid its federal bailout loan, that is notorious for selling its customers' personal information without their consent and that gave Republican Governor Scott Walker even more money for his election campaign than he got from the Koch brothers.

The Marshall & Ilesley Bank, the largest in this state, with branches throughout the Midwest has, for all of its misdeeds, become the target of both the Sheet Metal Workers here and their union brothers and sisters across the border in Canada.

The union campaign against M&I bankers aims to accomplish two things: Reverse its sale to a bigger bank in Canada and get as many people as possible to withdraw their money from M&I.

Millions in Canada watched on television news March 22 as union members mobilized by the British Columbia Federation of Labor paraded into the annual meeting of the Bank of Montreal in Vancouver, British Columbia to oppose that institution's purchase of M&I.

The following day, March 23, there were union rallies and marches at M&I branches in Wisconsin, the Twin Cities and Kansas City. Union members and their supporters at the rallies were angry about a long list of things they say the bank has done to hurt working families.

First, they noted that campaign finance records show M&I executives stuffed $46,308 into the successful gubernatorial campaign of the tea party-backed Walker who has made himself into a leader of a national Republican effort to strip workers of their rights, particularly their collective bargaining rights.

Half of all the money M&I put into political campaigns last year went to Walker, and the M&I banker executives were his biggest corporate contributors. The Koch brothers, the infamous anti-union oil billionaires from Kansas City, were the second biggest, with $43,000. That figure, however, does not include millions of dollars they spent on attack ads against Walker's Democratic opponent.

Second, the Sheet Metal Workers note, M&I executives organized a June 22, 2010 fundraiser for Walker where other corporate kingpins joined them and "bundled" together large amounts of money for Walker. Such "bundling" of campaign money is allowable ever since the Supreme Court ruled in favor of unlimited corporate contributions and allows individual donors to remain anonymous.

Particularly irksome to the Sheet Metal Workers and the rest of the labor movement is the fact that people in attendance at that June 22 fundraiser say that it was there that Walker revealed his plans to strip workers of their collective bargaining rights. Throughout the remainder of his campaign, he never mentioned those plans again.

Third, the union members are also angry at the bank because M&I, despite privacy laws, is apparently selling its customers' private information to third parties, without their consent. "That's what actually brought the Sheet Metal Workers into the battle," said union spokesperson Paul Pimental.

"Buried in the fine print" of the agreement the bank makes its depositors sign "are details of how their privacy rights are being compromised," a union fact sheet says.

"Deep inside a supplemental document is language that strips these rights and gives M&I the right to sell or give away some of the most intimate details of a customer's banking life including information identifying the customer, their address, their assets and income, employment history, their medical information, information on accounts, transactions on those accounts and their use of the M&I website."

Customer information can be turned over, without the customer's knowledge or consent, to the IRS, credit bureaus, government agencies, M&I or other banks, and to undefined third parties, the union notes.

A fourth big issue for the union is that M&I borrowed $1.75 billion from the U.S. government's Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) when the 2008 financial crisis exploded. The union notes that, unlike most banks that did the borrowing, M&I has failed to pay back a single penny.

The workers who marched into the Bank of Montreal meeting presented the execs there with all of these arguments and more.

They noted that if the Bank of Montreal purchases M&I it would be on the hook for the TARP money.

They condemned the sale to the Canadian bank because, under its terms, M&I CEO Mark Furlong would get an $18 million golden parachute while $65 million in severance pay would go to other M&I executives.

"Instead of rewarding these bank executives, the Bank of Montreal needs to examine and reverse the obscene level of compensation paid to M&I executives," said Jim Sinclair, the British Columbia Federation of Labour president. Sitting next to him, as he made his appeal to the Canadian bank executives, were Betsy Kippers of the Wisconsin Education Association, Judy Darcy of the Canadian Hospital Employees and Marc Norberg of the Sheet Metal Workers.

Bank of Montreal Chairman David Galloway admitted the payments were "unusually high" but said his bank would have to honor the M&I executives' contracts.

Union members then challenged Galloway on M&I support for Walker and his killing of collective bargaining rights for 200,000 Wisconsin public workers. Galloway sidestepped the entire issue of M&I's role and responded only by saying, "I believe in collective bargaining."

As for the union campaign to pull funds out of the bank: The Firefighters have already led an effort to do so at one M&I branch in Madison. M&I responded by closing the branch.

Jeff Skiles, the co-pilot in the famous miracle on the Hudson landing in January 2009, went into his M&I branch on March 22 nd and withdrew thousands of dollars from his accounts in solidarity with the unions.

Photo: Pepe Lozano/PW.

Labor stalwart Irene Hull dies at 98

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 11:40:00 +0000

SEATTLE-Irene Hull, a beloved fighter for trade union rights, world peace, equality, and socialism died on the first day of spring, March 20, in Seattle. She was 98.

A week to the day before her death, she attended her Communist Party club meeting in Seattle. Someone announced the Saint Patrick's Day rally in Olympia to protest budget cuts and to demand that the legislature "tax the rich." Hull spoke up: "I'll go if someone picks me up."

She was a tiny dynamo, two inches shy of five feet tall, barely over 100 pounds. She became a national labor heroine when the Seattle chapter of Jobs With Justice (JwJ) published a poster in 1995 of several enormous police officers arresting Irene Hull.

Lonnie Nelson, a Seattle JwJ leader and a member of Irene's CP club, recalled that day. "It was during a sit-in at Republican Party headquarters to protest their attacks on Medicare," Nelson said. "When the Seattle police told Irene to move, she told them, 'I'm going to go limp.'

"So they handcuffed all of us, hauled us out and put us on a transit bus and took us to the county jail," Nelson continued. "They had us in jail for hours. We sang union songs. We talked about standing up against the vicious Republican attack on Medicare. Through it all, Irene's big concern was my wrists aching from those tight handcuffs." Nelson laughed merrily at the memory.

Quality healthcare for all was the last big battle she fought. Every week, she passed out the People's World to every union office in the Seattle Labor Temple.

A member of the Brotherhood of Bookbinders Local 87, she was recipient of the 2008 Mother Jones Award. Seattle Mayor Norm Rice, the city's first African American mayor, proclaimed Sept. 7, 1996 "Irene Hull Day."

Irene Hull was born Feb. 22, 1913, in Republic, Kan. Her family moved to Southern California when she was seven. Her father was a "jack-of-all-trades" instilling in his daughter "a sense of where workers ought to be, in their unions," Hull said in an oral history interview.

She graduated from UCLA with a degree in education and soon after met her husband. It was her father-in-law who introduced her to Marxism, arguing in support of women's equality and socialism. Hull joined the Communist Party USA in 1942.

During World War II, Hull found work in the Kaiser shipyards in Vancouver, Washington, installing insulation in Liberty ships and taught at the federally funded daycare center for the children of "Rosie the Riveter" shipyard workers.

Hull moved to Seattle and threw herself into the struggle to preserve the federal childcare program. It succeeded in convincing the Seattle School Board to keep them open for three years after the war. By now, Hull, herself, had three young daughters, Bev, Sally, and Marj. Marj Sutherland followed in her mother's footsteps, a party leader in Tacoma and sparkplug of the progressive movement. She predeceased her mother. Pushkara Sally Ashford is a peace and justice advocate, a gifted singer, living on Whidbey Island. Bev Rader lives with her husband in Chehalis. Hull is also survived by her 10 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren.

During the years of Cold War repression, FBI agents followed her from job to job, pressuring employers to fire her. She helped form the defense committee for those blacklisted and expelled from their unions. She was a delegate to the 27^th Convention of the CPUSA, July 2001, in Milwaukee, Wis.

In the struggle to rebuild after Cold War setbacks, Hull joined the Seattle Rank and File Committee, was a founder of the Seattle Coalition of Labor Union Women, and Washington State JwJ. Since 1980 she has been a "delegate in perpetuity" to the King County Central Labor Council. Hull was also a founding member of the now disbanded Seattle Women Act for Peace.

She was one of nearly 60 union members from Washington State who flew via Canada to join in the Sept. 19, 1981, "Solidarity Day" march protesting President Reagan's firing of 12,000 PATCO workers. She traveled to the Soviet Union and was a Venceremos brigadista to Cuba.

Evergreen Labor presented Hull with their "Lifetime Achievement Award" in 2002. Speaking on behalf of the Washington State Labor Council, Robby Stern, now president of Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans, said, "She has never stopped fighting for us. Irene, we love you!"

Photos: Irene Hull is arrested for protesting GOP attacks on Medicare in 1995. In black and white photo, children, including Irene's eldest, Bev, protest Washington State's Canwell Committee in 1948. It was one of the HUAC/McCarthy committees that conducted political witchhunts during the 1940s and 50s. (Courtesy of Pushkara Sally Ashford)

Foundry workers strike to save their healthcare

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:34:00 +0000

BERKELEY, Calif. - A strike yesterday of over 450 workers in one of the largest foundries on the west coast brought production to a halt Sunday night, at Pacific Steel Castings. The work stoppage, which began at midnight, has continued with round the clock picketing at the factory gates in west Berkeley.

Local 164B of the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers International Union (GMP) has been negotiating a new labor agreement at Pacific Steel for several months. The old agreement expired on Sunday night.

The strike was caused by demands from the company's owners for concessions and takeaway proposals in contract negotiations. Those include:

- requiring workers to pay at least 20% of the cost of their medical insurance, amounting to about $300 per month per employee.
- a wage freeze for the first two years of the agreement, and tiny raises after that.
- eliminating the ability of workers to use their seniority to bid for overtime, allowing criteria including speedup, discrimination and favoritism.

"All eight other foundries in the Bay Area have agreed to a fair contract," said Ignacio De La Fuente, GMP international vice-president. "Workers at Pacific Steel haven't had a raise in the last two years, in order to help the company pay for increases in health plan costs. Pacific Steel is now alone among the rest in trying to make its workers give back $300 a month."

The $300 per month would mean an approximately 10% cut in wages for most workers at the foundry.

Joel Soto, a member of the union's negotiating committee, has worked eight years at Pacific Steel, and has a wife, 2-year-old child and another on the way. Soto said, "We've been trying to save money for a house. If we have to give up $300 a month, we'll have to continue renting. My wife and I both support our parents, and that $300 cut is what we're able to give them now that they're old. And with my wife pregnant, we can't do without that medical care."
Benito Navarro has ten years at the foundry, and a wife and son. "That $300 is what I pay for my car to get to work. I'm the only one in my family working, so if we don't have that money, I'll have to give up the car. But I'd rather eat than drive."

On both Monday and Tuesday dozens of Berkeley police, with helmets and face shields, shoved and hit strikers as they attempted to help the company bring trucks full of castings out of its struck facility. On Tuesday, one striker, Norma Garcia, who is seven months pregnant, was struck in the abdomen and taken to a hospital.

"It is inexcusable that Berkeley is spending precious municipal resources on providing protection for this business, and opening the city to liability through these unprovoked actions by police against strikers," said De La Fuente.

"That violence isn't necessary," added Soto. "We're just struggling for our rights. I wouldn't be so surprised to see this in other cities, but Berkeley?" Another worker showed the swelling on his arm he said was caused by a blow from a police baton.

Workers feel additionally betrayed by the company because they and their union testified before the Berkeley City Council three years ago. They urged the city to draft environmental regulations that would allow the foundry to continue operating while installing needed pollution control equipment.

Pacific Steel Casting Co. is a privately held corporation, the third-largest steel foundry in the United States. Its large corporate customers include vehicle manufacturers, like Petebilt Corp., and big oil companies, including BARCO. The company has been very productive in recent years, despite the recession. It chose not to comment.

Photo: A striking worker by David Bacon

Labor urges "virtual picket" around Huffington Post

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:43:00 +0000

The Newspaper Guild has issued a call for a strike to writers who submit free articles to The Huffington Post following the sale of that website to AOL for $315 million. The money will go to the website's founder, Arianna, and some of its private investors.

The guild says the site's use of so called "citizen journalists" who often cover events for free is exploitative.

"Since 2007 and 2008, it's been a bloodbath out there," Lauri Lebo, an organizer for the guild, said about layoffs of journalists from newspapers and magazines. Laid off journalists, in order to keep themselves in the running for new jobs, often work for websites like the Huffington Post for free.

"People write for free with the idea that they can get mass exposure," said Lebo. "The success of the Huffington Post is built on unpaid labor. They're exploiting the journalists who still passionately believe in journalism and believe their exposure in the Huffington Post would move them forward."

The union says it was concerned about the problem for quite a while and that the matter took on greater urgency after the website's sale.

Candice Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Communications Workers of America, the union to which the guild belongs, said: "It's not a boycott. The Newspaper Guild is asking writers that contribute to the Huffington Post not to do so at this time. That doesn't include organizations or people from organizations who are advocating for a particular cause." She explained that the union wants the website to develop a pay policy for the writers and bloggers it calls "citizen journalists."

Mario Ruiz, a spokesperson for the Huffington Post, said the website does pay some of its journalists. He said that includes 160 full-time editors and reporters who make up the website's newsroom.

The union's policy of not asking representatives of organizations to refrain from writing for the website leaves room for Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, and Leo Gerard, presient of the Steelworkers, to continue the columns they write for the website. Spokespeople for both union leaders say they have not decided whether they will stop their columns.

Image: Ariana Huffington will get even richer off the sale of her website to AOL - but writers won't make a cent. JD Lasica // CC BY-NC 2.0

Shop Talk: Credit and some good news for labor

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:41:00 +0000

Give unions some credit

Jim Wavada, a union member who lives in Spokane, Washington, got fed up recently with right-wingers who have been trashing unions in their letters to The Spokesman Review. His letter to that newspaper follows:

I've had it with letting the willfully ignorant advance the billionaire's club agenda. Gene Scolavino's (Letters, March 19) is just the latest.

Point 1: AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, unlike Dick Armey at Tea Party Express or Karl Rove at Americans for Prosperity, was actually elected to his position by union members in a democratic process.

Point 2: The "pro-union mob" in Wisconsin looked a lot like schoolteachers with children in tow, social workers, farmers, policemen and firemen.

Point 3: My union president has a day job at a social service agency. Her union time is donated. Where does Dick Armey pick up his paycheck?

Point 4: My union's political contributions are completely voluntary by rule created by members by majority vote. Of course most of these voluntary donations go to Democratic candidates. Where else would they go? Has the tea party Republican shown anything but contempt for unionized workers?

Point 5: As unappreciative as Mr. Scolavino may be, here's what union members died to give him and his friends: child labor laws, the 40-hour work week, the eight-hour day, overtime pay, annual vacation, workplace safety rules, fair promotion policies, pension plans, sick leave, health insurance.

Facts are hard things.

More union ferries coming to New York

There will soon be more union crews running ferries that will steam around the rivers of New York City.

According to the Seafarers Log, New York Waterway, a Seafarers-unionized firm, will soon launch an expanded city-sponsored commuter ferry service up and down the East River.

The 16 ferries, to be crewed by more than 100 Seafarers, will run for at least three years under a $9 million city contract that has been awarded. The service will run every 20 minutes. "At minimum, this should mean a solid opportunity for steady work," said Seafarers Vice President Joseph Soresi.

Flight attendants allege discrimination

A lawsuit, filed by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA in federal court in Minneapolis, outlines how the "New Delta" airlines management is engaging in discrimination against flight attendants at the former Northwest Airlines, whom AFA-CWA previously represented.

The discrimination includes lower pay, a profit-sharing bonus that was half of that given to former Delta attendants, and refusal to align crew schedules.

The lawsuit also cites Delta management statements telling former Northwest attendants nothing would change unless AFA-CWA dropped its charges of management interference in last year's union representation election loss at the merged carrier. Those statements amount to a clear case of retribution against the Northwest attendants for having supported the AFA-CWA, the union says, and violate the Railway Labor Act.

The suit is the latest part of a long drive for union representation at the "New Delta," formed in 2008 when non-union Delta swallowed up the unionized Northwest.

The union, which lost two prior recognition elections at Delta, tried again at the combined carrier. It lost by just 300 votes out of more than 19,000 cast, amid massive management interference. The Machinists also lost three elections at the "New Delta."

After its latest loss, the AFA-CWA filed charges last November with the National Mediation Board, which oversees airlines and railroads, seeking to set the vote aside and order a re-run.

In retaliation, Delta management gave a profit-sharing bonus this year of 6.5 percent to former Delta attendants and only 3.2 percent to former Northwest attendants. The former Northwest attendants are also earning smaller salaries than the former Delta attendants.

The divide and conquer approach, unfortunately, shows some signs of having worked. The union's suit acknowledges that upset former Northwest attendants have called and e-mailed the union, saying that because of the lower bonuses they will not vote for the union even if another election is held.

The pay differences break the law, the union says, which bars the airline from "interfering, influencing or coercing" workers into voting against unions.

Some good news for labor in the Midwest

A mass rally of St. Louis workers and union lobbying there helped convince the GOP-run Missouri state senate to sidetrack a planned "right to work" bill on March 14.

Further north, in Illinois, Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan says she is working with state lawmakers to make contractor violation of prevailing wage laws into a felony. The proposal would also ban violators from working on public projects for four years.

...and West

The office of Idaho's Republican attorney general has told GOP state lawmakers, in advisory letters, that two anti-labor laws they approved earlier this year may violate federal law and that one of the laws, the Open Access to Work Act, in addition to possibly violating federal law, fails to ban project labor agreements, which the GOP hoped it would.

The other law, the Fairness in Contracting Act, would fine union contractors or subcontractors up to $100,000 if they "pay or receive market recovery or job targeting subsidies" from unions.

The Idaho AFL-CIO notes that such programs are used to help union contractors compete with lower cost, non-union bidders while paying union-scale wages.

The Fairness in Contracting Act might violate the federal Landrum-Griffin Labor Management Relations Act, according to the Idaho attorney general. "It is difficult to discern how the Fairness in Contracting Act would advance an "interest so deeply rooted in local feeling and responsibility" to warrant an assumption that Congress intended to leave room for state regulation.

"Not only does Davis-Bacon itself address the rebate issue, but the scope of a legitimate state interest in how the federal government manages federal-funded construction projects also would likely be deemed limited, given the Davis-Bacon's anti-rebate provision that offers the same protection" as the new state law, the attorney general said. "Under these circumstances, successfully defending against a federal preemption challenge would be problematic," said the Idaho attorney general."

The two anti-union measures in Idaho are seen by the labor movement as part of a national campaign by corporate interests, the radical right and the Republican Party to strip all workers, not just those in unions, of union rights and good-paying jobs.

UAW special convention: “Fight for every worker in America”

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 10:55:00 +0000

DETROIT - "We're not just fighting for ourselves; we're fighting for every worker in America," United Auto Workers President Bob King said in his opening address to the union's 2011 special bargaining convention that began here on Tuesday.

The UAW's special convention, held every four years, sets the overall agenda for the union's work for coming period.

This year, more than 1,200 union activists from across the country are here for the three-day meet, representing not only autoworkers but also workers in public sector, higher education and other kinds of jobs. It is the first major national union gathering since the Wisconsin workers sparked a national uprising last month. Underscoring its national impact, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn and national Democratic Party strategist Donna Brazile were among the opening-day speakers. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten is scheduled to address the meeting on Thursday, as well as TV-radio host Ed Schultz.

In his opening remarks, King emphasized building the power of the labor movement by fighting for all workers. He called for a return to the social consciousness of the union's founders, saying, "In the '30s, '40s and '50s, people thought the UAW cared about and fought for everybody in America."

He connected the struggles of those founders, the 1936-37 Flint sit-down strikers at General Motors and the 1932 hunger marchers at Ford, to the present struggles of U.S. workers and democracy activists in Egypt. "When there is mass, non-violent, direct action, workers win tremendous victories," he said. "We have to go back and talk to our membership. The pensions they deserve, the wages and benefits they deserve are gong to continue to erode unless we rebuild the power of the American labor movement."

Looking ahead to the 2012 elections, the UAW head spoke of the importance of re-electing President Obama. He lauded the president for what he described as Obama's almost single-handed role in saving the auto industry and the union. Addressing criticisms of Obama for not doing enough, King said, "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We have never had a president as friendly toward labor."

Regarding UAW contracts that expire later this year with Ford, General Motors and Chrysler-Fiat, King said the union would work to tackle two issues that bother many: the insecurity faced by thousands of temporary employees in the auto industry, and two-tier wages that have new hires earning about half of what other autoworkers make.

King said the union would work to get permanent status for temporary workers. Referring to Ford Motor Co.'s CEO, King said, "When Alan Mullaly can make over $50 million in a bonus, temporary workers have a right to a permanent job."

He said the union would also seek to reduce both the two-tier gap and the time it takes for second-tier workers to get full pay.

In this era of globalization, the fight for better wages and benefits is tied to the ability of autoworkers throughout the world to wage a unified fight, King said. He reported that the UAW has significantly stepped up its global outreach and is meeting with autoworkers from Germany, South Korea, Mexico and elsewhere. An international steering committee of autoworkers has been formed and has ties with the International Metalworkers Federation.

Pointing to the Wisconsin workers' struggle against Gov. Scott Walker, Illinois Gov. Quinn told the convention that unions are the heart and soul of this country. "We're here to tell ‘that governor' in Wisconsin and other governors that we're not going to let your crowd take over," Quinn declared. "We are going to fight back this year and every year."

Quinn's remarks spurred UAW Region 1A Director Rory Gamble, who represents workers in the Detroit area, to quip, "I wonder if Governor Quinn has a twin brother we could import here to Michigan?" He was referring to Michigan workers' battle against the state's anti-union Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.

Brazile cited the key role the UAW and other unions played in supporting the civil rights movement, she said, "Labor has always been at the forefront of any social justice movement."

She told the union delegates, "You are the backbone of this society. You are the mighty - the lifeblood of our democracy."

There were many standing ovations, and delegates said they were eager to carry the grassroots organizing message back to their locals.

Delegate Don Reinhart, shop chairman of UAW Local 659 at the Flint Metal Center, said the message he was taking back to his membership was, "We have to get out and do something. We can't let the leadership do it by themselves. We have to get the grassroots out there walking and talking."

Photo: A banner outside Detroit's Cobo Hall announces the UAW's 2011 Special Bargaining Convention. PW/John Rummel

This is what a workers’ uprising looks like

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:43:00 +0000

Anyone who thinks the upsurge by workers all across America is not of historic proportions hasn't been paying attention.

Many in the labor movement believe that the thousands on the march in Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, Florida, New York and elsewhere have ignited flames that, like scattered prairie fires, can potentially come together into one big burn for justice.

The demonstrators who are shouting "This is what democracy looks like" are showing, they say, what a workers' uprising looks like.

"This wasn't one union calling on members to turn out," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka recently. "It wasn't the AFL-CIO making the call. It wasn't the Democratic Party, or the Obama organization. This was a bottom-up, grassroots movement, a true spontaneous outcry against our disastrous winner-take-all political culture."

Although unions are often leading the demonstrations, the grassroots groups with which the union members are marching are changing unions themselves, perhaps forever.

It's noteworthy that "Rebel Girl" Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1890-1964) is soon to be inducted into the International Labor Hall of Fame in a ceremony at Teamsters headquarters in Washington. Flynn was active in the Industrial Workers of the World, an organizer for restaurant, garment and mine workers, and a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union. Indicted under the notorious Smith Act, she served a two-year prison term because of her membership and leadership role in the Communist Party USA.

Only a short time ago such a commemoration by the mainstream labor movement would have been considered as politically unthinkable.

Another sign of the times: In Madison, Wis., the scene one night during the occupation of the Capitol was thus: Some 600 people were spending the night there in sleeping bags, lying on their coats or sleeping on the bare marble floors. The Capitol police were ordered to disperse them. The chief of the Capitol police told the crowd about his orders and then told them he and his officers were not going to follow those orders but instead would sleep in with the demonstrators.

A Wisconsin AFSCME organizer invited pro-labor filmmaker Michael Moore to speak at one of the big Madison rallies. Some state union leaders were reportedly nervous about Moore being too radical and urged that the organizer hold off on the invitation. He went ahead with the invitation anyway, and Moore received a tumultuous welcome from the tens of thousands who gathered to hear him. Almost immediately the AFL-CIO websites were quoting the Moore speech extensively.

In all the events the breadth of the crowds and their enthusiasm was more than evident as the huge non-union majority of the demonstrators - Black, Brown, white, male, female, gay and straight, young and old - marched together with the union members in a fight for collective bargaining rights and democracy. Ironworkers and construction workers marching and rallying in the hallways and rotunda of the Wisconsin Capitol had no problem with and cheered along with the students and "long hairs" who banged on drums after they spoke.

"Who would have predicted six weeks ago that every time you turned on your computer or radio or television, or picked up a newspaper, the news would be focused for weeks on end on a term that defies the brevity of the sound bite - collective bargaining?" asked Trumka asked in a speech at St. John's University in New York March 18.

"We have wanted this debate for years. Now it's here and guess what? The American people have said Yes to collective bargaining!" declared Trumka.

"Just why are firefighters, nurses, teachers, police officers, construction workers and other regular folks willing to march and rally for it, to pack Capitol buildings day and night for weeks on end?," he asked. "It's because of the two things you've gathered here to discuss: the basic legal rights of working people and the fundamental dignity of work."

Union leaders see grabbing hold of the opportunities presented by the upsurge as critical to the very survival of the labor movement.

Fire Fighters union President Harold Schaitberger said last week that unions are fighting "a battle of proportions I haven't seen in 40 years" against "the most coordinated, comprehensive anti-worker campaign in decades."

AFL-CIO staffer Naomi Walker, who tracks state and local developments for the labor movement, said there are currently 500 distinct attacks on workers' rights being mounted by right-wing politicians across the country. "That anti-union drive, state by state, is fueled by millions of dollars in right-wing money," she said. She included on her list the Koch brothers - the wealthy far-right oil men from Kansas City, the Koch front group called Americans for Prosperity, the Chamber of Commerce, the American Legislative Exchange Council and the fund0raising operations of Karl Rove, chief political operative for former President George W. Bush.

To fight off this attack, the building of alliances is seen now by labor as more critical than ever. "We're trying to change our language, not talking just about unions and our members, but talking about the threat to everyone's rights," Schaitberger said.

He compared the anti-union onslaught by the extreme right to President Ronald Reagan's firing of 14,000 PATCO air traffic controllers in 1981 just as both Reagan and organized labor were strongly supporting Solidarnosc, the union organizing in Poland.

"While we were celebrating trade unionism in Poland, they [the controllers)] were fired and put in leg shackles and barred from ever getting jobs again in their profession," said Schaitberger. "That was a defining moment and the labor movement blinked. This is our defining moment and we cannot afford to blink again."

Photo: Madison, Wis., March 12, 2011. People's World

Triangle fire memorial draws parallels with today

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:18:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - A half-day-long Capitol Hill commemoration of the 100^th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire drew uncomfortable parallels with conditions facing workers today. The fire in Manhattan killed 146 young immigrant workers, almost all of them women.

Speakers, including Sally Greenberg of the National Consumers League, Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts and workers who suffered exploitation or have seen family members die, used the March 21 meeting to urge mass action to restore workers' rights to collectively bargain and to toughen and enforce job safety and health laws.

The session honored the centennial of the fire that took place on the afternoon of March 25, 1911 at the Triangle Shirtwaist Co., a clothing maker - one of hundreds in lower Manhattan - that employed young, mostly Jewish and Italian immigrant women. Almost half were under 20. It even had children in a "kindergarten" snipping thread, speakers said.

Triangle was located on the top three floors of the Asch Building on Greene Street. It was actually one of the "better" sweatshops in the city - thanks to a citywide strike by 20,000 female garment workers 18 months before - but it wasn't unionized.

When the blaze began, there was one exit. Triangle's two owners deliberately padlocked it to prevent theft. There was flammable debris - cuttings and scraps - everywhere and the workers were allowed to smoke. The fire escapes were flimsy and ended far above street level. Stairwells quickly filled with smoke and flames. The elevator stalled, though one woman slid down its cable.

Fire department hoses couldn't reach those top floors. The 18-minute blaze left workers with two horrific alternatives: burn to death or jump. Many burned. The rest jumped.

Speakers said such horrifying working conditions still exist, in the U.S. and worldwide. They cited such disasters as a 1991 poultry plant fire in Hamlet, N.C. - the doors were locked, again - the Texas City, Texas BP oil refinery blast in 2005 (15 dead, 180 injured), last year's Gulf of Mexico disaster (11 died) and the Upper Big Branch coal mine explosion in West Virginia (29 died). Bangladesh was the international example.

The exploiters are the same, they said: Firms that put profits ahead of people. The predominant victims of such disasters are, still, those who are the most defenseless: The young, women, minorities and, importantly, non-unionized. They're unprotected.

And they said workers and their allies must seize a present teachable moment - the Right Wing campaign to obliterate workers' rights - to both re-energize the labor movement and to enlist allies and the general public. "Pay attention to the parallels between 1911 and today. Our call to action is really a manifesto," Greenberg said.

Speakers explained how activists used the Triangle Fire and its aftermath, including acquittal of the company owners of manslaughter charges, both to grow unions - in particular the pioneering International Ladies Garment Workers - and to campaign successfully for reforms to health and safety laws, fire code improvement and enforcement and institution of workers comp.

Frances Perkins, a witness to the fire and then a social worker employed by the Consumers League, used its lessons to help draft and push through New Deal pro-labor legislation when she became Labor Secretary under FDR, her biographer Kirstin Downey said. "We're continuing to deal with the same kinds of issues," Downey added.

"We leave things to the market and this" - Triangle and subsequent workplace disasters - "is as good as it gets," said University of Maryland history professor Robyn Muncy. "The market can't be allowed to determine all the conditions under which people work," added Georgetown University labor history professor Joe McCartin. "There needs to be a public interest."

They will campaign for the same platform now: updating, strengthening and enforcing job and mine safety laws, preserving and enhancing minimum wage and anti-child-labor laws, bringing farm workers under child labor laws, saving worker protection programs from Right Wing budget raids, and upholding the right of collective bargaining.

The rights to organize and collectively bargain must be at the top of the list of ways to right present wrongs, just as they were in the New Deal, said Roberts, the keynote speaker. He was seconded by a last-minute addition to the program: Stephanie Bloomingdale, Wisconsin AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer - who commented on "our arsonist," right-wing GOP Gov. Scott Walker, who set fire to workers' rights there.

"No worker should have to listen to the boss say: 'I want you to do A, B and C, and it's dangerous,'" Roberts said. "Every worker should be empowered to look that boss in the eye and say: 'Kiss my ass.'"

"If you want higher wages, join a union. If you want better health care, join a union. If you want health and safety on the job, join a union. If you want a greater America, join a union," he declared.

And mass mobilization of unions and their allies - as in Wisconsin and Ohio and Indiana and elsewhere - "will move that agenda a lot faster," Roberts added.

Photo: In this 1911 file photograph from the National Archives, labor union members gather to protest and mourn the loss of life in the March 25, 1911, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York. (National Archives/AP)

Arizona unions and basketball fans support Wisconsin

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 09:53:00 +0000

TUSCON - After Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's attack on collective bargaining rights,Tucson unions put on a strong show of solidarity recently by showing up at the University of Arizona's McKale Center before the University of Wisconsin basketball team took to the court in a second round game of the NCAA tournament.

After campus police asked the union supporters to move to another location away from the arena, an agreement was made that the supporters would move a few feet away from where they were instead of to one of the main streets circling the campus.

After the move, fans began to exit after the first session of games and took notice of the supporters.

Wisconsin fans had no problem with speaking to the union members and were more than happy to take photos alongside their new found friends.

Television crews were quick to interview the fans and ask for their opinion of the local union support. A majority welcomed and thanked the unions.

Another group of union supporters gathered on another side of campus at one of the busy corners. Motorists honked their approval as fans on foot stopped and took the time to speak with them.

In light of Tuscon's recent tragedy, people more than happy to return the favor and show support to others in need and keep up the fight for worker bargaining rights.

Photo: Alexander Monarrez Maldonado