People Before Profit blog

Memorial Day 2010: A steelworker point of view

Mon, 31 May 2010 15:08:00 +0000

Joe Gutierrez needs no introduction to thousands of steelworkers. But other readers might need to know a bit about him to fully appreciate his Memorial Day address. Below is the text of Joe's presentation at our annual Memorial Day Massacre Commemoration 2010 held by the South Chicago chapter of Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees.

We hold an event every year at the former Steelworkers local 1033 union hall, right across from the field where ten striking steelworkers and supporters were killed in 1937 fighting to build our union. The Chicago police charged into a peaceful demonstration and picketline killing 10 and severely beating dozens more at the gates of what was then Republic Steel.

Joe spent 43 years at Inland Steel in East Chicago, Indiana, now owned by Mittal/Arcelar. Three of the steelworkers killed in 1937 were from Inland Steel. Joe went to work at Inland in 1959 after spending 4 years in seminary studying to be a priest. Joe was active in the famous 1959 steel strike after being a member for less than two months. Over the years he was elected to union office multiple times and worked full time for the union.

But Joe is also well known in our area as the steelworker's poet laureate. He is a great writer who has written many stories, essays and poems about steelworkers. When I asked him for permission to post this piece to the PW site I purposely called it a poem. Joe laughed and said he didn't know if he would call it a poem, but "I do try and write poetically."

Let the readers be the judge.

— Scott Marshall, District 7 SOAR

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Memorial Day May 30, 2010

Someone said that in a progressive society there is nothing permanent except change.

In 2008 we voted for change. In 1937 we died for change. The Republic Steel Massacre galvanized working people into a common bond with a clarion call of solidarity. Corporate greed and police brutality proved no match for the blood that flowed on Avenue O. Workers, men and women, stood together as one against the obstructionists and won and we exist today as a union because of them. Their struggle, our struggle, was the first step of a long, difficult journey that culminated in the most vibrant expansion of unions this country has ever seen and the United Steelworkers of America was born on Avenue O and we fought the fight and we won.

But today is a new day and a new time. Close your eyes and listen to the silent sound of change echoing through empty factories and boarded-up homes foreclosed and foreboding; weep with your brother and sister and neighbor, over 15 million strong and growing, standing without hope in unemployment lines extending across this country;

listen to the hypocritical Republican Representatives who voted without question for unlimited spending under Bush but now refuse to extend unemployment benefits for laid-off workers because it's an unsecured cost item;

listen to those washed-up, wrung-out, mean-spirited, narrow-minded same Republicans who now call themselves tea-baggers, and their second cousins, the Libertarians, spew their hatred and racist demagoguery because we have a black President in the White House who in spite of their opposition has made bold steps in the right direction with health care and fairness and decency;

we stood in disbelief and dismay at the Supreme Court Justices who dared give corporations a soul - those same corporations that siphon our resources and move off-shore to avoid paying taxes;

and with profound sadness and growing anger we watch the horrific devastation inflicted on our coast line and the Gulf of Mexico by British petroleum; manufacturing has all but disappeared in this country because we allowed the politicians, Republican and Democrat, to export our jobs and destroy our middle class; we bailed out Wall Street and they bailed out on us.

The government's interests and our interests are not the same. We must refuse to be intimidated into silence. How long do we remain complacent? We must remember the past and look to the future. Death and anger were the catalysts for the beginning of the end of despotism in our factories.

Perhaps those same elements will bring our soldiers home from two unjust wars that cannot be won. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of those of who have died in these wars, but did they die for our country or our government? Did they die unwittingly for the oil cartels? We must question and stand opposed to end this destruction and save our country. And we must stop those who wish to rewrite history. T

oday is a new day but we are mired in this muck because we allowed Bush and Cheney and the Karl Roves and the Supreme Court to steal the White House and we said nothing; we stood aside and watched Bush scuttle the EPA, OSHA, NLRB and reduce them to nothing but empty words. That mentality made a mockery of oversight and regulation, all of which nearly collapsed our economy and came home to roost in a coal mine in W. Virginia and now the Gulf of Mexico. Workers died and continue to die because of that mindless duplicity.

Today is a new day. Listen closely and you will hear the sad cries of those who died on Avenue O asking, why?

In 2005, as the war in Iraq escalated, the late Howard Zinn said, "Sooner or later, profound change will come to this nation tired of war, tired of seeing its wealth squandered, while the basic needs of families are not met. These needs are not hard to describe. Some are very practical, some are requirements of the soul: health care, work, living wages, a sense of dignity, a feeling of being at one with our fellow human beings on this Earth." And the fight goes on.

Photo: Joe Gutierrez (Scott Marshall/PW)

32 arrested at ICE offices, say immigration reform can't wait

Fri, 28 May 2010 18:08:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Saying comprehensive immigration reform could wait no longer, 32 labor, religious, and community leaders and an elected official were arrested after blocking Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices May 25. The civil disobedience was part of a national week of action aimed getting stalled legislation moving in Congress.

The protesters, who carried sacks of money symbolizing the contributions of immigrants to the US economy, also condemned the anti-immigration law SB 1070 passed in Arizona and threats by ICE to step up immigration enforcement in Illinois.

"We can't fix this economy as long as 12 million workers are forced to live in the shadows, without any rights and subject to exploitation," said Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of Service Employees International Union. "All workers have the same rights and responsibilities and we can only get that through comprehensive immigration reform."

Medina blasted Republicans in the US Senate for holding up immigration reform and said they shouldn't expect any votes from the immigrant community in November, "not even for dog catcher."

Many of those being arrested expressed dismay over the policy of deportations of undocumented workers being carried out by the Obama Administration. If the current rate of deportations keeps up, over 400,000 people will be deported this year, more than under the Bush administration.

While the Obama administration maintains Homeland Security and ICE are targeting unscrupulous employers and those who have committed crimes, trade union leaders are saying otherwise.

Keith Kelleher is president of SEIU Healthcare Illinois & Indiana, which represents workers in hospitals, nursing homes, home care agencies and childcare. He said many SEIU members were being caught up in the sweeps and background checks.

"There needs to be comprehensive immigration reform and we can't wait any longer. That's why I'm getting arrested. We need these deportations to stop. Everyday 1,100 families are broken up," said Kelleher. He and others termed the federal government's immigration strategy a failure.

"The families in my district who are being ripped apart by old and broken laws can't wait," said Chicago Alderman George Cardenas. "The workers can't wait. Our economy can't wait. You don't throw $1.5 trillion down the drain in a recession." Cardenas was referring to the amount of money immigrant workers will add to the US economy if reform passes.

"Legality. Rules. Passports and security on the border. Those are issues. But the real issue is people looking for a better life. God made the world for everybody. Not just for you and me and the United States," said Father Bill Brennan, a 90 year-old Jesuit priest from Milwaukee who was arrested.

"It's a travesty what happened in Arizona. They're trying to divide working people and blame the downturn in the economy on immigrants when it should be blamed on Wall Street and LaSalle Street," said Richard Berg, former president of Teamsters Local 743.

Carl Rosen, western regional president of the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers was arrested along with Armando Robles the president of UE Local 1110 and leader of the Republic Windows and Doors occupation in 2008. Rosen said current immigration policy of deportations was doing far more damage to the American economy than good.

"The people being arrested today are showing with their bodies the level of concern we have. No more business as usual at ICE. No more deportations," said Rosen.

Photo: Thirty-two people were arrested in Chicago on May 25 demanding immigration reform. John Bachtell/PW

Judge blocks furloughs for CUNY faculty

Fri, 28 May 2010 17:55:00 +0000

NEW YORK - Union leaders say the injunction issued today, May 28, by U.S. District Judge Lawrence Kahn is a victory for both the Professional Staff Congress and the City University of New York students.

Judge Kahn issued a preliminary injunction against New York Governor Paterson's plan to furlough state workers, including CUNY faculty and staff. The PSC/CUNY, one of several unions opposing the plan in court, argued that the furloughs would violate the New York State and U.S. Constitutions.

CUNY is the city's public university system. It is the largest urban university in the US, with over 260,000 degree-credit students and 273,000 continuing and professional education students enrolled at campuses located in all five New York City boroughs.

"We are gratified that justice has been done. Today's ruling is a victory for CUNY faculty and staff - and above all, for CUNY students," said Dr. Barbara Bowen, president of the PSC/ CUNY and the lead plaintiff on the PSC's lawsuit. "Now the thousands of students, who attend CUNY in the summer, need not face the prospect of classes cancelled, credits denied, dreams put on hold. Judge Kahn's ruling against the illegal scheme for mandatory paycuts is also a victory for all public workers. The decision defeats the State's attempt to scapegoat us for an economic crisis we did nothing to create.

"New York's furlough scheme had nothing to do with closing the budget deficit: it would have produced about $240 million, while the deficit is $9 billion. The only real way to solve the budget crisis is to enact progressive tax reform, something the governor and the legislature have so far refused to do. I hope this decision sends them back to the bargaining table and convinces them of the need for closing tax loopholes and restoring a fair tax system," said Bowen.

Last year, Wall Street profits hit a record high of $61 billion. The PSC is supporting a bonus recapture tax, reducing the rebate on the stock transfer tax to 80%, and other progressive revenue measures to close New York State's budget gap.

The PSC argued that Paterson's furlough plan would have caused irreparable harm to tens of thousands of New Yorkers, and that the governor had not demonstrated that violating union contracts was either necessary or reasonable. Judge Kahn agreed with the PSC's position on every point, and found that the state's argument was "transparently unsupported" by the facts or the law. The preliminary injunction prohibits the State from imposing furloughs while the union lawsuit against the governor's plan moves forward. It is "substantially unlikely," Judge Kahn concluded, that the state will prevail when the underlying lawsuit is heard.

Photo: takomabibelot/CC

Video: Don't get caught in a bad hotel!

Fri, 28 May 2010 16:30:00 +0000

A flashmob infiltrates the Westin St. Francis hotel in San Francisco and performs an adaptation of Lady Gaga's song "Bad Romance." The event was organized to draw attention to a boycott called by the workers of the hotel who are fighting to win a fair contract and affordable health care.

Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer activists put the song and dance together as a creative way to tell the hundreds of thousands of LGBTQ people from all over the country coming to San Francisco in June for Pride to stay out of the boycotted hotels.

To learn more about how to honor the boycott and support the workers visit:
http://www.sleepwiththerightpeople.org

http://www.hotelworkersrising.org/Hot...

This event was organized by:

San Francsico Pride at Work / HAVOQ http://www.sfprideatwork.org

One Struggle One Fight http://tinyurl.com/OSOFfbpage

The Brass Liberation Orchestra http://brassliberation.org

Filmed by: Regan Brashear, Jeff Boyette, Kesh Singh, Hermez Flores and Jamie LeJeune
Edited by: Jamie LeJeune

Thousands descend on City Hall to stop teacher layoffs

Fri, 28 May 2010 15:06:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Over 4,000 teachers, parents and students completely surrounded City Hall here May 25 demanding no teacher layoffs or funding cuts for the city's public schools. The crowd grew so big that several streets were shut down during rush hour traffic.

"We're here to protest the cuts and putting 37 children in a classroom," said Mark Ochoa, financial secretary of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). With such slashes, he said, "there will be no learning and teaching done."

The outpouring was the latest and biggest protest reflecting the growing anger and frustration since Chicago Public Schools chief Ron Huberman announced layoffs of 3,000 teachers to close a $600 million budget gap.

The Illinois Legislature passed a budget the same day without including additional help to the schools. The state is already $1 billion behind in payments to local school districts.

"They don't care about working class people," Marilyn Stewart, CTU president, told the crowd, referring to the city public schools administration and Mayor Richard M. Daley. "They only care about money and power. And they think you don't have any power. Do you have power?" They crowd responded with a resounding "Yes!"

"Do you vote?" she asked. "Yes," responded the crowd. "Are you pleased with Mayor Daley and the state Legislature?" "No," the crowd yelled. "Will you vote in November?" "Yes," they vowed.

Teachers and education advocates are calling on Daley to take money from Tax Increment Financing (TIF) accounts to fund education. The TIFs have accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars by siphoning off property tax monies that would have gone to public education in the first place but end up in development projects instead.

One recently displaced high school history teacher said that with 35 children to a classroom little learning would take place. It only takes a year or two to damage or destroy a child's education, and students fall behind for years, he noted.

"They are cutting 275,000 teachers nationwide. The damage to this nation is inconceivable. And the money's all going to Afghanistan," he said bitterly.

"Less teachers means less teaching and that's the bottom line," said Willis Neiderfrank, one of three teachers laid off at Ariel Community Academy. Neiderfrank said this was the first time his school had ever experienced layoffs.

Teachers weren't the only public workers protesting. They were joined by some of the 1,200 laid off city transit workers. Bus driver Courtney Walker said, "We're here to save these kids from overcrowded classrooms and so we can get our jobs back. And in November we all will be voting!"

Another transit worker said, "Today we're marching with the teachers so they will support us. It's going to take federal funding to save our schools and jobs."

A group of students from King College Prep High School attended the protest together with their parents. One student told the People's World, "They shouldn't do all the cuts because we won't learn anything. It'll be a waste of time. It's going to take more of us supporting each other and our teachers to stop it."

Vincent Hare, a fourth grade student at Beasley Academic Center, said, "There are already 34 students in my classroom. With more cuts I probably won't learn anything."

Students from across the city have been walking out of classes weekly to protest the teacher layoffs and elimination of junior varsity sports programs. Several hundred had attended a "study in" on May 24 at Federal Plaza downtown.

Photo: At Chicago's City Hall, May 25, as over 4,000 city teachers, students and parents protest impending teacher layoffs. (PW/John Bachtell)

Black trade unionists say no to Arizona hate law

Fri, 28 May 2010 14:38:00 +0000

DETROIT - Forty years ago the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) "woke up" the trade union movement to the importance of struggles for justice and peace, and this year's convention shows they aren't stopping yet.

Calling the recently passed Arizona anti-immigrant law a "most dreadful piece of legislation" and likening it to apartheid South Africa's passbook program, CBTU President Bill Lucy told the 700 delegates and guests at the organization's 39th convention here that the CBTU would be moving its 2011 convention from its scheduled location in Phoenix.

"We have to join in that fight," said Lucy, even though his organization may face severe penalties for breaking its hotel contract.

Lucy, who is also secretary-treasurer of the 1.6-million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, elaborated further on why Black trade unionists were taking this stand, saying the law targets immigrants who "have as much right to be here as any other nationality."

"People want a decent job and better life and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that," he said. "We need an immigration law to bring 12 million people out of the shadows and give them legitimacy. Yes we can!"

Lucy spoke of the victories that have been won and those still left on the table. "Forty years ago it was inconceivable that a man of color would occupy the White House," he said. 2008 witnessed a political movement that inspired the dreams of people of good will, workers, young people, who all came together to work toward creating a level playing field for the average person, he added.

"President Obama is our friend; we want to be seen with him day and night. He's our best chance" said Lucy.

That does not mean the president is above any criticism, Lucy said. He told the convention he had personally written a letter to President Obama voicing opposition to the "insane position" taken by Obama's secretary of education in supporting the firing of teachers in Central Falls, R.I.

But he reminded everyone that President Obama inherited the greatest mess since FDR. Our economy was "going down the sewer" until this president came into office, Lucy noted. Obama has the sensibilities and program to reclaim this country for regular people, he said, but he warned that "Republicans will never vote for anything that allows him to claim success bringing this country back."

Detroit Metro AFL-CIO President Saundra Williams welcomed the delegates and spoke about two campaigns the Detroit Labor Council is involved in. One is a campaign by the building trades unions against Michigan-based non-union Pulte Homes, known for both its shoddy construction and its unfair treatment of its workers. The second campaign is to counter a nationwide attack on public workers who are "under siege, doing more work with fewer people," Williams said. She announced an upcoming labor summit to map out a plan of action and mobilization.

Sitting at the St. Louis CBTU table outside the meeting hall were Odie Gibbs, Leon Smith and Carline Lang-Smith, all members of the Machinists union.

All three said jobs were the important issue facing people in their city. Gibbs said both Chrysler and Ford have closed plants and GM has downsized, "St. Louis was really hit," she said.

Frank Woods, president of the Detroit CBTU chapter, spoke to this reporter about his chapter's campaign around "project labor agreements." These are construction agreements with municipalities to build things like schools or hospitals. "It has been a discriminatory process for years," he explained.

Detroit has several large projects looming. One is a $500 million school construction project.

"It's an 11,000-job project just for schools," Woods said. "New hospital construction in the city could result in another 7,000 to 9,000 jobs. Over the next three, four, five years you are talking about 20,000 jobs."

Woods said the problem has been that the city residency requirement was lowered from six months to 30 days. This has made it harder to get local residents trained for these shovel-ready jobs.

The local chapter was not giving up, he said. "We've taken it to the state Legislature and we've gotten a resolution passed in the City Council to take a look at the project labor agreement to see if it can be changed."

"It will be Detroiters' money and Detroiters should get the jobs or at least first chance at the jobs."

Photo: Odie Gibbs, Leon Smith and Carline Lang-Smith, from St. Louis, take time to pose for a photo at the CBTU convention. (PW/John Rummel)

Cuban unionists tell U.S. colleagues embargo is chokehold on their nation

Thu, 27 May 2010 12:59:00 +0000

BALTIMORE (PAI) - The 50-year-old* U.S. trade embargo against Cuba is "a chokehold" on the Caribbean island nation, Cuban union members told their U.S. colleagues during nine U.S. unionists' recent research trip there.

Speaking May 22 at the Baltimore meeting of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, two of the unionists on the week-long trip - WBNG members Rick Ehrmann and Elise Bryant - said their group returned with a joint statement saying the embargo should be lifted, travel restrictions should be dropped, and normal U.S.-Cuba relations should be established. They promised to push their unions for those goals.

As for the embargo, "The U.S. has a chokehold on Cuba, and they're asking us 'Just take your hands off of our neck," Bryant said.

Bryant, Ehrmann and members of AFSCME, the Government Employees, the Postal Workers and the Carpenters undertook the mission to confer with and study trade unions in Cuba. Their three daily meetings with Cuban workers - including a session with Salvador Valdes Mesa, president of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC), the Cuban labor federation - left the U.S. unionists with little time to see sights and no trips outside its capital, Havana, and surrounding suburbs.

What they saw, Ehrmann said, is that "Cuba is a poor country with one of the best health care systems in the world, an excellent educational system and a people proud of their accomplishments" and generous to their visitors. And it is a nation recovering from "a serious setback," they said, when subsidies from the Soviet Union and its allies ended after those governments' 1991 collapse.

The embargo, Ehrmann and Bryant quoted their Cuban colleagues as saying, hurts - a lot.

The Republican Eisenhower administration imposed the embargo in 1960, a year after Fidel Castro won the Cuban Revolution, ousting dictatorial Gen. Fulgencio Batista. Before that, the U.S., 90 miles from Cuba across the Florida Straits, was the island nation's main trading partner, and dominated its economy. The Cuban unionists stressed they do not want or plan to return to such economic and cultural domination.

The embargo has drawn bipartisan support and bipartisan opposition in the U.S. It was imposed because of Castro's decision to seek an alliance with and aid from the U.S.S.R. One of the last relics of the Cold War, the embargo is maintained due in large part to the voting strength of upper-class Cubans who fled the revolution and settled in the U.S., mostly in southeastern Florida. They vote as a bloc for the GOP.

There was occasional relaxation of parts of the embargo under the Democratic Carter and Clinton administrations, Ehrmann noted. He added that 34 farm-state lawmakers from both parties want to dump the embargo on agricultural trade, and called prospects "good" for passage of that bill. No other nations embargo Cuba.

If the embargo ends, U.S. farmers would gain a market, and Cuba could more easily feed itself, Ehrmann explained. Cuban unionists said their nation's mostly volcanic and poor soil cannot support many staple crops or fresh vegetables.

Staples such as wheat are imported, at double the normal prices, from nations such as China, Cubans told the U.S. unionists. That's because the embargo's sanctions mean that any ship - even from a third nation - that stops in Cuba is barred from U.S. ports for six months.

The embargo is felt in other fields, Ehrmann and Bryant added. In another example, Cuba bought $78 million in advanced medical machinery from Phillips N.V. and from Siemens, which are Dutch and German firms respectively, several years ago. It needs parts to update those machines, but can't get them because exporting to Cuba would threaten the companies' right to do business in the U.S.

"The impact of no Soviet Union was tremendous, they told us," Bryant said. Sharing and bartering occurred, she added: "If you didn't need sugar and your neighbors didn't need flour, you traded. People are doing what they can with what they have." Other aspects of Cuban life the unionists learned included:

The other top cause of Cuban unionists, besides the end of the embargo and normal relations, is freeing "The Cuban 5," jailed in the U.S. Those Cuban residents, after securing initial promises of U.S. cooperation, came to track down evidence of the Miami anti-Castro Cubans' involvement in a shoot-down of a Cuban civilian airliner on the way to Venezuela years ago.

The downing of the airliner, orchestrated by a rich anti-Castro Miami Cuban with previous CIA ties, killed 150 people, Ehrmann noted.

But when Cuba sent the five to investigate, after the initial U.S. promise of cooperation, the FBI instead locked them up as spies. "There are shrines to the Cuban 5 in every workplace," Ehrmann said. Several U.S. unions have also demanded release of the Cubans.

Malnutrition was wiped out in the 1960s. Its elimination was one goal of the revolution. But it returned after 1991 and the halt of imported subsidized food from the U.S.S.R. and its allies, Bryant added. Malnutrition has been eradicated again, but at

higher-than-necessary expense due to the embargo, the two unionists said.

The AFL-CIO does not recognize the CTC due to Cuban labor federation's government sponsorship. CTC represents 68% of non-agricultural workers in Cuba. (Data shows 21.2% of Cuban workers are in agriculture.) CTC is also part of the policy structure: Valdes Mesa, its leader, sits on the Communist Party's Politburo, in the National Assembly (Congress) and on the government's 31-member Council of State.

Ehrmann also said CTC has a major policy impact. In one example, CTC objected and rallied opposition to a plan to raise revenues by imposing Cuba's first-ever income tax. The idea was dropped. CTC does not have dues check-off, but collects dues voluntarily, "through peer pressure," Ehrmann added.

Cuban unions are most active in handling grievances. Joint Councils of Workers Justice are established in plants "with several workers, a CTC rep and a plant manager" to hear grievances, Ehrmann said. Councils can overturn managerial discipline. Losing workers can appeal rulings to local municipal or provincial councils.

The meeting with Cuban journalists "was not satisfying," Ehrmann admitted. "The press in Cuba is not independent. Here, it's controlled by corporations. There, it's controlled by government or the unions. But that (control) has changed because of bloggers" who challenge the government-run media. That includes "some funded and supplied by the U.S."

The U.S. budget for the year ending Sept. 30 includes $29 million for communications to Cuba, down from $48 million under the GOP Bush government, Ehrmann noted. "The Cubans view that money as dedicated to the overthrow of their government," he added. The anti-Castro refugees have pushed hard, and successfully, over the years for those funds.

Cuban medical school is free and "Cuba exports doctors" to developing countries, Bryant noted. Three thousand doctors, out of 6,000 counted around Havana, fled the 1959 revolution, but Cuba now has 74,554 doctors and a better patient-to-doctor ratio than the U.S., Ehrmann added. Its infant mortality rate is lower than in the U.S., life expectancy is equal to that of the U.S., and "there's free quality primary care."

Bryant said she found no evidence of discrimination against Afro-Cubans, but one guide told Ehrmann that "fighting for gay rights in what is still an extremely macho society" is continuing. He quoted the guide as saying the Cuban constitution recently added an amendment guaranteeing gay rights in everything except marriage.

Photo: Cuban seniors sing and dance at the 8th International Congress for Longevity in Havana, May 26. Javier Galeano/AP

* CORRECTION from 60 to 50. The embargo was instituted in 1960.

High Court favors Chicago Black firefighters in discrimination suit

Wed, 26 May 2010 15:04:00 +0000

CHICAGO - The Supreme Court on Monday ruled in favor of 6,000 Black applicants for firefighting jobs here, adding they could proceed with a lawsuit that accuses the city of using a racially discriminatory hiring exam to deny them jobs.

The firefighter exam administered in 1995 had a cut-off score at 64 points and those below it had failed. However the city then told applicants who scored between 64 and 89 points that they too did not qualify.

At the time 26,000 applicants applied for the job and in order to weed out the relatively small number of open positions the city removed anyone who scored under 89 on the written test. Those who scored above 64 but below 89 were told they had passed but would probably not be hired because so many had scored higher than 89. Yet most of the high-scoring applicants were white and only 11 percent were black, thus resulting in the lawsuit alleging discrimination.

The unanimous decision by the high court rejected Chicago's argument that the suit should be dismissed because the case was filed passed the 300-day deadline.

Justice Antonin Scalia said the question was not whether the lawsuit had been filed in a timely manner, but whether the practice at issue can be challenged. He said it could, adding the city's cut-off score for the jobs in question had an adverse impact on qualified black candidates. He sent it back to the lower court in Chicago.

A federal appeals court in Chicago had previously dismissed the case.

Civil rights groups and affirmative action supporters hailed the ruling as a victory for workers rights noting the decision takes into consideration the reality of institutional discrimination policies that limit the balance of equal opportunities for minority applicants.

"Today, the Supreme Court affirmed that job-seekers should not be denied justice based on a technicality," said John Payton, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., in a statement. Payton, who argued the case notes, "This victory goes well beyond the immediate results in Chicago. It should ensure that no other fire department or employer uses a discriminatory test, and LDF will go the extra mile to make sure that they do not."

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley said the city has been trying to diversify the fire department but like most cities has been met with legal challenges from both sides. Since 2006 the city has used a "pass-fail" approach, he said.

Yet critics argue more needs to be done to ensure city posts equally represent the population such agencies serve.

The 5,000-member fire department is about 19 percent black and about 10 percent Latino. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, blacks accounted for 37 percent of Chicago's population.

Mara Georges, the city's corporation counsel said the city would hire the would-be firefighters if told to do so by the appeals court.

The city estimates damages and pension obligations in the suit could be as high as $45 million. However earlier this year, a lawyer for the Black applicants estimated the total damages in the case could reach $100 million.

Nationwide, about 20 million employees work for city and state governments and in many of these agencies, tests are used to hire and promote employees. Such exams have led to years of litigation on whether they are fair or discriminatory.

In a landmark case last year, the Supreme Court said in a 5-4 decision that New Haven, Conn., violated white firefighters' civil rights, throwing out an exam in which no African Americans scored high enough to be promoted to lieutenant or captain.

Critics of the New Haven ruling say it goes against the historic fact that Blacks, Latinos and other minorities entering the workforce face racial disparities and equal opportunities including fair wages, access to promotions or gender-based inequalities.

In 2001 a group of white firefighters in Chicago lost a Supreme Court appeal that challenged an affirmative action plan to promote minorities in the fire department. In the 1970s, the federal government sued the city, alleging the department discriminated against Latinos and Blacks.

Meanwhile when Chicago fire department engineer Gregory Boggs heard the news about the recent ruling he said it brought a smile to his face. Boggs is also the president of the African American Firefighter's & Paramedic's League of Chicago.

"I was very excited," he told the Chicago Tribune. "It's been a hard fight. Fifteen years is a long time."

Photo: Anthony Sturdivant, 47, of Chicago, is a plaintiff in the lawsuit over the discriminatory hiring exam from 1995. (E. Jason Wambsgans/AP/Chicago Tribune)

R.I. calls truce in war on teachers

Tue, 25 May 2010 16:08:00 +0000

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Ninety-three Central Falls, R.I., teachers and school professionals got their jobs back after they overwhelmingly ratified an agreement with the school superintendent this month. The agreement came after intense talks by the two sides, with active help from the state's two U.S. senators, Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, both Democrats, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, and a federal mediator.

Tiny, impoverished blue-collar Central Falls drew national notoriety in February when School Superintendent Frances Gallo and the local school board fired all 93 teachers and professional staff at the town's only high school. It was an implementation of U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan's draconian "turnaround model" for low-performing schools. That model specifies replacing the principal and at least 50 percent of the school's staff.

In the agreement announced May 17, news reports suggest, the teachers largely agreed to changes that Gallo had demanded before the mass firings. But many details about the changes and how they will actually play out in practice will likely not be clear until the new school year gets under way this fall.

The Central Falls Teachers Union, part of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers, had said all along that it agreed with the need to transform the school to improve student performance, but objected to the superintendent's "take it or leave it" approach.

According to reports in the Providence Journal, the agreement includes lengthening the school day by 25 minutes, and teachers are also required to provide one hour of before- or after-school tutoring weekly, eat lunch with students once a week, do 90 minutes a week of common planning after school, and participate in one to two weeks of professional development each summer. A new principal will be hired and will have authority to assign teachers based on experience as well as seniority. During the coming school year an outside evaluator will assess teacher performance and could recommend replacement of some teachers for the following year. The teachers will receive additional pay for some of the added hours of work and the summer professional development.

As part of the pact, the union said it would withdraw unfair labor practices complaints it had filed against the school district.

The agreement drew a variety of reactions.

In the right-wing National Review, Frederick Hess of the anti-union American Enterprise Institute apparently felt a need to reassure his readers that the superintendent's retraction of the mass firings was not a return to "powder puff mangement." Hess spun the agreement as an example of "how stiff-spined management is supposed to work - by forcing unions and other claimants to come to their senses."

However AFT President Weingarten emphasized the importance of the collective bargaining process. "The events of the past few months have shown the need for a collaborative approach to school improvement, especially when the stakes are high and real transformation is needed, as is the case at Central Falls High School," she said in a statement.

The Central Falls Teachers Union, Weingarten said, had sought to advance children's needs in the negotiations. "Teachers know the realities in our schools today, and - if they are given the right tools and conditions, are backed by a sense of shared responsibility and have a real voice in the process - they can deliver on this promise," she said. "We have never believed that mass firing is a vehicle to school improvement."

Weingarten thanked Senators Reed and Whitehouse and federal mediators, as well as the outpouring of support from labor, the community, students and parents. Her remarks were evidently directed in part at President Obama and Education Secretary Duncan, who angered many public education advocates by backing the mass firings in February.

Valerie Strauss, who writes the Washington Post's "The Answer Sheet" education blog, commented, "What do you think would have happened if Obama and Duncan had not taken sides when the teachers were first fired, and instead had urged the opposing sides to work harder to reach a better solution?

"I think it is fair to assume that the negotiations would have reached success a lot sooner, sparing the Central Falls community a lot of grief.

"Let's hope this is a lesson not just for the folks in Central Falls, but in Washington D.C. as well."

Photo: PW/Susan Webb

Hundreds of union janitors fired under pressure from Feds

Fri, 21 May 2010 09:33:00 +0000

Original Source: truthout.org

SAN FRANCISCO - Federal immigration authorities have pressured one of San Francisco's major building service companies, ABM, into firing hundreds of its own workers. Some 475 janitors have been told that unless they can show legal immigration status, they will lose their jobs in the near future.

ABM has been a union company for decades, and many of the workers have been there for years. "They've been working in the buildings downtown for 15, 20, some as many as 27 years," said Olga Miranda, president of Service Employees Local 87. "They've built homes. They've provided for their families. They've sent their kids to college. They're not new workers. They didn't just get here a year ago."

Nevertheless, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of the Department of Homeland Security has told ABM that they have flagged the personnel records of those workers. Weeks ago, ICE agents sifted through Social Security records and the I-9 immigration forms all workers have to fill out when they apply for jobs. They then told ABM that the company had to fire 475 workers who were accused of lacking legal immigration status.

ABM is one of the largest building service companies in the country, and it appears that union janitorial companies are the targets of the Obama administration's immigration enforcement program. "Homeland Security is going after employers that are union," Miranda charged. "They're going after employers that give benefits and are paying above the average."

Last October, 1,200 janitors working for ABM were fired in similar circumstances in Minneapolis. In November, over 100 janitors working for Seattle Building Maintenance lost their jobs. Minneapolis janitors belong to SEIU Local 26, Seattle janitors to Local 6 and San Francisco janitors to Local 87.

President Obama said sanctions enforcement targets employers "who are using illegal workers in order to drive down wages - and oftentimes mistreat those workers." An ICE Worksite Enforcement Advisory claimed, "unscrupulous employers are likely to pay illegal workers substandard wages or force them to endure intolerable working conditions."

Curing intolerable conditions by firing or deporting workers who endure them doesn't help the workers or change the conditions, however. And despite Obama's contention that sanctions enforcement will punish those employers who exploit immigrants, employers are rewarded for cooperating with ICE by being immunized from prosecution. Javier Murillo, president of SEIU Local 26, said, "The promise made during the audit is that if the company cooperates and complies, they won't be fined. So this kind of enforcement really only hurts workers."

ICE Director John Morton said the agency is auditing the records of 1,654 companies nationwide. "What kind of economic recovery goes with firing thousands of workers?" Miranda asked. "Why don't they target employers who are not paying taxes, who are not obeying safety or labor laws?"

The San Francisco janitors are now faced with an agonizing dilemma. Should they turn themselves in to Homeland Security, which might charge them with providing a bad Social Security number to their employer, and even hold them for deportation? For workers with families, homes and deep roots in a community, it's not possible to just walk away and disappear. "I have a lot of members who are single mothers whose children were born here," Miranda said. "I have a member whose child has leukemia. What are they supposed to do? Leave their children here and go back to Mexico and wait? And wait for what?"

www.truthout.org/5C0B6679.jpg

Miranda's question reflects not just the dilemma facing individual workers, but of 12 million undocumented people living in the United States. Since 2005, successive congress members, senators and administrations have dangled the prospect of gaining legal status in front of those who lack it. In exchange, their various schemes for immigration reform have proposed huge new guest worker programs, and a big increase in exactly the kind of enforcement now directed at 475 San Francisco janitors.

While the potential criminalization of undocumented people in Arizona continues to draw headlines, the actual punishment of workers because of their immigration status has become an increasingly bitter fact of life across the country.

President Obama, condemning Arizona's law that would make being undocumented a state crime, said it would "undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans." But then he announced his support for legislation with guest worker programs and increased enforcement.

The country is no closer to legalization of the undocumented than it was ten years ago. But the enforcement provisions of the comprehensive immigration reform bills debated in Congress over the last five years have already been implemented on the ground. The Bush administration conducted a high-profile series of raids in which it sent heavily-armed agents into meatpacking plants and factories, held workers for deportation and sent hundreds to federal prison for using bad Social Security numbers.

After Barack Obama was elected president, immigration authorities said they'd follow a softer policy, using an electronic system to find undocumented people in workplaces. People working with bad Social Security numbers would be fired.

Ironically the Bush administration proposed a regulation that would have required employers to fire any worker who provided an employer with a Social Security number that didn't match the SSA database. That regulation was then stopped in court by unions, the ACLU and the National Immigration Law Center. The Obama administration, however, is implementing what amounts to the same requirement, with the same consequence of thousands of fired workers.

Union leaders like Miranda see a conflict between the rhetoric used by the president and other Washington, DC, politicians and lobbyists in condemning the Arizona law, and the immigration proposals they make in Congress. "There's a huge contradiction here," she said. "You can't tell one state that what they're doing is criminalizing people, and at the same time go after employers paying more than a living wage and the workers who have fought for that wage."

Renee Saucedo, attorney for La Raza Centro Legal and former director of the San Francisco Day Labor Program, is even more critical. "Those bills in Congress, which are presented as ones that will help some people get legal status, will actually make things much worse," she charged. "We'll see many more firings like the janitors here, and more punishments for people who are just working and trying to support their families."

Increasingly, however, the Washington proposals have even less promise of legalization, and more emphasis on punishment. The newest Democratic Party scheme virtually abandons the legalization program promised by the "bipartisan" Schumer/Graham proposal, saying that heavy enforcement at the border and in the workplace must come before any consideration of giving 12 million people legal status.
"We have to look at the whole picture," Saucedo urged. "So long as we have trade agreements like NAFTA that create poverty in countries like Mexico, people will continue to come here, no matter how many walls we build. Instead of turning people into guest workers, as these bills in Washington would do, while firing and even jailing those who don't have papers, we need to help people get legal status, and repeal the laws that are making work a crime."

Photo: David Bacon

Reprinted with permission of author.

UFCW, SEIU lead suit against discriminatory Arizona law

Thu, 20 May 2010 16:22:00 +0000

PHOENIX (PAI) - The United Food and Commercial Workers and the Service Employees with civil liberties groups are leading, a class-action suit to stop Arizona's new law targeting people based solely on the suspicion - due to skin color - that they are undocumented. The groups sued on May 17 in federal court in Phoenix.

The law, signed by Gov. Jan Brewer, R-Ariz., and passed by the legislature's Republican majority, orders state and local law enforcement officials to stop anyone they suspect of being undocumented and demand they immediately produce proof they legally live in the U.S.

Those who cannot immediately produce such papers are arrested and detained and could be deported.

Both large unions, which have tens of thousands of Spanish-speaking members, were outraged. Both also are among many groups that will boycott Arizona until the law is repealed or declared unconstitutional.

"Arizona's legislation is unworkable, it is unconstitutional and it undermines our nation's rich immigrant history and heritage. It is a recipe for racial profiling and a marked retreat from the values and ideals that make America strong," UFCW President Joe Hansen said when the class-action suit was filed.

"For our members, this issue is personal. UFCW members have seen first-hand how enforcement-only tactics fuel racial profiling - and lead to the trampling of our Constitution," he declared. He specifically cited Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, undertaken during the anti-worker GOP Bush government, against unionized Swift & Co., meatpacking plants.

Of the more than 1,200 workers arrested in those ICE raids on Swift, only 62 - not all of them with Hispanic names - were undocumented. Swift was crippled so badly financially by having its plants closed for days, due to a decimated workforce, that its owners were forced to sell the historic Chicago-based firm to a Brazilian meatpacker.

"We are filing this suit to protect the rights of our members and all workers in Arizona - and to uphold the values and ideals that make our nation strong," Hansen said.

"UFCW has been at the forefront of the fight for immigration reform because we have seen firsthand the devastation caused by enforcement-only strategies. We've seen families torn apart, we've seen communities destroyed and we've seen workers'

rights shredded. We need a comprehensive overhaul of our broken immigration

system at the federal level, not regressive, racially motivated laws enacted on a state-by-state basis," he explained.

"Arizona's new immigration law is a flawed solution to a serious problem," said SEIU Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina, the son of immigrants. "If implemented, the law will violate our most basic civil rights, burden local law enforcement and undermine public safety - all while failing to solve Arizona's immigration problems.

"We hope to stop the law before it institutionalizes racial profiling, pushes an unfunded mandate on cities and counties already strapped for cash, and wastes precious taxpayer resources on the costly litigation that will inevitably ensue," Medina added.

The class action suit charges the Arizona law violates the U.S. Constitution by unlawfully interfering with federal power and authority over immigration matters. It also invites racial profiling against people of color by law enforcement in violation of the Constitution's equal protection guarantee and prohibition on unreasonable seizures, and the law infringes on the free speech rights of Arizonans.

The suit also says Arizona's law violates that state's own constitutional ban on investigatory stops by law enforcement without reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.

Besides UFCW and SEIU, organizations that filed the case in federal court in Phoenix include the American Civil Liberties Union, which drafted the complaint, SEIU Local 5 in Phoenix, the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), the NAACP and the National Immigration Law Center (NILC).

"We saw during the Bush administration raids on our Swift plants how Latino workers were treated, how they were profiled because of the color of their skin, how law enforcement separated workers based simply on who they believed were undocumented," Hansen said. "These heavy-handed tactics unfairly - and incorrectly - targeted U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.

"That is why we are committed to fighting this legislation - and why we are abstaining from doing business in the state of Arizona until this issue is resolved."

Arizona's law has drawn nationwide and foreign protests. The Mexican government, for the first time ever, issued a "travel advisory" for its citizens, warning them to stay out of Arizona. Mexican President Felipe Calderon, on a state visit to Washington in mid-May, officially protested the Arizona law to both President Barack Obama and Congress. There are also demands that major league baseball move its future All-Star Game, scheduled for Phoenix, out of the city, especially since baseball teams have a large percentage of Latin American players.

Photo: Young baseball fan wants the All-Star game moved out of Arizona. AP.

Chicago transit workers: get trains and buses rolling again

Tue, 18 May 2010 15:53:00 +0000

CHICAGO - They appear everywhere in uniform. They are a constant reminder of the high cost of the state budget crisis.

They are the 1,200 Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) workers laid off in February. The cuts eliminated 18% of bus service, and resulted in dirtier buses and trains, less maintenance and packed trains.

"The candidates all come to church to seek support. But we never get a chance to speak. So we wear our uniforms on Sunday and sit up front as a reminder," said Leroy Smith, a laid off bus operator and member of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241.

Transit workers heard President Obama was visiting Quincy, Illinois last month so they donned their uniforms and piled in a couple of cars for the 4 hour trek. They arrived early and after getting cleared by the Secret Service, were ushered on stage to appear behind the president during a rally.

"President Obama came up to us and said, ‘CTA? I know why you're here,'" said Smith.

At a CTA board meeting on May 14, trustees heard reports of dismal revenue projections. Accountants were peppered with questions about the revenue stream but trustees zeroed in on free rides to seniors, military personnel and "circuit breakers" or low-income riders.

"What's the status of legislation to repeal it?" one coldly asked.

Meanwhile, out front Smith was leading a picket of laid off transit workers. They were joined by Jobs with Justice and community activists and SOAR members. They chanted, "fund transit, not bank bailouts!"

"We have got to come together," said Ron Harty, a bus operator. "We can fund wars but not education and transit. Or we bail out banks and then they tell you to go screw yourself."

Harty had been a construction worker on Chicago's deep tunnel project and a proud member of the Sewer and Tunnel Miners Union. At age 55 he was one of the last new CTA hires and received training to become a bus operator. Two months later he was laid off.

"Unbelievable. Why did they waste my time?" he asked.

The layoffs are disrupting families and lives, say transit workers. Many are now threatened with loss of their homes and cars.

Lillian Jones was only on the job seven months before being laid off. She was a bus operator out of the 103rd St and Stony Island Garage. She was picketing to get her job back, she said.

In addition to the layoff, those still working are putting in shifts of up to 70 hours. The "workers are driving quickly on the street. We need to put the drivers back to work to end the stress and so people don't have to wait so long for a bus," said Jones.

The transit workers are part of the newly formed Unemployed Council initiated by Chicago Jobs with Justice and are fighting for passage of the Miller Bill HR 4812. If passed, part of the funding could be allocated to local governments to retain public workers laid off because of the cuts.

Nationally, the ATU has joined with other transit unions, churches and community groups to demand federal funding for transit. Meanwhile, Chicago transit workers will continue to go everywhere to tell their story and get the trains and buses running again.

Photo: Scott Marshall

Cleveland Jobs with Justice celebrates

Tue, 18 May 2010 15:43:00 +0000

Celebrating working-class victories and preparing for the fight ahead, Cleveland Jobs With Justice held its 13th Annual Spring fundraiser May 17.

Larry Cohen, President of the Communications Workers of America, keynoted the event denouncing backward U.S. labor law and calling for deepening and broadening the coalition of labor and its allies that is embodied in JwJ.

The several hundred present gave a long and emotional standing ovation as workers at Hugo Boss, members of Workers United, were recognized for stopping the company's attempt to close its men's suit plant in Cleveland.

A video was shown depicting the successful effort led by Cleveland JwJ to compensate workers at InkStop, Inc., which abruptly shut stores throughout the country without paying employees for three weeks of work.

Workers at InkStop had no union, but fortunately, Jobs With Justice was able to stand up for them, Cohen said.

The U.S., he said, is at the bottom among industrialized countries when it comes to bargaining rights for workers.

"Nowhere else in the world are workers forced into adversarial elections with companies when they try to organize unions."

In nearly every other major economy collective bargaining rights are established when a majority of workers sign union cards, he said.

Because of the backward laws, only 12 per cent of U.S. workers are in unions, comparable to the level of unionization in countries like Indonesia and Turkey, but far below Western Europe and Japan. In Norway the figure is 90 per cent, in Germany it is 76 per cent.

"Can you imagine what it would mean if we were even twice as strong as we are now? Think of any issue - health care, education, anything - we would be much farther along than we are now."

The Employee Free Choice Act, which would correct this situation, has so far been blocked mainly by the Republicans in Congress, he said, but there are also grounds for hope.

"Thanks to President Obama, we now have the best National Labor Relations Board in decades," he said, "and there is great hope with Hilda Solis in charge of the Labor Department."

But, especially when workers don't have rights they can't act alone and they "can't play by the rules," he said.

He cited his union's successful fight to organize Continental Airlines that involved shutting down terminals with slow driving traffic, clogging ticket lines at airports and jamming the company's reservation phone lines. This involved both labor and its community supporters.

"Just like the workers at Hugo Boss, we can never give up. We must continue to organize. We must continue to stand up."

Fishermen take a beating from oil spill

Fri, 14 May 2010 13:00:00 +0000

NEW ORLEANS - Chet Held, 48, has been fishing the waters here off the Gulf Coast since he was a little boy. He's worked in the oil industry. He's done off-shore navigation. He's been a commercial fishermen and a deck hand.

Held comes from a union family. He is an assistant business manager for IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) Local 130 and his brother is a pipefitter. Additionally, his sons and nephew are part-time fishermen and part-time union apprentices.

With the ups-and-downs of the skilled trades, "we've always had fishing to fall back on," Held told the World as we drove through a small neighborhood in St. Bernard Parish. "People got to work," he added. "You got to make a living."

For Held and his family it has been a hard few years. "First, we took an ass-whooping with Katrina," he said. "We lost our boats, our house and our belongings - a lifetime of memories. We lost everything in Katrina."

As we drove through St. Bernard Parish, Held pointed out where his house used to be. His voice a little shaky, he said, "I'm sorry, this is where my babies grew up and it was all washed away!"

"And over there," he added, "my car was on top of that house."

Held continued, "It's hard living out here. During the worst of it, we had to pool everything. We had to survive together." After evacuating, Held and his family - 25 in all - showed up at his cousin's door steps in Florida. "We were in shock. We didn't know what was going to happen," he added.

Held, like many people in the bayou, hold family, friends and community very close. They see the Katrina tragedy as a community tragedy.

As we drove past the marsh with broken boat hulls still visibly protruding from the water, Held added, "The names of the boats are like people. They're like the family I grew up with. There is a lot of hurt here."

Unfortunately, however, it wasn't just the breaking of the levee that almost destroyed this quiet little neighborhood about 30 miles outside of New Orleans. Just east of where Held's house once stood is a Murphy Oil, Inc. refinery, one of the largest employers in the area. As the 25-foot wave crushed everything in its path, it also ruptured a nearby oil tanker spilling thousands of barrels of oil into the surrounding community.

According to Held, Murphy Oil, Inc. provided a "small settlement."

"We jumped on it. We had to get something in our pockets. We were devastated. Everything was so expensive, and there were thousands of other people in the same boat. We didn't know what else to do."

Now with the Deepwater Horizon explosion, the loss of 11 lives, and the 200,000 gallons of oil pouring into the Gulf Coast every day, he said, "everything has been totally shut down. Our livelihoods are gone."

"Fishermen all over," Held continued, "have used up every dollar, every last penny, to get their boats ready."

"We've got house notes and boat notes, just like everybody else," he added. "We live off of these waters. And now we can't fish."

While St. Bernard Parish is about 70 miles from the coast, fishing is its life's blood. Everybody from the local mom-and-pop restaurants, to the grocery stores, to the bait shops, schools and churches is tied to the industry.

"It's a damn shame," Held said outside an empty bait shop, boats docked with crab nets standing ready like statues, just waiting. "We should be out there making money. All those boats tied up, it's a sin."

Things are tense here. Nobody is quite sure what's going to happen, when it's going to happen or how it's going to get done. Furthermore, nobody can work. In fact, the only work to be had is putting out booms.

Additionally, with congressional investigators raising questions about BP's decision to continue work even though highly combustible gas had seeped into the Deepwater Horizon well, it is becoming ever more apparent that this whole crisis could have been avoided - if standard precautionary measures had been taken.

To a community already reeling from the Hurricane Katrina disaster, this seems like another slap in the face. Only about 50 percent of the population of St. Bernard Parish have returned since Katrina. Furthermore, there are currently only about 3,000 registered fishermen in the area; there were 15,000 registered fishermen in the early 1980s.

However, Held isn't just angry about the current crisis and its impact on his community; he blames the oil companies for coastal erosion as well.

"We are losing our barrier islands" Held said. "When you suck the bottom out, the land sinks."

"Not only have the oil companies taken our jobs and polluted our waters, they've caused coastal erosion. Mile and miles of land, it's just not there anymore," he added.

As we stood looking out at the water - idle boats on one side and "STOP: Hazmat Area Authorized Personal Only" signs on the other - Held asked, "How much of this will be covered with oil?"

Photo: IBEW's Chet Held discusses the implications of the oil spill with his fellow fishermen and bayou residents. (Blake Deppe/PW)

Steelworkers lobby for jobs, jobs, jobs -- good, green and safe

Fri, 14 May 2010 12:42:00 +0000

WASHINGTON — "Our people want to work!" Rep. Betty Sutton of Ohio declared at the 1,000-strong Steelworker Rapid Response Conference here on May 6. "There is no such thing as a jobless recovery," she added. "Jobs are the key, good jobs, green jobs."

The conference was the Steelworkers union follow-up of the Blue-Green Conference that they had attended the day before. See article here.

Sutton spoke as the steelworkers were getting ready to lobby members of Congress for jobs in manufacturing. Sutton's bill, HR5041, the Security in Energy and Manufacturing Act, corrects a big mistake in green energy laws. As the laws now read, tax dollars are paying for wind turbines and solar panels that create only a few jobs in the United States. Most of the jobs went out of the country to make steel and parts that were only assembled here. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of U.S. steelworkers are unemployed. The SEAM Act gives $5 billion in tax credits or grants to build and install wind turbines and solar panels. However, only plants that use steel and other materials, made in the U.S., can get the credits or grants.

Safe jobs, green jobs

Another big issue for the steelworkers' lobby was occupational safety. Steelworkers' asked members of Congress to support the "Protecting America's Workers Act" which would update and strengthen OSHA and give workers stronger safety rights and protections.

Workers' safety was on everybody's mind after the terrible mine disasters, refinery explosions and loss of life on BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard made the connection between safety on the job and saving the environment. The oil spill disaster off the Louisiana coast cost the lives of 11 USW members. "The choice is not good jobs or green jobs. We can have good jobs only if they are green jobs," Gerard said.

Gerard welcomed the passage of health care reform law as a great victory, saying, "President Obama has accomplished more in the 18 months that he has been in office than Bush did in eight years" Gerard affirmed steelworkers' support for single-payer health care system saying this reform is just the first step.

He reminded the delegates, "Our generation has a responsibility to the next ... to leave the worse mess in history or to leave the most opportunity in history."

He spoke frankly about the need to pass EFCA, the Employee Free Choice Act. "We don't give up," he said, although EFCA has been temporarily derailed by the National Manufacturer's Association.

Famous personalities

Many famous personalities took part in the Steelworkers' conference. Ed Schultz, of MSNBC's "The Ed Show" made a strong appeal to rebuild American manufacturing and create jobs. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi brought the crowd to its feet when she said, "We've said all along that clean energy is about four things, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs." She also got standing ovations for her role in passing health reform.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, told the conference, "Since the start of the recession in 2007, we're 11 million jobs in the hole, and that's on top of the unemployment that already existed. All in all, at least 17 million Americans are out of work. And those who are still working are up against wage freezes, hollowed out health care, and shredded retirement plans.

"We need to produce and use more clean and renewable energy. We need to build in more energy-efficient ways. We need to rebuild our electrical grid and make it smarter. We need to improve and expand our mass transit systems and build high-speed rail lines. And we need to prepare millions of workers to do these jobs."

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis got a big steelworkers' welcome. Delegates greeted her as a breath of fresh air after the eight years of anti-labor action by Bush appointees in the Department of Labor. Solis urged, "Investing in the manufacturing sector so we are exporting products - not paychecks." She also emphasized workplace safety, the right to organize and fair wages, retirement security and affordable health care.

Last, on a personal note, this Rapid Response Conference was one of the best actions that I have ever attended.

Photo: USW Rapid Response team members rally last year for jobs and worker rights in Indiana at a Georgia Pacific plant. http://www.flickr.com/photos/labor2008/ / CC BY 2.0

Vale Inco declares war on striking steelworkers

Wed, 12 May 2010 14:22:00 +0000

Last week mediated talks broke off between United Steelworkers Local 6500 and Vale Inco, the giant Brazilian owned transnational mining company, at two mines in Ontario, Canada. More than 3,000 USW members have been on strike at two mines in the Sudbury, Ontario area for over 10 months over pension and union rights issues. Despite $13 billion in net profits in 2008, the company demanded steep cuts in 2009 contract negotiations including a two tier pension system that includes weakening the seniority system for new workers. The workers went on strike in July of 2009.

Besides stonewalling two prolonged sets of mediated bargaining attempts, Vale Inco has mounted an international campaign against the unions. In an ironic twist, the company accused the steelworkers of "racism" for refusing to accept the take away demands of a Brazilian company. An accusation immediately rejected by Brazil's largest trade union federation, CUT. The CUT called for global trade union solidarity with the Canadian steelworkers. The CUT said bogus claims of racism and national chauvinism by Vale Inco will not work to divide workers internationally, and vowed to redouble their efforts in solidarity with their Canadian brothers and sisters.

In response to the break off of talks last week, Local 6500 members and community supporters have erected barriers at the plant gates. A previous court injunction had limited the union to eight pickets per gate. But spontaneously, the crowds have grown at each gate as frustration and anger build among strikers, their families and the community. Inco Vale lawyers immediately went to court demanding that Sudbury police take action to remove the protesters. The unions lawyer characterized the company demands as "war like" and an "impetuous desire to use force, arrest and imprisonment" that amounts to a call for the police to "bust heads."

Union members and supporters immediately declared their willingness to go to jail if necessary. When the Sudbury police came to the Clarabelle Mill entrance to give the protester two hours to disband their occupation of city owned land, they were met with chants of "Hell no, we won't go!"

The union's position is that they are on public land and that they are demonstrating, not picketing. The police have been to the plant gate sites in the last few days and warned that the barricades are illegal, but have not taken any actions so far.

Obviously the situation is developing further into a major labor battle in the current economic crisis. Even highly profitable giant global corporations like Vale Inco are ready to use the economic crisis to attack workers with severe cuts and curbs on union rights. The situation in Sudbury well illustrates the need for much greater international labor solidarity and action. The next few days could be critical for the strikers and their families. You can follow the breaking news from Sudbury here at the PW and at the union website here.

You can take action to support the strikers on the internet through LabourStart, the international labor solidarity site, here. And you can send messages of support to John Fera, the president of USW Local 6500, at jfera@uswsudbury.ca

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielle_scott/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

“Worse than Katrina,” La. leaders warn oil spill worse than media says

Wed, 12 May 2010 12:02:00 +0000

NEW ORLEANS - Labor leaders here say the oil spill will be worse for workers in this region than Hurricane Katrina was almost five years ago and that the major media, both locally and nationally, are actually downplaying its significance.

"First they said it was a thousand barrels a day, then 5,000, now 200,000 and the oil is getting closer every day," said Robert "Tiger" Hammond, president of the Greater New Orleans AFL-CIO and leader of the IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers). "And once it gets into the marshland it will become a bigger catastrophe than Katrina." "Tiger," as he is known in the labor movement and on job sites all over this city, said he fully expects workers here to be hit with a "double whammy" on top of Katrina because, "even if they succeed in building a side by side well that would mean at least 75 to 90 days more of oil gushing into the Gulf. That brings us to hurricane season ad very possibly oil washing up all over this region."

"Tiger," in an interview yesterday with the World, said, "I'm hearing already about people with strange rashes and there are whole stretches near the shores and elsewhere where you can already smell the oil. Fish, animals and sea gulls are dying and there is not enough publicity about it. It's a matter of the people's health and of their lives. And then, if the oil reaches those marshes more than 100,000 people will be almost immediately out of work - this, on top of Katrina and on top of the economic depression already going on is a lot for workers to have to handle."

David Magee, vice president of the dock workers' union (ILA, Local 3000), said that environmentalists and others the union has consulted warn that all major commerce here is in imminent danger. "We have a heads up that this spill will affect our industry adversely in the next two or three weeks. We have spoken to the membership and we are all trying to do our best to be prepared."

Union workers are already a key to the effort to minimize environmental damage and keep ships flowing through the mouth of the Mississippi River which empties into the Gulf of Mexico. "There are cleaning stations where our members are already cleaning the oil off the hulls of ships before they enter and pollute the river," Magee explained.

Despite this effort, he said, "it won't be long before major shippers take their cargo elsewhere. That will devestate us and hurt the entire national economy by driving up prices."

Magee and Chris Hammond, the local's secretary treasurer, told the World yesterday that they were both "first responders" after Katrina. They returned to work on the docks within three weeks after the storm to begin the work of rebuilding the port.

"I was lucky," Hammond said, "because I could live with family 35 miles north of here. Other workers didn't have a place to live and even today some of our guys have their families living as far away as Texas." Both were visibly shaken as they discussed the potential impact of the oil spill on dock workers here.

"The labor movement is working, through the Central Labor Council, with community and environmental groups to try to deal with this," Magee said.

"We are going to push hard to expand our influence in the elections this year," Tiger, the AFL-CIO leader said. "Candidates backed by labor won most of the elections in the southern part of the state last time around and we will push hard to elect more who come out strong for tougher regulations on the oil industry."

Magee said he hoped that people "will learn from this the importance of regulating these big companies. There is already reliable information that in a worse case scenario we could be looking at a total evacuation of New Orleans. Something so terrible as that would be the result of BP's cutting corners and not wanting to pay the $250,000 it would have cost them to put shut-off valves underneath the oil platforms." Tiger said it was President Bush who let BP off the hook when the company complained that spending the extra money was unnecessary because there would be no accidents.

Hammond and Magee said a broad based movement to fight BP and go after other abusive corporations would be bigger and stronger than it is now if the media were not doing such a poor job of explaining "just how serious this crisis is."

"Why does the media not demand that BP provide pictures or actual footage of the leaks?," Hammond demanded to know. "The company has submarines and all kinds of sophisticated technology down there. They've come forth with nothing and they havn't been forthcoming with information even to the President of the United States. President Obama was down here and offered them all kinds of resources. Why aren't they taking advantage of them?"

Photo: Chris Hammond, left, secretary treasurer of ILA Local 3000 and David Magee, right, vice president, were first responders in rebuilding the docks after Hurricane Katrina. (Blake Deppe/PW)

Celebrating Mother’s Day on the picket line

Tue, 11 May 2010 16:40:00 +0000

PLEASANTON, Calif. - In the greeting card image of Mother's Day, Mother - surrounded by bouquets of flowers - is served breakfast in bed by her loving family before being treated to a sumptuous dinner at a posh restaurant.

But for one group of Bay Area mothers and their co-workers, this Mother's Day meant another day on the picket line, in the company of a lively group of union and community supporters whose enthusiasm couldn't be dampened by intermittent spring rain. And for some it was also the third day of a hunger strike to protest management's obstinate refusal to end a 73-day lockout and resume contract talks.

It was a family occasion, too, with young people and children joining the line, and one young man, bullhorn in hand, helping lead chants for much of the march.

The workers are 61 food servers, cooks, bartenders and janitors at the Castlewood Country Club who were locked out Feb. 25, after they and their union, Unite Here! Local 2850, refused to accept management's insistence that they pay $739 per month for family health coverage. The workers, who average about $12.50 an hour, had not previously contributed to their health coverage. Their previous contract expired last September.

As Castlewood members and their guests arrived for a holiday brunch, they were greeted with a giant banner proclaiming "Castlewood Country Club: Stop Starving our Families!" and serenaded with chants of "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!" to the drum beats and flourishes of the Brass Liberation Orchestra.

Meanwhile, the five hunger strikers had been stationed at the Castlewood Clubhouse, greeting club members as they arrived. Joining the pickets for a brief rally, they shared their thoughts and experiences.

"It's really tough seeing people come in their nice suits for gala events, and we're starving out here," said janitor Francisca Carranza. She told how one member ate his food right in front of her. "I smiled," she said, "but I gave him a piece of my mind!"

Among the strikers was Local 2850's president, Wei Ling Huber, who maintained her hunger strike during a May 7 Alameda Labor Council banquet where she was honored as Unionist of the Year.

Observers said the club's parking lots, usually full on such occasions, had lots of empty spaces.

The workers have received support from a number of area elected officials. Early last month the Pleasanton City Council voted 3-1 to ask the club to end the lockout while it continued talks. Mayor Jennifer Hosterman, who voted with the majority, has said she believes the workers could not afford the club's proposed family premiums.

Support has also come from state Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, D-Fremont, whose district includes parts of Pleasanton, and other members of the Assembly including Mary Hayashi, D-Hayward and Tom Torlakson, D-Martinez, as well as Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty.

Last week an Alameda County Superior Court judge denied Castlewood's motion for a temporary restraining order to keep the workers away from the club's property so golfers there could have peace and quiet.

Castlewood workers have been represented by Local 2850 for the last 30 years, with no previous labor disputes. The union has proposed concessions it says would more than offset the cost of keeping the family medical benefits, including offering to pay $225 per month for family coverage, increasing the number of hours worked to qualify for medical benefits, a wage freeze in the first year of the contract and a loosening of seniority protections.

To follow latest developments, see www.endthelockout.org.

Photo: Hunger striker and Castlewood janitor Francisca Carranza. (Marilyn Bechtel/PW)

New SEIU president to “refocus” union

Tue, 11 May 2010 15:27:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI)--The Service Employees will "refocus" itself by pumping $4 million into organizing African-American and Latino workers, adding funds to their political campaign chest for selected races, and by trying to repair relations with the rest of organized labor -- with one exception -- says new President Mary Kay Henry.

In her first remarks after being elected May 8 to succeed Andy Stern, Henry said her elevation "marks a renewed commitment to our union's core mission: To improve the lives of all workers who are struggling to make ends meet in this economy. Working people are facing hardships we haven't seen in generations...and we can make an even bigger difference in the lives of workers in America."

In an hour-long telephone press conference after her election by the union's 73-member board, Henry added the 2.2-million-member organization would also "refocus" its political operation to continue at the grass-roots level between elections, just as it did in the battle for health care revision. Its total political spending will be $44 million in this election cycle, including a new $4 million special fund for selected gubernatorial, Senate and state legislative races, targeting states important in redistricting.

And SEIU also would "refocus" -- her word -- on organizing in the private sector, particularly in occupations, such as taxi drivers, where community activists have built fledgling organizations but which could use the larger union's might on their side.

Henry, 52, a Los Angeles resident and a Detroit-area native, was the union's International Vice President. A career SEIU staffer and official since 1979, Henry succeeds Andy Stern, who stepped down in the middle of his term.

Henry defeated Stern's chosen successor, Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger, who withdrew from the race almost two weeks before. "I'm deeply committed to Burger and I want to re-forge a united leadership team to tackle all our initiatives," Henry said. Terms of both Henry, the first female SEIU president, and Burger expire in mid-2012.

Stern strongly endorsed Henry in a statement the union issued. "From her earliest days organizing workers to her partnership in growing the strength of SEIU, Mary Kay's leadership has always been marked by her singular ability to connect with each and every person she meets to bring out their best," he said.

In politics, Henry said the special $4 million fund would be targeted to races identified as key in this year's election cycle: Gubernatorial races in Illinois, California, Arizona, Ohio, New York, Connecticut and Florida, U.S. Senate races in Illinois, Missouri, Colorado, Nevada and Pennsylvania and state legislative races -- due to redistricting in 2011-12 -- in Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada, Florida and Texas.

The union's new organizing focus would have two aspects, she added. One is to respond to its own African-American and Latino members, who said unorganized colleagues would benefit from community-based organizing in occupations such as taxi drivers and with groups such as free-lance writers.

The other would be to explore joint organizing with other unions in largely unorganized industries. Henry particularly mentioned partnering with the United Food and Commercial Workers as a partner, but named no specific targets. UFCW and SEIU jointly campaign against the abuses of Wal-Mart, the monster anti-worker retailer.

Henry takes over SEIU at a time when it claims to be the fastest-growing union in the U.S., and the largest, though the National Education Association, with 3 million members, would dispute that. But Stern also put SEIU through bitter battles with other parts of organized labor, a point Henry recognized.

She said she would strive to repair relations not by changing structures, but by "listen and learn conversations" with all unions, in and out of the AFL-CIO and Change To Win, on common issues for workers. But SEIU, Henry added, is "fully committed to Change To Win and we have no intention today of returning to the AFL-CIO."

SEIU led six other unions -- the Teamsters, Laborers, UFCW, UNITE HERE, the Carpenters and the Farm Workers -- out of the AFL-CIO and into Change To Win in 2005. The Carpenters have since left CTW and UNITE HERE split, with two-thirds of its members returning to the AFL-CIO.

"I intend to lead on settlement of the dispute" with UNITE HERE "in coordination with members of Workers United," Henry said, referring to the third of UNITE HERE members that followed former union President Bruce Raynor into SEIU. Raynor is now on the SEIU board.

Henry's one exception to repairing relations with other unions is the National Union of Healthcare Workers. NUHW was formed by leaders of what was SEIU's largest local, the 150,000-member United Health Care Workers-West, whom Stern removed from office. He charged they misappropriated union money. "Come with me and talk to workers who see their union being torn apart," Henry said of NUHW.

Before being bounced, the NUHW officers said Stern and Henry negotiated major contracts with California health care providers over the heads of the rank-and-file. Henry denied that charge. SEIU won a $1.25 million court judgment against NUHW for misuse of salaries, but its misappropriation charges against NUHW were tossed out.

Photo: New SEIU President Mary Kay Henry was a leader to expand health care for children, SCHIP. (SEIU)

Steelworker activist addresses socialist meet

Mon, 10 May 2010 16:40:00 +0000

MARION, Ohio - Long-time labor activist Bruce Bostick called for building a "wide coalition to isolate the right wing" to win basic necessities for working people and move towards socialism, at a forum here May 3.

Bostick, a retired steelworker and member of the Communist Party USA National Committee, was the featured speaker at the Norman Thomas Memorial Lecture at the Ohio State University campus in Marion. A formerly thriving industrial town in North Central Ohio, Marion was the home of Thomas, leader of the Socialist Party from 1928 until his death in 1968.

Bostick was the first labor leader to speak at the annual event since it began in 1972. About 25 campus and community activists were in attendance while others watched a live broadcast of the event at another OSU branch.

"We live in a time of deep crisis and great opportunity," Bostick said. The election of President Barack Obama, he said, has raised hopes and opened the possibility for reform to address the devastation to the lives of working people caused by "three decades of right-wing rule."

Right-wing administrations, he charged, have been responsible for "the most massive redistribution of wealth in the history of humankind." The income disparity between CEOs and average workers in the U.S. has skyrocketed and is now 344 to one, he said, more than 20 times what exists in other developed countries.

Plant closings, massive unemployment, entire blocks of boarded up homes, crumbling infrastructure, public budget crises, destruction of pensions and attacks on the right of workers to organize were not "acts of God" or caused by natural disasters, Bostick said. They are the direct result of "conscious acts of extreme right-wing legislators."

A massive movement from below is needed to pass legislation to create jobs, repair the infrastructure, develop green energy industries and reform health care and the financial system, he said.

"We must defeat the Republican Party, which is wholly owned by the extreme right," Bostick said. "Electing Democrats gives people room to struggle."

Two trends have emerged on the left to deal with this challenge, he said. "One is broad and inclusive. The other is sectarian and narrow."

The Communist Party, he said, agrees with the broad point of view. "We are an organization of regular working people helping to build a coalition for change. We believe in socialism and want to work with everyone pushing for progress."

Socialism, Bostick said, is the defeat of "corporate financial control of the government and empowerment of a new coalition of the people."

He cited a recent Rasmussen poll that found that 20 percent of the American people prefer socialism to capitalism.

"We can be optimistic based on the growing struggle," he said, referring to the recent large demonstrations organized by labor against the banks.

Photo: Bruce Bostick at 2009 AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh. (PW/Teresa Albano)