People Before Profit blog

Airport concession workers picket for labor rights

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:02:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. - Solidarity was in the air Oct. 26 as members of UNITE HERE! Local 2850 and other unions and community groups held an informational picket outside the Oakland Airport. They were supporting workers at several concessions who face unfair discipline and harassment as they campaign for the right to organize.

Demonstrators called on airline passengers and the community to support the workers in their struggle.

Concessions leasing directly from the airport have signed an agreement with UNITE HERE!, which represents some 29,000 airport concession workers in North America. That agreement includes providing workers with a fair process, commonly known as "card check neutrality," to decide whether or not to join the union. It also includes the union's pledge not to cause labor interruption.

Some 240 Oakland Airport workers have joined Local 2850 under this agreement. Their contracts include living wages, health care for themselves and their dependents, retirement benefits and other important rights on the job.

But workers at eight concessions subcontracting from the main food service provider, HMS Host, are not covered by the agreement. They lack affordable health care, retirement benefits and other labor rights. Some concessionaires have allegedly even violated the Port of Oakland's living wage requirement.

Among the eight are Subway, Jamba Juice, Burger King, and See's Candy.

The non-union concession workers began campaigning for the right to organize last June.

Since then, they say, four workers have been fired and many more have faced harassment and/or unmerited discipline.

HMS Host workers were on the line Oct. 26 in solidarity with their nonunion brothers and sisters.

HMS Host claims it doesn't have the power to make its subcontractors conform to the labor agreement, "but the subcontractors pay rent to them," said HMS Host worker Monica Guzman.

Guzman said she and the other union workers face their own challenges in negotiations for a new contract to replace the one that expired July 1. She said HMS Host is seeking to keep wages the same while "freezing" health coverage so workers will have to pay a larger share.

Other demonstrators were leafleting and talking with passengers as they entered the terminal. HMS Host worker Kia Mitchell turned from talking with one very receptive passenger to say that among problems the non-union workers face is being required to cover two positions but only being paid for one.

"The companies don't hire enough people to cover the work that needs doing," she said. The nonunion workers also face unpredictable last-minute scheduling that makes it very difficult to meet their families' needs.

"I want the workers for the subcontractors to have the same rights that I do," she said. "After all, they're making money for those companies."

Photo: Marilyn Bechtel/PW

On this day in labor history: National Organization for Women founded

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:44:00 +0000

On this date in 1966, the National Organization for Women was founded, according to Workday Minnesota.

The organization was founded by 28 women and men out of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. The commission had three years earlier found that women were systematically discriminated against, and members wanted government action. However, the commission was not even allowed at its 1966 meeting, due to administration policies, to pass resolutions that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission fulfill its mandate in regards to women's rights.

As a consequence, members of the commission founded NOW as an independent organization, with Betty Friedan as its first president.

With half a million members, NOW is the largest feminist organization in the United States. It currently has more than 500 chapters in each state of the union, as well as the District of Columbia.

Photo: National Organization for Women, via Wikipedia.

Teamsters sanitation workers picket private firm in 19 cities

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:09:00 +0000

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (PAI) - Some 1,000 Teamsters sanitation workers picketed a private refuse company, Republic/Allied Waste, in 19 cities nationwide on Oct. 25 to protest the firm's intimidation of workers, its refusal to honor contracts and its schemes to cut workers' pensions.

The lead confrontation in October was in Memphis, where Republic "has flown in dozens of supervisors and non-union drivers from all over the country during the past few weeks, to intimidate workers and try to convince the community that garbage will be picked up even if the company locks out its workers," the union said.

Before that, the firm locked out the union in Evansville, Ind., in May, and forced members of Local 991 in Mobile, Ala., to strike in March to get the firm to implement a contract both the union and management had already ratified.

The Teamsters did not strike on Oct. 25. Their informational picket signs in Memphis, Evansville, Ind., and elsewhere read "Just Practicing."

The union members are also confronting an increasing trend in local governments, where cash-strapped municipalities outsource public services to private firms, which try to increase their profits by cutting corners on workers' wages and benefits.

Republic/Allied Waste locked out 80 members of Teamsters Local 215 in Evansville for six weeks, the union said. The firm wanted to destroy the workers' pensions. Republic brought in "replacement" drivers whose misdriving of sanitation trucks "damaged people's homes, vehicles and even power lines during the lockout."

"What kind of company bullies its workers like this - letting them and their families go without paychecks for weeks and months?" Local 215 President Chuck Whobrey asked then.

"Allied Waste/Republic Services was willing to destroy the hard-earned retirement security of its front-line workers here in the Evansville area. The company tried to starve these workers into agreeing to give up their pension plan and put their families' futures at risk. Sanitation workers don't get much recognition, but they deserve a secure retirement."

Besides Memphis, Mobile and Evansville, Teamsters also held informational picketing in Urbana, Ill., Youngstown and Cleveland, Ohio, Detroit, Flint and Adrian, Mich., Fremont, Daly City, Fairfield, Gardena, Long Beach and Anaheim, Calif., Revere, Mass., Atlanta, Bellevue, Wash., and Buffalo, N.Y.

Photo: Teamsters Local 991, Mobile, Ala.

Machinists sound out Boeing workers in S.C.

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 12:08:00 +0000

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (PAI) - In what would be a fascinating irony, and comeback if it succeeds, the Machinists are quietly sounding out the prospects of launching an organizing drive at the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft construction plant in anti-union South Carolina.

News reports from Everett, Wash., and North Charleston, S.C., said the union sent an informational packet to South Carolina workers and tentatively scheduled a meeting for Oct. 23. IAM spokesman Frank Larkin confirmed the union's interest.

"The IAM has maintained contact with supporters at the Boeing South Carolina facility, and they've maintained contact with us," he said. "The meeting is for employees who are interested in finding out more about their collective bargaining rights."

Boeing, rabid right wing Republican Gov. Nikki Haley and her Labor Commissioner - recruited from a union-buster - all strenuously oppose any IAM organizing drive in North Charleston. In a Republican National Convention speech, Haley, a tea party favorite, bragged how she beat "bullying union bosses."

In 2009, Boeing announced it was moving Dreamliner production from Everett to North Charleston specifically, its CEO said, to retaliate against IAM because the union stood up for workers' rights - even striking-at the manufacturer's Everett plant. The announcement came a month after North Charleston workers decertified IAM.

Boeing's announcement and its CEO's justification set off a long political brouhaha after IAM lodged a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), saying such retaliation is illegal.

NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon tried to mediate the dispute. But when Boeing didn't budge, he brought labor law-breaking (unfair labor practices) charges against the firm and sought a penalty to keep Dreamliner work in Everett.

Right wing Republicans in Congress then tried, unsuccessfully, to curb the NLRB's already limited power to protect workers from retaliation. Some alleged Solomon was in cahoots with IAM to charge Boeing, but they could never prove it.

And Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, campaigning for the South Carolina primary, jumped into the fray, promising to emasculate the NLRB. He also gained Haley's endorsement.

The mess was solved when Boeing and IAM signed a new contract in Everett, keeping Dreamliner lines open at both plants and directing other construction to Everett.

Photo: Boeing workers labor on 787s at the company's final assembly plant in North Charleston, S.C. Bruce Smith/AP

Today in labor history: Women’s rights figure Elizabeth Cady Stanton dies

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 11:47:00 +0000

On this day in 1902, social/political activist and proto-feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton died at the age of 86, after living a life of achievements, which included developing the first-ever women's rights and women's suffrage movements in the U.S.

In 1848, Stanton and other women gathered in Seneca Falls, New York, where they organized the first women's rights convention. Beyond fighting for women's right to vote, Stanton also advocated gender-neutral divorce laws, enhanced economic opportunities for women, and the right of women to serve on juries.

Stanton also inadverdantly provided a sharp critique of religion for her time, believing that organized Christianity relegated women to an inferior position in society. She expounded upon this idea in her book The Woman's Bible, which explored religious scripture from the perspective of early feminism.

Stanton died of heart failure in her home, nearly two decades before women would actually be given the right to vote.

Photo: Elizabeth Stanton and daughter Harriot. Wikipedia

Labor board lowers the boom on water company

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 10:41:00 +0000

BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Saying American Water Works broke labor law by prematurely imposing its "last, best and final" national master contract offer, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) official ordered the firm to restore retiree health benefits and the health benefits and disability plan current workers had under their old contract.

In his Oct. 16 ruling, administrative law judge Steven Davis also told American Water's bargainers to go back to the table and bargain a new contract, including those issues, with the Utility Workers and its other unions to replace the pact that ended in mid-2010. The firm's national master contract covers 3,500 union workers in 15 states and 70 local unions. The Utility Workers are the lead union, with 2,500 of the workers.

Davis also said that if the company-imposed health plan cost workers more money in premiums, American Water would have to make them whole.

"This decision is another huge step in our efforts to win justice for American Water employees," declared Utility Workers President Michael Langford. "We will continue challenging this company's unfair attacks against working families until American Water learns that it is not above the law."

American Water has had good relations with some of its union locals nationwide, but bad relations in St. Louis. It broke labor law by not notifying state mediation agencies that it had called in the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to observe when talks hit a snag. The snag was over the rising cost of health care.

As the side that began the talks for a new pact, a year before the old one expired, American Water had to tell the states about the mediation request, Davis said.

Labor law "is unequivocal," Davis wrote. "It provides the duty to bargain includes serving written notice upon the other party to a collective bargaining agreement of one's desire to terminate or modify it, with notice also to the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and the appropriate state agency."

National Labor Relations "Board authority is also unequivocal. Failure of a party desiring to terminate or modify a collective-bargaining agreement to give appropriate notice" under that section of labor law "precludes it from altering terms or conditions of the collective-bargaining agreement," Davis added.

Davis' ruling covers workers and retirees at American Water and subsidiaries in California, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

Photo: UWUA member at the Detroit labor day parade. Image via the union's Facebook page.

Orlando rallies for fired Walmart worker

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 10:20:00 +0000

ORLANDO, Fla. - Local worker allies held an action at an Orlando-area Walmart store Oct. 25 to bring attention to another instance of retaliation against a Walmart "associate" who joined OURWalmart for better wages, working conditions, benefits and respect on the job.

OURWalmart is the Organization United for Respect at Walmart, a project of the United Food and Commercial Workers

A delegation made up of members of the Student Labor Action Project at the University of Central Florida and Central Florida Jobs with Justice tried to present managers at the east Orlando store with a letter. The missive was in support of OURWalmart member Alex Rivera, who was fired from the store in late September after having worked there for three years. It called for Rivera's reinstatement and included the names of Central Floridians who had signed an on-line petition in support of Rivera.

"It's time to say, Walmart, it's time to stop. Stop using retaliation. Stop using scare tactics against the associates," said Rivera. "Let the associates organize. Let the associates speak out. You should listen to the associates. We are the 99 percent."

The delegation, which also was intended as a show of support for other OURWalmart members who still work at the store Rivera was fired from, included state Rep.-elect Victor Torres, D-Orlando, a bus driver and member of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1596.

"We're just here coming to say we want Alex to get reinstated," said Denise Diaz, of Central Florida Jobs with Justice.

Store management refused to accept the letter, which was addressed to Rob Walton, chairman of the Walmart board.

Dave, the manager of the store that Rivera was fired from, claimed he wasn't "the right authority" to take the letter to, although it specifically addressed Rivera's plight. He suggested it be sent to the company's media relations office. Dave said there was no process or means by which the community could advocate for Rivera with store management, and suggested that community members call Walmart's home office in Arkansas.

Rivera, 30, a married father of two young children, joined OURWalmart about six months ago. Rivera said he joined the group because of concerns about retaliation against employees who speak out, low wages, the failure of management to listen to workers, "the way we've been disrespected at the stores [and] for the way they treat us as slaves."

"It's time to let Walmart know that all the stuff they're doing, it's wrong," said Rivera. "And they're violating a lot of [labor] law[s], also."

When Walmart fired Rivera, the company claimed it was for "gross misconduct" and violations of "integrity" over adjustments to when he started his half-hour lunch break and other breaks because he was assisting customers when those breaks were scheduled to begin. (Walmart claims its associates are not supposed to work while on break.) Rivera, however, believes his termination was the result of his having become known as a leader of OURWalmart in Florida, noting that in the last few months store managers had been closely monitoring his interactions with other workers.

At the time of his termination, Rivera, who worked full-time, was earning $8.40 an hour, after starting at $7.50 an hour when he was hired. Rivera filed an unfair labor practices complaint over his termination with the National Labor Relations Board office in Tampa.

"That's what they do when a lot of these associates get targeted, and what they've seen is they [often] get their job back because they [Walmart] are really unjust in the firings," said Diaz, of Jobs with Justice.

OURWalmart held one-day strikes Oct. 9 at 28 Walmart stores across the country, including in Dallas, Miami, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, to highlight company retaliation against its members. After the walkouts and a protest by 200 OURWalmart members and supporters at the company's annual investors meeting in Bentonville, Ark., on Oct. 10, Rivera feels that the company's attitude towards OURWalmart and its incipient worker organizing has changed.

"I think this time they are taking us seriously," said Rivera, who participated in the Bentonville protest. "I think they're saying, 'You know what? OURWalmart's not joking.'"

"They know we are planning for Black Friday [actions on Nov. 27]," said Rivera. "We're going to attack them real hard [that day]."

OURWalmart has announced that it intends to stage more strikes on Black Friday at Walmarts across the U.S. unless the company stops punishing and terminating its employees for standing up for themselves. This, potentially, could cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars in sales on the busiest shopping day of the year.

Although Rivera has found another full-time job that pays better than Walmart, he has not given up on his struggle for worker justice at America's largest retailer and employer. Rivera said he would head up an office that OURWalmart is opening in Orlando next month.

After the action at the east Orlando Walmart, some members of the delegation headed to a Walmart in Winter Springs, Fla. (about 15 miles north of Orlando), where they attempted to present store managers with a letter in support of an employee who was recently diagnosed with diabetes and lupus. Rather than accommodate the employee's medical condition by moving her to a less strenuous position, store management placed her on an unpaid leave of absence, apparently in the hopes that she would quit.

Photo via Central Florida Jobs with Justice.

Walmart workers sue for unpaid wages

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 11:36:00 +0000

CHICAGO - The other shoe - the legal one - has dropped in Wal-Mart's constant low pay and bad benefits for its workers: 20 temp workers in a Chicago-area store sued in federal court for unpaid wages.

The class action complaint, filed Oct. 22, said Walmart and two staffing agencies, QPS and Labor Ready, required workers show up early for work, stay late, and work through lunch at the world's largest retailer, all unpaid, among other violations.

Sometimes, workers toiled so long their hourly pay didn't end up meeting the minimum wage. Other times, they'd be called in but kept on stand by, not getting paid the state-required 4-hour minimum wage. That also deprived them of the chance to seek other work those days.

The suit says the affected workers are among a group of 20-30 temps the two staffing agencies summoned to work at the Walmart store in suburban Crestwood. The law breaking there began three years ago, in October 2009. The suit said their class could include temp workers at other Chicago-area Walmarts.

The workers seek unpaid overtime, pay covering the difference between what they actually got and Illinois' minimum wage, damages and a court injunction banning Walmart - legally considered a "joint employer" - and the staffing agencies from further state and federal wage and hour labor law-breaking. No trial date has been set yet.

Walmart and the staffing agencies broke state law, written to protect such temp workers, the suit said. The retailer and the staffing firms "failed to provide laborers assigned to work at Walmart stores and other third party client companies with information related to their employment, such as Employment Notices and proper Wage Payment Notices" as well as work verification forms the law requires.

Walmart and the agencies also "required laborers to appear early for work, stay late to complete work, work through lunches or breaks and/or participate in training without compensation, resulting in minimum wage and overtime violations. Walmart also failed to keep accurate records of its laborers' work time as required by federal and state law," the suit adds.

The store workers' suit follows a successful 3-week strike by workers at Walmart's huge distribution center/warehouse in Will County, south of Chicago. Those workers forced the firm to take them back without retribution and to address working conditions. Walmart workers at warehouses in Southern California and at stores scattered around the country have also walked out, all protesting pay, working conditions and Walmart's refusal to address employee grievances.

Photo: Warehouse Workers for Justice, Facebook page.

Jesse Jackson among 14 arrested at Bain-owned Illinois plant

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 11:30:00 +0000

FREEPORT, Ill. - For facing down attempts to curb their free speech rights, 14 people were arrested yesterday evening when they marched on the Bain-owned Sensata plant here to demand a meeting with the manager.

The march on the plant was in response to threats by top Bain management to shutter the plant even sooner than the planned December closure if workers continued their protests. The Bain managers came from the company's headquarters in Attelboro, Mass. on Thursday and delivered their threat directly to Freeport's mayor, George Gaulrapp, who has been standing with the workers.

Some 170 outsourced Sensata workers, as they battle to save their jobs, have also thrust Mitt Romney's role as "outsourcer-in-chief" into the national spotlight, potentially impacting the national election less than two weeks away.

Those arrested yesterday include civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, Victory Bell-Rockford, an alderman form the neighboring town of Rockford, three Sensata workers - Dot Turner, Bonnie Borman, and Joanne Penniston - and several individuals representing their unions - Brandon Cambell, Ted Denver, and George Welitshimsky of the United Auto Workers, Mel Turner of the United Steelworkers, and Keith Kelleher of SEIU Healtcare Illinois. Together with the nine arrested in previous actions at the plant, people in town are calling the entire group the "Bainport 23."

"Bainport" is the protest tent-city encampment workers set up across the road from the plant 45 days ago.

"Sometimes you have to take a stand for what you believe in." said Bonnie Borman, an arrestee who has worked at the plant for 23 years. "Even though I have given my life to this place, I was arrested for simply wanting to meet with the manager."

"Today, I was proud to stand up against the outsourcing of American jobs," said Joanne Penniston, another arrested Sensata worker. "We are sending a clear message to Bain - and to all companies that decide to cut and run on American workers. We're not backing down."

"This is the essence of the American struggle," said Rev. Jesse Jackson. "It is the fight to keep our jobs."

While management refused to answer repeated calls, Tom Gaulrapp, another Sensata worker (no relation to the mayor), told the Peoples World that there are only about 60 of the 170 outsourced workers still on the job in the plant. The workers had to train their overseas replacements who were flown in and housed at company expense.

Sensata manufactures auto sensors and controls for cars.

Workers say they will continue - and even escalate - their protests between now and Election Day, Nov. 26. They plan a major rally on Sat., Oct 27 at their Bainport encampment. United Auto Workers President Bob King has announced that he will join workers at that rally.

Photo: The Rev. Jesse Jackson with Sensata workers and their families, Oct. 24, in Freeport, Ill. Jackson and about a dozen workers were arrested during a protest at Sensata Technologies, which is owned by Bain Capital. Joe Tamborello/The Journal-Standard/AP

Connecticut artists urge voters to come out

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 11:22:00 +0000

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - As Bruce Springsteen, Jay-Z and Beyonce campaign for Barack Obama in swing states, Connecticut performing and visual artists are reaching out to voters here where a close race could determine control of the U. S. Senate.

Over 50 progressive artists issued a call to action this week expressing outrage at voter suppression efforts across the country. "To counter this attack on our democracy, we urge you to make your voice heard. Please help as many people as you can to register and vote - for yourself, and for everyone you love," the statement concludes.

"As artists concerned about our families, communities, and country we stand together with those grass roots and political leaders who want to make this a better world for everyone, not just the top 1%. As artists we intend to dedicate our talents to the cause of the 99%," the artists say.

When the Progressive Artists Committee first met a month ago, they initiated the call in response to the urgency of the elections. A diverse and growing group of artists representing various communities has signed on.

One of those artists, Bill Collins, was just completing a new song, "Pushing Back Against Linda's Lies," dedicated to exposing the tea-party Republican candidate for U.S. Senate.

The lyrics take on Linda McMahon's makeover for this election. Like Mitt Romney, she is pretending to be the opposite of what her program represents.

"Linda McMahon is lying and buying to win this election. This song calls her out on it" says Collins.

Collins performed the song with retirees in front of McMahon's campaign headquarters protesting a remark that she would "sunset Social Security." Collins also led a lively group performance outside the final debate between McMahon and Democratic candidate Chris Murphy.

"Pushing Back Against Linda's Lies," performed by Bill Collins and the Testifiers can be viewed on-line in a 50's version and a gospel version.

While the race remains very close, Murphy pulled ahead in the polls this week as canvassing and phone banks provide the opportunity to discuss the issues with voters.

McMahon, who build her fortune selling sex and violence on the World Wrestling Entertainment channel, professes to care about workers and women. The wrestlers worked as "contractors" without benefits or insurance. She would also maintain the Bush era tax cuts for the rich, netting herself $7 million. She has spent a record $77 million of her own money on her two campaigns to win the Senate seat, including saturating television advertising with personal attacks against Chris Murphy.

Chris Murphy was first elected to Congress in 2006 representing the 5th Congressional District. He became a leader for health care, manufacturing jobs and clean energy. He opposed elimination of funding for Planned Parenthood. He has the support of the entire labor movement which has been campaigning hard for him, as well as environmental and women's organizations.

The full text of the artists' call to action follows:

Progressive Artists Call To Action

We the undersigned artists from Connecticut feel compelled to raise our voices as this crucial election approaches. The control of the U.S. Senate and the direction of our country are at stake.

Were we to paint a portrait of - or write a song about - our country at the present time, it would reveal two distinct visions: people working together vs. every person for him or herself.

Are we going to come together as a community, and as a country, to find creative solutions to poverty and income disparity, racism, homelessness, climate change, injustice at home and violence abroad? Or will our society become a "survival of the fittest" where each individual is left on his or her own?

As artists concerned about our families, communities, and country we stand together with those grass roots and political leaders who want to make this a better world for everyone, not just the top 1%. As artists we intend to dedicate our talents to the cause of the 99%.

We are outraged that a huge voter suppression campaign is underway that could block millions from exercising their democratic right to vote. To counter this attack on our democracy, we urge you to make your voice heard. Please help as many people as you can to register and vote - for yourself, and for everyone you love.

Signed:

Ken Blackwell, Will Bartlett, Baub Bidon, Lydia Bornick, Cate Bourke, Warren Byrd. David Chevan, Bill Collins, Martina Crouch, Kendra Dawsey, Gabe DeLeon, Asher Delerme, David Douglas, David Elkin-Ginnetti, Edie Fishman, Jeff Fuller, Vanessa Glenn, David Gorin, Bob Gorry, Yonadav Greenwood, Justin Haaheim, Paul Hammer, Dan Hansen, Orlando Hernández, Richard Hill, Aaron Jafferis, Martha Jane Kaufman, Ava Kofman, Sherman Malone, Joseph A. McWilliams, Isabella Mendes, Jeff McQuillan, Pamela Nomura, Larissa Pham, Stacy Phillips, Chris Randall, Kenneth Reveiz, Laura Richling, Justin Taylor, Sophie Tong, Daniel Vieira, David Yih, The People's Arts Collective of New Haven, the cast of CHILD, Free2Spit: Lisa Bergmann, Isabel M. Carillo, Kevin Edwards, Eyra Feliciano, Tawana Galberth, Joshua Kosloski, Nick, J. Simone, Heidi Williams, Robin Williams

Photo: Bill Collins performing at rally in front of Linda McMahon's North Haven office to protect Social Security. Art Perlo/PW

Today in labor history: The 40-hour workweek

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:05:00 +0000

On October 24, 1940 the 40-hour workweek went into effect under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The new law had been signed by President Roosevelt in 1938.

For millions, a movement to bring back the 40-hour workweek is actually needed today. Due to high unemployment, among many other factors, many who are lucky enough to have a job work up to 60 or more hours when their bosses say its needed.

No one knows better than the workers themselves the harm this can do to personal and family life, health, overall wellbeing and just about every other aspect of our lives.

What many younger workers today don't realize is that from 1940 until perhaps 1990 or even longer most people, including businesses, operated under the assumption that when people work more than 40 hours they do not just themselves but their companies harm. Mistakes and dangerous situations develop when people work until they are physically and mentally exhausted.

Despite the common sense in this, many bosses refuse to accept the truth that working more than 40 hours makes the worker less useful and less productive in both the short and the long term.

It took the organized activity of workers, led by their unions, to build awareness of this and lead the struggles for the 40-hour workweek. It took those things earlier in American history to end child labor and win the fight for the eight-hour day. It seems it will take beating back the attacks we see on the rights of workers today to restore not just full employment but decent wages and a 40-hour workweek.

Photo: Communication Workers of America Local 6012

Charges filed after Bain-owned Sensata threatens immediate shutdown

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 12:28:00 +0000

FREEPORT, Ill. - Unfair labor practice charges against Sensata Technologies were filed with the National Labor Relations Board today after the Bain-owned company threatened to shut their plant here immediately if workers continue efforts to stop the outsourcing of their jobs.

Sensata management delivered their threat to close immediately to the town's mayor, George Gaulrapp and to Freeport police, not to the workers directly. Zoe Bridges-Curry, a spokesperson for the workers, said top executives from Bain headquarters in Attleboro, Mass., Came to Freeport and made the threat to both the mayor and the chief of police.

The mayor, who has been standing with the workers and has supported protests at "Bainport," the encampment across the road from the plant and the chief of police passed the word along to the workers who then filed charges against Sensata with the NLRB. The filing accuses the company of illegally threatening and retaliating against employees engaged in legitimate organizing activity.

Determined to call Sensata's bluff, workers and their community supporters began gathering at Bainport early this morning. Jesse Jackson Sr., the civil rights leader who has already visited Bainport in support of the outsourced workers, was reportedly on his way back to the encampment this morning.

Jackson is expected to lead a march on the plant later today where workers and their community supporters plan to carry out acts of civil disobedience. In the past they have occupied entrance areas at the plant and have blocked trucks removing equipment. Workers at Bainport say they expect arrests today and a spokesman for Rev. Jackson said that if necessary he will be arrested along with the workers. Unions that have been supporting the workers, including the Steelworkers, are also expected to participate in actions later today.

Nine people have been arrested for protesting at the plant so far, as the protests have drawn larger and larger crowds over the last six weeks. The plant is scheduled to be shut down in December, with both jobs and equipment shipped to a new plant in China.

Three community supporters were arrested earlier in the month for blocking trucks from removing equipment and six were arrested when workers tried to deliver a petition to the plant manger last week as part of their effort to win full severance pay. The company has announced that it will cut severance pay from the promised 52 weeks to only26 weeks.

"Not only are they shipping our jobs to China, they are also trying to take away our rights as American workers," said Joanne Penniston, one of the 170 Sensata workers losing her job. "We are not going to be intimidated," she said this morning. "We are going to stand up for our rights and our jobs."

The first charge filed with the NLRB today accused the company of "increasing security and announcing a new policy, or previously unenforced policy, prohibiting off-duty employees from entering work areas at non-work times, in response to and in retaliation for employees engaging in concerted activity.," while the second charge accused the company of threatening to shut down early.

The charges follow Sensata's shutting down of its plant for the entirely of last weekend in the face of national attention. MSNBC's Ed Show broadcasted live from the Bainport camp on Friday in front of a crowd of hundreds, while CNN broadcast live from the camp three times last week.

Sensata workers have pleaded publicly with GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney to help save their jobs but have been repeatedly rebuffed.

Not only does Romney stand to profit from the outsourcing of these jobs through the stock he still owns in the company, his 2011 tax returns show that he got a huge tax break by moving Sensata stock to a charity organization he controls - and that he continues to profit from Bain's offshore holdings and tax avoidance schemes.

Photo: People's World visits Bainport, a protest encampment for Sensata workers who are losing their jobs to outsourcing. Sensata is owned by Bain Capital. Sensata Technologies makes sensors and instruments for the auto industry and is currently located in Freeport, Ill., in the northwestern part of the state. Roberta Wood/PW

Today in labor history: NAACP appeals to UN on denial of voting rights

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 10:55:00 +0000

On this day in 1947 the NAACP at the initiative of W.E.B. Du Bois presented an "Appeal to the World" to the United Nations, charging systematic discrimination against African Americans. The Appeal noted that "three-fourths of the Negro population of the nation is deprived of the right to vote by open and declared policy” and called for an investigation.
The U.S. delegation to the UN objected and actively lobbied against other nation's attempt to raise the issue. The UN Commission on Human Rights voted not to accept a request by the Soviet Union to conduct an investigation

The National Negro Congress in 1946 and William Patterson and Paul Robeson in 1952 presented similar appeals to the UN. NAACP head, Benjamin Jealous, in August of this year presented a similar appeal to UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva pointing to efforts to suppress voting rights in states across the country. Jealous said, "It was in 1947 that W.E.B. Dubois delivered his speech and appealed to the world at the U.N.Now, like then, the principal concern is voting rights. The past year more states in this country have passed more laws pushing more voters out of the ballot box than any point since Jim Crow."

Sensata closes for weekend over “Bainport” publicity

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 13:14:00 +0000

FREEPORT, Il. - Just as MSNBC's Ed Schultz Friday program was drawing hundreds to "Bainport," a protest encampment of outsourced Sensata workers here, the company shut the plant and barred entry to its workers. Employees locked out included those on Friday's second shift and all those scheduled to work for the remainder of the weekend.

Included in the crowds that massed at Bainport in support of the workers on Friday were contingents from the United Steelworkers and the United Auto Workers, two of the nation's largest unions in the manufacturing sector.

The 170 outsourced Sensata workers, who have camped out across the road from the plant now for 40 days and 40 nights, continue to get national attention in their effort to save their jobs by pressuring GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney to use his Bain Capital connections on their behalf.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr., the veteran civil rights leader who heads the Rainbow Push Coalition, was on his way from Chicago late Monday afternoon to stand with the Freeport Workers.

"Mitt could have saved the Rev. Jackson a trip by simply picking up the phone and calling off the dogs at Bain Capital," said Zoe Bridges-Curry, a spokesperson for the Sensata workers at Bainport.

The visit by the Rev. Jackson follows by just two days an appearance at Bainport by the Rev. Al Sharpton, civil rights leader from New York, who joined crowds of protesters at Bainport on Saturday.

Among those also backing the Freeport workers on Saturday were visitors from the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago. The Republic workers who visited Bainport had themselves responded to sudden layoffs by occupying their factory and by setting up a worker-owned manufacturing facility that is still operating.

Armando Robles, a Republic worker who is now president of UE, Local 1110, brought his family from Chicago to Bainport, where he discussed a variety of issues with Sensata workers, including the importance of civil disobedience as a tactic in the struggles waged by workers. There are strong parallels, he noted, between the decision of workers at his workplace to occupy the factory and the decision by Sensata workers to set up a protest encampment outside their plant.

At least three community supporters of the Sensata workers have been arrested after attempting to block trucks sent in to remove equipment form the plant.

The deep attachment workers have for the machinery they have operated for many years is a major issue in the civil disobedience at Bainport, with workers saying that the equipment being removed is much more than just property that the company is outsourcing along with its workers.

Jeff Whitson, a 12-year veteran at the plant, said he was "sole operator" of machinery at his station for the second shift for all those years. "I watched the machine being taken apart bit by bit," he said, "and you may think this is silly but, you know the footprint that a heavy machine leaves on the floor after you move it - to this day I can't bring myself to walk over that spot."

Workers also note that, not only does Romney stand to profit from the outsourcing through stock he owns in Sensata, but that his 2011 tax returns reveal that he got a huge tax break by moving Sensata stock to a charity organization he controls. The tax returns also show that he continues to profit from Bain's offshore holdings and tax avoidance strategies.

The workers tried to deliver a petition to the plant manager last Wednesday as part of their additional effort to win full and fair severance. Workers who have been at the plant for as long as 40 years are only getting 26 weeks. They say that as soon as Bain purchased their plant four years ago it slashed agreed-upon severance pay rates to their current low levels.

Photo: From the Save Our Jobs Facebook page.

Bain Capital cuts jobs in rural America

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:26:00 +0000

My friend came in the office all excited. "I got him to admit it. Bain Capital owns Air Evac," she said. She had stopped in the mall where Air Evac, a helicopter ambulance service, had been trying to sign up customers. The manager was there with a crew. She said, "Can I ask a question?"

"Go right ahead," he said.

"Does Mitt Romney own Air Evac?' she wanted to know.

"Oh, no," he said, "that's not true."

"Well, I understand Bain Capital bought it. That's Mitt Romney's company, isn't it?" His crew backed up against the wall, not wanting to be part of the fray, she said.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean anything" was the lame reply.

Air Evac started 27 years ago in a small town in the Ozarks to give ambulance services to rural people. It grew to cover 14 states and combined with two other ambulance services to form Medical Group Services, which was bought by Bain Capital two years ago. My friend knew about it because she heard the story in that great news distribution area, the beauty parlor. "My niece works there, but they were told not to talk about Bain Capital," she had heard.

In June, an announcement was in the local paper that Air Evac was moving its headquarters to a town near St. Louis. One hundred fifty jobs would be lost.

Air Evac is the second biggest employer in the county here. This is a great blow to a rural area where unemployment reaches close to 10 percent, and food banks constantly plead for donations because of more people coming to them for supplies.

Romney, even though he's not running Bain Capital, owns an undisclosed stake in it and makes millions from its deals. Air Evac spokesman said they were moving the headquarters because the so-called high-quality people they want to hire do not want to live in a rural community.

Photo: (Coolstock/CC)

Union member wants to join the “workers’ club” in Congress

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:02:00 +0000

NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. - Steven Horsford wants to be inducted into a very small group: members of Congress who are, like him, active union members.

In an era when most lawmakers are millionaires, business owners, lawyers, and professionals, Horsford join a precious few others, led by Democrats Mike Michaud of Maine, Linda Sanchez of California, and Stephen Lynch of Boston, as current unionists. Those three co-chair the Congressional Labor and Working Families Caucus.

Horsford also symbolizes another union goal: To get more unionists to run for and win office, for everything from school board on up. At one point, the AFL-CIO had a "2,000 in 2000" program with a target of 2,000 elected unionists nationwide.

No figures are available of how many unionists actually now serve as elected officials. Past results have fluctuated. After the 2008 election, for example, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party controlled the Minnesota legislature and one-sixth of all lawmakers there carried union cards. But many of them were swept out in the 2010 GOP - Independent Republican in Minnesota - landslide.

And New Jersey's Democratic-run legislature agreed to anti-worker GOP Gov. Chris Christie's 2011 plan closing a state budget gap by - among other things - tripling state workers' health insurance premium payments.

That scheme brought 30,000 protesting Communications Workers into the streets of Trenton, and cost State Senate President Stephen Sweeney, an Ironworker, and other Dems a lot of labor backing this year. Yet New Jersey claimed several hundred unionists held local elected offices, most of them non-partisan posts.

In Oregon, AFSCME member Geri Hauser, IBEW member Claudia Kyle, Fire Fighter Paul Holman, and Oregon Education Association members Chris Gorsek and Arnie Roblan and an incumbent, Carpenter Paul Holvey, seek state legislative seats. OEA member Jeff Reardon, a shop teacher, is already in.

Having upset a Democratic incumbent - a Laborer - in the primary, Reardon's unopposed for a Portland-area seat. "When it comes to bread-and-butter labor issues, bargaining rights, rights at work, people who understand the labor movement and who have lived those values as union members themselves make better advocates," Elana Guiney, Oregon AFL-CIO political and communications coordinator, told the Northwest Labor Press. "The more that people can talk first-hand about those issues, the better off workers are."

Missouri State Sen. Tim Green, a Democrat and building trade member, forced to retire by term limits this year, proved that point. Though Democrats were in the state senate minority, Green pushed through legislation in 2012 extending to utility workers protections against violent attacks.

That leaves Horsford. Even though he's got a Democratic-leaning district, Nevada's new 4^th, Horsford, a member of Culinary Workers Local 226 - Unite Here's largest local - faces several problems. His race is a tossup. Earlier, it leaned his way.

One is that even though Horford's the state senate Democratic leader and CEO of the union's Culinary Training Academy, he's virtually unknown outside his senate district in North Las Vegas. The new congressional district takes in much of Nevada's rural, GOP-leaning areas, too.

That's where his foe, Danny Tarkanian, has a huge advantage: Party affiliation and 100 percent statewide name recognition. Danny is the son of Jerry Tarkanian, the longtime, fabled, controversial basketball coach at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

Both candidates raised plenty of money: Horsford $1.27 million and Tarkanian $934,000 through Sept. 30. But outside special interest spending tilts Tarkanian's way: $885,000-$742,000 according to OpenSecrets.org. And Tarkanian had $388,000 in the bank compared to $248,000 for Horsford as the race entered its final days.

So Horsford must again rely on his union local and its 60,000 members to be his foot soldiers. His story, the local's backing and the difference in his legislative impact were part of a recent American Rights At Work report on unionists seeking office.

When elected, ARAW analyst Michael Wasser's study says, unionists - predictably - have much better pro-worker voting records than their non-union colleagues, regardless of party.

"Horsford notes his Culinary Academy work provides valuable experience for serving in elected office," Wasser wrote. "Just as legislators face varied factions and interests clamoring for attention, Horsford must find ways to satisfy multiple interests in the labor-management partnership" with gaming owners to ensure the academy fills their needs. That means achieving the objectives of all stakeholders and forging consensus sometimes when it does not look like it is there initially," he told Wasser.

"What I have tried to do in my experience at the [Culinary Academy] has been to try to inform [the legislative work], not just for union members, but for all people that are trying to get access to employment or trying to move their career or advance their career," Horsford added.

Photo: Julie Smith/AP

Indiana ‘right to work’ law headed for court showdown

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 09:30:00 +0000

GARY, Ind. - Indiana's newly enacted so-called "right to work" law, which deprives unions of money they need to represent workers, is headed for a showdown in state courts.

That's because Lake County (Gary) Circuit Judge George Paras ruled on Oct. 16 that the Steelworkers' suit challenging the statute, as violating the state constitution, could go to trial. The GOP-run state government had tried to have the case dismissed.

The radical right, tea party-influenced majority in the legislature pushed the law through earlier this year, over strenuous lobbying by the state AFL-CIO. Retiring Gov. Mitch Daniels, R-Ind., signed it.

The law has become an issue on the campaign trail, with the state AFL-CIO using it as a reason to try to take back the Indiana House, now controlled, 60-40, by the GOP. It's the first "right-to-work" law in a state north of the Ohio River.

Right to work (for less) laws, as the labor movement calls them, force unions to represent workers who don't pay dues or even representation fees. They allow tens of thousands of so-called "free riders." They've been a key cause of Big Business ever since the anti-labor GOP-run Congress legalized them in 1947. But "right-to-work" has also become part of the overall Radical Right-GOP-business wide-ranging war on workers.

Steelworkers District 7 President Jim Robinson said forcing unions to represent workers while giving those workers a free ride violates the state constitution.

It violates Article 1, Section 21, which states: "No person's particular services shall be demanded, without just compensation," he added.

"In denying the state's motion to dismiss the challenge, Judge Paras wrote that 'it cannot categorically be said at this time' that the (right-to-work) law does not violate the Indiana Constitution," the union said in a statement. "The decision means the case may proceed to a full hearing on the merits of the union's argument."

"We are pleased and look forward to seeing this unjust law, which is bad for Hoosier workers and does not represent our Midwestern value of accepting personal responsibility, be struck down by the courts," Robinson said. No date was set for trial.

Photo: Ben Fairchild of Decatur, Ind., displaying a sign outside of the Statehouse in Indianapolis. Darron Cummings/AP

Today in labor history: First school strike against corporal punishment

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 14:20:00 +0000

Today in 1889, the first nationwide school strike against corporal punishment - in Great Britain - took place.

Eventually, corporal punishment - inflicting bodily pain as punishment - was made illegal in the United Kingdom and, by the 1990s and early 2000s, in almost all of Europe. In some countries, corporal punishment was even banned in the home.

In the United States, however, corporal punishment has been banned nowhere in the home, and is still legal in schools in nearly 20 states. The first states to ban the practice in schools were New Jersey and Massachusetts (1867 for the former, not until 1971 for the latter).

The state that most recently banned corporal punishment in schools was New Mexico in 2011.

Image: Blue denotes states where corporal punishment has been banned in schools, red where it has not. Via Wikipedia.

Sensata workers, job losses, to star in new film

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:14:00 +0000

FREEPORT, Ill. - The 170 remaining workers at the Sensata plant in Freeport, Ill., who will lose their jobs to China thanks to Mitt Romney's Bain Capital, will star in a new film about their struggle, to be released Oct. 26.

Behind Your Back, to be available from Stone Soup Studios on DVD, and especially to unionists and their allies, portrays "the heroic struggle of the Bain/Sensata workers to preserve their honor and dignity amid this sad assault on their wellbeing and livelihood," producer/director Alder Lakish told the United Auto Workers.

Lakish's film is the second pictorial revelation of the closure of Sensata at Bain's orders. On Oct. 10, the Steelworkers posted a video on YouTube highlighting not just the closure of the Freeport plant and shipment of its machinery and jobs to China, but low pay - 99 cents-$1.35 an hour - and terrible conditions that Chinese workers at Sensata suffer. Bain is closing Freeport on Nov. 4, two days before the election.

Lakish and his crew were filming during protests in front of the Sensata plant loading dock earlier in October, when three people were arrested for blocking trucks that carried Sensata's machinery away for shipment to China.

Bain, owned by GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, owns Sensata. Romney denies knowledge of the closure, but documents disclosed in the prior sale show Romney-owned funds invested heavily in Sensata - and that Bain's purchase of the firm depended on closure of the Freeport plant and shipment of its machines and jobs to China. The protesting Freeport workers set up a tent city, called "Bainport."

In preparation for the closure, Bain sent Chinese engineers to Freeport to be trained by the remaining U.S. Sensata engineers. The Chinese told one Freeport engineer that when the machines arrive in China, the first move there would be to remove worker safety devices, to allow speedier production.

"In political and economic journalism, a story like the struggle of Sensata workers to keep their jobs from being outsourced to China often is communicated as numbers-in this case the 170 workers who are losing their jobs," Lakish told UAW. "But as a narrative filmmaker I am interested in the human side of this story. Who are these people? Especially, who are these brave few who are willing to risk the repercussions of standing up and confronting this huge corporation called Bain Capital who owns Sensata?"

He also is using the film to document the impact of outsourcing on the personal lives of the Sensata workers and their families. Closure of Freeport is "great political treachery and betrayal of these long held American values that seems to be engrained into the very DNA of a corporate raiding and asset stripping structure like that of Bain Capital," Lakish said.

Photo: Bainport workers demonstrating in front of Sensata plant, via bainport.com.

Labor going all out as election nears

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 11:03:00 +0000

With the election only 18 days away the nation's unions are in the homestretch with their biggest mobilization ever.

The mobilization includes massive get-out-the-vote drives in key swing states and circulation of videos featuring worker testimony about both Obama and his pro-worker policies and GOP foe Mitt Romney and his job-destroying Bain Capital.

That comes on top of what the AFL-CIO said was a 450,000-person success in new voter registrations, while the Teamsters reported registering 25,000 more in California alone. And 200,000+ unionists have voted early nationwide, AFL-CIO Political Director Michael Podhorzer told an Oct. 19 telephone press conference.

The federation plans to have volunteers knock on 5.5 million doors, make 5.2 million "live phone calls," distribute 2.2 million leaflets at worksites and send 12 million pieces of election-oriented information mail to reach voters - union and non-union - in just the last four days before Election Day on Nov. 6, added Sasha Bruce, national campaign manager for Working America, the AFL-CIO community-based group.

The efforts are important: Opinion polls show incumbent President Obama and challenger Romney are virtually tied in the popular vote, but with Obama leading in some key swing states..

In Electoral College forecasts, Obama seems to have a slight lead.

Citing internal polls, Podherzer said he expected Obama to take Ohio, Iowa, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, union presidents urged their members not just to vote for the president and other pro-worker candidates, but also to staff phone banks, distribute literature and talk one-on-one with other voters - union and non-union - about the race.

For example, AFGE President J. David Cox asked each of his union members to participate, for Obama. His request is notable because AFGE, with a high proportion of law-enforcement-oriented personnel and military retirees, is plurality Republican.

"Romney really made it very clear that he really believes what he said, that 'I like to be able to fire people who provide services for me,'" Cox said in a video to members.

Other leaders painted similar pictures of stark choices between the two contenders - and the political philosophies they represent:

"Our families and livelihood are being questioned" by Romney and the corporate interests backing him and other anti-worker candidates and ballot schemes, Teamsters Local 14 Secretary-Treasurer Larry Griffith of Las Vegas wrote in the Southern California Teamster.

"I'm not a cheerleader for the president, but I am a realist," added Bernie Lunzer, president of The Newspaper Guild, explaining his own vote for Obama - even though the Guild, true to its values and constitution, abstained when its parent Communications Workers (CWA) endorsed Obama. "Electing Far-Right extremists who profess their hate for government is out of sync with American values," Lunzer added. "It's no way to run a country or fix an economy."

"Do we want more tax breaks for the wealthy?" CWA President Larry Cohen asked in CWA News, referring to Romney's stand for extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich. "Do we want to gut the safety net for millions? Or do we want an economic recovery in which we participate? And how do we get there?" He told an Oct. 18 conference call of activists: "There's a connection between bargaining fights and political action. Elections are about choices."

"In no way is this about Democrats versus Republicans," Seafarers President Michael Sacco explained in Seafarers Log. "We've always had friends on both sides of the aisle and we always will. But it so happens that this year, we've got a pro-labor incumbent running against someone who is openly anti-union...As we all know, every vote counts."

Like others, Cox said Obama was not perfect. But he contrasted the president's policies with Romney's. Indeed, GOP hostility to workers and the party's drive to destroy unions sometimes was more of a motivator for the union leaders than support for oft-wayward Democrats, Obama included. CWA's Cohen told his members in the conference call that Romney and the GOP "want to eliminate collective bargaining."

"I do not want to wake up on the morning of Nov. 7 with Romney in the White House and Congress in the hands of right wing lawmakers," Cox told his members. "That would be a disaster for AFGE and working families in general.

Cox cited Romney's infamous statement at a fancy Florida fundraiser about 47% of the country considering themselves "victims" and ready to seek government aid - and vote for Obama. Romney said he did not care about that half of the country.

People Romney slammed include seniors receiving Medicare and Social Security and veterans who served the U.S. and now need care for their wounds, said Cox. His union represents hundreds of thousands of federal workers serving those citizens.

"And with Paul Ryan as his running mate, Romney has made it clear he supports cutting 600,000 federal jobs," as Ryan advocated in the House GOP budget, Cox said. The federal government employs just over 2 million people.

John Wojcik contributed to this article.

Photo: AFSCME member talks to voters, via AFSCME Council 5.