People Before Profit blog

No enthusiasm gap at jam-packed union phone bank

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 18:21:00 +0000

CHICAGO - By noon Oct. 29, union members were close to having called 500,000 people in Illinois about the Nov. 2 elections, here at what the Operating Engineers say is the nation's biggest, most state-of-the-art phone bank.

Laborers in orange shirts, African-American women who drive buses in Chicago, grocery workers, young engineers recently out of college, men and women who bag groceries, iron workers who lay beams 30 stories high, telephone operators and sanitation workers sat side-by-side calling their sisters and brothers in unions, urging them to come out Tuesday to prevent Republicans from taking over the Congress.

They wore headphones and sat in front of computers that were rigged up to call within a field of 100,000 union members who are frequent or usual voters. Only a day before, the phone bankers finished calling the 200,000 Illinois union members who are "sporadic" or occasional voters.

"This system is great," said Kim Rogers, a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. "We use the latest technology here. A caller gets on and when the computers get someone on the other end, the call is put through. You keep busy and waste no time with people not being home, with answering machines, and all the other glitches that can stop you from reaching a lot of people."

Nick Kaleba, communications director for the Chicago Federation of Labor, proudly surveyed the phone banks he had worked to help initiate. "All of this is making a big difference. Because of it we will have union members casting real informed union votes. Workers should be proud of what they have done here. The corporations may have million$, but unions have the people."

Every person reached on the phones was asked to go out Nov. 2 and vote for Pat Quinn for governor of Illinois and for Alexi Giannoulias for U.S. Senator. Callers reported overwhelmingly positive responses from the people with whom they spoke.

The callers broke for pizza for lunch and for visits from two special guests Friday afternoon.

When Democratic Gov. Quinn came in he was warmly greeted and he went around shaking hands and thanking the callers. Two callers had him speak with the voters on the other end of their lines.

"I will never allow the minimum wage to be eliminated in this state," Quinn said to one person a caller had reached. The phone bankers cheered. His Republican opponent, Bill Brady, has called for elimination of the minimum wage.

When Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO came in he told the union sisters and brothers on the phones: "You are making this the most expensive election they ever lost." The phone bankers roared their approval and applauded.

Asked how he felt about what his people were doing, Trumka said, "There's no one in many of those so-called campaign field offices paid for by secret corporate money. Good! And what do you see here? Tables full of phones operated by local people excited about what they are doing. That tells you a lot about the so-called enthusiasm gap, doesn't it?"

Photo: Enthusiasm runs high at Chicago union phone bank. John Bachtell/PW

Navistar workers say voting Nov. 2 is about good paying jobs

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 17:48:00 +0000

MELROSE PARK, Ill. - "We need to elect leaders that are friendly to labor and understand that what we need is more jobs, because without jobs, this country can't operate," said Ralph Porter, longtime Navistar worker.

Porter, African American member with the UAW Local 6, has been an engine repairman for 42 years at the Navistar International Corporation plant located here in a suburb just west of Chicago. He was joined by hundreds of his union sisters and brothers, Oct. 29, at the plant in one of labor's final get-out-the-vote rallies before the Nov. 2 midterm elections.

Standing nearby was Sheryl Green who has worked at Navistar in management for three years. "We got to bring our manufacturing base back," she said. "We're losing too many jobs especially here in Illinois." She said outsourcing good jobs is part of the problem. "What we need are good paying jobs, not just retail jobs."

Iris Howard, who has worked for Navistar for over six-years interrupted Green saying, "What we need is good paying union jobs." Howard is originally from Ohio and moved to Melrose Park three years ago. We need to bring back good union jobs to Ohio, Michigan and Illinois, she said. "Too many people don't know the importance of the labor movement in this country when it comes to workers' rights."

Local, Cook County and state-level elected officials joined AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in saluting Navistar and UAW workers. They also congratulated Democrat and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn for his role in helping the company retain or create nearly 3,000 jobs this year along with more than 600 construction jobs.

Quinn faces GOP opponent Bill Brady in a heated election campaign. Those at the rally indicated that what Illinoisans need is someone like Quinn who will support the labor movement and fight for good paying jobs.

"Gov. Quinn is a true friend of working people and his top priority is jobs," said Trumka. Navistar is one great example for all Illinoisans to celebrate, he added. Trumka said good jobs like those at Navistar are needed in order to continue rebuilding the economy and reinvesting in the nations infrastructure that ultimately puts people back to work.

Quinn also addressed the crowd. "You know," he said. "My favorite words are 'made in America.' And that's what it's all about. We have the best workers on planet Earth." During the recession Illinois had nine consecutive months of declining jobs, said Quinn. "But what are we going to do? Give up?" Quinn added Illinois needs good jobs. "And we're going to get them come hell or high water because that's what hard working people in this great state deserve," he said.

Many of the workers said they are eager to vote Tuesday and plan to encourage their friends and family to take this election seriously.

Henry Hemingway, 31, has been working for Navistar for 10 years and said he intends to vote for candidates who promote more funding for education and those that address curbing the violence on our streets. Communities need to come together and we could use more youth centers for young people, he said. "And I think Gov. Quinn is doing a hell of a job," he added.

Others who spoke to this reporter said job security is the top priority. Also important are fighting for the rights of children with disabilities, homeowner rights, as well as support for senior citizens, the homeless and veterans, they note.

"This election is about the direction of our country, moving forward and building an economy that works for everyone," said Trumka. He added that it's important for union households to cast their votes and support Gov. Quinn and Democratic candidate for U.S. senate, Alexi Giannoulias, both backed by the labor movement. "If you want someone to fight for good union jobs, someone who will protect your Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and other important services, then Quinn and Giannoulias are the right choice," he said.

Navistar officials announced they plan to invest up to $90 million at the Melrose plant over the next several years. The facility has been part of the company's history for nearly 65 years. Built in 1941, the Melrose Park plant originally was operated by Buick to build engines for the B-24 Liberator bomber used during World War II.

Navistar produces leading-edge commercial and military trucks, school buses and commercial buses, recreational vehicles and diesel engines for the pickup truck, van and SUV markets.

A portion of the campus will be dedicated to creating the next generation of commercial trucks and buses, including hybrid and electric vehicles, state-of-the-art emissions controls and the latest in diesel engine technology.

Photo: Enthusiastic UAW members at get-out-the-vote rally at the Navistar plant, Oct. 29. Pepe Lozano/PW

Labor's final dash to the finish

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 15:59:00 +0000

CHICAGO (PAI) - Union leaders and members are in a mad dash to the finish for the 2010 election cycle with leaders crisscrossing the country to concentrate on key races - even phone-banking on Election Day itself - while workers are making home visits, giving shop-floor talks and leafleting.

Swallowing hard, some unions are even backing House Democrats who had defied both workers' wishes and Democratic President Barack Obama in the last two years - all in the hopes of keeping a Democratic majority there.

The AFL-CIO expanded its targeted races to a roster that includes more than 100 U.S. House seats, including Democrats such as Frank Kratovil, of Maryland's Eastern shore. Kratovil, representing a conservative district and a very narrow winner in 2008, voted against Obama's health insurance revision law and other key priorities.

The Fire Fighters in particular came to Kratovil's aid by partially bankrolling an ad blitz by an independent expenditure group against the congressman's foe, a radical right former GOP state legislator whom Kratovil narrowly edged two years ago.

When it comes to Kratovil and the others, "The situation is: Will you support a mediocre Democrat or let a rabid Republican get in?" according to one political operative.

Obama himself got in on the act, telling union political volunteers in an Oct. 26 conference call that success at the polls depended on them.

Enthusiasm among union members was also rising as the election neared, with one phone bank site in Chicago overwhelmed by the number of workers volunteering to make calls. It had 70 phones - and more than 100 who wanted to talk.

Labor aimed to have at least 90,000 volunteers working on the pre-Election Day weekend and through Nov. 2, not counting those from SEIU, the Teamsters, and UFCW. Those three unions planned to have tens of thousands more at worksites. Campaign officials also set targets for the final weekend of 5.6 million phone calls, 4.1 million home visits and passing out 1.9 million flyers at 2,500 work sites. And the independent National Education Association spent $15 million on ads in races where education was expected to be a key issue.

But labor also faced an ever-expanding political landscape, as lawmakers once thought to be "safe" found themselves in unexpectedly tough races because of millions of dollars of corporate-financed campaign ads lavished on their opponents.

Typical was Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He got in trouble for supporting calls, by SEIU among others, for conventions and conferences to boycott Arizona after the GOP-dominated state government enacted an anti-Latino immigrant profiling law. Corporations poured in hundreds of thousands of dollars in ads against Grijalva, working through front groups.

Top union leaders concentrated on campaigning in states with tough races. Leaders also hit two 2008 "swing states," Colorado and Ohio, for U.S. Senate races.

Federation President Richard Trumka spent Oct. 29 leafleting and phone banking in Chicago before returning to his home state of Pennsylvania - with a side trip to Columbus, Ohio in the final days before the balloting. Pro-worker Gov. Pat Quinn, D-Ill., is trailing an anti-worker GOP construction contractor, while State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias is neck-and-neck with Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., for an open U.S. Senate seat.

In his own home area of western Pennsylvania, Trumka is stumping with Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, against radical right Pat Toomey, R-Pa., former head of the pro-corporate Club for Growth. Meanwhile in the Keystone State, one non-partisan poll showed GOP state official Tom Corbett with a shrinking lead - down to 5%, from 15% the week before -over Democratic Allegheny County (Pittsburgh) Executive Dan Onofrio in the race for the open governor's chair.

Federation Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler is playing tag-team with Trumka, going from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, where GOP U.S. Senate nominee Rand Paul, a tea party favorite, has dropped into a neck-and-neck race with Democratic state official Jack Conway, then on to Los Angeles, and for the last two days of the campaign, Chicago.

Shuler's California stop is a get-out-the-vote operation for gubernatorial nominee Jerry Brown and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., plus an endangered Democratic congresswoman. Interestingly, Shuler's home state, Oregon, was not on her late schedule. But she went there, for Democratic gubernatorial nominee John Kitzhaber, earlier in October.

Federation Executive Vice President Arlene Holt-Baker is traveling from Philadelphia to Connecticut to Cincinnati and then back to Philly, for both Sestak and Onofrio. The Bridgeport, Conn. stop was to aid both U.S. Senate nominee Richard Blumenthal, the state attorney general who faces the self-funded multi-million-dollar campaign of World Wrestling CEO Linda McMahon, and Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., who won a traditionally moderate Republican House seat two years ago.

Labor law turned inside out?

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 15:33:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - U.S. labor law "has been turned inside out, protecting the powerful rather than the powerless" in the 75 years since the National Labor Relations Act was enacted, a top labor historian says.

"And by that standard, it's a failure," adds James A. Gross of the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

Gross was the most provocative of many speakers at the opening Oct. 27 session of a day-and-a-half conference commemorating the 75^th anniversary of the NLRA, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law on July 5, 1935.

The act was supposed to encourage industrial democracy by making it government policy to back workers' efforts to organize and bargain collectively, and to level the economic playing field and achieve social justice, Gross said. But the GOP-enacted 1947 Taft-Hartley Act and court decisions over the last 75 years, negated those goals, Gross stated.

The legislation said its aim was "to promote common justice and economic advancement." Its lead sponsor, Senate Labor Committee Chairman Robert Wagner Sr., Dem. N.Y., spoke in economic terms, Gross recalled. Wagner argued that giving workers power to organize and bargain would lift their wages and incomes, without federal spending, and such a rise would help haul the U.S. out of the Great Depression.

To give them that power, the senator said, you needed democracy in the workplace, as the NLRA, also called the Wagner Act, envisioned, through union organizing and recognition, by elections or company recognition of pro-union majorities.

But the Wagner Act also had a large human rights aim, Gross said. Both the senator and FDR played that down, to get a then-conservative Supreme Court to rule it constitutional. The court declared the act constitutional in a 5-4 vote in 1937.

Taft-Hartley, court rulings and 30 years of government hostility to regulation in general, starting with the Democratic Carter administration, helped wipe out the law's impact, Gross said. "The discussion of regulation has been recast in terms of economic efficiency...One economist even calls social justice 'a form of superstition,'" he noted.

Besides government hostility to regulation, the NLRA failed to meet its goals for other reasons, other speakers said. One is corporate opposition to workers having a say. Another is that the NLRA encourages labor-management confrontation, which Georgetown University law professor Carrie Menkel-Meadow said may not be the best solution for either side in modern society.

Federal appellate judge Laurence Silberman noted the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which administers the law, changes positions with the change in administrations. That makes judges leery, he said. He also said the law is weakened because "the issues are too understandable to the judges, who react quickly and sometimes viscerally" to NLRB rulings.

Rutgers labor studies professor Dorothy Cobble said unions failed to some extent by not organizing outside specific industries. But another speaker pointed out that it took creation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations in the late 1930s to even start organizing mass production industries such as auto and steel, outside old crafts.

Several speakers said the fight to enact the Wagner Act and the economic conditions that produced it have their parallels today.

Before the NLRA, private sector union density was under 10 percent and it's now 7.2 percent, said Harvard labor economics professor Richard Freeman. "And then we had goons breaking unions. Now we have lawyers," he added, referring to the union-busting industry, which international organizations say is a $4 billion business.

"We have to strengthen the penalties," for breaking labor law, to deter employer law-breaking, Freeman stated. He said the NLRB "should have more discretion" in setting fines for labor law-breaking, rather than the present penalties of net back pay and posting "we-will-not-violate" notices. In a case he cited, an arbitrator penalized an Alameda County, Calif., hospital $4.5 million for breaking its union contract by calling a union-buster almost as soon as the hospital's bargainer walked out the door.

And the Great Depression gave the final push to the movement for labor law, added Cobble, drawing the parallel with present economic ills.

George Washington University law professor Charles Craver said the labor movement provides needed "checks and balances" on management. "Lord Acton was right when he said, 'Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.'" If union density keeps dropping, "management would have total power. I'd hate to see what would happen then. But then the workers will again demand a collective voice."

"It is unusual to focus on an anniversary of an agency by discussing its shortcomings, but it is necessary," said National Labor Relations Board Chairman Wilma Liebman, quoting former federal appellate judge Abner Mikva in opening the conference. The NLRB and George Washington University assembled the conference.

Texas teachers protest misuse of pension fund

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 10:48:00 +0000

DALLAS - Texas teachers added their voices to the worldwide outrage over attacks against retirees at a rally here on October 25. Linda Bridges, Texas president of the American Federation of Teachers, called for the state legislature to investigate charges that investment decisions for the Teachers' Retirement System are being based on political influence rather than what is best for the fund and for teacher retirees. The allegations came from whistleblower Michael Green in an April, 2009, memo that recently came to light.

The Dallas Morning News has been explicitly charging Governor Rick Perry with allowing political cronies and campaign contributors to oversee parts of the giant retirement fund. The charges follow other articles revealing a correlation between Perry's campaign contributors and the people who receive grants from two big taxpayer-financed slush funds that he controls.

Linda Bridges went on to demand that the legislature pass a bill allowing retired teachers more say-so in selecting the funds' trustees. The last session passed such a bill, Bridges said, but Governor Perry vetoed it. Bridges said that Governor Perry appoints the trustees!

Other leaders of the teachers union pointed out that retired teachers in Texas have received no increase for ten long years. While more than 50 supporters shouted their encouragement, teachers union leaders listed the grievances of retired teachers and demands for redress. They also thanked the Communications Workers, Auto Workers, Steelworkers, and Food & Commercial Workers for sending people to the rally.

Gene Lantz, Secretary of the Texas Alliance for Retired Americans, gave a short synopsis of protests over retiree benefits around the nation and the world, including street riots in Greece and a general strike in France. "We are part of a worldwide struggle," he told reporters.

Photo: Teacher union leader Dorothy Isaac demanded fair treatment during retiree protest. Jim Lane/PW

On Halloween support union-made treats and go green

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:19:00 +0000

If your wondering, which costumes you or your kids, are wearing this Halloween or which treats to choose from, then look no further because labor and environmental groups may have the answer.

Trick or treaters are literally in for a treat this year, say labor leaders. They're asking households to support union-made Halloween candy. And it's the good stuff too, they add.

According to the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) union, certain union-made treats are worth supporting this year.

BCTGM Local 1 in Chicago makes products from Tootsie Roll Industries, including Halloween favorites the classic Tootsie Roll and Tootsie Pop along with Junior Mints, Andes mints and Dubble Bubble bubble gum.

Other candies to keep in mind are those made by New England Confectionery Co. that employs members with BCTGM Local 348 in Cambridge, Mass. Multicolored wafers, Clark Bars, Mary Janes Original peanut butter chews, Thin mints and more are made there. The union local also produces more than 8 billion Sweethearts-brand Conversation Hearts annually, making it the top-selling candy for Valentine's Day, note union officials.

Like Jelly Beans? Who doesn't? Well, in Oakland, Calif., members of BCTGM Local 125 at Herman Goelitz Candy Co. make these delicious colored treats along with other Halloween favorites, like candy corn and other goodies.

Do you have a more acquired taste, perhaps one that involves chocolate? Union supporters say you should try Ghirardelli Chocolate Co. products made by BCTGM Local 125 members in Sand Francisco. Sounds yummy, right?

Still not satisfied and want more chocolate options well then how about Hershey and Nestle? Many of these products are union made including by BCTGM Local 404 in Hershey, Pa. Yet labor leaders warn even some of these all-American candy bars are being outsourced and using cheap labor in low-wage nations including Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Argentina and Jamaica. However imported goods, including candy, must carry a country or origin label, so beware for that.

Meanwhile, when it comes to spooky costumes, the scary part is not the fake blood or the scary masks - it's the environmental damage that they, once thrown away, can inflict on the environment, activists say.

According to Green Halloween, roughly 12,000 tons of landfill waste is created by Halloween costumes alone.

Used clothing collector USAgain, located in Chicago, says there is something parents and households can do about it.

Here are some tips to consider:

Buy used, because it's good for the planet and it's also good for your wallet. You'd be surprised what you can find in your neighborhood thrift shop.
Swap. Find neighbors and classmates your size and trade costumes from years past.
Use junk. Get creative with old trash.
Recycle. Don't toss your costume in the trash. Rather, drop it in a local clothing collection bin so it can be reused.

Image: AFL-CIO blog

Labor board seeks quick action to stop firing of union organizers

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 10:17:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - The National Labor Relations Board's general counsel, its top enforcement officer, has decided to seek quick court injunctions when firms illegally fire workers who are union organizers.

That's a change from the board's enforcement, or lack of it, when a Bush-named GOP majority controlled the agency. Then such court orders, called 10(j) injunctions, were rare. But the new board has approved the general counsel's requests for five 10(j)s within the last three months.

And the five range from small firms, a private school in Portland, Ore., which specializes in French immersion for its students, to large: Kaiser Permanente.

"Going forward, in all cases found meritorious the General Counsel's office will consider seeking a federal injunction that would compel an employer to offer reinstatement to the fired workers pending litigation of the underlying unfair labor practice case. In addition, new timelines and procedures have been created to speed up the process," the board's announcement said.

"Firing an employee in the middle of a union organizing campaign can quickly destroy the campaign by creating a climate of fear in the workplace," explained acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon. "Clearly, it can also have a devastating effect on the employee's life. We need to ensure the statutory rights of unlawfully fired employees are restored in real time. These cases go to the very essence of our enforcement responsibilities."

Solomon told the NLRB's regional directors to "immediately investigate allegations of unlawful firings in organizing cases." If they find the cases have merit, they must send the cases to his office, with a memo explaining the circumstances, "ideally within a week."

He also ordered regional staffers to "identify potential 10(j) cases at the earliest possible stage." Once the full NLRB approves the requests, Solomon wants quickly scheduled hearings, expeditious trials and NLRB regional office opposition to companies' demands for postponements. If the companies persist in delay, the regional chiefs should file special appeals against the postponements, Solomon said.

Solomon promised to review each 10(j) request, using recommendations from the regional director and the board's injunction litigation branch. Then he'll take the requests to the board, which now has four members. Board Chairman Wilma Liebman promised quick action, too. "The board recognizes that 10(j) injunctions are a vital enforcement tool and time is of the essence in this kind of case," she said.

Photo: Kaiser Permanente is one of five companies that received an NLRB injunction for illegally firing workers who organize unions. Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0

"Without Ted Strickland I wouldn't have my job"

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 15:49:00 +0000

CLEVELAND - In an emotional reunion, workers at Hugo Boss, together with dozens of union activists, thanked embattled Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland for his role in saving hundreds of jobs at the upscale men's suit plant in suburban Brooklyn.

"These are severe economic times and the workers were told they would be on the street without jobs," Joe Costigan, Secretary Treasurer of the Midwest Region of Workers United told the crowd at the headquarters of the North Shore (Cleveland) AFL-CIO.

"Many pronounced the cause hopeless, but fortunately we had the support of this community and we had the support of Gov. Strickland," Costigan said. "He never wavered. He stood with us. He was unafraid to lead."

Costigan then introduced five of the plant's workers.

"Many others couldn't be here because they are working eight hours."

The workers - David Correa, Thu Thuy Nguyen, Lydia Perez, Wanda Navarro and Sheila McVey - were leaders of the fight, which ended in April when the company dropped plans to move to Turkey and signed a new three-year contract.

"I can't tell you how much this has meant for me and my family," said Navarro, who was recently elected local union president. "It was a blessing to have Gov. Strickland there. He visited the plant and spoke at our rally. We felt more confident. It was the best thing that could happen."

At Strickland's request the Ohio Public Employees Retirement Fund, with large investments in Permira Advisors, the majority owner of Hugo Boss, sent a letter to the equity firm protesting the planned shut down. Retirement funds in several other states followed suit.

"Without Ted Strickland, I wouldn't have my job today," said Sheila McVey.

Strickland called the workers "the salt of the earth. You deserve to be respected and honored. You are the best of Ohio," he said. "You are the real heroes of this fight. You sent a message across Ohio and across America. You used every tool to convince Hugo Boss that leaving Ohio was not in their best interest."

Locked in a tough battle for re-election, Strickland said voters face a "stark choice between Ohio values and values consistent with Wall Street."

His opponent, former Congressman John Kasich, was a director of Lehman Brothers, the Wall Street bank, whose collapse in 2008 was a major factor in the national financial meltdown.

"When he was in Congress, he worked to outsource jobs and to eliminate Trade Adjustment Act assistance to laid off workers," Strickland said.

"When he worked on Wall Street," the incumbent continued, "he pitched Ohio pension funds to invest in Lehman Brothers. They lost $480 million, but Kasich got a $400,000 bonus the same year."

Strickland spoke of the progress in Ohio's economic recovery since the crash and the sharp improvement in the standing of the state's schools.

"We must not hand Ohio over to someone who embraces Wall Street values," said Strickland, whose father was a steelworker. "We are part of the same family. You are the salt of the earth. You represent the best in our state and country. We must fight 'til the polls close on Nov. 2 to protect Ohio from Wall Street thinking and behavior."

Previously trailing in polls, Strickland has closed the gap due to a massive grassroots effort by labor, the Democratic Party and allied groups. Virtually every poll now shows the race to be a dead heat.

Photo: Rick Nagin/PW

For Connecticut voters a stark choice

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:08:00 +0000

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The fight is on in this state.

Millions of dollars are being poured into television and radio ads to convince voters to support tea party Republican Linda McMahon for the open U.S. Senate seat and smear her opponent, Democratic Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. But an intensive campaign by union members knocking on the doors of their co-workers' homes to talk about the elections is breaking through the noise.

This summer, when the Labor 2010 effort began, polls showed McMahon, former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO, in a dead heat with Blumenthal. Now, two weeks before Election Day, Blumenthal has pulled ahead by 9 points. It is a tough race.

"We are fighting for jobs"

"Yes, people are angry and hurting," says John Olsen, president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, which is mobilizing to elect Blumenthal. "We have to show them that it's exactly the things they're angry about that we are fighting for!"

With 9.4% of Connecticut's residents and 31% of all Hartford residents living below the poverty line, and 9.1% officially unemployed in the state, jobs, education, health care and retirement security are at the top of labor's agenda.

Playing to the number one issue of jobs, McMahon claims to be on the side of working people. Yet her support for continuing tax cuts for the richest 1 percent while cutting social programs, and her opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act which would give workers a fairer chance to organize a union, place her squarely on the side of the Wall Street crowd.

Her program mirrors the Republican Pledge to America agenda (a re-make of Newt Gingrich's disastrous 1994 Contract on America), which calls for a repeal of health care reform, a repeal of regulation of business, cancellation of stimulus funds for states and cities, and a hiring freeze on all government workers. It's open season on Social Security, unemployment insurance, pensions for public workers and the minimum wage.

In stark contrast, Blumenthal has focused his campaign on ending tax breaks for corporations who move jobs overseas, and creating incentives for job creation in Connecticut, while opposing corporate policies "that put profits before people." His campaign follows the highlights of his 20-year career in which he took on such corporate giants as the tobacco industry, United Technologies Corp and Stanley Works and won.

"Sisters and brothers"

Speaking to a gathering of Labor 2010 volunteers last Saturday, Blumenthal moved the crowd when he said that through the years he has learned when union members call each other "brother" and "sister," it is because they are a family that sticks together no matter what. "Your support as sisters and brothers means more than anything to me," he said to a standing ovation.

While Blumenthal's program could be stronger in many respects, he is ready to stand up against right-wing reaction and extremism and defend the role of government to serve the needs of the people.

McMahon and the Republicans are going for the jugular. To create confusion and demoralize voters from coming to the polls, millions of dollars of smear ads portraying Blumenthal as a liar are being poured into the last days of the campaign on the side of big corporations, topping off the $41 million that Linda McMahon already spent of her own money.

Smear campaign

Two Connecticut incumbent congressmen, Jim Himes (D-4) and Chris Murphy (D-5), are among 19 House candidates targeted for last-minute attack ads by Karl Rove's American Action Network (AAN). Similar attacks are being carried out against progressives around the country including Raul Grijalva in Arizona, Barney Frank in Massachusetts and Chellie Pingree in Maine.

Going onto the offensive, over 100 residents of the 5th Congressional District turned out to denounce the ads and stand behind Chris Murphy this week. This came in response to an $800,000 ad campaign which says that by voting for health care reform Murphy supports "Viagra for sex offenders." Murphy called AAN "a shadowy group fronted by billionaires, multinational corporations and outsourcers."

The race for governor in Connecticut is also close. Democrat Dan Malloy is just 5 points ahead of Republican Tom Foley, who has said he will gut state workers' health care and pensions.

Turnout will decide the results

In Connecticut, as elsewhere, voter turnout will decide the winner. When voters and working people get a clear idea of the stakes in this election they respond enthusiastically. "We just vote in the presidential years," said one couple at the door. Ten minutes later, having heard about how control of the House and Senate are at stake this year, they readily agreed to vote and tell their friends.

"I always vote," said Jose, who was washing his car in front of his house. He began to discuss how undemocratic the tea party program is, and how important it is to support the efforts of the Obama administration to keep the country moving forward. At first when he was asked to volunteer he said he was too busy. But the enormity of the election prompted him to agree to put in a few hours campaigning.

The win on election night will be much more than which candidate is elected. At the end of the day, the new volunteers and a strengthened labor movement will be the biggest victory.

Photo: Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is greeted with a standing ovation at a labor rally for his Senate campaign, Oct. 6 in New Haven. (PW/Henry Lowendorf)

Labor, hip hop forge vote alliance

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 13:56:00 +0000

In the latest move to both bring a more diverse, younger generation into the labor movement and to build the youth vote in the upcoming midterm elections, American Rights at Work and Respect my Vote! 2010 have teamed up on a video and photo campaign.

According to Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., President of the Hip Hop Caucus, which is one of the groups behind Respect, the campaign will educate young people on the "importance of voting in every election to help shape public policies for our communities."

The video and associated photos show images of women in the labor and student movements, all of whom spend time discussing the role of labor, young people and the need to make progressive change, especially in the upcoming elections.

Millions of young people turned out to vote in 2008, energized by then Sen. Barack Obama's campaign for presidency. Nearly two-thirds of voters aged 18 to 23 were first timers. The problem, however, is sustaining a voting pattern. According to studies, a young person who votes in three consecutive elections is likely to become a lifelong, committed voter. In order to ensure that Obama voters become regular voters, organizers say it is therefore necessary to get as many as necessary to vote in the 2010 and 2012 elections.

"Now is the time," said Roxanne Brown, Assistant Legislative Director for the United Steelworkers of America. "We saw a significant shift with the campaign around President Obama. Young people in the country started to pay attention - more attention - to the issues that are important to them.

The Respect My Vote campaign is a project of The Hip Hop Caucus and The Source magazine. Caucus, with over 700,000 members nationwide, aims to "to foster civic engagement among young people of color on issues of social and economic justice, human rights, the environment, and international peace."

The Respect campaign, which was restarted after lying dormant since the 2008 elections, aims to educate, mobilize and register to vote people of color between the ages of 18 and 39. Most of those targeted live in urban areas or attend historically Black colleges.

In 2008, the campaign registered over 50,000 new voters, 32,000 of them on a single day.

"We had a great turnout for this past presidential election," said Rev. Yearwood, "but it's important to understand how vital it is to vote in the mid-term elections so Congress and state and local legislators continue to recognize our voice."

Engaging young voters is necessary, according to Respect's organizers, because the current generation "is larger and more progressive than preceding generations and will become nearly half (40 percent of the electorate) by the time they all reach the age to vote.

Further, African Americans and Latinos "represent the fastest growing population of Americans who turn out to vote but continue to overwhelmingly live in racially, economically and educationally disenfranchised communities."

The fact that this rising generation is more likely to be progressive and pro-labor is not lost on the labor movement and its allies.

"Young people have a vision of the world that we want," said Jobs with Justice's Sarita Gupta in the video.

"We look to work closer with young people, because young people believe in collective action, because that's what the labor movement is about, the ability for people to come together and work collectively," said AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker.

Of course, the relationship between youth and labor is not a one-way street. The labor movement, argue student and youth leaders, is necessary to young people overall.

"If you look at why the labor movement is important, it's really about taking on globalization, taking on capitalism in a way that you can make a difference, said Neha Misra, of the AFL-CIO's Solidarity Center. "There was a time when our parents or their parents could work in a factory, middle class job, have two cars, a house, send their kids to school. People can't do that anymore."

The United States Student Association's Tiffany Lofton agreed, saying that young people "are in a huge crisis, a huge financial crisis, a huge jobs crisis, a huge education crisis."

According to Respect organizers, hip-hop is a particularly useful tool in mobilizing young voters. "The birth of hip-hop culture was a response to the very policies and practices that have sustained a persistent cycle of poverty in our communities over the past forty years," organizers said. "The hip-hop community can speak to these policies and practices from a position of expertise and an understanding of the profound urgency for change."

Photo: hiphopcaucus.org.

New report highlights wage theft, bad working conditions

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 13:11:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO - Whether in Kansas, Florida, Iowa, New York, California, or places in between, if you are a low wage worker, you are at high risk for wage theft - unpaid, delayed or subminimum wages. A long list of recent stories in the mainstream press has highlighted such practices - with Asian Pacific Islander, African American, Latino and young workers the likeliest targets - and the fight-back growing stronger.

One such fight-back is being waged here. The San Francisco-based Chinese Progressive Association last month released a far-reaching report on the problems faced by restaurant workers in this city's Chinatown, based on surveys of 433 restaurant workers interviewed by their peers, and observations of 106 restaurants.

The study, "Check Please", conducted in partnership with the San Francisco Public Health Department and several University of California health and labor programs, found that half the surveyed workers reported being paid less than the minimum wage - a violation costing Chinatown restaurant workers an estimated $8 million a year in lost wages. Kitchen workers and dishwashers reported the highest rates of minimum wage violations.

Other abuses such as withholding or delaying wages for weeks or months, and bosses taking part of workers' tips, were also rampant.

Most of the workers, and most of their employers, were Chinese immigrants.

Among common abuses were long working hours - 42 percent reported working more than 40 hours a week and half of those worked 60 or more hours - short or no rest or meal breaks, very high injury rates, work environments that were often stressful and unsupportive, lack of health coverage and time off to deal with health conditions.

Underemployment was also a problem, with nearly half those surveyed saying they worked 30 hours a week or less.

With wages averaging $8.17 an hour - this city's minimum was $9.36 at the time of the study - and 13 percent of workers earning $5 an hour or less, only 5 percent earned a living wage and none earned enough to support a family of four.

Health problems were rampant and nearly one-third of the workers said their health was worse than in the previous year. All employers in the city with 20 or more workers must spend a basic amount on employees' health care, but the survey found just 3 percent of employers providing health care.

Over two-thirds of those surveyed felt their jobs were not secure, and most lacked time to spend with family, pursue educational goals, or join in community activities.

While each industry has its own special problems, the Chinatown restaurant workers' experiences are very similar to those of other low wage workers around the country, Shaw San Liu, lead organizer with the CPA's Worker Organizing Center, told radio station KPFA's labor analyst David Bacon Oct. 20.

"In the 21st century," she said, "there is no place for sweatshops."

Among the report's recommendations:

• Local governments should shift to proactive, "investigation-driven" enforcement and not wait for workers' complaints.

• Increase funding for enforcement, assure adequate bilingual staff and strengthen penalties for violations. Work closely with community organizations and advocates to spot and target violators.

• Increase workers' ability to take action by stepping up education, streamlining the complaint process and increasing protections against retaliation.

• More investment by the city and public agencies in diversified economic development in Chinatown, including a range of supports for businesses that meet wage and labor standards and treat workers well. Also, more investment in education and job training for workers, especially those with barriers to employment.

The report also noted that under the Obama administration's Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis, the Labor Department "is undergoing a significant and promising shift in policy to strengthen federal enforcement of labor laws" and to involve "workers, community organizations, and other government agencies."

The Chinese Progressive Association is a founding member of the Progressive Workers' Alliance a coalition formed earlier this year to bring low-wage workers together across language, race and community, to fight wage theft and other violations of workers' rights, and to oppose city budget cuts that would hit low income residents hardest.

Photo: Marilyn Bechtel

Penn. labor aims to keep Keystone State blue

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 12:29:00 +0000

PHILADELPHIA - The Pennsylvania labor movement is in the midst of a determined effort to both bring its issues forward in the 2010 election - and to influence the outcome. The latest poll results, showing Democrat Joe Sestak pulling even and then slightly ahead of right-wing Republican Pat Toomey, indicate that the campaign is getting results. This has been a challenge due to the political geography of the Keystone State.

Sestak, a member of Congress from a suburban Philadelphia district, is well known in the state's heavily populated southeast region, but he has had to work to increase his name recognition in the Pittsburgh area and in the west. The challenge facing gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato has been the reverse. Onorato, a former Allegheny County commissioner, is better known in western Pennsylvania than in the east. According to the AFL-CIO's Liz McElroy, labor is one force that can bring the state's electorate together.

"We're everywhere, not just in the east or the western part of the state," McElroy said. For instance, AFTPA (teachers union), according to its political director Dee Tancredi, has six phone banks operating across the state, including areas like Pittsburgh, Scranton and Philadelphia.

McElroy, statewide coordinator of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO's get-out-the-vote effort, explained what she felt was key to the movement's ability to influence election outcomes. She told the World, "Our program works because we talk to our members about issues. We talk to them one on one on labor walks and through phone calls. We contact them at their work places."

The weekend of Oct. 2 tested the strength and the scope of the movement's resolve. Faced with the choice of sending members to the One Nation March in Washington or knocking on doors at home, many unions decided to do both. While several unions sent multiple buses to DC carrying both union members and members of community organizations, the local labor walks went on. Several unions, including AFSCME, SEIU, the teachers and the autoworkers, sponsored buses that were open to their members and to others in the community. The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers sent 10 buses; AFSCME Local 1199C sent a reported 20; buses sent by the two AFSCME District Councils (33 and 47) added to the total.

Commenting on the level of cooperation between labor and community, statewide One Nation Coordinator Pat McNamara told the World that given that "it was an effort put together with bubble gum and shoe string, we did a phenomenal job."

As the campaign enters it final days, efforts to have as many contacts as possible with each member are intensifying. Union leaders and activists here believe that the record from recent elections shows that members value and respond to information from their union and that the union vote could account for as much as one third of the total.

Image: Ben Sears/PW

America’s new sweatshop: warehouse work

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 12:23:00 +0000

JOLIET, Ill. (PAI) - Workers in trans-shipment warehouses - an increasing part of the U.S. economy - are low paid, with no benefits for most, and four of every five are temps who are forced to move from warehouse to warehouse when they'd really like permanent jobs, a recent report says.

The report, "Bad Jobs in Goods Movement: Warehouse Work in Will County," by the University of Illinois-Chicago and Warehouse Workers Jobs for Justice, paints a picture of exploitation of a mostly minority labor force in the logistics field.

The report focused on warehouses in Will County, Ill., south and southwest of Chicago. The area has become a major warehouse and trans-shipment point for national shippers, retailers and wholesalers, due to increasing containerization of goods and use of multiple ways to ship them to market, called intermodal transportation.

Will County became a center of such intermodal commerce due to the Chicago area's confluence of six major railroads, several interstate highways, the city's port and the desire of cross-country shippers to avoid Chicago's congestion. There are similar warehouse districts, with similar conditions, outside Los Angeles and New York.

Will County warehouses are a jobs magnet, employing more than 200,000 workers in 88 million square feet of space. Working conditions, based on the report's survey of 150 warehouses and in-depth interviews with more than 300 workers, show:

Four of every five warehouse workers are temps, and their median hourly wage was $9. As a result, 63 percent of Will County warehouse workers earned wages below the federal poverty line - including one percent earning less than the minimum wage.
The median hourly wage for full-time non-temp warehouse workers is $12.46, or just under $26,000 yearly. That covers workers from stock clerks ($9.28 hourly) and packers ($9.59) to shipping clerks ($14.55). But that's only 19 percent of warehouse workers.
Temp warehouse workers toil only for a few weeks or months at a time in each warehouse, then are let go and transferred to another, the report found. As a result, they also are ineligible for benefits, and warehouse owners - by hiring through the temp agencies - don't have to pay workers' comp for them.

They also stay temps: 63 percent worked at warehouses as temps beyond the usual 3-month period where temps, in other occupations, are hired into permanent jobs.

One of every seven of the temp warehouse workers told researchers that at some point they had shown up for work, toiled in the warehouses, and not gotten paid.

An overwhelming majority of the warehouse workers are minority-group men. Three-fourths are male, 48 percent are African American, 36 percent are Hispanic or Latino, three percent are mixed race and two percent are Arab, Asian or Native American. And 40 percent reported discrimination on the job, with race as the prime cause - and speaking out for workers' rights as cause number two.

Harkening back to the days of sweatshops, researchers found many warehouse workers, particularly loaders and unloaders, were paid by the piece. Unloaders were paid by the truck, with a wage of $32-$80 per truck - depending on the rig's size - divided between two and four workers, regardless of how long it took them to unload it.

"This rate is constant regardless of the time necessary to complete a load, which meant between one and three loads during a normal work day," researchers reported. "Workers complained that when a load came in before the end of a shift, unloaders were expected to stay until it was finished, sometimes up to seven hours later."

Benefits were virtually non-existent. Only five percent got paid sick leave, eight percent got paid vacation and four percent had health insurance.

Almost one in every five (18 percent) of warehouse workers were injured on the job, but more than a third of them did not report the injuries. That's because 29 percent of those who did were fired or disciplined, and only 28 percent were covered by workers' comp.

The report said federal data show the conditions found in the Will County warehouses could equally apply at other major warehouse concentrations nationwide, such as those outside Los Angeles and New York City.

For example, hand laborers, freight, stock and material movers in warehouses, who in Will County make $11.06 hourly, account for 19 percent of all temp workers in the U.S., according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. Warehouse packers are another 5 percent of all temps nationwide.

The report, presented at a session that included Mark Meinster of the United Electrical Workers, recommended creating pathways to stable employment for the warehouse workers. It also said taxpayer support of warehouse operations - through tax breaks for development - should be linked to creation of full-time permanent jobs.

And the report also recommended enacting laws mandating living-wage jobs, stronger enforcement of existing wage and hour laws, and giving warehouse workers the right to organize. As temps, they are denied the right to unionize.

Additional reporting from The Will County Labor Record. Image courtesy FEMA Photo Library and is in the public domain.

Nursing home workers mark sixth month of strike

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 12:16:00 +0000

HARTFORD, Conn. - Hundreds of workers and their supporters rallied at Park Place Health Care Center in Hartford last week marking the 400 workers' sixth month on strike against Spectrum Healthcare. The members of SEIU 1199 recapped their struggle, and vowed to stand firm until they win a decent contract.

In a rousing speech at the six-month picket line rally, the Rev. Stephen Camp of Faith Congregational Church, representing the clergy said, "We are Christians, Jews and Moslems today, united, seeking justice and peace and in solidarity with Spectrum workers who are nurses, dietary workers, housekeepers and laundry workers. We are with those who understand that justice does not mean 'just us' but finding a way for all of us. We not only rally here, we encourage one another by our very presence, to seek the presence of the divine in this struggle. If we stand together we will be together, if we stand apart, they will pick us apart."

On April 15, the nurses, nursing assistants, dietary, laundry and housekeeping staff went on strike at four nursing homes operated by Spectrum Healthcare, a local corporation based in Vernon. They operate six nursing homes in the state. The workers, most of whom are female, African American and Latino, had been paid on average between $13 and $14 an hour after some years on the job.

Contracts with SEIU 1199 covering Park Place Health Center (Hartford), Birmingham Health Center (Derby), Hilltop Health Center (Ansonia) and Laurel Hill Healthcare (Winsted) expired on March 15, 2009, a year before the strike began. Since the contracts expired, Spectrum has fired or suspended at least 14 union members with no recourse to arbitration.

Those firings, along with other forms of worker intimidation, are the basis for multiple Unfair Labor Practice Charges filed against Spectrum. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a formal Complaint and Notice of Hearing (similar to an indictment in criminal law) against Spectrum on August 19 stating that the company has repeatedly broken the law and is "failing and refusing" to bargain in good faith.

Unlike any of the other nursing home operators where workers have won SEIU 1199 union contracts, Spectrum immediately threatened to hire permanent replacements for union members who went on strike. The union made an "unconditional offer to return to work" on August 31. The employer responded by calling only a few workers back, once again violating the law. The case is going to trial and if the administrative law judge supports the Labor Board's charges, Spectrum will be liable for workers' back pay and back benefits with interest. In the meantime, the Spectrum workers continue their daily picket lines in front of all four homes in protest of Spectrum's unlawful behavior.

Since the struggle began there has been a tremendous show of support throughout the state for the Spectrum workers. Elected officials have helped deliver food and contacted the employer to urge a fair resolution. Other unions and community groups have walked the picket lines and raised funds. Family members and residents at the nursing homes have publicly supported the fight and charged the employer with substandard care from replacement workers. Clergy members have spoken from their pulpits to support the workers and attempted to contact Spectrum owners Brian and Howard Dickstein.

The workers are asking for solidarity from other unions and community members on the picket lines between 6 a.m. and midnight every day at each of the four nursing homes. Donations can be sent to: The 1199 Strike and Defense Fund, SEIU 1199, 77 Huyshope Avenue, Hartford , CT 06106.

Photo: Hundreds rally at Park Place Health Care Center on October 15, marking six months on strike. Tom Connolly / People's World

Labor intensifies outreach to Y generation

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 08:17:00 +0000

On the heels of a new survey that finds young workers even worse off this year than they were last year, the AFL-CIO is stepping up a program it hopes will eventually bring the Y generation into the labor movement.

The new study, an update to the federation's 2009 survey, shows young workers are more likely to be working part-time, if at all, and have less to fall back on than they did just last year.

Fifty two percent of young workers said they have enough saved to cover living expenses for two months or more, compared with 60 percent in 2009.

Sixty percent said they were worried about their futures, compared with 41 percent last year.

Many also said they expected that they will not do as well as previous generations when they reach retirement age.

The AFL-CIO study echoes reports from countries all over the world that say youth unemployment in those places is also at record levels. The international union movement has been calling upon world leaders to make jobs the highest priority.

"In these tough economic times, young workers need more than ever to know the value of collective action and belonging to a union, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler said at a press conference Oct. 13. Shuler is in charge of the AFL-CIO's outreach to young workers.

It was clear from her remarks to reporters that the federation is taking seriously the problem of how to involve youth. "Young worker outreach is key to labor's potential and we have to be creative and deliberate," she said. "With the economy being what it is, young workers feel disenfranchised and it's up to us to take on this work and move it forward."

Shuler told reporters that the AFL-CIO will establish a National Young Worker Advisory Council in this fall and winter to advise the federation's executive council on the short-term and long-term goals of the young workers' outreach program.

She also said the federation will develop a mentoring model for bringing experienced union leaders and young workers together in groups that can learn from each other.

She noted that many young union members are involved in labor's 2010 mid-term election mobilization.

Photo: AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler, center, joins protestors as they march in Washington, May 17, during a rally against Wall Street and corporate and anti-immigrant lobbyists. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Wall Street Journal warns labor could stop GOP in its tracks

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 14:54:00 +0000

Evidence that all the media hype about a coming GOP victory in the mid-term elections may be totally off base surfaced Oct. 12 in a warning to the ruling class from no better a spokesman for that class than the Wall Street Journal itself.

The WSJ ran an article with a picture of President Obama and AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka shaking hands before the start of an October meeting of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

The article said Trumka had told reporters that unions are building a firewall to protect the Democrats' House majority. Trumka "presented numbers," the WSJ said, "suggesting the Republican mountain to climb to the majority is indeed a steep one."

The "math" that Trumka presented, according to the WSJ, was math that should long have been obvious to the mainstream media and pollsters who have chosen, instead, to ignore it. After all, the real math gets in the way when you want to predict disaster for the president and the Democrats.

Trumka started by telling reporters that 75 Democratic House seats are in play. Nothing earth shattering there. Almost everyone agrees with that figure.

To become the majority party in the House Republicans need to net 39 seats. Again, no great analytical skill needed to come up with that figure.

Here's where the analysis began to depart from what the pollsters have been looking at so far and here's where the WSJ starts to get nervous:

Trumka apparently scared them by saying that of the 75 seats in play, 37 are "high union density" districts, districts the journal then said range from "the suburbs of Chicago to the hard-scrabble working regions of Pennsylvania."

None of the pollsters deal with the issue of union density. Yet, in 2006 and even more so in 2008 union members, when they learned from direct contact with fellow union members who their union was endorsing, voted overwhelmingly for those candidates.

A majority of union members don't yet know who their union is endorsing. A majority of the public still doesn't know who is running for what office. Polls that predict any winner, therefore, even this close to the election, should not be taken literally.

By running a massive drive to inform union members about who labor is backing in the key districts, voters who might have been unlikely to vote or who might have voted for another candidate become, as each day passes, more voters who are now likely to vote and more voters who will back union candidates.

Obviously aware of this, the WSJ further notes in its warning that "if Democrats can take four Republican seats, as many analysts expect (GOP seats in Delaware, New Orleans, Hawaii and the northern suburbs of Chicago could swing), Republican candidates would need to win 59 percent of the Democratic seats up for grabs." That, in itself, is a tall order, considering that Democrats took only 56 percent of the Republican seats in play in the 2006 tsunami that gave them the majority in the House.

The Wall Street journal warns that if Democrats can secure 60 percent of the "high union density" seats, Republicans would have to win 75 percent of the Democratic seats in play. Notwithstanding the fact that something like that has never happened before, such a GOP victory would seem unlikely.

The WSJ ends its article with what, for the journal, is a scary quote from Trumka: "Union voters are the firewall."

Trumka visited a union phone bank in Chicago earlier this month at which he talked about the labor movement's strategy. The idea, he said, is to contact every union member in those 37 high density districts by mailing, by phone, with leaflets and at the workplace. "When they know who to vote for, based on who is for their issues, they will vote for the union endorsed candidates," he said at the time. History shows that this is what happened in 2006 and in 2008. "That's why everything we do between now and Nov. 2 counts," said Trumka. "The results on Nov. 2 are not pre-ordained. You folks (the union members calling their union brothers and sisters on the phones), not the corporations and all their money, are the ones who will make it happen."

Labor takes on racism in GOP "Pledge"

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 11:12:00 +0000

The Republican Party's platform for the mid-term elections, its "Pledge to America," is already regarded by most progressives and moderates as something that, if enacted, would be a huge step backwards.

Now, a new report confirms what many could have easily guessed: the Pledge has a sharply racist edge.

The racism can be detected even at first glance, wrote AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka.

"It shows off photos of 384 white people by our count," the labor leader said. "One Asian American. A musician who might be Asian. One young man in military cam who may be Latino. And if you look very, very closely, five African Americans. A total of eight people of color."

"What America are they pledging to?" Trumka asked.

Trumka pointed out that 34 percent of the population of the United States is non-white, and went on to ask why "agenda-setters in the Republican machinery think it's OK to ignore more than a third of the population ... including (no coincidence) those who look like President Barack Obama."

But the racism goes deeper than the pictures. While the policies in the Pledge, if enacted, slash services and harm the livelihoods of all working Americans, Blacks, Latinos and Asians would suffer the most.

"The American middle class as a whole continues to struggle as the economy very slowly comes out of the worst economic recession since the Great Depression," wrote Tony Carrk in the report, from the Center for American Progress Action Fund. But already, he noted, the economic situation is worse for African Americans and Latinos. "The poverty rate among African Americans and Hispanics was nearly double the overall rate in 2009-25.8 percent for African Americans and 25.3 percent for Hispanics compared to an average 14.3 percent."

The rates are comparably bad in other categories as well, including unemployment, child poverty and median household income.

While the Republicans don't want to extend tax cuts to regular working people, as President Obama advocates, they do favor extending Bush tax cuts for people who make over $250,000 yearly - the richest two percent of the population. That already small percentage of the U.S. population includes just 0.7 percent of African American families and 0.9 percent of Latino families.

This tax cut, which would give an average of $100,000 to each of the richest Americans, would cost the country $830 billion over the next decade. To make up for this, a 21 percent cut in spending on non-military discretionary programs would be necessary, meaning, for example, a $15 billion cut to education.

"At a time when graduation rates among communities of color lag behind white students and an achievement gap persists in our education system, communities of color can ill afford these reductions," noted Carrk.

The Pledge would do away with Obama's signature health care reform even though, as Carrk wrote, "the mortality rate for African Americans was 1.6 times higher than for whites; half of Latinos and more than 25 percent of African Americans do not have a regular doctor, compared to 20 percent of white Americans; and people of color are more likely to suffer from a chronic disease such as diabetes or hypertension. Communities of color represent more than half of the uninsured population."

And, instead of promising bipartisan reform of the immigration system, as Obama and most Democrats have advocated, the Pledge looks to adopt Arizona's draconian approach.

"If people of color needed a reason to vote in the November election," said James Parks of the AFL-CIO, "the Republican Party gave them a handful."

Of course, while people of color would be disproportionately harmed by the Pledge, white working people would suffer as well: only the richest two percent of the population would benefit. Trumka, Carrk and others argue that, to better living standards for all working people, a united fightback is necessary.

Trumka said that the recent One Nation rally was an example of such a united fight. It was a rally that would "issue a very different pledge to America. One that I - a white guy - will be part of, along with my brothers and sisters of many colors, many beliefs, many backgrounds."

The rally, which brought over 100,000 people out to fight for jobs, better public education and immigration reform, was initiated by the Service Employees International Union and the NAACP.

Noting "there will be no ethnic majority in the United States by the year 2050," Carrk argued "neglecting communities of color will have disastrous consequences for the long-term prosperity of our nation."

Trumka pointed out that the Pledge did contain a picture of the Statue of Liberty.

The statue, of course, famously declares, "Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

But, says Trumka, "Just don't expect to see those huddled masses included in the GOP Pledge to America."

Photo: John Gaudette

School custodians march against privatization

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 07:03:00 +0000

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Over 200 municipal workers marched and rallied at City Hall Tuesday to protest proposed privatization of school custodial services. Child care workers, library workers, paraprofessionals and food service workers joined with custodians to demand that their jobs be saved.

The march from the High School in the Community was timed to coincide with "Mayor's Night In," a monthly event when Mayor John DeStefano listens to concerns and complaints from the public.

The custodians, members of AFSCME Local 287, are angry with the mayor because he has not agreed to abandon his plan to privatize services, claiming it would save money. However, it is anticipated that privatization would put current workers off the job and bring in new workers at a lower wage.

School cafeteria workers represented by Unite Here Local 217 also joined the march, angry that the city is insisting on cutbacks of health care and pensions in ongoing contract negotiations.

Like all cities, New Haven is facing a budget deficit and tax increases are overwhelming working-class residents. Federal assistance has helped save some jobs, but much more is needed.

Workers say they refuse to have their jobs and livelihoods pitted against rising taxes.

When the city privatized school services several years ago, it took a major struggle involving the workers and state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, now a candidate for U.S. Senate, to end the contract with Aramark Corporation. Aramark's mismanagement in the interest of private profit cost the city millions of dollars.

At a spirited labor election rally for Blumenthal the next night, Robert Proto, president of Unite Here Local 35, expressed appreciation for the Attorney General's consistent stands on behalf of working people including his stand against Aramark. His opponent, Linda McMahon, supported by the tea parties, is former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment. She recently implied that she would consider lowering the minimum wage in response to the economic crisis.

"All you are trying to do is raise your family and pay your taxes," Connecticut AFL-CIO President John Olsen told the workers at the City Hall rally. "We stand with you in the fight against poverty and injustice," he said, pointing out that "we are in a recession, but there are more millionaires in Connecticut than a year ago."

At a Board of Education meeting earlier this year, custodian Trina Howard issued a challenge to do better. ""I work hard to keep my school environment clean and healthy. I am accountable every minute of every day," Harold testified. "If the city privatizes school custodial services, I will be out of a job and unable to continue sending my child to college. Please explain to me how wrecking good-paying, family-supporting jobs will help New Haven move forward."

Sal Luciano, executive director of AFSCME Council 4 which represents the custodians, described the many jobs his union members carry out to keep New Haven clean and safe. "Our reward is the knowledge that we are the workers who keep this city fit and fine," he said. "So, when this mayor seeks to turn our work over to those who would profit from it, with indifference to the needs and fabric of this great city, we are alarmed."

"We will not tolerate it," he concluded.

Photo: Art Perlo

Hundreds of New Haven municipal workers crowd City Hall demanding good contracts and no privatization.

Workers shut down biggest East Coast port

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:05:00 +0000

BROOKLYN, N.Y-Longshore workers were proud of solidarity actions they took - which shut down the East Coast's biggest port - by refusing to cross the picket lines their brother and sister workers from Philadelphia set up. The picketers, members of the same union, the International Longshoreman's Association, were protesting plans by fruit-giant Del Monte to move their Philadelphia shipping operations to a non-union pier.

"The guys and women were all a bit nervous, I guess," said Marty, who runs a diner in Brooklyn's Red Hook section, yesterday, September 29, just as the strike was ending. "But they were proud, too."

About 3,500 workers stayed off the job from New York to Philadelphia the first day, while another 1,000 stayed away in Baltimore. The stoppage marks the first time the Port of New York and New Jersey has been shuttered by a labor dispute since the mid-1970s.

The wildcat strike, which occurred September 28 and 29, was not been sanctioned by the union itself, though it was sympathetic.

"The ILA recognizes the frustration of its members resulting from the disingenuous contract negotiating of Del Monte and the predatory pricing actions" of Holt Logistics, which runs the non-union dock to where Del Monte wants to move its operations.

Bananas and pineapples had been unloaded for Del Monte by ILA workers. However, the corporation unilaterally decided to move the unpacking operations at Pier 5, in Camden, N.J., to the Holt pier in Gloucester, N.J. According to the ILA, this move could cost workers there, members of Local 1291, upwards of 200 jobs.

While Del Monte argued that Holt's pier was better equipped, the real reason for the move is simple: the company does not want to deal with the union or contracts. Workers at the non-union dock will be paid less than half of what the ILA workers receive.

"One guy was saying that he'd rather take a job at McDonald's or Starbucks," Marty, the diner's owner said, referring to workers' reactions to the wages at the Holt plant. "He'd get paid more and wouldn't have to worry about a bunch of shit falling on him." Workers on the docks, where huge containers the size of trucks are loaded and unloaded, do worry about mishaps, though safety standards are in place.

On July 22, Del Monte demanded, according to the ILA, "that the ILA reduce labor costs by $5 million and imposed an unreasonable four-day deadline on the ILA to meet its demands." Though the workers had not received pay increases in a whopping 19 years, the hard-pressed union agreed to a 25 percent reduction and other givebacks.

Despite meeting Del Monte's demands, the ILA lost the contract to Holt whose predatory pricing displaces family jobs and creates a class of working poor."

Prior to the work stoppage, the union urged the AFL-CIO to put a boycott on all Del Monte products, in order to "raise awareness" among the federation's 11.5 million members.

Much of the reason for the union leadership's hesitation in supporting a strike action is due to a federal injunction against ILA workers "interfering" in the Del Monte's or the port's business operations.

While the strikers have returned to work, many feel that they have "served notice" to Del Monte that unilateral actions will not be tolerated. Union leadership and the picketers said "that it would meet immediately with United States Maritime Alliance and New York Shipping Association representatives to address the loss of jobs."

While the strike was technically illegal, charges against the workers are not likely to be pursued.

"They're frustrated and p----ed off," Marty said. "I don't think hardly any of them gave a s--t about the restraining order."

Whether Del Monte is able to go ahead with the switch, scheduled for today, October 1, remains to be seen.

Cabin pressure rises at Delta as union vote begins

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 08:18:00 +0000

Thursday, September 30, when union voting began, marked a glimmer of hope in the lives of 21,000 flight attendants at Delta Airlines, even though many of them may not see it. I am a Delta flight attendant and have been for over 20 years. It is a job I enjoy and treasure. After this election and a contract has been ratified, we hope we will again earn a livable wage.

I have never seen a more divisive campaign waged against a work group. We have been informed that our organizing tactics aren't "Christian!" A company slogan was adopted: "If you vote for AFA you no longer work for Delta." I choose to add "No, you work WITH them!" We have flight attendants being paid to perform "special sssignments" encouraging us to vote against the union as we report for work.

9-11-01 was the beginning of the end for the airline. Delta entered bankruptcy and, overnight, we lost 40% or our compensation and benefits. Our pensions were frozen. USAirways tried to acquire the company in a hostile takeover. The employees, along with Delta management, did all we could to resist this partnering by appealing to Congress and any legislator that would listen. We wore pins saying "Keep Delta My Delta!" The deal wasn't approved, much to our relief.

We had our first vote for representation by the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA). It was a dismal failure. Employees felt an emotional attachment to a company that no longer existed. Richard Anderson was hired, he was a former Vice President for Northwest Airlines and also formerly legal counsel at Continental during the Lorenzo years.

Anderson was responsible for outsourcing some of Northwest's Asian flying to low-paid foreign contract employees.

Northwest flight attendants' contract restricted the percentage, but when they entered bankruptcy they pushed to outsource a much higher percentage. The Association of Flight Attendants negotiated pay cuts in order to save some of the jobs.

Again in the spring of 2009, we had our second union election. It seemed promising, but the union busting team that was hired to thwart our effort was successful. Delta submitted a list of "eligible to vote" employees to the National Mediation Board. If it weren't for the dead, incapacitated or workers on long-term medical disability that padded the list, we would have had the vote.

We merged with AFA representing Northwest Airlines. Due to their flight attendant group equalling 40% or more of our work force, another petition for a vote was triggered. The voting begins September 29th and concludes November 3rd.

It isn't easy. My fellow workers are telling me they can no longer associate with me due to my pro-union stance. As an organizer, I have been yelled at and demeaned in the aisle in front of passengers for my views. Every day a new flier or DVD arrives in my home mail box encouraging me to protect my future and vote against representation.

The management loyalists parade as lemmings with tags adhered to their luggage stating "NO WAY AFA!" I stand proudly adorning my lapel with a simple white AFA pen. I am entitled to a voice regarding my future. I deserve to be a respected and be a part of a democratic process that will empower over 21,000 flight attendants.