People Before Profit blog

Today in labor history: Singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie dies at age 55

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 13:02:00 +0000

On this day in 1967, folk singer and songwriter Woody Guthrie died at the age of 55 from complications stemming from Huntington's disease. Serving as a prominent figure in the folk movement, many of his songs were based on or inspired by his experiences with migrant workers during the Great Depression.

During that Dust Bowl era, Guthrie traveled with the workers and learned their traditional songs, earning himself the nickname "Dust Bowl Troubadour."

As suggested by a mural painted in his hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma (pictured), Guthrie's friendship with the working class and inspirational music has left its mark; the musician's legacy continues today.

Photo: A Woody Guthrie mural in his hometown, painted by DeAnna Wilson in 1994. Uyvsdi/Wikipedia

Unions take aim at child labor, trafficking

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 15:11:00 +0000

Around the globe, 215 million children are engaged in child labor, including an estimated six million in forced labor. Annual reports, released this week by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of International Affairs, track the progress and lack of progress in combating child labor.

The reports, said Labor Secretary Hilda Solis: "Remind us of what happens to the most vulnerable members of society when poverty and labor exploitation unite. The information in these reports is a vital tool in the effort to stop this abuse and can have an enormous impact in the hands of those who want to join efforts to end these labor practices."

The Labor Department's "2011 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor" looks at child labor in 144 countries and the nations' efforts to combat child labor. It also introduces a tool to assess countries' efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor, tracking from year to year whether a country has made significant, moderate and minimal or no advancement. Carol Pier, associate deputy undersecretary for International Affairs, says the assessment of a nation's progress in combating child labor "highlights accomplishments and spotlights remaining challenges."

The report also explores programs that successfully combat child labor and highlights the work by the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center, which helped launch a program to combat child trafficking in the tea, coffee and sugar sectors in Kenya. The report notes that "this program trains union stewards on trafficking issues and raises awareness about labor practices that promote child labor such as sub-contracting and outsourcing."

The Solidarity Center and its partners around the world expose the problem of child labor, push for policies that prepare young people for the workplace and promote more effective national action plans to curb this abuse of worker and human rights.

The "List of Goods Produced by Child or Forced Labor" details 134 goods from 74 countries that ILAB has reason to believe are produced by forced labor, child labor or both, in violation of international standards. The list includes diamonds from Angola, bananas from Belize, fireworks from China, carpets from India pornography from Mexico and products from another 69 nations.

At the press conference announcing the reports, Solis said that since 1995, the Labor Department has funded more than 250 projects in 90 countries aimed at combating child labor and will provide $60 million for additional programs by the end of 2012.

I believe that combating child labor can break the cycle of poverty. By allowing children to strive for better opportunities to learn, we can help lift families, communities and whole nations out of poverty. That is why we are funding projects designed to remove children from exploitation and connect them with education and other services.

Photo: Many children, like the one pictured in Uzbekistan, still endure child labor. Ecouterre

Today in labor history: George Washington bridge opened

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 14:31:00 +0000

It was on Oct. 1, 1931 that the George Washington Bridge, a suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River and connecting Manhattan in New York City to Fort Lee in New Jersey, was officially inaugurated.

It held the title of being the longest suspension bridge in the world until it was surpassed by the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

The original design for the towers of the bridge called for them to be encased in concrete and granite but because of the economic constraints of the Great Depression, this was never done. In the end, the exposed steel towers, with their distinctive criss-crossed bracing, have become the most identifiable and artistically praised features of the bridge.

At least 12 workers were killed during the construction of the bridge.

The first disaster struck when the cofferdam for the New Jersey tower's north foundation, hit with the full pressure of the Hudson River, buckled and three men drowned. The accident happened early in the day. Had it been later, hundreds could have been in that dam.

Workers were also killed when explosive charges went off prematurely after having been improperly placed in Palisades Rock.

It is not known how many workers, above the official toll of 12, may have died during the pouring of the immense quantity of concrete that forms the New York anchorage of the bridge. Witnesses said they saw at least three fall in, entombed forever.

For a long time it was also believed that the bodies of Prohibition-era gangsters were routinely deposited in the wet concrete of the New York anchorage.

Others say bridge workers often, for the fun of it, told reporters anxious for details a variety of elaborate stories like these, adding over the years to the numbers of gangsters and others supposedly deposited in the wet concrete.

Photo: The USS Nautilus passes under the George Washington Bridge in 1956. Arnold Reinhold/Wikipedia

Mexican right rams through anti-labor law

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 13:16:00 +0000

Mexico's right-dominated Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of its Congress, has passed new anti-labor legislation. The bill, introduced at the behest of outgoing President Felipe Calderon of the National Action Party (PAN), was also supported by deputies from the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI) of President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto and by the Green Party. It was opposed by the parliamentary left. Nieto takes office December 1.

Mexico has had, on paper, progressive labor laws. However, workers have trouble defending their interests even where there is a union. Although about a quarter of Mexican workers are unionized, the majority of unions are what is called in Mexico "charro" unions after Jesus Diaz de Leon, a corrupt railway union leader of the post World War II period, distinguished by his propensity for dressing up as a Mexican fancy dress cowboy or "charro" as well as for selling out the interests of his members.

The "charro" or "corporativist" unions are institutionally linked to the PRI. The result is that workers who try to challenge conditions on the job often find themselves faced with a united front of employers, government and their "own" unions. "Protection" (sweetheart) contracts are rife. Members are required to support the PRI in elections.

Dissident union leaders have met with drastic consequences: In 1989 President Carlos Salinas de Gortari (PRI) sent in armed contingents to arrest petroleum workers' union leader Joaquin Hernandez Galicia and several colleagues, who were given stiff jail terms for illegal possession of firearms. Many, however, suspected that the real issue was that a strong leadership in the union would eventually be an obstacle to stealth privatization of the Mexican national petroleum industry.

A highly visible minority of mostly left-led unions are independent of the corporativist setup. They include the Mexican Electricians Union (SME) and the Mine and Metal Workers Union, telephone workers, university personnel and some teachers. They are grouped in two dissident federations: The National Workers' Union (UNT) and the Authentic Workers' Front (FAT). Under both PRI and PAN governments these unions have been constantly embattled.

Calderon and his friends in the Mexican ruling class and international monopoly capital are hoping that the labor law reform passed on Friday can be the first nail in the coffin for the independent unions.

The principal changes:

- Many workers now paid on a daily basis will be moved to hourly. This will represent a significant loss of income for many.

- Employers will be authorized to hire people on provisional, training, and temporary bases. The hours will not count for seniority. Promotion to permanent status will be based on "productivity" instead of seniority.

- Outsourcing will be made easier.

- Back wages payable to workers in labor disputes or who were unjustly fired will be limited to one year, making it cheaper to union-bust and fire workers.

- New unions that are challenging an existing bargaining agent will have to make public the names of at least a third of their supporters, exposing them to dismissal, blacklisting or violence.

In the original draft, unions also would have had to open their books to external audits, and run clean internal elections. To assuage the "charro" unions and the PRI, these clauses were removed. Such openness might reveal various kinds of malfeasance and show that some of the "charro" unions have far fewer members than claimed.

Nothing would change in terms of work week minimum wage or all but nonexistent support for laid off workers and the unemployed. The "toma de nota" procedure, by which the government can arbitrarily refuse to recognize the results of union elections, stays.

Calderon justified his anti-union bill in terms of attracting more foreign investment, and creating jobs for young people and returning immigrants. The election of the PRI's Enrique Peña Nieto and of a Congress in which no one party has a majority, but in which the left, although strengthened, cannot block joint PAN-PRI initiatives, set the stage for the passage of this labor law "reform."

In the Sept. 28 vote the bill garnered 351 votes from the combined forces of the PAN, PRI and Greens (a right-wing party in Mexico). In opposition were the 130 votes of the three left-of-center parties in the chamber: the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD), Labor Party (PT) and Citizens' Movement. The 10 deputies of the National Alliance Party, headed by teachers' union leader Elba Esther Gordillo, abstained. The bill now goes to the Senate, where the de-facto PAN-PRI-Greens alliance will almost surely be able to repeat the feat.

While the bill was being rammed through, independent unions, citizens' organizations, the important #I Am 132 (#Yo Soy 132) youth movement, and the parties of the left in and out of Congress carried out mass demonstrations against the measure.

Messages of solidarity came from U.S. and other international labor organizations, including the AFL-CIO, the U.S. Steelworkers, and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers unions who have been increasingly active in giving solidarity and support to Mexico's independent unions.

Photo: Mexican workers demand labor reforms outside Congress in Mexico City, including increasing union fairness and democracy. Alexandre Meneghini/AP

Fatal work injuries down slightly in 2011

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 11:38:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - The number of fatal occupational injuries nationwide dropped to 4,609 in 2011, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said, down from 4,690 the year before. Virtually the entire decline was in construction and coal mining, the data show.

BLS said the ongoing impact of the Great Recession, which left more than one out of every seven construction workers jobless last year, accounted for decline in fatalities there. There were 721 fatal injuries in construction in 2011, and 774 the year before.

"The number of fatal work injuries in the private construction sector declined by seven percent," BLS said. "Fatal work injuries in construction have declined every year since 2006 and are down nearly 42 percent over that time.

"Economic conditions may explain much of this decline. Despite the lower fatal injury total, construction accounted for the second most fatal work injuries of any sector in 2011 with transportation and warehousing having the most fatal work injuries."

BLS added coal-mining deaths declined from 43 in 2010 to 17 last year. It noted in 2010, the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia exploded, killing 29 miners.

The overall death rate on the job also declined in 2011, to 3.5 deaths per 100,000 full-time workers. It was 3.6 per 100,000 the year before.

One of every seven workers - some 666 - killed on the job fell to his or her death last year, again emphasizing the need for fall protection. The Obama administration's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been working towards a stronger fall protection standard, especially in residential construction. The home building industry has egged on congressional Republicans to resist.

"Falls to a lower level accounted for 541 of those fatalities," BLS said. "In 2011, the height of the fall was reported in 451 of the 541 fatal falls. Of those 451 cases, about one in four (115) occurred after a fall of 10 feet or less. Another fourth (118) occurred from a fall of over 30 feet."

Fatal injuries in transportation and warehousing rose by 11 percent, to 733 in 2011, overtaking construction. It was the highest total since 2008.

"Fatal injuries in truck transportation, the largest subsector within transportation and warehousing in employment, increased by 14 percent in 2011, led by a 16 percent fatality increase in general freight trucking and a 12 percent increase in specialized freight trucking," BLS said.

Of the fatally injured workers, 492 were so-called independent contractors."

Photo: Police direct traffic away from the area of the Upper Big Branch mine, where 29 workers were killed. Jeff Gentner/AP

Duquesne University professors say yes to a union

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 10:35:00 +0000

PITTSBURGH - By a 50-9 margin, adjunct professors at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, a prominent Catholic institution, voted to unionize with the Steelworkers. But the struggle isn't over yet.

That's because the university will appeal the ruling, continuing to argue that the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of religion, allows religiously affiliated institutions complete leeway in their labor practices, without any government role at all. It cites a 1979 ruling involving archdiocesan schools in Chicago.

The votes were counted on Sept. 21, though they were cast in June. The National Labor Relations Board, the week before, ordered the counting, saying the case could go forward only if the union won the balloting among the adjuncts. 88 adjuncts were eligible to cast ballots, but the election covers 125 positions.

Steelworkers President Leo Gerard said the vote should tell Duquesne to recognize and bargain with the union. "We've won contracts for factory workers, nurses, flight attendants, and lawyers. Now we're proud to support adjunct instructors in their fight for a fair contract," Gerard said. "We will continue to fight for them in the face of opposition from the administration."

Pay and working conditions are key issues in the organizing drive. In a prior open letter, even university President Charles Dougherty said, "There are no university pay scales" for the adjuncts.

Pay varies "by college and schools" and "by the role adjuncts play," he said. "There are no benefits or long term securities associated with these positions due to their ad hoc and transitory nature. Only in the last several years have the numbers of adjuncts in the college increased significantly. At the same time, there appear to be a growing number of part-time faculty who seek to make a full-time living by taking on multiple part-time assignments, often spread among several universities.

"We are not unmindful of the teachings of the Catholic Church on labor. The church continues to support the right of working men and women to organize. Our history of positive relations with our existing unions is evidence of our appreciation of this fact. Nevertheless, we believe that, in the case of faculty who are central to the core of who and what we are, concerns for our religious mission are a higher priority. These concerns certainly are a higher priority than deference to the machinery of NLRB regulation."

Photo: Bishop Richard Lennon participates in a mass in Cleveland, Ohio. Catholic universities that are anti-union violate the declarations of their own bishops. Tony Dejak/AP

Trumka urges white working-class men to back Warren in Mass.

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 10:56:00 +0000

BOSTON - Using unusually strong language, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka waded into the neck-and-neck Massachusetts U.S. Senate race between 2-year incumbent Scott Brown, Republican, and Democratic nominee Elizabeth Warren, by telling his peers - white working-class men - not to oppose Warren just because she's female, or because she's a Harvard professor, or for other "superficial reasons."

Trumka compared Warren's problems with the male voters to those that then-Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama had with the same group four years ago. Then, Trumka took on the race factor head-on in a speech to the Steelworkers. This time, it's gender and elitism.

"We have a problem because some voters-and let me be perfectly honest, I'm talking about voters who look just like me-have not stood up beside Elizabeth Warren to support her," he told labor campaign workers on Sept. 24 in Boston.

"Listen to me closely. I've said before that there are dozens of good reasons to vote for Barack Obama and one bad reason not to-and that's because he's black.

"Now hear me about Elizabeth Warren. I've said there are dozens of good reasons to vote for Elizabeth Warren.... But it's crazy not to vote for her because she's a woman, or because she's a college professor, or for any other superficial reason."

Trumka's remarks are an indication of the importance the labor attaches to the Brown-Warren race for the seat held for 46 years by the late Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a long-time labor champion.

With Obama expected to easily carry Massachusetts - Romney's present home state - the Brown-Warren matchup is the marquee race there. It's also viewed as vital for keeping Democratic U.S. Senate control. It's so vital that Massachusetts is one of labor's eight top-targeted states this fall.

Trumka also warned workers not to be fooled by Brown's workingclass imagery, his past record in the state legislature - or his pickup truck.

"The other bad reason to vote against her is because Scott Brown comes across like the guy some of you supported years ago... Let me be perfectly frank with you - that's not the Scott Brown who's serving in Washington today. The new Scott Brown votes every time with the 1% and the Tea Party.

"This is serious, because the election hangs in the balance. You will make the difference. You have the responsibility today to have this tough conversation with your members-to educate your members. And I know you've started already, because the numbers are beginning to move in the right direction, but we've got a long ways to go and not a lot of time to get there," he added, referring to polls showing a tied race.

One nominee, Warren, will fight for jobs, for project labor agreements, for factory workers, for reining in Wall Street speculators, for the Davis-Bacon Act's prevailing wage guarantees, for the right to unionize, and for infrastructure, Trumka said.

"We've got to ask ourselves: What do we want? Do we want jobs? Do we want to be back at the worksite, back at the plant, back on the construction site earning a good living?"

Trumka admitted Brown comes across as "a buddy who'll pat us on the back" and "who wears a Bruins jersey with the boys."

But he's really "just another Wall Street lawmaker-bought and sold," Trumka said. "Scott Brown thinks his pickup truck will make you forget that he votes against you and your family not once, not twice, but every single time."

AFL-CIO interim voting records for 2012 show that on nine key votes this year, Brown agreed with labor only three times. His few pro-labor votes, however, were enough to give him the second-best score among Republicans, behind Maine's Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, who voted with labor four times.

Brown's 2012 pro-worker votes were for the two-year highway-mass transit infrastructure bill, for denying tax deductions to outsourcers and against extending all current tax cuts, including the Bush tax cuts for the rich.

"Scott Brown thinks he can win big by calling Elizabeth Warren an elitist. Why? Because she teaches college? Hell, she teaches college because she's smart, and she works hard!" Trumka declared.

"Scott Brown may pretend that he's no Tea Partier, but don't believe a word of it. Scott Brown is up to an old game: He's trying to divide us to conquer us. Listen, Scott Brown is no candidate for working families. Scott Brown is a fake and a fraud.

"I'm sick of it. Democrats aren't perfect. Who is? Far from it. But I've said it before and I'll say it again: Elizabeth Warren is an honest woman who'll fight for working people. She'll fight for your jobs. She'll protect your pensions. She'll fight to rebuild the American Dream. She'll fight for your hometown and my hometown. And she'll do it every single day."

Photo: From Elizabeth Warren's Facebook page.

Restaurant has to pay wages it stole from employee

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:46:00 +0000

COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. - Workers in transparent rain ponchos hand out pale yellow fliers to people preparing to enter Lee Kan's Asian Grill in the Collierville Shopping Center. The flyers inform the potential diners that Lee Kan's Asian Grill stole more than $8,200 from Mauricio Alfaro who had worked there for over nine months as a dishwasher and a fryer.

Others hold signs declaring the restaurant violates federal laws, while Mr. Alfaro spreads wide his rain poncho on which he's written in in brightly colored marker "Lee Kan's Owes Me Wages." In the background Alfredo Peña, the Worker Rights Director at Workers Interfaith Network leans into his cell phone, listens, says a few words, and hangs up.

It is good news. Lee Kan's Asian Grill has offered to pay Alfaro $5,000! He can pick up a check for $2,500 in five days and will receive a payment of $416 at the end of every month until Lee Kan's pays off its debt, Everyone cheers and a clearly happy Alfaro is patted on the back.

Recently, Workers Interfaith Network's Executive Director Rev. Rebekah Gienapp sat at her desk and spoke about the mission and the ten-year history of the group in Memphis. Gienapp, a Methodist minister, said, "The idea that people should be paid fairly for the hard work they do is what draws people together the most."

Before WIN, people in the faith community here only had a few charitable and volunteer options to express their values, many of which involved working in outreach programs run by their churches. WIN provides these people with an opportunity for people of many different faiths and denominations to "come together for a common purpose: supporting the rights of low wage workers."

Workers Interfaith Network has had a huge impact on the Memphis community in the ten years it has been here, in part due to the success of its annual Faith and Labor Picnic.

Ten years ago, Fred Ashwill the then-president of the Central Labor Council, suggested, "We should do something on Labor Day because there is no union event" on the one day on the calendar devoted to workers.

That first humble picnic was attended by "about 70 people," Gienapp recalls "and raised about $2,500." To this day, Fred Ashwill "is still the one who cooks for us."

Since that first picnic, WIN's support has grown steadily. In 2006, they led a winning coalition in passing a living wage ordinance in Memphis. Gienapp explains that "the idea was to get the city to pay their workers a living wage." The law takes in every employer who gets a tax break from the City of Memphis. "The city should be a leader," said Gienapp. "If Mmphis doesn't pay a living wage, why would anyone else?"

WIN's tenth anniversary was celebrated this Labor Day at their Faith and Labor picnic. The picnic which was attended by 450 people from the mid-south was a huge success. Many labor unions and faith communities contributed to make it the success it was. According to Gienapp, the picnic was able to raise $23,000.

While Workers Interfaith Network continues to fight the good fight on behalf of and in cooperation with low wage workers, millions of workers it does not reach are victims of wage theft. It is a reality, activists note, that forces workers to choose between putting food on the table and paying their rent.

On Sept. 29 the group will hold a rally at 2 p.m. at the First Congregational Church to stand against wage theft, and stand up for the low-wage workers of the Mid-South.

Photo: Rebehak Gienapp, by James Raines/PW

Today in labor history: Suffragette socialist Sylvia Pankhurst dies in 1960

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 12:01:00 +0000

Most people don't realize that a legendary suffragette, Sylvia Pankhurst, lived well into the mid-20th century. Pankhurst, British advocate for women's right to vote and a socialist who championed the inclusion of working class women in the struggle, died in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Sept. 27, 1960, at the age of 78.

Born in Manchester, England, in 1882, Sylvia Pankhurst was the daughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, a famous champion of woman suffrage. But unlike her mother, Sylvia Pankhurst maintained a relationship with Britain's labor movement. She believed that working-class women would never be liberated until they were freed from poverty, and she insisted on involving working-class women in the suffrage movement. Because of this she eventually broke with the Women's Social and Political Union which she and her mother and sister Christabel had founded in 1903.

Sylvia Pankhurst, a pacifist as well as a socialist, also differed with her mother and sister in opposing World War I, which she saw as contrary to the interests of workers, male and female.

In London's impoverished East End, she led the East London Federation of Suffragettes and published a working-class women's paper, the Woman's Dreadnought. She became regarded as a leader of working-class men as well as women and convinced some labor organizations to oppose the war. Because non-agricultural male laborers had also not yet been granted the vote, the ELFS was renamed the Workers' Suffrage Federation in 1916, and then became the Workers' Socialist Federation. in 1917 the Woman's Dreadnought became the Workers' Dreadnought. She corresponded with Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin and in 1920 was a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. In 1921, however, she was expelled from the party when she refused to merge the Workers' Dreadnought into a single CPGB paper.

As Britain phased in universal suffrage for both men and women in the 1920s, Sylvia Pankhurst shifted her energies to opposing racism and the rise of fascism in Europe. In 1935, she campaigned against the invasion of Ethiopia by fascist Italy and founded publications to publicize the plight of the Ethiopians and other victims of fascism. She later helped settle Jewish refugees from Germany.

In 1956, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie invited her to live in Ethiopia. In her 70s, she founded the Ethiopia Observer and edited the paper for four years. On her death in 1960 the Ethiopian government gave her a state funeral in recognition of her service to the country.

Photo: Sylvia Pankhurst protests British imperialism in India, at Trafalgar Square, London, Jan. 18, 1932. Wikimedia Commons

Today in labor history: First Model T leaves the assembly line

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 13:11:00 +0000

On September 26, 1908, the first production Ford Model T left the Piquette Plant in Detroit, Mich. It was the first car ever manufactured on an assembly line.

The problems of speedup and other dangerous assembly line practices were skewered in Charlie Chaplin's classic film "Modern Times." The film's exaggerated depiction of assembly line work wasn't far from the truth.

As Art Perlo wrote for the People's World in 2006:

"Henry Ford outlawed talking, restricted bathroom breaks, denied pay for setup time, and sped up the production line. Turnover was high, with workers leaving injured, exhausted or fired. Ford employed a private army of thugs, recruited from jails and prisons, to spy on, intimidate and crush any efforts by his workers to organize.

"Ford was reputed to be the richest man in the world. He cultivated an image as a kindly inventor who upheld old-fashioned values. But when the Depression struck in the 1930s, he cut wages and sped up production even more. When thousands of unemployed workers marched to his plant to ask for the relief Ford had promised, they were met with machine-gun fire from company police. Five workers were killed."

Ford boasted that he would never accept a union and for over 20 years he kept the union out of his huge River Rouge factory with guns, goons, blacklists and frame-ups.

The biography of "Brother Bill McKie" by journalist Phil Bonosky is an inspiring story about auto's rank and file, how they fought a long and bloody struggle and how, together, they won with the establishment of the United Auto Workers union. The paperback edition is available from International Publishers.

Photo: Ford magneto assembly line, 1913, Wikimedia Commons

NFL players to owners: End lockout of refs

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 15:52:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) -- Citing the threat to the players' health and safety - a threat that violates their own contract with the league - the NFL Players Association formally asked league owners to end the NFL's lockout of the regular referees.

Incompetent "replacements" are running - and ruining - games, NFLPA said.

And in a measure of the outrage from football fans nationwide over blunders, injuries, late hits and blown calls, the regular refs have picked up support from one of the nation's leading union-busters: Right Wing Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wis.

Upset at a replacement ref's call that a last-second Seattle Seahawks "Hail Mary" touchdown pass beat the Green Bay Packers, Walker tweeted that the owners should end the lockout and bring the regular refs back.

In an open letter to fans and owners, NFL Referees Association chief Tom Millis said the biggest issue separating the sides is the owners' demand to convert present and future refs' pensions from their current traditional "defined benefit" form to riskier 401 (k)-type "defined contribution" plans. The refs' association is an independent union.

"Every current NFL official was hired by the NFL with the promise of a defined-benefit pension package," Millis wrote. "Officials and their families made important life-planning decisions based on this inferior defined-contribution plan. I call that plan inferior because the league's offer would reduce their funding obligation for the plan by some 60%, and at the same time transfer long-term investment risk to the individuals (each official)."

A huge majority of private sector firms that still offer pensions offer the 401(k) type. But the NFL, with $9 billion in yearly profits among its teams, can afford the traditional pensions, Millis said.

A big complaint came from the players. Speaking as "men who love and respect this game," they told the owners that replacement refs, inadequate and untrained, may break the union's own contract with the league. But their letter did not say what the players would do if the NFL keeps locking out the regular refs.

"We believe there is substantial evidence you have failed in your obligation to provide as safe a working environment as possible," the letter, from NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith and the union's executive board of 12 present and former players, told the owners.

"Your decision to lock out officials with more than 1,500 years of collective NFL experience has led to a deterioration of order, safety and integrity. This affirmative decision has not only resulted in poor calls, missed calls and bad game management, but the combination of those deficiencies will only continue to jeopardize player health and safety and the integrity of the game," the letter said.

The players association called the "replacement" refs "incapable of keeping pace with the speed of the game."

"It is lost on us as to how you allow a commissioner to cavalierly issue suspensions and fines in the name of player health and safety, yet permit the wholesale removal of the officials that you trained and entrusted to maintain that very health and safety," they said.

"It has been reported that the two sides are apart by approximately $60,000 per team...Your actions are looking more and more like simple greed."

The letter said the owners were not fulfilling their "legal, moral, and duty obligations to us and our fans."

The players demanded, "You need to end the lockout and bring back the officials immediately."

There was no immediate response from either the league or the owners to either letter or the fan uproar.

Meanwhile, Michael Arnold, a top negotiator for the referees' union, told Newsday the league "predetermined" it would lock out the refs, for the first time since 2001.

"They told us (last month) that if this thing was going to settle, it was going to be on their terms and they were not going to make any additional offers," Arnold said.

Video: Calling the situation "catastrophic," ESPN commentators Steve Young and Trent Differ discuss the referee lockout.

Photo: Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com/AP

Texas Walmart workers stage “Rally for Respect”

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 15:05:00 +0000

DALLAS - About 200 Walmart employees and their supporters gathered for a "Rally for Respect" in downtown Griggs Park here, Sept. 22.

Walmart, the largest employer in the world, has been dragging down everybody's wages and benefits, Texas state Rep. Roberto Alonzo told the crowd. Dallas City Councilman Steve Salazar said the Walmart organizing drive has tremendous importance for women and minorities.

A high point came when a Communications Workers member spoke. She said Verizon had fired her after last year's strike, but the tentative contract now being considered by the East Coast membership will restore her job and every job wrongfully taken away by the company during the long contract struggle. This union report was especially inspiring to the Walmart employees.

The Organization United For Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart) worked for months to bring the rally to fruition. Their speakers were ordinary workers telling their own stories of low pay, low benefits, and general disrespect on the job at Walmart.

Supporters included Machinists, Communications Workers, Auto Workers, Food and Commercial Workers, Jobs with Justice, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, and the Texas Alliance for Retired Americans.

Two television crews recorded the rally.

As the speaking ended, the entire group marched up the sidewalk to a nearby Walmart store. A small delegation went in while the rest walked slowly around the parking lot, then returned to Griggs Park. Rally organizers say to watch for a great deal more action in North Texas.

Photo: Texas Walmart workers rally in Griggs Park, downtown Dallas. Jim Lane/PW

Koch Brothers try to kill California unions

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:41:00 +0000

No sooner were opinion polls showing the labor-led campaign to defeat California Proposition 32 gaining ground by 10 points earlier this month, than the multi-billionaire Koch brothers dropped $4 million to shore up support for the anti-union measure on the November ballot.

Prop 32 would ban both unions and corporations from using payroll-deducted funds for political purposes in California. Meanwhile, corporations would have a free ride to raise unlimited funds to support pro-corporate candidates.

While payroll deductions are vital to unions' political activity, corporations usually rely instead on company funds and donations from executives.

The pro-32 corporate backers call their initiative the "Stop Special Interest Money Now Act."

But Kevin Norton of southern California IBEW Local 11 characterized the measure as "a thinly veiled attempt to destroy labor."

Two previous attempts to pass similar initiatives, in 1998 and 2005, were voted down by California voters.

However, the California Labor Federation and its affiliates are taking no chances this time around.

The "Stop the Special Exemptions Act" campaign includes public and private sector unions in broad coalition with prominent civil rights and civil liberties groups, police associations, health care advocates, environmentalists, educators, and religious groups.

Prop 32 threatens the union movement's capacity to advocate politically in the state for its members and their families as well as for the people generally facing difficult economic, social, and environmental challenges.

The outcome of the battle over Prop 32 has broad implications nationally because California's labor movement represents more than two million members out of a total of more than 14 million nationally, making California's union membership the largest in the nation.

"Twenty years from now, this will be a point that we'll all look back and say 'This is where we lost it,' or 'This is where we turned it around.' Let's turn it around," IBEW's Norton aptly summarized what labor and other progressive social movements see as the stakes in this battle.

The coalition is enlisting the help of a growing army of volunteers, churning up the calls and other grassroots activities, while making use of social networking and other online tools to reach voters.

As with other Prop 32 corporate backers, the Koch brothers' latest crusade to pass Prop 32 stands to vastly increase their corporate fortunes and power.

For years Koch Industries channeled money to various California lawmakers through its Georgia-Pacific subsidiary, with an eye to helping enact legislation that would loosen industrial regulation and thus enhance its profit margins, according to Matthew Fleischer of Frying Pan News.

Between 2009 and 2010, for example, Georgia-Pacific funneled donations of $1,000 or more to the campaigns of 25 different California state Senators and Assembly members.

But Prop 32, while banning unions and (on the surface) corporations from contributing directly or indirectly to candidates and candidate-controlled committees, would exempt corporate subsidiaries like Koch Industries' Georgia-Pacific.

As a limited liability company (LLC), Georgia-Pacific would not be hampered by the proposition's restrictions, since an LLC is not considered a corporation, much less a union.

With justification the California Labor Federation charges that Prop 32 would "severely restrict union members from having a voice in the political process" but would "exempt secretive Super PACs and corporate front groups, which can raise unlimited amounts of money from corporate special interests and billionaires to support their candidates."

In 2010, Koch Industries subsidiary Flint Hills Resources donated $1 million to support Proposition 23, which would have overturned California's landmark climate change prevention statute, AB 32.

Koch Industries complained that stiff clean emissions standards "would cripple refiners that rely on heavy crude feedstocks," on which oil interests like the Koch's thrive.

Proposition 32 went down to defeat in no small part thanks to labor's role, which would have been seriously circumscribed had the earlier versions of Prop 32 been in effect at the time.

Photo: Protesters in Rancho Mirage, Calif. demonstrate against the Koch brothers. Crystal Chatham/AP & The Desert Sun

Today in labor history: Eisenhower enforces racial integration in Little Rock

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 10:14:00 +0000

On this day in 1957, Arkansas governor Orval Faubus called the National Guard in order to prevent schools in Little Rock from integrating, despite the fact that the Supreme Court had ordered the desegregation of public schools three years prior.

In response, President Dwight D. Eisenhower opted to send U.S. army troops to the city in order to protect African-American children as they entered the schools amidst angry, hateful crowds.

Delivering a television speech from the Oval Office, Eisenhower explained his actions to the country: "Speaking from the house of Lincoln, of Jackson, and of Wilson," he said, "my words better convey both the sadness I feel in the action I was compelled today to take, and the firmness with which I intend to pursue this course until the orders of the federal court in Little Rock can be executed without unlawful interference."

The next morning, without further disruption, nine African American students attended classes at Little Rock's Central High.

Photo: WhiteHouseHistory.org

As ice melts, geoengineering gets a less frosty reception

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 17:48:00 +0000

A leading sea ice expert has predicted the final disappearance of Arctic ice in the summer within four years. In what Cambridge University Professor Peter Wadhams called a "global disaster," the ice has fallen to its lowest levels ever recorded, and with climate change speeding up faster than models had predicted a decade ago, experts are taking a closer look at more controversial ways of dealing wth the problem - including geoengineering.

"We must not only urgently reduce CO2 emissions," said Wadhams, "but must urgently examine other ways of slowing global warming, such as the various geoengineering ideas that have been put forward."

"As the sea ice retreats in summer," he explained, "the ocean warms up, and this warms the seabed too. The continental shelves of the Arctic are composed of offshore permafrost - frozen sediment left over from the last ice age. As the water warms, the permafrost melts and releases huge quantities of trapped methane, a very powerful greenhouse gas. So this will give a big boost to global warming."

"Professor Wadhams is right that we're in a big hole and the recent record sea ice low in the Arctic is a clear warning that we need to act," said Greenpeace's Ben Ayliffe. "But it would be cheaper, safer, and easier to stop digging and drilling for more fossil fuels," he added, referring to the troubling practices supported by climate change-denying Republicans. "We already have the technologies ... to make the deep cuts in greenhouse gases that are needed to stave off the worst effects of climate change."

Involves modification of climate

Geoengineering - also called climate intervention - involves the modification of the earth's climate, including the manipulation of weather, in order to offset or completely reverse the effects of global warming. Though initially suggested as a 'fringe idea,' it was later considered potentially viable, but only as an accompanying strategy to a better solution. Now, scientists are looking at the technology more seriously.

Some potential ways of artificially altering the climate include: brightening clouds through the use of seawater; nourishing the oceans via iron fertilization; creating vertical ocean pipes to mix cool deep water and warm surface water (this could also potentially disrupt threatening hurricanes); using space-based mirrors to obstruct the sun's radiation (solar radiation management); and simpler steps like painting roofs white and planting many bright-colored crops.

Wadham noted that geoengineering's main roadblocks right now are the Big Business agendas of politicians (many of them right-wing), and that "small steps" currently being taken are not enough to combat climate change.

"It's very, very depressing," he said, "that politicians and the public are attuned to the threat of climate change even less than they were 20 years ago when Margaret Thatcher sounded the alarm. CO2 levels are rising at a faster-than-exponential rate, and yet politicians only want to take utterly trivial steps such as banning plastic bags and building a few windfarms."

Last chance to avoid catastrophe

In a letter to the Guardian, environmentalist Alan Naismith wrote, "The only chance of avoiding catastrophic global warming lies in geoengineering. A Manhattan Project to develop this technology should be launched."

Steven Hamburg, chief scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund, talked about solar radiation management in particular, stating, "Solar radiation management might sound, at first, like something from science fiction - but it's not. There are already serious discussions beginning about it. [It] could be a Plan B to address climate change, but first we must figure out how to research it safely. Only then should we even consider any other steps."

Energy experts David Keith and Jim Anderson plan to do further research on the technology. Keith noted, "Doing a few responsible experiments will help clarify things." He also dismissed claims that they had strong backing from billionaires, adding, "Some reports have implied that we're doing this with funding from Bill Gates. But if we go ahead, we'll be mostly publicly funded."

But many experts ask how other countries would feel if any one of them decided to make a full-blown attempt to artificially regulate the planet's temperature.

Rutger University scientist Alan Robock remarked, "Outdoor geoengineering research is not ethical unless subject to governance. If you could do geoengineering, how much cooling should you do? And whose hand is on the thermostat?"

According to physicist Nathan Myhrvold, however, that concern may not yet be valid, because, "no part of the developed world is making any serious effort to do it at this point." And that, he suggested, is a problem, because without any large-scale option on the table - even one as risky as direct climate modification - the world could find itself in a troubling place in a few decades' time.

"I continue to think geoengineering is not only a possible action," said Myhrvold, "but that every day that goes by makes it more likely. I haven't seen any progress on reducing emissions. If you're doing nothing about the problem, you're going to have to live with the impact, take it on the chin. Geoengineering is how you might avoid that."

Today in labor history: Mother Jones leads march of miners’ children

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 12:37:00 +0000

Labor organizer Mother Jones "led a march of miners' children through the streets of Charleston, W.Va., to illustrate the effects of poverty," Sept. 21, 1912, amidst the fierce Paint Creek-Cabin Creek 1912-13 coal miners' strike in that state. Jones had organized a "Children's Crusade" nine years earlier in 1903, marching from Philadelphia, Pa. to President Theodore Roosevelt's home in New York demanding child labor laws.

During the Paint Creek strike, Jones spoke and organized through a shooting war between United Mine Workers members and the private army of the mine owners. Martial law in the area was declared and rescinded twice before Jones was arrested on February 13, 1913, brought before a military court. Accused to conspiring to commit murder among other charges, she refused to recognize the legitimacy of her court martial. She was sentenced to twenty years in the state penitentiary. During house arrest at Mrs. Carney's Boarding House, she acquired a dangerous case of pneumonia. After 85 days of confinement, her release coincided with Indiana Senator John Worth Kern initiating a Senate investigation into the conditions in the local coal mines. Mary Lee Settle paints an accurate and compelling portrait of Jones at this time in her novel The Scapegoat (1978).

A few months later Jones was in Colorado, helping to organize the coal miners there. Once again she was arrested, served some time in prison and was escorted from the state in the months leading up to the Ludlow Massacre.

This trial of an 83-year-old labor agitator who had become known as "the Miners' Angel" caused such tumult that the United States Senate investigated labor conditions in the coalfields of West Virginia. Historians of labor relations consider the trial a major event in the movement, from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century, to protect laborers against low wages, long hours, and dangerous working conditions.

Photo: Mother Jones (Wikipedia)

Today in Labor History: "The Jungle" published

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 13:29:00 +0000

Upton Sinclair, a poor young socialist determined to do his part to make a better world, wrote his incredible book titled "The Jungle" in the tarpaper shack in Princeton that was his home. Page after page in the book is filled with the nauseating details of how the meatpacking industry was preparing America's food.

When the book came out Sept. 20, 1906 it became an instant best seller.

The nation was shocked as it learned about the conditions in the Chicago stockyards.

Sinclair told how dead rats were shoveled into sausage-grinding machines; how bribed inspectors on the payroll of the companies looked the other way when diseased cows were slaughtered for beef, and how filth and guts were swept off the floor and packaged as potted ham.

Within months a gagging, but aroused population demanded sweeping reforms in the meat industry.

President Theodore Roosevelt, who became physically ill after reading an advance copy, demanded that Congress establish the Food and Drug Administration and , for the first time, set up federal inspection standards for meat.

At the age of 28 Sinclair was viewed as the man who took on a mighty industry and won.

Sinclair spent months in the Chicago stockyars, mingling with the immigrant workers he described as "wage slaves."

Over their kitchen tables in their tenement apartments he heard them tell about the backbreaking, mind-numbing work they did for totally inadequate wages. He said he worked on The Jungle for three months, "pouring into the pages all the pain" he had experienced.

Since the book's publication federal regulation of the food industry has been considered part and parcel of the things that are good about America. Not until the tea bagger Republicans of today came on the scene has that ever been challenged.

Union official scores Republican ad featuring fake coal miner

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 11:44:00 +0000

A regional vice president of the United Mine Workers of America has condemned a new Republican TV ad airing in coal country because it features a coal executive masquerading as a miner.

In the ad, Heath Lovell, the vice president of River View Coal in Kentucky, accuses incumbent Democratic congressional representatives and President Obama of trying to destroy the coal industry. Lovell is wearing a t-shirt, bib overalls and a coal miner's helmet with no mention made of his position as a coal company executive.

"I've never seen anything so appalling and deceitful from the coal industry and from the Republican campaign," said Steve Earle, a regional vice president of the UMWA in Kentucky. "You have a pencil pusher acting like a coal miner."

The Romney campaign is running the ad also in the Western part of Virginia, which like much of Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio, is part of "coal country." Romney is behind in the polls in Virginia and Ohio with conventional wisdom being that he must win one, if not both of those states in order to get on a path to victory in the Electoral College.

In the ad running in Kentucky, Lovell talks about the decline of coal trains in the Congressional District represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler. Lovell, who has endorsed Chandler's Republican opponent Andy Barr, says Chandler, President Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency "are destroying us.. They are putting the coal industry out of business, and it's just devastating."

Lovell has officially contributed $2,500 to Romney's campaign.

The UMWA is supporting the Democrat, Chandler, because of his efforts to promote safety in the mines. "If the UMWA did not think Ben Chandler was pro-coal, then we wouldn't have endorsed his campaign," said Earle, adding, "Andy Barr is so out of touch with Central Kentucky that he had to bring in an outsider who is a coal company executive and Republican donor to masquerade as a blue collar worker from Estill County."

Many in the region, including the union that represents coal miners, have expressed concern over the effect of EPA regulations on the industry but they do not consider those regulations or job safety regulations designed to protect miners as the main cause of the coal industry's problems.

They understand that exploitation of cheaper than ever natural gas by the nation's utility giants is much more to blame than EPA regulations. Natural gas was supplanting coal as America's source of electricity all through the years of the Bush presidency. What has occurred during the Obama years, they understand, is only a continuation of an established trend.

Striking warehouse workers take over Chicago Walmart

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 16:02:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Some 50 striking workers at a Walmart warehouse in Elwood, Ill. left their picket line this morning, traveled to a newly opened Walmart Express here, marched through the front doors and took over the store for half an hour.

Stunned - but obviously pleased - store workers and supportive customers cheered as the warehouse workers entered the store and marched down the aisles chanting, "One , two, three, four, we're the ones who supply your store - five, six, seven, eight, we're the ones who move your freight."

The workers had walked off the job in Elwood on Sept. 15 to protest wage theft and retaliation against complaining workers by the contractors Walmart uses to run its warehouse.

The walkout followed by two days the filing of a lawsuit by workers against Walmart contractor Roadlink Workforce Solutions for wage theft. It was the sixth such lawsuit filed against a Walmart contractor at the Elwood warehouse.

Since the filing, Phil Bailey, one of the workers listed as a plaintiff, has been fired.

Robert Hines, a warehouse worker and member of Warehouse Workers for Justice, who is helping to organize the protests at Elwood and who participated in the takeover of the Walmart Express here, said Bailey was fired for no reasons other than having "asked about when he would be paid overtime he was owed and for participating in a picket line Saturday."

Leah Fried, a UE organizer working on the strike, said that Warehouse Workers for Justice was going into court in Chicago today to amend the lawsuit filed by the workers last week to reflect what she called "an outrageous act of retaliation against a man who did nothing but stand up for his rights."

It was clear today that the warehouse workers occupying the Monroe St. Walmart had the support of workers at the store, even though the non-unionized employees were afraid to vocalize that support. "I feel so good about this," a cashier whispered, "because they treat us with no respect here. They embarrassed me in front of all the front end associates yesterday because I was a penny short at the end of my shift."

Most of the customers smiled as the occupiers filed into the store and began their chants with some customers joining in. One customer on a checkout line even started her own chant: "Hey, hey, ho, ho, poverty wages have got to go!" - which was quickly taken up by the strikers.

Hines described the tough conditions faced by Elwood warehouse workers. "They treat you really bad," he said, and they don't care if you need a water break when its 100 degrees in there, or that you are choking and coughing from all the dust and chemical residue all over the place.

"When you are really in need of money, they don't care about sending you home after two hours and when they need help, they don't think twice about forcing you to work in all that heat and all those bad conditions for as much as 16 hours straight and then if you dare to speak up you get fired."

The Elwood workers have been engaging in a variety of tactics since their protests began. In addition to picketing, filing lawsuits, and now taking over a store, they have mounted a public petition campaign and are asking people to support that effort.

On Sept. 17, the workers left their picket line and descended on Walmart's regional offices in Rosemont, Ill., where they delivered tens of thousands of signatures in support of the workers.

The actions here in Illinois follow actions in California where on Sept. 12 Walmart warehouse workers walked off the job.

In California, contractors at Walmart warehouses were fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for violations of workers' rights and a federal judge issued several orders and injunctions in favor of the workers, including an injunction to stop the mass firing of workers who had filed the lawsuit.

Photo: Courtesy Warehouse Workers for Justice.

Out of dusty desert and shadows, LA Walmart warehouse workers march (video)

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 11:55:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - Walmart warehouse workers arrived at City Hall here Sept. 18, after a 50-mile march from Riverside, Calif. Though they were tired and some had blistered feet, their hearts were filled with the love and support they had encountered along the way. (Story continues after video.)

The marchers' struggle began a year ago, with their attempts to get management to fix equipment, provide fans to combat the heat that sometimes got as high as 120 degrees, provide clean drinking water and a decent wage. When they got no response, they took their struggle to Sacramento, and to the streets.

The workers were joined by many organizations including the United Farm Workers, Good Jobs LA, Our Walmart, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, the Bus Riders Union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, UNITE HERE, the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance and the Service Employees International Union.

Also in support were elected officials including Rep. Judy Chu, D-Monterey Park, and Ed Reyes, president pro tem of the Los Angeles City Council.

Marty Morgenstern, secretary of California's Labor and Workforce Development Agency, told the marchers Governor Brown would be signing Assembly Bill 1855 into law in the afternoon. The measure, introduced by Democratic Assemblywomen Norma Torres and Bonnie Lowenthal, guarantees that when an entity such as Walmart contracts with a company to staff a warehouse, the contract includes enough money to pay a fair and legal wage to all its workers.

Walmart warehouse workers from Elwood, Ill. also went on strike this week, protesting unsafe working conditions. The Illinois workers occupied a downtown Walmart store today, chanting to cheering store employees and customers: "4-5-6-8, we're the ones who move your freight."

Photo: (peoplesworld.org video)