People Before Profit blog

Avondale shipyard workers hold save jobs rally

Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:42:00 +0000

When Katrina tore through the Gulf Coast region five years ago many of the workers at the Avondale shipyard near New Orleans stayed behind when the area was evacuated. They risked life and limb to protect the Navy ships being built there and to protect the profits of Northrup Grumman, the company that runs the shipyard.

Grumman is showing its gratitude, starting Oct. 4, by beginning to lay off the workers and shut down the yard.

Hundreds of union members and community leaders, fresh from battling the effects of the BP oil spill this summer, turned out to support the workers in Avomndale last Friday, to cheer the Navy's decision to keep the ship[yard in operation until 2014, and to demand a long-term solution that would prevent any layoffs.

Even though the Navy's decision means the shipyard will be cooking with business, Northrup Grumman remains committed to laying off the first round of workers on Oct. 4 and to an eventual shut-down of the yard. The company claims it is getting out of the shipbuilding business altogether.

AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt-Baker travelled from the federation's headquarters in Washington DC to be with the workers at the yard. "It's time to throw the heat on Northrup Grumman," she declared. "They turned the heat up on you, and decided they would throw workers and the whole community into the fire.'"

Hundreds at the rally wore t-shirts and carried placards emblazoned with the message, "Save Our Shipyard."

The yard currently provides jobs for 5,000 Gulf-area residents.

One of the workers whose last day on the job will be this Friday discussed his plight on WVUE TV, a local station. "The Navy announcement was really good news," said Bruce Lightell, a member of Boilermakers Local 1816, "but still people like myself are getting laid off. And my wife works here. She's getting laid off too. So it's a double whammy for us and for some families."

The campaign to save the shipyard is one of the most successful efforts the Gulf Coast labor movement has made to reach out and gain support from a variety of community organizations.

It was only last month that the AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department, along with 10 of its affiliated unions and the federation itself, started a public campaign to build support for keeping the ship yard open.

Religious leaders, local business leaders and team members of the New Orleans Saints, the current Super Bowl champions, all joined in the effort.

With the funds raised by the big coalition they were able to put up bill boards all over New Orleans.

Ron Ault, president of the Metal Trades Department, says that the longterm solution the unions are fighting for will involve finding a buyer for the shipyard and working to rebuild the industry. "We are continuing our campaign to save our shipyards," said Ault, "because the Navuy's announcement didn't fix the underlying problems facing the industry. The industry will remain on death row until we can secure a permanent solution - with a multitude of fixes - to restore U.S. shiopbuilding to its rightful place in U.S. heavy manufacturing."

Trumka, panel debate working-class anger and elections

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 12:09:00 +0000

NEW YORK-"There is a class war going on in this country," AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka said during a September 24 panel discussion at the Cooper Union, "and my class is losing. We've got to turn that around."

The panel brought together Trumka, N.Y. Times columnist Bob Herbert, Working America executive director Karen Nussbaum as well as journalist and professor Eric Alterman, all to discuss the question, "Which Way for the Working Class?"

In one form or another, each of the panelists spent their time discussing ways to bring to life the old labor movement adage, "Organize, organize, organize," with the current dire economic conditions as a backdrop.

Herbert referred to his recent trip to suburban Connecticut, during which he visited a food pantry. While there he encountered dozens of people, he said, who, until economic calamity struck them, "thought they were solidly rooted in the middle class."

Trumka was clear on labor's plans for November. "What working people face in this election is a pretty sharp decision about whether we we're going to go forward and try to build an economy that really is different and works for everyone," he said, "or whether we're going to go back to the days of a few years ago, where the rich are doing extremely well, where we're going to get rid of every regulation, where Wall Street runs wild and has control of the agenda."

Trumka said that the his federation was promoting "worker-to-worker" contact, and argued that real, in-person conversations with peers would do more than anything else to bring someone out to vote against the Republicans. The AFL-CIO is planning to contact each of its more than 11 million members an unprecedented 25 times each between now and Election Day.

According to Nussbaum, Working America, an arm of the AFLiCIO that organizes working people not already in unions, has already contacted more than 1 million people since 2009, averaging about 25,000 to 30,000 contacts weekly.

"These people," she said, "are non-partisan and non-ideological." She went on to say that the vast majority of people with whom she and other WA organizers come into contact are simply worried about paying their children's tuition, jobs and other economic issues.

"The right," she said, "has constructed a storyline: if we just get back to the Constitution, if we just get government out of the way" things would improve. The right has also given people enemies, in the form of immigrants, unions, Obama and others on whom to pin blame for the economic woes.

According to Trumka, the country can go one of two ways: towards finding real solutions to the crisis, or to the right and the Tea Party, in which a "tipping point" towards violence would likely be reached. Herbert added that most of the people in the Tea Party movement had legitimate grievances, but were being steered by, as Trumka described it, a leadership that is beholden to corporate interests.

Nussbaum noted that, even though many of the people with whom her organization visited "had Glenn Beck playing through the window," two-thirds ended up joining Working America, a group demonized by Fox News.

Herbert said that he had changed his opinions on organizing recently. Previously he thought it necessary to "organize at the top," that is, to push leaders to enact progressive reforms. Now, he said, he believes it necessary to organize "from the bottom," to create space for friendly leaders and to push less friendly officials to act in workers' interests.

According to Trumka, the mood is getting more favorable in the country, noting that the finance reform law was the first bill to ever get better for working people after it entered the Senate.

During a discussion on strengthening the labor movement, Alterman argued that the terrain is much rougher for organizing now. "The Times has a business section, but no labor section," he said, noting that virtually no one has a labor reporter anymore. He called for the labor movement to have its own newspaper and to begin organizing "labor intellectuals" to re-populate academia with professors who are friendly to, and argue for, the needs of working people.

Despite differing shades of opinion as to how, everyone on stage agreed that more organization was necessary, that the Republicans have to be defeated and that the labor movement has to become stronger and more vocal.

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, who moderated the discussion, summed this sentiment up, saying that for too long the wrong questions were being asked, where the nation's leaders have been discussing "jobs versus deficit reduction, though really, the only question to be answered is how to create more jobs.

When asked about Working America, and whether it was as useful as traditional trade unions, Nussbaum replied that though the form is variable, "workers' power is the point."

Photo: Dan Margolis

Meet Eliseo Medina, SEIU's first Latino sec.-treas.

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:15:00 +0000

As part of Hispanic Heritage Month the People's World interviewed Eliseo Medina, widely known as a highly successful organizer and immigrant rights advocate who was recently elected as the first Latino international secretary-treasurer with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Prior to his new post, Medina served as SEIU's first Mexican American executive vice-president, elected in 1996, representing the union's 2.2 million members.

Medina will remain secretary-treasurer at least until 2012, filling out the term of Ann Burger, who recently announced her retirement. Medina will serve under SEIU's new president Mary Kay Henry who succeeded Andy Stern, also recently retired.

Born in Zacatecas, Medina followed his parents - who emigrated legally from Mexico under the Bracero program - to the fields of California's San Joaquin Valley. As a 19-year-old grape-picker, Medina participated in the landmark 1965 United Farm Worker's strike in Delano, Calif. working alongside activist Cesar Chavez.

In 1986 Medina joined SEIU where he helped revive a local union in San Diego - building its membership from 1,700 to over 10,000 in five years. He was a key strategist in the Los Angeles strike led by SEIU Local 1877's building service workers, who in April 2000 won the largest wage increase in the 15-year history of SEIU's Justice for Janitors campaign. Medina also helped more than 100,000 home care workers in California advocate for the best quality care for the people they serve to remain independent in their homes by securing funding to improve their quality of life.

Medina is also known for leading efforts to unite the unions of Change to Win federation and AFL-CIO around a comprehensive framework for immigration reform.

Today Medina is leading SEIU and the labor movement in three key areas: the fight to organize more workers, the fight for jobs and the fight for comprehensive immigration reform.

During a phone interview with this author Medina said he feels extremely honored and humbled that his colleagues have chosen him for his new post.

"I take this position very seriously and I plan to continue advocating on behalf of working people," he said.

Medina notes everyday Latinos are playing a greater role in the labor movement and continue to be in the forefront of that reflection.

"Workers want to have their voices heard - to know what they do matters and that they're respected for the work they do everyday," added Medina.

"Things are bad today for working people," he said. "There are more millionaires now than ever and fewer people are part of the middle class. The majority of Americans are living below the poverty line while we are living in the age of maximizing profits at any cost."

Medina warns, "We are slowly becoming a service sector economy and we can't survive as a country like that. Workers know they are being screwed and we need to provide a movement to come together. We need to fight for good jobs and not sit by and let everyone look out for themselves. We need to ensure that we utilize this country's resources."

It's not right that the banks and major corporations continue to make a killing while squeezing the pockets of working people, said Medina.

A broader coalition is required because the labor movement cannot do it alone, says Medina.

"We need to partner up with other unions, community, religious and civil rights groups as well as women's rights organizations and environmentalists that share a vision for a better society," he said.

Medina notes many of these groups are coming together to address an array of issues especially jobs on Oct. 2nd, where tens of thousands are expected to march and rally at the nations Capitol.

"We are coming together as ‘One Nation' to address all of these questions," said Medina.

Medina is convinced that President Obama believes in what he says. "After all he was elected as president not king." But the president's agenda has to deal with Republicans in Congress including major corporations and Wall Street, all of which are a formidable force, says Medina. "After 2008 we should have kept on marching for change and we didn't," he notes. "Obama needs somebody to fight with him. We don't have immigration reform or the DREAM Act and people are still losing their homes. If we don't get involved things are only going to get worse."

Said Medina, "Change in this country happens at the ballot box and we need to be an organizer constituency and we cannot let the conservative sector divide us."

The Nov. 2nd elections are just part of the fight, added Medina.

"Sooner or later we're going to win and change is going to happen even after the elections," he said. "Because I believe every generation has to fight for its freedom."

Photo: SEIU

Town hall meet pledges to back BevMo! workers

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 14:52:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. - What would you do if you woke up one morning to learn the full-time job you had counted on for years, to support your family and provide health care was morphing into a part-time job with no benefits?

That was the question facing workers at alcoholic beverage superstore BevMo! over the summer, as the store announced it was cutting all full-time non-management workers to part-time, and would end health coverage early in 2011. At the same time, the company has also hired a number of new part-time workers.

The response of workers at BevMo! stores in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, across the bay from San Francisco, has been to "Stand Up, Fight Back!" and organize.

At a town hall meeting Sept. 23 with union and community members and elected officials, workers shared their stories and spoke of the next steps to win back their fulltime jobs, health coverage and pensions, win a modest $1/hour raise and gain recognition for the union they are organizing with help from United Food and Commercial Workers Local 5 and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Catherine Cordero, at BevMo! more than eight years, described the shock she felt when she learned the cutbacks she first experienced in February would be permanent, wiping out any chance to refinance her mortgage. "When they started making the cuts it became hard for me to pay my mortgage," she said. Now the home is in foreclosure and she has had to file for bankruptcy. But, she declared, "I'm still fighting for my home."

Ten-year employee Mario Munoz said BevMo!'s cutbacks and California's budget crisis have dealt his family a sharp blow. "My daughter is just starting college, and because of the state cuts, her financial aid is still pending," he told the crowd. "So I have been trying to find ways to do creative financing to make up for the loss of hours. I work just as hard now as I did when I was hired, and I find it very difficult emotionally and physically," he added. "It's been a very hard time."

The workers also told how BevMo! has held mandatory meetings with workers, trying to justify their actions and giving a negative view of unions, leaving their fellow employees "madder than ever." Customers who know of the situation are often supportive, they said.

By the end of the evening a plan was emerging to support the workers in the next stages of their struggle. Audience members suggested ways to spread the word more widely, urged city council resolutions and called for sending community delegations to meet with management. The possibility of a boycott was raised, if other measures fail. A support committee was started and a resolution was passed calling for restoring all lost work hours and benefits, and convening a meeting with BevMo! CEO Alan Johnson.

"Hearing your stories about your lives and what you are struggling to do inspires me and everyone here," Josie Camacho, acting head of the Alameda Labor Council, told the group. "On behalf of the Council, we will stand with you until you get your union!"

The gathering was held in a hall at Port of Oakland headquarters. In the same building is the Oakland BevMo! store. Port Commissioner Victor Uno told the gathering, "Something is terribly wrong when a port tenant treats its workers this way."

Elected officials and local candidates, including Oakland City Councilmember Jean Quan, Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington and state Assemblyman Sandre Swanson - who chairs the Assembly's Labor and Employment Committee - pledged their support and emphasized the importance of living wage requirements especially when businesses operate on government-owned land.

BevMo! workers and their supporters rallied and presented management with their demands at rallies in Oakland and San Francisco last month. http://www.peoplesworld.org/fun-work-experience-turns-to-nightmare-at-liquor-superstore/

BevMo! which operates over 100 superstores, mostly in California, was acquired in 2007 by the private equity firm TowerBrook Capital Partners, and has expanded rapidly since then. The company says its 2009 sales topped $500 million.

More information is available at www.bevmodobetter.com.

Photo: Marilyn Bechtel

Injustice to one is injustice to all: UAW backs restaurant workers

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 10:02:00 +0000

DEARBORN, Mich. - Cooler weather is coming but the heat is growing on Dearborn's Andiamo restaurant.

For the past 10 months, the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Michigan (ROC-Michigan) and the Andiamo workers it represents, have picketed the restaurant weekly.

Now they have the full backing of the United Auto Workers which last Thursday called for a boycott of the restaurant. "We are asking the public to stay away from Andiamo until they treat their employees fairly," said Rory Gamble, director of UAW Region IA. "We believe anyone that patronizes this restaurant is indirectly contributing to the mistreatment and injustice of the workers."

Gamble made his remarks to the media outside the entrance to Andiamo. He, along with Saundra Williams, president of the Metropolitan Detroit AFL-CIO and Pastor John Pitts Jr., president of Interfaith Workers for Justice, had come to the restaurant to express their concerns about how workers were being treated.

The union's call for a boycott follows last month's National Labor Relations Board ruling that found the restaurant had illegally cut the hours of, intimidated, and retaliated against servers and other restaurant workers in an effort to keep them from participating in a lawsuit and protest against workplace violations.

The lawsuit seeks $125,000 in unpaid wages and asks for penalties for racial, nationality and gender discrimination. The theft of workers' wages was carried out through minimum wage violations, unpaid overtime, forcing workers to work "off the clock," and improper wage deductions.

Asked why labor unions are supporting the non-union Andiamo workers, Gamble said, "As you have heard many times, an injustice to one is an injustice to all. Wherever there is injustice we need to unite and stand together and make sure that workers in this state and country are treated fairly. To us that's the American way. That's part of the American dream and the American promise."

Williams recalled the treatment of an Andiamo worker, a mother with young children, who was fired for her support of ROC. While protests forced the restaurant to bring her back, it was with a shortened workweek which did not allow her to support her family.

"We want them to be fairly treated," Williams said of the workers. "We are going to make sure when people work overtime, they are paid the overtime pay they are supposed to have."

Like Williams, Pastor Pitts has been on the picket lines for almost a year. "We have prayed, we have marched in the snow and rain, we have picketed," he said. "We are not going away until these workers receive the justice that they deserve."

"We went in today and we were given the blanket promise they [the management] would speak to us," Pitts said. "At this point no one has come out. It is our prayer and our desire that they don't lie down and sleep comfortably tonight until they address these issues."

But no representatives from the restaurant management appeared.

ROC Michigan coordinator Minsu Longiaru said, "It means so much to have UAW support. The UAW made a very strong statement today that they are a union that organizes and fights for justice for all workers. As restaurant workers at ROC-Michigan, we are very grateful to have the backing of the union and for calling a boycott of the restaurant."

Photo: Metro Detroit AFL-CIO's Saundra Williams, Pastor John Pitts and UAW's Rory Gamble lead the delegation to Anidamo restaurant, Sept. 16 in Dearborn, Mich. (PW/John Rummel)

Rehire all laid-off teachers, rally demands

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:20:00 +0000

CHICAGO - "I'm carrying my purse, because they are trying to steal from us. I'm not wearing my earrings because we are in a fight!" declared new Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis. The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) administration "wants our jobs. They want our students," she charged. "Our students and communities are not for sale!"

Lewis was addressing several hundred teachers, students, parents and community allies at a Sept. 21 rally here, demanding the CPS rehire all 1,322 laid off tenured teachers after receiving $106 million in federal aid. The money was part of $26 billion passed by Congress to help states and municipalities prevent layoffs of teachers, firefighters, police and other public workers.

To date only 167 tenured teachers have been rehired. Meanwhile CPS has hired new non-tenured teachers at lower pay.

The Chicago Teachers Union has sued the city schools administration, charging the tenured teachers were illegally fired. The union still isn't sure exactly how many teachers have been rehired, since CPS refuses to tell them. So the CTU conducted a survey of its union stewards and found:

• 52 percent of all schools represented in the survey saw at least one tenured educator laid off. Schools losing a tenured teacher lost about three of them, on average;
• 60 percent of schools saw at least one non-tenured teacher laid off, with the number of probationary teacher layoffs at these schools coming in at three, on average;
• 70 percent of schools represented in the survey had at least one class that was over the class size limit, which CTU says is 28 for pre-K to grade 5; 31 for grades 6-12 "generally"; 28 for high school core classes; and 25 for remedial;
• 50 percent of schools saw support staff layoffs;
• 44 percent of schools saw cuts to student programs like sports, technology, and after-school opportunities, while 39 percent of schools saw student programs eliminated entirely;
• 33 percent of union delegates surveyed report that their schools have at least one placeholder teacher or substitute in classrooms.
The CTU is part of a growing chorus of voices demanding the city return over $700 million in surplus Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds that have been removed from education. TIF funds are monies accrued from property taxes that are diverted from education, the Forest Preserve and other public services into a mayoral "slush fund" used for economic development projects. The money often subsidizes large corporations and Mayor Richard M. Daley's cronies.

"There have been a lot of budget cuts, some teachers have been fired," said Anthony Hassan, who attended the rally with a boisterous group of his fellow students from Social Justice High School. "We haven't even gotten our lockers yet. A lot of classes are overflowing with kids and there aren't enough desks.

Yvonne Cardenas, a sophomore at Social Justice High School, said she was at the rally to fight to get teachers back. "It's really mean the teachers aren't with us and we have 35 students in a class. One teacher can't handle every student."

"I'm here fighting for the children," said Doris Powell, a staff development trainer for 25 schools. "I have a classroom of 36 students and we can not cheat these children out of an education."

"What is happening in our society is not separated from what is happening in our schools," said Jesse Sharkey, CTU Vice President. "The economic recession that has created layoffs, evicted millions and slashed social services is not going to stop at the schoolhouse gate."

Sharkey said while the captains of industry and Wall Street were doing well, teachers and students were being asked to make sacrifices, schools were closed, programs people depend on were cut. Giving in to the "slide to the bottom" will not stop the erosion of living standards and keep schools open, he said.

"We're going to stand up to that and we won't see a wedge driven between us and the communities," said Sharkey.

Photo: PW/John Bachtell

Outside the box: workers’ centers give labor a boost

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 12:21:00 +0000

NEW YORK - Workers' centers, or non-traditional unions, have scored significant victories here lately.

The Domestic Workers Union was able redress a historic grievance by helping push through a law ensuring that domestic workers - nannies, housecleaners, maids, butlers - were afforded all the rights that most other workers won in 1935 with the passage of the National Labor Relations Act.

The Taxi Workers Alliance was able to get the state Legislature to pass a bill that would impose strong penalties on anyone who assaults a cab driver. That would put the taxi workers the alliance represents on a par with Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers, who already enjoy such protection. Unfortunatley, though the bill was passed nearly unanimously, Gov. David Paterson, citing a technicality, vetoed it.

These and other developments led Crain's New York to note last month that workers' centers are an important new development in the labor movement, both here and nationally.

Domestic Workers United Executive Director Priscilla Gonzalez told the People's World, "The labor movement is looking to the workers' centers because these workers are thousands and thousands and thousands in their organizing." She added that there are well over 200,000 domestic workers in the New York City area alone.

Workers centers fill a need where traditional unions have not yet been able to gain a foothold, and they are, many say, important to the future of the labor movement overall.

According to Janice Fine, writing on the AFL-CIO website, workers' centers provide "ways to offer meaningful membership in the labor movement to low-wage workers whose employers are not traditional union targets."

Partnerships between traditional organized labor and the workers' centers have become common. The Taxi Workers Alliance, for example, has been welcomed as a member of the New York City Central Labor Council. These formal alliances often turn practical, says Gonzalez.

"The doormen [represented by SEIU Local 32BJ] are the gatekeepers to the Park Avenue buildings where our members work, so they know where the good employers are and the bad employers," she said.

When domestic workers first began to organize the fight for full rights, 32BJ workers helped the Domestic Workers Union reach out to domestic workers. "We gave them our outreach cards and they distributed them to the domestic workers in our buildings," Gonzalez said.

Those organized by the workers' centers are generally in situations that make organizing particularly difficult: they are generally the worst off with the least job security, often working as "private contractors." This workforce is overwhelmingly immigrant, people of color and women.

The demographics mean that a special kind of organizing is required. The approach is "holistic" in many of these centers, including everything from fighting for better working conditions to addressing workers' immediate survival needs, such as provision of childcare and health services, and also raising wider public policy issues.

"The workers that we organize have existed at the intersection of several different crises, rooted in globalization, racism, sexism and neoliberal economic policies," said Gonzalez.

Given the international nature of this workforce, she said, "We've built these models of organizing taking from the history of resistance in the United States, but also histories of resistance from the global South, from different liberation struggles, and have applied those lessons learned to the kind organizing that we're doing here in the U.S."

Changing conditions have brought together former opponents. Laborers Union Local 10 used to consider day laborers adversaries with whom it was necessary to compete for jobs. However, in recent years, the local has started to actually help these workers in their organizing efforts.

Some have suggested that the new organizing methods employed by the workers' centers will help reenergize and rebuild the labor movement. The AFL-CIO agrees. In 2006 it set up a standard procedure for local workers' centers to officially affiliate with state federations and local labor councils. Alliances are being built at the national level as well, most notably the recent team-up between the AFL-CIO and the National Day Laborers Organizing Network.

Gonzalez is looking forward to further cooperation with the traditional labor movement and "working with each other as well as with the established labor movement, to bring the labor laws of this country into the 21st century to address the realities of today's workers."

Photo: A workers' health fair organized by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. http://www.nytwa.org/press/photos

With disco, jazz, country beat, letter carriers rally to save Saturday delivery

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 12:29:00 +0000

HARTFORD, Conn. - Connecticut's Branch 86 letter carriers were represented at the 67th Biennial Convention of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) in Anaheim, Calif., for one of the most important conventions I have ever attended.

It was great to be in a room with 8,000 fellow letter carriers and to be able to speak to like-minded people, as though you had known them for years. At the top of the agenda was our campaign "5 Days is the Wrong Way - Save Saturday Delivery."

The convention opened each weekday morning with a union band playing a different kind of regional music, including country, disco, jazz, and down home blues. Each morning the session convened with an invocation, by a rabbi, priest, or pastor, and a different stirring vocal (a cappella) rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner."

As the week progressed, many elected officials and union leaders addressed the convention. William Burris, American Postal Workers Union (APWU) president, spoke with an intimacy that could only be shared by two union crafts that must tame the same dragon. Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, kept the carriers riveted with his speaking style that oscillated between a Sunday sermon and the incitement to strong action.

All speakers pledged full support to the two postal worker unions, NALC and APWU, in our quest to defeat the efforts of the U.S. Postal Service to cut mail delivery to a five-day workweek.

The early evenings, and mornings were filled with training sessions dealing with all levels of advocacy. Evenings were for fun. We ate dinner together some nights, and met various delegates from east and west, from the Virgin Islands to Guam.

Friday the convention agenda was light. The timing was perfect. The AFL-CIO had planned a jobs rally on the south lawn of Los Angeles City Hall. NALC delegates wasted no time boarding buses to downtown Los Angeles. It was a beautiful day for a little civil disobedience, and the influx of thousands of letter carriers caused the already well-attended rally to swell to three times its original size.

Along with the Teamsters were the American Federation of Teachers, Unite Here, SEIU, United Auto Workers, and many others. Fred Rolando, president of NALC, spoke about our struggle. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, pledged to help defeat the USPS and its union-breaking scheme to reduce mail delivery to five days.

The convention and rally kicked off a national campaign to save Saturday mail delivery. The Letter Carriers union is appealing to its members, their family and friends, and members of the public to make their opinions known.

"Write a letter based on your own experiences, about the importance of Saturday delivery to you, and send it to the Postal Regulatory Commission Office of Public Affairs & Government Relations at 901 New York Avenue, N.W., Suite 200, Washington, D.C. 20268-0001," urges the NALC.

Photo: National Association of Letter Carriers

Filipino American labor marks 45th anniversary of grape strike

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 10:08:00 +0000

This September marks the 45th anniversary of the Delano, Calif., grape strike that brought together Filipino American agricultural workers and Mexican American farm workers to form what became the United Farm Workers of America (UFW).

The strike began on Sept. 8, 1965, when over 1,500 farm workers with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, mostly Filipino, in Delano, Calif., walked off the farms of area tablen grape growers demanding wages equal to the federal minimum wage.

Philip Vera Cruz, Larry Itliong, Benjamin Gines and Pete Velasco led the striking workers.
One week after the strike began, on Sept. 16, Mexican Independence Day, the predominantly Mexican American National Farmworkers Association, led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, joined the strike.

In unifying, both groups built a powerful and historic movement for change. The UFW was born in 1966 after both groups merged. The strike quickly spread impacting over 2,000 workers. It lasted more than five years and eventually became a major victory for the UFW, leading to a first contract with area growers. By 1970, the UFW had succeeded in reaching a collective bargaining agreement with the grape growers, affecting over 10,000 farm workers.

Gregory Cendana, interim deputy director with the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) said his parents came to the U.S. as Filipino immigrants. Growing up in a union household Cendana said he's honored and proud to know he stands on the shoulders of some of the hardest working brothers and sisters in the labor movement.

APALA is one of seven AFL-CIO constituency groups and continues to be grounded in the work of our predecessors seeking ways to build stronger community and labor partnerships, said Cendana.

For example the number of Asian American workers is rising 300 percent in the state of Nevada, and overall that increase is significantly growing throughout the rest of the country too, notes Cendana.

Looking back it's important to understand the history of Asian American workers, he said. And Filipino farm workers were extremely critical in helping to create the UFW.

"A goal of mine is to share that piece of history with young people and learn from those past events in order to build a more united labor and people's movement," he said.

"It's important to build power for underrepresented communities," added Cendana.
For Cendana it's especially important to uplift the Asian American voice and engage Asian American youth and students to learn about their history in the U.S. labor movement.

"Today there are a lot of parallels to the struggle of the original Delano grape workers," notes Cendana.

However workers today are in a very different context and 40 years after the Delano strike the political climate has changed, he said.

Nevertheless, Cendana says the Delano grape strike reminds him that "change can happen and it needs to happen with strategic campaigns, coalition building and collective power."

At the end of the day it's important to continue celebrating the history and victory of the Delano grape strike but it's even more important to learn from those successes, said Cendana.

Painters bus tour rallies the vote

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:42:00 +0000

ST. LOUIS - "This is about you. This is about listening to the members that are hurting. This is about putting our people back to work. This is about building momentum for the elections. This is about knocking-and-dragging on November 2nd," James A. Williams, general president of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT), told union members and activists at a rally here outside the IUPAT District Council 2 building on September 18.

The rally was part of a nationwide, month-long "It's About The Jobs" bus tour organized by the Painters Union. The bus tour, which started in Seattle, will make its way to the East Coast and eventually end in Delaware.

According to Williams, a 42-year union member, the unemployment rate among painters and allied tradesmen hovers somewhere between 30 percent and 40 percent.

"We need politicians with the will to listen to what's important: Putting America back to work." Williams told the rally. He added, Robin Carnahan "will be your next U.S. senator."

Many of the union members and activists at the rally had just returned from canvassing for Carnahan, who is campaigning to unseat Republican incumbent Roy Blunt. She spoke with union members earlier in the day in Kansas City, Mo., when the 'It's About The Jobs' bus tour stopped there.

Rep. Russ Carnahan, brother of the Senate candidate, addressed the crowd here. "This election is about our future and what kind of country we are going to have," the pro-labor Democrat said.

"The former administration, the Bush administration, left us with a big pile of shit, and we have to deal with that. We have to clean up the mess. We have to fix all of the problems. But we can't fix all of the problems that they left us with overnight," Rep. Carnahan said.

He added, the Republicans are "offering the same old plan that drove our economy into the ditch."

Referring to his sister's Senate bid, Carnahan continued, "The Senate is messed up. Things languish and die there. And Roy Blunt is part of the problem."

Robin Carnahan and Roy Blunt are currently neck-to-neck in local polls.

However, as the Missouri AFL-CIO begins its Labor 2010 elections mobilization program, local unionists are optimistic that Robin Carnahan will win on November 2.

As part of its elections program, the Missouri AFL-CIO plans on "touching" every union member, retiree, union household and Working America member at least 25 times between now and November 2. There are 430,000 union voters in Missouri, about 25 percent of likely voters.

Tom Angelo, a 26-year member of IUPAT Local 137, said about today's bleak economic situation, "It's never been like this before. People should be working."

Angelo blamed the banking industry. He said, "We have jobs waiting on financing. Contractors can't get financing. I don't get it. Two years ago we bailed out the banks. We saved their lives. And now here we are, and they turn their backs on us."

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay said, "Unions are the backbone of our nation, of our economy."

According to Slay, St. Louis has invested $900 million in local construction jobs because of the Obama administration's economic stimulus package. He added, an additional $300 million was invested by the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust fund, insuring union jobs for union members.

Slay concluded, "Unions are investing in our people, in our families. They are making sure St. Louis stays a union town."

St. Louis Central Labor Council President Bob Soutier summed up the rally when he said, "We have to fight hard every day. We have to work tirelessly. We'll never have as much money, but we have the people. We have to stand-up and get out and fight. Drag someone to the polls with you!"

Photo: With the "It's About The Jobs" bus in the background, IUPAT Executive General Vice President Kenneth Rigmaiden addresses the rally. PW/Tony Pecinovsky

Woodfin workers celebrate victory

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:16:00 +0000

EMERYVILLE, Calif. - Workers at the Woodfin Suites hotel here, and the supporters who stood with them in a years-long fight for justice, are rejoicing this week after the hotel, the workers, the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE) and Unite Here Local 2850 announced an agreement settling the workers' claims and upholding the city's living wage ordinance.

"We are very proud to have fought for living wages and immigrant rights, and we are very happy with this agreement," said Luz, a worker leader. "To all who have supported us during these four years: thank you so much!"

A celebration is planned later this fall.

EBASE spokesperson Brooke Anderson told the World that under the settlement, dozens of workers employed by the Woodfin in 2006 are submitting claim forms to share in a $125,000 fund to compensate for wages the hotel failed to pay under the living wage ordinance. The agreement also ends the years-long boycott and protests by the workers' supporters, and ends legal challenges to the ordinance.

Anderson called the settlement and the end of the lawsuits "a huge and significant victory" that upholds "a groundbreaking, powerful law that has drastically raised wages and decreased workloads for hundreds of housekeepers already" and will benefit thousands of workers in the future.

The workers' struggle started after Emeryville passed Measure C, a city living wage ordinance, in November 2005. The measure also set workload standards for hotel housekeepers and required they be paid time-and-a-half when workloads exceed the limit.

When the largely immigrant workers fought back against the hotel's continued assignment of excessive workloads, the Woodfin harassed and intimidated them, including firing a dozen workers on the pretext of Social Security no-match letters. Workers and their supporters fought back, demanding decent treatment and an end to employers' use of immigration law to deny them the right to uphold labor standards.

In August 2007 the City Council ordered the Woodfin to pay the back wages, and when the hotel refused, the case went to court.

Photo: A 2008 demonstration in front of the Woodfin Suites hotel. PW/Marilyn Bechtel

Labor pulling out the vote in key state

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 12:27:00 +0000

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Union members hit the ground running to get their co-workers out to vote this November in Connecticut, one of 21 battleground states designated by the AFL-CIO. A U.S. Senate seat, three House seats and the governorship hang in the balance. It is estimated that if Connecticut sends back all five Democratic incumbents to the House of Representatives, the Democratic majority will be maintained.

Beleaguered by continued loss of industry and jobs in both the private and public sector, workers are looking for answers on employment and economic security.

In July about 66,000 workers here were in their first six months of unemployment benefits and about 90,000 were receiving extended benefits, which expire on November 30. The outcome of the elections is critical to the wellbeing of these families.

Addressing a group of union activists gathered at the New Haven Labor Council as they set out to knock on the doors of fellow union members, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., assailed Republican right-wing opposition to every pro-worker measure. This is a pivotal election about jobs, jobs, jobs," she said, indicating that with a Republican-controlled Congress, privatization of Social Security and repeal of both health care reform and Wall Street regulation will be on the agenda.

The Labor 2010 volunteers said they turned out because they are tired of the fear and division being promoted by the corporate-funded tea party Republicans. Asked what accomplishment meant the most to them in the last year and a half, their answers came quickly. "Health care. It isn't everything we want, but it is a start and more people will be covered," said one retiree. "Even getting the extensions to unemployment was a struggle" said a laid off union member.

"The stimulus saved jobs of teachers and first responders," said a machinist in the aerospace industry. Despite Republican "no" votes, the stimulus has provided $34 million in training and services to job-seekers in Connecticut including 4,000 summer jobs for youth. At least 7,500 public workers in the state are on the job because of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus funding. In addition thousands of jobs have been created in the private sector from infrastructure and other contracts.

As they knocked on the doors that morning, these workers listened to the frustrations, brought out the victories, and urged a vote for the labor-endorsed candidates.

"Just like in our union contract," explained one health care worker, "we didn't get everything we wanted the first time. But we continued to organize. This election is about continuing to move the country forward."

At another door, a union couple who both work at Yale University said they don't usually vote in mid-term elections. After discussing how important this election is, they both made the commitment to vote.

About 125 union members knocked on doors of union households in each of five Connecticut congressional districts on that Saturday kickoff. Workplace fliers, letters from local union presidents, and worker-to-worker phone calls are also part of the mobilization leading up to November 2.

At one door, a city worker who serves on her negotiating committee asked for extra fliers to bring to her union meeting, stressing the need for more aid to cities and states so workers don't have to get laid off.

Several other workers said they are already talking with their co- workers about the urgency of these elections and will continue to do so.

Every Connecticut union has endorsed Democrat Richard Blumenthal, currently the state's attorney general, for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Chris Dodd. His opponent, Linda McMahon, former CEO of World Wrestling Enterprises, won the Republican primary with tea party support. A multi-billionaire, she is funding her own campaign and flooding the airwaves and mailboxes with daily messages against government spending, claiming the stimulus is responsible for job losses.

Unions are also unanimous in support of former Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy, a Democrat, for governor over Republican Tom Foley who wants to outsource government jobs and undermine public education with a voucher system.

Union members made the difference in defeating Republican incumbents in Connecticut's second, fourth and fifth congressional districts in the 2006 and 2008 elections.

"Union members make up a quarter of the vote on Election Day and they are well educated in the issues. It is through grass roots activism that we will help to keep Connecticut moving forward," said Connecticut AFL-CIO President John Olsen and Secretary-Treasurer Lori Pelletier in a thank you letter to volunteers. "Your participation builds a strong and powerful labor movement."

On October 2, labor walks will be held in solidarity with the One Nation Working Together rally at the National Mall in Washington D.C. A press conference on Friday at the NAACP office highlighted support by labor, civil rights and social justice groups in Connecticut who have chartered buses and a train car to take part in the rally and help mobilize to get out the vote on November 2.

Photo: Union members prepare to go doorknocking at the Labor 2010 kick-off in New Haven, Conn. (PW/Art Perlo)

Jobless jeer GOP Kirk on economy

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 18:38:00 +0000

CHICAGO - "Thirteen hundred teachers have been laid off in Chicago, put on unemployment, their houses and cars being taken and what do we have? Mark Kirk is up there hiding! Come on down Kirk!" yelled John Kugler of the Chicago Teachers Union, as he looked up into the windows of the Republican Party of Illinois.

About 200 unemployed workers, religious and community activists rallied at the state GOP headquarters in the Loop Sept. 15 to protest Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and the Party of No's effort to block unemployment extension and passage of jobs creation legislation.

Kugler reminded everyone on August 10, Kirk, who is the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, promised he would vote for the bill to aid states and cities to prevent layoffs of teachers, police, firefighters and other public workers. The next day, Kirk voted against the bill.

The $26 billion bill which saved 300,000 jobs of teachers and other public workers was passed despite Republican opposition and signed into law by Pres. Obama.

Kirk has also voted 6 times against extension of unemployment benefits, citing the federal deficit as his reason. But how concerned is Kirk really about the deficit, asked Carole Ramsden, a laid off union electrician. She asked where was Kirk's concern when he supported all the budget busting war spending and tax cuts to the wealthy during the Bush presidency.

Ramsden also blasted other Republican and tea partiers like New York governor candidate Carl Paladino who said the solution to unemployment is to put the poor in prison and teach them to wash up.

"The amount of contempt they show for us makes me want to scream!" said Ramsden.

Ramsden said there is no prospect of the construction industry picking up until 2013. She urged passage of the Local Jobs for America Act, but said the best solution was a massive WPA style public works program to put the country back to work.

Lorraine Mora-Chavez is a laid off research associate from DePaul University and an activist in the Jobs with Justice Chicago Unemployed Workers Council. Mora-Chavez read a letter the council received from a worker who has unemployed for two years.

"Next week, the letter read, I will be running out of 99 weeks of benefits. I have no idea what I will do after that. My savings are gone and I don't think I'll be able to pay rent next month. God help me!"

Mora-Chavez said a further extension past 99 weeks was desperately needed for the approximately 90,000 unemployed who are now exhausting their benefits on a weekly basis.

Among the programs that have created jobs is the "Put Illinois to Work Program," which is funded by the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Rev. Michael Stinson, pastor of the General Assembly Church of the First Born, told the crowd the program is highly successful and was a basic stimulus for thousands of families. But it's scheduled to expire on Sept. 30. Several dozen workers from the program were in attendance.

"We need a federal jobs program. But the choice Mark Kirk has made has caused crises for working families. Kirk and the Illinois Republican Party - we're not going to allow you to stand in the way," declared Stinson. "We are not going to stay quiet. We are going to wake up the powers that be to the emergency that's in middle America."

Many of those present were planning to board busses to Washington DC for the giant rally for jobs on Oct. 2. Included among them was Janet Edburg, a union steward who has been laid off from her factory job for two years. She came with a contingent from the Bridgeport Unemployed Action Center.

When asked if going to DC would make a difference, she responded, "Just think about what it won't accomplish if we don't go. We have to try our best."

Photo: Pastor Michael Stinson with microphone and John Kugler, left, of the Chicago Teachers Union lead a rally at Illinois Republican Party headquarters Sept. 15. (John Bachtell/PW)

Facebook page rejects automation

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 14:21:00 +0000

This week a group of Facebook users called for a "Robot Boycott" concerning the rise of automation in the face of the recent crisis of employment. The page calls to "return jobs -- such as cashiers -- back to human beings where they belong!"

With unemployment hovering around 10%, and the rates for youth unemployment hovering around 50%, the idea that corporations would eliminate jobs is appalling.

Jobs such as cashier positions are usually what young people use as stepping stones into the working world, and without these jobs readily available it's making it very hard for young workers to attain any kind of experience needed to rise to more elevated positions.

This plague of automation is not limited to cashier positions either. Anyone who rides some form of public transit knows that ticket booths are disappearing and being replaced with automatic ticket vendors.

Even more frightening is the possibility of these machines replacing more skilled workers. Prototypes for robot nurses, robot receptionists and robot teachers already exist and have been tested in Japan.

While they claim that the aim of these machines is not to do away with teachers and nurses but instead to provide an alternative, the end result should be obvious to anyone.

Automation not only takes jobs away from workers but it also places a heavier burden on the workers that remain. Whereas a cashier before may have operated one register now one cashier can be responsible for half a dozen or more. The workers are responsible for refilling receipt tape, making cash drops when the robots are too full and other general maintenance tasks. Stores that have six robot cashiers are eliminating six jobs a shift and considering that workers are also being asked to work later and later those six registers can eliminate 16-20 workers.

It also places a new burden on consumers who are expected to fill the labor gap by swiping and bagging their own purchases, not to mention depositing their money into the machine via dollar scanners, which we all know are tons of fun to use.

The worst part of it all is that we as consumers have all just fallen in line in awe of the new technologies not realizing that we are being manipulated into working for these corporations without expecting anything in return. In our haste to quickly check out we are actually acting against our own self interests as workers.

The proponents of these new technologies would argue that technology constantly eliminates jobs and streamlines productivity, after all where would we be without sewing machines and wheat threshers? These technologies eliminated positions for seamstresses and field workers, however they also made the job easier and faster making working people's lives much easier. These new technologies however make no one's lives easier, in fact they make workers lives much harder both by squeezing more labor out of them and by lowering the wages to perform these tasks.

So are we running the risk of a future like the Matrix where machines have taken over the world and are hunting down humans? Probably not, but we just may be facing a future where there are no customers for the robots to serve because no one will have money to spend because a robot took their job.

Join the boycott, click here.

Photo: (PinkMoose/CC)

Labor editor wins award: good time to give

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 10:22:00 +0000

John Wojcik, labor editor of peoplesworld.org, is a winner. Originally from Brooklyn, the Chicago resident and former United Food and Commercial Worker shop steward easily wins over anybody with his friendly banter, passion for justice and story-telling ability.

He is also a winner of a 2010 Labor Media Award from the International Labor Communications Association, AFL-CIO.

The recent announcement of the award came as People's World and Mundo Popular were preparing for a fall push to raise money for the two websites. What a great reason to give!

Click here to donate.

Peoplesworld.org and mundopopular.org need to raise $150,000. Already in hand is $40,000. Just $10 can help us reach our goal.

Click here to donate.

You already know how unique these websites are. But did you know that there are only a handful of labor reporters and editors employed by corporate-owned media? It used to be - back in the day - that labor reporters were at nearly every daily newspaper in the country. But news about working people and union members were among the first casualties of the corporate takeover of the media.

That's why these websites and organizations like the International Labor Communications Association are so important.

ILCA helps sustain itself with membership dues. Peoplesworld.org and mundopopular.org must rely on you. People's World and Mundo Popular are not littered with distracting ads. You - not corporate cash - are these websites' only source of income.

When you hear $10 makes a difference - it really does.

Click here to donate.

Among peoplesworld.org and mundopopular.org other notable achievements are:

• the first and only labor coverage of the BP Gulf of Mexico oil rig disaster;

• illuminating articles on the Nov. 2, 2010, midterm elections;

• campaigns for jobs, equality, human rights and the One Nation Oct. 2 march

• hard hitting exposes on the corporate interests behind the tea party;

• consistent voice for multi-racial and broad unity/action against racism, against immigrant-bashing and Muslim-bashing, homophobia, gender inequality and other forms of bigotry and discrimination;

• thousands of fans on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter .

You know it takes money to run two daily news websites, no matter how much frugality we employ (and we are frugal!). Staff, travel, technology and advertising - regardless of the modest budget - still takes money.

You can give big, bigger or biggest -- $10, $100, $1,000 or more - and make a difference. By giving you are sending a message: "These websites are important to me."

Click here to donate.

It's good to be acknowledged for your work. Peoplesworld.org and John Wojcik got acknowledged by ILCA. For his winning feature story, ""Steeler Nation fights its way back," the judges wrote:

"John Wojcik uses sports fandom as a poignant window into the long-term costs of blue-collar layoffs in the country's heartland. On a Steelers' game night in September, Wojcik spoke with out-of-town fans who had made the trek from California to Pittsburgh for the game; it turns out, like many Steelers fans across the country, the family's patriarch had worked at the Homestead Mill until it was shuttered in 1989. Wojcik captures the pride these former steel workers felt in the work they did, the devastation of the mass layoffs, and their struggles since, working fast-food jobs for minimum wage. Wojcik's essay makes an eloquent argument for an industrial policy in America."

That's a wonderful acknowledgement.

You can make one too. Donate today.

Photo: John Wojcik with his dog, Yuri, on Lake Michigan beach. (Blake Deppe/PW)

15,000 jobless at tele-town hall cause concern for GOP

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 15:36:00 +0000

Participation by 15,000 unemployed workers, Sept. 14, in Working America's tele-town hall on the November elections has Republican candidates so nervous that a tea party aspirant for the U.S. Senate has had to apologize for slandering the jobless.

"Forget teachers and firefighters," writes Delen Golberg for the Howard Scripps News Service. "Unemployed workers are the special interest group to watch this election."

Confirming this assessment, Working America, the AFL-CIO's community affiliate, is organizing and mobilizing unemployed workers to go to the polls in November to make sure that candidates who don't support the jobless join them in the unemployment lines.

The jobless rolls have swelled in all of the states where the biggest election battles are taking place.

In Nevada, for example, the jobless make up a bigger portion of the electorate than the state's 168,000 independent voters, with experts saying the unemployed could well decide the outcome of the race.

Nevada leads the country now in unemployment, with an official jobless rate of 14.3 percent.

Unemployed workers there have reacted angrily to remarks by Sharron Angle, the tea party challenger to Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid, in which she characterized jobless people collecting benefits as "spoiled."

Angle said she made a "mistake" but reiterated her opposition to extensions of unemployment benefits, saying they result in "people who are afraid to go out and get a job because the job doesn't pay as much as the benefit."

Online forums for the unemployed in Nevada show a strong trend in favor of Reid In 50 postings on the Nevada page of unemployedfriends.com , not one person backed Angle or the GOP.

"Calling me spoiled is not the way to get me to choose her. She was being insulting to me on a personal level," said Stephanie Moreno, a painter unemployed since last spring. "She doesn't know the things that I've lost like my home, my vehicle. This month I'll lose my personal health insurance. If she thinks she's so high up there, she can come spend a day with me and see what I go through."

At the tele-town hall unemployed workers said they preferred Democrats because of their job creation proposals, their support for extension of unemployment benefits, their support for the stimulus package, and because of their support for tougher regulations on big business.

With an official unemployment rate nationally near ten percent, Working America's Karen Nussbaum says her group is working to turn out the unemployed at the polls by making sure they know where all candidates stand on the issues of job creation, unemployment benefits and outsourcing of jobs.

Activists in the group's Unemployed Voter Project reach voters at unemployment centers, job training centers, through neighborhood canvassing and, as of this week, through massive telephone conferences.

During this week's tele-town hall the group launched a "Pledge to Vote" postcard campaign. The idea is for unemployed voters to write notes to other unemployed workers, encouraging them to vote.

"You don't think of unemployed workers as an interest group, probably because we have never had such a large-scale effort to organize them for an election," said Emmelle Israel, Working America's Las Vegas coordinator. "Elections are a really big opportunity for the unemployed to have a voice."

Polls show clearly that the unemployed, if mobilized, can decide a close election.

All of the major surveys in Nevada now show Reid and Angle in a virtual tie, but polls of unemployed workers show Reid ahead 48 to 39 percent.

Working America began the Unemployed Voter Project in early August by starting with its own unemployed members who are registered voters.

Field organizers in 12 cities met with the jobless, asking them to fill out "Help Wanted" petitions to send to Congress asking lawmakers what they had done to create jobs and help the unemployed.

Working America also manages the Unemployment Lifeline, www.unemploymentlifeline.com, an online site for jobless workers to communicate with other unemployed workers and access vital local and national resources, such as listings for local unemployment offices, childcare and healthcare facilities.

Beginning in October, workers will be able to use Job Tracker, another Working America online resource, to look up companies in their towns that are outsourcing jobs, endangering their workers or violating their rights at work.

Workers in New England rustbelt fight to keep plant open

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 13:39:00 +0000

A group of workers in New England's economic rustbelt are battling an aerospace giant to preserve their livelihoods.

Late last year, Esterline Technologies, based in Bellevue, Wash., announced it would shut down its Taunton, Mass., Haskon Aerospace plant this October, throwing 100 employees out on the street. The plant makes silicone seals and gaskets for airplanes, supplying Boeing and other top aircraft companies. It has employed generations of Taunton workers since its beginnings as a General Electric plastics plant more than 80 years ago. Today, it is the only manufacturing facility left in a community that formerly teemed with industry providing thousands of good-paying jobs.

Since the closure announcement, the workers, represented by United Electrical Workers (UE) Local 204, have been pressing the company to cooperate in efforts to keep the plant open. The union obtained $25,000 in state funding to do a feasibility study, which showed that finding a local buyer to operate the plant or setting up an employee-owned business are both highly viable possibilities. The shop has always made money, has a good reputation in the industry, and its customer base, led by Boeing, has remained constant through multiple changes in the plant's ownership. The local has hired a former president and head of sales at Haskon to take the next step from the feasibility study and reach out to previously interested companies and others.

But the company has refused to cooperate. It has even reneged on earlier promises to provide an inventory of equipment in the plant and to give the workers first right of refusal on purchase of the equipment at fair market prices, the union charges.

"Esterline has rejected categorically all options that would keep the plant open," said Peter Knowlton, UE's northeast region president. Why? Well, the company has another, non-union, plant in California that makes the same products, and another one in Mexico. It is planning to shift all production to those non-union plants. And "they don't want any competition at all - not from this shop," said Knowlton.

Esterline is a major defense contractor, getting about 40 percent of its business from the federal government. The Haskon workers and their union believe this fact provides some leverage. Congressman Barney Frank, D-Mass., who represents the area, and the state's two senators, Democrat John Kerry and Republican Scott Brown, have sent two letters to Esterline executives asking them to cooperate in keeping the plant open. State Sen. Marc Pacheco, whose father worked in the boiler room at Haskon for 41 years, joined workers at a news conference outside the plant last month, and said he would press the state's congressional delegation and other officials to lobby Esterline "to do the right thing."

"Some corporations," Pacheco said, "unfortunately refuse to negotiate in a fair and equitable manner with the people who have given their lives to work and make a living here. And it's not fair."

He noted that the company could be vulnerable to pressure because of its many federal contracts, particularly its military contracts.

The union and community supporters are organizing a Sept. 28 evening "candlelight vigil for justice and jobs" in the Taunton Green, the park in the city's center. Among the participants will be Father Mark Cregan, president of Stonehill College, a Catholic college in nearby Easton, Mass.

Last week the workers scored a small step forward when management agreed to meet with union negotiators on Sept. 23, after refusing to do so for three months. For the first time, a federal mediator will be present in those talks, Knowlton said.

Photo: UE Local 204 members lead a march for jobs at Haskon with Congressman Barney Frank, state Sen. Marc Pacheco, Mayor Charles Crowley, City Council President Deborah Carr, Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Robert Haynes, UE Director Of Organization Bob Kingsley, Southeastern Massachusetts Central Labor Council President Cindy Rodrigues and area labor and Jobs with Justice leaders and activists, April 12 in Taunton, Mass. (Taunton Gazette/Mike Gay, via UE)

Laundry workers expose Cleveland's own "sweat" shop

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 14:18:00 +0000

Think about working in temperatures, upwards of 100 degrees on hot days. Finding used hypodermic needles, human body parts, fluids and excrement, umbilical cords and other biohazard material. No safety harnesses for workers climbing over 10 feet in the air on scissor lifts. Nonexistent water breaks and a minimal amount of fans to cool the facility on extremely hot days.

Now think about enduring all of this while earning $8.34 an hour.

Think I am talking about a sweatshop located in a Third World country? Well, think again.

I have just described some of the horrible conditions Sodexo workers at a Cleveland industrial laundry face on a daily basis. The laundry's biggest client is the Cleveland Clinic.

It doesn't stop there either. Poor ventilation and circulation of the air causes oppressive heat inside the plant, even during cold weather. One worker described going in and out of the plant like, "going from a stove to a refrigerator." Doors are thrown open in the winter, sending bone chilling drafts into areas of the facility, just increasing the uncomfortable surroundings the workers have to face. Machines are overloaded and workers are expected to meet production by any means possible.

One wonders how these conditions can exist, especially in this day and age. There are extensive regulations on how bio-hazardous materials are disposed of in the hospitals, but none covering the linens sent out to be laundered. Bio-hazardous material doesn't cease to be dangerous when it soils the linens in the hospital.

The Cleveland-area Workers Rights Board, established in the spring of 1994 as a project of Cleveland Jobs with Justice, was recently reconvened and agreed to hear this extraordinary case. Members of the board include elected officials, along with leaders from faith, labor and community organizations. State Representative Mike Foley, the Rev. Marvin McMickle of Antioch Baptist Church and Stanley Miller, executive director of the Cleveland NAACP, were the members of the Workers Rights Board convening to hear this compelling testimony from Sodexo laundry workers.

The strategy of the Cleveland Workers Rights Board, one of the first in the country, is to provide another level of support to workers who are being mistreated by unfair employers. It is used to enhance the democratic rights of working people when they are faced with unfair labor practices like the conditions in the Sodexo laundry.

After careful deliberation, the three board members hearing this testimony will issue their report, along with their recommendations. The report will be made public and will be delivered to management at Sodexo.

Before the rights board hearing, I accompanied the workers and members from the community at the plant to deliver petitions to John Masso, plant manager, calling for safe conditions for the workers. Masso refused to accept the petitions insisting on only reading a prepared statement. He had also been sent a written request to present testimony at the hearing, giving the company an opportunity to defend their position, so I asked if he intended to appear. Masso refused to answer, stating he was only going to read the prepared statement.

After hearing the testimony of the workers I wonder; will that be the same statement Masso will deliver if someone is injured at the plant? The testimony certainly leads me to believe that place is one hazardous accident waiting to happen. Let's just hope it doesn't before action is taken to greatly improve the working conditions.

So, if you happen to find yourself in a bed in the Cleveland Clinic hospital system, stop and think about the workers who laundered your linen because you certainly do not want to think about whether you are sleeping on the remnants of someone else's hospital waste.

Photo: Workers rally at Sodexo laundry in Cleveland, July 8. (Debbie Kline)

U.S. unions, Canadian energy sign pact on transnational pipeline

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 17:27:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI)--Four U.S. construction unions -- the Operating Engineers, Teamsters, Laborers and the Plumbers and Pipefitters -- signed a Project Labor Agreement on Sept. 14 with a large Canadian energy company, to build a big trans-national oil pipeline from the oil sands of Alberta to the refineries of Texas' Gulf Coast.

If approved by U.S. agencies and Democratic President Barack Obama, the $12 billion Keystone XL Pipeline, a project of TransCanada Corp., would employ more than 15,000 union construction workers from 2011-2013, officials at the signing ceremony said. The PLA would ensure a labor code and help set pay levels for the project.

The pipeline would also create at least 250,000 permanent jobs in 100-1,000 pumping stations, plus other spin-offs, along the way. And it would cut U.S. dependence on oil imported from sometimes-unfriendly nations, company and union leaders added.

The Canadian section of the pipeline is already complete enough, after several years of construction, that thousands of barrels of Canadian oil started flowing daily in July from Alberta to the Wood River refinery near Joliet, Ill., in the Chicago suburbs, and to a transshipment point in Oklahoma.

The PLA will cover the rest of the 36" pipeline's route stretching through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska and Oklahoma to the refineries in Texas. It will carry 1.1 million barrels of oil daily -- equal to half of daily U.S. oil imports from either the Middle East or Venezuela -- and could expand to carry 1.5 million barrels. Its 1,900 miles and carrying capacity will both dwarf the famous Trans-Alaska pipeline.

Besides an estimated 250,000 permanent jobs after the pipeline is done, the project will "add more than $100 billion in annual total expenditures to the U.S. economy," TransCanada said in announcing the signing ceremony, which took place at the AFL-CIO's Building Trades Department. TransCanada also estimated pipeline construction "will generate more than $585 million in state and local taxes along the route and stimulate more than $20 billion in new spending for the U.S. economy." A contractor alliance that works with unions also signed the PLA.

Union leaders at the signing emphasized the well-paying construction jobs the new pipeline would bring, at a time when joblessness among construction workers nationwide is close to 20% and when it is up to 30% for union construction workers. But they also said the pipeline is important because Canada is our reliable northern ally, unlike other oil producers.

"You hear every day that we gotta get less dependent on Middle East oil. This is the way to do it," said Plumbers President William Hite. "If we don't do this, they'll take the oil to Vancouver, ship it to India or China for refining, and they'll ship the refined products back to us at double the price."

"This project will put 4,200 operators to work," said Operating Engineers President Vincent Giblin, referring to his union's contingent among the pipeline construction workers. "It couldn't come at a better time."

"We're talking about 15,000 union members with good-paying living wage jobs, with health and welfare benefits -- and at the end of this several hundred thousand permanent jobs," added Laborers Vice President Terry Healy.

"We're very excited about getting this going. We too have a lot of members sitting on the bench -- and a lot who depend on oil," said Teamsters Vice President Mike Manley.

Giblin also praised TransCanada for building the pipeline to and through the U.S., and with union labor, adding "all of us realize there were other alternatives they could have chosen."

TransCanada CEO Russ Girling said the firm signed the PLA because of the past excellent track record it has had with U.S. construction unions and their allied contractors, in terms of getting projects done on time, safely and on budget.

Girling said pipelines are the safest and most environmentally responsible ways to ship oil, and contended his firm in particular goes the extra mile to ensure that. "That was the first question my board asked me" when they approved the PLA, he added.

The pipeline project still faces regulatory and political hurdles in the U.S., though not legislative ones. The State Department has initial oversight in such cases, and approved the pipeline through an environmental assessment. But 11 other agencies must sign off on the pipeline, even before it reaches Obama's desk.

But environmentalists - including union members and family farmers - may be harder to convince.

"The Canadian oil sands have already been a lightning rod for everything bad" about oil. "Keystone XL has become that, too," Girling said. Many say the oil sands are an ecological boondoggle.

But the unionists responded they would lobby the agencies and Obama for approval of the pipeline, which will translate into good union jobs. The pipeline does not need U.S. legislation, they added.

Girling said the "marketplace" has not let up in its demand for oil.

In other words, the nation is still addicted to oil.

Photo: Thousands of feet of pipes are stacked in a field southwest of Morden, Manitoba, waiting to be installed as part of the pipeline. (Loozrboy/CC )

European unions set to march for “Robin Hood taxes”

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 16:44:00 +0000

Next in the "rising tide of world labor protest" file comes the September 29 labor actions in Europe. Unions and supporters all over Europe are calling for action against planned austerity measures by their governments - everything from wage and pension cuts to mass layoffs in social services. Labor organizers throughout Europe will be joined in rallies and demonstrations by retirees and students.

A massive labor-led march in Brussels, the capital of the European Union, will be a center piece of the action. Organizers are expecting upwards of 100,000 demonstrators from around the continent. Participating union federations in Spain, Portugal, Britain, Ireland, Lithuania, France, Greece, Germany, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Italy, Serbia, Latvia, and Poland have protests planned for the day. The actions range from a general strike in Spain, to several industry-wide strikes in Portugal and several other countries to rallies and demonstrations.

International Trade Union Confederation General Secretary Sharan Burrows, (ITUC) is calling on the demonstrators to demand "Robin Hood taxes" to pay for the economic crisis and putting people back to work. These include stock transaction taxes and others aimed at raising taxes on big business and the super rich. The ITUC is one of the chief organizers of the September 29^th actions.

The September 29 actions come on the heels of some pretty big anti-austerity actions in the past few weeks, including major strike actions in Britain and France. In addition, on September 7, World Federation of Trade Union affiliates around the world held similar actions in 20 countries, including in Europe, Asia, South America and the Middle East.

These global actions come as labor, civil rights, immigrant rights, peace and others are mobilizing in the United States for the October 2 One Nation march on Washington for jobs. October 2, besides being a critical action for jobs and economic justice, will also be one of the largest 2010 election rallies. As buses, trains and cars arrive in DC, hundreds of thousands more will be joining labor walks, phone banks and local rallies around the country. The October 2 mobilizations for jobs will also energize and organize hundreds of thousands to get out and vote on November 2.

All of these actions call for more communication, exchange and contact between labor and progressives globally. Workers of the world are fueling a rising tide of anger and fight back!