Outraged, Outraged I Tell You

The headlines all say Senator Barrack Obama, front runner for the Democrat presidential nomination, is “outraged.” Is his rage directed toward the occupation forces deadly assault on Sadr City? Or perhaps the hunger caused by hedge funds cornering the world’s food supply? Or maybe that the cost of health care in the USA has increased ten times faster than worker incomes?

No, these headline stories haven’t gotten much play from Obama, nor from Clinton or McCain either. The junior Senator from Illinois called a special press conference to denounce a 66-year old Chicago Black preacher, now retiring–formerly Obama’s pastor, who performed the Obama wedding ceremony–Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Obama has been trying to lose his one-time “spiritual adviser”ever since the Clinton camp stealthily circulated videos of some of his sermons. Tuesday Obama indignantly responded to Rev Wright’s Monday remarks at the National Press Club. “I cannot prevent him from continuing to make these outrageous remarks, but what I do want him to be very clear about...is that when I say I find these comments appalling, I mean it. It contradicts everything that I'm about and who I am.”

The bitterness of Obama’s renunciation led me to look up the transcript of what Rev Wright actually said at the private club of the Fourth Estate. You can do the same by clicking here.

Reverend Wright began by explaining why he was in our nation’s capital,

“Over the next few days, prominent scholars of the African-American religious tradition from several different disciplines -- theologians, church historians, ethicists, professors of Hebrew bible, homiletics, hermeneutics and historians of religions -- those scholars will join in with sociologists, political analysts, local church pastors and denominational officials to examine the African-American religious experience and its historical, theological and political context. The workshops, the panel discussions and the symposia will go into much more intricate detail about this unknown phenomenon of the Black church -- (laughter) -- than I have time to go into in the few moments that we have to share together.”

Not being religious, I have little interest in the theological differences between competing religions. But the differences between Wright’s “Black church” and the mainstream white churches go far beyond appeals to faith. As the Rev reminded his audience, 11AM Sunday morning is the most segregated time of the week in America.

Even more important than the role the Catholic church has played in Ireland over centuries of English subjugation, African-American churches have been the historic center of Black organization in the face of racism from slavery, through Jim Crow, down to today’s more subtle–and hypocritical--second class status. That’s why, even in an election year where all candidates piously proclaim “faith,” none of the movers and shakers even want to acknowledge the existence of a Black church–much less embrace it.

Rev Wright has been called “anti-American” because of his views on the War On Terrorism. Here is how he replied at the Press Club,

“Our congregation, as you heard in the introduction, took a stand against apartheid when the government of our country was supporting the racist regime of the Afrikaner government in South Africa. (Applause.) Our congregation stood in solidarity with the peasants in El Salvador and Nicaragua while our government, through Ollie North and the Iran-Contra scandal was supporting the contras who were killing the peasant and the Miskito Indian in those two countries. (Applause.)...

“Our congregation has sent dozens of boys and girls to fight in the Vietnam War, the first Gulf War and the present two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. My goddaughter's unit just arrived in Iraq this week, while those who call me unpatriotic have used their positions of privilege to avoid military service while sending -- (cheers, applause) -- while sending over 4,000 American boys and girls of every race to die over a lie. (Boos, jeers.)”

Some have called Rev Wright an “anti-Semite.” Here’s some excerpts from a question and answer about Louis Farrakhan.

“As I said on the Bill Moyers show, one of our news channels keeps playing a news clip from 20 years ago, when Louis said 20 years ago that Zionism, not Judaism, was a gutter religion. He was talking about the same thing United Nations resolutions say, the same thing now that President Carter's being vilified for and Bishop Tutu's being vilified for. And everybody wants to paint me as if I'm anti- Semitic because of what Louis Farrakhan said 20 years ago.

“I believe that people of all faiths have to work together in this country if we're going to be build a future for our children...My position on Israel is that Israel has a right to exist; that Israelis have a right to exist, as I said, reconciled one to another...

“Now, I am not going to put down Louis Farrakhan any more than Mandela will put down Fidel Castro. You remember that Ted Koppel show where Ted wanted Mandela to put down Castro because Castro is our enemy, and he said, ‘You don't tell me who my enemies are; you don't tell me who my friends are.’”

Senator Obama said, “The person that I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate.”

By all accounts, Reverend Wright has been making such “divisive and destructive” comments all of his life. He has never been one to pull punches as he built a congregation that numbered 87 when he took it over in 1972 to more than 8,000 at the time of his retirement. Perhaps it is the Senator who is a different person today. The man who would be President, groomed by Oprah and Ted Kennedy, surrounded by Establishment advisors telling him who his friends and enemies are, showered with record breaking cash donations, finds the preaching against war and racism of his former “spiritual adviser” to be embarrassing.

Obama’s censure of his one time mentor demonstrates audacity. It should also signify the end of hope held by so many “progressives” that this Senator represents some sea change in American politics and race relations.

Green Around the Gills

I always get kind of nervous when the House of Labor’s equivalent of the College of Cardinals–the AFL-CIO Executive Council–gathers, as they have this week in San Diego. Seldom does anything good come as a result of them putting their feet under the conference table–presumably first checked by Tom Buffenbarger to ensure none were shod in Birkenstock. After I read their new encyclical, Greening the Economy, I was a little green around the gills.

This looks like a boiler plate document circulated by the Chamber of Commerce. The federation comes down firmly on the side of:

Cap and Trade
The bosses love markets. The Kyoto Treaty–rejected by the Bush administration–established a commodity market for pollution. 1990 was set as a base line for pollution, along with a modest goal of 5.2 percent reduction from 1990 levels by 2011. Polluters didn’t have to actually stop polluting. They could buy credits from companies and countries that don’t pollute as much. And they could and did, of course, also shift a lot of pollution to developing countries through offshoring of industrial production. Kevin Smith of Carbon Trade Watch summed up this scam well, “The problem lies in the fact that carbon trading is designed with the express purpose of providing an opportunity for rich countries to delay making costly, structural changes towards low-carbon technologies. This isn’t a malfunction of the market or an unexpected by-product: this is what the market was designed to do.”

More Coal and Nukes
The fed document says, “The federation supports the expansion of both IGCC coal plants with carbon capture and sequestration and new nuclear technology...” Both integrated gasification combined-cycle technology (IGCC), and carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) are unproven, and somewhat dubious technologies aimed at cleaning up coal. Truly clean coal would be a wonderful thing. By all means research in this area should continue. But until the unlikely day comes of demonstration of viable science and economic feasibility for this dream at the very least there should be a moratorium on construction of any new coal fired plants. We don’t know what “new nuclear technology” the executive council has discovered. Even if catastrophes such as Chernobyl and Three Mile Island are avoided there is still no safeguard for protecting the planet from the radioactive waste that remains dangerous for centuries and there are still big environmental threats from the mining, processing, and transport of uranium–a nonrenewable resource.

For Biofuels
After devoting an entire sentence to expanding passenger rail and mass transit the document goes on to hail biofuels and “UAW supported CAFÉ [auto fuel consumption] standards.” Coincidently, the UAW standards are identical to those acceptable to the Big Three and other car makers in the USA. The jury is no longer out on AgriBusiness’s biofuel schemes. On balance, the drive for biofuels is more harmful to the environment than conventional reliance on petroleum fuels--and is driving up food and fiber costs around the globe to boot.

I guess the fact that our labor statespersons made time in their busy schedule to comment at all on the greatest crisis facing civilization in recorded history should be recognized as progress. To have expected any independent thinking about a working class response to the crisis would have been as delusional as counting on clean coal. Still, one always hopes.

More progress on this issue–and many others–is more likely at the Rebuilding Labor’s Power conference, sponsored by Labor Notes, to be held next month in suburban Detroit.

A Clarification

Based on unofficial sources we had previously reported that under the terms of the newly negotiated agreements new hires at GM and Chrysler would get a 401(k) instead of the traditional defined benefit pension. It is true the current defined benefit pension is gone for all those hired from now on. They will get a 401(k)--but that is only for post-retirement health care. A new cash balance, defined contribution retirement plan is being established for the sub-tier employees. So far we have seen no details other than there would be a company contribution of 6.4 percent of wages which would be invested in 30-year Treasury bonds.

Shortest Strike In History

10:40 PM Wednesday

The great Chrysler strike is over. Plants not already idled by the company were shut down by the UAW for 1.5 shifts. Actual picket lines were up no more than six hours.

Was Chrysler brought to its knees by this shortest contract strike in history? Did the bosses come begging for mercy, handing over whatever the union wanted?

While no details have been released yet it is known that the deal includes a VEBA similar to GM, buying out all future company guarantees of retiree health care. It has a new second wage tier for new hires along the lines of the General Motors settlement. Job commitments are even weaker than GM’s. According to an AP wire, “The guarantees, which translate into job security for union workers, are in many cases only for the life of current products, the person said. GM made guarantees at many factories that include the next generation of cars, trucks and parts.”

Several readers of the KC Labor e-mail list, referring to my earlier post calling for solidarity with Chrysler workers, have noted I didn’t have to defer criticism of the UAW leadership very long. I’ll have more to say about the second act of Surrender In Detroit as details become available.

Support Chrysler Strikers

Chrysler Strike

1PM-October 10.

At least a partial strike at Chrysler has begun. Five of the nine assembly plants covered by the present contract were already idled for inventory adjustment and the union has made a tactical move to exempt those from the strike, leaving those workers on their regular pay and benefits–for now anyway. A tenth plant, the new Jeep plant in Toledo, operates under a separate, special UAW contract and will continue to operate until it runs out of parts.

There was no immediate word of what remaining issues sparked first the strike deadline, then the walkout this morning. Clearly the strip and flip Cerberus Capital Management, the private equity that bought Chrysler from Daimler, has different priorities than GM and Ford and are not prepared to accept the GM “pattern.” They seem unlikely to agree to even the tenuous “job security” pledges made by General Motors--which were critical to getting a membership ratification of a contract with massive, historic give-backs. Cerberus evidently wants more.

The GM strike was orchestrated to last only two days. It is doubtful that Cerberus will be so accommodating. While there are many unknown factors the Chrysler strike has the potential to turn in to a rough fight.

We have been highly critical of the objectives, strategy, and tactics of the UAW leadership. Now that the strike has begun we will defer criticism until it is over. The main task is to build solidarity with Chrysler workers. We will use the Daily Labor News Digest and the Labor Advocate Blog to pass along information on this important struggle

Two Struggles Deserve Solidarity

One just started, the other long running. One a strike, the other a lockout. One is high profile involving 3500 workers, the majority in a major city, the other just eighty workers in a small town. Both are fighting around issues of concern to all. Both deserve widespread generous support.

University of Minnesota
Three AFSCME locals representing 3500 clerical, technical, and health care employees of the U of M launched a strike this morning (September 5) that centers on wages. The employer wants to count progression step raises rewarding experience on the way to top of wage classifications as part of a none too generous cost of living raise. The union correctly nailed this as a wage cut proposal, condemning U workers to further erosion of living standards through inflation. 72 percent of AFSCME members rejected this insult, and authorized the strike.

University management is a formidable foe. They try to emulate the labor practices of the private sector bosses they so loyally serve. They will try to shift public resentment of government bureaucracy and the outrageous costs of higher education to the workers. They will attempt to frighten students with the disruption of day-to-day services. They can count on sympathetic attention from the mainstream media. They have municipal police at their disposal to reinforce their own security in shows of force. And they hope these mainly moderate wage workers will soon crack under the financial strain of missed paychecks.

The clerical workers in Local 3800 know all this well. They went through a tough 15-day strike in 2003–and won an honorable settlement. The union leadership did a good job both in preparing their membership and in sharing their experience with the other two locals in joint negotiations with them this time around.

Their strike preparations are a model in the best Minnesota tradition. Local 3800 has involved members in committees including picketing, mutual support (financial needs), internal communication, headquarters, kitchen, and community support.

There is also a volunteer Labor and Community Strike Support Committee that came together several weeks ago and organized rallies and other informational events before the strike. These support efforts help get the striker’s side, often ignored or distorted by the mass media, to the working class community.

Steps were taken early on to win support from the students and faculty impacted by the strike. The student staffed campus paper, The U Daily, ran an editorial entitled In Solidarity With AFSCME. The chairs of departments in the College of Liberal Arts issued an open letter to management urging them to make a fair settlement. Some faculty are arranging to teach their classes off campus. There’s a lot riding on this struggle for the entire labor movement of Minnesota–and beyond. The AFSCME strikers are on point for all of us. They deserve our support.

For suggestions of what you, and your union, can do to help visit these web sites:

AFSCME Local 3800

Labor Community Strike Support Committee

We will, of course, give prominent attention to the Minnesota strike in the Daily Labor News Digest.

Quad City Die Casting Lockout
Eighty members of UE Local 1174 used to come to work every day at this foundry on the bank of the Mississippi River in Moline, Illinois. That stopped in July when the company locked them out. These workers were forced on the street because they rejected the company demand for unlimited use of temporary workers. Local President Rich Nordholm said, “Our contract has allowed them the limited use of temps for years, but now they want unlimited temps, part-timers, outsourcing and insourcing. If we agreed to this we’d all be out of a job.”

Clearly this is not a trend we want to see started. Small time bosses in depressed Midwest towns would love to see a shape up every morning, picking the lucky ones to work for the day--with no benefits and no job security lasting past quitting time. This is the kind of fight our great grandfathers went through in the nineteenth century.

We should not allow small time bosses--usually vassals for major corporations--to pick off small, isolated groups of unionists, releasing such scourge in to our environment.

Visit the UE’s help end a lockout page to see what you can do to help.

Looking At Cincy Justice for Janitors 'Victory'

I've been neglecting this blog for a while, concentrating on the kclabor.org web site, our Week In Review column, and groundwork on the upcoming Labor & Sustainability Conference. But I can't resist a timely comment on the latest SEIU victory.

The Cincinnati Post reports that the new janitors contract "was negotiated in a fairly amicable way." The results seem to justify employer acceptance.

Currently the minimum pay is 6.85. The first raise on October 1 will take them up to 7.05. Back-loaded incremental raises will eventually reach 9.80--January 1, 2012.

SEIU's press release proclaimed the "historic" agreement "will more than double the income of nearly 1200 janitors." This is based on a lengthening of the work day--in three years--from four to seven hours. Actually most of these janitors now work two part-time four hour shifts. Going to one seven hour shift, while being more convenient, would lower income.

The janitors do win, for the first time, health care partially subsidized by the employer. But this coverage will not be available until January 1, 2010. Single coverage will cost the worker 20 dollars a month; family coverage 198--a hefty chunk out of about 1200 a month gross pay.

Cincy janitors also get paid time off for the first time--six paid holidays a year.

Are these workers better off with the SEIU contract? Certainly. Is it a "historic" agreement? Hardly. These union members are still among the working poor.

They now have a union, and that's a good thing. But it's a top down union, willing to settle for the very lowest hanging fruit. To break out of working poverty they will have to transform this union into a fighting adversarial organization--not one that amicably accepts that their labor is of little value.