Labor Advocate

Continued delay in building the Keystone XL pipeline, that would carry synthetic crude oil from the Alberta tar sands to refineries near Gulf of Mexico ports, is welcome news worth celebrating. Not only is localized environmental damage from its construction and operation inevitable; expansion of the dirtiest oil production in the world would take us closer to catastrophic climate change.

Some are praising President Obama for a "brave" decision in putting the pipeline in to regulatory purgatory. There is no doubt in my mind that if it had not been for the mass demonstrations and civil disobedience mounted against it XL would have been a done deal months ago. We have won an important skirmish but decisive battles lay ahead.

The "courageous" President initially chose to defer action until after the election when he hoped to deal with it as a lame duck. The Republicans in Congress were not about to give him such a free pass and demanded a fast track response. We can expect the GOP, probably with support from many Democrats, will now work to attach the pipeline to an essential piece of legislation.

We need to continue to mobilize in the streets against any efforts to resurrect this environmental disaster, carrying out the fight to the finish.

January 18 News Update

2012-01-18T06:25:00.001-06:00

At Cablevision, Expected to Install Everything Except a Union *
MTA labor deal elusive, a day after contract expires
AFL-CIO’s Trumka Acknowledges Labor’s Divisions Over Keystone Pipeline
When New Obama Chief of Staff Was NYU Exec, School Ceased Recognizing Union
University of Minnesota graduate student workers advance union drive
‘Union Stooges'?The NLRB Is No Panacea for Workers
Democrats file 1 million signatures for Walker recall
Toronto budget passes as protesters arrested
York transit workers reject final Veolia offer
Union rejects Olympic pay offer
Chevron oil rig catches fire off Nigeria coast
What impact will the Costa Concordia disaster have on the environment?
Nixon proposes $106 million cut from Missouri higher ed
Brownback tax plan would hit impoverished Kansans the hardest

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/#storylink=cpy

Firestorm brewing as city manager outlines cuts to KC department
KC’s recovery lagged in 2011, Brookings report says
Supreme Court rebuffs Applebee’s appeal in wage and tip case
Protest on Web Uses Shutdown to Take On Two Piracy Bills *
NYC City Opera Reaches Tentative Deal With Union *

January 17 Week In Review Online

2012-01-17T21:33:00.001-06:00

The January 7 Week In Review is now online-- click here.

January 17 News Update

2012-01-17T05:58:00.002-06:00

Obama jobs panel pushes tax reform, U.S. drilling
Oversight of Cruise Lines at Issue After Disaster *
Greeks strike against austerity as EU, IMF visit
Canadian Labour At The Crossroads?
Hollywood's two main actors unions reach tentative deal to merge
PG&E diverted safety money for profit, bonuses
Hundreds of Oakland workers to get layoff notices
City cool to CUPE wage freeze offer
Walter Johnson dies - headed S.F. Labor Council
Several hurt in Bucharest clashes
Federal tax deduction for mortgage insurance premiums expires
Israelis Facing a Seismic Rift Over Role of Women *
Among the Wealthiest One Percent, Many Variations *
Foreclosure Auctions Show Raw Form of Capitalism *
Poll: Disapproval of Congress hits new high
Wikipedia to go dark to protest web piracy drafts
Nigerian unions call off strike after fuel price cut
Thousands protest Bulgaria 'fracking' plans
Timken workers reject new labor deal
Peace activist Marv Davidov dies
Cablevision Workers Lead MLK Day March as Disparities Fuel Union Drive
UMKC teaches unorthodox economics

January 13 News Update

2012-01-13T05:50:00.002-06:00

We will be observing the Martin Luther King holiday Monday. Next news update Tuesday, January 17

Survey Finds Rising Perception of Class Tension *
Calif. health professional students rally for single payer
Nike factory to pay $1m to Indonesian workers for overtime
Xbox workers threaten suicide in China labor tiff
Cut back on soot, methane to slow warming: study
Wind turbine giant Vestas to cut 2,335 jobs this year
Trumka Addresses Investor Summit
Hostess Bankruptcy Filing Hits 5,000 BCTGM Members
First Nations: Harper attack means ‘the fix is in’ for tar sands pipeline review
Native protesters block northern B.C. highway
Toronto strike or lockout possible within 3 weeks
Manning moves step closer to full court martial
China's renewables surge outweighed by growth in coal consumption
Report Blames Safety Lapses for an Epidemic of Deaths at Wyoming Job Sites *
Mayor Takes On Teachers’ Union in School Plans *

January 12 News Update

2012-01-12T05:38:00.002-06:00

Each Monday-Friday, by 9AM Central, we’ll post links to news stories and analytical articles of interest to working people. Sometimes they will be accompanied by editorial commentary. Stories from the New York Times will be followed with a *. The Times pay wall policy allows free access to only about twenty articles a month.

Republicans move to control Keystone approval
100 Years After Lawrence Strike, the Cry for ‘Bread & Roses’ Still Resonates
Trenton school district's food service workers seek union recognition
Contract talks resume at Manitowoc Co.
Labor Readies Goal-Line Stand Against Right-to-Work in Indiana
EPA: Power plants main global warming culprits
Archer Daniels Midland to cut 1,000 jobs
EPA cracks down on Redwood City metal recycler
Workers Have Right to Class-Action Lawsuits Against Bosses: NLRB
Calif. Car Washes Agree to $1 Million Back Pay Settlement
GM, German union in talks to restructure Opel
Poverty in US 'likely to get worse'

January 11 News Update

2012-01-11T05:55:00.001-06:00

Protest Against Scab Ship At EGT Longview Planned
Misdemeanor charges against 9 ILWU protesters to be dismissed
'Right to Work' Advances in Indiana over Protests
Union files unfair labor practice complaint against El Camino Hospital
Hyundai labor strike stops engine output
Labor rally hosted on eve of Florida legislative session
Crowne Plaza Chicago O'Hare Forces Workers To Strike
'Doomsday' ticks closer on nuclear, climate fears
St. Joseph’s Hospital of Orange RNs Win Major Settlement

Hostess returns to bankruptcy protection over pensions
Locked-out Crystal Sugar workers meet with Senator Franken
Hundreds pack Northern Gateway pipeline hearing
Enbridge investigates gas leak report off Louisiana coast
Rio Tinto injunction limiting lockout pickets extended
Worth Framing: Barry Commoner on pollution and production

January 10 News Update

2012-01-10T05:59:00.001-06:00

The January 9 Week In Review is now online
Recession Holds Down Health Spending *
New York Governor, SEIU 1199 Raise Hackles with Medicaid Deal
Hyundai union threatens stoppages after worker self-immolation
Occupy protesters join strike at Union City candy plant
Global warming: European species lag in habitat shift
Fidel Castro warns of climate change, nuclear threat
A closer look at Canada's nuclear plants
Federal cuts could be catastrophic, union says
Acadian, union seek transit subsidies
Tar sands pipeline battle turns ugly

January 9 News Update

2012-01-09T05:30:00.002-06:00

What’s Behind Postal Crisis? Privatization
Unemployment rate falls to 8.5%, lowest in nearly 3 years
Actors unions SAG and AFTRA to meet for merger talks
Call for pay raise for federal workers may set up fight with Congress
Bain Capital tied to bankruptcy, closing of KC steel plant
Brownback to announce Bombardier incentives deal
Labor Board Backs Workers on Joint Arbitration Cases *
Damaged pump caused heavy water spill at Point Lepreau nuclear plant
Bracing for trouble on the picket line
Cargo ship Rena breaks up off New Zealand
Private Sector Gets Job Skills; Public Gets Bill *
Talks Break Down at New York City Opera *
State’s most profitable nursing home seeks givebacks from workers
Bakery workers get five-year deals at Old Dutch, Ralcorp/Lofthouse
Nigeria strikes over fuel costs

January 6 News Update

2012-01-06T05:38:00.003-06:00

Labor Support Pledged To Help CAW Keep Scabs Out Of EMD
As 'Right to Work' Law Looms, Indiana Occupiers Brace Limestone Strikers
ILWU Pres. McEllrath: ‘Prepare to take action when EGT vessel arrives’
Unions praise new workplace rules for domestic workers, truckers and more
Candy workers block entrance at Union City licorice plant
Lufthansa Unions Protest Use of Temporary-Employment Company
Maine labor battles brewing
El Camino Hospital workers contemplate breaking from regional union
Labor leaders in Md. promoting same-sex marriage bill
New Agreement Set for Sodexo Workers Worldwide
Judge Rolls Back Idaho’s Expanded RTW
Vast majority of Canadians believe country is in recession
Fracking 'will poison New York water'
Students of Online Schools Are Lagging *
A Coal-Fired Plant That Is Eager for U.S. Rules *
Lawsuit Is Latest Clash Over Giving Retired Transit Workers Free Rides *

January 5 News Update

2012-01-05T04:56:00.003-06:00

Each Monday-Friday, by 9AM Central, we’ll post links to news stories and analytical articles of interest to working people. Sometimes they will be accompanied by editorial commentary. Stories from the New York Times will be followed with a *. The Times pay wall policy allows free access to only about twenty articles a month.

Job Killers Hit Wichita
You may recall how Boeing enlisted labor support in its long, ultimately successful fight to get a lush Pentagon contract for refueling planes. During that struggle with competing bids they promised 7500 jobs in Wichita where they have built military aircraft since the 1920s. Yesterday they announced they are closing the plant.
Boeing to close historic aerospace facility in Kansas
Boeing shutdown will ripple across region

Obama bypasses Senate to fill labor board posts
Public Employees Need the Right To Strike
With Doors Open, Indiana Workers Flood Statehouse
Nurses’ union wins bargaining agreement
Labor Board Sides with American Truck Drivers
Canadian defined benefit pension plans had bleak 2011
Keystone XL pipeline: Oil chief issues threat to Obama over decision
Harder for Americans to Rise From Lower Rungs *

January 4 News Update

2012-01-04T05:12:00.002-06:00

CAW vows no retreat after Electro-Motive lockout
The UAW's last stand
Unions call on governments to save Petroplus jobs
Freeport Indonesia workers heading back after strike -union
Local 1137 Members Secure Wage Fairness In Second Ferro Pfanstiehl Contract
Rio Tinto Alcan gets picket injunction
Ecuador upholds Chevron oil fine
China's city dwellers to breathe unhealthy air 'for another 20-30 years'

January 3 News Update

2012-01-03T05:02:00.006-06:00

The Labor Advocate Blog is now the venue replacing the old Daily Labor News Digest that long appeared on the KC Labor web site. Each Monday-Friday, by 9AM Central, we’ll post links to news stories and analytical articles of interest to working people. Sometimes they will be accompanied by editorial commentary. Stories from the New York Times will be followed with a *. The Times pay wall policy allows free access to only about twenty articles a month.

Will Caterpillar Offshore Canadian Jobs to Muncie, Indiana?
After seven months of “bargaining” that did not budge from demands of more than fifty percent wage cuts and elimination of pensions, Caterpillar locked out 650 CAW members at its Electro-Motive Diesel plant in London, Ontario New Year’s Eve. EMD, the principal competitor with General Electric (organized by UE in Erie, Pennsylvania) for the North American diesel-electric locomotive market, was a division of General Motors until being sold to private equity in 2005–who in turn resold it for a tidy profit to Caterpillar in 2010. Caterpillar is in the process of cranking up a brand new, nonunion EMD plant in Muncie, Indiana. CAW wages at the London plant were about 35 dollars an hour. The wage rates in Muncie–where the company got tax-payer handouts to open up--range from 12-16 dollars per hour.

A Gathering Storm Over ‘Right to Work’ in Indiana *
Factory output subdued going into 2012
Expert: Wastewater well in Ohio triggered quakes
Obama, Congress begin 2012 in oil pipeline dispute
Settlement Reinstates Branford 4: 'I Felt Like Norma Rae'
Rio Tinto Alcan lockout shrinks Quebec production
British private sector pension 'collapse'
U.S. water, sewer systems tapped out

For 2012, Signs Point to Tepid Consumer Spending *

Storehouses for Solar Energy Can Step In When the Sun Goes Down *

January 2 News Update

2012-01-01T22:11:00.006-06:00

The Labor Advocate Blog is now the venue replacing the old Daily Labor News Digest that long appeared on the KC Labor web site. Each Monday-Friday, by 9AM Central, we’ll post links to news stories and analytical articles of interest to working people. Sometimes they will be accompanied by editorial commentary.Stories from the New York Times will be followed a *. The Times pay wall policy allows free access to only about twenty articles a month.

Longshoreman acquitted in labor conflict trial
Rio Tinto Alcan locks out 800 workers in Quebec
Office Owners and Cleaners Reach a Deal, Averting a Strike
DA Asks Wis. Supreme Court to Reopen Union Lawsuit
Montefiore Reaches Contract Accord With Nurses *
Wyden-Ryan’s Unrealistic Assumptions *
U.S. exports record amount of refined fuels in 2011 *
Organic Agriculture May Be Outgrowing Its Ideals *
Hunt for Gas Hits Fragile Soil, and South Africans Fear Risks *
Chicago Teachers Battle Mayor 1%
Nurses Press for Financial Transaction Tax
Deals Appear to Avert Nurses' Strikes at Two Hospital Centers
Mayor Ford versus CUPE Locals 79 and 416
AFSCME Hennepin County Locals: All six locals approve new contracts
Electro-Motive Locks Out 500 London Workers
Greece sees first strike of 2012

Re-Launch Coming Early 2012

2011-12-24T08:31:00.003-06:00

We plan to relaunch our long neglected blog shortly after the New Year. We aim to provide some more or less daily commentary, along with links to news stories, of interest to working people--including the overriding issue of climate change.

Climategate

2009-12-06T15:25:00.001-06:00

The media now speaks of “climategate,” one of many such “gates” inserted in headlines since the historic 1972 burglary of the Democrat national office in Washington’s Watergate Hotel.

But this “gate” so far has little resemblance to the original. Sensing that the Cuban counter-revolutionaries caught red-handed at Watergate were not just petty thieves, a team of reporters from the Washington Post “followed the money” to those who hired them--in the White House. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman dramatically portrayed Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward in the 1974 film, All the President’s Men. They proved Nixon was indeed a crook.

However, those waxing indignant about “climategate” have shown no interest in identifying the criminals, much less following the money behind creating this “scandal” on the eve of the Copenhagen Summit and the opening of debate on climate legislation in the Senate. Instead all the focus has been on the victims of the crime, portraying them as perpetrators of “climate fraud.” And, since they were among the many scientists from around the world contributing to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, politicians with a definite money trail to Big Oil and Big Coal are saying the whole notion of anthropogenic (human caused) global warming must now be recognized as a hoax.

Congress is holding hearings. The UN has pledged to look in to the charges of fraud. Some have demanded Al Gore return the Oscar awarded for his film An Inconvenient Truth, since it was based on lies.

John Holdren, President Obama's science adviser, put things in the proper perspective when he told congress,

“These kinds of controversies and even accusations of bias and improper manipulation are not all that uncommon in science. The strength of science is that these kinds of controversies get sorted out over time by the process of peer review and continued critical scrutiny by the knowledgeable community.”

Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was more blunt in congressional testimony,

“The e-mails do nothing to undermine the very strong scientific consensus . . . that tells us the Earth is warming, that warming is largely a result of human activity. Climate change is not just a theory, it is a documented set of facts.”

James McCarthy, chairman of the Union of Concerned Scientists, agreed in a letter to Senator Boxer of California,

“The body of evidence that human activity is a prominent agent in global warming is overwhelming.”

Even British Prime Minister Gordon Brown uttered a rare sensible sound bite,

“With only days to go before Copenhagen, we mustn't be distracted by the behind-the-times, anti-science, flat-earth climate sceptics.”

But, instead of standing in solidarity with those under vicious attack, the academic employers of at least two of these scientists–East Anglia in Britain and Penn State--have pressured them to take a leave pending “investigation.” This gives credibility to the witch hunt charges that their whole body of work is suspect.

In the most serious challenge for humanity to date appeasement of those destroying our biosphere should not be on the agenda. By all means work for integrity in science. But we can live with human failings of individual scientists. Our grandchildren won’t be able to live as humans currently do with a six degree centigrade rise in the Earth’s temperature.

Bill Onasch

Easter and the Irish

2009-04-12T13:04:00.001-06:00

Most Christians observe Easter today. (Some follow the Orthodox calendar and will mark it later.) For Roman Catholics it’s the most important event on their spiritual calendar. That’s certainly true for the Catholic majority in Ireland.

But for all faiths and nonbelievers on the Emerald Isle Easter is also always associated, whether celebrated or cursed, with a secular event–the Easter Rising of 1916. The long simmering resistance to centuries of English oppression boiled over in response to rumors of imminent conscription of Irish to fight England’s war in Europe.

Many working class leaders of the day understood the struggle they launched combined three objectives: keep Ireland out of the carnage of the First World War; independence from British rule; and establishment of a workers republic.

On our weekend news page we posted a photo showing a mobilization of the Irish Citizen Army outside Liberty Hall beneath a banner reading, “We Serve Neither King Nor Kaiser But Ireland.” Initially formed as a worker militia in response to brutal police attacks that killed and injured many trade unionists during the during the Lockout of 1913 in Dublin, the ICA was made up of trade unionists and socialists led by the remarkable James Connolly. They fought the British in 1916 in collaboration with other nationalists who were not so committed to their socialist goals.

After the rebels occupied key government buildings in Dublin, the British quickly reinforced their garrison and even sent Royal Navy warships to bombard coastal targets. There was intense fighting for about a week before the English prevailed. The British forces sustained 116 dead, 368 wounded and 9 missing. The Irish suffered 318 dead and 2,217 wounded. 3,430 men and 79 women were arrested. The top leaders of the Rising, including Connolly, were summarily executed.

Eventually the British, in stages, granted 26 of Ireland’s 32 counties independence. To this day they maintain rule in the other six. While all politicians in the 26 counties tip their hats to the Rising, and even Connolly, they have prided themselves in recent years for integrating the Irish economy–dubbed the Celtic Tiger–in to globalization. Like their counterparts in the USA, most Irish unions have been dedicated to “social partnership” agreements with the bosses. American corporations have been an important part of their “economic miracle.”

In occupied Ireland the traditional republicans of Sinn Féin have now embraced “power sharing” with the parties of anti-Catholic bigots loyal to the English crown–and multinational corporations. Instead of the workers republic Sinn Féin today speaks of an “Ireland of equals”–not unlike Britain’s “new” Labor Party’s repudiation of their long standing commitment to socialism.

Today the Celtic Tiger has been mortally wounded by financial collapse and waves of plant closures. The Irish republic is on the verge of bankruptcy. The crisis has spread in to the occupied six counties as well.

But the memory of class struggle has never been completely extinguished among Irish workers. While U.S. labor leaders cling to partnership on our sinking ship, we’ve seen an upsurge of plant occupations in Ireland, such as Waterford Crystal and Ford’s Visteon plant in occupied Belfast.

Just as American workers must rescue the real heritage of Debs from those who have sought to turn him in to a harmless icon, the Irish workers will find guidance from the views of Connolly the living fighter, not the ceremonial martyr.

That’s my Easter homily.

Scribes, Profs Fear Government Control Of Auto

2008-12-11T14:55:00.002-06:00

David E Sanger, one time Tokyo bureau chief before becoming the current White House correspondent for the New York Times, is well educated and well traveled. A graduate of Harvard, he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Strategy Group and has a reputation as an expert on globalization. The very concept of the auto bailout makes him nervous and he tells us why in a December 8 article, Washington Takes Risks With Its Auto Bailout Plans.

Sanger begins by quoting remarks by President-designate Obama on Meet the Press,

“We don’t want government to run companies. Generally, government historically hasn’t done that very well.”

Obama is also a Harvard grad so maybe this is what is taught by the history and economics departments at that great Ivy League institution–whose endowment has lost eight billion dollars in investments over the past few months.

But the one experience of government controlling the auto industry–from 1942-46–was not so bad at all. It was, in fact, the greatest industrial mobilization the world has yet seen. Without its success there’s a good chance our first language today would not be English.

Of course, government control of that period was not limited to auto–who stopped producing cars to make planes, tanks, and jeeps. Virtually every sector of the economy was subject to government direction, supplemented by wage and price controls and rationing.

This omnipotent government intervention not only was indispensable for the U.S. military victory in World War II. It was also what finally put an end to the Great Depression that plagued the USA for more than a decade–including all through the mythical New Deal.

The next President, along with a top writer for America’s “paper of record,” do us a disservice by suppressing a significant part of our history clearly relevant to today’s economic crisis.

Of course, the productive success of the war time mobilization carried its own drawbacks–demand was created by the killing of seventy million persons and the destruction of most of the world’s industry outside North America. Taxpayers rewarded the owners of American industry with obscene profits while worker wages remained essentially frozen throughout the war. In those respects, not an experience we want to repeat. We’ll come back to that.

Despite Obama’s bad mouthing government control, Sanger still worries about bipartisan demands for “oversight” of the Big Three automakers,

“It all sounds perilously close to a word that no one in Mr. Obama’s camp wants to be caught uttering: nationalization.”

To Sanger this is like sounding the alarm about termites found on the front porch.

“The fact that there is so little protest in the air now ... reflects the desperation of the moment. But it is a strategy fraught with risks.”

The first is a reiteration of Obama’s quoted message,

“Government’s record as a corporate manager is miserable, which is why the world has been on a three-decade-long privatization kick, turning national railroads, national airlines and national defense industries into private companies.”

These examples are curious choices for advertising the superiority of private capital. Britain’s denationalized railroads stagger from one scandal to another concerning both safety and performance. And you would think the well traveled Sanger would have noticed by now that the world’s deregulated airlines have become dysfunctional.

“The second risk,” he continues, “ is that if the effort fails, and the American car companies collapse or are auctioned off in pieces to foreign competitors, taxpayers may lose the billions about to be spent.”

Sanger joins those in congress who swallowed an eight trillion dollar camel to salvage finance capital but now strain on a 15 billion dollar gnat for a loan to the Big Three.

Now he could raise some serious arguments against the Detroit bailout. For example, he could point out that General Motors has more operations abroad than in the USA and that they are making hefty profits in these other markets. They could easily save themselves from collapse at “home” with some of their earnings from other lands. But such an argument would cut across the grain of globalization that Sanger champions.

There’s more,

“And the third risk — one barely discussed so far — is that in trying to save the nation’s carmakers, the United States is violating at least the spirit of what it has preached around the world for two decades. The United States has demanded that nations treat American companies on their soil the same way they treat their home-grown industries, a concept called ‘national treatment.’”

He quotes Jeffrey Garten, a professor at the Yale School of Management, who as under secretary of commerce under Clinton was one of many government officials who “tried in vain to get Detroit prepared for a world of international competition,”

“If Japan was doing this, we’d be threatening billions of dollars in retaliation. In fact, when they did something a lot more subtle, we threatened exactly that.”

The fact that Sanger and Garten find this hypocritical double standard as shocking as discovering gambling at Rick’s, and express surprise at muted condemnation of it, demonstrates their understanding of globalization is ideological, not analytical.

Globalization, if it means anything, is a description of the way the leading powers–the old G-7--have screwed the workers of the whole world. It means breaking down social safety nets; abrogating labor, antitrust, and environmental laws; and privatizing every public treasure that might become a profit center; in order for capital to move freely across borders and exploit with few restrictions. It has profoundly, often disastrously, changed the industrial, financial, mercantile, and agricultural economies of the so called “developing countries” while at the same time putting workers in the imperial countries in what another NYT writer, Steven Greenhouse, so accurately described as a Big Squeeze.

But globalization has not eliminated national ruling classes, or the state power they control. Nor has it ended competitive tensions. In the nuclear age it is not practical to resolve disputes in the time honored way of war between major powers. Through passive consensus, all the major players defer to the super-power–the USA--as the ultimate arbiter. That’s why few will complain out loud if Washington decides to protect the Big Three. Welcome to the NFL.

Turning once more to his roots for another nervous Nellie, Sanger quotes Malcolm S. Salter, a professor emeritus at Harvard Business School who has studied the auto industry for two decades and, until a few years ago, was an adviser to General Motors and Ford,

“...we’re in uncharted water. Think about this: Who in the federal government would have the tremendous insight needed to fix this industry?”

When the Feds took control of industry in World War II they turned to some bright young lads barely out of college to plan the economy. They were initially resented at the time by many corporate managers and some professors as snotty nosed kids. But some of them later became prominent, such as Tex Thornton, who founded Litton Industries, and Robert McNamara, who went on to become president of Ford and, of course, Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson. And all in all they did a pretty good job of “fixing” industry.

Sanger returns to Professor Garten for his grand finale,

“We’re at this moment in history, in which the Chinese are touting that their system is better than ours with their mix of capitalism and state control. And our response, it looks like, is to begin replicating what they’ve been doing.”

Now I would agree with the learned professor that the Chinese mix is not what we should seek. The workers and peasants of China still live under an oppressive one party regime but have lost the old guarantees of even a basic diet, much less the free healthcare and education, and full employment that once brought a measure of security. The rapid growth of Chinese manufacturing–much of it offshored for the U.S. market–has created a new layer of rich but even bigger layers of poor. And, of course, it has been accompanied by a deplorable workplace fatality rate, not to mention enormous environmental destruction. But the downside for Chinese workers–and our biosphere--can be primarily attributed to the global capital component of the “mixed” economy–precisely what Sanger and his academic buddies promote in opposition to government control.

The greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression has not shaken the faith of Sanger & Co. that only the unfettered capitalist market will ultimately resolve all problems. The sole alternative they see is a slippery slope to the world of the Chinese Communists.

Let’s return, as promised, to the historical example they try to ignore–the World War II experience. In my opinion, the war time economic mobilization was a great success for primarily two reasons:

●The inherent superiority of intelligent planning over the irrational chaos of the markets.

●The overwhelming majority of society supported the objectives of the government effort and pitched in enthusiastically to make it work.

Today, in addition to our economic challenges, we face a crisis even more serious than the threat of being conquered by other countries–global warming. It surely rates the same kind of emergency response as this country saw after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Building more cars would not help this crisis–the proliferation of cars is in fact a major part of the problem. But the industrial capacity and productive workforce of the auto industry can play an essential role in converting our economy to things we really urgently need: new energy sources, new transportation alternatives, reclaiming forests and wetlands, retrofitting buildings to green standards, etc. There’s plenty of work to save the planet, to keep us all busy.

Like in WWII, workers should be retained, and if necessary retrained, in this conversion without loss of pay or benefits. Union contracts should be maintained--and even extended to those not presently covered.

Unlike the Second World War, we should not reward the corporate polluters with cost-plus contracts but instead embrace the long verboten “N” word and launch a bold new public sector, beginning with the finance, energy, and transportation sectors–including auto.

With the question of job security resolved rebuilding a green economy could quickly win the same level of popular support as the earlier war effort.

Who could the government possibly turn to to fix these industries? How about scientists, environmentalists, elected worker representatives, working with the Tex Thorntons and Robert McNamaras of today’s young generation?

Such ideas will send cold shivers to Sanger and the Establishment he seeks to serve.

Me? I’m in a sweat about what our kid’s world will look like if we can't find a way to move in this direction–and soon.

December 11, 2008

More Mean Spirit At the KCATA

2008-10-02T08:45:00.000-06:00

I should have known something was up when I got an announcement in the mail about a new dental plan being offered at Open Enrollment at the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority–where I was employed for fourteen years before taking an early retirement a few years ago. A cover letter said it was the second benefit mailing. I had not received a first but, after calling the HR department they did send me the mailing for retirees.

I was at first puzzled. The costs for all options for the coming year were considerably less than what I was currently paying. Then I finally noticed a line buried near the end,

“All retirees who are age 65 and/or eligible for Medicare Part B will no longer be eligible to participate in the KCATA provided insurance plan(s).”

I should explain that the ATU Local 1287 contract provides that the Authority will pay ninety percent of retiree health insurance until age 65. After that the ATA pays only the princely sum of 21.50 per month for reimbursement for Part B.

But there is a long standing practice of allowing Medicare retirees to continue carrying ATA group coverage if they pay the full cost of the plan. This is what I started doing last December, when I turned 65 and had to enroll in Medicare. I’ve been paying 835.17 every month this year for a “Retiree Over 65 + Spouse” Blue Cross HMO option.

That’s a hefty amount–especially considering my only regular income amounts to 900 a month (after Part B deduction) from Social Security. I chose this plan because my wife, Mary, is self-employed, about thirteen years away from Medicare, and would find it difficult to get a decent individual plan at any price. I’m far from the only retiree with a younger spouse, or dependent children at home, who has benefitted from the past practice of staying in the employer group.

ATA officials offer no explanation for this change other than it’s not guaranteed in contract language. Since they don’t save a penny by denying retirees the option to fully pay continued insurance it can only be understood as a mean-spirited sticking it to the retirees and their families.

The ATA bosses did not bother to inform the union in advance of this change. I’m pleased that Local 1287 president Willie Wilson is filing a grievance over this failure to negotiate over a such a major change in benefit practices.

Of course, the USA is the only industrialized country in the world where such health care issues exist. Everybody else has some form of universal coverage–and at a lot lower cost than we pay. Most European countries, along with Japan and Canada, enjoy longer life spans than we do.

There is legislation in congress to establish a “single-payer” health care system, similar to what works in Canada. Hundreds of unions have endorsed HR676. To learn more go to the web site maintained by the California Nurses Association--guaranteedhealthcare.org

Bill Onasch
ATU Local 1287 retiree

A Three Alarm Crisis

2008-09-26T10:34:00.001-06:00

Certainly the term “crisis” is overworked. Sometimes this suits the interests of the ruling rich, as Naomi Klein has ably demonstrated in such works as The Shock Doctrine, The Rise Of Disaster Capitalism. There are many serious problems confronting the working class that are chronic, endemic to Free Enterprise, requiring systemic change.

But, while resisting panic from cynical wolf-criers, we need to recognize that there are at times crisis situations that demand urgent action. I believe we can identify three of those today:

* Financial/Credit
The housing bubble, which created artificial, unsustainable high real estate values, is only part of the larger credit disaster. Many now owe far more than they can ever repay–not just on mortgages but for their transportation, health care, and college education. The current bailout effort in the USA holds the very flow of money hostage to an enormous transfer of wealth from the tax-paying working class to pay the rich part of this uncollectible debt. Whether the bailout is approved, or in its absence day to day credit dries up, it’s a lose-lose situation for American workers.

* Fuel
Soaring costs and spot shortages of fuel have adversely impacted every sector of the world economy and there’s no end in sight.

* Climate
Above all, the global warming crisis, threatening the very existence of human life as we know it, is advancing much faster than even the most pessimistic recent projections. With melting polar and Greenland ice, and warming ocean temperatures, we will soon see rising sea levels threatening the homes of hundreds of millions. We are approaching the point of no return. Yet greenhouse emissions are still on the rise, massive offshore drilling and shale extraction will soon be authorized by Congress, and 28 new coal fired powerplants are under construction, with permits approved for 20 more, just in the USA. Even former Vice-President Al Gore has called on young people to use civil disobedience to stop the growth of destructive coal.

But Gore is the partial exception that proves the rule. The corporate and political Establishment has no acceptable solutions to any of these challenges. And, most of our union and mainstream environmental leaders defer to the Establishment. That makes them part of the problem, not the solution.

Initiatives from below are clearly needed to work both through existing organizations, such as our unions and environmental groups, and to draw in the unorganized in to ad hoc formations, to discuss a program and strategy for confronting this three-alarm crisis.

In my opinion, such discussion should be geared to planning a far-reaching emergency response. Earlier this week, in writing about the inadequate party platforms in the current Canadian election campaign, Ian Angus wrote,

“A government that really wanted to deal with climate change would declare a Climate Emergency. It would learn from the experience of World War II, when Ottawa forced through a radical transformation of the entire economy in a few months, with no lost jobs or pay cuts.”

Of course, this is also apropos to the USA, which had an even more impressive economic mobilization during that war--in fact what finally pulled the country out of the Great Depression. It’s an example that many of us have raised in the effort to unite labor and environmentalists in the U.S. In taking such bold steps on the climate crisis we would also take care of the other two as well.

But we can improve on the war time experiences. Instead of guaranteeing profits on top of costs for corporations we could and should nationalize the financial, energy, and transportation sectors–whose owners are responsible for the emergency. With the resources of public investments, we should bring labor, environmental, and scientific representatives in to the actual planning and management of those sectors.

We could bolster those public resources by ending the current wars, which serve only the interests of global capital, in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, while we’re at it, pull the plug on the insane building of more nuclear weapons.

All of this emergency reorganization of the economy should follow the principle of Just Transition–guaranteeing worker living standards as they are retrained and placed in different jobs in a green, peaceful economy.

I don’t offer any blueprint for change. I propose opening discussion to formulate an action plan. A logical place to begin is among those already engaged in trying to transform the labor movement–such as the Labor Notes network and Center for Labor Renewal. Some left groups, such as Aaron Bass's excellent analysis of the financial crisis in Socialist Action, seem interested in a nonsectarian dialogue.

But I stress the goal should be an action plan. We could talk about problems until the cows come home. We won’t solve everything right away. But the planet is on fire, the economy is crumbling–and like it or not, we’re the First Responders.

Peter Camejo, 1939-2008

2008-09-14T09:17:00.002-06:00

Peter Camejo, one of the most prominent left leaders to emerge from the Sixties radicalization in the USA, lost a second bout with lymphoma Saturday, September 13. He was 68.

Camejo was born in to a wealthy Venezuelan family. His mother, Elvia, who had family and friend ties in the USA, and was concerned about health care in Venezuela at the time, chose to have Peter in a hospital in the Bronx. As a result Camejo began life as a dual citizen of the USA and Venezuela. Peter spent his earliest days in Venezuela. When Elvia divorced his father, Daniel, when Peter was seven, he relocated with his mother to the U.S. where he resided the rest of his life.

Peter was an exceptional student in high school and achieved a perfect SAT score in math. He went on to attend the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology for three years. But soon interest in the civil rights movement, and later radical politics, began to distract him from academic pursuits.

He became involved in the newly formed Young Socialist Alliance, an independent formation that evolved in to the youth group of the Socialist Workers Party. I first met Peter in 1963, when he came to Chicago to speak for the YSA. He was already well on his way to becoming, in my opinion, the best agitational speaker our generation produced.

He put these speaking skills at work in many venues. He became a well-known student leader at UC Berkeley–where he was enrolled from 1965 to his expulsion, ordered by Governor Ronald Reagan, in 1967 for “unauthorized use of a microphone.” Reagan listed him as one of the “ten most dangerous Californians.” The only evidence cited for this remarkable assertion was that he was “present at all antiwar demonstrations.”

The height of Camejo’s speaking abilities was reached during his 1976 campaign as the SWP’s presidential candidate. He traveled 150,000 miles, speaking at dozens of campaign events. He even managed to get the last word in on William F Buckley’s television talk show. With no funds available for television or direct mail advertising, and only able to get on the ballot in eighteen states, Camejo racked up an impressive vote total of over 90,000.

Camejo also produced some serious writing, such as Racism, Revolution, Reaction, 1861-1877: The Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction; Liberalism, Ultraleftism or Mass Action; Who Killed Jim Crow: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement and It's Lessons for Today; and How to Make a Revolution in the United States.

Years later, after Peter applied his mathematical prowess as a stock broker, first with traditional Wall Street firms, later with his own enterprise, he wrote, The SRI Advantage: Why Socially Responsible Investing Has Outperformed Financially.

For reasons not clear to party members at the time, Camejo parted company from the central leadership of the SWP in 1980. He eventually became a leader in California’s Green Party, describing himself as a watermelon–green on the outside, red on the inside. He made three campaigns for Governor as a Green and in 2004 was Ralph Nader’s vice-presidential pick.

I certainly had my differences with parts of Peter’s evolution from socialist agitator to watermelon. But the contributions he made to building social movements and the socialist movement for decades are enduring and, to the end, he was still working to do the right thing. He will be missed. Our sympathy goes out to his family, friends, and comrades.

Bill Onasch

Celia Hart Santamaría (1962 – 2008)

2008-09-08T21:19:00.001-06:00

Celia Hart, and her brother Abel, were killed in a car wreck in Havana on Sunday, September 7. Funeral arrangements were hurriedly made, racing against the approach of devastating hurricane Ike–which roughly followed the route taken by the victorious guerilla forces of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara marching to Havana a half-century ago.

Celia and Abel’s mother, Haydee Santamaria, had been part of those revolutionary forces, going back to her participation with Fidel in his earliest battle against Batista–the 1953 assault on the Moncada military barracks in Santiago. Her life ended in 1980.

Their father, Armando Hart, was one of the main organizers of the revolutionary movement in the cities. He was selected to be the revolutionary government’s first Minister of Education and later, from 1976-97 served as Minister of Culture. He continues to actively follow political events at the age of 78.

Celia did not initially choose to follow the highly political path of her prominent parents. Instead, she pursued a study of physics. She did her graduate work at the University of Dresden, becoming the first non-German female graduate from their prestigious physics school.

But the differences she saw between her native Cuba and the Stalinist dictatorship in East Germany deeply troubled her. She later wrote,

“In 1985 I returned to Cuba on holidays and confessed to my father my feelings of utter desperation. In response, my father opened a cupboard and got out four books: the three-volume Life of Trotsky by Isaac Deutscher and Trotsky’s The Revolution Betrayed. I devoured these books, but until a few months ago had no opportunity of reading the rest of Trotsky’s works.”

Celia, while remaining loyal to the Cuban revolution and regime, began writing and speaking extensively, independent of Communist Party venues. She was particularly interested in the working class upsurge in Latin America, especially Venezuela. She established relations with Trotsky’s grand-son, Esteban Volkov in Mexico and took part in introducing Trotsky’s Revolution Betrayed at a book fair in Havana several years ago.

Some thought Celia was “asking for trouble” in advancing such views. My good friend Jeff Mackler, who is helping to edit and introduce a soon to be published collection of Celia’s articles and speeches, writes,

“Celia was proud to tell us that her defense of Trotskyist ideas had not gone unnoticed by the Fidel Castro she loved, admired and knew since her childhood. A letter from Fidel to Celia not long ago conveyed his appreciation of Celia's writings and concluded with the assertion that Celia was not to be discouraged from expressing her views. ‘No one will hurt a single hair on your beautiful head,’ said Fidel, a delighted Celia told us.”

More recently, she began to collaborate with socialists in North America. She, of course, was banned from visiting the USA and travel by Americans to Cuba is made extremely difficult by the U.S. government. I was fortunate to meet and spend some time with her at a conference in Toronto a few months ago.

I was already impressed by her fresh analytic application of classic socialist views in her writings. I was pleased to experience first hand her dynamic energy, sense of humor–and our shared passion for baseball. One could not long remain gloomy or lethargic in her presence.

Her tragic demise is a set back, for sure, for the working people of this hemisphere as well as a deeply felt personal loss for those who knew her. Our sympathy goes out to her father.

But Celia certainly would not want her friends and comrades to mope. She would expect us to carry on her efforts to liberate working people from exploitation and ignorance.

Bill Onasch

What’s Within Bounds Regarding Sarah Palin

2008-09-05T08:21:00.001-06:00

The distractions from the real world by the seemingly endless election campaign became more skewed than ever as both boss parties reacted to the surprise selection of Governor Palin to be a heart beat away from the presidency.

How many children Sarah Palin decides to have is her business–and no body else’s.

Sarah Palin’s proposal to use big government to deny the rest of us family planning options is our business.

Sarah Palin is entitled under freedom of religion to embrace her Pentecostal faith.

When she proposes to use the power of big government to advance this faith’s view of the universe, in opposition to the teachings of science in schools, she tramples on freedom of religion and seeks to keep our children in ignorance.

Sarah Palin was entitled to pray for God’s assistance to U.S. forces in the war in Iraq.

She and her party were not entitled to direct the police state tactics used against many thousands protesting that war outside the convention–events largely ignored by the “liberal” media.

Since the other party also tries to be “faith based,” and wants to expand the War On Terrorism front in Afghanistan, it is unlikely they will give these issues much play.

We’ve got sixty-one more days to go of this malarkey–unless, of course, there are more hanging chads.

Bill Onasch

Starter Line A Non-Starter

2008-08-01T10:07:00.001-06:00

We’ve lost count of the number of light rail “starter line” proposals that have emanated from the Kansas City Establishment–and have so far been rejected by the voters. The latest one deserves a thumbs down as well.

I say this as a retired transit worker, and committed pro-environmentalist, who strongly favors greatly expanded mass transit--including light rail, heavy rail, trolley bus and “modern” streetcar components.

But I begin with a totally different perspective from our local economic and political masters. Their sole interest is using tax payer dollars for light rail as a “development tool.” They have thrown a few more crumbs around on this one and have convinced those who speak in the name of the largely low wage or jobless African-American working class on the East Side to get on board the “development” train as well.

The area served by the latest starter line was once highly developed and included one of the best streetcar and trolley bus networks in the USA. Kansas City’s urban core was consciously undeveloped by postwar urban sprawl, fed by white flight to outlying areas that became car dependent. The first class electric transit service was scrapped.

Those residents remaining in the core have had to accept not only dwindling transit service, aimed to keep them in their geographical place, but failed schools, and infrastructure crumbling from decades of neglect, as well. Any development plan that ignores the totality of those challenges is an insult to those of us living in the core–above all those on the East Side.

The development that our town’s movers and shakers see is two-fold:

* Big bucks for those building the starter line.
* Using the line to drive more business to profit centers in downtown, the Hall family’s Crown Center, and the Nichols family’s Country Club Plaza.

The extension from previous starter line’s Plaza destination to 63rd & Prospect is a political bone thrown to the East Side. Most area residents will soon realize that the light rail will be no faster getting them to work downtown than buses–in fact, it will likely take longer.

My perspective is to use expanded transit to provide realistic alternatives for getting people out of their cars as much as possible. That is crucial to combating global warming and growing ozone problems. Building an expensive “starter” system in areas already relatively well served by bus lines does little to lure drivers to transit.

Granted, the urban core bus lines leave a lot to be desired. Some lines such as Troost, Prospect, and Independence Avenue can get dangerously overcrowded while a few are way under utilized. Much cheaper than light rail would be a restoration of clean, fast, quiet trolley buses--such as once served Independence Avenue, Prospect, Brooklyn, Woodland, and Indiana–adding at least Troost and Country Club (now known as the MAX) to the mix as well. Once an adequate power house is in place it’s just a matter of stringing and maintaining overhead wires. The same power would be available for any future light rail or streetcar lines.

One interesting part of the new Establishment proposal is running light rail down the Watkins–though only from 47th to 63rd. Actually a light rail right of way was provided for much of the Watkins when it was built. A position paper that I helped draft for ATU 1287 some fifteen years ago advocated running light rail from a park and ride on the north side of Bannister Mall, down the Watkins to Hospital Hill, where it would then go by street to downtown. That is a line that could attract a lot now driving to those destinations from Lee’s Summit, Raytown, south Kansas City, and perhaps even further out. Of course, since that original proposal, the Mall, and Wal-Mart’s Hypermart, have closed--so there is plenty of room for parking and plenty of need for saving that area from blight. A Northland connection from downtown to Vivion Road added on the other side would be a giant step forward for transportation–if not “development.”

Such proposals are not favored by the ruling rich, their political servants, or the grant driven bureaucrats at the ATA. It will take a mass movement, led by labor, environmental, and community organizations, to get Kansas City the transit we need and deserve.

Outraged, Outraged I Tell You

2008-04-30T09:03:00.001-06:00

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

2008-03-06T11:05:00.001-06:00

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

2007-10-16T20:55:00.000-06:00

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

2007-10-10T21:40:00.000-06:00

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

2007-10-10T12:31:00.000-06:00

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

2007-09-05T09:35:00.000-06:00

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'

2007-07-31T20:32:00.000-06:00

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.

A Remarkable Union Leader

2007-03-14T20:06:00.000-06:00

I learned last week from the UE web site that Boris Block died last month at the age of 82. Known to all as “Red,” an appropriate description of both hair tint and political outlook, he was a remarkable leader in a unique union.

He was one of the last of a cadre who held together the UE through a roller-coaster history from the end of World War II to a generational changing of the guard in the 1980s. This period included:

●The biggest strike wave in American history in 1946.
●The passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947, effectively outlawing labor’s most successful tactics.
●The Cold War witch hunt, launched in earnest in 1949, which led to the UE being driven out of the CIO and left severely weakened by raids from other unions.
●A series of further defections in the 1950s led by “left” forces seeking accommodation with the newly unified AFL-CIO.
●A modest resurgence by the union in organizing and bargaining victories in the Sixties, Seventies, and early Eighties.
●And finally, just beginning to be felt at the time of Block’s retirement, a new devastating loss of membership due to massive plant closings by General Electric, Westinghouse, WABCO/Union Switch, Allen-Bradley, Stewart-Warner, Litton, and numerous smaller companies.

A typical “service” oriented union could not have survived these upheavals. But the UE was far from typical. Rejecting the partnership with the boss approach that dominates American labor, for the UE it has always been “them and us.” To this day it maintains the most democratic structure of any union, still limits the salaries of officials to no more than those of the highest paid working members they represent, and relies on a network of stewards and activists on the shop floor to pursue the union’s objectives.

Red Block wasn’t typical either. Capable of serious intellectual discourse he was also a masterful communicator with workers of all backgrounds. Dead serious about his commitment to the class struggle, he possessed quite a sense of humor as well. Enjoying a well deserved label of tightwad when it came to handling the members’ money he could be quite generous on a personal level.

There are a couple of appreciations of the full span of Red’s career on the UE site and I’m sure more testimonials will be forthcoming. I want to offer some brief personal observations.

I first met Red shortly after he was elected UE General Secretary Treasurer in 1975. He was visiting UE Local 1139 in Minneapolis where I was a new member, recently hired on at Litton Microwave. I was at the time still somewhat ambivalent about the UE. I had been warned by some that there was still a strong influence of what I had been raised to call Stalinism. On the other hand I was already impressed with what I had seen of the democratic structure, their militant approach on the shop floor and the UE’s strong opposition to the recent Vietnam war. So I listened to a talk he gave to about forty at a local membership meeting with great interest.

It sure didn’t sound like any “Stalinist” speech I’d ever heard. He combined an excellent analysis of the objective situation facing the UE and the rest of organized labor with appeals to the best traditions of our class struggle heritage--interlacing sharp wit throughout. I was impressed.

As was the Local 1139 custom, most of us hung around after the meeting for some informal discussion over hot dogs, pickled herring, and a thin, colorless liquid that they insisted on calling coffee. Red, of course, could not pass up such a feast and we found ourselves sitting together at a table. I complimented him on his speech and then tested him with a curve ball I’d often pitched to union bureaucrats; I asked, doesn’t the need for a Labor Party of our own flow logically from the situation you laid out? I was mildly surprised when he agreed without hesitation or qualification. He suggested that if I felt strongly about this I should start raising discussions in the local. If I could convince them we should submit a resolution to the UE convention.

As a matter of fact I did just that. It took a while, but the 1978 UE convention unanimously adopted a resolution from Local 1139 calling for the formation of a Labor Party. Fifteen years later, this union that Tony Mazzocchi fondly called “the mouse that roared,” played a key role in the launching of the present Labor Party project.

As I came to take an active role in Local 1139 I encountered Red numerous times at District Council meetings and conventions. He was also particularly helpful during our 1979 negotiations with Litton that led to a bitter six-week strike.

When we started negotiations in the late summer the inflation rate was at thirteen percent. Labor’s “friend” in the White House, Jimmy Carter, was demanding that wage increases not exceed seven percent. Litton, one of the toughest antiunion employers around, patriotically announced they were standing behind our President all the way–at least on wage increases. It was clear from day one we were headed for a major battle. Litton workers, most of whom had been hired within the last five years, were to launch their very first strike.

Now there’s a lot of science that goes into negotiating a contract–more so with today’s computer technology, not yet available in 1979, that can instantly crunch any set of what-if numbers. Venerable institutions also come in to play to take care of essential tasks once a strike is called. But guiding this up close and personal side of the class struggle to a successful conclusion is also an art. Red was a Renoir in this art form.

Along with our District President, Frank Rosen, Red emphasized to us that this was not a contest between negotiating committees. Our members were our only reliable source of power–and it would be they who would suffer from any screw-ups we committed. We could suggest and attempt to inspire but should be careful not to raise unrealistic expectations. We should also listen very carefully and have a good idea of what those we spoke for really were prepared to fight around, what was acceptable, what was a deal breaker.

This may appear to be an obvious common sense approach. Unfortunately, it’s far from typical in the American labor movement. Often strikes begin with much bombast on the part of union officials, soon followed by caving in to the boss demands, coming back to recommend a disappointing settlement as the “best we can get.” Sometimes we see the opposite, though hardly better approach from prideful, inflexible leaders who, lacking any tactical judgment, simply “stick to their guns” until the bitter end of a lost war of attrition.

This is not the place for a full history of the Litton strike. It’s enough to say that the company threw down the ultimate challenge of attempting to replace us and run the plants without us–not yet a common practice at the time. Red was very helpful in working with the shop and local leadership to deal with the anxiety that “permanent replacement” inevitably evokes. The risks were frankly acknowledged. Without hubris we explained why we thought the strike could still be won and what we thought was needed to respond to this escalation by the company.

At the end of the day anger and determination prevailed over fear. Less than one percent of the strikers were lured in to scabbing. The few dozen “permanent replacements” the company hired off the street were met by mass, vigorous picket lines. An injunction limiting our picket lines proved to be too much for the Plymouth Police Department to enforce after some arrests of militant grandmothers caused them great embarrassment. After a couple of weeks of these scuffles and negative publicity Litton finally agreed to a settlement most 1139 members saw as a victory.

Red often passed along some of the wisdom he had acquired obliquely, through humorous anecdotes. Once, during a break in the Litton negotiations, he told me of coming to Minneapolis a couple of decades earlier to help prepare a strike at a major UE shop. Just as he was building up to a stem-winding conclusion to a rousing speech to the workers assembled at the union hall a business agent appeared at the door to the auditorium and announced, “hot dogs are ready!” At that point every one got up and started filing out to the dining hall. Somewhat perturbed, Red later asked the business agent why he hadn’t delayed the call to food until the speech was finished. The b.a. explained that timing was critical. Left in the water too long the hot dogs would start wrinkling.

I understood the underlying moral to this story was not that Minnesotans were vulnerable to growling stomachs. Rather it was a way of humbly reminding us that our members, for better or worse, don’t always share our sense of priority and will not be easily diverted from theirs even by our gifted oratory or writing.

Even though Red wasn’t involved, this lesson was still fresh in my mind the following year when I was part of a team sent to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to organize a Litton run away plant. We went there prepared to focus our campaign on the two-dollar-an-hour wage differential between these plants only about 200 miles apart. We soon discovered that the mostly women assemblers were not all that concerned about their wage rates–which were better than anything else available in the area. They were, however, seething about treatment issues. Fortunately, we didn’t try to force feed our game plan. We were able to make a quick adjustment in our strategy--and we went on to win the biggest union organizing victory in a manufacturing plant in the history of the state.

While working on the Sioux Falls campaign I was subject to the same frugal per diem rationed out to the regular UE staff. At that time the meal allowance while on the road was eight bucks a day. Mostly in jest, I once asked the General Secretary Treasurer if he didn’t think this was a little on the cheap side. He explained quite seriously that it was understood this may be insufficient to meet all your restaurant bills but, after all, you were paid a salary that was supposed to be enough to provide for your groceries. The meal per diem was meant to cover only the extra expense of eating out above and beyond your normal food bill. And, I must admit, Red strove to stay within these guidelines personally. More than once we encountered one another at a Chicago area White Castle during District Council meetings.

In the Eighties companies such as General Electric, and the Big Three automakers, started advancing new schemes, which they attributed to their successful Japanese competitors, for labor-management cooperation on the shop floor. They were known by such names as Quality Circles and Team Concept. GE invited UE, along with the other unions they deal with, to join them on a tour of Japan to see how this worked.

The other unions eagerly accepted the junket invitation–and returned home to work with the boss on improving productivity. The UE declined and I remember Red explaining why.

UE was most interested in Japanese labor relations but learned about them through their fraternal ties with Japanese unions, such as they do today with Zenroren. As a matter of fact, even though Japanese industry can be credited with many innovations the Quality Circle scams were based on the philosophy and methods of “scientific management” developed by the American Frederick Winslow Taylor, beginning in the 19th century. Taylorism had been introduced to Japanese industry during the American occupation at the end of World War II. A very old product in a new, imported package. Industrial unions had cut their teeth on battling Taylorism and the UE was committed to continue to do so. I heard him coin the oft-quoted proverb, “after the lion and the lamb lie down together it’s the lion who gets up and burps.”

Red retired in 1985. My membership in UE ended the following year after the Litton plant was closed and I eventually returned to my original home town of Kansas City. I saw Red only once more, at a demonstration in Washington. But I’ve often remembered this union leader, skilled politician, and a real character of the game.

How About Funding for Vets?

2007-03-02T19:52:00.000-06:00

The Washington Post expose of the horrible conditions for wounded GIs in “outpatient” treatment at Walter Reed Hospital has called attention to serious problems and cost some do-nothing brass their careers. The mold and vermin in patient quarters will be cleaned up. That’s good.

What’s been overlooked is the fact that Reed and other military facilities have simply been overwhelmed. A combination of body armor, advanced trauma medicine, and improved transport, has saved the lives of many who formerly would have died on the battlefield. But the flip side of this is that the ratio of wounded soldiers is the highest in living memory–currently running about 2,000 a month.

Most agree that the wounded are getting good medical attention now. But many of them will require expensive treatment, and disability payments for decades to come. A Harvard study estimates a liability of over 600 billion dollars to meet these most basic obligations. Clearly the military and the VA are nowhere near prepared to handle this little discussed cost of war. A compelling material supplement to the human arguments for demanding not one more day of this bloody, unjust war.

Dems Plan To Boost Bush War Supplemental

2007-03-02T19:50:00.000-06:00

A Reuters headline on AlterNet read, “U.S. House Democrats seek more war funds than Bush.” That’s right, not only are those peace congresspersons we’ve been lobbying not cutting off war funding–they are adding an additional five billion to the 93 billion requested by Bush to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They’re still debating what “conditions” they will attempt to place on this increased spending.

Find Out Why They’re Leaving

2007-02-28T11:15:00.000-06:00

Why do 1600 Mexicans leave for the United States every day? That’s one of the questions to be dealt with by Onesimo Hidalgo, co-director of the Center for Economic & Political Research for Community Action, Chiapas, Mexico, at two talks in the area. Hidalgo will be speaking in Lawrence Thursday evening and at UMKC Friday night. For details about the two events click here.

Too Bad They Missed the Oscars

2007-02-28T11:14:00.000-06:00

The theater of the absurd in congress is scheduled to open a new production Thursday with the first major vote on EFCA–the Employee Free Choice Act. It’s not a bad bill. It would allow union organizing through card check and provide for arbitration when impasse is reached, or within six months, in negotiations for a first contract. It looks like a cinch to be passed–and vetoed. Clearly the votes aren’t there to over ride.

The Democrats, and our union leaders, will crow about this great victory and seethe about the evil Republicans snatching it away. It will be another good message, like opposition to the war, to exploit through the 2008 election..Would it be impolite to ask the question why passing such legislation was never accomplished before when there was Democrat control of both houses and a Dem in the White House–as recently as 1994?

Circle the Wagons In Iraq Now!

2007-02-28T11:11:00.000-06:00

That might well be the new slogan of the incrementalists in the peace movement trying to be practical in working with the new peace majority in congress. One plan of the Democrat “left” would restrict GIs in Iraq to their bases and allow them to shoot only in self-defense.

At Least We Didn’t Get A Full Glass

2007-02-28T11:09:00.000-06:00

The header on the e-mail from Environmental Defense read “Breaking News: Global Warming Victory.” It went on to gush that a condition imposed on the sale of energy giant TXU was abandonment of plans for building eight new coal-fired power plants. Sounds good but part of the deal negotiated by ED was their blessing to build three new coal burners in Texas. Perhaps the lead should have been, “we’ve negotiated a seventy percent reduction in the latest dose of new poison.”

Monday one of the world’s top climate scientists, NASA’s James Hansen, called for a total halt to building more of these top polluters. The AP said, “Hansen, who said he was speaking as a private citizen, also told the press club that by mid-century all coal-fired power plants that do not capture and bury carbon dioxide ‘must eventually be bulldozed.’ It's foolish to build new ones if the emissions can't be dealt with, he said.” Capture and bury schemes are far from being practical–and may never be.

The incremental approach of ED and much of the mainstream environmental movement is an acceptance of further incremental increase in irreversible damage to our planet. Pardon me if I don’t celebrate such “victory.”

Monday Morning Shorts

2007-02-26T08:17:00.000-06:00

WIR Is Up
The February 25 Week In Review has been posted on the kclabor.org site and can be reached by clicking here.

Successful Immigrant Rights Rally
Initial reports from Connecticut indicate the East Coast Forum on Immigrant Rights last night was a big success, drawing over 300. We’ll have more details on the Daily Labor News Digest tomorrow.

Cheaper By the Dozen
Some have asked why I have been silent about the primary election being held tomorrow in Kansas City. Frankly, I hoped if we ignored them they might go away. It’s one of those contests where it’s a shame somebody has to win.

Because of term limits the current mayor, and five city council members, cannot run for reelection. Naturally, the five pink-slipped council persons are now running for mayor. They have been joined by a recently unemployed, term limited Jackson County Executive (who also happens to be under indictment for mortgage fraud), a recently retired city auditor, a former prosecuting attorney, a wealthy retired entrepreneur who now does “community volunteer” work, a marketing consultant, and two failed bar owners–a dozen in all.

The candidate endorsed by the Building Trades Council, Becky Nace, has close ties to loony right Republicans who bankrolled last year’s fight against stem cell research. She was the prime mover in helping Wal-Mart escape from a poor location in one part of town to a TIF haven in her ward. She has called for abolition of the city’s earnings tax–which provides a majority of the city’s revenues.

If the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO has endorsed anyone they haven’t disclosed that to the public.

After tomorrow’s decision I plan to display my favorite bumper sticker, “Don’t Blame Me–I Didn’t Vote.”

News Back Where It Belongs

2007-02-23T06:34:00.000-06:00

For today anyway our software is talking to the server and the Daily Labor News Digest is updated on its own page.

Thursday News Still Here

2007-02-22T06:26:00.000-06:00

After a brief fix Wednesday evening our problems with Microsoft software have returned. Here is today's Daily Labor News Digest we couldn't upload.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

War Zone

Insurgents Kill 23—Blackhawk Down

Italian president in crisis talks after Prodi quits
Britain and Denmark to start Iraq withdrawal
Chomsky on Iran, Iraq, and the Rest of the World
Iraq war protests grow before Cheney's Australia trip
National Guard May Undertake Iraq Duty Early

USA

Crews recover body of man buried in trench collapse

Rochester rally supports worker rights legislation
Human service workers may strike in northeastern Minnesota
Airline Bankruptcies, Mergers and Profits Provoke Unions
Teamsters OK Jeffboat contract
Jettisoning justice for janitors

Deal Struck with N.J. State Labor Union
Chrysler workers, dealers shaken
Guild wins 'webisode' dispute
Detention Facility for Immigrants Criticized
Slowing Economy Isn't Cooling Prices

Around the World
Canada
Rail talks resume as Tories file back-to-work notice
Germany
Where Is the German Trade Union Movement and Where Is It Going?
Guatemala
Leftist Party Backs Maya Nobel Menchu Election Bid

From Our Blog...
A Civics Refresher

Our Environment
Experts: Warming may harm Tuscan wines
Forests Hold Clues to Climate

A Civics Refresher

2007-02-21T10:35:00.000-06:00

When I aced the state mandated test on the U.S. Constitution back in the seventh grade my teacher awarded me a sack of Kandy Korn. That sweet reward reinforced my interest in what was then known in our schools as Civics, the rights and obligations of citizens. Trouble is I took all that stuff seriously–and still do. This has caused me problems over the years as I have learned how in real life the politicians manipulate the checks and balances of our branches of national government, not to mention what goes on in state capitols and city halls.

It was therefore only a nagging sense of duty that led to me agreeing to a request from the legislative coordinator of US Labor Against the War to join a delegation visiting Representative Reverend Emanuel Cleaver yesterday. This was part of a national effort of Volunteers for Change, sponsored by a “progressive” reseller of nonunion long distance service. They seek to orchestrate volunteerism for “busy people who want to make a difference.” Guidelines and talking points are provided.

All of us busy volunteers showed up at the appointed time to discover that Cleaver’s office claimed to know nothing about the scheduled visit. Cleaver himself was not on the premises but the director of his Kansas City office, Jeff Jolley, did agree to take a meeting with us.

To my relief, no one in our group seemed determined to follow our scripted guidelines and talking points. Two Unity (not Unitarian) ministers were more sharp tongued than I in dressing down Reverend Cleaver’s vicar. Not for the first time, he was reminded that the new congressional majority was there only because of antiwar sentiment and indispensable support from organized labor. We now expect more than half-ass nonbinding resolutions. We made clear we want our congressman to not only vote against the supplemental appropriation of 93 billion for the war; he should vote against any Iraq military spending other than what it takes to bring all of our GIs home now.

The unflappable Mr Jolley assured us that Representative Cleaver had always been against the war. (Cleaver was not yet in congress at the time of the 2002 resolution, on which Bush bases his authority for war, but has consistently voted for funding to continue the war.) He explained to us that defunding the war was not so simple. If congress slashes the defense budget by the amount requested for Iraq he claimed the White House and Pentagon can simply shift funds from elsewhere in Defense to keep the war going.

This seemed to me an excessively defeatist attitude on the part of congress. I strained to recall that seventh grade test. I believe the Constitution in fact gives congress the sole authority to declare and end wars. The highest law of the land also endows the legislative branch with exclusive power for authorizing all expenditures of government money. If congress chooses to renounce their power–and responsibility to those who elected them–to end the war I assured Mr Jolley that an angry majority will start looking for other alternatives to lobbying to stop this unjust war.

As I read this morning’s news sites I discovered there was an even less polite visit to Senator McCaskill on the other side of the state. The St Louis Post-Dispatch headline read “Iraq War Protestors Target Democrats.”Veterans for Peace organized a sit-in in the new senator’s office. Four were arrested and fined 75 dollars for making a fuss about McCaskill’s cynicism about the war.

Another somewhat relevant story caught my eye this morning. "Congress puts Palestinian funds in limbo" was the banner in the Los Angeles Times. The U.S. once committed to giving financial aid to the Palestinian Authority as part of the Road Map to Peace. But their support to democratic government among Palestinians was suspended when the ingrates elected somebody Washington didn’t like. The abrupt loss of this funding led to a virtual shut down of all public services resulting in widespread hardship and exacerbating factional rivalries. Recently the Bush administration agreed to restore about 86 million to the Authority.

But some in congress didn’t feel so helpless about challenging the commander-in-chief on this one. In fact one lone member of congress, Rep. Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations, has put a hold on the money. Too bad her counterpart chairing the subcommittee on defense spending, Jack Murtha, can’t seem to do the same on Iraq war spending.

Well, that’s enough civics refresher for one morning.

Wednesday Morning Clips

2007-02-21T06:46:00.000-06:00

New UAW pattern: givebacks

The dilemma for US car workers

Nissan to cut factory workers in Tennessee

Government readies back-to-work law as CN workers refuse to end strike

Greek labor union headquarters attacked with petrol bombs, rocks

Movement to unionize workers at Milum Textile a fierce battle

Health care spending seen doubling in 10 years

Australia to ban old-style light bulbs

EU backs target to cut CO2 emissions

Two die in Carrollton grain elevator collapse

Ruling could pay off for meatpackers

Iraq war protesters target Democrats

Parkland schools remain closed due to strike

Groups urge expansion of Family & Medical Leave Act

Nuclear plant's safety questioned

Climate change laps at Bangladesh's shores

Threat to Lake Tahoe's clarity seen

Deal reached to postpone downtown immigration rally

Tugboat worker killed when tow line hits her

Army Launches Cleanup In Walter Reed Housing

9 States Sue Over Mercury Emissions

Cleaner Coal Is Attracting Some Doubts

News

2007-02-20T15:01:00.000-06:00

War Zone

Iraqi Militants Launch Attack on U.S. Outpost
Bombs In Baghdad, 20 Bodies Found
Suicide blast wounds 3 U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan

Army Fixing Patients' Housing
U.S. Releases Numbers of Afghan War Dead

USA

Labor deal with Gelson's puts pressure on bigger grocery chains

Hundreds of workers leave N.C. slaughterhouse
Tentative labor accord aids motorcycle maker
Stop & Shop workers OK strike option
Unions may picket Qwest Field
Driving drivers away
Fairfax to cut work force
Unions help kill academy plans
Chrysler, GM deal would hit area hard
Debit cards for immigrants

Around the World
Britain
Mayor to sign Venezuela oil deal
London Subway Workers Authorize Strike
Canada
CN Rail strike deemed legal, mediator sets to work
Sweden
Pinoy seamen's group wins labor case in Sweden

Our Environment
Global warming scientist is encouraged
Canned tuna exceeds guidelines on mercury
Guilt-Free Pollution. Or Is It?
N.J. Farm Animal Protections Upheld

Tuesday Morning Troubles

2007-02-20T08:19:00.000-06:00

Once again, Microsoft FrontPage 2003 software, used to publish the kclabor.org web site, is failing to communicate with the host server. That is why the Daily Labor News Digest updates have not yet appeared today. The usually resourceful technicians at SupremeServer are working on this latest puzzle. If it's not fixed by this afternoon I will post the news links on this blog.

February 19 Week In Review

2007-02-19T13:14:00.000-06:00

Week In Review
February 19, 2007
by Bill Onasch

Bring ‘em Home Tomorrow
I don’t generally look at Newsweek. I thank Jerry Gordon for forwarding one of the best pieces about the war I’ve seen in a long time–a column by Anna Quindlen entitled “Tomorrow, Tomorrow.” Quindlen opens with,

“Tomorrow. That’s when the United States should begin to bring combat forces home from Iraq. Today would be a better option, but already it’s tomorrow in Baghdad, in the Green Zone fortress Americans have built in the center of the city, out in the streets where IEDs are lying in wait for passing soldiers and every marketplace may be the endgame for a suicide bomber.”

She concludes,

“The people who brought America reports of WMDs when none existed, and the slogan “Mission Accomplished” when it was not nor likely to be, now say that American troops cannot leave. Not yet. Not soon. Not on a timetable. Judge the truth of that conclusion by the truth of their past statements. They say that talk of withdrawal shows a lack of support for the troops. There is no better way to support those who have fought valiantly in Iraq than to guarantee that not one more of them dies in the service of the political miscalculation of their leaders. Not one more soldier. Not one more grave. Not one more day. Bring them home tomorrow.”

I needed this breath of fresh air as an antidote to the cynicism and futility being demonstrated by the “antiwar” party controlling congress and the mainstream peace movement pandering them. The House indulged themselves by passing a Milquetoast non-binding resolution criticizing the “surge.” Despite waffling even more in negotiations with Senate Republicans they couldn’t get that much done in the upper chamber. Now they are backtracking fast from previously implied threats to reject even the supplemental appropriation for the escalation in Iraq (93 billion.)

The main national peace coalition, United for Peace & Justice, has made lobbying the new congress their over riding priority. But they are “realists.” Here’s what they have to say in their talking points for peace activists to bring to their local reps (I am not disclosing any confidential plans–this is all posted on the Internet):

“UFPJ endorses a two-track strategy. Our first priority is to defeat the supplemental appropriation bill – we are asking all members to vote NO on the bill. It is a longshot that we can defeat the bill so we have a back-up strategy to put conditions on the funding bill...”

Even more “realistic” forces, that have created new letterheads such as Americans Against Escalation of the War in Iraq (SEIU and MoveOn.org), and MoveCongress.org (Win Without War, AFSC, Working Assets long distance company), have found a hero to champion the backup strategy--Congressman Jack Murtha (D-PA), Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

In an “exclusive” MoveCongress.org interview Murtha proposes the following restrictions on the 93 billion:

1) Troops will need to be certified as "fully combat ready" with the training and equipment that they need;
2) Deployments cannot be extended beyond one year;
3) Troops must have at least one-year at home between deployments;
4) The "stop-loss" program where soldiers are forced to extend their agreed upon enlistment period will be prohibited.

That’s a long way from tomorrow. But that’s what all the realistic strategy of the peace Democrats, the pacifists, and UFPJ is coming down to–Murtha’s backup restrictions.

I’ve been asked by US Labor Against the War to join a delegation meeting with Representative Emanuel Cleaver, Democrat, MO fifth district, tomorrow. Unlike most others likely to attend I won’t be going in with a two-track strategy. USLAW has a one track strategy. I plan to politely, but clearly tell Rev Cleaver that we think he should not only vote no on the supplemental; we want him to vote against any further funding of the military in Iraq--except for what it takes for the immediate, safe withdrawal of every last GI in harm’s way.

I don’t expect to get that commitment from my congressman. But I’d rather lose what I want than to “win” what I don’t want. Principles and self-respect should dictate that we be at least as strong and honest as a Newsweek columnist.

Making All the Right Connections
You should be sure to read an op ed piece by California Nurses Association president Deborah Burger,

Defense spending overshadowing health care. She not only contrasts war spending to the cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, “Imagine for a moment how else we could have spent $589 billion, the amount already devoured by the war in Iraq, plus the administration's funding request for the next two years.” She also points out the Harvard study that estimates the United States will need to spend as much as $662 billion over the next 40 years on medical costs for the tens of thousands of injured veterans. She wraps up, “‘A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom,’ said Dr. Martin Luther King, and, he might well have added, endangering the health security of its citizens at home.”

Immigrant Rights Forum In Connecticut
The Campaign to Stop the ICE Raids in Danbury is sponsoring an impressive East Coast Forum on Immigrants Rights next Sunday, February 25. Speakers include: Ana Avendaño, Associate General Counsel & Director, AFL-CIO Immigrant Workers Program, Anabel Pimentel and Reina Campos, workers affected by the ICE Raids conducted at the Swift & Co. Meatpacking Plant in Hyrum, Utah, Foster Maier, a Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund Attorney representing immigrant communities in Hazleton, PA., Riverside, NJ, and Mamaroneck, NY, and Carola Otero Bracco, Director of the Mount Kisco, NY Day Laborers Center. The event will take place at Western Connecticut State University, Ives Concert Hall, located in the midtown campus and is scheduled to run from 4 to 7 p.m.

That’s all for this week.

New Democrat Antiwar Strategy

2007-02-14T20:45:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Jerry Gordon for passing along a perceptive article about how the Democrats plan to drag out their advantage as the perceived “antiwar” party: House Democrats' New Strategy: Force Slow End to War by John Bresnahan. A key component in this cynical prolonging of bloodshed and destruction is Americans Against Escalation of the War in Iraq. This outfit describes itself as “a major, multi-million dollar national campaign to oppose the President's proposal to escalate the war in Iraq by sending more than 20,000 additional troops into the violent civil war between Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias.” Its major players are SEIU and MoveOn.org.

13,000 and Counting

2007-02-14T16:28:00.000-06:00

Chrysler Group revealed the basic outline of its Project X slash and shut plan this morning. 13,000 jobs in the U.S. and Canada–9,000 UAW, 2,000 CAW, 2,000 salaried--will be gone in no more than two years. The Newark, Delaware assembly plant and a Cleveland parts center will be shuttered. Shifts will be slashed at the Warren and Fenton (where I briefly worked in 1968) assembly plants. Still unclear is the future of Mack Avenue I and II engine plants. All this comes after a steady elimination through attrition of 40,000 jobs over the past five years. The UAW denounced Dr Z’s latest move. The CAW, who are trying to negotiate a Ford-style buy-out, were more muted in their response.

Support COTS Workers

2007-02-12T17:01:00.000-06:00

Our friend John Woodruff with UE Local 222 has alerted us that newly organized workers at the Committee on Temporary Shelter (COTS) in Vermont have come under fresh attack by their nonprofit employer. Three union activists have been virtually fired. Their defense has been taken up by the Vermont Workers Center who is conducting an online petition campaign. You can lend support by clicking here.

Don’t Mean To Slight Larry

2007-02-12T16:36:00.000-06:00

We’ve said a lot about Andy Stern’s appearance with Wal-Mart’s CEO at the new “Better Health Care Together Coalition” kick-off. We didn’t mean to snub one of Chairman Andy’s most vocal critics among his peers–CWA president Larry Cohen. Larry was also on board, holding hands with the top boss of AT&T. You can watch and listen to his stirring oratory by clicking here.

February 11 Week In Review

2007-02-11T22:18:00.000-06:00

Week In Review
February 11, 2007
by Bill Onasch

Back Home For A While
After more than 5000 miles of travel over a month’s time I look forward to a long stretch of home cooking. My latest journey was my very first visit to Philadelphia to attend a meeting of the Labor Party Interim National Council. The gathering was hosted by the Pennsylvania Federation of the BMWE-T and I must say they provided us with first-class meeting facilities and made sure we didn’t go hungry. We heard encouraging reports on the progress of party building in South Carolina and their plans for fielding the Labor Party’s first candidates for office there. There was also an update about the campaign to put a single-payer proposition on the ballot in Ohio, where the Ohio state party is working in coalition with unions and community groups. In addition there was further discussion about organizational restructuring in order to give maximum support to these priority campaigns. I’ll have more to say on all these topics later.

On my brief trip I became dependent on the same news sources viewed by business travelers. Watching CNN while munching on a complimentary breakfast in the Crowne Plaza Priority Club lounge I concluded the Iraq war must be over, the health care crisis resolved, and Global Warming reversed. There were but three dominant stories on the self-described “world’s most important network.”Examined in the most minute detail were the rival claims of paternity of the late Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter; the incredible amount of snow that has fallen in Oswego, New York; and Barack Obama’s announcement that he really is a candidate for President.

All this served as a reminder why I started up the Daily Labor News Digest about seven years ago, and later these weekly columns. Bill Gates willing, the Digest returns tomorrow, February 12, to Monday-Saturday updates by 7AM Central. Commentary on some of the news will be offered most days on the Labor Advocate blog and the Week In Review will continue, usually on Sundays. Now to some stories you probably didn’t hear about on CNN.

CN Strikers Get Backing Of International Union–But Not Their Own
2800 Canadian National Railway conductors went on strike yesterday. Steelworkers national director Ken Neumann immediately issued a statement that said, “These workers have been without a contract long enough....We are behind their effort to get a decent contract with CN....they can count on Steelworkers.” Only problem is the strikers don’t belong to the Steelworkers.

Their international union, the UTU, issued a very different kind of statement. Paul Thompson said, “The unauthorized strike against Canadian National Railways in Canada commenced by four UTU general chairpersons at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 10, has created a very serious and very sad situation for our UTU brothers and sisters in Canada employed by CN.... In fact, the UTU Constitution is a legally binding document on all UTU officers. Were I to violate the Constitution and authorize a strike without the required investigation, I would be subject to charges and the strike likely would be declared unauthorized if challenged in court or before a regulatory tribunal.”

It didn’t take long for the carrier to pick up on Thompson’s sad position. According to UTU-Canada, “CN’s Montreal-based law firm, Ogilvy Renault, notified affected UTU general chairpersons Rex Beatty, Raymond LeBel, Bryan Boechler and Sylvia Leblanc that because the general chairpersons did not follow the UTU Constitution’s provisions related to a strike, and failed to gain strike required strike authorization from the UTU International, that CN considered the strike unlawful under the Canadian Labour Code and that CN would sue strikers individually for ‘any and all damages’ incurred by CN.”

Our Canadian correspondent Rod aptly commented, “Labour can not back away from this fight. This is the watershed moment for Canadian Unions. If we blink now...If it needs a General Strike so be it, in this union members opinion.”

The Canadian strike web site can be reached by clicking here.

Change to Wind
Actually you may have seen SEIU president Andy Stern, aka Chairman Andy, on CNN earlier this week. The media was quite impressed with his joint appearance with the CEO of Wal-Mart to pitch health care “reform.”

Not so impressed was CtW partner Joe Hansen, president of the UFCW. Now Hansen isn’t exactly what you would call a radical. He paid his dues clawing up the ladder in his union’s bureaucracy as the hit man sent in to Austin, Minnesota to break the legendary Hormel strike and put the old Local P-9 out of business. Part of his work there was sandblasting Mike Alewitz’s solidarity mural from the union office wall. But Hansen’s union has the jurisdiction for trying to organize Wal-Mart and is currently engaged in tough negotiations with California grocers where health care is a huge issue. While not naming Chairman Andy, Hansen issued his own statement that said,

“It’s not appropriate to take the stage with a company that refuses to remedy its mistreatment of workers, among other irresponsible practices. Wal-Mart is actually decreasing health care coverage to employees and facing the largest gender discrimination case in the history of this country....Wal-Mart is the largest corporation that provides the least health care to employees. But suddenly the company has become a proponent of health care for everyone—apparently, though, as long as Wal-Mart doesn’t have to deal with the health care needs of its own employees....In addition to our continuing advocacy for universal care, the UFCW will continue our fight for good health care benefits for workers at the bargaining table. And we will continue our fight on behalf of Wal-Mart workers so that they have affordable health care benefits and wages. We will not settle for empty expediency.”

Hog Cancels Health Insurance
2800 IAM workers locked out by Harley-Davidson in York, Pennsylvania last week have had their health insurance cancelled by the company. Those wanting to continue coverage under COBRA will have to shell out 461 dollars a month for single, 1252 for family. Harley’s other two major plants in Milwaukee and Kansas City continue to operate under IAM and Steelworker contracts.

Go Chicks
Congratulations to my favorite group, the Dixie Chicks, for taking Grammy Awards for “Not Ready to Make Nice.” and their album, "Taking the Long Way." Stuff that in your trash barrel 61 Country.

That’s all for this week.

On the Road Again

2007-02-08T05:37:00.000-06:00

There are few attractions that justify enduring the indignities and uncertainty of today’s air travel. Representing Midwest chapters at a meeting of the Labor Party Interim National Council is one of them. Later this morning I take on my first adventure with our decidedly unfriendly skies in nearly a year The seasonal uncertain road conditions between Kansas City and my destination of Philadelphia, along with the economics of gasoline prices versus air fares, dictated this most reluctant decision to play by the rules of Homeland Security. Not wanting to consign my laptop to checked baggage I have opted to leave it behind so there will be no more updates of this blog until Monday. We will also resume our Daily Labor News Digest on the KC Labor site at that time.
Tough Times for Air Travelers

Thursday Headlines

2007-02-08T05:31:00.000-06:00

Kansas Tyson Workers Plan Union Vote
Regina Care Home workers File Charges
Chemical plant explosion rocks east Kansas City
Wal-Mart, Union Join Forces on Health Care
Lapse in Safety Procedures Adds to Debate on Power Plant
Suit to Charge That Nursery Mistreated Laborers

Wednesday Morning Stories

2007-02-07T06:57:00.000-06:00

Chairman Andy Goes To Wal-Mart
SEIU President Andy Stern is finally making the big time. This morning he appears with the CEO of America’s biggest private sector employer in Washington to talk about fixing our health care crisis.
Wal-Mart and a Union Unite, at Least on Health Policy

Knoxville Auto Parts Strike
More than 200 IAM workers have shut down Maremont Exhaust Products, a producer of mufflers and catalytic converters. The issues are big boosts in health insurance premiums and company demands to gut the seniority system.
Union workers express resolve as strike begins

The Canadian Minimum
As congress still fiddles around on proposals to raise the U.S. minimum wage, currently 5.15, for the first time in a decade, here’s an in depth look at the question north of the border.
Minimum wage laws – The state of pay in Canada

Modest Labor Law Reforms Face Harsh Resistance
The U.S. has the worst labor laws of any industrialized country. Our labor leaders long ago abandoned the demand of repealing Taft-Hartley--which banns mass picketing, secondary boycotts, and hot cargo–to chip away at obstacles to organizing. This years attempt is labeled the Employee Free Choice Act. Mark Gruenberg gives a good description of the effort.
Proposed law would strengthen worker rights

Some Budget Suggestions
Mark Brenner from Labor Notes shows how unions could obtain millions more for organizing efforts–cap union official salaries at 100,000 per annum.
Across Many Unions, Bloated Salaries Limit Organizing Budgets

More Stories
Wal-Mart loses job-bias appeal
Writers unions name panel to prepare for talks
AFTRA's John Connolly to run Actors' Equity
Legacy of Radiation Illness Stirs Objection to Nevada Bomb Test
Many Voices, No Debate, as Senate Is Stifled on War

A Breath Of Fresh Air From Canada

2007-02-06T16:19:00.000-06:00

I pass along a message from our old friend Rod in Vancouver, a long time bus driver and union activist. Kansas City once had an impressive fleet of these wonderful buses. Still common in much of the world I know of only San Francisco and Seattle using them in the U.S. today.

Bill, maybe you could place a link on site for sustainable electric trolley buses and street cars... couple links below

On the environment front... TransLink's order of 40 foot and 60 foot articulated 'New Flyer' electric trolley buses have started to arrive.

These will replace the 244,1981 'Flyer E900's.

With the added pressure of global warming maybe this will cause Trolley's to become mainstream urban buses again?

Trolley bus article

http://www.bettertransit.ab.ca/080306/TrolleyBuses-theCommunityFriendlySolution.pdf

Excellent study of why trolleys survived

http://www.vcn.bc.ca/t2000bc/learning/etb/trolleybus_essay.html

New Flyer Industries

http://www.newflyer.com/index/trolley

I like the new blog and its format.

Think blog format gives a very progressive outlook...

The layout puts more information on page, exposing and encouraging users to more information.

Rod

Tuesday Morning News

2007-02-06T06:21:00.000-06:00

Dr Z’s ‘Project X’
The Chrysler Group will be more tightly integrated into its German parent, sharing engineering, platforms, and parts with Mercedes according to a “secret” report obtained by the Detroit News. The result for UAW workers: 10,000 jobs eliminated, two plants closed.

Chrysler's secret comeback plan

Twin Cities Janitors Reach Deal

SEIU Local 26 has a tentative contract settlement covering 4200 Twin Cities janitors. Starting in July full-time workers will be able to obtain health insurance, 20 dollars a month for single, 75 for family coverage. Wages will rise ten percent over three years.

Twin Cities janitors declare contract victory

More Stories
Union leader speaks about workers rights, civil rights
Allied Seeks to Shred Labor Contracts
Battle looms over right to unionize
Ford Workers Strike For 30 Percent Raise–In Russia
Union election sought by workers at furniture plant
Union ballot for clay jobs strike
Shanghai Says Winning Fight to Stay Above Water
Farmworkers Reopen Pesticide Lawsuit

Global warming to hit poor worst

2007-02-05T08:21:00.000-06:00

That's what the new UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, told the world's environmental ministers meeting in Nairobi this morning. "...it is the poor, in Africa and developing small island states and elsewhere, who will suffer the most, even though they are the least responsible for global warming." Daniel Wallis of Reuters writes, "Experts say Africa is the lowest emitter of the greenhouse gases blamed for rising temperatures, but due to its poverty, under-development and geography, has the most to lose under dire predictions of wrenching change in weather patterns."

Monday News Stories

2007-02-05T06:10:00.000-06:00

Senate rebuke on Iraq is loud and unclear
Game over on global warming?
Tank-size defense request
Strike looms over transit labor talks
SoCal grocery workers aim to reverse contract setbacks
Union try at Sutter fears threat
Oil spill spreading off Vietnam coast
Flight attendants counter Northwest concessions request
Latino union organizers to hold conference
Abe Bloom
Who’s Attacking an Online Marxist Archive? China Is Suspected
Explosion Kills 30 in Colombian Mine

February 4 Week In Review

2007-02-04T16:55:00.000-06:00

Week In Review
February 4, 2007
by Bill Onasch

Will the (Inconvenient)Truth Set Us Free?
We’re running out of time and excuses. There’s no longer any rational basis for doubt that Global Warming is destroying the planet as we know it–and that human activity is chiefly responsible. The UN interim report on climate released this week eliminates wiggle room. As one environmentalist summed it up,

“This is the smoking gun. You now have them saying the evidence seems incontrovertible, and we are 90 percent certain. That is as certain as science ever gets.”

The question now shifts from “are we causing Global Warming?”to “can we do anything to stop it?”

Some damage is irreparable. Extinct animal and plant species are gone for good. The glaciers and arctic pack ice already melted are not coming back anytime soon. Some islands and coastal deltas are now doomed to sinking below sea level.

The report estimates that if carbon emissions were frozen at today’s level the planet’s temperature would still rise at least a full degree centigrade by the beginning of the next century. That would produce very unwelcome regional climate change. But the way industrialization and agribusiness farming methods are spreading emissions will go up--driving temperatures even higher. To see some projected scenarios of even greater increase click here.

Most scientists think we have not yet reached the “tipping point”–where we would be unable to make any meaningful change in the outcome of what has been set in motion. But we’re close to that point. Car pooling and recycling are not going to turn this around. Even capping emissions at present levels is not good enough. Urgent, far reaching changes in economic activity to reduce carbon emissions is the only way we can save the day.

If the Vulcans were watching us they would undoubtedly conclude that action on this planetary crisis would be the logical first point on everyone’s agenda. But Spock’s people never understood the dynamics of market capitalism and, anyway, the Prime Directive forbids them from helping us out.

Those that run the industries and governments that have created this environmental catastrophe don’t personally want to see destruction of our world any more than the rest of us. It is an unintended consequence of their actions. But they are guided by the market laws of what they have euphemized as Free Enterprise. Their goal has to be getting the maximum profit possible from capital investment, often in competition with others, and in conflict with their employees. Next quarter’s bottom line trumps next century’s global temperature every time.

No oil company is going to shut down their oil fields as a voluntary contribution to reducing CO2 emissions. No auto corporation is going to cease car production and urge everybody to take mass transit to slash greenhouse gasses. No building contractor will declare a moratorium on suburban expansion in order to reduce Urban Sprawl and rebuild a green urban core. Any who did take such unlikely steps would simply vanish from the scene, and their market share would be eagerly gobbled up by competitors.

If we can’t count on initiatives from those who currently run the show, whose profit and privilege is tied to the system that created Global Warming, then who can we expect to step up to the plate? Well, welcome to the Major Leagues–it’s working class folks like you and me, along with the family farmers, the youth who both want to understand and change the world, scientists and the “Tree Hugger” environmentalists. It’s going to be up to us, and us alone, to literally save the world as we know it.

For too long our labor movement demonstrated fear and hostility toward those raising environmental concerns. Too many bought the plea of their bosses to support their polluting ways in order to preserve jobs. Some even tied in to truly junk science scams, partnering up with employers in projects such as Unions for Jobs and the Environment.

But, as the truth seeps through the propaganda smog paid for by the polluters, attitudes have begun to shift. There have been modest efforts, such as the strategic partnership between the Steelworkers and the Sierra Club, and the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance, working on wildlife conservation issues. A mainstream North American Labor Assembly on Climate Crisis has been scheduled by Cornell University in New York in May.

An even more inspiring example was the recent Labor & Sustainability Conference in St Paul. There union leaders and activists teamed up with environmental leaders and activists to present a wide ranging examination of the problem and a look at some bold solutions. Out of the gathering a Continuations Committee has been established to keep the process going.

(I made a presentation at the conference opening plenary, Labor and Environmental Movements Are Natural Allies. We’ve also revamped our Environment page on the KC Labor site.)

Such small first steps are part of every journey. But this march will be particularly arduous and crucial. Global Warming needs to be a regular, priority part of the agenda of our unions--and our Labor Party that pioneered the concept of Just Transition to protect our jobs as we reorganize our production and consumption.

More On the Danbury 11
The case of 11 immigrant workers being arrested in a sting offer of day labor work continues to build solidarity in the community as reported in this TV news video clip. You can find out more of the story at the Stop the Raids web site.

Our ‘Friends’ In the Senate
Less energetic than their House colleagues, who promised great change in the first 100 Hours, the new Democrat controlled Senate has so far produced more candidates for President than major pieces of legislation. Nevertheless, labor’s friends, including two “independents,” one a “socialist,” did cook up a couple of deals last week.

It appears they will make common cause with about ten Republicans to pass a nonbinding resolution criticizing the escalation of the war in Iraq while at the same time promising full funding for the war.

Also, by a 94-3 vote, the upper chamber attached employer tax breaks to the first increase in the minimum wage in a decade–shooting it up to the princely sum of 7.25 an hour in phases over two years.

Let Them Eat Wonder Bread
The AP reported from Mexico City, “Some 75,000 unionists, farmers and leftists marched to protest price increases in basic foodstuffs like tortillas, a direct challenge to the new president's market-oriented economic policies blamed by some for widening the gulf between rich and poor.” Of course, the push for ethanol production has driven up the price of U.S. corn that Mexico has come to depend on since NAFTA devastated Mexican corn production.

Looking for Brotherly Love
I’ll be traveling to Philadelphia later this week to attend a meeting of the Labor Party Interim National Council–the equivalent of a national committee. I’ll have something to say about the gathering next week.

About That News
In a message to the KC Labor E-mail List I said, “I envision the Labor Advocate blog replacing the Daily Labor News Digest we have maintained for nearly seven years on KC Labor. Instead of wholesale posting of raw links to stories the plan is to be more selective in choosing fewer stories offered in context, with commentary.”

I was unprepared for the response from a number of you expressing disappointment, if not indignation, about the loss of the “news.” In the best spirit of compromise I will resume the Monday-Saturday posting of the Daily Labor News Digest after I return from Philadelphia, on Monday, February 12. I will also continue the new Labor Advocate blog with commentary on most days as well. Of course, all this is contingent on keeping the FrontPage 2003 software up and running. Right now it has resumed functioning as mysteriously as when it ceased.

That’s all for this week.

Sunday AM News

2007-02-04T06:50:00.000-06:00

CAW ratifies three-year deal with Xstrata Nickel by 87 per cent vote
Workers to share in restitution
Union membership in Arizona rose 36% last year to 197,000
Eramet union OKs deal
Denied Collective Bargaining, North Carolina Public Employees Turn More Militant
Dealing with ‘No-Match’ Letters
TWU Leadership Reelected With less Than Half the Vote
Thousands march in Oaxaca protest

Saturday Morning News

2007-02-03T06:18:00.000-06:00

Smoking Stacks and Pipes Are Smoking Gun
The UN interim report on climate eliminates wiggle room. Global Warming is no longer just one theory among others. Philip Clapp, president of National Environmental Trust, a nonprofit organization in Washington, said,

“This is the smoking gun. You now have them saying the evidence seems incontrovertible, and we are 90 percent certain. That is as certain as science ever gets.”

UN delivers definitive warning on dangers of climate change
Climate report predicts major consequences for Canada
Deal with warming, don't debate it, scientists warn
Science Panel Calls Global Warming ‘Unequivocal’

More Stories
Talks aim to head off strike by metro janitors union
America's Struggle With Health Care
UAW members at Guide ratify agreement on plant closures
Bolivian protesters shut down pipeline
Outraged unions assail N.L. politician payments
Black NJ Organizes Against the War
Sacked staff storm Ayrshire plant
Anti-fraternization policy is ruled unlawful
Bush to Request Billions for Wars

Meatless In Kansas City

2007-02-02T19:13:00.000-06:00

Meatpacking was once a major industry in Kansas City, providing thousands of union jobs with decent wages and benefits. It was of particular importance to the African-American community. The big packinghouses–there were once five of them--were closed by the 1970s. Now the last tiny remnant of that heritage is being shut down as well. The plant in Kansas City, Kansas, which processes lunch meats from scraps remaining from boxed cuts sent off to grocery stores from other plants, has long struggled with an identity crisis through several ownership changes. It’s been known as Armour, Morrell, and ConAgra, until Smithfield Foods recently picked it up with the rest of ConAgra’s meat plants. Not fitting in with the rural shift of the industry little investment has been made in the facility in more than a decade. Employment had declined to only 280 workers. Smithfield has announced it is pulling the plug. Salaried employees will be offered transfers to other Smithfield operations. Floor workers are on their own.

Friday Morning Top Stories

2007-02-02T06:25:00.000-06:00

Hog Shutdown
Wednesday, 2700 IAM workers in York, Pennsylvania rejected the same concession contract approved at the Harley-Davidson Milwaukee plant and voted to strike today. Harley beat them to the punch by locking them out yesterday.
Harley workers reject contract, find plant closed today
Harley-Davidson workers go in strike at 12:01 a.m., 100 hit picket line

More ‘Junk Science’
That’s the term the CEO of Exxon-Mobil has used to describe Global Warming. Yesterday his corporation announced the biggest profit for any company in the history of capitalism. The UN also released another segment of their study of Global Warming.
U.N. climate panel says global warming man-made
Eiffel Tower goes dark during protest
Even Before Its Release, World Climate Report Is Criticized as Too Optimistic

More Stories
Labor board rules against Smithfield in union vote
UAW rejects deadlines for Delphi talks
Ontario's minimum wage hits $8
Xstrata Nickel, union reach tentative agreement
Senate Adds Tax Breaks To Minimum Wage Bill
Bush Seeks Big Medicare and Medicaid Saving
U.S. savings at lowest point since '33

So You Want News, Do You?

2007-02-01T06:17:00.000-06:00

I’m surprised, and gratified, at the number of complaints I’ve received about the disappearance of the Daily Labor News Digest. You’ve convinced me that it is worth doing. Assuming that I can keep the temperamental FrontPage software going, I will resume the Digest , with “raw” links to timely stories on the Internet, Monday, February 12. (I’m waiting until then because I have another road trip next week.) I will continue this blog with commentary on some of these stories. In the meantime, I’ll list some of the top headlines of the day here on the Labor Advocate blog.

An Island of Moguls Is the Latest Front in a Union Battle
Bay Area Activists Protest Iraq War and Anti-Worker Alcatraz Ferry Operator
Some cool to hot term, 'carbon neutral'
75,000 protest tortilla prices in Mexico
Union, province reach deal after 6-week strike
Updated labour rules promise job protection, unpaid leave

2007-01-31T21:05:00.000-06:00

SoCal Grocers Look For Another Bite Of the Apple

2007-01-31T10:15:00.000-06:00

Three years ago the unionized grocery chains in southern California took a two-billion dollar loss in sales during a 4½ month lockout/strike. It was well worth it. They bloodied the UFCW’s nose, extracting numerous take-backs, creating a multi-tiered system of wages and benefits. (For what we wrote about the settlement at the time click here.) Later, a similar, though a bit less draconian contract was obtained without a work stoppage in northern California.

The concessions have been particularly hard in the area of health care. Today’s Los Angeles Times reports on a university study that found that of the employees hired during the life of the current southern California contract, called “second tier,” only 29 percent are eligible for health insurance and only seven percent actually have it.

Even some senior workers, who have a much better plan than the newcomers have dropped coverage. In September 2003, under the previous contract, 96 percent of union members in the north were enrolled, 94 percent in the south. Today that has fallen to 79 percent in the north and only 52 percent in the south.

Now negotiations are about to begin for a new contract in southern California. Last time around the bosses claimed they needed give-backs to be competitive with Wal-Mart. Now they are raising the specter of British based Tesco’s plans to enter the market with hundreds of new stores in California, Nevada, and Arizona. Look for another tough fight.

Xstrata Strike Appears Likely

2007-01-31T07:52:00.000-06:00

The former Falconbridge nickel mines in the Sudbury, Ontario area could be shut down tomorrow by over a thousand members of the CAW mine/mill division. The workers rejected an earlier company offer of a C$8,000 signing bonus. “Instead of bonuses, they would rather see a wage increase,”' a union spokesman said because bonuses are “a one-time deal.” CAW is demanding a C$1 an hour raise now and 75 cents in the second year. A strike would compound a global shortage of nickel used in stainless steel. Prices have more than doubled during the past year.

200,000 Strikers Protest British Civil Servant Cuts

2007-01-31T06:34:00.000-06:00

200,000 British public sector workers are on the picket line today in a one day protest strike against Tony Blair’s “Labour” government plan to axe 100,000 of their jobs. Blair’s bunch would eliminate many services and privatize others. The Public and Commercial Services Union will follow up today’s strike and mass rallies with a two week ban on overtime and work to rule campaign. You can find out more at the PCS web site.

Some Updating On KC Labor Site

2007-01-30T21:36:00.000-06:00

As many of you know, for several days I was unable to update the KC Labor site because of problems with our Microsoft frontPage 2003 software. Once again I have found at least a temporary work around and have done some limited editing. I still don’t feel confident enough to promise daily updates.

I have taken advantage of this window of opportunity to revamp the Environment page. Included is the prepared text of responder remarks I made at the Labor and Sustainability Conference in St Paul January 19, along with some video clips from the event.

Valentine Day Massacre?

2007-01-30T09:04:00.000-06:00

The Detroit News reports that Chrysler Group will make an announcement February 14 that they will join the others formerly known as the Big Three with massive downsizing, including plant closings.

Sprawling Cities, Shrinking Crop Land

2007-01-30T08:38:00.000-06:00

Even as President Bush and Agribusiness promote food for fuel conversion much of America’s crop land is shrinking. Wisconsin complains they’ve lost five percent of the state’s farm land to Urban Sprawl just since 2000. Seven other states--California, Georgia, Vermont, Nevada, Massachusetts, Hawaii and Delaware--lost even more. Over this time the Badger State launched an ethanol industry, now making 220 million gallons of the additive a year, and is embarking on a 450 million dollar expansion that would more than double the number of ethanol plants.

Manufacturing Workers Less Likely To Be Union

2007-01-30T08:18:00.000-06:00

Randy Heaster points out in his Kansas City Star column this morning that for the first time since the BLS started keeping statistics manufacturing workers are less likely to be unionized than the average worker. Only 11.7 percent of manufacturing is organized compared to 12 percent of the total workforce. Of course, this will get worse as tens of thousands of UAW, USW, and IUE jobs are planned for elimination this year in auto and rubber alone.

January 29 Week In Review

2007-01-29T14:53:00.000-06:00

This column is also available by e-mail. Sign up here.

Week In Review
January 29, 2007
by Bill Onasch

Good Actions–But Should Have Been A Whole Lot Better
The January 27 March On Washington against the war, with supporter actions in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and a few other local areas, were respectable. Most veteran observers that I have spoken to agree there were upwards of 100,000 in DC. But that’s somewhat smaller than some previous ones and did not adequately reflect the growing antiwar sentiment, now embraced by the majority.

One factor holding down maximum turnout was the time of year. The biggest national mobilizations have always been held in the spring or fall, for many good reasons. The January date was selected by United for Peace and Justice, the largest of competing antiwar coalitions, out of political considerations. The demonstrations were aimed to set the table to lobby the new Democrat majority today in the Capitol, early in the session.

But that table got turned before they got a chance to sit down. Bush’s “surge” was a gift to cynical politicians, giving them a chance to manipulate antiwar sentiment without presenting any alternative plan to end the war.

A hastily concocted “coalition,” calling itself Americans Against Escalation In Iraq, appeared on the scene. Composed of SEIU, Win Without War, the US Student Association, and several Democrat PACs such as Moveon.org, and Campaign for America’s Future, they called on congress to “stand up to the President and insist on a policy which responsibly brings our troops home”–at some unspecified future time. The UFPJ lobbyists today will hear plenty about Democrats “standing up to the President” by introducing one or more nonbinding resolutions against the surge-–and little else.

There was widespread endorsement of Saturday’s protests by labor bodies and leaders. Barb Kucera wrote a good summary in Workday Minnesota. Fred Mason, president of the Maryland AFL-CIO, and a co-convener of US Labor Against the War, gave a good speech to the Washington rally on behalf of AFL-CIO president John Sweeney. In San Francisco Alan Benjamin gave an excellent talk representing the San Francisco Labor Council.

That’s all well and good. But USLAW reports that the Washington labor contingent was only 2,000–about 2 percent of the total. While undoubtedly many other unionists came on their own clearly the mainstream unions that gave paper support did zero to mobilize their members.

Once again the antiwar movement has fallen far short of what is both needed and possible to bring about an end to this war. A competing coalition, ANSWER, has called for another Washington demonstration on March 17–another needlessly unfortunate scheduling choice putting it in to conflict with St Patrick’s Day celebrations across the country. The track record of ANSWER working to draw in broad participation is not encouraging. Still, we must do what we can and build any reasonable action called against this war. We also need to find a way to forge a unified movement, deciding actions democratically, in order to deliver a knock out punch while we have the war makers on the ropes.

How Many Miles to the Bushel?
Environmentalists were hardly cheering President Bush’s call for drastic reduction in gasoline usage. That’s because it isn’t a proposal to cut fuel consumption–an essential step to tackle Global Warming--but rather a pitch to cut the fuel itself with more ethanol.

In this country ethanol comes almost exclusively from corn. Adopting a food to fuel approach is leading to major problems. Already corn prices have increased dramatically leading to higher prices for corn-fed livestock and a devastating rise in the cost of Mexican tortillas–a staple of working class diet in our NAFTA neighbor.

Bush’s ethanol mandate would lead to both switching more cultivated land from other crops to corn and dumping even more chemicals on GM corn planting to increase yields–bad news indeed for the future of our land and water.

The Dense Leading the Less Dense
Remember the great debates a couple of years ago about union density–the percentage of unionization in the workforce? Some bolted the AFL-CIO, forming Change to Win, to show us how organizing should be done. The old federation axed its safety and educational programs to devote more resources to organizing.

Well, the latest BLS report shows how successful all this has been. Unions are even smaller today both in absolute numbers and in percentage of the labor force. In 2006, 12 percent of employed wage and salary workers were union members, down from 12.5 percent a year earlier. The number of people belonging to unions fell by 326,000 in 2006 to 15.4 million. Private sector union density has plummeted to around seven percent.

Some organizing was done. The California Nurses Association, and their national organizing arm, have made some solid gains. Of more dubious value were political deals turning over hundreds of thousands of state compensated day care and home health workers to unions such as SEIU and AFSCME. But these efforts could not keep up with the relentless elimination of jobs in traditional union bastions, such as auto and rubber, driven by Globalization.

Like the Global Warming crisis, the challenge of union density falling below critical mass will not be resolved without confronting some inconvenient truths. In this case facing up to the bankruptcy of “partnership” with the employers and their politicians is a prerequisite for saving our endangered unions from extinction.

Ford Not A Baby Sitter
No kidding–Ford is closing seven employee child care facilities associated with plants in Detroit, Kansas City, and Louisville. This was not a negotiated benefit and the workers paid a substantial amount to leave their kids during working hours in these centers operated by Bright Horizon Family Solutions. But it is a great convenience–especially when called on to work overtime. Ford said, “The business realities in the current restructuring initiatives that we are working through right now forced us to make the difficult decision to discontinue the child care services.” The Detroit News was unable to get a comment from the UAW.

That’s all for this week.

2007-01-28T14:05:00.000-06:00

Sunday Afternoon

Just judging from wire reports it appears at least 100,000 marched against the war in DC yesterday and thousands more rallied in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Few congressional Democrats--in the majority only because of antiwar votes--showed up though John Conyers, Dennis Kucinich, and Maxine Waters were among the speakers. Martin Freed, 60, of Alaska, said Democratic leaders were “cowards” for skipping the protest. “They ought to be out here addressing us,” he told the Los Angeles Times. Even Conyers, Detroit Democrat now chairing the House Judiciary Committee, didn’t counsel relying on the new congress. “It takes the ... outrage of the American people to force Washington to do the right thing,” he said. “We've got to hold more of these ... until our government gets the message -- Out if Iraq immediately. This year. We've got to go.”

Artists and entertainers were well represented including Danny Glover, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, Michael Farrell, and Jane Fonda. Fonda, at her first antiwar protest in 34 years, said “I've been afraid that because of the lies that have been and continue to be spread about me and that war, that they would be used to hurt this new antiwar movement. But silence is no longer an option.”

We’re still waiting on reports about the labor contingents and better estimates of crowd size. More tomorrow.

First Post

2007-01-27T06:12:00.000-06:00

This blog will offer commentary on labor news and issues on a more or less daily basis. It replaces the Daily Labor News Digest that we have maintained for nearly seven years on the KC Labor site. It also continues Labor Advocate, launched in print form in 1994, maintained as Labor Advocate Online through the KC Labor site since 2000. The pre-blog archives are maintained on the old online site.

Please cut us some slack as we venture in to the blog medium for the first time.