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#4294 From: "wilsoncharless" <chasmn@...>
Date: Thu Nov 26, 2009 5:38 am
Subject: '09 U.S. Governmental Per-Capita Spending for Healthcare 		wilsoncharless
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Paying For & Not Having Universal Health Coverage In The United States
Tossed under the bus are the working poor and lower middle class citizens.
Public Policy Polling
August 19, 2009
Do you think the government should stay out of Medicare?
Yes ................................................................. 39%
No ................................................................... 46%
Not Sure.......................................................... 15%
Public, taxpayer-funded health care spending will pay for 53% of US health care in 2009. If health care tax breaks are included, this figure rises to 62%. http://truecostblog.com/2009/11/16/what-percentage-of-us-healthcare-is-publicly-financed/
2009 United States Governmental Per-Capita Spending for Healthcare
$2,404.20 Federal Government Per-Capita Spending for Healthcare
$500.60    State Government Per-Capita Spending for Healthcare
$120.80    Local Government Per-Capita Spending for Healthcare
$3,025.60 U.S. Total Governmental Per-Capita Spending for Healthcare
France rated as having the best healthcare of any country in the world with universal coverage in '07 spent a total of $3,048.00 per capita for its healthcare. http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/chcm010307oth.cfm

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#4293 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Wed Nov 25, 2009 8:20 pm
Subject: Fwd: CLNews: [UE International Update] Call to Action in Solidarity with the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME):Focus on Consulates, Send Letters, Emails; November issue of MLNA 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: listadmin <ListAdmin@...>
To: ,,,CLNews 2 Members <clnews@...>
Sent: Wed, Nov 25, 2009 3:04 pm
Subject: CLNews: [UE International Update] Call to Action in Solidarity with SME:Focus on Consulates, Send Letters, Emails; November issue of MLNA

 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 1:18 PM
Subject: [UE International Update] Call to Action in Solidarity with SME:Focus on Consulates, Send Letters, Emails; November issue of MLNA

MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS

November 2009, Vol. 14, No. 9

 
Dedication and Call to Action
We dedicate this issue of Mexican Labor News and Analysis to the Mexican Electrical Workers (SME) and to their continuing struggle to defend the publicly owned company that the government has liquidated, to defend their union, and to win back the 44,000 jobs they have lost.
 
We also call upon our readers, their labor unions, social movements and human rights organizations to take action to support the electrical workers who at this moment represent the front line in the fight for union rights, human rights, and democracy in Mexico. On December 4th, SME has called for another mobilization in Mexico and has asked that its international supporters focus their attention on Mexican Embassies or consulates. Please support them however you can: by sending letters, or organizing delegations or demonstrations at your consulate around that date. Information and a list of the consulates appear in call to action – the first item below.
 
Below the call to action you will find an overview of the current situation, two accounts of the recent national work stoppage called by the union and its supporters, and an appeal by long-time Mexican union and political activist Bertha Luján.
 

Call to Action in Solidarity with SME : Focus on Consulates, Send Letters, Emails

On the night of October 10, President Calderón ordered federal police to seize the power plants operated by the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME), while simultaneously liquidating the state-owned Light and Power Company, and firing the entire workforce of approximately 44,000 employees. Some 22,000 retirees and 1,500 union technical school trainees were also affected. Five days earlier, the government refused to accord legal recognition to the democratically elected president of the Mexican Electrical Workers’ Union, Martín Esparza, although this should have been a routine matter.

The Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) continues its fight for the reestablishment of the Light and Power Company, for the survival of the union, and for the jobs of some 44,000 workers. Hundreds of thousands in Mexico have responded in major demonstrations. On December 4th, SME has called for another mobilization in Mexico and has asked that its international supporters focus their attention on Mexican Embassies or consulates around that date. Please support them however you can: by sending letters, or organizing delegations or demonstrations at your consulate around that date.  A list of consulates appears at: http://www.sre.gob.mx/acerca/directorio/consulados/dirconsulados.htm
 
Since the message you deliver and manner in which you decide to deliver it may depend on your relationship with the consulate in your area (a number of Mexican consulates are very active in defending the rights of Mexican workers in the US), we leave it to you to determine the best course of action in your area and to modify the following letter which was sent by the UE’s national officers and to decide whether it should be addressed to President Calderón or to your local consul. The important point is to support the SME’s request by letting the Mexican government know that many of us in other countries are aware and outraged about their blatant violation of labor rights. If there is no consulate in your area, please send a letter.
 
 
Felipe Calderón Hinojosa
President of Mexico
Los Pinos, Mexico

Dear President Calderón:

We are writing to you on behalf of the tens of thousands of U.S. workers who are members of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) to express our shock and outrage about your government’s actions in failing to accord legal recognition to the democratically elected president of the Mexican Electrical Workers’ Union, Martín Esparza; to send in Federal Police to occupy the Luz y Fuerza del Centro facilities; and to issue a decree liquidating the company and dismissing some 45,000 unionized workers.

These actions violate both Mexican law and the commitments assumed by Mexico before the international community, specifically conventions 87 and 98 of the International Labor Organization.

We therefore strongly urge that you immediately take the following steps:

• Revoke the decree liquidating Luz y Fuerza del Centro;
• Reinstate the workers who have been fired and respect their labor rights;
• Respect the Mexican Electrical Workers’ Union’s collective agreement; and
• Unconditionally recognize the SME’s democratically elected union leadership and negotiate in good faith with them for a just resolution to this dispute. Our union and other organizations around the world will be closely monitoring your government’s actions in the coming period, and look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

John H. Hovis Jr, General President
Bruce J. Klipple, General Secretary-Treasurer
Robert B. Kingsley, Director of Organization


cc: Lic. Fernando Gómez Mont, Home Secretary
Lic. Francisco Javier Lozano Alarcón, Labor Secretary
Lic. Francisco Ramírez Acuña, President of the Deputies’ Chamber Board
Lic. Carlos Navarrete Ruiz, President of the Senators’ Chamber Board
Ministro Guillermo I. Ortiz Mayagoitia, President Minister of the Supreme Court
C. Martín Esparza, SME
C. Benedicto Martínez, FAT/UNT
 
 
Email addresses where copies can be sent:
“Felipe Calderón Hinojosa” felipe.calderon@...,
“Lic Fernando Gómez Mont” secretario@...,
“Lic Francisco Javier Lozano Alarcón” javierlozano@...,
“Lic Francisco Ramírez Acuña” fjavier.ramirez@...,
“Lic Carlos Navarrete Ruiz” cnavarrete@...,
“Ministro Guillermo I Ortiz Mayagoitia” administrator@...,
“Martín Esparza SME” sinmexel@...,
“Benedicto Martínez FAT UNT” FAT@...
 
Labourstart has also issued an alert prepared by the Mexico Solidarity Network. We encourage you to take a minute to send a message. http://en.maquilasolidarity.org/node/904

In solidarity,

Robin Alexander, Director of International Affairs
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)
 
Dan LaBotz, editor
Mexican Labor News and Analysis
 
Please circulate this alert as widely as possible.
 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

About Mexican Labor News and Analysis
Mexican Labor News and Analysis (MLNA) is produced in collaboration with the Authentic Labor Front (Frente Auténtico del Trabajo FAT) of Mexico and the United Electrical Workers (UE) of the United States, and with the support of the Resource Center of the Americas in Minneapolis, Minnesota. MLNA can be viewed at the UE's international web site: www.ueinternational.org
 
For information about direct subscriptions, submission of articles, and all queries contact editor Dan La Botz at the following e-mail address: labotzdh@... or call in the U.S.(513) 861-8722. The U.S. mailing address is: Dan La Botz, Mexican Labor News and Analysis, 3503 Middleton Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45220.
 
If there is no byline, republication is authorized if the reproduction includes the following paragraph: This article was published by Mexican Labor News and Analysis, a monthly collaboration of the Mexico City-based Authentic Labor Front (FAT) and the Pittsburgh-based United Electrical Workers (UE) www.ueinternational.org.
 
Contact: Editor Dan La Botz at DanLaBotz@... or 513-861-8722.  For a free e-mailed subscription, sign up at:  http://four.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/ue_international-update
The UE Home Page which displays Mexican Labor News and Analysis has a complete Index of back issues.
 
Staff: Editor, Dan La Botz. Frequent Contributors: David Bacon, Fred Rosen. 
 
IN THIS ISSUE:
 
·       Call to Action in support of SME (See above)
·       Mexican Electrical Workers Continue Fight for Light & Power, Jobs, Union
·       A New United Movement Stops Mexico for a Day
·       Nationwide Actions Protest Layoffs 
·       Electrical Workers Fight Is Fight Of All Mexican Workers -- by Bertha Luján

 
MEXICAN ELECTRICAL WORKERS CONTINUE FIGHT FOR JOBS, UNION
 

By Dan La Botz

 
The Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) continues its fight for the reestablishment of the Light and Power Company, for the survival of the union, and for the jobs of some 44,000 workers. The union has called for another round of national protests on December 4th and is also seeking international support.
 
Since the Felipe Calderón government seized the power plants, liquidated the company, and fired the workers on October 11, the union has been in constant struggle with the government. That struggle has now become a protracted and multifaceted battle. While many of the union’s members continue to fight, and there has been strong support from telephone workers, university employees, teachers and many others, this is without a doubt a tremendously difficult challenge for the Mexican labor movement.
 
The union now fights on many fronts: to maintain the unity of its members, to find economic resources, to win the battle of public opinion, to gain political allies, to garner solidarity from unions abroad, to convince Mexican legislators, to gain relief in the courts and find vindication in the eyes of international legal organizations.
 
The Union in the Streets
 
Expelled from their workplaces on October 11 and therefore unable to strike, the Mexican Electrical Workers Union called upon other unions to join them in massive protests of hundreds of thousands on October 16 and again on November 11. The second protest was a national work stoppage, which, if it did not bring the country to a halt, still found support in cities and states throughout the country, with strong support from telephone workers, university employees, and teachers. [See article below by Tamara Pearson for a more detailed account of events.]
 
The Electrical Workers Union has received support from Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his so-called Legitimate Government of Mexico, the shadow government that he created after losing what many believe to have been the fraudulent election of 2006 that brought Felipe Calderón to power. The speech by Bertha Luján at the November 3 demonstration appears at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpqH_6XD2dk . López Obrador has given his platform to Martín Esparza, general secretary of the Electrical Workers Union, and López Obrador’s dedicated supporters who number in the hundreds of thousands have thrown their weight behind the union, including in massive rallies and demonstrations in the nation’s capital.
 
The union has called for other demonstrations and for a national general strike before year’s end. Unlike other Latin American countries, Mexico has never had a general strike. Although it has had several hours-long or day long work stoppages, none has ever succeeded in shutting down most businesses and government operations. The call for a general strike therefore represents a daring and risky move.
 
Leafleting, Collecting Funds, Hunger Strike
 
With Mexico’s major television networks—Televisa and TV Azteca—providing negative news coverage and rabidly anti-union commentary, and most newspapers too expensive for working class people to buy, the Electrical Workers Union has organized its members and supporters to distribute leaflets putting forward the union’s point of view. Workers have been handing out leaflets at over 150 major intersections in Mexico City. Union members are also passing the hat on the streets, in the metro, and on buses in Mexico City to gain financial support for the union’s activities, now that its members have no jobs, the union receives no dues, and its accounts have been frozen by the government.
 
Many groups of workers have taken creative steps to show support for the union. For example, dozens of members of a Motorcycle club rode through Mexico City carrying the banner of the electrical workers union to show support for the union. Eleven women union members, many of them heads of their households, began a hunger strike on November 23 in front of the Federal Electrical Commission, the government agency that has absorbed the former Light and Power Company. The women, camped out in tents, have pledged to limit their diet to water, honey, and saline solutions, say they are prepared to take their strike “to its ultimate consequences.” The union has arranged for them to be attended by physicians from the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), the national health care system and from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
 
The Political Struggle
 
All of the Electrical Workers Union’s efforts are aimed at overturning President Calderon’s decision to liquidate the company, the decision which led to the termination of the workers and consequently to all intents and purposes the elimination of the union. The Legislature of the Federal District attempted to bring suit in court, but the court ruled that it had no jurisdiction in the matter since the Light and Power Company was a Federal (that is national) issue and not a Federal District matter.
 
At the same time the union has taken its case to the House of Deputies, the lower house of the Mexican Congress, in an attempt to have the legislature intervene before the Supreme Court. That attempted failed by a vote of 298 to 84, with President Calderón’s National Action Party (PAN) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the party that ruled Mexico from 1928-2000, both voting against. The Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the Workers Party (PT), and Convergencia - which together have 90 votes - supported the union’s proposal. The union will now take its case to the Senate, which may prove even more difficult.
 
While pressuring Congress and attempting to involve the Supreme Court, the Electrical Workers Union has also assisted its members in filing tens of thousands of individual petitions for relief (amparos, similar to injunctions) in lower courts, claiming that the government has violated their rights. So far those petitions have not been acted upon.
 
Labor Solidarity
 
Mexico’s independent and more militant unions and federations have backed the Electrical Workers Union. Most important has been the backing from the Mexican Telephone Workers Unions (STRM) whose members participated in the November 11 work stoppage. The Union of Workers of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (STUNAM) have also come out strongly in support of the electrical workers, as has the National Coordinating Committee of the Mexican Teachers Union (la CNTE), which is an opposition caucus with great support in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Michoacán and in Mexico City. The Authentic Labor Front (FAT) has also backed the movement.
 
International Solidarity has been offered by unions around the world, including from Canada, the United States, the European Union countries, and Latin America. (See Mexican Labor News and Analysis, October 2009 for statements of support by several unions.) Since then, many others have issued statements of support, and a delegation of trade unionists from the US and Canada is slated to arrive in Mexico next week.
 
Taking the Case to the World
 
While continuing to fight on the streets, in the courts, and in Congress, the Electrical Workers Union is also taking its case to international organizations. The union is sending delegations to the International Labor Organization (ILO), part of the United Nations, to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and to the European Parliament.
 
The union will argue before all of these organizations that the government has violated the labor rights, the human rights, and the individual civil rights of its members. While these venues do not provide mandatory relief, they do provide an opportunity to bring the case before world public opinion.
 
An Uphill Battle
 
Still, this remains an uphill battle. The Mexican government reports that 62 percent of the workers have accepted their severance pay—they were offered a big bonus to do so—which means that they give up any legal claim to their jobs. The Federal Electrical Commission, which has absorbed Light and Power, has said that it will hire at least 1,000 former Light and Power workers, but has not yet announced exactly what categories of workers it will be employing.
 
Meanwhile, former Light and Power workers say that because they were members of the militant Mexican Electrical Workers Union, they are being blacklisted by both government and private employers.
 
The Mexican Electrical Workers Union has called for continued actions in December, a month when many Mexicans will be traveling or celebrating with their families, and it will be difficult to maintain the momentum of the movement. Still, the union plans to try, and many have indicated that they are prepared to sacrifice time, tradition, and the festivities to fight for the electrical workers.
 
 
A NEW UNITED MOVEMENT STOPS MEXICO FOR A DAY

By Tamara Pearson
upsidedownworld
November 17, 2009

http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2214/1/

In the many metro stations of giant Mexico city, amidst the ugly smell of Pizza Hut and the newspapers vendors yelling out, "Grafico! 3 pesos!", youth crowd around
the hand written posters recruiting for the national police daily. At 12,000 pesos (US$1000) per month, and with increasing unemployment and harder prospects for
the country's youth, the offer is very tempting.

Since the US-Mexico trade agreement, NAFTA, the number of Mexicans illegally crossing the border into the US seeking employment has risen to 500,000 a year. Add to
this the financial crisis (Mexicans repeat to me "When the U.S sneezes Mexico gets pneumonia") and Mexican president Calderon's measures to handle the crisis,
which consist in a "fiscal package" of an increased consumption tax including food and medicine, new communication taxes and decreased government spending.
Then add the fact that the minimum wage in Mexico today buys a third of what it bought twenty years ago, and you can see how the government's firing of 44,000 electricity workers, members of the county's most combative and independent union, SME (Mexican Electrical Union), became catalyst for a movement of people deeply angry at both an unfair economic system, and towards a president who, most studies admit, used
fraud to win the elections in 2006.

The electricity workers were fired on October 10th. On October 16th, around 500,000 people marched in the capital in protest. One month after the firing the
people's anger still had not cooled, and on November 11th there were again massive marches, road blocks, full strikes and partial strikes all across the country.

The Assembly

The decision to strike was taken on November 5th, in a massive meeting of the newly formed National Assembly of Popular Resistance. This is a convergence made up of around 400 unions, student, rural workers, and indigenous movements, women and gay rights organizations and left and revolutionary political parties from across the country.

The meeting was meant to start at 5, but at quarter to, the hall was already full and the streets outside where loud speakers were setup were also starting to fill up and block traffic. The chair was already welcoming each group, "Comrades from the teachers union, welcome. Compañeros of the Socialist Front, welcome," and so on.
It took about 25 minutes to welcome everyone.

There was an atmosphere of excitement, support and solidarity. In fact "support" ("This support really is seen!") was the chant of the day as speaker after speaker from various unions declared that their union would also march and strike on November 11th, and, for
four hours running, each organization declared that they would contribute to the campaign, hold their own assemblies, print leaflets, rally and march in the lead
up to the strike. After and during each speaker, the audience stood tirelessly, waving their fists in the air and chanting.

On the few occasions when unions declared their support in the march, but said they would but not strike, everyone stood up and demanded, "Strike! Strike!
Strike!"

The speaker from the telephone union detailed the union's donations of food to the fired workers, while the left parliamentary party, Party of the Democratic
Revolution (PRD) spokeswoman, a legislator, said the PRD had agreed to support all the SME's decisions and to promote any marches, and handed over a cheque for
154,000 pesos (US $11,700).

University students promised to organize a range of political-cultural events and an "information week" to counter all the misinformation in the mainstream media, while a rural worker said the SME demands were their demands, but that they would also add the demand for food sovereignty. Even the association of retired people had a detailed and ambitious schedule of action to prepare for the national strike.

Martín Esparza, general secretary of the SME, was the last speaker. He told the meeting, "With this movement we're going to define what kind of country we want. We have to advance and organise the people of Mexico.We create the wealth, and they socialise the losses. We pay to import what the Gringos (U.S) don't want."

"They're after our collective contracts and our unions," he concluded, talking of inequality, the need for dignity and for organization.

With more chants of "It's a struggle of all workers of this country", "Here the workers' movement is forming", "Give me an S, M, E. what does it spell. SME! SME! SME!"
and "Unions united will never be defeated!", the meeting concluded with a vote to strike on November 11th and to allow the SME to form a temporary organizing committee of movement representatives to coordinate the strike plans and campaign.

The Campaign

It was an intense week of campaigning. The next morning, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) students had already put large stickers for the strike all over the insides of the trains, and there were hand painted banners in most faculties of the university, calling for assemblies and covering the walls with virtual articles on what had really happened to the SME workers.

Many workplaces held their own assemblies and even high school and primary school students marched 10 kilometres on 8 November, placards such as `Don't steal my future". SME workers marched in the thousands in the centre of the capital on 9 and 10 November.

The March

The long anticipated November 11th march was due to leave at 4 PM, but when I arrived at 2.30, and already there were thousands of people. Many were taking a snooze on their banners, while others were sitting on curbs reading the news. One group was spray painting a huge SME logo on the road, joking about needing Whiteout to fix their mistakes, and chanting when they finished it.

The street vendors, which really make up an ever growing army of their own in Mexico as the unemployed look for alternative ways to stay alive, sold corn, chips, and nuts from carts with posters for the strike taped all over them. When the march left they pushed their carts along with it. One woman with an SME bandana and placard alternated between joining the chanting of the march and calling out, "Two gum packets
for 5 pesos!"

One street vendor, Octavio Manzera, wasn't working that day. "I'm supporting the movement; I think it's a just struggle. The government is acting in an unconstitutional way, violating the laws and constitution of Mexico, for commercial reasons and in
order to privatise," Manzera said.

Bernando Mejia, a young worker, said "I'm here to support the Mexican people, I'm one of those who doesn't support the government we have here."

"I'm here to support the union," said Ana Laura Flores, a self-described "wife of a worker."

"I'm supporting the SME. I'm here for the solidarity more than anything," said university student Omar Vazquez.

"I'm an SME worker, I'm an electrical engineer and I was unjustly fired. This government is a sham, it's a government of thieves, they took our jobs unconstitutionally, violating our rights as workers and as humans," said Omar Ruiz. Ruiz was eager to say much
more, but the march had already started to leave.

Marchers chanted "If there's no solution there'll be revolution!" and "From north to south, east to west, we'll take on this struggle, no matter what it costs!", while others sang, and some stuck flags in the arms of the various metal statues that line the wide main
avenue.

An hour later, we arrived at Mexico City's huge Zocalo plaza, filling it, squashed together to the point where an interesting system of lines of humans with hands on shoulders formed in order for people to move through the crowd. Members of this march kept
arriving for another two hours, while marches from six other locations also continued to arrive.

One of Many

Organizers estimated that 200,000 people participated in the march, while the newspaper La Jornada reported that police estimated 60,000. However, the march in Mexico City was just one of many, with large marches taking place across the country and in outer suburbs, and workers and movement members blocking roads from 6
in the morning.

University students closed off the roads leading to TV Azteca, one of the most right wing TV stations in the country, and there was also a protest by "the Other Campaign" in front of the US embassy. Universities went on strike, and students and teachers joined the march after their own protest on campus. The telephone and judicial power unions also went on strike, and some shops had signs saying they were turning off their lights or electricity in solidarity, while many shops were simply closed. Miners sent a contingent to the main march and held other marches in seven of the main mining cities and towns, and the National Organisation of Administrative, Manual and Technical Workers of
National Anthropology and History Institute organized partial blockades of museums and archaeological zones of the country.

La Jornada reports that 14 toll booth points were also taken over. At one road block, on a main road to Puebla, one of the closest cities to the capital, national police dispersed the blockade with tear gas.

La Jornada reported four injured protestors and three police. Eleven protestors were arrested and, on Thursday, Esparza told the press that they had been detained incommunicado and some had been beaten.

The Zócalo

Standing, listening to the speakers in the Zócalo, with my feet at unnatural angles in the little ground space available, a man in a mask shared his mandarin with me, and everyone around me listened with good humour and concentration to the speakers. A group wedged their way in front of us with a large plastic SME banner tied to
ladders.

"Lower the banner! We can't see!" yelled out the crowd around and behind me. The banner holders did, and the crowd called out, "Thanks compañeros!"

Meanwhile, the students to my left were having a ball chanting vehemently, laughing and smiling and jumping up and down and sharing bags of apples.

By 7:30, it was dark and freezing, and I watched the end of the march arrive. In it came a group with drums, a dancer and a violinist. Someone in the plaza set off fireworks and the palace was lit up. The smell of roasted corn rose above the milling people as they
drummed and sang, some with large paper maché masks of politicians. A group of chanters defied their audibly sore voices, and a truck with music arrived, then more
drums.

Covered and Uncovered

The next day, Mexican mainstream media chose to highlight an incident involving tear gas, with headlines of "Violence" and "Chaos." The Excelsior headlined with "Patience tested," and its biggest photo was of the tear gas. It bemoaned "children left without
classes" and naively stated: "We can't see what Chiapas is protesting about; SME has nothing to do with them."

What the media did not want to talk about was a new solidarity that has formed, and how the movement has gone well beyond a labour conflict, with much more youth participating than during the protests against the electoral fraud of 2006.

An SME leader (who prefers to be described as a member), Jose Hernández, told me the mobilization was much bigger than any previous ones, but that it was less apparent as it was spread out in various places and times.

"Up until now," Hernandez said, "we've heard of 16 marches in other states, and just in the state of Michoacán for example, 11,000 schools went on strike, as well all the higher education institutions."

"It's also necessary to consider the amount of disorganization and domination which the large part of the Mexican working class has found itself in. What happened today signifies, without any doubt, a `leap' in the consciousness of the Mexican working class. We need to be patient, but it seems to me that we're on the threshold of qualitative change."
 
NATIONWIDE ACTIONS PROTEST LAYOFFS 
 
Tens of thousands of unionists, campesinos, students, and members of grassroots organizations and left and center-left parties demonstrated in Mexico's Federal District (DF, Mexico City) and more than 20 of the country's 31 states on Nov. 11 to express solidarity with some 44,000 electrical workers laid off when President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa abruptly liquidated the government-owned Central Light and Power Company (LFC) the night of Oct. 10.  
Mexico City was paralyzed as members of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME), which represents the LFC workers, led marches from five different points in the city starting early in the morning of Nov. 11. Miners, telephone and transportation workers, and employees and students from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), which suspended classes for the day, joined the protesters as they moved around the city, rallying at various government buildings. Adding to the disruption of traffic, protesters blocked major arteries in the states surrounding the capital. 
Actions Outside Mexico City
 
The actions outside the city were sometimes violent. There were 10 arrests and a number of injuries as protesters and agents of the Federal Police (PF) confronted each other near Tlalnepantla, México state, north of Mexico City on the México-Querétaro highway. Shots were fired; the government blamed the protesters, who said that they were unarmed and that the police had shot in the air. Protesters also blocked roads in Ecatepec de Morelos and Nezahualcóyotl.  
Some 400 SME members massed on the Peñón-Texcoco turnpike, joined by students and teachers from the Chapingo Autonomous University and by activists from the Front of the Peoples in Defense of the Land (FPDT), a campesino organization based in San Salvador Atenco, México state. The protesters took over the tollbooth and let cars drive on the turnpike without paying. Other activists opened up the México-Pachuca turnpike to traffic at Pirámides. PF agents used tear gas and anti-riot equipment to disperse protesters blocking the entrances to the city from Puebla state and Cuernavaca, Morelos, in the east and south. Residents of Mexico City's Xochimilco and Tlalpan boroughs who had been blocking the Cuernavaca highway regrouped and hurled rocks at the police. 
 
At the end of 12 hours of actions, many of the protesters went into the capital to join a march and rally in the central Zócalo plaza. More than 200,000 people participated in the closing demonstration, according to the SME; the DF police put the number at 60,000. Two well-known activist bishops, Samuel Ruiz García, former bishop of San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas, and Raúl Vera López, bishop of Saltillo, Coahuila, sent solidarity messages. 
 
In Other Regions 
In the southeastern state of Chiapas solidarity actions also targeted recent tax hikes and the arrests of farmer leaders accused of having links with armed groups. In the southern state of Oaxaca, an estimated 70,000 school teachers carried out a one-day strike, and 
the leftist Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) took over the offices of the Federal Electrical Commission (CFE), the country's larger publicly owned electrical company, into which the LFC is being merged. In the north, hundreds of telephone workers, leftists and social activists held public marches in Chihuahua City 
and Ciudad Juárez, in Chihuahua state. 
 
An editorial in the left-leaning Mexican daily La Jornada called Nov. 11 "a day without precedent in the history of the country's popular causes," an action which brought together "the different sectors of the opposition--the parties, the unions, the social organizations." The paper called this "the possible birth of a broad bloc antagonistic to the political-business-alliance that holds the country's power (public and private)."  
SME general secretary Martín Esparza Flores raised the possibility of planning a national general strike. He noted that in 2010 Mexico will celebrate the bicentennial of its war of independence from Spain and the centennial of the revolution against the Porfirio Díaz dictatorship: "And as before, we will defeat the transnationals, the dictatorship, tyranny and violations of the Constitution. It's time for the people to organize." 
Government Says General Strike Will Flop
 
On Nov. 12 Labor Secretary Javier Lozano Alarcón discounted the ability of the SME and its supporters to mount a general strike. He said that 24,149 laid-off LFC workers, 54.2% of the total workforce, had already signed up for the government's severance package; in the government's view, workers lose the ability to challenge their termination if they accept the severance agreement. On Nov. 14, the deadline for signing with the government, reporters found a low turnout at the centers where the former employees could file their papers.  
One young worker arrived with his wife, who needed treatment for a kidney ailment, and their two children. "I'm coming here against my will, from necessity," he told a reporter. "I support the compañeros all the way, I'm a unionist and I'll put up with blows, insults and what have you...but not my children." 
 
Source: Weekly News Update- Nicaragua Solidarity Network Of Greater 
New York: 11/15
 
ELECTRICAL WORKERS FIGHT IS FIGHT OF ALL MEXICAN WORKERS 
By Bertha Luján on behalf of the Legitimate Government of Mexico 
[Luján is the former co-president of the Authentic Labor Front (FAT) and Secretary of Labor of the Legitimate Government of Mexico. Translation by Dan La Botz] 
For decades we have been pointing out the way that the Mexican government, whether under the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) or the National Action Party (PAN), has violated the workers’ right to self-organization in defense of their interests, as protected under Article 123, Section XVI of the Constitution.  
History itself has shown how leaders who submit to the government or to the employers are rewarded, giving up the defense of their union members in exchange for economic and political perks. At the same time, we know how the authentic struggle for workers to organize themselves in an independent and autonomous way is punished. 
Movements against corruption, against employer domination and for the legitimate rights of wage earners led by railroad workers, doctors, electricians, nuclear workers, teachers, and numberless industrial workers have been mercilessly repressed under the pretext of “maintaining social peace.” 
National organizations such as the Authentic Labor Front (FAT) have for almost 50 years been frustrated in their democratic and honest attempts to organize by the systematic opposition of the official union bureaucrat-government-boss triple alliance that proclaims that it “would rather die” than permit workers to organize themselves. 
Since the 1980s, the neo-liberal economic policies of privatizing public enterprises and of converting them into private companies have lowered labor costs and favored what’s been called “modernization.” These policies are based on strategies that begin by dismantling workers’ organizations, beating them on the head, in order to get on to the real business which is handing over to the new owners companies which are “clean,” union free and without collective bargaining agreements. 
This is the context of the war that Calderón and his henchmen have unleashed against the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME). That’s why it is important to emphasize that their struggle involves all Mexican workers who are threatened by a government that doesn’t care one bit whether or not it complies with the law, but rather simply wants to get on with demonstrating “who is strong” and “who can govern.” 
 


--
Robin Alexander
UE Director of International Affairs
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE)
One Gateway Center, Suite 1400
PGH., PA. 15222-1416

412-471-8919
412-471-8999 FAX

Labor and related news from Mexico is reported monthly in Mexican Labor News and Analysis.  Check it out on our web site:
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#4292 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Tue Nov 24, 2009 6:36 pm
Subject: Fwd: Why Does the AFL-CIO Refuse to Mention The Subject of Abortion to Its Members? 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: Harry Kelber <harrykelber@...>
To: laboreducator@...
Sent: Tue, Nov 24, 2009 8:14 am
Subject: The AFL-CIO on Abortion

LaborTalk (15)                                                     November 24, 2009

Why Does the AFL-CIO Refuse to Mention
The Subject of Abortion to Its Members?

By Harry Kelber

While the AFL-CIO web site has posted an unusual amount of  daily information about the proposed health-care insurance bill, it has conspicuously avoided mentioning even the word  “abortion.”

Nothing about the issue of abortion has appeared on the AFL-CIO web sites during the past year. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka did not mention it, when he  praised the Democrats for being “united and serious about solving the health problems that torment  working families daily.” Actually, there is a division among Democrats on several health-care provisions in the Senate bill, including abortion.

It is hard to understand why the AFL-CIO has banned any official statement or even mention of abortion, since the labor federation has about five million women members, who must have some concern about what Congress and the political parties are doing about the abortion issue. A significant majority of working women feel that the decision to end an unwanted pregnancy should be left to the woman  and her doctor and not to the government, under a law enacted by mostly white males.

One of the reasons cited for the AFL-CIO’s silence on abortion is that it is “controversial,” and that it would generate divisions of opinion at a time when labor needs to be unified.   But how could ignoring  abortion, and other controversial issues like immigration, promote  labor unity? The AFL-CIO ban is denying important information to millions of their women members, who, whatever their position on abortion, are entitled to be kept informed about the latest developments in Congress.

Some labor leaders say that  decisions about abortion are personal and should not be the concern of the AFL-CIO or its affiliates. That view ignores the fact that Republicans in Congress and corporate-subsidized right-wing groups are hoping to undermine and then eliminate the Supreme Court 1973 decision in the Roe v. Wade case that, for the first time, made it legal for women to have an abortion in any of the 50 states.  

The murder of Dr. George Tiller, whose Wichita, Kansas women’s clinic  performed abortions, revealed how far the anti-abortionist extremists will go to deny women the right to make decisions about their own bodies.
 

AFL-CIO Leaders Must not Remain Silent on Abortion Issues


There is an old Roman proverb which, when translated, says: “When they are silent, they still speak”. To the best of my knowledge, President Trumka has never taken a public position on abortion. His current silence on a feature in the health reform bill, that would prevent the use of federal subsidies  to pay for insurance that covers  abortions, should be of concern to working women,  especially low-wage workers, who may, for a variety of reasons, need an abortion.

 AFL-CIO president, Trumka must clear up the uncertainty as to where he stands on Roe v. Wade, and that he will actively oppose any attempt to deny women the legal right to an abortion.  The eight women leaders on the AFL-CIO Executive Council should also make their positions clear.

Finally, the web sites of the AFL-CIO and its affiliated international unions should keep their members informed about news that affect the status of abortion in our country.  Whatever happens, hundreds of thousands of women will be in predicaments where they will be compelled to end unwanted pregnancies. We can predict that no anti-abortion movement will ever change that.
*   *   *   *   *
An informed membership is the best, perhaps the only way, to build a bigger and stronger labor movement.—Harry Kelber

 LaborTalk (16) will be posted Thanksgiving Day,  November 26. 2009 
 
 
 
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#4291 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Tue Nov 24, 2009 6:34 pm
Subject: Fwd:Leaving SEIU and Joining NUHW 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Krehbiel <paulkrehbiel@...>
To: gregoryabutler@... <gregoryabutler@...>
Sent: Tue, Nov 24, 2009 1:24 pm
Subject: Re: Leaving SEIU...2

Leaving SEIU and
Joining NUHW
 
An Open Letter to my SEIU friends, former co-workers, and all SEIU members and staff:
 
By Paul Krehbiel                                                                                                   November 17, 2009
 
     As a former staff worker for Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 660 (now 721) in Los Angeles from 1998 – 2007, I am appalled by the degeneration of SEIU under the direction of President Andy Stern.  While Local 660 had its share of problems, it had been in many respects a vibrant union.  I was committed to Local 660 and its members and worked hard to build a strong, democratic, member-empowered union.  But I can no longer remain silent about the degeneration I see, not only in Local 721, but also in many other SEIU units that Stern and his agents have taken over.   
     While on staff at Local 660, I worked as a Lead Field Representative/ Organizer, an Acting Director, and Chief Negotiator for over 5,000 Los Angeles County Registered Nurses.  I was an organizer of a successful worksite campaign to get Los Angeles County to comply with California’s statewide 2004 nurse-to-patient ratio law, helped lead campaigns to build Stewards Councils in the County’s two largest hospitals, and I received commendations from SEIU leaders and members during my first six years on staff.  I did my union work at Local 660 the same way I did it when I first joined the labor movement in 1968 while employed as a union auto parts worker in Buffalo.  Then, I was won to trade unionism based on democratic rights for members, freedom of speech, and a belief that the goal of union members was to protect and support each other, and advance the interests of all working people.  I became a full-time union representative in 1985 and I have never given up the beliefs I had in 1968.
 
Members Needs Ignored and Rights Given Away
 
     By 2004-2005, I saw Local 660 changing from an organization that had allowed considerable local control and member involvement into an organization that dampened freedom of speech, weakened internal democracy, reduced meaningful member involvement, made secret deals with employers that harmed members’ interests, and isolated and punished those members and staff who disagreed with these negative changes.
     This was part of the program that Stern developed for the entire union:  to make large and unnecessary concessions to employers in return for the easy sign-up of more dues-paying members, and without real member involvement or approval.  As his program was being implemented in Local 660, here are some of the things I witnessed.  During contract negotiations, I and other negotiators were told by top officials of Local 660, such as Annelle Grajeda (then General Manager of Local 660) to end negotiations before we could mount a campaign to achieve the most important issues that the members wanted resolved, such as improvements in staffing for nurses.  The goal, I was told, was not to upset management.  I asked, “What about management upsetting our members?”  I received no response.
      I was informed in January 2004 that top Local 660 officials made a secret deal with the management of Los Angeles County to exempt the County indefinitely from meeting the new state law spelling out nurse-to-patient ratios.  This new law set the legal ratio for 2004 at one 1icensed nurse for six patients, and one less patient per nurse for the next two years.  In Los Angeles County, one licensed nurse had 10, 15, and even 20 patients.  I saw stressed-out nurses in tears because they were worried about whether they gave adequate care to all their patients since they were assigned so many that they could not spend enough time with them.  When I tried to help the nurses get management to abide by the new staffing law, I was told by top Local 660 officials to stop my activities immediately or face possible discipline. 
     I also saw top Local 660 officials come into LAC+USC Medical Center, where I was a union representative, and tell workers that certain elected stewards (excellent stewards who organized to protect workers rights and resist the Stern program) were bad stewards and should not be supported.  I was upset and angered seeing SEIU erode the power and wellbeing of members and stewards and pit members against each other.  Members became increasingly angry and alienated from SEIU.
 
Members Weakened Before Mega-Merger
 
     Early in 2005, SEIU Local 660 staff was directed to spend most of our time signing up members to attend a “Convention” to take place on October 15, 2005.  The goal of the “Convention” was to “make us a stronger and more effective union.”  We were given weekly sign-up “goals” that were so high that we had little time to work with stewards and members to address their issues on the job.  This combined with the routine neglect, dropping grievances, and making secret deals that hurt the members, resulted in a bigger disconnect between the top officials and the membership, making it even harder to meet our “goal” – which was 5,000 attendees.  When the “Convention” took place, less than 800 people showed up and that counted a member and their whole family.  There were no elected delegates, no elections, and no previously prepared proposals to be discussed and debated by members. 
     The “Convention” was really a very expensive three-hour rally - with high-tech light shows, live music, and chanting, costing the local $1 million, which was paid out of members’ dues dollars.  Perhaps 15-20 minutes was devoted to “passing” several vaguely worded “motions” about making our union bigger and stronger, but there were no details, and no discussion on the “motions.”  A union official asked the crowd if they agreed with building a stronger union, and the cheers and clapping from the crowd was interpreted as affirmation – all the “motions” passed.  Charades like this are touted by Stern and other SEIU officials as evidence that SEIU is a “democratic” union.  The “motions” that were “passed” then served as a “democratic mandate” to merge Local 660 with other SEIU locals in Southern California, and strip previously held rights from the members.  It also gave Stern’s agents a way to identify those members who would go along with the Stern program without question – a number were bribed with paid-time off to do union work, free trips, promises of union positions, and other benefits.  The staunchest Stern supporters were appointed to union positions in the new Local 721.  This “Convention” also served as a way to identify those members who didn’t enthusiastically endorse this dog and pony show, in order to isolate and punish them, especially if they expressed disagreement.    
 
Activists Retaliated Against and Removed
 
     In November and December of 2005, I and other staff members asked for and held meetings with top Local 660 officials to alert them to the improper and possible illegal behavior of a Local 660 director who counseled female staff members to wear low-cut blouses and very short skirts to get things from male managers.  This was done in a New Employee Orientation, and individually.  One young woman staff member who attended the New Employee Orientation came to me afterwards nearly in tears and asked if wearing revealing clothing was a job requirement at SEIU.  I was outraged, and told her absolutely not.  Our staff union, United Union Representatives of Los Angeles, held two meetings to discuss this, and 15 staff members wrote statements about improper behavior by this director.  I was the spokesperson for the group in meetings with top Local 660 officials, and we demanded an immediate end to such a practice, and that the director be removed. We also stated our concerns about the other harmful practices mentioned above and in the written statements by staff.  I was immediately targeted for termination.  I was given a Performance Evaluation that was marked Unsatisfactory in nearly every category of work by a young, inexperienced director who just prior to this had called me sometimes almost weekly to get my advice on how best to handle a wide array of union problems.  Due to the increasing pressure placed on me, I went out on sick leave in 2006, and felt then that I could no longer work for a union that had sunk to such a disgraceful level of corruption, degradation, and sell-out practices.  Members and staff kept me informed about developments in Local 660, and Local 721 after it was formed.
 
Democracy Subverted and Scrapped
 
     In 2006-07, Stern initiated the campaign to merge Local 660 with six other locals to form Local 721, one of many such mega-mergers happening across the country.  After working to undermine and weaken the strength of organized workers on the job, SEIU told members that the only solution to their problems was to unite with other locals to make a bigger local.  However, there were few or no details on how the new union would function, or what rights members would have.  Committees of active members were set up to “advise” the leaders, giving the impression that member involvement was valued.  But, since the majority of members were so alienated and disconnected from the union, most paid little attention to SEIU mailings and announcements.  And those members who did participate had no vote on any of the ideas; the top officials made all the final decisions.  I’d seen this ruse when I worked at Local 660.  Now conditions were ripe for a merger election.  Ballots were mailed to the members, and SEIU then contacted the unquestioning Stern supporters who were reminded to vote “yes” for the merger.  The turnout was tiny, so it was no surprise when a majority who cast ballots “voted” for the merger.  SEIU then announced that the members decided in a “democratic” vote to merge their union with others.  This was another charade, not real democracy. 
     Then, Stern and Grajeda, using business reorganization law and a weakened SEIU Constitution and By-Laws, arbitrarily removed all the elected officers and elected Executive Board members of Local 660 and the other merged locals, and Stern appointed Grajeda president of the new Local 721.  Then, Stern and Grajeda kept members in the dark on important issues, made more decisions without meaningful member involvement or vote, stopped holding membership meetings, and weakened or dismantled existing steward and other member structures.  While this was happening, 19 staff members, including myself, were fired.  We all had worked to build member-power on the job, and many had attended the “whistle-blower” meetings mentioned above.  Stern and Grajeda used this same business reorganization law as their legal cover since there was no just cause for terminating any of us.  Stern and Grajeda then put the rest of the staff on probation for a year, even staff members with 15 and 20 years experience.  The message was clear to staff:  you will support our program 100% or you will be fired too.  Stern and Grajeda were cleansing the staff to stop us from helping members stop the destruction of their union. I knew that many staff were very unhappy and did not agree with the Stern program, but they kept quiet for fear of being fired.
 
Under Stern, “Bigger” Means Weaker
 
     Stern brags that SEIU has 2 million members, which makes it “bigger and stronger” than practically all other unions.  He uses this line to try to keep the members he has (increasing numbers of members want out), and to try to get others to vote to join SEIU.  (Stern’s thirst for more dues dollars appears unquenchable, and he’ll misinform and lie to fool workers into joining a group that is now isolated by most of the rest of the labor movement.)  But what could those 2 million SEIU members do for workers in any given location?  Nothing under Stern’s regime, because he has taken away their rights too and kept them in the dark about what’s really going on in the union.  Stern and his agents lie to the members, and tell them that SEIU is fighting for the best possible contract for them, while at that very moment SEIU is giving away hard-won benefits behind the members’ backs.  When I worked for SEIU Local 660 as it was preparing to become part of Stern’s Local 721, I felt like I was working in a mental hospital where paranoid and dictatorial schizophrenics were in charge. 
     Many members and staff expressed to me similar views.  I heard many Local 721 members complain that they felt weaker after the merger, while Local 721 was announcing that is was “bigger,” “stronger,” and “more united” than ever.  One member told me he felt like he was in the “Twilight Zone.”  SEIU methodically works to weaken or dismantle every lever of real member power, and then tells people they are stronger.  Nothing is done to help the stewards, so members are told if they have a grievance to call an 800 number to a remote “call center.”  Members have told me that when they phone the “call” center, they either get a taped message and no return call, or usually someone who does not know how to help them but says they will get back to them, but doesn’t.  Members have said they have not seen a rep in months, and those members who do see one are usually told by the rep that they cannot help them.  How is it better to be a member of a corrupt ineffective union with a large but powerless membership, whose leaders sell out the members?  I would rather be in a smaller union of fully informed and empowered members who can really stand up and fight to protect and advance their interests, as they see them, and have the full backing of their union leaders.
     To make matters worse, shortly after the merger and Stern’s appointment of Grajeda as the new president of Local 721, she was the subject of several articles in the Los Angeles Times which revealed alleged improper practices by her that resulted in her former boyfriend, former Local 660 president Alejandro Stephens, receiving unauthorized and improper payments.  (Another Stern appointed president, at Local 6434, also based in Los Angeles, was Tyrone Freeman, whom the Times reported improperly took over $1 million from that local’s dues dollars.)  When the expose of Grajeda stirred up Local 721 members, Stern promoted Grajeda to become the special assistant to Anna Berger, SEIU’s national Secretary-Treasurer in Washington, D. C.  There is growing alarm among SEIU members that Grajeda would be sent to work in the financial office of the entire union.  It should be no surprise that a man such as Stern, who puts little value on morals or principles and who lies and sells out his own members, has appointed people like himself to positions of power and authority.  There is an old saying:  “A fish rots from the head down.”  This is destroying the union.    
     For those members who do try to get involved, they are expected to be absolutely loyal to Stern and his agents without question, and to carry out every order, no matter how bizarre or harmful to others.  Infringements on the rights or interests of others are justified because it’s for the “cause,” some mysterious alleged higher purpose.  History is littered with terrible abuses and crimes against others because it was for a “cause.”  The real cause should be to give members their voice, skills, and power to protect and advance their interests.  The only member involvement Stern and his agents want is from members who are willing to be good foot soldiers in Stern’s army, to carry out Stern’s program.  Members who try to get involved as real union members, with democratic rights and their own voices, are frozen out, removed from their elected positions as stewards or bargaining committee members, and retaliated against if they persist in demanding their rights.  SEIU members need a real union, not another boss.
 
 
NUHW:  Real Member Power and Protection
    
     I watched with increasing alarm the growing number of corrupt, destructive and sell-out practices by Stern’s SEIU in 2007 and 2008.  The arbitrary removal of elected SEIU stewards, the physical attacks by SEIU on the Labor Notes Conference in Dearborn which I witnessed first-hand and which caused one death and one worker being sent to the hospital, the splitting and raiding of UNITE-HERE, the attacks on the Teachers Union in Puerto Rico and more have caused so much harm to so many. 
     In January 2009, Stern arbitrarily removed the elected leaders of United Healthcare Workers – West, a 150,000-member union within SEIU, and placed it under appointed Trustees who have given away wage and benefit gains of UHW-W members in just a few months.  Kaiser workers, for example, are rightfully infuriated at the SEIU-UHW Trustees who agreed with Kaiser management’s demand for cutbacks in workers’ pensions.  Stern’s anti-labor practices are a disgrace, and a blot on the labor movement.  
     Fortunately, scores of unions have criticized Stern, some in scathing terms.  AFSCME president Gerald McEntee charged SEIU with “piracy,” and Operating Engineers called Stern the “Darth Vader of the labor movement.” Even those unions that Stern got to leave the AFL-CIO with him to join his Change to Win group, are protesting Stern’s anti-labor practices, and Change to Win is now unraveling. 
     The day after the Trustees took over UHW-W, those former leaders and members formed the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), based on internal union democracy, member empowerment, freedom of speech, the right to vote on NUHW leaders and their contracts – rights that are being eroded and eliminated in SEIU.  Almost the entire elected leadership and staff of the old UHW-W left SEIU to build NUHW.  Within the first 6 weeks, 100,000 members of the old UHW -- the vast majority, signed petitions saying they wanted to leave SEIU and join NUHW.  However, SEIU has filed scores of frivolous charges with the National labor Relations Board in an effort to stop these elections.  SEIU is afraid to allow its members a free choice of unions.
     There are some in SEIU local unions across the country who want to reform it.  I wish them the best of luck.  But Stern has centralized so much power into his own hands that I believe it will be very, very hard. The leaders and members of the old UHW-W tried to reform SEIU, and they all were summarily removed from their offices. 
      I was ecstatic when I heard about the formation of NUHW.  I joined NUHW that day, and I’m glad I did.  Join with tens of thousands of other workers by joining NUHW to win back basic democratic union rights, and to protect and advance good wages, benefits, and working conditions.   NUHW has a solid core of volunteers who are seasoned and excellent union organizers and representatives, and NUHW is successfully challenging SEIU, whose budget and staff are many, many times larger.  Yet, NUHW has won a majority of the few elections that have taken place.  Building NUHW is a fight for our dignity and respect.  It is also a struggle for the future of the labor movement.  Do we want a labor movement that is run by the members and the leaders we elect and trust, or a despot like Andy Stern?  NUHW welcomes donations to help this work.  Go on-line to:  donations@..., or send a contribution to:  The Fund for Union Democracy, 465 California St. (Ste. 1600), San Francisco, CA 94104.  All donations will go toward building NUHW.
 
Contact NUHW.org for more information  
 
 
 
 
 
 

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#4290 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Mon Nov 23, 2009 12:19 am
Subject: Fwd: Building Bridges: Paid Sick Leave Rally; Student Power; Jobs for All 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: ken nash <buildingbridgesradio3@...>
To: knash@...
Sent: Sun, Nov 22, 2009 12:01 pm
Subject: Building Bridges: Paid Sick Leave Rally; Student Power; Jobs for All

WBAI Radio's Building Bridges: Your Community & Labor Report
Produced & Hosted by Mimi Rosenberg & Ken Nash
Monday, November 23, 2009, 7 - 8 p.m. EST, over 99.5 FM
or streaming live at http://www.wbai.org          
***************
Rally at NY City Hall Fights for Paid Sick Leave Now
 
Whether it’s the swine flu or another illness, workers shouldn’t have to
go without their pay, risk retaliation or even losing their jobs when they
are sick or need to take care of a sick child. But that’s the situation for
1.8 million NYC workers and it’s not just unfair for them, it’s public health
risk. Last week A Better Balance and NYS Paid Family Leave Coalition
sponsored a rally on the steps of City Hall where community and labor
coalitions joined NYC elected officials and special guest Gloria Steinem
in supporting long overdue NYC legislation mandating employers 
provide paid sick leave.
 ***************
Student Power Scores Win for Honduran Workers
and Tackles U.S. University Budget Cuts
With
Jack  Mahoney, National Organizer, United Students Against
Sweatshops (USAS)
And
Sana Javed, USAS Activist and Senior, University of Maryland
 
The often raucous student movement announced that it had achieved its
biggest victory so far. USAS pressure tactics forced one of the nation’s
leading sportswear companies, Russell Athletic, to agree to rehire
1,200 workers in Honduras who lost their jobs when Russell closed their
factory soon after the workers had unionized. In addition to organizing
around the end to sweatshops here and abroad, USAS is active in
fighting against university budget cuts, tuition increases and layoffs
including the campaigns that led to the current wave of mass
demonstrations and occupations at the University of California system.  
***************
Jobs for All and A Green Economy by Cutting Military Spending
and Taxing Securities Transactions  
with
Robert Pollin, Professor of Economics and Co-Director, Political
Economy Research Institute, Univ. of  Mass., Amherst
 
While the stock market is recovering, the official national unemployment
rate exceeded 10 percent in October and the real rate, which includes
underemployment and discouraged workers, is at 17.5 percent! Pollin
argues that this jobs crisis should be addressed by a jobs program
which includes shrinking the military and fossil fuel based economy and
shifting resources to programs that create more jobs for the money we
spend which are also in areas we need such as health, education, social
services and green jobs. This jobs program would be paid for by savings
from a reduced military budget and a national stock and securities
transfer tax.
*************** 
Building Bridges and most WBAI Programs are now being archived
for 90 Days. They are also being PodCast. These links will be live ca.
15 minutes after the program ends. To listen, download or pod cast 
archived shows go to  http://archive.wbai.org/allshows.php?sort=nameaz                                     

                                     Visit our web site -
                          www.buildingbridgesradio.org     
 

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#4289 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Mon Nov 23, 2009 12:16 am
Subject: Fwd: World of Labor 11-21-09 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: Harry Kelber <harrykelber@...>
To: laboreducator@...
Sent: Sun, Nov 22, 2009 10:06 am
Subject: World of Labor 11-21-09

cid:405573212@22032009-3228
Check our web site: www.laboreducator.org
 
 
 The World of Labor        November 21, 2009
By Harry Kelber

German Union to Aid  U.S. Telecom Workers in Bargaining
American and German labor leaders announced a transatlantic alliance on Nov. 18 aimed at persuading Germany’s giant Deutsche Telekom AG to allow collective bargaining at its subsidiary, T-Mobile USA. Under the agreement, which U.S. labor leaders called unprecedented, the German trade union Ver.di will represent T-Mobile USA workers and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in collective bargaining  with Deutsche Telekom managers in Bonn.

CWA, which has been unable to establish  representation at the Telekom subsidiary, the No. 4  U.S. mobile phone service, said  it would also launch a new effort to organize workers and open a dialogue with the U.S. subsidiary’s managers. T-Mobile USA issued a statement saying it provides an employee-friendly work atmosphere, with competitive pay and benefits, and that its workers have periodically rejected overtures from CWA.

Ver-di represents 70 percent of the workers employed by Deutsche Telekom and its European subsidiaries.  The union recently staged a 12-week strike against the telecommunications giant over issues of job security and working conditions. Under the agreement with CWA, Ver.di will use its seats on Deutsche Telekom’s board to press German managers to accept union representation at T-Mobile USA and then coordinate any bargaining that takes place.

Huge Anti-Sweatshop Victory for Honduran Workers and Students
Some 1,200 Honduran workers scored a major victory over Russell Athletics, a multinational apparel company, that fired them  after they had decided to unionize. The company, which had fought off unions for years, shut down the factory. But soon, the workers will be back on their jobs at a new plant.

Russell’s decision to rehire the workers and make peace with the unionists is the result of a decade of steady coalition-building by student activists across Honduras. With the support of university administrators,  they pressured Russell to adopt “codes of conduct”: that are adhered to by other apparel companies.

In 2000, an independent monitoring group, Worker Rights Consortium,  was created to inspect factories  to enforce the labor codes. About 170 universities are members of the organization, which wrote a report accusing Russell Athletics of violating workers’ rights.

Vale Inco,  a Giant Mining Company, Settles with Brazilian Workers
Vale Inco,  one of the world’s largest mining companies, has reached agreements with 14 unions representing 40,000 workers at its operations in Brazil. The agreements come  as a strike  by some 3,500 workers continues at Vale operations, primarily in the Sudbury, Ontario area of Canada. The workers will get a 7 percent raise over two years.

John Fera, president of the United Steelworkers Local 6500 in Sudbury, says the Canadian strike would be over if Vale abandoned “mean-spirited demands for concessions.”  The Canadian strike began on July 13 at Vale Inco facilities in Sudbury over proposed changes to a pension plan, a reduced nickel bonus and limits on transfer rights.

Vale is the Brazilian-based  corporation that boasted $13.2 billion in profits last year and reported third-quarter earnings of $1,7 billion this year.


Taxi Drivers Strike in China Turns Violent
Hundreds of taxi drivers in southeastern China went on strike on Nov. 20 to protest the government’s plans to regulate the industry, with people throwing stones at cars, the      state media reported . More than 200 cabs in Fujian Province’s Putian City had stopped work two days before, with protesters blocking passing taxis that were still doing business and demanding that the drivers join the strike.

The strike erupted over a disagreement between some taxi drivers and the government  over the terms of  a newly-released plan for the industry. The city has set up a team that includes police and transport officials, to put an end to the strike.

Taxi drivers have emerged as a vocal force in Chinese labor disputes over the past year, sometimes provoking violence over issues that have triggered their anger. In April, a massive taxi strike in a central Chinese city developed into a riot, with drivers beaten and cars smashed, In November of last year,  China experienced two violent taxi work stoppages.

Strike Ends with Pay Raise at Construction Site on Solomon Islands
Construction workers  on Solomon Islands ended their month-long strike after the contractor, China United (SIS) Corporation Ltd., agreed to a 6 percent pay increase, as well as  increases in industry, housing and transport allowances, The company also agreed to give the union, Solomon Islands National Union of Workers, a total of $114,766.50, which will be distributed to the workers. The strike ended Nov. 20.

Union general secretary Tony Kagova said employer payments are back-dated to Jan. 5, as required by the Trade Dispute Panel. He said each worker will receive an average of $2,000 “This will cover the 62 current workers and 147 dismissed workers,” Kagova said.

The Solomon Islands, an archipelago in the South Pacific, consists of nearly 1,000 islands.  It is a constitutional monarchy under Queen Elizabeth II. It receive
d its independence in 1976. It was an important battleground at Guadalcanal in  World War II.
French Plastic Workers Will Conduct a ‘Day of Action’ on   Nov. 19
The Federation of Chemical and Energy Workers will stage “a day of action” on Nov. 19 against France’s plastic manufacturers over a long-simmering wage dispute. Some 150,000 workers in plastics, employed by  3,700 big and small plastics companies, have not seen a wage increase since 2006.

Early in 2008, the employers’ federation abrogated a 2004 labor agreement that automatically gave livable wage increases that at least matched French inflation. In the more than three years since the last pay hike, three pay grids in French plastics have fallen below the nation’s minimum wage levels. Many companies in the plastic sector have profited handsomely from the three-year wage freeze.

Despite ongoing negotiations since May 2008, the  employers’ group and the unions have been unable to reach acceptable wage standards or a threshold on maximum seniority pay. Until now, several union demonstrations have failed to budge the employers into serious wage negotiations.


Learn about workers and their unions in other countries by reading our weekly “The World of Labor.” www.laborsvoiceforchange.org
 
 
 
 
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#4288 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Sun Nov 22, 2009 12:31 am
Subject: Fwd: CLNews: US home foreclosures at record high as jobs crisis deepens.doc 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: listadmin <ListAdmin@...>
To: ,,,CLNews 2 Members <clnews@...>
Sent: Fri, Nov 20, 2009 10:16 am
Subject: CLNews: US home foreclosures at record high as jobs crisis deepens.doc

----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 6:24 AM
Subject: US home foreclosures at record high as jobs crisis deepens.doc

US home foreclosures at record high as jobs crisis deepens

By Andre Damon  20 November 2009
 
The number of home loans in the US that are either in foreclosure or at least one payment past due reached one in seven last month, a record high, according to a survey released Thursday by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The survey found that nearly 10 percent of mortgage holders were at least one payment behind on their mortgages, while 4.47 percent of were in foreclosure. Both of these are the highest figures on records dating back to 1972. About 7 million households are behind on payments or in foreclosure. These figures present just one indicator of the worsening conditions facing US workers caught up in the longest economic downturn since the Great Depression. The number of people behind on their mortgage payments has doubled since last year, as has the percentage in foreclosure, according to the survey. The foreclosures were spread throughout all borrower categories, with high-quality, fixed-rate mortgages showing the fastest growth in delinquencies, not the sub-prime mortgages that initiated the foreclosure crisis.
LPS Applied Analytics, which also recently released a survey of late mortgage payments, found similar figures. The LPS survey found that the number of people three months behind on their payments, but not yet in foreclosure, reached 3.4 percent of US households, up from 1.5 percent 12 months before. Unemployment is now a primary cause of home foreclosures. MBA chief economist Jay Brinkmann told Reuters: “It is all about unemployment, everything else is secondary. We expect unemployment to keep rising into the first quarter of 2010, which means we will most likely see even higher rates of delinquencies and foreclosures.”
New unemployment claims stayed at 505,000 last week, according to figures released Thursday by the Labor Department. Economists were expecting a decrease in the number of new filings, but this did not materialize. The official US unemployment rate reached 10.2 percent in October, while the “real” unemployment rate, which includes involuntary part-time workers and those who have left the labor market, soared to 17.5 percent.
Home construction starts likewise showed an unexpected slump last month, falling 10.6 percent from September. There were 529,000 new housing construction projects last month, significantly lower than the 600,000 expected by analysts. “As we look out to 2010, we are expecting difficult conditions to continue,” said Richard Dugas, chief executive of Pulte Homes, the largest US homebuilder. The White House extended its first-time homebuyer tax credit this month to April 2010. Once this measure expires analysts expect a further deterioration in housing prices. Average real estate prices doubled in the first six years of this decade, but have fallen by 30 percent since 2006, with no recovery yet in sight.
The slew of bad data led several economists to revise their estimates for the fourth quarter growth downward. Macroeconomic Advisors, for example, revised its forecast down from 3.2 percent to 3 percent. Companies continued to announce mass layoffs this week. America Online announced plans on Thursday to cut one third of its 6,900-person workforce ahead of its planned spinoff from Time Warner, Inc. At its height, the company employed 20,000 people. Aetna, the health insurer, announced Wednesday that it plans to lay off 3.5 percent of its 35,000 employees. Those workers who have not been laid off are facing speedups and higher workloads. A survey of employers released Wednesday showed that half of employees report an increased workload over the previous six months, which contributed to a quarter of employees reporting “low morale.”
While the Confidence Board’s leading indicator, which estimates future economic growth, increased for the seventh month in a row, the rate of its growth slowed significantly in October. The index grew by 0.3 last month, down from 1 percent in September. As the number of unemployed continues to increase, benefits are becoming harder to come by. A program passed this year that subsidizes healthcare for unemployed people is set to expire December 1st for the first people to take advantage of it. The subsidy, which paid for 65 percent of health-insurance costs for nine months, has not yet been extended. People who lose medical coverage for 63 days or more may not be covered for pre-existing conditions when they reapply for insurance.
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke highlighted the devastating impact of the crisis in a speech before the National Economic Club Monday, warning of continued loan defaults and high unemployment. Bernanke noted that the number of people working part-time involuntarily has more than doubled since the beginning of the recession, while the average workweek for manufacturing workers has fallen to the lowest level in postwar history.
The Fed chairman noted the impact of the cost-cutting programs being put into effect by US companies, saying that, “together with the reduction in hours worked, slower wage growth has led to stagnation in labor income.” He summed up the conditions facing workers: “The best thing we can say about the labor market right now is that it may be getting worse more slowly.”
Meanwhile, Wall Street profits are likely to set a new record this year, according to a report released Tuesday by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. The report noted that Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and a section of JPMorgan Chase are set to make $22.5 billion this year, compared to losses of $40.3 billion last year. There is every likelihood that the year-end bonuses at these banks will be equally unprecedented.

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#4287 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Sun Nov 22, 2009 12:30 am
Subject: Fwd: 12/3 THU: Demand a Real Jobs Program 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: Todd Eaton <toddeaton@...>
To: NYPROTEST@...
Sent: Sat, Nov 21, 2009 4:00 pm
Subject: 12/3 THU: Demand a Real Jobs Program

[More event announcements at http://snipurl.com/nyprotest -t.] 
 
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:35:29 -0500 
From: Bail Out the People Movement <actioncenter@...> 
Subject: Commit to Dec 3 DC Protest for a Real Jobs Program 
<http://www.organizerweb.com/mailman/listinfo/action.news>, 
  <mailto:action.news-request@...?subject=subscribe> 
 
Can you make a commitment to 
come to Washington DC on Thursday December 3rd 
to DEMAND A REAL JOBS PROGRAM and MONEY FOR JOBS NOT FOR WAR 
at the White House Job Summit? 
 
Fill in the commitment response form at http://www.bailoutpeople.org/dec309vol.shtml 
 
Under the pressure of depression-level joblessness, the president has called a “White House Summit on Jobs.” There are more than 30 million people in the US who are either without a job or need a better job. At this point, however, the summit is just a talk shop—the government is not considering any serious job proposals. That is why we have to be there as part of a growing struggle to make the government get serious about the jobs crisis. While it’s a good sign that attention is finally being focused on the dire need for living wage jobs, words are not enough. The people need more than talk. 
 
The Bail Out the People Movement is asking you if you can make a commitment to come to Washington DC on December 3rd to protest outside the White House and call for a real jobs program that would ensure that all who need a job get one. Furthermore, we demand that the trillions that have been used to bail out the banks, as well as the trillions that have been poured into the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan, be instead used to create living wage jobs. 
 
Our protest at the White House Jobs Summit is part of a growing national campaign for a serious national jobs program that is as ambitious in size and scope as the Works Progress Administration (WPA) jobs program during the depression of the 1930’s that put nearly 9 million people to work. Not only do we demand a job for all, but we demand that the types of jobs created serve and improve our communities and our planet. 
 
If you live in the New York Tri-State area, we can help arrange transportation to Washington on December 3rd. We expect that it will be a full day trip departing from New York early in the morning and returning that evening. If you are traveling to Washington on December 3 from another part of the country, let us know and we will tell you if others are coming from that region with whom you can travel. We’re asking participants to make a donation towards the cost of transportation, but no one, regardless of their ability to make a donation, will be denied the opportunity to come to Washington if they want to do so. 
 
The most important thing is that you LET US KNOW IMMEDIATELY IF YOU CAN MAKE A COMMITMENT TO GO TO WASHINGTON ON DECEMBER 3RD by filling in the commitment response form at http://www.bailoutpeople.org/dec309vol.shtml so that we can make the necessary arrangements. 
 
Whether you can go on December 3rd or not, we would appreciate a response from you—please share your thoughts with us. 
 
Bail Out the People Movement 
Solidarity Center 
55 W. 17th St. #5C 
New York, NY 10011 
212.633.6646 
www.BailOutPeople.org 
Email: bailoutpeople.org/cmnt.shtml 
 
 
 
 
 
 
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ For transit & travel info try these sites: 
 onnyturf.com transit: http://is.gd/nv3a 
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~ Read searchable event listings on the web 
 http://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/nyprotest  or http://snipurl.com/NYPROTEST And please  send a friend this link.  
~ Clicking "reply" to any message will  not reach that event's organizers.   ~ Ask me to switch your subscription to one  msg per day, two per week or to no mail/website  only. Or get a password reminder, & then  switch it yourself at:  
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#4286 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Sat Nov 21, 2009 2:54 am
Subject: Fwd: AFL-CIO and Allies Have List of Quick Actions For White House ‘Jobs Summit’ on Dec. 3 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: Harry Kelber <harrykelber@...>
To: laboreducator@...
Sent: Fri, Nov 20, 2009 8:48 am
Subject: The Persistent Job Crisis

LaborTalk (15)                         November 19, 2009

AFL-CIO and Allies Have List of Quick Actions
For  White House  ‘Jobs  Summit’  on Dec. 3

By Harry Kelber

Leaders of the AFL-CIO and its allies agreed that a prime task before the country is to create jobs for millions of unemployed workers, as they  took part in a live TV panel discussion, sponsored by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) on Nov. 17. They emphasized that any delay by Congress in dealing with the job crisis would only make the unemployment problem more acute and leave a grim legacy of hard times for the next generation.

Panelists included AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, NAACP President Benjamin Jealous; President  Janet Murguia of the National Council of  La Raza (NCLR);  President Wade Henderson  of the Leadership  Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) and Deepack Bhargava, executive director for Community Change. EPI President Larry Mishel served as moderator.

A high point of the discussion was Trumka’s announcement that the AFL-CIO is proposing a 5-step plan that would save or create two million jobs in one year. He listed these five  features  as criteria:

1. Expand the lifeline for jobless workers by extending unemployment insurance benefits and providing food stamps and other “safety net” features that serve the poor and elderly.

2. Rebuild America’s schools, roads and other crumbling infrastructure facilities.

3. Increase aid to state and local governments so they can maintain vital services and save jobs of needed personnel.

4. Find jobs in communities There can be many jobs created in run-down towns and villages.

5. Put TARP (the Troubled Assets Relief Program) money, (from the original $750 billion bailout fund for Wall Street), to work for Main Street.

Trumka said the coalition will push the  White House and Congress to act on these recommendations immediately, starting at President Ocala’s Dec. 3 Job Summit.

What Will Convince Congress to Approve Job-Creating Laws?


Trumka’s five-point program and constructive  proposals by labor’s allies  will remain just talking points, if Congress fails to act on a jobs program, on the grounds that it could be counter-productive, since the economy is heading  toward  recovery. Republicans will be sure  to question the price tag of such an enormous enterprise, conducted by new government bureaucracies. How long will these makeshift jobs last and how long will these job-holders remain dependent on the government for employment? If companies begin to rehire, what will happen to the government-created jobs?

These and lots of other  difficult questions will be surely asked by business representatives; and we must have convincing answers.

Then there is President Obama and his economic advisers who thought that his $787 economic stimulus package could take care of the jobs shortage, while he spent time on the difficult domestic and international problems.  The $787 economic stimulus fund has saved or created one million jobs, the White House says, and it predicts it will achieve its goal of 3.5 million jobs in two years.. But there  are today 20 million people who are unemployed and underemployed. And that doesn’t count the two million Americans who will be entering the labor force and will be looking for  decent-paying jobs.

So what will convince  Congress to undertake a jobs program not seen since the Great Depression? It is highly doubtful that the torrent of e-mails we have sent our representatives in Congress or the countless telephone calls will have the effect we desire. Our lawmakers do not believe that the situation is as desperate as our fiery rhetoric portrays. In truth, there has not been a single nationwide protest on behalf of millions of working families who have been living without a paycheck for months. If there has been no national protest to draw their attention, why should lawmakers embark on such a colossal and costly job-creating venture?

If the unemployment situation is as bad as Trumka and other leaders say it is (and it really is!), there must be militant demonstrations  throughout the country to wake up Washington to create job opportunities for the millions of Americans who have been deprived of their livelihood through no fault of their own. And those demonstrations must continue throughout the country until justice is done.
*   *   *  *   *

In countries around the world, working people are fighting  against factory closings, privatization and mass layoffs. They go on strike, sometimes for two hours or a day or a week, even on hunger strikes. They hold marches and rallies to gain the support of their communities. They occupy their factories and don’t leave until they get some satisfaction from their employers.

The fight to save jobs is taking place in developed economies like England, Germany and France, and in underdeveloped ones, like Bangladesh,  Zimbabwe and Chile. In Argentina, workers have taken control of their closed factories and are running them at a profit.

Is there anything American workers can learn from their brothers and sisters in other countries?—Harry Kelber
 

LaborTalk (16) will be posted on Tuesday, November 24,  2009. 
 
 
 
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#4285 From: "wilsoncharless" <chasmn@...>
Date: Fri Nov 20, 2009 4:23 am
Subject: Implications of Chinas Currency Policy on Trade 		wilsoncharless
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Implications of China's Currency Policy on Trade
Three Reports from Congressional Research Service
Excerpts below
- - - If the yuan is undervalued vis--vis the dollar (estimates rage from 15% to 40% or higher), then Chinese exports to the United States are likely cheaper than they would be if the currency were freely traded, providing a boost to China's export industries (and, to some degree, an indirect subsidy).- - -  Such a policy, in effect, benefits Chinese exporting firms (many of which are owned by foreign multinational corporations) at the expense of non-exporting Chinese firms, especially those that rely on imported goods.
 
- - -  Chinese statistics indicated that more than half of its exports to the world are produced by foreign-invested firms in China, many of which have shifted production to China in order to gain access to low-cost labor.
 
- - - These factors imply that much of the increase in U.S. imports (and hence, the rising trade deficit with China) is largely the result of China becoming a production platform for many foreign companies, rather than unfair Chinese trade policies.
 
1-9-08 Report in 57 page pdf at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL32165.pdf
6-17-09 Report in 12 page pdf at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RS21625.pdf

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#4284 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Fri Nov 20, 2009 1:32 am
Subject: Fwd: Tribune still beating up unions over convention business 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: Chicago Federation of Labor <info@...>
To: Gregory A. Butler <GREGORYABUTLER@...>
Sent: Thu, Nov 19, 2009 2:04 pm
Subject: Tribune still beating up unions over convention business

Take Action
Last week, the Chicago Tribune had an online poll asking if union costs were hurting Chicago.  The editors must not have liked the results (56% voted NO!) because they have launched a new poll asking: Are unions to blame for Chicago losing its convention business?
Please take a moment to show your solidarity and vote no
CLICK HERE
No one understands the benefit conventions and tourism bring to our region like Chicago’s labor movement.  Without these shows, we’d lose jobs, business and tax revenue.  Yet the finger is being pointed to unions even after they have agreed to ways to lower costs and increase flexibility for exhibitors.  There a re other cost factors that must be addressed, yet the media is largely ignoring them. 
Thanks to your help, we stood up for Chicago’s union members last week.  Please take a moment to do so again and forward the poll to your friends and family.
Thank you!


 
Subscriptions:
[Chicago Labor in Action]

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#4283 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Wed Nov 18, 2009 8:08 pm
Subject: Fwd: AFL-CIO’s New Secretary-Treasurer Earns $238,976, But Refuses to Discuss Her Job 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: Harry Kelber <harrykelber@...>
To: laboreducator@...
Sent: Wed, Nov 18, 2009 10:22 am
Subject: We Have a Right to Know

LaborTalk (14)                       November 17, 2009

AFL-CIO’s New Secretary-Treasurer Earns
$238,976, But Refuses to Discuss Her Job

By Harry Kelber

After two months in office, Liz Shuler has  not said a single word about her new job as AFL-CIO-Secretary-Treasurer, nor has she given any indication that she intends to tell us about the AFL-CIO’s financial problems, even though we are paying her  a salary of $238,975 a year for each of four years to represent us.

Shuler was hand-picked for the AFL-CIO’s No. 2 job  by a group of powerful international  union presidents, including Edwin Hill. president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, who was her boss, mentor and chief promoter.  The top leadership fixed it so she wouldn't face any competition and would be guaranteed the position by remaining silent until the day of the sham election.

Shuler had spent most of her labor career within the IBEW, with her major activity in the Portland, Oregon area, where she was born and went to school. One of her chief accomplishments for the union was the 1997  defeat of a bill, promoted by the Enron corporation, to deregulate Oregon’s electricity market.

At 39, Shuler is the  AFL-CIO’s youngest and first woman to become secretary-treasurer, the No, 2 position in the labor federation’s hierarchy.  She has publicly stated that she intends to spend much of her time reaching out to workers under 35. (That, by itself, would seem like a full-time job. Would her role as  AFL-CIO secretary treasurer be a part-time position?)

While silent on the AFL-CIO’s financial difficulties, she has made several speeches on other subjects. To  a Minnesota labor audience, she made a strong pitch for the need to organizing young workers. At the New Jersey AFL-CIO convention, she said: “Our values and our morals are timeless: social justice, the dignity of work, equality for all, good  jobs for those who need them.” At the IBEW convention, she said: “We must focus on creating jobs.”

There is no evidence in Shuler’s background that she has the experience and  skills for handling large financial transactions, including pension fund investments, the federation’s credit card operations, per capita record-keeping and the various tax  reports and other documents that are part of the AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer’s responsibilities. But that did not appear to be a handicap for  the group that hand-picked her for  the job

 Unanswered Questions about the AFL-CIO’s Financial Plight

The AFL-CIO as been sliding into insolvency, but the news has been kept from the union membership. A “White Paper,” prepared by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers disclosed that the AFL-CIO’s net assets had dropped from $66 million on July 1,  2000 to a negative of $2.3 million by June 30,  2008. Also, the Federation’s liabilities, as of June 30, 2008, exceeded $90.7 million, and that was before its massive outlays in the 2008 general election campaign.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, then secretary-treasurer, increased his basic salary of $165,000 by an extra $74,000 between 2005 and 2008, without ever explaining why he deserved it. In fact, throughout his 14 years in that office, he kept union members in the dark about how their dues money was being spent.

Has Shuler signaled  in the past two months that she  will also adhere to a policy of silence about how she is running her department, in the belief that she is not obligated to keep union members informed about her financial activities. Like Trumka, she may feel that there is nothing the rank-and-file can do to compel her to discuss the AFL-CIO’s financial problems and its serious consequences.

Shuler faces her first test of credibility. Will she tell us about the state of the AFL:-CIO’s finances and how she intends to run the department? We’ll soon find out--if and how she responds.
*   *   *  *   *

Transparency is an essential feature of  democratic unions. If union members are kept informed about what their leaders are  saying and doing, they are more likely to respond to calls for volunteers during organizing campaigns and  turn out  in support of political and legislative issues. If members know what’s going on, they have an opportunity to approve or criticize union policies before they are adopted.

If there is no transparency  then it is difficult to hold leaders accountable for their actions. Leaders can conceal costly mistakes or self-serving expenditures or  illegal activities or any scandal by simply “keeping it within the club.”

Right now, the AFL-CIO is undergoing the test of transparency. Union members have to speak up and show they want it. It ‘s how they can have a voice in the future of their unions.—Harry Kelber

LaborTalk (15) will be posted on Thursday, November 19, 2009 
 
 
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#4282 From: "laborink" <laborink@...>
Date: Wed Nov 18, 2009 7:04 pm
Subject: Inflation +7.1% + CPI Glossary 11-18-09 		laborink
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11-18-09
Inflation +7.1%
Inflation: Chart of the CPI.
Note: The CPI chart on the home page reflects our estimate of inflation for today as if it were calculated the same way it was in 1990. The CPI on the Alternate Data Series tab here, reflects the CPI as if it were calculated using the methodologies in place in 1980. Further background on the Alternate CPI and Ongoing M3 series is available in the Archives in the August 2006 SGS newsletter.
CPI Glossary
11-18-09 Shadow Government Statistics,
American Business Analytics & Research LLC.
Notes on Different Measures of the Consumer Price Index.
 
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the broadest inflation measure published by U.S. Government, through the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Department of Labor:
 
The CPI-U (Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers) is the monthly headline inflation number (seasonally adjusted) and is the broadest in its coverage, representing the buying patterns of all urban consumers. Its standard measure is not seasonally adjusted, and it never is revised on that basis except for outright errors,  
 
The CPI-W (CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers) covers the more-narrow universe of urban wage earners and clerical workers and is used in determining cost of living adjustments in government programs such as Social Security. Otherwise its background is the same as the CPI-U. 
 
The C-CPI-U (Chain-Weighted CPI-U) is an experimental measure, where the weighting of components is fully substitution based. It generally shows lower annual inflation rate than the CPI-U and CPI-W. The latter two measures once had fixed weightings so as to measure the cost of living of maintaining a constant standard of living but now are quasi-substitution-based. 
 
The SGS Alternative CPI-U measures are attempts at adjusting reported CPI-U inflation for the impact of methodological change of recent decades designed to move the concept of the CPI away from being a measure of the cost of living needed to maintain a constant standard of living.
Shadow Government Statistics, American Business Analytics & Research LLC.

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#4281 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Tue Nov 17, 2009 3:15 am
Subject: Fwd: 11/17 TUE: Rally For Paid Sick Leave 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: Todd Eaton <toddeaton@...>
To: NYPROTEST@...
Cc: stillwerise@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Mon, Nov 16, 2009 10:12 pm
Subject: 11/17 TUE: Rally For Paid Sick Leave

See http://snipurl.com/nyprotest 
 
Please take 30 seconds and add toddeaton@... AND nyprotest-owner@... to your address book, then check your spam folder for mail from me. Click 
"this is not spam". Thanks! 
  ~~ 
 
 
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:15:30 -0500 
From: Robert Campbell <robert.campbell at nyu.edu> 
NYC event for Paid Sick Leave Nov 17 
 
On Tuesday, November 17, the New York City Council will hold a hearing on a paid sick time bill introduced by Council Member Gale Brewer which will make it possible for virtually every worker in New York City to take time off from work, for illness or taking care of sick family members or to address domestic violence, without being penalized. 
 
12 noon: Gloria Steinem and other women's leaders will stand on the steps of City Hall to show their support for the bill and stand up for paid sick days. 
 
1 pm: Supporters will come to the City Council chamber for the City Council hearing 
 
Letters of support can be sent to: nycpaidsickdays@.... The New York City Paid Sick Days Campaign will deliver them to the Mayor and the Speaker. 
 
Co-sponsors of the rally include A Better Balance, NYS Paid Family Leave Coalition, ROC-NY, Make the Road NY, NOW-NYC, MomsRising, Law Women of NYU School of Law, Working Families Party and the Institute for Puerto Rican & Hispanic Elderly, the Hispanic Senior Action Council, the National Dominican Women's Caucus and the American Association of University Women-NY along with City Councilwomen. 
 
For more information about the bill please visit www.abetterbalance.org or www.timetocareny.org/nyc 
 
VISIT THE NCRW PROJECT SITE! Women in Fund Management: Achieving Critical Mass - and Why it Matters. 
 
Also, visit www.ncrwbigfive.org and be sure to check out our blog: The Real Deal. 
 
Robert D. Campbell 
Associate Director 
Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality 
New York University 
41 East 11th Street, 7th Floor 
New York, NY 10003 
 
212-992-9545 
 
http://www.csgsnyu.org 
 
 
 
 
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#4280 From: "wilsoncharless" <chasmn@...>
Date: Tue Nov 17, 2009 1:31 am
Subject: U.S. Literacy & Illiteracy Numbers 		wilsoncharless
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U.S. Literacy & Illiteracy Numbers
1/3 of Americans are illiterate.
42 million cannot read
50 million read only at a 4th & 5th grade level
Many more are functionally literate but do not read.
Source: Chris Hedges at Miami Book Festival 11-15-09
Chris Hedgers speaks about literacy at 195.40 into the presentation.
 
"In one century we went from teaching Latin and Greek in high school to offering remedial English in college."
Joseph Sobran
 
Literacy study: 1 in 7 U.S. Adults Are Unable to Read This Story
1-8-09 USA Today by Greg Toppo
A long-awaited federal study finds that an estimated 32 million adults in the USA about one in seven are saddled with such low literacy skills that it would be tough for them to read anything more challenging than a children's picture book or to understand a medication's side effects listed on a pill bottle. Article at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-01-08-adult-literacy_N.htm
ON THE WEB: Read the findings 
View state or county estimates
Compare two states or two counties
@ http://nces.ed.gov/naal/estimates/index.aspx
Seattle, Minneapolis most literate big cities 
More at: http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2005-12/2005-12-29-voa17.cfm
The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).
The National Adult Literacy Survey represents 190 million U.S. adults over age sixteen with an average school attendance of 12.4 years. The survey is conducted by the Educational Testing Service of Princeton, New Jersey. It ranks adult Americans into five levels. Here is its 1993 analysis:
  1. Forty-two million Americans over the age of sixteen can't read. Some of this group can write their names on Social Security cards and fill in height, weight, and birth spaces on application forms.
  2. Fifty million can recognize printed words on a fourth- and fifth-grade level. They cannot write simple messages or letters.
  3. Fifty-five to sixty million are limited to sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade reading. A majority of this group could not figure out the price per ounce of peanut butter in a 20-ounce jar costing $1.99 when told they could round the answer off to a whole number.
  4. Thirty million have ninth- and tenth-grade reading proficiency. This group (and all preceding) cannot understand a simplified written explanation of the procedures used by attorneys and judges in selecting juries.
  5. About 3.5 percent of the 26,000-member sample demonstrated literacy skills adequate to do traditional college study, a level 30 percent of all U.S. high school students reached in 1940, and which 30 percent of secondary students in other developed countries can reach today. This last fact alone should warn you how misleading comparisons drawn from international student competitions really are, since the samples each country sends are small elite ones, unrepresentative of the entire student population. But behind the bogus superiority a real one is concealed.
  6. Ninety-six and a half percent of the American population is mediocre to illiterate where deciphering print is concerned. This is no commentary on their intelligence, but without ability to take in primary information from print and to interpret it they are at the mercy of commentators who tell them what things mean. A working definition of immaturity might include an excessive need for other people to interpret information for us.  http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/3j.htm

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#4279 From: "wilsoncharless" <chasmn@...>
Date: Mon Nov 16, 2009 6:13 pm
Subject: Overton Window: A Concept in Political Theory 		wilsoncharless
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Overton Window
The Overton window is a concept in political theory, named after its originator, Joe Overton, former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. It describes a "window" in the range of public reactions to ideas in public discourse, in a spectrum of all possible options on an issue.
Details
Overton described a method for moving that window, thereby including previously excluded ideas, while excluding previously acceptable ideas. The technique relies on people promoting ideas even less acceptable than the previous "outer fringe" ideas. That makes those old fringe ideas look less extreme, and thereby acceptable. The idea is that priming the public with fringe ideas intended to be and remain unacceptable, will make the real target ideas seem more acceptable by comparison.
The degrees of acceptance of public ideas can be described roughly as:
Unthinkable
Radical
Acceptable
Sensible
Popular
The Overton Window is a means of visualizing which ideas define that range of acceptance by where they fall in it, and adding new ideas that can push the old ideas towards acceptance merely by making the limits more extreme.
Further reading
Tullock, Gordon (1967). Politics of Persuasion. 

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#4277 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Mon Nov 16, 2009 12:54 am
Subject: Fwd: World of Labor 11-14-09 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: Harry Kelber <harrykelber@...>
To: laboreducator@...
Sent: Sun, Nov 15, 2009 11:49 am
Subject: World of Labor 11-14-09

cid:405573212@22032009-3228
Check our web site: www.laboreducator.org
 
 
 
 The World of Labor      November 14, 2009
By Harry Kelber

Obama Announces a Jobs Summit for December
President Obama announced on Nov. 12 that he will convene a jobs summit at the White House next month, saying “the economic growth that we’ve seen has not yet led to the job growth that we desperately need.” The President made his remarks shortly before leaving. fora weeklong trip to Asia. “Hiring often  takes time to catch up to economic growth,” Obama explained.

With health care and Afghanistan dominating the debate in Washington, many Democrats have grown  concerned that the administration  has not focused extensively enough on the economy and the unemployment rate that has risen to 10.2. The jobs  forum in December will include business leaders, small business owners, trade union leaders and others.

U.S. labor leaders are certain to press Obama  for  more vigorous support for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).  AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will announce the labor federation’s job-creating strategy at a panel discussion conducted by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) on Tuesday, Nov. 17 from 9-11:30 am (www.aflcio.org/createjobs). The strategy is the outcome of a meeting of the AFL-CIO Executive Council two weeks ago.
Tetley Tea Starves Indian Workers by a Lockout since August
Tata, the transnational Indian conglomerate whose Tetley Group makes the world’s famous Tetley teas, has taken 6,500 people hostage through hunger. The hostages are nearly 1,000  tea plantation workers and their families on the Nowera Nuddy Tea Estate in West Bengal, India. Permanently living on the edge of starvation, because of a lockout since August, they’ve had only two days of wages for the past more than three months.

The hostage-taking began with the first lockout on Aug. 10, when workers protested the abusive treatment of a 22-year-old tea garden worker. who was denied maternity leave and forced to continue work as a tea plucker, despite being eight months pregnant. As news of her treatment spread, some 500, mostly female estate workers protested her treatment at a medical facility. The company's response was a lockout, a tactic  they used every time workers protested a new form of abusive treatment. The workers were supposed to receive their annual festival bonus, amounting to roughly two months of wages, but no bonus payments were made.

Tetley Tea is a member of the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP), whose standard commits member companies to, among other requirements, ensure that there is no “harsh or inhumane treatment” of plantation workers and that “workers should be paid at least monthly and should receive their pay on time.” The actual conditions on the Nowera Nuddy Estate, where workers are being subjected to brutal collective punishment, could not be more remote from the  employers’ public commitments.

Sri Lanka Troops to Run Public Services in Case of Strikes

Sri Lanka’s armed forces are preparing to run the essential services—water, electricity, sanitation, fuel and ports, as trade unions claimed success in a dispute over wage demands. The military spokesman, Brig. Udaya Nannayakkara told reporters that the government would not allow the public to suffer and would ensure an uninterrupted flow of services. The military has been mobilized to run public utilities during past emergencies.

The union wage demands vary from a 6,000-rupee allowance to a 50 percent wage increase.  A last minute government offer on Nov. 10 to increase salaries by 22 percent was rejected at the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corp. Close to 5,000 workers gathered inside the Columbo port during a lunch-hour protest, shouting slogans demanding wage increases, while senior company executives were hooted.

“The protest is successful,” said Palitha Athukorala, the convenor of the UNP-controlled National Workers’ Union (JSS)  “Work has been disrupted and the navy hasn’t been able to step in at the Colombo  harbor and ensure a smooth flow of work.” The unions use an American protest tactic (“work-to-rule”) which they have found useful against employers needing fast production.

New Study Reveals Major Changes in Unions in Past 25 Years

Only 11 percent of America’s work force is employed in manufacturing industries, compared to nearly 30 percent about a quarter of a century ago, according to a new study that shows the many dramatic changes that have taken place in unions and the employment of their members.  The study, “The Changing Face of Labor:1983-2008,” shows that white men represent just 38 percent of all union members, and that women now represent more than 45 percent of the union membership and  are still increasing in numbers.

The  study by the Washington-based Center for Economic Policy Research gives figures on trends long known by labor leaders and activists. It notes that the percentage of workers in unions is now only  12.4, compared with 35 percent in the 1950s when the AFL and CIO united to form one union. On the other hand, there have been remarkable gains by public sector unions that have increased their membership rolls from 34 percent in 1983 to 48.9 percent in 25 years.

The statistics on the education of union members is encouraging. They showed that 28 percent of all union members had a four-year college degree or more, up from 20 percent in 1983. Immigrants represent 12.6 percent of union members, up from 8.4 percent in  1994. Hispanics represent 12.2 percent of the unionized work force, up from 5.8  in 1983. The unionization  rate for African –American workers has dropped steeply to 15.5 percent from 31.7 percent in 1983,

3,000  Chinese Workers Strike over Low Pay at German Company

Nearly 3,000 women workers at a German-invested company in South China’s Hainan Province have begun a strike to press their demands on bonus, pay and vacations. ”The strike started after the management said a worker could not receive the year-end bonus if her production efficiency failed to reach 50 percent of the average level last year,” said Mo Xiaohui, an employee. “That was impossible for most of us, as the production dropped sharply in the financial crisis.”

The workers were angered when the boss wanted to cut their bonus, worth about 700 yuan ($102), even though their salary was as low as between 500 and 600 yuan. “That’s going too far,” said a worker named  Li Guihua. The company board later agreed to pay the bonus, but the workers decided to continue their strike for their other demands, like an increase in salary, paid vacations and worker rights.

The company has been owned by the by the German-based Triumph International Overseas Ltd. since 1992.  Negotiations between the worker representatives and management have been stalled. Company headquarters has sent  a senior executive to Haikou to handle the talks.

Sweden to Test ‘Culture by Prescript’
 
The Swedish government has announced that health authorities in Skane in southern Sweden will receive 500,000 kroner ($72,000) from the public purse to fund a pilot program called Kultur pa Recept (Culture by Prescription.) Doctors there will soon be able to prescribe cultural activities, such as choir lessons or ceramics classes as part of a taxpayer-funded initiative to help reduce prolonged absences from work due to illness.

The one-year trial will be carried out at a health clinic in Heisingborg operated by Capio Citykliniken and offer patients access to cultural activities as a complement to their traditional treatment and rehabilitation. “We know that illnesses affect people in different ways and can lead to absences due to sickness of varying lengths of time,” said social security minister  Cristina Husmark Pehrsson, in a statement.

The culture by prescription trial will target patients suffering from low- and medium-grade depression,  stress, anxiety, as well as those who have had back, shoulder or neck pains that have lasted more than three months.  The program works from a broader definition of culture, which, along with theater visits, also includes activities, such as visits to public gardens and enrolling in handicraft courses.


To learn more about workers and their unions in other countries, read our weekly “The World of Labor.” www.laborsvoiceforchange.org
 
 
 
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#4276 From: "wilsoncharless" <chasmn@...>
Date: Sun Nov 15, 2009 3:04 am
Subject: Country Nuclear Bomb Numbers 		wilsoncharless
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Nuclear Weapons States, Warhead Numbers and Policy
Country Active Total First test NPT CTBT
United States 2623 9400 1945 Trinity Yes Signed
Russia (USSR) 4718 13000 1949 RDS-1 Yes Ratified
United Kingdom <160 185 1952 Hurricane Yes Ratified
France ~300 300 1960 Gerboise Bleue Yes Ratified
China ~180 240 1964 596 Yes Signed
India n.a. 60-80 1974 Smiling Buddha No No
Israel (opaque) n.a. 80 1979? Vela Incident No Signed
Pakistan n.a. 70-90 1998 Chagai-I No No
North Korea n.a. <10 2006 2006 test Quit No

All numbers are estimates from the Natural Resources Defense Council, published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, unless other references are given. The latest update was on October 2, 2009. If differences between active and total stockpile are known, they are given as two figures separated by a forward slash. If specifics are not available (n.a.), only one figure is given. Stockpile number may not contain all intact warheads if a substantial amount of warheads are scheduled for but have not yet gone through dismantlement; not all "active" warheads are deployed at any given time. When a range of weapons is given (e.g., 010), it generally indicates that the estimate is being made on the amount of fissile material that has likely been produced, and the amount of fissile material needed per warhead depends on estimates of a country's proficiency at nuclear weapon design. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_with_nuclear_weapons

Burma aka Myanmar - A report in the `Sydney Morning Herald' and Searchina, a Japanese newspaper, report that two Myanmarese defectors saying that the Myanmar junta was secretly building a nuclear reactor and plutonium extraction facility with North Korea's help, with the aim of acquiring its first nuclear bomb in five years.

Nuclear Weapons Sharing
Under NATO nuclear weapons sharing, the United States has provided nuclear weapons for Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey to deploy and store. This involves pilots and other staff of the "non-nuclear" NATO states practicing handling and delivering the U.S. nuclear bombs, and adapting non-U.S. warplanes to deliver U.S. nuclear bombs. Until 1984 Canada also received shared nuclear weapons, and until 2001, Greece. Members of the Non-Aligned Movement have called on all countries to "refrain from nuclear sharing for military purposes under any kind of security arrangements." The Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) has criticized the arrangement for allegedly violating Article I and II of the NPT, arguing that "these Articles do not permit the NWS to delegate the control of their nuclear weapons directly or indirectly to others." NATO has argued that the weapons' sharing is compliant with the NPT because "the U.S. nuclear weapons based in Europe are in the sole possession and under constant and complete custody and control of the United States." More at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_with_nuclear_weapons

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#4275 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Thu Nov 12, 2009 4:41 pm
Subject: Fwd: [NYCLAW] Labor for Palestine: French Workers' Union CNT Joins Israel Boycott (BDS) Campaign 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: UnknownSender@UnknownDomain
To: LaborAgainstWar <laboragainstwar@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wed, Nov 11, 2009 6:28 pm
Subject: [NYCLAW] Labor for Palestine: French Workers' Union CNT Joins Israel Boycott (BDS) Campaign

 
http://bdsmovement.net/?q=node/582

The French Workers' Union CNT Joins BDS Campaign
Posted by RORCoalition on Wed, 11/11/2009 - 12:27

francais ci-dessous

01/11/2009 - Through the intermediary of its international Secretary, the National Work Confederation (Confederation Nationale du Travail or CNT), a French anti-capitalist internationalist union involved in social class struggles, has joined the campaign labelled "Boycott, Disinvestmant and Sanction against the State of Israel", an international campaign launched by more than 170 grassroot Palestinian organizations, including our partnering independent Palestinian independent unions.

Our union confederation will take an active part in the initiatives organized in France. The CNT's international secretary is also inviting every union and federation within our confederation to sign this campaign individually and to take concrete actions in their own field of activities (education, social work, health, culture, trade, media. . .) and in their various regions.

The commitment of the CNT to support the Palestinian people over many years has led us naturally to join this vital campaign to end the exploitation and occupation by Israel. A special group within the international secretary has been working on Palestinian issues since 2001. Thanks to them, we have been able to establish many contacts in Palestine with autonomous unions and grassroot organizations that are fighting the occupation.

Our joining this "Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanction" (BDS) campaign is coherent with our solidarity with Palestine, defined by our statement of support of the Palestinian people's struggle, adopted by the CNT during its 2006 congress. This statement is the expression of the anti-colonial and internationalist principles of our union.

It confirms our opposition to all forms of colonization and occupation as well as our solidarity with the oppressed against the oppressor.

As it was done in the case of South Africa, this initiative aims at weighing through economic means and the media on the state of Israel until the unpunished oppression of the Palestinian people and the denial of their fundamental rights end.

DO NOT FINANCE THE OCCUPATION AND THE COLONIZATION OF PALESTINE: OUR RESPONSE, INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY BETWEEN WORKERS!

The CNT's International secretary
www.cnt-f.org/international
Contact: CNT - Working Group on Palestinian issues: palestine@cnt-f.org

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#4274 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Tue Nov 10, 2009 4:51 pm
Subject: Fwd: LIBERIA, PAPUA NEW GUINEA, SWITZERLAND AND THE USA - the only 4 countries without paid sick days! 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: Harry Kelber <harrykelber@...>
To: laboreducator@...
Sent: Tue, Nov 10, 2009 8:47 am
Subject: Paid Sick Leave

LaborTalk (12)                       November 10, 2009

Poor Nations Offer Paid Sick Leave;
Why Can’t U.S. Workers Receive It?
By Harry Kelber

At least 145 countries provide paid sick days for short- and long-term illnesses, with 136 offering a week or more annually. In more than 61 countries, workers receive sickness benefits for 26 weeks until recovery.

This is the first systematic global study to measure policies for working families in 177 countries. The study used extensive data from independent research institutions, as well as  from United Nations, the World Bank and the ILO.

In contrast, the United States provides only unpaid leave for serious illnesses through the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which does not cover all workers. The U.S. does not guarantee mothers in any segment of the work force. Of the 177 countries, there are only three other countries, besides the U.S., that do not provide paid sick leave: Liberia, Papua and Switzerland

The study found that 169 countries of the 173 studied offered guaranteed leave with income to women in connection with childbirth;  98 of these countries offer 14 or more weeks of paid leave.

Unlike 66 countries where fathers  receive paid paternity leave or have the right to paid parental leave, U.S. employers extend no such benefits to fathers, who risk their jobs if they take even an unpaid day of unauthorized sick leave.

The Democrats have introduced a bill in Congress, the Health Family Act, that requires employers with 15 workers or more to provide paid sick leave, under a complicated formula that gives workers one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked “up to 7 days.” (Why didn’t the bill simply say “seven paid days? You can guess why.)

Let’s Place Paid Sick Leave  High on Labor’s Agenda

With swine flu still a problem,  paid sick leave would be especially helpful to poor and middle-class working families. But the Democrats have already made a concession: the bill won’t be considered until 2010, at the earliest, and who knows what will happen to it?

American workers, who spend some of the best years of their lives to make their employers profitable and wealthy, sometimes get sick while doing so. Or maybe there’s a sick member of the family who needs their attention at home.  Don’t they deserve to have that extra feature of good health care—paid sick leave?

The AFL-CIO should demand that Congress enact legislation that requires employers to offer their workers seven days of sick leave, without entangling formulas. It should also urge unions to include paid sick leave in their collective bargaining demands. It is shameful that we are virtually the only country that denies workers this essential benefit.



LaborTalk (13) will be posted on Thursday, November 12, 2009. 
 
 
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#4273 From: "wilsoncharless" <chasmn@...>
Date: Tue Nov 10, 2009 4:18 am
Subject: Rep. Bart Stupak's Amendment + Info 		wilsoncharless
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Stupak Amendment:
Amendments For H.R.3962
1. H.AMDT.509 to H.R.3962 An amendment printed in Part C of House Report 111-330 to codify the Hyde Amendment in H.R. 3962. The amendment prohibits federal funds for abortion services in the public option. It also prohibits individuals who receive affordability credits from purchasing a plan that provides elective abortions. However, it allows individuals, both who receive affordability credits and who do not, to separately purchase with their own funds plans that cover elective abortions. It also clarifies that private plans may still offer elective abortions.
Sponsor: Rep Stupak, Bart [MI-1] (introduced 11/7/2009)      Cosponsors (None)
11/7/2009 House amendment agreed to. Status: On agreeing to the Stupak amendment (A001) Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: 240 - 194, 1 Present (Roll no. 884).
Final votes on Stupak Amendment http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll884.xml
Rep. Bart Stupak and other, 'The Family' members currently in the US Congress plus other notibles are listed at this link:
 
The Fellowship is an international organization founded in 1935, which since at least 1969 has been led by Douglas Coe. Its members include scores of U.S. Senators, members of Congress, White House and other executive branch officials, high-ranking military officers, corporate executives, the heads of religious and humanitarian aid organizations, and non-U.S. leaders and ambassadors. It has been described by prominent evangelical Christians as one of the most, or the most politically well-connected fundamentalist organization in the U.S.
Other names by which the Fellowship has been known include:
The Family
International Foundation
Fellowship Foundation
C Street Center
Fellowship House
Washington Fellowship
Fellowship Ministry
More info and known prominent members at:
Book:
The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Jeff Sharlet 464 pp. Harper Perennial (June 2, 2009) ISBN-10: 0060560053 ISBN-13: 978-0060560058
"One of the most compelling and brilliantly researched exposes you'll ever read-just don't read it alone at night!" (Barbara Ehrenreich, New York Times bestselling author of Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch )

"Un-American theocrats can only fool patriotic American democrats when there aren't critics like Jeff Sharlet around-careful scholars and soulful writers who understand both the majesty of faith and the evil of its abuses. A remarkable accomplishment in the annals of writing about religion." (Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America )

"Jeff Sharlet is one of the very best writers covering the politics of religion. Brilliantly reported and filled with wonderful anecdotes, THE FAMILY tells the story of an influential group that you haven't previously heard of, and need to know about." (Ken Silverstein, Washington editor of Harper's and author of The Radioactive Boy Scout )

"[Sharlet] has managed to infiltrate the most influential and secretive fundamentalist network in America, and ground his reporting in the most astute and original explanation of fundamentalism I've ever read. . . . Indispensable." (Hanna Rosin, former religion reporter for the Washington Post and author of God's Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save the Nation )

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#4272 From: "laborink" <laborink@...>
Date: Mon Nov 9, 2009 3:05 pm
Subject: Management Tactics When Employees Organize 		laborink
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Sacramento County and Blue Diamond:
Management Tactics When Employees Organize
11-8-09 Sacramento Press by Seth Sandronsky
- - - Sixty-three percent of employers were reported to use mandatory one-on-one, anti-union meetings with employees. Further, 57 percent of employers threatened to close the workplace, 47 percent of employers issued threats to slash benefits and wages, and 34 percent of employers fired workers during union organizing drives.
"Both the intensity and changing character of employer behavior, as well as the fundamental flaws in the NLRB process," Bronfenbrenner writes, "have left us with a system where workers who want to organize cannot exercise that right without fear, threats, harassment, and/or retribution." - - - Article at: http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/17450/Management_tactics_when_employees_organize

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#4271 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Mon Nov 9, 2009 2:39 am
Subject: Fwd: Building Bridges: Health Care Reform?; Israel Boycott; Free Political Prisoner Sundiata Acoli 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: ken nash <buildingbridgesradio3@...>
To: knash@...
Sent: Sun, Nov 8, 2009 5:36 pm
Subject: Building Bridges: Health Care Reform?; Israel Boycott; Free Political Prisoner Sundiata Acoli

WBAI Radio's Building Bridges: Your Community & Labor Report
Produced & Hosted by Mimi Rosenberg & Ken Nash
Monday, November 9, 2009, 7 - 8 p.m. EST, over 99.5 FM
or streaming live at http://www.wbai.org         
***************
Health Care Reform or Insurance Industry Rip-Off?
with
Katie Robbins, Assistant National Coordinator, Healthcare-Now
and
Don McCanne, M.D., Senior Health Policy Fellow , Physicians for
a National Health Program

Democrats said the the sweeping overhaul of the US health care system
passed by the US House of Representatives would extend coverage to
36 million people now without insurance while creating a government
health insurance program. They say it will end insurance company
practices like not covering pre-existing conditions or dropping people
when they become ill. But, what sort of coverage will the now to be heavily
subsidized insurance industry provide especially without a robust public
option? Will they truly end up extend coverage to all those eligible? And,
as the debate now moves to the Senate, what becomes of the single-payer
option which would cover everyone and cost less?
***************
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions:
A Quest for Justice, Human Rights and Peace
wtih
Omar Barghouti, a Founding Member of the the Palestinian Civil
Society Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Campaign

Barghouti analyzes the global growth of the movement for boycotts,
divestment initiatives & embargos and sanctions against the Israeli
apartheid regime involving unions, church groups and even governmental
actions. Even in the heart of the empire the U.S.. Codepink is sponsoring a
boycott campaign against Israeli cosmetics company, Ahava, which illegally
manufactures and appropriates its products in occupied Palestinian territory
and the NY Campaign for the Boycott of Israel is focused on a boycott of the 
communications giant Motorola over its sale of technology to the Israeli
army and settlements.
***************
Free Political Prisoner Sundiata Acoli
with
Soffiyah Elijah, Attorney, & Co-coordinator of the upcoming NYC
fundraiser Freedom Dance for Sundiata Acoli 
and
Fayemi Shakur, Sundiata Acoli Freedom Campaign.
 
We celebrate the struggle to liberate all political prisoners, to acknowledge
victories and renew efforts to continue this work and especially to honor
Sundiata Acoli.  Sundiata Acoli is a 72 year old prisoner at FCI Otisville, NY,
who has been imprisoned 36 years.  Sundiata was arrested May 2nd, 1973
after New Jersey State Troopers shot to death Zayd Shakur a passenger in
his car Zayd Shakur.  A State Trooper was also killed.  The other passenger
in the car was Assata Shakur, who was at the time the object of a nationwide
hunt.  Assata was captured.  Sundiata and his passengers were members
of the Black Panther Party at the time. Assata subsequently escaped & fled
to Cuba.  Sundiata’s political associations then, have since caused the
Parole Board to repeatedly deny him parole.
***************
Building Bridges and most WBAI Programs are now being archived
for 90 Days. They are also being PodCast. These links will be live ca.
15 minutes after the program ends. To listen, download or pod cast 
archived shows go to  http://archive.wbai.org/allshows.php?sort=nameaz                                    

                                     Visit our web site -
                          www.buildingbridgesradio.org     


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#4270 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Sun Nov 8, 2009 1:01 pm
Subject: Fwd: World of Labor 11-14-09 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: Harry Kelber <harrykelber@...>
To: laboreducator@...
Sent: Sun, Nov 8, 2009 7:30 am
Subject: World of Labor 11-14-09

cid:405573212@22032009-3228
Check our web site: www.laboreducator.org
 
 
 The World of Labor            November 14, 2009
By Harry Kelber


U.S. Unemployment Rate Soars to 10.2%

The jobless rate in the United States grew to 10.2 percent in October, a  stunning increase from the 9.8 rate during the previous month, according to a Nov. 6 report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which said that 15.7 million workers were officially unemployed. As today’s figures show, unemployment could persist throughout 2010. Larry Mishel, director of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) predicts that one-third of the U.S. workforce will be unemployed or underemployed through 2010.

While the latest shocking jobless numbers will probably increase a demand for a second stimulus package, Obama’s economic advisers are opposed to the idea. They say that nearly one million jobs have been saved or created because of the administration’s $787 billion stimulus plan, and the White House is on track to meet the president’s  goal of 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year. They also point to signs of economic recovery that may induce employers to begin rehiring.

The AFL-CIO saw the jobless figures as more evidence of the need of  an additional stimulus package. The alarming jobs report “should be a wake-up call to sleepy politicians,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. He noted that the AFL-CIO and its allies are unveiling an effort this month to push for “immediate job creation among other critically-needed economic aid for working families. The nation needs to act fast to stop the hemorrhage of jobs and the economic crisis among working families,” Trumka added.


450,000 Chilean Public Employees Launch Strike

Demanding an across-the-board wage increase of 8 percent, about 450,000 Chilean public employees went on strike Nov. 3. The civil servants, represented by  the ANEF union, are also demanding the establishment of a monthly minimum wage of 250,000 pesos ($460) and regularized status for temporary workers and contractors, who don’t receive health coverage or other benefits.

The 48-hour strike halted activity in hospitals and doctors’ offices, where, according to the unions, 80 percent of the workers joined the strike, though skeleton crews remained on duty to deal with emergencies. ANEF Raul de la Puente accused the ministers of finance and labor of not keeping President Michelle Bachelet’s promise  to improve working conditions of civil servants.

The government’s offer of a 2.5 percent wage increase for 2010 was “unacceptable,” de la Puente said. “The negotiations will be difficult if we’re starting from this basis,” he added. Talks have begun between the authorities and union leaders.
 
European Unions Are Upset after GM Scraps Opel Sale
General Motors’ decision to scrap the sale of its Opel subsidiary has raised new uncertainty over the unit’s future, astonishing politicians in Germany and Russia and prompting workers to stage walkouts in protest.  GM’s Vice President said on Nov. 4 that about 10,000 jobs would be  slashed at Opel, which employs 55,000  Europeans in Germany, Spain. Belgium, Poland and the U.K.

The announcement came less than a day after GM  said it would not sell off Opel to a consortium led by Canadian car-parts maker Magna and Russian state bank Sberbank. The job cuts would be undertaken with the aim of reducing costs at Opel by about 30 percent.

GM’s sudden decision to retain Opel was greeted with surprise and suppressed anger in both Germany and Russia. German officials swiftly demanded a restructuring plan from Detroit, and that General Motors repay the huge loan that Berlin had offered the original Magna-Opel deal.
 
Strike Shuts Moroccan Public Schools

Fed up with overcrowded classrooms and a shortage of instructors in public schools, several Moroccan teachers’ unions  staged a  strike on Oct. 29. The four unions were also protesting poor infrastructure and changes in the promotion process.

“The decision to walk out was taken after an attempt to restart a dialogue with the education ministry  had failed last September,”  said  Abdelmajid El Gharss, a representative of the National Teaching Federation, one of the principal organizers of the strike. “We have not ruled out the possibility that strike action will be intensified if the department in charge does not respond,” added Gharss, who blamed the government for any damaging effect the strike might have on students.

The promotion issue hinges on what the unions call the government’s failure to honor an Aug. 2007 agreement that would increase promotions and cut the number of years—from six to four—that educators must teach before they can take professional examinations.


Thousands Protest Irish Government’s Plan to Cut  Pay and  Services

Workers across Ireland  have taken to the streets in a series of marches to protest against the government’s proposed cuts in pay and services. Organizers of the protest say that at least 30,000 people marched through Dublin, the capital. Speakers at the rally estimated that as many as 70,000  took part in the protest.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, which organized the day of action, is opposed to the government’s economic strategy, which it says will inflict unfair hardship on working people and the vulnerable in society.  “We hope that they will look at our plan, which is for a more gentle transition in the period of adjustment,” said ICTU General Secretary David Begg.

The protesters feel that  the 5 percent of of the population who own 40 percent of the country’s wealth should be forced to pay their share toward correcting the nation’s finances. The government must find savings worth roughly  4 billion euros  ($5.9 billion) in the budget on Dec. 9.


DHL, the  Global Freight Company,  Is Target of Labor Coalition

The International Transport Workers Federation and UNI, a global union, are calling a “worldwide week of action”  (Nov. 9-16) to drive home their claims that DHL, the international parcels carriers,  are not abiding by agreements to conform to elements of social responsibility previously agreed with its workforce.

“This campaign is about rights for all DHL workers, irrespective of whether they are directly employed or are subcontractors. It is about ensuring that workers at DHL have a voice in how the company is run, wherever they happen to be working.,” said Ingo Marowsky,  head of the ITF’s region and industrial office. “DHL cannot take a free ride in the countries where the laws  or government turn a blind eye to poor pay, poor conditions  and attacks on anyone who wants to be part of a trade union.”

The unions intend to conduct protests in countries where DHL operate, including Austria, Belgium, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic,  Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Panama, South Africa, Switzerland and Trinidad and Tobago.


Learn about important developments among workers and their unions in other countries by reading  our weekly, “The World of Labor.” www.laborsvoiceforchange.org
 
 
 
 
If you want to be removed from this mailing list, send subject " REMOVE" to postmaster@...

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#4269 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Sat Nov 7, 2009 6:44 am
Subject: Fwd: National Jobs Conf. from Friday 11/13 in NYC 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: Todd Eaton <toddeaton@...>
To: NYPROTEST@...
Sent: Sat, Nov 7, 2009 1:27 am
Subject: National Jobs Conf. from Friday 11/13 in NYC

See latest protest announcements at http://snipurl.com/nyprotest 
(No login needed.) 
 
More legible at website http://is.gd/4PnAG-/ 
 
National Jobs Conference Set For Nov. 13-14 in New York City! 
 
NATIONAL CONFERENCE TO CREATE LIVING-WAGE JOBS FOR ALL, MEET HUMAN NEEDS & SUSTAIN THE ENVIRONMENT 
 
Friday & Saturday, November 13-14, 2009, New York, NY 
 
Friday, Nov. 13: Interchurch Center, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY -- Map <http://is.gd/4PnHD-/> 
 
Saturday, Nov. 14: District Council 37, 125 Barclay Street, New York, NY -- Map <http://is.gd/4PnJx-/> 
 
Register Now! Registration fee includes continental breakfast and buffet lunch for both days <http://is.gd/4PnAG-/> 
 
Conference Brochure with Agenda as of 11-05-09 (Word) <http://is.gd/4PnE5-/> 
 
Conference Promotional Booklet with Call to Action & Endorser List (PDF) <http://is.gd/4PnAG-/> 
 
Join Cause and publicize through Facebook 
 
Confirmed speakers include: 
 
Barbara Arms, Treasurer and Community Organizer, Coalition for Economic and Social Justice, Belleville, IL 
 
Bill Barclay, Chicago Political Economy Group 
 
Cassandra Barham, Ohio Empowerment Coalition/ Cincinnati Contact Center 
 
Charles Bell, Conference Chair, Vice-President, National Jobs for All Coalition, and Programs Director, Consumers Union 
 
Pres. Barbara Bowen, Professional Staff Congress-CUNY, AFL-CIO 
 
Larry Bresler, Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign 
 
Sheila Collins, Professor of Political Science, William Paterson University. Author, Let Them Eat Ketchup: The Politics of Poverty and Inequality; co-author, Washington's New Poor Law: Welfare Reform and the Roads Not Taken, 1935 to the Present. 
 
Gary Dorrien, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics, Union Theological Seminary, New York, NY, and Professor of Religion, Columbia University, author of many books, including Social Ethics in the Making: Interpreting an American Tradition, and Imperial Designs: Neoconservatism and the New Pax Americana 
 
Glen Ford, Editor, Black Agenda Report 
 
Gertrude Schaffner Goldberg, Professor of Social Policy and Chair, Ph.D. Program in Social Work, Adelphi University. Poor Women in Rich Countries: The Feminization of Poverty over the Life Course (editor and co-author). Washington's New Poor Law: Welfare "Reform" and the Roads Not Taken, 1935 to the Present (co-author) 
 
Helen Lachs Ginsburg, Professor Emerita of Economics, Brooklyn College, CUNY. Author, Full Employment and Public Policy: The United States and Sweden; Jobs for All: A Plan for the Revitalization of America (co-authored) 
 
Philip Harvey, Professor of Law and Economics, Rutgers School of Law. Author, Securing the Right to Employment: Social Welfare Policy and the Unemployed in the United States; co-author of America's Misunderstood Welfare State: Persistent Myths, Enduring Realities. 
 
Christine Firer Hinze, Professor, Christian Ethics, Fordham University. Author, Comprehending Power in Christian Social Ethics 
 
Peter Knowlton, President of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), Northeast Region, and Vice-President on the General Executive Board of the UE National 
 
Dedrick Muhammad, Senior Organizer and Research Associate, Program on Inequality and the Common Good, Institute for Policy Studies 
 
Ed Ott, Joseph Murphy Center for Labor, Community, and Policy Studies, CUNY 
 
Bill Perkins, Senator, New York State Senate, 30th District 
 
Joe Persky, Professor of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago Political Economy Group 
 
Robert Pollin, Professor of Economics and founding Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, co-author, Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy 
 
Bill Quigley, Legal Director, Center for Constitutional Rights, and Loyola University School of Law. Author of Ending Poverty as We Know It: Guaranteeing a Right to a Job at a Living Wage and Storms Still Raging: Katrina, New Orleans and Social Justice . 
 
Elce Redmond, South Austin Community Coalition, Committee for New Priorities and Executive Committee, Chicago Job With Justice 
 
Lillian Roberts, Executive Director, District Council 37, AFSCME, AFL-CIO 
 
Paul Sherry, former President, United Church of Christ 
 
Holly Sklar, policy advisor, Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign, author, Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies That Work for All of Us. 
 
James Thindwa, labor and community activist, and former Executive Director of Chicago Jobs With Justice. James recently joined the American Federation of Teacher's Strategic Campaigns Team, a national campaign to organize charter school employees. He writes for, and is a board member of In These Times magazine, and serves on the board of directors of Illinois Labor History Society 
 
Chloe Tribich, Senior Organizer, Center for Working Families 
 
Ricardo Valadez, Program and Communications Director, Jobs with Justice 
 
Deborah Weinstein, Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs, Washington, DC 
 
Billy Wimsatt, Senior Strategist, Green For All 
 
TOPICS TO BE ADDRESSED during the two-day conference include: 
 
-- the current crisis in unemployment and underemployment; 
-- faith and community perspectives on the need for living wage jobs and decent work; 
-- America’s “other deficit” of underinvestment in physical infrastructure and public services, and opportunities to create jobs that fix America and put unemployed people back to work; 
-- labor union initiatives to create jobs, raise wages and improve working conditions; 
-- policy options to promote green jobs and environmental sustainability; 
-- developing a transformative legislative program for job creation and economic renewal; and 
-- organizing and building a broad-based social movement to create living wage jobs for everyone who wants to work, and achieve full employment. 
 
CONFERENCE CALL TO ACTION 
 
Our country is in the throes of an economic crisis—the most severe since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Unemployment is at the disaster level. And even before the onset of our current, deep recession, chronic unemployment, low and stagnant wages, myriad unmet needs and unprecedented environmental degradation were endemic. 
 
Current Job Crisis 
 
* Nearly 30 million workers fully or partially jobless (June 2009) 
* Most rapid job less of any downturn since the Great Depression 
* 5 million fewer jobs in the U.S. economy since the onset of the recession. 
* High unemployment expected to persist, even if the economy “recovers.” 
* Many of the long-term unemployed will lose benefits, their savings, their homes and more 
 
Weak Stimulus 
 
By the Administration’s own estimate, the economic stimulus will make up for a fraction of the millions of jobs lost since the recession began. Nor will the Stimulus stem the continuing job hemorrhage. 
 
“Good Old Days” 
 
Even in “good” times: 5 million or more women and men were officially jobless; hidden unemployment afflicted many millions more; and poverty wages were rampant. Inequality reigned, our infrastructure was crumbling, and human services fell far short of needs. We must not go back to those “Good Old Days.” 
 
Instead, we should be guided by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933): We cannot be content, no matter how high the general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people … is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure. 
 
Real Reform 
 
Now is the time to organize and mobilize to create a just economy--one that assures living wage jobs for all, sustains the environment, and repairs our social and physical infrastructure. 
 
JOIN A COALITION of LABOR, RELIGIOUS, ANTI-POVERTY, COMMUNITY ACTION ORGANIZATIONS … & CONCERNED PEOPLE 
 
- ATTEND & SUPPORT THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE IN NEW YORK 
- HELP TO ORGANIZE SIMILAR CONFERENCES ALL OVER THE UNITED STATES 
- PLAN A MASS DEMONSTRATION FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE IN WASHINGTON 
 
Registration is $60 for general admission (or $50 Early Bird rate through Nov. 6) and $35 for students. The fee includes continental breakfast and buffet lunch for both days. 
 
One day registration is $35 for general admission, and $20 for students. 
 
NOTE: The Friday dinner/social event is NOT included in the registration fee and will be an extra charge). 
 
To register for the conference, visit: http://www.jobsconference.org/ and the registration page at: http://www.jobsconference.eventbrite.com/ If you need more information or have suggestions for the program, please email us at JobsConference@... 
 
INITIAL ENDORSERS OF THE CONFERENCE -- [list in formation] 
 
Adelphi University School of Social Work 
Americans for Democratic Action, Darryl Fagin, Legal Director 
Ron Baiman, Chicago Political Economy Group, Director of Budget and Policy Analysis, Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. Chicago 
Bill Barclay, Chicago Political Economy Group, Oak Park Citizens for Truth and Justice, Progressive Democrats of America 
Charles Bell, National Jobs for All Coalition, Conference Chair 
Center for Constitutional Rights, Bill Quigley, Legal Director 
Center for Media and Democracy 
Chicago & Midwest Regional Joint Board, Workers United, SEIU 
Coalition for Economic and Social Justice, San Francisco & Belleville, IL, Barbara Arms, Community Organizer 
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Hartford, Ct Chapter 
Coalition on Human Needs, Deborah Weinstein, Executive Director 
Sheila Collins, National Jobs for All Coalition, Professor of Political Science, William Paterson University 
Committee For New Priorities/Chicago Jobs With Justice 
NY Administrative Employees CWA Local 1180 
University of Connecticut School of Social Work 
Cornell ILR Extension Programs, New York City 
DC 37 AFSCME, Lillian Roberts, President 
Bill Fletcher, Jr., Executive Editor, BlackCommentator.com 
Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Senior Pastor Emeritus, Riverside Church of New York, Pres., Healing of the Nations Foundation 
Helen Ginsburg, National Jobs for All Coalition, Professor Emerita of Economics, Brooklyn College, City University of New York 
General Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Church 
Greater New York Labor Religion Coalition, Rabbi Michael Feinberg, Director 
Philip Harvey, Professor of Law & Economics, Rutgers School of Law 
Howie Hawkins, Green Party, Teamsters Local 317, Syracuse NY 
Hunter College School of Social Work 
Haydar Kurban, Chicago Political Economy Group, Associate Professor of Economics, Howard University 
Garth Mangum, Max McGraw Professor Emeritus, Economics & Management, Univ. of Utah 
Logan Martinez, Miami Valley Full Employment Council/Organize Ohio 
Martin Morand, Emeritus, Indiana U of PA, Industrial-Labor Relations 
Joseph Murphy Center for Labor, Community, and Policy Studies, CUNY 
National Council of Churches 
National Jobs for All Coalition, Trudy Goldberg, Chair 
New Priorities/Chicago Jobs With Justice 
Jeanette Mott Oxford, Missouri House of Representatives, State Representative, 59th District 
Joseph Persky, Chicago Political Economy Group, Professor of Economics, University of Illinois, Chicago 
Robert Pollin, Professor of Economics and Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts-Amherst 
Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign 
Presbyterian Public Policy Network of the Synod of the Northeast (PPAN) 
Presbytery of New York 
Professional Staff Congress-CUNY, AFL-CIO 
Elce Redmond, Chicago Political Economy Group, South Austin Coalition, Chicago 
Marguerite G. Rosenthal, National Jobs for All Coalition, Professor Emerita of Social Work, Salem State College 
Stony Brook University, School of Social Welfare, Social Justice Center 
Frank Stricker, Emeritus Professor of History, California State University, Dominguez Hills 
Dr. Peg Strobel, Professor Emerita, University of Illinois at Chicago 
Rekindling Reform 
Mel Rothenberg, Chicago Political Economy Group, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, University of Chicago 
Rutgers University School of Social Work 
Union of Radical Political Economists (URPE) 
UAW Local 2110 
Rev. Marcel Welty, Conference Coordinator 
Workers Defense League 
Working Families Party 
Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University 
June Zaccone, National Jobs for All Coalition, Associate Professor Emerita of Economics, Hofstra University 
 
Posted by Chuck Bell at 9:17 AM 
 
 
 
 
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ For transit & travel info try these sites: 
 onnyturf.com transit: http://is.gd/nv3a 
 hopstop.com transit: http://is.gd/nv3r 
 safest bike routes: http://ridethecity.com/ 
 mta.info 
 NJ Transit http://is.gd/nv3M 
~ Read searchable event listings on the web 
 http://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/nyprotest  or http://snipurl.com/NYPROTEST And please  send a friend this link.  
~ Clicking "reply" to any message will  not reach that event's organizers.   ~ Ask me to switch your subscription to one  msg per day, two per week or to no mail/website  only. Or get a password reminder, & then  switch it yourself at:  
http://lists.riseup.net/www/suboptions/nyprotest ~ Have a password reminder e-mailed to you: http://lists.riseup.net/www/remindpasswd/  
~ Change your riseup password to  something more easily remembered at: http://lists.riseup.net/www/pref/  
~ TO UNSUBSCRIBE  send a blank message to 
 nyprotest-unsubscribe@...  or visit  http://lists.riseup.net/www/signoff/nyprotest  or have me do it for you. -------- 
 
 
 

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#4268 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Fri Nov 6, 2009 9:30 pm
Subject: Fwd: CLNews: [WERC] Campaign for Solidarity Day III in DC Next Spring to Demand Jobs, Peace, Affordable Health Care For All and Ending Foreclosures and Evictions 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: listadmin <ListAdmin@...>
To: ,,,CLNews 2 Members <clnews@...>
Sent: Fri, Nov 6, 2009 4:21 pm
Subject: CLNews: [WERC] Campaign for Solidarity Day III in DC Next Spring to Demand Jobs, Peace, Affordable Health Care For All and Ending Foreclosures and Evictions

 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 3:55 PM
Subject: [WERC] Campaign for Solidarity Day III in DC Next Spring to Demand Jobs, Peace, Affordable Health Care For All and Ending Foreclosures and Evictions

WORKERS EMERGENCY RECOVERY CAMPAIGN
P.O. Box 40009, San Francisco, CA 94140.
Tel. (415) 641-8616; fax: (415) 626-1217.
Please Excuse Duplicate Postings
------------------------------------------------

From: WERC Interim National Committee
To: Unionists and labor activists nationwide

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

We are writing to urge your endorsement of -- and active support for -- our proposal calling on the labor movement to organize a Solidarity Day III march & rally in Washington, D.C., next spring to demand jobs, housing, health care, full funding for public education and social services, and peace. 

We have drafted a model resolution to be submitted to unions and other labor bodies for endorsement. This resolution [see below] was drafted with carefully chosen formulations. It does not attempt to articulate our moral indignation at the countless injustices that currently infuse our society. Nor is it aimed at a small percentage of the population who are already condemning these injustices. 

Rather, it attempts to strategically reach out to the broadest layers of working people and the oppressed in general -- who are bearing the burden of this economic crisis -- in order to forge the greatest possible unity. In this way the labor movement can succeed in bringing together massive numbers of people in a show of force to demand that our needs be addressed.
 
The political climate is rapidly changing. More and more unions across the country are demanding progressive taxation to generate revenue that can be used to save jobs and social programs. 

On September 14 at the AFL-CIO national convention in Pittsburgh, filmmaker Michael Moore premiered his new movie "Capitalism, A Love Story." He also urged the AFL-CIO to call a national protest day in Washington, DC to fight for healthcare and the unemployed.

Moore's proposal for a national march was cheered loudly by the convention delegates. One day later, the AFL-CIO convention voted to support single-payer healthcare, a giant step forward for working people.

We call on trade unionists and activists to endorse this resolution below, or a similar one along these lines, and to join the Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign (WERC) in promoting this campaign nationwide within the labor movement.

We must fight for our own interests and demand that the economy operate in the interests of the majority, not in the interests of a small, obscenely rich minority.

We thank you in advance for your support,

In solidarity,

Interim National Steering Committee of the Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign (WERC):
Kali Akuno, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Gulf Coast Reconstruction activist;  Alan Benjamin,* Executive Committee member, San Francisco Labor Council;  Mike Carano, Progressive Democrats of America;  Colia Clark, Veteran, Civil Rights Movement;  Donna Dewitt*, President, South Carolina AFL-CIO;  Pat Gowens, National organizer, Welfare Warriors;  Bill Leumer,* International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 853 (ret.);  Luis Magaña, Coordinator, Organization of Farmworkers of California (OTAC);  Cynthia McKinney, Former Member of Congress, 2009 Green Party presidential candidate;  Jack Rasmus, Economist, Professor at St. Mary's College;  Al Rojas, Coordinator, Frente de Mexicanos en el Exterior;  Marc Rich*, United Teachers of Los Angeles;  Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star mother, antiwar activist;  Clarence Thomas, Member, ILWU Local 10;  Mark Vorpahl*, SEIU Local 49, Portland, OR;  Nancy Wohlforth*, Co-Pres.,  Pride at Work/AFL-CIO, Vice Pres.,California Federation of Labor

 (* titles and organizations for id. purposes only)

*********************************


MODEL RESOLUTION

National March on Washington for Jobs, Peace, Affordable  Health Care For All and Ending Foreclosures and Evictions

Whereas -- despite the so-called economic recovery -- the economic crisis for working people has continued unabated with growing unemployment and rising home foreclosures and evictions,

And whereas this economic crisis has resulted in the underfunding and degrading of public education and social services,

And whereas the government has bestowed billions of dollars of bailout money on the financial institutions whose recklessness and greed created this economic crisis,
And whereas there is growing opposition to the wars and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq by a majority of the people here in the U.S. -- not to mention the great and ever-growing opposition by the citizens in Afghanistan and Iraq,

And whereas these wars are costing billions of dollars each month,
Therefore be it resolved that ____________ call on the AFL-CIO and Change to Win to organize a Solidarity Day III march on Washington D.C. in the spring of 2010 to demand jobs, housing, health care, full funding for public education and social services, and peace.

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#4267 From: SIUHIN@...
Date: Thu Nov 5, 2009 11:21 am
Subject: 11/5 ActionLA Weekly U.S. Activism News Digest 		borderactions
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11/5 ActionLA Weekly U.S. Activism News Digest
 
* The new information service by National Immigrant Solidarity Network (http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org), Action LA Coalition (http://www.ActionLA.org) and Peace NO War Network (http://www.PeaceNOWar.net)

Please join the immigrant Solidarity Network daily news litserv, send e-mail to: isn-subscribe@... or visit: https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/isn
 
Joining ActionLA e-mail list, send e-mail to: actionla-subscribe@... or visit: http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/actionla
 
Joining PeaceNoWar Listserv, send e-mail to: peacenowar-subscribe@...
 
*Donate To US! For Credit Card donations, please visit: http://www.actionla.org/Donation.htm
 
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Video of the Week From http://www.ActivistVideo.org
Video Sharing Site for the Political Activism!
 
Chinese H1N1 Influenza (Swine Flu) Warning Video
 
http://www.activistvideo.org/views.asp?id=827
 
 
A very fun educational vdeo from China (I saw) about how to prevent H1N1 Influenza (Swine Flu)
 
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
....and here's my reports - Lee Siu Hin: Journey to My Home 2009--Building Bi-national China-US Solidarity and Understanding
 
Part Five: Overseas Chinese Scholars >> Read More
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Peace Activism and Fight against Injustice:
 
11/3: FSP statement on negotiations in Honduras >> Read More
 
11/1: Where Have all the Flowers Gone? by Cindy Sheehan >> Read More
 
10/27: Massive protests rock Guatemala >> Read More
 
10/26: Couple hit by foreclosure are charged with torturing two loan-modification agents they suspect >> Read More
 
10/22: Military kept Secret: U.S. Soldier killed five fellow soldiers >> Read More
 
10/9: October in Palestine >> Read More
 
10/9: Nkrumah and Ghana’s independence struggle PART 2 >> Read More
 
10/7: Nuke Watch Iran: Iraq All Over Again? >> Read More
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Immigrant Rights and Civil Liberty:  
 
11/2: Immigration Reform Confrontation To Begin in Earnest: The Tea Parties Are Coming >> Read More
 
11/2: The 287(g) policy has become a perverted version of its original intent >> Read More
 
10/31: FBI agents assassinate Michigan Islamic leader >> Read More
 
10/29: Suicide-bid asylum girl released >> Read More
 
10/28: Australia refuses Tamil refugees >> Read More
 
10/28: Police leaders from across the country call For immigration reform >> Read More
 
10/28: Tell Congress to Take Action to help treat Immigrant's Cases Fairly >> Read More
 
10/22 Migrants Going North Now Risk Kidnappings >> Read More
 
10/17: Immigrant and U.S. Born Workers Face Common Enemy >> Read More
 
10/16: Call for Solidarity! Another Migrant Activist Arrested in South Korea!!!! >> Read More
 
 
==========================================================
 
National Immigrant Solidarity Network http://www.ImmigrantSolidarity.org
Peace NO War Network http://www.PeaceNOWar.net
Action LA Network http://www.ActionLA.org
 
==========================================================
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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#4266 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Tue Nov 3, 2009 2:34 am
Subject: Fwd: CLNews: Building Bridges: Africa Labor Report; Sanders on Health Care Reform 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Nash <knash@...>
To: dan-labor@yahoogroups.com; clnews <clnews@...>; laborexchange-n@...; labor_communicators@googlegroups.com
Sent: Sun, Nov 1, 2009 9:24 am
Subject: CLNews: Building Bridges: Africa Labor Report; Sanders on Health Care Reform

Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report
                             National Edition
        Produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg
                **************************************
Africa: Its Labor News & Views In Focus
produced by
Radio Workers World Productions, Cape Town, South Africa
 
Building Bridges in collaboration with South African based radio Workers
World Productions brings us the issues for and protests of Africa’s laboring
class, amidst the global economic crisis.
**********
Billionaires For Wealthcare
presents
Battle Hymn of the Insurance Companies
**********
Senator Bernie Sanders Unfiltered: Health Care Reform
Produced by Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films
 
One of the reasons that Senator Sanders is a strong proponent of a single-
payer, Medicare-for-all proposal is that it is much less complicated than
other proposals. A single-payer approach saves hundreds of billions of
dollars a year because you don’t end up with thousands of different health
insurance programs appealing to all different kinds of people and costing
a fortune to administer. He's going to continue the fight for legislation that
will allow states to go forward with single-payer if they want to.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
To Download or listen to this  27:06  minute program,

Pacifica Station only can go to Audioport - Menu Option
“Weekly Program Section" dated 10-31-09
 
all others go to http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/36933
or
http://www.archive.org/details/BuildingBridgesAfricaLaborReportPlusSandersOnHealthCareReform

Please email Building Bridges if you are broadcasting our National Edition.
We'd like to have an accurate list of which stations are airing Building Bridges.
So please let us know! Email knash@...            

        Building Bridges is regularly broadcast live over WBAI,
         99.5 FM in the N.Y.C Metropolitan area on Mondays from
           7-8pm EST and is streamed, archived and pod cast at
                                 www.wbai.org                                   . 
             Our website is www.buildingbridgesradio.org                                                                             

Building Bridges National Edition is regularly broadcast over:
                         
                          WGOT -  Gainesville, Florida.
                          WUOW - Oneonta, N.Y.
                          WWUH, - West Hartford, CT
                          WVJW- Benwood, WV                  
                          KRFP, Moscow, ID
                          KCSB, Santa Barbara, CA           
                          WXOJ, Northampton, MA
                          KSOW,Cottage Grove, Oregon  
                          WKNH ,Keene, NH
                          CKDU, Halifax, N.S., Canada      
                          KRFC,  Fort Collins, Colorado           
                          WRPI, Troy, New York                  
                          WNRB, Wausau, WI                            
                          KRBS, Oroville, CA                        
                          WHLD, Buffalo, NY                       
                          Free Radio Olympia, Olympia,WA
                          KQRP Salida, California               
                          East Hill Radio, Snoqualmie, WA
                          KSKQ, Ashland, Oregon
                          KWMD, Kasiloff-Anchorage, Alaska
                          WPRR, Grand Rapids, Michigan
                          WCRS, Columbus, Ohio
                          WSLU,  St. Leo, Florida
                        
                          as well as internet stations:

                         Radio Free Kansas
                         Radio Veronica, West Point, PA
                         The Journey Radio                     
                         WXXE
                         Seattle Radical Radio                 
                         Radio for Peace International
                         Radio Labourstart                      
                         AmericanFM.org
                         RadioDriftless.org
                         Grateful Dread Public Radio
=========================================
            For  archived Building Bridges National Programs go to
           http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/series/Building+Bridges                                   
    For archived of all Building Bridges programs go to our website:
                          http://www.buildingbridgesradio.org      

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#4265 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Sun Nov 1, 2009 1:17 pm
Subject: Fwd: World of Labor 10-31-09 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: Harry Kelber <harrykelber@...>
To: laboreducator@...
Sent: Sun, Nov 1, 2009 8:42 am
Subject: World of Labor 10-31-09

cid:405573212@22032009-3228
Check our web site: www.laboreducator.org
 
 
 The World of Labor    October 31, 2009
By Harry Kelber

Steelworkers Create Ties with World’s Biggest Worker-Owned Co-Op

The United Steelworkers (USW) and MONDRAGON Internacional, S.A. have announced a framework agreement for collaboration in establishing MONDRAGON cooperatives in the manufacturing sector within the United States and Canada. The USW and the Spanish-based MONDRAGON will work to establish manufacturing cooperatives that adapt collective bargaining principles to the MONDRAGON worker-ownership  model of “one worker, one vote.” The agreement was reached on Oct. 27.

“We see today’s agreement as a historic first step towards making union co-ops a viable business model that can create good jobs, empower workers and support communities in the United States and Canada,”  said USW International President  Leo Gerard. “Too often we have seen Wall Street hollow out companies by draining their cash and assets and  hollowing out communities by shedding jobs and closing plants.”

MONDRAGON was started in 1956 in the Basque rural town of Mondragon  by a visionary priest. Today, it has some 100,000 cooperative members in over 260 enterprises and is present in more than 40 countries. The co-op has its own university, bank and social security system. In 2008, it reached annual sales of more than 16 billion euros ($23.5 billion). It is the seventh largest enterprise in Spain and the world’s largest industrial workers cooperative.
Privatization Will Cost Australian Workers up to $2 million a Year
The government’s decision to privatize the ACC Work Account is a cynical move that will transfer up to $200 million a year from workers to the Australian insurance industry, according to the Engineering,  Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU). The privatization announcement follows a systematic campaign by the government to portray ACC’s accounts as being in a state of crisis, despite the scheme making a billion dollar surplus in the last financial year and receiving a glowing report from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

“Privatization is not going to reduce levies for workers and businesses. Private insurance companies will need to make a profit from somewhere, and this can only come through higher levies or denied compensation,” said  Andrew Little, EPMU national secretary.

This a purely political decision, the EPMU said, and the union “has no choice but to work with the Council of Trade Unions and allied groups to mount a campaign to knock it back.” EPMU is New Zealand’s largest public union representing 45,000 working New Zealanders in  eleven industries.

Five Professional Associations in Jordan Stage Sit-in

A sit-in was staged by five professional associations in Jordan in front of the Prime Ministry with a demand that the professional allowances of their members be increased from 120 percent to 150 percent, in parity with other associations. Members of the veterinary, pharmacists, geologists,  press and agricultural engineers associations vowed to continue escalation of their protests until the government meets their demands.

Association leaders said they want the increase in accordance with similar raises received by their peers in the medical and dental associations. “We want to be treated equally. This is unfair to our members,” said Salem Falahat, president of the Jordan Agricultural Engineers Association.

“We are planning  another sit-in next Tuesday. If need be, we will hold sit-ins on a weekly basis,” Falahat said. Meanwhile,  Nancy Bakir, Minister of Public Sector Reform, said, after a Cabinet meeting, that association members have the right to stage a protest, but the state budget does not have the allocations to pay for the association’s demands.

Japanese Firefighters May Receive Broader Labor Rights

Japan’s Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry has been instructed to consider granting fire department personnel the right of association or the right to form labor unions. Workers at police and fire departments, the Japanese Coast Guard and prisons have been legally denied their basic rights under a  trade union law  originally enacted in 1946.

Minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi told union leaders to study the issue, “as we shouldn’t ignore the ILO’s  repeated recommendations.” He added: “We  should proactively press forward with our plan, while gaining consensus from the public and listening to the opinions of those concerned.”

The ILO allows its member countries to refuse to grant the right of association to police workers, as well as servicemen and civilian military workers. Many other countries grant  fire department workers the right of association. In Britain and France, they are given the right to strike.

Indonesia’s Minimum Wage to Rise by 4.5 Percent

The new monthly minimum wage in Indonesia will be Rp 1,118,009 ($ 117). It has been approved and will be officially announced on Nov. 6  by Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo. The new minimum is an increase of 10 percent over that of 2008.

Deded Sukendar, the head if Jakarta’s Labor and Transmigration Agency, said the amount had been adjusted to the 2009 Proper Livelihood survey, which was the reference for setting the minimum wage. The poll had been conducted by the Remuneration Council, which includes representatives from the government, employers and labor.

Sukendar explained that  both employers’ associations and labor unions had approved the increase, that took into account 2010’s expected inflation rate of 5.5 percent.

Korean Labor on Collision Course with Government

In two months at the latest, the nation’s largest union, Hyundai Motor labor union, will go on a general strike alongside other Korean  Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) members should the government stick to its business-friendly policies, KCTU Lim Sung-kyu said Oct. 29. The chances of such a strike are very high, Lim predicted.

The consensus from the 45,000 member motor union is extremely important as it is the largest and highest-paying branch of the Korean Metal Workers' Union, the largest unit of the KCTU. The general strike would be the first of its kind in 12 years.

The general strike would be in protest against the government abolishing the practice of having employers pay the wages of full-time  union employees and to allow only one negotiation channel for unions at a single workplace. At the first round of talks, participants hoped to reach an agreement on changes by Nov. 25.


To learn about workers and their unions in other countries, read our weekly “The World of Labor.”  www.laborsvoiceforchange.org

 
 
 
 
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#4264 From: GREGORYABUTLER@...
Date: Sat Oct 31, 2009 12:35 pm
Subject: Fwd: [NYCLAW] Palestine: Trumka Scabs on Palestinian Labor 		vinniegangbox
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-----Original Message-----
From: UnknownSender@UnknownDomain
To: LaborAgainstWar <laboragainstwar@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Fri, Oct 30, 2009 9:52 pm
Subject: [NYCLAW] Palestine: Trumka Scabs on Palestinian Labor

 
http://monthlyreview.org/mrzine/trumka291009.html

29.10.09
Trumka on Israel

"And tonight, let me tell you that, so long as I'm president, you will never have a stronger ally than the AFL-CIO. That's why we're proud to stand with the JLC to oppose boycotting Israel." -- Remarks by Richard L. Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO, Jewish Labor Committee 2009 Annual Human Rights Dinner, October 27, 2009

You can send your comment on Trumka's position to the AFL-CIO at <www.aflcio.org/siteguides/contactus.cfm>.

FYI:

* Palestinian Trade Unions Endorsing the BDS Call: http://www.stopthewall.org/downloads/pdf/union_s.pdf
* Worldwide Unions Supporting BDS: http://www.stopthewall.org/downloads/pdf/listBDS.pdf

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