Two months after taking office, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has launched one of the most aggressive attacks on union rights since the 1960s. Purporting to rein in the state's budget deficit, Walker is pushing legislation that marks "a lethal threat to public-sector labor" by threatening "to strip state employees of the right to bargain collectively for anything besides their pay."
Walker's radical policy has sparked eight days of protests in Wisconsin from a range of parties, including firefighters, teachers, the Green Bay Packers, and even Egyptian unions. President Obama recently called Walker's policy "an assault" on workers' rights. Despite the unpopularity of his position, Walker has refused any compromises offered by the unions and members of his own party unless collective bargaining rights are eliminated.
To prevent such a calamity, 14 state Democratic lawmakers took a page out of President Abraham Lincoln's playbook and fled the state last week to prevent the bill from moving forward. Rather than following any fiscal principle, Walker's crusade against workers betrays a political calculation to gut the rights and organizing capabilities of his political opposition.
Rather than shy away from such blatant anti-democratic policies, Republican governors are following suit and threatening to derail and destroy the few remaining political voices for the middle and working class.
The stated motivation behind Walker's union-busting ambitions is Wisconsin's looming deficit: "We're broke and it's about time somebody stood up and told the truth," he said. The state budget has a $137 million shortfall in the current fiscal year and faces a $3.6 billion projected shortfall in the upcoming 2011-13 biennium. Citing this projected $3.6 billion deficit, Walker insists "we've got to balance the budget and fix it once and for all" which requires public employees "to help us out" and make "shared sacrifice" by paying a greater percentage of pensions and health care premiums.
While unions offered to make those concessions, Walker still demands eliminating collective bargaining rights because it "costs local governments money." But a closer look at Wisconsin's deficit reveals Walker's budget woes don't stem from workers' collective bargaining rights. The claim that public employees must sacrifice their bargaining rights to balance this year's budget is misleading as there is no obvious relationship between union membership and state budgets. Indeed, "the biggest savings Walker is proposing for the current budget have nothing to do with public employees. His bill proposes to save $165 million this year by simply refinancing state debt."
But the $3.6 billion deficit Walker is apoplectic over is actually exacerbated by his own tax cuts. According to Wisconsin's nonpartisan fiscal office , Walker's three tax cut bills "will reduce general fund tax collections by $55.2 million in 2011-12 and $62.0 million in 2012-13." And, as the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities' Nick Johnson states, "the governor is likely to propose a LOT more tax cuts" in his proposed budget, including a total repeal of the state's corporate income tax. As Johnson notes, the tax cuts are "worsening the state's overall budget picture, and it is the state's overall budget picture -- not the current-year picture alone -- that [Walker] is using to justify going after the workers."
Thus, the real fiscal truth behind Walker's deficit woes reveals Walker -- not workers -- as the budget buster.
The Kochs Versus Main Street
Koch Industries, the private company of the billionaire Koch brothers Charles and David, is an oil and gas, chemicals, cattle, forestry, and synthetics giant -- and also a major force for punishing Main Street Americans. Charles and David Koch (pronounced "coke") have directed many millions of their shared $43 billion net worth into a vast propaganda machine that's corrupting American politics in order to reward their pollution-based enterprise. The Koch brothers have played an integral role in provoking Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's (R) notorious attempt to crush Wisconsin's public sector unions. Koch Industries contributed $43,000 to Walker's gubernatorial campaign, and Koch political operatives encouraged the newly elected governor to take on the unions. Koch Industries is a major player in Wisconsin: Koch owns a coal company subsidiary with facilities in Green Bay, Manitowoc, Ashland and Sheboygan; six timber plants throughout the state; and a large network of pipelines. Since the showdown began two weeks ago, Koch-funded front groups like Americans for Prosperity (AFP) -- which is chaired by David Koch -- and the American Legislative Exchange Council have organized counter-protests, prepped GOP lawmakers with anti-labor legislative talking points and even announced an anti-union advertising campaign. For now, however, the AFP message doesn't appear to be resonating: Koch-backed pro-Walker demonstrations have had low attendance and were dwarfed by pro-union supporters in Madison this week.
KNEE-CAPPING UNIONS : In a speech earlier this month at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Americans For Prosperity-Michigan Executive Director Scott Hagerstrom revealed the true goal of his group and allies like Walker. Speaking at CPAC's "Panel for Labor Policy," Hagerstrom said that even more than cutting taxes and regulations, AFP really wants to "take the unions out at the knees ." Knee-capping free labor has long been a goal of the Koch brothers and their many front groups. In the run-up to the 2010 elections, the Kochs worked with other anti-labor billionaires, corporations and activists to fund conservative candidates and groups across the country. Now after viciously opposing pro-middle class policies for years, Koch Industries is trying to eliminate the only organizations which serve as a counterweight to its well-oiled corporate machine. Believing he was talking with David Koch, Walker told a prankster his plans to crush the unions. Koch's AFP operatives are now working with "state officials in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania to urge them to duplicate Walker's crusade in Wisconsin."
PUSHING POISON : According to EPA databases, Koch businesses are huge polluters, emitting thousands of pounds of toxic pollutants. As soon as he got into office, Walker started cutting environmental regulations and appointed a Republican known for her disregard for environmental regulations to lead the Department of Natural Resources. In addition, Walker has stated his opposition to clean energy jobs policies that might draw workers away from Koch-owned interests. The Koch political poison has spread across the nation. Robocalls from Koch's Americans for Prosperity group flooded New Hampshire in support of a bill that would repeal participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which has cut greenhouse pollution and created 1,130 jobs as a result of energy efficiency benefits. AFP climate deniers in New Jersey are trying to kill RGGI there as well. Koch's main man in Congress, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS), inserted an amendment to slash EPA funding in the House GOP's already wildly anti-environment budget. Koch's many subsidiaries have filed challenges against health and environmental rules from toxic chemical disclosure to dumping in streams.
How Seattle port drivers are ripped off by their employers Teamster Nation
In These Times posted a terrific story about the two-week Seattle port drivers strike. To hear the Port of Seattle tell it, the strike didn't have an impact. To hear people who were there tell it, the trucking companies lost a lot of money. According to In These Times,
...the “cans,” as they’re called, stacked up on ships, in rail yards, and at warehouses. The port’s lifeblood slowed to a crawl. Cargo has to move for shippers and trucking companies to make money. A still container, a waiting ship and an idle truck all mean lost profits. It was clear the strike was costing employers a lot of money.Here's how port drivers get ripped off:
- The drivers have to lease the tractors from the trucking companies -- but can't use them for anything other than company business.
- Employers punish drivers who refuse overweight loads by denying them work for a few days. If the drivers are stopped by the Highway Patrol for being overweight, they pay the fine. The trucking companies flat-out refuse to give them copies of the manifests.
- Employers charge drivers $120 a week for liability insurance, though the freight is already insured by the shippers. If a driver doesn't work for a week, their employers take $120 from future earnings.
Read the source story here.
Salon
The fate of the labor movement is the fate of American democracy. Without a strong countervailing force like organized labor, corporations and wealthy elites advancing their own interests are able to exert undue influence over the political system, as we've seen in every major policy debate of recent years.
Yet the American labor movement is in crisis and is the weakest it's been in 100 years. That truism has been a progressive mantra since the Clinton administration. However, union density has continued to decline from roughly 16 percent in 1995 to 11.8 percent of all workers and just 6.9 percent of workers in the private sector. Unionized workers in the public sector now make up the majority of the labor movement for the first time in history, which is precisely why — a la Wisconsin and 14 other states — they have been targeted by the right for all out destruction.
The urgency is striking. Instead of being fundamentally discredited, the oligarchs and plutocrats who crashed our economy are raking in record profits and acting even more aggressively to bury the American labor movement once and for all. Over the last year, several labor leaders have told me that they believe unions have only about five more years left if they don’t figure out some kind of breakthrough strategy.
Read the source story here.
Teamster Nation
The Teamsters Union is suing the federal government to end its latest Mexican truck pilot program. We'll submit legal briefs in about three weeks. In the meantime, our prediction that the program would be a dismal failure appears to be accurate. After six months, two trucks and three drivers have made nine -- count 'em, nine -- trips into the U.S. beyond the border zone.
Read the source story here.
James P. Hoffa, in Huffington Post
The State Department recently warned Americans against taking unnecessary trips to vast, dangerous sections of Mexico. Nearly all the states along the border are awash in violence, and there is no safe road to Mexico City.
Mexico's 5-year-old narco-war is only getting worse. More than 12,000 people were killed in drug-related violence last year, a 6 percent increase over the previous year. Reports of torture, beheadings and killing of women are up as well.
Just two weeks ago, Mexican troops announced that they seized 15 tons of methamphetamine near Guadalajara -- an amount equal to half the meth seized in 2009 in the entire world.
That's why U.S. truck drivers don't haul freight south of the border.
NAFTA was supposed to eliminate trade barriers among Canada, Mexico and the U.S. But Mexico has clearly failed to do what the deal requires it to -- provide the same fair access to its markets that the U.S. offers to Mexico.
If a violent drug war isn't an impediment to trade, I don't know what is.Read the source story here.
M Live
JACKSON — A local union may soon be representing employees at Production Engineering, depending on the results of an election next month.
Alan Sprague, president of the Teamsters Local 164, confirmed Monday the union has put out a petition to hold an election March 16 at Production Engineering, 2400 Enterprise Drive. Employees will vote on if they want the union to represent them in collective bargaining.
“We’ve had an overwhelming majority (of employees) who have requested our representation,” Sprague said.Read the source story here.
Think Progress
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) today formally announced his intention to implement a 10 percent cut in New Jersey’s income tax. “Lower tax rates will relieve over-burdened middle class families,” Christie said in his annual budget address.
However, the middle class is likely to hardly notice Christie’s cut, as it would give just $80 annually to a households making $50,000. In fact, according to New Jersey Policy Perspective, President Deborah Howlett, 40 percent of the benefit of Christie’s tax cut will go to the state’s richest 1 percent.
Read the source story here.
The Stand
President Barack Obama visited the Boeing plant here on Friday to thank and praise its proud workforce and to call for greater efforts to spur American manufacturing and bring back good jobs that have been outsourced overseas.“The Dreamliner is the plane of the future,” Obama told the crowd of Boeing workers and dignitaries assembled at the Everett plant. “And by building it here, Boeing is taking advantage of a huge opportunity that exists right now to bring more jobs and manufacturing back to the Unites States of America.”
Read the source story here.
AFL-CIO Now Blog
Posted February 22, 2012Locked-out workers from American Crystal Sugar and Cooper Tire will begin a 1,000 mile Journey for Justice tomorrow from Fargo, N.D., to Findlay, Ohio. The journey will highlight the corporate greed that marks their lockouts, and the growing drive by corporate CEOs to drive down wages and benefits to pad their own pockets.
More than 1,300 Crystal Sugar workers–members of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM)–have been locked out of seven facilities in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Iowa since last August. More than 1,000 United Steelworkers (USW) members were locked out of their jobs at Cooper Tire’s Findlay, Ohio plant in November.
The justice trek kicks off with a rally in Fargo and then workers and their allies will deliver tens of thousands of signatures on a petition to American Crystal CEO David Berg at company headquarters in Moorhead, Minn. The six-day journey will make stops in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, before concluding in Findlay, with a “hands around the plant” action. There will be rallies, fundraisers for the locked out workers and their families and other actions along the way.Read the source story here.
Talking Union
Chris Townsned, Political Action Director for the United Electrical Workers Union (UE), appeared on the February 17 “Inside Job.” Townsend not only did a great job defending unions, but had some very interesting things to say about the dilemma facing the labor movement when one party seems bent on destroying union and the other is often an uncertain and wavering ally.
Read the source story here.
Think Progress
For the perpetual tax-cutters of the Republican Party, last week's surrender on the payroll tax cut extension for 160 million working Americans was an especially damaging one. While tried if untrue GOP talking points that "tax cuts pay for themselves" and "never need to be offset" were thoroughly debunked, new polling shows the large Republican lead on the tax issue has virtually evaporated.
All of which explains why Eric Cantor and House Republicans are now proposing the "JOBS Act," a package of anti-regulatory measures and a whopping 20 percent tax cut for small businesses. Sadly for Cantor, a mountain of evidence shows that customer demand, and not government regulations, is the biggest burden to small business hiring. And with the total federal tax burden having hit its lowest level since 1950, the GOP would deliver billions in budget-busting tax breaks to millions who need them least.
Last year, House and Senate Republicans blocked President Obama's proposal for a temporary reduction in employers' payroll tax contributions because its cost was to be funded by surtax on millionaires. Now, House Republicans are proposing the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, as Majority Leader Cantor explained on Fox News Sunday:
"We'll be bringing forward a bill that provides 20 percent tax cut for small businesses -- again, knowing full well that small businesses create more than 60 percent of the jobs in this country."But host Chris Wallace quickly exposed what would be another GOP windfall for the wealthy. Recalling the GOP's defense of the "job creators" who don't create jobs, Wallace rightly asked, "Does that mean that those small businessmen who file individual taxes would get a 20 percent cut in their taxes?
Read the source story here.
The Stand
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) and the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) have signed a letter of intent concerning a potential affiliation of NUHW with the IAM.
The signing of the letter of intent, approved by the Executive Boards of both unions, initiates a process whereby representatives of each union will begin to work out the terms of a possible affiliation. Any final decision on affiliation will be subject to approval by the leadership of the IAM and a membership vote of NUHW. Immediately, IAM and NUHW will begin working together to organize the unorganized, and each union will provide mutual support in collective bargaining and in other areas.
Both NUHW and IAM put a high value on member democracy, fighting for and protecting workers’ contractual standards, and organizing the unorganized.
Read the source story here.
AFL-CIO Now Blog
Posted February 22, 2012Work—and laughter—does connect us all and that couldn’t have been more true than Sunday night in Portland, Ore., when the comedians of Laughter Works Comedy tour took the stage before a full house at the Helium Club.
The show was part of a three-day event organized by the Oregon AFL-CIO and Laughing Liberally to showcase strategies for infusing activism with comedy.
[...] The national and local comedians also conducted workshops yesterday for union and community activists and organizers on blending humor into the fight for social justice. The workshops continue today.
Last night, area union members and others were at Jimmy Mak’s jazz club and other downtown businesses, where they handed out thank you cards for the stagehands, ticket takers, wait staff, hotel workers and others who make the Portland Jazz festival run smoothly.
Read the source story here.
Huffington Post
Hundreds of thousands of people protested across Spain on Sunday against reforms to the labour market they fear will destroy workers' rights and spending cuts they say are destroying the welfare state.
Organisers, including the two largest unions Comisiones Obreras and UGT, said as many as half a million people joined the protest in 57 towns and cities, although Spanish police gave no official estimate.
In Madrid, one of the largest protests since the economic crisis began almost five years ago filled the wide boulevards from the Atocha train station up to the central Sol square with loud but peaceful marchers of all ages.
Read the source story here.
The Progressive
Posted February 22, 2012The University of Wisconsin’s School for Workers was planning on hosting an “Art in Protest” festival on campus next month.
Now it’s been canceled.
One Republican lawmaker in Wisconsin, Representative Steve Nass, who has been a longtime thorn in the university’s side, was unhappy about the exhibit, and his chief of staff, Mike Mikalsen, gave an earful to the director of the School for Workers last week, suggesting that the exhibit could imperil the school’s funding.
This morning, Corliss Olson, the director of the School for Workers, after consulting with other faculty, sent out an e-mail canceling the program.
“I regret to inform you that the School for Workers has concluded for a variety of reasons that this is not the best time to hold this Labor Arts Exchange,” Olson wrote.Read the source story here.
AFL-CIO Now Blog
“Immigration policy is work policy,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) conference in Los Angeles this morning.
The AFL-CIO stands “shoulder to shoulder” with immigrant workers, Trumka said,
to beat back the enforcement of anti-immigrant initiatives on the state and local level that are a threat to the rights of all workers.NDLON and the AFL-CIO partnered in 2006 to work together to fix the nation’s broken immigration system and fight for workplace rights, health and safety and other job-related concerns.
We turned back some horrible legislation since then, and we’ve kept up the struggle together to make sure that workers’ rights—your rights and all of our rights—are recognized and respected.Read the source story here.
- Teamster Nation:
Tell AT&T to stop the layoffs - We Party Patriots:
Bill Prohibiting Wage Theft Enforcement, Supported by FRF and ABC, Advances In Florida - Toldeo Blade:
Cooper Tire, Teamsters reach deal - Think Progress:
Why We Should Be Glad We Didn't Let Detroit Go Bankrupt - Daily Kos:
Walker turning state tech colleges into taxpayer-funded labor pool for favored industries - UK Guardian:
Occupy movement targets corporate interest group with ties to legislators - AFL-CIO Now Blog:
Workers at SoCal Carwashes Win First Contracts - The Progressive:
Wis. Republicans and ALEC Push Vouchers on Disabled Kids - Teamster Nation:
WI unions make hay off media's dumb mistake - Publicola:
Teachers' Union President Responds to Hanauer, Trashes McKenna - M Live:
Republican Strategist Frank Luntz Jokes About Killing Obama At Lincoln Day Dinner Party - Think Progress:
How Post Office Closings Could Increase Economic Inequality - The New York Times:
The Court and Citizens United II - Labor Notes:
Unions Rally to Protect Contraceptive Coverage - Daily Kos:
Americans strongly oppose employer beliefs restricting insurance coverage. - The New York Times:
Partying Like It's 1934 - Truthout:
The Real Job Creators: You and Me - AFL-CIO Now Blog:
German Delegation Here to Support T-Mobile Workers - Think Progress:
David Koch Admits Plans To Buy Public Support And, Possibly, An Election - Addicting Info:
Minnesota GOP Refuses To Allow Citizens To Testify As It Steals Their Right To Vote - Daily Kos:
States with Democratic Govs had 15% better unemployment numbers than states with GOP Govs - The Seattle Times:
Unions gearing up to spend big in 2012 election - The Stranger:
Meet the Top 20 Donors to Last Year's City Council Races (Surprise: They Have Lobbying Agendas Before the Council and They Like Keeping the Same Faces in Office) - Think Progress:
The Occupy Movement Comes to Archie Comics
Worst of the Worst: Rob Walton, Walmart
Unions Replace Wisconsin Flag with their Own...or Politico Reporter is Stupid
Great Video on Occupy and Labor Unions
'Downsized': The Song
Joe Glazer, known by many as labor’s troubadour, had for more than 50 years used his voice and guitar to rally supporters to the union cause, including for this timely tune, “Downsized.”
Before his death in 2006, he had performed in a hundred union halls, on dozens of picket lines and at scores of political and protest rallies and union conventions. He appeared in nearly every state in the union and in 60 countries around the world and recorded more than 25 LP albums, cassettes and CDs of labor and political music.
Click here to listen to “Downsized.”
You can purchase songs by Glazer and other labor music from the non-profit, labor-supported Labor Heritage Foundation.
Union Town
Artist: Tom Morello
All proceeds from the EP go to the America Votes Unity Labor Fund. You can get it here.
- Union Town
- Solidarity Forever
- Which Side Are You On?
- A Wall Against the Wind
- 16 Tons
- This Land Is Your Land
- I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night
- Union Song (Live in Madison, Wisconsin
Posted: February 17, 2012
Source: The Stand
Many state lawmakers are going home this weekend to hold town hall meetings. This is your opportunity to urge them to support the Jobs Bond proposal; to stop the cuts, find revenue and close tax loopholes; and to support/oppose other important legislation for Washington’s working families.
CLICK HERE for the list of scheduled town hall meetings, as compiled by the Washington Federation of State Employees/AFSCME Council 28. If your district isn’t listed, check with your state legislators to find out when/if they plan to meet with their constituents.
Read the source story here.
SB 5539 Voted Out of Senate Rules Committee
Posted: February 13, 2012
Source: Washington Film Works
SB 5539, the bill to renew the Motion Picture Competitiveness Program, was voted out of the Senate Rules committee on Saturday. It is likely that there will be a vote on the Senate floor in the near future and we urge film industry professionals to contact their Senators by telephone or email ASAP. For your convenience we have included this link to a sample letter that you can adapt and send to your Senator.
Find your legislators: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder/