Labor Unions

Scapegoating Labor For Fast Track’s Defeat

June 17, 2015 Jim Naureckas, www.fair.org Educate! fast track, Free Trade, Labor Unions, Media, TPP

By Jim Naureckas in FAIR - Corporate media have a storyline ready to explain the defeat (for the time being, anyway) of the Trans Pacific Partnership : Big Labor is to blame. This was set up well in advance of progressive Democrats outmaneuvering the Obama administration in Congress to thwart the passage of fast track authority—expedited rules for approving trade pacts that are seen as necessary to pass TPP, a vast commercial agreement among 12 Pacific Rim nations. A Wall Street Journal editorial (4/16/15) laid it out in April: In the US, Democrats have tried to prevent giving the president trade promotion authority precisely because it will extend trade across both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. For their friends in Big Labor, this is anathema.

Brazil Teacher Strike In Sao Paulo State Ends

June 16, 2015 BBC News, www.facebook.com Resist! Brazil, Education, Labor Unions, Teachers, Worker Rights and Jobs

By BBC News - Thousands of protesters from one of the largest teachers' unions in the Americas met in the centre of Sao Paulo to cast their vote. It began after the state government failed to offer a salary increase. A union leader said the strike had lost force when strike payments had had to be reduced. The strikers of the Union of Official Teachers for the State of Sao Paulo (Apeoesp), had been calling for a 75% pay rise. The union represents about 180,000 teachers. Last year, in the lead up to the World Cup in Brazil, thousands of protesters took to the streets in cities across Brazil to demonstrate against the spiralling costs linked to the building of the football stadiums, and corruption. Many protesters complained money was being cut from basic public services.

Workers Confront Walmart Executives At Star-Studded Company Event

June 9, 2015 Sarah Jaffe, www.truth-out.org Resist! Labor Unions, Living Wage, Walmart, Worker Rights and Jobs

By Sarah Jaffe in Truthout - Early Friday morning June 5 in the Bud Walton Arena at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Venanzi Luna told her story to the Walmart shareholders meeting. Her image was projected in front of her on massive screens that had just been magnifying the live performance of R&B star Brian McKnight. "I'm here to urge you to support proposal number nine, because our board of directors needs an independent chair committed to the highest standards of integrity," Luna said. "Under our current, NON-independent chair, our company has suffered a series of governance failures - alleged bribery and a cover-up, repeated violations of environmental regulations and breaches of labor law, both at home and abroad. I know about this firsthand."

The Uphill Battle Of Unionizing A Philly Charter School

June 6, 2015 Rachel M. Cohen, www.prospect.org Organize! Charter Schools, Education, Labor Unions

By Rachel M. Cohen in Prospect - On April 30th, faculty at North Philadelphia’s Olney Charter High School voted 104-38 in favor of forming a union, an NLRB election that Olney’s charter operator, ASPIRA, has since announced they’re challenging. Olney’s union campaign is only the latest in a small but rapidly growing wave of charter union drives nationwide. But few efforts have been as contentious, or as revealing, as this one. Ever since the campaign began three years ago, ASPIRA has pumped tens of thousands of dollars into an elaborate union-busting effort, even as the beleaguered district it’s funded by struggles with massive debt. Unionizing Olney also threatens to shine light on ASPIRA’s questionable finances, at a time when authorities at the state and district level have failed to act. More broadly, the union drive in Philadelphia reveals how charter management organizations can use lax regulation to dodge financial accountability.

Green Economies Need Alliances B/W Labour & Indigenous People

June 5, 2015 Harsha Walia, www.ricochet.media Strategize! Capitalism, Environment, Imperialism, Indigenous People, Labor Unions, Land Rights, Public Health

By Harsha Walia in Ricochet.Media - The bold leadership of unions that revive principles of social unionism ensures that unions are not simply advocating mobility within capitalism and state structures, but are primary allies in the struggle against capitalism and imperialism. As Herman Rosenfeld, a former GM worker, writes, “Job security is key, but what kind of jobs? Is the job security strategy one that works against the interests of the rest of the working-class and First Nations peoples, or in partnership with them? Moving away from the narrow focus on the short-term sectoral interests of a relatively small group of workers, whose jobs are currently defined by their employers, is a critical way of building unions as fighters for the class as a whole, and for a different, sustainable, and hopefully anti-capitalist future.” Simply put, workers shouldn’t have to extract toxic sludge. Workers want and need clean air, clean water, and a more equitable future.

DC Protesters Demand To See TPP Text, Rebuffed By Obama & Police

June 4, 2015 Cole Strangler, www.ibtimes.com Resist! Labor Unions, Obama, Police, Protest, TPP

By Cole Strangler in IB Times - In the latest escalation of its campaign against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the nation's largest labor federation is calling on the Obama administration to declassify the full text of the proposed trade agreement. And on a rainy Tuesday morning in Washington, the AFL-CIO and its allies engaged in some old-fashioned political theater to make their point. As it stands, access to the deal is limited to negotiators and, upon special request, members of Congress, all of whom are legally barred from disclosing the details. Those strict rules remain in place even as the White House lobbies the House of Representatives on so-called fast-track legislation

Mobilizing For Copenhagen And Climate Justice

May 26, 2015 Trade Unions For Energy Democracy, www.unionsforenergydemocracy.org Resist! Democracy, Energy, Environmental Justice, Labor Unions

Climate change is going on. Extreme weather conditions, storms, floodings, landslides, droughts and ice melting are reported ever more regularly from many parts of the world. Millions of people are losing their livelihood, their homes, their jobs – and many also their lives. The successive reports of the United Nation Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have increasingly called for urgent action in order to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. However, after having negotiated for 20 years, our political leaders have failed to take necessary action. The result is that emissions are increasing rather than decreasing (61 percent increase from 1990 to 2013). Temperature increase is on course for 4-6oC rather than maximum 1,5-2.0oC, something which will mean climate catastrophe.

Support The Workers

May 23, 2015 Bruce K. Gagnon, www.space4peace.blogspot.com Resist! Labor Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

The Navy has determined that its shipbuilding budget is “unsustainable.” It can’t afford to cover the mounting costs of new aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, and the expensive Zumwalt destroyers being built at BIW. The latter cost more than double what the previous Aegis destroyer cost - price per ship has risen to more than $4 billion. The Navy’s solution to its budget crisis? Cut jobs, outsource to non-union workers, and, over time, likely move to get rid of the unions at shipyards like BIW. What is the Plan B for Bath? Who ever thought the nearby Navy base in Brunswick would close and that thousands of jobs would be lost? How can our nation afford the expensive high-tech weapons systems that are costing the taxpayers an arm and a leg? How can we effectively deal with the coming ravages of climate change unless we immediately begin a transformation of our industrial policy from endless war to building rail systems, wind turbines, a solar society, and tidal power – all of which would help us in some degree deal with climate change?

Thousands Of Farmers Demonstrate In Delhi Against GM Crops, Policies

May 7, 2015 GMWatch, www.gmwatch.org Resist! Farmworkers, Food and Agriculture, GMOs, India, Labor Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Thousands of farmers have taken to the streets in a Kisan Maha Panchayat (farmer meeting) in Delhi, India, in protest at the Modi government’s anti-farmer policies, which include uncritically promoting open field trials of GM crops. There is some speculation in India that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition, led by Narendra Modi (now prime minister), may have come to power with the help of generous funding of their election campaign by the GMO lobby. It is said that this may explain their conversion to the pro-GMO cause. Though there appears to be little transparency in political funding in India, we hope the Modi government will move to allay fears of corruption by publishing full details of its election campaign funding.

May Day In Haiti!

May 7, 2015 One Struggle, www.onestruggle.net Resist! Haiti, Labor Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Below are some May Day photos from Cap Haitien, Port-au-Prince and Ouanaminthe. This is what class struggle looks like! The combative workers of Haiti should be an inspiration to us all, to step up our game and join up with this international struggle in the way we need to, everywhere. Share it, spread it. Solidarity with the international working class! The best expression of solidarity is for us to organize wherever we are. Slogans on the banners include: “Long Live Our Combative Union!” “Long Live Our Combative May Day! Continue our Resistance, Our Struggle foor the Demands of the Whole Working Class!” (From PLASIT, a platform of three Batay Ouvriye textile unions).

How Black Women Can Rescue The Labor Movement

May 6, 2015 Kimberly Freeman Brown And Marc Bayard, www.theroot.com Strategize! Black Women, Economic Justice, Labor Unions, Racial Justice, Social Change, Unemployment

The roles that African Americans play in their families and communities, on the job and in their unions are acts of resistance against the staggering inequality they face on a daily basis. The statistics regarding African-American wealth and wage inequality, unemployment, mass incarceration, police brutality and poverty are daunting. To cite just one, as of March 2015, the black unemployment rate (10.1 percent) was more than double the white unemployment rate (4.7 percent). Second, this report is our love letter to the labor movement—offering sometimes tough, but always unflappable, affection. We know what some may have forgotten: that if you are concerned about the economic advancement of black women, families and communities, you must think twice before you dismiss the value and importance of the labor movement.

Worldwide Marches Mark Labor Day (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

May 2, 2015 RT, www.rt.com Resist! Labor Unions, Workers Rights and Jobs

Thousands have rallied worldwide to celebrate International Workers' Day or May Day, the largest labor holiday in the world. In some countries demonstrations have turned violent with police deploying tears gas. Several hundred people took to the streets in Istanbul with police using tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters at the landmark Taksim Square, the Hurriyet Daily reported. Some 10,000 officers were on patrol in the area. At least five people were detained in the Okmeydanı neighborhood of Istanbul after being found in possession of gas masks and marbles. Also two women were arrested at Taksim Square when they attempted to unfurl a banner. Policemen block a street to prevent people from gathering for May Day demonstrations near Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, May 1, 2015.

Health Workers Stage National Protest Against Cuts

May 1, 2015 RT, www.rt.com Resist! health, Labor Unions, United Kingdom (UK)

Healthcare workers in London and across the country are staging demonstrations against the privatization of the NHS, rallying voters to consider the impact of the election on the health service. Their demonstrations come as an open letter published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) calls for the next health secretary to do more to prevent further cuts and the privatization of the state owned health service. The campaign, backed by People’s Vote for the NHS, doesn’t support a single party, organizers said.“The emphasis will be on asking everyone eligible to vote to use their vote.” “We already know millions did not vote in the last election. We want to ensure the launch of this time-limited campaign supported by many national campaigning groups focuses people to vote and to vote for the NHS,” they added.

NGO: 105 Colombian Trade Unionists Killed In 4 Years

April 22, 2015 Telesur, www.telesurtv.net Educate! Colombia, Labor Unions, Workers Rights and Jobs

The killings follow the implementation of a Labor Action Plan signed in 2011 as part of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. The Colombia's National Union School presented a report to the U.S. Congress denouncing the killing of at least 105 trade unionists in the past four years. The killings coincides with the implementation of the Labor Action Plan (LAP) that Colombia signed in 2011 as part of the U.S.- Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement. The LAP was promoted by the U.S. government in order to allay concerns about labor and human rights violations. According to the report, more than 1,933 threats and acts of violence have been levied against Colombian workers, including 1,337 death threats in addition to the registered assassinations.

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