Labor

Catalyzing Big Growth For Worker Co-ops

June 25, 2014 Hilary Abell, www.geo.coop Create! Cooperatives, Future, Labor, Worker's Rights

Today, corporate profits are at an all-time high and employee wages are at their lowest ever as a percent of GDP.i Worker cooperatives embody the hope that we can reverse the downward spiral in wage stagnation, wealth distribution, and concentration of ownership to build an economy that truly serves people and communities. But what will it really take to create a more cooperative economy? My new white paper Worker Cooperatives: Pathways to Scale, published by The Democracy Collaborative, describes the many benefits of worker cooperatives for their members, for business and for society; explores barriers and success factors in worker co-op development; and proposes strategies for increasing the scale and impact of worker co-ops in the United States. This article, adapted from the paper, summarizes three high-level strategies for scaling up the worker cooperative sector and illustrates the need for capacity building through a story of two cooperatives.

How To Build A Powerful People’s Movement

June 24, 2014 Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, www.thenation.com Strategize! Barack Obama, Civil Rights, History, Labor, Moral Mondays, North Carolina

How do we build a people’s movement? We start with vision. Prophetic moral vision seeks to penetrate despair, so that we can believe in and embrace new futures. It does not ask if the vision can be implemented—questions of implementation are of no consequence until the vision can be imagined. The slaves didn’t get out of slavery by first figuring out how to get out; they got out because they were driven by a vision that said, “Oh freedom over me. / And before I’d be a slave / I’d be buried in my grave / And go home to my Lord and be free.” If we are going to have a real populist movement in this country, we have to reinstate an imagination that is not driven by pundits but by a larger vision. Most of the time, your greatest vision comes in your darkest night, because it is then, Martin Luther King Jr. said, that you see the stars. Populist movements don’t build when everything is fine. A populist moral vision is a form of dissent that says there’s a better way, there’s a moral way.

Unions Call For “Energy Sovereignty And Democratization”

June 20, 2014 Sean Sweeney, www.unionsforenergydemocracy.org Create! Climate Change, Democracy, Labor, Unions

TUCA is the largest regional workers´ organization in the Americas. It represents more than 50 million workers belonging to 53 national trade union organizations based in 23 countries. TUCA is the regional structure of the International Trade Union Confederation. A number of TUCA affiliates participate in TUED, from Argentina, Canada and the United States. PLADA calls on the region’s various social and political forces to “work together to build alternatives in the battle for a new hegemony.” The document is structured around four pillars or dimensions – political, economic, social and environmental – which will be geared towards achieving sustainable development.

Chris Hedges Interviews Noam Chomsky (2/3)

June 20, 2014 The Real News, www.therealnews.com Educate! Capitalism, Chris Hedges, Interview, Labor, Manufacturing, Mass Movement, Noam Chomsky

The idea still should be that of the Knights of Labor: those who work in the mills should own them. And there's plenty of manufacturing going on in the country, and probably there will be more, for unpleasant reasons. One thing that's happening right now which is quite interesting is that energy prices are going down in the United States because of the massive exploitation of fossil fuels, which is going to destroy our grandchildren, but under the, you know, capitalist morality, the calculus is that profits tomorrow outweigh the existence of your grandchildren. It's institutionally-based, so, yes, we're getting lower energy prices. And if you look at the business press, they're, you know, very enthusiastic about the fact that we can undercut manufacturing in Europe because we'll have lower energy prices, and therefore manufacturing will come back here, and we can even undermine European efforts at developing sustainable energy because we'll have this advantage. Britain is saying the same thing. I was just in England recently. As I left the airport, I read The Daily Telegraph, you know, I mean, newspaper. Big headline: England is going to begin fracking all of the country, even fracking under people's homes without their permission. And that'll allow us to destroy the environment even more quickly and will bring manufacturing back here.

Occupy Activists Join Fight To Save Postal Service

June 19, 2014 Jamie Partridge, www.socialistworker.org Resist! Labor, Occupy, Postal Service

N AN escalation of the Stop Staples campaign, a group calling itself Occupy San Francisco/First They Came For the Homeless camped 24/7 outside the entrance of the Staples office supply store at 1700 Van Ness--one of 82 that have established "postal counters" inside. From June 1 through 9, the occupiers displayed signs, huddled against the wind and discouraged shoppers from buying at the store. In a secretive, sweetheart deal to outsource postal operations to low-wage, high-turnover Staples stores, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is reducing customer service hours at 21 of 39 U.S. Post Office stations in San Francisco. Cutbacks in hours are also planned in surrounding Bay Area communities. "They're shutting the doors at 5 p.m. and posting signs sending people to private locations--including Staples--to conduct postal business," said Geoffray Dumaguit, president of the San Francisco local of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU). "This will inconvenience and irritate our customers, who often need to visit a Post Office after work."

Coca Cola’s Evil Empire: Campaign To Stop Coke

June 16, 2014 Bernard Alvarez, www.thegic.org Resist! Coca Cola, Corporatism, Labor, police brutality, Strike, Unions, Violence

Dear Sisters & Brothers: Strong labor unions are critical to improve wages, working conditions and human rights for all workers and for democracies to flourish. For workers in Colombia and Guatemala, a strong union can also mean the difference between life and death. The Campaign to Stop Killer Coke originated to stop the gruesome cycle of violence against union leaders and organizers in Colombia in efforts to crush their union, SINALTRAINAL. Since then, violence, abuse and exploitation leveled against Coke workers and communities have been uncovered in other countries as well, notably China, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Mexico and Turkey. Colombia In Colombia, the importance of winning the struggle against Coke was best summed up by SINALTRAINAL Vice President Juan Carlos Galvis when he said: "If we lose this fight against Coke, First we will lose our union, Next we will lose our jobs, And then we will all lose our lives!"

‘Stop Staples’ Movement Growing

June 16, 2014 American Postal Workers Union, www.apwu.org Resist! boycott, Labor, Post Office, Privatization, Unions

June 13, 2014 - SEIU 32BJ, representing 145,000 union members in 11 states and the District of Columbia, is boycotting all Staples retail stores in the U.S., Staples.com and Staples Advantage, as well as all Staples branded proprietary products. “We will no longer be using Staples as our union’s office supplier, and we will be actively encouraging our members and allies to refrain from doing business with your company,” SEUI 32BJ President Héctor Figueroa said in a June 11 letter [PDF] to Staples CEO Ronald Sargent. “It is unfortunate that we must take this action, but we strongly oppose your pilot program with the U.S. Postal Service to establish postal retail units in your stores staffed by low-wage, non-union, non-postal employees,” he wrote. “The Postal Service is the largest single civilian employer of union middle-class jobs for African Americans, and Veterans (including disabled veterans), and is the largest single civilian union employer. We need more of these types of jobs to strengthen our economy and the middle class, and we will not accept your efforts to undermine them through low-wage privation.”

Teachers Sound Alarm Over ‘Anti-Public Education’ Ruling

June 14, 2014 Sarah Lazare, www.commondreams.com Educate! Education, Labor, Law, Privatization

In a ruling with broad implications for public education across the United States, a California court on Tuesday struck down key workplace protections for the state's public school teachers by siding with student plaintiffs—backed by powerful political forces— who claimed such policies negatively impacted the quality of their learning. Issued by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu, the decision sparked outrage from teachers unions and public education advocates across the country. "Like the lawsuit itself, today’s ruling is deeply flawed," said Dean Vogel, president of the California Teacher's Association, in a statement about the decision. "This lawsuit has nothing to do with what’s best for kids, but was manufactured by a Silicon Valley millionaire and a corporate PR firm to undermine the teaching profession and push their agenda on our schools.” "This suit is not pro-student. It is fundamentally anti-public education, scapegoating teachers for problems originating in underfunding, poverty, and economic inequality.” —Joshua Pechthalt, CFT president

The UAW vs. The Auto Workers

June 10, 2014 Jerry White, www.wsws.org Educate! Cars, Detroit, Labor, Unions

The United Auto Workers union held its 36th Constitutional Convention in Detroit last week. The meeting had three basic purposes: first, to install a new layer of hand-picked, right-wing union executives to replace those who are retiring; second, to impose a hefty dues increase on the membership; and third, to reassure the auto companies and the ruling class as a whole that the UAW will continue to help slash wages and benefits, impose speedup and increase corporate profits. In every respect, the four-day affair exhibited the antidemocratic, bureaucratic and anti-working class character of the organization. The gathering would hardly have been noticed by rank-and-file auto workers except for the fact that the delegates voted to increase membership dues by 25 percent. In his farewell address, outgoing UAW President Bob King summed up the class interests served by the UAW, telling the assembly of cheering delegates, “We want to show and demonstrate, which we do every day, that having a union workforce is a competitive advantage, not a competitive disadvantage.” Since the early 1980s, when the UAW was first brought onto the board of directors of Chrysler and officially adopted the corporatist program of labor-management “partnership,” the UAW has openly functioned to police the workers and provide the auto bosses with a reliable supply of cheap labor.

Working Families Party Pulls Plug On Working Families

June 8, 2014 John Halle, www.jacobinmag.com Educate! Elections, Labor, Worker's Rights

Just a few weeks ago, those daring to suggest that a Working Families Party endorsement of the notoriously right-wing New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was in the offing were assailed by the WFP’s liberal supporters as cynics at best or GOP moles at worst. But that, to their evident displeasure, is precisely what materialized last weekend. The driving forces included, most conspicuously, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio who, despite his being slapped down by the governor on charter schools and in his attempt to finance universal pre-K with a millionaires tax, urged delegates to accept on faith his portrait of Cuomo as a genuine progressive blocked by Senate Republicans. (That the governor has supported and engineered a working Republican majority in Albany was left unmentioned.) As a loyal Democrat, this display of blind partisanship, while plenty unappealing, was what was necessary and required from him. The same cannot be said for the other shoulder on the battering ram, the state’s major unions, who have not (or at least not yet) officially merged operations with Democratic Party.

Walmart Moms On Strike

June 6, 2014 Making Change At Walmart, www.makingchangeatwalmart.org Resist! Activism, Labor, Moms, Strike, Walmart

Walmart moms—members of OUR Walmart—have been walking off the job since Friday in protest of the company’s illegal silencing of their co-workers who have been calling for better pay. Walmart mom Evelin Cruz of the Pico Rivera, CA store says: “I’m striking for Barbara, for Tiffany and for other moms who Walmart has tried to silence. Our families cannot continue to struggle on Walmart’s poverty pay and constantly changing schedules while Walmart and the Walton family make billions from our work.” The majority of Walmart moms are paid less than $25,000 a year – forcing many to rely on food stamps and other taxpayer-supported programs to survive. Working women – increasingly the breadwinners and decision makers in households – make up the majority of Walmart’s workforce and are often hit hardest by the company’s poverty pay. Walmart moms walked off the job this morning in Orlando (see photo), joining moms who have already walked off the job in Dallas, Pittsburgh, Southern California and the Bay area. More are expected to strike outside their stores in 20 cities today, including Tampa, Miami, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Los Angeles and the Bay area. The National Labor Relations Board’s historic trial prosecuting Walmart – which includes the illegal firing of moms like Barbara Collins – is currently underway. Barbara was trying to get more hours to put a few dollars aside for her daughter to go to college – when she was fired for striking against Walmart’s illegal retaliation against workers.

Whole Foods Union-Busting

June 6, 2014 Chris Lehmann, www.inthesetimes.com Organize! Chicago, Labor, Protest, Unions, Whole Foods

Don't look now, but Whole Foods seems to be interpreting the “whole planet” part of its corporate branding as a Manifest Destiny-style call to market conquest. In an exhaustive Fortune magazine cover story this April, “Whole Foods Takes Over America,” Beth Kowitt explained that the high-end grocer has quietly bulked up into one of America’s leading retail food chains, with plans to operate 1,200 stores over the next few years (counting stores in the UK and Canada). The chain has seen its revenues double and its profits triple since 2007, Kowitt reports, and has lately taken to launching new stores in low-income shopping areas, such as Detroit, Newark and the South Side of Chicago. On one level, it’s heartening that more choices to purchase quality, non-industrial food have penetrated into lower-income neighborhoods. However, Whole Foods is far from a model of progressive values. Founded and run by John Mackey, a recovered hippie and especially dogmatic libertarian in the Randian grain, the chain has notoriously lowballed health benefits and campaigned to crush anything resembling a union organizing drive among its more than 70,000 employees. “The union is like having herpes,” organic baron Mackey infamously announced. “It doesn’t kill you, but it’s unpleasant and inconvenient, and it stops a lot of people from becoming your lover.”

Hundreds Of San Francisco Transit Workers Call In Sick

June 5, 2014 Rose Arrieta, www.inthesetimes.com Resist! Labor, San Francisco, Strike

San Francisco commuters are being asked to find alternative transportation arrangements in Day 2 of a Muni driver sickout, affecting the operation of city buses, light rail, cable and trolley cars. Today, only 300 of 600 vehicles are operating, according to Muni spokesman Paul Rose. Yesterday commuters scrambled to find ways to and from their destinations in the surprise sickout that left two-thirds of the Muni system buses non-operational. Forbidden from going on strike over contract negotiations, drivers called in sick again today despite a strongly worded memo from SFMTA last night that warned, “Operators engaging in an unauthorized work stoppage or ‘sick out’ are not entitled to receive paid sick leave and further, may be subject to discipline, up to and including termination.” Muni spokesperson Paul Rose said in a statement yesterday that about 400 out of 600 morning runs—both buses and rail car—remained parked on Monday. SF Bicycle Coalition tweeted this morning “Ride your bike today to avoid any #Muni delays.” The Transport Workers Union Local 250-A, which represents the 2,200 operators, is involved in a contentious contract dispute with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA). The agency manages public transportation in the city, including Muni.

Workers And Environmentalists Of The World, Unite!

June 5, 2014 Stefania Barca, www.roarmag.org Strategize! Environment, Labor, New Economy

The conflict between labor and the environment is a neoliberal construct. What we need is a broad coalition that can fundamentally transform production. Nowadays it sounds so familiar, almost natural: the mutually exclusive demands and apparently opposing agendas of labor and the environmentalist movement. But in fact, this artificial division is nothing more than a crucial neoliberal strategy to divide two of the most powerful social movements of the industrial era, whose alliance could be a dangerous liaison with the capacity to call into question the very essence of the capitalist “treadmill of production.” It is thus essential that labor and environmental/public health organizations gain a historical perspective on their current state of conflict and become aware of the revolutionary potential of a common political project. One place where this fact has become much clearer in recent years is the Italian city of Taranto, Apulia, where a number of citizens’ organizations and “committees” emerged in response to one of the most serious occupational, environmental and public health crises of the last decade. These organizations and committees have now begun mobilizing different resources and forms of action — from cyber-activism and film-making to street demonstrations and campaigning — to fight against the occupational blackmail of a local employer. At the last May Day celebrations, they managed to gather more than 100,000 people for a self-organized, crowd-sourced mass concert, held in open competition with the one traditionally organized in Rome by the trade unions confederation and RAI, the national public television.

I Confronted Donald Trump In Dubai

June 3, 2014 Molly Crabapple, www.vice.com Educate! Donald Trump, Dubai, Journalism, Labor

This May, I researched labor issues in the United Arab Emirates with a local journalist. To avoid being deported, he goes by the pseudonym Tom Blake. We interviewed construction workers building museums on Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island. In the richest city in the world, the workers we spoke to were little more than indentured servants. For between $150 and $300 a month, they worked 13 hours a day, six days a week. Their bosses kept their passports. They landed in the UAE owing more than a year's salary to recruiters back home. They could be deported for striking. In Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, they had families dependent on their wages. However brutal it was, the Gulf dream was their one shot out of poverty. They could not fuck this up. The UAE is not uniquely guilty. Migrants throughout the world, in the US as well as the UAE, do the worst work and suffer the worst state violence. While my research focused on Abu Dhabi, poor conditions are typical throughout the Gulf. Thousands of workers could die building the World Cup stadia in Qatar. Figurative blood stains the gleaming steel of Earth's tallest building, Dubai's Burj Khalifa.

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