We Salute The Victory of CWA 1109 workers over Cablevision in NYC.

January 30th, 2012

In a momentous event - some thirteen years of hard struggle in the making, CWA, Local 1109, with the backing of local politicians and the community, won a hard fought campaign to unionize Cablevision installers in Brooklyn, NY.

Since less than 5% of these workers are organized across the United States, this victory for 282 workers signifies a solid breakthrough on the part of strategically smart and deeply dedicated organizers. In the last days of the fight the call went out to supporters of the 99% fight and members of Occupy Wall Street. These groups showed how solid community support and the possibility of widespread public outrage over unfair working conditions can help unions in their battles to defeat the multi-million dollar anti-union campaigns of large corporations. This bitter anti-union effort was led by:

"Cablevision leads the Cable TV industry in average monthly revenue per subscriber of $153.97. And outgoing COO Tom Rutledge made $28 million in 2010, about twice the combined pay of the 282 technicians in Brooklyn.  Rutledge’s $28 million is over 600 times the average technician’s pay.  Despite $361 million in profits, Cablevision paid no federal income taxes in 2010. 

We salute all those who were involved.  We thank our CWA brothers and sisters for their fight and the information quoted above. Read more about it here: http://www.cwa-union.org/news/entry/cablevision_workers_triumph_brooklyn_technicians_vote_to_unionize#.TyjRHiNj_NU

Indiana Governor Mitch "Darth Vader" Daniels and the right to (not) work

Governor Mitch Daniels, channeling Darth Vader during his GOP response to the President's State of the Union speech on Tuesday night and the Republican dominated legislature have passed the last hurdle before Indiana becomes a so-called "right-to-work state. Daniels, mumbling his way through a sour-faced speech filled with apocalyptic images of doom and gloom unless President Obama was defeated, led his tea party clones in attempting to destroy the rights of working men and women of Indiana to unionize or collectively bargain. Sadly for many workers this means the right to not work for decent wages, benefits with dignity, or have any access to rights guaranteed them under federal legislation - the National Labor Relations Act - of some 75 years duration. It is now up to workers, unions and all progressive forces in Indiana to organize to repeal this horrible precedent and to retire Darth Vader Daniels from the Governor's desk - where he apparently now feels stifled. Daniels -an earlier critic of Scott Walker - for being unnecessarily harsh and divisive to state workers - has recently - while dreaming of the VP spot on a Gingromney Presidential ticket, drunk the Koch brothers kool-aid tea and decided to make the lives of working folks even more difficult than they have become after so many years of high unemployment and no manufacturing jobs. Another general recall election effort seems in order here as well as in Wisconsin. The success in Ohio against Kasich's power grab has shown the way organized progressive forces can slam these anti-worker slime back into the sewers from whence they came. We wish Indiana workers strength and courage in their noble fight.

See what the Huffington Post has to say:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/25/indiana-right-to-work_n_1232070.html

Daniels efforts in Indiana today recalled the events in Wisconsin earlier this year, when Scott Walker, an unknown hack who lied his way into the Governors mansion, ignored any semblance of democracy, fair play or even the will of the people - while ramming through the first set of anti-union laws in the country. Years of spending by 1% types like the Koch brothers, in their efforts to buy off and control politicians just like Walker - who was caught on tape in a radio sting sucking up to who he imagined was one of his corporate benefactors - finally paid off in a Republican led power play to dump the troubles of the state's hard economy onthe backs of public employees earning roughly $47,000 a year - instead of on the billions of $ in tax breaks handed out to right wing corporations the moment Walker took office.

"Despite massive protests outside the Capitol, Wisconsin's GOP-dominated Assembly passed a law backed by Gov. Scott Walker in March that strips nearly all collective bargaining rights from organized labor. Walker is now preparing for a recall election after opponents turned in a million signatures aimed at forcing a vote and ousting him from office. In November, Ohio voters repealed a law limiting collective bargaining rights that was championed by Gov. John Kasich and fellow Republican lawmakers."

See the full article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/01/25/us/AP-US-Indiana-Right-to-Work.html?_r=1&ref=us

You may need to get a free subscription for the NY Times on-line to access this article. But it's worth it. If the people of Ohio can repeal a law that is unfair to workers and their rights, so too can the people of Wisconsin. Collective bargaining is a right, not a privilege.

PRESIDENT OBAMA DRAWS A LINE IN THE SAND

January 25th, 2012

While it has been fashionable over the last two years for my brothers and sisters on the left and from many parts of the labor movement to bash this President for not doing enough for labor - I think last night's State of the Union put to bed any doubts about who will remain a better ally for future labor struggles in this country.

The President did the requisite middle of the road sound bites required during an election year, channeled Ronald Reagan a few times for those chamber wide applause moments. However, his executive orders to appoint Richard Cordray to head the new Consumer Protection Board and the addition of three new members to the National Labor Relations Board, while laying down the battle lines for the coming election season last night, leave no doubt as to who's side this President is on. All working men and women must take advantage of this next period to organize the heck out of their brothers and sisters on the job while the favorable winds are blowing out of Washington, DC. This President made clear, for the first time in almost twenty years, that the national drift towards a new Gilded Age is totally not OK and the folks that brought it on were going to have to pay up. Some of them, he said, might actually end up in jail. Time and time again he tore into corporations for evading their tax obligations here at home and tied it directly to unnecessary budget cuts that hurt important government services/programs and are the result of such ethically awful behavior.

It was a thing of beauty to see our President actually say that billionaires (not even millionaires by the way) should pay at least as much a percentage in tax as their own secretaries. Seeing those TV cameras pan to Warren Buffet's executive secretary - nodding in agreement - then to those GOP Senators sitting on their hands - Priceless!!

For today's GOP has only one small client group - those very same billionaires the President is targeting. This should now be even more obvious to all Americans that actually must work for a living.

Don't get me wrong - we should not depend on this President as our savior - nor our ultimate salvation - that job is entirely up to us. However - considering the alternative universe the GOP has outlined and the ethical race to the bottom being pursued this election season by their marquee candidates - organized labor and all workers seeking serious economic change in this country need the breathing room in the future that can only be created by re-electing this President. It would be nice not to throw every dollar we raise into the Democratic Party basket this year - despite the obscene fundraising efforts of GOP Super Pacs such as Karl Rove's American Crossroads. We should donate, but we should also reserve some of those millions for the desperately needed worker organizing efforts and labor media building efforts which this festival hopes to help represent across this great nation.

As one who has admittedly has had my ups and downs with President Obama and some of the less than heroic give backs of this administration - such as on health care for all - I was still very proud to be an American last night. Maybe that's corny, but I have to say that this President still does give me hope for both great positive change in this country and hope that we may one day be a country where the pursuit of profit is not the 24/7 focus of every media outlet, every talk show host, or every young kid entering an IT program at college. Barack Obama may be many things, but he serves all of us and this nation extremely well as a focal point for what real hope and change can mean, why it is necessary and how we might get there.

We should have our own resolve and our own agenda as labor activists. For sure. But we should also, at this very difficult time in our nation's history - when one Republican candidate tells us it is okay for him to keep even more of his millions, and that your children's school budgets can get cut to make it up, while the other GOP fossil proudly insists that God, in his grace, has actually taken the time out of his busy schedule to tell him that his philandering ways are now completely forgiven - be quite thankful that Barack Obama is our President. He retains a great deal of that courage and honor that made him the first African American President, that made him a beacon for hope and change in this country and around the world. It's up to us to help make that promise to all working Americans real.

The New York Taxi Alliance Fights Back Against Corrupt Owners

January 19th, 2012

We're huge supporters of the NY Taxi Workers Alliance - now the National Taxi Workers Alliance. They fight hard everyday for drivers, workers, who are subjected to some of the most repressive and anti-worker conditions in America's workplace. Here's a call to action for next week. We hope all of you in the area can attend. This message is from their amazing Executive Director and her tireless Organizing Committee.

Workers and Activists in Wisconsin move closer to Recalling Scott Walker

January 19th, 2012

Workers, activists and organizers throughout Wisconsin attained nearly double of the required number of signatures to recall Scott Walker this coming summer of 2012! United Wisconsin, according to the Huffington Post of January 17th, 2012, scored over one million signatures - or 185% of the required total!

Organizers also collected more than enough signatures to launch recalls of the lieutenant governor and four more Republican state senators who had supported Walker's anti-union plans.

Though Walker and his Koch brothers / Karl Rove funded allies plan to challenge the signatures, United Wisconsin and the Democratic Party are confident more than enough will survive to set the recall vote in motion.

This is exactly what people power means and  shows what we can do to fight back against the shadowy, back room efforts of the select few to manipulate our political process, destroy our democracy in order to gain permanent control for the top 1%. As Mitt Romney just said during his last debate - "It wasn't very much money he earned from speaking fees....." Only $347,000.00!!!! I don't know any public employees who make even one quarter of that amount as a regular paycheck.

Efforts are underway, as they were done successfully in Ohio, to roll back these illegal power grabs of the hard right, aimed at the heart of worker power - unions. A workers' rights to receive a fair wage and live a life with dignity  and security across this great country is at stake. We must fight hard to defeat these anti-family, anti- society efforts of these free-market terrorists.

NY State AFL-CIO and Community Groups call on Albany to Close Corporate Tax Loopholes

January 15, 2012

Labor leaders, including Mario Cilento - new President of the NY State AFL-CIO, joined with community groups from all over NY State in demanding that tax loopholes, which allow large corporations in NY State to evade their fair share of payng for the services that help make them successful, be permanently closed.

"Throughout this budget crisis working men and women have been asked to bear the entire brunt of cost cutting through lowered pensions, higher health care costs and wage freezes. At the same time many corporations fail to even pay the taxes they owe. We need to close corporate tax loopholes to infuse recurring revenue and end the vicious cycle of cuts to middle class families."

http://www.nysaflcio.org

January 15, 2012 Microsoft Probes mass suicide threat at China Plant

On the heels of a highly negative report on Apple's manufacturing subcontractors around the world - Microsoft reports that it is investigating reports that workers in a Chinese plant manufacturing Xbox game systems, have thratened mass suicide in a pay dispute with their employers.

Though CNN reports that Microsoft takes these negative reports on working conditions in its subcontractors Xbox factory seriously, neith Microsoft or the Chinese manufacturer, owned by Foxconn, responded directly to questions. What is known is that workers in a Wuhan plant, over 150 workers, were so angered by transfer orders and working conditions that they stopped work and threatened mass suicide. Though the dispute appears to be temporarily resolved, some 45 workers chose to resign rather than continue to work at the plant.

Microsoft claims that these employees were really protesting staffing assignments and not working conditions and that the situation was "under control."

The issues of worker control and worker power are the same all over the world. Global labor solidarity is not a choice, but really is necessary to global labor organizing success.

Stand With TWU Local 100 Today - January 15, 2012

Join members of TWU Local 100 at the Sheraton Hotel today - January 15th, 2012 - 7th Avenue and 53rd Street.

The TWU is fighting for their new contract and for workers' right, social justice and affordable transportation for all working people.

go to: www.nycclc.org

President Obama Stands with Workers, tells GOP, "We'll Just Say No!"

President Obama, facing continual opposition from GOP house members and Senators regarding his appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the newly created Consumer Protection Agency, just said "No" today to such obstructionist tactics.

Besides appointing Richard Cordray to the important position as Director of the new Consumer Agency, the absence of whom has relegated the work of this agency to a standstill since it's inception in 2010, the President filled all three open seats on the NLRB - two with Democrats and one with a Republican. Without making these appointments the NLRB - in constant operation since it's creation under FDR, would have been shuttered for lack of a quorum. Republics in both the House and the Senate, knowing  this, had attempted a rickety sham of congressional procedure to keep the Congress "in session" for a mere thirty seconds a day!

The President has called their bluff - making recess appointments for the 41st thru 45th time. Though Republicans are screaming he has "rammed" through these appointments and done an end run on the constitution - GW Bush made over 140 recess appointments at his point of his term in office, as did Bill Clinton and Bush 41. Once again the GOP is pretending that this President has done something never done before - and not something absolutely necessary in order to protect both the rights of workers and the rights of all Americans affected by payday lenders, unscrupulous mortgage brokers, and even the major banks in their predatory lending and foreclosure practices.

This was a good day for labor unions and working people. As the almost laughable content of the remaining Republican presidential candidates gets wider coverage during their primary phase, the President has drawn and important line in the sand that is clear as day for any working American, any American affected by shoddy financial practices, can see as they ponder their electoral decisions for 2012.

It shouldn't even be close.

We Stand With Caterpillar Workers in Canada and Congratulate the Victory in NYC by SEIU Local 32BJ

The start of the new year brings some cause for congratulations and the need to remain vigilant in the face of corporate greed just over the border.

Local 32BJ - Service Employees International Union (SEIU) scored a solid victory for their building service employee cleaning workers just on New Years Eve. They faced down some of the wealthiest and most powerful real estate moguls and corporations in the world, based out of NYC, who were looking, once again to cut workers pay and force them to pay higher contributions for existing benefits. They did this by thoughtful and creative bargaining on the part of Mike Fishman, their President and Brian Doyle, Vice President, with the support of their full union behind them. 32BJ also enjoyed the strong support and the willingness to honor any 32BJ picket lines of the NYC Central Labor Council and their new and actively engaged President, Vincent Alvarez. The NYC Central Labor Council and its membership of key construction and service unions throughout the city, made it abundantly clear to the 1% types that any insult to the building service cleaners was an insult to all NYC workers and that all workers in NYC would stand together to insure a fair deal both for 32BJ and all workers in NYC.

President Alvarez and his new team at the NYC Central Labor Council have made clear that it is no longer business as usual for organized labor. He gave support to Occupy Wall Street, but made sure organized labor played its own role in the protests. He and his team from the NYCCLC were also the organizers of a powerful march down Broadway in NYC, just before the rush of the Christmas shopping season, with thousands of union members from the NYC metro area peacefully filling Broadway from curb to curb - simply to remind those watching that workers may not always scream as loudly as OWS protesters, but they're going to stand together and fight this coming year. Not only will organized labor fight to keep what membership it has, but they will actively reach out and organize new workers every day of every week - year round. Worker Unity is Worker Power.

NYCCLC Solidarity March, December 2011 NYC

Up North, in Canada, the news is not as positive, though CAW - the Canadian Auto Workers are still fighting this one out. Workers at Electro-Motive, the second largest locomotive production facility in North America, were locked out by their parent company, Caterpillar , which bought Electro-Motive last year.The CAW was in the midst of ongoing negotiations with the owners. Management didn't want much, just that workers take half their current pay and pay twice as much for their health benefits and end their pensions entirely. Why? Well because Caterpillar had already bullied its workers to the south in Illinois, where they had crushed workers into accepting half as much as the CAW had obtained in Canada. Caterpillar is already manufacturing and selling around the world so the threat of closure on the Canadian plant is real and the likely reason for the lockout and hard-nosed management stance.

These workers smartly returned to work and refused in this case to give Caterpillar any excuse to shut down the plant. Of course the lockout happened anyway after the take it or leave it final offer by management. The CAW is still negotiating and refusing to give in to such outrageous demands simply to further enrich these greedy 1%ers. This is not a fight between American and Canadian workers! This signifies exactly why there must be global labor solidarity and the fight for a living wage must be waged across all borders and all industries.

We stand by these workers and their fight for fairness, honor and dignity in their work and their right to receive a living wage and decent benefits for building and enriching this multinational corporate behemoth.

Welcome To The Workers Unite Film Festival

We're thrilled to be up and running! Thanks so much to Patty Evanoff for her excellent advice and hard work in getting our site going. We are definitely a work in progress and hope to serve as focal point for workers and organizers across the country during this very pivotal and exciting year.

We have a chance to recall at least one rabidly anti-labor Governor - Scott Walker of WI - and to add to the tremendous worker's victories in Ohio, against worker hating Governor Kasich. When workers unite - amazing things can happen.

We are looking for your input and updates from across the country - not only for the festival - next May4th,5th and 6th, 2012 - but right now! What's happening out there in the streets, factories, retail big-box stores, hospitals, nursing homes, schools, government offices, factory floors, in cabs across the country! Everywhere that workers talk about their rights and how to take back what is rightfully theirs - we want to know that story.

We are thrilled to introduce you to the newest member of the national AFL-CIO Federation's member unions - formerly the New York Taxi Workers Alliance - now the National Taxi Workers Alliance!  When workers - even independent contractors separated while driving their own cabs each day - get together - their power is massive and progressive.

Keep us posted on what's happening in your area, local union hall, worker education center, or just at the worker's favorite local hangout. We are here for you, to tell your story, to build your voice and to unite all workers into a powerful and determined movement for fair wages, full health care and progressive change we can really believe in. We'll try to keep you updated with important labor stories and welcome your help on this every day.

Thanks for joining in! A happy, healthy and progressive new year for workers across this great country is my wish to all of you!