American Crystal Sugar Company lockout--- a botched union strategy.

American Crystal Sugar Company lockout--- a botched union strategy.

What a botched union strategy on the part of the leaders of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International union and the state and national AFL-CIO:

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-12-01/locked-out-crystal-sugar-workers-hold-4th-vote

Here is one thing I find really interesting... the leaders of the AFL-CIO which include the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International union told the rest of us how great Obamacare will be for us but they aren't willing to accept the terms of Obamacare for their own members.

This is from the Associated Press today:

"Contract opponents say the sugar beet processor's five-year contract offer would cut health care benefits and weaken job security and seniority protections..."

No one should find it strange that the betrayal of the AFL-CIO's executive council on health care in undermining the movement for single-payer universal health care in order to protect Barack Obama's worthless political butt should be anything other than a betrayal of the 1,300 American Crystal Worker Company's workers, too.

This is where class collaboration leads--- first we get union leaders like Richard Trumka supporting AIPAC and the Israeli killing machine, then we get Trumka and his 50 or so cronies on the AFL-CIO Executive Council supporting Wall Street's Barack Obama, then we get these same union leaders ordering American Crystal Sugar workers to leave the plants as management orders instead of occupying the plants to prevent a lockout; then these union leaders tell workers they should re-elect Obama will solve their problems and now these same union leaders proclaim a "boycott" with no support for the boycott except press conferences.

Why aren't the leaders comprising the AFL-CIO Executive Council putting the same effort into organizing an American Crystal Sugar Company boycott that they put into re-electing Barack Obama who brought us Obamacare and now they won't accept this same Obamacare for their own members?

Kind of like these same 50-plus "leaders" sitting on the AFL-CIO Executive Council headed up by Richard Trumka are willing to accept such a miserly poverty minimum wage for tens of millions of non-union members without so much as consulting the workers who are then saddled with this poverty minimum wage.

Class collaboration paves the road straight to hell for the working class and this American Crystal Sugar Company lockout should teach every worker in this country this lesson.

George Edwards... Communist and rank-and-file working class activist

The working class and people lost a great leader, activist, and fighter for justice and equality this past week when 94 year-old George Edwards died. While his accomplishments were many and will have positive influence on our lives for generations, what those who knew George will remember most was his all abiding humanity. While a lifelong champion of worker's rights, civil rights, and peace, George was as at home with a beer watching the game, gardening, hiking, camping, or visiting friends as he was at a meeting of his beloved steelworker unionists.

Born in 1918 in South Dakota, his family moved to Tennessee and homesteaded land in what is now the Great Smoky National Park. His father worked in the Indian Service until becoming frustrated with mistreatment of native peoples.

George obtained a bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee, then received his graduate degree from Oberlin Seminary, studying to enter the ministry. After completing his studies, George went to work as a machinist at the huge U. S. Steel Works in nearby Lorain, Ohio, making less than $1 an hour. His goal was to set up a "labor church."

However, he quickly joined the Steelworker's Organizing Committee, which was campaigning to organize that mill, and joined the Communist Party USA, along with many of the other organizers. He was active as a member/leader for the rest of his life.

Denise Winebrenner-Edwards, George's wife of 31 years, said, "He was absolutely convinced that the only way working people could achieve justice was for the people, not the wealthy, to control our economy. He saw that inherent in capitalism was inequality and injustice and that the system needed to be changed fundamentally to meet the people's needs."

After winning unionization in 1942, George founded the local union newspaper, the Lorain Labor Leader, founded a veteran's committee, and was part of the local's Political Action Committee. He was elected the local's vice president.

When America entered World War II, George immediately joined up, fighting to defeat the fascist menace in Europe.

After victory, he came back, but to a much different political climate. McCarthyism was rearing its ugly head. Still, George was elected to the 1948 United Steelworkers of America (USWA) convention, where he raised the first resolution calling for an African American vice president of the union. Although this wasn't won at that convention, George was a leading part of the movement that achieved that goal at the USWA convention nearly 40 years later.

For George, the 1950s were difficult times. Hounded by the FBI, spied on, and ostracized at the union he helped found, his name was even chiseled off of the founders' plaque at the union hall. He suffered isolation and tough times, even going through a divorce.

However, George used this time to become a photographer, setting up a studio in Lorain, became involved in hiking, camping, and became a serious artist, painting and producing metal sculptures. His metal chess sets are highly valued and are on display as gifts in presidential offices in Vietnam and other nations.

Even in these hard times, George still found ways to fight for justice. Seeing Puerto Rican workers brought in to work at the mill housed in railroad cars on company property, without running water, heat or sanitary facilities, he invited leaders of the Puerto Rican independence movement to Lorain to help the workers understand what rights they had and to push for decent housing. When African American steelworkers were unable to buy homes in still-segregated areas, George purchased homes which he resold to those workers. As the civil rights and peace movements developed, George jumped on board.

In the '70's, George really began to put his stamp on policy changes that would shift political ground for all of us. Seeing a lack of democracy, a slackening of the fight against the big corporations, in the USWA, George formed the National Steelworkers Rank & File Committee. It pushed for democracy, membership involvement and solidarity. He literally ran the budding rank and file movement from an old mimeograph machine in his front room, almost permanently having blue-stained fingers. Local committees were formed in Steelworker locals across the nation, mainly made up of younger workers.

The Lorain committee did not come about because George made great speeches, but grew out of what will forever be known as the "Pink Hard Hat" incident. By now, George was a machinist instructor, teaching young apprentices the trade. But the shop foreman was making life hell for the young workers, harassing them in numerous ways, including forcing them to shave beards and cut their hair short (a big deal for those guys in those days). George painted his hard hat pink, stating that it looked like "the boss's bald head."

He was suspended for his protest, but the union, especially the young workers, rallied to his side and he won his grievance and back pay.

This was during a time that the mainstream media all trumpeted the "generation gap," the idea that only young folks were progressive and that if you were older, you couldn't possibly relate to young people. Throughout his life, and especially during this period, George showed this concept up for the lie it was. He was beloved by the younger workers and he fought for them, as well as all workers.

An important principle of the rank and file movement that George often spoke of during this period was: "We have no enemies that are workers. We are fighting for all workers. We need a rank and file movement always, to involve regular workers in the union. It needs to support union leaders when they're right and push them when they aren't!"

The rank and file movement that George began expanded and won many gains during this period. The right of workers to ratify their own contracts was won, as well as the election of an African American USW vice president. The movement fought against an experimental negotiating agreement that would have ended the union's ability to strike. The well-known Consent Decree, which ended practices of keeping minority workers in the worst, most dangerous and low paid jobs, opened up all jobs to bidding and brought women and minorities into the trades, was a major victory of the movement. All these had George Edwards' fingerprints on them.

The Steelworkers union began to shift, becoming the progressive union it is today, mobilizing its members, building coalitions, standing up for solidarity with other workers and unions across the globe.

After retiring, George married Denise Winebrenner and moved to Pittsburgh. Winebrenner, a USW activist in her own right, was elected to the Wilkinsburg City Council.

Hardly ready to relax and enjoy "golden years," George spoke of these as "the best years of my life." He was a founding member of the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR) and was a member of SOAR's ruling executive board. With his wife Denise, they formed a local coalition, Wilkinsburg for Change, which stopped privatization of the local elementary school and pushed for better services and more access for the community to local government.

George was especially proud of the fact that he was "the first one arrested" for sitting in, blocking trucks carrying copies of the Pittsburgh Press, when workers there were on strike. The strike was successful, especially due to the massive solidarity movement.

Even into his 90s George Edwards was active, mobilizing steel retirees to rallies for health care and retiree security. When Occupy Pittsburgh held demonstrations and news conferences this past year, George was out front, attending and bringing friends.

Finally, in his late years, George got something he'd never asked for: credit for his work! He used to say, "It's amazing what you can get accomplished if you don't care who gets credit!"

Certainly, at least for the rest of us, it was wonderful to see some credit finally go his way.

At the 70th anniversary of the United Steelworkers union in Cleveland last year, George Edwards was honored with a long, very loud, standing ovation. He was recognized for his work and as the only one present who was at the founding USW convention as well as the present one.

George had just returned from a USW Civil Rights Conference in Cincinnati when he fell into a coma. At that conference, USW President Leo Gerard had honored George, saying, "He was an activist every single day of his life." The comments were occasion for another long, standing ovation, which brought tears to many eyes, including George's.

George died peacefully. He didn't live that way!

He is survived by his wife Denise, a son, daughter, and three sisters.

Denise has asked that those wishing to send flowers instead send donations to SOAR, or Next Generation (USW organization for young workers). Both of these can go to:

USW-Attn. Sec'r./Treasurer

60 Blvd. of the Allies

Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Jim Centner, national president of SOAR, probably said it best when he said the best way to honor George is to "live life like George, be an activist every day!"

AFL-CIO Endorses Nationwide Consumer Boycott of American Crystal Sugar in Response to Crystal Sugar’s 14-Month Lockout

The national AFL-CIO is calling for a boycott of American Crystal Sugar after management has kept workers locked out for over a year here in the Red River Valley.

http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/latest-national/37077-afl-cio-endorses-nationwide-consumer-boycott-of-

american-crystal-sugar-in-response-to-crystal-sugars-14-month-lockout.html

I find it very interesting that local, state and national AFL-CIO leaders were opposed to American Crystal Workers occupying the plants when faced with a lockout but now claim they will organize a boycott of American Crystal Sugar.

Does anyone really believe that this boycott will consist of anything more than a another press conference?

Richard Trumka has given American Crystal Sugar's management the ultimatum:

Negotiate a contract in good faith or face a boycott.

Given the fact that Trumka was opposed to workers taking over the plants when management first threatened the lockout; and for over a year Trumka has made no effort to stop replacement workers from entering the ACS plants and operating them at maximum capacity... I bet American Crystal Sugar's management are just shaking in their boots at the threat of the AFL-CIO threatening a consumer boycott as many consumers already "boycott" sugar simply because they can't afford its high price as a result of the AFL-CIO working with ACS management and politicians (Democrats and Republicans) to keep the price (and profits from) beet derived sugar artificially high.

Let's get real here.

The union has already agreed to most of ACS management's concessions and ASC management refuses to negotiate in good faith.

Do you suppose ACS management wants to shed itself from the union altogether?

In fact, the owners/shareholders of American Crystal Sugar stated long before the lockout that it was their intent to get rid of the union and Richard Trumka and the corrupt local and national "leaders" of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) used intimidation tactics against their own members who dared to so much as mention that a worker take-over of the plants be considered.

Here is a list of sugar companies from all over the world:

http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/companies/sugar/

How many of these companies' products do U.S. consumers see on the shelves when it comes to beet derived sugar that they can choose from as an alternative to American Crystal Sugar?

Union leaders are subjecting American Crystal Sugar workers to a losing "battle" behind all kinds of militant sounding talk that amounts to nothing but more betrayal from which workers will continue to suffer because they were not encouraged to do the right thing in the first place when ACS management threatened a lock-out.

The correct response should have been a take-over of the plants by the workers until the contract was settled.

There is a lesson in this for other workers.

For American Crystal Sugar workers this is now a done deal. They have lost; if the AFL-CIO union "leaders" have their way these workers will not only lose out on what they should have won in a new contract; they will end up losing their union--- and their jobs... the ultimate in concessions.

U.S. workers are paying a terrible price for class collaboration trade unionism.

What is required is a return to class struggle trade unionism with a good heavy dose of anti-imperialist education.

Part-time faculty pay reaching poverty level

by: Michelle Kern 

September 21 2012 

The American Federation of Teachers recently highlighted the tenuous employment and poor compensation of part-time college teachers in an article titled: "New report blasts working conditions of adjunct faculty."

The article spotlights findings of two recent reports. In the first, a survey of 500 adjunct faculty found they are frequently hired at the last minute for courses they have little time to prepare for, with little or no support from the institution. They rarely have opportunities for professional development or chances to share in the collegial culture of education.

The second report, "Dismantling the Professoriate," paints a bleak portrait of the poverty-level wages and lack of professional support for adjunct faculty, who often make significantly less per course than their full-time counterparts:

"The median pay per course, standardized to a three-credit course, was $2,700 in fall 2010, and ranged from a low of $2,235 at two-year colleges to a high of $3,400 at four-year doctoral or research universities.

"Part-time faculty respondents saw little, if any, wage premium based on their credentials.

"Professional support was minimal for part-time faculty members' work outside the classroom and for their inclusion in academic decision-making."

Grassroots efforts are also drawing attention to the low pay, lack of benefits and lack of support in a field that has come to depend on the presence of a surplus of "freeway flyers," as adjuncts are often called.

A "crowd-sourced" spreadsheet at adjunctproject.com lists data from part-time faculty all over the U.S., on wages, health benefits (or more commonly, lack thereof), access to institutional support, union membership and retirement.

Budget cuts are often blamed for the over-reliance on part-time adjuncts to handle the bulk of teaching. Budgets have indeed been slashed in education, but data shows at the same time, the non-teaching administrative sector has grown.

While college administrations often tout the fiscal advantages of using part-time faculty, they don't apply the same logic to their own ranks. Between 1976 and 2005, part-time faculty rose from 31 percent to 48 percent, while part-time administrators declined from 4 percent to 3 percent.

College administrators' salaries are several levels higher than the wages of adjunct teachers. Although full professors' salaries may seem commensurate with those of administrators, salaries and wages for all teaching staff have not kept pace, even with rising tuition, as reported by the American Association of University Professors.

The AAUP says tuition rose much faster than full-time faculty salaries, with the greatest gap at public institutions, where tuition and fees grew by 72 percent, accounting for inflation, while professors' salaries rose by less than 1 percent at doctoral and baccalaureate institutions and fell by over 5 percent at master's universities.

Meanwhile, the AAUP says, between 2006-7 and 2010-11, median presidential salaries jumped by 9.8 percent, adjusted for inflation, while median full-time faculty salaries rose by less than 2 percent."

In fact most adjuncts have been hired when universities were not facing budget cuts, the AAUP reported .

At the same time, colleges are increasingly turning toward corporate models and business culture. And corporations and businesses are taking more of a role in diverting public education funds intended for colleges, and instead directing them to private profit. Cheap and surplus labor is the model for an expanding bottom line in Wall Street-driven institutions and the same process has taken hold of our institutions of higher learning, especially in privatization at public universities.

Without tenure, adjuncts are among the first to be fired when cuts are on the table, just like temps and contract workers across many other fields. This can translate to depressed wages across the board for teaching staff, higher class loads for the remaining faculty (in some cases throwing teaching duties on "stipend" paid graduate students who make even less than adjuncts), and a decrease in dues in the teaching union locals, attacking their ability to fight educational austerity measures.

Slashing the teaching workforce in education does not cause the economy to grow or save the budgets of universities in the long run. Expanding wages and benefits and teaching opportunities for adjuncts would bring more regional prosperity, increasing the tax base and helping to grow available funds for education.

The political will must also be found to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations, who benefit from the presence of public universities and a well-educated labor force. Full time and part time teaching staff must forge organized and unified fight-backs, to press universities to benefit the teaching staff who attract students to the school. Resisting the privatization of our public resources will also help reverse the trend of making education jobs poverty-level.

Adjuncts should not view themselves as "the expendables," but as a workforce that now makes up the majority of higher education staff. If there is a union at your college, join it. If the adjuncts are not organized or not part of the existing union, press to become a part of the union or form an adjunct union.

Organization is the best weapon against capitalism, which has definitely entered the arena of higher education. The future of our working people, teachers and students alike, is at stake.

http://www.aft.org/newspubs/news/2012/082412adjuncts.cfm

http://www.aft.org/newspubs/periodicals/oc/septoct12dismantling.cfm

http://dbacon.igc.org/Students/students.htm

http://www.adjunctproject.com/us/

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septemberoctober_2011/features/administrators_ate_my_tuition031641.php

http://chronicle.com/article/Median-Salaries-of-Senior/126455/

http://chronicle.com/article/faculty-salaries-barely-budge-2012/131432/

http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/issues/contingent/contingentfacts.htm

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12066

http://cio.chance.berkeley.edu/chancellor/sp/privatization.htm

http://utotherescue.blogspot.com/2012/06/how-public-pays-for-privatization-ucla.html

http://www.aft.org/about/resolution_detail.cfm?articleid=1634

http://www.themillions.com/2012/08/got-an-mfa-teach-high-school.html

http://chronicle.com/article/Adjuncts-Working-Conditions/133918/

Native Americans left out of economic recovery, as always

Albert Bender, a columnist for News From Indian Country, writing in the Communist Party's publication--- The People's World, wrote about Native American unemployment in Indian Country and Obama. I wonder why so few publications carried this article?

http://peoplesworld.org/native-americans-left-out-of-economic-recovery-as-always-2/

Native Americans left out of economic recovery, as always

by: Albert Bender

June 11 2012

Up until the past few weeks, there had been a lot of hoopla about a blossoming economic recovery. Job creation for the early part of the year had been averaging 200,000 a month. (Keep in mind, though, that responsible economists maintain that 345,000 jobs per month are needed for at least two years to get back to even five percent unemployment - and the latest numbers for May show only 69,000 jobs created.)

Indian America, looking at the historical record, would have found little reason to rejoice at the so-called "good economic news." Why? Because historically, economic recovery, as a national news pundit recently said, "is growth for white America, but there will still be three times the unemployment rate for blacks and Hispanics."

But that statistic can look good, considering that the Native American unemployment rate would be 10x greater than the white jobless rate. Indeed, as is well known in Native circles, on reservations across the nation the unemployment for Native Americans routinely ranges from 80-90 percent - and this has been the economic situation for generations. For urban Native Americans, the jobless rate averages around 48 percent. In general, Indian Country is in a permanent depression even when the national economy is on the upswing.

But once again it seems the economy was just having another false start, as in the last couple of years, and now appears at the edge of falling off the economic cliff. I cannot but take wry satisfaction in a failing recovery, a recovery that bypasses Native American misery.

The above quoted statistics of Native unemployment are years old because reservations in particular and urban Native Americans in general, incredibly, have been purposely excluded from government employment data since 2005. To cite a not atypical example, South Dakota has nine reservations, with unemployment ranging from a "low" of 12 percent on one smaller reservation to 89 percent on the largest reservation. These figures were last compiled in 2005. South Dakota's overall unemployment rate is 4.7 percent, exclusive of reservations.

Native American joblessness is so high, it is off the charts. It is so staggering and is not compiled because to do so would be an additional stunning moral indictment of U.S. government treatment of Native Americans.

The last absurd excuse given by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for not collecting American Indian employment data was that there was no money in the government budget for such compilation.

This government attitude is highlighted by the fact that as far back as 1990, in statistical tables from the U.S. Bureau of Census that contained information on American Indians, African Americans, Asian Americans and others, the category "American Indian unemployed" contained, instead of numbers, the letters MD=Missing Data. No other population had such a classification. Again, this was a shocking, clumsy attempt to hide astronomical unemployment.

The position of the Obama administration to combat joblessness in American Indian communities and others of color is that an economic recovery will uplift all the jobless; a strong, robust economy will translate into jobs for all. This simply will not work due to the institutional racism endemic in American society. The very disturbing question is who always gets the lion's share of the jobs even when the economy is on the upswing? Whites have always received a disproportionate share of jobs.

To cite an example of who does not get the jobs: In early March, the mainstream media was touting apparent job gains, but noted that Latinos were being bypassed. The national jobless rate dropped to about 8.1 percent, but the Latino unemployment rate remained at 10.6 percent. The white jobless rate dropped to 7.9 percent. Incredibly, the media posed the question: Why the disparity? - and remarked that economists and labor experts also weren't sure.

More absurdity: the 'experts' subsequently stated they simply didn't know. Whites have always gotten the lion's share of employment. Without massive employment programs for communities of color, this will continue. After all, white Americans have for over 200 years had their own special "jobs programs" - racism. Communities of color, in particular those of Native Americans, need affirmative action jobs programs; otherwise, "economic recovery" will do little to remedy Native American joblessness.

Justice for casino workers now.

Hmmmmmm… what’s on my mind today?
By: Alan Maki Tuesday April 17, 2012 5:52 am	Tweet

First published on FireDogLake:
http://my.firedoglake.com/alanmaki/2012/04/17/hmmmmmm-whats-on-my-mind-today/

What’s on my mind today… hmmmmmmm.

Like you, I am repeatedly invited to campaign fundraisers, debates and public forums, meets and greets, etc.

Like you, I seldom go because the candidates and their backers refuse to address any meaningful issues or concerns with anything other than meaningless rhetoric.

These politicians refuse to address the issues of casino workers so I just send them a “thanks for inviting me but…”

The turnouts for these things keep getting smaller and smaller until now we seldom see anyone except the usual “party hacks” at these events making sure anyone who has the nerve to ask a real question gets mocked, made fun of or if someone persists in demanding an answer these hacks jostle the previously invited guest out.

The small turnouts seldom make it worthwhile to waste the expense of gas to attend so I send them something like this:

“I can’t make your event because our resources have to be used fighting for the rights of casino workers.”

However, I would like to know why these candidates who have received a tremendous amount of funding from the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association have been silent on the plight of over 40,000 casino, hotel/motel, restaurant, convenience stores, bars and theme park workers comprising the Indian Gaming Industry here in Minnesota who are forced to work in loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos and places of employment at poverty wages and without any rights have remained silent on this issue--- and the issues of poverty, unemployment and racism on Indian reservations and in urban centers with large concentrations of Native Americans living there?

I put this same question to DFL politician Tarryl Clark at a meeting during the NetRootsNation National Convention of bloggers in Minneapolis and she ducked answering my question by claiming she is working on the problem “quietly” and then she tried to explain that this was an issue of “sovereignty” just as most MNDFL politicians try to evade this criminal injustice.

The problem is the DFL is responsible for drafting these “Compacts” which intentionally excluded the workers from having any rights in the Indian Gaming Industry as a favor to the casino owners, managements and the owners of the slot machines— none of whom are Indians, but rather very wealthy white mobsters.

Whoever heard of a “sovereign nation,” any sovereign nation, being allowed to deprive working people of their most basic and fundamental human rights— the right to organize unions to protect and defend their quality of life and standard of living with a voice at work?

In creating these hideously racist “Compacts” from which everyone except Native Americans benefit, the DFL schemed to make sure it would derive huge campaign contributions for its racist white politicians who then have turned around and excluded Native American Indians from the political process.

How many Native American Indians do we see sitting in the Minnesota State Legislature or among Minnesota’s Congressional Delegation or on city councils or county commissions or township boards or school boards even though the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association has flooded DFL coffers with tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions?

Don’t people find it strange that the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association would pump so much money into the campaigns of racist white politicians who then turn their backs in racist indifference to the massive racist poverty created by massive racist unemployment and the racist poverty caused from poverty wages which are enforced by these racist “Compacts” which intentionally deny casino workers the right to organize in order to attain a decent standard of living which the Treaties are supposed to assure forever?

Why the intentional misinterpretation of the Treaties to exclude the right to a living?

Furthermore, I would like to know the positions of these candidates running for public office on enforcing Affirmative Action in employment in line with Federal Executive Order #11246 since these large pools of unemployed among Native Americans and all people of color are causing severe problems and misery for the victims of racist discrimination while pushing all wages down?

Do any of these candidates support closing the loop-holes permitting Affirmative Action to be evaded here in Minnesota?

Quite frankly, not many Minnesotans bother attending these candidate forums because they know these worthless politicians are just sticking their hands out for campaign contributions and they will evade answering these “tough” questions concerning their lives and living conditions.

Until we are able to free ourselves from this two-party trap set for us by the wealthy, fewer and fewer people will be participating in this corrupt and rotten political process.

Politics in Minnesota has been turned into one big circus as a result of the enormous influence by the monied interests— especially the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association whose Executive Director is a racist, anti-labor, anti-union white man— John McCarthy— who has grown enormously wealthy directly from the massive poverty of the Indian people.

John McCarthy and his group of high-paid lobbyists dish out campaign contributions to all of these racist politicians with one hand as fast as they can to purchase their loyalty to injustices; and, then, John McCarthy— the owner of Tony Doom Supply Company which manufactures all kinds of election paraphernalia from yard signs to business cards and pens and pencils and bumper stickers— with his other hand John McCarthy takes back as personal profit the campaign contributions his high-paid lobbyists hand out. All of this goes on at the expense of Native American people and by the time McCarthy and all these other greedy people get their hands on the revenues from Indian Gaming the only thing left for Indian people is the poverty caused by miserly wages and massive debt as the huge pool of unemployed people on the Indian Reservations assures casino workers and most Native Americans will remain mired in poverty. After all, when casino workers are paid poverty wages, they and their families are going to be poor— any school child can figure this out.

Ever heard of little things like ethics and morality in government?

The fact is, the one and only way Native Americans are ever going to get anything of substance out of the Indian Gaming Industry is when all casino workers are paid real living wages.

Corrupt and incompetent state and federal elected officials created tribal governments in their own image, and now these tribal governments try to pass off the idea that these tribal governments are a part of “sovereign” Indian Nations when in fact these tribal governments are just as thoroughly rotten and corrupt as the Minnesota State Legislature or the Bemidji City Council or the United States Congress which controls these tribal councils.

One can look at any of the tribal governments in Minnesota and all you see is the same kind of creeps and sleaze you see sitting in the Minnesota State Legislature or in the United States Congress.

Check it out, Red Lake has its thoroughly corrupt Floyd Jourdain, Leech Lake has its Archie LaRose, Bois Forte has its Kevin Leecy.

Kevin Leecy is in a league all by himself. He beats the crap out of his wife,  politicians “fix” the charges so he gets off, and then he goes before state legislators telling how money is needed to help counsel for spousal abuse programs and when he gets the money he hires his creepy friends to run the counseling program who he knows will support him .

If this isn’t the definition of a “racket” I don’t know what is.

Kevin Leecy is also the Vice-chair of the National Indian Gaming Association which is nothing but a front for organized crime.

Kevin Leecy is also the Chairman of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council which perverts and distorts— they call it “education”— the meaning of the Treaties and “sovereignty” to make them both jibe with enforcing the corruption and racism of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association:

http://www.minnesotahumanities.org/Uploads//Why%20Treaties%20Matter,%20Chariman%20Kevin%20Leecy.pdf

Conveniently, the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council never tackles the questions concerning the major employment injustices of the Indian Gaming Industry and refuses to take a stand insisting that Affirmative Action be enforced while distorting the main intent of the Treaties which was to assure a decent standard of living for Native American Indians through the right to work.

A wife-beating crooked and corrupt Kevin Leecy is protected by law enforcement and a court system and the politicians elected by campaign funds distributed by the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association.

And, oh yes; Kevin Leecy also heads up the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association which has as its Executive Director John McCarthy.

And this entire racist and corrupt process is wrapped and packaged in “Indian traditions” and “Indian culture;” doing this is the epitome of racism.

Just read this article ghost written by John McCarthy passed off as having been written by the wife-beating Kevin Leecy:

http://www.casinoenterprisemanagement.com/articles/april-2012/bucking-trend-strong-year-weak-economy

Does anyone find it strange that not one single newspaper, not one single radio station nor one single television station will do a news story about the wages and working conditions of workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry forced to work in these loud, noisy, smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages and without any rights under state or federal labor laws?

Well, check out how many advertisements for these casino operations you see and hear in the same newspapers, radio and television.

What a racket!

Yes, a racket.

A racket that resulted from a brain fart mobster Meyer Lansky had after he was kicked out of Cuba looking for places to put his slot machines where he wouldn’t have to pay taxes or be scrutinized by politicians, government officials or police agencies other than those he was able to pay-off with bribes.

It is all about “the American way” of free enterprise, eh?

Indian Gaming is among the two fastest growing industries here in the United States. Indian Gaming is right up there in expansion among an otherwise sluggish and suffering economy, right up there with the expanding Goodwill Industries which flourishes as poverty grows.

The Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party promises “jobs, jobs, jobs;” but did you ever think your next job was going to be working in a smoke-filled casino without any rights or another poverty wage paying outfit like Goodwill Industries? 

·         Something to think about: Unemployment on the northern Minnesota Indian Reservations ranges from 60% to 85%. On any given day, the Native American Indian population in the Beltrami County Jail is no less than 60% of the inmates. In no business or industry in northern Minnesota, with the exceptions of the casino industry and tribal government agencies, are Native American Indian workers more than 1% of the workforce including in township, city, county, state and federal offices, departments and agencies.

·         Question: Why isn’t T.E.R.O. being fully enforced?

·         Question: Why isn’t Affirmative Action being fully enforced as Federal Executive Order #11246 intended?

·         An observation: Federal Executive Order #11246 was never intended to be limited to federal departments, agencies and projects in eliminating racist barriers to employment; but, rather, was intended to serve as a guide to action on how to put an end to racist employment practices at every level of government and private employment.

·         Comment: The struggle for racial equality is everyone’s business because while racism hurts and harms the victims the worst; racism eventually hurts us all in one way or another.

·         What we need: A massive “blitz” against racist poverty in Minnesota.

Contact info:

Alan L. Maki

Director of Organizing,

Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

58891 County Road 13

Warroad, Minnesota 56763

Phone: 218-386-2432

Cell: 651-587-5541

Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net

E-mail: alan.maki1951mn@gmail.com

My Blog: http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/

A good union contract is better than any government anti-poverty program.

Justice for casino workers would cost about four rolls of quarters per hour for each employee. Ending smoking in casinos, except for the cost of a few signs, would cost nothing.

People without jobs are going to be poor. People paid poverty wages are going to be poor. Raise the minimum wage to a real living wage. Full employment now.

End racist discrimination in employment in Minnesota.

Labor's 1%

Labor's 1%

by Mark Zimmerman


February 3, 2012

The staggering level of wealth and income inequality has
finally become a focal point of political discussion and
action in the United States.  While the major problem is
clearly the enormous increase in the concentration of wealth
among the extremely wealthy, perhaps best described as the
"top tenth of the one percent," those in the lower tiers of
the one percent have benefited as well.

Several months ago, David Cay Johnston, a columnist for
Reuters, published an article on the diversity of the "one-
percent."  Using income data from 2009 tax returns, Johnston
concluded that "Economically, those just entering the top 1
percent have nothing in common with those in the top tenth
of the top 1 percent....while all those in the top 1 percent
are certainly well off, the vast majority still go to work
every day.  Almost half of the top 1 percent, or 1.4 million
taxpayers, make $344,000 to $500,000." [1]

Unfortunately, a significant percentage of the leadership of
organized labor fits comfortably within that bottom half of
the top one-percent.  Many union members, including this
author, would consider those salaries problematic.

There are those who take the position that the subject of
union leaders' salaries should not be a matter for public
discussion, that it will only give fodder to labor's
enemies.  This is a legitimate concern.  The right-wing,
anti-labor "Union Facts" website, for example, has for years
made an issue of the differences between the salaries of
union leaders and the members they represent.

But it may also be true that the levels of inequality
between union rank-and-file and elected officers, as well as
large differentials in salaries from union to union and
sector to sector, is detrimental to labor.  There are
several reasons that this may be so: First, salaries that
can easily translate to a lavish lifestyle breed distrust
and disgust among dues-paying members.  Second, when non-
union workers become aware of exorbitant salaries paid to
union officials - as when they happen upon the Union Facts
website - it provides yet another reason they may want to
stay away from union organizing efforts.

But, perhaps most importantly, we have to ask ourselves what
the impact of outsized salaries has on the psyches of their
recipients.  Can a union president earning, say, between
$300,000 and $600,000, year after year, remain immune to the
trappings of wealth, power, and a luxurious lifestyle?  Will
an officer accustomed to a $400,000 salary maintain a
burning desire to increase taxes on the wealthy or to rally
his members to fight inequality?

Between $600,000 and $50,000

The highest paid labor leader in the United States may be
Terence O'Sullivan, President of the Laborers International
Union (LIUNA/AFL-CIO).  In 2010, the last year for which
figures are publicly available, O'Sullivan was paid nearly
$600,000.  O'Sullivan's earnings for the previous three
years were comparable. [2]

Until last year, Richard Hughes served as the President of
the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA/AFL-CIO).
Hughes was elected to that position in 2007, becoming only
the eighth president in the ILA's 117 years of existence. In
2010, Hughes' last year as president, the ILA paid him
$464,000.  Harold Daggett succeeded Hughes as President in
2011.  In 2010, the ILA paid Daggett $399,000 in his
capacity as Vice President.

In 2010, AFSCME paid its president, Gerald McEntee, over
$400,000; Vincent Giblin of the Operating Engineers (AFL-
CIO) received $426,000; and Randy Weingarten of the American
Federation of Teachers (AFT/AFL-CIO) got $389,000.  The
median salary for union members in the United States is less
than $48,000. [3]

There are 57 union leaders on the AFL-CIO's Executive
Council, representing nine million union members.  Seventeen
of the executive council's members - thirty-percent - were
paid in excess of $300,000 in 2010.  Most were presidents of
craft unions (ten from the building trades) and two were
from the public sector.

On the other hand, the seventeen lowest paid members of the
Executive Council had incomes ranging from $47,000 to
$161,000.  Very few were from craft unions, but six were
from industrial unions.

Inequality and diversity

That the AFL-CIO leadership is male dominated and
overwhelmingly white is not new.  The federation has
attempted to address that issue by creating additional
positions on its Executive Council.  But those efforts have
gone only so far.

Despite the fact that women make up about 43% of union
members, only 19% of the AFL-CIO's Executive Council are
women.  But among that top earning 30% - the $300,000+ club
- there is only one woman. In 2010, the average compensation
for the male members of the AFL-CIO Executive Council was
$252,000 while the average for the female members was
$194,000 - a 23% difference.

Of the nine black union officials who were on the AFL-CIO
Executive Council, only one had earnings above $300,000.
None of the four Hispanic members on the council had
anything close to that level.  The average compensation for
the ten black and Hispanic members who received salaries
from their unions was $146,000 - nearly $100,000 less than
the council average. [4]

Should we be concerned about these levels of inequality?

It is easy enough to find justifications for paying elected
union leaders salaries that put them in the top one-percent:
These are demanding, high-stress jobs requiring many skills,
lots of travel, taxing schedules, etc.  Salaries of union
officers leading organizations with hundreds of thousands of
members pale in comparison to corporate executives and
leaders of large not-for-profit organizations.

But, one has to wonder whether union leadership so far
removed economically from the rank-and-file, can
meaningfully represent the millions of members who live
paycheck to paycheck and have little or no expectation of
being able to retire securely.  According to a recent study
that was reported on the website Inequality.org, "The life
experiences of the wealthy....leaves the rich less
compassionate and altruistic than people of more modest
means." [5]

Union presidents have a way of staying in office for an
extended period.  Gerald McEntee of AFSCME is retiring after
30 years as President of AFSCME.  Terence O'Sullivan is now
in his thirteenth year as President of the Laborers.  With
salaries between $400,000 and $600,000 a year, one can only
imagine the lifestyle they lead - and wonder how that
impacts on the decisions they must make on behalf of their
membership.

There are good reasons for concluding that having union
leaders in the top one-percent of income earners does harm
to organized labor.  We can start by asking the following
questions:  Should an elected union official be paid more
than the president of the United States or a member of
Congress? [6] Can a certain salary level be a corrupting
influence - how many people can resist the trappings of an
upper-class lifestyle when they receive an upper-class
income year after year?  Are the benefits of large salaries
worth the costs - how much does the perception of corruption
or elitism harm labor's image both within its ranks and
among the population at large?  Finally, do the enormous
salary differentials between building and construction
trades presidents and those in other labor sectors
negatively impact on the functioning of the AFL-CIO?

The Occupy Wall Street movement has not only highlighted the
issue of income inequality.  It has also put forth a
challenge to organized labor in the form of the implicit
question the OWS movement raises:  Where has organized labor
been?  In light of that question, the uncomfortable facts
discussed above may provide at least part of the answer.

[Mark Zimmerman has been involved with organized labor for
over thirty years. He can be contacted at
iamzimmerman@gmail.com ]

Footnotes:

1.
http://blogs.reuters.com/david-cay-
johnston/2011/10/25/beyond-the-1-percent/

2. 2007-10 LM2's.  See below for a full list of AFL-CIO
Executive Council and CTW Leadership Council salaries.

3. Bureau of Labor Statistics -
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm

4. AFL-CIO Executive Council members average union-paid
salary was $239,000 in 2010.

5. Understanding Our National Empathy Deficit,
http://inequality.org/empathy-and-wealth/

6.$400,000 and $174,000 respectively.

=====

AFL-CIO Executive Council 2010
Union                          Members        Income

(President unless otherwise noted                2010 [7]

Terence O'Sullivan                480,000          $571,000
Laborers (LIUNA)

Richard Hughes                    44,000          $464,000
East Coast Longshoremen (ILA)

Vincent Giblin                  390,000          $426,000
Operating Engineers (IUOE)

Gerald McEntee                1,465,000      $400,000
AFSCME

Randy Weingarten                860,000          $389,000
American Federation of Teachers (AFT)

Mark Ayers                        NA            $380,000
Building & Construction Trades (BCTD)

Newton Jones                    61,000            $379,000
Boilermakers (BBF)

Patrick Finley                    40,000          $361,000
Plasterers and Cement Masons (OPCM)

Capt. John Prater              44,000          $328,000
Airline Pilots Association, (ALPA

William Lucy [8]              214,000          $322,000
Postal Workers (APWU)

Edwin Hill                    685,000          $322,000
Electrical Workers (IBEW)
 
James Williams                    117,000          $314,000
Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT)

James Boland                    84,000          $308,000
Bricklayers (BAC)

William Hite                    341,000          $306,000
Plumbers and Pipefitters (PPF)

Michael J. Sullivan                136,000          $304,000
Sheet Metal Workers (SMW)

Harold Schaitberger              296,000          $303,000
Firefighters (IAFF)

Matthew Loeb                      112,000          $300,000
Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE)

Malcolm Futhey Jr.              53,000          $299,000
United Transportation Union (UTU)

Robert Scardelletti              45,000          $298,000
Transportation Communications (TCU)

John Wilhelm                    230,000          $285,000
UNITE-HERE

Richard Trumka                    8,455,000          $277,000
President, AFL-CIO

Walter Wise [9]                  122,000          $269,000
Gen'l Secretary, Ironworkers (BSIOW)

Michael Goodwin                  99,000          $260,000
Office & Professional Employees (OPEIU)

James Little                    118,000          $256,000
Transport Workers Union (TWU)

Thomas Buffenbarger                594,000          $250,000
Machinists (IAM)

Arlene Holt Baker              8,455,000          $246,000
Executive VP, AFL-CIO

Frank Hurt                      85,000          $228,000
Bakery, Confectionary (BCTGMI)

Nancy Wohlforth                  99,000          $203,000
Secretary-Treas., OPEIU

D. Michael Landford              50,000          $199,000
Utility Workers (UWUA)

Liz Shuler                      8,455,000      $188,000
Sec'y.-Treas., AFL-CIO

Larry Cohen                      504,000          $185,000
Communication Workers (CWA)

Frederic Rolando                286,000          $182,000
Letter Carriers (NALC)

Loretta Johnson                  860,000          $182,000
Executive VP, AFT

Gregory Junemann                67,000          $180,000
Professional, Technical Employees (IFPTE)

John Gage                        279,000          $170,000
Government Employees (AFGE)

Cecil Roberts                    76,000          $161,000
Mineworkers (UMW)

Leo Gerard                        581,000      $161,000
Steelworkers (USW)

Lee Saunders                      1,465,000    $158,000
Secretary-Treasurer, AFSCME

Roseann DeMoro                    131,000      $154,000
Exec. Dir., National Nurses United (NNU)

Lawrence Hanley                    192,000      $146,000
VP, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU)

Bob King                          377,000      $146,000
United Auto Workers, (UAW)

Clifford Guffey                    214,000      $144,000
Postal Workers, APWU

General Holiefield                377,000      $133,000
Vice President, UAW

Fred Redmond                      581,000      $130,000
VP, USW

Bruce Smith                        28,000      $127,000
Glass Molders (GMP)

Rogelio Flores                    279,000      $125,000
Vice President, AFGE

Robert McEllrath                  37,000      $116,000
West Coast Longshoremen (ILWU)

Diann Woodard                      20,000      $100,000
School Administrators

Michael Sacco                      32,000      $100,000
Seafarers (SIU)

Veda Shook                          60,000      $88,000
Flight Attendants (CWA)

James Andrews [10]                  NA        $85,000
North Carolina AFL-CIO

Baldemar Velasquez                  NA        $47,000
Farm Laborers (FLOC)

Robbie Sparks [11]                  NA          $1,050
Business Manager, IBEW 2127

Roberta Reardon*                    65,000        0
Radio & Television Artists (AFTRA)

Clyde Rivers**                      190,000        0
California School Employees Association

Maria Elena Darazo^                      NA        0
President, Los Angeles, AFL-CIO

Ken Howard*                          128,000      0
President, Screen Actors (SAG)

======

Change to Win Leadership Council

Affiliation                            Members        Income

James P. Hoffa                      1,327,000      $357,000
Teamsters

Joseph Hansen                      1,290,000      $321,000
UFCW

Mary Kay Henry                    1,917,000      $214,000
Service Employees (SEIU)

Tom Woodruff                        1,917,000      $206,000
Executive VP, SEIU

Eliseo Medina                      1,917,000      $205,000
Secretary-Treasurer, SEIU

Geralyn Lutty                      1,290,000      $176,000
International VP, UFCW

Arturo Rodriguez                    5,200        $81,000
United Farm Workers (UFWA)

Sources:

[7] As reported on each union's 2010 LM-2 report unless
otherwise noted.  Includes salary and other compensation as
listed on each union's LM2 report, Schedules 11 or 12,
excluding disbursements for official business.  Benefits
such as health insurance are not included.

[8] Lucy was AFSCME's Secretary-Treasurer until he retired
in 2010.  This salary figure is what he received in his last
full year at AFSCME (2009).  He continues to receive this
salary as a pension benefit.  His AFSCME earnings for 2010
were over $800,000, presumably a severance package.

[9] The President of the Ironworkers Union, Joseph Hunt, was
paid $355,000 in 2010.

[10] Salary for fiscal year ended 6/30/09 - source IRS Form
990.

[11]  It is unclear what this reported compensation
represents.

* Not compensated by their unions.

** Clyde Rivers is retired from CSEA.  His current
relationship with CSEA is not known.

 ^ Most recent IRS 990 (2009).